LIBRARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 University of California. 
 
 Class 
 
 \ 
 
/ 
 
TYPES OF 
 CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
TYPES OF 
 
 CELTIC LIFE AND ART 
 
 BY 
 
 F. R. MONTGOMERY HITCHCOCK., M.A. 
 
 AUTHOR OF " CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA," " MYSTERY OF 
 
 THE CROSS," ETC. 
 
 Formerly Scholar^ Double Senior Moderator^ and University 
 Student of Trinity College^ Dublin. 
 
 DUBLIN: 
 SEALY, BRYERS & WALKER, 
 
 MIDDLE ABBEY STREET. 
 

 ^ 
 
 PRINTED BY 
 
 SEALY, BRYERS AND WALKER, 
 
 MIDDLE ABBEY STREET, 
 
 DUBLIN. 
 
« 
 
 This Little Volume is 
 
 DEDICATED TO ALL IRISHMEN 
 
 At Home and Abroad. 
 
 c\ r\ .< , , 1 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 X i\.iliF A\jiti ••• ••• ••• ••• •■•i> 
 
 Introduction ... ... ... ... iii. 
 
 Section i.— The Three Free Tribes. 2. — The 
 Religion of the Ancient Irish. 3, — The Druids. 
 4. — An Ancient Mode of Writing. 5. — Ancient 
 Forts and Dwelling Places. 6. — Ecclesiastical 
 Architecture. 7. — The Celtic Schools and their 
 Art. 
 
 CnAPTER. Page. 
 
 I. — The Celtic Race . . . . . . i 
 
 II. — Celtic Types in Wales .. .. ..11 
 
 III. — Ancient Codes of Honour .. ..19 
 
 IV. — The Celtic Social System . . . . 29 
 
 V. — Ancient Irish Society — The Chief . . 39 
 
 VI. — The Fair Sex of Ancient Erin ... .-52 
 
 VII. — The Ancient Irish Judge . . . . 62 
 
 VIII.— The Irish Bard ,\ .. ..73 
 
 IX.— The Bardic Order . . . . ••79 
 
 X. — The Celt and the Norman — The Fusion of 
 
 the Nations . . . . . . 92 
 
 XL — Celtic Monuments — The Cromlech . . 102 
 
 XII. — Irish Tombs and Towers ... .. iii 
 
 XIII.— Tara's Halls .. .. .. ..121 
 
 XIV. — An Ancient Celtic Settlement . . . . 128 
 
CELTIC TYPES OF LIFE AND ART. 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 This is not in any sense a learned treatise, but 
 merely a simple account of some of the types of life 
 and art that have been found from time to time in 
 Ireland. The writer would, therefore, make three 
 requests of his readers. First, that they would bear 
 in mind that subjects of controversy in religion and 
 politics have been designedly avoided, and that only 
 matters of common interest to all creeds and classes 
 have been discussed in these pages ; secondly, that 
 they will pardon the many omissions, which must, of 
 necessity, appear in a work of this nature, which pro- 
 fesses only to give certain specimens, and not an ex- 
 haustive, dry-as-dust history of all the types that have 
 existed from the most ancient times in this land ; 
 and, thirdly, that any of colossal learning, into whose 
 hands this book may fall, will remember the difficulties 
 of the task the writer set before him, and sympathise 
 with an attempt, no matter how crude, to give a 
 picture of the life and surroundings of the historic, 
 but ancient inhabitants of the Green Isle. As 
 
U. PREFACE. 
 
 references to the various authorities would only serve 
 to overload a popular work like the present, they have 
 been omitted, except in the most important cases ; 
 but no pains have been spared to secure as much 
 accuracy as was possible under conditions where 
 fancy always embroidered, if it did not contribute, the 
 facts. In conclusion, the writer hopes that this publi- 
 cation of studies and observations of Irish life will 
 induce others to study and observe for themselves 
 Celtic types, wherever they may be found. 
 
LNTRODUCTION. 
 
 Section i. — The Three Free Tribes. 
 
 The history of Ireland from the remotest times is the 
 record of a country that was never permitted to live 
 at peace with itself. The Senchiis Mor speaks of 
 three noble or free families — Ulidians, Peine of Tara. 
 and Erna (I. 80) ; or Ulidians, Goidels of Tara and 
 Erna (I. 70), between whom the land was divided. 
 The Ulidians (Ulaid) are the Ultonians, the Pictish 
 race of 011am Fodia ; the Erna are the Iverniaris or 
 Munster, and the Goidels are the Celtic conquerors^ 
 who are called both Galeoin and Peine, The work of 
 Ptolemy, the geographer, which mentions several 
 Irish names of places, gives an equivalent in Greek 
 for Ulidians, and mentions a river lernos, identified 
 with the River Maine in Kerry, flowing through the 
 territory of the Ivernioi, or Erna.* The Ulidians, who 
 gave their name to Ulster, as the Lagin (lleyn), or 
 spearmen mercenaries, who restored Labraid, the exile, 
 to his throne, gave their name to Leinster, and Mum- 
 han, large, gave its name to Munster, and Conn left his 
 mark on Cowwaught, seem to have been forced north- 
 wards by the Milesians, who compelled them to 
 * Professor Rhy's Studies in Early Irish History, p, 21. 
 
iv. CELTIC LIFE AND ART, 
 
 abandon Tara, and to entrench themselves In their 
 great rath at Emania, better known as Navan (N 
 representing the article in Irish) fort. Within that 
 ancient palace, the site of which is marked by a 
 circular rampart and fosse, enclosing some eleven 
 acres, about a mile and a half to the west of Armagh, 
 was a house called Craedhruadh (Creeveroe), where the 
 Red Branch Knights had their quarters. Of these 
 knights, Conchobar mc Nessa and his friend, Cuchul- 
 lin, were the most famous. From Conall, his son, 
 were descended the Dal nAraide, i.e., the tribe of 
 Araide, generally known as Dalaradians, whose terri- 
 tory in Down extended northwards to Mount Slemish, 
 (Mount Mis) where it met the lands of Dal-riada, 
 which were occupied by Scots, whom Bede describes 
 as "going forth from Hibernia, under the leadership 
 of Reuda. and securing for themselves, cither by 
 friendly or hostile measures, settlements among the 
 Picts, which they occupy to this day. From the 
 name of their leader, they are called Dalreudini ; 
 for Dal, in their language, signifies a part." 
 
 It is a remarkable thing that the principal tribes 
 that divided Scotland between themselves in that and 
 the succeeding ages, the Picts and Scots, should be 
 then found contesting, inch by inch, the counties of 
 Antrim and Down ; the former occupying the southern 
 districts, and the latter the northern. The Scots of 
 the Irish Dalriada, as Bede tells us, founded a second 
 Dalriada in Argyleshire, which gradually developed 
 
INTRODUCTION. v. 
 
 into the ruling power of Scotland, as the Picts were 
 subdued. The relations of the Picts and Scots in 
 Ireland and Scotland do not seem, however, to have 
 been always hostile. Bede, in his interesting account 
 of the origin of the matriarchy of the Picts, tells us, 
 that the Picts on landing in Ireland requested the 
 Scots to give them both land and wives. The Scots, 
 however, refused to part with their territory, politely 
 suggesting that there would be ample room for the 
 Picts in Britain, but they gave them wives on the 
 condition that, if ever any dispute should arise in re- 
 gard to the succession, they should select their king 
 from the female royal line. 
 
 The Pictish settlement in Dalaradia was eventually 
 destroyed by the three Collas, who were Celtic, or 
 Goidelic, descendants of Erem, or Erimon (gen. case). 
 The year a.d. 332 saw the destruction of the great Navan 
 fort. A common disaster seems then to have drawn 
 together the Picts and Scots, as all invaders from 
 Ireland came to be called in Britain ; for in 360 we 
 find Roman Britain attacked by Picts from the North 
 and Scots from Ireland. And a century or more 
 later the Picts of Galloway, who had been converted 
 to Christianity by Ninian, who built a stone church 
 at Whitern called Candida Casa, or White House, 
 joined with the Scots settlers in Argyle in a barbarous 
 raid upon the coasts of Ireland, which called forth an 
 indignant protest from S. Patrick in his Letter to their 
 leader Coroticus — one of the Saint's genuine works. 
 
vL CELTIC LIFE AND ART, 
 
 Again, In 560, we hear of Brude, the King of the 
 Picts, whose seat was Craig Patrick, in Inverness, 
 inflicting a terrible defeat on the Scottish Colony in 
 Dalaradia. Here another Irish saint, in the person of 
 S. Columba, came to the rescue. He was a Scot, 
 but while at Bangor, in Co. Down, had devoted him- 
 self, with the assistance of SS. Comgall and Canice, 
 who were Picts, to teach the Picts of Dalaradia. In 
 563, with twelve companions, he rowed away from 
 Ireland in a small wicker-work boat, covered with 
 hide, well known on the west coast as a currach or 
 coracle, believinp" that he would never see the shores 
 of his beloved Erin again. For that was his punish- 
 ment. At last he landed in the isle of lona, near 
 Oban. Here he and his companions remained for a 
 tim.e until they were ready for their mission to Brude. 
 Then they went to Craig Patrick, and with but little 
 difficulty persuaded " the powerful King of the Pictish 
 nation" to become a Christian. This was the begin- 
 ning of the Irish mission to the Picts. 
 
 We come now to the second great family in Ire- 
 land, the Peine of Tara, a term which, according to 
 Professor Atkinson, means the conquering race. These 
 Goidels or Celts were, according to the same authority, 
 Teutonic invaders. And Professor Rhys declares that 
 there is evidence " of a certain amount of contact, 
 social and political, between the Celts and Britons on 
 the Continent." M. de Jubainville gives instances of 
 words such as Gothic reiks " a prince," and Mod. 
 
INTRODUCTION. vii. 
 
 Ger. geissel, *' a hostage," which may have been 
 derived from or by the Celts before they came to these 
 islands. It is, therefore, more probable that the Celts 
 came from northern rather than from southern 
 Europe to our shores. This theory overthrows the 
 idea that these Milesian settlers were descended from 
 one Miled or soldier of Spain. The name Goidel, 
 which is not to be confounded with Irish gaill, 
 " foreigner," as in Fingall (white stranger), and 
 Baldoyle (town of Dougall or dark stranger) probably 
 means warrior, and is the same as the Latin Miles, 
 which was shortened in Irish into Mil. We shall see, 
 as we proceed, that " Warriors " was a most suitable 
 name for these invaders of Erin. Peine or Feni was 
 the Celtic speech. Cormac's glossary describes one 
 of the three sages who compiled the Senchus Mor as 
 Sui berla Peine, or learned in the language of the 
 Feine. 
 
 The third great family of the Senchus Mor, the 
 Erna, were probably the Ivernian inhabitants, who 
 gave their name, Erin, to the island in the various 
 forms, Ivera, Ivvera, Iverna, Eriu, Erin. These were 
 driven westward by the Celts, and their descendants 
 even to our day bear a strong resemblance in com- 
 plexion, features, and disposition to the Spanish inhabi- 
 tants of the Pyrenees, who were called Iberi as the Irish 
 were by Columbanus. Dark, handsome faces, tall, 
 slight figures, lethargic habits, especially the last, are 
 the distinguishing marks of both peoples. This was 
 
viii. CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
 remarked to the writer by a friend who had come to 
 Ireland after spending some time in the Pyrenees, and 
 who was particularly struck by the refined and 
 pleasant manners of the Irish, their sympathy, 
 courtesy, and generosity. But it is not a rare thing 
 for the tourist in Kerry to find that his driver is en- 
 joying the sleep of the just, even with the reins in his 
 hands. The similarity between these peasantry can- 
 not be altogether explained as due to the wrecking of 
 the Spanish vessels of the Armada on the west coast. 
 And the fair-haired Kerryman was not quite accurate 
 when he described his dark-visaged neighbours as 
 *' some of the Spaniards who were drowned in the 
 Armada ! " The Spanish appearance of the houses 
 and people of Dingle may be the result of a Spanish 
 settlement there in former days for fishing purposes ; 
 but the trading connections between Ireland and Spain 
 go back to very early times. 
 
 Owen More, better known as Mog Muadhat, the 
 Munster rival of Conn of the Hundred Battles, whose 
 half of Ireland was called Leth Moga, Conn's being 
 Leth Cuinn, obtained his wife Beara, after whom he 
 called a district Beerhaven, and many of his soldiers 
 from the King of Spain. See also " Book of 
 Leinster " 319b, where we find mention of the court- 
 ship of Momera (tochmarc Momera), another Spanish 
 princess. Tacitus, who refers to the trade of Ireland 
 with the Roman Empire, describes Ireland as lying 
 midway between Spain and Britain ; and Orosius, a 
 
INTRODUCTION. ix. 
 
 Spanish historian of the 5th century, mentions a 
 lighthouse at Brigantia. in the north-west of Spain, 
 which was built to keep watch on Britain. From this 
 we may infer that pirates were attracted from Britain 
 by the vessels that traded between the west of Ireland 
 and Spain. Galway city itself has also many Spanish 
 features in its arched gateways and courts ; and in its 
 rude sculpture and quaint architecture has reminded 
 more than one visitor of the Moorish cities of Granada 
 and Valencia, which latter gave its name to the beau- 
 tiful island off the Kerry coast called by the Irish 
 people Darrery (dairbhre), from its oaks and the 
 ancient abode of the famous Druid mas^ician Mo-"^ 
 Ruith (Servant of the Wheel), while the fishing 
 quarter known as the Claddagh is distinctly Spanish 
 with its own peculiar laws and its own " king." Some 
 years ago the writer enquired after the health of his 
 majesty of the fishing fleet, but was informed by an 
 intelligent fisherman that he was very aged and had 
 retired to the Union. The '' Tribes " who settled 
 here in the 13th century devoted themselves to com- 
 merce and trade chiefly with Spain. The Lynch, 
 who figures so tragically like another Brutus, in the 
 annals of the City, traded largely with that country; 
 and the story is that it was to avenge the murder of a 
 Spanish merchant that he executed his own son. 
 There are also many Celtic words in the Basque 
 language ; which fact inspired many, Professor Rhys 
 amongst them, to attempt to establish an affinit\- 
 
X. CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
 between the Basque and the ancient languages of 
 Ireland, Celtic and Pictish. It is also a remarkable 
 fact that the Breton fishermen, who frequently visit 
 the Kerry waters, are able to make themselves under- 
 stood to the Irish-speaking folk whose dialect of Irish 
 is very different from that spoken in Connaught, and 
 that the Welsh sailors can converse with the inhabi- 
 tants of the Breton ports. This shows that we have 
 Celtic relations in France as well as Iberian relatives 
 in Spain. 
 
 But the strangest connection between the West of 
 Ireland and Northern Spain is shown by the plants 
 that are peculiar to both districts. Cybele Hihernica 
 mei^.tions several members of the Cantabrian groups 
 in Kerry, among them the Saxifraga Umbyosa, the 
 common London Pride, the Saxifraga Geum, the 
 Saxifraga Hirsuta, the Arbutus Unedo, and the 
 Pingiiicula Grandifiora. The Arbutus Unedo is found 
 in great profusion at Killarney, but less frequently in 
 the neighbourhood of Glengarriff; while the 
 Pingiiicula Grandifiora grows even more luxuriantly 
 in Kerry than in the Pyrenees. These facts 
 suggest, at least, that similar atmospheric conditions 
 prevail in both places, for it is well known that 
 environment enters largely into the making of both 
 plants and men; and that the congenial nature of 
 their surroundings is more or less the cause of the 
 survival of the Iberian type of man and plant in 
 Kerry. 
 
INTRODUCTION. xi. 
 
 The West of Ireland has so many attractions in its 
 magnificent sea coast, mountains, and glens that it is 
 possible that the man who observed, that when he 
 had got as far to the West as he could, he under- 
 stood why the wise men came from the East, would 
 have made an exception in its favour. 
 
 From what we have seen of these three noble 
 
 families of the Senchus Mor, we can form a tolerably 
 
 distinct picture of the island divided between 
 
 Ivernians, Celts, and Ulidians, the Celts gradually 
 
 gaining the upper hand, though unable to completely 
 
 reduce Ulidians or Ivernians, or banish them from 
 
 their mountain fastnesses ; while behind the scenes 
 
 move the primitive inhabitants, the Fir-sidhe (the 
 
 men of the hills) and the Beann-sidhe (Banshees, or 
 
 women of the hills), to trouble their conquerors with 
 
 their magic and their spells. In such a condition of 
 
 things there could be no peace, and much of the racial 
 
 hatred found at the present day in Ireland goes back 
 
 to the ancient struggles, both for existence and 
 
 supremacy in the island, the balance of pov\'er in 
 
 which seems to have been always held by three 
 
 distinct powers — Ulidians, Celts, and Ivernians, in 
 
 the times alluded to in the Senchus Mor ; Celts, 
 
 Danes, Normans, under the Plantagenet Kings or 
 
 Lords of Ireland ; and towards the end of the 14th 
 
 century by " W^ild Irish, our enemies; Irish rebels; 
 
 and obedient English," as they were described by 
 
 Richard II. A three-cornered fight seems to have 
 
xii. CELTIC LIFE AND ART, 
 
 been the fate of Erin, which was most unlucky in 
 not having been invaded by the Romans, the only 
 power which could have welded these heterogeneous 
 elements into one great nation, and taught them, as 
 they did the British, the difference between a battle 
 and a campaign. 
 
 Section 2. — The Religion of the Ancient 
 
 Irish. 
 
 There can be no doubt that these primitive peoples 
 had some form of religion. What it was we are left 
 to infer from the survival of apparently early super- 
 stitions, which the Celt would never willingly let die, 
 in connection with wells, sacred trees, and pillar 
 stones. The most conspicuous object of worship in 
 those early days was the great pillar idol called Crom 
 or Cenn Cruach, which stood in a large plain, Mag 
 Slecht, or the plain of Adoration or Slaughter, near 
 Ballymagawran, in the county of Cavan. It was 
 plated with gold and surrounded by twelve smaller 
 stones, which are supposed by some to represent the 
 signs of the Zodiac. In the Vita Tertia of S. Patrick 
 it is said that Laoghaire used to worship there, and 
 that the Saint visited the place and struck down the 
 idol with his staff. The cult of Crom Cruaich seems, 
 
INTRODUCTION. xiii. 
 
 however, to have been out of fashion for some time 
 
 previous, and we can hardly believe that the Celts of 
 
 the 5th century offered human sacrifices to this idol, 
 
 and must consider the notice of such practices in 
 
 connection with this idol found in the " Book of 
 
 Leinster " : 
 
 ** Milk and corn 
 They used to ask of him urgently, 
 In return for a third of their offspring ; 
 Great was the horror and the wailing there." 
 
 as referring back to very early times. For Cormac 
 
 Mac Art, who was King of Ireland at the beginning 
 
 of the second century, and who had learned something 
 
 of Christianity in his warlike expeditions to Britain, 
 
 not only left orders that his body should not be buried 
 
 in Celtic fashion with his pagan ancestors in Brug-na- 
 
 Boyne, but on the other side of the river at Ross-na- 
 
 ree, the wood of the kings, where an ancient burial 
 
 place has been recently discovered on Mr. Osborne's 
 
 estate, but is also said to have defied ancient Crom in 
 
 words like these of Sir Samuel Ferguson : 
 
 " Crom-Cruach and his sub-gods twelve," 
 Said Cormac, " are but carven treen ; 
 
 The axe that made them, haft or helve, 
 Had worthier of our worship been. 
 
 But He who made the tree to grow, 
 
 And hid in earth the iron-stone, 
 And m.ade the man with mind to know 
 
 The axe's use, is God alone." 
 
 But it is quite possible that some lingering belief in a 
 spirit inhabiting this stone, such as Lieutenant Conder 
 
xiv. CELTIC LIFE AND ART, 
 
 found among the Arabs of Palestine, required to be 
 exorcised by the crozier, or " bachall " of the Saint. 
 
 The worship of trees seems also to have been pre- 
 valent from the use of the word bile, or sacred tree* 
 which occurs in local names, such as Moville and 
 Rathvilly. Under these trees the May fires may 
 have been kindled. For The Four Masters mention a 
 place called Bile-teineadh (Billa-tinne), the sacred tree 
 of the fire, identified by O'Donovan with Coill-a'- 
 bhile, the wood of the sacred tree, now Billywood, 
 near Moynalty, in Meath. The '^ Book of Leinster " 
 mentions five of these trees — the Eo Rossa, a yew 
 tree ; the Eo Mugna, an oak ; the Bile Dathi. the 
 Bile Tortain and the Croeb Uisnig, ash-trees, all o^ 
 which were destroyed in the time of the sons of Aedh 
 Slaine in the seventh century, Eo Mugna was a tree 
 of extraordinary size and fertility according to the 
 poet Ninnine, who described its top as being " as broad 
 as a plain," and declared that it bore fruit three times 
 a year. Eo Rossa, which stood in county Monaghan, 
 was bestowed by S. Molaisse on the saints of Ireland ; 
 and in the Life of S. Moiling, we'read that he employed 
 an architect, Goban Saer, who is said to have erected 
 one of the famous Round Towers to carve an oratory 
 out of the portion which fell to his lot, but that the 
 Saint was not very happy in it. In the Life of S. 
 Berach, also in the " Book of Leinster," we read of a 
 Druid declining a contest with Berach, unless it would 
 be held under a certain tree, tenanted, as he thought, 
 
INTRODUCTION. xv. 
 
 by a demon friendly to himself. Indeed every tribe 
 ^ seems to have its own sacred tree under which its 
 chief was elected. One of the greatest triumphs for 
 one tribe to achieve over another was to cut down its 
 tree. The Four Masters, under 981, describe the 
 uprooting of the sacred tree of the O'Briens, the bile 
 of Magh-adhar in Clare, by Malachy the Ard-ri. And 
 in 1 1 1 1 the Ulidians cut down the sacred trees of the 
 O'Neills at Tullahogue, for which deed of sacrilege 
 they had to pay a heavy fine or eric. Some of these 
 trees which remain are called Bell trees, a corruption 
 of bile. 
 
 The people also worshipped the spirit of the wells, 
 water being considered sacred in times when it was 
 so essential to life. Tirechan in the Book of Armagh 
 relates that S. Patrick came to a well called Slan, 
 which the Druids worshipped as divine ; and Adamnan 
 in his Life of S. Columba tells us that saint discovered 
 the worship of a certain well among the Picts, who, 
 *' seduced by the devil, paid divine honour to the 
 fountain." In Christian times the earliest churches and 
 oratories, for the purpose of Baptism and because of 
 the ancient associations, which were always respected, 
 were built in the neighbourhood of these wells, many 
 of which are even now visited by pilgrims and 
 penitents on the day of the patron saint, and are 
 possessed, in many cases, of medicinal properties. 
 Among the best known are the wells of SS. Doulough, 
 Canice, and Declan. On a certain day in August the 
 
xvi. CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
 peasantry used to visit the well in front of Slane 
 Castle, and after hanging out their rags on the grass 
 to propitiate the spirit of the waters, would then resort 
 to the ancient stone of the apostle near the hermitage 
 of S. Ere. Similar devotions are held on July 24 at 
 the well and stone of S. Declan at Ardmore, near 
 Waterford. The frequency with which the word tobar 
 (well) occurs in the names of townlands and towns, 
 e.g., Tobercurry and Tipperary, testifies to the early 
 veneration for wells. There is, moreover, a legend 
 that Boan, a beautiful woman, who was also a 
 magician, insisted on seeing the waters of a well, the 
 sight of which was forbidden to mortal eyes, and that 
 the well in its wrath rushed upon her in a torrent 
 which still flows as the Bo^/ne to the sea. 
 
 The principal object of worship, however, seems to 
 have been the Sun ; many of the rites connected with 
 it being preserved to our own times. The bon-fires 
 kindled in many places on St. John's Eve are the 
 survival of the ancient fires kindled in the sun- 
 worship, and known as Beltane* or Druidic fires of the 
 first of May, originally instituted by Tuathal, King of 
 Ireland, in the first century at Usnagh, in Westmeath, 
 and described in Cormac's Glossary as " two goodly 
 fires which the Druids were used to make, with great 
 incantations on them, and they used to bring the 
 cattle between them against the diseases of each year." 
 
 * This word is explained in Cormac's Glossory as Bil-tene, 
 goodly fire ; by some as equivalent to Baals fire ; by others as 
 La Beal-tine, the day of the passage of the fire. 
 
INTRODUCTION. xvii. 
 
 It was thus a passing through fire as the best deriva- 
 tion of the word suggests. Keating tells us that the 
 custom of kindling " two fires in honour of the pagan 
 God " was universal. There are souvenirs of these 
 fires in the endings teine or tinny, " fire," as in Kil- 
 tinny and solhts '' light," as in Ardsollus or hill of 
 light in Clare. Samhuin, or the November feast, was 
 originally instituted by the same monarch at Tlachtga, 
 now the Hill of Ward, near Athboy. On this day, 
 the Feis, or Convention of Tara, was also held. And 
 on the first of November, as Dr. Joyce remarks, '' the 
 people practise many observances which are un- 
 doubted relics of ancient pagan ceremonials."* S. 
 Patrick in his Confession alludes to sun-worship in the 
 passage : — " All that worship it, unhappy beings, 
 shall assuredly be punished ; whereas we who believe 
 in and adore the true Sun, Jesus Christ, shall never 
 perish." In the same work the Saint tells us that 
 when he was one day calling Helias (Elias or Eli, my 
 God), the Sun (Helios) rose up in all its splendour. 
 Professor Bury writes : — " If there was any one 
 divinity who was revered and worshipped thoughoutthe 
 land it was probably the Sun." It is not improbable 
 that the great pillars of Stonehenge, which the stone 
 circle at Baltonny, near Raphoe, resembles on a smaller 
 scale, were once connected with the worship of the 
 Sun. But it is to be inferred from the ancient Hymn 
 
 * A capitular of Charlemagne condemned similar solstice 
 fires in the Bavarian highlands as a remnant of paganism. 
 
xviii. CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
 of S. Patrick that all the elements invoked in It, the 
 
 light of the sun, the brightness of the moon, the speed 
 
 of the lightning, the swiftness of the wind, the depth 
 
 of the sea, the stability of the earth, and firmness of the 
 
 rock were held in veneration by the ancient Celt, who 
 
 possibly felt in some dim way the presence of a 
 
 mysterious Power in and behind the waters, winds, 
 
 hills, and rocks : — 
 
 *' Thus the feeble hands and helpless, 
 Groping blindly in the darkness. 
 Touched God's right hand in that darkness, 
 And were lifted up and strengthened." 
 
 Other divinities play a part in Celtic mythology and 
 folk-lore, such as Badb, the goddess of war ; Nuadu, 
 a sea divinity ; and Brigit, a goddess with a fire ritual, 
 whose place was afterwards taken in the hearts of the 
 people by the Irish S. Brigid of Kildare, who also had 
 a fire, which is said to have been never allowed to go 
 out. But the great mass of people seemed to have 
 no religion beyond a vague fear of the Earth-Gods 
 and the fairies, the Fir-Sidhe and Bean-Sidhe, or 
 Banshees. It will be remembered that the daughters 
 of Laogaire, Ethne and Fedelm, in Tirechan's story 
 (" Book of Armagh"), when they saw S. Patrick and 
 his companions seated at the well, thought there 
 was something uncanny about them, and that they 
 were men of the Sidhe, or Gods of the Earth or appari- 
 tions. The word Sidhe which may come, as Todd 
 shows, either from the Lat. Sedes, habitation or the 
 Celtic Side, a blast of wind, has an unpleasant creepy 
 
INTRODUCTION. xix. 
 
 feeling about it. The men of the Sidhe are supposed to 
 have been the Tuatha de Danaan, the people of the 
 Goddess Danaan, who tried in vain to prevent the 
 Milesians from landing in Ireland by throwing magi- 
 cal spells upon the seas and raising storms. In an 
 old Irish book, the " History of the Cemeteries," 
 Cormac Mac Art is said to have been killed by the 
 Siabhra, i.e., the Tuatha de Danaans, for they were 
 called " Siabhras." Two of these Sidhs are celebrated 
 places. Sidh Boov, occupied by Bove Derg, was on 
 the Portumna shore of Lough Derg, one of the most 
 beautiful and poetic lakes in Ireland; while the 
 far-famed Rock of Cashel, the Caisel-na-Rig, or '* stone 
 fort of the kings," which was built in the days of S. 
 Patrick by Core McLugdach, previously rejoiced in the 
 name Sidh-dhruim [Sheerim], or fairy ridge. The 
 Irish family name Shean or Shane may have some 
 connection with the home of the fairies. 
 
 Some of the fairy queens who presided over these 
 abodes, and who now go by the vulgar name of 
 Banshees, were quite celebrated persons in their own 
 day and way. Cleena was the potent queen of the 
 fairies of South Munster. Her name is well known 
 in the neighbourhood of Skibbereen, where she has 
 her special wave, Tonn-cleena, and her special rock, * 
 Carrig-cleena. But north Munster was under the spell 
 of a charming fairy called Eevil or *' the Beautiful 
 One," who resided near Killaloe in Crageevil, or 
 Eevils' rock, now called Craglea, grey rock. She 
 
XX. CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
 appeared, it is said, to two of the Dalcassian heroes 
 before the battle of Clontarf, even to Dunlang 
 O'Hartigan, a companion of Murchadh, Brian's son, 
 and to Brian himself, warning both of the danger in 
 their path. 
 
