HOLY ISLAND, LOUGH DERG.
(From a painting by Watkins.)
The Story of the Nations
THE
STORY OF IRELAND
BY
THE HON. EMILY LAWLESS
AUTHOR OF "HURRISH: A STUDY," ETC
WITH SOME ADDITIONS BY
MRS. ARTHUR BRONSON
1896
To
THE EARL OF DUFFERIN, K.P., G.C.B., F.R.S., &c.,
VICEROY OF INDIA.
SGEUL NA H-ÉIREANN
DON ÉIREANNACH AS FIÚ.
PREFACE.
Irish history is a long, dark road, with many blind alleys, many sudden turnings, many unaccountably crooked portions; a road which, if it has a few sign-posts to guide us, bristles with threatening notices, now upon the one side and now upon the other, the very ground underfoot being often full of unsuspected perils threatening to hurt the unwary.
To the genuine explorer, flushed with justified self-confidence, well equipped for the journey, and indifferent to scratches or bruises, one may suppose this to be rather an allurement than otherwise, as he spurs along, lance at rest, and sword on side. To the less well-equipped traveller, who has no pretensions to the name of explorer at all, no particular courage to boast of, and whose only ambition is to make the way a little plainer for some one travelling along it for the first time, it is decidedly a serious impediment, so much so as almost to scare such a one from attempting the rôle of guide even in the slightest and least responsible capacity.
Another and perhaps even more formidable objection occurs. A history beset with such distracting problems, bristling with such thorny controversies, a history, above all, which has so much bearing upon that portion of history which has still to be born, ought, it may be said, to be approached in the gravest and most authoritative fashion possible, or else not approached at all. This is too true, and that so slight a summary as this can put forward no claim to authority of any sort is evident enough. National "stories," however, no less than histories, gain a gravity, it must be remembered, and even at times a solemnity from their subject apart altogether from their treatment. A good reader will read a great deal more into them than the mere bald words convey. The lights and shadows of a great or a tragic past play over their easy surface, giving it a depth and solidity to which it could otherwise lay no claim. If the present attempt disposes any one to study at first hand one of the strangest and most perplexing chapters of human history and national destiny, its author for one will be more than content.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
PRIMEVAL IRELAND
Early migrations--The great ice age--Northern character of the fauna and flora of Ireland--First inhabitants--Formorian, Firbolgs, Tuatha-da-Dannans--Battle of Moytura Cong--The Scoto-Celtic invasion--Annals and annalists, how far credible?
CHAPTER II.
THE LEGENDS AND LEGEND-MAKERS
The legends--Their archaic character--The pursuit of Gilla Backer and his horse--The ollamhs--Positions of the bards or ollamhs in Primitive Ireland.
CHAPTER III.
PRE-CHRISTIAN IRELAND
Early Celtic law--The Senchus Mor and Book of Aicill--Laws of inheritance--Narrow conception of patriotism.
CHAPTER IV.
ST. PATRICK THE MISSIONARY
St. Patrick's birth--Capture, slavery, and escape--His return to Ireland--Arrives at Tara--Visits Connaught and Ulster--Early Irish missionaries and their enthusiasm for the work.
CHAPTER V.
THE FIRST IRISH MONASTERIES
"The Tribes of the Saints"--Small oratories in the West--Plan of monastic life--Ready acceptance of Christianity.
CHAPTER VI.
COLUMBA AND THE WESTERN CHURCH
Birth of Columba--His journey to Iona--His character and humanity--Conversion of Saxon England--Schism between Western Church and Papacy--Synod of Whitby--The Irish Church at home.
CHAPTER VII.
THE NORTHERN SCOURGE
Ireland divided into five kingdoms--The Ard-Reagh--Arrival of Vikings--Thorgist or Turgesius?--Later Viking invaders--The round towers--Dublin founded--Hatred between the two races.
CHAPTER VIII.
BRIAN OF THE TRIBUTE
Two deliverers--Defeat of the Vikings at Sulcost--Brian becomes king of Munster--Seizes Cashel--Overcomes Malachy--Becomes king of Ireland--Celtic theory of loyalty--Fresh Viking invasion--Battle of Clontarf--Death of Brian Boru.
CHAPTER IX.
FROM BRIAN TO
Result of Brian Boru's death--Chaos returns--Struggle for the succession--Roderick O'Connor, last native king of Ireland.
CHAPTER X.
