In the beginning of this Second Part the narrative is legendary, like the early accounts of all other nations. Inasmuch as the legends of early Irish history, apart from the germ of truth they contain, are interwoven with much of the romantic and poetical literature of the country, they ought to be given, more or less briefly, in every history ot Ireland.

This period includes the Danish invasions, which never broke the continuity of the monarchy in Ireland as they did in England. It ended about 1172; for after that time there was no longer a supreme native king over Ireland.

Chief authorities for Chaps. 1., IL, and IV.: Annals of Four Mast, and other Irish Annals; Keating’s Hist, of Ireland; O’Curry’s Lect. on MS. Mat. and on Mann, and Cust.; Irish Nennius; O’Flaherty’s Ogygia; Lynch’s Cambrensis Eversus; Petrie’s Tara.]

The Parthalonians: the first colony, a.m. 2520. The first man that led a colony to Ireland after the flood was a chief named Parthalon, who came hither from Greece, with

*The whole of this Chapter, as the title indicates, is legendary; as much so as the stories of the Siege of Troy, or of the Seven Kings of Rome. The legends related here, and in the beginning of next Chapter, receive some corroboration from external sources: for example, most of the sites are known to this day hy their old names, and contain remains that exactly correspond with the legends. There is accordingly some reason to believe that these stories are shadowy memories of real events. But the dates- which are those given by the Fow Masters - are all fanciful: no reliance can be placed on them, except that they probably indicate the proper order of the events. O’Flaherty; in his Ogygla, has very much reduced the antiquity of these pre-Christian Irish dates. It should be observed that the Four Masters, partly following the Septuagint, count 5199 years from the Creation to the Birth of Christ, instead of 4004, the reckoning now generally accepted.

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his wife, his three sons, and 1,000 followers. He was forced to fly from Greece because he had murdered his father and mother; and he took up his abode on the little island of Inish-Samer in the river Erne, just below the waterfall of Assaroe at Ballyshannon. Afterwards he and his followers settled on Moy-Elta, the level district between Dublin and Ben-Edar or Howth.

But the curse of the parricide pursued the race; for at the end of 300 years they were destroyed by a plague, which carried off 9,000 of them in one week on Moy-Elta. The legend relates that they were buried at Tallaght near Dublin; and we know that this name Tallaght - or as it is written in Irish, Tam-lacht - signifies ‘plague-grave.’

The Nemedians: the second colony, a.m. 2850. After the destruction of the Parthalonians, Ireland remained a solitude for 30 years. Then came Nemed from Scythia, with a fleet of 34 ships. These Nemedians were harassed by the Fomorian pirates, but Nemed defeated them in several battles. After some years he and 3,000 of his followers died of the plague in Oilen-Arda-Nemed (the island of Nemed’s hill), now the Great Island in Cork Harbour.

The Fomorians were a race of sea-robbers, who, according to some, came originally from Africa. Their two chiefs, More and Conang, lived in a wonderful fortress-tower called Tor-Conang, on Tory Island off the coast of Donegal; and after the death of Nemed they tyrannised over his people and made them pay an intolerable yearly tribute of corn, butter, cattle, and children. So the Nemedians, unable to

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bear their miserable state any longer, rose up in a fury (a.m. 3066), destroyed Tor-Conang, and slew Conang himself and all his family. But More attacked them soon after; and a dreadful battle was fought on the sea beach, in which nearly all the combatants fell. And those who were not killed in battle were drowned; for the combatants fought so furiously that they gave no heed to the advancing tide-wave which rose and overwhelmed them. Of the Nemedians only the crew of one bark escaped; and More and his Fomorians remained masters of Tory.

Seven years after the battle a part of the Nemedians fled from Ireland under three chiefs, Simon-Brec, Ibath, and Britan-Mail. Simon-Brec and his people went to the north of Greece; and from them were descended the Firbolgs. Ibath and his followers, who were the ancestors of the Dedannans, made their way to that part of Greece in which the city of Athens is situated. And those who went with Britan-Mail settled in the north of Alban or Scotland. The few Nemedians that remained behind dwelt in Ireland for more than 200 years under the bitter tyranny of the Fomorians.

The Firbolgs: the third colony, a.m. 3266. The people of Simon-Brec increased and multiplied in Greece. But they fared no better there than at home; for the Greeks kept them in hard bondage, and forced them to bring soil on their backs from the rich lowlands to fertilise the rocky and barren hill-sides. And from the leathern wallets in which they brought the clay they were called Firbolgs or bagmen. At length they fled from Greece under the leadership of the five sons of Dela, who led them to Ireland. These brothers partitioned the country into five provinces, Ulster, Leinster, Connaught, and the two Munsters. This ancient division into provinces has survived, with some alteration, to the present day (see page 60). The Firbolgs held sway for only 36 years when they were conquered by the next colony.

The Dedannans: the fourth colony, a.m. 3303. Ibath and his people having settled in the district round Athens,

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learned magic from the Greeks till they became more skilled than their masters. While they dwelt here it came to pass that the Syrians invaded Greece; and every day a battle was fought between the Greeks and the invaders. Now the Greeks prevailed in these battles through the necromancy of the Dedannans, who restored to life, each evening, those Greeks who had been slain during the day. But the Syi’ians, having consulted their druid, found means to defeat the Dedannan spells, and falling on the Greeks, slaughtered them without mercy.

The Dedannans now dreading the vengeance of the Syrians, secretly fled from the country, and journeyed northwards to Loclilann or Scandinavia, where they settled down for a time. They lived in four cities, and taught the people of Lochlann arts and sciences. From this they migrated, under the command of their great chief, Nuada of the Silver Hand, to the north of Scotland; where having sojourned for seven years they crossed over to Ireland (a.m. 3303). They brought with them from Lochlann ‘four precious jewels,’ one of which was the wonderful Coronation Stone called the Lia Fail, which they set up at Tara, and which remained there ever after.

As soon as they had landed they burned their ships; and shrouding themselves in a magic mist, so that the Firbolgs could not see them, they marched unperceived to Slievean-Ierin Mountain in the present county Leitrim. And they sent without delay one of their champions to the Firbolgs with a demand either to yield possession of the country or fight for it. The Firbolgs chose battle; and the two armies fought for four successive days on the plain of South Moytura near Cong. The Firbolgs were defeated, their king was slain, and the Dedannans remained masters of the island.

The Fomorians still continued to plague the country; and twenty-seven years after the battle of South Moytura, a battle was fought between them and the Dedannans at North Moytura near Sligo, where the Fomorians were defeated and all their chief men slain. The two plains of Moytura are well known, and both are covered all over

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with mounds, cromlechs, and other sepulchral monuments - the relics of two great battles.

The Milesians: the fifth colony, a.m. 3500. The legends dwell with fond minuteness on the origin, the wanderings, and the adventures of this last and greatest of the Irish colonies. From Scythia their original home they began their long pilgrimage. Their first migration was to Egypt, where they were sojourning at the time that Pharaoh and his host were drowned in the Red Sea. Driven from Egypt because they had taken part with Moses, they went to Crete, where they lived for a time; thence back again to Scythia; and after wandering through Europe for many generations they arrived in Spain. Here they abode for a long time; and at last they came to Ireland with a fleet of thirty ships under the command of the eight sons of the hero Milèd or Milesius, and anchored at the mouth of the river Slaney (a.m. 3500).

At this time the country was governed by three Dedannan kings, the sons of Kermad of the Honey-mouth, namely Mac Coill, Mac Kecht, and Mac Grena, whose three queens, Eiré, Fodla [Fo´la], and Banba, gave their three names to Ireland. Having been driven out to sea by the spells of the Dedannans, the Milesians landed a second time at Inver-Skena or Kenmare Bay. Marching north to Tara, they met there the three kings and demanded from them the surrender of the country or battle. The cunning Dedannans pretended that they had been taken by surprise and treated unfairly; and the dispute was referred to Amergin the chief druid or brehon of the Milesians. Now this druid delivered a just judgment even against his own people. He decided that the Milesians should re -embark at Inver-Skena and retire nine waves from the shore; and if after this they could make good their landing, the country should be given up to them. And to this both parties agreed.

But no sooner had the Milesians got nine waves from shore than the Dedannans, by their magical incantations, raised a furious tempest which scattered and wrecked the fleet along the rocky coasts. Five of the eight brothers

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perished, and the remaining three, Eremon, Eber-Finn, and Amergin, landed with the remnant of their people. Soon afterwards two battles were fought, one at Slieve Mish near Tralee, and the other at Tailltenn, now Teltown on the Blackwater in Meath, in which the Dedannans were defeated; and the Milesians took possession of the country. The two brothers Eber-Finn and Eremon now (a.m. 3501) divided Ireland, Eber-Finn taking the two Munsters and Eremon Leinster and Connaught. And they gave Ulster to their nephew Eber, son of their brother Ir who had perished in the magic storm. As for Amergin, he, being a seer, got no land for himself; but he was made chief brehon and poet of the kingdom. From that time forward Ireland was ruled by a succession of Milesian monarchs till the reign of Roderick O’Conor who was the last native over-king.

The brothers Eber-Finn and Eremon had no sooner settled down in their new kingdoms than they quarrelled and fought a battle (a.m. 3501) near Geashill, in the present King’s County, in which Eber was defeated and slain, and Eremon became sole king. By far the greater number of the Irish pagan kings after Eremon fell in battle or by assassination: a few only of the most distinguished need be noticed here.

Tighernmas [Teernmas], who began his reign A.M. 3581, was the first of the Irish kings to work gold in a regular way: it was mined and smelted in a woody district on the Wicklow side of the river Liffey. He distinguished the various classes of his people by the numbers of colours in their garments: a slave had one colour;

*In the early part of this chapter the matters related are legendary, and the dates, which are taken from the Four blasters, are quite untrustworthy. As we approach the reign of Laeghaire [Leary] there is a constantly increasing proportion of ascertained fact in the records, and the chronology is at least approximately correct.

a peasant had two; a soldier three; a brugaid, or public hospitaller, four; a chieftain five; a king or a queen, and also an ollave or doctor, six. Tighernmas, we are told, was miraculously destroyed, with a multitude of his people, while they were worshipping the great national idol Crom Cruach on the plain of Moy Slecht in Brefney, on the eve of the pagan festival of Samin (p.89).

The mighty king Ollamh Fodla [Ollav Fola]- A.M. 3922 - established the Fes or meeting of Tara, where the nobles and learned men of the kingdom met every third year for some days before and after Samin or the first of November, to revise the laws and examine the historical records; and their proceedings were entered in the national record called the Psalter of Tara. ‘It was he also that appointed a chief over every tiiath or cantred and a hrurjaid over every townland, who were all to serve the king of Ireland.’ (Four Masters, A.M. 3922.)

About 300 years before the Christian era, [n] Maclia of the Golden Hair, the queen of Cimbaeth [Kimbay] king of Ulster, built the palace of Emania, which for more than 600 years continued to be the residence of the Ulster kings. Here, in after ages, the Red Branch Knights were trained in military accomplishments and deeds of arms. The foundation of this palace is taken as the starting-point of authentic Irish history by the annalist Tighernach, who states that all preceding accounts are uncertain (seep. 28).

Hugony the Great, king of Ireland soon after the foundation of Emania, divided Ireland into twenty-five parts among his twenty-five children; and this subdivision continued in force for many ages after.

Achy Feidlech [Fealagh], who ascended the throne a little before the Christian era, abolished Hugony’s subdivision and restored the ancient division into five provinces, over each of which he placed a tributary king. This monarch built the palace of Croghan for his daughter, the celebrated Medh [Maive] queen of Connaught, where the kings of that province afterwards resided.

1. The exact time, as determined by Tighernach, is 305 B.C. See Four Masters, i. Introd. xlvi.

According to the most trustworthy accounts the king who reigned at the time of the Incarnation was Conary I., or Conary the Great. In his time occurred the seven years’ war between Maive queen of Connaught and Conor Mac Nessa king of Ulster, described at page 37. Conary was killed by a band of pirates in the palace of Brudin Daderga on the river Dodder near Dublin.

Some time in the first century of the Christian era the Attacottic or plebeian races, i.e. the Firbolgs, Dedannans, and Fomorians, whom the Milesians had enslaved, rose up in rebellion, wrested the sovereignty from their masters, and almost exterminated the Milesian princes and nobles: after which they chose Carbery Kinncat for their king. But the Milesian monarchy was after some time restored in the person of Tuathal [Toohal] the Legitimate, who, returning from exile, ascended the throne towards the end of the first century.

This king Tuathal took measures to consolidate the monarchy. Before his time the over-kings had for their personal estate only a small tract round Tara. But he cut off a portion from each of the provinces and formed therewith the province of Meath, to be the special demesne or estate of the supreme kings of Ireland. This new province included the present counties of Meath, Westmeath, and Longford, with portions of the neighbouring counties - Monaghan, Cavan, King’s County, Kildare, &c. In three ancient assembly places belonging to three of the old provinces he built palace-forts which remain to this day: Tlachtga in Munster, Ushnagh in Connaught, and Tailltenn in Ulster - all thenceforward belonging to the new province (see p.89). And gathering together the chief men of the country, he made them swear the solemn old pagan oath - by the sun and wind and all the elements - that they would give the sovereignty of Ireland to his descendants for ever. He celebrated the Fes of Tara with great state; and he re-established the three great fairs of Tlachtga, Ushnagh, and Tailltenn, which he celebrated with much formality.

At this time Leinster was ruled by a king named Achy

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Ainkenn, who obtained one of king Tuathal’s daughters in marriage. But after some time getting tired of her, he pretended that she was dead and induced the king to give him his second daughter. Each sister was ignorant of what had befallen the other; but soon after the second marriage the two met by accident in the palace, and they were so overwhelmed with astonishment, grief, and shame, that they both died immediately. To avenge this great crime Tuathal marched an army into Leinster, and imposed an intolerable tribute on the province, to be paid by the Leinstermen every second year to the kings of Ireland.

Whatever amount of truth may be in this story, one thing is certain, that the kings of Ireland from very early times claimed from the Leinstermen an enormous tribute which was known as the Boruma or Boru. It was never paid without resistance more or less, and for many centuries it was the cause of constant bloodshed. It produced most disastrous consequences not only on Leinster but on Ireland at large; for the Leinster kings were at perpetual enmity with the kings of Ireland; and we find them taking part with the enemies of their country at the most critical periods of her history.

