Chapter I: The Irish Language

[Chief authorities: Zeuss’s Gramm. Celt., Preface; O’Donovan’s Article on Zeuss in Ulst. Journ. of Archæol. ii. 11; O’Donovan’s Irish Gram.; O’Curry’s Lect. on MS. Mat. of Irish Hist.; Stokes’s Cormac’s Glossary and Three Irish Glosses; Atkinson’s Lect. on Irish Metric; Ferguson’s Ogham Inscr. in Ireland, Wales, and Scotland; Most Rev. Dr. Graves’s Papers on Ogham in Hermathena; Brash’s Ogham Inscribed Monuments.]

Dialects of Celtic. There are two main branches of the ancient Celtic language: The Goidelic, or Gaelic, or Irish; and the British; corresponding with the two main divisions of the Celtic people of the British Islands.

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Each of these has branched into three dialects. Those of Gaelic are: The Irish proper; the Gaelic of Scotland, differing only slightly from Irish; and the Manx. The dialects of British are: Welsh; Cornish; and Breton or Armoric. The dialects of British differ more than those of Goidelic. Of the whole six dialects, five are still spoken; the Cornish became extinct in the last century; and Manx is nearly extinct. Four have an ancient written literature: Irish, Welsh, Cornish, and Armoric. The Gaelic of Scotland has no ancient literature distinct from that of Ireland; but it has a modern literature.

Glosses. We shall see in another place that in the early ages of Christianity teachers and professors from Ireland were found in most of the universities and schools of the Continent. Among the learners that gathered round them were many young men who followed them from Ireland, and were instructed by them in the classical languages as well as in other branches of learning. When transcribing or using the classics or the Latin version of the Scriptures, these teachers, in order to aid the Irish learners, or for their own convenience, often wrote, between the lines or in the margin, literal Irish translations of the most difficult words of the text, or general renderings of the sense into Gaelic phrases. These are what are called Glosses. Numbers of those interesting manuscripts, their pages all crowded with glosses, are preserved to this day in many continental libraries; and in them are found older forms of Irish than any we have in Ireland. Many have been recently published, with the Latin passages and the corresponding Gaelic. Similar glosses in Welsh, Breton, and Cornish, are also found; but I am concerned here with Irish only. It is chiefly by means of these glosses that the ancient grammatical forms of the language have been recovered, and the meanings of innumerable Irish words, long obsolete, have been ascertained from their Latin equivalents.

Zeuss: The Grammatica Celtica. The first to make extensive use of the glosses for these purposes was Johann Kaspar Zeuss, a Bavarian; born 1806; died 1856. He

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had a great talent for languages, and began the study of the Celtic dialects about 1840. Thenceforward he laboured incessantly, visiting the libraries of Saint Gall, Wurzburg, Milan, Carlsruhe, Cambrai, and several other cities, in all of which there are manuscript books with glosses in the Celtic dialects; and he copied everything that suited his purpose. He found the Irish glosses by far the most ancient, extensive, and important of all. Most of them belonged to the eighth century; some few to the beginning of the ninth. At the end of thirteen years he produced the great work of his life, Grammatica Celtica, a complete grammar of the four ancient Celtic dialects: published 1853. It is a closely printed book of over 1000 pages, and it is all written in Latin, except of course the Celtic examples and quotations. Each of the four dialects is treated of separately. In this work he proves that the Celtic people of the British Islands are the same with the Celtæ of the Continent; and that Celtic is one of the branches of the Aryan or Indo-European languages, abreast with Latin, Greek, the Teutonic languages, Sanscrit, &c.

Zeuss was the founder of Celtic philology. The Grammatica Celtica was a revelation to scholars wholly unexpected, and it gave an impetus to the study, which has been rather increasing than diminishing since his time. He made it plain that a knowledge of the Celtic languages is necessary in order to unravel the early history of the peoples of Western Europe. It is now quite a common thing to find scholars from continental countries visiting and residing for a time in Ireland to learn the Irish language. Since the time of Zeuss many scholarly works have been written on Celtic philology: but the Grammatica Celtica still stands at the head of all.

Three Divisions of Irish. It is usual to divide Irish, as we find it written, into three stages. I. Old Irish, from the eighth to the twelfth century. This is the language of the glosses, of the Irish found in the Book of Armagh, and of some few passages in the Book of the Dun Cow; but we have very little old Irish preserved in Ireland. The

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classical age of the Irish language was from the eighth to the beginning of the twelfth century. After the AngloNorman invasion, the native language, like the native arts, degenerated; and it gradually lost its pure grammatical forms and its classical precision and simplicity. II. Middle Irish, from the twelfth to the fifteenth century, marked by many departures from the pure Old Irish forms. This is the language of most of our important manuscripts - described in next chapter - such as the Book of the Dun Cow, the Book of Leinster, the Lebar Brecc, and the Book of Bally mote. III. Modern Irish, from the fifteenth century to the present day. This is the language of most of the Ossianic tales. The purest specimens are the writings of Keating, mentioned in Chapters III. and IV. There is a vast amount of manuscript literature in Modern Irish.

In the long lapse of 1100 years - from the eighth to the nineteenth century - the Irish, like all other languages, has undergone great changes. Between the written Irish of the present day and the Middle Irish of the Book of Leinster there is at least as much difference as between Modern English and the language of Chaucer; and Old Irish is much farther removed. To a person who knows Modern Irish only it is quite as difficult to master Middle and Old Irish as to master a new language.

Ancient Glossaries and Grammars. In consequence of the gradual change of the Irish language - old words dropping out, new ones coming in, and many changing their forms - it became customary for scholars of past times, skilled in the ancient language, to write glossaries of obsolete words to aid students in reading very ancient manuscripts. Many of these are preserved in the old ibooks. The most noted is ‘Cormac’s Glossary,’ ascribed to Archbishop Cormac Mac Cullenan, king of Cashel, who died A.D. 908. It was translated and annotated by John O’Donovan; and this translation and the Irish text, with valuable additional notes, have been published by Dr. Whitley Stokes. Michael O’Clery, the chief of the Four Masters, printed and published at Louvain, in 1643, a Glossary oi ancient and difficult Irish words. Duald

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Mac Firbis and his master O’Davoren compiled Glossaries of the Brehon laws, which are still extant; and there are in Trinity College copies made by Mac Firbis of several other glossaries.

There is a very ancient treatise on Irish Grammar, divided into four books, ascribed severally to four learned Irishmen. Of these the latest was Kennfaela the Learned, who lived in the seventh century, and who is set down as the author of the fourth book. Copies of this tract are found in the Books of Ballymote and Lecan; but it has never been translated.

Irish Poetry and Prosody. In very early times not only poetry proper, but histories, stories, laws, genealogies, and such like, were very often written in verse as an aid to the memory. Among all peoples there were - as there are still - certain laws or rules, commonly known as prosody, which poets had to observe in the construction of their verse. The classification and the laws of Irish versification were probably the most complicated that were ever invented. The following statement will give the reader an idea of this. There are in Irish three principal kinds of verse. Of the first kind, which is called ‘direct metre,’ there are five species, all equally complicated. The first of these required the observance of the following rules: (1) Each stanza to consist of four lines making complete sense; (2) In each line seven syllables; (3) Alliteration in at least two principal words of each line; (4) The lines to rhyme, but the rhymes were generally assonances or vowel rhymes; (5) The last word of the second line to have one syllable more than the last word of the first line; a like relation between the last words of the fourth and third lines. Behind these were several minor observances that made the matter still more puzzling. O’Molloy, the earliest of modern writers on Irish grammar, pronounces direct metre ‘the most difficult kind of verse under the sun.’ It was something like writing double acrostics in English. [1]

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That the old writers of verse were able to comply with all these rules we have positive proof in our manuscripts: and the result is marvellous. Atkinson in his lecture on Irish metric (p.4) says: ‘I believe Irish verse to have been about the most perfectly harmonious combination of sounds that the world has ever known. I know of nothing in the world’s literature like it.’ So much the worse, for everything had to be sacrificed to sound. Dr. Stokes declares: ‘In almost all the [ancient] Celtic poetry that I have read, substance is ruthlessly sacrificed to form, and the observance of the rigorous rules of metre seems regarded as an end in itself.’ [2] Even 0’Curry obviously viewed the Irish metric system with disfavour, for we find him using the expression, ‘the very artificial system of the Gaelic prosody.’ [3] Such perplexing restrictions were quite enough to kill true poetry; all the energies of the poet were concentrated on the mechanical difficulties; and his praise was measured by his success in overcoming them, rather than by any true interpretation of nature.

In modern Irish poetry the old prosodial rules are almost wholly disregarded. The rhymes are assonant al; but in other respects Irish verse now follows the metrical construction of English verse.

If the Irish did not distinguish themselves in poetry as eminently as in music and art, I attribute it to their cumbrous and complicated rules of prosody. Yet not unfrequently we find the strength of individual genius breaking through all vexatious restrictions; and among the ancient bardic remains - odes, ballads, elegies, songs, &c. - are many pieces of great beauty, the products of true poetical inspiration. It may be remarked that the old Irish poets had a keen appreciation of the beauty of external nature. Spenser, though a prejudiced witness as regarded most things Irish, has I think, with his usual clear poetical insight, pronounced a fair criticism of the poetry of the Irish bards: ‘Yea, truly I have caused divers of them to be translated unto me, that I might understand them, and surely they savoured of sweet wit and good invention, but skilled not of the goodly ornaments of poetry [i.e. they wanted the qualities that constitute great poetry]; yet were they sprinkled with some pretty flowers of their naturall device, which gave good grace and comelinesse unto them.’ [4]

Of the Irish texts published, the following as well as several minor pieces (all described in the following chapters) are in verse: The Feilire of Aengus; the Book of Rights; a portion of the Tribes and Customs of Hy Fiachrach; and the topographical poems of O’Dugan and O’Heeren. This last is an enumeration of the principal tribes of Ireland at the time of the English invasion, with the districts they occupied and the chiefs who ruled over them. The part relating to Leth Conn (North of Ireland) was written by John O’Dugan, who died in 1372; and that relating to Leth Mow (South) by Gilla-na-neeve O’Heeren who died in 1420, The whole poem has been translated and annotated by O’Donovan, and published by the Irish Archaeological and Celtic Society. In such compositions as these we could hardly expect to find true poetry, for they are little more than mere catalogues in verse.

Ogham was a species of writing in use in early ages, the letters of which were formed by combinations of short lines and points, on and at both sides of a middle or stem line called a flesc. Scraps of Ogham are sometimes found in manuscripts; but it was almost always used for stone inscriptions, the groups of lines and points generally running along two adjacent sides of the stone with the angle for a flesc. The Ogham alphabet is called the Beth-luis-nion: the letters are nearly all named from trees.

According to the Brehon law books, dallans or pillar stones with Ogham inscriptions were sometimes set up to mark the boundaries between two adjacent properties; and these were often covered up with mounds of earth. But nearly all the Oghams hitherto found are sepulchral inscriptions, which contain little more than the names of the persons interred and of their fathers. In the ancient tales, when the death and burial of a person are recorded, it is usually stated that a stone was placed over the grave, on which his name was inscribed in Ogham. In no instance has there been found any lengthened passage - whether written or inscribed - in Ogham.

Upwards of 200 Ogham monuments have been found in various parts of the four provinces of Ireland; but they are far more numerous in the south and south-west than elsewhere. Most of these stand in their original situations; but many have been brought to Dublin, where they may be seen in the National Museum; and a few have been sent to the British Museum. Between thirty and forty have been found in Wales and Scotland, and three or four in England and the Isle of Man - all probably inscribed by - or under the influence of - Irishmen.

In the Book of Ballymote is an ancient treatise on Ogham, which there is reason to believe was originally written in the beginning of the ninth century, and copied into this book from some older volume. There is a second and less important treatise in another Irish manuscript. These tracts give a key to the reading of Ogham. Independently of these, the key has been got from bilingual stone inscriptions - one at least in Ireland and several in Wales - in which the same words and names are given in both Ogham and Latin letters - like the Rosetta stone. The key thus found corresponds with that given in the manuscripts. Where inscriptions have not been injured or defaced they can in general be deciphered, so that many have been made out beyond all question. But as the greatest number of Ogham stones are more or less worn or chipped or broken, there is in the interpretation of the majority of the inscriptions some conjecture and uncertainty.

The Most Rev. Dr. Graves, in his paper in Hermathena, vi. 241, has identified several of the individuals named in Ogham inscriptions as persons well known in history, which determines the dates of these individual inscriptions.

Of his identifications I will give one which I think the most ingenious and interesting of all. In the old churchyard of Aghabulloge, near Macroom, in Cork, stands a pillar stone about eight feet high, well known as St. Olan’s stone or Olan’s tomb, and much revered by the peasantry - not without good reason. It is drawn and described in the Dublin Penny Journal, iii. 384, but the writer had no idea of its true history. The popular name preserves the name of the saint it commemorates - Eolang, though the people now know nothing about him. St. Finnbar of Cork, who lived early in the seventh century, was, as we learn from his Life, taught by Eolang, who - the old narrative says - was otherwise called Mac Corb. In the Martyrology of Donegal is commemorated a St. Eolang of the church of Aghaboe in the present Queen’s County, who is set down as of the race of Conary II, king of Ireland; while in both the Book of Leinster and in the Lebar Brecc this St. Eolang of the race of Conary is given as of Athbi-bolg, i.e. of the present Aghabulloge; which satisfactorily identifies Eolang of Aghabulloge with Eolang of Aghaboe.