THE ANGLO-NORMAN INVASION
First group of knightly invaders--Their relationship--Giraldus Cambrensis--Motives for invasion--Papal sanction--Dermot McMurrough--He enlists recruits--Arrival of Robert FitzStephen--Wexford, Ossory, and Kilkenny captured--Arrival of Strongbow--Struggle with Hasculph the Dane and John the Mad--Danes defeated--Dublin besieged--Strongbow defeats Roderick O'Connor, goes to Wexford, and embarks at Waterford--Meets the king--Arrival of Henry II.
CHAPTER XI.
HENRY II. IN IRELAND
Large military forces of Henry--The chiefs submit and do homage--Irish theory of Ard-Reagh or Over-Lord--Henry in Dublin--Synod at Cashel--Henry recalled to England.
CHAPTER XII.
EFFECTS OF THE ANGLO-NORMAN INVASION
Effect of Henry's stay in Ireland--His large schemes--Their practical failure--Rapacity of adventurers--Contrast between Irish and their conquerors--Civil war from the outset.
CHAPTER XIII.
JOHN IN IRELAND
John's first visit--His insolence and misconduct--Recalled in disgrace--Second visit as king--His energy--Overruns Meath and Ulster--Returns to England--Effect of his visit.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE LORDS PALATINE
The Geraldines--Their possessions in Ireland--The five palatinates--The heirs of Strongbow--The De Burghs--The Butlers--Importance of the great territorial owners in Ireland.
CHAPTER XV.
EDWARD BRUCE IN IRELAND
Want of landmarks in Irish history--Edward the I.'s reign--Battle of Bannockburn--Its effect on Ireland--Scotch invasion under Edward Bruce--Ravages and famine caused by him--The colonists regain courage: Battle of Dundalk--Edward Bruce killed--Result of the Scotch invasion.
CHAPTER XVI.
THE STATUTE OF KILKENNY
Reign of Edward III.--A lost opportunity--Duke of Clarence sent to Ireland--Parliament at Kilkenny--Statute of Kilkenny--Its objects--Two Irelands--Weakness resorts to cruelty--Effects of the statute.
CHAPTER XVII.
RICHARD II. IN IRELAND
Richard the II.'s two visits to Ireland--Utter disorganization of the country--The chieftains submit and come in--"Sir Art" McMurrough--Richard leaves, and Art McMurrough breaks out again--Earl of March killed--Richard returns--Attacks Art McMurrough--Failure of attack--Recalled to England--His defeat and death--Confusion redoubles.
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE DEEPEST DEPTHS
Monotony of Irish history--State of Ireland during the Wars of the Roses--Pillage, carnage, and rapine--The seaport towns--Richard Duke of York in Ireland--His conciliatory policy--Battle of Towton--The Kildares grow in power--Geroit Mor--His character.
CHAPTER XIX.
THE KILDARES IN THE ASCENDANT
Effect of the battle of Bosworth--Kildare still in power--Lambert Simnel in Ireland--Crowned in Dublin--Battle of Stoke--Henry VII. pardons the rebels--Irish peers summoned to Court--Perkin Warbeck in Ireland--Quarrels between the Kildares and Ormonds--Sir Edward Poynings--Kildare's trial and acquital--Restored to power--Battle of Knocktow.
CHAPTER XX.
FALL OF THE HOUSE OF KILDARE
Rise of Wolsey to power--Resolves to destroy the Geraldines--Geroit Mor succeeded by his son--Earl of Surrey sent as viceroy--Kildare restored to power--Summoned to London and imprisoned--Again restored and again imprisoned--Situation changed--Revolt of Silken Thomas--Seizes Dublin--Archbishop Allen murdered--Sir William Skeffington to Ireland--Kildare dies in prison--"The Pardon of Maynooth"--Silken Thomas surrenders, and is executed.
CHAPTER XXI.
THE ACT OF SUPREMACY
Lord Leonard Grey deputy--Accused of treason, recalled and executed--Act of Supremacy proposed--Opposition of clergy--Suppression of the abbeys--Great Parliament summoned in Dublin--- Meeting of hereditary enemies--Conciliatory measures--Henry VIII. proclaimed king of Ireland and head of the Church.
CHAPTER XXII.
THE NEW DEPARTURE
A halcyon period--O'Neill, O'Brien, and Macwilliam of Clanricarde at Greenwich--Receive their peerages,--Attempt at establishing Protestantism in Ireland--Vehemently resisted--The destruction of the relics--Archbishop Dowdal--The effect of the new departure--The Irish problem receives fresh complications.
