Religion, Learning, and Art Part II - Forgotten Books

FIG. 3. —Sculp ture over a doorway.Cormac’s Chapel, Cashel ; Centaur shooting at a lion.(From Petrie's Round Towers).

PREFACE

AN important function of H istory is to depict

social and domestic life . If we wish to“

obtain a

clear V iew of the general state ofany particu lar

country in past times,we shall need to have a

good knowledge ofthe people , high and low,rich

and poor ; their standards of civilisation,religion,

and learning ; their virtues and fail ings ; their

industries , occupations , and amusements ; their

manners and customs ; and the sort of life they

{ed day by day in their homes .The social

.condition ofmost of those ancient

nations that have made any figure in the worldhas been investigated and set forth in books and

perhaps it will be acknowledged that I reland

deserves to b e similarly commemorated . For,

besides the general importance ofall such studies

in elucidating the history of the human race ,the ancient Irish were a highly intellectual and

interesting people ; and the world owes them

something ,as I hope to be able to show . In this .

book an attempt is made to picture society ,in

all its phases,as it existed in Ireland before the

v iii PREFACE

Anglo- Norman Invasion ; and to accomplish thiswork— to bring together in one Essay all that isknown on the subj ect— every authentic source of

information within my reach has been turned to

account . I have collected the scattered Sibyllineleaves with much loving labour , and sorted and

pieced them together slowly and patiently, so as to

form a connected and intel ligible statement ; but

in my case there were a hundred times more

inscribed leaves to deal with than ever any votarypicked up in the Sibyl

’

s cave . Or perhaps some.

ofmy readers , putting aside this metaphor, may

rather see in the book the likeness ofsome spaciousedifice

,with svmmetrical wings and numerous

bright apartments , all differently furnished and

ornamented . The visi tor who wishes to enter here

and explore the interior will find the way plainlypointed out at the opening ofevery corridor

, and

each apartment labelled to indicate , in a generalway

,what is to be seen inside .

The society depicted here— as the reader willsoon discover for himself— was ofslow andmethodi

cal growth and development ; duly subordinatedfrom the highes t grades ofpeople to the lowest ;with clearly defined ranks , professions , trades , andindustries and in general with those various pursuits and institutions found in every well - orderedcommunity a society compacted andheld togetherby an all - embracing system oflaws and customs

,

long established and universally recognised.

This subj ect has been to some extent treated of

PREFACE ix

by other wr iters,notably by W are , O

’

Curry , and

Sullivan and I have taken ful l advantage oftheirlearned labours . But they deal with portions only ,

and ofcourse give only partial views : my Essay

aims at opening up the entire field . I' am fully

sensible ofthe shortcomings ofthis first attempt to

bring the whole social l ife of the ancient Irish

people under one broad view ; for besides theliab il ity to error and imperfection incident to

every new undertaking,the sources ofinformation

on the state ofancient Ireland are not yet ful ly

available . But it is better to make the attemptnow, even under some disadvantages

,than to

postpone it indefinitely .

This book does not deal with pre - historic times,

except by occasional reference,or to illustrate the

historic period . My survey generally goes back

only so far as there is light from l iving record

history or tradition. I am content to stand near

the outer margin of the fog, and observe and

del ineate the people as they emerge from darkness

and twilight . At first indeed there is often only afaint gl immer

,and the figures and their surround

ings are shadowy and indistinct : but subse q uent

observation,made in broad historical daylight

,

generally enables us to clear up the uncerta inty

or correct the error ofthe first dim V iew .

W here such a vast variety ofsubj ects had to

be treated ofwithin the compass oftwo medium

siz ed volumes , it would be manifestly impossible

to pursue inq uiries exhaustively , or to go q u ite to

X PREFACE

the bottom ofthings . But so far as the Essay is

intended to reach,I have done my very best to

secure accuracy— accuracy . ofstatement , of inter

ence, ofq uotation, and ofreference and whoever

discovers an error may be assured that it is not

the result ofhaste or carelessness .

*

I have been very particular to give exact

references for all statements of any importance.

Quotations from other languages are always given

in Engl ish : bu t wherever i t seemed necessary or

desirable the originals also are q uoted . W here

there are two or more edit ions or vers ions ofworks

consulted,references are given as far as possible to

those that are most easily accessible to the generalreader. I have util ised withou t stint the labours ofothers , both of the past and of the present , butnever , I think ,

withou t acknowledgment .Attent ion has been given to the forms and

meanings ofwords and names so far as i t tended

to elucidate the general subj ect : but it must beremembered that the main intention ofthis bookis to deal

,not with words , bu t with things . W h en

an Irish word or name varies in spelling,the

several forms are generally given,either in the text

or in the Index . Animals,plants

,minerals

, and

external nature in general,are treated ofonly so

faras they come directly into touch with the SocialLife '

ofthe people and they are brought in underthe s everal chapters wherever they fit best .

Those who wish to study particular port ions ofthe subject furtherwill b e aided by the references all through the book, and by the List ofAuthorities at the end.

PREFACE xi

Thelnumerous illustrations relateto'

t h'

e several

current parts ofthe text and I 'hope they will befound an instructive and pleasing featureof the

book .

I have taken occasion all along to compare

Irish Social Life with that ofother ancient nations,

especially pointing out correspondences that are

the natural conse q uence ofcommon Aryan origin

but want ofspace precluded much indulgence inthis very desirable direction.

The writer who endeavours to set forth his

subj ect— whatever it may be —ln words oftruth

and soberness , is sure to encounter the disapproval

or hostil ity ofthose who hold extreme opinions on

either side . In regard to my subj ect,we have

,

on the one hand , those Engl ish and Anglo- Irish

people— and they are not few— who think,merely

from ignorance,that Ireland was a barbarous

and half - savage country before the English cameamong the people and civilised them ; and, on

the other hand ,there are those ofmy countrymen

who have an exaggerated idea of the greatness

and splendour of the ancient Irish nation.

* I

have not been in the least influenced by wri tersbelonging to either class . Following trustworthyauthori ties , I have tried to present here a truepicture ofancient Irish life

,neither over - praising

nor depreciating . I have not magnified what

was worthy ofcommendation,nor suppressed ,

nor

unwarrantablv toned down,features that told

See on this Stokes’

s Life ofPetrie, p . 2 11.

xi i PREFACE

unfavourably for the people for though I love thehonour ofIreland well , I love truth better .

The Irish race , after a long- protracted struggle,

went down before a stronger people and in addi

tion to this , from causes which it would be out of

place to discuss here , they su ffered almost a totaleclipse at home during a period nearly coincidentwith the eighteenth century . Chiefly for these

reasons the old I rish people have never, in moderntimes

,received the full measure of credit due to

them for their early and striking advance in the

arts ofcivi lised l ife, for their very comprehensive

system oflaws,and for their noble and successful

efforts , both at home and abroad ,in the cause of

rel igion and learning . or late indeed we can

perceive,among Continental and British writers

,

something l ike a spontaneous movement showing a

tendency to do them justice ; but the essays inthis direction, though j ust , and often even generous

,

as far as they go,are fragmentary

,scattered

, and

fi tful. Those who are interested in this aspect of

the subj ect will perhaps be pleased to have the

whole case presented to them in one Essay.

I now submit to the judgment of the publicthis book , the outcome of eight years

’

congenial

and pleasant work , hoping that it'

will proveacceptable , not only to those who desire information on the Institutions and Social Life of the

ancient Irish ,and ofthe Celtic people in general

,

but also to that wider circle who are interested inthe early History ofMankind .

PREFACE xi ii

I have now to discharge the pleasant duty ofrecording mythanks for help towards illust rat ing this book.

The Councils ofthe Royal I rish Academy,and ofthe Royal

Society ofAnt i q uaries , I reland ,gave me the use ofthe blocks

ofgreat numbers ofthe illust rations in their respect ive pub lica'

tions,andwhere the blocks were not available, permitted me to

copy any oftheir illust rations I wanted. That the book is sowell illust rated is mainly owing to the liberality ofthese twodistinguished Societ ies . There i s no need to enter into detailhere

,as under every illustrat ion in the book is mentioned the

source from which it is derived but I wish to direct attent ionto the number ofvaluable and accurate figures I have borrowedfrom W i lde’s Catalogue ofI rish Anti q uit ies , belonging tothe Royal Irish Academy.

Messrs. Hodges,Figgis Co ofDublin, placed at my dis

posal the b locks ofas many ofPetrie’s and W akeman’s beaut iful drawings as I chose to ask for.

Colonel W ood -Martin lent me the blocks ofmany ofthe

illustrations in his Pagan I reland and Traces of the

E lder Faiths ofIreland.

"

From the Board ofEducation, South Kensington, I have

received permission to use electrotypes from the original blocksofnearly a doz en ofthe adm irable illustrations inM iss Stokes’sEarly Christian Art in Ireland.

The Controller of H is Majesty’s Stat ionery Office,

London,allowed me to reproduce some of the i llustrations

in Sir John T. Gi lbert’ s Facsimiles of Irish NationalManuscripts.I am indebted to the late Mr. Bernard Quaritch ofLondon

for leave to reproduce the beautiful i lluminated page ofthe

Book ofMacDurnan,from W estwood’s Facsimiles ofAnglo

Saxon and I rish Manuscripts.”

Messrs. George Bell Sons lent me the blocks ofsome of

the i llustrations in Miss Stokes’s Three Months in the ForestsofFrance, and Six months in the Apennines.I had the permission ofthe Rev. Dr. Abbott , to

copy some ofthe figures in his Reproduct ions ofPortions ofthe Book ofKells .Lord W alter Fit zGerald gave me leave to copy some ofthe

xiv P REFACE

illust rat ions in the Journal ofthe County Kildare Archaeological Society.

The Editor ofthe Revue Celt i q ue has given me permi ssion to reproduce two ofthe figures in that periodical .Besides the above, a number of illust rat ions have been

taken from books having no copyright , and others have beenpurchased from the proprietors of copyright works : all of

which are acknowledged in the proper places. And thereare a good many original sket ches appearing here now for thefirst t ime.

Dr. Pet rie and Miss Margaret Stokes have been the chiefillust rators of the Scenery and Ant i q ui ties of I reland ; and

even a casual glance wi ll show to what an extent I have beenenabled to enrich this book with their beaut iful and accuratedrawings .

P. W . J.

DUBLIN , October, 1903 .

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDIT ION

IN preparing this Edition I have had the advantage

ofa number ofvaluable remarks from Dr. Kuno

Meyer,now

'

our greatest and most accomplishedIrish scholar . He read the book as soon as it cameout , and as he went along took notes

,which

'

he

sent to me unasked , and which I now thankfullyacknowledge .

On my own part I have carefully re- read and

re- considered every sentence in the book .

As the result ofall,I have made some changes

and corrections .

P. W . J.

Dublin,1913 .

FIG . 4. —Ornament composed from the Book ofKells .

CONTENTS OF VOL. I

PART I

GOVERNMENT,MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW

CHAPTER I

LAY ING THE FOU NDATION,

Section1. NATIVE DEVELOPMENT

,

EV IDENCES‘ FROM L ITERATURE,

EVIDENCES‘

FRO M MATER IAL REMA INS,

CONCURRENCE OF TESTIMONIEs,

POPULATION OF IRELAND IN ANC IENT T IMES,(A

A

UJ

N

CHAPTER I I

A PRELIMINARY BIRDS - EYE V IEW

CHAPTER III

MONARCH ICAL GOVERNMENT

1. TERR ITORIAL SUBD IV ISION,

2

"

CLASSES OF KINGS3 . ELECTION AND INAUGURATION4 . REVENUE AND AUTHORI TY,5 . PRIV ILEGES ,6 . LIM ITATIONS AND RESTR ICTIONS

,

7. HOUSEHOLD,RETINUE

,AND COURT OFFICERS

,

L IST-

OF OVER - KINGS,

xv i CONTENTS

CHAPTER IV

WARFARE,

Sec tionI . FORE IGN CONQUESTS AND COLON ISATIONS ,2 . MILITARY RANKS , ORDERS , AND SERVICES ,3 . ARM S

,OFFENS IVE AND DEFENSIVE

,

4 . STRATEGY,TACTICS

,AND MODES OF FIGHTING

,

CHAPTER V

STRUCTURE OF SOCIETY ,

SectionI . F IVE MA IN CLA SSES OF PEOPLE ,z . FLAITHS OR NOBLES ,3. NON- NOBLE FREEMEN WITH PROPERTY

,

4 . NON- NOBLE FREEMEN. WITHOUT PROPERTY,

5 . THE NON- FREE CLASSES6 . GROU PS OF SOC IETY ,

CHAPTER VI

THE BREHON LAWS,SectionI . THE BREHONS ,2 . THE SENCHUS MOR AND OTHER BOOKS OF LAW,

3. ABSENCE OF LEGISLATION ,4 . SU I TABILI TY OF THE BREHON LAWS

,

CHAPTER VII

THE LAWS RELAT ING TO LANDSectionI . THE LAND ORIGINALLY COMMON PROPERTY,2 . FIVE WAYS OF HOLD ING LAND ,3 . TENANTS , THE IR PAYMENTS AND SUBS IDIES ,4 . FUDIRS OR SERFS ON THE LAND

,

5. DESCENT OF LAND ,

CHAPTER VI I ITHE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE

Section1. THE LAW OF COMPENSATIONPROCEDURE BY D ISTRESS

,

PROCEDURE BY FASTING,

ERIC OR COMPENSATION FINE ,MODES OF PUN ISHMENT

,

o. COURTS OF JUSTICE ,U

-r

9°

9

CONTENTS X V I]

PART II

RELIGION, LEARNING,ART

CHAPTER 1xPAGE

PAGANISM,

Section1. DRU IDs : THE IR FUNCTIONS AND POWERS

,

2 . PO INTS OF AGREEMENT AND D IFFERENCE BETWEENIR ISH AND GAULISH DRUIDS

,

3 . SORCERERS AND SORCERY,

4 . MYTHOLOGY : GODS,GOBLINS

,AND PHANTOM S

WORSH IP OF IDOLS,

HUMAN SACRIFICE,

WORSH IP OF WEAPONS,

WORSH IP OF THE ELEMENTS,

THE PAGAN HEAVEN ANDA FUTURE STATE,.

I O . TURN ING DE ISIOL OR SUNWISE,

I I . THE ORDEAL,

12 . PREFERENCE FOR CERTA IN NUMBERS,

13 . THE EV IL EYEI 4 . GEASA

,OR PROH IBITIONS

,

P

so

s

c

w

CHAPTER X

CHRISTIANITY,

Section1 . CHR ISTIAN I TY BEFORE -ST. PATR ICK’S ARR IVAL2 . THREE ORDERS OF IRISH SA INTS

,

3 . FIRST ORDER : PATRIC IAN SECULAR CLERGY4 . SECOND ORDER : MONA STIC CLERGY ,5 . TH IRD ORDER ANCHOR ITES OR HERM ITS

,AND

HERM I T COMMUN I TIES,

6 . BUILD INGS,AND OTHER MATER IAL REQUISITES

7. REVENUE AND "MEANS OF SUPPORT,

8 . VAR IOUS FEATURES OF THE ANC IENT IR ISH CHURCH,

9 . POPULAR RELIGIOUS IDEAS,

xvfii CONTENTS

CHAPTER XIPAGE

LEARNING AND EDUCAT ION,

SectionI . LEARN ING IN PAGAN T IMES :2 . MONASTIC SCHOOLS3 . LAY SCHOOLS ,4 . SOME GENERAL FEATURES OF BOTH CLASSES OF

SCHOOLS : TABLES OF DEGREES AND SUBJECTS ,THE MEN OF LEARN ING

,

HONOURS AND REWARDS FOR LEARN ING,

THE KNOWLEDGE OF SCIENCE ,9

9W

."

CHAPTER XII

IR ISH LANGUAGE AND L ITERATURE ,

Section1. D IV IS IONS AND D IALECTS OF CELTIC ,2 . AND WR ITING MATER IALS3 . ANCIENT LI BRAR IES ,4 . E X ISTING BOOKS

,

CHAPTER XII I

ECCLESIASTICAL AND RELIGIOU S WRITINGS,

CHAPTER XIV

ANNALS,H ISTOR IES , AND GENEALOGIES,

SectionI . How THE ANNALS WERE COMP ILED

,

2 . TESTS OF ACCURACY,

3 . PR INC IPAL BOOKS OF ANNALS,

4 . HISTOR IES : GENEALOGIES : DINNSENCHUS,

CHAPTER XV

H ISTORI CAL AND ROMANTIC TALES

1. CLASSES,LISTS

,AND NUMBERS

,. 531

2 . CHRONOLOGI CAL CYCLES OF THE TALES 535

3. GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE TALES, 538

4 STORY - TELLING AND RECITATION, 540

5 . TRANSLATIONS AND VERSIONS IN MODERN LANGUAGES, 542

CONTENTS

CHAPTER XVI

1. PENW ORK AND ILLUM INATION,

2 . GOLD , S ILVER, AND ENAMEL, As WORKING MATER IALS,3. ARTISTIC METAL WORK

,

4 . STONE CARV ING,

CHAPTER XVI I

MUSIC ,

HISTORY,

MUS ICAL INSTRUMENTS,

CHARACTER ISTICS,CLASSES

,STYLES

MODERN COLLECTIONS OF ANCIENT IRISH MUS IC,$

90

00

"

CHAPTER XVI II

MEDICINE AND MEDICAL DOCTORS,

SectionI . MED ICAL DOCTORS2 . MED ICAL MANUSCR IPTS ,3. DISEASES

,

z . TREATMENT,

A; PO PULAR CURES,

d

544

554

559

566

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

xxii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS IN VOL I

n o. PAGE no

56. Bronze celt ,57. Celt onhandle,58. Do.,

39 . Two galloglasses,60. Dermot Machlurrogh,ox. Bronze shield, outside.

62. Do., inside,

63. Foot -soldier receivingcharge,

64. Horse-soldier and att endants,

65. Two 88110813 5865 on tomb ,

66. Ornament from Book ofRolls,67. Ornament on leather,

68. Specimen ofSenchus Nor,

69 . Ornament from Book ofHells70. Sculpture on W indow.Glendalough,

70a. Ornament from Book ofKells.7x. Sculpture on church , Glmdalough,72. MS. ornamentation,

73. A(airy h ill,74. Afairy moat ,

73. The Ca thubodvae stone ,

76. K illeen Cormac,77. Church doorway, Glendalough,

78. St .Brc'

eHermitage ,

79. Killashee near Naas,80. Baptismal font ,81. St . Columb

’

aHouse, Kells.82. Doorway 0 : Round Tower,83. St. Doolagh

'

s Church,

84. Church oi the Fire, lniehmurray,

85. ChancelArch, Monaincha,86. Cave ofSt. Columbanus, Luxeuil,87. St. Columbanus taming bears, Bob

bio,

88. Irish Shrine inCopenhagen,

89 . Clochanor beehive- shaped house,

93. Church doorway inAran,9 4. High Cross.Dym i 01301.

95. EnnisAbbey,96. RoundTower, Devenlsh,

97. RoundTower, Kilkenny,98 KllmanOCk Abbey, 0

99 . St .Senan’sHoly W ell

, Clare,100. W ell ofHelp, ~Inishmurray.101, St. Kieran'

s Trout W ell, Meath,102. Altar-Stone,

103. Ancient stone Chalice,104. St . Patrick

'sBell,

105. Bell ofMacAilello,106. Ancient IronBell ,107. Bronze Crotal, or closed Bell,108. GoldArnulet ,

109. Do., do.,

110. StoneAmulet ,111. SlaneMonastery112. Melliiont Abbey,113. PortionolBell-shrine,1rq . OghamAlphabet.115. Bilingual Stone, Killeen Cormac,116. Ogham Stone,

117. Two ancient IrishAlphabets,118. JohnSootus Erigena,119. Tomb ofthe SevenRomans, Arau,120. Clonmacnoise,121. Ancient Alphabet onStone,122. The Colledge, " Youghal,123. Ancient irish Astronomical Dia

gram,

124. Scribe writing.

125. Cover ofBook ofArmagh,126. Facsimile from Book of the Dun

Cow,

127. Sculpture on Capital, Glendalougb ,

128. MovillaMonastery129. Dysert -Aengus,

130. Noah’sArk,

131. Sculpture on Capital Glenda

lough,132. KilbarronCast le,133. TubbridChurch,

134. Sculpture onColumn,135. Irish Ornament ,

136. Sculpture onArch,137. IlluminatedPage,138. Outlines ofsame.

139 . Rock Scoring;

395

399

439

I JST OF ILLUSTRAT ION S IN

140. Ornamental page ofGospel,141. The Ardagh Chalice142. TheTara Brooch,

144. Ornament carved onBone,

145. Do ., do.,

146. Do., do.,

147. The Cross ofMonasterboice,148. InterlacedStone Ornament ,

150. Do .,

151. Do.,

152. Ancient Irish Harp ,153 . Piper

PAGE FIG

IVC) I. I0 0 '

X X III

154. Harp andPipe-Players,

155. Do., do.,

156. Do ., do.,

157. Group ofTrummts,158. RivetingonTrumpets,159. OrnamentalPlate ofTru npet,160. Ornament, Devenish RoundTower,161. Conach(MedicalCharm),162. Sweating-House,

163. Healing- Stone,

164. Garnavilla Amulet(front),165. Do ., (side),166. Toberaraght , a Healing Holy Vi ell,167. Ornament from Book ofKells,

MILITARY SYSTEM , AND LAW

P A RT I

FIG. 6.—Omament composed from the Book ofK ells.

CHAPTER I

LAY ING THE FOUNDATION

SECTION I . Native Development.

E Inst itut ions, Arts, and Customs of

Ancient Ireland , with few exceptions,

grew up from within,almost wholly

unaffected by external influence. The

exceptions will be not iced in the properplaces in this book . The Romans never

set foot in Ireland though their influence was felt to some

sl ight extent,either by direct communicat ion or indirectly

through the Britons. The first foreigners to appear as

invaders were the Danes, who began their raids about thebeginning ofthe ninth century. Though they harassedthe country for about two centuries, and established themselves in many parts ofit

, especially on the coasts, theynever brought it under subject ion : and they effected no.

changes ofany consequence in the customs or modes of

l ife ofthe people. Next came the Anglo-Normans near the

end ofthe twelfth century . But though this was a muchmore serious invasion than that ofthe Danes, and thoughthese newcomers cont inued to make settlements in variousparts ofthe country ,

the Irish people st ill adhered everywhere to their nat ive customs. Indeed it is well known

4 GOVERNMENT , MIL ITARY SYSTEM , AND LAW [PART I

that , except in a small district round Dublin, the settlersgenerally intermarried and became incorporated with thenat ives, adopting their language, laws, dress, andusages, soas to be quite undist ingu ishable from them

, and becomingmore Irish than the Irish themselves. Accordingly

, for

several centuries the Anglo- Norman colonisation had no

more effect in altering the general state ofsociety than theDanish invasions and matters went on very much as of

old, t ill the time ofthe Tudors, when English influence at

last made i tself fel t . Then the old system oftribal landtenure began to be changed for the English custom and

with the abol it ion ofthe Brehon Law and the subst itutionofEnglish Law, in the beginning ofthe seventeenth cen

tury , i t may be said that the old order ofthings in Irelandwas broken up . But even after this most ofthe ancientnat ive customs remained , and indeed many remain to thisday.

In the long lapse ofages there were ofcourse changesand developments from time to t ime many new modes,fashions, and usages gradually grew up,

while others fellinto disuse but the main inst itut ions and customs ofthe

country retained their hold with astonishing tenacity so

that in some aspects ofsociety, a descript ion ofthe state ofthings as they existed in,

suppose, the fifteenth century,

would apply equal ly well to that in the sixth or seventh.

Many illustrat ions ofthis might b e given but one will besuffi cient here. It was customary with the ancient Irishpoets— as will be described farther on— to make circui tsthrough the country ,

visit ing the houses ofthe principalpeople,

and receiving payment for their poetry , besideswelcome and entertainment composing laudatory poems

for those who received them well , and lampooning those

who refused them . This remarkable custom is ment ionedin innumerable passages in both the lay and ecclesiast icall iterature as exist ing in the most remote pagan t imes ;i t was not in the least affected by war or invasion, but

6 GOVERNMENT , MILITARY SYSTEM , AND LAW [PART 1

Romant ic Literature the Brehon Laws G losses and

Glossaries Annals, Genealogies, and Local H istoricalMemoirs and the works ofEnglish , Anglo- Irish

, and

foreign wri ters. These several classes will be now brieflyexam ined.

Lives ofSaints.— The lives andotherwrittenmemorialsofthe Irish saints

,most in Irish ,

some in Lat in, ofwhich

great numbers are still preserved in our manuscripts, and

ofwhich many have been published , form a very importantsource ofinformat ion. The oldest documents ofthis kindare the original memoirs ofSt . Patrick . The principal ofthese are — The two documents now generally admitted tohave been wri tten by Patrick himsel f— the Confession,

and the Epistle to Coroticus, both fifth century ; and

two others, the Memoir ofthe saint by Muirchu MaceuMachteni, and the Notes by Tirechan, both wri tten in theseventh century ,

but embodying traditions of a muchearl ier date. These are ofthe highest authority ,

but theydo not give us much information regarding the social l i feofthe people. Next in point ofant iquity, but more de

tailed andmore valuable for our purposes, is the Latin Li feofSt . Columkille

,writ ten in or about AD . 695 , byAdamnan.

Columkille was the founder and first abbot ofIona, and

Adamnan was the ninth abbot both were Irishmen and

the i llustrious establishment over which they presided wasan Irish ecclesiast ical colony. Adamnan was a writer of

great dignity and integri ty : and his pictures ofthe dailyli fe ofthe people ofIreland

, Scotland , and Iona, both layand cleri cal

,in the sixth and seventh centuries, though not

very full, are absolutely trustworthy so far as they go, and

most valuable as being the earl iest detailed accounts we

possess.

The Celt ic people who inhabited the western coasts and

islands ofScotland were descended from Irish colonists, as

is shown below (pp . 81 to and int imate intercoursewas kept up from the beginning between the two countries.

CHAP . I] LAY ING THE FOUNDATION 7

The two peoples were in fact ident ical , having the samecustoms, language, and modes ofl ife so that Adamman’

a

descript ions ofthe Scott ish Gael ic people apply equal ly toIreland . His remarks also about the daily l ife of the

Northern P icts, whom he converted , may be applied ,with

little or no reservat ion, to the Scots or Irish for we knowthat the P icts l ived much the same sort ofl ife as theirneighbours, the Gaels, both ofIreland and Scotland . The

Britons are often ment ioned in Irish writ ings,for there was

much intercourse between them and the Irish in early ages,so that they often intermarried (pp . 74 to 79 below).Tacitus

,wri ting in the end ofthe first century ,

states thatthere was l ittle difference between them in disposit ion

,

manners, and customs and,as corroborat ing this

,we

find that the Brit ish customs incidentally not iced byIrish writers are found to be generally ident ical with thoseofthe Irish themselves.Here it may b e proper to remark that many ancient

Gael ic customs that have died out , or are only faintlyremembered , in Ireland , are st ill preserved , with most oftheir ant ique features, in the Islands andH ighlands ofScotland, ofwhich several examples will b e given in this book ,

from Mart in,Pennant , Scott ,

‘

Carmichael , and other del imeatore ofScott ish manners. The desolating wars in Ireland

,especially those ofthe t ime ofEl iz abeth ,

in which thecountry was almost cleared of inhabitants

,broke, as i t

were, the cont inu ity ofthe race, so that many old customs

and tradit ions were neglected and forgotten In Ireland ,

which in Scotland have been preserved without a breakfrom the t ime ofthe earl iest colonists to the present day.

The great majority ofthe saints whose biographies havebeen preserved flourished in the period from the fifth to theeighth or ninth century . But it is well known that in thecase ofmost ofthem— though not ofall— long intervalselapsed after their death ,

intervals often ofcenturies,b e

fore the memoirs oftheir Lives and Acts— : that is, t hose

8 GOVERNMENT , MILITARY SYSTEM,AND LAW [PART I

memoirs that are now extant— were committed to writ ing.

A vast proportion of the ancient books ofIreland weredestroyed by the Danes in the ninth and tenth centuries,and among them ,

no doubt numerous original Memoirs ofsaints so that the later biographers had to depend verymuch on verbal tradit ion. These compilers constructedtheir narrat ives as best they could , under great diffi culties,collecting their materials from remnants ofwri tten recordsin the several monasteries, from the scanty entries in old

Annals, Genealogies, andother such documents, and largelyfrom oral tradi tion, the most uncertain source of all.

FIG. 7.

Co dedu mot Church and Round Tower in K ildare from Miss Stokes's “High Crosses ofCastle

dermot and Darrow”: drawn by Pet rie. St. Diarmald. or Dermot, son ofAed Rain, ls recorded to

have founded a church here about A.O. Boo : corroborated by existing ruins. which still retain hls

name(Irish name Dirert -Dh m ada , Dermot'

s Hermitage). Sec pp. 9 1, 23.below.

Though constructed round a framework of truth , theseL ives, as they have reached us

,are much mixed with

legend and fable, a circumstance which detracts from theirvalue as mere historical records though it does not at allaffect our researches. The long intervals account in greatpart for the marvellous element for oral tradition tends,in the slow lapse ofages, to magni fy everything , and toattribute all unusual occurrences ofpast t imes to preternatural agency.

CHAP . I] LAYING TIIE FOUNDATION 9

There is good reason to believe that the biographerscommitted to writing faithfully the accounts they received

,

whether from tradit ion orwrit ten record— truth and fict ional ike— w ithout adding or distort ing. But taking these OldLives as they stand , we are generally enabled ,

by an exa

minat ion ofinternal evidence, and by careful comparisonwith other authorit ies, to dist inguish fact from fict ion at

FIG. 8.

Holy W ell ofSt . Dicuil, Deicolus. or Deicoia, at Lure, in France : from Miss Stokes’s Three

Months in the Forests ofFrance,"

p . 49. This St . Dicuil(different from Dicuil the Geographer) wasa na t ive ofLeinster : educated at Bangor in Down : accompanied St. Coiumbanus to Continent :

founded Monastery at Lure, where he is now venera ted as patron saint : died A.D. 695. The well isst ill called by his name : It is much resorted to by pilgrims, and its waters are used to cure children'

s

diseases. (Observe in the p icture the offerings, like those made at Irish Holy W ells.) For St. Dicuil

see the above -named book ofM iss Stokes's, p . 41, and O'

Hanlon's Lives ofIrish Saints.

”L , 301.

Illustrating how Lives ofIrish Saints are corroborated by exist ing remains. see pp. 2 1, 23, below.

least in the case ofthe matters dealt with in this bookthe main thing that concerns us. Interspersed throughthe narrat ives there

'

are frequent references to dwell ings,furni ture

,dress, ornaments, occupat ions, customs

, past imes,

food , andmany other concomitants ofthe everyday life ofthe people, which are incidental ly mentioned with all the

GOVERNMENT , MILITARY SYSTEM ,AND LAW [PART I

marks of truth and reality. The fact that these briefrecords are incidental, casual , and unintent ional , is whatstamps them wi th authent icity and gives them their value.

W hen we follow the gu idance ofthese side l ights, usingordinary circumspect ion,

we are pretty sure to keep on safeground ,

even though many ofthe main incidents relateddirectly are fabulous or doubtful .I will illustrate these remarks by an example. In the

Irish Li fe OfSt . Brigit , it is related that on one occasion,

soon after she had settled in Kildare, Ailill, king ofLeinster, passed near her establishment , with a hundred horseloads ofpeeled rods ; whereupon Brigit sent two ofher

girls to ask him for some ofthe rods but he refused them .

Forthwi th all the horses fell down helpless under theirloads : and there they remained unable to rise

,t ill Ailill

granted Brigit ’s request onwhich she released them . The

Irish narrat ive adds incidentally that it wasfrom these rods

St . Brigz'

t’

s house in Kildare was built )“ Passing by , as

foreign to our purpose,the miraculous part ofthis story ,

which was the thing mainly in the mind ofthe wri ter, wemay infer from the rest that in those t imes i t was thecustom to build houses ofrods or wattles, cleaned up and

peeled before being used and there is abundant evidenceelsewhere to show that this would be a correct conclusion.

Bearing in mind that the customs andhabits ofa peoplechange slowly , that the original biographers must have hadwritten authori ty ofa much earl ier age for some port ion Of

their statements, and that the dates ofthe composition of

the Lives or other Memoirs range from the fifth to the

fourteenth or fi fteenth century ,we shall be safe in assuming

that these incidental allusions generally represent the stateofsociety existing in Ireland from the t ime Ofthe commemorated saints down at least to the periods ofthe wri ters.This incidental testimony is specially not iced here in

connexion with the Lives ofthe Saints but in reali ty it

Stokes,Three Irish Homilies

, page 77.

CHAP. I] LAYING THE FOU NDATION I I

pervades all classes ofIrish writings, as will be seen as we

go on. A long with the Lives Ofthe Saints, we may classMartyrologies and Calendars, Hymns, Sermons

,and other

religious writings, which will be specified and referred to

whenever necessary.

RomanticLiterature — The ancient Irish Tales,Histori

cal and Romant ic,which are described in some detai l in

chap. xv.,furnish our nex t group Ofauthorities. A large

proport ion Ofthe stories are contained in the Book Ofthe

Dun Cow,which was transcribed about the year 1100

,and

in the Book of Leinster,transcribed in or before 1160 ;

and others are found in later manuscripts. All thesebooks were copied from much O lder volumes : and there

FIG" 9 .

Remains ofa Round Tower at Drumchfl'

, 4 m iles nort h ofSligo townbuilt near the church founded b y St. Colurnknile but long after his t ime.Existing rema ins corroboratingwrit ten testnnony, see pp 2 1, 23, below.

is good reason to bel ieve that the principal stories werecommit ted to writ ing at various periods from the seventhto the tenth century ,

having been handed down orally forages previously by the professional poets and shanachies.

Though the stories are partly or wholly fict itious,they

abound , l ike the L ives ofthe Saints, in incidental picturesOf real l ife

,which

,Speaking generally,

are as true,and

consequent ly as valuable for our purposes, as ifthe mainnarrat ives were strict ly historical .

It is, however, necessary to observe that when we have

to deal with the direct descript ions Of men and theirsurroundings found in many Of the heroic romances

GOVERNMENT , MILITARY SYSTEM , AND LAW [PART I

direct and intentional descript ions as dist ingu ished fromcasual or incidental— we must be caut ious in acceptingstatements, and careful in drawing conclusions from them .

The heroes and the events which are the subjects oftheseTales, belong for the most part to the first three or fourcenturies ofour era, and some are assigned to a muchearl ier period . The old romancers, who committed the

stories to writ ing many centuries later,magnified and

glorified everything pertaining to their favourite heroes ;and have left us gorgeous descriptions ofhouses, furniture,arms, dress, and ornam ents, ofwhich a great number may

be seen translated into English in O ’

Curry’

s Lectures onthe Manners and Customs ofthe Ancient Irish . In the

case ofmost ofthese, no one would seriously think of

accept ing them as literal sober truth : they merelyembody the shanachies’ exaggerated conceptions of the

great champions of the heroic ages ; l ike the Homeri cdescript ions ofGreek and Trojan heroes. Moreover thesedirect descript ions, so far as they are to be credited , as

well indeed as the incidental references, must be takengenerally as applying to the t ime ofthe original wri ters— or a l it t le earl ier in the case ofeach individual writernamely from the seventh to the tenth century , though ,

as we shall see, a good proport ion of them apply to a

much earl ier period .

But we may err on the side ofexcessive scepticismas well as by undue credul ity. The most exaggerateddescript ion,

i f read in the right way, and checked and

tested and toned down by other authorit ies, may yieldsolid informat ion. And in regard to ornaments and

equipments : that the Shanachies did not often invent ,but merely magnified , is proved by the fact , that in our

museums we have weapons and ornaments answering to

most ofthose described in the stories, though generally on

a scale less magnificent . Mere creat ions of imaginat ion

as well as gross exaggerat ion can be el iminated or brought

I 4 GOVERNMENT , MILITARY SYSTEM , AND LAW [PART I

-with due discriminat ion— many ofthe features ofsociallife in the Oldest tales to a period much earl ier than the

seventh century.

Many ofthe Tales will be referred to as we go alongbut as exemplifying how much may be learned from them ,

I will here ment ion one piece contained in the Lebar Brecc,The V ision ofMac Conglinné , which was evidently wri t tenby a skilled epicure, and which , though purely fictit ious

,

has afforded a vast amount Ofinformat ion, undoubtedlyauthent ic,

especially on food and drink ,and on the various

modes ofpreparing , cooking , and present ing them at table.

Professor Kuno Meyer, the editor, believes that this talebegan to assume its present form about the end of the

twelfth century but that the original and shorternarrat ivewas wri tten at a much earl ier period.

The Brehon Laws — In the ancient Laws ofIreland wehave another rich mine ofmaterials. These Laws or

Customs grew up among the people from the very beginning ofsociety and took cognisance ofthem from almostevery conceivable point ofview , following them as i t wereinto their very houses and laying bare to View the detailsoftheir home l i fe. They professed to regulate social anddomest ic relat ions ofevery kind , as well as professions,trades, industries, occupat ions, and wages. As laws theyerr in being too minute but this very defect renders themall the more valuable fer our purposes.

The two most important ofthe Brehon Law tracts arethe Senehus Mor [Shanahus More] and the Book ofAcaill

[Ackill] . In Cormac ’s G lossary ,a document ofthe ninth

or tenth century ,the Senchus Mor is quoted and referred

to several t imes as a well - known work , even at that earlyt ime and as further showing the great antiquity ofthe

text , it may be ment ioned that many ofthe terms occurring in i t had

,when the G lossary was compiled ,

fallen so

much out ofuse,that they are included among the Obsolete

and forgotten old words needing explanat ion. As to the

CHAP . I] LAYING THE FOUNDATION 15

Book ofAcaill, i t is generally admitted that it is at leastas Old as the Senchus Mor z probably older. Other port ions Ofthe written law,

including the Commentaries and

Glosses, are, however, much less ancient ' than these and

some are not Older than the fifteenth or sixteenth centurythough no doubt they transmit traditional interpretat ionsofa much earl ier t ime.

But this important fact must be remembered — At

whatever t imes the several tracts ofthe Laws were firstwri tten down,

i t was merely transferring t o parchmentusages that had been in existence for centuries : for thecustoms ofa people take long to grow

,and st ill longer to

establish themselves as laws. It seems evident thereforethat the informat ion regarding social l ife supplied by theLaws taken as a whole

,applies to a period coinciding in

great part with that covered by the Lives ofthe Saintsand the Romant ic L iterature— a period reaching in some

instances as far back as the date assigned by tradition tothe original compilat ion Ofthe SenchusMo

'

r namely,the

t ime ofSt . Patrick ,Le. the fifth century. (See on this, pp.

172 to 178 ,below.)

A few of the legal rules and decisions laid down in

the Laws are obviously unreal and fict itious and hardlyintended to have any applicat ion to practical l i fe. Someseem to b e mere intellectual problems

, invented to show

the“

cleverness ofthe writers, or to test the ingenuity Of

the learners in solving theoret ical difficult ies : a pract iceby the way,

not pecul iar to the ancient Irish ; for one

may find examples of i t elsewhere,even at the present

day. But such cases form only a very small port ion Of

the whole body ofthe Laws, and they are easily detected .

The Laws moreover are somet imes perplexingly incon

sistent , which probably arises from the fact that many

of the tracts transmit to us local customs of differentperiods, or from different parts Ofthe country,

or perhaps

the decisions ofdifferent jurists. But these unreal it ies

16 GOVERNMENT , MILITARY SYSTEM , AND LAW [PART I

and inconsistencies chiefly concern those persons whostudy the Laws as legal documents : they hardly touchour inquiry : and so far as the Objects ofthis book are

concerned , the Laws, as a whole, may be taken as

represent ing faithfu lly the actual state Ofsociety.

Glosses andGlossaries — The Ancient Irish G losses andG lossaries, which are described at pp . 473 to 476,

below ,

have been all turned to account , especial ly the G lossesin Zense’

s Grammat ica Celt ica ,

“

and the G lossaries of

Cormac MacCullenan , O’

Clery,and O

’

Davoren. Zeuss’

s

G losses, with the corresponding Lat in phrases, are givenfully by Zimmer in his book Glossae Hibernicae and

the whole ofthe Irish G losses, wherever found all overEurope ,

including those OfZeuss, are brought together,with English translat ions of the old Irish passages, inThesaurus Palaeohibernicus

,by Doctors Stokes and

Strachan. Cormac ’s G lossary contains a great deal of

authent ic and most valuable informat ion. Many ofthe

words explained in i t had then— that is in the ninth or

tenth century— become so ant iquated as to be unintel

ligible to the general i ty ofreaders : and the numerous

customs mentioned must have taken many generat ionsto grow up. The not ices ofmanners and customs foundin this G lossary may accordingly be taken to apply to

a period extending backwards for several centuries— Le.

a period generally coincident with that covered by the

preceding three classes ofauthori ties. Connac’

s G lossaryis

,for my purposes, somewhat l ike a cake Of highly

concentrated food— pemmican or desiccated soup—d ryand unattract ive looking

,but yielding under proper treat

ment plenty of intellectual nutriment . It abounds inreferences, illustrat ions, indirect allusions, and quotat ionsfrom archai c lore— all very brief— relat ing to history, law,

romance,druidism

,mythology

,handicrafts, domest ic life

showing the writer to have been a man Ofexceptionalpowers ofObservat ion and i llustrat ion and I think that ,


for it s siz e, I have Obtained more informat ion from thisbook than from any other. To about the same period ,

or earl ier, andfor much the same reasons,may b e ascribed

the informat ion derived from the Glosses,most ofwhich ,

according to Zeuss, were written in the eighth century,

and others in the beginning ofthe ninth : while some of

the Oldest Ofthem have been assigned by other Cont inentalscholars to the seventh .

Annals, Histories, Genealogies, Sta — Besides the classesofwrit ings already not iced, there are Annals

,Genealogies

,

Local Memoirs,H istorical Poems

,and such like

,all help

ing to accumulate evidence. Among the later wri t ings inthe Irish language are three local memoirs, translated and

edited by O ’

Donovan : one on the district and people of

Hy Fiachrach in Sl igo ; another on Hy Many or the

O’

Kelly’

s country in Galway ; and the third on Corcaluidhe [Corkalee] or the O

’

Driscoll’

s territory in SouthCork . These describe the people Of the three severaldistricts, their government , and modes Of l ife, in the

thirteenth , fourteenth ,and fi fteenth centuries. One great

value ofthese three comparat ively late tracts consists inthis —that they fully corroborate the evidences ofmuchearlier writ ings ; and show that the habits and customs

Ofthe Older t imes were preserved almost unchanged downto the period ofthe writers.

Although this book professedly deals with Ireland before the Anglo-Norman Invasion i t will b e observedthat I somet imes not ice matters belonging to much laterperiods, and later authorit ies referring to t hem are Oftenquoted . But the Object ofthis is clear enough— to il lustratethe earl ier history. A statement in a late book assertingor implying the prevalence ofa certain custom at the t ime

ofthe writer, though it could not be accepted ofitself asevidence ofthe existence ofthe same custom at a periodseveral centuries earl ier

,might corroborate a similar record

or incidental reference in an ancient document,which

,i f

B

18 GOVERNMENT,MILITARY SYSTEM ,

AND LAW [PART I

unsupported would be too weak or uncertain to warrant aconclusion. The late authority in such a case is somethinglike a flying buttress erected to sustain a weak or yieldingoldwall both will stand by mutual support , where either,i f left to itself , might fall. A good example ofthis sort ofcorroborat ion is Froissart

’

s account ofthe custom ofknighting boys at seven. (See pp . 518, 519 , farther on.)There is yet another source ofinformat ion exist ing in

the Irish language— the loan- words from other languages.

But this branch ofthe subject has not yet been suffi cientlyinvest igated by philologists to be turned to much accountand accordingly I have made li ttle use ofit .

English and Foreign W riters — The authorit ies hithertoreferred to are all nat ive. In early Greek and Roman

wri t ings there is not much rel iable informat ion about Ireland ,

which was in those t imes very remote and hard toreach . The stories regarding Ireland in those days are

mere hearsay reports, and Often remind one ofthe Greekaccounts of the Cimmerians, the Cyclops, Scylla and

Charybdis, theHarpies, andso forth . For example, Solinus

a Lat in writer ofabout the third century, states that therewere few birds in Ireland

,that there are no such things

as bees in it , that dust or small pebbles from Irish soil ,i f taken to other countries and scattered among hives, willfrighten away and banish all the bees. In l ike manner

Strabo has a number ofodd fables about Ireland .

“ But as

I make l ittle use ofthe writ ings Ofthese authors, there isno need to not ice

,

them further here. Sometimes, how

ever, passages in the works offoreign writers, when theyhad opportunit ies ofcoming at facts, and leave records ofwhat they knew , afford valuable corroborat ion of Irishrecords, ofwhich Bede

’

s‘

account Of the students fromBri tain residing in Ireland , and Ethicus

’

s mention of

A briefbut useful col lection ofGreek and Roman writers ' storiesabout Ireland

,compiled by john O ’

Donovan,wil l be found in the Ulst .

Journ. Archzeol., viii. 2 39 .


books existing in Ireland in the fourth century,are good

examples. (See pp . 414 and 403 to 405, farther on.)W hen we come to the l iterature oflater t imes, we have,

in addition to'

the nat ive writ ings in Irish or Lat in , manyother works, chiefly in English , written by English and

foreign wri ters,and some by Irishmen belonging to the

English colony.

Giraldus Cambrensis was the first foreigner who wrotea detailed description ofIreland . He spared no pains tocollect materials for his work ,

during his Visit in 1185 and

his Topography ofIreland ,written in Lat in, contains a

great amount ofmost interest ing and valuable mattervaluable partly as an independent authority , and partly as

a confirm at ion ofthe nat ive accounts. But he was bitterlyprejudiced against the Irish people, whom he misrepresentsto their disadvantage whenever he finds an opportunity ,

and he often breaks out into blind ,passionate abuse of

them . He was very narrow - minded too,and everything

not exactly squaring in with his own experience offashionand custom he pronounced barbarous. Yet , when he wasable to conquer his prejudices, he bestowed praise wherehe thought it was deserved . He describes in enthusiast icterms oflaudat ion the ornamentat ion ofIrish books and

the skill ofthe Irish harpers ; and he praises the Irishclergy for the purity oftheir l ives. He was excessivelycredulous, and his book abounds in marvellous stories,some ofthem very Silly

, for which Lynch and other Irishwriters censure him . But in just ice to him it should bement ioned that many ofhis stories are versions— occasionally distorted— oi Irish legends, which must have beenrelated to him or translated from Irish books by nat ivesandhe transferred them allto his book with undiscriminating credul ity as i f they were sober history. However, inperusing the Topography

,

" i t is not difficult to separatethe wheat from the chaff.

In the fi fteenth , Sixteenth , and seventeenth centuries a

20 GOVERN MEN T , M ILITARY SYSTEM ,AND LA\V [PART I

number ofEngl ish and Anglo - Irish writers described Ireland and its people ; but though the works Ofseveral Of

these are very solid and valuable,many are disfigured by

prejudice and misrepresentat ion,and their test imony has

to be carefully Sifted.

3. Evidencesfrom 11] aten'

alRemains.

H itherto we have treated ofthe evidences afforded bywrit ten L iterature. Material Remains constitute the other

FIG. 11.

Circular bronz e disc : very thin ; about I t Inches in diameter ; ofbeautiful workmanship : one ofhalf-a -doz ei. now in National Museum, all resembling each other,

but differing in details. Name and use unknown. Ilirom W tide’

s Catalogue.) See

below, p 73. top.

main source ofinformat ion. They consist ofant iquarianObjects ofvarious kinds

,found underground from t ime to

t ime, and now preserved in museums ; and Ofnumerousmonuments and ruins ofbuildings scat tered over the faceofthe country. These

,SO far as they go ,

and so far as we

are able to ascertain their uses, give us perhaps the most

22 GOVERNMEN T , MI L ITARY SYSTEM , AND LAW [PART I

brooches answering in every respect to those described.

In many such cases the existence ofthe objects affordsvaluable corroborat ion ofthe accuracy ofthe records

,which

otherwise we might be often inclined to doubt as mere

bardic invent ions . Thus,to cont inue the above il lustra

t ion - \Ve often find ment ioned in the Tales that a chiefhad his cloak fastened in front by a brooch ofsuch a

length as to ex tend across his breast from shoulder to

shoulder,a record which ,

ifunsupported by other testi

mony ,would probably be considered

an exaggeration. But when we findamong the collection ofbrooches inthe Nat ional Museum in Dublin, two

Fro . r6. FIG. 17.

In 178! six bronz e art icles . allthinandflat .were dug up nearSlane inMeath.ofshape like those seen in the figures(ofwhich the originals are in t he Nat ionalMuseum, Dublin). and from 3 to 5 inches long. The Spiral wire Seen on one is

also on anothe r, now m Trinity College.Dublin.and it is probable was originallyonall. Name and use unknown. W ilde(Catalogue. 566. 590) thinks they werebrooches. and calls them Spectacle brooches from their shape. From

“'

ilrle'

s Catalogue.)

specimens 22 and 20 inches long,respect ively ,

we can no

longer doubt the old romancer’s truthfulness. And as a

further confirmat ion,we find that the Brehon Law pre

scribes penalt ies for personal injuries caused by broocheswhose points project beyond the shoulders.

But in some cases we are unable to connect the remainswith the l iterature in other words

,some art icles are men

t ioned and named in the ancient writings which we cannotident ify with any existing objects : and on the other handwe have several ant ique art icles in the museums(some


pictured here : pp . 20, 22) whose names and uses are

unknown, and which we are unable to ident i fy with any

ofthose occurring in the records. These remarks applyto the ancient buildings and structures ofvarious kindsscattered over the country : while a large proport ion are

ident ified and their uses known,numerous others are st ill

a puz z le to ant iquarians.Other classes of ancient remains, such as pictures,

coloured or plain,inscriptions on stone or brick ,

sculpturedrepresentat ions ofscenes ofreal l ife, allwhich are so abundant elsewhere— for example in Egypt— and which have

led to such wonderful discoveries, are scanty in Ireland .

Costumes, arms, and act ive l ife are represented in the

sculptures of the H igh Crosses, and in some of the

illustrat ions in the illuminated manuscripts, which go to

confirm the writ ten accounts of dress and ornaments ;but , on the whole

,we do

'

not obtain much informat ion

on the social and domest ic l ife ofthe people from thisclass ofremains.

4 . Concurrence ofTestimonies.

It is most important to bear in mind that the val idityofour conclusions regarding ancient customs andmanners

does not depend on any one authority or class ofautho

rities, but in nearly all cases on the concurrence ofseveral .For example : In one ofthe ancient tales we come

,sup

pose, across a statement or an allusion relat ing to somelong - forgotten custom ,

which looks so strange and odd

that we might at first b e incl ined to pass i t by as a randomexpression ofno significance. But we find i t repeated in

other tales and something to the same effect is alluded toin one or more ofthe Lives ofthe Saints, documents ofa

totally different origin while perhaps these are confirmedby an incidental reference or explanat ion in a Glossary or

in the Brehon Laws or a corroborat ive passage occurs ina foreign wri ter and i t may happen that some monument

24 GOVERNMENT , MILITARY SYSTEM , AND LAlV [PART I

or some art icle in a museum supports the written accountsby its mute but unquest ionable test imony. Thus alldoubtis removed and the matter becomes a certainty. It is thisundesignedconcurrence ofseveral independent authorit iesthat const itutes the main strength ofthe evidence for thestatements and conclusions all through this book .

From all that has been said here, then, i t will , I think ,

be conceded that we have materials that will enable us

to construct a Social H istory ofIreland for the intervalbetween the introduct ion ofChrist ianity and the AngloNorman Invasion, 216 . from the fi fth to the twel fth century.

And while,on the one hand , we know that the state of

society in the t ime ofthe Anglo- Normans cont inued without extensive or violent changes to the sixteenth or seventeenth century , we may be pretty certain, on the otherhand ,

though we have l it tle direct historical evidence toprove it , that the inst i tutions and ways ofli fe found inthe country by the early missionaries were in most casesident ical with those exist ing far back towards the beginningofthe Christian Era, or before i t .

The ancient Irish were a branch of the continentalCelts and they brought with them the language,

mytho

logy , and customs oftheir original home, all ofwhich,

however, became modified in course of ages after the

separat ion. But themain characterist ics weremaintained,

and a comparison ofthe nat ive accounts ofthe ancientIrish people with the classical wri ters

’ descriptions ofthe

Cont inental Cel ts shows close resemblances inmany important particulars. Each class ofwrit ings throws light on

the other, so as often to clear up obscure passages in bothand in many cases statements in the ancient Irish Tales

,

which,if unsupported ,

might be regarded as doubtful , arecorroborated by passages concerning the Gaulish Celts inCzesar, Solinus, Posidonius, and other classical writers.

These observat ions will be found illustrated in many partsofthis book .


5. Population ofIreland in Ancient Times.

It is important that we should have some general ideaofthe populat ion ofIreland during the period treated of

in this book . According to the best Anglo—Irish authoritiesthe populat ion at the t ime ofthe Restorat ion— T66O— was

something over a million. But for a whole century‘

b efore

that t ime the country had been devastated by cont inuouswar

,probably themost destructive ever experienced by any

nation Within historic t imes so that the people ofthree ofthe provinces, Ulster, Munster, and Connaught , as well asof a considerable part of Leinster, were almost exterminated. At the beginning ofthese wars there must havebeen two or three t imes more people than in 1660.

There are various considerat ions leading to the beliefthat Ireland was well populated in the early ages ofChristianity. All over the country— in Connaught as well as inthe other provinces— there are many districts in which wefindmult itudes ofsmal l church ruins districts which are

now half waste andsol itary , andhave been so for centuriesthese churches, ofcourse,

were not erected without havingpeople to fill them .

* Then again,many parts ofthe coun

try are now studded over with m t/zs or resident ial fortsthe ancient homesteads— quite as thickly as with modernresidences, notwithstanding that a large proport ion ofthe

original structures have been obliterated by cultivation]L

Observe also that round every goodsiz ed rath a number ofworkpeople and other followers l ived with their families inwicker houses without any special fort ificat ions, so that notraces oftheir dwellings remain.

It has been observed by many modern writers thatplain traces Oft illage, such as ridges formed by digging

Iar Connaught , p . 14, note g.

TOn the mu ltitude ofraths or forts,see Brash ,

Ogams, pp . 99 , 101

W estr0pp’

s papers on Prehistoric Forts in the Co. C lare,

”in J ourn. R.

Soc. Antiq q .,Irel.

,for 1896 and 1897 and Wilde’

s Boyne and B lackwater

, p . 138. See also Kilk . Arch . Journ. for 1879—82

, p. 259 .


and ploughing , are found all over Ireland in places nowwaste and uninhabited ; such as the tops and sides of

mountains, and even under deep bogs ; and several ofthose wri ters , on this score alone, are ofthe opinion ex

pressed by one oftheir number that for certain Irelandhas been better inhabited than it is at present .“

Other circumstances point independently to the sameconclusion such as the outflow ofthe populat ion in the

early centuries to Scotland , W ales,andMan

, as mentionedbelow(pp . 72 to 83) the numerous schools and colleges inthe sixth , seventh , and eighth centuries— oiwhich a partiallist may be seen at the opening ofchap . xi .(p .

— all

with crowds ofstudents and the vast assemblages at theperiodical fairs ,

described in Vol. II.,pp . 434 to 449 , of

which we may instance, as one example out ofmany ,that

ofTailltenn in 1169 , when the chariots and horse aloneextended along a distance ofsix miles. In this connexion we must not overlook the ancient tradit ion citedfarther on(chap . vn.

, p . that in the reign ofthe sons

ofAed Slaine(jo int kings, A.D. 656—664) the people grew

so numerous that for the first time the use offences becamegeneral .W e should remember, too,

Caesar’

s statement regardingBritain in his time— thefirst century B.C. thenumber ofpeople is countless and their buildings are exceedinglynumerous (Gallic W ar, v . , and there seems noreason why Ireland should have been behindhand in thisrespect at that t ime and subsequently.

Besides all that has been said , there is another mostimportant observat ion to be made. It seems inconceivablethat such a complete, close, and symmetrical network of

laws and institutions as will be found described in the following pages, embracing every member ofthe community,

from the highest to the lowest , could have grown up and

Boate,Nat . Hist , p . 47 ; Smith

,Hist. ofCork, 198 ; Joyce,

Irish Names ofP laces, 228.

CHAP . II] A PRELIMINARY BIRD’

s- EYE VIEW 7

held the people together for so many centuries, withouthaving a good sol id population to work upon.

From all these considerations, then,we may conclude

that Ireland was well peopled during the period passing

under review in this book .

CHAPTER II

A PRELIMINARY BIRD’

s- EYE VIEW

RELAND,from the sixth to the twel fth century of

the Christian Era ,presented an interest ing spec

tacle,which

,viewed through the medium of

history,may be sketched in broad outline as

follows.

In those early times the physical aspect of

Ireland was very different from what i t is at

present . All over the country there were vastforests, and great and dangerous marshes, quagmires, andbogs

,covered with reeds, moss

, and grass. But thoughbogs existed from the beginning

,many districts, Where we

now find them lying broad and deep ,were once forest

land and the bog grew up after the surface had,in some

manner, become denuded oftrees. Buried down at a depthofmany feet in some ofour present bogs great tree trunksare often found , the relics ofthe primeval forest .But outside forest and bog,

there were open plains,valleys, and hillsides, under cult ivation and pasturage,

and

all well populated . The woods and waste places wereal ive with birds and wild animals ofall kinds , and the

people were very fond ofhunting and fishing ; for therewas plenty ofgame

,both large and small

, and the riversand

“lakes teemed with fish. Somet imes they hunted hares

28 GOVERN MEN T , M ILITARY SYSTEM ,AND LAw [PART I

and foxes for mere sport. But they had much grander

game : wild boars with long and dangerous tusks, deer in

great herds , and wolves that lurked in caves and thickwoods. There were the same broad lakes , like inland seas

,

that st ill remain but they were generally larger then thanthey are now ; and they were surrounded with miles of

reedy morasses : lakes and marshes tenantecl everywhereby vast flocks ofcranes

,wild geese,

wild swans,and other

fowl . Kites and golden eagles skimmed over the plainspeering down for prey ; and the goshawks, or falcons

,

used in the old game ofhawking, were found in greatabundance.

A person traversing those parts of the country thatwere inhabited found no difficulty in getting from place to

place ; for there were roads and bridle - paths everywhere,rough indeed , and not to be compared with the roads of

Pro. 18.

Ferryboet.at feet long by 1foot broad : now inNational Museum.Dublin. (From W ilde’

s Catalogue.)

our dav, but good enough for the travel and traffic ofthe

t ime. Ifthe wayfarer did not choose to walk ,there were

plenty of ox - waggons ; and among the higher classesrough springless chario ts

,drawn by one or two horses

Horse - riding, though somet imes adopted,was not in those

t imes a very general mode oftravell ing. W hat with roughconveyances, and Wi th roads and paths often full ofruts

,

pools,and mire

,a journey,

whether by walking, driving, orhorse - riding,

was a slow,laborious

,and disagreeable busi

ness,andnot always free from danger. Rivers were crossed

by means ofwooden bridges, or by wading at broadshallow fords

,or by l it tle ferry

- boats,

or,

as a lastresource

,by swimming : for in those days ofopen- air l ife

everyone could swim. Fords were,however

, generally veryeasy to find

,as the roads and paths usually impinged on


very few— lay open all round , W i thout any attempt at

fort ificat ion.

The people were bright and intell igent andmuch givento intellectual entertainments and amusements. Theyloved music and Singing , and took del ight in l isteningto poetry ,

history , and romant ic stories, recited by professional poets and Shanachies ; or, in the absence of

these, by good non- professional storytellers , who wereeverywhere to be found among the peasantry. Theywere close observers ofexternal nature, too, and had an

intense admirat ion for natural beauty , a peculiarityeverywhere reflected in their l iterature, as well as in theirplace- names.

In most parts ofthe country Open- air meet ings or fairswere held periodically ,

where the people congregated inthousands, and, forgetting all the cares ofthe world for thet ime, gave themselves over to unrestrained enjoymentathletic games and exercises, racing , music , recitat ionsby skilled poets and storytellers, jugglers

’

and Showmen’

s

representations, eat ing and drinking, marrying and givingin marriage. So determined were they to ward offall

unpleasantness on these occasions, that no one,at the

risk ofhis li fe, durst pick a quarrel or strike a blow : for

this was one ofthe rules laid down to govern all publicassemblies. An Irish fair in those t imes was a l ively and

picturesque Sight . The people were dressed in their best ,and in great variety ,

for all, both men and women, lovedbright colours, and from head to foot every individualwore art icles ofvaried hues. Here you see a tall gentleman walking along with a scarlet cloak flowing looselyover a short jacket ofpurple

,with perhaps a blue trousers

and yellow headgear, while the next showed a colourarrangement wholly different and the women vied withthe men in variety ofhues. Nay,

Single garm ents wereoften part i - coloured and it was quite common to see the

long outside mantle, whether worn by men or women,

CHAP . II] A PRELIMINARY BIRD’

s- EYE VIEW 3T

striped and Spotted with purple, yellow,green, or other

dyes.But outside such social gatherings, and in ordinary life,

both chiefs and people were qua’

rrelsome and easily provoked to fight . Indeed they loved fight ing for its own

sake ; and a stranger to the nat ive character would beastonished to see the very people who only a few days

before vied with each other in good - natured enjoyment ,now fighting to the death on some flimsy cause ofvariance,which in all likelihood he would fail to understand if he

FIG 19.

Ruins on Inishcaltra or Holy Island in Lough Derg' on the Sham an. IslandMonastery founded by St. Caruin (died Here was one ofthe MunsterColleges.where many distinguished menwere eduw ted. Frotu Kilk. Archaeol.

Jour..1889 ; page 162 : W akeman. (See next page.)

made inquiry. These everlast ing jars and conflicts

though not more common in Ireland than in Englandand Scotland— brought untold miseries on the people, andwere the greatest obstacle to progress. Sometimes greatbattles were fought , on which hung the fate ofthe nat ion

,

like those we have seen contested in Ireland within the

last two or three hundred years. But the mart ial instinctsofthe people were not always confined within the shoresofIreland ; for Irish leaders often carried war into the

GOVERNMENT , MILITARY SYSTEM , AND LAw [PART I

neighbouring countries both of Great Britain and the

Cont inent.In all parts ofthe country were monasteries, most of

them with schools attached , where an excellent educat ionwas to be had by allwho desired it , for small payment

,or

for nothing at all i f the student was poor : and besidesthese there were numerous lay schools where youngpersons might be educated in general learning and for

FIG. 90.

Specimen ofthe Ancient Irish Art ofBookbinding. From Miss Stokes's EarlyChristianArt ln Ireland. 9 . n ot (See page 34, top infra .)

the professions. The teaching and lecturing were carriedon with life and spirit , and very much in the open air

when the weather permitted . In the monasteries and

schools, as well as in some private houses . there werelibraries ofmanuscript books containing all the learning

C I-IAP. II] A PRELIMINARY BIRD’

s- EYE'

VIEW 33

then known : but when you w alked into the l ibrary room

you saw no books on shelves : but numbers of neat

satchels hanging on hooks round the walls,each contain

ing one or more precious volumes and labelled on the

outside.

‘

Learning ofevery kind was held in the highest estima

tion and learned men were well rewarded,not only in the

FIG . 21.

Group ofmiscellaneous GoldOrnaments.allnow InNat ionalMuseum andinTrinity College.Dublinslightly less than halfsiz e. (From W ood- Martin'

s Pagan Ireland, and that from U lst journ. Archaeol.

viii. These Ornaments are descnbed In chap . xxii..sect . 3. infra . (See next page.)

universal respect paid to them ,but also in the solid worldly

advantages ofweal th and influence. Professional menphysicians , lawyers , builders, &c.

—went on their Visits,

each at tended by a group of scholars who l ived in hishouse and accompanied him to learn their profession byactual practice.


Some gave themselves up to the study and practice of

art in its various forms,and became highly accomplished

and specimens oftheir art ist ic work remain to this day ,

which are admitted to be the most perfect and beaut iful ofthe kind exist ing in any part ofthe world(see fig ,

20,p .

In numerous districts there wereminerals which,though

not nearly so abundant as in the neighbouring island of

Great Britain, were yet in suffi cient quant i ty to give rise tomany industries. The mines were worked too

,as we know

from ancient documents and theremains ofold mines ofcopper, coal , andothermmerals, wi th many antiqueminingtools

,have been discovered in recent t imes in some parts

ofIreland . Gold was found in many places , especially inthe district which is now cal led the county W icklow and

the rich people wore a variety ofgold ornaments, whichthey took great pride in(fig . Many rivers producedthe pearl mussel , so that Ireland was well known for itspearls , which were unusually large andofvery fine qual ityand in some ofthe same rivers pearls are found to this day.

Though there were no big factories there were plentyofindustries and trades in the homes ofthe people, l ikewhat we now call cottage industries. Coined money washardly known,

so that all transact ions ofbuying and sell ingwere carried on by a sort ofbarter, values being est imatedby certain well - known standards, such as cows, sacks of

corn ofa fixed siz e ,ounces ofgold and silver, and such like.

To facilitate these interchanges the people had balancesand weights not very different from those now used .

The men ofthe several professions, such as medicaldoctors, lawyers, judges, builders, poets, historians : and

the tradesmen of various crafts— carpenters, smiths,workers in gold ,

silver, and brass, ship and boat builders,masons, shoemakers, dyers, tailors, brewers, and so forthallworked and earned their bread under the old Irish laws,which were everywhere acknowledged. Then there was a

good deal ofcommerce With Bri tain and with Cont inental

CHAP . II] A PRELIM INARY BIRD’

s- EYE V IEw 35

countries, especially France and the home commodities

such as hides, salt , wool , etc., were exchanged for wine

,

Silk,sat in,

and other goods not produced in Ireland .

From what has been said here,we may see that the

ancient Irish were as well advanced in civilisat ion, as

orderly ,and as regular, as the people ofthose other Euro

pean countries ofthe same period that— l ike Ireland— hada proper settled government and it will be shown fartheron in this book that they were famed throughout all

Europe for Rel igion and Learning.

AS the populat ion ofthe country increased , the cult ivated land increased in proport ion. But unt il a late t ime

there werefew inhabited districts that were not within View ,

or within easy reach ,ofunreclaimed lands— forest

,or bog,

or moorland so that the people had much ado to protecttheir crops and flocks from the inroads ofwild animals.

Allround .near the coast ran, then as now,the principal

mountain ranges, with a great plain in the middle. The

air was soft and moist , perhaps even more moist than at

present , on account'

of the great extent of forest . The

cleared land was exceedingly fert ile,and was well watered

with springs, streamlets, and rivers,not only among the

mountainous districts, but allover the central plain. Pas

ture lands were luxuriant andevergreen,invit ing flocks and

herds without limit . There was more pasture than t illage,

and the grass land was , for the most part , not fenced in,

but was grazed in common.

Some ofthe pleasing features ofthe country have beenwel l pictured by Denis Florence M‘

Carthy in his poem of

The Bell Founder

0 Erin l thou broad- spreading val ley , thou wel l - watered land offresh

streams,

When I gaz e on thy hi l ls greenly Sloping, where the light of such

loveliness beams,

When I rest on the rim ofthy fountains, or st ray where thy streams

disembogue,Then I think that the fairies have brough t me to dwel l in the bright

Tirnanogue.

"

36 GOVERNMENT , M ILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I

Ireland ,so far as it was brought under cult ivat ion and pas

ture in those early days ,was— as the Venerable Bede calls

it a land flowing with milk and honey a pleasant,

healthful , and fruitful land ,well fit ted to maintain a

prosperous and contented people.

Though the period from the sixth to the twelfth cen

tury has been Specified at the opening ofthis chapter, thestate of things depicted here cont inued ,

with no verydecided changes,

for several hundred years afterwards ;and many of the customs and inst itutions, so far frombeing limited backwards by the sixth century , existed fromprehistoric t imes.

All these features, and many others not not iced in thisbrief sketch ,

will now be examined by turning on them ,

one by one, the field ofa big telescope, which will bringout the details ; and the result ing enlarged views will bephotographed in the following chapters ofthis book.

CHAPTER III

MONARCHICAL GOVERNMENT

SECTION I . TerritorialSubdivision.

EFORE entering on the subject of Government ,it will be useful to sketch the main features

of the ancient terri torial divisions of the

country. It was parcelled out into five provinces from the earl iest times ofwhich we

have any record — Leinster ; East Munster ;W est Munster ; Connaught ; and Ulster : a

partition which ,according to the legend , was made by

the five Firbolg brothers, the sons ofDela.* Laigin or

Joyce, Short History ofIreland, p. 125.

38 GOVERNMENT , M ILITARY SYSTEM,AND LAW (PART I

present county W estmeath) marked by a,

great stonecalled Aill- na -Mirenn [Ail l- na-Meeran] , the Stone ofthe

Divisions,’

which stands there a conspicuous object st ill .Round this point Tuathal formed the new province bycutt ing offa port ion ofeach ofthe others. It was designedto be the mensal land or personal estate ofthe Ard—ri or

supreme king ofIreland , that he might be the better ableto maintain his court with due state anddignity. Previousto his t ime the king ofIreland had only a smal l tracta single tuath(see next page) —for his own use. This newprovince was about hal f the siz e ofUlster, extending fromthe Shannon eastwards to the sea, and from the confinesofthe present county K ildare and King

’

s County on the

south to the confines ofArmagh and Monaghan on the

north . The present count ies ofMeath and W estmeathretain the name

,but comprise only about half the original

province.

At the t ime ofTuathal’

s accession— A.D. T3o— there

were four places belonging severally to the four provinces,Situated not far from each other, which for centuries previously

— as will be shown farther ou— had been celebratedas residences and as centres for great periodical meet ingsfor various purposes — Tara in Leinster Tailltenn in

Ulster(now Teltown on the Blackwater, midway betweenNavan and Kells) Tlachtga in Munster(now the Hill ofW ard nearAthboy in Meath) andUshnagh in Connaught ,nine miles west ofMull ingar In the present county W estmeath . All these were included in the new province and

Tuathal built a palace in each , ofwhich some ofthemounds

and fort ificat ions remain to this day. After his t ime the

five provinces generally recognised and best known in IrishHistory were Leinster, Munster, Connaught , Ulster, Meath.

Besides the format ion ofa new province there were

several minor changes. Murthemne andCuailnge [Quelna] ,both forming the present county Louth , were transferredfrom U lster to Leinster the present county Cavan, which

CHAP . III] MONARCHICAL GOVERNMENT 39

originally belonged to Connaught , was given to Ulster ;and the territory now known as the county Clare

,was

wrested from Connaught and annexed to Munster. Downto the t ime ofTuathal, Connaught included a large tracteast ofthe Shannon,

a part ofthe present county W estmeath ; but in accordance with his arrangements, theShannon in this part of its course, became the easternboundary ofthat province. The most ancient division of

Munster,as has been said

,was into East and W est but a

later and better known partit ion W as into Thomond or

North Munster,which broadly speaking included Tip

perary, Clare,and the northern part ofLimerick ; and

Desmond or South Munster, comprising Kerry,Cork

,

W aterford , and the southern part ofLimerick . In latterages

,however

,the name Thomond has been chiefly con

fined to the county Clare,the patrimony ofthe O

'

Briens.

Recently Meath has disappeared as a province and the

original provinces now remain— Leinster,Munster,

Connaught, and Ulster.

The provinces were subdivided into territories ofvariousSiz es. The polit ical unit , i.e. the smallest division havinga complete pol it ical and legal administrat ion, was the

Tooth. The original meaning oftuath was populus(Zeuss,34, a tribe ofpeOple : but in accordance with a wellknown custom in Ireland

,the term came to b e applied to

the land occupied by the tribe. In its original applicat iona tnath must have represented roughly a definite populat ion for we are told that its king had700 fighting men

and as the term had reference to a tribe'

rather than to thedistrict they occupied

,the several tuath—districtsmust have

varied in size. But when once the term began to be

applied to the land , it came in course oft ime to be usedas designat ing— in theory, at least- a territory offixedarea. In this sense a tnaih was usually considered as

equivalent to what was called a tricha - céd, containing 30

Br. Laws,v . 51, top.


ballys or ballybctaghs (Irish baile Each ballybetagh contained 12 sesreachs or ploughlands

,and each

ploughland 120 large Irish acres. A bally or townlandwas ofa siz e suflicient to sustain four herds ofcows of75

each ,i.e. 300 cows in all, without one cow touching

another and a ploughland was as much as a singleplough could turn up in a year. In tabular form thissubdivision is

1 Tricha- Céd. or Tuath 30 Baliybetaghs.

1 Ballybetagh 12 Sesreachs.

1 Sesreach 120 Irish acres.

This is in accordance with what is laid down in an

ancient poem,quoted by O

’

Curry in Moylena (p .

which is fol lowed by Keating (p. 86) but other autho

t i ties, as followed by O’

Donovan and O’

Flaherty,Twhileagreeing in the first item (1 tricha=3o ballys), give theballybetagh as containing 4 sesreachs or q uarters ; and

each quarter 120 Irish acres.

The province ofMeath contained 18 tricha- ceds Leinster, 31 ; U lster, 35 Connaught , 30 the two Munsters

, 70

184 tricha- céds,cantreds, or tuaths, in all Ireland ,

con

taining collect ively ballybetaghs. A tuath containedabout 177 English square miles, and might be representedin area by an oblong district , Sixteen miles by eleven.

Somet imes three,four, or more tuaths were united to form

one large territory under a king this was called a Mor

tuath, or great taut/1.1; The present subdivision intobaronies is partly ofEnglish origin but the. Old divisionswere very often fol lowed : so that many ofthe ancientmaths or tricha - céds are represented ,

more or less nearly ,

Br. Laws,v . Sul livan

,Introd.

, p . 2 29 , note O’

Curry,

Man. and Cust .,II . 503 , note « a .

1O’

Donovan,HyF , p . 149 , and O

’

Flaherty, Ogyg.,Part I . For

more on this subject,and for the smal ler measures ofland, see Vol. II .,

PR 372 and 373.

1Br. Laws,IV . 331, 3 ,

v . 51, et seq . Sulliv .,Introd.

, p . 80.

CHAR III] MONARCHICAL GOVERNMENT 41

by the modern baronies,most

“

ofwhich retain their old

names. Hence, tricha - ce’

d(which literally signifies thirtyhundreds a oe

’

d, or hundred ,

’ being equivalent to

a bally ,

’

or ballyb etagh is often translated cantred ,

’

or barony .

’

2 . Classes ofKings.

The government ofthe whole country,as well as that

ofeach division and subdivision,was in the hands of, a

const itut ional king or chief, who had to carry on his govern?

ment in accordance with the immemorial customs ofthe

country or sub - kingdom : and his authority was furtherl imited by the counsels ofhis chiefmen. The usual name

for a king in the ancient as well as in the modern languageis ri [ree] , genit ive rig or righ [Tee] , O ther less usualterms were fa

’

l, mal, and triath [trib] , all given in Cor

mac ’s G lossary ; and tore, which is glossed by i i in LU

(49 ,a

,A queen was, and is, rigan or rioghan [reean] ,

genit ive rigno or rz'

og/zana [Teena] . Sometimes a queenwascalled banrigan [banreean] . Over all Ireland there wasone king , who,

to dist ingu ish him from others, wasdesigh ated the Ard- ri, or overking high). The over- kingsl ived at Tara t ill the sixth century A.D. after that , elsewhere hence the Ard- riwas often called KingofTara,

even after its abandonment . W i thin historic t imes no

woman was sovereign ofIreland . But in the hal f- legendary historywe have one, andonly one

,queen

,who however

succeeded to the sovereignty ,not by elect ion

,but by force

-MachaMongruad the founder ofEmain— about 370 yearsB .C .

,who seiz ed the throne after the death ofher father,

a previous monarch . At the end ofthis chapter will befound a List ofthe Supreme Kings ofIreland. The lastover- king was Roderick O ’

Conor. V Vearied with the tur

moil ofthe Anglo-Norman Invasion,which he was unable

to repel , and with domest ic discord ,he ret ired from the

world to themonastery ofCong ,where he endedhis troubled

4 2 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM ,AND LAW [PART I

career in 1198. After his death there were no more supreme

monarchs but the provinces and the smaller kingdoms

cont inued to be ruled by their nat ive kings in successiondown to a much later period.

There was a king over each ofthe five provinces— an

arrangement commonly known as the Pentarchy. Ifa

provincial kingwas elected monarch ofIreland a new kinghad to be elected overhis province for it was the rule thatthe same person could not be king oflrelafid and ofa

province at the same t ime. The provinces , again, included

FIG . 23.

Clomlcr Abbey ofCong : where Roderick O '

connordied. (From Miss Stokes‘

s Irish Iuser ll.

many sub - kingdoms,some consisting ofa single tadili , and

some ofmore,as has been said. The tuat/z was the smallest

territory whose ruler could claim the t it le of72,orking; butall the 184 twat/15 had no t kings.

From this it will be seen that,speaking in a general

sense, there were four classes ofkings —the king ofthe

tuat/z the king ofthe mér- tuat/z ; the king ofa provinceand the king ofall Ireland : forming a regular gradat ion,

kingdom within kingdom. This agrees generally with the

See Joyce, Short History ofIreland, pp. 281, 282, 283.

CHAP . in] MONARCHICAL GOVERNMENT 43

curious classificat ion given in the Laws(iv. 329) I, the

king ofhills or peaks,

”i.c.

,ofa tuath ; 2 , the king of

companies,”i.a. ofa mar- tuath and 3 ,

the king who isthe source ofevery chief

,that is

, the king ofkings, whichincludes the Ard- ri, and the provincial kings.

The kings ofthe provinces were subject to the overking , and owed him tribute and war service. A similarlaw extended to all the sub - kingdoms in other words

,the

king ofeach territory,from the tuath upwards to the pro

vince, was~ —at allevents nominal ly— subject to the king ofthe larger territory in which it was included . Some ofthe

sub - kingdoms were very large,such as Tyrone

,Tirconnel,

Thomond,Desmond ,

Ossory , Hy Many, &c each ofwhich

comprised several tuaths and several tribes. A minor kingunder a king ofone ofthese large territories was Oftencalled an ur- ri, or oit - ri, or under- king , called an ar

rz'

ag/z by English writers.

*

3 . Election and Inauguration.

Elect ion— The king,or rul ing chief, was always elected

from members ofone finé or family , bearing the same sur

name(when surnames came into use) but the succession

was not hereditary in the present sense ofthe word it was

elect ive, with the above l imitat ion ofbeing confined to one

fam ily. Any freeborn member ofthe family was el igible

the successormight be son,brother, nephew , cousin,

&c.,of

the chief. That member was chosen who was consideredbest able to lead in war and govern in peace ; and of

course he should be Offull age. Two essent ial conditions

are expressly laid down —that he should be free from all

personal deformities or blemishes l ikely to impair his eth

ciency as a leader, or to lessen the respect ofthe people for

him :Tand that both his father and grandfather had been

O’

Donovan,Moyrath ,

103, note g. Ur- ri is to b e dist inguishedfrom

ur- rad(p . 161, below).t Br. Laws, 1. 73 11. 2 79 ; 111. 85 , 5 Spenser, View ,

10,12 .

44 GOVERNMENT , M ILITARY SYSTEM,

'

AND LAW [PART I

flailhs or nobles. For the e lect ion ofa rul ing chief or

minor king ,the proceedings, which were carried on with

much ceremony and del iberation, are described in the Law.

Every freeman ofthe rank ofaire(chap ,v. p . 156,

infra)had

a vote. Ifthere were several candidates,a court was held

for the election in the house ofthe chief brewy or hostellerofthe district , to which all the chiefs about to take part inthe election proceeded ,

each with his full retinue : and

there they remained in council for three days and threenights, at the end ofwhich time the successful candidatewas declared elected . The electors— says the Law(v. 441)were bound to see that the person they select is theman to whom the chieftainship is due viz

,that he is the

son ofa flaith ornoble and the grandson Ofanother, thathe has the three chief residences(p . 58 ,

infra), and thathe is pure,

without stain ofsteal th or [unlawful] wounding,

”For the higher classes ofkings , such as the supreme

monarch or the king ofa province , the proceedings weremuch more formal , solemn, and imposing and the courtfor the elect ion was probably held in one ofthe palaces.

W i th the Object ofavoiding the evils o fa disputedsuccession, the person to succeed a king or ruling chiefwas o ften elected by the chiefs convened in formal meet

ing during the l ifet ime ofthe king himself when electedhe was called the tanist— Irish tcinaiste— a word meaningsecond,

i.e. second in authority. Proper provision was

made for the support ofthe tanist by a separate establishment and an allowance ofmensal land (see p . 50 ,

infra), a custom which cont inued,in case ofthe tanists

ofprovincial and minor kings, t ill the t ime ofElizabeth ,

and even later the tanist,

says Spenser(p . hathalso a share ofthe country allotted to him

,and certain

cutt ings and spendings [i.e. tribute Ofseveral kinds] uponall the inhabitants under the lord . He was subordinate tothe king or chief

,but was above all the other dignitaries of

the state . The other persons who were eligible to succeed

46 GOVERNMEN T , M ILITARY SYSTEM ,AND LAW [PART I

Some ofthe inauguration stones had the impression oftwo

feet,popularly be lieved to be the exact size ofthe feet of

the first chiefof the tribe who took possession of the

territory. Sometimes there was a stone chair,on which

the king sat during part ofthe ceremony. On the day

of the inaugurat ion the sub - chiefs of the territory,and

all the great Officers Of state,with the brehons

, poets ,

and historians, werepresent

,as also the

bishops,abbo ts

,and

o ther leading ecclesiastics.

The here d i t a ryhistorian ofthe triberead for the electedchief the laws thatwere to regulate hisconduct ; afterwhichthe chief swore to

O bse rve t hem ,t o

maintain the ancientcustoms ofthe tribe,and to rule his peo

plewith strict just ice.

Then,while he stood

on the stone , an Offi

cer— whose specialduty i t was— handed

Stone Inauguration Chair ofthe O'

Neills ofClannab oy . nowhim a straight white

in the Belfast Museum (From tlie journ. R. Soc.Aut iq q .ofIrel.,

1898, p. 255. See also Dub ]. Pen jouru., l.“land, a Symbol Of

authority,andalso an

emblem ofwhat his conduct and judicial decisions shouldbe— straight and without stain. Having put aside his

sword and other weapons,and holding the rod in his hand ,

he turned thrice round from left to right , and thrice fromright to left , in honour ofthe Holy Trinity ,

and to View

FIG . 24.

CHAP. III] MONARCH ICAL GOVERN ME N T 47

his territory in every direction. In some cases one of

the sub - chiefs put on his sandal or shoe,in token of

submissionfi‘or threw a sl ipper over his head for good

luck and prosperity. Then one Of the sub - chiefs ap

po inted for this purpose pronounced in a loud vo ice his

surname— the surname only,without the Christian name

which was afterwards pronounced aloud by each Of the

clergy ,one after another

,according to dignity,

and thenby the sub - chiefs. He was then the lawful chief; and

ever after,when spoken to ,

he was addressed O’

Neill

MacCarthy More O’

Conor,”&c. ; andwhen spoken of

in Engl ish he was designated“ The O

’

Neill,

”&c.

,a custom

existing to this day ,as we see in

“ The O’

Conor Don,

”

“ The Mac Dermot,

and in Scotland “ The Mac CallumMore.

FIG . 25.

Camfree. the Inauguration Mound of the O'

Conors , k ings of Connaught near Tulsk , inRoscommon about 35 feet in diameter. (From K ilk. Archazol. Journ.. 1870- 1, p . 250 )

The main parts of the inaugurat ion ceremony wereperformed by one or more sub—chiefs : this office was

highly honourable, and was hereditary. The inauguratorhad a tract Of land and a residence free

,which remained

in the family. The O’

Neills OfTyrone were inauguratedby O

’

Hagan and O’

Cahan at Tullaghoge, near Dungannonawhere the fine old inauguration moat st ill remains ; theO

’

Donnells OfTirconnell by O’

Freel,at the Rock ofDoon

’

near Kilmacrenan. The fort ofJl/ agnAd/zair [Mah- ire]Four Masters, A .D. 1488 , p . I 161.


near the village OfQuin in Clare, on which the Dalcassiankings were made ,

has been described by Mr. W estropp

andCamfree,the mound on which the O

’

Connors. kings ofConnaught

,were inaugurated ,

is to be seen in the townland Oi Cam s, near Tulsk , in Roscommonj The richdress and robes worn by the king , for the first and onlyt ime ,

on the day ofinaugurat ion, and commonly the horsehe rode to the place

,with all trappings, became the pro

~

perty of the chief officeror Officers who performed the

ceremony but in this respect customs varied in differentplaces.

The oldest record in our ancient writ ings of the

inaugurat ion ofa king— probably the oldest reference to

Christ ian inaugurat ion anywhere to be foundi— is givenby Adamnan(111. v .) where he ment ions the ordinat ion

,

by St . Columba , ofAedan as king ofthe Dalriadic Scots,

A.D. 574. He calls the ceremony Ordinat io, and states

that Columba blessed (benedixit) the new king as part ofthe ceremony but he gives no fiU

‘

ther details.

Giraldus Cambrensis, in a chapter ofhis Topography,§

has an account ofa disgust ing ceremony which he sayswas observed by the Kinel - Connell at the inaugurat ion of

their chiefs — that at the inauguration meet ing,which

was attended by the whole people ofthe territory , a whitemare was brought forward , towards which the chief about

to be elected crept allfours— on hands and knees. Thenthe animal was killed ,

its flesh boiled , and a bath madeof the broth . Into this the elected chief plunged , and

while sitt ing in it he ate and drank his fill offlesh and

broth ,helping himself by dipping down his mouth and

what he left , his subjects finished whereupon he became

chief. Here it will be Observed that Giraldus reports the‘Proc. R.I. Acad.,

1896—8

, p . 55.

S ee O’

Donovan in FM ,A.D. 12 2 5, p . 22 1

,note a .

1lanes, Crit ical Essays, x lix .

xxv . headed Ofa New and Monstrous W ay ofinauguratingtheir Kings.

CHAP . 111] MONARCHICAL GOVERNMENT 49

ceremony ofone part icular tribe,not the general custom

all over Ireland ; and the story is obviously one ofthe

many silly fables which we find in his book— l ike thoseofthe sorcerers who used to turn stones into red pigs at

fairs, ofa l ion that fell in love with a young woman,and

many others ofa l ike kind . Then we must remember thathe does not record from personal experience

,for he was

never in Tirconnell, nor within a hundred miles ofi t and

the whole story is so absurd that many are convinced itwas told to him in a joke by some person who was awareofhis unl imited credul i ty : for no one bel ieves he deliberately invented it . Irish and other writers have leftus detailed descript ions ofthe installat ion ceremonies

, in

none ofwhich do we find anything like what Giraldusment ions, and some have directly refuted him . His statement is absolutely unsupported . Harris, the editor of

W are’

s W orks, says (Antiq q . 65) The falsity ofthisfilthy fable will best appear by giving a candid relat ionofthe true ceremonies used at the init iat ion ofthe kingsofTirconnell andhe then goes on to detai l the ceremony

,

which agrees with the description given at p . 45,above.

Harris’

s account , and also those by the nat ive writers,have been corroborated in all leading particulars by a

writer whom many will perhaps consider the best authorityof all— Edmund Spenser. Spenser knew what he was

wri t ing about and his descript ion,though brief

,is very

correct , and agrees, so far as it goes,with the Irish ac

counts ; while he has not a word about the Tirconnellceremony described by Giraldas They use to place him

,

that shall be their Captain,upon a stone alwayes reserved

for that purpose,and placed commonly upon a hill In

some ofwhich I have seen formed and ingraven a foot ,which they say was the measure oftheir first Captain'

s

foot,whereon hee standing , receives an oath to preserve

allthe ancient formercustomes ofthe countrey inviolable,and to del iver up the succession peaceably to his Tanist ,

GOVERNMENT , MILITARY SYSTEM , AND LAw [PART I

and then hath a

'

wand del ivered unto him by some whoseproper office that is : after which ,

descending from the

stone,he turneth himself round , thrice forward , and

thriceAs the tribe elected their king through the votes of

their representat ive men,so they might at any time depose

him if he proved unsat isfactory. The O’

Kelly, king of

Hy Many ,was inaugurated by the two families ofClann

Diarmada andHy- Cormaic and by the family OfMithighen

or Meehan which families had also the funct ion ofdepos

inghim at the instance [andby the authority ofthe wholetribe] ofHy Many . The Senchus MOr’r ment ions the

l iability ofa. king to deposit ion There are four diguitaries Ofa territory who may be degraded - A falsejudging king

, a stumbling bishop ,a fraudulent poet , an

unworthy Chieftain who does not fulfil his dut ies. It is

probable that there was a formal ceremony for deposit ionbut I do not find it anywhere described .

In case ofan interregnum some eminent man— oftenan ecclesiast ic or an ollave— was appointed regent : forwhich see p . 462 ,

infra.

4. Revenue and. Authority.

The revenue ofthe king or rul ing chief , ofwhatever

grade, which enabled him to support his court and household was derived from three main sources. Firsi. he was

allowed for li fe,or for as long as he cont inued chief , a tract

Ofland called Ferann bziird,

‘ land ofthe bord or table ,

’

Spenser’

s View, p . 11. For an exhaust ive account by O

’

Donovan of

the inauguration ofIrish kings, see his Hy Fiachrach , pp . 425 to 432 .

See also Paper on the Inaugurat ion ofIrish Chiefs, by Herbert J . Hore,

in Ulster journ. Archaeol . , v . 2 16 . In bo th O ’

Donovan’

s and Hore’

s

papers Giraldus’

s calumny is eflect ively exposed. O ther references and

descript ions wil l be found in Lynch ,Cambr. Ev .,

111. 325 et seq .

O’

Flaherty, Ogyg.,Part Kilk. Archzeol. Journ ,

1852—3 , p . 335

Harris’

s Ware,Ant iq q .

,11. x also FM

,A .D. 1315 , 1461, 1488, 1589 .

1Br. Laws, 1. 55.

CHAR. 111] MONARCHICAL GOVERNMENT 51

mensal land ,some ofwhich he cul tivated by his own

bondsmen, and some he let to tenants. Second subsidiesofvarious kinds mentioned in chap . v11.

, sect . 3 , paid himby his free tenant farmers and other free members ofthe

tribe, by the unfree families and tribes,and also by his

subject kings or chiefs.

* Third payment for the loan of

stock as described at p . 189 farther on. But in addit ionto all this hemight have land as his own personal propertyand other minor sources ofincome will be not iced in nextSection.

The king or chief was the military leader in war, thegovernor in peace and he and his people l ived in mutualdependence. He was bound to protect the tribesmen fromviolence and wrong ,

and they maintained him in due

dignity(Br. Laws, 11. It was both a danger and a

disgrace not to have a chief to look up to : hence thepopular saying , Spend me and defend me. Craftsmen

of the various trades, l ike tenant farmers,had to place

themselves under the protection of the chief , and pay

tribute~ often in kind articles made by themselveswhich formed an important item in the chief ’s revenue.

W hile the inferior chief , ofwhatever grade, paid tribute

(called in Irish cis pron. keece) to his superior, the latter,by a curious custom , was bound to give his dependent ast ipend Ofsome kind , called taurcree or tuarastal : muchsmaller

,however, than what he received . The tribute

paid to the superior— whether by a subordinate chief orby an individual tribesman —consisted mainly of cattleand provisions ofvarious kinds, plough - oxen

,hogs

,sheep

,

with mantles and other art icles ofdress : and it, often

included such things as dyestuffs, woollen sewing - thread ,

firewood ,wood for carpentry work : and somet imes gold

and silver reckoned in ounces. In all cases the quant ity

or amount , whatever the commodity ,was defined by law

I"For various kinds ofcess and t ribute in the sixt eenth century ,see

art icle on Ancient Irish Income,U lst . J ourn . Archaeol .

,iv . 241.

GOVERNMENT , MILITARY SYSTEM , AND LA\V [PART I

and custom . The tributary king made up part ofhis

payments by levying tribute, according to well - definedcustom

,on his own inferiors .

On the other hand the taurcrec given by the superiorto his sub - king or chief consisted mainly ofsuch art iclesas arm s, steeds, drinking - horns, brooches , &c. F or ex

ample, while the king ofDalRiada, in north - east Ulster,

gave 300 oxen every year to his superior, the king of

Ulaid or Ulster(worth say or ofour money),the latter gave the king ofDal Riada a tuarastal of

three steeds, three bondmen,three bondwomen

,and three

[small] ships , all which might now represent £600 or

The acceptance oftaurcrec or tuarastal,or st ipend , by

the inferior was an acknowledgment ofsubmission and

allegiancej : a refusal to accept it was equivalent to re

nouncing, or refusing to acknowledge, allegiance. W henMalachi II, came to Brian Boru’

s tent in 1002 with a

ret inue of twelve score men to offer him submission,

Brian gave him a taurcrec oftwelve score steeds, whichhe accepted : but the retinue felt so mortified at theirown king '

s submission that to a man they refused to takecharge ofthem

, so Malachi presented them in token of

friendship to Brian’

s son Murrogh .1 Sometimes— in case

ofthe lower order ofdependents— this subsidy was calledrail/i [ra] or wages. The tributes and st ipends for thevarious ranks are set forth in detail in the Book of

Rights.

The Book ofRights gives an account ofthe rights of

the monarchs ofall Ireland, and the revenues payable to

them by the principal kings ofthe several provinces, and

Book ofRight s, 155 , last two lines , and 169 The special art iclesgiven as cfs or tribute and as taurcrec

,respectively,

may be seen by glanc~

ing through this Book ofR ight s.

1O’

Curry ,Man. Cust .

,1. 160 .

IWars ofGO,133 . Another example in O ’

Curry, Man. Cust .,i. 62 .


AND LAW [PART I

themselves with propriety . But somet imes, either on

account ofmisconduct , or where there was special reasonfor unfriendly feel ing ,

they were treated with great harshness or cruelty : heavily fettered and closely confined .

Except in very few cases they were not permitted to

carry arms. Hostages must have been very numerous

in every king ’

s palace : for we are told in the Life of

St . Patrick that in his t ime Laeghaire, king ofIreland ,

had in Tara nine hostages from one chief alone, namely

,

Dicho ,prince ofLecale.

*

In everv palace there was a special house for lodginghostages. In Tara one ofthe mounds was called Dumanan-

giall, the Mound ofthe hostages,’ which st ill remains

and on i t stood the hostage house. King Cormacmade a V isitation ofIreland thrice

,and brought a hostage

from every fortress, and to these he gaveDumha nan

giall T [with a house on i t to reside in] . In the Feast ofDun- nan-

ged we are told that Domnall, king ofIreland ,

built his palace at Dun- nan-

ged in imitat ion ofthat at Tara,

and among other bui ldings he erected the Carcair- nan-

giali,

the prison- house ofthe hostages.

’

i In a poem in the BookofLecan,

describing the building ofAileach ,it is stated

that one stone closed the top ofthe house ofthe groaninghostages from which words we may infer that this wasa beehive- shaped house, like those pictured and describedelsewhere in this book ,

ofwhich numberless specimens st illremain.§ The Crith Gabhlach ,

in describing the residenceofa king , speaks ofa moat or trench of servitude

(am /u gialnai) for hostages, and states that its length isthirty

On the above points about hostages : see O’

Curry, Man. Cust . ,

11. 145 : Stokes, Lives ofthe SS.,157, 158 : Keating, 456 : Sul livan,

Int rod. , 355, note,

1' Cuan O

’

Lochain’

s words q uoted by Petrie, Tara , 144.

IMoyrath , 7.

§ O'

Curry, Man. Cust .,11. 9 : Ordn. Surv

,Londonderry,

2 26.

NBr. Laws, Iv . 337.


5 . Privileges.

A k ing enjoyed many privileges, and was bound bymany restrict ions. It will be shown farther on that hewassubject to the ordinary law l ike his free subjects. But i fa distress lay against him he was not to be distraineddirectly : one ofhis officers, cal led a steward - bail i ff

(aithech-fortha) — a sort of deputy— was to be distrainedin his place this is an original steward who alway ssustains the l iability ofa king it is what saves him [theking] from being distrained like the prerogat ive ofthecrown in Brit ish law, by which the monarch sues and is

sued through the attorney- general .According to the Senchus M61 a king ’

s evidence in a

brehon’

s court against all Ofa rank below him was acceptedwithout quest ion, as they had not the right to be heard inevidence against him : but this privilege did not holdagainst a bishop ,

a doctor oflearning, or a pilgrim

, all of

whom were regarded as ofequal rank with himsel f— so far

as giving evidence was concerned The king excels all

in test imony - says the Senchus Mor for he can [byhis mere word] decide against every class Of persons

except those of two orders, namely , of rel igion and

learning ,who are of equal rank with himself, as the

doctor [sui] , or the bishop,or the pilgrim . 1

' W hateverwas found on a highroad , i f the owner was not forthcoming ,

belonged to the king,except the finder’

s rewardalso a certain proport ion ofeverything cast ashore by thesea a third ofevery treasure found within his territoryand one—ninth of the reward paid by the owner to the

finder ofa thing in a waste place. These rights continuedto be enjoyed by the provincial kings down to the fifteenthcentury iW hen a king ofany grade ascended the throne he

usually made a visitat ion or royal progress through his

Br. Laws,11. 12 1. 1I bid. 1. 79 .

I Sul livan,Introd.

,240 : O

’

Donovan,HyM,

65.


kingdom ,to receive allegiance and hostages from his sub

kings and this was somet imes repeated during his reign.

*

Visitations ofthis kind were called saerclzuairt [saircoort] ,‘ free circuit ,

’ intimat ing that the king was to be entertained,

with all his ret inue, free Ofcharge. The king of

Ireland ,when on free circuit , always brought a numerous

escort , or even an army if opposit ion was ant icipated and

he was received by the provincial kings with much stateand formality. He always proceeded in the same direction—sunwise(see p . 301,

infra). Brian Boru , when makinghis visitat ion,

A .D. 1005 , proceeded with an army from his

palace ofKincora (at the present town ofKillaloe) toConnaught , thence by Assaroe, and all around keepinghis left hand to the sea —t i ll he reached Kincora again.

In these Visitat ions the Ard- ri proceeded very leisurely :

and on his march , each provincial king , and each king of

a mor- tuath ,escorted him in state as far as the residence

of the neighbour king.j. A king of any lower gradefollowed the same course on his Visitations, and was

received and escorted similarly .

It was the bel ief of the ancient Irish that when a

good and just king ruled— one who faithfully observed inhis government the royal customs and wise precepts followed by his ancestors- the whole country was prosperousthe seasons were mild , crops were plent iful , cattle werefruitful , the waters abounded with fish , and the frui t treeshad to be propped owing to the weight oftheir produce .

Under bad kings i t was all the reverse. In the reign of

the plebeian usurping king Carbery Kinncat,

evil was thestate ofIreland : frui t less her corn,

for there used to beonly one grain on the stalk fruitless her rivers milklessher cattle plentiless her fruit , for there used to be but oneacorn on the stalk (FM, A.D. 14) There are sevenproofs which attest the falsehood ofevery king [i.e. sevenproofs or test imonies ofthe king

’

s badness] — to turn a

_Br. Laws

,IV . 332 , note . 1Ibid. 333 Book ofRights, 31, 33.

CHAP . III] MONARCHICAL GOVERNMENT 57

church synod out oftheir lis to be without truth , withoutlaw : defeat in battle : dearth in his reign : dryness Of

cows : blight offruit : scarcity ofcorn. These are the

seven l ive candles that expose the falsehood ofevery [bad]This belief is referred to everywhere in Irish

literature(see, for example, Da Derga ,p . 167) and even

found its way into Christianity in an ancient canonattributed to St . Patrick

, among other blessings att endingthe reign ofa just king , are enumerated fine weather,calm seas, crops abundant

, and trees laden with fru it .”

iThe bel ief in the b eneficent influence ofa just king pre

vailed among the Greeks and Romans. Ulysses (in disgu ise) says to Penelope— speaking ofa good king The

dark earth bears wheat and barley,and the trees are laden

with fruit,and the sheep bring forth without fail , and the

sea yields plenty offish,

‘

and all from his wise rule,and the

people prosper under him (Odyss. xix .) Similar testimonymight be adduced from Roman writers about their rulers.

The ancient Irish had a very high ideal ofwhat a kingshould be andwe meet with many statements throughoutour l iterature ofthe noble qual it ies expected from him .

He should b e free from falsehood ,from the betrayal of

his nobles,from unworthy conduct towards his peOple.

”

iFor what 15 a prince selected over a country asks Car

bery ofKing Cormac , who repl ies For the goodness ofhis form and race, and sense, and learning , and dignity ,

and utterance he is selected for his goodness and for his

wisdom,and strength

,and forces, and valour in

A just sovereign exercises not falsehood ,nor [unneces

sary] force, nor oppressive might . He is perfectly recognisant and righteous to his people, both weak and strong .

A king must be a man offull lawfulness in all respectshe must be a man that is consulted for knowledge : hemust b e learned and calm . N

*Br. Laws,IV . 53.

TSee a lso Stokes,Trip . Life

, 507 ; and Dr. Healy ,Irel. Anc. Sch

,

61,62 .

1Br. Laws,Iv . 51. § I bid. 377. 1] [ Ind 335.

58 GOVERNMENT , MILITARY SYSTEM , AND LAw [PART I

A king was also to be hospitable,and keep an open

house. A‘

prince, says Cormac Mac Art . should light

his lamps on Samain day(rst November, the beginning of

winter), and welcome his guests with clapping ofhandsand comfortable seats , and the cup

- bearers should be activein distribut ing meat and drink . A good idea ofwhat wasexpected in this way from a king is obtained from a statement , in the story ofthe second bat tle ofMoytura, aboutKing Bres. The people complained bitterly ofhis churlishness and inhospitality The knives ofhis people werenot greased at his table, nor did their breath smell ofale,at the banquet . Neither their poets, nor their bards,nor their sat irists, nor their harpers, nor their pipers, northeir trumpeters,

nor their jugglers , nor their buffoons,were ever seen engaged in amusing them in the assemblyat his court so that in the end they rose up,

for thisand other reasons, and drove him from the throne. The

nat ive Gael ic ideal ofwhat a king should be is set forth inseveral descriptions of individual monarchs, to whichreferences are given below .

* Similar maxims are incul

cated in the ecclesiastical legislat ion ofSt . Patrick . The

duties ofa king are fully set forth in one ofthe Patriciancanons] which , as might be expected , lays great stress onwhat was to be expected from him in regard to his moraland rel igious obligat ions.

A king should have three chief residences. Everyking is a pauper, says the Law, as quoted by Sull ivan;who hath not three chief residences that is, i t is three

chief residences each king is ent it led to have, i.e. threehouses or three duns.

”

A similar statement is made in theLaw tract , cal led the Small Primer (v. 53 , 2 1, 25) and

also in vol. iv . 377, 13 ; but in this last the translation does*O

’

Curry ,Sick Bed

,A t lantis

,1. 387

—9 : Dub . Pen. Journ.

,1. 2 15

Hyde, Lit . Hist ,247

- 8-

9 : O'

Curry ,MS. Mat ., 45 Da Derga , p . 2 11.

1’ Published by Stokes in Trip . Life, p . 507 see also Dr. Healy, Irel.

Anc. Sch . , 61.

I Introd. to O’

Curry, p . 238.


not Show it . [See Atkinson’

s Glossary to Brehon Laws,

vol. vi .,p . 180 , Conntairisem , a residence ; and also

v . 441, 25] A king wore a crown or diadem called mind

or uzinu,for which see vol. II., pp . 251 to 259. Kings had

certain heirlooms which descended to their successors.

The roth croi, or royal wheel - brooch ,

’ which the poetsinsolently demanded from Aed Mac Ainmirech , king of

Ireland(A.D. 572 was,according to a passage trans

lated by Stokes, * a brooch which each king would leaveto another. A king ’

s throne was called righskuidhe

[reehee] , royal seat .’

Fl fi.

Irish K ings and Archers. thirt eenth century . From frescoes in Abbey Knockmoy.Galway.(Dublin Penny Journal, 1832, pp . 228. 229 . Drau n by Petrie.)

From the quaint language ofa passage in the BrehonLaw we may infer that kings made some sort ofdistri

bution ofduty and amusement according to the days of

the week . Thus we find i t stated— evidently in View of

the king ofsome part icular territory— that on Sunday heindulged in fest ivity ,

and exercised lavish hospital ityotherwise he could not be a true king : Monday and

Saturday he devoted to the administrat ion of just ice :Tuesday

, W ednesday,and Friday he engaged in sports

of various kinds, such as chess, horseracing , coursing :

and on Thursday he and his wife devoted themselves to

Rev . Celt .,xx . 422 . Keating(446) tel ls the whole story ofthe poets

’

demand and its punishment : and he says that each king was wontto leave this brooch as an heirloom and precious relic to his successor.

”

GOVERNMENT , MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAw [PART I

their children,and to domestic dut ies in general (Brehon

Laws, Iv .

6. Limitations andRestrictions.

Irish Kings were not despotic they were all,from the

supreme monarch down to the king ofthe tuath,in every

sense,l imited monarchs ; they were subject to law l ike

their own free subjects. W e have seen(p . 46, supra) that

at their inaugurat ion they had to swear that they wouldgovern their people with strict justice , and in accordancewi th the ancient customs of the kingdom and theirdut ies ,

restrict ions , and privileges were strictly laid downin the Brehon code. This idea pervades allour l iterature

,

from the earl iest t ime ; ofwhich examples may be seen

in the passages referred to at bottom .

*

W e shall see at p . 311, farther on, that kings , like manyothers, were subject to geasa

— prohibitions from doingcertain things. But besides these there were many lines ofact ion forbidden to them , as ei ther dangerous or unbecoming

— prohibitions which could hardly be called geasa in theusual sense ofthe word . A king was neither to do any

work nor concern himself about servile work ofany kind ,

on penalty ofbeing ranked as a plebeian or, as the law

expresses i t , he should not employ himself with the

handle ofa shovel , a spade, or a clod - mallet .” t On a

certain occasion Fiachna,the father of the overking

Sweny Menn(A.D. 614 to went out to view his men

ploughing and the annal ist who relates the circumstanceis careful to add, by way ofexplanat ion or apology , for

Fiachna was not at all a kingfi i It was not lawful for aking to Slaughter and cook an animal— such as anox

for food .§ It was not permitted to a king or flaith(noble)O

’

Donovan,Moyrath , 12 1 : joyce , Short Hist ,

201 : Dub . Pen.

Journ.,1. 102 (Charter ofNewry) : Henderson

,Fled. Bricrenn, 5

Stokes, Trip . Life,285 : Br. Laws

,11. 121 : O

’

Grady, Silva Gad., 357

(The lawsuit ).1Br. Laws

,Iv . 335 . 1Three Fragm ,

17. § Si1va Gad , 351. bo t .

GOVERNMENT ,MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I

on such occasions will be found described in the CrithGabhlach

,

*and also in Petrie ’

s Tara(p . 205 et But

in accordance with an ordinance made by king CormacMacArt , the Ard- ri, or king OfIreland ,

was at all t imes

andnot merely on state occasions— to be accompanied by aret inue ofat least ten persons — a flaith ornoble a brehonor judge a druid a sci or doctor a poet a historiana musician and three servants— all to exercise theirseveral professional functions when required ] Thisarrangement cont inued in force t ill the death ofBrianBorn in 1014, except that in Christ ian times a bishop tookthe place ofa druid .

A few picked men commonly accompanied the king as

personal and immediate guards , and stood beside himwhen he sat down, with swords or battleaxes in theirhands for Irish kings were not less l iable to assassinationthan others , from ancient t imes to the present day. Some

times, as the Law states,

there were four such men, one

standing in front ofthe king , one behind and one on eachside. A Brehon Law tract tells us that , In selecting these,the king often gave preference to men whom he had savedfrom execution or redeemed from slavery for such personswould naturally be expected to be faithful from a feelingofgrat itude. But he is enjoined not to have among thema man ofan opposing party whom he has saved on the

battlefield,lest feel ings ofattachment to a former lord

might tempt to treachery i This custom cont inued downto the sixteenth century for the Four Masters have left usa descript ion ofShane O ’

Neill’

s bodyguard ,which has all

the ant ique flavour of the period of the Red BranchKnights. In front ofShane’

s tent burned a great fire, and

a huge torch,thicker than a man

’

s body ,was constantly

Br. Laws,Iv . 339 .

TO'

Flaherty, Ogyg.,Part chap . lxix . and O

'

Curry, Man.

Cust . ,1. 2 3 .

1Br. Laws, Iv . 339 .