Now to come to the inscription: the part that concerns us reads, in Ogham, Anm Gorrpmac Suidd: i.e. ‘[a prayer for] the soul of Corb-Mac the Sage.’ Corb-Mac is the same as Mac Corb, with the syllables reversed according to a common Oghamic custom. We know that Mac Corb was another name for Finnbar’s teacher Eolung; and here we have, in the very church named in the Book of Leinster as Eolang’s church, a monument inscribed with his second name Corb-Mac or Mac Corb, and still well known as St. Olan’s tomb. No one will hesitate to believe that Eolang or Mac Corb, St. Finnbar’s preceptor, lies buried under this pillar stone. Thus the date of the inscription is fixed at about the year 600.

Ogham was cryptic writing, that is to say, intended to be read only by the initiated. That this was so is proved by many passages in our old writings - Brehon laws, histories, tales, and so forth. It was one of the accomplishments of a champion and of all professional men of learning to be able to read it. In pursuance of the cryptic idea, the names of the persons commemorated, as well as other words of the inscription, are often intentionally disguised under strange forms, sometimes by the insertion of letters not belonging to the words, and sometimes by reversing the syllables of a name: and this greatly adds to the difficulty of deciphering inscriptions.

As to the antiquity of Ogham writing. Some contend that all Oghams are purely pagan, dating from a time before the introduction of Christianity; and they will not admit the correctness of any reading that brings an inscription within Christian times. But there is no evidence to support this contention, and there is plenty of evidence to disprove it. Others again, while admitting the use of Ogham in Christian times, will have it that this writing is a survival from the far distant ages of paganism, and that it was developed before Christianity was heard of. Dr. Graves, who has investigated the whole subject in a thoroughly scientific manner, maintains that Ogham was founded on the Roman alphabet, and that consequently no Ogham is older than the period of the earliest introduction of Christianity into Ireland.

Chapter II: Irish Literature

Chief authorities for Chapters II, III, IV, V:- Petrie’s Tara; The Most Rev. Dr. Healy’s Ireland’s Anc. Schools and Scholars; O’Donovan’s Gram. Introd.; Joyce’s Old Celtic Romances; Miss Stokes’s Early Christian Art in Ireland; and Early Christian Archit. in Ireland; Reeves on Book of Armagh in Proc., R. I. Academy, 1891; Documenta de S. Patricio, by the Rev. Edm. Hogan, S.J.; Petrie on Domnach Airgid, in Trans. R. I. Academy; O’Reilly’s Irish Writers; Harris’s Ware; O’Curry’s Lect. on the MS. Materials of Irish History.]

Whether the pagan Irish were acquainted with the art of writing is a question that is now difficult or impossible to determine. Our most ancient traditions, indeed, assert the existence of written literature in pagan times. In the account given in our old books of the revision of the law in the time of St. Patrick we are told that the pagan code had been previously written in books, which were brought together and submitted to the revising council; and in the Tripartite Life of St. Patrick it is stated that the druids at the court of King Laeghaire [Leary] had books. However this may be, we know that long before St. Patrick’s arrival there were Christians in Ireland (Part II. ch. iii.), who must have been acquainted with writing. The well-known Irishman Celestius, a disciple of the great heresiarch Pelagius, while still a youth, and before he had imbibed the Pelagian doctrines, wrote, in the year 369, from his monastery on the Continent to his parents, three letters, in the form of three little books, on the ‘Love of God’. He would not have done this, of course, if he did not know that his parents could read them. [5] It is not necessary for us to follow this argument further; but it may be considered as pretty certain that the art of writing was known to the Irish as early as the middle of the fourth century; and it is highly probable that some few at least had the use of letters in the time of Cormac Mac Art, a little more than a century earlier. [6] But all the evidence bearing on this points to Christianity as the source of knowledge.

Several circumstances indicate a state of literary activity at the time of the arrival of St. Patrick. Both the native bardic literature and the ancient lives of Patrick himself and of his contemporary saints concur in stating that he found in the country literary and professional men - druids, poets, and antiquarians. And it is certain that immediately after the general establishment of Christianity, in the fifth century, the Irish committed to writing in their native language ‘not only the laws, bardic historical poems, &c., of their own time, but those which had been preserved from times preceding, whether traditionally or otherwise.’ [7] It is hard to conceive how the use of writing could have come into general use so suddenly without a pretty wide-spread previous knowledge of letters. It is at the same time true that, though our old records testify to the existence of a succession of poets and historians from the earliest times, no books or writings of any kind, either pagan or Christian, of the time before St. Patrick remain - with the possible exception of some Ogham inscriptions. But this proves nothing; for a like state of things exists in Britain, where, notwithstanding that writing was generally known and practised from the Roman occupation down, no manuscript has been preserved of an earlier date than the eighth century.

After the time of St. Patrick, as everything seems to have been written down that was considered worth preserving, manuscripts accumulated in the course of time, which were kept either in monasteries or in the houses of hereditary professors of learning. As there were no printed books, readers had to depend for a supply entirely on manuscript copies. To copy a book was justly considered a very meritorious work, and in the highest degree so if it were a part of the Holy Scriptures, or of any other book on sacred or devotional subjects. Scribes or copyists were therefore much honoured; and the annalists, after mentioning a man otherwise learned and eminent - whether bishop, priest, or professor - considered it an enhancement to his dignity if they were able to add that he was a scribe. One of the merits of St. Columkille was his diligence in writing: it is recorded of him that he wrote with his own hand three hundred copies of the New Testament, which he presented to the churches he founded. The Four Masters mention sixty-one eminent scribes before the year 900, forty of whom lived between the years 700 and 800.

‘In the dark time of the Danish ravages, and during the troubled centuries that followed the Anglo-Norman invasion, the manuscript collections were gradually dispersed, and a large proportion lost or destroyed. In our very oldest books there are references to and quotations from manuscripts now no longer in existence; and many which existed even so late as 200 years ago are now lost. Yet we have remaining - rescued by good fortune from the general wreck - a great body of manuscript literature. The two most important collections are those in Trinity College and in the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, where there are manuscripts of various ages, from the fifth down to the present century.’ [8] In the Franciscan monastery of Adam and Eve in Dublin are a number of valuable manuscripts which were sent from the Franciscan monastery of St. Isidore’s in Rome a few years ago - a portion of the great collection made by the Franciscans at Louvain in the seventeenth century. There are also many important manuscripts in the British Museum in London, and in the Bodleian Library at Oxford.

Before the invention of printing it was customary in Ireland for individuals, or families, or religious communities, to keep large manuscript books of miscellaneous literature. In these were written such literary pieces as were considered worthy of being preserved in writing - tales, poems, biographies, genealogies, histories, annals, and so forth - all mixed up in one volume, with scarcely any attempt at orderly arrangement, and almost always copied from older books. This practice of copying miscellaneous pieces into one great volume was very common. Some of these books were large and important literary monuments, which were kept with affectionate care by their owners, and were celebrated among scholars as great depositories of Celtic learning, and commonly known by special names, such as the Cuilmen, the Saltair of Cashel, the Book of Cuana. No one was permitted to make entries in such precious books except practised and scholarly scribes; and the value set on them may be estimated from the fact that one of them was sometimes given as ransom for a captive chief. I will here notice briefly a few of the most important of those we possess - all vellum; but there are also many important paper manuscripts.

The oldest of all these books of miscellaneous literature is the Lebar-na-Heera, or the Book of the Dun Cow, now in the Royal Irish Academy. It was written by Mailmurri Mac Kelleher, a learned scribe who died in Clonmacnoise in the year 1106. An entry in his own handwriting at page 37 shows how this book and others like it were compiled: ‘Pray for Mailmurri Mac Kelleher who wrote and collected this book from various books.’ About the year 1340 it was given by the O’Donnells of Tirconnell to O’Conor of Connaught as a ransom for their ollave of history who had been taken captive by the O’Conors some time before; but in 1470 the O’Donnells recovered it by force and brought it back to Tirconnell.

As it now stands it consists of only 134 folio pages - a mere fragment of the original work. It contains sixty-five pieces of various kinds, several of which are imperfect on account of missing leaves. There are a number of romantic tales in prose; a copy of the celebrated Amra or elegy on St. Columkille, [9] composed by Dallan Forgaill about the year 592, which no one can yet wholly understand, the language is so ancient and difficult; an imperfect copy of the Voyage of Maildun; and an imperfect copy of the Tain-bo-Quelna, with several of the minor tales connected with it. Among the historical and romantic tales are the Courtship of Emer, the Feast of Bricriu, the Abduction of Prince Connla the Comely by the shee or fairies, the Destruction of the palace of Da Derga and the Death of Conary king of Ireland. The language of this book is nearer to the pure language of the Zeussian glosses than that of any other old book of general literature we possess.

The Book of Leinster, the next in order of age, now in Trinity College, Dublin, was written in 1160 and in the years before and after. There is good reason to believe that it was compiled wholly, or partly, by Finn Mac Gorman, who was bishop of Kildare from 1148 to 1160, and by Hugh Mac Criffan, tutor of Dermot Mac Murrogh king of Leinster, and that it belonged to this king or to some person of rank among his followers. The part of the original book remaining - for it is only a part - consists of 410 folio pages, and contains nearly 1000 pieces of various kinds, prose and poetry - historical sketches, romantic tales, topographical tracts, genealogies, &c. - a vast collection of ancient Irish lore. The following entry occurs at the foot of page 313:- ‘Aed (or Hugh) Mac Mic Criffan wrote this book and collected it from many books.’ Among its contents are a very fine perfect copy of the Tain-bo-Quelna, a History of the origin of the Boru Tribute, a description of Tara, a full copy of the Dinnsenchus or description of the celebrated places of Erin. The Book of Leinster is an immense volume, containing about as much matter as six of Scott’s prose novels.

The Lebar Brecc, or Speckled Book of Mac Egan, also called the Great Book of Duniry, is in the Royal Irish Academy. It is a large folio volume, now consisting of 280 pages, but originally containing many more, written in a small, uniform, beautiful hand. The text contains 22G pieces, with numbers of marginal and interlined entries, generally explanatory or illustrative of the text. The book was copied from various older books, most of them now lost. All, both text and notes, with a few exceptions, are on religious subjects: there is a good deal of Latin mixed with the Irish. Among the pieces are the Feilire of Aengus the Culdee, Lives of SS. Patrick, Brigit, and Columkille, and a Life of Alexander the Great. From the traditional titles of the book it is probable that it was written towards the end of the fourteenth century by one or more of the Mac Egans, a literary family who for many generations kept schools of law, poetry, and literature at Duniry in the county Galway, near Portumna, and also at Ballymacegan in the north of Tipperary.

The Book of Ballymote, in the Royal Irish Academy, is a large folio volume of 501 pages. It was written by several scribes about the year 1391, at Ballymote in Sligo, from older books, and contains a great number of pieces in prose and verse. Among them is a copy of the ancient Book of Invasions, i.e. a history of the Conquests of Ireland by the several ancient colonists - not the Book of Invasions noticed in Chapter IV, which was compiled at a later period by Michael O’Clery. There are genealogies of almost all the principal Irish families; several historical and romantic tales of the early Irish kings; a history of the most remarkable women of Ireland down to the English invasion; an Irish translation of Nennius’s History of the Britons; a copy of the Dinnsenchus; a translation of the Argonautic Expedition and of the War of Troy. The version of Nennius has been translated and edited with valuable notes by Dr. James Henthorn Todd and the Hon. Algernon Herbert, forming one of the volumes published by the Irish Archæological Society.

The Yellow Book of Lecan [Leckan] in Trinity College is a large quarto volume of about 500 pages. It was written at Lecan in the county Sligo in and about the year 1390 by two of the scholarly family of Mac Firbis - Donogh and Gilla Isa. It contains a great number of pieces in prose and verse, historical, biographical, topographical, &c.; among them the Battle of Moyrath, the Destruction of Brudin Da Derga, an imperfect copy of the Tain-boQuelna, and the Voyage of Maildun.

The five books above described have been published in facsimile without translations by the Royal Irish Academy, page for page, line for line, letter for letter, so that scholars in all parts of the world can now study them without coming to Dublin. The Book of the Dun Cow was edited by John T. Gilbert, LL.D., F.S.A., the others by Dr. Robert Atkinson; and all five have valuable Introductions and full descriptions of contents.

The Book of Lecan in the Royal Irish Academy, about 600 vellum pages, was written in 1416, chiefly by Gilla Isa More Mac Firbis. The contents resemble in a general way those of the Book of Ballymote.

There are many other books of miscellaneous Gaelic literature in the Royal Irish Academy and in Trinity College, such as the Book of Lismore, the Book of Fermoy, the Book of Hy Many; besides numerous volumes without special names.

Ancient Irish literature, so far as it has been preserved, may be classed as follows:

I. Ecclesiastical and Religious writings.
II. Annals, History, and Genealogy.
III. Tales - historical and romantic.
IV. Law, Medicine, and Science.

I do not make a separate class of translations from other languages - Latin, Greek, French, &c. - of which there are many in our old books.

I will dismiss the subject of medical manuscripts in a few words here; but much might be written about them. The medical profession, like others in Ireland, was generally hereditary. Several families were for generations celebrated as leeches, such as the O’Hickeys, the O’Lees, the O’Shiels, and the O’Cassidys. Each family kept one or more manuscript medical books, mainly in the Irish language, containing all that was then known of medicine, in which the physicians of each generation wrote down from time to time their accumulated experience. Many of these medical manuscripts are preserved in Trinity College and in the Royal Irish Academy, as well as in the British Museum and elsewhere. Like the law books, they are highly technical and hard to read: none have been translated.

I will now proceed to make some remarks on each of the above classes separately.

Chapter III: Ecclesiastical and Religious Writings

Copies of the Gospels or of other portions of Scripture, that were either written or owned by eminent saints of the early Irish Church, were treasured with great veneration by succeeding generations; and it became a common practice to enclose them, for better preservation, in ornamental boxes or shrines. Many shrines with their precious contents are still preserved: they are generally of exquisite workmanship in gold, silver, or other metals, precious stones, and enamel. Books of this kind are the oldest we possess.

