The appearance of Mr. Moore’s History of Ireland was naturally looked for with much interest, excited as well by the celebrity of the writer, as by a curiosity to learn how a subject so difficult, and which had baffled the learning and genius of so many, might be treated by an author, in some respects so well qualified for the task. The nature of one of Mr. Moore’s earliest and most popular works, the Irish Melodies - a collection of songs adapted to the old Irish music, and illustrative of the most curious of the superstitions of our ancestors, and the most memorable of their historical traditions - must have demanded much industrious research into the annals and antiquities of Ireland.† With knowledge of his subject thus early acquired-inspired by an ardent attachment to the glory of his native country-gifted with a poeticali genius of so high an order, (which, in an inquirer into the ancient traditions of a people, we think desirable, if it follow, and be not suffered to guide, the judgment) - Mr. Moore entered on his labours with advantages which few can hopetVo equal. One volume of his work, which is to extend to three,) has been published; and though, while it is only partially before us, we cannot form a judgment as to the manner in which he will have executed the task, we can readily enter into the consideration of the difficulties which beset the examiner into Irish history, and estimate how far Mr. Moore has overcome these difficulties in the portion of his book now presented to us.

The present volume contains an account of the affairs of Ireland from the earliest period to the eighith century; but little space is occupied by what is properly the history of that long interval, the greater part being devoted to various dissertations on the origin of the Irish! people, and their numerous colonizations - on their civilization inthose distant times - their manners and customs; and to an account of the numerous learned men, who, in the dark ages of European history, poured forth from Ireland to diffuse over the Continent the knowledge and wisdom of that era, of which this lone Iestern isle was then the chief retreat. To us, the nmost interesting part of the volume are those chapters in which we are afforded an insight into the domestic state of Ireland in those remote centuries - into the habits and character of her people, and her early civilization, more advanced than in the rest of western Europe. But from the light of authentic history, but few and scattered rays pierce through the long dark vista of ages extending back to the period of Ireland’s ancient renown. The same paucity of memorials, the same absence of authority, render his narration of historical facts brief and obscure. And this brings us to what we consider to be the great difficulty in the [page break]

* The Cabinet Cyclopædia conducted by the Rev. Dionysius Lardner, L.L.D.. History - Ireland. By Thomas Moore, Esq.. Vol. I. London: Longmans, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longman: and John Taylor.
† The knowledge of Irish history hitherto possessed by the mass of society, has been just so much as may be gleaned from the allusions in the Melodies, or some scanty illustration in the notes.

Irish historian - a difficulty insurmountable by the exertions of any individual, and which can be overcome only by the well-directcd energies of numbers, employed for years. The scarcity of accredited material, the want of accessible authorities, are, we think, the real obstacles to the obtaming [sic] that long-sought desideratum, a faithful and accurate history of Ireland At present, so few, and so difficult of approach, are the sources whence the inquirer into these subjects must derive his knowledge of the former annals of his country - and so contradictory are they, as well in the statement of fact as in their views of the general state of the island - that the historian, unprovided with the means of deciding between their clashing testimony, either refuses credit to both, or yields implicit confidence to the one, totally despising the evidence of the other. In fact, all who have treated of Irish antiquities hitherto, hnve ranged themselves into two opposing parties - the one obstinately asserting the claims of ancient Ireland to all the glory, and to the almost antediluvian antiquity, which the bard would arrogate to her; while the other, as dogmatically denying her right to any share of her former fame, endeavour to prove that she was involved in the darkness of unmitigated barbarism, until the preaching of Christianity, or the invasion of the English - for there are many grades of belief on both sides. Mr. Moore, however, with keener sagacity, adopts a middle course, and attempts to show, as well as his scanty authorities will allow him, that, when divested of the exaggeration of poetic license, of national jealousy, or of party spirit (from which, by the way, Mr. Moore himself is by no means free,) the conflicting accounts of these authors may not be so inconsistent with each other, or with the actual state of Ireland, as has been generally supposed. But. as he is unable to support his views, which we consider decidedly the most rational of any yet brought forward, by sufficient authority, this vulume becomes rather a series of suggestions, adapted to reconcile opposing testimony, than a narrative of authenticated historical events. These circumstances, which would of themselves deprive this work of the character of a complete and standard History of Ireland, will, in like manner, render futile any similar attempt, until the deficiencies we have pointed out be supplied - until the bardic and historic records of Ireland, which now uselessly encumber the cabinets of many public and private libraries throughout the United Kingdom, be examined and published under the care of competent editors. We are confident, and it ia the general belief, that many manuscripts, calculated to throw light on the obscure annals ot ancient Ireland, may be found, though now unknown and unvalued, in the Libraries of Trinity College, of the Royal Irish Academy, well as in many private collections in this country; and in the British Museum, at Stowe, &c. in the sister kingdom. Until these secret receptacles of knowledge be broken up and opened to the world, it will be equally vain to expect, or to attempt a trustworthy History of Ireland.† Mr. Moore’s work, though it will not supply this great want, will confer, at least, this benefit on his country, that the celebrity of the author, and the charms of his style, cannot fail to draw the attention of many to the subject, and to spread the knowledge of its history - to be ignorant of whicn was hitherto considered to be fashionable. The book is illustrated with copious notes, referring to the authorities on which the text is founded: it is written in a smooth and graceful style, not without vigour; and on the whole, will, we think, confirm the author’s extended fame.