The renowned Conn Ced-Gathach [Ked-Caha], or Conn the Hundred-fighter, became king early in the second century (a.d. 123). His most formidable antagonist was the great Munster hero Eoghan-Mor [Owen-More], otherwise called Mogh-Nuadhat [Mow-Nooat] king of Munster, who having defeated him in ten battles, forced him at last to divide Ireland between them. For a line of demarcation they fixed on a natural ridge of sandhills called EskerRiada, which can still be traced running across Ireland with little interruption from Dublin to Gal way. This division is perpetually referred to in Irish literature: the northern half, which belonged to Conn was called Leth-Chuinn [Leh-Conn] or Conn’s half; and the southern Leth-Mogha [Leh-Mow], that is Mogh’s half. Owen however renewed the quarrel, and was slain in a decisive battle fought at Moylena in the present King’s County; after which Conn became the undisputed monarch. Conn ended

his life by assassination, and was succeeded by his son-in-law Conary II. (a.d. 157).

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From the earliest ages the Irish of Ulster were in the habit of crossing the narrow sea to Alban or Scotland, where colonies were settled from time to time; and constant intercourse was kept up between the two countries. The first regular colony of which we have any reliable account was conducted by Carbery Riada, the son of king Conary. The Irish accounts of this migration, which are very detailed and circumstantial, are corroborated by the Venerable Bede, who has also preserved the name of the leader: ‘In course of time, Britain, besides the Britons and Picts, received a third nation, the Scoti, who issuing from Hibernia under the leadership of Reuda, secured for themselves, either by friendship or by the sword, settlements among the Picts which they still possess. From the name of their commander they are to this day called Dalreudini; for in their language Dal signifies a part.’ [1] The settlers took possession of the western coasts and islands, in spite of the opposition of the kindred Picts who had occupied the country before them. From this Riada two territories, one in Ireland and the other in Scotland - both well known in Irish and Scottish history - were called Dalriada, Riada’s dal or portion.

Cormac Mac Art, or Cormac Ulfada (a.d. 254), the grandson of Conn the Hundred-fighter, was the most illustrious of all the pagan kings of Ireland. He was a great warrior and gained many battles during his reign of fortytwo years. He is however more celebrated as an encourager of learning than as a military leader. He is said to have founded three colleges at Tara, one for the study of military science, one for history and literature, and one for law. It is said of him also that he caused the chroniclers of Ireland to write into the Psalter of Tara the history of the kings of Ireland, with an account of the subdivisions of the country and of the stipends due to the several kings from their sub-kings. But the Psalter of Tara has been long lost.

1. Bede, Eccl. Hist. Book I. chap. i.

After a prosperous reign, Cormac abdicated on account of the accidental loss of an eye; for no king with a personal blemish was allowed to reign at Tara (see p.62). He retired to his kingly cottage, called Cletta, on the shore of the river Boyne; and here he composed the book called Tegasg Righ [Ree] or Instructions for a King, and other law tracts, of which we have copies in our old manuscript volumes. Cormac died at Cletta in the year 277, and it is stated that his death was brought about by the druids. For the legend says that he became a Christian; and that the druids practised their incantations against him and caused him to be choked by the bone of a salmon.

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In the time of Cormac flourished the Fianna [Feena] of Erin, a sort of militia, like the Red Branch Knights (p.38), in the service of the monarch. They were commanded by Cormac’s son-in-law, the renowned Finn Mac Cumhail [Cool], who is remembered in tradition all over Ireland to this day.

Cormac was succeeded (a.d. 266) by his son Carbery of the Liffey. In his reign the Fena of Erin were suppressed. For they had grown turbulent and rebellious, so that at last king Carbery was forced to march against them; and the two armies fought a terrible battle at Gabhra [Gavra] near the Hill of Skreen in Meath. Carbery slew Oscar (p.38) in single combat, but was himself slain immediately after by a treacherous kinsman as he was retiring faint and wounded after his fight with Oscar. In this celebrated battle the two armies almost annihilated each other; and the Fena were dispersed for evermore.

During the reign of Muredach (a.d. 327) his three cousins, Colla Huas, Colla Menn, and Colla Da-Crich [Cree] - commonly called the Three Collas - invaded and conquered Ulster, destroyed the palace of Emania, drove the Ulster people eastwards across Glenree or the Newry river, and took possession of that part of the province lying west of the same river.

Niall of the Nine Hostages, son of Achy Moy vane (king of Ireland A.D. 358) and uncle to king Dathi, was one of the greatest, most warlike, and most famous of all the

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ancient Irish kings. Four of his sons settled in Meath, and four others conquered for themselves a territory in Ulster where they settled. The posterity of Niall are called H} [n] Neill; the southern Hy Neill being descended from those that settled in Meath, the northern Hy Neill from those that went to Ulster. By far the greatest number of the Irish kings from this period till the Anglo-Norman invasion were descended from Niall through one or the other of these two branches. Generally, though not always, the kings of Ireland were elected from the northern and southern Hy Neill alternately.

All who have read the histories of England and Rome know how prominently the ‘Picts and Scots’ figure during the first four centuries of our era, and how much trouble they gave to both Romans and Britons. The Picts were the people of Scotland - a branch of the Goidels or Gaels: the Scots were the Irish Gaels: ‘The Scots, who afterwards settled in what is now known as Scotland, at that time dwelt in Ireland.’ [1] In those times the Scots often went from Ireland on plundering excursions to the coasts of Britain and Gaul, and seem to have been almost as much dreaded then as the Danes were in later ages. At some early age - before the time of Suetonius in the first century - they conquered the Isle of Man and a large part of Wales, where many traces of their occupation remain to this day. Our ‘oldest traditions teem with references to, and stories of, these conquests. During the whole time of the Roman occupation of Britain we constantly hear - both from native and Roman sources - of the excursions of the Scots; and when. the Roman power began to wane, they became still more frequent. ‘It was only however in the fourth century, when the warlike energies of the Roman empire had become relaxed, and vigorous life was fast fading at its extremities, that the Hibernian Scots became the implacable and perpetual foes of the empire.’ [2]

1. Gardiner’s Student’s History of England, 1892, pp.23, 24.
2. Ireland and the Celtic Clmrcli, by Prof. G. T. Stokes, D.D., p.17.
For more information on the invasions of Britain by the Scots, see pp.I6 to 20 of the same book.

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‘An invasion of Britain, on a far more extensive and formidable scale than had yet been attempted from Ireland, took place towards the close of the fourth century under Niall of the Nine Hostages, one of the most gallant of all the princes of the Milesian race.’ [1] Observing that the Romans had retired to the eastern shore of Britain, Niall collected a great fleet and landing in Wales carried oft’ immense plunder. He was forced to retreat by the valiant Roman general Stilicho, but ‘left marks of depredation and ruin wherever he passed.’ On this occasion the poet Claudian when praising Stilicho says of him - speaking in the person of Britannia: ‘By him was I protected when the Scot [i.e. Niall] moved all Ireland against me and the ocean foamed with their hostile oars.’ The ancient Irish accounts of these expeditions are on the whole corroborated by Roman historians. In one of Niall’s excursions St. Patrick was brought captive to Ireland, as related in next chapter.

It was in one of his expeditions to the coast of Gaul - according to the ancient Irish tradition - that Niall, while marching at the head of his army, was assassinated (a.d. 405) on the shore of the river Loire by the king of Leinster, who shot him with an arrow across the river.

Dathi [Dauhy], Niall’s successor (a.d. 405), was the last king of pagan Ireland. He too made inroads into foreign lands; and he was killed by a flash of lightning at the foot of the Alps, after he had plundered the sanctuary of a Christian hermit named Parmenius. His soldiers brought his body home and buried it at Croghan under a red pillar-stone which remains in the old pagan cemetery to this day.

Laeghaire [Leary] the son of Niall succeeded in 428. In the fifth year of his reign St. Patrick came to Ireland on his great mission. This king, like many of his predecessors, waged war against the Leinstermen to exact the Boru tribute; but they defeated him and took him prisoner. Then they made him swear by the sun and wind and all the elements that he would never again demand the

1. Moore, Hist, of Irel. i. 150.

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tribute; and wlien he had sworn they set him free. But the very next year (463) he invaded Leinster again; whereupon - so says the legend - he was killed while on his march by the sun and wind for having broken his oath.

The history of pagan Ireland ends here, and for so far we have drawn almost exclusively on native sources of information. These are commonly regarded as legendary, and at least in the earlier part as unworthy of credit. Yet the few notices of Ireland left us by early foreign writers would seem to justify to some extent the native claim to civilisation and regular government in times before the Christian era. The island was known to the Phoenicians, who probably visited it; and Greek writers mention it under the names lernis and lerne, and as the Sacred Island thickly inhabited by the Hiberni. Ptolemy, writing in the second century, who is known to have derived his information from Phoenician authorities, has given a description of Ireland much more accurate than that he has left us of Great Britain. [n] And that the people of Ireland carried on considerable trade with foreign countries in those early ages we know from the statement of Tacitus, that in his time - the end of the first century - the harbours of Ireland were better known to commercial nations than those of Britain. Commerce and barbarism do not coexist; and the natural inference from those scattered but pregnant notices is that the country had settled institutions and a certain degree of civilisation as early at least as the beginning of the Christian era.

We shall here interrupt the regular course of the narrative to sketch the mission of St. Patrick: the secular history will be resumed in Chapter IV. page 150.

1. Moore, Hist, of Irel. vol. i. chap. i.

[Chief authorities: Trip. Life of St. Pk. by Stokes; Most Kev. Dr. Healy’s Ireland’s Anc. Schools and Scholars; Lanigan’s Eccl. Hist.; Todd’s St. Pk. Apostle of Irel.; Four Mast.; Rev. J. Shearman’s Loca Patriciana; O’Curry, Mann. and Cust.; Relig. Beliefs of Pagan Irish, by Crowe - Kilk. Arch. Jour. 1868-9, p.307.]

It is commonly supposed that the religion of pagan Ireland was druidism. But when we come to inquire particularly into the nature of this Irish druidism - what were its doctrines and ceremonials - we find ourselves very much in the dark; for the native information that has come down to us is scattered, vague, and unsatisfactory, and there is none from outside. The druidic systems of Gaul, Britain, and Ireland were originally no doubt one and the same, as being derived from some common eastern source; but judging from our ancient literature, druidism became greatly modified in Ireland; and the descriptions of the Gaulish druids left us by Cgesar and others give us no information regarding the druids of Ireland. The following short account is derived from purely native sources, beyond which we cannot go.

In the oldest Irish traditions the druids figure conspicuously. All the early colonists had their druids, who are mentioned as holding high rank among kings and chiefs. They are often called Men of Science to denote their superior knowledge; for they were the exclusive possessors of all the knowledge and learning of the time. Many worshipped idols of some kind. Some worshipped water; and we read of one, of the time of St. Patrick, who considered water as a god of goodness, and fire an evil genius, so that he got himself buried deep under his favourite well called Slan (p.40) to keep his bones cool from the fire that he dreaded. [1] Slan means healing; and

1. Tripartite Life, by Stokes, 123.

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we are told that the people offered gifts to this well as to a god.

They were skilled in magic - indeed they figure more conspicuous!}^ as magicians than in any other capacity - and were believed to be possessed of tremendous preternatural powers. They wore a white magic tunic, and when working their spells they chanted an incantation. [n] In some of the old historical romances we find the issues of battles sometimes determined not so much by the valour of the combatants as by the magical powers of the druids attached to the armies. They could - as the legends tell - raise druidical clouds and mists and bring down showers of fire and blood; they could drive a man insane or into idiocy by flinging a magic wisp of straw in his face; and many other instances of this necromantic power could be cited. In the hymn that St. Patrick chanted on his way to Tara on Easter Sunday morning, he asks God to protect him against the spells of women, of smiths, and of druids. They were skilful in divination, and foretold future events from dreams and visions, from sneezing and casting lots, from the croaking of ravens and the chirping of wrens. King Dathi’s druids forecasted the issue of his military expeditions by observations of some kind from the summit of a hill.In their divination they used a rod of yew with Ogham words cut on it. In prehistoric times it is pretty certain that druids, poets, and brehons were identical; and in the ancient literature it is often hard to distinguish them: but in after ages they became distinct.

The druids instructed the sons of kings and chiefs in poetry, divination, and military accomplishments. They bitterly opposed Christianity, as we know from the Lives of St. Patrick. We learn also from the Lives of other saints, that there were druids in the country long after St. Patrick’s time, and that they continued to exercise powerful influence. The whole life of St. Berach, who flourished in the sixth century, seems to have been one continual struggle against the druids.

1. Tripartite Life, by Stokes, pp.55, 57, 325, 326.
2. Tribes and Customs of Hy Fiachrach, 99.

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In our ancient literature there are numerous notices of pagan religious beliefs and observances; but whether all these were connected with druidism is a matter of uncertainty. In the old historical romances several pagan deities are mentioned. There were war goddesses called severally Badh or Bava, Morrigan, Macha, and Nemain, who hovered shrieking over the heads of heroes in battle, and inspired them with preternatural fury. Bava and Nemain were the wives of Neit, who was the god of war.’ Ana or Dariann, a Dedannan goddess, is called in Cormac’s Glossary the Mother of the Gods; and it is stated that the Paps Mountains in Kerry - anciently the ‘Two Paps of Danann’ - took their name from her. Mannanan Mac Lir, of the Dedannans, was god of the sea, who gave name to the Isle of Man. His son was the powerful god Dagda, whose son again was Aengus Mac-in-Og. Aengus dwelt in the palace of Bruga of the Boyne within the great mound of Newgrange: and Brigit, the goddess of wisdom, was his daughter. Diancecht was the god of healing.

Our most ancient secular and ecclesiastical literature attests the universal belief in the Side [Shee] or fairies, who, as we are told in Fiach’s Hymn and in the Tripartite Life, were worshipped by the Irish. [2] These were local deities who were supposed to live in the interior of pleasant green hills or under great rocks or sepulchral cairns, where they had splendid palaces. These fairy hills and rocks are also called mle; numbers of them, each with its own tutelary deity, are scattered over the country; and many are still known and held in much superstitious awe by the people. Hence the fairies are often called deenn,-shee, people of the fairy hills; and a female fairy is still called a hanshee, from heaii [ban], a woman. Finnvarra, the fairy of Knockma near Tuam in Galway, is still vividly remembered; so is Aed-Roe who lives in his palace under the green hill of MuUinashee beside Bally shannon; and Donn of Knockfierna near Groom in Limerick rules all the Limerick plain.

1. W. M. Hennessy on ‘The Ancient Irish Goddess of War’ in Revue Celtique.
2. Tripartite Life, by Stokes, pp.100, 815, 409.

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Cleena the potent banshee of South Munster has her palace in the heart of a pile of rocks - Carrig-Cleena - near Mallow, and gave name to Tonn-Cleena (Cleena s Wave), the sea off Glandore in Cork; and the guardian spirit of the Dalcassians of North Munster was the beautiful Eevin of Craglea, a great grey rock rising over Lough Derg near Killaloe, All these, and many others, are well known to this day by the people of the several places.