The Domnach Airgid, or Silver Shrine, which is in the National Museum, Dublin, is a box containing a Latin copy of the Gospels written on vellum. ‘This box,’ says Dr. Petrie, ‘is composed of three distinct covers, of which the first or inner one is of wood - apparently yew; the second or middle one of copper plated with silver; and the third or outer one of silver plated with gold. In the comparative ages of these several covers there is obviously a great difference. The first may probably be coeval with the manuscript which it was intended to preserve; the second, in the style of its scroll or interlaced ornament, indicates a period between the sixth and the twelfth centuries; while the figures in relief, the ornaments, and the letters in the third leave no doubt of its being the work of the fourteenth century.’ [10] This, which until lately was preserved near Clones in Monaghan, is perhaps the most venerable Irish reliquary we possess. There is good evidence to show that the enclosed book is the identical copy of the Gospels presented by St. Patrick himself to his disciple St. Mac Carthenn, the founder of the see of Clogher.

The Book of Kells is the most remarkable book of this class, though not the oldest. It is a Latin copy, in vellum, of the Four Gospels, now in Trinity College, Dublin, and received its name from having been kept for many centuries at Kells in Meath. The first notice of it occurs in the Annals, at 1006, where it is recorded that the great Gospel of Columkille - ‘the principal relic of the western world, on account of its unequalled cover,’ was stolen out of the sacristy at Kells. It was recovered soon after, but the gold cover had been taken. Its exact age is unknown; but judging from the style of the penmanship and from other internal evidence, we may conclude that it was probably written in the seventh century. At the present day this is the best known of all the old Irish books, on account of its elaborate and beautiful ornamentation, of which a description will be found farther on, in the chapter on Irish Art.

The Cathach [Caha] or Battle-Book of the O’Donnells. The following is the legend of the origin of this book. On one occasion St. Columkille was on a visit with St. Finnen of Movilla at a place called Drumfinn in Ulster, and while there borrowed from him a copy of the Psalms. Wishing to have a copy of his own, and fearing refusal if he asked permission to make one, he secretly transcribed the book day by day in the church. St. Finnen found out what he was at, but took no notice of the matter till the copy was finished, when he sent to Columkille for it, claiming that it belonged to him as it was made from his book without permission. St. Columba refused to give it up, but offered to refer the dispute to the king of Ireland, Dermot the son of Fergus Kervall; to which Finnen agreed. They both proceeded to Tara, obtained an audience, and laid the case before the king, who pronounced a judgment that long continued to be remembered as a proverb in Ireland: ‘To every cow belongeth her little offspring-cow: so to every book belongeth its little offspring-book: the book thou hast copied without permission, Columba, I award to Finnen.’ ‘That is an unjust decision, king,’ said Columkille, ‘and I will avenge it on thee.’

At this same time it happened that the son of the king of Connaught, who was a hostage at Tara, killed in a dispute at hurling the son of King Dermot’s chief steward during the celebration of the triennial Fes, thereby violating the sanctuary of the Tara meeting (Chap. X); and, being aware of the consequences, he ran to St. Columkille for protection. But he was torn from the saint’s arms by the king’s orders, brought outside the palace, and instantly put to death. Knowing well that this would inflame the saint’s anger still more, the king gave orders that he should not be permitted to leave Tara till his resentment had time to cool down. But Columkille evaded the guards and made his way alone northwards over the hills to his native Tirconnell.

The princes of the northern Hy Neill, both those of Tirconnell and Tyrone, to whom he was nearly related, took up his quarrel, and the very next year marched southwards to Drumclitf, where they were joined by the enraged king of Connaught. The monarch marched north to suppress the insurrection, and a pitched battle was fought - A.D. 561 - at Cuil-Dremne, situated between Drumcliff and Sligo town, where the king’s army was utterly routed. From this the book became known as the Caha or Battle-Book. It was afterwards given up to St. Columkille; and it has remained ever since, a precious heirloom, in possession of his kindred the O’Donnells. They always brought it with them to battle; and it was their custom to have it carried three times sunwise - left to right - round their army before fighting, in the firm belief that this would ensure victory: it was so employed at the end of the fifteenth century. This venerable relic, covered with a beautifully wrought case of gilt silver and precious stones, may be seen in the National Museum, Dublin, where it has been deposited by the head of the O’Donnell family. Only fifty-eight of the vellum leaves of the original book remain; and the writing is a small uniform hand.

In Trinity College, Dublin, are two beautiful shrines enclosing two illuminated Gospel manuscripts, the Book of Dimma and the Book of St. Molin, both written in the seventh century.

The Book of Armagh, now in Trinity College, for beauty of execution stands only second to the Book of Kells, and occasionally exceeds it in fineness and richness of ornamentation. The learned and accomplished scribe was Ferdomnach of Armagh, who finished the book in 807, and died in 845. In four different places - at the end of certain portions - he wrote in Latin: ‘Pray for Ferdomnach’; and two of these entries are still perfectly legible. He no doubt wrote many other books, for writing was the business of his life, but they are all lost.

The book originally consisted of 442 pages, of which ten are lost: with this exception it is as perfect as when it was written. It is chiefly in Latin, with a good deal of old Irish interspersed. It opens with a Life of St. Patrick. Following this are a number of notes of the life and acts of the saint, compiled by Bishop Tirechan, who himself received them from his master Bishop Ultan, of the seventh century. Those notes are not in the form of a connected narrative. The book contains a complete copy of the New Testament, and a Life of St. Martin of Tours. Perhaps the most interesting part of the whole manuscript is what is now commonly known as St. Patrick’s Confession (printed by Dr. Whitley Stokes in his Tripartite Life of St. Patrick, p.357), in which the saint gives a brief account, in simple unaffected Latin, of his captivity, his escape from slavery, his return to Ireland, the hardships and dangers he encountered, and the final success of his mission. At the end of the Confession Ferdomnach writes this colophon in Latin: ‘Thus far the volume which Patrick wrote with his own hand. The seventeenth day of March Patrick was translated to heaven.’ This entry was written about 300 years after the death of St. Patrick: and it appears from it that Ferdomnach had before him a book in the very handwriting of the great apostle from which he copied the Confession.

In 1004 an entry was made in this book which almost transcends in interest the entries of Ferdomnach himself.

In that year the great king Brian Boru made a triumphal circuit round Ireland, and arriving at Armagh, he made an offering of twenty ounces of gold on the altar of St. Patrick. He confirmed the ancient ecclesiastical supremacy of Armagh, and caused his confessor and secretary Mailsuthain to enter the decree in the Book of Armagh. The entry, which is as plain now as the day it was written, is in Latin, and stands in English: ‘St. Patrick, when going to heaven, decreed that the entire fruit of his labour, as well of baptism and causes as of alms, should be rendered to the apostolic city, which in the Scotic tongue is called Arddmacha. Thus I found it in the records of the Scots (i.e. the Irish). This I have written, namely Mailsuthain, in the presence of Brian, supreme ruler ot the Scots, and what I have written he decreed for all the kings of Cashel.’

Of all the old books of Ireland this was for many ages the most celebrated and the most deeply venerated. The popular belief was that it was written by St. Patrick himself, from which it got the name of Canoin Patrick, Patrick’s Testament. It was entrusted to the safe keeping of the members of a particular family, the Mac Moyres, who for generations enjoyed a liberal land endowment in consideration of the importance of their trust. From this circumstance they got the name of Mac Moyre - i.e. the descendants of the maer or keeper.

This venerable book was about being published; and the task of editing it was entrusted to the man who knew most about it, the Most Rev. Dr. William Reeves, late bishop of Down and Connor: but death intervened before he had time to finish the crowning literary work of his life. The book is ready, however, and it will be published. Meantime the Irish part - every expression in the Irish language that occurs in the book - has been edited and published, with great learning and skill, by the Rev. Edmund Hogan, S.J.

We have a vast body of original ecclesiastical and religious writings. Among them are the lives of a great many of the most distinguished Irish saints, mostly in Irish, some few in Latin, some on vellum, some on paper, of various ages, from the eighth century, the period of the Book of Armagh, down to the last century. Of these manuscripts the great majority are in Dublin; but there are many also in the British Museum, as well as in Brussels and elsewhere on the Continent. The Lives of the three patrons of Ireland - Patrick, Brigit, and Columkille - are, as might be expected, more numerous than those of the others. Of these the best known is the Tripartite Life of St. Patrick, so called because it is divided into three parts. There is a manuscript copy of this in the British Museum, and another in the library of the University of Oxford. It is in Irish, mixed here and there with words and sentences in Latin. Colgan and others after him have given their opinion that it was originally written in the sixth century by St. Evin of Monasterevin; but, according to Dr. Whitley Stokes, there are sufficient internal evidences to show that it cannot be older than the middle of the tenth century. This has been lately printed in two volumes, with translations and elaborate introduction and notes by Dr. Stokes.

Besides the Irish lives of St. Columkille, there is one in Latin, written by Adamnan, who died in the year 703. He was a native of Donegal, and ninth abbot of lona, the first being the founder St. Columkille; and his memoir is one of the most graceful pieces of Latin composition of the Middle Ages. It has been published for the Archasological and Celtic Society by the Rev. Dr. William Reeves, who in his introduction and notes supplies historical, local, and biographical information drawn from every conceivable source.

In the year 1645 the Rev. John Colgan, a Franciscan friar, a native of Donegal, published at Louvain, where he then resided in the Irish monastery of that city, a large volume entitled Acta Sanctorum Hiberniæ, the Lives of the Saints of Ireland, all in Latin, translated by himself from ancient Irish manuscripts. They are arranged according to the festival days of the saints, and the volume contains the lives of those whose days fall in the three first months of the year. His intention was no doubt to finish the work to the 31st December, but he stopped at the 31st March, and never published any more of the work. In 1647 he published another volume, also in Latin, which he calls Acta Triadis Thaumaturgæ, the Lives of the Wonder-working Triad. It is devoted to Saints Patrick, Brigit, and Columkille, and consists almost entirely of translations of all the old Lives of these three saints that he could find: there are seven Lives of St. Patrick, including the Tripartite life. Both volumes are elaborately annotated by the learned editor, and text and notes - all in Latin - contain a vast amount of biographical, historical, topographical, and legendary information.

Another class of Irish ecclesiastical writings are the Calendars, or Martyrologies, or Festilogies - Irish, Féilire [fail’ira], a festival list. The Feilire is a catalogue of saints, arranged according to their festival days, with usually a few facts about each, briefly stated, but with no detailed memoirs. There are several of these Martyrologies. I mention one in the next chapter, the Calendar of Michael O’Clery; and the only other one I will notice is the Feilire of Aengus the Culdee, which is in verse. The circumstance that gave rise to this poetical catalogue is related in an ancient legend. One time while Aengus was at the church of Coolbanagher, in the present Queen’s County, he saw a host of angels alighting one after another on a grave and immediately reascending. He asked the priest of the church who it was that was buried there, and what he had done to merit such honour. The priest replied that it was a poor old man who had lived in the place, and the only good he ever knew him to do was to invoke a number of the saints of the world - as many as he could remember - going to bed at night and getting up in the morning. ‘Ah, my God!’ exclaimed Aengus, ‘when this poor old man is so honoured for what he did, how great should be the reward of him who should make a poetical composition in praise of all the saints of the year.’ Whereupon he began his poem on the spot. He continued to work at it during his subsequent residence at Clonenagh, and finished it while living in lowly disguise at Tallaght.

The body of the poem consists of 365 quatrain stanzas, one for each day in the year, each stanza commemorating one or more saints - chiefly but not exclusively Irish - whose festivals occur on the particular day. But there are also poetical prologues and epilogues and prose prefaces, besides a great collection of glosses and explanatory commentaries, all in Irish, interspersed with the text; and all written by various persons who lived after the time of Aengus. There are several manuscript copies, one being in the Lehar Brecc. The whole Feilire, with Prefaces, Glosses, and Commentaries, has been translated and edited by Dr. Whitley Stokes for the Royal Irish Academy.

To Aengus is also commonly attributed - but it seems erroneously - Saltair na Rann, i.e. the Psalter of the Quatrains, of which the only complete copy lies in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. It consists of 162 short Irish poems on sacred subjects. The whole collection has been published by Dr. Whitley Stokes, with glossary of words, but without translation. How ancient and difficult is the language of these pieces may be judged from the fact that Dr. Stokes was obliged to leave a large number of words in the glossary unexplained.

There is a class of ecclesiastical writings devoted exclusively to the pedigrees or genealogies of the Irish saints, all of which, besides the direct knowledge they convey, contain a large amount of topographical information on the antiquities of Ireland. Of these there are several, the oldest being that ascribed to Aengus the Culdee. Copies of this tract are found in the Books of Leinster and Ballymote, and in Mac Firbis’s Book of Genealogies. Not one of these genealogies has been published.

The Book of Hymns is one of the manuscripts of Trinity College, Dublin, copied at some time not later than the ninth or tenth century. It consists of a number of hymns - some in Latin, some in Irish - composed by the primitive saints of Ireland - St. Sechnall, St. Ultan, St. Cummin Fada, St. Columba, and others - with Prefaces, Glosses, and Commentaries, mostly in Irish, by ancient copyists and editors. It has been published by the Irish Archaeological and Celtic Society, edited, with annotations and with translations of the Irish hymns and Irish Commentaries, by the Eev. Dr. James Henthorn Todd.