CHAP . 111] MONARCHICAL GOVERNMENT 63“

flaring at a short distance from the fire,and sixty grim

and redoubtable galloglasses, with sharp keen axes,

terrible and ready for action, and sixty stem and terrificScots [hired soldiers from Scotland] with massive broadand heavy - striking swords in their hands [ready] tostrike and parry ,

were watching and guardingThe king commonly kept in his ret inue a trén- ther

[trainar] , a strong man,

’

or rath rnz'

lid, battle soldier,

’

his champion ofchief fighting man, to answer challenges

to single combat . Concobar MacNessa '

s champion Triscatal , who l ived in the palace ofEmain,

is described in an

ancient tale in the Book ofLeinster in terms that remindus of the English writer’

s description ofa much latertre

’

n-fher, John de Courcy , whose very look— ou the day

ofsingle combat before King John OfEngland and KingPhilip ofFrance— so frightened the French champion thathe turned round and ranne awaie offthe fielde.

”

j Triscatal was a mighty

, broadfronted, shaggy- haired man,

with thighs as thick as an ordinary man’

s body , wearing a

thick leathern apron from his armpits down : his l imbs

were bare, and his aspect was so fierce that he killed men

by his very look }: The trén-fher of the romances was

probably the same as the aire- erhta , or avenger ofinsults,described more quietly in the Laws(see p . 92 ,

in/ra).

W e know that St . Patrick kept a household in imitat ion ofthe ancient Irish custom and one ofhis attendantswas his tre

’

n—iker or strong man,

’

St . MacCarthen,after

wards first bishop of Clogher,whose peaceful funct ion

was to carry the aged saint on his back across fords and

other difficul t places,on their missionary journeys.

At the entrance to the royal palace or council chamberstood the doorkeepers(ddrsid) to scan and interrogate all

See PM,A D. 1557, p . 1555 : J oyce, Short Hist , 403 .

TThis whole story abou t John de Courcy and the French champion is

told in my book The Wonders ofIreland.

”

1Hennessy ,Mesca

, pp . 33—35 .

O4 GOVERNMENT , MILITARY SYSTEM ,AND LAW [PART 1

visitors. The nine guardsmen (come’taide) ofConari the

Great , king ofIreland in the first century , stood threateningly at the door ofthe royal apartment

,with Shields and

ivory - hilted swords ; and they allowed no one to enterwho did not give a sat isfactory account ofhimsel f.*

There was a Rechtaire or house- steward ,also called

Taisech- teglaig, i.e. chief ofthe house sometimes alsocalled Fer- thaigis, man of the household ’ majordomo ,

’ whose office was a very dignified one. The

house- steward ofKing Conan 5 household is described inthe Bruden Da Derga as wearing a fleecy mantle ,

and

holding in his hand his wand ofoffice,which was no

small ornamental rod, but a huge black beam “ like a

mill - shaft . He arranged the guests in their proper placesat table, assigned them their sleeping apartments, and

determined each morning the supplies offood for the day.

If a dispute arose on any matter connected with the

arrangements for receiving , placing , or entertaining the

guests, he decided it and his decision was final. W hen

he stood up to speak all were silent , so that a needlemight be heard if it dropped on the. floor.j

" From this

descript ion it will be seen that the rechtaire correspondedclosely with the Anglo- Norman seneschal oflater t imes.

A part icular offi cer had charge ofthe king’

s(or queen’

s)

séds,‘ jewels ,

’

or personal treasures. That the post was

considered of importance is shown by the fact that the

lady Erni who had charge ofthe caskets and combs and

golden ornaments ofMaive, queen ofConnaught , in the

t ime ofthe Red Branch Knights, is described as mistress

ofall the maidens who waited on the queen in the palace

ofCroghan.1 The stds were generally kept in a corrbolg,

or large round ornamental satchel, or in a number ofsuch

O'

Curry ,Man. Cust .

,11. 147, 148.

t Stokes’

s Da Derga, 185 . O ther references to the rerhtaire in Trip.Life, 185 , b ot . and inMoyrath, 18.

O’

Lcoaey ,Bee Fola, 187, 189 . See also 0 35 . See ,

Iv . 2 89 and 301,


receptacles. One man, and somet imes two, had charge of

the chessboard and chessmen. The board -was enclosed insome sort ofcase, and the men were often kept in a bagof.

wire nett ing.

*

There was a taisech scuir or master ofthe horse ; whohad charge ofthe king

’

s stables and horses, and there wasan echere or groom . Three outriders or esquires(maroaigor ritiri horsemen or knights attended king Conari,each ofthem— even when off duty— holding a whip - or

scourge (sraigell) in his hand , symbolical Ofoffice] W e

findment ioned ,among the other officials, chief swineherds

and chief cooks, whose posit ions were obviously consideredofimportance i Runners, i.e. messengers or couriers, werealways kept in the king ’

s or chief ’s employment andnot

unfreq uently we findwomen employed in this oflice. FinnMacCumail had a female runner who figures in the storyOfDermot and Grania.

A king kept in his court an ollave ofeach professionpoet , historian, storyteller(or most commonly one ollave

combining these three professions), physician, brehon,

builder, &c. Each ofthese gave his services to the king , forwhich an ample stipend was allowed , including a separatedwelling- house and free land . But besides this the professionalman had private practice, and the law set forth'

the exact remunerat ion for each kind ofwork .§ Thewhole inst itut ion flourished in the t ime ofCamden, who

correctly describes i t These lords [i.e. the Irish kingsand chiefs] have their historians about them who writetheir acts and deeds : they have their physicians, theirrymers whom they call bards, and their harpers : all of

whom have their several l ivelihoods, and have lands set

out for them .

” Fools, jugglers, and j esters were alwayskept in the king

’

s court for the amusement ofthe house

O'

Grady, Silva“

Gad, 133. 1

' O’

Curry ,Man. Cust .

,11. 146.

I O'

Curry, Man. Cust . 111. 145, 147.

See O’

Curry,Man. Cust ., 11. 52 , 53 seealso vol. pp 292 to 2 94.

F


hold and guests. They and their functions will bedescribed in chapter xxix . (vol. 11. p . Those im~

mediate retainers and officers ofthe king who lived in or

near the palace,and took their meals in their own apart

ments— a very numerous company— were supplied withfood each day from the royal stores.

*

That the above details ofthe king ’

s household are not

fict itious is shown by several statements in Irish autho

rit ies setting forth the households ofIrish kings and chiefsin comparat ively late t imes, from the eleventh to the

thirteenth or fourteenth century , written by personswhodescribed things as they actually saw them , and whosedescriptions are st ill extant . These set forth the varioushereditary offi ces, similar to those stated above, for the

older kings, though with differences in detail , as might beexpected . For example— the following were the chiefofficers ofthe household ofO

’

Kelly, king ofHy Many ,

in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries r— Marshal ofthe forces, O

’

Connaill master ofthe horse, Hy Fiachrach

Finn door- keeper, Hy Fiachrach Finn butler, O

’

hUroin

superintendent of banquets (i.e. rechtaire), O’

Lomain

king ’

s immediate guard , Clann Indrechtaigh ; keeper of

cattle, treasures, and chessboard , O’

Flahilly ; keeper of

arms and dresses, Clann Bresail ; answerer ofchallengesto single combat from outside territories, Glaun Bresail ;avenger ofinsults, Clann Egan ; steward , Aes Brengair

keepers Of hounds , the Cruffanns ; inaugurators and

deposers, Clann Diarmada, Hy Cormaic, and O’Meehan

rearers of horses,Kinel - Aeda ; rearers of hounds, the

people of Sl ieve Aughty ; carriers of wine from the

harbours to the king ’

s residence, DalDruithne buildersor erectors ofedifices, Hy Docomlann stewards ofrentsand tributes, the chiefs ofthe CantredofCala.

’

r_Each

See,for examp le, Stokes, Lives ofSS. 161

,top line.

IT(O

'

Donovagl, B yM,

87. For other similarhouseholds seeO ’

Flaherty,ar 139 , an 368 to 372.

‘

cHAP . 111] MONARCHICAL GOVERNMENT 67

chief, of whatever grade, kept a household after the

manner ofa king ,but on a smaller scale, with the several

offices in charge ofthe members ofcertain families. In

the U lster Journal ofArchaeology , 111. 117, will be found a

valuable paper on Gaelic Domest ics, compiled chieflyfrom Anglo- Irish sources, in which this custom ,

as it

existed in the sixteenth century ,is very fully described .

From the description given at page 43 i t will be seen

that there was a regular gradat ion ofauthority. The king

ofthe tuath owed allegiance to the king ofthe rndr- tuath

the king ofthe rh o'

r- tuath to the provincial king the pro

vincial king to the ard- ri ofall Ireland . But - this wasmerely the theoret ical arrangement in the higher gradesi t was very imperfectly carried out . The authori ty ofthe

supreme monarch over the provincial kings was in mostcases only nominal , l ike that ofthe early Bretwaldas overthe minor kings ofthe Heptarchy. He was seldom ableto enforce obedience, so that they were often almost or

altogether independent ofhim . There never was a kingofIreland who really ruled the whole country the kingwho came nearest to i t was BrianBorn. In ' l ike mannerthe urrees or under- kings Often defied the authority oftheirsuperiors. The people, grouped into families, clans, tribes,and hinels, with only Slight bonds of union, and withtheir leaders ever ready to quarrel , were l ike shifting sand .

Ifthe country had been left to work out its own destinies,this loose system would no doubt in the endhave developedinto one strong central monarchy

,as in England and

France. As matters stood it was the weak point in the

government . It left the country a prey to internal strife,which the supreme king was not strong enough to quelland the absence ofunion rendered it impossible to meetforeign invasion by effectual resistance.


8. List ofOver-Kings.

According to the ancient bardic legends, five successive colonies arrived in Ireland many centuries beforethe Christ ian era - the Parthalonians, the Nemedians,

the Firbolgs, the Dedannans, and the M ilesians.‘ The

bards say that government by monarchy began with theFirbolgs whose first king— and the first king ofIrelandwas Slainge [two From the t ime ofhis accessiondown to the birth ofChrist , they allow 107 monarchs, ofwhom 9 were Firbolgs 9 Dedannans and 89 M ilesians.The last king ofthe period before the Christ ian era was

Nuada Necht or Nuada the W hite : and his successor,Conari the First , or Comari the Great , was the first kingbelonging to the Christian era. The M ilesian kingscontinued to reign t ill the t ime ofRoderick O

’

Conor,

the last overking ofIreland , who died in 1198 (p . 42 ,

supra) and who, according to the bardic accounts, wasthe 193rdmonarch ofIreland . A ful l l ist ofthe monarchswho reigned from the beginning ofthe Christ ian era is

given below. A few ofthose before the Christian era

viz . those that figure most prominently in ancient Irishliterature— are also given, with their approximate dates.

The dates down to the t ime ofLaegaire (A.D. 428) are

given chiefly on the authori ty ofO’

Flaherty, who, in his

Ogygia , has corrected the chronology ofthe bards and

Shanachies.

As to the records ofthe very early kings, they cannot ,ofcourse, be received as history but neither should theybe rejected altogether : i t is as much ofa faul t to be toosceptical as to be too credulous. On this subject ofthe

Irish records ofthe early kings, Dr. Petrie Tara,

” p .

whowas himself ratherover- caut ious than otherwise, makesthe following judicious observat ions, quoting the dist in

guished Scotch historian Pinkerton,who was a determined

Foranaccount ofallthese see Joyce, Short History ofIreland, p. 123.

70 GOVERNMEN T , M ILITARY SYSTEM,AND LAW [PART I

K INGS OF IRE LAND : CHRIST IA N ERA.

In the early part ofthis l ist there is some uncertaintyas to the exact dates : but after the t ime ofColla Huas

(327 to 331) the dates may be taken as generally correct .In the lat ter part ofthe l ist ‘

S.

’ means Southern HyNeill‘N.

’

Northern Hy Neill ; for which ,and for “ Kings wi th

Opposit ion,

”see Joyce , Short H istory ofIreland

,

” pp. 134

and 228.

A .O .

Conari I .(the Great) began to

reign about the first year of

the Christian Era

Lugaid Riab Derg (Lewy ofthe Red Circles)

Concobar Abt at Ruad(Conorofthe Red Brows)

Crimthann(orCrifl’an)Nia Nair,son ofLugaid Riab Derg

Carbery Cinncat(Cat - head)Feradach Finn FachtnachFiatach FinnFiacha FinnolaE lim MacC onnra

Tuathal the LegitimateMalMacRoehride

FedlimidRechtmar(Felim the

Lawgiver), sonofTuathal theLegitimate

CatliairM61 [Cahir More]ConnCedcathach(theHundred

fighter)ConariMoglama(Conari II .

A rt Aenfer(the Solitary), son of

Conn Cedcathach

Lugaid(or Lewy)Mac Con

Fergus Dubhdedach (of the

B lack Teeth)CormacMacArt or CormacU l

fada(son ofA rt the Solitary)Eochaid(or Ochy) GunnatCarberyLifl

'

echair(oftheLifley)Fiacha Sraib tine

Colla Huas

Muredach Tit echCaelbad

Eochaid Muigmedon (OchyMoyvane)

CrimthanMé r(Griffan More) .

Niall ofthe N ine Hostages

Dathi [Dauhi]Laegliaire [Leary]Olioll Molt

,son ofB allif

S. Lugaid (or Lewy), son of

Laeghaire

N.Murkertach Mac ErcaN. TuathalMailgarb

S. Diarmaid orDermot , son of

Fergus Kervall

N. Domnall joint kings , sons}N. Fergus ofMurkertach

N’ Baitan °

oint kin sN. Eochaid

J g

N. Ainmire [Aa'

mira]N. Baitan

N.AedMacAinmirech, orHugh

son ofAinmire

S. A ed Slaine

N. ColmanRimid } jomt kingsN. Aed(or Hugh) U aridnach

N. Mailcoba

N. Suibne [Sweeny] Menu

N. Domnall or Douall, son of

AedMacAinmirech .

N. Cellach orKellaeh jointN. Conall Cail kingsS.Blathmac joint kings : sonsS.Diarmaid ofAed Slaine

S. Sechnasach, son ofBlath

mac

S. Cennfaelad [Kenfaila] , son

ofBlathmac

CRAP- 111] MoNARCHIGAL Gov’

ERNMENT

S . Finachta Fledach(the Festive)

N . Longsech

N. CongalN. FergalS. Fogartach MacNeil l .

S. Cioneth (or Kenneth), son

ofIIgalach

N. Flathbertach or Flahertagh

N . Aed(or Hugh) A llan, son

ofKing FergalS. Domnall or Donall , son of

Murchad

N . Nial l Frassach (i.e. ofthe

Showers),

S. Donnchad or Donogh

N . Aed(or Hugh) Ordnee, son

ofN ial l FrassachS. Coneobhar or Conor

N. N iall CaillneS. Mailsechlann or Malachi I .

N .Aed(or Hugh) Finnliath

S ,FlannSinna(ofthe Shannon)

N. N iallGlunduf’fS. Donnchad orDonogh

S. Congalach

FIG. 27.

Outlines OfAncient Irish Ornamental Carving on a stone monument . See chap . xvi sect. 4.

(From Journ. Roy. Soc. Antiq q Ireland.)

A .D.

1002

N. Domnall O ’Neill, son of

Murkertagh of the LeatherC loaks 956

S. Mailsechlann or Malachi II. 980

Brian ‘

Boroma, or Boruma, or

Born

S . Mailsechlann or Malachi II(resumes)

Kings edit/z Opposition.

Donnchad or Donogh, son of

Brian Born0

Diarmaid Mac . Mail - na- mbo

(Dermot MacMailnamo), of

the race ofCahir More 1064Turlogh O

’Brien ofthe Balgas 1072

Murkertach orMurtoghO’Brien 1086

N . Donal l O ’Loghlanu 1086

(Both reckoned as kings ofIreland.)

Turloch O’

Conor

N.Murkertagh O’Loghlann

Rory or Roderick O ’conor

SECTION 1. Foreign Conq uests and Colonisations.

IKE their ancestors the Cont inentalCelts, the Irish , from the earl iestages, had a genius for war and a

love offighting. The Roman geo

grapher Solinus, wri ting in the thirdcentury A.D. , says that Irish motherswere wont to present the first foodon the point of a sword to theirnewly - born male infants, as i t wereto dedicate them to W ar. There isno mention of this custom in the

nat ive records,so that we may

safely set down

the account as afable, l ike some

otherstatements

ofhis about Ireland a l r e a d ynot iced at p . 18 ,

supra. But the

m . 28. story may be

Capital L from Book ofKells : full size.(From Miss Stokes‘s Early ChristianArt in Ireland). taken as lndlc

gt

mg the warlikecharacter the ancient Irish had earned for themselves

CHAP . IV] WARFARE 73

among foreign nat ions. They were not contented withfight ingat home, but made themselves formidable in otherlands. Their chief foreign conquests were in W ales and

Scotland but they not unfrequently found their way tothe Continent . In those t imes the Scots, as the Irish werethen called , seem to have been almost as much dreaded as

the Norsemen were in later ages. Irish literature ofeverykind abounds in records offoreign invasions and alliancesand it will be seen that the nat ive accounts are corrobo

rat ed by Roman writers, so far as they touch on thesematters.

*

In the bardic legends there is an account ofan expedition beyond the sea — probably to Bri tain— in the firstcentury , by Crimthann Nia Ndir [Criffan- nee- nawr] , kingofIreland (A.D. 74 to and ofhis return with muchtreasure to his palace ofDun- Criffan on Ben- Edar or

Howth (FM, A.D. At a st ill earl ier t ime the old

Shanachies celebrate the foreign expedit ions oftwo other

kings— Aengus Ollmucad andHugony the Great ]Allwho have read the histories ofEngland and Rome

know how prominently the P icts andScots figure duringthe first four centuries

'

ofour era, and how much trouble

they gave to both Romans and Britons. The Pi cts werethe people ofScotland the Scots were the Irish GaelsThe Scots, who afterwards settled in what is now known

as Scotland ,at that t ime dwelt in Ireland.

”

i The invasions

of the P icts and Scots are celebrated by many ancientwriters, among others by G ildas in his History. As a

protect ion against these two tribes theRomans, at differentintervals in the second and third centuries, built those greatwalls or ramparts from sea to sea between Britain and

Alban, so well known in theh istory ofthose t imes,ofwhich

For a good abstract ofIrish foreign expeditions and conq uests, see

Sul livan’

s Introd. to O’

Curry, Lect ., pp . 2 2 t o 48 .

1' O

’

Flaherty ,Ogyg.

,111. xxvi. and xxxviii.

t Gardiner’

s Students’

Hist . ofEngl . , 1892 , pp. 23, 24.

74 GOVERNMENT , MILITARY SYSTEM, ANDLAW [PARTI

there are st ill considerable remains. For three or fourcenturies the Irish continued their incursions to Britain and

Scotland , somet imes fighting as invaders against the Picts,somet imes combining with them against the Romans and

Britons : and as a consequence there were several settlements ofcolonies from Ireland in W ales andScotland . An

ancient Irish historical tale ent itled The Banishment ofthe Desi i gives an account ofone ofthese migrat ions. It

is a wellknown historical fact , not iced in the Irish annals ofthose t imes, that a numerous and powerful tribe called theDesi i , who dwelt near Tara, were expelled for a breach of

law from their district(which retains the name ofDeece to

this day) by CormacMacArt in the third century(see pages92 , 93 , below). Part ofthese went toMunster andsettled ina terri tory which st ill retains their name— the two baroniesofDecies in the Co . W aterford . Another part , crossingover to W ales under a leader named Eochaid [Ochy] ,settled down in a district called Dyfed ,

and preserved theirindividual ity as an immigrant tribe for many generat ions.This migrat ion and settlement is related in detail in one

ofthe Irish historical stories— a relat ion that receives so

much collateral and incidental confirmat ion from W elshrecords totally independent ofthe Irish authorit ies, thatwe cannot doubt its substant ial accuracy.

The account of the conq uests of: the Irish in W estBritain given in Cormac ’s Glossary (written in the ninthor tenth century from Older authorit ies) may be regardedas generally rel iable for it is corroborated by other recordsand indicat ions from independent sources. In this Glossarywe are told a story about a lapdog which was broughtfrom the east from Britain by Carbery Muse, a wellknown historical Irish personage, from whom certain districts in Ireland

,st ill called Muscraidhe or Muskerry ,

tooktheir name. He was the son ofConari II., king - ofIrelandfrom A.D. 212 to 220 andwas brother ofthat Reudamen

tioned by Bede as the leader ofa colony from Ireland to

CHAP . Iv] WARFARE 75

Scotland (see p . 82 ,infra). Cormac ’s Glossary (p . 111)

says For when great was the power ofthe Gael inBritain,

they divided Alban between them into districts,and each knew the residence ofhis friend , and not lessdid the Gael dwell on the east side ofthe sea than inScot ia (Ireland), and their habitat ions and royal fortswere built there. W hence is named Dinn Tradui, i.e. the

triple- fossed fort ofCrim thann [Criffan] the Great(son of

Fidach), king ofIreland and ofAlban to the Ictian Sea

(the English Channel), and hence also is Glasirnpere or

Glastonbury ofthe Gael , i.e. a church on the border oftheIctian Sea. Thus every [Irish] tribe divided [the land]on that Side for its [i.e. the tribe’

s] property on that sidewas equal [to that on the west] and they cont inued inthis power t ill long after the coming ofPatrick . HenceCairbre Muse was visit ing his family and friends in the

east [when the episode ofthe lapdog occurred] . ThisGri ffan the Great , king ofIreland and ofAlban to the

Ictian Sea,

”who is to be dist inguished from the Criffan

ment ioned at p . 33 ,reigned in Ireland from A.D. 366 to 379

he is celebrated forhis conquests in Britain, not only in Cormac

’

s Glossary as quoted above, but inallthe Irish historiesand traditions deal ing with that t ime. His reign is almostexactly coincident with the command of the Roman

general Theodosius(father ofthe emperor Theodosius theGreat), who,

according to the Roman historians checkedthe career ofthe Gaels and their all ies. The Irish accountsofCriffan

’

s invasion ofBritain are in the main corrobo

rated by the Roman poet Claudian,in those passages of

his poem that celebrate the victories ofTheodosius. W hileGri ffan and his all ies the Picts were vigorously pushingtheir conquests in Britain, the Saxons, who were at thistime

,beginning their inroads, made themselves equally

formidable. The cont inual attacks ofthe three tribes became at last so intolerable that the Roman government wasforced to take defensive measures. In the year after

76 GOVERNMENT , MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I

Criffan’

s accession, Theodosius was appointed to the military command ofBritain, and,

after two active campaigns ,he succeeded in delivering Britain for the t ime from the

invaders. The following short passage,translated from

Claudian’

s poem,pictures vividly the triumph achieved by

Theodosius over the three hostile tribes The Oreadesflowed with Saxon gore ; Thule became warm with the bloodofthe Picts ; and icy Iem e(t.e. Ireland)wept forher heaps of

[slaughtered] Scots.

”

In another passage ofthe same poemClaudian boasts that Theodosius chased the Irish from the

Brit ish shores andpursued them out to sea.* Though all this

no doubt is in the main true history ,we must make some

al lowance for the poet ’s natural tendency to exaggerat ion inhis laudatory record ofthe great Roman general’s exploits.

Criffan was succeeded as king ofIreland by Niall ofthe Nine Hostages(A.D. 379 to who was st ill more

dist inguished for foreign conquests than his predecessor.Moore (Hist . I. 150) thus speaks ofhis incursions intoW ales An invasion ofBritain, on a far more extensiveand form idable scale than had yet been attempted fromIreland , took place towards the close ofthe fourth centuryunder Niall ofthe Nine Hostages, one ofthe most gallantofall the princes ofthe M ilesian race. Observing thatthe Romans had ret ired to the eastern Shore ofBritain,

Nial l collected a great fleet , and,landing in W ales, carried

off immense plunder. He was forced to retreat by the

val iant Roman general St ilicho,but left marks ofdepre

dat ion and ruin wherever he passed . On this occasionClaudian

,when praising St ilicho, says ofhim— speaking in

the person ofBri tannia By him was I protected whenthe Scot [i.e. Niall] moved all Ireland against me, and the

ocean foamed with their host ile oars.

Niall ’s invasion is mentioned by several Irish autho

rit ies, as, for instance,an ancient Lat in Life OfSt . Patrick ,

‘ See O’

Flaherty, Ogyg , part chaps. xxxiv .,xxxvn.

, lxxxv .,

lxxxvii., and lxxxviii.


AND LAW [PART I

inquirers of other nat ionali t ies, have investigated this

quest ion ofthe Irish conquests in W ales, quite independently of Irish records : and they have come to the

conclusion that , at some early t ime,extensive distri cts of

W ales were occupied by the Irish that is to say, Goidelsor Gaels direct from Ireland , as dist inct from an earl ier andfar more extensive occupat ion by Goidels from continentalGaul . As a consequence ofthe later occupat ion by IrishGaels, numerous places in W ales have to this day names

commemorat ing the invaders as,for instance, the W elsh

name ofHolyhead , Cerrig y Gwyddcll, the Rocks ofthe

Goidels or Gaels and the W elsh language containsmany Irish words, or words evidently derived from Irish .

There are st ill in Anglesey , says Dr. Jones, in his book on

this subject ,* oval and circular trenches which we see

in great plenty called Cyttie r’

Gwyddelod,

‘

the Irishmen

’

s cottages. These, ofcourse, are what we know inIreland as lisses or raths

,which the Irish built up in their

newly - adopted country according to the fashion oftheirown. After carefu l examinat ion of all the evidence,

Dr. Jones comes to the conclusion that the Gaels fromIreland once occupied the whole ofAnglesey ,

Carnarvon,

Merioneth , and Cardiganshire, and parts ofDenbighshire,

Montgomery , andRadnor. Still another t race ofthe footsteps of the Irish Gael in Britain is the existence ofa

number ofOghams in W ales ' for, so :far as we know ,

Ogham was pecul iar to the II' ISlI .T But besides all this,

also Stokes, On the Linguist ic Value ofthe Irish Annals, p . 25 O’

Dono

van,HyF, 318 and Todd

, St . Patrick , 352 , note :1.

Vestiges ofthe Gael in Gwynedd(North Wales), 1851, by Dr. Jones,Bishop ofSt . David’

s,in which this whole q uest ion is ful ly discussed.

In the Revue Celt iq ue, XVI I. 102 , Principa l John Rh ys gives a long“StofWelsh words borrowed from Irish . It is to be observed that the

Britons Often made reprisals by incursions into Irelan d, as we see in the

case ofCoroticus(Lanigan, Ecol.Hist , I . See als oon this Bretons

Insulaires en Irlande,

"by J . Loth, in Revue Ce] tiq ue, x viii. 304, in W hich

M . Loth givesmany examp les ofBritish plunderingjncu rsions to Ireland.

TSee Hyde, Lit . Hist ,109 .

CHAP . Iv] W ARFARE 79

ancient W elsh literaturew history, annals , tales, legendsl ike that ofIreland , abounds in references to invasions of

W ales and other parts ofBritain by Irishmen.

The cont inual int imate relationship by intermarriagebetween the Irish kings and chiefs on the one side

,and

the rul ing families ofwestern and northern Britain on the

other, are fully set forth in a series ofvaluable genealogicalart icles by the Rev . John Francis Shearman in the Kilkenny Archwological Journal for 1879 to 1884 which are

reprinted in his Loca Patriciana .

W e have seen the record in Cormac ’s Glossary (p . 75 ,

supra) that the Irish retained their sway in Britain longafter the arrival ofSt . Patrick (in Ofthis thereis a curious incidental corroborat ion in a passage in the

story ofthe Boroma. W hen Branduff, the powerful kingofLeinster, in the end ofthe sixth century ,

heard thatprince Cummuscach was coming to Leinster on a youthfulfree circui t — about A.D. 597

— he did not wish to receivehim personally ,

knowing his licent ious character Let a

messenger,”said he, be sent to them [prince and ret inue] ,

and let them be told that I have gone into Bri tain(i mBretnm

’

b) to levy rent andAbout the period ofthe series ofexpedit ions to W ales,

the Irish also mastered the Isle ofMan and Irish literature abounds with references to the constant intercoursekept up by the parent people with those of their l itt leinsular colony. Though the Norsemen wrested the sovereignty ofthe island from them in the ninth century , theydid not succeed in displacing e ither the Gaelic peopleor their language. The best possible proof ofthe Irishcolonisat ion and complete and continued occupat ion of

the island is the fact that the Manx language is merely a

dialect ofIrish ,aspelled phonet ically,

b ut otherwise verylittle altered . There are also st il l to b e seen, all over theisland

,Irish buildings andmonuments, mixed up,

however,O

’

Grady, SilvaGad , 408,


AND LAW PART I

with many ofNorse origin : and the great majori ty of

both the place names and the nat ive family names are

Gael ic .*

It is curious that the idea ofhaving a sort ofclaim to

the Isle ofMan st ill l ingered among the Irish at the end

ofthe eleventh century , when the Danes held it for the

annalist Tigernach records an expedition to the islandfrom Leinster in 1060, which occurred during his ownl ifet ime a record also given by the Four Masters, as wellas by other annalists. Tigernach

’

s words are

1060] Murchad, king ofLeinster, son of[king] Dermait

MacMailnamo , invaded Mann and took tribute out ofit ,and defeated Ragnall

’

s son [the Danish ruler] .TNiall’s successor Bathi [Dauhy] , king ofIreland , A.D.

405 to 428 , followed in the footsteps ofhis predecessors,and according to Irish authori t ies invaded Gaul but was

killed by a flash oflightning at the foot ofthe Alps, afterhis followers had destroyed the hermitage ofa reclusenamed Formenius or Parmenius. Although this legendlooks wild and improbable,

it is in some respects corroborated by cont inental authorit ies, and by present exist ingnames ofplaces at the head ofLake Zurich so that thereis very likely some foundat ion for the story.1The record ofthe death ofLaegaire, Bathi S successor,

and king ofIrealnd when St . Patrick arrived , which ismainly historical

,though somewhat mixed with legend ,

tends to confirm the preceding accounts of the foreignexpeditions ofthe Irish kings. It had been prophesied forthis king by some old druid that he was destined to bekilled between Erin andAlban and accordingly, in orderto circumvent the prophecy , he remained at home

,and

never attempted to imitate the foreign expeditions ofhis

predecessors. But on one occasion he invaded Leinster

See Lynch, Camb r. Ev . , 1. 159 .

fRev . Ce lt,xvii. 402 .

i Ferguson, Legend ofDathi, Proc. R. I. Acad., Feb . 1882.p. I 67

GOVERNMENT,MILITARY SYSTEM

,AND LAW [PART I

king ofAlban (Scotland), and ofAed Mac Ainmirech,

king ofIreland . The Lebar Breco then goes on to givean account ofthe dispute between these two kings, whichwas subsequently settled at Drumket ta.

* Adamnan more

than once ment ions both Aedan and AedMacAinmirech ,

as wel l as the Convention at Drumket ta , and so far corroborates the accounts in the nat ive Irish authorit ies]These Irish narrat ives are confirmed by the Venerable

Bede in his Ecclesiast ical H istory(I . where he saysIn course oft ime, besides the Britons and Picts, Britainreceived a third nat ion, the Scots, who,

migrat ing fromIreland under their leaderReuda, obtained for themselveseither by friendly agreement or by force ofarms

,those

settlements among the Picts which they still hold . Fromthe name oftheir commander they are to this day calledDalreudini for in their tongue dalsignifies a part .” The

Dalreudini ofBede is theDalriada ofIrish history . He

correctly interprets dad : for Ddl- Rz'

ada signifies Riada’

s‘

or Reuda’

s portion and the word da’

l or driz’

l is in use at

the present day. These primitive settlers increased and

multiplied , as the Lebar Brecc says and, supported fromtime to t ime by cont ingents from the mother country ,

they held their ground against the Picts. But the settlement was weak and struggling till the reign ofLewy,

king ofIreland (A.D. 483 to about three centuriesafter the t ime ofCarbery Riada. In the year 503 threebrothers named Fergus, Angus, and Lorne,

sons ofa chiefnamed Erc, a direct descendant ofCarbery Riada, led a

colony to Scotland from their own district in the IrishDalriada : descendants of the Munster settlers of threecenturies before. They appear to have met with littleor no opposit ion, and being joined by the previous settlers,

For the Convention at Druim - Cete or Drumketta ,and for this cele

b rated dispute and its set t lement,see Joyce, Short Hist . ofIrel., 151.

1See also Ogyg.,111. lxiii. For the genealogy ofCarbery, see Keating,

692—30


they took possession ofa large territory ,ofwhich Fergus ,

commonly called Fergus Mac E10, and also known as

Fergus More(the Great), was the first king . The deseendants Of these colonists ult imately mastered the wholecountry , and from them its name was changed from

Alban to Scotia or Scotland . Fergus was the ances

tor ofthe sub sequent kings ofScotland and from him'

,

in one of their l ines of genealogy , descend , throughthe Stuarts, our present royal family. The memory of

these three princes is deeply graven on the history Of

Scotland ; and many Scott ish persons and places havebeen named from them , ofwhich examples will occurto anyone moderately acquainted with the history and

topography ofScotland.

2 . Military Ranks, Orders, andServices.

At different periods ofour early history the kings hadin their service bodies ofmilitia, who underwent a yearlycourse oftraining , and who were at call l ike a standingarmy whenever the monarch required them . The mostcelebrated ofthese were the Red Branch Knights of

about the t ime ofthe Incarnat ion, and the Fianna or

Fena of Erin, who flourished in the third century .

Though the accounts that have come down to us ofthesetwo military organisat ions are much mixed up withromance and fable,

there is sufficient evidence, bothliterary and material , to Show that they really existedand exercised great influence in their day.

The Red Branch Knights belonged wholly to Ulster,and in the ancient Tales they are represented as in the

service ofConcobarMacNessa,king Ofthat province

, but

not king of Ireland . The king ’

s palace was Emain, or

Emania nearArmagh , ofwhich a descript ion will be foundin vol. II . p . 89 .

Every year during the summer months, various com

panies ofthe Knights came to Emain under their several


commanders, to be drilled and trained in military scienceand feats ofarms. The greatest Red Branch commanderwas Cuculainn, a demigod ,

the mightiest ofthe heroes ofIrish romance. The other chief heroes were Conal l Kernach Laegaire(or Laery) the V ictorious Keltar ofthe

Battles Fergus Mac Roy ; the poet Bricriu NemthengaVenom tongue who l ived at Loughbrickland

,where

his fort still rema ins near the l ittle lake ; and the threesons ofUsna— Naisi , Ainnle,

andArdan.

The Red Branch Knights had a passion for buildinggreat duns or forts, many ofwhich remain to this day, and

excite the wonder and awe ofvisitors. Besides Emain

FIG. 29.

Dundalgan, Cucuh lnn'

s stronghold and residence. as it appeared. and as it was drawn. in 1758,

by Thomas W right , from whose book ' Louthiana,"it has been copied. Height ofmound about

so feet . The forts and rampart s are now covered with trees.and there is a modern house on top

so that it is hard to obtaina view ofthe general shape.

i tself, there is the majestic fort ofDun-Dalgan, Cuculainn’

s

residence,a mile west ofthe present town ofDundalk .

This dun consists of a high mound surrounded by an

earthen rampart and trench , all ofimmense Size, even in

their ruined state but i t has lost its Oldname and is now

called the moat ofCastletown,while the original name

Dundalgan, slightly altered , has been transferred to Dun

dalk. Another Ofthese Red Branch Knights’

residences

stands beside Downpatr’ick viz

,the great fort anciently

called(among other names) Dun-Keltair, or Rath -Keltair,

86 GOVERNMENT , MILITARY SYSTEM , AND LAw [PART 1

orAras- oKeltair,where l ived the hero , Keltar ofthe Battles.

It consists ofa huge embankment ofearth ,nearly circular,

with the usual deep trench outside i t , covering a space of

about ten acres. Still another, which figures much in theold romances under its ancient name Dnn- da- benn— but

now called Mountsandall— crowns the high bank over theCutts waterfall on the Bann, near Coleraine. Four mileswest ofthis is a Similar fortress, now known by the nameofthe G iant ’s Sconce,

” which is the ancient Dnn- Cethern

[Doon-Kehern] , SO called from Cothern ofthe BrilliantDeeds,

"

a famous RedBranch Knight .* JohnDe Courcy ’

s

original Castle ofDundrum ,inDown,

was buil t on the Siteofone ofthe most formidable ofall— Dun- Rury ,

the im

mense earthworks ofwhich still remain round the present .castle , at the base ofthe rock ,

though the original dunmound on the top was levelled by the castle- builders.

Contemporary wi th the Red Branch Knights were theDegadsi of Munster— but of Ulster extraction— whosechief was CuroiMac Daire, king ofSouth Munster ; and

the Gamanradii (Ir. gamhanraide) of Connaught , com

manded by Keth MacMagach and by the renowned heroFerdiad . CuroiMacDaire l ived in a caher or stone fort on a

rocky Shel f 2050 feet over the sea,on the mountain of

Caherconree,near Tralee,

whose ruins have been lately, and

for the first time ,described correctly and in detail by Mr.

P. J . Lynch “

; AS a st ill further evidence that the Old

legends and romances about Curoi rest on a foundat ion of

fact , not only is the old stone fortress there to witness, but ,l ike Emain and Craebk-Ruadh in the north , i t retains its

ancient name,which has been extended to the wholemoun

tain, and which commemorates the mighty hero himself

for Caherconree correctly represents the sound ofthe

On the forts ofDun- Cethern and Dun- da - benn,see Reeves, Adam

nan, 94 , note i.

1Degads : see O’

Curry ,Man. Cust .

, pp . 9 and 358,

; In Proc. R. Soc. Antiq q ., Irel. , 1899 , p . 5.

CHAP . IV] WARFARE 87

Irish name Cathair- Chonroi, the caher or stone fortress of

Curoi(nom . Curoi, gen. Conrai) .

The Red Branch Knights , as well as those ofMunsterandConnaught , used chariots both in battle and in privatel ife. Chariot - racing too was one oftheir favouri te amusements : and the great heroes are constantly described inthe tales as fighting from their chariots.

The Fianna orFena ofErin,* so far aswe can trace theirhistory with any certainty ,

lasted for about a century,viz .

from the reign ofConn the Hundred - fighter(A.D. 177— 212)

to that OfCarbery ofthe Li ffey(279 They attainedtheir greatest power in the reign ofCormac MacArt277) under their most renowned commander Finn, the son

ofCumal , or FinnMacCoole as he is commonly called ,king

Cormac'

s son- in- law, who is recorded in the Annals to havebeen killed beside the Boyne, when an oldman(A.D.

Their ordinary'

strength in time ofpeace was three catha

[caha] or battal ions, each oath [cah] 3000 : 9000 in all :

but in war they were brought up to seven catha or

Before admission to the ranks, candidates were subjectedto certain severe tests, both physical and mental , whichmay be seen in Keat ing , page 349. One ofthese testsis worthy of Special ment ion here. No candidate wasallowed to join unless he had mastered a certain specifiedand large amount ofpoetry and tales that is to say, he

had to prove that he was a well - educated man, accordingto the standard ofthe t imes a provision that ant icipatedby seventeen centuries the condit ion ofadmission to the

higher posts ofour present military service, designed toensure that every commissioned officer ofthe army shall bea man ofgood general educat ion. This— whether historyor legend— Shows what was regarded as the general standard ofeducat ion in Ireland in those t imes. The

‘

Fena

This word Fianna [Feena] , though commonly restricted to the

Fianna of Erin,

”is a generic t erm

,meaning champions, soldiers

,

warriors.’

In theDaDerga(p. 169)it is applied to theRedBranch Knights.

88 GOVERNMENT. MILITARY SYSTEM,AND LAW [PART I

ofErin, and Finn himself , are frequently ment ioned in our

earliest writ ings, among others in Cormac 's Glossary .

Ofall the heroes ofancient Ireland Finn is most vividlyremembered in popular tradition. P inkerton, the Scotchhistorian,

who was anything but favourable to Ireland ’

s

claims to early civil isat ion or importance, thus speaks of

him He seems to have been a man ofgreat talents forthe age, andofcelebrity in arms. His format ionofa regular standing army, trained to war, in which all the Irishaccounts agree, seems to have been a rude imitat ion of

the Roman legions in Bri tain. The idea, though simpleenough , shows prudence, for such a force alone couldhave coped with theRomans, hadthey invaded

Finn had his chief residence on the summit ofthe Hil l ofAllen,

a remarkable flat - topped hill , lying about four milesto the right ofthe railway as you pass Newbridge and

approach Kildare, rendered more conspicuous oflate yearsby a tall pillar erected on the top, on the very Site of

Finn’

s house. Its ancient name was Alma , gen. Alman,

dat . Almain, which is pretty correctly represented in

sound by the present name Allen. Almu — says theold tale ofthe Cause ofthe Batt le ofCnucha

’

in the

Book ofthe Dun COW was Finn’

s principal residencewhile he The house was not , however, bui lt byFinn but by his maternal ancestor Nuada , king Cahirmore s chief druid. SO far as we can judge from t he

accounts of its construct ion given in the above- namedtale, it was buil t al together of wood— like the Red

Branch - without any earthern rampart round it : and

accordingly no trace ofa rampart or earthern dun remains.At this day the whole neighbourhood round the hill teemswith living traditions ofFinn and the Fena.

W hen not employed in training or fighting, the Fenaspent the six months ofsummer— from I st ofMay to the

Pinkerton : Inq uiry ,Hist . Scotl.

,11. 77.

t Rev . Celt ,11. 93 . On Almu see vol. 11. pp. 63 and 94, note.

90 GOVERNMENT , M ILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [FART I

used allover Ireland , both in Civil andmilitary life, not onlybefore and after the t ime of the Fena, but during the

whole period oftheir existence. For instance,they figure

in the battle ofCrinna , A.D. 254, at the very time when theFena were in all their glory. Moreover, there is evidenceto Show that the Fena knew the use Ofchariots, thoughthey did not adopt them .

‘ Then as to duns : while wehave st ill remaining the majest ic ruins ofmany of the

forts erected by the Red Branch Knights, as Shown at

page 84, there are, so far as I can find out , no corresponding forts in any part ofIreland at tributed to the Fena inthe ancient tales. Even on the Hill ofAllen,

where i f anywhere we m ight expect to find a mighty fort ificat ion likethat at Downpatrick , there is no vest ige ofa rath . Finnhad another residence in Magh Ele, now Moyally or

Moyelly, near Clara in King'

s County , where there are

vivid traditions about him and a cave is still pointed outwhich the people say belonged to him . But there is nodun or rath in the place, and no tradit ion that such a

fort ever existed there. No forts, large or small , that Iknow of, commemorate any others ofthe great leaders

Ossian, Oscar, Dermot O ’

Dyna, Goll Mac Mom a, Cailte

MacRonain,or Conan Mail , such as we have for Cuculainn

,

Keltar of the Battles, Cethern of the Brill iant Deeds,CuroiMacDaire,

and others.

W hy the Fena neither used chariots nor built great forts

appears, however, to be suffi ciently explained by their

organisat ion,and by the sort of l ife they led. They

rejected chariots because they were organised purely as

an infantry force,and an infantry force they remained

to the last . For the same reason they made l ittle use

of horses, except in racing , though on long journeystheir leaders somet imes travelled on horseback . One Of

the main objects oftheir l ives was to perfect their act ivity,strength , andhealth ,

by physical training andaccordinglyO

’

Grady, Silva Gad.,107, 39 ,

”

CHAR. IV] WARFARE 91

they constantly practised athlet ic exercises on foot

running,leaping , wrestling , and hunt ing. Then they bui lt

no enduring forts,for they did not need them , inasmuch as

they always— when not on campaign— hunted and campedout during the Six months ofsummer, constantly Changingtheir residence : while during the winter half- year theywere billeted in the houses of the chiefs and farmers

Yet we know that during all this t ime, kings and chiefs

who needed permanent homesteads cont inued to build

raths, l isses, and duns for their residences all throughIreland .

Ordinary W ar Service was ofseveral kinds. Everyman

who held land in any sort oftenancy was obliged to bear apart in the wars ofthe tribe and in the defence oftheircommon territory or, as the law expresses i t , every landoccupier owed to the chief service ofattack and

The number ofdays in the year that each should serve wasstrictly defined by law andwhen the t ime was ended ,

he

might return to his home— unless some very special needarose. A chief or king ,

i f required , was bound to senda certain number ofmen,

fully armed , for a fixed time

period ically ,to serve his superior in war. The men ofthe

superior king ’

s own immediate terri tory , with the cont ingents supplied to him from the several subordinate tribesby their chiefs, went to form his army. The tributary chiefagain made up the cont ingent to be sent to his superior,partly from his own household troops, and partly by smallcont ingents from his sub - chiefs.

These were the usual condit ions. But somet imes tribeshad certain privileges

,commonly conceded as a reward for

special services in the past . For example,the Oirghialla

[Ore-

yeela] or the people ofthe kingdom ofOriell, in Ulster,were one ofthese favoured tribes. They were bound tosend 700 men to attend the king ofIreland in his host ingfor three fortnights every third year but they werenot

Br. Laws,111. 23.


to be called upon in spring or autumn, when the men had

to attend to their crops. Moreover, themonarch was boundto pay each man ofthem who attended him during thehost ing or campaign a sed or cow

,or the equivalent value

,

andhad to make compensat ion to the tribe to the value Oftwenty - one cows for every man ofthem lost during thewar whereas in case Ofother tribes, neither pay forservice nor compensat ion for death was due.

The king had in his service a champion or chief fightingman,

called Airé- echta— always a flaith or noble(for noblessee p . 156, below)— whose duty it was to avenge all insultsor offences offered to the families ofthe king and tribe,part icularly murder l ike the Avenger Ofblood ofthe

Jews and other ancient nat ions. In any expected dangerfrom without he had to keep watch at the most dangerousford or pass— cal led berna baoghaill [barna beel] or gap

ofdanger —on that part ofthe border where invasionwas expected , and prevent the entrance ofany enemy q

L

He had five men- at - arms to attend on him constantly,

and he enjoyed several valuable privileges ; but a largenumber was at his command when he needed them for thedischarge ofhis dangerous duties. It would appear thateach tribe had a special Aire- echta ,

who was in the imme

diate service ofthe chief or king . King CormacMacArt ’sson once insulted a woman belonging to the Déise orDesiiofMeath : whereupon Aengus ofthe Terrible Spear

,the

Aire echta ofthe tribe,made his way to Tara , and seiz ing a

spear from a rack , he killed the prince with one thrust ofitin open court in revenge for the insult . In the result ingscuffle the king

’

s eye was destroyed by the handle ofthe

On all these points , see Book ofRights, 135 and 139 .

1See Br. Laws,w . 323 O

’

Curry, Man. Cust .,1. 365 and O

’

Dono

van,HyF,

2 11. In some old document s the name dire- echta is derived

from echt,murder so tha t Aire- echta means Chiefof[the avenging of]

murder.

’ (See Windisch ,W Orterbuch

,Ir. Texte

,Ech t else

where echt is given as meaning a deed Aire- eehta,

Chiefof the

[daring] deed.

’ (See Br. Laws,Iv . 32 2 , line 6 from bottom .)

94 GOVERNMENT , M ILITARY SYSTEM , AND LAW [PART 1

t ime ofEliz abeth . The practicei

ofhiring foreign mercenaries , which was commenced at a very early period

, was

cont inued down tothe Six teenth century : and we havealready seen (p . 62 ,

supra) that Shane O’

Neill had a

number offierce soldiers from Scotland as a bodyguard .

The king kept a company ofhousehold troops, supported from his own revenues , who commonly resided inthe neighbourhood ofthe palace, SO as to be always withinreach as a personal guard , and who fought with him in his

wars. Such a body ofmen was commonly called a ht

tzg/ze [lucht - tee] , i.e. house Somet imes a

tract ofland was specially set apart for the residence of

themselves and their families, which they t illed when not “

on actual service : and a district in the present countyCavan, once devoted to this purpose, st il l retains the nameof Loughtee , now applied to a double barony. The

number, arms, and exact dut ies ofthe luckt- tighe dependedon the Circumstances ofthe part icular king ; so that wefind them variously described in different authorities.

They consisted ofmen ofthe tribe : whereas those con

stituting the amais or hired companies might be, and

commonly were,from a distance, or from another country.

These several bodies const ituted a small standing army.

But where large armies had to be brought into the field ,

the men ofthe tribe or tribes owing allegiance'

and servicewere called upon to serve. It was understood , however,that this was only for the Single campaign, or for somespecified time, as already stated (p . at the end of

which they were free to return to their homes. An armyofmen on campaign usual ly consisted ofindividuals ofall

the different kinds ofservice.

AProfessional W arrior or fightingman, as dist inguishedfrom a tribesman who served temporarily ,

was called

feinnid, a word allied to Fianna(p . 87,supra). A cham

O’

Curry ,Man. Cust .

,1. 39 1

—2 FM,A.D. 12 26

,note h

,and 1306

Ware,Antiq q .

, 70 .

CHAP . I V] WARFARE 95

pion w as also often called a trein—fher [trainar] strong

man.

’(p . 63 , supra). But a more usual word for a champion or warrior is gaiscidheack [goshkeeagh] , from gaisce,

bra-very or valour in O’

Clery’

s Glossary feindid is ex

plained by gaiscidheach. Very often a warrior was called(5gor églach, which Simply means young ,

”a young person.

Laech or laoch is another term for a hero or warrior.

In very ancient times there were in Ireland , as in

Germany,Russia, and other countries , professional female

w'

arriors or championesses— a sort ofIrish amaz ons— who

figure much in the tales. The principal Teacher Of

Cuculainn in the use ofhis weapons was the lady ScathachBnanand (the daughter ofArd- Geimne in Letka), who

had a military academy in Scotland , Where a great manyofthe chief heroes ofIreland received theirmilitary educat ion.

* In the RennesDinnsenchus several female warriorsare celebrated : one named Etsine : and another namedBrefne, who gave name to the Old district ofBrefney.TNess

,the mother ofConcobar Mac Nessa,

was a cham

pioness. All will remember a historic and st ill more celebrated championess belonging to another Celt ic

,nat ion,

Boadicea, whose Celt ic name Bnadac has the same mean

ingas a st ill better known queenly name— Victoria bnad,

victory ,

’

BnadacorBnadach,victorious.

’ These warlikeIrish ladies somet imes fought with each other, using thesame weapons as men. Occasionally too they foughtagainst men

,and proved tough antagonists. A successful

rival ofScathagh was Aife [Eefa] , who was so strong and

brave that no man save Cuculainn was able to subdue her.

The warl ikeMadb or Maive,queen ofConnaught , was not

only a great commander, but was personally expert in the

use ofher weapons. In one ofthe battles ofthe Tain She

was engaged in the fight and wounded the hero Cethernwith a cast ofa slegh or l ight spear.i

LL,107, a , 42. 1Rev . Celt ,

xv1. 56, 163.

I For these and other female warriors,see Rennes b ind , No . I , 27.

96 GOVERNMENT,MILITARY SYSTEM , AND LAW [PART 1

In the Life ofSt . Mochua ofBalla there is a curiousaccount oftwo highway- women(da ban-

gaisgedhach, two

woman- champions named Bee and Lithben. They tookup their abode beside a perpendicular cli ff near whichtravellers were wont to pass, and provided themselves witha big basket having two long ropes t ied to the handles.

W hen a traveller came up they laid hold of him and

demanded all his valuables : and i f he made any demur,they trundled him into the basket and swung him over theedge ofthe cliff, which commonly brought him to reason

,

in which case they pul led him up and sent him awayunharmed ,

but much the poorer. On one occasion theySW n over St . Mochua '

s gillie or servant . Mochua himsel f came up at the moment anddemanded that they shouldrelease him but they ,

in no way cowed ,refused to do any

such thing t ill the saint had to give them his cowl offhis Shoulders when they drew the man up and set him at

liberty .

*

Clergy and W omen exemptedfrom W an— In very earlyt imes both Clergy and women accompanied the army on

campaign,and sometimes— though not often— took part in

the fighting. But in A.D. 697 a meet ing ofclergy and lay

menwas held at Tara , where, at the instance ofAdamnan,

a resolut ion was adopted forbidding women to take part inwar thiswas known as the Ca

’

inAdamnain, orAdamnan’

s

Law.1' A l ittle more than a century later— in 8o3— Aed

Ordnidhe [Ornee] , king of Ireland ,forced Conmach

,

primate ofArmagh, and his clergy to attend him on a

host ile expedit ion against Leinster. On arriving at Dnn

Cnair, now Rathcore in Meath , the primate expostulatedwith him on the impropriety ofbringing the clergy on suchexpedit ions. The king referred the matter to his tutor and

p . 257, in Rev . Celt,xv . : O

’

Curry, Man. Cust ., 11. 98 : K . Meyer,Ventry, 76, 77 : and Rev . Celt

,x1.

, p . 451(Courtship ofEmer).

Stokes, Lives ofSS. 2 87.

1Stokes, Feilire, 147 Hyde, Lit , Hist ,234 Joyce, Short Hist ,

186.

98 GOVERNMENT , M ILITARY SYSTEM ,

- AND LAW [PART I

and partly by payments from the inmates : but on thispo int t here is no informat ion. This house was called a

r-igthech or royal house

,

’

or palace, and also a Bruiden

and i t is described as very large. W hen Concobar

MacNessa,king ofUlaid,

was about to raise an armyto oppose the southern forces under Ailill and Maive

,he

went to the three fi fties ofelders and old championsthat are in their repose ofage under [the command of]Irgalach son of Mace- Lach , having laid aside theirexercise of arms and their weapons, and askedthem to accompany the expedition ; not to fight but togive advice as to the conduct of the campaign. And

they replied ,Let our old steeds be caught , and let our

Old chariots be yoked , t ill we go on this expedition withthee.

Knighthood.—As far back as our oldest traditions reach

there existed in Ireland an inst itut ion ofknighthood . The

Red Branch Knights have already been ment ioned and itappears that admission to their ranks was attended withmuch formal ity. It was usual to knight boys at an earlyage, commonly at seven years. This was the age, according to the statement ofTigernach— and also ofthe Talesat which the young hero Cuculainnwas admitted andhis

example as to age was often followed in subsequent times.The Old Tale in which this episode ofCuculainn occurs,states that King Concobar had a number ofsuits ofarmsready to present to boys whom he admitted to knighthood .

He gave them on this occasion, one after another, toCuculainn,

who broke them all t ill at last the king gavehim his own royal shield , sword , and spears, which the boykept

, as they withstood his efforts to break them ] A con

firmation ofthe existence ofthis custom is found in the

Life ofSt . Carrthach orMochuda ofLismore, where we aretold that when he was yet a boy he was brought forward to

Hogan, Rossnaree, 2 1, 2 3. TO’

Curry, Man. Cust ., I . 364.

CHAR. IV] WARFARE 99

receive knighthood fromMaeltuile, Chief ofCorco Luachra ,

in Kerry. The king began— after the ancient fashion— by

present ing him with a sword and Shield , which howeverCarrthach rejected , being resolved to follow a rel igiousl ife.

* The remarkable confirmat ion ofthe Irish accountsby Froissart will be found ment ioned in chapter xiv . ,

pp . 518 , 519,infra. This historian moreover states that

the custom ofknighting boys at seven,with ceremonies

l ike those ofthe Irish,existed among the Anglo- Saxon

kings]The usual Irish words for a knight are enrad [curra]

and ridire [riddera] , ofwhich the last is ofcourse the same

as the German ritter, and is probably borrowed . Assuming knighthood is commonly expressed in Irish bytaking valour thus Tigernach

’

s record about the

knighting ofCuculainn is, Seven years was his age whenhe took valour (dogabgaisged).i But the rule ofthe sevenyears was not universal ly

, or even generally,followed

except perhaps in case ofthe sons ofkings or great nobles.

The ceremony was commonly put offt ill the candidate wasable to fight , as appears from the following entry in the

Coir Anmann This was a custom ofthe Ulaid. Everyyoungson oftheirs who first took arms [i.e. took valour]used to

i

enter the province ofConnaught on a foray or to

seek to Slay a human

There was an order ofchivalry,the dist inguishing mark

ofwhich was what was called nasc- niad Champion’

s ringor collar ’

: nia, gen. niad

, a tre’

n-fer or

Neither the order— nor of course the decorat ion— wasconferred except it was won on the field ofbattle : and

the person who won the nasc- niad was called nia- naise,

champion ofthe collar (l ike the English knight ofthe

Lynch , Camb r. Ev .,11. 2 19 O

’

Hanlon,Lives ofSS.

,v . 2 43.

j Johnes’

s Froissart,11. 580.

ITigernach ,by Stokes, Rev . Cel t

,xvi. 407 O

’

Curry, MS. Mat, 507,

Stokes, Coir Anm . Irische Texte,I II . 405 .


garter and also ridire gaisge or knight ofvalour ’

This collar, according to Keating , was worn round the

neck .

*

3. Arms , Qfl’

ensz’

w and Drfensz’

ve.

Handstone. -Among the missiveweapons ofthe ancientIrish was the handstone, which was kept ready for use inthe hollow ofthe shield ,

and flung from the hand whenthe occasion came for using it . The handstone is veryoften ment ioned in the ancient tales, but so mixed up withpure fable that we can be certain ofl ittlemore than thisSome such stone was in use, which was not a mere pebblepicked up by accident , but was special ly made ; somet imes round (cruinn), and sometimes oblong and shapedwi th blunt angles and edges. To stones so prepared and

kept for use on special occasions, some sort ofmal ignmyst ical qual ity was often attributed , which renderedthem very dangerous to the enemy. The handstone wascalled by various names clock, and its diminutive cZochen,

which mean stone Simply ; Zia ,Zec, Zecan, which convey

the idea ofa stone somewhat flattened in shape,Zia

Zazmhe,‘ hand stone ’(Zamh, gen. Zaimhe, the hand pron.

lauv , lauve) Zia Zaimhe Zaich, handstone ofthe Zaech or

champion Zia cnrad, a hero ’

s flat stone ]The use ofordinary stones in battle— not Specially

made— is often not iced in the ancient tales. Giraldus

Cambrensis says that the Irish ofhis t imes —the twel fthcentury— when other weapons failed them , flung stoneswith more force and precision than any other nat ion, so

as to do great execut ion on the enemy : a statementcuriously exemplified at the siege ofLimerick , five hundredyears after his t ime,

when a band of400 ofthe defenders

Book ofRights, 7 Keat ing, 39 1.

1See O’

Curry, Man. Cust .,

263 to 287.

102 GOVERN MEN T,M ILITARY SVSTEMfAND LAW [PART I

used by boys to this day. There was a kind ofstaff- sl ingcalled a deiZ l iterally

‘feat - rod,

’

from def],

‘

a rod,

’

and

dis, genit ive of(It's

,a feat

’

: and this it would appear wasin some way different from the em un- taba z

’

ll. Still anothername for a sl ing is [ roe/ ml

,whence comes the verb trach

laz'

m, I sling.

’

Those who carried a sl ing kept a supply of roundstones , somet imes art ificially formed . In the Batt le

‘

of

Mucrimé , as we are told,the shields resounded with the

hammering ofswords and ofstones thestones

flung from slings. Numerous sl ing- stones have beenfound from t ime to t ime— many

perfectly round— in raths and

crannoges , some the size ofa

small plum,some as large as an

orange,ofwhich many speci

mens are preserved inmuseums.

’

A stone for a sl ing is often

called lie tar/me,i.e. the ‘

stone

Fm. 3r.ofthe tar/”13

GN P " mm “m“ Some sling - missiles wereHigh Cross. with swords and shields. TheSCCO l

‘id from the it “ hOIdS. b)’ the end Of

specially made and kept for useOne thong.what appears to be a tuba /I or

Simp'e “mm on important occasions and toIrel. p. $ 6 ) Th is panel is given somewhat

more clearly in W ilde '

s Catalogue , p , 304.

(sou.dw n”m um ”these were

.

attributed myst icV irtues Similar to those of the

specially made handstones . Some were composition ballsmade ofvarious materials and hardened . A ball ofthiskind was Often called caer - c/z

'

s [kair- clish] ,‘feat - ball

,

’

fromcaer

,

‘a mass or ball ’ : as ifit was expected to perform some

special wonderful feats : and it was also called uball- dz'

s

or‘feat - apple’(aha/Z, ‘

an apple ’

: any small globular mass).Ifwe are to believe the Romantic Tales some ofthesesling—balls were made up in an ex traordinary and elaborate way ,

which imparted to them a mal ign destruct ivequality . One called the la th/um

,made by the Dedannans,

it See K illc. A rchaeol . Journ.,1885

—6, p . 378 : andWilde, Boyne, 209.

CHAR. Iv] W ARFARE 103

was composed ofthe blood of toads, bears, and vipers ,

mixed up with sea - sand and hardened and i t is statedthat with a ball ofthis kind Luga ofthe Long Arms slewBalor ofthe M ighty Blows

,flinging it from his Sl ing with

such force that it went clean through Balor’s eye and

brain.

*

According to the Tales, the Knights ofthe Red Branchsomet imes made their Sl ing - missiles in a barbarous and

revolt ing manner. In the historic tale of the death of

King Concobar Mac Nessa in the Book ofLeinster weread It was a custom with the U l tonians at thatt ime - every champion they killed in

.

single combat , totake the brains out oftheir heads and mix lime with themunt il they were formed into hard balls T and these ballsthey kept both as trophies and as dangerous weapons, tobe used on special occasions. This custom is not iced inconnexion with the Red Branch Knights but

,so far as

I am aware,in no other part ofIrish history or tradition.

It was a brain- ball ofthis kind that Keth Mac Magachflung at King Concobar, so that i t sank into his Skul l ,ofwhich he died seven years afterwards. It would behazardous and unphilosophical to brush aside theselegends bodily as pure and Simple fable.

,It seems pretty

certain that hardened composit ion balls were made forsl ings, and kept for important occasions and we. havesuch a ball in the Nat ional Museum in Dublin,

perfectlyglobular, and curiously streaked ; not on the surfacemerely

,but also through its mass.

Bow andArrow— One ofthe Irish names ofa bow was

fldbac(or fidbocc, Z . 854, a nat ive word signifyingwood - bend ,

’ from fid,wood ,

’

andbac, a bend .

’

Anothername was bogha [bo- a] , which however is a Teutonicloan- word , the same as the English bow. The Irish usedonly the long- bow : in a late authority- the picture of

O’

Curry ,Man. Cust .

,1. 252.

TO’

Curry, MS. Mat,640 : De Jubainvil le

,L

’

Epopée Cel tiq ue en

368.

[ 04 GOVERNMEN T , M ILITARY SYSTEM ,AND LA\V [PART I

Irish soldiers by Albert Durer in 152 1*

- one of the

soldiers has a long- bow four feet in length : but no cross

bow appears in the group. The general length of. the

Irish bow,as we find it represented on the H igh Crosses ,

was from four to five feet . An arrow was called sazgfet

[now pron. sy’

- ct or sy’

- cd ] , probably a loan-word from Lat insagz

'

t/a. In the story ofthe Bat t leofRossnarec(first century) in the

Book ofLeinster, the use of the

bow and arrow is noticed more thanonce. But it is curious that in thehistorical tale of the Bat tle of

Moyrath (fought A.D. bowsand arrows are no t ment ioned at

all, though the details Ofthe bat t le

are given,and other weapons are

named . A quiver was sazget - bo/g,

zle‘arrow- bag.

’

In the story of

the Té in in the Book ofthe Dun

Cow,the a ngel- bog is ment ioned

as among Cuculainn’

s arms] : and

in the second Bat t le of Moytura one ofthe noises was

“the

rat t l ing and the j ingl ing of the

m ica - bolt s or quivers ” (m ire/tin(was grindegur na

O’

Curry t ranslates saz'

cz'

tbole in this

passage by belly - dart ”§ and his

editor,Dr. W . K . Sull ivan(Introd .

,

thinks it means‘a bow

’

: but it evident ly means‘a

quiver,’

and so Dr. Stokes translates it . That this is themeaning appears plain from many passages. For instance ,in the Irish version ofpart ofthe Aeneid

,it is stated that

FIG. 3a —l-

‘ lint arrow-heed.

See Kilk. Archaeol . Journ. , 1827, p. 296. i" LU , 79 , b , 7~

I Stokes, Moytura, Rev. Cel t , x11. 99 .

Man. Cust . , I . 253 : as ifit was e q uivalent to gae- bulga .

Ioo GOVERNMEN T,M ILITARY SYSTEM

,ANDLAW [PART I

individuals and sometimes smal l bodies ofmen used one

or all,probably according to taste or inclinat ion

,nei ther of

the three was used collectively and under general ordersby large bodies ofmen in ba t t le.

‘In the first Bat t le of

Moytura there is no mention ofslings ,bows - and- arrows

,or

bat t le - axes(Man. 81 Cust .,I. In Irish military l itera

ture swords and spears are the arms ment ioned as in most

general use ,no t only by individuals but by armies.

The Mace— The club or mace— known by two namesma

’

tan and [org— though pret ty often ment ioned

,does not

appear to have beenvery generallyused. Each ofthe thrice fifty at ten

dants ofthe hospitaller Da Dergaheld in his hand a great club of

blackthornwith a band ofiron] In

the Tales, a giant , or an unusuallystrong and mighty champion,

is

somet imes represented as armedwith amace. The giant encounteredin the meadow by the three great .

Red Branch Knights in the story

ofthe Feast ofBricriu : wielded a

Flc. 37. met/an like the mo! or shaft ofa

"m “ m “ "f "M “ W m “ mill - wheel . There can be no doubtnow in the National Museum, Dublin.

" S "m "m" a “an“ " W " mthat the mace was used for in the

fastened in the socket . It is doublethe siz e of the picture. W eapons of Nat ional Museum in Dublin theret h is kind were in use at a very earlytime. long before the beginning of

are several specimens ofbronzemace- heads with prOjectmg Spikes.

One of them is here represented,which

,fixed firmly on

1“See O’Curry, Man. and Cust . , 1 318 , 348, 350. A small

‘

body using

slings, O ’

Grady, Silva Gad. , 522, ho t .

1Bruden Da Derga, 57. More than eighteen centuries later, that is tosay, towards the middle oflast century, I often saw the men ofthe rivalfactions— “ Three -

yean old,

”and “ Four- year- old - fighting at the “ bigfair

ofKildorrery,” Co . Cork, with precisely the same kind ofweapons— heavy

sticks— blackthorn,or oak

, or ash—" with iron or leadferrules on the end.

I Henderson’

s Fled Bricrenn, 46, 7.

CHAP. iv] WARFARE 107

the top of a strong [org or handle,and wielded by a

powerful arm,must have been a formidable weapon.

*

Sperm — The Irish bat t le - spears were used both for

thrust ing and for cast ing. They were ofvarious shapesand siz es : but all consisted ofa bronze or iron head , fixedon a wooden handle by means ofa hollow£ 70 or socket

,into which the end of the

handle was thrust and kept in place by

rivets. The manufacture ofspear- heads wascarried to great perfect ion at a very earlyage

— long before the Christ ian era — and

many of those preserved in museums are

ex tremely graceful and beautiful in designand perfect in finish : evident lythe work of trained and highlyskilled art ists. The iron spearswere hammered into shapethose of bronz e were cast in

moulds,and several specimens

ofthese moulds may be seen in

the Museum (see chapter xx iv.,

sect . 3, z'

nfm ).

Both bronz e and iron spearheads are ment ioned in our

oldest li terature. In the story

ofthe Tain,in the Book ofthe

Dun Cow,it is related that

Cuculainn came to a. certainSpecimens 0 , b ronz e weap heads m

the Nat ional M useum, Dublin (Fromford With his c/etmé or spear, wfldcg a mo q ue ,

W ith which he had slain many

ofQueen Maive’

s best champions : whereupon she senther poet to ask him for the spear

,knowing that he dared

not refuse a poet . Cuculainn gave him the spear,but

being infuriated , instead ofhanding it to him ,he flung it

towards him with such force that it pierced his skull.See B

’Arbois de

' Jubainvil le, La Civil . des Cel tes, p . 369 .

FIG . 38. FiG. 39 .

108 GOVERNMENT , MILITARY SYSTEM ,AND LAW [PART I

and with the force ofthe blow the 1mm(i.e. the bronz e)ofthe cletz

'

né broke offand fell into the stream , which fromthat was called uman- sm lh,

i.e. bron7 e In the

same old book Cailte [Keelta] relates how he Slew KingEochaid Airgthech with a cast ofa spear which wentthrough him and into the earth beyond him ,

and left itsiron [head] in the earth : and this here is the shaft , andthe iron [iarnd] will be found in the earth ”

? In Cormac ’sG lossary (p . 47, Carr the word a

’

z

’

ccllair is explainedas the shaft ofa gai or spear without the iron head on it .

In the National Museum inDublin there is a collectionofseveral hundred spearheads ofall shapes and siz es, thegreater number ofbronze,

but some ofiron, and some of

copper ; and every other museum in the country has itsown collection. They vary in length from 36 inches down.

Some ofthe Irish names for spearheads designated specialshapes, while others were applied to spears ofwhatevershape or size. The words gae, ga ,

or gai ; faga or foga

and slag(now written slang/z : pron. sla) were sometimesused as terms for a spear or javel in in general : thoughmore commonly they were specialised . The last , in the

diminut ive form sleaghcin [pron. 31471,the a sounded as in

star] is used at present in Ireland as an English word todenote a sort ofsharp slender spade for cutt ing peat orturf. O

’

Curry always translates slag or sleagh, a lightspear foga , a Short Spear and gae,

‘

a heavy spear.’

The gae was probably the jaculum or dart ment ioned byGiraldus in the passage where he says that the Irish had,

in his t ime,three sorts ofweapons — a battle- axe, a short

lance, and two dartsAmong the spears ofthe Firbolgs was one called flar

l

latm [feerlann] , curved blade (fiar, curved 1mm ,a

O’

Curry,Man. Cust .

,I . 298.

TKuno Meyer, Voyage ofBran,I . 48 , 52 LU

,133 , b, 4 ,

and I 34, a,

top.

Top . Hib .,I II . x . See also O ’

Donovan,Moyrath ,

153, note I.

[ 10 GOVERN ME N T , M ILITARY SYSTEM ,AND [PART I

rounded and sharp - edged,and having a crann- remur , i.e.

a thick crann or handle ’

a descript ion that applies

generally also to the mama'

s. The spear used by the

Dedannans was very different , being long,narrow

,and

graceful , wi th a very sharp po int . W hether these two

colonies are fict it ious or not , a large number ofspear- headsin the Museum answer to those descript ions(figs. 43,O ther terms for a spear less usual than the preceding

are z- astol, which in Cormac’

s G lossary(p. 3) is derivedfrom Lat. lids/”la ,

a lit t le spear a zge

(Conn. 24 ,

“ Braga fina le (Keat . 322)and muz

’

refld,derived by Cormac (p. 111)

from ”t i- rind, i.e. dror/z‘

evil po int ,’

a

point which causes death.

’

So also carr,

which is defined as gm; a spear,’

in Cormac

(p. That cellair,pl . ce/tra

,was applied

to a spear may be seen from this Glossaryunder the word gaffe(p. where celtm

cat/m(‘ spears ofbat tle ’

) is defined gae or

spears : from which again the Glossaryderives dike/fair,

‘a shaft or handle ofa

spear wi thout the iron thereon or without aweapon — a

’i,a negat ive dzlcelta z

'

r,without

a eel/air (see also Glossary ,p. 47, under

“ Carr,”and see Voyage ofBran

,1.

Bz

'

r,which properly means ‘

a spit,

’

was also

applied to a spear. In a poem on Cuchorb

in LL,it is said that he fed many wolves

with his bz’

r : and the Dalcassians in the

Bat t le ofClontarfhad great sharp - po inted bin or lances'

Another word for spear was maz'

z rseck,which O ’Davoren

defines as a“ diminut ive ofm arr, spear. Cletz

'

nc has beenalready quoted as a name for Cuculainn

’

s javelin.

The wordgaéalorgabkal [gowl] andits derivat ivegab/ac} :were applied to a javel in ofsome kind : one ofthe noisesheard in the din ofthe second Bat t le ofMoytura was

“the

CHAP. Iv] WARFARE I I

sound and winging ofthe darts and gaélac/zs or javelins

(7mfoglzaz'

a’ocus 7m n This word is met with in

other forms as applied to a spear,such asfonfo-

gab/azlgz’

which often occurs.

’

r Gaéal means‘a fork

,

’

and gaéa/ or

gab/ark apparent ly means‘a forked spear ’

; while foga

fo-

gablazlgz’

is a foga or spear with a fork a forked foga.

’

That the old Irish writers understood the word in thissense is proved by a fanciful descript ion ofa spear in theAgar/lamb ; in which we are told that thefoga fogab/azgrz

'

was so called because on either Side ofit were five forksor prongs (cmc gab/a), eachhaving sharp sickle - shapedbarbs on bo th it s edges.

Spears withpoints(717172, a

po int ’

) are also often men

tioned in the Tain and o therold tales

,apparent ly meaning

barbed spears fivebeing theusual number ofpoints : theterm for this sort of spearoftenest ' used being slag coz

'

c

rz'

m z,a

‘sleg or spear offive

An incidental reference in the st ory ofFingalRonain

,in the Book of

Leinster,would seem to Show

that some such spears wereused z— Aedan plunged a spear(gaz

’

) into Mael Fothartaig,

so that he put its points through him”(corz uc ar- rz

’

zza’z

The foga fo-

gaélaz’

gz'

and the slag co’

z'

c- rz'

f

’

m were

FIG. 43. FIG. 44.

Two bronz e spear-heads in Nat , Mus. Dubl.answering the descrip tion. p. 110 : fig. 43. a

F irbolg spear-head ; fig. 44, a Dedannan one.

it‘- Rev. Cel t ., xii . 98, 99 , I I8.

TMan. Cust . , I I . 98. In this place O'

Curry translatesfaegabla zge,down- headed but at p . I4She makes gabulgz

’

cz’

,forked spears.

’

i O’Grady, Silva Gad.

,248(Irish Text ,

§ For instance, Stokes, Lives ofSS.,xxx1V . : Silva Gad.

,290, with

Irish Text , 256.

Kuno Meyer inRev. Cel t ., XII I , 384 LL ,272 , b, 21.


different : for we find them plainly dist inguished in a

passage in the Tain, where. a tall warrior is described as

coming towards Cuculainn, having in his hand two spears,one a slég coir

- rim: and the other a foga /o

But though there are hundreds ofspear—heads in the

Nat ional Museum , not one ofthem is ei ther five- pointed ,

forked , or barbed : whereas i f such spears were common

in old t imes, some specimens would certainly have beenfound , as in the case ofall the other spears. Sull ivan, at

page 447 ofhis Introduction to O’

Curry’

s Lectures, givesfigures oftwo forked spears— one with three points

, the

other with eight,which he

considers specimens of the

forked battle- Spears of the

tales. But these are two out

ofa collection ofwhat are

Obviously fishing- spears nowin the Nat ional Museum .

They have various numbersofpoints up to fifteen,

generally ranged in a straight row

m ow ed”m m ,“M M“ .across. They are all ofiron,

212: liffiigiltiiim z ’

and of rude workmanshipanv good blacksmith ofthe

present day could make one equal to the best ofthem .

They do not show a trace ofart ist ic taste or finish— such

as we find in perfect ion in the bronze spearheads theyall seem comparat ively modern and what is more to thepoint

,they are small , l ight , fl imsy things that would go to

pieces in five minutes’ fight ing. One ofthe two given by

Sull ivan is represented here, so that the reader can judgefor himsel f. It is five inches broad at the points, and the

FIG 45.

LL, 76, a

, 29see the English in Hu l l

,Cuch . Saga, 170 . Distin

guished also in another passage of the Tain : O’

Curry ,Man. Cust .

,

II . 98 , not e. Here O’

Curry translates cuicrz’

nd,flesh - seeking, I do not

know on what grounds.


forefinger into the thong of the spear (luc a chorrmér

gaiscid z'

suaincm na

The use ofpoison on spears and arrows was known to

the ancient Irish forwe findindividual poisoned weapons,especially spears , often ment ioned in the Tales. But

poisoned weapons formed no part of the Irish militarysystem , and they were not used in bat tle f

Some ofthe spears ofthe heroes Ofthe Red Branchand other great champions are described in the Old legendsas terrible and mysterious weapons. The spear ofKeltar

of the Battles, which was called Lon or Lain,twisted

and writhed in the hand of the warrior who bore i t ,striving to make for the victim whose blood was readyfor spilling . This , according to the legend ,

was originallythe spear ofa Dedannan chief , which he left on the battlefield oiMoytura , where i t was picked up , and ultimatelyreached Keltar. Some spears were regularly seiz ed witha rage for massacre and then the bronz e head grew red

hot , so that i t had to be kept near a caldron of coldwater, or, more commonly , ofblack poisonous l iquid ,

intowhich it was plunged whenever it blazed up with the

murder fit : This reminds us of the spear ofAchilles,

which , when flung at Lycaon, missed the intended victim ,

and,plunging into the earth ,

stood in the ground , hungeringfor the flesh ofmen (Iliad X X I So also Il iad VIII .

My spear rageth in’

my hands.

Sword— The ancient Irish swords were,in their general

shape, much like those used by most other people ofbothancient andmodern t imes. The Irish were fond ofadorning their swords elaborately. Those who could affordit had the hilt ornamented with gold and gems. In the

Stokes,Acall.

,Ir. Texte, iv .

, p . 193 .

TIn many or most of the passages where poisoned weapons are

ment ioned,the expressions are obviously figurative, meaning nothing

more than bitt er or deadly in wounding just as we say a person has a

venomous tongue, like nemthcnga, poison- tongue,

’

the term applied to

the poet Bricriu (p . 84 , supra).I See Hennessy, Mesca Ulad, Introd.

,xiv

,xv

,and xvi : Hogan,

Rossnaree, 79 : and Stokes

,Da Derga, 299 , 3O I .


Book ofRights (p . 147) we are told that the hostagesdel ivered up to the king ofIreland by the people calledOirghialla [oar-

yeela] should wear— as a dist inct ionswords with studs ofgold on the hilts : and swords of

this kind areoften ment ioned in the old wri t ings.

* But

the most common practice was to set the hilts round withthe teeth oflarge sea- animals, especially those ofthe sea

horse— a custom also common among the W elsh . This

practice was not iced by the Roman geographer Solinusin the third century A .D. Those [of the Irish] whocult ivate elegance adorn the hilts oftheir swords with theteeth ofgreat sea- animals (dentibus mazinarum belladruminsigniunt chsium copulos).T The nat ive records, bothlay and ecclesiast ical , are equally explici t on this point .Adamnan (page 158) relates that a certain nat ive of

Connaught,who had been reduced to a state ofslavery ,

came to St . Columba at Iona,who,

to enable him to

purchase his freedom ,presented him with a sword

ornamented with the carved teeth ofanimals (machemmbelluim

'

s am olam dolatz'

s dontz'

bus). The nat ive term usedfor a sword ornamented in this

'

fashion is claidob dét ,

l iterally sword of teeth ,

’

or some such expression, of

which examples are found everywhere in the Tales, as

well as in ecclesiastical literature i W arriors somet imes

ornamented the handles of their javel ins in the same

manner, as we know from a statement in the Tain,that on

one occasion during the fight between Cuculainn and

Ferdiad they took up their eight spears, called gothan i.e. darts [with ornaments] ofThat the Irish used swords from the earl iest t imes is

obvious from all the preceding : and it is not a little

As inMoyrath ,67 and in LL

, 55 , b , first line(swords comuleltz'

b oz'

r

ocus con imdurm'

b argi'

t , with knobs ofgo ld and with guards ofsilver1See Lynch , Camb r. Ev .

,I I. 179 .

IAs in Stokes, Three Homilies,65 Moyrath ,

67 O’

Curry ,Man.

Cust ., vol. I . 253 (note 297(note 23 0) and vol. II. 138.

§ O'

Curry ,Man. Cust ., 1. 303.

I I6 GOVERN MEN T , M ILITARY SYSTEM,AND LAW [PART I

curious that Giraldus (Top. Hib .,III. N), in the twelfth

century ,makes no ment ion of the Sword as among their

weapons. He says they had three kinds ofweaponsa short spear

,two darts

,and a heavy iron bat tle

axe. The omission of the sword makes one

suspect that he is inaccurate or had not fullinformat ion : or perhaps

,as O

’Donovan remarks,

that the bat t le - axe was generally used whenGiraldus visi ted Ireland(Moyr.,

19 3, no te The sword figuredprominent ly in the Bat t le of

C lontarf, a century and a half

FIG. 47. FIG . 48.

Ancient Irish bronz e swords The h ilts were rive ted on : the

four large rivet s on the middle one st ill, remain. Fig. 46 is 22 54

inches long ; fig. 47, inches ; and fig. 48, 18 inches. (They

before his t ime,and

i t is constant ly men

tioned in the periodimmed ia t e ly suc

ceeding his V isit .The two com

monest Irish terms

for a sword were

6102216711 or c/a z'

a’eo

[cleev]*

and oak (orco/g or co/c): another,but much rarername

,

was cloz'

mz (Corm.

The doz'

a’em

was different fromthe mic

,for they

are evident ly dist in

guished in the Bat tle

of Moytura,which

are not drawn here to uniform scale .) O riginals in National. Speaks ofthe flashMuseum, Dublin, (From W ilde'

s Catalogue, pp , 442. 448.444

ing and clashing of

the cloz'

a’ems and of the mics. The colo was a small

De Jubainvil le thinks this Cel ticword is the origin ofthe Latingladz'

us

Civilisation dos Cel tes, 378.

I IS GOVERNMEN T , M ILITARY SYSTEM ,AND LAW [PART I

sword,wi th which he killed the sea- monster

,was called the

Calad—c/zo/g(‘hard Finn Mac Cumail’

s sword wascalled Alt man-La in

,

‘

the son ofthe Luz} : or Lo'

n,

’ whichwas made “

the son ofLuno ”by Macpherson throughout

his“ Poems of

The sharper a sword was the more it was prized . A

common expression in the Tales is that a sword was so

FIG. 52.

Stone Celt , the earliestformofbettle -axe belonging to primitive pagan

times. Found ln CountyMonaghan, In its handle(1334 In. long).as shown

in figure. W’

hether all

stone celts were fastenedin this manner is un

known. (From W ilde’

s

Catalogue , p

sharp that it would cut a hair float ing on

water or cut hairs blown against its edgeby the wind : Socht

’

s sword would cut a

hair offa man’

s head without touching thehead ; and would cut a man in two so

that neither halfknew what had befallenthe

The battle - axe (lung or Mag/z, pron.

tooa) has been in use from prehistorict imes in Ireland

,as is evident from the

fact that numerous axe- heads (or ‘ celtsofstone

,as well as ofbronze

,cOpper, and

iron,have been found from t ime to time

,

and are to be seen in hundreds in the

Nat ional Museum and elsewhere. These‘

are now commonly called cells , ofwhich theillustrat ions on pp. 118 and 119 will give a

good idea. But many ofwhat are now

called cel ts were probably used as cutt ingtools

,as not iced in chapter xxiv.

,sect ion 5.

Bat t le- axes are often ment ioned in ancient Irish literature. Cuculainn

,on one occasion

,when making ready for

a fight , says to his at tendant Take out the axesquickly - Oslaz

°

cgo”of! tango .“ So also the battle—axe is

O’

Grady,Silva Gad. ,

284.

1‘ About Lab : and Afar: an Luz

’

n,see Hennessy, Mesca, Introd., xv

Kilk . A rch. Journ., 1895, 228 : O’Curry, Man. 85 Cust . , 1. 324—5.

3: As in O ’Curry, Man. 8: Cust ., II . 148 : FledBrien ,

117.

Irische Texte,111. 2 18 .

I] Ventry, 86(note LL. 102 ,6, last line ; also 103, a , first two lines.

CHAP. Iv] W ARFARE I 19

ment ioned under the curious name cuoc/z -m az

’

a’m in a

description,

of the recept ion ofConcobar and his peopleby Conall , the brewy of Dun Colptha in Cuailnge

Conal l had apart for each warrior thehero - war- axe (Curic/z - szzoz

’

o’m

Cuac/Z- snazo’m

,literally

‘cup

—knot,

’

is

sometimes applied to a spiral sort of

knot or.wreath on the hair ofthe headzl'

but it is not easy to see how it came to

be applied to a bat t le - axe. All thesefacts and records show that G iraldasis wrong in his assertion that the Irishborrowed the use ofthe axe from the

Norsemen : though it is true that they often. used Scandinavian axes, as well as those ofnat ive

FIG . 53.

FIG. 54. FIG . 55. F IG .

Four types ofmetallic celts or early bat tle - axes. Fig. 54 is 6 Inches long, and ofpure copper ;

all the rest are bronz e. Fig. 55 is 6% - lllches long fig. 56, about the same and fig. 53 , 394 inches.

III allcases the make gives a good idea. how they were fastened in the handles. (From W ilde '

s

C atalogue, pp . 385. 363. 33 1»

In later. t imes the Irish were noted for their fataldex terity with the bat t le- axe. Giraldus(Top. Hib .

,111. x .)

Stokes,Rev. Cel t .

,X IV . 417, and LL ,

109 , 6, lines 5 and 4 from

bot tom : also Corm . ,G loss

, 47.

l" Silva Gad., 139 ; Irish version,128, 3 2 Stokes, Acallamh, 393 : see also

Rossnaree, 68, 12.

120 GOVERNMEN T,M ILITARY SYSTEM ,

AND LAW [PART I

ment ions that among other weapons they had a heavy axe

excel lent ly well wrought and tempered ; and he goes on to

say They make use ofbut one hand to the axe when“they strike

,and ex tend the thumb along the handle to

guide the blow : from which nei ther the crested helmet

can defend the head , nor the iron folds ofthe armour the :

rest ofthe'

body. From whence it has happened ,even in

our t imes, that the whole thigh ofa soldier, though cased

in well - tempered armour,hath been lopped offby a single

“ blow of the axe ,the whole l imb

fall ing on one side ofthe horse and

the expiring body on the other.

FIG . 57. F IG. 58.

To show how the metalliccelts or axe-heads were fastener! on handles. Fig. 57 shows one

found in its original handle.as seen in the illust ration. it has a loop underneath , whicli is

part ly eaten away by rust. Fig. 58 is a conjectural restoration ofthe fastening ofthis kindofcelt. (From W ilde’

s Catalogue. pp. 370.

In Giraldus’

s t ime almost everyone carried an axe

his hand,as people wore swords at a later period a custom

which he denounces in the bit ter style usual with him whenhe had a faul t to find From an ancient and evil customthey [the Irish] always carry an axe in their hands

,

instead ofa walking- st ick,that they may be ready to

execute on the spot whatever V illainy comes into thei rminds : wherever they go they carry this weapon.

” (Top.

Hib .,III. xxi.)

There were two kinds of bat t le- axes a broad one,

122 GOVERNMENT,M ILITARY SYSTEM ,

AND LAW [PART I

Armour.— W e know from the best authorit ies that atthe time of the Invasion— i.e. in the twel fth centurythe Irish used no metall ic armour. Giraldus(Top . Hib .

,

111. x .) says They go to battle without armour, con

sidering it a burden, and deeming it brave and honourableto fight wi thout it .” The Irish poet MacConmee , in his

poem on the Battle ofDown ,in which the Irish were de

feated by the English in 1260,has this passage

Uneq ua l they entered the bat tle ,

The Galls [English] and the Gaels ofTaraFine sat in shirts on the race ofConn

The C alls in one mass of

This is sufficient to prove that the ancient Irish did notuse armour : for, as O

’

Donovan remarks, it is not to besupposed that they used it at one t ime and left it offafterwards. The Danes wore armour : and it is not unl ikelythat the Irish may have begun to imitate them before thetwel fth century but , i f so ,

i t was only in rare cases. Theynever took to armour t ill after the twelfth century ,

and thenonly in imitat ion ofthe It is true that in some of

the tales giving accounts ofbattles fought before the t ime

ofthe Danish incursions,we read that the Irish used iron

coats ofmail(lm'

rech 1'

airn) as for instance in the Battle ofMoyrath(p . 193) but the only inference to be drawn fromthis is that the versions that have come down to us werewritten at a comparat ively late time

,when the writers were

acquainted with the use ofarmour and introduced it toembellish their stories i But though the Irish did not usearmour before the Danish invasions ,

they knew well whatit was— as we might expect from their intercourse with theCont inent and the borrowed word luz

’

rcch(Lat . lorz’

ca)had

become well natural ised for we find a luireck — corselet orcoat ofmail— ment ioned in Fiacc’

s Hymn,sixth or seventh

century(Trip . Li fe,p . 411 ,

verseMiscel lany ofCe lt . Soc.

,1849 p . 153 .

1' See O

'

Donovan,Moyr. ,

Introd. viii.

1See Zimmer,on this point , referred to at page 535, infra .

CHAP. IV ] WARFARE 123

The tales describe another kind ofarmour as worn byCuculainn and by others ; namely ,

a primit ive corseletmade ofbull - hide leather stitched with thongs, for repel“ ling lances and sword - points

,and

spears,so that they used to fly off

from him as ifthey struck against a

stone”

and as we know that thematerial for this was produced at

home(chap . xxvi .,sect . the record

is pretty certainly a true one. But the

general body ofIrish soldiers foughtin linen tunics dyed saffron

,and the

chiefs somet imes in satin or silk,which

lost them many a bat t le against theAnglo - Normans ]Greaves to protect the legs from

the knee down were used ,and called

by the name osa’

n (pl . asom ), whichis a diminut ive ofas or ass

,

‘a sandal .’

PJ O’

Connell,in his Dict ionary ,

has

aso’

z‘

n p/zm’

z

'

s om ‘

greavesofbrass on his Shins but

,no doubt

,

the greaves ofearly times were made

ofleather,l ike Cuculainn’

s corselet iOccasionally greaves were calledassz

'

simply so a’zzé - ossz

'

,six black

greaves (Da Derga ,288

,

Somet imes,

as a safeguard against

assassinat ion,a king wore a slab of

tough yew on his breast under hissil ken robes and we read in the

Annals that this precaut ion once savedthe l ife of Congal , king of Ireland (A.D. 704 to

Crowe, Demon. Chaiiot , 426, 427.

1' See O

’Donovan,Moyr., 181, no tes c, d ; 187, lines 5 to 9 ; 235, last par.

1See Stokes, Glossary to Marco Polo,Zeitschr. fiir Cel t . Phil. , 1. 427,

O’

Grady, Silva Gad. , 448.

Fm. 60.

Dermot MacMurrogh , with

the narrow bat tle - a-xc calledsparra

'

or“sparth from

t he MS ofGiraldus ment ionedunder the figure ofthe scribein chap ter xu..sect . 2 . below.

ForDermot MacMurrogh , see

Joyce '

s Short H istory ofIre

land, Index This figure wasCop ied into the original manu

SC l'lp t twenty -nine years after

Dermot'

s death (Reproducedhere from VVllde s Catalogue.p 310 The soldier figuredmchapter xxu , sect ion 2 below(under Trousers also holdsa sparth.


Helmet — That the Irish wore a helmet ofsome kind inbattle is certain but i t is not an easy matter to determinethe exact shape and material . It was called cathbharr

[caffar] , 113. battle- top ,

’

or battle- cap, from oath [cah] , a

battle,

’

and barr, the top .

’

In the Battle ofMoyraththe Irish army proceeded to array their forces and har

messed their arch - princes in protect ing helmets onwhichO

’

Donovan remarks in a note Nothing has yet beendiscovered to prove what kind ofhelmet the ancient Irishcathbharr was, whether it were a cap ofstrong leather,checkered with bars ofiron, or a helmet whol ly ofironor brass , such as was used in later ages. One fact isestablished , that no ancient Irish helmet made of the

latter materials [iron and brass] has been as yet dis

covered . In the Battle ofMucrime(fought A.D. 250) the

two Lugaids each wore a crested helmet — cathbharr

cz'

orarh.‘ From the Book ofRights (p . we learn

that helmets were somet imes coloured . Part ofthe st ipendofthe king ofGaela was four helmets ofequal colour

(cdmhdhatha i.e. all similarly coloured). De Jubainville

(vi . 343) says that the helmet is not ment ioned at all in the

most ancient Irish texts, and that wherever it is ment ionedthe passage indicates a relat ively recent composition. It

occurs ,however, as we have seen, in the Battle of

Mucrime in the Book ofLeinster : and the cennbarr or

helmet is ment ioned in one ofthe Prefaces to. the Tainn‘

Shield.— From the earl iest period ofhistory and tradition,

and doubtless from times beyond the reach ofboth,

the Irish used shields in battle. The most ancient shieldswere made ofwicker- work , covered with hides they wereoval - shaped , often large enough to cover the whole body

,

and convex on the outside. It was to this primitive shieldthat the Irish first applied the word sciath [skee

’- a] , which

afterwards came to be the most general name for a shield,

ofwhatever size or material . It is curious that this word

O’

Grady, Silva Gad., 356 . 1O

’

Curry, 157, note

Fro. 61.

Fro. 62 .

Bronz e shieldment ioned in text(p. Fig. 6x, front or outside ; fig. 62 , back or inside.(From Proc. Roy. Irish Acad., for 1870 -

76, Plate VIII.)

CHAP . 1v] W ARFARE 7

all the others. These designs would appear to havegenerally consisted ofconcentric circles, often ornamentedwith circular rows of projecting studs or bosses, and

variously spaced and coloured for different shields. The

same old tale goes on to describe how the devices on

Cuculainn’

s shield were made namely,by a luathrz

’

nn or

moulding compass, with which the art ist struck out a

number ofcircles on a smooth layer ofashes to serve as

a pattern.

* In the BrudenDa Derga(p . 174)we read thatCormac Condlingas had a shield with five golden circles onit . As generally confirming the truth ofthese accounts,the wooden shields in theMuseum have a number ofbeaut ifully wrought concentric circles standing out in rel ief.There were ornaments or ornamental fittings called luag

mz’

la, the exact nature ofwhich has not been determinedcommonly -made of

,or ornamented with ,

gold or si lver.

The name, according to some, indicates that they consistedofanimal forms

,curved or mixed up with curved designs

for luagmeans a curve or loop ,

’

andmil [meellfananimal,

plural mlla loop - animals.

’ By O’

Curry, Stokes, O’

Grady,

Crowe, Henderson, W indisch , the word mag- mild has beenvariously translated , clasps, fastenings,

” hooks,loop - animals,

”

animal figures chased ,

” interlaced creatures,

” buckles,” trappings. Perhaps after all, Stokes

’

s

proposed explanat ion ofmil is the true one namely ,that

in this connexion it does not mean animal ,’

but a pin or

tongue ofsome kind. For we know that mil, in one ofits

applications, means a probe or pin,

’

and that milechmeans

a kind ofdealgor brooch(see Vol. p . Ifthis is so,

the tuaga were most probably little bands, straps, or braces,varied in material and shape according to use,

ornamentally chased or embroidered , and fastened with bucklesand hooks. The tuag

- mz’

la were,in this case,

the l ittlebuckle- pins or tongues, from which the whole buckle- strap

See a lso vol. 11. p . 299 , z'

n/m : where this incident , with the story

referred to by O’

Curry, wil l b e found.

128 GOVERNMENT , MILITARY SYSTEM ,AND LAW [man

took its name. All this is rendered the more l ikely by thefact that , though tuag- mfla are most commonly ment ionedin connexion with shields, they were also used on ladies

'

kirtles , and on the yokes ofchariot - horses.

*

Shields were often coloured according to the fancy ofthewearer. W e read ofone warrior having a shield designatedcraeb- corcra , i.e. showing the colour ofthe q uiekenberry the

shield ofanother was brown Part ofthe tuaraslaldue from the king ofTara to the king ofOffaly was fourcoloured shields(ceithre scé z'thdatha) in another part

'

of thesame book a tribute offour red shields is ment ioned ;I andin thestory ofMesca Ulad(p . 29) KingConcobaris describedas having a purple- brown(doud- ckorcra) shield . Conall Cernaeh had a blood - red shield which has been speckled withrivets(semmannaib) offindruine between plates ofgold

(Da Derga, This fashion ofpaint ing shields in variouscolours cont inued in use to the time ofEl izabeth ,

as we see

by Spenser’

s statement(V iew , 102) In Ireland they usealso in many places [round leather targets) coloured aftertheir rude fashion.

”Shields were very often pure white.

Thus Bodb Derg and his cavalcade had all ofthem whitefaced shields (sceilh The Book of Leinsterdescribes the Ulstermen as having , on a certain occasion,

beaut i ful all- white shields.W e know from many passages that the wicker shields

were covered with hides , either tanned or untanned . Thusin the story ofthe deaths ofG011and Garb in the Book of

Leinster, a certain warrior’

s shield is described as coveredwith black leather(dub Shields were covered bya special tradesman called a lualhaz

'

t,who fitted the leather

Used on Shields—MS.Mat ., 506, u 507, 6 : Silva God.(Irish text),128 , Fled. Brien

,65 , 3 (with note , 9

beginning on p . On Lanes

or kirtles— Ir. Texte, r. 119 , , 8 Da Derga ,13, 14 : Man. Cust .

,11.

190 , note ; Tain B6 Fr. 136, ,6. On a chariot yoke—Man. Cust .,

11. 160 , note : Bee Fola, p . 174, t t .

1' O

'

Grady , Silva Gad.,240 , , 8 ; 324, a . 1Book ofRights, 253, 263.

§ O’

Curry, Man. Cust ., 11. 157. Rev . Celt ., xxv. 405 .

130 GOVERNMENT , MILITARY SYSTEM , AND LA\V [PART I

siz e and shape.

* I do not remember seeing one with thelarge oval shield .

Shields were cleaned up and brightened before batt le.

Those that required it were newly coloured, or whitened

with a fresh coat ing ofchalk or lime : and the metall icones were burnished . This was generally done by gilliesor pages. On a certain occasion when there was an

assembly ofkings and chiefs at Kincora , we are told thatthe gillies were assembled in one room brightening up the

shields oftheir masters ]‘

It was usual to give special descriptive names to the

shields ofdist inguished chiefs. In the Battle ofMoyrath

(p . we read that the javel in ofConall , which was aimedat King Domnall, passed through three shields interposedby his followers to shelter him , and struck Derg- druimnech

(i.a. red- backed the golden shield ofthe monarch himself. The shield ofKing Concohat Mac Nessa was calledAcéin that is ,

ocean.

’

The shield,when in use,

was held in the left hand by a

looped handle or crossbar,or by a strong leather strap , in

the centre ofthe inside, as seen in fig, 62 at page 126.

But as an additional precaut ion i t was secured by a longstrap , called sciathmch,

that went loosely round the neck.

In the Battle ofRossnaree (p . 25) Queen Maive saysSo long as there shall be amongst us one who will be ableto take the hilt ofa sword [in his hand] and the shieldstrap (scz’alhrach) ofa shield about his neck .

”Another

word for this sling - strap was iris : Conan Mail on one

occasion escapes from a batt le,ocus iris a scaith imma

braigz'

t,

and the sling ofhis shield round his neck ,

”

i int it imating

'

that he had dropped it from his hand in his flight ,but that it remained suspended from his neck by the strap .

In the Brehon Laws(v. 310, l ine 4 from the strap on

See for three examp les, this vol. at pp . 102 and 143 and the figureofthe king in vol p . 257.

1' O

’

Curry, Man. Cust ., 124, 126. t Stokes, Acall., pp. 187, 252 «

cHAP. 1v] W ARFARE 1

the inside ofthe shield by which it was held in the handis called sciathlach, which , l ike sciathmch,

is formed fromsciath, only with a different terminat ion.

* The shield,

when not in use, was slung over the shoulder by the strapfrom the neck .

It was usual for a champion to hurl a challenge to singlecombat by standing in front ofthe host ile camp or fort andstriking afew resounding blows on his shield,Tor on a shieldhung up for this purpose at the gate outside. This old

custom is remembered to this day in the speech ofthe

people ofthe South and W est ofIreland : for whetherspeakingEnglish or Irish ,

they call a man who is quarrelsome

"

and given to fighting— a swaggering bully— by the

name ofBuaz’

lim- scz’

ath [boolim - skee] , meaning literallyI strike the shield , and equivalent to theEnglish swash

buckler, Which may possibly commemorate a similarcustom among the old English .

In pagan t imes i t was believed that the shield ofa kingor ofany great commander, when its bearerwas dangerouslypressed in battle, uttered a loud , melancholy moan whichwas heard all over Ireland ,

and which the shields ofotherheroes took up and cont inued . In the battle ofRossnaree

(pp . 43 ,the king ofTara attacked Concobar furiously

and struck his shield , which moaned and the shields ofallthe Ulstermen took up the moan, by which the chiefs knewthat their king was in danger and rushed to his aid. W henthe lady Crede, lament ing her dead husband Cael

,praised

him for his valour, she said , among other things, that his

shield never uttered a moan in t ime ofbattle — a certainproof of strength and bravery i The shield - moan was

further prolonged ,for as soon as it was heard , the Three

W aves ofErin uttered their loud , melancholy roar in

response.§See Sciathlach in Atkinson’

s G lossary to Br. Laws.

1For a late example ofthis,see Hyde, Two Irish Tales, 153.

I O’

Grady, Silva Gad.,122 .

For the Three Waves ofErin,

see vol. p . 525.

132 GOVERNMENT , M ILITARY SYSTEM , AND LATV [PART I

4 . Strategy, Tactics , andModes ofFighting.

Subordination ofRanks — Though the discipline ofthe

Irish in t ime ofwar and on the field ofbattle was veryinferior to that ofthe Anglo~Normans, we are not to con

clude that they were ignorant or careless ofthe Science andArt ofW ar. On the contrary , military science was studiedwith much care, as the following examinat ion of theirstrategic and tactical arrangements will show .

The whole army was divided into catha [caha] or

battal ions, each oath consisting of3000 men ; and theseagain were parcelled into smal ler companies. Over eachbat tal ion was a cath- mhilidh [cah- veela] or knight of

a battal ion each band of100 was headed by a captaincalled cenu - leadhna [can- fana] ; and there were leadersoffifty and leaders ofnine (Keat . , Any body of

soldiers was called buidhcan,Old Irish buden : an army

on march was sluagh, host hence the word sluaghadh,

slauigheadh, or slogad,a military expedition,

a host ing.

’

Encampment. —During marches the leaders were veryparticular about their encampments. Even when the haltwas only for a night or two

,careful arrangements were

made as to tents,sitt ing- places, sleeping accommodat ion,

bathing , cooking ,etc. and everything was done to make

the encampment comfortable and enjoyable. In all casesthe camp was fort ified , so far as the t ime permitted and

ofcourse sent inels(dercaid, a sent inel ,’ literally a watch

man from derc, to see were set while the army slept .W here the sojourn was l ikely to be pretty long , moreelaborate arrangements were made. In the Bat tle of

Moylena (p . the longphort or encampment ofOwenMore, king ofMunster— the opponent ofConn the Hun

dred Fighter— is described : and this description may be

taken as a type ofall, where the arm y sat down for any

length oft ime — A well - ordered , wide- extending encamp

134 GOVERNMENT , M ILITARY SYSTEM , AND LAW [PART I

road , called Midluachra ,leading from Tara to Ulster, ran

by the Fews mountains and in a pass on the southernslope ofSlieve Fuaid, their highest summit , by whichinvaders from the south would have to pass, was Ath- na

foraire [furrera] , the ford ofwatching , a name which isexplained in the Tain Because there is an Ultonianchampion constantly watching and guarding there,

in

order that no warriors or strangers should come unper

ceived into Ulster.

”

The very summit ofthe mountainwas also used as a watch - stat ion i t was called Finncham '

na tom ire (the white earn of the watching where,during the war ofthe Tain

,a champion constant ly kept

watch to safeguard Ulster.*

The pract ice ofsignalling at night by beacon- fires in

time ofwar, invasion, or disturbance ofany kind , was

general and in the story ofBrudenDa Derga,a legendary

origin is assigned for it . W hen the army ofmarauders wasapproaching the hostel ofDa Derga , in which Conari, kingofIreland ,

was staying with his retinue, the sons ofDond

Desa,who were unwill ing partners in the expedit ion, went

aside and made a tendal or beacon- fire to warn the king of

the intended attack on the hostel So that is the firstwarning beacon that has been made in Erin —says the

story (p . 170) and from it every warning beacon iskindled to this day.

Immediately beside the palace, or the temporary residence, ofevery king or great chief a sent inel or watchman

(dercaid) kept watch and ward day and night . In time of

battle or campaign warriors slept at night with a singleweapon by their side for use in any sudden alarm , theirprincipal arms hanging on the racks in the proper place.1

'

See O’

Curry, Moylena , 59 , note 1: Man. Cust .,1. 365 : Stokes,

(”Air Anm ., 403 LL

,65 , a ,

last lines. How far the customs ofp lacingsent inels on look - out points, and ofsignal ling at night by beacon- fires

,

have impressed themselves on the local nomenclature of the country,

may b e seen from the sections bearing on the subject in Joyce’

s Irish

Names ofP laces : vol. p . 2 14. 1Moylena, p . 127.

CHAP . Iv] W ARFARE 135

Heralds - In the course ofwarfare, heralds or envoyswere often employed ,

as among allother nat ions. A heraldwas denoted by

'

the words techtaire and eachlack. Heralds,

when on their mission, were regarded as sacred and inviolable, andwere treated with the utmost respect , even by thebitterest enemies exactly as Homer describes the heraldsof the Greeks. W hen i t was proposed to send FergusMacRoy as an envoy from Queen Maive to the host ileUlster army ,

he naturally shrank from the mission for he

was himself one ofthe Ulstermen who had enteredMaive’

s

service, andwas one ofthe chief authors ofall the ravagesthe Connaught forces had committed in Ulster. But Maivetold him not to fear, for,

”

said she, i t is not ever a

custom ofthe Ulstermen to offer reproach to envoys. For

i f a man should kill the father or brother ofevery one ofthem

,he need not fear them , going to meet them as a

At a much later t ime Cummuscach ,son of

King AedMacAinmirech , was slain, A.D. 598, by Branduff,king ofLeinster, who sent envoys north to announce thenews to the father. The envoys when asked for theirmessage refused to tell t ill they had first got a guarantee ofsafety. King Aedgave them his drinking- horn as a pledgewhereupon they said , W e have killed thy son and slainhis people. Aed answers, W e had heard these t idingsalready yet ye [being envoys] shall depart unhurt but

nevertheless we will go after you [to avenge by Openwar in Leinster the death ofthe prince] .j Heralds had a

special dress by which they were at once recognised and

they commonly carried in one hand a white wand or handstaff

, and in the other a sword ,1 symbol ical of the

alternat ive to b e accepted— peace or war.

Banners, Flags, andStandards — From theearl iest periodoftheir history the Irish used banners or standards, which

Rossnaree, 65 .

1' Boroma in Rev . Celt .

,11111. 65 Silva Gad.

, 411, top .

1Hogan, Rossnaree, 69 O’

Curry, Man. Cust .,1. 2 97.

136 GOVERNMENT,M ILITARY SYSTEM , AND LAW [PART 1

were borne before the army when going into battle,or on

ordinary marches a custom ,asDe Jubainville points out , *

common to the Celts and Romans, but unknown to the

Homeric Greeks. In Ireland the office ofstandard - bearerto each king or chief was hereditary, like all other important functions j

'

A banner is denoted by the word méirge [mairya

2 In the accounts ofmany ofthe ancient Irishbattles, there are descriptions ofthe standards borne byeach chief or clan. The commander- in- chief had his own

banner, and so had each captain under his command and

each banner usually bore some device or figure, commonlycalled suaicheantas [soohantas] or samlack, so that theseveral captains and companies could be distinguishedfrom a distance. Every captain,

”

says Keat ing(p .

writ ing from old authori ties, bore upon his standard hispeculiar device or ensign ,

so that each distinct body of

men could be easily distinguished from all others bythose Shanachies whose duty it was to attend on the

nobles when about to contend in bat tle, and thatthese shanachies might thus have a full view of

the achievements of the combatants, so as to be

able to give a true account of their part icular deedsofvalour. The attendant Shanachies ofthose old t imes

answered in some sort to the war correspondents ofour

own day.

In the Battle ofMoyrath , A.D. 637,banners ofvarious

patterns anddevices arement ioned . That ofCongal , princeofUlster, the leader ofthe rebel host , was a yellow lionon green sat in,

which,we are told , was the proper royal

standard ofUlster, and had been, since the t ime ofthe

Red Branch Knights, six centuries before, and which wasnow displayed by the rebel prince. In this battle the

banner ofthe king ofAileach (one ofthe Hy Neill) was

La Civil . des Ce ltes, 390 , 39 1.THardirnan

,IarC.

, 369 ; Minstrelsy, 11. 158.

138 GOVERNMENT , MILITARY SYSTEM ,ANDLAW [PART 1

forces against him from Bruree,with the cenncathach, i.e.

his croz ier in his hand : and before the battle began,he

walked thrice deisiull with it round the Munster host . In

the ensuing batt le the Ulster forces were routed .*

The most celebrated of these battle- rel ics was the

cathach or battle- book of the O’

Donnells ofTirconnell,

which may now be seen in the Nat ional Museum in

Dublin.t The calbach ofthe O'

Kellys ofHy Many wasthe croz ier oftheir patron, St . Grellan. This was for ageskept by the family ofO

'

Cronelly , and it was in existencein 1836 but i t is now not to be found (HyM,

St . Caillin ofFenagh blessed a entbach for his tribe, theConmaicne ,

namely , a cross made ofa hazel rod that hadbeen cut with one blow , the top ofthe upright to pierce thehoriz ontal bar in the middle. It appears from the wordsofthe old record that no one rel ic was kept permanentlyhere, as in other cases, but that on each occasion,

whengoing to a battle, a new cross was to be made in the

manner po inted out above t The condition ofstriking offthe branch or rod with a single blow was evidently a per

petuat ion ofthe corresponding pagan formula described at

pp . 241, bot . and 242 , top now turned to Christianuses.