The fairies were also believed to inhabit the old raths and lisses, so numerous all over the country, a superstition that still lingers everywhere among the peasantry. In the Book of Armagh we read that when the two daughters of King Laeghaire met St. Patrick and his companions in the early morning in their strange white robes with books in their hands, they supposed them to be deena-shee (p.148, farther on). In our oldest literature the deenashee are identified with the Dedannans. This mysterious people, after their conquest by the Milesians, retired to remote places, and in process of time became deified. [n]

There was a dim vague belief in a land of everlasting youth and peace, called by various names - Tir-nam-beo, the land of the everliving, Tirnanoge, the land of perpetual youth, Moy-Mll, &c. As to where it was situated the accounts are shadowy and variable. Sometimes it was represented as deep in the earth in a great sparry cave all in a blaze of light; sometimes it was O’Brazil, far out in the Atlantic Ocean; sometimes it was Tir-fa-tonn, ‘the country beneath the waves.’

Though we have no positive evidence that the Irish generally worshipped the elements, yet our ancient literature affords glimpses that would seem to point to the prevalence of elemental worship in pre-historic times. The most solemn and binding pagan oath was by the sun and moon, water and air, day and night, sea and land; and the legend relates that king Laeghaire, for violating this oath, ‘was killed by the sun and wind and by the other guarantees; for no one dared to dishonour them at

1. See the chapter on ‘Fairies, Demons, Goblins, and Ghosts’ in my Irish Names of Places, where this snbiect is more fully discussed.

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the time.’ [1] St. Patrick himself in his Confession seems to imply the existence of sun worship where he says that all who adore the sun shall perish eternally. We know from the Lives of St. Patrick and from other authorities that in some places certain wells were worshipped (see p.137 above). There were primitive customs connected with fire, some of which are noticed at pages 89 and 146; the relics of which have descended to our own time in the fire superstitions of Beltane or May-day, and in the custom of lighting fires in the open air on the eve of the 24th of June. This is the most we can say in favour of the prevalence of elemental worship. Recent detailed descriptions of the sun worship and fire worship of pagan Ireland, and the speculations about ‘bovine cultus,’ ‘porcine cultus,’ ‘Crom the god of fire,’ and such like, are all dreams of persons who never took the trouble to investigate -the ancient authentic literature of the country.

In some places idols were worshipped. There was a great idol, called Crom Cruach, covered all over with gold, on Moy-Slecht (the plain of adoration) in the present county of Cavan, surrounded by twelve lesser idols, all of which were destroyed by St. Patrick. [2] Both the secular and ecclesiastical authorities concur in the main facts regarding this idol, and we are told in the legend that king Tighernmas and crowds of his people were destroyed as they were engaged worshipping it. Crom Cruach was the chief idol of Ireland and the special god of some kings. [3] In the Book of Leinster [4] it is stated that the Irish used to sacrifice their children to this idol; but I receive this comparatively late statement with doubt: it is not corroborated by the older and better authorities, the Lives of St. Patrick; and I do not believe the ancient Irish practised human sacrifice. In the west of Connaught the people worshipped another noted idol called Crom-duff. But though idols are often mentioned in the Lives of the

1. Book of the Dun Cow, p.118, col. 2, line 30.
2. Tripartite Life, by Stokes, 91, 369.
3. Ibid. 219.
4. Page 213, 2nd column, line 18 from bottom.

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saints and in the native secular literature, it does not appear tliat idol worship was very general.

These references and many others in our old literature are too vague and disconnected to enable us to say that the pagan Irish had any very generally diffused uniform system of religion or religious worship. Their religious beliefs may be best described as a collection of superstitions, which never attained such consistency and dignity and never exercised such an influence on the inner life of the people as to deserve the name of a religion.

§

We know that there were Christians in Ireland long before the time of St. Patrick, but we have no evidence to show how Christianity was introduced in those early ages. St. Prosper of Aquitaine, a contemporary authority, tells us that in the year 431, Pope Celestine sent Palladius ‘to the Scots believing in Christ to be their first bishop’ and Bede repeats the same statement. There must have been Christians in considerable numbers when the Pope thought this measure necessary; and such numbers could not have grown up in a short time. We have evidence that as early as the middle of the fourth century there were Christian Irishmen of eminence on the Continent; and though we are not able to say that they brought their faith from Ireland, yet the fact lends strength to other evidence that Christianity had found its way into the country at that early date.

Palladius landed in the present county of Wicklow; but his mission was not successful; for after a short sojourn, during which he founded three little churches, he was expelled by Nathi, chief of the district; and_soon after he died in Scotland.

The next mission had very different results. ‘Although Christianity was not propagated in Ireland by the blood of martyrs, there is no instance of any other nation that universally received it in as short a space of time as the Irish did.’ [1] and in the whole history of Christianity we do not find a missionary more successful than St.

1. Lanigan, Eccl. Hist. iv. 287.

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Patrick. [1] He tells us in his Confession and in his Letter to Coroticus, that his father Calpurnius was a deacon, son of Potitus a priest, and that he was also a decurion or magistrate of a Roman colony. It is pretty certain that Patrick was born either in Scotland or in Armoric Gaul: the weight of authority tends to the neighbourhood of Dumbarton in Scotland. When he was a boy of sixteen - as he states in the Confession - he was taken captive with many others and brought to Ireland. This was about the year 403; and it occurred probably in one of those predatory excursions already spoken of (p.135), led by Niall of the Nine Hostages. He was sold as a slave, and spent six years of his life herding sheep on the bleak slopes of Slemish Mountain in Antrim. Here in his solitude his mind was turned to God, and while carefully doing the work of his hard master Milcho, he employed his leisure hours in devotions. We know this from his own words in the Confession: ‘I was daily tending the flocks and praying frequently every day that the love of God might be more enkindled in my heart; so much so that in one day I poured out my prayers a hundred times, and as often in the night: nay, even in woods and mountains I remained and rose before the light to my prayer, in frost and snow and rain, and suffered no inconvenience, nor yielded to any slothfulness such as I now experience, for the Spirit of the Lord was fervent within me.’

At the end of six years he escaped and made his way through many hardships and dangers to his native country. During his residence in Ireland he had learned the language of the people; and brooding continually on the state of pagan darkness in which they lived, he formed the resolution to devote his life to their conversion. He set about his preparation very deliberately. He first studied under St. Martin in his monastic school at Tours, and

1. It is now known that there were at least two early saints named Patrick connected with Ireland, whose lives and acts have been sometimes mixed up. The incidents given in this short sketch are ascribed by the best authorities to the great St. Patrick.

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spent some time subsequently with St. Germain of Auxerre. During all this time he applied himself with great fervour to works of piety; and he had visions and dreams in which he heard the Irish people calling to him to return to Ireland and walk among them with the light of faith. At length the time came to begin his labours; and he repaired to Rome with a letter from St. Germain recommending him to Pope Celestine as a suitable person to attempt the conversion of the Irish nation. [1]

Having received authority and benediction from the Pope he set out for Ireland. On his way through Gaul news came of the death of Palladius, and as this left Ireland without a bishop, Patrick was consecrated bishop by a certain holy prelate named Amator. Embarking for Ireland he landed, in the year 432, on the coast of Wicklow, at the mouth of the Vartry river, the spot where the town of Wicklow now stands. He was then in the full vigour of manhood - about forty-five years of age. The good Pope Celestine did not live to see the glorious result of the mission: he was dead before the arrival of his missionary in Ireland. Soon after landing, Patrick, like his

1. The subject of Patrick’s mission has given rise to much controversy. Many deny that he was sent by the Pope, their main argument being that no mention of the papal mission is found in the Confession or in the memoir of the saint in the beginning of the Book of Armagh. But Bishop Tirechan in his Notes, farther on in the same Book of Armagh (see p.21 above), makes this positive assertion: ‘In the thirteenth year of the emperor Theodosius the Bishop Patrick was sent by Celestine Bishop and Pope of Rome to instruct the Scots (Irish) ... Through him all Ireland believed, and he baptised nearly the whole nation’ (Documenta de S. Patricio ex Libro Archmachano, by the Rev. Edmund Hogan, S.J., pp.57, 89). Prefixed to Tirechan’s notes is the following entry by Ferdomnach, who copied them before the year 807 into the Book of Armagh: ‘Tirechan the bishop wrote these [Notes] from the mouth, or from the book of Bishop Ultan whose pupil or disciple he was.’ St. Ultan, bishop of Ardbraccan in Meath, from whom Tirechan got his information, died in 656, which brings him within a century and a half of St. Patrick. Perhaps too much importance has been attached to this question, inasmuch as all agree that Palladius was sent by Pope Celestine. Moreover we know that St. Patrick always looked with great reverence and affection to Rome: and in one of his decrees he directs that when any diflacult question arose in Ireland it should be referred to the chair of St. Peter. (Tripartite Life, by Stokes, pp.356, 506.)

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predecessor, was expelled from Wicklow, probably by the same chief Nathi; and coasting northward, and resting for a little time at the little island of Holmpatrick on the Dublin coast near Skerries, he finally landed at Lecale in Down. A herdsman who happened to see the party, thinking they were pirates, ran and told his master Dicho, the chief of the district, who instantly sallied forth with his people to drive them back; but when he caught sight of them he was so struck by their calm and dignified demeanour that he saluted them respectfully and invited them to his house. Here the saint announced his mission and explained his doctrine; and Dicho and his whole family became Christians and were baptized - the first of the Irish converted by St. Patrick. He celebrated Mass in a Sabhall [saval] or barn presented to him by the chief, on the site of which a monastery was subsequently erected, which for many ages was held in great veneration. And the memory of the auspicious event was preserved in the name by which the place was subsequently known, Sabhall-Patrick or Patrick’s Barn, now shortened to Saul.

He next set out to visit the district where he had spent so many solitary years of his youth, for he was anxious to convert his old master Milcho; but that chief refused to see him, and died as he had lived, a pagan. Patrick then returned to Saul, where he remained some time, preaching still and converting the people.

During the whole of St. Patrick’s mission his invariable plan was to address himself in the first instance to the kings and chiefs. He understood the habits of the Irish people; and he well knew that if the chief became a Christian, the people, with their devotion for their hereditary rulers, would soon follow. He now resolved to go straightway to Tara, where king Laeghaire and his nobles happened at this time to be celebrating a festival of some kind. Bidding farewell to his friend Dicho, he sailed southwards to the mouth of the Boyne, where leaving his boat, he set out on foot with his companions

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across the country for Tara, and arrived at Slane on Saturday, Easter eve, a.d. 400. Here he prepared to celebrate the Easter festival, and towards nightfall - as was then the custom - lighted the Paschal fire on the hill of Slane.

At this very time it happened that the king’s people were about to light the festival fire at Tara, which was a part of their ceremonial; and there was a law that while this fire was burning no other should be kindled in the country all round, on pain of death. The king and his courtiers were much astonished when they saw the fire ablaze upon the hill of Slane, nine miles off"; and when the monarch inquired about it, his druids said: ‘If that fire which we see be not extinguished to-night it will never be extinguished, but will overtop all our fires: and he that has kindled it will overturn thy kingdom.’ Whereupon the king, in great wrath, instantly set out in his chariot with a small retinue; and having arrived near Slane he summoned the strangers to his presence. He had commanded that none should rise up to show them respect; but when they presented themselves one of the courtiers, Ere the son of Dego, struck with the saint’s commanding appearance, rose from his seat and saluted him. This Ere was converted and became afterwards bishop of Slane; and to this day he is commemorated in the name of a little chapel beside the Boyne at Slane, called St. Erc’s hermitage. The result of this interview was what St. Patrick most earnestly desired; he was commanded to appear next day at Tara and give an account of his proceedings before the assembled court.

The next day was Easter Sunday. Patrick and his companions set out for the palace, and on their way they chanted a hymn in the native tongue - an invocation for protection against the dangers and treachery by which they were beset; for they had heard that persons were lying in wait to slay them. This hymn, which is called Faed Fiada, or the Deer’s cry, from the legend that Patrick and his companions appeared in the shape of deer to the intended assassins, was long held in great veneration by the

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people of this country, and we still possess copies of it in a very old dialect of the Irish language. [1]

In the history of the spread of Christianity it would be perhaps difficult to find a more singular and impressive scene than was presented at the court of king Laeghaire on that memorable Easter morning. The saint was robed in white, as were also his companions; he wore his mitre, and carried his crozier - the Bachall Isa or staff of Jesus - in his hand; and when he presented himself before the assembly, Dubhthach [Duffa] the chief poet rose to welcome him, contrary to the express commands of the king. In presence of the monarch and his nobles, the saint explained the leading points of the Christian doctrine, and silenced the king’s druids in argument.

The proceedings of this auspicious day were a type of 8t. Patrick’s future career. Dubhthach became a convert, and thenceforward devoted his poetical talents to the service of God; and Laeghaire gave permission to the strange missionaries to preach their doctrines throughout his dominions. The king himself was almost moved to become a Christian, but there is good reason to believe that he died an obstinate pagan. Patrick next proceeded to Tailltenn (pp. 89, 90), where during the celebration of the national games he preached for a week to the assembled multitudes, making many converts, among whom was Conall Gulban, brother to king Laeghaire.

We find him soon after, with that intrepidity and decision of character for which he was so remarkably distinguished, making straight for Moy Slecht, where stood the great national idol Crom Cruach, surrounded by twelve lesser idols (page 141). These he destroyed, and thus terminated for ever the abominations enacted for so many ages at that ancient haunt of gloomy superstition.

In his journey through Connaught he met the two daughters of king Laeghaire - Ethnea the fair and Fedelma the ruddy - near the royal palace of Croghan; where they had been placed some time before by their

1. It is printed with translation (by John O’Donovan) in Petrie’s Tara; and also in Stokes’s Tripartite Life of St. Patrick.

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father, under the care of two magi or druids. Patrick and his attendants had assembled one morning at sunrise near a well called Clebach, in the vicinity of the palace, and chanted a hymn; and when the virgins had come at this same hour, ‘to wash after the manner of women,’ they were astonished to find so strange an assembly before them. ‘And they knew not whence they were, or in what form, or from what people, or from what country; but they supposed them to be deena shee (p.139), or gods of the earth, or a phantasm.’

The virgins then inquired whence they came, and Patrick answered them, ‘It were better for you to confess to our true God than to inquire concerning our race.’ They eagerly asked about God, his attributes, his dwelling place - whether in the sea, in rivers, in mountainous places, or in valleys - how a knowledge of him was to be obtained, how he was to be found, seen, and loved, with other inquiries of a like nature. The saint answered their questions, and explained the leading points of the faith; and the virgins were immediately baptized, and consecrated to the service of religion.

On the approach of Lent he retired to the mountain which has since borne his name - Croagh Patrick or Patrick’s Bill - where he spent some time in fasting and prayer. This mountain has been ever since revered, and continues to this day a noted place of pilgrimage. At this time, a.d. 449, the seven sons of Amalgaidh [Awley] king of Connaught had convened a great assembly at a place called Forrach mac-nAwley or the meeting place of Awley’s sons. Patrick repaired to the meeting and expounded his doctrines to the wondering assembly; and the seven princes with twelve thousand persons were baptized.