There are manuscripts on various other ecclesiastical subjects scattered through our libraries - canons and rules of monastic life, prayers and litanies, hymns, sermons, explanations of the Christian mysteries, commentaries, on the Scriptures, &c. - many very ancient. Of the numerous modern writings of this class, I will specify only two, written in classical modern Irish about the year 1630 by the Rev. Geoffrey Keating: the Key-shield of the Mass, and the i. This last has been published for the Royal Irish Academy without translation, but with a very useful glossary, by Dr. Robert Atkinson.

Chapter IV: Annals, Histories, Genealogies

Annals. The Irish chroniclers were very careful to record in writing remarkable occurrences of their own time, or past events as handed down to them by former chroniclers. This they did in the form of annals. The annals are among the most important of all the ancient manuscript writings for the study of Irish history.

The faithfulness and general accuracy of the Irish annals are strikingly exemplified in the fact that all their entries of natural phenomena are found to be correct. In the Annals of Ulster there are more than twenty records of eclipses and comets, from a.d. 496 to 1066, the year, day, and hour of which agree exactly with the calculations of modern astronomers. The solar eclipse of 664 may be cited as one example. Bede, writing many years after this eclipse, recorded it, but calculating backwards by the erroneous method then in use, he fixed the date as the 3rd of May, two days wrong. The Annals of Ulster give the correct date - the 1st of May - and even the very hour, a striking proof that the event had been recorded by some Irish chronicler who actually saw it, from whose record the writer of the Annals of Ulster copied it. And the other phenomena were no doubt recorded in like manner by eye-witnesses. In the few cases also where early foreign or English writers notice Irish affairs, they are always in agreement with the Irish annals. A remarkable instance is Eginhard’s record of the defeat of the Danes in 812. Testimonies of this kind might be almost indefinitely multiplied. The names of fifteen abbots of Bangor who died before 691 are given in the Irish Annals at the respective years of their death. In the ancient Service Book known as the Antiphonary of Bangor, which is still preserved on the Continent, there is a hymn in which ‘these fifteen abbots are recited in the same order as in the Annals’; and this undesigned coincidence is the more interesting because the testimonies are perfectly independent, the one being afforded by Irish records which never left the kingdom, and the other by a Latin composition, which has been a thousand years absent from the country where it was written.’ [11]

The natural inference from all this is that, for events falling within historic times, though we have no books of annals earlier than the eleventh century, yet those we have were copied from earlier books, now lost, and the originals of all or most of the entries in our present annals were records of events that passed before the eyes of the writers. That the Annals of Ulster were copied from older sources O’Donovan shows in his Introduction to the Four Masters, xlvi; and no doubt all the other annals were similarly copied.

The following are the principal books of Irish Annals remaining. The Synchronisms of Flann. This Flann was a layman, Ferleginn or chief professor of the school of Monasterboice: died in 1056. He compares the chronology of Ireland with that of other countries, and gives the names of the monarchs that reigned in Assyria, Persia, Greece, and Eome, from the most remote period, together with most careful lists of the Irish kings who reigned contemporaneously with them. Copies of this tract, but imperfect, are preserved in the Books of Lecan and Ballymote.

The Annals of Tighernach [Teerna]. Tighernach O’Breen, the compiler of these annals, one of the greatest scholars of his time, was abbot of the two monasteries of Clonmacnoise and Roscommon. He was acquainted with the chief historical writers of the world known in his day, and it is clear that he had the use of a good library at Clonmacnoise. He quotes Bede, Josephus, St. Jerome, and many others; and with great judgment compares and balances their authorities one against another. He made use of Flann’s Synchronisms, and of most other ancient Irish historical writings of importance. His work is written in Irish, mixed a good deal with Latin. In the beginning he treats of the general history of the world, with some brief notices of Ireland - the usual practice of Irish annalists; but the history of Ireland is the chief subject of the body of the work. One most important pronouncement he makes, which has been the subject of much discussion, that all the Irish accounts before the time of Cimbaeth [Kimbay], B.C. 305, are uncertain. Tighernach died in 1088. Several copies of his Annals are in existence in London, Oxford, and Dublin, but all imperfect.

The Annals of Innisfallen were compiled by some scholars of the monastery of Innisfallen, the ruins of which still stand on the well-known island of that name in the Lower Lake of Killarney. They are written in Irish mixed with Latin. In the beginning they give a short history of the world to the time of St. Patrick, after which they treat chiefly of Ireland. Their composition is generally ascribed to the year 1215; but there is good reason to believe that they were commenced two centuries earlier. They were subsequently continued to 1318.

The Annals of Ulster, also called the Annals of Senait Mac Manus, were written in the little island of Senait Mac Manus, now called Belle Isle, in Upper Lough Erne. They treat almost exclusively of Ireland from a.d. 444. The original compiler was Cathal [Cahal] Maguire, an eminent divine, philosopher, and historian, who died of small-pox in 1498; and they were continued to the year 1541 by Eory O’Cassidy, and by a nameless third writer to 1604. There are several copies of these annals, one in a beautiful hand in a vellum manuscript of Trinity College, Dublin. One volume has been issued, translated and annotated by the late William M. Hennessy; the rest is in process of translation by the Kev. B. McCarthy, D.D.

The Annals of Loch Ce [Key] were copied in 1588 for Brian Mac Dermot, who had his residence in an island in Lough Key, near Boyle in Roscommon. They are in the Irish language, and treat chiefly of Ireland from 1014 to 1636, but have many entries of English, Scottish, and continental events. The only copy of these annals known to exist is a small-sized vellum manuscript in Trinity College, Dublin. They have been translated and edited in two volumes by William M. Hennessy.

The Annals of Connaught from 1224 to 1562. There is a copy in Trinity College, Dublin, and another in the Royal Irish Academy.

The Chronicon Scotorum (Chronicle of the Scots or Irish), down to a.d. 1135. This was compiled about 1650 by the great Irish antiquary Duald Mac Firbis. His autograph copy is in Trinity College, and two other copies are in the Royal Irish Academy. These annals have been printed, edited with translation and notes by William M. Hennessy.

The Annals of Boyle, from the earliest time to 1253, are contained in a vellum manuscript in the library of the British Museum. They are written in Irish mixed with Latin; and the entries throughout are very meagre.

The Annals of Clonmacnoise, from the earliest period to 1408. The original Irish of these is lost; but we have an excellent English translation by Connell MacGeoghegan of Lismoyny in Westmeath, which he completed in 1627.

Of this translation several copies are preserved, of which one is in Trinity College and another in the British Museum. O’Donovan printed many extracts from this compilation in his Notes to the Annals of the Four Masters.

The Annals of the Four Masters, also called the Annals of Donegal, are the most important of all. They were compiled in the Franciscan monastery of Donegal, by three of the O’Clerys, Michael, Conary, and Cucogry, and by Ferfesa O’Mulconry; who are now commonly known as the Four Masters. The O’Clerys were for many generations hereditary ollaves or professors of history to the O’Donnells, princes of Tirconnell, and held free lands and lived in the castle of Kilbarron on the sea-coast northwest of Ballyshannon. Here Michael O’Clery, who had the chief hand in compiling the Annals, was born in 1575. He was a lay brother of the order of St. Francis, and devoted himself during his whole life to the history of Ireland. Besides his share in the Annals of the Four Masters, he wrote a book containing (1) a Catalogue of the kings of Ireland; (2) the Genealogies of the Irish saints; and (3) an Account of the saints of Ireland, with their festival days, now known as the Martyrology of Donegal. This last has been printed by the Irish Archaeological and Celtic Society, with translation by John O’Donovan, edited by the Rev. James Henthorn Todd, D.D., and by the Rev. William Reeves, D.D. Brother Michael also wrote the Book of Invasions, of which there is a beautiful copy in the Royal Irish Academy. It is a sort of chronological history, giving an account of the conquests of Ireland by the several colonists, down to the English Invasion, with many valuable quotations from ancient Irish poems.

Conary O’Clery, a layman, acted as scribe and general assistant to his brother Michael. His descendants were for long afterwards scholars and historians, and preserved his manuscripts. Cucogry or Peregrine O’Clery was a cousin of the two former, and was chief of the Tirconnell sept of the O’Clerys. He was a layman, and devoted himself to history and literature. He wrote in Irish a Life of Red Hugh O’Donnell, of which his autograph copy is in the Royal Irish Academy. This has been translated, annotated, and published - text and translation - by the Rev. Denis Murphy, S.J. The fourth Master, Ferfesa O’Mulconry, was a historian from Kilronan in Roscommon.

The materials for this great work were collected after many years’ labour by Brother Michael O’Clery, who brought every important historical Irish manuscript he could find in Ireland to the monastery of Donegal; for he expressed his fears that if the work were not then done the materials might never be brought together again. His fears seemed prophetic; for the great rebellion of 1641 soon followed; all the manuscripts he had used were scattered, and only one or two of them now survive. Even the Four Masters’ great compilation was lost for many generations, and was recovered in a manner almost miraculous, and placed in the Royal Irish Academy by Dr. George Petrie. The work was undertaken under the encouragement and patronage of Fergall O’Gara, prince of Coolavin, who paid all the necessary expenses; and the community of Donegal supplied the historians with food and lodging. They began their labours in 1632, and completed the work in 1636. [12] The Annals of the Four Masters was translated with most elaborate and learned annotations by Dr. John O’Donovan; and it was published - Irish text, translation, and notes - in seven large volumes, by Hodges and Smith of Dublin, - the greatest and most important work on Ireland ever issued by any Irish publisher.

A book of annals called the Psalter of Cashel was compiled by Cormac Mac Cullenan (see Part II, Chap. VII), but this has been lost. Besides annals in the Irish language, there are also Annals of Ireland in Latin, such as those of Clyn, Dowling, Pembridge, of Multifarnham, &c., most of which have been published by the Archæological and Celtic Society.

Histories. None of the writers of old times conceived the plan of writing a general history of Ireland: it was only in the seventeenth century that anything like this was attempted. But the old Irish writers left many very good histories of particular transactions, districts, or periods, all in the form of Historic Tales (next chapter) and mixed up with fabulous relations. Of these the following may be mentioned as examples - others will be noticed in next chapter. The History of the Wars of the Gaels with the Galls or Danes; the History of the Borumean Tribute (Part II. chap, ii.); the Wars of Thomond, written in 1459 by Rory McGrath, a historian of Thomond or Clare. Of these the first has been published, with translation, introduction, and annotations by Dr. James Henthorn Todd: the other two still remain in manuscript.

The first history of the whole country was the Forus Feasa ar Erinn, or History of Ireland - from the most ancient times to the Anglo-Norman invasion, written by Dr. Geoffrey Keating, a learned Roman Catholic priest of Tubrid in Tipperary, who died in 1644. Keating was deeply versed in the ancient language and literature of Ireland; and his history, though uncritical and containing much that is fabulous and legendary, is very interesting and valuable for its quaint descriptions of ancient Irish life and manners, and because it contains many quotations and condensations from authorities now lost. The work was translated in 1726 by Dermod O’Connor; but he wilfully departed from his text, and his translation is utterly wrong and misleading: ‘Keating’s History is a work which has been greatly underrated in consequence of the very ignorant and absurd translation by Mr. Dermot O’Connor.’ [13] A complete and faithful translation by John O’Mahony was published, without the Irish text, in New York in 1866.

Genealogies. The genealogies of the principal families were most faithfully preserved in ancient Ireland. Each king and chief had in his household a Shanachy or historian, an officer held in high esteem, whose duty it was to keep a written record of all the ancestors and of the several branches of the family. Sometmies in writing down these genealogies the direction was downward from some distinguished progenitor, of whom all the most important descendants are given, with intermarriages and other incidents of the family. Sometimes again the pedigree is given upwards, the person’s father, grandfather, &c., being named, till the chief from whom the family derived their surname is arrived at, or some ancestor whose position in the genealogical tree is well known, when it becomes unnecessary to proceed farther. All persons of position were careful to have their pedigrees preserved, partly from the natural pride of descent from noble ancestors, and partly because in cases of dispute about property, election to chiefships, &c., the written records certified by a properlv qualified historian were accepted as evidence in the Brehon law courts. In the time of the Plantations and during the operation of the penal laws, the vast majority of the Irish chiefs and of the higher classes in general were driven from their lands and homes; and they and their descendants falling into poverty, lost their pedigrees, so that now only very few families in Ireland are able to trace their descent.

Many of the ancient genealogies are preserved in the Books of Leinster, Lecan, Ballymote, &c. But the most important collection of all is the great Book of Genealogies compiled in the years I650 to 1666 in the College of St Nicholas in Galway, by Duald Mac Firbis, the last and most accomplished native master of the history, laws, and language of Ireland.

The confidence of the learned public in the ancient Irish genealogies is somewhat weakened by the fact that they profess to trace the descent of the several noble families from Adam - joining the Irish pedigrees on to the Scriptural genealogy of Magog the son of Japhet, from whom Irish historians claim that all the ancient colonists of Ireland were descended. But passing this by and coming down to historic times, the several genealogies, as well as those scattered portions of them found incidentally in various authors, exhibit marvellous consistency and have all the marks of truthfulness. Moreover they receive striking confirmation from incidental references in English writers - as for instance Venerable Bede. Whenever Bede mentions a Scot or Irishman and says he was the son of so-and-so, it is invariably found that he agrees with the Irish genealogies if they mention the man’s name at all.

The following three tracts from the manuscript genealogical books have been printed, with translations and most copious and valuable notes and illustrations by Dr. John O’Donovan, for the Irish Archaeological and Celtic Society. An account of The Tribes and Customs of Hy Fiachrach in Connaught from Duald Mac Firbis’s Book of Genealogies; a similar account of The Tribes and Customs of Hy Maine [Mainy] from the Book of Lecan; and from the same book the Genealogy of a Munster tribe named Corcalee. And the genealogies of numerous Irish and Scottish families have been printed in various Irish publications, all from the Irish manuscript books. A large number of them will be found in the Rev. John Shearman’s Loca Patriciana.