The permanent cathach or battle relic ofeach tribe wasplaced in the keeping ofsome part icular family. This wasconsidered a great honour, and the family had usually a

tract ofland free ofrent , as well as other perquisites, aspayment for the faithful discharge oftheir duty as cus

todians. TheMacRob/zartazgks orMacRavertys were theoffi cial keepers ofthe cathach ofthe O

’

Donnells, and con

tinued in the office t ill the seventeenth century ; and to

this day the land they held in virtue oftheir offi ce is calledBallymagroarty.§

Stokes , Lives ofSS.,240 .

1' Adamn.

,249 , 319 Todd

,St . Pat k .

,125 O

’

Donovan,Moyrath, 147,

note f. See a lso Joyce, Short Hist . ofIrei. , 19 ; and p . 501, infra.

I Hennessy, Bk . ofFenagh , 195—7. 5 Reeves, Adama ., 38, 284, 401.


Chivalry.— In Ireland ,

in ancient t imes, people as a

general rule declined to take advantage of surprises or

stratagems in war. They had a sort ofchivalrous feel ingin the matter, and did not seek to conceal— and somet imes

even gave open not ice oi— intended attacks, or came to

an agreement with their adversaries as to the t ime and

place to fight the matter out .* In later ages, and at the

present day, such plain,unsophist icated dealing would b e

looked upon as very bad generalship . Concobar, havingarrived at Dundalk on his march south to overrun the

southern provinces, is met by an envoy to propose terms

but he rejects the terms and prepares to resume march .

Then the envoy asks him where he proposes to encampthe first night In Rossnaree above the clear- brightBoyne,

”said Concobar. ForConcobar - the story goes

on to say never concealed from his enemy the placein which he was to take station or camp , that they mightnot say that it was fear or dread that caused him not to

announce it . The result was, when he arrived at Ross

naree,he found the Leinstermen fully prepared for him .1

'

Before the first Battle ofMoytura , the Dedannans, who

were the invaders, demanded batt le each day, with equalnumbers on both sides to which the Firbolg king had toagree,

though greatly against his will , for he had muchthe larger army.i Before the Battle ofMoylena (end of

second century Owen—More, being closely pressedby his great opponent Conn the Hundred Fighter, sentto ask him for a truce ofthree days to consider his posit ion,

which Conn at once granted .§The same spirit is found much later on. In the year

1002 ,when Brian Boru marched with an army to Tara ,

and demanded from King Malachi submission or battle,

Malachi asked for a delay ofa month to muster his forcesfor battle which Brian granted , andremained in his camp

An instance inMan. Cust .,11. 261, top . Hogan,

Rossnaree,29 .

I O’

Curry , Man. Cust .,I . 238. § O

’

Curry, Moylena, 23 .

140 GOVERNMENT , MILITARY SYSTEM , AND LA\V [PART 1

t ill the month was expired . And Malachi employed theinterval— with Brian ’

s full knowledge— in preparing for thestruggle but fail ing to raise suffi cient forces, he proceededto Brian

'

s camp ,with merely a small guard ofhonour, and

submitted without imposing any conditions , trust ing to

his opponent ’s honour for proper treatment , but tellinghim plainly that if he had been strong enough , he wouldfight . And his confidence was not misplaced for Brian,

while receiving his submission,treated him with the utmost

respect and honour)“

A similar chivalrous sense offair play is exemplified inindividuals . An episode in the story ofthe Tain describeshow Cuculainn andFerdiad , two old friendsandaffectionatecomrades were forced by circumstances to fight to the deathin single combat and the fight was cont inued for severaldays. Each evening when word was givenfor the combat tocease,

they laid aside theirweapons, andeach threw his armsround the neck ofthe other, and thrice kissed his cheek .

Cuculainn, on this occasion,had better medical appliances

than Ferdiad , but Ferdiad had a more varied supply of

food and drink and each evening Cuculainn sent his bestdoctor with hal f ofhis balms and healing herbs to sootheFerdiad ’

s wounds while Ferdiad on his part sent hal f ofallhis choice food and drink to his friend . At last Ferdiadis slain, and Cuculainn falls on his body in a paroxysm of

uncontrollable grief, from which he is with difficultyroused up by his attendant Loeg. This may be fictionbut all the same i t embodies the high chivalric idealsofwar and battle prevalent in the t ime of the originalwriter.T

Stratagem : Ambush — But not unfrequently a generalrose up with unusualmilitary genius and with less scrupulous not ions ofchivalry ,

who did not hesitate to employ am

Todd,Wars ofCG

,119 Joyce, Short Hist ,

208.

1See the ful l episode ofthe fight ofCuculainn and Ferdiad inO ’

Curry,Man. Cust .

,11. 415 . We l l reto ld in Lady Gregory ’

s Cuch .,2 21- 244 .

142 GOVERNMENT , MILITARY SYSTEM , AND LAW [RART I

had passed , and then sprang up and attacked them in

the rear.

*

Medical Attendance in Bat tle.— A number ofphysiciansor surgeons always accompanied an army going to battle toattend to the wounded ,

who were brought to them at the

rear during the fight . This was quite an established institut ion from the most remote t imes— a fact ofwhich therecan be no doubt , notwithstanding the number offables andexaggerat ions that are mixed up with the accounts oftheircures. W e are now famil iar with the humane practice inwar ofgiving medical aid after the bat tle to the wounded ,without dist inct ion offriend or enemy and i t is interest ingto observe that the same idea was equally familiar to thewri ters ofthe Tain Bo Quelna . W hen Cethern, a famousUlster warrior, returned from a fight against the Connaughtforces, all covered with wounds, a request was sent to theConnaught camp— the enemy ’

s— for physicians for him , as

it happened that none ofthe Ulster physicians were at the

moment available andphysicians were at once despatchedwith the messengers,

l

Mi l i tary Formation andMarching.— In going to battlethe Irish often rushed pell - mell ina crowdwithout any order.But they somet imes adopted a more scient ific plan, ad

vancingin regular format ion,shoulder to shoulder, forming

a sol id front with shields and spears. W hen the southernarmy was about to engage the forces ofUlster, who hadmarched south to invade Munster, St . Findchua called out

to theMunstermen W hen you have closed in togetherat one place

,make ye a strong palisade ofbattle (Cippe

Catha) and in that fashion,led by Findchua, they ad

vanced to the attack , and routed the Ulstermen }: In

another battle,the Ulstermen,

just as they were aboutto engage, set themselves in battle array ,

and there was a

O'

Grady ,Silva Gad., 355 and 356 .

1O'

Curry ,Man. Cust .

,11. 97, note .

3Stokes, Lives ofSS., 2 40 Irish Text , line 3101.

CHAR. Iv] WARFARE 143

forest of their weapons,and a bulwark oftheir shields

(leib/zeamz a’a saint/ Milli

,l iterally a platform or floor of

their shields) around them.

”6 The word cro,which means

‘a pen or fold

,

’

is often applied to a format ion ofthis kind.

In the story ofthe Boroma we read that when the men of

the royal army saw their king in danger in the Battle OfDunbolg,

they formed a 570 ofspears and shields abouthimf The Leth Conn made a cro

’

éoa’éa

,

‘a warlike

fold,

’

around Molling and his company to take them

p risoners i On one occasion

Q ueen Maive hid her face undera dam a

’aéaicfi

,i.e. an

‘ox - vat

,

’

ofher guards’

shields,forprotec

tion against Cuculainn’

s terriblesling.§There is at least one passage

that ment ions stepping in t ime

while marching,where the men

ofone ofQueen Maive’

s threecorps are spoken of as l ift ingand bringing down the feetexact ly together (imzoenf/zecfit

dostoréaitz'

s a corsa ll), showingcareful dril l . But this does not

seem to have been general : indeed it is noticed as a special ityin this one corps. On the morning ofthe day ofbat t le

each man usually put as much food in a wallet that hungby his side as was sufficient for the day.

‘li

Tying in Pairs— W hen a commander had reason to

suspect the loyalty - or courage of any ofhis men in a

coming battle, he somet imes adopted a curious plan to

Stokes, Lives ofSS., 244 ; with Irish Text , 3250 . For another lebm n

sci'

ath seeLL , 79 , a , 15.

TO’Grady, Silva Gad. , 4 IS, 16

1Rev. Cel t ., XIII . 115 : O ’Grady, Silva Gad., 423.

§ LL , 79, a , 12 . LL, 55, b , 8. ii Silva Gad., 418.

FIG. 63.

Foot~soldier preparing to receive

charge. One of several grotesquefigures in the illustrat ions of the BookofKells (seventh century) Th is showsthat when receiving a charge. the IrishsoldierH ornetimes at least—went on

one knee. (From W ilde'

s Catalogue.R 299 )

144 GOVERNMENT , MILITARY SYGTEM,AND LAW [PAR

'

TI

prevent desert ion or flight offthe field . He fettered themsecurely in pairs, leg to leg, leaving them free in all otherrespects.

Just before the Battle ofMoyrat h(A.D. Congal , theleader ofthe rebel army

,consist ing partly ofIrishmen and

partly offoreigners,sends a confident ial scout to recon

noitre the king’

s army if they had locks or fetters betweenevery two oftheir fighting soldiers. Then follows a statement in verse that the royal commanders had put a fetterbetween every two men, so that nei ther young nor old,

even though hard pressed , should flee. Congal, on hispart , on receiving the report ofhis scout , fettered those ofhismen in pairs who appeared to him deficient in couragein some cases an Irishman being coupled with a Briton or

with an Albanach. At the close ofthe battle, when the

rebels were defeated and took to flight , nearly all thosewhowere fettered , being unable to escape, were slaughtered .

*

Four centuries before Moyrath— A.D. 250— Lugaidh MacCon invaded Ireland with an army ofBritons and otherforeigners , to wrest the throne from Art the Lonely , kingofIreland : which he succeeded in doing at the BattleofMucrime in Galway(see p . 141, supra). On landing fromBritain, he was joined by a considerable cont ingent of

Irishmen. Just before the battle,fearing the Irish soldiers

might not remain faithful to him , inasmuch as they wereabout to fight against their lawful king Art , he had mostofthem tied ,

the leg ofeach man to the leg ofa Britonand each ofthose who were not so t ied he placed betweentwo Britons] In the second Bat tle ofMoytura there isno direct ment ion ofmen being t ied together : but a

curious expression occurs in one part ofthe descriptionwhich seems to indicate that some were fettered in pairs.

Among those who fell in the battle we are told there weresome léth- ddine, l iterally

‘half—men.

’

Now this is the veryidiom used in Irish to denote one ofa pair : leth- shzlil

Moyrath ,87, 177, 179 , 2 82 , 319 . 1Silva Gad.

, 355.

146 GOVERNMENT , M ILITARY SYSTEM,AND LAW [PART I

his marc- s/zluag/z or cavalry and when King Dermot waspreparing for the Battle ofCuldremne, he collected horse,

foot , and chariots.

”The chief men too rode in battle, as

at the bat tle ofBallaghmoon, where the leaders fought onhorseback .

* After the Norman Invasion cavalry came intogeneral use. Each horseman had at least one footman to

attend him— cal led a gz’

lIa or daltecn(Irish , dailtin, a diminutive ofdalta, q .v .)— armed only with a javel in. In later

t imes each horseman had

two and somet imes threeattendants(fig. 64).TTwo kinds of foot

soldiers are often men

t ioned in Irish records,

the kern and gal loglasses. The kern werel ight armed soldiersthey wore headpieces

,

and fought with a skean

(a dagger or short sword)and with a javel in. The

Irish name is ceithem

m 63.[kehern] , which prima

Two ofthe elg ht galloglasses on King l’clim O'

Conor'

srily means a body Of

tomb in Roscommon Abbey(thirteenth century). (Fro mK illt . Archz ol. Journ 1870- 1. p . For Felim O

'

conor men Ofany klnd’ thoughsee joyce

'

s Short History ofIreland.p. 391. (Two gallo commonly restricted toglasses are also dep icted in fig. 59.p. 121. : ufra .)

a body of soldiers. It

is a collective noun, l ike the English ‘ horse,

’ ‘ foot ,’

‘ infantry ,

’

&c. The word for a single soldier of the

body is ceithemach [keherna] . The kern are a veryancient inst itut ion, as we find them noticed in the

accounts ofthe early battles for instance, in that oftheBattle ofMoyrath,

fought A.D. 637,they are ment ioned

more than once(pp . 141, 267, 350) and they continued in

O'

Donovan,Three Fragm .

,20 1

,209 .

t Silva Gad.,Pref. xxii.

CHAR. IV] W ARFARE 147

use t ill late t imes,for they figure very much in the Irish

wars ofthe Tudors.

The gal loglasses, or galloglack, as they are called inIrish, appear only ln later t imes —after the Anglo- Norman

Invasion. They are not met with m ancient Irish writ ings.

They were heavy- armed infantry,wearing a coat ofmai l

and an iron helmet,with a long sword by the side, and

carrying in the hand a broad ,heavy

,keen- edged axe.

They are usual ly described as large- l imbed,tall

,and fierce

looking. It is almost certain that the galloglasses,and the

mode ofequ ipping them ,were imitated from the Engl ish .

So Spenser says— and O’

Donovan agrees with him For

gall - ogla signifies an English servitour or yeoman,in

which Spenser is quite correct . Irish, gall, an English

man dglach, a youth or

Commanders — In ancient t imes the commanders com

monly fought side by side with their men. But somet imes

the wiser plan was adopted , ofplacing the general aside insome commanding station to direct the tactics T It was

customary for the commanders, just before the battle, to

go from battal ion to battal ion and address their men in a

few inspiring words, ofwhich there are many examplesin the histories and tales }:Trumpets — The Irish constantly used bronz e war

trumpets in battle , as will be found ment ioned in the

chapter on Music . At the Batt le ofBallaghmoon,A.D.

908 ,in which CormacMac Cullenan was killed ,

trumpetswere blown,

and signals were given for batt le by the men

of There is a curious not ice of the use of

battle- trumpets in Ireland in a gloss or commentary on

Spenser’

s View,117 to 119 . See Ware

,Ant iq q .

,161 and Sent

leger’s account ofkern and gal loglasses in Moyrath , 350 .

1‘ Ofwhich examp les may b e seen in Keat .

,272 , 364 Rev . Cel t .

,x11.

89 , 9 3 , 97 : Silva Gad., 541.

I See Stokes, Lives ofSS.,2 38 joyce, Short H ist ,

2 17(Brian Bornat Clontarf) Three Fragm .

,19 1 .

Three Fragm , 207 see also in same,19 1 andMan. 8: Cust .

,1. 344.

148 GOVERNMENT , MILITARY SYSTEM , AND LAW [PART1

St . Paul ’s First Epistle to the Corinthians, xiv. 8 —wri ttenon the Cont inent in the eighth century by an Irishman in

his nat ive language , from which it appears that the trum

peters had different notes or musical phrases to directdifferent movements The following is Dr. Stokes’

s translat ion ofthis note This is another simil itude which hehas— even a sim ili tude ofa trumpet for i t hath manysounds , and different is each of them : to wit

,it is

different for battle, different for unyoking , or for marching, or for sleep , or for council . Unless the man who

sounds i t dist inguish— that is, i f he make but one note— what i t is sounded for is not

W ar- Cries.— The armies charged with a great Shoutcalled barrdn-

glacd,warrior- shout ,

’

a custom which con

t inned unt il late t imes. The different tribes and clanshad also special war- cries , which are noticed by W are

Ant iq q . ,and by Spenser The Anglo

Normans fell in with this custom , as they did with many

others. The war- cry ofthe O’

Neills was Lamb - da g aboo,

i.e. theRed- hand to victory (lamh, pron. lauv , a handfrom the figure ofa bloody hand on their crest or cog

nisance : that ofthe O’

Briens and MacCarthys, Lamhlaz

'

dir aboo,

‘

the Strong - hand to victory ’ pron.

lauder,‘

strong The Kildare Fitz Geralds took as their

cry Crom aboo, from the great Geraldine castle ofCrom or

Croom in Limerick ; the Earl ofDesmond , Shaull aboo,

from the castle ofShanid in Limerick . The Butlers’

cry

was Butler aboo. Most ofthe other chiefs , both nat ive andAnglo - Irish ,

had their several cries. Mart in found thiscustom among the people ofthe Hebrides in 1703(p . 104)and in Ireland war- cries cont inued in use to our own day

I heard them scores of t imes in the fact ion fights of

Limerick sixty years ago. Though our knowledge of

these cries is derived mostly from late Anglo- Irish

Stokes and Strachan,Thesaur us

,I . 577. See also Dr. W m . Stokes’

s

Life ofPetrie, 330 ; and Zimmer

,G loss . H ib .

, 78 , ,9 _

150 GOVERNMENT , M ILITARY SYSTEM ,AND LAW [PART I

Ireland among themselves, A.D. 851, the victors piled up

a great cam ofDanish heads on the field.* This pract ice

by the Irish is so often ment ioned that it is needless togive instances. Hence also the carnage in battle is oftendesignated dr- cenn [awr- cann] , a slaughter ofheads.

’

T It

should be remarked that the Irish did not kill the wounded ,

but brought them from the field ofbattle as prisoners. An

instance may be seen in the Four Masters under A .D. 864,

when Aed Finnliath ,king ofIreland , having defeated the

Danes , made a heap ofthe heads ofthe slain, and had the

wounded conveyed away to a place ofsafety .

W henever a king or chiefwas defeated andSlain inbattle,he was usually decapitated and i t was a custom for the

victorious king to sit upon the head or place i t under histhigh by way of triumph . W hen Archbishop CormacMacCullenan,

king ofMunster, was Slain in the Battle of

Ballaghmoon, A .D. 908 ,some persons brought his head

, afterthe bat tle, to the victorious King Flann Sinna, thinking itwould be an acceptable presentat ion : and they saidLi fe and heal th , 0 victorious king here is the head of

Cormac for thee and now, as is customary with kings,raise thy thigh and place this head under i t and press i tdown . But the king was very angry with them and

instead of showing disrespect to the head , took it up

tenderly ,and kissing it three t imes, sent i t back to be

interred honourably with the This atrocious custom ,

as Keat ing ’

s translator, O’Mahony, calls it , existed in a

st ill more savage form in early times. Conall Gernach ,

the inveterate enemy ofConnaught , killed at least one

Connaughtman every day, and never slept without thehead ofa Connaught enemy under his knee(fo 0

O’

Donovan,Three Fragm ,

117. On Decapitation : see D’

Arbois

de Jubainvil le,La Civil . des Celtes, pp. 374

-

377.

1' In Zeitschr. fiir Celt . Phil . , 111. 207, Stokes interprets dr rend, as a

slaugh t er ofchiefs,

’

which the context here favours. But I think itgeneral ly carries the sense ofdecapitat ion. 1O

’Donov .,Three Fragm .,

2 13 Keat ., 530 . § LL,

107, a, 22 and Atkinson,Introd.

,27, a.

CHAR. Iv] WARFARE 151

Treatment ofPrisoners — It was the custom ,except

under circumstances that rendered it improper, inconvenient , or undesirable, to fet ter or manacle prisoners or

captives taken in war, Slaves, and occasionally hostages.

W e know that a person might b e taken in bondage in distraint for a debt and such a person was often secured bya gyve and lock . The law permitted this but i f the chainwas t ightened so as to cause pain there was a penalty .1

‘

In another part ofthe Senchus Mor a lock to secure thegyves of an imported slave is A captivetaken in battle was almost always secured by a fet ter

(culbhrech) and such a person was commonly given overto a keeper, whose business i t was to guard against escape.

Some fetters were recognised by law,and some not and

when the Book ofAicill lays down rules as to how far thekeeper was responsible in law for damages, in case the

captive should make his escape, or for crimes committedby him after escaping , the sort offetters used was takeninto account .§W hen Murkertagh of the Leather Cloaks made his

circui t round Ireland , A .D. 941, he brought away manykings and chiefs as capt ives, several ofwhom were fettered .

Cormacan Ecces, .the writer of the poet ical account of

the expedition, says W e carried offwith us Lorcan,

descendant ofBresal ofthe Cows a rough bright fetter

(gelmz’ul or gelmheal) was fastened on that arch - king of

populous In the case ofsome kings,fetters

were not considered necessary on this occasion and thisis ment ioned as a mark ofdist inct ion or considerat ion

Concobhar, the arch—king of Connaught ,”— says

Cormacan exceeding brave,came with us without a

bright fet ter.

”

Of the material and manner of fastening fetters,

Page 202,infra. 1Br. Laws, I . 111.

1Br. Laws,1. 143. § I bid.

,111. 499 .

llO’

Donovan,Circuit , 39 .

152 GOVERNMENT , M ILITARY SYSTEM ,AND LAW [PART I

whether used on prisoners ofwar or otherwise, we getvarious glimpses in the old narrat ives. W hen Callaghan,

king ofCashel , was brought away captive by Murkertagh ,

there was put a ring offi fteen ounces on his hand , and

a chain(idh) ofiron on his stout W henDichletheO

’

Triallaigh attempted to go away on a dangerous pilgrimage ,

his brothers took him and fettered him ,placing [a

chain secured by] a lock ofiron between his head andhis

feet . TModes ofSubmission— A king who was about to submit

to another usually came to the superior king ’

s residence ,

and,after the formal it ies Ofreception, indicated his sub

mission by placing his hand in the hand ofhis host .1But when the submission was brought on directly by defeatin bat tle,

i t was usually ofa more humiliat ing kind . In

the seventh century , Dermot , one ofthe two joint kingsofIreland , and Guaire , king ofConnaught , quarrelled .

Guaire was defeated , and made submission at the point

of the sword . Th is was usually done in the followingmanner —

’

D1e person submitt ing lay supine, while hisconqueror inserted the point ofa sword or spear between

his teeth ,and held i t there as long as it pleased him

somet imes for an hour or more— when he released himfrom the degrading posit ion.§ It was somet imes called

giallad frz'

claideb, submission by or giallad do

rz’

nn gal, submission at the spear’

s point .’ This sameceremony was somet imes used , nine centuries later, by

the English deput ies ofthe t ime ofEl izabeth ,when they

forced Irish chiefs to submit .

Single Combat .— Among the Irish , as well as among the

Gauls'll and other ancient peoples, men Often challenged

O’

Donovan,Circuit , 45 . t O

’

Donovan, HyF, 39 .

iMoylena, 55 , bot tom .

§ Silva Gad., 424 , line 5 , bot tom ,

and 434 : Keat ., 436. How the

Irish kings submit ted to Henry II . may b e seen in Ware,Ant iq q .

,186

but this was not a humiliat ing ceremony.

LU,116

,b, 28 . 1] SeeDe Jubainvil le, La Civil , des Celtes, p. 6 cl seq .

154 GOVERNMENT ,M ILITARY SYSTEM , AND LAW [PART I

for damages i f both were fighting legally or both illegally,

they paid equal shares if one was fighting legally and the

other i l legally ,the i llegal combatant paid the larger share.

So far as I can make sense ofthis part Ofthe Book Of

Aicill, a man fought legally i f he had no other mode of

settling the case ,and il legally i f he had.

* The correctnessof this interpretat ion is rendered pret ty certain by a

passage in another Brehon Law tract (v . 477, whichment ions as a proceeding liable to penal ty ,

to proclaim a

combat [i.e. to send a challenge] without offering to

submit to law.

Certain formal it ies , both before and during a singlecombat , had to be complied with . There should be at

least one witness, who , in some respects, corresponded withthe seconds in the duel oflater times and an interval offive days should elapse between the challenge and the fighttwo wise arrangements. Ifthe combat was to decide a case

,

i t was necessary that each combatant should give verbalsecuri ty ,

before the witness or witnesses , that he wouldabide by the result ofthe fight in the set tlement j

'

A typical case Of single combat is quoted in the

Senchus Mor. Two great Red Branch champions, Conall

Cernach and Laegaire the Vi ctorious, on one occasion met ,

quarrelled ,andwere ready to fight on the spot , in allexcept

the presence ofa witness, for whom they were wait ing. A

woman happened to come up ,and, seeing them likely to

fall on each other, demanded that the fight should be putoff t ill a witness (a man) was procured . To this bothagreed but as the length ofpostponement was not fixed ,

they had to refer the case to Concobar and his brehonSencha, who fixed on five days. It would appear that thiscase regulated all other single combats so that when twomen challenged each other, they had to wait for five daysbefore fight ingi

Br. Laws, 111. 2 37 to 2 41. 1I bid.,Iv . 33 , text and G loss.

t z‘

d.,

FIG 66.—Ornament composed from the Book ofKells.

CHAPTER V

STRUCTURE OF SOCIETY

SECTION 1. Fire main Classes ofPeople.

HE lay people were divided into classes,from the king down to the slave, and

the Brehon law took cogniz ance of

all— sett ing forth their rights,dut ies,

and privileges. The leading , though notthe sole, qual ification to confer rank was

property the rank being , roughly speaking ,in proport ion

to the amount .* These Classes were not castes for, undercertain conditions, persons could pass from one to the nextabove, always provided his character was unimpeachable.

The social subdivision ofthe people as given in some

ofthe law tracts is very minute and art ificial : we may

adopt here the broad classificat ion outlined by O ’

Curry ,

which has been followed by Dr. Richey , the editor ofthe

third and fourth volumes Ofthe Brehon Laws :Tnamely ,

Fivemain classes — 1. Kings ofseveral grades, from the

king ofthe tuath or cantred up to the king ofIreland2 . Nobles

,which class indeed included kings : 3 . Non

As to rank depending on property ,see the Crith Gabhlach and it s

Seq uel in Br. Laws,vol. IV . and in the same V OL, p . 377, lines 32 , 33

p . 381, 1. 2 0 ; 383, l . 18 ; 387, l . 2 1 vol. 43 , 34, 35 and O’

Curry,

Man. Cust .,1. 34 .

t O’

Curry, Man. Cust .,11. 25 ; Richey on B1. Laws, Iv. cxcix.


noble Freemen with property : 4. Non- noble Freemenwithout property , or with some

,but not sufficient to place

them among the class next above : 5. The non- freeclasses. The first three— Kings, Nobles, non- noble Freemen with property— were the privileged classes a personbelonging to these was an aire [arra] or chief . Kingshave been treated ofin chapter i ii .

2 . Flaiths or Nobles.

The Nobles were those who had land as their own

propert y , for which they did not pay rent they were theowners ofthe soil— the aristocracy. Part ofthis land theyheld in their own hands and t illed by the labour ofthe

non- free classes : part they let to tenants , as will beexplained in chapter V ii. An aire ofthis class was calleda Flai th [flah] , i.e. a noble , a chief , a prince. The flail/1s

or nobles were sharply dist inguished from the non-nobleclass next under them .

There were several ranks ofnobles, the rank dependingchiefly on the amount oflanded property“ The tuath, as

already explained ,was under the government Ofthe head

noble,who was the 71

°

or king ; and to him all the othernobles of the tuath owed allegiance and tribute. The

highest rank ofnoble, next to the tanist of the king ,

was the hire- forgaill : he should have at least twenty saer

tenants and twenty daer tenants (see. p . 189 below)and he had to answer to the king for the character of

the nobles and others under him . He was a high - classmagistrate , and presided at the making ofcovenants, andsaw them carried out , in which capacity he was termedMac-Nascaz

’

re [Mac Naskera] , i.e. Surety -Man and he

had 100 armed men to attend on himon all state occasions. One ofhis funct ions was to determine the status,privileges, and dut ies ofthe several nobles andfunct ionaries

about the king’

s court .

158 GOVERNMENT,M ILITARY SYSTEM , AND LAW [PART I

bo- aircs were magistrates, and as such presided in court orat the az

’

bz’

nn meetings(see vol. II . pp . 449 , 450) in the dis

charge ofsome legal funct ions and for this they had certain allowances and privileges according to rank(Br. Laws,iv . Among their perquisites were a share in the

mill and in the kiln ofthe district , and fees for witnessingcontracts andfor other legal functions . There were severalranks ofbo- aires according to the amount ofproperty.

The Aire- coisringor binding- Chief was the highest ofthe bo- aires. He was the leader and representat ive ofall

his fine? or kindred , andwas expected to be able to give an

account oftheir conduct and obedience to the laws whenoccasion arose. In case of complaint or accusat ion he

answered for them to the king ofthe tuath, having previously invest igated the case(Br. Laws, Iv. Hencehe was also called the Aire- fine [arra- finna] or family

This custom cont inued down to the sixteenthcentury , and came under the notice ofSpenser(V iew ,

who calls it kin- cogish and according to him it was transferred to the Anglo- Irish statute book in his own t ime

during the reign ofElizabeth

Another statute I remember, which having been an auncient

Irish custome,is now upon advisement made a law

,and that is cal led

the custome of kin- cogish ,which is

,that every head of every sept ,

and every chiefe of every kindred or family, should b e answereable

and bound to bring foorth every one of tha t sept and kindred under

it at all t imes to be just ified,when he should b e req uired or charged

with any treason,felony, or other havnous crime.

Spenser’

s anglicised form kin- cogz’

sh represents correctlythe sound ofthe Irish name ofthis custom , cenn

- comhfhoguls,the head ofkindred ,

’ from cenn,head ,

’

and comkflzogus

[cogus] , consanguinity or relat ionship, gen. comhfhogm

’

s,

pron. cogish q‘

The Fer- fothla was a rich bo- az’

ra who,having more

stock than he was able to graz e,hired them out as taurcrec

O'

Curry, Man. Cust .,I. 36. 1Br. Laws, 1. 106, 107.

CHAR. v] STRUCTURE OF SOCIETY 159

to others (daer- céiles : see p . 189 ,farther on), who thus

became his dependents. He held a very high posit ion as

a member ofsociety and as a magistrate, almost equal tothe Alre- colsrz

'

ng. Ifa Fer-folkla or an Alre- coz'

srz'

ng couldprove that he had twice as much property as was requiredfor the lowest rank Ofnoble(the Alre—elesa), and compliedwith certain other condit ions and formal it ies

,and also

provided his father and grandfather had been az'

res who

owned land , he was himsel f ent itled to take rank as an

Al'

fe- desa noble.

* The Bragh-fer, Bragaz

’

d, or Briuga was

an interest ing official ofthe bo- az’

re class he was a publichospitaller as well as a magistrate he and his offi ce willbe treated ofin chapter xxi .(vol. II . p . The lowest inrank ofthe non- noble az

’

res was the Ogaire, i.e. junior- al’

fe,

from the youngness ofhis aireship .

’ Many ofthese weremen who had belonged to the next lower rank offreemen,

and who had accumulated sufficient property to qual i fythem as dg

- az’

res.

The three preceding main classes— kings, nobles, and

bo—ai’

res —were all aires, chiefs, or privileged people : thefirst two being flallhs or noble al

’

res, the third , non- noble

aires, i.e. free tenants, with property suffi cient to ent itlethem to the posit ion ofalre. All three had some partin the government ofthe country and in the administrat ion ofthe law

,as kings

,tanists, nobles, military chiefs,

magistrates, and persons otherwise in authority and theycommonly wore a flcsc or bracelet on the arm as a mark of

their dignity.TThat the classificat ion of chiefs into these various

grades was a real ity , and that the several ranks wereseparate and dist inct

, and universally recognised— as

clearly as Just ices Ofthe Peace,

”Resident Magistrates,

”

Deputy Lieutenants,” Lord Lieutenants ofcount ies,

&c. , are now— is proved by the fact that we O ften find

them incidentally referred to,both in the laws and in

Br. Laws, Iv . 315 , 317. 1' Keating, 162 .

160 GOVERNMENT ,MILITARY SYSTEM

,AND LAW [RART I

general l iterature, as being well known and understood .

For instance, in the ancient description ofTara and its

Feis, quoted by Petrie(Tara , 199 , 205) from the Book of

Leinster, six ofthe Chieftain classes— namely , Aire- forgaill,

Aire- érd, Aire- tuisi, Aire—echta , Aire- desa , and Brugaid

are included in the l ist in which are named the numerous

Officials in the great banquet ing hall.

4. Non- noble Freemen without Property .

The next class— the fourth— the freemen with littleor with no property , were céz

'

les or free tenants. Theydiffered from the bo- az

’

res only in not being rich enough torank as az

'

res or chiefs ; for the bo- az'

res were themselvescéiles or rent - payers and accordingly , a man ofthe fourthclass could become a bo- az

’

re i f he accumulated propertyenough the amount being laid down in the Brehon Law.

These céiles or tenants, or free rent - payers— correspondingwith the Old English ceorls or churls— formed the greatbody ofthe farming class. They were called alikech, i.e.

plebeian,

’ farmer,’ peasant ,

’

to dist inguish them fromthe aims or Chieftain grades : and the term féz

'

m'

or féne

[fainé] , which means much the same as az'

llzech, was also

applied to them . Some few members of the feine wereselected by the king to look after the affairs oftheir immediate district , or what we should now call a townland .

These féine — says the G loss on the Law (v. 15, 17)are brugar

’

d- farmers, and the stewards ofkings. Theseare evidently the Officers referred to in the record aboutOllamh Fodla, king ofIreland (FM, A .M. 3922 see p . 69 ,

supra), that he appointed a chief over every tricha- che’

d

and a brugaz'

dover every balle or townland . These brugaz’

d

stewards or fe’

z'

ne- stewards cont inued to be appointed and

to exercise their functions down to a late t ime— the t imeofthe glossator ofthe Laws but the exact nature oftheirfunct ions is not known.

162 GOVERNMENT . MILITARY SYSTEM . AND LAW [PART I

5. The Non-free Classes.

SO far we have treated offreemen, that is , those whoenjoyed all the rights of the tribe,

ofwhich the most

important was the right to the use ofa port ion Ofthe

tribeland and commons. W e now come to treat ofthe

non- free classes . The term non- free does not necessarilymean servile. The non- free people were those who hadnot the full rights ofthe free people ofthe tribe. Theyhadno claim to any part ofthe tribeland , though they werepermitted , under strict condit ions, to t ill l it tle plotsformeresubsistence. This was by far the most serious oftheir disabilit ies. Except under very exceptional circumstancesthey could not enter into contracts. Yet some just icewas done to them ; for i f a freeman made a forbiddencontract with a non- free person,

the former was punished ,

while the non- free man had to be compensated for any

loss,he incurred by the transaction.

* Their standingvaried , some being absolute Slaves, some l ittle removedfrom slavery , and others far above it .The non- free people were of three classes, who are

dist inguished in the law and called by different namesthe Bothaoh, the Senoleithe, and the Fudir. The personsbelonging to the first two were herdsmen, labourers,squatters on waste lands, horse- boys, hangers- on, and

jobbers ofvarious kinds— all poor and dependent . But

they enjoyed one great advantage they were part ofthetribe,

though debarred from most ofits rights and conse

quently they could claim to l ive within the territory and tosupport themselves by their labour.

The third class— the Fadirs— were the lowest ofthe

three. They were not members ofthe tribe,and conse

quently had no right of residence, though they werepermitted by the chief to l ive within the territory ,

from '

which,however, they might be expelled at any moment .

Br. Laws, 11. 289 .


A fadz'

r was commonly a stranger, a fugit ive from some

other territory , who had by some misdeed , or for any other

reason,broken with his tribe— who had become kin

wrecked ,as they expressed it in W ales— and fled from

his own chief to another who permitted him to settle on

a port ion Ofthe unappropriated commons land . But men

becamefudlrs in other ways, as we shal l see. Any freeman

might give evidence against a fudz'

r : but the fudlr could

not give evidence in reply .

* W hen a facile obtained a

settlement from a flallh or lord , he— or his family afterhim— might leave during the l i fe ofthat lord and ofhis

two successors, but could take nothing away . But i f he

or they remained on voluntarily t ill they came under a

fourth lord ,they were no longer free to leave they were

bound to the soil adscripti glebae.

”

jThe fadirs were of two classes, a higher and a lower

,

called saer—fadlr, or freefadir, anddaer-fuclz'

r, or bondfadz'

r.

The saer-fadlrs were so called , not because they were freemen

,which they were not , but to indicate that they were

not under the heavy bondage ofthe lower class. Theywere those who were free from crime

,and who,

comingvoluntarily into the district , were able to get moderatelyfavourable terms when taking land from the chief. The

lord was responsible for his fadz'

rs. If a fudz'

r or any

member Ofhis family committed a crime,the lord had to

pay the damage and, on the other hand ,i f anyone injured

a fadir, the compensat ion was paid to the lord ;L

Some ofthe saer- fudz’

r tenants who accumulated wealthwere much better circumstanced than the general body.

Ifthere were five ofthem under one chief , each possessingat least 100 head ofcattle, they might enter into partnership so as to answer for each other’

s l iabilit ies. In this casethey enjoyed privileges that put them almost on a level

Br. Laws. 111. 131, 133 note .

TO’

Curry , MS. Mat,655 : B r. Laws

,IV . 2 83 and note v. 5 13.

1; Br. Laws,Y . 513 .

164 GOVERNMENT , M ILITARY SYSTEM , AND LAw [PART I

with the céz'

les or free tenants. They had a share in the

tribeland and in the commons they took stock from the

chief , and paid bialad or food - rent (for which see p . 191,

infra). They paid their part ofany fines that fell on thesept on account Ofthe crimes ofindividuals ; they tooktheir Share Ofany property left to thefineor sept like theordinary tenants and their chief

, or representat ive man,

was qualified to be of the rank of bo- aire. But thesemust have been rare exceptions.

The daer-fudz'

rs— the lowest and most dependent of

all— were escaped criminals, captives taken in bat tle or

raids from other districts or other countries, convictsrespited from death , persons sentenced to fine and unableto pay, purchased slaves , &c. Some daer-fudz

'

rs were mere

Slaves : and those who were not were l it tle better. Yet

their lot was not hopeless the law favoured their emanci

pat iou a daer-fadz'

r could become a saer-fadir in courseOft ime under certain conditions. The settlement offudz

’

rs

was disl iked by the community and discouraged by the

Brehon law :Tfor it curtailed the commons land ; and

while i t tended to lower the status ofthe tribe,it raised

the power ofthe chief , who in cases ofdispute could bringall his ludirs into the field . Any social disturbance, such

as rebellion,invasion,

civil war,&c. , in which many were

driven from their homes and beggared ,tended to increase

the number ofthe fudz'

rs. The terms on which thefudz’

rs

were permitted to t ill the soil will be told in chapter vii

section 4(p .

It has been said that some ofthe lowest Ofthe fadlrswere downright slaves. That slavery pure and simple

existed in Ireland in early t imes we know from the law

books as well as from history and that it cont inued to a

comparat ively late period is proved by the test imony of

Giraldus Cambrensis, who relates that it was a common

Br. Laws, Iv . 39 , 43 ; v . 515 : Sul livan,Introd.

,158 .

TMaine, Anc. Inst .,175 .

166 GOVERNMENT , M ILITARY SYSTEM , AND LAW [PART 1

property ofthe purchaser,the child

,When born,

belongedto the seller * The usual word for a slave was Mog,

Mogh,or Mug.

6. Groups ofSociety.

The people were formed into groups ofvarious siz es,from the family upwards. The Family was the group consist ing ofthe l iving parents and all their descendants. TheSept was a larger group , descended from common parentslong since dead but this is an imported word

,brought into

use in comparat ively late t imes. All the members ofa

sept were nearly related , and in later t imes bore the samesurname. The Clan or house was st il l larger. Claim

means children,

’

and the word therefore implied descentfrom one ancestor. The Tribe (tuath) was made up of

several septs , clans ,or houses, and usually claimed

,l ike

the subordinate groups , to be descended from a common

ancestor. The adoption ofstrangers into the family or

clan was common but it required the consent ofthe fineor circle of near relat ions— formally given at a courtmeeting ;Tand the persons adopted hadnot the full rightsofordinary freemen members ,

especially as regarded land .

An adopted person was called Mac Faosma , l iterally son

ofprotect ion.

’

Sometimes not only individuals, but smallertribes, who for any reason hadmigrated from their originalhome,

were adopted who were then known as fine

taecuir, i.e. a family taken under protection.

’

i From all

this i t will be seen that in every tribe there was much

admixture and the theory Ofcommon descent became a

fiction,except for the leading families , who preserved their

descent pure and kept a careful record oftheir genealogy.

Stokes,Lives OfSS.

,Pref,

cxii.

t Br. Laws , Iv . 61, 2 89 : Sul l ., Introd.,131.

Br. Laws, Iv . 61, , 9 ; 63 , top ; 285 , 25 ; 2 87, , 6 ; 2 89 , last par.

For Faosam,see Fc- essam in Windisch ,

W ort erbuch : Faosamh in

O’

Donovan, Supplem . to O’

R. : Stokes, Rev . Celt .,111. 97 : see Taear in

O’

Donovan,Supplem and Fine- taeeuir in Atkinson’

s G loss. Br. Laws .


Thus‘

the tribe became a mere local association ofpeople,occupying a definite district and bound together bycommon customs, by common interests, by living under

one ruler, and in some degree by the fict ion of'

descent

from one common ancestor. Each member had to bear

his part ofthe obligat ions and l iabilit ies ofthe tribe for

instance,he had to contribute to the support ofOld people

who had no children to take care ofthem ,and the whole

sept or fine were l iable for the fines or debts ofany in

dividuals who absconded or were unable to pay. NO

individual was free to enter into any contracts affect ingthe tribe for example,

he was restricted by certain con

ditions when he wished to sell his land .

*

The word fine [finna] is loosely applied to almost any

subdivision ofsociety , from the tribe in its largest sense

down to a small group consisting ofmembers Ofthe same

family. In its most usual applicat ion it meant a group of

persons,related by blood Within certain recognised degrees

ofconsanguinity , all residing in the same neighbourhood .

The members Ofa fine in this sense had certain rights incommon

,andwere subj ect to certain l iabilit ies —allaccord

ing to well -established customs.

W hen the tribal community comprised a large populat ion occupying an extensive district

,i t O ften got the

designat ion Cinel [Kinel] , st ill implying— l ike clan— descentfrom a common ancestor. Thus the Kinel - Owen

, who

possessed the principal ity ofTir—Owen,and were supposed

to b e descended from Owen,son ofNiall of the Nine

Hostages, were ruled by one ofthe O’

Neills,and included

the septs of O’

Cahan,Mac Quillan

,O

’

Flynn,and many

others , each governed by a flailh or chief who was tributaryto O

'

Neill. The tribe organisat ion was not peculiar to

Ireland it existed among all the Aryan nations in theirearly stages.

Br. Laws,II . 283 ; III . 55 ; IV . 129 . On the Mutual Obligations

oft ribe and individuals,see also Br. Laws

,1,69 , 71,

F IG 67.—O rnament on le ather case ofBook ofArmagh. From Pet rie '

s Round Towers.

CHAPTER VI

THE BREIION LA\VS

SECTION 1. The Brehons.

formed a most important factor both in publicand private l i fe in ancient Ireland . The nat ivelegal system , as briefly outl ined in this and thenext two chapters, existed in its fulness beforethe ninth century . It was somewhat disturbedthe Danish and Anglo- Norman invasions, and

st ill more by the English settlement but i t cont inued inuse til l finally abol ished in the beginning ofthe seventeenthcentury . In these three chapters I merely attempt to give

a popular Sketch ofthe main features ofthe Brehon Laws,devoid oftechnical legal terms.

In Ireland a judge was called a brehon,

* whence the

nat ive Irish law is commonly known as the Brehon

Law but its proper designat ion is Fénechas, i.e. the

law ofthe Fe’

ine or Fe’

ne, or free land - t illers(p . 161,supra).

According to Cormac’

s G lossary (p . az'

erere [3 - syll .)is another name for a brehon.

The brehons had absolutely in their hands the interpre

tation ofthe laws and the application ofthem to individual

Irish brethem,modern breitheamh [b rehev] this takes an n in the

genit ive and dat ive— bretheman,brethemain

, pron. brehoon,from which '

comes the Anglo - Irish brehon.

170 GOVERNMENT . M ILITARY SYSTEM ,AND LAW [RART I

the course,he might set up as a brehon or judge proper, a

consult ing lawyer, an advocate, or a law- agent . Besidesthis special study in technical law,

a brehon should qual ifyas a shanachie or historian just as in our day professionalstudents have to qual ify in certain l iterary or scient ific sub

jects not immediately connected with their special l ines.

In later ages the legal profession tended to become hereditary in certain families, some ofwhom were attached tokings or chiefs, though all, or at least the high - class mem

bers ofthe profession, had to comply with the condi tionsas to t ime and study No person

,says the Senchus

Mor, is qual ified to plead a cause at the high court unless

he is skilled in every department oflegalIn very early t imes the brehon was regarded as a. mys

terious , hal f- inspired person, anda divine power kept watchover his pronouncements to punish him for unjust judgments W hen the brehons deviated from the truth of

nature,there appeared blot ches upon their cheeks. T The

great brehon,Morann, son ofCarbery Kinncat (king of

Ireland in the first century), wore a sin [sheen] or collar

round his neck ,which t ightened when he del ivered a false

judgment , and expanded again when he del ivered the trueone. All this agrees with the whole tenor ofIrish Literature,

whether legendary , legal , or historical , which showsthe great respect the Irish entertained for just ice pure and

simple according to law,and their horror ofunjust deci

sions i It was the same at the most ancient period as it

was in the beginning ofthe seventeenth century , when SirJohn Davies, the Irish attorney - general ofJames I.

,test i

fied For there is no nation ofpeople under the sunne

that doth love equal] and indi fferent [i.e. impart ial]justice better then the Irish or will rest better sat isfied

Br. Laws, II . 89 .

1Br. Laws,1. 2 5 ; also Iv . 9 , not e 2 15 , last par. 17.

1In il lust rat ion ofthis see also Br. Laws,Iv. 53 and Claenfearta

in O'

Grady, Silva Gad.,2 88 see also 357, 358 , same book.

CHAR. V I] THE BREHON LAWS

with the execut ion thereof, although it b ee against themselves so as they may have the protect ion and benefitofthe law,

when uppoa just cause they do desire But

later on the Penal Laws changed all that,and turned

'

the

Irish natural love ofjust ice into hatred and distrust oflaw,

which inmanyways cont inues to mani fes t i tself to this day.

The brehons evidently took great pleasure in the

study and pract ice oftheir profession and we frequentlyfind the law designated as pleasant and del ightful know

and such l ike . There are indicat ions everywhere

in'

the law tracts that they appl ied themselves diligently tomaster details and clear up doubtful points and taking a

broad View ofthe whole subj ect , as i t is presented to us in

the books, we cannot avoid concluding that— in the wordsofSull ivan(Introd .

, 273) the profession oflaw appearsto have been in a singularly advanced stage oforganisat ion for so early a period .

In the beginning every filé or poet was also a brehon or

judge for, from the t ime that Amergin ofthe white knee,

the poet , del ivered the first judgment in Erin,i t was to the

files or poets alone that belonged the right ofpronouncingjudgments, unt il the disputation ofthe two poetsFercerlneand Neiclhe

”3: It happened during the reign ofConcobar

MacNessa that these two sages had to argue a point inpublic , while Concobar himsel f was present l istening and

their language was so highly technical that neither the kingnor the chiefs could understand them whereupon the

privilege ofjudicature was taken from the poets and com

mit ted to the hands Ofspecial judges and the legal proiession, instead ofbeing confined to the poets

,was thrown

opento all who could qual ify . This tradition probablycommemorates a reform at some very early t ime

,by which

legal pronouncements came to be expressed in language

This is the concluding sent ence ofDavies’

though tful and valuableessay ,

A discoverie Ofthe True Causes.

”&c. Davies was an Englishman.

1“ Br. Laws

,Iv . 2 1

, , 5, 26. 1O’

Curry ,MS.Mat

, 45 Br. Laws,1. 19 .

I 72 GOVERNMENT,MILITARY SYSTEM

,AND LAW [PART I

much less technical than before, so that all intelligent persons might understand them .

* Several great lawyers are

commemorated in the traditions, among whom ,i t is worthy

ofremark, some women are included .

The Brehon Law that applied to all Ireland was calledCdi-n Law

,to distinguish it from Urratlus L

'

aw [urra - us] ,which was a special local law or custom applying only tothe province or district where it was in force. It was the

business ofthe brehon to know when to i ng a case underthe one, andwhen under the other, and to apply the properrules in each case.

2 . The Seize/ ms Mar and other Books ofLaw.

The brehons had collections of laws in volumes (1

tracts , all in the Irish language ,by which they regulated

their judgments,and which those ofthem who kept law

schools expounded to their scholars each tract treating ofone subject or one group Ofsubjects. Many ofthese havebeen preserved , and oflate years the most important havebeen published , with translat ions

,forming five printed

volumes (with a sixth consisting ofa valuable Glossaryto the preceding five, by Dr. Atkinson

,the editor ofthe

fi fth volume). Ofthe tracts contained in these volumes,

the two largest and most important are the Sanchas Mor

[Shanahus More] and the Book ofAcaill In a

popular sense, it may be said that the Senchus M61 ischiefly concerned with the Irish civil law,

and the BookofAcaill with what is now known as the criminal law and

the law relat ing to personal injuries.

In the ancient Introduct ion to the Senchus MOrTthefollowing account is given Ofits original compilat ion. In

the year 438 A .D. a collection ofthe pagan laws was madeat the request OfSt . Patrick , and the whole Féneehas Code

For an example ofthe legal hard language see Cormac’

s G lossary,102

,under Lethcch . 1Br. Laws

,1. 3 cl seq .


Law ofthe Letter being The Patriarchal Law [theOld Testament ] and the New Testament . But the Law

ofthe Letter evidently included the numerous Canonicalrules laid down by Patrick and his successors, which ad

justed the relat ions ofthe Church to the lay community ,

allofwhich were new.

* The commentator ofthe SenchusMOT adds that the over- severity ofthe law was takenfrom it , namely ,

the oldlaw ofretal iat ion, an eyefor an

eye ,

’

&c which existed in the Mosaic Law(Lev . xxiv .

19, 20) and in the Irish Law before Patrick ’

s t ime : all

which was expunged , and the milder law ofcompensation subst ituted . But i t is probable that this last reformhad been gradually coming into use, and was formallyconfirmed in the Senchus Mor.

The very book left by St . Patrick and the others hasbeen long lost . Successive copies were made from time tot ime

,with commentaries and explanat ions appended, t ill

he manuscripts we now possess were produced . The

exist ing manuscript copies of the Senchus Mor consistof —1. The original text , written in a large hand withwide spaces between the l ines 2 . An introduction to thetext : 3 . Commentaries on the text

,in a smaller hand

4 . G losses or explanat ions on words and phrases Ofthe

text , in a hand st ill smaller ; commentaries and glossescommonly wri tten in the spaces between the l ines ofthe

text , but often in the margins. Of these the text , as

might be expect ed ,is the most ancient . The language

is extremely archaic , indicat ing a very remote antiquity,

though probably not the very language left by the revisingcommittee,

but a modified version ofa later t ime.

The Senchus Mor is referred to ,as a well - known work ,

in Cormac ’s Glossary ,written in the end ofthe ninth or

the beginning ofthe tenth century and many ofits law

t erms had then become obsolete, and are explained in .the

G lossary . As showing the substantial identity - oi the work

See also Br. Laws,111. 27 bot ., and 29 top.

CHAR. VI] THE BREHON LAWS 175

referred to in this Glossary with the present exist ing copyofthe Senchus M61, it may b e ment ioned that most Of

the cases, passages, and terms cited in the G lossary are

found in the lately printed text . Another law tract , theBretha Nemed(the Laws ofthe Privileged Classes frombrelh

,judgment , pl . brelha ; and nemed, a person ofthe

higher or Chieftain classes), is repeatedly referred to and

quoted in the same old Glossary .

The Introduction comes next in point ofant iquity ;and the Commentaries and G losses are the least ancient ofall. Introduct ion,

Commentaries, and G losses(such as we

have them) were written or copied by different learnedlawyers at various t imes from the beginning ofthe fourteenth down to the sixteenth century the language beingoften much older than the writ ing . The manuscript copiesofthe Book ofAcailland ofsome other law tracts resemblethose ofthe Senchus M61, the original texts being accom

panied by Introduct ion,Commentaries, and G losses. In

the printed volumes all these are translated, and the

different siz es ofthe penmanship are marked by differentsiz es oftype , both in the Irish and in the translat ion.

It is probable that in very ancient t imes all laws werein verse.

* This was evidently the case with the originalSenchus MOT, for we are told by the commentators that atthe compilat ion Dub thach put a thread ofpoetry round itfor Patrick :Tand we know that the archaic pagan codeexpounded by Dub thach was i tsel f in The Old

form has t o some extent survived in the law tracts, forcertain portions ofthe exist ing version ofthe SenchusMorare in verse.

The laws were writ ten in the Oldest dialect ofthe Irishlanguage, called Be

’

rla Féiiii, which even at the t ime was

so diffi cult that persons about to become brehons had tobe Specially instructed in it . Even the authors of the

Maine, Anc. Inst .,14 . TBr. Laws

,1. 23 , 25 .

1Br. Laws, 1. 39 , m ,


Commentaries and G losses who wrote hundreds ofyearsago,

andwere themselves learned brehons, were Often quiteat fault in their attempts to explain the archaic text and

their words show that they were fully conscious of the

diffi culty. It will then be readily understood that the taskoftranslating these Laws was a very diffi cult one, renderedall the more so by the number of technical terms and

phrases, many ofwhich are to this day obscure,as well as

I hclcoa ch

F IG. 68.

Faa imile speclmen of the Senchus Mdr. The four lines ot large text are a part ofthe

Senchus Mdr proper ; and they are to be read in the order. second, first , th ird, fourt h. The

commentary (i.e. the small text) consists ofseventeen lines and, supposing them to be

numbered from top to bot tom. they are to be read in this way z—Begmat hno 8 (whichcomments on the line oflarger text right under it) ; then 7, 6.5 ; part OMand part of3(bothas far as the curve) ; the rest of4 , the rest of3 ; then 2 , 1. Resume at 9 and go on in likemanner—sometimes upwards. some times downwards - to the end : the reader being guided

all through b y the context .

The whole page ofthe MS. ofwhich this is a part is given in photographic facsimile inVol. 11. of the Brehon Laws (Plate and the above passage will be found printed in

proper conwcutive order on page so ofBr. Laws.1.(beginning at line with the t ranslationon page 51(beginnmg at line No Glosses occur on this Facsimile.

by the peculiar style,which is very ell iptical and abrupt

often incomplete sentences, or mere catch - words ofrules

not written down in full , but held in memory by the ex

perts ofthe t ime.

Another circumstance that greatly adds to the difficultyofdeciphering these MSS. is the confused way in which


been forced upon me by the prolonged study ofthesedocuments, that there was a very definite teaching ofanoral kind(ofwhich the present documents only give us

the notes), based upon old tradit ions ofthe t ime whenthe present extant MSS. were committed to writ ing.

So that the existing texts ofthe Senchus Mor and otherlaw tracts are in great part what would now be called .

headings or notes oflectures. a descript ion which anyonewho examines them carefully will recognise as correct .

3 . Absence ofLegislation.

In all countries a part at least ofthe law consists of

customs that have grown up from the immemorial begin

mings ofsociety , corresponding with what is now calledcommon law,

never formally enacted ,but submitted to

by the general body ofthe people from hereditary habi t

and under pressure ofpubl ic opinion. But in countrieswhere the central government has attained sufficient power

to take the law into its own hands, there are superadded

to these a body oflaws specially enacted— statute law as

i t is now called .

Ireland never arrived at , or at least never seriously

entered on,the legislat ivestage in otherwords, no dist inct

legislat ive machinery existed : that is to say, a bodyconvened for the purpose ofmaking laws , with authorityconferred by the state, and with special offi cers to enforce

obedience - a body like our present parl iament . The

resistance ofthe subordinate kings to their nominal supe

riors, and the result ing constant internecine wars, renderedit impossible for any supreme king to command sufficientpower, so that the central government was never strong

enough to have much influence either in the making of

laws or in causing the exist ing laws to be carried out . All

this prevented the idea ofthe state from taking root , and

the people could not look to it for supreme authority or for

protect ion much the same as matters stood in England

CHAP . v i] THE BREHON LAWS 179

in the t ime ofthe Heptarchy . A central state authoritywould have been ultimately developed in Ireland if thedevelopment had not been at first retarded by civil strife,and final ly arrested by the Danish wars and by the AngloNorman invasion.

It has been asserted indeed that one ofthe objects forwhich the Féz

'

s ofTara was convened was to enact lawsbut for this assert ion— which is often enough repeatedthere is no ancient authori ty. W e have very full descript ions ofthis Féis, and also ofthe proceedings at some of

the Aenachs or Fair- meet ings held elsewhere(chap .

But though we find it stated over and over again that atthese assemblies the laws were publicly proclaimed ,

“

or promulgated , or rehearsed — to make the peoplefamiliar with them— that they were revised , or re

arranged , or re affirmed — these several functions beingalways performed by properly qual ified lawyers— there isnowhere any open or plain statement that laws were made

or enacted and sent forth with authority either at the Féis

or at any ofthe Aenachs. As a matter offact,O

’

Curry,

though he bel ieved the Féis ofTara exercised legislat ivefunct ions in their widest sense, acknowledges that he wasunable to find any record ofthe enactment ofany par

ticular law at these TaraFrom the earl iest t imes, however, assemblies were con

vened to del iberate on public questions. Matters oflocal andgeneral interest were discussed andarranged , such as taxes,the making and repairing ofroads

,bridges

,causeways,

boundaries, the rights ofclasses or tribes, andsuch like but

this was not legislat ion. Yet some ofthese meetings madean approach to legislat ive functions as, for instance, thesynod convened at Tara in 697, where, under the influenceofSt . Adamnan,

‘the law exempting women from takingpart in war was agreed on and promulgated . It is not

necessary to quote other examples here : but t hose whoMan. Cust .

,r. 29 .

iSo GOVERNMENT , Mu rrARY SYSTEM,AND LAW [PART 1

wish to study the matter further wil l find in the footnote*

manv other references to records ofsuch assemblies. Meetings ofthis kind at best bore only a faint resemblance tolegislat ive assemblies ; for there existed no authoritat ivemachinery to have the laws carried out , and anyone whochose might refuse to obey them

,without subject ing him

self to any danger ofdirect punishment by the state.

But these historical considerat ions do not go to the

bottom of the subject : the real way to determine the

quest ion is to examine the Laws themselves. W hen wedo this, we find scarce a trace ofany result oflegislat iveaction nothing at all, in fact , resembling statute law. The

ent ire Book ofAcaill,which occupies nearly one large

volume of the Brehon Laws , and which to some extentcorresponds— as has been said— to the present Brit ishcriminal law, consists, as the book itsel f states, ofPre

cedents— the legal pronouncements oftwo learned lawyers,Cormac MacArt and Cennfaela the learned . As to the

SonchusMor, the most important part ofthe whole BrehonCode,

it claims to be merely a revised edition, as alreadystated , ofthe old pagan law in use before the t ime ofSt .

Patrick , ofwhich there is no record ,andno indicat ion, that

any part was ever enacted by a legislat ive assembly. To

what an extent the judgm ents ofthe brehons were regulated by mere precedent or case law is very clearly expressedin Cormac

’

s G lossary (p . 76) under the word Fasash

Pasach [a precedent ormaxim} i.e. the brehon produces

a precedent (cosmaz'les l iterally a l ikeness for everycase in which he adjudicates, i.e. a case similar(cosmaz'l)to another andhe afterwards repeats the sentence whichwise brehons had passed upon it [i.e. upon a case similar

to the case in hands] Or hefollows a good old judgment

for the present case. So also the Commentary on the

Br. Laws, 1. 37(ajudgrnent) 79 81(a judgment) 159 , 2, m .

2 1,last par. 150 , note 2 IV . 2 27 FM

,A .D. 1050(meetingat Kil laloe)

O’

Curry ,MS. Mat , 45, 23

Man. Cust ., r. 30 , mid. and 32 , top .

182 GOVERNMENT,M ILITARY SYSTEM ,

AND LAW [PART I

hammers, .machines , and weapons ofall kinds ; and the

amount ofcompensation is laid down in detail for almost

every possible variety ofinjury .

Contracts or covenants are regarded as pecul iarlysacred ,

and are treated in great detail . There are threeperiods ofevil for the world —Says the SonchusMerthe period ofa plague,

ofa general war, andofthe dissolut ion ofverbal contracts and again The world would

be evilly Situated if express contracts were not

But they should be contracts in which both parties wereperfectly free a condition always very clearly kept in view .

There were several ways ofstriking a contract or rat ifying

a covenant— all very simple. One was by the two part iesjoining their right hands, which Should be first unglovedif gloves were wornsj Somet imes one ofthe part ies put

his drinking horn into the hand ofthe other :i a pract ice

anciently common in England ,especially in the transfer of

lands. Certain legal formulae were commonly used — the

condit ions were to be observed While the sea surrounds

Erin,

”so long as the sun andwind remain,

”&c.§ Impor

tant contracts were always witnessed and it was usual togive,

on each Side, persons ofstanding as securit ies and

guarantees for the fulfilment ofcontracts or condit ions.

These persons became l iable in case ofdefaul t . A contract

was denoted by the words cor, cofack, and emaidm.

The Brehon Law was vehemently condemned by

English writers and in several acts ofparl iament it wasmade treason for the English settlers to use it . But these

testimonies are to b e received with much reserve as coming

from prejudiced and interested part ies. The laws laiddown in the Brehon Code were not , in fact , pecul iarly Irish .

They were,as has been remarked (p . Similar to the

ancrent laws ofall otherAryan tribes, a survival - modified

B r.Laws, 1. 51 m . 3.

TSilva Gad.,114 , 27 ; 116 , , 3 ; 145 Stokes’s Acallamh , 32 4.

t Silva Ga i l 143, 3, § Stokes, Lives ofSS.,cxv.

CHAP . V1] THE BREHON LAWS 183

by time and circumstance— ofwhat was once universal .*

W e have good reason to bel ieve that the Brehon Law wasVery well suited to the society in which ,

and from which , itgrew up . This View is confirmed by the wellknown factthat W hen the English settlers l iving outside the Paleadopted the Irish manners and customs

,they all, both high

and low,abandoned their own law and adopted the Brehon

Code, to which they became quite as much attached as the

Irish themselves. The Anglo - Irish lords of those t imes

commonly kept brehons in their service after the manner

of the nat ive Irish chiefs although it was treason for

them to do so :Tand even the Butlers,who ofall the great

Anglo—Irish families were least inclined to imitate the Irish,

adopted the custom . Many authori t ies might be cited inproof ofall this but the following passage from an AngloIrish State paper of1537 sets forth the facts as clearly and

strongly as could be desired

Mann— The statutes ofKilcas [t .e. the local Brehon Law ofKilcashin Tipperary, near Clommel] b e commonly used in the Country by the

lord ofOssory [one ofthe Butlers] , and by his Irish judge cal led a brehon,and by all other freeholders ofthe Countrey ,

and they have none other

lawe but the same and divers ofthe b ookes ofthe same statut es [i.e.

MS. books ofthose part s ofthe Brehon Law] are in the safe keeping of

the shirefofthe Shire ofKilkenny [the principality ofthe earls ofOrmond,

chiefs ofthe But lers] , and the bishop ofWaterford : and one book isin possession of Rory MacLoughire, being judge [or brehon] of the

country”

:

Maine, Anc. Inst ., 19 . TW are,Antiq q 69 bot . , 71 bot .

I Quot ed by Dr. J . O’

Donovan in the Rev . Mat thew Kel ly '

s edition

ofCamb rensis Eversus,II . 79 3.

FIG. 69.—O rnament composed from the Book ofKells.

FIG. 70.—Sculpture on W indow Ca thedral Church.C lendalough : Beranger. rm

(From Petre '

s RoundTowers )

CHAPTER VII

THE LAWS RELATING TO LAND

SECTION 1. The Laml originally common Property.

HE following account ofthe ancient landlaws of Ireland

,which has been com

piled chiefly from the Brehon Laws,is corroborated in some of its mainfeatures by those early English writerswho described the nat ive Irish customs

from personal observat ion. It throws much light on the

Irish land quest ion ofmodern t imes.

In theory the land belonged not to individuals, butto the tribe. The king or chief had a port ion assignedto him as mensal land . The rest was occupied by the

tribesmen in the several ways ment ioned below. The

chief, though exercising a sort of supervision over the

whole ofthe territory , had no right ofownership exceptover his own property ,

if he had any, and for the t ime

being over his mensal land . It would appear thatoriginally— in prehistoric t imes— the land was all common

property, and chief and people were l iable to be called

on to give up their port ions for a new distribut ion. But

as time went on,this custom was gradually broken in upon

and the lands held by some,after longpossessmn, came

186 GOVERNMENT,M ILITARY SYSTEM , AND LAw [PART 1

proceeded across country without difficulty,because, says

the story There was neither trench,nor fence, nor

stone wall round land in those days, unt il there came

the t ime ofthe sons ofAed Slaine,but only smooth

fields. Because ofthe abundance ofhouseholds in theirt ime

,therefore, it came to pass that they made boundaries

in Ireland Maine remarks it as instruct ive that , inboth passages

,the change is referred to an increase of

populat ion : and he goes on to express his opinion thatthis unquest ionably represents true history. The common

occupation ofland is also alluded to in the early Memoirs

ofSt . Patrick j

2 . Five. ways ofholdingLand.

W ithin historic times the following were the rules of

land tenure, as set forth chiefly in the Brehon Laws, andalso in some important po ints by early English writers iThe tribe (or aggregate oftribes), under the rule ofone

king or chief,held permanently a definite district ofthe

country. The tribe was divided , as already described

(p . into smaller groups— clans or septs— each ofwhich,

being governed by a sub - chief under the chief ofthe tribe,

was a sort ofminiature ofthe whole tribe and each clanwas permanently settled down on a separate portion ofthe

land which was considered as their separate property , and

which was not interfered with by any other clans or septsofthe tribe. The land was held by individuals in some

one offive different ways.

First — The chief, whether ofthe tribe or ofthe sept,

had a port ion as mensal land , for l ife or for as long as

he remained chief(for which , see p . 50 ,supra).

Second.— Another port ion was held as private property

Ir. Texte, 1. 136, par. 2 ; and LU,128

,a,14 .

t Trip . Life, p . 337, 26 ; and Introd. clxxv .

1For Irish land tenures , see Sul l . , In t rod ,185 et seq . and for the

correspondences between Irish and Teutonic land laws, the same vol..

131 cl seq .

CHAP . vn] THE LAW S RELATING To L'AND 187

by personswho had come,in various ways, to own the land.

Most ofthese were flaz'

fhs, or nobles, ofthe several ranks

andsome were professional men,such as physicians, judges,

poets,historians, artificers, &c., who had got their lands as

st ipends for their professional services to the chief, and

in whose families it often remained for generat ions. Underthis second heading may be included the plot on whichstood the homestead ofevery free member ofthe tribe,with the homestead itsel f.Third— Persons held , as tenants, portions ofthe lands

belonging to those who owned it as private property , or

portions ofthe mensal land ofthe chief— much like tenantsofthe present day : these paid what was equivalent torent— always in kind . The term was commonly sevenyears, and they might sublet to under- tenants.

Fourth — The rest ofthe arable land,which was cal led

the Tribe- land— equivalent to the fi le or folk land of

England— forming by far the largest part ofthe territory ,

belonged to the people in general— the several subdivisionsofit to the several septs —no part being private property.

*

This was occupied by the free members ofthe sept,who

were owners for the t ime being,each ofhis own farm .

Every free man had a right to his share,a right never

quest ioned. Those who occupied the tribeland did not

hold for any fixed term,for the land ofthe sept was l iable

to gavelkind(p . 197, belowl or redistribut ion from time to

t ime— once every three or four years i' Yet they were not

tenants at will , for they could not b e disturbed til l the t ime

ofgavell ing even then each man kept his crops and got

compensat ionfor unexhausted improvements and thoughhe gave up one farm

, he always got another.

Fz'

fth.— The non- arable or waste land— mountain,

forest , bog,&c.

— was Commons- land. Thiswas not appro

priated by individuals ; but every free man hada right

Br. Laws , III . 17, 53 ; Ware,Antiq q . , 72 , top .

1Dav ies, Disc. Let ter to Lord Salisbury, ed. 1787, p . 2 79 .

188 GOVERNMENT , M ILITARY SYSTEM ,AND LAW [PART 1

to use it for graz ing,* for procuring fuel , or for the chase.There was no need ofsubdividing the commons by fences,for the cattle graz ed over it without dist inction. The por

t ion ofterritory occupied by each clan or sept commonlyincluded land held in all the five ways here described .

Between common clan ownership on the one hand , and

private ownership by individuals on the other, there wasan intermediate link for in some cases land was ownedby a family , though not by any individual member, and

remained in the same family for generations. This wasoft en the case with land granted for professional services.

A very remarkable and peculiar development of familyownership was what was known as the Gelfine system ,

under which four groups ofpersons, all nearly related‘

to

each other, held four adjacent tracts ofland as a sort ofcommon property , subject to regulations, then well recog

nised,but now hard enough to understand )

"

It should be observed that the individuals and famil ieswho owned land as private property were comparatively

few, and their possessions were not extensive : the greatbulk ofboth people and land fell under the condit ions of

tenure described under the fourth and fi fth headings.

3 . Tenants their Pnj'me/zls andSubsidies.

Every tribesman had to pay to his chief certain subsi

dies according to his means. Those who held port ion of

the tribeland , andwho used the commons land for graz ing

or other purposes, paid these subsidies of course ; butbeyond this they had no rent to pay to any individual forland held or used under the categories [our andfive described

above. The usual subsidy for commons pasturage was in

How commons land was used for graz ingwil l be described in chap.

xxiii. , vol. (p .

t On the Gelfine system : see Br. Laws, iv . ,Introd. L. ; 41, last .

par. and note 2 43 63 , 3 ; 249 , Q C, ; 269 , w ; 287, note 4 2 89 , notes

1 and 2 Joyce , Short Hist . ofIrel. , 69 and Seebohm , TribalCustom , p. 76.


stock : his stock was daer stock ; and he held by daertenure. The saer tenants were comparatively independent ,andmany ofthem were rich as, for instance, the bo- aires,

who were all saer tenants to kings, chiefs, or nobles. The

payments seer tenants had to make were reasonable. Not

so the daer tenants : they had to pay heavily,and were

generally in a state ofdependence. Their position wasmuch the same as that ofneedy persons ofour own day,

who are forced to borrow at usurious interest . More stockwas given to a man in daer tenancy than in saer tenancy.

It was ofmore advantage to the chief to give daer stockthan saer stock(Br. Laws, 11. 211,W hen a man took daer stock

,he had to do so openly ,

without any concealment ; and his Fine [finna] -i.e. his

fam ily ,including all his sept or kindred within certain

degrees ofrelat ionship— might if they pleased veto the

whole transaction(Br. Laws, II. From this it wouldappear that daer tenancy was viewed with disfavour by thecommunity , for the reason, no doubt , that it tended tolower the status Of the tribe.

* There was a sharp dist inction between the two orders oftenants

,the daer tenants

being very much the lower in public est imat ion. W hen

the chief gave evidence in a court oflaw against his tenants,the saer tenants were privileged to give evidence in reply ,

but the daer tenants were not (Br. Laws, 11. A daer

or bond tenant was SO called , not that he was a slave or an

unfree person,but because by takingdaer stock he forfeited

some ofhis rights as a freeman, and his heavy payments

always kept him down.

The ordinary subsidy owed by a saer tenant to hisch ief was called Bes- tigi [bess- tee] or house tribute, varying

in am ount according to his means or the extent ofhis

land it consisted ofcows, pigs, bacon, malt , corn, &c. He

was also bound to give the chief either a certain number of

days’ work , or service in war.T For whatever saer stock

Maine,Anc. Inst .

,163. 1

' Br. Laws, 11. 195 m . 19 , 2 , 8 ; 495.

CHAP . V II] THE LAWS RELATING To LAND 191

he took he had t o pay one- third ofits value yearly for

seven years, at the end ofwhich time the stock became his

own property without further payment .* Thiswas eq uivalent to thirty- three per cent , per annum for seven years

to repay a loan with its interest— a sufficiently exorbitantcharge. He also had to send a man at stated times to pay

full homage to the chief . The labour and the homage are

designated in the laws as the worst or most irksome ofthe

seer tenant ’s obligat ions(Br. LaVvs, 11.

A deer tenant had to give war- service (Br. Laws,III .

495) and work . But his chief payment was a food- supplycalled Biatad [bee

'

ha] or food—rent— cows, pigs, corn,bacon,

butter, honey, &c.—paid twice a year. The amount de

pended chiefly‘

on the amount of deer stock he took

(11. and probably varied according to local custom .

At the end ofhis term he had,under ordinary circum

stances, to return all the stock or its equivalent (II .But i f the chief died at the end ofseven years, the tenant ,provided he had paid his food- rent regularly

,kept the

stock (11. The deer tenants were the principalpurveyors ofthe chief, who could be sure ofa supply of

provisions all the year round for his household and

numerous followers, by properly regulat ing the periods of

payment ofhis several tenants. This custom is describedby several English writers as exist ing in their own t ime,

so late as the t ime ofEl iz abeth .

The deer tenants were bound to give coinmed [coiney] ,or refection, on Visitat ion— that is to say, the chief wasent it led to go with a company to the deer tenant ’s house

,

and remain there for a t ime varying from one day to a

month ,the tenant supplying food

,drink

,and sanctuary or

protection from danger.j'

The number of followers and

the t ime, with the quantity and qual ity offood and the

extent ofprotection, were regulated by law according to

Br. Laws,11. 195 , 197, 199 , 203 .

l i'

d,11. 20

,not e 2 ; 2 33 ; 111. 19 .

192 GOVERNMENT , MILITARY SYSTEM , AND LAW lPART I

the tenant ’s amount ofdeer stock(Br. Laws , 111. and

according to the rank ofthe guest the higher the rank thelonger the t ime(11. 20 ,

note The protection might berel inquished either whol ly or partly for an increase offoodand drink or vice verse (II. Sometimes soldiers, inl ieu ofregular pay , were sent among the tenants, fromwhom they were ent itled to receive buannacht or bonaght ,i.e. money. food , and entertainment : an eminently evilcustom . The refection and bonaght , which were by farthe most oppressive ofthe deer tenant ’s l iabil it ies, seem to

have been imposts pecul iar to Ireland . The deer tenantswere subject to several other dut ies , which came at irregularintervals ; and in t ime ofwar the chief usually imposedmuch heavier tributes than at other t imes upon all the

tenants. Somet imes seer tenants were liable to coiney

and occasionally a church was under an obligat ion to

supply a night’

s coiney to the chief at certain intervals,such as once a q uarter.

* But besides this, the superiorchief , when on his Visitat ions, was to be entertained freeby his subordinate chiefs Kings, bishops, and certainclasses ofchiefs and pro fessional men were also ent it led tofree entertainment when passing through territories, with

the proper number ofat tendants i And it appears thatwhen certain officials met to transact public business, thetenants, both seer and deer, had to lodge and feed them

(III . Ifeither the chief or the tenant fell into poverty ,

provision was made that he should not suffer by unjustpressure from the other party ' N0 one,

”says the law

book ,should be oppressed in his difficulty (II.

The deer tenants were by far the most numerous and

accordingly this system ofthe chief stocking the farms wasvery general . It has often been compared to the méteyer

system , st ill found in some parts ofFrance and Italy ,

Misc. Ir. Arch . Soc.,1846, p . 143.

T HyF ,2 09 .

1Br. Laws. Iv . 347, 349 , 351.


all was therefore secure, in whatever way they held theirlands.

Though the custom of visiting tenants’ houses forcoiney or refection was carefully safeguarded in the

Brehon Law, i t was obviously l iable to great abuse. In

imitat ion ofthe Irish ,the Anglo- Irish lords adopted the

custom ofCoyne and Livery ,

* which they commonly leviedfrom the English settlers, and committed such excessesfar beyond any abuses of the nat ive chiefs— that theyalmost ruined the sett lement by it .1

'

4. Fudirs or Ser/s on the Lend.

The social posit ion ofjudirs, seer and deer, has beenalready explained(p . The seer- tudirs were permittedto take land from year to year ; and they could not bedisturbed t ill the end oftheir term . Allowance had to

be made to them for unexhausted improvements, such as

manure. As they were permitted a settlement by the

grace of the chief, they were reckoned a part of the

chief ’s fine or family (Br. Laws, IV . though theywere not members ofthe tribe. Outside these small privileges, however, they were tenants at will . It would seemindeed that the chief might demand almost anything he

pleased from a fadir tenant , and if refused might turn him

off(III . But the deer-fudirs were in a st ill worseposition. Ifa deer-fudir took land , it did not belong tohim during occupat ion(III . 131) he was merely permitted

to t ill it he was a tenant at will , having no right whatever

in his holding . He was completely at the mercy ofthe

chief , who generally rackrented him so as to leave barely

enough for subsistence. The deer-fudirs, after a certainperiod ofresidence (p . 163 , supra), belonged to the land

Coyne and livery— food for man and horse. Coyne is the Irish

eoinmed or cotney livery is French food for horse.

’

1For coyne and livery and its abuses, see Ware,Antiq q .

, chap. xii.

and Joyce, Short Hist . ofIrel. , 78.

CHAP . V II] THE LAWS RELATING To LAND 195

on which they were settled ,and could not leave it . The

land kept by a fleith or noble in his own hands was com

monly worked by deer-fedirs andnone but a noble couldkeep them on his estate.

Spenser, Davies, andother early English writers speakofthe Irish tenants as in a condit ion worse than that ofbondslaves, and as taking land only from year to year.

No doubt , the tenants they had in View were the fedirs ,who must have been part icularly numerous during theIrish wars ofEl iz abeth(p . 164 , supre). It is evident fromthe Brehon Law that thefiidirs were a most importantclass on account oftheir numbers for as they

'

tended to

increase in the disturbed state ofthe country from the

ninth century down, they must ult imately have formeda very large proport ion ofthe populat ion.

Sometimes a whole tribe,for one reason or another

,

came to be in such a state ofdependence or serfdom as

to approach slavery. They were commonly a tribe whohad

'

been expelled from their homes by stronger settlersor invaders, andwho, seeking a place ofsettlement from a

strange chief, were received by him under hard condit ions.

Such a tribewas usually designated deer- thueth [dair- hooa] ,i.e. bond—tribe,

’ corresponding with deer- che’

ile as appliedto an individual (p . 189,

supra) often called in Englishenslaved tribe,

’

but the people were real ly not Slaves.

They’

were subject to heavy tributes, and had to executecertain works, such as building ,

road- repairing, &c.

,without

payment , for the chief ofthe district , and they were lookedupon as inferiors by the people among whom they settled .

The ancient rights ofthe tenants,i.e. ofthe ce

'

ites or

freemen,as may be gathered from the preceding part of

this chapter, were chiefly three —A right to some portionofthe arable or tribe—land , and to the use ofthe commonsa right to pay no more than a fair rent , which , in the

absence ofexpress agreement , was adjusted by law a

Br. Laws, 1. 159 ; 11. 317 ; III. 127.

196 GOVERNMENT,MILITARY SYSTEM

,AND LAW [PART I

right to own a house and homestead , and(with certainequi table except ions) all unexhausted improvements.

*

Unless under special contract , in individual cases, the

judirs had no claim to these— with this exception,how

ever, that the seer-fudirs had a right to their unexhaustedimprovements. Among the freemen who held the tribeland there was no such thing as evict ion from house or

land ,for there was a universal convict ion that the landlord

was not the absolute owner, so that all free tenants hadwhat was equivalent to fixity oftenure. Ifa man failed to

pay the subsidy to his chief, or the rent ofland held in any

way , or the debt due for stock ,it was recovered like any

other debt , by the processes described in next chapter,never by process ofevictionj

5. Desrent 0/ Land.

In Ireland the land descended in three different ways.

First , as private property.— W hen a man had land

understood to be his own, i t would naturally pass to hisheis t— i .e. his heirs in the sense then understood , not

necessarily in our sense ofthe word ; or he might if hewished divide it among them during his l ife— a thing thatwas somet imes done. In the Tripart ite Life ofSt . Patrick

(109 ,we find cases ofthe sons inherit ing the land of

their father. There appears in the BrehonLaw a tendency

to favour descent ofland by private ownership : The

Brehon Law writers seem to me dist inctly biassed infavour ofthe descent ofproperty in individual

It should be remarked that thosewho inherited the propertyinherited also the l iabilit ies.“

Second— The land held by the chief as mensal estatedescended , not to his heir, but to the personwho succeeded

Brehon Laws,IV . 133 , 135 , 137.

t id 1 123, 157, 159 , 169 , 187, 2 15, 2 17, 2 19. 231, 2 33

: I bid ,111. 399 ; Iv . 45, 69 .

§ Maine, Arie. Inst ., 193. Br. Laws , 111. 399 -

405 ; Iv. 45 .

Flc. 7r.—Sculpture on a Capital ofthe Church ofthe Monastery.Glendalouzh.Beranger. (From Petrie's RoundTowers.

CHAPTER VIII

THE ADM IN ISTRATION OF J USTICE

SECTION 1. The Law 0/ Compensation.

AN C IE N T Ireland , as has been alreadyexplained ,

the state had not attainedsufficient strength and authority to makelaws and to see them carried out . Therewas accordingly no offence against the

state, and the state did not prosecute.

Every offence was against the individual-what lawyers call a tort , as dist inguished from an

offence against the state, which is technically called a

crime,and on the injured party or his friends devolved

the duty ofseeking redress. Ifa man is assaulted or

murdered nowadays, i t is the duty of the magistrates

and police— whether friends intervene or not— to bring

the offender to just ice. But in Ireland in those t imes

there were no pol ice, and a man might waylay or kil l

another, or set fire to a house, or steal a horse, and

still go scot - free, unless the injured person or his friendstook ,

the matter in hand. But we must not supposefrom this that a lawless state ofth ings existed , or that

evil - disposed persons could do as they pleased . The

laws suited the t imes. and aggrieved persons and their

GHAP. VIII] THE ADMINISTRATION OF J USTICE 199

friends,as we may well suppose, were always sharp enough

to exact compensat ion or punishment for injuries, just asthey are at the present day in cases where the state will not ,or cannot , move so that injust ice and evil deeds ofeverykind were in fact kept in check ,

to all intents and purposes,as well as they are now. A state ofthings Similar to all

this existed among the Anglo- Saxons, as well as amongall early Aryan communit ies.

*

In very early times, beyond the reach ofhistory,the

law ofretaliation prevailed— “

an eyefor an eye, a tooth fora tooth — in other words

,everyman or every family that

was injured might take direct revenge on the O ffender.

But this, being found inconsistent with the peace andwellbeing ofthe community— especially in cases ofhomicide

,

which were frequent enough in those days— gradually gaveplace to the law ofcompensat ion, which applied to everyform ofinjury . That this general system ofcompensat ionforwrongful actswas at least reasonably effectual is evidentfrom the fact that it was the custom among all the earlyAryan tribes j In most early codes with which we are

acquainted the idea ofcompensat ion predominates overthat ofthe duty of In Ireland the processwas

this —The injured party,having no civil authority to

appeal to, might at once, i f he chose,take the law into his

‘

own hands. But though this was somet imes done,public

sent iment was decidedly against it, and the long - established

custom was to refer all such matters to the arbitrat ion ofa

brehon. Accordingly,the person injured sued the offender

in proper form , and if the latter responded , the case wasreferred to the local brehon

, who decided according to law.

The penalty always took the form ofa fine— to be paid tothe family injured— no other punishment was prescribedby a brehon (see below,

p . 213 , 9) —and the brehon’

s fee

was usually paid out ofthis fine(p . 169 ,snpre).

Student’

s Hist . ofEngl ,by S. R. Gardiner

,ed. 189 2 , p . 32 .

1Br. Laws,

Richey ,Int rod.

,cxxi. I Richey ,

Introd.,lxxxu.


2 . Procedure by Distress.

Ifthe offender refused to submit the case to the usualtribunal, or i f he withheld payment after the case had beendecided against him , or i f a man refused to pay a just debtofany kind— in any one o

f these cases the plainti ff or thecreditor proceeded by Distress(Irish A thgebe’z’l) that is tosay, he distrainedor seized the cattle or other effects ofthedefendant . Due notice had to be given, but no other legalprel iminary— no permission from , or reference to ,

any courtor other higher authority— was necessary : the plaint iffresorted to distress on his own responsibility. W e will

suppose the effects to be cattle. There was generally an

anad or stay ofone or more days on the distress that is,the plaint iff went through the form ofseiz ing the cattle, butdid not remove them(Br. Laws, III. The defendant

had,however, to give a pledge— usually valuable goods, but

somet imes his son or other family member— to the plainti ff,who took it away and retained it till the end ofthe stay ,

when he returned it on the distrained cattle being formallyhanded over to him . Ifthe defendant refused to give a

pledge, then there was no stay it was an immediatedistress, and the cattle were taken on the spot . During

the stay the cattle remained in the possession ofthe defend

ant or debtor, no doubt to give him time to make up his

mind as to what course to take, viz . either to pay the debt

or to have the case tried before the brehon but the plain

t iff had all the t ime a claim on them .

Ifat the end ofthe stay the defendant did not give upthe cattle or pay the debt , the plainti ff kept the pledge,which he then might dispose ofas he would the distress

he might keep the goods or sell the person into slavery

Ifthe debt was not paid at the end ofthe lawful stay , the

plaint iff, in the presence ofcertain witnesses, removed the

Br. Laws, 1. 209 , 2 11.


the pound in which it was put , the law agent by whom itwas taken (I. The animals remained in the pound

for a period called a dithim, during which the expense of

feeding and tending was paid out ofthe value ofthe cat tle.*

At the end ofthe dithim they began to be forfeited to theplainti ff at a certain rate perday,

t ill such a number became

forfeited as paid both the debt and the expenses j The

length ofthe ened and ofthe dithim was regulated by lawaccording to circumstances. There was no stay— i.e. the

distress was immediate—when i t was taken by a chief fromone ofa lower grade, and also in certain other obvious cases

(as when the creditorwas l ikely to abscond) in some cases,also , not ice was not necessary. In immediate distress thecat tle were removed at once to the pound . Ifafter theplaintiff had given due notice the defendant absconded , his

fine [finna1or kindred were l iable :

The defendant or debtor might prevent the removal ofthe cattle at the beginning , or might get them back up to

the end ofthe dithim, by either paying the debt and ex

penses, or giving a pledge that he would submit the casefor trial , i f i t had not been tried already. Goods ofany

kind might be taken in distress, or a man himsel f, i f there

were no goods but the distress, was most generally incattle. Much formality was observed in all these proceedings ; and the distrainer had to be accompanied by his

law- agent and seven witnesses (Br. Laws, I. who

should be able to test ify that there was a distress, and thati t was carried out in exact accordance with legal rules.

W e know that fictions form an important part ofall

laws both ancient andmodern andmany are to be found

in the Brehon Law all, however, l ike those in other codes,

being traces or representat ions ofwhat had once been realtransactions. In the cases ofsome distresses with stay,the fictit ious Observances without which the distress

Br. Laws,1. 2 11 111. 327. 1Ibid.

,1. 103 111. 327.

1Ibid.,1. 2 65 , 2 87. § Ibid.,

1. 105, 107, 271, 11. 41.

GHAP. VIII] THE ADMINISTRATION or IUSTIGE 203

would not be legally complete— were very curious. Thus,when barren cattle were distrained , a stone was thrownover them thrice before witnesses (like the legal fict ionment ioned by Gibbon* as pract ised by the ancientRomans a work was prohibited by cast ing a stoneIfhens were distrained ,

a l ittle bit ofwithe was t ied on

their feet , and their wings were clipped if a dog, a st ickwas placed across his trough to prohibit feeding ; i f an

anvil , a l ittle withe was t ied on it to prohibit its use ifcarpenters’ or Shield- makers’ tools, a l ittle withe- t ie was

put on them if distress was on religious orders, a withe

t ie was put on their bell - house or at the foot ofthe altara Sign that they were not to be used and so forth .j Afterthese formal ities it was understood that , though the detemdant was allowed to keep the things, he was not to makeuse ofthem meant ime.

The obj ect ofa distress was either to recover a debt orto force a reference to a brehon it appears to have beenthe almost universal way ofbringing about the redress of

wrong(Br. Laws, I . Heavy penalties were incurredby those who distrained unjustly or contrary to lawn?

Distress should be taken between sunrise and sunsetexcept in cases ofurgent necessity , i t should not b e takenat night (Br. Laws, 1. The Irish proceedings bydistress were almost ident ical with the corresponding provisions ofthe ancient Roman Law

,as well as ofthose of

all the early Aryan nat ions.§ The law ofdistress is givenin great detail , and occupies a large part— 186 pages of

Irish type— oi the Senchus Mor.

Suppose now the defendant defied all the proceedingsof the plaint iff— a course, however, which very few

ventured on,partly on account ofthe danger, and partly

for the reasons stated below (p . 204) but if he did, since

Decline and Fal l , 0. 44. 1Br. Laws, 11. 119 , 121.

fBr. Laws, 11. 71 111. 147.

Richey,Int rod.

,cxxxvi—V II Maine

,Anc. Inst .

,282 .


there was no state intervention to enforce obedience, theinjured person might take the law into his own hands and

fall back on the old rule ofdirect retal iat ion.* All this, as

already Observed,resembled the procedure that grew up

among the early Aryan people ofall nat ional it ies.

This brings us to make an observat ion on an importantpoint . Three principles

,which have been already sepa

rately enunciated , were long and deeply embedded in theBrehon Law,

viz .— That every free man had a right to

a port ion ofthe land to enable him to subsist , the deprivalofwhich const ituted a grievous injust ice : that if a freetenant failed to pay his rent or subsidy

,i t was recovered

like any other debt— never by process ofeviction(p . 196,

supra) : and that the duty of inflict ing punishment forwrong devolved by right on the injured person where all

means ofobtaining redress from the culprit failed . Customs

that have grown up slowly among a people during morethan a thousand years take long to eradicate. They sub

sist as living forces for generat ions after their formal abol it ion and the unconscious inst inctive hereditary memoryofthese three principles will go far to explain the tendencyto personal acts ofvengeance witnessed in Ireland downto recent t imes in cases ofeviction from houses and lands.

3 . Procedure by Fasting.

In some cases before distress was resorted to,a curious

custom came into play —the plaint iff fasted on the

defendant and this process, called trosead, fast ing,’

was

always necessary before distress when the defendant was

ofChieftain grade and the plaint iff ofan inferior grade

(Br. Laws, 1. It was done in this way. The plainti ff

,having served due not ice, went to the house ofthe

Maine,Anc. Inst .

,171. For more informat ion on the subject of

Procedure b y Distress, the reader is referred to this last - mentionedworkto Sir S. Ferguson’

s Paper in Trans. R. I . Acad.,xx1v . 83 and to M .

B’

Arbois de Jubainvil le,Rev . Celt ., v11., pp . 20 -

31.


that the two kept fasting against each other,t ill one fell

into the mistaken belief— or was trapped into it— that theother was eating ,

and took to eat ing also ,giving an advan

tage to his Opponent , who thus gained his point .Thirdly fasting was used as a sort ofcompulsion— like

a geis(for which see p . 312 , infre)— to Obtain a request fromanother(Féilire, 75,

note The Leinstermen on one occasion fasted on St . Columkille till they obtained from him theprivilege that an extern king should never prevail againstthem (Silva , 417) Amergin MacAulay fasted on the old

sage Fintan t ill he forced him to relate the ancient history

ofIreland and Conall Derg O'

Corra and his wife, havingfai led to obtain children from God, turned to the devil andfasted on him to give them children, and obtained theirrequest ] Nay ,

a legend relates that a certain man think

ing himself hardly used by Providence, grumbled , and

fasted against God for rel ief and the tale goes on to say,

that Godwas angry ,but nevertheless dealt mercifully with

him .i For the last two applicat ions offasting— to injure

an enemy and to obtain a request— I can find no better

authority than the romant ic tales and rel igious legends

but the twofold custom is ment ioned too often to permit

us to doubt its existence.

This inst itution offast ing on a debtor is still widelydiffused in the east , and is called by the H indoos Sitt ing

dharna . They bel ieve that if the plaint iff dies ofstarva

t ion,the defendant is sure to be visited by fearful super

natural penalt ies. Our books do not give usmuch informa

t ion about the Irish inst itut ion,and i t is not easy to under

stand it in all its forms but it is evidently ident ical with

Kilk . Arch . 1872—3, p . 141.

1Rev . Celt .,X IV . 29 .

t Stokes’ Lives ofSS.

,1x . See for another instance ofthis, Saltair na

Rann, Preface last line and for still .another,MacCongl. , 60 .

O ther examp les offast ing for the several purposes may b e seen in Rev .

Celt .,xv . 480 : Trip . Life, 2 19 , bot tom , 221, 419 , top , 557 ; Hyde, Lit ,

Hist ,2 33, 417 : Feilire, 171, 19

CHAP . VIII] THE ADMINISTRATION OF J USTICE 207

the eastern custom ,andno doubt it was bel ieved in pagan

t imes to be attended by similar supernatural effects.*

AS there was no state authority to enforce legal decisions, i t will occur to anyone to ask why shoulddefendants submit to distress and fast ing when the pro

ceedings went against them why,for instance, should not

a man resist the removal ofhis goods in distress ? The

reply to this is that hereditary custom ,backed by public

opinion, was so overwhelmingly strong that resistance washardly ever resorted to. It is pretty evident that the man

who refused to abide by the custom,not only incurred

personal danger, but lost all character, and was subject tosomething like what we now call a universal boycott

,which

in those days no man could bear. He had in fact to fly

and become a sort ofoutlaw. So Caesar tells us (Gall .W ar, V i. 13) that those who refused to abide by the

decisions of the Gaul ish druids (corresponding in thisprocedure with our brehons) were excommunicated and in

Ireland he who disregards fast ing shall not be paid byGod or man

” (p . 205, supra). So also Mart in records, in1703 ,

that in the western islands ofScotland , the manwho

violated the blood - covenant(for which see vol. p . 510)utterly lost character, so that all peop le avoided him in

other words he was boycotted .

4 . Erie or Compensation Fine.

Homicide or bodily injury ofany kind was atoned forby a fine called Eric [errick] , corresponding with the

Teutonic weregild. But though this was the usual senseoferie, the word was often applied to a fine for injury of

any sort .For homicide, andformost injuries to person,

property,

or dignity ,the erie or fine consisted oftwo parts— first , the

payment for the mere injury, which was determined by theseverity ofthe injury and by other circumstances second

Maine,AnC. Inst .

, 40 , 2 97.

208 GOVERNMENT,MILITARY SYSTEM , AND LAW [PART I

a sum called Log- enech or Eneclann, honour- price,

’ whichvaried according to the rank ofthe part ies the higher therank the greater the honour- price. The honour- price of

an ogaire(see p . 159 , supra) was 3 cows : ofa fer-fothia ,

75 cows. A man’

s honour- price was dim inished— Whichof course was a punishment— ifhe was guilty of any

misconduct . Dire, which is a term constantly used in theBrehon Laws , seems to mean much the same as eneclann,

a fine for personal injury ofany kind— bodily harm , a

slight on character, an insult , &c.— the amount depending

on the nature of the offence and on the posit ion and

dignity of the persons. Indeed , in some parts of the

Brehon Laws (as in v . 56, 16) dire is made equivalent toeneclann. The law ofcompensat ion would tend to favourthe rich ,

as they could afford to pay better than the poorand it was evidently with a View to remedy this that thearrangement ofhonour- price was introduced . The con

siderat ion ofhonour- price entered into a great number of

the provisions ofthe Brehon Law and this principle alsoexisted in the early Teutonic Codes.

*

The principles on which these awards should be madeare laid down in great detail in the Book ofAcaill. The

eric for murder was double that for Simple manslaughter

(or homicide without intent), “

for fines are doubled bymal ice aforethought .

”

j' The exact amount ofthe eric was

adjudged by a brehon. Many modifying circumstances

had to be taken into account— the actual injury,the rank

ofthe part ies(for the honour- price), the intent ion ofthe

wrong - doer, the provocation,the amount ofset - offClaims

,

&c.—so that the settlement called for much legal know

ledge, tact , and technical skill on the part ofthe brehonquite as much as we expect in a lawyer of the present

day.

The honour-

prices of the severa l grades (which were eq ua l inamounts to their gifts to a church) may b e seen in Br. Laws

,I II . 43

see also for severa l points connected with honour-

price, V01~ IV . 48, 49 ,

53 , 59. and 307. 1’ Br. Laws, 111. 99 .


the parties, and the other numerous Circumstances thatmodified the amount .*

In Cormac ’s Glossary(p . 124 , Nes we are told thatthe eric for bodily injury depended on the dignity ofthe

part injured if it was the forehead , or chin, or any otherpart ofthe face, the eric was greater than i f the injuredpart was covered by rairnent . Half the eric for homicidewas due for the loss ofa leg, a hand , an eye, or an ear

but in no case was the collective eric for such injuriesto exceed the body- fine— i.a. the eric for homicide (Br.

Laws,111.

Spenser, Davies, andother early English writers bitterlydenounce the law oferic- fine for homicide , as contrary toGod ’

s law and man’

s. It was indeed a rude and inade

quate sort ofjust ice, and favoured the rich , as they couldafford to pay fines better than the poor, notwithstanding

the precautionary introduction ofhonour- price. But itwas, no doubt , very useful in its day,

and was a great

advance on the barbarous law ofretal iat ion, which was

nothing more than private vengeance] The principle of

compensat ion for murder was, moreover, not pecul iar to

Ireland— a fact that these writers appear to have beenignorant of. It existed among the Anglo- Saxons, as well

as among the ancient Greeks, Franks, and Germans and,

as a German inst itut ion, it is ment ioned with approval byTacitus. In the Laws ofKing Athelstan, there is laid down

a detailed scale ofprices to be paid in compensation forkill ing persons ofvarious ranks ofsociety , from an archbishop or duke down to a churl or farmer and traces of

the custom remained in English law t ill the early part of

the last century :

In another part , Br. Laws, 111. 357 to 381, is a detailed enumeration

ofinjuries to living animals, with the compensations for them .

1' Maine,Anc. Inst ., 2 3.

1Ogyg.,Part chapter lvu . W are

,I I . 71 Richey, Br. Laws, 111.

ex t . et seq .

CHAP . VII’

I] THE ADMINISTRATION OF J USTICE 211

5. Modes ofPunishment.

Homicide,whether by intent or by misadventure, was

atoned for l ike other injuries, by a money- fine. That men

who killed others were themselves often killed in revengeby the friends ofthe victim— as in all other countries— weknow from our annals. But the idea ofawarding death as a

judicialpunishment for homicide, evenwhen it amounted tomurder, doesnot seem to have ever taken hold ofthe publicmind in Ireland : At this day [i.e. in the t ime ofthe

writer ofthe Commentary on the SenchusMO1] no one is

put to death [by judicial sentence] for his intent ionalcrimes, as long as eric- fine is Capital punish

ment was known well enough , however, and practised out

side the courts oflaw. The above passage is immediatelyfollowed by the statement that if , for any cause, the crimeis not atoned for by eric , then the criminal

’

s life is forfeitand kings Claimed the right to put persons to death forcertain crimes. Thus we are told ,

in the Tripartite Li fe of

St . Patrick (p . that neither gold nor silver would beaccepted from him who l ighted a fire before the lighting of

the fest ival fire ofTara, but he Should be put to deathand the death - penalty was infl icted on anyone who, at a

fair- meet ing , killed another or raised a serious quarrels] Itwould seem , both from the ancient Introduction to the

Senchus Mor and from the Lives ofSt . Patrick ,that the

early Christ ian missionaries attempted to introduce capitalpunishment— as the result of a judicial process— formurder, but without success iVarious modes ofputt ing criminals to death were in

use in ancient Ireland . Somet imes the culprit was drownedby being flung into water, either t ied up in a sack or with a

heavy stone round his neck . In this manner the Danish

Br. Laws, 1. 15. j Vol. p . 447, infra.

fBr. Laws,1. 13.

212 GOVERNMENT , MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LA\V [PART I

tyrant Turgesius was put to death by King Malachi , A.D.

845 and the reader may be reminded OfScott ’s strikingdescription in Rob Roy (chap . xxxi .) ofthe drowning of

Morris in the Highland river by the chief ’s wife.

Somet imes hanging was adopted— a mode ofexecutiongenerally called riagad [ree- a] , from rieg [reea] , a gibbet ,

’

which glosses patibnlum in Zeuss. Hanging was also calledcroehed, from croeh, a cross or gallows eroehad,

crucifixio

’ (Zeuss, 74 , but in Ireland it meant , and st illmeans, hanging by the neck till dead .

’

In O'

Clery’

s

Glossary riaghedh is explained by crochedh.

It was a very ancient Irish custom to burn women for

adul tery . That such a custom existed is rendered certainby its frequent mention in oldwri tings. Perhaps the mostauthoritat ive ofthese is Cormac ’

s Glossary(p . whichgives the derivat ion ofdrath, a harlot ,

’ from the two wordsdir, right ,

’

and eod, fire (the idea being that druth wascontracted from dir- aod,

‘

right “

Asmuch as saying”

the G lossary continues to burn her were right . W henMurni ofthe Fair Neck married Cumal

, after eloping withhim and when

,soon afterwards

,Cumal was killed in the

Battle ofCnucha(Castleknock), andMurni was found to bepregnant her father, not acknowledging lawful marriage,urged his people to burn her but he dared not compassit for fear ofConn the Hundred - fighter,

” with whom the

lady had taken refuge.

* The son that was born to herwasthe celebrated hero FinnMacCumail. On this story Hennessy ,

the editor, quotes a statement from the story ofCore

MacLugdach in the Book ofLeinster It was the customat first to burn any woman who committed lust(dognidbais) in violat ion ofher compact . In the story ofthe

Greek princess(in the Book ofLeinster), she says Mycrime [ofunchastity] will now be found out , and I shallbe burned immediately.

”

j Many other such recordsmight

Cause ofthe Bat t le ofCnucha,Rev . Cel t .

,II . 9 1.

1' Silva Gad.

,Irish text

, 414 : LL. 2 79 , b, 25 , 26.

214 GOVERNMENT , M ILITARY SYSTEM,AND LAW [PART I

tyrannical chief Fiacha whereuponFiacha '

s brotherDonnchad , king ofTirconnell, punished them by putting sixty insmall boats and sending them adrift on the sea

,that God

might deal with Mace- CwillorMeceeldus, a power

fulUlster chief , was an abandoned reprobate but he was

converted by St . Patrick , became very repentant , and submit ted himself to the saint

’

s penance,who directed him to

put Offto sea in a curragh ofone hide. After much wearydrifting about , the curragh was thrown on the Isle ofMan,

where MacCuill safely landed . He preached the Gospelthere,

and converted the Manxmen so that he is to thisday venerated as the patron saint , with the name Maughold

(Trip . Li fe,The great Anglo-Norman baron

,Hugh

de Lacy ,followed the old nat ive custom when he sent the

betrayers ofJohn de Courcy adrift in a ship , with Victualsand furniture,

but without mariners or seamen. T A person

ofthis kind cast on shore belonged to the owner ofthe

shore unt il a cumel was paid for his release i

6. Courts ofj ustice.

A court held for the trial oflegal cases was commonlycalled dal [dawl] , but sometimes oireeht or aireeht, which

was also the name ofa meet ing ofrepresentat ive people to

set tle local affairs.§ Courts were often held in the open

air, and sometimes in buildings. There was a gradat ion of

courts from the lowest— something like our petty sessions—to the highest , the great nat ional assembly— whether atTara or elsewhere— represent ing all Ireland .”Over eachcourt a member ofthe Chieftain or privileged Classes pre

sided the rank ofthe president corresponded to the rank

Rev . Celt . 1x ., 17, 19 .

t other references to sending adrift — Br. Laws, 1. 2 05 , bot

O’

Curry , Man. Cust .,1. 2 9 : MS. Mat

, 333 Sul l . , Int rod.,120 , 334

Todd,Book ofFermoy, 38. 1Br. Laws, 1. 205, bot .

For variousmeetings andcourts for the transaction oflegal business,see Sullivan,

Introd.,2 52 andforfurther information on the administra

t ion ofjustice, p . 262 ofthe same vol.

HFor which , see vol. p. 436.

GHAP. VIII] THE ADMINISTRATION OF J USTICE 2 15

ofthe court and his legal status, dut ies, powers, and pri

vileges were very strictly defined . The overking presided

over the Nat ional Fe’

is or assembly . Ifa man whose dutyit was to attend a court for any function,

and who was

duly summoned ,failed to appear, he was heavily fined ;

and in such a case an ecclesiast ic was fined twice as much

as a layman.

*

In each court— besides the brehon who sat in judgment- there were one ormore professional lawyers, advocates, orpleaders, called ,

in Cormac ’s Glossary , j°

de’

leighe [dawlee]and dei, who conducted the cases for their Cl ients ; and

the brehon- judge had to hear the pleadings for both sidesbefore coming to a decision (Br. Laws, V . A non

professional man who conducted a case— which he might ,as at the present day ,

i f he wished to take the risk— wascalled a tongueless person (Br. Laws, IV . 303 ,

W hether the court was held in a building or in the open

air, there was a platform ofsome kind on which the pleader

stood while addressing the court . This appears from the

explanation ofCuisnit (‘ legal disputat ion in Cormac ’s

G lossary(p . 41) Cuisnit , derived from eos- na- ddta , the

foot , or bar, or tribune on which the pleader stands and

it is at i t or from it he pleads, and i t is onit he stands.

According to a Preface to the Amra, one of the causes

for the meet ing at Drumket ta was to make rules as to

pleaders and su itors in Erin.

”

3;

W ith regard to evidence, various rules were in force,which may be gathered from detached passages in the

laws and general l iterature. In order to prove home a

matter offact in a court ofjust ice, at least two witnesseswere required a usage that is ment ioned more than onceby Adamnan. Ifa man gave evidence against his wife

,

the wife was ent itled to give evidence in reply but a man’

s

daughter would not be heard against him in l ike circumstances. A Chief could give evidence against a deer tenant ,

Br. Laws,111. 331, and not e 1 . T Corm .

, p . 41, Cuisnit .

1Rev Celt xx . 35, note 1.


or any freeman against afudir but neither the deer tenantnor thej edir could give rebutt ing evidence and a king ’

s

evidence was good against all other people,with three ex

ceptions(for which , see p . 55 , supra). The period at whicha young man could give legal evidence was when he wasseventeen years ofage,

or when he began to grow a beard .

The Irish delighted in judgments del ivered in the formofa sententious maxim , or an apt illustration— some illustration bearing a striking resemblance to the case in quest ion. The jurist who decided a case by the aid ofsuch a

parallel was recognised as gifted with great judicial wisdom ,

and his judgment often passed into a proverb . Severaljudgments ofthis kind are recorded . W hen Cormac MacArt

, the rightful heir to the throne ofIreland ,was a boy,

he lived at Tara in disguise for the throne was held bythe usurperMacCon, so that Cormac dared not reveal hisident ity. There was at this t ime l iving near Tara a femalebrewy, named Bennaid,

whose Sheep trespassed on the

royal domain, and ate up the queen’

s crop ofglaisin or

woad for dyeing . The queen inst ituted proceedings fordamages and the quest ion came up for decision before theking ,

who, after hearing the evidence,

decided that thesheep Should be forfeit in payment for the glaisin Not

so, exclaimed the boy Cormac , who was present , andwhocould not restrain his judicial instincts the cropping of

the sheep should be suffi cient for the cropping ofthe

glaisin— thewool for the woad— for both will grow again.

”

That is true judgment , exclaimed all and he who

has pronounced it is surely the son ofa king — for kings

were supposed to possess a kind of inspirat ion in givingtheir decisions. And so they discovered who Cormac was,and in a short t ime placed him on the throne,

after depos

ing the usurper.

* Another example of this sort of

judgment will be seen in the not ice ofthe Catheeh. at

p. 501, infra .

Silva Gad.,288

, 357 : Pe trie , Tara , 219 .

FIG . 72.—Sculp ture on W indow : Cathedral Church , Glendalough : Beranger, 1779.

(From Petrie’s Round Towers.)

CHAPTER IX

PAGANISM

SECTION 1. Druids their Functions andPowers.

ru idism .— No trustworthy informat ion regarding

the rel igion of the pagan Irish comes to

us from outside : whatever knowledge of

it we possess is derived exclusively from the

nat ive l iterature. Moreover, all ofthis l iterature that has come down to us was writtenmostly copied from older documents— in

Christ ian t imes by Christ ians, chiefly monks : no bookspenned in pre- Christian ages have been preserved . The

Christ ian copyists, too, modified their originals in manyways, especially by introducing Christ ian allusions, and,

no doubt , by softening down many pagan features thatwere part icularly repellent to them . Yet many passages

,

and some complete tales, remain thoroughly pagan in

Character.

*

So far as we can judge from the materials at our

command ,which are sufficiently abundant , though scattered

and somewhat vague, the pagan Irish appear to have had

no well - defined connected system ofrel igion. There weremany gods, but no supreme god, l ike Zeus or Jupiter

On this point see the remarks at page 534, infra.

