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Full text of "The Scandinavian kingdom of Dublin"

THE 



J"*</ 



SCANDINAVIAN KINGDOM 



DUBLIN. 



BY 

CHARLES HALIDAZ, 

LATE OF THE CITY OF DUBLIN, MERCHANT. 



EDITED, 
WITH SOME NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR'S LIFE 

BY 
JOHN P. PRENDERGAST, 

BARR18TER-AT-LAW. 



DUBLIN: 

ALEX. THOM & CO., PRINTERS AND PUBLISHERS, 
87, 88 & 89, ABBEY-STREET. 

MDCCCLXXXI. 



CONTENTS. 



. iii 



ome notice of the Life of Charles Haliday, . 

BOOK I. 
lie Scandinavians of Dublin, 

BOOK II. 
Tie Scandinavians of Dublin, and their relations with neighbouring 

CO 

Kingdoms, . 

BOOK III. 

j t O 

'he Scandinavian Antiquities of Dublin, 

APPENDIX. 

L On the Ancient Name of Dublin, . 

L Observations explanatory of Sir Bernard de Gonime's Map of 
the City and Harbour of Dublin, made A.D. 1673, . 

. 253 
TABLE OF CHAPTERS, . 

. 259 

.NDEX, . 



LIST OF PLATES WITH INSTRUCTIONS TO BINDER. 

1. Rocque's Map, A.D. 1756, showing the Piles, to face p. cxiii. 

2. Map of the Down Survey, A.D. 1654, with the Long Stone of the 

Steyne, to face p. 151. 

3. Woodcut of the Thingrnount of Dublin, to face p. 163. 

4. Sir Bernard de Gomme's Map of City and Harbour, A.D. 1673, to 

face p. 229. 

5. Captain Greenvill Collins's Map of 1685, to face p. 235. 

6. Ground Plan of Chichester House, 1723, to face p. 239. 

7. Captain Perry's Map of the Harbour, &c., fec., A.D. 1728, to face p. 

249. 



ERRATA. 

Page 149, line 2. Omit 'part of the Steyne,' 
Page 229, in footnote. For '23rd December, 1655,' read 23rd Decem- 
ber, 1665. 



SOME NOTICE 

OF THE 



MERCHANTS are not much given to the making of books. Few merchants 
They seldom leave behind them any of their own compos- ai 
ing, save their cash books and their ledgers. There can 
scarcely be named a merchant in the ranks of literary 
writers, except Rogers, author of the " Pleasures of Memory " 
and other poems, rather satirically described by Byron as 
" the bard, the beau, the banker." 

But a banker is not a merchant, and often gives no more 
to the bank than his money and his name, and employs 
his time and his leisure as he likes. 

Whence comes this disinclination to literary labour ? It 
is not so much perhaps that the merchant's mind is too 
absorbed in business to leave him leisure as that it would 
detract from his character to be suspected of literary pur- 
suits. 

Poetry was at one time held to be as derogatory to a lawyer. 
Sir Richard Cox had a strong bent to poetry (says Walter 
Harris). He wrote some lines on the death, in 1G96, of 
Lord Chancellor Porter, Sir Richard being at that time a 
Judge of the Common Pleas. But his verses being trans- 
mitted to his friend and patron, Sir Robert Southwell, Sir 
Robert wrote in reply that poetry was not the way to pre- 
ferment, but a weed in a judge's garden. 

Poetry is classed among the liberal arts. If there be 
illiberal ones perhaps they may be those having the direct 
pursuit of wealth for their aim. 

2 



IV SOME NOTICE OP THE 

Soldiers, artists, lawyers, all pursue wealth, but glory is 
associated in their cases with gain, and they sometimes 
prelVr their glory to their ^.uu ; but with merchants their 
sole aim is w.-ilth, wealth is their ^lory, and the pursuit of 
it renders all other pursuits tasteless. That it is not want 
of leisure may be known from this that lawyers, physicians, 
prime ministers, and others as fully absorbed by their pro- 
fessions as merchants are, yet find time to essay their pens. 
Rabelais said of the monks of his day that they considered 
it a monstrous thing to see a learned monk. A literary 
merchant is nearly as great a monster. 

The poet Crabbe, who has described a merchant as " an 
eating, drinking, buying, bargaining man," notes the dis- 
taste of merchants for literary pursuits, which they consider 
as inimical to a mercantile career. He makes one of them 
warn his young charge, who has shown an inclination to 
the Muses, against indulging a taste for poetry and letters. 
" He, when informed," says this youth 

" how men of taste could write 
Looked on his ledger with supreme delight. 
Then would he laugh, and with insulting joy 
Tell me aloud ' That's poetry, my boy ! 
These are your golden numbers, them repeat, 
The more you have the more you'll find them sweet.'" 

Hiwy'i uute It is therefore the more singular and honourable to the 
merchants of Dublin to find amongst them one like the 
author of these essays who, while he gave himself up to the 
earnest and assiduous pursuit of a merchant's business, yet 
found time for the study of literature. 

Not that he was known to be addicted to literary pursuits. 
It was in secret that he indulged this taste. He probably 
felt that such a habit would be prejudicial to his character 
ai a merchant if divulged. An old and leading physician of 
Dublin calling on a younger one found him whiling away 
his leisure with his violin while waiting for practice. He 
expressed bis horror, and to the excuses of his less ex- 



LIFE OP CIJARLE3 HALIDAY. V 

perienced brother replied " Well, if you must and will do it, 
do it as if it was a sin." 

Charles Haliday was known amongst his brother mer- Sent to London 
chants as an active energetic man of business. Being ness, 
destined by his father for the life of a merchant in London, 
he was sent thither about the year 1809 or 1810 to acquire 
a knowledge of business. This of course did not hinder 
him from entering into society and enjoying the pleasures 
of youth. Being lively, handsome, and accomplished, he 
was introduced into much good society, and made acquaint- 
ance with many of higher rank than himself. Meeting 
some of these gay acquaintances in the streets when sent of 
messages, and in his office dress he felt ashamed, he told me, 
of his inferior employments, and would seek to shun the 
notice of his gayer companions. 

Feeling that he was in an inconsistent position he deter- 
mined at once to give up gay society and thus escape from 
being any longer liable to such feelings. Among the gay 
houses he frequented was that of Delacour's, a wealthy 
house in the city connected with Cork, but having a resi- 
dence in the fashionable part of the town. The next invita- 
tion he received after taking this resolution he declined, and 
Mr. Delacour inquiring of him the reason he told him of his 
determination. Mr. Delacour looked at him with surprise, 
but with approval, for he said " You'll do, my boy ! If you 
ever have need of me come to me, and I undertake to help 

you." 

After spending some time at other commercial houses, he Docs not 
was entered as a clerk at Lubbock's Bank, in order to com- n< 
plete his mercantile education. Here, as elsewhere, there 
is no doubt but that he assiduously applied himself to the 
business he was engaged upon. But this did not hinder 
him from pursuing his literary studies. 

He had chambers at Gray's Inn, not then confined i-.\- 
clusively to lawyers, and there, as he told me, he read very 
hard during such hours as were not given to business. His 



\l SOME NOTICE OK TI 

love of study and his desire for accomplishments commenced 
with his earliest years, indeed, seems to have been born 
with him and to have never quitted him during his lit. . 
II. never offered at the shrine of luxury that greatest of 
all sacrifices, the sacrifice of time. He deemed nothing 
nobler than a life of toil ; nothing more derogatory than one 
of luxury and self-indulgence. Before he left Ireland for 
London he had learned todraw,to ride.and to play the violin. 
A manuscript volume of pieces of original poetry, as well 
as poetical translations by his pen from the French dated 
from Gray's Inn, from Homerton, and elsewhere in 1812, 
show how actively he indulged his literary taste during his 
stay in London. 

Literary And if a man's character is shown, as is said, by his com- 

panions, Mr. Haliday's early inclination to letters will 
appear from the men he associated with. He was in the 
habit of dining, he said, during the time he was a clerk at 
Lubbock's at a tavern in the city, and there made the 
acquaintanceship of Lamb, author of " Essays by Elia," and 
of the Brothers Horace and James Smith, joint authors of 
" Rejected Addresses," all of them employed in the city in 
houses ot trade, and accustomed to dine at the same house. 

It was such companionship and a reputation for literary 
acquirement! probably that got him introduced to Home 
Tooke, a man no less celebrated for his literary tastes as 
exhibited in his " Diversions of Purley," than for his politi- 
cal notoriety, having run the risk of his life in a trial for 
high treason for his opinions only, opinions that might at 
this day be expressed with impunity and without question. 1 

1 The following curious anecdote drew a long knife from his pocket, 

is from a work of General Arthur opened the blade, and presenting 

O'Connor's. " In my youth," says it towards me with a furious look, 

O'Connor, "I passed a day with ' This,' said he, ' is the argument I 

Home Tooke at his house at Wim- employ with men who take the side 

bledon. The French law of sue- of the question that you do.' I 

cession was the bubject of discus- took an early moment to quit the 

ion. In the midst of it Tooko room, and was followed bv Sir 



LIFE OF CHARLES HALIDAY. 



Vll 



Haliday, who, in later life at any rate, held opinions very 
different from those of Home Tooke, being asked what kind 
of looking man he was, said jocularly, " As ill-looking a 
thief as you ever saw in your life." 

In April, 1812, he had commenced business in London as Commence* 
a commission agent for J. N. D'Esterre, 1 of 11, Bachelor's- Dublin, 
walk, Dublin, then engaged in the provision trade, and for 
one or two others, when an event occurred that changed the 
course of his life by bringing him back to settle in Ireland. 
That event was the death of his eldest brother, William 
Haliday, who died in the month of October, 1812. 

William had married the daughter and only child of Mr. 
Alder, a merchant engaged in the bark trade. 

Mr. Alder intended that William Haliday should either 
become his partner, or should succeed him in his business. 



Francis Burdett who was so shocked 
with this action of Tooke's, that he 
expressed his sorrow and astonish- 
ment so superior a man should in his 
own house break off a discussion in 
so brutal a manner." " Monopoly 
the Cause of all Evil," by Arthur 
Condorcet O'Connor, General of 
Division, Vol. 1, p. 276 (Paris 
and London ; Firmin Didot), 3 
Volumes, Imperial 8vo, 1848. 
Haliday Library, Royal Irish Aca- 
demy. 

This was the D'Esterre that 
fell in a duel with O'Connell, fought 
the 30th January, 18 1 5, at Bishops- 
court Demesne, then the seat of 
Lord Ponsonby, now of the Earl of 
Clonmell, fifteen miles from Dublin, 
on the road to Cork. D'Esterre 
had been in the navy and saved his 
life by his courage. The mutineers 
of the Nore endeavoured to force 
him to join them, and on his refusal 
placed a rope round his neck to 



string him up. They asked him 
again before hanging him to join 
them, but he cried out, "No! 
Haul away and be d d. God 
save the king 1" In admiration of 
his undaunted courage they spared 
him. Morgan O'Connell tells the 
following anecdote concerning the 
duel. His father and Major 
MacXamara, his second, driving 
back to town after the duel, were 
met by a detachment of cavalry, 
and the officer coming to the 
carriage said, " Gentlemen, have 
you heard anything of a duel that 
was to take place in this neigh- 
bourhood?" "It is over," said 
MacNamara. . "And what was tht 
result?" "Mr. D'Esterre baa 
fallen." The officer thereupon 
bowed, and turning to his men 
Ci ied, " Right about face." The 
guard had been sent to protect 
D'Estcrre from the fury of the mob 
if O'Connell had been killed. 



VI II SOME NOTICE OF THE 

But William having died just six months after his mar- 
riage without issue, Mr. A'der ottered, if Charles Haliday 
would come over, to give him up the business. He acceded 
to this proposal, and bidding adieu to his literary friends in 
London, he returned to Dublin in the year 1813, and soon 
afterwards commenced business as a merchant principally 
in the bark trade. He took up his residence at a very good 
house formerly occupied by his father on Arran-quay, at 
one time a fashionable quarter and inhabited by persons of 
rank. 1 

He was thus launched into a life of business, and became 
todj together, fully engaged in commerce, that career most inimical to 
letters; yet with characteristic energy he determined to 
carry on trade and study together. With this view it was 
his habit, he told me, to go to bed at eight o'clock in the 
evening and to be wakened up at half-past eleven, when his 
t';unily were going to bed. He would then rise and study 
till five, and then returning to bed would sleep till half-past 
eight, and commence business at the usual hour. 
:iw One night as he went to lock the hall-door according to 

his custom before sitting down to study, he was surprised 
and alarmed at seeing a robber in the hall. Grasping the 
large key to defend himself, he called loudly for his family, 
and on their coming pointed to the robber. They saw none. 
It was an illusion of the overtaxed brain. On his next visit 
to London he waited on Sir Astley Cooper, the eminent 
surgeon, and on telling him the occurrence Sir Astley said, 
" You must either go there," pointing downwards, to indicate 
the grave, " or there," pointing to a madhouse, " or give up 
your night studies." 

' Kdmund Burke's father at one Henry Viscount Clifden, who died 

time lived on Arran-quay, next in 1836, has often told old Tom 

door to Haliday's, and a little Whelan, the bailiff of the estate, 

further off stood in former times bow he slept in the garrets of Agar 

A?ar House, the town abode House, and saw the rats about his 

of Yi-r<:u it Clifden *B ancestors, bed. 



LIFE OF CHARLES HALIUAT. ix 

He was accordingly obliged to moderate his ardour, but 
he still was enabled to give some of his leisure to his 
favourite pursuits. 

During the years 1813, 1814, and 1815 his poetical effu- HU farewell 

f i i to the Muse*. 

sions were not (infrequent as appears by his manuscript 
collection. But they grew fewer and fewer as business 
called his thoughts to less graceful occupations. And in 
1 8 Ks he would seem to have bade a final farewell to the Muses. 
To Mrs. Hetherington, who had asked him in her " poeti- 
cal epistle " for a drawing for her screen, he wrote in reply 
dated " Arran-quay, 25th of October, 1818 :" 

" My portefeuille of all bereft, 
And not one drawing was there left, 
When commerce changed my mode of life 
From one of peace to one of strife ; 
Changed all the labour to the pen, 
And drove me to the haunts of men ; 
And little time have I, I trow, 
For poetry or painting now, 
My brushes all are turned to quills, 
And nothing can I draw but bills." 

About the year 1834, being desirous of a more agreeable Life at "Fain- 
abode than his house at Arran-quay, he moved out to 
Monkstown, and took a lease of a pretty villa called " Fairy 
Land," adjacent to the beautiful plot of ground which he 
afterwards purchased. Here he passed a pleasant life in- 
termingling society and business. He drew, he played the 
violin, he rode to hounds. He also saw company, but the 
society he cultivated was that of a few intellectual and 
social men rather than an interchange of costly banquets. 
Amongst the intellectual few were Dr. Robert James Graves, 
that most distinguished physician afterwards of European 
reputation, and Maziere Brady, eventually Lord Chancellor 
of Ireland. 

Dr. Graves was joint editor with Daniel Haliday, M.D., 
(a younger brother of Mr. Haliday's), of a medical journal, 
Daniel Haliday living in Paris and communicating French 



X SOME NOTICE OF THE 

medical intelligence. Dr. Graves was an independent 
th ink IT, and a lively and instructive companion. The im- 
provement he introduced into the practice of medicine 
gained him great fame abroad as well as at home. The 
" Clinical Lectures," by Graves and Stokes, is quite a hand- 
book abroad, and has been frequently reprinted there. Dr. 
Trousseau, of Paris, said to an Irish gentleman who con- 
sulted him " I always have the Clinical Lectures of Graves 
and Stokes in my hand," and showed him it on his table. 
A lady from this country a few years since consulted 
Nelaton, the eminent French surgeon. He asked her where 
she came from, and on her answering from Ireland, said : 
" Then I will take no fee. We owe too much to your country- 
man, Dr. Graves, ever to be able to repay his services." 

Dr. Graves reversed the treatment of fever. He used to 
say, " I would wish no other epitaph than this ' He fed 
fever.' " " If I have had more success than others," he said 
in his published Clinical Lectures, " in the treatment of 
fever, I think it is owing to the advice of a country physi- 
cian of great shrewdness who advised me never to let my 
patients die of starvation." 

Oungeol Maziere Brady was also a pleasant companion. At 

length Mr. Haliday became dissatisfied with his progress. 
In other words he was not making enough. So he deter- 
mined to give himself up wholly to business until he had 
acquired such an amount of capital as he had fixed upon in 
his own mind as enough for his security. After this he 
would no longer make the acquisition of wealth his sole 
object. It is easier to form such a resolution than to keep 
it; for it is hard to set bounds to the desire of getting 
Men go on adding to their capital, afraid to use it and enjoy 
it The more they get, they more they desire to get. For 
strange as it may seem, it is not want but wealth that, for 
the most part produces avarice. 

When one of Gargantua's companions had his head cut 
off in a fight, and it was afterwards sewed on again, he 



LIFE OF CHAKLES HALIDAY. ^ 

said, tliat among other strange mutations which he observed 
in the shades below such as Alexander the Great turned 
into an old breeches-patcher, Pope Alexander a ratcatcher, 
&C., he found the misers and usurers spending all their time 
there in hunting for brass pins and rusty nails in the street 
gutters. And how many a gay good fellow, on getting an 
unexpected accession of fortune, turns Shylock-like and 
grows penurious 

" While in the silent growth of cent, per cent, 
In dirt and darkness hundreds stink content." 

But Charles Haliday could set bounds to this desire, and 
stop when he had reached the appointed limit, and then 
use and enjoy his wealth and spend his leisure in other 
aims besides the mere acquisition of more. 

It must be observed, however, that Mr. Haliday had no 
children to provide for, and therefore was not under the 
same obligation as men who have families dependent on 

them. 

I now gave up," he said to me, " dinners and drawing, 
fiddling and hunting, and lived upon one-third of my in- 
come, lud less." Though he was more engrossed with busi- 
ness after taking this resolution, yet he did not abandon all 
reading, for it was at this very period that he made 
schemes for improving his mind by study. 

From a journal he kept of his reading for the years from 
lb3G to 1839, some notion may be formed of his desire to 
improve his mind. On a blank page at the beginning of 
this book appears the following :-" Fairy Land, Kings- 
town 1836. I have but little time to read, but I must not 
therefore neglect to read. Before eight o'clock in the 
morning or after ten at night I may read a few pages, and 
(with the help of God), I will do so. If I mark the date 
when I read each book it may stimulate me by keeping 
before me a register of time lost or employed." 

In another" Much may be done in those little shreds 



xii BOME NOTICE OF THE 

and patches of time which every day produces and which 
most men throw away, but which nevertheless will make 
at the end of it no small deduction from the life of 
man." 

The following extracts are copied from these journals or 
registers of his study : 

1836. 

July. Read Spence's Britain Independent of Commerce, 1808. 
Mill's Commerce defended. Spence's reply to Mill, entitled, 
uiture, the Source of Wealth, 1808. Bentham's Defence of 
Usury. 

August Edinburgh and Quarterly Reviews. Reid on the 
Powers of the Human Mind. 

September. Lyell's Geology. Ricardo's Political Economy. 

November. Third Report of the Commission of Inquiry into 
the State of the Poor in Ireland. Burns on the Poor of Scotland. 
Page on the English Poor Laws. Report of Commissioners of 
Inquiry into the State of the English Poor. Poor Laws in Ire- 
land, by J. Richman. C. Poulet Scrope. Plan of a Poor Law 
for Ireland. Appeal on behalf of the Poor, by H. M'Cormac, 
M. n. Plan for relief of the unemployed Poor by the same. Poor 
Laws in Ireland, by Sir John Walsh, 1830. 

December. Appendix to Third Report of Commissioners for 
Inquiry into state of the Poor in Ireland, so far as relates to the 
Charitable Institutions of Dublin. Report of Commissioners of 
Inquiry into state of Joint Stock Banks. Harris on Lightning 
Conductors to Ships. Quarterly Review, CVI. Poor Laws, p. 
473. Heiderman, by Cooper, pp. 400. Some of Csesar's Com- 
iii- utaries. Part of Dupin's Ecclesiastical History. Part of 
Moshcim's Ecclesiastical History. 

1837. 

January. Read Grattan's Miscellaneous Works ; London, 1822, 
pp. 388. 

P. 75. In the petition to His Majesty we find the simil\ " So 
in the great works of Nature and in the rivers that bring fertility 
along with them, we find irregularity and deluge. Shall we 
therefore pronounce the Shannon a nuisance 1 " 

P. 120. Thia is with a little variation repeated in the " Answer 
to Lord Clare." " In great moral operations as well as in the great 
operations of Nature there is always a degree of waste and overflow. 
So it is with the sea. Shall we therefore pronounce the ocean a 
nuiaance 1 " 

P. 76. In the petition to His Majesty we find. " We say if 
we consider that the people so exiled, so impoverished, so plundered, 
o persecuted, BO enslaved, so disfranchised, did at last spontaneously 



LIFE OF CHARLES HALIPAY. Xlll 

associate, unite, arm, array, defend, illustrate, and free their 
country, overawe bigotry, silence riot, and produce out of their 
own head, armed cap-a-pie, like Wisdom issuing from the head of 
the Thunderer, Commerce and Constitution. What shall we say 
of such a people?" 

P. 1 2 1 .Again in the " Answer to Lord Clare " we find. " That 
such a people and such a parliament should spontaneously unite, 
arm, array, defend, illustrate and fifBe their country, overawe 
bigotry, suppress riot, prevent invasion and produce as the off- 
spring of their own head armed cap-a-pie, like the Goddess of 
Wisdom issuing from the head of the Thunderer, Commerce and 
Constitution, what shall we sav of such a people and such a 
Parliament 1" 

The similarity of expression in these two papers may be 
attributed to the fact that the petition was not published, or if 
published was very little known. These extracts show .however 
that Grattan treasured up similes and laboured his compositions. 
The petition was written about 1798. The "Answer to Lord 
Clare" in April, 1800, and it will be perceived that the simile in 
the latter is more carefully worded than that of the former. (C.H.) 

Sunday, 12th February. Life of Colonel Gardiner by Dr. 
Doddridge. 

In these memoirs are collected the acts of a man who is held up 
for imitation as an eminent Christian (and by a Minister of Christ), 
and yet this man appears to have had no repugnance whatsoever 
to engage in offensive wars nor does his biographer appear to 
condemn them. Colonel Gardiner was engaged in the wars of 
Marlborough and to those who are acquainted with the history 
of the times, the lawfulness, the necessity of these wars must be 
very doubtful. Yet was Colonel Gardiner an active agent 
throughout the campaign of Flanders and Germany, and evidently 
anxious for promotion- in his trade of blood, at a moment when 
Doddridge represents him as always rising two hours before the 
fixed time for marching that he might read that Gospel which 
preached peace towards men. The 37th Article of the Church of 
England says " it is lawful for Christian men at the commandment 
of the Magistrate to wear weapons and serve in the wars ] " but 
this must be understood to mean defensive and necessary wars." 

This sacrifice of his tastes met its due reward. In ten or 
twelve years he felt at ease. He had acquired that amount 
of capital which he had marked out in his own mind as 
essential, and having done this he had the force of character 
to adhere to the rest of his resolution and to cease thence- 
forth from making the pursuit of wealth his sole purpose. 

In this he exhibited more strength of mind than in his 



XIV SOME NOTICE OP TUB 

first sacrifice. For there could be no greater proof of self- 
control, nothing being more difficult or less common than 
voluntarily to stop in the midst of a successful career. 

Build* * vflia Being now more at ease, he resolved to purchase himself 
n a villa. He was anxious he told me to get some freehold 
land not subject to any rent ; but after a long search, find- 
ing none to be had, he fixed himself about the year 1843 in 
the beautiful spot where he so long resided. This was 
Monkstown Park, previously the residence of Lord Rane- 
lagh. Exactly opposite, divided from it only by the road, 
is the ancient castle of the Cheeverses, built probably in the 
time of King Henry VI. to defend this southern boundary 
of the English Pale. At Cromwell's Conquest he gave it to 
General Ludlow, while Walter Cheevers and his household 
were transplanted to Connaught. The ground of Monks- 
town Park, within a narrow circuit, presents a very varied 
surface. A gentle swell of the land between it and the sea 
shuts off the keener eastern air, and the general slope of 
the ground is towards the south and west, with a delight- 
fully warm and sheltered aspect. It is well timbered, and 
at a short distance to the south are the Dublin mountains. 
Lord Ranelagh's mansion stood almost upon the roadside, 
near the present entrance gate. 

But Mr. Haliday pulled down the old residence, and 
built himself a beautiful villa on another and a better site. 
In erecting this mansion he took the following course : 
Having fixed on the number and size of the rooms it was 
to consist of, he chose for its character or general outward 
design an oblong square in the Italian style, and then gave 
the whole to an architect to criticise and correct. 

HH method of Having thus determined the size of it, he marked out the 
exact dimensions on the spot he had selected for its site by 
ropes and pegs, easy to be .shifted, and by visiting the 
spot at the various seasons of the year, and at different 
times of the day, and shifting the ropes and pegs, lie tried 
the different aspects, and ascertained which was most 



LIFE OF CHARLES HALIDAY. XV 

suitable for the different apartments by actual experiment. 
He thus raised an unusually elegant and comfortable 
mansion. In admiration of its beauty, I sometimes repeated 
to him, in jest, as we walked up from the garden to dinner, 
the saying of Edward Vaughan of Golden Grove, near 
Roscrea, in the county of Tipperary, as if such were his 
secret thoughts: " Oh Golden Grove, Golden Grove! if I might 
only keep you, I would give up my chances of Heaven ! " 

Of this new mansion, the library, to use Cicero's expression, small size of 
might be considered the soul. But beyond the library he *"* 8tudy> 
bad a hole of a study, small enough to please the late Lord 
Palmerston. That great and popular minister was found 
by Dr. Granville in a little room of Cambridge House, 
Piccadilly, up to his knees in manuscript papers, foreign 
and domestic (for he said he never had time to read print). 
Dr. Granville said to him, he wondered that he would not 
choose a larger study. But Lord Palmerston laughed, and 
said he wondered how a man could collect his thoughts in 
a larger space. Mr. Haliday's study was a long and narrow 
slice as it were, lighted by one window from the east. 
There he sat on a low stool at the farthest distance from 
the window, and the light to humour his eyes, with a rug 
over his knees in cold weather. Immediately about him 
were those books of Scandinavian history and antiquities, 
purchased for him abroad, at Copenhagen and elsewhere. 

In the larger library was the great collection of pamphlet HU library, 
and other literature relating to Ireland, which it had been 
the labour and pleasure of his life to bring together, before 
he became immersed just at the close of it in the study of 
the Scandinavian antiquities of Dublin. 

In his earlier studies concerning the history of the port 
of Dublin, he applied to the Corporation for the use of their 
Assembly Rolls and other ancient records and had them. 
Hard as these were to decipher, through age and the 
mediaeval character of the writing, he yet laboured at them 
industriously in the early morning hours, until it was time 



XVI 



SOME NOTICE OF THE 



His book 
collections. 



TheSecrtt 
Iwl 

r. k, 



for him to join in business in town. To aid him he often 
LOMB the right had to use a large magnifying glass. One day he discovered 
through'study. t n ' s astonishment and regret, that he was totally Mind of 
one eye, a calamity produced by his intense labour 
these ancient rolls, and by the use, probably, of the largo 
lens. He never knew when the loss of his eye occurred, 
Miid it was thus a comparatively small misfortune ; but it 
kept him ever after in terrible fear of losing the other. 

This proves the wisdom of President Jefferson, of the 
United States of America, who called upon his son to 
observe " How much pain have evils cost us that never 
happened ! " For it may be truly said, that when Mr. 
Haliday died, his fingers held the pen, as he was engaged 
on a pamphlet concerning the sanitary condition of Kingstown 
when he retired from his study to his bed and died in a 
few hours. 

It was this defect of his eyes, that made the dark corner 
of his study suitable to his sight. 

He had one of the largest and best private collections of 
historical works on Ireland, if not the best in the kingdom. 
I have not ascertained, at what time he began to collect the 
works on Irish history ; but one would imagine, it must 
have been at a comparatively early period, for it would take 
years to bring together such a body of pamphlets and broad- 
sides as he was possessed of, being things only obtainable 
occasionally and by long watching. 

Every auctioneer of books, of course, sent him his cata- 
logue of sale ; but besides this, he had most of the waste- 
paper sellers of Cook-street and elsewhere, to bring him any 
old books, papers, or broadsides, that came to them. With 
these they would wait on him at his residence Arran-quay, 
or at the Bank of Ireland, or the Ballast Board. 

At auctions it was his custom always to buy through a 
< 'in missioned agent, as the price would be raised against him 
if In; appeared in person, hut of course he insju-Hnl the 
books previously. In his collection, was the celebrated 



LIFE OF CHARLES HALIDAY. 

Secret Service Money Book, in manuscript, with the pay- 
ments made for secret information in 1798, amongst other 
payments, sums paid to the informer for tracking Lord 
Edward Fitzgerald to the house where he was captured. 
It is of course full of interest, and Richard R. Madden, M.D., 
has made great use of it in his " Lives of the United 
Irishmen." 

Haliday purchased the book at an auction of Joseph 
Scully's, bookseller, 24, Upper Ormond-quay, near the Four 
Courts. 

He told me that on going to inspect this, and the other 
articles for sale there, he met his old rival, Doctor Murphy, 
Roman Catholic Bishop of Cork, a great book collector, 
engaged in the same pursuit. 

Besides the Secret Service Money Book, there was for How got by 
sale on this occasion depositions and papers concerning 
Father Sheehy's case, hanged for supposed complicity with 
a Whiteboy murder in 176G. So Haliday said to Dr. Murphy, 
" I know you would like to have both these rarities, and so 
should I. But if we were each to have only one of them 
I should wish to have the Secret Service Money Book, and 
you the Sheehy papers. Let us agree then not to bid 
against one another. Do you get yours, and let me get 
mine." And so it was arranged. 

From Dr. Madden, author of the " Lives of the United 
Irishmen," who has made so much use of this book in 
his endeavour to identify the betrayer of Lord Edward 
Fitzgerald, I learned this further history of the Secret 
Service Money Book. 

About forty-five years ago, when he was engaged upon its history, 
the " Lives of the United Irishmen," the late James 
Hardiman, author of the " History of the Town of Gal way" 
and other works, came to him, and told him that he 
knew where this book was to be had, and at Dr. Madden 'a 
earnest request he brought it to him to look at. Dr. 
Madden having copied from it such items as he wanted, he 

b 



\\lll SOME NOTICE OF THE 

handed it back to Hard'unim, who returned it to the person 
he borrowed it from. 

Dr. Madden said that this book was kept in the Record 
Tower of Dublin Castle, and that a carpenter employed 
there purloined it with a mass of other papers. The whole 
was sold to a grocer in Capel-street. From him it was 
that Hardiman borrowed it. 

O'Conneii and Before Dr. Madden published his work he became anxious 

Service Money kst he might be called in question for citing this book ; 

Boo!u and ho asked the opinion of a barrister of his acquaintance, 

but he was unable to advise. So Dr. Madden betook him- 
self to Daniel O'Conneii. O'Conneii asked to see the book, 
and Dr. Madden brought it to him. O'Conneii read and 
read for near twenty minutes absorbed in the iniquity it 
disclosed. At length, coming to a particular item, he struck 
the table, and said involuntarily, " My God !*' He would 
not tell Dr. Madden what it was, but he watched the spot, 
and found that it was the name of a Priest of the county 
of Cork, shown to have been in receipt of money for giving 
secret information to the Government in 1798. 

Dr. Madden put the question to him, " May I venture to 
publish what I have copied ? " v " Did you steal the book ?" 
-u id O'Connell. " No." " Then publish." When Dr. Madden's 
" Lives of the United Irishmen" came out, he presented a 
copy to O'Conneii, but he returned it. He had a horror, 
said Dr. Madden, of their proceedings. 

The Secret Service Money Book was finally sold to Scully, 
a seller of old books, on Ormond-quay, for ten pounds, and 
was bought from him by C. Haliday, under the circum- 
stances already detailed for twenty pounds. 

Kxtwit of This most interesting record is preserved among the 

Haliday collection in the Royal Irish Academy. The extent 
of Mr. Haliday's collections may be judged from this, that 
the pamphlets relating principally to Ireland numbered 
" () There were 21,907 in 2,211 (two thousand two 
hundred and eleven) volumes octavo uniformly bound in 



LIFE OF CHARLES HALIDAY. XIX 

one series, and about 700 pamphlets in quarto, of very early 
date unbound. There were besides all the best works con- 
cerning Ireland, and broadsides, ballads and a mass of rare 
and curious materials for the student of Irish history, 
ancient and modern. This library passed with the rest of 
Mr. Haliday's property by his will, to his wife, and was by 
her presented shortly after his death to the Royal Irish 
Academy, in the belief that she was thus fulfilling a wish 
she had sometimes heard Mr. Haliday casually express that 
his collections might be kept together in some public library. 
But book collectors are too often collectors only. 1 

* Collectors 

remember calling on old Dr. Willis, of Ormond-quay and seldom readers. 
Rathmines, a great collector, to see his collection of ancient 
maps, and talking of Haliday and his having had a project of 
writing some account of the Scandinavian Antiquities of 
Dublin he ridiculed the idea of his writing anything, adding, 
" Collectors are never writers or readers." 

The Rev. Reginald Heber was a great collector. His 
Library at Hodnet sold for 53,000. " Mr. Heber," said 
Porson to him with his usual caustic humour, " You have 
collected a great many books. Pray, when do you mean 
to begin to read them ?" But Heber was well acquainted 
with the contents of his library. And so was Haliday. 
His books were purchased for use, not show. He was " Not 
like our modern dealers minding only the margin's breadth 
and binding." Nor could it be said of him and of his library 
as of Pope's ostentatious Peer : 

" His study ! with what authors is it stored ? 
In books not authors curious is my lord: 
To all their dated backs he turns you round : 
These Aldus printed, those Du Seuil has bound. 
Lo ! some are vellum, and the rest as good : 
For all his Lordship knows but they are wood." 

And they were not only for his own use, but for the 
use of others for there was no one freer to lend his books. 
Just as the learned Rabelais wrote in the front of all his 

62 



\\ SOME NOTICE OF Till-. 

books, Francisci Rabehesi *a TUV avrov ^\\s>v, so there might 
have been inscribed over Mr. Haliday's library door, " The 
Books of Charles Haliday and his friends." 

Now that he is gone it gratifies me to think that I had 
r an opportunity to pay him this well-deserved compliment 
publicly, in his lifetime. It will be found in the preface 
to the Cromwellian Settlement of Ireland, first published 
in 1865. But, however, he may have been secretly pleased 
with this testimony to his liberality, he was not so when 
he found his abode described there as " his Lucullan Villa " 
declaring it was too bad to use such terms of a place where 
he never gave me anything but a leg of mutton. For such 
was invariably his Sunday dinner, as he used to let all his 
servants but one go out until dinner time, this one being 
kept to watch the roast, and it was only this joint he said 
which any one could attend to. This humanity to his 
servants was exhibited in other ways. 
HU Saturday Saturday being a favourite banqueting day among mer- 

enterUinmento. J J u i i 

chants as the eve of a day of rest from their labours, he 
gave way to their humour ; but whenever he had a dinner 
party on this day he locked the dining-room door when his 
guests were gone at night, leaving the wine, the dessert, 
the silver plate and the glass and the whole table just a- it 
was, till Monday morning, not to break in upon his servants' 
Sunday rest. 

He used to say there were two reasons assigned for the 
Sabbath in different places in Scripture. One being that 
given in the twelve Commandments, in the 20th chapter of 
Exodus, that is to say because God rested on that day, the 
other in the 23rd chapter, " that thine ox and thine ass may 
rest, and the son of thy handmaid," and that this last was 
the one he preferred to keep in view. 

But I pacified him by pointing out to him that it was 
not his table I referred to so much as his library, having 
taken care to specify that Plutarch in describing the 
elegance- >f L-urullu.s's Villa praised him for the lil-r.-rii-s lie 



LIFE OF CHARLES HAL' DAY. X.\i 

had collected, and that they were open to all. The Greeks 
added Plutarch repaired at pleasure to the galleries and 
porticoes as to the retreat of the Muses. So that his house 
was in fact an asylum and senate-house to all the Greeks 
that visited Rome. 

And this too was true as regarded Haliday. For there 
was no one engaged upon any subject that could be illus- 
trated from his collection but he received him, discussed it 
intelligently, and lent what was applicable from his col- 
lection. 

He was Lucullus-like also in his reception of f oreigners of 
merit, considering it as a kind of public duty to show them 
the hospitality of his house. 

My intimacy with Charles Haliday began about the year Beginning of 
1850, the time when at the request of his colleagues in the Holiday^ * 
commission for preserving and improving the port of 
Dublin, he undertook to collect materials for a history of 
the harbour, principally with a view to trace the progress 
of improvement in the navigable channel of the Liffey, and 
to preserve some record of the plans proposed, and of the 
effect of works executed for deepening the river, and ren- 
dering the port commodious for shipping. 1 I had known him 
for many years, as he was tenant to Viscount Clif den for his 
house on Arran-quay, and my father, my grandfather, and I 
had been during seventy years agents in succession of that 
family for their properties in the city and county of Dublin, 
and counties of Meath and Kildare. But, to say the truth, 
I had at first no liking for Haliday, because of his haughty 
mien and distant manners. The Agar Ellises, Viscounts Clifden, 
derived through Sir John and Sir William Ellis, a valuable 
leasehold interest from the Corporation of Dublin along 
Arran-quay, Elli.s's-quay, Pembroke-quay, and thence west- 
ward to the Phoenix Park. The leases were some of them 

1 See the opening passage of his Irish Academy, volume xxii., Polite 
essay on "The Ancient Name of Literature.* 'Read June 12, 1855. 
Dublin," Translations of the Royal 



X\ll SOME NOTICE OF THE 

as early as 1 062, and had maps of parts of the Liffey as 
forming the boundary of the demised premises. 

One morning Mr. Haliday waited on me in my study at 
17, Hume-street, to ask me if I would show him one of 
the Corporation leases made to Sir William Ellis, as it pro- 
bably had the map attached, whilst that appended to the 
other part of the lease in the Corporation muniments was 
lost. He explained to me that it was for historical and 
antiquarian purposes only. 

I was rather surprised to find him engaged in such pur- 
suits, as I had only known him as a merchant seated among 
his clerks and ledgers. 

Hta spirit of But as I was not too well inclined to him I said I would 
lce " mention his desire to Lord Clifden and inform him of his 
lordship's pleasure. He started back with as much disdain, 
and to as great a distance, as the great lady of Paris, at the 
shameful proposals of Panurge, an utter stranger, made to 
her in plain terms without preface or preamble at their 
first meeting. 

He scorned to be obliged to any nobleman. He showed 
similar feelings on another occasion. 

In 1865 the fine library at Charlemont House containing 
the collections of early English and Italian books made by 
the first earl being placed under my care by his grandson, 
the present earl, Mr. Haliday appointed a time to come to 
see it. 

But he would scarce look at anything, and was uneasy 
until he could get out of the place. He evidently feared 
that Lord Charlemont might come in, and that it might be 
thought he sought his acquaintance. For, though well fitted 
to grace and enjoy the highest society, he studiously asso- 
ciated himself with the class he belonged to. Unless as a 
matter of public duty he never appeared at the Castle of 
Dublin. It was only as accompanying a deputation he was 
seen there. He was proud, but to those who would com- 
plain of it, one might say, when we remember his humanity, 



LIFE OP CHARLES HALIDAY. XX111 

his charity, his love of learning, his zeal for the service of 
his country and city, Be proud in the same way. 

Fortunately our first interview was a little prolonged, 
and he learned with equal surprise that I, whom he had 
looked upon as a mere working barrister, was also fond of 
historical and antiquarian studies. 

In the following year I remember calling on him one 
Sunday afternoon at Monkstown Park, being the first time 
I had ever visited him there, and his hoping I would stay 
to partake of his four o'clock Sunday dinner, " I never 
invite anyone," said he, " to such a dinner, but if you will 
only come when you can uninvited you will generally find 
me too glad to stay you here." 

From that time forward till his death I very generally Hi table talk, 
dined with him on Sunday, none else being ever there, and 
came thus to know something of the genera! tenor of his 
pursuits, but unfortunately too little of his life. I never 
thought of asking him where he was at school, or when he 
began to study Irish History, or when he began collecting 
books and pamphlets, as I never thought of its falling to 
my lot to publish some notice of his life and labours. 
Our conversation was generally of the topics of the hour. 
He preferred anecdotes and repartee to more serious 
subjects having a great fund of such lore to draw upon. 
For with Bacon he deemed gaiety and liveliness suitable to 
meal times, just as Lycurgus set up an image of the God of 
Laughter in each dinner hall at Sparta. 

Mr. Haliday being now fitted with a public aim for his His early 
reading and researches, instead of studying as previously studies. 
for self improvement or for materials for conversation (for 
vain is the reading and useless the study that in due time 
is not brought to some useful end) he set to work with that 
energy and earnestness which he exhibited in everything 
he did. He was now up every morning, winter as well as 
summer, by five o'clock, working without a fire as many 
early rising students are in the habit of doing. They know 



XXIV SOME NOTICE OP THE 

that one's study is thus always ready, and that it is 
to put on warm coats and rugs, 1 and that besides this a 
man does not sit with his feet in the draught of cold air 
drawn along the floor by the heat of the fire, and indeed 
there was no fireplace in Mr. Haliday's study. 

This practice of early rising he continued to his latest 
day, thus living not merely a double length of life but 
enjoying in those early hours a freedom from visitors and a 
quiet not to be had during the rest of the day. The head 
too is then free from the fumes of meat and wine. It was 
these advantages probably that gave rise to the saying of the 
Greeks *tX>/ rate Movaatc ijwc, Morning is friendly to the 
Muses, so finely paraphrased by Pope 

" On morning's wings how active springs the mind 
That leaves the load of yesterday behind ; 
How easy every labour it pursues 
How coming to the poet every Muse." 

His own library furnished him with every printed work 
relating to Ireland and Dublin in particular. 

He would not however rely on an author's statements, 
but would verify them by referring to the original sources, 
saying that an author writing of things done a hundred 
years before his own time, even though his name were 
Spencer, Davys, or Ware, was no better than he was as to 
personal knowledge. 
Hi common- It is only by his commonplace books of which there are 

pUc* books. 

six quarto volumes began on undertaking the history of 
the Port of Dublin, that a true notion of his activity of 
research can be obtained. These are most clearly written, 
in a systematic manner, with correct references. They 
form a vast repertory of information relating to the Port 
of Dublin and to the antiquities of the city. By these it 

1 There is an old French proverb, The head and feet keep warm 
Tenez chaud lea pieda et teste The rest will take no harm. 

An demcurant vivez en beste : See Handle Cotgrave's French 

Thus paraphrased and English Dictionary, A.D., 1610. 



LIFE OF CHARLES HALIDAY. XXV 

appears that having ransacked all printed sources of 
knowledge he next applied to the Corporation of Dublin 
for access to their ancient records, the Corporation of 
Dublin being the sole owners and managers of the port and 
river in early times. He now eagerly embarked in the 
study of the ancient muniments of the Corporation of 
Dublin consisting of the Assembly Rolls, the Chain Book, 
and the White Book of the City. How zealously he noted 
all that was to be found in these curious records may be seen 
from the four volumes in quarto in his handwriting now in 
the Royal Irish Academy containing all that is to be found 
in the Assembly Rolls concerning the River and Harbour 
of Dublin, besides many other matters he observed in them 
either curious or instructive. 

Mr. Haliday naturally found it hard not merely to master 
the mediaeval characters and contractions used by the 
scribes of early times, but also to decipher some of the 
earlier Corporation Rolls as they were much defaced by age, 
and still more by the marks of nut galls made use of for 
reviving the faded writing by (I believe) the Record Com- 
missioners of 1810 in their examination of them. 

In the ancient records of the Court of Exchequer too James Frederic 
there was also a vast amount of materials to be found 
illustrative of the history of the port of Dublin. These 
being in the care of James Frederic Ferguson, with whom I 
had some short time before formed a close friendship, I had 
the pleasure of making him known to Mr. Haliday. t 

A curious accident led to my acquaintanceship with Mr. 
Ferguson. When leaving the Four Courts one afternoon, 
early in the year 1850, by the western quadrangle, I observed 
two labourers carrying each a load on his shoulder of what 
seemed to be Cumberland flagstones, but a further inspection 
showed them parchments covered with dust. They were 
Bills and Answers of the Equity side of the Court of 
Exchequer. They told me they were removing them from 
the Exchequer Offices then kept in the buildings on the 



XXVI SOME NOTICE OF THE 

extreme west of the Four Courts building and nearest the 
Quay, and were taking them to the Benchers' Buildings in 
the rere of the Four Courts. 

in-:, rv f Following these guides and mounting a temporary wooden 

i KJM r rcase I found myself in the presence of a solitary figure, 

sole master of a suite of empty rooms, engaged in sorting 
vast masses of parchments, books, and papers. These and 
a couple of chairs their only furniture. He seemed about 
fifty, and was of good stature. His hair very dark, his 
complexion sallow, with full dark lustrous eyes. His mien 
was mild, modest and retiring, and rather marked with 
melancholy. This was James Frederic Ferguson. He was 
then engaged under the authority of the Lords of the 
Treasury in sorting and cataloguing the Exchequer Records 
preparatory to the division to be made of them between 
the Chancery and Exchequer on the abolition of the Equity 
Jurisdiction of the Court of Exchequer. He was born at 
Charleston in South Carolina in 1806, where his father, a 
native of France but of Scottish descent, was a professor in 
the College. This gentleman's grandfather left Scotland 
because of his joining the Pretender in 1745 and settled in 
Sweden. In 1814 young Ferguson came from Charleston to 
England and remained in London until 1821 when he came 
to Ireland, with Mr. Samuel Cooke, of Sunderland, in the 
county of Durham, formerly a banker, then employed about 
the recovering of certain ad vow sons supposed to belong to 
the heir of the Lords Barnewall of Turvey, Viscounts 
Kingsland. 
Samuel Cooke The heir to this ancient title was Mathew Barnewall who, 

of Sutulorland, 

ad the Kings- from being a butcher's basket-boy at Castle Market, and 
afterwards a waiter at a tavern in Dawson-street, recovered 
the title as told in Sir Bernard Burke's " Vicissitudes of 
Families." Length of time had barred all claim to the lands, 
but as no lapse of time then barred the claims of the Church, 
this low-born peer found speculators in London to risk10,000 
on his visionary rights, and in 1817 to employ Mr. Cooke 



LIFE OF CHARLES HALIDAY. XXV11 

at a salary of 800 a year to establish them in Ireland. The 
evidence to support them lay, if anywhere, in the ancient 
records of the Common Pleas and the Exchequer, and Mr. 
Cooke knowing little of anything but of shooting and fishing, 
in 1821 brought over young Ferguson, a connexion of his 
by marriage, to do this work. 

From the opening of the office doors in the morning till 
their shutting, Ferguson was at work on the Kingsland 
claims. After the failure of this business (for there was 
onlv recovered the poor living of Garristown near the Naul, 
in the county of Dublin), he became assistant to William 
Lynch, sub-commissioner of the Records, author of Feudal 
Dignities in Ireland, and afterwards Record Agent for 
Peerage Claims in London, and was invaluable to him for 
his zeal and for his knowledge of Irish records. 

Mr. Ferguson, who was gifted with intellectual qualities Ferguson's 
of a high order and had a refined literary taste, was a con- fo Inquirers! 1 
tributor to the historical literature of his country, although 
generally unknown, for with characteristic unobtrusiveness 
his name was generally withheld from the public. In him 
every archaeological inquirer found a ready friend and 
earnest, self-denying assistant. 

The only inquiries he had a distaste for were genealogical 
ones, and yet he would labour gratuitously over his records 
with such inquirers as if he liked it and were paid for it. 
Often have I seen him closing the door after one of them, 
gently raise his hands as if he was glad " to be shutt of him," 
saying mildly, " How I hate a pedigree hunter." 

The records placed under his charge were his only care His journey to 
and object; they were to him instead of companions, family, Me.Tsburg >& 
and friends, and to them and those who esteemed them and Germa y- 
valued them as he did, he devoted his entire life. One 
instance that I was myself conversant of will give some 
notion of his love of records. In the month of April, 1 853, 
Mr. R. L. Pearsall, then resident at the Chateau de Wartenau 
on the southern or Swiss side of the Lake of Constance 



XXV 111 SOME NOTICE OF TI1K 

communicated to his friend the Rev. H. F. Ellacombe, 
rector of Clyst St George, Topsham, Devonshire, tlmt a 
German gentleman living in the Duchy of Baden, on the 
north side of the same lake, the ancient Suabia, had in his 
possession some ancient rolls of the King's Bench of Ireland, 
of the reign of Edward III. On receiving this information 
from Mr. Ellacombe, Mr. Ferguson at once wrote to the 
Lord Chief Justice of the Queen's Bench, and to the Lords 
of the Treasury, and as both turned a deaf car to his sugges- 
tions, Mr. Ferguson, small as were his means, travelled at 
his own cost to Mr. Pearsall at the Lake of Constance, and 
accompanied him to the possessor of the records. 

This was Joseph von Lassberg, a German antiquary, 
dwelling in the old moated Suabian Castle of Meersburgh, 1 
who had in 1851 purchased these records of a Jew at Frank- 
fort. The old gentleman's cupidity was at once roused, by 
the fact of an officer of the Courts (employed by the 
Government as he supposed) travelling from Ireland thither 
to purchase them ; and he asked such an inordinate price, 
so much beyond Ferguson's small means, that Ferguson was 
in despair, and with characteristic devotion as he could not 
get them, he actually sat up all night making abstracts of 
them. 

Recovers some But in the morning von Lassberg finding that Ferguson 

Bench RoU^" " na< i no ^ the price, took all the money he had, which was 

sixty pounds sterling, and poor Ferguson returned with his 

1 " The town and castle of Meers- were 273. He was tall, handsome, 
burg crowns a white cliff on the with a long flowing white beard, 
northern shore of the Boden See. He died in 1855. In 1877, a 
The place first belonged to King Tyrolese nobleman of similar tastes, 
Da<robert(A.D. 628) then to Charles purchased the castle for a store of 
Martel; finally (A.D. 1 629 ) to the ancient armour, which he had col- 
Bishops of Constance. In 1836 lected and kept at Munich." The 
it was purchased by Joseph Shores and Cities of the Boden See 
von Lassberg, an antiquary and in 1879-80. By Samuel James 
poet. His library contained 12,000 Capper, M.P. Delarue, London, 
printed books, his manuscripts 8vo, 1881. 



LIFE OF CHARLES HALIDAT. 

records without regret or repining. After his death, 
which occurred on the 2Gth November, 1855, they were 
sold, and were purchased at the auction of his small effects 
for the government 

" For still the great had kindness in reserve, 
They helped to biuy whom they helped to starve." 

Mr. Ferguson's large dark eyes (inherited, probably, from His strength 
his grandmother, Anne Marguerite Delaporte, daughter of 
the French consul at Stockholm) were most powerful, and 
he had, apparently, the art (without the aid of jesting 
Rabelais' miraculous spectacles) of reading the effaced 
writing of ancient rolls. But Ferguson himself, attributed 
his strength of sight to night watching on board of Mr. 
Cooke's fishing boats in the bay of Dublin. For this gentle- 
man, who dwelt, while in Ireland, at Sandymount, where 
his household consisted of the poor, low-born Lord Kings- 
land (lest, perhaps, he should get into other hands) and 
James Ferguson, had a lease of the Poolbeg salmon fishing 
at the mouth of the Liffey. Cooke had, besides salmon nets 
for the mouth of the Liffey, also great nets to stretch across 
the broad but shallow bight (or bay) running up towards 
Ringsend, between Sandymount and the Pigeonhouse 
Fort, and miy friend and fellow barrister, William Monk 
Gibbon, LL.D., of Sandy mount, remembers when he was a 
boy to have frequently seen him with a laige number of 
soldiers of the fort, employed in laying and drawing this 
great net. 

Mr. Ferguson's learning and modesty, made him most 
acceptable to Mr. Haliday. 

He took a pleasure in getting him to copy for him from Makes extract* 

. from the Kolls 

the ancient records under his care, and he kept him almost for Haliday. 
constantly employed for the few short years of their 
acquaintanceship ; for it only commenced about 1852. 

Mr. Haliday got liberty from the Corporation to em- 
ploy Ferguson on the earlier City Assembly Rolls ; of the 



XXX SOME NOTICE OF THE 

latt-r he made abstracts by 1m own hand. And he kept 
him continually at work in making copies of entries relating 
to the port and harbour of Dublin, to be found on the rolls 
of the Court of Exchequer. 



LUtof Fergu- Anion^ his other talents, Mr. Ferguson was a consumate 

on'i copies for 

master of clerkship, writing in a fine legible hand, with great 
rapidity and accuracy, as will be at once seen by the great 
amount of his writing in the Haliday collection in the Royal 
Irish Academy. The following works to be seen there are 
of his penmanship 

A.D. 1260-1261. Complete transcript of the Roll of the 45th 
year of King Henry the 3rd. Folio. 

A.D. 1200-1221. Extracts from the Charter, Close, and 
Patent Rolls of England, relating to the trade of Ireland, to St. 
Mary's Abbey, and to the port of Dublin. Folio. 

A.D. 1303-1308. Abstracts, and some translations in full of 
Entries on the Memoranda Rolls relating to the collection of the 
customs at various ports in Ireland by the Friscobaldi and other 
Florentine merchants to whom they had been mortgaged by the 
King as security for loans made to him, 31st to 35th King 
Edward 1st. Folio. 

A.D. 1272-1325. Calendar of the Memoranda Rolls of 
Edward 1st and Edward 2nd. Folio. 

A.D. 1319. Extracts from the Memoranda Rolls of Edward 
2nd of this year, concerning the King's Mills near Dublin, con- 
cerning the Abbey of St. Mary's there, the Florentine merchants, 
shipping, and trade. Folio. 

A.D. 1326-1379. Translations of Miscellaneous Entries from 
the Memoranda Rolls from 3rd to 50th year of Edward 3rd. 
Folio. 

A.D. 1383-1643. Extracts from the Memoranda Rolls, con- 
cerning the customs, trade, and port of Dublin. Folio. 

A.D. 1554-1555. Memoranda Roll of 1st and 2nd Philip and 
Mary. Extracts mostly concerning the nunnery of St. Mary le 
Hogges. Folio. 

A.D. 1613-1633. Extracts from the Communia Rolls of the 
Exchequer, of entries relating to the trade and port of Dublin. 
Folio. 

A.D. 1295-1613. Extracts from the Judgment Rolls. Folio. 

Copy of the By-Laws of Dublin. Folio. 

A.D. 1320-1685. Municipal Records of the city of Dublin. 
Extracts relating to ships, the trade, and the port aud harbour of 
Dublin. 



LIFE OF CHARLES 11AL1DAY. XXXI 

Translation of the Register of St. Thomas' Abbey, Dublin, com- 
monly called Coppinger's 1 Register being made by Thomas 
Coppinger. Folio. ' 

A.D. U68-15o2. Assembly Rolls of Corporation of Dublin. 
Quarto. 

A.D. 1468-1509. Memoranda and Freeman Rolls of the Cor- 
poration of Dublin. Quarto. 

It will be seen from the journals of Haliday's reading that 
while his earlier studies were for the most part general and 
miscellaneous he still kept himself fully informed of all 
that was published from time to time on trade, banking, 
and commerce. 

He was also deeply interested in all social subjects, such Haliday's 
as the relief of the poor and their general well-being, and the daily press, 
was a large but anonymous contributor to the public jour- 
nals. He wrote letters and articles on trade, banking, the 
poor, the public markets, the taxes, and whatever else con- 
cerned the public interest, but he abstained from politics, 
though of pronounced Conservative" opinions of an enlarged 
kind, and with a spirited national feeling of his own. He 
left a large scrap book of these contributions which remains 
an interesting monument to showhow constantly his thoughts 
and his pen were employed unobserved for the public 
interest. 

On the cover inside appears the following note in his 
handwriting : 

" I have collected in this volume soiue of the trifles which I 
have written and published, that I ID ay be reminded of past ex- 
ertions and stimulated to new ones for the public good." 

1 On parchment in fine bold en- made by Coppinger, with similar 

grossing hand on the title page notice, A.D. 1526, is preserved in 

is the following : " Copia vera the Rawlinson MSS. (No. 499), 

quarandam evidentiarum monas- Bodleian Library, Oxford. It is 

terii Sancti Thomae Martyris juxta bound and stamped with Sir James 

Dublinum extractarurn per me, Ware's coat of arms. 

Willielmum Coppinger, suae na- The first contains private grants, 

tionis capitaneum, Anno Domini, the other volume grants of different 

1526. kings, and other public conces- 

Another portion of this register, sions. 



X.XX11 SOME NOTICE OF THE 

Pamphlets by But besides these fugitive pieces, he published some 

C. HMitlay: , , , 

pamphlets. 

On Temper. His tirst publication of this kind, which was anonymous, 
was an Inquiry into the influence of the excessive use of 
Spirituous Liquors in producing Crime, Disease, .and 
Poverty in Ireland. 1 It appeared in 1830. In a presenta- 
tion copy of it to Mr. James Haughton, there is the follow- 
ing note in Mr. Haliday's writing: 

" This, I believe, was the first publication of the temperance 
movement in Ireland." 

djcit be soc!etv E- e was an ac ti ye member of the Society for the Suppres- 
sion of Mendicity in Dublin, commonly called the Mendicity 
Society. 

This Society, at a time when there was no legal relief for 
the poor, and the streets of Dublin were crowded with 
beggars, .took a lease of Moira House, on Usher's-quay, and 
- opened it to receive all poor who should come there of 
their own accord or with a ticket given by anyone whom 
they had solicited alms from, and they were there provided 
with wholesome food for the day, on condition of stone- 
breaking for men and boys, and other suitable work for 
women. 

Archbishop Whately pronounced it the best system of 
relief that he knew. Here Mr. Haliday gave his personal 
attendance. And when the cholera morbus made its first 
terrible visitation to Dublin in the year 1832, and seized its 
most hopeless victims amongst the poorest, it naturally 
committed awful ravages amongst the needy frequenters of 
the Mendicity Society at Moira House ; yet Mr. Haliday 
never flinched or deserted his post, but was present at his 
usual hours, and helped those seized to carriages to convey 
them to the hospitals, while his family and friends were 
filled with fear for him, and indeed for themselves. 

The experience he acquired at this institution causol 
'8vo, Dublin, pp. 127, Milliken, 1830. 



LIFE OP CHARLES HALIDAT. 

him to write a pamphlet in 1838 on the necessity of some 
law of settlement to be introduced into the Poor Relief 
measure then before Parliament. 1 

" When the society first commenced its measure for sup- On a Law of 
pressing mendicity, in 1818," said Mr. Haliday, " they found * 
in the streets of Dublin 5,000 beggars, fn the course of 
investigation it became evident that no system of relief 
dependent on voluntary contributions could create a reason- 
able hope of success without some plan or modification of 
the system of settlement." The association, therefore, de- 
clared that no one should be considered an object for relief 
who could not prove a residence within the city or its pre- 
cincts for six months. In the first year the number of 
destitute persons registered exceeded 5,500. Of these, 2,251 
were sent to their homes or friends in England, Scotland, 
and the country parts of Ireland ; and about 2,400 were re- 
jected for the want of six months' residence. As a further 
means to suppress mendicancy, they appointed street in- 
spectors, and with the aid of the police, they in one year 
had upwards of 4,300 beggars apprehended and brought 
before the magistrates. To these exertions was owing the 
diminution of vagrancy and pauperism then apparent in 
Dublin. 

From these facts Mr. Haliday contended for a law of settle- 
ment in the Poor Relief Act, and published his reasons in 
an anonymous pamphlet with the title in the foot note. 
In a short preface to it, dated Dublin, February 20th, 1838, 
he styles himself " A Member of the Mendicity Association." 

On the face of the pamphlet there is the following 
observation in Mr. Haliday's handwriting : " A letter from 
the Duke of Wellington shows that this pamphlet produced 
the clause of Electoral Division rating." 

The next topic of a kindred nature which engaged his 

1 Necessity of Combining a Law Relief of the Poor of Ireland, pp. 
of Settlement with Local Assess- 26, 8vo. Dublin, Milliken and Son, 
ment in the proposed Bill for the 1838. 

C 



XXXI V SOME NOTICE OF THE 

{>. 11, a ft i-r treating of this measure, the compulsory relief of 
the poor of Iivlaii'l, \vas a consideration of the miserable 
habitations of so many of those that dwelt outside of the 
poorhouses. 
On Swlury The Census Commissioners of 1841, reported that nearly 

Legislation for 

Town*. one-half of the families of the rural population, and some- 

what more than a third of the families of the civic popula- 
tion, were living in accommodation equivalent to a cabin 
consisting of a single room. A Commission of Inquiry 
was shortly afterwards issued into the state of the tenure 
and occupation of land and of means of improving the re- 
lations of landlord and tenant, and Mr. Haliday pleaded fora 
similar inquiry into the sanitary condition of the labouring 
classes in towns, of whom, according to the Census, one- 
third were so miserably lodged. 

He gave instances, and contended that there was need of 
some new law for the regulation of house property in 
towns and for the protection of the health, comfort, and 
rights of the poorer classes, some modification perhaps 
of the medical police system of German cities, and the 
Conseil de Salubrite* of Paris. Such an authority, he added, 
as would compel the builders of houses to secure a supply 
of pure water for their tenants, to build sewers, and to pro- 
vide all essentials to decency and cleanliness, before any of 
the houses could be let in tenements. This body being made 
the guardians of the public rights, could prevent individuals, 
however poweiful from depriving the labouring classes of 
the advantages which open spaces, public walks and path- 
ways, and access to rivers and the sea afford. 1 He was 
thus early an advocate of sanitary legislation, which had 
not then commenced, but has latterly been so productive of 
improvement. 

'He entitled this pamphlet, of the Luw in respect of the Build- 

which was anonymous " A letter ing and Occupation of Houses in 

to the Commissioners of Landlord Towns in Ireland." 8vo., Dublin, 

and Tenant Inquiry, on the state Grant and Bolton, 1844. 



LIFE OP CHARLES HALIDAT. XXXV 

In the course of his inquiries respecting the cleanliness 
and health of the poor, he elicited the remarkable fact 
that within the previous five or six years (he was writing 
in 184-4), the poor of Kingstown and Dunleary, although 
residing on the sea shore, had been deprived of the means 
of preserving health and promoting cleanliness which 
sea bathing afforded. 

Before the Kingstown railway was carried across the On the taking 
harbour, the strand was open to the public, and under O f the bathing 



the high cliffs which extended from Salthill to the west 
pier there were small bays or inlets completely sheltered P r 
and secluded, where the women and children of the town 
and surrounding country freely bathed. But as it was 
deemed necessary for the extension of the railway that it 
should pass between these cliffs and the sea, the cliffs were 
levelled and formed into a railway embankment across 
the strand, and the poor were excluded from the benefit 
of those prescriptive rights which they had previously 
enjoyed unquestioned. Noblemen and gentlemen, whose 
seaward boundaries this railway traversed, protected their 
own rights, and for them the Dublin and Kingstown Rail- 
way Company were compelled to erect splendid baths and 
other costly works. Commodious baths were also erected 
for those who paid for using them ; but for those who were 
unable to pay for the poor of Kingstown and the surround- 
ing country no accommodation whatever had been pro- 
vided in lieu of that of which they were deprived. 1 For 
three whole years he laboured to obtain for the poor the 
restoration of their rights, by private addresses to the rail- 
way directors and others, but failing in his efforts, he had 
recourse to the press. This publication, issued in 1847, is 
entitled, " An Appeal to His Excellency the Lord Lieutenant 
on behalf of the Labouring Classes," and in this he sets 



id, pp, 7, 8. is no publisher's name. It was 

It was anonymous and intended printed by P. D. Hardy and Son, 
only for private circulation. There Dublin. 8vo., pp. 54. 

c 2 



\\xvi 



SOME NOTICE OF THE 



On the state 
of the Kings- 
town poor. 



Public offices 
filled by C. 
Holiday. 



forth fully the steps by which the railway company had 
contrived to deprive the public of their access to the shore. 

On the title page of Mr. Haliday's copy is a note in his 
own hand (written the very year of his death): "This 
Appeal procured for the Labouring Classes at Kingstown a 
IVi-i' bathing place for women, now in course of erection at 
Salthill, and one for men at the West pier." The last 
effort of his pen was still pleading for the poor. It v; 
letter to the Commissioners for the Improvement of Kings- 
town, urging them to improve the dwellings of the poor of 
that town. 

He had personally visited many of the worst parts of it, 
and found the cottages in want of sewerage and accommo- 
dations necessary to cleanliness, health and decency. He 
showed the Commissioners that they could make main 
drains, and could compel the owners to make house drains 
into these from the cottages, and even might obtain public 
money for building cottages. The inspections were made 
at various hours of the day and in the evening, and being 
carried on in the face of a new visitation of cholera, his 
family believed that he fell by disease caught in the dis- 
charge of his self-imposed public duty. While correcting 
the proof sheets of this publication, he was seized with 
illness, and carried from his study to his bed, and died in a 
few hours. 1 

But these publications of Mr. Haliday's, though they in- 
dicate his public spirit and humanity, were only the pro- 
ducts of the spare moments of his life. 

His occupation as a merchant absorbed his day. He had his 
counting house and his clerks to attend to. He frequented 



1 The editing of this last work of 
Mr. Haliday's was undertaken and 
executed by Dr. Thomas M. Mad- 
den. It is entitled, " A Statistical 
Inquiry into the Sanitary Condition 
of Kingstown, by the late Charles 
Haliday, esq., M.B.I.A. Edited, 



with some preliminary observations 
on the connexion between the 
sanitary defects of Kingstown and 
the recent Epidemic Cholera, by 
Dr. Thomas More Madden, M.R.I. A. 
8vo., Dublin, pp. 33. John E. 
Fowler, 1867. 



LIFE OF CHARLES HALIDAY. XXXV11 

the Corn Exchange; he was a Director of the Bank of 
Ireland, he was Honorary Secretary of the Chamber of 
Commerce, and a Member of the Ballast Board. In each 
employment he exhibited that energy and intelligence that 
were the characteristics of his life. 

Often have I seen him at his counting-house, at Arran- 
<|uay, seated on a high stool amongst his clerks, carefully 
going over the large ledgers and other books, to see that 
they were duly and regularly posted up. 

At ten o'clock he would be found in the Directors' room 
of the Bank of Ireland, attending to the business of that 
great establishment. 

He gave great attention also to the business of the Honorary 
Chamber of Commerce, and on retiring from the office rfciiMribcra 
Honorary Secretary of that Chamber, after a service of seven- Commerce, 
teen years, he was presented by that society with a testi- 
monial in recognition of the great benefits he had rendered 
it. 

He signalized his accession to the office by his energetic 
investigation into the right of the owner of the Skerries 
Lighthouse, off the coast of Anglesea, to levy tolls amounting 
to three thousand a year off the shipping frequenting the 
port of Dublin. It appeared that a charter or patent was 
granted by Queen Anne, authorising one William Trench to 
build a lighthouse on Skerries Rock, near Holyhead, 1 and to 
levy specified dues on all vessels passing by or near the 
rock ; -but as the patent was in many respects defective and 
never had (and probably never was intended to have) effect 
in Ireland, an attempt was made to do by an English statute 
what could not be done by an English patent, and the 
English Act of the third year of George II., cap. 36, enacted 

1 It was at this rock, and not at drowned in company with the son 

Skerries near Balbriggau, that on of Lord Dunboyne. See Calendar 

the 15th of December, 1619, the of State Papers of King James I. 

Viscount Thurles, father of the (Ireland) 1615-1625. p. 270. 

great Duke of Ormonde was wreck- Carte's Life of Ormonde, p. 1. 
ed on his voyage to Ireland, and 



XXXV111 SOME NOTICE OF THE 

tint the dues granted by the patent should continue in force 

LfehtdMi * r ever anc * t'hat otner dues should be paid by vessels 
trading to or from particular ports in Ireland. Under that 
Act, the then proprietor of the Lighthouse, Mr. Jones, was 
levying about 16,000 per annum, of which 3,000 per 
annum, part of the gross amount, was levied on the trade of 
Dublin, and was enforced from vessels that did not pass by, 
or near, or in sight of Skerries, whether loaded or in ballast, 
or sailing on any of the voyages mentioned in the Act ; and 
in all cases fourfold as heavy, and in some eight times as 
heavy, as the sums charged by the Irish Lighthouse Board 
for any lighthouse on the coast of Ireland. 

As these tolls were collected for the owner of the 
Skerries Lighthouse by the Collector of Customs at Dublin, 
who received a commission on the dues and would give no 
clearance unless they were paid, there was no escape, and 
resistance seemed hopeless. Masters of vessels from time to 
time made opposition, l>ut the labour and expense always 
paralysed exertion, and after a brief period of struggle the 
extra tax was submitted to. Ship owners frequenting the 
Irish Channel also applied to the Trinity House Corporation 
of London; but the Trinity Brethren declined to interfere, 
on the ground that the Skerries Lighthouse was private 
property. The Chamber of Commerce however, in the \ rar 
1839, obtained the opinion of the Irish Law Officers, that no 
tolls whatever could be legally levied in Ireland by the 
proprietor of the Skerries Lighthouse, because at the estab- 
lishment of the Legislative Independence of Ireland, in 1782 
it was conceded that English Statutes did not bind Ireland, 
and therefore that the statute of third George II. was of no 
force, being an Act made in England, and thus the only 
warrant for these tolls failed. This opinion being trans- 
mitted to the Lords of the Treasury, they directed that the 
Collector of Customs should no longer assist in collecting 
the Skerries Lighthouse tolls. 

But as the Trinity Board were, in the jt.u IM-i, about to 



LIFE OF CHARLES HALIDAT. XXXIX 

purchase the interest of the owner of the Skerries Lighthouse, 
and would then be able under another statute to fix Light- 
house tolls with the assent of the Privy Council, the 
Chamber of Commerce and the Directors of the Steamboat 
Companies combined and brought an action in the Queen's 
Bench, in the name of Mr. Boyce, a ship owner, against Mr. 
Jones, the Skeriies Lighthouse owner, and obtained a verdict 
that the tolls were illegal. This verdict and judgment were 
obtained in the month of January, 1842, and since then all 
ships sailing to or from Dublin to the southward, all Irish 
coasting vessels, and all vessels in ballast are freed from this 
charge. 1 This contest began in the year 1836, and con- 
tinued for six years, conducted principally by Mr. Haliday, 
until success finally crowned the efforts of the Chamber of 
Commerce, 

So highly were Mr. Haliday's services appreciated by Recognition 
the Steamboat Companies that they presented him with a l.bout * 



veiy costly and handsome piece of plate, with the following *j^ ne8 Light 
inscription : 

" Presented by the Directors of the City of Dublin, the Britioh 
and Irish, and the Glasgow Steam Packet Companies, to Charles 
Haliday, esq., Honorary Secretary to Chamber of Commerce, in 
testimony of his eminent services and of the untiring zeal and 
ability successfully exerted by him in effecting the abolition of the 
unjust impost for many years levied under the name of the 
" Skerries Light Dues," operating injuiiously and vexatiously on 
the coasting trade of Ireland, but most particularly on that of this 
Port. 

"Dublin, 17th March, 1842." 

Encouraged by their success in the case of the Skerries 
Lighthouse tolls, the Chamber of Commerce, in the year 
1845, determined to resist the dues exacted by the Com- 
missioners of the Ramsgate Harbour of Refuge on vessels 
merely passing that harbour on their voyages to any port 
in Ireland. This charge (which was two pence per ton) 
was enforced at the Custom Houses in Ireland, and clear- 
ances were refused to ships until the amount was paid. It 

1 These particulars have been ob- the Chamber of Commerce, drawn 
tallied from the yearly Reports of up by Mr. Holiday. 



\1 SOME NOTICE OF THE 

was I. -vied under a local Act of 32nd George III. cap. 97, and 
M> little public was it, that though all the trade of Ireland 
taxed under it, not a copy of the Act was to be found 
in nny collection of the statutes, nor was any copy of it to 
und (said the Report of the Chamber of Commerce) in 
The Ramsgate ^ ne Law Library of the Four Courts, or of the Inns of 
Harbour toiia. Court Qn a case submitted to the Law Officers of the 
Crown in Ireland, they gave their opinion that the exaction 
was illegal on the same grounds as that of the Skerries 
Lighthouse dues, namely as being claimed to be levied in 
Ireland under an English statute made in 1792, at a time 
when these statutes did not bind Ireland ; and having sub- 
mitted this opinion to the Ramsgate Harbour Commissioners, 
the Chambers were in hopes that they would desist ; but 
they persisted and submitted a case on their own bolialf 
to the Attorney- and Solicitor-General of England. The 
case was framed that the answers might mislead ; for one of 
the queries was, " Whether the Commissioners might appoint 
collectors in Ireland ?" and the answer was that they might ; 
and so they might (says the Chamber of Commerce in their 
report) appoint collectors in any part of Europe. But a 
very different question was whether these collectors or 
others could go on board vessels to distrain or detain them 
for these dues. Another of their queries was, " Whether they 
could sue in the Irish Law Courts for tolls clue to them ?" 
It was answered that they might ; so (say the Chamber of 
Commerce) could any one else, provided they could prove a 
debt legally due. 

The Chamber then applied to the Attorney-General of 
England, and having obtained his opinion, that these dues 
were illegal, they forwarded the case and opinion to the 
Ramsgate Harbour Commissioners. These Commissioners 
then yielded ; and by the letter of their Secretary, dated 31st 
March, 1846, informed the Chamber of Commerce that they 
had given orders to their collectors at the several ports in 
Ireland in future not to demand dues from vessels trading to 
and from Ireland, and not touching at any British ports nor 



LIFE OF CHARLES HALIDAT. xli 

passing through or being detained in the Downs. Thus was 
the Chamber of Commerce enabled to relieve the trade of 
Dublin and of Ireland from another of those exactions to 
which it had been long subjected, "exactions which, though 
separately they might not be of a large amount (continues 
the Report), were in the aggregate a heavy burden on the 
foivi^n trade of Ireland, and particularly objectionable in 
this instance, as the Legislature unquestionably did not 
intend that this tax should be levied in Ireland for the 
maintenance of an English harbour." 

In these Reports will be found Mr. Haliday's careful state- Testimonials of 
ment of the point, forcibly put, and supported by convincing secretary of 
evidence, showing a great amount of labour and an equal 
amount of intelligence. When he retired from the office of 
Honorary Secretary to the Chamber, he received a handsome 
present of silver plate, with the following inscription : 

The Merchants of Dublin to Charles Haliday, Esq. 
In testimony of their high sense of his eminent public services 
during the seventeen years in which he filled the office of Honorary 
Secretary to the Chamber of Commerce. 

Sir T.O'Brien,Bart,LordMayor. Wm. Murphy. 

Arthur Guinness. James Murphy. 

Edward Atkinson. George M'Bride. 

J. C. Bacon. John M'Donnell. 

Jolm Martin. Sir Edward M'Donnell. 

Alex. Boyle. Denis Moylan. 

Thomas Bewley. Valentine O'Brien O'Connor. 

Joseph Boyce. Wm. H. Pirn. 

Peter Brophy. John Power. 

Robert Callwell. Sir James Power. 

Francis Codd. Patrick Reid. 

Thomas Crosthwaite. George Roe. 

Leland Crosthwaite. Philip Meadows Taylor. 

Sir John Ennis, Bart. Thomas Wilson. 

John English. Francis E. Codd. 

John Darcy. T. L. Kelly. 

James Fagan. J. B. Kennedy. 

James Ferrier. Jonathan Pirn. 

James Foxall. Alex. Parker. 

Benjm. Lee Guinness. George Pirn. 

Sir John Kingston James, Bart. H. Thompson. 

Thomas Hutton. William Digges LaTouche. 



HOME NOTICE OF THE 



O'Connell's 
dexterity. 



So sensible indeed were the mercantile community of 

Merchants by 

Custom Houe Dublin of his intelligence, that in public inquiries they were 

Ant in 1 AM51 

willing and anxious that he should be one of their sj> 
men. He was thus selected to solicit the claims of the 
merchants of Dublin to compensation from the Treasury for 
the goods lost by the great fire in 1833, when a great p;irt 
of the Custom House stores were burnt down. The stores 
had been let by the Government, but as the lessee was in- 
capable of paying damages it was a matter of the utm<.-t 
moment to establish the liability of the Government. The 
lawyer selected to advocate the case of the merchants, was 
O'Connell, and Mr. Haliday and another were to be present 
to supply him with information at the hearing of the cause. 

In after years Mr. Haliday would give with much zest 
an instance of O'Connell's dexterity. Having forgotten the 
line he ought to have taken about one branch of the c 
he used an argument destructive of the cause. Haliday 
was overwhelmed, but could not interrupt, when fortunately 
the tribunal adjourned for a few minutes, and O'Connell 
was then informed of his mistake. On returning, he at 
once with the utmost coolness began "When we left off, I 
was engaged in showing what might be said by my adver- 
saries ; but " and then he answered his own argument 

and undid the effect. 

In 1857 and 1858 there was a Committee of the House 
of Commons appointed to inquire concerning the operation 
of the Bank Acts of Scotland and Ireland of 184)5, and the 
causes of the late commercial distress, and to investigate 
how far it had been affected by the laws for regulating the 
issue of bank notes payable on demand. In view of this 
inquiry, the directors of the Bank of Ireland elected Mr. 
Haliday to the office of Governor of the Bank, that he might 
appear before the Committee of Inquiry with more dignity 
and authority. He underwent a long examination, a? id 
acquitted himself with great credit, the committee IK 
evidently much impressed with the extent and accuracy of 



Currency [ 

inquiry in 
1857. 



LIFE OF CHARLES HALIDAY. 

his knowledge, not merely of the concerns of the Bank, but 
of currency and trade. I may here mention that he told 
rue on one occasion that the object of Sir Robert Peel's 
Bank Act (in his opinion) making gold the common currency, 
was that the Government, in case of a foreign war, might 
find it in the country, and keep it for Government use 
by an Act rendering paper notes a good tender, instead 
of having to buy it. abroad at heavy cost. 

But, whilst Mr. Haliday paid such close attention to his Ballast Board 
o\vn affairs and to all those public institutions he was con- 
nected with, there was one which interested him beyond 
all others and that was the Ballast Board, afterwards named 
the Corporation for Preserving and Improving the Port of 
Dublin. The history of this Corporation will be found set 
forth in detail in Charles Haliday 's Essay, entitled, Obser- 
servations Explanatory of Sir Bernard de Gomme's Map, 
showing the state of the Harbour and River at Dublin in 
the year 1 673. 

Mr. Haliday became a member of this Board in the year 
1833, and ior thirty years and upwards, that is to say till 
the time of his death in 1866, he constantly attended the 
meetings of the Board and interested himself in all that 
concerned it. 

He made himself familiar with the many Acts of Parlia- attacked by 
ment regulating its proceedings, and as he was certainly one 
of the best instructed members utV.i e Board, his advice was much 
sought for and regarded. In the year 1848, with the consent of 
the Board, he undertook the defence of their jurisdiction over 
the lighthousesof Ireland, against the report made by Captain 
Washington, R.N., one of the Tidal Harbour Commissioners, 
which recommended that the management of the Irish 
lighthouses and their funds should be transferred to a central 
board to be established in London. Captain Washington 
in his report to the Harbour Department of the Admiialty, 
dated 10th of November, 184-7, charged the Ballast Board 
with two omissions ; one, that they had failed to improve 



SOME NOTICE OF THE 

the quays and piers and similar works within harbours ; the 

other, the neglect to provide Lights on the south coast of 

i.iij.hiet Ireland. The defence of the Board was made by Mr. Halulnv 

in deleac*. 

in a pamphlet in the form of a letter, as from Henry 
Vereker, Secretary of the Ballast Board, to Sir William 
Somerville, Bart., then Secretary of State for Ireland. 1 

To Captain Washington's first complaint there was this 
ready answer, that the Board were not authorized to expend 
lighthouse funds on constructing harbour works ; the powers 
of the Board being confined to erecting and maintaining 
lighthouses, beacons, and buoys. 

As to the second, the want of lights on the south and 
south-west coast of Ireland, Mr. Haliday showed that since 
1810, when the Irish Lighthouse Board was transferred 
to the Ballast Board, sixty lighthouses and lightships had 
been established, and twelve more were in progress, and all 
this without increasing the light dues levied, without any 
grant of public money ; whilst the Board had at the same 
time made a reduction of twenty per cent, on the light dues, 
which even previously were lower than those of either 
England or Scotland, and further had commenced an 
accumulation (then amounting to 100,000) which if per- 
mitted to increase and act as a sinking fund, would not only 
be sufficient to erect all the lighthouses required in future, 
but would yield 4,000 a year, and ultimately relieve all 
vessels from any charge of maintaining the lighthouses on 
the coasts and harbours of Ireland. 

Mr. Haliday in this pamphlet also complained much of 
the inaccuracy of a printed map appended to Captain 
Washington's report, lithographed and coloured for the 

1 Letter to the Right Honorable Harbour Department of the 

Sir William Somerville, Bart. M.P., Admiralty on the State of the 

from the Corporation for Preserving Harbours and Lighthouses on tlie 

and Improving the Tort of Dublin, south and south-west of Ireland. 

with Observations on the Report of 8vo. Dublin pp. 37. P. D. Hard) 

Captain Washington, B.N., to the and Sons, 1849. 



LIFE OF CHARLES HALTDAT. llv 

purpose of exhibiting the " region of darkness," as Mr. 
Haliday ironically calls it, through the want of lighthouses 
on the south-west coast. And he answered it admirably by 
a similar map, but correctly coloured, showing every light- 
house and the range of its light, and how fully they served 
their purpose. 

" Honest Tom Steele/'O'Connell's Head Pacificator, a learned 
man in spite of his strange political opinions and conduct, 
educated at Cambridge, a member also, as he subscribes him- 
self, of the Chamber of Commerce, bore testimony to the 
ability displayed in this pamphlet, in a letter to the public 
press, dated 6th January, 1847. " The letter of Mr. Vereker," 
says Mr. Steele, " is in my opinion a most triumphant 
refutation, written with exquisite good taste and good 
temper, of the report of the Commission on the state of the 
port of Dublin and the lighthouse system of Ireland. 1 do 
not envy (he continues) Captain Washington, ' Examining 
Officer of the Commission,' the bitter castigation he has 
quietly received in the politest terms from the Secretary of 
the Ballast Board. This Captain Washington may be a 
' General Washington ' of examining officers, but it would 
do him no harm if he could infuse into himself a little of 
the generous candour of Sir James Dombrain, R.N., or of 
Captain Beechy, R.N." These were both public officers who 
had borne testimony to the great merits of the Ballast Board. 

It was this peculiar interest about the port of Dublin Engages to 
shown by Mr. Haliday, added to the extensive knowledge o 
he had acquired, concerning all that related to it in its then Dlll)lm 
state, that pointed him out to his brother members of the 
Ballast Board as the fittest person to write the history of 
the port. They desired to show what changes had been 
affected under the direction of the Board in the bed of the 
river and in the harbour, by deepening and straightening 
the bed of the Liffey and by lowering the bar. In this view 
it was necessary to know the early state of the river and 
harbour, and they considered that there was no one who 



SOME NOTICE OF THE 

could investigate it with the energy and sagacity of Mr. 
Haliday. 

They accordingly requested him, about the year 1850, to 
undertake the task. He joyfully acceded to their request. 
\Vhon his brother directors of the Ballast Board engaged 
him to undertake a history of the port, they probably 
thought that his previous study of the various Parliamentary 
enactments and inquiries, added to the information to be 
supplied by their own records or servants, would render 
this a not very laborious undertaking to one of his energetic 
habits. If such was their impression they little foresaw to 
what extensive inquiries and searches into antiquity the 
subject would lead him. The first notice the public had of 
the extent of his studies was his Essay on " The Ancient Name 
of Dublin," read at the Royal Irish Academy in 1854, and 
printed in the appendix to the present volume. And his 
mode of treating this small branch of his subject gives a 
good idea of the method he employed throughout his study 
concerning the port and harbour of Dublin. 

The port of Dublin extended inland to the first bridge. 
This was in ancient times at Church-street, just above the 
present Four Courts, and the first Custom house was near 
it, at the foot of Winetavern-street leading up Christ 
Church Cathedral hill. 

8r!dg of the I n the published histories of Ireland he found it almost 
invariably stated that the first bridge at Dublin was built 
by King John, and his Charter of the 3rd of July, 1215, was 
cited in proof of that statement ; and as William of Worcester 
states that in the same year King John built the first bridge 
at Bristol (having shortly before sent to France for Isenbert 
the architect to construct the first stone bridge at London) 
his desire for bridge-building had led to the building of the 
bridge at Dublin, the chief seat of his lordship of Ireland, 
and the seat of his Bristol colony. But Mr. Haliday, not 
content to rely on printed authorities went to the Tower of 
London to examine the original rolls, and to the Corporation 



LIFE OF CHARLES HALIDAT. 

of Dublin for their muniments, and on referring to these, as 
well as to the register of Thomas Court Abbey in his own 
possession, he clearly showed that King John not merely 
granted to his citizens of Dublin liberty to build a bridge 
over the Liffey wherever they would, but that they might 
take down the other bridge formerly made if they found it 
to their advantage to do so. It was thus evident that 
there was a bridge at Dublin, prior to the Charter of 1215. 
By other evidence he showed that this bridge was standing 
in A.D. 1 177, and even at an earlier date. Examining the 
earliest grants he found this old bridge described in them 
as the Bridge of the Ostmen, and gave grounds for presuming 
that it was built by them. 

It might perhaps be thought he had done enough in 
tracing the erection of this bridge to the Ostmen or Scan- 
dinavian occupants of Dublin. But as long as there was 
any possibility of further evidence Mr. Haliday was not 
content to rest. He wished for its earlier history. He had 
therefore recourse to the native Irish records, and established 
for it a much higher antiquity. 

In these he found evidence that the name given by the 
Irish to this bridge at Dublin was Droichet Dubhgall. 

Thus in the nearly contemporary history of the battle of Droichet 
Clontarf fought in A.D. 1014, where the Irish were victorious, 
after a great slaughter of the flying Danes, it is stated that 
only nine of them escaped, and it is added, that the house- 
hold of Seigue O'Kelly followed these and slew them at the 
head of the bridge of Ath-Cliath, that is DubhgalTs Bridge," 
Dubhgall being probably as Mr. Haliday says, the name 
given by the Irish to the Danish founder of the bridge. 

Dubhgall (literally "black stranger"), was a name, says Mr. 
Haliday, the Irish frequently gave to their Danish invaders. 
It was thus they called one of the Danish chieftains slain in 
the battle of Clontarf. This is the earliest direct reference 
to be found concerning this Droichet Dubhgall or Dublin 



xlviii SOME NOTICE OF THE 

bridge. But between the settling of the Danes at Dublin 
and A.D. 1014 (the date of the battle of Clontarf), th- 
an interval of about one hundred and fifty years. And Mr. 
llali-lav shows the great probability that the Danes must in 
this interval have erected a regular bridge at Dublin, for 
they had subjugated England and held frequent interc 
with it. Godfred II., king of Dublin in A.D. 922, was also 
king of Northumberland. They must therefore have been 
familiar with the bridges there. For although (says Mr. Hali- 
day) it may be doubtful if the Romans ever erected a stone 
bridge in Britain, it is certain they erected many of wood, the 
material most commonly used until the close of the twelfth 
century when St. Benedict founded his order of Pontifices, 
or stone bridge builders. 

Bally -ath- Having thus assigned to the Danes the erecting of this 

Hurdieford. *' old bridge he proceeds to prove that before ever the Danes 
had a bridge here, the Irish had a fixed passage over the 
Liffey at the very same place. The ancient name of Dublin 
was Bally-ath-Cliath, pronounced Bally-a-clay, the town of 
the Hurdieford. 

Mr. Haliday exposes the mistakes of Stanihurst, Camden, 
and others who thought that this meant that Dublin was 
built upon hurdles, by reason of the soft, boggy site 
requiring hurdles for the foundation of the houses. And 
then shows the probability that the Hurdieford referred 
to was a means of passing the Liffey at this spot. Dublin in 
his opinion was never a city or place of note until the time 
of the Danes. And this may account for the fact that 
between the close of the tenth century and the commence- 
ment of the fifth century there are no notices of a bridge 
here. But for the probability that there was one, he relies 
upon the various proofs in the "Annals of the Four Masters," 
that bridges over small rivers in Ireland were common, and 
that a king of Ulster was celebrated for bridge-building in 
A.D. 739. Even without these direct proofs of their 



LIFE OF CHARLES IlAl.TDAY. 



xlix 



lowledge of bridges they must have known of them through 
their travel abroad, as it was within this period that the 
Irish were noted as missionaries of religion throughout 
Europe, then full of Roman structures. And as from 
Ireland ecclesiastics travelled to teach, so to it European 
scholars came to learn. " We may therefore rest assured," 
he concludes, " that whatever of art or science was then 
known elsewhere was not unknown in Ireland." 1 



1 Proofs of these travels and 
knowledge are found in the work 
of Dicuil (Recherches Geogra- 
phiques et Critiques sur le livre, 
' I >e mensura orbis tcrrae," compose" 
en Irlande au commencement du 
neuvieme siecle, par Dicuil, suivies 
du texterestitue, par A. Letronne. 
Paris. 8vo. 1814")- Dicuil com- 
pleted his work as he specifically 
tells us in A.D. 825. For likening 
himself after this labour to the ox 
who had been in the plough, but 
had rest at night, he says : 

''Post octingentos viginti quin- 

que peraetos, 
Suninii annos Domini . 
Nocte bobus requies largitur fine 

laboris," 

in other words, " After the year 
of our Lord 825 had been com- 
pleted, the ox at night was allowed 
to rest from his labours." From 
Dicuil one obtains a better notion 
than from other worksof thelearning 
and study pursued in the Monas- 
teries of Ireland in the ninth century 
when the peace that this island 
alone in all Europe enjoyed, having 
escaped both Roman conquest and 
the irruption of the barbarians, 
was interrupted by the descents of 
the Northern Bea-rovers on our 
shores. Dicuil had studied Priscian 
and "after composing," as he says, 



"a treatise on the ten grammatical 
arts .... determined to 
follow it with a book on the measure 
of the [Roman] world, as measured 
by the Commissioners employed by 
the Emperor Theodosius for that 
purpose." 

He deplores, however, the errors 
of the manuscript, and says, "1 
shall correct the text where faulty 
as best I can, and where I cannot 
I shall leave vacant spaces." He 
illustrates his work by extracts 
concerning the countries treated of, 
from Pliny, Solinus, Pomponius, 
Mela, Orosius, Isidore of Seville, 
and Priscian, frpm which we may 
see the libraries of these monasteries 
were well furnished with manu- 
scripts. But he gives in addition 
the more curious information de- 
rived in conversation from Irish 
monks who had travelled to Egypt 
and Pale.-tine, to Iceland and the 
Faroe Islands. 

Thus Dicuil, when treating of 
the Nile, and the account given of 
it by the ancients, adds the follow- 
ing curious information : 

"Although we nowhere find it 
stated," he says, "in the books of 
any author that part of the Nile 
flows into the Red Sea, yet Brother 
Fidelis, in my presence, told my 
master, Abbot Suiblme (and it is 



I 



SOME NOTICE OF THE 



The five 

Slighes. 



Thus they had the power to erect a structure for crossing 
the Liflfey if there was any road requiring it at this point. 
And that there was such a road is curiously proved. 

" In our oldest manuscripts it is stated," says Mr. Haliday, 
"that in the first century Ireland was intersected by five great 
roads, leading from the different provinces, or petty kingdoms, 
to the seat of supreme royalty at Tara." 



to him, under God, I owe it if I 
have made any progress in learn- 
ing), that some clerks and laymen 
from Ireland, going to Jerusalem 
to worship there, sailed to the Nile, 
and embarking on that river they 
came, after a long voyage, to the 
seven granaries of S. Joseph" 
(being the name in the middle ages 
of the Pyramids of Gizeh and 
Sakkara). " From a distance they 
looked like mountains. The same 
brother," continues Dicuil, " who 
gave this account to Fidelis mea- 
sured one side of one of the 
granaries from angle to angle, and 
found it to measure 400 feet. 

" Then, embarking on the Nile, 
they sailed to the entrance of the 
Red Sea. It is but a short distance 
across from that port to the eastern 
shore to where Moses passed. The 
same monk who measured the 
granary wished to go by sea to the 
port where Moses entered with hia 
people that he might see the tracks 
of Pharaoh's chariot wheels, but the 
sailors refused." 

At a later part of his work he 
announces a discovery he had made 
confirming the truth of these tra- 
vellers' story. "To-day," says 
Dicuil, " I have found stated in the 
'Cosmography,' compiled when 
.1'ilius Csesar and Anthony were 
Consuls, that part of the Nile issues 



into the Red Sea at the city of 
Clysma and the Camp of Moses." 

Monsieur Letronne enlarges on 
the value of this work of Dicuil's, 
to prove that the canal made 500 
years before the Christian era by 
some of the Pharaohs, between 
Babylon (Old Cairo) and Clysma 
(Suez), had not only been cleared 
by Hadrian after it had silted up 
since its -reopening by Ptolemy 
Philadelphus 300 years before, but 
that it was again opened and had 
been sailed down by Brother Fidelis. 
It had been doubted if Hadrian 
cleared it, but Lucian (says 
Letronne) speaks of a young man 
who had gone by water from 
Alexandria to Clysma, and Lucian 
was contemporary with Hadrian, 
and had held an important office in 
Egypt. 

This canal was actively used in 
the fifth century, and was open at 
the commencement of the sixth, but 
then silted up, Gregory, of Tours 
A.D. 590, says Letronne, who had, 
no doubt, met pilgrims from Egypt 
and the Holy Land, speaks of a place 
where the Nile discharges into the 
Red Sea. In A.D. 640 the Arabs 
conquered Egypt, and a famine 
occurring in Arabia, Amrou, who 
commanded in Egypt cleared out 
the canal, and in six months, in 
order to send grain to Arabia, says 



LIFE OF CHARLES 1IALIDAY. 11 

During the Ordnance Survey of Ireland the remains of Tara 
were laid down according to accurate measurement on a map. 
While the Royal Engineers were employed in the field, Dr. 
Petrie and Dr. O'Donovan, who were then attached to the 
Survey, made a careful search in all ancient manuscripts for 
such evidence as might tend to identify or illustrate the 
existing vestiges of Tara. 

The result proved that descriptions previously regarded as 
mere bardic fictions were perfectly accurate. 

In the early manuscripts referred to by Mr. Haliday SHgh 
concerning the five great roads, leading from different 
provinces, or petty kingdoms, to the seat of supreme 
royalty at Tara, the 'Slighe' or road called 'the Sligh 
Cualann,' was the one traced with the greatest apparent 
certainty by the Ordnance Survey. It led by way of Ratoath 
and Dublin, into Cualann, a district extending from Dai- 
key southwards and westwards, part of which, including 
Powerscourt, is designated in Anglo-Norman records as 
Fercullen, or the territory of the men of Cualann. This road 
must have crossed the Liffey and that it did so near Dublin 
is confirmed by the fact that the passage across the river there 

an Arabian author, vessels sailed see the solitary hermits in the 

from the Nile to the Red Sea. Thebaid and the "granaries of 

But in A.D. 767 a revolt occurred Joseph," and the tracks of 

at Mecca and Medina, and it was Pharaoh's chariots in the Red Sea. 

closed again to hinder the rebels In their travels, therefore, as 

from getting supplies from Egypt. Mr. Haliday suggests, they must 

There is no evidence that it was have peen temples and bridges, and 

ever opened" again, and Monsieur the masterpieces of Roman archi- 

Letronne shows how possible it tects. 

was for these Irish monks to have Thus the Irish had the know- 
travelled down it between A.D. 762 ledge and power to erect a 
and 705. structure for crossing the Liffey if 
But Fidelis was not the only there was any road requiring it at 
travelled Irish ecclesiastic. It was this point, and that there was such 
a common thing for pilgrims from a road is curiously proved both by 
the latter end of the fourth century, record, and the still existing re- 
savs Letronne, to visit Jerusalem, mains of this road, 
and to take Egypt in their way, to 

d 2 



Ill SOME NOTICE OF THK 

is frequently termed Ath-Cliath-Cualann. To carry this 
roadway across the Liflfey unless by a bridge or structure of 
some kind raised above ordinary highwater mark was im- 
possible, and such a structure formed of timber or hurdles, 
the only material then used for that purpose was doubtless 
that which in the figurative language of the time was termed 
an Ath-Cliath or ford of hurdles. 

Mr. Haliday having thus traced the history of Dublin bridge 
through all the English and Irish sources it now struck him 
that perhaps something might be learned of it from the 
Scandinavian records. 

The bridge had been built by the Ostmen. He had found 
a reference to it in the old Irish manuscript called the " Wars 
of the Gaedhill and the Gaill " (or the Danes and the Irish), in 
connexion with the battle of Clontarf, furnished him by his 
friend the Rev. Dr. Todd, who was then engaged in editing 
this manuscript. Much more might be contained in the 
Scandinavian records. He sent therefore to London, Paris, 
and Copenhagen, and purchased every Scandinavian his- 
torical work that he could hear of as likely to throw light on 
the subject of his study. 

Dublin as the The history of the Ostmen or Scandinavians in Ireland 
Stain?' the had hitherto been studied through Irish sources. 

The ravages of the Danes were carefully recorded in the 
Irish Annals. But no one almost had thought of having 
recourse to Scandinavian sources. 

By means of these a new world was opened to his view, 
Dublin, the chief object of his studies, assumed a new 
importance. It was always known to have been founded 
by a Scandinavian king, and to have been the chief place 
of Scandinavian power in Ireland. But why Dublin, 
with its little river Liffey issuing into the Bay through 
a waste of land, should have been preferred by the 
Scandinavians as their capital, to Cork, Waterford, or 
Limerick, all Scandinavian cities, with noble harbours, does 
not at first view appear. But when their settlements in 



LIFE OF CHARLES HALIDAY. liii 

Scotland and England are kept in view, Dublin will be seen 
to have held a very central and convenient position for the 
Scandinavians. 

About the time when Dublin was founded by Aulaf the 
White, in A.D. 852, the Scandinavians held not only 
Sutherlandshire and Caithness on the mainland, but also all 
the northern and western islands of Scotland ; as well as Man. 

In England they held all north of the Humber. 

For a maritime people like the Scandinavians, Dublin was 
thus central and accessible. 

It therefore naturally became a place of great importance 
during the sway of the Scandinavians. 

But besides the natural importance of Dublin in Scandi- 
navian history, it so happens that all early Scandinavian 
history is derived from Iceland, and Iceland being largely 
colonized fi-om Dublin, it received in these histories its due 
share of notice, as will be found in Mr. Haliday's references 
to Scandinavian literature. 

It was in the year 874 that Iceland began to be colonized Iceland first 
by the Norsemen, and they have recorded that they found 
on landing there that it had been previously inhabited by 
Irish Christians, called Papae, who had left behind them 
" Irish books, bells, and crosiers." Dicuil, in his work already 
cited, when treating of Thule (Iceland), says, that at mid- 
summer there is scarcely any night there and at the winter 
solstice scarcely any day; and in proof of this statement 
adds : 

" It is now thirty years since I was told by some Irish ecclesi- 
astics who had dwelt in that island from the 1st of February to 
the 1st of August, that the sun scarcely sets there in summer, but 
always leaves, even at midnight, light enough for one to do any 
ordinary business, such as to pick lice, for instance, from one's 
shirt, and this as well as in full daylight " (pediculos de camisiA 
dbstrahere tanquam in pretentid suits). 

These ecclesiastics who gave this account to Dicuil were 
probably visitors to anchorites already settled in Iceland, 



Hv SOME NOTICE OF Till. 

for a retreat to deserts in search of religious solitude and as 
an escape from the world, after the manner of the monks of 
the Thebai'd, seems to have been a common custom in the 
early ages in Ireland. 

It was thus they made hermitages in the rocky islet of 
Scelig Michil (Skelig rock) lying in the Atlantic some miles 
off the coast of Kerry, in the isle of Inishmurry off the coast 
of Sligo, in the island of Cape Clear off the coast of Cork, 
and many others. They also sought for desert retreats on 
the mainland. 

Hence the names so common in Irish topography of Desert- 
Martin, Desert-Great, Desert-Serges, &c. 

hermits Thus, too, Cormac, pupil of Adamnan, in the 7th century, 
an d'sheUand sa ^ e( i three several times, once for fourteen summer days and 
isles. nights in search of some such desert retreat in the Northern 

Ocean. And when Dicuil comes to treat of islands in the 
British Ocean he says : " There are islands in this ocean 
distant two long days and nights voyage from the northern 
islands of Britain ;" (the latter, the Shetland and Orkney 
Isles); adding "A faith worthy ecclesiastic told me that he 
reached one of them in a two-benched (perhaps in a four-oared) 
boat in two summer days and one night." These were 
plainly the Faroe Isles, lying half-way between the Orkneys 
.and Iceland. He further adds " some of these islands are 
very small and separated from one another by narrow friths. 
Within one hundred years they were inhabited by hermits 
who had sailed thither from Ireland (ex nostra Scotia). 
But they are now deserted, because of the Norwegian 
pirates, and are swarming with sheep and sea-fowl." It is 
probable therefore that it was by similar religious hermits 
that Iceland was once inhabited, and afterwards deserted 
for the same reason as were the Faroe Islands. 

Having regard, then, to the religious ideas of that remote 
age, there was an object to be obtained by Irish ecclesiast ics 
in seeking an abode in Iceland ; but what, it may be asked, 



. 



LIFE OF CHARLES HAL1DAV. IV 



mid induce Norwegians to settle in that inhospitable 
region, at the utmost verge of the world, even though the 
volcano of Hecla had not yet burst forth, arid forests and 
-TOSS then grew where the land is now covered with lava or 
allies. 1 

It was in search of liberty. It was the same motive in Early Scandi- 
one sense, as that which took the Pilgrim Fathers to America. lifeOrkneys 
But it was not religious liberty they sought, but their 
ancient liberties, destroyed or infringed by Harold Fair 
Hair of Norway, who seems to have been led by the example 
of Charlemagne to desire to make himself sole King of 
Norway, and to reduce the other chiefs to the state of 
vassals. This they resented and resisted, till Harold obtained 
a complete victory over them at the battle of Hafursfiord, 
A.D., 872. 

They then in disgust (or many of them) left Norway and 
sought free abodes. 

But long before the year 872 the Scandinavians had 
colonies and settlements in the Orkneys and Shetland Isles, 
and in the Hebrides. 

In 795 they had from these regions begun their depreda- 
tions in Ireland, and continued them with intermissions for 
near one hundred years. So that the fugitives from Norway, 
on account of Harold Harfagre's despotism, were only an 
addition (and a late one) to the bands of these sea rovers. 
Amongst those who left their native country disliking 
the new order of things, were probably the two first settlers 
in Iceland named Ingolf and Leif who settled there in A.D. 
874. 

The island had been seen and visited a few years before. Scandinavians 
The first who discovered Iceland was Gardar, a Swede. He."* 011 Iceland * 

1 It burst forth on 24th of June, in Iceland at the end of the Tenth 

A.D. 1000, celebrated for the re- Century, from the Icelandic Nial'a 

ception of Christianity by Iceland, Saga, preface, p. xci., and n Ibid. 

and was thought by some to sig- By George Webb Dascnt, D.C.L. 

nifyThor's anger at being deposed. DemyHvo; 2vob. ; Edinburgh, 

"Burnt .Nial,"or the Story of Life 1861. 



Ivi SOME NOTICE OF THE 



round it and found it to bean island. This was in 
A.D. 804. Returning to Norway, he praised the island, 
which from him was called Gardar's Island. "At that time 
the land between the mountains and the shores was a 
wood." 1 

The next who went to look for Gardar's Isle was Floki. 
In the ship with him was a Norwegian from the Hebrides. 
He brought with him three ravens. The first being let go 
came back to the ship, also the second, but the third flew 
from the prow without returning, and Floki and his company 
following in the same direction they found the land. 

The spring was a late one, and Floki going up a high 
mountain and seeing the sea to the northward all covered 
with ice he named the island "Iceland," the name which it 
has since retained. 8 

Scandinavians The next to look for Iceland were two friends, sworn 
brothers, named Ingolf and Leif, and they resolved to sell 
their lands in Norway and seek the land discovered by 
Raven Floki, " or Floki of the ravens." Getting to sea, they 
reached Iceland; and returning to Norway the following 
summer Ingolf sold his lands in order to settle in Iceland ; 
but Leif took to sea-roving and piracy, and landing in 
Ireland and entering a great dark subterranean dwelling 
could see nothing till he caught sight of the glitter of a 
sword. It was in the hand of a man who had fled thither 
from Leif, through terror. Leif killed the man and took 
and carried off the sword and many precious things. Hence 
Leif got the name of Hjorleif, or " Leif of the Sword," for the 
sword was one of extraordinary value. During this summer 
Leif took much other booty in the western parts, and there 
he also took ten Irishmen as servants or slaves, the chief of 
them being named Dufthack. 

1 Hist. Olavi Tryggvii filii, Para Society of Northern Antiquaries, 

Prior, cap. 114, Vol. I. " Scripta by Sweinbiorn Egilsson. XII. 

Ilistorica Islandorum," trans- volumes; 12mo; Copenhagen, 

lated from the original into Latin, 1822. 

under the care of the Royal * Ibid, cap. 115. 



LIFi: OF CHARLES HALIDAY. 



Ivii 



Then Hjorleif returned to Norway, and there met Ingolf, 
and the following spring they set sail thence for Iceland, 
Hjorleif with his captives, and Ingolf with his stock. 1 

We here see already, at the very first peopling of Iceland, Mixture of 

J> , J Irish and 

that it had a mixture of Irish as well as Scandinavians, Scandinavian* 
though the first Irish were captives who had been made m c 

But soon there came thither from Ireland many of 
more distinguished rank of both nations. After King 
Aulafs death, Queen Auda, his widow, retired thither. 8 

After his decease (says also Dr. Gudbrand Vigfusson) 
and the death of their son, Thorstein, slain in what appears 
to have been a rising of the Irish against their conquerors, 
she left Ireland taking with her one grandson and six grand- 
daughters, marrying one after another on her journey. 

She was followed by a large company of kinsfolk, 
friends, and dependants, Norse and Irish. After staying 
sometime at the Faroe Islands on her way she went to 
Iceland. 8 Her brothers, Biorn Austman and Helgi Beola, 

men went here and there through 
the wood looking for the bear, and 
were all easily killed while dis- 
persed. The Irishmen then car- 
ried off the wives and goods of 
those they had murdered to some 
small islands to the south. Ingolf 
afterwards finding all out, sur- 
prised them at supper, and slew 
all of them, except those that were 
killed by falling down precipices 
trying to escape. Hence these 
inlands are called the Westuien's 
Islands. 

1 Ibid, Book II., chapter III. 
3 Sturlunga Saga, including the 
Islendinga Saga of Law-man. 
Sturla Thordson with prolego- 
mena, pp. xix, xx. Edited by Dr. 
Gudbrand Vigfusson. Clarendon 
Tress, Oxford, 1678. 



idf cap. 116. Ingolf and Leif 
were the two first settlers. In the 
same chapter it is said that their 
settlement took place seven years 
after they first went in search of 
Iceland, in the thirteenth year of 
the reign of Harold Fairhair, and 
two years after the battle of 
Harfursfiord, four years after the 
killing of Edmund, Saint and King 
of England, and in the year of our 
Lord 874. The cause of Hjorleif 's 
being murdered by his Irish ser- 
vants was this : The first spring, 
he ordered these men to draw kis 
plough, though he had an ox, and 
this they were to do while he and 
his family were setting up a house. 
On Dufthack's advice, he and his 
Irish comrades killed the ox, and 
sent word to Hjorleif that a bear 
had killed it. lljurleif and his 



Iviii SOME NOTICE OF THK 

with her brother-in-law, Helgi Magri, had previously settled 
there, says Mr, Haliday, 

Nearly all the grandchildren of Aulaf and Auda also 
settled in Iceland and established large families there. Olaf 
Feilan, son of Thorstein the Red, married Asdisa Bareysku, 
daughter of Konal. Their son, Thordas Geller, became one 
of the most distinguished of the Icelanders ; and their 
daughter Thora having married Thorstein, became the 
mother of Thorgrim, whose son was Snorri, the celebrated 
lag-man and priest. 1 Thorskabitr son of Thorolf Mostrars- 
kegg (the priest and founder of the first Pagan temple in the 
colony). From this mighty kindred of Queen Auda (continues 
Dr. Vigfusson) sprang the most distinguished Icelandic 
families, 2 and he attributes to the connexion of Iceland with 
Ireland an Irish influence over the character of their litera- 
ture. 

Irish influence The Icelandic bards and saga makers, or professional oral 
literature. chroniclers, were men who had dwelt for at least one genera- 
tion among a Keltic population, and had felt the influence 
which an old and strongly marked civilization invariably 
exercises upon those brought under it. To this intercourse 
with the Irish he attributes the fine artistic spirit manifested 
in their sagas. And he remarks that it is precisely with 
the west of the island, the classic land of Icelandic letters, 
that the greatest proportion of these bards and chroniclers 
is found. Irish names were borne, he says, by some of the 
foremost characters of the heroic age in Iceland, especially 
the poets, of whom it was also remarked that most of them 
were dark men. 8 

Now, whatever may have been the influence of Ireland 
upon the literature of Iceland, this literature is perhaps the 
most wonderful in Europe. For is it not marvellous that 
in this remote island without the aid of writing, the history 
of the Scandinavian nations should ha.ve been preserved ? 

1 Book II., chapter III., p. 193. > Ibid, p. 

1 Sturlungu Saga. Ibid. 



LIFE OF CHARLES HALIDAY. lii 

It was not until the twelfth century that they made use of 
written characters and surprised the world with the beauty 
and accuracy of their sagas. 

Critics of the most competent taste have praised their gongs and 
beauty ; their truth and accuracy is confirmed by contem- 
porary chronicles of Ireland, England, and Wales. 

Before the introduction of writing into their original 
country, or into the island of their adoption, the settlers carried 
with them thither the songs or rhymes which contained the 
history of their country. For at first, in the days before 
writing, everything was necessarily in rhyme, as there was 
no other way of recording the smallest history, memory 
without such aid being too treacherous. 

Such was the literature of the rhapsodists of ancient 
Greece, and thus were recorded the genealogies of the gods, 
and even precepts of morality by Hesiod, and thus was pre- 
served the history of the early Greeks by Homer. After their 
settlement in Iceland the Norsemen, their sons and descen- 
dants, brought thither fresh news of the old country, acquired 
in their yearly voyages to Norway as traders or otherwise. 1 
These they put into sagas or tales ; or the scalds, the profes- 
sional oral chroniclers, recited them at banquets and public 
meetings, interspersing in their recitals fragments of ancient 
.verse to adorn and enliven them, a practice they probably 
learned in Ireland. For it will be seen how regularly this 
was the Irish practice by turning to the Annals of the Four 
Masters, or to the Wars of the Gaedhil with the Gaill. 

But having learned so much from their intercourse with 
the Irish, it may seem strange that they did not adopt the 
practice of writing, which had been in use in Ireland from 
the introduction there of the Roman alphabet by Saint 
Patrick (A.D. 450). For that there was no use of writing 
in Iceland, or even of an alphabet, is an admitted fact by all 

1 See Series Dynastarum et De historiarum Islandicarra funda- 
Regutn Daniae, &c., per Thormo- mentis ae authoritate, pp. 49-61 ; 
duin Torfofum, Liber L, cap. 6. 4to, Ilavniae, 1702. 



x SOME NOTICE OF THE 

historians. A few Runes for inscriptions on monumental 
stones, or on the margin of shields, or for epitaphs, is all that 
can be alleged by the most zealous contenders for early 
letters, and To*iceus shows that Adam of Bremen, and Saxo 
Grammaticus had nothing to rely on but the Icelandic 
sagas, 1 and that they are found to be mistaken whenever 
they go beyond them. 

He ridicules, as false and impudent, Saxo's allegations that 
he got some of his materials from Runes on rocks, for 
Torfceus says, that they can scarce be read and that they 
supply no knowledge, and quotes Bartholinus (De antiqui- 
tatibus Danicis) as being of the same opinion. 2 

Ari, the historian (the Herodotus or father of Scandi- 
navian history), was born A.D. 10G7, and died A.D. 1148, 
He sprang from Queen Auda and Aulaf, the White King of 
the Ostmen of Dublin, from whom he was eighth in descent. 
He was the first who wrote in the Norse tongue histories 
relating to his own times and the ancient histoiy of the 
Scandinavians. All preceding histories were sagas or oral 
recitations. And the date of Ari's writing was about A.D. 
1110, and not later than A.D. 1120. 3 

The first step taken others soon followed in Ari's steps. 
Saga after saga was reduced to writing, and before the year 
1 200 it is reckoned that all the pieces of that composition 
which relate to the history of the Icelanders (and of Scandi- 
navia) previous to the introduction of Christianity, had 
passed from the oral to the written shape. 4 

Introduction of With the change of faith and conversion of the Icelanders 
Iceland." 1 t- Christianity, continues Sir George Webb Dasent, came 
writing, and the materials for writing about the year 1000. 
With the Roman alphabet too came not only a readier means 
of recording thoughts, but also a class of men who were 
wont thus to express them. "The Norseman's Life" he 

1 Chap, vii., De vetustbsimarum 2 Ibid., cap. 7. 
rerum Danicarum Scriptorum 8 Sturlunga Sn^a, pp. xxviii. 
auctoriute et fundament is. 4 Burnt Nial, preface, pp. x-xii. 



LIFE OF CHARLES IJALIDAY. Ixi 

adds, called upon him for acts rather than words. Even 
when acting as priest his memory was only burdened with 
a few solemn forms of words taken in the temples, nnd some 
short pray ere and toasts recited and uttered at sacrifices 
and feasts. But the Christian monk was by the very 
nature of his services and by the solitude of his cell thrown 
into fellowship with letters. 1 

It thus appears clearly that whilst the Norsemen of 
Iceland were familiar with writing, from their habitation 
in Ireland and constant intercourse with it, they yet made 
no use of it from the date of their settlement in AJX 874 
till the year 1000, the date of the introduction of Chris- 
tianity, and with it of writing. 

And for one hundred years after its introduction writing 
was confined to ecclesiastics, the earliest fragments of MSS. 
that have survived being portions of ecclesiastical legends 
which the clergy had composed in the Icelandic language 
for the edification of their flocks.* 

This contempt of writing and of the use of scribes by a Early contempt 
people so interested as the Icelanders evidently were in Europe. ' 
the history of Iceland and Norway, as is proved by their 
sagas, can only be accounted for by the life of daring and 
warfare, of piracy and conquest, at sea and on land, begun 
at the age of eleven and twelve and continued to old age. 
These early centuries were an age of brute force. Whilst 
the Norsemen fought and plundered at sea, the rest of the 
northern hordes passed a similar life on land, overwhelming 
the wealthier but weaker inhabitants of the ancient Roman 
world. 

In that age of darkness and violence letters and learning 
were held in scorn by the strong, and thought fit pursuits 
only for priests and monks. The highest warriors and 
chiefs could not write, and appended only their marks or 
seals to their charters and treaties. Clerk is only cleric (or 

' Ibid. * Burnt Nial, ibid. 