† There is at present in course of publication at the expense of the Government, a series of documents of great value and interest to Irish history; but relating to a much later period than that of which we are speaking.

We have already observed, that Mr. Moore’s view of ancient Irish history appears to us a most reasonable hypothesis. Rejecting the fables of the bards, our author follows the more trustworthy annals, which, it it believed, were compiled from the royal records preserved in the palace of Tara, The most authentic of the annalists, Tigernach, dates the commencement of certain history from the reign of Kimbaoth, who is supposed to have flourished about two hundred years before our era, but [col. 2] whom Mr Moore conceives to have lived at a much later period; yet notwithstanding the evidence of this high authority, the bards, und their modem followers, hesitate not gravely to narrate the annals of Ireland, and to give lists of her kings from an epoch which they place one thousand years before Christ. Mr. Moore is of opinion, that the prime error in the account of the bardic and seanachies, or antiquaries, is the distortion of the dates, while the facts they mention may be in general relied one In their zeal to establish for the celebrated Milesian colony an overstrained antiquity, they have transferred the period of the coming of that people to a most distant era, while it still holds its place in the succession of events - thus dislocating the entire course of Irish history, and thereby bringing suspicion and discredit even on authenticated facts, by throwing them back to in time utterly beyond the reach of all record. The argument by which he exposes tlie improbability of the pretended antiquity of the Scotic settlement - an argument, to our mind, of great force - is prefaced by the following paragraph, which - save the paltry ebullition of party feeling, wholly unworthy of the historian - exhibits a favourable example of the style and spirit in which the work is composed:

“It is a task ungracious and painful, more especially to one accustomed from his early days to regard, through a poetic medium, the ancient fortunes of his country, io be obliged, at the stern call of historical truth, not only to surrender his own illusions on the subject, but to undertake also the invidious task of dispelling the dreams of others who have not the same imperative motives of duty or responsibility for disenchanting themselves of so agreeable an error. That the popular belief in this national tale should so long have been cherished and persevered in, can hardly be a subject of much wonder. So consolatory to the pride of a people for ever struggling against the fatality of their position has been the fondly imagined epoch of those old Milesian days, when, as they believe, the glory of arts and arms, and all the blessings of civilization came in the train of their heroic ancestors from the coasts of Spain, that hitherto none but the habitual revilers and depreciators of Ireland, the base scribes of a dominant party and sect, have ever thought of calling in question tlie authenticity of a legend to which a whole nation had long clung with retrospective pride, and which substituting, as it does, a mere phantom of glory for true historical fame, has served them so mournfully in place of real independence and greatness. Even in our own times, all the most intelligent of those writers who have treated of ancient Ireland, have each, in turn, adopted the tale of the Milesian colonization, and lent all the aid of their learning and talent to elevate it into history. But, even in their hands, the attempt has proved an utter failure; nor could any effort, indeed, of ingenuity succeed in reconciling the e improbabilities of a story, which in no other point of view differs from the fictitious origins invented for their respective countries by Hunibald, Sufridius, Geoffrey Monmouth, and others, than in having been somewHat more ingeniously put together by its inventors, and far more fondly persevered in by the imaginative people, whose love of high ancestry it flatters, and whose wounded pride it consoles?”