CHAPTER XXIII.
THE FIRST PLANTATIONS
Mary becomes queen--Religious struggle postponed--Fercal Leix and Offaly colonized--Sense of insecurity awakened--No Irish Protestant martyrs--Commission of Dean Cole--Its failure--Death of Mary.
CHAPTER XXIV.
WARS AGAINST SHANE O'NEILL
Elizabeth becomes queen,--Effect of change on Ireland--Shane O'Neill--His description, habits, qualities--His campaign against Sussex--Defeats Sussex--His visit to Court--Returns to Ireland--Supreme in the North--His attack on the Scots--Sir Henry Sidney marches into Ulster--The disaster at Derry--Shane encounters the O'Donnells--Is defeated--Applies to the Scots--Is slain.
CHAPTER XXV.
BETWEEN TWO STORMS
Sir Henry Sidney Lord-deputy--A lull--Sidney's policy and proceedings--Provincial presidents appointed--Arrest of Desmond--Sir Peter Carew--His violence--Rebellion in the South--Sir James Fitzmaurice--Relations between him and Sir John Perrot--He surrenders, and sails for France.
CHAPTER XXVI.
THE DESMOND REBELLION
An abortive tragedy--State of the Desmond Palatinate--Sir James Fitzmaurice in France and Spain--Nicholas Saunders appointed legate--Stukeley's expedition--Fitzmaurice lands in Kerry--Desmond vacillates--Death of Sir James Fitzmaurice--Concerted attack of Ormond and Pelham--Horrible destruction of life--Arrival of Spaniards at Smerwick--Lord Grey de Wilton--Defeat of English troops at Glenmalure--Attack of and slaughter of Spaniards at Smerwick--Wholesale executions--Death of the Earl of Desmond and extinction of his house.
CHAPTER XXVII.
BETWEEN TWO MORE STORMS
State of Munster--The new plantations--Perrot's administration--Tyrlough Luinagh,--Sir William Fitzwilliam--Executions without trial--Alarm of northern proprietors--Earl of Tyrone--Character of early loyalty--Causes of dissatisfaction--Quarrel with Bagnall--Preparations for a rising.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
BATTLE OF THE YELLOW FORD
The Northern Blackwater--Attack of Blackwater Fort by Tyrone--Death of the deputy, Lord Borough--Bagnall advances from Dublin--Battle of the Yellow Ford--Defeat and death of Bagnall--Retreat of the English troops--The rising becomes general.
CHAPTER XXIX.
THE ESSEX FAILURE
Essex appointed Lord-Lieutenant--Arrival in Ireland--Mistakes and disasters--Death of Sir Conyers Clifford in the Curlews--Essex advances north--Holds a conference with Tyrone--Agrees to an armistice--Anger of the Queen--Essex suddenly leaves Ireland.
CHAPTER XXX.
END OF THE TYRONE WAR
Mountjoy appointed deputy--Contrast between him and Essex--Reasons for Mountjoy's greater success--Conquest by starvation--Success of method--Arrival of Spanish forces at Kinsale: Mountjoy and Carew marched south and invests Kinsale--Attack of Mountjoy by Tyrone--Failure of attack--Surrender of Spaniards--Surrender of Tyrone.
CHAPTER XXXI.
THE FLIGHT OF THE EARLS
The last chieftain rising against England--Condition of affairs at close of war--Tyrone's position impossible--Reported plot--Tyrone and Tyrconnel take flight--Confiscation of their territory--Sir John Davis--The Ulster Settlement.
CHAPTER XXXII.
THE FIRST CONTESTED ELECTION
Parliament summoned--Anxiety of government to secure a Protestant majority--Contested election--Narrow Protestant majority--Furious quarrel over election of Speaker--Parliament dissolved--The king appealed to--Attainder of Tyrone and Tyrconnel--Reversal of statute of Kilkenny.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
OLD AND NEW OWNERS
Further plantations--The Connaught landowners--Their positions--Charles I.'s accession and how it affected Ireland--Lord Falkland appointed viceroy--Succeeded by Wentworth.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
STRAFFORD
Arrival of Wentworth in Ireland--His methods and theory--Dissolves parliament--Goes to Connaught--Galway jury fined and imprisoned--His ecclesiastical policy--His Irish army--Return to England--Attainder, trial, and death.
CHAPTER XXXV.