 The Celtic peoples were nothing if not superstitious. 
 Alive to all kinds of presentiments and *' starry- 
 influences," which the more obtuse Saxon ignores, 
 their principal source of knowledge is tradition, and 
 their chief amusement to sit round the fire at night 
 and tell and hear ghost stories. The Cornishmen are 
 not unlike their Irish brethren in this respect. The 
 Celts feel ghosts and hideous spectres in thorn bushes, 
 especially whefe they grow in clusters, in lonely glens, 
 solitary lakes*, weird ridges, coffin-shaped wells. There 
 is a cluster of thorn bushes on one of the private 
 avenues in Kinnitty which only a Saxon would pass 
 with impunity after dark. There is another solitary 
 thorn bush in the middle of the road that runs between 
 Seirkeiran, the ancient residence of S. Keiran, and 
 Leap Castle, one of the most interesting and 
 historical fortresses in Ireland, which the Celt is 
 particular to pass on his right hand. The story is 
 that a Saxon driver taking the wrong side overturned 
 his coach and broke his leg. The Irish were also in 
 constant fear of an unpleasant Goblin called Pooka, 
 Shakespeare's Puck, who has given his name to 
 
 * e.g. The names DuUowbush or phantom bush ; Gillagancan, 
 the headless man's lake ; Drumarraght, the ridge of the ghost ; 
 Drumahaire, the ridge of the air- demons, &c. 
 
INTRODUCTION. xxi. 
 
 Poolaphuca in Wicklow, and to Boheraphuca, an 
 uncanny lane that strikes at right angles the truly- 
 magnificent mountain road that runs from Kinnitty 
 to Roscrea, with the picturesque hills of the Slieve 
 Bloom on one hand and the verdant plains and 
 hills of Ely O' Carroll on the other. The writer has 
 ridden past the place at all hours, but has never seen 
 anything so far of the Pooka. Should the number of 
 Irish names of places which the word Devil helps to 
 form, such as '' The Devil's Bit," '' The Devils' Glen," 
 *' The Devil's Punchbowl," suggest to the Saxon 
 stranger that the Irish were addicted to Devil worship, 
 we have only to remind him of the jarvey's classic 
 retort to the Cockney's statement that his Satanic 
 Majesty seemed to be the principal landlord in Ire- 
 land : " Aye, indeed, but he is an absentee, and mostly 
 lives in London." But it does seem a gruesome 
 thing on the part of the Irish to hand over dismal 
 lakes like Lougandoul, and deserted residences like 
 Deune Castle to the keeping of such an one. 
 
 S. Patrick is said to have freed the country from 
 dragons and demons when he visited Croagh Patrick, 
 and banished the demons to Lugnademon, but both 
 species seem to survive and flourish, at any rate, in 
 Irish topography. For we have a hill of the serpents 
 in Knocknabeast, a lake infested by some kind of 
 obnoxious dragon, the terror of prehistoric bathers, 
 in Loughnapiast, and a fort in the possession of some 
 unsavoury reptiles in Lisnapaste. 
 
xxii. CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
 Section 3. — The Druids, 
 
 From this general account of the superstitious fears 
 of the Celts in Ireland, we return to the Druids, by 
 whose hands the priestly rites, whatever they may 
 have been, were performed, and of whose tenets and 
 practices C^sar, who also refers to the '' piled 
 up mounds or earthen tumuli in their sacred 
 places," gives an invaluable account in the 
 sixth book of his commentary De Bello Gallico. As 
 the Druid organisation seems to have been universal 
 among the Celtic peoples of Britain, Ireland, and 
 Gaul, Csesar's description gives a fairly accurate idea 
 of the system that prevailed in Ireland. Professor 
 Rhys, in his Studies [p. 35], however, draws attention 
 to one mistake of that Roman soldier and historian 
 which he corrects in a way that is flattering to Irish 
 pride. Caesar's remark was to the effect that the 
 order of the Druids (B.C. VI. 13) originated m 
 Britain and passed over into Gaul, and that those who 
 wished to study the system frequently went to 
 Britain. Professor Rhys says, " he should, when 
 speaking of the seat of druidic learning, not have 
 named Britain alone, but Erin likewise or rather, 
 perhaps, Erin first and foremost." 
 
 These Druids seem to have been not only most 
 influential in Church and State, but also to have been 
 highly educated persons. According to Caesar, they 
 instructed the youth in the motions of the stars, the 
 
INTRODUCTION. xxiii. 
 
 greatness of the world, natural science or botany, and 
 the power and authority of the immortal Gods. They 
 committed to memory a great number of verses, and 
 used Greek characters for ordinary matters of life. 
 They led a life of lettered ease, immune from taxation 
 and military service, belonged to the better classes, 
 and were well dressed and highly respected, Strabo 
 divides the order into three classes, the Druids, who 
 were engaged in natural science and moral philo- 
 sophy ; the Vates, who performed the sacrifices ; the 
 Bards, who were the composers and singers of hymns 
 and songs. 
 
 Lucan, the unhappy Eoman poet and rival of Nero, 
 gives this interesting description of the teaching of 
 the Bards and Druids in his Pharsalia [1.444-465]. 
 " Ye Bards, whose praise transmits to a distant age the 
 names of fallen braves, immune from fear of us have 
 sung your many lays. Ye Druids have returned from 
 scenes of war to rites barbaric and sacrifices unspeak- 
 able. To you alone it is given to know or not to 
 know the Gods and divinities of Heaven. Sacred 
 groves in deep retiring glades are your dwelling- 
 places. And your doctrine is, that the shades do not 
 seek the silent abodes of Erebus or the pallid realms 
 of Dis profound, but that the same spirit moves the 
 limbs in another cycle. If you comprehend your 
 teaching, it is this, that death stands between this life 
 and that. Surely the nations of the North are happy 
 in their error, which relieves them of that greatest 
 
xxiv. CELTIC LIFE AND ART, 
 
 fear, the dread of death. And so men rush reck- 
 lessly upon cold steel; and their souls can death 
 defy, for they think it a coward's part to spare a life 
 that will return." From this passage we learn that our 
 Celtic ancestors believed in the immortality of the 
 soul. It is doubtful whether it was such a belief that 
 gave courage to Lucan himself when he had his veins 
 opened by order of the Emperor. Csesaralso states that 
 the Druids taught the transmigration of souls. We 
 may compare the expressions Moy Mell, the plain of 
 honey, that awaits the arrival of the Celt and Erdathe, 
 one of the Druidic terms preserved in the Book of 
 Armagh, which is said to mean '' the Day of Judg- 
 ment of the Lord." [Tripartite, II. 308]. This 
 suggests a reason why S. Patrick in the beginning of 
 his Lorica or Breastplate Hymn, referred to God as 
 " the Creator of judgment " {dail is gen. of dal ; dnile 
 would mean elements) ; and gives an explanation for 
 his own mighty curse, modebrod, " My God's judg- 
 ment," a malediction which only the rash would 
 provoke and which the Irish saints possessed.* 
 
 The Druids were also magicians. The derivation 
 of the name is uncertain. It was originally supposed 
 to be connected with deru, oak. But the Irish name 
 was Draithe, soothsayers. Druidecht, however, means 
 magic in Irish ; and in the Irish version of the Bible, 
 the magicians of Egypt are called, " the Druids of 
 
 * The malediction upon Egfrid, King of Northumbria, when 
 plundering the plains of Meath, which eventualily, it is said, 
 brought disaster upon him. 
 
I NT ROD UC TION. xx v. 
 
 Egypt," and the Magi of the East are styled " the 
 Druids from the East." The Druids used inscribed 
 rods of yew, or magic wheels in their profession. 
 <'Mug ruith, or servant of the wheel" (the wheel, 
 doubtless, being connected with solar worship), being 
 the name of a Druid whose acquaintance we have 
 already made. They evidently employed such arts, 
 but without avail, against St. Patrick. With this in- 
 tent they drove left-hand wise, or in an opposite course 
 to the sun, when they went forth to encounter him on 
 the hill of Slane. Lucan's expression, " moremque 
 sinistrum sacrorum," may possibly refer to this method 
 of going leftwards round a place, or person, in order 
 to throw an evil spell upon it or him. Professor Rhys 
 states that there is a pile of stones near Lough Case 
 in Mayo, " round which stations are made, desiul 
 (rightwards), except in the case of maliciously disposed 
 persons, who occasionally come on the sly in the dead 
 of night and go round widdershins in order to raise 
 storms to destroy crops and to kill cattle." 
 
 An interesting point about the Druids was their 
 peculiar style of tonsure, which was adopted by the 
 Celtic clergy, and which consisted in shaving the head 
 de aure ad aurem, from ear to ear, and allowing the 
 hair to grow long at the back. The two Druids, 
 who had the charge of Laogaire's daughters' educa- 
 tion, Mael and Caplait, were converted by S. Patrick 
 and gave rise to the Irish proverb, Cosmail Mael do 
 Chaplaity " Mael is like to Caplait." For Mael, meaning 
 
xxvi. CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
 bald (of Mull, bald headland), signifies the native 
 tonsure, and Caplait (capillatus, or shorn) indicates 
 the foreign tonsure ; and the Celtic clergy resisting 
 the new style of tonsure said, " There is nothing to 
 quarrel about,, for a Mael is as good as a Caplait," 
 
 There is a remarkable prophecy of the Druids con- 
 cerning Christianity, so remarkable that it is suspiciously 
 like an oracle post eventum. Of this three different ver- 
 sions are given : * one in the Latin text of Muirchu ; 
 a second in the life of S. Patrick, called the Vita Secunda 
 in Colgan's Trias Thaumaturga, and a third in an 
 Irish ^loss on the Hymn Genair Patraicc ascribed to 
 the poet Fiacc, a bishop of Slebte and contemporary 
 of S. Patrick. The second of these versions might be 
 rendered : " A man will come with a decorated crown, 
 and with a staff of curved head ; and he will chant 
 (charm away?) impiety from his table, from the 
 eastern part of the house, all his people responding : 
 ' So be it,' ' so be it.' " 
 
 Many of the Druids joined the ranks of the Christian 
 clergy. Among such was Dubthach, who is des- 
 cribed by Muirchu as " an excellent poet," and in 
 Cormac's Glossary as one of *' the nine props of the 
 SenchusMor,''' which is said to have been compiled 
 A.D. 438. At Killeen Cormac, in Kildare, is a very 
 ancient Druid stone with a Latin inscription I WERE 
 DRVVIDES(A Druid of I wera= Ireland) (Rhys), 
 
 * Professor Bury in " Tradition of Muirchu's Text," Herma- 
 thena, XXVIII. 
 
INTRODUCTION, xxvii. 
 
 and with an ogam cutting, Ovanos avi Ivacattos, 
 meaning, (the stone) of Ovanus, the descendant of 
 Ivacattus. We owe the decipherment of both inscrip- 
 tions to the researches of two brilliant scholars, Pro- 
 fessors Bury and Rhys. 
 
 A laudable attempt to read the inscription had been 
 previously made by the late Father Shearman, who 
 interpreted the Latin as IV VERE DRUVIDES, '^the 
 four true Druids " ; i.e., Dubthach and his three sons. 
 Another ancient tomb stone, at Crag, in Co. Kerry, bears 
 the inscription VELITASLUGUTTI,(the tomb) of the 
 poet Lugut,* who was most probably a pagan Druid. 
 Professor Rhys describes another Druid stone found 
 in the Isle of Man. A sign of the complete conquest 
 of Druidism is found in the hymn ascribed to S. 
 Columba, from which Bishop Reeves quoted the 
 
 line : — 
 
 Is ^ mo drai Crist mac D^ 
 
 My Druid is Christ the Son of God, 
 
 This short sketch of those interesting personages 
 of ancient history which we have, from our child- 
 hood's days, pictured to ourselves as patriarchal figures 
 with flowing beards, robed in white garments, bearing 
 mistletoe in their hands, armed with sickles and chant- 
 ing weird songs, might be concluded with a reference 
 to Caesar's Commentary (De B. G. VI. i6), where 
 they are described as assisting in human sacrifices 
 which were offered by the sick and wounded on the 
 
 * Macalister Studies in Irish Epigraphy. 
 
xxviii. CELTIC LIFE AND ART, 
 
 principle that the gods require "a man's Hfe for the 
 life of a man." The Welsh have still an order of Bards 
 with Druids and Archdruids, but their office is a mild 
 one in comparison. 
 
 Section 4. — An Ancient Mode of Writing. 
 
 We would recommend anyone who desires to know 
 something of the customs and capabilities of the Celtic 
 race to visit the collection of Irish Antiquities in the 
 Dublin Science and Art Museum with Mr. Thomas 
 J. Westropp's excellent guide in his hand. Among 
 the most interesting of these relics are the Ogam 
 stones, which are easily discernible from the strange 
 markings on their sides. This form of script is called 
 Ogam. If you take a stone chisel and a fairly large 
 stone with a square corner and, starting about three 
 inches from the edge, drive a slope score with the chisel 
 to the edge you have an Ogam consonant. Dint the 
 edge itself and you have an Ogam vowel. Variations 
 in the consonants are made by making two, three, 
 four, and five scores together, by driving them now on 
 this side and then on that, or by continuing the score 
 right round the corner so as to be equally on both 
 sides. The consonants above or to the right of the 
 line are — B (i stroke), L (2 strokes), F (3 strokes), 
 S (4 strokes), N (5 strokes) ; those below or to the left 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 XXIX. 
 
 are — H. D. T. C. A. ; while those across are — M. G. 
 NC. ST. ZR. and P. is represented by X. The vowels 
 A, O, U, E, I are represented by one, two,, three, four 
 and five short strokes respectively. ^ For example, 
 the name Ovanos would be written in Ogam thus : — 
 
 ■^ 
 
 II 
 
 II 
 
 This method of writing was distinctly simple, 
 labour-saving, and adapted to instrument and mater- 
 ial, as boys who have cut names in the barks of trees, 
 and have found how difficult it is to carve a rounded 
 vowel or consonant, and how easy it is to cut a 
 line or make a notch in the wood, will understand. 
 But as we might expect, the inscriptions are very 
 short, and commemorate the names of obscure per- 
 sonages and their relations. " Maqi " (mac), " son of," ; 
 
 * The subjoined Table will give some idea of the Ogam charac- 
 ters. A somewhat similar Table is given by Rev. T, Macbeth, 
 LL.D., in his Story of Ireland and her Church. 
 
 6 
 L 
 
 F 
 
 
 
 H ^ 
 D ^ 
 
 T ^ 
 
 
 1 
 = 
 
 1 
 = u 
 
 S 
 
 
 
 C ^ 
 
 ^ST 
 
 1 
 
 iE 
 
 I 
 
 N 
 
 
 
 Q g 
 
 ^ZR 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
XXX. CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
 it ^, • '? 
 
 avi," forefather of, and " poi " (son of ?) being the 
 words most generally employed. The name of Vorti- 
 gern is inscribed on one of the pillars in this collec- 
 tion, a name which was also borne by the unhappy 
 British prince, who invited over the Jutes, Hengist 
 and Horsa, to assist him to repel the Scots and Picts, 
 and by a Welsh prince, whose name is associated 
 with the vicinity of Nevin and the Rivals (Yr Eifl) 
 in Carnarvonshire, where Vortigern's Valley and 
 Vortigern's Grave are still pointed out, and whose 
 connections with Merlin, the Welsh prophet — a Welsh 
 copy of whose prophecies was found near this very 
 place by Gerald of Wales — form the subject of many 
 a thrilling Welsh story. Some of the Ogam inscrip- 
 tions are to Christian clergy. We have one to a 
 Bigoesgobi, or rural bishop, and another near Dingle, 
 to the memory of S. Monachan at Temple Geal 
 
 This form of writing has given rise to much dis- 
 cussion, with regard both to its origin and its anti- 
 quity. Professor Rhys thinks it was invented by 
 some Celt in Wales to represent the letters of the 
 Roman alphabet some centuries after Christ, and that 
 it was then introduced into Ireland. Professor Bury 
 well points out that the Ogam alphabet is simply the 
 Latin, with the three last letters left out and two 
 others added. And it is quite possible that this mode 
 of writing was introduced previous to, and inde- 
 pendently of Christianity, as the older stones are dis- 
 tinctly pagan. The Irish alphabet itself, with the 
 
I NT ROD UCTION. xxxl 
 
 exception of two letters, f) (r) and f (s), is distifictly 
 the Latin, and was most probably introduced into 
 Ireland by Christian teachers. Tirechan tells us that one 
 of S. Patrick's employments was writing out alpha- 
 bets (abgitoria) for his young men, whom he in- 
 structed as well as he was able in the Latin tongue. 
 It is, however, possible that abgitoria may mean the 
 A. B.C. of doctrine as Dr. Whitley Stokes suggested. 
 
 Section 5. — Ancient Forts and Dwelling 
 
 Places. 
 
 The remains of ancient forts and dwelling places in 
 Ireland are many and various. Some 28,000 forts are 
 scattered over the country, belonging to different ages 
 and called by various names. Some of these, like the 
 Staigue fort and Dun Aengus, may have been built 
 thousands of years B.C. while others may not have 
 been earlier than 1000 A.D. Similar structures 
 are found all over the Continent. The majority are 
 simply great mounds, surrounded in some places by 
 fosses or ditches, and ring walls of stone called cashels 
 (Lat., castellum). Lis, Rath, Dun, Moher and Caher 
 are the favourite names for these fortified homesteads. 
 The duns seem to have been the residences of the 
 princes, and the cahers — of which the best specimen the 
 writer has seen is in Kilfenora Glebe, Co. Clare — were 
 
xxxii. CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
 generally stone forts. A very small proportion of these 
 forts were made by the Danes, as they are principally 
 found where the Vikings never gained a footing, and 
 are regarded with a superstitious veneration w^hich the 
 Celtic people could hardly be expected to entertain 
 for the abodes of the fell Northmen, who in revenge 
 for the crusade of Charlemagne against their own 
 countrymen, destroyed the illuminated manuscripts, 
 shrines, churches, and sanctuaries of Krin, and per- 
 formed their own bloody rites on the altars of the 
 churches, as Ota, wife of Turgesius, did at Clonmac- 
 
 nois. 
 
 One of the best preserved and most prettily-situated 
 rath the writer has seen stands on an elevation in the 
 demesne of Castle Bernard, Kinnitty. It is circular in 
 form, thirty feet high, but was most probably higher in 
 olden days, and is fifty-five yards in diameter. The 
 vallum slopes down in the form of a perfect glacis. 
 There are also traces of the ancient chevaux de frise 
 which defended the summit. Some curiously carved 
 stones were found here, among them the figure of a 
 monk on horseback in the dress of the Chaucer period. 
 The fort is within sight of other raths on the Cumber 
 mountains, and in the vicinity of an early Celtic cross, 
 in one of the panels of which is depicted, as it is be- 
 lieved, the conversion of Aengus, King of Cashel, and 
 father of S. Colman, who gave his name to Kilcoleman, 
 near Birr. Beneath it lie the ruined wall 
 with a solitary single-light window of the ancient 
 
INTROD UCTION. xxxiii. 
 
 abbey of S. Finan and about twenty stone steps of 
 the Abbey tower. It commands an extensive view 
 of the hills and valleys around, which are attractively 
 grouped and planted. 
 
 Perhaps the most interesting of all these ancient 
 remains are the rath chambers or souterrains which 
 are called uath (ooa). Of these artificial caves there is 
 a specimen in Lisnahoon (the fort with the cave) in 
 Roscommon. They were evidently used for storage 
 and concealment. A number of these caves have 
 been found in the County of Londonderry. A very 
 good specimen is to be seen at Lisrenny, Co. Louth, 
 the residence of Capt. W. De S. Filgate, M.F.H., a 
 friend of the writer. In Kerr)', the Isles of Arran and 
 Innismurray, off the coast of Donegal, there is found 
 a peculiar kind of dome-shaped building built of rough 
 stone without mortar, with a low, lintel-covered 
 entrance, and with a roof formed by the gradual ap- 
 proach of the horizontal layers of stone, until they are 
 capped by one central flag, like the sepulchral cham- 
 ber of New Grange. Similar dome-shaped cells are 
 found in Syria. These are called Clochans, or beehive 
 huts, and were the sort of dwellings that stood within 
 the ring walls of the stone forts in the West, where the 
 people had little or no timber for fortifications. To 
 these primitive structures the ancient oratories of 
 Christian clergy, such as that of St. Finan Cam and 
 Gallerus, on the coast of Kerry, assigned by Dr. Petrie 
 to an earlier date than the time of St. Patrick, and 
 
xxxiv. CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
 the monastic cells on the Skelligs bear a resemblance, 
 being built without knowledge of the arch and of stones 
 dovetailed without mortar. But while the beehive 
 house of St. Finan Cam in Lough Lee is of the rudest 
 description, the difference in form and finish be- 
 tween the round stone house, or clochan, in the north 
 island of Arran, and the conical-shaped neat little 
 house of Gallerus might mark a gap of at least a 
 thousand years. 
 
 The two great forts in the West which every tourist 
 should visit are the Dun Aengus on the largest of the 
 Arran isles and Staigue-an-or in Kerry. Dun Aengus, 
 situated on a bold headland in Arranmore is one of 
 the finest of these primitive structures. It consists of 
 a triple line of fortifications, of which the two inner 
 lines of horseshoe pattern are well preserved. Its 
 abattis of jagged stone is still a formidable defence. 
 From the Dun, which is supposed to be the residence 
 of an ancient Firbolg chief, there is a magnificent view 
 of Galway Bay. The Arran islands, which contain a 
 number of interesting Christian ruins, are reached in 
 small steamers from Galway. The Staigue-an-or stands 
 on the mainland of Kerry. A conveyance from the 
 hotel in Waterville brings the tourist there in a few 
 hours. It is, indeed, a unique and remarkable struc- 
 ture. Four miles from Lake Coppal, surrounded by 
 an amphitheatre of bleak hills, it stands on a low 
 eminence from which a good view can be had of the 
 Kenmare river and of the bold peninsula, which Owen 
 
INTRO D UCTION. xxx v. 
 
 More, the warlike King of Munster, who is also known 
 as Mogh Nuadhat, named after his Spanish wife 
 Beara. But the principal object of interest is the fort, 
 of which a model is shown in the Museum. Sur- 
 rounded by a broad fosse it stands, a circular stone 
 fort of Cyclopean size, constructed without tool or 
 mortar, but not without skill or art. The average 
 height is 1 8 feet, and breadth 13 feet, and it encloses a 
 space of some 90 feet in diameter. There are cells 
 built in the wall, the face of which has a curious back- 
 ward slope, or batter, on both sides. It would seem 
 to have been built to serve as a place of refuge for 
 the people and their cattle, what time the Firbolgs 
 began to feel the pressure of the Celts by land and 
 sea. 
 
 The three forts we shall next visit were the habi- 
 tations of Celtic princes of a later age. Grianan of 
 Aileach, the palace or sunny residence of the O'Lough- 
 lins, still called Greenan-Ely, stands on a high hill 
 some four miles from Derry and was evidently a place 
 of considerable strength. It is surrounded by three 
 concentric ramparts which were strengthened by a 
 ** sonnach " of stakes and a stone wall or cashel, and 
 commands a glorious view of Loughs Foyle and 
 Swilly. Of Rathcrochan in Roscommon, the head, 
 quarters of the O'Conors, nothing remains but massive 
 mounds and raths, to indicate the place where the war- 
 like Queen Maev resided in state, and where S. Patrick 
 met the beautiful daughters of Laogaire ; while a red 
 
xxxvi. CELTIC LIFE AND ART, 
 
 stone marks the spot where Dathi, his predecessor, 
 is said to be buried. Of Kincora, the famous Dun of 
 the O'Brians at Killaloe, which the Annals of Lough 
 Ce tell us was burned in no/, when ''seventy tons 
 of drink called mead and of old ale " were destroyed, a 
 description will be given in another place. Many 
 similar duns were used by Irish chieftains even in the 
 days of Queen Elizabeth. Fynes Morison in his 
 History of Ireland, thus describes one of these habita- 
 tions — "The fort of Innislouglan is seated in the midst 
 of a peat bog, and is no way accessible but through 
 thick woods very hardly passable. It has about it two 
 deep ditches, both compassed with strong palisades, 
 a very high and thick rampart of earth and timber, 
 and well flanked with bulwarks." 
 
 The Anglo-Saxon thanes in England had similarly 
 fortified and constructed residences of earth and 
 timber before the arrival of the Normans, who taught 
 the Saxons how to build stone castles. The Irish 
 were not slow to learn the same lesson. In 1161, 
 more than 10 years before Hugh De Lacy built his 
 noble castles of Kilkea, Trim, and Leighlin Bridge, 
 King Roderic O'Connor erected at Tuam a strong 
 stone castle which was called " The Wonderful Castle," 
 and which was, perhaps, the first stone castle built by 
 an Irish prince. It had a central keep and courtyard, 
 was fortified by strong towers connected by lofty 
 curtain walls, and was protected by a deep moat. 
 Behind these walls and entrenchments the Irish 
 
INTRODUCTION. xxxvii. 
 
 chieftains dispensed lavish hospitality and lived in 
 rude magnificence until their neighbours burnt down 
 their residences or the English cannon balls began to 
 whistle about their ears a tune very different from that 
 of the birds in the fairy glades. The actual houses in 
 which they resided have perished long since. And 
 this is not surprising when we consider the frail 
 materials of earth, timber, and wattles of which they 
 were constructed. The Irish were famous for their 
 wattle work, which was generally used for roofing, for 
 bridges,, and for the carrying of turf. The palace that 
 was built outside the walls of Dublin, near where St. 
 Andrew's Church now stands, for the entertainment 
 of Henry II., on his visit to Ireland, was made of 
 earth and wattles. The hurdle-roofing is to be traced 
 in the sacristy in Clonfert Cathedral. The bridge 
 that spanned the Shannon at Athlone, before the 
 Elizabethan structure on which De Ginkle met the 
 forces of St. Ruth was constructed, was of wicker, 
 and Dublin was called Ath-cliath. or the ford of the 
 hurdles. Indeed many of the mediaeval castles in 
 England were made of the same material. 
 
 The Celtic chiefs also lived on artificial islands or 
 crannogs in the midst of bogs and lakes which are 
 compared with the pile dwellings on the Swiss lakes. 
 The writer has visited the crannogs at Loughrea and 
 in Lough Derg. On the former the bones of an 
 extinct elk were found, and the latter, which are 
 generally called " the Corageens," look like natural 
 
xxxviii. CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
 islands with their plantations of fir, and are attractively 
 situated in a beautiful lake. These may have been 
 the islands mentioned as having been repaired by 
 King Brian in 1002. For it is not unlikely that they 
 were ravaged and burnt to the water's edge by the 
 same Danes who plundered and destroyed the Seven 
 Churches and Celtic settlement on Inniscaltra or 
 Holy Isle, some four miles lower down the Shannon. 
 The mode in which these islands in Lough Derg was 
 constructed is very simple. The foundation of stones 
 was first made on a shallow portion of the lake, and 
 on these loose material branches and earth were 
 heaped, stakes having been previously driven deep 
 down into the ground and cross beams lashed or 
 mortised to them to form a platform, on which the 
 family built their wooden dwellings and worked 
 securely at their various employments, until the Danes 
 or their own countrymen disturbed their rest and cut 
 short their preers. Of these crannogs, which number 
 some 200, and which were in use down to the days of 
 Queen Elizabeth, there are many varieties. Walled 
 islands and island forts are mentioned in the Annals, 
 and are found in Gal way and Donegal. It would 
 seem that lawless bands occasionally occupied a 
 fortified crannog, where they stored their plunder, and 
 from which they made their raids upon their more 
 peaceful neighbours. S. Fechan of Fore had occasion 
 to curse a dun in Lough Leane, and S. Ciaran, of 
 Clonmacnois, had to clear an island " inhabited bv 
 
INTRODUCTION. . xxxix. 
 
 Gentiles and rabble." And this was probably done 
 by burning them out. Indeed, the danger the inhabi- 
 tants of the crannog had to fear from friend and foe 
 was fire. It is not many years ago since one of the 
 crannogs in Lough Derg was burnt to the water's 
 edge through the carelessness of some holiday-makers. 
 
 Section 6. — Ecclesiastical Archtecture. 
 