Ixii SOME NOTICE OF j HI: 

ecclesiastic), and to be able to read even was a proof of 
belonging to the clergy, as proved by the practice of our 
law courts, where a culprit saved himself from being 
hanged upon a first conviction by reading a verse of a psalm, 
and thus gaming his " benefit of clergy." The Norseman 
whose life was passed in storms of wind on the ocean, and 
in the storms of battle on land, who gloried in blood, won n- Is, 
and death, must have had a particular contempt for this 
priest-like, clerk-like occupation. He must have viewed 
the Irish monks and their monastic occupations of reading, 
writing, and praying with such feelings as the Irish 
warriors must have regarded the preaching of Saint Patrick 
in their unconverted state, when one of his converts. King 
Leogaire, notwithstanding his professed adoption of the 
saint's principles of peace and forgiveness, insisted on being 
buried sword in hand in his rath at Tara with his face to 
the east as in defiance of his foes of Leinster. 1 

1 Life of George Petrie, LL.D., by Whitley Stokes, M.D., p. 97, 
8vo; Dublin, 1868. 

The following paraphrase of a Fenian tale well expresses such sentiments. It 
represents Oisin contending with St. Patrick, and lamenting the Fenians slain. 

OISIN. OISIN. 

Alas for Oisin ! dire the tale, 

If lived the son of Home fleet, No music in thy voice I hear ; 

Who ne'er for treasure burned ; Not for thy wrathful God I wail, 

Or Diune's son to woman sweet, But for my Fenians dear. 

Who ne'er from the battle turned, Thy God! a rueful God I trow, 

But fearless with his single glaive Whose love is earned in want and woe ! 

A hundred foemen dared to brave. Since came thy dull psalm-siuging crew, 

How rapid away all our pastimes flew, 

More sweetone breath of their's would be And all that charms the soul! 

Than all thy clerks sad psalmody. Where now are the royal gifts of gold 

PATRICK. The flowing robe with its satin fold, 

Thy chiefs renowned extol no more, And the heart-delighting bowl ? 

Oh, Son of Kings! nor number oer; Where now the feast and revel high, 

But low on bended knees record And the jocund dance and sweet inin- 

The power and glory of "the Lord. 1 ' strelsy 

And beat the breast and shed the tear, And the steed loud neighing in the 

And still his holy name revere ; morn 

Almighty, by whose potent breath, And well armed guards of coast and 

The vanquished Fenians sleep in death. bay ? 



LIFE OF CHARLES HALIDAY. 

Yet though the Norsemen of Iceland thus scorned to apply 
themselves to make written chronicle, they gave themselves 
up, as we have seen, to the composing of verse and sagas* 
and to the singing and reciting of the history of their native 
and adopted countries at their public feasts and Althings. 
And thus is preserved a history more ancient and perfect 
than in most other countries of Europe, except only in 
Ireland, and there the record was in writing. 

And this peculiarity and similarity arose probably from 
the remarkable fact that in these two islands of Ireland and 
Iceland only, lying at the western verge of the world, peace 
prevailed. 

Iceland being thus the fountain of northern history, (for Iceland the 
nowhere else, says Laing, was the profession of scald and 
sagaman (or poet and chronicler) heard of, not even in HistoI 7- 
Norway), and as from thence was derived all the intellectual 
labour required in the north of Europe, 1 it is no wonder that 
there are constant references to Ireland in the sagas. For 
the intercourse with Ireland and its Scandinavian inhabi- 
tants was continuously maintained. 

But the sagas, whilst they give the public and more im- 

But now we have clerks with their Tis he who calls fair fields to birth, 

holy qualms, And bids each blooming branch ex- 

And books and bells and eternal pand. 

psalms, 

And fasting, that waster gaunt and grim, Oisix. 

That strips of all beauty both body To weeds and &*** his Pncely eye, 

and nmb. My sire ne'er fondly turned, 

PATRICK ^ u * ^ e ra ' 8ed n ' 3 country's glory high 

Oh! cease the strain, no longer dare When the 8trife of warriors burned. 

Thy Fion or his chiefs compare To shine in games of strength and skill, 

With him who reigns in matchless To breast the torrent from the hill, 

m ight To lead the van of the bannered host 

The King of Kings enthroned in light ! Tne8e were h ' 8 deeds "d these hia 

boast' 

1 The Heims Kringla, a Chronicle 2 The Chase: a Fenian tale 

of the kings of Norway, translated "Irish Penny Journal," Vol. I., 

from the Icelandic of Snorro No. 13 (September 26th, 1840), p. 

Sturleson, by Samuel Laing, Vol. I., 1 02. 
p. 17, London, 3 vols., 8vo, 1844. 



portant events occurring in their intercourse with the Irish 
such as the invasion and battles, the intermarriages between 
the Scandinavian kings and chiefs with the Irish, they omit 
those details of social life which add such charm to the 
accounts in the sagas of life in Iceland and Norway. 
An Irish sheep It is not often they give such graphic accounts as that of 
dog,(A.o 9!K)). j n g Aulaf Tryggvesson and the Irish sheep dog. In one 
of his plunderings in Ireland (A.D. 990, being then twenty 
years of age) he had collected a great herd of cows, sheep, 
and goats, and was driving them to his ships when a poor 
Irishman rushed to Aulaf and begged of him to give him 
up his cows and sheep to drive home. " How can I do it," 
said Aulaf, " since neither you nor anyone else could separate 
them from such a great herd ?" " Only let me send my dog 
in," replied the poor man, "and he will find them out!" " If 
your dog can do it you may send him in, but mind that he 
does not delay us long." 

On a sign from his master in rushed the dog, searched 
through the herd and before half an hour had his master's 
cattle out. Aulaf, astonished at the extraordinary sagacity 
of the dog, asked for it, and the poor man immediately gave 
it, whereupon Aulaf gave the poor man a heavy ring of gold, 
and what was of greater value his friendship, and so they 
parted friends. 1 

Magnus of Magnus Barefoot, king of Norway, had been much in 

theTrS. a dres!J TrelaT1(i , and got his name from going barefoot, and wearing, 
with many of his courtiers, short cloaks as well as shirts, 
the custom of western lands (Ireland and the Erse or Irish 
of the Scottish Islands). 8 He seems to have been parti- 
cularly fond of Ireland. In A.D. 1102, sailing from the 
Orkneys, he took a great part of the city of Dublin and of 
the Dyfflinarskiri by the aid of his ally, Miarkartan, king of 

i Historia Olavi Tryggvii filii, Historia Magni Nudipedis, 
cap. 13, p. 234, Scripta Historica Vol. VII., cap. 32, ibid. 
lalandorum, &c., Vol. X. ; 12mo. 
Havmas, 1841. 



LIFE OF CHARLES HALIDAT. 

Connaught. He passed the winter of that year in 
Connaught with Miarkartan, and agreed upon a marriage 
between his son Sigurd and Biadmyna, Miarkartan's 
daughter, Sigurd being then nine years of age and she five. 
The following summer he and Miarkartan reduced a 
great part of Ulster. Miarkartan had returned to Con- 
naught, and King Magnus's fleet stood at anchor off the 
northern coast to carry him to Norway when a force of 
Irish barred the way. Eyvind, one of his commanders, 
advised him to break through, but Magnus saw no reason 
for not retiring to safer ground. And then (says the Saga) 
Magnus burst forth in the following verses : 

" Why ihould we hurry home ? I am happy that a young woman 

For my heart is at Dublin ; Does not forbid my addresses, 

And this autumn I will not visit For there is an Irish girl 

The matrons of Drontheim. 1 That I love better than myself." 

We are left to conjecture, as far at least as the Sagas are 
concerned, about their building a bridge at their city of 
" Dyfflin," or Ath-Cliagh, as the Irish called it, and Mr. 
Haliday had heavy labour to seek for the proofs. Yet, 
there would seem to be no great difficulty in believing that 
the Scandinavians were the founders, if, as was no doubt 
the fact, it was made of timber. "We know from the 
Gragas " (says Sir G. Webb Dasent) " that the bridges in 
Iceland were commonly of timber." 2 In like manner we Danish Caatlee 

in Ireland. 

are left to discover from other sources than the bagas 
whether " the fortress of the foreigners at Ath-Cliath," so 
constantly referred to in the Irish annals, was a castle of 
stone and lime or a structure of earth or wood. But, we 
know from Giraldus Cambrensis, that the English advanced 
with banners displayed against " the walls " of Waterford, 
and that M'Murrough led his allies to "the walls" of 

1 " Matronas N idarosienses," condita est . . . ad ostium amnia 

ibid. : "' Xidarosia' hodiernum em- Nidse (Nidar 5s) sita. Regesta 

porium Norvegiae Throndhjem Geograpbica." Ibid, vol. xiL 

dictum . ab Olavo rege a " Burnt Nial or Life in Iceland," 

Norvegiae Tryggvii filio, principle &c., preface, p. cxxix. 

e 



Ixvi 



SOME NOTICE OF TUB 



Dublin, find that it was Milo de Cogan who rushed to "the 
walls" to the assault, ami took the city. 1 Reginald's tower 
at Waterford, still standing, stood there at the time of the 
English invasion. And castles, built by the earliest 
invaders, under Turgesius, were to be seen in Giraldus's 
day, empty and neglected by the Irish, who, he adds, des- 
pised stone walls, and made woods their strongholds, and 
bogs their trenches.* 

If the Ostmen have left few such monuments in England 
they have left there strong evidence of their conquests by 
the many names of places to be found with Danish termi- 
nations. The contrast between the effects of their rule in 
England and Ireland in this respect is striking. 

Danish names Considering their long residence in Ireland it is surprising 
England. how few names of places underwent a change such as took 
place in the north and east of England, and in the Hebrides. 
In the latter country the examination of 12,700 names of 
places showed that they were nearly all Norse names ; and 
that any Gaelic names were bestowed after the Gaelic 
language was reintroduced, subsequent io the cession of the 
Hebrides to Scotland in 1266. 3 



i "Conquest of Ireland," chapters 
xvi.,xvii. The Norman "Geste" of 
the Conquest also says (p. 129): 

" Li riche rei ad dune bailie 
Dyvelin en garde, la cite" : 
E le Chastel et le dongun 
A Huge de Laci le barun." 

* Topography of Ireland, cap. 
xxxvii. 

" The Northmen in the Hebrides. 
The usual monthly meeting of the 
Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 
was held last week at Edinburgh. 
The first paper read was a com- 
munication by Captain F. W. 
Thomas, K.N., F.S.A., Scotland, in 
which he discussed the question: 
' Did the Northmen extirpate the 



Celtic inhabitants of the Hebrides in 
the ninth century? ' and answered 
it in the affirmative. Altogether 
Captain Thomas had examined 
about 12,700 names and the re- 
sults of this elaborate inquiry were 
considered conclusive. In the 
rentals of Lewis and Harris, for 
instance, there are 269 entries of 
place names, and of these 200 are 
Scandinavian and sixty-four are 
English, and three uncertain. Thus 
the Scandinavian names are nearly 
four times more numerous than the 
Gaelic. But this by no means 
represents the relative importance 
of the places so named, for while 
on the Norse-named townlands 



LIFE OF CHARLES HALIDAY. 



Ixvii 



In Ireland there are but few Scandinavian names of places. Ostman place 
The provinces Ulster, Munster, and Leinster have their 
termination 'ster ' from 'stadr;' and there was a Kunnakster. 1 
We have also harbours, islands and headlands. Thus 
there are the five ' fiords ' of Carlingfiord, Wexfiord, Water- 
fiord, Strangfiord, and Ulfrickfiord (so long unknown, till 
the Rev. W. Reeves, D.D., identified it as Larne Lough). The 
islands of Lambay, with Skerries and Holmpatrick ; the 
headlands of Hoved (Howth), Wykinlo ( Wicklow), andArclo. 

But the only well ascertained inland Scandinavian name 
that readily occurs is " Gunnar " a name so distinguished in 
the Nials Saga or Burnt Nial. In the suburbs of Waterford, 
on the south, beside the river, lie Ballygunner, with Bally- 
gunner Castle, Bally gunnermore, and Ballygunnertemple, 
within the parish of the same name. 2 

I had often wondered in earlier days when at Waterford 



there are 2,429 tenants there are 
but 327 on those with Gaelic names. 
The facts brought out lead to the 
conclusion that the Northmen ex- 
tirpated the original inhabitants, 
and settled upon the best lands to 
which they gave descriptive names 
and that the Gaelic names were 
bestowed after the Gaelic language 
was reintroduced subsequent to the 
cession of the Hebrides to Scotland 
in 12(56. In Lewis and Harris 
there is scarce an important place 
bearing a Gaelic name. Gaelic 
names are plentifully written on 
the Ordnance Maps, but as a rule 
they belong to minor features. 
These names are entirely modern 
in form and are such as would 
naturally arise in the six centuries 
which have passed since the islands 
formed part of the Norwegian 
kingdom. Captain Thomas in- 
timated that the comparative tables 
of niuues he had constructed would 



be deposited in the library of the 
Society." Scotsman; in Times of 
17th March, 1876. 

1 Page 135. 

2 These lands with Little Island, 
were the estate of Sir Robert 
Walsh, of Ballygunner, knight and 
baronet, and of Sir James Walsh, 
knight, his father, who died in 1650. 
They were set out by the Crom- 
wellians, but recovered by Sir 
Robert in the Court of Claims (5th 
November, 1663), under a decree 
of innocence. But he was obliged 
as a restored Papist to pay a heavy 
new quit- rent, and he had lost 
houses in Waterford which as a 
Papist could not be restored to him. 
He petitioned the King 9th July, 
1682, for a reduction of quit-rent. 
His father, he said, served till the 
surrender of the Royal forces in 
Cornwall. In 1 64 3, he (Sir Robert) 
went over to Ireland by the King's 
warrant, and raised how and foot, 

e 2 



Ixviii 



SOME NOTICE OF THE 



on circuit how such a name could have arisen before tho 
time of guns, gunpowder, and gunnery little thinking that 
it would afterwards be my chance to know that this was 
the seat of an Ostman or Dane named Gunnar, and probably 
called by him and his countrymen "Gunnara stadr" or 
"Gunnars holt" as the family settlement in Iceland was 
named, 1 but changed by the Irish into Bally-Gunnar. 
Ostmen and the It is also striking how few Scandinavian names of men 
roll of Dublin, are found in a roll of freemen of some guild of Dublin, 
containing about 1,500 names, made within thirty years 
after the Conquest. 2 

Except Walter s. of Edric, William s. of Godwin, Philip 8. of 
Harald, William s. of Gudmund, Robert s. of Turkeld, William 
Wiking, William s. of Ketill, Simund Thurgot, there are no 
Scandinavian names to be found. 



and brought them to England at a 
charge of 1,000, which force 
fought at the Castle of Leslcadle 
in Cornwall, Essex's army being 
there. Carte Papers, clxi., p. 2. 
Ormonde backed the petition and 
reminded the King ' that H. M. 
said in his coach going towards 
Bury St. Edmunds, Lord Bath 
being also in the coach, that Sir 
Robert Walsh should have com- 
pensation for his services and 
Bufferings, 1 (ib.} Previous to this on 
March 1 8th, 1 68 1 , he wrote a letter 
to the King in indignation atbeing 
commanded out of his presence as 
a Papist by Mr. Secretary Lionel 
Jenkins, reminding H. M. how he 
had his blessed father's commission 
to wear a gold medal with his 
royal effigy, for services rendered 

at the battle of Edgehill (Carte 

Papers, vol. 216, p. 10.) In a 
letter to Jenkins he complains that 
he " with this medal on his breast 
hpuld be driven out of the royal 



presence by any upstart suggester 
like Dr. Titus Gates." (Ibid. p. 9). 
And to Ormonde, recounting the 
indignity and the warmth of his 
temper, he says " the best man in 
the kingdom once told me ' no 
butter would stick on my bread.' 
A bedchamber man (he added) once 
said 4 the best man in the kingdom 
(meaning Ormonde) was my enemy." 
I had a mind to Culpepper him." 
(ibid, p. 8); in allusion to this that 
about thirty years before, in 1648, 
when the King (then Prince of 
Wales), and he and many more 
were in exile at the Hague, Sir 
Robert Walsh, by order of the 
Prince, was imprisoned for a 
bastinado he gave to Lord Cul- 
pepper. 

1 Index of names of places in 
Iceland. Sturlunga Saga. 

2 Historic and Municipal Docu- 
ments of Ireland in the Archives 
of the City of Dublin, by J. T. 
Gilbert. 



LIFK OF CHARLES HAL1DAY. 



Ixix 



But this may arise from the fact recorded by Giraldus, Treatment of 
that on the assault and capture of Dublin by Strongbow and 
the English, "the better part of the Scandinavian inhabitants 
under their king, Hasculf, embarked in ships and boats 
with their most valuable effects, and sailed (says Giraldus) 
to the northern islands," or Orkneys. 1 The rest, there can 
be little doubt, were driven by the English over to the 
north side of the Liffey, and compelled to dwell there, and 
form the Ostinantown, while their conquerors seated them- 
selves in the original city, on the south side. For such was 
the course taken with the Ostmen of Waterford, 2 and those 
of Cork and Limerick. 

Or perhaps it was the heavy cost to be paid for English Ostmen claim- 
liberty that hindered them, amounting it would appear, in 
some instances to three thousand pounds, an enormous sum, 






ll Conquest of Ireland," chap, 
xvii. 

1 The Plea Roll, third to seventh 
Edward II. (A.D. 1319) contains 
this interesting historical detail 
concerning Waterford. Robert 
\Valsh was indicted at Waterford 
for killing John, son of Ivor 
M'Gilmore, and pleaded that the 
said John was Irish, and that it 
was no felony to kill an Irishman. 
The King's Attorney (John fitz 
John fitz Robert le Poer), replied 
that M'Gilmore was an Ostman of 
Waterford, de cended of Gerald 
M'Gilmore, and that all his 
(Gerald's) posterity and kinsmen 
were entitled to the law of English- 
men by the grant of Henry fitz 
Empress, which he (Mr. Attorney) 
produced. And issue being joined, 
the iury found that on the first in- 
vasion of the English, Reginald the 
Dane, then ruler of Waterford, 
drew three great iron chains across 
the river, to bar the passage of the 



King's fleet ; but being conquered 
and taken by the English, he was 
for this tried and hanged by sen- 
tence of the King's court at \\ater- 
ford with all his officers. They 
further found that King Henry the 
second, banished all the then in- 
habitants of the town (except 
Gerald M'Gilmore), who joined 
the English, and dwelt at that time 
in a tower over against the church 
of the Friars Preachers, very old 
and ruinous at the time of the trial, 
and assigned them a place outside 
the town to dwell at, and there they 
built what was then (A.D. 1310) 
culled the Ostman town of Water- 
ford. There can be little doubt but 
that the Ostinantown of Dublin, 
and the " cantreds of the Ostmen " 
of Cork and Limerick, got their 
names from similar circumstances, 
i.e., the driving out of the Ostman 
inhabitants of each to an Ostman 
quarter. 



SOME NOTICE OF THE 

considering the value of money in the twelfth and thirteenth 
MaurU-e centuries. Thus Maurice MacOtere, on the 9th December, 
1289 (18th of Edward I.),an Ostman dwelling (as he describes 
himself) at the end (or back) of the world in Ireland (in fine 
mundi in partibua Hibet-nice), petitioned the king in par- 
liament on behalf of himself and 300 of his race, that they 
might enjoy the liberties of Englishmen, granted him by 
letters patent, under the King's Great Seal of Ireland 
enrolled in Chancery " letters by which the king gained 
three thousand pounds in one day." But as these rights 
were denied him, he prays to have the Irish patent con- 
firmed under the Great Seal of England. 1 

For the lords of Ireland it seems were very much opposed 
to these grants, as appears as well by the instance just given 
as the following petition of Philip MacGuthmund, presented 
also to the king in Parliament on the 23rd of April, 1296. 
Philip Mac- -^ e describes himself as Philip MacGuthmund " Ostman and 
Guthmund. Englishman of our Lord the King of the City of Waterford," 
and complains that for the sake of the five marks payable 
for every Irish(man) killed, the grasping lords of Ireland, 
the kings' rivals, would make the petitioner and over 400 
of his race Irish. He therefore prays in behalf of himself 
and 400 of his race, for God's sake, and for the sake of the 
king's father, that he may enjoy the liberties his ancestors 
enjoyed, and that of Englishmen and Ostmen, they be not 
made Irish, adding that it was better for the king, that there 
should be more English than Irish. And in proof of his claim 
that he and his ancestors had enjoyed these lights, tenders 
the letters patent of the bailiffs and commons of Waterford, 
and prays the king's letters to confirm his English liberty. 2 

1 Petitions to the King in Par- Keeper of Public Records. Folio, 

liamcnt (in England) in the eigh- London, 1844. 

teenth of Edward the First " Docu- * Ibid. Sir John Davys L 

ments illustrative of English His- many similar instances in hi.s ' Dis- 

tory, in the 13th and 14th centuries, coverie why Ireland was not sooner 

from the Records of the Queen's reduced to complete obedience than 

Remembrancer of the Exchequer," in King James the First's reign." 

p. 69. By Henry Cole, Assistant The following from the King's 



LIFE OF CHARLES HALIDAY. 



Ixxi 



For the laws being personal, that is to say, an Irishman 
being under Brehon law (unless an Englishman was con- 
cerned, when the case was ruled by the law of England), an 
eric or pecuniary mulct was payable to the lord of the fee 
for any Irishman of his slain ; whereas if an Englishman or 
an} - one having " English liberty " or the benefit of English 
l;i\v were killed it was punishable with death, and the for- 
feiture consequent went to the king. It was thus of course 
a gain to the lords of the fee to have for their tenants Irish- 
men, and to question the claims of Ostmen such as Maurice 
MacOtere and Philip MacGuthmund to English liberty. 

And it must be understood that the absence of Ostman juries of 
names from the guild roll above mentioned, was rather for 
this want of English liberty probably than the want of 

Bench Rolls and Plea Rolls in as her mother. At assizes and jury 
Edward the First's reign are further trials for the county of Limerick, 



Ostmen. 



illustrations. Thus in A.D. 1278, 
John Garget, Seneschal or Prior of 
the Holy Trinity (now Christ 
Church), Dublin, was indicted for 
having sentenced a woman named 
Isabel, and her daughter, who had 
murdered Adam fitz Robert and 
his brother Isabel, the mother, to 
be hanged, and her daughter to have 
her ear cut off a sentence which 
was executed according to the said 
judgment of the court of the Prior. 
And the said Seneschal admitted 
the sentence given. The jury being 
asked if the said girl was English, 
they said she was Irish. But because 
it was found by the oath of the 
members of the Chapter that she 
was English, the said John and the 
Court of the said Prior aforesaid 
were attached. MS. transcript of 
the Early Rolls by the Record Com- 
missioners of 1810, Public Record 
Office, Four Courts. There being 
no such penalty by English law, she 
ought to have been hanged as well 



held at Kilmallock on Tuesday 
next a fortnight after Trinity Day, 
A.D. 1300, it was found by a jury 
in an action between Walter 
Chappel, plaintiff, and John The- 
baud, defendant, that the aforesaid 
Walter, an Irishman of the Offyus 
(de cognomine Offyus) was a miller of 
the said John's, as was his father 
before him, at Forsketh in the said 
county, but not an Irishman of the 
said John's ; and in a late quarrel 
between the said Walter and a 
mistress of the said John's (amicam 
ipsius Johannis), she called him a 
robber, whereupon he called her 
a common whore (puppKcam mere- 
tricem'). And afterwards the said 
John ran after him and tore his 
eyes out (avulsil oculos ejus). The 
aid John Thebaud was accordingly 
committed to gaol and fined in a 
hundred shillings. But if Walter 
('liappL-l had been one of John 
Thebaud's Irishmen he could not 
have had an action against him. 



SOME NOTICE OF THK 

Ostman inhabitants, who were numerous enough to form 
juries of inquest more than fifty years after the Conquest, 
King John directing his justiciary to inquire by the English 
and Ostmen of Dublin, if the Prior and convent of the 
Holy Trinity (now Christ Church) had of ancient right a 
boat (for salmon fishing) on the Liflfey. 1 

It has just been observed that frequent as are the notices 
of the Scandinavian occupation of Ireland in the Icelandic 
Sagas, almost all traces of them in the Irish records are lost 
from the time of the English invasion. 

Our early Chancery records to the end of the reign of 
King Edward I., were all burned in the time of Master 
Thomas Cantok, Chancellor, when his lodgings in Saint 
Mary's Abbey took fire, amongst them the very enrol- 
ment referred to by Maurice MacOtere. This is recorded 
on the patent roll of Chancery of the second of King 
Edward II. (A.D. 1309), when Thomas Cantok's executors 
delivered up to the Lord Walter de Thornbury, his successor 
in office, such writs, bills, inquisitions, &c., as had escaped 
with an inventory or schedule of them. Calendar of the 
Patent Rolls, p. 12, 6. 

But few as are the traces of the lives and actions of the 
Ostmen to be found in the public records, fewer still are 
the monuments of their past habitation of Ireland, such as 
castles, towers, walls, and tombs. 

Reginald's Tower at Waterford is the only building that 
remains as a subsisting memorial of their rule. Or, may we 
say, was the only one until Mr. Haliday's energetic zeal in 
research has revived and brought to light the Thingmount 
and Long Stone of Dublin, which though swept away by 
all-devouring time seem to be at length rescued from 
oblivion, not only through the curious incidents and notices 

1 Rot. Litt. Glaus., 17 Johann, the oaths of separate juries, one of 

p. 224 (Folio Record Publications), twelve Englishmen, another of 

In the " Registrum Decani Limeri- twelve Irishmen, and a third of 

censis," there is a curious inquisition twelve Ostmen or Danes. Archceo- 

conccrning lands and churches, on logia, V. 17, p. 3 ; 3. 



LIFE OF CHARLES HALIDAY. 

be has collected, but by the drawings which represent them 
to the eye. So fully has Mr. Haliday done his work, that 
to this treatise might well be applied, with only a slight 
change, the title which Richard Verstegan gave to his, 
namely a restitution of decayed intelligence in antiquities 
concerning the renowned city of Dublin. 1 

It appears from Mr. Haliday's commonplace books that The Thing- 
be!' >re he engaged in the study of the Scandinavian origin 
of Dublin he had collected all such notices as are to be 
found concerning the Steyne of Dublin and the Mound 
of le Hogges in the printed histories and public records. 
But these sources gave no notice of their Scandinavian 
origin. Great then was his joy to find what a flood of 
light was thrown upon these two monuments of the Ostmen 
through his study of Scandinavian antiquities. The eluci- 
dation of the history of the Steyne and Thingmount of 
Dublin will be found in the third book of the following 
work. I would only desire further to call attention to the 
height of the Thingmount over the Steyne, and to show 
what a lofty aspect it must have presented before the river 
was banked out from the Steyne, the strand taken in, and 
the ground raised and built over. It appears from the 
Ordnance Survey that the base of the Thingmount, which 
stood at the same level as the base of the present Saint 
Andrew's Church, was thirty-five feet above the level of 
low water, so that the mount being forty feet high its 
summit stood seventy-five feet above the Liffey when the 
tide was lowest. Hoggen Green was then a pasture for 
the cows of the freemen, and without any buildings till the 
year 1603, when Sir George Carey built his hospital.' 

At the rere Carey's Hospital was only separated from the 
river by a lane along the Strand, the present Fleet-street. 

1 A restitution of Decayed Intelli- This was afterwards purchased 

gence in Antiquities concerning the by Sir Arthur Chichester, and 

most noble and renowned English thus became Chichester House. 

nation. By the Studie and Travaile From the time of the Restoration 

of R. V." Small 4to, Antwerp, 1 605. the Parliament tat there. 



1 x x i v 



SOME NOTICE OF THE 



Gilmeholmoc 
and the 
Thingmount, 
A.n. 117.'. 



The water of the Liffey then covered all the lower end of 
Westmoreland-street and Dolier-street, and was only shut 
out in 1663 by Mr. Hawkins's wall. 1 

Standing then on the strand the Thingmount would be 
seen as a lofty mound, seventy-five feet high, overlooking 
the level plain of the Steyne, part of which was College- 
green. From the sumniit there must have been an 
extensive view over the Steyne and river on one side, and 
over Stephen's-green -on the other. Tt was here that 
Gilmeholmoc and his force sate, at the request of Strong- 
bow, to view the battle between the English and the 
Ostinen, for the possession of Dublin, with liberty to fall 
upon the beaten party. And Mr. Haliday always con- 
tended that it was considered by all sides as a wager of 
battle, the event being held as the decree of God, as indeed 
is stated in this interesting poem. 

I shall give here Mr. Haliday 's rendering of the Langue 
d'Oc or Provencal of the Geste into modern French, by 
which it will be seen how like they are to one another : 

Vos Stages aurez par si 

Que tu faces ce que [je] te dis 



Par si que ne soyez aidant 
Ni nous, ni eux, tant ni quant 
Mais que 6. cote de nous soyez 
Et la bataille regarderez : 
Et si Dieu le nous consent 
Que soient deconfis ces gens 
Que nous, avec ton pouvoir soyez 
Aidant pour eux debarater : 
Et si nous soyons recreans 



Vous leur soyez en tout aidant 
De nous trancher et occire 
Et nous livrer a martyre. 
Gilmeholmoc rejouissant 
Dehors la cite maintenant, 
Ce roi pour vrai s'est assis 
Avec les gens de son pays 
Desur le Hogges dessus Steyne 
Dehors la cite en une plaine 
Pour regarder la mele'e 
Us y se sont assemblies.* 



In the " Geste of the Conquest " the language, as printed 
is " Desur le Hogges de Sustein," and I cannot easily forget 



1 I have not been able to find 
in the Assembly Rolls the history of 
Hawkins' Wall ; but I have met 
occasional notices that show the 
line of it to be such as is above 
stated. 

1 The language of this geste is 
sometimes called " Norman," but 



wrongly. Of the Langue d'Oc, 
Littre says, ' 1'anciennc langue qui 
se parloit au delJv de la Loire, 
dont se sont servis les Trouba- 
dours, que Ton connoit sous le 
noin de Provencal et que dims It- 
temps on appeloit plus ordin;. 
ment ' langue Limousine.' (Oc 



LIFE OF CHARLES HALIDAY. IxXV 

the pleasure of Mr. Haliday when I showed him that the 
true reading was ' De sur le Hogges dessus Stein/ the 'de 
Sustein ' being plainly a trivial error of the scribe, in making 
one word of what ought to be two. 

Hoggen-green was only separated from Stephen's-green Hoggen Green, 
in times before the dissolution of religious houses by 
the Mynchen's fields, or lands of the Nunnery of Saint 
Mary del Hogges, which ran side by side with the lands of 
All Hallows Priory, now Trinity College Park, to the full 
length of the Park. Leinster House and Kildare-place, as 
we have shown, standing on part of the Mynchen's fields 
and the Mynchen's Mantle. But as time flew on, and all 
memory of Saint Mary del Hogges was lost the name was 
corrupted into Mr. Minchin's and Menson's fields', in 
like manner as we find Hoggen-green made into Hog's- 
green and Hogan's-green, and Hoggen but made into Hog Hoggen but. 
and Butts 8 . 

Only for my intercourse with Mr. Haliday, I should pro- 
bably have no more understood what was meant in Colonel 
Michael Jones' report of the mutiny of the garrison of 
Dublin in 1647, by the seizing of the "fortified hill near the 
College " by the mutineers 3 , when I met with it in the Carte 
Papers, than Lodge knew what was "hoggen but," (which 
meant the same place) 4 and being unintelligible to him he 
dropped the " but." 

Quitting now the prospect over Stephen's-green, and The Long 
turning round again to the northward, or towards the river, steyne 

veut dire Oui) ou Langue d'Oil (Oil * Ibid. p. 196, n. 2 . 

vent dire Oui) ou languc d'Oui, sg m ^ c jj a p jj ^ p i 65j n 

1'ancien Fran ? ais-la langue Fran- 4 ^ p 1(J9 Qne is reminded 

9 aise qui florissait du xieme au O f p ope ' s H ncs ._ 

xivfeme siecle, celle dans laquelle u No commentator can more slily pa*s 

on lit les trouveres. Dictionnaire de o'er a learned unintelligible place ; 

la Langue Franchise par E. Littre. Or in quotations shrewd divines leave 

4 vols , quarto, Paris, 1868-1869. out 

B. III., chap. II., p. 164, infra. Those words that would against them 

1 Hook III., chap. II., p. 193, n., dear the doubt." 

infra. Satires of Dr. Donne versified. 



SOME NOTICE OF TDK 

there would be seen the Long Stone, standing on the green 
sw.-ird of the Steyne, near the bank of the Liffey. For it 
appears by the transcript of Petty 's map in the Down 
Survey, made in IGo-t, that even at that late period there 
were few buildings on the riverside between Dublin and 
Ringsend. And there was a covenant, it may be remembered, 
in the lease of the Corporation in 1607 to Sir James Carrol, 
of the strand overflown by the sea from the Stain to Rings- 
end, in order to its being taken in, that he should not erect 
any building for habitation on the premises. 1 

In this transcript of the Down Survey, if I am not deceived, 
the Long Stone will be found represented. The scale is 
unfortunately very small, but the map has been given in 
facsimile instead of on an enlarged scale (which would have 
made the stone more conspicuous), that it may be more true 
and authentic. Mr. Haliday considered it as a memorial of 
possession taken of the land by the Ostmen at their first 
landing, just as we now set up an English flag and flagstaff, 
or perhaps a monument to King Ivar, the first Ostman king 
The port of f Dublin. For this was a well known landing place, and 
Stayne. j n ear jy times a port, as appears by a regulation of the 

reign of King Henry IV., entered on the Exchequer Memo- 
randum Rolls, concerning goods exported from the ports of 
Clontarf, Dalkey, Stayne, Dodder, and le Kay de Dy velyne. 
And in Speed's map of 1610, is shown a pill or small harbour 
at this spot ; which it must be remembered, though now 
surrounded by streets, was then nearly half a mile east of 
the walls of Dublin, and has since been obliterated by the 
building of Hawkins's Wall so far into the river beyond it. 
It is at this port that Hasculf and his tierce bersaker (or 
champion) from Norway, are described as landing to attempt 
the recovery of Dyveline from the English. 

" A Steine etoit arrive 
Hescul et Johan le deve." 

And here therefore the Ostmen probably first landed, and 
set up the Long Stone as the mark of possession taken. 
1 B. I1L, chap. L, p. 145, n.\ infra 



LIFE OF CHARLES IIALIDAY. 

After this sketch of Charles Haliday's course of study, 
we now return to hi personal history, first giving a short 
notice of his father, and of some of his brothers. 

The father of Charles Haliday was William Haliday, a William Hu- 
medical practitioner, dispensing both medicine and advice, 
who for many years dwelt in the house on Arran-quay at 
the corner of West Arran-street, where his son Charles dwelt 
also for some years, and had it as his house of business to 
the time of his death. 

Mr. William Haliday was born at Carrick- on-Suir, in the 
county of Tipperary, where some of the family were origin- 
ally engaged in the business of wool-combing and the mak- 
ing of friezes and blankets. 

It was a trade introduced by the Duke of Ormond, about 
the year 1664, into his own town of Carrick, where he 
assigned to the workmen half of the houses and 500 acres of 
land contiguous to the walls, for three lives or thirty-one 
years, at a pepper- corn rent, and afterwards at two thirds of 
the old rent. 

Mr. William Haliday was apprenticed by his father, in 
the year 1777, to Thomas Lucas, apothecary, of Clonmel. 

He completed his apprenticeship on the 14th of November, 
1782, and soon after removed to Dublin. In the year 
1792, he purchased from Nicholas Loftus, late Lieutenant- 
Colonel of the Ko} T al Irish Regiment of Dragoon Guards, the 
house on Arran-quay where he so long resided, and his son 
Charles Haliday nfkr him. On 23rd December, 1795, he 
became a Freeman of the city of Dublin. On the 31st 
October, 1796, he had a commission from Earl Camden, 
Lord Lieutenant, as Fourth Lieutenant in the Dublin 
Infantry Corps, (Yeomanry) commanded by Humphry 
Al'lridge Woodward, esq. ; and on 17th September, 1803, he 
received a commission from Earl Hardwicke, Lord Lieu- 
tenant, as Second Captain in the first company of the armed 
corps in the county of Dublin, called the Barrack Infantry. 

A sister of William Haliday's, Esther Haliday, was married 



Ixxviii SOME NOTICE OP THE 

to John Domville, of Clonmel, and the Domvilles were 
connected with Lord Norbury, Chief Justice of the Common 
Pleas, a connection which was the means of getting the 
appointment from Lord Norbury of Deputy Filacer in his 
court for William Haliday, Charles Haliday 1 s eldest brother. 
In a letter to his father, Charles Haliday thus alludes to 

the death of one of the Domvilles. 

"London, 1812. 

" MY DEAR FATHER. To my last letter, sent through the Castle, 
addressed to you, my mother, to William, and to Dan, I have 
received no answer. My last letter from you contained a post- 
script by which I have been informed of the melancholy fate of 
Henry Domville. His death I had some time looked for as an 
event not far distant. The nature of hig disease had long left one 
without a hope of his recovery. And yet his death seems to have 
been sudden. Poor fellow ! When last we met, when last we 
parted little did either of us think we parted for ever. He was 
leaving town. He came to bid farewell. He was in health, 
I was but sickly ; and coxild the idea have entered the mind of our 
friends that either of us was so soon to have quitted this earthly 
stage, no one could long have hesitated, I believe, to point to me 
as the destined victim. Quickly indeed the scene has changed. 
It is but one short year, and I am now as he was, and he is no 
more. Another year may roll away, and I too may have passed 
that bourne from whence no traveller returns. I pause to think 
for what purpose existence was bestowed. I turn to my own 
breast to ask has that purpose been fulfilled ? " 

When Charles Haliday left Dublin, it was his father's 
intention that he should settle in London as a merchant. 
In a letter to his father; of 8th October, 1812, he says that 
it would be in vain to enter on any mercantile pursuit 
whatsoever without more capital than he was possessed of, 
and he proposes to his father, with evident embarrassment 
arising from feelings of delicacy, an advance of some capital 
to be employed in the way of partnership. 

Before stating the terms, which he afterwards details with 
great clearness and minuteness, he apologises for the strict 
business like form that his letter is obliged to assume, " I 
can offer," he says, " but one reason for doing so. I have long 
since vowed to know no distinction of persons in affairs like 
this. I wish no one to know them towards me. To friendship 



LIFE OF CHARLES HALIDAY. 

I could grant almost anything. Unbending strictness is the 
soul of business." 

In allusion to the advance of capital suggested, he says, 
" I cannot avoid seeing that I am placing the stepping stone 
on which my weight must rest, the foundation on which my 
hopes must rise ; and although (Heaven knows) the structure 
appears but slight to my eyes, without this basis it must 
vanish entirely." 

It does not appear whether the suggestion was acted on ; 
but it was of little consequence, for the death of his brother 
William, in this very month of October, 1812, changed the 
whole course of his career and brought him to settle at 
Dublin, at the end of March, 1813, in an already established 
business. 

Among his father's guests at Arran-quay, were Surgeon 
Benjamin Lentaigne (father of my friend, the present Sir 
John Lentaigne, C.B.) and Major Sandys, keeper of " The 
Provo," or Provost Martial's Military Prison, on Arbour-hill, 
adjacent to the Royal Barracks. 

Surgeon Lentaigne was a French Royalist who had escaped 
from France in the year 1793, after losing two of his brothers 
by the guillotine. He first fled to Flanders and there joined 
a regiment of noblesse raised by the French Princes ; but 
afterwards came to England, and took his degree as a 
Surgeon, and was, in 1799, appointed to the 1st Dragoons. 
He had the medical charge of " The Provo." 

It was while lying a prisoner for high treason in this 
prison that Theobold Wolfe Tone attempted to end his life 
by cutting his throat with a penknife. 

He wounded himself badly but did not effect his purpose, 
and lay for a few days between life and death, though in the 
end he succeeded in saving himself from a public execution. 
It was the intention of the Government to try him and 
execute him by martial law, an act it was contended that 
could not lawfully be done where the King's courts were 
sitting and had jurisdiction. 



SOME NOTICE OF THE 

A Habeas Corpus was moved for in the King's Bench by 
Curran, to be directed to the keeper of the Provo : but Tone 
died, having contrived to loosen the bandages round his neck 
placed th. -I-.; hy Surgeon Lentaigne. 

Haliday, who was at this time a boy and well remembered 
both Lentaigne and Sandys, often heard his father tell, that 
while Wolfe Tone was thus lying between life and death, 
Sandys would say to Lentaigne. " Lentaigne, I will hang 
your patient to-morrow morning his neck is well enough 
for the rope." "No, no, you must not stir him," said Lentaigne, 
adding in his broken English, " By Gar, if you do, I will not 
be answerable for his life ! " Grim jokes that best bespeak 
the violent passions prevalent at that period of blood and 
terror. 

Mr. William Haliday passed the closing years of his life 
at a villa called Mulberry-hill, still to be seen, at the west 
end of the village of Chapelizod, and was buried in the grave- 
yard of the old church there, where may be seen his tomb- 
stone, a large horizontal flag near the east window, with the 
following epitaph : "Beneath this stone lie the earthly 
remains of William Haliday, Esq., late of Arran-quay, in the 
City of Dublin, who died the 7th day of September, 1830, 
aged 76. Also of his sister, Margaret Haliday, spinster, who 
died the 30th of March, 1836, aged 83." 

William Haii- Charles Haliday's eldest brother was named William. 
Lord Norbury, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, was his 
godfather, and having given the patent office of Filacer in 
the Court to his eldest son, the Honorable Daniel Toler, he 
made him appoint William Haliday his Deputy. 

But the office being one of routine, he probably gave up 
his leisure more to literature than to law. He could not 
otherwise have made himself so distinguished a name as a 
man of erudition, dying as he did at the early age of twenty- 
four. 

He had a passion for languages, and to the ordinary 
subjects learned at schools, such as Latin and Greek, he 



I 



LIFE OP CHARLES HALIDAT. 



soon added a knowledge of Hebrew, Persian, Arabic, and 
Sanscrit. These were the fruits of his own unaided exertions; 
for there were not then those many books of instruction, and 
accomplished teachers such as are abundant now. But he 
made the study of all these tongues only subsidiary to a 
perfect knowledge of the original language of his own count rv, 
Irish, being possessed of a patriotic ardour to revive its 
ancient glory. In the year 1 808, when he was only twenty, 
he published an Irish grammar under the fictitious signa- 
ture of "E. O'C." 

In the year 1811 he published anonymously the first Keatinge's 
volume of a translation from the Irish of Dr. Jeffry HiiHday, /un. 
Keatinge's History of Ireland from the earliest time to the 
English invasion, a work written in the first half of the 
seventeenth century. He only lived to execute half the 
work. A complete translation of Dr. Keatinge's work has 
been since executed at New York by the late John O'Mahony, 
and published there in 1857, and it is no small testimony 
to the merit of William Haliday's work that so complete a 
master of Irish as O'Mahony, should have selected it as the 
best translation of Keatinge's history. 

In this publication William Haliday gave the original 
Irish text on one page, and the translation on the other, in 
the manner since followed by Dr. John O'Donovan, LL.D., 
in that great work, " The Annals of the Four Masters." 

As the mode adopted by William Haliday was then new, 
he gives the following account of its adoption. " The plan 
here adopted," he observes in his preface, " has been often 
suggested and repeatedly wished for, heretofore, and among 
the rest by our late illustrious countryman, Edmund Burke, 
who in one of his addresses to General Vallancey, expressed 
his ardent wish ' that some Irish historical monuments 
should be published as they stand, with a translation in 
Latin or English ; for until something of this sort be done, 
criticism can have no sure anchorage.' " "The great Leibnitz," 



SOME NOTICE OF THE 

continues William Haliday, " hesitated not to aver that the 
language of Ireland, as being the most sequestered island in 
Europe, must be considered as the purest and most unadul- 
terated dialect of the Celtic now in existence 

and the philosophers of Europe," he adds, " seem at length to 
admit that no progress can be made in the genealogy of 
language without a previous knowledge of Irish . . . 
yet how is it possible " he also adds " to obtain any know- 
ledge of a language, still enclosed within the sooty envelopes 
of moth eaten, half rotten, illegible manuscripts ?" 

" Though that inconvenience," observes William Haliday, 
" had been often felt and lamented since the invention of 
printing, little had been done through the agency of the press 
for the Irish language ; a complaint which his work, he 
hoped, would tend to remedy." Nor was he disappointed in his 
expectations. For as this work of William Haliday's was 
the first undertaken in this form, it may be considered as 
the parent of that splendid undertaking, the Annals of the 
Four Masters, fit rather for a national and governmental 
project, than for the enterprise of a private firm of book- 
sellers. Since the publication of the Annals of the Four 
Masters, Parliament has given greater encouragement to the 
printing of our earlier Irish historical manuscripts, and many 
have been lately edited under the care of the Royal Irish 
Academy in a manner worthy of a great country. So 
that the press has at length done its services to the Irish 
language. The plan of printing the Irish text on one page, 
and the literal translation on the opposite, originated by 
William Haliday, and followed in the Annals of the Four 
Masters has been since adopted in the specimens of our 
early national manuscripts, edited by J. T. Gilbert, in the 
works of the Irish Archaeological Society, and in the Annals 
of Loch C4 by W. M. Hennessy. 

But this translation of Keatinge's History of Ireland, was 
not William Haliday's only work. In the preface to it he 



LIFE OF CHARLES HALIDAT. 

announced that he had then " nearly ready for the press a 
complete Irish Dictionary," but his death in the following 
year, interfered to prevent its publication. Charles Haliday ^iiS f 
always maintained that his brother's work had been appro- J un - 
priated by another, and there is an admission of some por- 
tion at least of his labours having been so used, in the 
following extract taken from the preface to O'Reilly's Irish- 
English Dictionary, which first came forth in the year 1817, 
but was republished by the late John O'Donovan, LL.D., in 
the year 1804. 

O'Reilly says, "my collection of words from ancient 
glossaries is copious, and several of those words which I have 
added to the collections published in the dictionaries of my 
predecessors, were collected with a view to publication by 
the late Mr. William Haliday, junior, of Arran-quay. That 
young gentleman, after acquiring a knowledge of the ancient 
and modern languages, usually taught in schools, enriched 
his mind with the acquisition of several of the eastern 
languages, and made himself so perfect a master of the 
language of his native country, that he was enabled to pub- 
lish a grammar of it in Dublin, in the year 1808, under the 
fictitious signature of " E. O'C.," and would have published a 
dictionary of the same language, if death had not put a stop 
to his career, at the early age of twenty-three." 

Such is O'Reilly's admission. But it may well be doubted 
if the entire obligation is confessed. Probably, Charles 
Haliday 's statement is nearer the truth. The manuscript of 
the work got into other hands, and Charles Haliday never 
recovered it. Besides these services rendered to Irish litera- 
ture by William Haliday, he may be said to be entitled to 
the further merit cf infusing his own zest for Irish history 
and antiquities into the heart of the late George Petrie, that 
learned Irish antiquary, whose life has been published by his 
friend, William Stokes, M.D. Charles Haliday told me, that 
in the year 1807, Petrie, whose father and mother kept a 

/2 



SOME NOTICE OF THE 

curiosity shop in Crampton-court, was engaged by his, Mr- 
Haliday's, father, who then had a house at Dunleary, to teach 
him drawing, "And while Petrie was teaching me drawing 
(said Haliday) William was teaching Petrie Irish, and Irish 
antiquities." 

But whilst this gifted young man was engaged thus 
zealously in his literary labours, his frame was a prey to 
that insidious enemy of life, consumption ; and the ardour 
with which he pursued both learning and pleasure together 
only hastened the progress of his disease. 

In 1812, much to his brother's surprise, he married. The 
following are portions of Charles- Haliday's letters to his 
brother on the occasion : 

"London, 3rd March, 1812. 

" MY DEAR WILLIAM. From the unvarying round of waste- 
books, journals, and ledgers, I scarce can steal time soberly to 
congratulate you on your late change. As to my last lette-r, an 
impatient hand just held the pen while a brain nearly turned with 
joy guided its nourishes over half a sheet of paper. You may 
conceive with what sensations I read your letter, when I tell you 
it was the first intimation I had of a thing of the kind. Here is, 
said I, a revolution. However, like a loyal subject my cry shall 
be, " Long live William and Mary," and in due time I hope to 
see their heir-apparent. I got a letter from your father u short 
time since. It said you were dying. I got a letter from yon, it 
said you were married. Upon my word, said 1 to myself, he has 
chosen a queer physician, yet one with whom there will be far 
more pleasure to die than in the hands of any of that learned body 
who scribble those big M.D.s at the end of their names." 

In the following letter he assumes a jocular tone, to 
conceal probably the anxieties he felt concerning the state 
of his brother's health. 

"London, 20th April, 1812. 

" DEAR WILLIAM. Your letter, which I received this day from 
Mr. Martin, informs me that among other reasons for not writing 
to me, it gives you pain to write. I am truly sorry to hear you 
continue so unwell, and I sincerely wish you would follow the 
advice that has been given, and try \vhat the milder air of England 
can do in such a case. Of this, from experience, I am satisfied 



LIFE OF CHARLES IIAL1DAY. l.XXXV 

that the air is not so moist as that of Ireland, and the respiration 
of dry air is, I believe, a disideratum in complaints like yours. 

" Yoii say you are thin, I am thinner; and no doubt you have 
heard I am not over corpulent. I believe we belong to Pharoah'a 
lean kine. I have done everything that could make a man fat 
without improving, and everything that could make him thin 
without growing worse, that is worse than I was when I came to 
London. For, since then I have been like the spirit of Loda that 
Ossian makes appear to Fingall : you can almost ' see the stars 
twinkle through me.' But I should not complain, for I have 
lately enjoyed a greater continuance of good health than had for 
some time before fallen to my lot. I tell you all this to support 
you during the absence of your tine legs. I never thought fatness 
in a young person a sign of health, nor the want of it a criterion 
of the contrary. For I think a house may stand very well for a 
sixty years lease (all I should ever wish for) without walls five 
feet thick and Act of Parliament rafters. A comfortable inside is 
all we want, either as lodging for body or soul. Apply yourself 
then to the repairs of the inside, which I trust that your going to 
Rathmines may be a means of affecting. God bless you. And as 
the whole tissue of our lives is but a scene of self-love, I long for 
your getting rid of that pain in your side that I may have the 
pleasure of hearing from you. Farewell." 

But all these hopes were vain, William Haliday only Death of 
survived his marriage six months. He died 26th October, ^ II; 
1812, and was buried in the graveyard attached to the old 
ruined church of Dundrum, otherwise Churchtown, in the 
county of Dublin. He was long (indeed ever) deeply 
lamented by his brother, Charles Haliday, who, after the 
lapse of fifty years, always spoke of him in most affectionate 
terms as " Poor William," as if he had only lately lost him. 
He has said to me at particular seasons, such as Christmas 
or the beginning of the year, " Yesterday I rode to see poor 
William's grave." After Mr. Haliday's death, I went to see 
it. I found a monumental tomb about seven feet high, 
surrounded by an iron railing, standing on the highest 
point in the graveyard. 

It had evidently been lately painted by his brother's care, 
and the following inscription said to be the composition of 
the Rev. Dr. Lanigan, whose Ecclesiastical History of Iro- 



SOME NOTICE OF THE 

land has been so often cited in the text of the present 
work, may be easily read. The following is the epitaph : 

His epitaph. "Beneath this stone are deposited the remains of "William 

Haliday, cut oil' l>y a lingering cliscasi- in (lie early bloom of life. 
He anticipated th.- progress <>f years in the maturity of under- 
standing in the acquisition of knowledge, and the succ< 
cultivation of a mind gifted by Provident; \\iihendowinents of 
the highest order. 

" At a period of life when the severer studies have scarcely com- 
menceu, lie had acquired an accurate knowledge of most of the 
European languages, of Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic. 

" But of his own, the Hiberno Celtic, so little an object of attain- 
ment and study to (Oh ! shame) the youth of this once lettered 
island, he had fathomed all the depths, explored the beauties, and 
unravelled the intricacies. He possessed whatever was calculated 
to exalt, to enoble, to endear : great faculties, sincere religion, a 
good son, and an affectionate husband, a steady friend. Carried 
off in the twenty-fourth year of his age, his worth will be long 
remembered and his death lamented. 

"Obiit, 26th October, 1812." 

To these few memorials of his youthful and lamented 
genius it remains only to add the following letter from his 
brother Charles, written shortly after his death. 

" CHARLES HALIDAY to THOMAS MARTIN. 

" London, 27th March, 1813. 

" MY DEAR SIR, By the receipt this evening of the accompanying 
volumes from Ireland, I am enabled to gratify the wish you had 
expressed of having in your possession part of the works of my 
lamented brother. Unhappily it has fallen to my lot to gratify 
this wish. Unhappily, I say, for had it pleased the Almighty to 
have pi-olongued his life to this time, and had he known your 
wish, I feel certain from the sentiments I have heard him express 
that there is no one to whom he would have had greater pleasure 
in making such an offering. 

" From my ignorance of our native language, unfortunately, I 
am unable to judge of their intrinsic merits ; nor, were I gifted 
with that power would it well become me to panegerize the works 
of so near a relation. To his friends, for any errors or omissions 
they may discover in them, it is probable little apology may be 
made ; to his countrymen I would make none. A life spent in 
the service of Ireland to redeem the memory of her past glory 
again to place her in the list of nations, though unsuccessful in 
the object, needs no apology for its exertions. To the more 



LIFE OP CHARLES HALIDAY. 

fastidious critic, if apology be due, he will find it in the youth of 
the author (the grammar having been written in his 20th year) ; 
in the strong prejudice which prevails with many to pursuits like 
his, and the little encouragement they meet with from any ; in 
the difficulties attendant on self instruction in the Hebrew, 
Arabic, Persian, Syrian, Sanscrit and Irish languages. These 
difficulties were increased by the necessary attendance on an 
arduous profession and in other obstacles which those by whom 
they were created have now far too much reason to regret they 
had ever placed to obstruct his way. 

" In elucidation of the motive by which he was influenced to 
publish the present translation of Keatinge's History of Ireland, 
in addition to those mentioned in his preface, was the wish to 
render that respectable historian more familiar to his countrymen." 

Besides William, Charles Haliday had a younger brother, 
Daniel Haliday, who graduated as a physician at Edinburgh, 
in August, 1819, as appears by his Latin thesis on Apoplexy, 
dedicated to his father, with another dedication to the 
memory of his brother William, " optimi, dilectissimi, morte 
eheu immatura, abrepti." 

Daniel settled at Paris, and practised his profession 
principally among the English and Irish residents there. 
His political sentiments were ' National ' and anti-Unionist. 
He was familiar with all the '98 men living in exile in 
France. 

Mr. Haliday told me an anecdote of him expressive of 
his feelings. Daniel on returning to his apartments one 
day found that in his absence some one had called and left 
his card, with a message to the servant that he would call 
next day at noon, as he was particularly desirous of seeing 
Dr. Haliday. It was the card of Thomas Nugent Reynolds, 
through whose disclosures the plans of the United Irishmen 
for insurrection in 1798 were defeated, Lord Edward Fitz- 
gerald was arrested, and many of them were convicted and 
suffered death, and more driven into banishment. Daniel 
Haliday was indignant. So taking down a cabinet portrait 
of Lord Edward, and sticking Reynolds' visiting card 
between the canvas and the frame, he hung it up outside 



Ixxxviii SOME NOTICE or THE 

his door witli its face to the wall, and bade his servant tell 
the visitor when he called next day that he would find his 
answer if he turned the picture. On doing so, he of course 
found himself face to face with the man he had betrayed, 
and his card returned. 
D. Haiiday Amongst Daniel Haliday's acquaintances at Paris was Sir 

and Sir Jonah J . 

Barringtou. Jonah Barrington, then engaged in completing his celebrated 
" History of the Union, with authentic details of the bribery 
used to effect that great political measure.'' Sir Jonah's 
anti- Union sentiments harmonized with those of Daniel 
Haiiday, and they formed such an intimacy that Daniel 
Haiiday gave him a share of his apartments and even 
supplied him with money, as appears by unpaid promissory 
notes found amongst Daniel Haliday's papers after his 
death. In fact, Sir Jonah's " Historic Memoirs of Ireland " 
were completed and his "Personal Sketches" written in 
Daniel Haliday's rooms at Paris. 

Francis Plowden in his History of Ireland from 1800 to 
1810, a work published in 1812 gives an interesting account 
of the compilation of the Historic Memoirs by Sir Jonah. 
Sir Jonah (says Plowden) had been always a devoted servant 
of the Government up to the time of the debates upon tne 
Union. 

For his services he had been made J udge oi the Court of 
Admiralty, at 800 a year, a post which at that time neither 
hindered his practice at the Bar nor his sitting in Parliament. 
In the debates upon the Union he was a most violent 
opponent of the measure, speaking often and with great 
ability against it. 

No sooner was it carried than he proceeded, while the 
anti-Union fervour was still strong, to collect all the 
authentic evidence he could of the corrupt means employed 
to carry it, and was supplied with a great mass of proofs. 
Amongst the rest, the Right Honorable John Foster, the 
late Speaker of the Commons, then violent against Pitt and 



LIFE OP CHARLES HALIDAT. 

Castlereagh, on account of the Union, gave him many 
secret papers of the utmost importance. These Sir Jonah 
got engraved in fac-simile, the better to authenticate them. 
Such was his diligence, that, in 1803, he was able to 
announce that his work, " comprising " (as the notification 
stated) "secret records of the Union, illustrated with 
curious letters in fac-simile," was ready for the press. At 
the same time Sir Jonah went over ostentatiously to 
London to bring out the work. All the world were eager 
for its issue, except, of course, the Ministers and those who 
were to be exposed in its pages. But the work was 
delayed during Addington's ministry from unexplained but 
easily imagined causes. 

When Pitt succeeded Addington, Sir Jonah became active 
again, and Foster, the late Speaker, having become recon- 
ciled by this time to Pitt, he apprised him and Castlereagh 
of the documents he had put into Barrington's power. The 
result was that Barrington was to have a pension of 
2,500 a year, and orders were sent to Lord Hardwicke, 
then Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, to give his warrant for 
passing it. But at this time Lord Hardwicke was at 
difference with Mr. Pitt, and he declined, as he said he 
ought to have been consulted with, and he disapproved of 
it. He was peremptorily ordered to pass it, and he as 
peremptorily refused, and soon threw up his office. The 
business having thus become public, and Pitt dying, the 
proposed pension dropped. 1 

Sir Jonah now tried what the actual publication might 
do as a commercial speculation, and there were published, 
between 1809 and 1815, five parts of the Historic Memoirs, 
at a guinea each, on the largest and finest imperial quarto 

1 "History of Ireland, from its by Francis Plowdcn. VoL 2nd, 
union with Great Britain, in pp. 229-233. 3 vols., 8vo, Dub- 
January, 1801, to October, 1810," lin, 1811. 



XC SOME NOTICE OF THE 

paper, and illustrated with finely etched portraits. And 
there the work stopped, being about half way (for it was 
announced as to be completed in ten parts), and so remained 
for twenty years, when it was taken up by Henry Colburn, 
and the publication completed in 1835, in the same 
sumptuous style as the early parts, the unpublished 
remainder having been purchased by him from Sir Jonah's 
executors. 1 But, in the meantime, and before the publica- 
tion of the Historic Memoirs by Henry Colburn, that is to 
say, in the year 1833, a comparatively mean edition of the 
work, under another title, appeared at Paris, in one volume 
octavo, being called the " Rise and Fall of the Irish Nation." 
It was this work that Sir Jonah prepared for the press in 
Haliday's rooms. Such was one of Daniel Haliday's anti- 
Unionist friends. 

D. iiaiiday Another friend of Daniel Haliday's, of a different stamp 
^ TOTfi *^ r J nan Barriiigton, but more decidedly anti- 
Unionist, was Colonel John Allen. He was son of a 
woollen draper, in Dame-street, and was deeply engaged in 
the Rebellion of 1798. He was arrested in the company of 
Arthur O'Connor and Quigley at Margate, trying to hire a 
vessel to carry them to France, with an address to the 
French Directory, encouraging them to invade England. 
He was tried with them for High Treason, at Maidstone, 
on the 21st of May, 17D8, but had the good luck to be 
acquitted with Arthur O'Connor, while Quigley was con- 
victed and hanged. The address was found in the pocket 
of Quigley's great coat, thrown over a chair, at the King's 
Head, Margate, where they were arrested, and it sealed 
Quigley's fate. Allen appeared as servant to Quigley, who 
went by the name of " Captain Jones." He told a friend of 



1 "Critical Dictionary of Eng- London. 3 vols., imperial 8vo, 
lish and American Authors," byS. 1859. 
Austin Alibone. Philadelphia and 



LIFE OF CHARLES HALIDAY. XC1 

Haliday's, at Paris, that the address was carried each day 
by a different one of the party, and it was thus in Quigley's 
care the day of their arrest. Upon their fortunate escape, 
Allen returned to Ireland, took part in the Rebellion of 
1798, and escaped again ; and, in 1803, was active in 
Robert Emmet's outbreak. 

He escaped arrest and lay hidden with some young friend 
in Trinity College until he was put into a cask, carried to 
George's-quay and shipped for France. There he entered 
the French military service and obtained a commission in 
the Irish Legion. 

This regiment was one of those that in April, 1810, most 
closely invested the city of Astorga in Spain. The French 
artillery having made a breach, General Junot, who com- 
manded the besieging army, ordered an assault. The 
" forlorn hope," consisting of six companies of light infantry, 
was led by Colonel (then Captain) Allen of the Irish regi- 
ment. The breach was obstinately defended by the Spaniards, 
but Allen succeeded in making with his Voltigeurs a lodg- 
ment in the works, and throughout the ensuing night 
maintained himself there, and kept up an incessant firing to 
intimate his existence and position. General Junot having 
next morning determined on a general assault of the town, 
Colonel Ware (another Irishman, a descendant of Sir James 
Ware, the antiquary), with his grenadiers was to enter first, 
but the garrison surrendered. 

One who knew Allen well at Paris in the later years of his 
life, said, a gayer, more light hearted, and agreeable man he 
never met, and that the same might be said of Colonel Miles 
Byrne and others of the band of Irish exiles, their com- 
panions. 

He often looked with admiration, he said, on these men 
who had so long lived with their lives in their hand, show- 
ing such ease and hilarity. 

Allen, he said, kept his whole substance in coin in a box, 
mistrusting all Government securities, being persuaded that 



XC11 SOME NOTICE OF THE 

there would be a fresh revolution, as there was, but it was 
only of a dynasty. 

For many years Charles Haliday was the hand employed 
to pay a small annuity to two' poor but highly respectable 
women, Allen's sisters, dwelling in an obscure and mean 
place called Hoey's-court, near Werburgh-street. And when 
Captain Allen died he secured for them the pi'operty of 
their brother. 

It was, of course, by means of his brother Daniel that 
Charles Haliday became acquainted with Allen's affairs, 
for Mr. Haliday differed in political sentiment, as has been 
already stated, from his brother Daniel. Yet this in no 
manner diminished his affection for him. Mr. Haliday 
mingled the sentiments of a loyalist of the old stamp with 
the more liberal views of a modern Conservative. And thus 
recurring to the language so common in '98 and 1803, he 
would sometimes say of him jocularly, " Dan was a rebel ; 
if he had lived he'd have been hanged." 

Death of D. Daniel died in the year 1836, at Paris, but his brother got 
his remains brought over to Dublin, and buried them beside 
his brother William at Dundrum. He erected a monument 
over them within the enclosure encircling William's grave, in 
the form of a broken column, with the following inscription : 

Danielis Haliday 

Edinburgensis Parisiensisque 

Medicinae Facultatum Socius ; 

Academiae Regise Hibernise Sodalis 

Natus Dublinii 19 October, 1798, 

Obiit Die nono Maii, 1836, 

^Etatis 38. 

Translation : 

Daniel Haliday, Fellow of the Faculties of 
Medicine of Paris and Edinburgh, Member of the 

Royal Irish Academy. 

Born at Dublin 19th October, 1798, 

Died 9th May, 1836, 

Aged 38. 



LIFE OF CHARLES HALIDAT. 

In 1864 there was a project before Parliament for a central Chts. Haliday 
general railway terminus in Dublin. One part of the plan f r n a i " 

was to run a viaduct diagonally across Westmoreland-street, Termlnu& - 
at the height of about twenty feet above the pavement. It 
was to pass from near the second house on the east side 
nearest to Carlisle-bridge, to the middle house on the 
opposite side, in other words about half-way down that side 
between Fleet-street and the river. Mr. Haliday, to whom 
nothing that concerned the port or city of Dublin was 
indifferent, saw that the finest view in Dublin would be thus 
sacrificed. He at once organized resistance to the scheme, 
collecting witnesses of approved character to confront the 
witnesses of the projectors, writing letters in the public 
prints, stirring up the Corporation to protect the city. The 
Corporation took the best way of bringing to the notice of 
the citizens the disfigurement of the city that would follow 
the completion of the plan. They erected a wooden frame 
work, of the size of the proposed viaduct, across the street 
in the exact line of its direction at the height intended, and 
kept it there until after the Parliamentary inquiry was 
over. It was at once plain to every eye that the huge 
ungainly structure would spoil the finest architectural scene 
in the city. Just as the only fine view of that noble build- 
ing of St. Paul's Cathedral in London is ruined by the 
railway viaduct crossing Ludgate Hill, obstructing the view 
of Sir Christopher Wren's masterpiece, and cutting its front 
in half; so by this project, Nelson's column and the bold 
Ionic portico of the General Post Office adjacent, as viewed 
from Westmoreland-street would have been ruined, and in 
like manner, the fine grouping of the Corinthian columns of 
the Lords' portico in connexion with the front of Trinity 
College as seen from Sackville-street. 

Mr. Haliday proceeded to London with hi* witnesses, 
entertained them there, kept them together, attended their 
examination before the Committee of the Lords, and the bill 
for the scheme was thrown out, owing in a great degree to 



XC1V SOME NOTICE OF THE 

his energetic opposition. Lamentable as the effect of the 
viaduct would have been then, how much more to be 
deplored would it have been now since the lowering of 
Carlisle-bridge, and the widening of it to the full breadth of 
Sackville-street. 

The Wenix. In the library at Monkstown Park there was a fine panel 
picture over the fireplace by Wenix, the celebrated Dutch 
animal painter. The picture had originally been much 
larger, representing probably a farmyard, but what remained 
represented little more than a gray and white goose stand- 
ing on one leg. And a very fine object it was. Mr. Haliday 
told me that he got it in this way. One morning in passing 
through Trinity-street he called in at Jones's the auctioneer, 
father of Jones, the worthy auctioneer of D'Olier-street, so 
well known and respected, and only just dead. Jones came 
in with a large roll of dirty canvas under his arm, and on 
Mr. Haliday's asking him what he had got there, he said it 
was a piece of old canvas that covered the top of a bed at 
an old furniture broker's in Liffey-street ; that the bed, a 
miserable one, had belonged to a caretaker of Tyrone House 
in Marlborough-street. The caretaker it seems had cut the 
picture out of one of the panels as a tester or cover for his 
bed. " I'll give you ten pounds for it," said Haliday, " with- 
out looking at it." It was handed to him, and at first he 
feared he had made a bad bargain it was so dilapidated. 
But he had judged rightly in guessing that nothing worthless 
or common could come out of that splendid dwelling, 1 a 
model of architectural taste and elegance It proved to be 
a Wenix, and what remained was well worth the price paid. 
In showing the picture to his friends Mr. Haliday used 
always to say jocularly, " That's a portrait of the head of the 
family." 

1 Tyrone House in Marlborough- Cassels, architect of the Parliament 

street was built in 1740 for Sir House and Leinster House. It is 

Marcus Beresford, Viscount, and now occupied by the National 

afterwards Earl of Tyrone, by Education Commissioners. 



LIFE OF CHARLES HALIDAY. XCV 

I remember well accompanying Mr. Haliday in his 
carriage to our friend James Frederic Ferguson's funeral, 
from his lodgings in Rathmines to Mount Jerome Cemetery 
at Harold's-cross." Talking of his own death, he said, " I often 
think of what old Herbert the auctioneer said to Henry 
Harrington, of Grange Con, near Baltinglass, in the county 
of Wicklow, a gentleman of large fortune, with an ex- 
tensive collection of objects of vertu of all kinds. "Mr. 
Harrington," said Herbert, " what a fine catalogue you will 
make." 1 

Akin to this was an anecdote he had from me of my 
friend Colonel Robert O'Hara, Lieutenant-Colonel com- 
manding the 88th or "Connaught Rangers." He said to 
his mother, one day at dinner in Mount] oy-square, " Where 
is the nice China dinner service you had ? Ah ! I know it 
all. It is keeping for the auction." Often afterwards, Mr. 
Haliday, when he missed something from the table, would 
say, " Mary ! don't let us be keeping it for the auction." 

Distant as we were at one time we grew close acquaint- 
ances as years flew by, and we were mutually glad of 

1 .Mr. Harrington was descendant himself by buying pictures, porce- 

and representative of Sir Henry lain, ivories, old curiosities of all 

Harrington, a soldier of Queen kinds, which were all catalogued, 

Elizabeth's day, who got large seized, and sold in the year 1832. 

grants in the county of Wicklow. ,, What brought gir yisto , 8 m _ got 

It was then "the Tooles' and the wealth to waste? 

Byrnes' country," and was part of Some demon whispered, Visto have 

the county of Dublin. It was only a taste. 

made into a separate county in the Heaven visits with a taste the wealthy 

year 1606 by King James I. Sir fool" 

Henry Harrington was long Li nes applicable to poor Har- 

Seneschal of the Tooles' and rington in all but the getting of 

Byrnes' country. Henry Hairing- hi g wea lth, for whatever may be 

ton, of Grange Con, had literary 8a id of being ill-got by his ancestor 

tastes, was of most temperate through confiscation, a possession 

habits unmarried, and was between O f 250 years by his descendants had 

eighty and ninety when he died, CU red at all events any original 

about the year 1842, a prisoner for defect of title, 
debt in the Marshalsea. He ruined 



XCV1 SOME NOTICE OF THE 

accidental meetings. Often, on my way home from the 
courts, by the Southern quays, I have met Mr. Haliday, on 
his way from the Bank of Ireland, Corn Exchange, or tho 
Ballast Board, to his counting house, on Arran-quay. He 
would then turn back, and accompany me a good distance 
for the pleasure of conversing. When we reached the 
place where we ought to part, I, in return, would accom- 
pany him back, but he was a man of such courtesy that he 
would insist on leaving me to the parting point nearest to 
my own house, and thus often took a third walk, and so we 
spent our time in the escorting of each other. Mr. 
Haliday always walked by the Southern quays, though his 
house of business was on the other side, as being quieter, 
and leaving him better opportunity to observe the Liffey. 
Often was he meditating where " the Hurdle ford " was 
placed, or contemplating the shelf of rock to be seen at low 
water, above Essex-bridge, towards the Four Courts (sup- 
posed to be the ford where Lord Thomas Fitzgerald passed 
with his company on horseback to throw down his defiance 
to the Council, in Mary's-abbey, and renounce his allegiance 
to Henry VIII., in 1534), whilst he was supposed by the 
citizens, who knew him, to be occupied with the price of 
wheat or the rise or fall of public stocks. 

When some special business would take him to London 
his partner, Richard Welch, his wife's nephew (since his 
death his worthy representative), would say to him, " Now, 
don't forget to go down at times to the ' Baltic Coffee 
house,' among the Greeks, and see the Mavrocordatos, the 
Rallis, the Castellis, the Rodocanachis, and try and pick up 
a few commissions or some cargoes of wheat." While he 
was away they could scarce get a word from him, and, 
when he returned, he was obliged, somewhat ashamed, to 
confess that he had spent more time at the Public Record 
Office with his friend Sir Thomas Duffus Hardy, Deputy 
Keeper of the Records, or at the British Museum, than 
among the Greeks, at the Baltic Coffee House. But at 



LIFE OF CHARLES HALIDAY. XCV11 

home no such researches were ever allowed to interfere with 
his business pursuits. 

The Rev. James Graves, Secretary to the Royal Irish 
Historical and Archaeological Society, told me that visiting 
Dr. Todd, one day at his chambers, in Trinity College, 
Dr. Todd said to him, " Come here, Graves, and see 
what that noble fellow, Charles Haliday, has done ; " and, 
opening a box, he showed him some fine prehistoric gold 
ornaments, amongst others two torques or twisted collars, 
" the likes of which " (said Todd) " I never saw before. 
They are part," said he, " of a find a fifth part only of 
what five navvies chanced upon while working in a 
cutting on the Limerick and Foynes Railway track. They 
agreed to keep the secret of their discovery, and to divide it 
amongst themselves. One of them sold his share to West, 
the jeweller, of Dame-street, and Haliday, hearing of it, 
went there, and West sold it to him for 160, the price ho 
had paid for it, which was only the value of the gold. 
Haliday did this to secure it for the Royal Irish Academy, 
and allowing them to select such articles as they desired 
for their museum of antiquities, sold the rest." 

He, Lord Talbot, and Dr. Todd, contributed 25 apiece, 
and secured for the Academy the Book of Fermoy, an 
ancient Irish manuscript, sold at Monck Mason's sale. He 
offered, he told me, 800 for Eugene O'Curry's papers, but 
the Catholic University would not let anyone have them 
but themselves. 

Between the years 1854 and 1860 Monsieur Ferdinand Monsieur de 
de Lesseps came over to Dublin, and at a special meeting c. 
of the Chamber of Commerce, unfolded his scheme for a 
canal through the Isthmus of Suez, so run down and 
derided in Parliament by Lord Palmerston (who got 
Stephenson, the great engineer, after an inspection of the 
mouth of the canal, in the Mediterranean, in his yacht, to 
declare it impracticable), that he would be scarce listened 



XCV111 SOME NOTICE OF THE 

to in London. But, as M. de Lesseps stated in his speech 
at the Vartry Waterworks, when afterwards he came over 
here in 1871, as one of a deputation sent by Monsieur 
Thiers, to thank the Irish for their aid of money and 
surgeons sent to them in the Franco-German war " In 
Dublin," said de Lesseps, " I met a more intelligent, a more 
sympathising audience, than almost anywhere else." Mr. 
Haliday played a leading part at the meeting of the 
Chamber of Commerce, and I remember my surprise at his 
saying, when I met him coming away, and asked him did 
he think the scheme feasible ? " Perfectly feasible," was 
his answer. 

Mention has already been made of his humanity and his 
efforts to preserve or procure a bathing place for the poor 
of Kingstown. I am myself a witness of similar efforts of 
his for the poor of Dublin. They had a bathing place at 
Irishtown (within the last two years destroyed by the 
carrying of the great culvert for the drainage of the 
Pembroke township across the sands), where, for a half- 
pen ay, men and boys found a good plunging and swimming 
bath, long established there as a private speculation, arid 
women and girls had a separate place equally cheap, or 
both could bathe for nothing on the shore. In the year 
1860, finding the soles of my shoes coated with sticky mud 
in walking across the sands on my way home to Sandy- 
mount, I told him I had discovered that it arose from the 
Ballast Board discharging the dredgings of the Liffey 
through gaps they had made for the purpose in the walls 
of the road leading to the Pigeon House Fort, and that it 
was spoiling the bathing place. He was distressed to h em- 
it, and instantly used his influence at the Board, and had 
the practice stopped. 

Talking with him of the pleasure a man of small means 
may enjoy with a taste for letters, he said it was true : " A 
lawyer, a soldier, a clergyman may be poor," said he, " and 



LIFE OP CHARLES IIALIDAV. 

yet respectable," but a merchant was considered as a poor 
creature unless he was supposed to have his pockets full of 
money. 

" My brother merchants would think me mad," said he, 
on another occasion, " if they knew I rose before day to 
labour at these literary tasks." But the few who knew 
the zest he felt in these pursuits could not doubt but that from 
it came his habitual animation, like that of a sportsman in 
a chase. 

In truth one great prescription for happiness in life is to 
have a hare to hunt. And " the sober sage " who would 
call this ruling passion madness, might well be answered in 
the lines of the poet : 

" Less max! the wildest whimsy we can frame 
Than e'en that passion if it has no aim : 
For though such motives folly you may call 
The folly's greater to have none at all." 

Mr. Haliday was never confined to his bed by illness, but 
his health was impaired about ten years before his death by 
an event curiously connected with the subject of his studies. 

It was the custom of the Ballast Board, twice a year, to C. Haliday 
send their fine steam yacht on a voyage round the coasts of voyage round 
Ireland to visit and view the several Lighthouses. Mr. Ireland 
Haliday was seized with an ardent desire to avail himself 
of such an opportunity of visiting the many isles or islets 
lying off the shores of Ireland, the scenes of the first plun- 
derings of the northern sea rovers from Norway, the Orkneys, 
and the Hebrides, when they fell upon the small monasteries 
on these islets, or upon the solitary hermits like him who 
occupied Skelig Michel, off the coast of Kerry, and carried 
away, as they found nothing else to take, and he died in 
captivity with them. 1 

Mr. Haliday had not been long at sea, when he found his 
constitution so disordered, though he did not suffer from 
1 * Wars of the Gaedhill with the Gaill," xxxv., xxxvi. 

9* 



C SOME NOTICE OF THE 

sea-sickness, that he was obliged to abandon his scheme, and 
I have often thought that his ailments had their first origia 
from this voyage. 

He was himself apprehensive of heart disease. "My cough," 
said he to me one day, sitting after dinner tete-d-tete " shakes 
parts that I do not like." 

In the summer of 1805, he came down to Oxford, to visit 
me there at work over the Carte Papers at the Bodleian 
Library, bringing with him the first (and greater) part of 
the vellum Register of Thomas Court Abbey, to compare 
with the residue or the other part in that library. I remem- 
ber his waiting with the volume under his arm at the 
library door, until I brought the Librarian to him, lest he 
might be suspected when going away of taking the property 
of the library with him. Later in the day he was on his 
return thence to London, and while waiting at the station, 
1 observed his necktie with its knot shifted under his left 
ear 

" Just where the hangman doth dispose, 
To special friends, the knot of noose ;" 

and as his sight had greatly failed, I made a jesting 
excuse of these lines out of Hudibras, for offering to be his 
valet. He smiled and said that the throbbing was so violent 
in his carotid artery, that he was obliged to leave his neck- 
tie loose and liable to get out of place. 

But all this time he never allowed his family to suppose 
he was ill, and would never use his carriage when sent, once 
or twice only, by his wife to the train to meet him of a cold 
winter evening, who knew too well that he would be annoyed 
at it, yet was unable to forbear to send it in her anxiety for 
his health. 

c. Haiiday's Just outside the western wall of his garden, lying at the foot 
of the knoll on which his house is built, is ooe of those small 
ancient ruined churches and graveyards so common all over 
Ireland, nothing of the church remaining but an ivied gable 



LIFE OF CHARLES HOLIDAY. ci 

or perhaps a chancel arch, and among the mouldering heaps 
a few old battered or broken tombstones. As often as we 
passed the scene, he would say " There I am to be laid ; and 
T have left orders that I shall be borne thither by my own 
servants, and that no stone shall ever be set up over my 
remains." 

He indulged in no complainings or regrets, unless once or 
twice to say " Don't grow old P., don't grow old," not sadly, 
but with a smile, and in a jesting tone, as if to tell how he 
felt the incommodities of age, though he would say no more 
about it ; or on another occasion when he said " Ah, you 
may do something, but I I have no time left me at my age 
to do anything in the literary line !" 

He judged very accurately of the length of time he had 
to live. On the 12th of November, 1865, he said to me 
after dinner (as I find by a memorandum I made at the time) 
" Another year will see me down." And he died on the 
14th day of September, 1866. 

Mr. Haliday married Mary Hayes, daughter of Mr. Hayes Mrs. Haliday. 
of Mountmellick, in the Queen's county. Her uncle was 
General Hayes of the East India Company's Army, and the 
following epitaph on the monument set up for him at 
Mountmellick, is the composition of Charles Haliday : 

Erected 
To the Memory 

of 

Major-General Thomas Hayes, 
Who departed this life the 2nd of September, 1831, 

Aged 72 years. 
Distinguished during a long period of 

Active Military Service, 
By Courage, Decision, and Perseverance. 
He was in the retirement of private life beloved 
From the Warmth of his Friendship, the Benevolence of his Actions, 

and the integrity of his Conduct. 
A liberal Benefactor to the Public Works and Private Charities 

of this his native town, 
He rendered Wealth estimable by the manner in which he used it 



CU SOME NOTldE OF Till. 

Her mother was Miss Hetherington sister of Richard 
Hetherington, Secretary to John Philpot Curran, Master of 
the Rolls, better known as Curran, the great forensic and 
Parliamentary orator of his day in Ireland. Through this 
connexion with the Hetheringtons Mr.Haliday was possessed 
of a vast fund of anecdotes concerning this extraordinary 
and, in private life, ill regulated character. 1 

Mrs. Haliday was of delicate health and nothing could be 
more admirable than the chivalrous and devoted attention 
which her husband paid her, more like that of a youthful 
lover than of a long-wedded spouse. Their love was 
mutual. His death was too heavy a stroke for her to bear 
up against in her enfeebled state and she died on the 10th 
of April, 1868. Before she was laid beside him in the grave 
she practised a little pardonable casuistry, evading the 
directions he gave that no stone should be set up over his 
grave by placing a tablet to his memory against the wall 
of the ruined church, hard by but not over him. She could 
not bear to think that his memory should be forgotten, 
little knowing how soon such memorials perish how soon 
indeed oblivion covers all things. 

Mrs. Haiiday's But she raised a more enduring monument to his memory 

Royal Irish by the sumptuous gift she made of his rich library and .ill 

l ' in - ' its treasures to the Royal Irish Academy whereby his name 

will live as long as learning shall live in Ireland. She had 

heard him sometimes say that he had thoughts of leaving 

his collections where they would be kept together ; but he 

did not carry out his design ; but left her everything he 

was possessed of by his will, in the shortest and most com- 

1 Curran was appointed in 1806. of their friendship. Hetherington 

and resigned in 1814. Hetherington after Cumin's retirement sent him 

was indignant at Curran's conceal- back the picture in a dung cart to 

ing from him his intention of his house called Hermitage, at 

resigning, and more especially at Kathfarnham, in company with a 

his not securing him some provision. pig ' the only fit company for >u< -h 

Curran had presented Bothering- a man,' he said. 
ton with his portrait in the days 



LIFE OF CHARLES HALIDAV. CUl 

prehensive terras. In connexion with this gift there will 
be found in the proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy' the 
following letter : 

"Monkstown Park, 9th of January, 1867. 
" DEAR SIR, It is with much pleasure I have to announce to you 
that Mrs. Haliday has decided on presenting intact to the Royal 
Irish Ac;ideniy the whole of the late Mr. Haliday's collection of 
pamphlets, tracts, papers, &c., relating to Ireland. Having been 
left all his property absolutely she is desirous to pay this tribute 
to the memory of her late beloved and lamented husband, and at 
the same time to preserve to the Royal Irish Academy so valuable 
and unique a collection. 

Believe me, <fec., 

RICHARD WELCH. 
Executor to the late Charles Haliday. 

To the Rev. William Reeves, D.D. 

Secretary of the Royal Irish Academy. 

The extent of this priceless collection has been already 
mentioned 2 and it can now be seen and judged by the 
literary world. It is kept as a separate library, the more 
to honour the name and memory of the donor. And to 
further perpetuate the recollection of him, the Academy had 
a portrait of him painted by Catterson Smith and hung it 
in the library or collection designated by his name. 

Mr. Haliday was tall and well proportioned. His Characteristics 
countenance was expressive of great animation and energy. 
He had a fine head and regular features with a brow 
indicative of capacity. His mien had something haughty, 
his manners though courteous, were rather distant and 
forbad familiarity ; but to friends he was free and cordial. 
He was benevolent and ever ready to aid the deserving ; to 
servants he was a good master. 

He spoke with intelligence and precision. He seemed to 
concentrate all the powers of his mind in discussion, and 
he thoroughly investigated and mastered every subject he 
took in hand. The most practised lawyer was not more 

1 Proceedings of the lloyal Irish 2 Page xriii. 
Academy, Vol. x. 



CIV SOME NOTICK OF THE 

diligent than he was in the search for evidence or more 
capable of testing its value. 

In reflecting on the great zeal for learning and accornplish- 
inrnt displayed by him and his brother one is inclined to 
ask whence came this desire to shine and to excel ? His 
eldest brother William Haliday was a prodigy of learning 
before he was twenty-four ; for he was only that age when 
he died. 

We find the author of the present work giving himself 
up to study, in a career so inimical to letters, with such 
zeal as to hurt his health. " I feel it now," said he to me 
one day not six years before his death. They had no- com- 
panions winning fame at the bar to stimulate their rivalry ; 
they had no hopes of getting into Parliament ; competition 
for the public service was not yet dreamt of. The family 
was not moving in so high a circle as to make such 
accomplishments necessary or even acceptable yet they 
both dedicated all their efforts to training and exercising 
their faculties. 

It was a saying of one of the first masters of athletics in 
ancient Greece that he could distinguish his pupils at a 
distance even though only carrying meat from the market ; 
so the sentiments of those who have received a polite 
education exercise a similar influence over their manners. 

And thus in the most trivial intercourse with Mr. 
Haliday one could scarce fail to be sensible of the high 
training his mind had undergone. 

To me who enjoyed so much of his intimacy these 
characteristics were most strikingly displayed. His reading 
and recollection furnished him with a fund of anecdote 
about the public men of his time, particularly of the period 
of ' 98 ; of this era he had read fill the literature besides 
knowing personally some of the families of those concerned 
in that rebellion. His memory was so retentive and 
accurate and the style of his conversation was so pointed 
and animated that our, Sunday dinners were to me a 



LIFE OF CHARLES HALIDAT. CV 

the day after. He owed none of these brilliant qualities to 
association with the class he belonged to ; they were the 
product of self -education. But whence the motive ? Was 
it not due to the period when the faculties of him and his 
brother were opening ? May it not be traced to the 
influence of the era of the French Revolution ? This great 
event awakened and stimulated the minds of men, with the 
hopes of a new and better world. 

Added to this were the agitations of the Irish rebellion 
and of the Union, which also powerfully exercised the 
faculties and passions. Though he and his brother were 
then too 3 T oung for public life, the houses they frequented 
were full of the men of that day and their conversation had 
its influence upon their minds. 

Be the cause what it may it is an honour to this city and 
country to have had such a citizen as the author of the 
present work, and especially to the Merchants of Dublin, a 
body he was proud to belong to. 

For myself I count it a happy event of my life to have 
enjoyed the friendship and intimacy of such a man ; and I 
am glad to think that as Editor of his literary remains my 
name will in future times be thus associated with his. 

OF THE MAPS IN THIS WORK. 

Mr. Holiday's original design was to write a history of 
the port and harbour of Dublin, with a view to trace the 
progress of improvement in the navigable channel of the 
Liffey, but he was so seduced from his course by a search into 
a history of its Scandinavian antiquities, that there would 
have been left no monument of his proper object only for 
his essay or paper on Sir Bernard de Gomme's map of the 
port and harbour of Dublin in 1673. 

One can only regret, considering the ability and research 
he has displayed in this short essay, that he was not able, 
through the late period of life when he entered on this 
study, to accomplish as well his original design as that 



CV1 SOME NOTICE OF THti 

which he substituted for it. The amount of materials to 
be found in his commonplace books will prove what a 
supply he had collected for his work. They will yet 
prove useful to others, and they, not he, will reap the 
honours. 

Whilst the history of the port of Dublin was still in his 
mind he sought in the Assembly Rolls of the city for the 
periodical reports made to it by the Ballast Board, which 
was only a branch or committee of the Corporation. 

But, besides searching the Corporation records and 
other sources already mentioned, Mr. Haliday made inquiry 
for all such maps as might throw light on the early state of 
the port. 

Sir B. de In this manner he obtained from the British Museum 

I673 me ap ' copies of Sir Bernard de Gomme's map, made in 1673, of 
Captain Greenvil Collins's map, made in 1686, and in his 
own library he had Rocque's map of the city and bay, 
made in 1756, all reproduced on a smaller scale in the 
present volume, except Sir Bernard de Gomme's, which is on 
the scale of the original. 

In addition to these are given three other maps of con- 
siderable interest. 

Down survey One is a facsimile from Petty 's Down survey, made in 
bour,i654 r . about 1655, being the earliest map made to scale of the 
port and city. It is reproduced on the original scale, and 
it is to be regretted that the scale is so small. The other 
is Captain John Perry's map of the bay and harbour of 
Dublin, engraved in 1728. A notice of this map is given 
in Gough's " Topographical Antiquities," but as it is not to 
be found at the British Museum Mr. Haliday inserted a 
notice in Notes and Queries, inquiring for this map, and 
also for information as to any other map of the city, either 
in manuscript or printed, between Speed's map in 1610 
and Brookin's map in 1728. 1 

Mr. Haliday 's queries were never answered, nor were his 
1 Appendix, p. 249, n. 2. 



LIFR OF CHARLES HATJDAY. CV11 

wishes gratified in his lifetime. But since his death I dis- 
covered Petty 's map, made in the year 1654, in the 
celebrated Down Survey at the Public Record Office ; and 
it was my good fortune to meet with Captain John Perry's CaptJ. Perry* 
map of 1728 by accident in the hands of my friend Richard m 
Bergoin Bennett, of Eblana Castle, Kingstown. It is a very 
finely engraved map, printed by Bowles, of Cheapside, 
London, the great map and print seller of that day. It 
would have been particularly interesting to Mr. Haliday, as 
exhibiting the canal (and pier) projected by Captain John 
Perry as a new entrance to the harbour of Dublin to avoid 
the bar. The canal was to be carried through the sands of 
the North Bull, parrallel with the north shore of 
Dublin Bay. He proposed that the seaward entrance 
should be in the Button Creek, near Kilbarrack Old 
Church, and the other to come out nearly opposite Rings- 
end. The third is the ground-plan of Chichester House, pi an of 
made in 1723, which I met with, in the year 1852, when 
rooting among the Exchequer Records with my friend 
James Frederic Ferguson, their then keeper, and copied it. 1 

1 Chichester House. In 1602 Deputy St. John held councils 

the city granted a plot of ground there, and dated his despatches 

to Sir George Gary, knt., Trea- from " Chichester House " (ibid., 

surcr-at War for Ireland, to build 1615-1625, p. 204), as did Lord 

an hospital for poor, sick, and Falkland, Lord Deputy, on 23rd 

maimed soldiers, or other poor July, 1623 (ibid., p. 414). On 

folk, or for a free school. (City Sir Arthur's death, in 1625, with- 

Assembly Rolls). Sir George out issue, Chichester House 

Gary sold his interest to Sir passt-d to his brother, Sir Edward 

Thomas Ridgway. In 1611 Sir Chichester, who sold it to Sir 

Arthur Chichester purchased Samuel Smyth. The following 

Gary's hospital (ibid."), and in is a verbatim copy of Sir 

1613 are found despatches and Edward's letter to Sir Samuel, 

State papers, dated by him from who had contracted for the pur- 

" Chichester House." Calendar chase : 

of State Papers of James 1. (Jre- * SIB SAMUEL SMTTH, 

land), 1611-1614, p. 336. Sir "I understand, by Sir Thomas 

Arthur did not die till 1625, and, Hybbotts, that he hath acquainted 

during his lifetime, in 1618, Lord you scone after my comeing from 



CV111 



SOME NOTICE OF THE 



The "Old shore," marked under the present Lords' 
portico, had the greatest interest for Mr. Haliday, and 



Dublin that S'. Fra. Annesley 
hath relinquish! my promise to 
him for Chichester House, and 
that therefore now the bargayne 
betweene me and yo for it (is) to 
goe forward. As soone as the 
conveyhances shall be drawen and 
brought to S r Tho. Hibbotts hee 
will p'use them and send them 
to me to be perfected w 011 I will 
hasten in respect my occasions are 
urgent for money wh"" was the 
cheife cause I sell at such a lowe 
rate. And thus, not doubtinge 
of yo r . p'formance herein, doe 
for this tyme, wishinge yo" much 
happiness, bid yo" very hartely 
farewell. 

" Yo r . assured friend, 
"(Signed), EDWARD CUICUESTER. 

" Joymount, 29th Dec ber , 1626. 

(Addressed) '' To my very good 
friend Sir Samuell Smyth, knt., 
give theis." 

(Original with W. Monde Gibbon, 
LL.D., Barrister.) 

Sir Samuel Smyth made a lease 
of the mansion-house, gate-house, 
garden, and plantations to the 
Rev. Edward Parry, D.D., who be- 
came Bishop of Killaloe, and died 
of the plague, the 28th of July, 
1650, in his house "Chichester 
House," On his death it passed 
to his son, the Rev. John Parry, 
D.D., afterwards Bishop of Ossory. 
On 12th September, 1659, "the 
Church of Christ meeting at 
Chichester House," appointed Mr. 
Thomas Hicks to preach and dis- 
pense the Gospel at Stillorgan 
and other places in the barony of 



Rath down as the Lord shall 
enable him." (Book of Establish- 
ment, Record Tower, Dublin Castle.") 

In 1661 it was first made use of 
for the sittings of Parliament. 
On 5th April, 1661, 30 were 
ordered to Mrs. Sankey on per- 
fecting the writings on her part 
concerning Chichester House, 
" now to be made use of for the 
Parliament." Vol. L., ibid.) On 
26th April, 1661, Richard White, 
of Dublin, merchant, demised to 
Sir Paul Davis, knt., Clerk of 
the Council, the great hall in 
Chichester House, and one 
chamber adjoining to the end of 
the said gallery for H.M.'s use, 
from 25th March last past, for 
two years, at 60 per annum ; 
and the said lease having expired 
on 25th March, 1663, it was 
thought fit by the Lord Deputy 
and Council (says their Concor- 
datum Order of April 3, 1669), 
to continue the lease, and the rent 
was ordered to be paid him from 
time to time, half-yearly, before- 
hand. Signed at head " Ossory ; " 
and at foot: "Michael Dublin, 
Cane. ; Ja. Armach " (and other 
Councillors). Dated at the Coun- 
cil Chamber, Dublin, 3rd April, 
1669. (Auditor-General '. Records, 
Records, P.R.O.), These wt-n 
portions of the house probably 
demised by Chichester, Smyth, 
or Parry. In 1675 (25th of King 
Charles II.) John Parry, Bishop 
of Ossory, made a lease of 
Chichester House to Sir Henry 
Forde (Secretary to the Lord 



LIFE OF CHARLES HALIDAY. 



C1X 



he refers to it in his essay on Sir Bernard de Gomme's 
map. 1 

By the aid of these maps and the information collected 
by Mr. Haliday, from the Assembly Rolls of the Corporation, 
a good conception can be formed of the extraordinary 
changes effected in the channel of the LifFey in the course 
of 200 years. 

In Sir Bernard de Gomme's map, the northern shore of 
the bay is now represented by the line of Amiens-street and 



Lieutenant of Ireland, for the 
use of His Majesty, for ninety- 
nine }ears, at 180 a year, for the 
use of the two Houses of Parlia- 
ment. The premises are described 
as "a large room wherein the 
Lords sate ; two committee rooms 
for the Lords on the same floor ; a 
robe room ; a wainscot room at 
the stairfoot ; a conference room 
below stairs wherein the Com- 
mons sate ; a passage leading to 
the committee room ; two com- 
inittee rooms above stairs for the 
Commons ; the Speaker's room ; 
two rooms below stairs for the 
sergeant-at-arins ; three rooms 
adjoining for the clerk ; two small 
cellars ; a gate-house next the 
street containing five small rooms ; 
a courtyard, with an entry through 
the house to the back-yard ; a 
stable-yard (with buildings enu- 
merated) ; a large garden with 
an old banqueting house, and all 
other rooms of the said house as 
then in His Majesty's possession." 
(Original in the possession of W. 
Monck Gibbon, LL.D., Barrister.') 
The care and preservation of 
Chichester House, when Parlia- 
ment was not sitting, was, in 
1C70, granted to William Robin- 



son, esq., Superintendent of 
Government buildings, for his 
life, and the use of the outoffices 
and gardens, " except a terras- 
walk, at the east end of the said 
house, twenty-five feet broad, 
and a terrras-walk, on the south 
side, twenty feet broad, and a 
back yard, forty feet deep," on 
condition of keeping it in repair, 
and paying the taxes. On 19th 
May, 1677, the Earl of Essex, 
being then Lord Lieutenant, he 
recommended that a lease should 
be made of the garden and out- 
offices to Mr. Robinson, on similar 
conditions, for ninety years, and 
the use of the house for life, 
except during the sittings of 
Parliament (Earl of Essex to 
Henry Gascoyne, esq. ; Carte 
Papers, vol. ccxlii., p. 128.) In 
pursuance of which a patent was 
passed to that effect, dated 2nd 
June, 1677. This demise to 
William Robinson serves to ex- 
plain the interest of him or his 
representatives mentioned in the 
return of the surveyors annexed 
to the ground-plan of Chichester 
House, made in 1723, given at 
page 239. 

1 Appendix, p. 239. 



CX SOME NOTICE OF Till: 

the North-strand, the latter still preserving the original 
denomination. 

The site of the terminus of the Great Northern Railway 
then was still covered by the sea. 

River and bar- The southern shore was Townsend-street, then known as 
Lazais' (corruptly Lazy) Hill, and Denzille-street. Bet 
Lazy-hill and Ringsend is seen a wide waste of sand, with 
the waters of the Dodder River spread over it in small 
streams. It will be easily seen, that the building of Sir 
John Rogerson's wall, from Lazy-hill towards Ringsend with 
the making of other walls inland to the Barrack-hill at 
Beggar's Bush, gained all the strand within them ; and that 
the making of a new and straight channel for the Dodder, 
which was done in 1796, 1 completed the work, so that the 
sands previously overspread by the wandering waters of the 
Dodder, are now meadows or streets, traversed by the Bath- 
avenue, leading to Ringsend. 

If these alterations of the southern side are striking, the 
changes produced on the northern shore, since the making 
of Sir Bernard de Gomme's map, are as remarkable. By the 
making of the North Wall parallel to Sir John Rogerson's 
Wall, as far as Ringsend, and by running other walls inland, 
from the North Wall (all the work of the Ballast Board), an 
equal, indeed a larger extent of land has been gained from 
the sea. 

In Sir Bernard de Gomme's map, all this land, both on 
the north and south sides of the bay, was then sea. At 
low water it was dry, with the Lifley divided into two or 
three branches wandering through this waste of mud and 
sand, and only uniting again at Ringsend. 

And so the river remained until the commencement of 
the eighteenth century, when the Ballast Board was erected 
in 1708. The first work this Board designed was, to make an 
entirely new channel for the Liffey, from Lazy-hill to Rings- 
end. On looking at the wa^te of waters, as shown on Sir 
1 Appendix, p. 242, 



LIFE OF CHARLES HALIDAY. CXI 

Bernard de Goinme's map, this was certainly a bold under- 
taking. The river was to be made to flow in one straight 
channel to Ringseud. 

Their first work was to stake out this channel, and then 
by piling and wattling in the sand on each side, to confine 
the river current to that new channel. On this foundation 
quay- walls were afterwards raised. 

THE BALLAST BOARD AND THE NEW CHANNEL. 

The two operations of making a new channel for the 
river and the walling-in of the river were distinct works, 
and done by different agencies the first being done 
directly by the Corporation through the Ballast Board, for 
this Board was only a branch of the Corporation ; whilst 
the walling-in of the river was done by the Corporation for 
the most part, indirectly, by making grants and leases to 
persons on conditions of building the walls. 

It will be found convenient to consider the making of the 
new channel first. 

As this was done by the Ballast Board, the following short Origin of the 
summary of the origin and creation of that Board is given. 

In 1676, Henry Howard having petitioned the Lord 
Lieutenant for a patent for a Ballast Office in all the ports 
of Ireland, pursuant to the King's warrant under privy seal, 
made five years before, the Corporation interposed to pre- 
vent it. 

By their charter they were owners, they said, of the 
waters and strand within their bounds, and had lately revived 
their ancient right to ballast, and by a by-law laid down 
rules for ballasting, and hoped to have a ballast office them- 
selves, the profits of which were intended for the King's 
Hospital. 1 And their opposition was so effectual, that in 
1682, Howard offered to take a lease of the port of Dublin, 
of the City at fifty pounds a year, and to surrender this 

1 Appendix, p. 244, n. 1. 



CX11 SOME NOTICE OF T1IE 

patent, or warrant. The Corporation ordered him a lease for 
thirty-one years. 1 But Howard having neglected to perfect 
this lease, the Corporation at Christmas, 1685, prayed for a 
patent to themselves. 8 

Thirteen years elapsed apparently without their obtaining 
their desire, for on 23rd November, 1698, they petitioned 
the Parliament of Ireland for a Ballast Board to be governed 
by themselves, to whom the river and strand belonged. 3 

The river they said was choked up by gravel and sand 
and ashes thrown in ; and that by the taking of ballast 
below Ringsend the river had carried great quantities of 
loose sand into Poolbeg, Salmon Pool, Clontarf Pool, and 
Green Patch, the usual anchoring places, so that barques of 
any burden must unload, and the citizens bring up their 
coals and other things by land.* 

Ten years more elapsed, and then in 1708 an Act of the 
Irish Parliament 5 passed, creating the Ballast Board. 
New channel The Board lost no time, and on 20th of October, 1710, 
begun A.D. 6y gave orders to stake out the channel between Lazy Hill and 
171 - Ringsend. 6 But their first operations were on the north 

side. For on 21st July in that year they gave orders for 
dredging the channel and forming a bank on that side. 7 On 
2nd May, 1712, they resolved to enclose the channel and to 
carry it straight to Salmon Pool. This they effected by 
laying down kishes filled with stones, on both sides of the 
river which, was found by experience, so they said, to with- 
stand all the force of the floods. 8 Full details will be found 
in the Appendix amongst the notes on Mr. Haliday's paper, 
on Sir Bernard de Gomme's map. 

But this new channel between Ringsend and the present 
quays, and all this work of enclosing it by kishes would 
have been useless and never undertaken unless for the sake 

1 Appendix, p. 244 n. 3. *6th of Anne, chap. xx. 

///-/ 'Appendix, p. 235. 

' Appendix, p. 245, n. I. 7 Ibid. 

*H>id. 



LIFE OP CHARLES HALT DAY. CX111 

of the harbour below Ringsend, that is to say, between 
Ringsend and the bar. 

The earliest printed account of the port and harbour, by 
Gerard Boate, writing in 164-!), describes the harbour amongst 
" the barred havens of Ireland." 1 

Over the bar there was at that time only six feet water Harbour in 
at low tide. " With an ordinary tide you cannot go to the 
quay of Dublin (he says) with a ship that draws five feet of 
water ; those of greater draught cannot come nearer than the 
Ringsend, three miles from Dublin Bay, and one mile from 
Dublin. 1 This haven (he adds) falleth dry almost all over 
with the ebb as well below Ringsend as above it, so as you 
may go dry foot round about the ships at anchor, except in 
two places, one at the north side, half-way between Dublin 
and the bar, and the other at the south side not far from it, 
one called the Pool of Clontarf, and the other Poolbeg, where 
it never falleth dry, but ships can remain afloat in nine or 
ten loot of water. Besides its shallowness (adds Boate), 
there is hardly any shelter, so that early in November, 1637, 
ten or twelve barques were driven from their anchors and 
never more heard of." 2 

But these pools, as we have seen by the petition of the 
Corporation to Parliament, had become greatly filled up in 
1698. On both accounts the merchants of Dublin, in January, 
1715, gave it as their opinion that the south side of the 
channel below Ringsend should be piled in, which would 
raise the south bank so high as to be a great shelter to 
shipping. 3 

The Ballast Board accordingly began to pile below Rings- New channel 
end (that is to say, in the line from Ringsend towards the begun^f D. 
site of Pigeon-house) ; so that on 19th of October, 1716, 1717- 

1 " Ireland's Natural History ; Samuel Hartlib, esq. ;" p. 29, STO, 

being a true and ample description, London, 1 652. 

&c. Written by Gerard Boate, * Hid. 

late Doctor of Physick to the State Appendix, p. 235. 
in Ireland, and now published by 






CX1V SOME NOTICE OF THE 

they were able to report that they had made some progress 
in piling below Ringsend, adding that they intended going 
on the South Bull next year the South Bull being the 
bank of sand between the Pigeon-house and the Lighthouse, 
left dry at low water. 1 

Piling on the On 19th January, 1717, having continued the piling 
below Ringsend, according to their report, as far as the sea 
would permit, they purposed to go on with the South Bull, 
and for that purpose they had oak timber for one set of 
piles, but four sets were required. 9 Accordingly in 1717 they 
began the work. By 19th July, 1717, they had driven ?00 
piles on the South Bull, and had filled in the spaces between 
the piles with hurdles and stones, with the expectation, 
since fully realized, that it would raise the bank and give 
shelter to ships. 3 

Having carried on the piling of the South Bull till 1720, 
they found further progress difficult, as the sea scarcely ever 
left the east or seaward end of the piles. They were there- 
fore forced to change their method. Accordingly on 2 1 st of 
April, 1721, they report that instead of piling by the engine, 
which was found impracticable so far at sea, they had used 
frames made of piles, twenty-two feet in length and ten feet 
in breadth, twenty-four piles in each frame. These were 
floated out from Blackrock accompanied by two gabbards 
rilled with stones, and the frames then filled with the stones 
from the gabbards, and sunk. 4 

Captain John Perry's map of 1728, exhibits these works 
very clearly. 

He shows the piling on the South Bull, then carried but 
to a certain distance, and at the end of the Bull, towards the 
sea, " framed spur work," such, evidently, as is above de- 
scribed. 

But besides the piling on the South Bull, he shows the 
piling "below Ringsend," before alluded to. This had 

'Appendix, p. 235. Ibid. 

236. *JUd. 



LIFE OF CHARLES HALIDAT. CXV 

advanced only as far as " Green Patch" (marked on Perry's 

map), by reason of the depth of the water, which hindered 

the piling from being carried to Cock (or Cockle) lake, as 

intended. On 17th of July, 1731, the Ballast Board sugges- Pigeon-hou- 

ted, that instead of piles or frames, a double dry stone wall ro 

should be built and filled in between with gravel. 1 And 

such is the origin and history of what is now known as the 

Pigeon-house-road. 

It remains to give some short account of the history of 
the Pigeon-house itself, of the Lighthouse, and the long 
low wall of granite from the Lighthouse to the Pigeon- 
house, nearly three miles in length, through the sea. The 
piling of the South Bull being completed about 1735, the 
Ballast Board placed a floating light near the eastern or 
seaward end of the piles in that year. 2 On 23rd of February, 
1 744, there appears a notice from the Ballast Board in the 
Dublin Chronicle, for proposals to build a lighthouse at 
the end of the piles. But it will be seen by Rocque's map, 
that in 1756 (the date of the map) the light ship was still 
there, and no lighthouse built. It was in June, 1761, that 
the Poolbeg Lighthouse, of cut granite, was begun, and at 
the same time the building of the long stone wall, called the 
Lighthouse wall. 3 

The progress of the wall was at first slow, for it appears Lighthouse 
by a plan engraved on copper, attached to a proposal to waU> 
Parliament, dated 5th July, 1784, concerning the erecting 
of a new bridge at Ringsend, that the length of wall was 
only like a short spur attached to the Lighthouse at that 
date. But on 10th January, 1789, there appears the following 
notice in the Dublin Chronicle : 

" Tlie wall to the Lighthouse is now in such a state of forward- 
ness, that it is expected the whole will be completed in eighteen 
months."* 

1 Appendix, p. 237. Ibid. p. 238. 

1 Ibid. p. 238, n. Ibid. 



CXV1 SOME NOTICE OF THE 

And the notice odds : 

" It will then form one of the finest moles in the world. The 
stone for filling it up is brought from the nearest parts of the 
eastern coast, but the granite flags to face it are quarry in;/ at 
Lough Shinney. It is but justice to mention that the indefatigable 
exertions of Lord Ranelagh to this great undertaking has been the 
principal means of its present forwardness." 

By a notice in the same journal of 2nd June, 1791, it is 
probable that it was completed in 1792. 

This mention of Lord Ranelagh, one of the directors of 
the Ballast Board named in the Act of 1789, whose abode at 
Monkstown became afterwards that of Mr. Haliday, leads 
one to remark on the strange coincidence, that two members 
of the Ballast Board, so warmly interested in all that 
regards the port of Dublin, should have successively occu- 
pied the same villa. Some of this information will be found 
in Captain Washington's second report to the Tidal Harbours 
Commission in 1846 ; but what appears here was taken as 
well from Mr. HaJiday's copies of entries on the Assembly 
Rolls of the Corporation of Dublin, as from the information 
of my friend, neighbour, end brother barrister of the 
Leinster Circuit, William Monk Gibbon, LL.D., of "The 
Cottage " Sandymount, who closely succeeded Mr. Haliday 
as a member of the Ballast Board sharing at once in Mr. 
Haliday's earnest interest in all that concerned the port and 
harbour of Dublin, and with the same historical tastes. 
History of the To him is also wholly due the following account of the 

Pigeon-house. TV. r 

Pigeon-house. 

It appears from the journal of the Ballast Office that the 
Commissioners of that Board had a servant, John Pigeon, 
for on the 8th of June, 1786, he and another were ordered 
to attend the Board on that day sennight, when the stores 
adjoining the Pigeon-house were ordered to be cleared out, 
to accommodate the workmen in working at the Ballast 
Office wall (as the Lighthouse wall is here called), which 
was then, as has been shown, approaching its completion. 



LIFE OF CHARLES HAL1DAY. CXVU 

There had previously been a block-house here for men 
engaged in watching wrecks and wrecked property. And 
John Pigeon being one of these men, it probably got its name 
from him. In the following year (29th August, 1787), the 
block-house was to be enlarged and improved for the 
accommodation of the Board, and referring to a ground-plan, 
they order some rooms for Francis Tunstal, Inspector of 
Works for the Ballast Board, and others for the housekeeper, 
Mrs. O'Brien, and her husband, she keeping the Corporation 
rooms clean, and providing breakfast for any of the members 
whenever directed, with a liberty of retailing spirits, but 
without any salary. In the Dublin Chronicle of 3rd 
August, 1790, it is announced that an hotel is to be built 
there for passengers by sea between England and Ireland. 
This was Mrs. Tunstal's, so well known to men of a former 
generation. 

In 1798 the Ballast Board sold their property in the 
Pigeon-house and the newly constructed hotel to the 
Government, for a place of arms and a military post for 
130,000. 

The hotel was still continued there, and much frequented 
by good fellows for gay dinners. But in 1848, in Smith 
O'Brien's rebellion, the Pigeon -house fort was made a close 
garrison, and Mrs. Tunstal's hotel thrown down, and she 
came to Sandymount to reside ; and thenceforward to this 
day the Pigeon-house remains merely as a fort, garrison, 
and store for guns and ammunition. 

THE WALLING-IN OF TBE LIFFEY. 

The forming of walls to keep out the tide and take in Walling th 
land on the southern side of the river, began probably with 
the lease to Sir James Carroll, in the year 1 607. 1 

The limits of the grant are not defined, but it probably 
included the space between Burgh-quay and Townsend- 

1 P. 145, n. l. 



CXV111 SOME NOTICE OF THE 

street. In 1656, as appears by the Assembly Rolls, Sir James 
Carroll's daughter had a remission of arrears of rent at 
five pounds per annum, on a lease for 200 years of 1,000 
acres of the strand, 1 and at this time the strand reached to 
the ground where the Theatre Royal stands, which is 
built on the College property, formerly the land of the 
Priory of All Hallows, and the shore of the LifFey was the 
limit of the land of the monks in this direction. 

In 1661 and 1662 Mr. Hawkins built the great wall to 
gain the ground from the Liffey near the Long Stout-. 
This may have included part of Aston's-quay, Burgh-quay, 
and George's-quay ; and the ground gained extended inwards 
to Townsend-street. The name is continued in Hawkins'- 
street. 2 

The Long Stone stood about where the Crampton monu- 
ment now stands. 

It would seem that Sir James Carroll's lease was sur- 
rendered or forfeited, for nething more is heard of it or of 
his representatives, and the lands subsequently dealt with 
must have been included in his lease. 

The next extension of the wall in continuation of 
Hawkins 1 was in 1683, when a lease was ordered to be 
made to Philip Crofts, of part of the strand on the north 
side of Lazy-hill (now Towusend-street), from Hawkins' 
wall eastward 284 yards behind the houses on Lazy-hill, he 
walling-in the ground demised from the sea. 3 And in 1713 
a lease was made to Sir John Rogerson of the strand between 
Lazy-hill and Ringsend, he informing the City Assembly 
that he intended speedily to take in the strand, and desiring 
to be furnished by them with gravel by their gabbards, he 
paying three pence per ton. 4 

Between Sir John Rogerson's wall and the place called 
Mercer's Dock, near George's-quay, there was a gap in the 

1 Haliday'B abstracts. 8 Assemblj Rolls Haliday'i Ab- 

P. 147, n. 3. stracts. 

'Ibid. 



LIFE OF CHARLES HALIDAT. CXIX 

line unbuilt of 606 feet in length. In the year 1715 the 
City began to build this wall, and hence probably the name 
of City-quay. 

Such being the history of the walling of the southern Walling of the 
bank of the Liffey, we now turn to the northern side. The North side> 
laying down of kishes on that side began, as already stated, 
in 1710. As this work was to form a foundation for a 
wall, which is shown in Brookin's map of 1728 as then 
standing, it would be interesting to fix the date when it 
was built. But it cannot be fixed very accurately. 

On 22nd July, 1715, the Ballast Board reported that they 
were laying down kishes to secure the north side of the 
channel. 1 In October of that year they report they had 
made good the bank as far as opposite to Mabbot's Mill, and 
that the remainder would be completed in the following 
summer. 2 But in 1716, 1717, and 1718, they were still at 
work laying kishes. 3 It does not appear when this kishing 
was actually completed. It was probably in 1718 or 1720. 

At all events it was so far advanced in 1717 that the 
Corporation anticipated its early completion, and the conse- 
quent building of the North Wall. They also anticipated 
the gaining of the land behind the wall For in 1717 they 
proceeded to a lottery among themselves of the land to be 
thus gained. And there is a reprint of a map, by no means 
scarce, showing the various lots as set out in Easter 
Assembly, 1717, and perfected (by lottery) in the year 1718. 
Hence the origin of the name of the " North Lots." By 
this scheme each allottee had a small frontage, but a wide 
allotment at the rere. 

How valuable the whole has become may be judged from 
this, that three great railway companies have lately built 
their terminuses there, and the steam shipping have their 
berths there. 

The wall was not completed in 1717, for in 1718 the 

1 Appendix, p. 235. Ibid. 

Ibid. *lbid, p. 248, n 2. 



cxx 



SOME NOTICE OF THE 



Ballast Board were still laying kishes ; but in 1728 the wall 
was finished, as appears by Brookin's map of that date. 
The sea, however, is shown behind it and in front of it. 
It required the dredging and filling-in behind it with the 
rubbish and spoil of the river bottom of near 100 years to 
make land of it as it is now. 

In all this long journey about the port and harbour 
of Dublin it has been my singular good-fortune to have 
found such a companion as my friend William Monk 
Gibbon, LL.D. 