'FORTY-ONE
Confusion and disorder--Strafford's army disbanded, but still in the country--Plot to seize Dublin Castle--Plot transpires--Sir Phelim O'Neill seizes Charlemont--Attack upon the Protestant settlers--Barbarities and counter barbarities.
CHAPTER XXXVI.
THE WATERS SPREAD
The rising at first local--Attitude of the Pale gentry--They resolve to join the rising--Disorganization of the northern insurgents--Incapacity of Sir Phelim O'Neill--Arrival of Owen Roe O'Neill and Preston--Meeting of delegates at Kilkenny--Charles decides upon a coup de main.
CHAPTER XXXVII.
CIVIL WAR
Effect of the Ulster massacres on England--An agrarian rather than religious rising--The Confederates' terms--Glamorgan sent to Ireland, The secret treaty transpires, Arrival of Rinucini, Battle of Benturb, Ormond surrenders
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
THE CONFUSION DEEPENS
Total confusion of aims and parties, The "poor Panther" Inchiquin, Alliance between Jones and Owen Roe O'Neill, Ormond advances upon Dublin, Battle of Baggotrath and defeat of the Royalists, Arrival of Cromwell.
CHAPTER XXXIX.
CROMWELL IN IRELAND
Cromwell's mission, Assault of Drogheda, and slaughter of its garrison, Wexford garrison slaughtered, Cromwell's discipline, The "country sickness," Confusion in the Royalist camp, Signature of the Scotch covenant by the king, Final surrender of O'Neill and the Irish army.
CHAPTER XL.
CROMWELL'S METHODS
Loss of life during the eight years of war, Punishment of the vanquished, Executions, Wholesale scheme of eviction, The New Owners, "The Burren," Sale of women to the West Indian plantations, Dissatisfaction amongst the soldiers and debenture holders, Irish Cromwellians.
CHAPTER XLI.
THE ACT OF SETTLEMENT
The Restoration, Henry Cromwell, Coote and Broghill, Court of claims established in Dublin, Prolonged dispute, Final settlement, Condition of Irish Roman Catholics at close of the struggle.
CHAPTER XLII.
OPPRESSION AND COUNTER OPPRESSION
Effects of the Restoration upon the Ulster Presbyterians--A new Act of Uniformity--Exodus of Presbyterians from Ireland--The Popish plot--Insane panic--Execution of Archbishop Plunkett--Sudden reversal of the tide--Tyrconnel sent as viceroy--Terror of Protestant settlers--William of Orange in England--James II. arrives in Ireland.
CHAPTER XLIII.
WILLIAM AND JAMES IN IRELAND
Popular enthusiasm for James--Struggle between his English and Irish adherents--James advances to Londonderry--Siege of Londonderry--Its garrison relieved--Debasing the coinage--Reversal of the Act of Settlement--Bill of Attainder--Arrival of William III.--Battle of the Boyne--Flight of James--First siege of Limerick--Athlone captured by Ginkel--Battle of Aughrim.
CHAPTER XLIV.
THE TREATY OF LIMERICK
Sarsfield refuses to surrender--Second siege of Limerick--The Limerick treaty--Its exact purport--The military treaty--Departure of the exiles.
CHAPTER XLV.
THE PENAL CODE
A new century and new fortunes--Mr. Lecky's "Eighteenth Century"--Reversal of all the recent Acts--The Penal Code--Burke's description of it--How evaded--Its effects upon Protestants and Catholics.
CHAPTER XLVI.
THE COMMERCIAL CODE
The "Protestant Ascendency"--England's jealousy of her Colonists, Act passed prohibiting export of Irish woollen goods, Effects of the Act upon Ireland, Smuggling on an immense scale, Collapse of industry, Strained relations.
CHAPTER XLVII.
MOLYNEUX AND SWIFT
The "Ingenious Molyneux," Irish naturalists, Molyneux's "Case of Ireland," Effect of its publication, Death of Molyneux, Dean Swift, His position in Irish politics, The "Drapier Letters," Their line of attack, Effect on popular opinion, Wood's halfpence suspended.
CHAPTER XLVIII.
HENRY FLOOD
Forty dull years, Parliamentary abuses, Charles Lucas, Flood enters Parliament, His struggle with the Government, Lord Townsend recalled, Flood accepts office, Effect of that acceptance, Rejoins the Liberal side, Tries to outbid Grattan, Failure and end.
CHAPTER XLIX.