 The early ecclesiastical buildings of the Celts were 
 very homely structures. They possess much interest 
 for the antiquarian, but little beauty or grace, being 
 small and oblong, without apse or chancel. A great 
 number of them seem to have been built of earth and 
 wattles, as the name duirtheach, " house of oak," 
 suggests; and could be moved about like the 
 oratory of St. Moling, in Carlow. Bede tells us that 
 when Finan, who was an Irishman, was made bishop of 
 Lindisfarne, '' he built a church suitable for his See, 
 but did not construct it of stone, but of sawn oak, and 
 covered it with reeds, after the manner of the Scots." 
 But many of these primitive churches were built and 
 roofed of stone, and were called daimhliags, or stone 
 houses. Very interesting specimens of these are the 
 churches of S. MacDara, in Galway Bay (15 feet by 
 1 1 feet) ; Tempull Ceannanach, off the shores of Conne- 
 mara; the chapel of S. Molaise, the friend of 
 
xl. CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
 Columbkllle, in Innismurray (12 feet by 8 feet) ; and the 
 small church on Ireland's Eye, formerly called Inis Mac 
 Nessan, where S. Nessan and his sons worshipped in days 
 of old, and probably heard the Scriptures expounded 
 from a famous copy of the Gospels, called the Garland 
 of Howth. It is believed that S. Patrick introduced this 
 style of building into Ireland. The general length of 
 the larger stone churches seems to have been 60 feet ; 
 but the Cathedral of Armagh in the 9th century was 
 140 feet long. In another chapter of this book, the writer 
 will describe two of the most interesting and artistic 
 of these stone roofed oratories and churches, those of 
 S. Molua and S. Flannan, at Killaloe. 
 
 The "dear departed " Ecclesiastical Commissioners 
 evidently intended to revive this type of church 
 architecture, for they repudiated chancels and towers, 
 and erected small, low, rectangular buildings of the 
 style that is generally described as "squat." In the 
 ruins of a church at Dean's Grange, Blackrock, one 
 can see that the original church was rectangular and 
 of rubblestone ; but the improving hand of the Norman 
 came, broke through the eastern wall, and added a 
 chancel of cut stone. Neither was the primitive Celtic 
 monastery at all like the magnificent stone structures 
 of mediaeval times. It was simply a collection of 
 small circular huts of wood or wattle, with three or 
 four of larger dimensions to serve as a church, kitchen, 
 and residence of the abbot, who had to keep an eye 
 on everything, surrounded by a circular rampart and 
 
INTRODUCTION. xli. 
 
 palisade, and sometimes with a cashel. Colgan's 
 Vita Tripartita, p. 226, gives an interesting record of 
 the dimensions of one of these settlements, which 
 may, as Professor Bury suggests, represent the typical 
 scheme of the monastic establishments of Patrick and 
 his companions. The measurements are — " 27 feet 
 (diameter ?) in the Great House, 17 feet in the kitchen, 
 7 feet in the aregal (oratory) ; and it was thus that he 
 used always to found the conghala (monasteries)." 
 
 The variety of names for church and oratory in 
 Irish, e.g., cill, eaglais, tempull, domnach, aireagal, 
 and urnaide expresses not only the eloquence of the 
 language but doubtless also a difference in the 
 architecture and purpose of the building. Those 
 who are sufficiently familiar with the names Kildare, 
 Kilcullen, Killeen, Shankhill (old church), and 
 Templemore, may not at first recognise the Latin 
 ecclesia in the Irish, Eglish, or Aglish, the Latin 
 Dominica in Donagh-VdXxick, the Latin oraculum in 
 Errigal, and the Latin oratorium in Urney. The 
 Cymric word lann, so frequent in Welsh names of 
 sacred places, is also used for Church as in Lynally 
 (for Lann-Elo), Glenavy (lann-abhaich, the dwarfs 
 church); and BasHck (Lat. Basilica) is also found. 
 The churches that were founded on Sunday (Dies 
 Dominica) were called Donagh (Domhnach), the more 
 pretentious edifices were doubtless called Eglish and 
 Baslic ; while those that may have occupied the site 
 of some pagan shrine were called temple (Lat. templum, 
 
xlii. CELTIC LIFE AND ART, 
 
 Irish teampull). Templetuohy, or the temple of the 
 tuath or tribe, seems to point to some such connection. 
 
 We have seen that in many cases, especially in the 
 west, the cells of the monks — for the Celtic Church was 
 originally monastic — were of stone. But it would 
 seem that even when this was not the case that the 
 Abbot's residence was a stone square building, higher 
 than the rest, so that he might supervise more con- 
 veniently the life and doings of the whole establish- 
 ment. A good specimen of the Abbot's residence is 
 to be seen in S. Columba's House, Kells, which, like 
 that of S. Kevin's, at Glendalough ; S. Molaise's, on 
 Devenish Island ; and S. Declan's, at Ardmore, 
 combines an oratory and a dwelling-house. It is 
 altogether of stone, like that of S. Ere, at Slane, and 
 consists, like S. Kevin's House, of two stories, the 
 lower being 19 feet long, 15 feet broad, and 25 feet 
 high, with walls 3 feet 10 inches thick. This served 
 as an oratory, the entrance being like that of the Round 
 Towers in the west wall, some 8 feet from the ground. 
 It was roofed with stone, and upon it another building 
 raised also of stone and divided into three small 
 garrets, which are not higher than 6 feet in any place, 
 and in one of these a stone slab is shown as the 
 penitential couch of the Saint. The remarkable 
 feature about S. Erc's hermitage is the cave hewn out 
 beneath the rudely built anchorite's cell. Such 
 hermitages were scattered all over Ireland in the days 
 when the anchorite's life became the fashion through 
 
INTRODUCTION, xliii. 
 
 the influence of a remarkable person in Synia S. Simeon 
 Stylites,as we may learn from the number of Irish names 
 of places beginning with Desert or Disert, and Anchor 
 or Ankers ; and were sometimes attached to large 
 monasteries, as at lona and Lindisfarne. For example^ 
 when we read in Bede's History that Cuthbert died 
 '' in the desert," we understand that he did not die in 
 a wilderness like the Sahara, but in the anchorite's 
 cell attached to the monastery. Of the abodes of the 
 Anchorites, who belonged to the third order of the 
 Irish Saints, " the holies,"* the most interesting per- 
 haps is S. Doulough's. The writer visited it ten years 
 ago, in company with Canon Robert Walsh, author 
 of Fingall and its Churches, and others, and has a vivid 
 recollection of the small stone bunk of 5 feet long, 2 
 feet wide, and 2 J feet high, into which the Saint crept 
 at night through a small hole in the floor to enjoy as 
 uncomfortable a rest as he could inflict upon himself. 
 The crypt beneath is divided into two small apart- 
 ments, in one of which stands the altar tomb of the 
 Saint, and, doubtless, of his successors also ; for it 
 was the custom, as Marianus Scotus, the celebrated 
 Irish scribe, of Ratiesbon, tells us, for the en- 
 closed anchorites to say their prayers and read the 
 services standing on the grave of their predecessors. 
 
 * Ussher Works VI., page 478, gives the three orders. The first 
 order were most holy. "They did not reject the services and 
 society of women because they did not fear the blast of tempta- 
 tion, being founded on a rock." The second were " more holy." 
 These rejected the • help of women and kept them away from 
 their monasteries. 
 
xliv. CELTIC LIFE AND ART, 
 
 Between this abode and the octagonal Baptistery erected 
 over the well, a remarkable and beautiful building, 
 there used to be an underground connection, through 
 which the Saint crept when he was required to 
 baptize a convert or a babe. 
 
 As the years rolled on, the Celtic establishments 
 were built in a more durable manner of stone, and were 
 generally protected by a lofty Round Tower. But the 
 general principle of the coenobitic system which was 
 borrowed from the East, where each monk had his 
 own private cell, prevailed. In fact, it was this 
 principle that gave the name of monastery, which 
 means the residence of the solitary ones (monastes) to 
 these institutions. In the later Celtic institutions we 
 generally find seven small churches* and high pictorial 
 crosses. For instance, Glendalough (the Glen of the 
 lakes), in County Wicklow, once rejoiced in the name 
 " The Seven Churches," one of which, called S. 
 Kevin's Kitchen, is 22 feet long and 15 feet wide, with 
 a high-pitched roof and a circular turret at the west 
 end ; and Clonmacnois (the meadow of the son of 
 Nos), near Athlone, founded by Kiaran Macan-tsoir, or 
 Kiaran, son of the carpenter, one of the most celebrated 
 of the Irish Saints, was also called " Seven Churches " 
 from the number of its ecclesiastical remains. Those 
 
 * The number seven corresponded, doubtless, with the same 
 number of Bisliops. In those days, before the diocesan episco- 
 pate was introduced, we often find groups of Bishops Hving 
 together. In the Litany of GEngus the Culdee, mention is made 
 of 138 groups of seven'Bishops. 
 
INTRODUCTION, xlv. 
 
 who have imagination may picture to themselves the 
 
 gala day when S. Columba, after inspecting his own 
 
 monastery at Durrow (Dairmag, the field of oaks)? 
 
 visited S- Kiaran's foundation, and was received with 
 
 hymns and homage, being carried on a litter with a 
 
 canopy of branches over his head, by the Abbot and 
 
 the brothers into their then homely enclosure. A 
 
 century passed and the brothers of these rival 
 
 monasteries were engaged in a bitter strife, which ended 
 
 in the victory of Clonmacnois. In fact, the monks and 
 
 students of these ancient colleges, for they resembled 
 
 colleges more nearly than convents, as their work was 
 
 teaching and writing, as dearly loved a battle as the 
 
 college students of our day love a foot-ball match. S. 
 
 Columba himself had to leave Ireland on the advice of 
 
 his soul-friend S. Molaise, because of a fight he and 
 
 his men had with S. Finnian, of Moville, and his 
 
 at Cooldrevny (561). Temple Kiaran, 12 feet by 9 
 
 feet, was evidently the oratory of the Saint. The 
 
 Cathedral is assigned to the loth century. In Innis- 
 
 murray there are still three or four diminutive churches 
 
 standing amid the seven stone bee-hive cells that 
 
 remain of the foundation of S. Molaise. In Innis- 
 
 calthra, or holy isle, there are the remains of seven 
 
 small churches ; and in Inniscleraun, or Quaker 
 
 Island, famous in the story of Queen Maev, in Lough 
 
 Ree, there are four churches within the cashel, one of 
 
 which, Diarmit's Chapel, is 8J feet long by 6J feet 
 
 broad, and the doorway is 4 feet 9 inches by i foot 
 
xlvi. CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
 8 inches, while there is a lady chapel and a female 
 burial place outside the cashel, and a sixth church on 
 the hill. Only one of these has a chancel. 
 
 But any person who desires to see Celtic ecclesiastical 
 art, as distinguished from that introduced in later 
 centuries by the Norman barons and the Cistercian 
 and Franciscan monks, of whose cathedral churches 
 at Mellifont and Ardfert there are still many exquisite 
 remains, should inspect the West Doorway of Clon- 
 fert Cathedral, which is a beautiful specimen of the 
 Hiberno- Romanesque architecture, and dates from 
 Ii66; the Hiberno-Romanesque Chancel arch in 
 Cormac's chapel on the famous Rock of Cashel, 
 which was used at the famous Synod of 1172; and 
 the Celtic crosses at Monasterboice, Kells, and Clon- 
 macnois. The historical taste of the teachers of 
 Clonmacnois is shown by the very ancient manuscripts 
 that were written there ; the Annals compiled by 
 Abbot Tigernach, who died in 1088 ; the Chronicon 
 Scotorum, a continuation of the same down to 1 1 50 ; 
 and the Leabhar-na-Huidhre, a vellum MS. transcribed 
 from an old record in the nth century by Maolmaire 
 of Clonmacnois. 
 
 As the early churches were without towers, the 
 people were summoned to prayers by hand bells, of 
 which there are a sufficient variety in the Museum. 
 Of these the most venerated is the Bell of the Will 
 of Patrick (Clog-an-Eadachta-Phatraic), presented by 
 S. Columba to the Church of Armagh, and said to 
 
INTRODUCTION. xlvii. 
 
 have been taken by him from the tomb of the Saint. 
 It is roughly made of two iron plates and stands but 
 6 inches high. But the value the Celtic Church set 
 upon this bell may be judged from the beauty of the 
 richly ornamented brass shrine which was made to 
 hold it when Donald was Bishop of Armagh (1092- 
 1106). Both these sacred relics had been carefully 
 preserved in the custody of the Mulhollands, the 
 hereditary " coarbs " or curators, for many centuries, 
 and they were finally purchased by Dr. Todd, and 
 presented by his executors to the Royal Irish 
 Academy. The possession of this bell carried 
 certain advantages with it. As shrines were general]}' 
 deposited in churches, which were afterwards known 
 by the name of Skreen or Skrine, it is not unlikely 
 that it was the carrying away of this bell from a church 
 that is meant by the '' Annals of Ulster," which 
 describe a warlike expedition and the seizure of 1,200 
 cows and a multitude of captives, '* in revenge for 
 the violation of the Bell of the Will." All the bells 
 are not as rudely made and rivetted as this square 
 black bell of our patron Saint. Some of the cast 
 bronze bells display excellent workmanship and 
 design. The Bell of the Will of S. Patrick does not 
 seem, however, to have been always used for a sacred 
 purpose. Like the shrine of S. Columba, which is 
 called the " Cathach " or Battler, from being carried 
 by the O'Donnells into battle, this bell became a 
 mighty power in the fray, as the poet tells us : 
 
xlviil CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
 " Two hundred Kings, without doubt 
 With their famous troops, 
 The bell of the mild cleric shall kill, 
 O King of Glory, with it is my love." 
 
 The hand bells, for all their beauty of workmanship 
 and sacred associations, proved insufficient as the 
 Christian communities grew in size to summon them 
 to prayer. Larger bells were required, and towers 
 had to be erected for them. As the bells were square 
 at first, and afterwards round, the church towers were 
 round at first and afterwards square. In Inniscleraun 
 there is a church the tower of which shows the stage 
 of transition from the round to the square. In one 
 of the churches of Glendalough there is a small 
 circular belltower with conical roof in the exact form 
 of one of the Round Towers. And in the parish of 
 Seirkeiran, where S. Kiaran of Salgir, a possible pre- 
 decessor of S. Patrick, lived, there is a good specimen 
 of a round church tower, which must not, however, 
 be confused with the celebrated Round Towers, 
 to which we shall return. This, indeed, may 
 have been built some centuries after Kiaran's time, 
 and by the side of it an early church may 
 have stood.* In connection with Seirkeiran, 
 it is an interesting fact that it once possessed 
 a bell called " Bearnan Kiarnan," or the gapped bell 
 of Kiaran, which S. Patrick is said to have conferred 
 
 * The writer does not mean to say that church towers were 
 used in early times. Indeed it is well known that the earliest 
 Celtic churches were without them. Gregory of Turin is the 
 hrst to mention a church with tower and pharos. 
 
INTRODUCTION. xlix. 
 
 on Kiaran, and that this bell was first rung on the 
 hill now called Bell Hill. It was the midnight bell 
 that summoned S. Columba on that last night in his 
 life to prayers and rest, and as the dawn was break- 
 ing the Saint passed away with a face, as his chronicler, 
 Adamnan, relates, *' like that of a man who had seen 
 a vision of heaven." 
 
 Section 7. — The Celtic Schools and their 
 
 Art. 
 
 If we were to ask where the highest types of Celtic 
 Life and Art were found, the answer from all sides 
 would be, in the Ancient Celtic schools. The dis- 
 tinctly liberal system of education by which Greek, 
 Latin, logic, rhetoric, mathematics, geography, and 
 astronomy, as we learn from the Celtic works on these 
 subjects that remain, were taught, attracted scholars 
 of the highest rank from every quarter of Europe, and 
 excited the jealousy of the celebrated Aldhelm of 
 Malmesbury. Among the most famous of these 
 colleges was the monastic school of Clonard, where 
 3,000 students were ruled by S. Finnian, who trained 
 S. Columba, the founder of the celebrated College of 
 lona and S. Comgall, the first principal of the 
 Divinity School of Bangor, in county Down. 
 Numbers of the English nobility, as the Venerable 
 Bede informs us, came over to Ireland " either for 
 
1, CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
 the purpose of studying the Word of God or to follow a 
 stricter life." It is said that Dagobert II. of France 
 was educated in the old Abbey school on the hill of 
 Slane, and among other Irish scholars were Oswald 
 and Alfrid, Kings of Northumbria ; Gildas, the British 
 historian ; Agilbert, Bishop of Paris ; S. Willibrod, 
 Archbishop of Utrecht ; S. Paternus of Brittany, and 
 others of equally great fame. The attainments of 
 Irish scholarship in that age are shown by the re- 
 markable facts that the only member of the Court of 
 Charles the Bald of France who could translate a 
 Greek book was an Irishman, John Scotus Erigena; 
 that the favourite recreation of S. Columbanus was 
 the composition of Latin verses ; that an Irishman, 
 Virgil, Bishop of Salzburg, in the 8th century was 
 called " the Geometer " because of his mathematical 
 genius, which led him to prove the sphericity of the 
 globe ; that Alcuin, the Englishman who was commis- 
 sioned about 800 A.D. by Charlemagne to prepare an 
 amended edition of the Scriptures, had received part of 
 his education in the Irish school of Clonmacnois. and 
 that he sent a letter to Colchu, " the Chief Scribe 
 and Master of the Scots," (Irish) in which headdresses 
 him as his " blessed master and pious father," 
 and a donation of 200 silver sicli from Charlemagne 
 for certain Irish monasteries ; and that Charlemagne 
 in his great work of reviving learning found his best 
 allies in two Irish scholars, Clemens and Albinus, 
 whom he made wardens of two of his colleges. 
 
INTRODUCTION. Ji. 
 
 The Irish schools treated their pupils with the 
 greatest consideration, charging nothing, as Bede 
 informs us, for board and lodging, books and instruc- 
 tion. But it was neither the secular studies nor the 
 hospitality of the Celtic schools, but the study and 
 illumination of the Scriptures, that have made them 
 immortal. As scribes of the Scriptures the Irish 
 clergy have been renowned from the days of S. 
 Patrick, who was called " the Man of the Bible," 
 from his habit of presenting each of the churches he 
 founded with *' the Books of the Law and the Books 
 of the Gospel," and S. Columba, who is said to have 
 made 300 copies of the Scriptures with his own hand. 
 Of these books, containing illuminated transcriptions 
 of the Scriptures the great majority shared the fateofthe 
 celebrated Saxon libraries of Peterborough and Croy- 
 land, being burnt by the Danes. But there are many 
 Irish manuscripts to be seen in the great libraries on the 
 Continent, especially those of St. Gall (founded by 
 S. Columbanus, an Irishman). Bobbio, and VVurzburg. 
 In the last-named library there is a complete commen- 
 tary on the Epistles of S. Paul, written in the Irish 
 language of the ninth century, which is distinctly 
 valuable ; and in the French National Library thei^ 
 was found a quaint Irish work, called De Mens urn 
 Orbis, or "The Survey of the World," written by 
 Dicuil, an Irish monk of the ninth century, which 
 gives an interesting account of Iceland, which was 
 evangelised by Irish Christians long before the Danes 
 
lii. CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
 landed there in 874. We have also in the '' Book of 
 Armagh " a complete copy of the New Testament ; 
 in the " Book of Kells," a copy of the Gospels ; in 
 the " Book of Durrow," a manuscript of the Gospels, 
 most probably copied from that used by S. Columba 
 himself; in the "Book of Moling or Mulling," a 
 rather imperfect copy of the Gospels, and in the 
 ** Stowe St. John" portions of that Gospel. 
 
 But we are not concerned here with the text of 
 these Gospels, which, though based on the Vulgate of 
 S. Jerome, shows thoughtful and independent editing, 
 but with the wonderful skill in the arts of caligraphy 
 and illumination which they display. The Book of 
 Kells, which belongs to the 8th century, is said to be 
 the most beautiful book in the world. Giraldus 
 Cambrensis described it as the work rather " of angelic 
 than of human skill." It is the most perl'ect specimen 
 extant of Irish penmanship. It contains 354 pages, 
 1 1 inches by 10, is written in uncials, or capitals^ and 
 is remarkable for the superb art and intricacy of its 
 designs, and the harmonious, brilliant, and varied 
 effects produced by four simple dyes — black, red, 
 purple, and yellow. The ornamental designs princi- 
 pally consist of interlaced bands, and weird, snake- 
 like and bird-like forms. The uncouth drawing of the 
 figures is obscured by the excellence of the scrivener's 
 art and his illuminative skill. 
 
 Whence came this art, and whereunto mav we liken 
 it ? are questions that rise to our lips as we pore 
 
INTRODUCTION. liii. 
 
 over the pictured pages of this wonderful book in the 
 Library of Trinity College. The art certainly came 
 from Byzantium, the seat of ecclesiastical art and 
 architecture, where it reached a high degree of perfec- 
 tion, but the Celtic artists developed it in their own 
 way. Now there is an illuminated manuscript in the 
 British Museum, which is described by an English 
 expert as "the most perfect existing specimen of the 
 English handwriting." It is the copy of the Gospels, 
 known as the '* Durham Book." that was made in 
 Lindisfarne, now called Holy Isle, off the coast of 
 Northumberland, where S. Aidan, an Irishman from 
 S. Columba s College at lona, founded a church and a 
 school, which was for many years a centre of learning 
 and light in the North of England. One of the 
 successors of this S. Aidan, who is described by 
 Bede, the historian, as a real saint in charity, tender- 
 ness, diligence, and devotion, was S. Cuthbert, who, 
 besides being an Irishman, was a devoted student and 
 scholar. It was under the directions, and, doubtless, 
 with the assistance, of S. Cuthbert that Eadfrith, his 
 successor, completed this copy, which was covered, 
 ornamented and translated into Saxon by the 
 three bishops who succeeded Eadfrith. Its interlaced 
 designs and illuminated work resemble the Irish 
 manuscripts so closely that they seem to have been 
 taken from the same model. There is a very remark- 
 able church still standing in Monkwearmouth (Sunder- 
 land), built by a Saxon, Benedict Biscop in 674, and 
 
liv. CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
 containing a corner of a sculptured slab built into the 
 vestry wall, which shows the same kind of interlaced 
 patterns that are found in the Lindisfarne manuscript. 
 The Right Rev. G. F. Browne, Bishop of Bristol, the 
 Church Historian, in his Notes on Monkwearmoiith 
 Church, calls the class of work " Irish Ornamentation." 
 and regards the tracery on the slab and the designs in 
 the manuscript as the work of the same hand. It is 
 interesting to find that the work, which is described 
 by an expert as " the most perfect existing specimen 
 of the English handwriting " is regarded by another 
 authority as *' Irish ornamentation." At Tellinge, a 
 small Danish hamlet in Jutland, where the Danish 
 Vikings held their wassail in their ancient palace 
 after those expeditions, which cost Ireland and England 
 so many precious manuscripts and shrines, there were 
 two remarkable Runic monuments raised by Harald 
 II., who became a Christian, to his parents, Gjormand 
 Thyra ; and these also, in their strange figures and in- 
 terwoven bands, resemble the Irish ornamental and 
 interlaced work on vellum and stone. It is quite 
 possible that they were engraved by an Irish scribe, 
 who was either the friend or the prisoner of King 
 Harald (a.d. 935). 
 
 The Irish scribe, who could produce such work, was 
 a person of consequence in the establishment. The 
 title of scribe was often given to an abbot or bishop to 
 enhance his position. Alcuin addresses Colchu as 
 " the Chief Scribe." In an illuminated MS. of Giraldus 
 
INTRODUCTION, Iv. 
 
 Cambrensis there is a quaint picture of the scribe en- 
 gaged at his work with style and quill, dressed in 
 greenish-brown jacket and h'ght-coloured trousers. 
 The post was honourable but onerous. There are 
 many notes on the mars^ins of the manuscripts, made 
 by the scribes, in which they sometimes relieved their 
 feelings. In one of these, a monk at Wurzburg tells 
 us that though only his three fingers have been writ- 
 ing, his whole body has been occupied in the work, 
 " quia tribus digitis scribitiir et totus membrus laboret." 
 
 The Irish schools were also celebrated for the high 
 class of metal work they turned out. Within the walls 
 of the "civitas," or "family," the skilled artist in 
 gold and silver and bronze was highly esteemed. In- 
 deed, he might aspire, like Conlath of Kildare, to a 
 bishopric. The principal employment of these artists 
 was the making of ornamental shrines for the Books 
 that have been mentioned and others, for bells, croziers, 
 and crosses. The Cross of Cong, the Chalice of 
 Ardagh, the Domnach Airgid, or " Silver Shrine " of 
 S. Patrick's Gospels, and the crozier of Clonmacnois 
 which are chiefly of bronze inlaid with silver, orna- 
 mented with gold filigree, and set with crystals and 
 native pearls, are fair specimens of the metal and filigree 
 work of the ancient Irish schools of art. The illumi- 
 nated manuscripts, the sculptured stone crosses 
 (which will be described in the account of Slane), the 
 delicately wrought and inlaid book shrines or " cum- 
 dachs," the embossed "bachalls" or croziers, the 
 
Ivi. CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
 ornate polaires or satchels, in which the manuscripts 
 were preserved (of which there is a good specimen in 
 Trinity College) and which were saved from the unspar- 
 ing hands of the Danes by being carried beyond the 
 seas, deposited in the Round Towers, or buried in the 
 ground, give us a general idea of what the Celtic 
 schools could achieve in metal work, sculpture, and 
 the illuminative art before the Danes or Normans in- 
 vaded the island. 
 
TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE CELTIC RACE. 
 
 The first historical inhabitants of Erin with whom 
 we come in contact are the Gaels. The Tuatha De 
 Danaan move in the dim distance, great shadowy figures, 
 wrapt in myth and wonderlore. From them sprang 
 that mighty man Finn McCool, whose mother was 
 " Muirne the smooth neck, daughter of Tadg, son of 
 Nuada, of the Tuatha De Danaan," and whose quoits 
 and race course are pointed out on the Kerry Coast 
 by the mouth of the Casan river. They were suc- 
 ceeded by the Iberian race or Firbolgs, who were 
 driven westward by the Celts, and whose long and 
 narrow skulls, found in the western caves, bear a 
 strong resemblance to the remains in the gravel pits 
 of the Basque provinces. The massive stone forts in 
 the County Kerry, of which the Staigue-an-Or, near 
 Lake Coppal, is chief, and the Arran Isles are doubt- 
 less their handiwork. And there where that people 
 made their last stand we find to-day a distinct 
 nationality, men of small stature and long narrow 
 heads. These Firbolgs — a dark, wiry little folk — 
 
2 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
 may be the original of "the little people" (the lepre 
 chauns or fairies) who have so real an existence in 
 the imagination of the Celt. They were reduced to 
 servitude by the Celts, and called Aitheach-Tuatha, 
 corrupted into Attacotti. The Milesians and Celts 
 are most probably the same. For Mil or Milid 
 means warrior, and so do Goidel, Goth, and Celt. 
 But the Picts (Cruithne), whose headquarters was 
 Emania, were evidently a different race. 
 
 One of the Iberian forts (Murbech) in Arranmore 
 was named from Mil : — 
 
 " Adar made his residence in the South 
 They stationed Mil at Murbech." 
 
 There is some foundation, moreover, for the existence 
 of Eber, Erimon and Ith (^). Few Irishmen, how- 
 ever, can trace their pedigree back to the flood ; 
 although some of the Western families claim to be 
 descended from Cormac Cas, after whom they were 
 called Dalcassians. With the Celts the history of 
 Erin begins. They were an Aryan race that passed 
 into Europe from the highlands of India, pressing 
 hard upon the Greek and Roman Empires, but were 
 finally crushed by Caisar and the Germans in 
 Europe, and in England were eventually driven 
 by Saxon and Dane into Cornwall, Wales, Cumbria, 
 and Caledonia. It is believed that the Galatians, 
 to whom S. Paul wrote the Epistle, in which he 
 said, " O ye Galatians who hath bewitched you 1 
 
 (I) See Studies in Early Irish History, bv Prof. Rhys. 
 
