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I  A.  J.  COLE 


BRANCH, 

UNIVL.i.  .iPORNIA, 

LIBRARY, - 

lLOS  ANGC.LE.S.  UAUF. 


IRELAND 
THE     OUTPOST 


BY 


GRENVILLE  A.  J.  COLE 

F.R.S.,  M.R.I.A, 

AUTHOR  OF  'IRELAND,  THE  LAND  AND  THE  LANDSCAPE' 
'THE  GROWTH  OF  EUROPE*,  ETC. 


'For  it  is  a  boterasse  and  a  poste.' 
Libelle  of  Englyshe  Polycye,  1436. 


OXFORD   UNIVERSITY   PRESS 

LONDON        EDINBURGH        GLASGOW        NEW  YORK 
TORONTO    MELBOURNE    CAPE  TOWN    BOMBAY 

HUMPHREY  MILFORD 
1919 


58615 


224 


xT) 
r^ 


PREFACE 


THE  essay  that  follows  is  based  on  two  lectures  given 
n  the  summer  school  of  University  College,  Aberystwyth, 
in  1917,  and  on  a  lecture  to  the  Irish  Geographical  Associa- 
tion in  Dublin  in  1919.    It  is  an  attempt  to  regard  Ireland 
as  the  outpost  of  a  larger  region,  from  which  her  people 
x    and  her  civilization  have  been  derived  in  successive  and 
^    overlapping  waves.    The  study  of  natural  surroundings, 
vX!i  and  of  their  action  on  various  groups  of  organisms,  is 
the  true  field  of  the  geographer,  who  hopes  in  time  to 
break  the  barrier  that  has  been  set  in  university  courses 
between  the   sciences   and  the   arts.     Our  educational 
j."  systems  have  long  been  controlled  by  the  '  left,  right, 
left,  right '  of  classical  and  mathematical  drill-sergeants, 
and  much  that  is  intensely  human  has  remained  foreign 
to  ourselves.    A  realization  of  the  physical  structure  of 
Ireland,  and  of  her  position  as  the  outpost  of  Eurasia, 
c^'   may  lead  to  a  wider  comprehension,  not  only  of  the 
>s   land,  but  of  its  complex  population.     The  geographer 
•4,  borrows  from  the  geologist,  and  he  owes  an  equal  debt 
^  to    the    anthropologist    and    the    historian.      However 
localized  his  theme  may  be,  he  must,   through  inter- 
course and  travel,  maintain  his  outlook  on  the  larger 
world.     The  sections  of  this  essay  are  not  intended  to 
furnish    a    continuous    history    of    the    outpost ;     they 
illustrate  from  various  points  of  view,  now  bounded  by 
a  territorial  horizon  and  now  of  wider  scope,  the  influence 
of  geographic  conditions  on  the  current   of  affairs  in 
Ireland.    If  the  presentation  is  a  true  one,  the  nine  sections 

A  2 


4  PREFACE 

should  lead  to  one  conclusion  ;  but  I  would  ask  the  reader 
to  draw  that  conclusion  for  himself. 

Ireland  has  lain  in  the  path  of  great  migrations,  from 
Berber  Africa,  from  the  mouths  of  Frisian  rivers,  from 
the  viks  and  fjords  of  the  sterner  northlands.  From  her 
own  drowned  valleys,  the  harbours  that  knew  the  ships 
of  Gades  and  of  Gaul,  her  people  have  moved  westward 
and  linked  the  old  world  with  the  new.  At  times  she 
catches  the  light  that  floods  across  from  Europe,  and  adds 
to  its  brightness  the  ardent  glow  of  her  response.  At 
times  the  sea-mist  gathers  along  her  mountain-barriers, 
and  she  sinks  back  into  the  haze  of  the  Atlantic,  elusive 
as  the  Fortunate  Isles. 

G.  A.  J.  C. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

I.    IRELAND  ON  THE  GLOBE        ,          .          .          ,  7 

II.    THE  FOUNDATIONS  OF  THE  OUTPOST  .         .  u 

III.  THE  PEOPLING  OF  IRELAND          '.          .          .  23 

IV.  IRELAND  AND  THE  ROMAN  WORLD      .          .  34 

V.    THE  HARBOURS  OF  THE  NORTHMEN  AND 

THE  NORMANS      .          .         .       .  .       ^ .         .  39 

VI.    THE  BARRIER  OF  LEINSTER  AND  THE  IRISH 

PLAIN    .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .  44 

VII.    UPLANDS  OF  THE  NORTH      .          .          .   '\  56 

VIII.    THE  ARMORICAN  RANGES  OF  THE  SOUTH  .  65 

IX.    EXITS    AND    ENTRANCES.      THE    RAILWAY 

MAP  OF  IRELAND         .          .*•... «      .  71 

X.    EPILOGUE         ,         .         ...         .'        .         .  76 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

Fig.   i.    The  Central  Plain  of  Ireland,  from  Slieve  Bawn 

near  Strokestown     .          .          .          .       Facing  p.     12 

Fig.  2.    Ben  Bulben,  Co.  Sligo.    Limestone  scarps  and  peat- 
covered  lowland      .  .          .       ^.          .       Facing  p.     12 

Fig.  3.    The  Wicklow  coast  south  of  Bray  Head     Facing  p.     46 

Fig.  4.     The  site  of   Dublin,  from  the  north  end   of  the 

Leinster  Chain          .-        ,          .          .       Facing  p.     46 

Fig.  5.    The  Devil's  Glen,  in  the  foot-hills  of  the  Leinster 

Chain      .          ,.         *.         ,          „••        .        Facing  p.     58 

Fig.  6.     In  the  highlands  of  Tirconnell,  looking  north-east- 
ward towards  Glen  Beagh          .          .        Facing  p.     58 

Fig.  7.    The  Curlew  Hills  from  the  north-west,  with  drum- 

lins  in  the  lowland  -.       •  .          .        Facing  p.     68 

Fig.  8.     In  the  Kerry  highlands.     Gap  of  Dunloe    Facing  p.     68 
The  illustrations  are  from  photographs  by  the  author. 


MAPS 

PAGE 

1.  Ireland  in  relation  to  Great  Britain  and  north-western 

Europe         •  .          .          ..     '    . •'       .          .       •    .          .       20 

2.  The  Leinster  Chain  and  the  gates  of  eastern  Ireland      .       45 

3.  The  Northern  Uplands  and  the  relations  of  Ireland  with 

Scotland         .         ..          .          *          .    .      .          .          .       57 

4.  The  Armorican  ranges  of  the  south      .       ^ .          .          .       66 

These  maps  contain  the  names  of  practically  all  the  Irish 
places  mentioned  in  the  text. 


IRELAND  THE   OUTPOST 

I.    IRELAND  ON  THE  GLOBE 

NATURE  allows  no  '  self-determination  '  to  any  point 
on  the  surface  of  the  globe.  An  isolated  volcanic  peak 
rising  from  oceanic  depths  is  washed  by  a  stream-current 
that  conforms  at  its  place  of  origin  to  continental  shores. 
It  is  swept  by  winds  that  can  be  traced  into  the  trade- 
zones,  or  perhaps  to  the  whirls  of  air  around  the  poles. 
A  patch  of  desert  in  the  centre  of  a  continent,  where  the 
streamlets,  as  mere  intruders,  die  away  in  deltas  of 
brown  sand,  leads  our  thoughts  along  the  ravines  and 
across  the  hill-crests  to  fertile  lands  that  feel  the  rain. 
The  study  of  a  limited  area  may,  for  scholastic  reasons, 
be  carried  outwards  from  the  homestead  to  the  globe  ; 
but  to  comprehend  the  homestead  and  its  home-folk, 
from  the  thatch  of  the  roof  to  the  colour  of  the  children's 
hair,  we  must  find  the  locality  on  the  domed  surface  of 
the  earth,  and  must  realize  that  this  earth  is  a  very  large 
and  dominant  region  round  it.  In  fact,  if  we  start  from 
the  house  and  come  full  circle  round  the  globe,  we  shall 
have  gone  25,000  miles  before  we  reach?  its  door  again. 

The  text-books  will  tell  us  that  Ireland  lies  between  Location 
certain  parallels  of  latitude  and  certain -lines  of  longitude 
on  the  surface  of  this  great  rotating  ball.  A  true  picture 
of  the  earth  should,  then,  always  stand  near  us,  a  globe 
and  not  a  map.  The  old  masters,  who  loved  emblems 
in  their  art,  placed  a  skull  beside  the  religious  and  a  globe 
beside  the  philosopher ;  the  latter,  whatever  his  future 
outlook,  could  at  any  rate  appreciate  the  fullness  of  the 
earth.  We  may  do  well,  then,  to  regard  from  outer  space 
the  position  of  Ireland  on  the  globe. 


8  IRELAND  THE  OUTPOST 

(Ireland  is  seen  to  be  an  island,  lying  farther  north  than 
Newfoundland,  but  set  on  the  warm  side  of  the  Atlantic. 
The  prevalent  winds  from  the  south-west,  themselves 
warmed  by  passing  over  water  not  far  from  the  limits 
of  the  Gulf  Stream,  push  forward  a  body  of  this  water 
as  a  drift-current  that  spreads  into  the  arctic  seas.     In 
our  summer,  the  marine  ice  melts  back  as  Jar  as  Spits- 
bergen, and  the  whole  western  edge  of  Europe  gains 
warmth  from  the  region  of  the  Azores.    Storms  may  beat 
and  rain  may  fall  somewhat  freely  on  the  Atlantic  shores 
The         of  Ireland,  but  there  is  much  to  be  said  for  her  uniform 
climate,  despite  her  variable  weather.    The  whole  island 
is  affected  by  changes  of  pressure  that  take  place  over 
the  borderlands  of  the  European  continent,  and  these 
lead  to  frequent  disturbances  of  the  general  flow  from 
the    south-west.      Prolonged    storms,    connected    with 
Atlantic  cyclones,  or  fine  episodes  lasting  over  two  or 
three  weeks,  may  occur  in  any  month  of  the  year,  and 
this  uncertainty  of  conditions  imparts  a  sporting  character 
*"to    the    agricultural    operations    that     are    the    main 
industry  of  the  country.     On  the  other  hand,  man  is 
never  driven  from  his  homestead  by  a  succession  of  arid 
seasons  or  by  the  long  persistence  of  inundations.    Some 
"  of  the  wettest  lowlands  will  feed  abundant  cattle  for  the 
export  trade.     The  peat-bogs  that  developed  when  the 
rainfall  was  greater  than  at  the  present  day  are  now 
drying  and  cracking  on  the  upland  areas,  and  are  being 
reduced  greatly  by  the  sweeping  winds.    Where  they  are 
less  exposed,  as  on  the  surface  of  the  great  limestone 
^  plain,  they  furnish  a  cheap  and  easily  won  fuel.     With 
a  roof  above  him  for  shelter  in  the  days  of  storm  (fig.  6), 
the  peasant  may  be  tolerant  of  the  climatic  conditions 
even  in  Kerry  or  the  west  of  Galway ;    he  needs  no 
rainbow  to  assure  him   that  the   sun  will  ultimately 


IRELAND  ON  THE  GLOBE  9 

shine.  With  a  house  that  he  can  call  his  own,  and  a  few 
acres  of  land  round  it,  he  may  continue  to  live  simply, 
but  may  be  at  once  content  and  prosperous.  The  general 
mildness  of  the  Irish  climate  has  probably  been  an 
attraction  to  discoverers  and  invaders,  accustomed  to 
long  months  of  drought  in  lands  south  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean, or  to  rain-drifts  that  turned  to  snow  against  the 
Scandinavian  hills.  Even  the  east  winds  that  occasionally 
sweep  over  Europe  from  the  steppes  are  broken  and  kept 
from  Ireland  by  the  mountainous  west  of  Britain.  North 
winds  are  frequent  on  the  Ulster  coast,  and  bring  sudden  ^ 
changes  of  temperature  down  to  the  plairtland  of  Kildare, 
such  changes  being  especially  noticeable  in  the  months 
of  May  and  June.  On  the  other  hand,  the  general  moist 
warmth  of  the  south-western  counties  is  often  oppressive 
to  the  stranger,  and  exerts  a  restraining  influence  on  the 
activities  of  a  tall,  well  built,  and  intelligent  population. 

Though  Ireland  has  its  own  characteristics,  the  island  Relation 
is  by  no  means  isolated.  Just  as  the  Lofotens  are  part  of  °0  Eura- 
Norway,  the  British  Isles  are  part  of  the  drowned  coast  sia<  * 
of  Eurasia.  Europe,  omitting  Russia,  is  a. small  north- 
western offshoot  of  the  continental  mass  that  stretches 
from  the  Iberian  plateaus  to  the  mountainous  salient  of 
Shantung.  The  great  lines  of  structure  that  were  developed 
in  the  broad  region  of  Asia  in  Cainozoic  times  can  be 
followed  into  the  promontory-lands  of  Europe.  In  the 
far  west,  these  lands  converge,  as  it  were,  on  Ireland, 
which  is  thus  the  last  outpost  of  Eurasia  against  the 
oceanic  depths  of  the  Atlantic.  The  structural  axes 
traced  from  Asia  into  Europe  run  on  into  the  outpost, 
and  the  fact  that  it  is  an  island,  and  its  proximity  to  the 
larger  island  of  Great  Britain,  are  the  two  fundamental 
geographic  influences  on  the  course  of  Irish  history. 


io  IRELAND  THE  OUTPOST 

TABLE  OF  DIVISIONS  (ERAS  AND  PERIODS) 
OF  GEOLOGICAL  TIME 

QUARTARY  OR  QUATERNARY  ERA. 

RECENT.    The  Irish  land-area  becomes  finally  an  island. 
GLACIAL.     The  Ice-age. 

CAINOZOIC  OR  TERTIARY  ERA. 

PLIOCENE.    The  Irish  area  is  terrestrial,  with  insular  tendencies 

at  the  close. 

MIOCENE.     Formation  of  the  Alpine  Chains. 
OLIGOCENE.     Volcanic  period  in  the  region  of  north-eastern 

Ireland  and  the  Hebrides. 
EOCENE.     The  Irish  area  is  terrestrial. 

MESOZOIC  ERA, 

CRETACEOUS.    The  Chalk  sea  invades  the  Irish  area. 
JURASSIC.    The  Lower  Jurassic  sea  invades  the  northern  Irish 

area. 
TRIASSIC.      Semi-arid   period   in   the   Irish  area.     Extensive 

denudation  of  Armorican  land. 

PALAEOZOIC  ERA. 
PERMIAN.     Limited  marine  invasion   in   the   northern   Irish 

area. 
CARBONIFEROUS.      Deposition   of   the   grey   limestone   in   an 

extensive  sea,  followed  by  an  uplift  allowing  of  the  spread 

of    coal-forests.     'At   close,   formation   of   the   Armorican 

Chains: 
DEVONIAN.     Semi-arid  continental  period  in  the  Irish  area. 

Formation  of  the  Old  Red  Sandstone  during  extensive 

denudation  of  the  Caledonian  land. 
GOTLANDIAN  (UPPER  SILURIAN).     Marine  deposits.     At  close, 

formation  of  the  Caledonian  Chains. 
ORDOVICIAN  (LOWER  SILURIAN).    Marine  deposits. 
CAMBRIAN.    Marine  deposits  in  the  eastern  Irish  area. 

PRE-CAMBRIAN  ERA. 

Altered  marine  sediments  and  crystalline  igneous  rocks,  now 
found  remoulded  and  worked  up  into  the  Caledonian 
Chains. 


II 


II.    THE  FOUNDATIONS  OF  THE  OUTPOST 

IN  the  north-east  of  the  county  of  Antrim,  an  antique 
group  of  gnarled  and  crumpled  rocks,  including  highly 
altered  sediments  and  granites,  has  been  exposed  by  the 
removal  of  the  basaltic  lavas  and  the  chalk.  In  the 
county  of  Londonderry,  and  still  more  conspicuously  as 
we  go  westward  into  Donegal,  the  same  group  forms 
a  great  part  of  the  country.  The  trend  of  the  earth- 
folds  in  .this  area  is  north-east  and  south-west ;  if  we 
follow  this  trend  from  the  sea-board,  it  leads  us  to  the 
Grampian  Hills  and  to  the  Great  Glen  that  provides 
a  waterway  across  Scotland  (map  3).  We  pass  on  into 
Europe,  and  the  same  lines  of  structure  are  at  once 
apparent  in  the  snow-capped  backbone  of  Scandinavia 
(map  i). 

We  have  here,  in  these  highly  altered  and  crystalline  The 
masses,  the  relics  of  a  great  continent  that  once  stretched 
across  to  Canada,  in  what  is  called  the  Devonian  period, 
when  fishes  were  the  dominant  creatures  in  lakes  and 
seas,  and  when  nothing  much  more  noble  than  a  scorpion 
moved  upon  the  surface  of  the  land.  This  Devonian 
continent  has  been  styled  '  Caledonian  ',.  on  account  of 
the  control  exercised  by  its  system  of  folding  on  the 
structure  of  the  Scottish  highlands. 

The  heather-clad  ridge  of  Slieve  Camph  or  the  Ox 
Mountains,  and  the  pallid  domes  of  Mayo  and  Connemara, 
worn  by  frost  and  rain  out  of  ancient  and  resisting  sand- 
stones, are  a  portion  of  this  continental  mass.  Throughout 
the  west  of  Ireland,  extensive  intrusions  of  granite  have 
still  further  emphasized  the  moorland  character  of  the 
uplands,  and  in  the  south-west  a  huge  granite  bar,  which 
oozed  in  its  former  molten  state  into  one  of  the  north- 


12  IRELAND  THE  OUTPOST 

easterly  upfolds,  has  weathered  out  as  the  axis  of  the 
Leinster  Chain  (map  2).  On  its  flanks,  the  remains  of 
the  long  arch  or  crust-tunnel  in  which  it  was  moulded 
are  seen  in  the  slaty  rocks  that  lie  on  the  east  side  between 
it  and  the  sea,  and  on  the  west  side  between  it  and  the 
limestone  levels  of  Kildare.  The  streams  fed  by  cloud- 
drift  on  the  upland  have  washed  out  broad  open  basins 
on  the  crumbling  surface  of  the  granite,  and,  as  they 
become  more  concentrated,  have  cut  steep  ravines  across 
the  stratified  series  on  the  margins  (fig.  5).  There  is 
a  striking  contrast  between  these  wooded  glens  and  the 
inhospitable  moorland  at  their  heads.  The  backbone  of 
Leinster  bars  out  for  eighty  miles  the  interior  of  the 
country  from  access  to  the  eastern  sea.  Even  the  natural 
gates  of  Wexford  and  Waterford,  on  the  drowned  valleys 
of  the  Slaney  and  the  Suir,  were  limited  as  means  of 
entry  to  Ireland  by  the  proximity  of  a  race  bred  in  the 
Leinster  highland.  The  broad  inlet  of  Dublin  Bay, 
where  the  granite  is  outflanked  by  the  limestone  of  the 
plain,  affords,  as  we  come  up  the  channel  from  the  south, 
the  first  free  way  to  the  interior. 

The  Old  Throughout  the  Devonian  period,  denuding  forces  were 
Sand-  active  on  the  surface  of  the  Caledonian  continent,  and 
stone.  semi-arid  conditions  are  believed  to  have  prevailed.  In 
desert-areas,  reddish  and  purplish  sandstones  were  formed, 
where  the  waste  products  accumulated  as  broad  cones  at 
the  feet  of  the  decaying  hills.  Occasional  floods,  operating 
over  wide  areas  of  sun-dried  detritus,  spread  beds  of 
pebbles  across  the  lowlands,  and  here  and  there  more 
regularly  stratified  sands  and  muds  were  laid  down  in 
shallow  lakes.  These  Devonian  deposits  are  now 
cemented  into  rocks  of  high  resistance,  and  the  whole 
system  of  strata  is  styled  the  Old  Red  Sandstone. 

In  time,  however,  the  continental  surface  sank,  admit- 


FIG.   i.     THE  CENTRAL  PLAIN  OF  IRELAND.     From 
Slieve  Bawn,  near  Strokestown. 


FIG.  2.     BEN  BULBEN,  CO.  SLIGO.     Limestone  scarps 
and  peat-covered  lowland. 


THE  FOUNDATIONS  OF  THE  OUTPOST      13 

ting  the  sea  gently  across  the  delta-flats  of  the  Upper 
Old  Red  Sandstone.  A  shore  remained  across  Donegal 
and  central  Scotland  ;  tmt  the  deeper  and  purer  water  to 
the  south  encouraged  a  rich  growth  of  marine  organisms 
over  nearly  all  the  Irish  area.  The  abundance  of  corals, 
sea-lilies,  and  shell-fish  in  the  Lower  Carboniferous  epoch 
led  to  the  formation  of  a  great  thickness  of  limestone, 
a  rock  easily  attacked  by  weathering  and  soluble  in  natural 
waters.  Hence,  over  most  of  the  limestone  area,  long 
wasting  of  the  surface  has  produced  a  lowland  (fig.  i), 
the  great  central  plain  of  Ireland,  offshoots  of  which,  The 
proving  the  former  extension  of  the  limestone,  stretch  up 
among  the  western  hills.  The  modern  seas  have  cut 
into  the  plain  on  the  west  at  Gal  way  and  Donegal  Bays, 
and  on  the  east  between  the  Liffey  and  the  Boyne.  Near 
Sligo,  however,  which  is  one  of  the  most  beautifully 
placed  cities  in  our  island,  masses  of  the  upper  beds  of 
limestone  still  remain  1,500  feet  above  the  sea,  and  their 
huge  vertical  scarps,  like  those  of  the  Pennine  Chain,  are 
superposed  on  the  earlier  features  of  a  singularly  romantic 
country  (fig.  2). 