HENRY GRATTAN
Unanimity of opinion about Grattan, His character, Enters Parliament, The "Declaration of Rights," Carried by the Irish Parliament, Declaratory Act of George I. repealed, A spell of prosperity, Rocks ahead, Disaster following disaster, Grattan and the Union, Grattan's death.
CHAPTER L.
THE IRISH VOLUNTEERS
Revolt of the American Colonies, Its effect on Ireland, Disastrous condition of the country, Volunteer movement begun in Belfast, Rapid popularity, Its effect upon politics, Free Trade, Declaratory Act repealed, The Volunteers disband.
CHAPTER LI.
DANGER SIGNALS
Reform the crying necessity of the hour--Corruption steadily increasing--Attempt to obtain free importation of goods to England--Its failure--Disturbed state of the country--Its causes--"White boys," "Oak boys," and "Steel boys"--Faction war in the North--Orange lodges--"Society of United Irishmen"--The one hope for the future.
CHAPTER LII.
THE FITZWILLIAM DISAPPOINTMENT
General desire for Catholic Emancipation--Lord Sheffield's evidence--The Catholic delegates
CHAPTER LIII.
'NINETY-EIGHT
Wolfe Tone, his character and autobiography--The other leaders of the rebellion--England and France at war--Hoche's descent--Panic--Habeas Corpus Act suspended--Misconduct of soldiers--Arrest of Lord Edward Fitzgerald--Outbreak of the rebellion--The rising in Wexford--Bagenal Harvey--Arklow, New Ross, and Vinegar Hill--Suppression of the rebellion--Final incidents--Death of Wolfe Tone.
CHAPTER LIV.
THE UNION
State of Ireland after the rebellion--Pitt resolved to pass the Union--Inducements offered--Discrepancy of statements upon the subject--Bribery or not bribery?--Lord Cornwallis and Lord Castlereagh--The Union carried.
CHAPTER LV.
O'CONNELL AND CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION
The Union not followed by union--The Emmett outbreak,--Young Daniel O'Connell--The new Catholic Association--The Clare election--Catholic Relief Bill carried--The "Incarnation of a people"--Repeal--The O'Connell gatherings--The meeting proclaimed at Clontarf--Prosecution and condemnation of O'Connell--Released on appeal--Never regained his power--Despondency and death.
CHAPTER LVI.
"YOUNG IRELAND"
"The Nation"--Sir C. Gavan Duffy--Thomas Davis--Smith O'Brien--Effect of O'Connell's death on the "Young Ireland" party--James Lalor--His influence on Mitchell--The "United Irishmen" newspaper started--Arrest and transportation of Mitchell--The end of the "Young Ireland" movement.
CHAPTER LVII.
THE FAMINE
First symptoms of the potato disease--The fatal night--Beginning of Famine--Rapid mortality--Mr. Forster's reports--Relief works--Soup kitchens--Failure of preventive measures--Famine followed by ruin--Clearances and Emigration--Emigrant ships--Permanent effects of the Famine on Ireland.
CHAPTER LVIII.
THE LATEST DEVELOPMENT
Encumbered Estates Act--Tenant League of North and South--The "Brass Band"--A lull--The Phoenix organization--The Fenian "scare"--Rescue of Fenian prisoners at Manchester--The Clerkenwell explosion--The Irish Church Act--The Irish Land Act of 1870--Failure of Irish Education Act, and retirement of the Liberals--Mr. Butt and Mr. Parnell--The Land League established--Return of the Liberals to power--The Irish Land Act of 1881--Arrest and release of Land League Leaders--Murders in the Phoenix Park--James Carey--- His death--The agrarian struggle--Home Rule--Its eventual destiny--The untravelled Future.
CHAPTER LIX.
CONCLUSION
Irish heroes--Causes of their want of popularity--Irish versus Scotch heroes--"Prince Posterity".
INDEX
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
[Nearly all the archaeological illustrations in this volume are from "The Early Christian Architecture of Ireland," by Miss M. Stokes, who has kindly allowed them to be reproduced. The portraits are chiefly from engravings, &c., kept in the Prints Room of the British Museum.]