220 RELIGION , LEARN ING , AND ART [PART 11

among the Greeks and Romans. There was little or no

prayer, and no settled general form ofworship . Therewere no temples but it appears from a passage inCormac ’sGlossary(as quoted below) that there were altars ofsomekind erected to idols or to elemental gods, which musthave been in the open air. W e find ment ion ofthingsoffered to gods or idols. Thus , for instance,

in the oldestversion of The W ooing ofEmer,

we are informed that , atBron- Trogin(the beginning ofautumn), the young ofeverykind ofanimal used to be assigned to the possession of

the idol , Bel and other such examples might be cited.

But in all these cases i t appears to have been a merenominal offer or dedicat ion— a mat ter ofwords onlyand i t is doubtful i f there was any sacrifice properly so

called . W e have a few examples where breaches ofwhatwere laid down as moral rules were punished . W henKing Laegaire broke his solemn oath sworn by the sun

and wind , which were regarded as gods,he was, as we are

told,killed by these two elements (p . 292 ,

infra) fromwhich we can see that there were some rules ofconductwhich it was dangerous to violate. But , on the whole, the

pagan Irish rel igion seems to have had very little influencein regulat ing moral conduct . At the same time

,it must

be borne in mind ,that all our very early books have been

lost , so that , in great probability ,the whole ofthe evidence

is not before us : had we complete informat ion,i t might

modify our judgment on Irish paganism .

The rel igion ofthe pagan Irish is commonly designatedas Druidism : and as the druids were a numerous and

important class, and as they were mixed up with mostof the rel igious or superstitious rites and Observances,it will be best to begin by giving a sketch oftheir positionand funct ions, which will bring under review a large partofthe rel igious bel iefs ofthe pagan Irish . In the oldest

Irish traditions the druids figure conspicuously. All the

Rev , Cfilt . X I. 443

222 RELIGION ,LEARN ING , AND ART [PART II

the Irish druids is derived from the nat ive l iterature,the

only authent ic source ofinformat ion. It will be Shown in

the next section that , while there are many differencesbetween the Irish and the Gaul ish druids, there are also

many resemblances and correspondences, and these in

some oftheir most important functions.

llama— The old form ofthe Irish name for a druidis drui

,modern drai or draoi [all pron. dree] but in the

oblique cases it takes a d gen. drued,dat ive druid, corre

spondingwith the modern word druid. Drui is uniformlytranslated wizard by some ofthe best modern authori t ies :and wizards the druids unquest ionably were, and are so

presented by our earl iest tradit ions, though always calleddrui. The druids ofGaul and Ireland were undoubtedlyidentical as a Class, though differing in many part iculars,and they were all wiz ards but those ofGaul are alwayscalled druids and to apply the term druid to the one

class and wiz ard to the other, might lead to a misconcep

t ion, as i f they were essentially di fferent . That the ancientIrish considered their own druids in a general way ident icalwith those ofthe Continent appears from this— that theyapply the word drui to both : and while Latin writerscommonly translate druid by magus,

’ this same wordmagus is retranslated drui by Irish writers. Thus

,

Simon Magus is called in Irish writ ings Simon Drui .”

For these reasons it will be more convenient to retain herethe familiar word druid .

’

Druids, the SoleMen ofLearning— In pagan times the

druids were the exclusive possessors ofwhatever learningwas then known. They combined in themselves all the

learned professions they were not only druids, but judges,prophets, historians, poets, and even physicians.

* But as

t ime went on therewas a gradual tendency towards special isat ion, as we see in some ofthe learned professions ofour

Physicians : see Sick Bed,At lantis

,1. 391, verses 3 and 4.

CHAP . Ix] PAGANISM 223

own day Unt il Patrick came,

— says the Brehon Law

(I. 19) only three classes ofpersons were permitted tospeak in public inErin [i.e. their pronouncements receivedsome sort ofofficial recognition] , V iz . a Chronicler to relateevents and tell stories a poet to eulogise and sat irisea brehon or judge to pass sentence from the precedentsand commentaries. Here there is a clear intimat ion

that there were three separate persons concerned . Nevertheless, down to the latest period of the prevalence of

the Irish customs,two or more professions were often

centred in one man,especially those ofPoetry , History,

and Literature in general .There were druids in every part ofIreland

, but , as we

might expect , Tara , the residence of the over- kings of

Ireland ,was— as the Tripart ite Li fe(p . 41) expresses it

the chief [seat] ofthe idolatry and druidism ofErin.

The druids had the reputat ion ofbeing great magicians

and in this character they figure ' more frequently and

conspicuously than in any other, both in ecclesiast ical and

lay l iterature. So true is this, that the most general Irishword for sorcery , magic , or necromancy

,is druideeht, which

simply means druidism —a word still in use. In some of

the old historical romances we find the issues ofbattles

sometimes determined , not so much by the valour ofthe

combatants, as by the magical powers ofthedruids at tached

to the armies. They could— as the legends tell— raisedru idical clouds and mists, and bring down Showers offire

and blood they could drive a man insane or into idiocyby fl inging a magic wisp ofstraw in his face. In the hymnthat St . Patrick chanted on his way to Tara on Easter

Sunday morning , he asks God to protect him against the

Spells ofwomen, ofsmiths, and ofdruids. Broichan the

druid threatens St . Columba Thou wilt not be able

to [voyage on Loch Ness,] for I will make the wind con

trary to thee,and I will bring a great darkness over thee.

”

Andhe did so , as Adamnan’

s narrat ive(150) tells us but

224 RELIGION ,LEARNING

,AND ART [PART II

Columba removed the storm and darkness by prayer, andmade his voyage.

Insani ty.— Perhaps the most dreaded ofall the necro

mant ic powers attributed to the druids was that ofproducing madness. In the pagan ages

, and down far intoChrist ian t imes , madness— Irish ddsecht— was bel ieved tobe often brought on by mal ignant magical agency , usuallythe work ofsome druid . For this purpose the druid prepared a madman

’

s wisp or fluttering wisp (dluifelladini or dlnigh, a wisp that is, a l it tle wisp ofstraw or

grass, into which he pronounced some horrible incantat ions,and,

watching his opportunity ,flung it into the face ofhis

V ict im ,who at once became insane or idiotic . So generally

was insanity attributed to this that in the Glosses to theSenchus Mor, a madman (Irish de

’

saehteeh or fulla) is

repeatedly described as one upon whom the dini fulla

or magic wisp has beenThe legend ofComgan illustrates this fell necromant ic

power. Maelochtair, king ofthe Decies in Munster, early

in the seventh century , had a son named Comgan, remarkable for his manly beauty and accomplishments, who washalf- brother by the same mother to St . Cummain Fota.

One day , at a great fair held in Tipperary , Gomgan carriedoffall the prizes in the athlet ic sports and the spectatorswere delighted with him ,

especially the king ’

s druid. But

a certain woman,who had before that vainly sought Com

gan’

s love,now revenged herself on him by whispering a

false accusation into the druid ’

s ear whereuponhis admirat ionfor the youth was instantly changed to furious jealousy;andwhen Comgan andhis friends retired to a neighbouringriver to wash themselves and their horses after the sports

,

he followed them ,and watching his opportunity, flung a

magic wisp over him ,at the same t ime pronouncing some

fiendish words. W hen the young man came forth from

Br. Laws,1. 84 , line 2 9 ; 85, 90 (and note) ; 124 and 126 ; and

G loss,143 ; II . 47 : III . 13 , a

226 RELIGION ,LEARNING , AND ART [PART IL

on the boss ofanother warrior'

s shield , from which ,after a

moment , he leaped up again and so he continued flitt ingand bounding on the shields and helmet - crests ofthe combatants and on the tops ofthe neighbouring trees , till hefinally fled from the field after which he wandered roundIreland ,

a gelt [ghardl or madman. His adventures fromthe day ofbattle t ill his death are told - in a romant ic tale ,

st illextant in MS., cal led Buile Shuibne,

Sweeney’

s frenzyor madness.

’

The bel ief that men were driven mad in battle, and ran

and fluttered away in this manner, found its way into thesober records of the Annal ists, who relate that at the

Bat tle ofAllen in Kildare,fought A.D. 722 , nine persons

went crazy with terror, or, as Tigern ach expresses i t , Et

ix volat iles , i.e. gettei and nine persons [went] flying,

i.e.

Even the Norse Visitors to this country took up the

legend and we find it recorded as one ofthe W ondersofIreland ,

in an oldNorse Book called Kongs Skuggsjoor Speculum Regale ,

”

wri t ten about A .D. 1250 : Thereis also one thing which will seem very wonderful , aboutmen who are called gelz.

‘

and the writer goes on to tellabout men running mad out ofbattle ,

and l iving in woodsfor twenty years, so that feathers grew on their bodies :and that though they were not quite able to fly, they wereincredibly swi ft , and run along the [tops ofthe] treesalmost as swiftly as monkeys or squirrels. T Of thissuperstition— that frenz ied madmen were as light as air, andcould cl imb up precipices— there are many other examplesin the ancient tales we see by the above quotat ion thatit retained its hold t ill the thirteenth century and it stilll ingers among the peasantry in some remote districts i

Rev . Ce lt .,xvu . 2 29 and xxrv . 55 see also FM

,vol. p

’

. 319 , top.

1: Folklore

,v . 311.

; Moyrath, 231, 233 : see also Sir Samuel Ferguson '

s”

COngal, 227,

233 , 234 , 2 35 .

GHAP . Ix] PAGAN ISM

There is a val ley in Kerry called Glannagalt , the glenofthe gelts or lunat ics (Irish , gleann

lne - ngealt) and it isbel ieved that all lunat ics, i f left to themselves, would findtheir way to it , no matter from what part of Ireland .

W hen they have l ived in its sol itude for a t ime,drinking

of the water ofTobernagalt (‘ the lunat ics’ well and

eat ing ofthe cresses that grow along the l ittle stream ,the

poor wanderers get restored to sanity . It appears by thestory ofthe Battle ofVentry that this glen was first discovered by a youth named Goll , who fled frenz ied from thatbattle ,

as Sweeny from Moyrath ,and plunged into the

seclusion of Glannagalt .

* There is a well in Donegalwhich was bel ieved to possess the same virtue as Toberna

galt , and t o which all the deranged people in the surrounding district were wont to resort . It is Situated on the

strand , near high—water mark , a third ofa mile south of

Inishowen Head , near the entrance to Lough Foyle . It

st ill retains its old name Srubh Brain,Bran’

s sruv or

stream ,

’ which is represented in the name ofthe adjacenthamlet ofStroove.j

'

Various Powers — In the Lives ofthe Saints, the druidsand theirmagical arts figure conspicuously as, for instance,in the Tripartite Life ofSt . Patrick , and in the earl iermemoir ofthe saint , by Muirchu , as well as in Adamnan

’

s

Life ofSaint Columba : and not less so in the historicaltales. Before the Battle ofCul- Dremne,

fought in 561

between the Northern and the Southern Hy Neill , Dermot ,king of Ireland ,

.who headed the southern Hy Neill— a'

Christ ian king - called in the aid of the druid Fraechan

[Freehan] , who,just as the armies were about to engage,

made an eirbe druad [arva drooa] round the southernarmy to protect it i

‘

It is not easy to say what this eirbe

Joyce, Irish Names ofP laces,1. 172 , 173.

1MS. Mat , 477 : O’

Donovan, Suppl . to O ’

Reilly, Sraobh.

1For the eirbe druad see Stokes, Lives, xxviii. FM ,A .D. 555 Todd

,

St . Patk .,119

- 12 2 Silva Gad.,85 , and 516. 2 ,

See also p . 2 34, below.

228 RELiGION,LEARN ING ,

AND ART [PART II

drued was. Stokes translates it druid’

s fence and, no

doubt , i t was a magic fence ofsome kind for this is theusual sense ofairbe in old Irish writings. One man ofthe

northern army ,named Mag Laim , sprang across the eirbe

,

by which he broke the charm , but sacrificed his own life,

for he was at once slain after which the battle was fought ,and Dermot was defeated with a loss of3000 , while MagLa im alone fell on the other side . All this is related byTigernach and the other Annalists. In the Agallamh na

SenOrach , a chief ’s dun is ment ioned as somet imes sur

rounded by a sneidm drnad [snime drooa] , a druid ’

s

knot ’

is this the same as the eirbe drued, or have thetwo any connexionThe dr uid could pronounce a mal ign incantat ion— no

doubt a sort ofgldm dichenn(see p . 240 ,infra) —not only

on an individual , but on a whole army , so as to producea withering or enervat ing effect on the men. Before theBattle ofMucrime(A.D. Aillil Olum

’

s son Eoghan,

one ofthe contending princes, came to Dil, the blind old

druid ofOssory , to ask him to maledict the host ile army ,

as Balak employed Balaam but on their way towards theplace,

Dil came somehow to know by Eoghan’

s voice thathe was doomed to defeat and death , and refused to proceedfarther(Silva Gad.

,

The druids could give a drink of forget fulness (deogdermaid), so as to efface the memory ofany part iculartransaction. Cuculainn had fallen in love with the fairylady Fand

,so that his wife Emer was jealous but Conco

bar’

s druids gave each ofthem— Cuculainn and Emer

a drink offorget fulness , SO that he quite forgot Fand and

she her jealousy ; and they were reconciled (Sick BedAtl., 11. The druids were the intermediaries with the

fairies, and with the invisible world in general , which theycould influence for good or evil and they could protectpeople from themal ice ofevil - disposed spirits ofeverykind;which explains much oftheir influence with the people.

230 RELIGION , LEARNING , AND ART [PART II

pyromantia divinat ion by fire in an old Irish treatiseon Latin declension.

* But the primary meaningofnéladoiris

‘ cloud - diviner and of ne’

lederarht . divinat ion by

clouds for ne'

l. ne'

nl, néll, means a cloud ,

’

even to thisday, and not star or fire.

Astrology ,in the proper sense ofthe word— divination

from the stars— appears, nevertheless, to have beenpractised by the Irish . Forecast ing the proper t ime forbeginning to build a house is alluded to in a Short Irishpoem contained in an eighth - century manuscript , now in a

monastery in Carinthia , having been brought thither bysome early Irish missionary There is no house more

auspicious, with its stars last night , with its sun, with itsmoon.

”

f This reference to astrology is in a purelyChristian connexion, as i t appears from the poem that thehouse in quest ion was built by the great Christ ian architectthe Gobban Saer. In the legends ofthe saints we finddivinat ion by the heavenly bodies . W hen St . Columkille

was a child , his foster- father went to a certain prophet

(faith) to ask him when the Child was to begin to learn hislet ters and the prophet , having first scanned the heavens,decided that the lessons were to begin at ouca iFor purposes of divinat ion the druids often used a

rod ofyew with Ogham words out on i t . W hen Etain,

King Ochy Airem’

s queen,was carried offby the fairy King

Midir,the druid Dallan was commissioned by King Ochy

to find out where she was. After much searching he at

last made four rods ofvew, and writes an Ogham on

them and by his keys ofknowledge and by his Ogham ,

it [the fairy palace where the queen was] is revealed tohim . Dr. Stokes points out that similarly at Praen'

este the oracles were derived from lots consist ing ofoak

with ancient characters engraved on them .

Stokes,Irish G losses

,in Treat ise on Latin Declension,

63,

1' O

’

Curry, Man. Cust .,11. 46, and note T. But see Append , in/re.

I Stokes, Three Homilies, 103.

§ Rev . Celt . x11. 440 : O’

Curry, Man. Cust .,I . 19 3.

GHAP. Ix] PAGANISM

In several of the tales we find ment ion ofa druidicwheel divination,

’

i.e. made by means ofa wheel . The

celebrated dru id Mogh Ruith [Mow- rih] ofDairbre , now

V‘

alent ia Island ,inKerry,

was so called on account ofhisskill in this sort Ofdivinat ion for

,in the COir Anmann

we read of him Mogh Ruith signifies Magus

roterum,the wiz ard [or rather the devotee] ofthe wheels,

for i t is by wheels he used to make his teisee’

ledh druidh

echte or magical observat ion.

’

In another place* W eread that his daughter, who went with him to the East tolearn “ magic , made a roth

’

rernheeh or rowing- wheel ,’

probably for the purpose ofdivinat ion.

'

But the 33t

ramheeh figured in other funct ions, as may b e seen“

in

O’

Curry’

s MS. Materials (Index). I have not the leastnot ion ofhow the dru idical divinat ion- wheel was made or

how it was used but it may be ofinterest to observe herethat— as

"

Rhys remarks— the Old Gaul ish sun-

god is represented with a wheel in his hand.j

'

Finn Mac—“Cumall,besides his other accomplishments,

had the gift ofdivinat ion, for which he used a rite pecul iarto himself. A basin ofclear water was brought to him ,

in

which,having washed his hands

, and having complied withsome other formal it ies, he put his thumb in his mouthunder his tooth ofknowledge

,

”

on which the future eventhe looked for was revealed to him . This is repeatedlyment ioned in the tales ofThe Fena ; and the legerid

’

is

prevalent everywhere in Ireland at the present day.

’

In the

story of The Praise ofCormac and the Death ofFirm

(Silva Gad.,

this rite is said to be a sort ofTeinmLeegde or part ofit (see p . 243 , below).

In the Irish Nennius(p . 145) we are told that certaindru ids taught druidism ,

idolatry, sorcery , [the composition

of] bright poems,divinat ion from sneez ing , from the voices

ofbirds, and from other omens and how to find out bythese means suitable weather and lucky days for . any

O’

Grady, Silva Gad., 511, 23 j Rhys, Hibbert Lectures, 55 .

232 RELIGION ,LEARN ING ,

AND ART [PART II

enterprise. Before the Bat t le ofMoyrath(p . 9) the druidinterprets KingDomnall

’

s dream , andadvises precaut ionarymeasures. Divinat ion by the voices ofbirds was verygenerally pract ised especial ly from the croaking of the

raven and the chirping ofthe wren and the very syllablesthey utter and their interpretat ion are given in the old

books.

* The wren in particular was considered so great aprophet , that in an old Li fe ofSt . Mol ing one ofits Irishnames ,

drean,is fanciful ly derived from drui- e

’

h,meaning

the druid ofbirds.

’

W hen St . Kellach, Bishop ofKillala ,

was about to be murdered ,

“

the raven croaked , and the

grey - coated scallcrow called ,the wise l ittle wren twittered

ominously , and the kite ofCloon- O sat on his yew- tree

waiting pat iently to carry offhis talons- full ofthe victim ’

s

flesh . But when, after the deed had been perpetrated , the

birds ofprey came scrambling for their shares, every one

that ate the least morsel ofthe saint ’s flesh dropped down

dead.j' The W elsh birds ofprey knew better when they

saw the bodies ofthe slaughtered druids

Far,far aloofthe affrigh ted ravens sail ,

The tarnished eagle screams and passes by .

The Bard by GRAY .

Just before the attack by Ingceland his band ofpirates onDa Derga

’

s Hostel , the how] ofOssar, King Conari’

s messen

or lapdog ,por

’

tended the coming ofbattle and slaughter

(Da Derga ,The clapping ofhands was used in some

way as an omen ; and also an examinat ion ofthe shapeofa crooked knotted tree- root i

Sometimes animals were sacrificed as part ofthe ceremony ofdivinat ion. W hen King Conari and his retinuewere in Da Berga ’

s Hostel , several unusual and ominouscircumstances occurred which foreboded disaster to the

hostel whereupon the king’

s chief juggler(who had just‘O

’

Curry, Man. Cust .,1. 2 24. TSilva Gad.

, 58, 59 , 60.

1Todd,St . Patk .

,12 2

234 RELIG ION,LEARNING , AND ART [PART II

giunnee, ofthe hair,

’

is plain from a passage in the ConAumann (395) which explains giunnech as meaning jolt ,i.e. hair. But it seems to me that airbacc is merely airbe

(as in Airbe- druad p . 227, supra) with the common ter

mination - eeh as we wri te smolech(thrush) for 311161, andas giunneeh from gimmee, above. For eirbaec is the way of

writing airbeech or airbech used bv Lat in writers , as theywrote Fiacc for Fiach . Ifthis is so

,airhece giunnae means

merely the fence- cut ofthe hair,’ implying that in this

tonsure the hair was cut in such a way as to leave a sortofeave or fence along some part ofthe head . St . Patrickconsidered theNorma Magica a diabolical mark for whenthese two druids were converted , he had their hair cut so as

to obliterate it . The verv name ofone ofthese brothers ,

Meel, Signifying bald . conveys the sense oftonsured for

we see from the narrat ive that he was not naturally bald.

Moreover one OfLaegaire’

s druids at Tara was calledLucet Mael , which name is made by the old Latin writersLucet celvus ,

i.e. the bald or tonsured .

In connexion with this i t will be interest ing to ment ionthat in Muirchu’

s Memoir ofSt . Patrick we read '

ofa

certain Ulster chief named Maccuill(for whom see p . 214,

supra), very tyrannical andwicked , a notorious robber andmurderer. This man openly proclaimed .his own characterby adopting ,

as an indicat ion of his villainous career,

certain marks,usually exhibited by persons ofhis sort

,

which are elsewhere explained as signe dieboliee super

capite ,diabolical marks on the head no doubt , some

special cut ofthe hair.

* The adoption ofthis mark W asan indicat ion that the persons devoted themselves to theservice ofthe devil , and became diberge , i.e. people

'

who

pract ised Violence,robbery , and murder, as a sort of

profession.

Heathen Baptism. a heathen bapt ism (baisteadh geinntlidhe). The three sons ofConall

Trip . Life , 2 86 ,note 6 : Hogan,

Doeum ., 41. 167 Diberca

CHAP . 1xl PAGANISM 235

Derg O ’

Corra were baptised according to this rite,with

the direct intent ion ofdevot ing them to the service ofthe

devil , though they afterwards became three very holymen.

*

So also the celebrated Red Branch hero Conall Kernach .

W hen he was born,druids came to baptise the child into

heathenism and they sang the heathen baptism(baithisgeiutlz

’

dhe) over the l it tle child and they said Neverwill be born a boy who will be more irnpious than thisboy towards the Connacians .

’ ”

T W henAilillOlum ,king

ofMunster in the beginning ofthe third century,was a

child,hewas baptised [pagan fashion] in druidic streams

(Moylena,In the Gael ic version ofthe Travels of

Sir John Mandeville, where the Scripture account ofIsaacand Ishmael is given

,the term heathen baptism (baistedh

Geuuflidki) is applied to circumcision but this is an

exceptional applicat ion and the Irish ceremony was

altogether different . The ancient W elsh people had also a

heathen baptism : the W elsh hero Gwri of the GoldenHair

,when an infant was baptised with the baptism that

was usual at that Possibly the heathen baptismof the Irish and W elsh was adopted by the druids “

of

both nat ions in imitat ion ofthe Christian rite,by way of

opposit ion to the new doctrines, devoting the child to theservice oftheir own gods, which in the eyes ofthe Christ ianredactors ofthe tales

,was equivalent to devot ing him to

the devil .Druids’ Robes. —The dru ids wore a white robe. W e read

in Tirechan’

s Notes that Amalgaid’

s druid, Rechrad, and

“

his eight companions, on the occasion when they attemptedto kill St . Patrick ,

were clad in white tunics t | | like theGaul ish druid , who , as Pl iny states , were a white robe whencutt ing the mistletoe from the oak with a knife ofgoldflJ

Rev . Cel t ., X IV . 2 8,2 9 : Joyce , Old Cel t . Romances, 402 .

fStokes, Coir Anmann. 393 see p’

. 150 , supra .

I Zeit schr. fur Celt . Phil .,I I . 52 . § Rhys, Hibbert Lect .

, 499 .

[1Trip . Life, 325 , 326 : Hogan,

Doeum .,83.

‘l See De J ubainvil le,v i . 112 .

236 RELIGION , LEARN ING , AND am [PART II

Trees reverenced.—W e know that the Gaul ish druids

regarded the oak ,especially when mistletoe grew on it ,

with much religious venerat ion ; but I cannot find that

the Irish druids had any special venerat ion for the oak :

although ,like other trees , it occasionally figures in curious

pagan rites. The mist letoe is not a nat ive Irish plant it

was introduced some t ime in the last century . The statement we so often see put forward that the Irish druidsheld their rel igious meet ings, and performed their solemnri tes, under the sacred shade ofthe o ak ,

is pure invent ion.

But they attributed cert ain druidical or fairy virtues to the

yew,the hazel , and the quicken or rowan- tree— especially

the last— and employed them in many oftheir supersti

tious ceremonials. W e have already seen (p . 230) that

yew- rods were used in divinat ion.

In the historic Tale ofthe Forbais Droma Damhghaire,

or Siege ofKnocklong, in the County Limerick , we readthat when the northern and southern armies confrontedeach other, the druids on both sides made immense fires ofqu icken boughs. These were all cut by the soldiers withmysterious formalit ies, and the fires were l ighted withgreat incantat ions. Each fire was intended to exercise a

sinister influence on the opposing army ; and from the

movements of the smoke and flames the druids drewforecasts of the issue of the war.

* On some occasions,as we read , witches or druids, or malignant phantoms ,

cooked flesh— sometimes the flesh ofdogs or horses— ou

quicken- tree spits , as part of a diabolical rite for the

destruct ion ofsome person obnoxious to them .T Manyof these superst it ions have survived to our own day.

The quicken is a terror to fairies, and counteracts theirevil devices. Bring a quicken- tree walking- st ick out at

night , and the fairies will take care to give you a wideberth j W hen a housewife is churning

,i f she puts a ring

O’

Curry, Man. Cust .,I . 2 13

—2 16.

1See Rev . Celt .,V II . 301 and Miss Hul l

,Cuch . Saga , 254.

I See Kilk . Arch . Journ.,1. (1849 -

51) 353, 375.

RELIGION , LEARN ING ,AND ART [PART II

Druidesses.— The ancient Irish had druidesses also ,like

their relat ives the Gauls. In the Rennes Dinnsenchus* a

dr uidess is called a ban- drui,i.e. a woman- druid and

many individual druidesses figure in the ancient writ ings .

According to the same Dinnsenchusfi Brigit was a bau- filz’

(poetess) and ban- drui. These druidesses are also not icedin the ecclesiast ical wri t ings : as

, for instance , in one of

St . Patrick ’

s canons,where kings are. warned to give no

countenance to magi (i.a. or pythonesses ,or

augurers, in which it is abvious from the connexion thatthe pythonesses were druidesses }: Amongst the dangersthat St . Patrick (in his Hymn) asks God to protect himfrom are the spells ofwomen, evidently druidesses. Manypotent witches ,

called ban- tuatha and also ban- sitkc,fairy

women,

’ figure in the tales, who were probably regarded as

druidesses . Before the second Battle ofMoytura the twoBan- tuallza z

'

g ofthe Dedannans promise to enchant (Dolbiamid,

we will enchant the trees and stones and sodsofthe earth , so that they shall become a host [ofmen}against them [the Fomorian enemies} , and rout

2 . Points ofAgreement andDzfiereuce between Irisk and

GaulishDru-ids.

ChiefPoints ofAgreement — I . They had the same

Cel tic name in both countries Druid . 2 . They were all

wiz ards— magicians and diviners. 3 . They were the onlylearned men ofthe time : they were judges, poets, professors

oflearning in general. 4. Thev were teachers, especially of

the children ofkings and chiefs. 5 . Their disciples underfl

went a long course oftraining,during which they got by

heart great numbers ofverses. 6. They were the king ’

s

chief advisers : they were very influent ial , and held ingreat respect ; often taking precedence even ofthe kings.

Rev . Celt .,xvr. 34. TIbid.

,277. fTrip . Life

, 507.

5Rev . Celt .,X II . 93 . On druidesses see also O ’

Curry, Man. Cust .,

I . 187 : and De Jubainvil le, V I . 92 .

CHAP . Ix] PAGAN ISM 239

7. Among both the Irish and Gauls there. were dru idesses.

8 . They had a number ofgods. Cmsar gives the Gaul ish

gods the Roman names,Mercury , Jupiter, &c. but these

Roman names do not fit for the Gaul ish gods were quitedifferent from those ofRome and Greece ,

and had different

names, and different functions . Many ofthe Irish gods ,as will b e shown farther on, were ident ical , both in name

and chief functions, with those ofGaul .

ChiefPoints ofDi fference.— I . TheGaulish druids were

under one head druid , with supreme au thority and theyheld periodical councils or synods. There was no suchinst itut ion in Ireland though there were eminent druids

in various districts ,with the influence usually accorded to

eminence . 2 . The Gaulish druids held the doctrine ofthe

immortal ity ofthe soul , as applying to all mankind the

soul ofevery human being passing,after death

,into other

bodies, i.e. ofmen,not ofthe lower animals. There is no

evidence,as will be shown at page 296,

that the Irish druidsheld the souls ofallmen to be immortal . But in case of

a few individuals— palpably exceptional—At is related thatthey lived on after death ,

some reappearing as other men,

some as animals ofvarious kinds,and a few l ived on in

Fairyland ,without the intervent ion ofdeath . 3 . Human

sacrifice was part ofthe rite ofthe Gaul ish druids, some

times an individual being sacrificed and slain somet imes

great numbers together. There is no record ofany human

sacrifice in connexion with the Irish druids and there are

good grounds for bel ieving that direct human sacrifice wasnot practised at allin Ireland ,

as will b e shown farther on inthis chapter (p . 4 . The Gaulish druids prohibitedtheir disciples from committing to writing any part of

their lore. regarding this as an unhallowed practice.

There IS no ment ion ofany such prohibition among Irishdruids. 5 . The Gaul ish druids revered the oak

, and the

misltletoe when growing on it : the Irish druids reveredthe yew,

the haz el , and the quicken- tree or rowan- tree :

240 RELIGION,LEARN ING , Axn ART (PART Ii

but not the oak. 6. The Gaul ish druids , as we are in

formed ,were priests : the Irish druids were not : they

were merely wiz ards and learned men. 7. A point of

difference regarding druidic l iterature that ought to be

not iced is this — That while all our knowledge regardingthe Gaul ish and Brit ish druids is derived from Lat in and

Greek writers, there being no nat ive accounts— or next tonone— our informat ion about Irish druids comes fromnat ive Irish sources. and none fromforeign wri ters.

*

3 . Sorcerers andSorcery.

One foot , one hand, one eye.”— Spells ofseveral kinds

are oft enment ioned in our ancient wri t ings, as practised byvarious people, not specially or solely by druids. But all

such rites and incantations, by whomsoever performedmagical practices ofevery kind— are known by the generalname ofdruz

'

decht , i.e. dru indicat ing that all pro.

ceeded from the druids . Some ofthe most important ofthem will be described here.

A common name for a sorcerer ofany kind ,whether

dru id or not , was corrguz’

nech, and the art he practisedthe art ofsorcery— was corrguiuecht . The explanat ion of

these corrguinechs as folks ofmight ,’ given in the story of

the Battle ofMoytura(Rev . Celt . , X II . , p . shows thepopular est imat ion in which they were held. Usuallywhile practising his spell the corrguz

'

uechwas on one foot,

one hand , and one eye, which , I suppose,means standing

on one foot , with one arm outstretched , and with one eye

shut . W hile in this posture, he uttered a kind ofincantat ion or curse, called glcim dz

’

cheun,commonly extempore

,

which was intended to infl ict injury on the maledictedperson or persons. It was chanted in a loud voice, as theword gla

’

m indicates, meaning , according to Cormac ’s

On the q uestion ofthe Celtic druids see De Jubainvil le,La Civilis.

des Celt es, p . 147 : and for Irish druids read O

’

Curry, Man. Cust.,

Lect s. ix . and x . See also Harris’

s Ware,Ant iq q .

, chapter xvi.

242 RELIGION ,LEARNING ,

AND ART [PART II

andone eye and bending the sapling into a '

ring,he cut an

ogham on it , and left it t ightly fitted on the top ofa pillarstone . It was a necessary part Ofthis ri te that the saplingshould b e severed and its top sheared Offwith a singlesweep ofthe sword . One OfMaive’

s people found it andread the ogham , which placed an injunction on them not to

move the army from camp , t ill one Ofthem , going throughthe same process, placed a twig - ring with a reply in oghamon the same pil lar- stone .

*

Some obscure allusions in old writ ings show thatsorcerers threw themselves into other strange att itudesin the practice Oftheir diabol ical art . W hen the dru idscame against St . Caillin, they advanced on all fours, andm ind a tona suas, they turn up their backsides (ponentpodices eorum sursum) and their jaws move angrily , and

they unjustly'

revile the clerics (probably with a gldm

dichenn) and the legend goes on to say that for o this

profanity the saint turned them into standing stones:1'

Perhaps a circumstance related in the W ars ofthe Gaelswith the Galls has some connexion with this rite: W henKing Mahon, after the '

Bat tle cfSulcoit .(A.D. tookthe Danes ofLimerick captive

,the victorious Irish cele

brated some sort ofraces or games by placing a great l ineofthe w omen Ofthe foreigners on the l it tle hills ofSingland in a circle, and they were stooped with their handson the ground ; and the gillies Ofthe army ,

standingbehind them , marshalled them , for the good Of the soulsOfthe foreigners who were killed in the battle.

”

1 But

the whole entry ,which seems an Oddmixture

'

ofpaganismand Christianity , is q uite obscure, so that Todd professes

himselfunable to explain it .Imbas Forosnai , Teinm Laegda ; andDichetaldo chen

naib .— In Cormac ’s Glossary and other authorit ies, thethree rites with these names are ment ioned as rendering

Miss Hul l, Cuch . Saga , 128, 12 9 : LL, 58 , a, 40.

1‘Book ofFenagh, 129 . 1Wars ofC C

,83 and Introd.

,cxxu.

CHAP . 1x] PAGANISM 243

a poet .(filz) prophet ical . Imbus Forosuaz’

,

‘ illuminat ionbetween the hands,

’

or palm - knowledge Ofenl ightening ,’

was so cal led ,says the Glossary (p . because i

'

t

discovers everything which the poet wishes and whichhe desires to manifest . The Glossary goes on to describe

the manner ofperforming the rite The poet cheweda piece ofthe flesh ofa red pig , or Ofa dog, or Ofa '

cat ,

and then placing it on a flagstone, pronounced an incantation over it , and O ffered it to idol - gods then he callshis idol - gods to him ,

but finds'

them not on the morrow

[i.e. he takes them to himsel f, and they disappear duringhis sleep] . and he pronounces incantat ions on his

two palms, and calls again unto him his idol - gods,that

his sleep may not be disturbed ; and he lays his twopalms on his two cheeks and [in this position] fallsasleep : and he is watched in order that no one may

disturb him .

” During his sleep the future events wererevealed to him andhe awakened up with a full knowledgeOfthem . According to the G lossary, the rite was calledimbus, from bus,

‘

the palm Of the hand .

’

The Tet'

um

Laegda was used for a l ike purpose but the two riteswere performed after a different manner : i.e. a differentkind ofOffering was made at each (Br. Laws

,I.

De Jubainville (V I . 89-

91) shows that a similar,though

somewhat less complicated , rite was practised by the

Greeks and Romans, and by some eastern people.

Cormac ’s Glossary and other Old authorit ies state that

St Patrick abol ished the Imbus Forosuai and the Teinm

Laegda,because they required O fferings to

’

be made to

idols or demons but he permitted theDichetaldo chenuaz’

b,

because i t is not necessary In i t to make any O fferings

to demons. This Dichetal do cheuuaz'

b was simply the

utterance of an extempore prophecy or poem without

any previous rite. It seems to have been accomplishedwith the aid ofa harmless mnemonic contrivan

‘

ce Ofsome

kind ,in which . the fingers played a principal part ,

‘

and

244 RELIGION,LEARN ING

,AND ART [PART II

by which the poet was enabled to pour forth his versesextemporaneously . That this was the case appears bothfrom its name and from the descript ions given in the Old

authorities. Dickelaldo cheuuaib signifies recital from the

ends,’

i.e. the ends ofthe fingers, as is evident from Cormac ’

s

Glossary(p . 95) There is a revelation at once. from the

ends ofthe bones — do ckcuuaib cudime. SO also,in the

Small Primer, it is said that the poet repeats his verseswithout having meditated , or even thought of them

before (Br. Laws, v . 59 , Again,in the Senchus Mor

,

we read that the poet composes from the enl ightening

[finger-Jends (forcau dz’

candoz’

oforosna) on which theCommentator says : At this day the t ime Ofthe

Commentator] it is bv the ends ofhis [finger-Jbones heeffects i t ; . and the way in which it is done15 thisW hen the poet sees the person or thing before him

,he

makes a verse at once with the ends ofhis fingers, or in

his mind without studying , and he composes and repeatsat the same All this agrees with the statement

in Cormac’

s Glossary Dz'

chetal do ckenuaz’

b was left [byPatrick] , for it is science [i.e. mere intellectual effortnot necromancy] that effects i t . TNotwithstanding St . Patrick

’

s prohibition, the whole

three rites continued to be pract ised down to a comparat ively late period ,

as the forms ofmany other pagan riteslived on in spite of the efforts Of the Christ ian clergy.The Book OfOllaves lays down as one ofthe requirementsofan Anruth poet in his eighth year that he must -masterthe Imbas Forosnai, the Teiuuz Laegda , and the Dichetal

do chenuaib(see chap . xi , p . 433 , fartheron). In confir

mat ion ofthis, we find it stated in a late historical record

‘ Br. Laws, I 40 , 45.

TStOkes, Trip. Life, 571. Mrs. Hal l,who knew nothing of

'

the

Dichetal do Chennaib. describes (in the year 1841) how the il literateOldmarket - woman Mol l Miskellagh , when sent to town to purchase and

bring home numerous art icles, fixed them all in her memory by means

ofher fingers (Irish Penny Journal , p . 410, z ud column).


part Of the raiment ofTir Taz’

mgire or Fairyland , and

which had been given him by his tutor ofdruidism (aitiIn an Irish version Ofthe Aeneid , the writer,

having in his mind the native Irish legend,tells us that

when Venus was guiding Aeneas and his companions toDido’

s city , she put a dz’

chealtair round them, so that

they went unseen t ill they arrived within the city :1 justas Athene threw a mist ofinvisibility round Ulysses as heentered the city ofthe Phaeaceans(Odyss.

Druids and others could raise or produce a Fe- fiada

or Feth- fiada ,1 which rendered people invisible. The

accounts that have reached us Ofthis Fe-flada are veryconfused and Obscure. Sometimes i t appears to be a

poet ical incantat ion, or even a Christ ian hymn,which

rendered the person that repeated it invisible. Often itis a mantle : occasionally a magic fog or spell that hidnatural Objects— such an object as a well— and that mightbe removed by Christ ian influences. Every $1163 or fairypalace had a Fe- fiada round it , which shut it out frommortal vision.§ The Fe-fiada and the dicheltaz

'

r held theirground far into Christ ian times, and even found theirwayinto the legends Ofthe saints. St . Patrick ’

s well - knownhymn was a Fe- fiada , and i t is openly called so in Old

authorities for it made Patrick and his company , as theywent towards Tara ,

appear as a herd ofdeer to those wholay in wait to slay them . At the Battle ofClontarfthe banshee Bevin— according to a modern manuscriptaccount— gave the Dalcassian hero DunlangO

’

Hartigan a

mantle, called a feadh Fm, which , so long as hewore it ,made him invisible,

and protected him from harm during

Kilk . Arch . Journ.,1870

—71, 425 , 24 ; 427, 6 LL

, 77, b, 20 .

1Zeitschr. ffir Celt . Phil ., I I. 431.1This charm with its name Feth-fiada— as wil l b e mentioned farther

on (p . 386, note)— is stil l prevalent in Scot land, though the name has

been long forgot ten in Ireland. See Fe Fiada in Index.

§ See Todd, Book ofFernioy, 46, 48 : O'

Curry, Sons ofUsna— Atlantis

,111. 386 : Trip . Life

, 47 : Silva Gad.,2 28.


the battle but when he threw it offhe was slain.

* W henthe king ofFermoy pursued St . Finnchua

’

s mother to killher—Pas we read in the Life of this saint— a cloak o f

darkness (celtc/mz’r was put round her bymiraculous Christ ian intervent ion

,so that she escaped .1

It would appear from many passages that anything producing invisibility ,

(

whether mantle,fog,

incantat ion, or

hymn, was called by the general name Fe-fiada.

W hen the Fe- fiada was a fog, i t was more commonlycalled ceo

’

druz’

dechta [dreeghta z ceo’

, pron. kyo,one syll ] ,

the druidical or magic fog which very often figures inIrish romances and songs, both ancient and modern. In

the Fled Bricrenn we read that a ceo’

druz’

dechla onceovertook Laegaire the V ictorious, and on the same occasion another came upon Conall Cernach , so that he wasunable to see heaven or earth .

”

i W hen the Dedannans

invaded Ireland , they marched inland till they reachedSl ieve- an- Ierin, covering themselves with a magic fog,

so that the Firbolgs never perceived them t ill they hadtaken up a strong posit ion. This conceal ing fog is also

found in Christian legends. In the story Ofthe Boroma

in the Book ofLeinster, it is related that on one occasion,

when St . Molling and his companions were pursued by a

host ile party , his friendMothairén,who was far away from

him at the t ime, having ,in some preternatural way, been

made aware ofhis danger, prayed that a fog(ceosimplynot called a 066 druidechtu)might be sent round themand straightway a fog came and enveloped them , thoughthey themselves did not perceive it , so that they werequite hiddenfrom the View oftheir enemies, and succeededin escaping .§

Yarious Spel ls. —Spells and charms of various otherkinds were practised . A general name for a charm W as

Oss. Soc. Trans.,

-

11. 101'

see Joyce, Short Hist . ofIreland, p . 2 19 ,

note, for the story ofBunlang. 1Stokes, Lives ofSS.,232 .

1Fled Bricrenn, 45 , 49 . SSflva Gad., 423.


AND ART [PART II

sén [shain] sénairc [three sy llables] , a charmer. Amongthe offences ment ioned in the Senchus MO1 for which a

penal ty was due is carrying love~charms which are

there called anpika other forms Ofthe word are uptha ,

cptha ,

’

and z'

piko . In the G loss on this passage are

given two other names for a charm— fclmas and pisdc'

.

This last is st ill in use , even among English - speakingpeople, in the modern form piseog(pron. pishoge), and

familiarly applied to wi tchcraft or spells. Fz'

dlann, whichoccurs in the Second V ision ofAdamnan, denoted somekind ofnecromant ic divinat ion, which was, perhaps, doneby lot - cast ing , as the first syllable , fid, means wood ,

’

Or

anyt hing made ofwood ’

: or, as Stokes suggests ,

* bycutt ing ogham on a vew- rod

,as described at p . 230 , supra .

In Cuimmin’

s poem on the Irish saints éz'

le [aila] is givento denote a spell - chant or charm . The Dedannan god

Lug, already ment ioned(p . 241) as singing an incantationbefore the Battle ofMoytura ,

is brought forward in the

Tain as in conversation with Cuculainn, and utters anotherincantation,

which is called ,on the margin of the page

(78 ,a) ofthe Book ofthe Dun Cow, élz

’

Loga , Lug’

s éli

or chant . ’1

4. .My t/zo/ogy Gods, Goblins, and Phantoms.

Names for God. — Ia the Irish language there are severalnames for God in general

,without reference to any part i

cular god : and it will be convenient to bring them all

together here, whether in Christian or pagan connexion.

The most general is dz’

a (gen. which,with some

variat ions in spell ing,is common to many ofthe Aryan

languages. It wasused in pagan as well as in Christ iant imes, and is the Irish word in universal use at the presentday for God. The word fiadu (gen. fiadat) is sometimes

Rev . Celt,x11. 440 .

1Per other examples offi t,see S tokes in Zeit schr. fur Celt . Phil . ,

1. 72 . and for a horrible pagan rite with dead men’

s marrow, pract ised

even in Christ ian times,apparent ly

“ with the sanction of the Brehonv,

L'

aw,

-

see Br. Laws,I .

250 RELIGION,LEARNING , AND ART [PART II

in oaths and asseverat ions : and such expressions as the

following are constantly put into the mouths ofthe heroesofthe Red Branch I swear by the gods that my peopleswear by ” (Tonga na dea thungus mo thuath) I swearto god what my tribe swears (Tongu do dia tonges mothuath) I swear by my gods whom I adore (Do thungmo deo dan adraim). Muirchu ,

in his short Lat in Li fe of

St . Patrick , wri tten near the end ofthe seventh century ,

informs us that when King Laegaire [Leary] was settingout for Slane,

on EasterEve, A.D. 433 , to arrest St Patrick,he ordered ninechariots to be joined together, accordingto the tradition ofthe All this would seem to

imply that— as already remarked (p . 220) - we are not in

possession offull informat ion regarding pagan Irish worship : that there is something behind those Observanceswhich we know nothing of.

Individual Gods.— But we have a number ofindividualgods Of very dist inct personality ,

who figure in the

romant ic l iterature , some beneficent and some evil . The

names Ofmany ofthem have been ident ified with those of

ancient Gaulish gods,1a thing that might be ant icipated,

inasmuch as the Gaelic people ofIreland and Scotlandare a branch ofthe Celts or Gauls' ofthe Cont inent , and

brought with them ,at their separat ion from themain stock

,

the language,the traditions, and the mythology oftheir

original home.

Shee or Fairies — The pagan Irish worshipped the side

[shee,] i.e. the earth- gods,or fairies, or elves. In proof of

this, many passages might be cited from both the lay and

the ecclesiast ical l iterature but perhaps the most precisestatement , as well as the oldest , occurs -in Fiacc’

s Hymnto St . Patrick Till the apostle [Patrick] came to them ,

darkness lay on Ireland ’

s folk the tribes worshipped the

Hogan, Doeum . , 2 34 .

1For examp les, see Kilk . Arch . Journ.,1868

, p. 319 Stokes,Three

Irish G lossaries,xxxiii : and Rhys, Hibb . Lectures (Lects. I . and It .)

GHAP. Ix] PAGANISM 251

side A part ofthis worship was intended for the fairiescollect ively , and a part was often meant for individuals,who will b e named as we go along. These side are closelymixed up with the mythical race called Tuatka [Tooha]deu Danann, or, more shortly,

Dedannans, to whom the

great majority ofthe fairy gods belonged and i t will be

proper to give here some informat ion regarding bothcombined .1The name Tuatha Dea Danann signifies the tuatha ,

or people ofthe goddess Danu or Danann, who was the

mother ofthe gods, and who will be found ment ionedfarther on. According to our bardic chroniclers the

Dedannans were the fourth of the prehistoric coloniesthat arrived in Ireland many centuries before the Christ ianera i They were great magicians, and were highly skilledin science and metal - working. After inhabit ing Irelandfor about two hundred years, they were conquered by thepeople ofthe fifth and last colony— the M ilesians. W henthey had been finally defeated in two decisive battles, theyheld secret council , and arranged that the several chiefs ,with their followers, were to take up their residence in thepleasant hills all over the country— the side [shee] or elf

mounds— where they could live free from observat ion or

molestat ion. A detailed account oftheir final dispersionis given in theBook ofFermoy, a manuscript copied fromOlder books in 1463 , where it is related that theDedannans,after two disastrous battles, held a meeting at Brugh , on

the Boyne, under the presidency ofMannanan MacLir

(p . 258 ,infra) and by his advice they distributed and

quartered themselves on the pleasant hills and plains

of Erin. Bodb Derg [Bove Derg,] son of the Dagda

Trip . Life, 409 .

1For further information,see Comyn

’

s Keat . , 20 3 : Hyde, Lit . Hist .,

51 : Joyce, Old Cel tic Romances, 427 : Ogyg.

,III. xxii : and Joyce,

Short Hist . oflrel 125 .

1For the legend of their arrival and rule in Ireland, see Joyce’

s

Keating,109 to end.


(p . 260 ,infra), was chosen king andMannanan arranged

the different dwel l ing - places among the hills for the

nobles. Deep under ground in these abodes they bui ltthemselves glorious palaces, all ablaz e with light

, and

glit tering with gems and gold . Somet imes their palaceswere situated under wells or lakes, or under the sea .

*

A different account is given in a much more ancientauthority , the eighth or ninth century tale called Mesca

Ulad(p . in the Book ofLeinster,which recounts that

after the battles, Amergin, the M ilesian brehon,was called

on to divide Erin between the conquering and the con

quered races ; and he gave the part ofErin that wasunderground to the [spiritual] Dedannans, and the otherpart to his own corporeal people ,

the sons ofM iled afterwhich the Dedannans went into hills and fairy- palaces

,

and became gods. But i t is to be observed that individuals belonging to other races— as, for instance, some of

the M ilesian chiefs —became fairy - gods, and dwel t in the

side (for which see p . 261,infra). In a passage in one

tale even the Fomorians are said to be dwellers in the side.1The side seem , indeed , to have been looked upon as the

home ofmany classes ofsupernatural beings, as in the

case of the Morrigu mentioned below ,who is stated to

have come out ofthe elf- mounds(a sidaib).

In one ofthe stories ofthe Tain, as well as in othertales, we meet with a statement in connexion with the

Dedannans which is somewhat Obscure. On one occasionCuculainn,

being t ired and thirsty after a fight,comes to

an Old woman(who was the morrigu in disguise, and had

come out ofthe side), milking a cow, and asked her fora drink . And when she had given i t to him , he saidThe blessing ofthe dee and ofthe ou - dee be upon thee

(dee, gods .an- dee, non- gods and this explanatorynote is added in the LL text : The dee were the

Under a wel l : see Ir. Texte,III . 209 .

1Rev . Cel t .,x11. 73 : Hyde, Lit . Hist .

,287.


AND ART [PART II

the existence of older gods in many passages of the

ancient authorit ies. One ofthe oldest , the Mesca Ulad ,

*

after describing the arrangement already not iced , by whichthe Dedannans were assigned the underground dwell ings

,

goes on to say The Tuatha De Danann [then] wentinto hi lls and fairy - palaces (sidbrugaib), so that theyspoke with side under ground implying the previous

existence ofthe side. And in another very Old authority ,

the Story ofthe Sick - bed ofCuculainn, the Dedannans

are represented as on several occasions visit ing the palacesof the previous existing fairies. But in course oft ime

the dist inction between the Dedannans and their predecessors became lost , so that it will not be necessary to

refer to it again, and the side or fairies will be treated as

if all ofOne race.

Dwel l ings ofFairies.— In accordance with all theseancient accounts i t was universally bel ieved that the fairiesdwel t in habitat ions in the interior ofpleasant hills, whichwere called by the name ofside [shee] . Colgan

’

s explanat ion of this term gives an admirable ‘

epitome of the

supersti tion respecting the side and its inhabitantsFantastical spirits are by the Irish called men of the

side, because they are seen, as i t were, to come out of

beaut i ful hills to infest people ; and hence the vulgarbel ief that they reside in certain subterraneous habitat ions within these hills ; and these habitat ions, and

somet imes the hills themselves, are called by the Irish1

side.

”

1 Here it will be observed that the word side is

applied to the fairies themselves as well as to their abodes.

And skee, as meaning a fairy , is perfectly understood st ill .W hen you see a little whirl of dust moving along the

road on a fine: calm day, that is called a shee-

geeha

(Ir. side gaeithe), wind fairies,

’ travelling from one lis

Mesca , p . 3 : LL,261, b, 33

.

1This superst ition about fairy hil ls also prevails in scot land : Rob

Roy ,chap . xxviIi. and note H .


or elf- mound to'

another and it will be better to get outofthe way.

3

In Colgan’

s time the fairy superst it ion had descendedto the common people— the vulgus for the spread Ofthe

faith , and the influence ofeducat ion, had disenthralled theminds of the higher classes. But in the fifth century,

the existence ofthe Daoi’

ne side [deena- shee,people of

the fairy mansions ’

lwas an art icle ofbelief with the high,

as well as with the low ; as may be inferred from the

following curious passage in the Book ofArmagh(eighthcentury), where we find the two daughters ofLaegaire

1103.

F IG .

A(airy h ill an earthenmound at Highwood.near Lough Arrow, in CO. Sligo.

[Leary] , king of Ireland , participat ing in this supersti

t ion Then St . Patrick came to the well which is calledGlebock, on the side ofCruachan, towards the east and

before sunrise they [Patrick and his companions] sat

down near the well . And 10 , the two daughters of

King Laegaire, Ethnea the fair and Fedelma the ruddy,

came early to the well to wash their hands, as was theircustom and they found near the well a synod ofholv

bishops with Patrick . And. they knew not whence they

carneyor from what from what country : but

supposed them to be fir side,or gods ofthe earth” or a

phantasm

Trip. Life, .99 , 314 Todd,St . Patrick

, 452 .

256 RELIGION,LEARN ING , AND ART [PART II

Theideas prevalent in the ninth , tenth, and eleventhcenturies as to what the people

’

s bel iefs were regardingthe fairies before the time ofSt . Patrick ,

are well set

forth in the concluding paragraph of the tale of The

Sick Bed ofCuculainn in the Book Ofthe'

Dun Cow i

For the demoniac power was great before the faith and

such was its greatness that'

the demons used to corporeal ly tempt the people , and they used to shew themdelights and secrets,

such as'

how they might become

immortal . And it was to these phantoms the ignorantused to apply the name side.

”

Numbers offa iry hills and sepulchral caim s, not only

those enumerated in the Book ofFermoy,but many others

,

are scattered over thecountry , each with a

bright palace deepunderneath , ruled byits own chief

, the tutelary deity. They are

still regarded as fairyF'G 74 haunts , and are held

h airy mo at at Patrickst own.nea r Oldcast le. County Meath.(From100m.Soc. Antiq q . Irel.. regs.) In much superst It Ious

awe by the peasantry.

Nature and'

PoW ers oftheFairies. — Fairies, as they are

depicted for us in the oldwrit ings, occupied an intermediateposition between spiritual and corporeal beings. In somepassages Ofthe tales, especially those relating to the paganheaven which they inhabited , they are spoken of as

immortal : and they drank ofManannan Mac“

Lir’

s ale,

and ate of the flesh ofhis swine, which preserved themfrom old age,

decay , and death . But in otherpassagesthey are made subject to death , after l iving an immensely

]

long time. They are often presented to us l ike men

and]

women, and they are sometimes married to mortals.Men fought battles against fairies, and hacked and killed

Sick Bed : At lantis,n . 124.


AND ART [PART II

peasantry have a lurking bel ief that cattle and human

beings who interfere with the haunted old lisses or forts,are often fairy- struck , which brings on paralysis or otherdangerous il lness, or death . I knew one noted case.

A brief account ofa few ofthe leading Dedannan and

other fairy gods will now be given. Somet imes they are

spoken ofas gods somet imes they are regarded as greatmen,

who ultimately came to be looked upon as gods.

But this same uncertainty— whether pantheon deities are

gods or men, or the tendency to regard them as great men

who became deified— is found in the mythology ofGreece,and, indeed ,

in that ofall other ancient nat ions.*

Manannan Mac Lir, whose epithet Mac Lir signifiesSon ofthe Sea (ler, sea gen. lir), was the Irish sea

god. He is usually represented in the old tales as ridingon the sea ,

in a chariot , at the head ofhis followers.

W hen Bran the son ofFebal had been at sea two daysand two nights, he saw a man in a chariot comingtowards him over the sea ,

”who turns out to be Manan

nan MacLir, and who , as he passed ,spoke in verse , and

said that the sea to him was a beaut iful flowery plain

What is a clear 58 3

For the prowed skiff~in which Bran is

,

That is to me a happy p lain with profusion offlowers,[Looking] from the chariot oftwo wheels "

?

This latter part ofthe old account has been adopted inthe legends ofthe Saints. St . Scuithin, or Scotinus, usedto walk over the sea to Rome in a day, and return the

next day. Once,when he was thus skimming along like

the wind , he met St . Finnbarr, ofCork ,

'

who was in a shipand Finnbarr asked him why he was travelling over thesea in that manner. Scuithin promptly repliedthat itwas

For a ful l account of‘

the Dedannan gods, and a comparison oftheir

correspondence with the deifiedheroes ofthe Greeks and other ancient

nat ions, see Le Cycle Mythologiq ue : De J ubainvil le, Cours, Lit t . Celt . II.

TVoyage ofBran,L,16

, 39 , note 32.

CHAP . Ix] PAGAN ISM 259

not the sea at all, but a flowery shamrock - bearing plainand here is a proof ofit , said he— extending his handinto the sea and he took up therefrom a bunch of

purple flowers and cast it to Finnbarr into the ship .

But Finnbarr [to disprove Scuithin’

s statement] alsostretched his hand into the water, from which he tookup a salmon, and cast it to And so the

dispute between the two good saints remained undecided .

Manannan is st il l vividly remembered in some parts ofIreland . He is in his glory on a stormy night : and on

such a night , when you look over the sea,there

.

beforeyour eyes, in the dim gloom , are thousands ofManannan

’

s

white- maned steeds, careering along after the great chief ’schariot . One ofthe islands of the pagan heaven is described in the Voyage ofBran (I . 4) as an isle roundwhich sea- horses glisten. According to an oral tradit ion,

prevalent in ' the Isle ofMan and in the eastern count iesofLeinster (brought from Leinster to Man by the early

emigrants : p .

'

79, supra) Manannan had three legs, on

which he rolled along on land , wheel - l ike, always sur

rounded by a ceo- dmoz’

dheachta,or magic mist (p . 247,

supra) and this is the origin ofthe three- legged figure on

the Manx halfpenny. In Cormac ’s Glossary (p . 114) he

is brought down to the level ofa mere man- a successfulmerchant— who afterwards became deified ManannanMacLir, a ~celebrated merchant , who was [i.a. took up

his abode] in the Isle ofMann. He was the best pilot

that was in the west ofEurope. He used to know ,by

studying the sky, the period which would be the fine

weather a nd the bad weather, and when each ofthese

two t imes would , change. Hence the Irish and the

Britons cal l him the God of(the Sea ,

’

and alsoMacLt‘r,

i.e. the‘

Son of the Sea.

’

And from the name of

Manannan the Isle ofMann is so called .

”

But the C6ir

Anmann (p . which,however, is scarcely so old an

O’

Clery’

s Cal., 5 .

260 RELIG ION,LEARN ING , AND AN [PART II

authority, says the reverse He was called Manannan

from [the Isle of] Mann.

”

The Dagda. was a powerful and beneflcent god,who

ruled as king over Ireland for eighty years. He was

somet imes called Ruad- Ro/hessa [Roo- ro- essa] , the‘ lord

(w ad) ofgreat knowledge’ (70, great ’

firs , gen. fessa ,

for’

tis he that had the perfection of

the heathen science and also Mac na n- ule n- da’

na,

‘

the Son ofall the Sciences ’ (ale or rule, all’

; ddn,

science ’

) He seems to have made an il l - assortedmarriage ; for, according to Cormac

’

s Glossary (p .

his wife was known by three names— Brag, Meng, and

Meabal, i.e. Lie ,

’ Guile ,

’

and Disgrace.

’

Bodb Derg [Bove- Derg] , son of the Dagda, had his

residence— called Side Buidb [Shee Booy ] —on the shoreofLough Derg , somewhere near Portumna. Several hillsin Ireland , noted as fairy - haunts, took their names fromhim , and others from his daughter Bugh [Boo] .AengusMao- in-Og[Oge] , another son ofthe Dagda,

was

a mighty magician— in the W ooing ofEmer he is called a

god— whose splendid palace at Brugh ofthe Boyne was

within the great sepulchral mound ofNewgrange, near

DroghedadrBrigit , daughter oftheDagda , was the goddess ofPoets,

ofPoetry , andofW isdom . This,”says Cormac ’s G lossary

is Brigit the female sage, or woman ofwisdom .

that is, Brigit the goddess, whom poets adored , becauseher protecting care [over them] was very great and veryfamous Cormac fancifully interprets her name as

meaning fiery arrow (Irish ,Brea- Shaiget). She had

two sisters, also called Brigit : one was the goddess of

Medicine and medical doctors ; the other the goddess of

Corm. G loss , 144 : Ir. Texte, III . 357 : LL,188 , a, Pronounce

t his long epithet Mac- nan- ulla—nauna .

t For the splendours ofthis palace, see joyce, Old Celtic Romances,

p . 186.


AND ART [PART 11

fairy predecessors . For instance, the Shee OfAed-Ruad

[Ai- ROO] at Ballyshannon,inDonegal . Our ancient books

relate that this Aed-Ruad,or Red Hugh , a M ilesian chief,

the father ofMacha ,founder ofEmain

,was drowned in

the cataract at Ballyshannon, which was thence calleda fter him Eas- Acda - Ruaid [Ass- ai- roo] , Aed- Ruad

’

s

W aterfall , now shortened to Assaroe.

’

He was buriedover the cataract , in the mound which was called fromhim Sid—Aeda— a name partly preserved in Mullaghshee ,

often called Mullinashee , both names meaning the hill ofthe std or fa iry - palace.

’

This hill has recently been found to contain sub ter

ranean chambers , which confirms our ancient legendaryaccounts, and shows that i t is a great sepulchral moundlike those on the Boyne . How few of the people of

Ballyshannon know that the familiar name Mullaghsheeis a l iving memorial Ofthose dim ages when Aed Ruadheld sway , and that the great king himself has slept herein his dome- roofed dwell ing for two thousand years

Another M ilesian chief , Donn, son of M ilesius, wasdrowned in the magic storm raised by the spells ofthe

Dedannans when the eight brothers came to invadeIreland .

* But for him it was only changing an earthlymode ofexistence for a much pleasanter one in his airypalace on the top ofKnockfierna , as the renowned king Of

the fairies and here he ruled over all the great Limerickplain around the mountain, where many legends Ofhims t ill l inger among the peasantry.

A male fairy was a [ar- side(fer ,a man a female

fairy , a ben- sz’

de or banshee, i.e. a woman from the fairyhills .

’

Several fairy - hills were ruled by banshees as fairyq ueens. The banshee who presided as queen of the

palace on the summit ofKnockainy hill , in county Limerick,

was Ainé [Anne (2 daughter Of the Dedannan

chief Eogabail, who gave - her name to the hill , and to theFor which see Joyce ,

Short Hist . ofIret.,12 7.

CHAP . 1x] PAGANISM ‘

263

exist ing village ofKnockainy. This was the fairy ladywho,

in a personal struggle with Olioll, or ~Aillil, king of

Munster in the second century, cut his ear cleanOff,

whence he was, and is, known a s Ailill 010m, i.e. Ailill

Bare- ear (o, an ear lam,bare see vol II. p .

Two other banshees, St ill more renowned ,were Clidna

[Cleena] ofCarrigcleena ,and Aebinn or Aibell ofCraglea.

Cleena is the potent banshee that rules as queen over thefairies ofSouth Munster. In the Dinnsenchus there isan ancient and pathet ic story about her, wherein it is”

related that she was a foreigner from Fairy - land, who ,

coming to Ireland , was drowned while sleeping ou'

the

strand at the harbour ofGlandore in South Cork ,in the

absence ofher husband . In this harbour the sea,at

certain t imes, utters a very pecul iar,deep ,

hollow, and

melancholy roar, among the caverns ofthe cliffs, whichwas formerly bel ieved to foretell the death ofa king Ofthesouth ofIreland , andwhich Dean Swift has described in hisLatin poem Carberiae Rupes Carbery being the nameofthe district T This surge has been from time immemo

rial called Tenn- Cleena , Cleena’

s wave.

’

Cleena l ived on,

however, as a fairy. She had her palace in the heart Ofapile Ofrocks, five miles from Mallow

,which is still well

known by the name of Carrig - Cleena : and numerous

legends about her are still told among the Munsterpeasantry. Aeb inn or Aibell [Bevin, Bevil

’

, whose namesignifies beautiful ,

’ presided over North Munster,'

and

was in an especial manner the guardian spirit Of the

Dalcassians or O’

Briens. She had her palace two miles

north OfKillaloe, in a rock called Crageevil, but life‘

fi‘

r

known by the name ofCraglea ,grey rock .

’

The rock is

situated in a silent glen, under the face ofa mountain

and the people affirm that she forsook her retreat when

the woods which once covered the place were cut down.

See Voyage ofBran,11. 2 18 , 2 19 .

1See Kilk .-.Arch . Journ. ,

1856, p . 127.


There is a spring in the face Ofthe mountain, st ill called

Tobereevil, Aibell’

s well .’ The part she played in the

Battle OfClontarf is briefly referred to at p . 246, supra

but it is related in full in my Short History ofIreland ,

pp. 219 , and 223—4.

The Old fort under which the banshee Grien of the

Bright Cheeks had her dwell ing st ill remains on the top

of Pallas Grean hill in the county Limerick .* One of

the most noted of the fairy- palaces is on the top Of

Slievenamon in Tipperary . But to enumerate all the

fairy - hills ofIreland , and relate fully the history oftheirpresiding gods and goddesses, and the superst it ious beliefsamong the people regarding them , would occupy a goodsiz ed volume.

In modern times the word ‘ banshee ’

has becomenarrowed in its meaning , and signifies a female spirit thatattends certain families, and is heard keenmg or crying at

night round the house when some member is about to die tAt the present day almost all raths, cashels, and mounds— the dwellingsj fort s, and sepulchres ofthe Firbolgs and

M ilesians, as well as those of the Dedannans— are con

sidered as fairy haunts.Shees

,open at Samain— On Samain Eve, the night

before the I st OfNovember, or, as i t is now called , All

Hallows Night , or H allowe’

en, all the fairy hills werethrown wide Open for the Fe- fiada was taken Off The

slums ofErin were always Open at Samain says the

ancient tale of The Boyish Exploits ofFinn for on

[the eve of] that day it was impossible to keep them in

rrncealment and we read in the story of Echtra

Nerai They [the fairy host] will come on Samainnextfor the shees ofErin are always open at Samain. 1 W hile

An account Ofher wil l be found in Joyce'

s Irish Names OfP laces,IL 242 .

1For the Banshee, see Kilk . Arch . journ ,18 56, pp . 122 et seq . and

Crofton Croker'

s Fairy Legends. 1Rev . Celt .,X . 2 25 .


called a lennan- shee fairy - lover and instances ofsucha ttachments are innumerable. Fiachna , king ofUlster,

had a familiar fer - side, or fairy - man,

’

who used to tellhim future events.

*

Anunu or line.(not the beneficent Ana , p . Bodb or

Badb [Bove , Bauv] , andMasha, three weird sisters ,Twerewar- goddesses or batt le- furies— all malignant beings.

Thev del ighted in battle and slaughter. In an ancientG lossary quoted by Stokes, * Macha

’

s mast - food is saidto be the heads ofmen slain in bat tle. The Old accountsofthem are somewhat confused but i t appears that theterms Mdrn

’

gan and Badb were applied to all. Mdrrigan

(or Mérn'

gu ,as it is often written), means great queen.

’

from mdr, great ,’

and rigan [recan] , a queen but Badb

is the name generally applied to a war- fury . The Badb

o ften showed hersel f in bat tle in the form Ofa fennég,i.a. a scallcrow, or royston crow ,

or carrion crow ,fluttering

over the heads Ofthe combatants. The word , which isnow pronounced bibe, is st ill in use as applied to the birdand somet imes it is used as a reproachful name for a

scolding woman— a good illustrat ion ofthe commemorat ion ofancient beliefs in modern everyday speech . Thisbird is regarded by the peasantry all through Irelandand to some extent in Scotland and W ales— with feelingsofdread and disl ike

, a dim , popular memory Ofthe terriblepart it played in the battles Ofthe olden t ime.

The Badb or Mérrigan, somet imes as a bird , and

sometimes as a loathsome- looking hag,figures in all the

ancient bat tles, down even to the Battle ofClontarf(A.D.In the midst ofthe din and horror she was Often

seen busily fl itt ing about through the battle- cloud overhead and somet imes she appeared before battle in ant icipat iou of slaughter.§ Aed,

king OfOriell in the sixthcentury

,had a shield called dub-

gilla black - fellow

Silva Gad., 42 8 Irish , 393, bot tom . 1Three Irish G lossaries, xxxv.

TRev . Celt .,x11. 128 . Three Fragm ,

19 1, last line.

CHAP . 1x] PAGAN ISM 267

It was the feeder ofravens,and the Badb perched on

its rim [during battle] and Just before theBattle OfMoyrath (A.D. the grey - haired Mo

'

rm'

gan,

in the form Ofa lean,nimble hag,

was seen hovering and

hopping about on the points Ofthe spears and shields Of

the royal army who were victorious in the great battlet hat followed.

’r In the account Of the slaughter ofthe

nobles by the“

Plebeian races in the second century A.D.,

given in the Book ofFermoy , we read that , after the’

massacre , gory Badb was joyfuland women were sorrowful forthat event “

;Just before the

Destruct ion ofBruiden Da Choca ,

the Badb showed herself as a bigmouthed , swarthy , swift , sootywoman

,lame

,and squint ing

with her left eye.

”

8

The Bodb was a war—goddessamong the ancient Gaul ish nat ionsof the Cont inent , from whom

, Of

course,as inmany other cases, her

legend was brought to Ireland bythe Celtic em igrants. Some years m , 75.

ago a small plllar- Stone, about The Cathubodwae stone : first

figured m Revue Savolsienne ,

thirty inches high,was found in Nov 1867(soon after itsduscovery)

reprinted, by M. Adolphe P ictet , inFrance,

With an interest ing vot ive the Revue Archéolosiq ue for July.1868. W i th an elaborate essay by

inscript ion to this goddess under him. Figured again in Hennessy'

s

art icle in Revue Celtique, vol. 1,

the name ofCathubodvae(Ofwhich p , 32 , from which nhas been copiedonly athubodvae now remains

,the

"e'e ‘

C having disappeared with a corner ofthe stone that wasbroken Off), compounded ofCathu ,

Irish ,oath

, battle,

’

Tromdamh,in Oss. Soc. Trans

,v .

, pp . 16,17, v erse Bu t the

editor mistranslates the expression. TMoyra th ,199 .

1Hennessy ,

“W ar Goddess,” in Rev . Celt .

,1. 39 .

§ Stokes, in Rev . Celt . , X X I . 3 15 . For more examples see O'

Curry,

Man. Cust .,I . 30 1 and Moyrath ,

2 3 1. See also De lubainv ille ,La

Civil . des Celtes,197, 198, 2 12 .

268 RELIGION , LEARN ING ,AND ART [PART II

and Bodvae, the Irish Bodb. Though this goddess figuresin the ancient l iterature ofthe Celt ic nat ions in general

,

including the W elsh , there are fuller and more frequentaccounts ofher in Irish writ ings than in all the others

put together.

Hei t ,”

says Cormac ’s G lossary was the god

ofbat tle with the pagans ofthe Gael : Nemon was hiswi fe. In another part ofthe Glossary it is stated thatNemon was otherwise called Be-Net

’

t, and that she was a

Badb ; and in O’

Clery’

s G lossary she is called Badb Of

bat tle, or a fennég but as b eing Neit 's wife she was

probably the chief Badb or war-

goddess Of all. Neit

and Nemon were mal ignant beings Both are bad

a venomous couple, trulv, were they , says Cormac ;and hence is said [as a maledictive wish among the

Irish] Be- Neif [attendi on theeThe Badbs were not the onlv war- goblins. There was a

class ofphantoms that somet imes appeared before battles,

bent on mischief. Just before the Battle ofMoylena(zudcent ), three repulsive- looking witch - hags with blue beardsappeared before the armies, hoarsely shrieking victory forConn the Hundred Fighter, and defeat and death for therival King Eoghansl W e read Ofmalignant beings ofthiskind in connexion with Christ ianity also. At the Battle of

Mucrime(A.D. 250) the air over the heads ofthe combatantswas black with demons waiting to snap up and carry off

the souls Ofsinners : while only two angels attended tobear away in the other direction the few souls they couldclaim q t Just before the Banquet ofDun- nan-

ged(Moyrath ,

two horrible black spectral beings, a man and a

woman,both belonging to hell , came to the assembly ,

and having devoured an enormous quantity Offood , cursedthe banquet , after which they rushed out and vanished .

But they left their baleful trail : for at that feast there

Corm . GlOSs .

,25 , 26 . 1Moylena, 119 , 12 1.

fSilva Gad., 356 see also Vent ry. 85 , note 734 .


i.e. the badb, confounded the army [ofMaive, Cuculainn’

s

enemy] , so that the men dashed themselves against thepoints Of each other

’

s spears and weapons, and one

hundred warriors dropped dead withIn the story ofthe Feast ofBricriu(p . we are told

how the three great Red Branch Champions, Laegaire the

V ictorious, Conall Cernach, and Cuculainn,contended one

t ime for the Curathmz'

r, or Champion’

s bit (vol. II.

p . 109 ,infra), which was always awarded to the bravest

andmightiest hero and in order to determine this matter,they were subjected to various severe tests. On one of

these occasions the stem - minded old chief,Samera

,who

acted as judge for the occasion, decided that the threeheroes separately should at tack a colony OfGeniti- glinni

that had their abode in a neighbouring valley. Laegaire

went first ; but they instantly fell on him with suchdemoniac ferocity that he was glad to escape,

hal f- naked ,

leaving them his arms and battle- dress. Conall Cernachwent next , and he, too , had soon to run for i t ; but hefared somewhat better, for, though leaving his spear, hebore away his sword . Last ly

,Cuculainn and they filled

his ears with their hoarse shrieks , and falling on him toothand nail , they broke his shield and spear, and tore hisclothes to tatters. At last hecould bear i t no longer

,and

showed plain signs ofrunning away. His faithful charioteer,

Loeg ,was looking on. Now, one ofLoeg

’

s dut ies was,whenever he saw his master about yielding in a fight , toshower reproaches on him

,so as to enrage him the more.

On this occasion ‘

he reviled him so vehemently and bitterlyfor his weakness, and poured out such contemptuous nicknames Ou him , that thehero became infuriated ; and,

turning on the goblins once more, sword in hand , he

crushed and hacked them to pieces, so that the valley ran

all red with their blood .

Hennessy, in Rev . Cel t ., I . 43 seexalso Wars ofCC ,

174, 175 and

Vent ry ,X 1.

CHAP . l PAGAN ISM 271

The class offairies called sz'

abm [sheevra , ] who were

also Dedannans— a sort Ofdisreputable poor relat ions of

Manannan and the Dagda~ —were powerful , demoniac,and

dangerous elves. They are ment ioned in our earl iestl iterature. In the eighth or tenth century story ofthe

Sidhar- Chariot (i.e. sheevra or demon chariot of

Cuculainn,in the Book ofthe Dun Cow, St . Patrick tells

King Laegaire that the apparit ion he sees is not a sz’

abme,

but Cuculainn himself. TO this day the name is quitefamiliar among the people,

even those who speak onlyEnglish : and they Often

,

cal l a crabbed little boy— smallfor his age

— a“ l ittle sheevra exactly as Concobar

MacNessa,nineteen centuries ago, when he was dis

pleased with the boy Cuculainn, calls him a sirz'

te

a l ittle imp of a sheevra .“ The sheevras

were Often incited by druids and others to do mischief tomortals. In revenge for King Cormac Mac Art ’s leaningtowards Christ ianity , the druids let loose sheevras againsthim

,who choked him with the bone Ofa salmon,

while hewas eat ing his dinner and certain persons

,being jealous

ofa beaut iful girl named Az'

ge, set sheevras on her, who

transformed her into a fawn.1'

The Leprechdn, as we now have him ,is a l ittle fellow

whose occupat ion is making shoes for the fairies ;i and

on moonl ight nights you may somet imes hear the tap

tap ofhis l itt le hammer from where he sits, working insome lonely nook among bushes. Ifyou can catch him

,

and keep your gaz e fixed on him ,he will tel l you, after

some threatening , where to find a crock ofgold but i f youtake

'

your eyes Offhim for an instant , he is gone. The

Leprechauns are an ancient race in Ireland ,for we find

them ment ioned in some ofour Oldest tales. The original

name was Luchorpén, from In,

‘ l itt le,’

and corpein, a

LL,64 , 5, last line Miss Hul l

,Cuch . Saga, 143, where the English

word brat does'

not .wel l carry the sense ofthe original .TDinnsenchus ofFafaind

,Rev . Cel t .

,xv . 307.

See Silva Gad.,


diminut ive ofcorp, a body (Lat . corpus a wee l it tlebody.

’

A passage in the Book Ofthe Dun Cow— inserted,

Ofcourse by the Christian redactor— informs us that thevwere descended from Ham ,

the son ofNoah It is fromhim [Ham] descend Luchmpam and Fomorians, and

goat - heads, and every other ill- shaped sort Of

They could do mischief to mortals , such as withering thecorn, sett ing fire to houses, snipping the hair ofwomen’

s

heads clean off. and so forth ;T but were not prone to

inflict evil except under provocat ion. From the beginning ,

as their name implies, they were ofdiminut ive size ; forexample , as they are presented to us inthe ancient taleof the Death ofFergus Mae Leide

,their stature might

be about six inches. In the same tale the king of the

Leprechauns was taken captive by Fergus, and ransomedhimsel f by giving him a pair ofmagic shoes, which enabledhim to go under the water whenever, andfor as long as, hepleased :I just as at the present day a leprechaun, when

you catch him— which is the difficulty— will give you

heaps ofmoney for lett ing him go. NO doubt , the episodeofthe ransom by the magic shoes in the Old story is theoriginal version of the present superst it ion that the

leprechaun is the fairies’

shoemaker. The leprechaunsofthis particular story live in a beautiful country underLoch Rury ,

now Dundrum Bay, Offthe coast ofcountyDown.

In modern t imes the Pooled has come to the front as aleading Irish goblin but I fear he is not nat ive Irish , as

I do not find him mentioned in any ancient Irish documents. He appears to have been an immigrant fairy,

brought hither by the Danish settlers for we find in the

old Norse language the word pain} meaning an imp,

’

which is, no doubt , the origin ofour ptice or pooka, and,

Kilk. Arch . Journ. , 1872—3, p. 182 : LU , p. 2 ,

a, bot tom.

T Silva Gad., 279 , 280.

t Silva Gad. , 282 , 283 : Br. Laws, 1. 71, 73.


wi th a three- fold plague ofreptiles , demons,andmagicians.

As for reptiles

‘ These venomous and monstrous creatures used to rise out of

the earth and sea, and so prevailed over the who le island,that they

wounded bo th men and animals with their deadly st ings, Often slew

them with their cruel bit ings, nad not seldom rcnt and devoured

t heir members.

”The demons used to show themselves unto their

worshippers in v isible forms : they Often at tacked the people,inflicting much hurt ; and only ceased from their baleful doingswhen th ey were appeased by foul , heathenish prayers and offerings.

After this they were seen flying in the air and wa lking on the earth,

loa thsome and horrible to behold,in such multitudes that it seemed

as it the who le island were too small to give them standing and

flying mom. W hence Ireland was deemed the specia l home of

demons. And last ly, the magicians , evil - doers , and soo thsayers

abounded beyond what history records of any o ther count ry on the

face ofthe earth.

W hat with Dedannan gods, wi th war-

gods and

goddesses, apparit ions, demons, sprites of the valley,

ordinary ghosts, spectres, and goblins, fairies ofvariouskinds— sheevras, leprechauns, banshees , and so forththere appears to have been quite as numerous a populat ionbelonging to the spiritual world as ofhuman beings. In

those old pagan days, Ireland was an eerie place to l ivein and it was high time for St . Patrick to come.

5. W orship ofIdols.

Idols were very generally worshipped . The earliestauthent ic document that ment ions idols is St . Patrick ’

s

Confession,in which the great apostle himsel f speaks

ofsome ofthe Scots(i.e. Irish)“who, up to that t ime. had

worshipped only idols andabominat ions and elsewherein the same document he speaks ofthe practice ofidolworship as a thing well known among the Irish . The

Tripart ite Li fe (p . 41) informs us that Tara was, in the

Trip . Life, 369 ,

GHAP. Ix] PAGAN ISM 275

t ime of the saint , the chief abode of idolatry and

druidism (idlacht ocus drm’

decht). In the same work

the destruction ofmany idols is ment ioned as part of

Patrick ’

s l ife- work and a story is told(at p . 225) oftwo

maidens— Christ ian converts— who were persecuted ,and

finally drowned ,by a tyrannical petty king ,

for refusing

to worship idols.There was a great idol called Cromm Cruach , covered

all over with gold and silver, in Magh Slechl(the PlainofProstrat ions near the present village ofBallymagauranin the County Cavan,

surrounded by twelve lesser idols,covered with brass or bronze. In our most ancient booksthere are descriptions ofthis idol . Cromm Cruach is the

name given to it (with some sl ight variat ions in differentpassages) in the Book of Leinster. It is called Cenn

Cradick in the Tripart ite Li fe Jocel in(chap . lvi .) calls i t

Cecm Croithi : and in Colgan’

s Third Li fe ofSt . Patrickifis Cennerbhe, which , however, Todd thinks is l ikely an

error oftranscript ion. In a very old legend ,found in the

Dinnsenchus in the Book ofLeinster, i t is related that,

many centuries before the Christ ian era, King Tigernmas

and crowds Of his people were destroyed in some

mysterious way,as they were worshipping it on Samain

eve— the eve of the I st November.* Crom Cruach is

in this book(LL . 16,b, 30) called the chief idol OfIreland

(rig- { dell h- Brenn, king idol ofErin and in the Rennes

Dinnsenchus (p . 35) we are told that, unt il Patrick ’

s

advent , he was the god of every folk that colonisedIreland . In the main facts. regarding Cromm Cruach,

the secular l iterature is corroborated by the Lives of

St .'Patrick . In the Tripart ite Li fe (pp . 91 and 93) it is

stated that this idol was adored by King Laegaire, and bymany others and that Patrick

, sett ing out from Granard ,

went straight to Magh Slecht , and overthrew the wholethirteen.

See also FM,A .M. 3656.

276 RELIGION , LEARN ING ,AND

‘

ART [PART II

In the same authority(p . 217) we read that a chief namedFoilge Berraide had adopted Cenn Cruaz

’

ch as his special

god, and that he at tempted to kill Patrick in revenge fordestroying it . Cromm Cruach and its twelve attendantidols were pillar- stones, covered with gold and bronze :and the Dinnsenchus in the Book of Leinster

,

*after

speaking ofthem , remarks that from the t ime OfHeremon

to the coming ofthe good Patrick OfArmagh , there wasadorat ion of stones in Ireland . The remains Ofthesethirteen idols were in Magh Slecht at the t ime of the

compilat ion ofthe Tripart ite Li fe(eighth to tenth century)for it states(pp . 91. 93) The mark ofthe staff [i.s. the

staff ofJesus,’

St . Patrick ’

s crosier] still remains on itsleft side and i t goes on to say that the other twelve

were also to be seen, buried up to their heads in the earth ,

as Patrick had left them .

In the western parts ofConnaught there was anotherremarkable idol called Cromm Dubh and the first Sundayin August , as the anniversary ofits destruct ion,

is stillcalled , in Munster and Connaught , Domnach Cruimm

B aihk Cromm Dubh'

s Sunday .

’

O’

Flahertyj' identifies

Cromm Dubh with Cromm Cruach. Todd asserts thatDomnach Cruimm Dm

'

bh was the Sunday next beforeSamain, or the I st Novemberfl But this cannot be for

t o this day the first Sunday in August is, in Clare, and in

Munster generally , called Domnach Cruimm Duibh, and

a lso Garland Sunday , which the people , down to our

own t ime,celebrated there as a sort Offest ival .§

As Cromm Cruach was the king - idol ofall Ireland

t here was a special idol - god, named Kermcmd Kelstach,

t hat presided over Ulster. This stone- idol was st ill

LL,2 14 , (I , first two lines : Hyde, Lit . Hist . , 86 Voyage ofBran.

I I . 3c5, verse 13.

T Ogyg.,Part . chap . xxn. Probably O ’

Flaherty is wrongin this.

t Todd,St . Pat rick , 128.

§ O’

Curry , MS. Mat 632 O'

Looney, in Proc. R. I . Acad.,1870

—76.

p . 268 . O’

Curry and O’

Looney were both natives ofC lare.

278 RELIGION ,LEARNING , AND ART [PART II

time it formed a bridge across a small stream : and he

relates a legend how i t once spoke, and also how, on a

certain occasion,it cracked in the middle, like our Clogh

lowrz’

sh which crack — he says is st ill to beThe word lech(Irish ,

lec) is used here, as i t is the properword ,

both in Irish and W elsh, for a flat flagstone . The

fact that the speaking - stone superst it ion is common to

both Irish and W elsh , shows that they'

must have had itfrom a period before the separat ion Ofthese two Cel t icbranches ,

centuries before the Christ ian era .

Stones that uttered musical and other sounds are

somet imes ment ioned in Irish tales t The most remarkable ofthese was the Lia Fail , or inaugurat ion stOne , at

Tara , which roared when a king Of the true Scotic or

M ilesian race stood on i t : l ike the Egyptian VocalMemnon,

which uttered musical sounds when it receivedthe rays ofthe rising sun. W e are not told that any of

these Irish vocal stones were worshipped : but they wereprobably connected— by a sort of distant cousinshipwith the acknowledged stone idols. Stones, as well as

fountains and trees, were worshipped on the Cont inent,as

well as in Britain, even so late as the tenth or eleventhcentury : and the three are Often ment ioned in the

ecclesiast ical canons as Objects ofworship }: In Ireland,

as we see in this sect ion and section 8 ,stones and wells

were worshipped but though certain kinds oftrees werein some degree venerated , I cannot find that any treeswere actually worshipped .

The Irish had an idol , called in Cormac ’s Glossary(p . 23) Bial , and named B61 in an ancient manuscriptquo ted by Petrie in his Tara (p . which also statesthat , on a certain fest ival day, two ofthe young Ofeverykind Ofcattle were exhibited as in the possession ofBél

Hib . Expugn.,1. xxxvii.

1See Voyage ofBran,L

, p . 10,verse 17 and note 17 at p. 39 .

I Fergusson, Rude Stone Monument s: 24 , 25.

CHAP . 1x] PAGAN ISM 279

(i.e. presented or offered to him). Stokes(Corm . CL, 23)quotesa statement from another ancient manuscript

,that

a fire was always kindled in Pisl’s or Bial ’s name at the

beginning ofsummer(i.e. onMay Day), and cattle weredriven between the two fires.

” Keat ing also (p .

who had authority for all his statements, tel ls us thatduring the yearly May meet ing at U shnagh ,

they O fferedsacrifice

,

to the chief god whom they adored ,whose name

was Bél, and repeats the statement about offering the

young of the cattle. A similar statement is made in

another ancient authority but here the offering is madeat a different season we are informed that at Bron- Trogin,

i.e. the beginning ofautumn, the young Ofevery kind Of

animal used to be assigned to the possession O f'

the idol

Bél.”

In none ofthese cases does there appear to havebeen a sacrifice : it was a mere nominal Offer. Down to

two hundred years ago the memory Ofthis Irish god waspreserved in the western islands ofScotland for Mart in

(p . 105) tells us that the people there had a god whomthey called Bel.

SO much nonsense has been written about the con

nexion ofthe Phoenicians with Ireland that one almosthesitates to touch on the subject at all. Yet when webear in mind the well - known historical facts that the

Phoenicians introduced the worship Oftheir sun-

god Baalinto the neighbouring countries, and into all their colonies,including Spain,

with which last - named fcountry Irelandhad early close communicat ion : that the Phoeniciansthemselves were well acquainted with Ireland : that thisworship was widely spread ,

each country having its own

god Baal or Bel that the Irish Bel [pron. Bail} , or Bid ,

or Bz’

al,was worshipped with fire ceremonies, as we

know Baal himself was : and, lastly , the identity Oftht

Phoenician and Irish names for their respective gods : itseems impossible to resist the bel ief that the name and

The VVOOing OfEmer,in Rev . Celt .

,x1. 443.

280 RELIGION,LEARN ING ,

AND ART [PART II

worship ofthe Irish Bélwas derived— direct ly or indirectly— from the Phoenicians.

One ofthe Irish words for an idol was idal, which , of

course,was borrowed into the Irish language from Greek

through Latin. But there are nat ive terms also. Armckt

is a shape, a l ikeness, a spectre, an idol when St . Patrickwent to Cashel , all the arrachls in King Aengus

’

s palacefell on their faces, l ike Dagon before the Ark .

* A morecommon word is him- did

, hand -

god,

’

a small portableidol , a houshold god, l ike the teraphim ofthe Hebrews,and the penates ofthe Romans. W hen Rachel departedfrom her father’s house,

as the Saltair na Rann(line 3016)tells the story , she brought away wlth her her father’

s

Mm- deo, which is the Irish rendering of the temphim.

In like manner, in the Irish version ofa portion ofthe

fEneid, in the Book ofBallymote, we are told that whenAineas was about to fly from Troy , he said Let

Anchises take the ldim- deo(penates, household gods ’

)wi th him .

”

1‘ Just as the Deluge was about to come on,

Bith and his daughter Ceasar asked Noah for a place inthe Ark : and being refused , they consulted a ldimh- dhz

’

a,

who advised them to make a ship for themselves and go

to sea , which they did , and set sail for Ireland i It was,

no doubt , hand - gods ofthis kind that the poet broughtinto his b ed when he was about to go to sleep for revelat ions under the influence ofImbas Forosnai(p . 243 , supra).Such handy little gods, corresponding with the Roman

penates and lures,

are probably the household godsreferred to under the name Tromdhe in the followingshort art icle, quoted in a note by O ’

Donovan in Cormac ’

s

G lossary (p . from some old Irish GlossaryTromdhe, i e. tutelary gods, i.a. floor- gods, or gods of

protect ion.

Trip . Life,104, 23 ; 2 58 , 9

.

T Zeitschr. itit Ce lt . Phil . , II . 448.1Joyce, Keat ing. 0. 4c.

282 RELIGION ,LEARN ING , AND ART [PART n

blood around Cromm Cruach . Milk and honey they would ask from

him speedily,in return for one- third of their hea lthy issue. Great

was the horrorand the scare ofhim. To him noble Gaels wouldprostratethemselves. From the worship ofhim with many manslaughters , the

p lain is ca l led Magh Slecht .

The abridged prose version in the Rennes copy ofthe

Dinnsenchus merely varies the expression * To him

[Cromm Cruach) they used to offer the firstlings ofeveryissue , and the chief scions ofeveryThese two passages are the only direct statements

known to me in all our old nat ive l iterature that the

ancient Irish practised human sacrifice and being in thesame document , they amount to a single statement— so

far as concerns the value of their test imony. ThoughKeat ing , O

’

Flaherty , the Four Masters, and other nat ivewriters ofthe sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, who all

wrote from old authorit ies, tell us about the worship of

Cromm Cruach and the death ofTigernmas , they makeno ment ion ofhuman sacrifice : a plain indicat ion thatthey did not consider the unsupported Dinnsenchus a

sufficient authori ty on so important a point . Still more

significant is the circumstance that in a preceding partofthe same Book ofLeinster (p . 16, b) there is a proseaccount of this idol , and of the death ofTigernmas

with a mul t itude of his people while worshipping it,

in which there is not a word about sacrificing humanbeings.

But there is st ill stronger evidence, though ofa negat ivecharacter. Scattered everywhere through our ancientl iterature, both secular and ecclesiast ical— as this chaptershows— we find abundant descript ions and details ofthe

rites and superstit ions ofthe pagan Irish and in '

no place— with this single exception— do we find a word or hintpoint ing to human sacrifice to pagan gods or idols.

According to the accounts in the Dinnsenchus, the

Rev . Celt .,xvr. 35


worship and ritual ofthis idol, and the practice ofsacri

ficing the first- born progeny , cont inued till the t ime ofSt .

Patrick . But neither in the Confession ofSt . Patrickwritten by himsel f— in which he ment ions and inveighsagainst several of the worst pagan practices, nor in the

seventh - century Li fe ofhim by Muirchu,nor in the anno

tations ofTirechan— also ofthe seventh century— nor in the

Tripart ite Life,nor in Colgan

’

s Seventh Life— which twolast narrat ives give details ofthe worship ofCromm Cruach— in none of these— all of them older than the Dinnsenchus (which is comparat ively modern) —is there any

ment ion of human sacrifice. Patrick,in his progress

through the country ,heard all about this famous idol , and

turned his steps from Granard to Magh Slecht for the

express purpose ofdestroying it . Ifhuman beings hadbeen sacrificed ,

he would have known of i t , and his

biographers would have recorded it . The writers ofthe

Lives ofthe Saint were very naturally on the look—out foroccasions to glorify his memory. They were ready enough

,

as we see by many examples,to show up the evil pract ices

ofthe pagan Irish ,and to point out the change for the

better after their conversion ; and it seems whol ly in

credible that they should withhold from St . Patrick the

credit ofputt ing a stop to this, the greatest abominat ionofall, which— ifthe Dinnsenchus is tell ing truth— musthave been notorious at that t ime,

since— according to

this authority— the saint himself preached against it at

Tailltenn.

There is still another most important considerat ion

affecting the credit ofthe record in quest ion that nearlvall the stories ofthe Dinnsenchus account ing for names

'

oi which this is one— are mere fables, invented to suit the

several occasions. The Dinnsenchus is, from many points

ofview ,a highly instruct ive and interest ing document

but its importance fortunately does not depend on the

credib ilitv ofthe stories. As a typical example ofthese


,AND ART [PART II

etymological narrat ives, take the story account ing for theorigin andname ofthe river Boyne. Therewas a sacred wellat the foot ofSide Nechtain(now Carbury H ill in CountyKildare) on which none were to look save four privilegedpersons, on pain ofsome dreadful personal injury . But

the lady Boand ridiculed the prohibit ion,and

,going to the

well , walked contemptuously thrice round it left - hand - wise

(see p . 302 ,infra) : whereupon the well burst up round

her, and broke her thigh - bone, one hand , and one eye.

She fled in terror eastward but the water pursued her t illshe arrived at the seashore, where she was drowned . Evenafter that the water cont inued to flow so as to form the

river Boand or Boyne, which took its name from her.

* It

is in company ofsuch stories as this— for nearly all the

Dinnsenchus stories are ofa similar kind— we find the

account of the sacrifice of human beings to Cromm

Cruach .

G iving due weight to all these considerat ions, we needhave no hesitation in pronouncing this Dinnsenchusrecord an invent ion pure and simple : and I venture toexpress my bel ief that no human beings were ever‘

sacrificed in Ireland to Cromm Cruach or to any otheridol or to any pagan god. W here and by whom the storywas originated , i t is now impossible to tell but i t seems

probable that the poem was inserted— as Dr. Hyde remarks

(L it . H ist ., 92) by a Christ ian chronicler familiar withthe accounts ofMoloch and Ashtaroth . It is just such a

statement as we might expect would be invented in orderto add human sacrifice as a heightening touch to the

abominat ions ofMagh Slecht .Stab i l ity ofBuilding secured by Blood. —But i t is not

unl ikely that at some very remote period , long before thetime ofSt . Patrick , human beings were immolated in

another way. There was an ancient superstit ion thatwhen an important building was about to be erected , its

Rennes Dinn.,Rev . Celt xv , 315.

286 RELIGION , LEARN ING , AND ART [PART II

them . The tradit ion that persons were formerly buriedalive — or first killed and then buried— under the foundations ofnewly erected buildings , to ensure their stability

,

is prevalent to - day all over the Hebrides, according to

Mr. Carmichael , who gives several traditional instances.*

Although this evidence is all legendary , yet , seeing thatthe legend is so widely spread , i t is to be feared that , insome prehistoric t ime,

the horrible rite was really practised ,

in Ireland as elsewhere.

There is a trace— though purely legendary— Oi the

immolation ofhuman beings in Ireland , for a differentpurpose ,

in an ancient tale referred to by Dr. W . K .

Sull ivan The Courtship ofBecuma,copied

into the Book ofFermoy from some older book . Here a

blight comes on the corn and milk all over the countryon account ofa great crime committed by a woman on

which the druids declared that in order to remove the

blight it was necessary to slay the son ofa couple characterised by certain marks and tokens, and to sprinkle theblood on the doorposts ofTara. The boy was found

°

but just as he was about to be killed , a wonderfullyformed cow appeared , which was slain instead ofhimand the doorposts were sprinkled with her blood , whichremoved the blight . This story , i t will be observed ,

curiously corresponds with the Greek legend ofIphigeniaand in some respects with the narrat ive ofthe intendedsacrifice ofIsaac .

7. W orship ofW eapons.

According to an ancient tradit ion given in the storyofthe second Battle ofMoytura, some ofthe pagan Irishworshipped their weapons. This story relates that afterthe battle,

Ogma the Dedannan, whose party had gainedthe victory ,

found on the field Orna , the sword ofTethra ,

a Fomorian king : and he unsheathed and cleaned it .

Carmina Gadelica, II. 316.

CHAP. Ix] PAGANISM 287

Then the sword - the story goes on to say relatedwhatsoever had been done by it for i t was the customofswords at that t ime

,when unsheathed ,

to set forth thedeeds that had been done by them . Hence also charms

are preserved in swords. Now the reason why demons

used to speak from weapons at that t ime was,because

'

weapons were then worshipped by human

A remnant ofthis superst it ion survived to the sixteenthcentury The Irish at this day — says Spenser(V iew ,

97) when they go to bat taile, say certain prayers or

‘charms to their swords, making a crosse therewith uponthe earth , and thrusting the points oftheir blades intothe ground ,

thinking thereby to have the better successein fight .

”

1‘

The venerat ion for arms, amounting somet imes to

downright worship ,accounts for the custom ofswearing

by them . This oath ,which was very usual , was quite as

binding as that by the elements. The reason is given inthe Sick Bed of Cuculainn :1 Because demons wereaccustomed to speak to them from their arms ; and

hence i t was that an oath by their arms was inviolable.

Once on a t ime Cormac Gaileng wanted some badgersfor a feast : and going to a warren, where l ived certainbadgers with human reason

,he called on them to come

forth ,promising that no evil should be done to them .

But they ,distrust ing him ,

refused : whereupon he sworeupon his own father’

s spear,which he held in his hand ,

not to harm them . So they— bel ieving that he would notdare to violate the spear— fool ishly came forth : and

Cormac fell on them instantly and killed them all. For

this crime— violat ing the spear— his father banished him

and this son was ever after called Cormac Gaileng, that is

Stokes in Rev . Celt .,x11. 107.

t For the reverence paid to swords by Continenta l nat ions in the

middle .ages, see Sir Frederick Pol lok ’s Oxford Lectures, p . 269 .

t Atlant is, I . 371.


to say , Ofthe dishonoured spear. W e have a witnessofhis infamy to this day in the barony ofGallen in Mayo

,

which takes its name from him .

* The custom ofswearingby weapons took long to die out— l ike the worship of

them— for Spenser(V iew , 98) informs us that in his day

the Irish commonly swore by their swords.

8. lVorsfzzf of f/ze Elements .

Elemental W orship in General— In the Lives ofthe

Saints and other ecclesiast ical writ ings, as well as in the

lay l iterature, we have ample evidence that various naturalobjects were worshipped by the ancient Irish . A veryclear example ofa direct appeal to the powers ofnatureoccurs in the story ofthe Tain in the Book oftheDun Cow.

Cuculainn— who was a demigod— fight ing alone againstMaive’

s forces, and finding himself hard pressed ,invokes

the heavens and the earth , the sea and the river Cronn,

to help him and his prayer was answered ,for the river

surged up and overwhelmed numbers of his enemies ?That there existed in the ninth and tenth centuries a vividt radit ion ofelemental worship is shown by the words of

Cormac ’s Glossary quoted below(p . But this worshipwas only part ial , confined to individuals or to the peopleofcertain districts, each individual , or family, or group ,

having some special favourite object . W e have no recordofthe universal worship ofany element . There is reasonto believe that it was not the mere material object theyworshipped ,

but a spiri t or genius supposed to dwell in itfor the Celts of Ireland peopled almost all remarkablenatural objects with preternatural beings.

W el ls — The worship ofwater, as represented in wells,is Often mentioned . The Tripart ite Li fe, and Tirechan, in

the Book ofArmagh , relate that St . Patrick ,in his journey

through Connaught , came to a well called Sldn [slaun

Joyce, Irish Names ofP laces,II . 244.

TKilk . Archaeol . journ.,1868

, p . 308.


were so called because they [the pagans] were wont to“ carve on them the forms (Irish ,

dclba) ofthe elementsthey adored : for example ,

the figure ofthe sun. As

curiously corroborative of this , Keating (p . 462) has a

legend ,from some old authority not now known, that in

the t ime of St . Columkille there was in Tirconnell a

certain Christian priest (sarat t)— but he must have beenhal f a pagan— who had built a church , in which he placedan al tar ofglass with an image(delb) ofthe sun,

andanotherofthe moon, carved on i t for which— as the legend has it

- he was being carried offby demons, but was rescued bvSt . Columkille. In another part ofhis work

,Keat ing

quotes an ancient poem which states that the three lastDedannan kings ofIreland derived their cognomens fromthe objects oftheir worship , one ofwhom was MacGrez

’

na

son or devotee ofthe sun because his godwas the sun

(grian, gen. greine).

Firm— That fire was worshipped by some ofthe Irishappears from the statement in the Tripartite Life thatLaegaire

’

s druid accused St . Patrick ofhaving fire for a

god. W e know that certain pagan fest ivals were celebratedin Ireland ,

in which fire played a prominent part . Thusin A.D. 433 a great fire was kindled at Tara , as part of

some festival , and while i t was burning no other should bekindled in the country all round ,

on pain of death .

*

Cormac ’s G lossary (p . 19) tells us that fires were l ightedby the druids on May Day, with great incantations, and

that cattle used to be driven through or between them as a

preservat ive against disease for the coming year. He says

also that from this ceremony ,Belltaine or May Day took

its name ,i.e.

,bel- tene, lucky fires;

L

A very ancient poem ,

printed by Kuno Meyer in Hibernia Miriora (p .

enumerat ing the May Day celebrat ions, ment ions amongthem a bonfire on a

’

hill(tendalar enuc). Another authorityHogan, Doeum .

, 33 .

1See also D’

Arbois de Jubainv il le, V I ., pp . 244

- 246.

.CHAP . Ix] PAGAN ISM 291

states that these fires were kindled in the name of the

idol—godBe’

l(Cormac,p . Keat ing(p . 300) tells us that

it was at U shnagh , during the great May Day meet ingthere, that this fire was l ighted in honour ofBél and he

goes on to say that at this same t ime it was the custom to

l ight two fires to Bél in every district in Ireland , and to

drive the cattle between them to protect them from the

diseases of the year. He states also that during the

meeting held on Samain or I st November at Tlachtga ,a

fire was kindled in which we are told that the druidsburned sacrifices : and while i t lasted ,

all other fires inIreland were to be extinguished or covered .

These fire- ceremonies have descended to our t ime.

From an interest ing communicat ion in the KilkennyArchaeological Journal , 1883—4 , p . 64 , we learn that , aboutthe beginning of the last century ,

people used a fire

ceremonial for the cure of diseased cattle. W hen the

disease broke out in one ofthe farms,all the fires in the

townland were at a given t ime put out and a number ofmen, having assembled at the farm , produced fire— cal ledin Irish tei

’

ne i.e forced fire — by the friction oftwo

dry pieces ofwood , the men taking their turn at the work.

W ith this they kindled a great smoky fire ofscrews(grassysods from the surface ofa bog) mixed with soot , and heldthe cattle over the smoke. This they said stamped out thedisease. Martin (p . 113) found a similar custom in the

Scott ish W estern Isles in 1703 but here water was boiledover the tin- egi

’

n, as he calls i t , and sprinkled over theinfected cattle. The custom ofdriving cattle through firesagainst disease on the eve ofthe 1st ofMay , andOn the eve

ofthe 24th June(St . John’

s Day), cont inued in Ireland ,as

well as in the Scottish H ighlands, to a period within livingmemory .

* Many curious fire- customs are stil l , or were unt ilvery lately , prevalent in some parts ofthe country onMay

Carmichael , Carmina Gadelica,II . 340 , for Scot land. I saw it

done in Ireland.


Day, and the evening before and on the eve ofthe 24th

June— St . John’

s Day— they light open air fires when duskcomes on, so that the whole country is illuminated . Thiscustom is ofgreat ant iquity in Ireland for the tei

’

neféile

Eoz'

n,the fire ofJohn’

s fest ival ,’

is ment ioned in the BookofHymns (a MS. ofthe ninth or tenth century) as wellknown at the t ime ofthe writer.

* The informat ion givenhere regarding the worship ofthe elements has been drawnfrom authent ic sources. But the detailed descript ions of

sun and fire worship in Ireland , given by some writers of

the last century , and their speculat ions about bovinecultus,

” porcine cul tus,”

Crom the god offire or ofthe

winds, and such l ike, as well as the pictures ofdivinationby Irish druids from the blood ofvict ims

, are all the dreamsofpersons who never undertook the labour ofinvestigatingthe matter by reference to the ancient authent ic literatureofthe country .

Elemental Oath.— No doubt this ancient elemental wor

ship was the origin ofthe very general pagan Irish customofswearing by the elements

,or, in other words, giving the

elements as guarantee an oath which it was very dangerousto violate , as is shown by the fate ofLaegaire,

king ofh e

land in the time ofSt . Patrick . In an attempt to exact theBoruma tribute from Leinster, he was defeated and takenprisoner by the Leinstermen but was released on takingthe usual oath , giving as guarantee swearing by— the“

sun andmoon, water andair, day andnight , sea and land ,

”

that he would never again demand it . But in open violat ion ofhis oath he invaded Leinsterfor this same Tribute inless than two years : whereupon the elements passed a

doom ofdeath on Laegaire, to wit , the earth to swallowhim up ,

the sun to burn him ,and the wind to depart from

him,

”so that -as the Four Masters(A.D. 458) express

The custom oflighting fires on the 23rd June, St . john’

s Eve,was

a t one t ime general over Europe, and has been kept up in Paris. De

Jubainvil le La Civil . des Celtes, p . 243.


lands, situated’

in those various places. The inhabitantswere the side [shee] or fairies, who were immortal , and

who l ived in perfect peace and in a perpetual round of

sensuous, but harmless and sinless pleasures.

In nearly all the Old accounts ofthis happy land , the

absence ofwickedness is expresssly ment ioned . The man

from Tir Tairngiri tells Cormac that it was a landwherein there is nought save .truth , and there is neitherage, nor decay , nor gloom , nor sadness, nor envy , nor

jealousy ,nor hatred ,

nor The absence ofs in

, and such l ike characterist ics, are ofcourse additionsby Christ ian scribes.

In ancient Irish romantic tales we find many descript ions ofthis pagan heaven,

bearing a general resemblanceto each other. One which pictures MagMon Plain of

Sports situated far out in the W estern Ocean— the landthat is cal led elsewhere Moy Mell , or I- Braz il— may be

read , translated by Prof. Kuno Meyer, inMr. Al fred Nut t 'swork , The Voyage ofBran, I. 4 . This composit ion,

which is in poetry ,is ascribed by scholars to the seventh

century. The following poet ical description ofthe FairyKing Midir’

s heavenly country, under the Shee ofBri

Leith ,the hill now called Slieve Golry near Ardagh in

t he county Longford , will give the reader an excellentidea ofthese happy abodes : i t has been translated byO

’

Curry from the Book ofthe Dun Cow

O Befind,wilt thou come with me

,

To a wonderful land that is mine,

“Where the hair is like the blossom ofthe golden sobarche,

W here the tender bodv is as fair as snow.

There sha l l be neither griefnor careWhite are the teeth , black the eyebrows,

P leasant to the eye the number ofour host ;

On every cheek is the hue ofthe foxglove.

Ir. Texte,III. 2 I 2 .

CHAP . Ix] PAGANISM

Crimson ofthe p lain is each brake,

Delightfu l to the eye the blackbird’

s eggs

Though p leasant to behold are the plains ofInisfail [Ireland] ,Rarely wou ldst thou

-

think of them after freq uenting the

Great P lain.

Though intoxicat ing thou deemest the ales ofInisfail,

More intoxicating are the ales ofthe great landThe .W onderfu l land— the land I speak of

,

W here youth never grows to old age.

Warm sweet streams traverse the land,

The choicest ofmead and ofwine

Handsome peop le without blemish ,

Conception without sin,without stain.

W e see everyone on every side,

And no one seeth us

The cloud ofAdam ’

s transgression

Has caused this concealment ofus from them .

0 lady ,ifthou comest to my valiant people,

A diadem ofgold shal l b e on thy head ;

Flesh ofswine, all fresh , banq uets ofnew milk and ale,

Shalt thou have with me there,0 Befind.

‘

The,

name Tir Tairngz’

rz’

is often found, not only in

the Tales, but in the Christ ian legends ofthe saints. St .

Brendan had been praying for some secure,delightful land

,

remote from the haunts ofmen. And an angel said to

him Arise, 0 Brendan,for God hath given to thee

what thou hast sought - Tz’

r After this theangel directs him how to find it : and i t was in search

ofthis promised happy land that Brendan went on his

celebrated voyage out on the W estern Ocean. The nameTir - Tairngiife is a translat ion ofthe Scriptural name of

the Land ofProm ise i t is ofgreat ant iquity, for it isfound in the eIghth and ninth - century glosses ofZeuss

The original , vi ith rigidly‘ litera l translation,may b e seen in O

’

Curry,

Man. Cust .,II . p . 191 andDr.Douglas Hyde has given a m etrical trans

lat ion in his literary History ofIreland, p . 103 . For the Irish Pagan Ely

sium ,seeMr.AlfredNut t , Voyage ofBran,

vol. Hyde, Lit .Hist ., p . 94

andfora short composite poetica l description, Joyce, OldCel tic Romances,110 .

T Stokes, Lives ofSS.,252 .

29h RELIGION ,LEARNING , AND ART [PARL II

but the idea ofthe land i tself is derived from the paganlegend ofthe happy fairyland .