As  the  '  Carboniferous  '  sea  gradually  shallowed,  sands 
and  shales  replaced  the  limestone,  and  ultimately  swampy 
land  appeared,  on  which  the  forests  of  the  Upper  Carbo- 
niferous epoch  spread.    A  second  system  of  earth-folds 
then  crumpled  the  region  of  western  Europe,  the  thrust 
coming  this  time  from  the  south.    The  prevalent  structure 
of  southern  Ireland  is  due  to  this  epoch  of  earth-move- 
ment.    From  the  Atlantic  coast  to  Waterford  (map  4)  The 
the  folds  run  east  and  west,  and  the  limestone,  exposed  can  foid- 
on  the  upfolds  and  caught  in  the  downfolds,  has  been  4htand 
worn  away  more  easily  than  the  underlying  Old  Red  River- 

J  J  -r     i       j   i_  system  of 

Sandstone.     Hence  the  rivers  of  southern  Ireland  have  southern 
worked  their  way  along. the  downfolds,  leaving  ridges  of 


14  IRELAND  THE  OUTPOST 

the  harder  and  barren  sandstone  rock  between  them. 
These  rivers  began  their  history  on  a  fairly  uniform 
surface,  which  had  been  planed  across  the  stratified  mass 
by  long  ages  of  denudation.  The  Upper  Carboniferous 
strata,  with  their  forest-beds  converted  into  coal-seams, 
were  gradually  but  generally  removed  ;  and  the  thick 
mass  of  grey  limestone  became  attacked  throughout  the 
folded  region.  The  tilt  of  the  fairly  even  surface  of 
denudation  that  was  thus  developed  was  southward,  as 
we  may  judge  from  the  courses  of  the  Shannon,  the 
Nore,  the  Barrow,  and  the  Slaney,  and  from  the  lower 
courses  of  the  Blackwater  and  the  Lee  (see  maps  2  and  4). 
In  the  working  down  of  the  formerly  smooth  surface  over 
the  crumpled  southern  lands,  the  tributaries  of  these 
southward-running  streams  have  cut  their  way  iack 
farther  and  farther  westward  along  the  downfolded 
portions  of  the  limestone,  which  became  their  natural 
field  of  operations  as  the  underlying  structure  was  etched 
out.  Many  of  the  southward-running  rivers,  the  original 
streams  '  consequent '  on  the  general  slope  of  the  country, 
have  been  cut  across  and.  tapped  by  the.  growing  tribu- 
taries of  those  lying  eastward  of  them  ;  their  upper 
waters  have  in  consequence  been  drawn  off  along  the 
capturing  tributary  to  a  more  eastern  outfall,  while  their 
lower  courses  have  been  '  beheaded'.  Where  one  of  the 
lower  portions  has  survived,  it  may  now  appear  as  the 
mere  concluding  reach  of  one  of  its  own  tributaries  ; 
it  runs  at  right  angles  to  the  course  of  the  'subsequent' 
tributary,  which  has  assumed  predominant  proportions 
along  the  limestone  groove.  J.  B.  Jukes,1  when  director  of 
the  Geological  Survey  of  Ireland,  gave  the  first  systematic 

1  '  On  the  Mode -of  Formation  of  some  of  the  River- valleys  in 
the  South  of  Ireland ',  Quart.  Journ.  Geol.  Soc.  London,  vol.  xviii, 
p.  378  (1862). 


THE  FOUNDATIONS  OF  THE  OUTPOST      15 

account  of  the  relation  of  the  rivers  to  the  former 
surface  and  to  the  underlying  structure  of  the  south,  and 
his  carefully  reasoned  paper  has  served  as  a  classic  model 
for  observations  on  what  is  now  known  as '  river-capture  '. 
The  net  result,  then,  of  the  crumpling  that  took  place 
in  late"  Carboniferous  times,  combined  with  exposure  to 
weathering  during  several  later  epochs,  has  been  the 
production  of  a  series  of  valleys,  in  which  woodlands 
gather,  and  in  which  tillage  can  be  carried  on  in  some- 
what stiff  clay  soils.  The  walls  of  these  valleys  are 
formed  of  barren  moorlands,  set  with  ledges  of  grey  and 
purple  rock.  The  structure  is  well  realized  when  we 
ascend  the  Knockmealdown  range  from  the  plain  at 
Clogheen,  west  of  Clonmel,  by  the  pass  that  leads  over 
to  Lismore.  The  vale  of  the  Blackwater  to  which  we 
then  descend  from  the  Old  Red  Sandstone  ridge  repeats 
along  its  narrow  limestone  floor  the  features  of  the  great 
plain  that  we  left  behind  us  in  the  north. 

In  Kerry  and  the  west  of  the  county  of  Cork,  the 
residues  of  limestone  are  still  more  limited,  and  the  Old 
Red  Sandstone  asserts  itself  in  the  serrated  ridge  of 
Carrauntoohil,  in  the  deeply-dissected  mountains  of 
Killarney  and  Glencar,  and  in  the  desolate  moor  of 
Gouganebarra.  Six  miles  south  of  the  railway  from 
Killarney  to  Cahersiveen,  we  may  find  ourselves  in  tangled 
forests  where  the  only  passage  lies  along  the  guiding 
streams.  Then,  through  some  notch  of  the  grey  crags 
(fig.  8)  we  may  pass  to  a  further  downfold,  where  a  strip 
of  soft  shale  or  limestone  has  produced  a  sudden  contrast, 
where  the  land  has  long  invited  settlers,  and  where  the 
white  farmsteads  are  grouped  along  a  natural  highway 
that  leads  westward  to  the  sea. 

The  continent  recorded  in  this  second  series  of  European 
earth-folds  is  styled  '  Armorican  ',  from  the  jutting  relic 


16  IRELAND  THE  OUTPOST 

of  it  still  exposed  in  the  wind-swept  promontory  of 
Brittany.  This  relic  is  paralleled  in  Cornwall,  and 
Armorican  land  rises  boldly  in  the  South  Wales  coalfield 
and  in  the  terraced  Brecknock  ranges  that  bound  the 
valley  of  the  Usk.  A  patch  remains  as  the  Mendip  Hills, 
and  borings  have  shown  us  that  a  ridge  comparable  with 
those  of  southern  Ireland  underlies  London  and  connects 
England  with  the  Ardennes.  Away  in  the  heart  of 
modern  Europe,  the  Europe  of  late  Cainozoic  times, 
blocks  of  this  far  older  Armorican  continent  form  the 
Vosges,  the  Schwarzwald,  and  the  Slavonic  stronghold 
of  Bohemia,  while  Armorican  masses,  long  buried  under 
younger  strata,  have  been  caught  up  and  reared  to 
dangerous  eminence,  towering  to-day  as  the  noblest 
features  in  the  young  earth-folds  of  the  Alps. 

The  connexion  of  southern  Ireland  with  the  Cornwall 
of  Arthurian  romance,  and  across  Cornwall  with  the  land 
of  Iseult  the  maiden- wife,  is,  then,  far  more  than  a  matter 
of  human  story.  The  Armorican  continent,  however,  has 
become  broken  like' the  fragments  of  an  ancient  tale,  and 
remains  a  mere  palimpsest  for  the  earth-records  of  far 
later  times. 

In  the  course  of  geological  ages,  the  Cretaceous  sea 
began  to  spread  over  all  this  region,  depositing  white 
chalk  in  its  pure  water,  and  sandy  beaches  in  addition 
in  the  north  of  Ireland.  Once  more  the  invading  ocean 
from  the  south-east  was  checked  on  the  stubborn  hills  of 
Donegal ;  but  at  the  opening  of  the  Cainozoic  or  Tertiary 
era  chalk  must  have  covered  a  considerable  part  of 
eastern  Ireland.  The  uplift  of  the  sea-floor,  and  the 
consequent  development  from  Ireland  to  Scandinavia 
of  rolling  downs  of  chalk,  like  those  remaining  as  the 
Salisbury  plateau  at  the  present  day,  was  the  first  act 
in  the  growth  of  modern  Europe. 


THE  FOUNDATIONS  OF  THE  OUTPOST      17 

The  warped  and  rising  land  cracked  open.  Through  The 
hundreds  of  vents,  basaltic  lavas  flowed  from  the  depths  epoch™1 
where  rocks  lay  molten  in  the  crust.  They  filled  and 
flooded  over  the  hollows  of  the  downs,  destroying  the 
vegetation,  levelling  up  the  country,  and  converting  it 
into  a  rugged  waste.  These  conditions  extended  north- 
ward beyond  the  region  of  the  Faroes,  and  they  have 
prevailed  in  Iceland  to  the  present  day.  The  volcanic 
outbreak  in  Ireland  heralded  the  vast  movements  that 
shattered  the  Armorican  floor,  folded  and  overfolded 
Mesozoic  and  Cainozoic  strata  in  the  Pyrenees,  the  Alps, 
and  the  Carpathians,  and  sent  the  waves  of  their  ground- 
swell  across  France  and  England  to  the  western  margin 
of  the  outpost. 

The  outpost  land,  however,  was  not  again  submerged, 
and  it  was  closely  held  by  the  new  continent  of  Europe. 
It  is  true  that  the  extension  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean  began 
to  threaten  its  existence  on  the  west ;  but  the  Irish  Channel 
and  the  North  Sea  are  very  modern  features.  Some  of 
the  invertebrate  animals  still  found  in  Ireland  may  have 
entered  the  area  by  land  in  late  Pliocene  times  and  may 
have  survived  the  Glacial  cold  on  ground  now  lost  to 
us  in  the  west.  The  comparatively  recent  date  of  the 
movements  that  have  determined  the  present  boundaries 
of  Ireland  is  well  seen  from  the  geological  evidence  in 
the  south-eastern  area.  A  plane  of  denudation  had  been 
worn  across  the  folded  rocks  of  Waterford,  Pembroke, 
and  Cornwall,  probably  with  the  aid  of  the  early  Pliocene 
sea.  An  uplift  followed,  which  allowed  the  streams  that 
wandered  on  this  surface  to  convert  their  valleys  into 
gorges  in  maintaining  their  connexion  with  the  sea. 
Then  a  downward  swing  occurred,  and  the  opening  of 
the  cold  Glacial  epoch  found  these  young  valleys  partially  The 
drowned  and  marine  water  already  in  the  Irish  Channel,  epoch". 

2244  R 


i8  IRELAND  THE  OUTPOST 

A  long  glacier  that  came  down  between  England  and 
Ireland  from  the  north  drove  out  the  sea  before  it,  and 
carried  mud  and  sand,  enclosing  foraminifera  and  mol- 
luscan  shells,  to  heights  of  more  than  1,500  feet  across 
the  bordering  lands.  The  ice-sheets  that  occupied  the 
interior  of  Ireland  profoundly  modified  the  surface,  as 
became  apparent  when  they  finally  melted  and  shrank 
back.  The  rock-floor  was  polished  and  scratched  by  the 
stones  and  sand  carried  in  the  ice  ;  but  this  '  englacial ' 
material,  together  with  a  vast  quantity  of  clay,  represent- 
ing all  that  was  loose  or  could  be  loosened  on  the  land- 
surface  over  which  the  glaciers  moved,  was  left  as  the 
solid  residue  of  the  composite  mass  that  we  call  an  ice- 
Boulder-  sheet.  This  '  boulder-clay  ',  or  more  strictly  '  boulder- 
loam  ',  often  remains  as  a  thick  deposit,  levelled  on  its 
surface  by  flooding  waters  from  the  ice-edge  and  by  the 
subsequent  sweep  of  wind  and  beat  of  rain.  In  other 
places,  where  it  was  irregularly  distributed  in  the  ice, 
the  boulder-loam  forms  steep-sided  hills,  elongated  in 
the  direction  in  which  the  ice-sheet  moved.  These  hills, 
to  which  the  name  '  drumlin  '  has  been  restricted,1  may 
be  more  than  a  hundred  feet  in  height  (fig.  7).  Lakelets 
gather  between  them,  and  the  post-Glacial  streams  have 
been  forced  to  take  winding  courses  round  their  margins. 
In  addition,  the  rivers  that  ran  beneath  the  melting  ice 
have  left  casts  of  their  channels  in  the  form  of  ridges 
and  elongated  mounds  of  roughly  stratified  sand  and 
gravel,  along  which  many  of  the  early  road-tracks  have 
been  carried.  These  ridges  are  now  well  known  to 
geologists  as  '  eskers  ',  and  the  almost  continuous  series, 
the  Eisgir  Riada,  that  can  be  traced  from  Gal  way  Bay 

,  *  Maxwell   H.    Close,    '  Notes   on   the   General    Glaciation   of 

Ireland',  Journ.  R.  Geol.  Soc.  Ireland,  vol.  i,  pp.  211  and  212 
(1867). 


THE  FOUNDATIONS  OF  THE  OUTPOST      19 

to  near  Dublin  was  selected  about  A.  D.  125  by  the  rival 
kings  of  north  and  south  as  a  line  of  division  across  the 
island. 

When  warmer  times  returned,  an  upward  swing  of  the 
uncertain  continental  edge  had  again  joined  Ireland  with 
Britain  and  the  mainland,  and  peat  and  forest  spread 
over  wide  areas  that  are  now  submerged.  The  great 
deer,  Cervus  giganteus,  which  is  now  extinct,  roamed 
from  the  Atlantic  shores  of  Ireland  into  Baltic  lands. 
The  connexion  between  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  was  The 
probably  severed  before  early  man  came  into  the  outpost.  ?utP°st 
The  great  low-lying  delta  between  Britain  and  Scandi-  an  island, 
navia,  on  which  the  Thames  was  tributary  to  the  Rhine, 
became  also  invaded  by  the  sea,  and  the  passage,  where 
eighteen  miles  of  water  have  controlled  our  English 
history,  was  carved  by  wave-action,1  on  the  course  of  an 
earlier  valley,  between  the  newly  formed  North  Sea  and 
the  English  Channel.  Great  Britain  was  thus  also  marked 
off  from  the  Continent,  and  Ireland,  as  an  island  beyond 
an  island,  became  still  more  emphasized  as  the  outpost. 

To  understand,  then,  the  present  position  of  Ireland  Sum 
in  the  economy  of  Europe,  and  the  natural  regions  of  mary. 
Ireland  in  regard  to  one  another,  we  must  realize  that 
the  country  and  these  natural  regions  have  been  moulded 
by  a  long  series  of  changes  that  affected  an  area  much 
more  extensive  than  the  outpost.    The  early  movements 
that  we  call  '  Caledonian  '  gave  us  the  intractable  high- 
lands of  Connaught  and  Donegal,  the  stubborn  slate- 
strewn  fields  of  Down,   and  the  forbidding  barrier  of 
Leinster  that  guards  the  plainland  on  the  east.     The 

1  Perhaps  along  a  valley  caused  by  the  overflow  of  a  lake 
formed  on  the  front  of  the  shrinking  North  Sea  ice,  as  suggested 
by  P.  F.  Kendall  in  '  The  British  Isles ',  Handbuch  der  regionalen 
Geologic,  Band  iii,  Abt.  i,  p.  310  (1917). 

B  2 


20 


IRELAND  THE  OUTPOST 


inflow  of  the  Carboniferous  sea  furnished  the  limestone 
that  prevails  across  the  central  plain.  The  mountain-rim 
was  completed  in  the  south  by  the  '  Armorican  '  wrink- 


FATHOMS 

OVER      IOOO 

100  -  IOOO 

SO  -    100 

UNDER       50 


Land  over  ZOO  metres 

Scale  of  Miles 
o  too 


MAP  i.    IRELAND  IN  RELATION  TO  GREAT  BRITAIN  AND  NORTH- 
WESTERN EUROPE. 

lings  of  late  Carboniferous  times.  In  the  Cainozoic  era, 
the  high  plateaus  of  Antrim  were  superposed  upon  milder 
domes  of  chalk,  while  the  block  of  the  Mourne  Mountains 
was  added  to  the  country,  where  one  of  the  cauldrons  of 


THE  FOUNDATIONS  OF  THE  OUTPOST      21 

molten  rock  cooled  down  as  a  mass  of  granite  under  its 
cover  of  Silurian  shales.  From  Triassic  times  onwards, 
denudation  has  swept  from  the  country  nearly  all  the 
Coal  Measures  that  once  stretched  above  the  limestone 
of  the  plain.  In  compensation,  this  limestone,  and  much 
of  the  Old  Red  Sandstone  uplands  in  the  south,  have 
been  covered  by  boulder-loams,  deposited  as  the  ice- 
sheets  of  the  Glacial  epoch  melted,  and  the  dry  cold 
episode  that  for  a  time  drove  life  out  of  the  area  has  in 
the  end  largely  contributed  to  the  fertility  of  Irish  land. 

The  final  earth-movements  that  established  Ireland  as 
an  island  left  her  with  high  ground  on  her  margins,  and 
with  natural  harbours  formed  by  the  drowning  of  valleysy 
that  led   up  far  among  the  hills.    Where  the  sea  has 
reached  inwards  against  the  limestone  plain,  still  more 
serviceable  gates  occur.    Galway  and  Sligo  on  the  Atlantic,*' 
and  Dublin  Bay,  opening  towards  the  parent  lands  of 
Europe,  form  effective  breaches  in  the  sheltering  girdle 
of  great  hills. 

Neither  here  nor  in  Britain  has  true  geological  stability 
been  achieved.  The  raised  beach  at  Larne,  whence  the 
steamers  start  for  Scotland,  contains  chipped  flints  side 
by  side  with  marine  mollusca,  and  thus  shows  that  an 
uplift  of  some  20  feet  has  occurred  on  the  north-east 
coast  since  man  settled  in  the  country.  We  have  no  proof 
that  the  west  of  Ireland  has  been  lowered  since  the  epoch 
of  the  submerged  forest-beds  ;  but  the  legends  of  lost 
isles  may  well  have  had  an  origin  in  human  observation. 
The  traditionary  island  of  Brasil  appears  somewhere  in  Brasil. 
the  position  of  the  Porcupine  Bank  in  a  French  manu- 
script chart  drawn  about  J.66O.1  This  record  was  made 

1  W.  Frazer,  '  On  Hy  Brasil ',  Journ.  R.  Geol.  Soc.  Ireland, 
vol.  v,  p.  128  (1879),  where  the  date  1640  is  suggested.  Also 
T.  J.  Westropp,  '  Brasil  and  the  Legendary  Islands  of  the  North 
Atlantic',  Proc.  R.  Irish  A.cad.,  vol.  xxx,  sect.  C,  p.  223  (1912). 


22  IRELAND  THE  OUTPOST 

when  the  Strait  of  Dover  was  closed  to  the  Netherlands 
during  war,  and  when  Dutch  ships  bound  for  the  Indies 
reached  the  Atlantic  round  the  north  of  Scotland.  The 
belief  in  Brasil  descended  to  the  cartographer  who 
recorded  Nelson's  voyages  in  1815  ;  but  the  location  had 
by  this  time  shifted  southward.  The  Porcupine  Bank  is 
formed,  as  dredgings  have  shown  us,1  around  a  core  of 
rocks  similar  to  those  of  Carlingford.  Though  it  now 
lies  500  feet  below  the  surface  of  the  sea,  it  once  rose  as 
an  isle  beyond  the  outpost,  and  subsidence,  combined 
with  the  Atlantic  scour,  may  have  involved  it  in  recent 
and  somewhat  swift  destruction. 

The  west  coast  of  Ireland  still  suffers  from  the  tremen- 
dous surge  of  the  Atlantic.  The  sharp  cones  of  Tearaght 
and  the  Skelligs  attest  the  undermining  and  flaking  action 
of  the  waves.  The  level  shelves  of  Clare  and  of  the  Aran 
Islands  are  being  lifted  from  one  another,  slab  by  slab. 
The  dome  of  Croaghaun  in  Achill  has  been  cut  back  to 
its  very  heart ;  and  away  in  the  north,  on  the  quartzite 
mountain  of  Slieve  League,  the  noblest  cliffs  in  our 
islands  rise  2,000  feet  from  a  sea  where  few  ships  venture. 
The  size  of  these  huge  rock-walls  is  scarcely  realized 
until  the  clouds  gather  at  evening  half-way  between  their 
crowning  edges  and  the  restless  foam-ring  at  their  feet. 
Yet,  in  face  of  all  this  battery,  Ireland  remains  as  a 
coherent  geographical  entity,  bounded  by  a  strong  frontier 
on  the  sea.  Like  Verdun,  the  outpost  '  tient  toujours  '. 

1  G.  A.  J.  Cole  and  T.  Crook,  '  On  Rock-specimens  dredged 
from  the  Floor  of  the  Atlantic',  Mem.  Geol.  Sun>.  Ireland  (1910). 