In this place may be mentioned the Dinnsenchus, a topographical tract giving the legendary history and the etymology of the names of remarkable hills, mounds, caves, cairns, cromlechs, raths, duns, and so forth. Copies of this tract are found in several of the old Irish books of miscellaneous literature, as already mentioned in Chapter II; and some portions have been translated in Petrie’s Tara, in the Kilkenny Archaeological Journal, and elsewhere.

Chapter V: Historical and Romantic Tales

Of all our manuscript remains, romantic literature is the most abundant. Ingenious ‘men of learning,’ taking historical events and legends as groundwork, composed stories from time to time, of which those that struck the popular fancy were cauglit up and remembered, and committed to writing. In course of time a great body of such literature accumulated, consisting chiefly of prose tales. In the Book of Leinster there is a very interesting list of ancient historical tales, to the number of 187, which has been printed by O’Curry in his Lectures on the Manuscript Materials of Irish History, page 584. In this list the tales are classified into Battles, Voyages, Tragedies, Military expeditions, Cattle raids. Courtships, Elopements, Pursuits, Adventures, Caves (i.e. adventures in caves). Visions, Destructions, Sieges, Feasts, Slaughters, Exiles, Progresses, and Lake eruptions. We have in our old books stories belonging to every one of these classes.

Some of the tales are historical, i.e. founded on historical events - history embellished with some fiction; while others are altogether fictitious - pure creations of the imagination. But it is to be observed that even in the fictitious tales, the main characters are nearly always historical, or such as were considered so. The old Shanachies wove their fictions round Conor Mac Nessa and his Red Branch Knights, or Finn and his Fena, or Luga of the long arms and his Dedannans, or Conn the Hundred fighter, or Cormac Mac Art; like the Welsh legends of Arthur and his Round table, or the Arabian romances of Haroun al Raschid. The greater number of the tales are in prose, but some are in verse, and in many of the prose tales the leading characters are often made to express themselves in verse, or some striking incident of the story is related in a poetical form. These verse fragments are mostly quotations from an older poetical version of the same tale, and are generally more archaic and difficult to understand than the prose.’ [14] Most of the tales have fallen under Christian influences, and contain allusions to Christian doctrines and practices; but some are thoroughly pagan in character, without the least trace of Christianity.

Story-telling was a favourite recreation among the ancient Irish. There were professional Shanachies or story-tellers, whose duty it was to have a number of the standard tales by heart, to recite them at festive gatherings for the entertainment of the chief and his guests. These men were always well received at the houses of princes and chiefs, and treated with much consideration; and on occasions when they acquitted themselves well, so as to draw down the applause of the company, they were often rewarded with costly presents.

A large proportion of the tales fall under two main cycles of ancient Irish history, which in all the Irish poetical and romantic literature were kept perfectly distinct: the cycle of Conor Mac Nessa and his Red Branch Knights, and the cycle of Finn the son of Cumal and his Fianna [Feena]. Conor Mac Nessa was king of Ulster in the first century of the Christian era, and lived in the palace of Emain or Emania, whose ruins - now called the Navan Fort - are still to be seen two miles west from the city of Armagh. Under him flourished the Red Branch Knights, a sort of militia for the defence of the throne. Their commander was Cuchullain, the mightiest of the heroes of Irish romance. He had his residence at Dun-Dalgan, now called Castletown moat, a majestic fort two miles west of Dundalk. The chief Red Branch heroes under him were Conall Kernach; Keltar of the Battles, who lived at Rath Keltar, the great fort beside Dowmpatrick; Fergus Mac Roig; the poet Bricriu of the Venom tongue, who lived at Loughbrickland, where his fort still remains near the little lake; and the three sons of Usna - Naisi, Ainnle, and Ardan. Contemporary with the Red Branch Knights were the Degads of Munster, whose great chief Curoi Mac Dara resided in his stone fort palace on the side of Caherconree mountain; and the Gamanradii of Connaught, commanded by Keth Mac Magach and by the renowned hero Ferdiad. The stories of this period, in which figure the knights named above, and many others, form by far the finest part of our ancient romantic literature.

The most celebrated of all the tales is the Tain-bo Cuailnge [Quelnè] the epic of Ireland. Medb [Maive] queen of Connaught, who resided in her palace of Croghan - still remaining near the village of Rathcroghan in the north of Roscommon - having some cause of quarrel with an Ulster chief, set out with her army for Ulster on a plundering expedition, attended by all the great heroes of Connaught. The invading army entered that part of Ulster called Cuailnge or Quelnè, the principality of the hero Cuchlulain, the north part of the present county Louth. At this time the Ulstermen were under a spell of feebleness, all but Cuchullain, who had to defend singlehanded the several fords and passes, in a series of single combats against Maive’s best champions, in all of which he was victorious. At length the Ulstermen, having been freed from the spell, attacked and routed the Connaught army. The battles, single combats, and other incidents of this war, which lasted for several years, form the subject of the Tain, which consists of one main epic story with about thirty minor tales grouped round it.

There are many copies of this old epic which are mentioned in Chapter II. A few of the minor tales have been translated and published; but the main epic still lies locked up in manuscript awaiting the loving scholarship of some one of the rising generation of Irishmen.

A German scholar, Ernest Windisch, has recently published a book called Irische Texte (Irish Texts) containing the original Irish of several of these ancient tales, without translation, but with an elaborate glossary of Irish words explained in German; and a French scholar, H. D’Arbois de Jubainville, has published his Litterature Epique de Irlande (the Epic Literature of Ireland), a most useful catalogue of ancient Irish romantic tales, with the several libraries and manuscripts in which they are to be found. These two books deserve mention if for no other reason than to show the interest taken by foreigners in Irish literature.

Of the cycle of Finn and the Fena of Erin we have a vast collection of tales. Finn the son of Gumal lived in the third century, and had his chief residence on the Hill of Allen in Kildare. He was killed on the Boyne when an old man, a.d. 283; and of all the heroes of ancient Ireland he is most vividly remembered in popular tradition. He was son-in-law of Cormac Mac Art, king of Ireland, and under that monarch he commanded a militia or standing army called the Fianna of Erin [Feena]. The chief heroes under him, who figure in the tales, were: Oisin or Ossian, his son, the renowned hero poet to whom the bards attribute - but we know erroneously - many poems still extant; Oscar the brave and gentle, the son of Oisin; Dermot O’Dyna, unconquerably brave, of untarnished honour, generous and self-denying, the finest character in all Irish literature, perhaps the finest in any literature; Gaul Mac Morna, the mighty leader of the Connaught Fena; Kylta Mac Eonan the swift-footed; Conan Mail or Conan the bald, large bodied, foul tongued, boastful, cowardly, and gluttonous.

The tales of the Fena, which began to be composed about the end of the twelfth century, and continued to be produced till the end of the last century, are neither so ancient nor so fine as those of the Red Branch Knights: the greater number are contained in manuscripts not more than 100 or 150 years old. Six volumes of tales, chiefly of the cycle of Finn, have been published with translations by the Ossianic Society. The best of them is ‘The Pursuit of Dermot and Grania,’ which has been literally translated by Standish Hayes O’Grady; and I have given a free English translation of it in my Old Celtic Romances. There is one Fenian tract much older than the majority of the tales, the ‘Dialogue of the Ancient Men,’ which is found in the Book of Lismore, a volume copied about the year 1400, and in several other manuscripts. It is an account, supposed to have been given to St. Patrick by Oisin and Kylta Mac Ronan in their extreme old age, of the historical mountains, rocks, rivers, caves, wells, and burial mounds all over Ireland. It is a highly interesting document, and well deserves to be translated and annotated.

The battle of Moylena and the battle of Moyrath are the subjects of two historic tales, both of which have been published, the former edited by O’Ourry and the latter by 0’Donovan, both with valuable notes. What are called the ‘Three Tragic Stories of Erin,’ viz., the Fate of the Children of Lir, the Fate of the Sons of Usna, and the Fate of the Sons of Turenn, have been published in the Atlantis, translated and edited by O’Curry; who also translated the Sick-bed of Cuchullain in the same periodical. Some few others have been published with translations in the Kilkenny Archaeological Journal, in the Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, and in the Revue Celtique. Four English poetical epics have been published founded on four of these old tales: ‘Congal,’ on the Battle of Moyrath, by Sir Samuel Ferguson; ‘The Foray of Queen Meave,’ on the Tain-bo-Quelne, by Mr. Aubrey de Vere; and ‘Deirdre,’ on the Fate of the Sons of Usna, and ‘Blanid,’ on the Death of Curoi Mac Dara, both by Dr. Robert Dwyer Joyce. I have myself published in my ‘Old Celtic Romances’ free translations - without texts - of eleven ancient tales. The great majority of those old tales still remain unpublished and untranslated.

Chapter VI: The Brehon Laws

[Chief authorities for Chapters VI., VII., VIII, IX., X.: The four published volumes of the Brehon Law, and Introductions; O’Curry’s Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish, with Sullivan’s Introduction; Petrie’s Essay on Tara; Spenser’s View of the State of Ireland; Maine’s History of Ancient Institutions; O’Mahony’s Keating.]

The Irish legal system, as described in this and the following four chapters, existed in its fulness before the ninth century. It was disturbed by the Danish and Anglo-Norman invasions, and still more by the English settlement; but it continued in use till finally abolished in the beginning of the seventeenth century.

In Ireland judges were called Brehons, and the law they administered - i.e. the Fenechas, or ancient law of Ireland - is now commonly known as the Brehon law. To become a brehon a person had to go through a regular, well-defined course of study and training. It would appear that the same course qualified for any branch of the legal profession, and that once a man had mastered the course, he might set up as a brehon, a consulting lawyer, an advocate, or a law-agent. In very early times the position of brehon or lawyer was open to anyone who spent the proper time and completed the studies; but in later ages the legal profession tended to become hereditary in certain families, some of whom were attached to kings or chiefs, though all had to comply with the conditions as to time and study: ‘No person is qualified to plead a cause at the high court unless he is skilled in every department of legal science.’ [15] The brehons were a very influential class of men, and those attached to chiefs had free lands for their maintenance, wliich, like the profession itself, remained in the family for generations. Those not so attached lived simply on the fees of their profession, and many eminent brehons became wealthy. It generally required great technical skill to decide cases, the legal rules, as set forth in the law-books, were so complicated, and so many circumstances had to be taken into account. The brehon, moreover, had to be very careful, for he was himself liable to damages if he delivered a false or an unjust judgment. [16] There is no record how the brehons acquired the exclusive right to interpret the laws and to arbitrate between litigants; it came down as a custom from times beyond the reach of history.

In pagan times the brehons were both priests and judges. The brehon was then regarded as a mysterious, half-inspired person, and a divine power kept watch over his pronouncements to punish him for unjust judgments: ‘When the brehons deviated from the truth of nature, there appeared blotches upon their cheeks. [17] The great brehon, Moran, son of Carbery Kinncat, king of Ireland in the first century, wore a collar round his neck, which tightened when he delivered a false judgment and expanded again when he , delivered a true one; and similar legends are related of other ancient brehons.

The brehons had collections of laws in volumes or tracts - all in the Irish language - by which they regulated their judgments, and which those of them who kept law-schools expounded to their scholars; each tract treating of one subject or one group of subjects. Many of these have been preserved, and of late years some of the most important have been published, with translations, forming four printed volumes. Of the tracts contained in these volumes, the two largest and most important are the Senchus Mor [More] and the Book of Acaill [Ack’ill]. In a popular sense, it may be said that the Senchus Mor is chiefly concerned with the Irish civil law, and the Book of Acaill with the criminal law and the law relating to personal injuries.

In the ancient introduction to the Senchus Mor [18] the following account is given of its original compilation. In the year 438 a.d. a collection of the pagan law-books was made at the request of St. Patrick, and the whole Fenechas code was expounded to him by Duftach, the king’s chief poet, a zealous Christian convert. Laeghaire [Leary] king of Ireland appointed a comuiittee of nine persons to revise them, viz. three kings - Laeghaire himself. Corc king of Munster, and Daire [Dara] king of Ulster; three ecclesiastics - Patrick, Benen, and Cairnech; and three poets and antiquarians - Rossa, Duftach, and Fergus. These nine having expunged everything that clashed with the Christian faith, produced at the end of three years a revised code, which was called Senchus Mor - also called Cain Patrick or Patrick’s Law. Though there are historical difficulties in these statements, there seems no good reason to doubt that there was some such revision.

The code produced by the committee contained no new laws: it was merely a digest of those already in use, with the addition of the Canon and Scriptural laws. The statement in the old Introduction is, that before St. Patrick’s time the law of nature prevailed, i.e. the ancient pagan law as expounded by Duftach to Patrick: after his time the law of nature and the law of the letter, i.e. the Gospel rule. [19]

The very book left by St. Patrick and the others, or the original manuscript book, at whatever time written, has been long lost. Successive copies were made from time to time, with commentaries and explanations appended, till the manuscripts we now possess were produced. The manuscript copies of the Senchus Mor consist of: 1 . The original text, written in a large hand with wide spaces between the lines: 2. Commentaries on the text, in a smaller hand: 3. Glosses or explanations on words and phrases of the text, in a hand still smaller; commentaries and glosses commonly written in the spaces between the lines of the text: 4. An Introduction to the text.

Of these the text, as might be expected, is the most ancient. The language is extremely archaic, indicating a very remote antiquity, though probably not the very language of the text left by the revising committee, but a modified version of a later time. The Introduction comes next in point of antiquity; and the Commentaries and Glosses are the least ancient of all. Introduction, Commentaries, and Glosses were written or copied by different learned lawyers at various times from the beginning of the fourteenth down to the sixteenth century: the language, as I have said, being often much older than the writing. The manuscript copies of the Book of Acaill and of some other law tracts resemble those of the Senchus Mor, the original texts being accompanied by Introduction, Commentaries, and Glosses. In the printed volumes all these are translated, and the different sizes of the writing are marked by different sizes of type, both in the Irish and in the translation.