The Scots, it seems to our author, were a people from the north of Europe; the traditions that they came from Spain he refers to the Phenician voyagers, who, ages before, carried on a commercial intercourse between Ireland and the coast of Gallicia, The first inhabitiints of this inland are supposed to have migrated from Spain; and to these Celts the tradition may relate also. It uould be vain for us to enter into the arguments with which he supports his views; those curious in such researches we refer to the volume itself. It is our intention now merely to point out some of the most remarkable passages of the book. In a subsequent article we may a sketch of the state of civilization to which Ireland had attained in those distant ages, as evinced by the progress she had made in the metal arts, as well as by the constitution of society in general; and which appears to be laid before us. as amply as the circumstances would permit, in Mr Moore’s very interesting chapters on these subjects.

Perhaps the most deeply interesting tradition in the obscurity of ancient Irih history, is that well-assured belier of the commercial intercourse between this country and the Mediterranean, conducted by the Phenician mariners, at a period when the rest of western Europe was sunk in barbarism, unknown and unvisited by those nations who were then the most powerful and enlightened. In the most prosperous days of Carthage, about the fifth century before our era, two expeditions were fitted out for maritime discovery. One, commanded by Hanno, sailed southwards, and doubling the Cape of Good Hope, performed the celebrated “Periplus," which has excited so much controversy amongst the learned. The other, under Himilco, steering northwards by the coast of Spain, from thence stretchea across the Estrumnides, or Tin Isles, (the Scilly Isles,) two days’ sail from which is the“larger Sacred Isle, inhabited by the Hiberni; and in the neighbourhood of the latter the island of the Albiones extends.”

"In this short but circumstantial sketch, the features of Ireland are brought into view far more prominently than those of Britain. After a description of the hide-covered boots, or currachs, in which the inhabitants of those islands navigated their seas, the population of the isle of the Hiberni, and the turfy nature of its soil, are commemorated. But the remarkable fact contained in this record - itself of such antiquity - is, that Ireland was then, and had been from ancient times, designated ‘The Sacred Island.’ This reference af the date of her early renown, to times so remote us to be in Himilco’s days ancient, carries the imagination, it must be owned, far back into the depths of the past, yet hardly further than the steps of history will be found to accompany its flight.”

From the records of this expedition, preserved in the ternple at Carthage, Festus Avienus obtained the materials of this description of Ireland for his Latin poem “De Oris Maritimis," written in the fourth century. Ireland, it is supposed, derived her title of the“Sacred Island,’’ from the fact of her having become "the chosen depository of the Phenician worship in these seas.” This superstition consisted in the adoration of the Sun, and of the elements; and Mr. Moore conceives, that for the celebration of the rites of this worship the Round Towers were erected, From the discussion of the identity of the Sacred Island, as described in ancient author, we transcribe the following passages passages:

“But the fragment of antiquity the most valuable for the light it throws upon this point, is that extracted from an ancient geographer, by Strabo, in which we are told of an island near Britain, where sacrifices were offered to Ceres and Proserpine, in the same manner as at Samothrace. From time immemorial, the small isle of Samothrace, in the Ægean, was a favourite seat of idolatrous worship and resort; and on its shores the Cabiric Mysteries had been established by the Phoenicians. These rites were dedicated to the deities who presided over navigation; and it was usual for mariners to stop at this island on their way to distant seas, and offer up a prayer at its shrrines for propitious winds and skies. From the words of the geographer quoted by Strabo, combined with all the other evidence adduced, it may be inferred that Ireland had become the Samothrace, as it were, of the western seat; that thither the ancient Cabiric gods had been wafted by the early colonisrra of that region; and that, as the mariner used on his departure from the Mediterranean to breathe a prayer in the Sacred Island of the East, so in the seat beyond the Pillars, he found another Sacred Island, where to the same tutelary deities of the deep his vows and thanks were offered on his safe arrival.
 In addition to all this confluence of evidence from high authentic sources, we have likewise the traditions of Ireland herself, - pointing invariably in the same eastern direction, - her monuments, the names of her promontories and hills, her old usages and rites, all bearing indelibly the same oriental stamp. In speaking of traditions, I mean not not the fables which may in later times have been grafted upon them; but those old, popular remembrances, transmitted from age to uge, which, in all countries, furnish a track for their first footsteps of history, when cleared [col. 2] of those idle weeds of fiction by which in time they become overgrown.