For, besides his antiquarian and historical tastes, 1 he 



1 He was in early life addicted 
to seamanship. He had four 
uncles in the Royal Navy, and 
he passed much of his youth in 
one or other of their ships. One 
of them, after the close of the 
war with France, in 1815, became 
master of one of his father's 
merchantmen, and, with this 
uncle, two years after he was 
called to the bar, he made voyage 
to Leghorn with a cargo of Man- 
chester goods. The crew they 
shipped at Liverpool was so 
worthless that Gibbon had to act 
as able seaman. On nearing 
Leghorn his uncle, seeing the 
yellow or quarantine flag flying, 
said, " I'll go in in the boat, and 
you must take the command, and 
bring the ship in whenever you see 
the yellow flag down." He did 
so ; but scarcely had they 
anchored when a spruce boat, 
with as spruce a gentleman sitting 
in the stern sheets, hailed him, 
and said, "1 know the master of 
your vessel, and what I have to 
say is, that I want you to take the 
command of that ship there 
(pointing to a very fine barque) 



to-morrow, and take her to Lon- 
don." " Oh, sir," answered 
Gibbon, " I am not a seaman I 
am only an amateur." He re- 
plied, "I want no certificate, it is 
quite enough that a man can 
handle a ship as you have handled 
yours. But (said he in con- 
clusion), I'll meet you again in 
Leghorn." Gibbon and his uncle 
were at a restaurateur's the same 
afternoon, when the stranger came 
in. His uncle said to him, " Let 
me introduce my nephew Coun- 
sellor Gibbon." " Counsellor!" 
said he, striking the table, and 
using certain flowers of rhetoric, 
thought as well by seamen as 
Cicero to adorn oratory, " Why 
then, sir, you have mistaken your 
profession ! You are a seaman, 
and now I repeat my offer, and 
undertake that you shall have the 
command of a better ship even 
than that I have shown you one 
of the finest out of the port of 
London if you will only join the 
service of our house. 

Soon after this he was engaged 
for the "Wild Irish (iirl," before 
a bench of magistrates, in the 



LIFE OF CHARLES HALIDAY. CXX1 

has known Sandymount all his life, and Sandymount lay 
in the wash of the Dodder, a river which has had a great 
influence on the port of Dublin, and has undergone such 
changes that it required long investigation as well as the 
aid of his local knowledge to comprehend its former state. 
Thus when Gerard Boate, writing in 1645, describes the A.D. 1645, 
stone bridge, built over the Dodder, in consequence of the bulk where 6 
drownin^ of Mr. John Usher, father of Sir William Usher, **"'? bridge 

3tflnu8 

as upon the way between Dublin and Ringsend, 1 I doubt 
if it could have been ascertained without his aid that this 
bridge was where Ball's-bridge now stands, and that the 
way from Dublin to Ringsend lay over Ball's-bridge. Mr. 
Haliday even was mistaken on this point, for he makes 
the way from Ringsend to Dublin, at high water, to be by 
the line of Bath-avenue, then overflowed by the sea. 2 But 
it will be seen by Sir Bernard de Gomine's map by how 
many devious streams, and through what a waste of sand, 
the Dodder made its way to the Lifiey, though now 
running in one straight stream between the artificial 
banks made in 1796. 3 He also supplied me, in illustration 
of Mr. Haliday's statement, that, at the period of Sir 
Bernard de Gomme's map, " the sea flowed almost to the 
foot of Merrion- square," 4 with the curious, and what to 
many would seem the incredible fact of the Duke of 
Leinster, so late as in the year 1792, shooting the breach 
in the South Wall in his yacht, and landing safely at 
Merrion-square ; 5 and the extract from the newspapers of 
the year 1760 describing the bodies of two murderers as 

county of Wexford, and succeeded Hunt, and Jeffares, and thus into 

so well that the underwriters of equity business. 

Liverpool, who were interested in ' Appendix, p. 233, n. 

the case, made him their counsel- J Ibid., pp. 241, 242. 

in-ordinary. This brought him 3 Ibid., p. 242, n. 

into connexion with Mr. James * P. 231. 

Watt, Queen's Proctor, a member Ibid., n. 1. 
of the great house of Harrington, 



cxxn 



ROME NOTICE OF THE 



1 i.iving fallen from their gibbets on the river, and lying 
tossed about by the waves among the piles." 1 



1 These were two of four 
pirates, murderers, as he has since 
informed me, part of the crew of 
the " Sandwith," bound from the 
Canary Islands, which she left in 
Nov., 1765, for London, Captain 
Cochran, Commander, and Cap- 
tain Glas, and others, passengers. 
They murdered the captain and 
the passengers, and made for the 
Waterford river. Near the Hook, 
on the 3rd of December, they left 
the ship scuttled, as they hoped, 
and made off in a small boat 
with about two tons of Spanish 
milled dollars in bags, and other 
treasure. They landed two miles 
from Duncannon Fort, and buried 
in the sand 250 bags (at a bay 
since called " Dollar Bay " 2 ), 
keeping as much as they 
could conveniently carry, with 
some ingots of gold, jewels, and 
gold dust. They were soon after 
arrested, and on Saturday, March, 
1766, George Gidley, Richard 
St. Quintin, Andrea Zekerman, 
and Peter M'Kinlie, were tried at 
Dublin, and found guilty, and, 
on Monday, the 3rd, were exe- 
cuted at St. Stephen's-green.s He 
also furnished the following 
note from the Dublin papers of 
March 9, 1766 : 

u The bodies of the four mur- 
derers and pirates M'Kinley, St. 
Quintin, Gidley, and Zekerman, 
were brought in the black cart 
from Newgate, and hung in 
chains, two of them near 
Mnckarell's Wharf, on the South 



Wall, near Ringsend, and the 
other two about the middle of the 
piles, below the Pigeon-house. 
The bodies of the four pirates 
remained suspended on the wharf 
and at the Pigeon-house till the 
month of March following." The 
same journal for the 29th March 
has the following: "The two 
pirates, Peter M'Kinley and 
George Gidley, who hang in 
chains on the South Wall, for the 
murder of Captain Coghlan 
(Cochran), &c., being very dis- 
agreeable to the citizens who 
walk there for amusement and 
health, are immediately to be put 
on Dalkey Island, for which pur- 
pose new irons are making, those 
they hang in being faulty. 
Richard St. Quintin and Andrea 
Zekerman, the other two con- 
cerned in this cruel affair, are to 
remain on the piles at the Pigeon - 
house." Accordingly, the same 
journal, on the 1st and 12th of 
April, 1767, announces the re- 
moval of the bodies from the 
new wall, and that they were 
carried by sea to the rock on the 
Muglins, near Dalkey Island, 
where a gibbet was erected, and 
they were hung up in irons, said to 
be the completest ever made in the 
kingdom. 

1 P. 238, n. 

8 In the parish of Templetown, 
barony of Shelburn, near the Hook. 

s From "A short accoant of the life 
of Captain Glas, and execution of the 
four pirates for his murder, at St. 
Stephen's-green, Dublin." 



LIFE OF CHARLES HALIDAY. CXX111 

The numerous maps have been lithographed on American 
paper. Its fineness and tenacity, almost equal to that 
of silk, gives hopes of its enduring the wear and tear of 
handling and of reference. 1 

1 From Col ton and Co., pub- street, New York. The railway 
lishers of maps, atlases, and guide maps of this house seem to stand 
books, &c., No. 172, William- constant use without giving way. 



THE SCANDINAVIANS: 



AND THE 



irmitrhwbtan ^ntrqmtibs of 



BOOK I. 

THE DYNASTY OF SCANDINAVIAN KINGS AT DUBLIN. 



CHAPTER I. 

No cities among the early Irish. The site of Dublin a place of no distinc- 
tion amongst them. Dublin founded by Scandinavians, and made their 
capital. Thence became the capital of the English Denmark filled 
by Saxons who escaped thither to avoid forced baptism by Charle- 
magne. The Norsemen, infected by these exiles with their hatred, 
ravage the coasts of France. Their ravages of England. They plunder 
the islands and coasts of Ireland. Their ravages on the mainland of 
Ireland. The Dubhgoill and the Finnghoill Aulaff of the Dubhgoill 
settles at Dubhlinn of AtJi Cliath, A.D. 852. 

IT must surprise those who examine the history of B OK i. 
Ireland that so little appears known respecting 

ri & Dublin Scandi- 

the social position of those Scandinavians who, under narian for it- 
first 300 years, 
the common name of Ostmen, or of Danes, occupied 

our principal seaports from the 9th to the 12th 
century, and that even local historians are silent 
respecting- the civil and religious institutions, the 
works and monumental remains, of a people, who 
not only inhabited and ruled over Dublin for more 
than three hundred years, but who, if not the 



THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 



BOOK L 
CHAP. I. 

No cities 
among the 
early Irish. 



founders of the city, were unquestionably the cause 
of its metropolitan supremacy. For notwithstanding 
Ptolemy's supposed notice of Dublin under the name 
of Eblana, 1 and the inflated description of its splen- 
dour by Jocelyn, 8 it is almost certain that before the 
Scandinavian invasion the Irish had no cities or walled 
towns in any degree resembling those spread over 
England, France, Germany, and wherever the Romans 
had penetrated. There were large ecclesiastical estab- 
lishments at Armagh, Clonmacnois, &c. 3 At Emania, 
Aileach, Tara, &c., there were cashels, duns, orraths, 
in which kings and chieftains, with their attendants, 
resided, the bulk of the population being scattered 
over the territory inherited by each tribe, moving 
with their cattle from pasture to pasture, having 
little tillage, and ever ready to assemble at the call 
of their chief, either to repel invasion or to invade 
the territory of their neighbours. But cities they 
had none. Consequently, in all our annals of 
intestine warfare, although we have records of the 
destruction of Armagh and Clonmacnois, of Emania 4 
and Aileach, 5 and of duns, fortresses, and fastnesses, 



1 Ptolemy, who wrote in the 2nd 
century, never saw Ireland, but 
gave from the report of others the 
supposed latitude, longitude, and 
names of eight or ten Irish cities. 
Ptolemy Geogr. Rome, 1490. 
Dublin is not mentioned by Strabo, 
who wrote his Geography in the 
time of Augustus Caesar, but he 
knew little of Ireland. 

2 Jocelin, Vit. S. Patricii, c. 69. 
His description is self-rofuting. 
Jocelin wrote in the 1 2th century. 

1 Around these establishments 



towns subsequently grew up, but 
previously the term Civitaa was fre- 
quently applied to monastic estab- 
lishments. Bk. of Hymns, p. 156. 

4 [Anciently the seat of the Kings 
of Ulster; " Emania Ultonia; re- 
gum pulcherrima sedos." Ogy- 
gia, Preface, p. 14. Now the Navan 
fort, near the city of Armagh (a cor- 
ruption of the Irish "A u Kmliain"). 
(J. O'Donovan, LL.D., Ann. 4 
Mast.)] 

5 [Now Elagh, in the barony of 
Inishowen, county of Donegal.] 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 



ort- 
11 * th ' 



there is no allusion to the siege of an Irish town, or BOOK i. 
the destruction of an Irish city. CHAP - L 

And not only is there no Irish record of a " City The site of 
of Dublin " before the 9th century, but before that 
period there is no record that the place where the 
city now stands was a place of any importance. 1 Our 
annals refer to the Dubhlinn or harbour, which was 
the resort of ships, and to the Ath Cliath, or bridge 
of hurdles, which crossed the river; but if there 
were a dun or rath near the harbour, that fortress 
never was the seat of an Irish king, the capital of 
an Irish territory, or the centre of Irish dominion ; 
and as regards the present metropolitan supremacy 
of Dublin, it is manifest that Henry the Second 
made Dublin the metropolis of his royalty, not 
because he considered it to be the capital of Ireland 
(over which he only claimed a " lordship "), or because 
its position was more advantageous than that of Danes became 
either Wexford or Waterford (then the ports 
communication with England), 2 but because it was 
the principal city of the Ostrnen he had conquered, 
and over whose subjugated territories he did claim 






1 Colgan gives a list of Bishops 
of Dublin from the arrival of S. 
Patrick to the arrival of the Xorth- 
men. Most of his bishops died or 
were martyred on the Continent. 
The list is evidently fictitious. 
The only notice of Dublin in the 
Annals of the Four Masters at 
A.D. 765 records a battle at Ath 
Cliath, and that " Numbers were 
drowned at the full tide, return- 
ing." 

The seat of the Kings of [all] 
Ireland, at an early period, was 



Tara : the chief residences of the 
Kings of Leinster were Xaas and 
Ferns. 

2 The communication was chiefly 
between Bristol and Waterford. 
It was not until Edward had con- 
quered Wales that there was any 
communication with England 
through Holyhead and Dublin. 
The first notice probably of that 
line of communication is that in 
Rymer, voL iv., p. 524: "Pro 
navibus arrestandis ad Holyhead 
pro passagio regis in Iliberniam." 
B2 



4 THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 

BOOK i. to exercise regal privileges. 1 Henry found that 

CHAP. i. j) u b]j n AVas the seat of Ostman sovereignty; it 

thence became the capital of his Irish dominion, and 

from the extension of that dominion it has become 

the capital of Ireland. 

High qnaiitie Yet even if Dublin were not founded by the Scandi- 
founders'oT navians, or that the Ostmen were not the cause of 
its present pre-eminence, the silence of local and 
general historians respecting the social position, 
religion, laws, and monuments of those who occupied 
Dublin for more than three hundred years on all 
facts connected with the first Scandinavian invaders, 
excepting such as relate to their inroads and devas- 
tations, has contributed to strengthen very erroneous 
opinions respecting that remarkable people. And 
although this silence may be justified, in some degree, 
with regard to the first invaders, their history being- 
obscure, it certainly cannot be so justified with 

1 Henry left Strongbow in pos- king was driven out of Ireland, 
session of the territory he had and went to seek foreign aid : 
acquired by marriage with the "Oh, Mary ! It is a great deed 
daughter of the King of Leinster, that is done in Erinn this day. 
but he claimed, by right of con- Dermod, son of Doncliadh Mac 
quest, the Ostmen cities of Dub- Murchadha, King of Leinster and 
lin, Wexford, Waterford, and Li- of the Danes, was banished by the 
merick, and out of the lands which men of Ireland over the sea east- 
belonged to the Ostmen [kings] of ward. Uch! Uch! Oh now, what 
Dublin he formed his four royal shall I do?" War of the Gaedhil 
manors of Newcastle, Esker, Sag- with the Gaill, p. xii. "The Danes 
gard, and Crumlin. meant the Danes of Dublin." 
[McMurrough ruled over the Note by Dr. Todd, ibid. Yet King 
city of Dublin and the town of Henry took from Strongbow Dub- 
Wexford, as well as the rest of lin and Wexford, though equally 
Leinster. This is evidenced by acquired by marriage with Eva, 
the following entry of his grief McMurrough's daughter. He 
made by one of his followers in feared probably that they mi^ht 
the Book of Leinster, on the very render him too powerful for a 
day (1st August, 1166) when the subject.] 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OP DUBLIN. 5 

respect to the Ostmen who founded the Kingdom of BOOK i. 
Dublin in A.D. 852, as very slight research would CR ^ L 
have discovered the high position they held among landed by 
surrounding nations, and that so far from being a S5"* 111 *""" 
mere band of pirates, who only constructed a fortress 
as a receptacle for plunder, and who left no monu- 
ments which could indicate that either religion or 
legislation existed among them, there was abundant 
evidence to show that the Ostmen of Dublin were 
colonists, who settled in the land they invaded, and 
that Pagan and barbarian as they were their religion 
was less idolatrous, their civil institutions not less 
perfect, and their laws more consonant with human 
freedom, than the religion, institutions, and laws of 
those civilized Romans who invaded Britain. 

To the history of these Dublin Ostmen we will origin of the 
presently refer, but previously we will endeavour to rorera. 
mark the distinction between them and those ruthless 
Pagans who first invaded Ireland, and who, under the 
name of Northmen or of Danes, ravaged also the 
coasts of England and France, at the close of the 
eighth or at the beginning of the ninth century. 

According: to some French historians, the " barba- Charlemagne 

L_ . ^rcea Christi- 

rians " who sailed along the coasts of France in A.D. anity onthe 

Saxons, A.D. 

800, were persecuted and banished Pagans, who, 772. 
with aid from their allies, were in search of new 
homes, and were seeking to avenge on Christian 
clergy and Christian churches the destruction of 
their temples and their idols by the Christian armies 
of Charlemagne. The statement is, that before the 
end of the 8th century the Franks had suffered much 
from the hostility of their Saxon neighbours, and 



Jill: SCANDINAVIANS, AND 



BOOK i. that Charlemagne, desirous to terminate these 
CHAP. i. hostilities, and influenced by zeal for religion and 
love of conquest, invaded Saxony in A.D. 772. 1 His 
first attack was on the fortress of Eresbourg, 8 which 
contained the temple of Irminsul, the great idol of 
the nation. He took and destroyed the fortress, 
pulled down the temple, broke in pieces the idol ; 
and believing that the mild doctrines of Christianity 
could alone restrain the barbarous habits of the 
Saxons he had conquered, " he built monasteries and 
churches, founded bishoprics, and filled Saxony with 
priests and missionaries." 3 But the Saxons were 
Revolt of the neither easily conquered or converted. In A.D. 774, 
774. and again in 775, 4 they revolted ; and although in 

776 and 777 many came to Paderborn to be baptized, 5 
they again revolted in A.D. 782, and abjuring Chris- 
tianity as a badge of slavery, they burned the 
churches, slew the clergy, and returned to the 
worship of the idols which Charlemagne had over- 
turned. This outbreak, instigated by their beloved 
chieftain, Witikind, was soon suppressed, and 
Witikind, with the fiercest of the Saxon idolaters, 
fled into Denmark, where Sigefroi, his wife's father, 
then reigned. 6 Enraged by the conduct of the re- 



1 Eginhardi de Gest. Carl. Mag. 
Imp. ap. Du Chesne, A.D. 782 ; 
Ann. Franc., A.D. 782. 

2 Eresbourg, now Stradbourg, 
between Cassel and Paderborn. 

8 Hist, dc Charl., vol. ii., p. 246. 

* Eginhard, A.D. 774, 775. 

*> Ibid., 776, 777. To comme- 
morate this supposed conversion 
a medal was struck with this in. 



scription, " Saxonibus sacro lava- 
cro regeneratis, 777." 

6 Pontanus, Her. Dan. Hist., 
p. 91. "NVitikind's wife was Gcva, 
daughter of Sigefroi Hist, de 
Danemarc, par Des Rocbes. Paris, 
1782. Vol. ii., p. 20: "II y 
mena aussi sa femme Geva, fille du 
Hoi de Dannemarc." Pontanus, 
Rer. Dan. Hist., p. 89. 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 7 

volters, and the escape of Witikind, Charlemagne BOOK i. 
forgot the precepts of that Christianity he desired Cl ^ L 
to spread, and with unparalleled cruelty he beheaded Charlemagne 
four thousand five hundred Saxons in cold blood, and SaxTns in' one 
in one day. 1 Yet, fearing that even this horrible d * 7 ' 
butchery would not secure the lasting submission of 
the survivors, " he added to it a secret order to put 
to death those who would excite the Saxons to 
revolt." 2 Still revolt succeeded revolt,, and revolt 
was ever accompanied by a return to idolatry, the 
re-establishment of idols, the burning of churches, 
and the massacre of priests. Charlemagne, however, 
had decided that the Saxons should be Christians, 
but unfortunately he decided on making them Chris- 
tians by means which Christianity abhors. He 
ordained that " Every Saxon who refused to be 
baptized should be punished with death ; " and that 
" those who to avoid baptism should say that they 
had been baptized should be similarly punished." 3 
And subsequently he established a secret council, 
composed of men whose duty it was silently to 
traverse the country, to watch the actions and words 
of the people, and instantly to put to death those 
who renounced Christianity or excited revolt. Yet 
even this was insufficient. The Saxons and their 
neighbours still clung to their Paganism, and Char- 
lemagne ultimately proceeded to banish the idolaters Banishes th 
from the scene of their idolatry. He spent part of 795-797. 
the years 795, 796, 797 in destroying with fire and 
sword the countries between the Elbe, Upper Saxony, 

1 Annales Fuldenscs, A..D. 782 ; 2 Hist, de Charl., vol. ii., p. 241. 
Eginbard, 782 ; Ann. Franc., 782 ; 3 Hist, de Franco, par De Me- 
Hist. de Charl., vol. ii., p. 253. zerai. Paris, 1643, p.!91,A.D.804. 



8 THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 

BOOK L the German Ocean, and the Baltic, 1 the population 
cnxfti. flyi n g i n to Denmark and the North. Ten thousand 

So D^Tark 7 families of the Saxons were transplanted into Switzer- 
land and the forests of Flanders ;- and in A.D. 795, 
men, women, and children were transplanted into 
France, 3 and their lands given to the Abrodites, the 
inveterate enemies of the Saxons, and the faithful 
allies of the Franks. 4 

The clergy In fact Charlemagne's war was now a crusade. 

ma^ne"sann r ies. Its object was alike to conquer and convert. The 
military and religious habit were united in his camp, 
which was the scene of martial exercises, solemn 
processions, and public prayers ; 5 and hence the 
clergy, who crowded around his standard, partici- 
pating in the objects and results of his victories, 
sharing the gold and silver (plunder of the countries 
he conquered), 6 and baptizing the infidels he captured 

Hence hateful and spared, that clergy became hateful to Pagans, 
who attributed to them and the religion they 
preached, the destruction of temples/ the desolation 
of homes, and all the means employed to extirpate 
idolaters and to make Christians. 

The Saxons Nor was Charlemagne's hostility confined to the 

Denmark. ' Pagans he subdued. Those who fled from his arms 

1 Hist, de Charl., vol. ii., p. 267- liv.xxxi., cap. x.: "The Normans 

De Mezerai, p. 208, Medal xii. plundered and ravaged all before 

8 Hist, de Charl., vol. ii., p. 268. them, wreaking their veng< 

Chron. St. Denis, lib. ii., cap. 3. chiefly on thepriests and monks, and 

8 Ann. Bertiniani, A.D. 804. devoting every religious house to 

4 Eginhard, A.D. 804. destruction. For they charged tin so 

8 Hist, de Charl., vol. ii. p. 280. ecclesiastics with the subversion of 

8 Hoveden, Rer. Ang. Scrip. their idols, and with all the opprrs- 

Lon., 1596, p. 233. Chron. Mail- sive measures of Charlemagne, by 

ros, A.D. 795. which they had been successively 

7 Montesquieu, Esprit des Lois, obliged to take shelter in the north." 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 9 

were pursued by his policy. Sigefroi could not obtain BOOK i. 
his friendship, or rather his forbearance, except on CnAP - T 
condition that the refugee Saxons, Frizons, Soarbes, 
&c., should be expelled from Denmark, 1 and his suc- 
cessor Godfrey found it necessary to conclude a treaty 
binding himself to drive out of his states the Pagans 
who had sought an asylum there. 8 

Thus compelled to seek other homes, these infuri- 
ated Pagans, or, as De Mezeray writes, "The banished 
and their descendants, burning with a cruel desire to 
avenge their gods and their liberty, made continual 
sorties, and principally exercised their rage on the 
priests and on the monks who had destroyed their 
temples and their superstitions." 3 

The Danes, who saw with uneasiness the progres- The Danes 
sive conquests of Charlemagne, quickly imbibed the ? n JTof the ** 



/ 

Infest th 

they dared to infest the coasts of France." 4 Sailing ofJ rmnce> A>D - 



feelings of their homeless kinsmen, and in A.D. 800 

Infest the coasts 



1 Pontanus. Her. Danic, p. 90. des Danois ou Nonnands ; de- 

2 Hist, de Charl., vol. ii., p. 273.- marcheimportante, premiere epoque 

3 " L'Idolatrie, &c., &c., etant d'une grande revolution dans 
vivement pressee par les armes des 1'Europe. Ce fut cette alliance de 
Francois, elle s'etait jettee au-dela Vitikind avec Sigefroi, ce furent 
de 1'Elbe et en Danemarc comme ses continuelles instigations qui at- 
en son dernier fort, d'ou ces ban- tirerent sur les cotes de la France 
nis et leurs descendants brulant ces Normands," &c. Hist, de 
d'un cruel desir de venger leurs Charlemagne par Gaillard, Paris, 
Dieux et leur liberte, faisoient de 1782, vol. ii., p. 231. 
continuelles sorties et exer<joient * Depping Hist, des Expeditions 
principalement leur rage sur les Marit. des Normands, p. 66. Mo- 
prestres et sur les moines qui avoi- nachi Sangall De Reb. Bel., lib. ii., 
ent destruit leurs temples et leurs cxxii. Montesquieu, Grandeur et 
superstitions." Hist, de France, Decadence des Remains, cap. 1 6. : 
De Mezeray, Paris, 1685, voL i., " The conquests and tyrannies of 
p. 423. " Vitikind (roi de Saxe) Charlemagne had again forced the 
alia porter sa haine et sa douleur a nations of the south into the north, 
la cour de Sigefroi son nmi, Roi As soon as his empire was weakened 



1 ' THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 

BOOK i. from sea to sea they approached the shores of Lan- 

CHAP..I. guedoc, where Charlemagne, recognising their fleets 

Charlemagne's from the windows of his palace, wept for the misery 

historic tears. 

he foresaw they would bring on his descendants and 
on France. Nor was it long until the destruction 
of churches, the slaughter of clergy and of people, 
justified the fears of the emperor. 

On the English coasts the Northmen appeared 
within five years after Witikind had fled into Den- 
mark and carried the story of Charlemagne's cruelties 
to the subjects of King Sigefroi. 

Thej infest the According to the Saxon Chronicle, " A.D. 787, first 
land, A.D. 787. came three ships of the Northmen out of Hseretha 
land," and it adds what is confirmed by every English 
historian that these were " the first ships of Danish 
men which sought the land of the English race." 1 
Roger de Wendover says, " It may be suspected they 
came to spy out the fertility of the land," and there- 
fore sailed along the coast in search of some spot on 
which to settle. But in 793 and 794 these "heathen 
men " came with larger fleets and with other objects ; 
for soon " they dreadfully destroyed the churches of 
Christ." 5 They trod down holy places with their 
unholy feet ; they slaughtered priests and Levites and 
multitudes of monks and nuns ; undermined the altars, 
and carried off all the treasures of Holy Church." 
The great monastic establishment at Lindesfarne, 

they passed a second time from the * Sax. Chron. A. D. 793, 794. 

north into the south." Hen. Hunt. Rerum Anglicanarum 

1 Sax. Chron. Mon. Brit., p. 257. Scriptores, Lon., 1596, p. 197. 

Ingram in his Edition of the Saxon Simeon Dunhelmhelmensis Hist. 

Chronicle, translatcsHaerethasland Ang. Scrip. Lend., 1682, p. 11. 
" the Land of the Robbers." 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 1 1 

celebrated for the sanctity and number of its inmates, BOOK i. 
lying directly opposite those Scandinavian districts CHAP " ' 
into which the Saxons and other Pagans had fled or 

o 

were driven, being easily accessible from the creeks 
of Jutland, from the Baltic and the Elbe, became the 
first objects of attack from Pagans seeking vengeance 
on Christian communities. Lindisfarne was totally 
destroyed in A.I). 793 ; and in 794, after the " heathen 
men " had ravaged Northumberland, they destroyed 
Ecgferth's monastery at Weremouth. 

The Pagans who invaded Ireland probably sailed Their raids on 
from the fiords of Norway about the same time that Ireland, A.D. 

795-812 

those from Denmark had sailed for England ; but, 
sailing round the north of Scotland, and passing from 
island to island, and probably forming settlements in 
the Orkneys, Hebrides, and Shetland isles, they did 
not reach the north-east coast of Ireland until A.D. 
795. 1 The words of the annals of Innisfallen are : 
"A.D. 795. The Danes were first seen cruizing on 
the coasts of Ireland prying out the country." They 
attacked and plundered the ships of the Irish, and 
then proceeded to plunder those Irish islands on which 
the desire for a hermit life had led many ecclesiastics 
to form small religious establishments. 

According to the Annals of the Four Masters in They plunder 
A.D. 795, "The 'heathen men' burned the island of bund retreat*. 
Rechru " (between Scotland and the north coast of 
Ireland), " and broke and plundered the shrines." 3 In 

1 Ogygia, p. 433. Brut y Ty- 7 vols., 4to., Dublin, 1851 (here 
wysogion, A.D. 795. Ann. Ulst. after quoted as Ann. 4 Mast.), vol. 
give the date 794. i., p- 3{) 7> " [" T^ 8 was one of the 

2 Annals of the Four Masters, many names of the island of Rath- 
translated by J. O'Donovan, LL.D., lin, off the north coast of Antrim; 



12 



illK SCANDINAVIANS, AND 



BOOK I. 
CHAP. I. 



Their raids 
retaliatory. 



Not mere 
piracy. 



A.D. 798 they burned St. Patrick's Island (on the east 
coast), and bore away the shrine of St. Dachonna. 1 
In A.D. 807 they burned the churches in the island of 
Innishmurry on the coast of Sligo ; 8 and in A.D. 812 
plundered the island of Scelig Michel 3 (off the coast 
of Kerry), took the anchorites and kept them captive 
until they perished for want of food. 4 

From proceedings so closely resembling those of 
the invaders of France, commenced at the same period, 
and by the same people, it might be inferred that the 
invasion of Ireland originated in the same cause, and 
had the same object ; and that the sacrilegious devas- 
tations on our coasts, so far from being unprovoked 
aggressions on Christian lands, were acts of retalia- 
tion and revenge for injuries inflicted on a Pagan people 
by a Christian Emperor, and his propagandist army. 

Nevertheless, the love of piracy, which charac- 
terized the Scandinavians of the 8th and 9th centuries, 
and the Viking expeditions which closely followed, 
and which perhaps, in some cases, were contempo- 
raneous with the successes of the first invaders, has 
apparently influenced the opinion, that they were 
alike the effect of a desire for plunder and bloodshed. 



but it was also the ancient name of 
Lambay, near Dublin, which is 
probably the place here referred 
to." J. O'Donovan, Ibid. Such 
also is Dr. Reeves' opinion. 
" Wars of the Gaeclhil with the 
Gaill," p. xxxii., n. 5.] 

1 Id. 793 (= 798). [" Dr. 
O'Donovan understood the Inis- 
patrick here mentioned of the island 
so called on the coast of Dublin. 
But the mention of Dachonna, who 



was Bishop of Man, proves that 
Peel, on the west of the Isle of Man, 
formerly called Insuln Patricii, is 
intended. See Colgan Actt. S. S. 
(ad 1 3 Jan.), p. 50 ; Chronicle of 
Man, by P. M. Munch, p. 23, 
Christiania, I860." Wars of the 
Gaedhil with the Gaill, p. xxxv., 
n. 1.] This identification is due to 
the Rev. Dr. Reeves. 

8 Id. 807. 

8 Id. 812. Ibid. 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 



13 



It is urged that, when we read of clergy slaughtered, BOOK i. 
of churches plundered, and of relics shaken from their C " AF ' L 
shrines, we should recollect that relics were worth- 
less to Pagans, pirates who only valued the gold or martyri> 
silver shrines in which these relics were enclosed ; 
that churches were the repositories of coveted 
treasure, and that the slaughter of clergy might not 
be in all cases a religious martyrdom, as in the 8th 
and 9th centuries the clergy fought and fell like 
other soldiers in the ranks of armies opposed to the 
invaders. 

In France, where the bishops had large territorial But slain i 
possessions, they voluntarily led their vassals to 
battle, and the inferior 1 clergy followed their ex- 



fight. 



' Cap. Reg. Franc., p. 405. In 
the first capitulary, A.D. 769, p. 
1 89, the clergy were forbid to fight 
as soldiers ; but apparently they 
disregarded the ordinance, as, in 
A.D. 803, the chiefs of the army, 
and the people solicited Charle- 
magne to prevent bishops, abbots, 
and clergy, from joining the army 
and fighting in its ranks. The 
Italian bishops and clergy also 
fought against the Pagans at 
the close of the 8th century, 
although not compelled to do so. 
Epist. ad Fastrad. ap. Du Chesne, 
p. 187. Concilia Ant. Gall., vol. 
ii., p. 158. Ann. 4 Mast., A.D. 799, 
(= 804). 

In 832, when King Egbricht was 
defeated by the Danes, " Bishops 
Ilereferth and Wigfert, with two 
dukes, were slain in the battle, " Hen . 
Hunt. ap. Twysden, p. 1 98. In A.D. 
868, King Buhred is said to have 
thanked the bishops, abbots, and 



others of lower rank, who, although 
freed from all military services by 
King Ethelwulf, "yet had joined 
the army of the Lord against those 
most wicked Pagans" the Danes. 
Ingulph. ap. Gall., vol. i., p. 20. 
Codex Dip. Sax., vol. ii., p. 93. 
Bishop Heahmund was slain 
fighting against the Danes. Sax. 
Chron., A.D. 871. And Cenulf, 
the Abbot, met the same fate, A.D. 
905. 

In Ireland, so late as A.D. 915, 
Archbishop Maelmaedhog was slain 
fighting against the Danes; and 
Fergus, Bishop of Kildare, and 
Abbot Dunchadh, met the same 
fate, A.D. 885. Cormac Mac 
Cuileannan, King and Bishop of 
Cashel, with the Abbot of Trian- 
Corcaigh were slain fighting 
against the King of Leinster, A.D. 
903, Ann. 4 Mast. ; and it is even 
recorded, ibid. A.D. 816, that the 
monks of one monastery fought 



14 



THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 



BOOK i. 
CUAP.I. 



Raids of the 






Raids into the 

interior of Ire- 
land, A.D. 807. 



ample. In England and Ireland the clergy -\v 
compelled to serve in the armies of their sovereign : 
and from this military service the Irish clergy were 
not relieved until A.D. 804 ; nor was it until A.D. 854 
that the English clergy obtained a similar exemption. 
Yet long after these periods they continued to wield 
the temporal sword, and alternately to wear the 
casque and the cowl. 

These raids, however, are insufficient to show 
that all the first invaders were mere pirates, and 
plunder their sole object. Such a theory requires 
to be sustained by stronger evidence, opposed as it 
is to historical statements, supported by incontro- 
vertible facts. 

Unquestionably, the invasion commenced almost 
immediately after Charlemagne had driven Witikind 
&n & his Saxon followers into the sterile regions of 
the North; and whatever might have been the 
piratical tendencies of the Northmen, they had never 
invaded a Christian territory, destroyed a Christian 
church, or slain a Christian priest, until Charlemagne 
had destroyed the homes, the temples, and the idols 
of the Saxons. It is questionable, indeed, whether 
previously they had ever sailed out of the Baltic ; 
but if they did, it is certain that previously they 
never had attempted to colonize or dwell in Christian 
lands. 

Those who came between A.D. 795 and 807, appear 



with those of another, "400 of lay 
and churchmen being slain " in one 
of these contests. Todd's Life of 
S. Patrick, p. 158-1 GG. "About 
this time (1174) Peter Leouis, the 



Pope's Legate, came to England, 
and obtained from Henry II., 
amongst other articles, that ck-rks 
should not be compelled to go to 
war." Roger de Wendover. 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 15 

to have had no other object than devastation and BOOK L 
pillage. They landed, plundered, and departed. C *^ L 
But whether these invaders were Norwegians, Danes, 
Swedes, or Jutes, it is difficult to determine. In 
A.D. 807 they began to make incursions into the 
interior of the country. 1 In that year, after burning 
the Island of Innishmurry, 3 they marched into Ros- 
common. 3 In 812 they landed again, and entered 
Conneinara, where they " slaughtered the inhabi- 
tants." They also entered Mayo, where " they were 
(defeated) by the men of Umhall ;" 4 and in A.D. 813, 
having again entered Mayo, and defeated " the men 
of Umhall/' they slew Cosgrach, son of 5 Flannabhrad, 
and Dunadhach, lord of the territory. 

Their course can be clearly traced. Issuing from Course of the 

Northmen to 

the fiords of Norway, they sailed along the east coast Ireland, 
of Scotland to the Frith of Forth, and territory of 
the Scottish Picts, and thence to Northumbria and 
East Anglia, where the invaders first became settlers 
in England. Their course along the west side of 
Scotland was among the Orkneys, the Hebrides, and 
Western Isles, to the North of Ireland, and thence 
by Larne (or Ulfricksford), Strangford, and Carling- 
ford, down to Dublin ; the first settlement being in 
Ulster, and the territory of the Irish Picts. There 
is no record of any attempts made to settle for 
twenty years after 795, when the Pagans first came 

1 Ogygia, P- 433. " Hiberniam 3 Ibid., Ann. Clonmac., A.D. 804. 

primiim incursionibus intrarunt." Ann. Ult., A.D. 806. 
Ann. 4 Mast., A.D. 802 (== * Ann. 4 Mast., A.D. 812 [Um- 

807). tall Lower was the barony of 

1 [An island off the coast of the Borrishool : Umhall Upper was tho 

barony of Carbury, county of Sligo. barony of Murrisk]. 
^-J. O'D., LL.D., ibid,'] Ibid., A.D. 813. 



16 THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 

BOOK i. to Ireland. During that time they landed, plundered, 
C !^1 L and departed. 

Lt of raids, In 819 they plundered Howth, and the islands at 
' the mouth of Wexford Harbour. 1 In 820 they 
plundered Cape Clear and Cork. 2 In 821 they 
spoiled and ransacked Bennchoir. 3 In 823 they 
plundered Dun da-Leathghlas. 4 They defeated " the 
Osraighi," but were worsted by " the Ulidians." In 

824 they burned Lusk, 5 and spoiled all Meath. In 

825 they "destroyed Dun-Laighen,"and slew the "son 
of Cuchongelt, lord of Forthuatha." In 826 they 
were overthrown by the Ui Ceinnsealaigh, 7 and again 
by the Ulidians." 8 In 827 they "burned Lannlere 9 
and Clonmor." 1 In 829 they plundered Conaille, 
and took " its king and his brother, and carried them 
with them to their ships." In 830 they plundered 
" Daimhliag, 11 and the tribe of Cianachta, with all 
their churches ;" and took "Ailill, son of Colgan," and 
plundered Lughmhadh, 12 and many other churches; 
and "carried off Tuatal, son of Fearadhach," plundering 
Ard Macha 13 thrice in one month, as it had never been 
plundered by strangers before. In 8 3 1 they plundered 
Rath Luirigh. 14 In 832 they plundered Cluain Dol- 

1 Ann. 4 Mast. [/</., The ancient name of 

2 [Id.] Dtmleer.] 

3 [id., Bangor in the county of 10 j-/ d<j Now Clonniore, a town- 
Down.] land in the parish of Clonmoiv. in 

4 \_ld., Downpatrick.] the barony of Ferrard, and county 
[/</., Lusk, in the county of ofLouth.] 

Dublin, twelve miles to the north a [/rf>> Duleek) ^ MeatL] 

of the city.] Al _ 

lid., In the county of Wick- - ^> Louth m *" count ? of 

low, near Glendalough.] Louth.] 

' lid., The Hy Kinshelas, now 13 lid., Armagh.] 

the county of Wexford.] M [/</., rect Rath Luraigh (Lu- 

*[!</., The Ulster men.] rach's fort) the ancient name t-i 




SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 17 

cain ; ' and, although they were defeated with great BOOK i. 
slaughter at Doire-Chalgaigh 2 by Uiall Caille and 
Murchadh, they plundered Loch Bricrenn, 3 in opposi- 
tion to Conghalach, son of Eochardh, whom they took 
prisoner, and afterwards killed at their ships. In 833 
they plundered " Gleann-da-locha, Slaine, and Fin- 
nabhair, 4 but were defeated by Dunadhach, son of 
Scannlan, lord of Ui Fidhgeinte, and many of them 
killed." In 834 they plundered Fearna, Cluain-mor- 
Maedhog, and Drum-h-Ing, 5 and burned "Mungairid, 6 
and other churches in Ormond." In 835 th^y burned 
" Cluain-mor-Maedhog on Christmas night, slaying 
many, and carrying off many as prisoners ; they like- 
wise burned the oratory of Gleann-da-locha, desolated 
all Connaught, plundered Cell-dara, 7 and burned half 
the church. In 836 Dubliter Odhar, of Teamhair, 
was taken prisoner, and put to death in his gyves at 
their ships." They had fleets on the Boyne and the 
Liffey, out of which "they plundered and spoiled 
Magh Liphthe 8 and Magh Breagh, 9 both churches 
and habitations of men, goodly tribes, flocks and 
herds ;" and, after being defeated by the " men t> 

Maghera, in the Countyof London- ster ; and Dromin (probably), near 

deny.] Dunshaughlin, in Meath.] 

1 [Id., Clondalkin, six miles S.W. [Id., Mungret, in the county 

of Dublin.] of Limerick.] 

* [Id., Derry (Londonderry).] 7 [Id., Kildare.] 

* [Id., Loughbrickland, in the 8 [Id., Magh Liphthe, the plain 
county of Down.] of the Liffey, now the county of 

4 [Id., Glendalough, in the Kildare.] 

county of Wicklow ; Slane, in 9 [7rf., Magh Breagh, a great 

Meath ; Fennor, on the river plain in the east of ancient Meath, 

Boyne, near Slane, in Meath.] comprising five cantreds or bar- 

* [Id., Ferns in the county of onies, lying between Dublin and 
W ex ford ; and Clonmore, in Lein- Drogheda.] 

C 



18 . THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 

BOOK i. Breagh," they defeated "the Ui Neill from the 
Cn !l L Sinainn to the sea," 1 

Arrival of TUT- In A.D. 815, however, " Turgesius, a powerful Xor- 
bi5. u *' wegian chieftain, landed," and from that time it i 

corded that the foreigners began to form settlements 
in Ireland. 2 Nevertheless, the same system of plunder 
and bloodshed, which marked the earlier invasions, 
long continued ; and, year after year, we find records 
of outrages by those Scandinavians, whose flu- 
infested our coasts. 
The "Dubh- Throughout these records of plunder and devasta- 

ghoill and the 

Finnghoiii." ^ion there is no intimation who the invaders were, or 
whence they came. The Irish gave to those invaders 
who came one common name of "Gaill," 3 or foreigners, 
no distinction appearing in the Annals of the Four 
Masters before A.D. 847, when it is stated that " a fleet 
of seven score ships of the king of the foreigners came 
to contend with the foreigners who were in Ireland 
before them." 4 After the arrival of this fleet, and the 
commencement of the contest which followed, two 
tribes are recognised, and as enemies to each other 
the " Dubhghoill " (or Black foreigners), supposed t < > 
be Danes, and the "Finnghoiii" (or White foreigners), 
supposed to be Norwegians. 

Auiaff of the I n A . D . 849, "the Dubhghoill arrived at Ath Cliath, 

Dubhghoill 

founds Dublin, and made a great slaughter of the Finnghoiii, 6 who 

A T> ft*)!? 

had settled there." In the same year there was 
" another depredation of the Dubhghoil on the Finn- 

i [7rf., Sinain, the Shannon.] sequently they are called Diilili 

* [Ogygia, Part iii.,c. 93, p. 433. Lochlunnaigh and Finn Loch- 

3 Ann. 4 Mast., A. n. 790, 793, 797. lannaigh. 

In the Annals of Ulster they are 4 Id., A.D. 847. 

termed "Gentiles," or Tagans; sub- 5 Id., A.D. 849. 



SCANDINAVIAN" ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 



ghoill at Linn Duacliaill." ' In A.D. 850 the Finnghoill, 
' : \vith a fleet of eight score ships arrived at Snarah 
Eidhneach to give battle to the Dubhghoill, and they 
fought with each other for three days and three nights, 
and again the Dubhghoill gained the victory." 2 But 
in 852 their hostility was terminated. For in that 
year "AulafF, son of the king of Lochlann, came to 
Ireland (and) all the foreign tribes of Ireland sub- 
mitted to him." 8 



BOOK I. 
CHAP. L 



CHAPTER II. 

The founding of Dublin. The story of Turgesius discussed. Aulaff, de- 
scended of Regnar Lodbrog, founds Dublin, A.D. 852 Legend of Aulaff, 
Sitric, and Ivar, three brothers, founding, respectively, Dublin, Water- 
ford, and Limerick, disproved. Irish and Danish names of the site of 
Dublin. Dublin and Northumbria for a century under the same Danish 
kings. Legend of Regnar' s death in Northumbria. Regnar put to 
death in Ireland by the Irish Regnar Lodbrog, the Thurgils, or 
Turgesius of Irish annals. Account of Turgesius from Dr. Todd's 
11 War of the Gaedhill with the Gaill." 

THIS young chieftain, mentioned at the close of CHAP. IL 

the first chapter as having defeated the Fingoill, and Aulaf > th 

& * wwte, de- 

received the submission of all the Scandinavians in scended of 

Regnar Lod- 

Ireland, and settled at Dublin, was known by the brog, founds 

Dublin, A.I.. 

oro 

1 [Ibid. Not Magheralin in the Lough. Cearbhall, A.D. 873, assisted 



county of Down, as at first supposed 
by J. O'Donovan, LL.D., but (as 
since ascertained by the Rev. Dr. 
Reeves) a place near the village of 
Annagassan, at the tidal opening 
of the junction of the rivers Glydo 
and Dee, in the county of Louth. 
Todd's " War of the Gacdhil with 
tin- liaill." p. Ixii., n. 1.] 

2 Ibid., A.D. 850. Snamh Kidh- 
neach or Aighneach is Carlingford 



by the Danes under Gorm, attacked 
the Lochlans or Norwegians in 
Minister. Gorm then went to sea 
and was killed by Ruaidhri, king of 

the Britons Three Fragments, 

133. 

3 Ann. 4 Mast. 851 Ann. Inisf. 
853 Ann. Ult. 852, " Aulaiv, king 
of Lochlann, came into Ireland, and 
all the foreigners submitted to him, 
and had rent from the Irish." 

02 






20 



THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 



BOOK i. various names of Aulaf, Aulaiv, Anililaeibh, Amaleff, 
CHAP_II. and Amlevus, was Qlaf the White," son of Inguald, 
king of Uplands, a descendant of Regnar Lodbrog, one 
of the preceding invaders. 1 

Northern history states that in one of his viking 
expeditions Olaf took Dublin, and was made king of 
it, and of the " Dyflinarskidi," 2 a territory around 
the city, and this statement is corroborated by Irish 
annals that he was made king of Dublin, and " of 
the land in Ireland called Fingal "- that he built a 
"Dun" at Clondalkin, and that he "exacted rent 
(scatt) from the Irish." 3 Fingal being the northern 
part of the Dyflinarskidi, and Clondalkin being in 
the southern part, about four miles from the city 
fortress. 
Legend of the Modern history adds that. Aulaf was accompanied 

brothers Aulaf, . J 

Sitric, and ivar bv his brothers. Sitric and Ivar that "they built 

founding Dub- " 

lin, Waterford, first the three cities of Dublin, Waterford, and 

and Limerick, 

disproved. Limerick, of which Dublin fell to the share and was 
under the government of Aulaf, Waterford of Sitric, 



1 Eyrbyggia Saga, p. 5. " Oleifr- 
hinn Hvite," or Olaf the White, 
was son of Inguald, son of Thora, 
daughter of Sigurd Anguioculus, 
son of Regnar Lodbrog. 

In Landnamabok, p. 106, he 
is stated to be " son of King 
Inguald, son of Helgi (and Thora), 
son of Olaf, son of Gudrand, son 
of Halfden Whitefoot, king of Up- 
lands. " 

2 Landnamabok, Havnifc, 1774, 
p. 106, " Dyflina a Irlandi oc 
Dyflinarskidi." Jn Magnus Bare- 
foot's Saga, c. .\.\v., it is called 
Dyflinarskiri. 



8 Ann. 4 Mast. A.D. 866. This 
Dun or residence of Aulaf was 
burned by the Irish during his 
absence in Scotland in A.D. 868. 
[" AmlafTs fortress (lonspofic) at 
Clondalkin had been burned by the 
Irish (865=808, Four Mast.), who 
gibbeted 100 heads of the slain. 
The next year his son Carlus fell 
in battle. These outrages probably 
excited his thirst for vengeance ; and 
on his return in 870 he plundered 
and burned Armagh (Four Mast. 
867=870)." War of the flnoflhil 
with the Gaill, p. Ixxx. (Dr. T 
Note.)] 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 21 

and Limerick of Ivar ;" ! but of this legend, which BOOK t 
apparently originated with Giraldus Cambrensis, 
there is no trace whatsoever in the Annals of Ulster, 
of Clonmacnois, or of the Four Masters, or in the 
Chronicon Scotorum, or in the War of the Gaedhil 
with the Gaill, or in any Irish manuscript known to 
us. There is no allusion in any of them to the' 
building of cities by Aulaf or his followers, or to his 
having had brothers named Ivar and Sitric. On the 
contrary, they record the building of a fortress at 
Dublin 8 twelve years before Aulaf came to Ireland, 
and do not even mention the name of Sitric until 
nearly forty years after, when they record the death 
of a Sitric, 3 who was (not the brother, but) the son 
of Ivar ; and while we have an uninterrupted succes- 
sion of Scandinavian kings in Dublin, there is no 
record of any Scandinavian king in Waterford until 
903, or in Limerick till 940. 

In fact, if we except the interpolated Annals of 
Innisfallen, the only Irish authority for stating that 
Aulaf had any brothers, is Dudley M'Firbis's " Three 
Fragments of Irish History," in which it is said that 
he had brothers named Ivar and Oisile, and that, in 
a fit of jealousy, he slew the latter. 4 

1 GiralduCambrensis,Top.Hib., 8 Ann. 4 Mast. A.D. 840. Ann. 

lib. 3, cap. xliii. Giraldus was Clonmac. 838. 

copied by Higden, Polychronicon, 8 Ibid. A.D. 891 " Sitric, son of 

lib. 1, Her. Scrip., voL iii., p. 182; Ivar, was slain by other Norse- 

and Higden was avowedly copied men." 

by Keating, Hist, of Ireland; and * Ann. 4 Mast. A.D. 861. "Amh- 

M'Geoghegan, Histoire d'Irlande, laeibh, Imhar, and Uailsi, three 

vol. i., p. 387. Ware (Ant. IreL, chieftains of the foreigners, and 

Lon., 1705, p. 59), also copies from Lorcan, son of Cathal, Lord of 

Giraldus the story of the three Meath, plundered the hind of 

brothers building the three cities. Flann." Ann. Ult. A.D. 861 f 



22 THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 

BOOK i. While, on the other hand, Scandinavian authorities 
. are no j. on jy g ji en t respecting the brotherhood of Aulaf 
with Ivar, Sitric, and Oisile, but supply conclusive 
evidence that no such connexion existed : they dis- 
tinctly state that Ivar, so frequently named in Irish 
and English history, was the son of Regnar Lodbrog, 
and thus only allied to Aulaf, the probability being 
that Ivar came to Ireland to avenge the death of his 
father (who perished in A.D. 845), and that he came, 
not with Aulaf in A.D. 852, but that his was " the fleet 
of the king of the foreigners" which reached our 
shores in A.D. 847. 1 The difference of age which this 
implies suggests no difficulty. We know that Biorn 
Ironsides and another son of Regnar Lodbrog were 
then invading France, and we know that military life 
began so early and was continued so long, that three 
generations frequently fought side by side. Nor 
did Aulaf subsequently obtain any other Irish ter- 
ritory from which he could have exacted tribute. 
For although in 857 he invaded Meath with his com- 
panion Ivar, and his ally Cearbhall, and plundered it 
in 860, and again in 861, there is no trace that 
Aulaf obtained any dominion over it. If it be sug- 
gested that it is shown by the statements respecting 
Ivar and Sitric that Aulaf retained the power which 
Turgesius possessed, and that he " named a North- 
man king for each province," it is sufficient to reply 
that these statements, although very generally 
adopted, are almost obviously incorrect. 

" The three kings of the foreigners, a Langebek, voL 1, pp. 283-344. 

Aulaiv, Ivar, and Auislc, entered Ibid. vol. i. p. 540; vol. ii. p. 14. 

the land of Flann." Here there is Ordericus Vitalis apud Du Cheane, 

no mention of Sitric. p. 458. 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 23 

The place where Aulaf fixed his residence the Irish BOOK i. 
called " Ath Cliath," or " the ford of Hurdles," 1 from Cn L 1L 
the wicker bridge by which the great road from DanuJTnam 
Tara was continued across the Liffey into Cualann. Dublin! 118 
The Scandinavians called it " Dyflin," a corruption 
of the Irish name for that inlet at the confluence of 
the Poddle and the Liffey, which formed a harbour 
where ships were moored, and which the Irish called 
" Dubhlinn " or " the Black pool," from the dark 
colour given to the water by the bog which extends 
under the river. 

The Anglo-Norman charter writers of Henry the 
Second latinized its Ostman name into " Duvelina," 
and those of King John brought it nearer the name 
it has since retained. About ten years before the 
arrival of Aulaf a body of foreigners, probably Nor- 
wegians, landed at " Dubhlinn of Ath Cliath " and 
erected a fortress near where Dublin Castle now 
stands, and around this fortress the city grew and 
continued to be the scourge of their Irish neighbours. 
Out of it they " plundered Leinster and the Ui Neill, 
both territories and churches ; " 2 nor was their career 
of spoliation checked until A.D. 845, when they were 
defeated and " twelve hundred of them slain at Carn 
Brammit by Cearbhall, son of Dunghal, lord of 
Ossory." 3 

Weakened by this defeat and the death of Tur- 
gesius, they were unable to prevent Maelsechlainn 

1 Irish writers celebrated it under linn of Ath Cliath," &c. 

various names, while in possession * [Ann. 4 Mast., A.D. 840.] 

of the Ostmen as " Ath Cliath of 3 [Id., The situation of Cam 

ships," " Ath Cliath of swords," Brammit has not been identi- 

and call the harbour " The Dubh- fied.] 



THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 



BOOK I. 
CHAP. II. 



Dublin and 
Northnmbria 
for a century 
under the same 
kings. 



Legend of 
Regnar's death 
in Northum- 
bria. 



and Tighearnach from " plundering Dubhlinn '' in 
847; but if with the harbour the fortress also was 
taken, it was not long retained, for new fleets having 
arrived in A.D. 847, the Foreigners assisted " Cinaedh, 
son of Conang, lord of Cianachta Breagh," 1 to rebel 
against Maelsechlainn and to plunder the Ui Neill 
from the Shannon to the sea ; nor did they permit 
Maelsechlainn's ally to escape with impunity, they 
entered the territory of Tighearnach, " plundered 
the island of Loch Gabhor, 2 and afterwards burned 
it, so that it was level with the ground." 3 

But the high position which Dublin held amid the 
colonies of the Northmen, is more evident from its 
connexion with Northumberland, which, extending 
from the river Humber to Scotland, and having 
York for its capital, was governed for nearly a 
century by the kings of Dublin, or by kings of the 
same race. 4 

Northern and English historians concur in stating 
that Ivar, son of Regnar Lodbrog, King of Denmark 



1 [The river Ainge (now the 
Nanny) flows through the middle 
of the territory of Cianachta 
Breagh, dividing the barony of 
Upper Duleek from that of Lower 
Duleek, in the county of Meath. 
J. O'Donovan, LL.D., Ann. 4 
Mast.] 

2 [Or Loch Gower, now Logore, 
near the town of Dunshaughlin in 
the county of Meath. Id., Ibid.'] 

8 In 849 " The people of King 
Maelsechlainn and Tighearnach 
lord of Loch Gabhor, captured 
Cinaedh, enveloped him in a sack, 
and drowned him in the Ainge." 

* Northumberland includedpeira 



and Bernicia " Deira extended 
from the Humber to the Tync, 
Bernicia from the Tync to Scot- 
land." Caradoc, p. 26. Northum- 
bria was culled in the Sagas " the 
fifth part of England." Egils Saga, 
llafniae, 1809, p. 266. Northum- 
berland, Westmorland, Cumber- 
land, and part of Lancashire, arc 
omitted in the Doomsday Book as 
not being part of England. The 
connexion between Dublin and 
Northumberland, and the fact that 
Northumberland was long governed 
by the kings of Dublin or by kings 
of the same race, is not mentioned 
in any English history. 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 25 

and Norway, invaded England and conquered Nor- BOOK L 
thumberland, but they differ widely respecting the CHAP ' IL 
cause and consequence of that invasion. The 
generally received legend is, that Regnar Lodbrog, 
having invaded Northumberland with a small Danish 
fleet and army, was defeated and captured by Ella, 
then the reigning sovereign, and by his orders 
thrown into a cave where he was stung to death by 
serpents ; and further, that Ivar, to avenge his 
father's death, invaded Northumberland, seized Ella, 
inflicted on him the craelest tortures/ and then 
became King of Northumberland. 2 Yet, generally 
adopted as this legend is, it chiefly rests on the 
authority of the Lodbrog Quida, the supposed death- 
song of Regnar, and on an " Icelandic fragment " 
not written before the twelfth century. Its story of 
Ella's victory and Regnar's death in Northumber- 
land is not to be found in more trustworthy Northern 
history, nor is it to be found in any old English 
Chronicle or early English history. The Saxon 
Chronicle has no allusion whatsoever to the supposed 
events. It neither alludes to the alleged cruelty of 
Ella, or the consequent vengeance of Regnar' sons. 
It neither mentions Regnar's name, nor does it 
assign any cause either for the invasion of East 
Anglia in 86G, or for that of Northumbria in A.D. 
867, neither does Ethel werd, William of Malmes- 
bury, Simeon of Durham, Florence of Worcester, or 
Henry of Huntingdon ; and Asser, who lived at the 
period, and wrote soon after it, only mentions Regnar 

1 [Islendzkir AnnaL, p. 5. Tur- trans.) ii., p. 30.] 
ner's Anglo-Saxons, second edition, * Langcbek, Rer. Scrip., vol. ii., 
i., 223. Lappcnbcrg (Thorpe's p. 278. Sax. Gram. 



:?G THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 

BOOK i. Lodbrog as being the father of " Hinguar and Hubba," 
CuAr - IL neither assigning any cause for the invasion of Nor- 
thumberland, or making any allusion to Ella's cruelty 
or Regnar's death. 

Apparently the first English historian who 
assigned any cause for the invasion of Northumbria 
by the Northmen, was Geoffry Gaimar, who wrote 
about the middle of the twelfth century, 1 but the cause 
which he assigns has no connexion whatsoever with 
Ella, or Regnar, or Regnar's sons. His statement 
is, that the invasion originated from the revenge of 
Buerno, an English nobleman, for an injury received 
from King Osbright, and in this story Gaimar is 
followed by Brompton. 

But if Gaimar were the first to assign a cause for 
the Danish invasion of Northumberland, Roger of 
Wendover, a writer of the thirteenth century, was 
probably the first to chronicle the death of Regnar 
Lodbrog; yet in doing so he also wholly differs from 
the Northern legend, his story being that Regnar, 
while hawking on the coast of Denmark, was driven 
out to sea by a storm and cast on the English coast 
and murdered, not in Northumbria by Ella, but in 
East Anglia by the huntsman of its king, Edmund. 
Nor is it less conclusive of the Northern legend, that 
although the almost universal testimony of English 
history is, that Edmund, king of East Anglia, was 
cruelly martyred by Hinguar and Hubba, the sons 
of Regnar Lodbrog, there is not a line in English 
history to show that Ella, king of Northumberland, 

1 Monum. Britt. p. 795. Geffri 2 Brompton, Hist. Ang. Script., 
Gaimar, 1. 2593, et teq. npud Twyaden, p. 803. 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 27 

was tortured by them, or anyone else ; all testimony BOOK i. 
being that he was slain in battle in 867. 1 And CH ^L IL 
further, if the Northern legend were true, Ella must 
have captured Regnar Lodbrog some years before 
Northumbria was -invaded by Regnar's sons. But, 
there is only one authority for the statement that 
Ella reigned, except during the years 866 and 867 ; 
and, even supposing that Simeon of Durham is correct 
in stating that Ella's reign commenced in 862, Regnar 
must have invaded Northumbria, and have been 
captured by Ella between that year and 866. Yet, 
not only is there no record of such events, but there 
is no record of any invasion whatsoever, or any land- 
ing in Northumberland by Regnar or any other 
Scandinavian during that period. 2 

Northern historians also differ respecting the period 
in which this celebrated leader lived. Nor do they 
agree about his death they either make no allusion 
to it, or differ about the date of it. And so glaring 
are their anachronisms that Torfoeus suggests the 
existence of two Regnar Lodbrogs, and Suhm of three, 
with two successive Ellas, by whom the three Regnars 
were killed. 3 

All English history being thus opposed to the story Regnar LOU- 

of Regnar's death in Northumberland, and the torture death in ire- 
land by the 

1 Chron. Mailros, A.D. 867. until after the middle of the ninth Insh * 

3 Rafer, who was misled by the century, and was slain by Regnar 

statements of Turner, says, in a Lodbrog's sons in 866. 

preface to the Krakas Haal, Copen- 8 Torfoeus Series Dynastarum, 

hagen, 1826, p. 40" Vers la fin &c., Hafnise, 1702, p. 346. Suhm, 

du huiticme siecle do 1'ere chrc- Hist, of Danemark, Kiobeh, 1828. 

tienne Regnar Lodbrog, Roi de Mallet (Hist. Danemarc, Genete, 

Danemark, fut fait prisonnier par 1787, vol. iii., p. 35) also supposes 

son enneiui Ella," &c., &c. But that there were two Regnar Lod- 

Ella did not commence his reign brogs. 



28 THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 

BOOK i. of Ella by Regnar's sons, and this story having little 
CHAP^II. SU pp 0r t from Northern history, we may claim atten- 
tion for the much more numerous Scandinavian 
authorities, which state that Regnar Lodbrog perished 
in Ireland, being captured and put to death by Hella 
(Ailill), an Irish prince. It is distinctly stated by 
Saxo Grammaticus 1 that Regnar Lodbrog invaded 
Ireland, and, having killed its king, Melbricus, be- 
sieged and took Dublin, where he remained a year. 
Unfortunately, Saxo is not equally clear respecting 
Hella he says that "the Galli" having expelled 
Ivar, Regnar's son, and conferred the authority of 
king on Hella, son of Hamon, " Regnar landed, and 
after a protracted battle, forced Hella to fly, although 
supported by the valour of the Galli." 

But whether these Galli were the people of Wales 
or the Welsh of Cornwall, who were in constant com- 
munication with the people of the south of Ireland, 
and Hella, an Irish prince, who then ruled over them, 
we are left to conjecture. Saxo, however, adds, that 
" Hella, having repaired to the Irish, put to death 
all who had joined Regnar;" and that "Regnar 
attacking him with a fleet," was captured and thrown 
into prison, where he paid the just penalty for his 
persecution of Christians. 2 

1 Saxo Grammat., Danica Hist., in opem filiis Hyberniam petit, 

Frankfort, 1576, p. 158. " Verum occisoque ejus regc Melbrico, Dy- 

hanc moeroris acerbitatem Ivari ilinain barbaris opibus refertissi- 

regno pulsi repentinus detraxit ad- mam obsedit, oppugnavit, accepit; 

ventus. Quippe Galli, fugato eo, ibiquc annuo stativis habitis," &c., 

in Hellam qucndam Hamon is (ilium &c., ct seq. 

falsain regis contulerant potcsta- LLangcbck, vol. i., p. 268, A.D. 

tern, &c., &c. 826 " Persecutio Regneriana con- 

"Cumque ibidem Regnerus annum tra Xovitios Christianos." Saxo, 

victor explcwet consequenter excitia p. 1 58, "Superveniens enim Regne- 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 



29 



The " Chronicle of Danish Kings " l repeats these 
statements of Saxo respecting Regnar's invasion 
of Ireland, his "taking of Dublin," and Hella's 
actions among the Irish. Nor is the "Lodbrokar 
Quida" 2 more explict, for although it states that 
Rejmar's final battles were in Ireland and in Wales 

o 

it neither names the place where Regnar perished 
or the kingdom where Ella reigned. 

But in the Chronicle of King Eric we find the 
explicit statement that Regnar having conquered 
many countries was " at length killed in Ireland," 3 
Hamsfort being equally explicit in stating that 
Regnar was captured by Hella, an Irish prince, and 
put to death in prison. 4 

Let us now see how far these statements are con- 
sistent with Irish history. 



BOOK L 
CHAP. II. 



rus inductaque per eum sacra teme- 
rans, vera religione proscripta 
pristine adulterinam loco restituit 
ac suo ceremonias honore denarii." 
Pontoppidan Gesta et Vestigia 
Danorum, 1740, vol. ii, p. 301 et 
298, quoting Saxo Gramm., has 
the marginal note " Gesta Regnari 
Lodbr. et mors calamitosa in Hi- 
bernia." Pontoppidan, vol. ii., and 
Torfceus Dynast, et Reg. Dan. 
have collected much respecting 
Regnar Lodbrog, but were utterly 
ignorant of Irish history, which, in 
fact, was almost a dead letter until 
the publication of O'Conor, Rer. 
Hib. Script., and the translation of 
the Four Masters by O'Donovan. 

1 Chron. Reg. Dan. Langebek, 
vol. 1, p. 110, et seq. 

2 Lodbrokar Quida, Copenhagen, 
1782. Johnstone,Stroph.xx., trans 



lates " Lindiseyri " Leinster, which 
is probably correct, as " Erin's 
blood" is mentioned immediately 
after. Others have supposed it 
to be Lindesness in Norway, or 
Lindesey in England Vide Kra- 
kas Maal, Rafer., Copenh., 1826, 
p. 135. Johnstone also surmises 
that the Irish king, Marstan, of the 
poem is the Melbricus of Saxo. 

3 Langebek, voL L, p. 156, 
Regneri Lothbroki : " Iste subju- 
gavitAngliam,Scotiam,Hyberniam, 
Norwegiam, Sweicam, Teutoniam, 
Slaviam, Rusciam, et omnia regna 
occidentis ; ita quod ix. filios suos 
in singulis terris reges fecit et ipse 
de uno regno in aliud inter eos 
pertransivit. Tandem in Hybernia 
occisus est," &c., &c. 

4 Hamsfort, Series Regum ; Lan- 
gebek, vol. i., p. 36. "Qui Reg- 



30 



THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 



BOOK I. 
CHAP. II. 



Regnar Lod- 
brog the 
Thurgils or 



In our annals wo find several princes of thu name 
of Ella, or as written by Irish scribes, 1 Ailill ; and 
one of these, Ailill, son of Dunlang, King of Leinster, 
is stated to have been " slain by the Norsemen " on 
the return of Ivar from Scotland in A.D. 870, 2 but 
with the exception of his having been put to death 
by the Norsemen there is nothing to identify him 
with the Ella of Saxo. 

Of Regnar Lodbrog there is no mention by any 
of our annalists, but they celebrate the actions of a 

Turgesius of 

Irish Annals. Danish or Norwegian king whom they call Turgesius ; 
and the dates and facts in their history of this King 
Turgesius correspond with and strongly resemble 
those in the Scandinavian history of Regnar. 

Assuming that the authorities quoted by Torfocus 
are correct, 3 and that Regnar Lodbrog began his 
reign and conquests between A.D. 809 and 818, and 
was put to death between the years 841 and 865, 
we find in the Annals of Innisfallen that, A.D. 815, 
"the Danish king Turgesius came to plunder and 
conquer Ireland," 4 he and his followers being cruel 
enemies to Christianity. 



nerus ab Hella Hybernorum rcgulo 
captus gravi supplicio afficitur, 
anno 854." The account given by 
Peter Olaus of Regnar's capture by 
Ella, an Irish prince, and his death 
in Ireland, is nearly similar to 
that, given by Saxo Grammaticus ; 
Meurseu and Kroeutzer give the 
like accounts. 

1 That Ella was killed in battle 
together with Osbright has been 
already shown. Ella's death in 
Northumbria is recorded thus in 
the Annals of Ulster: u A. p. 806." 



Battle upon Saxons of the north, 
&c., &c., wherein Ailill [Alii] 
"king of Saxons was killed." 
Ann. 4 Mast., p. 503, n. 

2 Ann. Ult, 870.; Ann. 4 Most., 
869. 

8 Torfccus, Ser. Reg. Dan., p. 
389. Huisfeldens gives Regnar's 
reign 818 and death 865; Lys- 
chander 812 and 841; and Sva- 
ninguis 815, and his death 841. 
Langebek, vol. 1, p. 268-854. 

4 Ann. Innisf. A.D. 81. "t et 
Ogygia, p. 433. Anno 807 Hiber- 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 31 

The Annals of the Four Masters add that, A.D. 830, BOOK 
the Norsemen " took King Maelbrighde (the King 
Melbricus of Saxo) and carried him to their ships." * 
That, in 836, they took Dublin, 2 where Turgesius 
subsequently reigned; and that, in 843, King Mael- 
seachlain captured Turgesius, 3 and put him to death 
by causing him to be thrown into Loch Uair, 4 where 
he was drowned ; and, further, that, A.D. 846, " Tomh- 
rair, earl, tanist (or chosen successor) of the king 
of Lochlan, was killed in battle by Ollchovar, king 
of Munster, and Cellach, king of Leinster." 5 

From this coincidence of dates and facts, it might 
be inferred that the Irish Turgesius and the Scandi- 
navian Regnar were identical, Turgesius 6 being the 
Latin form ofThorgils (pronounced Turgils), literally 
signifying "the servant of Thor;" and Tomar, or 
Thormodr, signifying " Thorsman," or one devoted 
to Thor, 7 the Scandinavian deity. Such names might, 
have been assumed by, or applied to, Regnar and his 

niam primum incursionibus intra- Keating and M'Gcoghcgan) is the 

runt; deinde anno 812. Demilm repetition of an old story. See 

anno 815 Turgesius Norwegus Plutarch Life of Pelopidas ; see 

in Hibemiam appulit et exiude also Herodotus, &c. 
ibidem fixas sedes habere coepe- 6 Thorgils is a common name in 

runt. Chronologia Anschariana, Northern history, but there is no 

Langebek vol. i., p. 531, as to the mention of any king, prince, or 

death of Horrick vel Regnar A.D. chieftain of the name of Turgesius. 

846. It is a name unknown to all history 

1 Ann. 4 Mast. 830. Saxo Gram., except as used by the Irish. 

p. 158. 7 Thormodr was a very general 

2 Ibid. 836. name of the priests of Thor, vid. 
8 Ibid. 843. Ann. Ult. 844. Landnam, p. 70. Thormod Godi, p. 
4 [Lough Owel, in the county of 19; Thormodr Allsheriar Godi ; 

Westmeath. J. O'D., LL.D.] Thormodr Godi; Thormodr pon- 

' lln'l. 846. Ann. Ult. 847 tifex, &c. Thors Rolf, who ik-.l 

The story of Turgesius captured by to Iceland, was Thorlf OP Thore 

young men disguised as women (see Roll', from being priest of Thor. 



32 THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 

BOOK i. successor, as worshippers of Thor and enemies of 
L Christianity, these virulent Pagans being designated 
as Thorsmen or followers of Thor, in contradistinction 
to Christsmen or followers of Christ. 

This suggestion is rendered more probable when 
we observe that those who are known to be the 
descendants and successors of Regnar Lodbrog are 
called, by the Irish, " the race of Tomar." The name 
is given to the pagan kings of Dublin who succeeded 
Ivar, the son of Regnar. Their chieftains are called 
"Tomar's chieftains," their subjects "the people 
of Tomar"; the king of Dublin himself being called 
" Prince Tomar," the badge of his authority " the 
ring of Tomar," and a wood near Dublin, " Tomar's 
wood," probably from having been devoted to the 
religious services of Thor. Nor do the Irish confine 
the name to pagan descendants of Regnar Lodbrog 
in Ireland. His descendant, grandson of Gormo 
Enske, king of Denmark, who renounced Christianity 
and embraced the religion of Thor, is called " Tomar 
mac Elchi " (Tomar, son of Enske) in the Book of 
Rights and other Irish manuscripts. 1 

But there are Irish legends which even more 
directly tend to identify these individuals. They 
state that Turgesius had "a lord deputy" named 
Gurmundus (the Latinized name of Gormo), and 
Scandinavian history records that Gormo was deputed 
to rule over Regnar's dominions during the absence 
of his sons. 2 

1 Gormo Enske was succeeded by 2 Fragm. Islandica, Langebek, vol. 

his son Harold, and Harold by his ii., p. 280. "Sigurd Anguioculus 

son Gormo. Langebek, vol. i., p. (Regnar's son) Bloejam Elloe regis 

16- filiam in matrimonio habuit. 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 33 

Nor should we omit to observe that the fact of BOOK L 
Iiegnar Lodbrog's death, not in Northumberland but CHAP * IL 
in Ireland, would explain what otherwise appears 
inconsistent in the proceedings of his son. For if 
Ivar's object were to avenge his father's death, it 
would show why Ireland, and not England, was the 
country he first invaded ; and it would not appear 
extraordinary that when he subsequently invaded 
England, he landed in East Anglia, having sailed past 
Northumbria without any attempt to molest its people 
or their king, a course difficult to account for if it 
were in Northumbria Iiegnar perished, and that there 
his slayer reigned. 

NOTE. 

[The following particulars of the rule of Turgesius in Account of 
Ireland are from " The War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill," 
not published tiU after the death of Mr. Haliday : 

Chapter vi. records the first invasion of Ulster (A.D. 824) ; tbe GaUL " 
Chapter vn. gives the invasion and plunder of Leinster ; Chapter 
vni. the arrival of a fleet at Limerick (A.D. 834) ; Chapter ix., is as 
follows : 

" There came after that a great royal fleet into the north of Erinn TnrgeLs in the 
with Turgeis, who assumed the sovereignty of the foreigners of Erinn ; i and assumes 
and the north of Erinn was plundered by them ; and they spread them- the sovereignty 
selves overLethChuinn" (the northern half of Ireland, as divided by er8) ^^ 839. 
a line drawn from Dublin to Gal way). " A fleet of them also entered 
Loch Eathach (Lough Neagh), and another fleet entered Lughbudh 
(Louth), and another fleet entered Loch Rae (Lough Ree, a swell 
of the Shannon, between the counties of Longford and Roscommon). 
Moreover Ard Macha (Armagh) was plundered three times in the 

Eorum filius fuit Canutus, Hordak- Canuti exposititii qui totum regnum 

nutus dictus qui in Selandia Scania pro Ilegnari filiis administravit, 

et Hollandia post patrem suiim dura illi expcditionibus bellicis oc- 

regnum nactus eat. Vikia vero ab cupati erant. Olaf Trygr., vol. i., 

illo tune defecit. Hie filium no- p. 72. Des Roches Hist, de Damn., 

mine Gormonem habuit. Hie de- vol. i., p. cxxv. 
noininatus est a suo nutritio, filio 



34 THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 

BOOK I. same month by them ; and Turgeis himself asm-pod the abbacy of 
Ard Macha; and Farannan, abbot of Ard Macli . and chief com- 
harba of Patrick, was driven out, and went to Mumhain (M\i : 
and Patrick's shrine with bim ; and he was four years in M umhain, 
while Turgeis was in Ard Macha, and in the sovereignty of the 
north of Erinn." 

Torgeii enters CHAPTER XI. "There came now Turgeis of Ard Madia, and 
b rou ght & fl ee ^ upon Loch Rai, and from thence plundered Mid IK; 



monaateries of and Connacht ; and Cluan Mic Nois " (Clonmacnois, on the left 

Connaucht bank of the Shannon, five miles south of Athlone), "and Cluau 

A.D. 83S-845. Ferta of Brennan " (Clonfert, in the county of Gahvay), "and 

Lothra and Tir-da-glass " (Lorrha and Tenyglas, on the banks of 

Lough Derg, a swell of the Shannon, in the county of Tipperary), 

" and Inis Celtra, and all the churches of Derg-dheirc " (the 

churches in the islands of Lough Derg), " in like manner. And 

the place where Ota, the wife of Turgeis, used to give her audience 

was upon the altar of Cluan Mic Nois." (pp. ix.-xiii). 

Dr. Todd, after fixing the dates and series of the earliest ravages 
of the Scandinavians, says : 

Invasion under " Finally, in A.D. 815, according to the Chronology of O'Flaherty 
(or more probably, as we shall see, about 830), Turgesius, a Nor- 
wegian, established himself as sovereign of the foreigners, and made 
Armagh the capital of his kingdom." (p. xxxvi) "After this 
our author says " (continues Dr. Todd), " came ' a great royal fleet 
into the north of Ireland,' commanded by Turgeis or Turgesius, 
' who assumed the sovereignty of the foreigners of Ireland,' and 
occupied the whole of Leth Chuinn, or the northern half of Ireland. 
In addition to the party -mder the immediate command of Tur- 
gesius, three 'fleets,' probably in connexion with him, appeared 
simultaneously. One of these took possession of Lough Neagh, 
another of Louth, anchoring in what is now the bay of Dundalk, 
and the third, having, as it would seem, approached Ireland from 
the west, occupied Lough Ree. The chronology of this invasion 
is fixed by means of the particulars recorded. Armagh was plun- 
dered three times in the same month. This, the annalists all say, 
was the first plundering of Armagh by the Gentiles, and is assigned 
to the year 832." Dr. Todd then shows that, in A.D. 845, Turgesius 
was made captive by Malachy, " and drowned in Loch Uair, now 
Lough Owel, near Mullingar, county of Westmeath." (Ibid., pp. 
xlii., xliii.) 

This and another event " enables us (Dr. Todd says) to ascertain 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 35 

tin- duration of Turgesius 1 dynasty with tolerable certainty." He BOOK L 

- its commencement with the seizing of Armagh after three CHAP. IL 

assaults in one month, in A.D. 832. " For nine years afterwards he Duration of 

seems to have remained content with his secular possession of the Tur e esiua ' 8 

dynasty, 
country, or [was] unable to overthrow the power of the ecclesiastical 

authorities. It was not until the year 841 that he succeeded in 
banishing the bishop and clergy, and ' usurped the abbacy,' that is to 
say, the full authority and jurisdiction in Armagh and in the north of 
Ireland. From these considerations we may infer that the entire 
duration of the tyranny of Turgesius cannot have been more than 
about thirteen years, from 831 or 832 to his death in 845." 
(Ibid., xliii., xliv.) 

" The times immediately preceding the arrival of Turgesius and Dissensions of 

his followers were remarkable for internal dissension amongst the * h . e Ir j sh <- hief - 

tanis in the 

Irish chieftains .... It is not wonderful that these dis- ninth century, 
sensions should have suggested to Tugresius the expulsion of the ^^ the sub- 
contending parties, for the purpose of taking the power into his jugation of 
own hands. He seems to have had a higher object in view than 
mere plunder, which influenced former depredators of his nation. 
He aimed at the regular government or monarchy over his country- 
men in Ireland ; the foundation of a permanent colony, and the 
subjugation or extermination of the native chieftains. For this 
ptirpose, the forces under his command, or in connexion with him, 
were skilfully posted on Lough Ree, at Limerick, Dundalk Bay, 
Carlingford, Lough Neagh, and Dublin. He appears also to have 
attempted the establishment of the national heathenism of his own Aims at re- 
country in the place of the Christianity which he found in Ireland. i 
This may be the significance of his usurpation of the ' abbacy ' of 
Armagh. 

"Turgesius was not satisfied with the full supremacy he had 
acquired in the north of Ireland. He aimed at the extension of 
his power by the conquest of Meath and Connaught, as a step to 
the subjugation of the whole country ; for this purpose he appears 
to have gone to Loch Ree to.'take the command in person of the 
' fleet ' which had been stationed there. From this central position 
he plundered, as our author tells us, the principal ecclesiastical 
establishments of Connaught and Meath, namely, Clonmacnois, in 
[West] Meath ; Clonfert, of St. Brendan in Connaught ; Lothra, 
now Lorrha, a famous monastery founded by St. Ruadhan or Rodan, 
in the county of Tipperary ; Tir-da-glas, now Terryglass, in the 
same county ; Inis-Celtra, an island on which were seven churches, 

D2 



36 



THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 



BOOK I. 
CHAP. II. 



and all the other churches of Lough Bei-g, in like manner. "NVith 
this view he placed his wife Ota at Clonmacnois, :it that time; 
second only to Armagh in ecclesiastical importance, who gave her 
audiences, or, according to another, reading her oracular an 
from the high altar of the principal church of the monastery."- 
(Ibid., xlvi.-xlix.) " At this period " (A.D. 839), continues Dr. 
Todd, " our author says the sea seemed to vomit forth floods of 
invaders, so that ' there was not a point of Ireland without a fleet.'" 
In the same year (A.D. 845) "Turgesius was arrested in his 
victorious course, and drowned in Loch TJair by Maelsechlainu 
(Malachy I.), then King of Meath, who soon afterwards succeeded 
to the throne of Ireland." (Ibid., li.)] 



CHAPTER III. 

Ivar, conqueror and King of Northumbria, identified with Ivar, King of 
Dublin. Of the joint career of Aulaf and Ivar Ivar's successors in 
East Anglia and Northumbria. 

CHAP. IIL TURNING from this attempt to solve the difficulties 
in Regnar Lodbrog's story we proceed to the easier 
task of identifying his son Ivar, the conqueror of 
Northumberland, with that "Ivar, King of the Norse- 
men of Ireland and Britain," 1 who reigned and died 
in Dublin, A.D. 872, and whose descendants were its 
joint invasion succeeding kings. Ivar had invaded Ireland before 

K A 1 f t 

Dublin and the arrival of Olaf the White, and was subsequently 

Ivar from Den- - . . .. . . 

mark of the his companion in many expeditions, but did not 

Scottish Picts, 

A.D. 865. accompany mm in 865, when, with " his chieftains, 
and followed by all the Galls of Ireland and Scot- 
land," Aulaf went to Fortren, the capital of Pictavia, 8 
and spoiled the Picts. 3 



1 [Wars of the Gaedhil with the 
(raill, p. Ixxx.] 
* [Fortren, Fifeshire.] 
8 Ann. Ult., 865. Aulaf was 



allied by marriage to Kenneth 
King of the Scots, who brought, fix- 
Picts under his government in 
843, and whose eon Constantino 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OP DUBLIN. 



37 



Ivar was at that time in Scandinavia, collecting BOOK i. 
there auxiliaries with whom he joined Aulaf in 865, CHAP m - 
and then assumed the chief command. 1 Hence the 
invading fleets were termed " the fleets of the tyrant 
Igwares." 2 

At the close of A.D. 866 "the Pagans landed in ivarandAuiaf 
England and took up their winter quarters among Angiia, A.D. 
the East Angles," 3 who supplied them with horses; 
and thus "a great part of those who had been 
infantry soldiers became cavalry." 4 In 867 they Thence invade 
" went from East Angiia over the mouth of the and ivar is 
Humber to York, in Northumbria," 8 and having 
defeated and slain the two kings, Osbright and Ella, 6 
"Ivar was made king." 7 

Although Aulaf is not named in those English 
narratives, we infer that he accompanied Ivar to the 
end of the campaign, for in A.D. 868, when the army 



obtained the crown in 863. Aulaf 8 
invasion, which was opposed by 
Constantine, may have originated 
in some claim to the kingdom of 
the Picts, the Irish Picts having 
submitted to Aulaf, and the Picts 
of the Scottish Isles having been 
conquered by Regnar Lodbrog's 
sons. Sax. Gram., p. 74. 

1 The general practice of the 
Northmen was to place united 
forces under one leader. 

2 Ethelwerd, 866, is the only 
English authority in which the 
leader of the expedition is named, 
and the name Igwares is frequently 
mistaken (from errors of tran- 
scribers) for Inguares or Hinguar, 
Ivar's illegitimate brother. North- 
ern historians write, " Eo tempore 
collectis Rex crudelishnus Norman- 



norum Yvar filius Lothpardi (Lod- 
brog) quern ferunt ossibus caruisse 
(Beinlause) ejus fratres Inguar et 
Ubi et Biorn et Ulf, &c., &c. Igi- 
tur Ivar Brittaniam classe petiit 
et crudele prelium cum Regibus 
Anglorum conseruit." Langebek, 
Tol. i., p. 374. Anonymi Roskild. 
Chron. 

8 Sax. Chron., 866 ; Ethelwerd, 
866. 

* Ibid. 

5 Sax. Chron., 867 ; Asser, 867 ; 
Ethelwerd, 867. 

6 Mat. Westm., 867 ; Hen. Hunt., 
867 ; Flor. Wig., 867 ; Ethelwerd, 
867; Asser, 867; Sax. Chron., 
867, all state or imply that Osbright 
and Ella were killed in battle. 

7 Langebek, vol. ii., p. 279. 



38 THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 

BOOK L " went into Mercia to Nottingham and there took up 
their winter quarters," 1 we find Aulaf returning to 
Ireland, landing in the north, plundering Armagh, 
and "burning the town and oratories," 2 his "Dun," 
at Clondalkin, having been burned by the Irish, 3 and 
his eldest son, Carlus, slain in battle during his 
absence. 4 
irarand In 869 the Danish "army again went to York 

Aulaf s second i/ > IPT-I 

invasion of the and sate there for a year, 5 at the end of which Aulaf 

Scottish Picte, . . . 

A.D.869. and Ivar once more sailed for bcotland to join in 
another invasion, which, like the preceding, was 
apparently a combined attack by fleets and armies 
from Dublin and Denmark. According to Roger 
of Wendover, A.D. "870, an innumerable multitude of 
Danes landed in Scotland, at Berwick-on-Tweed, 
under the command of Hinguar and Hubba;" and 
the Annals of Innisfallen state that in A.D. 870 Aulaf 
and Ivar sailed from Dublin "with a fleet of 200 
ships to assist these Danes in Britain." Berwick-on- 
Tweed may be here a mistake for Berwick on the 
* Frith of Forth (Mare Pictum), one of those inlets 

which would have facilitated the attack on the Picts 
and Strathclyde Britons, whose capital, " Alcluit, was 
besieged (in A.D. 870) by the Norsemen under these 
two kings, Ivar and Aulaf, who took and destroyed 
it after a siege of four months." 6 

1 Sax. Chron., 868. country about as they had prc- 

2 Ann. Ult., 868 ; Ann. 4 Mast., determined to do." Neither Sax. 
p. 511, n. Chron.,Hoveden,norSim.Dunhclm. 

8 Ann. 4 Mast, 865. mention the landing in Scotland, 

4 Ann. 4 Mast., 866. but state that, A.D. 870, many 

6 Sax. Chron, 869. thousand Danes, under Hinguar 

Roger de Wendover, 870, who and Hubba, landed in England. 

adds, that "they plundered the Ann. Innisf., 870, M'Geoghegan 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 39 

Having plundered the country, 1 and subjected it BOOK i. 
to tribute, which " they were paid for a long time " 
after, Aulaf and Ivar came again to Dublin out of DuWiMrith 
Scotland, and brought with them great bootyes from piLnd^I^>. 
Englishmen, Britons, and Picts in their two hundred 
ships, with many of their people captives ; " 2 Hinguar 
and Hubba being left to carry on the war in East 
Anglia and Mercia, 3 and Northumbria being placed 
under the Viceroyalty of Egbert, who governed it 
until the death of Ivar. 4 

When Aulaf and Ivar returned to Ireland, the They ravage 
" Lords of the foreigners " plundered part of Munster 



"during the snow of Bridgetmas" in 870. Their A ' 
ally Cearbhall had plundered both Munster and 
Connaught in the preceding year; and, in 871, "the 
foreigners of Ath Cliath " again plundered Munster, 
and Cearbhall again plundered Connaught. 

The cause of these devastations is no where stated, 
but they were the last committed by the united forces 



Hist. d'Irlande, vol. i., p. 395, subjection to the Danes." "In 872, 

Ann. Ult., 870. The Ann. Camb. the Northumbrians expelled from 

and Brut y Tyw. record the de- the kingdom their king Egbert:" 

struction of Alcluit in 870, but do and Hoveden, 867. 

not name the destroyers. Hinguar and Hubba are never 

1 The siege of Strath Cluaide styled kings : their title was that of 
[Dumbarton] continued for four Earl (larl). Whether this arose 
months, " at length after having from their illegitimacy is uncertain, 
wasted the people who were in it Harold Harfagre subsequently 
by hunger and thirst, having won- enacted that all his descendants in 
dcrfully drawn off the well they the male line should succeed to the 
had within, they entered the fort kingly title and dignity, but his 
on them." Three Fragments, p. descendants by females only to the 
193. rank of Earl (larl), A.D. 870. Olavi 

2 Ann. Ult., A.D. 870. Trygvisson Saga, cap. 2, p. 5. 
8 Hoveden, 870. Scripta Historica Islandorum, 12 
4 Roger Wendover " Egbert vols., 8vo., Hafniae, 1828-46, voL 

governed the kingdom six years in i., p. 5. 



40 THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 

BOOK i. of Aulaf and Ivar, for A. D. 870 or 871 terminated the 
career o f A u l a He was slain in battle, and Ivar, 



AuUf and ivar who succeeded him as King of Dublin, did not long 
872. 871 ' ld survive, the record of his death in the Annals of 
Ulster being that " Imhar, King of the Norsemen of 
Ireland and Britain, died," A.D. 872. 1 

Proofs that That Ivar, King of the Scandinavians of Dublin, 
u bria and and Ivar, King of the Danes of Northumbria, was the 
were the same, same individual is here clearly stated ; but fortunately 
our evidence of the fact is not confined to Irish 
annals. Irish annals are here confirmed by one of 
the oldest and most important of the English chron- 
icles ; for it must be admitted that the chronological 
difference of one or two years between the chronology 
of different English historians is so general that it 
may pass unnoticed when the facts agree, 2 and here 
Ethelward, after stating that King Edmund was de- 
feated and slain by the Danes in A.D. 870, 3 adds that, 
although "the barbarians gained the victory they 
soon afterwards lost their king, for King Ivar died 
the same year," not in battle, but from old age or dis- 
ease, as stated in the Icelandic saga and Irish history. 4 

1 Laudnam. says, he was slain in Osten or Eystein, Aulaf s son, as 

battle in Ireland. On the contrary, the Norsemen never called the son 

Pinkerton Enquiry, vol. i., p. 495, by the father's name. Ann. Ult., 

and Innes Apx. iii. Chron. Pict. 872. Ann. 4 Mast., 871. Ann. 

say "Tertio iterum anno Amlieb Innisf., 873. 

trahens cetum (exercitum) a Con- 2 " During long periods of years 

stantino occisus est." This would the northern (English chronicles) 

place his death in Scotland in 868, differ from those of the south and 

and consequently inconsistent with west two whole years." Codex 

the statement of his return to Dublin Dip. Sax., Ixxxv. 
in 870, but would be consistent 8 Ethelwerd's Chronicle, Mon. 

with the statement of the Annals Britt., p. 513. 
of Inniifallen, that it was Aulaf, * Langebek, vol. ii., p. 281, Ivar 

junior, who returned with Ivar, "in Anglia scnex obiit." Three 

Aulaf being doubtless a mistake for Fragments, p. 199, "The King of 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OP DUBLIN. 41 

This, assuredly, is strong evidence to identify Ivar BOOK t 
of Dublin with Ivar of Northumbria ; yet, strong as CHAP ' IIL 
it is, we have to add the more conclusive evidence, 
which must be deduced from the fact, that the sons 
and descendants of this Ivar succeeded to the thrones 
of both Dublin and Northumbria, and long continued 
to govern the two kingdoms. 

When Aulaf and Ivar left Scotland, the army ivar's army 
under the command of Hinguar and Hubba set sail 
for " East Anglia, and took up their winter quarters 
at Thetford" in 870, and the same winter they 
defeated and slew King Edmund. 1 

"After the death of St. Edmund," East Anglia Gormo, son of 
was governed by Gormo, son of Frotho, King of mark, rules 
Denmark, another of Eegnar Lodbrog's descendants, 2 after Edm^d's 
and after the death of Ivar, his reputed brother, ivar's' brother 
Halfden and Bcegsec (whose genealogy is unknown) ceeds wm^ 
became kings of Deira and Bernicia, the two divisions 
of Northumbria. 

Bcegsec was slain in 87l, 3 and in 873 and 874 the The Danes 
Danes subdued the whole kingdom of Mercia, and A.D. 873. 
placed it under the viceroyalty of Ceolwulf, 4 who gave 

the Lochlan? died of an ugly sudden Historic Anglican Scriptores 

disease sic enim Deo placuit." Antiqua?, London, 1 652, folio. Sax. 

1 Sax. Chron. 870. Also Asser Chron., 875, where he is called 

and Ethelwerd say that Edmund Godrum, and subsequently at 878 

was slain in battle; but lien. Hunt., Guthrum. Frotho, whose name is 

Flor. Wig., and Sim. Dun. say he* unknown to English history, is 

was " martyred." They differ, styled "Victor Anglise" by Danish 

however, respecting the manner in writers, Langebek, vol. i., pp. 56, 

which he perished. Edmund was 58, 66. He was son of Swen, son 

canonized. of Knut, by a daughter of Sigurd 

8 " Super regnum Estangli Anguioculus, son of Regnar Lod- 

quidam Dacus, Godrim nomine, brog. 

post Edmundutn primo regnavit." 8 Sax. Chron. 871. 

Broinpton Chron., p. 807, apud. * Ibid., 874. 



-12 



THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 



BOOK I. 
CHAP. IIL 

Qormo at- 
tempts to 
conquer King 
Alfred, A.D. 
b"5. 



Treaty with 
Alfred, A.D. 
876. 



Gormo, with 
Eollo of Nor- 
mandy, assails 
King Alfred. 



Gormo made 
King of East 
Anglia, A.D. 
878; hence 
called 'Enske' 
or "English." 



hostages, and swore "that he would be ready to resign 
the kingdom " on whatever day they would have it. 
Elated by this success, and contemplating further 
conquests, " the three kings, Godrum, Oscytel, and 
Anwynd, went with a large army from Repton to 
Grantabridge " ! to take possession of Wessex. There 
they remained for a year, and Alfred, unable to expel 
these invaders, " ratified a treaty of peace with them 
(in A.D. 876), and gave them money, and they gave 
him hostages, and swore oaths to him on the holy 
ring, which they never before would do to any nation, 
that they would speedily depart his kingdom." 2 
Nevertheless these oaths were either violated by some 
or not considered binding by part of the army, as war 
again commenced between Alfred]and Gormo, who was 
now assisted by the celebrated Hollo of Normandy. 3 
In 878 another treaty was concluded, by which the 
boundaries of East Anglia were defined ; 4 and Gormo, 
consenting to be baptized, "took the name of Athel- 
stan as he came out of the baptismal font," 5 being 
called " Enske," or of England, by northern writers, 8 



1 Sax. Chron. 875. Godrum is 
a corruption of the name Gormo, 
and Oscytel of Ketell, a name cele- 
brated in the Sagas. Anwynd is 
called Annuth by Ethelwerd, 
Amund by Asser, and Anwend in 
the Saxon Chronicle. 

8 Sax. Chron. 876. Asser says 
" they swore oaths on Christian re- 
lics." Possibly Alfred required that 
they should be bound both by the 
Christian and Pagan form of swear- 
ing. Crymogcea, Hamburg, 1614, 
p. 76. Bartholini, De Armillis Ve- 
terum, Amsterdam, 1676, p. 101. 



8 Asser, 876. Wallingford, p. 
536. 

4 This treaty is still extant, vide 
"Ancient Laws and Institutes of 
England," London, 1840, p. 66, 
and Lambard " Apxaionomia," 
Cant. 1644, p. 36. There was 
another treaty between Edward 
and Gormo Danus Ancient Laws, 
p. 71, and Apxaionomia, p. 41. 

8 Sax. Chron., 890. 

8 Langebek, vol. i., p. 29. 
" Gorm Kunung-hin Enske, Frotha 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 43 

and "Elchi" or "Elgi " l by the Irish. The Christian BOOK i. 
Gormo now resigned his Pagan kingdom of Denmark 
to his son, Harald, 2 and, settling in East Anglia, 
" apportioned it among his followers." 3 Rollo, who Roiio returns 
refused to be baptized, retired into Normandy with 
many of the Pagan Northmen, 4 including Oscytel, or 
Ketell, and Anwynd, of whom we hear no more in 
England. 

When Gormo left E-epton with his division of the 
army, Haifdene, with the remainder, marched into 
Northumbria "and took up his winter quarters by y e ' A ' 1 
the River Tyne," and having subdued all that part 
" of the land " he afterwards spoiled the Picts and 
Strathclyde Britons." 5 His object may have been to 
conquer all the territory overrun by Ivar, or he was 
provoked by the Picts who had attacked the Danes 
in 874, 6 and by the treachery of the Scots, who had 
slain Ey stein (or Ostin), the son of Aulaf, for it is 
recorded in the Annals of Ulster that, " Osten Mac 
Aulaf, King of the Normans, was killed by a stra- 
tagem of the A Ibanaich ." 7 In this expedition Haifdene 



compelled " Ruaidhri, son of Mormend, King of the to Ireland for 
Britons, to fly into Ireland," 8 whither the shrine of M 

Colurn Cille and his relics in general were brought 
for safety." 9 

1 Book of Rights, p. xL Ann. fi Ann. 4 Mast., 874. Ann. Ult., 
Clonmac., A.D. 922. 876, Ruaidhri returned to Scotland, 

2 Langebek, vol. i., p. 39. and " was killed by the Saxons." 

3 Sax. Chron , A.D. 880. Chron. P. of Wales, 877. 

4 Ingulph, " The rest who re- 9 Ibid. 875. Kenneth, king of 
fused to be baptized left England the Scots, had removed the relics of 
and sailed to France." Columba from lona, in A.D. 850, 

6 Sax. Chron., 875. and placed them in a church built 

6 Ann. Ult., 874. for their reception at Dnnkeld, 

7 Ibid., 874. from thence they were brought into 



44 THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 

BOOK i. Having thus subdued his enemies in Scotland, 
Halfdene returned into England, and following the 
practice of Scandinavian conquerors, "apportioned 
the lands of Northumbria (amongst his followers), 
who thenceforth continued ploughing and tilling." 1 
In 876 he appears to have sailed into Ireland 2 to 
claim that dominion over the "Finnghoill" which 
Ivar possessed ; but from thence he never returned, 
i 3 slain at for in a battle between the Danes and Norwegians, 
forT ' 5 " or as they are termed " the White and Black Gentiles. " 
Alban, chief of the Black Gentiles, was slain at Loch 
Cuan. 3 



CHAPTER IV. 

At Ivar's death, his sons, Godfrey and Sitric, were in France. Cearbhall 
(Carrol) ruled at Dublin. Sitric slays his brother Godfrey, and embarks 
for Dublin. Recovers Dublin. His attempt on Northumberland 
defeated. Dies, and his son, Aulaf, succeeds. Aulaf recovers North- 
umberland. Dies at York. Famine in Ireland through locusts. 
Emigration of Danes to Iceland. The Irish expel the Danes from 
Dublin. 

CHAP. iv. ALTHOUGH Ivar's successors in East Anglia and 
Cearbhaii Northumbria can thus be traced through English 

(Carroll) reigns . 

in Dublin, historians, nis immediate successor in Dublin can 

A.U. 872-885. ' 

only be discovered through Icelandic history, which 

Ireland, when Halfdene invaded There is no notice of Halfdene in 

Pictavia. Sax. Chron. Ethelward, &c., after 

1 The Scandinavians considered 876 and until 911, when the "three 

their conquests as common property kings, Halfdene, Ecwils, and 

in which all had a title to share &a Inguar," were killed, but probably 

all had contributed to acquire. this was that Halfdene, who was with 

Asser, p. 479. Sax. Chron. 76, Ivar's soni, Sitric and Godfrey, at 

Mercia was also " apportioned." Haalou in 882 Ann. Fuldeu. ap. 

8 Ann. Ult. 876, calls him Alban. Duchesne, p. 574. 

Four Masters, A.D. 874, Alband; 8 [Loch Cone, or Strangford 

and Ann. Inniflf., A.D. 877, Albhar. Lough.] 









SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 45 

states that, in 874, Ivar's ally, Cearbhall, was BOOK i. 
King of Dublin, 1 where, possibly, he ruled from 872 CHAP ' Iv 
until his death in S85, 2 as during that period no 
Scandinavian king of Dublin is named in Irish annals 
or elsewhere, and his rank as a sovereign is manifest 
from the fact, that with the exception of Maelsech- 
lainn, King of Ireland, Cearbhall is the only Irish 
king named in the Welsh annals throughout the 
ninth century. 3 

When Halfdene apportioned Northumbria, Ivar's 

111 -n i i -ii-i 

sons probably went to r ranee, wmcn previously had 
been invaded by their uncle, Biorn Ironsides, and France? 
which was then a field of plunder for the Northmen. 
There is no trace of them in Ireland or England 
between the years 872 and 885, nor do the meagre 
details of French chronicles afford much assistance 
in tracing them among chiefs of the same name in 
France during this period. We infer, however, that 
. the brothers, Godfrey and Sitric, 4 who plundered 
France in 88 1, 5 and who are called "sons of Regnar 
Lodbrog," were the sons of Ivar, and grandsons of 
Regnar, 6 Regnar not having any son named Godfrey. 

1 Landnamabok, p. 4. " Kiarva- Godafrid, and Ivar." Langeb, 
lus Dublin! in Hibernia," &c. Lan- vol. ii., p. 17.. Ann. Esromenses 
gebek, vol. ii., p. 32, " Dublini in Langebek, vol. i , p. 230. 
Irlandia Kiarfalus," &c. 5 Ann. Bartholin. A.D. 881. 

2 Ann. 4 Mast, place Cearbhall's 6 Langebek, vol. ii., p. 29. 
death 885. Fragmentum vetus Islandicum, and 

8 Ann. CambriaB, 887. " Cerball Pet. Olai Excerpt. Normannica et 

defunctui est." Chron. P. of Danica. Ibid., p. 11. Sigefray or 

Wales, 887 Maelsechlainn died Sitric could not have been Sitric 

887. Anguioculus, the son of Regnar 
4 This Godfrey was slain 885, Lodbrog, as we have his history in 

and Sitric left France. But in A. D. various sagas and chronicles. They 

888, the Emperor Arnulf fought were the sons of Ivar, and grand- 
against the brothers, " Sigafrid, sons of Regnar. 



4G Till- SCANDINAVIANS, AND 

BOOK i. In 882 the "two kings, Sitric and Godfrey, and 

the princes Gormo and Half," 1 conveyed their plunder 

leave France into the strong fortress of Haslou, 2 where they were 



besieged by the Franks under Charles the Fat, but 
" without success, the Northmen refusing to leave 
France until paid the enormous tribute of 12,000 
pounds of silver ; 3 on the payment of this sum it was 
arranged that Godfrey should renounce Paganism 
and marry Giselda, daughter of the Emperor Lothair. 
Godfrey, son of Thus subsidized, baptized, and married, Godfrey 

Ivar slain by . . 

his brother retired towards the Rhine, and, according to the 

Sitric, JLD. 

885. French annals, was treacherously slain in A.D. 88 5, 4 

as some say by Count Everhard, but, according 
to the Annals of Ulster (in which the year 887 
corresponds with 885 of the Four Masters), "Jeffrey 
Mac Ivar, King of the Normans, was treacherously 
slain by his brother." 5 

Sitric embarks When Sitric received his share of the tribute he 
for DuwST burned his camp and marched to Boulogne, part of 
his army embarking for Flanders, 6 and the remainder, 
probably, for Dublin, where the throne had become 
vacant by the death of Cearbhall in 885, Cearbhall's 
son Cuilen having been slain in the preceding year 
" by the Norsemen " amid the lamentations of the 
Irish, " who thought he would be king." 

The re-establishment of a purely Scandinavian 

1 Ann.Fuldenses.ap.DuChesne, * Ann. Franc. Metenses ap. Du 
Hist. Franc., p. 574; they are Chesne, vol. iii., p. 321. 

there called Sigefrid and Godefrid, * Ann. Ulst., A.D. 887 ; but it is 

Wrra. and Half. not said where he was slain. 

2 Langebek, vol. v., p. 134. 6 Chron. Ilheginon. Hist. Nor- 
8 Ann. Rheginon, Hist. Norman. man. apud Duchesne, p. 11. Sitric 

apud Duchesne, p. 1 1. Ann. Ful- is said to have been killed in Frisia, 
dens, say 2,080 livres in gold and 887. Gesta Nord., p. 6. 
silver. 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 47 

dynasty was not, however, quietly effected. Flann, BOOK i. 
King of Ireland, the son of Cearbhall's sister, and a C " AP " IV> 
relative of Aulaf, disputed the sovereignty; 1 but "the Ju^ 
foreigners of Ath Cliath " defeated Flann, and slew Irish - 
" Aedh, son of Conchobhar, King of Connacht, 
Lerghus, son of Cruinden, Bishop of Cill-dara, and 
Donchadh, son of Maelduin, Abbot of Cill-Dearga," 
"and many others." 

This battle affords further evidence of the pre- 
vious existence of an Irish dynasty in Dublin, as, 
from the death of Ivar in 872 to that of Cearbhall 
in 885, it is the only conflict between the Irish and 
the " foreigners of Ath Cliath " of which there is any 
notice in the Annals of the Four Masters, 2 although 
after that period their contests were frequent. 

In A.D. 890, Gormo Enske or "Godrum, the Danish sitric invades 
king who governed East Anglia, departed this life," 3 
and " the Gaill left Erin and went into Alba under 
Sitric, the grandson of Imhar," 4 to claim Gormo's 
dominions, or to assist Hastings in the invasion of 
Wessex ; but whatever was Sitric's object he failed 
to attain it, for Ethelwerd says that, "A.D. 894, Sige- 

1 Lann, daughter of Dunghal, that,A.D.878,"Barith,afiercecham- 

Lord of Ossraighe, and sister of pion of the Norsemen, was slain and 

Cearbhall, married Maelseachlaim, afterwards burned at Ath Cliath 

King of Ireland, who died 860, through the miracles of God and St. 

and by whom she had Flann, King Cianan." Ann. 4. Mast., A.D. 878. 

01' Ireland, who died 916. After Hen. Hunt., 890; Sax. Chron., 

the death of Maelseachlaim, 860, 890; Hamsfort Chron., Langebek, 

she married Aedh Finnlaith, King vol. L, p. 269, places his death in 

of Ireland, who died 879, and by 894, and adds that he was suc- 

whom she had Niall Glundubh, King ceeded in Denmark by his brother 

of Irelaud, killed in 919. Aedh Harald, and in East Anglia by 

Finnliath's daughter married Aulaf, Ilarald's son Gormo. 

the first king of Dublin. * Book of Danish Wars MSS. 

8 Indeed the only intervening [Wars of the Gaedhil with the 

notice of Dublin is in the statement Gaill, pp. Ixxxi. and 29.] 



48 



THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 



BOOK I. 
CHAP. IV. 

Returns to 
Dublin, A.D. 
894. 



Sitric slain, 
A.D. 896. 



Godfrey, son of 
Sitric succeeds, 
A.D. 895. 



Becomes King 
of Northum- 
berland also, 
A.D. 895. 



Dies and is 
buried at York, 
JLD. 896. 



frith, the pirate, landed from his fleet in Northum- 
berland and twice devastated the coast, after whk-h 
he returned home," 1 or in the words of the Ulster 
Annals, "A.D. 894, Ivar's son came again into 
Ireland ;" 2 and in the following year " Sitric mac 
Ivar was slain by other Norsemen. 3 In the absence 
of Sitric his son Aulaf governed Dublin until A.D. 
891, when he and Gluntradhna,the son of Gluniarain," 
were slain in battle. 4 AulaPs brother, Godfrey, then 
claimed the throne and was opposed by Ivar, son of 
that Godfrey who had been treacherously slain. 
Hence arose " great confusion among the foreigners 
of Dublin (who) divided themselves into factions, the 
one part of them under Ivar, the other under Godfrey 
the Erie." 5 In this contest Godfrey was successful, 
and Ivar fled into Scotland, where he was killed by 
the men of Fortrenn, or Pictavia. 

Godfrey, now King of Dublin, became King of 
Northumbria also by the death of his father in 895. 
He then went into England, the Northumbrians 
having " made a firm peace with King Alfred," 6 and 
Godfrey being thus assured of quiet possession. But 
his reign was short, for, "A.D. 896, Guthfrid, King of 
Northumbria, died on the birthday of Christ's 
Apostle, St. Bartholomew, and was buried at York," 7 
leaving three sons, Neale, 8 Sitric, and Reginald. 



1 Ethelwerd Chron., A.D. 894. 

Ann. Ult., 893 (=894). 

8 Ann. Ult., 895 ; Ann. 4 Mast., 
891. In Chron. Norm. ap. Du- 
chesne, vol. ii., p. 529, it is said 
that, A.D. 887, Sigfrid, King of the 
Norsemen, went into Frisia, where 
he was killed ; and Ann. Bartholin. 
U A.D. 886, Sigfridus Rex in Frisia 



interfectus." If this were Sitric, 
King of Dublin, there are six years 
difference in the chronology of 
these annals. 

4 Ann. Ult., 892 ( = 893.) 

Ibid. 

6 Sax. Chron., 894. 

' Ethelwerd Chron., 896. 
This name of Niall was intro- 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 49 

Godfrey's death having left the throne of Dublin BOOK r. 
vacant, the Irish, who, since the defeat of Flann in c " Ar lv ' 
885, had watched an opportunity to restore a native 
dynasty, considered this a moment favourable to the 
attempt. 

The year of Godfrey's death Ireland was visited 

J 



wasted by 

by a stransre calamity. Wafted by an unusual wind locust8 ; man r 

J J Danes fly to 

a flight of locusts came to our shores, and spreading iceiand,A.o. 
over the land " consumed the corn and grass through- 
out the country." 1 

The dearth thus caused influenced many to emi- 
grate from Dublin to Iceland, and the garrison, 
further weakened by the departure of numbers who 
had followed Godfrey into England, and by the loss 
of those who had joined Thorstein the Red in Scot- 
land, became inadequate to repel the assaults of the 
Irish. 

Our annals record that, A.D. 897, "the foreigners The Danes 

driven from 

were expelled from Ireland," " from the fortress of Dublin, A.I>. 

897. 

Ath Cliath by Cearbhall, son of Muirigen," king of 
the adjoining territory of Leinster, and that, " leaving 
great numbers of their ships behind them, they 
escaped half dead across the sea " to Ireland's Eye, an 
island near Dublin, where they were "besieged" 2 
until, hopeless of regaining their city fortress, they 
sought a residence on the opposite coast. 

duccd among the Norsemen by the married Olaf, King of Dublin. 

connexion with the Irish, amongst J Ann. Cambr., 896 ; Chron. 

whom the name was common, and P. of Wales, 896; Caradoc, 897, 

the possession of it by the son of p. 42 ; where they are described as 

Godfrey shows his connexion with u vermin of a mole-like form each 

them. Niall Glundubh was son having two teeth, which fell from 

of Aedh Finnliath, by Maelmur, heaven." 

daughter of Kenneth, King of 8 Ann. 4 Mast , A.D. 897. 
Scots. Niall Glumlubh's sister 



Till: SCANDINAVIANS. AXI> 



BOOK I. 
CHAP. IV. 

The exiled 
Dunes fly to 
Anglesea ; 






These fugitive "Lochlans (who) went away from 
Erin under the conduct of Hingamund }>1 or Igmond, 
landed in Anglesea, and " fought the battle of K<.s 
Meilor," in A.D. 900, 8 and being there defeated, "and 
forcibly driven from the land of the Britons," 3 en-tered 
Mercia, where Ethelflced governed during the illness 
of her husband. " Hingamund," as a suppliant, 
Receive lamia asked lands of the queen, on which to settle, and 

near Chester. 

on which to erect stalls and houses, for he AMIS 
at this time wearied of war," and " Ethelflced, pity- 
ing his condition, gave him lands near Chester, wlim 
he remained for some time." 4 



C0AP. V. 



CHAPTER V. 

Gormo, King of Denmark, rules East Anglia. Reginald and Sitric, sons 
of King Aulaf, rule in Northumberland. On the settlement of Nor- 
mandy fresh fleets of Danes come to England from France. Part 
settle at Waterford. Sitric of Northumberland recovers Dublin. His 

brother Reginald sails to Waterford, and rules there and at Limerick 

Defeats of the Irish by Reginald and Sitric. 

IN England Scandinavian prospects \vere not much 
brighter. Hastings and his allies had been repeatedly 
defeated, and, in A.D. 897, he was compelled to return 
to France with the remnant of his army. 5 Alfred, 
the heroic monarch of the Saxons, died in 901, c and 



1 Three Fragments, p. 227. 

8 Penros near Holyhead, Chron. 
Princcsof Wales, A.D. 900; Caradoc, 
]>. 42. 

Three Fragments, p. 227. 

4 Three Fragments, p. 227, 
Ethelflced was not queen, but lady 
(Hloefdige) of the Mercians. 

6 Sax. Chron., A.D. 897. 



6 Alfred's drath is another in- 
stance of the discordance of Chro- 
nology in English history. This 
remarkable event Sim. Dun. and 
Hovcdcn place in A.D. 899 ; In- 
gulph, p. 28 ; Chron. Mail., p. 1 4K : 
lligden, p. 259; Mat. Wr>t.. and 
others place it A.D. 900 ; Flor. Wig. 
and Sax. Chron, 1 . 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OP DUBLIN. 



51 






his son Edward, who "was elected to be king," BOOK i. 

found his right to the throne disputed by Ethelwald, 

the son of Alfred's elder brother. ,SL 

Ethelwald, who had carried off and married a JSwaJd, son of 
nun, 1 first seized the town of Wiinburn,* but not Alfrc<L 
receiving homage from the Saxons he turned to the 
Danes, and flying ' * to the army in Northumbria 
they received him for their king." 3 This, however, 
did not satisfy the ambitious Ethelwald ; he collected 
' a large fleet of ships,"* and inducing Eric, King of 
the East Angles, to join in the invasion of Essex, 
they conquered it, " and ravaged Mercia "; but, The Danes 
returning laden with plunder in 905, both Eric and Etheiwaid 
Ethelwald were slain. 5 

Eric, in East Anglia, was succeeded by " Gormo The sons of 
Danus," King of Denmark, 8 with whom " King 



Edward, from necessity, concluded a peace/- 7 and bcriwd, A 
Northumbria received the sons of Godfrey, who also 7 ' 



1 Sax. Chron. A.D. 901. 

a Ibid. 

3 Ibid. 

4 Flor. Wig., A.D. 904; Hon. 
Hunt,, A.D. 904. 

6 SAX. Chron., A.D. 905 ; Ethel- 
werd, 902 ; " Eric king of the bar- 
barians then descended to Orcus," 
Lanpebek, vol. i., pp. 157-173. 
Eric Barn died 902. 

c Langi'bik, vol. i., p. 16, says, 
" Gormo Enski was succeeded in 
Denmark by his son Harald, and 
Harald by his son Gormo." Ibid. 
p. 158, "Gorm hin Enske," then 
Harold, then Gorm Gamle, " cujus 
uxor fuit Thyre Danebot," this 
Tiiyra being the daughter of 
Edward. " Hie, Tliyram, Kdwardi 



Anglorum Regis filiam, cognomine 
DaneBot habuit in matrimouio, 1 ' 
Lang., vol. i., p. 37- 

Langebek, vol. i.,p. 14, "Frotho 
Rex Danorum et Anglorum reg- 
navit 904." English history has 
no account of this Frotho : he is 
possibly the same with Eric, King 
of East Anglia, who was killed A.D. 
905. Sax. Chron., A.D. 906 ; Sim. 
Dun., 906 ; Hen. Hunt., 906. 

7 The treaty bet ween Edward and 
Gormo is printed in the " Ancient 
laws and institutes of England," 
p. 71. 

Hamsfort Chron., p. 2C8, snys, 
Gormo left Denmark to his brotln r 
Ilurald. Gormo III. was son of 
Harald. 