It is probable that in very ancient times all laws were in verse.[20] This was evidently the case with the original Senchus Mor, for we are told that at the compilation ‘Duftach put a thread of poetry round it for Patrick.’ [21] The old form has to some extent survived in the law tracts, for certain portions of the existing version of the Senchus Mor, and the whole of another law tract - the Book of Rights - are in verse.

The Book of Rights ‘gives an account of the rights of the monarchs of all Ireland, and the revenues payable to them by the principal kings of the several provinces, and of the stipends paid by the monarchs to the inferior kings for their services. It also treats of the rights of each of the provincial kings, and the revenues payable to them from the inferior kings of the districts or tribes subsidiary to them, and of the stipends paid by the superior to the inferior provincial kings for their services. These accounts are authoritatively delivered in verse, each poem being introduced by a prose statement.’ [22]

According to the old authorities, St. Benen or Benignus was the author of the original Book of Rights. The present transcripts of it, which were we know copied from more ancient versions, are not older than the end of the fourteenth century. This however refers to the mere penmanship: the language is much older; and it is O’Donovan’s opinion that the prose Introductions, which are much less ancient than the text, were written in their present form at a time not far removed from the period of Brian Boru. [23]The Book of Rights has been published, with translation and most valuable Introduction and Notes by John O’Donovan, LL.D.

The language of all these old law-books is very difficult, partly on account of the peculiar style, which is very elliptical and abrupt - often incomplete sentences, or mere catch-words of rules not written down in full, but held in memory by the experts of the time, and partly from the number of technical terms, many of which are to this day obscure. The two great Irish scholars - O’Donovan and O’Curry - who translated them, were able to do so only after long study; and in numerous instances were, to the last, not quite sure of the meaning. As they had to retain the legal terins and the elliptical style, even the translation is hard enough to understand, and is often unintelligible.

The Brehon code forms a great body of civil, military, and criminal law. It regulates the various ranks of society, from the king down to the slave, and enumerates their several rights and privileges. There are minute rules for the management of property, for the several industries - building, brewing, mills, water-courses, fishing weirs, bees and honey - for distress or seizure of goods, for tithes, trespass, and evidence. The relations of landlord and tenant, the fees of professional men - doctors, judges, teachers, builders, artificers - the mutual duties of father and son, of foster-parents and foster-children, of master and servant, are all carefully regulated. Contracts are regarded as peculiarly sacred, and are treated in great detail. ‘There are three periods of evil for the world’ - says the Senchus Mor - ‘the period of a plague, of a general war, and of the dissolution of verbal contracts ‘; and again: ‘The world would be evilly situated if express contracts were not binding.’ [24] In criminal law, the various offences are minutely distinguished: Murder, manslaughter, wounding, thefts, and all sorts of wilful damage; and accidental injuries from flails, sledgehammers, and weapons of all kinds.

It does not appear that laws were enacted in Ireland by legislative bodies convened for the purpose, with state authority to have the laws obeyed, like our present parliament: in other words, no distinct legislative authority existed. The central government was never strong enough to have much influence either in the making of laws or in causing the existing laws to be carried out. It has been asserted indeed that the Fes of Tara was convened to enact laws; but for this assertion there is no ancient authority. We have very full descriptions of this Fes, and also of the proceedings at some of the Aenachs or Fair-meetings held elsewhere (Chap. X). But though we find it stated over and over again that at these assemblies the laws were publicly ‘proclaimed,’ or ‘promulgated,’ or ‘rehearsed’ — to make the people familiar with them - that they were ‘revised,’ or ‘re-arranged,’ or re-affirmed’ - these several functions being always performed by properly qualified lawyers - there is nowhere any open or plain statement that laws were made or enacted and sent forth with authority either at the Fes or at any of the Aenachs. The idea of a public assembly to frame laws was indeed not unfamiliar: and we find a few such meetings recorded - none of them however being the Fes of Tara. Among them may be mentioned the synod convened at Tara in 697, where, under the influence of St. Adamnan, the law exempting women from taking part in war was agreed on and promulgated; and also the meethig held at Slieve Fuait to settle precincts [25] But such meetings can hardly be classed as legislative assemblies - at best they bore only a faint resemblance to them; for there existed no authoritative machinery to have the laws carried out, and anyone who chose might refuse to obey them. Moreover the special laws stated to have been framed in this way are in themselves of minor importance, and form only a very insignificant part of the body of the Brehon laws. The Brehon laws then ‘are not a legislative structure, but the creation of a class of professional lawyers or brehons.’ [26] It is to be observed that in later times Christianity exerted an ever-increasing influence in law as in other institutions; and it is evident from the law-books that, while custom was the main guide of the Brehon lawyers, moral right and wrong obtained more and more consideration in the settlement of cases as time went on.

The Brehon law then was derived partly from immemorial custom, like the common law of England, and partly from the decisions of eminent jurists - customs and decisions being carefully written, with commentaries, by successive generations of lawyers, into their books. Those portions of the Brehon code derived from old custom - which the Senchus Mor calls the law of nature - are no doubt the remains of the primitive legal rules of the Aryan people, which were better preserved in Ireland than elsewhere on account of its exemption from foreign influences.

The decisions of jurists were sometimes on actual cases, delivered as occasion required; and sometimes on hypothetical cases, which were, however, usually such as were likely to occur in real life. How large a portion of the Brehon code is derived from these judicial decisions will be understood from the fact that the whole of the Book of Acaill - 233 pages of printed matter - is composed of the decisions and opinions of two eminent jurists - Cormac Mac Art, king of Ireland, and Kennfaela the Learned, a jurist who flourished in the seventh century.

The Irish being in a great measure shut out from the rest of the world, had no opportunity of becoming acquainted with the laws of other nations. Chiefly for this reason the Brehon laws are deficient in general principles. The lawyers’ minds tended too much to fine-drawn distinctions and over-refinement. An attempt is made to meet all possible varieties of cases by laying down a mass of minute rules, leaving no discretion in the hands of the brehon; where at the present day magistrates or juries or judges have considerable discretionary power to fix the amountof damages, or otherwise settle matters, by viewing all the facts of the case. Yet as time went on wider principles were grasped: ‘The brehons were gradually approaching the idea of general legal propositions by an induction from numerous and distinct cases which had been decided in accordance with pre-existing custom. [27]

The Brehon law was vehemently condemned by English writers; and in several acts of parliament it was made treason for the English settlers to use it. But these testimonies are to be received with much reserve as coming from prejudiced and interested parties. The laws laid down in the Brehon code were not in fact peculiarly Irish. They were precisely similar to the ancient laws of all other Aryan tribes, a survival - modified by time and circumstance - of what was once universal.’ [28] We have good reason to believe that the Brehon law was very well suited to the society in which, and from which, it grew up. This view is confirmed by the well-known fact that when the English settlers living outside the Pale adopted the Irish manners and customs, they all - both high and low - adopted also the Brehon law, and became quite as much attached to it as the Irish themselves. The Anglo-Irish lords of those times often kept brehons in their service like the Irish chiefs.

I will now proceed to sketch, in the four following chapters, some of the leading features of the Brehon law.

Chapter VII: The Laws of Compensations of Distress

In modern codes - as for instance in British law - a distinction is made between an offence against the state - which is technically called a ‘crime’ — and an offence against an individual - called a ‘tort.’ In the former case the state prosecutes and enforces the penalty: in the latter the person injured prosecutes in the courts provided by the state, and if necessary the state forces a trial at the instance of the person injured, and enables him to exact the penalty. In the Brehon law there is no such distinction as between crimes and torts. The constant warfare in Ireland and the absence of a strong central government prevented the idea of the state from taking root, and the people could not look to it for supreme authority or for protection - much the same as matters stood in England in the time of the Heptarchy. A central state authority would no doubt have been ultimately developed in Ireland if the development had not been at first retarded by civil strife, and finally arrested by the Danish wars and by the Anglo-Norman invasion.

The Brehon law accordingly knew nothing of an offence against the state, and of course the state never prosecuted. Every offence was against the individual - a tort: and on the injured party or his friends devolved the duty of seeking redress. If a man is assaulted or murdered nowadays, it is the duty of the magistrates and police - wliether friends intervene or not - to bring the offender to justice. But in Ireland in those times there were no police, and a man might waylay or kill another, or set fire to a house, or steal a horse, and still go scot free, unless the injured person or his friends took the matter in hand. A similar state of things existed among the Anglo-Saxons, [29] as well as among all early Aryan communities.

In very early times, beyond the reach of history, the law of retaliation prevailed - ‘an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth’ - in other words, every man or every family that was injured might take direct revenge on the offender. But this being found inconsistent with the peace and wellbeing of the community - especially in cases of homicide, which were frequent enough in those days - gradually gave place to the law of compensation, which applied to every form of injury from homicide down.

That this general system of compensation for wrongful acts was at least reasonably effectual is evident from the fact that it was the custom among all the early Aryan tribes. [30] In most early codes with which we are acquainted the idea of compensation predominates over that of the duty of revenge. [31] In Ireland the process was this: The injured party, having no civil authority to appeal to, might at once, if he chose, take the law into his own hands. But though this was sometimes done, public opinion was decidedly against it, and the long-established custom was to refer all such matters to the arbitration of a brehon. Accordingly, the person injured sued the offender in proper form, and if the latter responded, the case was referred to the local brehon, who decided according to law. The penalty always took the form of a fine to be paid by the offender to the person or family injured, and the brehon’s fee was usually paid out of this fine.

If the offender refused to submit the case to the usual tribunal, or if he withheld payment after the case had been decided against him, or if a man refused to pay a just debt of any kind - in any one of these cases the plaintiff or the creditor proceeded by Distress; that is to say he distrained or seized the cattle or other effects of the defendant. Due notice had to be given, but no other legal preliminary - no permission from, or reference to, any court or other higher authority - was necessary: the plaintiff resorted to distress on his own responsibility. We will suppose the effects to be cattle. There was generally an anad or stay of one or more days on the distress; that is, the plaintiff went through the form of seizing the cattle, but did not remove them. [32] The defendant had however to give a pledge - sometimes his son or other family member - to the plaintiff, who retained it till the end of the stay, when he returned it on formally getting back the distress. If the defendant refused to give a pledge, then there was no stay, and it was an immediate distress. If at the end of the stay the defendant did not give up the distress, the plaintiff kept the pledge, which he then might dispose of as he would the distress. [33] During the stay the cattle remained in the possession of the defendant or debtor - no doubt to give him time to make up his mind, or to have the case tried before the brehon - but the plaintiff had all the time a claim on them.

If the debt was not paid at the end of the lawful stay, the plaintiff, in the presence of certain witnesses, removed the cattle and put them in a pound. [34] The following ‘three things are to be announced at the residence of the defendant, i.e. the debt for which it [the distress] was taken, the pound in which it was put, the law agent by whom it was taken.’ [35] They remained in the pound for a period called a dithim, during which the expense of feeding and tending was paid out of the value of the cattle. [36]At the end of the dithim they began to be forfeited to the plaintiff at a certain rate per day, till such a number became forfeited as paid both the debt and the expenses. [37] The animals were not to be mixed: each species should have a separate pound; and diseased animals were to be separated from those that were sound. The length of the anad and of the dithim was regulated by law according to circumstances. There was no stay - i.e. the distress was immediate - when it was taken by a chief from one of a lower grade, and also in certain other obvious cases; in some cases, also, notice was not necessary. In immediate distress the cattle were removed at once to the pound. If after the plaintiff had given due notice the defendant absconded, his fine [finna] or kindred were liable. [38]

The defendant or debtor might prevent the removal of the cattle at the beginning, or might get them back up to the end of the dithim, by either paying the debt or giving a pledge that he would submit the case for trial, if it had not been tried already. [39] Goods of any kind might be taken in distress, or a man himself, if there were no goods; [40] but the distress was most generally in cattle.

Much formality was observed in all these proceedings; and the distrainer had to be accompanied by his law-agent and witnesses, who should be able to testify that there was a distress and that it was carried out in exact accordance with legal rules. [41] In the case of some distresses with stay there were curious fictitious observances. Thus when barren cattle were distrained, a stone was thrown over them thrice before witnesses; if hens, a little bit of withe was tied on their feet, and their wings were clipped; if a dog, a stick was placed across his trough to prohibit feeding; if an anvil, a little withe was tied on it to prohibit its use; if carpenters’ or shield-makers’ tools, a little withe-tie was put on them; if distress was on religious orders, a withe-tie was put on their bell-house or at the foot of the altar, a sign that they were not to be used, and so forth. [42] After these formalities it was understood that though the defendant was allowed to keep the things, he was not to make use of them meantime.

The object of a distress was either to recover a debt or to force a reference to a brehon: it appears to have been the almost universal way of bringing about the redress of wrong. [43] Heavy penalties were incurred by those who distrained unjustly or contrary to law. [44] Distress should be taken ‘between sunrise and sunset’; except in cases of urgent necessity it should not be taken at night. [45] It will occur to anyone to ask why should not the defendant resist the removal of his goods. The reply to this is that custom, backed by public opinion, was so overwhelmingly strong that resistance was hardly ever resorted to. The Irish proceedings by distress were almost identical with the corresponding provisions of the ancient Roman law, as well as of those of all the early Aryan nations. [46] The law of distress is given in great detail in, and occupies a large part - 186 pages of print - of the Senchus Mor.