 Ci J> 
 
THE CELTIC RACE, 3 
 
 were of the same race as the Celts of Ireland 
 and Britain. This people were remarkable for their 
 childlike piety, bravery, and devotion to family and 
 clan. In this spirit of clanship and adherence to 
 tradition, we have, as Todd points out, the keynote 
 of Irish history. Of a highly organized and sensi- 
 tive disposition, the Celt lacked the staying power 
 and steady purpose of the Saxon, his less versatile 
 but more strenuous opponent. And in muscular 
 development and athletic power the Gaels or Celts take 
 a place second to none. When they were subdued by the 
 Saxons they became, as Mommsen says, '' merged as 
 a leaven of future development in a politically superior 
 nationality." In appearance they were tall, fair-haired 
 and grey-eyed, and their weapons were of iron and 
 bronze. The name Celt, which is identified with 
 Gall by Todd, is said to come from an old word 
 which means to cast, because these people used to 
 hurl their weapons from a distance. The word war also 
 comes from a root (werf) meaning to throw. Hence the 
 words Gall and Celt came to mean warrior. These Celts 
 are found to day, in Ireland, Scotland, and Wales ; in 
 the highlands of the first two countries and through- 
 out the last, using their native tongue as well as the 
 English. In the early days of English history the Celts 
 were called Scoto-Milesians and Scots. St. Prosper of 
 Aquitaine mentions the fact that Palladius preached to 
 the Scots of both countries ; Bede calls Hibernia "the 
 island of the Scots " and '' the fatherland of the Scots," 
 and Eginhard, the secretary of Charlemagne, calls it 
 
4 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
 '' the island of the Scots." From the fifth to the 
 tenth century Ireland was, it would seem, known as 
 Scotia. And it was not until the eleventh century 
 that Erin ceased to be called Scotia, and Alba came to 
 be known by that name. " All the inhabitants of 
 Hibernia," wrote Buchanan, the tutor of James VI. of 
 Scotland, "were originally called Scoti, as Orosius 
 points out, and our own annals tell us that there was 
 more than one migration of the Scoti from Hibernia 
 into Albania." The grand result of this movement of 
 the northern clans of Hibernia, which spread over 
 some centuries, was the establishment of a Scotic 
 principality in Argyle, which eventually dominated 
 the whole of the northern portion of the island, and 
 gave to Scotland its Christian religion, its laws and 
 monarchy. Though, perhaps, less numerous than the 
 Picts, the Lothians, and the Britons who occupied the 
 island, the Scots were the most vigorous and enter- 
 prising. From them went forth Columba, St. Colum- 
 kille, the apostle of the Picts, and in the ninth century, 
 Kenneth, their chief, became King of Caledonia. And 
 from this McAlpin line were descended the Bruces, the 
 Stuarts, and the present royal family of Great Britain. 
 They moved their seat of rule from Inverlochy to 
 Scone and thence to Edinburgh, carrying with them 
 the Lia Fail, or Stone of Destiny, the original of which, 
 according to Dr. Petrie, was left unnoticed on the 
 grassy mounds of Tara. To-day the descendants of 
 the Gael are found in the highland clans, the bon- 
 neted and plaided Scotsmen, who belong originally to 
 
THE CELTIC RACE, 5 
 
 the same race and the same land as the Celtic 
 inhabitants of Erin. 
 
 A protest against this view of the case has been 
 recently made by Mr. E. W. Nicholson in his Keltic 
 Studies. He indignantly repudiates the idea that the 
 Picts were ever defeated by the Scots. It may be a shock 
 to Irish nerves to hear Mr. Nicholson exclaim : " To 
 suppose that the great free people from which he is 
 descended were ever conquered by a body of Irish 
 colonists, and that the language he speaks is merely an 
 Irish colonial dialect are delusions which, he hopes no 
 one will regret to. see finally dispelled." For we have 
 been accustomed to think that a few Irish colonists 
 conquered Scotland and established a kingdom there. 
 However, the writer offers us some compensation. For 
 he goes on to say, that " Lancashire, West Yorkshire, 
 Staffordshire, Worcestershire, Warwickshire, Leices- 
 tershire, Cambridgeshire, Wiltshire, Somerset and 
 part of Sussex are as Keltic as Perthshire and North 
 Munster; that Cheshire, Shropshire, Herefordshire, 
 Monmouthshire, Gloucestershire, Devon, Dorset, 
 Northamptonshire, Huntingdonshire and Bedford- 
 shire are more so, and equal to North Wales and 
 Leinster; while Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire 
 exceed even this degree, and are on a level with South 
 Wales and Ulster. Cornwall, of course, is more Keltic 
 than any other English county, and as much so 
 as Argyll, Invernesshire or Connaught," and thus 
 allows that a great proportion of the '' brutal Saxons '' 
 are as Keltic as the Kelts themselves, just as 
 
6 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
 their descendants became more Irish than the 
 Irish. 
 
 With regard to the Irish people, it is interesting to 
 read what strangers thought of them : — 
 
 Spenser says: ''The Irish are one of the most 
 ancient nations that I know of in this world, and come 
 of as mighty a race as the world ever brought 
 forth." 
 
 The Celts were large-bodied and large-hearted 
 men. 
 
 Ingentes animos ingenti corpore versant. 
 
 The men of Tipperary are described as having 
 " hearts as big as bulls, and to their foes as fierce, but 
 to women or friend as soft as thrushes." They seem 
 to have been a noisy people, fond of talking and 
 laughter, but sympathetic and emotional, easily excited 
 to action, impatient of suffering, hopeful and des- 
 pondent by turns. " The Gauls," said Strabo, " march 
 openly to their end, and are thus easily circumvented." 
 The Celts of Ireland may have lost from never having 
 been invaded and conquered by the Romans, but what 
 they lost in organization they gained in freedom of 
 spirit. The Irish at the time of Henry II's. invasion 
 were something like the Celts of England when Caesar 
 landed on the shores of Kent, free and unfettered, 
 brave and warlike clans, which only wanted system 
 and discipline to conquer their invaders. Tacitus tells 
 us that Agricola maintained that Ireland could be 
 conquered and held by a single legion, and that its 
 
THE CELTIC RACE. 7 
 
 conquest was desirable from the Roman standpoint, as 
 the neighbourhood of a free country made the Britons 
 harder to govern. How near Ireland was to a Roman 
 invasion may be seen from a glance at the twenty- 
 fourth chapter of the Life of Agricola, where we read 
 that the Roman Governor of Britain had received one 
 of the petty Irish kings, who had been driven out by 
 internal faction, and detained him under the sem- 
 blance of friendship till he could make use of him. But 
 he was recalled by his jealous master, Domitian, in 
 90 A.D., before he could effect his purpose. When 
 Giraldus came to Ireland, in company with his Welsh 
 relations, the Barrys and Fitzstephens, it struck him 
 as a new land, " being separated from the rest of the 
 known world." In his day, the Norman oppression, 
 and the feudal system had created a vast change in 
 the conditions of life for Briton and Saxon in England 
 and Wales. But, thanks to the restlessness of the 
 Irish Sea, Erin had so far escaped feudal thraldom as 
 well as Roman conquest. 
 
 At the time of Strongbow's invasion, the people 
 were divided into tribes, with Brehons, Minstrels, 
 Bards, and Harpers. Christian clergy had taken the 
 place of the Pagan Druids. But all along the coast of 
 Dublin, Wicklow, Wexford, Waterford and Limerick, 
 the Danes or Ostmen had built seaport towns. The 
 Irish themselves preferred to live in the country. In 
 their native woods they felt secure. In their houses 
 of wattle and clay they enjoyed at least domestic 
 peace, and subsisted on the produce of their farms, 
 
8 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
 while the inhabitants of the towns were supplied with 
 groceries and wines of Poitou by Danish and French 
 merchants. A people of pastoral habits, they did not 
 wear armour, but were simply clad in woollen garments. 
 Cambrensis said the Irish wore woollen cloths, chiefly 
 black, because the sheep of Ireland were mostly of 
 that colour. They dressed like barbarians, wearing 
 light cloaks, which spread over their shoulders and 
 reached to the elbows, and were made of different tex- 
 tures and striped. Under these they wore linen shirts 
 and breeches which ended in coloured shoes. When 
 they took the oath to King John, the chiefs laid aside 
 their girdles, skeans or daggers, and caps. King John 
 plucked their beards, and tried to introduce English 
 dress amongst them by having scarlet robes cut in the 
 English fashion presented to the chieftains. But we 
 find the Irish settlers adopting the dress of the Irish, 
 and their manner of wearing the hair in glibbs or 
 straight locks. The Statute of Kilkenny forbade the 
 use of Irish dress and glibbs among the English of 
 the Pale, " who adopted the Irish dress and looked on 
 the long glibbs of the uncivilized people as their boast 
 and ornament." 
 
 It is a remarkable fact that an Act was passed at 
 Westminster in the 28th year of Edward III. 
 encouraging Irish frieze and exempting it from ulnage 
 or wool tax. The brog which the Irish wore was made 
 of " dried skins oi beasts, or half-tanned leather, 
 fastened by a thong." A buskin, which was discovered 
 in a bog in Queen's Count3% is thus described — " It is 
 
THE CELTIC RACE, 9 
 
 made of raw skin with the hair turned outwards, is 
 open before, but was intended wh en on the leg to be 
 laced in front with thongs of leather. The sole 
 appears never to have been thicker than the upper 
 part." 
 
 The Irish, like the Gauls, preferred to fight naked. 
 A Lord-Deputy writing to Henry VIII. after a des- 
 cription of the gallowglasses said — ''the other sort, 
 called Kernes, are naked men but only their shirts, and 
 many times when they come to the bicker but bare 
 naked." Their recreations in the field were the chase 
 and horse-racing ; while at home they enjoyed music, 
 poetry and genealogy. Of their wit and wisdom 
 there is abundant proof in the proverbs and moral 
 reflections of the Irish sages. Of these some of the 
 most remarkable are : — 
 
 The heaviest ear of corn is the one that lowliest 
 bends its head. 
 
 He that conquers himself conquers an enemy. 
 
 It is better to be alone than in bad company. 
 
 Do not show your teeth when you cannot bite. 
 
 Better to come at the end of a feast than the 
 beginning of a fight. 
 
 One debt won't pay another. 
 
 A promise is a debt. 
 
 Fear is worse than fighting. 
 
 An early description of one of the McMorroughs is 
 worthy of quotation. It runs : " He was mounted on a 
 
10 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART, 
 
 horse which cost him four hundred cows. His horse was 
 fair, and in his descent from the hill to us, he ran as 
 swift as any stagg, hare, or the swiftest beast that I 
 have seen. In his right hand he bare a long dart, 
 which he cast from him with much dexterity. He 
 was tall of stature, well composed, strong and active. 
 His countenance was fierce and cruel. He wore a 
 light pink robe over his shoulders." 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 CELTIC TYPES IN WALES. 
 
 There are also many connections — linguistic, national 
 and historic — between Ireland and Wales, which are 
 not generally known. But it is not surprising that 
 this should be the case, when we remember that the 
 ancient Irish and the ancient Britons previous to the 
 Roman invasion were the same race. The Britons 
 were driven from the east and centre of Britain to the 
 western hills and cliffs, where they found security 
 against the Saxon invaders in their mountain fast- 
 nesses, but still kept up constant intercourse with their 
 Irish cousins. The native Irish and the native Welsh 
 may be roughly regarded, therefore, as the represen- 
 tatives of the same Celtic, or rather Iberian, race. 
 For the Iberian element is predominant in Wales, 
 while the Celtic type prevails in Scotland. Ireland 
 represents both types equally. We may accordingly 
 expect to find some similarities, at all events, among 
 these nations, pointing back to a common descent. 
 
 Taking up the language, not as experts, but as 
 casual observers, we notice many words and turns of 
 speech which are similar in both languages. For 
 example, the Irish word for horse is capall, while the 
 Welsh is ceffyl ; the Irish for God is Dia, the Welsh 
 is Duw ; the Irish for black is dhuv. the Welsh is du. 
 
12 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART, 
 
 Na is not in both languages. Ynys is Welsh for 
 island, and inis, which occurs in so many names, as 
 Inishbofin, Inishannon, is its Irish equivalent. Mor, 
 which is found in Benmore, means great in Irish ; and 
 mawr, which occurs in Pen maen mawr, a hill near 
 Llanfairfechan, means great in Welsh. Eglyws means 
 church in Welsh ; Eglish is church in Irish. These 
 words seem to have a common source in the Latin 
 Ecclesia, which again is derived from the Greek. 
 Beann, which is found in the so-called Pins of Conne- 
 mara, means peak, And this gave rise to the riddle — 
 " Why have those pins no pints ? " The ansv/er to 
 which is — " Because they are principally composed of 
 quartz ! " In Welsh the corresponding word is pen. 
 Fionn or fin is fair in Irish. Gwyn is white in Welsh. 
 Poll, which is found in Poulaphuca, means hole in 
 Irish. Pwllwll means pool in Welsh, occurring in the 
 well-known word — 
 
 LlanfairpwllgwynygllgogerchwyrndrobwUtysilisgogo- 
 goch, 
 
 which is the name of a small church on an islet in the 
 Menai Straits, but is generally shortened into Llanfair. 
 P. G. 
 
 It will suffice to add that gaber is Irish for goat, and 
 gafar is Welsh, and that mac is Irish for son, and mab 
 is Welsh. There is also a Kerry in Wales, near 
 Montgomery. 
 
 A peculiarity common to the Welsh and Irish is to 
 call places after churches and saints. The list of Irish 
 
CELTIC TYPES IN WALES. 13 
 
 names beginning with Kil and Donagh (from the Latin 
 Dominica) is legion, while in Welsh the list of words 
 whose first syllable is Llan, pronounced tlan, with a 
 guttural sound, and meaning holy land or church, are 
 equally numberless. For example, Llanfair means 
 the Church of Saint Mary, and Llangollen, the Church 
 of St. Collen. This testifies to the piety of these 
 ancient peoples. 
 
 As a rule, the Welsh are more friendly to the Irish 
 than to the English. They feel that they are nearer 
 to each other in several points. They have the same 
 fluency of speech — more dramatic, perhaps, than the 
 Irish, but not more persuasive. They are equally 
 emotional and excitable, and they have something of 
 the Irish friendliness and politeness. Their great 
 passion is poetry and music, and the Bardic contests, 
 with which ancient Erin was so familiar, are still kept 
 up in the Welsh valleys and hills, and cause much 
 excitement and amusement among the people. Every 
 small town has its own Eisteddfod or competition, and 
 the victorious bard is chaired amid much enthusiasm 
 and ceremony, and presented with an elaborate address 
 by the defeated competitors. In Plas Mawr, an Eliza- 
 bethan house in Conway, there is a bardic stone on 
 which Carmen Sylva, the poetic Queen of Roumania, 
 stood, declaring that the privilege was hers, after her 
 admission to the ancient order of the bards. A friend 
 of the writer's, who was returning from Snowdon, was 
 received with open arms by a Welsh bard, who 
 declared that the Irish and Welsh were brothers. It 
 
14 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
 seems strange, therefore, that these nations have so 
 little intercourse nowadays with each other. 
 
 Knowing the common ancestry of the Irish and 
 Welsh, we are not surprised to find the same monu- 
 ments in both countries. The Druid's Circle at Fen- 
 maen-mawr is one of the most remarkable ruins of this 
 kind in the Principality. Its name has been given to 
 it from its supposed connection with the Druids. It 
 consists of eleven stones, some of them eight feet high, 
 arranged in a circle. These stones are very weather- 
 beaten, and evidently of great age. Between these, 
 smaller stones are placed at intervals. This forms the 
 inner circle, which is almost perfect. The outer is not 
 so complete, and within this again there are traces of 
 a still smaller circle, which is described by Mr. 
 Longueville Jones in " Archaeologia Cambrensis " as 
 •* not concentric, but touching the inner circumference, 
 as if it had been the foundation of a circular dwelling- 
 house." The old idea that this was the sacrificial 
 shrine of the Druids seems to have yielded to the 
 now more generally accepted opinion that these 
 remains are sepulchral, like New Grange and Knowth 
 and Dowth, near Drogheda, the difference being that 
 the mound has remained in the case of the latter, but 
 has been removed in the case of the former, where the 
 foundation stones alone remain. Sir John Wynn, who 
 wrote in the seventeenth century, was of opinion that 
 the Druid's Circle, or Meini Hirion, as it is called, was 
 the place where the kings of ancient Britain pitched 
 their tents when they were training their soldiers on 
 
CELTIC TYPES IN WALES. 15 
 
 these mountains. Others of equally strong imagina- 
 tions have discovered traces of blood on the largest 
 stone in the circle, and have declared that it is the 
 sacrificial stone of the Druids. To pass on to Christian 
 remains, a visit to the Valle Crucis Abbey, near Llan- 
 gollen, reminds one of the equally wonderful remains 
 of the ancient Cistercian foundation at Mellifont, near 
 Drogheda. The plans of both might be compared 
 with advantage. And both monasteries were built in 
 charming valleys, thus keeping up the record of the 
 Clara Valla, Clairveaux. Bernard's foundation. In a 
 field close by the Abbey in the Valley of the Cross 
 stands a pillar some eight feet high, now called the 
 Pillar of Elisse, but some regard it as a mutilated 
 cross. It is interesting to find that the same religious 
 orders were established in the same period both in 
 Ireland and Wales, a fact that furnishes a proof of the 
 popularity of Bernard, the founder of the Order, whose 
 great friend was Malachy of Armagh. We now come 
 to the military and social connections between Wales 
 and Ireland. It is well known that the invaders of 
 Ireland, previous to the English subjugation of this 
 country were Welshmen. They were the descendants 
 of Nesta, a Welsh princess, and consisted for the most 
 part of Fitzstephens, Fitzgeralds, and Barrys. The 
 expedition was accompanied by that famous Arch- 
 deacon, Giraldus Cambrensis, who eulogises his cousins, 
 the Barrys, to the disparagement of Strongbow and his 
 company. This Gerald of Wales wrote an interest- 
 ing book on the Topography of Ireland, and another 
 
i6 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
 on the Conquest of Ireland. Both works are to be 
 accepted with the proverbial grain of salt. 
 
 But there are still more ancient connections between 
 the Welsh and the Irish, in the story of which the 
 famous Harlech Castle, now so well known through 
 the '' March of the Men of Harlech," and the Castell 
 Dinas Bran, or Crow Castle, as the English call it, 
 and Conway Castle, occupy prominent positions. In 
 that ancient book, the " Mabinogion," it is said that 
 Bran Bendigaid, or the Blessed, the son of Llyr, or 
 Lear, a name familiar to all Shakespearian readers, was 
 sitting upon the rock of Harlech when Matholwch, 
 King of Ireland, came to woo his sister Branwen, 
 married her, and took her back to Erin. Matholwch 
 got into trouble on his return, and sent for Bran, who 
 came to his assistance. But Bran was defeated, all 
 but seven of his followers slain, and he himself was 
 wounded with a poisoned dart. Near Harlech are 
 some ancient ruins called Muriau Gwyddelod, or the 
 Irishmen's walls, which may commemorate this event. 
 
 Another fort connected with this same Bran is 
 Castell Dinas Bran, or the hill-fort of Bran, a rudely- 
 built tower on a commanding eminence near Llangollen, 
 where Bran kept his enemies at bay, and which he left 
 in charge of his seven knights on his ill-fated ex- 
 pedition to Ireland. The story of Bran's head is 
 given in the Mabinogion. 
 
 To come to Conway, with the noble structure of 
 Edward I., and the ancient abbey founded by Llewellen 
 the Great, we read of a fierce battle between the Welsh 
 
CELTIC TYPES IN WALES. 17 
 
 and the English of the Marches over a vessel which 
 had come from Ireland with a cargo of wine. The 
 Welsh got the best of the fight, and eventually the 
 ship with its wine fell into their hands, Again, it 
 was undoubtedly due to his absence in Ireland that 
 Richard II. lost his crown in England. There had 
 been an insurrection in Ireland, and the King, who 
 acted by fits and starts, suddenly roused himself, and 
 having collected a great force, left his own shores, to 
 which he was never to return as King again. For 
 during his absence in the Green Isle Bolingbroke had 
 returned from his exile, and had been joined by the 
 most powerful nobles in the land. And when the King 
 sailed in to Milford Haven, after leaving the greater 
 part of his army to enrich the soil of Erin, he 
 found that it was unsafe to land, and accordingly with- 
 drew to Conway, where he entered into negotiations 
 with his cousin, was allured to Flint Castle, and was 
 surprised and seized by his enemies. 
 
 Passing on to the reign of Charles I. and the Civil 
 War, we find the Irishmen taking a conspicuous part 
 in the defence of Conway Castle, which was held by 
 Archbishop Williams for the King. But after the 
 capture of the castle by General Mytton these poor 
 fellows, who fought for King Charles, were seized, tied 
 back to back, and thrown into the river from the castle 
 walls. After the restoration of King Charles II. this 
 fortress was handed over to Edward Earl of Conway, 
 who quietly dismantled the castle, and sent the timber, 
 iron, and lead over to Ireland, which is thus connected 
 
 o 
 
t8 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. ' 
 
 with several links, romantic and metallic, with the 
 grand old castle of North Wales. 
 
 This much will suffice to show that the Celts of Ire- 
 land, Scotland and Wales, were branches of the same 
 great race of Gaels or warriors. Even though they 
 may have developed differently, owing to their different 
 environments and circumstances, we find in all the 
 same fundamental characteristics. And although they 
 have been separated for centuries, they have still cer- 
 tain customs, traditions and sentiments in common, to 
 which they show the same Celtic loyalty and by 
 which their nationality is proven. In the following 
 chapter an attempt will be made to describe the ele- 
 ments of ancient Irish society. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 ANCIENT CODES OF HONOUR. 
 
 The first thing perhaps that would strike a modern 
 student of ancient Irish story as strange is the tribal 
 mode of life. There is nothing, however, uncivilised 
 in the tribal system. It is simply a more primitive 
 state of life than the national, and survived the storms 
 of time until a much later period in Scottish history. 
 When one has read a little about the customs of our 
 early ancestors one cannot vote them altogether bar- 
 barians. In the first place, there were several large 
 and independent tribes under their own chiefs, and 
 each tribe was divided into several septs, each of which 
 consisted of a number of families. 
 
 There was a chief of the tribe elected by the free 
 and independent voters of that day — the freemen — 
 and there was at the same time a minor chief of each 
 sept in the tribe who was elected by the principal 
 members of the sept. Thus we find that when Brian 
 Boru was the chief of the Dalcasian tribe, Menma was 
 chief of the Macnamaras of Clare, a sept of that tribe 
 Members of a tribe were bound by the closest ties 
 to one another, frequently fighting side by side against 
 common foes, often celebrating common victories and 
 common festivals sacred and secular. They had many 
 a bond of union, the nation has not, because of its 
 more complex organisation. 
 
2C TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART, 
 
 It is said, too, that there was a certain community 
 of goods. The tribe owned the land. Kings and 
 chiefs held it only by virtue of their office. The chief 
 was allowed a certain quantity of land and certain 
 cesses and tribute from the freemen of his tribe. But 
 he was expected to give hospitality to strangers, to 
 supply the sinews of war, to repair roads, and give 
 stock to the needy. He, therefore, must have found 
 it hard at times to make both ends meet, especially in 
 time of war, when he had to lead his men to battle 
 and at the same time superintend the commissariat. 
 
 When a chief died the members of the tribe 
 assembled to elect his successor. In this election they 
 were influenced by qualities of valour and character 
 as well as of birth. They always tried to get the fittest 
 man, " the next in blood that was worthiest and 
 fittest." In cases where two rival names were put for- 
 ward and it was found hard to settle the matter without 
 a conflict, the rivals were allowed to settle their claims 
 by mortal combat — a very wise polic}' in such a system 
 of life, when the safety of the tribe often depended 
 on the popular rule of a single chief. When a chief 
 was elected he nominated his most capable son as 
 Tanist or substitute to take his place in battle, or in 
 state when he was unable to be present in person. In 
 the sept or sub-division of tribe there was a similar 
 election of chief and Tanist. Under such a condition 
 of things the home was naturally the centre of life ; in 
 fact, the tribe and sept were but larger editions of the 
 family life. 
 
ANCIENT CODES OF HONOUR. 21 
 
 The voice of the elected chief was supreme in cases 
 of bad conduct. He was advised by a certain class of 
 men called Brehons. These were the ancient lawyers 
 of Erin. Their laws were not written, but handed 
 down from one generation to another, and regulated 
 every department of life. A candidate for admission 
 into this select order had to serve an apprenticeship of 
 twelve years. The Brehon laws are called natural 
 laws, such as would naturally be formulated in a natural 
 state of life like that of the tribe. 
 
 We might, therefore, expect that they would be 
 superseded in a more artificial form of society. Several 
 of these laws concerning the division of property, 
 fosterage, and ordinary relations of life are very in- 
 teresting. They show what an innocent but cultured 
 people the ancient Celts were. 
 
 We can read these laws now, for after the introduc- 
 tion of Christianity, the Brehon laws were committed 
 to writing after certain precepts had been expurgated 
 which did not agree with New Testament teaching. 
 " For the law of nature had been quite right, except 
 the faith and its obligations, and the harmony of the 
 Church and the people." This ancient code is called 
 the '' Senchus Mor." 
 
 It is supposed that these Brehon laws were the legal 
 rules in force in the Aryan race before they came to 
 Ireland. And they were preserved in their primitive 
 form here because Ireland was left pretty much to 
 herself by the Romans in early times. I will give you 
 
22 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
 a few examples to show what an elaborate and honour- 
 able code it was. 
 
 Take the " Law of Distress." 
 
 This was the principle on which damages could be 
 recovered. In case of theft or loan not returned, the 
 man whose property had been taken or not returned 
 might serve a notice on the delinquent. And if 
 this was not attended to he could then seize 
 his cattle (for example), and put them in a pound. 
 Then the matter would be brought before one of the 
 Brehons, who always acted as arbitrators in such dis- 
 putes. If the delinquent did not appear, the plaintiff 
 would be awarded the cattle he had seized, and to this 
 judgment the defendant had to submit without demur. 
 
 Now. there was no capital punishment recognised in 
 the Brehon code. In case of murder, the murderer 
 had to pay a heavy fine, or ' eric,' in compensation to the 
 friends and relatives of the murdered man in order to 
 remove any desire or ground for vengeance. 
 
 St. Patrick once demanded " life for life." 
 
 On one occasion, hearing that there was a plot to 
 kill him, he dressed himself as a charioteer and drove, 
 while the charioteer donned the robes of the saint. 
 As they passed through a gorge, an arrow flew from 
 behind a rock, and lodged in the breast of the charioteer, 
 who fell dead to the bottom of the car. 
 
 St. Patrick demanded the life of the murderer. 
 
 The matter was referred to the chief Brehon, who 
 decided that the murderer should die, or " pass to a 
 new life in heaven," as the saint had predicted. The 
 
ANCIENT CODES OF HONOUR. 23 
 
 Irish, however, refused to try the experiment, and 
 declined to give up the Hfe of their countryman. It 
 was not until the reign of Elizabeth that capital punish- 
 ment was introduced into Ireland. No wonder then 
 that the people instinctively rebel against this inhuman 
 practice. 
 
 To turn to more pleasant topics, there was a pecu- 
 liar law called the Bee-judgment, which has no signi- 
 ficance now. At one time, however, bees formed a 
 staple industry in Ireland. Mead, the favourite drmk, 
 was made from honey, and every dish that required 
 sweetening was sweetened by honey. Of course, this 
 was all changed when sugar was introduced in the i6th 
 century. Now. as the bees used to gather honey from 
 the flowers that grew in the neighbouring fields, every 
 three years the owner was compelled to give a certain 
 portion of honey to the neighbours in lieu of the 
 honey that had been extracted from their fields. 
 
 This one law shows the fine sense of justice the 
 ancient Irish had. Again, according to the Brehon 
 code, there was a certain allowance made for the poor 
 and sick of the tribe, who were rightly considered to 
 have a claim upon the strong and well-to-do. They 
 had a public relieving officer for the poor and 
 a public physician for the sick, both of whom were 
 salaried by the community. 
 
 There is a quaint description of the relieving 
 Brehon. He is humorously termed " a pillar of en- 
 durance," and naturally so, to judge from the character 
 of his occupation. " One able to stand the reddening 
 
24 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
 of his face without insult to his tribe " — that is, able 
 to stand the insolence of beggars without being put to 
 the blush — such was the relieving officer in those 
 days. The doctors, too, were people of importance. 
 Some were called lawful and others unlawful. If they 
 were authorised to take off a limb or cut a sinew 
 without having to pay damages, even if they did it 
 badly, they were considered duly qualified. But if 
 they had not received this diploma they indulged 
 their taste for surgery at their own expense. There 
 was humour in this arrangement. When a man got 
 ill he was carried at once to the doctor's house, and 
 put under his treatment there and then. This house 
 was generally built by a running stream, whence pure 
 water could be procured. It had four doors, so that 
 everything that was done within might be open to 
 inspection ; a door being at every quarter of the wind, 
 so that the house might also be well ventilated. The 
 open air cure is, therefore, no novelty in Ireland. 
 
 We read of hot baths being used for rheumatism, 
 and of elaborate processes of shampooing. Keating, 
 in his *' History of Ireland " tells of a remarkable cure 
 effected by one of these physicians some 200 years 
 before St. Patrick's visit. A warrior was carried into 
 the primitive dispensary with a broken spear head in 
 the fleshy part of his thigh. The surgeon failed to ex- 
 tract it. At last he heated a ploughshare red hot in 
 the fire, and rushed at the warrior, ordering him to 
 show him the place. The poor fellow started up in a 
 terrible fright, thinking the physician was going to 
 
ANCIENT CODES OF HONOUR. 25 
 
 roast him alive. But the effort he made in jumping 
 up was sufficient to force the splint up to the surface 
 of the wound, and it was then easily drawn out. 
 
 No doubt that treatment was as effective in that 
 particular case as the scientific methods of to-day. 
 But I am sure we are thankful we are not left com- 
 pletely to the mercy of such irresponsible persons, 
 whose skill was small and whose fees were great, being 
 in proportion to the position of their patient. A 
 bishop would have to pay 42 cows, while a horseboy 
 would have only to pay two for the doctor's services. 
 