III.    THE  PEOPLING  OF  IRELAND 

To  the  early  venturers,  and  even  down  to  the  days  of 
steam-navigation,  there  was  a  marked  difference  between 
the  ocean  and  the  '  narrow  seas  '.  When  forests  pre- 
vailed across  the  mainland,  and  only  the  higher  uplands 
and  the  coastal  fringes  enjoyed  the  sunlight,  continuous 
routes  for  travel  could  best  be  found  along  the  sea.1 
After  the  close  of  the  Glacial  epoch,  the  north-western 
prolongation  of  Eurasia  dipped,  as  we  have  seen,  towards  ^ 
the  Atlantic,  and  a  part  of  its  low  peat-covered  ground  UnfluenceX 
became  submerged.  The  marine  band  of  the  Mediter-  Ldentedy 
ranean  formed  a  sound  between  Alpine  Europe  and  »oast- 
Alpine  Africa,  a  survival  from  the  larger  '  midland  sea  ' 
that  once  stretched  eastward  over  India.  On  the  north 
of  the  new  Europe,  the  sea  had  entered  between  Britain 
and  Scandinavia,  flooding  the  joint  delta  of  the  Humber, 
Thames,  and  Rhine,  and  had  found  an  outlet  southward 
by  the  Strait  of  Dover.  After  man  had  settled  in  the  Danish 
region,  subsidence  opened  a  channel  from  the  North  Sea 
to  the  Baltic  ;  and  hence,  as  human  communications 
grew,  the  ships  of  the  Levant,  laden  from  the  caravans 
of  Baghdad,  could  transfer  their  bales  to  reindeer-sleighs 
at  Tornea.  There,  in  a  figure,  is  the  history  of  European 
civilization. 

Meeting  one  another  as  conflicting  tribes  in  lands  that 
narrowed  westward,  making  their  ways  along  the  pro- 
montories until  they  came  to  the  inevitable  open  water, 

1  See  H.  J.  Fleure, '  Ancient  Wales — anthropological  evidences ', 
Trans.  Roy.  Soc.  of  Cymmrodorion,  1915-16,  p.  75  (1916),  and 
H.  J.  Fleure  and  L.  Winstanley,  '  Anthropology  and  our  Older 
Histories',  Journ.  Roy.  Anthrop.  Inst.,  vol.  xlviii,  p.  155  (1918). 
These  papers  contain  much  valuable  discussion  of  early  immigra- 
tions into  Ireland 


24  IRELAND  THE  OUTPOST 

fashioning  boats  and  going  forth  to  occupy,  not  only 
new  shores,  but  unexpected  isles,  the  men  whom  we  call 
primitive  carried  their  practical  arts  and  their  ideals  of 
culture  from  harbour  to  harbour  of  the  indented  coast. 
We  group  successive  waves  of  humanity  together  as 
palaeolithic,  neolithic,  and  so  forth  ;  but  it  is  difficult  to 
conceive  the  length  of  time  required  for  the  establish- 
ment of  any  of  these  types  as  dominant  in  a  given  district 
of  the  earth.  Thanks  to  the  narrow  seas  of  Europe,  the 
inventions  of  one  group  became  superposed  on  groups  of 
diverse  origins,  without  the  delay  involved  in  great 
migrations  ;  and  thus  even  the  folk  of  the  outpost,  in 
prehistoric  as  well  as  in  historic  days,  came  again  and 
again  under  eastern  influences  without  being  entirely 
overrun. 

The  Can  we  picture  the  first  arrival  of  the  Mediterraneans, 

settlers!0  rowing  in  their  light  vessels,  perhaps  scarcely  larger  than 
the  curraghs  of  to-day,  from  ria  to  ria  of  Iberia  and 
Armorica ;  reaching  that  other  Armorican  land  of 
Cornwall ;  crossing  the  great  indent  of  the  Bristol 
Channel ;  and  finally,  from  the  bleak  promontory  of 
Pembroke  or  the  unprofitable  sands  of  Anglesey,  descend- 
ing on  the  inviolate  Irish  coast  ?  The  shore  itself,  with 
its  flats  of  boulder-loam,  which  are  relics  of  land  that 
once  stretched  across  the  Irish  Sea,  presented  grassy 
terraces  fit  for  camps  and  cultivation.  Beyond  them, 
the  wooded  glens  harboured  no  enemies  but  wild  beasts, 
and  the  attractive  and  open  moorland  at  their  heads  was 
visible  on  the  skyline  from  the  beach  (fig.  3).  The  short 
rivers,  consequent  on  the  Leinster  Chain,  were  not  yet 
contaminated  by  inland  farms.  The  water  came  down, 
in  this  temperate  climate,  freely  throughout  the  year  to 
its  sluggish  loops  among  the  grasslands,  and  the  noise  of 
its  rapids  in  the  ravines  led  the  venturers  upwards  to  the 


THE  PEOPLING  OF  IRELAND  25 

falls.  At  the  north  end  of  the  chain,  a  fertile  lowland 
stretched  away  indefinitely,  covered  with  forests  of  oak 
and  holly.  Through  its  midst  ran  the  Liffey  vale  as 
a  guiding  line  for  settlement.  The  Leinster  upland,  with 
its  freedom  of  air  and  sunlight,  could  here  be  reached  on 
gently  rising  slopes  at  a  height  of  500  feet  above  the  sea. 
The  rugged  dome  of  Howth  commanded  the  bay,  and 
offered  a  good  post  for  defence  and  observation.  Charcoal 
and  split  bones  from  primitive  hearths  can  be  found  in 
the  talus  on  the  edge  of  its  cliffs  to-day.  We  may  conceive 
the  existence  of  a  rivalry  from  the  very  first  between 
those  who  occupied  the  Irish  gate  at  the  Liffey  mouth 
and  those  who,  entering  by  the  glens,  felt  their  way 
towards  it  through  the  hills. 

From  this  coast,  and  probably  also  from  the  south,  the 
long-headed  neolithic  race  laid  the  foundation  of  the 
Irish  folk.    The  language  that  these  settlers  brought  with       * — ' 
them  from  the  Mediterranean  and  from  temporary  homes 
in  Gaul  was  no  doubt  still  flexible,  and  in  time  it  may  V, 

have  received  a  local  tinge  in  the  isolation  of  the  west. 
We  have,  however,  no  knowledge  of  it  at  the  present  day. 
Various  stages  of  neolithic  culture  were  probably  repre- 
sented among  the  seamen  who  reached  the  Irish  coast. 
These  venturers  must  have  brought  their  women  with 
them  ;  but  from  early  days  strength  was  gained  by 
intermingling  with  new  arrivals  from  various  European 
shores.  In  the  course  of  ages,  local  habits  no  doubt  grew 
up  in  the  island.  We  may  regret,  from  a  modern  stand- 
point, that  the  hunters  who  sheltered  in  the  narrow  caves 
of  Ennis  x  were  driven  to  cannibalism  by  the  stress  of 
hunger  or  the  fervour  of  religious  faith  ;  but  a  very  long 
interval  separates  their  primaeval  habits  from  those  of 

1  T.  J.  Westropp,  '  Exploration  of  the  Caves  of  County  Clare  ', 
Trans.  R.  Irish  Acad.,  vol.  xxxiii,  p.  71  (1906). 


26  IRELAND  THE  OUTPOST 

the  people,  still  in  the  stone  age,  who  met  the  wave  of 
broad-headed  immigrants  from  the  Baltic.  The  founding 
of  homes,  the  clearing  of  woodlands,  the  marking  out  of 
limited  areas  as  the  property  of  something  like  a  clan, 
went  on  through  unrecorded  ages,  with  the  usual  accom- 
paniment of  jealous  misunderstandings  and  selfish  and 
ill-considered  raids.  Bloodshed,  murder,  and  the  capture 
of  women,  were  no  doubt  sung  as  the  foundation  of 
enduring  fame,  in  days  when  the  franchise  of  a  man 
could  be  earned  by  the  mutilation  of  the  slain.  Yet  in 
all  these  struggles  the  bonds  of  association  were  growing 
stronger  within  the  boundaries  of  the  tribe.  The  talk  of 
the  young  men  was  of  warfare  and  the  chase,  but  the 
household  year  by  year  was  advancing  in  the  arts  of 
peace.  A  chief  who  had  earned  distinction  with  the  spear 
was  proud  towards  the  close  of  life  to  receive  the  title 
'  good  '  or  '  wise  '.  The  long  primary  epochs  of  dissension 
prepared  the  way  for  coalitions,  though  in  prehistoric 
Ireland,  as  in  every  other  country,  sparseness  of  settle- 
ment and  difficulties  of  communication  precluded  the 
formation  of  a  state. 

It  is  too  early  to  say  that  we  possess  accurate  know- 
ledge of  the  successive  immigrations  into  Ireland.  Anthro- 
pologists, however,  are  hard  at  work  in  the  reconstruction 
*"^        of  prehistoric  history.1    It  seems  probable,  according  to 
'2'*     Fleure,  that  a  trading  race  of  dar^_and  fairly  broad- 
The         headed  Mediterraneans,   following  on  the  earlier  long- 
builders"  heads,   introduced   the   building   of   dolmens,   of  which 
numerous  examples  occur  in  Ireland.     These  megalithic 
structures  are  records  alike  of  religious  observances  and 

1  See  especially  H.  J.  Fleure,  in  the  Oxford  Survey  of  the  British 
Empire,  vol.  i,  pp.  298-317  (1914),  and  '  The  Racial  History  of 
the  British  People ',  Geographical  Review  (Amer.  Geogr.  Soc.), 
vol.  v,  p.  216  (1918). 


THE  PEOPLING  OF  IRELAND  27 

of  veneration  for  the  dead.  Just  as  at  Rolde  in  Holland, 
and  among  the  cornlands  of  the  Danish  isles,  so  the 
designers  in  Ireland  often  used  boulders  transported 
by  the  glacial  ice.  In  places  the  site  of  the  dolmen  may 
have  been  determined  by  a  sense  of  mystery  attaching 
to  the  stones.  Sometimes  the  rocks  were  quarried  on 
a  high  exposure,  and  the  monument  attained  dignity,  like 
that  at  Mount  Venus  near  Dublin,  from  the  natural 
eminence  that  it  crowned.  The  position  of  many  dolmens, 
on  the  other  hand,  on  low  ground  and  in  sheltered  places 
shows  that  they  were  often  associated  with  the  homestead 
of  a  chieftain  or  the  communal  holdings  of  a  tribe.  Now 
and  then,  as  in  the  meadows  at  the  foot  of  the  great 
dome  of  Knocknarea,  an  open  area  was  marked  out  as 
a  sacred  cemetery,  and  the  abundance  of  megalithic 
monuments  gave  rise  to  the  story  of  a  battle,1  the  casually 
spaced  dolmens  being  held  to  enshrine  the  heroes  almost 
where  they  fell.  The  element  of  daring  embodied  in  the 
construction  of  a  dolmen  is  nowhere  displayed  more 
finely  than  in  the  superb  example  at  Ballymascanlan  in 
the  county  of  Louth.  If  the  primitive  type  reminded  the 
builders  of  a  house,  and,  by  thinking  backward,  of  a  cave, 
design  has  here  progressed  some  way  towards  an  artist's 
dream  of  a  cathedral. 

The  building  of  dolmens  continued  into  the  age  of 
bronze.  The  great  mounds,  moreover,  of  the  bronze-age 
architects  cover  stone  structures  of  the  dolmen  type. 
The  solitary  megaliths,  formed  by  setting  huge  slabs  on 
end,  represent  a  more  primitive  type  of  art,  and  for 
a  long  time  they  led  to  nothing  further  in  the  way  of 
stones  that  point  to  heaven.  Noble  examples  remain 
here  and  there  in  Ireland,  and  some  may  be  associated 
with  the  first  entry  of  neolithic  man. 

1  I  owe  this  suggestion  to  Professor  R.  A.  S.  Macalister. 


28  IRELAND  THE  OUTPOST 

The  building  of  round  towers  is  also  regarded  as 
a  Mediterranean  feature.  The  numerous  instances  in 
Ireland  are  undoubtedly  of  Christian  origin  ;  but  the 
architects  of  the  sixth  to  the  ninth  century  of  our  era 
seem  to  have  revived  in  connexion  with  ecclesiastical 
requirements  an  earlier  and  once  familiar  form. 
The  Somewhere  about  1700  B.  c.  a  race  of  powerful  broad- 

age  im-  headed  invaders  reached  the  outpost,  bringing  with  them 
migrants.  ^  cjviijzation  that  we  associate  with  the  use  of  bronze. 
The  best  clue,  however,  to  their  settlements  is  given  by 
their  pottery,  and  hence,  from  a  particular  type  of 
drinking-vessel,  they  are  commonly  styled  the  '  Beaker  ' 
people.  Their  original  home  seems  to  have  lain  north  of 
the  Alps,  and  they  gradually  occupied  the  south  side  of 
the  Baltic,  prevailing  over  the  long-headed  '  Nordic  ' 
folk  who  characterized  western  Germany  and  Scandi- 
navia. They  moved  westward  along  the  easily  traversed 
coastlands  that  led  to  the  mouths  of  the  Rhine  and 
Scheldt,  and  they  established  themselves  in  England  as 
an  important  social  stratum,  to  which  the  neolithic 
Britons  became  underlings.1  In  a  far  Jess  marked  degree, 
they  made  their  impress  upon  Ireland.  They  worked  the 
rich  deposits  of  alluvial  gold  on  the  east  flank  of  the 
Leinster  Chain  into  ornaments  and  objects  of  fixed 
weight  that  came  to  have  the  currency  of  coins.  The 
double  spiral  patterns  marked  on  the  stones  of  their 
huge  tumuli  have  been  traced  from  Mycenaean  Greece 
through  Scandinavia  to  the  Boyne.2  Though  these 

• 

1  Arthur    Keith,    Presidential    Address,    '  The    Bronze    Age 
Invaders  of  Britain',  Journ.  Roy.  Anthrop.  Inst.,  vol.  xlv,  p.  12 

(1915)- 

2  George  Coffey,   New  Grange   (Brugh  na  Boinne)   and   other 
incised  tumuli  in  Ireland :    the  influence  of  Crete  and  the  JEgean 
on  the  extreme  west  of  Europe  in  early  times  (1912),  and  The  Bronze 
Age  in  Ireland  (1913).    R.  A.  S.  Macalister,  whose  work  is  always 


THE  PEOPLING  OF  IRELAND  29 

broad-headed  immigrants  brought  with  them  new  and 
fascinating  arts,  and  had  gained  long  experience  in 
European  warfare,  they  failed  in  Ireland  to  produce  any 
general  physical  change  by  mingling  with  the  folk  whom 
they  overran.  The  long-headed  Mediterranean  race  had 
probably  already  received  fair-haired  and  similarly  long- 
headed additions  from  the  '  Nordic  '  folk  on  the  far  side 
of  the  North  Sea.1  Despite  the  coming  of  the  Beaker 
people,  the  long-headed  type  prevails  to-day  throughout 
the  country. 

Some  authors  are  impressed  by  the  fact  that  the  bronze- 
age  or  Beaker  type  of  settler  entered  Britain  without 
metallic  weapons,  and  later  acquired  the  use  of  bronze. 
Hence  it  is  urged  that  these  migrants  came  to  us  as 
traders,  and  not  as  a  conquering  tribe.  In  Ireland, 
however,  the  relative  magnificence  of  their  sepulchral 
monuments,  compared  with  those  of  the  neolithic  folk 
suggests 'a  desire  to  record  something  definitely  accom- 
plished in  the  land.  Though  the  tumuli  of  New  Grange, 
Dowth,  and  Knowth  stand  near  the  port  of  the  Boyne, 
they  are  not  the  work  of  merchants  bartering  for  a  site, 
but  of  men  who  held  the  country  and  in  death  proclaimed 
themselves  as  kings. 

The  language  introduced  by  the  Beaker  people  is  now 
thought  to  be  '  proto-Celtic  ',  and  to  have  thus  laid 

illuminating,  would  prefer  to  regard  the  Irish  spirals  as  an  inde- 
pendent growth,  marking  a  ruder  type  of  the  civilization  that 
reached  a  climax  in  Mycenaean  art  ('  Temair  Breg  ',  Proc.  R.  Irish 
Acad.,  vol.  xxxiv,  sect.  C,  p.  387,  1919). 

1  For  a  eulogistic  appreciation  of  the  Nordic  type,  see  Madison 
Grant,  The  Passing  of  the  Great  Race  (1918).  To  these  long- 
headed people,  who  are  characteristic  of  Scandinavia,  the  author 
assigns  an  eastern  origin,  distinct  from  that  of  the  smaller  neolithic 
Mediterranean  race  with  which  they  have  been  associated  by  other 
writers. 


30  IRELAND  THE  OUTPOST 

a  foundation  in  Ireland  for  the  Goidelic  or  Gaelic  speech 
introduced  in  far  later  times.  Madison  Grant 1  holds 
that '  all  the  original  Celtic-speaking  tribes  were  Nordic  '  ; 
but  it  is  not  clear  that  any  Nordic  settlers  who  preceded 
the  Beaker  people  had  acquired  a  Celtic  tongue  at  the 
early  date  of  their  immigrations.  E.  C.  Quiggin  2  wrote 
in  1910  that  the  Goidels  of  600  to  500  B.  c.  were  '  the 
first  invaders  speaking  a  Celtic  language  '  who  '  set  foot 
in  Ireland  '. 

More  than  a  thousand  years  after  the  arrival  of  the 
Beaker  folk,  men  skilled  in  the  use  of  iron  broke  in  upon 
the  outpost.  Their  chief  contribution  to  Irish  civilization 
was  the  introduction  of  the  new  metal  and  of  what  are 
called  the  '  La  Tene  '  designs,  which  find  their  type  in 
H  lake-dwellings  at  the  northern  end  of  the  Lake  of  Neu- 

chatel.  If  we  call  these  people  Celts,  we  associate  them 
with  the  vigorous  round-headed  folk,  tall  and  possibly 
fair-haired,3  who  spread  from  Alpine  Europe,  that  is, 
from  a  mountainous  district  lying  somewhat  to  the  south 
of  the  homeland  of  the  Beaker  people.  It  is  more  likely, 
however,  that  the  iron-age  invaders  of  Ireland  were 
a  long-headed  group  that  had  felt  the  pressure  of  the 
Alpine  folk.  They  formed,  as  it  were,  the  outer  fringe 
of  the  expansion  from  Gallic  lands  that  made  itself 
felt,  some  centuries  later,  in  menacing  descents  on  Rome. 
Madison  Grant  4  holds  that  these  tribes  were  Nordic,  and 
he  places  their  arrival  in  Britain  no  earlier  than  800  B.  c. 
Fleure 5  believes  that  the  Brythonic-Celtic  language 
reached  south-eastern  England  not  much  before  the 
invasion  of  the  Belgae — perhaps,  then,  about  300  B.  c. 

1  Op.  cit.,  p.  175. 

2  Encyclopaedia  Britannica,  vol.  xiv,  p.  757  (1910). 

S*  A  brunet  type  of  '  Celt '  is,  however,  recognized  in  the 
Bavarian  district.  *  Op.  cit.,  p.  175. 

8  Op.  cit.,  Geographical  Review,  vol.  v,  p.  227  (1918). 


THE  PEOPLING  OF  IRELAND  31 

Between  these  dates  we  may  place  the  adoption  of  the 
Goidelic  or  Gaelic  language  by  the  Irish  folk. 

A  Goidelic  race  cannot  be  separately  recognized,  and 
we  cannot  assert  with  any  confidence  that  there  are 
'  Gaels  '  or  '  Celts  '  in  Ireland.  It  is  suggested  that  the 
'  Goidels  '  whom  Quiggin  mentions  entered  Ireland  across 
Scotland,  after  a  considerable  period  of  residence  in  that 
country.  It  must  be  admitted  that  great  uncertainty 
enshrouds  the  Irish  language-question  ;  but  we  may 
conclude  that  the  introduction  of  Gaelic  is  contemporary 
with  the  arrival  of  men  who  could  support  their  culture 
by  the  use  of  iron  weapons.  In  about  the  sixth  century 
before  our  era,  something  new  in  the  way  of  customs — 
and  even  language  is  a  custom — arrived  from  Europe  to 
the  outpost,  and  for  seventeen  hundred  years  loosely 
banded  groups  of  tribesmen,  whom  we  cannot  describe 
as  Celts  or  Gaels,  remained  united  in  this  one  thing,  the 
acceptance  of  a  Gaelic  mould. 

The  traditions  of  the  bronze  and  neolithic  ages  that 
were  handed  down  under  Gaelic  influences  during  the 
age  of  iron  would  naturally  impute  a  '  Celtic  '  social 
system  to  those  far  more  primitive  times.  The  earlier 
Irish  population  was  never  replaced  by  later  settlers  to 
the  extent  .that  broad-headed  immigrants  replaced  the 
Mediterraneans  in  south-eastern  England.1  Mentally, 
however,  the  Irish  people  remained  plastic  and  receptive, 
and  the  most  profound  impression  was  produced  by  the 
invaders  of  the  age  of  iron.  The  Gaelic  question  in 
Ireland  is  one  of  the  best  examples  of  the  impossibility 
of  making  language  a  test  of  nationality  or  race. 