After spending seven years in Connaught, he visited successively Ulster, Leinster, and Manster. Soon after entering Leinster, he converted at Naas - then the residence of the Leinster kings - the two princes Ilann and Olioll, sons of Dunlang king of Leinster, who both afterwards succeeded to the throne of their father. And at Cashel, the seat of the kings of Munster, he was met by

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the king, Aengus the son of Natfree, who conducted him into the palace with the highest reverence and honour, and was at once baptized.

Wherever he went he founded churches, and left them in charge of his disciples. In his various journeys he encountered many dangers, and met with numerous repulses; but his failures were few and unimportant, and success attended his efforts in every part of his wonderful career. He founded the see of Armagh about the year 455, and constituted it the metropolitan see of all Ireland. The greater part of the country was now filled with Christians and with churches; and the labours of the venerable apostle were drawing to a close. He was seized with his last illness in Saul, his favourite retreat, the scene of his first spiritual triumph; and he breathed his last on the 17th of March, in or about the year 465, in the 78th year of his age. [1]

The news of his death was the signal for universal mourning. From the remotest districts of the island, the clergy turned their steps towards the little village of Saul - bishops, priests, abbots, and monks - all came to pay the last tribute of love and respect to their great master. They celebrated the obsequies for twelve days and nights without interruption, joining in the solemnities as they arrived in succession; and in the language of one of his biographers, the blaze of myriads of torches made the whole time appear like one continuous day.

A contention arose between the chiefs of Oriel, the district in which Armagh was situated, and those of Ulidia, or the eastern part of Ulster, concerning the place where he should be interred; but it happily terminated without bloodshed. He was buried with great solemnity at Dun-da-leth-glas, the old residence of the princes of Ulidia; and the name, in the altered form of Downpatrick, commemorates to all time the saint’s place of interment.

1. There is much uncertainty both as to St. Patrick’s age and as to the year of his death. I have given the age and year that seem to me most probable.

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It must not be supposed that Ireland was completely Christianised by St. Patrick. There still remained large districts never visited by him or his companions: and in many others the Christianity of the people was merely on the surface. Much pagan superstition remained, even among the professing Christians, and the druids still and for long after retained great influence; so that there was ample room for the missionary labours of St. Patrick’s successors.

Lewy the son of Laeghaire was too young at the time of his father’s death (p.136) to claim the throne, which was seized by Olioll Molt king of Connaught, son of Dathi, a.d. 457. But Lewy when he came of age raised a great army and defeated and slew king Olioll in the terrible battle ofOcha in Meath, and took possession of the throne. This battle, which was fought in 483, forms one of the epochs of early Irish history, many subsequent events being dated from it; and it caused a revolution in the succession. Olioll Molt did not belong to the Hy Neill; Lewy was of the southern Hy Neill; and for 500 years after this - to the time of Malachi II. - the throne of Ireland was held by members of the Hy Neill race without a break.

The colony led by Carbery Riada to Scotland has already been mentioned (p.132). These primitive settlers and their descendants, supported from time to time by other emigrants, held their ground against the Picts; but the settlement was weak and struggling, and did not deserve the name of a kingdom till it was reinforced by the next and greatest colony of all. This was led in 503 - during the reign of Lewy - by three chiefs of the Irish Dalriada, Fergus, Angus, and Lome, the sons of a chief named Ere, a descendant of Carbery Riada. These colonists, as well as their leaders, it should be observed, were Christians. Fergus, who was also called Fergus

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More (the Great) and Fergus Mac Ere, became king of the Scottish Gaelic colony, which before long mastered the whole country and ultimately gave it the name of Scotland. [1] He was the ancestor of the subsequent kings of Scotland; and from him throusrh the Stewarts descend our present royal family.

Dermot the son of Fergus Kervall became king of Ireland in 544. In his reign the terrible pestilence called the Crom-Connell or yellow plague, which then prevailed over Europe, desolated Ireland for eight or ten years. The last Fes of Tara was held by Dermot in 560: after his time the old capital was abandoned as a royal residence. The worst of the misfortunes that befell this king arose from his quarrels with some of the leading ecclesiastics. I have already related (p.20) how the outrage he committed on St. Columkille brought on the battle of Culdremne, where he was defeated by the men of Ulster and Connaught (in 561). The desertion of Tara came about by another quarrel of a similar kind. A criminal fleeing from the wrath of king Dermot took refuge in the church of St. Rodan at Lorrha in Tipperary: but the king, disregarding the sanctuary, had the fugitive brought forth and carried off prisoner. Whereupon the saint was so incensed that he proceeded north and very deliberately pronounced a solemn curse on Tara. From that time forth the kings of Ireland lived elsewhere - each in his own province: and the place gradually fell into decay. Its abandonment was no doubt an evil, as it tended to break up the unity of the monarchy.

Aed or Hugh the son of Ainmire reigned from 572 to 598. By him was summoned, in 574, the celebrated convention of Druim-cete [Drum-Ketta], now called the Mullagh or Daisy Hill, on the river Eoe, one mile above Limavady. It was the first national assembly held since

1. The name Scotia originally belonged to Ireland: Scotland, which was anciently called Alba, got the name Scotia Minor from the Scotic or Irish colony. About the llth century Scotland took the name Scotia permanently, and the parent country dropped it. See my Irish Names of Places, i. SS.

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the abandonment of Tara, and it was attended by the chief men of Ireland both lay and clerical. St. Columba also and a number of his clergy came from lona to take part in the proceedings, as well as the king and chiefs of the Scottish Dalriada. This meeting was convened to consider two main questions, besides many minor ones. The first was the regulation of the bards, which was settled at the intercession of St. Columba inthe manner already related (p.121). The second question had reference to the Dalriadic colony in Scotland. Three-quarters of a century had elapsed since its establishment, and the colonial kings had ever since continued subject to the kings of Ireland, and contributed men to their armies. Now king Aed demanded, in addition to this, a direct yearly tribute. But the colony had grown strong, and Aedan the Dalriadic king, who was brother of Branduff king of Leinster, made a demand for complete independence, which was resisted by the Irish king. In this important matter also St. Columba, who was nearly related to both the Irish and the Scottish kings, exerted his great influence; and the king of Ireland wisely yielding to him, consented to forego all claim to authority over the Scottish king. From that time forth the Dalriadic kingdom of Scotland remained independent.

King Aed perished, a.d. 598, in an attempt to exact the hated Borumean tribute from the Leinstermen. Branduff (Black Raven) the powerful king of Leinster resisted the claim; whereupon Aed invaded Leinster with a great army. Branduff met him at Dunbolg, now Dunboyke near Hollywood in Wicklow. His army was very much the smaller, but by a skilfully devised stratagem, he took his adversaries in a night surprise. The battle that followed is recorded in all the annals and is celebrated in an ancient Irish historical romance. The royal forces were defeated and slaughtered, and king Aed himself, retreating with his guards, was overtaken and beheaded by one of the Leinster chiefs.

After a number of short unimportant reigns, Donall the son of king Aed Mac Ainmire ascended the throne a.d. 627. His predecessor (Sweeny Menn) had been killed by

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a powerful Ulster prince named Congal Claen: and Donall immediately on his accession marched into Ulster, defeated Congal in Derry, and forced him to fly from the country. Congal took refuge in Britain, where he had many relatives through intermarriages; and after an exile of nine years he landed on the coast of Down with a great army of auxiliaries - Britons, Saxons, Alban Scots, and Picts - and was immediately joined by his Ulster partisans.

Donall had been fully aware of Congal’s projected invasion, and had made very deliberate preparations to meet it. He marched northwards at the head of his army, [n] and confronted the enemies of his country at Moyrath, now Moira in the county of Down. Here was fought, in 637, one of the most sanguinary battles recorded in Irish history. It lasted for six successive days and terminated in the total defeat of the invaders. Congal fell fiercely fighting at the head of his forces; and his army was almost annihilated. An ancient Irish historical romance on this great battle has been translated and edited by John O’Donovan.

Again in 664 the terrible yellow plague swept over Ireland, after having desolated England from south to north. For three years it raged. Among its victims were the two joint kings of Ireland - Dermot and Blathmac - the king of Munster, and a vast number of ecclesiastics; and when it ceased, the annalists say that only a third of the people remained alive (see p.151).

The Irish kings had continued to exact the Boru tribute from the Leinstermen, who struggled manfully against it to the last, sometimes with signal success, and sometimes suffering disastrous defeats. On the accession of Fiuaghta the Festive, in 674, he likewise claimed the tribute; and when they resisted, he defeated them in battle at Logore in Meath. But the iniquity of the tax, and the evils resulting from it, seem at last to have revolted the public mind; for soon after, at the earnest solicitation of St. Moling, the monarch solemnly renounced the Boru for himself and his successors. At the close of this century (697). the Mordal or great convention of the

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chief men of Ireland both lay and clerical was held in Tara at the instance of St. Adamnan, who persuaded them to pass the very necessary law by which women were prohibited from taking part in wars (p.45).

The generous action of Finaghta did not end the Boru tribute. After the lapse of two reigns, the monarch Fergal, in spite of his predecessor’s solemn decision, demanded the tribute; and on refusal he raised an army of 21,000 men among theHy Neill to enforce his demand. The Leinster king, who had only 9,000 men, appears to have out-generalled the monarch. Anyhow in the battle that followed - which was fought in 722 at the historic hill of Allen in Kildare - the royal forces were utterly defeated, and king Fergal himself and 7,000 of his men were slain.

But not long afterwards the Leinstermen paid dearly for this victory. When Aed (or Hugh) Allen, the son of Fergall, became king, he lost no time in raising an army to avenge the defeat and death of his father. He engaged the Leinster army at Ath-Seanaigh [Ath-Shanny], now Ballyshannon in Kildare, and nearly exterminated them: A.D. 738. Nine thousand of their men fell: and Aed Mac Colgan, one of the princes who had led the Leinstermen at Allen sixteen years before, was slain in single combat by king Hugh.

In the next two chapters will be sketched the state of religion and learning during the early ages of the Irish Church: the Secular History will be resumed in Chapter VII.

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[Chief authorities for Chaps. V. and VI.:- Lanigan’s Eccl. Hist.; Most Rev. Dr. Healy’s Ireland’s Anc. Schools and Scholars; Todd’s St, Patk.; Miss Stokes’s Six Months in the Apennines; Reeves’s Adamnan, and Eccl. Antiq. of Down, Connor, and Dromore; Trip. Life of St. Patk. by Stokes; Martyrol. of Donegal; Cambrens. Eversus; Four Mast.; O’Curry’s MS. Mat. and Mann, and Cust.; Professor Stokes’s Ireland and the Celtic Church; Card. Moran’s Papers in 1st vol. of Trans. Ossory Arch. Soc.; Shearman’s Loc. Patriciana; Very Rev. Canon O’Hanlon’s Lives of the Irish Saints; Keating’s Hist, of Irel.; Brehon Laws.]

In ancient Ireland education and religion went hand in hand, so that in tracing their history it is impossible to separate them. There were indeed some primar]ely lay schools, but they were nearly all professional. By far the greatest part of the education of the country was carried on by, or under the direction of, priests and monks of the various orders, who combined religious with secular teaching. Before I proceed to give a particular account of the rise and progress of the Irish schools, it may be better to sketch the leading features of the ancient Irish educational systems so far as they are known to us.

The schools of Ireland were mainly of three classes: those carried on at the public expense; those in connection with monasteries; and schools kept by private individuals or families, which were mostly professional. At the convention of Drumketta, a.d. 574, an attempt was made to reorganise the system of public education. The scheme, which is described in detail by Keating, [1] was devised by the ard-ollave or chief poet of all Ireland, Dalian Forgaill, the author of the Amra on St. Columkille. There was to be a chief school or college for each of the five provinces; and under these a number of minor colleges, one in each tuath or cantred. They were all endowed with lands, and all persons who needed it should get free education in them. These schools were for general education: and it

1. Reign of Hugh Mac Ainmire: O’Mahony’s Keating, p.405.

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is probable that the heads of most of them were laymen. How far this special scheme was carried out and succeeded we are not told.

Of the monastic schools we have full information. These were seminaries founded by saints of the early Irish church, nearly all of whom were subsequently celebrated in the ecclesiastical history of the country. But though the teaching was mainly ecclesiastical, it was by no means exclusively so: for besides divinity, the study of the Scriptures, and classics, for those intended for the church, the students were instructed in Gaelic grammar and literature, history, arithmetic, astronomy, geometry, and music. Accordingly these schools were attended not only by ecclesiastical students, but also by numbers of young men not intended for the church, who came to get a good general education. [1] Sometimes, indeed, we find an eminent layman at the head of the professional staff of a college under ecclesiastical management: for example, Flann the annalist (p.27) - who died in 1056 - was fer-leginn or chief professor of the great school of Monasterboice; from which he is known to this day as Flann of the Monastery; and the poet Mac Cosse held a similar position a century earlier in the school of Ross Ailithir. And the minor positions were often held by lay teachers.

In the Book of Ballymote there is an interesting tract called the ‘Book of the Ollaves,’ which gives an account of the working of the schools. [2] According to this the whole course taught, including all the various branches - history, law, medicine, music, poetry, &c. - was called Filidecht or philosophy. It was divided into twelve stages, each stage for one year: thus the full course, of which the final stage was that for ollave or doctor in Filidecht, occupied twelve years. Before obtaining this the candidate had to gain several subordinate degrees one after another, like the successive degrees of a modern university. If a course of twelve years seems long, we must bear in mind, first that young persons did not begin

1. O’Curry, Mann. and Cust. i. 83, 170.
2. Ibid. i. 171, where the subjects for the several years are given.

their schooling till they were grown boys, so that the twelve years included the time for mere elementary education: and secondly, it was only those who advanced to the degree of ollave that remained the full time.

The ollave of Filidecht should be master of history, genealogy, and synchronisms: he should know the seven different species of poetry and the seven kinds of verse construction: and he should be able to improvise, i.e. to compose verses extempore on any subject proposed. He was to know by heart seven times fifty historical tales, so as to be able at a moment’s notice to recite any that happened to be called for, for the entertainment of chiefs and people at feasts and assemblies. [1] Certain smaller numbers of tales - from twenty upwards - were prescribed for the several subordinate degrees. A professor of one or more branches of Filidecht was file [filla]: but the word file was more commonly used to designate simply a poet. A Seanchaidhe [shanachy] or historian was a person specially learned in history, genealogy, and antiquities, and also skilled in reciting stories.