 We will now return to the family life. Community 
 of goods was the basis of the family. They had all 
 things in common. When a householder died, there 
 was a redistribution of the goods among the sons, who 
 each received an equal portion, according to the 
 principle of Gavelkind. The dwellings were circular 
 in form, and consisted of wickerwork covered with 
 clay or earth, and were generally white, like the 
 cottages of the country people to-day. The roof was 
 made of dried rushes, sloping outwards from the 
 centre. 
 
 Saint Baorthin was one day standing under a tree 
 
 during a shower of rain, and as he watched the rain 
 
 drops forming pools of water at his feet, he said, in a 
 
 fit of inspiration — 
 
 Of drops a pond is formed, 
 Of rods a round house is built. 
 
 Families of the better classes lived in several of 
 these little huts joined together and surrounded by a 
 
26 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART, 
 
 palisade, a mound and a hedge. The apartments of 
 
 the women were fenced off from the quarters of the 
 
 men, who generally slept on beds of rushes arranged 
 
 around the wall of the great dining hall. In the centre 
 
 of this hall were the stove and the chimney piece, 
 
 while on the walls were arranged the different weapons 
 
 used in war and the chase, and the domestic utensils. 
 
 Of these one may see some excellent specimens in 
 
 the National Museum. There are bronze daggers, 
 
 rapier blades, shields, and spears of beautiful finish and 
 
 exquisite shape in that collection. There is also a 
 
 large bronze caldron, in which venison was boiled, 
 
 made of spherical plates joined together by small 
 
 rivets ; the handles are handsomely wrought rings, 
 
 while the rim of the caldron is ornamented with a boss 
 
 and trumpet-shaped designs. This relic has been 
 
 assigned to the iron period. Another caldron even 
 
 more beautiful, but not so well preserved, is of gold 
 
 bronze. While such ornaments as these used to hang 
 
 from pegs in the walls, the well-known distaff or 
 
 spinning wheel stood in the corner of the room, along 
 
 the sides of which we can imagine we see dark forms 
 
 wrapt in their cloaks asleep, across whose hardy features 
 
 a flickering ash now and then throws a faint glimmer. 
 
 These are the Celts, a race created for the game of 
 
 war, whose powerfully-built and athletic frames were 
 
 the admiration of the Roman historian. The chief is 
 
 easily distinguished. He wears a gold gorget around 
 
 his neck, and a chain of gold hangs from his silk tunic. 
 
 Gold rings are on his fingers and gold bands adorn his 
 
ANCIENT CODES OF HONOUR, 27 
 
 arms, while his cloak is fastened by a large ornamented 
 pin, which has a handle and a blade of some dozen 
 inches, showing what a formidable weapon Hamlet's 
 "bare bodkin" must have been. Great spurs are 
 strapped to his shoes of brown leather, for he is a 
 famous horseman and breeder of horses like his present 
 day representatives. 
 
 Next to him are ranged his most faithful retainers, 
 men who fight and hunt by his side in the day, and 
 at night hold the wassail together. These are prin- 
 cipally Fenia or militiamen, who have sworn not to fly 
 before nine, not to take a dowry with a wife, never to 
 betray a friend or deny a stranger, or offer violence to 
 a wayfarer. In fact, they are Ireland's Ancient Order 
 of Chivalry, no less renowned than Arthur's Knights 
 of the Round Table, Their hair is long and fair. 
 Their dress consists of a woollen cape with hood, a 
 tunic reaching to the knees, bound by a scarf folded 
 round the waist, and tight-fitting pantaloons. They 
 have no shoes. Such are the figures in the dining 
 hall. 
 
 Passing out of this hall you enter the kitchen, which 
 is well stored with venison and beef, fish and fowl, 
 honey and milk, butter and beer. Leaving the house 
 and going into the open air we notice that the dwelling 
 places stand in a group, and are surrounded by a wide, 
 deep trench flanked on the outer side by a mud wall, 
 and on the inside by a blackthorn hedge. Across this 
 hedge no stranger dare pass without the permission oi 
 the proprietor. 
 
28 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
 Once inside one of these family walls the blood- 
 stained wretch was secure from punishment. The 
 avenger dare not cross the hedge. Not that crime was 
 winked at in those days, but because it was considered 
 a matter' of honour that the owner of the house should 
 give up any criminal who sought refuge with him, '' for 
 he who let a criminal escape was considered a culprit." 
 
 Yet the sanctity of family abode was always so 
 strong among the Irish that they often harboured, as 
 they do still, criminals who threw themselves on the 
 protection of their relations. 
 
 With regard to the inviolable wall that ran around 
 the family penates, it is interesting to note that the law 
 of trespass was extended to animals, so that if a young 
 pig went through the fence a fine was inflicted on the 
 owners, the hedge of thorny plants being expressly 
 made " to stop every gap through which a dog or boar 
 could thrust his head." 
 
 Particular pains were taken in making this hedge. 
 Every member of the family was compelled to take 
 his turn in the work. In order to have this carried 
 out, it was arranged that each should give his food at 
 nis'ht into the hands of others, so that he should not 
 forget to go to the hedge for it in the morning, when 
 the victuals of any person who did not come to the 
 hedge for the day's work were consumed by the others 
 with impunity. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE CELTIC SOCIAL SYSTEM. 
 
 • 
 
 The social system of the ancient Irish was a most 
 intricate affair, and must have frequently exhausted 
 the patience, and puzzled the brains, of the Brehons, 
 who acted as heralds and registrars. The numerous 
 cliques in the social life of our small community, of 
 which strangers so bitterly complain, doubtless had 
 their origin in the divisions of ancient Irish societ}-. 
 The principles of ''fraternity, liberty, and equality" 
 would have been even more revolutionary in the 
 good old days of yore than they seemed when 
 first proclaimed in imperial France. What would 
 the free and independent voters of modern Ireland 
 say to the seven distinct classes into which the 
 Celtic tribes were divided, according to the Crith 
 Gabhlach ? 
 
 The organisation of the tribe seems to have been 
 further complicated by the Danish invaders, who 
 brought a more elaborate system of society, as well as 
 more approved architectural designs, into the country. 
 Their presence in the country certainly influenced 
 the social life of the Irish by transforming the family 
 life of the tribe more or less into a military system, 
 and by compelling the tribes, who had been kept 
 
30 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
 separate by vanity, jealousy, and misrepresentation, to 
 unite in self-defence. It is, however, as hard to say 
 to what degree, and in what special way, this foreign 
 influence worked as it is to describe in detail the 
 constitution of the ancient Irish tribe, which was 
 already in the course of disintegration when first it 
 emerged into the light of history. At the outset, we 
 may say that it is difficult for us Irishmen of the 
 present day to conceive a state of society in which 
 the individual had no rights, save as a member of 
 his family, in which there was so small an element 
 of property as hardly to quality a man to say : 
 " Who dare tread on the tail of my coat," and in 
 which there was practically no government of any 
 sort " to be against." The tuath or clan, consist- 
 ing of people who had sprung from the same 
 ancestor, was the political and social unit. Their 
 bond of unity was blood, not land. This cohesion, 
 based on consanguinity, could not be altered by 
 removal or migration from one locality to another. 
 There was little love of their native land in the 
 hearts of the Irish Gaels. In this point they differ 
 from many of us who love our dear, old Ireland. 
 / But they were deeply attached to their clan and the 
 members of it. The family had no fixed residence 
 in the earliest times, but, like the Dutch " trekkers," 
 the ancestors of the Boers, they were generally on 
 the move, of course within the territory of the tribe, 
 as their cattle required fresh pasture, and as they 
 themselves sought new hunting grounds. The 
 
 I 
 
THE CELTIC SOCIAL SYSTEM. 31 
 
 authority was accordingly vested in the father of the 
 family, who, like the Arab sheik, was the patriarch 
 of the establishment, and to whom every member 
 owed obedience. In fact, their safety and welfare 
 depended on their standing by members of the same 
 body, and on their compliance with the directions 
 of their common head. The household would not, 
 however, be necessarily limited to the man, his wife, 
 and his children, but like the Roman familia, and 
 the Greek oikos, and the Jewish family, would 
 embrace the servants and the slaves, the guests 
 and the sojourners, the relations and armed re- 
 tainers, who were living with them. Each of these — 
 except the slaves — had their voice in the controll- 
 ing of the family affairs, and while the constitution 
 was patriarchal in principle, it became democratic 
 in practice. For it was more independent of the 
 father than a modern family is. Now-a-days, when 
 a parent dies, his household is generally broken up, 
 but no such result followed the death of the father of 
 the ancient Irish family. They simply elected 
 another — the most capable, not necessarily the eldest — 
 of his blood relations to take his place, and every- 
 thing went on just as before. But when land became 
 acquired by the family, as it did in different ways, 
 honest and dishonest, although in theory all land was 
 common, a new system was put into operation, which 
 had the effect of largely extending the family interest. 
 It was called the Geilfine, from Gilla, the five fingers 
 of the hand, and it worked in this way : — If the man 
 
32 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
 who acquired the land had as many as five sons, he 
 planted out each of them, as they grew up to be men, 
 in a household of their own, giving them their portion 
 of his property, until he came to the fifth, whom he 
 kept with him as the heir of the original home. Thus 
 the Geilfine, or group of five families, was constituted. 
 Then the youngest, in his turn, planted out his sons 
 upon the residue of his inheritance, keeping the 
 youngest again to be their particular heir. Thus 
 another Geilfine came into being, which was called 
 the Deirbhfine, or '• particular group." The process 
 was repeated, and the larfine, or '-after group," was 
 formed, and then, for the fourth time, a Geilfine was 
 formed, which was the Indfine, or " end group." The 
 reader will notice that there were seventeen households 
 established by this means — four groups of four and 
 the original home. No further subdivisions of land 
 was made after this ; but each household became, in 
 its turn, a new centre of four groups, until the 
 number 17 was again reached, and then a fresh 
 start was made. In this system we see how the 
 tribe, in the original sense of the term, was constituted. 
 Bound together by mutual rights and obligations, 
 joining in common worship, and having all things 
 common at the first, the family laid the foundation 
 for that wider, though looser, unit, the tribe, which, 
 in its turn, with many other tribes, hel^^ed to form 
 the State. 
 
 In the tribe the families were represented by the 
 heads of the households when they met together to 
 
THE CELTIC SOCIAL SYSTEM 33 
 
 discuss any important question. The direct descendants 
 however, of the original heads of these houses con- 
 stituted a select class, who exercised certain priestly 
 and military functions in virtue of their high descent, 
 and from these the chief was generally selected. At 
 first the different families, say of the O'Connors, even 
 after the tribe had been fully organised, settled their 
 private arguments among themselves, and seldom or 
 never called in the tribe to adjudicate upon their 
 family quarrels. New developments of the tribe arose 
 when it went forth to conquer their neighbours. 
 In the conquered district the victorious tribe were 
 planted, each family receiving, like the Cromwellians 
 of later days, a due proportion of ground. We have 
 here the germ of the landed aristocracy. Moreover, 
 as a large number of the defeated tribe were taken 
 prisoners, and their wives and children, by the new- 
 comers, and as the refugees from the other tribes 
 were naturally received into the service to swell the 
 ranks of the powerful families, most frequently, indeed, 
 of the chiefs themselves, we begin to notice the 
 growth of political power, family influence, and per- 
 sonal wealth — new factors in the onward march of the 
 tribe. For, while the weaker families of the same 
 tribe who were originally on the same footing as the 
 others, sank in the social scale, the numerically 
 stronger would rise in the same proportion. 
 
 The principal chief, with his bodyguard of warlike 
 retainers, would stand at the head ; then came the 
 
 D 
 
34 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
 great chiefs and their armed followers ; then the 
 smaller chiefs and their families, then the free classes 
 and at the very bottom of the social scale were found 
 the crowd of people who had no civil rights or privi- 
 leges, although the great majority of them had been 
 the original settlers in the land. But, by degrees, 
 the social life of the tuath became more complicated, 
 as the element of wealth began to enter largely into 
 the consideration of rank, and as the tuath or tribe, 
 by the addition of other tuaths, began to grow into a 
 small kingdom in which the original freemen of the 
 original tuath were gradually reduced to a position of 
 serfdom or absorbed among the unprivileged class. 
 The Brehons made an elaborate classification of 
 society, accordingtoscale, of which it will be sufficient 
 to give a very bare outline. It appears that the people 
 who resided on the tribe land — which is generally co- 
 extensive with the modern barony — were divided into 
 two principal classes — the Neme and the Feini, the 
 former consisting of those who had a position in the 
 community and the privileges of freemen, the others 
 composed of those less fortunate members of society 
 who had neither rank nor position nor privilege in the 
 tribe. We find a near parallel to these orders in the 
 Roman classification of Patricians and Plebeians, 
 which was, indeed, common to all the Aryan nations. 
 
 The higher order, again, was further sub-divided 
 into several classes. The lowest of these consisted of 
 men who had a dwelling-house and a portion, no 
 
ii UNIVERSITY ;/ 
 
 OF // 
 
 ===TH£: CELTIC SOCIAL SYSTEM. 35 
 
 matter how small, of the tribe land. If a farmer had 
 a small farm with ten cows he rose one step in the 
 social scale, and if he managed to acquire more stock 
 and was able to keep a few retainers he climbed up the 
 social ladder again and became a noble, a " flaith/* 
 having been an " aire " before. 
 
 The manner in which the higher classes of the com- 
 munity extended their influence over the poorer, con- 
 sidering the primitive stage of society, was highly 
 ingenious. We must remember that the object 
 desired by the " flaith " order was not merely wealth, 
 but power. And their plan was this. A man's wealth 
 consisted in the number of cows he possessed. There 
 was, however, only a certain amount of the tribe land 
 available for each member. Accordingly, the 
 wealthiest cowowners adopted the expedient of hiring 
 out cows to the poorer graziers, who were glad to 
 have the cattle, for several reasons, pecuniary and 
 social. But the conditions of the loan were worthy 
 of the modern Jew and the ancient Roman, for, if the 
 debtor could not pay his debt he became the vassal of 
 his creditor, whose influence was thus increased by an 
 addition to the number of his retainers. It was in 
 this way that the powerful class of " lords " arose who 
 claimed to have the right of coshering upon their 
 tenants, from each of whom they exacted free quarters 
 and support for a certain number of days on their hunt- 
 ing or warlike expeditions. There was, indeed, much 
 to be condemned in the treatment the wealthier classes 
 
36 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
 gave the poorer in those times, which are so often 
 spoken of as the golden age of Erin. For they often 
 compelled them, even against their will, to take their 
 cattle on their own harsh terms, in order that they 
 might have a safe investment at the risk of their 
 weaker brethren, at whose freedom they thus aimed a 
 deadly blow, with a view to their own aggrandisement. 
 For it was the acquisition of these personal rights over 
 their debtors that constituted the distinction of the 
 '• flaith " or highest order of the community. The 
 lowest class of '• flaiths " was called the aire-desa, i.e., 
 a free man who had the right of hiring out cattle. 
 And, naturally enough, in their desire to rise higher, 
 they all took advantage of this law, which oppressed 
 the poor. 
 
 It is commonly but wrongly supposed that property 
 formed the only basis of rank among the Irish, for 
 though there was a fixed property qualification for the 
 higher grades, unless that property was retained 
 through three successive generations — grandfather, 
 father, and son — the rank was lost. It was that cus- 
 tom, no doubt, which gave rise to the familiar saying 
 that " it takes three generations to make a gentleman." 
 The Geilfine system, which has been explained, was, 
 doubtless, invented to meet this regulation by securing 
 the retention of the property in the family. 
 
 The privileges of the community, which were en- 
 joyed by the upper classes of " flaiths " and " aires " 
 and were denied to the lower class of" feini," consisted 
 
THE CELTIC SOCIAL SYSTEM. 37 
 
 of sitting in the assembly, of giving asylum, and of 
 representing those under their protection. Here was 
 another means cleverly devised by the more influen- 
 tial members of the community for extending their 
 power. For it stands to reason that the tie between 
 them and their retainers, who could not even sue a 
 member of the higher order who had injured them, 
 unless accompanied by their patron, was bound to be- 
 come a very close one indeed. 
 
 The law of evidence also bore heavily upon the 
 members of the lowest class. For their testimony was 
 not accepted. It was these laws and customs that 
 helped to break up the unity of the tribe and 
 kingdom. And while the great man, with his vassals 
 and retainers, who consisted largely of foreign mer- 
 cenaries, refugees, and the original inhabitants of the 
 land, oppressed the poorer members of his own tribe, 
 the latter were compelled to combine for protection. 
 And thus there arose a system of guilds in the land. 
 Guild, said to come from a Celtic word giall, signifying 
 pledge. A guild meant a co-partnership in labour. 
 According to the Brehon law, guilds were for the 
 mutual benefit and assurance between co-partners. The 
 candidate for membership in a guild had to pledge 
 himself that the responsibility of the body should be his. 
 The people of the lower ranks were thus rendered 
 more secure against their political enemies, and their 
 own political status was raised. For example, with 
 regard to the giving of testimony — a right denied to the 
 
38 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
 poorest man individually — several poor men by com- 
 bining together could qualify one of their guild to 
 represent each member of the guild in a law suit. By 
 this method, artisans, handicraftsmen, and poor 
 graziers had some one to represent them individually, 
 and to see that they were not wronged by the richer 
 members of society. And by this system the personal 
 rights of the poorest were secured, and trade and 
 labour were protected from the tyrannical encroach- 
 ments of the chief and his alien crowd of fighting men, 
 on the one side, and from the cruel oppression of the 
 wealthy on the other. But it is easy for anyone to see 
 at a glance that the elements of disruption were even 
 now at work in the State. For a kingdom divided 
 against itself cannot stand. Between the chief, 
 supported by his foreigners, or fuidhirs, and the 
 wealthyclasses, backed by their retainers and vassals, 
 the labouring class came to the wall, and the tribe soon 
 followed them. For even the mighty power of Rome 
 was undermined, and went under when it allowed such 
 an absurd and cruel state of affairs to exist. From a 
 glance at the constitution of ancient Irish society we 
 may safely infer that the greatest pledge of welfare and 
 prosperity that our country possesses at the present 
 hour lies in the protected and improved condition of 
 the working and farming classes. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 ANCIENT IRISH SOCIETY. — THE CHIEF. 
 
 The Irish Chief was a very important personage. It 
 was true that he did not own the land, but he had 
 certain rights which prescriptive use had made his 
 inheritance. Of these one was the privilege of 
 coshering on his people, who were bound to support 
 him and his followers with a certain number of meals 
 or for a specified number of days when on marauding 
 or hunting expeditions. What had originally been 
 wrested from the clansmen by force became in the 
 course of time a gracious concession. For the common 
 people were glad to welcome their chief under their 
 roof no matter whether he would eat them out of 
 house and home or not. They rejoiced to spend and 
 be spent in such a cause. So much so that the say- 
 ing " Devour me, but defend me " passed into a proverb. 
 This national custom was greatly opposed by the 
 Government, which perceived to what excesses and 
 unlawful relations it might lead, and what obstructions 
 it might offer to the peaceful settlement of the country. 
 Indeed, it often happened that an outlawed chief could 
 not be found or hunted to earth so long as he had a 
 single follower to give him the shelter of his cabin and 
 the security of his hearth. Archbishop King speaks 
 
40 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
 of the number of Irish gentlemen who, though dis- 
 possessed of their lands, hovered about their ancient 
 inheritance, receiving board and lodging from their 
 former tenants, or joined the bands of Tories who 
 roamed over the country, striking a blow wherever 
 they could against the new settlers. This custom of 
 coshering on their dependents created a mutual under- 
 standing and good will between the follower and his 
 chief, and, while it helped the former to respect him- 
 self and to carry himself with deference, but without 
 servility, to his betters, it often paved the way for a 
 deeper union between the tribesman and his lord, who 
 very often married the daughter of a clansman. Hence 
 it was that when the English came to Ireland they 
 were principally struck by the independent, though 
 courteous, air of the tribesmen in the presence of their 
 chiefs, at a time when the Englishmen of the same 
 position in life were regarded by their masters as 
 dogs and churls. But this difference of manner 
 between the peasants of England and the peasants of 
 Ireland in the olden days has an explanation which it 
 is only fair to our English cousins to give. While the 
 Irish Prince and his native followers — not speaking 
 of the mercenaries — were of the same blood and race, 
 the Saxon thane was completely different in nation- 
 ality and religion from the poor Briton he had 
 crushed by his cruelty and debased by his tyranny. 
 Driven out of his country and forced to flee into the 
 mountains of Wales, the Christian Briton determined 
 
ANCIENT IRISH SOCIETY.— THE CHIEF. 41 
 
 that he would not spread the truths of his religion 
 among his oppressors, for ' why should he lead the 
 souls of those who had ruined him to salvation ? ' So 
 he reasoned. It was, therefore, left to the Irish to 
 convert the Saxons to Christianity. 
 
 Another custom of the Irish which helped to con- 
 solidate the forces of the tribe was fosterage. The sons 
 of the chief were settled among the families of the 
 tribe, given out to be trained and fostered by them. 
 Thus the young chief would grow up in the bosom of 
 his people, who loved their foster children as dearly 
 as they loved their own, and bequeathed to them a 
 child's portion. For this privilege of wardship they 
 were not paid in the case of the son of a chief, but 
 they had to pay. Campion tells us that commonly 
 500 kine and better were given to win a nobleman's 
 child to foster. In the records of the Earls of Kildare 
 we read long lists of the gifts of the Irishry to foster 
 with that family. We cannot estimate too highly the 
 advantage of this custom to the tribe and the chief. 
 The clansmen got to know and love him whom they 
 had taught to be swift and fearless in the chase, and 
 they followed him with confidence to battle, while the 
 chief had formed many an attachment among the 
 ranks of those whom he was called upon to lead and 
 govern. Many and many a time did his foster- 
 brethren form a bodyguard for their chief through 
 which the enemy could not break save over 
 their dead bodies. Many and many a time did the 
 
42 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
 chieftain's band hew out a path of safety for a 
 wounded foster-brother in the madness of the contest. 
 But it is not to be imagined that this custom of 
 fosterage was confined to the sons of the chief. It was 
 the general method of education and training for the 
 young. Suppose we allow our imaginations to travel 
 back to the sixth century, and ask what system of 
 discipline was then in vogue for the young. The 
 reliable histories of the nation and books on its national 
 life answer that there was, considering the times, a 
 very elaborate and judicious method of education in 
 use. The father and mother of the child would first 
 settle in their minds what friend of theirs would take 
 the best care of the boy and teach him all he required 
 to know, and, at the same time, not allow him to 
 forget his parents. Then, one fine morning, they, 
 with some of their relations, would go to the house of 
 this friend and solemnly make over the boy to his 
 care, giving him all responsibility over the child, and 
 permission to deal with him as he thought fit. And 
 then they would retire, leaving their son with his new 
 guardian. On that day, or the following, the lad of 
 tender years would be introduced to life and labour. 
 In the company of his foster parent he would be 
 brought to the fields and shown the ground which he 
 would have to learn to till. The cattle which he would 
 have to herd would be pointed out to the boy '-all 
 tears." Then he would see the wild colts he would 
 have to break in ; the kilns in which he would have to 
 
ANCIENT IRISH SOCIETY.— THE CHIEF. 43 
 
 work, and the forests he would have to clear. The 
 foster parent would then bring him back to the house 
 and point out the domestic duties he would be required 
 to perform, the wool he would learn to dress, and the 
 weapons he would be taught to wield. And, as soon 
 as would be convenient, the lad would be brought to 
 the bard of the neighbourhood, who would be engaged 
 to teach him the^poetry, history, and music of his 
 people. As the bard was a very important person, 
 one who was associated by his office with the loftiest 
 traditions and highest circles of the land, a brief 
 digression on this subject will be permitted. 
 
 The bard was one of the privileged members of the 
 community. His office was hereditary, and he had 
 not merely to sing the history of his tribe and nation, 
 but he had to teach it. In those early days, when 
 writing was almost unknown, or a difficult accomplish- 
 ment, the memories of men retained the folk-lore of 
 the land which the bards were the means of handing 
 down from father to son. It was in this way that the 
 great poems, or collection of poems, which have been 
 attributed to Homer, were preserved. As the 
 Homeridae, or school of poets, collected and revised 
 the stories of their race enshrined in matchless verse, 
 so the bards of Erin passed along the line of gene- 
 rations the poetical traditions of their people. 
 
 The Irish were a song-loving if not a musical 
 race, and their national bards kept alive the ancient 
 spirit of their forefathers by their stirring melodies of 
 
44 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART, 
 
 the great and glorious past, when the Scots went forth 
 from the northern shores to conquer Alba and to 
 stay the Roman advance beyond the Tweed, when the 
 virtue and piety of the race were a sufficient pledge 
 for the safety of woman and child, and when the harp 
 never vibrated to any but strains of valorous deeds 
 ■and suffering nobly borne. It was the invincible 
 inspiration of these martial and manly airs the 
 invaders sought, and vainly sought, to suppress by 
 their edicts against the bards, who represented the 
 spirit of the nation, as they gave utterance to its 
 mighty strivings and emotions. The same cruel 
 policy was carried out in Wales, and the voice of the 
 national bard was choked lest it should continue to 
 fire the spirit of the vanquished race. But the harp of 
 Tara was still voiceful as of yore. The spell of silence 
 had not yet fallen upon its tuneful strings, and Giraldus, 
 the Welshman, who had often heard the slow and 
 measured strains of the same instrument on the Cam- 
 brian hills around Brecknock, records his astonishment 
 at the wondrous skill of the Irish harper, and the wild 
 gaiety of his tunes. But the Irish bard was a warrior 
 as well as a singer. He buckled on his sword, and led 
 the way to perish or conquer in the front of the battle, 
 as Moore describes in his well-known lines : — 
 
 •' The minstrel boy to the war is gone, 
 In the ranks of death you'll find him, 
 His father's sword he has girded on 
 And his wild harp slung behind him." 
 
ANCIENT IRISH SOCIETY.— THE CHIEF. 45 
 
 Such was the man to whom the Hterary education of 
 the lad was entrusted, and we may rest assured that 
 it was in safe keeping. Judged by its tendency to 
 produce the end required — namely, a fine-spirited and 
 industrious, a useful and chivalrous man, the education 
 of that day can compare not unfavourably with that of 
 our National Board. 
 
 After some years the parents would return for their 
 son, and if they found that the foster- parent had faith- 
 fully fulfilled his duties, they gave him a handsome 
 present according to their means, from three to sixteen 
 cows. But if they did not consider, after examination, 
 that his education had been sufficiently looked after, 
 they brought him straight to the Brehon, the judge, 
 who put the boy through his facings, and if he found 
 that he had not been instructed properly, inflicted a 
 fine upon the foster parent, which was immediately 
 handed over by the Brehon to the lad, because on him 
 the injury of want of learning had been inflicted. The 
 sons of the wealthier classes were not taught manual 
 labour, but riding, swimming, hunting, and chess- 
 playing, accomplishments which tended to make them 
 sociable as well as dexterous, courteous as well as 
 courageous. Their training in military exercises was 
 somewhat elaborate, and they ' were allowed a horse 
 to ride in the time of races." But in later years they 
 were instructed in Latin, Greek, and Celtic literature. 
 
 There was the very same arrangement for the girls 
 as for the boys. They were handed over to foster- 
 
46 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
 parents when very young, and left to the really tender 
 mercies of the matron of the establishment, who looked 
 after them and fitted them to fulfil their social functions 
 and domestic duties with appropriate grace. And 
 this she was capable of doing, as she was selected 
 from among the members of the same social class to 
 which the parents of the girl belonged. While the poorer 
 maidens were taught to churn and knead — in fact, to 
 be useful housekeepers ; those belonging to a higher 
 station in life were instructed in embroidery and the 
 loom, and so were fitted to adorn the homes of the 
 proud chieftains, in the management of^ which they 
 had an equal voice. This method of education strikes 
 us as being simple and effective. Children as a rule 
 are more easily trained by kind strangers than by 
 indulgent parents. And this tie between the children 
 and their guardians became very strong, and so had a 
 great influence in binding the members of the clan 
 together by the very closest bonds of friendship. 
 
 It is interesting to note that the education question 
 was always paramount in Irish circles. As early as 
 574 A.D. we find the King of Ireland presiding over a 
 council of chiefs and noblemen which was convened 
 to arrange a course of studies for the different schools, 
 a primitive form, no doubt, of the present National 
 Board, which has done so much good for the children 
 of our country. 
 