No  anthropologist  nowadays  will  support  the  contrast 
alleged  to  exist  between  '  Celts  '  and  '  Teutons  ',  with 

1  H.  J.  Fleure,  op.  cit.,  Geographical  Review,  vol.  v,  p.  227 
(1918). 


32  IRELAND  THE  OUTPOST 

all  the  boastful  controversies  that  have  clustered  on  both 
sides  round  these  terms.1  The  very  names  have  been 
used  so  indefinitely,  and  have  been  applied  to  such  varied 
racial  groups,  that  they  may  well  be  abandoned  by  those 
who  strive  for  accurate  conceptions.  There  is  a  glamour 
yet  in  a  '  Celtic  '  twilight  and  a  thrill  of  hope  deferred 
in  the  promise  of  a  '  Celtic  '  dawn  ;  but  the  Irish  qualities 
of  imaginative  insight,  leading  to  a  warm  sympathy 
coupled  with  a  shrewd  perception,  and  the  power  of 
unbroken  persistence  against  a  sea  of  troubles,  date  back 
far  beyond  the  clan-system  of  Gaelic  days.  Though  these 
qualities  were  doubtless  specialized  and  intensified  by 
isolated  conditions  in  the  outpost,  they  reached  us  with 
the  men  who  sailed  from  the  Mediterranean  and  who  first 
opened  up  the  forest-lands  to  the  waves  of  European 
immigration. 

If  the  Gaelic  habit  spread  comparatively  rapidly  in 
Ireland  among  the  southern  representatives  of  the 
Mediterranean  race,  some  credit  must  be  given  to  those 
who  introduced  it  from  abroad.  Tacitus,  tired  of  Rome, 
and  ready  to  support  the  myth  of  the  noble  savage, 
records  the  acceptance  by  British  gentlemen  of  Roman 
speech  and  Roman  manners  as  a  degradation  and  a  mark 
of  servitude.  Far  more  probably,  it  was  a  response  to 
their  just  and  friendly  treatment  by  Agricola,  and  by  his 
master  Vespasian,  who  had  met  and  respected  them  in 
the  field.  The  Anglo-Saxon  tongue,  on  the  other  hand, 
held  its  own  against  Norman  French  in  England,  and 
Chaucer,  the  poet  of  a  civil  service  that  had  changed 
little  since  the  Angevins,  wrote  in  the  vulgar  language 
that  remained  prevalent  and  that  was,  in  the  fourteenth 

1  For  the  modern  point  of  view,  see  the  critical  essay  by 
A.  Keith,  '  The  Ethnology  of  Scotland  ',  Nature,  vol.  c,  p.  85 
(1917)- 


33 

century,  perforce  accepted  in  the  schools.  An  opposite 
example  is  found  in  the  spread  of  Arabic  speech  through 
northern  Africa  by  a  comparatively  small  number  of 
militant  invaders  ;  and  this  may  be  traced  to  the  enforce- 
ment of  an  Arab  religion  by  the  imminence  of  slavery 
and  the  sword.  It  is  reasonable,  then,  to  believe  that  an 
imported  language  spreads  with  the  culture,  and  especially 
with  the  religious  observances,  that  it  represents.  As  we 
have  already  hinted,  there  may  have  been  something  in 
'  proto-Celtic  '  and  '  Celtic  '  customs,  and  in  '  Celtic  ' 
opinions  on  the  afterworld,  that  appealed  to  the  Mediter- 
raneans, whose  gods  had  deserted  them  in  the  outpost 
at  the  coming  of  the  iron  spears.  Even  the  terminology 
of  Irish  townlands  owes  its  present  appeal  and  beauty 
to  expression  in  a  Goidelic  form.  If  we  knew  the  earlier 
tongue  of  Ireland,  it  might  be  interesting  to  trace  transla- 
tions, and  perhaps  unintelligent  corruptions,  of  Mediter- 
ranean or  Nordic  place-names.  Such  grotesque  forms  as 
the  English  '  Booterstown '  and '  Stillorgan ' ,  with  which  we 
may  compare  the  twentieth-century/  Wipers  ',  may  have 
had  their  prototypes  during  Gaelic  penetration  into  Ireland. 
The  evolution  of  '  Celtic  '  civilization  moved  slowly 
in  the  island,  and  century  after  century  of  the  resonant 
age  of  iron  saw  very  little  change  in  the  material  advance- 
ment of  the  clans.  It  has  often  been  remarked  that  the 
epoch  of  Connaire  and  Cuchullain,  when  heroes  fought  in 
chariots  and  a  strong  man  matched  himself  against  an 
army  at  the  ford,  belongs  to  the  Homeric  stage  of  European 
culture.  The  same  culture  prevailed  in  Britain  down  to 
the  coming  of  the  Romans,  and  it  is  interesting  to  remem- 
ber that,  if  communications  had  been  more  easy,  Queen 
Medb  might  have  entertained  Caesar  Augustus  in  her  palace 
at  Rathcroghan,  while  the  fame  of  Finn  MacCumhail 
might  have  added  to  the  apprehensions  of  Aurelian. 

2244  c 


34  IRELAND  THE  OUTPOST 


IV.    IRELAND  AND  THE  ROMAN  WORLD 

THE  Romans,  who  easily,  crossed  the  '  sharpe  narrow 
sea  '  of  the  Strait  of  Dover,  were  deterred  from  land- 
ing as  invaders  on  the  Irish  coast.  Tacitus,  in  a 
well-known  passage,1  describes  how  his  father-in-law, 
Cnaeus  Julius  Agricola,  '  garrisoned  the  coast  of 
Britain  facing  Ireland,  actuated  more  by  hope  than 
fear'.  Just  as  the  son  of  the  British  Cunobelin  had 
sought  the  friendship  of  Gaius  Caesar,2  so  some  chief, 
probably  from  the  Leinster  uplands,  had  come  over  to 
Agricola,  in  the  hope  of  inviting  the  enemy  into  a  dis- 
united Ireland.  Agricola,  equally  distinguished  as  a 
general,  an  admiral,  and  an  administrator,  often  spoke 
of  Ireland  during  his  years  of  retirement  in  Rome.  He 
has  also  some  claims  as  a  practical  geographer,  for  he  is 
said  to  have  been  the  first  to  prove  conclusively  that 
Britain  was  an  island.3  He  had  seen  the  Irish  coast 
from  his  ships  or  from  the  ridges  of  Snowdonia  ;  the 
exchange  of  stories  of  adventure  between  the  naval  and 
military  officers  in  the  mess-rooms  of  the  ports,  so  well 
described  by  Tacitus,  had  brought  him  attractive  informa- 
tion, and  he  felt  that  the  cordon  which  he  had  drawn 
round  turbulent  Britain  was  incomplete.  The  Irish 
harbours  were  better  known  than  those  of  Britain,  since 
trade  already  flourished  with  the  western  isle.  It  is 
reasonable  to  suppose  that  the  gold  of  Wicklow  first  drew 
Gallic  and  Iberian  merchants  to  the  Irish  ports.  In  his 

1  lulii  Agricolae  Vita,  cap.  24,  the  Oxford  Translation  by 
W.  Hamilton  Fyfe. 

3  On  Adminius,  who  is  a  political  type,  see  Suetonius,  De  Vita 
Caesarum,  Lib.  iv,  cap.  44.  The  true  form  of  the  name  may  have 
been  Amminus. 

3  Dio  Cassius,  Roman  History,  Book  Ixvi,  chap.  20. 


IRELAND  AND  THE  ROMAN  WORLD        35 

armchair  in  Rome,  Agricola  used  to  say  that  a  single 
legion  and  a  few  auxiliaries  would  have  sufficed  to  conquer  the  mis- 
Ireland,  and  that  he  would  have  used  the  subdued  outpost  Agricola. 
as  a  restraint  on  the  liberty  of  Britain.1 

The  extra  legion,  however,  was  not  available,  though 
Agricola's  great  victory  in  central  Caledonia  had  rendered 
the  northern  front  secure.  It  is  now  somewhat  late  to 
regret  the  exclusion  of  Ireland  from  the  Roman  sphere 
of  influence  ;  yet  we  can  appreciate  what  the  outpost 
lost  when  we  see  what  southern  Britain  gained.  Public 
institutions,  law-courts,  artistic  villas,2  were  erected,  as 
in  colonial  Africa,  by  native  benefactors  of  the  State,  and 
we  learn  that  Agricola  favoured  the  development  of 
a  local  culture  in  the  schools.  Under  Roman  govern- 
ment, Irish  education  might  well  have  been  bilingual, 
and  the  travelled  sons  of  princes,  who  recognized  the 
bonds  of  kinship  through  the  clan,  might  have  spread 
among  their  less  fortunate  relatives  a  knowledge  of  the 
larger  world.  The  sea-channel,  however,  proved  a  bar 
even  to  Roman  enterprise.  The  submergence  of  the 
platform  of  boulder-drift  between  Holyhead  and  Dublin 
has  much  to  answer  for  in  Irish  history. 

The  inhabitants  of  Britain,  brought  constantly  into 
touch  with  Europe,  learnt  the  defects  as  well  as  the 
benefits  of  the  Roman  scheme  of  government.  The  use 
of  sections  of  the  army  as  a  persuasive  aid  in  politics  led 
to  troublesome  insurrections  and  even  to  the  choice  of 
local  emperors.  But  we  may  believe  that,  when  one  of 
these  adventurers  had  removed  the  trained  imperial 
legions  on  a  continental  escapade,  the  appeal  of  Romanized 
Britain  for  their  return  was  inspired  by  affection  as  well 

1  See  generally  on  this  epoch  C.   Oman,  England  before  the 
Norman  Conquest,  pp.  90,  171,  175,  &c.  (1910). 

2  Tacitus,  lulii  Agric.  Vita,  cap.  21. 

C  2 


36  IRELAND  THE  OUTPOST 

as  dictated  by  alarm.  During  more  than  three  centuries, 
a  people  had  been  raised  from  the  Homeric  stage  of 
culture  to  citizenship  in  the  first  imperial  commonwealth. 
The  great  untamed  wastes  of  Eurasia,  where  every  warrior 
was  a  horseman  and  owned  no  settled  camp,  were  now 
menacing  the  indented  coastlands  of  the  west.  Even  the 
Goths  in  Gaul  and  Italy  fought  against  the  east  to  main- 
!m-  tain  what  Rome  had  been.  Ireland,  however,  excluded 
of  ire-  by  its  outpost-situation  from  the  common  sympathies 
and  perils  of  the  empire,  was  not  called  on  in  the  fifth 
century  to  contribute  to  the  struggle  of  civilization 
against  the  Huns. 

What  Ireland  received  from  Rome  came  to  her  un- 
witting and  unwilling.  The  prosperity  of  Britain  under 
the  empire,  of  which  we  have  good  evidence  in  the  towns 
that  are  grouped  even  against  the  Roman  Wall,  was 
known  in  the  outpost,1  and  tempted  the  Irish  fishermen 
to  become  raiders  of  the  western  shores.  During  the 
exploration  of  a  villa  in  South  Wales,  the  story  of  one  of 
their  incursions  has  been  traced  by  the  skeletons  strewn 
upon  the  tesselated  floor,  as  surely  and  as  terribly  as  on 
the  canvas  of  a  Rochegrosse.  Niall  of  the  Nine  Hostages, 
whose  family  of  eight  sons  enabled  him  to  found  two 
dynasties  in  Ireland,  organized  an  invading  fleet  in  the 
The  critical  closing  years  of  the  fourth  century.  In  a  descent 
s<°rpat-  on  Banna venta  in  the  vale  of  Clyde,2  a  boy  and  a  girl, 
rick.  children  of  a  Roman  urban  councillor,  were  carried  into 
slavery  and  separated  in  the  crowd  of  captives.  The  girl 
was  lost  sight  of  in  the  mountainous  west ;  the  boy  was 

1  R.  A.  S.  Macalister  (Proc.  R.  Irish  Acad.,  vol.  xxxiv,  sect.  C, 
p.  281)  points  out  that  Cormac  mac  Art  (A.  D.  227-66)  sustained 
his  power  in  Ireland  by  organizing  an  army  on  the  Roman 
model. 

2  Or  perhaps,  as  J.  B.  Bury  believes,  on  the  lower  reaches  of 
the  Severn  (Life  of  Saint  Patrick,  p.  17,  1905). 


IRELAND  AND  THE  ROMAN  WORLD        37 

sold  to  a  cattle-farmer  near  the  Fochlad  forest.  The 
locality  remains  obscure  ;  but  for  six  years  the  young 
Patricius  served  an  Irish  master.  When  he  escaped,  it 
seems  probable  that  a  sea-route  carried  him,  not  to 
Britain,  but  to  Gaul.  An  Ijish  sea-captain  was  not  sure 
at  that  time  of  a  welcome  on  the  harassed  British  coast. 
Patrick  proceeded  to  study  with  St.  Germanus  of  Auxerre, 
whose  name  is  fittingly  recorded  in  a  Cornish  church  and 
town.  A  few  years  earlier,  this  vigorous  ecclesiastic 
had  successfully  combined  in  Britain  both  spiritual  and 
military  campaigns.  He  had  annihilated  the  Pelagian 
heresy  in  the  south,  and  a  menacing  army  of  Picts  and 
Saxons  in  the  midlands.1  The  young  Patrick's  history 
would  appeal  strongly  to  one  who  knew  the  geographical 
relations  of  the  islands.  Rome  could  now  gain  a  footing 
in  the  outpost  by  nobler  means  than  the  imperial  arms. 

Patrick  yearned  to  be  the  instrument  by  which  Christian  Christian 
doctrine  could  be  spread  among  his  former  captors,  tfojf^f1' 
A  few  isolated  churches  already  existed  in  Ireland,  but  Ireland- 
the  opportunity  had  now  come  for  annexing  the  very 
stronghold  of  the  Gaelic  faith.  Patrick's  mission  began 
in  A.  D.  432,  and  its  rapid  success  is  as  much  a  testimony 
to  his  personal  character  as  to  the  receptive  disposition 
of  the  Irish  chiefs.  Without  any  marked  change  of 
manners  or  relaxation  of  intertribal  feuds,  Ireland  took 
to  her  heart  the  choicest  gift  of  Rome.  Her  conversion 
thus  revived  the  ancient  bond  with  Europe  and  the 
Mediterranean.  Whatever  fate  might  fall  on  Britain, 
Ireland  was  able  to  preserve,  by  the  Armorican  sea,  the 
Mare  Gallicum,  an  open  interchange  of  commerce  and 
ideas  with  Gaul.  King  Niall,  indeed,  was  shot  by  a  rival 
Irishman  somewhere  near  this  Gallic  Sea,  and  possibly 
on  the  estuary  of  the  Loire. 

1  See  Oman,  op.  cit.,  p.  196. 

58615 


38  IRELAND  THE  OUTPOST 

While  St.  Patrick  and  his  followers  were  carrying  out 
their  peaceful  work  in  Ireland,  the  heathen  Saxons  landed 
in  the  Isle  of  Thanet ;   away  in  the  north,  they  captured 
Joyous  Card,  the  refuge  of  Iseult  of  Ireland,  and  they 
ravaged  the  shores  of  Britain  from  Northumbria  to  the 
Thames.    The  historian  John  Richard  Green  invites  the 
happily  mixed  race   of  modern  Englishmen   to   regard 
as  sacred  the  spot  that  '  first  felt  the  tread  of  English 
feet ' ; l  but  the  arrival  of  these  ruthless  '  Teutons '  of  the 
old  Nordic  stock  was  for  long  a  blessing  much  disguised. 
Devasta-  Green  gives  a  frank  and  terrible  picture  of  the  war  of 
England,  extermination  carried  on  by  them  with  German  thorough- 
ness for  the  next  two  hundred  years.     It  ended  in  the 
destruction  of  all  that  Rome  had  stood  for,  from  Anderida, 
the  fort  that  watched  the  narrow  sea,  to  Uriconium,  the 
white  city  at  the  gates  of  Wales.    The  internal  troubles 
of  Ireland  at  this  period  seem  small  in  comparison  with 
the  sweep  of  the  barbarians  across  Britain.    In  the  shelter 
of  the  outpost,  Roman  and  even  Greek  letters  remained 
in  the  safe-keeping  of  the  Irish  monks.    Kings  who  warred 
freely  on  their  neighbours  within  the  island-sanctuary 
yet   vied   with   one   another  in   the   encouragement   of 
collegiate  schools.    Before  the  close  of  the  fifth  century, 
Buithe,  returning  from  Italy,  founded  north  ot  Drogheda 
the  '  Monasterboice  '   that  still  records  his  name.     In 
A.  D.  548,  when  the  West  Saxons  were  pushing  towards 
Scholar-   the  great  ringed  forts  on  Salisbury  Plain,   St.   Ciaran 
theP *       planted  the  first  post  of  Clonmacnoise  on  a  promontory 
o-TthT      °*  *ne  central  Shannon,  and  was  helped  in  his  pious  task 
outpost,    by  a  prince  destined  for  the  kingship.    St.  Kevin,  himself 
of  royal  blood,  was  forced  towards  the  end  of  the  sixth 
century  to  transform  his  retreat    among   the  Leinster 
glens  into  a  populous  seat  of  learning.    He  had  still  some 
1  A  Short  History  of  the  English  People,  chap.  I,  section  ii. 


IRELAND  AND  THE  ROMAN  WORLD    39 

years  to  live,  as  the  respected  principal  of  the  school  of 
Glendalough,  when,  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  channel, 
^Ethelfrith  stormed  the  Romano-British  town  of  Chester, 
and  1,200  unarmed  monks,  representatives  of  the  culture 
of  the  epoch,  were  slain  on  the  open  meadows  of  the  Dee 
in  a  vain  appeal  for  miraculous  intervention. 

The  events  of  1914  to  1919  have  thrown  a  vivid  light 
on  the  conditions  of  life  in  the  outpost  in  the  fifth,  sixth, 
and  seventh  centuries.  Undisturbed  by  the  crash  of 
European  governments,  the  Irish  scholars  were  free  to 
develop  an  exquisite  taste  in  illuminated  manuscripts 
and  a  liberal  cultivation  of  literary  arts.  The  death- 
struggle  of  the  Christian  church  in  Britain  left  them 
without  competitors  in  missionary  zeal.  Latin,  the 
language  of  cultivated  Europe,  had  been  preserved  in 
Ireland  as  a  medium  of  intercourse  with  foreign  lands. 
Heroic  monks  now  went  forth  to  meet  the  heathen  wave, 
and  even  to  check  it  at  its  source.  Columba,  from  his 
monastery  of  lona  among  the  foam-swept  Hebrid  isles, 
had  penetrated  the  highland  country  of  the  Picts,  and 
Columban  had  revived  Christianity  in  the  forest-lands  of 
eastern  Gaul,  before  Augustine,  in  A.  D.  597,  sought  the 
conversion  of  the  Angles,  and  brought  once  more  across 
the  narrow  sea  the  message  of  immortal  Rome. 

V.  THE  HARBOURS  OF  THE  NORTHMEN  AND 
THE  NORMANS 

IN  the  ninth  century,  the  Anglo-Saxons  and  the  Irish, 
united  now  by  a  common  religious  culture,  became  alike 
threatened  by  the  great  expansion  from  Scandinavia. 
The  sea-rovers  of  the  antique  Nordic  stock,  who  may  be  ^o^ 
classed  together  as  Northmen,  appeared  at  first  as  ruth-  the 

.  .,  North- 

less  pirates,  weary  of  confinement  in  their  narrow  viks  men. 


40  IRELAND  THE  OUTPOST 

and  fjords  ;  but  they  showed  in  the  end  an  unexpected 
genius  for  settlement  and  ordered  rule.  Facilities  for 
trade  in  the  Baltic  region  had  no  doubt  already  influenced 
the  Northmen  of  the  Swedish  coast.  The  leaders  who 
were  invited  to  Novgorod,  who  organized  the  strength 
of  Russia,  and  who  met  in  a  few  years  at  Kiev  the  civiliza- 
tion of  the  eastern  empire,  had  acquired  a  larger  outlook 
than  that  of  the  raiders  who  first  attacked  the  Irish 
shores.  The  British  Isles  lay  full  in  the  track  of  the 
ruder  migrations  from  the  west  of  Norway.  Away  in 
the  north  the  rovers  harried  Iceland,  which  had  seemed 
a  safe  retreat  for  a  colony  of  Irish  monks.  They  crossed 
repeatedly  to  Greenland,  much  as  their  descendants  do 
in  trading  vessels  from  Tromso  at  the  present  day.  But 
in  England  and  Ireland  the  Vikings  came  across  monastic 
centres  that  seemed  to  them  veritable  treasure-houses. 
The  wants  of  a  raiding-party  were  often  amply  satisfied 
by  the  brutal  murder  of  a  community  of  churchmen  and 
the  rifling  of  the  chests  that  held  the  gifts  of  kings.  The 
islets,  outposts  of  the  outpost,  where  the  chant  of  lauds 
and  evensong  was  answered  only  by  the  crying  of  sea- 
birds,  now  seemed  jettisoned  of  God  in  a  sea  that  swirled 
with  devilry.  Even  the  Skelligs  off  the  west  of  Kerry, 
with  their  perilous  approaches  cut  in  the  rock-face,  were 
sacked  by  pirates  who  had  scaled  Torghatten  or  the 
Lofotens.  The  sight  of  beehive-cells  and  the  steep  stone 
roofs  of  churches  attracted  the  rovers  to  the  harbour- 
heads.  They  discovered  St.  Finnbarr's  town  on  the 
marshland  in  the  estuary  of  the  Lee  ;  they  sailed  up  the 
drowned  valley  of  the  Shannon,  the  Luimneach,1  and 
rifled  St.  Mainchin's  church  on  an  ill-defended  isle.  The 
spacious  western  sea  offered  them  a  certain  safeguard ; 

1  T.  J.  Westropp,  '  The  Antiquities  of  Limerick  arid  its  Neigh- 
bourhood', Roy.  Soc.  Antiquaries  of  Ireland,  p.  7  (1916). 