E2 



52 THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 

BOOK i. made peace with Edward. This peace, however, 
was of short duration. 



invade ^ In 911 "the army among the Northumbrians 

kingdom? are broke the peace " " and overran the land of Mercia," 1 
ML but "on their way homewards" were overtaken by 

the West Saxons and Mercians, "who slew many 
thousands of them "; among others " King Ecwils 
(Ulf ) and King Healfden, and Other the Earl " and 
"Guthferthhold" and " Agmund hold." 2 Possibly 
that Igmond who had gone away from Ireland in 
897, and who secretly " prompted the chiefs of the 
Lochlans and Danes " to invade Mercia, " take 
Chester, and possess themselves of its wealth and 
lands." 3 

Contemporaneously with this outbreak of part of 
the Northumbrian army a new enemy appeared. 
Accession of The Northmen who entered France with Eollo 

Danes through 

settling of had Avrung from Charles the Simple the treaty of 

Normandy, _ * 

A.D. OLD. St. Clair- sur-Epte, by which Normandy was ceded 
to their chief, and he apportioned it among his 
followers according to the custom of Scandinavian 
conquerors; 4 but there were some unquiet spirits 
who disdained to be mere cultivators of the soil 
chiefs, for whom war alone had attractions, and new 
conquests a charm ; and these they sought in other 

1 Sax. Ckron.. 911. which had been destroyed by the 

2 Ibid. 911. Langebek, vol. ii., Danes, was rebuilt by Ethelflocd." 
p. 53, thinks the name Harold ; and 4 Hollo submitted to be buptixed. 
Ingulph Hist. Croy., p. 21, has it and Dudo (apud Duchesne, p. 82) 
" Hamond." [" Hold," a noble- adds, that Charles ratified the 
man who was higher than a thane, treaty by giving his daughter Gislo 
governor, or captain. Bosworth's in marriage to Rollo ; but the 
Anglo-Saxon Dictionary.] statement is doubtful. Vide 1'on- 

8 Three Fragm., p. 229; Cara- toppidan Gest. et Vest. Dan., 
doc, p. 45, says that ',' Chester, vol. i., p. 285, et seq. 






SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 



53 



climes, in. conjunction with Scandinavians from that BOOK r. 
part of Brittany which had been colonized by the Cl ^j. v 
Welsh, and which had been the scene of Ketell's 
exploits. 

" A great fleet came from the south from the land Danes fr.m 

r i T i > T- \ i i F rance with 

or the Lidwiccas (or Brittany) under the command Reginald <>f 
of Harold, and of Attar, 1 probably the son of Nidby- land invade 
orga, granddaughter of Hollo by Helgi, a descendant 911. 
of Cearbhall, and relative of Aulaf of Dublin. 8 

Simeon of Durham says, that in conjunction 
with Eeginald, King of Northumbria, and " Osulf 
Cracaban," 3 they first landed in the country of the 
Picts, and destroyed Dunblane beyond the Forth. 

They then landed "at the mouth of the Severn, They spoil 

. North Wales. 

and spoiled the North Welsh everywhere by the sea- 
coast ; " 4 but being defeated, and Ottar's brother and 
Harald his companion slain, 6 Ottar " went thence to 
Dromod (South Wales), and thence out to Ireland, 
and with a great fleet of foreigners came to Water- Build a fortress 

at Waterford, 

ford 6 and placed a stronghold there " in A.D. 912. In *> 912. 



1 The date of this invasion is 
variously given. Sax. Chron. A.D. 
910. Another copy has it A.D. 918. 
Chron. Princ. of Wales 910(=91 1). 
Ann. Camb. 913. Sim. Dun. 910. 
Flor. Wig. 915 (adding that they 
were the same " who had left 
England xix years before "). 
Ethewerd913. Caradoc.p. 45,91 1. 

2 Landnamabok, p. 90. Attar, 
grandson of Retell Flatncf, was 
father of Helgi, " who made war in 
Scotland, and carried ofF Nidby- 
orga, daughter of King IJiolan and 
of Kadlina, daughter of Ganga 
Rolfr," by whom he had a son 
Ottar. 

* Sim. Dun. A.D. 912. 



wold rex et Oter comes, et Osvul 
Cracaban irruperunt et vastaverunt 
Dunblene." By a strange miscon- 
ception in a note in Lappenburg, 
Hist. Eng., vol. ii., p. 94, Cracaban 
has been mistaken for the name of 
a place (Clackmannan) in Scotland. 
Cracaban was the cognomen of 
Osvul, who is called "Gragava" 
in the Ann. Ulst., AD. 917, mV/j 
Langebck, vol. ii., p. 153, for Olaf 
Cracaban, and Adam Brem. p. 67, 
for " Olaph (ilium Cracaben." 

4 Sax. Chron. 910 ; another copy 
918. 

8 Ibid. Caradoc 911, " Rahald 
(Harald) was slain," p. !.">. 
Ann 1 M:u<t. 012 ' 



.") I T1IK SCANDINAVIANS, AND 

BOOK i the following year "great and frequent reinforce- 
CIIAT^\. men t O f foreigners arrived in Loch-Dachaoch ; and 
Shu**. the lay districts and churches of Munster were con- 
stantly plundered by them.' :i Cork, Lismore, and 
Aghaboe being likewise "plundered by strange 

These proceedings directed the attention of God- 
frey's sons to their Irish dominion. 
Kepinaia j n A>D . 9x3 Reginald crossed over to the Isle of 

spoils the I.-'e 

M Man, A.D. Man, where he found a fleet of the Scandinavians of 
Ulster, and in a "naval battle between Ragnall (the 
grandson of Ivar) and Barrid mac Octer, Barrid, with 
many others, was slain," the "navy of Ulster" having 
previously been defeated ' ( on the coast of England." 3 
"While Reginald was thus engaged Sitric directed 
his attention towards Dublin, which had remained 
under dominion of the Irish since the expulsion of 
the "foreigners" in 897, and was now probably under 
the dominion of Niall Glundubh, monarch of Ireland, 
whose sister had married Olaf the White, the nephew 
ofCearbhall. 4 

Sitric recovers " An immense royal fleet came with Sitric and the 

A.D. 919. children of Imar, i.e., Sitric, the blind grandson of 

Imar, and forcibly landed at Dubhlinn (the harbour) 

of Ath Cliath." 5 Having gained possession of the 

city, Sitric proceeded to occupy the territory attached 

Dachaech," the Irish name for Annals of the Four Masters of any 

AVaterford. OstmanKingofDublin,butCearbh- 

1 Ibid. 913. all is called "King of Liffe of 

8 Ann. Ulst. 913. Ships." Cearbhall was slain by 

Ann. Ulst. 913, "Ragnall h- "Ulf, a black pagan," in 909; 

Ua Iinair," JJarid vel Barith. during his life there is no record 

Chron. Princes of Wales, 914, of any battle between the Irish 

Ireland and Man devastated by the and the Ostmen of Dublin. 

Pagans of Dublin, 914. [Wars of the Gacdhil with the 

* For thirteen years, between F99 flaill. (hap. .\.\xi., p. 33.] 
and 912, there is no notice in the 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OP DUBLIN. 55 

it, and, sailing up the LifFey, " encamped at Cenn BOOK i 
uait," now Confey, near Leixlip, the extreme 
boundary of the Dyflinarskiri, 1 while "Ragnall, 
grandson of Imhar, with another fleet went to the Watford, 
foreigners of Loch-Dachaech ( Waterford)," over whom 
and the foreigners of Limerick, Ragnall, or Reginald, 
apparently claimed dominion. 

Thus assisted, " the foreigners " of "Waterford 



spoiled all Minister. They slew "Gebennach, son of Danes of 
Aedh," and these pagan descendants of Ivar, who are spoil MUH 
there termed " the people of To mar, carried away his 
head " ; " Munster " being so completely ravaged by 
them " that there was not a house or a hearth from 
the river Lin [Lee] southward" that year. 8 

It is not to be supposed that the Irish tamely sub- Irish vic - 

r r . * tories in 

initted to this devastation of their country. In 915 Munster, 
"a slaughter was made of the foreigners by the 
Munsterinen." "Another slaughter was made of 
(them) by the Eoghanachta, and by the Ciarraighi," 

i ["Cenn Fuait," "Fuat's Head." valley over Tigh Moling," which 

This place, Dr. O'Donovan con- may signify either Tiraolin, in the 

jectures (Four Mast/915, notes, pp. south of the county of Kildare, or 

589, 590) is now Confey, in the St. Mullin's on the Barrow, in the 

county of Kildarc, near Leixlip, south of the county of Carlow. The 

(the Danish Lax-lep y Salmon Leap), latter place may have been ap- 

in the barony of Salt (Saltus Sal- preached by water, from Waterford, 

monis). But the Annals of Ulster, and as it is situated at the foot of 

at 916 (Four Mast. 915), tell us Brandon Hill, the battle may have 

that Cenn Fuait was i naifiiufi been in some " valley over Tigh 

Laigin "in the East, or anterior Moling," and the Danish fortress 

partof Leinster," and it must have called Cenn Fuait on 8Omc head 

been near the sea, as Sitric "with in the mountain, accessible to light 

bis fleet " settled there. A poem shI P s b y the Barrow. Wars of the 

quoted by the Four Mast, seems to Uaedhil with the Gaill, p. Ixxxix., 

:k of the battle (if it be the n> J 
same) as having taken place in "a 2 C ttw - cha P- xxviii ' P- 31 



56 



THK SCANDINAVIANS, AND 



BOOK I. 
CHAP. V. 

Irish defeated 
by Reginald 
at Tober 
Glethrach. 



Defeated by 
Sitric at the 
battle of 
CennFuait, 
A.I>. 915. 



or men of Kerry," and Niall Glundubh led the army 
of the Ui Neill of the south and north to assist in 
resisting the invaders. On the 22nd of August Niall 
"pitched his camp at Tobar Glethrach," 1 and, as if to 
try their rights by battle, " the foreigners went into 
the territory on the same day," fought and were de- 
feated ; but " reinforcements set out from the fortress 
of the foreigners," and "the Irish turned back to 
their camp before the last host, that is, before Rauli- 
nall, king of the black foreigners, and his army." 2 

Niall, however, " and a few with him, went against 
the Gentiles" expecting their "fight by battle," 
and " stayed for twenty nights after in camp," until 
the Leinstermen " on the other side with their camp" 
compelled Sitric to try his rights by the " battle of 
Cenn Fuait," 3 on the boundary of the territory he 
claimed. But this battle was more disastrous to the 
Leinstermen than that of Tobar Glethrach to the people 
of Munster. Their army was defeated, Ugaire, King 
of Leinster, and Maelmordha, brother of Cearbhall, 
" and many other chieftains, with Archbishop Mael- 
maedhog, a distinguished scribe, anchorite, and an 
adept in the Latin learning," &c., 4 were slain. Leinster 
being left defenceless by this disaster, the victors 
plundered Kildare, and in the following year it was 
again plundered "by the foreigners of Ath Cliath." 5 



1 Ann. 4 Mast. 915. This place 
Las not been identified. 
*lbid. 



8 Ann. 4 Mast. 915. 
4 Ibid. 915. 
6 Ibid. 916. 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 57 

BOOK I 
CHAP. VI. 

CHAPTER VI. 

Reginald and Sitric, sons of Godfrey, King of Dublin, return to North- 
umberland In their absence the Irish attempt to recover Dublin. 
Reginald and Sitric made Kings of different divisions of Northumbria. 
Death of Reginald. 

THESE victories were followed by events which left 
to Sitric the sole dominion of "the foreigners of 
Ireland." For Reginald sailed into Scotland to assist 
Ottar in founding a kingdom there, and from thence 
into England to pursue his own designs on Mercia. 

It was in 916 that Reginald, with " Ottar and the Reginald's 
foreigners, went from Waterford to Alba 1 ." where Scotland, A. D. 

910 

they were encountered by Constantino, son of Aedh, 
King of the Scots, and in the battle Ottar was slain. 

Ottar's death terminated the attempt on Scotland. His attempt on 
Reginald's attempt on Mercia was equally unsuccess- 9 u. 
ful. Intending to add Mercia to his Northumbrian 
kingdom, Reginald had privily contracted marriage 
with Alfwyn, daughter of Ethelflced, " the Lady of 
the Mercians." After Ethelflced's death in 917 the 
contemplated marriage became known to King Ed- 
ward (Alfwyn's guardian), who, jealous of the power 
of the Danes, sent her prisoner into Wessex, and, 
alleging that the marriage had been contracted 

1 Ann. 4 Mast., 916; Ann. Ult. and Gragava), the third by the 

917. young lords, and the fourth by 

The Ann. Ult., describing the Raghnall" (or Reginald). That 

battlo, says, that "the army of the night terminated the conflict, in 

Gentiles " was formed into four which, according to one authority, 

divisions " one commanded by both Ottar and Reginald were 

Godfrey O'IIivar(son of Reginald), slain ; but others only mention the 

another by the two Earls (Ottar death of Ottar. 



58 TIIK SCANDINAVIANS, AND 

BOOK i. w ithout his consent, "deprived her of her birth- 
right,'" and added the Mercian territory to his own. 
sitric sails Either to support the pretensions of his brother, 
to support or to assert his own, Sitric then left Ireland, and 
entering Mercia besieged Devenport, while " Leofrid, 
a Dane, and Gruffyth ap Madoc, brother-in-law to 
the Prince of West Wales, came from Ireland with 
a great army, and overran and subdued all the 
country (about Chester) before King Edward was 
certified of their arrival." It was not long, however, 
until Edward overtook the invaders, and having de- 
feated and slain Leofrid and Gruffyth, he " set up 
their heads on the town gates of Chester." 2 
The Irish Sitric and Reginald being thus engaged in England, 

under Niall t -r i -t / -i i r 

(jiundubh try the Irish claimants of the throne of Dublin again 

'" n '" ain J x Ui -J. 

Dublin. attempted to obtain it. 

Assembling a large army Niall Glundubh advanced 
towards the city, near which he was confronted by 
the Scandinavian garrison, commanded by the sons 
of Sitric and of Reginald. 

Confident of success Niall had promised the 
plunder of the fortress to his followers, saying " before 
the battle," 

" Whoever wishes for a speckled boss, and a sword of sore-inflictiii" 

wounds, 
And a green javelin for wounding wretches, let him go early in tho 

morning to Ath Cliath ; " 3 

but the result was fatal to him and his allies. 

i Caradoc, p. 47 ; Ann. Ulst., 2 Lappenburg, vol. ii., pni:>' !'fi ; 

A.D. 917 ; Sax. Chron., A.D. 918 ; Tynvll's Hist of Kn ? laml, vol. i., 

another copy A.D. 922; Chron. p. 321. 
IVmecsof Wales places Ethelflucd's : Ann. 4 Mast., A.D. 917. 

(loath A.D. 914. 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 59 

" The battle of Ath Cliath, (i.e., of Cillmosamhog, 
by the side of Ath Cliath), was gained over the Irish, The 
by Irahar and Sitric Gale on the 17th of October." ,' eat ? at 

Kilinashoge, 

A.I'. 919, "in which were slain Niall Glundubh, son of A - D - 919 - 
Aedh Finnliath, King of Ireland;" 1 "the King of 
Ulidia, the King of Breagh," 2 with many other nobles, 
including "Conchobhaf, heir apparent to the sov- 
ereignty of Ireland." 3 

So disastrous a defeat had seldom been sustained. 
Deeply deplored by the Irish, and lamented by their 
bards, it was termed a day sorrowful for " sacred 
Ireland," a battle which 

" Shall be called till Judgment's day 
The destructive morning of Ath Cliath ;" 

and one in which 

" Many a countenance of well-known Gaeidhil, 
Many a chief of grey-haired heroes 
Of the sons of queens and kings, 
Were slain at Ath Cliath of swords."* 

Donnchadh, the brother of Conchobhar, partially 
avenged it in the following year by " an overthrow 
of the foreigners," wherein " there fell of the nobles 

i Ann. 4 Mast., A.D. 917(=919;. the Gaill, Introd., p. xci., n. ].] 

\_CiU Mosannhog. The Church 2 Ann. Ult., 918 (=919); Ann. 4 

of Mosamhog, now Kilmashogue, in Mast., 917 (=919).Ogygia, p. 434, 

the mountains, near Rathfarnham, gives the date of Niall's death 

about six miles from Dublin. The 919. 

remains of a very large cromlech 3 Conchobhar was son of Flunn, 
are still to be seen on Kilmashogue who disputed the possession of 
mountain, in the grounds of Glen Dublin with the Scandinavians in 
Southwell, near St. Columba's 885, and whose mother was now 
College. This, in all probability, the wife of Niall Glundubh. 
marks the grave of the chieftains * Ann. 4 Mast., 919; Ann. don- 
am! kings slain in the battle. Dr. mac., 917. 
Todd, Wars of the Gaedhil with 



CO 



THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 



BOOK I. 
CHAP. VI. 



Sitric and 
Reginald 
become kings 
of different 
divisions of 
Northumber- 
land, A.D. 920. 



Death of 
Reginald, A.D. 
MB. 



of the Norsemen as many as had fallen of the nobles 
and plebeians of the Irish in the battle of Ath 
Cliath." This, however, was the only result ; Donn- 
chadh made no attempt to obtain possession of 
Dublin, but to preserve the sovereignty of Ireland 
slew his brother Domhnall. 

Secure in his Irish kingdom "Sitric forsook 
Dublin" 1 in 920, and to maintain their English 
dominions he and his brother Reginald " with the 
English and Danes of North umbria and the King of 
the Strathclyde Britons and the King of the Scots" 
submitted to the victorious Edmund and "acknow- 
ledged him for their father and lord." 2 Secured by 
this submission Si trie took possession of one division 
of Northumbria and " Reginald won York" 3 the 
capital of the other, the claim of their brother Niall 
to some share of dominion being settled after the 
barbarous manner of the times, for "A.D. 921, King 

* / o 

Sitric slew his brother Niall." 

The dates of these events are variously given 
in English chronicles which contain no further 

O 

account of Reginald. It is supposed that he went 
to France, 4 and was that "Ragenoldus Princeps 
Nordmannorum" 5 who fell in battle in A.D. 925 ; the 



' Ann. Ult., 9I9al. 920. 

2 Flor.Wig. and Math. Wcstm., 
give the date 921 ; also Chron. 
Mailros., where Sitric is named 
with Reginald ; Hen. Hunt., 923, 
and Roger de Hoveden, 917. 

3 Sax. Chron., 922 ; Sim. Dun., 
919; "Inguald irrupit Ebora- 
cum." Hen. Hunt., 923; Sax. 
Chron., 920; Sim. Dun., 914; 



Hoveden, 923. 

4 Ann. Bartholin. ap. Langebek, 
vol. i., p. 337. " Ragenoldus Nor- 
mnnnus Franciam vastat A.D. 923." 
Hist. S. Cuthbcrti ap. Twysden, p. 
74, says he died same year as King 
Edward, A.D. 924. 

8 Chron. Frodoard, ap. Du- 
chesne, Histori/e Franconcm Scrip - 
tores, p. 595, vol. ii. 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 



Gl 



921 BOOK L 
CHAP. VI. 



only record in Irish annals being that "A.D. 
.Reginald O'Hivar, King of the Black and White 
Gentiles, died." 1 



CHAPTER VII. 

Godfrey, son of Reginald, through Sitric's absence, assumes the rule 
at Dublin His conflicts with the Danes of Limerick and their allies 
Canute and Harold, sons of Gormo, King of Denmark. Sitric dies, and 
Athelstan annexes Northumberland Sitric's sons come to Ireland. 
Godfrey vainly attempts to recover Northumberland. His renewed 
conflicts with the Danes of Limerick aided by the sons of Sitric. 
Death of Godfrey. Athelstan makes Eric Blod-Ax, Viceroy of Nor- 
thumberland. 

REGINALD'S death and Sitric's residence in Northum- CnAP - VI 
bria, gave to Reginald's son Godfrey the Kingdom 
of the Ostmen,and A.D. 921, 2 " Godfrey, grandson of 
Imhar, took up his residence at Ath Cliath," and *" 92U 
immediately commenced hostilities against the 
Irish. 



He plundered Armagh but spared " the oratories He 
with their Ceile Des (Culdees) and the sick," 3 who 
appear to have been lepers. 4 His army then plun- 
dered "the country in every direction, west, east, 
and north, until they were overtaken by (the Irish 
under) Muircheartach, son of Niall Glundubh," and 



1 Ann. Ult., A.D. 920 (=921). 
"Reginald O'Hivar, King of the 
Dubhgalls and Finngalls, killed." 
Antiq. Celt. Norm. pp. 66, 77, 
"lleginaldus regno Ostmannorum 
Dublinii defuncto," &c., A.D. 
921. 

2 Ann. 4 Mast., 919; Ann. 
ULst.,920 ( 921). At this period 



there is a difference of two years 
between the chronology of the 
Four Masters and that of the 
Annals of Ulster, the latter being 
correct, as the eclipse of the moon 
mentioned, occurred in 921. 

Ann. Ulster, 920 (=921). 

<Ann. 4 Mast., 919 ( = 921). 



G2 TIIF. SCANDINAVIANS, AND 

OK L so signally defeated, that " the few who escj 
their safety to the darkness of the night." 1 



Is defeated by 

Muin-iipfirtach, Nor was it the Irish alone who en^afjcd Godfn -v's 

>on of Nial . J 

, A.D. attention. 



" Goruio-hin-Gamle/' s grandson of Gormo Enske, 

Denmark, sends . . i T> 

his sons to aid at this time reigned m Denmark and held dominion 

the Danes of _, AT TT i i m 

EastAngiia, over .Last Anglia. Me had married Jhyra, the 
daughter of King Edward, 3 and when Edward sought 
to subjugate East Anglia in 921, Gormo's sons, 
Canute and flarald, went to England, 4 and, doubtless, 
were those termed in the Saxon Chronicle " the 
pirates whom (the East Anglian s) had enticed to 
aid them." 5 But the East Anglians been defeated, 
and having accepted Edward as their sovereign, 
swearing "oneness with him, that they all would 

Cannteand that he would," 6 Canute and Harald left East Anglia 

Haruldsail i -i i /> T i r T> i i 

thence to and sailed for Limerick where sons of Reginald and 

t)22. of Sitric then resided. 

Their father, Gormo, who had renounced Chris- 
tianity and returned to the worship of Thor, was 
called by the Irish "Tomar" or Thorsman, and 
"Mac Elchi" as the son (recte grandson) of "Gormo 
Enske." 7 

s 

1 Ann. 4 Mast., 919 (= 921). morituro heredes scribuntur." 

* Gormo III., called Gormo * Sax. Cbron., where the date is 

Grandoevus, or the old : he was son 921. 
of Harald the grandson of Gormo 6 Ibid. 
Enske. Langebek, vol. i., pp. 17-20. "> Gormo, "Hie Cliristianis in- 

8 Langebek, vol. i., p. 37. She festissimus fuit, renovavit Llol.-i- 

was called Dana Bota. triam, Ecclesiam constructam circa 

4 Ibid. A.D. 924, p. 37, "Canutus Sleswic fundittis dcstruxit." _ I.nii- 

et Ilaraldus, principes juventutis, gebt-k, vol. ii., p. 345, et vol. i., 

in Angliam profecti, Gormonis Hi., p. 158, Ann. Bartholini, A.D. 934 

Danorum tyranni, filii, ab avo " Gormoniana persecutio." 
niatcrno Edwardo.Rege Anglorum 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. G3 

When his fleet with his sons Canute and Harald BOOK ' 

i < T CHAP. VII. 

came to the harbour ot Limerick m A.D. 922, its 

Canute and 

arrival was designated as that of "the fleet of Tomar iiwraw myii 

"Mac !<! i" 

Mac Elchi," 1 and when Canute and Harald plundered by t h i*'. 
the adjacent county, the record in our annals is, that 
' the shipping of Limerick, that is to say, of the Mac They ravage 
Elchi, came to Lochri (Lough Ree) and spoiled Clon- [Jj shannon, 
macnois and all the islands (in Lough Ree) carrying 
away great booty of gold and silver." 

The " Mac Elchi " were aided in these depreda- The Danes of 

1 Limerick aid 

tions by Colla, Lord of Limerick, the son of Barith," 2 them, 
a Scandinavian chief, who had married the daughter 
of an Irish prince. But their forays were not always 
successful ; " twelve hundred of the foreigners were 
drowned " at the mouth of the Erne in Donegal, 3 
and one of their pagan associates, Tomrar, the 
son of Tomralt, was slain by the people of Conne- 
mara. 4 

Godfrey in vain attempted to check the progress Godfrey 
of these plunderers. He " led an army from Dublin Dnbiin against 
to Limerick, 5 " but " many of his men were killed by 

1 After that came Tomar, son of p. 173, that, A.D. 866, " Barith the 
Elge, king of an immense fleet, Earl and Haimer (Ivar), two of the 
and they landed at Inis Slibhtonn noble race of the Lochlainns, came 
in the harbour of Limerick, and the through the middle of Connaught 
chief part of Munster was plun- towards Limerick." The Four 
deredbythem. Wars of the Gaed- Masters, in A.D. 878, record the 
hil with the Gaill, p. 39. death of " Barith a fierce champion 

2 This Barith had another son of the Norsemen," and that, A.D. 
called after his grandfather Ua- 888, his son, Eloir, was killed in 
thinharan, Ann. 4 Mast., U19. Connaught, another of the family, 
Barith's genealogy is unknown. "Eric, or Aric mac Brith," being 
In the Three Fragments, p. 197, killed at Brunanburg in 937. 

we find that " Barith, tutor to King Ann. 4 Mast., A.D. 922. 
Aedh's son, drew many ships from 4 Ibid., 923. 
the sea westward to Loch Ri ; and 5 Ann. Ult., G32. 



04 THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 

BOOK i. MacAilche" 1 and he was forced to return to "Ath 

CHAP VII. 

Cliath," which during his absence had been attacked 

Is defeated. 

Muireadach, by the Irish. The garrison, however, was sufficient 

King of 

Leinster, to repulse the assailants, and " Muireadhach, king of 

Hn, but fails. Lemster, with his son Lorcan,'were taken prisoners,"* 

and although subsequently released, clemency had 

little effect, for some years after Lorcan " was slain 

by the Norsemen as he was plundering" the city. 3 

Godfrey's sons At this time Godfrey's sons had joined the Danish 

in Ulster. J J 

fleet at Strangford, and plundered Dunseverick in 
Ulster; 4 but this fleet was taken at Magheralin, on 
the river Lagan, 5 and, at the bridge of Cluain-na-g 
Cruimhther, Muircheartach, son of Niall, with the 
Are defeated Ulstermen, defeated the Scandinavians, slaying 

by Muirchear- . .... .,,. 

tagh, son of "eight hundred men, with their chieftains, Albdarn 
(or Halfdan), son of Godfrey, Aufer and Hoi It 
(Harold), 6 the other half of them being besieged for 
a week at Ath Cruithne, until Godfrey, lord of the 
foreigners, came to their assistance from Dublin." 7 
Such was the situation of affairs in Ireland when 

Edward, King Edward, king of the Anglo-Saxons died in 925, 8 and 

of the Anglo- & . ? . . 

Saxons, dies, was succeeded by his illegitimate son ^Ethelstan, 

A.I). 925. & 

who to secure the throne drowned his legitimate 
brother Edwin, 9 and entered into an alliance with 
the Northumbrian Danes, then governed by Sitric. 

1 Ann. Ult., 932. Dee in the county of Louth. See 

8 Ann. 4 Mast., 923. supra., v. i., p. 19.] 
Ibid., 941. 6 Ann. 4 Mast., 924 ; Ann. Clon- 

4 Ann. 4 Mast., "DunSobhairce," mac., 921, " Alvdon, Awfcr, uml 

A.D. 924 ; Ann. Ult, 925 (=926) ; Harold." 

Ann. Clonmac., 921. 7 Ann. 4 Mast., 924 ; Ann. Ult., 

Ann. Ult., 925." Linn Dua- 925. 

chaill,"now Magheralin. [Perhaps 8 Sax. Chron., A.D. 925. 

a place near Annagassan at the tidal Ilovedcn, A.D. 924 ; Sim. Dun., 

opening of the rivers Clyde ami A.D. 933 ; Hen. Hunt., A.D. 933. 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. G5 

The alliance between the Saxon and the Dane BOOK i. 
was doubly cemented, for when "King Athelstan 
and King Sitric came together at Tamworth, on the succeeds, and 
3rd of the kalends of February, Athelstan gave him with sitric. 
his sister in marriage," 1 and Sitric consented to be 
baptized ; but neither matrimony or Christianity 
were ties which could bind Sitric, for, unsteady in 
his faith and forgetful of his vows, he soon repu- 
diated his wife, " rejected Christianity, and returned 
to the worship of idols " 2 he had abandoned. 

The apostate did not long survive. In 926 Sitric, sitricdies, and 
grandson of Ivar, " lord of the Dubhghoill and Finn- annexes North. 
ghoill," 3 or as he is called in the Ulster Annals, A .D. 920, 
" Sitric O'Himar, prince of the New and Old Danes," 4 
died, leaving three sons, Reginald, Godfrey, and 
Aulaf, who came to Ireland, not being permitted to sunc and sons 
inherit the English dominion of their father, whose land, 
brother-in-law, King Athelstan, obtained the kingdom 
of Northumbria. 

This annexation of Northumbria to the Anglo- Godfrey, King 

. , of Dublin, 

Saxon crown was not in accordance with the right attempts to 

/. -i -i-i /--, -i /> TT-. f T\ t f recover North- 

oi succession claimed by Godfrey, King of Dublin, u 
the son of Reginald. Godfrey, therefore, " with his 
foreigners left Ath Cliath," 5 and accompanied by the 

1 Sax. Chron., A.D. 925. Editha "The plundering of Gill dara by 

was daughter of Edward and sister the son of Godfrey of Port Lairge." 

of Thyra, who had married Gormo. Ann. Clonm., 923 (=928). ' Kil- 

- Matth. Westm., A.D. 925. dare was ransacked by the son of 
8 Ann. 4 Mast., 925 (=926). Sax. Godfrey of Waterford." Ann. 4 

Chron. also gives 926 as the date Mast., 929. "Godfrey (son of Regi- 

of Sitric's death. nald) went into Osraighe, to expel 

* Ann. Ult., 926. They appear the grandson of Imhar" (that is 
to have landed at Waterford, Godfrey the son of Sitric from 
where their uncle Reginald had Magh Roighne). 

been. Ann. 4 Mast., A.D. 923. 6 Ann. 4 Mast, 925 (=926). 



GG THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 

BOOK i. foreigners of Linn Duachaill "' (probably the rem- 
nant of his son Halfden's army), he sailed for 
England, where fora brief period the King of Dublin 
became King of Northumbria also. 

! peiied in The Anglo-Saxon monarch, however, was too 

and returns' to powerful ; " Athelstan expelled King Guthfrith,"' 

who "came back to Dublin after six months," 3 and 

renewed his warfare with the Irish. " On the festival 

Godfrey day of St. Bridget " in 927 4 he plundered her sacred 

ravages Kil- 

<*> fane at Kildare, and on the death of Diannaid (the 

last of the sons of Cearbhall 4 ) " Godfrey, the grand- 
son of Imhar, with the foreigners of Ath Cliath, 
demolished and plundered Dearc Fearna " in Ossory, 
"where one thousand persons were killed." 5 Per- 
haps the people of Ossory had shown some partiality 
for the sons of Sitric, who were then joined with 
the " foreigners " of Waterford and Limerick, as wo 

Defeats the fi n( j that in A.D. 928 "the foreigners of Luimneach " 

sons of Sitric, 

and Danes of entered Ossory and " encamped in Maorh. R-oighi. 

Waterford and * 

Limerick, A.D. under the command of Aulaf Ceanncairech <>!' 

929. 

Limerick, and that in 929 Godfrey went into Ossory 
to expel the grandson of Imhar from Magh Raighne," 7 
in which he succeeded, and compelled Aulaf to seek 
another field of action. 8 

1 Ann. 4 Mart., 925 (=926). Dublin Penny Journal,yo\. i., p. 73; 

Linn Duachaille. See supra, p. 19, Dr. J. O'Donovan, Ann. 4 Mast., 

n. 1. vol. ii., p. 623, note 3.) 

8 Sax. Chron., 927. 6 Ann. 4 Mast., 928. 

Ann. 4 Mast. 925 (=926). 7 Ibid., 929. 

* Jbid., 927. 8 Ann. 4. Mast., 931. "The 

6 Ann. 4 Mast., 928 ; Ann Ult., victory of Duibhthir was gained 1 >y 

927 (--=930). Dearc Fearna, i.e., the Amhlaeibh Ceanncairech of 1 ,uim- 

Cave of Fearna, probably the neach, where some of the nobles of 

ancient name of the Cave of Dun- Ui Maine were slain." 
more near Kilkenny. (See the 






SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. G7 

While Godfrey was thus engaged the sons of BOOK T. 
Gormo, that is to say, "the Mac Elgi," aided by 
" the sons of Sitric took Dublin on Godfrey," 1 an Harold, ai.ied 
aggression quickly followed by the death of Canute, sLic, uk 
the eldest of the Mac Elchi, who was slain near the 927. m 
city by the arrow of a native king. 2 As one of the 
pagfaii worshippers of Thor. Canute's death is recorded Canute iain 

. , in a battle 

in Irish annals by the statement that " Torolbh the near Dublin, 

A.D. 930. 

Earl was killed by Muircheartach," son of Niall ; 3 
and the statement of Northern historians that Gormo, HW father. 
King of Denmark, died of grief for the loss of of Denmark" 
his son Canute killed in Ireland, 4 is charitably 
recorded in the Annals of Clonmacnois, by the state- 
ment that "Tomar Mac Alchi, King of Denmark, is 
reported to have gone to hell with his pains, as 
he deserved.'' 5 

In 931 Aulaf. son of Godfrey, imitating the bad Auiaf, son of 

' J ' . King Godfrey, 

example of his father, plundered Armagh, and being plunders 
joined by Matadhan, son of Aedh, with some of the 931. 
Ulidians, he continued to spoil Ulster until his army . 
was "overtaken by Muircheartach, son of Niall," 
and defeated with the loss of " 200 heads besides 

i Ann. Clonmac., 922 (=927). (=930). 

a Saxo Gram. lib. ix.,p. 162, et 4 Langebek, vol. i.,p. 37, et vol. 

Langcbek, vol. ii., p. 346. " Deinde ii., p. 34d. "Gormo tyramms, 

Hyberniam adeuntes, Dubliniam audito mortis Canuti filii in bello 

caput provincie obsederuut. Rex Hybernico obtruncati nuncio, in 

autem llybcrnie nemus circa Dub- apoplexin incidit et moritur." 

liniam cum sagittariis ingressus, Ann. Clonmac., 922 (=927). 

Knutonem inter militcs nocturno Northern annals say that Gormo 

tcmpore ambulantem, cum sagitta died A.D. 930, and Canute in 

letaliter vulneravit." 930, in which they agree with 

Ann. 4 Mast., 930. He is the Four Masters. 

lied "Torch," Ann. Clonm., 925 

F2 






TIII: SCANDINAVIANS, AND 



BOOK I. 
CHAP. VII. 

King Godfrey 
dies, A.V. 932. 



Athclslan 
seizes North- 
umberland. 



Mates Eric 
Blod-ax 
Viceroy of 
Northumber- 
land. 



Eric Blod-ax 
dwells at York 



prisoners." 1 In 932 " Godfrey, King of the Danes, 
died a filthy and ill-favoured death, 2 and Aulaf, King 
of Dublin, became by right King of Northumbria 
also. But this claim was not admitted by Athelstan, 
who, although he permitted Reginald to remain 
at York, had determined to govern Northumbria 
by a Scandinavian viceroy of his own selection. 

English chronicles do not refer to the facts 
detailed in Northern history, but there is every 
appearance of truth in the Saga narrated, that 
Athelstan was "foster father" to Hakon the illegiti- 
mate son of King Harald Harfagre, and that in 
A.D. 933, 3 Athelstan sent Hakon to Norway where 
Hakon's legitimate brother, Eric Blodaxe,had become 
obnoxious to his subjects, it being subsequently 
arranged " that King Eric should take Northumber- 
land as a fief from King Athelstan," and " defend it 
against the Danes or other Vikings," 4 and further 
that " Eric should let himself be baptized, together 
with his wife and children and all the people 
who followed him." "Eric accepted this offer," 
came to England, received baptism, and took up 
" his residence at York, where Ilegnar Lodbrog's sons 
it is said, had formerly been." 3 



1 Ann. 4 Mast., A.D. 931. 

2 Ann. Ult., A.D. 933 (=934) ; 
Ann. 4 Mast., A.D. 932. 

8 Ann. Island., A.D. 933 ; Lang, 
vol. iii., p. 32, vol. ii., p. 188. 
" In Historia Norvegica Ilacon 
' Adelsteins fostre ' appellatur." 



Saga Ilakonar Goda, cap. i., p. 
125. 

4 Ileimsk., vol. i., p. 127, Saga 
Ilakonar Goda. 

6 Ibid., p. 128; Torfoeus Hist. 
North., Pars Secunda, p. 184. 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN'. C9 

CHAPTER VIII. BOOK i. 

Aulaf, King of Dublin, attempts to recover Northumberland Is defeated 
by Athelstan at Brunanburg. Returns to Dublin The Irish besiege 
Dublin. 

WHILE Athelstan was thus providing for the govern- Auiaf prepares 
nient of Northumbria Aulaf, King of Dublin, was pre- Nonhumber- 
paring to assert his right to it. "The foreigners of Loch 
Erne," 1 under the command of " Amhlaeibh Ceann- 
chairech, 2 had crossed Breifne (Cavan and Leitrim) to 
Loch Kibh, and had remained there for seven months 
plundering the country on the banks of the Shannon. 3 
Their assistance, however, was now required, and 
in 936 " Amhlaeibh, the son of Godfrey, lord of the 
foreigners, came at Lammas from Ath Cliath, and 
carried off Amhlaeibh Ceannchairech from Loch Ribh, 
and the foreigners that were with him." 4 Aulaf 's pre- 
parations being complete " the Danes of the North with his allies, 
of Ireland " 5 and " the foreigners of Ath Cliath left Dublin, A.D. 

937 

their fortress, and went to England," 6 where they 

were joined by Howel Dha. 7 King of Wales, Theyiard at 

/ *- the mouth of 

' Hryngr " (Eric), son of Harald Blaatand, 8 and the number. 

1 Ann. 4 Mast., A.D. 934 (=935); "The foreigners deserted Ath- 
Crymogaea, p. 127. cliath by the help of God and Mac- 

2 Aulaf Ceannchairech that is, tail." Ann. Ulst. A.D. 931 (=937). 
"of the scabbed head." Aulaf is 7 Harald Blaataud was son of 
called the Red King of Scotland. Gormo Grandaevus, King of East 

s Ann. 4 Mast., 934. Anglia, who died A.D. 931 (=935). 

4 During the absence of Aulaf on Harald reigned fifty years. Hams- 

this or some other expedition, Dublin fort Chron. ; Ann. Barthelin, 935. 
was burned by Donnchadh, son of 8 Langebek, vol. ii., p. 1 48. It 

Fknn, King of Ireland. The Annals adds that Ilrynkr (or Ilerich or 

of the Four Masters places Aulaf s Eric) was killed in Northumbria : 

expedition to Loch Ribh in 935, doubtless he was killed at Brun. 

and the burning of Dublin in 934. anburg. See Egil's Sajra, and 

Ann. Clonmac., A.D. 931 Ann. Ulst., A.D. 931 (=937), where 

( = 937). lie is called u Imar, the King of 

6 Ann. 4 Mast., A.D. 937, ?ay - Denmark's own son." 



70 THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 

BOOK i. Constantine, King of the Scots, 1 whose daughter 
L Aulaf had married, and whose dominions Atlielstan 
had made tributary. Aulaf was also joined by some 
Irish and Orkney allies, and from the assembled 
" fleet of 615 ships " he landed " at the mouth of the 
Humber"A.D. 927. 2 Athelstan was not inattentive 

ftll!i 8tan * ^ the preparations of the invaders. He also collected 
a formidable host, having the assistance of his tri- 
butary king, Eric, with many of the Danes of 
Northuinbria, and among his foreign auxiliaries 
Thorolf and Egils, two celebrated Vikings, who 
joined his standard with 300 warriors on hearing of 
large rewards offered for such mercenary assistance. 3 
Aulaf here showed that he combined the caution of 
a general with the courage of a soldier. With equal 
credibility it is told of him, as of Alfred, 4 that on 
the eve of the battle, and in the disguise of a harper, 
he entered and examined the camp of his enemy ; 

Auiaf defeated Du fc fortune was unkind Aulaf was defeated in the 

at lirunan- 

-, A.U. OOF. terrific struggle at Brunanburg, and fled 

"O'er the deep water 
Dublin to seek 
Again Ireland 
Shamed in mind." 5 

LangtofFs Chronicle says that he returned at 

1 Flor. Wig., p. 578, says Con- (Egil's Saga., p. 285), and in the 

stantine urged Aulaf to this attack battle was opposed to the Scotch 

on Athelstan. auxiliaries of Aula, and defeated 

8 Sim. Dunelin., p. 686 ; Flor. them. 
Wig., 587 ; Chron. Mailros, p. 147. Ingulf, A.D. 872, p. 26 ; Will. 

8 Kgil's Saga Hafnia?, 1825, pp. Malrasb., p. 23 ; Sax. Chron., A.D. 

264, 266. Thorolf was killed in 938, p. 385 ; Ann. 4 Mast., 9:*S, 

this battle, to the success of which where he is called " Aulaf, son of 

he contributed. With his " two- Sitric." 

handed sword" he killed Hryngr 6 Hen. Hunt, gives the date 945 ; 

in the night attack before the battle lib. v., p. 204. 



M'AXDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 



71 



Easter, and, after the custom of the Northmen, chal- BOOK i. 
lenged Athelstan to try his right to Northuinbria by 
wage of battle, for which purpose he selected a 
redoubtable champion ; but his champion was van- 
quished, 1 and " Aulaf turned again, he and all his King Aniaf 

return* to 

to their ships," and after plundering the Isle of Man, DuUin 
" Aulaiv mac Godfrey came to Dublin " in 938.* ID. ass. 

Brunanburg, however, had destroyed his power. Tb ? I JJJ brn 
The Irish took advantage of his weakness [or were A.B. ass. 
the allies of another line of Ostman kings] 4 and 
"Donnchadh (King of Ireland) and Muircheartach 
(of the Leather Cloaks) went with the forces of both 



1 Peter LangtofTs Chron. ; 
Ilearn's Collect., Oxford, 1725. 

" Aulaf sent messengers vnto 

Athelstan, 
And bad him veld the lond, or 

f ynd another man 
To fight with Colebrant, that 

was his champion, 
Who felle to haff the lond, on 

them it suld be don." 

This "trial by battle " continued 
among the Anglo-Normans in all 
disputes of title to land, until 
Henry II. instituted " Trial by 
great Assize ;" yet his son, Richard 
I., was challenged by King Philip 
to try his right to the crown of 
France. Previously Canute fought 
Edmund in single combat for the 
crown of England. William the 
Conqueror challenged Harald for 
the same purpose. So it was 
offered between John of England 
and Lewis of France (vide Selden 
Duello, Lond., 1610). Olaf Tryg- 
vesson, with twelve champions, 
fought Alfenwithan equal number. 



Heimskr. Olaf Trygvesson's Saga, 
chap. 34, Tol. i., p. 126 ; and 
throughout the Sagas we find 
numerous instances of single combat, 
or of combats with a stated number 
on each side, to try not only titles 
to land, but claims of other kinds. 

2 Ann. 4 Mast., 936 ; Ann. Ult. 
938. 

' Sax. Chron., A.D. 937, and all 
English historians describe the 
battle of Brunnanburgh as one of 
the bloodiest conflicts of the age. 
Of Aulaf "s allies the slaughter was 
great. The Ann. Clonmacn. name 
" Sithfrey, Oisle, the two sons of 
Sithrick Gale, Awley Fivit, and 
Moylemorey the son of Cossawara, 
Moylc Isa, Gellachan, King of the 
Islands, Ceallach, prince of Scotland, 
with 30,000, ^together with 800 
about Awley mac Godfrey, and 
about Aric mac llrith, Hu.i, Deck, 
Omar the King of Denmark's son, 
with 4,000 soldiers in his guard, 
were all slain." Ann. 4 Mast., v. ii., 
p. 633, n. 

[Of Godfrey, son of Sitric.] 



72 THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 

BOOK i. fully assembled to lay siege to the foreigners of 

CHA.IVIII. Ath Cliath," and although they failed to take the 

city, " they spoiled and plundered all that was under 

the dominion of the foreigners from Ath Cliath 

I h %? a K ne 1 of to Ath Truisten." 1 Either in retaliation for this 

the Hebrides 

a g"g ress i on or as a mere piratical expedition, the 
Northmen of the Scottish Isles, the subjects or allies 
o f Aulaf, plundered Aileach and carried Muircheartach 

tach s capture 

and escape, prisoner to their ships. The captive, however, es- 
caped, and fitting out a fleet pursued his captors 
to their island homes from which he returned laden 
with plunder. Nor was he content with this exhibi- 
tion of his power, he marched from Aileach with 
a thousand chosen men, prepared for a winter 
campaign by sheep skin mantles (an improvement 
in military costume, which gained for him the name 

His "Leather- o f " Muircheartach of the Leather Cloaks"), and 

cloaked 

warriors, and " keeping his left hand to the sea," "he made 

circuit of 

Ireland. the circuit of Ireland until he arrived at Ath 
Cliath," from whence " he brought Sitric, lord of Ath 
Cliath," or more probably the son of Sitric, " as a 
hostage." 2 

1 Ann. 4 Mast., 936; Ann. Ult., southern part of the county ot 

937 (=938). Ath Truisten, a Kildare. 

ford of the river Greece near * Ann. 4 Mast., A.D. 93P, vol. ii. 

the hill of Mullaghmast, in the P- 643. 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. To 

CHAPTER IX. BOOK i. 

King Edmund dies A.D. 946. Aulaf Cuaran, King of Dublin, contests _ _ 
Northumberland with King Eadred, Edmund's successor. Aulaf, 
after four years' possession of Northumberland, is expelled. He returns 
to Ireland. His extensive Irish connexions His throne at Dublin 
disputed by his nephew. Aulaf recovers it Goes a pilgrimage to 
lona Abdicates. Muelsechlain overthrows Reginald, Aulafs son. 
Mnvlseehhun proclaims the freedom of Ireland. 

CONTEMPORANEOUSLY with the death of Blacaire in K.Edmund <iie 

Ireland was that of Edmund in England. He was *" 

assassinated " on St. Augustin's mass-day," 1 946, and 

was succeeded by his brother Eadred, who " subdued is succeeded by 

all Northumberland under his power." 1 In 947 e ' 

" Walstan, the archbishop, and all the Northumbrian 

1 Witan ' plighted their troth to " him, with oaths 

which they did not long remember, for " within a 

little time they belied it all, both pledge and also 

oaths " by taking Eric (of Danish extraction) to be 



their king. 2 Enraged by this perfidy " Eadred Erie son of 
ravaged all Northumbria" in 948, and "would have king! 
wholly destroyed the land " if the Witan had not 

J , . . King Eadred 

"forsook Eric, and made compensation" to their e^p* 18 
Saxon lord. 3 

The dethronement of Eric left Northumberland 
again open to Aulaf Cuaran, who since the death 
of Blacaire had retained undisputed possession of 
Dublin. 

In 948 Aulaf sailed for England, 4 leaving Dublin 
to the care of his brother Godfrey. Scarcely, how- Dublin to 

Northumber- 
land. 

1 Sax. CLron., 946. * " Quant il rcgnout el secund an 

* Ibid., 947. This was Eric, son Idunckes vint Aulaf Quiran." 

of Ilarald Harfagre. (Gcfl'rui Guiiuar, I., 3550). 
3 Ibid., 948. 



74 THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 

HOOK i. ever, had he left Ireland until Ruaidhri Ua Canan- 
AKix, na j n> taking advantage of his absence, attacked and 



Dublin defeated Conghalach in Meath. " Plundering all 
MS brother Breagha, Ruaidhri reduced Conghalach to great 
straits," encamping " for six months" in the midst 
of the country until " the dues " payable to Con- 
ghalach as " King of Ireland, were sent to him 
(Kuaidhri) from every quarter." Godfrey, with 
"the foreigners of Dublin," endeavoured to arrest 
his progress, and a sanguinary battle was fought, in 
which " the foreigners of Ath Cliath were defeated," 
with the loss of "six thousand mighty men, besides 
boys and calones." "Godfrey, the son of Sitric," 
escaped from the field, but " Imhar, tanist of the 
foreigners," was slain ; and on the other side 
" Ruaidhri himself fell in the heat of the conflict." 1 
Godfeypiun- In 949 "Godfrey, the son of Sitric, with the 
'ji'j. " ' foreigners of Ath Cliath, plundered Ceanannus " 
" and other churches in Meath," carrying " upwards 
of three thousand persons with them into captivity, 
besides gold, silver, raiment, and various wealth, 
and goods of every description," 2 which (say the 
Annals of Clonmacnois) " God did soon revenge on 
them," 3 for there broke out great disease, " leprosie 
and running of blood, upon the Gentiles of Dublin " 4 
in that year. 
Auiaf Cuamn In 949 Aulaf Cuaran arrived in Northumberland, 5 

recovers North- 

umberland, i Ann- 4 Mast . died in 946j and wag succce( i ed by 

3 Ann. 4 Mast., 949 ; Ann Ult., Eadred, and 

950. " Quant 11 regnout el secund an 

8 Ann. Clonmac., 946 ( = 951). Idunckes vint Aulaf Quiran 

Ann. Ult., 950 ; Ann. 4 Mast., Northumberland seise e prist 
949. Nc trouvat ki le defcndist." 

8 Sax. Chron., 949. Edmund (Geff. Gaim., I., 3350.) 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 75 

and " held it by the strong hand for four years." 1 BOOK L 
At the termination of this period the Northumbrians, CHAP -"- 
with their usual fickleness, " expelled King Aulaf, 

' 953, and Enc 

and received Eric, Harold's son," 2 whose reign was elected b y d 

Dane*. 

short, for in 954 3 the Northumbrians dismissed him 
as carelessly as they had received him, and inviting 
King Eadred, voluntarily replaced him on the A - D - 54 - 
throne. 4 

Eric, 5 "with his son Harekr, and his brother Eric slain in an 

attempt on 

Reginald, was treacherously slain in a desolate Northumber- 
land, A.D. 956. 
place called Steinmor, through the treason of Count 

Osulf, and by the hand of Maccus," 6 the son of 
Aulaf ; but the Sagas say that Aulaf himself fought 
Eric, and that " towards the close of the day King 
Eric, and five kings with him, fell three of them 
Guttorm and his two sons, Ivar and Harekr. There 
fell also Sigurd and Rognvalldr, and with them Tor 
Einar's two sons, Arnkel and Erland," whom Eric 
had brought from the Orkneys. 

From this period Northumbria ceased to be a On Enc's death 
kingdom. " What became of Aulaf, the last king " to Ireland, 
(says Drake) "I know not. It is probable he died 

1 Hen. Hunt., " quod in forti- given in charge to Osulf, whose 

tudine tenuit quatuor annis." sister had married Aulaf, "&c. Saga 

1 Sax. Chron., 962; Hen. Hunt., Hakon Goda, c. iv., p. 129. Saga 

953. of Olafi Hinom Helga, c. 99, p. 

3 Sax. Chron., 954. 145. Harald's Saga ens Harfagra, 

4 Hen. Hunt., 954. cap. xlvi., p. 12 "Eric was a 

5 Brompton ap. Twysden, p. 862, stout, handsome man, strong, and 
''Iricio rege super ipsos Scotos very manly a great and fortunate 
statuto," &c., &c. man of war, <fcc. His wife, Gun- 

6 Hen. Hunt., 950 ; Mat. West., hild, was a most beautiful woman ; 
950; Roger Wendover, 950. IIo- their children were Gamle, the 
veden says "The Northumbrians oldest, then Guttonn, Ilarald, 
slew Amaccus, the son of Aulaf, Rangfred, Ragnhild, Erlcng, Gud- 
and that the province was then rord, and Sigurd Sieve." 



7o 



THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 



BOOK I. 
CHAP. IX. 



Aulafs Irish 
connexions. 



abroad, no author making any mention of him after 
Edred's last expedition into the North." 1 But if the 
historian of York had referred to Irish annals, he 
would have ascertained that, after Eric's death, 
Aulaf returned to Ireland, where his matrimonial 
alliances with native royalty had secured to him a 
safe asylum. To some of these alliances we have 
already referred, but they deserve more distinct 
notice, as furnishing a curious illustration of the 
manners of the times, and of the cause of many of 
the confederacies and wars between the Ostmen and 
the Irish. 

In the eleventh century Lanfranc, Archbishop of 
Canterbury, wrote to Turlough O'Brien, King of 
Ireland, that it was reported to him that within 
Turlough's dominions "there, are men who take to 
themselves wives too near akin, both by consan- 
guinity and affinity ; others who forsake at will and 
pleasure such as are lawfully joined to them in holy 
matrimony, and some who give their wives to others 
in matrimony, and receive the wives of such in return 
by an abominable exchange." 2 

If such were the practices in the eleventh century 
they do not appear to have been very different in 
the tenth. 

Divorces fre- Among the Scandinavians repudiation and poly- 
gamy VferQ royal privileges. Polygamy continued 
in Norway down to the thirteenth century, and 
Harald Harfagre put away nine wives when ho 



1 " Eboracum, or Hist, and 
Antiq. of York, by F. Drake: 
I. 'in. I., 1736, p. 81. According to 
Chron. Mailros, p. 148 " Ericuiu 



filium Harold qui fuit ultimus 
Rex, &c. 

1 Ware's Bishops p. 307. 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 77 

married " Raughill the Mighty." 1 We find no trace BOOK L 
of polygamy among the royal families of Ireland ; 
but in their alliances with Aulaf there is evidence 
that repudiation and divorce were not unknown to 
them. 

Maelmhuire, daughter of Kenneth, King of the Princely Scan 

dinavian and 

Scots, 8 married Aedh Finnlaith, by whom she had Irish ' 

' J riages. 

Niall Glundubh, King of Ireland. After Aedh's death 
Maelmhuire married his successor, Flann Sinna, by 
whom she had Gormflaith, who first married Cormac 
Cuilennan, King and Bishop of Cashel, and being put 
away by him she married Cearbhall, son of Murigen, 
King of Leinster, and then married Niall Glundubh, 
her step-brother, by whom she had Muircheartach 
of the Leather Cloaks, King of Ireland. 3 

Maelmhu ire's daughter, Dunlaith, first married 



Irish connex- 

Domhnall Donn, son of Donnchadh Donn, 4 by whom fona. 

she had Maelseachlainn, and then married Aulaf 
Cuaran, by whom she had Gluniarain ; thus Mael- 

1 Harald Harfagre Saga, c. xxi. Finnlaith, -who was his mother's 

2 Ogygia, P- 484. Maelmhuire, second husband. Three Frag- 
the follower of Mary; she died ments, pp. 157 and 179. Flann 
A.D. 910. married a third time Gaithen, by 

3 Ann. Clonmac. gives the order whom she had Cennedigh, and 
of her marriages differently First, according to Ann. Ult., "in peni- 
she married Cormac Cuileannain ; tentia dormivit," A.D. 889. 
second, Niall Glundubh ; and third, * Dunlaith was probably in 
Cearbhall; but this would imply that Aulaf s " strong fortress" of Dublin 
she was also repudiated by Niall in 939, when her father came to it, 
Glundubh, as he lived ten years and was that " Damsel whose soul 
after Cearbhall. Aedh Finnlaith the son of Niall was, and who came 
was also married to Flann or Lan, forth until she was outside the walls, 
daughter of Dunlang of Ossory, the although the night was constantly 
widow of Maelseachlainn I., by bad." Circuit of Ireland, p. 33. 
whom she was the mother of Flann (Archneolog. Soc. of Ireland*! 
Sinna; and Flann Sinna married Tracts.) 

Maelmhuire, the widow of Aedh 






78 TIIK SCANDINAVIANS, AND 

BOOK i. seaclilainn, King of Ireland, and Gluniaraiu " were 
X. ]I1() (] R , r ' s S011S> " a nd Maelseachlainn having married 
Maelmhuire, Aulaf's daughter, the connexion 
became closer. 

Aulaf Cuaran, however, had other alliances, for 
Aulaf also married Gormflaith, daughter of Murchadh, 
son of Finn, King of Leinster, by whom he had 
Sitric. 2 She then married Brian Borumha, 3 by whom 
she had Donnchadh, and being repudiated by Brian, 4 
who married Dubhchobhlaig, daughter of the King 
of Connaught. 5 Gormflaith married Maelseachlainn, 

O 7 

by whom she became mother of Conchobhar. 

Aulaf's royal connexions were further extended 
and complicated by the marriage of his daughter 
Eadnalt with Conghalach, King of Ireland. 6 Con- 
ghalach being the son of Maelmithigh, by Ligach, 
daughter of Flann Sinna/ and step-sister of Niall 

1 Ann. 4 Mast., 982 ; Ann. 4 she married Brian. Ibid., p. clxi. 

Mast., 1021 Maelmhuire died; n. 1.] 

Ann. Clonmac., 1014. 4 Nial's Saga, cap. civ., p. 590, 

[ 2 Wars of the Gaedhil with says that Gormflaith had been 

the Gaill. Introduction, cxlviii., n. ; Brian's wife, but that they were 

ibid., cxlix., n.] then parted (1012), and that she 

[ 3 For a history of Gormflaith sent her son Sitric to induec the 

see "Wars of the Gaedhil with Norsemen to attack Brian at Clon- 

the Gaill," p. cxlviii., n. 88. tarf. 

"The three 'marriages' of Gorm- Ann. 4 Mast., 1008 Dubh- 

flaith are described in some verses chobhlaig died, 

quoted by the Four Masters (A.D. c Book of Leinster, MS. 

1030), as three 'leaps,' 'or jumps 1 7 Ann. 4 Mast., " Lijrhach died," 

which a woman should never 921. NiaU's Saga, cap. dr., p. 590, 

jump." This seems to hint that says she was first married to Brian 

three leaps were not legitimate and then to Aulaf Cuaran, Mur- 

marriages. They were a u leap at chadh, Gormflaith's father, died in 

Ath Clidth, or Dublin," when she 928. If she were born that year 

married Olaf Cuaran; ll a leap at and died 1030 she was then 102 

Tara," when she marr'n <l Malaehy years old. It is not improbable 

IT., and "a leap at Cashcl," when that she was first man-is d in 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 79 

Glimdubk and Gorrnflaith ; and by the marriage of BOOK r. 
Aulaf's son Sitric with the daughter of Brian 
Borumha; Brian subsequently marrying Sitric's 
mother. 

While Aulaf Cuaran was in England his brother 
Godfrey, King of Dublin, was slain by the Dal-cais, 1 dispute* the 
and was succeeded by his son Aulaf; but when Aulaf Dufe vfefe 
Cuaran was expelled from Northumbria, he again 
claimed the throne of Dublin to the exclusion of 
his nephew, and in this as in previous efforts he 
was assisted by his son-in-law Conghalach. Auiaf i* aided 

by his son-in- 

On his return to Ireland in 953 Aulaf Cuaran law Congaiach. 
plundered Inis Doimhle and Inis Ulad ; and in 954 
Conghalach entered Leinster ; but the young King 
of Dublin, Aulaf, the son of Godfrey, laid a battle 
ambush for Conghalach by means of which strata- 
gem he was taken with many of his chieftains, 2 " and 
slain with many others." 3 

In 968 Kells was plundered by Aulaf Cuaran and Auiaf Cuanm 
the Leinstermen ; 4 and in 979 this Aulaf Cuaran, age to_ioua, 
or, as he is termed, Amhlaeibh, son of Sitric, chief 
lord of the foreigners of Ath Cliath, went (to lona) 
on his pilgrimage and died there after penance and 
a good life." 5 Our annals do not give the date of Date and place 
his death, but if we could rely on the statement of 
the Sagas he must have returned to Dublin and 
survived his pilgrimage many years ; for when 

and that divorced by him she then 955. 

married Aulaf [See note 3, 3 Ib id., 954. 

supra]. * Ann. 4 Mast., 968. 

1 Ann. Inisf., 951 ; Ann. 4 Mast., Ibid., 979. The Four Masters 

95 1 ; Ann. Ult., 952 ; the true year record Aulaf s pilgrimages both in 

being 953. 978, recte 979, and in 979 (=980) ; 

1 Ann. 4 Mast., 954 ; Ann. Ult., possibly he went to lona twice. 



80 



THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 



BOOK i. 



Auiaf the first 

Scandinavian 

pilgrim to ions, 
Auiaf abdicates 

the throne of 

Dublin, A.I> 

M'Q* 



soVand takes 8 
t>so. m ' A 



1 * 



u8o" d ' A ' D ' 



messengers were sent from Norway to seek Olaf 
Xryggrasson they are said to have found him in 
Dublin, at the court of his wife's brother, Aulaf 
Cuaran. 1 Aulaf was the first Scandinavian pilgrim 

-rii i i i i IT 

from Ireland, and the year in which he abdicated, 
Domhnall. King of Ireland, died, and was succeeded 
by Maelseachlainn, Aulaf Cuaran's step-son and son- 
in-law. On this relationship Maelseachlainn possibly 
founded some claim to the throne of Dublin, and 
having defeated the garrison and slain "Ragnall, 
son of Aulaf, heir to the sovereignty," he laid siege 
to the city " for three days and three nights," and 
ultimately succeeded in reducing it to subjection. 2 
It was then Maelseachlainn issued his famous pro- 
clamation, " that as many of the Irish nation as lived 
m servitude and bondage with the Danes (which 
was at that time a great number) should presently 
pass over without ransom and live freely in their 
own countries according to their wonted manner." 
The captivity of these unfortunate Irishmen being 
described in our annals as " the Babylonian captivity 
of Ireland (and) until they were released by Mael- 
seachlainn, it was indeed next to the captivity of 
hell." 3 



1 Saga Olafi Tryggva Syni, 
chap. Hi. This was about the year 
994. 

' Ann. 4 Mast., A.D. 979 (=980), 
vol. ii., p. 713. See also Ann. Clon- 
mac. Ibid, p. 712, n. x. 

3 Ann. Clonmac., 974 (=980). 
["He carried thence the hostages 
of Ireland, and among the rest 
Domhnall Claen, King of Leinster, 
and all the hostages of the Ui- 



Xeill. Two thousand was the num- 
ber of the hostages, besides jewels 
and goods, and the freedom of the 
Ui-Neill from the Sinainn to the 
sea, from tribute and exaction. It 
was then Maelseachlainn himself 
issued the famous proclamation in 
which he said, 'Every one of the 
Gaedhil who is in the territory of 
the foreigners in servitude and 
bondage, let him go to his own 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUNLIN 81 

This sketch of the connexion, which long existed BOOK l 
between Dublin and Northumberland, is given as 

_ -11-1 -i Conclusion. 

far as possible in the words of the authorities 
quoted; and although the narrative may thereby 
have been made less attractive than it might other- 

o 

wise have been rendered, yet it must be considered 
desirable to have distinct reference to well-known 
authorities, where the subject is one of much his- 
torical interest, heretofore unnoticed in any history 
of England or Ireland. 

We trust, however, that the narrative, such as it Dublin and 
is, embodies conclusive evidence that Dublin andiongundl/the 
Northurnbria were sometimes governed by the same M 
king, and almost always by kings of the same race. 
That it not only shows the high position which Dublin's high 
Dublin held among the Scandinavian colonies, but Scandinavian 
that it discloses the origin of confederacy and wars cu 
between the Ostmen and the Irish, and, as a matter 
of local interest, it tends to explain why our early 
Danish coins, although minted for Dublin, were 
coined by Anglo-Saxon money ers, and only bear the 
names of Ivar, Sitric, Reginald, or Aulaf, " the high 
kings of the Northmen of Ireland and England." 

territory in peace and happiness.' indeed next the captivity of hell." 

This captivity was the Babylonian Ann. 4 Mast, A.D. 979 (=980), 

captivity of Ireland until they were vol. ii., p. 713]. 
released by Maclseachluinn. It was 



82 



THE SCANDINAVIANS, AM> 



BOOK II. 

OF THE SCANDINAVIANS OF DUBLIN AND THEIR RELAT1 
WITH NEIGHBOURING KINGDOMS. 



BOOK If. 
CHAP. I. 



Man, nn Iri.-,h 
island for 
Ptolemy. 



CHAPTER I. 

DUBLIN AND THE ISLE OF MAX. 

Man for the Romans an Irish island. Man yields tribute to Bacdun, 
King of Ulster, A.D. 580. Thenceforth said to belong to Ulster. 
Conflicts between the Norwegians of Ulster and Danes of Northumbria 
about Man. Claimed by Reginald, brother of Sitric, King of Dublin, 
from Barid of Ulster. Magnus, King of Man, grandson of Sitric, with 
the Lagmen, sails round Ireland doing justice. Magnus, one of tin- 
eight kings who rowed King Edgar's barge on the Dee The ground 

probably of the forged charter of King Edgar pretending dominion in 
Ireland. In the eleventh century intermarriages make it hard to s;iy 
whether the kings of Dublin are to be called Danish or Irish. 
De Courcy's claim to Ulster through his wife, daughter of the King of 
Man. King Henry Second's jealousy'. De Courcy's fall. 

BUT Northumberland was not the only realm 
which had been subject to the Scandinavian 
kings of Dublin ; the Isle of Man, with " The 
Kingdom of the Isles," was also at intervals 
governed by the descendants of Ivar. 

Lying within view of the north-east coast of 
Ireland, the Isle of Man, like the islands surrounding-, 
was known to the Irish at an early period, and was 
by Ptolemy considered to be an Irish island. 1 



1 Between Manx traditions and 
Irish historical legends there is a 
curious coincidence respecting the 
early connexion of the Isle of Man, 
the Orkneys, and Hebrides, with 
Ulster and Connaught. 

View of tht- Isle of 



Sacheverell* says " The uni- 
versal tradition of the Manks nation 
ascribes the foundation of their 
laws to Manannan MacLir, whom 
they believe the father, foui.dcr, 
and legislator of their country 
Man : Loud., 1702, p. 20. 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 



83 



In A.D. 254, Cormac Mac Art drove some of the BOOK ir. 
Cruithne, or Irish Picts, from Ulster into the Isle of CHAP ' 



j)lacc him about the beginning of 
the fifth century. They pretend 
lie was the son of a king of Ulster, 
ami brother to Fergus II., who 
founded the kingdom of Scotland, 
A.D. 422" (recte 503). Johnson* 
adds, " That the Manks in their 
ancient records call him (Manannan) 
a payniin, and that at his pleasure 
he kept by necromancy the land of 
Man in mists, and to an enemy 
could make one man appear one 
hundred." 

In Irish historical legends we 
find four Manannans, three of 
whom are thus noticed "Man- 
annan, the son of Alloid," "Manan- 
nan, the son of Athgus," and 
" Manannan, the son of Lir." 

Of the last, that is Manannan 
MacLir, the Book of Fermoy says, 
that he was a pagan, that he was a 
law-giver among the Tuatha De 
Danann, and that he was a necro- 
mancer (a Druid), possessed of 
power to envelope himself and 
others in a mist (or " Feth Fiadha"), 
so that they could not be seen by 
their enemies. (Druids were sup- 
posed to possess the power of rais- 
ing mists. See Todd's "Life of 
St. Patrick," p. 425.) 

Of Manannan, the son of Alloid 
(also a Druid), it is saidf that his 
real name was Orbsen that he was 
a skilful seaman, and traded between 
Ireland and Britain, being com- 
monly called Manannan Mac Lir 
Manannan, from his commerce with 
the Isle of Man, and MacLir, that 



is "son of," or "sprung from 
the sea," from his skill in navi- 
gation. The Yellow Book of 
Li-ran J adds "that he was killed in 
the battle of Cuilleann, and buried 
in Connaught, and that when his 
grave was dug Loch Oirbsen burst 
over the land, so that it is from 
him Loch Oirbsen (now Loch 
Corrib) was named." 

Of the other Manannan the 
Yellow Book of Lecan says, "That 
Manannan, son of Athgus, King 
of Manain (Man) and the islands 
of the Galls (the Hebrides, &c.), 
came with a great fleet to pillage 
and devastate the Ultonians, to 
avenge the children of Uisnech," 
an Ulster chieftain. These children 
of Uisnech when compelled to fly 
" from Erinn " had sailed east- 
wards, and conquered " what was 
from the Isle of Man northwards of 
Albain," and " after having killed 
Gnathal, king of the country," 
were induced to return to Ireland 
under a pledge of safety from 
Conchobhar, King of Ulster. The 
sons of Gnathal, who also sought 
the protection of Conchobhar, 
'' killed the sons of Uisnech," in 
consequence of which Gaiar, the 
grandson of Uisnech, banished 
Conchobhar to the Islands of Ore 
and Cat (the Orkneys and Caith- 
ness), and Gaiar having reigned 
over Ulster for a year, went into 
Scotland with Manannan, and died 
there. 

In these Manannans we find a 



* Jurisprudence of the Isle of Man: Edin., 1811, p. 3. 
t Ogygia, P . 17'.'. J MS. T. C. Dubliu. tbti. 

o 2 



THE SCANDINAVIANS, AM> 



BOOK II. 
CHAP. I. 



Fergus of 
Ulster invades 
Man, A.I>. 503. 

Man pays 
tribute to 
liaedan K. of 
Ulster ^.D.580. 



Man said 
thenceforth to 
belong to 
Ulster. 



Man and the Hebrides, 1 and his son,Cairbre Riada hav- 
ing taken possession of the territory from which they 
had been expelled, it thence obtained the name of Dal 
Riada, or the territory of the descendants of Riada. 2 

Fergus, son of Ere, lord of Dalriada, sailed from 
Ulster into Scotland, 3 and in A.D. 503, founded a 
Dalriadan kingdom there. 4 He also visited Man 
and the Hebrides, and about A.D. 580, Baedan, king 
of Uladh (or Ulidia) cleared Man of the foreigners, 
and received tribute from Munster, Connaught, Sky, 
and Man. From this time it is said that the island 
belonged to Ulster. 5 

While the Romans were in Britain Man was an 
Irish island, 6 and it will be seen that a connexion 
long existed between them. 

2 Ogygia, p. 332. Dalriada, 
sometimes written " Ruta," and 
still called the Route, extended 
thirty miles from the River Bush to 
the cross of Gleann-finna^ht in 
Antrim. Dal Aradia joined Dalri- 
ada, and comprehended the greater 
part of the present county of Down. 
(Reeves's Lifeof St.Columba,p. 67.) 

s Ogygia, pp. 323, 466 ; Usshrr 
Primordia, p. 1117, Dublin, 1639. 

4 Innes, p. 690, says, Fergus, son 
of Ere began to reign A.D. 503, 
and died 506. 

Reeves's Life of St. Columba, 
p. 373, extracted from the Book of 
Lccan, fo. 139. 

^By Ptolemy (Lib. ii.) called 
Monada, or the further Mona, to 
distinguish it from Anglesea, the 
Mona of the Romans ; by Pliny 
Monabia ; Menavia by Orosius and 
Bede ; and Eubonia by Gildas. 



strong resemblance to the Manx 
legislator, but as they all lived 
before the Christian era, none of 
them could have been the brother 
of Fergus II. 

Fergus, the son of Ere (or Eric), 
king of the Dalriads of Ulster, 
left Ireland with his brothers, 
Loarn and Angus, and became 
King of the Scots, A.D. 503,* and 
ruled from " Brunalban " to the 
Irish Sea, and Inse Gall,f until 
A.D. 506. 

It is likely, however, that the 
Manx tradition embodies several 
legends, and that the island having 
been visited at a very early period 
by Manannan MacLir, or Manan- 
nan MacAlliod, was subsequently 
formed into a kingdom by Loarn, 
or Angus, the brother of Fergus. 

1 Tighernach, A.D. 254 ; Ogygia, 
p. 335. 

* Inncs'Crit. Essay, Tab., p. GOO 
t Ogygia, 



; Pinkerton, Enquiry, vol. ii., p. 88. 
p. 323. 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 85 

The Scandinavians invaded Mann in A.D. 798. BOOK " 
Those who came to Dubhlinn of Ath Cliath in A.D. 836, 
had doubtless visited Man. In 852 they devastated 
Mona. 

Nevertheless, the earliest notices connecting our Reginald of 
Ostmen of Dublin with the island is, that in 913 "**** 



naval engagement was fought at Man between Barid 913. 8 
M;ic-n-Oitir and Ragnall Mac-hUa Imair, in which 
Barid, with almost his entire army, was slain." 1 

Ragnal, or Reginald, was king of part of North- Reg-naid was 
umberland, and brother of Sitric, then king of8kri*K.l 
Dublin, and Barid, or Baidr, was chief of the Nor- 
wegians who had settled in Dal Aradia, on the north- 
east coast of Ulster, and probably grandson of that 
Barid 1 who in A.D. 873, "drew many ships from the 
sea westward to Loch Ri," and thence sailed down 
the Shannon to Limerick, where he married the 
daughter of Uathmharan, 2 and thus their son Colla 
became Lord of Limerick in A.D. 922. 8 

(Rolt's Hist, of the Isle of Man, p. naught, and died 920 (Ann. 4 

3, Lond., 1773.) Mast.). Barith, who married his 

1 Ann. tit., 913, alias 914. In daughter, had by her a son named 

O'Connor's Rer. Scrip., voL iv., p. Uathmharan, who came with a 

247, he is called Band MacNoitir, fleet of twenty ships to Ceann 

and his opponent Ragnall-h-Imair. Maghair in 919 (Ann. 4 Mast.). 

In Johnston's Antiq. Celto-Xor- He had another son, Colla, who 

man., p. 66, this sea fight was was Lord of Limerick, and had a 

between Barred O'Hivaraud Reg- fleet on Loch Ree in 922 (Ann. 4 

inald O'lvar ; and the " black Mast.). By an earlier marriage 

pagans," who devastated Mona in Barid had a son named Elir, who 

852, were probably part of the fleet was killed in Mayo in 887 (Ann. 4 

of Aulaf, who came to Dublin in Mast.). The Scandinavians trans- 

that or the following year. ported their light-built ships over- 

* Ann. 4 Mast., A.D. 878, "Ba- land from the sea to inland waters, 

rith, a fierce champion of the and the Irish followed their ex- 

Norsemen, was killed, &c." ample. In A.D. 933, " Pomhnall, 

s Uathmharan was son of Do- son of Miiin-lu-artndi,'' rarrii-d 

bhaik'ii, Lord of Luighno in Con- boats from the River Banu over the 



86 



THi: SCANDINAVIANS, AND 



Plunders 
Downpatrick 
aud is slain. 



BOOK ii. The cause of warfare is not stated, but " the fleet 
of Ulster" had made a descent on the Danes of 
Mm. invades Nortliumbcrluiid, of whom Reginald was king ; and 
940. ' Reginald, perhaps for himself, or for his brother, 

Si trie, claimed the Isle of Man from the Scandi- 
navians of Ulster, of whom Barid was chief. 

The son of Reginald, however, remained de facto 
King of Man, and in A.D. 940, he landed from 
thence on the opposite coast of Ulster, the territory 
of Barith, and plundered Downpatrick, " for which 
deed," the "Four Masters" say, that "God and 
Patrick quickly took vengeance of him, for foreigners 
came across the sea, and attacked him and his 
people on their island, so that the son of Raghnall, 
their chief, escaped to the mainland (where), he was 
killed by Madudhan, King of Ulidia, in revenge of 
Patrick, before the end of a week after the plun- 
dering." 1 

The immediate succession of the son of Reginald 
is uncertain. 

Magnus or Shortly after this period, however, a king of the 
^.'i>. 971. name of Maccus, or Magnus, was sovereign of Man. 
The signature " Ego Maccus rex insularum " appears 
to a charter of King Edgar in 966. This charter, 
however, is alleged to be a forgery; 2 but the signature 
of " Maccusius Archipirata " appears to a charter of 



Dabhall (Blackwater), and over 
Airghialla to Loch Erne, and Loch 
Uachtair. Ann. 4 Mast. 

i Ann. 4 Mast., A.D. 940. The 
foreigners here mentioned were 

O 

probably from the fleet of King 
Eric, son of Ilarald Gocfeld, who 
had loft Norlhuuiberland in A.D. 



947, "on a Vikingr cruise to the 
westward," and had visited the 
Orkneys, Hebrides, and isles of 
Scotland, before he steered for 
Ireland. 

2 Codex Diplomatics Anglo 
Saxouieus, vol. ii., p. 412. J. T. 
Kcmble. 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 87 



BOOK II 



971, l the latter title being that of admiral or chief of 

CUAP. L 

seamen, derived from the command of some portion 
of the fleet which Edgar had organized 5 for the pro- 
tection of his kingdom, and which annually sailed 
round its coast. Maccus, however, was one of the Maccus attends 
eight tributary kings who attended Edgar at Chester Chester, A.U. 
in A.D. 973, and rowed his barge on the Dee, 3 the 
name being placed next after that of " Kenneth, 
King of the Scots, and Malcolm, King of Cumber- 
land, as Maccus, King of Man, and many other isles;" 4 
nor can there be much doubt that the connexions of 
this tributary king with Dublin, Waterford, Limerick, 
&c., and his exploits in Meath and on the Shannon, 
were the grounds for Edgar's forged claim to dorni- ForRed claim 
nion over " all the kingdom of the islands of the dominion in 
ocean, with their fierce kings, as far as Norway, and 
the greater part of Ireland, with its most noble city 
of Dublin." Maccus, like Reginald, was a descendant 
of Ivar. He was the grandson of Sitric, King of Maccus grand- 

t / TT TIT i / T i i 8OD f Sitric K. 

Dublin, and son ol Harald, Lord ol Limerick, who of Dublin, 
was slain in 938. Nor would he have been unjustly 
styled " archi-pirata," supposing that title synony- 
mous with the Scandinavian term " Vikingr," for, 
according to Welsh historians, "Mactus, the son of 
Harald, with an army of Danes, entered the island 
of Anglesea (Mona), and spoiled Penmon " in 969, 5 
and although he could not retain possession, " being 
forced to return home," 6 yet in the following year 

1 Ego, Maccusius, ArcLipirata, 8 Will. Malmesbur., cap. viii. 
confortaoi. Codex Diplomaticus 4 Matth. Westmonast., A.D. 964, 
Anglo Saxonicus. J. T. Kemble, p. 375 ; Flor. Vigorn., p. 78. 

vol. 3, p. 69. 8 Caradoc, p. 57. Chron. Princes 

2 Spclman, Glossar. iu voce of Wales, A.D. 969. 

p. 4GO. * Ib'ul. 



88 



THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 



HOOK ir. 
CHAP. I. 



Mnonis with 
the Lagmen 
sails ri)ini(l 
Ireland, A.D. 
It 72. 



Executes 
justice at 
Limerick. 



Death of 
Maccus, A.D. 
978. 



his brother, "Godfrey, the son of Harald, devastated 
Mona, and by great craft subjugated the whole 
island." 1 

In 972 " the son of Harald sailed round Ireland 
with a numerous fleet," 2 and visiting his father'.s 
territory in Limerick, carried off the reigning chief- 
tain, this expedition forming a remarkable record in 
the Annals of the Four Masters, as again referring to 

7 O O 

" the Lagmanns of the islands," 3 and showing that 
Magnus, claiming to be supreme chief, accompanied 
by the " lawmen," or judges, made the " circuit" of 
Ireland, according to the Scandinavian custom, for 
the settlement of rights or punishment of criminals ; 4 
and, as in the former case to avenge the murder of 
Ain, so in this case " Magnus, the son of Aralt, with 
the Lagmanns of the islands along with him/' came to 
Inis Cathaigh, one of the islands in the Shannon, 
" and Imar, lord of the foreigners of Luimneach, was 
carried off from the island, and the violation of (St.) 
Senan thereby." 5 He was, however, soon released 
from captivity, for in 974 the celebrated Brian 
Borumha went to Limerick and " slew Ivar, King of 
Luimneach, and two of his sons," 6 and Harald, 
another of Ivar's sons, being then elected king, 
" Brian slew Harald also, and returned home loaded 
with immense spoil." 7 Maccus probably died about 
this time, or may have been slain in the battle of 



1 Chron. Princes of Wales, A.D. 
070. 

2 Ann. 4 Mast., 972. ; Ann. Inis- 
fal., A.D. 973. 

3 Ann. 4 Mast., A.D. 972. 

4 It was customary in Scandi- 
navia for a chief and his J^agruen 
to make a circuit at stated inter- 



vals round the province to dispense 
justice, whence these circuits ob- 
tained the significant name of 
" Circuit Courts." Hibbcrt's Tings, 
p. 182. 

8 Ann. 4 Must., A.D. 972. 

6 IbitL, A.D. 974. 

7 Ibid. 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 89 

A.D. 978, which Maelseachlainn gained "over the BOOK n. 
foreigners of Ath Cliath and of the islands," 1 and C|1AP ' L 
was succeeded by his brother Godfrey. wber 7 !*^ 

In 979 Godfrey, son of Harald, devastated Llyn SIT *' ' 
and Mona ;" 2 and again in 981 "Godfrey, son of 
Harald, devastated Dyved and Menevia," 3 his services 
having been "hired" by Constantin, son of lago, 
against his cousin Hovvel. 

O 

But the Isle of Man, although now under the 
dominion of Scandinavians, was not exempted 
from Viking ravages. The Sagas relate that Olafobflby*** 
Trygvesson, to dissipate grief for the loss of his A.D. 985 ; 
queen, sailed on a Viking expedition, and after 
plundering in England, Scotland " and the Hebrides, 
he sailed southwards to Man, where he also fought, 
and thence steered to Bretland (Wales), which he 
laid waste with fire and sword." 4 

This expedition, which occupied Olaf four years, 
is apparently confirmed by the agreement of Icelandic 
Sagas with English chronicles and Irish and Welsh 
annals. The coincidence of dates and facts furnishes 
strong grounds for supposing that the " three ships 
of pirates" which, according to the Saxon chronicle, 
landed in Dorset and ravaged Portland, in 982," was 
the fleet of Olaf Trygvesson, and were " the three 
ships of Danes " which, according to the Annals of 
Ulster, came to the coast of Dalriada in 9S6, 6 and also Daimda 
sailing thence to the Scottish isles, plundered Hi- 
Choluirn-chille, and in the following year, according 

* Ibid., A.D. 978 (=979). 4 Olaf Trygvcsson's Saga, chap. 

Chron. Princes of Wales, A.D. xxxi. 

979. 8 Anglo-Sax. Chron., A.D. 982. 

3 Ibid., A.D. 981 . Ann. 4 Mast., A.D. 985, note ". 



90 THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 

BOOK ii. to the chronicle of Wales, the pagans " devastated 
Llanbadarn, Menevia, Llanilltut," &C., 1 having pre- 
viously (that is, in 986) visited the Isle of Man, when 
"the battle of Manann was fought by Mac Aralt 
and the foreigners." 2 

s. of For later events we are generally referred to the 
D.iocc. " Chronicle of Man," an authority which cannot bo 
implicitly relied on, either for facts or dates. This 
chronicle, which commences A.D. 1000, contains 
nothing relating to the island until A.D. 1065, when 
it states, that " Godred Crovan, son of Harald the 
Black of Ysland (Ireland), fled to Godred, the son of 
Sytric, at that time King of Man," 3 and after his death 
Godred Crovan is said to have conquered Man, and 
His apocryphal in A.D. 1066 (=1075), to have "reduced Dublin, and a 
DuSmTand great part of Laynester." 4 Godred Crovan probably 
ter * was son of Reginald (whose son was elected King of 
the Galls in A.D. 1046), 5 as many of the Scandina- 
vians of Ireland had been at the battle of Stamford- 
bridge with Earl Tostig and King Harald Hardraad, 
in A.D. 1066 6 ; but whoever he was, or whatever 
conquests he may have made elsewhere, there is no 
allusion in Irish annals, or contemporary history, to 
any conquest of Dublin, or of any portion of Leinster. 
intermarriages When the Ostmen of Dublin were converted to 
inshTiTiith Christianity, their intermarriages with the Irish 
became so frequent, and the morality of the period 
was so lax, in repudiation, divorces, and marriage of 

1 Chron. Princes of Wales, 987. Antiq. Celto-Norm., Copenhagen, 

Ann. Ulst., 986 in Ann. 4 1786. 

Mast., vol. ii., p. 720, n. n . * Camden's Britt., vol. iii.,p. 705. 

8 One copy was published, Cam- 6 Ann. 4 Mast., A.D. 1046. 

den, 1607, another by Johnstone, Anglo-Saxon Chron., A.I). 1066, 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 91 

kindred, that it is doubtful whether the kings of BOOK n. 
Dublin during the eleventh century should be called c " Ar ' ' 
Irish or Scandinavian. !?.Ki 

Thus we find that Aulaf Cuaran, whose double S Danidl1 or 
connexion with Conghalach, King of Ireland, has 
been already noticed, was also married to Gormflaith, 
daughter of Murchadh, son of Finn, King of Leinster, 
by whom he had a son, Sitric. 1 Gormflaith then 
married Brian Borumha, and by him had a son, 
Donnchad, step-brother of Sitric, who was succeeded 
by Diarmid, subsequently "King of the Danes of 
Dublin/' 2 and Brian having repudiated Gormflaith, 
she married Maelseachlainn, King of Teamhair, by 
whom she had a son, Conchobhar, 3 Maelseachlainn 
having been previously married to Maelmary, 
daughter of Aulaf Cuaran, 4 Gormflaith's first husband. 5 

o 

Aulaf Cuaran was succeeded by his son Sitric, 
and Sitric, mindful of the example of his father 
(who had been a pilgrim, at lona), and urged by the 
clergy, undertook a pilgrimage to Rome (now 
become the frequent practice of Christian kings) in 
A.D. 102S. 6 In his absence his son Aulaf was taken 
prisoner by Mathghamhain Ua Riagain, but regained 
his liberty by payment of a heavy ransom. 7 

Aulaf also undertook a pilgrimage, but " was slain 
by the Saxons on his way to Rome," A.D. 1034. 8 He 

i Supra, p. 78, and notes 3 and 'Gormflaith died A.D. 1030 (Ann. 

7, i1nd. y Ann. 4 Mast., A.D. 1030. 4 Mast.), which supports thestate- 

1 Ann. Clonmac., A.D. 1069 ment of the Sagas that Aulaf 

(=1072) in Ann. 4 Mast., vol. ii., Cuaran was King of Dublin until 

p. 904, n. *. after A.D. 994. Olaf Trygvesson's 

3 Wars of the Gncdhil with the Saga, chap. lii. 

Gaill. Introd., p. xlviii., n 8 . 6 Ann. 4 Mast., A.D. 1028. 

4 Aim. Clonmac., A.D. 1014 (recti 7 Ibid., A.D. 1029. 
1021) in Ann. 4 Mast., vol. ii., p. * Ibid., A.D. 1034. 

n. . 



92 THE SCANDINAVIAN'S, AND 

BOOK ir. was succeeded by his son Si trie, who endowed Christ 
CHA^L church, Dublin, A.D. 103S. 1 Sitric, too, "went 
beyond the seas, and was succeeded by Eachmarcach, 
son of Raghnall," in A.D. 1036. 2 Eachmarcach also 
"went beyond the seas," A.D. 1052 3 (probably to aid 
Earl Godwin), and " Diarmid, the son of Maelnambo, 
assumed the kingship of the foreigners," 4 in right of 
his descent from these kings, he having married 
" Dearbhforghaill, daughter of Donnchadh," 5 son of 
Brian Borumha by the widow of Aulaf Cuaran. 

When the sons of Earl Godwin were restored to 

the Earldom of Northumbria, " Eachmarcach, the 

son of Ragnall," 6 retired to the Isle of Man, of which 

his brother Godfrey is said to have been king. 

Possibly alarmed by this, Diarmid, son of Maelnambo, 

Man yfcids sent his son Murchadh to the island, A.D. 1060, and 

iferarfd K. of " Murchadh carried tribute from thence, and defeated 

io6o. in> the son of Ragnall." 8 Eachmarcach died A.D. 1064, 



id slain, and Diarmid, son of Maelnambo, who is styled 
" King of Leinster, of the Innse Gall (Danish isles), 
and of Dublin," was slain in battle A.D. 1072, 9 and 
his sons, Gluniarn and Murchadh, having died pre- 
Godfrey K. of viously, " Godfrey, son of Eagnall," 10 apparently he 
K. a "f DuE who was King of Man, assumed the sovereignty of 
Uo, A.I>. 10/3. j) u bi m< Godfrey was banished beyond the seas by 



i Sitricus, King of Dublin, son * Ogygia, p. 437- 

of Ablef, Earl of Dublin, gave to 6 Ann. 4 Mast., A.D, 1060. 

the Holy Trinity and Donatu?, 7 Ann. Inisf., A.D. 1072; Ann. 

first Bishop of Dublin, a place to Clonmac. calls him " King of 

build a church to the Holy Trinity, Leinster, Wales, and Danes of 

&c. Ware, Antiquities (from the Dublin." 

Black Book of Christ Church). 8 Ann. 4 Mast,, A.D. 1070. 

Ann. Tigern., A.D. 1035. Ibid., A.D. 1072. 

8 Ann. 4 Maat., A.D. 1052. 10 Ann. Ulst., A.U. 1075 in Ann. 

* Mast., vol. ii., p. 904, n. fc . 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUDLIX. 93 

Turlogh O'Brian, but returned soon after with a BOOK IF. 
great fleet, and died A.D. 1 075, ' whereupon "Mortogh, Cl HL !> 
son of Turlogh O'Brian, became King at Athcliath,"* 
and Godfrey's son, Fingal, became King of Man. 3 

Here we can trace a connexion between the King- 
dom of the Isles and that of Dublin, but we can find 
no trace of Godred Crovan's conquest of the city, on 
the contrary, there is much to justify an opinion 
that the Godred, or Godfrey, whom Lanfranc styled 
" King of (the Ostmen of) Ireland " (while at the 
same time he styled Turlogh O'Brian " the mighty 
King of Ireland"), was that Godfrey, the son of 
Ragnall, who died A.D. 1075, the year after Lan- 
franc's letters were written. It was this connexion Manx nobles 
between the Kings of Dublin and Man which O'Brian to send 
induced the Manx nobles in A.D. 1089 to request A ' 



cy " 




Murchard O'Brian to send one of his lineage to reign 

over them duringthe minority of Olave, Godred's son, 4 

and which subsequently led De Courcy to emulate 

the example of his leader, Strongbow, and by marry- c'cdfrcy k 

ing the daughter of Godred, King of Man, 5 to acquire 

a claim to Godfrey's Irish territory, the yet un- 

1 Ann. Ulst., A.D. 1075 in Ann. Earl of Ulster 1181, and in 1 182 

4 Mast., vol. ii., p. 908, n. *. entered the territory of Dalriada, 

8 Chron. Scotorum., A.D. 1072. and defeated Donald O'Loghlin. 

Chron, of the Kings of Man. Godred was legally married in 

Camden, vol. iii.,p. 705. Gough's 1176 by the Pope's Legate, Car- 

edition, London, 1 789. dinal Vivian, to Fingala, daughter 

4 Ibid. Camden has this under of Mac Lauchlan, son of Muir- 

the date of 1089. Chronicon cheard , King of Ireland. Chron. 

Manniae, by Johnstone, has it A.D. Man., Johnstone. Vivian came to 

1075. Down in 1177, met De Courcy 

Lodge's Peerage of Ireland, there, and endeavoured to render 

Dublin, 1789, vol. vi., p. 139. He it tiibutary to the Anglo-Nor- 

inarried in A.D. 1180 ; was created mans. 



94 THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 

BOOK IL conquered territory of the Scandinavians around 

CHAT. i. Strangford, Carlingford, &c. Nor is it improbable 

d'ainis utter, but that this alliance gave to De Courcy the title of 

Earl (Jarl) of Ulster, and led De Courcy after he had 

entered Dalriada, and conquered the territory of 

the Northmen, to avow pretensions and claim privi- 

iienryii. leges which provoked Henry to seize his person 

E p"son and and his property, as he had previously done with 

tcrritorv. ,~ -, 

btrongbow. 

CHAPTER II. 

DUBLIN AND NORWAY. 

Notices of Dublin frequent in Norwegian and Icelandic history. 
Constant intercourse between Dublin and Norway. Ostmen from 
Dublin fight for Norwegian liberty at the battle of Hafursfiord. 
Led by Cearbhall, King of Dublin, or his son-in-law, Eyvind Austman. 
Every King of Norway (almost) visits Dublin. Biorn, son of 
Harold, King of Norway, visits Dublin as a merchant; also King 

Hacon Dublin the port for sale of Scandinavian prizes, or cargos of 

merchandise. 

CHAP. ii. IP the rank of Aulaf's colony among surrounding 
kingdoms were to be judged by reference to English 
chronicles and English historians, a very low estimate 
of its importance should be the result. 

silence of the Until after the commencement of the eleventh 
ch?onicie X as\o century there is not a single record relating to Dublin 
in the Saxon Chronicle, even the name is not to be 
found, except in the poem on the battle of Brunnan- 
burg, in A.D. 937, and then only in the statement 
that the Northmen fled " Dublin to seek." 

Yet it must not be supposed that because Dublin 
is unnoticed, it therefore was unknown. Ireland 
itself is seldom named by the Saxon monks who 
wrote this chronicle, although from the number of 
Irish monks taught in England, their disputes with 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 95 

the Irish clergy, who dissented from the doctrines or BOOK IT. 
practices of the Church of Home in the celebration C|IAP - 1L 
of Easter, the form of tonsure, the consecration of 
bishops, &c., they must have been well acquainted 
with the state of the country. 

If, however, we cannot estimate the importance Constant 
of Aulaf 's colony from English chronicles, we have iSubiinfo' 
abundant evidence respecting it in Icelandic Sagas Literature, 
and Irish annals, nor can the importance of Dublin 
be more strongly marked than by this, and it is 
worthy of observation, that although Dublin is 
frequently named, and in almost all the Sagas, yet 
throughout this entire range of Icelandic literature 
and history, with one or two exceptions, Limerick 
is the only city in the British Isles that is named as 
one with which the Northmen had intercourse or 
connexion. We find that between Dublin and 
Norway the intercourse was frequent and varied. 
In 872 the Ostmen of Dublin fought for Norwegian Ostmen of 
liberty at the fatal battle of Hafursfiord, where the battle of 

TIT u T i- -1 11 it Hafurefionl, 

Irish allies, or " Westmen, distinguished by their A.D. 8:2. 
" white shields," 1 were probably led by Eyvind Aust- Led perhaps 
man, 2 son-in-law of Cearbhall, King of Ossory, or b 
Cearbhall himself, as after their defeat Cearbhall 
was met in the Hebrides, and accompanied to Ireland 
by Onund, surnamed "Trefotr," from his wooden 
substitute for the foot or leg he had lost in the 
engagement. 3 

i Heimsk., vol. i., p. 95. The * Landnamab., p. 374. 
Valscra, or people of Valland, also Grotte's Saga, cap. i. ; Land- 
named the Galli-Bretons, or West namab., Part II., chap, xxxii., p. 
W.lch, inhabiting Bretagne, Corn- 168. "Trefotr," wooden foot, 
wales (Cornwall). This is not a singular instance of 



96 THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 

Subsequently, either as friends to the colonists, or 
as foes to the natives, almost every King of Norway 

All the Kings 

of Norway visited Ireland, or sent his sons there. Kinsj Harald 

(almost) visit 

Dublin. Harfager, who was of the same family as Aulaf, 



ships to his sons Thorgils and Frode, with which 
they visited Dublin. 1 His son, Eric, 2 and Eric's 
sons* after him, marauded in Ireland. Kings Trygve 
Olafson, 4 Harald Grafeld, 5 Olaf Trygvesson, 8 and 
Magnus Barefoot, 7 all visited Ireland. Olaf Tryg- 
vesson married a sister of Aulaf Quaran, King of 
Their visits Dublin, and was in Dublin when he was called to 
the throne of Norway. Barefoot attempted to take 
possession of Dublin, and after remaining a year in 
Ireland, was killed there. His son, King Sigurd, was 
to marry Biadmynia, daughter of the King of Con- 
naught. 9 King Harald Gille was born and bred 
in Ireland, and Guttorm, 10 King Olaf the Saint's 
sister's son, had " his winter quarters at Dublin, 
Ireland being to him a land of rest." Although it 
must be admitted that the quietude he enjoyed was 
of a very ambiguous character, as the Saga adds 
that " in summer Guttorm went with King Margad 
(Murchadh) on an expedition to Bretland (Wales), 
where they made immense booty," for which they 

supplying the loss of a limb. The 8 Kormak's Saga, cap. xix. 

Eyrbyggia Saga, p. 67, mentions fl Heimsk., voL i. Olaf Tryg- 

Thorer Vidlegg, or wooden leg, vesson's Saga, cap. xxxi. 

from the substitute he used for a 7 Ibid. Olaf Trygvesson's Saga, 

leg lost in battle. cap. xxxiv. 

1 Heimsk., vol. i. Ilarald Ilaar- 8 Ibid. Magnus Barefoot's Saga, 

fager's Saga, cap. xxxv. cap. xxv., xxvii. 

*,lbid. Hakon's Saga, cap. iv. 8 Ibid. Cap. xii. 

8 Ibid., cap. v. 10 Ibid. Ilarald Ilardrada's Saga, 

4 Ibid., cap. ix. cap. Ivi. 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 97 

quarrelled, the Irish king claiming the whole, and BOOK " 
only giving his ally the choice to resign it or fight 
for it, an alternative which, after three days' consi- 
deration, Guttorm decided by fighting his Irish 
friend, killing him, " and every man, old and young, 
who followed him." Thus relieved from a claimant, 
Guttorm made his own division of the " booty," for 
having registered a vow to his uncle the saint, and 
believing that victory was due to miraculous inter- 
position, the Saga further adds, that " every tenth 
penny of the plunder was given to St. Olaf 's shrine ; 
and there was so much silver that Guttorm had an 
image made of it, with rays round the head, which 
was the size of his own, or of his forecastle man's 
head ; and the image was seven feet high," and long 
remained in St. Olaf s church " a memorial of 
Guttorm's victory and the saint's miracle." 1 

Nor were these friendly or hostile visits the only Dublin the 
intercourse between Dublin and Norway. The two 



countries had also commercial relations, many of the 
chief men being both traders and warriors. Biorn, and pnte *" 
King Harold's son, had merchant ships, and was 
called " the Merchant." 2 "Lodin, rich, and of good 
family, often went on merchant voyages, and some 
times on Viking cruises." 3 Plundering in one 
country, these " merchant princes '' sold the produce 
of their piracy in another, and Dublin was frequently 

1 Heimsk., vol. i., Harald Hard- there. The Annals of the Four 

rada's Saga, chap. Ivii. The Chron- Masters and those of Ulster state 

icle of the Princes of Wales says that Mure-hard was killed in 1042, 

"A.D. 1042, Howell, son of Edwin, but killed by Gilpatric Mac Donogh. 

meditated the devastation of Wales, * Harald Harfagr'a Saga, chap. 

accompanied by a fleet from Ire- xxxviii. 

land ;" and that Howell was killed 3 Olaf. Tryggv. Saga, chap, lyiii. 

H 



98 THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 

BOOK IT. their place of sale. Hence we find that Thorer, the 
HAP^II. f r j em j O f King Hacon, who had long been on Viking 
expeditions, went on a merchant voyage to Dublin, 
" as many were in the habit of doing." 1 



CHAPTER III. 

DUBLIN AND ICELAND. 

Iceland visited by Irish previous to its discovery in A.D. 870 by Lief and 
Ingolf , Norwegians. Lief bringing captives from Ireland is saved by 
their device from perishing of thirst. Many descendants of Cearbhall, 
an Irishman, King of Dublin, follow his son-in-law, Eyvind Ostman, 
and settle in Iceland Auda, widow of King Aulaf, founder of Dublin, 
retires thither. Auda becomes a Christian like her brother-in-law, an 
emigrant from Ireland. Descendants of Aulaf and Auda settlers in 
Iceland. Other emigrants from Ireland. America discovered long 
before Columbus by Norsemen connected with Dublin. Ari, a 
descendant of Cearbhall's, wrecked on the coast of Florida A.D. 983. - 
Gudlief from Dublin driven by storms to America A.D. 936. Is ad- 
dressed in Irish. Finds it is Biorn, long banished from Iceland. 

CHAP-JII. B UT the importance of Dublin as a Scandinavian 
kingdom is more strongly marked in its connexion 
with other colonies of the Norsemen. 

Iceland visited Of these one of the most celebrated was Iceland, 
Christians, A.D. an island which, although known to the Irish at an 
Discovered by early period, was not discovered by the Norwegians 
\.D. 86l. egiai18 ' until ten years after Aulaf had become King of 
Dublin, 2 nor did they attempt to settle there until 

1 Olaf Tryggv. Saga, chap. li. previously (in 725), in consequence 

8 Dicuil De Mens. Orb. Terrse, of the incursions of the Northmen 

Letronne, Paris, 1814, cap. vii., s. (quere, Picts). Island. Landnu- 

ii., gives the statement of Irish mabok, Havniae, 1774, p. 5, et set/. 

monks who spent six months in Nnddad, a Norwegian pirate, in 

Thule (Iceland) about A.D. 795, a voyage to the Foeroe island- w:i* 

or thirty years before Dicuil wrote, driven by a tempest on the const 

and (cap- vii., s. iii.) he says, other of Iceland, A.D. 861. It was again 

Irish isles were inhabited by Irish seen by Gardar, a Swede, in A r> 

eremites nearly a hundred years 804, and subsequently by Floki, 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 



99 



A.D. 870, when Ingolf and Lief landed, and found BOOK IL 

CHAP. III. 

that some Irish Christians called "Papae/^had left 
behind them " Irish books, bells, and croziers." 

Ingolf returned to Norway to prepare for the 
intended settlement, and Lief sailed on a Viking 
cruise to Ireland, where, in pursuit of plunder, he 
entered a dark cave or underground retreat, and 
there discovered one of the natives by the glittering 
of his sword ; killing the sword-bearer, and seizing 
the bright weapon, he thence obtained the name of 
Hior Lief, or Lief of the Sword. 2 

Ingolf and Lief did not meet again until A.D. 874, Lief brings teu 

1 Irish captives 

when Lief brought to Iceland ten Irish captives, 3 to to Iceland, A.D. 

874. 

whom he owed his safety during the voyage, as the 
stock of fresh water in the ship being exhausted they 



another pirate. Crymogcea, Am. 
Jonas, Hamburgi, 1614, p. 20. 
Specimen Islandiae, Amstelodami, 
1643, p. 4. Heimskringla, Havniae, 
1 777. Harald's Saga, vol. i., p. 96, 
says that in the discontent at 
Harald's seizing the land of Nor- 
way (after the battle of Haf ursfiord) 
great numbers fled from their 
country, and the out-countries of 
Iceland and the Foeroe islands were 
discovered and peopled. This refers 
to later colonization, as, according 
to Schoning's chronology, Harald 
began to reign in 863, and the 
battle of Hafursfiord was in 885. 

1 Landnamab., p. 2 ; Cryinogaea, 
p. 21. Every bishop was styled 
papa, or father, and the books, 
bells, and croziers belonged to some 
of this order, this island, lying to 
the east of Iceland, being called 
Pap-cy after its Irish Christian in- 
habitants. Irish missionaries or 



anchorites had given their names to 
many of the islands, as Papa 
Stronsa, or Papa Westra. 

2 Landnamabok, p. 13. ''The 
plundering of the caves " by the 
Norsemen is mentioned by the Four 
Masters in A.D. 861, and Ann. Ult., 
862, out of their navy ; but these 
appear to have been subterranean 
chambers, such as those under the 
Tumulus at New Grange and else- 
where. Lief s adventure some 
years later may have been in some 
of these chambers, of which there 
are many still in Ireland. 

8 [Multis in Hiberniae locis pira- 
ticam exercuit et niagnam praedam 
reportavit ; ibi decem servos cepit 
quorum nomina stint Dufthakus. 
Grirrandus, Skiardbiorn, Hallthor, 
Drafdritus ; caeterorum nomina ad 
nos non pervenerunt.] Landna- 
mab., p. 13. 

H 2 



100 



THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 



BOOK ii. 



wands of 

Iceland. 



taught the crew to allay thirst after the manner of 
^ e irjgh^ by the use of meal and butter kneaded 
into a substance termed " Mynnthak ;" ! yet the life 
they had saved they did not preserve, for not long 
after their arrival in Iceland they slew their captor, 
and flying to neighbouring islands, yet called West- 
men's, or Irishmen's, islands, were pursued and slain 

, T ir>9 

by Ingoll. 

The Landnamabok, which minutely describes the 
colonization of Iceland, states that when the Nor- 
wegians took possession of the country Alfred the 
Great reigned in England, and " Kiarval was King 
at Dublin." 3 Through the disguise of Icelandic 
orthography there is no difficulty in discovering that 
Descendants of this King Kiarval was Cearbhall, King of Ossory, 
K*? Dublin, who governed Dublin from the death of Ivar in 872 
hnd? m until his own death, and the restoration of a Scandi- 
navian dynasty in 885. His children had inter- 
married with the Scandinavians ; and the voyage of 
Lief having attracted the attention of the Ostmen of 
Dublin and their Irish friends, the family of Cear- 
bhall furnished many emigrants to the new settle- 
ment. 

Of these, Sncebiorn, who inhabited Vatnsfiord, 4 



1 Landnamab., p. 15: from the 
Irish kijn, meal. [" Dufthaksker 
nomen est loco ubi ille mortem 
appetiit : plures per saxa precipites 
se dederunt, quae ab iis nomen 
trahebant, insulae autem ab illo 
tempore Westmanna-eyar appel- 
lantur, quia ibi occisi Westmanni 
erant," &c.] 

1 Ibid., p, 17. " Vestmanneyar," 
the island where the " Vestmenn " 
were slain by Ingolf . 



Ibid., p. 3. It also names 
the other sovereigns of Europe, 
and by including Kiarval of 
Dublin among them, marks the 
importance of that kingdom. The 
Landnamabok was begun by Ari 
Froda about the year 1075, and 
may be termed the Doomsday Book 
of Iceland. Ann. Clonmac., A.D. 
929, calls him Cerval. 

< Ibid., p. 1 59. 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. J01 

and his brother Helgi Magri. who took possession of BOOK ir. 
a large tract of the country, were grandsons of CH ^ IIL 
Cearbhall, being sons of Eyvind Austman by Kafarta, 
Cearbhall's daughter, 1 Helgi being more closely con- 
nected with Dublin by marrying Aulaf's wife's sister. 1 
Thorgrim was another of Cearbhall's grandsons, 
his father Grimolf having married " Kormlod," or 
Gormflaith, Cearbhall's daughter. 3 His brother's son 
Alfus, with his uterine brother Onund, both settled 
in Iceland, 4 and his daughter having married his 
slave, or freedman, Steinraud, son of Maelpatric, an 
Irish noble, Steinraud also formed a settlement, to 
which he gave his name. 8 



Among the great grandsons of Cearbhall who Carroll's great 

settlers in ice- 



settled in Iceland were Vilbald and Askel Hnokkan. 6 settlers in ice- 



They were the " sons of Dufthach, son of Dufnial, 
son of King Kiarwal," 7 and had large possessions, 
which their descendants continued to occupy. 

Baugus, also a great grandson of Cearbhall, settled 
at Fliotshild. He was " the son of Raude," 8 son of 
Cellach, who succeeded his father Cearbhall as King 
of Ossory, and was killed in the same battle with 
the King of Cashel A.D. 903. 9 

* ' Eyvindus postea in Hibernia from Ireland in his ship Kuda, 

Rafortain, filiam Karvialis Regis and the river, at the mouth 

Hiberniae, uxorem duxit." Land- of which he landed, was thence 

namab., p. 228. called " Kudafliotsoi." 

Iliid., p. 229. Helgi married ~ Ibid., p 350. Askel's settle- 

Thorunna Hyrna, Ketel Flatnef's ment was Askellshofda. The Ice- 

daughter, and sister of Auda, wife landic Dufthack is the Irish Dubh- 

of Aulaf, King of Dublin. thach, &c. 

8 Ibid., p. 375. " Ibid., p. 334. Baugus was 

4 Ibid., pp. 372, 374. father of Gunnar of Gunnarwholt, 

6 Ibid., pp. 372, 373. His and foster-brother of Ketel Heogs. 

settlement was Steinraudarstad. Ann. Four Mast. A.D. 839, 900, 

Ibid., p. 312. Vilbald came 903. 



102 



THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 



BOOK II. 
CHAP. III. 



Auda widow 
of K. Aulaf 
of Dublin, 
retires to 
Iceland. 



Another of the great grandsons of Cearbhall was 
Thordus, who settled at Hofdastrondam. 1 He was 
fifth in descent from Regnar Lodbrog, and married 
Fridgerda,the daughter of ThorisHyrnobyFridgerdu. 
Cearbhall's daughter. 8 Thordus, son of Viking, who 
settled at Alvidro, married Theoldhilda, daughter of 
Eyvind Austman ; 3 Ulf Skialgi, who colonized the 
whole promontory of Reykeanes, married Beorgo, 
another of his daughters/ consequently both w r ere 
great grandsons of Cearbhall ; and Thrandus Miok- 
siglandi, who colonized the country between Thiorsa 
and Laxa, was son of Biorn, the brother of Eyvind 
Austman. 6 

The family of Aulaf, the Ostrnan king, no less 
than that of the Irish Cearbhall, contributed to con- 
nect Iceland with Dublin. After Aulaf s death his 
widow and her son, Thorstein, left Dublin, to which 
kingdom Ivar and the Irish Cearbhall succeeded. 
The Laxdeela Saga 6 relates that "Auda while in 
Caithness heard that her son Thorsteinn the Red 
was betrayed by the Scots and killed, and her 
father, Ketill Flatnef, being also dead, she deemed 
that her prosperity was at an end; She (Auda) 
therefore caused a ship to be secretly built in a wood, 
and when the ship was completed she furnished it, 
placed all her wealth on board, and, with all those 
of her kindred who remained alive," she sailed away 
to the Orkneys, thence to the Fceroe islands, and 
ultimately to Iceland, where her ship was wrecked. 7 



1 Landnamab., p. 219. 

*Ibid. 

Ibid., p. 149. 

* Ibid., p. 132. 



* Ibid., pp. 228, 3fi3. 

6 Laxdaela Saga, p. 9 ; Land- 
namab, p. 107, et seij. 

7 Landnamab., p. 106, et seq. 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 103 

Jler brothers, Biorn Austinan and Helgi Beola, with -BOOK n. 
her brother-in-law, Helgi Magri, had previously c " Ar HI 
settled in Iceland. There Auda fixed her residence Auda becomes 
at the head of Huammsfiord, in the Dale country, 1 her brother-h- 
and influenced by the example of Helgi Magri, who Ireland, 
had been educated in Ireland, 2 and who, with his 
family, had become Christians, 3 Auda also became a 
convert, and opposite the Pagan temple she set up 
the emblem of her faith on the hill still called " Kross- 
holar," where she and her household worshipped. 4 
Although her descendants relapsed into Paganism, 5 
Auda died firm in her faith, and unwilling that even 

' O 

her bones should lie in heathen ground, she directed 

her burial to be on the sands 6 below high-water mark, Has her grave 

and, after the manner of her Viking forefathers, her water, not to 

ship was turned over her, and " a standing stone " sou. 

(yet visible) was raised to mark the place of her 

interment. 

Nearly all the grandchildren of Aulaf and Auda Auiaf and 
also settled in Iceland, and established large families C hUd*reiSuier 
there. Olaf Feilan, son of Thorstein the Red, married m 
Asdisa Bareysku, daughter of Konall. 7 Their son, 
Thordus Geller, became one of the most distinguished 
of the Icelanders, and their daughter Thora, having 
married Thorsteiun Thorskabitr, son of Thorolf 
Mostrarskegg (the priest and founder of the first 

1 Eyrbyggia Saga, p. 15, gives aries. Hakon's Saga, cap. xxvii. 
the date A.D. 890. King Hakon made many of the 

2 Landnamab., pp. 229. ships be drawn up to the field 
* Ibid., 231. 4 Ibid., p. 110. of battle. He ordered that all the 
6 Ibid., p. 117. men of his army who had fallen 
6 Kristni Saga, Hafniae, 1773, should be laid in the ships, and 

p. 1 7. Fridgerda was a violent covered with earth and stones, &c. 
opponent of the Christian mission- ~ Landuamab., p. 116, 



104 



THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 



BOOK II. 
CRAP. III. 



Other Irish 
settlers in 
Iceland. 



Pagan temple in the colony), became the mother ol 
Thorgriin, whose son was Snorri, the celebrated lag- 
man and priest. 1 OfThorsteinnthe Red's daughters, 
Oska married Haltsteinn, also a son of Thorolf 
Mostrarskegg, and another daughter, Thorgerda, 
married Kollus, who took possession of the whole of 
the Laxdsele, and thence obtained the name of Dal- 
Kollus. 2 After Dal-Kollus's death, Thorgerda 
married Herjolf, and became mother of Hrut, a 
patriarchal chief, whose family may be estimated from 
the statement that he rode to the " Althing " meeting 
attended by fourteen full-grown sons on horseback. 

Such were among the emigrants furnished by ihe 
royal families of Aulaf and Cearbhall ; but, added to 
these we find a large number of settlers of Irish 
extraction. According to the Landnamabok, one 
of the slaves brought to Iceland by Auda was " Erps, 
son of Meldun, a Scotch earl, slain by Sigurd the 
Powerful." The mother of Erps was Mirgeol, 
daughter of Gljomal, King of Ireland. Sigurd took 
Mirgeol and Erps and enslaved them," 3 but being 
enfranchised by Auda, Erps married, and fixed his 
residence at Saudafels, where a numerous progeny 
sprung from this mixture of Irish and Scandinavian 
blood. 4 

Thormodr Gamli and Keltic, sons of Bresii, came 



1 Lanclnamab., 95. Niall's Saga, 
v ^85, says she married Thorolf 
fii'mself. 

* Ibid., 113. 

Ibid., p. 108. 

1 Ibid., p. 112. Glioinal was 
probably Gluuiaran, who reigned 
in Dublin with Aulaf in 890. His 



son, Gluntradhna, and Aulaf were 
killed in battle in 891. Mirgeol 
is the Irish Muirghael. One of 
that name was wife of the King of 
Leiuster in A.D. 852, and Gluniaran, 
connected with the Irish, may have 
given the name to his daughter. 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 105 

from Ireland, and colonized the promontory of BOOK n. 
Akranes. 1 Edna, the daughter of Ketil Bresii, was C"^ 1 " 
married in Ireland to " Konall," or Conal, and their 
son, Asolfus Alskek, came to Osas, on the east coast 
of Iceland.* 

Avangus, an Irishman, settled at Botn. 3 Kalman 
or (Colin an) came from the Hebrides and took pos- 
session of a large tract of country. 4 His brother, 
Kylan, was another settler, and we may assume from 
their names that Kylan and Kiaran were also Irish. 5 

The connexion between Dublin and Iceland thus NorMmeil con . 
cemented by family ties continued throughout the 
ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries, and the voyages 
for friendly intercourse, or commercial objects, led 10th centur 5 r - 
to the discovery of America by Norsemen connected 
with Dublin centuries before it was seen by 
Columbus. 

About the year 983 Ari, the son of Mar, a descen- 
dant of the Irish king Cearbhall, 6 was wrecked on 
the coast of Florida, which he called "Irland er 
Mikla," or Great Ireland, it being also termed "Hvitra 
Manna Land, ' or Whitemens Land. 7 Subsequently 
Gudlief, sailing from Dublin, landed on another part 
of the American continent, the incidents of his 
voyage forming one of the most interesting episodes 
in the Eyrbyggia Saga. 