’This pagan heaven legend did not escape the not iceof

.

Giraldus Cambrensis. He'

tells‘

the story of the

Phantom Island ,as he calls i t , off the western coast

,

and how, on one occasion when i t appeared , some men

rowed out towards it , and shot a fiery arrow against it,

which fixed it .

* To this day the legend remains as vividas ever and the people bel ieve that if they could succeedin throwing fire on it from their boat , i t would become

fixed , as happened before the t ime ofGiraldus jThe happy land then was the abode of the spiritual

and immortal fairy people ; but it was not for human

beings, except a few individuals who were brought thitherby the fairies, as will be told below.

Immortality ofthe Soul.— W eknow fromCaesar,DiodorusSiculus, and other classical wri ters, that the ancient Gaulsor Celts taught , as one oftheir tenets

,that the soul was

immortal and that after death it passed from one human

body to another and this i t appears, applied to allhuman

beings. But in Irish literature I cannot find anything towarrant the conclusion that the pagan Irish believed thatthe souls ofall men were immortal , or that the spiri ts of

those who died were rewarded or punished in the otherworld for their conduct in this , or in fact that their spiritsexisted at all after death .1 A few individuals became

immortal in Fairyland , and some other few l ived on afterdeath ,

appearing as othermen, or in the shapes ofanimals,

Top . H ib . ,I I. xii.

TFor‘

the present ideas regarding the western phantom land, see

Hardiman,Ir. Minstr.

,I . 367, and W estropp , Proc. R . I . Acad.

,19 12 .

1This statement is, I believe, a correct inference from the evidence in

those ancient nat ive documents that have come down to us, and have

been rendered available. But it is made with this reservation, that , in

c onse q uence ofthe wholesale destruction ofour books, the ful l evidence

may not be ,before us. In this connexion it is necessary to notice one

Christ ian record; a remarkable expression ofTirechan’

s Annotations onthe Life ofSt . Pat rick

,writ ten in the seventh century. The paganKing

298 RELIGION , LEARNING , AND ART [PART 11

his old haunts , the wonder ofall the strange people hemet , for his siz e and beauty, he on one occasion, in tryingto li ft a great stone, overbalanced himself, and had to leapto the ground , when be instantly became a withered ,

bony,

feeble oldman,while his fairy steed galloped offand never

returned .

* Laegaire, son ofCrimthann, king ofConnaught ,went with fi fty followers to Moy Mell to aid the fairy kingFiachna MacRetach against a rival fairy king who hadmade war on him . Fiachna led them to the shore ofa

lake called Enloch , and all dived down, and soon cameto Moy Mel] . After defeat ing the enemy

,Laegaire and

his fifty men were permitted to visit their nat ive place on

horseback : but Fiachna warned then not to dismount .On their arrival their friends were overjoyed and besoughtthem to stay but Laegaire cried out Do not approachor touch us we have come only to bid you all farewell ISo saying they returned to the shee, where Laegaire nowrules as fairy king jointly with Fiachna.T

In some tales, however, mortals who are detained inthe shee are represented as thoroughly miserable. Dian,

who had been a young noble on earth among the Fena,

comes to see Cailte out ofthe fairy mound ofMullaghsheeat Assaroe, beside Ballyshannon. Cailte asks how itfares with him : on which Dian repl ies that though of

food and raiment there was abundance, yet he wouldrather be the lowest and most despised drudge amongthe servants ofthe Fena, than be the prince that he wasin Fairyland. (Silva Gad.

, 139 bottom .) This is almostexactly what the shade ofthe mighty hero Achilles sayito Ulysses Talk not to me ofbeing a leader here inHades : I had rather be on earth the servant ofsomepoor landlessman than bear sway as a prince here amongthe ghosts of the dead . (Odyssey,

x1.) In modern

Joyce, Old Celt ic Romances, 385 .

T O’

Grady , Silva Gad.,290 LL Content s

,63 , a , middle. See also

Mr. Nut t,in the Voyage ofBran, vol. I ., chap. iii.(pp. 144


Irish fairy legends, those that have been carried offby

fairies are always pining in misery in Fairyland .

Metempsychosis. -The foregoing observat ions regarding the pagan Irish ‘not ions of immortal ity after deathapply in a great measure to their ideas ofmetempsychosis.In our romant ic l iterature there are legends ofthe re- birthofhuman beings i.e. certain persons, commonly heroes ordemigods, were re- born, and figured in the world

,with

new personality ,name, and character. Thus Cuculainn

was a re- incarnat ion of the Dedannan hero -

god, Lug of

the Long -Arms. In other cases human beings, afterdeath ,

took the shapes ofvarious animals in succession,

and re- appeared as human beings. Mongan of RathmoreMoylinny, king ofDalriada

,in Ulster, in the seventh

century— a historical personage— was fabled to be a re

incarnat ion oi the great Finn MacCumail of the thirdcentury.

* This same Mongan went , after death,into

various shapes, a wolf , a stag, a salmon, a seal, a swan

like the W elsh Taliessin. Fintan, the nephew ofParthalon,

survived the deluge, and l ived in the shapes ofvariousanimals successively for many ages

, after which he wasre—incarnated in the sixth century as a man named TuanMacCairill.’r This Tuan was a celebrated sage, and no

wonder, for he witnessed all the remarkable things thathappened in Ireland from the t ime ofParthalon,

a lapseof some thousands of years, and related everything to

St . Finnen ofMagh Bile.

The Irish , too,had their were- wolf legends. It seems

that there were certain persons among the inhabitants of

Ossoryi who,whenever they pleased , took the shape of

wolves, and then ravaged and devoured cattle l ike realwolves, returning to their human shape when they thoughtthey had enough oftheir past ime. Giraldus Cambrensis

(Top . Hib . ,xix .) relates this

'

great wonder in detail , asin operat ion in his own t ime,

and bel ieved every word of

Voyage ofBran,I. 4 9

—52 . 1

' Ogyg.,Part . I I Irish ,Nennius, 205 .

3o_o RELIGION , LEARN ING , AND ART [PART11

it : and the legend is ment ioned in the Norse Speculum

Regale(p . 226,supra), as applying to all the Ossorians in

turn (Folk Lore ,v . The wolf- transformat ion is

ment ioned in a sermon on the Resurrection in LU

(p . 36,b), the

‘

oldest reference to it that we know .

Stokes quotes from an old glossary the word conoel, as

meaning a woman that goes into wol f- shape (conrecht),and another old word , point ing to a different transforma

t ion co nel, a woman that goes into the form ofa l itt lehound In the eighth orninth - century storyOfthe Feast ofBricriu ,

” figures a characternamed Uath

ofthe Lake,who was a sort ofIrish Proteus A man of

great power indeed was that same Uath Mac Immomuin

horror son ofterror He used to transform himselfinto any shape pleasing to him , and he used to practiseenchantment (druz

’

decht , druidism and he was

called the sirité elf-man from the great number of

his transformations.

”

j Numerous stories ofthis kind arefound in Irish romance but I think the examples givenhere represent all the types oftransformat ion bel ieved inby the ancient Irish . These stories are scattered

, and

have no thread ofconnexion : they do not coalesce,into

a system they are told ofindividuals,in palpable excep

t ion to the general run ofpeople,and many ofthem are

stated to b e the result ofmagical skill . There is no

statement anywhere that all persons were re- born as

human beings ,or underwent transformations after death .

Stories of a similar kind are current among mostearly nat ions. There are accordingly no grounds whatever for asserting that the ancient Irish bel ieved in the

doctrine of general metempsychosis and this is alsoO

’

Curry'

s conclusion iRev . Cel t .

,11. 203 .

T Ir. Text e , I . 29 3 , and Fled Brier., 9 7. Formore informat ion on these

and such like t ransformat ions,see Voyage ofBran,

1. 2 4 330 ; 11. wholevol. Rev . Cel t . ,

xv . 466 : IT. Texte,III. 373 ; Iv . 2 28 .

iMan . Cust .,11. 60 .

302 RELIGION , LEARNING , AND ART~ [PART II

Brigown, happened once to be in Tara, when a powerfulforce ofBrit ish pirates landed on the coast , and marchedtowards the palace, plundering all before them . Findchua

rapidly organised a defence party , and, directing them to

march dessil to meet the invaders, i.a. to make a roundabout right - hand - wise circuit , probably with the doubleobject ofcomplying with the old custom and ofskilfullycoming down on the enemy ’

s flank— for Findchua was a

born soldier— he accompanied them with martial ardourin his face— or as the old Li fe vividly puts it . so thatsparkles offire flew forth from his teeth and fall ingunexpectedly on the marauders, made short work of

them .

* The celebrated Calbach,the Battle- book , or

Praeliator ofthe O’

Donnells (p . 137, supra), was alwaysborne three times right - hand - wise round their army beforebattle

, to assure victory it was so employed as late as thefifteenth centurv.

These are a few illustrat ions of the exercise of thisdessil custom by the ancient Irish : but they might bemult iplied indefinitely .

Sometimes persons went left - hand - wise(tuathbel) witha sinister intent ion, as the lady Boand went round Trinitywell(p . 284,

supra). In Scotland th is left - hand turn is nowcalled withershins, which is a Teutonic word.j

11. The Ordeal.

The use ofthe ordeal for determining truth or falsehood ,

guilt or innocence, was developed from prehistorictimes in Ireland : but the germs were,

no doubt , broughthither by the earliest colonists. The Irish had their own

ordeals,in which were some pecul iarit ies not found among

other nat ions ofEurope. Most originated in pagan times, .

St okes,Lives ofSS.

,236.

t For more about the Deisiul Turn,see Ferguson, in Proc. R. I . A.,

1870—76, p . 355 : and Joyce, Irish Names ofP laces, 11. 455 .

CHAP. Ix] PAGANISM 303

but , as in other countries, the ordeal continued in use for

many centuries after the general a doption of

In the Book ofBallymote there is a l ist and descriptionoftwelve different kinds ofordeal used by the ancient Irish ,

which has been referred to by Mr. W ill iam Hennessy inan interesting paper on Irish Ordeals :j and more latelypublished and translated in full with the Irish text byDr. W hitley Stokes i In this it is stated that the twelve.

ordeals were arranged and proclaimed by King CormacMacArt in the third century at the Fe

'

i

'

s or Convention of

Tara. All through this tract an ordeal is called Fir- flatha

[feer- flaha] , i.e., Truth ofsovereignty or kingdom .

’ '

The

following is the Ballymote list 1,2, 3 . Morann’

s threeCollars ”

: 4 . Mochta’

sAdz e 5. The Lot - casting ofSencha 6. The Vessel ofBaduru 7. The ThreeDark Stones” 8 . The

“

Caldron ofTruth 9 . The Old Lot

ofSen, son ofAige 10 . Luchta'

s Iron 11. W aitingat an Altar 12 . Cormac ’s Cup Some ofthese are

obviously legendary and fanciful : but that the greater

number were in actual use is plain from the numerous

references to them in the Brehon Laws,and other ancient

Irish writ ings. Morann’

s three collars were not muchdifferent from each other in their functions : and i f theybe regarded as one, which it is pretty certain they originallywere

,and i f the two lot - cast ings(Nos. 5 and 9 above) are

looked upon as modificat ions ofa single one,this brings

down the twelve Irish ordeals to nine, which was the usualnumber that prevailed all over Europe in themiddle ages.

It is curious that single combat or the duelis not included

in the Irish technical l ist , though it prevailed as much inIreland as elsewhere, as is shown at page 152 , supra.

Numbers 1, 2 and 3 . The common version of the

legend ofMorann s co llar is this — that the great brehon

See Ware, Antiq q , chap . xix . TIn Proc. R. I . Acad.,x . 34.

1In Ir. Texte, 111. Another list,somewhat different

,with descrip

tions, is given in Br. Laws , v . 471, 473.

304 RELIGION , LEARN ING , AND ART [PARTII

or judge , Morann, had a collar, which ,if placed round the

neck ofa judge, contracted on his throat i f he del ivereda false or unjust judgment , and cont inued to press more

tight ly , ever t ill he delivered a righteous one. Placed on

the neck ofa witness , i f he bore false testimony it actedimilarly ,

until i t forced him to acknowledge the tr uth.

In the Ballymote List it is stated that Morann had threecollars but as all were used for purposes similar to thosejust stated , they need not be described here.

*

4. The Ta’

l [tawl] or adz e ofMochta (a legendarycarpenter) was wont to be put into a fire made ofblackthorn, or ofquicken- tree [t ill i t was red- hot] , and the

[tongue ofthe accused] was passed over i t it would burnthe person who had falsehood : but would not burn theperson who was innocent . A case ofthe applicat ion

ofthis ordeal is ment ioned by O'

Curry, j taken from an

ancient manuscript , where i t is called a druidical or

pagan test .

7. The Tre- lz’

aMothaz'

r,ThreeDark Stones a bucket

was fi lled with bog- dust , charcoal , and other kinds of

black stuff, and three l it tle stones, white,black

, and

speckled ,were put into i t , buried deep in the black mass

,

“

into which the accused thrust down his hand if he drewthe white stone, he was innocent if the black one

, he was

g uilty and if he drew the speckled one,he was half

guilty.

8 . The Coire-fz’

r [curra - feer] , caldron oftruth ,

’

was a

vessel ofsilver and gold . W ater was heated in i t t ill itwas bo il ing , into which the accused plunged his handif he was guilty ,

the hand was burned : i f not , i t wasuninjured . This ordeal seems to have been often used

it is not iced in the Senchus Mor z and elsewhere in the

Brehon Laws i t is mentioned as a means ofdeterminingcerta in cases ofdoubtful family relat ionship j

They wil l b e found described in Ir. Texte, 111. 208 .

1Man. Cust ., 1. 2 16. 1Br. Laws,I .,195 , 199 ; Iv . 285, 295 .


10 . Iam Lachta ,Luchta

’

s iron, [the use of] which thedruid Luchta learned in Letha(either Brit tany or Italy)when he went there to improve his knowledge. The

druids having first uttered an incantat ion over a piece of

iron, put it in a fire t il l i t was red- hot . It was then plat edin the hand ofthe accused and i t would burn him if hehad guilt but would not injure him if innocent .”

11. Ai'

rz'

sem z'

caltéir, waiting at an altar.

’

The personwas to go nine t imes round the altar

, and afterwards todrink water over which a druid ’

s incantat ions had beenuttered . Ifthe manwas guilty , the sign ofhis transgres

sion was made manifest in him [by some bodily disfigurement] if innocent , he remained unharmed .

”Notwith

standing the ment ion oi the word altar,’ this ordeal had

nothing to do with Christ iani ty : the legend states,that

i t was borrowed from the Israelites by Cai CainbrethachCai ofthe fair the original brehon who

introduced it into Ireland : and Mr. Hennessy thinks i tprobable that this pagan circuit was made round a cam ,

to which the borrowed word altdz'

r was applied as Cormacuses the same word(thanfor a pagan al tar. This is renderedall the more likely from the fact that , before the battleofCu] Dremne, St . Columkille denounces the half- paganforces arrayed against his people as the host that marchround earns —alluding , no doubt , to the practice ofthispagan ordeal , or to some form ofpagan worship . Probablythe altar of the ordeal was one ofthose ment ioned byCormac (p . 289 ,

supra), and was usually erected on a

cam : this would ful ly reconcile all the statements. As

corroborat ing the tradition that this rite was borrowedfrom the Jews, remark its striking similarity to the Jewish

ordeal for a woman suspected ofadultery(Numb . v.) thatshe was to drink bitter water over which the priest hadheaped curses : i f she was guilty,

her flesh rotted : i finnocent , she remained unharmed .

Trial by ordeal existed in Ireland before the arrival of


St . Patrick .

’

But the saint himsel f, according to the seventh~

century narrat ive ofMuirchu ,made use ofthe ordeal in his

contest with King Laegaire’

s druid .* Here, however, so

far as Patrick was concerned , the proceeding was purelyChrist ian : he called God to his aid ; and there was notaint of paganism . The king proposed that the booksbelonging to each should be thrown into water : Put

your books into water, and we wil l worship him whosebook escapes unharmed . Patrick agreed , but the druid

declined on the grounds stated at page 289, supra . The

king then proposed fire,but the druid again refused . At

last Patrick himsel f challenged the druid to another test, to

which he agreed— in an evil hour for himself. The druidand young Benen, one ofPatrick ’

s followers,exchanged

mantles and a house was hast ily built up , one half ofdrywood ,

and the other half ofgreen. Into this house bothwere put , Benen at the dry side, the druid at the other,according to arrangement , and locked securely in. It was

set on fire in presence ofall, and while it was burning,

Patrick remained praying. W hen the house had beenburned down,

and the fire had ceased , the spectators madea search , and found at the green side the druid reduced toashes, with Benen

’

s mantle untouched and at the otherside, Benen all joyful and quite safe, with the druid ’

s

mantle ent irely consumed .

12 . Preferencefor CertainNumbers.

The Irish , l ike most other ancient nat ions, had a

decided preference for certain numbers and their combinat ions, which were mixed up with many oftheir religiousand superst it ious ceremonies, as well

,

as with the affairsofordinary life. W e may see from the incident relatedby the seventh - century writer Muirchu , already not iced

,

that the number nine was regarded by the Irish pagans

Hogan, Docum ., pp. 38, 39 : Trip . Life

,2 84 .

308 RELIG ION,LEARN ING ,

AND ART [PART II

wi th a sort of religious venerat ion, as bringing goodluck — That when King Laegaire, with his druids and

pagan followers,was sett ing out from Tara for Slane to

arrest St . Patrick , he had nine chariots joined together

according to the tradition ofthe gods (p . 250 ,supra), in

which he and the others rode. This is a corroboration— so

far as that circumstance is concerned— by an unquestionable authority , oi the accuracy ofthe tales, in which wefind the combinat ion ofnine chariots often mentioned .

In the story ofthe birth ofCuculainn,the Red Branch

Knights yoke nine chariots to pursue a flock ofenchantedbirds.

"l Lug the Ildana had nine chariots in the BattleofMoytura ;j

'

and when Queen Maive rode at the head

ofher army to invade Ulster, she had a personal equipageofnine chariots— two in front ofher, two behind , and two

on each side, with her own in the middle(see 255,

St il l more frequently and prominently we find ninewaves ment ioned , and with similar mysterious virtuesattributed to them . Morann, the celebrated judge, son

ofCarbery Cat - head ,was born with a blemish so dis

figuring that his father ordered him to be taken away and

put to death . By the advice of an inhabitant of the

fairyhills he was taken to the sea and held on the surfacetill nine waves rolled over him : the moment the ninthwave had passed ,

the blemish disappearedf W hen the

M ilesians invaded Ireland ,the cunning Dedannans induced

them to re- embark andgo out nine waves from the shoreas soon as the ninth wave had been crossed ,

the magicalpower ofthe Dedannans was set free to act , so that theyraised a tempest that destroyed nearly all the M ilesianfleet . The belief about nine waves descended to Christiant imes. During the prevalence ofthe terrible yellow plaguein Ireland ,

Colman O’

Cluasaige Ferleginn or

head professor ofSt . Finnbarr'

s School in Cork , fled over

Miss Hul l,Cuch . Saga, 15. 1Rev . Celt .

,x11. 103.

1Ir. Texte, 111. 207.

310 RELIGION , LEARN ING , AND ART [PART ID

his evil eye. W hen he was a boy, his father’

s druids usedto concoct their spells in a room carefully closed , oc

-fulacht

draidechla ,i.e.

, cooking sorcery over a fire in a caldron,

from some horrible ingredients, l ike Shakespeare'

s witches.

The boy, curious to know what the druids were at ,

climbed up and peeped through an opening, when a whiffof foul steam from the caldron blew into his. eye,

and

communicated to it all the baleful influence ofthe hellishmixture. But this eye, powerful as i t was, was not proofagainst the tat/dam or sling- ball ofhis grandson LugoftheLong arms. At the second Battle ofMoytura,

Balor waspresent , prepared to use his eye on the Dedannan army.

But Lug, who was on the side ofthe Dedannans, kept onthewatch and themoment the lid ofthe Cyclopean eyewasraised , and before the glare had t ime to work bale, he let flythe hard ball from his sl ing , which struck the open eye withsuch force as to go clean through eye, brain, and skull .These observat ions may be brought to a close by the

remark that the superst ition ofthe evil eye has remainedamong our people—as among others— down to this day.

14. Geasa or Prohibitions.

There were certain acts which people were prohibitedfrom doing under penal ty ofmisfortune or ill luck ofsomekind . Such a prohibition was called geis or geas [gesh ,

gass : g hard as in gel, gap] plural geasa [gassa]. A geis

was something forbidden somewhat resembling a taboo.

Another term for a geis was urgarad, pl . argaria . It was

very dangerous to disregard these prohibitions. BecauseConari the Great , king ofIreland in the first century ofthe

Christ ian era,violated some ofhis geasa

— most ofthemunwittingly— the peace ofhis reign was broken by plunderand rapine and he himself was finally slain in the sack of

Da Derga.

* Some geasa were binding on people in general .

See Stokes’s Introd. to the Bruden Da Derga , and the story itself, inRev . Celt .,

xe . See also the not e on Geasa,in Tromdamh

, p . 107.


Thus, on the day ofKing Laegaire’

s fest ival , i t wasgeis forthe people to light a fire anywhere round Tara t ill theking ’

s fest ival fire had first been lighted .

* It was geis for

anyone to bring arms into the palace ofTara after sunset .

(Br. Laws,111.

The most interesting ofthe geasa were those imposedon kings : ofwhich the object ofsome was obviously toavoid unnecessary personal danger or loss ofdigni ty. For

example, it was a geis to the king ofEmain(i.e. ofUlster)to attack alone a wild boar in his den(Bk . ofRights, 249)a

’

sensible restrict ion. According to the Book ofAcaill

and many other authorit ies, it was geis for a king with a

personal blemish to reign at Tara(p . 43 , supra) so thatwhen the Great K ing Cormac MacArt lost one eye by an

accident , he at once abdicated . The reason ofthese two

geasa is plain enough . But there were others which it isnot so easy to explain. They appear to be mere supersti

t ions— obviously from pagan t imes— meant to avoid un~

lucky days, evil omens, &c. Some kings were subject to

geasa from which others were free. The king ofEmain,i.e.

ofUlaidor Ulster, was forbidden to l isten to the singing ofthe birds ofLough Swilly, or to bathe in Lough Foyle on a

MayDay(Bk . ofRights, 249) and the law tract cont inues,that if he breaks through these, he shall not become king ofTara (i.e overking) even though it should come to histurn to be ard- ri.

The king ofIreland and the provincial kings had eacha series ofgeusa or urgarta. To the king ofIreland itwas forbidden that the sun should rise on him while lyingin bed in Tara,

i.e., he should be up before sunrise he was

not to alight from his chariot or horse onMoy Breagh on

a W ednesday he should not traverse Moy- Callainn aftersunset , or incite his horse at Fan- Comair he was not to

enter North Teffia on a Tuesday, or go on board ship on

the Monday after May Day, or lead his army across Ath

Three Irish Homilies, 2 1.


Maighne (a ford on the river Inny) on the Tuesday afterthe I st November, or go round North Leinster left - handwise under any circumstances .

* W e cannot assign a reason

for any one ofthese strange geusa.

Some ofthem— perhaps most— arose from the horror ofsome former catastrophe the memory ofwhich has beenlost . For example , when Naive

’

s champion, Loch , electsto meet Cuculainn in single combat , he refuses to fight at acertain ford , because his brother had been killed there :

and the combat goes on at the next ford above f Indi~

viduals were often under geasa to follow or refrain fromcertain l ines ofconduct , the prohibitions being either takenon themselves voluntarily, or imposed on them ,

with theirconsent , by others. Fergus MacRoy, ex- king ofUlster,was undergeusa not to accept an invitat ion to a banqueti.a he was obliged to accept it i t was a geis ofFinnMacCumail to sleep more than nine nights running at Allen.

There were many geusa on Cuculainn, one ofwhich forbadehim to pass by a cooking fire without turning aside to visitit and tast ing the food and another to refuse any man

’

s

challenge to combat .Somet imes persons used geasa to obtain a request and

when the request was reasonable, just , and necessary ,the

abjured person could not refuse without loss ofhonour andreputat ion. Hence, the demand was often put in somesuch form as I place you under heavy geasa , which notrue champion will break through , to do so and so. In

this manner, the witch - lady— in the Story ofthe Chase of

Slieve Culainn— forces Firm to search for the ring she had

dropped into the lake :3; andMarbhan put the arch - poet ,Senchan Torpest , under geasa to obtain a copy ofthe loststory the Tain bo Onclna.§

It is wel l known that geasa or prohibitions were, and

For all these and others, see Book ofRight s, pp . 3—15.

1Miss Hul l,Cuch . Saga ,

166. 1Joyce, Old Cel tic Romances, 354 .

§ Oss. Soc. Trans ,v . 103.

CHAP . x] CHRISTIANITY 315

and his ident ificat ions are probably correct .* It may be

considered certain that Ci ll Fine, or, as i t was also called ,

Cill - Fine- Cormaic [pron. Killeena- Cormac;] is the venere

able l ittle cemetery , now called Killeen Cormac , in the

townland ofColbinstown in W icklow, three miles southwest from Dunlavin, and nearly midway between thatvillage and Ball itore. It is bel ieved that this was the

burial - place of the poet Dub thach , converted by St .

Patrick, and ofhis three sons ; and here stands the bi

l ingual ogham stone ment ioned in next chapter, whichwas their monument i

Besides these direct records, the existence in Irelandofpre

- Patrician Christ ianity is alluded to in some veryoldnat ive traditions

,preserved in the Lives ofSt . Patrick i

There must have been Christ ians in considerable nu rs

when the Pope thought a bishop necessary ; and s u chnumbers could not have grown up in a short t ime. It is

highly probable that the knowledge ofChrist ianity thatexisted in Ireland before the arrival of Palladins and

Patrick(in 431 and 432 ,respect ively) came from Britain

,

where it is pretty certain there was a well - establishedChrist ian Church in the third or fourth century ,§ or at anyrate where there were large numbers ofChrist ians from a

very early t ime. W hen we consider the constant intercommunicat ion that existed in those ages between Irelandand Britain (p . 75, supra), i t would be strange indeed ifthe faith did not find it s way to Ireland . However, thegreat body ofthe Irish were paganswhenSt .Patrick arrivedin 432 and to him belongs the glory Ofconvert ing them .

See Father Shearman’

s Essays in Kilk . Arch . Journ.,vol. for 1872 3

(especial ly p . and succeeding volumes. A lso his Loca Patriciana(especial ly from p . 1 to p .

TSee Loca Patriciana, p . 46 ; and the references in Macalister’

s

Studies in Irish Epigraphy ,Part p . 78 .

I see Trip . I ife, 325 , n 329 , 7 : 49 3 , first ext ract : and

Todd,St . Patk .

,2 70 . There is also the legend that King CormacMac

Art was a Christ ian. SSee Todd, St . Patk .,26 5.

316 RELIGION , LEARNING ,AND ART [PART 11

As St . Patrick and his companion missionaries foundfew terms in the Irish language that could be used to designate the oflices and ceremonies ofChrist ianity ,

they hadto borrow numerous words for the purpose from Lat in

, or

from Greek through Lat in, which became changed in formto suit the Irish laws of pronunciation. Hence, Irishsacart , or sagari, a priest ,

’ from sacerdos (originally pronounced sakerdos) epscop, or espoo, or easpog, a bishop

,

’

from episcopus cill [kill] . or cell, or ceall, a church ,

’ fromcella [originally pron. kella] eclas , or eaglas [agglas] , a

church,

’ from ecclesia regles, a church,

’

a compound of

the same word tempull, a church,

’ from templum darn

nach, Sunday ,

’

and also a church ,

’ from [Dies] dominicabaisleac, a church ,

’

from basilica clerech, a clergyman,

a scholar,’ from clericus ; ab, O I abb, an abbot ,

’ fromabbas monach. a monk ,

’ from monachas afirend, oifirend,

or aifirionn. the Mass,’ from ofierenda. Another Irish

word for a priest , far less common than sacart , is cruimlher

[criffer] . According to Cormac ’s G lossary(p . 30) the Irishborrowed cruimlher from the W elsh premier, for ;brem,

in

the W elsh — as he says is cruim in the Gael ic (by theusual change ofp to c) while the W elsh borrowed their

premier from presbyter. Also Nollac, or Notlaic(modernNodlog,

or Nodlaig), Christmas,’ from Lat . Natalicia ,

a

birthday feast and Cdisc, Easter, from Pascha. In

Ireland the same person was usually door- keeper and bell

ringer* hence the word aislredir, or aislire [ashtrore,

ashtiré), derived from Lat . ostiariuca janitor was the

usual Irish term for a bell—ringerj Caillach, a nun,

’

is

one ofthe few Irish ecclesiast ical terms not derived fromLat in : in an old Life ofSt . Brigit , it is stated to be

derived from caille, a veil ’

caillech,the veiled one.

’

Caillech,a nun,

’

is to be distinguished from caillech, an

old woman,a hag.

’

See the passage q uoted further on (p . 376) about aistreo'

ir.

1See Pet rie, Round Towers, p . 382 .

RELIGION ,LEARNING ,

AND ART [PART II

Tuathal Maelgarbh , and during the whole of KingDermot ’s reign,

that of[Domnall and Fergus] the twograndsons ofMuredach , and ofAed. son ofAinmire

a l ittle more than half a century.

The Third Order consisted ofpriests and a few bishopsthese were holy (sanctus). and shone l ike the stars.

FIG . 77.

Doorway ofSt. Mary '

s Church.Glendalough. (From Journ. Soc. Antiq q Irel..for 1900.p.

They numbered 100,all ofwhom lived in desert - places,

refusing to possess private property ,and subsisting on

herbs and water, and on the alms ofthe faithful . Theselived during four reigns that is, the reigns ofAed

There are discrepancies between the stat ement ofkings and reigns

In this List and the lists ofkings given in the oldest and best - established

CHAP . x] CHRISTIAN ITY 319

Allain(who,in consequence ofhis evil devices

, reignedbut three years), and ofDomnall, and during the jointreigns of[Kellach and Conall] the sons ofMaelcoba,

and

ofAedSlaine and they cont inued to the great mortality

(A.D. 664) i.e for a l ittle less than three- quarters ofa

century.

This old catalogue, though a l ittle highly coloured , afterthe fashion ofthe t imes

, and too precise to be acceptedliterally in all particulars, describes, with general correctness, three phases in the development ofthe early Churchin Ireland . Put into matter- of—fact language, the historicalstatement is briefly this

1. For a l i ttle more than , a century after St . Patrick ’

s

arrival , the work of conversion was carried on by the

Patrician clergy and their successors, who were nearly all

active missionary priests. Many belonging to this orderwere foreigners.

2 . During the latter half ofthe sixth century ,monas

feries spread rapidly over the country , andmonast ic clergythen andfor long afterwards greatly predominated . Nearlyall belonging to this order and the third were nat ives.

3 . From the end ofthe six th century , for seventy or

eighty years, eremitical communities, settled in remoteand lonely places, became very general . It will be worthwhile to describe these three religious developments insome detail .

3 . The First Order Patrician Secular Clergy.

During the century anda quarter following St . Patrick ’

s

arrival , i.e from A.D. 432 to about 559, the clergy wholaboured to spread the faith among the people appear tohave beenfor the most part unconnected with monasteriesin other words, they corresponded to the present secular

authorit ies. On this point see Lanigan’

s observations,Eccl . Hist .

,11.

331, not e 111. A correct list ofIrish kings, with dates, is given at the

end ofchapter iii., snfira.

RELIGION , LEARNING , AND ART [PART II

or parochial clergy. But though they commonly remainedin the several districts where they settled and built theirchurches, and though there was a sort ofunderstandingthat each had charge ofthe people who inhabited a districtextending some distance round his church , which the otherstook care not to encroach on

,nevertheless the district over

which each exercised jurisdict ion was not well defined .

Bishops, as we shal l see, were appointed , not to districts,but to tribes andmonasteries.

Still , as a tribe occupied a

portion ofthe country moderately well defined , the jurisdiction of the bishop ofthe

tribe extended over that distriet , so that this tribalarrangement contained the

germs of diocesan distribu

t ion. The exact topogra

phical l imits of the severaldioceses were laid down for

the first t ime at the synod of

Rathbrassil about the year1710 . 78. I I I 8 ,

*

D y ofthe Hermitage ofSt . E tc. one

ofsf'

ifalack-

s convert s, and fla t bishop of The Patrician clergy , as

81 beside the Boyne. near Slane. ina relic ofthe Patrician clergy . they may be called , were the

523 First Order ofSaints. Among”m " b’ them weremany dist inguished

bishops, some ofwhom are named in the catalogue. Therewere monasteries and schoolsTalso during the whole of

this period ,and many ofthe abbots were bishops : but

monasteries did not constitute the main feature of the

ecclesiast ical system for the l ife ofSt . Patrick , and,it may

be added ,the l ife ofthe First Order ofsaints in general ,

was, as Dr. Healy(p . 146) remarks, too full ofmissionary

See Lanigan,Iv . 42 Todd

,St . Patk .

, 38 : Reeves, Eocl. Ant ,126

,

127 and Adamu ., 6 5, notes a and b. 1' See Dr. Healy, 66 , 9 1, 98 , 122 .

4. The Second Order Mm astic Clergy.

Rise ofMonasticism — About the middle ofthe sixthcentury a great monastic religious movement took itsrise, mainly from the monastery and college ofClonard,founded by St . Finnen about the year He had

spent many years in W ales and soon after his settlement

at Clonard , great numbers ofdisciples, attracted by hislearning and hol iness, gathered round him . Under him

were educated and

trained for monasticandmissionary workmany of the mostillustrious fathers of

the Irish Church, in

cluding the TwelveApostles ofErin :1

'

so that St . Finnen,

who was a bishop ,is

called a doctor of

wisdom , and the

tutor ofthe saints of

m . 0, Ireland in his t ime

Ancient baptismal font ofClonard : three fee t high : still (O ’

Clery C31.preserved in the church there. (From W ilde's Boyne and

Blackwater.) Not a vestige ofany old building remaim on “1051: ofhis dlSCipleSthe site ofthis am t monastery.

spent some time also

under the spiritual instruct ion ofthe holy and venerable

St . Enda in his monastery in Aranmore, who had alsostudied for a t ime in W ales.

,These men,

going forthfrom Clonard in all direct ions, founded , in imitat ion of

For a ful l account ofthe foundat ion andwork oi this great col legesee Dr. Healy ,

Irel. Anc. Schoo ls, 199 .

1' The Twelve Apost les ofErin were z- Kieran ofSaighir or Seir

kieran ; Kieran ofC lonmacnoise ; Columba or Columkille ofIona ; Bren

dan ofC lonfert ; Brendan ofBirr ; Columba ofTerryglass in Tipperary ;Molaisse or Laserian ofDevenish Canice ofAghaboe ; Ruadan orRodanofLorrha in Tipperary ; Mobi ofG lasnevin Sinnell of(‘leenish in Lough


their master Finnen,numerous monasteries, schools, and

colleges,which subsequently became famous throughout

all Europe. And now new l ife and vigour were infusedinto the Irish missionary Church and the work ofPatrickand his companions was carried on with renewed z eal andwonderful success. The influence ofthe druids was final lybroken down,

though they st ill l ingered on,but obscurely

and feebly ,for many generat ions. Then also arose the

z eal for preaching the Gospel in foreign lands, that gaverise to that vast emigrat ion of Irish missionaries and

scholars spoken offarther on. By far the greatest partofthe ecclesiast ical l iterature ofIreland relat ing to thoseages is concerned with monast ic clergy , both priests and

bishops,and with their labours as missionaries, scholars ,

and teachers.

Monast ic Life.— The religious houses of this secondclass ofIrish saints const ituted the vast majority ofthe

monasteries that flourished in Ireland down to the t ime

of their suppression by Henry VIII. These are the

monasteries that figure so prominently in the ecclesiast icalhistory ofIreland and it will be interest ing to look intothem somewhat closely and see how they were managed

,

and how the monks spent their t ime.

The organisat ion ofthe Irish Church,and especially of

monasteries, was modelled on that ofsociety in generalit was tribal ; and the tribal customs pervaded all the

arrangements ofthe monastery. Bishops and priests wereattached to tribes and monasteries, having , as alreadyremarked ,

no well defined territorial jurisdiction. In a

E rne ; and Nenni or Nennius ofInishmacsaint in Lough Erne. This listis given b y Todd(St . Patk .

, 99 , note from the Lat in Life ofSt . Finnen.

But the List ofthe Twelve Irish Apost les given in the notes on the FeilireofOengus in LB(Stokes, Feilire, is somewhat diflerent . The FeilireList has Finnen ofClonard

,Finnen ofMagh Bhile(Movil la), andComgall

ofBangor, instead ofKieran ofSeirkieran,Molaisse ofDevenish

,and

Sinnell ofCleenish,who are in Todd’

s List . In the remainingnine the

two Lists agree.

RELIGION,LEARN ING ,

AND ART [PART 11

passage in the Lebar Brecc it is stated : In Patrick ’

s

Testament [i t is decreed] that there be a chief bishopfor every tribe in Ireland , to ordain ecclesiastics, toconsecrate churches, and for the spiritual direction of

princes, superiors, and ordained The headofa monastery was both abbot and chief over the com

munity. For spiritual direction, and for the higherspiritual functions, such as that ofordinat ion, confirma

tion,consecrat ion ofchurches, &c. , a bishop was commonly

attached to every large monastery and nunnery. In all

matters concerned with discipline and with the generalarrangements ofthe monastery ,

the abbot , in his temporalcapacity ofchief , had jurisdiction over the bishop

, as overall the others but in the spiritual capacity he was underthe authority of the bishop ,

who also commanded the

personal respect due to his high office. W e have one

instance related by Adamnan, where St . Columkille, in

Iona,humbled himself reverent ially in presence of a

bishop— a visitor— whom he treats as his spiritual superior.1

' Bede, speaking ofIona in his t ime, says Thatisland is governed by an abbot , who is a priest , to whoseauthority [in disciplinal matters] all the province, and

even the bishops, are subject , after the example oftheirfirst teacher [Columba] , who was not a bishop , but a

priest andmonk .

"

i But the abbot ofa monastery mightbe,

and often was, a bishop in which case no other bishopwas necessary.§The mode ofelecting a successor to an abbot strongly

resembled that for the election ofchief. He should bechosen from the fine

‘

or family ofthe patron saint if forany reason this was impossible, then from the tribe in

Trip . Life,clxxxii.

TSee Innes, H ist . ofScotl. , Book xxxiii. Adamu.,1. 44 and

Keat ., 450 , 451.

I Eccl. Hist .,III . iv .

The custom ofhaving a bishop in a monastery under the authority

ofthe abbot was not peculiar t o Ire land see Todd,St . Patk . , p . 54 ci seq .


AND ART [PART II

The monast ic discipline* was very strict , turning on

the one cardinal principle of instant and unquestioningobedience. Each ofthe most dist inguished founders drewup a Rule ”

for his own monastery and for all thosefounded by him , or under his authority as head — a set

ofregulat ions as to devot ions , food , t ime for retiring and

rising , occupat ions, and so forth , which were strictlyfollowed in daily life. Every monastery followed someRule,

whether drawn up by its own head or adopted .

Several ofthese Rules have come down to us, and givean excellent idea ofthe austere conditions under whichthose old monks l ived . In some monasteries the Ruleprohibited them from going beyond the outer [is or

enclosing wall without special leavefi'

There was to be no idleness : everyone was to be

engaged , at all available times, in some useful work ; a

regulat ion which appears everywhere in our ecclesiast icalhistory and concerning which numerous references mightbe given. This love ofwork is well illustrated in the legendthat St . Mailruan ofTallaght never heard the confessionofany man who did not support himself by labour.1 The

great anxiety ofthe communities was to support themselves by the work oftheir hands, so as to depend as l ittleas possible on the charity ofothers and this laudablecustom was followed not only at home, but also on the

Continent by those emigrant Irish monks who foundedmonasteries there. W e read in the Bollandistsll aboutseven brothers who went from Ireland to Gaul in the sixthcentury on a pilgrimage for the love ofChrist . Theysettled near the river Marne and the old biographer goeson to state They did not l ive merely on the charity of

On discip line see Adamu., 343 : Dr. Hea ly, I 50 : and Lanigan,IV 348 , 349 , 354, 357. 360

1' For Monast ic Ru les see O '

Curry , MS. Mat ., 373 and for a part ien

lar one,Reeves

,Cu ldees.

t Silva Gad., 40 . § I. anigan,

Iv . 355 , 356.

A . SS Feb . 27 Oct . 3 : Miss Stokes, Three Months in France, xxii,

CHAP . x] CHR IST IAN ITY 327

those whom the pious president [St Remi] had com

mended them to,but also on their own industry and the

labour of their hands,in accordance wi th the customs

ofthe religious bodies of Ireland.

”

Let us now glance at the various employments ofthosebusy Irish communities ” The monasteries ofthe secondorder were whatare commonlyknown as ceno

b iticalestablishments : i.e. the

inmates l ived,

s t ud i ed ,and

worked in society and companionship ,

and

had all things incommon and

they at tendedMass and otherdevot ions as a

congregat ion in

the church ofthemonas tery. In

sleeping aecomm odation thereW a S m u C h Doorway ofRound Tower, T ory Island. (From Pet rie '

s Round

Towers To illustrate slapiiigjambs , sect . 6, below.

variety ; in some

monasteries each monk having a sleeping—cell for himself;in others three or four in one cell. In some they slept on

the bare earth : in others they used a skin,laid perhaps

on a l it t le straw or rushes. Their food was prepared in

one large kitchen by some oftheir own members speciallySkilled in cookery ; and they took their meals in one

“‘On this see also Dr. Healy, 155 : Reeves,Eccl . Ant .

,130—195 : and

Adamu. , 363, top.

328 RELIGION ,LEARN ING , AND ART [PART 11

common refectory. The fare, both eat ing and drinking ,

was always simple, and generally scanty, poor and unin

viting ; and the fasts were frequent and severe : but on

Sundays and festival days, and on occasiong when dis

t inguished persons visited , whom the abbot wished to

honour, more generous food and drink were allowed .

W hen the founder ofa monastery had determined on

the neighbourhood in which to settle,andhad fixed on the

site for his establishment , he brought together those who

had agreed to become his disciples and companions, andthey set about preparing the place for residence. Theydid all the work with their own hands, seeking no helpfrom outside. W hile some levelled and fenced- in the

ground , others cut down ,in the surrounding woods, t imber

for the houses or for the church , dragging the great logsalong ,

or bringing home on their backs bundles ofwattlesand twigs for the wickerwork walls. Even the leadersclaimed no exemption,

but often worked manfully with axeand spade l ike the rest . W hen St . Patrick was journeynthrough Connaught , one ofhis disciples, Bishop Olean,

wishing to found a church for himsel f, and having obtainedhis master

’

s sanction, went forth with his axe on his

shoulder,

ready to begin his work with his own hands.*

Every important function of the monastery was incharge of some particular monk

,who superintended if

several persons were required for the duty, or did the

work himself i f only one was needed . These personswere nominated by the abbot , and held their posit ionspermanently for the t ime. In an ancient MS.

,quoted by

Stokes we read For Enda’

s honourable school [in theisland ofAran] Mochuda did the fishing

, Ciaran had thedrying of corn, and Ailbe the bell - ringing and doorkeeping.

”

j' Over the general daily arrangements pre

sided an officer, called in Irish fer- tights man of the

house and in Lat in commonly known as the oeconomus.

Trip . Life,137. 1Reference to this passage lost .


AND ART (PART II

signifies a scholar,

’

or learner(from scol, a school has

come down to our t ime to denote a small farmer whoworks his own land .

* The effects ofthe monks’

superiortillage are seen in many places to this day, where round

the monastic ruins there is an extent ofrich land , much

superior to that lying beyond j Those who had beentradesmen before entering were put to their own special

work for the use ofcommunity and guests. Some ground

the corn with a quern or in the mill ; some made and

mended clothes ; some worked in the smith ’

s forge or in

the carpenter’

s workshop ; while others baked the breador cooked the meals :Attached to every cenobitical monastery was a tech

a’

z'

gad,guest - house ,

’

or hospice (tech, a house ’

: digi,

a g uest modern form aoz’

dkmdhfi

pron. ee- a) for the

reception oftravellers, generally placed a l it tle apart fromthe monks’ cells an inst itution as old as the t ime ofSt .

Patrick . Some ofthe inmates were told offfor this duty ,

whose business it was to receive the stranger, take offhis

shoes, wash his feet in warm water, § and prepare supperand bed for him . Hospital ity was enjoined , not only as

a social virtue,but as a rel igious obligat ion. Reception

of strangers — Says the Brehon Law (v. 121, 27) is

incumbent on every servant ofthe church and in an

ancient Irish sermon on Doomsday,we read The Lord

will say to the just , I was in need ofa guest - house(techaz

’

ged) and ye gave me hospitali ty.

’ ”

HAdamnan(p . 27)records that once

,when St . Columba expected a guest at

Iona,he told the brethren to prepare the kospz

'

tz'

um (theLat in equivalent oflerk and to have water readv

to wash the stranger’

s feet . St . Ciaran ofClonmacnoisevisits Saigir (now Seirkieran,

in King ’

s County), on

whose arrival the other Ciaran, abbot ofSaigir, says to

SeeMac Conglinne, 13 1See, for.

examp le, Adamnan,209 .

1See Kilk . Arch . Journ.,1899 , p . 229 § Stokes, Lives ofSS.

,150 , par.52 .

Stokes, in Rev . Celt .,IV . 2 47.

CHAP. x] CHRISTIAN ITY 331

him apologet ically (the fire having been unexpectedly

put out): “ The first thing ye [i.e. the guest and his

companions] need is water to wash your feet , but justnow we have no means of heat ing water for you.

”

Conglinne (p. grumbling at the inhospitable

FIG . 83.

St Doulogli s Church.f0ur miles north OfDublin : illustration ofa stone- roofed

church C hurches ,"

infra ). St . Diiilech , from whom th is was named, was one of

the early Irish saints . he set tled here and built a li ttle church : but the present

church , figured here , does not appear Older than the th irteenth century, (From\Vakeinaii

'

s Handbook ofIrish Antiq uit ies.)

treatment he received in Cork monastery,complains

,as

a great grievance, that 011 his arrival no one came to the

guest - house to wash his feet,so that he had to wash them

himself.Three days and three nights seem to have been the

regular t ime for which guests were to be entertained free,

Stokes, Lives ofSS . , 277.


beyond which there was no further Obligat ion, and the

hosts were free to entertain or not just as we find amongthe Jews Now in those places were possessions oftheChief man of the island [Meli ta] , named Publius

, who

receiving us, for three days entertained us courteously

(Acts xxviii . This custom obtained in lay as well asin monastic l ife ; and both in the Irish Tales and in the

Lives of the Saints, entertainment for three days and

three nights is so constantly ment ioned as to renderreference to instances unnecessary.

There was a guest - house also attached to the principalnunneries, with a man- servant to attend . A Chief namedCoirpre, or Carbery ,

arriving at St . Brigit’

s Convent inKildare,

was brought to the guest - house (tech- diged).

Brigit asked the timthi-rz'

g man- servant who i t wasthat hadarrived . Just one youngman

, said the servant .Look again, said Brigit . Then he went and looked

more closely : and he now saw that the stranger had a

little babe clasped in his bosom . Brigit baptised the

child,who afterwards became the illustrious St . Tigernach

OfClones.

* In the houses ofchiefs and other lay personswho could afford it there was also a tech- éiged,

generallyone large apartment , kept specially for the reception of

travellers, as we find ment ioned in many passages ofour

old writ ings : and here also the custom was followed of

washing the stranger’

s feet ; which was often done by a

handmaidslIn those early t imes there were in every part ofthe

country monasteries, convents, and hostels or houses of

public hospital ity (for which last see vol. II . p . 166) so

that travellers were very well offin the matter ofShelter

and entertainment much better offindeed in one respectthan we are now : for we have to pay pretty smartly for

the hospitality shown us, while they had everything free.

After the t ime ofthe Anglo -Norman Invasion,however,

Feilire, 72 , 73. TI bid.

, 48 ,

RELIGION , LEARN ING , AND ART [PART II

In the educational establishments, teaching affordedabundant employment to the scholarly members ofthe

community. Others again worked at copying and mult iplying books for the l ibrary , or for presentat ion outsideand to the industry ofthese scribes we owe the chief partofthe ancient Irish lore,

and other learning , that has beenpreserved to us. St . Columkille devoted every momentofhis spare t ime to this work , writ ing in a l ittle woodenhut that he had erected for his use at Iona, ofwhichthere are many incidental not ices by Adamnan and otherbiographers. It is recorded that he wrote with his own

hand three hundred copies ofthe New Testament , whichhe presented to the various churches he had founded .

Some spent their time in ornament ing and i lluminat ingbooks— generally ofa rel igious character, '

such as copiesofport ions ofScripture : and these men produced the

wonderful penwork ofthe Book ofKells and other suchmanuscripts.

* Others were skilled metal - workers, and

made crosiers, crosses, bells, brooches, and other art icles,ofwhich many are preserved to this day, that Show the

surpassing t aste and Skill of the artists. But this wasnot pecul iar to Irish monks, for those ofother countriesworked Similarly . The great St . Dunstan, we know,

was

an excellent art ist in metal - work . Some of the Irishmonks too were Skilled in simple herb remedies

, and the

poor people around often came to them for advice and

medicine in sickness. W hen a monastery was Situatedon the bank Ofa large river where there was no bridge,

the monks kept a curragh ready to ferry travellers across,free ofchargeri

Giraldus Cambrensis, in his Topography of Ireland

(II . gives us an account ofSt . Brigit ’s perpetualfire at Kildare ' Among those [wonderful things] , the

For an interest ing account byDr. Reeves ofthe work ofone Irishscribe

,Muiredach MacRobhartaigh ,

who died 1088, see Proc. Roy. Ir.

Acad.,V II . 293 . T Dr. Healy, Irel. Anc. Schools, 427.

CHAP. x] CHR ISTIAN ITY 335

first to be not iced is the fire ofSt . Brigit , which is

called the inex tinguishable fire . Not that it cannot beext inguished , but the nuns and holy women watch it

and supply fuel so carefully that from the t ime ofthatvirgin it has cont inued to burn through a long course of

FiG . 84.

Tempull-na- teinead [ t iimé ] ,‘

Church oftlie Fme,’

interior view, where the perpetual

fire was kep t up , at ilinshuiurray , Ofl~

the coast ofSligo The anCIeiit hearth is seenin the foreground. (From K ilk. Arch.j ourii for 1885—6 , p . 226. Drawn by W akenian.

years [more than Six centuries and a half] . After thet ime ofG iraldas it was kept up t ill Henry de Londres,the English Archbishop ofDublin

,disregarding the local

devotional feeling, put it out in 1220 : but it was soon

after relighted , and continued to burn t ill the final suppression ofthe monasteries by Henry This custom

Ware, Antiq q . , 237.

336 RELIGION ,LEARN ING , AND ART [PART Ii

was not pecul iar to Kildare ,but was pretty general in

Ireland : for we find in the native records accounts of

perpetual fires kept up in several monasteries, in each of

which a small church or oratory was set apart for thepurpose as ,

for instance, at Seirkieran, Kilmainham , and

Inishmurray.

*

Besides the various employments not iced in the pre;

ceding pages, the inmates had their devot ions to attend

to ,which were frequent , and often long : and in most

monasteries they had to rise at the sound ofthe bell in

the middle Ofthe night , and go to the adjacent church toprayers. Going to bed and rising were, however, verysimple matters the monks merely lay down in their dayclothes— except the outer coat— on their hard and com

fortiess Sleeping- places, so as to be prepared to rise themoment the bell struck ,

as some orders of the regularclergy do at the present day.

Conversion of England and Northern Scot land.Towards the end ofthe sixth century the great body of

the Irish were Christ ians, so that the holy men ofIrelandturned their attent ion to the conversion ofother people.

Then arose— almost suddenly— an extraordinary z eal forspreading the Gospel in foreign lands : and hundreds of

devoted and determined missionaries left our shores. Bya curious custom ,

not found elsewhere, each chief missionary going abroad brought with him twelve companions,probably in imitat ion ofthe twelve apostles ofwhich thereader may see many examples in Lynch 3 CambrensisEversus, chap . xxv.

, and in Reeves’

s Adamnan, 299. But

sometimes thev went in much larger bodies.

On every Side we meet with evidences ofthe activityofthe Irish in Great Britain. Northern andwestern Scotland were evangelised by St . Columba andhis monks fromIona, and the whole western coasts ofEngland and W ales ‘

See Stokes’

s Lives ofSS.,2 77, 358 : Kilk . Arch .

Journ., 1879 ,

p. 51, and 1885 , pp. 325—229 : O

'

Grady, Silva Gad., 15, 16

, 41.

RELIG ION,LEARNING , AND A

'

RT [PART II

to preach to the Northumbrian Saxons, at the request oftheir good king Oswald that a missionary might be sent

,

this king being himself a zealous Christ ian who had

FIG. 85.

Chancel arch ofMonaincha, near Roscrea in Tipperary(forming doorway between nave and

chancel). (From Miss Stokes. Inscriptions, ll. ;fi .) To illustrate observation about cha ncel arch.see p .

'

3ss, fig/ rd .

spent some years in exile in Ireland,where he had been

converted and received his educat ion. Aidan,who had

been consecrated a bishop, chose as his place ofresidence


the l ittle island of Lindisfarne, where he founded the

monastery that became so illustrious in after—ages. For

thirty years— 634 to 664—this monastery was governed

by him and by two other Irish bishops, Finan andColman,

in succession. Aidan, assisted by a number ofhis fellowcountrymen,

laboured z ealously, and with wonderful success, among the rugged Northumbrian pagans. Manyofthe Scots — writes Bede* came daily into Britain,

and with great devot ion preached the W ord to thoseprovinces of the English over which King Oswaldreigned . These earnest men had the hearty co

operat ion and support of the king , ofwhich Bede hasgiven an interest ing illustrat ion in a passage where hetells us that as Aidan,

on his arrival in Northumbria ,was

only imperfectly acquainted with the language, KingOswald , who had learned the Irish tongue while in Ire

land , often acted as his interpreter to the people ]L

Montalembert , in his account ofhis mission,writes

Forty—eight years aft er Augustine and his Roman monks landedon the shores ofpagan England, an Anglo - Saxon prince [Oswald] invoked the aid ofthe monks ofIona in the conversion ofthe Saxons of

the north . The spiritual conq uest Ofthe island [Britain] , abandonedfor a time by the Roman missionaries

,was now about to b e taken up

by the Celtic monks. The Italians [under Augustine] had made the

first step ,1 and the Irish now appeared to resume the uncompletedwork . What the sons ofSt . Benedict cou ld only begin,

was to b e com

pleted by the sons ofSt .

A recent dist inguished writer belonging to the AnglicanChurch ,

Dr. Lightfoot , bishop ofDurham ,is even more

explicit on this point . Having remarked that Iona wasthe cradle ofEnglish Christ ianity

, he quotes Montalembert

Bede, Eccl . Hist ., Book chap . V II .

1I bi’

d.,Book Chaps. iii. and xxv .

I But see

'

Lanigan’

s Observat ions, p . 337, supra : the monks from

Ireland were beforehand with St . Augustine.

§ Montalembert , Book XL , chap . i.


as saying ' Ofthe eight kingdoms Ofthe Anglo- SaxonConfederat ion, that ofKent alone was exclusively wonand retained by the Roman monks. The following are

the words ofDr. Lightfoot himself, speaking ofAidan

Though nearly fort y years had elapsed since Augustine'

s firstlanding in England, Christ ianity was still confined to its first conq uest ,the south - east corner of the island, the kingdom ofKent . Thencommenced those thirty years Ofearnest energetic labour, carried on

bv those Celticmissionaries and their disciples, from Lindisfarne as theirspiritual citadel. which ended in the submission ofEngland to the gent leyoke ofChrist (Lightfoo t , Leaders in the Northern Church

,

"

1890 ,

p . Again(p . 11) he claims for Aidan the first place in the evan

gelisa tion Ofour race. Augustine was the apost le ofKent , but Aidanwas the apostle ofEngland.

“

In the early Christ ian ages, communicat ion with’

Rome

from Ireland was always diffi cult and tedious for generat ions indeed it was almost impossible, on account ofthedisturbed state ofthe intervening countries, caused by theirruptions of the northern hordes, who formed an im

passable barrier between the western islands and Italy.

Accordingly ,informat ion regarding alterat ions in dis

ciplinal matters made from time to t ime by the autho

rities in Rome took long to reach these islands : and

when t idings Ofthem did come, their genuineness, or theduty ofcomplying with them ,

was often Open to quest ion.

Yet during all this t ime, it is interest ing to observe withwhat unfailing ,

and, as it were, inst inct ive reverence, the

Irish— as well indeed as the British— Christ ians looked

to Rome as the centre ofauthority. During the sixth ,

seventh ,and succeeding centuries, Irish pilgrims— both

lay and clerical— were constantly going to Rome, as we

know by the testimony ,not only ofnat ive records, but

Bede(Eccl . H ist .,Book chap . v .) gives an interestingand sym

pathet ic sketch ofAidan and in several parts ofhis History mentions

him in t erms of the ut most adm irat ion and reverence. See Cardinal

Moran’

s sketch ofAidan in Trans. O ssory Arch . Soc.,1. 45 5 and Lanigan

II . 416, 424 .

RELIGION , LEARNING , AND ART [PART II

say ofIreland , who,despising the dangers ofthe deep ,

is migrating with almost her whole train ofphilosophersto our coasts P A characterist ic st ill more dist inctiveofthe Irish monks — writesMontalembertT as ofall

their nation, was the imperious necessity ofspreadingthemselves without , ofseeking or carrying knowledgeand fai th afar, and Ofpenetrat ing into the more distant

FIG. 86.

Cave or Hermitage ofSt. Columbanus, near Luxeuil, in France. St. Columbanuswas a native ot

Leinster, and was one ofthe greatest ofIrish misalmaries to the Continent. (From Miss Stokes'sThree Months in the Forests ofFrance.p. lSee p. 345 below.)

regions to watch or combat paganism and a l ittlefurther on he speaks oftheir passion for pilgrimage and

preaching. Not England or Scotland only — wri tes

Dr. Lightfoot (p . 7) but large parts ofthe Cont inentalso were Christ ianised by those Irish missionaries,either from their adopted home in Iona, or from theirmother country.

Moore,Hist . ofIreland,

1. 299 .

1Montalembert , Monks ofthe West , Book VII.

CHAP . x] CHRISTIAN ITY 343

For our knowledge of those noble and devotedmissionaries, we are indebted almost wholly to foreign

sources : for once they left their own country ,the nat ive

Irish annal ists made no record ofthem , except in a very,

few cases.

* These men,on their first appearance on the

Cont inent , caused much surprise, they were so startl inglydifferent from those preachers the people had been

accustomed t o . They generally— as we have said— wentin companies. They wore a coarse outer woollen gar

ment , in colour as i t came from the fleece,and under

this a white tunic of finer stuff. They were tonsuredbare on the front ofthe head , while the long hair behindflowed down on the back : and the eyel ids were paintedor stained black . Each had a long , stout cambutta , or

walking- st ick : and slung from the shoulder a leathernbottle for water, and a wal let containing his greatesttreasure— a book or two and some rel ics. They spoke a

strange language among themselves,used Lat in to those

who understood it , and made use ofan interpreter whenpreaching. But when they settled down for any lengthof time, they learned and used the nat ive dialect : as,

for instance, St . Gallus, the patron saint ofSt . Gall inSwitz erland . For writ ing purposes, they used pugillares,or waxed tablets (Irish ;bdlaz

'

re, for which see p . 482 ,

below).Few people have any idea of the trials and dangers

they encountered . Most of them were persons in goodposit ion, who might have l ived in plenty and comfort at

home. They knew well , when sett ing out , that they wereleaving country and friends probably for ever for ofthosethat went , very few returned . Once on the Cont inent

,

they had to make their way ,poor and friendless, through

people whose langauge they did not understand , and who

were in many places ten t imes more rude and dangerous

The reasons for this wil l be found ful ly set forth by Dr. Reeves inProc. Roy. Ir. Acad.

,v11.

, p . 2 90 .

t

344 RELIGION ,LEARNING, AND ART [PART II

in those ages than the inhabitants ofthese islands : and

we know, as a matter ofhistory , that many were killedon the way. Yet these stout - hearted pilgrims

,looking

only to the service oftheir Master, never flinchad . Theywere confident , cheerful , and sel f- helpful , faced privat ionwith indifference, caring nothing for luxuries ; and whenother provisions failed them , they gathered wild fruit ,trapped animals, and fished , with great dexterity and

with any sort ofnext - to- hand rude appliances. Theywere rough and somewhat uncouth in outward appearance : but beneath all that they had sol id sense and

much learning. Their simple ways,their unmistakable

piety , and their intense earnestness in the cause ofrel igioncaught the people everywhere, so that they made con

verts in crowds.

*

Irish professors and teachers were in those t imes held

in such est imat ion that they were employed in most of

the schools and colleges of Great Britain, France,Germany, and Italy. The revival of learning on the

Continent was indeed due in no smal l degree to those

Irish missionaries ; and the investigations of scholars

among the cont inental l ibraries are every year bringing

to light new proofs of their industry and z eal for the

advancement ofreligion and learning. To this day, in

many towns ofFrance, Germany , Switzerland , and Italy ,

Irishmen are venerated as patron saints. Nay, theyfound their way even to Iceland ; for we have the best

authority for the statement that when the Norwegians first

arrived at that island , they found there Irish books, bells,crosiers, and other traces ofIrish missionaries, whom the

Norwegians called Papaa‘

r But the most interest ing and

decisive notice ofthe connexion ofthe Irish with Iceland

Much ofthis is condensedfrom the Essays oftwo learned Germans,

Dr. Wat tenbach andDr. Ferdinand Kel ler, t ranslated and annotated by

Dr. Reeves in,U lst . Journ. Arch .

,V II. and VIII . See also Miss Stokes

,

Early Christ ian Art , 34, 35 . 1Moore, Hist . ofIreland,II. pp . 3 , 4.

346 RELIGION ,LEARN ING , ANDART [PART 11

France. May she be welcomed by those she reveredand honoured*

The Irish passion for pilgrimage and preachingnever died out it is characterist ic ofthe race. This greatmissionary emigrat ion

'

to foreign lands has cont inued in a

measure down to our own day : for it may be safely

FIG. 87.

Bats -relief. representing St . Columbanus taming two bears. carved on one side ofthe sarco

phagus in which he is buried at Bob bie in Italy. This memorial ofa great Irish missionary isfigured anddescribed by Miss Stokes in Six Months in the Apennines(p. from which this

illust ration has been taken.

asserted that no other missionaries are playing so generaland successful a part in the conversion ofthe pagan peopleall over the world ,

and in keeping alight the lamp of

rel igion among Christians, as those ofIreland . Take up

any foreign ecclesiast ical directory , or glance through any

newspaper account Ofreligious meetings or ceremonies, or

See also Paper by Miss Stokes in Kilk . Arch . Journ.,1870

—71, p . 352 ,

for specimens ofIrish art now in Bavaria,taken from a Paper by W at ten

bach .

CHAP. x] CHRIST IAN ITY 347

bold missionary enterprises in foreign lands ; or look

through the names of the governing bodies of Uni

versities,Colleges, and Monasteries, in America,

Asia,Australia

,New Zealand— all over the world— and your

eye is sure to l ight on cardinals, archbishops, bishops,priests

,principals

,professors, teachers, with such names as

Moran,O

’

Reilly, O’

Donnell,MacCarthy, Murphy,

W alsh ,

Fleming, Fitzgerald , Corrigan,O

’

Gorman, Byrne, and

FIG . 88.

A shrine , now preserved in the Copenhagenmuseum , showing the Opus H t‘

berm'

cum

one ofthe Cont inental t races of ll‘lSll “113 510113 116 5 . This shnne was made e ither by anIrish art ist , or by one who had learned from Irish art ists. (From Journ. Roy. Soc.

Antiq q Irel 1392.P 355

scores of such - l ike,tell ing unmistakably of their Irish

origin,and proving that the Irish race ofthe present day

may compare not unfavourably in missionary z eal withthose ofthe t imes ofold. As the sons ofPatrick

,Finnen

,

and Columkille took a leading part in convert ing the

people ofBritain and the Cont inent , so it would seem to

be dest ined that the ultimate universal adopt ion of

Christ ianity should be mainly due to the agency of

Irish missionaries.

348 RELIG ION ,LEARN ING , AND ART [PART II

5. The Third Order Ana/writes, or Hcrmz’

ts andHermit

Conmzmrz'

tz'

cs.

Although the monasteries ofthe second order were, aswe have seen

,cenobit ical(p .327, supra),nevertheless, during

the whole ofthis period , and indeed from the t ime ofSt .

Patrick ,individuals often chose a sol itary life ,

withdrawingthemselves from all companionship with their fellows, andpassing their t ime, as hermits, in prayer and contemplation.

For it was considered that a l ife ofsol itude afforded an

Opportunity ofmore perfect union with God. A characterist ic example was St . Domangart or Donard , one ofSt .

Patri ck ’

s disciples ,who built his litt le liermitage ofstone

on the very summit ofSlieve Donard , the highest peak of

the Mourne Mounta ins and in this awful solitude he l ivedand communed with God for many years. And the nameofthe mountain keeps his memory fresh to this day.

Sometimes an individual took up his abode near themonastery

,st ill retaining his connexion with it : others

left it for good ,and went to some out - of—the—way place at a

distance. Each had a l itt le cell , commonly put up by hisown hands , in which he spent his l ife,

meditat ing and

praying , sleeping on the bare earthen floor, and l iving on

herbs and water, or on an occasional alms from somevisitor. These cells were sometimes ofstone— what wenow call a clochan,

a beehive- shaped hut , Ofwhich manyexamples still remain. W e have numerous not ices of

individual hermits during the period ofthe Second OrderofSaints. Adamnan tells us that , in the t ime ofSt .

Columba,who was himself one of the Second Order

,a

certain monk named Finan “led the l ife ofan anchorite

blamelessly for many years near the monastery of

The spot where an anchorite l ived was often cal led bythe Irish name Dz

’

sert , meaning an unfrequented place,

Adamn p . 95 see also p . 366 , same work.


(I. xx) ment ions another voyage for a similar purpose,undertaken by a monk named Baithen. AS an example

ofthe all but inaccessible places these men ventured on

and l ived in,may be ment ioned Bishop

'

s Island near

Kilkee,a sea- rock , surrounded by sheer cl iffs 200 feet

high,where,

to this day, can be plainly seen from the

adjacent mainland the remains oftwo primit ive elochans,

in which one or more ofthose hermits l ived in the oldent ime. But the history Ofthe settlement on this island istotally lost .*

W hile , as we have seen, there were individual hermitsfrom the very beginning , the desire for eremitical l ifebecame very general about the end Ofthe sixth century.

Then not only individuals, but whole communities of

monks, sought a solitary li fe. The leader ofa colony of

intended recluses went with his followers to some remoteplace, in a deep valley surrounded by mountains, forests,and bogs, or on some almost inaccessible l ittle island ,

where they took up their abode. Each man built a cell

for himsel f : and these cells, with a l ittle church in the

midst , all surrounded by a lowcasket, rat/z, or wall , formed

an eremitical monastery : a monast ic group like thoseknown in the east by the name. of Laura. Each monkpassed the greater part ofhis l ife in his own cell

,holding

little or no communicat ion with his fellows, except only

at stated times in the day or night , when all assembled in

the church for common worship , or in the refectory formeals. They cult ivated a vegetable garden for food and

it must often have gone hard with them to support l ife.

The remains ofthese litt le monasteries are st ill to be seen

in several parts ofIreland , both on the mainland and on

islands as, for instance, at Gongane Barra lake, the sourceofthe Lee in Cork on Inishmurray, Offthe Sl igo coast on

Ardoilen,a l ittle ocean- rock offthe coast ofGalway ,

where

a lama was founded by St . Fechin in the seventh century

See O’

Curry, Man. Cust . , I I . 67.

GHAP. x] CHRISTIAN ITY 35I

and on the Great Skellig offthe Kerry coast , where therest ill remains an interest ing group ofclochans that may

be seen figured in the Kilkenny Archaeological Journal ,1890

—91, p . 662 .

There is a graphic descript ion ofone ofthese hermitmonasteries in the Voyage ofSt . Brendan. Barinthus,

giving St . Brendan an account of a visit to Mernoc’

s

F IG. 90.

Present appearance OfGougane Barra on a lit tle island in t he lake. St . Barra or I-‘

innbarr, the

patron ofCork , set tled here with his hermit community , who bu ilt httle cells and a church , in the

end ofthe sixth century : ofwhich remains are st ill to be seen. A memorial ofthe Third Order of

Saints, (FromMrs. Hall’s Ireland.)

island monastery , says As we sailed to the island , the

brethren came forth from their cells towards us l ike a

swarm ofbees, for they dwelt apart from each other,

having one refectory , one church for all, wherein to discharge the divine Oflices. No food was served out but

fruits and nuts, roots, and other vegetables. Aftercomplin [the last prayer at night] they slept in their


respective cells till the cock crew or the bell sounded formorningThese hermit - communit ies were the Third Order of

Saints, who are very correctly described in the Old Catalogue. It is stated that they lasted till the t ime ofthe

Yellow Plague in 664 from which we may infer that theplague made such havoc among them as to break up the

system oferemitical monasteries. During this t ime thecenobitical or ordinary monasteries must have been con

siderably disturbed and repressed by the departure of

whole bodies oftheir inmates but after 664 they resumedtheir sway. Long after this however we find numerous

records ofindividual hermits i'

Culdees.— There is good reason to bel ieve that theThird Order ofIrish Saints includes the class ofmonksdesignated by the Irish term Céile-Dé [Cailé -De] , or, as i tis usually Anglicised , Culdee. W ho were the Culdees ?

On this quest ion there has been much uncertainty and

much Speculat ion. It has been investigated by Dr.

Reeves in an exhaustive essay : and Mr. Skene, in hisCelt ic Scotland , has thrown much additional l ight on

it . Many other writers on Irish ecclesiast ical history havemore Or less dwelt on the subject .The term Céz

'

le-Dé has been variously translatedservant or spouse, or companion ofGod : for

Céz’

le has all these meanings. As applied to monks it doesnot appear in the Irish records t ill towards the close of

the seventh century and it seems to have been generallyapplied to a cleric or monk who either actuallywas, or hadbeen, a recluse or anchorite. It was not applied to all

anchorites, but only to those ascet ics, whether individualsor communit ies, who were dist inguished for unusual

‘ Card. Moran,Acta S. Brend

,86

,87 : O

'

Donohue, Brendaniana,112 . For more about these island monasteries

,see the Rev . George

Stokes ’

s Paper in Kilk . Arch . Journ.,1890

-

9 1, p . 658.

TFor examples, see Reeves, Adamn., 366.


almost be said that St . Brigit ofKildare was the founderofthe Irish conventual system . W ith the space at disposalhere, however, it would be impossible to enter on a historyand descript ion ofconvent l ife in Ireland : and I mustcontent myself with referring to Lanigan

’

s Ecclesiast icalHistory , passim, or indeed to any good EcclesiasticalHistory ofIreland ; and to the Most Rev . Dr. Healy ’

s

Ireland ’

s Ancient Schools and Scholars,” pp . 106- 121.

6. Buildings and otherMaterialReq uisites.

Churches and Monast ic Bui ldings — The custom of

building in wood , which was characterist ic ofthe ancientIrish people, will be not iced in chap . xx

, vol. II . pp . 21—27.

Nearly all the churches in the t ime ofSt . Patrick , andfor

several centuries afterwards, were ofwood , aswe know fromnumerous passages in the ancient ecclesiastical l iterature.

St . Finan, an Irish monk from Iona, on becoming bishop of

Lindisfarne, A.D. 652 , buil t a church there, which , in the

words ofthe Venerable Bede, was not , however, ofstone,but al together ofsawn oak , and covered with reeds after

the manner ofthe The custom cont inued long ,not only among the nat ive Irish , but among the Englishsettlers. St . Malachy O 'Morgair, archbishop OfArmagh ,

who died in 1148, began to build a large church ofstone

at Bangor, l ike those he had seen on the Continent , whichwas even at that period considered so unusual a thing that

the nat ives were all astonished and one,bolder than the

rest , said to him W hat has come over you , good man,

to introduce such a building W e are Scots, not Gauls,and want no such novelties. How do you think you

can find the means, or l ive long enough ,to finish it

”

T

But the ancient churches were not universally ofwood

for l ittle stone churches were erected from the earl iestChrist ian t imes.

Eccl . H ist ., III . xxv . TPetrie ,R. Towers, 123 Ware

,Antiq q . 181 .

CHAP. x] CHRIST IAN ITY 355

The early Churches,built on the model ofthose intro

duced by St . Patrick , were small and plain,seldom more

than six ty feet long, sometimes not more than fifteen,

always a simple oblong in shape, never cruciform. Some

ofthe very small ones were oratories for private or familydevot ions. Oratories were common

, both in monasteries

and elsewhere. At first they were nearly always Ofwood,

as their Irish name,a’ertheeh

,or dairtheeh (‘ Oak

denotes. But at an early period they began to be built of

FIG. 92 .

St.MacDara'

s primitive church on St . MacDat a'

s Island Offthe coast ofGalway.Interiormeasurement 15 feet by I I feet . (From Petrie ’

s Round Towers.)

stone : and the ruins ofthese lit t le structures still remainin many. places. AS Christianity spread

,the churches

became gradually larger and more ornamental,and a

chancel was often added at the east end,which was

another oblong,merely a cont inuat ion of the larger

building,with an arch between(see fig. 85, p. 338, supra ).

The j ambs ofboth doors and windows inclined,so that the

bot tom ofthe openingwas wider than the top this shapeofdoor or window is a sure mark of antiquity (see for

examples, figs. The doorways were commonly

356 RELIG IO N ,LEARN ING

,AND ART [PART II

constructed Ofvery large stones,with almost always a

horizontal l intel : the windows were Often semicircularlyarched at top, but sometimes t riangular- headed . The

remains oflit t le stone churches, ofthese ant ique patterns,Ofages from the fifth century to the tenth or eleventh

,

are st ill to be found all over Ireland.

* The small earlychurches, without chancels, were often or generally roofed

Doorway ofTcinpullCamihain inAran. (From M iss Stokes’s Inscriptions, I I p.

with flat stones,ofwhich Cormac ’s chapel at Cashel(vol.

II., Tit le - page), St . Doulogh’

s Church near Dublin(p. 331,

supra), St . Columb’

s house at Kells (p. 325, supra), and

St . MacDara’

s Church (p. 355, supra), are examples

(Petrie,

“ Round Towers, In early ages churcheswere Often in groups ofseven— or intended to be so— a

‘ Some even ofthe early churches were highly ornamented,such as the

great church ofKildare, as described by Cogitosus, for which see Lanigan,IV . 342 : Dr. Healy, I I4 : Petrie, Round Towers, I97, 198, 199.


celebrated Mass in,viz . the saball [saul] or barn given him

by Dicho at San] , happened to be In this direct ion but

here there was no choice.

* After this t ime a few churcheswere del iberately placed north and south

,though not by

Patrick apparently in venerat ionfor the l ittle barn- churchat Saul and somet imes even long afterwards a chapel orsmall church was called saball.

The word daimhlaig [dav - leeg , stone- house was at

first applied to any church built ofstone but its use was

subsequently confined to an important church . The termairecol, or in modern Irish aircagal, which meant primarilya house ofprayer, an oratory

,

’

is a loan- word from the

Lat in oraculmn and we know that in the Lat in Lives of

those Irish saints who flourished on the Cont inent, the

oratories they founded are often called oraculum.1'

But

this term came to signi fy any small detached hOuse and

in Irish writ ings it is often used in this sense. The

resident ial buildings ofa monastery , such as the dormitories, small cells for various purposes, the abbot ’s house

,

theguest - house, the l ibrary , &c. , were mostly ofwood ,after

the manner ofthe houses ofthe people ofthe country.

Named or Sanctuary — The land belonging to and

around a Church— the glebe- land— was a sanctuary , and as

such was known by the names ofNemed, now neimheadh

[neveh] and Termanu . Nemed, meaning literally heavenly or sacred ,

’

is a nat ive word : Termanu, or as it is

usual ly anglicised , Termon,is a loan- word from the Lat in

Terminus for the sanctuary was generally marked Offat

the corners by crosses or pillar- stones. M iss Stokes hasshown that , in Ireland , the high- crosses (which will benot iced at p . 567, below) were used for this purposeThat the ancient sanctuaries were marked by high

crosses outside the ramparts [ofthe Church or monastery] ,and that they were under the invocat ion ofcertain saints,

See Joyce, Short Hist . ofIrel. , 145 .

1Petrie, Round Towers, 352 Voyage ofBran, I . ,G lossary, 9 1.

CHAP.x] CHRIST IAN ITY 359

and Offered protection to the fugit ive who sought shelterunder their arms.

”ale Dr. Petrie(“Round Towers, 59) refersto an ancient canon ofthe church direct ing crosses to be

erected to mark the limits ofthe ueiuzhea’h or sanctuary.

FIG . 94.

High Cross ofDysart O’Dea , County Clare. (From Joum . Roy. Soc. Antiq q .,

Ireland, for 1894, p 158. Drawn by Mr. W estropP A much finer cross(Monasterb oice) W ill b e found figured elsewhere in this book .

It was usual for the founders of churches to planttrees — oftenest yew,

but sometimes oak or ash— for orna

ment and shelter,round the Church and cemetery ,

~

and

generally within the sanctuary. These lit t le plantat ionswere subsequently held in great venerat ion,

and were

High Crosses ofCast ledermot andDurrow,Introd. , p. ix.


AND ART [PART II

called Fiduemed [finneveh] , sacred grove,

’

or grove of

the rie or sanctuary from fid(fih), a wood orThey are often mentioned in the Annals and in the

ecclesiastical writ ings ; and Giraldus Cambrensis not icesthem in several passages. He relates how a party of

Anglo-Norman soldiers, who were stat ioned at Finglas

nearDublin,during the t ime ofHenry II.’S visit to Ireland

(in sacrilegiously cut down the grove ofthe church ,

which,as wel l as the grove i tsel f, was dedicated to St .

Canice : for which— as he goes on to say— they all

perished in a few days by plague and shipwreck T The

ru ins ofSt . Canice'

s Church , where this desecrat ion wasperpetrated , are st ill to be seen ; but this structure waserected at a period long after the t ime ofSt . Canice, on

the site ofhis primit ive church .

The most general term for a church was, and is st ill ,rill, cell, or ceall. Other terms were eclais regles tempull

baisleac domnach for all ofwhich see p . 316, supra.

Later Churches — Unt il about the period ofthe AngloNorman invasion all the churches, including those in the

Romanesque style, were small , because the congregat ionswere small : this, again, chiefly resulted from the tribalorganisat ion, which had a tendency to split up all society ,

W hether lay or ecclesiast ical,into smal l sect ions. But the

territorial system ofChurch organisation, which tended tolarge congregat ions, was introduced about the t ime ofthe

Invasion. The Anglo- Normans were,as we know ,

greatbuilders and about the middle Ofthe twelfth century theold Irish style ofchurch architecture began,

through theirinfluence, to be abandoned . Towards the close of the

century, when many ofthe great English lords had settledin Ireland , they began to indulge their taste for architectural magnificence, and the nat ive Irish chiefs imitated

This word Fiduemed is very ful ly discussed by Dr. Petrie, RoundTowers

, 49—64 : see also FM

,A.D. 99 5.

TTop. Hib ., I I. liv : 111. x. : and Hib . Expugn.. I . xxxh .


and emulated them ; large cruciform churches in the

pointed style began to prevail and all over the countrysplendid buildings ofevery kind sprang up . Then wereerected— some by the English , some by the Irish— thosestately abbeys and churches ofwhich the ruins are st illto be seen ; such as those ofKilmallock (ofwhich see

illustrat ion,p . 364 , farther on) and Monasteranenagh in

Limerick Jerpoint in Kilkenny Grey Abbey in DownBective andNewtown inMeath Sligo Quin

, Corcomroe,

and Ennis (fig. 95) in Clare ; Ball intober in.

Mayo ;Knockmoy in Galway Dunbrody in W exford ButtevantCashel and many others.

Round Towers — In connexion with many of the

ancient churches there were round towers ofstone from60 to 150 feet high , and from 13 to 20 feet in externaldiameter at the base the top was conical . The interiorwas divided into six or seven stories reached by laddersfrom one to another, and each story was lighted by one

window : the top story had usually four windows. The

door was placed 10 or more feet from the ground outside,

and was reached by a ladder : both doors and windows

had Sloping jambs l ike those of the churches. About

eighty round towers still remain, ofwhich about twenty

are perfect the rest are more or less imperfect .Formerly there was much speculat ion as

,to the uses

of these round towers ; but Dr. George Petrie, after

examining the towers themselves, and— with the help of

O’

Donovan and O’

Curry— searching through all the Irish

literature within his reach for allusions to them , set the

quest ion at rest in his Essay on The Origin and Uses of

the Round Towers. It is now known that they are of

Christian origin,and that they were always built in con

nexion with ecclesiast ical establishments. They were

erected at various t imes from about the beginning ofthe

ninth to the thirteenth century . They had at least a twofold use as belfries, and as keeps to which the inmates of


the monastery retired with their valuables— such as books,

shrines, crosiers, relics, and vestments— in case ofsuddenattack. They were probably used also— when occasionrequired— as beacons and watch - towers. These are Dr.Petrie’s conclusions, except only that he fixed the date of

some few in the fifth century ,which recent invest igations

have shown to be too early. It would appear that it wasthe frequency ofthe Danish incursions that gave rise to

the erect ion ofthe round towers, which began to be built

FIG. 96. FIG. 97.

RoundTower(perfect)Devenish Island, inLough RoundTower ofSt Canice.K ilkenny ; IooEme.near Enmskillen. (From K ilkenny Archaeolo feet h igh , and perfect. excep t that it wants

gicalJournal. W akeman.) For another and bet ter the pointed cap . St Canice was an intimate

view ofthis tower, W ith Its church , see chap xxiv friend ofSt . Columkille : but th is towerwassect. 5, mfm . Round towers W ill befounddep icted '

not erected t ill some centuries after the deathin other parts ofthis book. ofthe two saints.

early in the ninth century simul taneously all over the

country. They were admirably suited to the purpose of

affording refuge from the sudden murderous raids ofthe

Norsemen : for the inmates could ret ire with their valuables on a

'

few minutes’ warning,with a good supply of

large stones to drop on the robbers from the windows ;and once they had drawn up the outside ladder '

and

barred the door, the tower was,for a short attack , practi

cally impregnable. Round towers are not quite pecul iar to


Ireland : about twenty—two are found elsewhere— inBavaria,

Italy , Switz erland , Belgium , Scotland , and other countries.

The Irish round towers are cal led in the nat ive language.cloz

'

ctheach,modern form cloz

’

gtkeach, meaning bell - housedoc, or clog, a bell ,

’

and teach, a

MonasticLis orRampart. -An Irish monastery ,includ

ing the whole group ofmonastic buildings, was generally

enclosed by a strong rampart , commonly circular or oval,according to the fashion ofthe country in the lay home

FIG . 98.

Domin ican Abbey. Kilmalloclt. Co. Limerick(mentioned at p. 362. sufim l. Founded inmg:

by Gilbert Fitzgerald. (From Kilkenny Archae ological Journal, 1879—89 . p .

steads. The rampart was designated by one ofthe usualIrish names, rath, or lios [l iss] , or i f of stone, caiseal

[cashel] , and sometimes cathaz’

r [caher] . W e are told inthe Tripart ite Life that St . Patrick marked out the

enclosure ofhis group ofbuildings at Armagh with hiscrosier, the Staff ofJesus. That this very rampart , orone l ike it , was retained for many centuries, is proved

Some persons have thought that the first syl lable in this name

might mean a stone(clock) so that cloictheach might b e stone- house,’

not bel l - house .

’

But th is is impossible ; for the middle 0 ofcloictheach

is never aspirated— it is c

,not ch— as it wou ld b e if the word were

intended to mean stone- lions?

366 RELIGION ,LEARN ING , ANY) ART [PART II

ofbuildings, constitut ing a monastery including the sur

rounding lz’

s, was sometimes called congbhaz’

l [congwillland caf/zaz

’

r,which are native Irish words, and somet imes

which is borrowed from monasterlum. It oftenhappened that a chief presented his dun, or lios , to the

missionary who converted him , and then the church and

other buildings were usually erected within the enclosureofwhich Petrie gives many instances.

*

W ells —« W ells have at all t imes been venerated in

Ireland by both pagans and Christians andwe have seen

(p . 288) that many ofthe pagan Irish worshipped wells asgods. Some of these were blessed and consecrated to

Christain uses by the early saints, of which a very

interest ing instance is related in Adamnan’

s Li fe ofSt .

Columba (p . 119) Another t ime, remaining for some

days in the country ofthe Picts, the holy man [Columba]heard ofa fountain famous amongst this heathen people,

which fool ish men, blinded by the devil , worshipped as a

divinity. The pagans, seduced by these things, paiddivine honour to the fountain. A

‘

damnan goes on to

say that after Columba had rescued it from heathenism ,

he blessed it , so that it was ever after revered as a holywell that healed many diseases. In this manner hundredsofthe heathen wells were taken over to Christ ianity and

sanct ified by the early saints , so that they came to be evenmore venerated by the Christians than they had been bythe pagans . Yet the heathen pract ices never quite diedout , but have cont inued t o b e mixed up with Christ iandevot ions even down to our own day,

though now devoidoftheir original heathen spirit

, and quite harmless. The

most conspicuous of the exist ing pract ices are offeringsof various kinds

,rags, pins

,cups, &c.

,which may

now be seen, as the devotees left them , at almost

Round Towers, 445 to 452 : see also Miss Stokes

,Three Months

in France,xxxii. and Wilde

,Boyne, 155.

CHAP. x] CHRIST IANITY 367

every holy well. This practice prevails still in many parts

ofEurope,and even in Persia(see fig. 8

, p . 9 , supra).

Those early Irish missionaries did not confine theirl ine ofact ion in this direct ion to wells : they took over inl ike manner forts

,buildings, fest ivals, and Observances of

various kinds, and consecrated them to Christian uses

so that those pagans who became converted had the way

FIG. 99 .

Saint Senan'

s Holy W ell, on the west bank ofthe Shannon, near Doonass, Co. Clare. (Drawn by

Petrie.) The offerings here (shown on top ofwell) cons ist ofwooden bowls, teacups whole or

broken, & c. (From W ood-Martin'

s Traces of the Elder Fa iths , II. 97 ; and that from the IrishPenny Journal, p. 4OI

made smoo th for them,and suffered no violent wrench ,

so far as ex ternal custom was concerned. It is interestingto remark that in adopting this judicious l ine ofact ion,

the Irish missionaries only anticipated the instructions

given A.D. 60 1 by Pope Gregory to the British abbotMell itus for his guidance under similar circumstances.

The Pope’s words are“ The temples ofthe idols in that

“nat ion [Britain] ought not to be destroyed ; but let theidols that are in them be destroyed ; let holy water be

RELIGION ,LEARN ING , AND ART [PART 11

made and sprinkled in the said temples ; let altars be

erected,and relics placed . For ifthose temples are well

built , it is requisite that they be converted from the

worship ofdevils to the service Ofthe true God ; thatthe nation,

seeing that their temples are not destroyed ,may remove error from their heart s

,and knowing and

adoring the true God,may the more familiarly resort to

places to which they have beenMost ofthe early preachers ofthe Gospel established

their humble foundat ions — many of them dest ined to

F100 1&

‘

I‘

obar-cobartha (Tubber-cora). the well ofhelp , on the seashore. Inish

murray, ifthere is a storm , the islanders believe it will be lulled lly (lrainlngall the water of this well at once into the sea. (From“'

oml-Martm‘

s Pagan

Ireland. p 163. and that from Kilkenny Archae

ol. Journ. for p. 298.

Drawn by akeruan.)

grow in after-

years into great rel igious and educat ionalinst itut ions— beside fountains

,whose waters at the same

t ime supplied the daily wants ofthe l it tle communit ies,and served for the bapt ism ofconverts. W hen St . MochuaOfBalla went to found a monastery at Tech Tel/e, now

Tehelly near Durrow in King’

s County ,he was obliged

to give it up ,as there was no well in the place. After

wards when he was about to set t le in his final place,Balla

in Mayo ,his people

,in the first instance

,by Mochua

’

s

direct ions,looked out for a well

,but could find none

t ill at last a farmer ofthe place showed them one,In which

‘ Bede, Eccl . Hist ., 1. xxx. : Bohu’s Transl.

370 RELIGION , LEARNING ,AND ART [PART II

(p . 93) — that the saint founded a church at Magh Slecht ,in the present County Cavan and there [to this day isreverenced] Patrick

’

s W ell , in which he baptised many .

A well is somet imes met with containing one loneinhabitant— a single trout or salmon, which is always tobe seen swimming about in its t iny dominion and some

t imes there are two . They are usually tame ; and the

people hold them in great respect , and tel l many wonderfullegends about them . This pretty custom is ofold standing

,

for it originated with the early Irish saints— even with

St . Patrick himsel f. In the Tripart ite Li fe(p . 113)we are

told ,regarding the wel l ofAchadh- lobhair, now Aghagower

in Mayo , that Patrick left two salmon al ive in the well .

The same custom prevailed in the Scott ish westernislands when Mart in visited them in 1703 (p . 141 ofhis

book).To kill or injure these li t tle fish was considered an

outrage bordering on sacrilege and i f they were destroyedby an enemy of the tribe, i t was looked upon as an

intolerable insult . Even the annal ists think it worthwhile to record an occurrence ofthis kind } W e read in

Tigernach 1061 i.e. during this annal ist ’s l ifetime]The O

’

Connors invaded Munster and demol ished the weir

ofRincora ,and they ate up the salmons that lived in the

well of Many holy wells have the reputat ionofcuringdiseases one for blindness, anotherfor headache,another for jaundice, and so on through a great number of

ailments l'

Rev . Celt .,xvu . 402 see a lso FM

,A .D. 1061.

1As to Holy Wel ls : see Miss Stokes, Three Months in France, HolyWells in Index Wilde, Boyne, Holy Wel ls

,Index Stokes

,Lives

ofSS., 360 ,

and W el ls in Index ofMat ters : Kilk. Archaeo l . Journ.,

the severa l indexes : HyF ,2 39 , note i : Pet rie’

s art icle in The IrishPenny journal , p . 40 1 joyce, Irish Names ofP laces

,I . 449 : Dr.Wil liam

Stokes, Life ofPetrie, 17 : Wood- Martin, Pagan Ireland, chap . v . An

interest ingbook could b e writt en on the Holy Wel ls OfIreland, provided.

the writer united an att ract ive style with sufficient knowledge, andapproached his subject in a reverential Spirit .

CHAP. X] CHRISTIANITY 371

In Cormac’s G lossary(p . under the explanation of

the word a’

fl a,

‘cups,’

sing. a’

n,there is an interest ing state

ment about wells, but not in connexion with rel igion. W e

are told that in former times it was customary for kingsto have small cups

, generally of silver,beside wells

,for

two purposes — To enable wayfarers to drink , and to test

FIG. roe.

Altar-Stone, about five '

inches in diameter ; one ofa group offive, all ofwhich are figuredand described by W akeman in his art icle on Inishmurry ,

K ilk. Archzeol. Journ. for 1885- 6 , from

which th is has been copied(p

ifthe laws were observed— the inference being that theywere if the cups were not stolen. It ment ions CnocRafafm ,

now Knockgraffon near Calier, the palace of

Fiacha Muillethan,king ofMunster in the third century,

as one ofthe places where this custom was kept up.

Altar- Stone.—From a very early period it was a general

rule ofthe church that the al tar on which Mass was offered

372 RELIG ION ,LEARN ING ,

AND ART [PART II

should be ofstone. But in case ofmissionary priests,i t

was decided that it would be sufficient to have a small

altar- flag— duly consecrated— laid upon the al tar

,ofsufh

cient size to hold a chal ice and one or more crosses,while

the al tar itselfmight be Ofwood ,or might consist merely

ofa table or such like.

“ St . Patrick himself, as wel l as

every missionary priest after his t ime, had one of theseportable altar - flags, whichwas brought about by a gill ieor servant with the otherthings necessary for the

celebrat ion of the Divinemysteries

'

l' The Irish word

7 for an altar- flag was lecc,

which was,and is

, the name

for any flat stone. Many of

these ancient l it tle altar- [eras

are st ill to be seen in

museums,ofwhich one is

represented on previous page.

Along with the al tar- stone

F'G 103 there is also given here theAncient stone Chalice : inches h ighg

i

ralzi

gfita

ipm um. (l- rom w as. figure ofa stone chalice of

a very antique type.

Bells — The Irish for a bel l is £105,61066

,or clog,

akin to the English doc/c. The diminut ive form cluccefl e

[cluckéné ] is used to denote a small bell,called also

ldm - c/zlog [lauv - clug] ,‘ hand - bell ’(see p. 376, infra). St .

Patrick and his disciples constant ly used consecratedbells in their How numerous they werein Patrick’s t ime we may understand from the fact , thatwhenever he left one ofhis disciples in charge ofa church ,he gave him a bell : and it is recorded that on the churchesof one province alone —Connaught —he bestowed fifty.§

Lanigan, W . 269 : Dr. Healy, 142 . I Petn’

e, R ound Towers,'

l' Three Irish Homilies,

'

81. Trip . Life, 147.


AND ART [W ART 11

type ofthe hammered—iron bells. Its height is 6% inches

but project ing from the top is a l ittle handle 1% inch high ,

which gives i t a total height of794 inches. At themouth

the two dimensions are 4 ,zé by 3 } é inches. It is made of

two iron plates ,bent into shape by hammering , and

slightly overlapped at the edges for rivet ing. After thejoints had been riveted . the bell was consolidated by thefusion ofbronze into the joints and over the surfaceprobably by dipping into melted bronze— which also

increased its resonance. This is the bell known as Clog

an- udhachla , or the Bell ofthe W ill ’ (so called becauseit was willed by the saint to one ofhis disciples), which ismuch celebrated in the Lives ofSt . Patrick . A beaut ifuland costly shrine was made to cover and protect thisvenerable rel ic , by order ofDonall O

'

Loghlin,king of

Ireland (died and this gorgeous piece ofancientIrish art , with O

’

Loghlin’

s name and three others inscribedon it , is also preserved in the National Museum . A beaut iful drawing ofi t by M iss Stokes forms the front ispiece of

the second volume ofthis book . Many others ofthesevenerable iron bronz ed bells, belonging to the primit iveIrish saints, are preserved in the Nat ional and

’

otherMuseums, several covered with ornamental shrines. Some

are called ceélcin,l itt le musical ’

[bell] , from redl, music

and some berna’

n,

‘ l ittle gapped ’

[bell } , from bem, or

beam , a gap ,

’

on account ofa Splinter knocked out of

the edge : l ike Bem dn Elmhz’

az, St . Evin’

s little gappedbell .’

About the ninth century the Irish artificers began to

make bells wholly of cast bronze. A beaut iful quadrangular bell ofthis class, made some '

short t ime beforeA.D. 900 , is to be seen in the Nat ional Museum ,

which tellsits own history in an Irish inscription, ofwhich this is a

translat ion A prayer for Cummascach MacAilello.

This Cummascach, the son ofAilill, for whom the bell

CHAP. x] CHRISTIANITY 375

was made,was house- steward ofthe monastery ofArmagh ,

and died A .D.

The very ancient Irish bells,whether of iron or of

bronz e,were small

,and were sounded by a clapper or

tongue. All those in the Nat ional Museum are furnishedin the inside

,at top ,

with a ring,from which the clapper

was hung,and in some the clapper st ill remains. The

interior ring ofSt . Patrick’

s bel l seems to be modern,no

doubt replacing the original one which had worn away.1‘

O ccasionally we readof litt le bells be ingsounded by strikingon the outside : and

these probably hadnotongues. Concobar

’

s

royal jester, ROimid,

had,hanging at his

s i d e,a m e l o d io us

l it t le bell , which he

often struck with a

bronze wand he heldin his hand ,

to pro

cure at tentioni It

appears,too

,that the

ancient Irish saints MacAfleiio'

s Bell. (From M iss Stokes, Early ChristianArchitecture. p.

some t i m e s curse doffendingchieftains while sounding their bells with the tomoftheir crosiers

,§ but these were obviously the ordinarytongued hand - bells.

W hen bells began to be hung on the tom ofbuildings

95 See Miss Stokes, A rt, p. 65 ; Inscriptions, I I . 108 ; and Early Christian

Architecture, 83.

TThat the ancient bells had tongues, see Proc. Roy. Ir. Acad.,V III.

445 : MacConglinne, 152 : Kilk . A rch. Journ.,1852 , p. 60 ; 1862 , p . 345 ;

1868, p . 284, 346 ; IS72 , p. 73.

iMesca Ulad, 35, 37 see also Ré imid in Index, infra.

O’Donovan, inMoyrath, p. 39 , note 0.

376 RELIGION, LEARN ING ,AND ART [PART II

round towers or other structures— those intended for thisuse were made large, and the dist inct ion appears in the

l iterature. An ancient Brehon Law Commentary (v. 23)

says Aistredz'

r [door- keeper] , changeable his work inringing the bell and opening the church [two officesusually combined in one person see p . 316, supra] highhis work when i t is the bell ofa cloz

’

ctheach bell- houselow his work when it is a lrimchlog or handbell . This

entry shows moreover that the large bell was not rung bypull ing at a rope or chain as at present : but the bellringer went up and rang it by striking it directly with a

hammer or mallet ofsome kind .

Bells were sometimes put— l ike that ofR6imid— to

other uses besides ecclesiast ical . It was the custom in

very early t imes in Ireland , as i t is everywhere at the

present day, to suspend little tongued bells from the

necks ofhorses and lapdogs , which kept up a perpetualt inkle. In the story ofthe Tain Bo Fraich (p . 137) we

read that the horses ofthe young prince Fraech had eacha band ofsilver round his neck , with a cluccene(Sir or l ittlebell ofgold hanging from it . In the Courtship ofFerb ,

the horses of the young chief Mani had l itt le bells sus

pended from their necks,which

, as they chimed with thehorses ’ tread ,

made music as sweet as the strings ofa

harp struck by a master- hand .

* And in the Vision of

MacConglinne (p . 88) a l it tle bell (elucin) with a metaltongue is suspended from the nzzmci or neckband ofa

certain horse. So also with lapdogs. In the tale ofCompertMongaz

’

n in LU ,we read ofa young lady who had a

diminut ive white lapdog(mesrin) with a silver chain roundits neck ,

from which hung a l ittle bel l ofgold(clm’

gz’

n dirH‘

Bells were also Often hung round the necks ofcattle, '

as

we shall see in vol. II . p . 282 .

The bells used in the church service were generally

LL,2 53 , a , , 5

Windisch in Ir. Texte, p . 463 Leahy, p. 5.

1’ Voyage ofBran

,I . 81

, 29 ,


AND ART [PART II

diminut ive Open bells, each about one inch in height .These are in all probabil ity specimens ofhorse and dog

bells.* Several ofthe passages and facts given here, as

well as others that might be quoted or referred to, go to

show that l itt le bells were used in Ireland in pagan t imes.

On this point , see Stokes’

s Li fe ofPetrie, p . 277.

7. Revenues andMeans ofSupport .

Fees andDues — The clergy derived their support fromseveral sources. One of the chief of these consisted of

dues paid for the performance ofvarious rel igious funct ions, in regard to which the Brehon Law lays down the

reciprocal obligations ofclergy and laity in this mannerThe right ofa church from the people

'

is : 1. Tithes2 . First Fruits, i.e. the first ofthe gathering ofevery newproduce, and every first calf and every first lamb that isbrought forth in the year 3 . Firstl ings, l.o. the first sonborn after marriage [who, accordingly,

was to enterrel igion] , and the first - born male of all milk - givinganimals. On the other hand ,

the rights of the peoplefrom the clergy were baptism ,

and Communion,and

requiem ofsoul that is to say,spiritual ministrat ion in

general ]L Fees are not ment ioned here : but they were

always paid for the performance ofreligious rites by thosewho were able to pay ; ofwhich many examples mightbe cited from ecclesiast ical l iterature.

Certain fixed'

payments were expected from everyhouseholder ofthe tribe to the abbot ofthe local monastery, or to the bishop ofthe tribe. This payment was

For further information about bel ls,see Reeves on Bel l ofSt . Patk . ,

Trans. Roy. Ir. Acad.,vol. xxvn . Cooke on Ancient Irish Bel ls

,in Kilk .

Arch . ] 0urn.,1852

—3 , p . 47 : 1883

-

4 , p . 126 : Reeves on Eccl . Bells inEccl . Ant iq q . , p. 369 Miss Stokes, Early Christ ian Art Bel l in

Index) Petrie,Round Towers Bel l and Bel ls in Index) Joyce,

Irish Names ofP laces,11. 183 andMr. S. F. Mil ligan’

s Paper on Anc.

Eccl. Bel ls in Ulster,in journ. Rov . Soc. Ant iq q .

,Ireland

,1903.

1See Br. Laws,111. 33, 39 .


called 01’

s or ea'

z’

n fkeece,cawn] , i.e. rent or tribute ; and

the bishop or abbot Often collected it by making a m ain

[coorti, i.e. a circuit or visitat ion through the tribe or

district over which he had spiritual jurisdict ion. Theseeuaz

’

rts were the forerunners ofthe ecclesiast ical Visitationsof the archbishops and bishops of later t imes.

* Theywere practised from very early t imes ; for the eighthcentury Irish commentator on the Epistle ofSt . Paulto the Ephesians (l. 20) speaks of a cuaz

’

rt parelie, a

diocesan visitat ion,

’

an illustrat ion which , under the cir

cumstances. the writer must have taken from his home in

Ireland ,for there is no ment ion ofi t in the Epistle]

In the Tribes and Customs ofHy Many ,

”

edited byO

’

Donovan,is a very interest ing statement ofthe arrange

ments for church fees and tributes in the ancient territoryofHy Many— the O

’

Kelly’

s country— in Galway, as theyexisted in the fourteenth century which we may concludewere handed down with little change from much oldert imes. To the church ofGamma

,west ofthe. Shannon,

near Athlone, which was dedicated to St . Brigit , belongedthe baptismal fees ofthe whole ofthe O

’

Kellys ; so thatwhether the child was brought to that church or to any

other to be baptiz ed , or whoever performed the actualbaptism

,the camarba or successor ofSt Brigit

,i.e. the

abbess ofCamma nunnery and church , has the powerofcollecting the baptismal penny [pinginn bdlsdz] fromthese tribes [the O

’

Kellys] : ofwhich she kept one

third for her own establishment , and gave the othertwo- thirds to two churches in the neighbourhood , alsodedicated to St . Brigit .Another church of the district got , in l ike manner,

the sgreaball ongtfia ,the screpall ofanoint ing,

’

i.e. ad

ministering Extreme Unction. The burial fees belongedto the great monastery ofClonmacnoise, where the chiefs

See Reeves, Colt . Visit,Introd.

,III .

1’ Stokes and St rachan

,Thesaurus

,I ., p . 632 .

380 RELIG ION,LEARN ING , AND ART [PART Ii

ofthe O'

Kellys were buried and so ofother fees. In the

same document certain tributes are assigned to churches,

irrespective ofthe performance ofany rel igious rites. For

example,the church ofSt . Grellan received the firstling

pig , lamb , and foal , all over Hy Many a very importantaddition to the resources ofthe monastery and church .

Many cases ofsuch tributes to other churches, both hereand elsewhere through Ireland , might be cited. Somet imes exceptional dues were granted to a church or

monastery under special circumstances, or for special

spiritual services . In the Li fe of St . Maignenn,the

founder ofKilmainham near Dublin, it is told how thatsaint once preached a sermon on the Day ofJudgmentbefore Dermot , king ofIreland(reigned A.D. 544 to

which so powerfully impressed the king that he grantedto Maignenn and his successors in the abbotship

, for the

support of the monastery,“

a screpall on every nose*

[i.r. from each head ofa household} an ounce ofgoldfor every chieftain

’

s daughter that took a husband,or in

place ofthat the bride’

s wedding dress, i f the chief’

s

steward so chose and the materials for [the ornamentalparts of] a crosier from the tribute received by the kingfrom over sea

” (Silva Gad.,

The ment ion of the Offering of the bride’

s weddingdress in this record points to another occasional

,though

important , source ofincome -The state dress worn forthe first and last t ime by a king at great ceremonials was,in some cases, handed over to the bishop or abbot whoofficiated . Thus the horse and robes used by O ’

Conor,

on the occasion ofhis inaugurat ion as king ofConnaught ,became the property of the coarb or successor ofSt .

Dachonna,

i.s. the abbot for the time being of the

monastery of Eas-mac- nEirc, now Assylin near Boylein Roscommon, who offi ciated at the ceremony (IarC,

The ancient Irish commonly said per nose where we say per

head.


AND ART [PART II

were not paid very generally or very regularly till after theAnglo- Norman invasion in 1172 .

Voluntary Offerings — Besides all the preceding sourcesofincome there were voluntary offerings. Almost all persons who could afford it , when they visited a monastery ,

left something ofvalue. In early t imes the offerings,l ike

all other payments, were in ounces ofgold and silver,or in

kind : and we find a great variety ofart icles mentionedin the Tripart ite Li fe and other L ives ofthe Saints — a

caldron,ladies

’

ornaments, chariot - horses, the graz ing of

so many cows, rich ornamental dresses, &c.

* The offeringswere Often large and generous. W hen King Brian Boruvisited Armagh , as he made his royal circui t through Ireland in 1004 ,

he laid an offering oftwenty ounces ofgoldon the great altar, equivalent to £1000 or J£1500 ofour

money.

8. Various Fealures o/ the Ancient Irisk C/zure/z.

Rel ics and Lorieas.— It was the custom for the most

distinguished ofthe Irish saints and heads ofthe greatuniversit ies to present to their disciples tokens offriendship and esteem , which the disciples reverently preservedby deposit ing them in churches founded by themselves.

This custom is well set forth in a passage in the Irish Li feofSt . Finnen ofClonard The saints ofIreland camefrom every point to learn wisdom with him

, so thatthere were three thousand saints along with him and of

them , as the learned know , he chose the twelve highbishops ofIreland (see p . 322 ,

supra). And no one

ofthese three thousand went from him without a crosier,

or a gospel , or some other wel l - known token and roundthese rel iquaries they built their churches and theirmonasteries afterwards. In the Tripart ite Life we are

told that St . Patrick spent seven years preaching in

For example see Book ofFenagh , 79 , and note 7. See also p . 380 ,supra.


Connaught , and he left in the land ofConnaught,fifty

bells and fifty chalices, and fi fty altar—cloths, each of

them in his church . Many individual examples ofthiscustom might be cited in connexion with St . Patrick and

other saints.

* In l ike manner the stone beds on whichthe saints slept , and on which they died

,were preserved

with the utmost venerat ion and sometimes churches werebuilt over them . One ofthe churches in Clonmacnoiseenshrining St . Ciaran

’

s stone bed was long known by thename ofImdaz

'

gh Chiam i‘

n, St . Ciaran’

s bed.

In the Tripart ite Life and elsewhere , we often find itstated that St Patrick wrote an Aipgz

'

tir, or Alphabet

for those disciples whom he left in charge of churches.

The Irish phrase is 70 scrib az'

pgitir, and the Lat in eq uiva

lent (often found in the Lat in memoirs) scri'

ps'it clementa .

This aipgz’

tz’

r was a simple compendium— the Elements,’

as the Lat in gives it— oi the Christ ian Doctrine, to be

used in teaching the people. A good example of the

applicat ion ofthe word appears in the name ofa l it tledevot ional book attributed to Goeman

, or Kevan, the son

ofBeogna Affida, which is called Aibgz’

tir in Crabaz’

d, the

Alphabet ofPiety .

’

The eighth - century Irish Glossatoron Paul to the Hebrews, v. 12 ,

explains Abgitir Crabaith

as ruda documenta fidei,”

i.e. simple or rough- and

ready lessons ofthe These l it tle books were pre

served with the utmost reverence : but not one ofthem

has survived to our t ime.

Giraldus Cambrensis not ices the reverence paid in

Ireland ,as well as in Scotland and W ales, to articles that

had belonged to saints of the t imes of old, instancing

specially bells and crosiers. He ment ions also the custom

ofswearing on them ,and says that the people had much

See Stokes’s Lives ofSS.,2 26 ; Trip . Life, 147 : Kilk. Archaeol.

Journ.,1872

—3, pp . 104

—106 : and Dr. Hea ly, 64 .

1Stokes and Strachan,Thesaurus

,I . 711. See also Trip . Life

,XVII .

113 , 639 : Dr. Healy, and Hyde, Lit . H ist ., 135 et seq .


more regard for oaths sworn on these than on the Gospels.

He says also that those who had sworn falsely on themwere often chast ised severely by some great calam ity.

His statement about the custom ofswearing on relics isfully corroborated by the native records a custom whichwe know prevailed in other countries, and cont inued toprevail in Ireland to a period wi thin l iving memory .