HARBOURS  OF  NORTHMEN  AND  NORMANS  41 

but  Ulster  no  longer  kept  a  navy,  and  the  strangers  came 
through  the  narrows  and  seized  the  shores  of  Dublin 
Bay.  Here  they  held  the  true  and  European  gate  of 
Ireland,  and  from  it,  in  successive  descents,  they  harried 
the  villages  in  the  plain.  The  unimportant  group  of 
wattled  houses  at  the  first  ford  on  the  Liffey  was  soon 
converted  into  a  stronghold  by  the  Northmen,  who  built  Found- 

J  ing  of 

their  castle  upon  rising  ground  just  above  the  anchorage  Dublin, 
of  the  ships.  The  name  of  Dublin,  derived  from  the 
black  pool  of  the  river,  has  ever  since  been  associated 
with  the  settlement  and  dominance  of  strangers.1  In 
spite  of  many  attempts  made  by  the  plainsmen  to  eject 
them,  the  Scandinavians  here  founded  an  abiding  city, 
which  passed  in  1170  into  the  hands  of  their  Norman 
relatives,  and  not  into  those  of  the  representatives  of 
central  rule  in  Ireland.  Scandinavian  Dublin,  by  virtue 
of  its  control  of  the  great  harbour  opening  to  the  east, 
thus  held  its  own  for  more  than  three  centuries,  and  for 
156  years  after  the  disastrous  but  indecisive  battle  of 
Clontarf .  Hlimrek  (Limerick)  on  the  Shannon  has  almost 
the  same  history  ;  the  city,  founded  by  sea-power,  was 
walled  against  enemies  on  the  landward  side.  Carlingford,  Norse 
commanding  the  drowned  valley  of  the  Newry  River ;  in  ire. 
Wexford  (the  White  Fjord)  on  the  broad  white  water  at  land- 
the  Slaney  mouth  ;  and  Waterford,  with  its  sheltered 
anchorage  far  in  among  the  hills,  recall  in  their  names 
the  grip  of  the  Northmen  upon  Irish  harbours  and  their 
development  of  external  trade.  The  Portuguese,  Dutch, 
and  English  settlements  in  the  Indies  afford  many  later 
parallels  with  this  chain  of  alien  towns  in  Ireland. 
When,  however,  we  use  the  words  '  stranger  '  and  '  alien  ', 
let  us  remember  that  the  strangers  of  one  century  may 

1  See  the  historical  account  in  S.  A.  O.  Fitzpatrick,  Dublin, 
Ancient  Cities  Series  (1907). 


42  IRELAND  THE  OUTPOST 

become  the  strength  of  a  people  in  the  next,  and  that  the 
mixed  race  of  modern  Irishmen  owes  more  elements  than 
it  is  ready  to  acknowledge  to  the  process  of  ethnic  diffusion 
through  its  eastern  gates. 

In  estimating  the  strength  of  the  Scandinavian  cities 
in  the  outpost  in  the  tenth  and  eleventh  centuries,  we 
should  note  that  the  Irish  clansmen  were  no  longer 
struggling  against  isolated  groups  of  raiders,  but  against 
an  organized  force  that  had  made  its  mark  in  Europe. 
The  Dublin  that  was  attacked  by  Brian  from  his  western 
kingdom  on  the  Shannon  was,  so  far  as  reinforcements 
went,  a  salient  of  the  greater  Denmark.  Three  years 
after  the  battle  of  Clontarf,  Knut  the  Great,  a  Christian 
like  his  kinsmen  in  Dublin,  became  master  of  the  whole 
of  England,  identified  himself  with  his  subjects  as  a 
generous  ruler,  and  kept  the  peace  among  them  during 
a  reign  of  twenty  years. 

The  chain  of  Scandinavian  ports  was  broken  in  the 

twelfth  century  by  the  Anglo-Normans,  who  forged  it 

again  for  their  own  advantage  from  within  the  island, 

connexions  being  now  established  by  cross-routes  through 

the  plain.    The  harbours  that  were  visited  by  Gallic  and 

Phoenician  traders,  and  colonized  by  the  valour  and  the 

civic  virtues  of  the  Northmen,  proved,  as  time  went  on, 

essential   to   the   safety    of   the    Anglo-Norman   state. 

impor-     Henry  II  spent  most  of  his  life  upon  the  Continent, 

of'the       unwilling  to  admit  that  his  real  domain  lay  westward  of 

to  the"8  *ne  narrow  sea-     Yet  he  recognized  the  close  relations 

English    of  the  outlying  islands  of  his  realm,  and  '  by  his  power 

England,  Scotland,  and  Ireland  were  brought  to  some 

vague  acknowledgment  of  a  common  suzerain  lord,  and 

the  foundations  laid  of  the  United  Kingdom  of  Great 

Britain  and  Ireland  '-1    In  proportion  as  England  relaxed 

1  Alice  S.  Green,  Henry  the  Second,  p.  i  (1892). 


HARBOURS  OF  NORTHMEN  AND  NORMANS  43 

her  larger  claims  and  was  driven  out  of  France,  so  she 
was  inevitably  urged  to  assert  her  hold  on  Ireland.  The 
great  development  of  navies  in  the  English  Channel  from 
the  time  of  Edward  III  to  that  of  Henry  V  turned  the 
thoughts  of  statesmen  keenly  to  the  harbours  of  the 
outpost.  The  unknown  author  of  the  propagandist 
poem  '  The  Libelle  of  Englyshe  Poly  eye  ',  which  was 
circulated  in  I436,1  puts  the  matter  very  plainly.  ;He 
had  seen  the  triumph  of  the  armies  of  the  Maid,  the 
defection  of  Burgundy,  the  loss  of  Maine  and  Anjou,  and 
he  looked  on  Calais  as  a  sort  of  Gibraltar,  the  guardian 
lion  of  the  Dover  Strait.  '  English  John  Talbot '  had 
been  withdrawn  from  his  difficult  duties  as  viceroy  of 
Ireland  to  spend  the  last  years  of  his  life  on  the  fighting 
front  in  France.  But  the  author  of  the  '  Libelle  '  knew 
that  danger  might  lurk  also  on  the  western  shore,  where 
Ireland  was  to  him  '  a  boterasse  and  a  poste '.  In  times 
when  ships  had  come  to  hold  the  balance  among  the 
powers  of  the  Atlantic  seaboard,  the  English  king  must 
be  Dominus  Hiberniae  in  fact  as  well  as  name.  No 
enemy  must  be  allowed  to  seize  the  harbours  of  the 
European  outpost.  It  is  hard  to  realize  that  much  of 
the  advice  thus  given  still  remains  applicable  after  an 
interval  of  five  hundred  years.  The  author  remarks  with 
truth,  '  I  knowe  with  Irland  howe  it  stant  ',  and  he  tells 
us  that  his  information  came  direct  from  the  viceroy 
Ormond. 

The  Yriche  men  have  cause  lyke  to  cures 
Our  londe  and  herres  togedre  defende, 

1  Variorum  text,  Thomas  Wright,  Political  Poems  and  Songs 
relating  to  English  History  ('  Chronicles  and  Memorials  of  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland  during  the  Middle  Ages ',  published  under  the 
direction  of  the  Master  of  the  Rolls),  vol.  ii,  pp.  xl.  and  157 
(1861).  See  also  Hakluyt,  Voyages,  Everyman  Edition,  vol.  i, 
p.  174. 


44  IRELAND  THE  OUTPOST 

That  none  enmye  shulde  hurte  ne  offende 

Yrelonde  ne  us,  but  as  one  comonte 

Shulde  helpe  to  kepe  welle  aboute  the  see. 

Ffor  they  have  havenesse  grete  and  godely  bayes, 

Sure  wyde,  and  depe,  of  gode  assay es, 

Att  Waterforde  and  coostis  monye  one, 

As  men  seyn  in  Englande,  be  there  none 

Better  havenesse  shyppes  in  to  ryde, 

No  more  sure  for  enemyes  to  abyde. 


VI.    THE  BARRIER  OF  LEINSTER  AND  THE 
IRISH  PLAIN 

BEFORE  the  epoch  of  St.  Patrick's  mission,  the  com- 
parative ease  of  communication  across  the  limestone  plain 
of  Ireland  had  led  to  the  establishment  of  a  general 
Tara.  overlord,  an  ard-ri,  whose  court  was  held  at  Tara.  This 
flat-topped  eminence,  though  rising  only  500  feet  above 
the  sea,  commands  a  wide  view  ol  the  country,  and  was 
no  doubt  a  place  for  signal-fires  and  sacrifice  before  it 
became  the  homestead  of  the  kings.  .It  is  also  significant 
that  Tara  is  by  no  means  in  the  centre  of  the  country, 
but  looks  across  to  the  Hill  of  Slane  and  the  noble  tumuli 
on  the  Boyne.1  The  plateau  of  Rathcroghan,  occupied 
by  the  kings  of  Connaught,  would  have  seemed  more 
suited  for  the  offices  of  a  federal  system,  and  the  choice 
of  Tara  suggests  very  old  tradition,  going  back  to  the 
times  when  it  guarded  the  camps  of  folk  who  had  entered 
from  the  eastern  sea.  In  spite  of  the  recognition  of  an 
overlordship,  the  wars  between  Ulster  and  Connaught 
continued,  and  the  hostility  of  Leinster  was  intensified 

1  Since  these  words  were  written,  the  important  study  of  Tara 
by  R.  A.  S.  Macalister  has  appeared,  emphasizing  a  connexion 
between  the  remains  on  the  hilltop  and  New  Grange  ('  Temair 
Breg',  Proc.  R.  Irish  Acad.,  vol.  xxxiv,  sect.  C,  p.  383,  1919)- 


THE  BARRIER  OF  LEINSTER 


45 


by  the  exactions,  and  perhaps  also  by  the  proximity,  of 
the  central  power.  The  whole  spirit  and  policy  of  Leinster 
were  dominated  by  the  great  chain  of  granite,  80  miles 
in  length,  that  served  as  a  natural  fortress,  approached 


MAP  2.    THE  LEINSTER  CHAIN  AND  THE  GATES  OF  EASTERN 
IRELAND. 

only  by  narrow  lateral  glens.  The  rocky  walls  of  these 
valleys,  with  their  wooded  clefts,  provided  ambushes 
that  told  strongly  in  defence  (fig.  5).  On  the  eastern 
flank,  between  the  moorland  and  the  sea,  a  fertile  strip 


46  IRELAND  THE  OUTPOST 

The  of  drift-covered  land  runs  from  Bray  Head  down  to 
f^of5  Bannow  Bay,  sheltered  from  the  western  storms,  and 
Leinster.  providing  grass  for  cattle  even  if  the  soil  is  somewhat  stiff 
for  tillage.  Over  this  important  coast-land,  the  men  who 
held  the  mountains  held  also  the  approaches  from  the 
sea  (fig.  3).  Landing-parties  might  be  allowed  to  straggle 
up  over  the  meadows  ;  the  flag  of  the  stranger  might 
wave  gaily  enough  above  his  tents  along  the  shore  ;  but 
the  dissected  and  difficult  country  lying  inland  from 
Bray  Head  cut  off  his  communications  with  the  settled 
port  of  Dublin,  and  his  provisions  must  be  brought 
southward  to  precarious  and  open  harbours  on  the  coast. 
The  water-parting  on  the  moorland  formed  a  continuous 
line  for  scouting,  and  even  the  passes,  rising  almost  to 
the  summits  of  the  chain,  gave  the  Leinstermen  the 
advantage  that  is  gained  in  our  time  by  the  observant 
forces  of  the  air. 

An  important  economic  factor  in  the  early  days  was 

the  occurrence  in  a  valley  west  of  Arklow  of  rich  deposits 

Gold  in    of  alluvial-  gold.    This  lay  in  the  controlled  zone  of  the 

T       *         4- 

Leinster  foot-hills.  Even  in  1436,  Irish  gold  was  still 
known  to  jewellers  in  London  ;  but  by  that  time  the 
most  fruitful  gravels  had  undoubtedly  been  worked  out. 
The  '  gold  rush  '  of  1796  hardly  paid  expenses,  though  at 
the  time  of  its  discovery  the  Wicklow  nugget  of  22  Troy 
ounces  (685  grammes)  was  the  largest  recorded  in  the 
world.1  The  kings  of  Leinster,  long  after  the  palmy. and 
prehistoric  days  of  gold-hunting,  may  well  have  regarded 
themselves  as  custodians  of  a  special  treasury  in  Ireland. 
*~The  energies  of  these  upland  people  were  thus  largely 

1  See  Gerrard  A.  Kinahan, '  On  the  Occurrence  and  Winning  of 
Gold  in  Ireland ',  Journ.  R.  Geol.  Soc.  Ireland,  vol.  vi,  p.  135 
(1882),  and  W.  W.  Smyth,  Records  R.  School  of  Mines,  vol.  i, 
part  3,  p.  400  (1853). 


FIG.  3.     THE  WICKLOW  COAST  SOUTH  OF  BRAY  HEAD. 


FIG.  4.     THE  SITE  OF  DUBLIN.     From  the  north  end  of  the 
Leinster  Chain. 


THE  BARRIER  OF  LEINSTER  47 

influenced  by  geographical  conditions  and  were  generally 
directed  against  the  more  fortunate  dwellers  in  the 
plainland.  Their  inborn  love  of  raiding  extended  from 
their  tribal  policy  to  a  choice  of  alien  wives.  The  famous 
taxation  forced  upon  them  from  Tara,  and  maintained 
with  irritating  rigour  for  fully  four  hundred  years,  is  said 
to  have  been  due  to  an  act  of  treachery  to  a  queen.  The 
alliance  with  Strongbow  and  his  Cambro-Normans  arose 
from  an  abduction  carried  out  in  the  far  north-west 
under  the  terraced  Sligo  hills.  The  men  of  the  barrier  of 
Leinster,  sufficient  to  themselves,  gained  little  sympathy 
from  the  cajyje^wners  of  the  central  ^plateaus,  and  in 
return  gave  little  help  towards  an  organized  and  effective 
Ireland.  Alliances  were  sought  in  Leinster  with  the  The  hill- 


invading   Northmen,   and   even   Brian's   rearguard   was     u    * 


attacked  in  the  valley  of  the  Barrow  while  retiring  with 
the  convoys  and  the  wounded  from  the  hard-  won  victory  plain 
of  Clontarf.  Dermot  MacMurrogh  had  invited  the 
Normans  into  Wexford  and  Waterford,  those  old  ports 
of  trade  with  eastern  lands  ;  but,  when  these  towns  came 
perforce  under  the  feudal  rule  of  England,  Dublin,  as  the 
seat  of  government,  was  at  once  proclaimed  the  enemy 
of  Leinster. 

In  their  attack  on  Scandinavian  Dublin  in  1170,  the 
Normans  and  their  temporary  allies  of  Leinster  swarmed 
down  the  slopes  of  Slieve  Roe,  the  northern  extremity  of 
the  granite  chain  (fig.  4).  A  little  later,  the  same  slopes 
were  watched  with  some  anxiety  by  citizens  whose  affairs 
became  more  and  more  controlled  by  English  policy 
through  the  gate  of  Dublin  Bay.  The  massacre  of 
prominent  inhabitants  of  Dublin,  while  feasting  in  Cullens- 
wood  close  to  the  city  on  Easter  Monday  1209,  illus- 
trates the  nature  of  the  warfare  carried  on  by  the  hillmen 
against  those  whom  they  now  regarded  as  intrusive 


48  IRELAND  THE  OUTPOST 

aliens.  Bristol  was  nominated  by  the  Crown  as  a  sort 
of  godmother  to  Dublin,  and  this  city,  famous  for  its 
'  merchants  adventurers  ',  sent  forth  further  settlers  to 
sustain  the  English  power.  By  rounding  the  salient  of 
the  Leinster  range,  the  Anglo-Normans  traversed  the 
Irish  lowland  as  far  as  Limerick,  and  the  gap  west  of 
the  Galty  Mountains  and  the  Ballyhoura  Hills  became 
important  in  opening  up  an  English  route  to  Cork.  This 
wide  passage  among  the  Armorican  ranges  has  now  been 
followed  by  the  Great  Southern  and  Western  Railway, 
the  construction  of  which  completes  the  long  history  of 
The  road  land-communication  between  the  south-west  and  the 
south6-  capital  of  Ireland.  The  route  is  obvious  enough  as  far 
west-  as  Charleville,  and  runs  across  the  limestone  of  the  plain, 
between  the  Leinster  barrier  and  the  Castlecomer  plateau 
on  the  east  and  the  Armorican  outliers  that  rise  boldly 
in  Queen's  County  and  Tipperary  on  the  west.  The  low 
limestone  country  is  similarly  followed  round  the  end  of 
the  elongated  Galty-Ballyhoura  dome,  until  the  road 
faces  the  closely-set  ranges  of  the  south,  where  Mallow 
now  stands  upon  the  Blackwater.  Here,  however,  there 
is  only  one  pass  to  be  surmounted.  By  utilizing  a  con- 
sequent valley  descending  to  the  Blackwater,  and  another 
descending  southward  to  the  Lee,  the  road  and  the  railway 
cross  the  Old  Red  Sandstone  arch  in  a  narrow  gap  only 
460  feet  above  the  sea.  It  is  easy  to  see  how  the  possession 
of  Dublin  by  a  mobilized  force  of  soldiers,  accustomed 
to  cavalry  excursions  and  supported  by  supplies  from 
oversea,  enabled  thfe  Anglo-Normans  to  enforce  their 
rule  throughout  the  lower  ground  of  Ireland.  Louth, 
Meath,  Dublin,  Kildare,  Carlow,  Kilkenny,  Tipperary, 
Limerick,  all  lay  open  to  them.  Most  of  the  higher  masses 
in  these  counties  are  merely  islands  rising  from  the  plain. 
Kerry  was  held  to  some  extent  by  the  possession  of  the 


THE  BARRIER  OF  LEINSTER  49 

Ballyhoura  gap,  which  also  gave  access  to  the  subsequent 
valleys  stretching  east  and  west,  as 'guiding  lines,  through 
Cork.  Wexford  was  easily  reached  by  sea  from  Dublin, 
and  Waterford,  the  first  prize  of  Strongbow,  became  a 
recognized  gateway  between  Wales  and  the  new  domains 
in  the  heart  of  Tipperary.1 

Through  all  this  country  Anglo-Norman  castles  rose,  The 
holding  the  bridge-heads  and  dominating  what  may  be  builders, 
regarded  as  clearings  in  the  Irish  lands.  A  century  earlier, 
the  same  system  of  government  by  local  tyrants  had 
confirmed  Norman  rule  in  Wales  and  England.  When 
terrorism  had  done  its  work,  the  central  power  could  take 
over  the  subjugated  districts,  and  an  appeal  to  justice 
became  possible  through  union  under  the  overlord  or 
king.  In  Ireland,  however,  the  overlord  was  far  away, 
and  the  vices  of  '  self-determination  '  were  more  easily 
practised  by  the  barons  in  their  separated  strongholds. 
The  castles  on  the  margins  of  the  conquered  territory 
were  stained  by  acts  of  treachery  and  murder  rather  than 
sustained  by  valour  ;  and  some,  like  the  massive  tower 
of  Bunratty,2  were  stormed  by  infuriated  clansmen,  were 
rebuilt  under  royal  authority,  were  again  captured,  and 
remained  in  Irish  hands  down  to  the  great  rising  of 
1641. 

On  the  other  hand,  intermarriage  with  the  Irish,  and 
a  sense  of  common  interests  in  the  outpost,  created  milder 
relations  in  many  regions  of  the  plainland.  Even  in  the 
barrier  of  Leinster,  a  respect  grew  up  between  man  and 
man  that  was  fatal  to  the  formal  divisions  insisted  on 
by  English  law.  When  Art  MacMurrogh  of  Leinster 

1  See  the  list  of  shires  under  English  jurisdiction  as  early  as 
King  John's  reign  (1210),  in  P.  W.  Joyce,  Short  History  of  Ireland, 
p.  288  (1895). 

2  G.  U.  Macnamara,  '  The  Antiquities  of  Limerick,  &c.',  Roy. 
Soc.  Antiqu.  Ireland,  p.  105  (1916). 

2244  D        • 


50  IRELAND  THE  OUTPOST 

married  the  daughter  of  a  Fitzgerald  of  Kildare,  it  is 
characteristic  of  the  times  that  the  Dublin  government, 
instead  of  hailing  the  entente  and  using  it  to  their  own 
advantage,  at  once  confiscated  the  lady's  property  in 
the  plainland. 