Bork the Fat and Thordis, Sur's daughter, had a 
daughter named Thurida, who married Thorbiorn> 

1 Landnamab., p. 30. 6 Landnamab., p. 132. Ulf Ski- 

- Ibid., p. 31. alge, the father of Mar, married 

3 Ibid., p, 29. Beorgo, daughter of Eyvind Aust- 

4 Ibid., p. 5 1 . man, son-in-law of Cearbhall. 

p. 52. " Ibid,, p. 133." 



106 THE SCANDINAVIANS, AM> 

BOOK ii. who dwelt at Froda. 1 Thorbiorn, with many of his 

SHAP^III followers, was slain by Thorar. 5 Thurida then became 

the wife of Thorodd, 3 a Yiking merchant, who, 

coming from Dublin, 4 had fixed his residence in 

Iceland ; 5 but unfortunately for the matrimonial 

story of Biorn happiness of Thorodd, Biorn Asbrand, " the hero of 

Asbrand's exile * a , , T . > 

t America, Ureidvikmg, a military Lothario, becoming en- 
amoured of Thurida, an intimacy ensued, which 
led common fame to assert that he was the father 
of her son Kiartan. 7 After a desperate effort of the 
husband to destroy the lover, 8 Snorri, scandalized by 
the conduct of his sister, attempted also to assas- 
sinate Biorn, but failing in this, made a compact 
under which Biorn left Iceland in A.D. 90S, 9 and it 
was supposed that overtaken by storms, he had 
perished at sea. 

Gudiief sailing Some years after these events Gudlief, a merchant, 
Iceland is who traded to Dublin and occasionally resided there, 
being on his return from thence to Iceland, was 
driven by contrary winds to an unknown land, where 
he and his companions going on shore were sur- 
rounded by people speaking a language which 
Gudlief could not understand, but which he thought 
" resembled Irish." While the natives were deli- 
berating on the fate of the Icelanders, a number of 
horsemen approached with a banner, and headed by 
an old man of noble mein, to whom the subject of 

i Eyrbyggia Saga, p. 43. " Breidvikinga Kappi." "Kappi" 

s Ibid., p. 61. a hero. Landmabok., p. 85. 

8 Ibid., p. 141. 7 Ibid., pp. 203, 287. 

Ibid., p. 141. 'Ibid., pp. 147, 141. 

6 Ibid., p. 143. "Muller's Bibliothek., vol. i. 

Ibid., ibid., and p. 198, et sequ. p. 193. 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN'. 107 

discussion was referred. 1 To the astonishment of BOOK n. 
Gudlief, the old man addressed him in Norse, and, 3H ^_ nI 
after various disclosures, which left no doubt that he 
was that Biorn whom Snorri had induced to leave Discovers 
Iceland, he gave Gudlief a gold ring for Thurida, and 
a sword for her son Kiartan, at the same time re- 
questing that, as he was an old man, neither friends 
nor relatives would incur the danger of seeking him 
in this foreign and savage land. Biorn had pre- Biorn refuses 
viously decided that the strangers should be freed, 
and Gadlief thus saved from captivity or death, 
returned to Dublin, where he passed the winter, and 
in summer sailed for Iceland, the bearer of Biorn's 
presents and message. 2 

Passing over the narratives of other voyages to 
America by the Norsemen, 3 we will extract from the 
Laxdale Saga another episode connected with the 
history of Dublin, and illustrative of the manners 
and customs of the period. 

Early in the tenth century Hoskulld, a great story of 
grandson of Aulaf, first King of Dublin, went from her son out 
Iceland to the Brenneyar Islands, where King Hakon 952. ' 
had convened that popular assembly denominated a 
" Thing." 4 The meeting combined festivity with 
business, political and judicial labours being en- 



1 Eyrbyggia Saga, chap. Ixiv. 4 " A fragment of Irish history or 
p. 328, et seq. a voyage to Ireland undertaken 

2 Ibid. The closing chapter of from Iceland in the tenth century." 
tin- Kyrbyggia Saga is altogether Fragments of English and Irish 
occupied with this tale. history in the ninth and tenth 

8 America was visited by Eric centuries. Translated from the 

the Red in A.U. 986, by Lief, Eric's original Icelandic by Grimes John* 

son, in A.D. 1000, and by Thorwald son Thorkelin, 4to. : London, 1788. 
Eric-son in A.D. 1002. 






IDS 



THE SCANDINAVIANS. AND 



Melkorka, 
daughter of 



as a slave. 



BOOK ii. livened by all the attractions of a Norwegian fair. 
g} aves W ere then articles of commerce in Scandi- 
navia, as they long after continued to be in England ; 
an d Hoskulld, desirous to purchase a female slave, 
entered the tent of Gille, a wealthy slave merchant, 
who was distinguished by a " Russian hat." 1 Behind 
a curtain which divided the tent twelve young 
maidens were arranged for sale. Eleven of these 
were valued at one mark each, but the twelfth, who 
was valued more highly, w r as purchased by Hoskulld. 
As money had not yet been coined in Norway, he 
paid for her from " a purse which hung at his girdle" 
pretends to be three mark s of silver, "weighed in a scales." 5 The 
girl was beautiful, but apparently dumb, and Hos- 
kulld gave her to his wife as a handmaid, having by 
her a son, whom he called Olaf, after his grandfather, 
Olafthe White, 3 and "Pa," or the Peacock, from his 
stateliness and beauty. After a lapse of years Hos- 
kulld was surprised by overhearing the supposed 
dumb mother speaking to her son. The discovery 
led her to confess that, from a sense of degra- 
dation she had remained mute, that her name was 
Melkorka, and that her father was Miarkartan, King 
of Ireland, from whence she had been carried captive 
when fifteen years of age. 4 Hoskulld, by repeating 



dumb. 



Is heard to 
speak to her 
son. 



1 A Russian hat appears to hare 
been a valuable article. It was one 
of the presents made by King 
Harold to Gunnair. Niall's Saga, 
p. 90. 

2 In the Museum of Antiquities 
of the Royal Irish Academy at 
Dublin may be seen several pairs 
of small scales, found with Danish 
armour, used probably for this 



purpose. 

8 Hoskuldwas son of Thorgenla, 
daughter of Thorstein the Red, son 
of Olafthe White, otherwise Auluf, 
King of Dublin. Landnamab., p. 
43. 

4 " Many were the blooming. 
lively women, and the modest, 
mild, comely maidens, &c., whom 
they carried off into oppression 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 109 

this story to his wife, so far excited her jealousy that BOOK 11. 
she struck her attendant, who indignantly returning " U ^_ HI 
the blow, rendered it necessary that Hoskulld should is driven from 

her master's 

provide a separate residence for Melkorka and her son. house. 

As soon as Olaf had passed the age of Scandinavian 

manhood, Melkorka became anxious that he should 

visit his Irish relations, and Hoskulld declining to 

assist in this project, she clandestinely married Send* her son 

another, on condition that he would provide means 

for the prosecution of Olaf 's voyage. The stipulation 

was fulfilled, and Olaf, then eighteen years old, 

sailed for Norway, where he was graciously received 

by King Harald Grosfeld and Queen Gunhild, who 

gave him a vessel, which had the appearance of " a 

ship of war, having a crew of sixty men." 1 Sailing ouf Pa u 

T i i driven on the 

for Ireland they lost their course during a storm, and coast, 
came to a part of the Irish coast " which strangers 
could not frequent with safety," not being in posses- 
sion of the Ostmen. Here they anchored, but when 
the tide ebbed the Irish came towards the vessel 
intending " to draw her ashore ;" and we thus obtain 
an idea of the size of their ships, for it is added that 
" the water was not deeper than their armpits, or the 
girdle of the tallest," but yet deep enough to keep 
the ship afloat. Olaf, who had been taught the He addnnw 

the nativ,- in 

Irish language by his mother, began to parley with Irish, 
the assailants, who insisted that, according to their 

laws, vessels in such a position could be claimed as 



and bondage over the broad green well-armed men. Olaf Tryggva- 

sea." Chap, xxxvi , p. 43, Wars son's Saga, c. xli. Turner's Hist. 

of the Gaedhil with the Gaill. of the Anglo-Saxons, TO), i., b. IT., 

1 Each Fylki furnished tweke c. i., p. 425. 
ships, having each sixty or seventy 



110 



THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 



BOOK ii. wreck. Olaf admitted that Ruch might be the law 
jf foreigners had not an interpreter on board, but as 
he spoke Irish, his property was not liable to seizure, 
and he was prepared to defend it. Olaf and his 
companions, therefore, seized their arms, " and 
ranged them along the sides of the vessel," which 
"they covered with their shields as a bulwark." 
Olaf himself ascended the prow, "having on his 
head a golden helmet," in his hand a spear, his 
breast beinff covered with a shield " on which a lion 

O 

was emblazoned," and thus prepared, awaited the 
attack. At this critical moment the Kingf of Ireland 

o 

arrived, an explanation ensued, as evidence of iden- 
tity Olaf produced " a gold ring " which Miarkartan 
had given to his daughter Melkorka " on the appear- 
is recognised ance of her first tooth," 1 and the King recognising 
the token, acknowledged his grandson, and invited 
Olaf and his companions to land, having first 
appointed proper persons to take charge of his ship, 
and " draw it upon the beach," the usual practice 
when the voyage was ended. 

Olaf, now in favour with the king, accompanied 
him everywhere. Miarkartan being desirous to 
punish the Vikings, who continued to ravage the 
coast of Ireland, Olaf attended the king on board his 

* O 

oiaf Pa goes own ship in pursuit of these pirates. He also accom- 
panied him to Dublin, and the citizens on being 
informed of his parentage received him with joy. 

1 The appearance of the first at which time the friends and 

tooth was celebrated in Scandi- relations presented it with a gift 

navia by a feast. " It appears to called Tandsel." Baden's Hist. 

have been a solemn occasion when Nonv., p. 78. 
the child received its first tooth, 



father r- 






SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. Ill 

In spring "a Thing" was assembled, at which BOOK " 
Miarkartan proposed to make Olaf heir to his king- 

3 Muirchearuch 

dom, as being fitter to maintain its dignity than his wish* to make 

Al f U J r J *lT l .him heir to hi. 

own sons. Olat, however, declined the honour, and kingdom, 
loaded with presents, returned to Iceland, where " he 
drew his ship ashore," and was visited by his mother, 
who during his absence had given another son to 
her new husband. Nial's Saga adds that Olaf brought 
from Ireland an Irish dog of huge size, equal to a 
second man as a follower, and endowed with sagacity 
which enabled him to distinguish friends from foes. 
This dog, which he called " Samus," Olaf gave to 
his friend Gunnar, 1 but, like the celebrated Irish 
dog "Vig," which Olaf Tryggvasson had brought, 
from Ireland, 2 Samus was killed defending his 
master. Thorkelin says that the facts here related 
" took place between 936 and 962," 3 and if his 
chronology be correct, there is little difficulty in 
deciding that the King Miarkartan of the Saga was 
Muircheartach, King of Aileach, or the northern 
part of Ireland, and his daughter Melkorka, the Irish 
Maelcorcah. Our annals state that the fortress of 
Aileach was plundered by " Foreigners " in A.D. 900, 4 
and again in A.D. 937, 5 when Muircheartach himself 
was captured and carried off' to their ships, from 
which he was redeemed. But the foray in which 
Melkorka was carried off may have been that of the 

1 NialFs Saga, p. 217, chap. 8-2. says Harald Greskin was born 934, 

8 Olaf. Trygg. Saga, chap. xxxv. and died 977 ; other chronologies 

5 Niall's Saga, p. 237' place his death in 969. 

* Thorkelin's Fragments, Lond., ' Ann. Four Must., A D. 900. 
1788, p. x. Schoning Chronology Ann. Ulst., A.D. 931 (=937). 
in Heimskringlu, vol.1., p. 411, 






112 THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 

;BOOK ii. foreigners who came to Loch Foyle, and plundered 
around Aileach, in A.D. 91 9. l According to the Saga, 
tacto offer about twenty years after the capture of Melkorka, 
thtimrflf Olaf, then eighteen or nineteen years old, landed 
in Ireland, and attended King Miarkartan on board 
his own ship in an expedition against the pirates 
who had infested the coasts of Ireland. This date 
corresponds with A.D. 939 of the Four Masters, when 
Muircheartach fitted out a fleet, and pursued the 
Scandinavian pirates into the Hebrides, from which 
" he carried off much plunder and booty," 2 and the 
visit to Dublin in the same year by Olaf and Miar- 
kartan may have been that in which " Muirchear- 
tach and his Leather Cloaks " entered the city, where 
The Ostmen of Olaf must have been "joyfully received" by the 
have willingly Scandinavian citizens, as a descendant of their 
king. ' founder, King Aulaf, Muircheartach's proposal that 
Olaf, one of his family, should succeed to the throne, 
being consistent with the Irish law of Tanistry. 

1 Ann. Four Mast., 919 2 Ann. Four Mast., 939. 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 113 

CHAPTER IV. 

DUBLIN AND THE SCOTTISH ISLES. 

The Hebrides and Orkneys visited by Irish ecclesiastics long before their 
occupation by the Scandinavians. Saint Coluinba retired from Ireland 
to Ily (one of the Hebrides), A.D. 563. Founded a monastery there. 
The Scandinavians plunder Hy-Colum-Cille, A.D. 802. From the 
Orkneys and Hebrides they plunder in Ireland, Scotland, and Nor- 
way Harald Haarfagr, King of Norway, sends Ketill Flatnef against 
them Ketill becomes their leader. Allies himself with Aulaf, the 
White, King of Dublin. Marries his daughter. Scandinavian ravagei 
in Spain and Africa. They land their Moorish captives in Ireland. 
Spanish, Irish, and Scandinavian histories confirm this account. 

THE intercourse between Dublin and Iceland neces- BOOKII. 
sarily increased that previously existing between CHAP IV 
Dublin, the Hebrides, Orkneys, and Scottish isles. 
Like Iceland, the islands to the west and north of 
Scotland were known to the Irish, and had been 
visited by Irish ecclesiastics long, prior to the 
earliest accounts of Scandinavian invasion. St. 
Columba, one of the royal family of Ireland, and 
allied to that of the Dalriada of Scotland, being 
banished from Ireland, went to the Hebrides, and in 
A.D. 563 founded a monastery at Hy, where his monks 
peacefully resided until the close of the eighth 
century, when " the Pagan Norsemen laid waste the 
islands between Ireland and Scotland," and in A.D. 802 
again plundered and burned " Hy-Colum-Cille," and 
slew sixty-eight of the clergy." 1 Lyiug in the track 
of the invaders, the Hebrides and Orkneys became 
the resort of all who sought new homes or the 
excitement or plunder of Viking expeditions. Before 

Colgau, Actt , S.S., p. 241, con- c. vii., s. ii., pp. 38, Ixxv., Le- 
cerning St. Albens. tronne, Paris, 1814. 

Adaranan'9 Life of St. Columba Ann. Four Mast., 801, 802; 
by William Reeves, D.D., 1857. Ann. Ult., A.D. 801. 

Dicuil De Mcnsura Orbis Teme, 

I 



114 



THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 



BOOK ii. the close of the ninth century the Scandinavian 
pi ra t es of the isles, being joined by kindred spirit* 
from Scotland and Ireland, " made war, and plun- 
an d wide," ' wintering in the Orkneys and 
Hebrides, 8 and in summer infesting the coasts of Ire- 
land, Scotland, and Norway." 3 King Harald Haar- 
fagr attempted to terminate their depredations, and 



gue ar w e uh 
Uubiin tinen f dered 



Ketm joins 



Haar- having fitted out a great fleet, pursued these plun- 
Ketui against derers to their island fastnesses. Many he slew, 
but scarcely had he returned to Norway ere those 
who had escaped by flight returned to their old 
haunts, and Harald, tired of such warfare, sent 
Ketill Flatnef 4 to reconquer the islands, and expel 
the Vikings. But when Ketill had subdued all the 
southern isles he made himself king over them, and 
refusing to pay TIarald the stipulated tribute, endea- 
voured to sustain his usurpation by alliances with 
neighbouring chieftains, of whom one of the most 
influential was Olaf, the White, King of Dublin, who 
married Auda, KetilFs daughter. 

Prior, however, to the Vikings being driven from 
the isles they had brought into Ireland a race of 
people previously unknown to the Irish. In one of 
their expeditions from the Orkneys they landed 
among the Moors in Spain, and having defeated and 
captured a number of these Moors, they retired to 
their ships, and sailed for Ireland, where they landed 
their swarthy captives. This curious incident, which 






Land their 






1 Landnamabok, p. 22. Skottar 
oc Irar heruindu oc raentu vida. 

8 The Hebrides were termed the 
" Sudreyar," or Southern Islands, 
in contradistinction to the Ork- 
neys, or Northern Isles. The name 



still survives in " Soder and Man." 
8 Harald Haarfagr's Saga, cap. 

xx. 
4 Landnamabok, p. "22. Ketill 

Flatnef means Ketill Flatnose. 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OP DUBLIN. 115 

is not alluded to in any modern Irish history, we find BOOK n. 
recorded in one of the " Three Fragments of Annals" Cu tL IV 
preserved in the Burgundian Library at Brussels, 1 SSS^ 
and it appears to be corroborated by various state- Annal9 " 
mento of Scandinavian, French, and Spanish writers. 
The words of the Annals are that " Not long before 
this time " (A.D. 869) * " the two younger sons of 
Albdan (Halfdan), King of Lochlann, expelled the 
eldest son, Raghnall, son of Albdan, because they 
feared that he would take the kingdom of Lochlann 
after their father ; and Raghnall came with his three 
sous tolnnsi Ore (Orkney), and Raghnall tarried there 
with his youngest son. But his elder sons, with a 
great host, which they collected from every quarter, 
. . . . rowed forward across the Cantabrian Sea, 
i.e., the sea which is between Erin and Spain, until 
they reached Spain, and they inflicted many evils in 
Spain, both by killing and plundering. They after- 
wards crossed the Gaditanian Straits, 3 i.e., where the 
Mediterranean Sea goes into the external ocean, and 
they arrived in Africa, and there they fought a battle 
with the Mauritani, in which a great slaughter of the 
Mauritani was made." " After this the Lochlanns 
passed over the country, and they plundered and 
burned the whole country ; and they carried off a 
great host of them [the Mauritani] as captives to 
Erin, and these are the blue men [of Erinl, for Mauri The Moorish 

. . prisoners the 

is the same as black men, and Mauritania is the same blue men of 

Krio* 

as blackness." And " long indeed were these blue 
men in Erin." 

1 Three Fragments, p. 159, Irish ?.The Straits of Gades in the 

Archaelogical Society, 1860. south of Spain. The modern Cadiz 

8 This time "the capture of York preserves the name, 
by the Danes," A.D. 869. 

I 2 



116 



THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 



BOOK II. 
CHAP. IV. 



The term blue men here applied to the Moors 
affords some evidences of a Scandinavian connexion 
with parts of the narrative. The term, which is not 
Irish, was doubtless adopted by the Irish from 
those Scandinavian Vikings who first brought these 
Blue men the coloured men into Ireland, for in the Icelandic Sagas 

Norse name 

for Africans. anc l Swedish history Bluernen is the name always 
given to Moors or Africans, 1 and " Great Blueland " 
the name by which Africa 2 is designated. 

The very confused history arid unsettled chrono- 
logy of the reigns of the early kings of Scandinavia, 

if e m flcation and the number of kings of the name of Halfdan, 
renders it difficult clearly to identify the King 
Halfdan referred to in the Annals. It may be 
asserted, however, with some degree of confidence 
that he was Halfdan the Mild, 3 son and successor of 
King Eysteinn. According to Schoning's chronology* 
Halfden was born in A.D. 738, and was succeeded by 
his son Gudrod, who died in A.D. 824. The names 
of his other sons are not recorded, but there are 
reasons to suppose 5 that one of them was called 
Rognvald, or Raghnal, and, if the supposition be 
correct, it is not improbable that he may have been 
driven into the Orkneys by his brothers when they 



Halfdan. 



1 Ynglinga Saga, cap 1. " Bla- 
land hit Mikla," or Great Blue- 
land, being the name of Africa, and 
Blae men the name for Africans. 

2 Sigurd Jorsalafain Saga, cap. 
-4 Blalande, Saracen's land, and 
Blamenn, Saracens. Tuyell's Swe- 
den, Blamenn, negroes, &c. 

8 Ynglinga Saga, cap. 41 1 Half- 
dan " had been long on Vikin<* 
expeditions."' " He died on, a bed of 
sickness, and was buried at Borre." 



He was called Halfdann hinn Mildi 
oc hinn Malar illi (the bad enter- 
tainer). 

4 Schoning's Chronology, Heiins- 
kringla, vol. i., p. 411. 

8 The Norsemen never named the 
son after the father, but generally 
after the uncle, granduncle or 
grandfather, and Gudrod's grand- 
son was named Rognvald (Ragh- 
nal), the son of Olaf, the son of 
Gudrod. 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 117 

saw their father suffering from that sickness of which BOOK n. 
he died. CH ^- IV - 

But whatever difficulty there may be in identify- 
ing the -King Halfdan who was the father of Rogn- 
vald, there is none in establishing the fact that at the 
time mentioned in the Annals a fleet cf Scandi- 
navians came to the coast of Spain, and after plun- Expedition to 
dering the country, captured and carried off a number confirmed 
of Moors, the blue men of the narrative. The French 
Chronicle of Bertiniani states that the Norsemen 
invaded Spain in A.D. 844.' Depping more explicit by 
says that they plundered the coasts cf Galicia, 
Portugal, and Andalusia, made a descent on Cadiz, 
and infested the borders of the Mediterranean. 
"That it was in the month of September, 844, they 
sailed up the Guadalquiver," and having defeated the 
Moors who opposed their attack on Seville, they 
burned the faubourgs, pillaged the city, and retired 
to their ships, " bringing with them much booty and 
a crowd of prisoners, who perhaps, never again 
beheld the beautiful sky of Andalusia." 

The Spanish history by Mariani is equally in and by 

J J J Mariani. 

accordance with our annals. It relates that the 
Normans "overran and pillaged all the coasts of 
Galicia till near Corunna" ; " that in A.P. 847, having 
gathered new forces, they laid siege to Seville, 
plundered the territory of Cadiz and Medina Sido- 
nia, taking great numbers of men and cattle, and 
putting many Moors to the sword." "They then left 
Spain, having gained much honour and great riches." 1 ' 

1 Annals Bertiniani apud Du- 1844, pp. 107, 108. 

chesne, TO!, in., p. 201, A.D. 844. 8 Mariani Hist. Spain, Load. 

* Depping Hist, des Expeditions 1699, p. 112. 
Mari times Des Normans, Paris, 



118 THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 



CHAPTER V. 

DUBLIN AND THE MAINLAND OF SCOTLAND. 

Difference between the Scandinavian invasions of Scotland and Ireland 
In Scotland they were as conquerors. The Scandinavians at Dublin, 
colonists. Aulaf, King of Dublin, intermarries into the families of 
Irish Kings. Enumeration of Aulaf s connexions with Irish royalty 
His connexions with the Scandinavian Lords of the Isles. Marries 
Auda, daughter of Ketill, Lord of the Hebrides. Keneth M'Alpin, 
King of Scots, calls to his aid, Godfrey, Chief of Ulster Godfrey 
becomes Lord of the Isles. Aulafs expedition with his son Ivar, 
against the men of Fortrenn Aulaf slain there, A-D. 869 __ His son, 
Ivar, returns, and reigns at Dublin. Ivar dies, A.D. 872. Ivar's 
grandson driven out of Dublin by the Irish, A.D. 962 __ Invades 
Pictland, and is slain at Fortrenn, A.D. 904. 

BOOK ii. BUT the connexion between Dublin and the Main- 

CHAP. V 

land of Scotland was of a different character from 

Intermarriages 

of Ostmen that established between the Ostmen of that port 
and the inhabitants of Ireland. In Scotland the 
Scandinavians of Dublin were conquerors, not 
colonists, as the Ostmen of Dublin quickly became 
in Ireland by intermarriage with the Irish. Thus 
shortly after his arrival, Aulaf became closely con- 

Auiaf, King of nected with Irish royalty. Aedh Finnliath, King of 
Ireland, had married Maelmurrie, daughter of 
Cinnaedh (Kenneth), King of the Scots and Picts; 1 
and Aulaf having married another of Kenneth's 
daughters, 2 he thus became brother-in-law to the 
reigning monarch. Subsequently Aulaf also married 
one of Aedh Finnliath's daughters, 3 and thus became 



8eu Rerum liiberni- Annals, edited by J. O'Donovan, 

carum Chronologia. Roderic LL.D., p. 1 73. Irish Archaeological 

O'Flaherty. 4to : London, 1685. Society. 4to : Dublin, 1860. 

p. 484. * IKd., P- 151. 
8 Three Fragments of Irish 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 119 

that king's son-in-law, and brother-in-law of Neal 
Glundubh, the succeeding monarch. Nor was these 
his only connexions with Irish royalty. 

Scandinavian kings were polygamists, marrying 
and repudiating without controul. And notwith- 
standing their Christianity, some of our Irish 
monarchs were tainted by the manners of the age, 
as even Charlemagne, the anointed champion of the 
Church, was a bigamist, and worse. Certain it is 
that their matrimonial connexions were of a most 
complicated character. Thus Aedh Finnliath, who 
had married Maelmurrie, had (possibly after her 
death) married Flauna, daughter of Dunlaing, and 
sister of Cearbhall, Lord of Ossory. 1 This Flauna 
had previously been the wife of Maelsachlain, King 
of Ireland, by whom she became the mother of 
Flann Sinna, 2 and likewise had been the wife of 
Gaithen, by whom she had Cennedigh, 3 Lord of 
Laighis, her brother Cearbhall 4 being married to a 
daughter of her first husband, Maelsachlaiu. 5 Nor 
was this all. After the death of Aedh Finnliath, 
his widow, Maelmurrie, married Flann, 6 the son of 
Maelsachlain/ by whom she had King Donnchadh, 8 
Aedh's sister 9 having been married to Conaing, Lord 

of Breagh, i.e., Meath. 10 



1 Three Fragments, p. 179. O'Flaherty, p. 435. 4to: London, 

1 Annals of Four Masters, A.D. 1685. 

886. T Three Fragments, p. 179. 

3 Three Fragments, p .179. Annals of Four Masters, A.D. 886. 

4 Annals of Four Masters, A.U. Annals of Four Masters, A.D. 
862. 942. Ibid, A.D. 919. 

6 Three Fragments, p. 129. Three Fragments p. 177. 

* Ogygi ft i sen Rerum Hiberni- '* Ibid. 
carum Chronologia, by Roderic 



120 THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 

CHAP v Thus allied to the Kin g 8 of Scotland and Ireland, 
Aulaf also connected himself with the Lords of the 

Aulaf, son-m- 



Auda, 1 daughter of Ketil 
Ides - Flatneff,* Chief of the Hebrides; and their son, 

Thorstein the Red, 3 married Thurida, 4 whose Scan- 
dinavian father, Eyvind Austman, 5 was husband of 
Ilafarta, one of Cearbhall's daughters. 6 

We have already seen that the Picts of Scotland 
had a common origin with those on the sea coast of 
Ulster, where the Northmen first settled. 7 While 
they were thus plundering and settling among the 
Irish and Irish Picts, they were pursuing the same 
course with the Scots and Picts of Scotland. 
Kavagesof th The Northern Picts had been the victims of the 

Norsemen on 

the Scottish early invaders ; so had been the Scots, or Men of 

Picta. 

Alba. In A.D. 835, Cinaedh, son of Alpin, King of 
the Scots, sought assistance from his kindred in 
Ireland, and Godfraidh, son of Fearghus, Chief of 
Orghialla (Ulster), went to Alba to strengthen the 
Dalriada, 8 and thence, perhaps, at the request of 
Cinaedh, son of Alpin, became Chief of the Hebrides 
also. 

In A.D. 839 the Southern Picts were invaded, and 
in "a battle by the Gentiles against the Men of 
Fortren, Eogannen M'CEngus (King of the Picts), 
and his brother Bran, were slain with a multidude 

1 Olaf Trygvasson's Saga. Harfagr's Saga, cap. xxii. 
Scripta Historica Islandoruni * Landnamabok, p. 109. 
Latine reddita, vol. i., p. 224, cap. * Ibid, ibid. 
95. Twelve vols., 12mo: Hafniee, * Ibid, p. 228. 
1828-1832. 7 Supra, pp. 83, 84. 

1 Landnamabok, p. 107. * Annals of Four Masters, A.D. 

Nial's Saga, p. 389. Harald 835. 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 121 

of others," 1 this being possibly the expedition men- BOOK " 

L II A P V. 

ticned by Saxo Grammaticus, in which Regnar 
Lodbrog slew the Chiefs of Scotia, Pictavia, and the 
Western Isles. 2 

It might be suggested that when " all the foreign Auiaf invade* 
tribes of Ireland " had submitted to Aulaf, 3 he may Scotland, *A.U. 
have desired to extend his dominion over the Picts 8 ' 
of Scotland also. Certain it is that he proceeded to 
subdue them in A.D. 8G5 ; for in that year according to 
the Annalists of Ulster, "Amlaiv and his nobility 
went to Fortran together with the foreigners of 
Ireland and Scotland, and spoiled the Cruithne (the 
Picts), and brought all their hostages with them." 4 

In A.D. 869, Aulaf in conjunction with Ivar, again 
invaded Pictland, and after a siege of four months 
took and destroyed its capital ; but Aulaf being slain 
while leading an army against Constantino, King of Jjjl* 11 
the Scots, Ivar returned to Dublin, where he died, iw die t 

Dublin, A.D. 
A.D. 872. 5 872. 

The sons of Aulaf, however, did not abandon the 
conquests of their father. Oslin remained in Pict- 
land, where he was slain by a stratagem of the 
Albanenses, in A.D. 875. 6 

But though the Kings of Dublin ceased to have a 

1 Bellum a geutilibus contrii ix., p. 154, line 33. 

viros Fortrenn in quo ceciderunt 5 Supra, p. 19. 

Eoganam MacCEngusa et Bran 4 Annals of Ulster, cited in the 

MacCEngus, et Aedh MacBoanta foot note of J. O'Donovan, LL.D., 

et alii pene innumerabiles ceci- in the Annals of the Four Masters, 

derunt. Ann. Ulton. Sec Reeves's vol. i., p. 502. 

Adamnan, p. 390. (Wars of the * Supra, pp. 38-40. 

Gaedhel with the GailL Pref. p. * Annals of Four Master*, A.D. 

li., n . 1.) 874. Ibid, A.D. 865, p. 519. Cit- 

* Saxo Grammaticus Hist. Lil>. ing Anna! Ulton. 



122 



THE SCAN DtN AVIANS, AND 



BOOK ii. 

CHAP. V. 



dominion in Scotland, their connexion with it con- 
tinued throughout the tenth century. Nor is it 
impossible that when the foreigners were driven out 
of Dublin, in A.D. 901,' Ivar, the grandson of Ivar, 
attempted to reconquer Pictland ; but was killed by 
the men of Fortrenn with a great slaughter about 
him, in A.D. 904. 2 

About this period it is somewhat difficult to decide 
whether the Kings of Dublin should be termed 
Ostmen or Irish. After their conversion to Chris- 
tianity, intermarriages with the Irish became much 
more frequent, but not less irregular. 



CHAPTER VI. 

RELIGION OF THE OSTMEN or IRELAND. 

Few details in Irish Annais concerning the form of Paganism of the Ost- 
men of Ireland. Date of their conversion to Christianity. The 
conversion of King Aulaf Cuaran in England.- -The first Ostman 
bishop of Dublin consecrated there. King Aulaf Cuaran's conversion 
in England decides the religion of many of his subjects in Ireland. 
The rest remain worshippers of Thor __ Proofs of this worship in Irish 
Annals. Whether the prefix Gille be Scandinavian or Irish discussed. 
Deductions drawn from its use in Scandinavian and Irish names. 
The division of Ireland into four provinces, not Scandinavian, but 
of ecclesiastical origin The Dyffliuarskiri or Scandinavian territory 
around Dublin. Its bounds co-extensive with the early Admiralty 
jurisdiction of the Mayor and citizens of Dublin. 

BOOK ii. Q r 

of Ireland, Irish annals furnish no direct evidence. 



form of paganism professed by the Ostmen 
nd, Irish annals furnish no direct evidence. 
They do not even inform us of the religious tenets of 



1 Supra, p. 49. Annals of 
Ulster. This date in the Annals 
of the Four Masters, in A.D. 897. 



* AnnaL Ulton. O'Connor's 
Rerum Hibernicarum Scriptures, 
vol. iv., p. 243. 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 123 

the Irish previously to the introduction of Christi- BOOK IL 

J CHAP. VL 

anity ; nor are they singular in this respect, Saxon 
chronicles being equally silent respecting that which 
existed in England until the llth century, when Conversion of 
Canute prohibited heathenism by law. To the O f Dublin. 
Christian Monks who wrote their annals and 
chronicles (and they were almost the only writers 
and Latin their only language), it seemed profane to 
mention the names of Thor or Frega or of any 
heathen deity, or to allude to their temples or 
worship. We are told only that our Ostmen were 
pagans, and they remained pagans for 500 years after 
all Europe was christianized. The Welsh chronicles 
state that they were pagan to the middle of the 1 1th 
century, the Annals of Cambria and Brut y 
Tywysogain recording that " A.D. 1040 Grufudd 
(King of Wales) was captured by the pagans of 
Dublin." 1 

This statement of the Welsh chronicle however Fit Ostman 

Bishop of 

would prolong the existence of Scandinavian paganism Dublin 

in Dublin much beyond the period usually assigned 

for its termination ; for although it was not until A.D. 

1038 that the first Ostman bishop of Dublin was 

consecrated, we may confidently assert that some of 

our Ostmen had been previously converted ; and that 

they had been converted in England ; and hence their Consecrated at 

. i /~i i IT if Canterbury 

connexion with Canterbury and Rome instead of A.D. loss, 
with Armagh and the Irish Church, and thence also 
it was that their bishops were consecrated in 

i Ancient Laws and Institutes of pagan superstition among the Irish 
Wales, Record publication, 1841. in A D. 1014, " War of the Gaedhil 
There were some remnants of with the Gaill," p. 173. 



124 



THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 



BOOK II. 
CHAP. VI. 



Sitric, King of 
Dublin, con- 
verted in Eng- 
land, A.D. 925. 



Aulaf Cuaran, 
Sitric's son 
converted 
there. 



His subjects 
conversion, 

A.D. 944. 



England after the Roman formula and that an Ost- 
man bishop was the first Papal Legate in Ireland. 1 

Among our Ostmen, the first recorded conversion 
is that of Sitric, King of Dublin, who was baptized in 
England, and then married to King Athelstan's 
sister in A.D. 925, 2 but the influence of his conver- 
sion did not extend to Dublin, for unsteady in his 
faith and forgetful of his vow he soon abjured Christi- 
anity, abandoned his wife, and died pagan where he 
had been baptized. His successor, Aulaf the son of 
Godfrey, was opposed to Athelstan and remained 
pagan until death ; 3 but Sitric's son, Aulaf Cuaran, 
on visiting England was there converted and in A.D. 
943 was received at baptism by King Edmund, 4 
Aulaf s sister, Gyda, 5 being subsequently married to 
Olaf Tryggvasson in England, where Olaf also had 
been baptized. 6 

It was this conversion of Aulaf Cuaran and his 
family 7 which decided the religion of his subjects in 
A.D. 944. When Aulaf returned to Dublin, 8 his 
example, aided by the efforts of the Anglo-Saxon 



1 Sir James AVare's Works, vol. 
ii., p. 306. Ibid, vol. i., p. 504, 
" Gilleor Gillebert, Bishop of Lim- 
erick, and first Apostolic Legate 
in Ireland A.D., 1 139." 

* Sax. Chron., 925. 

3 I lor. Worcest., 938, calls him 
"rex paganus Aulafus," he died 
942, Sax. Chron. 

Sax. Chron , 943. 

* Erat autem ilia potens domina 
(Gyda) soror Olavi, Scotorum 
regis, qui Kuaran est nominatus, 
Hist. Olavi Trygvii filius, vol. 10., 
p. 236. Scripta Historica Island- 



orum, Studio Sveinbiornis Egilson 
12vols. 12mo, Havnise, 1841. 

6 Heimsk Olaf s Saga, cap. 
XXXIII., Torfaeus Hist. Norv., 
vol. 2., p. 340. Olaf, like many of 
the Northmen, was baptized several 
times. 

7 Aulaf remained steady in his 
faith, and in A.D. 980 " went to Hi 
on his pilgrimage, and died there 
after penance and a good life." 
Ann. Four Mast., A.D. 980. 

8 Sax. Chron., 944. ; Ann. Ulit., 
944. 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 125 

monks (who followed him from Northumberland), 
led to that " conversion of the Danes " which Irish 
writers date from about A.D. 948. 1 There is no proof, 
however, that this conversion was general, and the on y p 
progress of Christianity Among the Scandinavians 
elsewhere, would lead us to infer that it was partial, 
as we find, that although Hakon (Athelstan's foster 
son) introduced Christianity into Norway in A.D. 
95 G ;* and although Olaf Tryggvasson established it 
there by law, in A.D. 1000 (it being legally established 
in Iceland the same year), 3 yet many Norwegians 
remained pagan at the close of the llth century, 
refusing to submit even to the nominal Christianity 
then required, districts and armies being baptized 
without any instruction whatsoever. 4 The forms of 
pagans and Christians were in some respects similar, gome p 
pouring water over the head and giving a name, 
being ceremonies of Odinism ; 5 " Thor's hammersign " 
being used like that of the cross (and sometimes 
mistaken for it) in religious rites and blessings. 6 
Our evidence therefore only proves that the Ost- 

1 Ware's Antiq., p. 61. Lanigan cap. xi. ; introduced A.D. 981. 

Eccl. Hist., TO!, i., p. 75, says, * Heimsk, vol. ii., p. 340. 

Sitric had three sons, Reginald, s Heimsk, vol. i. p. 72. Saga 

Aulaf, and Godfrid, " and it is very Halfdanar Svarta, cap. vii. 

probable that Godfrid followed this * /Wrf, vol. i., p. 143. Saga 

example of his father and became Hakon Guda, c. xviii. " The king 

Christian," but Lanigan probably then took the drinking horn ami 

overlooked the fact, that Godfrid's made the sign of the cross over it. 

son, Reginald, was a pagan until What does the king mean ? said 

A.D. 943, when he also was con- Kaare of Gryting" Earl Sigurd 

verted in England; Sax. Chron., replied "He is blessing the full 

943. goblet in the name of Thor by 

1 Heimsk, vol. i. ; Chronologia, making the sign of his hammer over 

p. 411. it." 

3 Kristni-Saga, Ilafmse, 1773, 



OK 



126 THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 

men of Dublin were not exclusively pagan in A.D. 
1040, as the Welsh chronicles seem to imply. 

But that those who remained pagan adhered to the 
worship of Thor,then the religion of Nor way, can only 
be inferred from the few events, which are rocorded 
in our Annals. For instance, we know that the 
Scandinavians sometimes sacrificed their prisoners to 
Thor or Odin, by "crushing the spine" (or "break- 
ing the back on a stone"), 1 or by plunging the victim 
head foremost in water, and auguring from the sacri- 
fice future victory or defeat. Such sacrifices may be 
alluded to in the statements, that, " A.D. 859, Mael- 
gula Mac Dungail, King of Cashel, was killed by the 
Danes, i.e., his back was broken with a stone ;" 2 and 
A.D. 863, that, " Conor Mac Dearmada, half King of 
Meath, was stifled in water at Cluain Iraird, by Aulaf, 
King of the foreigners " of Dublin. 3 

Again, we find it stated, that after the death of 
and sword of Aulaf Cuaran, which is supposed to have occurred in 
A.D. 992, there was a contest for succession between 
Imar and " Sitric, the son of Aulaf," 4 and taking ad- 
vantage of this dispute in "A.D. 994, the ring of 
Tomar, and the sword of Carlus were found carried 

1 Thordus Gallus mentions the spicuous in the centre of the circle, 
Thorstein on which men were Thor's Stone, where the backs of 
sacrificed (broken), and where also the victims were broken, still show- 
is the circle of stones, " Domhring," ing signs of blood." Eyrbyggia 
or place of justice. Landnamabok, Saga, cap. x., p. 27 ; 4to, Havniae, 
p. 94. And the Eyrbyggia: 1787. 

" Here (at a spot in Iceland) was * Ann. Four Mast., A.D. 857. "Was 

set up (A.D. 934), the place of stoned by the Norsemen till they 

judgment; and here is seen to this killed him." Ann. Innisfall, A.D. 

day (A.D. 1250), the judicial circle 859. Ann. Four Mast., A.D. 867. 

of stones where human victims were 8 Ann. Four Mast., A.D. 862. 

offered up to the gods; and- con- 4 Ann. Four Mast., A.D. 992, 993. 






SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 127 

away by Maelseachlain from the foreigners of OK V "' 
Ath Cliath." 1 

It has been already observed that the ' godar ' significance 
were princes, judges, and priests. The emblem of 
military jurisdiction being a sword, and the marks 
of the 'godi's' sacredotal dignity being a massive 
ring, 2 generally kept at the temple of Thor, but 
sometimes worn attached by a smaller ring to the 
armilla of the godi, and having some mystery con- 
nected with it. 8 

When the " godi " acted in his judicial capacity, 
witnesses were sworn on this " holy ring," and the 
" godi " gave solemnity to the oath by dipping the 
ring in the blood of a sacrifice. Such was " the 
great gold ring " which Olaf Trygvasson, when he 
became a Christian, took from the temple door of 
Lade," and sent to Queen Sigrid, 4 and such was " the 
holy ring " whereon the Danes " swore oaths " to 
King Alfred. 5 Of these " great gold rings with the 
smaller ring attached " there is a splendid specimen 
in the museum of the Royal Irish Academy. 6 

We therefore infer that the "ring" and sword Ring and 
which Maelseachlain carried away, had been pre- Siem* of 
served by the Ostmen as tokens of the investiture, 8C 
spiritual and temporal, of their two races of kingly 

1 Ann. Four Masters, A.D. 994. Veterum, Amst., 1676, p. 47, et 

* This ring was sometimes of M'/. 

silver weighing ' two ores or more," * Heimsk, vol. i., p. 2(54. Saga 

and was placed on the altar of Thor. af Olafi Tryggvasyni, cap. Ixvi. 

For its use in judicial and religious * Sax. Chron., A.D. 876. 

matters, see Landnamabok, p. 299, This ring with a large number 

also Eyrbyggia Saga, cap. x., p. of other gold articles was found in 

27. the county of Clare, and pur- 

3 Bartholinius De Armillis chased by me for the Academy. 



investiture. 



128 



THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 



BOOK II 
CHAP. VI. 



Vid-itudes 
of the ring 
and sword. 



Last notice of 
the sword of 
Carlus. 



worshippers of Thor, Carlus, slain in A.I>. 866, 
being the eldest son of Aulaf, then King of Dublin, 
and Tomar (Thormodr or Thorsman), " Earl tanist of 
the King of Lochlann. 2 After A.D. 994, when the 
power of the Ostmen kings was restored, the sword of 
Carlus again came into their possession. But in 
A.D. 1028, 3 Sitric abandoned his kingdom, and with 
Flannagan Ua Cellaigh, King of Bregia, went to 
Rome. In their absence Sitric's son was captured 
by Mathgainhain Ua Biagain, then Lord of Breagha, 
who exacted for his ransom " the sword of Carlus," 
and other articles of value. 4 

Ao-ain, however, the sword of Carlus was restored 

O ' ' 

to the Ostinen of Dublin, but soon again they were 
deprived of it; the last notice of this emblem of 
temporal sovereignty, being, that it " and many other 
precious things were obtained by the son of Mael- 
nambho " in A.D. 1058. 6 But the " ring of Tomar" 6 
never reappeared among the regalia of the Ostmen. 
Christianity had severed the authority of the priest 



1 Ann. Four Mast., A.D. 866. 

8 Ibid, A.D. 846. 

3 Ann. Four Mast., 1028. Sitrie's 
son, Aulaf, also commenced a 
pilgrimage, but " was slain by the 
Saxons on his way to Rome." Ibid, 
1034. 

Ibid, 1029. 

* Ann. Four Mast., A.D. 1058. 

* " A bull of excommunication 
was given to William's messenger, 
and to it was added a consecrated 
banner of the Roman Church, and 
a ring containing one of St Peter's 
hairs set under a diamond of great 
price. This was the double emblem 



of military and ecclesiastical in- 
vestiture." Thierry. Conquest 
of England by the Normans, vol. 
i., b. in., p. 159. (Bonn's Trans- 
lation, P2mo, London, 1847.) " By 
a bull in favour of Henry, and 
another ring, a valuable emerald, 
&c." Macaria Excidium, being a 
secret (allegorical) history of the 
War of the Revolution ( 1 689-1 69 1 ) 
in Ireland, by Colonel Charles 
O'Kelly, edited by John Cornelius 
O'Callaghan, for the Irish Archaeo- 
logical Society : 4to, Dublin, 
1850. 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OP DUBLIN. 129 

from that of the prince ; the spiritual and temporal BOOK n 
jurisdictions were no longer united in the same 
individual, and the pagan relic of priestly office 
ceased to be used by the Ostman kings of Dublin. 

We think that the appearance of the name " Gille " o^ 1 " 5 

Scandin&run 

in Irish Annals, also affords evidence that the t* Gm - 
worship of Thor was the paganism of our Ostmen. 
Heretofore, Irish scholars have considered the word 
Gille to be of Irish origin, notwithstanding the opinion 
of an eminent etymologist, who, in recently tracing 
the derivation of the modern Scotch term " Gilly," 
assumes as " more than probable that the term has 
been borrowed from the Scandinavian settlers in 
Ireland and the Isles, as there is no similar term in 
Cambro Britannic, and as the Icelandic Gilla and 
Giolla both signify a boy (servant), it is more likely 
that the Irish received it from their Norse con- 
querors than that they borrowed it from them, and 
incorporated it into the Gothic language." 1 

Our suggestion, however, extends a little farther, 
There can be no doubt the word 'Gille' was used by 
the Scandinavians as a proper name, as we read of 
"Gille the Lagman [or Law maker] of the Faroe 
Islands," 2 " Gille, Count of the Hebrides," 3 " Gille 

i Jamieson's Etym. Die. Sup- proper names." 4to, Clarendon 
pleun-nt, Edinburgh. 1825, on the Press, Oxford, 1874. The state- 
word Gillie . At a later period the ment of Jamieson's as to the use 
term Gille was also used by the of the words Gilla and Giolla 
Irish to signify a boy, servant, see in the Icelandic language does 
Ann. Four Mast., 1022. -'Muiren not seem to be borne out by any 
was slain by two Gillies of the other dictionary.] 
Luighni." "Gille Lbgsogomadr," Heimsk, 

[In Cleaseby and Vigfusson's vol. ii., p. 208. 

Icelandic English Dictionary at Nials Saga. Havniae, 1809, p. 

the word Gilli "Gilli, [Gaelic, 690. 
Gillie], a servant, only in Irish 



130 



THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 



BOOK II. 
CHAP. VI. 



Gille u a - 
religions 
Adjunct to 
Scandinavian 
names. 



the back thief of Norway,"' " Gille the Russian 
Merchant," 9 and we might even add to our list" St. 
Gille of Caen in Normandy," whose history appears 
to have perplexed the Bollandists. 

And the Scandinavians not only used the name 
in this manner, but they also used it as a religious 
adjunct, in the same sense in which it is used 
among the Irish, as it appears, that many Scan- 
dinavians who dedicated themselves to Thor, and 
were " godar " in his Temples, took the name of the 
deity they served adding to it some epithet indicative 
of their connexion with him. Among others they 
added the words, Kal or Gil, that is to say " man " 
or " servant of," as Thorkel or Thorgil the man 
or servant of Thor. We therefore venture to 
suggest, that not only is the term Gille, of Scan- 
dinavian origin, but that it was introduced into 
Ireland by the Scandinavian worshippers of Thor. 4 

Northern Archaeologists assert that when Christi- 
anity was established in Scandinavia, the "godi in some 
degree renounced his Hof and built and endowed 
upon his demesne a Christian Church of which his 



1 a Gilli Bakrauf." Heimsk, vol. 
iii., p. 204. 

8 "Gilli enn gerzke," Laxdla 
Saga Hafnise, 1816, p. 28. 

3 Acta Sanct, Antw., 1746, vol. i. 
p. 280," St. ^gidio Abbate u vulgo 
St. Gilles." " In 940 Danish was 
still spoken by the Normans of 
Bayeux." Gibbon, Dec. and Fall, 
Lon. 1807, vol. 2, p. 230. 

4 fin Cleasby and Vigfusson's 
Icelandic English Dictionary, 
Thorgil is stated to be " the same 
as Thorketil (by contraction). " In 



poets of the 10th century the old 
uncontracted form was still used ; 
but the contracted form occurs 
in verses of the beginning of the 
llth century, although the old 
form occurs now and -then. The 
frequent use of these names, com- 
binations of Ketil, is no doubt 
derived from the holy cauldron at 
sacrifices as is indicated by such 
names as Vekell (holy kettle). 
Compare Kettleby in Yorkshire." 
P. 337. 4to, Clarendon l'< 
Oxford, 1874,] 






SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN". 

herred became the parish." 1 Over this (apart from BOOK n 

CllAP. VI. 

the temple) he continued to exercise a civil juris- 
diction, and we suppose that when the worship of 
Thor was abandoned in Ireland, Scandinavian chiefs 
renounced the name of the deity, to whom they and 
their hof had been dedicated, each chief building a 
Christian Church and dedicating it to a Christian 
saint, took the name of the patron saint,* affixing the 
same mark of devotions to his service, which had been 
added to the name of the pagans' object of worship. 

And that the (Jail Gaedhl (Irish who had become 
Pagans) 3 c-nd Irish hereditary chiefs, who occupied, 
to some extent, the position of "godar" within the 
territories of the Ostinen, followed the example of 
their Scandinavian lords, and hence the names of 
Gilla Mocholmog, Gilla Colm, Gilla Chomghaill, &c. 
Nor can we doubt the readiness of Irish chiefs to adopt 
Scandinavian customs and Scandinavian names in the 
10th century, as we find many of them called Magnus, 
llagnal, Imar, &c. 4 The difference in the mannei of 
using the term Gille in Scandinavia and in Ireland, 
arising from the construction of the languages, the 
Irish prefixing the patronymic mark which the Scan- 
dinavians affixed, the " Mac " or " O " always pre- 
ceding the Irish name, while the equivalent " Son " 
of the Northmen always followed, and hence when 
the Irish adopted the adjunct "Gille" it was placed 

1 Ilibbert's Tings of Orkney, one of the strongest proofs of con- 

Archaeologia Scotica, vol, iii., p. version. 

153, 4to, Edinburgh, 1829. 3 Three Fragments, p, 128. 

1 Ann.FourMast ,984, Gilla Pha- Book of Rights, J. O'Donovan, 

draig, son of Imar of Waterford. LL.D., Dublin, 1847, p. xli. 
Taking a name was considered 

K 2 



132 



THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 



BOOK ii. hefore the Saint's name in Ireland, the "Gil" hav- 

CHAP VI 

ing been placed after Thor's name in Scandinavia. 
This is exemplified in the life of Harold who suc- 
ceeded his father, Magnus Barefeet, on the throne of 
Norway, for, when he landed from Ireland, where he 
was born, " he said his name was Gille Christ but 
his mother Thora (who accompanied him) said his 
other name was Harold/' 1 and hence Norwegian 
historians always call him " Harold Gille," the Gille 
which was prefixed to his name in Ireland being 
affixed to it in Norway. 

The suggestion may be strengthened by observing 
that the name " Gilla," as a religious adjunct, is first 
found in or adjoining the territories of the Ostmen, 
and at the period when the Ostmen began to be 
converted. In the Annals of the Four Masters the 
earliest notice of the name Gilla is A.D. 978, record- 
ing the death of " Conemhail, son of Gilla Arri, and 
the orator of Ath Cliath." The first notice of Gilla 
Mocholmog, chief of the O'Byrnes, in the southern 
district of Dublin, being A.D. 1044, and of Gilla 
Chomghaill, chief of the kindred sept of O'Tuathail 
(O'Toole), being A.D. 1041 ; nor can we trace any- 
where, before the year 981, the name of Gill Colen, 
and not until who appears to have been the chief of the Scandina- 
vian district of sea-coast north of Dublin. 2 

And this argument derived from the period and 



Gille first used 
as an Irish 
adjunct in 
Ostman 
districts, 



1 Heimsk, vol. iii., p. 280, ''Gilli, 
Kristr." //'</, " Saga af Magnusi 
Konongi Blinda oc Haralli Gilla." 

2 The earliest notices of the 
name Gilla in the Index Nominuin 
of the Four Masters, are : 

979. Gilla son of Arrin died. 



981. Gilla Caeimhghen, son of 

Dunlag, heir of Leinster. 

982. Gilla Phadraigh, son of Iinar, 

of Port Large (Waterford). 
991. Gilla Chommain, son of the 
Lord of Ui Diarmada. 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 133 

place, when and where, the name first appeared, may BOOK " 
be enforced by the question, If the name Gil la were 
of Irish origin, why did it not appear among the 
Irish in the first instance, and appear at an earlier 
period, the Irish having been converted 500 years 
prior to the conversion of their invaders ? Nor 
should it be unobserved, that although the term 

' o 

Gille is not found among the Irish until the tenth 
century, the nearly synonymous Irish term " Mael " JJ? cl M 
was- in use among both their clergy and laity as affix U8ed in 
early as the sixth century, 1 and continued to be used 
long after the term Gille came into use in Ireland. 2 

The names Maelphadriag and Maelbrighde are of 
frequent occurrence. The name Maelbrighde, in 
particular, appears in A.D. 645, 3 and subsequently in 
almost every page of Irish history, having connected 
with it the remarkable circumstance (seemingly cor- 
roborative of our theory of the Scandinavian origin 
of the term Gille), that although the Gillephadraig, 
Gillechommain, &c., frequently occur, there is no 
early trace of the name Gillebrighde in the terri- 
tories of the Ostmen ; doubtless owing to the well- 

993. Gilla Cele, son of Cearb- Dublin, on having his sight re- 
hall, heir of I^einster. stored. The name is rendered 

995. Gilla Phadraigh, son of Dun- more uncertain by finding Gill- 
chad, Lord of Ossraighe. Caeiinhghin, son of the heir of 
Gill-Colom is the name given to Leinster, blinded in A.D. 98 1 , the 

the chief of Clonlyffe, Katheny, period when Maelseachlain was 

Kilbarroch, &c., in a grant of part king of Meath. 

of his lands made by Strongbow to ' Ann. Four Must., A.D. 538 Tua- 

Vivian de Curcy. Register of All thai Maelgarbh slain by Maelmor. 

Hallows. * Ibid Maelbrighde, bishop of 

In the Pocock MSS., 15rit. Mus., (Jill dara, died, 104-2 ; Maelbrighde, 

No. 4813, he is called Gill Mohol- son of Cathasach, fosoirchinneach 

moc, a blind chief, who, with Mael- of Ard M.icha, <Ucd, A.D. 1070. 

seachlain, king of Meath, is said * Ann. Four Mast., A.D. 645. 

to have built St. Mary's-abbey, Maelbrighde. son of Methlachlen. 



134 



THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 



CH!U> K VI. known fact, that the Anglo-Saxon Church and its 
Scandinavian converts utterly ignored the Irish 
Virgin, 1 and other Irish saints. 
Division of Having- these details relating to the religion and 

Ireland into 

four Provinces. i aws o f Iceland and Norway, it remains to support 
by facts the conjecture that the same laws and 
religion were introduced into Ireland, the settlers 
modifying their civil institutions from the peculiar 
circumstances of the country. For instance, not- 
withstanding the allegation of Irish historians, that 
Turgesius had absolute dominion over all Ireland, it 
is not likely that the Scandinavians could partition 
hostile Ireland in the manner in which they had 
divided Iceland ; and that because Ireland, like 
Iceland, is divided into four districts, that division 
was Scandinavian. 8 

We know that it was not made by the Irish, for 
they divided Ireland into five cuige (or fifths), of 
which Meath was one. 3 We also know that the 
termination of the names of three of the provinces 



Irish division 
was into 
Fifths. 



1 A St. Bridget was subsequently 
canonized for the Scandinavians, 
and the very curious " Revela- 
tiones St. Brigidse, alias Brigettae 
de Suetia," were printed at Nu- 
remberg in 1521, and at Rome in 
1556. 

2 " In Iceland, the whole land 
was politically divided into tiord- 
ungar or quarters, a division made 
A.D. 964, and existing to the pre- 
sent day. Thus Austfirdinga, 
Vestfirdinga, Xordlcndinga, Sunn- 
lendinga fiordungur ; or East, 
West, North, and South quar- 
ters."- Icelandic-English Diction- 
ary, by Cleasby and Vigfusson. 



See also " The Story of Burnt 
Nial ; or, Life in Iceland at the 
End of the Tenth Century." 
From the Icelandic Sagas, by 
George Webb Dasent. Intro- 
duction, p. Ixi. 2 vols., 8vo, 
Edinb., 1861. 

3 Keating, Hist. Irel. (W. Hali- 
day's Edition), Dublin, 1911, p. 
1 23, says that Ireland was divided 
by the Irish into five fifths or 
provinces, Thomond, Desmond, 
Leinster, Ulster, and Conacht; 
but the later division was Mun- 
ster, Leinster, Ulster, Connaught, 
and Meath. 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 135 

is Norse, the Norse word " ster" 1 being added to the 
Irish name, as Mumha-ster or Munster, Ulad-ster or 
Ulster, and Leighin-ster or Leinster ; aud that Con- 
naught had a similar termination, although it was 
not retained by the Anglo-Normans, the Scandina- 
vian name being Kunnakster. 

Nevertheless, it is much more likely that the The four 

,. . . . Provinces from 

division retained by the Anglo-INormans, and now the four Pali* 
used, was an ecclesiastical one, and that it originated Rome A.D. 

1151 

with Pope Eugenius III., when he sent four " Palls " 
into Ireland in A.D. 1151. This Roman investiture 
was then a novelty to Irish archbishops, and had 
been first solicited in A.D. 1124, and subsequently in 
1148, 2 by St. Malachy, whose preceptor Ivar 3 (pro- 
bably connected with the Ostmen and Anglo-Saxon 
monks) had inculcated the opinions on which Gille, 
the Ostmau bishop of Limerick, and first Papal 
legate in Ireland, was acting, and which, according 
to Dr. Lanigan, led Malachy, " instead of Irish 
practices to introduce Roman ones." 4 

When Malachy undertook his mission to Home, 
Ireland was, ecclesiastically, divided into two Arch- 
dioceses Armagh and Cashel, and for these only 
Malachy solicited Palls, 5 but after the death of 

1 Stadr, locus. lt The plural Rome, 13 August, 1134. 
stadir is frequent in local names 4 Ibid, p. 87. 
of the heathen age, as Ilaskields- 4 St. Malachy also applied (to 

stadir, Aloreksstadir, &c. I^and- Pope Innocent II.) for the con- 

namabok, passim. See also map firmation of the new Metropolital 

of Iceland." Cleasby and Vig- sec of Cashel," Lanigan Ecc., His., 

fusson's Icelandic-English Die- vol. iv., p. 112., although Ca>lu-l 

tionary. had been previously recognizi-d 

s Lanigan, Ecc. Hist., vol. iv., by the Irish Church, il/id 37, and 

pp. 1 1 1-1 29. ' many of the Irish were displeased 

3 Ibid, p. 60: Ivar O'Hegan, at Palliums la-ing intended for 

who died on a pilgrimage to Dublin and Tuani." Ibid, p. 140. 



136 THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 

Malachy, Pope Eugenius sent four instead of two, 
yet why he sent more than the two solicited, or 
why he divided Ireland into four archbishoprics 
instead of five (the number of the Irish divisions 1 ) 
cannot be discovered. Nor can it be denied that if 
there had been any fourfold division by the Ostmen 
he might have known it, for when he sent Cardinal 
Paparo with these four Palls to Ireland, Nicholas 
Breakspeare, an English monk, was his Cardinal 
Legate in Norway, and in the same year brought 
the first Pall into that country, Breakspeare, assum- 
ing to know so much of the state of Ireland also, that 
in two years after, when he became Pope Adrian 
IV., he conferred the lordship of the Island on 
Henry II. , in order to, as his bull states, " extir- 
pate the vices which (had) there taken root," 8 and 
to enlarge " the bounds of the church " of Rome, or 
as decreed at the synod held by the Pope's Legate at 
Cashel, that " all divine matters (might) be hence- 
forth conducted agreeably to the practices of the 

1 Thence also arose the long in (the civil divisions of) Ireland 

pre-eminence of the diocese of Meath being the fifth. The Palls, 

Meath. ' The Bishop of Meath," however, and consequent pre- 

says De Burgo, " is always first of eminence were accorded to four 

the suffragans of the province of provinces only, an ordinary pre- 

Anuagh; for although he may be eminence inter pares, in recognition 

junior in consecration among the of her former greatness, being the 

other bishops of Ireland, he has only privilege granted to Meath. 

precedence of them." Ilibernia This, however, has long since been 

Dominicana, p. 86. Also, " Diocese abolished, and Meath now ranks 

of Meath, Ancient and Modern," according to seniority as all the 

by the Rev. A. Cogan, vol. L, p. other bishops." (Communicated 

2. Two vols., 12iuo, Dub., 1862. to Sir Bernard Burke, C.B., Ulster 

The Rev. Dr. Moran, Bishop of King of Arms, A.D. 1874.) 
Ossory, says, " As regards Meath, Pope Adrian's Bull, Littleton's 

when the Archiepi-scopal Palls were Hen. II., v"1. iv., p. 45. 
granted, there were five provinces 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 

holy church as observed by the Church of England," 1 
a decree, among others, so offensive, as disclosing 
the real cause of the invasion, that the synod is not 
even alluded to in the Annals of the Four Masters. 

Rejecting then the idea of any general division of The four 
Ireland by the Scandinavians, can we discern the 
appearance of organization in their settlements on 
the eastern coast. Doubtless, it is there we find the 
only four " Fiords " marked on the map of Ireland 
Wexford and Waterford on the south of Dublin, 
and Carlingford and Straugford on the north, Dublin 
being the chief settlement, as it was when Wexford 
and Waterford, Cork and Limerick were the settle- 
ments occupied. It is also true that the names of 
these four inlets of the sea are wholly Scandinavian, 
and that the Northmen who occupied them some- 
times acted in concert, supplying ships and men as 
" Shiprathes " might have been required to do, and 
uniting these ships into one fleet and invading 
England, Scotland, and Wales under one king or 
military chief.* 

Nevertheless, we think, that it is only in the 
Ostman territory around Dublin we should seek for 
analogy to the government of Norway and Scotland. 

We do not refer to the adjoining district called 

1 Lanigan Ecc. Hist., vol. iv., p. Helga," cap. Ixxxvii., p. 117., we 

207. _ Dowling's Annals, Arch. fi n d the name of another Fiord, at 

Soc., Dub., 1849, p. 12, has it, w hi c h a battle was fought, but 

u That the Church of Irelaud is to there is no record of any settle- * 

observe uniformity with the Church ment, nor was the position of it 

of England according to the rites known until Dr. Keeves(Down and 

and ceremonies, &c., of the Church Connor, p. 265) showed that, 

of Salisbury." Ulfrieksfiord " was a name for 

3 In the " Saga af Olafi Hinon Larue Lough. The Irish name 



138 



THE SCANDINAVIANS, AM) 



BOOK II. 
CHAP. VI. 



Bounds ofthe 
Dyflinarikiri. 



Fingal, or to the district of Ostmantown, which 
like " the cantred of the Ostmen " at Limerick, 1 " the 
cantred of the Ostmen " at Cork,* and " the cantred 
ofthe Ostmen " at Wateribrd, 3 but to the more exten- 
sive territory frequently mentioned in the Sagas 
under the name of "the Dyflinarskiri," 4 from Dyflin 
the Scandinavian name of the city. 

The boundaries of this territory are not defined, 
but occupying the central position between the four 
fiords the Dyflinarskiri extended from Arklow on 
the south to the small river Delvin, above Skerries on 
the north, arid conformable with the Norwegian law 
extended inwards along the Liffey " as far as the 
salmon swims up the stream," that is to the Salmon 
Leap at Leixlip, the name " Laxlb'b," or (Salmon 
Leap) being purely Scandinavian, and most of the 
names of places along the coast as Skerries, Holin- 
patric, Hofud (now Howth). Blowick(now Bullock), 
Bre, Wicklow (the Wikinglo of our old records), 



ofWexford is Loch Garinan, of 
VVaterford Loch Dachaech, of Car- 
lingford Snamh Eidhneach, and of 
Strangford Loch Cuan. The Anglo 
Xormaus, in almost all cases, 
adopted the Scandinavian instead 
of the Irish names of places. 

[But this termination " ford " 
must not be confounded with 
" fiordanger," or fourths. It is 
from flordr. " Fiordr," say Cleasby 
and Vigfusson, " is a frith, or bay, 
while a small crescent formed inlet, 
or creek, is called Vik, and is less 
than fiordr. Hence the saying 
4 let there be a frith (fiordr) between 
kinsmen, but a creek (Vik) between 
friends,' denoting that kinship ia 



not always so trusty as friendship." 
Icelandic- English Dictionary.] 

1 Rot. Chart. Turr. Lond., 2 
John, m. 15. 

1 Littleton's Hen II., Puk, 
1768, vol. iv., p. 408. 

3 Davys (Sir John), Hist. Helat. 
Dub., 1733, p. 60. 

4 Island. I.andnamabok, IIafni(c, 
1774, p. 106, calls it Dytiinars- 
kidi, and it is so called in Kgilx 
Saga, Hafniae, 1809, p. 15, but in 
the "Saga-Magnusar Konongs-ins- 
Bcrefretta, Ileimsk., vol. iii., p. 
226, and most of the other Sagas, 
it is called Dyflinankiri, the 
Danish being "Dublins Herret." 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 

Arklow, &c., &c., and all the names of islands and B()OKI1 - 

. . . CHAP. VI. 

headlands evincing a Scandinavian origin. 1 

But these limits are chiefly assigned to the Dyff- Admiralty of 

J * Publiuand 

Imarskiri from other circumstances connected with D> mmarakiri 

had the same 

them. In the first place, we find that the specified hounds, 
extent of the sea coast became the maritime juris- 
diction of the mayors of Dublin. We are unable to 
trace the origin of this jurisdiction or to ascertain 
why it was defined by these limits, unless by sup- 
posing that it had previously belonged to the Ost- 
men. 

It is not alluded to in the early charters of the 
city, and could not have been exercised before the 
thirteenth century, owing to the power and hostility 
of the Irish; but, in 1332, we find Sir Anthony Lucy, 
and a party of the citizens taking possession of the 
castle of Arklow ; and in 1375, a grant made to the 
city of the customs of all ports between "le 
Skerry and Alercornshed, otherwise Arklow ;" 2 other 
records showing that it was an ancient duty of one 
of the sheriffs, accompanied by two citizen merchants, 
to ride to all the creeks and inlets, and take cogni- 
zance of all oftences along this line of coast. 3 This 
extent of maritime jurisdiction was also recognised 

1 The Irish name of Dalkey is fires, which every district like the 
Delg Inis ; of Ireland's Eye, Inis Dyflinarskiri was required to main- 
Erin ; of Lambay, Inis Rechra, the tain Landvarnar Bolkr., cap. iv., 
Norse " ey " being used instead of Leges Gulathingenses Ilavnias, 
the Irish word "Inis" for island. 1817, p. 5. 

The Irish name of Wicklow is * Lett. Pat 49 Ed. Ill . Chart. 

GUI Martin, and of Arklow, Inbher Dub. MS. 

Mor, the Norse termination (Lue 'Municipal Records, 3 Eliz. 

a flame, a blaze) being from the A.D. 1561. 
use of these headlands for beacon 



140 



Illb; SCANDINAVIANS, AM) 



BOOK II. 
CHAP. VI. 



Bounds of the 
diocese of 
Dublin and 
Glendalougli 
same as the 
Dyfflinarskiri. 



by a charter, granted by Queen Elizabeth, to the 
citizens in 1582, when they petitioned for " authority 
to exercise the rights of Admyral within (their) 
streams, as far as (they) recyve custom." 1 The 
charter constituted the mayor, &c., " Admiral be- 
tween Arklow and Nannie water," the boundary river 
below Skerries ; 2 and Edward II, apparently referred 
to some such district when commanding the mayor, 
&c., in A.D. 1324, "to make ready all ships in the 
port and liberties of Dublin," for the war in which 
he was then engaged with France, and " to arrest all 
the ships and goods of the men of the king of France 
within the bailwick aforesaid." 3 

We find that the boundaries of the united diocese 
of Dublin and Glendalough, are the same as those 
here assigned to the Dyflinarskiri. Originally eccle- 
siastical jurisdiction was concurrent with that of the 
civil ruler. We have seen that the Scandinavian 
chief was both priest and king ; in this case, however, 
we find two oishops in the one territory. This origi- 
nated in the decrees of the Irish Synod of Rath 
Breasail, by which dioceses were defined, in A.D. 
1110. For the Ostrnan bishops, not being conse- 
crated as Irish bishops were, but consecrated accord- 
ing to the Koman ritual by the archbishops of 
Canterbury or York, the Irish clergy refused to 
recognize their authority, and part of this Ostrnan 
territory being inhabited by Irish Christians, the 
synod decreed that the whole should be placed under 

1 Brit. Mus. Cotton MSS., Vesp. nie water was lubber Ainge. 

F. XII., fo. 107. 'Ret. Claus 18. Edw. II., m. 

'Charter 24 Jan., 1582, the 24th 10, in Cane, Hib. 
Eliz. The Irish name of the Nan- 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 141 

the Irish bishop of Glendalough ; the Ostman 
bishopric of Dublin not being even named, and when 
subsequently mentioned, only mentioned as being 
in the diocese of Glendalough. 

The diocese remained until A.D. 1151 in this state, origin of two 
when it was certified to Pope Innocent III., that the district'"/ 
%> .Master John Papiron, the legate of the Roman 
church, coming into Ireland, found a bishop dwelling 
in Dublin, who at that time exercised his episcopal 
office within the walls. He found in the same diocese 
another church in the mountains, which likewise 
had the name of a city, and had a certain Chorepis- 
copus." But the legate delivered the Pall to 
Dublin, " which was the best city," and doubtless, 
also, because its bishop was already in connexion 
with Rome. " And he appointed that that diocese in 
which both cities were, should be divided ; that one 
part thereof should fall to the metropolis." "And 
this he would have immediately carried into execu- 
tion, had he not been obstructed by the insolence 
of the Irish, who were then powerful in that part of 
the country," and who denied the authority of the 
Roman legate. 1 

It is also to be observed that the ecclesiastical juris- 
diction of the united bishoprics still extends from 
beyond Arklow, along the sea shore, to the Delvin 
rivulet, a little south of the Nanny water, and 
inwards along the Liffey, to the " Salmon Leap," 
at Leixlip. The church, " De Saltu Salmonis," 
being its limit in that direction. 

That this ecclesiastical jurisdiction has been made 

1 Harris's Ware, Vol. I., pp. 376, 377. ' Bishops of Glendalough.' 



142 THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 

BOOK ii. concurrent with that of the civil ruler is confirmed by 

CHAP. VI. 

finding that all grants of land made by the Ostmen 
and subsequently by the Anglo-Normans, of land 
"which was of the Ostmen," were within the diocese ; 
nor do we find any possessions of the Ostmen outside 
its boundary. 

The residence which Aulaf had at Clondalkin in 
A.D. 866, and Sitric's town and lands of Baldoyle, 
Portrane, and Ratheny, in 1038, were all within it. 
So was the territory '' from Ath Cliath to Ath 
Truisten, 1 which Donnchad, king of Ireland, and 
Muircheartach spoiled and plundered, A.D. 936, as 
being " all under the dominion of the foreigners of 
Ath Cliath." So, likewise, was Swords, Luske, and 
all the country of Fingal, 2 which we find in the pos- 
session of the Northmen, in A.D. 1035 ; and in 1135, 
devastated by the king of Meath, to revenge his 
brother, " killed by Donnough Mac Gill mo cholmoc, 
and the Danes of Dublin." 3 

1 " i.e. from Dublin to Ath Mael na mbo, and they burned the 
Truisten, a ford of the river country from Ath Cliath to Al- 
Griece, near the hill of Mullagh- bene. Reeves' Life of St. Columba, 
mast, in the south of the county of p. 108, fixes the Delvin Rivulet 
Kildare." Ann. Four Masters, (Irish Albene) as the boundaiy of 
Vol. II., p. 635, n. Fingal. 

2 A.D. 1052, a predatory excur- Ann. Clomac A.U. 1135. 
sion into Finn Gall, by the son of 

END OF BOOK SECOND. 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 143 

BOOK III. 

THE SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 



CHAPTER I. 

OF THE STEIN OF DUBLIN. 

Bounds of the Stein. Priory of All Hallowes, founded on the Stein. 
Xeck of land at the Stein formed by the confluence of the Liffey and 
the Dodder. The favourite landing-place of the Northmen of Dublin. 
Bridge and mill of the Stein. Long Stone of the Stein. Site of the 
Long Stone. The Stein (or Stain) named from this Stone References 
to the Long Stone in city leases. Scandinavian tombs on the Stein. 

IF the preceding statements do not show that the BOOKIIL 
laws 1 and religion of Norway governed the North- Ca r 
men of Ireland, they may be found a desirable 
introduction to the following description of hitherto 
unnoticed monuments, which monuments in them- 
selves are evidence of the social position of the 
Ostmen of Dublin, and of the civil and religious 
institutions which prevailed among them. 

Fortunately, in describing these monuments, we 
have not to encounter difficulties which elsewhere 
impede the identification of Scandinavian remains. 
In Ireland there is no admixture of Roman and 
Saxon earthworks, nor are we embarrassed by the 
greater obstacles which the affinity of Danish and 
Saxon customs and language present to the identifi- 
cation of Danish monuments and names of places in 
England. 

It is now acknowledged that the charter of Edgar charter of 
(A.D. 964), on which alone rests the claim of Anglo- (A.iTwM) 

purioua. 

i Mr. Haliday meditated a chap- but had scarcely commenced it. 
ter on the Laws of the Northmen, 



144 



THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 



BOOK 
CHAP 



The Stein. 



IIL Saxon conquest of the greater part of Ireland, 
" cum sua nobilissima civitate Dublinia," 1 is one 
of those forgeries by which Anglo-Saxon monks not 
unfrequently sought to obtain, or retain, possession 
of lands which they coveted for their monasteries ; 
and as regards language, we have the authority of 
the sagas for stating that, although the Northmen 
could communicate with the Saxons in England, the 
language of the Irish was so wholly dissimilar that 
they could only trade in Ireland through an inter- 
preter. 8 This absence of Saxon monuments, and of 
the Saxon language, are facts of much importance 
to the elucidation of our antiquities, and should 
be held in recollection throughout the following 
statement. 

Our oldest Anglo-Norman records frequently refer 
to an extra mural district, east of Dublin, denomi- 
nated " The Stein," or " Staine," a flat piece of 
ground extending southwards from the strand of 



1 Tyrrell's Hist, of England, vol. 
i., p. 12, Folio, Lond. 1698. Chartce 
Anglo-Saxonicoe, Codex Diploma- 
ticus JEvi Saxonici, J. M. Kemble, 
4 Vols., London, 1839-1848. (It 
is marked by Kemble as spurious)- 

2 When Olaf, who was born in 
Iceland, was embarking for Ireland 
to visit his grandfather, Miarkiar- 
tan, King of Ireland, his mother, 
Melkorka, thus addressed him : 
"I have brought you up," she said, 
" with the greatest care at home, 
and have taught you Irish to be of 
use to you wherever you land." 
Laxdoela Saga, 73, 74, et sequ, 4to, 



Hafnice, 1826. On reaching the 
coast two men approaching the ship 
in a boat called out, " Who is in 
command of this ship ? " Olaf 
answered iu Irish, " Norwegians." 
The Irish thereupon claimed the 
ship. But Olaf said, " That ini^lit 
be if there was no interpreter with 
the merchants. 1 ' Ibid. See also 
" Commentary of Paul Vidalin, 
Jurist of Iceland, concerning the 
Danish Language translated out of 
Icelandic into Latin. Appendix to 
Gunlaugi Saga, pp. 259, 260, 4to, 
- Hafni, 1775. 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 



145 



the Liffey to " the lands of Rath," and eastward BOOK In 

CHAP. I. 

from near the city walls, to the river Dodder. 1 

It was on this plain the priory of All Hallowes AU Haiiowe* 

, , ... . .. stood on the 

and other religious establishments were founded stejme. 
before the arrival of Strongbow, 1 whose followers 
took possession of all that the Church could not 
claim. About the year 1200, Theobald Walter, 
pincerna (or butler) to Henry II., and ancestor of 
the Butlers of Ormond, exercised ownership by 
granting to Radulf and Richard Glut " all his land 
of Stayn, except what the canons of All Saints 
ought to have." 3 

From these tenants a portion of it soon reverted Grants of parti 
to the Butler family, as, about the year 1 223, the 



1 This word seems formerly to 
have been pronounced stain, stane, 
the Scotch for stone. Thus in 
17th & 18th Chas. II., chap. 7 
(Irish Statutes), 1665, "Whereas 
the parishioners of St. Andrew's and 
of Lazers alias Lazie Hill have 
no place of worship, St. Andrew's 
Church being long ruinous, be it 
enacted that the ambit and tract 
of ground commonly called The 
Stane alias Lazars alias Lazie 
Hill be made part of the parish of 
St. Andrew. 

*In 1607 Sir John Carroll pe- 
titioned the city for a grant of so 
much land as is overflown by the 
sea between the point of land that 
joineth the Staine near the College 
and the Ringsend, and reacheth 
southward to the land of Bagot 
Hath. Granted. But petitioner 
not to erect any building for habi- 
tation on the premises, and that 
the land shall not extend but to the 



Dodder water on the east. Acts 
of Assembly, Easter 1607, Memo. 
13, Corporation Records. 

* The Charter of Henry II. con- 
firms to the Church of All Hallows 
at the east of Dublin, and to the 
canons serving God there, all their 
lands with their tithes and ancient 
boundaries and their other free 
customs, as fully and freely as 
Derraot, King of Leinster, gave the 
said hinds to the said Church before 
his, King Henry's, arrival in Ire- 
land. Continuation and Inspexi- 
mus of King Edward I., A.D., 1290, 
in which this charter is set forth. 
Registrum Prioratus Omnium Sanc- 
torum juxta Dublin. By Rev. 
Richard Butler, M.R.I. A., p. 12, 
4 to, Dublin, 1845, Irish Archae- 
ological Society. See this charter 
in Historic and Municipal Docu- 
ments of Ireland, A.D., 1 172-1320, 
edited byJ. T. Gilbert, F.B.A., p. 
206, n. i., 8vo, Dublin, 1870. 
L 



146 



THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 



BOOK in. gecon( i Theobald Walter granted to the priory of 
All Saints the whole of the tithes, together with 
that part of his land of Stein which was near the 
said Church ; ! a patent of Henry IV., also, reciting 
that James Bottiler, Earl of Ormond, then granted 
the pasture called the Stein, near Dublin, to Robert 
Lughteburgh for life, the said pasture being held of 
the king in capite. 2 At a later period, a portion of 
the Stein must have belonged to St. Mary's Abbey, 
James I. having granted it, among other possessions 
of the suppressed monastery, to William Taaffe ; 3 
but forty acres of the Stein, which lay on the south 
side of the road, now called Townsend-street, re- 
mained in the king's hands in 1626, and in 1659 



1 By this charter Theobald 
Walter gives to the Church of All 
Uallowes " a certain part of my 
land of Stein lying to the east of 
the said church, containing two 
acres and a half, together with the 
tithes and issues of the whole of 
the Stein." Inspeximus of King 
Edward III., A.D. 1349. Re- 
gistry of All Hallows, by Rev. 
Richard Butler, p. 16. These 
two acres and a half got the 
name of the " Little Steyn " ; 
the rest was called the " Great 
Steyn." A lease to Giles Allen, 
made Easter Assembly, A.D. 
1572, refers to " the Little Steyn 
part of the possessions of All 
Hallowes." Corporation Records. 
A decree of John Allen, Judge of 
the Metropolitan Court of Dublin, 
concerning tithes of the Steyn, 
speaks of " the Great Steyn." 
Registry of All Hallowes, by Rev. 
Richard Butler, p. 82. 
Patent Rolls of Chancery, 26th 



of July, 4th Henry the IV. 
Record Commission Publication, 
folio, Dublin, 1826, p. 171. 

3 Grant to W. Taaffe of a field 
called the Staine, part of the 
possessions of the House of the 
B.V.M., near Dublin, demised 1st 
March, 17th Elizabeth (A.D. 
1575), to Thomas, Earl of Ormond 
and Ossory, for sixty years, tit 
20s. (within the franchises of the 
city of Dublin), 20th January, 
1 Jas. I., Art. ix., Callendar of 
Patent Rolls, Jas. I. Record 
Commission Publication, folio, 
p. 2. 

These forty acres " of land, 
called Stayne," had been held by 
Abbey of St. Mary's from the 
City of Dublin, at the annual rent 
of 44 shillings, and were taken by 
the Crown at the dissolving of 
religious houses. Inquis. 32nd 
Hen. VIII. See MS. additions, 
&c., Archdale's Monasticon in 
Royal Irish Academy. 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 147 

* 

were held by Dowcra. Brooke, and others as heirs to BOOK nl 

CHAP. I. 

Lord Dowcra. 

We further find that the Decrees of Innocence in The taking in 

of the strand 

1663 adjudged to Lord Dungan, of Clane, nineteen adjoining the 
acres of ground " commonly called Staine, being 
upon the strand side of the College ;" for previously 
to 1607 the whole of the north side of the Townsend- 
street, now covered with streets and quays, was the 
tidal strand of the Liffey, and, as such, was granted 
in that year to Sir William Carroll, under the 
description of " the strand overflown by the sea 
between the point of land joining the Staine, near 
the College, and Bingsend ;" 2 and by him this 
strand w r as partly reclaimed. 

Another portion was taken in in 1663, when Mr. Hawkins' great 

wall. 

Hawkins built a great wall, carrying the shore 
further towards the centre of the river. 3 

The embankments raised by Sir William Carroll, 
Mr. Hawkins, and Sir John Rogerson, together 
' with subsequent encroachments on the strand of 
the river, have so greatly altered the outline of the , 

1 Inquis. Lageniae, '20 Car. I. Brief occurrences touching Ire- 
Corn. Civit., Dublin. Record land, began 25th March, 1661 
Commission Publication, folio, Carte Papers, Bodleian Library, 
Dublin, 1826, and Registry of All vol. 64, p. 446.] The city, on 
Hallows, p. 107. Acts of Assembly, 16th April, 1708, demise to 
Midsummer, 1659. Corporation Thomas Singleton, all that ferry 
Records. over the river Anna Lifiey, at 

2 Acts of Assembly, Easter, A.D. Hawkins's wall, near Aston's quay; 
1607, memb. 13, Corporation from the said Hawkins's wall to 
Records. the new slip near the watch tower 

3 [" July, 1663. This year and on the north side of the said river, 
the precedent year the great wall and from thence [back again] to 
was built to gain in the ground from the said Hawkins's wail. Register 
the River Liffey, near the Long of City Leases "Ancient Revenue." 
Stone, on the east side of the City Records.] 

city of Dublin, by Mr. Hawkins." 

L 2 



148 THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 

BOOK in. Stein on the north side, that, without reference to 

CHAP. I. 

maps, it is impossible to convey an accurate idea of 
its state previously to the seventeenth century ; but 
the point of land here referred to may be described 
as an elevated ridge near the confluence of the 
Liffey and Dodder, forming what the Scandinavians 
termed a " Noes," or " neck of land between two 
streams," and was the place where the Dublin 
Northmen generally landed. 

On this elevated ridge, about the vear 1220, an 

=> ' " 



theSteyne. . . . 

hospital is said to have been founded for pilgrims 
intending to embark for the shrine of St. James of 
Compostella, the patron saint of lepers, and from 
which the termination of Townsend-street received 
the name of Lazar's-hill. Pope Innocent III., when 
confirming the union of Glendalough with the See 
of Dublin, enjoined an appropriation of revenues to 
the support of an hospital, and Archbishop De 
Loundres, therefore, with the assent of the chapters 
of the Holy Trinity and St. Patrick's, assigned 
the lands of Killmohghenoc and other lands, with 
the church of Delgany, &c., to maintain this 
hospital " on the sea shore outside Dublin, called 
Steyn, where pilgrims to St. James' shrine awaited 
an opportunity to embark," 1 Theobald Fitz waiter 
granting two acres of " his land of Stein " as a 
further endowment. But if this hospital were ever 
built no remains of it can now be discovered, the 
Lepers' hospital of Dublin, which was dedicated to 

1 There were to be ten chaplains breast. " Chartiu, Privilcgia et 

to perform Divine service and hum imitates," p. 18. Record Coin- 

superintend the household ; they mission Publication, folio, [about 

and the brethern to wear' black 1826]. 
cloaks with a white cross on the 



" L 



SCANDINAVIAN* ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 149 

St. Stephen, having been built on another part of 
the Stein, between Stephen' s-street and Stephen's- 
green. 

The point of the Stein, however, long continued g t ^ e ^ rt o 
to be used for landing and embarking passengers, 
and for purposes of trade, the Memoranda Rolls of 
Henry IV. mentioning, " the Stayne and Dodyr," 
with " the key of Dublin," as places from whence 
merchandise was exported. 

But the Northmen had a peculiar object in select- 
ing their landing place. Their ships were long and 
shallow, lightly built, and for the greater part with- 
out decks. These they ran ashore, when about to 
land, and in winter drew them up the beach, there 
to remain until summer enabled them " to keep the 
sea," The bank of a river, a flat sandy strand, such 
as the north side of Stein presented, was, conse- 
quently, best adapted for their purposes, and at all 
times was preferred to a deep-water anchorage. 1 

On the west side of this landing place was a creek, The river and 
the mouth of a little river which there entered the steyne. 
Liffey. This was the river of the' Stein, and on it 
was built the mill of the Priory of All Hallows. The 
mill was of early date as we have on record a grant 
made to the Prior in 1298 of " four large oaks from 

1 It is to this landing place that They there left their ships to 

the old Norrnan French poem ''The combat Milo de Cogan who had 

Conquest of Ireland" refers, when treacherously taken the City dur- 

reluting that Hasculf Mac Torkil ing a truce. Anglo-Norman poem 

having returned to Dublin with on the Conquest of Ireland by 

his " Berseiker," or furious chain- Henry II. Edited by Francisque 

pion (called in the Ulster Annals Michel, p. 108, I2mo, London, 

44 John of the Orkney's) : 1837. 

14 A Stein erent arive 

Hescul et Johau le Deve." 



150 HIE SCANDINAVIANS, AM) 

f> the king's forest of Glencree to repair his mill and 
bridge of Stein," 1 and a grant which I have found, 
and to which I must refer for another purpose, also 
very clearly fixes the position of the mill. 
The Mm of the This grant made in 1461 when the mill was re- 
built recites that, " Whereas the Prior and Convent 
of All Saints besydes Dy velin of old times had a 
mill near the gate between the Green bank and the 
Long Stone on the Stayne, it is granted that they 
have it lyke as they had it of old time, provided 
that the said mill be made within a year next 
following the Act made, and that all men go over 
into the Stayne dry on the said war (weir) of the 
mill without any let or other impediment." 2 The 
mill stream which is marked on Speed's map as of 
considerable extent in 1610, but is now greatly 
diminished, runs in a covered sewer in front of 
Trinity College, and until flood-gates were affixed 
at its entrance into the Liffey the tide flowed as far 
as Graffcon-street, where, not many years since, a 
female servant was drowned in the basement story 
of a house, the water having burst up during a flood 
in the river, and more recently, in preparing to 
build at this part of College-green, a high tide 
flooded the foundations which were with difficulty 
cleared. But the original importance of the rivulet 
is shown in the statement of Lodge that, in A.D. 
1394, William Fitzwilliams, the sheriff of the county, 
had custody of the Staine near Dublin, in order to 

1 Placita Purliamentaria, 27th tion, and Early Parliaments of 

oi Edward I. Records of Birming- Ireland, p. 272, 8vo, Dublin, 1834. 

ham Tower. Sir Willian Betham's 2 Acts of Assembly. City Re - 

Origin and Hist, of the Constitu- cords. 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 151 

preserve the watercourse free and clean, "for the 
benefit of the City." 1 These minute references to 
the Stein and its possessors, become necessary to 
show, that anciently it was a well-known place of 
considerable extent although not even the name is 
now to be found on any of our maps, or any refer- 
ence to it in any modern history of the city. 

But the document referring to the mill of the 

. . Stone of the 

Stein points to another fact more intimately connected steyne. 
with our subject. It was from the " Long Stone," 
mentioned in this record, that the Stein derived its 
Scandinavian name. This remarkable pillar stone 
stood not far from the landing place near where 
Hawkins-street and Townsend-street now join. From 
the rough outline drawing which I possess it does 
not appear that the stone was in any manner inscribed, 
but it appears to have stood about twelve or fourteen 
feet above ground, 2 and it remained standing until the 
surrounding district was laid out for streets and 
houses when it was overturned to make room for 
them. That it continued to be an object of some 
interest, long after the Northmen were expelled from 
Dublin, we find from municipal records and from 
reference to it when the citizens began to build on 
the adjoining strand. We have a lease made by the 
City in 1607 to James Wheeler, Dean of Christ 
Church, of " void ground at the Long Stone of the 

1 Peerage of Ireland by John tion of Petty's Down Survey of the 
Lodge, vol. iv., p. 307, 8vo, Dub- Halt' Barony of Rathdown (made 
lin, 1789. about A.U. 1655), may be observed 

2 This sketch has not been found what is plainly meant to represent 
among Mr. Haliday's papers, but the Long Stone at the point above 
on the annexed fac-simile of a por- assigned for it. 



152 THE SCANDINAVIANS. AND 

' Stein," 1 another in 1641 to William Kirtly, of " a 
small plot near the Long Stone of the Stein," 2 again 
in 1679 to William Christian of ground at Lazers 
Hill, " near the Long Stone of the Stein,"* and from 
the Earl of Anglesey of "a parcel of the strand 
at the Long Stone of the Stein over against the 
College." 3 
Scandinavian The name of "the Stein" connected with the 

origin of the 

Long stone, pillar stone may not be considered sufficient evidence 
of Scandinavian origin, that name not being found 
in Irish manuscripts, or in any record earlier than 
the Anglo-Norman invasion. But it should be re- 
collected that there are no Hiberno-Danish writings 
extant, and that the Irish who called it " the Green 
of Ath Cliath," and allude to it as a place of council, 4 
never used the Scandinavian name for it, or for any 
part of Ireland, while on the contrary the Anglo- 
Norman monks, the charter writers of their country- 
men, rarely, if ever, used an Irish name when any 
other existed, and invariably called the city, and 
even the provinces by their Scandinavian names. 
As we proceed, however, to the other monuments 

1 Acts of Assembly. Corporation blockade round Ath Cliath." TWrf, 

Records. chap. Ixxxvi., p. 151. [Mr.Haliday 

1 Ibid. cites " Book of Danish Wars, MS. 

3 Acts of Assembly. Easter, T.C.D.," and obtained this infor- 

1602. Ibid. mation no doubt from his friend 

4 " Brian was then on the plain the Rev. Dr. Todd, then editing 

of Ath Cliath in council with the this MS., published only in 1867 

nobles of the Dal Cais (Wars of after Mr. II. 's death. It is only 

the Gaedhil with the Gaill, chap. right to say that the latter passage 

lxxxviii.,p. 155), and again "After in full is "and he (Brian) came to 

this the men of Mumhan and of Cill-Maighnenn (Kilmainham) to 

Connacht came to the Green of the Green of Ath Cliath." Mr. II. 

Ath Cliath and made a siege and had never seen this.] 



" L 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 1 53 

on the Stein, it will be perceived that such evidence 
of Scandinavian origin is not indispensable. 

Of these monuments the tumuli. are the first to 
claim attention. 

In 1646 an attempt was made to fortify Dublin Scandinavian 

tumuli on the 

by earthworks, at which Carte says the Marchioness 
of Ormonde and other noble ladies "condescended 
to carry baskets of earth." To procure this earth they 
levelled one of the tumuli on the Stein, of which 
there is an engraving in Molyneux's Discourse on 
Danish Mounds in Ireland, 1 and another with the 
following description which we copy from Ware's 
Antiquities. 

"In November, 1646, as people were employed 
in removing a little hill in the East Suburbs of 
Dublin, in order to form a line of fortification, there 
was discovered an ancient sepulchre, placed S.W. 
and N.E., composed of eight black marble stones, 
of which two made the covering, and was supported 
by the others. The length of this monument was 
six feet two inches, the breadth three feet one inch, 
and the thickness of the stone three inches. At 
each corner of it was erected a stone, four feet high, 
and near it, at the S.W. end, another ^stone was 
placed in the form of a pyramid, six feet high, of a 
rustic work, and of that kind of stone which is 
called a millstone. The engraving given is a 
draught of the monument taken before it uas 
demolished. Vast quantities of burnt coals, ashes, 
and human bones, some of which were in part 
burned, and some only scorched were found in it, 

i Discourse concerning Danish Mounds, &c., in Ireland : 4to, Dublin. 1 725. 



154 THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 

"Slip." 1 ' wn i cn was looked upon to be a work of the 
Ostmen, and erected by that people, while they 
were heathens, in memory of some petty prince or 
nobleman." 1 

The Long This so closely resembles descriptions given of 

marks the ' the burial places of Scandinavian kings* as to leave 
ofKmgivar, little doubt that it was the tumulus of some dis- 
tinguished Northman, and we might almost venture 
to identify him if we could rely on the statements 
of northern historians, that Ivar, the son of Regnar 
Lodbrok, who reigned and died in Dublin A.D. 872, 
had ordered his body to be buried at the landing 
place, and that his orders were executed, and a 
mound so reared on the spot. 3 But without enter- 
ing into the question of identity it may be observed 
that the custom of burying near the landing place 
prevailed among the Northmen, the greater number 
of their tumuli being found on the sea shore or in 
places commanding a view of the ocean, and that 
several Danish or Norwegian kings were slain in 
the neighbourhood of Dublin to whom sepulchral 
mounds had doubtless been raised. Of these tumuli 
we have not any description, but we find traces of 
them in late discoveries. 

1 Works of Sir James Ware, by time. Ynlinga Saga, cap. viii. 

Walter Harris, vol. ii., p. 145, 'There is some difference be- 

folio, Dublin, 1 745. tweeu the Nordymra sive Historia 

4 Odin established a law that rerum in Northumbrian a Danis 

for men of consequence a mound Norvegisque soeculis ix., x., 

should be erected to their pp. 8, and 29 Grimr. John><>n 

memory ; and for all warriors Thorkelin, 4to, London, 1788, and 

who had been distinguished for the Fragmenta Islandica De 

manhood, a standing stone, which Regibus Danicis, Norwegicis, &c. 

custom remained long after Odin's Langebek, vol. ii., p. 281 . 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 155 

In Suffolk-street, formerly part ot the Stein, a 
skeleton was recently exhumed, the skull of which 
being stained by contact with metal supposed to be 
a helmet, gave rise to the opinion that the owner 
had been buried in his armour. In the same locality Scandinavian 
an urn was subsequently found, and previously they f* Suffolk?" 11 
had dug up one of the most valuable Danish swords of 

discovered in Ireland, the gold ornaments of the 
handle having been sold for 70 ; and, according to 
the Saga, a gold hilted sword 1 was a distinguishing 
mark of a Scandinavian chieftain, and a chieftain's 
arms and armour being frequently buried with 
him. 2 In excavating the foundations of the Royal 
Arcade, in College-green, where the National Bank 
of Ireland now stands, several weapons and other 
relics of the Northmen were thrown up. Two of 
the swords, which are of iron, and of a form mark- 
ing them to be Scandinavian, are now in the 
museum of the Royal Irish Academy, and two 
spear heads, the rembo of a shield, and some silver 
fibulae, said to have been found in the same place, 
were sold in 1841 with the late Major Sirr's 
collection of antiquities. 

1 " Kvernlstr," the sword of how, a mound, a cairn over one 

Hakon, king of Norway, had both dead. It is there said " The 

hilt and handle of gold. Heims- cairns belong to the burning age 

kringla of Snorro-Sturleson, vol. as well as to the later age, when 

i., p. 121, 3 vols., folio, Havnise, the dead were placed in a ship 

1777-1826. " Hneitn," the sword and put in the how with a horse, 

of King Olaf the Saint, had the hound, treasure, weapons, and the 

handle wrought with gold. Ibid, like," and in proof various refer- 

vol. ii., p. 352. Olaf's sword was ences to works are there given, 

gold hilti-d. Laxdoela Saga, p. 79. Icelandic and English Dictionary, 

* In the Icelandic Dictionary, by Cleasby Vigfusaon, 4to, Ox- 

lately published, Haugr (pro- ford, Clarendon Press, 1874. 
nouuced Hogue), is translated a 



156 



THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 



BOOK III. 
CHAPTER II. 

OF THE THINGMOUNT OF DUBLIN. 

The monuments of the Stein shown to be Scandinavian Custom of the 
Northmen to set up a Stone at their first landing place And to erect 
temples to Thor and Freija adjacent Also a Thingmount or place of 
public meeting and judicature. The Thingmount of Dublin erected 
on the Stein Remained till A.D., 1682. Account of its removal. 
Church of St. Andrew Thengmotha. -Built probably on the site of a 
Temple of Thor or Freija Meeting of King Henry the 2nd with 
Irish princes on the Stein near the Church of St. Andrew. Under- 
stood probably by the Irish as either a Thing-mote or a Festival meet- 
ing Xot as a submission or surrender of independence. Hoges 
IIoge-Tings __ " Hoggen Green," '' Hogen butts," and " St. Mary 
del Hogges," all called from this adjacent Hoge or Tinguaount. 



BOOK III. 
CHAP. II. 

Thingwall 
mount and 
Pillar Stones in 
Isle of Man. 



j s } e Man re t a i ns man y relics of the North- 



men. We find the Thingwall mount with its "doom- 
sters," or " lagmen." On the sea-shore at Dalby- 
point is a large tumulus said to be that of a king of 
the Island, and on other parts of the sea-shore other 
tumuli. Near Kirk Stanton is a pillar stone above 
ten feet high. Two more near Mount Murray, and 
two more at the landing place on the sea-shore near 
Port Erin. Others stand in various parts of the 
island, some having Runic inscriptions, undoubted 
memorials of the Northmen. But the Orkneys 
being longer subject to Norway and comparatively 
uncultivated and thinly peopled, their Scandinavian 
monuments remain much more distinct, and com- 
paring their monument with those of the Stein, and 
referring to the topography and name of the place 
where they are found, we have all the evidence we 
could require to prove that both were works of the 
same people, and that people, Scandinavian. 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 157 

The publications of Wallace, Brand, 1 Barry,' and BOOK IIT - 
Hibbert inform us that in Romona, the chief island _ 

Pillar Stones in 

of the Orkneys, 8 there is a parish called Steinnis 4 the Orkneys, 
bordering a lake of the same name into which the 
sea flows from Steinness. On a point of land jutting 
into this lake is a pillar Stone standing nearly six- 
teen feet above ground, 5 from which stone the dis- 
trict attained the name of Steinness, compounded of 
the Icelandic or old Norse words Steinn a stone, and 
" ness " a tongue (or nose 6 ) of land. 

This pillar, probably a stone of memorial, or mark Pillar stones 

and temples to 

of possession taken by the first settlers, was, accord- Thor and 
inof to Hibbert, a stone raised to Thor the Scandina- Scandinavian 

^j 1 *i* i 

vian Deity, the custom of these Northmen being to 
set up a Stone, and to erect temples to Thor and 
Freyja at their landing place. 7 Olaus Magnus, how- 
ever, mentions another purpose, thus, he says, there 
are high stones without writing, set up by the in- 
dustry of the ancients to inform mariners that they 
may avoid shipwreck, 8 and we find that the custom 
of placing pillar stones at the landing place, for 
whatever object or design was not peculiar to the 

1 A new description of Orkney, 4 Memoir on the Tings of Ork- 

Zetland, Pightland firth, and Caith- ney and Shetland, by S. Hibbert, 

ness, by John Brand, Edinburgh, M.D., Archaeologia Scotica, vol. 

1700, 8vo. iii., p. 118, Edinburgh, 1828. 

1 History of the Orkney Islands, * Icelandic and English Die- 
by the Rev. George Barry, D.D., tionary, 'by II. Cleasby and Gud- 
Ministerof Shapinshay, 4to, kdin- brand Vigfusson, M.A., 4to, Ox- 
burgh, 1805. ford, Clarendon Press, 1874. 

3 Heimskringla edr Noregs Kon- 7 Description of the Shetland 
inga Saga, vol. ii., p. 147, Hafniae, Isles, by Samuel Hibbert, M.D., 
1777. In Nial's Saga it is called p. 109, 4to, Edinburgh, 1822. 
Rossy. pp. 267-587. Compendious History of th.- 

4 In the Sagas called " Steins- Goths, Swedes, and Vandals, t ran- - 
nessi." lated, Book I. chap, xviii., p. 12. 



158 



THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 



BOOK 

CHAP. 



Orkneys. 



in. Scandinavians, as there was a monument of the 

II. 

kind, the " Lapis tituli," or Folkstone, at the land- 
ing place of the Saxons in Kent ; ! and some fancy 
that the antiquity of the custom may be carried back 
to the days of Joshua, who caused stones to be set up 
to mark the landing place of the Israelites, when they 
went dry over Jordan, and first set foot on the land 
they were to conquer and dwell in. 3 Near the pillar 
stone at Steinness were tumuli, in one of which were 
found nine silver fibulae. 3 Not far from these 
tumuli was another artificial mount of two feet in 
diameter, and thirty-six feet high, of a conical out- 
line, occupying the centre of a raised circular plat- 
form, which formed a terrace around it. This was 
the Thingmount for which the Scandinavians gener- 
ally selected a plain near their landing place, the 
terrace or steps being used as they yet are in the 
Tingwall mount of the Isle of Man. 4 Within view 
of the Thingmount was a circle of upright stones 
alleged fo have been a temple dedicated to Thor, 
and a semicircle of similar stones, a temple dedicated 
to the Goddess Freyja, or the moon. 5 It is unne- 
cessary at the present moment. to discuss the various 
opinions respecting these circular temples, or to 
enter into the labyrinth of Celtic and Northman 
mythology to ascertain the form of worship to which 



1 Antiquitates Kutupinte, Ox- 
onias, 1745, p. 17. 

2 Borlase's Antiquities of Corn- 
wall, p. 164. 

Joshua, chap, iv., verses 6, 7, 
Holy Bible. 

1 Description of the Isles of 



Orkney, by the Rev. James Wal- 
lace, D.D., p. 53, 8vo, Edinburgh, 
1693. 

4 Hibbert's Memoir on the Tings 
of Orkney and Shetland, Arclueo- 
logia Scotica, vol. iit., p. 197. 

* Ibid, p. 106. 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 159 

they belonged. It has been observed already that BOOK m 

J " CUAP. II. 

near to the Lawhill in Iceland there yet remains a 
circular range of stones which is unmistakably des- 
cribed in the Eyrbyggia Saga as the Temple of Thor, 
this circle having within it one larger stone than the 
rest which was the Thor Stein, and our chief object 
here is to show that some place for religious cere- 
monies was an inseparable adjunct to the place of 
legislative and judicial assembly, and either that the 
Thing itself, with its circular enclosure was used as 
a temple, or that a temple was erected near it. 1 

If this description of the monuments at Steinness Black stone of 
were not sufficient for our purpose we might refer Orkneys. 
to the standing stone and tumuli of the Island of 
Shapinshay, another of the Orkneys, to its wait or 
watch hill and adjoining church, and to the " Black- 
stoneof Odin," atthe landing placeon its sandy beach, 1 
but the similarity is so apparent, and the evidence 
so strong in favour of the Scandinavian origin of 
our mount, that we may proceed to describe the 
Thinormount on the Stein of Dublin, which like the 

o 

mount at Steinness we find in proximity to the 
pillar stone and tumuli. 

It is scarcely necessary to state that every act of Scandinavian 
the Northmen from the election of a king and the pro- Tt 
mulgation of a law to the trial of a criminal, or the 
decision of a title to land, was governed by the 
judgment of the people assembled at a Thing. 
Hence we read in the Sagas of Court Things, House 

1 Hibbert's Memoir on the Tings vol. xvii., pp. 234, 235. Descrip- 
of Orkney and Shetland, Archaeo- tion of the Orkney Isles, by tin- 
logical Scotica, voL iii. p. 143. Rev. George Bam-, D.D., p. 51, 

* Statistical account of Scotland, 4to, Edinburgh, 1805. 



160 



THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 



Stone Circles 
round Thing- 
mounts. 



BOOK in. Things (the origin of our Hustings), and of District 
Things, and of the Fimtardom being the fifth su- 
preme court or Althing. At Things, assembled on 
an emergency, the chieftain then present presided, 
but at the permanent court a "godi," or hereditary 
magistrate sat. 1 The form of the court also varied 
with circumstances. 

On sudden emergencies an open space was fenced 
by stakes round which the verbond, a sacred chord, 
was tied. Sometimes the fence was a circle of stones, 
the centre being reserved for those who were to be 
the " Lagmenn," and who alone were permitted to 
enter. But all permanent settlements appear to 
have had fixed places of judicature raised on plains 
like the Stein accessible by water, a facility for 
attending meetings of primary importance with a 
maritine people in countries where roads were yet 
unformed or but few. On such plains a mound ot 
earth was sometimes raised whereon the godi sat 
with his " lagmen," the armed " bonders," and free- 
men standing around. Not far from this mound 



1 " Godi, a priest, and hence a 
liege lord or chief of the Icelandic 
Commonwealth. The Norse chiefs 
who settled in Iceland finding the 
country uninhabited solemnly took 
possession of the land (Land-nam), 
and iu order to found n community 
they built a temple and called them- 
selves by the name of Godi or Hof- 
godi, ' temple-priest '; and thus 
the temple became the nucleus of 
the new community, which was called 
1 Godard.' Hence Hof-godi, temple 
priest, and Hof-dingi, chief, became 
synonymous. 



" Many independent Godi and 
Godard sprung up all through the 
country, till about A.D. 930, the 
Althingi was erected, where all 1 1n- 
petty sovereign chiefs (Godar) 
entered into a league, and laid the 
foundation of a general government 
for the whole island. . . . On 
tin- introduction of Christianity the 
Godar lost their priestly character, 
but kept the name. Icelandic-Eng- 
lish Dictionary, by Cleasby and 
Vi^fusson ; word Gndi ; 4to, C'hir- 
endon Press, Oxford, 1874. 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 161 

was another hill used as a place of execution, for BOOK m 

CHAP. IL 

when these Things were used for criminal trials, and 
that "capital punishments were doomed it was 
ordered that the criminals should be conveyed for 
this purpose to a stony hill, where there should be 
neither arable land nor green fields. In Unst, one 
of the Shetland Islands, such a place is still seen near 
the site of " three Things." It is a barren serpentine 
rock where scarcely a blade of grass will grow, and is 
named the Hanger Hoeg. 1 To the south of the island 
is a similar place of execution, with the more modern 
name of the Gallows Hill. In another of the Shet- 
land Isles, on a tongue of land at Loch Ting wall, is 
the "Law ting" from which it is stated that ac- 
cording to the "custom of the Northmen it was 
allowed to the condemned criminal to endeavour 
to make his escape to the kirk of Tingwall ; in 
attempting this his way led through the crowd of 
spectators, and if he effected his escape, either by 
their favouring him or by superior swiftness or 
strength, and reached the kirk he was freed from 
punishment, this was a kind of appeal to the people 
from the sentence of the judge." 8 

Of these Thingmounts or places of judicature on Thing voiir in 
the sands of rivers or lakes, or near the sea-shore, 
we have many examples in Scandinavian settlements 
connected with Dublin, besides that already de- 
scribed at Steinness, such as the Logbergit or Law 
mount of Thing vollr in Iceland. 3 The Law mount 

1 Hibbert's Memoir on the Tings > Iceland, or a Journal of a Ke?i- 
of Orkney and Shetland. Archae- dence in that Island during 1814- 
logia Scotica, Vol. iii., p. 195. J815. Vol. i., p. 86 ; 8vo, 3 vols. 

1 Statistical account of Scotland, Edinburgh, 1818. 
Vol. xxi., pp. 274 and '284. 

M 



162 



THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 



BOOK 
CHAP, 



St .Andrew's 
Thengmotha. 



11 L at Tingwall in the Isle of Man ; the terraced mount 
of Isla j 1 the Mount of Urr ; 2 and such I hope to 
show was the Thingmote of Dublin. But here again 
we must enter into minute details in collecting facts 
from original documents, for strange as it may 
appear there is no known publication which men- 
tions this ancient relic of Scandinavian law. 

In the register of the Priory of All Hallows we 
have some indication of the site of the Thingmote 
of Tublin. It records a grant made to the priory 
about the year 1241, the land granted being de- 
scribed as situate in " Thingmotha, in the parish of 
St. Andrew Thingmote," 3 and an enrolled deed of 
1575 gives a further clue by describing the property 
conveyed, as bounded by the road leading to Hoggen 
Green, called Teigmote, 4 thus showing that the 
Thingmotha of the preceding document was that 
part of the Stein called Hoggen Green. If then we 
assume that Thingmotha had its name from the 
Thingmote these records show that the Thingplace 
of Dublin was on Hoggen Green in the parish of St. 
Andrew. But other documents leave no doubt that 
the precise position was at the angle formed by 
Church-lane and Suffolk- street nearly opposite the 
present church of St. Andrew, and about 40 perches 
east of the old edifice. It was here this remarkable 



1 M'Cullagh's Western Isles. 
London, 1819, p. 234. 

1 Grose's Antiquities of Scotland. 
London, Vol. 2, p. 181. 

* Sciant presentes, &c., quod ego 
Johannes Thurgot dedi, c Deo et 
domui Omnium Sanctorum, &c., 
quandam terram meam &c , in 
Suburbio Dublin. scilicet in 



Thengmotha in parochia S. Andrce 
de Thengmotha. Registrum Pri- 
oratus Omnium Sanctorum juxtn 
Dublin. By Rev. Richard Butler. 
p. 26, 4to, Dublin, 1845. 

4 Enrolled 22nd of James I., 
Calendar of the Patent Rolls of K. 
James I., p. 585. 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 163 

mount the Thingmote of Dublin stood until the year CHAP. n. 
1685. From the drav.'ing and survey, which I have 
been so fortunate as to discover, the mount is shown 
to have been a conical hill about 40 feet high and 
240 feet in circumference. 

The drawing of which a facsimile is here given Drawing of 

,, , , . , the mount or 

forms part of a survey made in 1G82, and it may be Thingmote of 
observed that the indented outline gives to the mount 
the appearance of having had those terraces or steps 
already described on some other Thingmounts. That 
this mount remained so long undisturbed was partly 
attributable to its position within the line of fortifica- 
tion for which the tumulus was levelled, but chiefly 
to the care of the municipal authorities for the health 
of the citizens. Down to the year 1635 there were 
numerous edicts decreeing that " the common pas- 
tures of the city (among which Stanihurst places the 
Stein 1 )" should be reserved for the citizens to walk 
and take the air by reason as the last ordinance 
adds that the "city was growing very populous." 8 
These ordinances preserved the ground, surrounding 
the Thingmote, uninclosed until 1661. 

1 Holinshed ; Chronicle, vol. vi., town Green, might not from hence- 

p. 28. forth be sett or leased to any per- 

* '* An Act established at Easter son, bat that the same may be 

Assembly, A.D. 1635, to be pub- wholly kept for the use of the 

lickly reade every Michaelmas Cittizens and others to walk and 

Assemblie Daie. Whereas the take the open aire by reason this 

Commons petitioned unto this Cittie is at this present growing 

Assembly praying that some course very populous." The Mayor is 

might be taken in the said As- not to give way to the reading of 

seinbly whereby no part or parcel any petition for the leasing or dis- 

of the Greens and Commons of posing of any of the said Greens 

this Cittie, viz. : Hoggin's Green, or Commons under pain of 40 

St. Stephen's Green, and Oxinan- pounds. City Records. 

M 2 



164 THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 

BOOK in. j n fa^ y ear j) r fj enr y Jones (theii Bishop of 
Cove ^ a to Meath) obtained a portion of this ground, on lease 
preserve the from the Corporation of Dublin, for a small rent and 

mount for the 

use of the city. ^ ne somewhat curious consideration that he should 



give for the use of the city the " Book of Ancient Sta- 
tutes of the Kingdom," but the lessors, anxious for the 
recreation of the citizens to which the Thingmount 
was ancillary, inserted a proviso that " a passage six 
feet wide and thirty feet square from the top to the 
bottom of the hill should be reserved to the city for 
their common prospect, and that no building or other 
thing should be erected on the premises for obstruct- 
ing of the said prospect.'' 1 When this lease was made, 
St. Stephen's-green also being uninclosed and few 
buildings erected in the neighbourhood of the Stein, 
the prospect from this mount, like that from the 
mount at Steinness, must have been extensive, par- 
ticularly over the Bay of Dublin, 2 andgave this Thing- 
mount the advantages which the watch mounts or 

1 Michaelmas Assembly, A.D. them nor us, but stand aside with 

1661. City Records. your people and look on at the 

battle. And if God grants us to 

1 [It is on this mount that the defeat these people (the Danes) do 

Norman Geste of the Conquest you help us to follow them; if we 

represents Gylmeholmoc, a chief be recreant do you join them in 

of the O'Byrnes, who had given cutting us up and killing us." 
hostages to Milo de Cogan to be " Vos ostages averez par si 

at peace with the English, as seated Que tu faces 90 que tu di ; 

by Milo's appointment thence to Par si que ne seez aidant 

watch the impending battle be- Ne nus, ne euz, tant ne quant : 

iween him and the Danes, newly Mes que encoste de nus seez, 

landed on the Staine, in order to E la bataille agarderez : 

recover Dublin from the English. E si Deus le nus consent. 

" You shall have back your host- Que seient deconfiz iccle gent ; 

ages (says Milo) if you do what I Que nus seez od tun poer, 

say : that is, be neither aiding Eidant pur euz debarater : 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 



165 



ward hills of the islands possessed, rendered it a fit BOOK IIL 

CHAP. II. 

station from whence the city could be warned of the 
approach of an hostile fleet. But in 1 6 7 1 , the founda- 
tion of the new church of St. Andrew having been 
laid, and the Bishop of Meath having surrendered his 
lease, a new lease was made to William Brewer, with- 
out any reservations of " prospect " from the mount 
which shortly after was encompassed with buildings. 1 
In 1682 the mount itself was demised to Sir William 



E si nus seimiz recreant, 
Vus lur seez del tut eidant, 
De nuz trencher e occire 
Le noz livrer a martire." 
Gylmeholmoc having granted this 
and pledged his faith and oath, 
quits the city to take up his post 
on the mount : 

" Gylmeholmoth iiitant 
Dehors la cite meintenaat, 
Se est cil reis pur veir asis 
Od eel gent de sun pais, 
De sur le Hogges, desus Steyne 
Dehors la cite en un plein 
Pur agarder la melle 
Se sunt iloque asemble." 
That is, Gylemeholmoc gaily 
(went) out of the city, and now is 
this king for a truth seated with 
the people of his country upon the 
Hogges, over Steyne, on a plain out- 
side of the city, to view the melee, 
pp. 109, 110, Anglo-Norman 
Poem on the Conquest of Ireland 
by Henry the Second. Edited by 
Francisque Michel, 12mo, London, 
1837. This Gylmehomoc ruled 
over the territory between Bray 
and Dublin. It was he that gran- 
ted Kilruddery to the Abbot of 
St. Thomas's for his country seat, 
and from this abbey it passed at the 



Dissolution of Religious Houses in 
the reign of King Henry VIII. to 
the ancestor of the Earls of Meath. 
See the grant in the Register of 
S. Thomas's Abbey, R. I. A.] 