 The Irish chief was not only an educated gentle- 
 man, at a time when the commonest Irishman, as 
 
ANCIENT IRISH SOCIETY.— THE CHIEF. 47 
 
 Prendergast well said, had something in him of the 
 gentleman — he was a hospitable and courteous host. 
 He rejoiced in dispensing hospitality. To refuse to do 
 so were in his eyes a breach of honour, to be punished 
 in another. Kincora, the residence of Brian Boroihme, 
 was proverbial for the lavish entertainment offered to 
 the passing stranger. '* Go over to the great feast i^ 
 the dun," they would say to him who approached, 
 "the head of the weir." A characteristically Irish 
 record of the ceade mille failthe there extended is pre- 
 served in the Munster welcome. " Were mine the 
 boire of the Dane or the wine of Kincora, it would be 
 poured out for you." Richard Stanihurst, in his 
 account of his doings in Ireland, relates that he used 
 to see the crowds assembled to hear the judgment of 
 the Brehons delivered under some ancient tree or from 
 some historic stone, and as they dispersed, they followed 
 the chiefs who had invited them to supper, in long 
 lines, down the hill and says that he was the proudest 
 chieftain who brought home the greatest number ol 
 guests. This lavish hospitality has been carried down 
 to our own day by the county families of Connaught, 
 whose improvident generosity has in many cases 
 brought their property into the Encumbered Estates 
 Court. Indeed, it was the principal duty of the chief 
 to keep up his position by doing the honours of the 
 tribe. Debarred from every menial or plebeian office, 
 such as gardening or working in the fields, his life 
 must have been a very monotonous one, when not 
 
48 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
 engaged in fighting or plundering his neighbours, but 
 for the social functions he had to perform, as the 
 Brehons relieved him of the judgment of the people. 
 Some of these functions were not unpleasant. In the 
 Crith Gablach, Ancient Laws of Ireland, we read — 
 " There are seven occupations in the ' Corus ' law of a 
 king, viz. — Sunday, for drinking ale, for he is not a 
 lawful chief who does not distribute ale every Sunday ; 
 Monday, for judgment, for the adjustment of the 
 people ; Tuesday, at chess ; Wednesday, seeing grey- 
 hounds coursing ; Thursday, at marriage duties ; Fri- 
 day, at horse racing ; Saturday, at giving judgments." 
 We still find the Irish as keen as ever on the drink- 
 ing and dispensing of ale and stronger stuff, which 
 might be used with more moderation, and on the 
 coursing of greyhounds, horse-racing, and litigation, 
 but we regret to find the game of chess is not pursued 
 with the same enthusiasm as of old, when it was con- 
 sidered part of a gentleman's education. It is not 
 often found that Irishmen quarrel over a game of 
 chess, except in local tournaments. But if it was a 
 woman who fanned the flames of the terrible invasion 
 that found its catastrophe on the level sands of Clon- 
 tarf, the match was held to it by a game of chess. 
 Maelmordha, King of Leinster, of Glen Mama (near 
 Dunlavin) fame, was bringing three masts of pine to 
 Cenn Coradh, or Kincora, as tribute to Brian, but in 
 the effort to get them over the hills Maelmordha's 
 tunic burst. When he arrived at the head of the weir 
 
ANCIENT IRISH SOCIETY.— THE CHIEF. 49 
 
 he gave it to his sister, Gormfhlath, who was Brian's 
 wife at the time, but instead of mending it she threw 
 it into the fire, saying that he ought to be ashamed 
 of being a vassal of Brian. The chieftain was natur- 
 ally roused by his sister's words, and as he stood 
 next day in the famous dun at Kildalua, or Kil- 
 laloe, he watched Murchadh, the man who had 
 found him in a yew tree and dragged him a prisoner to 
 his father Brian, playing a game of chess with his 
 cousin Conaing. Interested in the contest, Maelmordha 
 advised Conaing to make a move which checkmated 
 his adversary, who turned savagely upon him saying, 
 *' It was thou gavest advice to the foreigners when 
 they were defeated." " I will give them advice again," 
 said the other " and they shall not be defeated." 
 ** Have a yew tree ready," cried Murchadh, and Mael- 
 mordha fled never to return to Kincora (Wars of the 
 Gaedhill and the Gaill). 
 
 It is time now to say a few words about the rights 
 and status of the chief among his clansmen. First 
 and foremost, he was in virtue of his office entitled to 
 a portion of the tribe land and to the largest share in 
 the plunder. Of course, the ruling family from which 
 the chief was duly elected, although not necessarily 
 the eldest son, would have acquired, in addition to its 
 portion, large estates of the unoccupied land. For 
 while the land, as a general principle, was common 
 property, in reality the rights of pasturage possessed 
 by the poorer people who could not afford to stock 
 
 E 
 
50 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART, 
 
 their fields and had to hire cattle from the wealthier 
 classes, used to pass into the hands of the rich, "the 
 flaith " class, when the borrowers could not pay. And 
 in many cases when the debtor had received his 
 honour price, which was equivalent to his legal value 
 as a free man of the tribe, he became the vassal and 
 often the retainer of his chief. In this way the latter 
 had become a wealthy potentate, being in a position 
 to hire out more cattle, and to keep more servants and 
 feini, or followers, than other members of his class. 
 
 The principal foundation of his pov/er in the tribe 
 he represented rather than ruled, for he could be de- 
 posed if he displeased the community lay in the pos- 
 session of this land, upon which he had quartered his 
 followers, who were most frequently fugitives from 
 other tribes or foreigners who had no political status 
 or voice in the Government. These men helped him 
 to overawe the truculent members of his tribe and to 
 force from them the necessary supplies. While in 
 appearance the chief was a popular ruler, the repre- 
 sentative of the will of his people, he became in pro- 
 cess of time a petty tyrant from living in constant 
 dread of assassination. A passage in Crith Gablach 
 throws a light on the arrangement of his house, which 
 was generally a strongly fortified but clumsy dwelling. 
 We learn from it how true it was of the Irish chief 
 that 
 
 " Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown." 
 
 Around the king, on either hand, in front and 
 
ANCIENT IRISH SOCIETY.— THE CHIEF. 51 
 
 behind, stood four guards, men without kith and kin, 
 who owed their life and freedom to the chief, and 
 whose fideHty was thought to be secured by some act 
 of crowning mercy, and to be proof against treason. 
 But the guards who had been saved from punishment, 
 and who had not been taken in battle, lest " they 
 might lay hands on the King or slay him "out of 
 devotion to their own tribe chief," were not completely 
 trusted. They were watched by some prominent 
 hostage whose property was a security for his good 
 behaviour, while at the north-east of the room were 
 posted the unredeemed hostages in chains — whose 
 lives would be instantly taken if any treachery became 
 apparent. On the right of the King sat his wife, his 
 brehon, and his guests, and harpers, while on the other 
 side stood his jugglers, flute-players and horn-blowers. 
 More guards are stationed at the door, and there is 
 also the champion and a " man of deeds," armed to 
 keep order, or, as it is written, " against the confusion 
 of the ale-house." But, in spite of this protection, 
 the chief was often assassinated even in his own hall 
 by a rival, or a member of a hostile tribe. 
 
 The conclusion of our study of the life and man- 
 ners of the Irish gentleman of bygone centuries must 
 be after this sort, that, while we cannot but admire his 
 many virtues and qualities of heart, head, and physique, 
 we are thankful that our lot has been cast under a 
 quieter and less warlike rule 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE FAIR SEX OF ANCIENT ERIN. 
 
 It is our pleasing duty now to describe the fair ladies 
 of Erin, whose bright eyes rained influence upon the 
 social gatherings and brave deeds of the sterner sex. 
 It were a stupid platitude to say that then, as ever, 
 Ireland had much cause to be proud of her lovely rep- 
 resentatives. Indeed, it is a well-known fact that the 
 English invaders would have never gained a footing 
 in the land had they not been smitten by the dark 
 eyes of Erin's daughters. If Greece took captive her 
 fierce conqueror — the unflinching Roman, by the 
 magic of her art and song, it is doubly true that cap- 
 tive Ireland subdued the hardy Normans and Flemings 
 by the grace and charm of her freeborn damsels. For 
 we here notice a difference in the manner in which the 
 new-comers approached the Irish women from the 
 customary arrogance of invaders. It was in honour- 
 able marriage they sought their brides, and it was 
 only in honourable marriage that the Irish maidens were 
 given by their fathers and brothers to the so-called 
 *' Saxons," who had lost both country and character 
 through their relations with the Northmen from France. 
 Strongbow was induced to invade Ireland by the 
 promise of being married to the beautiful Eva, the 
 famous Princess of Leinster. Richard de Burgho, the 
 
THE FAIR SEX OF ANCIENT ERIN. 53 
 
 Mac William Eaghter of Galway, was wedded to the 
 attractive Nora, daughter of Murrough O'Madden, of 
 Portumna, and the Geraldines of Kildare were inter- 
 married with the ladies of the O'Connor sept No 
 wonder that the Irish were always proud of their 
 women, whom they allowed to have an equal voice 
 with themselves in the controlling of their households, 
 and who, instead of being kept in seclusion, like their 
 contemporaries the daughters of the English nobles, 
 enjoyed a great amount of freedom and power. And, 
 the consequence of this was, that the Irishman became 
 gallant and courteous, from constant association with 
 the ladies of the land. 
 
 At a time when women were sentenced to be pub- 
 licly stripped and flogged by judges in England, an 
 insult to an Irish woman, not to speak of such an 
 indignity to her person, were mortal crimes. This 
 fact has been immortalised in Moore's sweet sone — 
 ** Rich and Rare were the Gems She Wore." 
 
 A warrior queen has been no novelty in our land. 
 Scota, Queen of the Milesians, like an ancient Joan of 
 Arc or Boadicea, arose to rally her defeated clans- 
 men against the Tuatha-de Denans. She led her 
 people to battle, and terribly did she fight. Though 
 she failed to stay the career of the foe, she died and 
 gave her name to the land, for our island was called 
 Scotia long before it was known as Hibernia. In 
 the eleventh century we resumed the name of Eire, 
 which sometimes appears as Erin, and more generally 
 
54 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
 as Ireland. Roman writers bear witness to the great 
 respect in which the women of the Celts were held. 
 
 The celebrated palace of Emania, known to the 
 Irish as Eamhiun (Aven), and, by the addition of the 
 Irish article '' an," contracted to " n," converted into 
 Navan, owed its foundation to a princess, Macha of the 
 golden hair. The circumstances are given in the Book 
 of Leinster. It appears that three kings agreed to 
 reign in succession for a period of seven years. But 
 after the death of the first, Aedhruadh, his daughter 
 insisted to reign in his turn, but was opposed by the 
 second son, Dihorba, whom she defeated in many 
 battles, and, after his death, she married the sole 
 survivor, Kimbay. There were still five of Dihorba's 
 sons living, but captives. These Macha was advised 
 to kill. " Not so," answered she of the golden locks, 
 " because it would be the defilement of the righteous- 
 ness of a sovereign in me ; but they shall be con- 
 demned to slavery, and shall raise a rath around me, 
 and it shall be the chief city of Ulster for ever." 
 " And she marked for them the dun with her brooch 
 of gold from her neck," and the place was called 
 Eomuin, from eo (a brooch), and muin (the neck). 
 This derivation may not be correct, but who can 
 deny that it is ingenious ? It was not an infrequent 
 occurrence for two rival queens to lead their armies 
 against each other. In Kilquane, portion of the 
 Lambert estate near Craughwell, is found an ancient 
 burial place, where is a stone which is supposed to 
 
THE FAIR SEX OF ANCIENT ERIN. 55 
 
 be raised to the memory of Norah, queen of Connaught, 
 who had been slain in battle with the queen of 
 Munster, and who can forget Queen Maeve of Rath- 
 
 crochan ? 
 
 As we skip the centuries we come to one whose 
 name is a household word in Ireland. Who has not 
 heard of and admired the romantic Grace O'Malley, 
 Granuaile, the great queen of the West? The life 
 and fortunes of ''Grace of the heroes " have been des- 
 cribed in verse by Dr. Panter, who has done 
 ample justice to the fair virgin who dominated the 
 land by force of character in his epic poem. She 
 was, as he says, " notable for her powerful frame, 
 her ardent love of rule, and for success in such 
 naval and military exploits as the piratical and tribal 
 wars in her neighbourhood afforded." It is said 
 that the Galway chieftainess visited the Court of 
 Elizabeth and interviewed her great rival in England. 
 And the Irish Amazon was rebuked by "■ Gloriana's 
 self." On the return voyage the Irish princess is 
 wrecked, and her ship is cast upon Ben Edar's 
 shore, attracting at once a host of wreckers, who 
 were, however, dispersed by Grace's warlike arm. 
 Then the hospitality of Howth Castle was sought 
 by the shipwrecked mariners, but was flatly refused. 
 Some days pass, and the sails of Grace's scattered 
 fleet are seen above the horizon, and enter the 
 haven. Then the fierce soldiers are landed, and 
 proceed to avenge the insult to their queen. The 
 
56 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
 youthful heir of St. Lawrence — who was found on the 
 shore — is carried off by the enraged princess, and is 
 only returned by Grace on the condition that the gates 
 of the castle be opened at midday, and an extra 
 plate be laid for any chance guest at the dinner 
 hour.* 
 
 Another century of storm and sunshine has passed 
 over the grave of the heroic Grace, and Lady Offaly 
 is besieged in her castle at Geashill by the insurgents 
 of 1 64 1. Henry Dempsey, her own kinsman, sum- 
 moned her to surrender, but " with the rebels she 
 could make no common cause, and with the defec- 
 tion of the Lords of the Pale she could have no 
 sympathy." With smart repartee she defeated the 
 arguments, and by vigorous measures the widow of 
 sixty years foiled the enemy's attacks on her strong- 
 hold. The climax was reached when a piece of can- 
 non which had been constructed with great labour 
 by the besiegers burst in pieces, and, instead of de- 
 molishing the walls of the castle, scattered and dis- 
 mayed their own troops. When her son was taken 
 prisoner and a threat was sent to his mother that he 
 would be instantly beheaded in front of the castle walls 
 unless she surrendered, she promptly replied that she 
 would have a notable prisoner of hers hurled from the 
 
 ramparts if they dared to touch a hair of her son's head. 
 
 * According to a recent writer, Mr. H. T. Knox, the fame of 
 Grace has been greatly exaggerated, and the seizure of the 
 heir of Brann-Edair the exploit of Richard O'Cuairsai of 
 Tirawley, which is described by Dugald MacFirbis, is wrongly 
 attributed to her 
 
THE FAIR SEX OF ANCIENT ERIN. 57 
 
 It is gratifying to learn that this brave lady was at 
 last relieved by Philip Sydney from the distressful 
 siege she had endured with heroic fortitude and strength 
 of will. But it is not alone her high-spirited daughters 
 who have shed lustre on Irish annals, for in her saintly 
 women the land has been greatly blessed. Of these, 
 St. Brigid of Kildare is perhaps the best known. She it 
 was who became the foundress of the " Church of the 
 Oaks," and the monastery where monks and nuns 
 lived under the same roof. And so the Irish princess 
 became a Christian saint. Another holy woman was 
 St. Ite, the Brigid of Munster, whose name is supposed 
 to survive in Killeady. The great work of the 
 Christian Evangelists was thus ably seconded by their 
 fair and noble sisters. 
 
 The Irish maidens of high degree were taught 
 music, embroidery, and weaving, and their education 
 received careful attention ; but, above all things, they 
 were trained up to be good mothers and devoted wives. 
 On many an occasion a clan was saved and a chief- 
 tain reformed by the good offices of a woman. It v/as 
 due to the piety of Lady Mary O'Connor, wife of 
 Brian, who was involved in the rebellion of " Silken 
 Thomas," that the last scion of the house of Kildare, 
 the ancestor of the present Duke of Leinster, was 
 brought up safely in the wilds of Offaly, where the 
 O'Connor's held sway. As wife and mother, the 
 Irish women would compare very favourably, 
 then as now, with the women of any other country. 
 
58 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
 Although it would seem that marriages might 
 be dissolved by personal arrangement, the fact 
 that there were no laws for divorce testifies to the com- 
 paratively high morality of the Irish wife. It is true 
 that the Irish chieftain often formed attachments of 
 a loose nature, but such were not countenanced by the 
 law of the land. On two occasions a woman was the 
 cause of foreign invasion of Ireland. Kormlada, once 
 the mistress of Brian Boroihme, and the mother of 
 Sigtrygg, king of Dublin, was " so grim against King 
 Brian after their parting that she would fain have him 
 dead," and she gave Sigtrygg — who had married a 
 daughter of Brian — no peace until he summoned his 
 allies from Norway to help him to make war on Brian. 
 But nothing could shake the loyalty of Brian's daugh- 
 ter to her father's cause. For it is recorded in the 
 wars of the Gaedhill with the Gaill that as King Sig- 
 trygg watched the battle from his tower, he exclaimed, 
 when he saw Brian's men yield before Sigurd's Ork- 
 ney men : '' Well do the foreigners reap the field. 
 Many a sheaf do they cast from them." But she re- 
 plied : " The result will be seen at the end of the day." 
 But when the shadows of evening were stretching 
 over the sands of Clontarf the Danes began to retire 
 to their ships, and Brian's daughter observed : " It 
 seems to me that the foreigners have gained their 
 patrimony." "What meanest thou, woman?" re- 
 torted the irate Dane. " Are they not rushing into 
 the sea, which is their natural inheritance ? " said she. 
 
THE FAIR SEX OF ANCIENT ERIN. 59 
 
 " I wonder are they mad, like cattle. If so, they 
 tarr\^ not to be milked," and the king smote her on 
 the face. 
 
 A century rolls away, and Dermot MaeMurrough, 
 the truculent king of Leinster, steals the heart and 
 person of Dervorgil, and arrayed all Ireland and most 
 of his own people, who had been estranged by his 
 cruelty and licentiousness, against himself In his des- 
 peration the wretched man went to the English Court 
 and offered to hold his kingdom as the subject of the 
 king of England if he would help him to recover his 
 dominions. At the time the suppliant came to him 
 Henry II. had his hands full of foreign affairs, but 
 he gave Dermot a letter to bring round the country, 
 and the letter succeeded in winning to his side some 
 of the Norman barons who resided in Bristol and in 
 Wales and were out of favour at Court, a desperate 
 and a fearless band. 
 
 The lady who had been the guilty cause of this war, 
 after her husband and her lover had been reconciled 
 by death, retired from the pleasures of the world to 
 the seclusion of the abbey at Mellifont, where she 
 spent the remainder of her days in penitence and 
 prayer. At Cluain-mic-Nois (Clonmacnois) is an 
 ancient building called the " Church of the Nuns." 
 It is recorded that in 1 167 " the Church of the Nuns," 
 at Cluain-mic-Nois, or the field of the son of Nos, 
 was finished by Dearvorgail, daughter of O'Melaghlin. 
 *' Such," remarks the historian Gerald of Wales, " is 
 
6o TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
 the variable and fickle nature of women, by whom all 
 the mischief in the world is caused, as may be seen 
 in the ruin of Marcus Antonius (Mark Antony) and 
 the destruction of Troy." For, " Like another Helen, 
 she fired another Troy." 
 
 There seems to have been a remarkable princess in 
 Offaly called Ettagh, who has bequeathed her name 
 to that place and her head to Kinnitty (Ettagh's 
 head), She, no doubt, was conspicuous for something 
 in her life, After her husband had been duly selected 
 in a hurling match, or by some other method, the 
 marriage of the Irish girl of humble station was cele- 
 brated with much festivity. The first ot August was 
 a favourite day for weddings in Meath. Then was 
 held a great fair at Teltown, between Navan and Kells, 
 called Taillten by its founder, Lewy of the long hand, 
 one of the Tuatha De Danaan kings, after his foster- 
 mother, Taillte. And there is the particular place, 
 still called Laganeany, or the hollow of the fair, where 
 the marriages were duly celebrated. 
 
 Dancing — which has ever been one of the favourite 
 amusements of the people — was then the principal 
 recreation for the young people of both sexes on all 
 occasions of rejoicing. Under a bush or on a stone 
 sat the musician, while around before him flitted the 
 merry people, to the rhythmical measures of his in- 
 spiriting airs. There is a piper's stone near Knock- 
 barron, in Kinnitty parish. 
 
 There is only space now to speak of one custom 
 
THE FAIR SEX OF ANCIENT ERIN. 6i 
 
 which distinguished the Irish mothers from those of 
 other nations. They never bound their children in 
 swaddling clothes, but preferred, in this as in most 
 things, to follow nature. Giraldus, the Welsh his- 
 torian of Ireland, remarks that the Irish nurses never 
 raised the baby's nose, pulled his face, or swathed his 
 tiny limbs. And he declares that the result justified 
 the wisdom of the Irish, for their sons and daughters 
 grew up all the more tall and handsome because the 
 unnatural custom of binding the babes in swaddling 
 clothes was unknown in the land. This testimony of 
 the Welshman of a thousand years ago to the fine 
 physique and good appearance of the sons and 
 daughters of Erin was confirmed in the writer's 
 hearing by a German American who had travelled 
 far and wide, and who declared he had never laid 
 his eyes on a finer body of men than the mem- 
 bers of the Royal Irish, or on a more charm- 
 ing race of women than the Celtic. Many 
 natural causes have, no doubt, helped to bring 
 about this good result, among them heredity, climate, 
 the survival of the fittest, and the mixture of the best ; 
 but not the least is the principle referred to by Giral- 
 dus, and which rules the Irish woman's manners and 
 regulates her dress and appearance, namely this — that 
 " Nature unadorned 's adorned the most.' ' 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE ANCIENT IRISH JUDGE. 
 
 From the earliest ages on record Irishmen have always 
 had a taste and genius for law. In that domain they 
 find scope for their natural eloquence, their love of 
 argument, their sharpness and ingenuity. Their oratory 
 is more of the forensic style than the judicial, possessing 
 rather the quality of sweet or cogent persuasiveness 
 than the merit of clear and calm statement. In 
 olden days the Irish were just as fond of laying down 
 the law. They had a hereditary caste of lawyers called 
 Brehons, who were people of very great importance. 
 Every prince had his own Brehon, who acted as his 
 assessor, his adviser, and his herald. The Brehon 
 was always called in when there was a dispute, and 
 the occasion was not passed by without notice. For 
 then, as now, numbers thronged to hear the debates 
 and the decisions. The poet Spenser, in his " Dis- 
 coverie of the State of Ireland," describes how he 
 saw their meetings on the ancient hills, which they 
 attended in crowds armed to the teeth. The black- 
 thorn stick of the present day can hardly be called a 
 weapon of war, but it is questionable whether, when 
 wielded by the muscular sinewy arm of an Irishman, 
 it has not proved as effective as the sword or pike of 
 
THE ANCIENT IRISH JUDGE. 63 
 
 the happy days of the olden time. The custom of 
 going armed to the seat of judgment was, however, 
 no reflection on the authority of the court, for popular 
 opinion was on the side of the Brehon, and anyone 
 who refused to abide by his decision was visited with 
 punishment in the shape of '' erics " or fines of so 
 many cows, which were distrained by the predeces- 
 sors of the modern bailiffs. But if the offender was 
 unable to pay, the whole family to which he belonged 
 was compelled to settle with the plaintiff. In this case 
 the defendant was deprived of his civil status and all 
 his privileges as a member of the tribe, especially his 
 allotment of ground, which was handed over as part 
 of payment to the creditors. The Brehons were 
 taught to be scrupulously impartial and just. Moran, 
 the King of Ireland, the chief Brehon of the land in 
 the first century, is described as wearing a collar of 
 gold (lodhan Morain or Moran's Collar), which was 
 said to possess the property of choking an unjust 
 judge. Mageoghan thus describes the law the Brehons 
 administered : " This Fcnechus or Brehon lawe is 
 nothing but the civil law which the Brehons had to 
 themselves in an obscure and unknown language which 
 none could understand except those that studied in 
 the open schools. Some were judges, and others were 
 admitted to plead as barristers, and for their fees, costs 
 and all, received the eleventh part of the things in 
 demand of the party from whom it was ordered ; the 
 loser paid no costes." 
 
64 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
 The Brehon generally gave his decision seated on a 
 stone within an ancient rath, around which were 
 gathered an eager, excited crowd of listeners, who 
 followed every turn of the case with interest, enjoying 
 keenly, as Irishmen only can, the wordy strife and the 
 battle of arguments. Near Canterbury, in England, 
 I believe there is an old fort called Daingean, where 
 the ancient Brehons gave judgment. Before the 
 Brehon, families brought their quarrels, and townships 
 their feuds, and the judgment given, the contending 
 parties, after submitting to the decision, withdrew. 
 The judge had his fees, which were very high ; it 
 being not unusual for him to receive fifteen cows and 
 ten days' entertainment for his services. But if an 
 appeal was lodged against his sentence, and he was 
 convicted of giving a partial decision, he was branded 
 on the cheek. 
 
 An Englishman named Campion, who travelled 
 through Ireland in Queen Elizabeth's day, has left us 
 this interesting account of the Brehons and their 
 schools : " They speak Latin, like a vulgar language, 
 learned in their schools of leechcraft and law, whereat 
 they begin as children, and hold on sixteen or twenty 
 years, conning by rote the aphorisms of Hippocrates 
 and the Civil Institutes, and a few other parings of 
 those two faculties. I have seen them where they 
 kept school — ten in some one chamber — grovelling 
 upon couches of straw, their books at their noses, 
 themselves lying prostrate, and so to chaunt out their 
 
THE ANCIENT IRISH JUDGE. 65 
 
 lessons by piecemeal, being the most part lusty fellows 
 of twenty-five years and upwards." 
 
 We can almost imagine we can see those stalwart 
 lads of the days of good Queen Bess, working away at 
 their law quite oblivious of their sordid surroundings, 
 and when school was over rushing out to air their 
 brains and brace their muscles in a vigorous game of 
 hurling, which has always been popular with Irish 
 " boys " of the peasant class who still wield the coman 
 which has given its name to Gortcommon or the 
 hurling field, with skill. 
 
 The Brehon code which they studied was spoken of 
 by some of the earlier English authorities in terms of 
 the greatest contempt, while it was declared by Irish 
 writers to be a mine of wisdom and equity. But now 
 that we are able to read it in a translation, we find 
 that the arguments on both sides were exaggerated ; 
 for it was neither a divine code nor a diabolical custom. 
 The system and principles of the Brehon law were 
 adapted to the tribal organisation of the people, and 
 bears much resemblance to the laws of other Aryan 
 nations in the same stage of development. Originally 
 it was handed down by word of mouth, but in the 
 course of time, the various customs, usages, and 
 decisions were collected and codified, and after the 
 introduction of Christianity were revised. It may 
 interest our readers to be initiated more fully into the 
 principles of the law which prevailed in Ireland for 
 thousands of years down to the reign of James I. In 
 
 F 
 
66 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
 the Senchus Mor, which claims to have been compiled 
 under the auspices of St. Patrick, we have the following 
 description of its origin : — " How the judgment of 
 true nature which the Holy Ghost had spoken through 
 the mouths of the Brehons and just poets of the men 
 of Erin, from the first occupation of the island down 
 to the reception of the Faith, were exhibited by 
 Dubhtach to Patrick, what did not clash with the word 
 of God in the written law and in the New Testament, 
 and with the consciences of the believers, was confirmed 
 in the law of the Brehons by Patrick and by the 
 ecclesiastics and the chieftains of Erin. For the law 
 of nature had been quite right except the Faith and 
 its obligations, and the harmony of the Church and 
 the people." 
 
 The fundamental ideas of the code were two — • 
 arbitration and compensation. The source of all 
 judicial authority in the tribe life lay in the interfer- 
 ence of the public in the interests of peace. A crime 
 was looked upon as a personal wrong, not as a public 
 offence. There was, in fact, no state to be offended, 
 no state authority to be upheld. The community merely 
 intervened in the matter as arbitrators. Consequently, 
 the legal system pointed not to sentence but settle- 
 ment. The object of the arbitrators was to bring 
 about a compromise, and consequently corporal and 
 capital punishment were out of the question. The 
 compensation was made according to a scale of 
 damages. Murder and outrage were atoned for by 
 
THE ANCIENT IRISH JUDGE. 67 
 
 payment to the family of the injured. It was the 
 function of the Brehon to assess the amount of 
 damages in the action. This was a work of great 
 difficulty, as every circumstance in each particular 
 case had to be taken into account — the rank and 
 motives of the defendant, the rank and conduct of 
 the plaintiff, the nature of the injury and the place 
 where it was inflicted requiring consideration. In the 
 course of time, as the cases and judgments multiplied, 
 the study of the law and its precedents became a very 
 absorbing and complicated matter. But, as we have 
 seen, the post of Brehon was a lucrative one. There 
 was, therefore, a great encouragement to men of 
 ability to enter the profession, which eventually be- 
 came hereditary or confined to certain families. 
 
 We shall now say something about one particular 
 family of Brehons who were greatly distinguished in 
 the annals of Ireland — the MacEgans. This family 
 had a good and pious record. The chief Brehons of 
 Ireland, especially those of Munster and Connaught 
 sprang from its branches. It was especially renowned 
 for learning and hospitality. Galway was the 
 headquarters of this clan Diarmada, which was wide- 
 spread. It had possessions in the neighbourhood of 
 Lorrha. At Coillte Ruadha, now Redwood, the 
 MacEgans, Dionysius, and Darius had a castle. And 
 at Killaleigh, the modern Sopwell, the residence of 
 Captain the Hon. Cosby Trench, the MacEgans had 
 a large castle, which is maintained in splendid 
 
68 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
 preservation. Cromwell, who dispossessed MacEgan, 
 gave his ancestral halls to the famous Colonel Sadleir, 
 and accommodated the evicted family with a residence 
 on the lake. One of the national bards has eulogised 
 the MacEgans in the following verses : — 
 
 " Precedence for his valour and fame 
 Be given to MacEgan the noble ; 
 Record him for the activity of his warriors, 
 Of his prosperity and great renown. 
 The Clan Diarmada, north and south, 
 To place them in my poem is a duty." 
 