A large portion of this volume is occupied by an account of the numerous learned men, who from the fifth to the efihth century spread abroad the fame of Irish genius. The career of St Patrick is given at some length. The character of Duns Scotus of a brief account was given in the 8th number of the Journal, is summed up in the following words:

“In addition to the honour derived to his country from the immense European reputation which he acquired, he appears to have been, in the whole assemblage of his qualities, intellectual and social, a perfect representative of the genuine Irish character, in all its various and versatile combinations. Combining humour and imagination with powers of shrewd and deep reasoning - the sparkle upon the surface as well as the mine beneath - he yet lavished both these gifts imprudently, exhibiting on all subjects almost every power but that of discretion. His life, in its social relations, seems to have been marked by the same characteristic anomalies; for while the simplicity of his mind and manner. Find the festive play of his wit, endeared him to private friends, the daring heterodoxy of his written opinions alarmed and alienated the public, and rendered him at least as much feared as admired.”

Among the most renowned of these eminent doctors, Mr, Moore’s account of whom is very interesting and satisfactory, were Columba, the Apostle of the Highlands. Columbanus, the founder of the monastery of Bobbo in Italy, and who asserted the sphericity of the earth, and the existence of antipodes - a notion which shocked the orthodox divines of those ignorant days, and had nearly brought him into unpleasant collision with the pope; who, however, according to Mr. Moore, was satisfied with Virgil’s explanation, and afterwards made him Bisbop of Saltsburg.

But our space will not permit ns to notice gfurther, at present, the many eminent Irishmen who, it appears, were almost the only beacons of learning to Europe, during that dreary period of the stagnation of intellect. [End.]

[ The above transcription has been arrived at via screen-shot as .jpeg to pdf to OCR using the PDF editing application Wondershare (version 10.4.1). ]

The most likely author of the review amongst known contributors - including Caesar Otway, George Petrie and John O’Donovan - By 1835 Philip Dixon Hardy [q.v.], who was editor-proprietor from 1833 and wrote much of the content thereafter. A mild reference to Moore’s ‘partiality‘ - presumably to the Repeal of the Union and to Catholicism in Ireland - suggests a moderate Protestant mindset, open to cultural nationaism but unwilling to countenance a Gaelic-Catholic view of Irish history or Irish separatism. (Samuel Ferguson, who likewise embodies this attitude, wrote an article on the Dublin Penny Journal in the Dublin University Magazine which makes it clear that he was not himself a contributor.) Crucially, reviewer espouses Moore’s suggestion that the round towers of Ireland are Phoenician in origin - a position held both by Protestant nationalist of the period of Grattan’ Parliament and by Catholic nationalists of any period in view of the classic glamour it shed on the country.

More practically, perhaps, the reviewer’s remark about a ‘brief account’ of Duns Scotus [Eriugena] in a previous issue of ‘the Journal’ [i.e., DPJ] in one place and his closing remarks about the lack of space in the current issue to enlarge further on Moore’s account of famous Irishmen in early times, jointly suggest an editorial hand rather than that of a mere contributor. On these grounds it seems safe to ascribe the article to Hardy - but there remains one objection: In 1833 or 1834 Hardy refused to print Henry O’Brien’s contentious - if not ludicrous - Round Towers of Ireland when he became aware of their allusion to phallic resemblances and associated fertility rites (Leerseen, Remembrance and Imagination [...] 1996, pp.117-18.) In this article, however, he does explicitly accept the Phoenician theory of sun-worship connected with the origins of the towers. While a clear line can be drawn between these interpretations of those famous monuments, the willingness to side with Vallancey, Lanigan, O’Brien, et al., rather than George Petrie and the ‘;factualists’ - in Leerssen’s terminology - who view the towers as Irish monastic defences against the Vikings in the early Middle Ages - shows him to be of the ‘romantic’ party intent on giving Ireland a classical pedigree.

Moore’s own misgivings about the pagan-tower theory, which dated from his visit to Dublin in 1838 and extracted an expression of regret that he had cast his lot with the romantic antiquarians renders the review in that respect wrong-footed and perhaps contributed to Moore’s reluctance to revise his view in later editions of his own History of ireland, Vol. I, which is under review here.