1 [This was the "fortified hill near 
the College," referred to in the fol- 
lowing: On the 6th of July, 1647, 
the Commissioners of Parliament, to 
whom the Marquis of Ormonde had 
just then surrendered Dublin, 
give an account to the Parliament 
of a mutiny. " On Friday last (they 
write) many of the soldiers fell into 
a high mutiny, and, cashiering their 
officers, marched directly to Da- 
mass Gate, adjacent to the place 
where we have our usual meetings 
for despatch of public affairs." 
They then describe Colonel Jones, 
the new made Governor of Dublin, 
as marching with several troops of 
his own regiment of horse against 
the mutineers, " the greatest part of 
them being of Colonel Kinaston's 
regiment, accustomed to like prac- 
ticvs in North Wales, and after 
some skirmishing and coming to the 
push of pike, wherein some of them 
were killed, several hurl on both 
sides, the Governor endangered, 
and Colonel Castles's horse shot 



1G6 



THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 



The mount 
levelled. 



B CIU!P i" Davis ; he bad been Recorder of the city, and was then 
Chief Justice of the King's Bench. He had a subur- 
ban residence adjoining the mount and a fee-farm 
grant was made to him with the avowed object of 
clearing the ground. His petition for this grant 
states that " the ground on which the mount stands, 
being very small and the mount itself being very high 
the cost of levelling it and carrying it away would be 
a vast charge." A mass of earth, 40 feet high and 
240 feet in circumference, could not be removed with- 
out great expense, 1 but the site was valuable and the 
earth was useful in raising Nassau-street, then called 
Saint Patrick's Well-lane, the street being elevated 
8 to 10 feet above it. Although these documents 
indisputably fix the position of the mount within the 
district of Thingmotha, a doubt whether the word 
Thingmote in 1241 designated a mount, or merely a 
place of meeting, the want of early records to identify 
the mount I have described with the ancient Thing- 
mote and the ambiguity of modern descriptions of 
the vicinity leave room for controversy, which we 
must endeavour to anticipate. 

Harris in describing Hoggen Green says that " a 
place on this Green was anciently called Hoggen butt, 
where the citizens had butts for the exercise of arch- 
ery," 2 and Daines Barrington,in his " Observations on 



Hoggen butt. 



under him, the mutineers betook 
themselves to a place of advantage, 
a fortified hill near the College, and 
with them many of those called out 
to subdue them. After they had 
defended the said hill till midnight 
they were received to mercy upon 
their humble submission and pro* 



raises of amends." (Signed) Arthur 
Annesley, Robert King, Michael 
Jones. Carte Papers, Bodleian 
Library, vol. Ixvii., p. 133.] 

1 Michaelmas Assembly, A.D. 
1 683. City Records. 

'History of Dublin, p. 108. 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 167 

the Statute for the Encouragement of Archery," 1 says 
"That the butts erected for archery may have been the 
occasion of so me of those round hills of earth near towns 
which have often amused and puzzled antiquaries." 
Harrington's observation coupled with Harris's refer- 
ence to archery butts might lead to the supposition 
that the mount here described had been raised for 
archery practice, and particularly as there is an Irish 
statute of 5th Edward IV., which ordains that in 
every English town in this land of Ireland there shall 
be " one pair of butts for shooting, within the town or 
near it, and every man of the same town between the 
ages of 60 and 16 shall muster at said butts and shoot 
up and down three times every feast day " between 
Marchand July. 2 There is also the curious coincidence 
that one of what are proved to be tumuli at Stein- 
ness is also said to have been raised for archers to 
shoot at " for while Edward was encouraging archery 
in Ireland, James I. of Scotland was similarly em- 
ployed in his dominions, the Scotch Act of 1425 re- 
quiring every man from 16 to 60 years of age, to 
shoot up and down three times every holyday at bow 
marks erected near the parish churches." 

It is, however, manifest that Harris did not mean 
that the mount which he calls Hoggen butt had been 
used for a target. His words clearly imply the re- 
verse. He says that at Hoggen butt the citizens Tib and Tom. 
had butts for archery and that near them (that is 
the archery butts) was a place called Tib and Tom 
where possibly the citizens amused themselves at 

'Observations on the most *5th Edward IV., cap. 4, A.D. 
ancient Statutes, p. 426, 4to, Lou- 1465. 
don, 1775. 



168 THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 

BOOK in. l e i sure times by playing at keals or nine pins. 1 It 
is manifest also that the Thinginount would not 
meet the requirements of the statute, which enacts 
that there shall be not one but a pair of butts and 
that there was more than one of what are termed 
butts is rendered probable by an ordinance made 
for the preservation of " Hogges butts," about three 
years after the Act of Parliament. This ordinance of 
A.D. 1469 decrees in the quaint language of the 
times, that " no manner of man take no clay from 
Hogges butts upon pain of XX. shillings as oft as they 
may be found so doing." 2 A stronger argument how- 
Musters at the ever may be deduced from the size of the mount. We 
find that the city forces were periodically mustered 
on Hoggen Green, that the mayor and principal 
citizens sat at these musters under a pavilion or tent 
erected on the top of Hoggen butt, 3 and we know 
that after the mount was levelled this tent was an- 
nually set up in Stephen' s-green for these military 
reviews. Now it is utterly irreconcilable' with any 
description given of archery butts elsewhere to sup- 
pose that a high circular mount on the top of which 
a pavilion could be erected had been piled up for the 
mere purpose of archery practice. 

But in addition to these arguments there are cir- 
cumstances connected with the mount which strongly 
tend to identify it with the Scandinavian Thingmote. 

1 History of Dublin, p. 108. upon occasion of a general hosting, 

1 Acts of Assembly. Midsummer, the Sheriff to cause a new tent to 

A.D. 1469. City Records. be made, &c., and Mr. Bellew to be 

* Harris's MSS., p. 115, answerable for the old tent if he be 

Pococke Collection, Brit. Mus., found chargeable." Acts of As- 

MSS. 4823. "Forasmuch as the sembly, Christmas, 1593. City 

City is destitute of a tent to serve Records. 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 169 

The customs of a people freq uently survive their do- BOOK IIL ' 

J CHAP. IL 

minion. Those of the Northmen of Dublin were not 
all abolished by the Anglo Normans. And we find 
that the Bowling Green, the archery butts, the place 
for those games, which Harris calls Tib and Tom, 
and for the miracle plays and pageants were at the 
mount, and that on this mount the Mayor of Dublin Mayor and 
sat with his jurats under a tent, presiding over the mount. " 
armed musters of the citizens. 1 

We should recollect that it was at the Thing- 
mount the public games of the Northmen were always 
held, 2 and that on the Althing, under a tent, the 
" Godi " or chief magistrate of the district sat with 
his " lagmen," surrounded by armed freemen. Nor The mount 
should we forget that this custom apparently preserved wall of* the" 1 * 
in Dublin continued until recently in the Isle of Man 
where the chief of the island or his representative sat 
under a canopy on the Thingwall mount with his 

[* At this mount, too, was held corder of the City, and Richard 

the election for the Parliament, Barr Alderman." Calendar of 

which met in A. D. 1613. "The27th State Papers of King James I., A.D. 

of April the Mayor (Sir James 1611-1614, p. 441. The editor of 

Carroll), taking the first election to Desiderata Curiosa Hibernica 

be void, about 10 o'clock in the having no knowledge of this mount 

forenoon gave directions for pro- or these butts, and the enrolment 

clamation to be made in several with the account of this election 

parts of the City that at 2 o'clock having no capital letters nor punc- 

in the afternoon of that day he tuation, he could not understand 

would proceed to election at a " hoggen but," and dropped the 

place called Hoggen but near the latter word and wrote " at a place 

City and within its liberties, which called Hoggen." Vol. I., p. 244, 

was made accordingly, at which 8vo, Dublin, 1773.] 
time and place in a great assembly * I listoire de Suede par Erik 

of the inhabitants as well free of Gust. Geyer traduit par J. F. de 

the City as not free the Mayor Lundbhad, p. 31, 8vo, Paris, 1840. 
nominated Richard Bolton, He- 



i" 



170 THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 

" doomsters " or "lawmen," the armed attendants 
standing around, and that a like custom long pre- 
vailed at the "hill ot pleas," the Thingmount of 
the Norwegian settlers in Iceland. 
Hoeg These facts and circumstances we think may be 

neartheDubiin safely relied on as proof of the identity of the mount 
here described with the Scandinavian Thingmote. 
And we have now to add that about 200 perches 
eastward of the mount was the Hangr Hoeg or Gal- 
lows hill of Dublin, the usual accompaniment to the 
Thingmount. Here on a rocky hill, surrounded by 
a piece of barren ground, the gallows was erected 
and here criminals were executed until the beginning 
of the last century, when the gallows was removed 
farther south to permit the rock to be quarried for 
building purposes, the city then rapidly extending in 
this direction. The " Gallows hill " is marked on the 
maps of Dublin until after 1756, 1 and the quarry is 
yet to be traced between Bock-lane and Mount- 
street, both places being very probably named from 
this rocky gallows mount. 

Search for a If we could now discover the site of any hof or 

pagan hbf or . 

temple near the temple connected with the Thingmount, the 
similarity of the Scandinavian monuments of the 
Stein and Steinness would be complete, but here 
great difficulties occur. No vestiges of such temples 
remain, nor have we the local indications which else- 

1 In the "Survey of the City and " Gallows Road." On the north side 

Suburbs of Dublin," by Jean of this Gallows -road near Lower 

Rocque, Folio, London, 1756, the Pembroke-street is shown a Quarry 

road leading from Stephen's-green and over it a Windmill ; opposite 

to Ball's-bridge (now known as on the south side of the road is the 

Lower 13agot-street) is styled Gallows.] 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 171 

where show where the religious ceremonies connected BOOK II! 
with the Thingmount there performed. 1 

Pagan temples 

The Venerable Bede has preserved a letter from turne(l to 

churches. 

Pope Gregory to the Abbot Mellitus, directing him 
to tell St. Augustin in England that he (the Pope) 
had on mature deliberation determined " that the 
temple of the idols in that nation ought not to be 
destroyed but let the idols that are in them be des- 
troyed ; let holy water be made and sprinkled in the 
said temples, let altars be erected and relics placed," 
" That the nation seeing that their temples are not 
destroyed may more familiarly resort to the places 
to which they have been accustomed. And because 
they have been used to slaughter oxen in sacrifices 
to devils, some solemnity must be exchanged for them 
on this account, as that on the day of the dedication 
or the nativities of the holy martyrs, whose relics 
are there deposited, they may build themselves huts 
of the boughs of trees about those churches which 
have been turned to that use from temples, and cele- 
brate the solemnity with religious feasting, and no 
more offer beasts to the devil, but kill cattle to the 
praise of God in their eating, and return thanks, &c., 
&c."* 

Almost universally theChristian missionaries every- 
where pursued this course. At Upsala, in A.D. 1026, 3 
the great temple of Odin was converted into a Chris- 
tian Church, and in Scandinavian settlements, where 

1 In each temple was a ring ot . ings at the Thing. Landnamabok, 

two oras or more. Such a ring p. 299. 

each Godi had. He dipped it in * Bedae, Historia Ecclesiastics, 

the blood of the victim sacrificed, Lib. L, cap. xxx., p. 141. 

and all parties were sworn on it * Laing's Sea Kings of Norway, 

before there could be any proceed- VoL L, p. 68. 



172 



THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 



BOOK III. 
CHAP. II. 



Holy wells 
from pagan 
become 
Christian. 



no enclosed temple existed, churches were dedicated 
to St. Michael, to St. Magnus, to St. Olave, or to the 
Virgin Mary, at the places previously consecrated to 
the worship of Thor and Freyja, other pagan memo- 
rials or monuments being sanctified with Christian 
emblems. Hence we frequently find the pillar stones 
or bowing stones either marked with a cross, or over- 
thrown and stone crosses raised where they stood, 
and the sacred wells of Baldur, the son of Odin, with 
the sacred wells of other heathen deities, becoming 
the holy wells of St. John or St. Patrick. 1 With 
similar views the great Saxon and Scandinavian 
festivals were exchanged for Christian festivals occur- 
ring at the same period of the year, the slaughter of 
oxen to idols, and the feasts which followed, being 
exchanged for innocent banquets and revelry. Never- 
theless the pagan practices which Gregory endea- 
voured to turn to Christian purposes were not wholly 
eradicated. 2 The Christian converts still knelt at 
the holy wells and went southwards round them, 
following the course of the sun, and yet continue to 
do so in many parts of Ireland, where they still place 
bits of rags as votive offerings on the sacred ashtree 
or hawthorn which overhang these wells. 3 They 



1 Ancient Laws and Institutes of 
England from JSthelbert to Cnut, 
p. Glossary. Record Publication, 
Folio, 1840. Pigot's Scandinavian 
Mythology, p. 290. 

* Thus in the Laws of Canute 
"5th. And we forbid every heathen- 
ism. Heathenism is that men 
worship idols, and the sun or the 
moon, fire, or rivers, or water 
wells, or stones, or forest trees of 



any kind." Ancient Laws and In- 
stitutes of England, &c., p. 162. 

"The learned Dr. Charles 
O'Connor says, " That well wor- 
ship was a part of the Pagan 
system which prevailed in Ire- 
land before the introduction of 
Christianity is clear from Evinus, 
or whoever was the author of the 
Vita Septima S. Patricii . . . 
He expressly states that the Pagan 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OP DUBLIN. 



173 



continued and still continue to light their May fires BOOK IIL 

CHAP. II. 

and to pass through or leap over them. They con- 
tinued to place boughs of evergreen trees in their 
places of worship at Christmas, and in some instances, 
they even continued to the Christian commemoration 
the pagan name. The great feast of Yiolner or Odin Tioiner or 
was superseded by the Christmas festival, yet to this 
hour there are many parts of England and Scotland, 
as well as of Denmark and Norway, where Christmas 
is termed Yioletide. The Paschal festival of other 



Irish adored fountains as divini- 
ties, and his authority is confirmed 
beyond a doubt by Adamnan. 

" I have often inquired of your 
tenants what they themselves 
thought of their pilgrimages to the 
wells of Kili-Aracht, Tubbar- 
Brighde, Tubbar-Muire, near El- 
phin, Moor, near Castlereagh, 
where multitudes annually assem- 
bled to celebrate what they, in 
their broken English, termed 
Patterns (Patron's days), and, when 
I pressed a very old man to state 
what possible advantage he ex- 
pected to derive from the singular 
custom of frequenting in particular 
such wells as were contiguous to 
an old blasted oak or an upright 
unhewn stone, and what the yet 
more singular custom of sticking 
rags on the branches of such trees 
and spitting on them, his answer, 
and the answer of the oldest men 
was, that their ancestors always 
did it, that it was a preservative 
against the Geasa-Draoidecht, i.e., 
the sorcery of the Druids . 
and so thoroughly persuaded were 
they of the sanctity of these pagan 



practices that they would travel 
bareheaded and barefooted from 
ten to twenty miles for the pur- 
pose of crawling on their knees 
round these wells and upright 
stones and oak trees westward as 
the sun travels, some three times, 
some six, some nine, and so on, in 
uneven numbers, until their volun- 
tary penances were completely ful- 
filled." Columbanus' Third Letter 
on the Liberties of the Irish Church 
or a Letter from the Rev. Charles 
O'Conor, D.D., to bis brother, 
Owen O'Conor, esq., pp. 82, 83, 
8vo, London, 1810, vol. i. 

Dr. O'Connor adds, "A passage 
in Hanway's travels (Lond., 1753, 
vol. i., pp. 177 and 260) leads 
directly to the oriental origin of 
these druidical superstitions, ' We 
arrived at a desolate Caravanserai 
where we found nothing but 
water. I observed (continued 
Hanway), a tree with a number of 
rags on the branches. These were 
so many charms which passengers 
coming to Ghilan had left there,' " 
Columbanus. ibid., p. 85. 



174 



THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 



BOOK in. countries is with us called after the goddess Easter, 
CHAP^IL w h ose festival was coincident, and the days of the 
week dedicated to Woden or Odin, to Thor and to 
Freyja, retain their names nearly unchanged in 
Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. But at Stein- 
ness, Hibbert asserts that the early missionaries 
proceeded much farther in their anxiety to conciliate 
Semicircular the prej udices of converts, inducing them to give to 
tation of pagan a portion of the Christian church the outward form 
of the pagan temple for it appears that not only did 
they build their church adjoining the semicircular 
temple but they built the belfry of that church in 
the extraordinary form of a semicircle. 1 It may be 
reasonably doubted whether the hypothesis on which 
this assertion is founded be correct, although its 
advocates might attempt to support their theory by 
showing that at Egibsly and Birsa (two other of the 
Orkney Islands) the churches had round towers close 
to them, 2 which round towers are supposed to have 
been erected by Irish monks introducing Christianity, 
only the theory may be supported by pointing out that 
The circle a a large number of churches in Norfolk and Suffolk built 
forS e dina- n before the Conquest, and ascribed to the Danes, were 
built with circular belfries, 3 that it was a favourite 



vian temples. 



1 Description of the Shetland 
Isles, 4to, Edinburgh, 1822. 

2 Celtic antiquities of Orkney, 
by F. W. . L. Thomas, R. N. 
Archaeologia, vol. 34, p. 117. 

' Gale's History of Suffolk, Pre- 
face, p. 24. Worthing, Norfolk : 
the steeple which was round is in 
ruins. Essay towards a Topogra- 
phical History of the Co. of ^Nor- 



folk, by Rev. Francis Bloomfield, 
continued by Rev. Charles Parkin, 
London, 1805-1810, ten vols. Roy. 
8vo. Hist, of Norfolk, vol. viii., 
p. 198. Grynhoe, at west end, 
a tower of flint, round to roof, and 
then octagon. lb., vol. vi., p. 103. 
St. Ethelred's, Norwich round 
-tccple, vol. x., p. 280. 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OT DUBLIN. 175 

form in Scandinavian buildings, and that Torsager 
(the field of Thor) in Jutland and at Bornholm, where 
the pagan temples of Thor and Odin stood. For 
present purposes, however, we need not refer to any 
peculiarity in the form of the buildings or to the 
motives for it. It is only necessary to observe that 
among efforts to attract the pagan from his old 
superstitions to a pure worship was that recommended 
by Pope Gregory, of either converting the temple 
into a church or of placing the church in proximity churches 
to it, a practice which is said to have originated the ? t onecdL 
Gallic term, used in the Orkneys, of going to the or 
" Clachan" (or stones), for going to the church, con- 
necting this fact of the church being placed where 
the temple stood, 1 with the statement of northern 
Archaeologists, that religious ceremonies preceded all 
legal or legislative acts of the Scandinavians, and that 

o o * 

the Thingplace itself was used as a temple, or that a 
temple was erected near it, we should expect to find 
the site of the " hof " or temple near that of a church 
adjoining the Thingmote, where the heathen rites 
which attended the election of a chief or a trial by 
combat were exchanged for the Christian ceremonies 
of an inauguration and of an ordeal. At the Ting- 
waldmount of the Jsle of man, and we believe invari- 

1 From this circle of stones the where it is probable that such 

Highlanders, when speaking of the circles did or do still exist. Statis- 

kirk of Aberfayle (Co. of Perth), tical Account of Scotland, voL x., 

uniformly make use of the term p. 1'29. The place where the 

Chichan, i.e., the circle of stones ; Parish Church stands was pro- 

and the same term is used when bably the site of a Clachan or 

speaking of many other places of " circle of stones." Hrid , vol. viii., 

worship both in the Highlands p. 1.15. 
and the Low Country, places 



176 



THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 



BOOK III. 
CHAT. II. 

Temples 
nlw.-iys near 
ThlngraoonU. 



If St. Michael's 
nml St. 
Bridget's 
superseded 
temples to 
Thor and 
Freyja? 



The idea dis- 
missed. 



ably at every other Thingmount, remains of such 
churches are found. 1 In some places we can trace 
both the church and the temple. Close to the Thing- 
mount of Upsala we find the temple of Odin con- 
verted into a church. At Thing vollr in Iceland, the 
church retains the name of " the hof." At lialliowen 
in Man, we see the circle of stones, the church, and 
the mound, and at Steinness, the church close to the 
semicircular and circular temples adjoining the watch 
mount. 

If then it be suggested that, as at Steinness, there 
were two temples on the Stein, and that the churches 
built near these supposed temples of Thor and Freyja 
were the -churches of St. Michael and St. Bridget, we 

O ' 

are met by the denial that these churches could have 
been built by the Scandinavian converts or by the 
clergy who converted them, as neither the one nor 
the other would have dedicated a church to St. Bridget. 
For it has not escaped observation that when the North- 
men in Ireland dedicated a church to a female saint, 
they never dedicated to the Irish St. Bridget or to 
any Irish virgin, but always to the Virgin Mary. 
Whereas the Irish clergy who were not so intimately 
connected with Rome, if they called any church ex- 
cept by the name of the founder (and they called 
many after St. Bridget) never dedicated a church to 
the Virgin Mary until after Northmen set the ex- 
ample 2 ; indeed, St. Bridget is styled " The Mary of 



1 " The stones forming this 
temple, called in Gaelic ' Clachan ' 
are large irregularly shaped masses 
of granite." " A little to the south 
of the temple is a mound, 100 feet 



in diameter, whicli had probably 
some connexion with the circle." 
Train's Isle of Man, vol. ii., p. 26. 
'* " The earliest record of a 
dedication of a church to St. 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 177 

the Gaeidhil " or Irish, in one of the oldest manu- BOOK m 

CHAP. II. 

scripts of her life, nor has the research of any Irish ,, 

The Ostmen 

scholar, so far as I can ascertain, as yet discovered a did n ? 1 ' m *- 

' cmte Si, 

single church dedicated to the Virgin Mary in Ireland Bridget 
until the middle of the tenth century, when the North- 
men converted to Christianity, began to dedicate 
churches to her within their own territories, the 
earliest being that of St. Mary's Ostmanby, 1 better 
known as St. Mary's Abbey Dublin, alleged to have 
been founded about the year 948. 

As regards the Anglo- Saxon missionaries who 
converted the Northmen, they were not likely 
to dedicate a church to an Irish Saint, their connec- 
tion being with Canterbury and Rome, but not with 
Armagh and the Irish Church. For it is to be re- The Ostmen 
collected that the Northmen did not acknowledge the mae the Irish 
authority of the Irish Church until the Irish arch- 
bishops received the palls from Rome through 
Cardinal Paparo, in 1152 ; Laurence O'Toole in 1163 
being the first Bishop of Dublin (under the Ostmen) 
who was consecrated by the Archbishop of Armagh, 
all previous bishops of the Ostmen being consecrated 
by the Archbishop of Canterbury.* 

Mar)' in Wales is that of a church November, 2 Johan. (A.D. 1201) 

near the Cathedral of Bangor, A.D. Rotuli Chartarum in Turre 

993, by Edgar, king of England. Londinensi asservati, p. 788, folio, 

About 140 churches were after- London, 1837. 
wards built to her honour (chiefly f Lanigan says that Waterford 

in the 12th century, and chiefly and Limerick had been placed 

in the parts of Wales subject to under the Archbishop of Cashel by 

English and Flemings)." Ecclesi- the Synod of Rathbreasil, A.D. 

astical Antiquities of the Cymry, 1118; but admits that the Danes 

by the Rev. John Williams, M.A., of Limerick, in opposition to that 

p. 184, 8vo, London, 1844. decree, succeeded in getting thuir 

1 " Et deinde usque ad Ecclesiam Bishop consecrated at Canterbury. 

Sanctc Maria de Osmaneby." Ecclesiastical History of Ireland, 

Confirmatio Civitat, Dublin. 7 vol. iv., p. 42. 

N 



THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 



BOOK III. 
CHAP. II. 



St. Andrew's 
Thengmotha 
stands (per- 
haps) on the 
site of a 



On the other hand if it be suggested that such 
temples stood on the east side of the Thingmount, 
we are reminded that All Hallows and St. Mary del 
Hogges were built between the years 1146 and 1 166, 1 
and although many of the Northmen retained pagan 
customs until nearly that time, yet it is scarcely 
possible that their temples remained objects of so 
much veneration in the middle of the twelfth century 
as to induce the Christian clergy to erect churches 
near them. 

Rejecting these suppositions there is yet another 
which may be offered ; it is, that if there were temples 
to Thor and Freyja on the Stein as at Steinness, the 
lor> Christian missionaries as they built only one church 
at Steinness, only built one church at Dublin, and 
that church may have been the church of St. Andrew 
Thengmotha. We do not find any notice of this 
church before the arrival of the Anglo-Normans, but 
it is mentioned in a Charter of John, while lord of 
Ireland, and the name of Thengmotha attached to 
it, apparently justifies the conjecture that it was 
built prior to that period, and may have been then 
dedicated to some other saint, as we have the names 
of several churches in the east suburbs of Dublin of 
which we cannot now find any other trace. It may 
also strengthen the conjecture, to observe that at this 



1 In the Annals of Leinster there 
is mention made of this Prior}'; 
how it was founded by Dermot 
M'Murrough, king thereof ; and 
that he came to Dublin in the 
year 1166, when he fell sick, and, 
calling all his priests about'Lim on 
the eve of the Feast of All Saints, 
made a vow, if he recovered, to 



build a religious house where he 
lay sick; so it is probable that 
Dermot lay there when the Priory 
was first founded. Robert Ware's 
Collections, Pococke MSS., No. 
4,813, Brit. Museum. St. Mary It- 
Hogges was founded by one of 
the kings of Leinster, a predc-cessor 
of Dermot M'Murrough. Ibicf. 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 179 

churchyard the ceremonies, attending the election 
of the " mayor of the bullring " ! were performed ; 
and to this may be added the remarkable fact that 
when the church was rebuilt it was built in an 
elliptical form which gave it the name of " the Round 
Church." Whether this form, singular as regards the 
churches of Dublin, was adopted on any tradition 
respecting the form of the old edifice, we cannot 
ascertain, but Speed's map of 1 6 1 although it marks 
the old church (then standing) like all other churches, 
yet unlike any other church, shows a semicircular 
enclosure attached to it, and this form of the pagan 
temple given to the new church of St. Andrew, and 
given to the outward wall of the old church, as it was 
to the belfry of the church of Steinness, is one of those 
curious coincidences which sometimes are adduced in 
support of a theory but to which no importance should 
be attached without strongly corroborative circum- 
stances. Disappointed in this attempt to discern the 
site of the pagan temple on the Stein, I revert to 
monuments previously described for tjie purpose of 
obviating doubts which might arise respecting 
them. 

With regard then to the Long Stone of the Stein, The Long 
it is not to be supposed that the " Long Stone " had stein". 
reference to any boundary or jurisdiction of the city. 
This is particularly to be observed lest it might be 
inferred that because the celebrated stone at Staines 

1 A.D. 1575. The Mayor and who used to be elected in St. 
Sheriffs did not go to Cullen's- Amlrew's Churchyard was now 
wood on Black Monday according chosen in the Tholsel. Walahe 
to custom, tho weather was so foul ; and Whitekw, History of Dublin, 
and the Mayor of the Bulbing, p. 200. 

N 2 



180 THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 

ii! near Windsor now marks the jurisdiction of London 
on the Thames, the " Long Stone of the Stein " 
might have marked the jurisdiction of Dublin on the 
Liffey. To support an inference of this kind there 
is no perceptible evidence. There is no allusion 
whatsoever to the " Long Stone of the Stein " in 
any charter wherein the metes and bounds of the 
city are described, nor is there any existing boundary 
or jurisdiction which it could have defined. The 
evidence is really on the other side, for there are 
facts clearly showing that " London Stone " was 
neither set up at the alleged time nor for the alleged 
purpose, 1 and circumstances connected with it sup- 
The Long port the opinions respecting the Long Stone of the 
of s4n<Su- Stein and tend to show that the Stone at Staines 
taking. 09 * " was also a stone of memorial raised at a Scandinavian 
landing place and probably mark of possession taken. 
Unquestionably Staines near Windsor was so named 
from some pillar stone erected there long before the 
year 1285, the date inscribed on London Stone. It 
was called " Stane " in the Domesday Book 200 
years prior to that date, 2 the first notice of the place 
combined with an event, in which the name probably 
originated, being found in one of the manuscripts of 
the Saxon Chronicle, 3 which states that A.D. 993 

1 On the pedestal is, " This an- notebook it appears he visited this 

cient stone above this inscription stone to take the inscription the 

is raised upon this pedestal exactly 20th of August, 1855. He has 

over the spot where it formerly given a very good sketch of this 

stood, inscribed ' God preserve y* monument.] 

City of London, A.D., 1285,' and z Domesday Book, p. 128, Lon- 

on the other side, 'To perpetuate don, 1816. 

and preserve this ancient monu- * Monumenta Historica Britan- 

ment of the jurisdiction of the City nica, Folio, London, 1848. 
ofLondon,&c.'" ByMr.Haliday's 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 181 

" caine Aulaf with ninety- three ships to Stane and 
ravaged thereabout," the Aulaf who thus sailed up 
the Thames and made "Stane" his landing-place suines 
being the Norwegian Olaf Tryggevesson who was 
married to a sister of the king of Dublin. 1 To this " Althing 
we may add that the plain of Runymede, famous 
in connexion with Staines, was like the Stein of 
Dublin, the title of a Scandinavian Althing, probably 
so made by Aulaf and Swein, and so remaining while 
Canute and other Danish sovereigns governed 
England. Mathew of Westminster tells us it was 
called "Runymede, that is, the Meadow of Runnymede(or 
"Counsel," because of old times councils about 



peace of the kingdom were frequently held there,* 
Staines apparently being the general name of the 
place, the letters of safe conduct from King John 
when the Barons demanded his assent to the laws 
subsequently embodied in Magna Charta specifying 
" Staines " and not Runymede as the place of meet- 
ing. 3 But if the inquiry be pursued it will be found 
that all the places called Stane in the Domesday 
Book were on the banks of rivers, and that most of 
them had been Scandinavian landing-places, and it 
is of some importance as connected with the name 
of the Stein of Dublin that we should do so. 

It will be found that Humber Stane, at the mouth The \uio\u 



of the Humber, was the landing-place of the brothers 
Hinguar and Hubba in A.D. 800, Aulaf, " the pagan 
king of Ireland," also landing there A.D. 927, and 

i King Aulaf Cuaran. * Rotuli Litterarum Patentium 

* Floras Historiarum, A.D. 1215, in Turn Londinensi asscrvati. 
Folio, London, 1567. A.D. 1215, 17th Joban., Mom. 14. 



182 THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 

BOOK in. A u l a f in 993 when returning from Staines near 

CHAP. II. 

Windsor. So Mede Stane (now Maidstone), on the 
Medway, where the Danish fleet came A.D. 839, and 
again A.D. 885, " The Mote " being on one side of the 
river and Pennenden Heath, " a place of counsel " 
being on the other. 

Stanes, at the head of Southampton water, where 
the Danes came A.D. 860, and where Aulaf, the king 
of Dublin with his fleet passed the winter of A.D. 
993. 

Stanes (Estanes), at the mouth of the Thames 
near Swanscomla (Swinescamp), where Swein landed 
and encamped in 994, when he and Aulaf were about 
to besiege London. 

Stanes, Hertfordshire, where the Danish fleet came 
A.D. 896, forming a work twenty miles above London 
on the Biver Lea. 

Stanes, Herefordshire, A.D. 1055., Earl Elgar, 
assisted by the Danes of Ireland with eighteen ships, 
landed here and burned Hereford. 

Stanes, Buckinghamshire, hundred of Stanes on 
the River Thame. 

Stanes, Worcestershire, on the River Stour. 

Stane, Northamptonshire, near Staneford, all 
places which had been frequented by the Danes, and 
we may add to these their landing-places at Stane in 
the Isle of Oxney (Kent) Stane in the marsh division 
of Lindsey. 

Stane, near Faversham, having on the opposite 
side of the river " the Mote." 

This meeting of John with the English Barons at 
Stanes for the purpose of sanctioning the laws by 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OP DUBLIN. 183 

which he was to govern England, introduces our BOOKI - 

CHAP. II. 

notice of the meeting of his father, Henry II., 
with the Irish chiefs on the Stein of Dublin, A..D. 
1172, an event bearing on previous statements that 
this was the place where the Scandinavian kings 
were elected and the laws which governed their 
territories promulgated. 

When, therefore, as Hoveden tell us, Henry The Christmas 
"ordered to be built, near the Church of St. xTld o 
Andrew, without the City of Dublin, a royal palace, 
constructed with wonderful skill, of peeled osiers, 
according to the custom of the country," 1 and that 
there, that is, at Thengmotha, he held the festivities 
of Christmas, feasting the Irish chieftains, entertain- 
ing them with military spectacles, and dismissing 
them with presents, we are not to suppose that his 
only object was pleasure, or that the Irish chieftains 
came to do homage to Henry, and considered it 
a badge of servitude to partake of his festivities or 
to accept his gifts. It has been already noticed 
the Irish had widely intermarried with the North- 
men, hence they were accustomed to attend the 
Yuletide feasts, to accept the Yuletide presents, and 
to join in the warlike exercises of their Scandinavian 
kinsmen, who, in pagan as well as in Christian 
times, celebrated Yuletide with feastings, games, 
and gifts ; and, at this Thingmount, annually 

1 " Ibique fecit sibi construi, ipse, cum regibus et principibus 

juxta ecclesiam Sancti Andrese Hibernicib festum solenne tenuit 

apostoli, extra civitatem Divelinse, die Natali Domini." " Rerum 

palatium regium iniro artificio de Anjjlicanarum Scriptorcs post 

virgis levigatis ad moduin illius Bedam," p. 302, Folio, London, 

patriae constructum. In quo 1595. 



184 THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 

i erec ted these palaces of peeled osiers, which Henry 
"built after the custom of the country." Henry 
and his advisers were well aware of this, and that 
the Irish chieftains would not hesitate to come 
to the Green of Ath Cliath to join in the similar 
festivities of a Norman king, yet, if we can believe 
the statement of Cambrensis, the meeting assumed 
a very different appearance to Henry's followers. 
Neither party understood the language of the other. 
Probably the only interpreters were the clergy 
called " Latiniers " J from their language of inter- 
communication ; and the clergy were the devoted 
friends of the Anglo-Normans, bound by Pope 
Adrian's and Alexander's Bulls actively to promote 
Henry's designs on the lordship of all Ireland. 
From Norman times it had been the custom of 
English monarchs to receive the homage of the 
great tenants of the Crown at Christmas, and to 
feast them for eight days, and then courteously to 
bestow presents. Henry's barons and retainers may 
have considered this the chief object of the meeting, 
and much was not required to induce the belief 
that the Irish chieftains had come for the like pur- 
pose. But, although the clergy may have bowed 
before Henry in obedience to the command of their 
ecclesiastical superior, although Strongbow may 
have done homage for his Irish lands, although the 

! The Anglo-Norman poem on Again, 

the conquest of Irelandbegins thus " Morice Regan fist passer, 

* * * * * Son demeine latinier." 

" Par soen demeine latinier Ibid., p. 21. 

Que moi conta delui 1'estorie.". 
p. 1, 12mo, London, 1837. 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OP DUBLIN. 185 

Ostmen may have acknowledged their conqueror, B< ^ 
and the Norman barons their feudal lord, yet that 
any Irish chieftain who came to the meeting and 
took part in the ceremony (except possibly those of 
Leinster) supposed that he thereby " did yield him- 
self to King Henry," as Cambrensis says, is rendered 
more than doubtful by the facts disclosed. 

It is manifest that Henry himself had no idea NO submission 
that he had been elected king of Ireland by the the Irish chiefs, 
chiefs assembled at the Thingmote or that they had 
yielded to him dominion over the country. The 
most diligent research has not discovered a single 
charter, granted by him in Ireland or in England 
(not even in that by which he granted to his men 
of Bristol his new gotten city of Dublin), nor a 
single instance in any other record in which he has 
styled himself " King " or even " Lord of Ireland " 
although he rarely if ever omitted his minor titles 
of Duke of Normandy and Aquitaine and Count of 
Anjou. While he remained in Ireland he exercised 
no legal prerogative except over that territory the 
royalty of which Strongbow had surrendered to him, 
and over that from which the Ostmen enemies of 
Dermot M'Morrough had been driven, and where it 
was indifferent to the Irish, whether the Ostmen or 
the Anglo-Normans were the rulers. The only laws 
he made were for his English subjects' and for the 

[' In the confusion of races that personal, each race in actions 

followed the irruption of the between one another, being rulrd 

northern barbarians, and intro- by its own code : Thus Roman, 

duced the feudal system, the laws Frank, Burgundian, had each his 

administered were not territorial law. (See Robertson, Hist, of 

as in more modern times, but Charles V., Von Savigny on 



186 THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 

BOOK in. Ostmen towns, and these he promulgated at the 

CHAP. IL ' 

Thingmote, and possibly after the manner of the 
Scandinavians. 

Henry 2nd not There is no trace of an attempt to make laws for 
even Lord of all Ireland. Even at the Synod of Cashel the only 
proceeding was to modify the Irish ecclesiastical 
law in accordance with that of the Church of Rome ; 
and this was done through the introduction of the 
clergy, who were his supporters. The Irish chiefs 
and people retained their Brehon laws, a';d acknow- 
ledged no other, and according to these laws they 
continued to elect their own magistrates, and to 
judge, punish, or pardon all criminals. 1 Neither 
did Henry coin money in Ireland or for Ireland, 
although the Ostmen had mints in Dublin, Water- 
ford, and Limerick. 2 Nor had he a seal for Ireland, 
nor has there been discovered a single record on 
which the word " conquest " is used by him, 
although Strongbow's barons, who had conquered 
the Ostmen, used that word in grants of their thus 
acquired lands. 3 

Roman law, &c.) And in Ireland of the State of Ireland and the 

the English did not admit the true causes why it was nev/r 

Danes or the Irish to use English entirely subdued till the beginning 

law unless they paid largely for of H. M. (K. James the First's) 

the privilege. Between them- most happie raigne ; " 12mo, Lon- 

selves the latter were ruled (even don, 1613.] 

before English seneschals) by 2 Simon on Irish Coins, p. 10, 

Danes' law or Brehon law, Dublin, 1749. 
which last was only abolished in 8 " Sclant prcsentes et futuri, 

the 12th year of King James I., &c., quod ego Thomas le Martre 

That the laws of England were dedi, &c., ecclesiae S. Thomse apud 

not given to the meere Irish, Dublin, &c., quandam terrain de 

was one of the defects of English conquestu meo, &c." Chartulary 

rule in Ireland. of S. Thomas Abbey, M.S., R.I.A., 

1 Sir John Davy's " Discoverie Nicholas St. Laurence granted 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 187 

. . . BOOK III. 

Ihe claim to dominion over Ireland on which CHAP. n. 
Henry relied was evidently Pope Adrian's bull, and 
even had the title of Lord of Ireland which it 
granted been then admitted Henry was not ignorant 
of the limited authority which it conferred, for in 
his own person he had but recently done homage to 
the King of France, acknowledging the King as his 
feudal Lord for Normandy, Aquitain, and Anjou ; 
and subsequently received the homage of William, 
king of Scotland, who acknowledged Henry to be 
his Lord. 1 

In meeting the Irish Kings at the Thingmote of Death of Pope 
the Stein it was doubtless Henry's great object to made im title 
ascertain how far the authority extended. But 
that even this claim was not fully recognised at the 
Thingmote, and that Henry did not assume this 
title of " dominus Hiberniae " might appear extra- 
ordinary if it were not observed that when he 
came to Ireland with Adrian's bull, Adrian was 
dead, and the question arose whether for so great a 
charge there should not be authority from a living 
Pope. This authority Henry subsequently obtained tai confirmed 
from Pope Alexander III.,* and sent by William Alexander in. 
Fitzaldelm and the Prior of Walling ford to a synod 
of bishops at Waterford. 3 How far this served, as 

to bis son Almeric his lands of Domino suo Henrico, Rege Angliae, 

"Houvede" and "all my con- &c., A.D. 1174." Rymer Fcedera, 

quest in Ireland," Hardiman's vol. i., part i., p. 30, London, 

Irish Minstrelsy, vol. i., p. 390. 1818. 

[" Conquest " here means acquest a "Bulla Alexandrilll., pnpae.de 

as opposed to title by inherit- adsistendo Anglorum regi," &c. 

ance.] Rymer Foedera, &c. 76trf, p. 45. 

1 '* Conventio, &c., quae Williel- * " On their arrival " (says Dr. 

mus Rex Sector um fecit cum Lanigan) " a meeting of bisbopf 



188 



THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 



BOOK III. 
CHAP. II. 



Second Bull of 
Alexander II. 
to his Legate, 
the Ostman 
Bishop of 
Limerick. 



The Irish 
Church to 
preach sub- 
mission to 
England. 



Dr. Lanigan says, " to convince these prelates that 
the king was the rightful sovereign of the island we 
are left to conjecture, but the next year O'Connor 
(the king of Connaught) sent the Archbishop of 
Tuam to Windsor, where a treaty was concluded 
by which O'Connor acknowledged Henry as lord of 
Ireland, and Henry acknowledged O'Connor to be 
king of Ireland, except the parts occupied by 
Strongbow and the Ostmen towns and territories." 1 
Lest, however, one bull should not be sufficient to 
induce obedience to Henry in temporal matters 
Alexander sent a second bull to his Cardinal Legate, 
the Ostman Bishop of Lismore, directing the 
bishops of Ireland to assist the King of England, 
while Vivian, another Cardinal Legate sent from 
Rome, and who, according to the Abbe Mac- 
Geoghegan, " seems to have come to Ireland only to 
hasten its subjugation," 4 not only enjoined the Irish, 
under pain of excommunication, to acknowledge and 
obey the King of England, but, in a synod which he 
convened at Dublin, decreed permission to the 
English soldiers to take whatever victuals they 
might want in their expeditions out of the churches, 
into which as sanctuaries the Irish used to remove 
them, and thus be enabled to traverse the country. 

was held at Waterford, in which 
those precious documents were 
publicly read. This is the first 



time that they were so in Ireland ; 
and although Henry, undoubtedly, 
had Adrian's bull in his hands 
when he was in Ireland, he 
thought it unadvisable to announce 
it publicly." Ecclesiastical Hist, 
of Ireland, vol. iv., p. 222. < 



1 By which O'Connor was to 
hold his land in the same manner 
as before k dominus rex Anglise 
intraverat Hiberniam" (not sub- 
dued Ireland), find., p. 30. 

2 Histoire d'Irlande, par 1'Abbe 
MacGeoghegan, vol. ii., pp. 19, 
21, Paris, 1762. Lanigan's Eccle- 
siastical History of Ireland, vol. 
iv., p. 233. 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 189 

It was this active interposition of the clergy in 
carrying out the Pope's bull for the subjugation of 
Ireland which led to the appointment of John Earl 
of Moreton, who immediately assumed the title O f bythepope - 
Dominus Hibernise, had a seal, and coined money 
with that title. 1 

Nor was the Pope in promoting Henry's interests 
unmindful of his own. The tribute which the Irish 
previously paid to the see of Armagh by " The Law 
of St. Patrick " 2 was now to be paid for the first 
time to the see of Rome as " Peter pence," and we 
find Henry III. urging his tenants in Ireland to send 
the money to him, being, as he says, indebted to our 
lord the Pope in our annual tribute of 300 marks 
due to him from our realm of Ireland which yet re- 
mains unpaid for the two last years. 3 

Neither was the Pope ignorant of the limited 
extent of authority which this lordship conferred. 
He knew that the early kings of England could 
exercise no legal authority until their claim to the 
crown was acknowledged by the ceremony of a coro- 
nation, and recently discovered documents show that 
Richard I. merely styled himself " dominus Angliae" 
between the decease of his father and the day on 

1 " Et in generate Concilio by Rev. W. Reeves, D.D., 4to, Dub- 
ibidem celebrata Constituit Johan- lin, 1850. Preface, p. v., Irish 
nem filium suum, regem in Hiber- Archaeological Soc. Publications, 
nia concessione et confinnatione *Rotuli Litterarum Clausarum 
Alexandri Summi pontificis " in Turri. Londin. 2 Hen. III., 
Roger de Hoveden : Scriptores memb. 14, dors. Calendar of Docu- 
post Bedam, p. 323. See also ments relating to Ireland in the 
p. 316, ibid. Public Record Office, London, by 

1 Archbishop Colton's Visitation H. S. Sweetman, p. 191 ; 8vo, Lon- 

of the Diocese of Deny, A.D. 1397, don, 1875. 



190 THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 

BOOK in. ^ k } ie was crowned. 1 This distinction between the 

CHAP. II. 

PO P^I iv l r( iship and the kingdom of Ireland was acted on at 
" !i M !rv' K P R rae a t a subsequent period, as appears from the 
n.i.i<j <.f course pursued by Pope Paul IV. in A.D. 1555. For 

Irelniul, and 

when at the Reformation Henry VIII. renounced his 
allegiance to Rome, and was by an Act of Parlia- 
ment declared king of Ireland, and that his successors, 
Philip and Mary, although Roman Catholics, con- 
tinued to use that title, the Pope refused to see their 
ambassadors under that title until he had first pre- 
pared and published a bull making Ireland a king- 
dom and had authorized Philip and Mary to assume 
the legal title, and thus for ever surrendered his 
asserted claim to the land. The importance of such 
a bull was well known to the Privy Council of Eng- 
land, for it is stated by the eminent Roman Catholic 
historian, Dr. Lingard, that " as the natives of Ire- 
land had maintained that the kings of England origi- 
nally held Ireland by the donation of Adrian IV. 
and lost it by their defection at the Reformation, the 
Council delivered the bull to Dr. Gary, the new 
(Roman Catholic) Archbishop of Dublin, to be de- 
posited in the treasury, after copies had been made 
and circulated throughout the island." 2 This is strong 
evidence, but yet more conclusive testimony is to be 
found among our unpublished statutes that the cause 
of Henry's anxiety to meet the Irish kings and chief- 
tains at the Thingmount of Dublin was to impress 

1 Rotuli, Chartarum in Turri. Folio, London, 1837. Record 
Londin., asservuti. Introduction by Publications. 
Thomas Duffus Hardy, p. 17. 2 History of England, vol. vii., 

p. 255. 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OP DUBLIN. 191 

upon them the religious claim he had acquired to BOOK m 
their obedience and the right to the lordship of Ire- 
land, a title which he wished to assume. Here we 
find the Act of Parliament held at Dublin, 7th of 
Edward the IV. (A.D. 1467), which recites, " As our 
holy father Adrian, Pope of Rome, was possessed of 
all the sovereignty of Ireland in his demesne as of 
fee in right of his church of Rome and to the intent 

O . 

that vices should be subdued he alienated the said 
land to the king of England for a certain rent, &c. 
by which grant the said subjects of Ireland owe their 
obedience to the king of England as their sovereign 
lord as by said bull appears." It enacts that all 
archbishops and bishops shall excommunicate all dis- 
obedient Irish subjects, and that if they neglect to 
do so they shall forfeit 100. 1 

This meeting of Henry II. with the Irish Chieftains 
is too important in connexion with the history of 
the Thingmount and the Stein to be passed over ; 
but to refer to all the memorable events in which 
the Stein is connected with the history of Dublin 
would far exceed the limits of a paper like this ; and 
I have yet to notice the Scandinavian origin of the 
Scandinavian name of Hoggen butt, Hogshill, and 
Hoggen green in connexion with the nunnery of St. 
Mary del Hogges. 

The nunnery of St. Mary del Hogges stood near Meaning of 
the church of St. Andrew, and Harris asserts that it JJSy dfi" 
took its name from " Ogh " in the Irish language, Uo >'*"-" 
which signifies a " virgin," and he adds, " that re- 
moving the aspirate ' h,' the word, by an easy cor- 

' Parliament Roll, 7th Edward IV., Public Record Office, Ireland. 



192 THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 



n > ma y P ass i Q to Ugg es > 8* much as to say the 
Notst~Ma place of the virgins." Stevens in his Monasticon 2 
of the virgin*. gi ves the authority of Llhuyd for his derivation, 
which Archdale also gives, 3 and that learned ecclesi- 
astical historian, Dr. Lanigan, says, " that lloggis 
was not originally the name of the spot, but that it 
signified virgins through an English corruption of 
the word Ogh, a virgin, so that St. Mary de Hogges 
was the same as St. Mary of the Virgins." 4 Hitherto 
this derivation has been implicitly adopted, nor can 
we discover a single objection made or the shadow 
of a doubt cast on it ; we feel some hesitation, there- 
fore, in questioning its correctness, and can only 
expect to justify ourselves by the strong evidence 
we are about to give. In the first place I find that 
the nunnery was not exclusively for virgins. A 
manuscript in the British Museum states that " the 
The nuns not nuns were not of the younger sort but of elderlike 
elderly 1 " persons, and for those who desired to live single 
lives after the death or separation from their 
husbands," and the manuscript adds, " that Alice 
O'Toole, near to the Archbishop of Dublin, in one 
night's time left her husband and conveyed all his 
wealth into this abbey, and it was not known for 
seven years' time where she went or how she con- 
veyed away his wealth" till Laurence O'Toole's death, 
when she appeared at the funeral, and so was dis- 
covered. 6 The Alice O'Toole here mentioned was 

1 History of Dublin, p. 109. 'Ecclesiastical History of Ire- 

1 Monasticon Hibernicum, 12mo, land, vol. 4, p. 187. 

London, 1722. 'Pococke Collection, MSS., No. 

1 Archdale's Monasticum Hiber- 4,813, British Museum. 

nicum, p. 172, 4to, London, 1783. 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OP DUBLIN. 193 

the sister of the archbishop, married to the profligate BOOK in. 
Dermot M'Murrogh, the founder of the nunnery, who C|IAP ' IL 
abandoned her and married the daughter of O'Carroll. 
And the statement respecting the class of females 
inhabiting the nunnery is supported by the fact that 
ground on which the nunnery stood was called 
" Mynechens mantle " and its possessions, Mynechens 
fields 1 thereby making it as the residence not of young 
nuns but of those elderly nuns of the superior class st Mary del 
termed " mynechens " by Du Cange. And, secondly nuEy*of 
we find that the old churches in the eastern suburbs ync 
of Dublin were almost invariably distinguished by 
local names, and those names Scandinavian. St. 
Andrews was called Thengmotha, from proximity to 
the Thingmote, St. Peters del Hulle, or " of the Hill " 
from its situation on the rising ground above Ship- 
street, St. Michaels del Pol from " the pool " or 
puddle adjoining, and St. Mary's " del Dam " from st Mary del 
the darn or mill-pond close to which it stood. This of. 
latter derivation nevertheless is rejected by Harris, 
who denies that the place took its name from the 
mill-dam near it, as some have conjectured, and avers 

1 Johannes Cosgrave .... depth, which said premises are part 
seizitus de nuper abbatia de le of Minchin's Mantle,near Stephen's- 
Hoggs et de una shoppa et camera green (Registry of Deeds). In a 
in Mensions fields juxta Hoggen rental of sale of the estate of Chris- 
Green . . . et de pecia terra? topher O Council Fitzsimon, owner 
vocatae Mensions mantle. Inquisi- and petitioner, to be sold in the 
tiones Lageniae, 19th February, Landed Estates Court, on 21st 
15th James 1st (A. D. 1618), Folio. November, 1871, is named a per- 
Reconl Publication. [Joseph petual annuity of l 1," issuing out 
Lecson in 1735 demises to Edward of part of Menson's fields, being 
Knatchbull for lease of lives re- part of Kildare-street and Kildurc- 
newable for ever, part of his place near Stephcn's-green, inclu- 
(Leeson's) garden, 40 feet wide ding part of the grounds of Leinster 
from east to west, and 231 feet in House and Shelburne-place."] 





194 



THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 



BOOK in. that the c h ur ch was called " St. Mary les Dames," 

CHAF. II. 

but Harris probably was in error. In all ancient 
documents the church is called " St. Mary del Dam," 1 
the south gate of the city being called " Pol gate " 
or gate of the pool, and the eastern " Dam gate " or 
gate of the dam. Even on the opposite side of the 
river St. Mary's Abbey was called " St. Marys del 
Ostmanby" from its situation in Ostmans town. 
From these facts it might be inferred not only that 
St. Mary del Hogges was not so called from being 
the residence of virgins, but that it was so called 
from connection with the place where it stood. Of 
this we now adduce evidence. If those who alleged 
that the name came from the Irish word " ogh" had 
suspected that, like the neighbouring churches, it 
might have been called from the Scandinavian name 
of the [hogue or] place where it stood, any glossary 
would have guided them by a correct derivation. Du 
Cange and Spelman 8 refer to places so called in that 



Del Hogges, 
meaning of. 



1 " DC quadam placea vacua 
contra portam del Dam." White 
Book of Dublin. " De quadam 
particula terrae, ex opposite 
ecclesise B. V. M. del Dam, con- 
cessa Ricardo de Horham." Ibid. 
King Edward II. (8 June, 1319), 
by writ to Walter de Islip.Treasurer 
of Ireland, being informed that 
the belfry of S. Mary's church 
adjacent to the Castle had been, 
on the invasion of the Scots, taken 
down and the stones used to fortify 
the Castle, directs that it be re- 
built at the king's cost. It is there 
called "Ecclesia B. V. M. del 
Dam." Hietoric and Municipal 



Records of Ireland, A.. 1172-1320, 
p. 406. J. T. Gilbert, 8vo, Dub- 
lin, 170. An Inquisition of the 
same date speaks of the " predicta 
porta del Dam," Ibid., p. 44.5. 
"Dam Street, anciently le Dom 
Street. Here was molendinum 
castri Episcopi." Hist, and Anti- 
quities of Lichfield, p. 503, Glou- 
cester, 1806. [Del dam is mascu- 
line, of the dam. " B. V. M. la 
Dame " (which would be the pro- 
per form) is tautologous. 

2 Voce Hoga, Hoghia, ct Hogum. 
Henrici Spelman Glossarium, folio, 
London, 1626. 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 195 

part of England which the Northmen had inhabited BOOK in. 

as Grenehoga in Norfolk and Stanhogia, the gift of Cn ^_ IL 

Canute to Edwin ; and on the borders of the county 

of Dublin we find a townland having on it a remark- 

able mound or moat called Greenoge, the derivation 

of Hoga and Haghia being from " hogue " or " hog," 

a hillock or mount, the Icelandic and Norwegian 

" Hauge" (Hogge), a mound or Tumulus " being in 

this case the direct derivation, and St. Mary del 

Hogges being really St. Mary's of the hogges or 

Mount, close to which it stood. 

Olaus Wormius tells us that the Scandinavians 



distinguished three ages by the mode in which the " 



dead were treated. The first was the Roisold or 
age of Burning. The second was the Hoighold or 
age of tumuli, in which the body of the chieftain 
with his arms and ornaments was placed under a 
mount. And the third was the age of interment or 
Christian burial. 1 Hence the name of Hogges so 
frequent in all the settlements of the pagan North- 
men. Their descendants, the Anglo-Normans, in 
whose records we first find the name of St. Mary 
del Hogges, were not ignorant of its meaning. In 
their own settlements, in the Channel Islands, the 
name is given to such mounds of earth as "La 
Hougue Hatenas " and " La Hougue Fongue," in 
Guernsey, and in documents relating to La Hogue Le 
in Normandy it is spelled " Le Hogges " 2 precisely 
as we find it in their Latin documents relating to 

1 Monumentorum Danicorum, quo apud Hogges in Normannii 

&c., p. 40. guerrsB nostrse Francue appli- 

* Rex Thcsaurario, &c. : Quik cuimus &c. Close Roll 36' Edw. 

dilectus et fidelis noster Ricardus III., m. 6. (Engl.), 22 November, 

Damory nobiscum . . tempore A.D. 1362. The following is from 

o 2 



196 



THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 



BOOK IIL 
CHAP. If. 



the nunnery on the Stein. But more remarkable 
authority is found in the dictionary De Trevoux :' 
there Hogue is stated to be an old word signifying 1 
a " mound or tumulus," and a port in Normandy, 
the name of the place being " Hoga, Hogo, or Oga, 
Ogo," thus removing the aspirate " h," and leaving 
the name, as our Tiish authorities have done, when 
stating that the nunnery of St. Mary del Hogges 
was so called from the Irish word " Ogh, a Virgin." 
We might rely on this evidence as conclusive 
against the derivation heretofore given for St. Mary 
del Hogges, Hoggen Green, 5 Hogs Hill, 3 Hoggen 



Hoggen 

the Proceedings and Ordinances 
of the Privy Council, 28 Novem- 
ber, A.D. 1423. u Et auxi pur 
les gages de luy mesmes, xxxix. 
homes d'armes, et Ixxx. archiers 
. . . pur salve conduer les niefs 
et veissells en les queux le Count 
de Marche et autres sieurs se 
transfreterent d'Engleterre jesques 
le Hogges en Normandy." Pro- 
ceedings and Ordinances of the 
Privy Council of England, 10 
Richard II. 33 Henry VIII. 
Vol. iii., p. 125. 7 vols. royal 8vo. 
(1834-1837). Record Publication. 
1 Hogue ; Collis, tumulus, locus 
edit us. Vieux mot qui signifie 
une colline, un lieu cleve". Dic- 
tionnaire Universel, Francois et 
Latin, vulgairement appele" Dic- 
tionnaire de Trevoux, Paris, 1 752. 
' Haugr ; a How, a mound, a 
cairn over one dead : Names of 
such cairns, Korna-Haugr, Mel- 
korka-Haugr. Hauga-thing, an 
assembly in Norway." Icelandic 
English Dictionary by Gudbrand 
Vigfusson, M.A., 4to, Oxford, 
Clarendon Press, 1874. 



2 " Hogges " changed for the 
Saxon plural became Hoggen 
(as oxen, hosen, &c.), hence 
" Hoggen Green." Reconverted 
into modern English it became 
" Hog's Green," as in the follow- 
ing order of the year 1615: " Or- 
dered that the Provost and Fellows 
of Trinity College, Dublin, shall 
have the precinct of a house called 
Bridewell, upon Hog's Green, at 
y' rent of 2 shillings, to be con- 
verted by them to a Free School 
only." Easter Assembly, 1615, 
City Records. The memory of 
the origin of Hoggen Green 
being lost it became " Hogan's 
Green " : Thus the City having 
demised (6 November, 1764) a 
lot of ground near Hogan's Green, 
for three lives renewable for ever, 
to Garret Earl of Mornington, 
the said Garret (13 May, 1766) 
sold his interest to Peter Wilson, 
bookseller, (Registry of Deeds). 

3 In A.D. 1605 a lease is ordered 
to be made to Jacob Xcwman of 
a lot near the end of Hog-lane. 
Assembly Roll. In Brooking's 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 197 

Butt, 1 and all those places situate in the vicinity of BOOK in. 
the Hogges or Tumuli of the Stein, nevertheless we C " AP ' " 
must add from its bearing on the Thingmount of 
Dublin that the Scandinavians not only called their 
Tumuli Haugr or Hogs ; but sometimes using these 
mounds of earth as Thingmounts they gave to the 
mounds or tumuli so used the name of Tinghoges. 

In Peringskiold's " Monumentorum Sveo Gothico- Meetings held 
rum" we find that the great Althing the judicial mounds and 
mount where the national councils of Sweden hogea. 
were held was called the Tingshoge. This 
mount stands outside Gamla Upsala, on the 
plain near the river close to the Temple of Odin, 
and to what he calls the Kings Hogges (the 
three great Tumuli of the kings). Peringskiold 
states that it was raised originally for the Tumulus 
of Freyer "and on account of the community being 
anciently congregated there to elections, and to 
sacred and judicial business, it was called the 
judicial mount or Tingshoge." 2 The Sagas fre- 
quently refer to this practice, and mention several 
instances of Tings held on tumuli or hills which 
from thence were called Tingshoge, nor are we 
without traces of the prevalence of this custom 

map of Dublin, 1728, the con- previously Commonwealth) Printer 

tinuation of Trinity-street towards in Ireland, by his will, made 26 

William-street is Hog-hill. In April, 1662, bequeaths to his 

1779, when Curran came to prac- wife " a piece of ground in 

tice at the Bar at Dublin, he had Dublin near the Hogg and Butts." 

his " lodging on Hog-hill." Phil- (Prerogative Probate, Public Re- 

lips's Recollections of Curran, 8vo, cord Office, Ireland.) 
London, 1818. * Monnmentorum Sueo-Gothi- 

1 In 1662 Hoggen Butts had corum, Liber Primus, Johannes 

become the Hogg and Butts : Thus Peringbkioldi, pp.217, 219, folio, 

Alderman Bladen, King's (and Stockholm, 1710. 



198 



THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 



BOOK III. 

ClIAV. II. 

Tlnghoges in 
England. 



The Dublin 
Thingmount 
perhaps a 
burial mound. 



Conclusion. 



amongst the Northmen in England, Gale in his 
Histor}' of Suffolk states that the Hundred of 
Thinghoge was so called from " the spot within its 
limits where the placita for the whole jurisdiction 
were held, Thinghoge," he adds, "signifying the 
Hill of Council," being the artificial Mount near 
which the Church of St. Edmundsbury had been 
erected. 1 In the Domesday Book 2 and in Ely 
Inquisition the name is spelled variously Tingoho, 
Tingohan, and Thinghow, &c , the Saxon or Norman 
scribes endeavouring to give a Latin form to the 
Scandinavian word, but throughout we can trace 
the derivation to the Tinghoge or Thingmount, this 
mount at the Church of St. Edmundsbury, giving 
the name of Tinghoge to the Hundred as the mount 
near the Church of St. Andrew gave the name of 

o 

Thengmotha to the district in which it stood. 

Nor is it improbable that the Thingmount of 
Dublin also may have been a Tumulus from the 
remains found close to it if not on the spot where it 
stood. 

On these details I fear I have dwelled too long, 
and in the effort to compress within a moderate 
space so many facts and statements connected with 
the Scandinavian remains of Dublin, I may have 
rendered the description of its monuments of the 
Stein less clear than could have been wished, and 
have omitted to refer to doubts and objections 
which further statements would have removed. I 
trust, however, that the novelty of the subject will 

1 History and Antiquities of 4to, London, 1838. 
Suffolk, Introduction, pp. ix., x., 3 Ibid. 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OP DUBLIN. 199 

be some apology, and that, even apart from anti- BOOK in. 
quarian objects, it will be considered interesting Cn l! I L IL 
that, at a moment when the ancient Laws of Ireland 
are about to be published, 1 we should have before 
us some of those facts which show that the Scandi- 
navian settlements of Ireland were governed by 
Scandinavian Laws, and continued to be so governed 
until Anglo-Norman conquest extinguished Scandi- 
navian dominion. England has preserved the 
written code under which Canute ruled the amalga- 
mated nations of Britons, Saxons, and Danes. 8 We 
do not believe that the Irish and the Northmen at 
any time obeyed the same Laws. But in the Gragas 
of Iceland, 3 and embodied in the Leges Gula- 
thing of Norway/ we apparently possess the Code 
which governed the Scandinavians of Ireland. We 
see that the popular assembly of the Thingmount 
was the source of all political power, and the trial 
by jury the protection of civil rights, and we have 
now to learn how far our Celtic institutions were 
modified by the spirit of freedom which characterized 
their Ostmen neighbours, that remarkable nation 
who for three centuries occupied the principal sea- 
ports of Ireland, and, as allies or enemies, were ever 
in contact with the native inhabitants. 

'[Since published under the folio (1840), or 2 vols. royal 8vo, 

title" Ancient Laws and Institutes cloth. Record Publication, 

of Ireland or Senchus Mor, 3 YO!S., * Grdgds Logbok Islendinga seu 

imperial 8vo, 1865-1873.] Codex Juris Jslandorum, 2 vols, 

4to, Havniae, 1829. 

Ancient Laws and Institutes of * Gulathings laus, Magnus Laga- 

England ; comprising Laws enacted Baeters, seu Regis Magni Leges 

under the Anglo-Saxon Kings, Gula Thingenses, sive Jus Com- 

from JSthelbirht to Cnut, &c. mune Norvegicum, 4to, Havniae) 

Edited by Benjamin Thorpe, 1 vol. 1817. 



APPENDIX. 



I. ON THE ANCIENT NAME OF DUBLIN. 

II OBSERVATIONS EXPLANATORY OF SIR BERNARD 
DE GOMME'S MAP, SHOWING THE STATE OF 
THE HARBOUR AND RIVER AT DUBLIN IN THE 

YEAR 1673. 



202 THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 



APPENDIX. 



ON THE ANCIENT NAME OF DUBLIN. 1 

Shallowness of the navigable channel of the Liffey in early times Fords 
at Dublin Bally-Ath-Cliath, the Town of the Hurdleford, the 
original name of Dublin Mistakes of Stanihurst, Ware, and others 
as to the origin and meaning of the name Circumstances misleading 
them The true meaning of Bally-Ath-Cliath stated in the 
Dinn Seanchus Nature of the structure of the Hurdleford Tochers 
or wooden causeways distinguished from Droichets or bridges 
Droichets or regular bridges distinguished from Droichet-Cliaths 
A regular bridge at Dublin before the English Invasion Bridge of 
the Ostmen or Dubhgall's bridge Early bridges in England Re- 
building of London bridge in stone in King John's reign Site of the 
Hurdleford of Dublin discussed Dr. Petrie's identification of the 
fire great Slighs or roads leading from Tara in the first century of 
the Christian era The Hurdleford at Bally-Ath-Cliath shown to be 
in the line of the Sligh Cualan. 

AT the request of my colleagues in the Commission for Pre- 
serving and Improving the Port of Dublin,! undertook some- 
time since to collect materials for a history of the harbour, 
principally with a view to trace the progress of improvements 
in the navigable channel of the Liffey, and to preserve some 
record of the various plans proposed and of the effect of works 
executed for deepening the river and rendering the port com- 
modious for shipping. 

In pursuit of these objects it became necessary to contrast 

the ancient with the present state of the river and harbour. 

Sites of early It is generally known that until 1791, when the new 

Hou8. Custom House was opened on the north side of the river, 

there was a custom house and quay at the south-east side 

1 The text of this paper without Academy, vol. xxii., having been 
the notes was printed in the read there on the 12th of June, 
Transactions of the Royal Irish 1854. 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OP DUBLIN. 



203 



of Essex-bridge, 1 where vessels trading to our port discharged 
their cargoes ; and previously to 1620 vessels unloaded at 
Merchants'-quay and Wood-quay, the custom house or 
crane being then opposite to the end of Winetavern-street. 4 
Hence it might be inferred that when vessels ascended the 
river nearly a mile above the wharfs where they are now 
moored, the channel must have been deeper than at present ; 
but independently of the facts that the ships which formerly 



APPENDIX 



1 [At the accession of James L, 
the customs were for the most part 
in the hands of the several port 
(or walled) towns of Ireland under 
grants from the Kings for the 
purpose of walling them and 
defending them against the " Irish 
Enemy." King James I., resumed 
them. (Calandar of State Papers 
(Ireland) of King, James I., A.D. 
1611-1614, pp. 140, 194.) By 
letter under Privy Seal of 29th 
of July, 1619, the King ordered 
ground to be purchased in the 
different ports for cranes and 
wharfs. (Printed Patent Rolls, 
17th of James L, p. 435, cxxviii., 
36.) By letter of 20th Septem- 
ber, 1620, he directed a lease of 
ninety years to be taken from 
James Newman, of 120 feet in 
front to the Liffey, and in depth 
from north to south about 160 feet 
for a crane and wharf. (7Z>. Roll 
18th James I., xxxv., 18, p. 483.) 
The lease in pursuance is dated 
10th November, 1620. (Ib. xxxvi., 
19, p. 483. Enrolled also in Com- 
munia roll of the Exchequer, 
1 626.) In 1639 the premises were 
enlarged and the New Custom 
House built. For by indenture 
between the Corporation and King 
Charles I., in order that the King 
might have room convenient for 



building of a New Custom House 
and the enlargement of the wharf, 
the Corporation grants to the King 
a plot for that purpose therein 
described. ( Exchequer Com- 
inunia roll, M ichaelmas 1 640.) The 
house then built would seem to 
have been taken down and rebuilt 
in 1707. (City Annals, Thorn's 
Directory.) A view of the Custom 
House is given among the vignettes 
round "Brooking's Map of Dublin," 
published in 1728.] 

* In 1651, Richard Heydon and 
four others pray a lease from the 
Corporation for sixty-one years 
from Michaelmas 1652, of the plot 
of ground on Wood Kea formerly 
demised by the city for an Exchange 
thereon to be boilded. (Acts of 
Assembly, Michaelmas, 1651.) In 
1701, amongst the properties sold 
after the route of the Boyne, at 
Chichester House in College-green 
was ' one backside and garden, 
commonly called 'the Royal Ex- 
change,' claimant John Weaver> 
executor of Daniel Hutchinson ; 
Proprietor Christopher Fagan by 
lease dated 20th April, 1648, for 
niuety-nine years to Daniel Hutch- 
inson. ( Book of claims at 
Chichester House, No. 178, p. 
19.) 



204 THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 

APPENDIX, traded to the port were not only differently constructed but 
were much smaller than those now employed, there are 
historical incidents which show that at an early period the 
Liffey was so shallow near the city that it presented no 
great obstacle to predatory incursions from the southern 
parts of Leinster into Meath. 

Unfortunately, however, no map could be found older than 
the small outline of the city published under the date of 
1610, in "Speed's British Theatre" 1 and as it gives no 
information respecting the position of the fords or shallow 
places in any part of the river it becomes necessary to seek 
that information from documents of another kind. 
Shaliowness of In the State Paper Office, London, there is a report, made 

the Liffey in 

1590. about the year 1590, which very minutely describes the 

circuit of the city walls, with its other defences, and states 
that the depth of water in the Liffey opposite Merchants'- 
quay and Wood-quay varied from 3 to 6 feet. 2 This sur- 
vey, however, only refers to that part of the river front- 
ing the city walls. But among our unpublished records I 
found two with more important information respecting 
the state of the river, and in the preceding century. 
Apparently these documents had been heretofore unnoticed. 
Their contents are not specified in the list of unpublished 
statutes made by the Record Commissioners, nor are they 
to be found in the list printed in the " Liber Hibernise." 3 

1 Theatre of the Empire of Keeper of H. M. Pub. Records, 

Great Britain, by John Speed, 8vo > 1867 > PP- 590-592. 

London, folio, 1610. 3 Liber Munerum Publicorum ab 

anno 1152 usque ad 1827, or the 

31 A note of the whole circuit of t w L e T i j r 

., -. .. _ . ,. establishments of Ireland from the 

the City walk of Dublin from the mh of K ^ fco ^ nh 

towercaUed "Bremegham'sTowre" ofGeorgeIV th ... Extracted 

of the Castle unto the East gate from the pnbUc Recordg b ial 

called Dame is Gate " of the said Commission, being the Report of 

City according to the direction of Rowley La8Celles of the Middle 

the Lord Deputy. Calendar of Temple,Barrister-at-Law, P ursu a nt 

the State Papers (Ireland) of to an address of the Commons 

Elizabeth, A.D. 1574-1585, by ordered to be printed A.D. 1824, 2 

Hans Claude Hamilton, Assistant vo 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 205 

The first is an ordinance of a Great Council held in April, 

1455, before Thomas Earl of Kildare (Deputy to Richard 

Duke of York) enacting that the landholders of the barony 

Castleknock and of the cross of Finglas shall stop all the 

fords on the Liffey between the bridge of Lucan and city of 

Dublin the landowners of the baronies of Balrothery and 

Coolock and the crosses of Lusk and Swords stopping 

the fords and shallow places between the bridge of Dublin 

and the island of Clontarf. 1 The other is an Act of a 

Parliament held Friday before the feast of St. Luke, being 

October in the 34 Hen. VI. This Act recites in French Ford near St. 

that many Irish enemies and English rebels coming by ^^456. ey 

the ford at the pier of St. Mary's Abbey, &c. ("la vade 

par le pier de Seint Mary Abbay ") enter Fingal by night 

and rob and destroy the liege people of the King, and for 

remedy enacts that a wall 20 perches long and 6 feet 

high and also a tower shall be built at Saint Mary's Abbey 

to stop the ford there (" une toure ove une mure del XX. 

perches de longour'et vi pees del hautesse soient faitz par le 

mure de Seint Mary Abbay avantdit"), and that 140 marks 

shall be levied on lands in the vicinity to defray the expense 

of this and similar works. 2 It appears, however, that these 

measures were not effective, as we find it elsewhere stated 

that in 1534 Lord Thomas Fitzgerald, the celebrated Silken 

Thomas, with a troop of armed men rode through Dublin 

and passing out at Dame's Gate went over the ford to St. 

Mary's Abbey. Some of his adherents who had besieged 

the Castle subsequently effecting their escape by fording the 

river at the same place. 3 This decisive evidence of a ford 

nearly opposite the city momentarily diverted attention from 

the immediate subject of investigation by creating doubt 

thirty-third of Henry VI., chap. 'Thirty-fourth of Henry VI., 

4. [See also translations of the chap. 28, Ibid. 

early Statute Roll of Ireland made , Holinshed . 8 chronicle, 4to, 

by the Uecord Commissioner* of ^ 180? vol y ; 292 
1810, MS. Public Record Office 
Ireland.] 



206 



THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 



Mistakes of 
Stanihurst. 



KXDIX. whether the derivation very generally given of the ancient 
name of Dublin might not be erroneous. 

Almost without exception every published history of 
fore the name. Dublin asserts that the Irish name " Bally-Ath-Cliath, or 
the town on the ford of hurdles," originated in pecularities 
of the site on which the city was found, and that it had no 
reference to a ford or passage across the Liffey. 

Stanihurst, writing in 1570, says that "the Irish called 
Dublin ' Bally-Ath-Cliath,' that is a town planted upon 
hurdels, for the common opinion is that the plot upon which 
the city is builded hath been a marsh ground, and that 
by the art or invention of the first founder, the water 
could not be voided and he was forced to fasten the 
quakemire with hurdels and upon them to build the 
Citie," and adds " I heard ot some that came of building of 
houses to this foundation." 1 

Nearly the same derivation is given by Camden ; who 
states that " the Irish call it the town on the Ford of 
Hurdles, for so they think the foundation lies, the ground 
being soft and quaggy like Sevile in Spain, that is said by 
Isidore to be so called because it stood upon piles fastened 
in the ground which WPS loose and fenny." 2 

Speed says that the Irish name was " the Ford of 
Hurdles " for it is reported that the place being fennish 
and moorish when it first began to be builded the foundation 
was laid upon hurdles." 3 

That great authority on Irish History, Sir James Ware, 
says it was called " the town on the ford of hurdles because 
being on a marshy or boggy soil the town was first raised 
on hurdles." 4 



Camden. 



Speed. 



Ware. 



1 Stanihurst, Ibid, p. 21. 

2 Camden, ' Britannia,' vol. ii., 
p. 1366, London, 1733. 

8 Theatre of the Empire of 
Great Britain, by John Speed, 
London, folio, 1676, b. iv., chap. 3, 
p. 141. 

4 Disquisitions upon Ireland and 



its antiquities, by Sir James Ware. 
'Of places of Ancient Ireland 
mentioned by Ptolemy, chap, x." 
"Second edition, London, 1658. 
Reprinted among a collection of 
tracts illustrative of Ireland prior 
to the present century," by 
Alexander Thorn, 2 vols., 8vo, 
Dublin, 1860, p. 193. 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 207 

Harris differs in some degree by stating that " before the APPKMDUL 
Liffey was embanked by quays people had access to it by Harris. 
means of hurdles laid on the low marshy parts of the town 
adjoining the water, from which hurdles it took its name 
and not from the foundation of it having been laid on piles 
or hurdles as some have asserted." ' 

Whitelaw and Walsh in this as in many other instances 
adopt the words of Harris without any acknowledgment of 
their source of information. 2 

O'Halloran is singular in the opinion that it was the 
north side of the river which was called " Ath Cliath," and 
that it communicated with Dublin, which was on the south 
side, by a ford of hurdles, 3 and Vallancey asserts that the 
name was " Bally Lean Cliath " from being built in or near 
a fishing harbour where certain weirs made of hurdles 
were used. 

It thus appears that with the exception of O'Halloran o'Halionm 



these historians concur in ascribing the name " Ath Cliath," " ' 
to some peculiarity in the site of the city differing on the 
manner in which hurdles were employed whether in the 
foundations of houses or in roads on the river banks or in 
fishing weirs but agreeing in not tracing the name to any 
passage across the river, and that they are correct in one 
portion of their statement, that is, in asserting that Dublin 

1 History and antiquities of the called from ' Dubh,' black, and 

city of Dublin, by the late Walter 'lin,' a port, because built down 

Harris, pp. 10, 11, 8vo, Dublin, Patrick-street and Kevin 's-port, 

1766. and the Poddle. which last probably 

1 History of the City of Dublin, got its name from its low, dirty situa- 

by the late J. Warburton, Rev. tion, quasi Puddle. The north side 

John Whitelaw, and the Rev. was called Atha Cliath or the Ford 

Robert Walsh, 2 vols 4to, Dublin, of Hurdles, communicating with 

1818. Dubhlin by that means, and from 

3 Dubhlin, for so this city was its contiguity to the water was more 

called in those days, lay on the convenient for traffic. 'General 

south side of the Liffey and History of Ireland,' by Silvester 

seemingly at some distance from O'Hulloran, 2 vols., 4to, London, 

the river, and would seem was so 1778. 'Introduction/ p. 120. 



208 THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 

j g built on a marshy soil, was recently placed beyond 
doubt. 
Dublin of late At the closeof thelast year, in making a large sewer through 

f"iui.l Imilt on TT _. 

I,..-. High-street, Castle-street, Wmetavern and lishaml tie- 

street, the ground was opened to the depth of 8 to 14 
feet, and a section was thereby exposed of the elevated 
ridge and one side of the hill on which the old city stood. 

The work was nearly complete before my attention was 
directed to it, but Mr. Neville, the city Engineer, having 
kindly accompanied me I had facilities for examining a 
part of the excavation and of hearing from him and the 
contractor for the work an account of its progress. 

From the middle of High-street to the Castle wall, at 
depths varying from 8 to 10 feet, the workmen found 
a stratum of black boggy soil, generally soft but in some 
places so compact that one of the labourers asserted that 
he had used it for fuel during the time he was employed in 
the work. Above this stratum was found one of leaves, 
and branches, &c., of trees (to which I will presently refer) 
the stratum immediately under the roadway being soft clay 
or mud intermingled with shells. 

In Fishamble-street, at the depth of 12 to 14 feet, 
was found a quantity of squared oak timber apparently 
portions of frame work with piles 4 to 5 feet long, and 
in Christ Church-place were found foundations of houses, 
and below those soft mud mixed with shells, leaves, pieces 
of trees, and black boggy stuff or peat. 

The stratum of peat terminated near St. Audoen's Church, 
where blue or yellow clay (the very general substratum of 
bogs in Ireland), was found below the roadway, the 
foundations and vaults of Newgate being discovered a 
short distance westward, thus marking the portion of High- 
street, &c., within the city walls. 

From proprietors of houses in the same district I 
ascertained that nearly similar results had followed 
excavations for new buildings. 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OP DUBLIN. 209 

When rebuilding part of the " Irish Woollen Warehouse " 
in Castle-street, in 1838, the ground was excavated about HOUM* on bog 
20 feet, but foundations so deep did not secure the 8 " r ^,* 8tl 
su pel-structure, the front wall fell, the stack of chimneys 
sank nearly 4 feet and ultimately it became necessary to 
place a frame of timber with concrete to build on. In this 
excavation the workmen found black turf covered by a 
stratum of leaves and portions of trees, the upper stratum 
being soft clay or mud with shells intermixed. 

When rebuilding the Artists Warehouse in Fishamble- I D Fishambie- 
street, it was likewise found necessary to lay the foundations Btl 
on a frame of timber. The soil had been excavated or 
pierced with boring rods upwards of 30 feet without 
touching firm ground. The under stratum was nearly pure 
black turf and above it loose clay, the upper stratum being 
soft and intermingled with shells, but the shells found here 
were of cockles and muscles which appeared to have been 
opened for food being probably the refuse of the ancient 
fish shambles which occupied this site and from which the 
street is named. 

During alterations in the basement of No. 3, High-street, i n High-street 
it was ascertained that the house had been built on a frame 
of timber and other houses in that and Castle-street were 
ascertained to have been erected in the same manner. 
There can be no doubt therefore that Dublin, within the 
old walls, stands on a plot of marshy ground and that in 
laying the foundations of houses it is necessary to fix the 
quagmire with hurdles or frames of timber. Previously 
however to observations on these facts so connected with 
the name Ath Cliath, the evidence obtained respecting other 
peculiarities of the site may be stated. 

Harris, in his " History and Antiquities of Dublin," says, Drom Choll 
the site on which the city was founded was called " Drom 
Choll Coill " (the Brow of the Hazelwood), 1 and a consider- wood - 
able quantity of hazel nuts having been found intermingled 
Pp. 10.11. 

P 



210 THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 

w ith the stratum of leaves and portions of trees already 
mentioned, I had ten specimens of trees which had been 
dug up in different parts of Castle-street excavation, sub- 
mitted for the inspection of Professor Allman. Dr. All man 
found the fibre of one of these specimens so much injured 
by lying in the wet bog or otherwise, that the species of 
tree to which it belonged could not be determined ; but he 
ascertained that three of the others were willow and five 
hazel this, and the number of hazel-nuts found, supplying 
presumptive evidence that at a remote period a hazel-wood 
grew on this hill, and that Harris, or rather the Irish 
authority on which he relied, was probably correct in 
stating that " The Brow of the Hazelwood " was a name 
for the ridge of the hill on which Dublin was built. 

But as regards the name of the city itself, although these 
excavations furnished incontrovertible evidence that Stani- 
hurst and others had correctly stated that Dublin is built 
on a marshy soil, where some security is necessary to the 
foundations of modern houses ; it did not follow that they 
were equally correct in asserting that the Irish name " Ath 
Cliath " originated from the use of hurdles in building the 
city. 

Mistakes as to " Ath Cliath " is a name of high antiquity. We find it 
Ath-ciiatif. m connexion with transactions anterior to the fifth and 
sixth centuries, and we are aware that prior to that period 
the dwellings of the natives were almost universally con- 
structed of timber, or of timber and wickerwork, plastered 
with clay. 1 As such habitations did not require the firm 

' ["The poorer Irish who follow custom; for such are the dwellings 

'creaghting,' or running up and of the very lords amongst them." 

down the country after their herds I-'ynes Moryson, p. 164, London, 

of cattle, dwell in booths made of folio 1617. The following descrip- 

hurdles or boughs covered with tion was written in 1644.' "The 

long strips of green turf instead of towns are built in the Enirlis-li 

canvas, run up in a few minutes, fashion ; but the houses in the 

and even the higher classes in Ulster, country are in this manner: two 

who, some of them, follow the same stakesare fixed in the ground, across 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 211 

foundations indispensable for the brick and stone, or high 
cagework, houses of the period when these histories of 
Dublin were compiled, is it not doubtful that previously to 
the sixth century the city should have been named from 
the use of hurdles in the foundation of houses ? Is it not 
much more probable that the statements of Stanihurst and 
Ware originated in the very common practice of deriving 
ancient names from modern facts ? The suburbs of the 
city furnish a remarkable instance of this mode of proceed- 
ing. Ringsend is alleged to be so called because the of Ringsend. 
mooring rings for shipping in the Liffey ended there j 1 the 
more probable derivation being from the Irish word (Bin) 
Rinn, a point or tongue of land, corrupted into ring, as in 
Ringrone, Ringagonal, Ringhaddy, or other points of land 
jutting into rivers or into the sea. Another instance may 
be found in the alleged origin of the name Pill-lane, which of Pffl-iane. 
is stated by De Burgho (in his " Hibernia Dominicana") to 
be from some fancied connexion with the English Pale, 8 
instead of being from a way leading to the " Pill " or little 

which is a trans verse pole to support which inconvenience might be 

rows of sloping stakes, on the two avoided if there were an house built 

sides, which are covered with straw for an officer ... at the place 

and leaves. They are without called ' the Ringsend.' " Letter of 

chimneys. . . ." Travels of the King James I., under Privy Seal, 

Sicur De La Boullaye le Gouz, 29th October, 1 620. Printed Patent 

' Gentilhomme Angevin,' in Italy, Rolls of King James I. Art. i., p. 

Greece, Anatolia, Syria, East Indies, 506. Ibid., 1 2th Oct., Ait. cxxx- 

Great Britain, and Ireland, &c., ii., p. 512. 

&c. 4to, Paris, 1657. Edited by * u On the north side (of the river) 

Crofton Croker for Camden Soc., {s p^.^ (Viculus Pali)> com . 

1837, p. 40.] monly ^^ tpiu.] anet . being a 

'"And whereas . . .the corruption of the word Pale, meaning 

place where ships do ride at anchor enclosure, as I have already ex- 

. . . is so far from our Custom plained when treating of the English 

House that many goods . . . Pale in Ireland." Hibernia Domi- 

may be conveyed from said ships nicana, Thomas De Burgo, Colon ia 

at night without the knowledge of Agrippina, p. 189, 4to, 1762. 
our Officers of Customs, . . . 

P2 



212 



THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 



APPENDIX, harbour of St. Mary's Abbey, 1 where the Bradogue river 2 
entered the Liffey. Nor should we feel much surprise at 
Stanihurst, a citizen of Dublin, unacquainted with the Irish 
language, and knowing nothing of Irish manuscripts, should 
think that he had sufficient authority for his derivation of 
the name of "Ath Cliath,' when he saw the houses around 
him built on hurdles or frames of timber ; neither should it 
excite surprise if Harris, the biographer of King William III., 
knowing that the king's troops, like those of Cromwell under 
1 This Pill was filled up, and Or- Pill laid out for Ormond market, 



mond Market occupies the site, as 
appears from the following entries 
on the Assembly Rolls : 

" Michaelmas, 1617 The Eight 

Corporations prayed for a lease for 
99 years upon the Pill beyond the 
water, at the yearly rent of ten 
pounds. Midsummer, 1619 The 
Commons petitioned that foras- 
much as the void ground called the 
Pill is long void, and might yield 
rent Ordered, that if the Eight 
Corporations do not take a lease it 
may be let to the best advantage. 
It seems to have been afterwards 
leased to James Barry and others. 
20th June, 1657 Committee ap- 
pointed to compromise a long suit 
between the City and James Barry 
(made Lord Santry in 1661), Sir 
Robert Meredith, Alderman Charles 
Forster, and others, for arrears of 
rent due for the land called the 
Pill, near St. Mary's Abbey. 22nd 
January, 1674 Jonathan Amory, 
merchant, to have a lease of that 
part of the strand on the north side 
of the Liffey, between the wall of 
the Pill in the possession of Lord 
Snntry, and the watermill lately 
built by Gilbert Mabbot. Easter, 
16S4 Sir John Davys being in- 
terested in the ground lying on the 



and the city having lately taken in 
some of the bed of the river adjacent, 
he prayed for a lease for 99 years 
of the ground thus taken in ; but 
the city resolved to have the new 
ground fora quay, and considering 
that the fish market there would 
hinder the beautifying of the quay, 
and ought to stay where it was, 
would only grant the lease on c Au- 
dition of Sir John keeping it as :i 
quay, and further undertaking to 
flag the market " City By- Laws, 
Haliday MSS. R. I. Academy. 

2 "It rises in the suburban dis- 
tricts and enters the city boundary 
where Grangegorman-lane joins the 
Circular-road, continues under 
Upper Grangegorman-lane, under 
the Penitentiary, the canal near the 
terminus of the Midland Great 
Western Railway, along the rear of 
the houses at the west side of x 
Dominick-street, and by Bolton- 
strcet, South Halston-street, Boot- 
lane, East Arran -street, to the 
Lifley. A branch of the stream 
also passes under the Richmond 
Hospital, and joins the Red Cow- 
lam- sewer/' Neville's Report to 
the Corporation of Dublin on the 
Sewers, 1853. 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 213 

Ludlow, 1 had laid hurdles along the marshy banks of the APPEKDUC. 
Shannon, should suppose that similar means had been used 
to pass along the banks of the Liffey, and that from this 
" fording of hurdles " the town was named. 

But it should not be necessary to resort to conjectures Origin of the 
for, apart from any consideration arising out of the antiquity 
of the name, or from the fact that the word " Ath " is almost 
invariably connected with the Irish name for fords of 
rivers, the " Dinn Seanchus" (one of the oldest of the Irish 
topographical tracts) distinctly asserts that the City was 
named from a contiguous ford on the Liffey, which ford 
was called "Athcliath," or the ford of hurdles, because 
hurdles were placed there in the reign of King Mesgedhra 
to enable the sheep of Athairne Ailgeaseah to pass over 
the river to Dun Edair, a fortress on Howth. 3 

There are few countries in which an ancient authority 
of this kind would not be preferred to the surmises of a 
recent historian, or where such a manuscript would not be 
considered sufficient to establish an etymology, but Irish 
authorities on the ancient state of Ireland are not so freely 
received. The Chronicles of Bede, Hoveden, William of 
Malmsbury, or Mathew of Westminster, although burdened 
with enormous fictions, prodigies, or miracles are, notwith- 
standing, implicitly relied on as the groundwork of English 
history, while the statements of the greater portion of our 
Irish Annalists are utterly rejected, because these annalists, 
like the early historians of all nations, embellish narratives 
of fact with tales of romance, and ascribe to the founders 
of National royalty some remote and seemingly fabulous 
origin. I will, therefore, adduce other authorities to corrobo- 
rate that of the " Dinn Seanchus," at least so far as to 
show that at a very early period there was an artificial passage 
across the Liffey at Dublin. 

1 Memoirs of Edmond Ludlow, " Dublin Penny Journal," 1 7 
folio, London, 1751 ; pp. 133, 134. November, 1832., vol. L, p. 157. 
* John O'Donovan, LL.D., 



214 



THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 



APPENDIX. 



Being without those aids which coins 



and medals else- 
where supply, it is difficult to discover the precise character 
of many of our ancient structures. Our early writer 
seldom explicit in their descriptions of Irish structures 
in the present instance we have no information from i.\\<-\\\ 
what this " Ford of Hurdles" really was. It is probable, 
however, that it was a passage formed by hurdles and stems 
of trees laid on piles of stone placed at intervals in the 
stream. Vestiges of such rude structures yet exist, and 
whether across rivers, swamps, or bogs, are denominated 
" tochars," or causeways, in centra-distinction to the more 
regular structure which is termed " droichet" or bridge. 
Droichead- But even in more regular structures, hurdles appear to have 
hurdle' bridges, been used, as Irish writers distinguish as " droichet," a 
m Ireland. bridge of timber or stone, and a " droichead cleithe," or 
bridge of hurdles 1 , and there are circumstances which justify 



1 A.D. 1116 this year (the Four 
Masters say 1120;, three principal 
bridges were built by Toirlheach 
Ua Conchobair (Turlough O'Con- 
nor), viz. : the bridge of Athluain 
(Athlone), and the bridge of Ath 
Crocha (near Shannon Harbour), 
and the bridge of Dunleodha 
(Dunlo). Chronicum Scotorum : 
A Chronicle of Irish Affairs from 
the earliest times to 1135, with a 
Supplement from 1141 to 1150. 
Edited with a Translation by 
William Maunsell Hennessy, 
M.R.I.A., 8vo., Dublin, 1866 (Master 
of the Roll's Series). A.D. 1125: 
The bridge of Athluain and the 
bridge of AthCroich were destroyed 
by the men of Meath. Annals of 
the Four Masters, by John 
O'Donovan, LL.D., 7 vols., 4to 
Dublin, 1851. A.D. 1129: The 
Castle of Athluain and the bridge 
were erected by Toirdhelb Ua Con- 
cbobhair in the summer of this year 
'in the summer of the drought." 



Ibid. A.D. 1133: The wickei 
bridge of Athluain and its Castle 
were destroyed by Murchadh Ua 
Maelseachlainn and Tighearnan 
Ua lluairc. A.D. 1155: The bridge 
of Athluain was destroyed, and its 
fortress burned by Donnchadh, 
son of Domhnal Ua Maelseachlainn. 
Ibid. A.D. 1 159 : A wicker bridge 
(Cliath Droichet) was made at 
Athluain by Kuaidhir Ua Con- 
chobhair for the purpose of making 
incursion into Meath. The forces 
of Meath and Teathba. . . 
went to prevent the erection of the 
bridge, and a battle was fought 
between both parties at Athluain. 
Ibid. A.D. 1170: The Ua Maine 
plundered Ormond on this occasion, 
and destroyed the wooden bridge 
of Cille Dalua (Killaloe) Ibid. 
A.D. 1140: A wicker bridge was 
made by Turlough O'Connor 
across Athliag (Ballyliag, near 
Lanesboro'). 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 215 

the suggestion that our hurdle bridges were somewhat 

similar to those which are still used in the East, wherein 

the words of Dr. Layard in the " Nineveh Researches" 

" Stakes are firmly fastened together with twigs, forming a Hurdle bridges 

long hurdle reaching from one side of the river to the other, m 

the two ends are laid upon beams resting upon piers on 

the opposite banks. Both beams and basket-work are kept 

in their places by heavy stones heaped upon them." And he 

adds " Animals, as well as men, are able to pass over this 

frail structure, which swings to and fro, and seems ready to 

give way at every step." 1 Apparently it was a structure of 

this kind to which the Four Masters refer, when recording 

o 

that " O'Donnell ordered his army to construct a strong 
hurdle bridge [across the Mourne], which being done, his 
whole army, both infantry and cavalry, crossed over," and, 
" They then let the bridge float down the stream, so that 
their enemies could only view them from the opposite side. 8 

Assuming, therefore, that the "Ath Cliath," or Ford of 
Hurdles, mentioned in the " Dinn Seanchus," was a species 
of bridge, I will proceed to show that the received opinions 
respecting the first bridge at Dublin are wholly incorrect. 

In our published histories it is almost invariably stated Bridge at 
that the first bridge at Dublin was built by King John ; 
and his charter of the 3rd July, 1215, is considered to afford reign - 
proof of the fact. By that charter (which greatly increased 
the privileges conferred by Henry II., and also those given 
in 1192 by John, when Earl of Morton), the King grants to 
his citizens of Dublin that they " may make a bridge over the 
water of the Avenlithe wherever it may appear most expe- 
dient for them." 8 The inference deduced being, that as there 
was no similar grant in any preceding charter, there had 

lu Nineveh, its Remains," By s Rotuli Litterarum Clausarum 

Austin H. Layard, 2 vols., 8vo., in Turn Loudinensi, asservati, 2 

London. 2d Edit., 1849, p. 192. vols., folio (1833-1844). Edited 

AD. 1483. Annals of the Four by Thos. Duffus Hardy, vol.1., 

Masters. P- 219. 



216 THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 

APPENDIX. no fc been previously any bridge at Dublin ; and, as Willinm 
of Worcester states, that in the same year King John built 
the first bridge at Bristol (having shortly before sent to 
France for Isenbert, the Architect, to complete the first 
stone 1 bridge at London), 2 his desire for bridge-building 
had led to the building of the bridge at Dublin, the Chief 
City of his lordship of Ireland, and the seat of his Bristol 
colony. 

This assumption is, however, negatived ; in fact, if there 
had been any reference to records in the Tower of London 
which relate to this charter, it never could have been urged. 

King John Amongst the " Close rolls " of King John, are his instruc- 

the tions to the archbishop of Dublin, dated 1st February, 1215, 



in which he says : " The burgesses of Dublin have offered 
us 200 marks to have their town to farm in fee by charter, 
with the part of the river which belongs to us. You may 
take that fine, or a greater, as shall seem to you most ex- 
pedient for us, and then they may send for our charter, which 
we will make asyou may devise." 8 A subsequent letter, dated 
Devizes, the 5th July, shows that the archbishop was an 
able negotiator, as he extracted from the citizens 100 marks 
more than they had offered to the King, 4 the important 
document relating to the bridge being dated the 23rd August, 
1214, that is in the year before the charter was granted or 
negotiated for. Here the king informs the archbishop that 
he has authorized his citizens of Dublin to build a bridge 

1 London Bridge (then of wood), by the diligence of our faithful 

was destroyed by fire A.D. 1136. clerk, Isenbert, master of the 

It is supposed to have been erected schools of Saintes ...... 

between A.D. 993 and A.D. 1016. have been constructed. We have 

History of London by William urged him. . . to come. 

Maitland, F.B.S., folio, London, and use the same diligence in 

1739, p. 33. building your bridge. . . Wit- 

1 " John, by the grace of God, ness, &c.. 18th day of April, in the 

&c., to the Mayor and Citizens of 3rd of our reign (A.D. 1202). 

London, greeting. Consi.leiingin Rot. Litt. Glaus., 16 Johan, p. 

how short a time the bridges of 186. 

Saintes and Rechelle. . ., . . Hid., 17 Johan, p. 129. 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 217 

over the water of the Avenlithe, where it shall seem most 
expedient for the use of the city, and that " they may cause The citizens 
the other bridge over that water, formerly made, to be des- J^b?idge*or 
troyed it' it shall be expedient for their indemnity (in- kee P the 1<L 
dempnitati)," 1 thus incontestably proving that there was a 
bridge at Dublin prior to the charter of 1215. Nor is the 
evidence of this fact confined to a single document. There 
is in the Tower another charter of King John confirming a 
grant to Hugo Hosee of land " at the stone gate near the 
bridge," a document which through the kindness of Thomas 
Duffus Hardy, esq., Keeper of the Tower Records, I had 
also an opportunity to examine, leaving no doubt respecting 
the date, which is the 4th June, 1200; 2 and further, if 
it were necessary to add to such instances, we might refer 
to the transcript of Urban the Third's bull in Alan's Re- 
gister (in the Archiepiscopal Library, Dublin) to show that 
the bridge existed in 118G, or to the chartulary of St. 
Thomas's Abbey, known as Coppinger's Register (which is 
now in my possession), to show from a grant by Thomas 
La Martre that the bridge existed in 1177, 3 and to other- 
ecclesiastical documents which refer to this bridge at an 
earlier date. Nor is it devoid of probability that the bridge 
thus referred to was one which had been erected by the 
Danish possessors of Dublin. It must be recollected that 
although John permitted the citizens to build a bridge in 
1215, we have no evidence that in 1215 the citizens des- 
troyed " the bridge formerly made," or that they built 

1 Ibid., 16 Johan, p. 172. had granted to the Hospital of 

s Datum Apud Falesiam, 4to die Kilmainham. Witnessed by God- 

Junii, regni nostri anno secundo. frey of Winchester in the latter end 

Ibid., p. 69. of K. Hen. II. Coppinger's Re- 

3 Thomas La Martre gave to the gister of St. Thomas's Abbey, p. 

Abbey of St. Thomas (Thomas- 88. Haliday MSS., Roy. Irish 

court, Dublin), a plot of ground at Academy, Monasticon Hiberni- 

Dublin Bridge, situate between the cum, by Merry n Archdall, p. 182, 

ground which he had given to his 4to, Dublin, 1786. 
wife, Margaret, and that which he 



218 THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 

another bridge at that period, although permitted to do so. 
As yet the assumption that any bridge was built at Dublin 
during King John's reign rests solely on the fact that per- 
mission was then given to destroy one bridge and to build 
another, whilst we have records to prove that both before 
and considerably after that period there was a bridge at 
Dublin called " the Bridge of the Ostmen." In a grant to 

Bridge of the 

Oatmen. Ralph la Hore in 1236, the land is described " in capite 
pontis Ostmannorum." 1 The name is repeated in a grant to 
William de Nottingham so late as 1284, which describes a 
stone tower as being " juxta pontem Ostmannorum," and as 
these records also refer to " the gate of the Ostmen," 8 to 
" the old quarry of the Ostmen " (" a veteri quadrivio Ost- 
manorum"), &c., 3 there are grounds for supposing that the 
works so denominated had been executed by the Ostmen, 
and were not works thus called from proximity to the 
suburb of O.stmantown. However, having proved from 
Anglo-Norman documents that there was a bridge at Dublin 
prior to the year 1200, I will now trace it through native 
records, and establish for it a much higher antiquity. And 
here I may observe that whatever may have been the name 

1 " Know all men that we, the certain stone tower near the Ost- 

citizens of Dublin, have by this our men's bridge, and joined to the 

charter granted and confirmed to tower beyond the Ostmen's gate, 

Ralph Hore, our fellow-citizen, a &c. Dated Sunday next after the 

tower of ours with its appurten- Feast of St. Bartholomew, 12th 

ances, situated at the head of Ost- Edward I. (A.D. 1285)." White 

men's bridge on the south, to be Book of Dublin, p. 54. 
held of us by him and his heirs for 3 " Know all men that we, the 

ever." Historic and Municipal citizens of Dublin, have by this our 

Documents of Ireland, A.D. 1 172- charter granted and confirmed to 

1320. From the Archives of the Ralph Hore and William Russell, 

city of Dublin, by J. T. Gilbert, our fellow-citizens, a meadow of 

8vo, London, 1870, p. 488 (Master ours extending in length from the 

of the Rolls' Series). Old Quarry of the Ostmen to 

2 u Know ye that we, the Mayor Kylmehanok," &c White Book of 

and Commonalty of Dublin, have Dublin, J. T. Gilbert, ibid., p. 

given by this our charter to William 486. 
Nottingham, our fellow citizen, a 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 21 9 

of this bridge after the Danes were expelled from Dublin, un- APPENDIX. 
questionably it was previously called " Droichet Dubhghall," Dubhgairs 
Dubhghall being the name of a man, probably that given by ^* d tbe 
the Irish to the Danish founder of the bridge, as Dubhghall ciontarf. 
(literally the black foreigner) was a name which they fre- 
quently gave to their Danish invaders. They so called one 
of the Danish Chieftains killed at the battle of Ciontarf, 1 
who is mentioned in the Annals as " Dubhghall son of 
Amahlaeibh," 2 the brother of Sitric, Danish King of Dublin 
in 1014. 3 We find that the bridge is thus called in the 
" Four Masters," where it is stated that " A.D. 1112, a pre- 
datory excursion was made by Domhnall, grandson Lochlan 
across Fine-Gall, that is to say, as far as Droichet Dubhghall." 
And that eminent Irish scholar, Mr. Eugene Curry, has fur- 
nished me with extracts from Irish manuscripts in the 
Library of Trinity College, Dublin, and in the Royal Library 
of Brussels, from which we can trace this bridge under the 
name of " Droichet Dubhghall " to the commencement of the 
eleventh century. 

In Brussels there is a copy of the " Book of the Danish 
Wars," 4 containing an account of battles in which the Danes 
had been engaged. Relating incidents of the celebrated 
battle of Ciontarf in 1014, it states that the confederate 
army of the Danes having been routed, some of the fugitives 
were driven into the sea ; whilst of the Danes of Dublin 
who were in the engagement only nine escaped from it, 
and " the household of Tiege 0' Kelly followed these and 
slew them at the head of the bridge of Ath Cliath, that is 
Dubhghall's bridge." The older fragment of the manuscript 
of the same tract, in Trinity College library, merely states, 

1 War of the Gaedhil with the Norsemen. The original Irish 

Gaill p. 207. text edited by James Hen thorn 

J I&., p. 165. *7J., p. 35. Todd,D..,M.B.i.A.,F.s.A. Published 

Since published under the title by the authority of the Lords of 

of " The War of the Gaedhil with the Treasury under the direction 

the Gaill or the Invasions of of the Master of the Rolls, 8vo, 

Ireland by the Danes and other London, 1867." 



220 THE SCANDINAVIANS, 

they were overtaken and slain at the head of the bridge 
of Ath Cliath ; " but " The Book of Leinster " recording the 
death of Maelmordha, on his retreat from the battle, 
expressly states that he was drowned at "Dubhghall's bridge." 1 
Beyond this period, that is, 150 years prior to the Anglo- 
of the Oatmen. Norman invasion we cannot produce distinct evidence of 
" a droichet " or bridge at Dublin, although it is highly 
probable that there was. previously, a regular structure of 
that kind across the Liffey. We know that these Northmen, 
who had only established their sovereignty on the sea-coasts 
of Ireland, had subjugated all England, and held frequent 
intercourse with it. Godfred II., who was King of Dublin 
in 922, was also King of Northumberland ; and the " Saxon 
Chronicle " states that Anlaf (the Danish King of Dublin), 
after his defeat at Brunanburg, by Athelstan in 937, tied 
with his Northmen in " their nailed barks over the deep 
waters, Dublin to seek." 2 We might, therefore, infer that 
these Danish or Norwegian Kings having territory on both 
sides of the Liffey, did not omit to establish at Dublin the 
mode of crossing rivers which they must have seen in 
England. For although it may be doubtful if the Romans 
ever erected a stone bridge in Britain, it is certain that they 
erected many of wood, 3 the material most commonly used 
until the close of the twelfth century, when St. Benedict 
founded his order of " Pontitices " or stone bridge builders. 4 
Yet if we cannot find the term " bridge " applied to any 

1 Ibid., Appendix C,p 251, chap. York, by Francis Drake, Folio, 
cv. J&i'rf., Introd., p. clxxxii. London, 1736, p. 5.3. History and 

2 The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in Antiquities of New Castle upon 
Monumenta Historica Britannica. Tyne, by John Brand, F.S.A., 4to, 
Prepared by Henry Petrie, F.S A., London, 2 vols., 1789. 

and the Rev. John Sharpe. Pub- * A secular order of Hospitalers 

lished by command of Her Majesty. was founded by S. Benezet towards 

Folio, London, 1848, p. 385. the close of the twelfth century 

8 Archseologia, vol. x., p. 34. under the denomination of Ponti- 

Al80t'6u/,vol. vii.,p. 395,Eboracum fices or Bridge builders. Rees's 

or the History of the Antiquities of Encyclopedia. Article ' Bridges.' 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 221 

structure at Dublin prior to the year 1014, we have no 
difficulty in finding evidence that a roadway had been 
formed across the river before that period. Again referring 
to the " Annals of the Four Masters " we find that in tho 
year 1000, " the Tochar," or Causeway of Athluain ( Athlone) 
was made by Maelseachlainn, son of Domhnall, King of 
Ireland, and Cathal Ua Conchobhair, King of Connaught, 
and that they made the Tochar or Causeway of Athliag 
(Ballylijig near Lanesboro') in the same year, each carrying 
his portion to the middle of the Shannon. 1 This is referred 
to as illustrating the statement of the " Chronicon Scotorum" 
that in the year 999 King Malachy made a tochar at Ath 
Cliath (Dublin), until it reached " one half of the river," 2 
apparently the custom being that when a tidal or non-tidal 
river divided the territories of Irish kings, each claimed 
one-half of it and only built to the middle of the stream, 
and to this (irrespective of the division of land made by 
Mogh Naudhat and Conn) we may attribute that the 
earliest charters of Dublin only granted to the citizens the Site of the 
southern half of the Liffey being that within the kingdom o 
Leinster (Strongbow's portion with M'Morrough's daughter), Liffe - v - 
the other half of the river being in the territory of Meath. 

It is not necessary to the present inquiry to ascertain the 
precise position of this tocher (A.D. 1001.) Whether it had 
been made at the ford opposite St. Mary's Abbey, and was 
the origin of the well known tradition of an ancient com- 
munication between the Abbey and Christ Church. (St. 

1 Annals of the Four Masters, at this time subject to O'Brien, 
vol. ii., p. 744, and note ibid. and neither that monarch nor his 

2 [" The causeway of Ath Cliath Danish subjects of Dublin would 
was made by Maelseachlainn as tolerate such an assumption of 
far as the middle of the river." authority on the part of Maelseach- 
Chronicon Scotorum, p. 239. lainn who had recently been forced 
But the editor says in a note that to resign the supremacy in his 
the Annals of Clonmacnob and the favour. Note ibid. This work 
Four Masters specify Athliag and was not published till after Mr. 
are probably correct as Dublin was Haliday's death.] 



222 



THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 



APPENDIX. Mary's, on the north bank of the Liflfey, alleged to have been 

built in 948, and the arches under Christ Church built on 

the south bank at as early a date) or whether this tocher 

led to the old "bothyr," or road, now anglicise*! into 

stoin batter. " Stonybatter ; " l or had occupied the site of that which 



long continued to be called the 

O 



old bridge " 2 although 



1 ["A remarkable instance of this 
hardening process occurs in some 
of the Leinster counties, where the 
Irish word bothar [boher] a road 
is converted into batter. This 
word "batter," is, or was well 
understood in these counties to 
mean an ancient road; and it was 
used as a general term in this sense 
in the patents of James I. It 
signifies in Wexford a lane or 
narrow road. " Bater, a lane lead- 
ing to a high road." (" Glossary 
of the dialect of Forth and Bargy," 
by Jacob Poole ; edited by 
William Barnes, B.D.") ''As for 
the word Bater, that in English 
purpozeth a lane bearing to an 
highway. I take it for a meere 
Irish word that crept unawares 
into the English through the daily 
intercourse of the English and Irish 
inhabitants." (Stanyhurst, quoted 
in same.) ''The word occurs in 
early Anglo-Irish documents, in 
the form of bothir or bothyr, which 
was easily converted into hotter or 
batter. It forms part of the follow- 
ing names : Batterstown, the 
name of four townlands in Meath, 
which were always called in Irish, 
Haile-an-bhothair, i.e., the town of 
the road . . . Near Drogheda, 
there is a townland called Green 
Batter, and another Yellow Batter, 
which are called in Irish, Boherglas 
and Boherboy, having the same 



meanings as the present names, 
viz., green road and yellow road. 
We have also some examples, one 
of which is the well known name of 
Stonybatter. Long before the 
city had extended so far, and while 
Stonybatter was nothing more 
than a country road it was as it 
still continues to be the great 
thoroughfare to Dublin from the 
districts lying west and north-west 
of the city, and it was known by 
the name of Bothar -na-gcluch 
[Bohernaglogh], i.e., the road of 
the stones, which was changed to 
the modern equivalent, Stoney- 
batter, or Stony -road." The origin 
and history of Irish Names of 
Places, by P. W. Joyce, LL.D., 
M.B.I.A., pp. 43-45. 1 2mo. Dublin, 
M'Glashan& Gill, 1871.] 

2 " In the year 1 428, the Friars 
Preachers of this convent of St. 
Saviour's had a school in an old 
suburb of Dublin, now called 
Usher's Island, with a large recourse 
of scholars of philosophy and 
theology. As the professors and 
students from Ostmantown could 
not conveniently come and go 
because of the river Lifley, a bridge 
of four arches, still standing, 
built at the cost of the Friars' 
Preachers, being the first of the six 
bridges of Dublin, called every- 
where to this day, the Old Bridge. 
To repay the cost, a lay Domini- 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 223 

the old bridge had been destroyed in 1314, 1 its substitute APPENDIX. 

swept away in 1385, 2 and at least twice subsequently re- old bridges of 

built it is sufficient to have traced so far the existence of DubliD - 

an artificial passage across the Liffey at Dublin ; but 

between this link and the next, by which we should form our 

chain of corroborative evidence, there is a long interval. 

We have records of bridges over small rivers in Ireland, 

in 924, and are told that a king of Ulster was celebrated 

for bridge-building in 739 ; but we cannot refer to any 

incident connected with the existence of a bridge or tochar 

at Dublin, between the commencement of the fifth century 

and the close of the tenth. This, however, is an interval in 

which we may safely rely on circumstantial evidence. It 

was within this period that Ireland was celebrated as the 

school of ecclesiastical learning. It was the Island of 

Saints, and from it ecclesiastics travelled throughout Europe 

to teach ; and to it European scholars journeyed to learn. 

We may therefore rest assured that whatever of art or 

science was then known elsewhere, was not unknown in 

Ireland, and that when there was sufficient art to build 

churches and round towers, to construct " nailed barks," 

and to supply all that ships required for long voyages, 

can, by leave of the City Council, Gate and Audoen's Arch, with a 

took a toll, and I myself, when a wall running from one to the other." 

boy, have seen the holy water Annales Hibernica, MSS. in 

vessel (as tradition had it) for Marsh's (St. Patrick's) Library, 

sprinkling the passengers." Hi- Class 3, Tab. 2, No. 7. 
bernia Dominicana, by Thomas De 

Burgo. 4to, 1762, p. 189. 8 "A.D. 1386. The king con- 

141 In the year 1315, Edward sidering the losses of the citizens of 

Bruce, with his army advanced Dublin through the late breaking 

to Castleknock, only three miles down of Dublin bridge, has granted 

from Dublin northwards. Whereat them a ferry over the Liffey, there 

the citizens being alarmed broke for four years. (Table of tolls 

the bridge of Dublin, and burned annexed.) 9th of January, in 9th 

the suburbs, and also demolished year of King Richard II." Calen- 

the monastery of the Dominican dar of Patent Rolls of Chancery, 

Friars in Oxmantown Green, and Ireland. Folio. Dublin. (Record 

with the stones built Winetavern Publications) Art. 93, p. 124. 



224 THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 

APPENDIX, there was mechanical art sufficient to make any needful 
passage across such a river as the Liffey. It was at the 
close of this period, that an Irish saint (Mowena) had 
visited Croyland, celebrated for the most curiously << in- 
structed bridge in England, 1 and at the commencenii-nt 
of it, that Irish traders, in Irish ships had carried St. 
Patrick and others as slaves into Ireland out of Gaul, then 
covered with remains of Roman art. Passing, therefore, 
over this interval, and again taking up our chain of evidence 

Causeway over at t he fifth century, we fi n( j t jj at between this period and 
the Liffey m J 

fifth century, the first century there must have been a roadway across 
the Liffey. For this highly interesting evidence I am 
indebted to the research of my friend Dr. Petrie for his 
" History and Antiquities of Tara." 2 

The Ordnance Survey of Ireland having presented the 
long-desired opportunity for making a correct plan of the 
remains of Tara the existing vestiges were laid down, 
according to accurate measurement on a map by Captain 
Bordes of the Royal Engineers, who had charge of the 
Survey. While this was in progress Dr. Petrie and Dr. 
O'Donovan who were then attached to the Survey, made a 
careful search in all ancient Irish manuscripts accessible, 
for such documents of a descriptive or historical character 
as would tend to identify or illustrate the existing vestiges. 
The result was eminently successful in corroborating the 
statements of our early writers ; works, the description of 
which had been previously regarded as mere bardic fictions, 
were traced with a degree of accuracy, which, so far, placed 
beyond doubt the truthfulness of these ancient authorities. 

1 Saint '' Modwena expelled from and substantially repaired in the 

his monastery in Ireland in the reign of King Henry the Second." 

ninth century, obtained an asylum Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of 

from King Ethelwulf, and erected England. 

a chapel (at Burton-on-Trent). 2 Read May, 1837, and published 

Over the river is a noble bridge of in the Transactions of the Royal 

freestone, 512 yards long, of S7 Irish Academy, vol. xviii., A.D. 

arches, built prior to the Conquest, 1839. 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 225 

There is, however, only one of these identifications to which APPENDIX. 

it will be necessary, for the present inquiry, that I should 

refer. 