In some cases before distress was resorted to a curious custom came into play: the plaintiff ‘fasted on’ the defendant; and this process was always necessary before distress when the defendant was of chieftain grade and the plaintiff of an inferior grade. [47] It was done in this way. The plaintiff, having served due notice, went to the house of the defendant, and, sitting before the door, remained there without food. The length of the fast was regulated by law, according to the circumstances of each case. It may be inferred that the debtor generally yielded before it was ended, i.e. either paid the debt or gave a pledge that he would settle the case. If the creditor continued to fast after an offer of payment, he forfeited all the debt due to him [48] Fasting as a mode of enforcing a right is mentioned in the ‘Tripartite’ and other Lives of St. Patrick; and from some passages it would appear that the debtor was bound to remain fasting as long as the creditor or complainant fasted, [49] though this is nowhere mentioned in the Brehon laws. This fasting process was regarded with a sort of superstitious awe; and it was considered outrageously disgraceful for a defendant not to submit to it: ‘He that does not give a pledge to fasting is an evader of all: he who disregards all things shall not be paid by God or man.’ [50] Moreover, he had to pay double the original claim.

This institution of fasting on a debtor is still widely diffused in the East, and is called by the Hindoos ‘sitting dharma.’ They believe that if the plaintiff die of starvation, the defendant is sure to be visited by fearful supernatural penalties. Our books do not give us much information about the Irish institution: but it is evidently identical with the eastern custom, and no doubt it was believed in pagan times to be attended by similar supernatural effects. [51]

Suppose now the defendant defied all the proceedings of the plaintiff to the last: here appears the striking difference between the Brehonand modern law. British law has the state at its back, but anyone who chose might disobey the Brehon law, for it was not so much a law as a custom. There really was no authority to compel any man either to submit to the arbitration of a brehon or to abide by his decision, except public opinion. But public opinion, founded as it was on immemorial custom, was very strong. Even in our own day certain customs have become so universally sanctioned by public opinion as to have all the force of law, so that no man dares to violate them: and public opinion then as now was generally though not always sufficient. There might be persistent refusal, and in this case the injured person or family might fall back on the old rule of direct retaliation. [52]

Homicide, whether by intent or by misadventure, was atoned for like other injuries, by a money fine. That men who killed others were themselves often killed in revenge by the friends of the victim - as in all other countries - we know from our annals; but this always outraged public opinion. The idea of awarding death as a judicial punishment for homicide, even when it amounted to murder, does not seem to have ever taken hold of the public mind in Ireland. Capital punisliment was not unknown, however; kings claimed the right to put persons to death for certain crimes. Thus we are told, in the Tripartite Life of St. Patrick, [53] that neither gold nor silver would be accepted from him who lighted a fire before the lighting of the festival fire of Tara, but he should be put to death. It would seem, both from the ancient Introduction to the Senchus Mor and from the Lives of St. Patrick, that the early Christian missionaries attempted without success to introduce capital punishment for murder.

The fine for homicide, or for bodily injury of any kind, was called eric [errick]: the amount was adjudged by a brehon. Many modifying circumstances had to be taken into account - the actual injury, the rank of the parties, the intention of the wrong-doer, the provocation, the amount of set-off claims, &c. - so that the settlement demanded great skill and tact on the part of the brehon. The principles on which these awards should be made are laid down in great detail in the Book of Acaill. The eric for murder was double that for simple manslaughter (or homicide without intent), ‘for fines are doubled by malice aforethought.’ [54] The man who killed a native freeman paid the amount of his own honour-price, and seven cumals (p.71) for the homicide itself (or double if of malice). This will give some idea of the standard adopted, it being understood that the total fine was higher or lower according to the rank of the parties.

In case of homicide the family of the victim were entitled to the eric. If the culprit did not pay, or absconded, leaving no property, his fine or family were liable, the guiding principle here, as in other parts of the Brehon law, being that those who would be entitled to inherit the property of the offender should, next after himself - in their several proportions - be liable for the fine for homicide incurred by him. [55] If they wished to avoid this they were required to give up the offender to the family of the victim, [56] who might then, if they pleased, kill him: or failing this his family had to expel him, and to lodge a sum to free themselves from the consequences of his subsequent misconduct. [57] The expelled person had to leave the tribe; he then became a sort of outlaw, and would likely become a daer-fudir (p.80) in some other tribe. If neither the slayer nor his friends paid the murder-eric, then he might be lawfully killed by the friends of the victim.

In the Book of Acaill there is a minute enumeration of bodily injuries, whether by design or accident, with the compensation for each, taking into account the position of the parties and the other numerous circumstances that modified the amount. Half the eric for homicide was due for the loss of a leg, a hand, an eye, or an ear; but in no case was the collective eric for such injuries to exceed the body fine, i.e., the eric for homicide; [58] Dr. Richey has shown that this part of the Brehon code is essentially the same as the corresponding laws of all the Aryan communities, including those of the early English people. [59]

For homicide, and for most injuries to person, property, or dignity, the fine consisted of two parts - first the payment for the mere injury, which was determined by the severity of the injury and by other circumstances; second, a sum called Log-enech, or Honour-price, which varied according to the rank of the parties: the higher the rank the greater the honour-price. The consideration of honourprice entered into a great number of the provisions of the Brehon law. This principle also existed in the early Teutonic codes.

To make due allowance for all modifying circumstances in cases of trial called for much legal knowledge and technical skill on the part of the brehon - quite as much as we expect in a lawyer of the present day.

Spenser, Davies, and other early English writers bitterly denounce the law of eric-fine for homicide, as ‘contrary to God’s law and man’s.’ It was indeed a rude and inadequate sort of justice, and favoured the rich, as they could afford to pay fines better than the poor. But it was no doubt very useful in its day, and was a great advance on the barbarous law of retaliation, which was nothing more than private vengeance. [60] The principle of compensation for murder was moreover not peculiar to Ireland. It existed among the Anglo-Saxons, as well as among the ancient Greeks, Franks, and Germans - as a German institution it is mentioned with approval by Tacitus; and traces of it remained in English law till the early part of this century. [61]

Chapter VIII: Grades and Groups of Society

The people were divided into classes, from the king down to the slave, and the Brehon law took cognizance of all - setting forth their rights, duties, and privileges. These classes were not castes; for under certain conditions persons could pass from one to the next above. The social subdivision of the people as given in some of the law tracts is very minute and artificial: we may adopt here Dr. Richey’s broad arrangement, [62] namely into five main classes: (1) Kings of various grades, from the king of the tuath or cantred up to the king of Ireland; (2) Nobles; (3) Freemen with property; (4) Freemen without property (or with very little); (5) The non-free classes. the first three were the privileged classes: a person belonging to these was an aire [arra] or chief. The nobles were those who had land as their own property, for which they did not pay rent; they were the owners of the soil - the aristocracy.

Part of this land they held in their own hands and tilled by the labour of the non-free classes: part they let to tenants. An aire of this class was called a flaith [flah], i.e. a noble, a chief, a prince. There were several ranks of flaiths, the rank depending chiefly on the amount of landed property. The lowest was the Aire-desa, so-called from the des or fee-simple land for which he received rent. Certain houses, horses, and equipments were prescribed for him as necessary for his rank, and he should have at least five saer-tenants and five daer or giallna tenants (see next chapter).

Among the nobles there was one called the Aire-echtai, holding a singular official position. He was the king’s champion, and his duty was to avenge all insults offered to the king or to the tribe, particularly murder. In any expected danger from without, he had to keep a watch at the most dangerous ford or pass on that part of the border where invasion was expected, and prevent the entrance of any enemy. He had a number of attendants - all brave fighting men - and he enjoyed several valuable privileges.

The highest rank of flaith, next to the Tanist of the king (p.61), was the Aire-forgaill: he should have at least twenty saer-tenants and twenty daer-tenants; and he had to answer to the king for the character of the flaiths under him. The Aire-forgaill seems to have been an official one of whose functions was to determine the status and privileges of the several nobles and functionaries about the court. The flaiths did not pay rent: they were sharply distinguished from the classes that follow, all of whom were rent-payers.

A person belonging to the second class of aire - a non-noble rent-paying freeman with property - had no land of his own, his property consisting of cattle and other movable goods; hence he was called a bo-aire, i.e. a cow-aire. There were several ranks of bo-aires, according to the amount of property, the lowest being the og-aire, i.e. junior-aire, ‘from the youngness of his aireship.’ [63] A bo-aire having no land of his own, rented land from a flaith, thus taking rank as a saer-céile or free tenant (see next chapter); and he grazed his cattle partly on this and partly on the ‘commons’ grazing land. He might sublet his rented land to under-tenants. The bo-aires had certain allowances and privileges according to rank. Among their allowances were a share in the mill and in the kiln of the district, and fees for witnessing contracts and for other legal functions.

The Brugh-fer or Brugaid [broo-fer: broo-ey] was an interesting official of the bo-aire class. He was a public hospitaller, bound to keep an open house for the reception of strangers [64] and of certain functionaries - king, bishop, poet, judge, &c. - who were privileged to claim for themselves and their attendants free entertainment when on their circuits. For this purpose he was bound to keep always ready a sufficient supply of provisions; and his house should be supplied with all necessary furniture and appliances - for he was not allowed to borrow. There should be a number of open roads leading to it, so that it might be readily accessible; and he had to keep a light burning in the faitlhchie [faha] or lawn at night to guide travellers. He was a sort of magistrate, and was empowered to deliver judgment on certain cases that were brought before him to his bouse: ‘He is a ho-aire for giving judgment.’ He had large allowances too for the support of the expenses of his house, and he was much honoured. As visitors and their followers were constantly coming and going, his house, furniture, and other property were jealously protected by law from wanton or malicious damage, the various possible injuries being set forth in great detail, with the compensation for them. The brugh-fers must have been pretty numerous: probably there was one in every tuath [65].

The Fer-fothla was the highest of the bo-aires. He was a rich man, who having more stock than he was able to graze, hired them out as taurcrec to others (daer-céiles: see next chapter), who thus became his dependents. Belonging to this class was an official - the Aire-Coisring - who was the representative of all the bo-aires of his district, and was expected to be able to give an account to the king of their conduct and obedience to the laws. If a Fer-fothla could prove that he had twice as much property as was required for the lowest rank of flaith (the Aire-desa), and complied with certain other conditions and formalities, and also provided his father and grandfather had been aires, he was himself entitled to take rank as a flaith.

The next class - the fourth - the freemen without property, were céiles or free tenants; they differed from the bo-aires only in not possessing property in herds - for the bo-aires were themselves ceiles or rent-payers; and accordingly, a man of the fourth class became a bo-aire if he accumulated property enough. The freemen without property and the non-free classes will be treated of in connection with land in next chapter.

The people were formed into groups of various sizes from the family upwards. The Family was the group consisting of the living parents and all their descendants: but strangers were sometimes adopted, for which however the consent of the tribe was necessary. [66] The Sept was a larger group, descended from common parents long since dead. All the members of a sept were nearly related, and in later times bore the same surname. The Clan or house was still larger. Clann means children, and the word therefore implied descent from one ancestor. The Tribe was made up of several septs, clans, or houses, and usually claimed, like the subordinate groups, to be descended from a common ancestor. But inasmuch as strangers were often adopted into all the groups - the tribe sometimes absorbing not only individuals but smaller tribes - there was much admixture; and the theory of common descent became a fiction,, except for a few of the leading families, who preserved their descent pure and kept a careful record of their genealogy. Thus the tribe became a mere local association of people, occupying a definite district, and bound together by common customs, by common interests, by living under one ruler, and in some degree by the fiction of descent from one common ancestor. Each member had to bear his part of the obligations and liabilities of the tribe: [67] for instance he had to contribute to the support of old people who had no children; and the whole sept or tribe were liable for the fines or debts of any individuals who absconded or were unable to pay. No individual was free to enter into any contracts affecting the tribe; for example he was restricted by certain conditions when he wished to sell his land.

The word fine [finna] is loosely applied to almost any subdivision of society, from the tribe in its largest sense down to a small group consisting of members of the same family.

The social system was aristocratic: in no case have we any evidence that there was a community governed by an assembly of representatives without a permanent head. [68] Each group, whether sept, clan, or tribe, was governed by a flaith or chief, who was always a member of the ruling family. Under the flaith who governed the whole tribe were a number of minor flaiths of the several ranks, the heads of the smaller associations composing the tribe. When the tribal community comprised a large population occupying an extensive district, it often got the designation Cinel [Kinel], still implying - like clan - descent from a common ancestor. Thus the Kinel-Owen, who possessed the principality of Tir-Owen, and were supposed to be descended from Owen, son of Niall of the Nine Hostages, were ruled by one of the O’Neills, and included the septs of O’Cahan, Mac Quillan, O’Flynn, and many others, each governed by a flaith who was tributary to O’Neill. The tribe organisation was not peculiar to Ireland; it existed among all the Aryan nations in their early stages.

If the territory occupied by the tribe was sufficiently extensive, the flaith was a Ri [ree] or king; the tuath or cantred was the smallest territory whose ruler was called a Ri. There were 184 tuaths in all Ireland, but probably all had not kings. Many of these small sub-kingdoms are now represented - more or less nearly - by the modern baronies, most of which still retain the old names. Sometimes there was a group of four or more tuaths under one king: this was called a mor-tuath [more], or great tuath.

There was a regular gradation of sub-kingdoms from the tuath upwards. Some were very large, such as Tyrone, Tirconnell, Thomond, Desmond, Ossory, &c., each of which comprised several tribes. A minor king under a king of one of these large territories was often called an Ur-ri [Oor-ree], or under-king - called an Urriagh by English writers.

Each of the five provinces - Ulster, Leinster, Munster, Connaught, Meath - had a king; this is commonly known as the Pentarchy. These five provincial kings had sovereignty over the sub-kings of their several provinces, all of whom owed them tribute and war service. The king of a tuath was bound to send 700 men to the field; and the kings of larger territories in proportion.