*

Art icles or rel ics ofany kind that had belonged to theIrish saints were often used as loricas , protectors ’

or

preservatives against danger ofevery kind. St . Columkille

once presented his cowl (cochall) to Aed MacAinmirech ,

king ofIreland , with a promise that as long as he wore ithe woul d not be slain ; and accordingly the king con

stantly brought it with him on his warl ike expeditions.

In the year 598, when St . Columkille was dead , Aed

marched southwards and encountered Branduff, king of

Leinster, at Dunbolg,in W icklow. Just as the 'battle

was beginning , he ordered his gi/Ila or attendant to bringhim the cow] . That cowl , replied the gilla, we haveleft behind us in the palace ofAilech in the north .

”

Alas,”

said the king , then it is all the more likely I shallbe slain by the Leinstermen and he was slain, and his

army routed by Branduff, in the battle that ensued.TIn l ike manner the hymns composed by ,

or in honourof, the ancient saints were used as loricas in t imes of

danger : chief among which may be ment ioned the FaedFi

'

ada,or deer’

s cry, which was the hymn St . Patrickand his companions chanted on their way to Tara, EasterEve, A.D. 433 and the Amm Choluimcz

'

lle, the Panegyric

composed in praise ofColumkille during his l ifetime bythe poet Dallan Forgaillor Eochaid Egeas. Both ofthesehymns

,which are in Irish , are st ill extant , and have been

Giraldus,Top. Hib .,

I I. Iii, liii, liv ; and II I. xxxiii,xxxiv : see a lso

Silva Gad., 3 andHardiman,Ir.Minstr.

,1. 338 . The readerwil l here be

reminded ofthe oath on the relics extorted by Wil liam ofNormandy fromHarold ofEngland by a trick. 1O

’

Grady , Silva Gad 415, 416.


neck (p . This pious and pleasing practice has come

down to our t ime. Thomas Moore, in affectionate words,recalls how his mother once, on occasion Ofhis leavinghome, hung a Gospel round his neck ; and many Roman

Catholics now wear a Gospel or scapular round the neck ,not only when on a journey but constantly . A pathprotector - Irish coimdhecomiz

'

rc, protect ion ofthe coné iror road — often called sen- naz

’

re, the blessing ofanhourwas also used in Ireland in pagan t imes

, ofwhich exampleswill be found in some ofthe works referred to at bottom .

*

Sunday.— The Yellow Book ofLecan and the Lebar

Brecc contain copies ofa tract called Cdin Domnaz’

g, or

the Law of Sunday ,

’ which it is said was originallybrought from Rome in the sixth century by St . ConallofInishkeel offthe coast ofDonegal . In this are laiddown rules for the Observance ofthe Sunday ,

which are

very strict . It sets forth a long list ofworks not to bedone on Sunday, among which are games ofall kinds,buying and sell ing and compacts in general, the use of

the bath , sewing , fishing , boat ing , grinding corn, cooking,splitt ing firewood , clearing up the house, Travelling ,especially horse- riding , was prohibited ,

with some neces

sary exceptions, such as going for a physician for a sickperson, going to save a house from fire, or the journey of

a priest to attend a sick person who was in danger of

Charms or ordinary prayers ofall t hese various kinds, are, accordingto Mr. Carmichael

,st il l pract ised in the H igh lands and W estern Islands

ofScot land. Specimens ofChristian road- safeguards,"

in Gaelicverse,may

‘ be seen in his Carmina Gadelica,I . 320 ,

and pp. 326 to 339 . Nay,

they have preserved the very name laed fiada in the formsfath-fith and

fith- lath, which they apply to a charm for rendering a p erson invisible,or making him appear in the shape ofsome other animal just as the

original facd-fiada, according to the legend,made St . Patrick and his

disciples appear as deer, on their way to Tara,fifteen hundred years

ago . A descript ion ofthe H igh land fath- fith, with a specimen, is given

in vol. pp. 2 2 to 2 5 ot the same work . Allmemory ofthe facd-fiada

has been lost in Ireland for centuries. On all this subject , see alsoMoylena , 37 Rev . Cel t .

,1x . 459 Trip . Life,

’

xrv Moyrath , 75 :

Camb r. Evers,I . 135 , note

’

l 'fO'

Curry ,MS. Mat

, 469 .

CHAP . x ] CHRISTIAN ITY 387

dying before Monday morning. According to the same

tract , Sunday was regarded as extending from 'Vespers on

Saturday'

to sunrise on Monday morning : and in thispart icular it is corroborated by several other authorit ies.

*

Eastern— St . Patrick began the celebrat ion ofEaster,A.D. 433 ,

by lighting a great fire on the hill ofSlane, on

the eve ofthe fest ival , which was seen for miles all roundfrom which we may infer that this custom ofl ighting a firein the openwas followed generally during andafterhis t ime.

From very early times there was a difference between the

FIG . 111.

Present ruins ofSlane Monastery.erected(long subsequently) on thespot where St . Patrick lighted 1115 first paschal fire. (From W ilde ’

s

Boyn e and Blackwater, p .

East and the W est as to the mode of calculating the

t ime for Easter, so that it often happened that it wascelebrated at different t imes at Rome and at Alexandria.

The Roman method of computat ion,which was subse

quently found not to be quite correct , was brought toIreland by St . Patrick in 432 ,

and was carried t o Britainand Scotland by the Irish missionaries. Many years afterSt . Patrick ’

s arrival in Ireland,Pope Hi lary caused a

more correct method to be adopted at Rome, which itwas intended should be followed by all other Christ ian

O’

Curry, Man. Cust .,I . 32 O

’

Looney ,in Proc. Roy. Ir. Acad.

,

MSS. Series, p . 195 : LB ,204, b , 34.

388 RELIGION,LEARN ING, AND ART [PART 11

countries. But from the difficulty ofcommunicat ing withRome in those disturbed times— or as Bede(Eccl . HistIII. iv) expresses i t on account oftheir being so remotefrom the rest of the world — the Christians ofGreatBritain and Ireland knew nothing of this reformat ion

,

and cont inued to follow their own Old custom as handeddown to them from the great and venerated apostles St .Patrick ,

St . Columba , and others, which they steadfastlyrefused to change notwithstanding the eithortations ofSt .

August ine and his successors in Canterbury. Irish monksincluding the great missionary St . Columbanus— then inFrance— maintained their side with learning and spiritbut the adherents of the Old custom grew fewer yearby year. The monks of Iona were the last to yield ,

which they did about the year 716, and thus terminateda dispute that had lasted more than a century and a

half , and which , though the_ q uest ion was comparat ively

unimportant , had given rise to more earnest controversythan any other during the early ages of the church inthese countries.

"r

Bishops. —As the episcopate was not l imited , andmoreespecially as the dioceses were not territorially defined ,

bishops were much more numerous in those early t imesthan subsequently . This was the case from the very firstintroduct ion ofChristianity into Ireland . Nennius tellsus that St . Patrick consecrated 365 bishops and the FirstOrder ofSaints, including St . Patrick himsel f, was said tohave consisted of 350 bishops. Both statements are

probably exaggerated : but even so,they sufficiently in

dicate the general tendency. But it appears that thispract ice ofconsecrating a bishop without a diocese alsoexisted in early ages on the cont inent , though it prevailed

Forful ler account s ofthis celebrated dispute, seeDr. Healy , pp. 527

531 Reeves,Adamu Index

,East er and ]c e

,Short Hist . ofIrl.,

160 . The t ime ofcelebrat ingEaster is learnedly discussedby theRev .Dr.

B .Mac Carthv in his Introduction in vol. IV . ofthe Annals ofUlster.


Columkille and by the Second Order ofSaints in general .This we learn from several authorit ies, among them the

Catalog ue ment ioned at page 317, supra , which says thatthe First and Second Orders of Irish Saints had one

tonsure from ear to ear but that those ofthe ThirdOrder had a variety of tonsures. Many attempts weremade to induce the early Irish ecclesiast ics to changetheir custom for the tonsura corona , or coronal tonsure,

’

also cal led Saint Peter’

s, in which the hair was cut only

from a circular space on the crown ofthe head . It was

alleged as a reproach against the Irish that they had thetonsure ofSimon Magus but they held on to the customtaught them by their venerated apostles, as they retainedtheir own t ime of celebrat ing Eas ter : and althoughAdamnan wished to introduce the coronal tonsure to Iona,

the monks refused to make a change.* At length , in 718,

according to Tigem ach'

s Annals— two years after the

adoption ofthe Roman t ime ofcelebrating Easter— and

fifteen after the death ofAdamnan— the Roman tonsurewas adopted in Iona : by which time, it is to be presumed , the tonsure from ear to ear had been abandonedeverywhere in Ireland . (For Druidic tonsure, see p . 233 ,

supra.)Cros- Figill.— Somet imes people prayed while holding

the arms extended in front , so as to form a cross. Thiswas so well recognised a practice that it had a specialname, Cros- figz

’

ll. The word figill, which is the Latinrigil, is commonly used in Irish in the sense ofprayer :

so that cros - figz'

ll means cross- prayer.

’

O’

Clery, in his

Glossary ,defines it as a prayer or vigil which one makes

on his knees with his hands stretched out in [the form of]a cross. In the Irish Life ofSt . Fechin,

it is stated thatMoses routed the Amalekites by praying with his handsextended in cros- figz

’

ll. This practice is ment ioned everywhere in the Old ecclesiast ical literature and how early it

See Bede, Eccl . Hist .,v . xxi.

CHAP . x ] CHRISTIAN ITY 391

began we may see from an Irish writer’

s remark on one of

the Psalms in the M ilan Glosses— eighth century- that inprayer, the eyes speak to God by being raised up to Him ,

the knees and legs by kneeling , the body by prostration,

and the hands by eros—figill.*

Aentaid or Union — The ancient Irish saints were in thehabit ofmaking a Union(Irish aentm

'

d, pron. aintee) witheach other as a mark ofclose friendship and affection.

This union is very Often mentioned in the Lives ofthe

Saints, but what it consisted in is not clear. No doubt itwas a spiritual union ofsome kind : probably a solemnengagement that each should pray or celebrate Mass forthe other or others at certain appointed times. W hen a

saint had great reputation for hol iness, many others oflesseminence sought t o bring about a union with him .

Kings ret iring to Monasteries — NO circumstance is

more indicat ive ofthe wide- spread ,deep rel igious feel ing

among the ancient Irish people than the number ofkingswho late in l ife abdicated ,

and either ret ired to monasteries,

or went on pilgrimage, generally to Rome (see p . 341,

supra). The pract ice began early , and became verygeneral of which there are so many records all overour l iterature, especially the annals, that it is unnecessaryto refer to individual instances.

9. Popular Religious Ideas.

Hel l.— The popular not ions on various religious pointsas reflected in the tales and in the legends ofthe saints

,

are many of them very curious ; but they are not of

course given here as the settled doctrines emanat ing fromany ecclesiast ical authority.

Hell was deep under the earth , and is represented insome passages as fiery hot in others as intolerably coldand often both ,

i.e. hot in one part and cold in another :

Stokes and Strachan,Thesaurus, I . , p . 468.


reminding one ofM il ton'

s description ofthe damned as

passing o’

er many a froz en, many afiery Alp .

”

In the

Demon Chariot ofCuculainn (p . a tale in the bookofthe Dun Cow, the gate ofhell is Opened to let out Cuculainn, and there was instantly a furious wind - rush out

wards ; when, says Laegaire, I saw the cold ,piercing

wind like a double- edged spear : l ittle that it swept notour hair from our heads, and that it went not through usto the earth .

”

But another part was ofa different tem

perature for Cuculainn, relat ing (p . 391) how he was

brought to hell , says My body was scarred, and

demons carried Offmy soul into the red- hot charcoal . In

an Irish poem ofequal ant iquity , quoted by Stokes, * a

person prays to be saved from frozen hell (ifi'

ermz

scelba) and another ancient poem quoted by one ofthe

schol iasts on the Amra , has the expression the chillyabode ofhell. 1 A much later document , a fourteenthcentury poem in the Book ofFenagh(p . says ofcertainbad persons, Their dark fast abode shall be the coldflagged floor oflowermost hel l but a few l ines fartheron in the same poem , i t is said that other persons, for

the evils they have done , shall be put into hell fire. In a

st ill later poem O isin asks St . Patrick how is i t possiblethat Finn, the ever generous, should now have cold hell for.

his house : A poem in the Irish Life ofSt . Brendan statesthat anyone buried in Tuam - da-

ghualann shall not suffer

the torments ofcold hell (z’t/zfemThere are many detailed descriptions ofhell in Old

Irish writ ings, ofwhich the following items from a sermon

on the Day ofJudgment in the Book oftheDun Cow”may

be taken as a sample A merciless seat ofdark fires

ever burning , ofglowing coals, ofsmothering fogs, inpresence ofthe king ofevil in the valley oftortures

3‘ l ife all woeful , sad,

foul , unclean numerous gluttonousRev . Celt . , V III . 355. 1Ibid.

,xx . 179 . I Hyde, Lit . Hist ., 504.

§ Stokes, Lives ofSS.,1. 3504 : Brendaniana ,

2 1,

Translat ed by Stokes, Rev. Cel t .,Iv . 247.

394 RELIGION , LEARN ING ,AND ART [ PART II

west and drenched him the waves from the east were of

fire, and those from the west were icy cold .* W e may

imagine his condition on week - days.

The devil could take a variety ofshapes as it suitedhis purp ose : but when in his own natural form and

character, the legends represent him much as he appearsin the popular not ions ofthe present day. He once paida visit in disguise to St . Molling, who soon discovered whohe was, and recommended him to go on his knees and

pray Ah , said he. I am not able to kneel down,for

my knees are at the back Ofmy legs. T A legend in theIrish Life ofSt . Brigi t relates that the devil once venturedinto the refectory where the saint and her nuns were at

dinner. But Brigit miraculously rendered him visiblewhen he appeared beside the table with his head downand his feet up,

while smoke and flames issued from his

gullet and nostrils — to the great terror ofthose nunswho saw him(Stokes, Lives,

Four V isits aft erDeath.— W e are told in a legend in the

Second V ision ofAdamnan,that the soul , on part ing from

the body ,visits four places before sett ing out for its final

destinat ion— the place ofits - birth ,the place ofits death ,

the place of its baptism , and the place of its burial .1According to this, the pathetic wish ofthe poor Old Irishwoman who recently lay dying in Liverpool W as granted .

Just with her last breath she begged to know from the

Irish priest who shrived her whether God would permit

her to pass through Ireland on her way t o heaven.

Sp iri ts in the Shape ofBirds.~ —Human souls, as well

as angels and demons, Often took the Shape of birds '

those ofthe good were white and beautiful while wicked

Brendaniana , 162,2 43.

1Peilire, 105. Notwithstanding this ludicrous expression,there is

somethingpathet ic in Satan’

s rep lies during this interview,betrayingin

the heart ofthe good old monk who wrote the account a lurkingfeelingofcomm iseration like that exhibited in the last verse ofBuras ’

s Addressto the Deil . t Stokes, Rev . Celt . , xv . 42 5


souls and demons often appeared as ravens or-

other -

sooty

looking birds Of‘

ill omen.

*

Centuries appear as hours — A very common ecclesi

astical legend is this — A man; generally a monk , walks

out into the woods Suddenly he hears a bird Singingwith heavenly sweetness over his head in a tree. He sits

or l ies down and l istens entranced , forgetful ofeverythingfor the t ime. At last when he has remained for perhaps

FIG. 113.

Mellifont Abbey near Drogheda , as it appeared in 1791. Founded in 1142 by

Donogh O’

carroll. king ofOrioli: The first C istercianmonastery founded in Ireland.(From Grose '

s Antiquit ies.)

three hours, as he deems it , the bird ceases and flies away ,

and he returns to the monastery . But there he is amaz edto find strangers everywhere

,and all things changed .

Finally , it is discovered that he has been away listening tothe music for 300 years. Then seeing the real state of

things, he receives the last sacraments, dies, and goes toheaven. Similar legends, as we have seen(p . 297, supra),existed among the Irish pagans, and indeed are found inthe ancient popular l iterature ofother countries ?

For instance s, see Joyce, Old Celtic Romances. 144, 40 5. 416 , 419 .

1For an instance. see Feilire . 107, andO’

Curry,Man. S Cust ., II . 386.

FIG. 113.

Ornament.with Inscription. on the cover ofthe Mimrh. an ancient reliquary belongingta lmslm en. FromMla Stoker‘s (‘hrmin'

i Inst rirt‘

o-is."ll. 109.

CHAPTER X I

LEARNING AND EDUCATION

SECTION 1 . Learningin Pagan Times.

Ogham.

ANY passages in our old nat ive l iterature, bothsacred and profane, state that the pagan Irishhad books before the introduction ofChristianity . In the memoir ofSt . Patrick ,

writtenby Muirchu Maceu Machteni in the seventh century, now

contained in the Book ofArmagh , he relates how,during

the contest of the saint with the druids at Tara ,King

Laegaire [Laery) proposed that one ofPatrick ’

s books and

one belonging to the druids should be thrown into water,to see which would come out uninjured a sort ofordeal

(p . 307,supra). Here it will be Observed that Muirchu’

s

statement that the druids had books embodies a traditionthat was ancient in the seventh century, when he wrote :

and it derives additional force from the fact that i t isbrought in incidentally (see p . 10, supra). The same

story is told in the Tripart ite Life.The lay traditions, many ofthem as Old as Muirchu’

s

Life,which are found everywhere in the H istorical and

Romant ic Tales, and in other documents, state that thepagan Irish used Ogham writing : and we find Oghaminscriptions constantly referred ! to as engraved on the

tombs ofpagan kings and chiefs, each usually containing

396


yew or oak .‘ According to the Brehon Law Books

,pillar

stones with Ogham inscript ions were somet imes set up tomark the boundaries between two adjacent propert iesand these were often covered up with mounds ofearth .

But nearly all the Oghams hitherto found are sepulchralinscriptions ; which answer exactly to the descript ionsgiven in the old records ; as they contain l ittle morethan the names of the persons interred and of theirfathers. The Ogham al phabet is called the Beth - luis—nion,

from the names of the three first letters, represent ingB , L , N. The letters are nearly all named from treeshence they are called collectively feada [faa] , or woodsand what is very remarkable , the order ofthe letters istotally di fferent from that of the Lat in or any otheralphabet tBetween two and three hundred Ogham monuments

have been found in various parts ofthe four provinces of

Ireland but they are far more numerous in the south and

south - west than elsewhere. Most ofthem stand in theiroriginal situat ions but many have been brought toDublin,

where they may be seen in the Nat ional Museum and a

few have been sent to the Bri tish Museum . About fi ftyhave been found in W ales, England , Scotland, and the

Isle ofMan ; but more in South W ales and Scotlandthen elsewherei all probably inscribed by or under the

influence ofIrishmen.

In the Book ofBallymote is an ancient treat ise on

Ogham,which there is reason to believe was originally

written in the beginning ofthe ninth century,and copied

into this book from some older volume ; and there is a

second and less important treat ise in another Irish manu

scriptf These tracts give a key to the reading ofOgham ,

LL, 58 ,

a , 4 , 59 , : 4 ; Miss Hull,Cuch . Saga, 128 : Sul l ., Introd.,

343 ) nOte S) 5~

[ Ogygia, III . xxx .

1See Rhys, Paper in Journ. Roy. Soc. Antiq q . Irel. , 1902 , p. 1

CHAP . x1] LEARN ING AND EDUCATION 399

Independently ofthem ,the key has beengot from bilingual

stone- inscript ions— one at least in Ireland and several inW ales— in which the same words and names are given inboth Ogham and Lat in letters— something like the Rosettastone.

* The key thus found corresponds with that givenin the manuscripts. W here inscriptions have not beeninjured or defaced ,

they can in general be deciphered , so

that many have been made out beyond all quest ion, ,But

as the greatest number ofOgham stones are more or lessworn or chipped or broken, there is in the interpretat ionofthe majority ofthe inscriptions some conjecture and

uncertainty.

F IG. 115.

The bilingual stone in K illeen Cormac. See p . 314.supra , and the references given in note 1.

p . 315. (From Loca Patriciana, p . Mr. Macahster doubts that this is a bil ingual.and interpretsboth inscriptions differently from Father Shearman. Studies in Irish Epigraphy. Part p . 78.

As to the antiquity ofOgham writ ing, some contendthat all Oghams are purely pagan, dating from a t ime

before the introduct ion OfChrist ianity ; and they willnot admit the correctness of any reading that bringsan inscript ion within Christian t imes. The late BishopGraves ofLimerick , a most eminent scholar, endeavouredto prove, on the other hand

,that they are all purely

Christian. Others again,while admitt ing the use of

Ogham in Christ ian t imes,maintain that this writ ing is

Sull. Introd., 67 : Kilk . Arch . Journ .

,1860 - 2

, pp . 2 29 , 303 ; 1862-

3 ,

p . 2 06.

400 RELIGION, LEARNING , ANDART [PART II

a survival from the far distant ages ofpaganism , and thatit was developed before Christianity was heard ofin Ire

land . There are the best reasons for bel ieving that thisOpinion is correct ; and to support i t we have the uni

versal agreement of the Old MS. traditions, with sti llstronger linguist ic evidence. Ogham inscriptions containnumerous forms ofthe Irish language which are identicalwith those in Gaulish inscriptions older than the fifth

century— forms which had fallen out

ofuse in the Irish branch ofCelt icages before the earliest of the IrishGlosses were written, though manyof these date from the seventh or

eighth century . These considerat ions— linguist ic and historical— have ledDr. W hitley Stokes to the conclusionthat some of the Celts of theseislands wrote their language beforethe fifth century , the t ime at whichChristianity is supposed to havebeen introduced into Ireland . W iththis conclusion Cormac MacCullenan

’

s statements (ForCormac see below.) On this pointalso the Rev . Dr. B . MacCarthy

Fla m truly remarks In substance the

ow n stone. From m . same as the present language, theArch. J 1. in hi it 1 t

number-sou

? Ogham script belongs to a stage“M M centuries older than that to which

according to the progress of l inguistic development ,the most archaic ofour other literary remains can be

assigned . This fact alone, according toDr.MacCarthy ,

is sufficient to prove that the Irish possessed letters

before the introduction ofChrist ianity.

Stokes, Three Irish G lossaries, lv ,lvi : see also Hyde, Lit . H ist .,

110,and note 1. 1

' Codex . Pa1.- Vat .,244.

RELIGION, LEARNING ,

‘

A‘

NDART [PART II

the exiSte’

Iice'

ofalong successionofpoets and historiansfrom the earl iest t imes : and

'

several circumstances indiente a state ofl iterary act ivity at the t ime ofthe arrival'Oi St .

“Patrick . Both the nat ive bardic literature and theancient LivesofPatrick himself and

’

ol his contemporar'

ysaints concur in stating that he found in the countryl iterary and professional men— all pagans— druids , poets,and ant iquarians, and an elaborate code oflaws“ Andrit

is certain that immediately after the general establishmentofChrist ianity ,

in the fifth century ,the Irish committed

to wr it ing in their native language not only the laws,bardic historical poems , &c.

,oftheir own t ime, but these

which had been preserved from times preceding , whethertradit ionally or The use ofwriting could

hardly have come into general use so suddenly withouta

~

pret tywidespread previous knowledge of letters. To

take another view ofthe case. The earl iest Ofthe glossespublished by Zeuss , which he states were wri t ten in the

eighth century ,but , according to other scholars, in

the seventh , show that at that period Irish as a

written language was fully developed and cult ivated ,

with a pol ished phraseology and an elaborate systeInatic grammar, and having fixed and wel l - establishedwrit ten forms for its

'

words , and for all their rich inflect ions. It is hardly conceivable hOw such a regular -and

complete system of written language could have beendeveloped in the period that elapsed from the fi fth century :

to the general spread ofChristian learning— a period which11appear much too short when we recollect that early

Irish secular literature had its roots, not in Christianity ,

but in‘

native learning , which .was the main, and almostthe sole, influence in developing it .Again : Irish poetry was developed altogether in . the

lay schools. It ' had, as

’

will bementioned(see vol. 11. pp .

497 and a’very complicated prosody, with numerous

Petrie ’

s’ Tara

, 38 .

CHAP.

'

X I] : LEARNlNGr AND- EDUCATION -

403

technical terms— fifty or more— all nat ive Irish ,some of

which may be seen in the article on Prosodv inO’

Donov‘

an’

s

grammar. It exhibits no trace ofLat in or ecclesiast icalinfluence,

though the Christ ian Irish writers cont inued to

use i t when writ ing in the native language. All this showsthat Irish prosodial rules and technical terms, and ofcourse

Irish poetry in general , were brought to their state of

completeness before the introduction ofChrist ianity. If

the prosodial system had grown up under,the influence

or during the prevalence ofChrist ian learning , i t’

wouldcertainly have a mixture ofLat in terms

,l ike Christianity .

50 alsow ith the lay scholast ic nomenclature(p . 430 ,M ira).

The last witness to be brought forward is a foreigner,

whose test imony is direct and decisive,and qu ite sufficient

of itself to set at rest the quest ion of the existence of

writ ing among the pagan Irish,though it has hitherto

been scarcely noticed by writers on ancient Ireland . A

Christian philosopher of the fourth century ofour'

era*

named Aethicus or E thicus of Istria,well known in

ancient l iterature,wrote a Cosmography of the \Vorl d

Cosmographia Aethici Istrii ofwhich many edit ions.

have been published . One part of i t has been inserted;by Orosius (about A .D. 420) in his History

, ofwhichit forms the second chapter of the first book . Ethicus

travelled through the three Cont inents and described whathe saw,

in an It inerary , ofwhich a sort of descriptivesummary was made soon after his t ime by a priest namedHieronymus or Jerome. This abridgment , which was

published at Leipsic by W ut tke in 1854, is a well - knownwork and it is the edition referred to and quoted here

From Spain'

Ethicus came direct to Ireland,whence

he crossed over to Britain, and thence to the OrkneyIslands. He W as something of a pedant , with a highopinion ofhis own learning

, eccentric , fond ofphilosophic

some place him ' as early as the second or third century ; (but he.

could not have been later than the fourth

404 RELIGION , LEARN ING , AND ARr [PARr’

II

puzz les , hard to please,and very censorious and he

deliberately adopted an obscure and often a corrupt Lat inphraseology , merely to puz z le his readers. W hile in

Spain he propounded some knotty quest ions to the

philosophers there, who he says, were not able to

answer - them . In a few very obscure sentences he seems

to commend the Britons for their natural abilities and for

their skill in mining and metall ic arts : but , almost in thesame breath , he says they were so unleam ed [in bookknowledge as to be quite a horror (imperz

'

tissimam

gentem,horrorem nimz

‘

mn). All the rest ofwhat he hasto say about Britain is devoted to minerals, which werefound there in great abundance.

The words about Ireland , in the passage bearing on

our present subject , are however perfectly plain (p. 14,

Leipsic Ed.) — Leaving Spain

Hibem iam properavit ct in ea aliq uandiu commoratus es t eorum

volumina volvens. Appellavit q uc eos ideomochos, vel ideo histas,id

est,irnperitos laboratores vel incultos doctores."

He hastened to Ireland and remained there some t ime examin

ing their volumes : and he ca l led them [i.a. the Irish sages] z’

deomochos

o r ideo- hislas, that is to say, unskil led toilers or uncult ivated teachers.“

The rest ofthe short passage about Ireland is corruptand obscure, consist ing ofa general grumble about thelabour he underwent in coming hither and the small

reward he had for his trouble ; and it does not concernus here. It will be observed that he hits offwhat he

o bviously considered the main characteristics ofthe two

countries— Ireland for books, Britain for minerals. But

The writer of the art icle on E thicus in the Nouvelle BiographieC énérale renders the first sentence 11part pour I

’

Hibernie,on it

reste q uel q ue t emps a examiner les livres des sages irlandais.

" Thiswriter thinks— erroneously, as I be lieve— that the Jerome above men

tioned,who made an abstract ofthe Cosmography ,

was the great Chris

t ian father St ] erome.

RELIG ION, LEARN ING , AND AN [PART II

From all that precedes we may take it as certainI . That nat ive learning was actively cultivated and

systemat ically developed in Ireland before the introduct ion ofChrist iani ty and

2 . That the pagan Irish had a knowledge ofletters, andt hat they wrote their lore, or part ofit , in books, and cut

Ogham inscriptions on stone and wood . But ' when or

how they obtained their knowledge ofwrit ing, we have as

no means ofdetermining with certainty.

FIG. " 1.

Two Irish Alphabets : the upper one ofthe seventh century : the lower oftheeleventh. The three last characters ofthe firs t alpha be t are Y, Z , and &c. (Twoforms or: in each.) (FromMiss Stokes‘s Christ ian inscriptions. ll. x3s.l

It is true indeed that no books or writ ings of any

k ind,either pagan or Christ ian, of the time before St .

P atrick , remain— with the exception ofOgham inscriptions.

But this proves nothing ; for in this respect Ireland is

circumstanced like most other countries. A similars tate of things exists, for instance, where,

notwithstanding that writing was generally known and .

pract ised from theRoman occupat ion down, no manuscripthas been preserved of an earlier ‘

date than the eighth .

century .

cItAP . x1] LEARNING ANDEDUCATION i 49 2

On this quest ion the authority ofEdmund Spenser

the poet cannot be considered ofmuch value : but it is

worth while to quote his words as representing thecon

victions of thoughtful men of his t ime— the sixteenth :

century— regarding the ancient civilisat ion ofIreland.

It is certaine that Irelandhath had the use oflet ters very ancient ly,

'

and long before England. Whence they had those let ters it is hardtosay : for whether they at their first comming into the land,

or after

wards by trading with other nations which had let ters,learned them

of them,or devised them among themselves, is very doubtfu l

,but

that they had let ters aunciently, is nothing doub tfull, for the Saxons

Of England are said to have their let ters, and learning, and learnedthem from the Irish

,and that also appeareth by the likenesse ofthe

character,for the Saxon character is the same with the Irish .

”

He goes on to say

It seemeth that they [the Irish] had them [the let ters] from the

nat ion that came out ofSpaine . (View,65 )

Spenser here mixes'

up the original letters of the

pagan Irish with those brought over by St . Patrick andhis fellow- mrssronaries : but the passage is none the lessinstruct ive for that .There is nothing ,

either in the memoirs ofSt . Patrick,

or in Irish secular l iterature, or in Jerome’

s abridgmentofEthicus

,

'

giving the least hint as to the characters or

the'

sort ofwrit ing used in the books ofthe pagan Irish .

But whatever characters they may have.

used in t imes of

paganism , they adopted the Roman let ters in writ ing theirown language after the t ime ofSt . Patrick which are st illretained in modern Irish . These same letters, moreover,were brought to Great Bri tain by the early Irish missionariesalready spoken of(p . 336, supra), from whom the AngloSaxons learned them (as Spenser says above) . so thatEngland received her first knowledge of letters— as she

”

received most ofher Christ ianity— from Ireland . Formerlyit was the fashion among the learned allover Europe to cal lthese letters AnglOSaxon but

'

now people know better.


2 . onastic 5(110013 .

Two Classes ofSchools — The schools and colleges of

ancient Ireland were oftwo classes, Ecclesiast ical andLay.

The ecclesiast ical or monast ic schools were introducedwith Christ iani ty ,

and were conducted by monks. The

lav or secular schools existed from a period - ofunknownant iqui ty , and in pagan t imes they were taught by druids.

The Irish monast ic schools were celebrated all overEurope in the middle ages : the lay schools, thoughplaying an important part in spreading learning at home

,

were not so well known. These two classes ofschoolsare wel l dist inguished all through the l iterary history of

Ireland ,and,

without interfering wi th each other, workedcontemporaneously from the fifth to the nineteenthcentury.

General features ofmonast ic schools - Even from the

t ime ofSt . Patrick there were schools in connexion withseveral of the monasteries he founded , chiefly for the

educat ion ofyoung men intended for the church . But

when the great monast ic movement already spoken of

(p . 322) began,in the sixth century , then there was a rapid

A ful l and most interest ing account ofthe ancient Irish monastic

schoo ls and co l leges has been given b y the Most Rev . Dr.Hea ly, Archbishop ofTuam ,

in his book Irelands'

s Ancient Schools and Scho la rs .

”

A mere list ofthe schoo ls treated ofin this book , and inLanigan’

s Ecclesi

asticalHistory ,wil l give some idea ofthe spread ofeducation in Ireland

in those early t imes,especia l ly when it is remembered that this list in

clades none ofthe lay schools — Armagh ; Kildare Nendrum(in Strangford Lough ,

County Down) Louth Em ly(in Tipperary) Begerin(anisland in V V

exford Harbour) C luain- fois(near Tuam in Galway) E lphin(in Roscommon) Aran Island(in Ga lway Bay) C lonard(on the Boynein Mea th) ) C lonfert (in Galway) ; Movil la (near the present Newtownards) Clonmacnoise G lasnevin (near Dublin) Derry Durrow(inKing’

s County) Ke l ls(in Meath) ; Bangor(inCountyDown) Clonenagh

(in Queen’

s County) Glendalough Lismore Cork ; Ross Ailither(nowRosscarbery in Cork) ; Innisfallen (in the Lower Lake ofKillarney) ;Mungret(near Limerick city) ; Inishcaltra (now Holy Island in LoughDerg on the Shannon) Birr ; Roscrea ; Mayo ; Downpatrick ; Tuam ;Slane (on the Boyne above Drogheda). Most of these were carried

on simu ltaneously from the sixth century downwards .

4Io RELIGION , LEARN ING, AND ART [PART II .

Cathal was a student in the College ofClonard ; and

when he heard ofhis father s murder,he and a party of

t “ enty seven ofhis fellow students, allyoung laymenfrom‘

Cwmaug/zt , sallied forth from the college,and coming to

the house of the assassin, beheaded him .

* In case of

kings of high rank , however, the young princes weregenerally educated at home, the teachers residing at courtand taking rank with the highest .

’

In those great seminaries, every branch ofknowledge then knownwas taughtthey were in fact the prototypes ofourmodern universit ies.

W e must — wri tes Dr. Richey neither overest imatenor depreciate these establishments. They undoubtedlywere in advance ofany schools exist ing on the Con

t inent ; and the lists ofbooks possessed by some of

the teachers prove that their inst itut ions embraced a

considerable course ofclassical learning . TLearning was not confined to men. In the sixth

century King Branduff’

s mother had a writ ing style

(delg grai/ih), so that she must have pract ised writ ingon waxed tablets and this is spoken ofin the old recordas a matter ofcommon occurrence among ladies }, The

daughter ofthe king ofCualann was sent to Clonard to .

St . Finnen to learn to read her Psalms [in One

ofthe First Order ofIrish saints named Mugint founded a

school in Scot land , to which girls as well as boys wereadmitted to study and St . Ita enjoins her foster- son

St . Brendan,when a young man, not to study with women

lest some evil - disposed person might revile himfilExtent of Learning in Monast ic Schools — W e have

ample evidence that both the Lat in and Greek languages

and l iteratures were studied with success in Ireland from

O’

Curry,Man. Cust .

,1. 83

1' Richey ,

Short Hist . ofthe Irish People, 1887, p . 83

I Z eitschr. fiir Ce lt . Phil ., II . 137,

§ Stokes, Lives ofSS.,line 4128 .

llDe Jubainvil le, La Civil . des Celtes, 109 ,110 .

IfStokes, Lives ofSS., p . 2 51. j

CHAP . X I] LEARN ING AND[Ep UcATIoN‘ g 471.

1

the sixth to the tenth century and that the learned '

men

from the Irish schools were quite on a par with the most

eminent ofthe Cont inental scholars ofthe t ime, a nd not a

few at the head ofall. Columbanus , Aileran the W ise,

Cummian, Sedulius, Fergil the Geometer, Duns Scotus,and many others, all Irish

men and educated in Irish

schools, were celebratedthroughout Europe for

their learning . The mostdist inguished scholar of

his day was John Scotus

Erigena John the Irishcelebrated for his

knowledge of Greek , and

for his philosophicalspeculat ions He taughtphilosophy in Paris, and

died about the year870

*

W hen the dispute aboutthe t ime of celebrat ingEasterwas at its height , St .Cummian wrote a Lat inletter to Segienus, abbot ofIona ,

in defence of the

Roman custom , and urginghim to adopt it in Iona,

which is published in

Ussher’

s works, and oecu

pies twelve pages ofvol. IV.

ing the Easter fest ival ,land .

F IG . 118.

John Scotus Erigena. According to W illiam of

Malmesbury and other authorit ies. John. obl igedto fly from France on account ofsome heterodox

wri t ings, took refuge wrth Alfred the Great in

England, who employed him“

as an instrument

for the restoration of l iterature in Oxford but

Lanigan (III. 300) considers this story unfounded.

However this may be , his port rait , with that of

Alfred, was, according to Dr. Petrie , lonz p reserved

sculp tured in stone over the door of the refectory

ofBrazenose College , Oxford. Petrie drew it and

published his taitht’

ul sketch in the Dub im PennyJournal. I p. 6x. from which th is Illust rat ion has

been photographed.

Cummian’

s letter regardwrites Skene In his Celt ic Scot

shows a perfect mastery ofhis Subject h and may

compare with any ecclesiast icaldocument of the t ime.

For John Scotus Erigena, see Lanigan,III. 288 319 : and for the

others see the works named in note, next page.


This long letter, observes Professor George T. Stokes,proves to demonstrat ion that in the first half of the

seventh century therewas a wide range ofGreek learning ,

not ecclesiast ical merely , but chronological , astronomical ,and ph ilosophical , away in Durrow in the verv centreofthe Bog of The Irish monks were equally

famed for their theological learning. It is worthy of

remark that , so far as theology and sacred learning ingeneral were concerned , the University ofArmagh seemsto have been regarded as the head ofall the other schoolsand colleges ; for in the synod held at Clane (CountvKildare) in the year 1162 , where twenty - five bishops and

many other eccles iast ics ofhigh rank attended,i t was

decreed that no person should thenceforward be per

mit ted to give public lectures in the sacred Scriptures or

in theology in any part ofIreland unless he had studiedfor some t ime at Armagh .1

‘ It seems probable that thiswas merely rendering compulsory what had long beenthe custom.

Foreign Students.— In all the more important schoolsthere were students from foreign lands, from the Cont inentas well as from Great Brita in, attracted by the eminence ofthe masters and by the facilit ies for q uiet , uninterruptedstudy . In the Lives of dist inguished Englishmen we

constantly find such statements as he was sent to Irelandto finish his educat ion ”

: The illustrious scholar Alcuin,

who was a nat ive ofYork , was educated at Clonmacnoise.

Among the foreign Visitors were many princes : Oswaldand Aldfrid,

kings ofNorthumbria ,and Dagobert II.

,

See the Most Rev . Dr. Hea ly '

s Ireland'

s Ancient Schoo ls and

Scho lars, passim : Dr. Hyde

’

s Literary History ofIreland, chap . xvii.

the Rev . Dr. George T. Stokes ’

s article on The Knowledge ofGreek inIreland between A .O . 500 and A .D. 900 ,

in Proc. Roy. Ir. Acad. for 189 1

189 2 , p . 187 Skene ’

s Celtic Scot land,11. 419 and Lanigan,

Eccl . HistI . 58 . In these works wil l be found an account ofall those eminent men

named in last page.

1Lanigan, xv . 178 Lynch , Cambr. Ev . II . 383, 427 and FM ,

A .D. 1162 . I 0 Flaherty, Ogyg.,I II . xxx.

414 RELIG ION , LEARNING , AND ART'

[PART II

the Irish Li fe ofSt . Senan Then came a ship ’

s crewfrom thelands ofLat ium on a pilgrimage into Ireland :

five deca des were their number. The old document goeson to sav that each decade took one ofthe Irish saints as

patron and protector during the vovage, namely SaintsFinnen,

Senan, Brendan, Ciaran ,Finnbarr ; and they

arranged that each Saint was to be asked by his votariesto protect the ship for a night and a day in turn. All

went well ti ll i t came to the turn ofSenan'

s ten,when

there arose a dangerous storm , and the pilot called out to

them for help : whereupon one ofthem , a bishop , rose up

from his dinner with a thigh - bone in his hand , and blessing

the air with the bone ,she called on Senan for help

,on

which the s torm was instantly lulled , and they soon afterlanded safely in Cork .

*

”Ihe greatest number of foreign students came from

Great Britain they came

'

inif‘

fleetJoads as Aldhelm,

Bishop ofSherborne(A.D. 705 to expresses it in hislet ter to his friend Eadfrid, Bishop ofLindisfarne, whohad h imself been educated in Ireland -

r Many also“

were

from the Continent . There is a remarkable passage inVenerable Bede

’

s Ecclesiast ical History whichcorroborates Aldhelm’

s statement , as well as what is said in the

nat ive records, and indeed in some part iculars goesratherbeyond °them.

.-Describing the ravages of the yellow

plague in 664 he says This pestilence did no less harmin the island ofIreland . Many ofthe nobility ‘

and’

ot

the lower ranks ofthe Engl ish nat ion were there at thatt ime,

who ,in the days ofBishops Finan

’

and Colman

[Irish abbots ofLindisfarne , p . 339 , supra] forsaking theirnat ive Island , ret ired thither, eitherfor the sake ofdivinestudies, or ofa more cont inent life : and some

'

ofthem

Stokes,Lives ofSS.

,209 .

T A ldhelm was an unwil lingwitness, for he shows himselfjealous ofthe lit erary at tractions ofIreland. See Reeves in U lst . Journ. ofArchaeol .vrr.

’

23'

I,note

“

15.

CHAR lX I]”

LEARNING AND’

EDUCATION‘

415

presen’

tly'

devofe‘

d themselv‘

es to a monastic li fe : “

others

chese rather'

to apply themselves to study , gbinga boht

from one'

rnaster’

s cell to anotherf The Scots W ill inglyreceived -

"

them all, and took care .to. supply them with

food ,as also ’

to furnish them with books to read , and

their teaching, all'

VVe

'

know that one ofthe

three'

divisions ofthe city ofArmagh was called Trian

Saxon,the Saxon

’

s third,from the great number ofSaxon

students inhabiting it andwe learn incidental ly also that

F '

G . 120

0

Clonmacnoise in mas— much the same as at present . A great Irish monast ery , founded

by St . C iaran, A.D. 548, where was also one of the most Important ot the monastic

colleges. .(From Brewer'

s Beauties ofIreland. Drawn by Petrie .

in the eighth century seven streets of a town calledKilbally,

near Rahan in King 5 County ,were wholly

occupied by Calls orforeigners.TThe genuine,

respect entertained all '

over Europe forthe scholars

'

of'

Ireland at this period is exemplified in ‘

a

correspondence ofthe end ofthe eighth century betweenthe illustrious scholar Alcuin and Coleu the Fer—{egz

'

nmor

chief professor of'

C lonmacnoise, corn‘

rnonly’

knoivn as

Eccl .‘ Hist III . chap . x-xvu z -

’

Bohn s translation.1

'

I t Petrie, Round Tower-s 355, top O'

Cirrry'

,Man

"

. 38

416 RELIG ION , LEARNING , AND ARr [PART ll

Colcu the W ise. He was the most learned Irishman ofhis

time, and we have extant a beaut iful Irish prayer com

posed by him(See Otia Mers. II. Alcuinwas educatedby him at Clonmacnoise , and in his letters he expresses

extraordinary respect for him , styles him Most holyfather, calls himself his son, and sends him presents forcharitable purposes, some from himsel f and some from his

great master Charlemagne.

* In the course of three or

four centuries from the t ime ofSt . Patrick , Ireland wasthe most learned country in Europe : and i t came to be

known by the name now so familiar to us— Insula sane

torum ct dartowm ,the Island OfSaints and Scholars ?

Fer- leginn.— In early t imes, when a school or college

was attached to a monastery , it would appear that theabbot had the charge of both monastery and schools,deput ing his authority in special direct ions, so as to

divide the labour, as he found it necessary . But this wasfound at last to be an inconvenient arrangement so thattowards the end of the eighth century

,i t became the

custom to appoint a special head professor to preside over,and be responsible for, the educat ional functions ofthe

college, while the abbot had the care of the whole iastitution. None but a Druimcli— a man .who had

mastered the ent ire course oflearning(see p . 436, below} :

could be appointed to this important post , and as head of

the college— under the abbot— he was called Fer- leginn,

man of learning — i.e. Chief Lector, Scfzo/astz’

cus, or

Principal ,’ having all the other professors and teachers

with their several subjects— under his authority. The firstofthese offi cers, ofwhom we have any record , was Colcu ,

Fer- leginn ofClonmacnoise, already noticed , who died in

794. The Fer- leginn was generally an ecclesiastic , but

Lanigan,m . 229 : O

’

Curry, MS. Ma t, 379 .

fThis name was app lied to Ireland by the chronicler Marianus Scotus,who lived in the eleventh century but whether it had been previouslyused or not is not known. See Reeves, U lst . Journ. ofArchaeol , , V II . 228.

RELIGION ,LEARNING , AND ART [PART 11

It ' is right to remark , too , that the ecclesiast ical

authorit ies were by no means jealous or intolerant of

l iterary distinction among the lay community. On the

contrary ,they encouraged learning wherever they found

it, making no distinction between monk and layman. W e

have seen that in Monasterboice and Ros-Ailithir, where,as in all o ther monast ic colleges , the ent ire authori ty wasin the hands ofecclesiast ics , they appointed laymen to the

posit ion of I’cr- leginn, or Principal ; and they did this,knowing wel l that , as far as secular scholarship was concerned , these two dist inguished laymen were sure to

throw them all into the shade . In various other monast iccolleges also the minor posit ions were O ften held by layteachers.

But the educat ion for the lay communi ty— in the sense

in which the word educat ion is used in the precedingobservat ions— was mainly for the higher classes , and forthose of the lower who had an irrepressible passion for

book - learning . The great body of the people couldneither read nor write. Yet they were not uneducated :

they had an educat ion Ofanother kind— rec it ing poetry,

historic tales, and legends— or l istening to rec itat ion— inwhich all people, high and low, took delight , as ment ionedelsewhere. This was true education, a real exercise forthe intellect , and a real and refined

'

enjoyment .* In everyhamlet there were one or more amateur reciters and thisamusement was then more general than newspaper and

story- reading is now. SO that , taking educat ion, as we

ought , in this broad sense, and not restrict ing it to the

narrow domain ofreading and writ ing ,we see that the

great body ofthe Irish people ofthose t imes were really '

educated .

There seems no reason to doubt that there wereschools ofsome kind in Ireland before the introduction

On the educat ional funct ion ofthe Tales,see pages 426, 427, 540 ,

541 farther on.

CHAP . x1] LEARNING AND EDUCATION 419

of. Christianity ,which, were carried on by druids. After

the general spread OfChrist ianity ,while monast ic schools

were growing up everywhere through the country ,the old

schools st ill held their ground ,taught now by Christ ian

Ollaves or doctors— laymen— who were therepresentat ives

ofthe druid teachers ofold t imes.

*

There were several classes ofthese schools. Somewere known as Bardic schools

,in which were taught

rDetry ,history , and general Irish literature. Some were

for law,and some for other special professions. In the

year 1571, hundreds ofyears subsequent to the period weare here treat ing of, Campion found schools for law and

medicine '

in operat ion They speake Lat ine like a

vulg’

ar'

tongue , learned in their common schools of

leach - craft and law, whereat they begin [as] children,

and hold on sixteene or twenty yeares, conning byroate the Aphorismes ofHypocrates and the Civill Inst itutions, and a few other parings ofthese two faculties.

”

TThe sixteene or twenty years is certainly an exaggera

t ion. The Bardic schools were the least technical ofanyand young laymen not intended for professions attendedthem— as many others in greater numbers at tended the

monast ic schools— to get a good general educat ion. Some

ofthese lay schools— perhaps most— were self- support ing ,

and the teachers made their l iving by them while some

were aided with grants of land by the chiefs of the

Districts.

At the convent ion ofDrum - Ketta , A .D. 574 , the systemofpublic secular educat ion, so far as i t was represented inthe bardic schools or those for general educat ion, was

reorganised . The scheme,which is described in some

detail by Keat ing (p . 455) from old authorities no longerin existence, was devised by the awl- ollave or chief poet of

all Ireland ,Dallan Forgaill, the author of the Amm or

See Hyde, Lit . H ist . 241. fCampion,Hist . ofIreland

,25 , 26.

420 RELIGION, LEARNING ,AND ART [PART II

Elegy on St . Columkille. There was to be a chief schoolor college for each ofthe five provinces and under thesea number ofminor colleges, one in each tuath or cantred .

They were all endowed with lands and those persons whoneeded it should get free educat ion in them . The headsofthese schools were the Ollaves ofpoetry and l iterature,

all laymen.

" Many ofthem , as t ime went on, became

noted for the excellence oftheir teaching in subjects moreor less special , according to the individual tastes or bentofmind ofthe teachers or the tradit ions ofthe severalschools. These subjects, whether Law, History , Ant i

q uities, Poetry , etc were commonly taught by members ofthe same family forgenerations f In later t imes— towardsthe sixteenth century— many such schools flourished underthe families ofO

’Mulconry, O'

Cofley , O'

Clery, and others.

A lay college generally comprised three dist inct schools,

held in three different houses near. each other a customthat came down from pagan t imes. W e are told thatCormac MacArt , king ofI reland from A.D. 254 to 277,

founded three schools at Tara , one for the study ofmilitaryscience, one for law,

and one for general l iterature. St .

Bricin’

s College at Tomregan near Ballyconnell in Cavan,

founded in the seventh century , which , though conductedby an ecclesiastic , was of the type of the lay schools,comprised one school for law, one for classics, and one for

poetry and general Gael ic learning , each school under a

special druz’

mrli or head professor.1 And coming down toa much later period ,

we know that in the fifteenth centurythe O

’

Clery’

s ofDonegal kept three schools— namely ,for

l iterature, for history ,and for poetry .

Towards the end of ' the sixteenth century the public ,schools ofall classes began to feel the effects ofpenallegislat ion. In the

'

t ime ofJames I among many other

See also O ’

Curry, Man. Cust . , I . 78 .

fSee ,for examp les, Hy Fiachrach , 79 , and 167, bot tom .

fO'

Curry, MS. Ma t, 50 : Man. Cust .

,1. 92 .


by private individuals were found all over the southernhal f of Ireland , especially in Munster. Some were forclassics, some for science , and not a few for both ;

nearly all conducted bv men oflearning and abil ity and

they were everywhere eagerly attended . Many of the

students had professions in view , some intended for thepriesthood , for which the classical schools afforded an

admirable. preparat ion ; some seeking to become medicaldoctors, teachers , surveyors , &c. But a large proport ionwere the sons of farmers, tradesmen

,shopkeepers, or

others, who had no part icular end in view , b ut , with theinst inc ts ofthe days ofold. studied classics or mathemat ics

for the pure love oflearning . These schools cont inued to

exist down to our own t ime ,t ill they were finally broken up

by the famine Of1847. In my own immediate neighbourhood were some ofthem, in which I received a part of

my earlv educat ion and I remember with pleasure several

ofmv old teachers : rough and unpol ished men mos t of

them ,but excellent solid scholars and full ofenthusiasm

for learning . All the students were adults orgrown boysand there was no instruct ion in the elementary subjectsreading ,

writ ing , and arithmet ic - a s no scholar attendedwho had not suffi cient ly mastered these .

* Among the

students were always a dozen ofmore“ poor scholars "

from distant parts ofIreland ,who l ived free in the hospit

able farmers'

houses all round : just as the scholars fromBritain and elsewhere were supported in the t ime ofBede

- twelve centuries before j

4 . Some General Featurm o l ot/z classes of5 5110013 .

The Seven Degrees ofW isdom.

”— To return to the

anc ient schools. The Brehon Law took cognisance of

the schools, both lay and clerical , in many important

But there were also specia l private schoo ls for elementary subjects.fFor Poor Scholars

,see O

'

Curry,Man. Cust .

,I . 79 , 80 : Dr.

Healy ,Ireland’

s Anc. Sch . , 475 and,for a modern instance

,Carleton

’

s

story ,The Poor Scho lar.

CHAP . xi] LEARN ING AND EDUCATION 423

part iculars. So much was this the case that it is in factin the Brehon Law tracts we get the ful lest informat ionabout the school arrangements. The law sets forth the

studies for the several degrees. It lays down what seems

a very necessary provisionfor the protect ion ofthe masters,that they should not be answerable for the misdeeds of

their scholars except in one case only,namely ,

when the

scholar was a foreigner and paid for his food and educat ion.

* The masters had a Claim on their l iterary. fosterchildren for support in Old age ,

i f poverty rendered itnecessaryT and in accordance with this provision, .we find

it recorded that St . Mailruan ofTallaght was tenderlynursed in his old age by his pupil Aengus the Culdee.;

In both the ecclesiast ical and the secular schools therewere seven degrees for the students or graduates, l ike themodernUniversity stages offreshmen, sophisters, bachelors&c. The degrees in the lay schools corresponded withthose in the ecclesiast ical schools ; but except ‘

in the two

last grades the names differed. Both schemes are set

forth— in a scattered sort ofway— in a law tract known

as the Sequel to the Crith Gabhlach (Br. Laws, Iv.)and the grades in the lay schools are also named and

briefly described in another law tract , the Small Primer

(Br. Laws. v . The writer ofthe Sequel gives firstthe seven- fold arrangement for the ecclesiast ical schoolsthe Seven Degrees OfW isdom (sec/at n-

grciz’

dfi ému).

He then makes the following remark to point out the

correspondence in substance between these and the sevenstages ofthe lay schools The degrees ofwisdom and

ofthe Church [i.e. in the monast ic or ecclesiast ical schoolsl

correspond with the degrees ofthe poets and ofthefe’

z

’

ne

or story - tellers [l.o. ofthe lay or bardic Schools] : butwisdom is the mother ofeach profession ofthem [whetherMan. Cust .

,1. 79 . Tvol. p . 18 .

i O’

Curry, Man. Cust .,1. 174 , 175 .

§ Learning in genera l was in those times often designated b y the

word Wisdom .

"

424 RELIGION , LEARNING , AND ART [PART I I

clerical or lay] , and i t is from her hand they all drink .

He next proceeds to enumerate the seven degrees ofthe

poets, i.a. ofthe bardic schools, and to describe them ,

*as

set forth in this book , p. 430 , farther on.

But regarding some ofthe lay schools, we Obtain muchadditional informat ion from a curious tract cal led the

Book ofthe Ollaves (or Doctors in the Book of

Bal lym ote,first noticed by O

’

Curry ;1‘ where the arrange

ments for one part icular class Ofschools are described inSome detail . The schools in view here were the bardicschools, i.e. those for general learning : but in those forspecial professions, such as Law, there were probablysimilar arrangements. This tract gives the length ofthe

whole course for the seven lay degrees as twelve years ,

which includes one year for prel iminary , or elementary, or

preparatory work , and sets forth the study for each year.

A careful comparison and combination Ofthe statementsin the four law authorit ies— the Book ofthe Ollaves, the

Sequel to the Crith Gabhlach ,the Small Primer, and the

Commentaries on the Senchus Mor— will enable us to knittogether the informat ion scattered through them , and to

set forth in tabulated form (p . 430 ,infra) the schemes of

both Classes ofschools. I have not found any statementgiving the length

'

ofthe course and the subjects ofthe

several stages, or of the several years, for students of

the ecclesiastical s chools, such as is given in the Bookof the Ollaves for the Lay schools, though it may be

taken for granted that systematic and carefully- plannedarrangements existed. On the other hand , we have, instill another law authority , a statement of the q ualifi

cations of the professors in the ecclesiast ical schools,which is given at page 435 farther on.

Before sett ing forth the two tabulated schemes, itwill be useful to make a few remarks on certain pointsin connexion with them . In the bardic schools— so far

Br. Laws,Iv . 357, last seven lines, and 359 . 1Man. 1. 171.


obscure old texts ; and after long lapse Of t ime,when

even the commentaries themselves became old and hardto understand , it was customary with many teachers tolecture on both texts and commentaries, and to expoundthe general meaning . For instance, the Senchus Mor waslectured and commented on in this manner in the law

School ‘

, and the Tripart ite L i fe ofSt . Patrick , DallanForgaill

’

s Amra , and Aengus’

s Feilire , were expounded bythe divini ty and l iterary lecturers in the monast ic colleges.

‘

This custom prevailed down to the t ime ofCampion, and

doubt less later. He says in his H istory (p . 17)— wri ttentowards the end ofthe sixteenth century But the trueIrish [i.a. the ancient classical Irish] indeede di ffereth<0 much from that they commonly speake , that scarceone among five score can either write , read , or understand it . Therefore it is prescribed among certaine theirPoets, and other Students ofAnt iquit ies.

The successful study of the Tales— shown in the

tabulated scheme- meant that the student should knowthem perfect ly by heart , so as to be able to recite any one

or more ofthem at a moment 's not ice , for the instructionand amusement ofa company . The knowledge ofhistoricand romant ic tales, and ofpoetry , was looked upon as an

important branch ofeducat ion : and with good reason ;

for they inculcated truthfulness, manliness, and— according to the standard ofthe t imes— all that was noble and

dignified in thought , word , and action. Along with this,

the greater part ofthe history , tradition,biography, and

topography of the country , as well as history and

geography in general , was thrown into the form ofverseand tales. Stories and , p0etry therefore formed a leadingitem ,

not only among : professional men,

‘

but in generaleducat ion and every intell igent layman was expected toknow some tales and

'

ppems, so as to be able to takehis part in amusing and instructing in mixed companies

See O’

Curry ,MS. Mat

, 348 : and Hyde, Lit . Hist .,154 , 406.

CHAP . X I]' LEARN ING AND EDUCATION 427

when the occasion arose.

* This fashion cont inued downt o recent t imes : and some of the brightest and mostintell igent Irish peasants I ever met were men who were

i lliterate, so far as book - learning was concerned , but who

were full ofthe l iving tradit ions and poetry ofthe past ,and recited them with intense feel ing and enthusiast icadmirat ion. But the race is now well - nigh extinct . W e

have already Seen(p . 87) that in old t imes candidates foradmission to certain ranks ofmilitary service had to provethat theyhad mastered a specified and very considerableamount ofpoetry and tales : a provision which exhibitsclearly what was considered the standard of educat ionin those t imes

, and shows also the universal love for

intellectual enjoyments.

The learning and teaching funct ions were combinedin some of the middle grades , as they were in the

professor’

s programme at p . 435. Students who had

attained to certain degrees in both cases were entrustedwith the duty ofteaching the beginners, i f their taste or

inclinat ion lay in that way which was one ofthe means

ofgett ing through the heavy school - work a plan, as we

all know , often adopted in modern schools.

In the tables at p . 430 , the first word(which is printedin heavy type) in the description ofeach part ofthe courseis the designat ion ofthe graduate ofthat part icular stage

and these quaint designat ions are followed by the equallyquaint descriptions. Ifat first sight they look fanciful , let

us remember that most ofour modern university terms

siz ar, sophister, respondent , bachelor, wrangler, &c., when

we look into their .meanings, will appear equally so till

we know their history . The three steps, Ollaire, Tammi ,Drisac, at the head ofthe Lay School scheme, are given

by the commentator on the Senchus Mor, though not by

the other authorit ies named above but they were merelypreparatory ,

and not recognised as degrees ofwisdom .

As an instance : Donnbo in Three Fragm . ofIr. Annals, p . 35.


I do not know what the Oghams were, in the first

three years’ course ofthe lay schools. O

’

Curry translatesthe word Alphabets, which is as obscure as the original .Perhaps the Ogham of the lay schools correspondedwith the aibgitir or alphabet ”

of the ecclesiasticalschools(p . 383 , supra) if this is so ,

the Oghams herewere brief literary or scientific maxims conveying usefuland important informat ion. That there were. collect ionsof such terse maxims we know from Cormac ’s and

O’

Clery’

s G lossaries , in which they are designatedMinurba or Mionairbhe, a term which O ’

Clery explainsMionazrbhe ceard, that is to say , short scient ific rules

which are in poetry . On account oftheir concentrat ionand shortness, Cormac derives the word from Lat . minus

but it comes rather from the cognate Irish word min or

mien. small .’

Dr. Richey,the legal editor oftheBrehon Law volume

containing the Crith Gabhlach and the“

Sequel ,”

judging from the single text before him ,in which moreover

there is nothing to warrant his conclusion, undertakes topronounce the seven- fold classificat ion ofthe degrees inthe lay schools— Fochluc,

MacFuirmid, Dos, Cana, Cli,

Anruth , Ollave— as given in the table— to be plainlymerely an exercise of the imagination (Br. Laws, IV .

ccvii). But when he del ivered this judgment , it was verylucky for him that he had not Morann’

s Collar round hisneck .

* These poetical grades are enumerated in the

Small Primer (Br. Laws, V . a law tract totallyindependent ofthe Sequel to the Grill: Gabhlach,

and

they are referred to elsewhere in the Laws (vol. I. 45 ;

v. 57 to 71 : O’

Curry, MS. Mat . as well as in

many independent authorit ies outside the law- books,always as matters quite familiar and generally understood. Cormac ’s Glossary ment ions and explains the

whole seven, using the very names given by the

Morann’

s Co l lar, pp . 170 and 303 , supra .


TABLE OF DEG REES AND SUBJECTS OF STUDY .

COM P ILED in strict accordance with the fo l lowing authorities — For Lay

Schoo ls only Br. Laws, I . 45 v . 27, 29 : Book ofOllaves, q uoted in

O'

Curry’

s Man. Cust .,I . 17I Mac Firbis

, q uoted by O’

Curry in

MS. Mat ,n o

, 576 . For both Ecclesiastica l and Lay Schoo ls , Br.Laws

,xv .

, 355 to 3ox.

MONASTIC OR ECCLES IASTICALSCHOOLS BARDIc SCHOOLS.

[Th ere must have been E lemen a.

tary Stages in the Eccles Iastic

as well as in the Lay Schoo ls ,b ut so far they have no t beenfound expressly ment ioned any b. Tainan,where ]

c. Drlsac.

1,— Felmac(i.a. a pupil : lit . Son

Oflearning a boy whohas read his [specified]Psa lms '

in Latin] .

First year 0/ the twelve

The Students with

these designations

were engaged in

elementary work,

corresponding to

what we find in

our E lementary

Schoo ls,or in the

junior classes Of

I n t e r m e d iate

Schools.

COURSE OE STUDY —5O Oghams

or A lphabe ts : E lementary Am i

cecht or Grammar : 20 Tales,of

which the O l laire had 7 ; the

Taman 3 more, I O the Drisac

I O additiona l 20.

Second Year

I . —Fochluc. His art is slenderbecause Of his youth

l ike a sprig offochlocan or

brook - lime hence the

name.

COURSE OF STUDY —5O Oghams

alongwith the 50 Ofthe Drisac6 easy lessons in Philosophycertain specified poems : 30

Tales , i.a. 10 in addition to the

20 Of the Drisac. [N.B .—It is

the same all through : i.a. the

number Of Ta les req uired for

each grade includes those Ofthe

preceding grade]

CHAP . x1] LEARN ING AND EDUCATION

TABLE OF DEGREES AND SUB J ECTS O F STUDY— continued.

SCHOOLS .

II .m Freisneidhed [Fresh - nay

- a]or

‘

Interrogator so ca l ledbecause he int errogates

his tu tor with th e sense of

an ollave : and his t utor

gives the meaning Ofevery

thing that is difhcult to

(During this year a main and

characteristic feature of the dailyCo l lege work consisted in the

learners q uest ioning the teacher,

at C lass t ime,in all the difficulties

t hey had encountered- and not ed

—during their st udy hours q ues

t ions and exp lanatory rep liesb eing carried on in the hearing Of

the who le class .)

III .— Fursaindtidh [Fursantee] , or

I l luminator SO cal led because he answers his tutor

with the sense Ofan ollave,

and gives the sense Ofev ery

difficulty on account Ofthe

clearness Ofhis judgment .

”

(In this year— when the pupils

are more advanced- u the mode Of

class- work is tota l ly changed

Now the customary p lan is for thetutor or professor to cross -

q uest ion

th e learners to draw them out so

as to make sure that they under

s tood all difficulties and Ob

scurit ies to raise difficul ties and

make the pupils exp lain them).

43:

BARDIC SCHOOLS .

Third Year

11.— MacFuirmid so ca l led be

cause he is set (luirmz’lhir)to learn an art from his boyhood .

Fourth Year

111.— Dos, so ca l led from his

similarity to a dos i e . a

bush or young tree .

CO URSE OF STUDY z— The Bretha

Nemed or the Law OfPrivileges(see p . 175 , supra) 20 Poems Of

the species cal led Eman 50

Ta les.

COURSE OF STUDY -

5O Oghams

more than the Fochluc(i.e. 150

al together) six minorlessons ofPhilosophy : Diph thonga l Combinat ions(as part OfGrammar)certain specified Poems 40

Ta les.

432 RELIG ION , LEARN ING ,AND ART [PART II

TABLE or DEGREES AND SUBJ ECTS OF STUDY— continued

SCHOOLS BARDIc SCHOOLS .

IV .—8ruth do All] , or Stream

from a cliff for them ain

or stream drowns every

litt le,light , weak thing,

and carries Offloose rocksso he drovms bad scholarswhom he confounds [in

disputa tion] with rocks of

intel lect and evidence [apt

q uotations] , and he is able[when emp loyed in teach

ing] to modify his instruction to the complexion Of

simple information, in

mercy to the people of

lit t le learning who ebb in

the presence ofan anrath

or teacher ofa higher de

gree [i.e. he is able to

make hard things easy by

explanation to wea k st u

dents who might get

frightened in presence of

the formidable scholar the(wra th— grade V I] .

V .— Sai, or Professor who [has

mastered and] professes

some one Ofthe four parts

ofthe scientific course : a

comely professor of the

Canon [i.a. of Scripture]with his noble good

wea lth [Of

COURSE OF STUDY -The secret

language of the poets (an ah

struse kind Ofcomposition) 48

Poems of the species cal ledNath 70 (or 80) Ta les.

Filth Year

IV .-Cana [accidenta l ly omit ted

CO URSE

from the description in the

Crith Gabhlach at p . 359 ,vol. xv .

, but inserted in the

preliminary list of same

tract at p . 357, last threelines ; and in the other

authorit ies] .

OF STUDY z— Learningcritica l ly Gaelic art icles

,ad

verbs , and other gramma ticalnicet ies 60 Ta les .

Sixth Year

v .'—‘ CII, which means a cliath or

‘

pil lar [ofa house] and

as the pil lar is strongand straight , e levates andis elevated, protects and

is protected,and is

powerful from floor to

ridge so with the man

ofthis grade his art is

powerful , his judgment isstraight : he elevates hisdignity above those be

low him .

"


AND ART [PART II

TABLE OF DEGREES AND SUBJ ECTS or STUDY— continued.

SCHOO LSBARDIc SCHOOLS.

VIL— Rosai.which means GreatProfessor (from ro, grea t ,

and sai, a professor). He

has three designat ions

Rosai ; Ollamh or doctor ;

and Sal Litre or Professor

(doctor) Of Literature .

W hen he visits a palace, he

sits in the banq uetinghouse with the king. As

he is a grea t professor, he

does no t {anin any q uest ionCOURSE OF STUDY z— Tenlh Year

in the four departments of a further number Ofthose com

knowledge. positions studied in the nint h

year.

Eleventh Year 100 Ofthe kind of

composition cal led Anamuin,

which was composed only by an

Ollave.

Twelfth Year 120 Cetals or O ra

tions the Four Art s ofPoetry.

N.B .— During the three years,

he had to master 175 Tales alongwith the 175 ofthe Anruth : 350

Ta les a ltogether.At the end ofthe twelfth year,

ifthe candidate acq uitt ed him

selfsat isfactorily, he became an

Ollamh or Ollave.

In the ecclesiast ical schools there was another classificat ion Ofseven grades, or Seven Orders Ofwisdom ,

”as

they are here also called , which is SO different from thatalready given— corresponding in no particular except inthe number ofgrades— that the two were Obviously quiteindependent of each other. The scheme already given

Tenth,eleventh

,and twelfth years

VIL— O l lamh [o l lav] . He has

three designations — Eces

[aikas] or man oflearningFile [filla] , a poet : and

Ollamh, or doctor. The

O l lamh ofwisdom or learning teaches the four depart

ments ofFilidecht or knowledge , without ignorance inthem .

CHAP . X I] LEARNING AND EDUCATION 435

had chiefly the students in view. But this one is evidentlya classificat ion having reference mainly to professors or

teachers, Ofwhom three ofthe lower grades were themselves learners. SO that here, as in the preceding scheme,

the functions Ofteaching and learning were mixed ; and

it often happened that the same person was at one t imeunder instruction from the professors Ofthe grades abovehim

,and at another t ime employed in teaching the junior

scholars. This document— quoted by O’

Curry— occurs

under the word caogdach in a Law Glossary compiled byDuald MacFirbis, from Old authorit ies, explaining the

Seven Orders Ofwisdom .

THE SEVEN GRADES OR O RDERS OF WISDOM .

(MONASTIC OR EOCLESIAe CAL SCHOOLS).

I .—The CAOGDACH or Fifty-Man (from caogad, fifty

’

l, so ca‘ led

because he is able to chant [in Latin] three t imes fifty Psalms

from memory.

11.— The FOGHLAINTIDHE [Fowlantee] , i.e. a student or

‘ learnerwho has a knowledge Often books Ofthe Pocket”or Native

Education.

111.— The Desgibal or Disciple, ’ who knows the whole twelve books Of

the Fochaz’

r.

IV .— The STARU IDHE [starree] or Historian

,

’

who [besides History] ismaster Ofthirty Lessons OfDivinity (aiceachta naomhtha

,lit .

Sacred Lessons as part ofhis course.

V . The FOIRCEADLA DHE [Forkailee] , i.e. Lecturer Of ProfaneLiterature

,who knows Grammar

, Crosan or Criticism ,

Syllab ification or Orthography, Enumeration or Arithmetic,

and the courses ofthe Sun and Moon,i.a. Astronomy .

V I. The SAOI CANOINE [Pron. See ConnOna] Professor Of Canon

t .e. Divinity Professor, who has ful1 knowledge ofthe Canon,

and ofthe History ofJ esus in the sacred p lace in which it isto be found [namely, the Bible] , that is to say ,

the mam

learned in Catholic Canonica Wisdom .

O’

Curry ,MS. Mat

, 31, 494 Man. Cast 1. 84 .


V lI.— The Druimcli‘ I'

Drumclee] , a man who has a perfect knowledgeof wisdom

"

from the grea test book , which is ca l led the

Cuilmen, to the sma l lest book , which is ca l led the‘

Ten

Words”which are wel l arranged in the good Tes tament

which God made unto Moses.

”

O’

Curry (MS. Mat , 495) quotes a curious notecharacterist ically Irish— from another Old authori ty(aboutA.D. which corroborates the above in the form of

a quaint pedigree Oflearning Schoolboy [i.e. a mere

beginner] the son ofLesson [i.e. a learner beginning toread] , the son OfCaogdach, the son OfFoghlaz

'

ntz'

dhe, the

son OfDescibal, [the son OfStaruidhe] , the son OfSaoi

Litre, the son OfSaoi Candz’

ne, the son OfDrm'

mcli, the

son Ofthe Living God.

The two preceding classificat ions had special referenceto collegiate life and collegiate arrangements. There wasa third classificat ion— seven ecclesiast ical grades— havingreference solely to the church In each ofthe two former,

as we have seen, there were seven grades Ofwisdom or

learning these last are called simply seven grades Ofthe church (seacht ngmz

’

d eacalsa) namely , Lector or

Reader Janitor [and bell - ringer](Aistreoz’r)Sub - deacon(Suibdeochain) Deacon

(Deochain) Priest(Sacart) and Bishop (Eascob). Theseare all named , and their funct ions briefly set forth ,

in the

law tract called the Small Primer (Br. Laws, V.

The Seven Orders Ofthe church and the Seven Ordersofwisdom are expressly dist inguished in the Heptads

(Br. Laws, v . 237,

School Life andSchool Methods— Reading through theecclesiast ical and other literature, we Often l ight on

Druimclz’

,lit . ridge

-

po le, ’ i.e. ofa house : from druim,

ridge,’

and cli, a short form ofcliath,a po le.

’

1' The Cuilmen seems to have been a great book or col lect ion ofpro

fane literature. The Ten Words,

or Ten Commandments, O

’

Currysays, was the usual designation Ofthe Pentateuch.


out ofthe way,stumbled and fell , and the jar was broken

and the milk spilled . The cavalcade passed on withoutnot icing him but he ran after them in great trouble witha piece ofthe jar on his back , t ill at last he attracted thenot ice Ofthe prince,

who halted and questioned him in a

good- humoured way. The bov, not knowing whom he

was addressing , told his story with amusing plainnessIndeed , good man, I have much cause to be troubled .

There are living in one house near the college threenoble students, and three others that wait on them

, of

whom I am one andwe three attendants have to collectprovisions in the neighbourhood in turn for the wholesix . It was my turn to - day ; and 10 ,

what I haveobtained has been lost and this vessel which I borrowedhas been broken, and I have not the means to pay for i t .The prince soothed him , told him his loss should be

made good , and promised to look after him in the future.

That boy was Adamnan,a descendant and relat ive of

princes, subsequently a most dist inguished man, ninthabbot ofIona , and the writer Ofthe Life OfSt . Columba .

The prince was as good as his word , and after he becameking invited Adamnan to his court , where the rising youngecclesiast ic became his trusted friend and spiritual adviser.

*

There were no spacious lecture halls such as we havethe masters taught and lectured , and the scholars studied

,

very much in the open air, when the weather permit ted.

’

r

There were no priz es and no cramming for compet it iveexaminat ions, for learning was pursued for itsown sake.

In all the schools, whether public or private , a large proport ion Ofthe students got both books and educat ion freeb ut those who could afford it paid for everything . In

those days there were no detailed Lat in Grammars, no

First Latin Books and the learners had to face thelanguage in a rough - and- ready way, by beginning right

O’

Curry, Man. Cust .,I . 79 Three Fragm .

, 75 Reeves,Adamn. , xlii.

TDr. Healy,Irel. Anc. Sch .

, 435 O'

Curry, Man. Cust .,I . 149(twice).

CHAP. x1] LEARN ING AND EDUCATION 439

Offat the author. W hile the students held their manu

script copies ih their hands, the teacher read,translated

,

and explained the tex t ; and in this rugged and difficultway these young people acquired a knowledge Of the

language. In order to aid the learners,the professors and

teachers Often wrote between the l ines or on the margin Of

the copies Ofthe Latin classical tex ts,l iteral translations

Ofthe most difficult words,or free renderings Ofthe sense

into Gael ic phrases : and in this manner were producedthe glosses described in chap. xii.

,sect . 3, infra.

In teaching a child book - learning,the first thing was,

Ofcourse,the alphabet . St . Columkille

’

s first alphabetwas written or impressed on a cake

,which he afterwards

F IG . I ar

Roman Alphabet , for learners, on a pillarstone. now used as a headstone in the graveyard

OfK ilmalkedar In K erry. The first let ter, A , has been broken Off The three large let ters neart he centre are not part Ofthe alphabet they are U NI , an abbreviat ion of Dom ini, " wh ich wason the stone before the alphabet was engraved. Compare th is , as well as the abbreviations atthe end, W i th the first ofthe two alphabets at p. 406 , sup ra . (From Pet rie.RoundTowers, 131;

atef“ This points to a pract ice ,which we sometimes see

at the present day,Ofwrit ing the alphabet

,or shaping it

in some way, on'

sweetmeats,as an encouragement and

help to what has been,and always will be, a difficult task

for a child . Somet imes they engraved the alphabet forbeginners on a large stone, Ofwhich an example is

'

shown

in fig. 12 1.

It was the practice Ofmany eminent teachers to com

pose educational poems embodying the leading facts cf

history or Ofo ther branches Of instruction ; and ~a con

siderable proportion Ofthe metrical compositions preserved

Stokes, Lives ofSS., 172 .


in our ancient books belong to this class. These poemshaving been committed to memory by the scholars, werecommented on and explained by their authors. Flann Of

Monasterboice followed this plan and we have sti ll copiesofseveral ofhis educat ional poems

, chiefly historical . He

also used his Synchronisms for the same purpose . In the

Book ofLeinster there is a curious geographical poemforming a sort ofclass- book Ofgeneral geography ,

whichwas used in the great school OfRos- Ailithir in Cork ,

writ ten in the tenth century by Mac Cosse the ferleginn,

containing all that was then known Of the principalcountries Of the world .

‘ The reader need scarcely b e

reminded that teachers Of the present day somet imesadopt the same plan , especially in teaching history.

Somet imes boys were sent to be taught at the collegesat a very early age

— mere children. W hen St . FindchuaofBrigown was only seven y ears Ofage ,

he was broughtby St . Comgall to his co llege at Bangor,

and studiestherewith him l ike every other popil .” i St . Mochua of

Balla ,when he was only a little lame child ,

”

employedby his parents to herd sheep

,was brought also to Bangor

by Comgall, where he began his studies. There wereprobably many other cases Of this kind ,

so that somespecial provision must have been made by the collegeauthorit ies for the accommodat ion Ofsuch young children.

There was a very early appreciat ion Ofgood'

methods in

teaching . For instance, the max im which all experiencedteachers follow ,

that pupils are encouraged to exert themselves by gett ing moderate praise for their work ,

is not icedin one Ofthe eighth - century glosses referred to by ZeussIt is the custom Ofgood teachers to praisethe understanding ofthe hearers [t .e. Oftheir pupils] ,

Published,with translation, by the Rev . Thomas O lden,

in Proc.

Roy . Ir. Acad. for 1879—1886

, p . 2 19 . For many other poems ofthis

Class see O’

Curry ,Man. Cust .

,Lectures

,vii. and viii.

1Stokes , Lives OfSS.,232 .


5. TheMan ofLearning.

Professions Heredi tary. In ancient Ireland , the

professions almost invariably ran in families, so thatmembers of the same household devoted themselves to

one particular science or art— Poetry , History ,Medicine,

Building , Law, as the case might be— for generat ions.

This is well expressed by Camden And of theseprofessions there be in each terri tory several professorsand those within some certain fami lies that is to say.

the Brehons [Judges] be ofone flock and name ; the

historians ofanother ; and so ofthe rest , who instructtheir own children, and kinsmen, and have some ofthemalways to be their

Ollams or Doctors and their Req uirements.— Ollam or

Ollamh [ollav] was the t itle ofthe highest degree in any

art or profession : thus we read ofan ollave poet , an

ollave builder, an ollave goldsmith , an ollave physician,

an ollave lawyer, and so forth , just as we have in modernt imes doctors oflaw, ofmusic , ofliterature, ofphilosophy ,

ofmedicine, &c.1’ In order to atta in the degree ofollave

,

a candidate had to graduate through all the lower stepsand for this final '

degree he had to submit his workwhether l iterary composit ions or any other performanceto some eminent ollave who was selected as judge. Thisollave made a report to the king ofterritories (i.e. of

a mar- tuath,see p . 43 ,

supra), not only on the candidate'

s

work ,but also on his general character, whether he was

upright , free from unjust deal ings, and pure in conduct

and word , i.a. free from immoral ity , bloodshed , and abuse

ofothers. Ifthe report was favourable,the king formallyconferred the degree a ceremony which the commentator

on the Senchus Mor calls uirdned ag rig tuath, literallyordinat ion by the king ofterritories.

’

1

See Keating, Preface, Ivi., lvii.1See MS.Mat , 480 Man. Cust .

,I I . 53 and Stokes

,Lives ofSS.

,

line 2931(ollave smiths). 1MS.Mat, 462 Br. Laws, I . 43, last line.

CHAP . X I] LEARN ING AND EDUCATION 443

Almost every Ollave, of whatever profession, kept

apprent ices, who l ived in his house,andwho learned their

business by the teaching and lectures Ofthe master, byreading ,

and by actual pract ice, or seeing the masterpractise ; for they accompanied him on his professionalvisits. The number under some Ollaves was so large as

to const itute a l itt le school . There was, ofcourse , a fee

in return for which ,as the Brehon Law(v . 97) expresses

it Instruct ion without reservat ion, and correct ionwithout harshness, are due from the master to the

pupil , and to feed and clothe him during the t ime he

is at his learning. Moreover, as in the case Of the

l iterary teacher (p . 423 ,supra), the pupil was bound to

help the master in Old age if poverty came on him . The

same passage in the Brehon Law cont inues ' To helphim against poverty ,

and to support him in Old age [ifnecessary] , these are due from the pupil to the tutor.

Although there were Ollaves Ofthe various professionsand crafts, this word Ollave was commonly understood

to mean a doctor ofPoetry , or ofHistory, or ofboth

combined . These two professions— poetry and history

Overlap a good deal , and the same individual generallyprofessed both ; as is put very clearly by Duald

Mac Firbis in the following words The historians of

Erin in the ancient t imes will scarcely be dist inguishedfrom the fez

’

m’

d/z [or story - tellers : pron. fainee] , and

from those who are now called aes- ddna t poets for

it was Often at one school they were all

A l iterary Ollave, as a fili or poet , was expected to beable to compose a quatrain, or some very short poem

,

extemporaneously, on any subject proposed on the

moment : and he was always called upon to do so whenthe degree was conferred on him

,this being an

essent ial part Of the ceremony' The Ollave — says

the gloss on the Senchus MOr did this file. composed

Quoted inMS. Mat,2 20 .


an extempore quatrain] after his ordinat ion . [i.e. afterthe degree was conferred on him] by the king ofthe

As a Shanachie or H istorian , the Ollave was understood to be specially learned in the History , ChronologicalSynchronisms

, Ant iquit ies, and Genealogies Of'

Ireland .

W e have already seen (p . 434) that he should know byheart 350 Historical and Romantic Stories (namely 250

ofwhat were called prime or principal stories and 100

minor ; for which see p . 533 ,infra), so as to be able to

recite any one or more ofthem when called upon at a

moment ’s not ice.

He was also supposed to know the prerogat ives,rights

,

dut ies,restrict ions, tributes, &c , Ofthe king ofIreland

,

and ofthe provincial kings. The poet or the learnedhistorian — says the Book OfRights who does not

know the prerogat ives and the prohibitions Of thesekings is not ent itled to visitat ion or to sale [ofhis

composit ions] . Farther on in the same authority a

similar statement is made in a more amplified and

emphat ic form : and here it is added that the ollave

was expected ,i f asked , to repeat the whole statement

from memory , so that he can recite them all at eachnoble meet ing . 1

”As a learned man he was expected to

answer reasonable questions , and explain diffi cult iesHe is great to expound , and he expounds and solves

questions —says Cormac ’s G lossary(127, OllamhThese were large requirements : but then he spent

many years ofpreparation : and once admitted to the

coveted rank ,the guerdon was splendid ; for he was

highly honoured , had many privileges, and receivedprincely rewards and presents. Elsewhere it is shownthat a king kept in his household an ollave of eachprofession, who was well paid for his services. The

Br. Law,I . 43 , bot tom . 1Book ofRights , 7, 237, 239


making a murmur more melodious than any mortal music .

There were five salmon swimming about in the well and

on the margin grew nine haz els which O ften droppedpurple nuts into the water. The moment a nut fell

, one

ofthe salmon caught it , and rejecting the husk, ate the

kernel . As Cormac looked on, he saw many peoplecoming to the well in turn, and drinking. And whenhe inquired the meaning ofthese strange sights, he wastold that this was the Fountain OfKnowledge thatthe five streams were the five senses through whichknowledge is Obtained ; and that those who drank wereat once endowed with great knowledge, so that they werethenceforward called People ofmany arts and sciences

(Lucid na n

The five salmon in this fountain were the same as the

Salmon OfKnowledge ofanother and better form of

this legend . In the north ofthe present County Tipperarythere was a beaut iful fountain called Connla ’

s W ell, in

which there were a number Ofsalmon swimming about ,and from which flowed a stream to the Shannon. Overthis well there grew nine beaut iful haz el trees

,which

produced blossoms and crimson nuts simultaneously.

W henever a nut dropped into the well, a salmon dartedup and ate i t and whatever number ofnuts any one of

them swallowed ,so many bright red spots appeared on its

belly. All the knowledge ofthe arts and sciences was insome mysterious way concentrated into these nuts and

the salmon that ate ofthem became a salmon Ofknowledge (Ed-fen d), and swam down the stream to the

Shannon. W hoever could succeed in catching and eat ingone ofthese salmon,

his student drudgery was ended for

he became at once a great poet , and was, besides, enduedwith knowledge ofall the arts and sciences. Hence poetsand storytellers, Speaking Ofany subject diffi cult to dealwith

,often say Unless I had eaten the salmon of

Ir. Texte, III . 2 13—2 16 .

CHAP . x1“

, LEARNING AND EDUCATION 447

knowledge I could not describe it In Cormac ’s Glossary(p . 35) these haz els are ment ioned ,

showing the ant iquityof the legend here they are called by the name Of

Caill Crinmon,i.e. haz els Ofscientific composit ion [of

poetry] from coll, haz el pl . willorwill and they aredefined as haz els from which come a new composit ion.

According to other accounts there was a fountain Oi - thiskind at the source ofevery chief river ofIreland .

ChiefPoet ’sMantle.—Cmstate occasions the chief poet

ofall Ireland wore a precious mantle elaborately orna

mented,called lugen or taiden, and sometimes stuigen. In

the Book ofRights(p . i t is stated that a knowledgeof the privileges Of the king of Cashel will always befound with the chief poet ofthe Gael , together with thewiden. Cormac ’s Glossary (p . 160) derives lugen fromtoga but it gives an alternat ive derivat ion which explainshow this mantle was made Otherwise tuigen is derivedfrom twigs

- en. the tm’

ge or covering [ofthe feathers] ofbirds [én] for it is Ofskins Ofbirds white and many

coloured that the poets’ mantle from their girdle down

wards is made,and ofthe necks ofdrakes and Oftheir

crests [i t is made] from their girdle upwards to theirneck .

Poet ’s Musical Branch — All classes of poets wereaccustomed to carry a l ittle musical branchTover theirhead which tinkled as they went along . That carried byan Ollave was ofgold that by an anruth ofsi lver whileall lower classes had a branch ofbronz e }:

Poet on Horseback — An oilava or éces rode on horsebackon his journeys, so that a horsewhip (echlaisc) was lookedupon as an essent ial for him , just as a gipne or cuppinghorn was for a doctor. A man who had an act ion againsta poet might distrain his horsewhip , leaving it with him

O’

Curry, Man. Cust .,I . 143 .

1For the musical branch see page 586, infra .

I O’

Curry ,Man. Cust .

,II . 316 : LL. 186

,a, 3g

448 RELIG ION,LEARN ING , AND ART [PART II

st ill,but with an injunction that he was not to use it

(see p . 203, supra), which was understood to reduce himto helplessness , inasmuch as he could not ride withouta whip .

*

Fill and Bard— The word fili or file was appliedto the highest orders Of poets : also o ften called éces

aikas] . Both words signifxr a poet but are generally

understood to mean much more : not only a poet but a

learned man in general— a philosopher. In Ireland therewas in ancient t imes a marked distinct ion between a file

and a bard . The word bard does not occur as the

designation of any one of the ancient leading poet icaldegrees : but it was in common use to denote an inferiorsort Of poet . A bard was considered a mere rhymer,

having neither the training nor the knowledge ofa file.

The dist inct ion is not iced by the writer Ofthe Book of

Rights - [The rights and privileges Of the kings ] are

not known to every prat t l ing bard(ba’rd bélghach) it isnot the right ofa bard ,

but the right Ofa file, to knoweach king and his right . 1 The posit ion ofa bard is

clearly stated in the Sequel to the Cri th Gabhlach :

“

A bard is one without lawful learning but his own

intellect : I that is to say, one who had no regulartraining— such as was recognized by law— but became a

rhymer by his nat ive talent , l ike Robert Burns or OwenRoe O

’

Sullivan, who ,if they had lived in Ireland a

thousand years ago ,would no doubt have been looked

down upon as mere bards by the highly- trained files or

ollave poets. In the statement of the twelve years’

course in the Book ofOllaves, the bard is recognisedO fficially ; for it is laid down that in the seventh yearwas taught the bardism ofthe bards (see p . so

that a man who had mastered the seventh year’s course

Br. Laws,II . 12 1

,top .

1Book ofRights , IS3 see a lso Kilk . Arch . journ.,1868

, pp . 287, 288.

I Br. Laws , Iv . 361, u .

450 RELIGIUR, LEARN ING ,AND ART [PART 11

them‘all for~some t ime with lavish hospitality ,

'

and on

the ir departuret o preoent the Ollave with some valuablepresent for his poetry especially one part icular preparedpoem eulogising the chief himsel f, which was to be recitedand presented immediately on the poet

’

s arrival .‘

The poet had also a right to entertainment in the

houses ofpublic hospitality] Somet imes an ollave poet ,instead ofgoing in person, sent round one ofhis principalpupils as deputy , with his poetry , who brought

'

home to

him the rewards ; as in the case ofDub thach and Fiacc

mentioned below. W hen a poet ofone ofthe six inferior

grades.

went on visitat ion, he was allowed a ret inue according to his rank , who were to be entertained with him . For

example, an unruth , being next to the ollave, had a com

pany of twelve : a doss had four : and a fochluc, the

lowest qual ified poet , had two : This remarkable custom ,

which is constantly ment ioned in Irish writings of all

kinds, existed from the most remote pagan t imes.0

The right ofpoets to be entertained and paid for theirpoems on these occasions was universally acknowledged ;and few persons had the courage to break through the

custom for i t was considered disgraceful to refuse a poet '

his guerdon. Even the early Christian missionaries, and

the Danes, and st ill later the Anglo -Normans,fell in with

the custom . A well - marked example, occurring in the

first hal f ofthe fifth century ,is recorded incidentally in

the ‘ancient L ives,ofSt . Patrick . The saint having con

verted the chief poet , Dub thach ,asked him to recommend

a manwhom he might consecrate to religion. Dub thach

repliedJthat the only man . he .knew that was l ikely to

‘

answer was one Ofhis own disciples named Fiacc : butthat hewas just then absent in Connaught , whither he

For instances ofcuairls,or circuits

,

’

and payments,see O

'

Curry,‘

Man. 85 Cust .,I . 99 , 100 ,

103, 129 : Petrie, Round Towers, 354 : Trom~

damh ,in Trans. Oss. Soc.

,v . 11

,I 5 , 113 : Silva 420 ,

1' For these,

houses, see vol: II . p .

t Br Law'

s, 1v335

'

7, 359 , 3GI

CHAP. x1] LEARNING AND‘

EDUCATION 451

had been sent by Dub thach with poetryfor the kings of

that province.

’

Fiacc, having returned soon after,‘

was

baptised by St . Patrick ; and he became a dist inguishedIrish saint , well known in ecclesiastical history as .St .

Piace,bishop ofSleaty. The same Lives record another

example Ofpayment for poetry— legendary ,but ofequali

ant iquity— as occurring among the saints themselves. St

Sechnall ofDunshaughlin in Meath made a hymn im

honour ofhis uncle St . Patrick , and on present ing it to.

him,demanded payment for it according to custom

There was a l ittle huckstering between the two saintsbut in the endSechnallaccepted as payment this favourthat whoever recited the last three verses ofthe hymn withproper disposit ions, morning and evening each day,

wouldgain heaven in the end.

* And numerous examples mightbe cited where Irish poets went on visitat ion among theGalls or Danes, and got wel l paid for their poetryn,

L

From the fi fth century— and indeed from a muchearl ier time— down through all periods Of our history ,

instances could b e quoted . The last poetical ouairi thatI can find any record of occurred in the year 1808

,when

a poet named O ’

Kelly The Bard O ’

Kelly, as he styledhimsel f— made a circuit ofConnaught , visit ing the housesofthe leading gentlemen to extort subscriptions

, and at

the end ofit , wrote a doggerel poem in English— not Without vigour— oi which I have a printed copy. All the

families he visited are ment ioned , most with praise as theygave him money ,

but some with scurrilous abuse becausethey had the spiri t to refuse him q

‘

,

The Satire — The grand weapon ofthe poets, by whichthey enforced their demands, -was the aer or sat iresomet imes called groma(Corm . A satire or lampoonis unpleasant enough under any circumstances. But an.

Trip . Life, 385TFor instances, see Petrie, Round Towers, 353 : Atkinson, Intro ~

duction to LL, 40 ,b,verse at top .

1Scot t inet him in Limerick in 1825(Lockhart ’s Life, ed. 1900 , 1v., 301)


Irish sat irical verse was , I suppose , the most venomousever invented for it had— as the people believed— some

baleful preternatural influence for infl ict ing mischief,physical or mental : so that i t was very much dreaded.

A poet could compose an aim that would blight crops,

dry up milch - cows , raise a ferb or bolg, i.e. an ulcerousblister, on the face,

*and what was perhaps worst ofall

,

ruin character and bring disgrace. The dread of thesepoet ical lampoons was as intense in the t ime ofSpenseras it was eight centuries before, as is shown by his words

(View, 120) None dare d isplease them [the poets] forfeare to runne into reproach thorough their offence

,and

to be made infamous in the mouthes ofallmen.

W e have already seen (p . 240) the use ofthe maledictorv incantat ion called a gldm

- diokana by sorcerers :this term was also applied to some at least ofthe externpore sat ires pronounced by poets— as poets and not as

sorcerers. Before the second Bat tle ofMoytura, whenthe various leading professional Dedannans were askedwhat help they could give in the battle , the filé or poet

(as dist inguished from the sorcerer, who is also named)promised , on behal f ofhis class, to make a glam

- dicherm

on the Fomorian enemies, which would sat irise and

shame them ,and take away their power ofresistance.1

This applicat ion also appears from the following in

stances, in which the terms aer and gldm- a

’ic/zerm are

used to denote the self- same satire. The two sons of

Aithirne, the venomous Ulster poet , who were themselvespoets , made improper proposals to Luaine, Concobar

MacNessa’

s young queen, and threatened if she did not

yield to make a glam- dichenn on her : and the legend

goes on to say that on her refusal they made three rim :

Corm . 71 Ferb j Rev . Celt ., X II . 9 1.

1In YEL,178 , b , line 19 , their composit ions are ca l ledglam- diahann

and,in line 2 3, tri haera ,

three aers.

’

See a lso Atkinson’

s Contents to

same vol., p . 11. Who le story translated by Stokes, Rev . Celt . xx1v.


dichelal do chermib(p . 243 ,supra) : for the word dichenn

is the same in sense as do- chennz'

b, meaning‘ from the

[finger ends.

’

A poet could kill the lower animals by an aer. A

story is told ofSenchan Torpest , Chief poet ofIreland,

who lived in the seventh century ,that once when his

dinner was eaten in his absence by rats he uttered an der

on them in his il l - humour, beginning Rats ,though sharp

their snouts, are not powerful in battle ,

” which killed tenofthem on the spot .

"I Hence it was bel ieved , even downto late t imes , that the Irish bards could rhyme rats todeath which is often alluded to by Shakespeare and otherEnglish writers ofthe time ofElizabeth.1

'

A poet praised or sat irised as the occasion requiredand all poets could do both . This double function wasuniversally understood from the earl iest to the latest t ime,

and is clearly set forth by the commentator on the SenchusMen: when he states that one ofthe persons permitted tospeak in public before Patrick '

s t ime was a poet toe ulogise and to sat irise. And Cormac

'

s Glossary(p. 74)is qui te as clear when it derives fi/i, a poet .

’ from “

fl ,

poison in sat ire, and li,

splendour in pra ise. But

some poets devoted themselves almost exclusively to the

composition ofthe a’

er, and these came to be recognised

as professional satirists. A sat irist was commonly calledcainte but sometimes dul and rinnlaidh.§ W e occasionally meet with female sat irists, who were called barz- cdz

'

nte

(ban, as an adject ive prefix , meaning female

The Brehon Law laid down a penalty for an unjust

satire : the Crith Gabhlach repeatedly speaks offines of

so many séds for this offence” but apparently these pro ;

v isions had not much effect in restraining the violence of

Tromdarnh , 75'

and see the longand useful note beginning at 76.

1See a Paper on Rhyming Rats to Death ,

' by Dr. Todd Proc. Roy.

Ir. Acad.,v. 355 . 1Br. ,Laws, 1. 19 .

§ Corm . G loss, pp . 31, 58, 141. NBr. Laws

, 345, 347.

CHAP . x1] LEARNING AND'

EDUC’

ATION

the satirical poets. Cormac , in several passages ofhis

Glossary ,gives vivid expression to the hateful charaCteI‘

the sat irist bore in his t ime(ninth or tenth century). In

one place(p . the sat irist is “

unendurable for his harshness in another(p . he wounds each face [byraising blisters] : and in yet another (p . 31) cainte is

derived from canis , a dog,

’ because the satirist has adog ’

s head in barking , and alike is the profession theyfollow [snarl ing , barking , biting] . In a passage ofthe

Brehon Laws (III. 25, the cciz'

nte or satirist is classedamong people ofdisreputable character. In the t ime of

Elizabeth , an Irish sat irical poet named Aengus O ’

Dal'

y

commonly known as Aengus- nan- aer, Aengus of the

Satires,’ lampooned the Irish chiefs with the intent ion

ofturning them into ridicule— hired for his vile function:as was universally believed , by Lord Mountjoy and Sir

George Carew. He traversed the four provinces, and hada scurrilous verse for every chief he visi ted . All wentwell with him till he came to North Tipperary. Here,

at a banquet , he uttered some scurvy remarks aboutO

’Meagher, the chief ofIkerrin, on which one ofthe clanbecame so infuriated that he drew a skian or dagger and

brought Aengus and his scurrility to a sudden end. Thentherewas a deathbed repentance ; for when dying, the poet

uttered one more stanza, revoking all his villainous sayingsabout the Irish Chiefs. This poem has been translated andedited by O ’

Donovan,

* whose introduction gives a vastamount ofinformation regarding Irish sat ires and satirists.

General Character ofPoets —~Manyauthorit ies, amongthem C ,olgan bel ieve that the poets ofthe Christ ian t imes

were the direct representat ives ofthe drIiids ofthe old

pagan ages. As bearing out this opinion, it is certain‘

that— notwithstanding Columkillei

’

s ac'

t‘

ion asf irelated'

nextpage —the poets and the Christian ecclesiast ics are ,

oftenrepresented in our records as hosti le - to one

-

another, : a nd

In The Tribes '

oi Ireland

456 RELIGION . LEARN ING , AND ART [PART II

the ceremonies at the pronouncement— in Christ ian times

ofa gla’

m- dichemz by a poet were very pagan in Character.

All people,high and low, had a sincere admirat ion

and respect for these poets, and,so far as their means

permitted , will ingly entertained them and gave . thempresents. ofwhich we find instances everywhere in the

li terature : and the law made careful provision for dulyrewarding them and protecting them from injuries. But ,

as might be expected , they often abused their posit ionand privileges by um'

easonable demands , so that many of

them , while admired for their learning,came to be feared

and hated for their arrogance. Their rapacity gave riseto a well - known legend— ii legend it ism -recorded in

Cormac’

s Glossary (p . 21) and elsehwere,

* that they hada caldron of greed , called a boge, made of gold or

silver, weighing twelve ounces, which they carried aboutsuspended by little chains offindruine from the tops of

their spears. Into this every person who gave them any

thing put the donat ion.

Their oppression became so intolerable that on threeseveral occasions in ancient t imes— at long intervals— the

people ofall classes rose up against them and insisted on

their suppression. But they were saved each time by theintervent ion ofthe men ofUlster. The last occasion of

these was at the convent ion ofDrum - Ketta in the year

574 ,during the reign ofAed MacAinmirech , ] when the

king himself and the greater part ofthe kings and chiefsofIreland determined to have the whole order suppressed ,

and the worst among them banished the country. But

St . Columkille interposed with a more moderate and a

better proposal , which was agreed to through his greatinfluence. The poets and their followers were greatly,

reduced in number : strict rules were laid down for the

See Three Ir. G loss,Pref. lviii : and Rev . Ce lt .

,xx . 423.

1One ofthe circumstances that brought on this crisis was their in

solent demand ofthe roya l wheel - brooch , for which see p. 59 , supra .

458 RELIGION , LEARNING , AND ART [PART 11

some obscure, half- forgotten old poem, sometimes an

"

effusion composed on the spot , in which case the secondpoet was expected to give, extemporaneously, a secondhal f ofthe same length , prosody , and rhyme, and makingcont inuous sense. This pract ice was common amongother ancient nat ions as well as among the Irish and

according to Stokes (Acallamh, p . 304) i t st ill prevails inPortugal and India . In Ireland it was believed that a

true poet never failed to respond correctly, so that this

was a test often applied t o expose a poetical pretender.

On one occasion St . Cummian repeated two l ines ofpoetry to his half- brother Comgan (see p . 224, supra)on which Comgan, without a moment ’s hesitat ion

, com

posed and repeated two l ines which completed the

quatrain and carried on the sense in perfect rhythmand rhyme. This is a translat ion of the completequatrain, which is on the subject ofsmith- work]

GUMMIAN.

The pincers grasps the glowing iron- bar

Down comes the ponderous sledge with thundering sound

GO M GAN.

Sparkles in showers are flying near and far

The bellows plays a murmuring tune all round. I

So generally cult ivated , and so universally admired,

was this talent for impromptu reply, that in the

ecclesiast ical legends some of the Irish saints .are

See Corm . G loss.,138 ,

Stokes ’

s no te : and Mae Conglinne, 136.

1Todd'

s Book of'

Hymns, 90 . For other instances,see Tromdamh

,

117, 119 : and Rev . Celt .,x11. 460 .

1In the original Irish ,the second two lines correspond with the first

two in rhyme and rhythm ,something like the English rendering above

,

so that in view ofthe contest . a litera l t ransla tion appears point less

The pincers grasps the black - red bar

Upon which fa l ls the ponderous sledge

Sparkles fly upon every side

The bel lows plays [a tune] all round.

CHAP . x1] LEARNING AND. EDUCATION 459

credited with as much proficiency as the best of the

poets. According to a legend in an ancient MS.

referred to by O ’

Donovan, St . Columkille, walking oncewith some companions, met the

'

devil disguised as

a respectable- looking gentleman and not knowing at

first who he was, fell into conversat ion with him . After

an agreeable chat , the gentleman challenged the saint

to a trial of poetical skill , and propounded the firstl ines of several hard old ranns

,or verses, which

Columkille Correctly completed in every case. It was

now the saint ’s turn, and he recited some devot ionalhalf verses which puz z led and silenced Satan— who was

not well versed in that sort ofl iterature— and what wasworse, showed up who he was plainly in sight of all ;

so that he became quite ashamed ofhimself, and sneakedoffwith his tail between his legsf“

This practice held its ground among theIrish - speakingpoets t ill recent t imes. Two poets hardly ever met withouta playful contest of W it— always in Irish : and theseencounters were l istened to W ith the utmost del ight bythe peasantry. who to this day,

In the southern count ies,retain in memory many ofthe brill iant repartees ofOwenRoe

'

O’

Sullivan, Andrew Magrath , and other witty poetsofthe eighteenth century .

6. Honours andRewards for Learning.

In many other ways besides those indicated in the

preceding part Ofthis chapter the people, both high and

low, manifested their admirat ion‘

for learning , and theirreadiness to reward its professors. From the

'

period of

myth and romance down to recent,

t imes, we trace a

succession oflearnedmen in all the professions, to whomthe Irish :

annals accord as'

honoured plaCes as t hey ? doto kings and warriors. An ollave sat

,next the king at

O’

Donovan in Corm . G loss.,138, note at

'top. f g;


table : he was privileged to wear the same number of

colours in his clothes as the king and queen, namely six,

while all other'

ranks had fewer. The same dire, or

dignity - fine (p . 208 , supra), was allowed for a king , a

bishop ,and an ollave poet and they had the same joint

at dinner, namely , the lam e or haunch .* The several

grades oflearned and professional men were on a level ,in body - fine and social rank , with the chieftain grades.

The fer- legian(or druimcli, p . 416, supra), or, as he was

often called ,the sai—litre, doctor ofl iterature,

’

ranked withthe chief or king of a tuath : his tanist or intendedsuccessor with an aire- ard : the forcetlaid,

professor,’

or

‘ teacher,’ with the lowest rank ofaire-forgaill : and the

Ham id/I or historian,

’ with the az’

re- dessa .T W e have seenthat a king kept at his court an ollave ofeach profession,

who held a very high posit ion,and had ample stipends :I

and once a family was selected to supply Ollaves to the

king they were freed from the customary tribute.§The general tendency to honour learning is shown also

by the recognised practice ofkings to promote to positionsofhonour and trust those who had been their tutors inearly life. For example, when Aed Ordnidhe [Ordnee]became king of Ireland , A.D. 797, he made his tutorFothad of the Canon— not only his chief poet but histrusted adviser in state affairs. And when Brian Borucame to the throne ofMunster, A.D. 976, he appointedas his secretary and confidential adviser, MaelsuthainO

’

Carroll, a dist inguished lay scholar, chief sage of

Ireland , who had been his tutor at the College ofInnisThis venerat ion for poets and other learned men

Br. Laws,1. 41, 49 , ,5, ,6,

1Petrie, Tara ,208

,note 3 Br. Laws

,v . 103 . For the above chief~

tain designat ions see pp. 156—159 , supra.

1For a particular examp le ofthe emoluments ofa court ollave,see

vol. p . 292 .

§ Hy Many, 63, in case ofthe Clann Aedhagain.

O’

Curry, Man. Cust .,I . 177. See this Maelsuthain mentioned at

page 504 farther on.


seated according to rank after which each learned man

was presented with a valuable gift : and the names

ofall present were entered in a roll by G illa- na- Neeve

MacEgan, chief brehon to O’

Conor, the lady’

s

Perhaps the most signal instance in the Irish recordsofthe respect for learned men ofhigh character, and of

the confidence reposed in them , is the fact that on the

death ofthe high king Malachi in 1022 , as there happenedto be then no claimant for the throne of Ireland , the

government ofthe country , pending the election ofa king,

was placed in the hands oftwo eminent men, who actedas joint regents, Cuan O

’

Lochain, a layman, the mostdist inguished poet and scholar ofhis day, and Corcran

the cleric ofLismore , the head ofthe west ofEuropefor piety and wisdom , as the Four Masters style him .

This event is recorded in the Book ofLeinster, which wastranscribed a litt le more than a century after the death of

Corcran, in the annals ofClonmacnoise, as well as in manylater authorit ies ] This, however, is the only recordedinstance of such a devolut ion. But among the minorkingdoms the appointment ofa regent during an interregnum must have been a usual occurrence, as we learnform the words ofCormac ’s G lossary (p . 22) Everytime there is no king in the tuatlzs [or smaller kingdoms

p . 42,supra] , it is a brathchaei [braukee] that serves on

them for administering local law.

” From this we learnthat a regent was called a bra

’

lhehaei and the words seemto imply that a brehon or judge was usually appointed tothe post . .

But all this respect for the poet was conditional onhis observance of the rules ofhis order, .one ofwhichwas to maintain a high personal character for dignity and

integrity. The Senchus MO1 lays down that a fraudulent3 From Joyce ’

s Short Hist . ofIreland, p . 338 see Ir. Archaeol .Misc ,

vol. I ., p .- 227 : and FM ,

A .D. 1451.

TLL,2 6

, _a,2 0 : Trip, Life, 525 : ,

O'

Curry, Man. Cust .,I . 137

Ogyg.,I II . xciv .

LEARNING AND EDUCATION .1 463

poet may be degraded i.e. a poet who mixes up falsehood with his compositions, or who composes an unlawfulsat ire, or who demands more than his due reward .

* A

poet , i.e. one belonging to the recognised.grades, was

obliged ,according to an ancient rann or verse quoted by

DualdMacFirbis, to have

Purity ofhand,bright without wounding,

Purity ofmouth,without poisonous satire

,

Purity of learning, W ithout reproach ,

Purity ofhusbandship (i.e. fidelity to his marriage vows).T

FIG . 122 .

The Colledge, Youghal, as drawn by Bluely , time ofCha rles II. Fomided and

richly.end ed by Thomas Fitzgerald, the Grea t Earl ofDesmond. in the fifteenthcentury. An example ofthe Anglo -Normans’ encouragement oflearning. (SecJoyce, Short Hist . ofIreland, 341, 342. From Kilk.

'

Arch. Joum :for 1862 -

3 . p .

The Anglo-Norman lords, after they had settled down.in Ireland , became as z ealous encouragers ofGael ic learning as the nat ive nobility ,

so that the Geraldines, theButlers, the Burkes, the Keat ings, and

thought , and wrote - in the .Gaedhlic, and stored theirl ibraries with choice and expensive volumes in thatlanguage.

”

1 They kept -moreover in their service ollave’

s

ofevery profession, brehons, physicians, &c., andremunes

rated- them in princely style like the nat ive chiefs ; andthey often founded or endowed colleges

Br. Laws, 1. 55 . 59 , T0’

Curry ,MS.Mat

,220

30 Curry, MS.Mat ,6.

404 RELIGION , LEARNING , AND ART [PART I!

7 . TheKnowledge ofScience.

The pure and physical sciences , so far as they wereknown in the middle ages , were taught in the schoolsand colleges ofIreland . W e have seen(p . 435) that theprofessors ofthe fi fth grade had to master arithmet ic andastronomy , which in fac t meant the whole circle ofscience.

These, ofcourse, they taught to their pupils ; and more

advanced scient ific studies were followed up by the two

grades above them . The success ofthe home teachingappears plain from the dist inct ion gained by severalIrishmen on the Cont inent for their knowledge of

astronomy , as wil l be pointed out farther on knowledgenot acquired abroad , but brought from their nat iveschools.