’Ollave’ was the title of the highest degree in any art or profession: thus we read of an ollave builder, an ollave goldsmith, an ollave physician, an ollave lawyer, and so forth, just as we have in modern times doctors of music, of philosophy, of medicine, &c. It would appear that in order to attain a special degree of this kind, a candidate had to exhibit his work to one or more eminent ollaves, and if the judgment were favourable, the king formally conferred the degree. A king kept at his court an ollave of each profession, whose stipends are laid down in the Brehon law. The law also set forth the exact remuneration for each particular work of an ollave. The special duty of the king’s shanachy was to keep a faithful record of the genealogy of the royal family and all its branches.

The head of a college, who had himself passed through and was supposed to know the whole course, was the Ferleginn or Drum-cli or chief professor. Under him were special professors - of history, of poetry, of grammar, of

1. Brehon Laws, i. 45.

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divinity, &c. - whose teaching and whose functions were more restricted. They were of various degrees of scholarship, according to the rank they had attained in the twelve-stage curriculum. Most of the learned men commemorated in our annals were teachers - either for life or for some time - in the schools.

Besides the two classes of schools already mentioned, there were, under laymen, many private secular schools - no doubt the representatives of the public schools of the time of Dalian Forgaill. Most of these were professional - for law, for medicine, for history and antiquities, &c. - subjects which were commonly taught by members of the same family for generations. In later times - towards the sixteenth century - many such schools flourished under the families of O’Mulconry, O’Coffey, Mac Egan, O’Clery, and others. Some were self-supporting; some were aided with grants of land by the chiefs of the districts. It would appear that a lay college generally comprised three distinct schools, held in three different houses near each other. The three schools traditionally said to have been founded by Cormac Mac Art are mentioned in Chap. II. page 132. St. Bricin’s College at Tomregan near Ballyconnell in Cavan, founded in the seventh century, comprised a school for law, one for classics, and one for poetry and general Gaelic learning - each school under a distinct fer-leginn or head professor. And coming down to a much later period, we know that in the fifteenth century the O’Clerys of Donegal kept three schools - namely, for literature, for history, and for poetry.

Besides schools for general education there were technical or professional schools taught by laymen. Campion, in 1571, notices those for law and medicine: ‘ They speake Latine like a vulgar tongue, learned in their common schools of leach-craft and law, whereat they begin [as] children, and hold on sixteene or twenty yeares, conning by roate the Aphorismes of Hypocrates and the Civill Institutions, and a few other parings of these two faculties.’ [1]

Many interesting particulars of the schools and of the

1. Campion, Historie of Ireland, ed. 1809, p.25.

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manner of life of the scholars have reached us. Some students lived in the houses of the people of the neighbourhood. A few resided in the college itself - those for instance who were literary foster children of the masters. When the scholars were very numerous they often lived in iittle houses built mostly by themselves around and near the school. The huts of the scholars of St. Movi of Glasnevin near Dublin extended along the banks of the river Tolka near the present bridge. The poorer scholars sometimes lived in the same houses with the rich ones, whom they waited on and served - often not so much through necessity as for an exercise of discipline - receiving in return food, clothing, and other necessaries. As illustrating this phase of school life an interesting story is told in the Life of King Finaghta the Festive. A little before his accession, he was riding one day towards Clonard with his retinue, when they overtook a boy with a jar of milk on his back. The youth attempting to get out of the way, stumbled and fell, and the jar was broken and the milk spilled. The cavalcade passed on without noticing him; but he ran after them in great affliction with a piece of the jar on his back, till at last he attracted the notice of the prince, who halted and questioned him in a good-humoured way. The boy not knowing whom he was addressing, told his story with amusing plainness: ‘Indeed, good man, I have much cause to be troubled. There are living in one house near the college three noble students, and three others that wait on them, of whom I am one; and we three attendants have to collect provisions in the neighbourhood in turn for the whole six. It was my turn to-day; and lo, what I have obtained has been lost; and this vessel which I borrowed has been broken, and I have not the means to pay for it.’

The prince soothed him, told him his loss should be made good, and promised to look after him in the future. This boy was Adamnan, subsequently a most distinguished man, ninth abbot of lona, and the wi-iter of the Life of St. Columba. The prince kept his word: and after he became king invited Adamnan to his court, where the

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rising young ecclesiastic became his trusted friend and spiritual adviser. [1]

There were no spacious lecture halls such as we have: the masters taught and lectured, and the scholars studied, very much in the open air, when the weather permitted. There were no prizes and no cramming for competitive examinations, for learning was pursued for its own sake. In every college there was a steward to manage food, fees, and other such matters. In all the schools, whether public or private, a large proportion of the students got both books and education free; but those who could afford it paid for everything.

It was the practice of many eminent teachers to compose educational poems embodying the leading facts of history or of other branches of instruction. These poems having been committed to memory by the scholars, were commented on and explained by their authors. Flann of Monasterboice followed this plan, and we have still a copy of one of his educational poems preserved in the Book of Lecan. He also used his synchronisms for the same purpose. In the Book of Leinster there is a curious geographical poem forming a sort of class-book of general geography, which was used in the great school of Ross Ailithir in Cork, written in the tenth century by Mac Cosse the ferleginn.’ [2] The reader need scarcely be reminded that teachers of the present day sometimes adopt the same plan, especially in teaching history. In all the schools the native Irish and Latin were carefully studied; and much of the historical literature that remains to us is a mixture of Latin and Gaelic, both languages being used with equal facility. Greek we know was also studied with success from a very early date. [3]

The sons of kings commonly attended the public colleges. But in case of kings of high rank, the young

1. O’Curry, Mann. and Cust. i. 79; Reeves, Adamnan, xlii.
2. Published with transl. by the Rev. Thomas Olden, in Proc. R. I. Acad. for 1879-1888, p.219.
3. See the paper on ‘The Knowledge of Greek in Ireland between a.d, 500 and 900,’ by the Rev. G. T. Stokes, D.D., in Proc. R. I. Acad. 1892, p.187.

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princes were generally educated at home: the teacher then resided at court and always took rank wdth the highest. Some of these tutors, when their pupils subsequently came to the throne, were advanced to high rank in the state. For example, when Hugh Ordnidhe [Ordnee] became king of Ireland, A.D. 797, he made his tutor - Fothad of the Canon (p.190) - his chief poet and counsellor.

The Brehon law took cognisance of the schools in several important particulars. It prescribed the studies for the several degrees. It laid down what seems a very necessary provision for the protection of the masters, that they should not be answerable for the misdeeds of their scholars except in one case only, namely, when the scholar was a foreigner and paid for his food and education. The masters had a claim on their literary foster children for support in old age, if poverty rendered it necessary; and in accordance with this provision, we find it recorded that St. Mailruan of Tallaght was tenderly nursed in his old age by his pupil Aengus the Culdee.

Men of learning were held in high estimation, and an ollave in Filidecht had several valuable privileges. He sat at table next to the king or next to the highest chief present. He had a standing income of ‘twenty-one cows and their grass’ in the territory of the chief of the district where he lived, besides many valuable special allowances. On his journeys he was attended by subordinate tutors, advanced pupils, and servants, for all of whom - to the number of twenty-four - he was allowed food and lodging; and he was not permitted to lodge in the house of anyone below the rank of flaith or noble. [1] A fugitive who fled to his presence was free from injury or arrest for the time, once the ollave’s wand of office was carried round and over him. Those of minor degrees had similar proportionate privileges which were strictly defined by law.

1. O’Curry, MS. Mat. 3.

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During the lifetime of St. Patrick there was extraordinary religious fervour in Ireland which lasted for several centuries, such as, probably, has never been witnessed in any other country. There gathered round the great apostle a crowd of holy and earnest men, who, when they passed away, were succeeded by others as holy and as earnest: and the long succession continued unbroken for centuries. To enter the ecclesiastical state and take an active part in the great religious movement was the ambition of the best intellects of the country. We have the lives of those men pictured in minute detail in our old writings: and it is impossible to look on them without feelings of wonder and admiration. They were wholly indiiferent to bodily comfort or to advancement in worldly prosperity. They traversed the country on foot and endured without flinching privations and dangers of every kind for the one object of their lives - to spread religion and civilisation among their rude countrymen. They carried, in a little sack strapped on the back, the few simple necessaries for their journey, or the books and other requisites for religious ministration; and when at home in their monasteries, many lived and slept in poor comfortless little houses, the remains of which may be seen to this day - places we should now hesitate to house our animals in. The lot of the poorest and hardest-worked labouring man of our time is luxury itself compared with the life of many of those noble old missionaries. But even these were left in the shade by those resolute Irishmen who went in crowds, in the seventh and eighth centuries, to preach the gospel to the half-savage, ferocious, and vicious people who then inhabited Gaul, North Italy, and Germp.nv.

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The spread of the faith suffered no check by bhe death of St. Patrick. Churches, monasteries, and convents continued to be founded all over the country, many under the patronage and at the expense of kings and chiefs. The founders of monasteries in Ireland may be said to have been of two classes. Those of the one class settled in the inhabited districts, and took on themselves and their monks the functions of education and religious ministration to the people of the neighbourhood and to those who came from a distance. Those of the other class gave themselves up to a life of prayer and contemplation; and these took up their abode in remote, lonely, uninhabited islands or mountain valleys, places generally hard to reach and often almost inaccessible. Here they lived with their little communities in cells, one for each individual, poor little places, mostly built by themselves, barely large enough to sit, stand, and sleep in. They supported themselves by their labour, lived on hard fare, slept on the bare floor, and occupied their spare time in devotions. There was a very pronounced tendency in Ireland to this solitary monastic life in the early Christian, ages; and the custom, which came originally from the East, extended to England and Scotland. On almost all the islands round the coast, as well as on those in the lakes and rivers - many of them mere bare rocks - the remains of churches and of primitive eremitical establishments are found to this day. But many who began life in this way had, as it were perforce, to turn to the active work of teaching. For the fame of their holiness and eminence spread abroad whether they would or no: and disciples crowded round them, till schools, and perhaps towns, arose in the lonely islands or desert valleys. This was the origin of the great monastic and scholastic establishments of Glendalough, Cork, Scattery, and Aran, as well as of those of several other places.

From the middle of the sixth century schools rapidly arose all over the country, most of them in connection with monasteries. The most celebrated were those of Clonard, Armagh, Bangor, Cashel, Downpatrick, Ross Ailithir now Rosscarbery, Lismore, Glendalough, Clonmacnoise, Monas-

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terboice, Clonfert, Glasnevin, and Begerin: these and others will be mentioned at the end of this chapter. But almost all the monasteries -and convents as well - carried on the function of teaching. Some had very large numbers of students: for instance, we are told that at one time there were 3,000 under St. Finnen at Clonard; and some other schools had as many. In those great seminaries every branch of knowledge then known was taught: they were in fact the prototypes of our modern universities. ‘We must neither overestimate nor depreciate these establishments. They undoubtedly were in advance of any schools existing on the Continent; and the list of books ])Ossessed by some of the teachers prove that their institutions embraced a considerable bourse of classical learning.’ [1]

In all the more important schools there were students from foreign lands, attracted by the eminence of the masters or by the facilities for quiet uninterrupted study. The greatest number came from Great Britain - they came in fleet-loads as Aldhelm bishop of Sherborne (a.d. 705 to 709) expresses it in his letter to his friend Eadfrid bishop of Lindisfarne, who had himself been educated in Ireland. [2] Many also were from the Continent. Among the foreign visitors were many princes: Aldfrid king of Northumbria and Dagobert II. king of France were both, when in exile in the seventh century, educated in Ireland. [3] It appears that Aldfrid while in Ireland was called Flann Finna; and there is still extant a very ancient Irish poem in praise of Ireland, said to have been composed by him: it has been translated by O’Donovan in the Dublin Penny Journal, vol. i. p.94, and metrically by J. Clarence Mangan. We get some idea of the numbers of foreigners from the ancient Litany of Aengus the Culdee, in which we find invoked many Romans, Gauls, Germans, Britons, and even Egyptians, all of whom died in Ireland. It is known that in times of persecution Egyptian monks fled

1. Richey’s Short Hist, of the Irish People, 1887, p.83.
2. Most Rev. Dr. Graves, in Trans. R. I. Acad. vol. xxx. p.100, quoting Ussher (Elrington’s ed.), iv. 448-451.
3. Lanigan Eccl. Hist. iii. 90, 100.

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to Ireland; and they have left in the country many traces of their influence. In the same Litany of Aengus mention is made of seven Egyptian monks buried in one place. [1] And in the Life of St. Senan we are told that at one time fifty Roman monks settled in Ireland in order to lead a quiet life of study and strict discipline. There is a passage in Venerable Bede’s Ecclesiastical History which corroborates the native records. Describing the ravages of the yellow plague in 664 he says:- ‘This pestilence did no less harm in the island of Ireland. Many of the nobility and of the lower ranks of the English nation were there at that time who in the days of Bishops Finan and Colman [abbots of Lindisfarne, p.166] forsaking their native island, retired thither, either for the sake of divine studies or of a more continent life: and some of them presently devoted themselves to a monastic life: others chose rather to apply themselves to study, going about from one master’s cell to another. The Scots willingly received them all, and took care to supply them with food, as also to furnish them with books to read, and their teaching, all gratis.’ [2] We know that one of the three divisions of the city of Armagh was called Trian-Saxon, the Saxon’s third, from the great number of Saxon students inhabiting it; and we learn incidentally also that in the eighth century seven streets of a town called Kilbally near Rahan in King’s County were wholly occupied by Galls or foreigners. [3]

How much respected were the Irish scholars of this period is exemplified in a correspondence of the end of the eighth century between the illustrious scholar Alcuin and Colcu the Fer-leginn or chief professor of Clonmacnoise, commonly known as Colcu the Wise. He was regarded as the most learned man of his time in Ireland, and we have extant a beautiful Irish prayer composed by him. [4] Alcuin in his letters expresses extraordinary respect for him, styles him ‘Most holy father,’ calls himself his son, and

1. Dr. Graves, in Proc. R. I. Acad. 1884, p.280. Observe the Litany of Aengus is to be distinguished from his Feiliré.
2. Eccl. Hist. iii. chap, xxvii. Bohn’s Translation.
3. Petrie, Round Towers. 355.
4. O’Curry, MS. Mat. B79.

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sends him presents for charitable purposes, some from himself and some from his great master Charlemagne. [1] In the course of three or four centuries from the time of St. Patrick Ireland became the most learned country in Europe: and it came to be known by the name now so familiar to us - Insula sanctorum et doctorum^ the Island of saints and scholars.

Great numbers of Irishmen went to teach and to preach the gospel in Great Britain, Wales, and Scotland. St. Aidan, an Irish monk from lona, went to Northumbria on the invitation of king Oswald - who had himself lived for some time as an exile in Ireland - and founded the monastery of Lindisfarne, which became so illustrious in after ages. For thirty years - 634 to 664 - this monastery was governed by him and by two other Irish bishops, Finan and Colman, in succession. Bede has an interesting passage in which he tells us that as Aidan on his arrival in Northumbria was only imperfectly acquainted with the language, king Oswald, who had learned the Irish while in Ireland, often acted as his interpreter to the people. [2] There is good reason to believe that Cuthbert of Lindisfarne, one of the most illustrious of the saints of Britain, was a native of Ireland.