- HOLY ISLAND, LOUGH DERG
- MAP OF IRELAND IN REIGN OF HENRY VII
- CROSS IN CEMETERY OF TEMPUL BRECCAN
- WEST CROSS, MONASTERBOICE
- DOORWAY OF MAGHERA CHURCH
- KILBANNON TOWER
- KELLS ROUND TOWER
- BASE OF TUAM CROSS
- DOORWAY OF KILLESHIN CHURCH
- INTERIOR OF CORMAC'S CHAPEL (CASHEL)
- WEST FRONT OF ST. CRONAN'S CHURCH
- WEST DOORWAY OF FRESHFORD CHURCH
- SIR HENRY SIDNEY (PORTRAIT OF)
- [pg xxviii]
- ASKEATON CASTLE
- CATHERINE, THE "OLD" COUNTESS OF DESMOND
THE STORY OF IRELAND.
I.
PRIMEVAL IRELAND.
"It seems to be certain," says the Abbé McGeoghehan, "that Ireland continued uninhabited from the Creation to the Deluge." With this assurance to help us on our onward way I may venture to supplement it by saying that little is known about the first, or even about the second, third, and fourth succession of settlers in Ireland. At what precise period what is known as the Scoto-Celtic branch of the great Aryan stock broke away from its parent tree, by what route its migrants travelled, in what degree of consanguinity it stood to the equally Celtic race or races of Britain, what sort of people inhabited Ireland previous to the first Aryan invasion--all this is in the last degree uncertain, though that it was inhabited by some race or races outside the limits of that greatest of human groups seems from ethnological evidence to be perfectly clear.
When first it dawns upon us through that thick darkness which hangs about the birth of all countries--whatever their destiny--it was a densely wooded and scantily peopled island "lying a-loose," as old Campion, the Elizabethan historian, tells us, "upon the West Ocean," though his further assertion that "in shape it resembleth an egg, plain on the sides, and not reaching forth to the sea in nooks and elbows of Land as Brittaine doeth"--cannot be said to be quite geographically accurate--the last part of the description referring evidently to the east coast, the only one with which, like most of his countrymen, he was at that time familiar.
Geographically, then, and topographically it was no doubt in much the same state as the greater part of it remained up to the middle or end of the sixteenth century, a wild, tangled, roadless land, that is to say, shaggy with forests, abounding in streams, abounding, too, in lakes--far more, doubtless, than at present, drainage and other causes having greatly reduced their number--with rivers bearing the never-failing tribute of the skies to the sea, yet not so thoroughly as to hinder enormous districts from remaining in a swamped and saturated condition, given up to the bogs, which even at the present time are said to cover nearly one-sixth of its surface.
This superfluity of bogs seems always in earlier times to have been expeditiously set down by all historians and agriculturists as part of the general depravity of the Irish native, who had allowed his good lands,--doubtless for his own mischievous pleasure--to run to waste; bogs being then supposed to differ from other lands only so far as they were made "waste and barren by superfluous moisture." About the middle of last century it began to be perceived that this view of the matter was somewhat inadequate; the theory then prevailing being that bogs owed their origin not to water alone, but to the destruction of woods, whose remains are found imbedded in them--a view which held good for another fifty or sixty years, until it was in its turn effectually disposed of by the report of the Bogs Commission in 1810, when it was proved once for all that it was to the growth of sphagnums and other peat-producing mosses they were in the main due--a view which has never since been called in question.
A great deal, however, had happened to Ireland before the bogs began to grow on it at all. It had--to speak only of some of its later vicissitudes--been twice at least united to England, and through it with what we now know as the continent of Europe, and twice severed from it again. It had been exposed to a cold so intense as to bleach off all life from its surface, utterly depriving it of vegetation, and grinding the mountains down to that scraped bun-like outline which so many of them still retain; had covered the whole country, highlands and lowlands alike, with a dense overtoppling cap of snow, towering often thousands of feet above the present height of the mountains, from which "central silence" the glaciers crept sleepily down the ravines and valleys, eating their way steadily seaward, and leaving behind them moraines to mark their passage, leaving also longitudinal scratches, cut, as a diamond cuts glass, upon the rocks, as may be seen by any one who takes the trouble of looking for them; finally reaching the sea in a vast sloping plateau which pushed its course steadily onward until its further advance was overborne by the buoyancy of the salt water, the ends breaking off, as the Greenland glaciers do to-day, into huge floating icebergs, which butted against one another, jammed up all the smaller bays and fiords; were carried in again and again on the rising tide; rolled hither and thither like so many colossal ninepins; played, in short, all the old rough-and-tumble Arctic games through many a cold and dismal century, finally melting away as the milder weather began slowly to return, leaving Ireland a very lamentable-looking island indeed, not unlike one of those deplorable islands scattered along the shores of Greenland and upon the edges of Baffin's Bay--treeless, grassless, brown and scalded, wearing everywhere over its surface the marks of that great ice-plough which had lacerated its sides so long.