 The Four Masters give several interesting notices 
 of this remarkable family. In 1 309 a MacEgan, who 
 rejoiced in the name of GioUa-na-neev, or servant of 
 the saints, and held the post of Chief Brehon of 
 Ireland, and was considered to be the most learned 
 judge of his time, was killed. Ninety years afterwards 
 died Boetius MacEgan, of Ormond, learned in the 
 laws and in music, and eminent for hospitality. 
 Thirty-one years passed away, and another MacEgan 
 died. This was Fergal, Chief Brehon of North 
 Connaught, " a man learned in the laws and sciences, 
 and who kept a house of hospitality for all persons who 
 came to his place, and died after a well-spent life." 
 And after thirteen years died Hugh MacEgan, a man 
 who added eloquence to all the hereditary gifts of 
 knowledge, of law, hospitality, and goodness. We 
 can with confidence point those who speak of the 
 wildness and barbarity of the ancient Irish to this 
 record of a family which would be a credit to any 
 
THE ANCIENT IRISH JUDGE. 69 
 
 nation, and which was an honour to those by whom it 
 was honoured. 
 
 The Castle of Annameadle, near Toomavara, was 
 the chief seat of the family in Ormond. Ballymacegan 
 was called after it, and Ballyoughter was their burial 
 place. Lislea (Greyfort), and Lisleabeg (Little Grey- 
 fort), close to Borrisokane, now in the possession of 
 the Saunders family, also belonged to the MacEgans. 
 Such was a race of Brehons who administered the law, 
 and who carried their decisions without any executive 
 save that of moral force. To their justice and equity, 
 foreigners, like Spenser, bore ungrudging testimony. 
 Of their love for their law, Sir John Davies (1610) in 
 his letter to Robert, Earl of Salisbury, gives evidence, 
 wherein he describes the first assizes that was held in 
 Fermanagh among the ruins of the Abbey in the 
 island of Lough Erne, when the venerable Brehon of 
 the McGuires, who had possessed the land from time 
 immemorial, drew from his breast, with trembling 
 hands, the ancient roll, with which he refused to part, 
 until the Deputy, Sir Arthur Chichester, gave his word 
 to return it. It was at this time that the Brehon law 
 was suspended in Ireland, and the English judges, 
 who had been hitherto confined to the Pale, were now 
 sent through all the country. 
 
 There was one peculiar custom which deserves 
 mention in connection with the Brehon. It was the 
 system of levying kincogues, or " kindred moneys." 
 In the days of the Tories, or the dispossessed 
 
70 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
 landlords, who had turned brigands and cattle-lifters, 
 and supported themselves in their mountain retreats on 
 the cows and sheep of the English occupiers of their 
 lands, this custom of Kincogues was made law. And 
 it worked in this way. When a band of outlaws 
 swooped down from the hills upon a man's herd and 
 carried them off, compensation was made to him by 
 fines levied on the members of the guilty family who 
 were living under English protection. But as it was 
 often impossible to raise a great sum of money from 
 a few poor people, all the Irish in the barony in which 
 the outrage was committed were held liable for the 
 damages, which were extended over other baronies 
 through which the outlaw had been allowed to escape. 
 Although Spenser objected strongly to this law, there 
 was a great deal of common sense in its principle, for 
 it acted as a preventive of sympathy with crime, and, 
 therefore, of crime. The same principle to a certain 
 extent operates now-a-days. For the county has to 
 pay for any malicious outrage that is committed by 
 unknown persons. But as the majority of the rate- 
 payers are respectable, law-abiding folk, and the 
 criminal class is generally exempt from taxes of all 
 kinds, the innocent have often to suffer for the guilty. 
 Still the interests of justice are, on the whole, furthered 
 by this procedure. The arrangement, however, of 
 costs under the Brehon system, by which the loser in 
 a case paid no costs, is one we would not gladly see 
 introduced again ; for it would tend to prevent poor 
 
THE ANCIENT IRISH JUDGE. 71 
 
 people who had a just claim or a righteous cause from 
 seeking the assistance of the law. 
 
 In their schools the Brehons calculated the amount 
 of damages to be levied for a cat stealing milk, or for 
 bees stinging a stranger, with mathematical precision. 
 They recorded the provisions that regulated the 
 boundaries of land, the preservation of roads, woods, 
 water-courses, bees, dress, and hospitality. But in 
 those palmy days there was no game law. The 
 sportsmen had it all their own way. At a time when 
 in England a man dared not hawk or hunt on his own 
 estate, a right which was only wrested from the 
 absurdly wicked King John by Magna Charta, the 
 Irish never knew the meaning of the Forest Law or 
 Game Law, and would not allow it to be imposed upon 
 them. On this truly sportsmanlike characteristic of 
 the Irish chieftain and his men, Sir John Davies made 
 this grim comment. When lamenting that the 
 English had not succeeded in making the Irish give 
 up their sport, he says : " If they had, it might have 
 been the means of conquest ; for they might have 
 turned the Irish out of the wild places where they 
 dwelt in freedom, and might have given them up to 
 the beasts of the chase, less hurtful and less wild than 
 they." It would, however, have taken the Norman 
 Kings all their time to preserve the game in Ireland, 
 and to reduce the Irish to such a degree of servility 
 that the very birds would appear to know that they 
 were under the royal protection, as they did in 
 
72 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
 England. There is an interesting account given by 
 one of John's mercenaries of the way in which the 
 birds in England would not fly from the traveller, but 
 merely move on and continue to feed. One might 
 safely wager that a few Irish gossoons would soon have 
 taught them to keep at a respectable distance. 
 
 But though the Brehons had not to adjudicate in 
 cases of infringement of the game laws, they had 
 sometimes very curious quarrels to settle. We shall 
 conclude with an account of one historic and 
 important judgment given by a Brehon. It appears 
 that a well-known Irish saint, in the seclusion of a 
 monastery, ventured to make a copy of a Psalter 
 belonging to his host, who was so enraged by an 
 action that was truly laudable in itself, but which was 
 considered in that unenlightened age as a breach of 
 privilege, that he brought the matter before Diarmaid 
 King of Meath, one of the principal Brehons of the 
 land, who gave the extraordinary decision that the 
 copy should be returned to the owner of the book ; 
 "For," he argued, ''as to every cow belongs her own 
 calf, so to every book belongs its own copy." But 
 Columba would not return the book, and the conse- 
 quence was a battle, in which many Meath men were 
 slain. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE IRISH BARD. 
 
 Of the Irish bard very little is known ; but whatever 
 history has to record of him gives us an appetite for 
 more information concerning him and his profession. 
 Still there are vestiges of an elaborate and powerful 
 organisation, there are traces of men of thought behind 
 the mountains of time. Allured by these fitful lights* 
 stray beams in the darkness of the past, we take up 
 our quest, as the knights of old went forth in their 
 search for the Holy Grail, trusting that we may find 
 something tangible — something which may be a 
 basis for theory, or a starting-point for further research, 
 or reform in University life. 
 
 It would appear that both the word bard and the 
 office it indicates are of Celtic origin. It is a Welsh 
 word. A Roman poet called the national poets of the 
 Celtic race bards. These, the national singers of 
 Gaul, were silenced by the Roman arms; but in 
 Britain, Wales, and Ireland the voice of the bard kept 
 alive the ancient poetry and traditions of the people. 
 The Celts were a distinct, a chosen people, though we 
 do not seek to identify them with the Jews, as som€ 
 would do, who look for the tables of the law on Tara's 
 Hill, and in nothing more did they show their 
 
74 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART, 
 
 distinction, in nothing more did they justify Heaven's 
 selection than in their noble patronage of the sacred 
 art of song. There was not merely one poet laureate, a 
 single singer supported by the bounty of his country- 
 men, for every bard was a stipendiary. Every bard 
 had special privileges and rights. No tax-gatherer 
 ever impounded his cattle. Not even the Prince dare 
 speak of reducing his rents. 
 
 A rather distinguished-looking personage in those 
 days, he would appear a comical specimen of humanity 
 if met in the streets of modern Dublin. By special 
 permission he was allowed to array his body in the five 
 colours — white, blue, green, black, and red (to which 
 an additional colour was in time added) — which, laid 
 on in stripes, made him a variegated, if not venerated 
 object. 
 
 He allowed his beard to grow long and full, as 
 indeed did all the ancient Irish. It will be re- 
 membered that that silly and churlish Prince John 
 amused himself and his Norman companions by 
 plucking the beards of the worthy chieftains as they 
 were taking the oath of allegiance to him. Over his 
 locks, which were twisted into a straight, stiff coil 
 behind his neck, like a horse's tail, called a glibbs, he 
 wore a hat in shape like an antiquated football-cap, or 
 a fisherman's knitted headpiece. This covering was 
 called a barrad, which, doubtless, because patronised 
 by the bards, came to be regarded as a sacred 
 appendage, for we occasionally find angels adorned 
 
THE IRISH BARD. 75 
 
 with it. Those who have visited the Cemetery of St. 
 
 Peter's, Drogheda, know to what I refer. Although 
 
 the barrad was anything but a handsome decoration, 
 
 after it had gone out of fashion some people who 
 
 favoured the antique sought to reintroduce it. Walker, 
 
 in his memoirs, tells us of one Hugh Dungan, a 
 
 valiant yeoman of Kilkenny, who proudly donned the 
 
 barrad and paraded the streets, followed in his wake 
 
 by a crowd of admiring and by no means silent boys. 
 
 For clothes the bard wore a cota or tunic of plaided 
 
 stuff or dyed linen. This was like an ornamented 
 
 jersey, with short sleeves. The famous Shane O'Neill 
 
 and his kerns paid a visit to Queen Elizabeth all 
 
 arrayed in these saffron-coloured coias, and the 
 
 London populace were amazed at such an exhibition 
 
 of muscle and hardihood. Around the waist a girdle 
 
 was worn like a belt, and over his broad shoulders fell 
 
 a cochal, a long cloak with a large collar or hood, 
 
 which was often used as a protection for the head. 
 
 This garment was fastened at the neck by a brooch 
 
 or dagger. The bodkin was often used for this 
 
 purpose, being a very convenient article, serving 
 
 several purposes, and chiefly used for fastening. In 
 
 battle the Irishman used to twist this cloak several 
 
 times round his left arm as a defence for his person, 
 
 while his right hand wielded the spear or the sword. 
 
 The bard's distinctive mantle — his college gown — 
 
 was called a suadh. There was another upper garment 
 
 used, doubtless, as a sort of full dress. It was called 
 
76 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
 a canabhas or fiUead, and consisted of a large loose 
 garment falling to the feet. The saints who are 
 depicted on St. Boyne's cross at Monasterboice are 
 arrayed in similar vestments, which are by some 
 identified with the alb and chasuble. The length of it 
 was occasionally an impediment, for in the well-known 
 description of the death of Cuchullin, we read that 
 '' he entangled his foot in his mantle and was covered 
 with confusion." 
 
 In the olden days, when everything was written in 
 verse, the bard was an important personage. He 
 combined several offices in one. Drayton cleverly 
 sums them up in the lines — 
 
 " Musician, herald, bard, thrice may'st thou be 
 
 renowned, 
 And with three several wreaths immortallvbe crowned." 
 
 We may compare Orpheus, Amphion, Linus, 
 and Musseus of the early Greeks with Amergin of 
 Erin, who is described in the verse — 
 
 " Primus Amerginus, genu candidus, author lerne, 
 Historicus, judex, lege poeta, sophus." 
 
 A regular order like the Homeridae, their office was 
 to celebrate the victories of the nation and the prowess 
 of its warriors. A person of distinction in a poetical 
 age — historians tell us that the beginnings of literature 
 are always poetical — he became restricted in influence 
 in the days of prose, for he who filled the offices of 
 historian, legislator, judge, poet, philosopher, and 
 herald, came in after days to be represented by a mere 
 
THE IRISH BARD. 77 
 
 singer of national or topical songs, a common player 
 on the harp. It was the same in other countries, and 
 notably in Greece. But this is a digression. 
 
 The bard of the palmy days was an educated 
 gentleman. His course occupied twelve of the best 
 years of his life. That time he spent in one of the 
 colleges, of which there were several, most of them 
 destined like that of Inis-owen (Inis-Eogain) which 
 Columkille turned into the monastic school of Derry, 
 and those of Clogher, Armagh, and Lismore, 
 to give way to Christian institutions, which were 
 to be established on their ruins. There he was 
 taught by the Druids to sing, and to set to music 
 their laws, their system of physic, and their other 
 sciences. There he learnt the rules of his art, and the 
 codes of his profession, which were many and 
 intricate. As the vocation of bard was strictly 
 hereditary, only the son of a bard could be admitted 
 into these seminaries. This rule had one good effect, 
 for though it excluded brilliant geniuses, or infant 
 prodigies, whose appearance cannot always be 
 accounted for by heredity, it generally secured men of 
 good memories and appearance, and pi'oved in the 
 main to be a fair working principle. 
 
 After going through his course and standing his 
 examination in the three different sections of law, 
 history, and music, the young aspirant to bardic 
 honours was given his degree. The test was a severe 
 one, for there were no honorary degrees conferred in 
 
78 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
 those days. The successful candidate wrote down his 
 name with the degree Ollamh, which is the same as 
 Doctor before it, and assumed the classical hat, the 
 barrad which we have just described. He could then 
 become a Filea or poet, a Breitheamhain (Brehon) or 
 administrator of the law, or a Seanacha or historian. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE BARDIC ORDER. 
 
 The Bardic Order of Ancient Erin was thus a dis- 
 tinguished caste, and an elaborate system. Embracing 
 music, poetry, history, and law, the Bardic Order per- 
 mitted its votaries to select the subjects for which 
 they felt themselves more especially adapted. The boy 
 might devote himself to the study of music, such as 
 it was, and poetry, or to the reading of the laws of 
 the land, or to learning the history of the different 
 septs. The lad who selected music and poetry be- 
 came in time the Bard par excellence : the student 
 who embraced the law aspired to the position of 
 Brehon ; while he who entered for history came out a 
 full-blown Seanacha. Generally speaking, however, the 
 Bard was supposed to make himself acquainted with 
 all these subjects. Amergin, the first of the bards, is 
 described in the Latin epigram by O' Flaherty as "the 
 fair-kneed author of I erne, historian and judge and 
 poet, skilled in law." To the Bard we shall now give 
 our attention. The history of these ancient singers 
 and chroniclers of our country is wrapt in profound 
 mystery. Fiction has here, however, boldly usurped 
 the place of fact. It is stated on some authority that 
 the name Tuatha-de-Danaan is a word compounded 
 
8o TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
 of three different words, which mean lord, priest, and 
 bard respectively. But it was not, perhaps, till the 
 Milesian era that the bards were introduced into 
 Erin. 
 
 It is not generally known that, as Rome had her 
 Romulus and Remus, and England her Hengist and 
 Horsa, so Erin had an equally wonderful pair of 
 brothers, who managed between them to conquer the 
 land and to crush for ever the power of the Tuatha- 
 de-Danaans, and who did all they could to encourage 
 the arts among their subjects. They were Heber and 
 Heremon. To Heremon's lot fell " the Black North," 
 and to Heber the sunny South of Ireland. Both 
 brothers, it is said, had been attended by Cir-mac Cis, 
 a poet, and Onna Ceamfinn, a harper. As the 
 brothers went their several ways, one to the north 
 and the other to the south, they agreed to cast lots for 
 the poet and the musician, and the result was that 
 Heremon took the poet and Heber got the musician. 
 Their brother Amergin, who has already been men- 
 tioned, assumed the rank of Archdruid and the rank 
 of Ard-Filea, or chief bard, both offices being united 
 in his person. In after times the functions were spe- 
 cialised, although it would seem that originally the 
 office of Druid and bard was one and the same. 
 
 We have a remarkable fragment of a poem which 
 is supposed to have been written by him to commemo- 
 rate the second landing of the Milesians in Ireland, 
 and a truly wonderful description of the fishes leaping 
 
THE BARDIC ORDER. 8i 
 
 out of the stormy waters to seek safety on the shore 
 — a marvellous stretch of imagination. 
 
 The chief business of the Filidhe, or bards, was to 
 turn the tenets of religion into verse, to compose war 
 songs and marriage odes. At " the feast of the hill " 
 he amused the people, like the bard in the Odyssey, 
 with tales of other days. The Irish poetry was a 
 by no means simple study. In the work, " Uiraiceacht 
 na Neagir," or rules for the poet, over one hundred 
 different species of poetry are described. And in their 
 colleges the course of study was long and severe. 
 But we do not find that the graceful muses confined 
 their influence to the schools of the poets. For we 
 read that the daughter of Moran was celebrated for 
 her musical powers as other ladies, notably Eimker, 
 the wife of Cuchullin, were for their poetical composi- 
 tions. 
 
 As Augustus Caesar was the great patron of poetry 
 in early Rome, so was Ollamh Fodhla the gracious pro- 
 tector and guardian angel under whose fostering care 
 poetry flourished in Erin. It is said that he founded 
 a college at Teamor called Mur-olla-van, where 
 young men of good birth and intellect were instructed 
 in verse and song, metre and music. An air of 
 sanctity v/as given to the class by the King, who 
 arranged that the estates of the bards should not be 
 confiscated, that their homes should be asylums for 
 fugitives, and that their stock should be free from 
 depredation. A melancholy duty devolved upon the 
 
 G 
 
82 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
 bards when anything untoward happened to their tribe. 
 When a prince or chieftain was slain in battle, the 
 '' stones of his fame " were raised avidst the voices 
 of the bards. After the heathen priests, the Druids, 
 had performed their reUgious rites, whatever they may 
 have been, the caoine or dirge, which was specially 
 composed for the occasion by the Filea of the dead 
 and set to music by his Oirsidigh, was sung by a 
 rhapsodist. The latter rendered the solo passages, 
 while the symphonic parts were taken by a chorus of 
 bards and Oirsidigh divided into two parts like a 
 cathedral choir. Travelling through Ireland we pass 
 many a small dolmen — two stones supporting a cap 
 stone — which tradition tells us is the resting place 
 of some great chief. As we stand by that enduring 
 memorial of ancient prowess, we cannot but fill in the 
 landscape — which is always beautiful — with the ani- 
 mated and picturesque figures of the national bards 
 chanting the funeral song their chief had composed, 
 in which all the virtues and beauties and deeds of the 
 deceased were feelingly set forth. In after days the 
 office of wailing the dead was allotted to female 
 musicians — the predecessors of the later keeners. 
 We may compare the Scotch coronachs and the 
 lamentation of David over Saul. Although the bard 
 became, in after times, a simple harpist, in the fulness 
 of his power he occupied a more exalted position than 
 that. Marching at the head of the army, robed in 
 long, flowing vestments, a collar of gold about his neck. 
 
THE BARDIC ORDER. 83 
 
 and surrounded with the Oirsidigh or instrumental 
 musicians, he was a dignified and an imposing figure. 
 Exempted from the duty of actual fighting, he watched 
 from a commanding eminence the fortunes of the 
 battle and the actions of his chief. 
 
 When war had been declared, the bard was con- 
 sulted like an oracle as to the probable issue. And 
 here — we speak without profanity — we notice how 
 the bards affected to play a similar part in the history 
 of their tribes to that which the sacred singers — the 
 prophets of Israel — played among the chosen people, 
 for the bards were regarded as prophets. They were 
 generally supposed to predict success, and no doubt 
 they liked to encourage this opinion. We do not read 
 that they were ever found out to be false prophets 
 although it is only reasonable to infer from the uni- 
 versal preference of the Irish people to say what is 
 agreeable, that they would much rather prophesy 
 smooth things than offend the feelings of their faction. 
 There was. however, a general understanding that the 
 bard had the privilege, in virtue of his high office, to 
 advise the king and reprove him for his faults. As 
 an old bard quaintly said, •' How arduous then 
 the Fileas talk I for it behoveth him to mark each 
 backsliding and not to overlook even a tendency to 
 evil." 
 
 The prophet of victory in war, the censor of morals 
 in the court, the bard was, indeed, an important item in 
 the royal establishment. 
 
84 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
 Irish bards, we read, were formerly in great request, 
 Wales often sending over for an Irish bard to come 
 and teach their sons the arts of the Muse. There 
 seems to have been — as the present writer has already 
 pointed out — much interchange of good will between 
 Wales and Ireland long before, what should be called, 
 the Welsh invasion, for Fitzstephens, Barry. Fitz- 
 gerald, and others who preceded Strongbow, were all 
 Welshmen, descendants of Nesta, a fascinating Welsh 
 princess. And Ireland was really opened by these 
 warriors for the English, who followed. It is not im- 
 probable that, as the Welsh joined in a recent Celtic 
 demonstration in Dublin, the ancient Irish sent re- 
 presentatives to the Eisteddfod, or the national fes- 
 tival of the ancient Britons, beyond the Channel. 
 
 But it was at the triennial Feis at the palace of 
 Teamore or Tara — instituted by the great Ollamh 
 Fodhla, King of Ireland — that the Irish bard played 
 a conspicuous part. 
 
 In the centre of the great hall — the site of which is 
 hardly recognisable to-day among the scanty debris 
 of the past— the throne of the Ard-Righ, the chief 
 king, was placed facing west. In front of him at a 
 small distance sat the King of Leinster, enthroned 
 on a lower throne. On the left of him was seated the 
 King of Munster, on his right the King of Ulster, and 
 behind him the King of Connaught ; then came long 
 rows of seats. To the Druids and the Fileadhe. or 
 bards; were allotted the first of these, and in the 
 
THE BARDIC ORDER. 85 
 
 second circle, as it were, sat the Marshal, the Seana- 
 chaide, the Oirsidigh, the standard-bearers, and officers 
 of State. (Keating's History of Ireland and Walker's 
 Memoir of the Irish Bards). 
 
 Behind these the nobility and knights were accom- 
 modated, and in the last rows sat the Beatachs and re- 
 presentatives of towns and cities. The first two days 
 were spent in social visits and hospitality by the 
 chiefs and princes and in feasting and revelry by their 
 attendants. But the third day was the feast of Sam- 
 huin or the Moon, in the temple of Tiachta. Then 
 the opening of the assembly was announced by sacred 
 odes recited by the Ard-Filidhe, with musical 
 accompaniments by the Oirsidigh. And after the 
 Druids had finished their rites and mysteries, the fire 
 of Samhuin was lighted up and the pagan deities were 
 invoked to bless the councils of the chiefs. 
 
 The next three days were spent in hospitality and 
 feasting. And when the time appointed for the coun- 
 cil drew near, the great circular trumpet was sounded 
 and the esquires presented themselves and gave in 
 the shields and insignia of their masters to the Grand 
 Marshal, who suspended them according to their 
 rank. A second shrill blast summoned the target 
 bearers of the general officers, and a third brought 
 out the princes, nobility and officers, who at once took 
 their places decently and in order. After refresh- 
 ments had been served out and partaken of, the seana- 
 chaide, who acted as registrars, came forward and laid 
 
86 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
 their reports and records before the august assemblage. 
 When these reports were passed, they were turned 
 into verse and inscribed in the Register or Psalter of 
 Tara. 
 
 The conference consisted of several sessions. Be- 
 tween the sessions the bards of the different princes 
 were ordered to collect the records of their districts, 
 and their families and lay them before the States. 
 Truly a very business-like and well-contrived work 
 which well deserved the encomium of Swift — '' As bar- 
 barous and ignorant as we were in former centuries, 
 there was more effectual care taken by our ancestors 
 to preserve the memory of times and persons than we 
 find in this age of learning and politeness, as we are 
 pleased to call it." 
 
 What the special business of the Feis was we can 
 only guess. But we would not be far wrong if we 
 considered that schemes for the improvement of the 
 conditions of life, the laws of the land, and national 
 education took up a large portion of the programme. 
 For we find that so early as 574 A.D. the King of 
 Ireland presided over a council of chiefs and nobles 
 which was convened to arrange a course of studies for 
 the different schools. At that time Ireland was the 
 great nursing-mother of les belles lettres for the 
 greater portion of Europe. We can thus draw a 
 parallel between the sixth century and the twentieth, 
 for, although we cannot say we monopolise the learn- 
 ing of Europe, we may say without any conceit that 
 
THE BARDIC ORDER. , 87 
 
 the ordinary native of Ireland, not to ascend any 
 higher, is behind the inhabitants of the same rank of 
 no other country in the world in mental capacity. 
 While in the matter of education everyone knows that 
 it is the burning subject of the day, every political 
 platform being weighed down with schemes for its re- 
 form, and the career of modern Parliaments being 
 strewn with the fragments of failures to settle this 
 question. But we are no nearer the settlement of this 
 question than ever we were. The truth is that it is 
 absurd and impossible to run the education of one 
 generation in the grooves which regulated the educa- 
 tion of the preceding age. Every age has its own 
 requirements, its own problems. Our people, gene- 
 rally speaking, require an education that will prepare 
 them for a commercial and industrial life. They can 
 no longer live on the land. Ireland must regard her- 
 self as the nursery of other nations. Her sons and 
 her daughters must be equipped at home with the 
 knowledge which will serve them abroad. They 
 should learn to speak and write French and German, 
 and especially the latter, as it is rapidly distancing the 
 French in range and usefulness. They should be 
 taught the different trades that our age has created. 
 Above all things, they should be taught good manners, 
 deportment, and the necessity of cultivating that al- 
 mighty art — tact. With a good trade, a fair know- 
 ledge of another modern language besides their own, 
 and their manly optimism and naturally agreeable 
 
88 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
 manner, Irishmen and Irishwomen may go anywhere 
 and never starve. 
 
 And as for apph'cation to study, where can we find 
 a better object-lesson in this art than the description 
 which Campion gave of the young aspirants for the 
 rank of Brehon ? "I have seen them," he says, 
 ''grovelHng upon couches of straw, their books at 
 their noses, themselves lying prostrate and chaunting 
 out their lessons by piecemeal." This is an in- 
 teresting picture of the law students of the Tudor 
 period, and speaks well for the application of those 
 who, oblivious of their sordid surroundings, were all 
 intent upon the goal of their ambition. 
 
 To return to the bards, we find them high in honour, 
 enjoying a precedence over the nobles and knights 
 and gentry at the great Feis. We do not wonder 
 that their hearts were lifted up and that the fates were 
 provoked by their pride. They had become a power- 
 ful order. But they abused their position to amass 
 wealth and possessions. It had been found expedient 
 to reduce their number to two hundred. But this 
 salutary provision was not sufficient to check the 
 swelling tide of their ambition. And matters at last 
 reached a climax, and the bards were banished. 
 
 It came to pass in this way. In the reign of Achay 
 the Third, several of the Ollaimh of Munster and 
 Leinster, in their capacity as Brehons or legislative 
 bards, invaded private property to such an extent 
 that they actually had to fly to the hills of Scotland 
 
THE BARDIC ORDER. 89 
 
 for safety. Embezzlement had evidently been made 
 on a great scale, and a vast conspiracy to defraud must 
 have been discovered before they were compelled to 
 adopt such a course. From this unhappy predicament 
 they were rescued by the timely intervention of Con- 
 covar MacNessa, King of Ulster, who became their 
 mediator, and obtained permission for them to return 
 home. But most of the returned fugitives remained 
 at the Court of the King, who devised new improve- 
 ments in the constitution of the order. To help him 
 in this work he invited Forchern Neid and Atharne 
 of Ben Edair — the modern Howth — to his Court at 
 Eamania, where they assisted in the revision of the 
 laws, and introduced new gradations into the bardic 
 system, and published the tables of the law — the 
 Taibhle Fidea, or wood-tables of the learned. 
 
 But such regulations were not effectual to settle the 
 difficulty. The bards were in trouble again, and this 
 time it was the great Irish missionary to Scotland, 
 St. Columba, who came back to Ireland in order to 
 save the bards from expulsion at the council of 
 Drumceatt (575). They had become arrogant 
 and purse-proud. Their insolence knew no bounds. 
 They stigmatised a King who killed a bard in 
 battle as ''foul-head." The five colours were not 
 sufficient for them ; they demanded the golden buckle 
 and pen of royalty. They became also corrupt in 
 their habits, dishonest and sensual — a very burden to 
 the State, a very curse to the nation that bore them. 
 
90 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
 Very different had been their influence in the olden 
 days, when they often brought about peace by their 
 wise intervention between combatants. What time 
 Fin and Gall were fighting near Almhain, we are told 
 that the bards acted like the Sabine women in the 
 early days of Rome, rushing between the ranks of the 
 contending warriors and charming them, like the 
 fabled Orpheus, into peace. 
 