On every side we meet with evidences of the activity of the Irish in Great Britain. Scotland was evangelised by St. Columba and his monks from lona, and the whole western coasts of England and Wales abound in memorials of Irish missionaries. Numbers of the most illustrious of the Irish saints studied and taught in the monastery of St. David in Wales; and it was under the tuition of the Irish monks of Glastonbury that the genius of St. Dunstan was developed and his learning perfected. [3] ‘Many of the Scots came daily into Britain, and with great devotion preached the word to those provinces of the English over which king Oswald reigned.’ [4] We may conclude the

1. Lanigan, iii. 229. Eccl. Hist. iii. chaps, iii. and xxv.
2. See the series of Papers on ‘Early Irish Missionaries in Britain,’ by the Most Rev. Dr. Moran, in vol. i. of Trans, of Ossory Arch. Soc.
3. Bede, iii. chap. vii.

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remarks on this head with the words of Mr. Lecky: ‘England owed a great part of her Christianity to Irish monks who laboured among her people before the arrival of St. Augustine.’ [1]

Whole crowds of ardent and learned Irishmen travelled to the Continent, spreading Christianity and secular knowledge among people ten times more rude and dangerous in those ages than the inhabitants of these islands. ‘What,’ says Eric of Auxerre (ninth century), ‘what shall I say of Ireland, who despising the dangers of the deep, is migrating with almost her whole train of philosophers to our coasts?’ [2] Irish professors and teachers were in those times held in such estimation that they were employed in most of the schools and colleges of Great Britain, France, Germany, and Italy. The revival of learning on the Continent was indeed due in no small degree to those Irish missionaries; and the investigations of scholars among the continental libraries are every year bringing to light new proofs of their industry and zeal for the advancement of religion and learning. To this day, in many towns of France, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy, Irishmen are venerated as patron saints. Nay, they found their way even to Iceland; for we have the best authority for the statement that when the Norwegians first arrived at that island, they found there Irish books, bells, croziers, and other traces of Irish missionaries, whom the Norwegians called Papas. [3]

The organisation of the Irish church was modelled on that of society in general: it was tribal. Bishops and priests did not receive authority over districts as now; they were attached to tribes, clans, churches, and monasteries. ‘In Patrick’s Testament [it is decreed] that there be a chief bishop for every chief tribe in Ireland, to ordain ecclesiastics, to consecrate churches, and for the

1. Hist, of Irel. in ISth Cent. i. 2. See also the three instructive chapters xvi. xvii. and xVIII of Lynch’s Camhi-ensis Eversus.
2. Moore, Hist, of Irel. i. 299.
3. Moore Hist, of Irel. ii. 3, 4. For a full and very interesting account of the vestiges of Irish saints in North Italy, see the recent work, Six Months in the Ardennines, by Miss Margaret Stokes.

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spiritual direction of princes, superiors, and ordained persons.’ [1] The territorial jurisdiction of the clergy over dioceses and parishes, such as we have now, did not exist in the ancient Irish church: this was introduced early in the twelfth century. As the episcopate was not limited, bishops were much more numerous in those early times than subsequently.

The reciprocal obligations of clergy and laity as we find it laid down in the Brehon law resemble those of chief and people. The law says: The right of a church from the people is: 1. Tithes; 2. First fruits, i.e. the first of the gathering of every new produce, and every first calf and every first lamb that is brought forth in the year; 3. Firstlings, i.e. the first son born after marriage (who was to enter religion) and the first-born male of all milk-giving animals. On the other hand the rights of the people from the clergy were ‘baptism, and Communion, and requiem of soul’: that is to say, spiritual ministration in general. [2]

The head of a monastery was both abbot and chief over the community. For spiritual direction and for the higher spiritual functions, a bishop was attached to every large monastery and nunnery. The abbot, in his capacity of chief, had jurisdiction over the bishop; but in the spiritual capacity he was under the bishop’s jurisdiction. But the abbot himself might be a bishop; in which case no other bishop was necessary.

The mode of electing a successor to an abbot strongly resembled that for the election of chief. He should be chosen from the fine or family of the patron saint; if for any reason this was impossible, then from the tribe in general; and if none were found fit in these two, one of the monks was to be elected. [3] One consequence of the tribal organisation was a tendency to hereditary succession in ecclesiastical or semi-ecclesiastical oflSces, as in the professions. The oflRce of erenach for instance was hereditary; and in times of confusion - during the Danish

1. Tripartite Life by Stokes, clxxxii.
2 Brehon Laws, iii. 33, 30.
3. Ibid. iii. 78, 75.

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disturbances - the offices of bishop and abbot were kept in the same family for generations. Nay even laymen often succeeded to both; but this was in the capacity of chief; and they sometimes had the tonsure of the minor orders, so that they got the name of clerics. But such men had properly ordained persons to discharge the spiritual functions.

The Irish word comorba, commonly Englished coarb, means an heir or successor: but it was usually applied to the inheritor of a bishopric, abbacy, or other ecclesiastical dignity. Thus the archbishop of Armagh is the coarb of St. Patrick; the archbishop of Dublin the coarb of St. Laurence O’Toole; the bishop of Ardagh is the coarb of St. Mel; the abbot of Glendalough was the coarb of St. Kevin; and the pope is often called the coarb of St. Peter. The coarbs were sometimes laymen, as already mentioned.

The lands belonging to a church or monastery were usually managed by an officer called an erenach or herenach, who, after deducting his own stipend, gave up the residue for the purposes intended - the support of the church or the relief of the poor. It was generally understood to be the duty of the erenach to keep the church clean and in proper repair, and the grounds in order. There were erenachs in connection with nearly all the monasteries and churches; mostly laymen.

The term culdee, which literally means servant of God, was often applied in Ireland to monks to indicate a very rigid observance of monastic rule; but it was not used to designate any particular order of monks.

From very early times there was a difference between the East and the West as to the mode of calculating the time for Easter, so that it often happened that it was celebrated at different times at Rome and at Alexandria. The Roman method of computation, which was afterwards found to be incorrect, was brought to Ireland by St. Patrick in 432; and was carried to Britain and Scotland by the Irish missionaries. Many years after St. Patrick’s arrival in Ireland, Pope Hilary caused a more correct method to be adopted at Rome, which it was intended

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should be followed by all other Christian countries. But from the difficulty of communicating with Rome in those disturbed times, the Christians of Great Britain and Ireland knew nothing of this reformation, and continued to follow their own old custom: and when St. Augustine and his companions came to England about the year 600, they were much surprised and disturbed to find the people celebrating Easter at a wrong time.

The correct rule then as now was this. The day for the Easter festival is regulated by the 14th day of the moon, viz. that particular 14th day that comes first after the vernal equinox (21st March): the first Sunday after that day is Easter Sunday. The Irish custom as brought by St. Patrick was incorrect in two ways. First, by the mode of calculating the moon’s age, the day of new moon, and by consequence the 14th day, were often placed wrong: secondly, if the 14th day that comes next after the vernal equinox happened to fall on a Sunday, they made that Sunday Easter day, though it should be the Sunday following. This was the custom as handed down to them from the great and venerated apostles St. Patrick and St. Columba, which they steadfastly refused to change notwithstanding the exhortations of St. Augustine.

At this time St. Columbanus was in France, where he and his monks celebrated Easter in accordance with his native custom. This brought on him the censures of the Gallican bishops, whereupon he wrote two letters in succession - in 601 and 603 - one to the pope and the other to the bishops, defending the Irish practice with great learning and spirit: and having received no directions on the point, he continued his own custom to the last.

In 609 Laurence archbishop of Canterbury, St. Augustine’s successor, wrote to the Irish bishops and abbots, exhorting "them to change, but without effect. At last the attention of the pope, Honorius I., was called to the matter; and in 630 he wrote an admonitory letter to ‘the nation of the Scots,’ calling on them to adopt the Roman method. On the receipt of this letter a synod was held at Moylena in 630, where Cummian, an Irish monk

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from Zona, pleaded so powerfully for the correct Roman method that they were on the point of adopting it, when ‘some mischievous person rose up and roused the Irish prejudices of the assembly, and the proceedings were adjourned. Soon after, another synod was held at a place called Campus Albus near Carlo w, where the matter was still left undecided. But now it was determined - in accordance with the rule of St. Patrick (p.144, note) - to send a deputation of wise and learned persons to Rome, ‘as children to their mother.’ Meantime Cummian brought on himself the censures of the abbot and monks of the monastery of lona, for the part he had taken; and he wrote a letter to the abbot, defending himself and arguing in favour of the Roman method. This letter is still preserved and exhibits great learning and eloquence.

At the end of three years, in 633, the messengers returned and declared that the custom of Rome was the custom of the world; for they had there seen Christians of all nations celebrating Easter on the same day, which, in that particular year, differed from that of the Irish by an entire month. The result of this was that the people of Leth Mow - the southern half of Ireland - immediately adopted the Roman method. But lona and Leth Conn had too much reverence for Columba to make a change, and they still clung tenaciously to their old custom. It was also retained at Lindisfarne through the influence of the Irish bishops of the place. Still the controversy was kept up; and when the celebrated conference held at Whitby in 664 decided in favour of the Roman method, Colman bishop of Lindisfarne, who was present, resigned the government of the monastery rather than abandon the Irish custom, and returned to Ireland with all the Irish monks of the establishment and about thirty of the English. At the close of the century Adamnan the ninth abbot of lona attempted to bring his fraternity to the Roman method, but without success. He was successful however in the north of Ireland: and now lona alone stood out. At length they yielded even here, about the year 716, and thus terminated an observance that had lasted for a centurv

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and a half, and which, though the question was comparatively unimportant, had given rise to more earnest controversy than any other during the early ages of the church in these countries.

For three or four hundred years after the time of St. Patrick the monasteries - protected and fostered by kings and chiefs - were unmolested; and as we have seen, learning was cultivated within their walls. In the ninth and tenth and the beginning of the eleventh century, science and art, the Gaelic language, and learning of every kind, were brought to their highest state of perfection. But. after this came a change for the worse. The Danish inroads broke up most of the schools and disorganised all society. Then the monasteries were no longer the quiet and safe asylums they had been - they became indeed rather more dangerous than other places; learning and art gradually declined; and Ireland ultimately lost her intellectual supremacy.

Here follows a short account of some of the most eminent early Irish saints and of the establishments they founded. Only a few of those who distinguished themselves in foreign countries are noticed: it would take a volume to treat of them all.

St. Benen or Benignus of Kilbennan, the special patron saint of Connaught, was born in Bregia about the year 426. When a mere boy he became a pupil and disciple of St. Patrick; who sent him, when qualitied, to preach and baptise in those districts which he himself was not able to visit.

Having governed the monastery of Drumlease in Leitrim for twenty years, he erected his principal church at Kilbennan (Benen’s church), which became the nucleus of a monastery that flourished for many centuries. Its ruins, including a round tower, are still to be seen two miles from Galway. Benen succeeded St. Patrick as archbishop of Armagh in 465, and died in 468. He was one of the committee of nine who drew up the Senchus Mor (p.41); and he was the original compiler of the Psalter of Cashel and of the Book of Rights. He also wrote a book on the life and miracles of St. Patrick.

St. Fiacc of Sleaty was the son of Ere, of a distinguished family of Leinster. When yoiinof he beoamp n disciple of

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Duftach the archpoet, converted by St. Patrick at Tara. When St. Patrick visited Leinster, Fiacc was introduced to him by Duftach, and was directed by the saint how to carry on his studies. He afterwards became chief bishop of Leinster, and fixed his see at Sleaty, where he presided over a monastery and a school. He was held in high estimation and had many disciples. There is a well-known very ancient Gaelic hymn in praise of St. Patrick, which some think was composed by him. Sleaty now contains the ruins of a church and some ancient crosses.

St. Mel of Ardagh, was born in Britain early in the fifth century. By some he is represented as the son of St. Patrick’s sister Darerca: at any rate he became a disciple of the great apostle, and aided him in his Irish mission. He was appointed by St. Patrick to Ardagh, where he built a monastery and became its first bishop and abbot. Died in 488. Ardagh, which lies six miles from Longford, now contains the ruins of a very ancient church.

St. Cianan, Keenan, or Kienan, of Duleek, was born of a distinguished family, probably in Meath. He was consecrated bishop by St, Patrick, who also gave him a copy of the Gospels. He was the founder of Duleek in Meath, five miles south-west from Drogheda, and died in 490. The name Duleek signifies stone church: and it is stated that this was the first stone church ever erected in Ireland.

St. Ibar of Begerin was born in Ulster of the Dalaradian race. Having followed St. Patrick as disciple for a long time, and travelled through parts of Munster and Leinster, and having been for some time in charge of St. Brigit’s community at Kildare, he finally settled on the little island of Begerin (i.e. Little Ireland) near the north shore of Wexford Harbour, two miles from Wexford town. Here he established a seminary to which the youth of Leinster flocked for instruction. He died in 500; and the monastery he founded flourished for many centuries afterwards. Begerin, which is now surrounded by reclaimed land, contains the ruins of a church and some ancient crosses.

St. Ailbe of Emly, a native of Munster, became a priest at a very early age, and travelled through Ireland, making many converts. While St. Patrick was at Cashel with king Aengus Mac Natfree he ordained Ailbe a bishop - the first bishop of Emly - and made him the ecclesiastical head of all Munster. Ailbe however being very gentle and humble, greatly disliked

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his increasing reputation, and resolved to retire to a monastery. But king Aengus refused to let him go, whereupon he settled down at Emly, where he founded a monastery and established a school, and spent the rest of his life labouring incessantly for the good of religion and learning.

Ailbe was looked upon as the most illustrious saint of Munster, so that he was often styled a second Patrick; and to this day the people of that province regard him with extraordinary respect and affection. In after ages the students of the school became very numerous, and Emly grew to be a city; but it is now only a little hamlet.

St. Declan of Ardmore, a contemporary of St. Ailbe, was the son of Ere prince of the Decies. While yet a young man he obtained such reputation for learning that several disciples placed themselves under his instruction, some of whom themselves afterwards became famous. He was consecrated a bishop, and ultimately settled at Ardmore. He is the patron of the people of Decies, who hold him to this day in great veneration. Ardmore, where the establishment founded by the saint flourished for ages, is a small village on the sea coast five miles from Youghal. It contains the remains of a very old church, and near it a well-preserved round tower: also Declan’s oratory or dormitory, one of the smallest ecclesiastical buildings in Ireland.

St. Mochta or Mocteus of Louth, a native of Britain, was a disciple of St. Patrick. He founded a church and monastery and carried on a school at Louth in the county Louth, and while governing here was consecrated bishop. He was probably the last survivor of St. Patrick’s disciples: died in 534.