There seems to be good geological evidence that the land connection between Ireland and Scotland continued to a considerably later period than between it and England, to which, and as far as can be seen to no other possible cause is to be attributed two very striking characteristics of its fauna, namely, its excessive meagreness and its strikingly northern character. Not only does it come far short of the already meagre English fauna, but all the distinctively southern species are the ones missing, though there is nothing in the climate to account for the fact. The Irish hare, for instance, is not the ordinary brown hare of England, but the "blue" or Arctic hare of Scotch mountains, the same which still further to the north becomes white in winter, a habit which, owing to the milder Irish winters, it has apparently shaken off.
It would be pleasant to linger here a little over this point of distribution--so fruitful of suggestion as to the early history of the planet we occupy. To speculate as to the curious contradictions, or apparent contradictions, to be found even within so narrow an area as that of Ireland. What, for instance, has brought a group of South European plants to the shores of Kerry and Connemara, which plants are not to be found in England, even in Cornwall, which one would have thought must surely have arrested them first? Why, when neither the common toad or frog are indigenous in Ireland (for the latter, though common enough now, was only introduced at the beginning of last century) a comparatively rare little toad, the Natterjack, should be found in one corner of Kerry to all appearances indigenously? All these questions, however, belong to quite another sort of book, and to a much larger survey of the field than there is time here to embark upon, so there is nothing for it but to turn one's back resolutely upon the tempting sin of discursiveness, or we shall find ourselves belated before our real journey is even begun.
The first people, then, of whose existence in Ireland we can be said to know anything are commonly asserted to have been of Turanian origin, and are known as "Formorians." As far as we can gather, they were a dark, low-browed, stunted race, although, oddly enough, the word Formorian in early Irish legend is always used as synonymous with the word giant. They were, at any rate, a race of utterly savage hunters and fishermen, ignorant of metal, of pottery, possibly even
Next followed a Belgic colony, known as the Firbolgs, who overran the country, and appear to have been of a somewhat higher ethnological grade, although, like the Formorians, short, dark, and swarthy. Doubtless the latter were not entirely exterminated to make way for the Firbolgs, any more than the Firbolgs to make way for the Danaans, Milesians, and other successive races; such wholesale exterminations being, in fact, very rare, especially in a country which like Ireland seems specially laid out by kindly nature for the protection of a weaker race struggling in the grip of a stronger one.
After the Firbolgs, though I should be sorry to be obliged to say how long after, fresh and more important tribes of invaders began to appear. The first of these were the Tuatha-da-Danaans, who arrived under the leadership of their king Nuad, and took possession of the east of the country. These Tuatha-da-Danaans are believed to have been large, blue-eyed people of Scandinavian origin, kinsmen and possibly ancestors of those Norsemen or "Danes" who in years to come were destined to work such woe and havoc upon the island.
Many battles took place between these Danaans and the earlier Firbolgic settlers--the native owners as no doubt they felt themselves of the country. One of the best substantiated of these, not, indeed, by history or even tradition, but by a more solid testimony, that of the stone remains left on the spot, prove, at any rate, that some long-sustained battle was at some remote period fought on the spot.
This is the famous pre-historic battle of Moytura, rather the Southern Moytura, for there were two; the other, situated not far from the present town of Sligo, retaining "the largest collection of pre-historic remains," says Dr. Petrie, "in any region in the world with the exception of Carnac." This second battle of Moytura was fought upon the plain of Cong, which is washed by the waters of Lough Mask and Lough Corrib, close to where the long monotonous midland plain of Ireland becomes broken, changes into that region of high mountains and low-lying valleys, now called Connemara, but which in earlier days was always known as Iar Connaught.
It is a wild scene even now, not very much less so than it must have been when this old and half-mythical Battle of the West was fought and won. A grey plain, "stone-roughened like the graveyard of dead hosts," broken into grassy ridges, and starred at intervals with pools, repeating the larger glitter of the lake hard by. Over the whole surface of this tumbled plain rise, at intervals, great masses of rock, some natural, but others artificially up-tilted cromlechs and dolmens, menhirs and cairns--whitened by lichen scrawls, giving them often in uncertain light the effect of so many undecipherable inscriptions, written in a long-forgotten tongue.