In our oldest manuscripts it is stated that, in the first The five slighe 
century, Ireland was intersected by five great roads, leading Tara, 
from different provinces, or petty Kingdoms, to the seat of 
supreme royalty at Tara. ' Of these " slighes," or roads, 
the " Slighe Cualaun " was one traced with the greatest 
apparent certainty by the Ordnance Survey. It struck off 
from the Faii-na-g-carbad, or " Slope of the chariots," and 
led via Ratoath and Dublin into Cualaun ; a district ex- 
tending from Dalkey, southwards and westwards, and part 
of which, including Powerscourt, is designated in Anglo- 
Norman records, as Fercullen, or " the territory of the men 
of Cualaun." This road, consequently, must have crossed 
the Liffey, and that it did so near Dublin is confirmed by 
the fact, that the passage across the river there is frequently Slighe Cualaun 
termed " Ath Cliath Cualaun." ! Now it is impossible Liffey at 
that a roadway for any general purpose could be carried D 
across a river like the Liffey, subject to winter floods and 
the daily flow of the tide, unless that roadway was formed 
by a bridge, tochar, or structure of some kind raised above 
the ordinary high water mark. Such a structure, formed 
of timber or hurdles, the only material then used for that 
purpose, was doubtless that which, in the figurative language 
of the time, was termed an " Ath Cliath " or Ford of 
hurdles. 3 

1 See Map of the Monuments viz., that called Slighe- Cualaun 
of Tara Hill, restored from Ancient passed through Dublin by Ratoath 
Documents, Ibid, plate 7, p. 152. and on towards Bray, under the 
1 Ibid, p. 229. n&meofBealachDuibhlinne.Uuibb- 
* Mr. Joyce in continuation of linn was originally the name of 
his remarks on the name of Stony- that part of the Liffey on which 
batter (supra, p. 222, and note '&/.), the city now stands (the road or 
says " One of the five great roads pass of the [river] Duibhlinn), it is 
leading from Tara which were mentioned in the following quota- 
constructed in the second century, tion from " the Book of Rights " 

Q 



O .1 



THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 



APPKNUIX. 
From the 



Cual 

iTo-^ii^ the 

came 
the 

U.illv-Ath- 



Adding this evidence of a passage across the river to the 
distinct statements of the Diun Seanchus, I hope I may 
appear justified in the opinion I now venture to express, 
that those great authorities on Irish history, Stanihurst, 
< '.i-riden, and Ware, are incorrect in asserting that Dublin 
was called "Bally Ath Cliath," because the ancient city 
was built on a marshy soil, where hurdles were necessary to 
secure the foundations of houses ; and that in this, as in 
other cases, we may more safely rely on Irish annalists than 
on modern historians, and assert that the name "Ath 
Cliath " originated from a passage across the Liffey, that 
passage being made by hurdles, so laid as to form an 
artificial ford or bridge. I am aware that there was a ford 
on the Shannon, which also was called " Ath Cliath " ; but I 
am likewise aware that Irish manuscripts expressly state that 
it was so called, not from hurdles being placed (as they 
were at Dublin), in order to form a passage, but because 
stakes were driven in the river, and hurdles placed as a 
barrier to prevent an enemy from crossing. 1 Thus 



" It is prohibited to him (the King 
of Erin), to go with a host, on 
Monday over the Bealach Duibh- 
tinne." "There can be, I think, no 
doubt (continues Mr. Joyce), that 
the pre cut Stonybatter formed a 
portion of this ancient road, a 
statement that is borne out by two 
independent circumstances. First, 
i y batter lies straight on the line 
and would, if continued, meet the 
Li iFey exactly at Whitworth bridge. 
Secondly, the name of Stonybatter, 
or Bothar-na-gcloch, affords even a 
stronger confirmation. The most 
important of the ancient Irish roads 
were generally paved with large 
blocks of stone, somewhat like the 
old Roman roads, a fact that is 
proved by the remains of those 
that can now be traced. It is 



exactly this kind of road that 
would be called by the Irish even 
at the present day, Behernaglogh ; 
and the existence of this name, on 
the very line leading to the ancient 
ford over the Liffey leaves scarcely 
any doubt that this was a part of 
the ancient Slighe Cualann. It 
must be regarded as a fact of great 
interest that the modern-looking 
name of Stonybatter, changed as 
it has been in the course of ages, 
descends to us with a history 
seventeen hundred years old written 
on its front." Joyce's Ori.jin and 
History of Irish Names of Places, 
part i., chapt. 2, p. 45. 

1 Ath Cliath Meadrighe, now 
Clarensbridge in the county of 
Galway. " When the Seven 
Maines carried off the cattle uf 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 227 

disclosing a remarkable coincidence in the mode of defensive 
\varfare practised by the ancient inhabitants of Ireland and 
of Britain, Caesar informing us that the Britons, in a similar 
manner, had endeavoured to prevent his Army from cross- 
ing the Thames, by driving stakes in the river and on its 
banks and thereby obstructing the ford. ] And it is further 
suggestive of similarity of habit with a considerable amount 
of mechanical art (also apparent in our huge monuments 
of stone), that in the first century, when the Fan-na-g- 
carbad, or " Slope of the chariots " existed at Tara, Caesar 
was describing his contests with the Britons in their 
chariots constructed for war. 

If this attempt to correct erroneous opinions respecting 
the origin of the ancient Irish name of Dublin should lead 
to further investigation by others more competent for the 
task and having more leisure for it, much of my object 
will be attained. I know that there are in various 
depositories and libraries in the United Kingdom and on 
the Continent, unpublished and almost unnoticed records 
and manuscripts relating to Ireland. And I feel confident 
that an examination of their contents would tend to remove 
many obscurities in the early history of our country ; might 
correct many opinions respecting its aboriginal inhabitants 
and their connexion with other nations ; and conjointly 
with the discoveries daily made, of long buried monuments, 
might enable us to verify many of these statements, which 
continue to be viewed with suspicion because as yet they 
rest solely on the authority of Irish annalists and bards. 

Dartaidha, &c., they were over- to them from Aitill and Meane." 

taken by Eochaid Beag, &c., where - Information of Eugene O'Cuny. 

upon the Maines placed a barricade i Csar, Commentaries, book v. 

of hurdles of whitethorn and black xi Vt 
in the ford until relief should come 



228 THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 



APPENDIX. II- 

OBSERVATIONS EXPLANATORY OF SIR BERNARD DE 
GOMME'S MAP, MADE A.D. 1673. 1 

Alarm produced by the entry of the Dutch fleet into the Thames in 
1667 Sir Bernard de Gomme's plan for the defence of the Harbour 
of Dublin in 1673 His project for a fort near Merrion-square 
Ringsend then the chief landing place- -Meaning of 'Ringsend' The 
Pigeon House Its history Extent of ground overflown by tin- 
in 1673 The making of the North and South walls Sir John 
Rogerson's wall Double wall and road from Ringsend to the 
Pigeon House Piles in the sand thence to Poolbeg The building 
of the Long wall The lotting for the North Lots The erecting 
of the Ballast Board Early history of the Bar at the Harbour 
Mouth The deepening of the River and reducing the Bar the work of 
the Ballast Board. 

sir Bernard de THE map, it will be observed, is entitled "An Exact Survey 

A.D. 167S. P> f the Citty of Dublin, and Part of the Harbour belowe 

Ringsend," and seems to have been formed by Sir Bernard 

de Gomme to exhibit the position of the citadel projected 

by him for the protection of the city and river. 

This map, plan, and estimate, never published, and wholly 
overlooked by local historians, 2 is historically interesting, 
as showing the earliest design probably for the defence of 

1 "Observations explanatory of isindorsed: "An estimate made by 

a plan and estimate for a Citadel Sir Bernard de Gomme, 1 1 is 

at Dublin, designed by Sir Bernard Majesty's Chief Engineer, for 

de Gomme, Engineer- General, in building of a Royall Citadell at 

the year 1673, with his map, Ringsend, near the citty of Dublin, 

showing the state of the harbour in His Majesty's kingdom of 

and river at that time, exhibited Ireland, 1673," and is signed by 

to the Royal Irish Academy, him. This Map being four feet long 

at their meeting on Friday the by two and a half wide, could not be 

15th of March, 1861," now first printed in this work; but a fac- 

printed. simile is given of part. There 

1 [The original of this map and will be observed a fort depicted on 

estimate for the projected citadel this map as standing on the neck 

is to be found m the King's Library, of land at Ringsend near the point. 

British Museum. The map is It does not appear when this fort 

marked " A crown," liii., 9. The was first built or finally destroyed. 

estimate for the citadel at Dublin In 1655, Colonel Oliver Fitzwilliam 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OP DUBLIN. 



229 



Dublin against an enemy approaching from the sea, and APPENDIX. 
derives a further local interest from the means which it 
affords for contrasting the then state of the harbour of 
Dublin with its present condition. 

And first as to the causes prompting the design of 
fortifying Dublin from an attack by sea at this particular 
period. 

The defenceless state of the chief ports of England and Alarm at the 

I)u!^h raid in 

Ireland had been forced upon the attention of Government the Thames, 
shortly before, in consequence of the success of the Dutch A 
fleet, which entered the Thames in 16G7 ; and after breaking 
a chain drawn across the mouth of the Medway, took 
Sheerness and Chatham, and having burned the English 
ships of war stationed there, sailed out again with scarcely 
any loss. This successful invasion spread alarm throughout 
the kingdom, and the consternation was so great in London 
that nine ships were sunk at Woolwich, and four at Black- 
wall, to prevent the Dutch from sailing up to London-bridge 
and destroying the city. 

In these circumstances Sir Martin Beckman and Sir 



of Merrion, second viscount, hav- 
ing won the favour of Cromwell, 
was ordered a restoration of his 
estates though a devoted Catholic 
and Royalist; and the Ringsend 
fort being found, on 1 1th October, 
1655, on a reference to Attorney- 
General Basil (A. 8. 224), to be 
built on part of his estate of 
Merrion and Thorncastle, and not 
necessary to be continued as a fort 
(A. 9, 167), he had liberty on 19th 
February, 1656, to demolish the 
four bulwarks of the fort, under- 
taking to bring into the stores all 
the iron work belonging to the 
drawbridge upon demolishing the 
fort, and for his charges therein 
the [other] materials to be at his 



disposal as was desired (A. 86, p. 
143). Books of the Commissioners 
of the Parliament of England for 
Ireland ; Record Tower, Dublin 
Castle. But such hindrances were 
given to his getting Back his lands, 
first by the Cromwelliams ^27th 
October, 1658, A. 30, p. 328), and 
after the King's Restoration by the 
Forty-nine Officers (Protestants), 
that it was not until the passing of 
the Act of Explanation 23rd 
December. 1655, containing a 
special enactment in his favour 
(sec. 67), that he could have got a 
secure possession; and thus had 
no opportunity probably to demolish 
the fort.] 



230 



THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 



APPENDIX. 



Citadel to 
protect the 
mouth of the 
Liffey. 



To be placed 
near Merrion- 
square. 



Bernard de Gomme, 1 the Royal Engineers, were ordered to 
construct works for the defence of the Thames. These 
officers prepared plans for strengthening the fortifica^ 
at Sheerness and Tilbury ; the works at Tilbury fort being 
entrusted to Sir Bernard de Gomme, who had previously 
been employed on the fortifications at Dunkirk ; and his 
plans, with specifications, are now among the manuscripts 
in the British Museum. 

Peace with the Dutch was shortly afterwards concluded, 
but did not last long ; and at the commencement of another 
war, in 1672, Sir Bernard de Gomme was sent to Ireland 
to ascertain what works were necessary for the defence of 
ports in that Kingdom ; and after a survey of Dublin and 
Kinsale, the plan arid estimates now exhibited were presented 
to His Majesty King Charles the Second, on the 15th of 
November, 1673. 

The citadel at Dublin was designed to be a pentagon, 
occupying a space of 1,946 yards, with ramparts, ravelins, 
curtain, and bastions, the walls being intended of brick, 
faced with stone, and built on a frame of timber, and piles. 
It was to contain barracks for 700 men and officers, with a 
governor's house, and store houses for munitions of war, a 
chapel, a prison, a clock-tower, and gateway and draw- 
bridges similar to those at Tilbury fort and Portsmouth, 
the estimated cost being, 131,227 5s. 9d ; the estimate for 
constructing a fort at Rincurran, to defend Kinsale, being 
10,350. 

The site chosen for the Dublin citadel was near the space 
now occupied by Merrion -square, and it would be difficult 
to understand the grounds assigned for this choice, viz., its 
being capable of being relieved by sea without realizing to 
1 [Sir Bernard de Gomme, was Rupert's life and actions. Memoirs 



Engineer General to Prince Rupert 
at the Prince's siege and capture of 
Bristol in 1643, and wrote a journal 
of the siege intended to form a 
chapter in an account of Prince 



of Prince Rupert and the Cavaliers, 
by Elliot Warburton, vol. ii., pp. 
236-267, 3 vols., 8vo. London, 
1849.] 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OP DUBLIN. 



231 



the mind the fact, that at that day the sea flowed almost to Ap>g! * DIX< 
the foot of Merrion-square. ' That such however were the 
grounds for the selection, appears in the letters of the Earl 
of Essex, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, the report of Mr. 
Jonas Moore, in the year 1675, stating, " that if his Majesty 
should think tit to proceed in the design of building a fort 
royal on the strand, near Ringsend, as was designed by Sir 
Bernard de Gomme, it is doubtless the only proper piece of 
ground where a fort can be built so as to be relieved by sea, 
although for arms the sea air will be veiy prejudicial '' 2 an 
objection, however, which did not prevent a fort being 
subsequently erected at the Pigeon House, nearly a mile 
seaward of the site selected by the royal engineer. 3 

In considering the grounds for selecting this site, it must 

1 ["" 26th January, 1792: Apart 
of the South- wall suddenly gave 
way and a dreadful torrent broke 
into the lower grounds inundating 
every quarter on the same level as 
far as Artidioke-road. The com- 
munidt^jpn to Ringsend and Irish- 
town is entirely cut off and the 
inhabitants are obliged to go to 
and fro in boats. " Dublin 
Chronicle, 26th January, 1792: 
" Yesterday his Grace the Duke of 
Leinster went on a sea party and 
after shooting the breach in the 
South-wall sailed over the low 
ground in the South Lots and 
landed safely at Alerrion-square." 
Ibid., 28th January, 1792, 
W. M. G.] 

" Letters of the Earl of Essex, 
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in the 
year 1675," 8vo, Dublin, 1723, p. 
132. 

8 [The Pigeon House, first as an 
hotel, and then aa a fort or 
magazine was preceded, by a block 
house for storing wreck. The 



Dublin newspapers of 1 760 mention 
that a vessel being wrecked, a 
number of ' rockers ' who always 
came down lor plunder, were by 
this means disappointed. It got 
perhaps the name of 1'i^eonhouse 
from John Pigeon employed there. 
U 8th June, 1786, ordered that 
John Mullarky and John Pljio.i do 
attend on Saturday next.'' Journal 
of Ballast Office. " 2.>th August, 
1787 : Your committee have pro- 
vided a ground plan of the block- 
house which accompanies this 
report," and thereby allot one 
portion to Mr. Francis Tunstall, 
the inspector of the works of the 
Ballast Board, and other part of, 
O'Brien and his wife during 
pleasure as housekeeper" without 
salary but with liberty to retail 
spirits, they undertaking to keep 
the Corporation rooms clean and 
in good order and provide breakfast 
when directed for any members of 
the Board. 1 ' Ibid. In 17:>t>, was 
built an hotel, and in 17y8, arose 



232 



THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 



the harbour. 



APPENDIX, be borne in mind that any landing by an enemy on the 
North side of north bank of the River, was nearly impossible by re;i 

of the shoals of slob or sand extending to a great distance, 
and preventing access to the shore ; but had an enemy 
been ever able to disembark, they would have the river 
between them and the object of their attack, as the city 
then lay althogether on the south side of the river, except 
the district called Ostmantown (the ancient settlement of 
the Danes or Ostmen), adjoining St. Michaii's Church and 
Smithfield, the latter being long familiarly known under 
the corrupted name of Oxmantown-green. 

Upon the South side of the river, Ringsend was the chief 
landing place at the period of Sir Bernard de Gomme's 
design. The river not being yet quayed and deepened, as 
it has since been, flowed at low water in streams, winding 
in devious courses through a labyrinth of sands, as may be 
seen on Sir Bernard's map. l 



South side of 
the harbour. 
Its state. 



beside the hotel a magazine of arms. 
3rd August, 1790 : " A. house is 
intended shortly to be built on the 
present site of the Pigeon House, 
and is to be fitted up for the 
accommodation of persons having 
occasion to pass and repass between 
this city and England." Dublin 
Chronicle 3rd August, 1790. A.D., 
1798 : "An unexpected event has 
taken place in this city, namely a 
cession made by the Corporation 
for the Improvement of Dublin 
Harbour of their property in the 
Pigeon House dock, and newly 
constructed hotel, to Government, 
for the purpose of a place of arms 
aud military port, if not for ever 
at least during this present war," 
Gentleman's Magazine, part i., 
p.435. In 1814 the Board received 
from Government 100,183 as 
purchase-money of the Pigeon 



House basin and premises. Tidal 
Harbours Commission Report, vol. 
1, p. 39a Mrs. Tunstall's hotel 
was thought inconvenient and 
unsafe and she was obliged to 
retire about thirty years ago. 
W. M. G.] In the Dublin Penny 
Journal for September, 28th 1832, 
is to be found a legend entitled "The 
i'idgeori House, a tale of the last 
century." It is stated that there 
was then living at Ringsend one 
who had resided there near a 
century, and is vouched as the 
author of the story, of which it is 
enough for the present to say that 
from Ned Pidgeon, living in the 
house built "at the pile eml<," 
the Pigeon House is alleged to 
have got its name. Dublin Penny 
Journal, vol. ii., No. 65, p. 99. 

' Boate writes A.D. 1645, "Of 
dangerous brooks there are two 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 



233 



Above Ringsend the navigation became still more intricate 
and difficult. The long line of South Wall, nearly three 
miles and a quarter in length, from Ringsend to Poolbeg, 



hard by Dublin, both running into 
the haven . . . the one at the 
north side a little below Drum- 
conran ^the Tolka] . . . the 
other at the south side close by the 
Ringsend. This called Rafernam 
water from the village by which it 
passeth [the Dodder.] ... is 
far the worst of the two, as rising 
out of those great mountains south- 
wards from Dublin, from whence 
after any great rain ... it 
groweth so deep and violent that 
many p'.aous have lost their lives 
therein ; amongst others Mr. John 
Usher, father to Sir William Usher 
that now is, who was carried away 
by the current, nobody being able 
to succour him although many 
persons and of his neerest friends, 
both a foot and horseback, were by 
on both the sides. Since that time 
a stone bridge hath been built over 
that brook upon the way betwixt 
Dublin and Ringsend." Ireland's 
Naturall History, written [A.D. 
1645], by Gerard Boate, late Doctor 
of Physick to the State in Ireland, 
and now published by Samuel 
Hartlib, Esq., and more especially 
for the benefit of the Adventurers 
and Planters therein, London, 1 652 ; 
chapt. vii., sec. 7. " Of the Brooks 
of Drumconran and Rafernam by 
Dublin." Reprinted in a collection 
of Tracts illustrative of Ireland, by 
Alexander Thorn, 2 vols., 8vo. 
Dublin, 1850. Mr. Usher was 
drowned in the beginning of the 
year 1629. For letters of adminis- 
trations "of the goods of Mr.^John 



Usher, Alderman of Dublin," were 
granted forth of the Prerogative 
Court, Dublin, 16th of March, 
1629, to " Sir William Usher, son 
of the deceased." Grant Book, 
Public Record Office, Four Courts, 
Dublin. It must be remembered 
that the only way to Ringsend on 
those days when the tide was in 
was to cross the ford of the Dodder 
where Ball's Bridge now stands 
(for the sea then flowed to the foot 
of Holies - street) . A nd at this ford , 
without doubt, Alderman Usher 
was drowned. The Dodder, it may 
be observed here, divides the lands 
of Baggotrath on the Dublin side, 
from Simmons- court on the other. 
The stone bridge mentioned by 
Boate occupied the site of Ball's 
Bridge, and must have been built 
between 1629 and 1637. It was 
suggested in 1 623. ' ' Easter 1 623. 
To the petition of Richard Morgan 
pi aying an allowance for erecting 
of a bridge going to Ringsend, 
Ordered that as private men have 
a lease upon the land it therefore 
convenienccth themselves to build 
the said bridge.'' Assembly Rolls. 
" Midsummer 1 640. Certain of the 
Commons petitioned, that in the 
year of Mr. Watson's mayoralty 
[A.I>. 1 637 j, there were some charges 
expended in the repairing of the 
bridge of Syinons-court alias 
Smoothescourt, since which time 
the same has fallen to much decay, 
ordered that ten pounds be ex- 
pended." C. Ilaliday's abstracts 
of City Assembly Rolls, llaliday 



234 



THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 



APPENDIX. 



carried over the South Bull, 1 through the water towards 
the bar, and terminated by the Poolbeg lighthouse, marking 
the entrance of the river, was not then thought of, 2 the sea 



MSS., Royal Irish Academy.) 
Even at low water there was no 
passing on foot between Kingsend 
and Dublin. Dunton writes as 
follows in 1 698 : " The first ramble 
I took this morning was to take 
my farewell of Ringsend . . . 
T'is about a mile irom Dublin. 
. . . . After an hour's stay 
in this dear place (as all seaport 
towns generally are.) I took my 
leave of Trench, Welstead, and 
three or more friends and now 
looked towards Dublin j but how 
to come at it we no more knew 
how than the fox at the grapes ; 
for, though we saw a large strand 
yet t'was not to be walked over 
because of a pretty rapid stream 
which must be crossed. We in- 
quired for a coach and found ihat 
no such thing was to be had there 
but were informed we could have 
a Ringsend carr, which upon my 
desire was called and we got upon 
it, not into it. It is a perfect carr 
with two wheels and towards the 
back of it a seat is raised crossways 
long enought to hold three people 
.... The fare to Lazy Hill 
is four pence .... we were 
told that there were a hundred and 
more plying .... " Some 
account of my conversations in 
Ireland," p. 419. The Dublin 
Scuffle, by John Dunton, I2mo. 
London, 1699. 

1 [There are two great wastes of 
sand on the north and south sides 
of Dublin bay called Bulls, from the 
roaring of the surf against them 



when uncovered at low water. 
They were so called by the Irish. 
In Irish ' tarbh ' (pronounced tar/) 
means a bull. Hence Clontarf, the 
bull's meadow or pasture. See the 
Origin and History of Irish names 
of places by P. W. Joyce, M.K.I.A., 
12mo., Dublin, 1871.] 

2 The following particulars con- 
cerning the forming of a new 
channel for the river Liffey, from 
near the site of the present Carlisle 
bridge to the Poolbeg Light Housei 
a distance of nearly four miles, arc 
derived from Mr. Ilaliday's col- 
lections. 16th January, 1707-8: 
Three Aldermen and Six of the Com- 
mons appointed by the Corpora- 
tion to be a Quorum [Committee 
of Directors of the Ballast Ofliee] 
to give directions to Ballast Master. 
(Ballast Office Journal). 26th 
January, 1 707-8 : That two iron 
Tormentors be made, and that the 
first fair day it be tried what depth 
of sand or gravel there is in places 
(to be pointed out) in the Channel. 
(Ib.) 29th January, 1 707-8 : Com- 
mittee went to Cock [Cockle] lake 
and found that the water which 
was there when the tide is out 
may be prevented that course. The 
manner how not decided. River 
tried from Mr. Vanhomrigh's house 
to Ringsend point ; found 5 feet 
depth of sand and gravel. Thence 
to Clontarf bar, 4 feet deep ; No 
rocks (Ib.) 1 3th February, 1 707-8 : 
Mr. Morland, City Surveyor, to 
draw a map of the channel of tha 
river from Essex bridge to the bar j 




SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OP DUBLIN. 



233 



N OTB continued. 



Mr. Morney, and two or three 
others best experienced in the 
channel from Vanhomrigh's house 
to the bar, to give their opinions 
in writing. (7Z>.) 20th February, 
1707-8: Mr. Holt lu-onpht the 
opinions (as ordered), that the 
Channel should run from Mr. 
Mercer's (formerly Vnnhomrigh's) 
house directly vrith Green Patch, a 
little without Eingsend point. (76.) 
21st July, 1710: Report of Com- 
mittee of Ballast Office : Had 
conferred with persons interested 
in the ground on the north side of 
the Channel relative to piling there, 
who would not contribute to the 
expense. Directions for dredging 
the channel and to make a bank on 
the north side. (City Assembly 
Rolls). 20th October, 1710: The 
Committee appointed to stake out 
the mears and bounds [of the 
Channel] between Ringsend and 
Lazy Hill have not done so: The 
old channel will soon be filled up. 
The mears and bounds to be staked 
out, (City Assembly Rolls). 13th 
April, 1711 : Instructions given 
for bringing great quantities of 
stone and faggots which will make 
good that part of the banks not 
already secured on both sides of 
the channel, and fill up the mouth 
of the old, and will keep the freshets 
within the bounds of the new 
channel, and will make the new 
channel deeper (Jb.) 2nd May, 
1712 : It is necessary to enclose 
the channel to carry it directly to 
Salmon Pool. Had consulted 
many who are of opinion that the 
best way will be by laying kishes 
filled with stones and backing them 



with sand and gravel, which is 
found by the experience of some 
years past to withstand all the force 
of the floods that come down the 
river (76.) 22nd July, 1715 : Are 
laying down kishes to secure the 
north side of the channel and when 
a sufficient number of kishes are 
made will go on with the piling 
below Ringsend as formerly pro- 
' posed: are now raising stones at 
Olontarf (76.) 1 4th October, 1715: 
Are laying down a quantity of 
kishes on the north side which has 
made good the bank as far as 
opposite Mabbot's mill. The 
remainder will be completed next 
summer, (Ibid). 4th Friday after 
Christmas, 1715 : It is the opinion 
of merchants that the south side of 
the channel below Ringsend should 
be filled in, which will raise the south 
bank so high as to be a great 
shelter to shipping in the harbour, 
(Ibid). Same day : Petition that 
the strand between that taken in 
by Mercer and that granted to Sir 
John Rogerson be taken in, being 
now overflowed : that a wall be 
built to the east : sand and rubbish 
would fix it: length of wall 606 
feet : Sir J. Rogerson would then 
be encouraged to take in his strand: 
Ordered that the work do proceed, 
and that the Ballast Office do back 
said wall (Ibid). 20th January, 
1715-16: Have not been able to 
go on with the piling below Rings- 
end for want of oak timber : 
propose to carry the kishes up to 
Morney's dock (Ib.) 19th October, 
1716: Have made some progress 
in piling below Ringsend with an 
Engine made here, and intend 



236 



THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 



APPENDIX. 



N OTB continued. 



going on the South Bull next year. 
Find a difficulty in being supplied 
with oak timber for piles : Suggest 
fir for two or three rows. The 
engine from Holland is shipped, 
(Ib.) 19th January, 1716-17: Have 
continued piling below Ringsend 
with an engine as far as the sea 
would permit : Propose going on 
the South Bull : Have oak timber 
for one set of piles ; but four rows 
of piles required, (Ib.) 19th July, 
1717: Three hundred piles driven 
on South Bull : On North side have 
laid 258 kishes since last report of 
18th January, 1717. Have 611ed 
the spaces between these with 
hurdles and stones, (Ib.} 18th 
October, 1717 : On South Bull 
have driven 567 piles in three 
rows, since last report : the intervals 
filled with stones. On the North 
side have laid and filled 400 kishes 
this summer (Ib.) 17 January, 
1717-18 : Have laid 348 kishes on 
north side since last report (Ib.) 
25th April, 1718 : Have filled up 
the breaches made in the South 
Bull by last winter's storms with 
furze and stones, (Ib.). 13th July, 
1718 : Are proceeding with the 
wall on the South Bull. On the 
north side have laid kishes as far 
as opposite Ringsend ; and are 
laying down kishes in a line from 
the east end of the aforesaid kishes 
towards the Island, (Ib.) 16th 
January, 1718-19 : The piling of 
the South Bull is proceeding. Have 
agreed for one hundred tons of 
long piles from Wales, (Ib.) 20th 
July, 1720 : The sea scarcely 
leaves the East End of the piles 
which makes the work slow : Are 



wattling between the piles which 
they hope will in time raise a bank 
(Ib.), 21st April, 1721 : Instead 
of piling by the Engine which is 
found impracticable so far at sea, 
have used frames made of piles 
abouttwenty-two feet in length and 
ten feet in breadth twenty-four 
piles in each frame. These are 
floated out from Blackrook accom- 
panied by two gabbards filled with 
stones quarried there, and the 
frames are then filled with stones 
and sunk, (Ib.) 23rd April, 1723 : 
Have not proceeded as yet with 
the piling on the South Bull ; but 
the season being proper, propose 
now to proceed, having 1 2'2.5 pieces 
of timber for that purpose, (Ib.) 
20th January, 1726: The thirteen 
frames mentioned in the last report 
have withstood all the storms, 
except one frame sent a drift (Ib.) 
19th January, 1727-8: Have set 
down four more frames, (Ib.) 19th 
July, 1 728 : Have set down eight 
frames more ; about 300 feet in 
length, (Ib.) 13th October, 1728: 
To protect the float men raising 
stones at Blackrock, suggest that 
two frames be set down at Black- 
rock, 14th October, 1726: Four 
more frames made since the last 
report which together with the 
former nine are set down on the 
South Bull extending in length 
eighteen perches. The floats are 
now securing the same with stones 
from Blackrock, (Ib.) 20th October, 
1727 : Have this season made 
seven frames all of the new model, 
containing 400 feet in length, (//>.) 
17th January, 1728-9: One frame 
of piles for piling the channel of 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OP DUBLIN. 



237 



NOTE continued. 



APFEXDtX. 



the Liffey went adrift. Some of 
the piles which composed it are in 
possession of Lord Howth, and 
some of Mr. Vernon who refuse to 
deliver them : Mr. Recorder to 
advise, (/ft.) [They were after- 
wards given up], 10th April, 1729 : 
Could not proceed with the work 
at Blackrock by reason of the 
stormy weather, nor with the new 
frames at Cock [Cockle j Lake, (/ft.), 
8th July, 1729^ The work having 
been left incomplete a deep gut 
has been formed between this 
summer and last winter at the 
east end of the frames which has 
carried a spit a great way into the 
Channel and is dangerous for 
shipping ; and will be worse if the 
carrying on of the frames be longer 
delayed: Suggest an Act of Parlia- 
ment giving power to borrow, (/ft.), 
1 7th October, 1 729 : Find the old 
frames very much decayed by 
worms and will require repair: 
Have no other dependance for 
stones, but Blackrock. The gut 
at the frames, and spit north- 
eastwards increasing. The bank 
above the west end of the frames 
is much carried away through Cock 
(Cockle) Lake. Propose a work 
across the same, (/ft. 1 ), 16th 
October, 1730: Have finished 
twenty-five frames : in length about 
thirty -seven perches. The work 
across Cock (or Cockle) Lake is 
proceeding (/ft.), 15th April, 1731 : 
Have paid .38 12*. 4J., for repairs 
of the west end of the north wall. 
(/A.), 17th July, 1731 : The bank 
at the west end of Cock (or Cockle), 
Lake called Salmon Pool bank, 
running southwards to the Brick- 



fields is very high, and is not under 
water above two feet with common 
tides, whereas on the line leading 
to Ringsend there is above six feet 
on the same sands so that the work 
cannot be continued thither without 
frames. Are of opinion that if the 
work from Cock (or Cockle) Lake 
be carried towards the Brickfields 
with only a double dry stone wall 
filled in between with gravel it 
would not only be more lasting 
and cheaper, but also make the 
bank in said angle rise faster, but 
chiefly make the basin within the 
bar the larger and able to contain 
more water, and consequently by 
the flux and reflux of the tide will 
deepen the bar which they fear is 
already prejudiced by shutting the 
water out of the harbour by the 
taking in of Sir John Rogerson's- 
quay ground, and the North Wall ; 
Ordered that the said wall be 
carried on towards the Brickfields 
as proposed by the Commissioners, 
(/ft.), 19th October, 1733: Find 
deeper water by a new channel at 
the east end of the frames since 
the stopping up of Cock (or Cockle) 
Lake which, as it becomes broader, 
carries the spit further north- 
wards, (7Z.) (From C. Ilaliday's 
Abstracts of the City Assembly 
Rolls. Haliday, MSS. Royal 
Irish Academy.) The double 
dry stone wall filled between 
with gravel (which now forms 
the road from Ringsend to the 
Pigeonhouse fort ) was com- 
pleted in 1735, (Tidal Harbour 
Commissioners second report. 
Captain Washington's rport and 
evidence to the report annexed, 



238 



THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 



no f. Banked out from the south 
Rogerson's-quay, 1 spread itself 

Parliamentary Papers, vol., xviii., 
Part I.) In October, 1735, a 
Floating Light was placed at the 
east end of the Piles. In June, 
1761, (he long wall of cut stone 
from the present Pigeonhouso was 
begun by erecting the present 
Poolbeg Lighthouse (Ibid.) This 
wall was completed in 1 790. u 28th 
August, 1788 : So great is the 
progress already made in the Mole 
or Jettie in our harbour, commonly 
called the South Wall or Ballast 
Office Wall that besides the mile 
and a quarter from Ringsend to 
the Block house, there are upwards 
of 3,000 feet in length of it com- 
pleted from the new work from 
the Lighthouse westwards" (Dublin 
Chronicle), " 10th January, 1789: 
The work is in such forwardness 
that it will be completed in about 
eighteen months." (Jbid..) W. M. 
G.] I am further indebted to 
my friend William Monk Gibbon, 
LL.D., for the following curious 
notices connected with the Piles 
on the South Bull. "25th 
February, 1744 : On Wednesday 
last were tried in the King's Bench 
(amongst others), Peter Fagan and 
James Flanagan and were (as 
sentenced), whipped on Thursday 
from Irishtown to Merrion for 
digging up piles at the Strand, 
Dublin News Letter," " 17th May, 
1766: The two murderers who 
were hung in gibbettt at a little 
distance from the new wall were 
put up in so scandalous a manner 
that they fell down on Tuesday, 
and now lie on the piles, a most 
shocking spectacle." Pue's Occur - 



side of the city by Sir John, 
over ground now laid out in 

rences, vol., Ixiii., No. 6488, W. 
M. G.] 

1 Lease in fee farm by tho 
Corporation of Dublin to John 
Rogerson, Esq., A.D. 1713. (Printed 
Rental of the Estates of the Cor- 
poration of Dublin, by Francis 
Morgan, Law Agent, Folio, Dublin 
1867.) Actsof Assembly 17th July, 
1713: John Rogerson, Esq., in- 
forms the City Assembly that he 
intends to speedily take in the 
Strand between Lazy Hill and 
Ringseud which the Assembly hope 
will improve the new channel, and 
Mr. Uogerson desires to be furnished 
with sand and gravel by the gab- 
bards when they have not work with 
shipping, he paying threepence per 
ton. City Records. [23rd August, 
1741 : Died at his house in Mary- 
street of a fever the Right Hon. 
John Rogerson, Esq., Chief Justice 
of the King's Bench. He came to 
the Bar in 1702. Was made 
Recorder of Dublin, 3rd November, 
1714. Same year became Solicitor- 
General ; and Attorney-General 
May, 1 720, and Lord Chief Justice 
May, 1727. (Dublin News Letter, 
Richard Reilly's No. 485, 23rd 
March, 1744.) To be sold that 
part of the South Strand in the 
city of Dublin which lies eastward 
of the arch on the High road from 
Dublin to Ringsend, containing 
133 acres plantation measure the 
estate of the late Right Hon. Chief 
Justice Robinson whereof 2 A. 2s. 
are bounded by Rogerson's-quay, 
and laid out for building, Dublin 
Journal, No. 1883, W. M. G.j 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OP DUBLIN. 



239 



streets, 1 so that Ringsend true to its name Rin or Keen Ayr "" > " 
meaning a spit or point presents itself in Sir Bernard de Rtngen<L 
Gomme's map as a long and narrow tongue or spit of land 
running out into the sea, the water on its western side 
spreading over all the low ground between Irishtown and 
the slightly rising ground on which stand the barracks at 
Beggar's Bush, and under Sir Patrick Dunne's hospital, 
along the line of Denzille-street and Great Brunswick-street, 
to Townsend-street, called .Lazey, otherwise Lazar's Hill, 
and flowing even to that front of the Parliament House 
called the Lord's entrance, facing College -street, as may be 
seen on the ground plan of Chichester House (the site of 
which the Parliament House occupies), where ground under 
this face is described as " the Old Shore." 2 At Lazar's hill Frigate 

launched at 
1 Sir Bernard de Gomme's Map pursuance of the before recited Act. 



of 1673. 

1 [Attached to the plan is the 
following return : " To the Right 
Honourable and honourable the 
Commissioners appointed by Com- 
mission under the Great Seal of 
Ireland in pursuance of an Act of 
Parliament made in the third year 
of His present Majesty intitled an 
Act to enable His Majesty to 
purchase the respective interests 
of the several persons entitled to 
the houses and grounds adjoining 
to the New Parliament House. 
May it please your honours, in 
obedience to your honours' order to 
us directed dated 28th of May hut, 
whereby we were required joyntly 
to survey all and singular the out- 
grounds and gardens belonging to 
a certain house demised to Sir 
William Robinson, Knt., by His 
late Majesty King Charles the 
Second excepting such parts of the 
premises thereby demised as hath 
been purchased by His Majesty in 



And having given due notice in 
writing to Mr. John Williams, 
Agent to your honours and to the 
other parties concerned in interest 
to attend said survey, and having 
heard what was offered by said 
John Williams in behalf of His 
Majesty and what was offered by 
Mr. Hutchinjou on behalf of him- 
self and of Richard Gering, Esq., 
did proceed to survey the same and 
having then and at sundry times 
informed ourselves by divers 
witnesses, persons capable to give 
us true information of the mears 
and bounds thereof. We have 
made a truesurve\ ; a Map where- 
of we have hereunto annexed, and 
do find that of all and singular the 
premises in the said Letters Patent 
contained and demised as aforesaid 
nothipg now remains to be pur- 
chased by His Majesty in pursuance 
of the said Act, except th follow* 
ing parcels, viz., No. 1, Xo. 2, 
and No. 3, whose boundaries and 



1240 



THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 



j n the year 1657, we find a frigate built and launched. 
Among the Treasury warrants issued by the Commissioners 
of England for the affairs of Ireland, is an order dated tin: 
24th March, 1657 : " That James Standish, Receiver- 
General, do issue forth and pay unto Mr. Timothy Avery 
the sum of 100, on account, the same being to be by him 
issued out towards the finishing and speedy fitting to sea 
the new ffrigatt, called the Larnbay Catch, now rebuilt and 
lately launched, att Lazey Hill, Dublin, according to such 
orders as he shall receive in writing under the hand of 
Captain Edward Tomlins, and Joseph Glover, who is to 
command the said shipp, for payment whereof this is a 

dimentions are described in the [In 1784, when makingthe present 
said Map and Table of Reference portico in Westmoreland -street for 



thereto belonging. All which is 
most humbly submitted to your 
honours, this Eleventh day of 
September, 1734, by 

Your Honours Mostdutyfull and 
Most Obedient Servants. 
THOMAS CAVE. 
GABRIEL STOKES. 

From the Original, Public Record 
Office, Four Courts. 

Lord Mountmorres says, " I re- 
member to have heard from a clerk 
of the House of Lords, Mr. 
Hawker, that Chichester House 
was very inconvenient ; and so it 
was reported by a Committee in 
Queen Anne's reign. I cannot 
help lamenting (he continues i, that 
a Map of the disposition of the 
apartments and grounds of 
Chicheater House which about 
twenty years ago was hung up in 
the House of Commons Coffee- 
house was unaccountably lost." 
History of the Irish Parliament 
from A.D. 1634 to 1666, by Lord 
Mountmorres, Vol. 2, p. 100, 2 
vols. 8vo., London, 1792.] 



a separate entrance to the House 
of Peers it was found that the 
buildings on this east side of the 
Parliament House stood on ground 
with declivities so sudden and so 
great as to make it difficult to bring 
the line of cornices, windows and 
rustic basement of the new portico 
into harmony with the lines of the 
original building ; for here on the 
east the foundation was the ' Old 
Shore ' line marked on the plan of 
Chichester House. It was only 
overcome by James Gandon the 
architect employing Corinthian 
Columns which are taller than the 
Ionic Order used in the main 
building, and even then the portico 
was ascended by steps. Life of 
James Gandon, architect by his 
son. Edited by Mul vany, pp. 83-85. 
Hodges and Smith, Dublin, 8vo., 
1846. In Speed's map of 1610, 
there is a pill or narrow inlet from 
the Liffey running up to this eastern 
front. The regular course of the 
shore line seems to have been Fleet- 
street by the same map.] 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 



241 



warrant," &c. ' Ringsend was then a place of arrival, and AP^DIV. 
departure for Lord Deputies with their attendant trains ; * 
and here, it may be remembered, Oliver Cromwell, as Lord 
Lieutenant, landed in the month of August, 1 649, with an 
army of 13,000 men, to commence his memorable nine 
months' campaign in Ireland. 

From Ringsend the direct approach to Dublin lay across Way from 
ground overflowed by the tide, but passable at low water Dubini' u 1C73 
for man or horse about the place where the Ringsend 
bridge now stands. At full tide the way lay more inland, 
through the fields of Baggot Rath, the line of approach 



i Book of Treasury Warrants, 
A.D. 1656-1657. Record Tower, 
Dublin Castle. [As late as 1744 
there was another launch. " Last 
Thursday, ' the Boyne ' privateer 
was launched at George's-quay, 
at which vast numbers of spec- 
tators were present who wished her 
a good voyage and to take her 
enemies," 29th September, 1744. 
The Dublin Journal, W. M. G.] 
[In A.D. 1663 in Hie et Ubique, a 
Comedy " Trust All " addresses 
"Bankrupt." "That's strange! 
There's not a Frigott hardly that 
lies moored up at Lazy Hill, 
Kilmainham, or the rest of the 
docks, that properly belong to that 
fleet, but they're all foul in the 
gun-room." ' Hie et Ubique' a 
Comedy ' by Richard Head, Dublin 
1663.' Among the First Earl of 
Charlemont's collection of Old 
Plays, lately in Charlemont House, 
Dublin. These expressions are 
allegorical, and mean ladies of a 
en-tain class satirised in this 
Comedy.] 

- I'M- it remembered that on 
Saturday the 12th of March, 1614, 
the Honorable Sir Arthur Chi- 



chester, Lord Chichester of Belfast, 
Deputy General of Ireland, after 
holdingthe sceptreof that Kingdom 
for nine years, five weeks and up- 
wards, embarked in the King's 
Sloop called ' the Moon,' Beverley 
Xewcomen, son and heir of Sir 
Robert Newcomen, Commander, 
on his voyage to England, being 
escorted from his house called 
Chichester House to the place 
called ' the Hinge's Ende ' where 
the Sloop's boat awaited him, by 
the Lords Justices, Privy Council 
and others, Officers of the Army, 
Pensioners, and Members of Parlia- 
ment, and the Mayor and Sheriffs, 
and the greater part of the Citizens 
of Dublin, all anxious to show their 
love, &c., &c- Exchequer Roll, 
1 1th James I., (translation). Lord 
Berkely landed here, 1679, De 
Ginkle sailed hence, 1691. (Story'a 
Warof Ireland, p. 285). EarlWhar- 
ton landed here, 1709. [The great 
guns were sent down to Ringsend 
to wait the arrival of the Duke of 
Devonshire our Lord Lieutenant, 
who is hourly expected here, 
Dublin News Letter, 29th Septem- 
ber, 1741. W. M. G.] 
R 



242 



THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 



APPENDIX 



Plan for a 
Harbour at 
HiiiLC>end in 
1674. 



being through Irishtown, nearly along the course of Bath- 
avenue, and by the line of Mount-street and Merrion- 
aquare to the castle. 1 

In the 3'ear I(i74 that following the visit of Sir Bern/in 1 
dc Gomme Andrew Yarranton, 2 the publisher of some 
plans for the improvement of harbours in England, came to 
Dublin, and was, as he states, " importuned by Lord Mayor 
Browster to bestow some time on a survey of the port," 
the result of which was, that considering it impossible to 
deepen the water on the bar, he offered suggestions for an 
artificial harbour and fort for its defence on the strand 
(then covered by the tide) between Ringsend and " the 
Town's End street ; " the want of some protection for the 
trade of Dublin being then a subject which engaged public 

1 The ground for Bath-avenue blew one [ship] to sea, where 
was only recovered from the sea 
about 1792. [" 31st May, 1792: 
The marsh between Beggar "s- 
bush and Ringsend, through which 
runs the Dodder on its way to 
Ringsend -bridge, is, we hear, taken 
by Mr. [Counsellor] Vavasour 
from Lord Fitzwilliam, for 150 
years, at 190 per annum. This 
tract, which is inundated every 
tide, Mr. Vavasour will (it is said) 



reclaim by a complete double em- 
bankment of the Dodder . 
The river is to be turned to its 
own channel, which is the centre 
of the piece of ground south of 
Ringsend-bridge ..." Dub- 
lin Chronicle. W. M. G.] 

[1796. The branch of the 
Dodder which ran out between 
Tritonville and Irishtown was 
diverted by the Ballast Board 
into the New Channel. Ballast 
Board Books. W. M. G.] 

*"I being at Dublin in the 
month of November, 1674, there 
happened a great storm which 



and men perished, and blew 
another upon the rocks near the 
point of Howth ... I also 
found from Lord Mayor Brewster 
and others that the badness of the 
harbour did occasion the decay of 
trade. I then acquainted him 
with my thoughts as to a good 
harbour at Ringsend. Upon 
which he did importune me to 
bestow some time in a survey . . . 
If there were a harbour at Rings- 
end, as in the map described, this 
advantage would be gained. At 
present there is at least 500 per 
annum paid to persons that carry 
and recarry people in the Rings- 
end coaches to and from the 
ships ; all this would be saved . . 
and, by the ships coming up 
boldly to Lazy-hill, trade will be 
niaile easy." England's Improve- 
ment by Land and Sea to outdo 
the Dutch without lighting, to set 
at work all the poor of England 
. . . pp. 150. By Andrew 
Yarronton, gent., small 4to, Lon- 
don, 1677. 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OP DUBLIN. 243 

attention, in consequence of a French privateer having Aypgyp " r - 
entered the bay, and captured and carried off a Spanish 
ship from near the bar of the river. 1 

Yarranton's plan appeared in a treatise entitled " Eng- 
land's Improvement by Sea and Land, to outdo the Dutch 
without Fighting," published in 1677. 

The plan of a citadel, as projected by Sir Bernard de FortatMerrioa 
Goinme, though not executed, seems not to have been mlended in 
wholly laid aside, for in a fine collection, in folio, of plans 1685 ' 
of all the forts existing in Ireland, in the year 1684, with 
their elevations beautifully executed in water colours, 
together with projects for additional defences, preserved at 
Kilkenny Castle, the same design reappears. This volume 
of plans is entitled " A Report drawn up by direction of 
His Majesty King Charles the Second, and General Right 
Hon. George [Legge] Lord Dartmouth, Master-General of 
His Majesty's Ordnance in England, and performed by 
Thomas Phillips, anno 1685 ;" a and it contains several plans 
and details "for a citadel to be built over Dublin," the 
site being apparently the same as that chosen by Sir 
Bernard de Gomme, and the form similar. 

The plans of Yarranton and De Gomme directed attention 
to the improvement of the port of Dublin, the trade of 
which was then carried on by vessels of from fifty to one 
hundred tons burden. 

As there was no corporate or other body in Dublin History of th 

Ballast Board 

i May 29th, 1675. "One matter 2 See the print of a very fine 

of some moment I have to acquaint jn a p by this artist, entitled " The 

you with ... A Spanish ship Ground Plan of Belfast, per 

was taken by a French privateer Tho. Phillips, Anno. 1685," 

close to the bar of this harbour, giving elevations of the Castle, 

and carried away on Thursday, Churches and principal Houses, 

in the evening . . . This accident i n the " History of Belfast," by 

has much disturbed the merchants George Benn, Hvo, Marcus Ward 

of this town." Earl of Essex's an d Co., London and Belfast, 

State Letters, Lord Lieutenant of 1877. 
Ireland. STO. Dublin, 1773,2nd 
edition, p. 242. 

B2 



244 



THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 



ArPEMHX. 



entrusted with the conservancy of the river, and especially 
empowered to raise ballast, Henry Howard petitioned the 
Lord Lieutenant in 1676 that a patent might be granted to 
him, pursuant to the king's letter, which he had obtained, 
for establishing a ballast office. 1 This, however, was 
opposed by the Lord Mayor and citizens, on the ground 
that the charter of King John gave to them the strand of 
the river, 2 where ballast should be raised, 2 and they, there- 
fore, prayed that permission to establish a ballast office 
might be granted to them, they applying the profits thereof 
to the maintenance of the intended " King's Hospital " 
(since better known as the Blue Coat School). 8 The Lord 
Lieutenant neither granted the prayer of the one petition 
or the other, nor did Howard execute a lease which be had 
proposed to take from the city. 



1 Acts of Assembly, 1676. 
Henry Howard petitioned the 
Lord Lieutenant for order to pass 
Letters Patent for a Ballast Office 
in all the ports of Ireland pur- 
suant to Letters under the King's 
Privy Seal granted him five years 
since. The Corporation answer 
that by the Charter of King John 
they own the Lifley and the 
strand within the franchises of the 
city ; that they have, by acts of 
Assembly, laid down rules for 
ballasting ; and by a late Assem- 
bly, in July last, have revived 
their ancient right to said ballast, 
and hope to have a Ballast Office, 
the profits whereof are intended for 
the King's Hospital. City Assem- 
bly Roll. 

3 A.D. 1200. King John con- 
firms former charters, and gran's 
to the citizens the fishery of one 
half of the Liffey, with liberty to 
build on the banks at their will. 
Dated at Upton, 6th of November, 



in the 2nd year of his reign. 
Historic and Municipal Docu- 
ments from the Archives of the 
City of Dublin, &c., 1172-1320. 
Edited by J. T. Gilbert, F.S.A., 
8vo, Dublin, 1870. A.D. 1215. 
Confirms to them the city in fee- 
farm with that part of the LillVy 
which belongs to them together 
with one part of the said river, 
except such fishings as we have 
granted in free alms [to St. Mary's 
Abbey, &c.], and such others as 
are held by ancient tenure. 
Dated at Marlbrege, 3rd of July, 
in the 17th year of his reign. 

3 Acts of Assembly. Nativity of 
St. John, 1 682 : Thos. and Henry 
Howard petition to the city : 
that the king had granted them 
his Letters for a Patent for erect- 
ing a Ballast Office in Ireland ; 
that they are willing to take a 
lease of the Port of Dublin from 
the city at fifty pounds a year, 
and to surrender their title. 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OP DUBLIN. 



245 



The Corporation of Dublin, still anxious to improve the APDK. 
port, petitioned the House of Commons in 1698, stating Corporation 
that " the river had become so shallow, and the channel so St t"*~ 
uncertain, that neither barques nor lighters of any burden ^ 
could get up except at spring tides, much merchandise 
being unloaded at Ringsend, and thence carted up to 
Dublin ;" and, therefore, prayed that they might be per- 
mitted to establish a Ballast Office. 1 

On this petition the " Heads of a Bill," were prepared and 
transmitted to England, conformable with Poyning's law, 7 
but the Bill was stopped in England by some persons 
there (as was alleged), who endeavoured to get a grant from 
the Admiralty for the benefit of the chest at Chatham." 8 



Ordered a lease for thirty-one years, 
at 50, covenanting to take such 
rates only as the Corporation shall 
think fit. City Assembly Roll. 
Christmas, 1685. The Howards, 
having neglected to perfect their 
lease, order for lease therefore 
declared void, and petition to the 
Lord Lieutenant that H.M. may 
direct Letters Patent to pass to 
the city for a Ballast Office. City 
Records. 

1 23rd Nov., 1698. Petition of 
Lord Mayor, &c., to the Commons 
in Parliament that the river is 
choked up . . .by gravel and 
sand brought by the fresh-water 
floods and ashes thrown in ... 
and, by taking ballast from the 
banks below Ringsend, which so 
breaks the banks that the river has 
carried great quantities of the 
loose sands thereof into Poolbeg, 
Salmon Pool, Clontarf Pool, and 
Green Patch, which were the usual 
anchoring places, but are now 
become so shallow that no number 
of ships can with safety bide 



there, and the river, also between 
Rings End and the Custom House, 
by this means, and by the building 
of several bridges which has 
shifted the sands, has become so 
shallow that the channel is of 
little use, and barks of any burden 
must unload, and the citizens 
bring up their coals, &c., by land; 
they, therefore, pray for a Ballast 
Board, to be governed by peti- 
tioners, to whom the river and 
the strand belongs. Commons 
Journals, vol. ii., p. 274. 

2 22nd July, 1707. Petition of 
John Eccles, Nathaniel Whitwell, 
and Robert Chetham, merchants, 
on behalf of themselves and others, 
showing that the port and channel 
in the harbour of Dublin are 
almost destroyed by the irregular 
taking in and throwing out of 
ballast, &c., insomuch that Clon- 
tarf pool and Salmon pool have 
lost, within a few years, above two 
feet of their former depth of water, 
&c. For remedy whereof several 
merchant* of Dublin formerly 



246 



THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 



APPENDIX. 



It is more likely, however, that the opposition origin 
in some jealousy respecting the Admiralty jurisdiction of 
the Port, the Lord Mayor being " Admiral of Dublin," 1 over 



applied to Parliament for a Bal- 
last Office, &c., and heads of a 
Bill passed the House, but same 
was stopped in England by some 
persons who endeavoured to get a 
grant thereof from the Admiralty 
Office there for the benefit of the 
Chest at Chatham. Ordered, That 
leave be given to bring in Heads 
of a Bill, &c., and that it be 
recommended to the Lord Mayor, 
Mr. Recorder of Dublin, Mr. 
Connolly, and Mr. Serjeant Neave, 
to prepare and bring in same. 
Common's Journals, rol. ii., pp. 
603, 504. 

i 21st March, 1372. Upon an 
inquisition ad quod damnum the 
jury find that it would be of no 
damage to the king or others to 
grant to the Mayor and citizens of 
Dublin, the customs of all merchan- 
dise brought for sale, either by land 
or sea, between Skerries and Aler- 
cornshed, otherwise Arclo. 46 
Edward III. "White Book of City 
of Dublin." 

A.D. 1582, 25 January, (24 
Elizabeth) the Queen, by her 
charter, granted the office of Ad- 
miralty to the Mayor, &c., of 
Dublin, wherever the sheriffs of 
the said city may lawfully receive 
customs, namely between Arclo 
and the Nannywater. Exchequer 
Mem. Roll 24th, 25th, 26th of 
Elizabeth, membrane llth. [Three 
years later the Corporation ob- 
tained an amended charter ; but in 
1615 the city lost this jurisdiction 
by a judgment of the Court of 



King's Bench. In that year Sir 
John Davys, Attorney- General, 
filed an information against the 
city of Dublin for (amongst other 
things) usurping Admiralty juris- 
diction. The city pleaded a Charter 
of Edward VI. , and a grant by 
Queen Elizabeth, dated at Weald 
Hall [in Essex], the 1 3th of August, 
in the 27th year of her reign (A.D. 
1585), confirming the charter of 
Edward VI., and giving the city 
the office of Admiralty, with a 
court of Admiralty, water bailiffs, 
&c., between Arclo and Nanny- 
water, "in order that they may 
the better apply themselves to the 
defence of the city." Judgment for 
the crown. King's Bench Roll, 
4th to 19th Jas. I., Exchequer. 
But the Corporation still claimed 
anchorage fees. In 1708, Easter 
Assembly That water bailiffs of 
the Lord High Admiral of England 
exact fees for anchorage in the 
port of Dublin. Ordered that the 
Lord Mayor prevent such exactions 
in future by prosecuting such as 
pretend to exact anchorage fees. 
City Records. 

15th February, 1 727-8 The Cor- 
poration addressed Lord Carteret, 
Lord Lieutenant, alleging that 
Queen Elizabeth, by charter dated 
26th of June, in the 24th year of 
her reign, granted them the office 
of Admiralty, which they always 
exercised until the reign of King 
James II., "and the government 
of the city being then in the hands 
of Papists, the Protestants who sue- 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 247 

which the Lord High Admiral of England claimed to be APPENDIX. 
supreme. This obstacle was removed in 1708, when the B llnst Board 

created by 6th 

Ballast Office was created by an Act of the 6th of Queen of Q. Anne, 

. | */\Q 

Anne : for the city had privately promised the Queen's 
Consort, Prince George' of Denmark, then Lord High 
Admiral of England, an annual tribute " of one hundred 
yards of the best Holland duck sail cloth, which shall be 
made in the realm of Ireland," although there was no 
clause to that effect inserted in the bill ; and this tribute 
was for a time regularly sent to London, and on one 
occasion when it was omitted it was formally demanded by 
the Admiralty, and then forwarded by the Corporation. 1 

To the establishment of this Ballast Office in 1708, and 
the remodelling of it in 1787, under the name of " The Cor- 
poration for Preserving and Improving the Port of Dublin," 
we owe the extraordinary improvement manifested by an 
inspection of the map. 

It will be observed that the high water mark was " the improvements 
Towns-end-street " on the one side, and what yet retains the Board, 
name of " the North Strand " on the other ; and a curious 
illustration of the state of the harbour is found in the fact 

ceeded were unacquainted with ' '24th May, 1708 Acts of As- 

their privileges, and have but sembly. Committee of Ballast 

lately discovered that the said Office petition the General As- 

power was vested in them. Hali- sembly for liberty to render to the 

day's Abstracts of City Assembly Lord High Admiral, Prince George 

rolls. Haliday MSS., Royal Irish of Denmark, the Prince Consort, 

Academy. according to promise 100 yards of 

28th October, 1761 Petition the best Holland duck sailcloth 

to Parliament of the Corporation of that should be made in Ireland. 

Dublin, stating that from time im- Ordered that it be paid for out of 

memorial the harbour of Dublin the Ballast Office fund, and deliver- 

was the petitioners' inheritance : ed at the Admiralty at London, 

that Queen Elizabeth, by her City Assembly Roll, 
charter in the 24th year of her Acts of Assembly 17 July, 

reign, granted them the Admiralty 1731 The Admiralty demand the 

of the ports and harbours from 100 yards. There being no clauje 

Ardo to Nannywater, and prayed in the Act ordering it ; Ordered 

additional powers. Common's To be furnished and sent regularly 

Journals, VII., 22. in future. Ibid, 






Till; SCANDINAVIANS, 



New land 
made. 



that, during a storm in 1070, the tide flowed up to the 
College, 1 and at a, later period, that a collier was wrecked 
where Sir Patrick Dunne's Hospital now stands. 

The soil raised by dredging the river during 130 years has 
contributed to fill up the space now occupied by the Custom 
House, Commons-street, Mayor-street, &c., to the north ; and 
Great Brunswick-street, &c., to the south ; and so lat 
1728, when "Brooking's map of Dublin" was published, 
the whole ground known as the " North and South Lotts " 
was still covered by the tide, the name of " Lotts " origina- 
ting in the resolution of the Lord Mayor and citizens to 
apportion them out, " and draw lots for them," 8 with the 
stipulation that they should be enclosed from the river by 
a wall, and filled up. 



1 "March, 1670. A great storm; 
windatS.E. The water overflowed 
the bank at Ringsend, Lazar's hill, 
and over Mr. Hawkins's new wall, 
and up to the College." Hist, of 
the City of Dublin, by Walter 
Harris. Annals, p. 353. 8vo, 
Dublin, 1766. 

2 This was done in the year 1717. 
The following is a title of a printed 
map: " A map of ye strand of ye 
north side of ye channel of ye River 
Life, as it was granted and set out 
in Easter Assembly, 1717, by the 
Right Hon. John Bolton, esq., 
Lord Mayor of ye City of Dublin, 
W. Empson and David Kin<r. 
sheriffs; and the deeds and this 
map perfected in the mayoralty of 
Anthony Barker, esq., Lord Mayor 
[A.D 1718] John Reyson and 
Valentine Kidde, sheriffs. 

[The corporation adopted this 
system of lotting when taking in 
portions of StephenVgreen and 
Oxmantown-green : thus, Michael- 
mas Assembly, 1603. "The Com- 



mittee of City Revenue report 
that seventeen acres plantation 
measure of Stephen's-greon may 
be set to the advantage of the city." 
Bergin's Index to the Assembly 
Rolls, p. 180. 

August, 1664. "Memorandum 
of the several lotts of land set out 
in Stephen's-green, and the respir- 
tive tenants of each." On i lo- 
west and east sides are shown 
eighteen and fifteen lots respec- 
tively ; on the north and south sides 
thirty-three and twenty-four lots. 
"The fines for each lease to be 
applied in walling in and paving 
the Green for the ornament and 
pleasure of the city." Ibiif. 

Christmas Assembly, 1 664 

"Order that part of Oxmantown- 
green be taken and set by lots in 
feefarm, reserving a highway and 
large market place [Smithfit-Id]. 
Order for staking out the lots to be 
disposed of by lottery." The lotg, 
ninety-seven in number, here follow. 
Ibid.-] 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 



249 



But the greatest improvement as regards the trade of the APPENDIX. 
Port has been the partial removal of the bar at the mouth Bar lowered, 
of the river. For the removal of this bar the most eminent 
engineers had been consulted. In 1713 the Ballast Office 
procured the services of Captain John Perry, 1 who had 
been employed at Dover harbour, and at the Daggenham 
breach in the Thames ; but, although he suggested plans 
by which it was conceived that the depth of water might 
be increased, the task was considered as hopeless, that to 
render the port fit for vessels drawing even twelve feet 
of water, it was proposed that an artificial harbour should 
be constructed near Ringsend, one engineer suggesting that 
this harbour should be accessible by a ship canal, along the 
Sutton shore ? and another, that the canal should be 



1 " Proposals for rendering the 
Port of Dublin Commodious." 
By Captain John Perry. 8vo, 
London, 1720. 

2 This would seem to have been 
a plan of Perry's. For the rare 
and finely engraved map of 
Captain John Perry's scheme, 
here photographed and litho- 
graphed, I am indebted to my 
friend Richard Bergoin Bennett, 
esq., of Eblana Castle, Kingstown 
The original engraving measures 
2 feet 2 inches by 1 foot 9 
inches. In the Appendix to the 
Second Report of the Tidal Har- 
bours Commissioners will be found 
a full account of this project. In 
July, 1725, the Lord Lieutenant 
and Council ordered a map and 
soundings to be made of the 
harbour, and that Captain Burgh, 
Engineer and Surveyor-General, 
and Captain John Perry, should 
assist those appointed by the Bal- 
last Board to examine the har- 



bour. On 31st August, 1 79 5, the 
survey was made, and on 29th 
September, 1725, Perry published 
his account of a new approach 
with a plan. On 29th Xovember, 
1725, the plan was referred by 
the Lord Lieutenant and Council 
to the Ballast Board ; and they, 
on 3rd February, 1726, reported 
against it. Their objections are 
given in the Tidal Harbours Com- 
missioners' Second Report. Ibid. 
Parliamentary Papers, vol. xviii., 
part i., pp. 13, 14. Perry anxious, 
probably, to enlist the favour of 
the public towards his scheme, 
may have published this map at 
his own expense in 1728. Mr. 
Haliday sought in vain for a sight 
of this map as appears by the 
following : 

" In Gough's Topographical 
Antiquities of Great Britain and 
Ireland, p. 689, it is stated there 
is a map of the city and suburbs of 
Dublin, by Chas.Brookin, 1728,and 



250 



THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND 



APPENDIX. f rom Dalkey or Kingstown, so as altogether to avoid the 

bar. 1 
k"* 6 S !T, * Th e works executed by the Ballast Office have, however, 

accommodated. J 

so far removed the bar, that at the spot where Nicholas 
Ball proposed, in 1582, "to build a tower like the Maiden 
tower at Droghecla," 2 there is now twenty-five feet of w;it.'r 
at spring tides ; and the river, which in 1713, could only 
be used by vessels of 50 to 100 tons burden, is now used 
by vessels of 1,000 to 1,100 tons register, and drawing 
twenty-one feet of water ; the effect of the improvement 
being such that the Ballast Office must construct new 
docks for the large vessels now frequenting the port, as the 
Custom-house docks, planned by Sir John "Rennie so late 



a map of the bay and harbour of 
Dublin with a small plan of the 
city, 1 728. I have Brookin's map, 
but I have never seen or heard of 
any person who had seen the map 
of the bay and harbour of 1 728. 
Possibly some of your corres- 
pondents could give information 
on the subject, and also if there be 
any map of the city, either printed 
or manuscript, between Speed's 
map of 1610 and Brookin's of 
1728, and where? 25 February, 
1854. (Signed) C. H." Notes 
and Queries, vol. ix., 174. 

i In a " Plan for Advancing 
the Trade of Dublin," printed by 
William Watson & Son, Capel- 
street in 1800, it was proposed to 
avoid the Bar, at a cost of 
102,144, by enclosing Dalkey 
Sound, and to come thence by a 
canal direct to Dublin. Parlia- 
mentary Records of Ireland, vol. i., 
p. 188. 

9 Midsummer, 15G6, Acts of 



Assembly. Agreed, that Gerald 
Plunket, for his great charges in 
maintaining bowyes (buoys) or 
marks at the bar of the haven, 
shall have of every boat of 6 tons 
to 20 tons four pence per ton, 
of 20 to 30 six pence, of every 
ship twelve pence. City Assembly 
Roll, 8th Elizabeth. 

Midsummer, 1582 Nicholas 
Duff and Nicholas Ball, who had 
undertaken to keep a perch at the 
bar, are to build a tower at Rings - 
end. Ibid., 24th Elizabeth. 

A.D. 1588. Forasmuch as 
Nicholas Ball hath surrendered, 
&c., in respect of a tower which 
by him should be builded on the 
bar, and, the perches having fallen, 
Captain George Thornyn to have 
[ ] years' interest on the 

perquisites, he building up a tower 
on the bar at Michaelmas next. 
The water bailiffs to put up a 
perch or buoy at their own charge. 
Ibid. 



SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 251 

as 1821, are incapable of receiving steam or other large 
vessels, the sill of the lock gates being now four feet above 
the deepened bed of the river in front. 

CHARLES HALIDAY, M.R.I.A. 



Monkstown Park, county Dublin, 
15th March, 1861. 



[ 253 ] 
TABLE OF CHAPTERS, 



BOOK I. 
CHAPTER I. 

No cities among the early Irish. The site of Dublin a place of no 
distinction amongst them. Dublin founded by Scandinavians, 
and made their capital. Thence became the capital of the 
English. Denmark filled by Saxons \vho escaped thither to 
avoid forced baptism by Charlemagne. The Norsemen, infected 
by these exiles with their hatred, ravage the coasts of France. 
Their ravages of England. They plunder the islands and coasts 
of Ireland. Their ravages on the mainland of Ireland. The 
Dubhgoill and the Finnghoill. Aulaff of the Dubhgoill settles 
at Dubhlinn of Ath Ciiath, A.D. 852, 1 

CHAPTER II. 

The founding of Dublin. The story of Turgesius discussed. Aulaff, 
descended of Regnar Lodbrog, founds Dublin, A.D. 852. Legend 
of Aulaff, Sitric, and Ivar, three brothers, founding, respectively, 
Dublin, Waterford, and Limerick, disproved. Irish and Danish 
names of the site of Dublin. Dublin and Northumbria for a 
century under the same Danish kings. Legend of Regnar's death 
in Northumbria. Regnar put to death in Ireland by the Irish. 
Regnar Lodbrog, the Thurgils, or Turgesius of Irish annals. 
Account of Turgesius from Dr. Todd's " War of the Gaedhill 
with the Gaill," 19 

CHAPTER III. 

Ivar, conqueror and King of Northumbria, identified with Ivar, 
King of Dublin. Of the joint career of Aulaf and Ivar. Ivar's 
successors in East Anglia and Northumbria, . . . .36 

CHAPTER IV. 

At Ivar's death, his sons, Godfrey and Sitric, were in France. 
Cearbhall (Carrol) ruled at Dublin. Sitric slays his brother 
Godfrey, and embarks for Dublin. Recovers Dublin. His 
attempt on Northumberland defeated. Dies, and his son Aulaf, 
succeeds. Aulaf recovers Northumberland. Dies at York. 
Famine in Ireland through locusts. Emigration of Danes to 
Iceland. The Irish expel the Danes from Dublin, . . .44 



254 TABLE OP CHAPTERS. 

CHAPTER V. 

Page 

Gormo, King of Denmark, rules East Anglia. Reginald and Sitric, 
sons of King Aulaf, rule in Northumberland. On the settle- 
ment of Normandy fresh fleets of Danes come to England from 
France. Part settle at Waterford. - Sitric of Northumberland 
recovers Dublin. His brother Reginald sails to Waterford, and 
rules there and at Limerick. Defeats of the Irish by Reginald 
and Sitric, .......... 50 

CHAPTER VI. 

Reginald and Sitric, sons of Godfrey, King of Dublin, return to 
Northumberland. In their absence the Irish attempt to recover 
Dublin. Reginald and Sitric made Kings of different divisions 
of Northurubria. Death of Reginald, . . . . .57 

CHAPTER VII. 

Godfrey, son of Reginald, through Sitric's absence, assumes the rule 
at Dublin. His conflicts with the Danes of Limerick and their 
allies Canute and Harold, sons of Gormo, King of Denmark. 
Sitric dies, and Athelstan annexes Northumberland. Sitric's 
sons come to Ireland. Godfrey vainly attempts to recover North- 
umberland. His renewed conflicts with the Danes of Limerick 
aided by the sons of Sitric. Death of Godfrey. Athelstan 
makes Eric Blod-Ax, Viceroy of Northumberland, . . .61 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Aulaf, King of Dublin, attempts to recover Northumberland. Is 
defeated by Athelstan at Btunanburg. Returns to Dublin. 
The Irish besiege Dublin, . . . . . . .69 

CHAPTER IX. 

King Edmund dies A.D. 946, Aulaf Cuaran, King of Dublin, 
contests Northumberland with King Eadred, Edmund's successor. 
Aulaf, after four years' possession of Northumberland, is ex- 
pelled. He returns to Ireland. His extensive Irish connexions. 
His throne at Dublin disputed by his nephew. Aulaf recovers 
it. Goes a pilgrimage to lona. Abdicates. Maelsechlain over- 
throws Reginald, Aulaf s son. Maelsechlain proclaims the free- 
dom of Ireland, ......... 73 



TABLE OF CHAPTERS. 255 

BOOK II. 

OF THE SCANDINAVIANS OF DUBLIN AND THEIR RELATIONS WITH 
NEIGHBOURING KINGDOMS. 

CHAPTER I. 

DUBLIN AND THE ISLE OF MAN. 

P*g 

Man for the Romans an Irish island. Man yields tribute to 
Baedan, King of Ulster, A.D. 580. Thenceforth said to belong 
to Ulster. Conflicts between the Norwegians of Ulster and 
Danes of North umbria about Man. Claimed by Reginald, 
brother of Sitric, King of Dublin, from Barid of Ulster. 
Magnus, King of Man, grandson of Sitric, with the Lagmen, sails 
round Ireland doing justice. Magnus, one of the eight kings 
who rowed King Edgar's barge on the Dee. The ground 
probably of the forged charter of King Edgar pretending dominion 
in Ireland. In the eleventh century intermarriages make it hard 
to say whether the kings of Dublin are to be called Danish or 
Irish. De Courcy's claim to Ulster through his wife, daughter 
of the King of Man. King Henry Second's jealousy. De 
Courcy's fall, 82 

CHAPTER II. 

DUBLIN AND NORWAY. 

Notices of Dublin frequent in Norwegian and Icelandic history. 
Constant intercourse between Dublin and Norway. Ostmen 
from Dublin fight for Norwegian liberty at the battle of 
Hafursfiord. Led by Cearbhall, King of Dublin, or his son-in- 
law, Eyvind Austman. Every King of Norway (almost) visits 
Dublin. Biorn, son of Harold, King of Norway, visits Dublin 
as a merchant ; also King Hacon. Dublin the port for sale of 
Scandinavian prizes, or cargos of merchandize, . . . .94 

CHAPTER III. 

DUBLIN AND ICELAND. 

Iceland visited by Irish previous to its discovery in A.D. 870 by 
Lief and Ingolf, Norwegians. Lief bringing captives from 
Ireland is saved by their device from perishing of thirst. Many 
descendants of Cearbhall, an Irishman, King of Dublin, follow 
his son-in-law, Eyvind Ostman, and settle in Iceland. Auda, 
widow of King Aulaf founder of Dublin, retires thither. Auda 
becomes a Christian like her brother-in-law, an emigrant from 
Ireland. Descendants of Aulaf and Auda settlers in Iceland. 
Other emigrants from Ireland. America discovered long before 



2f>< TABLE OF 

Page 

Columbus by Norsemen connected with Dublin. Ari, a 
descendant of Cearbhall's wrecked on the coast of Florida A.D. 
983. Gudlief from Dublin driven by storms to America A.D. 
936. Is addressed in Irish. Finds it is Biorn, long banished 
from Iceland, 98 

CHAPTER IV. 

DUBLIN AND THE SCOTTISH ISLES. 

The Hebrides and Orkneys visited by Irish ecclesiastics long before 
their occupation by the Scandinavians. Saint Columba retired 
from Ireland to Hy (one of the Hebrides), A.D. 563. Founded a 
monastery there. The Scandinavians plunder Hy-Colum-Cille, 
A.D. 802. From the Orkneys and Hebrides they plunder in 
Ireland, Scotland, and Norxvay. Harald Haarfagr, King of 
Norway, sends Ketill Flatnef against them. Ketill becomes 
their leader. Allies himself with Aulaf, the White, King of 
Dublin. Marries his daughter. Scandinavian ravages in Spain 
and Africa. They land their Moorish captives in Ireland. 
Spanish, Irish, and Scandinavian histories confirm this account, 113 

CHAPTER V. 

DUBLIN AND THE MAINLAND OF SCOTLAND. 

Difference between the Scandinavian invasions of Scoland and 
Ireland. In Scotland they were as conquerors. The Scandi- 
navians at Dublin, colonists. Aulaf, King of Dublin, inter- 
marries into the families of Irish Kings. Enumeration of Aulaf s 
connexions with Irish royalty. His connexions with the 
Scandinavian Lords of the Isles. Marries Auda, daughter of 
Ketill, Lord of the Hebrides. Keneth M'Alpin, King of Scots, 
calls to his aid, Godfrey, Chief of Ulster. Godfrey becomes 
Lord of the Isles. Aulaf s expedition with his sonlvar, against 
the men of Fortrenn. Aulaf slain there, A.D. 869. His son, 
Ivar, returns, and reigns at Dublin. Ivar dies, A.D. 872. 
Ivar's grandson driven out of Dublin by the Irish, A.D. 962. 
Invades Pictland, and is slain at Fortrenn, A.D. 904, . .118 

CHAPTER VI. 

RELIGION OF THE OSTMEN OF IRELAND. 

Few details in Irish Annals concerning the form of Paganism of 
the Ostmen of Ireland. Date of their conversion to Christianity. 
The conversion of King Aulaf Cuaran in England. The first 
Ostman bishop of Dublinconsecrated there. King Aulaf Cuaran's 
conversion in England decides the religion of many of his subjects 
in Ireland. The rest remain worshippers of Thor. Proofs of 



TABLE OF CHAPTERS. 257 



thia worship in Irish Annals. Whether the prefix Gille be 
Scandinavian or Irish discussed. Deductions drawn from its 
use in Scandinavian and Irish names. The division of Ireland 
into four provinces, not Scandinavian, but of ecclesiastical origin. 
The Dyfflinarskiri or Scandinavian territory around Dublin. 
Its bounds co-extensive with the early Admiralty jurisdiction of 
the Mayor and citizens of Dublin, . . . . . .122 



BOOK III. 

THE SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OF DUBLIN. 
CHAPTER I. 

OF THE STEIN OF DUBLIN. 

Bounds of the Stein. Priory of All Hallowes, founded on the 
Stein. Neck of land at the Stein formed by the confluence of 
the Liffey and the Dodder. The favourite landing place of the 
Northmen of Dublin. Bridge and mill of the Stein. Long 
Stone of the Stein. Site of the Long Stone. The Stein (or Stain) 
named from this Stone. References to the Long Stone in city 
leases. Scandinavian tombs on the Stein, . . . .143 

CHAPTER II. 

OF THE THINGMOUNT OF DUBLIN. 

The monuments of the Stein shown to be Scandinavian. Custom 
of the Northmen to set up a Stone at their first landing place. 
And to erect temples to Thor and Freija adjacent. Also a 
Thingmount or place of public meeting and judicature. The 
Thingmount of Dublin erected on the Stein. Remained till 
A.D. 1682. Account of its removal Church of St Andrew 
Thengmotha. Built probably on the site of a Temple of Thor 
or Freija. Meeting of King Henry the 2nd with Irish princes 
on the Stein near the Church of St. Andrew. Understood pro- 
bably by the Irish as either a Thing-mote or a Festival meeting. 
Not as a submission or surrender of independence. Hoges. 
Hoge-Tings. " Hoggen Green," " Hogen butts." and " St 
Mary del Hogges," all called from this adjacent Hoge or Ting- 
mount, ........... 156 



258 TABLE OF CHAPTERS, 



APPENDIX. 



ON THE ANCIENT NAME OF DUBLIN. 

Page 

Shallowness of the navigable channel of the Liffey in early times. 
Fords at Dublin. Bally- Ath-Cliath, the Town of the Hurdleford, 
the original name of Dublin. Mistakes of Stanihurst, \V;uv, 
and others as to the origin and meaning of the name. Circum- 
stances misleading them. The true meaning of Bally- Ath-Cliath 
stated in the Dinn Seanchus. Nature of the structure of the 
Hurdleford. Tochers or wooden causeways distinguished from 
Droichets or bridges. Droichets or regular bridges distinguished 
from Droichet-Cliaths A regular bridge at Dublin before the 
English Invasion. Bridge of the Ostmen or Dubhgall's bridge. 
Early bridges in England. Rebuilding of London Bridge in stone 
in King John's reign. Site of the Hurdleford of Dublin discussed. 
Dr. Petrie's identification of the live great Slighs or roads lead- 
ing from Tara in the first century of the Christian era. The 
Hurdleford at Bally-Ath-Cliath shown to be in the line of the 
Sligh Cualan, * . 202 

II. 

OBSERVATIONS EXPLANATORY OF SIR BERNARD DE GOMME's MAP, 
MADE A.D. 1673. 

Alarm produced by the entry of the Dutch fleet into the Thames in 
1667. Sir Bernard de Gomme's plan for the defence of the Har- 
bour of Dublin in 1673. His project for a fort near Merrion- 
square. Ringsend then the chief landing place. Meaning of 
'Ringsend.' The Pigeon House. Its history. Extent of 
ground overflown by the sea in 1673. The making of the North 
and South walls. Sir John Rogerson's wall. Double wall and 
road from Ringsend to the Pigeon House. Piles in the sand 
thence to Poolbeg. The building of the Long wall. The lotting 
for the North Lots. The erecting of the Ballast Board. Early 
history of the Bar at the Harbour Mouth. The deepening of 
the River and reducing the Bar the work of the Ballast Board, . 228 



INDEX. 



Aberfayle (Perthshire), 175, n. 
Abrodites, 8. 

Acquitaine, K. John, Duke of, 185. 
Adam of Bremen, lx., 53, n. 
Adam titz Robert, murder of, Ixxi., n. 
Ad Quod Damnum (inquisition), 

240, n. 

Adanman, iv., 113, n., 121, n., 172, n. 

Addington, Ixxxix. 

Admiral, The Lord High, claims 

anchorage fees in Port of Dublin 

(1708), 246,., 247. 
Admiralty of Dublin. 
jurisdiction of, granted to 

Mayor, &c., of Dublin, 140, 24G. 
between Arclo and Nanny 



water, n., ib. 

customs between these limits 
granted to them (46 Ed. III., ib. 

admiralty jurisdiction in (27 
Elizabeth), ib. 

annulled (12 James I.), by judg- 



ment of King's Bench, ib. 
Aedh, 57, 63, n. 
Aedh, son of Conchobar, King of 

Connaught, 47. 
Aedh Finnlaith, King of Ireland, 

47, n., 59, 77, 118, 119. 
Africa, 115, 116. 

Agar House, on Arran-quay, viii., n. 
Aghaboe, 54. 
Aighneach, or Snam Eidhneach (Car- 

lingford), 

Aileach, 2,72, 111, 112. 
Ailill, 28, 30. 
Ailill, s. of Colgan, 16. 
Ain, 88. 

Ainge, river (Nanny), 24, n. 
Airghialla, 86, n. 
Aitill, 227, n. 
Ak nines promontory, 105. 
Alan's register, 217. 
Alba, 47, 57, 120. 
Albain, 82, n. 



Alban Alband, or Half dan, 44, n. 
Albanaich, 43. 
Albanenses, 121. 
Albdarn (Halfdan), 64. 
Albene, or Delvin rivulet, 142, n. 2 
Alcluit, 38, 39, n. 
Albdan, 115, see Halfdan. 
Alder, Mr., vii., viii. 
Alercronshead (Arklow), 139. 
Alexander the Great, xi. 

the Third (Pope), ib. 

Alexandria, 1., n. 

Alfred, King, 42, 48, 50, 70, 100,127. 

Alfus, 101. 

Alfwyn, daughter of Ethelflaed, 57. 

All Hallows, Priory of, Ixxv., cxviii., 

145, 146, n., 149, 150, 178, and 

see All Saints. 

Register of, 162. 

Allen, Giles, 146, n. 

. John, Judge of Metropolitan 

Court, 146, n. 

Colonel, John, xc., xciL 



Allman, Professor, 210. 

Alloid, Manonnan, s. of, 82, n. 

Alorekstad, 135, n. 

Althing, 104, 160, 169, 197. 

Alvdon, see Halfdan. 

Amaccus, and see Maccus, son of 

Aulaf Cueran, 75, n. 
Amhlaeibh Ceancairech (Aulaf Cean- 

cairech), 66, n., 69. 
America, 105, 107. 
American map paper, cxxiiL 
Amiens-street, cix. 
Amory, Jonathan, 2 1 2, n. 
Amrou, 1., n. 
Andalusia, 117. 
Anglesey, Earl of, 152. 
Anglesea, Isle of, xxxvii., 50, 87. 
Anglo Saxons, 64. 
Angus, s. of Ere, 82. n. 
Anjou, King John, Count of, 
Aunagassan river, 19, n., 64, n. 
82 



260 



INDEX. 



Annals of Loch Ce, Ixxxii. 

Annc.-l'-y, Sir Francis, cvili., n. 

Annrslry, Arthur, 165. 

Annuth, 42, n. 

Antony and Caesar, 1., n. 

Antrim, coast of, 11, n. 

Anwynd, 42, 43. 

Arabia, 1., n. 

Aralt for Harald. 

Archdale, Mervyn, 217, n. t 146, n., 

192, n. 
Archery butts, 169, and see Hoggen 

butt. 

Ard Macha (Armagh), 16. 
Ari, Ix. 

Ari Frode, 100, n. 
Aric mac Brith, 63, n., 71, n. 
Arklow, Ixvii., 138, 139, 140, 141, 
and see Arklow and Nanny water, 
the bounds of Admiralty jurisdic- 
tion of Dublin, 246, n., 247, n. 
Armagh, 2, n., 16, 20, n. t 33, 34, 
35, 36, 38, 67, 123. 

archbishop of, cviii., n., 177. 

fosoirchinneach of, 132, n. 

Arnulf, Emperor, 45, n. 
Arran-quay, Ixxix., viii., xxl, Ixix. 
Arran-street, East, 212, n. 
Artichoke-road, 231, n. 
Artists' Warehouse, Fishamble- 

street, 209. 
Asolfus Alskek, 105. 
Asdisa Bareysku, Iviii., 103. 
Askel Hnokkan, 101. 
Askellshofda, 101, n. 
Assembly Rolls of City of Dublin, 
xv., xxv. 

Acts of (and Corporation of 

Dublin), 203, n. 
Asser, 25, 37, n., 41, n., 42, n., 

44, n. 

Aston's-quay, cxviii., 147, n. 
Astorga, xci. 
Ath, 213. 

Athairne Ailgeaseah, 213. 
Ath-crocha(Shannon harbour), bridge 

of, A.D, 1116, 214, n. 
Ath-Cliath, 3, 23, 47, 56, 58, 61, 
69, 85, 142. 



Ath-Cliath of ships, 23, n. 
of swords, ib. 



bridge of (A. D. 1014), 219,220. 

fortress of, 49, 58, 69. 

fortress of, the foreigners at, 



Ixv. 

the foreigners of, 39, 50, GO, 69, 
72, 74, 79. 

green of, 152, 184. 



battle of (Kilmashoge), 59, 60, 

64, 65. 

plain of, 152, n. 

the orator of, 132. 

mistakes concerning origin of 

name, 207, 209, 210, 212. 

true meaning, 213, 215, 226. 

tochar or causeway at, 221. 

meaning of, 23. Ostmen for- 
tress at Dubhlinn of Ath-Cliath, 
A.D. 840, 23. Site of fortress, t'6. 
Foreigners of, 39, plunder Mun- 
ster and Connaught, ib. ; Flanns 
defeat by, 47 ; foreigners of, 
expelled by Cearbhall, s. of 31 ui- 
rigen, 49 ; the foreigners under 
Sitric, s. of Godfrey, recover Dubli- 
linn of Ath-Cliath, 54 ; battle of 
Kilmashoge, called battle of Ath- 
Cliagh,(A.o. 919), 59; defeat of the 
Irish under Niall Glundubh, ib. ; 
Reginald, s. of Godfrey, rules at, 
A.D. 921, 61 ; Irish attack in his 
absence, 64 ; failure of, ib. ; return 
of Godfrey, 66; the Mac Elghi 
(sons of Sitric) take Dublin, 67 ; 
Muircheartagh and his Leather 
Cloaks besiege Ath-Cliath, 71, 72; 
fail, 72. 

Ath-Cliath-Cualann, Hi., 225. 

Ath-Cliath Meadrighe, 226, n. (now 
Clarensbridge, co. Galway). 

Ath-Cliath on the Shannon, 2i'G. 

Ath-Cruithne, 64. 

Athelstan, 64, 65, 66, 68, 69, 70, 
71, 124; illegitimate brother of 
Edward, K. of Anglo-Saxons, 64 ; 
drowns his legitimate brother 
Edwin, ib. ; by the aid of the 
Northumbrian Danes usurps the 



INDEX. 



261 



Athelstan con. 

rule of the Anglo-Saxons, ib. ; 
usurps the kingship of the North- 
umbrian Danes, 65 ; Godfrey, K. 
of Dublin, recovers this kingship 
for a short time, 66 ; is expelled 
.Vthelstan, ib. ; who appoints 
Eric-Blodax, a Dane, viceroy, 68. 
Atholstan, K. of Anglo-Saxons, con- 
quers Aulaf at Bninanburg, A.D. 
M7, 220. 
Athgus, Manannan, s. of, King of 

Man, 82, n. 
Athliag, tocharor causeway at, 221, 

see Ballyliag. 
Athlone, 34. 

tochar or causeway, 221. 
- bridge of (A.D. 1116), 244, n. 
- the wicker bridge of (A.D. 
1133), 214, n. 

castle of, A.D. 1120, 214, n. 



Ath Truisten, 72, 142. 
Atkinson, Edward, xli. 
Attar, 53. 
Auda, Queen, Ivii., Iviii., Lx. 

d. of Ketill Flatnef, 101, n., 

102, 103, 114, 120. 

wife of Aulaf the White, 101, n. 



Audoen's arch, 223, n. 

Augustus Caesar, 2, n. 

Auisle, 22, n. 

Aulaiv, K. of Lochlann, 19, n. 

Aulaff, s. of the K. of Lochlann, 1 9. 

Aulaf, Aulaiv, Amhlaeibh, Amaleff, 
and Amlevus, or Olaf, 20. 

Aulaf K., the White, Ivii., Iviii., Ix. 

37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 43, 47, 53, 

54, 61, 85,., 98, 101, 102, 104, 
107,108,114,118,120, 121,126, 
142. 

his arrival, 19; his name in 

Irish, 20 ; takes Dublin, ib, ; is 
made king of it, ib. ; story of 
Aulaf, Sitric, and Ivar, being 
Kings of Dublin, Waterford, and 
Limerick respectively, false, 20, 
22 ; he conquers the Picts and 
destroys Fortren, their capital, 
36 and n 3 ; accompanies Ivar, 



Aulaf con. 

King of Dublin, to East Anglia, 
37 ; they conquer it and North- 
umbria, ib; Ivar made King of 
Northumbria, ib. ; their second in- 
vasion of Scotland from Dublin, 30 ; 
they besiege Dimbarton the capital 
of the Britons of Strath Clyde, ib. ; 
the ravages of Ivar and Aulaf in 
Minister and Connaught, 39; 
Aulaf dies, A.D. 871, 40 ; Ivar dies 
A.D. 872 ib. ; Eystein (or Ostin), 
Aulaf s son, slain by a stratagem 
of the Albanaich (or Scots), 43. 

Aulaf Cuaran, 73, 75, 76, 77, 79, 
80, 91, 92, 96, 126, 181, n. 

rules at Dublin, 73 ; lands in 

Northumbria (A.D. 949), 74 ; after 
four years is expelled, 75 ; returns 
to Ireland, 76 ; marries Dunlaith, 
daughter of Maelmhuire, 77 ; 
marries Gormflaith, daughter of 
Murchadh, K. of Leinster, 78 ; 
Aulaf s Irish connexions, 77, 78 ; 
Aulaf, son of his brother Godfrey, 
K. of Dublin, succeeds his father, 
79 ; Aulaf Cuaran claims the 
throne, Aulaf his nephew defeats 
him, ib. ; Aulaf Cuaran goes a 
pilgrimage to Tona, ib. ; called in 
Irish Aulaf son of Sitric, ib. ; 
abdicates, 80 ; Maelseachlainn, his 
stepson, succeeds him, ib. 

son of Godfrey, 67, 68, 69, 70, 



71, 72, 79, 124. 

son of Godfrey (s. of Reginald), 

succeeds his father as K. of Dub- 
lin (A.D. 932), 68 : by right K. 
of Northumbria, ib. ; Athelstan 
opposes, sends to Denmark for 
Eric-Blodax, son of Harald Har- 
fagre, ib. ', appoints him viceroy, 
ib. ; he is baptized, ib. ; resides at 
York, ib. ; Aulaf attempts to re- 
cover Northumbria, 69 ; sails from 
Dublin, and with a fleet of 015 
ships lands at the Hutuber (A.D. 
927), 70 ; is defeated by Athelstan 
at Brunanburg, ib. ; returns to 



262 



INDEX, 



Aulaf con 

Dublin, 71 ; the Irish besiege 
Dublin under 1 >oniidiadli, K. of 
Ireland, and Mniirhi'.irtadi of the 
Leather Cloaks, ib. ; they fail, 72 ; 
ravage the country, ib. j Muir- 
dirartadi inarches from Aileach 
(Elagh, co. Donegal) round Ire- 
land, il>. 

son of Sitric, 48, 65. 

s. of Sitric, s. of Aulaf Cauran, 
91, 124, 125, 128, n. 

Ceanncairech (and see Amh- 

laeibh Ceancairech), 66. 

K. of Dublin, his retreat 

thither from Brunanburg (A.D. 
937), 220. 

the Red King of Scotland, 



69, n. 
Tryggevesson, King, 181, 182. 

and the Irish sheep dog, Ixiv. 
Aufer, 64. 

Austfirdinga fiordung, 134, n. 
Avangus, 105. 
Avenlithe, see LifFey. 
Avery, Timothy (1657), 240. 
Awley, Fivit, 71, n. 
Awley, mac Godfrey, 71, n. 
Agmund, 52. 

Babylon (Old Cairo), L, n. 
Babylonian, Captivity, The, 80. 

the rule of the Ostmen likened 

to, 80. 

next to the captivity of Hell, ib. 
Maelsachlainn defeats the fo- 
reigners of Dublin (A.D. 980), ib. 

his famous proclamation of 



freedom for the Ui Neill, ib. 
Bacon, J. C., xli 

Sir Francis, xxii. 

Baden, Duchy of, xxviii. 

Baden, 110, n. 

Baedan, K. of Uladh, 84. 

Bcegsec, 41. 

Baidr, 85. 

Bagot Rath, 145, w., 241. 

street, Lower, 170, n. 
Baile-an-bhothair, 222, n. 



xxxv., n. 
Ualdur, s. of Odin, 172. 
Baldoyle, 142. 
Ballast, irregular taking of, d. 

the harbour (1698), 245, n. 
Ballast Board, cvi., ex., cxi., cxii., 

cxv., cxvi., cxix. 

origin of, cxi. 

their management of Irish 

Lighthouses, xliii., xliv., xlv., 

202, 231, n. 3 , 242, n. 

history of, 243-247. 

renamed (1787) Corporation 



for Preserving and Improving the 

Port of Dublin, 247. 
Ballast Office Wall (see South Wall). 
Balliowen in Isle of Man, 176. 
Ball, Nicholas (1582), 250, n. 
Ball's Bridge, cxxi., 170, n., 232, 

n., 1. 
bridge first built here, A.D., 

1629-1637, 232, n. 1 
Bally-ath-Cliath., xlviii., see Ath- 

Cliath. 
Ballygunner, Ixvii., and n., ib. 

Temple, ib. 

more, ib. 

Bally-lean cliath, 207. 

Ballyliag (now Lanesboro'), 214, n., 

221. 
Balrothery, inhabitants of, barony 

of, 205. 
Baltic, The, 8, 11-14. 

Coffee House, xcvi. 

Baltinglas, xcv. 

Bangor, N. Wales, 1716, ?i. a 

Banks, Commissioners of Inquiry as 

to Joint Stock, xii. 
P.; ink Acts, of Scotland and Ireland, 

xlii. 

of Ireland, xxxvii., xlii. 

Bann, river, 85, n. 

Bar, The lowering of, xlv. 

Captain John Perry's plans 

(1720), for avoiding, 249. 
Proposals for rendering the 

port commodious (1720), 26, n. 
appointed by Ballast Board 1o 

survey the harbour with Captain 



INDEX. 



263 



Bar con. 

J. Burgh, Engineer and Surveyor- 
General (1725), 249, n. 

their plans of improvement 

rejected by Ballast Board, ib. 
account of, in second report of 



Tidal Harbours Commissioners, t7>. 
A.D. 1582, a tower(like Maiden 



tower at Drogheda), projected at, 
250, n. 

in 1861, twenty-five feet over 



the bar at spring tides, ib. 
Bargy, barony of, 222, n. 
Burid, 85. 
Barid Mac-u-Oitir, 54, 85, w. 1 

O'Hivar, 85, w. 

Barith, 47, w., 63, 85, n., 86. 
Barnes, William, 222, n. 
Barnewall of Turvey, Viscount 

Kiugsland, see Lord Kingslaud. 
Barker, Antony, Lord Mayor (171 8), 

248, n. 

Barr, Richard, Alderman, 169, n. 1 
Barrington, Daines, 167. 

Sir Jonah, Ixxxviii. 

Barrow river, 53, n., 55, n. 

Barry, Rev. George, 157, n., 159, n. 

Sir James, afterwards Lord 

Santry, 212, n. 
Bartholinus, Ix., 42, n., 45, n., 62, n., 

69, n., 127, n. 
Basil, Attorney-General (A. D. 1655), 

228, n. 
Bath, Earl of, Ixvii., n. 

avenue, cxxi., 242. 

Batter, see Bothyr. 

Green, 222, n. 

Yellow, do., ib. 

Batterstown, 222, n. 
Baugus, 101, and n. ib. 
Beechy, Captain, R.N., xlv. 
Bealach Duibhliane, 225, n. 
Beckman, Sir Martin, 229. 
Bede, The Venerable, 171, 213. 
Beggar's-bush, ex., 239, 242, n, 
Belfast, history of by George Benn 

(1877), 243, //. 
Belfast, Sir Arthur Chichester, 

Lord, 241, n. 



Belfast, Lord, departure of, from the 

Ring's-end, ib. 
Bellow, Mr. 168, . 
Bennchoir (Bangor, co. Down), 16. 
Benn, George, history of Belfast, by, 

243, ;i. 

Bennet, Richard Bergoin. 
has copy of Captain John 

Perry's rare map of the Harbour, 

cvii., 249, n. 

with ship canal along Sutton 



shore to avoid the bar. 
Bentham, Jeremy, xii. 
Beorgo, d. of Eyvind Austman, 

102, 105, n. 
Berkely, the Lord Deputy (1679), 

241,71. 
Bernicia, 41. 
Bertiniani, 8, n.* 
Berwick on Firth of Forth, 38. 

on Tweed, 38. 

Betham, Sir William, 150, n. 1 

Bewley, Thomas, xlL 

Biadmyna, Ixv. 

Biolan, King, 53. 

Biorn Asbrand, 106, 107. 

Austuian, Ivii. 

Ironsides, a. of Regnar Lad- 

brog, 22, 45. 

s. of K. Harold, 97. 



Birsa isle, 174. 

Blacaire, 73. 

Black Book of Christ Church. 

men, 115. 

Monday, 179, n. 

pagans, 85, w. 1 

rock, cxiv. 

frames of piles for channel of 

Lifley, made at, 236, 237. 
Bladen, Alderman, 197, n. 
Blaeja, d. of Ella, 32, n. 
Blaemenn, Africans, 116, x., n., ib. 
Block house, The, 238, n. (see Pigeon 

House). 

Bloomtield, Rev. Francis, 174, n. 8 
Blowick (Bullock), 138. 
Blue laud, 116. 

men, 115, 116. 

Boate Gerard, cxiil, cxxi, 232, n. 1 



INiJKX. 



Buv!' . ii;.. //. 

liddli'iaii Lil>rar\ . c. 
Bohar-nagloch, L'l'i', . 
Bolton, John, Lord Mayor (1717), 
248, n. 

Richard, 169, n. 1 

street, 212, w. 
Boot lano, 212, n. 
Booths for dwellings, 210, n. 
Bordes, Captain, H.E., 224. 
Bork, the Fat, 105. 
Bornbolm, 175. 
Borrishool, barony of, 15, n. 
Bosworth, 52, w. 2 
Bothar-na-gloch (Stony batter), 222, 

n., 226, n. 

Bothyr, n., batter (a road), 222. 
BottUer, James, Earl of Ormond, 

146. 

Boulogne, 46. 
Bowles, W., cvii. 
Bowling green, The, 169. 
Boyce, Joseph, xli. 
Boyce v. Jones, decides the illegality 
of the Skerries Light Dues, 
xxxix. 

Boyle, Alex., xli. 
Boyne, The privateer, 241, n. 
Bradogue, river, 212. 

Brady, Maziere, ix., x. 

Bran, 120. 

Brand, John, 157 and n., ib., 157, n., 
220, n. 

Brandon Hill, 55, n. 

Bray, 164, n. 

Breagh, Lord of, 119. 

The King of, 59. 

Breagha, 74. 

Breakspeare, Nicholas, see Pope. 

Brehon laws, 185, n. t 186. 

Breidvikinga Kappi, 106, n. 9 

Breifne, 69. 

Bremegham's tower, 204, n. 

Bretland, see Wales. 

Brewster, Lord Mayor, (1674), 
242. 

Brian Borumha, 78, 79, 88, 91. 

Brickfield (The Merrion), 237. 

Bridewell on Hogs Green, 196, n. 



Bridge of the Ostmen, xlvi., 

\l\ii., xlviii., (see also Droichet 



Bridges of Iceland, Ixv. 

early, in Ireland, xlviii., 223. 



Bristol, 3, ., 185. 

first bridge at, xlvL 



- bridge built at, A.D. 1202,216. 
Sir Bernard de Gomme, at 

capture of, by Prince Rupert, 

1643, 230, n. 
Brittany, 53. 

Britain, inhabitants of ancient, 227. 
Britons of Strathclyde, 38, 43. 
British and Irish Steam Packet 

Company, xxxix. 
British Museum, 228, n., 230. 
Borlase, 158, n. 
Brooking's map of Dublin, A..D. 1728, 

cvi., cxix., cxx., 196, n., 203, n., 

248, 249, n. 
Brophy, Peter, xli. 
Brow of the Hazelwood, 209, 210, 

see Droni Choll Coill. 
Bruce, K. Edward, 223, n. 
Brunalban, 82, n. 
Brunanburg, 63, n., 69, n., 70, 71, 

n., 94. 

Brussels, Royal Library at, 219. 
Buerno, 26. 
Buhred, K, 13, n. 
Bulls, the South and North, 234, 

and n., ib. 

Bullring, Mayor of the, 179. 
Bullock, 138. 

Burdett, Sir Francis, vi, n. 
Burgess roll, earliest of Dublin, 

Ixviii. 
Burgh, Captain, Engineer, Surveyor 

General, (1725), 249, n. 
appointed to examine the har- 
bour with Captain John Perry, ib. 

their plans, ib. 

rejected by Ballast Board, ib. 



Burgh quay, cxvii., cxviii. 

Burials, Scandinavian, mounds for 

great, standing stones for brave 

men, 154, n. 
Burke, Edmund, Ixxxi. 



2G.3 



Burke, Edmund, his father's house on 
Arran-<juay, next to that after- 
wards C. Haliday's, viii., n. 

Sir Bernard, xxvi., liUi, //. 

Burnt Nial, lv., n. 

Burton-on-Trent, 224, n. 

I'.ury St. Edmunds, Ixvii., n. 

Bush river, 84, u, 

Butlers of Ormoiid, The, 145. 

Butler, Rev. Richard, 145, n., 146, 
n., 162, a. 

Butts, 107, and see Butt. 

Byrne, Colonel Miles, xci. 



Cadiz, 117. 

ancient Gades, 115, w 3 . 
Caen, in Normandy, 130. 
Osesar Augustus, 2, n 1 . 
Julius, 227. 

Commentaries of, n., ibid. 
Cage work houses, 211. 
Cairbre Riada,84. 

Cairo, old, 1., n. 

Caithness, liii. 81, n., 102, 157, n. 

Calendar of State Papers of Queen 

Elizabeth, 204, n. 
James First's reign, 203, n. 
I'alhvell, Robert, xli. 
Cambridge University, xlv. 
Camden, 90, n., 92, n., 206, 226. 

Society, 210, n. 

Earl, Ixxvii. 

Canary Isles, cxxii., n. 
Cantabrian Sea, 115. 
Canterbury, 123, 177. 
Cautok, Master Thomas, Ixxii. 
Canute, 67, 71, n., 123, 181, 195, 

199. 
son of Gormo-hin-Gamle, 62, 

63. 

Canutus Hordaknutus, 33, n. 
Cape Clear, liv. 

T, Samuel James, M.P., xxviii., 

n. 
Caradoc, 87, n., 24, n., 50, n., 52, 

n., 53, n. t 58, n. 
Carey, Sir George, see Gary. 



Carlingford, Ixvii., 15, 35, 94, 137, 

see also Snam Edneigh. 
Carlisle Bridge, xciii, 234, n. 
Carlow county, 55, n. 
Carl us, 38. 

- s. of Aulaf, K. of Dublin, liO, 
n., 128. 

the sword of, 126, 123. 



( 'am Brammit, 23. 
< 'arriek-on-Suir, Ixxvii. 
Carroll, Sir James, cxvii., cxviii. 
169, n. 1 , 145,w. a 



Carteret, the Lord, L.L , 246, n. 
( 'ary, Sir George, cvii., n. 
Gary's Hospital, Ixxiii., cvii., n. 
Carey, Rev. Dr., Archbishop of 

Dublin, 190. 
Cashel, Synod of, 136, 186. 

Archbishop of, 177, n, 

Archbishoprick, of, 135, n. 

Maelgula Mac Dungail, K. of, 

126, 136. 
Cassel, 6, n. 

Cassels, architect, xciv., /*. 
Castlereagh, Lord, Ixxxix. 
Castles, Danish, in Ireland, Lxv.,lxvi. 

Colonel, 165, n. 1 

Castleknock, 223, n. 

inhabitants of barony of, 205. 

Castle-street, 208, 209, 210. 

Castellis, The, xcvi. 

Cat, 82, n. 1 , and see Caithness. 

Cave, Thomas, (1784), 240, n. 

Ceallach, prince of Scotland, 71, n. 

Ceann JVIaghair, 85, n. 

Ceananuus, 74. 

Cearbhall, 19, n., 22, 23, 39, 45, 47, 

53, 54, 66. 

lord of Ossory, 95, 100, 101, 

102, 104, 105, 119, 120. 

(Carroll), in alliance with 

Aulaf and Ivar, 39 ; reigns at 
Dublin, A.D. 872-885, 45; dies 
A.D. 885, 46. Flann, his sister's 
son claims rule, but is defeated by 
the foreigners at Ath Cliath, 47. 

Aulaf, tla< White, his nephew, 

54, Cearbhall, called King of 
LilTo of Ships, i/.. n. ; shun, A.D. 



266 



INDEX. 



Cenrbhall con. 

909, t'6. ; Diarmid, his sou, dies 
A.D. 927, ib. 

son of Muirigen, 49, 77. 

son of Muirigen, K. of Lein- 

ster, drives the foreigners out of 
Ath Cliath, 49 ; they take refuse, 
at Ireland's Eye, ib. ; land in 
Anglesey, 50 ; are defeated at the 
battle of Ros Meilor, ib. ; are given 
lands in Mercia, near Chester, by 
Ethelfloed, ib. 

s. of Dunghal, 23. 



Ceile Des (Ouldees), 61. 

Cellach, K. of Leinster, 31. 

(Jellachan, K. of the Islands, 71, n. 3 

Cenn Fuait (Confey), 55 ; battleof, 56. 

Cennedigh, 77, n. 

Lord of Laighis, 119. 

Census Commissioners, xxxiv. 

Ceolwulf, 41. 

Chain Book of City of Dublin, xxv. 

Channel Islands, 195. 

Chapel, Walter, Ixxi., n. 

Chapelizod, Ixxx. 

Chai'lemagne, iv., 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 14, 
119. 

his conquests and forced con- 
versions of the Saxons, 5 ; they fly 
into Denmark, 8 ; their hatred to 
clergy, ib. ; forced by hin> out of 
Denmark, 9 ; Danes and Saxons 
revenge themselves on France, 9 ; 
infest England, 10, and Ireland, 
1 1 ; their raids on the island her- 
mitages, ib. ; why and when they 
became pirates, 12-14 ; their 
ravages in Ireland, (A.D. 807 
836), 16-18 ; called by the Irish 
Dubhghoill, 18 ; supposed to be 
Danes, ib. ; A.D. 847, a fleet of 
Finnghoill, ib. ; supposed to be 
Norwegians, ib. ; the conflicts be- 
tween them, ib. and 19. 

Charlemont, Lord, xxii. 

House, Library at, xxii, 241, n. 

Charles, the Fat, King of France, 46. 

the Simple, King of France, 52. 

First King, 203, n. 



Charleston, S. Carolina, xxvi. 
Chase, The, a Fenian Tale, l.xii., n. 
Chatham " Chest, The," at, 245, 2-H',, 

n. 
Chatham and Sheerness, alarm 

at, by Dutch raid (1667), L'l".'. 
Cheevers, Walter, \iv. 
Chester, 50, 52, 58, 87. 
Ethelflced, Lady of Chester, 

gives the Danes driven out of 

Dublin (A.D. 900) lands on whk-h 

to erect stalls and houses, 50. 
Chetham, Robert, 245, //. 
Chichester, Sir Arthur, Ixxiii., n., 

cvii., n. 
Lord Belfast, his departure 

from the Ring's End, 1614, 

241 , n. 

Sir Edward, cvii., n. 

House, cvii., 203, n., 241, n., 



239, 240, n. ; the old shore, 239, 
ib. ; ground plan of, (A.D. 1734) 
239, ??,, site of New Parliament 
House, ib. 

Cholera morbus, xxxvi. 

Christ Church, Dublin, 221, and see 
Holy Trinity, 92, 148. 

Christ Church-hill, xlvi. 

place, 208. 

seneschal of, Ixxi., n., Ixxii. 

Christian, William, 152. 

Christiania, 12, n. 

Christmas customs, 173. 

Church of St. Andrew, 162 ; the old, 
145, n. ; of Delgany, 148 ; of the 
Holy Trinity (and see Christ 
Church), 148; of St. Patrick's, 
148; the Round, 179; of St. 
Stephen, 149. 

Church-lane, 162. 

Churchtown (Dundrum), Ixxxv. 

Cianachta, 16. 

Breagh (in Meath), 24. 

Cicero, his name for a library, xv. 

Ciarraighi, the, 55. 

Cill-dara (Kildare), 17, 47, 65, n. 

Cill-Maighnenn, 152, n., or Kil- 
mainham. 

Cm-Martin (Wicklow), 139. 



LN'DEX. 



267 



Cillnjosamhog, battle of, 59. 

Cille-Dalua, see Killaloe. 

Ciiiardh, s. of Alpin, K. of Scots, 

120. 

son of Conang, 24. 

Circular Belfries, 174. 

Semi-circular, 174. 

churches, 174. 

Circular-road, the, 212, n. 

Citadel to defend Liffey mouth 

(1673), 228, n.* 

City of Dublin Steam packet Com- 
pany, xxxix. 
City-quay, cxix. 
Clachan, circle of stones, 175, n., 

176, n. 

Clachan (for Church), 175. 
Claims, Court of, Ixvii., n. 

book of, (1702), 203, n. 

Cluain Dolcain (Clondalkin, county 

Dublin), 16. 
Clane, 147. 
Clare, the Lord Grattan's answer to, 

xiii. 
county, gold ornaments found 

in, 127, n. 
Clarensbridge, county Gal way (Ath 

Cliath Meadrighe), 226, n. 
Clear, Cape, 16. 
Cleaseby and Vigfusson, 129, n., 

130, n., 134, n., 135, n., 195, n. 
Clifden, the Viscounts, xxi. 

- Henry, "Viscount, viii., .. 
Clondalkin, 16, n., 20, 38, 142. 

- Aulaf 's " Dun " at, 38. 
Clonfert, 34, 35. 
Clonlyffe, 132, n. 
Clonmacnois, 34, 35, 36, 63. 

annals of, 221. 

Clonmel, Ixxvii. 

Clonmore (in Leinster), 17, n. 

Clonmor, (Clonmore, county Louth), 

16. 
Clontarf, battle of, xlvii., xlviii., lii., 

78, n., 219. 

bar, 234, w. 2 

the Island of, 205. 

pool, cxil, cxiii., 245, n. 

port of, Lxxvi 



Cluan Ferta, of Brcnnan, 34. 

Cluain Ir.iird, 126. 

Cluain-mor-Muedhog (Clonmore in 
Leinster), 17. 

Cluain-na-g Cruimhter, bridge of, 
64. 

Clut Radulph and Richard, \\'>. 

Clysma (Suez), 1., n. 

Clyst, St. George, xxviii. 

Cochran, Captain, cxxii., n. 

Cock (cockle) lake, ex., 5, 234-238. 

Codd, Francis, xli. 

Coffee House, the House of Com- 
mons (1792), 240 n. 

Cogan, Milo de, 149, n. 

Rev. A., 136, n. 

Colburn, Henry, Ixxxix 

Cole, Henry, Ixx., n. 

Colebrant, 71, n. 

Colgan, 3, n., 11, ., 12, n., 113, n. 

Colla, Lord of Limerick, 85, n. 

son of Barith, 63. 

College, The, 147. 

College-green, 203, n. 

Collins, Captain Greenville, cvi. 

Colton, Archbishop, 189, 71. 

Col ton and Co., New York, cxxii i., 
n. 

Columbanus(Rev. Charles O'Connor, 
D.D.), 172, n. 

Colum Cille (Saint Columba), 43; 
his relics brought (A.D. 850) from 
lona to Dunkeld, 43, n. ; thence 
to Ireland on the invasion of 
Scotland, by the Danes, A.D. 874, 
ib. 

Commerce, Chamber of, xxxvil, 
xxxix., xli., xlv. 

Commission, Land Tenure, of 1843, 
xxxiv. 

Commissioners of Parliament of 
England for Ireland (1657), 228, 
n. J , (1657), t. 240 ; order of, ib. 

Commissioners, see Record Commis- 
sioners. 

Commons-street, 248. 

Conang, 24. 

Conaille, 16. 

Couaing, Lord of Breagh, 119. 



268 



INDEX. 



Coachobhar, 78. 

King of Ulster, 82, n. 

s. of Maelsachlainn, 9 1 . 

s. of Flann, King of Ireland, 

59. 

Confey, see Oenn Fuait. 
Conghalach, King of Ireland, 74, 

78, 79, 91. 
Conn, 221. 
Connaught, see Kunnakster. 

Ixv., 34, 35, 63, 82, n. 

Conuemara (A.D. 807), 15, 16, 63. 
Connolly, Mr. (1707), 246, n. 
Conemhail, s. of Gilla Arri, 132. 
Conor Mac Dearmada, lialf King of 

Meath, 126. 
Conquest, 186, n. 
Constance, Lake of, xxvii., xxviii. 
Constantine, s. of King Kenneth, 

36, n., 37, n., 40, n. 
s. of Aedh, King of Scots, 

57. 

. King of Scots, 70, 121. 

s. of lago, 89. 

Cooke, Samuel, of Sunderland, xxvi. 
employed to establish the Lord 

Kingsland's advowsons, xxvii. ; 

brings over James F. Ferguson, 

ib. ; his household at Sandy mount, 

ib. 
Coolock, inhabitants of barony of, 

205. 

Cooper, Sir Astley, viii. 
Copenhagan, xv., lii. 
Coppinger's Register of St. Thomas's 

Abbey, xxxi. ; 217 ; and see St. 

Thomas's Abbey Chartulary. 
Cork, Ixix., 16, 54, 137. 
Coranna, 117. 
Oormac, liv. 

Mac Art, 83. 

Ouilenoan, King and Bishop 

of Cashel, 77. 

Cornwall, Ixvii., n., 28, 95, n. 
Corporation of Dublin, 203, n. 
Corporations, The Fjight (of Dublin), 

212, n. 

Corporation for Preserving and Im- 
proving the Port of Dublin (see 



Corporation con. 

also Ballast Board, 202, 231, n 3 , 

847. 

;ich, s. of Flannabhrad, 1">. 
Cosgrave, Johannes, 193, n. 
Cossawara, 71, /'. 
Cotgrave, Randle (A.D., 1610) xxiv., 

n. 

Court Thing, 159. 
Cox, Sir Richard, iii. 
Crabbe, Rev. George, quotation 

from, iv. 

Crampton Monument, The, ex viii. 
Crane, The, 203, n. 
Creaghting, practice of, 210, n. 
Crofts, Philip, cxviii. 
Croker, Crofton, 210, n. 
Cromwell (Oliver), xiv., xcii., 212, 

228, n., 241. 
Cromwellians, 228, n. 1 
Cross, The (like Thor's hammer sign), 

125, n. 
Crosthwaite, Thomas, xli. 

Leland, ib. 

Croyland Abbey, 224. 
Cruinden, 47. 
Oruithne, 83. 

Irish Picts (see Picts). 

Crumlin (co. Dublin), 4, n. 1 

Cualann (Cullen), 11, 23. 

(Fercullen), in co. Wicklow, 

225. 