St. Brigit of Kildare was born about the year 455 at Paughart near Dundalk, where her father, who was chief of the district, lived. She became a nun when very young: and soon the fame of her sanctity spread through the whole country. Having founded convents in various parts of Ireland, she finally settled - about the year 480 - at a place in Leinster then called Drumcree. Here she built her first cell under the shade of a great oak-tree, whence it got the name of Kill-dara the church of the oak, now Kildare. This became the greatest and most famous nunnery ever established in Ireland. She died on the 1st of February 523; and the oak-tree, which she loved, was preserved there affectionately for several hundred years after. St. Brigit is venerated in Ireland beyond all other Irishwomen; and there are places

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all through the country still called Kilbride and Kilbreedy (Brigit’s church), which received their names from churches founded by or in honour of her.

St. End a or Endeus of Aran was the son of Conall, prince of Oriell in Ulster, where he was born about the middle of the fifth century. He was at first a soldier, and being distinguished for courage, was chosen tanist to succeed his father; but he gave up his worldly prospects for the sake of religion. He studied for some time in Britain; and having, after his return to Ireland, founded some churches near Drogheda, he finally settled on the great island of Aran in Galway Bay, where he erected a number of churches all over the island. Died about 542. 80 great was the number of learned and holy men who lived then and after on this island that it came to be called Ara-na-naemh [naive], Aran of the saints; and the ruins of many churches and other ecclesiastical buildings are still to be seen scattered over the island.

St. Ciaran or Kieran of Ossory was born on the island of Cape Clear, but his father belonged to Ossory. Having spent some time under the instruction of St. Einnen of Clonard, he founded a monastery in a solitary spot near Birr which still bears his name - Seirkieran. Here he became a bishop and founded the see of Ossory, of which he is the patron saint. Several other churches owe their origin to him, and he is much venerated in Ossory as well as in Cape Clear Island. On the sea shore of this island stands the ruin of a little church, and near it a rude stone cross said to have been made by the saint’s own hands. The exact times of his birth and death are unknown; but he was contemporary with St. Finnen of Clonard, and his death probably occurred soon after 550.

It was formerly believed that the four saints Ibar, Ailbe, Declan, and Kieran (of Ossory) preceded St. Patrick in Ireland; but this opinion is now known to be erroneous.

St. Einnen of Clonard was born in Leinster towards the close of the fifth century, and like several other Irish saints, he spent some time in early life in Britain, teaching and preaching the gospel. After his return he founded churches in several parts of Leinster; and at last settled at Clonard, a lovely quiet spot on the Boyne. Here he founded his chief monastery and kept a school, and here he became bishop and abbot. He was a great and learned man - the first of that long line of great scholars who made Ireland famous in those* ages - and crowds of students flocked to him, so that at one

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time he had 3,000 scholars, and Clonard became the most celebrated of the ancient schools of Ireland. Many of the most illustrious fathers of the Irish church were educated by him, among them being the ‘Twelve Apostles of Erin.’ Ho is called in O’Clery’s Calendar ‘a doctor of wisdom and the tutor of the saints of Ireland in his time.’ He died of the yellow plague in 549. The spot where St. Finnen’s great establishment stood is a beautiful green meadow beside the Boyne; and of all the buildings erected there in old times, not the slightest vestige now remains.

N.B. The ‘Twelve Apostles of Erin were: Kieran of Saigher or Seir Kieran; Kieran of Clonmacnoise; Columkille of Iona; Brendan of Clonfert; Brendan of Birr; Columba of Terryglass in Tipperary; Molaisse or Laserian of Devenish; Canice of Aghaboe; Rodan of Lorrha; Movi of Glasnevin; Sinnell of Cleenish in Lough Erne, near Enniskillen; and St. Nenni of Inishmacsaint in Lough Erne.

St. Ciaran or Kieran of Clonmacnoise, commonly known as Kieran the son of the carpenter, was born in Meath in or about the year 515. He lived with and studied under several saints - among them SS. Finnen of Clonard, Enda of Aran, and Senan of Scattery. After this he proceeded to Inis-Angin, now called Hare Island, in the south of Lough Ree, where he founded a monastery. In 548 he received a grant of a piece of land in a wild and lonely spot on the eastern bank of the Shannon, from Dermot the son of Fergus (p.151), king of Ireland, where with his own hand he laid the foundation stone of his principal monastery. The following year (549) he died in the prime of manhood. Though dying so young, and though he had not attained the rank of bishop, Ciaran was one of the most illustrious of the early Irish saints; and he is greatly venerated not only in Ireland but in Scotland.

Clonmacnoise increased and flourished for many centuries after the founder’s death; and it became a great school for both clerical and lay pupils. The ruins, which include many churches and two round towers, stand on a height over the Shannon; and like several other collections of ecclesiastical ruins in Ireland, they are popularly called The Seven Churches.

St. Ita, or Ida, or Mida, of Killeedy was born about 480, of the tribe of the Decies. She was remarkable from childhood -for her gentleness and piety; and when she came of age she obtained her parents’ consent to adopt a religious life. After

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having received the veil she proceeded to the territory of Hy Conaill in Limerick, and fixed her residence at a spot called Cloon-Credhuil [Crail]. Here a large number of pious maidens placed themselves under her direction. In this manner sprang up her nunnery, which was the first in that part of the country, and which attained to great celebrity: and the name of the place was changed to Killeedy (St. Ida’s church). Under her other name of Mida she is commemorated in those churches and places now called Kilmeedy in Cork, Limerick and Waterford. She died in 569. St. Ita was one of the most illustrious saints of an age abounding in illustrious men and women; so that she was often designated the Brigit of Munster.

Killeedy lies near Newcastle in the west of the co. Limerick, and at the present day contains St. Ita’s Well, and the ruin of a very ancient and exquisitely beautiful little church.

St. Brendan of Clonfert, commonly called Brendan the Navigator, to distinguish him from another Brendan, was the son of Finloga, and was born in Kerry in 484. In very early life he was educated by St. Ita and afterwards by Bishop Ere. Having heard from many persons that there was an island far out in the western sea, he sailed from near Brandon Mountain in Kerry (which is named from him), on his celebrated voyage of seven years in the Atlantic, in which it is related that he saw many wonderful things.

On his return he founded the monastery of Clonfert in Galway in 558, where a large community of monks gathered round him. He also founded a church in Ardfert in Kerry, and several other religious houses: at one time he presided over 3,000 monks, who supported themselves by their labour in their several monasteries. He died in 577 in his sister’s nunnery at Annadown in Galway, which had been founded by him. Immediately after Brendan’s death Clonfert became a bishopric, and was for many centuries one of Ireland’s great ecclesiastical centres.

St. Senan or Senanus of Scattery, the patron saint of Clare, was born in that district in or about 488. Having studied under St. Natalis of Kilmanagh (in Kilkenny), he established his first monastery at Inniscarra on the Lee above Cork, where he lived with his monks for some time. He settled finally - about 540 - in Inis-Cathaigh [Cahy], now Scattery Island in the Shannon near Kilrush

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Here gathered round him a community which was distinguished for its strict discipline. One of the rules was that no female should land on the island; and it is related in his Life that when St. Cannera, a virgin saint nearly related to him, came to Scattery to receive the viaticum from him, he at tirst refused to let her land; and only yielded when he was informed that she was at the jDoint of death.

St. Kieran of Clonmacnoise visited him here, and remained some time under his instructions. At his death, which occurred probably about 560, the clergy of all the neighbouring districts gathered to Scattery to honour his memory, and his obsequies were celebrated for an entire week. Scattery Island contains one of the most interesting groups of ecclesiastical ruins in Ireland, consisting of six or seven churches and a perfect round tower.

St. Brendan of Birr belonged to a distinguished family of Munster. In his youth he was educated at St. Finnen’s school of Clonard, where he formed friendship with St. Columkille, the two Kierans, and Brendan of Clonfert. About the middle of the sixth century he founded a monastery at Birr, which he governed till his death in 573.

St. larlath of Tuam was the son of Loga, of the Connaught family of Conmacne, and was born about the beginning of the sixth century. He first established a monastery at a place called Cloon-fois near Tuam; but by the advice of St. Brendan of Clonfert he removed to Tuam, of which he was the first bishop. Tuam subsequently became an archieiDiscopal see, which it has remained to this day.

St. Finnen or Fimibarr of Movilla was born of Christian parents, of the royal family of Ulster, about the beginning of the sixth century. He first studied under Irish teachers of eminence, after which he went to St. NenniO’s school in Britain. He next went to Rome, where he remained for seven years; and returning to Ireland he founded his establishment at Movilla. Here he governed and taught with great success; and among his pupils was the youthful Columkille. He became a bishop, and has always been regarded as the patron saint of Ulidia: died in the year 579. Movilla lies near Newtownards, and there are still some remains of the old abbey.

St. Molaissi [Molasha] or Laserian of Devenish, son of Natfree, was a native of Connaught, and was one of the most distinguished pupils of St. Finnen of Clonard. After leaving

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Clonard he founded a monastery on Devenish Island in Lower Lough Erne, which became very famous. He died in 574 at the early age of thirty. The little island of Devenish lies two miles below Enniskillen. It contains a beautiful and perfect round tower and the ruins of several churches.

St. Fachtna of Rosscarbery, designated Sapiens or the Wise, was born in the early half of the sixth century. He was abbot of Molana or Darinis on the Blackwater near Lismore after which he founded a monastery at Ross, now Rosscarbery, in Cork, where he became a bishop, probably before 570. Ross became a place of great ecclesiastical and educational eminence ‘, and it was so famous for the crowds of students and monks flocking to it, that it was distinguished by the name of Ros-ailithir, the wood of the pilgrims.

St. Molaissi [Molasha] or Laserian of Inishmurray, the son of Deglan, was a contemporary of St. Columba and somewhat his senior, and we are told that it was he who enjoined on him to undertake the conversion of the Picts. In the early part of the sixth century he founded a monastery on the island of Inishmurray in Sligo Bay. He is to this day held in intense veneration by the people of the island; and the remains of his primitive monastery still survive in a most interesting state of preservation.’

St. Columba or Columkille of lona was born in the year 521 at Gartan in Donegal. He belonged to the northern Hy Neill (p.134), his father being grandson of Conall Gulban, son of Niall of the Nine Hostages; but he gave up all the worldly advantages of his high birth, and from an early age determined to devote himself to religion. He studied first under St. Finnen of Movilla, next under St. Finnen of Clonard, by whom he was ordained; and lastly under St. Mobhi [Movi] of Glasnevin. In the year 546 he built the monastery of Deny; after which, during the next fifteen years, he founded a great number of churches and monasteries all over the country, among others those of Kells, Swords, Tory Island, Lambay near Dublin, and Durrow in Queen’s County, the last of which was his chief establishment in Ireland.

In the year 563 he went with twelve companions to the little island of lona on the west coast of Scotland, which had been granted to him by his relative the king of that part of

1. A full description of this interesting island and its ruins, by W. F. Wakeman, will be found in the Kilkenny Arch. Journ. for 1885-6, p.175.

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Scotland. Here he settled and founded the monastery which afterwards became so illustrious. He converted the Picts, who then inhabited that part of Scotland lying beyond the Grampian Hills; and he traversed the Hebrides, preaching to the people and founding churches wherever he went. After a life of unceasing labour in the service of religion, he died kneeling before the altar of his own church of lona, in the year 597, in the seventy-sixth year of his age, and was buried within the monastery (see pp.19, 20, 121, 152).

St. Fintan or Munna of Clonenagh was born in Leinster in the early part of the sixth century. While still a young man he founded his monastery at Clonenagh in a fertile spot surrounded by bog and marsh - about the year 548. Here he gathered round him a community of monks, who lived under very severe discipline, and supported themselves by labour. St. Fintan was held in great esteem by St. Columkille; and several distinguished Irish saints were for a time under his instruction at Clonenagh. He died some time near the end of the sixth century. Clonenagh lies between Maryborough and Mountrath, two miles from the latter: it now contains a single, not very ancient, church ruin; but the place is known as the Seven Churches of Clonenagh. St. Fintan is still profoundly reverenced round all that neighbourhood.

St. Cainnech, Kenny, or Canice, of Aghaboe was a contemporary and friend of St. Columba, and was born in Keenaght in Derry in 517. In his youth he spent some years studying in Scotland, where several churches are still named from him: he also studied under St. Finnen at Clonard and under St. Movi at Glasnevin. He founded many churches in Ireland, the principal one being Aghaboe in Queen’s County: in the monastery here he spent the latter part of his life, and died in 600. The original church of Kilkenny was dedicated to and named from him (Canice’s Church). In course of time the bishops of Ossory took up their residence at Aghaboe, though in later times they have resided at Kilkenny. Aghaboe lies five miles east of Borris-in-Ossory, and still contains extensive and interesting abbey and church ruins.

St. Comgall of Bangor was born in Dalaradia in 517, of a distino-uished family. When he had determined to embrace a religious life, he left his home and entered the monastery of St. Fintan at Clonenagh, where he studied for several years. Returning to Ulster, he founded his monastery at Bangor in 558. Bangor soon became a great school like Clonard; its

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fame spread through all Europe; and Comgall had 3,000 monks and students under his instruction and obeying his rule. Among his pupils was the great St. Columbanus. After the foundation of Bangor, Comgall visited Scotland, where he founded a church and did some good missionary service; and before his return he spent some time with St. Columkille in lona. He died in Bangor in 602.

After the suppression of the monasteries the ecclesiastical buildings of Bangor were destroyed; and scarcely anything now remains to remind the visitor of this once celebrated seat of learning. The Antiphonary or Latin Hymn Book used in the early ages of Bangor is still preserved in the monastery of Bobbio; it was printed in the last century by Muratori.

St. Kevin of Glendalough belonged to one of the leading families of Leinster, where he was born early in the sixth century. He was carefully educated by his parents, who were Christians, and having been ordained priest, he retired to the lonely valley of Glendalough, where he founded his chief establishment some time in the first half of the century. He governed here as abbot till his death, which took place a.d, 618. After the death of the founder many churches were built in the valley; and a city arose there which became a bishop’s see and remained so till a.d. 1214, when it was annexed to the see of Dublin. The place now contains a most interesting group of ecclesiastical ruins, scattered over the lower part of the valley, including several churches, two round towers, and some crosses; the whole group is commonly called the Seven Churches of Glendalough.

St. Colman of Cloyne, the son of Lenin, was descended from the kings of Munster, and was born early in the sixth century. In his youth he was a poet attached to the court of the king of Cashel: but having resolved to devote his life to religion he went to the school of St. larlath at Tuam; and after some time he founded Cloyne, of which he became the first bishop: died in 604. Cloyne is still a bishop’s see, and contains some interesting ruins, among them a fine round tower.