From the position of the battle-field it has been made out to their own satisfaction by those who have studied it on the spot, that the Firbolgs must have taken up a fortified position upon the hill called Ben-levi; a good strategic position unquestionably, having behind it the whole of the Mayo mountains into which to retreat in case of defeat. The Danaans, on the other hand, advancing from the plains of Meath, took up their station upon the hill known as Knockmaa[1], standing by itself about five miles from the present town of Tuam, on the top of which stands a great cairn, believed to have been in existence even then--a legacy of some yet earlier and more primitive race which inhabited the country, and, therefore, possibly the oldest record of humanity to-day extant in Ireland.
[1] Now Castle Hacket Hill
Three days the battle is said to have raged with varying fortunes, in the course of which the Danaan king Nuad lost his arm, a loss which was repaired, we are told, by the famous artificer Credue or Cerd, who made him a silver one, and as "Nuad of the Silver Hand" he figures conspicuously in early Irish history. In spite of this, and of the death of a number of their fighting-men, the stars fought for the Tuatha-da-Danaans, who were strong men and cunning, workers in metal, and great fighters, so that at last they utterly made an end of their antagonists, occupying the whole country, and holding it, say the annalists for a hundred and ninety and six years--building earth and stone forts, many of which exist to this day, but what their end was no man can tell you, save that they, too, were, in their turn, conquered by the Milesians or "Scoti," who next overran the country, giving to it their own name of Scotia, by which name it was known down to the end of the twelfth century, and driving the earlier settlers before them, who thereupon fled to the hills, and took refuge in the forests, whence they emerged, doubtless, with unpleasant effect upon their conquerors, as another defeated race did upon their conquerors in later days.
As regards the early doings of these Scoti, although nearer to us in point of time, their history is, if anything, rather more vague than that of their predecessors. The source for the greater part of it is in a work known as the "Annals of the Four Masters," a compilation put together in the sixteenth century, from documents now no longer existing, and which must unfortunately, be regarded as largely fictitious. Were names, indeed, all that were wanting to give substantiality there are enough and to spare, the beginning of every Irish history positively bristling with them. Leland, for instance, who published his three sturdy tomes in the year 1773, and who is still one of our chief authorities on the subject, speaks of Ireland as having "engendered one hundred and seventy one monarchs, all of the same house and lineage; with sixty-eight kings, and two queens of Great Brittain and Ireland all sprung equally from her loins." We read in his pages of the famous brethren Heber and Heremon, sons of Milesius, who divided the island between them; of Allamh Fodla, celebrated as a healer of feuds and protector of learning, who drew the priests and bards together into a triennial assembly at Tara, in Meath; of Kimbaoth, who is praised by the annalists for having advanced learning and kept the peace. The times of peace had not absolutely arrived however, for he was not long after murdered, and wild confusion and wholesale slaughter ensued. Another Milesian prince, Thuathal, shortly afterwards returned from North Britain, and, assisted by a body of Pictish soldiers, defeated the rebels, restored order, and re-established the seat of his monarchy in Meath.
As a specimen of the sort of stories current
Another special favourite of the annalists is Cormac O'Conn, whose reign they place about the year 250, and over whose doings they wax eloquent, dwelling upon the splendour of his court, the heroism of his warlike sons, the beauty of his ten fair daughters, the doings of his famous militia, the Fenni or Fenians, and especially of his illustrious general Finn, or Fingal, the hero of the legends, and father of the poet Ossian--a warrior whom we shall meet with again in the next chapter.
And now, it will perhaps be asked, what is one in sober seriousness to say to all this? All that one can say is that these tales are not to be taken as history in any rigid sense of the word, but must for the most part be regarded as mere hints, caught from chaos, and coming down through a hundred broken mediums; scraps of adventures told around camp fires; oral traditions; rude songs handed from father to son, and altering more or less with each new teller. The early history of Ireland is in this respect much like the early history of all other countries. We have the same semi-mythical aggregations, grown up around some small kernel of reality, but so changed, swollen, distorted, that it is difficult to distinguish the true from the false; becoming vaguer and vaguer too as the mists of time and sentiment gather more and more thickly around them, until at last we seem to be swimming dimly in a "moony vapour," which allows no dull peaks of reality to pierce through it at all. "There were giants in those days," is a continually recurring assertion, characteristic of all ancient annals, and of these with the rest.
CROMLECH ON HOWTH.