Froissart's  story,  however,  taken  down  from  the  lips 
of  a  knight  whom  he  met  at  Eltham,  gives  a  distinctly 
A  story  pleasing  picture  of  life  among  the  tribal  Irish.  Henry 
wiif°°  Christead,  or  Chrystall,  or  Castide,1  told  the  chronicler 
how  he  had  been  carried  off  by  the  wild  Irish  during 
a  skirmish  near  Dublin,  and  brought  '  into  a  town  and 
a  strong  house  among  the  woods,  waters,  and  mires  '. 
His  captor  was  a  '  goodly  man '  named  Brian  Costerec. 
They  lived  together  for  seven  years,  and  Christead 
married  Brian's  daughter.  Ultimately — and  this  makes 
it  probable  that  the  '  town  '  was  somewhere  down  in 
Wicklow — the  father-in-law  was  in  turn  taken  prisoner 
during  Art  MacMurrogh's  attack  upon  the  English  in 
1394.  He  was  riding  the  swift  horse  that,  seven  years 
before,  had  carried  Christead  too  far  among  the  retreat- 
ing enemy,  and  Ormond's  soldiers  recognized  it,  probably 
as  a  favourite  whom  they  had  often  backed.  Brian  was 
given  his  release  on  condition  that  he  surrendered  Christead 
and  Christead's  family,  which  the  old  man  was  very  loath 
to  do  ;  for,  says  the  Englishman,  '  he  loved  me  well  and 
my  wife  his  daughter  and  our  children  '.  It  was  finally 
arranged  that  one  of  the  granddaughters  should  remain 
with  Brian;  Christead  settled  in  Bristol  with  his  wife 
and  his  second  daughter,  who  evidently  married  into 
England,  while  the  elder  sister  married  in  Ireland. 

1  If  we  try  to  transcribe  the  signatures  from  ten  or  twelve 
business-letters  of  the  twentieth  century,  we  soon  come  to  excuse 
the  mediaeval  copyists  for  their  apparent  carelessness  about 
names.  Christead's  story  is  to  be  found  in  Froissart's  Chronicles, 
Lord  Berners'  translation,  Globe  edition,  p.  430. 


THE  BARRIER  OF  LEINSTER  51 

'  And  ',  Christead  went  on  to  say,  '  the  language  of  Irish 
is  as  ready  to  me  as  the  English  tongue,  for  I  have 
always  continued  with  my  wife  and  taught  my  children 
the  same  speech.'  Christead  was  in  consequence  employed 
by  Richard  II  to  instruct  the  four  kings  who  had  sub- 
mitted themselves,  being  for  a  while  tired  of  warfare,  in 
knightly  usage  and  Anglo-Norman  manners.  One  of  his 
duties,  characteristically  enough,  was  to  introduce  class 
distinctions  among  the  members  of  the  Irish  clans. 
Froissart  asked  how  the  war,  ended  in  such  a  friendly 
fashion,  and  he  received  an  explanation  which  should 
have  sunk  deeply  into  the  hearts  of  English  statesmen. 
Richard  had  appeared  in  the  field  under  the  arms  and 
colours  of  Edward  the  Confessor,  a  saintly  prince  revered 
in  Ireland.  He  had  not  flaunted  the  '  libbards  aod 
flower-de-luces  quarterly ',  which  would  have  marked 
him  as  a  European  stranger  ;  and  he  appealed  to  the 
Irish  chiefs  through  bonds  of  affection  in  the  past.  The 
blockade  of  the  ports  by  the  English  had  been  severe 
and  the  show  of  martial  power  had  been  impressive  ; 
but  this  imaginative  touch  proved  to  the  western  folk 
that  King  Richard  was  '  a  good  man  and  of  good  con- 
science '. 

This  may  not  at  first  sight  seem  to  be  a  question  of 
geography  ;  but  it  was  a  recognition  of  local  feeling  in 
the  outpost,  and  feeling  not  necessarily  on  English  lines. 
The  clash  between  feudalism  and  the  clan-system,  which 
was  illustrated  by  the  arrangement  of  Richard  II's 
dinner-table  at  Dublin  Castle,  was  not,  however,  to  be 
readily  smoothed  over.  "Ormond,  who  spoke  Irish 
fluently,  probably  understood  the  situation  far  better 
than  the  new-comers  ;  but  the  narrow  sea,  which  had 
preserved  some  individuality  in  Ireland,  provided,  for 
good  or  ill,  a  highway  from  the  port  of  Bristol.  The  ideas 

D  2 


52  IRELAND  THE  OUTPOST 

of  Bristol,  and,  through  Bristol,  of  East  Anglia,  became 
the  dominant  ideas  of  Dublin,  and  even  Richard,  five 
years  later,  carried  the  English  leopards  '  en  blason  '  into 
Ireland.1 

The  kings  of  Ulster  and  Thomond,  as  well  as  Art 

MacMurrogh  of  the  Leinster  hills,  submitted  to  Richard 

at  the  close  of  his  first  campaign  ;    but  the  fighting  in 

Leinster  had  been  stubborn.     The  English  army  had 

landed  at  Waterford,  and  moved  up  the  west  side  of  the 

chain,  keeping  watch  from  the  Barrow  valley  on  the 

mouths  of  the  tributary  glens.    The  highland  loomed  so 

largely  in  the  strategy  of  the  time  that  the  terms  of 

peace  demanded  its  evacuation,  and  a  promise  to  that 

effect  was  given.    War,  however,  again  broke  out  when 

the  king  left  Dublin,  and  MacMurrogh 's  hillmen  swept 

The         down  on  Kilkenny  and  Kildare.    Although  the  King  of 

front  for  England  was  also  Dominus  Hiberniae,  Englishmen  for 

English    severa|  centuries  were  able  to  cultivate  their  love  of 

arms. 

adventure  on  a  double  fighting  front.  During  Richard's 
second  expedition,2  a  boy  named  Henry,  '  qui  estoit  bel 
et  jeune  bacheler',  earned  his  spurs  amid  scenes  of 
devastation  at  a  battle  in  the  Leinster  foot-hills.  Sixteen 
years  later,  we  find  him  riding  into  London  as  the  hero 

1  For  this  he  had  received  much  provocation  in  the  meantime. 
The  blazon  was  noted  in  Carlow  by  the  author  referred  to  in  the 
next  footnote. 

2  The  details  of  this  campaign  are  well  known  from  the  metrical 
account  of  Jehan  Creton,  who  took  part  in  it ;   '  Histoire  du  Roy 
d'Angleterre  Richard.     Composee  par  un  gentilhom'e  francois 
de  marque  qui  fut  a  la  suite  dudict  Roy.     1399,'  Brit.  Mus., 
Harleian  MSS.,   1319,  with  illuminated  illustrations  drawn  by 
or  under  the  direction  of  the  author.    For  text,  translation,  and 
critical  notes,  see  J.  Webb,   Archaeologia,   vol.  xx,  pp.    1-442 
(1824).    Also  P.  W.  Dillon,  ibid.,  vol.  xxviii,  pp.  77  and  85,  for 
references   to   the    author,   who    was  '  varlet    de  chambre '   to 
Charles  VI. 


THE  BARRIER  OF  LEINSTER  53 

of  Harfleur  and  Azincourt.  In  Ireland,  he  experienced 
the  dangers  of  a  passage  across  the  granite  upland  in 
pursuit  of  the  resourceful  highlanders,  whose  tactics 
nearly  brought  the  English  army  to  destruction.  The 
armour-plated  expeditionary  force,  unaccustomed  to  the 
treachery  of  mountain-bogs  1  and  of  bracken  deep  enough 
to  hide  a  foeman,  was  finally  rescued  from  starvation 
in  a  camp  on  the  eastern  shore,  by  food-ships  sent  from 
Dublin.  It  reached  the  well-furnished  colonial  city 
overland,  'probably  viewing  with  some  hesitation  the 
O' Byrnes  and  the  OTooles  grouped  along  the  skyline 
from  the  Glen  of  the  Downs  to  the  ridge  above  Kil- 
gobbin.  Three  years  later,  the  struggle  between  plain 
and  highland  was  emphasized  in  the  same  critical  country, 
only  twelve  miles  south-east  of  the  city,  and  the  civic 
sword  of  Dublin  records  to  this  day  the  victory  of  the 
English  holders  of  the  gate  of  Ireland. 

Even  in  the  time  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  when  Drake  and 
Cavendish  circled  the  globe  as  harriers  of  the  colonies  of 
Spain,  the  slopes  of  Slieve  Roe,  five  miles  from  Dublin, 
offered  a  ready  refuge  to  the  enemies  of  England.  Lord 
Grey  was  driven  back  in  1580  from  the  difficult  valley  of 
Glenmalure,  and  it  is  significant  that  Shakespeare  in 
1599,2  when  he  pictured  the  return  of  the  troops  from 
Azincourt,  turned  the  thoughts  of  his  audience  towards 
an  Irish  campaign,  the  issue  of  which  was  still  uncertain. 
The  suggested  comparison  was  unfortunate,  since,  while 
the  groundlings  were  applauding  in  the  London  theatre, 
the  army  of  Essex,  retiring  from  the  west,  received 
a  shattering  blow  at  Arklow,  between  the  stubborn 
range  of  Leinster  and  the  sea. 

1  As  Creton  says,  '  qui  nest  bien  songueux  .  .  .  il  y  faut  en- 
fondrer  Jusques  aux  rains,  ou  tout  dedens  entrer'. 

2  The  Life  of  King  Henry  the  Fifth,  Act  v,  Prologue,  line  30. 


54  IRELAND  THE  OUTPOST 

Down  to  the  bitter,  days  of  1798,  the  Leinster  glens 
were  the  shelter  of  all  who  took  to  the  heather  in  defiance 
of  common  government  centred  in  the  port  of  Dublin. 
The  The  famous  Military  Road,  from  Rathfarnham  to  the 
Road"7  valley  where  the  Aughrim  River  provides  a  passage 
through  the  hills,  was  constructed  in  1800  to  hold  the 
heads  of  the  glens,  and  to  gather,  as  it  were,  on  the 
uplands  the  whispers  of  the  secret  woods.  It  runs 
along  the  uninhabited  watershed,  descending  here  and 
there  to  convenient  intersections  with  roads  coming  up 
the  consequent  valleys  from  the  sea.  The  barrack-forts 
that  were  built  at  these  strategic  points  became,  in  happier 
times,  first  police-stations  and  then  ruins  ;  but  a  traverse 
of  the  half-abandoned  highway  still  gives  reality  and 
explanation  to  much  of  Irish  history. 

The  story  of  the  Leinster  Chain  in  its  relation  to  the 
lowlands  seems  crowded  with  episodes  of  war.  The 
destruction  of  prosperous  towns  and  monasteries  by 
various  raiders  in  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries 
shows,  however,  that  there  were  intervals  in  which 
prosperity  might  be  gained.  The  quarrels  among  the 
Anglo-Norman  barons,  who  took  advantage  of  the  com- 
parative remoteness  of  the  outpost,  are  responsible  for 
many  acts  of  devastation  ;  and  the  Irish  chiefs,  especially 
in  the  west,  were  only  too  ready  to  maintain  their  ancient 
animosities  by  alliances  with  the  castle-builders  of  the 
plain.  Ringed  about  by  the  sea,  and  untouched  by  the 
larger  sweep  of  policy  in  Europe,  Ireland  remained 
a  prey  to  men  who  assumed,  over  a  few  sparsely  inhabited 
counties,  the  dangerous  prerogatives  of  kings. 

The  brutalities  of  war  in  bygone  centuries  are  usually 
attributed  to  the  peculiar  malignancy  of  invaders  ;  but 
it  is  fair  to  remember  that  all  invaders  are  malignant  to 
the  folk  whom  they  overrun.  They  do  not  seize  on  ports 


THE  BARRIER  OF  LEINSTER  55 

and  harbours  for  the  benefit  of  dwellers  in  the  hinterland, 
and  we  may  ask  if  a  united  Ireland  would  have  been 
restrained  by  tenderness  and  remorse  if  it  had  felt  a  call 
for  national  expansion  and  had  settled  on  the  coast  of 
Wales.  The  spread  of  conquest  inwards  from  the  harbour-  Spread  of 
heads  may  be  inevitable  for  the  security  of  the  power  fronTthe 
that  holds  the  shore  ;  the  holding  of  the  shore  may  be  harbours- 
inevitable  for  the  security  of  the  homeland  of  the  entering 
power.  The  conception  of  hereditary  enmity  between 
peoples  may  be  left  to  interested  politicians  ;  its  survival 
in  debates  on  what  is  called  '  the  Irish  question  '  may  be 
traced,  however,  to  the  geographical  position  of  the 
outpost.  The  open  lands  of  western  Europe  have  been 
the  scene  of  so  many  illogical  alarums  and  excursions, 
leading  to  so  many  loose  and  variable  cross-alliances, 
that  a  healthy  opportunism  has  prevailed  over  the 
melancholy  facts  of  history.  France,  for  instance,  has 
forgiven  the  judicial  murder  of  Jeanne  d'Arc,  as  well  as 
the  recall  of  the  Bourbons  by  the  coalized  kings  in  1814. 
England  feels  no  rancour  against  the  Dutch  for  the 
massacre  of  Amboyna  and  the  humiliating  invasion  of 
the  Medway.  Since  the  twelfth  century,  however,  the 
Irish  have  had  to  settle  their  external  differences  with  Britain 
one  power  only,  whose  territory,  like  a  huge  breakwater,  break- 
divides  them  from  the  continental  turmoil  on  the  east  water- 
(map  i).  Under  the  more  tolerant  outlook  of  the  twentieth 
century,  the  same  geographical  conditions  should  lead 
to  hereditary  friendship,  and  to  the  recognition  of  the 
outpost  as  a  natural  link  between  the  continent  of  Europe 
and  the  great  English-speaking  commonwealths  beyond 
the  western  sea. 


56  IRELAND  THE  OUTPOST 


VII.    UPLANDS  OF  THE  NORTH 

THE  north  of  Ireland  is  broadly  divided  into  two 
regions  of  very  different  physical  character.  The  western 
of  these  is  distinctly  '  Caledonian  '  (see  p.  n).  It  is 
profoundly  influenced  by  the  system  of  folding  that  was 
developed  in  early  Devonian  times.  The  antique  sedi- 
ments, invaded  by  granite,  now  appear  as  resisting 
quartzites  and  gleaming  mica-schists.  There  is  a  marked 
scarcity  of  lime  throughout  the  area,  and  such  small 
bands  of  crystalline  limestone  as  occur  among  these 
ancient  marine  strata  are  knotty  with  silicates  that  have 
developed  in  them,  including  brown  garnets  often  more 
than  an  inch  across.  While  the  quartzites  and  ^he 
granites  provide  no  arable  soil,  the  orange-brown  loams 
on  the  areas  of  mica-schist  are  far  more  inviting  to  the 
The  settler,  and  the  valley  of  the  River  Foyle  bears  a  high 
of  the  reputation  in  a  region  that  is  notably  of  a  highland  type. 
•  °y  e-  Glacial  drift  here  and  there  ameliorates  the  surface, 


Foyle  opens  on  a  drowned  depression  occupied  by  a  broad 
inlet  of  the  Atlantic,  and  Moville,  on  the  western  side, 
has  become  a  calling-station  for  Canadian  liners^  The 
town  of  Derry  was  built  round  an  abbey  of  the  sixth 
century,  in  the  oak-woods  where  the  highland  country 
drops  to  a  fertile  band  along  Lough  Foyle.  It  has  been 
connected  with  the  English  from  the  close  of  the  sixteenth 
century  only,  and  its  modern  name  of  Londonderry 
records  the  '  plantation  '  of  the  district,  mainly  by 
Scotchmen,  in  the  reign  of  James  I.  A  predecessor  of 
the  city  may  be  seen  in  the  famous  Grianan  of  Aileach, 
a  stone  fortress  800  feet  above  the  sea,  on  a  hill  that 
overlooks  the  route  from  Lough  Swilly  to  the  head  of 
the  shallow  harbour  of  Lough  Foyle.  Here  the  O'Neills, 


UPLANDS  OF  THE  NORTH 


57 


as  kings  of  Ulster,  founded  their  palace  '  in  the  sun ', 
and  held  ah  important  passage  into  the  country  of  their 
rivals,  the  O'Donnells.  All  the  land  to  the  west  is  '  Cale- 
donian '.  Lough  S willy  and  Mulroy  Bay  are  picturesque 


MAP  3.    THE  NORTHERN  UPLANDS  AND  THE  RELATIONS  OF 
IRELAND  WITH  SCOTLAND. 

and  sinuous  inlets  that  record  the  sinking  of  the  coast  High- 
and  the  last  inflow  of  the  Atlantic  on  Eurasia.    The  roads  Donegal, 
from  Letterkenny  westward  to  the  superbly  cliffed  coast 
of  Donegal  (p.  22)  cross  the  axes  of  the  folding,  and  they 
rise  over  successive  ridges  and  descend  into  long  glens 


58  IRELAND  THE  OUTPOST 

stretching  to  the  north-east.  The  narrow  valley  of 
Glen  Beagh  is  in  a  line  with  the  Great  Glen  of  Scotland. 
At  its  south-west  end,  on  a  granite  upland  (fig.  6),  a  pass 
leads  over  to  the  Gweebarra  valley,  which  continues  the 
same  line  of  European  structure  down  to  the  estuary 
north  of  Glenties. 

Here  was  Tirconnell,  the  O'Donnells'  country;  here  was 
the  natural  shelter  of  a  highland  race.  Sixteen  miles 
south  of  the  Gweebarra,  the  O'Donnells,  the  relatives 
and  perhaps  therefore  the  inveterate  antagonists  of  the 
O'Neills  of  Tyrone,  looked  out  from  their  fortress  of 
Donegal  upon  a  milder  and  more  cultivated  land.  They 
carried  their  raids  through  O'Ruarc's  territory  of  Breifne 
among  the  terraced  limestone  hills,  and  in  due  time 
came  against  the  Normans,  who  sought  to  hold  in  Sligo 
the  north-west  corner  of  the  plain.  The  O'Conors  from 
the  south,  renowned  for  turbulence,  held  armed  encounters 
with  the  O'Donnells  on  a  debatable  lowland  on  the 
seaward  side  of  the  Ox  Mountains,  and  the  Anglo- 
Norman  power  was  supported  in  the  open  ground  between 
the  highland-blocks  of  Donegal  and  Connemara  by  the 
frequency  among  the  native  chieftains  of  battle,  murder, 
and  sudden  death.  The  O'Donnells  and  the  O'Neills,  as 
opportunity  served,  fought  on  the  English  side  in  their 
zeal  to  find  an  ally  against  their  neighbours  ;  yet,  when 
concerted  action  was  organized  to  break  the  devastating 
forces  of  Elizabeth,  the  west,  from  Kinsale  to  Inishowen, 
looked  with  well-placed  confidence  to  the  mountaineers 
of  Donegal.  The  name  of  young  Hugh  Roe  O'Donnell, 
who  twice  escaped  from  Dublin,  and  who  drove  back 
Clifford's  army  from  the  Curlew  Hills,  is  enshrined  beside 
those  of  Robert  Bruce  and  John  Hampden  as  one  of  the 
foremost  defenders  of  liberty  in  our  islands. 

The  Curlew  Hills  (fig.  7)  form  a  fitting  scene  for  the 


FIG    5.     THE  DEVIL'S  GLEN  IN  THE  FOOT-HILLS  OF 
THE  LEINSTER  CHAIN. 


FIG.  6.     IN  THE  HIGHLANDS  OF  TIRCONNELL.     Looking 
north-eastwards  towards  Glen  Beagh. 


UPLANDS  OF  THE  NORTH  59 

last  exploit  of  Red  Hugh.  They  rise  gently  from  the  great  The 
plainland  in  which  the  Shannon  wanders  ;  two  of  the 
lakelets  that  are  typical  of  the  limestone  region  send  up 
arms  into  valleys  of  the  sandstone  range;  but,  as  we 
ascend,  we  realize  that  this  range  forms  a  genuine  barrier, 
and  we  look  northward  from  its  crest  into  a  land  of  high 
limestone  cliffs  and  plateaus,  crossed  on  the  seaward  side 
by  the  bare  Caledonian  ridge  that  continues  the  Ox 
Mountains  almost  into  the  wilds  of  Donegal.  The 
Armorican  axis  of  the  Curlew  Hills  must  have  been 
regarded  by  the  hillmen  as  an  advanced  rampart,  facing 
the  plain,  the  region  of  constituted  authority,  that 
stretched  away  to  Dublin.  The  quarrel  in  this  frontier- 
zone  goes  farther  back  than  the  days  when  O'Neills  and 
O'Donnells  were  for  once  united  and  made  common 
cause  against  Elizabeth  ;  it  goes  farther  back  than  the 
march  of  the  mail-clad  Normans  of  Kildare  to  build  their 
stronghold  on  the  shores  of  Sligo  Bay.  Brian  of  Kincora 
found  it  well,  in  his  armed  demonstration  of  1005,  to 
bring  even  Danish  allies  with  him  across  the  Curlew  Hills 
as  a  menace  to  unconquered  Ulster  ;  and  the  battle  of 
Drumcliff,  arising  mainly  out  of  a  question  of  monastic 
copyright,  was  fought  under  Ben  Bulben  in  A.  D.  561 
(fig.  2).  It  is  noteworthy  that  even  at  that  early  period 
the  men  of  the  north  broke  the  armies  of  the  High  King 
of  Tara  on  the  highland  margin  of  Tirconnell. 