St. Mobhi [Movie] or Movi of Glasnevin, also called Berchan, and often Mobhi Clarinech (flat-face), was a contemporary of St. Columba and studied with him under St. Finnen of Clonard. He founded a monastery and kept a school at Glasnevin near Dublin. Here he was visited by St. Columba, who found 50 students in the school, among them St. Canice, St. Comgall, and St. Kieran of Clonmacnoise. The establish

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ment, which consisted of a little church with a number of huts or cells for residences, was situated on both banks of the river Tolka near the present bridge at Glasnevin: but every vestige has long since disappeared. St. Mobhi died in 545 of the terrible yellow plague (p.151). The monastery flourished for more than 300 years afterwards, for the annalists record the death of an abbot of Glasnevin in 882.

St. Columbanus of Bobbio, one of the most illustrious men of the age in which he lived, was born in Leinster about the year 543, and while still a mere boy gave promise of great abilities. In early life he embraced the monastic state, and placed himself under the instruction of St. Comgall of Bangor, with whom he I’emained many years. He had a great ambition to carry a knowledge of the gospel to foreign countries: and accordingly he went to Burgundy about the year 590, with twelve companions, and journeying through France, preached the gospel with great success to the Gauls, then sunk in barbarism and vice. Sojourning for some time at Luxeuil, at the foot of the Vosges Mountains in France, his eloquence and holiness of life attracted round him many disciples - the greater number of them young noblemen - for whom he founded the two monasteries of Luxeuil and Fontaines. I have already spoken of his controversy with the continental ecclesiastics about the time of celebrating Easter (p.170). He got into much more serious trouble by boldly rebuking Theodoric the king of Burgundy for his vices; for which he was persecuted and ultimately expelled (in 610), chiefly through the influence of Theodoric’s wicked old grandmother Brunehild, who had encouraged the prince in his vices. After many wanderings, during which he preached the gospel with undaunted courage, and wrote learned letters on various religious questions, he settled finally - in 613 - at Bobbio in Italy, among the Apennines, on a site granted to him by Agilulf king of the Lombards, by whom he was held in great honour. He died at Bobbio in 615, where he was buried. We have still extant a number of his writings - letters, sermons, poems, &c. - which show him to have been a good and holy man, full of genius and deeply versed in many branches of learning. As he was near fifty years of age when he went to the Continent, and as he had neither time nor opportunity to study during his active and stormy life there, he must have brought his great learning from the old monastery of Bangor.

St. Grail or Gallus of St. Gall in Switzerland, was one of the

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twelve companions who went with St. Columbanus to the Continent. At a place called Breganz in Switzerland, where they rested for a year in their wanderings, Gallus at the request of his master broke a number of idols, and understanding the language of the people he preached and converted many; after which a monastery was erected there. Gallus was ill when Columbanus left in 612 for Bobbio, so that he was left behind. Shortly afterwards he built a cell for himself in a solitary spot, where he died about 645. He was so revered for his holiness that a church and a monastery were afterwards erected on the spot, round which grew up a town which still retains the name of the founder, St. Call, He is the patron of the place, and his memory is greatly venerated to this day.

St. Finnbarr or Barra of Cork was a native of Connaught. Like many other early Irish saints, he visited Scotland, where he left his name on the island of Barra, of which, as well as of Dornoch, he is the patron. In Ireland he founded his first establishment in the wild solitude of Gougane Barra at the source of the Lee in Cork; where notwithstanding the remoteness of the spot many disciples gathered round him. On a little island in the lake the remains of the humble cells in which he and his monks and disciples lived are still to be seen. After some time he removed to the mouth of the Lee and founded a monastery on the edge of a marsh near the river, to which young men flocked in great numbers for instruction. Around this monastery the city of Cork gradually grew up in after ages. He died early in the seventh century, and his name is preserved in that of the cathedral and parish of St. Pinnbar’s in the city of Cork.

St. Aldan or Maidoc of Ferns was born about the year 555 in the present co. Cavan. While still a mere youth he went to Wales to St. David, under whom he studied for a long time. Returning to his native country with a number of Irish students, he landed in Wexford and founded several churches in the present counties of Wexford and Waterford. Brandufl’ the powerful king of Leinster had an extraordinary regard for him, and bestowed on him a tract of land called Ferna or Alder-land, now Ferns, where Aidan founded his principal church. At a synod of the chief clerics and laymen of Leinster, convened by Branduff, it was ordained that Ferns should be the chief ecclesiastical seat of Leinster: and Maidoc was made its first Ard-espog or chief bishop. This became one of the greatest ecclesiastical centres in Ireland, and a city

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rose gradually round it. After a life of active benevolence in the cause of religion, Aidan died about the year 625. The Leinster people call him Mogue, which is the Irish pronunciation of Maidoc.

St. Carthach or Mochuda of Lismore, one of the most illustrious of the Irish saints, was born in Kerry about the middle of the sixth century. He was educated and ordained by an elder St. Carthach, a bishop: after which he went to Bangor, where he spent some time under St. Comgall. Returning to his native county, and soon afterwards proceeding to Leinster, he founded a monastery at Rahan, in the present King’s County. Here he remained for forty years, becoming a bishop meantime; and scholars and disciples flocked to him from all parts to the number of eight or nine hundred, all of whom as usual supported themselves by their own labour.

Through some local jealousies he and his monks were expelled from Rahan in 632 by Blathmac, afterwards king of Ireland. In his subsequent wanderings he was received everywhere with great respect; and at last he settled down at Lismore. This at once became a bishop’s see, andas a school it soon attained extraordinary celebrity. It was indeed a university, and was crowded with students not only from Ireland, but from Britain and the Continent. Carthach died in 637 and was buried at Lismore.

St. Molaissi [Molash’a] or Laserian of Leighlin was born in Ulster in the latter part of the sixth century; his father was a nobleman named Cairell, and his mother Gemma was the daughter of Aidan, one of the Dalriadic kings of Scotland. It is stated that he lived in Rome for fourteen years, and that he was ordained by Pope Gregory the Great. After his return to Ireland he settled in Leighlin in a monastery that had been founded some time before. Here he attained to great eminence, so that he had 1,500 monks under his charge. Having returned from a second visit to Rome, he attended the meetings held to determine the time for Easter, and strongly advocated the Roman method of computation, but was opposed by St. Fintan of Taghmon. This distinguished man died in 639, and was buried in his own church at Leighlin. This place, now Oldleighlin, is in co. Carlow.

St. Fursa of Peronne and his brothers Foillan and Ultan. These three saints, who are remembered in England and France as well as in Ireland, were sons of Fintan who was son of Finloga prince of South Munster. Fursa, the eldest, was

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born some time before 577. Having received a careful religious education, he established a monastery for himself near Lough Corrib in Galway; after which he preached with great success in different parts of the country. He next repaired to England - about 637 - accompanied by his two brothers Foillan and XJltan: he was received with great honour by Sigebert king of East Anglia, and converted great numbers by his preaching. Here he founded a monastery, which he left in charge of his brother Foillan: after which he spent a year with Ultan, who was then living as a hermit not far from the monastery. He next passed over to France, where he was kindly received by king Clovis TI., and by the mayor of the palace. The mayor gave him a piece of land at Lagny near Paris, on which he erected a monastery. He now set out to visit his brothers in England, but on his way he was taken ill, and died about the year 650. He was buried with great solemnity at Peronne, where he is venerated to this day. Soon after Fursa’s death, his brothers went to France; and we have already seen (p.94) how they were engaged by Gertrude, daughter of Pepin, to instruct the nuns of JSJivelle in psalmody. Foillan was murdered by some robbers, and his remains were buried at Fosse: and Ultan, having governed the monastery at Peronne, died about 670. These two brothers are still venerated at their several places of sepulture.

St. Camin of Iniscaltra was born a little after the middle of the sixth century, and was half-brother of Guary the Hospitable, king of Connaught. He founded a church on Iniscaltra in Lough Derg on the Shannon, where a number of disciples gathered round him, attracted by the fame of his learning and piety. He died in the year 653. Iniscaltra or Holy Island - as it is now more commonly called - lies in the southern extremity of Lough Derg in a beautiful situation near the Galway shore. It contains an interesting group of ruins, including a round tower almost perfect, and several small churches and oratories.

St. Dympna or Domnat of Gheel in Belgium and of Tedavnet in Monaghan, daughter of an Irish pagan king, was born most probably in or near Clogher in Tyrone. When little more than a child she secretly became a Christian. When she came of age her father made an unnatural proposal to marry her, whereupon she fled in horror from her home to the Continent with the venerable priest who baptised her and with a married couple as servants, and took up her residence with

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her companions at Gheel in Belgium. Her father followed her, and after a long search discovered her retreat. The old priest (Gerebern) was instantly put to death: and the raging king having in vain sought to bring her to his purpose, ordered his attendants to behead her; but as they one and all refused, he became outrageous and beheaded her himself. It is believed that the holy virgin suffered martyrdom some time in the seventh century. In course of time Dympna came to be regarded as the tutelar saint of those afflicted with insanity; and innumerable cases are recorded of insane persons obtaining relief by visiting her shrine. For more than a thousand years Gheel has been a sanatorium for persons subject to nervous and mental disorders, where they are treated with great success. In certain parts of Ulster this virgin is still held in veneration: and one parish in Monaghan has taken its name from her - Tedavnet.

St. Moling of St. Mullins and of Ferns was a native of Hy Kinsellagh in Leinster. Having entered on a monastic life, he founded a monastery about the middle of the seventh century at a place near the Barrow, which is now called St. Mullins. He also erected a church in Kildare which still retains the name Timolin (Moling’s house). He ultimately became bishop of Ferns, and induced the monarch Finaghta to remit the Boru tribute (p.153). Died in 697.

Adamnan, the biographer of St. Columkille, was born about 624 in the south of Donegal, and came of a princely family, being eighth in descent from king Niall of the Nine Hostages. In 679, when he was about 55 years of age, he was elected abbot of lona - the eighth after the founder Columkille. His Life of St. Columkille has been most learnedly edited by the Most Rev. Dr. William Reeves. In 697 was held the meeting of clergy and laymen at Tara, where at the instance of Adamnan a law was adopted forbidding women to take part in war: this was known as Cain Adamnain or Adamnan’s Law. Adamnan is spoken of with great respect by his contemporaries. He is the patron of Raphoe in Donegal: and many churches both in Ireland and Scotland are dedicated to him: died in 703. He is popularly known in Ireland by the name Eunan, which is the Gaelic pronunciation of ‘Adamnan.’

St. Suite, or Boetius, or Boece, of Monasterboice, the son of Bronach, was born in Keenaght, in the present co. of Louth. To perfect himself in religious knowledge he went to Italy,

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where he lived for several years in a monastery: and on his way home he landed in Scotland, and stayed there for some time preaching with great success. On returning to Ireland he founded the establishment which was named from him MonasterBuite or Monasterboice, Boetius was a bishop as well as abbot of his monastery. The ruins of Monasterboice, situated five miles from Drogheda, attest the former importance of the place. They consist of two churches, a round tower, and three stately, elaborately sculptured stone crosses, forming one of the most impressive groups of ecclesiastical ruins in Ireland.

Virgil or Virgilius, bishop of Salzburg. Of the early life of this distinguished man we know nothing further than this: that he was abbot of Aghaboe and that he went to France about the year 745. After his arrival, Pepin, mayor of the palace - afterwards king of France - became greatly attached to him and kept him in his palace for two years. Virgilius from this went to Bavaria, where he had some disputes on theological questions with the great English missionary St. Boniface; but the matter was decided in his favour by Pope Zachary. In 756 he was appointed bishop of Salzburg.

Virgilius was one of the most advanced scholars of his day: he taught publicly - and was probably the first to teach - that the earth was round, and that people lived at the opposite side - at the antipodes. A perverted report of his opinions was sent to the pope, representing that he held the existence of another world below the earth: but nothing ever came of it; so that we must suppose he defended himself successfully. His Irish name is Fergil; and he is commonly known as Fergil the geometer. Died at Salzburg in 785.

St. Mailruan of Tallaght founded the monastery of Tallaght near Dublin in 769, which he governed as bishop and abbot till his death in 792. Among his monks was Aengus the Culdee, the saint next noticed. Tallaght flourished as a great religious centre for many ages afterwards; and its ecclesiastical eminence has not yet wholly departed. The Dominicans have an establishment there; and a beautiful little church has lately been erected on one of the old sites to the memory of the great Dominican preacher. Father Thomas Burke.

Aengus the Culdee was born about the middle of the eighth century. While yet a student at the monastery of Clonenagh in Queen’s County, he had great reputation for sanctity; and

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wishing to avoid publicity he went in disguise to the monastery of Tallaght neaiDublin, then governed by St. Mailruan. He was employed to attend the mill and kiln of the monastery, and in this humble condition he remained unknown for seven years, till his identity was discovered by accident.

Here he wrote his Feilire or Festilogium, already described (p.24). Towards the end of his life he returned to Clonenagh, where he died about the year 820.

Among the vast number of Irishmen who became distinguished on the Continent, the following may be mentioned in addition to those already noticed. St. Fiacre of Breuil in France, died about 670, who gave name to a kind of vehicle called in French a fiacre, from the custom, in after ages, of using it in pilgrimages to his tomb. St. Fridolin ‘the Traveller’ explored the Rhine and founded a nunnery on the island of Seckingen: died probably in the beginning of the sixth century. Argobast and Florentius were successively bishops of Strasburg towards the end of the seventh century. St. Kilian the great apostle of Franconia converted Gozbert duke of Wurzburg, but suffered martyrdom in 689 through the revenge of Geilana the duke’s divorced wife. St. Cataldus of Tarentum, of the latter half of the seventh century, educated in the school of Lismore, where he was a professor of great repute before leaving Ireland, went to the Continent and became bishop of Tarentum, where he is still held in extraordinary veneration. The two scholars Clement and Albinus. on landing with some merchants in France, attracted attention in an extraordinary way. They went through the market place where people were exposing their goods for sale, and cried out repeatedly to the crowd: ‘Who want wisdom (i.e. learning), let them come to us, for we have it to sell!’ The great Charlemagne hearing of them ordered them to his presence, and finding them men of learning, placed them at the head of two great seminaries. Dungal attracted the patronage of Charlemagne by addressing a letter to him on solar eclipses. Sedulius and Donatus, who flourished in Italy early in the ninth century, were writers of repute in theological subjects. But the most

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remarkable Irishman of those times - in many respects the most distinguished scholar of his day in Europe - was John Scotus Erigena, celebrated for his knowledge of Greek, and for his theological speculations: he taught philosophy in Paris, and died about the year 870.

It is to be observed that very few of the natives of Ireland who distinguished themselves on the Continent are noticed in Irish records; the reason of which is, that the Irish chroniclers took nothing on hearsay, which was the only kind of evidence that could reach them from the Continent.