The Irish scholars understood astronomy accordingt o the Ptolemaic system , which they universally adopted .

Ofthis knowledge many indicat ions appear in the ancientl iterature ; and we have st ill several ancient treat ises inthe Irish language, well illustrated with astronomicaldiagrams ; though they appear to have been in con

siderable measure Copied or translated from foreigntreat ises. In the first poem of the Saltair- na-Rann,

written probably about A.D. 1000, is an account ofthe

creat ion of the world , with a short descript ion of the

universe ,showing a knowledge of the theories— some

right , some wrong— then prevalent . The earth is statedto be l ike an apple, goodly , truly round . The names

ofthe seven planets are given Saturn, ] oib, Mereuir,

Mars, Sol, Uenir, Luna the distances ofthe moon,

the sun, and the firmament , from the earth : the firma

ment is round the earth as the shell is round the egg :

the signs of the z odiac with their names in order, and

the correct month and day when the sun enters each :

the sun is 30 days 10; hours in each sign : the five

z ones— north and south frigid, and two temperate, with

400.RELIGION ,

LEARNING , AND ART [HARP ER

(p. who wrote his Essay on the ' wonders of the

Bible, while residing at Carthage. Treating ofJoshua’

s

miracle ofthe sun and moon, he brings In the lunar cycle;19 , the solar cy cle,

28 , and the great cycle '

combining'

both ,28 x 19 532 . He says that the tenth great

cycle ended A.D. 120 , and the eleventh in his own t ime120 532 652 . He remarks incidentally that in thisyear,

652 , Manichaeus the W ise — a wel l- known and

dist inguished Irish ecclesiast ic— died in Ireland : a statement that agrees exactly with the Irish home records, oneof the remarkable test imonies to their truthfulness (seep . 516,

infra). He adds that the year in whicli‘

h e was

writ ing was the third year of the twelfth gréat ucycle ;

which enables us to fix the correct date, A.D.

The'

Irish writers were wel l acquainted with the

so lstices, which they called by the descript ive nat ive Irish

name grien- tairisem— so given in the eighth or ninth

century gloss in Zeuss — meaning sun- standing .

’

In the annotat ions to the Feilire ofAengus (p . 106, n

it is correctly stated that one grian- tairisem occurs

on the z I st June. They had'

a nat ive name for the

autumnal equinox(z rst September) which was descriptiveand scientifically correct Deiseabhaz

’

r na grene [Deshoor

na- grena] , l iterally the southing or going south by the

{i.e. going south of the equinoct ial), from deis,

south .

’

In the Life ofSt . Senan in the Book ofLismore,we read that at the t ime ofhis birth , his mother happened

to be alone in the garden [rid deiseabkair na grene’

r

about the autumnal equinox or, as Colgan translatesit

,tempore authumnali and as making the meaning

still clearer, i t is said , a few l ines farther on in the Li fe,that Senanwas born z

'

tus flzoghamhaz'

r,‘

in the beginning

of Foghamhar here meaning , not‘

autumn,’

its usual significat ion,but

‘

the last month ofautumn, z e.

Reeves in Procr‘

Roy . Ir. Acad.,V II: 516 .

TStokes, Lives ofSS.,line 1885 ,

“

and Pref. ciii.

CHAP . x1] LEARN ING AND EDUCATION 467

October(Corm . 74) so that the two entries agree. . I do

not know if there was a corresponding term for the vernalequinox . All this shows that they understood the ap

parent annual mot ion Ofthe sun along the ecliptic , halfthe year north , and the other hal f south ofthe equinoctial ,and that at the autumnal equinox it enters on the southpart of its course. 80 also,

the real movement of the

moon,and the apparent mot ion of the sun,

round the

earth— both from west to east— were wel l understood, as

appears from a remark ofone ofthe schol iasts on Dallan’

s

Amra on Columkille,

” that the moon is before the sun

from the first to the fi fteenth [ofthe moon’

s age] , and

after the sun from the fifteenth to the a perfectlycorrect statement TA small col lection ofIrish glosses, first publ ished by

M . B’

Arbois de Jubainville— found by him on a singleleaf inside the cover ofa manuscript in the l ibrary Of

Nancy— and interpreted by M . Henri Gaidoz j, shows howcarefully the ancient Irish studied chronology and the

astronomical phenomena that determined the severalcycles and dates. This collect ion has been assigned byDe Jubainville to the ninth century. The following are

the interpretat ions ofM . Gaidoz , from which it appearsthat the entries formed a sort ofTable ofContents to a

Treat ise on the Calendar

To ascertain what is the day Ofthe week on which are the calendsofJanuary .

To ascertain what is the age ofthemoon on the calends ofJanuary.To ascertain the epact on the calends of [each of] the twelve

months.

To ascertain the age ofthe moon on the 11th day Ofthe calendsofApril , through the year ofthe Incarnation.

”

There are two others, which are imperfect , and need

not be quoted . See also, Stokes andStrachan,Thes. II . 41.

Rev . Celt .,xx . 259.

1Old Irish , re esca,and luan

,the moon : modern

, gealach, meaningwhitish .

’

1In Proc. Roy . Ir. Acad.,x . 70 .


Irish scholars understood the use and construct ion of

the sundial , for which two words were used , solam,which

is a nat ive term ,and soda ; which is borrowed and

shortened from the Lat in solarium, a sundial .’ Soik r

explains solarium in the G losses on Lat in Declension,

edited by Stokes(p . 91, NO . 740) while in Zeuss(771, 15 }the same word solarium is glossed by solam. Besides thisthere is a small Irish MS. book in the monastery ofSt .

Gal l in Switz erland , writ ten by some scholarly Irish monkresiding there in the eighth century, containing remarkson various scientific subjects, such as the Oriental Cycle,the age ofthe world and among others on the sundial .‘

All this shows that with these Old Irish writers the sun

dial was a familiar Object .V irgil or Virgilius, abbot ofAghaboe in the present

Queen’

s County , who went to the Continent A.D. 745 , and

became bishop OfSalzburg , was one ofthe most advancedscholars ofhis day. Pepin, Mayor ofthe Palace, subse

q uent ly king ofFrance, became greatly attached to him ,

and kept him in the palace for two years. Virgil taughtpublicly— and was probably the first to teach— that theearth was round , and that people l ived at the oppositeside— at the Antipodes. His Irish name was Fergi

’

l, which ,

in a modified form , is common in Ireland to this dayand he is commonly known in history as

Fergil the Geometer.TW e have a remarkable test imony to the reputat ion of

Irishmen on the Cont inent for secular and other learningin those early ages, in the well - knownletter written to

Charlemagne by the Irish monk Dungal, which cameabout in this way. It having been stated that two solareclipses had occurred in one year, A .D. 810 ,

the emperorselected Dungal , who happened to be then in France,

Kel ler, in U lst . Journ. Archaeo l ., vm . 294 .

(For an account of this great scho lar, see Lanigan, Eccl. Hist .,Virgilius,

”in Index .


among them Osbern, the author ofa L ife ofSt . Dunstanthat they were skilled in every department oflearning,sacred and profane and that under them were educatedmany young English nobles, sent to Glastonbury with‘

that Object . Among these students the most dist inguishedwas St . Dunstan,

who, according to all his biographers,

received his educat ion, both scriptural and secular, fromIrish masters there. One writer of his L ife

, W illiamofMalmesbury , states that Dunstan studied diligentlyarithmet ic , geometry , astronomy and music

,under Irish

t eachers, and adds that these sciences were held in greatesteem and were much cult ivated by them .

"l

The age of the moon (aes ésm ) is ment ioned in

Cormac’

s G lossary , as well as in many other ancientauthori t ies, as a mat ter q uite familiar so much so thatas already remarked (p . 465)— every well - informed personwas supposed to know the moon

’

s age for each day, and

ofcourse the method Ofcal culat ing it . Even the generalmass ofintell igent people made use ofsimp le astronomicalo bservat ions in daily l ife Cuculainn, sit t ing at a feastsays to his attendant GO out , my friend Loeg , observethe stars ofthe air, and ascertain when midnight comes

rwhen Cuculainn would have to leave] . And Loeg didso, and came back at the propermoment to announce thatit was midnight t This record shows that all intelligentpeople ofthose t imes could roughly estimate the hour of

night throughout the year by the posit ion ofthe stars— as

indeed I have known intel ligent peasants ofmy own t ime

Ible t o do a sort ofobservat ion not at all simple, inasmuch as the posit ions of the stars at given hours changefrom month to month.

These are a few i llustrat ions— scat tered and fragmentary indeed— ofthe eminence ofancient Irish scholarsin science. But the materials for fi nal judgment are not

Kel ler,in U lst . Journ. Archaeo l ., viii. 2 18. See also, on all this

,

Lanigan,Eccl . H ist .

,III . 395 .

'

TMesca Ulad,

GHAP.- x11] IRISHCLANG LITERATURE i

471

yet available : they are still - hidden away inmanuscripts

among libraries all over E urope. W hen they are fully

b rought t o l ight , then,and not t ill then,

we shall b e able"

to accord something approaching the'

full meed ofjust ice

tot he learned men ofancient Ireland .

CHAPTER X II

IRISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

SECTION 1. Divisions andDialects ofCellic.

Dialects — There are two main branches of

the ancient Celt ic language — The Goidelic,

or Gael ic , or Irish and the Brit ish ; corresponding with the two main divisions Ofthe

Celt ic people ofthe Brit ish Islands. Each

of these has branched into three dialects.Those of Gael ic are — The Irish proper,

spoken in Ireland ; the Gael ic ofScotland , differing onlyslightly from Irish ; and the Manx , which may be said:

to be Irish written phonet ically with some dialecticalvariat ions. The dialects ofBrit ish are z— W elsh

, Spokenin W ales Cornish ,

spoken t ill lately in Cornwall ; and

Breton or Armoric , spoken in Brittany . The dialects of

Brit ish differ among themselves much -more than. do

those .Oi Goidel ic : they should indeed be reckonedrather distinct languages than dialects, though Zeussincludes all three under the designation z : Britannic .

Their wide divergence as compared with . the dialects of

Goidel ic is explained : by the fact that W elsh, Cornish,

’

and Armoric flowed . independently from the commonsource very far back in t ime, while both the Manx and‘


t he Scotch Gael ic branched off from Irish Gaelic at a

comparat ively late period . Of the whole six dialects,five are st ill Spoken ; the Cornish became extinct in the

eighteenth century ; and Manx is nearly extinct . Four

have an ancient wr itten l iterature - Irish , W elsh , Cornish.and Armoric. Neither the Gael ic ofScotland nor the

Manx has an ancient literature dist inct from that of

Ireland but Scot land has a l iving modern literaturefrAll these are derived from the Gaul ish or Cont inentalCel t ic , which in the course ofages , since the separationofthe original Gaulish emigrant tribes, has diverged intothe two branches and the six dialects named here.

Three Divisions ofIrish — Irish , l ike all other l ivinglanguages, has undergone great changes in lapse oftimeso that in fact the writ ten language ofeleven or twelvehundred years ago, ofwhich many specimens have beenpreserved ,

is now all but unintelligible to those who can

read only modern Irish . The changes are —In vocabu

lary ; in spelling ; and in inflections. Numberless wordshave dropped out ofuse, while others have been introduced, chiefly from other languages : many ofthe wordshave changed their spelling : and some ofthe old inflec

t ions have been dropped and their places supplied , eitherby other inflectional forms or more commonly by pre~

posit ions and auxil iaries, so as to render the languagemore analyt ic , as in the case ofEnglish .

It is usual to divide Irish , as we find i t wri tten, into

As il lustrat ing this sta tement -The count less Gaelic passages andwords q uoted by Zeuss throughout his Grammatica Celtica from manuscripts writ ten ia the seventh ,

eighth ,andninth centuries , are all, W ithout

exception,marked by him— what they rea l ly are Hibernian.

1For modern Scottish Gaelic literature, see Maclean’

s Literature Of

the Celts . chap . xiv . st seq . Modern Irish Gaelic literature is very ful lytreated ofin Dr. Hyde

’

s Literary Hist . ofIrel. In Ireland a vigorous

at tempt is just now beingmade to t e- create a livingwrit ten Gaelic literature

,and to extend the use ofthe Spoken Irish language. There is a move

ment a lso— fo l lowing the examp le of Ireland— to revive Manx and

Cornish .

474 (RELIGION , LEARNING , AND ART {RART 11

Numbers of these interesting manuscripts,their pages

all crowded with glosses, are preserved to this day in

many Cont inental libraries, mostly wr itten in Ireland,

and brought away to save them from destruction -(seep . 489 ,

iii/m)— but some written on the Cont inent : and

in them are found older forms ofIrish than any we havein Ireland . Manv have been recently publ ished

, withthe Lat in words and passages, and the correspondingGael ic . Similar glosses in W elsh

,Breton

, and Cornishare also found but I am concerned here with Irish only.

It is chiefly by means ofthese glosses that the ancientgrammat ical forms ofthe language have been recoveredand the meanings ofnumbers ofIrish words , long Obsolete,have been ascertained from their Lat in equivalents.

It is interest ing to observe that here the originalintent ion is reversed . The scribe wrote the Gael ic , whichwas the language of his everyday life, to explain the

Lat in text . But while the Lat in,being then, as now, a

dead language ,has remained unchanged , the Gael ic has

suffered all those changes Spoken ofin page 472 , so thatthe Gael ic of the glosses is now in many cases difficultand Obscure. Accordingly , instead of the Gaelic ex

plaining the Lat in, we now use the Lat in to explain the

Gael ic .

.Zeuss. The first to make extensive used the glossesforthese purposeswas Johann Kaspar Zeuss, a Bavarian born1806 died 1856. He had a great talent for languages, andbegan the studyofthe Celt ic dialects about 1840 . Thenceforward he laboured incessantly, visit ing the l ibraries ,

ofSt . Gall , W urzburg , M ilan, Carlsruhe, Cambrai , and;

several Other cit ies, in all ofwhich there are manuscript.

books with glosses in the Celt ic dialects ; and: he copiedeverything that xsuited his purpose.

’

He .found the Irish

glosses by far the most ancient ,ofall.

’

-Most ofthem belonged , to t he sevent h'

;Or. eighthcentury some few~t o the beginning ofthe

’

ninth . At the

CHAP .

‘

X II] IRISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE 475

end'

Oi thirteen'

years he produced the great work of

his li fe, Grammat ica Celt ica , a complete Grammar ofthe

four ancient Celt ic dialects— Irish or Gaeli c , and the threeBrit ish dialects, W elsh ,

Cornish , and Armoric : published1853 . It is ‘

a closely printed book ofOver 1000 pages ;and it is all written in Lat in, except ofcourse the Celt icexamples and quotat ions. Each of the four dialects istreated ofseparately . In this work he proves that theCelt ic people ofthe Brit ish Islands are the same with theCeltae of the Cont inent ; and that Celt ic is one of the

branches of the Aryan or Indo - European languages,abreast with Lat in, Greek ,

the Teutonic languages, Sanscrit , (t o After his death a second edit ion

,with much

valuable addit ional matter, was brought out by anothereminent German Celtic scholar, H . Ebel .Zeuss was the founder of Celt ic philology . The

Grammacita Celt ica was a revelat ion to scholars,wholly unexpected and it gave an impetus to the study

,

which has been rather increasing than diminishing sincehis t ime. He made it plain that a knowledge Of the

Celt ic languages is necessary in order to unravel the earlyhistory ofthe peoples OfW estern Europe. Since the t imeofZeuss, many scholarly works have been written on Celt icphilology but the Grammat ica Celt ica st ill stands at

the head ofall.

Ancient Glossaries andGrammars— In consequence of

the gradual change of the Irish language it became

customary for. nat ive scholars of past times,skilled in

the ancient language, to write glossaries ofobsolete wordsto aid students in reading very ancient manuscripts.

Many ofthese are preserved in our old books. The

niost noted is Cormac ’s Glossary, ascribed to Arch

bishopCormac Mac Cullenan,king ofCashel , who died

A .D . 908 . It was translated and annotated by JohnO

’

DonOvan‘

;‘

and this translat ion and‘

the Irish :text , withmost notes, ,

have been published by

476 RELIG ION , LEARNING , AND ART [PART II

Dr. W hit ley Stokes.

* M ichael O ’

Clery , the chief oftheFour Masters, printed and published at Louvain, in 1643 ,

a Glossary of ancient and difficult Irish words, whichhas been edited and republished by Mr. W K . M illerin vols. iv and v. ofthe Revue Celt ique. Three IrishGlossaries, edited by Dr. Stokes

,with learned and

instruct ive introduction, contains those ofCormac and

O'

Davoren, and a third , namely , a Glossary to the FeilireofOengus, allwithout translat ion(but Cormac ’s G lossary,as stated above , has been translated in a separate volume).

MacFirb is and his master O'

Davoren compiled G lossariesofthe Brehon laws, which are sti ll extant and there are,

in Trinity College , copies made by MacFirbis ofseveralother glossaries. There is a very ancient treat ise on IrishGrammar, divided into four books, ascribed severally to

four learned Irishmen. Ofthese the latest was Kennfaela

the Learned ,who l ived in the seventh century , andwho is

set down as the author ofthe fourth book(see pp . 483 and

620, below). COpies ofthis tract are found in the Books of

Ballymote and Lecan but i t has never been translated.

But with all the aids at our command— glossaries,glosses, translat ions, and commentaries— there are manyIrish pieces in the books named below(p . 492) that haveup to the present defied the at tempts ofthe best Irish

NOTE ON CORMAc'

s G I.OSSARv .—In the Book ofLeinster, and by

universa l tradition,this G lossary is at tributed to Archbishop CormacMac

Cullenan,king ofMunster

,who died A .D. 908 . Dr. Whit ley Stokes con

siders the evidence insufficient to prove him the author : but says-

“

The

proofs adduced sufficient ly show that the greater part ofwhat is

commonly called Cormac’

s G lossary was writt en,ifnot in the time of

Cormac,at least within a century or so after his death (Three Irish

G lossaries, Pref. xviii). On this point wemust bear inmind that the ent ry

in the Book ofLeinster t ransmits a t radition that was old in 1160 , when

the book was writ ten : and, coupling this with the universa l beliefexpressed in our oldest writings—independent ly ofthe Book ofLeinsterit seems to me that we may accept the testimony in favour ofCormac

'

s

authorship. It wil l , I think , be found that many ancient classical andot her t exts are at tributed to certain authors on evidence not more satis

factory . I give these observations for what they are worth . I natural lyfee l that one ought l to be caut ious in q uestioning the opinion ofDr. Stokesin such a matt er as this.

478 RELIGION , LEARN ING , AND ART [PART II ,

sacred or devot ional subj ects. Scribes or copyists weretherefore

' "

mu'

ch honoured "

and the annalists, after men

tioning a man otherwise learned and eminent— whether,

bishop ,priest , or lay professor— considered it an enhance

ment to his dignity if they were able to add that he was ascribe. In the decrees ofsome Ofthe Irish synods thesame punishments are ordained for those who kill or injurea bishop , an abbot , or a scribe} ? One ofthe meri ts of

St . Columkille was his diligence in wri ting. The FourMasters ment ion sixty - one eminent scribes before the year

900 , forty ofwhom lived between the years 700 and 800ione ofthe indications that show the importance attachedto their Office and how highly they were esteemed .

There was at least one special scribe in every importantmonastery , who was selected partly for his scholarship and

part ly for his skil l in penmanship . These men, outsidetheir necessary religious dut ies and functions, devoted theirwhole t ime to Copying andmult iplying books. But besides

those specially appointed to this work ,the other monks

often employed themselves— l ike Columkille- ; in copying ,

when they could withdraw from their own dut ies. Scribes,

were very careful to test the correctness oftheir transcript,

especially if it was Scripture. Adamnan (p . 53) relatesthat Baithen,

one of the monks Of Iona, when he hadfinished copying a psaltery , asked Columba to let one of

the brethren look over it with him , to discover errors i fany : and accordingly the whole Copy was read throughbut only one Single letter was found to be wrong.

Vellum — Two chief materials were used in Ireland forwrit ing on z— Long , thin, smooth rectangular boards

.

or

tablets and vellum or parchment , made from the skins ofsheep ,

goats or calves,1which was the most usual and themost important material . Inscriptions were also carved

MacCarthy ,Textua l Studies, note § Stokes, Trip . Life,

'

clxxiy.

fMiss Stokes, Early Christian Art , 10 .

1See Corm . G loss ., p . 40 Cairt

CHAP .-x 11] IRISH LANGUAGE AND ‘

LITERATURE 479

.on stone,both in ordinary Irish letters and in Ogham .

[

The scribes had to -make all their own materials— tablets,vellum

,ink , and pens : or rather perhaps certain ‘ indi

viduals devoted themselves to this special work , who

Ithereby became skilful and expert .

Ink(Irish club or dubk,i.e. black pron. dhuo). .The

ink was - made from ‘ carbon without iron or any othermineral , as is shown by delicate chemical analysis. In

the more ancIent~MSS.

, a thick kind of ink was usedremarkable for its intense blackness and durabili ty : and

its excellence is proved by the fact that in most ofthe

very old books the writ ing is almost or altogether as blackas it was when written; more than a thousand years ago .

The writ ing in the Book ofArmagh — says Reeves

(Adamu . 359 ,note l) after 1050 years, is as black as i f

executed but yesterday.

The ink was kept in a l itt le vessel commonly madeof part of a cow ’

s horn, and therefore called udarota

or adircin [ey- arkeen] , meaning ‘ lit tle horn,

’ from micro

[ey- ark] , a horn.

’

Once, as we read in an Irish Life of

St . Columkille,*an awkward fellow came into the saint ’s

lit tle hut , and knocked over the adircin and spilled theink . The same incident is told in Adamnan’

s Lat in L ifein which the ink - vessel is called com iculum,

‘ li tt le horn,

the - exact equ ivalent OfadircinxjPom— The beauty , neatness, and perfect uniformity of

the handwrit ing in old Irish MSS. , have led some Englishant iquaries to express an opinion that the scribes usedmetallic pens but this Opinion is qu ite untenable. Kellerholds, and indeed shows ,

that their pens werem ade fromthe quills ofgeese , swans, crows, and other birds : and in

this he is followed by M iss Stokes }: The correctness

Stokes,Three Ir. ‘

Homilies,1-

2 1.

1For ink and inkhorn,see Keller

,in U lst . Journ. ofArchaeol

,VIII .

22 14 Miss.Stokes

,Early Christian Art , p . 8 and Adamu .

, 359 , note I.

1.Uist . Joum . ofArchaeoL,VIII '

222 Miss Stokes,Early ChristianArt , 9 .


of this content ion is proved by some pictures in Irishmanuscripts , as, for instance , in the representation ofSt .

John in the Book ofKells, * where the evangel ist engagedin writ ing his Gospel holds in his hand a pen, the featherofwhich can be Clearly perceived . The inkstand is alsorepresented as a simple slender conical cup [adarcin]fastened either to the arm ofthe chair, or upon a smallstick on the ground . There is a legend in the Irish Life“

OfSt . Molaise ofDevenish which goes to confirm all this :it is in a late manuscript (sixteenth century), which wasno doubt compiled from much earl ier authorit ies. Here

we read that on one occasion the saint was desirous of

Copying something out ofa book , but at the moment hadno pen : just then a flock ofbirds flew over his head ,

and one ofthem dropped a quill (rite, pron. etta), whichMolaise made into a pen and wrote out his copy.1

’ The

knife wi th which they cut the quil l pens is shown in one

ofthe eighth - century glossed MSS. from which Zeuss drewthe materials for his Grammat ica Celtica ,

” where is seena figure ofSt . Matthew the Evangel ist writing in a bookwhich lies in front ofhim , and holding in his left hand a

sort ofpenknife.;k

Support forMS.- The Old scribes sometimes wrote with

the book rest ing on the knees, having a smooth boardfor support . Duald Mac Firbis, wri ting in the year1650 , says of the history writ ten by the ancient Irishscribes that it was wri tten on their knees in books ,

which were preserved in his t ime in l ibraries.§ But whenthe writ ing was to be elaborate or ornamental , a deskwas used , and if necessary a maulst ick to support thewrist , as shown in fig. 124.

W oodenTab lets — The other materials for writing on

are called by various names z— Taibhli filid/z [tavila- filla] ,tablets ofthe poets tabhalllorga ,

tablet staves (lorg,Abbot t , Reproductions , Pl. xxxrv . 1

' Silva Gad.,23.

1Miss Stokes, Early Christian Art , 38. sO’

Curry,MS.Mat .

,2 17.


the sad history ofthe youth and maiden. In the storyof the Colloquy of the Ancients , King Dermot directsthat the lore told by the old man Cailte should be

written on tabhlorga filidh in the language ofthe ollavewhich was done. Several ofthese were commonly boundup together : and O

’

Curry conjectures they were kept inthe form ofa fan, held together by a pivot at one end,

so that they could be Opened out or closed up con

venient ]y .

* The characters were either written in ink or

cut in with a kni fe. Ogham , which consists of lines or

notches, was often cut in. The use oftablets for writ ingon was not pecul iar to the Irish for it is well known that ,before parchment came intogeneral use , the Romans , theJews , andother ancient nat ions inscribed their laws

,poems,

&c., on wooden tablets.1

’

The writ ing- tablets used by ecclesiast ics, which musthave been similar to the taz

’

bhlz'

filz’

dh, were commonlyknown by the name of prilairc (3 a term usedcollectively to denote a number of single staves.

' Thisword is derived from the Lat in pugz

’

llarz'

s (the g beingaspirated), which means much the same thing— a writingtabletJ

‘

,These t ablets, when not in use

,were kept in a

bundle t ied up with leather straps. During Palla’

dius’

s

brief visit to the east coast ofIreland , he founded threechurches, in one ofwhich ,

Cell - Fine(now Killeen Cormac ,for which see p . 315 supra), he left several relics, amongthem his fiallere or tablets on which he used to write.

Several of the old writers derive this word— no doub t

wrongly— from his name ; for they say i t means Pal

ladius’

s burden (Irish ere, a burden as if shortenedfrom Pallad- ere.§

Somet imes this tablet - writing was in ink ; but more

O'

Curry.MS. Mat ., 464 , 465 , 471, 473

t W are,Ant iq q .

,19 : O

’

Flaherty, Ogyg.,In . xxx.

I TriP. Life, 46 , 33 344 , 22.

§ Todd,St . Patk .

,294, 297, 509 : Trip . Life

, p . 31.

CHAP . x11] IRISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE 483

commonly the surface was covered with wax ,which was

written on with a metallic style : hence these tablets are

called cemculum (from cem , wax in the Lat in Lives of

the Irish saints. This custom ofwri ting on waxed tabletswith a style is often ment ioned in the Lives ofthe Saints,both Latin and Irish ,

as well as in the lay l iterature. In

the copy of the Uraicept in the Book of Lecan, the

following derivat ion ofthe Irish word lz'

ttem letters is

given Littera , from litum ,i.e. from the smoothing or

rubbing the ancients used to put on oldwaxed tablets [tomake them again smooth and fit for writ ing on] for i t ison these they first In a story about St . Ciaran

in his Irish Life, he is represented as writ ing on his waxedtablets, which are called in one place polaire- Chz

'

am z'

n

(Ciaran’

s tablets), while in two other places the wholecollect ion oftablets is called leabkar, i.e. a

W e may conclude that waxed tablets were used fortemporary purposes, such as taking notes ofa sermon

, or

other such memorandums. They were employed also byschoolmasters in old times for teaching their scholars theelements ofreading . Adamnan, in the seventh century,

ment ions that he inscribed certain writ ings at first (temporarily) on waxed tablets, and afterwards on vellum iThis temporary use is also implied in the full storyreferred to above about St . Ciaran’

s po’

laz'

re. For shorttemporary notes, a slate and pencil were also used

, as

they are at the present day, ofwhich we have an examplein the story ofCinnfaela the Learned. W hen he was at

the College ofTuaim Drecain(now Tomregan in Cavan),what he heard by day he wrote down roughly on slatesand tablets (a leacaz’b ocus 15 taiblib) ; but at night hetranscribed the entries into a vellum book .§ All l iterarymatter intended to be permanent was wri tten on vellumor parchment .

Kilk . Arch . Journ.,1868

, 303. I Adamn.,Pref. lviii.

1Stokes, Lives ofSS.,266. Bf Laws

,111 89


AND ART [PART‘II

I am not aware that any of the poets’ staves— the

{aibhle filz’

dh— have been preserved ; though Duald MacFirbis had a number ofthem in the seventeenth century .

*

But a book ofwaxed tablets, with the writ ing st illquite plain, was found under the surface near Magheraand presented to the Royal Irish Academy in 1845.Dr. Todd , who wrote a paper on this book

,proves that

the use ofwaxed tablets cont inued t ill the seventeenthcenturv.?The records show that the tablet - staves

, ofwhateverkind , were long and narrow : hence they are called in theFair ofCarman by the appropriate name ofslism

'

ge

[slishnee] , the plural form ofslisncch, a long narrow slit orboard ’

; (derived from the simple word slis, a narrow slitor thin board , cognate with Eng. slice). This is furtherborne out by a circumstance related in Muirchu’

s Memoirof St . Patrick .§ Once the saint and his companions,wi th their writ ing - tablets in their hands (cum tabulis in

mam’

bus scriptis), approached a group of the pagans of

Connaught , who mistook , or pretended to mistake , the

tablets for swords, so that they cried out that the visitorsshould be killed , as they came with swords in their handsto shed people’

s blood . This circumstance proves thatthey were ofconsiderable length ; which is also shown,

for the poets’

staves, by a regulat ion laid down in the

Brehon Law, that a poet might use his tabhall- lorg to

defend himself aga inst wicked dogs.”Petrie R. Towers,

”

336, 337) has shown that the word

pélmfre— to use his own words was applied , at least inlater t imes, to a satchel(flag) for books and he quotesa passage from an old Trinity College manuscript , inwhich ;bdlaire is explained liag liubaz

’

r, that is, a booksatchel . But the general meaning of the word was

Ogyg.,III . xxx . 1O

’

Curry , Man.& Cust ., II . 542 ,v . 58.

1Proc. Roy . Ir. Acad.,III . 99 . Trip . Life

, 300 .

[IO’

Curry ,MS. Mat .

, 471.


learning then known, and copies ofthe Lat in and Greekclassics. The Annals ofTigernach , who was abbot of

Clonmacnoise, and died in 1088, show that there was a

wel l - furnished library in that great monastery : for— to

use the words ofDr. Charles O’

Conor The quotat ionsfrom Lat in and Greek authors in Tigernach are verynumerous : and his balancing their authorit ies againsteach other shows a degree Of crit icism uncommon in

the age in which he l ived . W e often find ment ion'

of

the Tech- screptra (‘ house of which was

the Irish name ofthe library . The Four Masters record

at A.D. 1020 the burning ofArmagh , with all the fort ,without the saving ofany house in it except the l ibrary

(teach screptra) only , and [also were burned] theirbooks in the houses of the students. The school

libraries are not iced in a passage in the Book ofLeinster,

which represents Dallan Forgaill.

(sixth century) as

saying ,Among the schools with libraries (etir scoluz

’

b

screptra) thou hast read the mysteries ofthe Ro- sualt

(a monstrous sea - fish , for.which see vol. II. page

W here the l ibrary was extensive there was a special leabkarjcoimedach,

book - keeper or‘ l ibrarian ’ (Adamu., 359 ,

note m).Book - Satchels.— The books in a l ibrary were usually

kept , not on shelves, but in leather satchels, hung on pegsor racks round the walls each satchel containing one or

more manuscript volumes and labelled on the outside.

W hen Longarad ofSl ieve Margy, a most eminent scholarofthe sixth century , died , the book - satchels ofIreland

(ti’aga l’ebar Erenn) fell down [from their racks] on thatnight . Or [according to another account] i t is the

satchels wherein were books ofevery dén or science inthe cell where Columkille was that fell then : and

Columkille and everyone in that house marvelled , and

all are silent at the noisy shaking ofthe books. T The

LL,168

,a, 5 Silva Gad.

, 480 527, z , 1“ Feilire, I 4 I

CHAP . X II] IRISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE 487

falling of the books typified the loss learning sustainedby the death ofLongarad.

Satchels were very ' generally employed to carry booksabout from place to place. It was necessary for a

missionary priest to have always at hand books con

taining copies ofthe Gospels, offices. special prayers, &cwhich he brought with him on his j ourneys and studentsgenerally brought the few books necessary for theirstudies. Such books were almost always carried in a

satchel , which is'

everywhere called ifag,or fl ag lz

'

ubkaz’

r

a book It was made of leather, and was

commonly slung from the Shoulder, by one or more straps.

Adamann, who not ices this way ofcarrying books, callsthe bag pellz

'

ceus sacculus, a‘

little leatherPersons somet imes brought their books about in a

large pocket in the outer mantle above the waist - girdle.

~

In the Tripart ite Li fe(p . we read that St . Patri ck, one

t ime , met Six voung clerics and Six gill ies with them ,with

their books in their girdles (a llz'baz'r in a crz'

ss). But

he offered them the cushion- hide that he had sat and Slepton for twenty years to make a flag or satchel for theirbooks which they gladly accepted .

Manuscripts that were great ly valued were usually keptin elaborately wrought and beaut iful ly ornamented leathercovers ofwhich two are st ill preserved in Ireland , namely ,

the cover ofthe Book ofArmagh,described and figured in

Petrie’

s Round Towers (p . 332) —from which it has beencopied here- w and that ofthe shrine ofSt . Maidoc figuredin the same book (p . and fully described by M issStokes in Archaeologia. T According to Mr. W arren

Corpus M issal , p . this custom ofkeeping booksin leather cases was pecul iar to Ireland among western

For books carried in satchels see Stokes,Lives ofSS.

,230 : Mac

Congl., I o Adamn.,I I 5 , I I 6 and Miss Stokes

,Ancient Art

, 50 to 52 .

1' The design ofthis has been reproduced on the covers ofthe pub

lished Annals ofthe Four Masters.

RELIGION ,

- LEARN IN G , AND ART [PART II

countries : but was common in the East . For instance,

at the present day in the Abyssinian monastery ofSouriani

in Egypt , the books Ofthe l ibrary are enclosed in sacksfurnished with straps, and hung on pegs, exactly as

described above for Ireland.

*

FIG .

“

125.

Lea ther Cover ofthe Book ofArmagh (From Pet rie'

s Round TowersA lIt t Ie irregular

_on

'

account ofshrinkage.

Sometimes books were kept in a small case called16507 c/zomef book holder which appears to have beena box made part ly -

O r wholly of metals : for in the

Reeves,Adamn.

,115, 110.


AND ART [PART II

Three or four hundred y ears later(A.D. Mailmuri,the compiler and writer of the Book of the Dun Cow,

wrote on the top margin(LU , p . 55) this remark , partlyin Lat in, as was usual with the old scribes — Probatio

{Jennae Mailmurz'

mrc mu: Cuind m1 mBocht : A trial of

the pen ofMailmuri, son ofthe. son ofConn na mBocht

and st ill later(fourteenth century), the scribe ofthe LebarBrece wrote this marginal remark (on p . 60) z— Fromba

pz'

nd o FergalMac U z'

llz'

amfor in cuilmend oll A test ingofa pen by Fergal Mac W illiam on the large volume.

’

Scores ofthese venerable volumes are now found inCont inental l ibraries some no doubt writ ten by Irishmen

on the spot , but most brought from Ireland . M ichaelO

’

Clery,the chief ofthe Four Masters, writes, in 1631, in

the Preface to his Book ofInvasions Alas, Short wasthe t ime unt il dispersion and decay overtook the churchesofthe saints, their relics, and their books for there is notto be found ofthem [the books] DO W

'but a small remnantthat has not been carried away into foreign countriescarried away so that their fate is unknown from that

" t ime to this.“ Books were also O ften sent as pre

sentations from the monasteries at home to Cont inentalmonasteries founded by Irishment but ofsuch volumesit is pretty certain that there were always duplicates at

home. The consequence ofthis long - cont inued exportat ion ofIrish books is that there is now a vastly greaterquant ity ofIrish ofthe ninth and earl ier centuries on theCont inent than we have in Ireland .

After the Battle ofClontarf there was a breathingtime ; and scholars l ike MacKelleher, MacGorman, and

Mac Criffan:(pp . 493 , 495. infra) set to work to rescue what

Hyde, Lit . Hist .,266

,267. 1

' See Miss Stokes, Early ChristianArt , 37.I W e may, I suppose, count these three men the first gleaners of

scattered Gaelic lorewhosework has come down to us. From theirday to

the present there has been a.succession ofz ea lous scho lars who have madeit their business to co l lect and write down the fugitive and decayingfragments ofCeltic literature . An interesting sketch ofthose ofScot landwill

C HAP. X II] IRISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

was left ofthe old l iterature, collecting the scattered fragments and copying into new volumes everything that thevcould find worth preserving. Numbers ofsuch books werecompiled , and much ofthe learning and romance ofold

days was reproduced in the eleventh and twel fth centuries.

Notwithstanding the Danish devastat ions,many of the

original volumes also— writ ten long before the t ime of

MacKelleher —st ill remained . But next came the AngloNorman invasion, which was quite as destructive ofnat ivelearning and art as the Danish inroads, or more SO and

most ofthe new transcripts, as well as ofthe Old volumes

that survived, were scattered and lost . The destructionofmanuscripts cont inued during the perpetual wars thatdistracted the country , down to comparatively recenttimes and many which existed even so late as 200 years

ago are now gone. O’

Curry,in the first Lecture ofhis

Manuscript Materials, gives a long l ist of the LostBooks ofErin.

”

The great gaps in Irish literature are

painfully indicated everywhere in the fragments that

remain. Prof Kuno Meyer, in the Preface to his King

andHermit , mentions ,among the great mass ofmaterial

that has been irretrievably lost ,”

whole legendary cyclesrevealed by casual references only , tales ofwhich nothing

but the t itles, poems ofwhich the intitial lines only ,have

been preserved .

Books cont inued to be brought away to the Cont inentlong after the t ime ofMichael O ’

Clery for those Catholic

b e found in Maclean’

s Literature ofthe Celt s(chap . xviii ). Dr. Macleanwinds up his chapterwith a sketch and a wel l - deserved appreciation ofthe

Iatest Scot tish col lector, Mr. A lexander Carm ichael .May I addmy tributeOfadmiration forMr. Carmichael

’

s work ? By the publication ofhis Car

m ina Gadelica, he has placed, not only Scot land,but Ireland

, under an

everlast ing debt ofgratitude, for the book reflect s Ireland as wel l asScot land.

Our latest and most successfu l co l lector ofIrish popular lore is Dr.

Douglas Hyde, who has, duringmany years, taken down from the lipsofthe Irish - Speaking Connaught peasantry a grea t co l lection ofstories,

songs , and rhymes , ofwhich he has already published severa l vo lumes

very valuable to students ofmodern Irish language and folklore.


priests and others who fled'

from Ireland during the penaltimes commonly brought their precious manuscripts wi ththem ; and many other volumes were hidden away in

remote places : for in those evil days, the mere fact offinding an Irish book in a man

’

s possession put the owner

in danger ofhis l ife.

* Even in our own day Irish manu

scripts have been brought to America bv emigrants wholoved them too well to part with them .

4. Existing Books.

Volumes ofMiscellaneousMatter. —Ofthe eleventh - and

twelft h - century transcript volumes, port ions, and onlyport ions, of just two remain— Lebar- na- hUidhre [Lowrna- Heere] or the Book of the Dun Cow, and LebarLajgen [Lowr- Lyen] or the Book of Leinster. Thatthese two books are copies from older manuscripts, and

not themselves original composit ions of the t ime,there

is ample and unquest ionable internal evidence. For

example, on page 37 of the Book of the Dun Cow

(copied A .D. 1100) is a remark in Irish , ofwhich this isa translation Pray for Moelmhuiri MacCeileachairwho wrote and collected this book from a variety of

books.

”And as fully bearing this out , the same

Moelmhuiri, when transcribing the story ofthe Destruc

t ion ofDa Derga’

s Hostel , says in one place towardsthe end ofthe Tale(Stokes’s Da Derga p . 325) Thisis what some books relate,

viz ., that but a few fell around

Conari, nam ely, nine only and a l ittle farther on he

goes on to say This however is the account given inother books— which is probably .truer that ofthe peopleofthe hostel forty or fi fty fell ; and of the assailantsthree- fourths ofthem . 1 But it must be borne in mind

See O’

Curry, MS. Mat ., 356.

TSeefor more il lustrations,Rev . Ce lt ., x1. 453(where the Copyist

-of

t he oldest v ersion ofthe WooingofEmer breaks Offwith this remarkAnd the remainder which is in the Book andNut t

’

s remarks in theVoyage ofBran

,1. 125 and 126.


handwriting quoted on page 492 shows that the book was

Copied from older books. It is all through heavily glossedbetween the l ines, proving the great ant iquity of the

pieces as Mac Kelleher, even in 1100, found it necessary

to explain in this manner numerous old words and phrases.

About the year 1340 i t was given by the O'

Donnells of

N C . I”.

Fecunde orpart ofthe Book ofthe Dun Cow, p. m .col. 1. (Slightly smallerthan the orb ita l.) The beginning ofthe “ory ofConnie the Comely, or Count:

ofthe Golden Hair. (This story will be foundfully translated in Joyce’

s Old Celtic.Romances.)Translation ofthe above 9815380 The adventures ofConnie the Comely , son

ofConn the Hundred- Fighter.here. W hence the name ofArt the Lone one ? [Artthem ofCom.who was called Art the Lone One '

after his brother Connla hadbeen taken away by the fairy.) Not diffi cult to answer. On a certainday as Connlaofthe Golden Hair.son ofConn the Hundred-Fighter, stood beside his father o n

the Hill ofUshnagh, he saw a lady in strange att ire coming towards him. Connie

Spoke : W hence hast thou come.0 lady ? ’

he says I have come,’rep lied the lady

from the land ofthe everollving.a place where there is neither death, nor sin, nor

transgression. W e have cont inualfeasts : we practice every benevolent work W Ithout

contention. W e dwell in a large Shee and he nce we are called the people ofthe

FairyaMoundJ To whom art thou speak ing, my boy 0'

says Conn to his son : for

no One saw the lady save Connla only.

Tirconnell to O’

Conor ofConnaught as a ransom for theirollave of history who had been taken captive by the

O’

Conors some t ime before ; but in 1470 the O’

Donnells

recovered it by force and brought it back to Tirconnell.AS it now stands it consists ofonly 134 folio pages

a mere fragment ofthe Original work . It contains sixty

CHAP . x11] IRISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE 495

five pieces ofvarious kinds, several ofwhich are imperfect

on account ofmissing leaves. There are a number of

romant ic tales in prose ; a copy ofthe celebrated Amraor elegy on St . Columkille composed by Dallan Forgaill

about the year 592 an imperfect copy ofthe Voyage of

Maildune and an imperfect copy ofthe Tdin- bo- Quelna ,

with several ofthe minor tales connected with it . Among

the historical and romant ic tales are the Courtship of

Emer ; the Feast ofBricriu ; the Abduction ofPrinceConnla the Cornely by the shee or fairies ; part of the

Destruct ion ofthe palace ofDa Derga and the Death of

Gonari king of Ireland .

* The language of this book isnearer to the pure language ofthe Zeussian glosses thanthat of any other old book of general l iterature we

possess.The Book ofLeinster, the next in order ofage, now

in Trinity College, Dublin, was writ ten not later thanthe year 1160. There is good reason to believe that itwas compiled wholly , or partly, by Finn Mac Gorman,

who was bishop ofKildare from 1148 to 1160 , and byAed Mac Gri ffan, tutor ofDermot Mac Murrogh king

ofLeinster, and that it belonged to this king or to someperson of rank among his followers. The part of the

original book remaining— for it is only a part— consistsof410 folio pages, and contains nearly 1000 pieces of

various kinds,prose and poetry— historical sketches

,

romant ic tales, topographical tracts, genealogies,“

&c.

a vast collection of ancient Irish lore The fol lowingentry occurs at the foot ofpage 313 : Aed [or Hugh]Mac M ic Gri ffan wrote this book and collected it frommany books. Among its contents are a very fine perfectcopy of the Tain- bo- Quelna, a History of the origin of

the Boru Tribute , a description ofTara, a full copy of

the Dinnsenchus or description of the celebrated places

Most ofthe pieces mentioned through this chapter wil l b e describedin the nex t three chapters.

496 RELIG ION ,LEARN ING , AND ART [mm 11

ofErin.

“

The Book OfLeinster is an immense volume,

containing about as much matter as six ofScott’

s,prose

novels.

The Lebar Brecc, or SpeckledBook OfMac Egan, alsocal led the Great Book ofDuniry , is in the Royal Irish

Academy. It is a large folio volume, now consist ing of

280 pages, but originally containing many more, written.

in a small , unitom i , beauti ful hand . The text contains

226 pieces ,with numbers Of marginal and interl ined

entries, generally explanatory or illustrat ive of ‘the text .

The book was copied from various O lder books, most of

them now lost . All, both text and notes, with a few

exceptions, are on rel igious subjects there is a good deal

OfLat in mixed with the Irish . Among the pieces are

the Feilire OfAengus the Culdee, Lives of88 . Patrick ,

Brigit , and Columkille, and a Life ofAlexander the Great .From the traditional t it les ofthe book it is probable thatit

' was written towards the end Ofthe fourteenth centurybv one or more ofthe Mac Egans, a li terary family iwho

for many generat ions kept schools ofLaw, Poetry , and

Literature at Duniry ,near Portumna , in,

the countyGalway,

and also at Bally-mac- Egan, in the north ofTipperary.

The Book ofBal lymote, in the Royal Irish Academy,

is a large fol io volume of501 pages. It was written byseveral scribes about the year 1391, at Ballymote in Sligo ,

from older books, and contains a great number Ofpiecesinprose and verse. Among them is a copy ofthe ancientBook of Invasions, a history of the Conquests of

Ireland by the several ancient colonist s. There are

genealogies of almost all the principal Irish familiesseveral historical and romant ic tales Of the early Irishkings a history ofthe most remarkable women OfIrelanddown to the Engl ish invasion ; an Irish translat ion of

Nennius’

s History of the Britons ; a copy of the Dinnsenchus a translat ion ofthe Argonaut ic Expedition, and

ofthe W ar ofTroy .


AND ART [PART II

Europe. The‘

two most'

important collect ions are thosein Trinity College and in the Royal Irish Academy.Dublin,

where there are manuscripts ofvarious ages, fromthe sixth or seventh down to the present century . In the

Franciscan monastery ofAdam and Eve in Dublin are a

number of valuable manuscripts which were sent fromthe Franciscan monastery ofSt . Isidore

'

s in Rome, a few

years ago— a port ion ofthe great collect ion made by the

Franciscans at Louvain in the seventeenth century ; and

another fine collection is preserved in Maynooth College.

There are also many important manuscripts in the Brit ishMuseum in London in the Bodleian Library at Oxfordand in the Advocate '

s Library" in Edinburgh besides thenumerous MSS. in Cont inental l ibraries.

ClassificationofSubject -Matter. —Irish literature, so far

as it has been preserved , may be classed as follows

I . Ecclesiast ical and Rel igious writings.

II. Annals, History , and Genealogy.

III. Tales— historical and romant ic .

IV . Law,Medicine, and Science.

V . Translat ions or versions from other languages ,Lat in, Greek ,

French , &c.

Translat ions — As to this last class I will dismiss thesubject Oftranslat ions here with a few brief Observat ions.

Among the translat ions— remarks O ’

Curry W e find an

extensive range ofsubjects in ancient Mythology,Poetry ,

History , [Romance] , and the Classical Literature Ofthe

Greeks and Romans, as wel l as many copious il lustrat ions ofthe most remarkable events ofthe middle ages.

”

1'

W e have Irish versions of the Argonaut ic Expedition5

A good and int eresting account ofthe col lect ion OfGaelic manu

scripts ih the Advocate ’

s Library— some nat ive Scotch some Irish— maybe read in the seventh chapter ofDr. Magnus Maclean s lately publishedwork, The Literature ofthe Celts 1MS.Mat .

,24.

CHAP . X II] IRISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE 499

the Destruction ofTroy ; port ionsOf the Aeneid}

; the

Destruction of Jerusalem the W ars of Charlemagne,

including the History ofRoland the Brave the Historyof the Lombards ; the almost contemporaneous trans~

lat ion ofthe Travels ofMarco Polo ; the Adventures of

Hercules Guy Earl ofW arwick Bevis ofSouthamptonthe Quest Ofthe Holy Grail the Theban W ar ; Mandeville’

s Travels andmany other pieces. That such a mass

oftranslat ion exists in Irish manuscripts shows —iftherewas need to show— the l ively literary curiosity and the

intense love ofknowledge ofevery kind of the ancientIrish scholars. Apart from their l iterary aspect , thesetranslat ions are Ofthe highest value to students ofthe Irishlanguage,

as enabling them to determine the meaning of

many obsolete Gael ic words and phrases.

Though many ofthe Irish tales are highly dramat ic ,the Irish never developed Drama In the proper sense oftheword . There was no Irish theatre

,

-

andno Open- air acting.

But on this point it will be suffic ient to refer the reader toDr. Hyde’

s Literary H istory OfIreland ,p . 276 and to

Sir Samuel Ferguson’

s Poems p . 62 .

The ancient Irish writers commonly began their booksor treatises with a statement ofthe Place, Time,

Person

[or author] , and cause. For example,DualdMacFirbis

,

in the beginning Of his great manuscript work on

Genealogies, writes The place,t ime, author, and

cause ofwrit ing this book are — Its place is the CollegeofSt . Nicholas in Galway its time is the year ofthe

age ofChrist 1650 the author ofi t is Dubhaltach theson .Oi Gilla Isa MOT MacFirb isigh ,

historian,

Lecain M ic Firbisigh in Tireragh oftheMoy ; and t he

cause ofwriting the same.

book is to magnify the gloryofGod,

and to give knowledge to allmen in

For Irish Poetry and Prosody ,see vol. II . , p . 497.

O’

Curry, MS. Mat ., 2 16. For other examp les, see Stokes, Feilire;Tp . 3 : and Hyde, Lit . Hist ., 245 .

Pro. 0 7—Sculpture on a Capital Priest 's House. Glendalough Berm ger. 1179.

(From I‘etrle'

s Round Towers.)

CHAPTER X III

ECCLESIASTICAL AND RELIGIOUS WRITINGS

OPlES ofthe Gospels or ofother port ionsScripture, that were eitherwritten or ownedby eminent saints ofthe early Irish Church

,

were treasured with great veneration bysucceeding generat ions ; and i t became a

common practice to enclose them , for better preservat ion,

in ornamental boxes or shrines. Manyshrines with their precious contents are still preservedthey are generally of exquisite workmanship in gold

,

silver, or other metals, precious stones, and enamel .Books ofthis kind are the Oldest we possess.The Domnach Airgid, or Silver Shrine,

’ which is in theNat ional Museum , Dublin,

is a box containing a Latincopy Ofthe Gospels writ ten on vellum . This box

,

”

saysDr. Petrie ,

is composed Ofthree dist inct covers, ofwhichthe first or inner one is ofwood— apparently yew the

second or middle one ofcopper plated with silver and

the third or outer one ofsilver plated with gold . In

the comparat ive ages of these several covers there isobviously a great difference. The first may probably becoeval with the manuscript which it was intended to

preserve the second ,in the style ofits scroll or inter

laced ornaments, indicates a period between the sixth


AND ART [PART II

Ireland : TO every cow belongeth her l it tle O ffspring

cow so to every book belongeth its litt le Offspring- book

the book thou hast copied without permission, 0 Columba ,

I award to Finnen a decision which may be said to

contain the germ of the law of copyright ."l The book

was afterwards however given up to St. Columkille

and i t remained th'

enceforward— a precious heirloom— s in

possession ofhis kindred the O’

Donnells. The beauti fullywrought case ofgilt silver, enamel , and precious stones,

Flc. 128.

Ruins ofthe Mo nastery ofMot ilia near Newtownards, ofwinch St . lmmen er Finian

(difl'crcnt fro m St . Finnen oi Clonard) was abbot in the sixth century. The church

shown here was erect ed long after his tlrne on the site ofthe original church. (FromMrs. Hall's Ireland : drawn in

subsequently made to cover this venerable rel ic , may be

seen in the Nat ional Museum , Dublin, where it has been

deposited by the head of the O’

Donnell family. Onlyfifty

- eight of the vellum leaves Of the enclosed bookremain and the writ ing is a small uni form hand : but

'

This judgment,which is clear and terse in the original(Legach boin

a boz’

m’

n,le gach leabhar a wil l appear eq ua l ly clear in English

— though losing' much in force— in the fol lowing paraphrase The

calf, being the offspring ofthe cow,belongs to the cow : so the copy,

being the Offspring ofthe book,belongs to the book .

"

GHAP s II] ECCLESIASTICAL WRITINGS 503

there is reason to‘

doubt that this is the very manuscriptwrit ten by St . Columkill

'

e.

*

In Trinity College,Dublin

,

“

are two beaut iful shrinesenclosing two illuminated Gospel manuscripts, the Book

ofDimma, and'

the Book ofSt .Mol ing, both wri tten in theseventh or eighth century.

The Book ofArmagh , now in Trinity College, for beautyofexecut ion stands only second to the Book ofKells, andoccasionally exceeds it in fineness and richness oforna

mentat ion. The learned and accomplished scribe ofthisbook was Ferdomnach ofArmagh ,

who finished it inand died in 845. In several different places— at the

end of, certain portions— he wrote in Lat in Pray forFerdomnach

”i. and two ofthese entries are st ill perfectly

legible. He no doubt wrote many other books— forwrit ingwas the business ofhis life— but they are all ~lost l

The book originally consisted of442 pages, ofwhichten are lost

‘

1 with this exception i t is as perfect as wheni t was writ ten. It is chiefly in Lat in , with a good deal ofold Irish interspersed . It Opens with a L ife ofSt . Patrick ;Following this are a number ofNotes of the Li fe and

acts of the saint , compiled by Bishop Tirechan, who

himself received them from his master Bishop Ultan'

, of

the seventh century. These notes are not in the form of

a connected narrat ive. The book contains a completecopy ofthe New Testament , and a Li fe ofSt . Martin of

Tours. Perhaps the most interest ing part of the wholemanuscript is what is now commonly known as

“

St .

Patrick ’

s Confession,in which the saint gives a brief

See Reeves in Adamn., 319 . For a fu l ler account of the whole

t ransact ion— the tria l before King Dermo t and it s conseq uences— see

joyce, Sh‘

ort Hist . ofIreland, pp . 19 , 20 . For the use ofthe Cathach in

batt le b y t he O’

Donnells,see p . 302 , supra .

1The date has been determined by the late Dr. Graves,bishop of

Limerick,after a very ingenious investigation : Proc. Roy . Ir. Acad.

,

III . 316—324, and 358. See also Dr. Reeves’s Paper in Proc. for 1891

P. 77


account , in simple unaffected Lat in,Ofhis captivity , his

escape from slavery ,his return to Ireland , the hardships

and dangers he encountered , and the final success Ofhis

mission. At the end Of the Confession , Ferdomnach

wr ites this colophon in Lat in Thus far the volume

which Patrick wrote with his own hand . The seventeenth

day OfMarch Patrick was translated to heaven.

” Thisentry was wri tten about 300 years after the death Of

St . Patrick and i t appears from it that Ferdomnach hadbefore him a book in the very handwriting Ofthe greatapostle , from which he copied the Confession. The Old

volume had become in many places il legible,or nearly

so ,from age : for in one part ofhis copy Ferdomnach

makes this remark Incertus l iber hic the book isuncertain here and in several other places he inserts anote Ofinterrogat ion to show that he was in doubt aboutthe reading . This Confession may be said to be the

O ldest piece OfIrish literature we possess.

In 1004 an entry was made in a blank space ofthisbook which almost transcends in interest the entries Of

Ferdomnach himself . In that year the great king BrianBoru made a triumphal circuit round Ireland , and arrivingat Armagh ,

he made an O ffering Oftwenty ounces Ofgoldon the al tar OfSt . Patrick. He confirmed the ancientecclesiast ical supremacy of Armagh

,and caused his

secretary Ma z’

lsut/za z’

n to enter the decree in the BookofArmagh . The entry ,

which is as plain now as the

day it was writ ten,is in Latin

,and stands in English

St . Patrick , when going to heaven,decreed that the

ent ire fruit Ofhis labour, as well ofbaptism and causesas of alms , should be rendered to the apostolic city

,

which in the Scot ic tongue is called Arddmacha. ThusI found “ it in the records Of the Scots [i.a. the

'

Irish] .

This I have writ tenj namely , Mailsuthain,in the presence

OfBrian ,supreme ruler Ofthe Scots , and what I have

written he decreed for all the kings ofCashel .”


as well as in Brussels and elsewhere on the Cont inent .

The Lives of the three patrons of Ireland— Patrick ,

Brigit , and Columkille— are , as might be expected , morenumerous than those ofthe others. Ofthese the bestknown is the Tripartite Li fe ofSt . Patrick , so calledbecause i t is divided into three parts. There is a manu

script copy ofthis in the Brit ish Museum , and anotherin the l ibrary ofthe University ofOxford . It is in Irish

,

mixed here and there with words and sentences in Lat in.Colgan and others after him have given their opinion that

'

i t was originally writ ten in the sixth century by St . EvinofMonasterevin : but i t certainly is not so early. Dr.

Petrie(Tara ,and Dr. Todd (St . Patk . 124, note

both assign it to the ninth or tenth century ” whileDr. Stokes (Trip . Li fe, lx ii) gives the tenth century as

the superior l imit . The compiler, whoever he was, hadolder books lying before him This has been latelyprinted in two volumes, with translat ions and elaborateand valuable introduction and notes by Dr. Stokes.

Besides the Irish Lives ofSt . Columkille, there is one

in Lat in, written by Adamnan, who died in the year 703He was a nat ive ofDonegal , and ninth abbot of

and his memoir has been pronounced by the learnedScotch writer Pinkerton— who is not given to praise Irishthings— to be one ofthe most curious monuments Ofthel iterature ofthat age. It is certainly the most completepiece Ofsuch biography that allEurope can boast Of,

‘

not

only at so early a period , but even through the ‘whole

middle ages. T It has been published for the Archaeological and Celt ic Society by the Rev . Dr. W i ll iam Reeves,who

, in his Introduction andNotes , supplies historical , local ,and biographical informat ion drawn from every conceivablesource i

Trip. Life,127, last paragraph ,

and I 39 ,

TPinkerton, Inq uiry ,Ed. 1814,

'

xlvii‘

i.”

See a lso p . 6,supra .

i A ful l account Ofthis work, with the various manuscripts in which

CHAP . XIII] ECCLESIASTICAL ' WRITINGS 507

'

In the year 1645 the Rev.

'John Colgan, a Franciscanfriar

,a nat ive ofDonegal , published at Louvain

, where hethen r esided in the Irish monastery ofthat city

,a large

volume ent itled Acta Sanctorum Hibernia , thef

Liy es

ofthe’

Saints OfIreland ,

’

all in Lat in,translated by - him

sel f'

from ancient Irish manuscripts. They are arrangedaccording to the fest ival days ofthe saints and the volumecontains the Lives ofthose whose days fall in ' the threefirst months ofthe year. His intent ion was no doubt tofinish the work to the 3I st December but he stopped at

the 3 I st March ,and never published any more of that

work . In 1647he published another volume, also in Lat in,

which he calls Acta Triadis Thaumaturgae, the Livesof the W onder- working Triad .

’

It is devoted to SaintsPatrick ,

Brigit,andColumkille , and consists almost ent irely

of translat ions ofall the old Irish L ives of these threesaints that he could find : there are seven L ives OfSt .

Patrick ,including the Tripart ite. Both volumes are

elaborately annotated by the learned editor and text andnotes— allin Lat in— contain a vast amount ofbiographical ,historical , topographical , and legendary informat ion. (Forthe Lives ofthe Saints, see also p . 6

,same .)

Another class of Irish ecclesiast ical wri tings are the

Calendars, Or Martyrologies, or Fest ilogiesfi —Irish , Féilire

a fest ival l ist . The F éz’

lz’

re is a catalogue ofsaints,arranged according

‘

to their fest ival days, with usually a

few facts about each , briefly stated ,but with no detai led

memoirs. There are‘

several ofthese Martyrologies. I

ment ion one in the next chapter, the Calendar’

ofM ichaelO

’

Clery and the only other one I will not ice is the Feilire

ofAengus the Culdee, which is in verse. The circumstancethat gave rise to this metrical catalogue is related in an

ancient legend . One time while Aengus(who'

died about .

the year 820) was at the church ofCoolbanagher,in the

it is preserved,is given in Dr. Reeves

’

s Preface,ofwhich an abstract

wil l b e found in Mr. Maclean’

s Literature Ofthe Celts,chap , iv .

r4o8 RELIGION ,LEARN ING , AND ART [PART II

present Queen’

s County ,he saw a host ofangels alighting

one after another on a grave and immediatelv reascending.

He asked the priest ofthe church who i t was that wasburied there , and what he had done to meri t such honour.

The priest replied that it was a poor Oldman who l ived in

the place, and who did not seem to be distinguished for

any unusual piety but that he had made it a pract ice toinvoke a number ofthe saints ofthe world— as manv as

he could remember— going to bed at night and gett ing up

Church and(imperfect ) Round TowerofDysert -Aengus. one mile west ofCroom

in Limerick.where St . Ae ngus the Culdee fo unded a church about A.D. 800. (FromMrs. Hall's Ireland

in the morning . Ah,my God ! exclaimed Aengus

when this poor Old man is so honoured for what hedid

,how great should be the reward ofhim who should

make a poet ical composi t ion in praise ofall the saintsof the year. W hereupon he began his poem . He

cont inued to work at it during his subsequent residenceat Clonenagh in Queen’

s County , and finished it whilel iving in St . Mailruan’

s Monastery at Tallaght near

Dublin.


The Book of Hymns is one of the manuscripts inTrini ty College,

Dublin,copied at some time not later

than the ninth or tenth century . It consists ofa number

ofhymns— some in Lat in, some in Irish— composed bythe primitive saints ofIreland— St . Sechnall, St . Ultan,

St . Cummain Fada , St . Columba , and others— with Prefaces, Glosses, and Commentaries, mostly in Irish , byancient copyists and editors. It has been published bythe Irish Archaeological and Celt ic Society , edited , withannotat ions and with translations ofthe Irish hymns and

Irish Commentaries, by the Rev . Dr. James HenthornTodd . Another edit ion The Irish Liber Hymnorumor Book ofHymns — with some additional hymns, hasbeen lately edited by the Rev . Dr. Bernard , and

Robert Atkinson, LL.D.

There are manuscripts on various other ecclesiasticalsubjects scattered through libraries— canons and rules of

monast ic l ife, prayers and l itanies, hymns, sermons, explanat ions Oi the Christ ian mysteries, commentaries on the

Scriptures, &c.— many very ancient . Of the numerous

modern wri t ings Of this class, I wi ll Specify only two ,

written in classical modern Irish about the year 1630 bythe Rev . Geoffrey Keating the Key - shield ofthe Massand the Three Shafts ofDeath .

” This last has beenpublished for the Royal Irish Academy without translat ion,

but with an excellent Glossary ,by Dr. Robert Atkinson.

There was an Irish treat ise on the Psalter, ofwhichthe fragment that remains has been translated by ProfessorKuno Meyer in Hibernia M inora , and which , accordingto him , was originally written about A.D. 750, showinga careful study Ofthe subject , andanintimate acquaintancewith the ancient ecclesiast ical wri ters ofthe world.

Another ecclesiastical rel ic belonging to Ireland shouldbe ment ioned— the Ant iphonary , or Hymn Book , ofSt .

Comgall’

s Monastery Of Bangor in the County Down ;written in this monastery about A .O . 680 . In order to

CHAP . XIII] Ec ESIASTIOAL WRITINGS 511

save it from certain destruction by theDanes it wasbroughtto the Continent by— as is generally bel ieved— Dungal

,

a famous Irish monk , who settled in Pavia in 811 (ForDungal , see also p . 468, supra) . After lying hidden and

neglected for a thousand years among heaps ofold MSS.,

it was found at last in Bobbio by Muratori, who pub

FIG. 130.

Noah’s Ark : reduced from the larger sketch on a fly - leafoftheBook ofBallymote. (Cop ied direct fi om the K ilk . Arch. Journalfor1810-1.9 . x4x.)

lished it early in the eighteenth century . It has beenedited several t imes since ; for which see Stokes and

Strachan’

s Thes. , II . , X xxi .,X xxii . This venerable MS. Is

nowin the Ambrosian Library in M ilan.

W riters ofsacred history somet imes illustrated theirnarrat ives with rude pen

- and- ink sketches of Biblicalsubjects, ofwhich an example is given above— a quaintfigure ofNoah ’

s Ark drawn on a blank fly- leaf of the

Book ofBallymote in the fourteenth century .

FIG. tan-4 culpture on a Cap ital 3 Priest 's House.Glendalough : Beranger. rm(From Petrie’

s Round Towers.)

CHAPTER X IV

ANNALS, I-IISTORIES ,

AND GENEALOGIES

SECTION I . How the Annals were compiled.

I

MONO the various classes ofpersons who devotedthemselves to Literature in ancient Ireland ,

there were special Annal ists, who made it theirbusiness to record , with the utmost accuracy , all

remarkable events Simply and briefly,without

any ornament oflanguage, without exaggerat ion, andwithout fictitious embellishment . The extreme care they tookthat their statements should be truthful is Shown by themanner in which they compiled their books. AS a generalrule they admitted nothing into their records except eitherwhat occurred during their l ifet ime, and which may be

said to have come under their own personal knowledge, orwhat they found recorded in the compilat ions ofpreviousannalists, who had themselves followed the same plan.

These men took nothing on hearsay and in this manner

successive Annalists carried on a continued chronicle fromage to age,

thus giving the whole series the force ofcon

temporary test imony.* W e have still preserved to us

many books ofnat ive Annals, the most important ofwhichwill be briefly described in this chapter.

Ofcourse it is not claimed for the Irish Annals that they are ah

solutely free from error. In the early parts there is much legendaryma t ter and some errors have crept in among the records belonging tothe historica l period.


AND ART [PART II

comets : the test imony offoreign writers ; and the con

sistency of the records among themselves. W heneveri t happens that we are enabled to apply tests belonging

to any one of these three classes— and i t happens veryfrequently— the result is almost invariably a vindicat ion

ofthe accuracy ofthe records.* A few instances will be

given : but the subject is too extensive, and the proofstoo numerous to be fully dealt with here. The examplesare not selected with a view to a foregone conclusionthat is to say, the favourable cases are not brough tforward , and those that tell unfavourably held back theyare taken as they come ; and those given may be con

sidered types ofall.

Let us first instance the records ofphysical phenomena

and ofthese I will set out with one very instructive and

impressive example— the solar eclipse ofA.D. 664, a yearrendered memorable by the ravages ofthe terrible yellowplague, which swept over all Europe. The VenerableBede, wri t ing fi fty or Six ty years after this eclipse

,

records it as he found it ment ioned— vaguely mentionedas to t ime—in some record , or perhaps from the reportsofsome old persons who had seen it . At any rate, notknowing the exact day and hour, he calculated backwards, using the only means then known for suchcalculat ions— the Dionysian Cycle— which was a littleincorrect . This led him to the 3rdMay, 664, as the dateofthe eclipse— two days wrong. The Annals ofU lster,in its brief and Simple record

,give the correct date,

I st May, and even the very hour : a striking proof thatthe event had been originally recorded by some Irishchronicler who actually saw it

,from whose record— or

perhaps from a copyé - or a copy ofa copy— the writerofthe Annals ofUlster transcribed it .The Irish annals record about twenty- five eclipses and

Another class, the evidence ofancient monuments, is noticed in

various parts ofthis book,especial ly chap. i.

CHAP . X IV] ANNALS, HISTORIES, GENEA'

LOGIES 515

comets at the several years from A.D. 496 to 1066,which

are collected from various books by Cathal Maguire inthe Annals ofUlster, and which will be found set forthin one l ist by O ’

Donovan in his Introductory Remarks tothe Annals ofthe Four Masters. The dates ofall theseas entered in the Annals ofUlster, are found , accordingto modern scient ific calculat ion and the records ofothercountries, to be correct . This shows conclusively that theoriginal records were made by eye

- witnesses, and not bycalculat ion in subsequent t imes for any such calculation

- rest ing on incorrect methods— would be sure to give an

incorrect result , as in the caseofBede.

A well - known entry in the Irish account ofthe BattleofClontarf, fought A.D. 1014, comes under the tests of

natural phenomena. The author of Cogadh Gaedhel re

Gallaz'

bk, the W ar ofthe Gaels with the Galls,’ writing

early in the eleventh century ,soon after the battle, states,

in his detai led account , that it was fought on Good Friday ,

the 23rdApril that the battle commenced in the morningat sunrise when the tide was full in ; and that it con

t inned the whole day t ill the t ide was again at flood inthe evening , when the foreigners were routed They

[i.e. the two armies] cont inued in battle array , fightingfrom sunrise t ill evening . This is the same length of

t ime as that which the t ide takes to go and to fall and toflood again. For it was at the ful l t ide the foreignerscame out to fight the battle in the morning, and the t idehad come to the same place again at the close ofthe

day ,when the foreigners were defeated . So the Irish

record.

The t ime ofhigh water, it is to be Observed , is not iced

z'

nciden’ally here in order to account for the great slaughter

ofthe Danes in the evening during the rout for as the

t ide was at height at the t ime, they were not able to reachtheir ships or boats, which were anchored in the bay,

and which they might wade to at low water. Their only


other means ofescape— the Single bridge that led to theirfortress in Dublin at the other Side ofthe Liffey- was cut

off, partly by the t ide and partly by a detachment ofIrish

so that the chronicler goes on to say An awful rout wasmade ofthe foreigners,

so that they fled simultaneously ,

and they shouted their cries for mercy but they could

only fly to the sea , as they had no other place to retreatto ,

seeing they were cut offfrom the head ofDubgall’

Bridge,

AS soon as Dr. Todd ,the translator and editor ofthe

W ar of the Gaels with the Galls, came across thispassage, in the year 1867, it struck him at once that herewas an obvious means oftest ing— so far— the truth ofthe

Oldnarrat ive andhe asked theRev . Dr. Haughton, a wellknown eminent scientific man,

a Fellow ofTrinity College,Dublin, to calculate for him the t ime ofhigh water inDublin Bay on the 23rd April , 1014. After a laboriouscalculat ion,

Dr. Haughton found that the t ide was at its

height that morning at hal f- past five o’clock , just as the

sun was coming over the horizon, and that the eveningt ide was at fifty

- five minutes past five : a striking con

firmation ofthe truth ofthis part ofthe narrat ive. It

Shows, too ,that the account was written by, or taken

down from , an eye- witness ofthe bat tle t

Test imony ofForeign W riters — Events occurring inIreland in the middle ages are not often ment ioned byBritish or Cont inental wri ters : they knew little of the

country , which was in those t imes— as regarded the Cont inent— a very remote place. But in the few cases wherethey do not ice Irish affairs, they are always— or nearlyalways— in agreement with the nat ive records. A few of

these corroborat ions, moreover, may serve as a warningto us not to be too ready to reject ancient narratives

'

as

Dr. Todd’

s translat ion in his edition ofthe W ar ofthe Gaels withthe Gal ls

, p . 19 1.

1Dr. Haughton’

s calculation wil l be found in W ar ofCG,Introd.xxvi.


Coming down to more historic times. W e have alreadyseen(p . 82 , supra) that the Irish accounts ofthe colonyled by Carbery Riada to Scotland in the third century of

the Christ ian era have been confirmed by the VenerableBede .

All the Irish annals, as well as the W ar Ofthe Gaelswith the Galls (pp . 5 ,

record a great defeat oftheDanes near Killarney in the year 812 , which so deterredthem that many years elapsed before they attempted torenew their at tacks. This account is fully borne out byan authority totally unconnected with Ireland

, the wellknown book ofAnnals, writ ten by Eginhard(the tutor of

Charlemagne), who was l iving at this very time. U nderA.D. 812 he writes The fleet ofthe Northmen

,having

invaded H ibernia , the island ofthe Scots,after a battle

had been fought with the Scots, and after no smallnumber ofthe Norsemen had been slain, they baselytook to fl ight and returnedSomet imes confirmation comes from the most unex

pected quarters . In one of the historical Tales of the

Tdin, or Cattle- Spoil ofQuelna , which took place in the

first century ofthe Christ ian era ,we are told that K ing

Concobar MacNessa conferred knighthood on the greathero Cuculainn at seven years ofage, who,

during the

ceremony ,broke many weapons by sheer strength . W e

find this event also ment ioned in the Annals ofTigernach ,

in the simple record that Cuculainn took valour at

seven .years ofage. This appears to have established a

precedent , SO that the fashion became pretty common of

knighting the sons ofkings and great chiefs at the age

ofseven years(see p . 98 ,supra).

Now all this looks shadowy ,romantic

, and mythical ;yet we find it recorded in the pages ofFroissart that the

Lynch ,Camb r. Ev .

,I . 165 , 167 ; III . 273 : Joyce, Short Hist . of

Irel.,190 : Miss Stokes

,Early Ir. Architect ure

,149 .

CRAP. X IV] ANNALS, HISTORIES, GENEALOGIES‘

519

custom ofknight ing kings’ sons at seven years of'

age

existed in Ireland in the end ofthe fourteenth century,having held its place, l ike

‘many ancient Irish customs,for at least fourteen hundred years. W hen Richard II.Visited Ireland in he entertained the Irish kings andchiefs in a magnificent manner, and proposed to conferknighthood on the four provincial kings, O

’

Neill, O’

Conor,

MacMurrogh , and O’

Brien. But they told him they didnot need it , as they had been knighted already for theysaid it was the custom for every Irish king to knight hisson at seven years of age. The account of all theseproceedings were given to Froissart by a French gentleman named Castide, who had l ived seven years amongthe Irish . The narrat ive goes on to describe the Irishmanner of conferring knighthood at the t ime — that a

shield was set up on a stake in a level field ; that a

number of lit tle spears were given to the youthful

aspirant ; that he thereupon hurled them against the

Shield ; and that the more spears he broke the morehonour he received : all corresponding with the ancientIrish romant ic narrat ive. (Johnes’

s Froissart ,”II .

To return to the Battle OfClontarf we must not omit

a- corroborat ion ofthe truthfulness ofthe Irish accountcoming from an unimpeachable source. All the Irishchroniclers state that a general rout ofthe Danes tookplace in the evening : which is fully corroborated in the

Norse records. There is a brief description of Brian’

s

Battle, as theDanes called it , in theDanish saga , Burnt

Nial , in which this final rout is recorded by the Norse

writer— the best possible authori ty on the point under

the circumstances— in language much more Simple and

terse than that ofthe Irish chronicler : i t is merely this

short sentence Then flight broke out throughout all

the [Danish]

See for a ful l account ofthe Bat t le ofC lontarf, J oyce, Short Hist .ofIreland, p . 2 10 .

RELIGION ,LEARNING , AND ART

Consistency ofthe Records among themselves — Test imonies under this heading might be almost indefinitelymult iplied ,

but I will here instance only a few. The

names offifteen abbots ofBangor, who died before 691,

are given in the Irish Annals , not all together, but at therespective years of their death . In the ancient ServiceBook ,

known as the'

Antiphonary ofBangor (for whichsee p . 510 ,

supra), there is a hymn in which , as Dr. Reevessays, * these fi fteen abbots are recited [in one l ist] in thesame order as in the Annals and this undesignedcoincidence is the more interest ing because the test imonies are perfectly independent , the one being affordedby Irish records which never left the kingdom , and the

other by a Lat in composition which has been a thousandyears absent from the country where it was written.

References by Irishmen to Irish affairs are found innumerous volumes scattered over allEurope — Annal ist icentries direct statements in tales andbiographies, marginalnotes, Incidental references to persons, places, and customs

,

and so forth ,wri tten by various men at various t imes ;

which,when compared one with another, and with the

home records, hardly ever exhibit a disagreement . The

best illustrat ion ofthis is Adamnan’

s Li fe ofColumba.

”

Adamnan’

s main object was to set forth the Spiritual l ifeofSt . Columba, who l ived about a century before him , to

describe, as he tells us, the M iracles; the Prophecies, andthe Angelic V isions ofthe saint . But in carrying out thisideal , he has everywhere in his narrative to refer to personsliving in Ireland and Scotland ,

mostly contemporaries of

Columba, as well as to the events and customs of the

t ime— references which are mostly incidental , brought inmerely to fix the surroundings Ofthe saint and his pro

ceedings. Beyond this Adamnan was not at all concernedwith Irish history , genealogy , or social l ife. But when W e

come to test and compare these incidental references with

Eccl . Antiq q .,153.


AND ART [PART II

TheAnnals ofTigernach [Teerna] . Tigernach O’

Breen,

the compiler ofthese Annals, has been already ment ioned

(p . Like most ofthe other books ofannals, his workis written in Irish , mixed with a good deal ofLat in. In

the beginning he treats ofthe general history ofthe world ,

with some brief notices ofIreland— the usual practice of

Irish annalists ; but the history of Ireland is the chiefsubject ofthe body of the work . One most importantpronouncement he makes, which has been the subject ofmuch discussion,

that all the Irish accounts before the

t ime of Cimbaeth [Kimbay] , B .C . 370 , are uncertain.

Several Copies ofhis Annals are in existence in London,

Oxford, and Dublin,

but all imperfect . The fragmentsthat remain have been edited and the Irish port ionstranslated by Dr. W hitley Stokes in the Revue Cel tique,

vols. xvi . and xvii .The Annals of Innisfallen were compiled by some

scholars of the monastery of Innisfallen,the ruins of

which st ill stand on the well - known island ofthat name

in the Lower Lake ofKillarney . They are writ ten in

Irish mixed with Lat in. In the beginning they give a

short history ofthe world to the time ofSt . Patrick , afterwhich they treat chiefly ofIreland . Their composit ion isgenerally ascribed to the year 1215 ; but there is goodreason to bel ieve that they were commenced two centuriesearl ier. They were subsequently cont inued to 1318.

The Annals ofU lster, also called the Annals ofSenaitMacManus, were wri t ten in the l itt le island of SemaitMacManus, now called Belle Isle, in Upper Lough Erne.

They treat almost exclusively ofIreland from A.D. 444 .

The original compiler was Cathal [Cahal] Maguire, alreadyment ioned(p . who died in 1498 and they were cont inned to the year 1541 by Rory O

’

Cassidy, and by a

nameless third writer to 1604. There are Several copiesof these annals , one in a beaut iful hand in a vellummanuscript ofTrinity College ,

Dublin. One volume has

CHAP . X IV] ANNALS, HISTORIES, GENEALOGIES 523

been issued ,translated and annotated by the late W ill iam

M . Hennessy the rest by the Rev.B .

The Annals ofLoch Ce [Key] were copied in 1588 for

Brian MacDermot , who had his residence on an island inLough Key,

near Boyle in Roscommon. They are in the

Irish language,and treat chiefly ofIreland from 1014 to

1636,but have many entries ofEnglish , Scott ish , and

Cont inental events. The only copy ofthese annals knownto exist

'

is a small - Sized vellum manuscript in TrinityCollege

,Dublin.

'

They have been translated and editedin two volumes by Mr. W illiam M . Hennessy .

The Annals ofConnaught from 1224 to 1562 . Thereis a copy in Trinity College, Dublin, and another in the

Royal Irish Academy .

The Chronicon Scotorum (Chronicle of the Scots or

Irish) down to j

A .D. 1135. This was compiled about 1650by the great Irish ant iquary Duald MacFirb is. His

autograph copy is in Trinity College, and'

two othercopies are in the Royal I rish Academy .

- These annalshave been printed/ edited with translation

"

and notes byW illiam M . Hennessy .

The ;Annals ofBoyle, from the earliest t ime'

to 1253,

are contained in a .vellum manuscript - in‘

the”

libraryofthe British Museum . They are written in Irish

I

mixed

with Lat in ; and the entries throughout are verymeagre.

The Annals ofClonmacnoise, from the earliest periodto 1408 . The original Irish of these is lost ; but we

have an'

English translat ion by Connell MacGeogheganofLismoyny in W estmeath , which he completed in 1627.

Ofthis translat ion several copies are preserved, Ofwhich

one is in Trinity College and another in the Brit ishMuseum . O

’

Donovan printed many extracts from thiscompilat ion in his Notes to the Annals of the Four

Masters and the whole collection has been lately editedby the Rev . Denis Murphy ,


The Annals ofthe FourMasters, also cal led the AnnalsofDonegal , are the most important ofall. They werecompiled in the Franciscan monastery ofDonegal

,by

three ofthe O'

Clerys, M ichael , Conary , and Cucogry, and

by Ferfesa O’Mulconry who are now commonly known

as the Four Masters. The O’

Clerys were, for manygenerat ions, hereditary dinner or professors ofhistory to


were scattered ,and only one or two ofthem now survive.

Eventhe Four Masters’ great compilat ion was lost formany generat ions , and was recovered in a manner almostmiraculous, and placed in the Royal :

Irish Academy byDr. George Petrie. The work was undertaken under theencouragement and patronage ofFergal] O

’

Gara,prince

ofCoolavin,who paid all the necessary expenses ; and

the community ofDonegal supplied the historians withfood and lodging. They began their labours in 1632 , and

completed the work in The Annals Ofthe Four

Masters was translated with most elaborate and learnedannotations by Dr. John O ’

Donovan and i t was published— Irish text , translat ion, and notes— in seven largevolumes, by Hodges and Smith ofDublin(now Hodges

,

Figgis, and Company)— the greatest and most importantwork on Ireland ever issued by any Irish publisher.

A book of annals called the Psal ter ofCashel wascompiled by Cormac MacCullenan ; but this has beenlost . Besides annals in the Irish language,

there are

also Annals ofIreland in Latin,such as those ofClyn,

.

Dowling , Pembridge, Multifamham , 850 most ofwhichhave been published by the Archaeological and Celt icSociety.

4 . Histories : Genealogies : Dinnsenchus.

Histories — None ofthe wri ters ofold times conceivedthe plan Ofwrit ing a general History ofIreland : it wasonly in the seventeenth century that anything like thiswas attempted . But the Old Irish writers left many verygood H istories ofpart icular transactions, districts, persons,or periods ,

all in the form ofH istoric Tales and mixedup with fabulous relations. Ofthese the following may

b e ment ioned as examples— others will be not iced in

next chapter. The History ofthe W ar ofthe Gaels wi th

See Petrie’

s account ofall this,in O

’

Donovan’

s Introduct ion to the

Four Masters,vol. i.

cHAP. X IV] ANNALS, HISTORIES, GENEALOGIES 527

the Galls orDanes the'

History ofthe Borumean Tribute ;the

’

W ars OfThomond, written in 1459 by RoryMacGrath ,

a historian ofThomond or Clare. Ofthese the first hasbeen published ,

with translat ion, introduct ion,and anno

tations, by Dr. James H enthorn Todd . The Tribute

has been translated and edited by Dr. Stokes in the

Revue Celt ique (vol. and by Dr. Standish‘

Hayes

O’

Grady in his Si lva Gadelica,

”

FIG . 133.

Tubbrid Church, the burial-place ofGeoffrey Kea ting.as it appeared in 1845.

(From Mrs.Hall’s Ireland.) The exact Spot in this graveyardwhere he is interred Is

not known ; but there is a Latin inscrip tion on a tablet over the door ofthe church

(seen in the Illustrat ion), ofwhich the following is a translat ion : Pray for the soulsOfthe Rev. Father Eugene Duhuy , vicar ofTubbrid, and ofthe learned DoctorKeating, the founders ofth is church , and also for the souls ofall others, whether

p riests or laymen, whose bodies lie in this same churchyard.

"

The first History Ofthe whole country was the Forus

Boasa ar Erinn,or H istory of Ireland —from the most

ancient times to the Anglo—Norman invasion, wri tten by

Dr.Geoffrey Keating,

aa learned Roman Catholic priest of

Tubbrid in Tipperary ,who died in 1644. Keating was

deeply versed in the ancient language and l iterature of

Ireland andhis H istory , though uncrit ical and containingmuch that is fabulous and legendary ,

is very interest ing


and valuable for its quaint descriptions ofancient Irishlife andmanners, and because i t contains many quotat ionsand condensat ions from authorities now lost . The workwas translated in 1726 by Dermod O

’

Connor ; but he

wilfully departed from his text and his translation is

utterly wrong and misleading : Keat ing ’

s H istorywrites Dr. Todd is a work which has been greatlyunderrated in consequence of the very ignorant and

absurd translat ion by Mr. Dermot A com

plete and faithful translat ion by John O’Mahony was

published ,without the Irish text , in New York in 1866.

Complete text and translation,with notes

, are now beingissued by the Irish texts Society ofLondon

, under theedi torship - ofMr. David Comyn, ofDublin

, of

which‘

one volume has already appeared.

Genealogies — The genealogies ofthe principal familieswere

'

most faithfully preserved in ancient Ireland . Therewere several reasons for their anxiety to preserve theirpedigrees, one very important motive being that in the

case “

of dispute about property or about election to a

chiefship ,the decision often hinged on the descent ofthe

disputants and the writ ten records, cert ified by a properlyqualified historian, were accepted as evidence in the BrehonLaw courts. Each king and chief had in his householda Shanachie or historian, an Officer held in high esteem

,

whose duty it was to keep a written record ofall the

ancestors and ofthe several branches ofthe family. The

king ’

s Shanachies should be an Ollave (p . 65, Stormy]Somet imes in writ ing down these genealogies the directionwas downward from some dist inguished progenitor, of

whom all the most important descendants are given,with

intermarriages and other incidents ofthe family. Some.

t imes again the pedigree is given upwards, the person’

s

Todd, St . Patrick, p . 133, note.

1: O

'

Curry ,MS. Mat .

,204 . A list ofthe Shanachies ofseveral noble

families may b e seen in the same work, p . 219 .


The following three tracts(already ment ioned , p .

from the manuscript genealogical books, have been printed ,

with translat ions and most copious and valuable notes

and il lustrat ions by Dr. John O’

Donovan, for the Irish

Archaeological and Celtic Society — An account of The

Tribes and Customs ofHy Fiachrach in Connaught , fromDualdMacFirbis’

s Book ofGenealogies a similar account

of“The Tribes and Customs ofHy Maine [Mainy] , from

the Book ofLecan and from the same book the Genealogyofa Munster tribe named Corcalee. And the genealogiesofnumerous Irish and Scottish families have been printedin various Irish publicat ions, all from the Irish manuscriptbooks. A large number of them will be found in the

Rev . John Shearman’

s Loca Patriciana.

Dinnsenchus — In this place may be ment ioned the

Dinnsenchus, a topographical tract in M iddle Irish,

prose and verse, giving the legendary history and the

etymology of the names of remarkable hills,mounds

,

caves, earns , cromlechs, raths, dunS, plains, lakes, rivers,fords , estuaries , islands, and so forth . It takes its name

from dz’

ndordinn,a fortified hill ,

’

and senchus, a history .

’

The stories are mostly fictitious— invented to suit the

several really exist ing names : nevertheless this tract isofthe utmost value for elucidat ing the topography and

antiquit ies of the country. Copies of i t are found in

several ofthe Old Irish books ofmiscellaneous l iterature,

ofwhich the Book ofLeinster contains the Oldest version.

Various portions ofit have been published by Petrie in hisEssay onTara,

by Crowe in the Kilk . Arch . Journ., 1872

—3

by Stokes in Rev . Celt ., xv. and xvi . , and in Folklore ,i ii .

and iv. and by Gwynn, in the Todd Lecture Series,Royal Irish Academy. Another very important tract aboutthe names ofremarkable Irish persons, called ConAnmannFi tness ofNames corresponding with the Dinnsenchus

for place—names, has been published with translat ion byDr. Stokes in Irische Texte ,

iii .

FIG. Tan— Sculp ture on 3 Column, Church ofthe Monastery , Glendalough.(From PetrIe

’

s Round Towers,

CHAPTER X V

HISTORICAL AND ROMANTIC TALES

SECTION 1. Classes, Lists, andNumbers.

VEN from the most remote t imes, beyond the

ken ofhistory ,the Irish people

,l ike those

ofother countries, had stories, which ,before

the introduction ofthe art ofwriting,were

transmitted orally , and modified,improved ,

and enlarged as time went on,by successive

seanchnz’

de [shanachie] , or storytellers.

’ They began to

be written down when writ ing became general : and a

careful examinat ion* Oftheir structure, and ofthe lan

guage in which they are written, has led to the conclusionthat the main tales assumed their present forms in the

seventh , eighth ,and ninth centuries while the originals

from which they sprang are much Older. It is probable— writes M . Dot tin’

r that the most ancient pieces oftheepic literature ofIreland were writ ten before themiddle ofthe seventh century but how long previously they hadbeen preserved by oral tradit ion— this is a point that it is

By Zimmer and De Jubainvil le : see Nut t,Cuchu lainn

,the Irish

Achil les, pp . 3, 2 9 , 31 De Jubainvil le,La Civil

,des Celtes

,137. See

a lso Voyage ofBran, I ., Introd. xvi : and Rev . Celt .,VIII . 47.

“(La Lit t . Gael . de l’Irlande, p . 68 .

S3 I


difficul t to determine. Once they began to be writtendown, a great body ofromant ic and historical writtenl iterature rapidly accumulated , consisting chiefly ofprosetales.

But ofthese original transcripts not a l ine remainsthe manuscript books that contained them were all

destroyed by the Danes, or in the disturbed times ofthe

Anglo-Norman invasion, as already stated (p . Of

many ofthe tales, however, we have,in the Book ofthe

Dun Cow, and the Book ofLeinster, copies made in the

eleventh and twelfth centuries : and there are numerous

others in manuscripts Copied by various scribes from thatperiod to the present century , many ofthem from originalvolumes older than the Book ofthe Dun Cow

, and existingwhen the several copyists wrote, but Since lost .Another point bearing on the antiquity ofour Irish

tales is this —that many ofthem correspond with talesin the ancient Romantic Literature ofGreece and the

East . Thus, to ment ion one out ofmany our legend of

Dermot O’

Dyna*

. corresponds with the Greek story of

Adonis, both heroes being dist inguished for beauty , and

both being killed by a boar. Even their names O’

Dyna

(Irish O ’

Dm'

bne) andAdonis look as i f they had come from

the same original . Those ofthe tales that correspond inthis manner must have had their origin prior to the separat ion ofthe races centuries before the Christian era.TIn the Book ofLeinster there is a very interesting List

ofthe classes to which the ancient historical tales belong,

with a number ofindividual tales named under each Classas examples, numbering altogether 187, which has beenprinted by O

’

Curry in his Lectures on the Manuscript,

Materials ofIrish History, p . 584. Another Similar ClassForwhich see Old Cel tic Romances(p . 274) The Pursuit ofDermot

and Grainne.

1: See the paper on Remarkable Correspondence ofIrish

,Greek

, and

Orienta l Legends, by the Rev . James O’

Laverty ,in Ulst . Journ. ofArch

,

V II . 334. See also Dr. Whit ley Stokes : Rev . Cel t .,V . 232 .


original List from which all our - present Lists were drawn,

was, in the opinion ofM . D’

Arbois de Jubainville,* writtenin the seventh century. In the same author’s Cataloguede la Littérature Epiq ue de l

’

Irlande (ment ioned fartheron), he has published the t itles ofabout 550 separate talesin prose or poetry or both , ofwhich

, according to the

est imate ofProfessor Kuno Meyer, in the Preface to hisLiadain and Curithir,

”about 400 are still preserved in

MSS. These might be supplemented— Dr. Meyer cont inuesin the same Preface— by at least 100 others that have cometo l ight since the publicat ion ofthe Catalogue, and by a

further number in MSS. still unexplored ,thus bringing up

the number st ill existing to between 500 and 601.TAs to the language of the Tales. The old scribes,

when copying a tale, Often modernised the phraseologyofthe ant ique prose to that oftheir own t ime : but the

poetry, being constructed in accordance with complicatedprosodial rules(for which see vol. p . 497,

infra) couldnot be al tered without disarranging the del icate structura lAccordingly the scribes generally let it alone,

copying itas they found it and for this reason the verse passagesare generally more archaic and diffi cul t to understandthan the prose. Most ofthe tales, as already remarked

,

have fallen under Christ ian influences, and contain allusionsto Christ ian doctrines and pract ices, inserted by theChrist ian copyists, mostly monks but some have escaped thisand are thoroughly pagan in Character, without the leasttrace ofChrist ianity. For those monks were l iberal andbroadminded , andwhenever they could— consistently withwhat they considered their duty— they retained the old

pagan allusions untouched . (See also p . 13 , supra.)

Cours de Lit t . Ce lt ., V I . 35 see also Voyage ofBran,I . 130 and

Hyde, Lit . Hist .,chapters xxii.- xxxi.

TAS to the tota l number of individual Tales,see a lso Miss Hul l

,

Saga, Introd.,xxxviii—ix .

fOn this see Zimmer in Rev . Celt .

,X II I . 179 .

CHAP . XV] HISTORICAL AND ROMANTIC TALES 535

'

The copyists modernised in other ways. They oftenaltered the descriptions ofant ique customs and equipments SO as to bring them

“

into-

conformity with their own

t imes. A notable example ofthis is “

the influence ofthe

Danish wars ofthe ninth and tenth centuries; It is now

generally admitted that before the arrival ofthe Danes,the Irish did not use coats ofmail or metall ic helmets,despising such things as unmanly. But they were forcedto adopt them— at least part ially— when they found themselves pitted against the Danes and to some small extentthey

‘

kept to the usage afterwards, SO that , though theynever took heart ily to armour and helmets

,they were

quite familiar with their use(see p . 122 , supra). Accordingly in many or most ofthe copies ofthe Red BranchKnights Tales made in the ninth and succeeding centuries

(i.e. after the arrival ofthe Danes), Cuculainn and otherheroes are represented as wearing metall ic helmets and

mail , though in a few versions we find no ment ion of

these defensive arms. A dist inguished Cont inental scholar,Prof. Z immer

,

* has made use ofthis as a means to dist in~

guish between pre-Danish and post -Danish versions ofthe

same story assuming that those recensions that make nomention ofarmour are unaltered copies ofversions writtenbefore the ninth century.

2 . Chronological Cycles ofthe Tales.

Most ofthe Irish Tales fall under four main cycles of

H istory and Legend ,which ,

in all the Irish poetical and

romant ic l iterature,were kept quite distinct

1. The Mythological Cycle, the stories ofwhich are

concerned with the mythical colonies preceding the

M ilesians, especially the Dedannans. The heroes ofthe

Tales belonging to this cycle,who are assigned to periods

long before the Christ ian era ,are gods, namely the gods

In Zeitschrift furDeut sches Alterthum,xxxii.

536 RELIGION,LEARN ING , AND ART [PART 11

that chiefly constitute the mythology ofthe pagan Irish .

These tales are much less numerous and less consecut ivethan those ofthe next two cycles.

2 . The Cycle of Concobar MacNessa and his Red

Branch Knights,who flourished in the first century.

3 . The Cycle ofthe Fena ofErin, belonging to a periodtwo centuries later than those ofthe Red Branch . The

Red Branch Knights and the Fena ofErin have beenalready fully described .

4 . Stories founded on events that happened after thedispersal of the Fena (in the end ofthe third century ,

p . 89 , supra), such as the Battle ofMoyrath (A.D.

most ofthe Visions, &c. There are some tales howeverthat do not come under any ofthese categories.

The stories ofthe Red Branch Knights form the finestpart of our ancient Romantic Li terature. The mostcelebrated ofall these is the Tain- bo- Cuai lnge [Quelne] ,the epic ofIreland . Medb [Maive] queen ofConnaught ,who resided in her palace ofCroghan— st il l remaining inruins near the Village ofRathcroghan in the north of

Roscommon— having cause ofquarrel with an Ulster chief,set out with her army for Ulster on a plundering expedition, attended by all the great heroes ofConnaught , andby an Ulster cont ingent who had enlisted in her service.

She was accompanied by her husband King Ailill, whohowever plays a very subordinate part the strong- minded

q ueen'

is the leading Character all through . The invadingarmy entered that part of Uls ter called Cuailnge or

Quelne, the principal ity ofthe hero Cuculainn, the northpart of the present county Louth . At this t ime the

Ulstermen were under a Spell of feebleness, all but

Cuculainn,who had to defend single- handed the several

fords and passes, in a series of single combats, againstMaive’

s best champions, in all ofwhich he was victorious.She succeeded in this first raid , and brought away a greatbrown bull -which was the chiefmotive ofthe expedi

v


reader’

s eye— for the stories are scrappy and very briefly

told . Mr. Nutt bel ieves, however, that before the eleventhCentury there must have existed a large body ofcompletetales, all ofwhich have perished . But a vast amount ofOssianic stories, both in prose and verse, is contained inlater MSS. , composed and transcribed from time to timedown to the beginning of the last century. The brieftales contained in the O lder MSS. form the germs ofthe

later and more elaborate stories.

M . H . D'

Arbois de Jubainville has published , in his

Littérature Epiq ue de l’

Irlande (the Epic Literature of

Ireland), a most useful catalogue ofancient Irish romant ictales, with the several l ibraries and manuscripts in whichthey are to be found a work which is quite indispensableto every student ofIrish romant ic l iterature. For a good

andmost useful survey ofthis ancient l iterature the readeris referred to Mr. Al fred Nutt

’

s The Voyage ofBran,

vol. i. , pp . 115 ct seq .

3 . General Character ofthe Tales.

Some ofthe tales are historical , i.e. founded on his

torical events— history embellished with some fictionwhile others are al together fictitious— pure creat ions of

the imaginat ion. But it is to be observed that even inthe fictitious tales, the main characters are nearly alwayshistorical , or such as were considered so. The Old Shanaa

chies wove their fict ions round ConcobarMacNessa and

his Red Branch Knights, or Firmand his Fena, or Luga

of the long arms and his Dedannans, or Conn the

Hundred fighter, or Cormac MacArt ; like the W elshlegends ofArthur and his Round Table, or the ArabianRomances OfHaroun al Raschid . The greater numberofthe tales are in prose,

but some are in verse and in

many ofthe prose tales the leading Characters are Oftenmade to express themselves in verse, or some strikingincident ofthe story is related in a poetical form . These

CHAP .

’

X V] HISTORICAL AND ROMANTIC TALES 539

verse fragments are mostly quotat ions from an olderpoet ical version ofthe same

From this great body of stories it would be easyto select a large number, powerful in concept ion and

execut ion, high and dignified in tone and feel ing, all

inculcat irig truthfulness and manl iness, many of themworthy to rank with the best l iterature oftheir kind inany language. The Stories of the Sons of Usna, the

Children ofLir, theFingal Ronain, the Voyage ofMaeldune,

DaDerga’

sHostel , the Boroma,and the Fairy Palace ofthe

Quicken Trees, are only a few instances in point .As tothe general moral tone ofthe ancient Irish tales

it is to be Observed that in all early literatures, Irishamong the rest , sacred as well as profane, there is muchplain speaking ofa character that would now be con

sidered coarse, and would not be tolerated in our presentsocial and domest ic life. But on the score ofmoral ityand purity the Irish tales can compare favourably withthe corresponding literature ofother countries and theyare much freer from objectionable matter than the worksofmany ofthose early English and Continental authorswhich are now regarded as classics. Taken as a bodythey are at least as pure as Shakespeare’

s Plays and the

worst ofthem contain very much less grossnessthan some

of the Canterbury Tales. Dr. W hitley Stokes, in his

Preface to the Destruct ion ofDa Derga’

s Hostel ,”speaks

with good reason ofthe pathos and beauty ofthat finestory ; and his remarks on the series ofshort stories in

the Aeallamh na Seanorach, or Colloquy with the Ancient

Men,

” deserve to b e quoted in full —“

The tales are

general ly told with sobriety and directness they evincegenuine feeling for natural beauty , a passion for music ,a moral purity ,

singular in a mediaeval collect ion of

stories, a noble love for manl iness and honour. Some

Old Celtic Romances,Pref

, p . iv .


of them seem to me adm irable for their unstudiedpathos. On the same point Professor Kuno Meyer

‘

r

justly remarks — The l iterature ofno nat ion is free fromoccasional grossness and considering the great ant iquityofIrish literature,

and the primitive l ife which it reflects,what will strike an impartial Observer most is not itsl icense or coarseness, but rather the purity, loftiness, andtenderness which pervade i t .Irish Romantic Literature is intimately interwoven

with nat ive Topography , as much so at least as that of

Greece or Rome, and much more so than the German

or Norse Tales . Some particular spots, residences, or

monuments are assigned as the scenes ofalmost all the

battles, feasts, burials, or othermemorable events and the

chief places through which armies on the march passed are

laid down with great precision : Most ofthose places, as .

well as the residences ofthe kings and great heroes ofthe

olden t ime , are known to this day, and not only retaintheir old names, but are marked by such monumentalremains as might be expected : ofwhich many exampleswill be found in various parts ofthis book.

4. S tory- tellingandRecitation.

The tales were brought into direct touch with the

people, not by reading— for there were few books outsidel ibraries, and few people were able to read them— but

by recitat ion : and the Irish of all classes, l ike the

Homeri c Greeks, were excessively fond ofhearing talesand poetry recited . There were, as we have seen, pro

fessional shanachies and poets whose duty it was to

know by heart numerous old tales, poems, and historical

pieces, and to recite them, at fest ive gatherings, for the

entertainment ofthe chiefs and their guests : and it has

Irische Texte,iv .

,Pref. xii.

TIn the Preface to his Liadain and Cuirithir.

1On this special point , see Miss Hul l ’s Cuchullin Saga, Appendixp. 301, and the map prefixed to the work .


5. Translations and Versions inModern Languages.

Much of this ancient Romant ic Literature has beenrecently translated . The Battle ofMoylena and the Bat tleofMoyrath are the subjects oftwo historic tales

,both of

which have been published , the former edited by O ’

Curry

and the latter by O ’

Donovan, both with valuable notes.

W hat are called the Three Tragic Stories ofErin viz .,

the Fate ofthe Children ofLir, the Fate ofthe Sons of

Usna, and the Fate of the Sons ofTurenn, have beenpublished in theAtlant is, translated andedi ted by O

’

Curry

who also translated the Sick- bed ofCuchulainn in the

same periodical . Some few others have been publishedwith translat ions in the Kilkenny Archaeological Journal ,and in the Proceedings ofthe Royal Irish Academy.

In the Revue Celt ique,Irische Texte,

Zeitschrift furCelt . Phil., Folklore, and other periodicals, both Brit ishand Cont inental , a great number have been translated byDr. W hitley Stokes and by Prof. Kuno Meyer. Severalhave also been translated into French and German byW indisch , D

’

Arbois de Jubainville,Zimmer, and others.

The Irish Texts Society ofLondon have published the

Feast OfBricriu, with English translat ion ; which however had been previously translated into French byM . De Jubainville in his L

’

Epopée Celtique en Irlando,and into German by Dr W indisch in Ir Texte, vol. i i . In

Dr. Hayes O ’

Grady’

s Si lva Gadelica are text and translat ion oftwenty- seven. Six volumes oftales

,chiefly Ofthe

Cycle ofFirm,have been published with translat ions by

the Ossianic Society. The best Ofthem is The PursuitofDermot andGrania ,

” which has been li terally translatedby Standish Hayes O

’

Grady. M iss Eleanor Hull has

given a good abstract ofthe Red Branch Knights talesin her book , The Cuchullinn Saga I have myselfpublished in my Old Celtic Romances free translat ions— without texts— ofthirteen ancient tales(includingDerm

’

ot

CHAP . xv] HISTORICAL AND ROMANTIC TALES 543

and Grania above-ment ioned). A translation, on similarl ines, of

“

The Fate ofthe Sons ofUsna has been latelyincluded in the same book . Lady Gregory has

told the principal stories ofthe Red Branch Knights insimple, quaint English— fol lowing pretty closely on the

originals— in her Cuchulain ofMuirthemne All thesewill be found ment ioned in the L ist ofAuthorit ies at the

end ofthis book . Translat ions and versions still cont inuetoappear, showing no Signs of falling off, but rather a

tendency to increase.

*

Already a good beginning has beenmade in the creat ionofa modern l iterature founded on these ancient sagas.

Five English poet ical epics have been published ,founded

on five ofthem Congal ,”

on the Battle ofMoyrath,

and Conary ,

”on the Destruct ion ofDa Derga

’

s Hostel,

both by Sir Samuel Ferguson ; The Foray ofQueenMeave,

”on the Tain- bo- Quelme, by Mr. Aubrey de Vere

and Deirdre, on the Fate of the Sons ofUsna , and

Blanid, on the Death OfCuroiMacDara , both by mybrother Dr. Robert Dwyer Joyce. W hen

'

Tennyson readfor the first t ime the adventures ofMaeldune

,in Old

Celt ic Romances, he made i t the subject ofa beaut ifulpoem ,

which he called The Voyage OfMaeldune.

”

And

there exist st ill , in this fine Old l iterature, ample materialsuntouched . The harvest is abundant , but the labourersare wanted .

Ofthe who le ofthe five or six hundred ancient Irish Tales,Prof.

Kuno Meyer, in the Preface to his Liadain and Curithir,

estimates

that about I 50 have been, so far, published with translations.

F IG .—Onc form 0

’

Irish Ornament .

FIG. x3c.—Sculp ture on Chancel Arch. Monastery Church, Glendalough.(From Petric

'

s Round Toners.

CHAPTER X VI

ART

SECTION I . Fanwork and Illumination.

T ,in some ofits branches, was cult ivated , as

we shal l see, in Pagan Ireland ; but itattained its highest perfection in Christiantimes. In its Christian connexion i t beganto flourish early. W e know that St .

Patrick , in the fi fth century ,kept

, as part of

his household , smiths, braz iers, and other artists.

St . Daig or Dagoeus (d . A.D. who is ment ionedfarther on

,was a scriptor libromm peritissimus, a most

ski lful wri ter ofbooks,’

and was equally celebrated as a

metal - work artist and St . Ultan(7th or 8th cent .) wasrenowned as a scriptor et pietor librormn peritissimns, a

most accomplished writer and illuminator of In

Ireland art was pract ised chiefly in four d ifferent branches— Ornamentat ion and Illuminat ion ofManuscript - booksMetal- work ; Stone- carving ; and Building. In leatherwork also the Irish artists attained to great skill , as we

may see in several exquisite specimens ofbook - bindingst ill preserved , Ofwhich two are figured at pp . 32 and 488,

supra. Art in general reached its highest perfection inthe period between the end Ofthe ninth and the beginning

Kel ler in Ulst . Journ. Arch .,V III . 223, 2 24 Miss Stokes

,Art

, p. 28 .

546 RELIG ION,LEARN ING

,AND ART [PART II

vented it from sinking in, and in great measure fromfading : while others have a thick body ofsome skilfullyprepared material .*

The Book ofKells, a vellum manuscript ofthe FourGospels in Latin,

is the most beautifully wri tten book inexistence. The first notice ofi t occurs in the Annals, a t1006, where it is recorded that the great Gospel of

Columkille the principal rel ic ofthe western world , on

account ofits unequalled cover,”was stolen out ofthe

sacristy at Kells(in Meath). It was found soon after but

the thief had removed the gold cover. Its exact age is nuknown but judging from the style ofthe penmanship and

from other internal evidence, we may conclude that it wasprobably written in the seventh or early in the eighthcentury. Each verse begins with an ornamental capitaland upon these capitals, which are nearly all differently designed , the artist put forth his utmost efforts.

M iss Stokes, who has carefully examined the Book of

Kells, thus speaks of i t No effort hitherto made to

transcribe any one page ofthis book has the perfectionofexecution and rich harmony ofcolour which belongsto this wonderful book . It is no exaggerat ion to say

that , as with themicroscopic works Ofnature , the strongerthe magni fying power brought to bear upon it , the more

is this perfection seen. N0 single false interlacement oruneven curve in the Spirals,

no faint trace ofa tremblinghand or wandering thought can be detected . This is thevery passion oflabour and devot ion and thus did theIrish scribe work to glorify his book . TProfessor j . 0 . W estwood OfOxford , who examined

the best specimens ofancient penwork all over Europe,

speaks even more strongly. In his l ittle work on the

Book ofKells, he writes ° It is the most astonishing

From the German scho lar,Dr. Kel ler

,in U lst . Journ. ofArch .

,

viii. 22 1 see a lso Miss Stokes,Early Christ ian Art , 11

,12 .

1' Miss Stokes

,Early Christian Archit ecture , 12 7.

[ Facos im ile ofone page oft he Boo k ofMac Durnan.exact ly as it left t he handoftheIrish scribe . A.D. 850 The w0rds. which are much cont racted. are t he beginn ing oft he Gos pel ofSaint M ark . in Lat in. For further reference to t his front ispiece. see

pp I4 493 . 494 .—1"rom W es twood

’

s Fau n » : ofA nn ax a nd Irish AISS J

FIG. 138.

Outlines ofthe illuminated page from the Book ofMacDnrnan.