Lastly there was the Ard-ri, or supreme monarch of all Ireland. He had sovereignty over the provincial kings, who were bound to pay him tribute and attend him in war.

The following are the main features of the ancient territorial divisions of the country. It was parcelled out into five provinces from the earliest times of which we have any record - Leinster, Ulster, Connaught, and the two Munsters; this partition was made, according to the legend, by the five Firbolg brothers, the sons of Dela. [69] Laighin [Layen] or Leinster extended from the Suir to Inver Colim (the mouth of the Boyne); Ulaid [Ulla] or Ulster from the Boyne round northwards to the little river Drowes between Donegal and Leitrim; Olnegmacht or Connaught from the Drowes to Limerick and the Shannon; Da Mumain or the two Munsters, viz., the province of Curoi Mac Dara from Limerick to Cork and westward to the coasts of Cork and Kerry, and the province of Achy Avraroe from Cork to the mouth of the Suir. It is stated that these provinces met at the hill of Ushnagh in West Meath - the two Munsters being, in this statement, taken as one province.

This division became modified in course of time, A new province - that of Mide or Meath - was created in the second century by Tuathal the Legitimate, king of Ireland, who formed it by cutting off a portion of each of the other provinces round the hill of Ushnagh (Part II. chapter ii.). Murthemne, now the county Louth, was transferred from Ulster to Leinster; the present county Cavan, which 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. The two Munsters ceased to be distinguished, and the whole province was known by the name of Muman or Munster. A better known subdivision of Munster was into Thomond or North Munster, which broadly speaking included Tipperary, Clare, and Limerick; and Desmond or South Munster, comprising Kerry, Cork, and Waterford. In recent times Meath has disappeared as a province; and the original provinces remain - Leinster, Ulster, Connaught, and Munster. [70]

With the object of avoiding the evils of a disputed succession, the person to succeed a king or chief was often elected by the tribe during the lifetime of the king or chief himself; when elected he was called the Tanist, a word meaning second, i.e. second in authority. The person who was generally looked upon as the king’s successor, whether actually elected tanist or not - the heir apparent - was commonly called the Roydamna. Proper provision was made for the support of the tanist by a separate allowance of mensal land: ‘The tanist hath also a share of the country alotted unto him, and certain cuttings and spendings upon all the inhabitants under the lord.’ [71]

The king or chief was always elected from members of one family, bearing the same surname; but the succession was not hereditary in our sense of the word: it was elective, with the above limitation of being confined to one family. Any freeborn member of the family was eligible: the tanist might be brother, son, nephew, cousin, &c., of the chief. That member was chosen who was considered best able to lead in war and govern in peace; and of course he should be of full age. [72] Every freeman of the rank of Aire had a vote. The person elected, whether king, chief, or tanist, should be free from all personal deformities or blemishes likely to impair his efficiency as a leader or to lessen the respect of the people for him.

The inauguration or making of a king was a very impressive ceremony. Of the mode of inaugurating the pagan kings we have hardly any information, further than this, that the kings of Ireland had to stand on a coronation stone at Tara called Lia Fail, which uttered a roar, as was believed, when a king of the old Milesian race stood on it.

But we possess full information of the ceremonies used in Christian times. The mode of inaugurating was much the same in its general features all over the country; and was strongly marked by a religious character. But there were differences in detail; for some tribes had traditional customs not practised by others. Each tribe had a special place of inauguration, which was held in much respect - invested indeed with a half-sacred character. It was on the top of a hill, or on an ancestral cairn, or on a large lis or fort, and sometimes under a venerable tree, called in Irish a bile [billa]. Each tribe used a coronation stone - a custom common also among the Celts of Scotland. Some of the coronation stones had the impression of two feet, popularly believed to be the exact size of the feet of the first chief of the tribe who took possession of the territory. On the day of the inauguration the sub-chiefs of the territory were present and also the bishops, abbots, and other leading ecclesiastics.

The hereditary historian of the tribe read for the elected chief the laws that were to regulate his conduct; after which the chief swore to observe them, to maintain the ancient customs of the tribe, and to rule his people with strict justice. Then, while he stood on the stone, an officer - whose special duty it was - handed him a straight white wand, a symbol of authority, and also an emblem of what his conduct and judicial decisions should be - 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 from right to left, in honour of the Holy Trinity, and to view his territory in every direction. In some cases one of the sub-chiefs put on his sandal or shoe, in token of submission, or threw a slipper over his head for good luck and prosperity. Then one of the sub-chiefs appointed for this purpose pronounced in a loud voice 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 then by the sub-chiefs. He was then the lawful chief: and ever after, when spoken to, he was addressed ‘O’Neill’ — ‘McCarthy More’ — ‘O’Conor,’ &c. In most cases, the main parts of the inauguration ceremony were performed by one or more sub-chiefs: this office was highly honourable, and was hereditary. The O’Neills were inaugurated at Tullahogue by O’Hagan and O’Cahan.

Giraldus Cambrensis has an account of a disgusting ceremony which he says was observed by the Kinel-Connell at the inauguration of their chiefs, and which need not be detailed here. But it is obviously one of the many silly stories which we find in Giraldus - like those of the sorcerers who used to turn stones into red pigs at fairs, of a lion that fell in love with a young woman, and many others of a like kind. It is so absurd indeed that many believe it was told to him in a joke by some person who was aware of his unlimited credulity. Irish writers have left us detailed descriptions of the installation ceremonies, in none of which do we find anything like what Giraldus mentions, and some have directly refuted him; and their accounts have been corroborated in all leading particulars by a writer whom many will consider the best authority of all - Edmund Spenser. Spenser knew what he was writing about, and his description, though brief, is very correct and agrees with the Irish accounts. ‘They use to place him, that shal be their Captain, upon a stone alwayes reserved for that purpose, and placed commonly upon a hill: In some of which I have seen formed and ingraven a foot, which they say was the measure of their first Captain’s foot, whereon hee standing, receives an oath to preserve all the ancient former customes of the countrey inviolable, and to deliver up the succession peaceably to his Tanist, and then hath a wand delivered unto him by some whose proper office that is: after which, descending from the stone, he turneth himself round, thrice forward, and thrice backward.’ [73]

Kings maintained their authority over their sub-kings and chiefs mainly by a system of hostageship. A king had always hostages residing in his palace, who appear to have been generally treated with consideration, and admitted to the court society, so long as they conducted themselves with propriety. ‘He is not a king,’ says the Brehon law, ‘who has not hostages in fetters.’ [74]

A king was not to go about unattended: he was always to have his retinue, of which the minimum number for each grade of king was fixed by law. He was not to do any servile work, on penalty of being ranked as a plebeian. The king, of whatever grade, was not despotic: he was in every sense a limited monarch, and his duties, restrictions, and privileges were all strictly laid down in the Brehon law.

It was the belief of the ancient Irish that when a good and just king ruled, the whole country was prosperous - the seasons were mild, crops were plentiful, cattle were fruitful, the waters abounded with fish, and the fruit trees had to be propped owing to the weight of their produce. Under bad kings it was all the reverse. In the reign of the plebeian king, Carbery Kinncat, ‘evil was the state of Ireland; fruitless her corn, for there used to be only one grain on the stalk; fruitless her rivers; milkless her cattle; plentiless her fruit, for there used to be but one acorn on the stalk.’ [75] ‘There are seven proofs which attest the falsehood of every king [i.e. seven proofs of the king’s badness]: to turn a church synod out of their lis: to be without truth, without law: defeat in battle: dearth in his reign: dryness of cows: blight of fruit: scarcity of corn.’ [76]

While the inferior, of whatever position, paid homage and tribute to his superior, the latter, by a curious custom, was bound to give his dependent a subsidy of some kind - called a taurcrec: it might be a present or a yearly stipend, or stock, or the use of land - much smaller however than what he received. The acceptance of this gift or stipend was an acknowledgment of vassalage. When Malachi came to Brian Boru’s tent with a retinue of twelve score men, to offer him submission, Brian gave to him, as a vassal, twelve score steeds; but the retinue to a man refused to take charge of them, so Malachi presented them in token of friendship to Brian’s son Murrogh. [77] Sometimes - in case of the lower order of dependents - this subsidy was called raith or wages. The tributes and stipends for the various ranks are set forth in detail in the Book of Rights.

It will be seen that there was a regular gradation of authority. The tenant owed allegiance to the flaith: the minor flaith to the king of the tuath: the king of the tuath to the king of the more-tuath: the king of the more-tuath to the provincial king: the provincial king to the ard-ri of all Ireland. But this was merely the theoretical arrangement: in the higher grades it was very imperfectly carried out. The authority of the supreme monarch over the provincial kings was in most cases only nominal, like that of the early Bretwaldas over the minor kings of the Heptarchy. He was seldom able to enforce obedience, so that they were often almost or altogether independent of him. There never was a king of Ireland who really ruled the whole country: the king that came nearest to it was Brian Boru. In like manner the urrees often defied the authority of their superiors. If the country had been left to work out its own destinies, this state of things would in the end have developed into 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 ard-ri was not strong enough to quell; and the absence of union rendered it impossible to meet foreign invasion by effectual resistance.

1. See the Irish treatise on Irish Metre from the Book of Ballymote, translated and annotated by the Rev. B. McCarthy, D.D., in the Todd Lecture Series, vol, iii. pp.98-141.
2. Calendar of Aengus, p.17.
3. Lect. on Manners and Customs, i. 167.
4. View of the State of Ireland, ed. 1809, p.124.
5. See Four Masters, i., Introd. li. It is, however, asserted by Dr. Healy that the words ‘Scotticae gentis’ — of the Scotic or Irish nation - do not refer to Celestivis at all, but to Pelagius himself. If this be so, the above argument falls to the ground. (Ireland’s Ancient Schools and Scholars, p.39.)
6. See Petrie’s Tara, p.47.
7. Petrie’s Tara, 38.
8. Joyce, Old Celtic Romances, Preface.
9. The pieces mentioned through this chapter will be described in detail in the nest three chapters.
10. Trans. R. I. Acad. 1838.
11. Reeves, Eccl. Antiqq. 153.
12. See Petrie’s account of all this in O’Donovan’s Introd. to the Four Masters, vol. i.
13. Todd, St. Patrick Apostle of Ireland, p.133 note.
14. Joyce, Old Celtic Romances, Preface.
15. Brehon Law, ii. 89.
16. lbid. iii. 305.
17. Ibid. i. 25.
18. Brehon Laws, i. 3 et seq.
19. Brehon Laws, i, 17; iii. 29.
20. Maine, Hist, of Anc. Inst.
21. Brehon Laws, i. 23, 25.
22. Book of Rights, Introd. vi.
23. Ibid. xxv.
24. Brehon Laws, i. 51: iii. 3.
25. Brehon Laws, iv. 227; for Adamnan’s Law see Part II. chap, iv.
26.Maine, Anc. Inst. 24.
27. Richey, Brehon Laws, iv Introd.
28. Maine, Anc. Inst. 19.
29. Students History of England, by S. R. Gardiner, ed. 1892, p.32.
30. Brehon Laws, iii., Richey in Introd, cxxi.
31. Ibid. iii. Introd. Ixxxii.
32. Brehon Laws, iii. 327.
33. Ibid., i, 209, 211.
34. Ibid. i. 289, 291.
35. Ibid. i. 269.
36. Ibid. i. 211; iii. 327.
37. Ibid. i. 103; iii. 327.
38. Brehon Laws, i. 265, 287.
39. Ibid. iii. ,327.
40. lbid i. i05, 107, ii. 41.
41. Ibid. i. 85.
42. Ibid. ii. 119, 121.
43. Brehon Laws, i. 257.
44. Ibid. ii. 71; iii. 147.
45. Ibid. i. 105.
46. Ibid, iii., Richey in Introd. cxxxvi.-vii.; Maine, Anc. Ins. 282.
Brehon Laws, i. 113.
Ibid. i. 119; ii. 65.
49. Stokes’s Tripartite Life of St. Patrick, clxxvii., clxxVIII 557 and 560 note.
50. Brehon Laws, i. 113.
51. Maine, Anc. Inst. 40, 297.
52. Ibid. 171.
53. Stokes’s Tripartite Life, 43.
54. Brehon Laws, iii. 99.
55. Brehon Laws, iii. 69; iv. 245.
56. Ibid. iii. 69.
57. Brehon Laws, iii. 382 note, 383.
58. Ibid. iii. 349.
59. Ibid. iii., Richey in Introd. cxi.
60. Maine, Anc. Inst. 23
61. Brehon Laws, i. Introd. xlix.
62. Brehon Laws, iv. Introd. cxcix. The description of the whole social arrangement on which the following account is chiefly based is in the law tract called Crith Gabldach: Brehon Laws, iv. 297.
63. Brehon Laws, iv. 305.
64. Brehon Laws, i. 47, 61.
65. For full account of the Brugaid or Brugh-fer, see Brehon Laws, iv. 311, 313, 315.
66. Brehon Laws, iv. 61, 289.
67. Brehon Laws, ii. 283; iii. 55.
68. Ibid., ii. 279, 281.
69. See Part II., Chap. ii. of this book.
70. Philips’ Atlas and Geog. of Irel.. by p.W. Joyce, LL.D., 8.
71. Spenser, View, 12.
72. Spenser, View, ed. 1809, p.10; Brehon Laws, ii. 279.
73. Spenser, View, p.11. For an exhaustive account by O’Donovan of the inauguration of Irish kings, see his Hy Fiachrach, pp.425 to 432.
74. Brehon Laws, iv. 51.
75. Four Masters, A.D. 14.
76. Brehon Laws, iv. 53.
77. Wars of the Gaels with the Galls, 133.