The  central  block  of  Tyrone  consists  of  Caledonian  The 
features,  including  some  of  the  oldest  rocks  of  Ireland.  hoiTof 
A  broad  stretch  of  Old  Red  Sandstone,  yielding  richly  Tyrone- 
coloured   soils,    extends   in   the   south   towards    Lough 
Erne  ;   but  the  whole  region  is  transitional  between  the 
moorlands  and  the  limestone  country,  and  retains  much 
of  the  wildness  of  the  northern  highlands.    It  is  dissected 
by  the  numerous  tributaries  of  the  Mourne-Strule  system, 


60  IRELAND  THE  OUTPOST 

which  drains  ultimately  into  the  Foyle,  and  the  life  of 
the  people  has  for  centuries  been  associated  with  the 
traffic  of  the  northern  ports. 
Lavas  of  *  The  eastern  uplands  of  Ulster  are  far  more  uniform  in 

Ulster 

structure  and  material  than  the  broken  country  of  the 
west.  A  great  outpouring  of  basaltic  lavas  in  Oligocene 
times  covered  and  preserved  the  chalk  downs,  which 
spread  at  that  remote  period  far  beyond  the  present 
limits  of  the  '  white  limestone  '  of  north-eastern  Ireland. 
Sheet  after  sheet,  the  basalt  has  built  up  gloomy  plateaus, 
the  later  flows  overlapping  the  earlier  ones,  and  probably 
extending  in  the  volcanic  epoch  over  a  large  part  of 
The  Tirconnell.1  Among  the  massive  flows  of  the  later  series, 

Giant's 

Cause-  one,  lying  in  part  at  the  present  sea-level,  has  become 
famous  as  the  '  Giant's  Causeway  '.  Its  rubbly  top  has 
been  worn  away  by  the  waves,  exposing  the  handsomely 
columnar  lower  portion,  in  which  slow  cooling  and 
shrinking  went  on  in  contact  with  the  ground.  Two 
similar  flows,  one  above  the  other,  give  an  appearance 
of  titanic  architecture  to  the  fine  cliffs  eastward  of  the 
Causeway.  A  similar  occurrence,  in  basalt  of  the  same 
age,  on  the  little  isle  of  Staffa  north  of  lona  has  given 
rise  to  the  legend  that  the  Causeway  runs  beneath  the 
sea  to  the  west  of  Mull ;  and  we  may  well  believe  that 
St.  Columba  or  some  one  of  his  company  was  responsible 
for  an  observation  that  suggested  to  the  Irish  missionaries 
a  link  between  the  Hebrides  and  the  homeland. 

The  great  basaltic  plateaus  have  been  bent  and  lowered 
by  far  later  earth-movements,  so  as  to  form  the  basin  of 
Lough  Neagh,  the  largest  lake  in  the  British  Islands. 
East  and  west  of  the  lake,  they  rise  to  heights  of  more 
than  1,000  feet,  and  their  upturned  edges  form  a  for- 

1  See  J.  R.  Kilroe  in  Memoir  Geol.  Surv.  Ireland  on  '  The  Inter- 
basaltic  Rocks  of  North-East  Ireland',  p.  120  (1912). 


UPLANDS  OF  THE  NORTH  61 

bidding  scarp  facing  eastward  over  Belfast  Lough  and 
westward  over  the  flat  of  raised  marine  clay  along  Lough 
Foyle.  This  scarp  is  one  of  the  great  features  of  the 
north,  and  the  grim  black  lavas  are  strikingly  contrasted 
with  the  thin  white  band  of  chalk  and  the  red  slopes  of 
Triassic  strata  that  underlie  the  volcanic  series. 

The  streams  that  notch  the  plateaus  on  their  eastern  The 
side  have  produced  deep  and  sheltered  valleys,  young  in  Antrim. 
all  their  features,  from  their  cliffed  walls  to  the  waterfalls 
that  echo  in  their  floors.  These  are  the  well-remembered 
Glens  of  Antrim.  The  prevalent  note  of  Moira  O'Neill's 
verse  l  is  the  longing  to  be  back  among  them.  Almost 
within  sound  of  the  machinery  of  busy  mills  and  the  clang 
of  hammers  in  the  shipyards  of  Belfast,  these  wooded 
vales  lead  up  into  an  older  Ireland.  Small  white  farm- 
houses are  scattered  on  this  inland  region,  like  those  that 
spot  the  landscape  in  the  south  and  west ;  on  the  higher 
terraces  the  heather  spreads  over  miles  of  old  and  desic- 
cating mountain-bog.  Here  and  there  a  half-obliterated 
track,  perhaps  a  path  of  foray  or  of  pilgrimage  to  the  more 
favoured  valley  of  the  Lagan,  runs  across  the  basaltic 
plateau.  In  places  it  is  marked  by  a  line  of  ancient 
thorn-trees,  bent  over  in  an  easterly  direction  by  the 
wind.  It  still  serves  the  workers  from  the  mines  of  iron 
ore  and  bauxite  when  they  cross  the  upland  on  a  visit 
to  their  relatives  in  the  glens. 

The  older  faith  of  Ireland,  strong  through  centuries  of 

*    persecution,  lingers  here  in  the  heart  of  north-east  Ulster. 

The  MacDonnells  of  the  glens,  however,  were  looked  on 

by  their  neighbours  in  the  sixteenth  century  as  an  alien 

race,  since  they  had  recently  returned,  under  the  name  of 

Scots,  as  an  overflow  from  settlements  in  the  Hebrides. 

Yet,  as  is  well  known,  the  Scots  were  originally  an  Irish 

1  Songs  of  the  Glens  of  Antrim,  seventh  impression,  1901. 


62  IRELAND  THE  OUTPOST 

folk,  who  had  migrated  a  thousand  years  before,  and  had 
ultimately  given  their  name  to  the  Pictish  and  possibly 
'  proto-Celtic  '  lands  of  Caledonia. 

Scots  of        The  underlying  floor  of  Antrim  is  essentially  Cale- 
and  Cale-  donian.  Crumpled  strata  of  Silurian  age  appear  throughout 


doma.  fae  hummocky  fields  of  Down,  and  they  pass  under  the 
Mesozoic  and  Cainozoic  beds  on  the  north-west  of  the 
Lagan  vale.  South  and  east  of  the  great  intrusive  mass 
of  dolerite  that  forms  Fair  Head,  gnarled  schists  and 
gneisses  of  pre-Cambrian  age  are  exposed  in  the  region 
of  Glendun.  These  are  a  continuation  of  the  promontory 
of  Kintyre  (map  3),  just  as  the  Down  country  is  a  con- 
tinuation of  the  Southern  Uplands  of  Scotland.  The  grand 
cliffed  headland,  terminating  in  the  Mull  of  Kintyre,  is 
conspicuous  from  the  Antrim  coast,  and  it  forms  one  of 
the  finest  features  of  the  landscape  on  the  descent  through 
Glenariff  from  the  plateaus  of  Parkmore.  Islay  and  the 
twin  domes  of  the  Paps  of  Jura  are  visible  across  Rathlin 
Island  from  the  basaltic  cliffs  of  Ballintoy.  The  coast  of 
Caledonia  must  have  been  well  known  to  fishermen  and 
sea-captains  before  the  first  colonists  from  Ireland  entered 
its  fjords  in  the  second  century  of  our  era.  The  territorial 
name  Dalriada  became  common  to  north-east  Ireland 
and  the  Hebrides,  and  Fergus  MacErc,  in  A.  D.  503,  trans- 
ferred a  well-appointed  army  of  Scots  from  Ulster  to  the 
Caledonian  shore.  It  is  uncertain  whether  the  Gaelic 
language  was  thus  introduced  from  Ireland  into  its 
present  stronghold  in  the  Scottish  highlands,  or  whether 
the  settlement  of  the  Scots  was  to  some  degree  assisted  by 
the  presence  of  a  kindred  speech.  The  invading  Scots, 
however,  had  been  trained  and  already  Christianized  in 
Ireland  ;  they  planted  their  culture  in  the  more  savage 
region  of  the  Picts;  and  in  due  time,  as  the  dominant 
race  in  Caledonia,  they  met  the  Anglo-Saxon  elements 


UPLANDS  OF  THE  NORTH  63 

along  the  through- valley  of  the  Clyde  and  Forth.  Many 
of  their  earlier  characteristics  became  concealed  by 
minglings  with  the  lowlanders,  and  by  a  response  to 
European  influences,  notably  from  France.  The  open 
gateway  of  the  Forth  gave  them  an  outlook  on  the 
Continent,  and  the  courtly  knights  of  Paris,  Dijon,  or 
Chalons  were  induced  by  royal  alliances  to  share  a  rude 
commissariat  in  campaigns  against  the  English  in  the 
Cheviots.1  Though  the  Stewarts  or  Stuarts,  who  gave, 
through  James  VI,  a  royal  house  to  the  United  Kingdom, 
were  f*i  Norman  and  English  stock,  many  ruling  families 
of  Scotland  in  the  feudal  days  could  trace  their  ancestry 
to  the  Scots  who  came  from  Ireland.  The  long-drowned 
valleys,  and  the  promontories  and  islands  of  the  sunken 
Caledonian  coast,  which  offer  such  a  tempting  prospect 
from  the  uplands  of  the  Irish  north,  are  responsible  for 
a  chain  of  events  that  deeply  affected  western  Europe. 

The  final  balance  between  subsidence  and  uplift  that  The 
left  the  fjords  of  Scotland  flooded  and  Ireland  cut  off  as  COUntry. 
an  island  allowed  the  sea  to  remain  in  the  broad  estuary 
of  the  Lagan.  Belfast  Lough,  however,  for  many  centuries 
played  little  part  in  the  development  of  Ireland.  The 
great  dike  of  dolerite  that  runs  out  from  the  shore  at 
Carrickfergus  offered  a  natural  site  for  a  castle  that 
would  command  both  the  inlet  and  the  track  along  the 
coast.  The  stronghold  placed  here  by  the  De  Lacys 
records  the  northerly  extension  of  the  Norman  pale  of 
Dublin.  The  upland  country  at  its  back  remained 
essentially  inimical  to  England,  and  the  inroads  of  the 
MacDonnells  from  the  Hebrides  rendered  it  all  the  more 
necessary  for  the  dominant  power  to  hold  the  bay. 
Belfast,  however,  continued  unimportant,  and  the  town 

1  See   Froissart  on   the   hardships   of    the   expedition   under 
Admiral  Jean  de  Vienne. 


64  IRELAND  THE  OUTPOST 

was  actually  occupied  by  the  O'Neills  in  the  perilous 
struggles  of  the  sixteenth  century.  This  great  industrial 
city  owes  its  prosperity  to  the  development  of  the  linen 
trade  and  to  the  general  growth  of  mechanical  arts  since 
the  opening  of  the  nineteenth  century.  The  proximity 
of  the  coalfields  in  Ayrshire  and  on  the  Solway  Firth 
has  neutralized  the  scarcity  of  local  supplies,  and  has 
even  held  back  the  exploration  of  the  Tyrone  coalfield, 
only  30  miles  away  in  Ireland.  The  long  sites  for  quays 
and  shipyards  on  the  sheltered  inlet  have  favoured  ship- 
building from  1854  onwards,  and  the  artisan  population, 
largely  drawn  from  the  Scottish  lowlands  through  the 
Stuart  plantation  of  the  north,  has  proved  an  apt  rival 
to  that  along  the  estuary  of  the  Clyde.  In  many  ways, 
whether  we  regard  the  MacDonnells  of  the  Isles,  who  have 
become  MacDonnells  of  the  Antrim  glens,  or  the  capable 
and  methodical  artisans  who  form  the  very  foundation 
of  industry  in  Belfast,  or  the  energetic  workers  of  small 
farms  throughout  the  tumbled  lands  of  Down,  we  must 
admit  that  north-eastern  Ulster  to-day  resembles  a  colony 
of  Scotland.  The  geological  map  of  the  British  Isles  1 
presents  a  graphic  picture  of  the  conditions  that  have 
given  to  the  majority  of  the  inhabitants  of  this  area 
a  special  point  of  view.  To  them  the  outlook  is  naturally 
eastward,  and  their  separate  attitude  in  regard  to  the 
rest  of  Ireland  cannot  be  ascribed  to  mere  perversity. 

1  The  structure  is  well  shown  on  the  coloured  geological  map 
of  the  British  Isles,  i  inch  to  25  miles,  published  by  the  Ordnance 
Survey  for  the  Geological  Survey  of  Great  Britain,  price  2s. 
This  map  deserves  to  be  more  widely  known  beyond  our  educa- 
tional institutions.  See  also  the  coloured  map  in  The  Oxford 
Survey  of  the  British  Empire,  vol.  i  (1914). 


VIII.    THE  ARMORICAN   RANGES  OF  THE 
SOUTH 

THE  geographical  conditions  of  that  part  of  southern 
Ireland  which  lies  west  of  the  grand  scarp  of  the  Comeragh 
Mountains  in  the  county  of  Waterford  are  well  worthy 
of  special  consideration.  The  *  Armorican '  folding  Armori- 
(p.  13),  with  its  axes  running  fairly  east  and  west,  controls 
the  whole  of  this  picturesque  and  varied  region.  The 
subsequent  tributaries  of  the  old  rivers  that  came  down 
from  the  north  have  worked  their  way  back  along  the 
strips  of  Carboniferous  Limestone  or  Slate  that  survive 
between  the  upfolds  of  resisting  Old  Red  Sandstone 
(p.  14) .  The  long  strike- valleys  remind  one  of  the  structure 
of  the  Juras  ;  but  connecting  cross-cuts  or  cluses  are  far 
less  frequent  in  the  Irish  ranges.  '  The  main  entry  into 
this  country  from  the  plainland  is  through  the  low  pass 
south  of  Mallow,  which  has  already  been  described 
(p.  48).  Mallow  stands  upon  the  Blackwater,  already 
a  large  stream  after  its  descent  from  the  Kerry  border 
30  miles  farther  to  the  west.  The  natural  outlook  for 
this  strategic  town  is  thus  eastward  along  the  valley, 
until,  in  43  miles,  the  sea  is  reached  in  the  harbour  of 
Dungarvan.  The  Blackwater,  after  trenching  the  Fermoy 
plateau  and  traversing  the  beautiful  woodlands  at  the 
rocky  narrows  of  Lismore,  turns  southward  by  the 
right-angled  bend  of  Cappoquin,  joining  at  this  point 
the  old  consequent  valley  which  probably  at  one  time 
carried  the  waters  of  the  Suir.  The  low  ground,  however, 
.is  continued  eastward,  along  the  downfold  of  limestone 
to  the  bay. 

The  drowned  valley  of  the  Suir  and  the  sheltered  port 
of  Waterford  proved  much  more  attractive  to  adventurers 

2244 


66 


IRELAND  THE  OUTPOST 


from  the  sea  than  the  open  roadstead  of  Dungarvan.  The 
Normans,  none  the  less,  planted  a  castle  at  Dungarvan, 
which  became  naturally  linked  with  that  upon  the  cliff- 
edge  at  Lismore.  In  the  area  now  occupied  by  Fermoy, 
considerable  additions  of  glacial  drift  ameliorate  the 
Old  Red  Sandstone  uplands  and  offer  attraction  to  the 
cultivator.  From  Youghal,  at  the  mouth  of  the  conse- 


MAP  4.     THE  ARMORICAN  RANGES  OF  THE  SOUTH. 

quent  and  tidal  reach  of  the  Blackwater,  another  fertile 
band  of  Carboniferous  strata  stretches  westward ;  but 
this  has  been  worn  down  by  the  tributaries  of  various 
transverse  streams,  and  is  only  a  '  through-valley  '  of 
composite  origin.  It  leads,  however,  very  conveniently 
into  the  drowned  "valley  of  the  Owennacurra,  a  stream 
flowing  south  through  Midleton,  and  thence,  behind 
Great  Island,  into  the  similarly  drowned  terminal  of  the 
Lee.  From  this  point  the  prolonged  subsequent  valley 
of  the  Lee  provides  a  route  west  from  the  tidal  estuary 
at  Cork  to  the  moors  of  Gouganebarra,  where  a  narrow 
rocky  pass  in  the  Old  Red  Sandstone  gives  access  to 


THE  ARMORICAN  RANGES  OF  THE  SOUTH  67 

a  short  valley  descending  to  Bantry  Bay.  The  passage- 
way across  the  country  thus  lies  once  more  from  east 
to  west. 

Similarly  the  upper  Bandon  valley,  approached  by  the 
sinuous  inlet  of  Kinsale,  carries  us  away  westward,  until 
we  almost  touch  the  head- waters  of  the  Lee.  We  are 
everywhere  drawn  in  the  end  towards  the  indented 
western  coast,  marked  by  wide-mouthed  rias  rather  than 
fjords,  into  which  the  storms  of  the  Atlantic  can  still 
drive  destructive  waves. 

In  such  a  country,  communication  with  the  outer  ' 
world  is  naturally  by  sea.  The  steamers  of  Scottish 
trading  companies  may  still  be  seen  close  against  the 
sloping  gardens  of  Kenmare,  and  the  splendid  port  of  The  lure 
Queenstown  on  Great  Island,  in  these  days  of  steam-  atiantic 
navigation,  has  made  the  southern  Irishman  and  the  lands- 
southern  Irishwoman  more  familiar  with  the  alien  muni- 
cipality of  New  York  than  with  the  heart  of  the  Britannic 
commonwealth  in  London.  The  harbours  of  the  outpost, 
which  in  old  times  traded  with  Gaul  and  the  Mediter- 
ranean, have  sent  out  thousands  of  the  agricultural  folk 
of  Cork  and  Kerry  to  seek  a  life  in  crowded  cities  in 
a  continent  3,000  miles  away.  It  may  be  urged  that  the 
economic  conditions  arising  from  the  development  of 
machinery  and  the  growth  of  factory-towns  have  reacted 
in  the  same  way  upon  the  agricultural  districts  in  Eng- 
land ;  but  in  that  country  the  towns  that  have  absorbed 
the  rural  population  lie  only  50  or  60  miles  from  the 
depleted  cottage-homes.  The  labourer  from  an  abandoned 
farm  in  Cambridgeshire  does  not  feel  himself  an  exile  in 
Leicester  or  Northampton.  In  Ireland,  the  rents  that 
were  demanded  rather  than  obtained,  and  the  consequent 
evictions  that  took  place  before  the  passage  of  the  land- 
laws,  intensified  the  distress  caused  in  an  agricultural 

E  2 


68  IRELAND  THE  OUTPOST 

country  by  the  abolition  of  protective  tariffs.  In  manu- 
facturing England,  a  land  of  coal  and  iron  ores,  the 
readjustment  of  modes  of  life  was  to  some  extent  smoothed 
over  by  the  higher  wages  gained  in  towns.  For  an 
Irishman,  the  towns  were  in  any  case  those  of  another 
country,  and  the  break  with  home  was  made  when  the 
steamer  left  the  quay.  When  once  the  emigrant  was 
outside  Cork  Harbour,  and  the  familiar  green  slopes  and 
woodlands  lay  behind,  it  mattered  little  if  the  foaming 
race  to  the  Hudson  was  longer  than  the  coasting  saunter 
to  the  Thames.  For  young  blood  the  call  was  irresistible 
towards  the  new  lands  and  new  aspirations  of  the  West. 
Even  now,  when  co-operation  and  organized  com- 
munications have  enormously  improved  the  agricultural 
outlook,  and  when  land,  secured  under  recent  acts  of 
reparation,  can  be  sold  at  greatly  enhanced  prices,  the 
south-western  counties  suffer,  in  comparison  with  central 
Ireland,  from  their  geological  structure  and  from  the 
Fertile  folding  of  Armorican  times.  The  proportion  of  barren 
barren  Old  Red  Sandstone  in  the  uplands  increases  as  we  go 
uplands.  west  from  Helvick  Head,  and  the  fertile  vales,  sheltered 
though  they  are,  offer  in  the  end  but  a  limited  com- 
pensation as  they  die  off  against  the  moors.  A  broad 
and  serviceable  lowland,  based  on  limestone,  occupies 
the  head  of  Dingle  Bay  ;  but  access  to  it  from  the  central 
plain  is  gained  by  a  narrow  pass  between  the  head- waters 
of  the  Blackwater  and  the  Flesk.  The  railway  from 
Mallow  to  Killarney  and  Cahersiveen  follows  this  course, 
clinging  to  the  limestone  band  ;  but  the  western  part  of 
it  has  to  be  built  up  boldly  round  Old  Red  Sandstone 
headlands  above  the  ria  of  Dingle,  to  find  a  pass  at  Kells 
and  thus  to  drop  down  into  the  Ferta  valley.  This 
railway  ends  at  the  strategically  important  station  of 
Valencia  Harbour,  and  communication  with  the  Kenmare 


FIG.  7.     THE  CURLEW  HILLS  FROM  THE  NORTH-WEST, 
with  Drumlins  in  the  lowland. 