La t in word: t ort/z contrart ions as they stunt m thepage,— lnitium Avangelu dfii1m ihiI chn fulu(Insicut scrip T

‘in esala .pfeta Ecce mi t to anguelum meum

La tin word: fully wrttten au t.— Imtiurn Aevangclil dominl nostri ihesu Christi filii del sicut

scnp tum est in esaia profeta Ecce mit to anguelum meum

Tra ns/anam—Thebeginning Ofthe Gospel ofour Lord Jesus Christ Son ofGod as it is writ ten

in Esa la the prophet Behold I sendmy angel.

CHAP . X V Il ART 549

times there were many such books, as indeed is indicated— among other entries— by the record ofthe Four Masters

above. Here thebook is singled out for Special commen

dat ion, not on account ofits penwork ,but for its un

equalled cover, implying that the beaut iful penmanship

was so usual in books at the t ime as not to need special

not ice in this part icular volume . Giraldus’

s words are

Almost every page is i llustrated by drawings il luminatedwith a variety Ofbrilliant colours. In one page you see

the countenance ofthe Divine Majesty supernaturallypictured in another the myst ic forms ofthe evangel ists

here is depicted the eagle,there the calf here the face

ofa man,there ofa l ion with other figures in almost

endless variety. You will find them [the pictures] sodel icate and exquisite, so finely drawn,

and the work of

interlacing so elaborate,while the colours with which they

are illuminated are so blended ,that you will be ready to

assert that all this is the work Ofangelic and not Of

human One can hardly be surprised at Giraldus’

s

legend forwhoever looks closely into some Ofthe elaboratepages of the Book ofKells— even in the photographicreproductions— will be inclined to wonder how any human

head could have designed , or how any human hand couldhave drawn them . This exquisite art was also practisedsuccessfully by the Gaels ofScotland but the discussionofthis does not fall within my province.

The men who produced these books must have workedwithout the least hesitat ion or uncertainty, and with um

wavering decision,the result Oflong practice. So far as

we know there were then no magni fying glasses : and

perhaps i t may not be out ofplace to remark that i t wasin general only persons with Short Sight— sach people as

have now to use concave spectacles— that could followup for a lifet ime this art ofminute ornamentat ion and

illumination.

Top. Hib .

,I I . xxxviii(Bohn’

s

550 RELIG IO N,LEARN ING

,AND ART [PART Ir

But this pecul iar work did not

‘

originate in Ireland .

In pagan t imes indeed the Irish pract ised a sort oforna

mentat ion consist ing of z igz ags, lozenges, circles both

F IG . 139.

Rock - scorings at Newgrange. (From] oum . Roy. Soc Ant iq q . Irel for 1896,

p . These are coarse , but they show

the prevailing forms.

single and in concentric

groups , spirals Ofboth singleand double l ines

,and o ther

such pat terns, which are

found among most primit ive

peoples , andwhich in Irelandmay be seen on bronze and

gold ornaments preserved inmuseums

,and on sepulchral

stone monuments , such as

those at New Grange and

Even in thoseprimit ive ages, however, theyshowed much art ist ic taste

and skill . Many small Objects,such as horn combs, foundunder cam s in Loughcrew,

are — in the words of Mr.

Fergussont engraved by

compass with circles and

curves ofa high order of

art”: and “

on one,in cross~

hatch l ines,is the represen

tat ion ofan ant lered stag

all executed in pagan times.Specimens oftasteful pagandesigns, some Ofthem beaut ifully executed , may be seen

on some ofthe stone monu

ments figured in chap. xxxi , sect . 5 ; and on the goldornament s shown in chap. xxn.

,sect . 3.

On this seeMr. Coffey on the Origins ofPrehistoric Ornament in IrelandJourn.Roy. Soc.Antiq q ., Irel., 1892

—1894. 1' Rude Stone Monuments, 2 18.

552 RELIG ION , LEARN ING ,AND ART [PART II

examinat ion ofthe Continental specimens of Irish cal igraphy and il lumination, is qui te as strongly enthusiast icin his expressions ofadmiration as Mr. W estwood and

Miss Stokes.

It is curious that long after this style Ofwriting and

ornamentat ion had died out on the Cont inent , i t wasrevived and brought into fashion there again throughthe influence ofthe Irish M issionaries. For they carriedtheir beaut iful art— improved and almost re- created bytheir own invent ive genius— wherever they went , and

taught it to the Anglo- Saxons and Bri tons in England,

and to the people ofall those Cont inental countries theyfrequented . Mr. W estwood and Dr. Keller both expressthe opinion that the Irish style of penmanship was

generally adopted on the Cont inent , and cont inued to

prevai l there unt il the revival ofart in the thirteenth and

fourteenth centuries. To this day numerous exquisitespecimens ofthe skill and taste ofthose Irish art ists are

preserved in the l ibraries ofEngland , France,Germany ,

and Italy : ofwhich one lovely example— now in Bavaria— may be seen described andfigured by Dr. W . W attenbachin a Paper writ ten by him in German, and translated intoFrench ,

in the first volume ofRevue Celt ique.

* One of

Dr. W at tenbach’

s illustrat ions is copied here by permissionofthe editor ofRevue Celtique. Several others, with thefull colours restored , will be found in Dr. Keller’s Paperabove referred to . Through ignorance ofthe real originofthis beautiful style ofwri t ing , om amenting, and illumi

nat ing manuscripts, i t was at one t ime Often designatedCelt ic (which is too wide a term), andnot unfrequentlyAnglo - Saxon (because i t was sometimes found inAnglo

Saxon MSS. written by scribes who had learned from the

The French Tit le ofthe Paper Is Sur un Evangeliare aMiniatures d

’

Origine Irlandaise, dans la Bibliotheq ue Princiere d’

Oet tingen

Wallerstein (Rev . Celt .,I . This Paper is t ranslated into English ,

with two il lustrat ions copied, by Miss Stokes, in Kilk.Archaeol .Journalfor 1870

—71, p. 352 .

CHAP. X VI] ART 553

Irish) but now i t is universally recogniz ed as Irish, so

that it is commonly known as opus Hibernicmn.

maud‘

OTn

pnmCIpio

op udoTn

F IG . no.

The beginning ofthe Gospel ofSt . John, from an Irish manuscrip t Gospel Book now in Bavaria.(From Rev. Celt., vol. I. In the original manuscrip t this is Illumina ted in colour.)

W hile the Irish artists evolved from within this unex

ampled excellence of ornamentat ion, their attempts at

miniature drawing ,as well as at sculpturing the human

figure, are convent ional and imperfect : a circumstance


AND ART [PART II

which will hardly surprise us when we remember thatconventional i ty in figure

- drawing and sculpture held theancient Egyptian artists in slavery for thousands ofyears

,

and that their attempts at depicting natural figures and

scenes remained art ificial and imperfect to the'

end . But

the Irish artists, though their figures were rude, were highlysuccessful in imparting expression to the human face, as

may be seen by Petrie ’

s remarks at p . 570 ,infra.

2 . Gold, Silver, andEnamel, as W orkingMaterials.

Before entering on the subject ofart ist ic metal - work,i t

may be well to say a few words on the two metals chieflyemployed— gold and silver— and on the glassy metall iccombinat ion— enamel .

Gold.- It is certain that gold and silver mines were

worked in this country from the most remote antiquityand tha t gold was found anciently in much greaterabundance than it has been in recent t imes. Our Oldesttraditions record not only the ex istence ofthe mines, butalso the names ofthe kings who had them worked

,and

even those of the artificers. According to the bardicannals, the monarch Tigernmas [Tiernmas] was the firstthat smel ted gold in Ireland , and with it covered drinkinggoblets and brooches ; the mines were situated in the

Foz’

t/zre [fira] , or woody districts, east ofthe L i ffey ; and

the art ificer was Ue/zaa’an

,who l ived in that part ofthe

country.

W hatever amount oftruth there may be in this old

legend,i t proves that the W icklow gold mines were as wel l

known in the far distant ages ofantiquity as they were inthe end ofthe eighteenth century, when the accidental discovery ofa few pieces Ofgold in the bedofa stream revivedthe long- lost knowledge, and caused such an exciting searchfor several years. This stream

,which is now called the

Gold M ine river, flows from the mountain ofCroghan

Kinshella, and joins the Ovoca near the W ooden Bridge

556 RELIG ION , LEARN ING , AND ART [PART II

his usual sour indictments and he then goes on to say

with undoubted truth Even gold , ofwhich they requirelarge quantit ies, and which they desire so eagerly

, as to

indicate their Spanish origin,is brought hither [from

'

Spain] by merchants (Top . Hib . III . In anotherplace he remarks that gold abounds in Ireland .

The general truthfulness ofthese traditions and recordsis fully borne out by the great quant ities ofgolden orna

ments found in every part ofthe country,which will be

spoken ofin vol. p . 222. Near the village ofCullen, on

the borders ofLimerick and Tipperary ,there is a bog

which has been long celebrated for the quant ities of

manufactured gold found in it . During the last two

centuries innumerable golden art icles of various kindshave been dug up from the bottom ofthis bog, as wellas many ofthe implements used by the old goldsmiths intheir work , such as crucibles, bronze ladles, &c. ; fromwhich it is probable,

as O’

Curry remarks, that this placewas anciently— long before the bogwas formed , and whenthe land was clothed with wood— inhabited by a race of

goldsmiths, who carried on the manufacture there for

generat ions.

* It may be added that the bog ofCullenis still proverbial all over Munster for its riches

And her wealth it far outshines

Cul len’

s bog or Silvermines. 1'

How much Ireland was richer than Britain in gold iswell i llustrated by the fact that , while the total weight ofthe gold ornaments in the British Museum , collected from

England , W ales, and Scotland (excluding those fromIreland), is not more than 50 oz., those in the collectionin the Nat ional Museum in Dublin weigh about 570

Man. Cust ., II . 205 , et seq . For more about ancient workshops,see vol. 11. page 320 .

t The Enchanted Lake, in Crofton Croker’

s Fairy Legends.

I, SeeMr. George Coffey’

s Paper, ] ourn. SOC. Antiq q . Irel.,1895 , p . 23 .

In this Article the weight ofthe Brit .Mus . go ld is given as 20 oz . 5 bu t

CHAP . X VI] ART 557

Dr. Fraz er’

s Paper in Proc . Roy. Ir. Acad . for 1893—6

,

p . 779 ,suggesting that the gold for Irish ornaments was

imported from Eastern Russia , and a subsequent paper inthe Journ. of the Soc. Antiq q .

,Ireland (1897, p .

assigning Roman gold coins plundered from the Bri tonsas the source ofthe Irish supply , do not need any seriousnotice.

Si lvan— As in the case ofgold , we have also very ancientlegends about silver. Our old legendary histories tell usthat King Enna Airgthech,

who reigned about a centuryand a half after Tigernmas, was the first that made silvershields in Ireland ,

which he distributed among his chieftainfriends. The legend goes on to say that they were madeat a place called Argetros or Silverwood ,

situated at Rathbeagh on the Nore in Kilkenny,

which was said to deriveits name from those si lver shields. In several parts ofthecountry there are mines oflead mixed with a considerablepercentage ofSilver ; one, for instance, at Silvermines inTipperary. Like gold

,silver also appears to have been

occasionally imported from Spain. In the house ofGerg

there were drinking- bowls with rims ornamented withsilver brought from Spain(Leahy ,

The Irish word for silver is airgel [arrigit] : it is a

Celt ic word cognate with the Lat . argentum. Two othernat ive terms for s ilver

, cimb and cerb,are given in Cormac ’s

Glossary but both had fallen out ofuse in the

tenth century. On account ofthe abundance ofgold ,its

market value in Ireland compared with that ofSilverwhich was difficul t to obtain— was very much less than it .

is now.*

Mr. Coffey informs me that a corselet weighing 30 02,was accidental ly

omit ted. See also Ridgeway, Origin ofCurrency, Appendix C .

For more informat ion about gold and silver,see Brash

’

s article inKilk . Arch . Journ.

,1870

—71, p . 509 Hyde, Lit . Hist ., chap . xii. Prof.

O’

Reilly’

s Paper on the Milesian Colonisation ofIreland in relation to

Gold Mining,in Proc. Roy. Ir. Acad. for 1900 and M . Henri Gaidoz

,De

l'

Exploitat ion des Mé taux en Gaule,in the Revue Archéologiq ue, 1868 .

558 RELIGION ,LEARNING, AND ART [PART II

Enamel andEnamel W ork — Onmany ofthe specimens

ofmetal - work preserved in the Nat ional Museum may be

seen enamel patterns worked with exquisite Skill , showingthat the Irish art ists were thorough masters ofthis branchofart . Their enamel was a sort ofwhitish or yellowishtransparent glass as a foundat ion,

coloured with different

metall ic oxides. It was fused on to the surface of the

heated metal , where i t adhered , andwas worked while softinto various patterns. Red or crimson enamel , whichseems to have been a favourite, was called cruan, fromthe Irish word era , blood .

’

O’

Davoren, a late authority ,

quot ing from older works, vaguely defines cruan,a kind

ofold braz ier work .

’

In other old glossaries the word isplained buidhe ocus dearg, yellow and red,

’

as much as

to say that cruan was ofan orange or crimson colour.*

The art ofenamell ing was common to the Celtic peopleofGreat Britain and Ireland ,

in pre- Christian as well as in

Christ ian t imes and beaut i ful spec imens have been foundin both countries, some obviously Christ ian, and others, astheir designs and other Characterist ics show , belonging toremote pagan ages. Many Objects showing exquisi teenamel work , variously coloured ,

all found in Ireland , havebeen described , and several ofthem figured ,

by M iss Stokesin the art icle ment ioned below. The art was taken up

and improved by the Christian art ists, who used it inmetal - work with the interlaced ornamentat ion,

“

Similar tothat in the Book ofKells and other manuscripts.

A few years ago a great block ofcruan or red enamelweigh ing I oib .

, formed ofglass coloured with red oxideof copper— being the raw material intended for futurework— was found under one ofthe raths at Tara ,

and is

now in the Nat ional Museum . On this a Paper was contributed to vol. xxx . , Transactions ofthe R. I . Acad .

,by

See V . Ba l l and Miss Stokes in the Paper mentioned in the text

Dk . ofRights ,267 Stokes in Trip . Life

,Introd. cx lvi, note 2 andDr.

Wil liam Stokes ’

s Life ofPetrie, 420 .

560 RELIG ION , LEARN ING , AND ART [PART II

art was cont inued intoChrist ian t imes, and was brought

to its highest perfection in the tenth and eleventh centuries.

As in writing —says theGerman scholarDr. W attenbachso likewise in music , in goldsmith

’

s work ofall kinds,

and in carving , the Scots [Irish] have been celebratedfrom olden t imes, and in those arts they have also beenthe teachers of the industrious monks ofSt .

Artist ic metal work cont inued to flourish to about the

F IG . 141.

The Art lazh Chalice. (From M iss Stokes‘

s Early Christian Art In Ireland.) Underneath theornamental hand. near the top.and extending all round the circumference. there is an inscrip

t ion in sq uare let ters. giving the names ofthe twelve Apostles but the le t ters are too delicateto be shown in this Illustrat ion.

end ofthe twel fth century , but gradually declined afterthat , owing to the general disorganisat ion ofsociety con

sequent on the Anglo- Norman Invasion,and to the want

ofencouragement . A great variety ofgold ornamentsmay

be seen in the National Museum , many ofbeauti ful workmanship which will be noticed in vol. II .

,pp . 222 - 263 .

The ornamental designs ofmetal work executed byChrist ian art ists were generally similar to those used in

Uist . Journ. Archaeo l . V II . 238.

CHAP . X VI] ART 561

manuscripts (for, as has been observed ,interlaced orna

mentat ion, whether in penwork , on stone, or in metals,came in with Christ ianity), and the execut ion was dis

t inguished by the same exquisite Skill and masterlyprecision. The pre

- Christ ian - art ists exercised their skillin making and om amenting shields swords sword - hiltschariots brooches bridles

, &c.,&c. our oldest records

test ify to the manufacture of these art icles by skilledartists in remote pagan t imes and the numerous exquisitespecimens oftheir handiwork in our museums fully corroborate those accounts. In addition to these the Christ ianartists— who were chiefly,

but not exclusively , ecclesiastics*

— made crosses ; crosiers ; chalices ; bells ; brooches ;shrines or boxes to hold books or bells or rel ics and booksatchels, in which the two materials

,metal and leather,

were used . Specimens ofall these— many ofthem ofveryremote ant iquity— may b e seen in the Nat ional Museumin Dublin. The three most remarkable,

as well as the

most beaut iful and most elaborately ornamented objectsin this museum , are the Ardagh Chalice, the Tara.Brooch ,and the Cross of Cong, all made by Christ ian artists.But many of the art icles in the Museum , belonging to

pagan t imes, both ofgold and ofmixed metals, especial lythe golden gorgets, exhibit elaborate and beaut ifulworkmanship .

The Ardagh Chal ice, which is 7 inches high and 91;inches in diameter at top ,

was found some years ago

buried in the ground under a stone in an old lis at Ardagh ,

in the county Limerick . Beyond this nothing is known of

its history. It'

is elaborately ornamented with designs inmetal and enamel and,

judging from its Shape and fromits admirable workmanship ,

it was probably made some

short t ime before the tenth century. It is very fullydescribed in a Paper by the late Earl of Dunraven

(Feb . 22 ,1869) in vol. xxiv . ofthe Trans. of the R. I .

See Dr. W m . Stokes '

s Life ofPetrie, chap . viii.

562 RELIG ION ,LEARN ING ,

AND ART [PART II

Academy , and in two communicat ions from Dr. W . K .

Sullivan,and Mr. Edmond Johnson of Dublin, both

included in Lord Dunraven’

s Paper.

FIG. 142.

The Tara Brooch : front view(pin cut short here to save space). (From Miss Stokes's EarlyChristian Art in Ireland.) The plates with the ornamental designs have been knocked off seven

ofthe litt le panels.

The Tara brooch was found in 1850 by a child on the

strand near Drogheda. It is ornamented all over withamber

,glass

, and enamel , and with - the characterist ic Irishfil igree or interlaced work in metal . From its style of

workmanship it seems obviously contemporaneous with


ofthese old brooches are preserved , but the one now under

not ice is by far the most perfect and beaut iful ofall. Nodrawing can give any adequate idea ofthe extraordinarydel icacy and beauty of the work on this brooch , which

is perhaps the finest specimen of ancient metalwork

remaining in any country.

The Cross ofCong , which is 2 feet 6 inches high , was

a processional cross, made to enshrine a piece ofthe truecross. It is all covered over with elaborate ornamentat ion

ofpure Celtic design, and a series ofinscriptions in the

Irish language along the sides gives its full history. It was

made by order ofTurlogh O’

Conor king ofConnaught,

for the church ofTuam , then governed by ArchbishopMuredach O '

Duffy. The accomplished art ist , who finished

his work in 1123 ,and who deserves to b e remembered to

all t ime,was Mailisa MacBraddan O ’

Hechan.

Some ofthe finest ofthe metal work is exhibited on

the shrines, ofwhich many specimens are preserved in theNat ional Museum in Dublin. Ofthese, two have alreadybeen ment ioned ,

those ofSt .Maidoc and St . Patrick ’

s bell .

An engraving of this last Splendid specimen ofancient

Irish metalwork forms the Frontispiece ofour Second

Volume . Another very remarkable one, probably madein the beginning ofthe twelfth century,

is the shrine of

St . Manchan ofLemanaghan in King ’

s County ,now and

from time immemorial kept in the Roman Cathol ic ChurchofBoher, in the parish ofLemanaghan. It is profuselydecorated with the usual Irish ornamentat ion and therewere originally fifty

- two bronz e figures of laymen and

ecclesiast ics formed in high rel ief, fastened on the two

sloping sides, ofwhich only ten remain. Five of thesefigures are pictured elsewhere in this book(vol. II ., p .

A restored model , heavily gilt , as the shrine itself originallywas, with the whole fifty- two figures, may be seen in the

Nat ional Museum .*

This shrine is fu l ly described and il lustrated by the Rev . James

Graves in the Kilk. Arch . Journ. for 1874—5 , p . 134.

GHAP . xvii ART 565

In 1896 Mr. Edmond Johnson,ofDublin

, a pract icalgoldsmith and jeweller

,made a detailed examinat ion of

some Irish gold ornaments belonging to remote pre

Christ ian times and wrote a most useful and interest ingmemorandum on the modes ofworking in use among theancient Irish goldsmiths.

* He bel ieves that the fuel usedmust have been birch charcoal , which gave the highesttemperature within reach ofthose old cairds. W ith the

appliances then available,neither coal nor anthracite gave

suffi cient heat to melt gold and he says that he remembered birch charcoal used for this purpose in his father’

s

workshop . A furnace of about one cubic foot internalmeasurement would— as he states— be sufficient : i t wasfilled with the charcoal , having the crucible buried in thecentre of the glowing mass : and even with this

,some

flux, such as nitre or borax ,

would be required to meltthe gold . It would

,he says

,be necessary to have a small

orifice at the base for a bellows ofconsiderable power ;which agrees with our own inference(in volume pages

305 about an ordinary forge- fire,that the orifice

for the bel lows- pipe was in the centre ofthe bottom , or in

the bottom ofone ofthe side- flags. Mr. Johnson showsthat such tube—shaped art icles as the fibula or Em me

do- atT— all ofpagan t imes— were made ofseveral pieces,each ofwhich was first cast roughly and then hammeredon shaped anvil - surfaces into the required form . Afterthe pieces had been made to accurately fit each other.they were sweated . or welded together by surfacemelting

n - never soldered . Mr. Johnson’

s observat ion aboutthe practice ofshaping gold by hammering is corroboratedby the old records. In the Book of the Dun Cow the

gipne or frontlet worn by the charioteer Loeg is com

pared , for its colour, to gold hammered over the edge of

an anvil ;

Proc. Roy. Ir. Acad.,189 3

—1896 , p . 780 . 1' See vol. p . 241.

I Kilk . Arch . Journ.,1870

—71, p . 424 .

566 RE LIG ION,LEARN ING

,AND ART [PART ll

The ornamentat ion,which consists— as already oh

served— of lines , circles, spirals , lo zenges , &c., was not

done by engraving wi th a sharp tool,but by hammer

and chisel . Some concentric rings on the but tons or

cups at the two ends of the fibula? are so true thatthey must— he says— have been turned on a lathe : whichalso agrees with the statements as to the knowledge and

use ofthe lathe in chap. xx iv.,sect . 5, infra .

Mr. Johnson states that the tools and appliancesnecessary to produce these gold ornaments werefurnace,

charcoal , crucible ,mould for the roughly - cast

ingot , flux ,bellows

,several hammers

,anvils, swage- anvil

(i.v. an anvil shaped for moulding by hammering), Chisels

Flo. nu . Me . 145. FIG. 146.

Sometimes ornaments were engraved on bone. ofwhich these are three examples.(Front W ilde'

s Catalogue. p y 6.)

for impressing ornament , sect ional tool for producingconcentric rings , [also a lathe] : all these , it is to be

remembered, in remote pagan t imes . Certain beaut ifulornaments on one of the specimens quite puz z led Mr.

Johnson as to how they were produced with the toolsthen at the disposal ofworkmen none ofhis workmen

some ofthe best goldworkers anywhere to be foundcould produce them with the tools in quest ion.

"6

4 . Slam: Carzwzg.

A stone - carver was called fol/a id [ tullee] , from toll,

‘a

hole ’

: fol/aim,I bore

,pierce ,

perforate.

’

Stone- carvers arementioned in the eighth - century M ilan irish glosses :

For more about metal~u orkers, see chap . xxiv.

FIG . 147.

High Cross ofMonasterboice : 27 feet high formed ofthree pieces—the shaft , the cross withcircle. and the top . (From M iss Stokes’s Early Christ ian Art in lreland.) Ofanother ofthe threeMonasterboice crosses -

” Muredach’s Cross (15 feet highl— a reproduct ion in exact facsuiule

stands in the large central hall ofthe Na t ional Museum, Dublin.

CHAP. X VI] ART569

prevails everywhere at the present day. The churches,

writes Miss Stokes,* “ were to be the books of the un“

learned , as St . John Damascene has said ofsculpturedimages . The learned have them as a kind ofbookwhich Is for the use ofthe unlearned and ignorant .

L 4

As for the ornamentation on the high crosses, it is stillofthe same general Celtic character that we find in metalwork and in illuminated manuscripts ; and it exhibits the

In her Paper on Christian Iconography In Ireland which the readermayconsul t for further infO Imation on this point(see List ofAuthorities,infra).

370 RELIG ION,LEARN ING

, AND ART [PART 11

same masterly skill and ease both in design and execut ion.

A few high crosses of the Irish shape are found in the

south ofScotland ,and in the north ofEngland but they

are obviously im itat ions ofthose ofIreland ,made by Irish

art ists or under the influence ofIrishmen.

The progress made by the ancient Irish in sculpturemay bebest described in the substance ofPetrie

’

s words asrecorded by Dr. W illiam Stokes. Many evidences, Petrieobserves, may be found ofthe Irish having possessed greatproficiency in this art before the tenth century. This isshown chiefly in the carved tombstones and in the stonecrosses . Statues, properly so called ,

were not introducedfor some centuries later. Monumental effigies appear tohave been brought in by the Anglo- Normans. And again 3

true it is that in the drawing ofthe human figure, as seen

in the older Mss . and in sculptures, whether in stone or in

metal , it is easy to perceive a deficient power ofexecutionand design ; but even with such defects, the old Irishart ists are often most successful in expression. The bas

reliefs ofecclesiastics and ofholy women in their earlycostumes on the Shrine ofSt . Maidoc are ofan executionmarvellously del icate the expression ofthe countenancesis in

.

a high degree feheitous and varied and to come tolater times

,the crowned efiigies ofO

’

Brien and O’

Conor,

at Corcomroe andRoscommon Abbeys, exhibit a power ofsculpture which may compare with anything ofthe samedate in England . The same admirable qual ity ofexpression may be seen in the figure ofthe Saviour on the CrossofTuam , and in many other examples f

For examp le see two ofthese figures depicted in vol. p. 179 ,

expressing sorrow after the Crucifixion.

1Stokes’

s Life ofPet rie, pp . 269 ,

297. See also Petrie ’

s Let ter at

p . 404 ofthe same book . On the subject ofIrish crosses,see O

’

Neill’

s

Irish Crosses Mr. Brash’

s article on Irish Sculptured Crosses, in the Kilk .

Arch . Journ .,1872

—3 and especial ly Miss Stokes ’

s boOk on the H igh

Crosses ofCast ledermot and Durrow ,and her Early Christ ian Art in

Ireland. From th ese two last books the greater part ofthe information

given abov e about the H igh Crosses has been taken.

572 RELIGION,LEARN ING

,AND ART [PART II

from Paradise is described,when they were without

proper food ,fire

,house, music, or raiment ." Here music

is put in among the necessaries ofli fe , so that it was a

misery to be without it . In Christ ian times musicsays Dr. Kel ler was cult ivated by them [the Irish] asan art intimately connected with publ ic worship and

other dist inguished German scholar,Dr. W attenbach

,

has been quoted(p . 560 , supra) as also bearing test imonyto their musical skill .

In the early ages of the church many of the Irishecclesiast ics took great delight in playing on the harpand in order to indulge this innocent and refining taste,they were wont to bring with them in their missionarywanderings a small portable harp . This fact is ment ionednot only in the L ives ofsome ofthe Irish saints, but alsoby Giraldus Cambrensis ? Figures ofpersons playing on

harps are— as we shall see— common on Irish stonecrosses, and also on the shrines of ancient reliquaries.It appears from several authori t ies that the practice of

playing on the harp as an accompaniment to the voice was

common in Ireland as early as the fifth or sixth century .

During the long period when learning flourished in

Ireland ,Irish professors and teachers ofmusic would seem

to have been as much in request in foreign countries as

those of l iterature and philosophy. In the middle of

the seventh century ,Gertrude

,daughter ofPepin, mayor

of the palace,abbess ofNivelle in Belgium , engaged

SS. Foillan and Ultan,brothers ofthe Irish saint Fursa

ofPeronne,to instruct her nuns in psalmody.i In the

latter hal f of the ninth century the Cloister schools of

St . Gall were conducted by an Irishman,Maengal or

Marcellus, a man deeply versed in sacred and secular

literature,including music . Under his teaching the music

school there attained its highest fame ; and among his

Uist . Journ . ofArchaeol .,VIII. 2 18 . 1Top . Hib .

,III . xii.

1Bol l . Acta SS.,17Mar.

, p . 595 Lanigan,II . 464.

CHAP . XVII] MUSIC 573

disciples was'

Notker Balbulus, one ofthe most celebratedmusicians ofthe middle ages.

*

That the cult ivat ion of music was,not materially

interrupted by the Danish troubles appears from severalauthorit ies. W arton, in his History ofEnglish Poetry. Tsays There is sufficient evidence tO

‘

prove that the

W elsh bards were early connected with the Irish . Evenso late as the eleventh century the pract ice cont inuedamong the W elsh bards ofreceiving instruct ion in the

bardic profession [ofpoetry and music] from Ireland .

”

The W elsh records relate that Gryfi‘ith ap Conan, king of

W ales, whose mother was an Irishwoman, and who was

himself born in Ireland , brought over to W ales— aboutthe year 1078

— a number of skilled Irish musicians,who, in conference w ith the nat ive bards

,reformed the

instrumental music ofthe W elsh q t

But the Strongest evidence of all— evidence quiteconclusive as regards the particular period— is that of

Giraldus Cambrensis, who seldom had a good word foranything Irish . He heard the Irish harpers in 1185, and

gives his experience as follows They are incomparablymore skilful than any othernation I have ever seen. For

their manner ofplaying on these instruments, unl ike thatofthe Britons [or W elsh] to which I am accustomed ,

is

not slow andharsh , but l ively andrapid ,while themelody

is both sweet and sprightly. It is astonishing that in so

complex and rapid a movement ofthe fingers the musicalproportions [as to t ime] can be preserved ; and thatthroughout the difficult modulat ions on the ir variousinstruments

,the harmony is completed with such a sweet

rapidity. They enter into a movement and conclude itin so del icate a manner, and t inkle the l ittle strings so

Sport ively under the deeper tones ofthe bass stringsthey del ight so del icately andsoothe with such gentleness ,

Schub iger, Die Sangerschule St . Gallens, p . 33 Lanigan,III . 285 .

1' Vol. I .

,Diss. I . I Harris

’

s Ware,Antiq q .

,184.


that the perfect ion Oftheir art appears in the concealment ofart .“

For centuries after the time ofGiraldus music cont inued to be cult ivated uninterruptedly , and there wasan unbroken succession of great professional harpers.

That they maintained their ancient pro- eminence downto the seventeenth century there is abundant evidence

,

both nat ive and foreign,to prove. Among those who

were massacred with Sir John Bermingham ,in 1328, was

the blind harper Mulrony MacCarroll ,“ chief minstrel

ofIreland and Scotland,

"

ofwhom it’

s reported that'

no

man in any age ever heard , or shall hereafter hear, a bettert impanist [harper] . T The Scotch wri ter, John Major,

early in the sixteenth century,speaks ofthe Irish as most

eminent in the musical art . Richard Stanihurst (1584)mentions in terms ofrapturous praise an Irish harper of

his day named Cruise and Drayton (1613) has the

following stanz a in his Polyolbion

The Irish I admire

And stil l cleave to that lyre,AS our Muse '

s mother ;

And think t il l I expire,

Apo l lo ’

s such another.

The great harpers ofthose t imes are,however, mostly

lost to history . It is only when we arrive at the seventeenth century that we begin to be able to identify certaincomposers as the authors of existing airs. The Oldestharper ofgreat eminence coming within this descriptionis Rory Dall (blind) O ’

Cahan, who ,although a musician

from choice and taste,was really one ofthe chiefs ofthe

Antrim family ofO’

Cahan. He was the composer of.

many fine airs, some ofwhich we still possess. He visitedScotland with a retinue ofgentlemen about the year 1600,

where he died after a Short residence,andmany Ofhis airs

Top . Hib . I II. xi. 1FM ,A .D. 1328 , no te to.


pagan times. It was called craft or craft , which always

glosses cit/mm in Zeuss. A later term for a harp is

which is now the name in general use. Severalharps are sculptured on the high crosses

,some ofwhich

are depicted here and at p. 582 ,farther on

,from which we

can form a good idea oftheir shape and size in old t imes.

From all these , and from several incidental expressionsfound in the l iterature ,

we can see that the harps ofthe

ninth,tenth

,and eleventh centuries were ofmedium size

or rather small,the average height being about 30 inches

and some were not much more than half this height.Probably those ofthe early centuries were ofmuch the

FIG. t 4o. Fro . 150. FIG . rsr.

Figures 149 and rso.Harp -players sculptured on the Monasterboice High C rosses. (FromW ood

Mart in'

s Pagan Ireland.) Figure 151. Harper on west face ofHigh C ross ofCastledermot .ofaboutthe end oftenth century. (From M iss Stokes's High Crosses ofCastledermot andDurrow.)

same Size— from 16 to 36 inches. Very small harpswere often used for singing with. In the story ofFelim

Mac Criffan,king ofMunster in the ninth century ,

alreadynot iced(p. we read ofa poet Singing to a litt le instrument ofeight strings and from the manner in which it isment ioned , it was evidently a type in common use. The

specimens of harps belonging to later ages— including

“ Brian Boru’

s harp not iced below —are all small— st illabout thirty inches. But in more recent t imes it was the

fashion to make them larger.

The ordinary harp of the fifteenth and si xteenthcenturies— as we know by many specimens remaining

CHAP. XVII] MUSIC 7

had generally thirty strings, comprehending a l i tt le more

than four octaves : but somet imes it had double thatSeveral harps ofthe old pat tern are still pre

served in museums in Dublin and elsewhere, the most

interest ing of which is the one now popularly knownas Brian Boru’

s harp in TrinityCol lege, Dublin. This is the

oldest harp in Ireland— probablythe oldest in ex istence. Yet it

did not belong to Brian Boru ;for Dr. Petrie’

s investigationl’

has rendered it highly probablethat it was not made before the

end of the fourteenth century.It is thirty - two inches high ; ithad thirty strings ; and the orna

mentation and general workman

ship are exquisitely beautiful.NO Specimen of the Irish harpused in the middle ages has beenpreserved . Irish harpers alwaysplayed with the fingers or finger

nails. The harp was the instrument ofthe higher classes, among

FIG. 152.W hom harp - playing was a very Irish Harp, now in National Museum

(difierent In shape from Bnan Boru'

s)usual accOmpllShment . Speaking Not more than 250 or 300 years old. Five

feet high : had thirty- six wire strings,Ofrecent t imes) Cl

'

OftOfl crOkCl‘ fastenedwith iron pms in a brass plate.

F W ild '

c I

and Hardlmani tell U S that In therom e s ata ogue 9 M6 )

eighteenth century almost every one [ofthe higher classes]played on the Irish harp. In very early ages a professionalharper was honoured beyond all other musicians : in social

95 See Ferguson’s article Ofthe Antiq uity ofthe H arp andBagpipe in

Ire land, ” in Bunting’s Ancient Irish Music(IS4O), p. 37.

1111 his memoir ofthis harp, inBunting’s Anc.Mus. ofIrel., 1840, p. 42.

O’Curry(Man. 85 Cust . , I I Lects. xxxii. and xxxiii.) believes it to be older ;

but he does not refer it to the time ofBrian Boru.

i Irish Minstrelsy, I . 183.

578 RELIGION,LEARN ING ,

AND ARr [PART II

posit ion he ranked— according to the Brehon Law— with

a chief ofthe bo- az’

rc class(p . 157, supra). A harper more

over .was the only musician that was ent itled to honour

price on account ofhis music .

*

The Irish had a small stringed instrument called a

Timpan, which had only a fewstrings— from three to eight .

It was played with a bow, orwith both a bow andplectrum ,

or with the finger- nail ; and the strings were probably

stopped with the fingers ofthe left hand , l ike those ofa

viol in or guitar. That the bow was used in playing itappears evident from a short quotation from the BrehonLaws given by O ’

Curry] in which it is stated that thetimpanist used a [bended] wand furnished with hair

”

and he gives another quotat ion(p . 364) that plainly pointsto the use ofthe finger

- nail . This l ittle instrument wasevidently a great favourite, for we constantly meet withsuch expressions as the sweet - stringed t impan.

”Giraldus

ment ions the harp and the timpan by the names citharaand tympanum but the timpan is not iced in two nat iveauthori t ies much older : Cormac ’

s G lossary and Saltairna Rann. From the explanat ion ofthe name given byCormac (p . we see that the frame— l ike that oftheharp— was made ofwillow

, and that it had brass strings.The instrument usually denoted— outside Ireland

by the Lat in tympanum, or in its Shortened form tympani ,we know was a drum ofsome sort and to Irish ant i

q uarians it has been a puz z le how the word came to beapplied in Ireland to a stringed instrument . Probablythe Irish timpan was really a small fiat tympanum or

drum , with a short neck added,furnished with three or

more strings, stretched across the flat face and along theneck

, and tuned and regulated by pins or keys and a

bridge— something like the modern guitar or banjo,but

with the neck much shorter. The drum— with a few

small openings in the Side — gave resonance andprobablyBr. Laws

,v . 107, bot . fMan. Cust .

,II. 363.


[Shennimaré] was sometim es applied to a musician in

general , from scum, sound (Trip . Li fe,142 , m).

The bagpipes were knovm in Ireland from the earl iesttimes the form used was something l ike that now com

mouly known as the Highland pipes— slung from the

shoulder, the bag inflated by the mouth . The other form—rest ing on the lap , the bag inflated by a bellows— whichis much the finer instrument , is ofmodern invention.

The bagpipes were in very general use,

especially among the lower classes.

The ancient name ofthe whole instrument or Set was tim e [2 - syll .] and so

Dr. Stokes renders this word in the

passage ofthe Bruden Da Derga whereKing Conari

’

s nine pipers are de

scribed .

* The pipers themselves are

called in the same passage, cuslennach,

from cusle(now cm‘

sle), a pipe — one of

the pipes ofthe tinne. As there werenine players here

,we can see that the

custom then probably was, as it is now

m “ ,in Scotland , to have a body ofpipers

"is"P‘m ‘afinfl t 'm playing together. That the pipes orhead ofa hand marchlnz

re name. (From Denier s imna ofthose days were much the sam eIn “ ou nm ' ism

as the Scotch or Highland pipes of,our

t ime ,may be inferred from the descriptive epithet

cetharché z’

re(kehercora) applied to the set ofpipes in the

above-ment ioned passage. This term means four- tuned

(from cetkz'

r, four,’

andcorr, tuning and— asDr. Stokes

remarks seems to refer to the tuning ofthe chanter,

ofthe two Shorter reed - drones, and ofthe longest drone,four in all.

The simple pipe— aswemight expect— wasmuch inuse,b low by the mouth at the end the note being producedeither by a whistle as in the modern flageolet , or by a reed

Rev . Celt .,xxu . 183 , 184 .

CHAP . X VII] MUSIC 581

as in the clarionet . It was called bunne or(mimic [2which means a pipe or tube ofany kind .

* An ancientIrishglossator, annotat ing the words ofa Latin commemtary on the Psalms ofDavid ,

explains the words tubacomctci horn- shaped tube of the text by an Irishphrase, which is in English — [tuba- corneta] a buiime

which was in the Shape ofa horn (Zeuss; 499,The

Single pipe was also called cuisle or cuislcmi.

W e obtain a good idea ofthe Shape and Size of thosepipes from several representat ions on the high crosses.Some are quite straight ; others very sl ightly curved up

wards, i.e. having the convex side downwards while beingplayed . All get gradually larger from the mouthpiece tothe end and they are represented ofvarious lengths fromabout 14 inches up to 24. On the south - east cross of

Monasterboice,three men are shown playing on these

pipes. On one of the Clonmacnoise crosses a man is

playing a triple pipe,i.e. having three tubes in close

contact , apparently with a Single mouthpiece the lengthsrepresented as about 24 , 20 , and 16 inches, respectively ]

L

It is to b e presumed that there was a double- tubed instrument as well as single and triple. One ofthe men shownin fig . 155 plays on a compound pipe,

which seems double.

These pipes not iced here as figured on the crosses, thoughtrumpet - Shaped ,

“ were not trumpets : and, doubtless, theywere made ofwood . W e often meet expressions in the

tales showing that'

the music Ofthis Simple pipe— whethersingle, double,

or triple— was In great favour, and was

considered very sweet z— Bi‘

iiditlzir re ccblczib cuislindi

biiidfoghar a gotha ocus a Gaedeilgi mt hingine sweetas pipe- tunes was the melodious sound ofthe maiden’

s

voice and her Gael ic .’i

In the G losses,

- the Latin tibia(a pipe or flute) is commonly exp lainedby baiune 13 , 28 67, 29) see the word in another sense discussed in

vol. 11. pp . 2 41. to 243.

O’

Neill’

s Crosses, PI. 24. 1Stokes’

s Acallamh , p . 316.

582 RELIG ION,LEARN ING AND ART [PART II

A player on the lmz'

ime was called a buinm’

re [3In the arrangements for seat ing the guests at the banquetsofTara

,

’the buz

’

nm’

re and the cam aire,or horn- blower,

were placed at the same table. There was a sort of

m u s i ca l p i pe ca l l ed a

cuiscc/z or w ing,differing

in some wav from the

and ano t h e rcalled a j eda

'

n or whist le ,

the player on which was

a

F w. 15 !I‘IG . 155.

FIG . 156.

liarp~ and Pipe-

players. Figures 154 and 155 sculptured on the High Crosses ofMonasterboice.

(From W ood-Martin'

s Pagan Ireland.) Figure 150 onDurrow High Cross. (From M iss Stokes’

s

High Crosses ofCastledermot and Durrow Allninth, tenth, or eleventh century.

In several ofthe eighth - century quotat ions ofZeuss a

pipe- player is cal led croc/zair - c/zct/aid [erohar- kailee] , whichalways glosses tibiceiz

,a

‘pipe - player’

: from erockair, i.e.

crus,

‘a [hollow] plant - stem ’

; and cctlaia’

,which glosses

" Petrie’s Tara , p. 206 : where bum ziri is mistranslated ‘footmen’: but

that was more than Sixty years ago , when the eminent men who deal t withthose diflicult old texts hadfew or none ofthe aids available to scholars ofthe present day. On the buz

’

nnc, see also O ’Curry, Man. Cust., II. 306.

Man. Cust . , II . 310 , 313, 325.

I ] bid., 376 : also Br. Laws,v. 108, 109 .

584 RELIG IO N ,LEARN ING

,AND ART [ PART II

has a circular ornamented plate at the large end,which is

shown separately in fig. 159 . The large one at the bottom,which

,so far as we know

,is the finest specimen ever

found in any country, measures feet in length , and

had probably an ornamented plate,as in fig. 159 . The

mouth - pieces ofbo th have been lost . Each consists of

two parts, made separately,and carefully jo inted , as seen

in the figure. The bronze was hammered thin and bendedinto shape t il l the two edges were in close contact all

along the concave side. The edges were then joined, no tby soldering, but by means ofthin narrow bronze straps

FIG 157.

C roop ofIrish Trumpets.now in Nat ional Museum , Dublin : described in text .(l

'

rom W ilde'

s Catalogue. p.

ex tending along the whole length ,and riveted at both

sides of the joining. It is difficul t to understand how

the rivet ing was done in such a long and Slender tube.

The rivets are very small and placed close togethersix or seven to the inch— fixed with absolute uniformity,

exhibit ing the most perfect and beautiful example of

rivet ing ever found in Ireland. The three smaller trumpets Shown in the figure were made by cast ing.

A few ofthose in the Museum are plain,but most are

ornamented . One prevail ing ornament is a circle ofpro

jecting conical but tons or studs,similar to those seen on

CHAP. XV II] MUSIC 585

the caldrons and on the gold gorgets: they appear on twoofthe smal l truinpets in the figure . There is nothing rudein the construct ion ofthese trumpets. On the contrary,

they all exhibit great taste in design,and consummate

skill in workmanship,a circumstance that must excite

our wonder when we recollect their great ant iquity ; foraccording to the Opinion ofthose who have studied suchremains

,not only in Ireland but all over Europe

,some of

them at least belong to a period long prior to the Christ ianera.

The most common name for a trumpet is stoc ; but

there were several other names —cor /z,bi moai/l

,fld/Id l‘c

,

ducz’ag, gall

- trompa ,and barm - bzmd/z [borra - boo] . These

no doubt denoted trumpetsor horns of different kinds.

O’

Curry believes that the

com (i.e.

‘horn’

) was the longtrumpet blown from the end

,

the stoc being the Shorterone. A trumpeter was usu

ally called stocairc [stuckera]a ho rn - b l ower, corna ire

[curnera] ; and both are constant ly mentioned in old

IrishAmong the household ofevery king and Chief there

was a band oftrumpeters,who were assigned their proper

places at feasts and meet ings. Trumpets were used for

various purposes — in war(p. 147, supra) ; in hunting ; forsignals during meetings and banquets ; as a mark of

honour on the arrival ofdistinguished visitors ; and suchlike. For war purposes

,trumpeters— as already noticed

had different calls for direct ingmovements(p. 148, supra).

Trumpeters and horn- blowers somet imes imitated the

FIG. 158.

Riveting onTrumpets.

See Pet t Ie 3 article onTrumpets inDub . Pen. Journ.,11. 27 \Vilde on

Trumpets in his Catalogue(p. and O’Curry, Man. Cust . , I I. 307.

In all these articles references are given to other authorities.

586 RELIGION, LEARNING , AND Am [PART II

voices and cries ofanimals. In Cormac’

s G lossary(plunder the word Grace [Grauke] , we read that this wordmeans

‘raven- conversat ion

,

’

i.e. the croaking, or language,ofravens ; and immediately afterwards it is stated thattrumpeters produced imitat ions ofthese sounds on horns.

(See also Man. Cust., II.

The ancient Irish were very fond of a craeb/z- a'

uz’

l

[crave- cule] , or‘musical branch

,

’

a l it t le branch on whichwere suspended a number ofdiminut ive bells

,which pro

duced a sweet t inkling when shaken : a custom foundalso in early t imes on

t he Cont inent . The

musical branch figuresmuch in Irish romant icl i terature. A performer

ca l l ed (”am -fer o r

‘bone - man’

is ment ionedin the

“ Fair ofCarman”

among the musicians.The term probably re

fers to sounding- bonesor castanets. In the

FIG . 159 . same poem (which is inO rnamental brOnz e Plate at end ofTrumpet .

(From W ilde‘

s Catalogue. p. 63r.)the Book Of Leinster)is named a fia

’z/ or

fiddle : but we cannot tell what was its shape or how i twas played.

’

2. Clzaracterz'

stz'

cs Classes

In early Irish literature , whether in the nat ive language

or in Lat in,music and poetry are often confounded, so

that one sometimes finds it impossible to determine to

which ofthe two the passages under notice refer. The

“ O’Curry, Man. Cust I I. 305, gives the names of twenty musical

instruments mentioned in I rish records, and discusses them all at length inLectures xxx.

—xxxviii.

588 RELIG ION ,LEARN ING

,AND ART PART It

combinat ion of instrumental music . As co’

mseinm was

applied to the music ofinstruments, coz'

cclul refers to thevo ice, meaning , as it is explained in Cormac ’s G lossary

(p . singing together,’ from cetul, singing.

’

W hen thepoets had been freed at Drumket ta by the intercession of

St . Columba(p . 456, supra), the Preface to the Amra tellsus that they made a mighty music [by all singing to

gether] for Columba [to honour him] and az'

a’bse [ive- she]

is the name ofthat music . And in another part ofthePreface i t is said that they used to make that music [i.a.

aidbse] singing simul taneously [in In one

ofthe old glosses ofthe Amra , i t is stated that among the

people ofAlban or Scotland the aidbse or chorus- singingwas called t opo

'

g(keppoge). But this word was used inIreland too Fcrloga ,

in the Tale ofMacDatho ’

s Pig , saysto Concobar The young women and girls ofUlstershall sing a capée round me each evening and Amergin

the poet , lament ing the death ofAithirne(p . 453 ,supra),

says I will make a oepo'

e here , and I will make hislamentat ion.

”

f It appears from all these references thatthe az

’

dbse or cepdcwas a funeral song. Claz'

ss(closh), Lat .classis, means a choir,

’

a number of persons singingtogether.1 In one ofthe Zeuss Glosses persons are men

t ioned as singing the Psalmsfor claz'

s i.e. in choir and

from this again comes claz’

s- cetul, choir The

Lat in succino(i.e. sub- cano , I sing under,

’

or in subordi

nat ion to another— I accompany) is glossed in Zeuss

(429 , 16 880 ,by the Irishfoacam

'

m,which has precisely

the same meaning , fromfoa , under andcam’

m,I sing.

’

The existence ofthis nat ive word foacam’

m indicates veryclearly that it was usual for one person to accompanyanother. Moreover, singing under (f or subordié

Rev . Celt .,xx . 43 . See a lso O ’

Curry ,Man. Cust .

,II . 2 46.

TO’

Curry , Man. Cust .,II . 371, 373 , 374 : Ir. Texte

,I . 106 , , 5, , 6

Hib . Minora,64 , , 3 , 1Windisch in Ir. Text e

,I . 425 , Claiss.

Corm . G loss ., 35 ,

C lais . HStokes , Lives ofSS.,l ine 3749 .

CHAP . XVII] MUSIC

nate to, another, could not mean singing in unison or in

octave, but what we now mean by the expression smgmg

a second ,i.a. in simple harmony.

Geo’

l, music ,

’

and binnius, melody or sweetness, are,

in the old writ ings, dist inguished from cuibdz’

us, this lastbeing a further development , to be understood no doubtas harmony. Thus in an ancient passage quoted byProf. Kuno Meyer in H ibernia M inora (p . it is saidthat David added binnius and cuz

’

bdz’

us to the Psalms,

meaning apparently that he put melody to the words,and harmony to the melody. And farther on in the same

passage The Holy Spirit inspired in Asaph ’

s mind theceél or music [i.e. the melody merely] , and the sense thatare in the Psalm andDavid added cuibdius or harmonyto them . That cuibdz

’

us means harmony appears alsofrom O

’

Davorens’ Glossary— which was compiled from

ancient authorit ies— where he defines rim», a certain kindor arrangement ofmusic, as [real] co cuibdius z

'

na aghaz’

dh,

[music] with cuibdz’

us against It is to be not iced,too , that in Cormac ’s Glossary (p . 163 , 2) the word sym

phom'

a is used as applicable to the music ofthe timpan.

In some ofthe above examples the singing or playingtogether might mean merely in unison or in octaves but

coupling all the Irish expressions with that ofCambrensis,we must conclude that the Irish harpers and singers usedharmony

,though no doubt it was ofa very simple kind .

The Irish musicians had three styles, the effects of

which the old Irish romance- writers describe with muchexaggerat ion,

as the Greeks describe the effects producedby the harp ofOrpheus. Ofall three we have numerous

well - marked examples descending to the present day.

The Gen- traiga [gan- tree] , which incited to merriment andlaughter, is represented by the l ively dance—tunes and

other such spirited pieces. The Gel- traiga [gol- tree]expressed sorrow represented by the keens or death

Three Irish G lossaries,110 O

’

Curry,Man. Cust .

,II . 2 52 .

590 RELIG ION,LEARNING , AND ART [PART II

tunes, many ofwhich are stil l preserved . The Suan- traige

[suantree] produced sleep . This style is seen in our

lullabies or nurse- tunes, of which we have numerous

beautiful specimens. Two ofthese styles— sorrow- musicand mirth - music— are explained in Cormac ’s G lossary

(pp . 89,Probably the oldest example ofthe words

ofa lullaby that has come down to us is that composedby Muz

’

renn for her son Finn when he was six years old

ofwhich the Psalter ofCashel Copy ofthe story ,The

Boyish Exploits ofFinn — as old an authority as Cormac’

s

G lossary— preserves the first l ine,and unfortunately only

the first — C0daz’

lre suanan saime Sleep [my child] withpleasant slumber” which is the same as the beginning ofsome ofour modern Irish nurse- songs.

Among the higher classes, both young and old wereoften lulled to sleep with music and song

,so that the

Suan- tree must have been in constant requisition. In the

Battle ofRossnaree (p . taken from the Book of

Leinster, we are told that the guests in Dundalgan were

put into their sleeping - rooms and lay on their couchesand tunes and songs and eulogies were sung to them

[t ill they fell asleep] . The custom of lull ing people— of

all ages— to sleep by music or singing is very frequentlynot iced in the tales, though it was oftenest used withchildren and it cont inued to our own time

,as I have the

best reason to remember.

The Irish hadalso what may be called occupation- tunes.

The young girls accompanied their spinning with songsboth air and words made to suit the occupat ion. Specialairs and songs were used during working- t ime by smiths,by weavers, andby boatmen andwe have st ill a Smith ’

s

Song,

”the notes ofwhich imitate the sound ofthe hammers

on the anvil, ]L l ike Handel ’s Harmonious Blacksmith .

”

Tromdamh, p . 293 .

1' See for this air(which was contributed by me) Petrie

’

s Anc.Mus. of

Ireland, p . I 71.


in Cormac ’s G lossary (p . 69) i t is stated that while theFena were cooking their open- air dinner after their day ’

s

hunt ing ,they chanted a kind Ofmusic called asnad.

The music ofIreland , l ike our ballad - poetry , has a con

siderable tendency to sadness . The greater number ofthe

keens, lullabies, and plough - whistles, and many Ofour

ordinary tunes, are in the minor mode , which is essent iallyplaint ive, even though it is often used in l ively tunes and

the same plaint ive character is impressed on many ofthe

major airs by a minor seventh note. This tendency to

sadness was the natural outcome ofthe miseries enduredby the people during long centuries ofdisastrous wars andunrelent ing penal laws. But i t is a mistake to supposethat the prevailing character ofIrish music is sad by farthe largest proport ion ofthe airs are either light - hearteddance- tunes or song- airs full ofenergy and spirit , withouta trace ofsadness.

4 . Modern Collections ofancient IrishMusic.

In early times they had no means ofwriting downmusic ; and musical compositions were preserved in the

memory and handed down by tradition from generationto generation but in the absence Ofwritten record manywere lost . W hile we have in our Old books the Irishwords ofnumerous early Odes and lyrics , we know nothingOfthe music to which they were sung . It was only in theseventeenth or eighteenth century that people began to

collect Irish airs from singers and players, and to wri tethem down.

* Some attempts were made at home earlyin the eighteenth century : but later on more effectualmeasures were taken. Several meetings ofharpers— the

first in I781—were held at Granard in the county Longford

,

Mr. Chappe l l , the wel l~known writer on Musica l History, author ofPopular [English] Music Ofthé O lden Time

,once to ldme in conversation

that in the British Museum there are copies ofgreat numbers ofIrish

airs,much O lder than any co l lections we have in Ireland. So there is a

field for some z ealous investigator and col lector ofIrish music.

CHAP . xvn] MUSIC 593

under the patronage and at the expense ofJames Dungan,

a nat ive ofGranard, then l iving at Copenhagen. Eachmeeting was terminated by a ball , at

- which prizes weredistributed to those who had been adjudged the bestperform ers. Dungan himsel f was present at the last ball,when upwards Of guests, as we are told , assembled .

A few years later,a meet ing to encourage the harp was

organised in Belfast by a society ofgentlemen under theleadership ofDr. JamesMacDonnell . This meet ing, whichwas held in Belfast in 1792 , and which was attended byalmost all the nobility and gentry ofthe neighbourhood ,

was followed by more pract ical results than '

those held at

Granard . The harpers Of the whole country had beeninvited to attend . But the confiscations, the penal laws, andthe social disturbances ofthe preceding century and a halfhad done their work . The nat ive gentry who loved musicand patronised the harpers were scattered and ruined , and

the race ofharpershadalmost died out . Only ten respondedto the call , many ofthem very Old andmost ofthem blind ,

the decayed representat ives ofthe great harpers ofOld.

Edward Bunt ing , a local musician, was appointed to meetthem andafter they hadallexhibited their skill in public ,and priz es had been awarded to the most distinguished , he

took down the best ofthe airs they played.

This was the origin ofBunt ing ’

s well - known collect ionofIrish music . He published three volumes, the first in

1796, the second in 1809, and the third in 1840. Anothercollection, edited by George Petrie, was published byHolden ofDublin about the year 1840. A volume of

Carolan’

s airs was published by his son in 1747 and

republished by John Lee ofDublin in 1780 ; but many

ofCarolan’

s best airs are omitted from this collection ;and it poorly represents the great composer. A large

number ofIrish airs were printed in four volumes ofa

Dublin periodical called The Cit iz en in 1840 and

1841 : and these were followed up by a special volume

Z Q

594 RELIG ION ,LEARN ING

,AND ART [PART II

ofairs by the editor. In 1844 was published The MusicofIreland ,

by Frederick W . Homcastle, Ofthe ChapelRoyal , Dublin, a number ofairs with accompaniments

and English words ; most Ofthe airs had been alreadypublished ,

but some appeared then for the first t ime,among which is one very beauti ful suantree called The

Fairies’ Lullaby.

In 1855 a large volume ofIrish music hitherto un

published was edited, under the auspices of The Society

for the Preservation and Publicat ion ofthe Melodies Of

Ireland ,by Dr. George Petrie : and the first number

(i.e. the fourth part) ofa volume was printed ,but never

published . A volume ofairs never before published wasedited by me in 1873 ,

collected by mysel f from singersand players in the course ofmany years. A second instalment ofthe Petrie collectionwas printed in 1877, edited byF. Hoffman. These are the principal original collect ionsofIrish music extant other collections are most ly copiedfrom them . About 1870 Bussell ofDublin issued a largecollection OfIrish airs, edited by Dr. Francis Robinson,

with a good Introduction on Irish Music by GeorgeFarquhar Graham all the airs in this had been publishedbefore. Later on two volumes of the Dance Music of

Ireland were edited by Mr. R. M . Levey ofDublin some

ofwhich then appeared for the first t ime. Dr. CharlesVilliers Stanford has quite recently (1902 -

3) edited the

whole ofPetrie’

s collection, about 1800 airs— the simplemelodies without accompaniments— which include manyof those of Petrie’

s already published with numerousothers that had never previously seen the light . Thiswork , as Dr. Stanford Observes in his short Preface,

forms a vast treasure- house Offolk—song .

”

The man who did most in modern t imes to drawattention to Irish music was Thomas Moore. He com

posed his exquisite songs to old Irish airs and songs and

airs were published in successive numbers or volumes.

596 RELIGION ,LEARN ING

, AND ART [PART II

common to the two countries, and included in both Scotchand Irish collections. In regard to a considerable proportionofthem ,

i t is now impossible to determine whether they areOriginally Irish or Scotch . A few are claimed in Irelandthat are certainly Scotch but a very large number claimedby Scotland are really Irish , ofwhich the well - known air

Eileen Aroon or Robin Adair is an example.

From the earl iest t imes i t was a common practiceamong the Irish harpers to travel through Scotland . How

close was the musical connexion between the two countriesis hinted at by the Four Masters, when in recording thedeath ofMulrony MacCarroll they call him the chiefm instrel ofIreland and Scotland and there is abundantevidence to show that this connexion was kept up tillthe close ofthe eighteenth century. Ireland was long theschool for Scott ish harpers, as it was for those ofW alesTill within the memory ofpersons st ill l iving

,the school

for H ighland poetry andmusic was Ireland and thitherprofessional men were sent to be accomplished in thesearts.

“ Such facts as these suffi ciently explain why so

many Irish airs have become naturalised in Scotland .

It is not correc t to separate and contrast the musicof Ireland and that ofScotland as i f they belonged to

two different races. They are in real ity an emanat iondirect from the heart of one Celt ic people ; and theyform a body ofnat ional melody superior to that Ofany

other nat ion in the world ]jameson

’

s ed. ofLetters from the North ofScotland vol.

p . 65 , note .

1Those who wish to fo l low up the study OfIrish music and its lit erature will find much information in the fol lowing works z— O

'

Curry’

s

Lectures on the subject in his Manners and Customs,and the correspond

ing portion ofSullivan’

s Introduction : Dr. Wil liam Stokes’s Life of

Petrie Petrie’s Ancient Music ofIreland,including the Preface Bunt

ing’

s Prefaces to his three volumes,including Ferguson’

s and Petrie ’

s

Essays, in the third vo lume : Lynch ,Camb rensis Eversus

,chap . iv

Joyce’

s Ancient Irish Music and Irish Music and Song Graham ’

s Intro

duction to Robinson’

s col lection ofIrish airs. Remark also what is said OfIrish music preserved in the Brit ish Museum ,

in the note at p . 59 2 , supra.

FIG. 160.- Om ament on top ofDevenish RoundTower. (From Petrie'

s RoundTowers.)

CHAPTER XVIII

MEDICINE AND MEDICAL DOCTORS

SECTION 1.MedicalDoctors.

EDICINF. and Surgery were carefully studied inIreland from the very earl iest t imes. Therewas a dist inct professional class ofphysicianswho underwent a regular course ofeducat ion

and practical training , and whose qual ificat ions and privileges were universally recognised . Those intended for

the profession were usually educated by being apprenticedto a physician of standing , in whose house they livedduring their pupilage,

and by Whom they were instructed .

This profession,like others in ancient Ireland , became in

great measure hereditary in certain families but i t doesnot seem to have become special ised to any extent , so thatthe same person commonly practised both as a physicianand as a surgeon. The ancient Irish name for a physicianis liaig [leea] , which is radically the same as the old

English word leech.

The Irish , l ike the Greeks and other ancient nat ions,had their great mythical physicians, ofwhom the mostdist inguished was the Dedannan leech -

god Diancecht

[Dianket ] . His name signifies vehement power,’

and

marvellous stories are related ofhis heal ing skill similarto those ofsome old Greek physicians. He is celebratedin many ancient authorit ies

,includingCormac ’s Glossary


(p . 56) and he is ment ioned prominently in some eighthcentury copies ofIrish incantat ions for health and longli fe given by Zeuss in his Grammat ica Cel tica , showinghis wide- spread reputat ion twelve hundred years ago. He

had a sonMidach and a daughter Airmeda , both ofwhomin some respects excel led himsel f and in the story ofthe

Second Battle ofMoytura“ we are told that he grew at

last so jealous ofMidach that he killed him . And aftera t ime there grew up from the young physician

'

s grave

365 herbs from the 365 joints and sinews and members Ofhis body , each herb with mighty virtue to cure diseases ofthe part it grew from . His sister Airmeda plucked up theherbs, and carefully sorting them ,

wrapped them up in

her mantle. But the jealous Old Diancecht came and

mixed them all up , so that now no leech has completeknowledge oftheir dist inct ive qual it ies unless — adds thestory the Holy Spirit should teach him this lastremark inserted by some Christian redactor. The notionthat there are 365 joints, sinews, and members in the

human body is found elsewhere, as in the Old Irish rel i

gious treat ise called Na Arrada ,1' which

, accord ing to theeditor (Kuno Meyer), was composed probably not laterthan the eighth century. As the Dedannans had theirDiancecht

,so all the other mythical colonies had their

Dhysicians, who are named in the legends :Coming to a later period ,

but st ill beyond the fringeofauthent ic history , we find in several authorit ies a recordofthe tradition that in the second century before Christ ,Josina, the ninth king ofScotland , was educated in Irelandby the nat ive physicians, and that he wrote a treat ise On

the virtues and power of W hatever credit wemay

attach to this tradition, i t shows that the Irish physicianshad a reputat ion abroad for great skill at a very earlyperiod .

Rev . Cel t .,x11. 69 . I O

’

Curry ,MS.Mat .

,2 2

j 01 De Arreis In Rev . Cel t ., xv . Harris'

s Ware,Writers

, p. 306

600 RELIGION,LEARN ING , AND ART [PART 11

beginning ofthe seventeenth century , when medicine hadbeen successfully studied in Ireland for more than a

thousand years, Van Helmont OfBrussels, a dist inguishedphysician and writer on medical subjects, gave a brief butvery correct account ofthe Irish physicians Ofhis time,their books and their remedies, and praised them for theirskill . '

He says

The Irish nobility have in every family a domestic physician,

who has a tract ofland free for his remuneration,and who is appointed,

not on account of the amount oflearning he brings away in his head

from col leges , but because he can cure disorders. These doctors Oh

tain their medica l knowledge chiefly from books belonging to part icularfamilies left them by their ancestors

,in which are laid down the

symptoms ofthe severa l diseases, with the remedies annexed : which

remedies are vernacula— the productions of their own country. Ao

cordingly the Irish are bett er managed in sickness than the Italians,who have a physician in every vil lage.

“

From the earliest t imes reached by our records the

kings and great Irish families had physicians attached totheir households, whose Office was, as in other professions

,

hereditary. In the tenth century the physicians, l ike therest of the community , took family- names : and thereare abundant not ices in Irish writ ings of the householdhereditary physicians of most of the leading chiefs.The O

’

Callanans were physicians to the MacCarthys Of

Desmond the O’

Cassidys, ofwhom individuals ofeminenceare recorded, j to the Maguires ofFermanagh the O

’

Lees,

to the O’

Flahertys ofConnaught and the O’

Hickeys, to

the O’

Briens ofThomond, to the O’

Kennedys ofOrmond,

and to the Macnamaras ofClare t From what a remotet ime the two last - ment ioned families— the O

’

Lees and

Translated from Van Helmont'

s Confessio Authoris, p . 13 : Am

stelod,Ed. Elz ev .

,1648. 1As in FM ,

at A .D. 1322 , 1335 , 1450 , 1504.

t Formore about medica l families,see O

’Donovan,FM

,vol. I . p . 494

Gough’

s Camden,Ed. 1789 , 111. 665 an art icle in Duffy ’

s Mag ,11. 273,

unsigned,but writ ten

,as I believe

,by Dr. Wil liam Wilde : and Census

ofIreland for 1851, Report on Tables ofDeaths.

CHAP . XVIII] MEDICINE AND MEDICAL DOCTORS 601

O’

Hickeysw drew their hereditary leechcraft may be

inferred from the very names ofthe two ancestors fromwhom the family names were derived . At whatever t ime

these two men l ived,they must have sprung into celebrity

on account oftheir skill in medicine : so much so thattheir ordinary names were changed to icicllie [eekee] , thehealer,

’

and liaig[leea] , the leech and O’

Lee signifiesthe descendant -

Ofthe leech , and O’

Hickey ofthe healer.

Their profession, l ike that ofthe other medical famil ies,

was transmitted from father to son for hundreds ofyears,t ill it finally died out in t imes comparat ively recent : a

good example of the extraordinary tenacity with whichfamilies clung to hereditary offices in Ireland .

The O’

Shiels were physicians to the MacMahons of

Oriel , and to the MacCoghlans ofDelvin,in the present

King’

s County and their hereditary estate here, which isnear

,

the village of Ferbane,is st ill called Ballyshiel,

O’

Shiel’

s town. Colgan states that in his t imeseventeenth century— the O

’

Shiels were widely spreadthrough Ireland , and were celebrated for their skill innatural science and medicine. Owen O ’

Shiel was greatlydist inguished as a physician in the same century ; he

attended the.

army ofOwen Roe O ’

Neill, and fell fightingon the Cathol ic side in a battle fought near Letterkennyin Only quite recently— in 1889

— Dr. Shiel , an

eminent physician OfBallyshannon,left by his will a large

fortune to found a hospital for the poor in that town. So

that even st ill the hereditary genius ofthe family cont inuesto exercise its benign influence.

The amount ofremuneration ofa family leech dependedon his own eminence and on the status of the king or

chief in W hose household he l ived. The stipend usuallyconsisted ofa tract ofland and a residence in the neighbourhood ,

held free of all rent and tribute,together

W ith certain allowances andperquisites and the physician

See the article inDuffy’

sMag. referred to in last note,


might practise for fee outside his patron’

s household . Five

hundred acres ofland was a usual allowance and some of

these estates- mow ordinary townlands— retain the familynam es to this day : such as Farrancassidy in Fermanagh ,

the [crann or land of the O’

Cassidys ; and Ballyshiel,

already ment ioned . The household physician to a kingwho should always be an ollave- leech,

that is, one who hadattained the highest rank in the profession(p . 65, supra)

-held a very dignified posit ion,and indeed lived like a

prince,with a household and dependents ofhis own. He

was always among the king’

s immediate retinue, and was

ent itled to a dist inguished place at table. The pract ice of

keeping physicians as wel l as other professional men in the

households ofchiefs continued till the end ofthe six teenthor the beginning ofthe seventeenth century ,

when the Old

Irish order began to be broken up everywhere.

Speaking generally ,the best physicians were those

at tached to noble households. Those unattached livedby their fees ; the amounts for the several operations or

attendances being defined by the Brehon Laws.

* A

qual ified physician— as we have said— kept pupils or

graduates who l ived in his house and accompanied himin his Visitat ions to learn his methods. Ifhe had to

remain for any t ime in the house ofthe patient , he wasentit led to diet for himsel f and for his pupils, besides hisfees] From an entry in the Brehon Law we infer thatin going his rounds he himsel f usually rode on horseback ,

l ike the ollave poet for the law(II . 119) states that whena physician was distrained , one ofthe things that might betaken was his ec/zlaz

'

sc or whip .

W e have already seen(p . 207) that a man who inflicteda wound had, on convict ion, to pay a certain eric- fine to

the wounded person. A leech who,through carelessness,

or neglect , or gross want Ofskill , failed to cure a wound ,

See Br. Laws,111. .177 Iv . 301 and Sul livan

,Introd.

,280 .

1Census, 1851, Table ofDea ths, p . 23 .


AND ART [PART II

as blood - lett ing ,extracting a small splinter, &c.

, the

regular physician was free from liability without any

guarantee : while i f there was no guarantee, the otherwas l iable i f unsuccessful.*

It is worthy ofremark that in our legendary historyfemale physicians are Often mentioned . Though the

several accounts of these are shadowy enough , the

legends must have had some foundat ion : and at any

rate we see that in ancient Ireland the idea was abroadwhich is so extensively coming into practice in our own

day.1'

2 . McdicalManuscripts.

The physicians ofancient Ireland , l ike those ofothercountries, derived a large part of their Special learningfrom books, which in those times were all manuscripts.

The Irish medical MSS. were written on vellum in a peculiarhand generally easy to recognise , small , neat , and regular.The members ofeach medical family had generally theirown special book ,

which was handed down reverently fromfather to son, and which , at long intervals, when i t hadbecome damaged and partly il legible through age, was

careful ly transcribed into a new volume. Several ofthesevenerable leech - books are still preserved, as mentionedfarther on.

But besides these special books belonging to part icularfamilies, there were many others, which were copied and

multipl ied from time to time ; so that the chief medicalfamilies had l ibraries containing such medical knowledgeas was then available. Many medical tracts, too, are

found scat tered through the large miscellaneous Mss. for

instance,the Yellow Book ofLecan contains four such

tracts. The very early medical works in Ireland shared

1' Br. Laws, 111. 32 1. 1: O

’

Curry, MS.Mat .

,2 2 1 Tromdamh ,

119 .

CHAP . X VIII] MEDICINE AND MEDICAL DOCTORS 605

in the general destruction ofbooks spoken ofat p . 489,

supra, and those that remain are ofcomparat ively latedate.

* The oldest medical manuscript in Ireland appearsto be one copied in 1352 ,

ment ioned below but there are

others older in'

the Brit ish Museum . Ofthose remaining ,a vast number, written from the thirteenth to the beginningofthe eighteenth century , are preserved in the librariesofDublin, London,

and Oxford ,forming a collection of

medical li terature in Irish,probably the largest in exist

ence in any one tongue.

Many of the manuscripts consist of the works of

classical medical authors, to which the Irish physiciansobviously had full access ; such as the Aphorisms of

Hippocrates, the works of Galen, Rhaz es, Avicenna,

Serapion, Dioscorides, &c. Some were copies ofone or

more ofthose in Lat in but many were translat ions intoIrish and all

,whether Lat in or Irish ,

were accompaniedwith nat ive commentaries] The great bulk ofthe Irishmedical l i terature is made up ofthese texts and commem

taries and the Irish physicians ofeach generat ion addedthe knowledge derived from other books or from their ownexperience. It may b e interest ing to give a brief descript ion ofa few of the exist ing which will serve as

examples ofall.

The manner in which these books were generally compiled

,and the mot ives ofthe compilers, may be gathered

from the following translat ion ofa prefatory statement inIrish by the writer ofa medical manuscript ofthe year1352 ,

now in the Royal Irish Academy,— a statement

breathing a noble spirit worthy ofthe best tradit ions of

the faculty

May the merciful God have mercy on us all. I have here col

lected practica l ru les from several works,for the honour ofGod

,for

In the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin,there is a Catalogue Ofthe

Academy’

s Med. MSS. drawn up by O’

Curry.

t Tab le'

ofDeaths, 1851, pp . 26, 30 , 31, 44 : Table, 1842 , p . iv.


,AND ART [PART II

the benefi t of the Irish people , for the instruction ofmy pupils, and

for the love ofmy friends, and ofmy kindred. I have translated themfrom Latin into Gaelic from the authority ofGalen in the last Bookofhis Practica l Pantheon,

and from the Book of the Prognostics of

Hippocrates . These are things gent le , sweet, profitable, and of lit t le

evil,things which have been often t ested by us and by our instructors .

I pray God to bless those doctors who wil l use this book ; and I lay it

on their souls as an injunction,that they ext ract not sparingly from

it ‘ that they fail no t on account of neglect ing the practica l ru lesv

[herein contained] ; and more especial ly that they do their duty de

vo tedly in cases where they receive no pay [on account ofthe poverty

of the patients] . I implore every doctor,that before he begins his

trea tment he remember God the father ofhea l th,to the end that his

work may be finished prosperously. Moreover let him not be in

mortal sin,and let him implore the pat ient to be also free from

grievous sin. Let him offer up a secret prayer for the sick person,

and implore the Heavenly Father, the physician and balm -

giver for

allmankind,to prosper the work he is entering upon and to save him

from the shame and discredit offailure.“

The Book ofthe O’

Hickeys, now in the Royal IrishAcademy , commonly known as the Lily ofMedicine,

”is

a translat ion into Irish ofa Latin work , Lilium Medicine ,

originally written by Bernard Gordon— a Cont inentalphysician— ih 1303 . This manuscript was at one time

greatly celebrated among the Irish doctors.

The Book ofthe O’

Lees in the Royal Irish Academy isa large- siz ed vellum manuscript , written in 1443 ,

partly inLat in and partly in Irish . The pages are curiously ruledand divided , so that the writing forms patterns resemblingastrological figures. It is a complete system ofmedicine,treat ing , among other things, ofputrid fevers ofabscessesand pustules ; ofwounds, poisons, and hydrophobia of

affections ofthe brain, eye , stomach , and other parts of

the period ofl ife and t ime ofyear when certain diseases

Census, Table ofDeaths,1851, p . 31. It shou ld be remembered

that this Preface waswritten at a t imewhen —in England, as elsewhereit was not usual [for physicians] to give gratuitous advice to the poor

in any circumstances,however pressing (Social England, 111, p .


plaga. Lastly , a terrible pestilence ofany kind was some

times des ignated by the expressive word swab, a besom

or broom .

’

The vi ctims ofa plague were commonly buried in one

spot , which was fenced round and preserved as in a

manner sacred for ever after. In Cormac ’s G lossary

(p . 160) i t is stated that the place of such wholesaleinterment was called tamhlachta or tamhlacht . i.e. plaguegrave,

’ from tamk and lacht , a monument or memorialover the dead . Tamhlacht , which is st ill a l iving word ,

has given name to the vil lage ofTallaght near Dublin,

where the Parthalonian colony ,who all died ofa plague in

one week , were interred . On the side ofTallaght hill areto be seen to this day a number ofpagan graves and

burial mounds."g Just by the chapel ofShanbally near

Monkstown below Cork , there is a large rock with someancient remains on its top it is called on the Ordnancemap Carrigaplau ,

represent ing the Irish Carraig- a'- phlaz

°

gh,

the rock ofthe plague but the popular anglicised nameis Carrigafly,

which better represents the pronunciat ion,

the p being aspirated as it ought . Probably the

victims ofsome long- forgotten local plague were interredhere.

One ofthe popular fancies regarding a plague was thatit was a mal ignant l iving thing which roamed about thecountry , bringing sickness and death wherever it went .W hen the deadly plague called Cromm Connaill, in the

sixth century , made its way to Kerry , the terrified peoplesent for St . MacCréicheTto save them . He celebratedMass, and prayed , and sounded his l ittle consecrated bell ,whereupon the people saw a fiery bolt from heaven comingtowards them and i t fell on the Cromm Connaill so thatit killed it and reduced its body to ashes i This notion

See FM ,AM . 2820 : and Joyce, Irish Names ofP laces

,I . 161.

1A Kerryman, the patron ofKilmacrehy in Clare.

I O'

Curry ,MS. Mat .

,631, 632 .

CHAP . X VIII] MEDICINE AND MEDICAL DOCTORS 609

has trickled down through generat ions to our own day.

Many years ago an intelligent peasant— a delightful old

shanachie— told me that on one occasion,before his t ime

,

when the plague in its fearful career was approaching a

certain townland , the people, in great terror, sent a wiseOld herb - leech to stand guard on the hither bank ofthe

river that separated them from the next territory. And

when the evil thing approached and was about to cross,the Old man chanted in a loud voice a sort Ofincantat ioncommanding it to proceed no farther on which it turnedback and the townland was saved . My informant repeatedfor me the incantat ion— in Irish verse— but I had not theforethought to take i t down.

The Irish annal ists more often attribute the plague todemons. W e find the fol lowing entry in Tigernach

’

s

Annals

[A .D. 1084] A great pestilence [tez’

dm mar] in this year, which

kil led a fourth of the men of Ireland. It began in the south and

spread throughout the four q uarters of Ireland. The causa causans

of that pestilence was this — demons came out of the northern islesof the world, to wit

, three bat talions, and in each bat talion there

were thirty and t en hundred and two thousand [3030 each] , as (Bugus0c the son ofthe Dagda [p. 260 , supra] , related to Gil la Lugan, whoused to haunt the fairy mound [side] every year on Samain night

[the eve ofthe first ofNovember] . And he himselfbeheld at Maist iu

the bat talion of them which was destroying Leinster. Even so,they

were seen b y Gil la Lugan’

s son and wherever their heat or fury

reached,there their venom [mm] was taken. For there was a

sword offire out ofthe gul let ofeach ofthem ,and every one ofthem

was as high as the clouds ofheaven. SO that is the cause of the

So also the Four Masters under A.D. 986 Druidicalor magical sickness was caused by demons in the east of

Ireland ,which caused mortal ity ofmen plainly before

people’

s eyes. The idea Ofdisease inflicted by demons

Stokes in Rev . Celt ., xv11., p . 416.


,AND ART [PART II

found its way into the legends ofthe saints. Adamnan

relates that in the t ime ofSt . Columba, a host ofdemonsinvaded the island ofTirree and brought pest ilent ialdiseases to the monastery there ; ofwhich many ofthe

monks sickened , and some died .

W i thin historic t imes , the most remarkable and

destructive ofall the ancient plagues was the Blefed, or

Buida- Comzaz’

ll [boy- connell] or yellow plague, whichswept through Ireland twice, in the sixth and seventhcenturies, and which we know from outer sources deso~

lated all Europe about the same t ime. The Irish recordsabound in not ices ofits ravages. There is a curious legendin the Life ofSt . Mochua , that when the Sil- Murray weresuffering from this pestilence,

the saint cured them , and

transferred the yellow colour oftheir skin to his crosier,which was thence called the Bac/zal- bhm

'

dke, the yellow

Many other special plagues are recorded in the annals.

During the fourteenth century the country was hardlyever free from pestilence ofsome kind . The worst ofallwas the Black Death , which , judging Ofits ravages by theappalling description ofFriar Clyn,Twas as destructive inIreland as elsewhere. In 1375 and 1378 certain personsare recorded to have died offiolzm [filloon] , a scorbuticor scrofulous disease ofthe skin and joints 11this is stilla living word , and is used to denote sometimes scurvyand somet imes king ’

s evil . The Four Masters and otherannal ists record the prevalence in 1361 ofa plague calledCluz

’

tke- an- ri’

gh [cluhanree] , or the king ’

s game ’

; but

what was the nature ofthe disease or why so called is

not known. In 1404 ,the Annals of Loch - Cé notice

numerous diseases that broke out that year, especially

Stokes,Lives OfSS.

,2 87.

t Clyn’

s Annals,1348 ; published by the Irish Archaeol . Society,

1849 . See a lso on this, joyce, Short History ofIreland

, p. 316.

I See FM under the above dates.


dough ofrye, so as to look like a leper, went in thisdisguise as a spy into the enemy

'

s camp , from which hebrought back a report to his own commander, Branduff,king ofLeinster.

‘ W e have other instances ofthe same

sort ofdisgu ise :Tfrom which we can infer that this diseasewas painfully common and fam iliar, and that the skin of

those afflicted with it presented a squamous or scalyappearance wi th blood ooz ing through the sores.

The annals record several individual deaths by leprosyand somet imes it broke out as an epidemic which carriedOffgreat numbers. From the t ime ofSt . Patrick t ill theseventeenth century the country appears never to havebeen free from it . Gerard Boate (p . 101) states that inhis t ime(1645) i t had disappeared and he attributes itsformer prevalence to the habit ofeat ing salmon out of

season. He tells us that it was specially prevalent inMunster : and his assert ion would seem to derive somesupport from an incidental expression in an Irish authorityvery much older than his t ime, the Book ofRights(p .

where the mountainous district ofSl ieve Lougher in Kerryis called Luachaz

'

r- na- lubfiaz’

r, Lougher ofthe lepers.

’

In the middle ages lepers were treated everywhere in

Europe with great consideration and tenderness. In con

sequence ofthis, in Ireland at least , they gave themselvesairs and became impudent and exacting. W e are told inthe Li fe OfSt . Fechin that a leper full ofdisease fromcrown to sole once came to him at Fore and made a

very preposterous and impudent request for — adds thenarrat ive he was wanton [0gmam as] as is the manner

of1epers.

”

iThough the Irish physicians derived a large part of

their informat ion from the writings offoreigners, yet they

Silva Gad., 415.

1See O’

Curry, MS. Mat ., 528 Rev . Celt .

,X V I. 282 and Courtship

ofEmer,152 , 9 ,

1Rev . Celt ., x11. 343. For another instance see Stokes,Three Irish

Homilies, p. 79 . See also Stokes in Introd. to Trip . Life

, p . cxcvi.


had nat ive names for most of the indigenous . diseases,which is one of the C ircumstances indicat ing that thescience was ofhome- growth— a fact also attested - by the

nat ive traditions and records. Many examples ofnat iveIrish medical nomenclature might be adduced in addit ionto those already given but I will content myself with thefollowingThe annals record several outbreaks ofsmallpox and

many individual deaths from it . It was known by twonames, both still in use in different partsofthe countrybolgach or pustule disease (bolg, a bagor pustule and

galar- brecc, the speckledConsumption was but too well known, then as now. A

person in consumption was called anfobmcklor anbobrachl,which in Cormac ’s G lossary(p . 6) is explained ,

“.a person

without bracht orfat andin the Brehon Laws(1. 141 bot .)

one who has no juice ofstrength .

” Murkertagh O’

Brien,

the powerful king ofMunster, who is counted among thekings ofIreland , was struck down by a wast ing diseaseevidently consumption— til l he became an anbolm c/zt ,

which O’

Donovan (FM, A.D. 1114) translates a l ivingskeleton so that he retired to the Monastery OfLismore,where he died in 1114. A usual term for consumption wasserg, that is, withering or decaying .

’

One ofthe eighth - century Irish incantat ions not iced at

p . 631 farther on, is against gular fuail, disease of the

bladder or kidney— l iterally disease ofthe urine.

’ Thatdiseases ofthis class were studied and understood is indicated by the fact that in an Irish mediaeval tract , copiedabout the year 1500 from an original some centuries

older, renal calculus Is designated in “

Irish , Leco in arciz'

n,

stone in the kidney.

’

In the same tract , which has beenedited by Dr. Stokes,Tchimgm , or gout in the hand,

’

is

explained in Irish by empan 1m leim, cramp or spasm of

See FM ,A .D. 1327, note 0 ; and A .D. 774 ,

note x

1Irish G losses in a Tract on Lat . Decl ., p. 60

,and 61

, 246,


,AND ART [PART II

the hands and ophthalmia is galar stila , disease ofthe

eye.

’ This word crupcin [cruppaun] , a spasm or seizure,’

is st ill used in parts ofIreland to denote a paralytic affect ion in cattle i t was also applied to convulsions. In the

Tripart ite Li fe and other old documents, colic is designatedby tragal, modern treaghaid, which is st il l a spoken word .

[A.D. 986] a col ic [lreghaid] in the east ofIreland causedby demons, which inflicted slaughter on people : and

they [the demons] appeared Clearly before men’

s

One ofthe early kings ofIreland was called AedUaridnech

(A.D. 603 to or‘

Aed ofthe shivering dis'

ease,’

no

doubt ague f Palsy was known by the descript ivename crz

’

th- ldm [crib - lauv] , trembling of the handsfrom crith, shaking ,

’

and ldm or

'

ldmk, a handfi Epi

lepsy , or falling sickness,” '

was called in Irish galar

Po'

z

'

l,Paul ’s sickness,

’ from a notion, prevalent in Irelandas elsewhere, that St . Paul , after one ofhis visions, was sub

ject to such a collapse ofthe nervous system as resembledor was ident ical with an epileptic fit . A person subjectto fall ing sickness was called by the expressive name

{almaz'

dheach [tallaveeagh] , prone to the earth ,

’ fromtalamh, the

St . Camin of Inis- Celtra died in 653 of toine- buirr,

fire ofswell ing — St .~ Anthony ’

s fire or erysipelas— whichwithered away all his body , so that his bones fell asunderas they laid him in the grave. In one ofZeuss

’

s eighthcentury glosses, cancer is explained by two Irish W ords,tutkle and az

'

lse, the latter ofwhich is st ill in use in the

same sense : and elsewhere in the same glosses'

another

nat ive word for the same disease occurs firphdcz'

u .”Diarrhoea was called in Irish buinnech, i.e. flux ,

’ frombuz

'

nne, wave or stream .

’

1[ Under A.D. 785,the Annals

Tigernach ,in Rev . Celt .

,XVII . 345 . See also Trip . Life

, p . 228, an:

and p . 229 . TSilva Gad., 418

‘ FM,A .O . 601.

1Mac Carthy , Cod.- Pal.- Vat .

, p . 61. O’

Donovan,Suppl . O ’

R., 707.

IIZeuss, 73 , A ; 81, x ;'

264. 24 ; 266, 9 ; 266

, .6 ; 775,

1[ Rev. Celt ., XIII. 119 ; and Buinneach in O’

Reilly, Dict .

616 RELIGION,LEARNING , AND ART [PART II

It should be ment ioned that a Paper by H . Cameron

G illies, MD.,on Gael ic Names ofDiseases and ofdiseased

States, in the Caledonian Medical Journal , and re

printed as a pamphlet in 1898 , contains a great deal ofinformat ion on this subject . It is wri tten from a Scotchrather than from an Irish standpoint , which makes it all

the more interest ing to the Irish student .

4. Treatment .

Hospitals — The idea ofa hospital, or a house ofsomekind for the treatment ofthe sick or wounded , was familiarin Ireland from remote pagan t imes. In some ofthe talesofthe Tain we read that in the t ime ofthe Red BranchKnights there was a hospital for the wounded at Emain

called Brdz’

nbherg, the house of But coming tohistoric t imes ,

we know that there were hospitals all overthe country ,

many ofthem in connexion with monasteries.

Some were.for sick persons in general some were special ,

as, for instance , leper- houses. Monastic hOSpitals and

leper- houses are very oftenmentioned in the annals. Thesewere charitable inst itut ions, supported by , and under thedirection and management of, the monastic authorit ies.

But there were secular hospitals for the common use of

the people ofthe tuath or district hence they were called

forus tuaz'

the [tooha] , the house ofthe territory.

’

T Thesecame under the direct cognisance ofthe Brehon Law,

whichlaid down certain general regulat ions for their management . Pat ients who were in a position to do so wereexpected to pay for food , medicine,

and the attendance .

ofa physician. In all cases cleanl iness and vent ilat ionseem to have been well attended to for it was expressly .

prescribed in the law that any house in which sick personswere treated should be free from dirt , should have fouropen doors that the sick man may be seen from everyside — and should have a stream ofwater running across

Keating, 271. 1Forus tuaz'

the,Br

, Laws, IV . 302 , 5 2 303 , a, 9,


it through the middle ofthe floor.* These regulat ions

rough and ready as they were, though in the right direct ion —applied also to a house or private hospital kept by a

doctor for the treatment ofhis pat ients. The regulat ionabout the four open doors and the stream ofwater may be

said to have ant icipated by a thousand years the presentopen- air treatment for consumption. Even when onlyone person was under cure in a house, if he belonged tothe higher classes, who could afford to pay for allnecessaryaccommodation, we generally findmuch the same arrangements carried out . The Munster chief, Cormac Cas, afterbeing wounded in the head ‘

in a battle fought in the

third century , was treated in a house of this kind at

Duntryleague,in the County Limerick T

Ifa person wounded another or injured him bodily inany way,

without just ificat ion, he— or his fine or imme

diate Circle ofrelat ions i f he himsel f was out ofreachwas obliged by the Brehon Law to pay for Sick maintenance (called olkrus or foldek- othrusa), i.e. the cost ofmaintaining the wounded man in a hospital , either whollyor partly , according to the circumstances ofthe case, t illrecovery or death ; which payment included the fees of

the physician, and one or more attendants according tothe rank ofthe injured person; This provision, so far as

i t went,answered to the modern arrangement ofinsurance

companies to give a weekly allowance during illnessCausedby accident . The injured person might either go to a

hospital or be treated at home. But in some cases at least

the aggressor might choose either to select his own home

as the place oftreatment ofthe person he had wounded , or

to send him the determined amount ofexpenses and let

him choose his own place of treatment .§ Those of the

very high grades ofsociety never went to a hospital inBr. Laws, 1. 131 Sul livan

,Introd.

, 319 . 1' Silva Gad.

,129 .

1C0rm . G loss.,132 O thras Br. Laws

,1. 131 ; III . 357 ; 471,

cl seq . Iv . Sick Maintenance, in Index Sul l .,Introd.

,234.

Br. Laws, v 313 ,


case ofsick maintenance : they were always treated intheir own houses the cost ofnursing and medical attendance being defrayed by the wounder, who in this casehad his choice either to send a nursetender(a man in the

case cited in the law), or pay the cost ofmaintaining one.

Ifthe patient went to a hospital , his mother was to gowith him , i f she was l iving , and available and i t is to bepresumed the cost ofher support also was defrayed bythe aggressor. Moreover, i t was his duty to see that thepat ient was properly treated — that there were the usualfour doors and a stream ofwater ; that the bed wasproperly fum ished that the physician’

s orders werestrictly carried out— for example, the patient was not tobe put into a bed forbidden by the doctor, or given prohibited food ; and dogs and fools and female scoldswere to be kept away from him lest he might be worried.TIf the wounder neglected this duty , he was l iable to

penal ty. From the frequent ment ion ofsick maintenancein the law,

i t is obvious that the custom was very generaland universally recognised .

Leper hospitals were established in various parts of

Ireland ,generally in connexion with monasteries, so that

they became very general , and are often not iced in the

annals. In the t ime ofHenry VIII. all such Chari tableinst itut ions in connexion with monasteries were sup

pressed ,among them that attached to the priory of

St . John’

s, Dublin. The former prevalence ofhospitals ofseveral kinds is attested by the number ofplaces to whichthey have given names that remain to this day ; such as

Hospital, Spittal , Spiddal , Leopardstown, properly Leperstown

,near Dublin. 850 3;

Medicated Baths.— In Irish historical tales, which weknow were to a great extent legendary ,

we read that the

Br. Laws,Iv . 303 , 333 . TBr. Laws

,1. 131 Iv . 303 .

1A list of leper hospita ls, formerly in connexion with monasteries,

is given in Part II . ofthe Census, of1851.


,AND ART [PART II

explanat ion bathing.

for sick persons : and i t is forlepers that it is oftenest practised .

Trefining. - In the Battle ofMoyrath, fought A.D. 637

the same battle from which Sweeny ran away distracted

(p . 225, supra)— a young Irish chief named Cennfaelad

[Kenfaila] had his skull fractured by a blow ofa sword ,

after which he was a year under cure at the celebratedschool ofTomregan in the present County Cavan. The

injured port ion ofthe skull and a port ion ofthe brain wereremoved ,

which so cleared his intellect and improved hismemory that on his recovery he became a great scholaranda great jurist , whose name Kennfaela the Learned— is to this day well - known in Irish literature)

“ He was

the author ofthe Uraz’

cepl na n- eces [Oorakeft - nan- aigas] ,or Primer ofthe Poets ,

’

a work still in existence. CertainLegal Commentaries which have been published , formingpart ofthe Book ofAcaill(Br. Laws, have also beenattributed to him andhe was subsequently the founder ofa famous school at Derryloran in Tyrone.

The old Irish writer ofthe Tale accounts for the suddenimprovement in Kennfaela

’

s memory by saying that hisbrain offorgetfulness was removed . It would be hardlyscientific to reject all this as mere fable. W hat reallyhappens in such cases is this. Injuries Ofthe head are

often followed by loss of memory , or by some othermental disturbance, which in modern t imes is cured

, and

the mind restored to its former heal thful action— butnothing beyond— by a successful operat ion on skul l andbrain. The effects ofsuch cures, which are suffi cientlymarvellous, have been exaggerated even in our own dayand in modern medical l iterature physicians of somestanding have left highly- coloured accounts of suddenwonderful improvements ofintellect following injuries of

the head after cure. Kennfaela’

s case comes well wi thin

Moyrath ,279 to 285 , text and notes also Br. Laws

,111. 89 and

O'

Curry, Man. Cust I . 92 .

CHAP XVIII] MEDICINE ANDMEDICAL DOCTO RS

historic t imes : and the old Irish writer’s account seemsmerely an exaggerat ion ofwhat was a successful cure.

Kennfaela was no doubt a man of exceptional ability,which was turned into a new channel— or rather into itsproper channel— when he was forced to give up the

profession ofarms,with a result that astonished his con

temporaries.

' No doubt a similar explanat ion will applyto the modern cases, in many ofwhich the exaggerat ionis at least as great as in the story ofKennfaela— in someinstances much greater indeed . W e must bear in mindthat the mere existence in Irish literature ofthis story , and

ofsome others l ike it , shows that this crit ical operat iontrefining or trepanning— was well known and recognised ,

not only among the faculty but among the general public .In those fighting t imes, too,

the cases must have beensufficiently numerous to afford surgeons good pract ice.

St itchingW ounds — The art ofclosing up wounds bytitching was known to the old Irish surgeons. In the

story ofthe death ofKing ConcobarmacNessa we“

are toldthat the surgeons st itched up the wound in his head withthread ofgold , because his hair was golden colour.

*

Cupp ing and Prob ing— Cupping was commonly practised by the Irish physicians

,who for this purpose carried

about with them a sort ofhorn called a gz’

pne or gibne, as

doctors now always carry a stethoscope. This practice waswell established long before the tenth century ; for in

Cormac ’s G lossary(p . we find the word gibne explainedadare lege, a leech ’

s [cupping] horn.

’

An actual case of

cupping is ment ioned in the Acallamh q‘ where the female

leech Bebinn had the venom drawn from an old unhealedwound on Cailte’

s leg, by means oftwofedans or tubes bywhich the wound was healed. It is stated in the text thatthese were thefea

’am ofModarn’

s daughter Binn [a

former lady- doctor] , from which we may infer that they

MS. Mat ., 638, 6 from bottom ; 641, , 3,

1' Stokes, Acall., lines 7220—7224 Silva Gad.

,253, 24,

622 RELIGION, LEARN ING , AND ART [PART II

were something more than simple tubes— that they were

ofsome special construction cunningly designed for the

operat ion. On this passage Stokes directs attent ion to

the Il iad ,Iv. 218 and here we find a parallel case among

the Homeric Greeks, where the physician Machaon healedan arrow- wound on Menelaus by sucking out the noxious

blood andapplying salves. The lady- physicianBebinn alsotreated Cailte for general indisposit ion by administeringfive successive emetics at proper intervals, ofw hich the

effects ofeach are fully described in the old text . Beb inn

prepared the draughts by steeping certain herbs in watereach draught was different from all the others, and acteddifferently ; and the treatment restored the pat ient tohealth .

* A probe(fraig) was another instrument regardedas requisi te for a physician, l ike thegipne, for, in the BrehonLaw(II. 119) the probe and the whip are named as articlesbelonging to a doctor that might be seiz ed in distraint .The Cmsarean Operation was known and practised .

when Eithne, daughter ofKing Eochaidh Feidlech ,was

with Child , she was drowned by her sister'

s son Lugaid

Sriab n-Derg , who caused the Child— afterwards calledFurbaide— to be cut from her womb ]

Sleeping-Draught. —In one ofthe oldest of the IrishTales— the original version ofthe W ooing ofEmer

”

Iit is stated that the warrior- lady Scathach gave Cuculainna sleeping- draught(deoch seam) to keep him from going tobattle it was strong enough to put an ordinary person tosleep for twenty- four hours but Cuculainn woke up afterone hour. This shows that at the early period when thisstory was written— seventh or eighth century— the Irishhad a knowledge ofSleeping- potions

, and knew how to

regulate their strength .

Silva Gad.,252(Irish text , 222) the translation does not reproduce

the details given in its text .

1Rennes Dind.,Rev . Ce lt .

,X V I . 39 see LL

,199 , a, 45

O’

Donovan,

Suppl . O ’

R., G laise and O

’

Curry, Man. Cust .,I . 290.

1Rev . Celt .,x1. 449 .


AND ART [PART II

observat ions, as aids in medical treatment , were universalamong physicians in England down to the seventeenthcentury .

Dysenlery .— Make 3 ] lb . ofiron red- hot

,and plunge it into 3 q uarts

ofnew milk tillit coo ls. Do t his three times t il l the milk is boiled downto three pints . Halfa pint taken in the morning and halfa pint inthe eveningwill cure.

St. Antony’

s Fire or Erysipelas(Irish ,Teine Dht

‘

a and Tez’

ne Buirr).— Take sorre l(Irish samhadh Latin names also given), which doctors

say is cold in the first degree and dry in the second degree breakit up together with another substance (named but not identified),and apply it as a plaster. Ano ther cure

,—I30il the house - leek (Irish ,

lusra- cu- teofleaz’

n : herb ofburning and s q ueeze its juice on t he

diseased part . Another cure— Rub the diseased part with the bloodofa black cat .

An ulcerated W ound— Break up sorrel,and mix it with apple- juice

put this on the wound.

Swelling and Inflammation ofthe Eyes — Break up sorrel,and mix

it with the white ofan egg : app ly this, and it wil l reduce the inflammation.

Diarrhe a in Irish,Flux ofthe Bel ly.

’ —~Boil sorrel with red wine,

and drink in doses.A Sprain— Break the roots ofmarsh -mal lows : mix with hog

'

s

lard and app ly as a plaster.A Il’oman

’

s sore Breast — Boil [in certain proportions] hog’

s lard,

flour, beeswax ,and the white ofa hen- egg in strong ale and apply as

a plaster.For Persons injured by Fairies — Take the fol lowing twenty

- five

herbs [which are all named] : while pul ling them , certain prayers

are to be said. Boil them in the water of a Spring-wel l (not the

water from a running stream). Be careful not to let a drop of the

mixture fal l , and not to put it on the ground, t il l the patient has drunkit all.

A sore Eye— Take yarrow and the daisy p lant , and bruise and

sq ueeze the juice out ofthem : put into a lit t le bot t le with the milkofa. woman who has given birth to a daughter, and a grain ofwhite

copperas, also the red blossom of the common eye- bright . Let the

mixture stand til l the next evening, and then wash the sore eye

with it .

So cal led from the be liefthat it wil l preserve a house from fire if

set growing on the roof.

UH A I’ . X V I I I MED IC INE AND MEDICA L DU C I'

U Kb

5. Popular Cares.

Vapour Bath andSweat ing-House.— W e know that theTurkish bath is ofrecent introduction in these countries.

But the hot - air and vapour bath was well known in Ireland,

and was used as a cure for rheumat ismdown to a few

years ago. I have not found it referred to in any ancientauthorit ies though its use came down from old t imes ; and

themasonry ofthe Inishmurray sweating- house, representedhere, has all the appearance— as Mr. W akeman remarks

FIG . 162.

Sweating- house on Inishmurray. Interiormeasurements : 554 feet long, 4 feet wide. and about 5 feet lngh.

(Drawn by W akeman From Kllk Arch . Journ. for 1885—6 , p . 2 I 2

—ofbeing as old as any ofthe other primit ive buildings in

the island . The structures in which these baths were given

are known by the name ofTigh’

n allais [Teenollish] ,

sweat ing- house ’ (allus, sweat They are still well

known in the northern parts ofIreland and several have

been described by Mr. M ill igan, Mr. W akeman,and the

Rev . D. B . Mulcahy .* They are small houses, ent irely

ofstone,from five to seven feet long inside, with a low

See Kilk . Archaeol . Journ.,1885

—6, p . 2 11 1889 , p . 268 1890

—9 1,

PR 165. 589 .


l it tle door through which one must creep : always placedremote from habitat ions and near by is commonly a poolor tank ofwater. They were used in this way. A greatfire ofturf was kindled inside t ill the house became heatedlike an oven ; after which the embers were swept out

and vapour was produced by throwing water on the hot

stones. Then the person, wrapping himself in a blanket ,crept in and sat down on a bench ofsods, after which thedoor was closed up. He remained there an hour or so tillhe was in a profuse perspiration and then creeping out ,

plunged right into the cold water,after emerging from

which he was well rubbed till he became warm . Afterseveral baths at intervals ofsome days he usually got cured .

Persons are st ill living who used these baths or saw themused .

The fol lowing curious memorandum by the late Prof.Henry Hennessy ,

is in the Kilkenny Arch . Journalfor 1885

—6 W hat are called Turkish baths in Irelandand Great Britain have been designated Roman- Irishbaths in Germany andBohemia. I saw baths designatedROmische- Irische bader at Prague and Nuremberg in

These, however, are ofrecent introduct ion intoGermany in imitat ion ofthe hot - air and vapour baths inDr. Barter

’

s establishment at Blarney near Cork ,which

he opened in 1860, after the model ofsimilar baths he

had himself seen in the East .

Fairy Bath— In Ireland they had fairy- baths, made

with fairy - herbs, and these descended from old t imes.

In the Agallamh i t is related how two ladies, sisters, hadbeen repudiated by their husbands for two other women.

But Cailte gave them a bundle offa z'

ry- herbs with direct ions

how to use them . They washed in a bath in which thesehad been steeped , and sought out their husbands, whoselove was revived by the virtue ofthe herbs and the two

wives were restored to their homes."l

H

Silva Gadelica . p . 126.

RELIGION, LEARNING ,ANDART [PART II

Heal ing- Stones. —There were heal ing - stones preservedin

'

various places one for instance in the l ittle church of

Relig near Bruckless in Donegal , which the peoplebrought to their sick friends with much faith in its

curat ive power.

* An amulet of this kind— a roundstone of agate two inches in

,diameter— has been pre

served from time immemorial in the family ofFitzgerald ,

form erly seneschals ofImokilly in Cork . It is sometimes

called dock-0mm , the amber- stone,

’

and often the mur

rain stone for the water in which it has been steepedwhen given to cat tle is believed to bea cure for murrain. The water is alsooften given for hydrophobia, both to

human beings and to the lower ani

mals ] A sim ilar tal isman— ah ovalcrystal stone— is preserved by the

fam ily ofM‘

Carthy of the Glen in

Cork ; and i t is st il l lent out to the

neighbouring farmers for sick cat tle iIn the church ofSt . Gobinet at Bal ly

“ a nd: ,ZW W Mvourney in Cork is a marvellous mediCine stone and several other tal ismans

fil

zf

xzc

‘

l

sl mm m of a similar kind are preserved by

families in various parts of Ireland .§Martin found medical stones very common in the

western islands ofScotland in and they wereused all over Scotland unt il very recently. The readerwill here be reminded of the Lee- penny stone in The

Tal isman , the curat ive virtue ofwhich was almost ident ical with that of the Imokilly stone. No doubt this

Kilk. Arch . journ ,187o

~ 1, 469 . 1I bid.,

1874-

5 , p . 440 .

1I bid.,1864

- 6, p . 324 .

For others see “food- Mart in,Pagan Ireland,

156 and Kilk . Arch .

Journ.,1889 , p . 72 ; See a lso W '

indele’

s article on Irish Medical Superst it ion in Kilk . Archazol. Journ.

,1864

- 6, p . 306.

Mart in, pp . 134 , 2 26 , &C .

CHAP . X VIII] MEDICIN E AND MEDICAL DOCTORS 629

custom was originally brought to Scotland from .Ireland ,l ike most other

.

early Scot t ish popular customs.

The use ofmedical stones probably descended frompagan t imes : but

,l ike many another pagan custom ,

it

was adopted by some ofthe early saints. In Adamnan’

s

“ L ife ofSt . Columba ”(II. we read that on one

occasion Columba took up a white stone from the riverNess

,and having blessed it , he said to his companions

“ Mark this white stone,by which the Lord will work

many cures ofthe sick among the heathen people. And

the narrat ive goes on

t o say t h a t m any

persons got cured of

deadly ailments by

drinking the water inwhich it had

'

beensteeped . Holy wellscredited with miraculous curative virtues FI0 165.

have already been Two views, front and Side , ofthe Gamavilla amulet ; halfsiz c.

A crystal ball set In a bronz e frame. For disease In cat tlehun round the neck of the animal wh ile feeding. (Fromno t iced

,an add i g

F l “M mW ood- Mart in s Traces of the Elder alt 1s 11. 75, a

t jomal one is figured Archx ol. Journal. C arnawlla IS near Caher m

on nex t page.

Prayers, Incantations, and Charms — Prayers to individualsaints for special diseases, and many incantat ions and

charms used for similar purposes, some in Irish ,some in

Latin,are met with in Irish manuscripts ofthe seventh ,

eighth , and ninth centuries : the Latin often in verse, the

Irish commonly in a sort ofrhythmic prose. Aed macBric

(Aed or Hugh the son ofBrec), bishop , was the tutelarysaint ofthe Kinelea

,a tribe who occupied what is now

known as the barony ofMoycashel in W estmeath. He

was descended from Niall ofthe Nine Hostages , and diedin the year 589 . From him is named the present parish of

Rahugh (Hugh’

s or Aed’

s rath) near Tullamore ; for the

chief of the t ribe presented him with his rath or fort

630 RELIGION, LEARNING ,AND ART [PART 11.

within which Aed built a church : and the old fort and

the ruins ofBishop Aed’

s church are to be seen to thisday. A legend in his L ife relates that once a man who

was affl icted wi th a violent headache came to him for

rel ief: and the saint , not being able to cure him in any

other way,took the headache himselfand sent the man

away relieved. Hence it came to pass , as the legendgoes on to say ,

that persons were in the habit ofinvokingthis saint ’s name for a headache. St. Aed macBric is st illinvoked for a headache by the people ofW estmeath. Near

FIG . 166.

Tole raraght . the well ofthe virgin St . Athracht or At tracta , near the shore

ofLough Talt , in the townland ofGlennawoo.seven miles west ofTobercurry.in Sligo. Reported to cure epilepsy and othernervous diseases. (From ColonelW oo d-Mart in‘

s Pagan Ireland, p. 155

the ruins ofthe old monastery ofRahugh is his holy welland in the same place is a large stone

,st ill called Bishop

Hugh'

s stone— for,according to local tradit ion

,the saint

was accustomed to pray on it— to which the people ofthe

surrounding districts have been,t ime out ofmind

,in the

habit ofresorting for the reliefofheadache. A century

and a halfago an accidental discovery l inked this modernpract ice with remote ant iquity. In the middle of the

eighteenth century a cont inental scholar,Mone

,archive

director ofCarlsruhe,published a short Latin poem which

632 RELIGION ,LEARN ING , AND ART [PART It

added This is sung every day about thy head againstheadache. After singing it thou puttest thy spittle intothy palm and thou put test it round thy two temples andon the back ofthy head , and thereat thou singest thyPater Noster thrice, and thou puttest a cross of thyspit tle on the crown ofthy head , and then thou makestthis sign [the letter] U on thy head .

"

In some ofthese incantat ions there are invocat ions tothe pagan Irish leech -

godDiancecht(who is stated to havebequeathed one part icular salve) and to his brother thesmith -

god Goibniu.*

Incantations and charms for diseases are also usedin the Highlands and Islands ofScotland ,

where indeedthe custom is now more general than i t is in the

mother country . Many ofthese will be found all in

Scotch Gaelic and translated— ih Carmichael ’s CarminaGadelica ,

vol. ii . , pp . 2 to 21, and p . 124. One ofthem is

ar galar Iuail,‘

against disease ofthe urine '

or gravelwhich , although different in words from that printed byZeuss from a manuscript wri t ten twelve centuries ago,

is

identical with it in tone and spiri t .

FIG. 167.—Ornament composedfrom the Book ofK ells.

In Stokes and Strachan’

s Thesaurus Palaeohib ernicus, vol. pp .

248, 249 , 2 wil l be found originals and translations ofall the abovementioned Irish Spel ls and Incantations, and many others.

Religion, Learning, and Art Part II - Forgotten Books

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