Cuiges, or fifths of Ireland, 134, n. 
Cuilen, son of Cearbhall, 46. 
Culdees, 61 ; see Ceile Dees. 
Cullenswood, 179, n. 
Culpepper, The Lord, Ixviii., 71. 
Cumberland, Malcolm, King of, 87. 
Cumberland, 24, n. 
Curran, J. Philpot, Ixxx., cii, and 

n., ib., 196, n. 
Currency Inquiry, xlii. 
Curry Eugene, 219, 227, n. (see 

O'Curry). 
Customs received to their own use 

by the several walled towns at 

accession of James I., 203, n. 
Custom House in 1620, 211, n. 
, the new, 202, 203, ., 245, n. 



INDEX. 



269 



Custom House, the present, building 
of, 248. 

fire in 1833, xlii. 

Cymry The, 176, w. 3 

Daggenham breach ; in the Thames, 
249 ; Captain John Perry em- 
ployed to repair (1713), ib. 

Dagobert, King, xxviii., n. 

Daimhliag (Duleek), 16. 

Dal Aradia, 85, and ib. n. 

Dalby Point, Isle of Man, 156. 

Dal Cais, 79, 152, w. 

Dalkey, li., Ixxvi, 139, ., 225. 

ship canal from, to Dublin, 

projected (1800), 249, n. ; to 
avoid the bar, ib. 

pirates gibbeted at, cxxii., n. 

Dal Kollus, 104. 

Dal Riada, 84, 85, 89, 93, n.\ 113, 
120. 

Scottish kingdom of, founded 

by Fergus, s. of Ere (A.D., 503), 
84. 

Dalriads of Ulster, Fergus, s. of 
Ere, King of, 82, n. 

Dam-street, 194, n. 

Dam gate, The, 194. 

Damass gate, 165, n. 

Dames gate, 204, n., 205. 

Damory Ricardus, 195, n. 

Danes, see Dubhgoill. 

of Dublin (A.D., 1014), 4, n., 

9, 11, 15, 19, n., 51, 52, 219. 

(or Ostmen), 232. 

of Ireland (in Herts), 182. 

of the north of Ireland, 69. 

Prince of the New and Oltl, 



65. 



the conversion of, 125. 



Danish Wars, Book of the, 219, see 

War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill, 

219. 

Darcy, John, xli. 
Dartaidha, 226, n. 
Dartmouth, Hon. George Legge, 

Lord, 243. 
Dasent G. Webb, LL.D., lv. f n., lx., 

Ixv., 134, n. 



Davys, Sir John, xxiv., Ixx., n., 

138, n., 186, n., 212, n. 
Davis, Sir Paul, cviiL, n. 

Sir William, 166. 

Dearbhforghaill, 92. 

Dearc-Fearna (Cave of Dunmore, 

co. Kilkenny), 66, w. 5 
De Burgo, 136, n. 

Thomas, 211, 222, n. 

De Cogan, Milo, 164, n. 
De Courcy, 93, 94. 

Vivian, 132, n. 

Dee, river, 19, n. 

(at Chester), 87. 

(co. Louth), 64, n. 5 

De Ginkle (1691), 241, n. 

De Gomme, Sir Bernard, xliiL, cv., 

cvi, cix., ex., cxi., cxxi., 228, 229, 

230, 232, 245. 
his map of river and harbour 

of Dublin (1673), 228-231, also 

230, n. 

Deira, 24, n., 41. 
De La Boullaye le Gouz, 210, n. 
De Lacy, Ixvi., n. 
Delacour, Mr., n. 

Delaporte, Anne Marguerite, xxix. 
Delgany, 148. 

Del Hogges, abbey of, 193, n. 
Delg-inis, or Dalkey, 139, n. 
De Loundres, Archbishop, 148. 
Delvin Rivulet, or Albene, 142, n. 

River, 138. 
De Mezerai, Histoire de France, 7, 

n. 1 , 8, n. 1 , 9. 
Denmark, 6, 8, 9, 11, 24, 26, 38. 

Prince George of, 247. 

Denzille-street, ex., 23 1 J. 
Deppiwg, 9, n. 
Derg-dheire, 34. 
Deny city, 17, n. 

diocese of, 189, n. 

Doomsters, 170. 
Desert-Martin, liv. 
Desert Great, liv. 

Serges, ib. 

Desiderata Curiosa Hibernica, 169, 

n. 1 
Dee Roches, Mons., 6, n. 



270 



INDEX. 



Desterre, J. N., vii. 

- his duel -with O'Connell, ib., 
n. 

- his conduct at the Mutiny of 
the Nore, ib. 

Davenport, 58. 

Devizes, K. John's letter from, to 

build a new bridge at Dublin or 

keep the old, 216, 217. 
Devonshire, Duke of (L.L. 1741), 

lands at Riugseud, 241, n. 
Diarmid, son of Cearbhall, 66. 

- s. of Maelnambo, 92. 
Dicuil, xlix., n., 1., n., liiL, liv. 

- 98, n., 113, n. 

Dinn Seauchus, 213, 215, 226. 
Dachonna, Saint, 12, 22, n., 46, n. 
Dowcra, Lord, 147. 
Dodder river, ex., cxxL, 145, 148, 
149. 

- port of, Ixxvi. 

- (Rafernam water), 232, n. 1 , 
242, n. 

Doddridge, Life of Col. Gardiner, 

xiii. 

Doire-Chalgaigh (Derry), 17. 
Dolier-street, Ixxiv., xciv. 
Dollar Bay, cxxii, n. 
Dam-street, 194, n. 
Domhring, 126, n 1 . 
Dombrain, Sir Jas., R.N., xlv. 
Domesday Book, 198, 180. 
Domhnall, s. of Muircheartach, 85, 



Donn, 77. 

brother of.Donnchadh, 60. 

Claen, King of Ireland, 80, 



and n. s ib. 

grandson of Lochlan, 219. 



Dominicans, The, 222, n., 223. 

Dominic-street, new, 212, n. 

Dominuu Anglise, K. Richard I., 
189. 

Hiberniae, John Earl of More- 
ton, 189. 

Domville Henry, Ixxviii. 

John, Ixxviii. 

Donnchadh, King of Ireland, 71, 
119, 142. 



Donnchadh, brother of Conchobar, 
59, 60. 

son of Flann, 69, n. 

Donn, 77. 

son of Brian Borumha, 78, 91, 

92. 

son of Domhnal Ua Maelseach- 

lainn, 214, n. 

- Abbot of Cill-Dearga, 47. 
Donegal, 63. 
Dorsetshire, 89. 
Dover Harbour, Capt. John Perry's 

survey of (1713), 249. 
Downs, The, xli. 
Down survey, map of harbour, cvi., 

Ixxvi. 
Downpatrick (Dun da Leathghlas), 

16, 86. 
Drake, F., 77, n. 

Francis, 220, n. 

Drafdritus, 99, n. 

Drogheda, 222, n. 

Droichet, 214. 

Droichead Cleithe, 214, and n., ib. 

Droichet Dubhgall, xlvii. 

Dubhgall's bridge, 219. 

(perhaps Dubhgall, s. of 

Aulaff), ib. 

Droichet at Dublin, 220. 
Drom Choll Coill, 209. 
Dromin, near Dunshaughlin, 1 7, n. 
Dromod (South Wales), 53. 
Drontheim, Ixv., and n., ib. 
Druids, 32, n. 
Druids, sorcery of, 172, n. 
Drum-h-Ing (Dromin, Cilleath), 17. 
Drumconran (Drumcondra), 232 

n. 1 
Dabhall River (Black water in 

Tyrone), 85, n. 
Dubhchoblaig, 78. 
Dubhgoill, 17, 19. 
Dubhgalls and Finngalls, 61, n., 

65. 

Dubhgall's bridge, 219, 220. 
Dubgoill or Danes the earlier of 

the northern invaders, 5, 9 ; cause 

of their greater fierceness, 5, 9 ; 

their attacks on France, 10; on 



INDEX. 



271 



Dubgoill or Danes con. 

England, ib. ; on Ireland, 1 1 ; on 
the coasts and island hermitages, 
ib. ; in the interior, 14, 15 ; list 
of their raids, 16. 

Dubhlinn, 3, 23, 24, 207, n., 225, n. 
- of Athcliagh, 23, n., 54. 

Dubh Lochlannaigh, 18, n. 

Dublin no town there before the 
time of the Ostnien, 2 ; meaning 
of Dubhlinn, 3 ; Ostmen, King- 
dom of, founded A.D. 852, 5 ; 
called Dyfflin by the Ostmen, 23 ; 
Duvelina by the Anglo-Nonnans, 
ib. a Norwegian fortress there 
before AulafTs arrival, ib. ; 
governed by same king as North- 
umberland for near a century, 24 ; 
Ptolemy's supposed notice of in 
second century, 2 ; Jocelin's in- 
flated account of, ib. ; Dubhlinn, 
meaning of, 3, 23 ; Colgan's list 
of supposed bishops of from 
the arrival of St. Patrick, ib., 
n. ; founded by Ostmen, A.D. 
852, 5, 19 ; plundered by Mael- 
sachlain, A.D. 847, 24 ; supposed 
taking of by Regner Lodbrog, 28, 
29 ; or Turgesius, 31 ; death of 
Ivar, K. of the Ostmen at Dublin, 
A.D. 872, 36, 40; Ivar, K. of 
Northumbria and Dublin, ib. ; 
Cearbhall (Carroll) reigns there, 
A.D. 871-885, 45; Sitric, s. of 
Ivar, from France, returns and 
reigns at Dublin, 46 ; Flann's con- 
flict with the foreigners of Ath- 
Cliath, 47 ; Sitric slain at, 48 ; God- 
frey, s. of Sitric, K. of Dublin 
and Northumbria, ib. ; Ostmen 
expelled from, 897, 49; Sitric, 
s. of Godfrey, recovers Dublin, 
A.D. 919, 54; in his absence in 
Northumberland Niall Glundubh 
tries to gain it, 58 ; is defeated at 
Kilmashoge, near Rathfarnham, 
59 ; Godfrey, s. of Reginald, rules 
at (A.D. 921), 61 ; marches from, 
against the Danes of Limerick, 



Dublin con. 

63 ; Dublin attacked in his ab- 
sence by Irish, 64 ; his return, 66 ; 
loses Dublin to the sons of Sitric, 
67 ; Godfrey, K. of Dublin and 
Northumbria (A.D. 932), 68 ; 
Aulaf, s. of Godfrey, K. of Dub- 
lin, 69 sails from Dublin to the 
Humber to recover Northumber- 
land, 69 is defeated at the battle 
of Brunanburg, 70 sails back to 
Dublin, 70, 71 ; Muircheartagh 
and his Leather Cloaks besiege 
Dublin, 71, 72 fail 72. 

The ancient name of, essay 

upon, xlvi. 

Bally-ath-Cliath, ancient name 

of, 206. 

foundation of boggy, 206, 209. 

kingdom of, 5, 87, 90, 91. 

Cearbhall, King of, 45. 

Guthfrith, King of, 66. 

Aulaf, King of, 68. 

Aulaf, son of Godfrey, King 



of, 79. 
- the foreigners of, 74. 

the Gentiles of, 74. 

Archbishop of, cviii, n. in A.D. 

1215,216. 

Archbishopric of, erected (A.D., 



1148) 135, n. 

and Glen-da lough, united 

diocese of, 140, 148. 

Synod of, AD. (1175), 188, see 
Vivian Cardinal. 

Roman Catholic Bbhop of, 
Dr. Gary, 190. 

the bridge of, 205. 

Tocharat, 221, 223. 

old bridge of, M2 

bridges, of, 215. 

a bridge at, before King John's 
reign, 215. 

licence to citizens (A.D., 1192), 



to make a bridge, ib. 

Castle, 23, 204, n., 205. 

Castle, Record Tower a' 

n.,2. 
capture of, by Strongbow, Ixix. 



272 



INDEX. 



Dublin, burgesses, 21<>. 

Mayor of. :m<l his jurats, 169. 

Lord Mayor and citizens of, 

244. 

Cori>oration of, 146, w 8 . 

Assembly Rolls of, xv. 

sole owners and managers in 

early times of, port and river, xxv. ; 

their records, ib. 
memoranda and freeman rolls 

of, x \ \i. 
printed rental of estates of, by 

Francis Morgan, solicitor, 238, n. 
grant of customs from Arclo 



to Nanny-water (A.D., 1372), 246, 
n. 

Harbour of, Corporation of 
Dublin claim it as their inheritance 
(1761), 247. n. 

ship canal to, from Howth, 
projected (1728), 248. 

ship canal from Kingstown or 

Dalkey to, projected (1800), 249, 

and n., ib. 
grant of Admiralty to (A.D., 

1585), 246, n. 
annulled in King's Bench, 

(1615), ib. 

lease of, port of, at <50 a year 



otfered (1605), 245, n. 

the key of, 149. 

Thingmote of, 162. 

Thingmount of, 190. 

Governor of, A.D., 1647, 165, n 1 . 

Recorder of, A.D., 1613, 

Richard Bolton, 169. n 1 . 

Recorder of (1707), 245, n. 



defence of, against attack by 

sea, Sir Bernard de Gomme's plan 

for, 228, 230. 
Corporation for preserving and 

improving Port of, 247. 
the Dublin Scuffle (1699), 232, 

*. 

Journal, 238, n., 241, n. 

News Letter, 241, n. 

Penny Journal, 231, n., 3. 

and Kingstown Railway, xxxv. 

Dubliter Odhar, 17. 



Ducange, 193, 194. 

Duchesne, 117, //. 

6, 13, n., 44, n., 48, ??., 52, ?i,, 

60, n. 

Dudo, 52, n., 57. 
Duff, Nicholas (1582),' 250, n. 
Dufthack, Ivi., Ivii., n. 
Dufthach, 101, Icelandic for Dubh 

thach. 

Dufthakster. 100, n. 
Duleek (Daimhliag), 16. 

Upper and Lower, 24, n. 

Dumbarton (Strath Cluaide), 39, n. 
Dunadhach, s. of Scannlan, 17. 
15. 

Dunblane, 53. 

Duncannon Fort, cxxii., n. 

Duuchadh, Abbot, 13, n. 

Dundalk, 34, 35. 

Dun da-Leathghlas (Downpatrick), 

16. 
Dundrum (Olmrchtown), Ixxxv., 

xcii. 

Dun Edair, 213. 
Dungan, Lord, 147. 
Dunghal, Lord of Ossraighe, 47. 

Lord of Ossory, 23. 

Dunkeld, 43, n. 

Dunlang, King of Leinster, 30. 

77, n. 

Dunlaith, daughter of Maelmhuire's 

77. 

Dunleary, Ixxxiv. 
poor of, xxxv., deprived of their 

bathing place, ib. 
Dunleer (Llannlere), 10. 
Dunlo, bridge of, A.D., 1116, 214, n. 
Dunmore, see Dearc Feama. 
Dunne, Sir Patrick's, Hospital, 239, 

248. 

Dunseverick, 64. 

Dun Sobhairce (Dunseverick), 64, n. 
Dunton, John (The Dublin Scuffle, 

1699', 232, n., 1. 
Durham co., xxvi. 
Dutch raid in the Thames, A.D, 1667, 

229. 

peace with, 230. 

renewed war with, 1672, ib. 



INDEX. 



273 



Duvelina, 23. 

Dyfflin, Ixv., 23. 

Dyfflinarskiri, Ixiv, 20, 55, 138, 139, 

n. 1 , 140. 
Dyvelin, Ixvi, n. 

Kaye of, Ixxvi. 

Dyved, 89. 



Eachmarch, 92. 

Eadred, King of Northumberland, 

74, 75, 76. 
East Angles, 37. 
East Anglia, 15, 25, 26, 33, 37, 39, 

41, 42, 43,44,47, 62, 69, n. 
invaded (A.D., 870), 37 ; 

Edmund, King of, defeated and 

slain, 40 ; Gormo, son of Frotho, 

King of Denmark reigns, 41 ; 

resigns Denmark, ib. ; settles in 

E. Anglia, and divides it amongst 

his followers, ib. 
East Indies, 210, n. 
Easter, the goddess, 174. 
Eblana, Ptolemy's supposed notice 

of, 2. 
Eboracurn, or antiquities of York, 

220, n. 
Ecgferth, K., his monastery at 

Weanuouth destroyed by the 

Northmen, 11. 
Eccles, John (1707), 245, n. 
Ecwils, King, 52. 
Edgar, King, 86, 87, 143, 178, n. 
Edinburg, Ixvi, n., Ixxxvii. 
Editha, daughter of King Edward, 

and sister of Thyra, 65, n. 
Edmund, K. of East Anglia, 26, 60, 

71, n. 
Saint and King, Ivii., n., 40, 

41, 60, 73, 124. 
Edna, 105. 
Edward, son of Alfred, King of 

England, 51, 52, 57, 58, 62, 64, 

65, n. 
Edward I., rolls and records of, 

Ixxii. 
II., Plea roll of, Ixbc, n. 



Edward III., xxviii. 
Edwin, 195. 

son of King Edward, 64. 
Egbert, 39. 
Eghbricht, King, bishops fight in 

his armies against the Danes, 13, n. 
Egils, 70. 
Egibsly isle, 174. 
Eginhard, 6. 
Egypt, xlix., n. 
Elagh, or Aileach, 2. 
Elbe, The, 7. 
' Elche,' or ' Elgi,' for the Danish, 

' Enske,' i.e., English, 42, 43. 
Elgar, Earl, 182. 
Elir, s. of Barid, 85, n. 
Elizabeth, Queen, 146, n. 
Ella, K. of Northumberland, 25, 26, 

27, 28, 30, 37. 

Ellacorabe, Rev. H. F., xxviii. 
Ellis, Sir John and Sir William, 

xxi. 

Ellis's-quay. 

Eloir, son of Barith, 63, n. 
Elphin, 172, n. 
Ely Inquisition, 198. 
Emania, 2, />. 
Emmett, Robert, xci. 
Empson, W. (sheriff, 1717), 248, n. 
Ennis, Sir John, Bart., xli. 
Enske, 42. 

Eochard Beag, 226, n. 
Eogannen, M'^Engus, K. of Picts, 

120. 

Eoghanachta, The, 55. 
Eresbourg, 6. 
Eric, 70. 
& of Harald Harfagr, 73, 75, 

96. 

s. of K. Harald, Grcefeld, 86, n. 

Blodaxe, King, 68. 

The Red, 107, n. 

son of Barith, 63, n. 

King of the East Angles, 51. 



Erleng, son of King Eric, 75, n. 

Erne river, 63. 

Erps, 104. 

Esker (co. Dublin), 4, n. 

Essex, 51. 

T 



274 



i \nr.x. 



Essex-bridge, 203, 234, n., 2. 

Essex, Earl of, cix., n. 

Earl of, Lord Lieutenant, 231, 

243, n. 

Earl of (1644), Ixvii., 71. 

Ethelflced, Lady of the Mercians, 
50, 52, n., 57, 58, n. 

Ethelwald, 51. 

s. of K. Alfred, rejected by the 

Saxons, is made by the Dam > of 
Northumbria their king, 51 ; with 
Eric, K. of the East Angles, rav- 
ages Mercia, ib. ; both slain return- 
ing, ib. 

Ethelwerd, 25, 37, n., 40, n., 41, n., 
42, n., 48, n., 53, n., 37, n., 40, 
44, n. 

Ethelwalf, K., 13, n., 224, n. 

Eubonia (Isle of Man), 84, n. 

Eugenius III., Pope, see Pope 
Eugenius. 

Eva, d. of King Dermot M'Mur- 
rough, 4, n. 

Everhard, The Count, 46. 

Evinus, 172, n. 

Exchequer, Record of Court of, xxv. ; 
sorted and catalogued by J. F. 
Ferguson in 1850, xxvi. ; occas- 
sion of, ib. 

Explanation, Act of, 228, n., 2. 

Ey stein, s. of K. Aulaf, 40, n., 43. 

Eyvind, Ixv. 

Austman, 95, 101, 102, 120. 

Fagan, Christopher, 203, n. 

James, xli. 

Falesiam (Falaise), K. John's letter 
dated at, 217, n. 

Falkland, Lord Deputy, cvii., n. 

Fan-na-g-carbad (Slope of the Cha- 
riots) at Tara, 225, 227. 

Farannan, Abbot of Ardmacha, 34. 

Faroe Islands, xlix., n., liv., Ivii., 
102, 129. 

Faversham (Kent), 182. 

Feargus, Bishop of Kildare, 13. 

Fearna, see Deare Fearna. 

Fearna (Ferns), 17. 

Fenian Tales, Ixii, n. 



Fennor, 17, n. 
Fercullen, li. 

co. Wicklow, bounds of, 225. 

Fei'gus, s. of Ere, K. of the Dalriads 

of Ulster, 82, n., becomes K. of 

Scots, ib. 

II., King. 83, n. 

Ferguson, James Frederic, history 

of, xxv., xxxi., xcv., evil 
Fermoy, Book of, xcviii., 82, n. 
Ferns, 3, n., 17, n. 
Fidelis, Brother, xlix., n. 
Fingal, s. of Godfrey, K. of Man, 

93. 20, 138, 142. 

plunderers of, 205. 

Fingala, d. of MacLauchlan, s. of 

Muircheard, K. of Ireland, 93, n. 
Finn Gall, 142, n. 
Finglas, Cross of, 205. 
Fiannbhair (Fennor), 17. 
Finn Lochlannaigh, 1 8, n. 
Finngalls and Dubhgalls, 61, n., 65. 
Finnghoill, 13, 19, 44. 

first Norwegian invaders, 18. 

their conflicts with the Dubh- 

goill or Danes, ib., and 19. 
Fitntardom, 160. 
Fiords, The Five, Ixvii. 
Fiordr, a frith, 137, n. 
Fiordungar, or quarter of Iceland, 

134, n. 

Fishamble-street, 208, 209. 
Fishing of the Liffey, 244. 
Fitzgerald, Lord Thomas, xcvi., 205. 

Lord Edward, xvii, Ixxxvii. 

Fitzsimon, Christopher O'Connell, 

193, n. 

Fitzwilliams, William, 150. 
Fitzwilliam, Col. Oliver, second Vis- 
count Merrion, 228. n., 2. 
Flana, King of Iceland, 21, n., 47, 

49. 

s. of Maelsachlainn, 119. 

Flann Sinna, 77, 78, 119. 

Flanders, 8, 46. 

Flannag Ua Oellaigh, K. of Bregha, 

128. 

Flauna, d. of Dulaing, 119. 
Fleet-street, Ixxiii., n., xciii 



INDEX. 



275 



Fliotshild, 101. 

Floating Light at Poolbeg, 238, n. 

Floki of the Ravens, lix. 

Florentine merchants, xxx. 

Florida, 105. 

Folkstone, 158. 

Forth and Bargy, baronies of, 222, n. 

Forthuatha (in co. Wicklow), 16. 

Fortren, 36, 48, 120, 121, 122. 

Forster, Alderman Charles, 212, n. 

Forty-nine Officei-s (Protestant), the, 

228, n., 2. 

Foster, Rt. Hon. John, Ixxxviii. 
Four Courts, The, xcvL 
Four Provinces, The, 137. 
Foxall, James, xli. 
France, 9, 10, 13, 22, 45, 50, 52. 

K. of 187. 

Franks, 5, 8, 46. 

Frankfort, xxviii. 

Freyja, 123, 157, 158, 172, 176, 

178, 197. 
French privateer captures a Spanish 

ship in bay of Dublin (1675), 243. 
Friars, Preachers (A.D. 1428), 222, n. 
Friday, or The Goddess Freyja's day, 

174. 
Fridgerda, daughter of Cearbhal, 102. 

daughter of Thoris Hyrno, 102. 
Friscobaldi, xxx. 
Frisia, 46, n. 
Frith of Forth, 15, 53. 
Frizons, 9. 
Frode, s. of Harald Harfager, 96. 

Gades, Straits of, 115, n., see Cadiz. 

Gaditanian Straits, 115. 

Gaiar, grandson of TJisnech, K. of 

Ulster, 83, n. 

Gainmr, Geoffiy, 26, 73, n., 74, n. 
Gaithen, 119, 77 n. 
Galicia, 117. 
Gall, Gaedhl, 131. 
Galls, islands of the (Hebrides), 

82, n. 

< Galli, The,' 28. 

Gallows Hill, 161, 170, and n., ib. 
Gamle, son of King Eric, 75, n. 
Gamla, Upsala, 197. 



Gandon, James (1792), 240, n. 

Cardar's isle (Iceland), lv., hi. 

Gardar, 98, n. 

Gardiner, Colonel, Life of, xiii. 

Gargantua, ix. 

Garget, John, Ixxi., n. 

Gamstown, xxvii. 

Gascoigne, Henry, cix., n. 

Ganga, Rolfr., 53, n. 

Gaul, 224. 

Geasa-Draoidecht, 172, n. 

Gebennach, son of Aedh, 55. 

Gellachan, King of the Islands, 71,n. 

Gentiles, 18, 56, 120. 

' Gentiles, White and Black,' The, 

44. 

George's-quay, xci., 241, n. 
Gering, Richard (1734), 239, n. 
Geva, 6, n. 
Gibbon, William Monk, LL.D., xxix., 

cviiL, n., cix., cxvi., cxx., and n., 

ibid., 238, n. 
Gidley, George, cxxii., n. 
Gilbert, J. T., 145, n.,' 194, n., 218, 

n., 244, n., IxviiL, w., l*Vxii. t 

Ixxxii. 
Gilla, 129, 132, 133. 

Arri, 132. 

s. of Arrin, 132, n. 

Caeimglen, s. of Dunlaag, 



132, n. 2 

Cele, s. of Cearbhall, heir of 



Leinster, 132, w. 
Chomghaill, 131, 132, 133. 
Chommain, s. of the Lord of 



the Diannada, 132, n. a 
Gill-Colen, 132. 
Gilla-Colm, 131. 
Gilla Mocholmog, 131, 132, n. 

Phadraigh, s. of Dunchad, 



w * 

Lord of Ossraighe, 132, n. 8 
Gille, 108, 129, 131, 133. 
- Count of the Hebrides, 129. 

the Lagman, 129. 

the Russian Merchant, 130. 

The back thief of Norway, 130. 



Gillebert, Bishop of limerick, first 
Apostolic Legate to Ireland, 124, 
n. 1 

T 2 



276 



INDEX. 



Cill.-brighde, 133. 

GUle-Clmst, Ifjuulil, K., 132. 

Gill-Colom, Chief of Clonlyffe, Ac., 
132,w. 

Gille Phadraigh, s, of Imhar of 
Port Largi, 131, n., a 133, n. 2 

Gille, 129. 

Gilmeholmoc, Ixxiv., 164, w. 2 

Giolla, 129. 

Giselda, daughter of Emperor 
Lothair, 46. 

Gisle, daughter of King Charles the 
Simple, 52, n. 

Gizeh, The pyramids -of, 1., n. 

Glas, Captain, cxxii., n. 

Glasgow, Steam Packet Company, 
xxxix. 

Gleann-da-Locha (Glendalough), 1 7. 

Glencree, 150. 

Glendalough, 17, n. 

Glen-da-lough and Dublin, diocese of, 
140, 148. 

Bishop of, 141. 

Glen-finnaght, 84, n. 

Glen, Southwell, co. Dublin, 59, n. 

Gliomal for Gluniaran. 

Glover, Joseph (1657), 240. 

Gluniaran, 48, 77, 78. 

s. of Diarmid, 92. 

K. of Dublin, 104, n. 4 

Gluntradhna, 48. 

s. of Gluniaran, 104, w. 4 

Glyde river, co. Louth, 64, w. 5 , 19, n. 

Godfrey, K. of Denmark, 9, 68. 

son of Ivar, 44, 45, n., 46 ; 

with his brother Sitric ravages 
France, 46 ; is paid 12,000 
Ibs. of silver by Charles the 
Fat to quit France, ib. ; agrees to 
renounce paganism and marry 
Giselda, daughter of the Emperor 
Lothair, ib. ; treacherously slain 
by his brother Sitric, ib. ; called iu 
Irish " Jeffrey Mac Ivar, King of 
the Normans," ib. ; a plague of 
locusts the year of his death, 49 ; 
Keginald and Sitric his sons, 51, 
54. 

Godfred II., King of Dublin, xlviii. 



Godfred II., A.D. 992, 220. 

Godfrey, s. of Ragnall, 93. 

Godfrey, son of Reginald, 61, 02, 63, 
65, 66, 67, son of Godfrey, K. of 
Dublin ; becomes King of the 
Ostmen of Dublin, A.D. '.>:.' 1, ''. 1 ; 
plunders Armagh, ib. ; overtaken 
by Muircheartach, son of Niall 
Glundubh and defeated, if>. ; 
marches from Dublin to oppose 
Gormo Enske's attack on Limerick 
63; forced to return to Dublin, 64, 
which is besieged by Muireadach, 
K. of Leinster,i6. ; who is defeated, 
and he and Jiis son Lorcan taken 
prisoners, ib. ; Godfrey's sons and 
a Danish fleet defeated on the 
coast of Ulster, ib. ; rescued by 
their father, ib. ; Godfrey regains 
Northumbria, 65, but is soon 
driven out by Athelstan, 66 ; re- 
turns to Dublin, ib. ; plunders 
Saint Bridget's shrine at Kildare, 
ib. ; massacres 1,000 in a battle at 
Dearc Fearna (cave of Dunmore, 
co. Kilkenny), ib. ; defeats the 
Danes from Limerick, led by A uluf 
Ceanncairch in Ossory, ib. ; <!irs. 
A.D., 932, 68. 

Godfrey O'Hivar (son of Reginald), 
57, n. 

son of Sitric, 71, n., 74, 125, 

n. ; succeeds his father as K. of 
Dublin, 48 ; is King also of North- 
umbria, ib. ; dies A.D. 896, ib. ; 
buried at York, ib. ; leaves three 
sons, Niall, Sitric, Reginald, ib. 
s. of Harald, Lord of Limerick, 



88, 89. 
Godfraidh, s. of Fearghus, Lord of 

Ulster, 120. 
Godfrey, K. of Man, and of Dublin, 

92. " 
brother of Eachmarcach, K. of 

Man, 92. 

K. of Leinster, Wales, and 



Dublin, 92, n. 

of Winchester, 217, n. 



Godefrid (see Sitric), 46, n. 



INDEX. 



277 



Godred or Godfrey, K. of the Ost- 
men of Ireland, 96. 
- s. of Sitric, K. of Man, 90. 
Crovan, 90, 93. 
Godrim, Godrum, or Guthrum, 41, 

42, 47. 

(In.hvin, Rarl, 92. 

Gomme, Sir Bernard, see De 
Gomme, 228, 229, 230, 232. 

his map of river and harbour 

of Dublin (1673), 228, 231. 
who, 230, n. 



Gormo, 33, n. 

Danus, King of Denmark, 51 ; 

succeeds Eric as K. of the E. 
Angles, 51 ; his pedigree, ib., 
n. 6 ; treaty between him and 
K. Edward, s. of K. Alfred, 
ib., n. 7 

Enske (or English), 32, 42, 



43, 46, 47, 51, n., 62 ; King of 
E. Anglia, 5 1 ; son of Frotho, K. 
of Denmark, ib. ; invades Wessex, 
42 ; Alfred's treaty with him, ib. ; 
he is baptized and called Athel- 
stan, ib. ; resigns Denmark to his 
son, 43 ; settles in E. Anglia, ib. ; 
and divides it amongst his fol- 
lowers, ib. 

s. of Frotho, 41, 42, 43. 

Gamle, 51, n. 

grandson of Gormo Enske, 62. 
K. of Denmark and E. Anglia, 
62 ; marries Thyra, daughter of 
K. Edward, ib. ; the Danes of E. 
Anglia accept Edward as king, ib. 

Grandrevus, 62, n. a , 69, n. 

Mac Elchi, 67. 



Gormflaith, 91, n. 5 , 101. 

Gough, Topographical antiquities of 

Great Britain and Ireland, cvi., 

249, n. 

Grafton-street, 150. 
Gragava, 53, n., 57, n. 
Gragis Lb'gbok, Islendinga, 199, n. 
Grange Con, xcv., n. 
Grangegonnan lane, 212, n. 
Granta bridge, 42. 
Granville, Dr., xv. 



Grattan, Rt. Hon. Henry, xii. 
Graves, Rev. James, xcvii. 

Dr. Robert James, M.D., ix., x. 

Gray's Inn, v. 

Great Brunswick-street, 239, 248. 

Council, ordinance of, A.D. 

1455, 205. 

NorthernRail way terminus, ex. 



Greece, 210, n. 

- river, 72, n. 1 , 142, n. 

Green Batter, 222, n. 

Greenoge, 195. 

Green Patch, cxii., cxr., 245, n., 

235, . 

Grenehoga, 195. 
Gregory of Tours, 1., n. 
Griece river, 72, n., 142, n. 1 
Grimolf, 101. 

Grufudd, K. of Wales, 123. 
Gruffyth ap Madoc, 58. 
Grynhoe, 174, n. 3 
Guadaliquiver river, 117. 
Gudlief, 105, 106, 107. 
Gudrord, son of King Eric, 75, n. 

s. of Halfdan the Mild, 1 16. 
Guernsey, 195. 
Guinness, Arthur, xli. 

Benj. Lee, xli. 

Gulathingenses laus, 199. 

Gunnar, iii., IxviL, Ixviii., 101, n., 

108, n. 
Gunnar's holt, Ixviii, 101, n. 8 

Stadr, Ixviii. 

Gunhild, Queen of Norway, 109. 

Gurmundus, 32. 

Guthferth, 42. 

Guthfrith, King, 66. 

Guthrum (see Godrim). 

Guttorm, son of King Eric, 75, and 

n., ibid, 96, 97. 
Gyda, sister of Aulaf Cuaran, 124. 



Hadrian (Emperor), 1., n. 
Hseretha, 10. 
Hafursfiord, 95, 98, n.' 

battle of, Iv. 

Hoga, Hoge, or Oga, 196, 



278 



INDEX. 



Hakon, K. of Norway, 155, n. 1 

Guda, K., 125, n. 6 

son of Harald Harfagre, 68. 

K. (Athelastan's foster son), 

G8, 125. 

King, his warriors buried in 



their ships drawn to the battle- 
field, 103, n. 

Halfdan, 41, 43, 44, 45, 46, 52, 66, 
(and see Albdarn). 

K. of Lochlann, 114, 116. 

the Mild, s. of King Eysteinn, 

116. 

Whitefoot, K. of Uplands, 20, n. 

brother of Ivar, 41 ; becomes 



King of Northumbria, ib. ; con- 
quors the Picts and Strathclyde 
Britons, ib. ; apportions Northum- 
bria amongst his men, 44 ; returns 
to Ireland, ib. ; claims the rule 
over the Finnghoill, ib. ; slain in 
a battle between Danes and Nor- 
wegians at Lough Strangford, ib. 

Haliday, Esther, Ixxvii. 

Charles, sent to London to 

learn business, v. ; declines Mr. 
Delacour's civilities, ib. ; becomes 
clerk at Lnbbock's bank, ib. ; 
studies hard in London, vi. ; his 
literary friends there, ib. ; returns 
to Dublin and embarks in the 
bank trade, viii. ; his residence on 
Arran-quay, ib. ; his overwork 
produces a vision, ib. ; liis poeti- 
cal answer to Mrs. Hetherington, 
ix. ; hires Fairy Land, near 
Monkstown, ib. ; his mode of life 
there, ib. ; resolves to apply him- 
self for a time exclusively to busi- 
ness, x.,xi. ; journal of his reading, 
XL ; his villa at Moukstown park, 
xiv. ; his study at, xv. ; loses the 
sight of one eye, xvi. ; supposed 
cause of, ib. ; his fears for the 
other, ib. ; book collecting, ib. ; the 
Secret Service Money Book, xvii., 
xviii. ; its history, ib. ; Dr. R. R. 
Madden's account of the Secret 
Service Money Book, ib. ; Hali- 



Haliday con. 

day's library, extent of, xviii. ; 
given by his widow to the Royal 
Irish Academy, xix. ; anecdote of 
Dr. Willis, ib. ; of Reginald 
Heber, ib. ; his humanity to his 
servants, ib. ; his ' Lucullan Villa,' 
xx., xxi ; undertakes a history of 
the port of Dublin, ib. \ his morn- 
ing studies, xxiii., xxiv. ; his com- 
monplace books, ib.; studies ancient 
records, xxv. j made acquainted 
with James Frederic Ferguson, 
ib. ; works executed by him for 
Mr. Haliday, y*Y. \ Haliday's 
contributions to the daily Press, 
xxxi. ; pamphlets written by him, 
xxxii-xxxvi. ; his courage during 
the cholera at the Mendicity So- 
ciety, xxxii. ; urges sanitary legis- 
lation for towns, xxxiv. ; obtains 
bathing-places for poor of Dun- 
leary and Kingstown, xxxv. ; 
public offices filled by Haliday, 
xxxvi. ; Honorary Secretary of 
Chamber of Commerce, xxxvii. ; 
frees Dublin shipping of the 
Skerries and Ramsgate Light 
dues, xxxvii. -xxxi. ; recognition 
of his services by shipowners of 
Dublin, xxxix., by merchants of 
his conduct as Honorary Secretary 
of the Chamber of Commerce, 
xli. ; his defence of the Ballast 
Board, xliii.-xlv. ; his essay upon 
the ancient name of Dublin ; xl vi. ; 
letter to his father -about Henry 
Domville, Ixxviii. ; proposes to 
his father a partnership, ib. ; 
letter to his brother William on 
his marriage, Ixxxiv., on his sick- 
ness, ib. ; opposes a scheme for a 
viaduct across Westmoreland- 
street, xciii. ; supports De Lesseps' 
views of the canal at Suez, ib. ; 
protects the bathing-place of the 
poor at Irishtqwn, xcviii. ; begins 
a voyage round the coasts of Ire- 
land, xcix. ; its results on his 



l.NDEX. 



279 



Haliday con. 

health, c. ; his visit to the Bod- 
leian library, ib. ; his grave, ib. ; 
his wife gives his library to R. I. 
Academy, cii, ciii. ; his portrait 
placed in the Academy, ciii. ; 
letter of Richard Welch, his exe- 
cutor, to the Academy, ciii ; 
characteristics of Charles Haliday, 
ciii., civ. 

Daniel, M.D., ix., Ixxviii., 

lxxxvii.-xcii. ; a younger brother 
of Charles, Ixxxvii. ; practises at 
Paris, ib. ; his national feelings, 
ib. ; his treatment of Thomas 
Nugent Reynolds, ib. ; his friend- 
ship with Sir Jonah Barrington, 
Ixxxviii. ; account of Sir Jonah's 
History of the Union, ib. ; his 
friendship with Colonel John 
Allen, xc. ; trial of Allen with 
Arthur O'Connor and Quigley for 
High Treason, ib. ; Allen's con- 
duct in the Rebellion of '98, xci. 
in Robert Emmet's Rebellion, 
ib. ; his escape to France, and 
military services there, ib. ; C. 
Haliday's kindness to Col. Allen's 
sisters, xcii. ; Daniel's death, 
grave, and epitaph, ib. 

William, the elder, lxxvii.-lxxx. 

William, junior, vii., viii., 



lxxviii.-lxxv. ; made Deputy Fila- 
cer of Common Pleas, Ixxx. ; his 
kno wledge of languages, Ixxxi., ib. ; 
publishes a translation of Jeffrey 
Keatinge's History of Ireland, 
ib. ; originates the printing of the 
Irish on one page, the English on 
the opposite, Ixxxii. ; publishes an 
Irish grammar, Ixxxiii. ; prepares 
an English-Irish dictionary, ib. ; 
his labours appropriated by 
another, ib. ; his marriage, Ixxxi v. ; 
his brother Charles's letter, ib. ; 
his sickness and death, Lxxxv. ; 
his death, grave, and epitaph, 
Ixxxvi 
Mrs., otherwise Mary Hayes, 



Haliday con. 

ci. ; gift of her husband's library 

to the Royal Irish Academy, cii., 

ciii. ; her death, ciii. 

Margaret, Ixxx. 

Hallthor, 99, n* 
Halsteinn, 104. 
Hanger-Hoeg, 161, 170. 
Harold, see Roilt. 

53, 

Blaatand, 69. 

the black, 90. 

Gille, King, 96. 

Gille-Christ, K., 132. 

Grcefeld, K. of Norway, 109. 

Fair hair, lv., IviL, n. 

Harfcegr, King, 96, 114, 39, 

n., 68, 73, n., 76. 

a of Gormo Enske, 32, n., 43, 



47, ., 51, n. 
s. of Gonno-hin-Gamle, 62, 

63. 

Hardraad, K., 90. 

(King of England), 71, n. 

son of King Eric, 75, n. 

Lord of Limerick, 87. 

Harold, K, 108, n. 

Harbour Department of Admiralty, 

xliii. 

Hardwieke, Lord, Ixxxix. 
Hardy, Sir Thomas Duffus, xcvi., 217. 
Harekr, son of Eadred, 75. 
son of Guttorm,. 75. 



Harrington, Henry, xcv. 

Sir Henry, xcv., n. 

Harris, Isle of, Lxvi., n. 
Hasculf, Ixix., Ixxvi. 
Haskields-stadr, 135, n. 
Haslou, 44, n., 46. 
Hastings, 47, 50. 
Haughton, James, xxxii 
Haugr, or Hogue, 155, n.* 

a hou, a mound or cairn over 



one dead, 195, n., 197. 
Hawker, Mr. (1792), 240, n., 
Hawkins, Mr., 1 17. 

street, cx viii. 

wall, cxviii., Ixxiv., and n., 

ib., Ixxvi., 146, n. 8 , 248, n. 



280 



INDEX. 



Hayes, Major-General Thomas, ci. 
Mary, otherwise Haliday, cL, 

cii., ciii. 
Hazlewood, Brow of the, 209, see 

Drom Choll Coil. 
Head, Richard (1663), 241, n. 
liealmuind, Bishop, 1 3, n. 
Hearn, 71, n. 
Heber, Reginald, xix. 
Hebrides, The, see also Sudreyar, lv., 

Ivi, 11, 15, 82,89,112,114,120. 
Danish place, names in, Ixvi, 

and n., ib. 
Hecla, iv. 
Helgi, 53. 

Beola, Ivii., 103. 

Magri, Iviii., 101, 103. 

son of Olaf, 20, n. 

marries Thorunna Hyrna, 101, 

2 

Hella (Ailill), 28, 29. 

Hennessy, W. M., Ixxxii., 214, n. 

Henry, fitz Empress, Ixix, n. 

Henry II., King, 3, 4, n., 14, n., 23, 
71, n.\ 94, 136, 145, n. 3 , 183, 
184, 185, 186, 187, 191. 

III., King, 189. 

IV., King, 146, n., 149. 

VIII, King, 146, n., 164, n., 

190. 

Herbert, auctioneer, xcv. 

Hereford (burnt by Danes of Ire- 
land), 182. 

Hereferth, 13, n. 

Herjolf, 104. 

Hermits, Irish island, 98, n. 

Herodotus, Ix. 

Hescul (Hasculf ), Ixxvi 

- for Hasculf Mac Torkil, 149, n. 

Hetherington, Richard, cii. 

Mrs., ix. 

Miss, cii. 

Heydan, Richard, 203, n. 2 

Hibbotts (Hybbotts), 

'Hie et Ubique/ a Comedy' (1663), 
241, n. 

Hicks, Thos., cviii, n. 

Hi Cholium-Chille for lona. 

Higden, 21, n. 1 , 50, n. fl 



High-street, 208, 209. 

Mill of Pleas, 170. 

1 1 iugamond, 50. 

Hinguar, s. of Regnar Ladbrog, 26, 

37, n., 38, 39, 41. 

- andHubba, 181. 
Hjorleif, Ivi., Ivii., and n., ib. 
Hoa, 71.w. 3 
Hoey's-court, xcii. 
Hofdastrondara, 102. 
Hofud (Howth), 138. 
Hoga, Hoghia, and Haghia, 195. 
Hogan's Green (for Hoggen Green), 

Ixxv., 196, n. 

Hog and butts, Ixxv., 197, n. 
Hoggen but, 191. 
Hog hill, 196, n. 

lane, 196, n. 

Hoggen but, 196, Ixxv., 166, 167, 

168, 169, n. 1 
Green, 162, 163,w. 2 , 166, 168, 

191, 196, Ixxiii., Ixxv. 
' Hogges,' general in Scandinavian 

places, 195. 

(or Oghs), 191. 



butts, 168. 

King's, 197. 

Le, 164, 7i. 2 

(nunnery of Saint Mary del.). 

wrong derivations of Hogges, 

192. 
Hog's Green (for Hoggen Green), 

Ixxv., 195, n. 
Hogs hill, 191, 196. 
Hogue, 196. 
Hoighold, age of mounds for dead, 

195. 
Holland duck sail-cloth, 247. 

pile driver from (1721), 236. 

Holies-street, the sea at foot of, 232, 

n. 1 

Holmpatrick, Ixvii., 138. 
Holt, Mr., 235, n. 
Holyhead, xxxvii. 
Holy Land, The, 1., n. 

- Trinity, the Chapter of, 148. 
Homer, lix. 
Homerton, vi. 
Hook, The, cxxii., n. 



INDEX. 



281 



Hore, Ralph, 218, n. 

Horham, Ricardus de, 194. 

Hoskulld, 107. 

Hosee, Hugh, 217. 

Hospital of Lepers, Dublin, 148. 

Hougue, La., Hattenas, 195. 

- La, Fongue, 195. 
House Thing (Hustings), 160. 
Hoved (Howth), Ixvii. 

Hou, or Hogue, 155, w. 2 
Howard, Henry, cxi., 244. 

- Thomas and Henry, 244, n. 
Howel Dha, 69, 89. 

- s. of Edwin, 97, M.* 
Howth, 16, 138. 

Head, fortress of, 213. 

point of, 242, n. 

Earl of, 237. 

Hrut, 104. 

Hryngr (Eric), son of Harald 

Blaatand, 69. 
Huammsfiord, 103. 
Hubba, 38, 39, 41. 

s. of Regnar Lodbrog, 26. 

Hudibras, c. 

Hvitra Manna Land (America), 

105. 
Humber river, 24, 37, 70. 

stane, 181. 

Hurdles, for foundations, 206, 207. 

ford of, what, 214. 

Hurdle bridge byO'Donnell,forescape 

over Shannon, A.D. 1483, 215. 

bridges in Asia, 215. 

Hutcheson, Mr. (1734), 239, n. 

Hutchinson, Daniel, 203, w. a 

Hutton, Thomas, xli. 

Hybbotts, Sir Thos., cvii., n. 

Hy-Cohnn-Cille, 113. 

Hymns, Book of, 2, n. 

Hyrna, Thoranna, sister of Auda, 

wife of Aulaf the White, K. of 

Dublin, 101, n. 8 



Iceland, liii., liv., Ivii., lx., Ixi., 49, 
98, w. 2 , 98, 99, 100, 102, 113, 
125. 

Icelandic bards, Iviii. 



Iceland, bridges of, Ixv. 
Icelandic Saga makers, Iviii. 
Igmund, 50, 52. 
Igwares, 37. 
Imhar (see Ivar), 21, n. 

- 54, n., 58. 

Tanist of the foreigners, 74. 

Inbher Ainge, or Nannie Water, 

140, n. 8 

mor, Arklow, 139, n. 1 

Ingolf, lv., Ivi., Ivii., 98. 
Inguald, 60, n. 

son of Thora, 20, n. 

Ingulphus, 13, n. 1 , 43, ., 50, n., 

52, TO. 2 , 70, n* 
Inguares, 37, n. 
Inis-Caltra, 34, 35. 
Inis Cathaigh, 88. 

- Doimhle, 79. 

Erin, Ireland's Eye, 139, n. 1 

Innisfallen, Annals of, 11. 

Innishowen, barony of, 2, n. 3 

Inish murry, liv. 

Tnnish murry isle (co. Sligo), 12. 

Innsi Ore, 115. 

Inis Rechru, Lambay Isle, 139, N. 1 

Slibhtown (island in Limerick 

harbour), 63, n. 1 

Ulad, 79. 

Innse Gall, 82. n. 1 

Innes, 84, n.* 

Innocent, see Pope. 

Innocence, Decree of, Ixvii. 

lona, 43, n. 9 , 39, 91. 

Ireland's Eye, 49. 

Eye, island, 139, n. 1 

Ireland, originally divided into fifths, 
134, n. 3 

originally into two Archbishop- 
rics, 135 ; made into four, A.D. 
1148, 135, n. 5 

travels in, in 1603, and in 

1644, 210, n. 

Irish ancient roads, 226, n. 

booths, 210, n. 

ecclesiastics in Iceland, 113. 

houses in towns in 1644, '210, 



ft, 



island hermits, 98, n. 



282 



INDEX, 



Irish houses in the wilds in 1G03 
and 1644, 210, n. 

Light Houses, Board of, xliii., 

xliv. 

Irishmen's islands (in Iceland), 100. 

Irish sheep-dog, 111. 

Irishtown, xcviii., 239, 242, n. 

and Ringsend, 231, n, 

Irish Woollen Warehouse, Castle- 
street, 209. 

Irland Mikla, Great Ireland (or 
Florida), 105. 

Irminsul, 6. 

Isenbert, the French bridge archi- 
tect, xlvi., 216; builds the first 
stone bridge at London (A.D. 
1202), ib. 

Isidore of Seville, xlix., n. 

Isla, terraced mount at, 162. 

Isle of Man, 54. 

Isles, the kingdoms of (and see 
Hebrides), 82, 93. 

Islendinga Saga, Ivii., n. 

Islip, Walter de, 194, n. 

Israelites, 158. 

Italy, 210, n. 

Ivar, 38, 39, 40, 41, 44, 45, 47, 48, 
54. 

K. of Dublin, Ixxvi. 

- K. of Denmark, s. of Regnar 
Lodbrok, 22, 24, 28, 32, 33. 

s. of Regnar Lodbrog, K. of 



Dublin, 100, 102, 154; son of 
Regnar Lodbrog, 36 ; he and 
Aulaf land in East Anglia, 37 ; 
invade and conquer Northurubria, 
ib. ; Ivar made King of North- 
umbria, ib. ; succeeds Aulaf as 
King of Dublin, A.D. 871, 40; 
dies A.D. 872, ib. ; Halfdan, 
brother of Ivar, and Boegsee, be- 
came Kings of Northumbria, ib. ; 
Halfdan spoils the Picts and the 
Strathclyde Britons, 43 ; Godfrey 
and Sitric, sons of Ivar, 45 ; 
plunder France A.D. 881, ib. ; are 
paid 12,000 Ibs. of silver by 
Charles the Fat to leave France ; 
46. 



Ivar, grandson of Ivar, K. of Dublin, 

122. 

son of Guttorm, 75. 

s. of Sitric, s. of Aulaf Cuuran, 

126. 

(of Limerick), 20, 21, 22. 



Lord of Limerick, 88. 

O'Hegan, 135, n. 3 



Jefferson, President, xvi 

Jeffry Maclvar (Godfrey, son of 

Ivar), see Godfrey. 
Jenkins, Sir Lionel, Ixvii., n. 
Jerusalem, 1., n. 
Jocelin, 2, n. 1 
Johan le Deve, 149, n. 
Johnstone, 93, w. 6 , 29, n. 2 
Jones, Dr. Henry, Bishop of Meatli, 

164. 

Jones, Col. Michael, Ixxv., 165, n. 1 
Mr., owner of Skerries Light 

Dues, xxxviii. 
Jordan river, 158. 
Joyce, P. W., 222, n., 225, n., 226, 

n., 232, n. 1 
Joy mount, cviii., n. 
Junot, General, xcL 
Juries of Ostmen at Dublin, Ixxii. 
separate, of English, Irish, and 

Ostmen at Limerick, Ixxii, n. 
Jutes, 15. 
Jutland, 11, 175. 



Kadlina, daughter of Ganga Rolf, 

53, n.' 
Kiarval (or Cearbhall), of Dublin, 

100. 
Keatinge, Geoffry, D.D., Ixxxi, 21, 

n., 134, n* 
Kells, 79. 
Kelly, J. L., xli. 
Kenneth, King of Scots, 36, n., 5 43, 

n. 9 , 47, n., 87. 

Kerry, the men of, see Ciarrighi. 
Ketell, Flatnef, 53, n.' 
Ketill, Flatnef, 101, n.\ 102, 114, 

120. 



INDEX. 



283 



Ketel Hcngs, 101,n. 8 

Ketell (or Oscytel), 43, 53. 

Kettleby, Yorkshire, 130, w. 4 

Kevin-street, 207, n. 4 

Kiarun, 105. 

Kiartan, 106, 107. 

Ki:irval (and see Cearbhall), 45, 

n. 1 
Kidd, Valentine (Sheriff), 1718, 

248, w. 

Kilbarrack, evil, 132, n. a 
Kildare, Thomas, Earl of, A.D. 1455, 

205. 
17, n., 56, 66. 

street, 193, n. 
Kilkenny, 66. 

Castle, 243. 

Kill-Aracht, 172, n. 3 
Killaloe, Bishop of, cviii., n. 

plank bridge of (A.D. 1140), 
214, n. 

Kilniainham, see Cill-Maighnenn, 

152, n. 4 
Hospital (of Knights of St. 

John), at, 217, w. 
Kilmehanock, 218, n. 
Kilmallock, Ixxi., n. 
Kilmashoge (and see Cill-Mosh- 

amhog), 58, n. 
Killmohghenoc, 148. 
Kilruddery, 164, n. 2 
Kinaston, Colonel, 165, n. 1 
Kings of the Irish, 3, n. ; chief kings 

dwelt at Tara, ib. ; kim>s of Lein- 

ster at Naas and Fems, ib. 
Kinshelas (Ui Ceinnsalaigh), 16. 
King's Hogges, 197. 
Bench, lost rolls of, xxviii. 

Hospital, cxi 
Hospital (Blue Coat School), 

244. 
Kinsale, Sir Bernard de Gomme to 

plan defence of, A.D. 1672, 230. 
K inland of Turvey, Matthew 

Bamewall, lord ; his low degree, 

xxvi ; his recovery of the title, 

ib. 
Kishes filled with stones to form 

Liffey channel, 235, 238. 



Kishing of the Liffey, cxviii., 

cxix. 

Knatchbull, Edward, 193, n. 
Konal, Iviii 
Korna-haugr, 195, n. 
Kmssholar, 103. 
Kuda, the ship, 101, n.* 
Kudafliotsos, 101, n. 6 
Kunnakster (Connaugh t), 1 \ v i i . , 

135. 

Kylan, 105. 
Kynaston, see Kinaston. 



Lade, 127. 

Lagmanns, The, 88, 160. 
La Hore, Ralph, 218. 
Lamb, Charles, vi. 
Lambard, 42, n. 4 
Lanibay, Ixvii. 

Isle, Inis Rechra, 139, n. 1 

Catch, The (1657) 240. 

Lancashire, 24, n. 
Lanfrane, Archbishop, 93. 
Lanesboro', 214, n. 
Lanfrane, Archbishop, 76. 
Langtoff, Peter, 71, n. 1 
Langue, d'Oc, Ixxiv., n. 

d'Oil, ib. 

Languedoc, 10. 

Larne Lough ( Ulfricksfiord), 15, 

137, w. 2 

Lassberg, Joseph von, xxviii 
Latiniers, 184. 
La Touche, Wm. Digges, xli. 
Lann, 47, n. 
Lawhill of Iceland, 159. 
l/i\v of Saint Patrick, 189. 
Lawmeu, 170. 

Law Mount, or Logbergit, 161. 
Laxa, 102. 
Lax-lep, 55, n. 

Lazar*8 Hill, ex., cxil, cxviii 
frigate launched at, 240, 148, 

152. 
Lazy (or Lazar's) Hill, 232, .', 

235, 238, n., 239, 241, n., iMi.', 

n., 248, n. 
Lea river (Herts), 182. 



284 



INDEX. 



Leaps, Gormflaith's three leaps or 
jumps that a woman should never 
jump, 78, . 8 

Lecan, Yellow Book of, 82, w. 1 

Lee, the river, see Lin. 

Leeson, Joseph, 193, n. 

Leges, Gula Thingenses, 199. 

Leghorn, cxxi., 4. 

Legge, Hon. George, Lord Dart- 
mouth (1685), 243. 

Le Hogges, Ixxiv. 

Leibnitz, Ixxxi. 

Leif, lv., Ivi. 

Leighin-ster (Leinster), 134. 

Lughteburg, Robert, 146. 

Leinster, Ixvii., 23, 29, 64, 79, 80, n. 

King of, 3, n, 4, n. 

Kingdom of, 221. 

men, 56. 

southern parts of, 204. 

book of, 4, n. 

Duke of, cxxi. ; in his yacht 

shoots breach in south wall, 
and lands at Merrion-square, 

House, 193, n. 

Leixlip, 55, 138, 141. 
LeMartre, Thomas, 186, n. 1 , 217. 
Lentaigne, Benjamin, Ixxix., Ixxx. 

Sir John, Ixxix. 
Leofrid, 58. 
Leogaire, King, Ixii. 
Leoris, Peter de, 14, n. 
Lepers, 61. 

Hospital, 148. 

Le Poer, John fitz John fitz Robert, 

Ixix., n. 
Leprosy, 74. 

Lesseps, M. Ferdinand, xcvii. 
Lesleadle, Castle of, Ixvii., n. 
Leth, Chuinn, 33, 34. 
Letronne, xlix, n., 1, n., 98, n. 2 , 113, 

n. 
Lewis, King of France, 71, n. 

- isle of, Ixvi, n. 
Lichfield, 194, n. 
Lidwiccas, the, 53. 
Lief, s. of Eric, 107, n. 9 
Liffey, the, ex. 



Liffey, the river, 23, 138, 141, 55. 
Liffe of ships, Cearbhall, King of, 

54, n. 
Liffey, early passage and bri 

across, 207, n., 211, 212, 213, 

220, 222, n ., 224, 203, n. 
crossed by Slighe Cualaun near 

Dublin, 225. 

fort planned on south side to 



protect, A.D. 1673, 228,229, 

on north side not required, 
232. 

King John's half of, 216. 
gives liberty, A.D. 1214, to 



citizens to build a new bridge over, 
or to keep the old, 216, 217. 
southern half of, 221. 

shallowness of, A.D. 1590, 204. 



fords of, between Dublin and 

Lucan, 205. 
piling of, cxviii., cxv. ; walling 

of, cxviL ; kishing of, cxviii., 

cxix. 

the forming of a new channel 



for, 234, 238. 

straightening of bed of, xlv. 



Lighthouse, the Poolbeg, cxiv., cxv., 

238 n.- begun 1761, ib. 
wall, cxv., cxvi., 238, n. ; begun 

1761, ib. (See south wall.) 
Light floating at Poolbeg, placed 

A.D. 1735, 238, n. ' 
Lighthouses, Irish, xliii. 
Limerick, Ixix., 3, n., 20, 21, 35, 55, 

62, 63, 85 and n. 8 , ib., 87, 88, 

95, 117, n. 2 , 186, 137. 
harbour, island in (Inis Slilih- 

ton), 63, n. 1 
separate juries of Englishmen, 

Irishmen, and Ostmen at, Ixxii., 



71. 



and Foynes railway, xcvii. 



Lin river (the Lee), 55. 

Linn Duachaill (near Annagassan, 

county Louth), 19. 
Duachaill (Magheralin), 64, 

w. 5 , 66. 

Lindesey, 29, n. 
Lindesness, 29, n. 



INDEX. 



285 



Lindiseyri (Leinster), 29, n. 

Lindisfarne, 10, 11. 

Lir, Mauaunan, s. of, 82, n. 1 

Lismore, 54. 

Osttnan, bishop of, Pope's 

legate, 188. 

Littleton, 136, n.\ 138, rc. a 
Liverpool, cxx., n. 
Loarn, s. of Ere, 82, n. 1 
Loch Bricrenn (Loughbrickland), 

17. 

- Ce, Annals of, Ixxxii. 
Dachaech, 135, n. a 

Dachaech (Waterford), 54, 55. 
- Eathach (Lough Neagh), 33. 

Erne, 85, n. 3 

Gabhor (Logore), 24, n. 

Garman, 135, n. J 

Gower, 24, n. 

Oirbsen (Lough Corrib), 82, 

n. 1 

Re, 85 and n. 3 , ib. 

Tingwall, 161. 

TJachtair, 85, n. 3 

Lochlanns, 40, n., 50, 52, 63, n., 

115, 219. 

Locusts, plague of, 49. 
Lodbrog (see Regnar Lodbrog). 
Lodge (John), Ixxv., 93, n. 6 , 151, 

w. 1 

Lodin, 97. 

Loftus, Nicholas, Ixxvii. 
Logbergit, or Law Mount, 161. 
Logore (see Loch Gabhor). 
London Bridge, fear of the Dutch 

fleet coming to, 229. 
built of wood, A.D. 993-1016, 

216, n. ; burnt, A.D. 1136, ib. ; re- 
built of stone, A.D. 1203, ib. 

stone, the, 179, 180, 182. 

Long Stone, the, Ixxii., Ixxvi. cxviii., 

150, 151, 152. 

of the Stein, the, 179, 180. 

Lorcan, s. of Cathal, 21, n. 

son of King Muireadhach, 64. 

Lords of the Isles, 120. 

entrance to Parliament House, 

239, 240, n. 
Lothra (Lorra), 34, 35. 



Loughbrickland, 17, n. 

Lough Corrib, 83, n., and see Loch 

Oirbsen. 
Ouan, or Logh Cone (Strang- 

ford Lough), 44. 

Derg (in Shannon), 34, 36. 

Erne, 63, 69. 

Neagh, 33, 34. 

Owel (see Lough Uair). 

Re, 33, 34, 35, 63, 69. 



Loch-ri, see Lough Ree. 

Lough Shinney, cxvi. 

Uair (Lough Owel), 31, 34, 

36. 

Louth (Lughmadh), 16. 
Lucas, Thomas, IxxviL 
Lucan, inhabitants of the Cross of, 

205. 

Lucy, Sir Antony, 139. 
Ludgate-hill, xciii. 
Ludlow, Edmund, 213. 

General Edmund, xiv. 

Lughmadh (Louth), 16. 
Luimneach, Limerick, foreigners of, 

66. 

Lundbhadh, J. R, 169, n. 2 
Lusk, 142, 16. 
the Cross of, 205. 



Mabbot's mill, 235, cxix. 

Mac Aralt, 90. 

Mac Cuileannan, Cormac, K. and 

bishop, 13, n. 
MacCullagh, 1 62,71.! 
Maccus (and see Amaccus) son of 

Aulaf Cuaran, 75. 
son of Harald of Limerick, K. 

of Man, 87, 88. 

or Magnus, K. of Man, 86, 87. 



Maccusius Archipirata, 86, n. 1 
Mac Donogh, (Jilpatriek, 1)7, w. 1 
.M-Donnell, John, xli. 

Sir Edward, t. 

Mac Elchi, The, 32, 62, 63, 64, 
67. 



286 



INDEX. 



M'Firbis Dudley, 21. 

M:u' (Illmoholmoc, Donnough, 142. 

M'Gilmore Gerald, Ixix., n. 

Ivor, John, s. of, Ixix., n. 

Mac Guthmund, Philip, Ixx., Ixxi. 
M'Murrough, Ixv. 

Dermot, K. of Leinster, 4, n., 

145, n. 3 , 178, 185,193,221. 
Dochad, 4, n. 



Mac Otere, Maurice, Ixx., Ixxi., Ixxii. 

Mac Torkil, Hasculf, 149, n. 1 

Mactus, 87. 

Madden, Dr. R. R,., xvii. 

Thos. M. Madden, M.D., xxxvi., 

n. 

Mael, 133. 
Maebrighde, a of Methlachlen, 31, 

133, n. 

s. of Cathasach, 132, w. 2 

bishop of Kildare, 132, re. 3 

Maelgarbh Tuathal, 132, n. 
Maelgula Mac Dungall, K. of Cashel, 

126. 

Maelmadhog, archbishop, 13, n., 56. 
Maelmary, 91. 
Maelmithigh, 78. 
Maelmor, 132, n. 2 
Maelmordha, brothers of Cearbhall, 

56, 220. 
Maelmhuire, daughter of Aulaf 

Cuaran, 78. 
daughter of Kenneth, King of 

Scots, 77, 118, 119. 
Maelmur, 47, n. 
Maelnambo, 92, 128, 142, w. a 
Maelphadraig, 133. 
Maelseachlainn, King of Ireland, 

23, 24, 31, 34, 45, 47, n., 77, 78, 

89, 127. 

King of Teamhair, 91, 119. 

King of Meath, 132, w. 2 

s. of Domhnal, K. of Ireland, 

221 ; besieges and takes Dublin 

from the Ostmen, 80 ; his famous 

proclamation of freedom for the 

Ui Neill, A.D. 980, ib. 
Murchadh Ua, 214, n. 



Magh Breagh (in East Meath), 17. 
Maghera (Co. Derry), 16, n. 



Magheralin, on the Lagan river, fi 1. 

co. Down, 19, n. 

Magh Liphthe (plain of the Liffey), 
17. 

Magh Nuadhat, 221. 

Magnus Barefoot, King, Ixiv., Ixc., 
96, 132. 

Magiii Regis Leges Gula Thingenses, 
199, n. 

Magnus (see Maccus), 86. 

Maidstone (Mode Stane), xc., xci., 
182. 

Maines, the Seven, 226, n. 

Malachy (see Maelsachlain). 

K., 221. 

Maladhan, son of Aedh, 67. 

Malcolm, K. of Cumberland, 87. 

Man, Isle of, liii., and see Monada, 
Monabia, Menavia, Eubonia, 82, 
84, 85, 89, 90, 92, 93 ; held by 
Ptolemy for an Irish island, 82 ; 
and by the Romans while in Bri- 
tain, 84 ; Manx and Irish legends 
concerning, 82, n. 1 ; the Monada 
of Ptolemy, Monabia of Pliny, 
Menavia of Orosius and Bede, 
Eubonia of Gildas, 84, n. 6 ; its 
connexion with Ulster before the 
Danish invasion, 82 ; the Cruithne 
or Ulster Picts driven thither, 
A.D. 254, 83 ; expelled from Man, 
A.D. 580, by Baedan, K. of 
Ulidh, 84 ; thenceforth belonged 
to Ulster, ib. ; Latin names of, 
ib., n. 6 . 

Maccus or Magnus, K. of, 86. 

son of Reginald, K. of Nor- 
thumberland, King of, 87. 
Tingwall in, 161. 



. Manannans, the Four, 82, n 1 . ; s. of 

Alloid, s. of Athgus, s. of Lir, ib. 

Manannan MacLir, legislator of Isle 

of Man, 82, n. 

Map, Sir Bernard de Gomme's, A.D. 
1673, of river and harbour, 228. 

of Dublin by Jean Rocque, 

170, n. 

of the North Lotts (1717), 



248, n. 



INDEX. 



287 



Map, Captain John Perry's rare map, 
with ship canal along Sutton 
shore toward the Bar, 1728, 249 
and /!.. if i. 

Marche, Count de, 195, n. 

Margad, 96. 

Margate, xc. 

Marstan, King, 29. 

Martin, Thomas, Ixxxiv., Ixxxvi. 

John, xli. 

Mathghamhain, TJa Riagain, 91. 

Mauritani, 115. 

Mayo, ravaged (A.D. 807), 15. 

Meath, 22, 34, 35, 74, 87, 134, 214, 
n., 221. 

southern part of, 204. 

bishopric of, its long pre-emi- 
nence, 136, n. 1 
Earl of, 164, n.' 



Medina-Sidonia, territory of, 117. 
Mediterranean Sea, 115, 117. 
Medway, the river, 182. 
chain across mouth of, against 

the Dutch, A. D. 1667, 229. 
Meersburg, castle of, xxviii. 
Melbricus, K. of Ireland, 28, 29, n. 1 

31. 

Mellitus, Abbot, 171. 
Melkorka-haugr. 195, n. 
daughter of Miarkartan, 108. 

109, 110, 112, 
Melrose, chronicle of, 8, n. 
Memoranda rolls, calendars of, by 

Js. Fc. Ferguson, xxx. 
Menevia, 84, n. 6 , 89, 90. 
Mensions (Mynchens) fields, 193, 

n. 

(Mynchens) mantle, 193, n. 
Merchants'-quay, 203, 204. 
Mercia, 38, 39, 44, n., 50, 51, 52, 

57, 58. 

Mercer's Dock, cxviiL 
Meredith, Sir Robert, 212, n. 
Merrion, lands of, 228, n. 2. 
Merrion-square, cxxi., 242. 
fort for defence of Lifiey to be 

built at, 230. 
sea flowed to foot of, A. n. 1 673, 

231. 



Mesgedhra, King, 213. 
Miarkartan, K. of Ireland (for Muir- 

cheartagh), Ixv. 
Midland Great Western Railway, 

212, n. 

Mills, the King's, near Dublin, xxx. 
Milo de Cogan, Ixvi. 
Minchin's mantle, 193, n. (see Myn- 
chens). 
Mirgeal, Icelandic for Muirghael, 

104, n. 4 
Mona, 84, n., 85, n. 1 , 87, 89. 

Roman Anglesea, 84, n 9 . 

Monada, Man of the Romans, 84. n.* 
' Moon, the,' King's sloop, 241, n. 
Moors of Spain, the, 114. 
Moran, Patrick, Bishop of Ossory, 

136, n. 1 
Morgan, Francis, solicitor, printed 

rental of estates of Corporation 

of Dublin by, 238, n. 

Richard (1623), 232, n. 1 

Morland, Mr., to draw map of chan- 
nel of Liffey from Essex-bridge to 

the bar, 234, n. 1 
Morney, Mr., 235, n. 
Moshemhog, church of, 59, n. 
Mote, the, near Pennenden Heath, 

182. 

Mountmellick, cL 

Mountmorres, Lord (1792), 240, *, 
Mount Murray, 156. 
Mount-street, 170, 242. 
Mowena (Modwena), 224, and n. ib. 
Moyle Isa, 71, *. 
Moylemoney, s. of Cassawara, 71, n. 1 
Muircheartagh, son of Niall Glun- 

dubh, 61, 64, 67. 
of the leather cloaks, 71, 72, 

142. 

Muirghael, 104, n 4 . 
Muireadhach, King of Leinster, 64. 
Muiren, 129, . 
Muglins, the, pirates gibbeted at, 

cxxii., n. 

Mullaghmast, hill of, 72, n. 1 
Mullurky, John, and John Pigeon, 

231, n. 3. 
Mulvany (1846), 240, n. 



288 



INDEX. 



Mumha-ster (Munster), 135. 
Mungairid (Mungret, co. Limerick), 

17, . 
Munster, Ixvii., 19, n., 31, 39, 34, 

54, 55, 63, n. 
Munster men, 55. 
Murchad, 17. 
Murchadh, 96. 

son of Diarmid, 92. 

son of Finn, 78. 

s. of Finn, K. of Leinster, 91. 

Murphy, Dr., R. C. Bishop of Cork, 

xvii. 
Mynchens fields, Ixxv. 

mantle, ib. 193 (see Mensions). 

Mynnthak, 100. 

Naass, 3, w. 

Naddad, 98, n. 

Nanny river, 24, n. 

Nannie water, 140, 141. 

Nanny water and Arclo, limits of 

Admiralty jurisdiction of Dublin, 

246, n. 

North Strand, 247. 
Nassau-street, or St. Patrick's well 

lane. 

Naul, the, xxvii. 
Navan (An Emain), 2, n. 
Neale, son of Godfrey, King of 

Dublin, 48. 

Neave, Mr. Serjeant, 246, n. 
Neville, Parke, 208, 212, n. 
New channel for Liffey, cxi. 

kishing of, cxviii. 

Newcomen, Beverly, commander 

RN. (1614), son and heir of Sir 

Robert N, 241, n. 
Newgate (old), 208. 

prison, cxxii., n. 

New Grange, tumulus at, 99, n 9 . 
Newman, Jacob, 196, n. 

James, 203, n. 

Niall, 48, 7i. 

Brother of King Sitric, 60. 

Glundubh, King of Ireland, 

57, n., 54, 56, 58, 59, 77, 78, 119. 
Nidarosia (Drontheim), Ixv., n. 
Nidbyorga, 53, n a . 



Nile, the, xlix., n*. 1. n. 

Nineveh, researches in, 215. 

Nordlendinga fiordung, 134, n*. 

Norfolk, circular churches in, .174. 

Normans, 8, n. 

Normandy, 42, 52. 

Le Hogges in, 195, 196. 

North Bull, cvii. 

Lots, cxix., 248. 

strand, ex. 

wall, 237, ex., cxix. 

Northmen or Danes, 5, 8, 10, 14. 

Conquest of England by, 220. 

Northumbria, 15, 24, n., 25, 26, 27, 
33, 39, 40, 41,43,44,45,51,52, 
57, 60, 61, 64, 65, 66, 68, 69, 70, 
71,79. 

bounds of, 24 ; story of Regnar 

Ladbrog's defeat and death in, 
proved false, 25-27. 

Ivar, King of Dublin, becomes 

King of, 37 j makes Egbert, vice- 
roy of, 39 ; Ivar's brothers, Halfdan 
and Bcegsec, become Kings of, 41 ; 
Bcegsec slain, ib. ; Halfdan appor- 
tions it amongst his followers, 44 ; 
Godfrey, s. of Ivar, becomes K. of, 
48 ; dies A.D. 896, ib. ; his sons re- 
ceived in Northumbria, 5 1 . 
Earldom of, 91. 



Northumberland, 11, 24, 25, 26, 27, 

33, 48, 73, 125. 

Aulaf of Dublin, K. of, 220. 

Norway, lv., lix., Ixxvi., 11, 

15, 25. 

Norwegians, 15, 19, n. 
Norwich, 194, n. 3 
Notes and queries, C. Haliday's 

query in (A.D., 1854), for Captnin 

John Perry's map of 1728, 248, 

n., 249, n. 

Nottingham, William, 218, n. 
Nuadhat, Mogh, 221. 



Oakpiles for foundation of Dublin 

houses, 208. 

Gates, Dr. Titus, Ixvii, n. 
O'Brien [K. Murrough], 221, n. 






O'Brien, Murchard, 93. 

Murtogh, s. of Turlough, K. 

of Dublin, 93. 
Turlough, K. of Ireland, 76, 

93. 

O'Byrnes, The, 164, n. 
"- Gilla Mocholnijg, chief of the, 

132. 
"O'C. E." (W. Haliday, junior), 

Ixxxi. 

O'Callaghan, John Cornelius, 1 28, n*. 
O'Connell, Daniel, xlii. 

his duel with D'Esterre, vii., n. 

anecdote of, concerning the 

secret service money book, xviii. 
O'Connor, K. of Connaught, 188. 
General Arthur Condorcet, 

vi, n., xc. 

Cathal, K. of Connaught, 221. 

Charles, 172, n. 

Owen, ib. 

Ruaidhir, 214, n. 

Turlough, ib. 



O'Curry, Eugene, xcvii, 227, n. 
Odin, 126, 154, n.*, 171, 176, 197. 
Odin-ism, 125, 173, 175. 
O'Donnell escapes across the Shannon 

by a hurdle bridge, (A.D. 1483), 

215. 
O'Donovan, John, LL.D., li, Ixxxi, 

224. 

Offyns, The, Ixxi, n. 
' Ogh,' Virgin, 191,196. 
O'Hara, Colonel Robert, xcv. 
Oirbsen Lough (Lough Corrib), 

82,71. 

Oisle, son of Sitrie Gale, 71, n. 
Oisili, brother of Aulaf, 21. 
Oisin and St. Patrick, Ixii, i. 
O'Kelly, Teige, xlvii., 219. 

Colonel Charles, 128, n.' 

Olaf, Feilan, Iviii, 103. 

Olaf Pa, 108, 109, 110,111,112. 

The Saint, King, 155, n. 

Trygvesson, Ixv, n., 71, n., 80, 

89, 111, 124, 125, 127. 
Olaf, s. of Gudrand, 20, n. 
Olave, s. of Godred, K. of Dublin 

and of Man, 93. 



' Old Shore/Tho, near! -ranee 

on map of ground plan of Chiches- 
ter house (1734), 240, H . 

O'Loghlen, Donald, 93, 

Ollchovar, King of Munster, 31. 

O'Maliony, John, Ixxxi. 

Omar, s. of K. of Denmark, 71, n.* 

O'Neill, see Ui Niall. 

Onund, 101. 

Trefotr, 95. 

Ore, Islands of, 82, n., and see 
Orkneys. 

O'Reilly's English-Irish Dictionary, 
Ixxxiii. 

Orkney isles, liv, Iv, Ixix, xcix, 
15, 102. 

or Northern isles, 113, 114, n., 

156, 157. 

John of The, 149, n. 1 



Ormond, territory of, 17, 214, n. 

James Bottiler, Earl of, 146. 

Thomas, Earl of, 146, n. 

Marquis of, 165, n. 

Marchioness of, 152. 

Duke of, xxxvii, Ixvii, a., 

Ixxvii, n. 

Ormond Market, on site of the Pill, 
212, n. 

Osas, 105. 

Osbright, 26, 30, n., 37. 

Oscytel (or Osketell), 42, 43. 

Oska, 104. 

Oslin, s. of Aulaf the White, 121. 

Ossraighe, 47, n., 65, n. 

Ossory, 23, 66. 

119. 

Bishop of, cviii., n. 

Osten, Mac Aulaf, (see Eystein), 
43. 

Ostmen (or Danes), 232. 

Godfrey, King of the, of Dub- 
lin, 61, n. 

(and see Dublin, Ostmen of), 



4, 10, n. 
Ostmantown, 138, 218, 222, ., 

332. 

of Dublin, Ixix, and n., ib. 

of Waterford, Ixix, n. 

Ost men's grants of land, 186. 
U 



200 



INDEX. 



Ostmen, the Bridge of the, xlvii, lii, 

218. 

gate of the, ib. 

old quarry of the, ib. 

juries of, Ixxii. 

mints of, 186. 

towns, 186, 188. 

cantred of the, at Limerick, 

138. 

cantred of, at Cork, ib. 

cantred of, at Waterford, ib. 



Osulf, Count, 75. 

Cracaban, 53. 

Ota, wife of Turgesiua, 36. 

Other, earl, 52, 

O'Toole, Alice (of kin to Archbishop 

Laurence O'Toole), 192. 
Gilla Chomgail, chief of the, 

132. 

Laurence, Bishop of Dublin, 



the first consecrated at Armagh, 

all others (in Ostmen days) at 

Canterbury, 177. 
Ottar, 53, 57. 
O'Tuathail, see O'Toole. 
Oxmantown Green, 163, n., 223, n., 

(and see Ostmantown), 232. 

enclosed (1664), 248 n. 

lotted for, ib. 

Oxney isle (Kent), 182. 



Pale, the English, 211. 
Palls, the four, 135, 141. 

(or palliums) from the Pope, 

177. 

Palmerston, the Lord, xv, xcvii. 
Pamphlets by C. Haliday, xxxii- 

XXXV. 

Parker, Alex., xli. 
Papa Westra, 99, n. 

Stronsa, 99, n. l 

Papa?, 99. 

of Iceland, liii. 

Pap-ey, 99, n. 1 

Paparo, Cardinal, 136, 141, 177. 

Parry, Rev. John, cviii, n. 

Rev. Edward, D.D., cviii, n. 

Parliament House, 239, and n. ib. 



Parliament House, Lords' entrance 
to, ib. (see Chichester House). 

" Patterns," (for patron's days) 
172, w.3 

Pearsall, R. L., xxvii, xxviii. 

Peel, Isle of Man, 1 1, n. 

Pembroke-quay, xxi. 

Penmon, 87. 

Pennenden Heath, 182. 

Perry, Captain John, cxiv, cvi, cvii. 

" proposals for rendering har- 
bour of Dublin commodious," 
(1720), 249, n. 

his rare map of the harbour, 



with ship canal along Sutton shore 

to avoid the bar (1728), 249, 

and n. ib. 

"Peter pence," 189. 
Petty, Dr. William, Ixxvi, cvi, cvii, 

151, n. 

Petrie, G., LL.D., li, Ixxxiii, 224. 
Pharaohs, the, 1. n. 
Philips, Thomas, his plans and eleva- 

vations of the forts of Ireland, 

(1685), 243. 

his ground plan of Belfast, n. ib. 

Phoenix park, xxi. 

Philip and Mary, K. and Q., 190. 

Picts, 37, 38, 43, 53. 

Irish, 16, 36, 83, 98, n.', 120. 

driven from Ulster to Man 

and the Hebrides, (A.D. 254), 33 ; 

their Ulster lands occupied by 

Cairbre Riada, 84 ; hence called 

Dal Riada. 

the Scottish, 16, 36, 120, 121. 



Pictavia, capital of, 36, 48, 121. 

Pictland, 121, 122. 

Pightland firth, 157, n. 1 

Pigeon House, cxiii-cxvii, cxxii, n., 

238, and see Block-house, 231. 

history of, 231, n. 8 

hotel and dock at, leased to 

government (1790), fort and 

magazine, ib., sold (1814), ib. 
Pigeon-house fort, xxix, xcviii, 

cxviii. 
road, cxv; formed (A.D. 1735), 

237. 



INDEX. 



Pigeon, John, cxvi, 231, n. 3 
Piling of the channel of the Liffey, 

235, ., 238, w. 
Piles, the, pirates gibbeted at, cxxii, 

N., 238, n. 
men flogged for stealing, to. 

two murderers fall from their 

gibbets at, ib. 

their bodies tossed by the waves 



amongst, ib. 

Pill, the, 211, 212. 

Pill-lane, 211. 

Pincerna (or Butler), Theobald 
Walter, 145. 

Pirates gibbeted at south wall, 
cxxii, TO., 238, n. 

removed to the Muglins, be- 
side Dalkey Island. 

Pitt, Right Hon. William, Ixxxix. 

" Plan for advancing the trade of 
Dublin," (1800), 249, n., with 
scheme for ship canal from Dalkey 
or Kingstown to Dublin, 249, n. 

Place names, Danish in England, 
Ixvi. 

in Ireland, Ixvi , Ixvii. 

in Hebrides. 

Plunket, Gerald, (1566), 250, n* 

Poddle river, the, 23, 207, n.* 

Pol gate, 194. 

Pontifices, or company of stone 
bridge builders, 220. 

Poolbeg, cxii., cxiii., 233, 245, n. 

lighthouse, 234, 338. 

Pope Adrian, 184, 187. 

Adrian IV., 190, 191. 

Alexander III., 184, 187, 188, 

189, a. 

Eugenius III., 135, 136. 

Gregory, 171, 172, 175. 

Innocent III., 141, 148. 

Nicholas Breakspeare, 136. 

Paul IV., 190. 

Urban III., 217. 

Porter, Lord Chancellor, i. 

Porte of England and Ireland, defence- 
less (1673), 229. 

Port Erin. 156. 



Port and harbour of Dublin, history 
of, xlv. 

Lairge (Waterford), 65, n, 4 

Portland, 89. 

Portrane, 142. 

Portsmouth, 230. 

Portugal, 117. 

Prince George of Denmark, 247. 

Priscian, xlix, n. 

" Provo' prison," the, ITXJT 

Powerscourt, li. 

in Fercullen, 225. 

Puddle, see Poddle river. 
Pue's Occurrences, 238. 
Pyramids, the, 1, n. 

Radnaldt, 78. 
Rafarta, 101, 120. 
Rafer, 26, ?. 3 , 29, n. s 
Ragnall, son of Aulaf, 80. 

grandson of Ivar, 54, 55, 56, 

57, n. 1 

h-Imair, 85, n. ' 

Mac-hUa Imair, 85. 



Ragenoldus, princeps Nordmanno- 

rum, 60. 

Ragnhild, son of King Eric, 75, n. 
Rallis, the, xcvi. 

Ramsgate harbour dues, xxxix, xl. 
Ranelagh, the lord, xiv, cxvL 
Rangfred, son of King Eric, 75, n* 
Rath, the (near Dublin), 145. 
Breasil, synod of, 140, 177, 

n. 8 
Rathdown, barony of, cviii, n.- 

half barony of, 151, n. 1 

Ratheny, 132, n. 1 

Rathfaruam, 59, n. 

Rafernam, 232, n. (see Rathfarnam). 

Rathfarnam water (the Dodder), 

232, n. 1 

R&thlin, Isle of, 11, n. 1 
Rath Luirigh (Maghera, co. Deny), 

1C. 

Rathmines, Ixxv., xcv. 
Ratoath, 225. 
Raughill, 77. 
Raude, a. of Cellach, 101. 
Rechru (Luinbay), 11. 



292 



1NDKX. 



Red Sea, xlix, w., 1, n. 

Reeves, Rev. W., D.D., Ixvii., ciii., 
11, w a , 19, n. 1 , 84, ?/. 2 , 113, n., 
121, w., 137, n.\ 142, . 2 , 
189, M. 

Regan, Maurice, 184, n. 

Reginald, 68. 

sons of, 62. 

O'Hivar, 85, w. 

. King of the Black and White 

Gentiles, 61. 

King of the Dubhgalls and 

Finngalls, ib., n. 1 

King of the Ostinen of Dub- 
lin, ib., n. 

son of Godfrey, King of Dub- 



lin, 48, 54, 57, 60, 61. 

settles and rules at Waterford, 

55 ; spoils all Minister south of 
the river Lee, ib. ; reprizals of 
the Munster men, ib. ; the Irish, 
under Niall Glundubh, fight the 
battle of Tobar Glethrach, 56; 
Irish defeated, ib. ; Reginald and 
Ottar, from Waterford, invade 
Scotland, 57 ; they are defeated, 
and Ottar is slain, ib. ; Reginald 
attempts Mercia, ib. ; had 
secretly engaged Alfwyn, 
daughter of Etheflced, lady of 
the Mercians, ib. ; K. Edward, 
son of K. Alfred, hinders a 
marriage, ib. ; adds Mercia to 
his kingdom, 58; his death, 60, 
61. 

son of Sitric, 65, 125, n. 1 

brother of Sitric, 85. 

son of King Erie, 75, n. 9 

King of Northumbria, 53. 

son of K. of Man, 86. 

of Waterford, Ixix., n. 

Reginald's tower at Waterford, 
Ixvi, Ixxii. 

Reghnall, s. of Halfdan, 115. 

Regnar Lodbrog (Turgesius), 20, 
22, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 
32, 33, 36, 37, 41, 45, 68, 121, 
154. 



R e 'nar Lodbrog, legend of his capture 
and death, by Ella, King of Nor- 
thumberland, 24, 25; shown fal-i-, 
26, 27 ; story of his taking DuMiu, 
and being put to death by an 
Irish prince, 28, 29 ; captured by 
Maelseachlain, and (under name 
of Turgesius), drowned in Lou^h 
Owel, 31. Turgesius is Turgils 
Latinized, ib. 

Rennie, Sir John, 250. 

Repton, 42, 43. 

Reynolds, Thomas Nugent, Ixxxvii. 

Riada, 84. 

Ridgway, Sir Thomas, cvii., n. 

Rin or Reen's End, 239. 

Rin, rinn, meaning of, 211. 

Rincurran, estimate for fort at, 230. 

Ring, sacrificial, 171, n. 

Ringagonal, 211. 

Ringhaddy, 211. 

Ringsend, cix., cxi., cxii., cxiii., 
cxiv., cxv., cxviii., cxxi., cxxii., 
n., 145, n., 147, 233. 

cars (1699), 232, n. 1 

coaches (1674), 242, n. 

fort of, 228, . a 

harbour projected at (1674), 

242, n. 

mistake as to origin and mean- 
ing of the name, 211, 228, n.*, 
231, and n. ib. 

point, 234, n. 3 , 235, n. 1 , 239, 

241, 242, 245, 248, n. 1 

Roads, ancient Irish, form of, 
226, n. 

Robinson, William, cix., n. 

Sir William, knt., 239, n. 

!!> quo Jean,- cxv, 170, n. 

Rock-lane, 170. 

' Rockers ' (wreckers qu 1), at Pigeon 
House, 231, n> 

Rogers, Samuel, iii. 

Rogerson, Sir John's wall, ex, 
cxviii. 

Sir John, 147, 235. 

Recorder of Dublin, 238, n. 

quay ground, 237. 

his quay, 238. 



298 



Rogerson, Sir John, lease to (1713), ! 

238, n. 

death (1741), ib. 

sale of his quay ground, ib. 

Rognvalldr, 7-"'. 

Roilt (Harald), 64. 

Rollo, King of Normandy, 42, 52, 

n. 4 , 53. 
Rome, 2, n., 91, 123, 128, n. 

Church of, 76, 177, 186. 

See of, 189. 

Romans introduce walled towns in 

Europe, 2. 
Roman bridges in Britain, xlviii. 

wooden, 220. 

Romona Isle, 157. 

Roscrea, xv. 

Ros Meilor, battle of, 50. 

Round towers in Orkney Isles, 

174. 

Route, the, 84, n. z 
Ruaidhri, son of Monnund, 43. 
K. of the Britons, 19, n. 

Ua Cananain, 74. 

Runes, Ix. 

Runymede, 181. 

Rupert, Prince, Sir Bd. de Gomme 

his engineer at Bristol, 230, n. 
Russian hat, 108. 
liuta, see Route, the. 

St. Andrew's Church, Ixxiii., 208. 

Andrew Thengmotha, Church 

of, 178, 179, 183, 191, 193, 198. 

Andrew Thengmote, parish of, 

162. 
- Audoen's Church, 208. 

Augustin, 171. 

Benedict and Company of 



stone bridge builders, 220. 
Brendan, 35. 

Brigit, 66, 134, n. 



(Church of), 176. 

no churches to, by the Scandi- 
navians, 176. 

but to the Virgin Mary, ib. 

no churches to the B. V. M., 



in Ireland, until the example set 
by the Scandinavians, ib. 



St. Bridget, "the Mary of the 

Gaedhill," 176. 
Sancta Brigitha or Brigett 

Suetia, 134, n 1 . 
St. Cianan, 47, n. 

- Clair sur Epte, treaty of, 52. 
Columba, 113. 

Edmund, 41. 

- Edmondsbury Church, 198. 
Ethelred's Church, Noiwich, 

174, . 
James of Compostella, 148. 

- John, 172. 

Joseph, granaries of, L 

Gille, 130. 

Lawrence Nicholas, 186, n. 

Malachy, 135. 

Magnus, 172. 

Mary's Abbey, Ixxii, 132, 71 J , 

146, n. 3 , 244, n. ; ford near, 205, 
212, 221. 

Mary del dam, Church of, 193, 



194. 

del Hogges, 17S, l.n;. 

nunnery of, 191, 194. 

del Ostmanby, 194. 

le Hogges, nunnery of, xxx, 



Ixxiii, Ixxv. 

les Dames, 194. 

Ostmanby (St. Maiy's Abbey, 

Dublin), 177. 

of the Hogges or Mount, 195. 

Church, Bangor, N. Wales, 

176, n. 

Michael, 172. 



Church of, 176. 

del Pol, Church of, 193. 

- Michan's Church, 232. 
Mullin's 55, n. 

Olaf, 97. 

Olave, 172. 

Patrick, 34, 38, 172, i' 

Patrick's Island (near Isle of 

Man), 11, 12. 

Well-hme, 166. 

Paul's Cathedral, zciiL 

Peter's del Hulle, Church of, 



193. 
Quiii tin, Richard, cxxii, n. 



294 



INDEX. 



St. Kuadan (Rodan), 35. 

Saviour's, Friars Preachers of, 

2 2, n. 
Senanus, 38. 

- Stephen's Church, 149. 

- Thomas, Abbey of, 1 64, n., 1 86. 



n. 



register of, xxx. 
chartulary of, 217. 
Abbot of, 164, w. 2 



Sabbath, two accounts of, in Deuter- 
onomy, xx. 

Sagas, Iceland, i., Iviii., lix., lx., 

Ixiii. 

Suggard (co. Dublin), 4, n. 
Sakkara, Pyramids of, 1., n. 
Salt, barony of, co. Kildare, 55, n. 
Saltus Salmonis, 55, n. 
Salmon Leap the, 55, n. 

- at Leixlip, 138, 141. 

- Pool, cxii., 235, 237, 245, n. 
Saiutes, School of, 216, n. 

' Samus,' the Irish sheep dog, 111. 

Sandafels, 104. 

' Sandwith,' The Ship, cxxii., n. 

Sankey, Mrs., cviii., n. 

Santry, James Barry, The Lord, 
212, n. 

Saxons, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11. 

Aulaf, s. of Sitric, slain by, 

128, w. 3 

Charlemagne's enforced con- 
version of, 6 ; fills Saxony with 
priests, ib. ; revolts of the Saxons, 
if> ; Witikind leads bands of them 
to Denmark, ib. and 7 ; Charle- 
magne beheads 4,500 in one day, 
ib. ; his war a crusade, 8 ; clergy 
crowd to his standards, ib. \ the 
fugitive Saxons forced by him out 
of Denmark, ib. and 9 ; the 
Saxons and Danes retab'ate by 
raids on France, 9. 

Scandinavian kings polygamists, 
119. 

Scots, King of the, 60. 

Scottish isles, 113, 120. 

Scotland, William, King of, 187. 



Scuffle, The Dublin (by Jno. Dunton, 

1099), 232, n. 1 

Secret Service Money Book, xvii. 
Senchus-Mor, 1U9. 
Settlement, Act of. 228, 7i. 2 
Severn River, 53. 
Seville, in Spain, 206. 
Shannon, The, 17, n., 24, 69, 85, 87, 

213. 

Shapinshay, Isle of, 159, n. 
Sheehy, Father, xvii. 

depositions concerning, ib. 

Sheep dog, K. Aulaf and the Irish, 

Ixiv., 111. 

Sheemess and Tilbury Fort, 230. 
and Chatham, alarm at, by 

Dutch raid, A.D., 1667, 229. 
Shelburne-place, 193, n. 
Shetland isles, liv., lv., 11. 
Ship-street, 193. 
Ship Canal to Ringsend, by Sutton 

shore, projected by Capt. John 

Perry (1728), 249. 

map of, 249, n. 

from Dalkey or Kingstown to 

Dublin, projected (A.D., 1800), to 

avoid the bar, 349, 350. 
Sigefroi, 6, 9, 10. 

Sigefrid, Sigefrith (Sitric), 46 n., 47. 
Sigurd, Ixv. 
s. of Regnar Lodbrog, 20, n., 

41, n. 

Anguioculus, s. of Regnar 



Lodbrog, 32, n. 

K. son of Magnus Barefoot, 



96. 

Sieve, son of King Eric, 75, n. 

Sigrid, Queen, 127. 

Simmonscourt, 232, n. 1 (alias 
Smoothescourt). 

Sir Patrick Dun's Hospital, col- 
lier wrecked at, 248. 

Sitric, son of Aulaf Cuaran, 78, 79, 
91. 

son of Godfrey, King of Dub- 
lin, 48, 54, 55, n., 57, 58, 60, 
61, 64, 65 ; recovers Dublin, 
54 (lost on his father's death, to 
Cearbhall, son of Muiregan, K. 



INDEX. 



295 



Sitric con. 

of Leinster, 49), wins the battle 
of Confey, co. Kildare, A.D., 918, 
56 ; invades Mercia, 58 ; in his 
absence Niall Glundubh advances 
against the fortress of Ath Cliath, 
ib. ; defended by the sons of Sitric 
and Reginald, ib. ; named Imhar 
and Sitric Gale, 59 ; the battle is 
fought at Kilmashogue, near 
Rathfarnham (17th Oct., 919), 
ib. ', the Irish defeated and Niall 
Glundubh slain, ib. ; called by the 
Irish the battle of Ath Cliath or 
of Cillmosamhog, ib. ; goes to 
Northumbria, 60 ; submits to 
Edmund, ib. ; divides Northum- 
bria with his brother Reginald, 
ib. ; allies himself with Athelstan, 
illegitimate son of Edward, K. of 
Anglo-Saxons, 64 ; marries Athel- 
stan's sister at Tamworth, A.D. 
925, 65 ; is baptized, ib. ; but re- 
lapses, ib. ; dies, A.D. 926, ib. ; 
leaves three sons, Reginald, God- 
frey, and Aulaf, ib. ; K. Athelstan 
ousts them from Northumbria, 
ib. 

son of Ivar, 45 ; with his 

brother Godfrey ravages France, 
46 ; slain by Godfrey, A.D. 885, 
ib. ; marches to Boulogne, ib. ; 
proceeds to Dublin, ib. ; becomes 
king at Dublin, ib. ; throne vacant 
there by Cearbhall's death in A. p. 
855, ib. ; Flann, Cearbhall's 
nephew, claims it, 47 ; is defeated, 
ib. ; Sitric twice ravages North- 
umberland, 48 ; returns to Ire- 
land, A.D. 894, ib. ; is slain in 
fight with other Norsemen, ib. ; 
his two sons, Aulaf and Godfrey, 
ib. ; Aulaf slain in his father's 
lifetime, ib. ; at Sitric's death 
Cearbhall, son of Muiregan, K. of 
Leinster, drives the foreigners 
from Dublin, A.D., 897, 49. 

son of Ivar, 44, n., 45, 46, 21. 

Mac Ivar, 48. 



Sitric grandson of Ivar, 47. 

O'Himar, prince of the new 

and old Danes, 65. 

of Limerick, 20, 21, 22. 

Gale, 58, 71, n. 



Sithfric, son of Sitrick Gale, 71, 

n. 5 
Sitric, founder of Christ Church, 

Dublin, 92. 

sons of, 62, 67. 

K. of Dublin, 85, 87, 124, 

128. 
Skelig, Michel, xcix., liv. 

isle, 12. 

Skerries, IxviL, 138, 139. 

Lighthouse dues, xxxvii. 

rock near Holyhead, xxxvii. 

near Balbriggan, ib., n. 

Skiardbib'rn, 99, n. 8 

Slane, 17, n. 

Slaine (Slane\ 17. 

Slighes (or roads), the Five, to Tara, 

225. 
Slighe Cualann, li., 225 ; crossed the 

Liffey near Dublin, ib. 
Slope of the Chariots (Fan-na-g-car- 

bad) at Tara, 225. 
Smith, Horace and James, vi. 
Smithfield, 232. 
part of Oxmantown-green, 

248, n. 

enclosed, 1664, ib. 

lots for, ib. 



Smoothescourt (alias Symons-court), 

232, n\ 

Smyth, Sir Samuel, cvii., n. 
Snojbiorn, 100. 
Snamh Eidneach (Carlingford), 19, 

135, n* 

Snorri, Iviii, 106. 
Soarbes, 9. 
Soder (Sudreyar), and Man, 114, n. f 

See Sudreyar. 
Somerville, Sir William, bart., xliv., 

n. 
South Bull, cxiv., 234, 236. 

lots, 231, n., 248. 

strand, sale of Sir J. Rogerson'a 

lease of, 1744, 238, n. 



296 



INDEX. 



South wall, cxxii, n. (alias Ballast 
Office-wall, Pigoou House wall, 
Lighthouse- wall, mall, or jettie), 
238, n. 

completed, 1790, ib., 233. 

breach in, A.D. 1792, 231, n. 

Duke of Leinster shoots breach, 

in his yacht, and lands at Merrion- 
square, ib. 

Southwell glen, 59, n. 1 

Southwell, Sir Robert, iii. 

Spain, the Moors of, 114, 115, 116, 
117. 

Spanish ship captured by French 
privateer near bar of Dublin bay, 
243. 

Speed, 240, n., 248, n. 
map of Dublin (1610), 240, n. 

shows a " pill " from Liffey 

running up to peers' entrance, ib. 

Stadr, 135, n. 1 

Stamford bridge, 90. 

Standing stones by Odin's order for 
brave men, 154, n. 8 

Standish, James (1657), 240. 

Stane or Stanes in Kent, in Hants, 
in Essex, in Herts, in Hereford, 
in Bucks, in Worcester, in North- 
ampton, enumerated, 182. 

Staneford (Northamptonshire), 182. 

Stanhogia, 195. ' 

Stayn, 145 ; and see Stein. 

Steyne, the, Ixxiii., Ixxiv., Ixxvi. 

of Dublin, 143, 144, 145, 146, 

148, 149, 151, 159, 160, 163, 164, 
176, 178, 181, 183. 

the Long Stone of the, 150, 

179 ; and see Long Stone. 

the river of the, 1 49. 

bridge of, 150. 

mill of, 150. 

the port of, Ixxvi. 

Great Steyne, 146, n. 1 

the Little Steyne, 146, n. 

Steinsnessi, 157, n., 157, 158, 159, 
164, 167, 170, 174, 176, 178. 

Steinraud, a of Maelpatrick, 101. 

Steiuraud stad, 101, n. 4 

Ster (in Mun-ster,<fec.), for stadr, 1 35. 



Stephen's-green, cxxii., n., 149, 163, 
7i., 161, 168, 170, n. 

enclosed (1663), 248, n. 

built upon, ib. 

lotted for, ib. 

Stokes, Gabriel (1734), 246, n. 

William, Ixxxiii. 

Stone, the Long, 150, 179. 

the black, of Odin, 159. 

Stonybatter, 222, 225, n. 226. 

Story, "War of Ireland," 241, n. 

Strand, see North Strand. 

of the Liffey, 147. 

Strangfiord, Ixvii. 

Strangford Lough (see Lough Cuan), 
94, 64, 137. 

Strath Clyde, Britons of, 38, 43, 60. 

Oluaide or Strathctyde (Dum- 
barton), 39, n. 

Strongbow, 93, 132, n. 9 , 145, 184, 
185, 188, 221. 

Sturla Thordson, Ivii, n. 

Sturleson Snorro, 155, n. 1 

Sturlunga saga, Ivii., n. 

Suabia, xxviii. 

Sudreyar (Southern Isles or Hebri- 
des), 114, ri 1 . 

Suez (Clysma), 1., n. 

Suffolk, circular churches in, 1 74. 

street, 162, 155. 

Suibhne, abbot, xlix., n. 

Sunnlendinga fiordung, 134, n.' 

Sutherland, liii. 

Sutton creek, cvii. 

shore, the, ship canal to 
Ringsend along, projected by 
Captain John Perry (1728), 249, 
and note ib.; to avoid the bar, ib.; 
map of, ib. 

Swanscomla (Swine's or Sweine's 
camp), 182. 

Swedes, 15. 

Sweden, xxvi. 

Swen, son of Knut, 41, n. 

Swein, 181, 182. 

Switzerland, 8, 1. 

Swords, town of, 142. 

Scandinavian, 155, n. 1 

inhabitants of the crossof, 205. 



I.NDEX. 



297 



Taaffe, Wmiam, 146. 
Talbot, Lord, xcvii. 
Tara, 1, li., Ixii., 2, 3, n. 

- history of, 224, 227. 

- hill of, .map of monuments 
of restored, 225, w. a 

The Five Slighes or roads to in 



the tirst century, 225. 
Taylor, Philip Meadows, xli. 
Teamhair, 17. 
Teigmote, 162, 175. 
Temple town, parish of, cxxii., n. 
Terry glass (see Tir-da-glas). 
Thame river (Bucks), 182. 
Thames, 227. 

- works for defence of, A.D., 
1667, 230. 

Thebai'd, li, re., liv. 

Thebaud, John, Ixxi., n. 

Theodosius, Emperor, xlix., n. 

Thetford, 41. 

Things or Tings (and see Court-Thing, 

House-Thing, Althing), 159, 160. 
Thinghoge, hundred of, 198. 
Thinghow, 198. 
Thingmote of Dublin, 162, 164, 170, 

185, 186, 187. 
Thingmotha, in parish of St. Andrew 

Thingmote. 162, 166. 

- church of Saint Andrew, 178, 
198. 

Thingmount of Dublin, lxxii.,lxxiii., 
Ixxiv., 164, 168, 169, 170, 171, 
190, 156, 158, 159, 161, 163, 176, 
178, 191, 197. 

- at Upsala, 176. 
Thing-place, 175. 
Thing vollr, 161, 176. 
Thingwall, 156. 

- Mount, 158, 175. 
Tholsel, The, 179, n. 

Thomas Court Dublin, 217, n., see 
Saint Thomas's Abbey. 

- Captain F. W., R.N., Ixvi., n., 
174, n. 

- Court Abbey, Register of, xlvii. 
Thor, 67, 123, 125, 126, 127, 128, 

129,131,157,158,172,175,176, 
178. 



Thorsman, 31, 32, 62. 
Thor's hammer sign, 125, n. fl 
Thors Rolf, 31, n. 
Thora, 103, 132. 

d. of Sigurd, 20, n. 

Thorar, 106. 
Thorbiorn, 105, 106. 
Thordus Geller, 103. 

married to Fridgerda, 102. 

married to Theoldhilda, 102. 

Thordis, 105. 
Thorer, 98. 

Thorgerda, 104, 108, n. 3 
Thorgils, 96. 

(Turgils), 31, 96, 130. 

Thorgil for Thorketil, 130, n. 4 

Thorgrim, 104, 101. 

Thorkell, 130. 

Thorkelin, Grimr. Johnson, 107, n., 

Ill, . 
Thorketil by contraction Thorgil, 

130,w. 
Thonnodr, 31. 

Gamli, 104. 

Keltie, 104. 

Thorncastle, 228, n. a 

Thorodd, 106. 

Thorolf, Morstrarskegg, Iviii, 103, 

104. 
Thorstein, The Red, IviL, Iviii., 102, 

104, 108, 120, 49. 
Thor-stein, or Thor's stone, 126, n., 

159. 

Thorskabitr, Iviii. 
Thorstein, Thorskabitr, 103. 
Thorwald, Eric son, 107, n.' 
Thrandus, Mioksiglandi, 102. 
Thule (Iceland), 98, n. 1 
Thurgot, Simon, Ixviii. 
. Johannes, 162, n.' 
Thurida, 105, 106, 107, 120. 
Tburles, Viscount, xxxvii., n. 
Thyra, Danebot, daughter of King 

Edward, 51, n., 62, 65, n. 
Tib and Tom, 169. 
Tidal Harbours Commissioners, 

xliiL, 237. 
report, 231, n. 1 



298 



INDEX. 



Tidal Harbour Commissioners 

Second Report of, with account 

of Captain John Perry and his 

projects, 249, n. 
Tigh-Moling, 55, w. 1 
Tilbury fort, 230. 
Timolin, see Tigh-Moling. 
Ting, Law Ting, 161. 
Tinghoges, 197. 
Tingoho, 198. 
Tingoha, 198. 
Tingwall, in Isle of Man, 161, 166, 

169. 

Tipperary, 35. 

Tir-da-glas (Terry glass), 34, 65. 
Tochars, or causeways over rivers, 

214, 221, 223. 
Todd, Rev. Dr. J. Henthom, 4, n., 

19, 7i., 20, n., 34, 59, n., 82, n., 

152, n., 219,w. 
Tolka, the river, 232, n. 1 
Tomar, or Thorsman, for Turgesius, 

or Regnar Lodbrog, 31, 32. 

chieftain of, 32. 

race of, 32. 

ring of, 32, 126,128. 

people of, 32. 

wood of, 32. 

Tomhvair, 31. 

Tomar, MacElcli, 32,62, 63, 67. 

Tone, Theobald Wolfe, Ixxix. 

Tostig, Earl, 90. 

Tooke, Home, vi. 

Topographical antiquities of Great 

Britain and Ireland, 249, w. 
Topsham, xxviii. 
Tor Einar, 75. 
Toro, 67, n. 
Torolbh, Earl, 67. 

Tormentors, two, of iron, for dredg- 
ing (1708), 234, n 2 . 
Torsager (Tor's field), or Jutland, 

175. 
Townsend-street, 146, 147, 146, 151, 

239, 242, 247. 
Trench, William, xxxvii. 
Trian Corcaigh, abbot of, 1 3, n. 
Trinity, Holy, Church of (see Christ 

Church), 92, n., 221, n., 222. 



Trinity College, 145, n., 147, 150, 
165, n., 219. 

tide flowed up to, in a storm 

(1670), 248. 

Trinity House Brethren, Corporation 
of, xxxviii. 

Trinity-street, xciv., 196, n. 

Trondhjem. See Drontheim. 

Trousseau, Dr., x. . 

Tryggve, Olafson K., 96. 

Tuam, Archbishop of, 188. 

Archbishopric of, 135, n. 

Tuatha de Danann, 82, n. 

Tuatal, s. of Fearadhac, 16. 

Tubbar Brighde, 172, n 3 . 

Muire, 172, n 3 . 

Tunstal, Francis, cxvii., 231, n. 3 

Mrs., ib. 

Tunstal's hotel, cxvii. 

Turgesius, Ixvi., 18, 22, 23, 30, 31, 
33, 34, 35, 134. 

Turgeis, 32, 34, 134. 

Turgesius (and see Regnar Lodbrog), 
a Norwegian, 18, the first con- 
quering settler, ib. ; the Irish for 
Thorgils, 31 ; supposed to be 
Regnar Lodbrog, ib. ; his capture 
and drowning in Lough Owel, ib. ; 
meaning of Thorgils discussed, 
ib. ) his descendants called in 
Irish ' the race of Tomar,' 32. 
Rev. Dr. Todd's account of the 
aims of Turgesius, 33, 36. 

Turvey, Barnewalls of, Viscounts 
Kingsland. See Kingsland. 

Tyrone, Marcus Beresford, Earl of, 
xciv., n. 

Tyrone House, xciv. 

Ui Maine, 66, n., 214, n. 

Uathinharan, 63, n., 85, and n., ib. 

Ubi, brother of King Ivar, 37, n. 

Ugaire, King of Leinster, 56. 

Uaill Caille, 17. 

Uailsi (see Oisile), 21, n. 

Ui Ceinnsealaigh (O'Kinshelas), 16. 

Fidhgeinte, 1 7. 

Niall, 18, 23, 24, 56, 80, n. 

Uisuech, the children of, 80, n. 



INDEX. 



299 



Uladh-ster (Ulster), 134, 135. 
Ulf, 37, n., 52. 

Skialgi, 102, 105, n. 

Ulfrick'a fiord (Lame Lough), Ixvii., 

115, 137, n. 
Ulidia, the King of, 59. 
Ulidians (Ulster men), 16, 67. 
Ulster, 82, n., 86. 

creaghting in, 210, . 

De Courcy, Earl of, 93, n. 8 

K. of, celebrated bridge builder, 

A.D. 739, 223. 

navy of, 54. 

Scandinavians of, 54. 

Unihall, in Mayo, 15. 

Upper, barony of Muriisk, ib., n. 

Lower, barony of Borrishool, 

ib, n. 

Unst, island of, 161. 
Upsala, 171, 176, 197. 
Urr, isle of, mount at, 162. 
Usher, Archbishop, 84, n*. 
Usher's Island, 222, n. 
Usher, John, drowned in crossing 

the Dodder ford, 232, n 1 . 

Sir Wm., cxxi. 

son of Mr. John, 232, n, 1 

Vallancey, 207. 

Valland, people of, 95, n. 

Valscra, 95, n. 

Van Homrigh, Mr. 234, n. ; his 

house, 235, n. 
Vartry Waterworks, xcviii. 
Vatnsfiord, 100. 
Vaughan, Edward, xv. 
Vavasour, Counsellor (1792), 242, n. 
Vekell (Holy Kettle), 130, n. 
Vereker, Henry, xliv., xlv. 
Vernon, Mr. (of Clontarf), 237. 
Verstegan, Richard, Ixxiii. 
Vestfirdinga fiordung, 134, n. 
Vidalin. Paul, 144, n. 
' Vig,' the Irish Sheep Dog, 111. 
Vigfusson and Cleasby, 129, n., 130, 

n., 134, n., 135, n., 155, n., 157, 

n., 160, n. 
Vik, a bay, 135, n. 
Vikia, 33, n, 



Vilbald, 101. 

Vivian, Cardinal, 93, n., 188. 

Wales, Grufudd, K. of, 123. 

Howel Dhu, K. of, 69. 

89, 96, 3, n. 28, 29. 

North, 165, n. 

South, 53. 

West, 58. 

Walls of Dublin, 204, and n. i6. 

Walling-in of Liflfey, cxvii. 

Walsh, Robert, Ixix., n. 

Sir Robert, IxviiL, n. 

Sir James, ib. 

Walstan, Archbishop, 73. 

Walter, s. of Edric, IxviiL 

Theobald, 144, 145. 

Warburton, Elliot, 230, n. 

Ware, Sir James, xxiv., xxx., n., xci., 
21, n., 76, n., 92, n., 124, n., 125, 
n., 154, ., 206, 226. 

Robert, 178, n. 

Colonel, xci. 

Wartenau, Chateau de, xxvii. 

Washington, Captain, R.N., xliii., 
xliv., xlv., cxvi 

Report, Tidal Harbours Com- 
missioners, 237. 

Waterfiord, IxviL 

Waterford, Ixv., Ixvi., Ixix., Ixx. 

city of (and see Loch Daech- 

aech), 3, n., 4, n., 20, 21, 53, 55, 
65, n., 87, 137, 177, n., 186. 
Danes build a stronghold at, 



A.D. 912, 53. 

river, cxxii., n. 

Synod of, 187. 



Watson, Mr., Mayor of Dublin (A.D. 

1637), 232, H.\ 
Weald Hall, Essex, Patent of 27th 

Elizabeth dated at, 246, n. 
Wednesday, or Wodin (i.e., Odin's) 

Day, 174. 
Welsh, of Brittany, 53. 

of Cornwall, 28. 

of Wales, 28. 

of the North, 53. 

Wells, Holy, 172. 
Welch, Richard, xcvi., ciii. 



300 



INDEX. 



Wenix, the picture by, xciv. 

WiM-burgh-street, xcii. 

Wcrcmouth, 11. 

Wessex, 42, 47, 57. 

Western Isles (see Hebrides), 15. 

Westmanni, 100, n. 

Westmanna-Eyar, 100, n. 

Westmen, 95. 

Westinen's Isles, Ivii., n. 

Westmorland, 24, n, 

Westmoreland-street, Ixxiv., xciii., 
240, n. 

West Saxons, 52. 

West Welch, of Brittany and Corn- 
wall, 95, n. 

Wexfiord, Ixvii. 

Wexford, 137. 

town of, 3, 64, n.\ 222, n. 

Wharton, Earl (1709), lands at 
Ringsend, 241, n. 

White Book of City of Dublin, 

XXV. 

Whitworth-bridge, 226, n. 
Wicklow,l38. 

co., Fercullen in, 225. 

Wigfert, 13, n. 
Wiking, William, Ixviii. 
Wikinglo (Wicklow), 138. 
William, s. of Godwin, Ixviii. 

s. of Gudmund, ib. 

s. of Ketill, ib. 

Willis, Dr., of Ormond-quay, xix. 



Windsor, Staines near, 180. 

Treaty of (A.D. 1173), 188. 

Wiiuburn, 51. 

Winetavern-street, xlvi., 203, 208. 

gate, 223, n. 

Witikind, 6, 7, 9, n., 10, 14. 

Wodin, or Odin, 174. 

Wood-quay, 203, and n., ib., 204. 

Woodward, Humphry Aldridge, 
Ixxvii. 

Woolwich, nine ships sunk at, to 
bar the Dutch, 1667, 229. 

Worthing (co. Norfolk), 174, n. 

Writing, introduction of, into Ice- 
land, lix., lx., Ixi. 

into Ireland, ib. 

Wykinlo, Ixvii. 

Yarranton, Andrew (1677), 242, 

243. 

Yellow-batter, 222, n. 
Yioletide, 173. 
Yuletide, 183. 
Yiolner, feast of, 173. 
York, 24, 37, 38, 48, 60, 68, 76. 
capture of, by the Danes, A.D. 

869, 115, n. 3 

the Danish capital of North- 



umbi-ia, 

Zekerman, Andrea, cxxii., n. 
Zetland, 157, n. 



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