FIG.  8.     IN  THE  KERRY  HIGHLANDS.     Gap  of  Djjnloe 


ot  JJjjnloe. 


inlet  across  the  ends  of  the  spurs  of  Iveragh  and  Dun- 
kerron  is  still  maintained  by  road  alone.  Fifty  miles  of 
driving  thus  serve  to  separate  rather  than  to  connect  the 
towns  of  Kenmare  and  Cahersiveen.  The  ria  of  Kenmare 
is  continued  eastward  by  the  Roughty  valley,  and  along 
this  a  branch  railway  descends  from  the  Mallow  and 
Killarney  line.  The  grand  and  serrated  block  of  Mac- 
Gillicuddy's  Reeks,  and  the  range  that  looks  down  on 
the  wooded  wilderness  of  Glencar  (p.  15),  rise  between 
the  routes  that  run  along  the  coast,  and  the  greater  part 
of  this  inland  region  is  uninhabitable  (fig.  8). 

The  wild  promontory  stretching  south-west  from  Kerry 
Killarney  is  typical  of  the  seaboard-land  of  Kerry.  The  epitome 
eastern  boundary  of  the  county  is  carried  along  a  moor-  of  *he  . 
land  watershed,  until  it  descends  into  a  somewhat  milder 
district  near  the  Shannon.  Even  here,  the  plateau  of 
Millstone  Grit  and  Coal  Measures,  rising  1,000  feet  above 
the  sea,  faces  the  east  as  a  forbidding  rampart,  up  which 
the  road  and  railway  to  Listowel  climb  steeply  to  the 
notch  of  Barnagh  in  the  scarp.  In  Kerry  the  essential 
difficulties  of  Ireland  are  emphasized  and  concentrated, 
until  the  county  seems  an  epitome  of  the  outpost.  Here 
for  untold  generations  the  folk  have  looked  westward 
from  long  sea-inlets  across  diminishing  and  foam-swept 
isles.  They  have  seen  the  sun  set  in  the  Atlantic,  and 
the  brown  and  cloud-capped  ranges  have  barred  them 
from  Eurasia  on  the  east.  The  east  has  sent  them  the 
Norsemen,  the  Anglo-Normans,  and  the  incomprehensible 
and  composite  people  called  the  English,  settlers  in  the 
harbours,  builders  of  castles,  but  in  no  sense  permeating 
the  land.  The  quaint  little  port  of  Adare,  for  example, 
seven  miles  south  of  the  Shannon  on  the  winding  channel 
of  the  Maigue,  with  its  noble  castle  and  the  abbeys  of 
three  communities,  is  essentially  a  creation  of  the  Normans, 


70  IRELAND  THE  OUTPOST 

and  the  wealthy  earls  of  Kildare  here  held  the  western 
front.  Beyond  that  front  the  older  Irish,  never  adequately 
welded  with  their  northern  kinsfolk  as  a  nation,  were 
pressed  towards  the  Atlantic  by  successive  acts  of  spolia- 
tion. In  the  Irish  hills,  as  in  the  Scottish  highlands,  the 
breaking  down  of  the  clan-system  converted  the  local 
chieftains  into  hereditary  autocrats  whose  interest  lay 
now  with  one  and  now  with  another  of  the  ruling  parties 
in  the  plainland.  When  an  armed  adventure  ended  in 
disaster,  the  way  was  clear  for  further  confiscation  by 
the  larger  and  well-established  powers ;  and  in  all  fair- 
ness let  it  be  remembered  that  the  smallness  of  a  nation 
is  no  criterion  of  virtue,  and  that  the  larger  powers  also 
have  their  rights.  The  dissatisfied  dwellers  on  the 
indented  south-west  Irish  coast  have  invited  again  and 
again,  from  Kinsale  to  Ardfert  Bay,  the  help  of  strangers 
overseas.  The  scenes  of  destruction  in  Munster  during 
the  risings  of  the  sixteenth  century  cannot  be  attributed 
to  exceptional  conditions  in  the  outpost  or  to  the  special 
malevolence  of  its  overlords.  Material  expressions  of 
religious  fervour  had  raged  for  a  thousand  years  in 
Christian  Europe,  and  the  massacres  and  penalties  that 
were  supported  by  sectarian  zeal  in  Ireland  are  paralleled 
by  those  that  have  found  their  historians  in  France, 
Germany,  and  the  Netherlands.  Our  English  schools, 
however,  still  await  a  Motley  who  will  show  us  Raleigh 
at  Smerwick  or  at  Youghal  as  plainly  as  Drake  at  Cadiz 
or  on  Plymouth  Hoe.  For  the  geographer,  the  tragedy 
of  Munster  illustrates  the  spread  of  continental  influences 
through  the  open  gate  of  Dublin  ;  but  only  the  coldness 
of  philosophy  will  be  content  to  leave  the  matter  there. 


71 


IX.    EXITS  AND  ENTRANCES.    THE  RAILWAY 
MAP  OF  IRELAND 

ENOUGH  has  been  said  to  show  the  inevitable  relation- 
ship of  Ireland  to  the  larger  and  more  populous  island 
on  the  east.  The  great  extent  of  agricultural  land  in 
Ireland,  the  growth  of  her  fisheries,  the  increasing  develop- 
ment of  dairying  and  poultry-farming,  tend  more  and 
more  to  emphasize  the  position  of  her  industries  as  Agricul- 
a  natural  complement  to  those  that  are  prevalent  in  dustries". 
England.  Coal  can  be  easily  imported  for  the  mechanical 
trades  of  Belfast,  Dublin,  Wexford,  and  Cork,  and  the 
further  exploration  of  the  concealed  coalfield  in  Tyrone 
may  add  appreciably  to  Irish  home-supplies.  The  mining 
of  metallic  minerals  has  suffered  the  same,  fluctuations 
as  in  Britain  ;  but  a  war  ranging  over  a  large  part  of  the 
globe  has  shown  the  necessity  for  keeping  in  view  and  Mineral 

...  .,  ,  ,  .          resources. 

registering  every  possible  native  source  of  copper,  zinc, 
lead,  and  sulphur,  to  name  no  rarer  substances.  The 
importance  in  war-time  of  the  deposits  of  iron  pyrites 
('  sulphur  ore  ')  in  the  county  of  Wicklow  was  pointed 
out  by  Warington  W.  Smyth,  in  his  capacity  of  Govern- 
ment surveyor,  as  far  back  as  I853.1 

Much  has  been  written  on  the  economic  relations  of 
Ireland  with  Great  Britain,  and  the  best  guarantee  of 
friendly  commercial  intercourse  lies  in  the  frank  recogni- 
tion that  neither  country  can  do  without  the  products  of 
its  nearest  neighbour.  Geological  conditions  have  deter- 
mined this  much  for  us  ;  but  even  within  the  ruled  lines 
of  commerce  the  human  touch  is  often  useful.  Education 

1  '  Mines  of  Wicklow  and  Wexford ',  Records  Roy.  Sthool  of 
Mines,  vol.  i,  part  3,  p.  396  (1853). 


72  IRELAND  THE  OUTPOST 

may  be  trusted  on  both  sides  of  the  channel  to  efface 
the  misstatements  that  still  continue  to  divide,  and  in 
time  it  may  be  recognized  that  free  communications  for 
Ireland  across  Britain  mean  free  communications  with 
the  parent  mainland  of  Eurasia. 

Trans-  The  eastern  gates  of  Ireland  have  been  indicated  in 
routes  preceding  pages.  Lough  Foyle  and  the  drowned  inlet  of 
Europe  Cork  Harbour  have  served  as  links  with  transatlantic 
lands.  Galway  Bay,  where  the  limestone  plainland  is 
entered  by  a  broad  indent  of  the  sea,  is  regarded  by 
many  as  a  future  port  for  steamers  from  the  United 
States.  The  quaint  old  town  of  Galway,  with  its  tall 
castellated  houses,  remembers  fondly  its  direct  trade 
with  Spain,  when  sailing  vessels  of  100  tons  burthen 
went  round  Mizen  Head  and  braved  the  Atlantic  rollers 
in  the  Bay  of  Biscay.  A  rival  project  to  the  Galway 
route  proposes  to  connect  Blacksod  Bay  in  Mayo,  where 
a  great  barrier  of  gneiss  and  granite  protects  the  harbour 
on  the  west,  with  the  nearest  practicable  port  in 
Canada,  and  thus  to  open  up  a  new  route  within  our 
commonwealth  to  Vancouver,  Australia,  and  the  east 
of  Asia. 

For  these  reasons  the  entrances  and  exits  of  Ireland, 
and  the  railways  connecting  them  across  the  country,  at 
present  attract  the  attention  of  engineers.  The  gauge 
used  for  Irish  lines  remains,  like  many  things  in  the 
outpost,  comfortable  and  insular.  Train-ferries,  such  as 
are  in  common  use  in  the  Baltic,  were  held  until  recently 
to  be  impossible  in  our  tidal  British  seas ;  but,  during 
the  stress  of  warfare,  many  impossibilities  have  happened 
in  the  Strait  of  Dover.  Given  a  train-ferry  to  an  Irish 
port,  and  a  slight  reduction  of  the  Irish  gauge,  passengers 
and  goods  might  be  brought  uninterruptedly  from  the 
mouth  of  the  English  Channel  tunnel  to  Galway  or  to 


EXITS  AND  ENTRANCES  73 

Blacksod  Bay.  And,  when  the  linking  tunnel  is  made, 
a  railway-coach  might  come  through  to  the  trans-Irish 
line  from  an  internationalized  station  in  Constantinople. 
The  rapid  development  of  aerial  mail-services  will  perhaps 
retard,  but  will  hardly  run  counter  to  these  schemes. 
The  outpost,  the  '  boterasse  ',  has  undoubtedly  assumed 
a  new  geographical  importance  in  the  eyes  of  Europe. 

Nor  is  the  issue  purely  material ;  there  will  always 
be  a  touch  of  romance  for  the  traveller  as  he  comes 
through  Ireland,  among  the  small  white  homesteads  and 
the  strips  of  farms,  where  the  ploughed  land  curves  over 
ancestral  drumlins  of  the  north ;  and  alongside  the 
white  lakelets,  where  the  peat  is  cut  close  against  the 
shores ;  and  so  perhaps  to  the  great  limestone  scarps 
of  Sligo,  and  between  the  desolate  moors  of  Mayo  and 
the  sea ;  and  then  to  the  Atlantic,  foaming  up  against 
the  rampart,  now  clamorous,  now  murmuring  in  content, 
across  the  wrecks  of  half-remembered  isles. 

The  problems  of  long-distance  travellers  may  be  left 
with  confidence  in  the  hands  of  those  who  seek  to  organize 
our  railways  under  national  control,  and  thus  to  bring 
into  harmony  their  many  uncorrelated  and  competing 
systems.  If,  however,  an  experiment  in  nationalization 
is  to  be  made,  Ireland  offers  an  obvious  and  tempting 
field.  In  no  part  of  the  United  Kingdom  is  there  so  large 
a  consensus  of  opinion  in  favour  of  unification.  It  has 
been  well  pointed  out  that  the  present  Irish  railway 
system  has  been  courageously  built  up  in  the  face  of 
a  decreasing  population.  Nothing  but  praise  can  be 
given  to  its  mail-services,  and  such  inconveniences  as 
occur  are  due  to  the  uncertainties  of  communication 
across  the  encircling  seas.  But  the  railway  map  of  The 
Ireland,  viewed  as  a  picture,  presents  a  bewildering 
number  of  loose  ends,  as  if  the  main  lines  had  sent  out  systems. 


74  IRELAND  THE  OUTPOST 

feelers  that  were  unable  to  attain  their  goals,  and  had 
stopped  short  of  their  first  intention  of  being  useful  con- 
nexions across  country.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  in  many 
cases  no  such  benign  intention  was  in  the  minds  of  the 
designers,  since  the  connexion  would  have  linked  their 
enterprise  or  lack  of  enterprise  with  the  service  of  a  rival 
company.  The  division  of  a  small  region  between  a  large 
number  of  privately  owned  concerns  leads  to  very  irritat- 
ing intervals  where  transfer  from  one  main  line  to  another 
should  be  easy.  This  absence  of  correlation  is  especially 
noticeable  in  Belfast,  where  a  wait  of  four  hours  between 
the  principal  systems  is  not  uncommon.  The  absence 
of  central  stations  is  as  marked  as  it  is  in  England,  though 
their  construction  has  been  in  recent  years  a  beneficent 
feature  of  continental  policy  ;  but  it  seems  hard  to  justify 
the  four  separate  terminal  stations  of  Londonderry, 
a  town  containing  only  40,000  people,  or  the  singularly 
broken  nature  of  the  links  that  might  connect  the  lines 
of  three  great  companies  from  Waterford,  Galway, 
Dublin,  and  Belfast  in  the  hillside  village  of  Collooney. 

Sometimes  for  economic  reasons  when  opposed  by 
natural  obstacles,  and  sometimes,  it  would  seem,  from 
pure  indifference,  the  railways  in  the  outpost  have 
neglected  the  interests  of  a  number  of  provincial  towns. 
The  boldly  conceived  Wicklow  and  Wexford  route, 
through  the  tunnels  of  Bray  Head  and  across  the  open 
drift-land  south  of  Greystones,  planted  its  stations  on 
the  precarious  sea-front,  some  miles  from  the  places  that 
they  are  supposed  to  serve.  An  early  scheme  for  running 
direct  from  Dublin  to  Cavan  along  the  line  of  the  old 
coach-road  through  Virginia  had  to  be  abandoned,  and 
the  Silurian  upland  south-east  of  Cavan  is  now  hesitat- 
ingly approached  by  two  antennae,  one  reaching  Oldcastle 
and  the  other  Kingscourt.  The  Great  Northern  line  from 


EXITS  AND  ENTRANCES  75 

Dublin  to  Belfast  takes  the  stiff  climb  across  the  Cale- 
donian moors  north  of  Dundalk  ;  but  it  could  not  descend 
with  the  road  into  the  groove  of  Newry.  This  progressive 
port,  with  its  two  railway-stations,  thus  lies  on  a  branch, 
while  Banbridge,  farther  north,  is  shorn  of  the  through- 
traffic  of  coaching  days  in  favour  of  a  detour  to  Porta- 
down.  While  the  Midland  Railway  Company  of  England 
now  controls  the  lines  in  north-east  Ulster,  the  London 
and  North- Western  Company  has  planted  a  colony  on 
the  raised  beach  of  Greenore,  and  runs  its  own  trains 
thence  to  Dundalk  station  to  join  the  lines  for  Dublin 
and  Enniskillen.  These  factors  s.eem  opposed  to  a  har- 
monious local  scheme  of  organization,  but  not  to  one 
embracing  the  three  kingdoms. 

When  the  shrewd  Italian  immigrant  Bianconi  ran  his  Long 
first  public  '  long  car  '  from  Clonmel  to  Cahir  in  1815,  motor- 
he  initiated  a  system  that  is  capable  of  great  development  coaches- 
to-day.  The  motor-coach  and  the  commercial  lorry  may 
solve  many  of  the  present  difficulties  of  cross-communica- 
tion in  Ireland,  but  such  ventures  cannot  well  be  left  to 
uncorrelated  private  enterprise.  As  in  the  Scottish 
highlands,  the  rural  mail-cars  frequently  carry  passengers, 
and  it  now  remains  to  establish  a  service  for  the  public 
that  shall  be  attractive  by  its  comfort  and  shall  ply 
within  reasonable  hours.  Good  progress  has  already  been 
made  in  this  direction  along  the  coastland  between 
Bundoran  and  Belmullet.  The  •  extraordinary  improve- 
ment in  tar-bound  road-surfaces  in  England,  as  evidenced 
by  the  condition  of  the  roads  to  Folkestone  and  Dover 
after  the  traffic  caused  by  four  years'  army  service,  is 
sure  to  have  its  effect  in  Ireland,  and  the  new  engineering 
may  bring  many  remote  villages  into  easy  and  economical 
connexion  with  their  market- towns.  Such  developments 
of  road-traffic  must,  however,  be  co-ordinated  with  the 


76  IRELAND  THE  OUTPOST 

railway  time-tables,  and  here,  in  the  convenient  limits  of 
an  island,  a  general  control  seems  indicated. 

What  the  co-operative  principle  has  done  so  efficiently 
for  Irish  farming  can  be  done  for  Irish  transport  if  the 
systems  of  internal  communication  can  be  boldly  treated 
as  a  whole.  Movement  within  the  island  means  also 
movement  to  and  from  the  ports.  The  discussion  of  the 
effect  in  pounds  sterling  on  Irish  trade  belongs  to  the 
economic  sphere  ; 1  but  the  effect  on  human  intercourse 
appeals  to  all  who  have  felt  in  the  past  the  restraining 
pressure  of  geographic  conditions  in  the  outpost. 


X.    EPILOGUE 

THE  tenth  section  of  this  essay  may  be  written  to 
suit  various  tastes  :  statistically,  that  is  with  an  eye  to 
economics,  which  are  cold  comfort  to  young  hearts  ; 
historically,  for  which  no  man  or  woman  has  yet  found 
perfect  aptitude ;  Gaelically,  for  those  who  base  their 
ideals  on  the  days  when  all  were  the  equal  sons  of  kings ; 
prophetically,  the  road  where  timorous  hope  winds  amid 
a  maze  of  shell-holes ;  or  rhetorically,  for  those  whose 
vision  of  the  wrongs  of  Ireland  obscures  the  rights  of  any 
other  nation.  The  geographer,  seeking  for  the  truth, 
and  yet  claiming  some  perception  of  the  imaginative 
arts,  may  keep  aloof  from  any  of  these  courses.  He 
knows  that  the  outpost  cannot  be  moved  farther  from 
Eurasia  except  by  a  reduction  of  its  area  on  the  eastern 
or  European  flank.  He  may  rejoice  in  the  open  gate  of 
Dublin,  or  may  seek  a  retreat  from  controversy  in  the 

1  See,  for  instance,  C.  H.  Oldham, '  Town  and  Country  Life  and 
Administration  in  Ireland ',  Oxford  Survey  of  the  British  Empire, 
vol.  i,  pp.  447-63  (1914)- 


EPILOGUE  77 

shadow  of  the  Wicklow  glens.  He  at  least  can  realize 
the  inexorable  facts  of  Nature,  which  have  defined  the 
boundaries  of  the  outpost  and  the  channels  of  the  '  narrow 
seas '.  Moreover,  for  the  scientific  worker,  this  tenth 
section  has  been  already  written.  The  Irish  poet  A.  E. 
has  stated  the  position  for  us,  and  his  note  of  mingled 
pride  and  hope  rings  through  the  outpost  as  a  trumpet- 
call:1 

We  would  no  Irish  sign  efface, 
But  yet  our  lips  would  gladlier  hail 
The  firstborn  of  the  Coming  Race 
Than  the  last  splendour  of  the  Gael. 
No  blazoned  banner  we  unfold — 
One  charge  alone  we  give  to  youth, 
Against  the  sceptred  myth  to  hold 
The  golden  heresy  of  truth. 

Nothing  can  be  gained  by  a  return  to  the  Gaelic  epochs 
of  aloofness  and  division,  when  Queen  Medb  summoned 
the  hosts  from  south  and  west,  and  even  from  the 
rocky  fortress  at  the  Liffey  gate,  for  the  harrying  of 
Ulster  and  the  destruction  of  the  Red  Branch  knights. 
As  recently  as  1916,  when  civilization  itself  was  threatened, 
the  appeal  to  centuries  of  misrepresentation  and  mis- 
understanding gave  us  once  more  a  western  war-front  in 
the  limits  of  the  Anglo-Norman  pale.  Does  the  remedy 
lie  in  education,-  in  the  growth  of  technical  colleges,  or 
perchance  in  the  Carnegie  libraries  that  adorn  the  Irish 
villages,  combining  recreative  evenings  with  an  adequate 
censorship  of  books  ?  The  remedy  lies,  as  Thevenin  puts 
it,  not  in  organized  systems,  but  somewhere  in  the  heart 
of  man.  '  Aimez-vous  les  uns  les  autres  !  Mais  il  y 
a  pres  de  deux  mille  ans  qu'on  ne  fait  plus  que  repeter 
ces  choses-la.' 2 

1  Collected  Poems,  by  A.  E.,  p.  230  (1913). 

2  Denis  Thevenin,  Civilisation,  1914-17,  p.  271  (1918). 


78  IRELAND  THE  OUTPOST 

Let  us  qome  back  to  our  geography,  for  the  gist  of  the 
matter  was  determined  by  the  latest  movements  of  the 
European  platform  and  is  set  down  clearly  on  the  map. 
The  gate  of  Ireland  is  at  Dublin,  and  the  gate  stands 
open  to  the  dawn.  Westward  stretch  the  gulfs  of  the 
Atlantic ;  eastward  lie  the  friendly  and  the  narrow 
seas. 


This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below 


MAY  25   I 
JUN  8     1931 


MAY  k  L 

8 


OCT  22  1940 
MAY  1  2  1950 


A' 


Form  L-9-10m-5,'28 


DA 
970 
067 


Cole 


Ireland,  the  out- 
post . 


jS2*H3Ja/ 


PA 


001238499    6 


*n, 


nr, 

i,  CAL/F.