 It was doubtless owing to this work of arbitration 
 that the bards were not swept away, as the Druids 
 were, by the advent of Christianity to these shores, 
 but continued to remain on, a prosperous and useful 
 community, until they were finally silenced by the 
 Statute of Kilkenny. For we read that Donchad 
 O'Daly, Abbot of Boyle, excelled all other bards of 
 his age in the hymnal species of poetry. From the 
 ranks of these pagan scribes the Christian clergy were 
 frequently drawn. 
 
 Reference has been made in a preceding chapter to 
 the Brehons, or legislative bards, who gave laws in a 
 monotonous, sing-song voice from a stone within an 
 ancient rath, from which place they also delivered judg- 
 ment in all cases that were brought to them for trial, 
 acting rather as arbitrators than as judges, and ar- 
 ranging settlements rather than delivering sentences. 
 These administrators of the law were considered above 
 corruption. It is said that Moran, King of Ireland, 
 and the Chief Brehon in the land, wore a gold collar 
 — the lodhan Morain — which was said to have the 
 
THE BARDIC ORDER. 91 
 
 property of choking an unjust judge. A Brehon con- 
 victed of partiality was liable to be branded on the 
 cheek. The principal work of the Brehons was to 
 assess the amount of damages to be paid in each case. 
 With mathematical precision they calculated what 
 damages should be paid when the cat stole the milk 
 or the bees stung a stranger. The eleventh part of 
 the things in demand were given as fees to the 
 Brehons, the loser, by a beautiful arrangement which, 
 alas, no longer holds, paying no costs. 
 
 With regard to the third class of the bards — the Seana- 
 chaide — who were the antiquarians and chroniclers 
 of their day, very little is known. Suffice it to say 
 that each prince and chief kept a Seanacha, who 
 had charge of the titles and family-trees of 
 the establishment. The Irish had a natural taste for 
 history and pedigrees. Dugald MacFirbis murdered 
 at Dunflin, in Sligo (1670), was the last of the line of 
 the celebrated antiquarians who produced among othei 
 works the Book ofLecan, at Castle Forbes. It is also 
 reported that an Ollamh-Re-Seancha was appointed 
 to chronicle the events and preserve the traditions of 
 each province. And thus it would appear that the 
 Ulster King-at-Arms is descended from a race of 
 Irish bards and is the modern representative of the 
 ancient Seanachaide — the chroniclers in the courts of 
 the Irish Kings. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE CELT AND THE NORMAN. 
 
 THE FUSION OF THE NATIONS. 
 
 The Irish inhabitants at the time of Strongbow's 
 invasion were a high-spirited, free-born race. They 
 were a nation of warriors whose minds were as mighty 
 as their bodies were big. " The Irish," wrote 
 Spenser, " are one of the most ancient nations that I 
 know of in this world, and come of as mighty a race 
 as the world ever brought forth.' They were, as we 
 have seen, an offshoot of that great Celtic people 
 that spread over all Europe, that broke the mighty 
 power of the Roman legions, that carried destruction 
 and devastation up to the walls of Athens, that swept 
 like a great wave, a tidal wave, over the fair volup- 
 tuous cities of the rich, well-watered plains of Grecian 
 Asia, striking terror into the fluttering hearts of the 
 maidens of Miletus, whose song has been preserved 
 in the Greek Anthology, 
 
 " Then let us hence, Miletus, dear, 
 
 Sweet native land, farewell, 
 The insulting wrongs of lawless Gaels 
 
 We fear whilst here we dwell." 
 
 But at last the furious irresistible charge of the Celtic 
 tribes was stayed by Antiochus, who earned the name 
 of saviour of his country for this great service. But 
 
THE CELT AND THE NORMAN, 93 
 
 already the luxury of the sweet and happy life in 
 the bright valleys and plains of the East had softened 
 the warrior spirits and enervated the muscular frames 
 of a race that is never so well as when at work. Into 
 Italy again they poured, now under their own chiefs, 
 and under great war-loving generals like Pyrrhus and 
 Hannibal, whose military eye had already been 
 attracted by the warlike qualities of a soldiery that has 
 never known defeat when properly handled. The 
 Gauls, like their Irish cousins, never knew what fear 
 was. '' They march openly to their end," said Strabo. 
 Polybius tells us of the young chiefs of the Gesatae, 
 who in the ardour for the battle, stripped themselves 
 naked, leaving on their golden collars on their necks 
 and their armlets on their arms to distinguish them 
 in the melee. While St. Leger, the Lord Deputy 
 described the Irish kernes as coming '• to the bicker 
 but bare naked." Disdaining as cowardly the Norman 
 custom of wearing defensive armour the)' rushed head- 
 long on their mailed foes, with only their light shields 
 on their arm, and small helmets on their heads, and 
 often perished but never were conquered, for their 
 spirits were never crushed like those of the poor 
 Britons, who had been driven by the murderous 
 Saxon and land-seeking Norman across the Severn 
 and behind the Cambrian hills. There, indeed, they 
 breathed freely ; but what of those who remained on 
 the other side in thraldom to the cruel thanes and 
 barons ? *' Who dare compare the English ? " says 
 
94 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
 Glraldus Cambrensis, '' the most degraded of all races 
 under heaven, with the Welsh. In their own country 
 they are the serfs, the veriest slaves of the Normans, 
 and in ours who have we but Englishmen for herdsmen, 
 shepherds, and cobblers, and for the performance of 
 the lowest offices ? " We are thankful to say that in 
 after years the English prevailed over the French 
 in\ aders. and are now the solid backbone of the great 
 Anglo-Saxon race. But in the days of Strongbow 
 the English were a crushed and beaten race, and that 
 the Irish never were. One reason why the latter 
 succeeded in maintaining their freedom was their love 
 for the pastoral and village life. They hated towns, 
 they despised the townspeople, they loathed trade. 
 They led a healthy, active existence in the open air, 
 on their mountain heath or their woodland pastures. 
 Such a life alw^ays tends to develop the manliest 
 qualities, vigour of body and strength of mind. In 
 their conflicts with their enemies, their skirmishes 
 with one another, their continuous warfare with the 
 prowling wolf and terrible bear they acquired habits 
 of fortitude and self-reliance, which the life within a 
 city's gates or behind a fortified wall have never en- 
 couraged, because the sense of security is fatal to the 
 spirit of independence. It was not the Celtic genius, 
 therefore, that founded the towns the Normans found 
 when they came to Ireland, but it was the commer- 
 cial spirit of the Danes, and the Ostmen of the North, 
 strangers that had swooped like harpies upon the 
 
THE CELT AND THE NORMAN. 95 
 
 fair havens of the Green Isle, and endeavoured to 
 settle themselves as colonists in the land. Perhaps 
 these towns had been built long before by merchants 
 from the South of Europe ; for Tacitus says the parts 
 of Ireland were better known to merchants than those 
 of England. 
 
 Nor had the Irish any taste for commerce or trade. 
 Giraldus, the Welsh historian of this period, tells us 
 that these towns on the coasts were inhabited by a 
 mixed multitude of Danes and French, who kept the 
 Irish well supplied with groceries and wines. 
 
 A people of pastoral habits, they lived on the land 
 they loved, having it common to all of one tribe. The 
 chief and the tanist, his elected successor, alone had 
 lands appropriated to them, while the bards, 
 physicians, and Brehons also had special lots set apart 
 for their use. But the great mass of the people had 
 no settled or durable property in land. They followed 
 their cattle from their summer pastures in the 
 mountains to their winter feeding grounds, enjoying a 
 free, unfettered existence, paying no fixed rent, and 
 never living in dread of eviction in their lightly built 
 huts. It is true that there were dwellings of a more 
 permanent nature around their tillage lands, which 
 were annually meted out among the different families 
 according to their stock and requirements, but it was 
 a fixed principle of the Celtic spirit not to allow 
 property to any great extent to accumulate in the 
 hands of any individual. The land belonged to the 
 
90 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
 tribe, and to the chief, as representative of the tribe, a 
 certain amount was allotted to enable him to keep up 
 his state. This, however, he was not permitted to 
 leave to his eldest son, but was compelled to divide 
 among all his sons at his death. This custom of gavel- 
 kind was most opposed to the feudal system which 
 the Normans sought to introduce into the country, 
 but never succeeded in extending beyond the Pale, for 
 it tended to create a race of small landlords or owners 
 of property upon whom the State had no claim, 
 because they held their lands originally as a gift of 
 their own tribe. No wonder, then, that it was 
 condemned and made treasonable by many a Norman 
 edict. 
 
 The villages and village sports, however, owed their 
 origin to the larger settlements around the tillage 
 lands. In nothing have the Irish shown so much 
 their spirit of conservatism as in their adherence to 
 their ancient games, Arthur Young, in 1776, 
 described the game of hurling, which is to-day as much 
 in vogue as ever — " There is a very ancient custom 
 here for a number of country gossips among the 
 poor people to fix upon some young woman that 
 ought, as they think, to be married. They also agree 
 upon a young fellow as a proper husband for her. 
 This determined, they send to the fair one's cabin to 
 inform her that on the Sunday following she is to be 
 horsed — that is, to be carried in triumph on men's 
 backs. She must then provide whiskey and cider for 
 
THE CELT AND THE NORMAN. 97 
 
 a treat, as all will pay her a visit after Mass for a 
 hurling match. As soon as she is horsed the hurling 
 begins, on which a young fellow appointed for her 
 husband has the eyes of all the company fixed on him ; 
 if he comes off conqueror he is certainly married to the 
 girl ; but, if another is victor, he as certainly loses her, 
 for she is the prize of the victor." 
 
 We find much earlier, and not less interesting, 
 notices of this game which has ceased to be associated 
 with matrimonial affairs, although it still attracts all the 
 marriageable girls of the peasant class who cannot 
 but admire the strength and agility displayed before 
 their fair eyes by the rival claimants for their applause. 
 For we read among the statutes of Kilkenny, which 
 were made in 1367, that "it is ordained and 
 established that the English do not henceforth use 
 the plays which men call hurlings with great sticks 
 and a ball upon the ground, and other plays called 
 cortings ; but that they do apply themselves to draw 
 the bow and throw lances, and other gentlemanlike 
 games appertaining to arms, whereby the Irish 
 enemies may be better checked." 
 
 Such were some of the pastimes that induced many 
 of the Norman settlers to throw in their lot with the 
 native Irish, and so helped to break down the barriers 
 of nationality and creed which the English Govern- 
 ment were always trying to build up by fresh legisla- 
 tion. But to no purpose, for the English who settled 
 in Ireland always became more Irish than themselves. 
 
 H 
 
98 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
 Once outside the hated boundaries of the English 
 Pale, where the feudal system and all its burdensome 
 exactions and annoying officials ruled supreme, the 
 naturalised Irishman breathed freely. He no longer 
 was oppressed with the nightmare of confiscations and 
 the dread of forfeitures. He threw off his English 
 dress and language, and discarded the Norman air of 
 superiority. One illustrious instance of this adoption 
 of Irish customs is found in the family of the Earl of 
 Clanricarde, one of whose sons styled himself William 
 M'Eighter and the other William M'Oughter. Of them 
 Sir Henry Sidney wrote that " they had stolen across 
 the Shannon and there cast away their English habit 
 and apparel, and put on their wonted Irish weede." 
 These who are described in the State papers as " tall 
 men who boast themselves to be of the King's blood" 
 spoke and dressed and acted like Irishmen. 
 
 Very thankful were these Burkes that the broad 
 Shannon flowed and many a friendly tribe lived 
 between them and the feudal system under which the 
 De Lacys were beggared, and the Geralds, Fitzgeralds 
 and Butlers groaned in vain. Petition after petition 
 was sent without success by the Prelates, Earls, 
 Barons, and Commons of the land in Ireland com- 
 plaining of the cruelty and injustice of the King's 
 officers. Accordingly, some of the more powerful 
 nobles, and those who were farthest from Dublin 
 Castle, took the matter into their own hands and 
 ceased to pay feudal dues, and to ensure that no 
 
THE CELT AND THE NORMAN. 99 
 
 escheator or sheriff should trouble them they entered 
 into an understanding with the native Irish, especially 
 those who lived near Dublin, such as the Byrnes, the 
 Tooles, and Kavanaghs, and the O'Moores, to prevent 
 the judges on circuit from crossing the bridge of 
 Leighlin, which was the only passage across the 
 Barrow. Thus secured from the interference and 
 supervision of the Norman law, the naturalised Irish 
 threw themselves heart and soul into the ways of the 
 country. They married Irish lasses with raven hair 
 and lightsome eyes, in spite of the cruellest enact- 
 ments and the most unjust prohibitions ; they spoke 
 like Irishmen ; they gave out their children to be 
 fostered by their Irish relations ; they appeared in the 
 saffron shirt, brogues, and linen coat affected by the 
 Irish ; they hunted and hurled and wrestled and sang 
 with their Irish dependents and friends, and adminis- 
 tered a mixture of English and Irish law called March 
 law. But for this a time of reckoning was drawing 
 nigh. By the Parliament held at Kilkenny under the 
 Duke of Clarence, who had come over especially to 
 evict the Burkes from their possessions, to which 
 generous purpose he found the Irish friends of these 
 noblemen the greatest obstacle, it was declared higj 
 treason to marry an Irishwoman, and the punishment 
 ordained for it was to be half hanged and disembowelled 
 alive (1367). 
 
 But acts of legislation and confiscation failed to 
 effect the desired separation, for to live among the 
 
100 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
 Irish is to love them and their customs. The Irish 
 
 peasantry followed the descendants of the old Norman 
 
 invaders, the Butlers and Gerald ines and Burkes, to 
 
 battle with as much confidence as if they were led by 
 
 one of the O'Connors or O'Moores or O'Kennedys. 
 
 Side by side the Norman and the Celt thrived. 
 
 Together in sport and work and battle they learned to 
 
 respect and admire each other's qualities of mind and 
 
 body. The Celt gave animation and received 
 
 discipline. The Norman brought law and skill and 
 
 tasted freedom and strength. In their marriages with 
 
 one another the union of hearts was formed, and in 
 
 their children and their children's children the rival 
 
 nations blended their powers and virtues to issue in a 
 
 greater nation than either — the Anglo-Celtic race. 
 
 At the present day there are but few of the good 
 
 old county families that are not as proud to claim 
 
 descent from some wild Irish chief as they are to 
 
 assert connection with some proud Norman baron. 
 
 And as it was among the generous peasantry of Erin 
 
 that the descendants of the Norman Kings, the 
 
 oppressed slaves of feudalism and militarism, found a 
 
 free and natural life, so now the descendants of these 
 
 Normans are working together with one end in view — 
 
 the good of their tenantry and the prosperity of their 
 
 peasantry. For 
 
 " 111 fares the land to hastening ills a prey 
 Where wealth accumulates and men decay. 
 Princes and lords may flourish or may fade, 
 A breath can make them as a breath has made. 
 
THE CELT AND THE NORMAN. loi 
 
 But a bold peasantry, their country's pride, 
 When once destroyed can never be suppHed." 
 
 The fear which Goldsmith — an Irishman who loved 
 his native land — expressed in these memorable lines, 
 looms more largely than ever before our minds as we 
 look down the census sheets, and read the appalling 
 statistics under the head of emigration. Surely those 
 who glory in their Irish blood, and those who are no 
 less proud of their Norman names, should unite to 
 devise some means to stop this leakage — not that we 
 grudge to give the world our best sons and daughters to 
 leaven and raise the life of other peoples, but because 
 we apprehend that the supply may one day cease 
 abruptly, and the Irish nation in its Irish home shall 
 demand replenishment, and shall fail to get as good as 
 it has given. 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 CELTIC MONUMENTS. 
 
 THE CROMLECH. 
 
 In this and the following chapter something will be 
 said of the remains of Celtic art and architecture that 
 are to be found in our island. We shall besfin with 
 the Cromlech, also known under the name Dolmen or 
 Daul-maen, table stone and menhir, (maen-hir) long 
 stone, with which, however, it must not be identified, 
 reserving our remarks on the Celtic tombs of New 
 Grange and the Round Towers, which, though not 
 Celtic in origin, were raised by Irish hands. 
 
 The Cromlech is one of those interesting remains 
 of the Stone Age that affords the student of the 
 history of the nations a subject for research and 
 speculation. These relics, with others of the same 
 principle — temples, dome-roofed caverns, subterranean 
 passages, huge blocks standing in a ring, are found 
 all over Europe, and not a few can be seen in 
 Ireland. The readers of this booklet are doubtless 
 more familiar with them under the names of Druids' 
 altars or giants' graves. '* A Cromlech," says Wake- 
 man, " when perfect, consists of three or more stones, 
 unhewn, and generally so placed as to form a small 
 enclosure. Over these a larger stone is laid, the 
 
CELTIC MONUMENTS. 103 
 
 whole forming a kind of rude chamber. The posi- 
 tion of the table or covering stone is generally 
 sloping ; but its degree of inclination does not 
 appear to have been regulated by any design." The 
 name cromlech (crom leac, sloping stone) is not 
 thought to be Irish, for if it had been manufactured 
 on the soil, we should most surely have it preserved 
 in the names of the localities where they are found. 
 The ancient Irish often styled memorials of this kind 
 Labby (leaba), which means grave. In O'Brien's 
 dictionary we have the note — " Leaba is the name 
 of several places in Ireland, which are by the 
 common people called Labhaha-na-veana, the monu- 
 ments of the Fenii or old Irish champions." There 
 is a Labasheeda in Clare, which means Sheedy's 
 grave. In some parts the cromlechs are called by 
 an Irish term signifying the bed of Diarmaid and 
 Grainne,* from the legend that Diarmaid ran 
 away with Grainne, the espoused wife of the 
 celebrated Finn Mac Cumhail (Finn-ma-Cool), and 
 for one year and a day baffled all Finn's efforts 
 to discover them. During his period of flight 
 Diarmaid erected every night a different leaba to 
 shelter Grainne from the wind and rain. This, of 
 course, is legend. But in Cork we have a townland 
 called Labbadermody, Diarmaid's bed. 
 
 An even less poetical name than Labby is Griddle. 
 A cromlech on the top of a hill was often called a 
 
 * Leaba Dhiarmada-agas-Grainne. 
 
104 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
 griddle. In Downpatrick we have a hill called 
 Sleeve-na-griddle — the mountain of the griddle. 
 Finn-Ma-Cool, the injured and enraged lover, had his 
 griddle in a bog near Easky, in Sligo. 
 
 A very fine cromlech is in the Howth demesne. It 
 is generally called Aileen's grave. The covering stone 
 is a huge block, and is almost on the ground. At the 
 base of a rocky hill, where stones of a great size are to 
 be seen in numbers, the weight of this stone does not 
 strike us so much as other cromlechs, which are found 
 in a neighbourhood completely devoid of similar 
 stones, and which are generally explained as a 
 deposit of the ice age. But in Antrim there is a much 
 more elaborate monument. It is called Carngranny, 
 or Carn-Greine (Granny's Grave), Granny being a 
 corruption of Grian, which means the sun, which 
 appears in the name Tomgraney, and which has 
 not anything to do with the word grandmother. The 
 monument to this Granny, this sunny-faced woman, 
 *' consists," as Bishop Reeves tells us, " of ten large 
 slabs raised on side supporters, like a series of cromlechs, 
 forming steps, commencing with the lowest at the 
 north-east, and ascending gradually for the length of 
 forty feet towards the south-west." Such are some of 
 the great stone monuments now generally known as 
 dolmens and cromlechs. We have seen that there is 
 something more substantial than legend connected 
 with them. Who, then, were their builders ? Here 
 we may be guided by the fact that no weapon or 
 
CELTIC MONUMENTS. 105 
 
 implement of any kind of metal has been found in the 
 
 vicinity of any of these remains. Underneath these 
 
 dolmens human bones have been found in many cases, 
 
 and in several places urns have been dug up. The 
 
 extension of the principle of the dolmen may be seen 
 
 in the stone chambers and passages of New Grange 
 
 and Dowth. It is not, however, from Ireland, but 
 
 from Jersey, that the finest specimen of the cromlech 
 
 hails. Twenty-two yards in circumference, composed 
 
 of fifty massive stones, averaging seven feet in height, 
 
 six in breadth, and four in thickness, and situated on 
 
 the Town Hill, where Fort Regent now stands, it 
 
 presented an imposing appearance. It was divided 
 
 into four perfect cells, had the ruins of a fifth, and was 
 
 approached by a passage through which one had to 
 
 creep on hands and feet. This way of entrance was 
 
 very like that which leads into the fine chamber of 
 
 New Grange, being fifteen feet long and four feet four 
 
 inches high, and running east and west. This was, 
 
 indeed, a colossal cromlech, a miniature Stonehenge. 
 
 But it has, unfortunately, been removed from the 
 
 island. There is still a fine specimen in Jersey, near 
 
 Mount Orgeuil Castle. Situated on a rising knoll, it 
 
 is approached by what seems to have originally been a 
 
 covered passage, of which the great side-stones alone 
 
 remain. The roofing stone, under which a person 
 
 may stand erect, is several hundred tons in weight 
 
 being fifteen feet in length, ten and a half in breadth, 
 
 and three and a half in thickness. Supported on five 
 
io6 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART, 
 
 great blocks, it forms a fairly-sized chamber, and may 
 have originally been a place of some form of worship 
 or religious function. There are other structures of a 
 similar kind in the Channel Isles. The archaeologist, 
 Dr. Lukis, explored a magnificent cromlech in 
 Guernsey, near I'Ancresse Bay. Like the Irish 
 monument of New Grange, it stands within a some- 
 what broken and indistinct circle of smaller stones. It 
 is roofed by five gigantic capstones, and has another 
 chamber near its eastern entrance. It is now called 
 Le Temple des Druides — the Druids' Temple. When 
 Dr. Lukis first found it, it was choked with sand, 
 but when clearing had been effected, and the sandy 
 layer had been removed, the explorer came upon the 
 bones of animals, oxen and hogs, embedded in a 
 stratum of sand. Below this he came upon the bones 
 of human beings, burnt and unburnt, and underneath 
 all a miniature cromlech, a small capstone on stone 
 props, under which lay a mass of bones and imple- 
 ments, arrowheads, grinding troughs and mullers, 
 hammers and quoits, all of stone. But not one of these 
 was of iron or of any other kind of metal. These 
 megalithic fabrics would not, therefore, have been 
 erected by Celts, who used weapons and implements 
 of bronze and iron — a formidable array of which are 
 now on view in the National Museum, Kildare Place. 
 Moreover, the Celts were not builders in stone. They 
 lived in houses of wood and shining clay, with which, 
 Tacitus tells us, they produced marvellously artistic 
 
CELTIC MONUMENTS. 107 
 
 effects. Before the Celts came to Ireland the 
 Tuatha-de-Danaans and Firbolgs had lived here. Of 
 these last it is possible that some remains are still to 
 be found. In the caves of the Arran Isles are found 
 skulls and bones belonging to a long-headed, small- 
 boned race of men, somewhat akin in appearance to 
 the Basque inhabitants of the Pyrenees. The Firbolgs, 
 being driven to the extreme west by the better armed 
 and more powerful Aryan invaders, made their last 
 stand in County Clare and the Isles of Arran, where 
 some of their descendants may doubtless be seen to this 
 very day. The fort of Angus, a massive circular fort on 
 the West Coast, consisting of great stones laid one 
 upon the other, the heavier being at the bottom and 
 the lighter at the top of the wall, bears the name of 
 the last Iberian King, while the name of Scots " was 
 borne by the followers of Queen Scotia. This is all 
 we can say of the builders of the cromlechs. It is ver>^ 
 possible that this conjecture may be completely 
 wrong. The cromlechs, at all events, belong to a 
 pre-historic age — an age of which history is silent, and 
 of which geology alone can discover traces. 
 
 What was the original purpose of these monuments I 
 Here again we must confess ignorance. But it is 
 apparent that they may have served one or other of 
 two purposes. They may have either been con- 
 structed as rude altars by barbarian predecessors in 
 honour of the god they ignorantly worshipped or as 
 enduring monuments of the fame of their strong men 
 
io8 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
 and their beautiful women. For ancient urns and 
 calcined bones have been found beneath. Passing 
 from one idea to the other, the natives of Erin call 
 them now " Druids' Altars," and anon " Giants' 
 Graves." Perhaps both ideas may be harmonised 
 when we remember that the gods of most heathen 
 nations were but deified men and women. 
 
 And by what method of leverage were the great cap 
 stones raised into their present position ? This is 
 another interesting question to which we can give no 
 definite answer. But conjectures are not wanting. 
 
 It has been suggested by the King of Denmark 
 that these massive blocks were worked up over an 
 artificial inclined plane of earthwork. To other 
 antiquarians it has appeared more probable that the 
 smaller stones found in the vicinity of certain of these 
 cromlechs were utilised in this process of lifting. 
 While it has been recently conjectured by Mr. W. 
 Borlase in The Dolmens of Ireland that the trunks of 
 the trees which abounded in this even and well- 
 wooded island were employed as leverage, and that 
 the small stones found by the sides of the Dolmens 
 had been originally inserted by the workmen under 
 the great block to secure a purchase for their efforts. 
 It is very likely that the original workmen would laugh 
 at these notions, and would consider them far-fetched 
 and poetical explanations of their simple but endur- 
 ing achievements. The great Pyramids of Egypt still 
 remain to bear witness to the great efforts and colossal 
 
CELTIC MONUMENTS. 109 
 
 undertakings of a long-buried civilisation. These 
 marvellous structures, whose raised stone — Clogh- 
 togla * — was a mystery to later races, are a silent but 
 everlasting monument of the brawn and muscle, the 
 affection and adoration of a by-gone race of Irishmen. 
 
 Some idea of the number of these monuments in 
 Ireland may be gained from a study of Mr. Borlase's 
 work referred to, in which there is a description of 780 
 dolmens, 50 chambered tumuli, and 6S other monu- 
 ments, of a nondescript character. It is remarkable 
 that while there are fewer dolmens in Leinster, there 
 being only 71, as compared with 234 in Munster, 248 
 in Connaught, and 227 in Ulster ; it has 40 chambered 
 tumuli to 10 in all the rest of Ireland. 
 
 These prehistoric monuments are not, however, 
 confined to Ireland. They are also to be found in 
 Brittany, Cornwall, Scandinavia, Germany, Spain, 
 Africa, and Austria, and in the Anamalai Hills, South 
 of Madras. 
 
 According to Mr. Borlase the dolmen and cham- 
 bered tumulus are allied in structure and in purpose ; 
 and he makes no distinction between the cromlech 
 and the " Giant's Grave." The cromlech he considers 
 a giant's grave manque. The stones of a " Giant's 
 Grave" are large and heavy at the west end, but 
 gradually dwindle in size and weight towards the east. 
 The cromlech, in Mr. Borlase's opinion, could be the 
 heavy west end of a giant's grave, which would not 
 
 ♦ Cloch-togbhala. 
 
no TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
 be so easily removed as the east. Every dolmen too 
 he thinks, was originally covered with a quantity of 
 small stones to make the walls of the crypt imper- 
 vious both to animals and elements. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 IRISH TOMBS AND TOWERS. 
 
 Starting from Dublin by the early train, we arrive in 
 Drogheda by noon, and our cycles carry us in two 
 hours to Slane. As we travel along the south of the 
 Boyne, the banks of which are densely wooded and 
 picturesque, we are passing over the historic battle- 
 ground of William of Orange, and at Oldbridge, 
 crossing the bridge by which the Boyne Obelisk stands 
 sentinel, we come in full view of King William's Glen, 
 and leaving the front entrance of Townley Hall to the 
 right, we follow a hilly but straight road into Slane. 
 Having arrived here, and put up at the small hotel, and 
 satisfied the inner man, we make our arrangements 
 for our tour. There are both Christian and pagan 
 antiquities to be seen, the contrast between them 
 making us reflect seriously upon the great difference 
 of the religions under which they sprang up. 
 Following the order of time we shall first visit the 
 pagan remains. These are principally cemeteries of 
 the dead, and are known by the names of New 
 Grange, Dowth, and Knowth. The first two of these 
 have been opened, and are accessible to visitors, but 
 the last is not. New Grange can be approached 
 from the rear by following the river and crossing 
 
112 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
 in a punt, or by the front if one takes the road. 
 It is only two miles distant from the town. Having 
 arrived at the gate of the field, we see before us a 
 gently rising hillock of no great height, dotted here 
 and there with small shrubs and trees, and at the base 
 surrounded by massive blocks of stone placed at 
 certain intervals. Approaching near, we discover an 
 entrance apparently leading to a long, dark passage, 
 walled and roofed by solid slabs of unhewn stone. At 
 our feet, covering the mouth of this sepulchral way, lies 
 a huge rock, marked with curious trumpet-shaped 
 patterns. We light our candles and advance boldly, 
 but not feeling at all safe, we creep along on hands 
 and knees, pausing now and then to glance at the 
 curious wedge-formed marks in the stone slabs, one of 
 these exactly representing a Maltese cross, and at last, 
 to our relief are able to stand bold upright in a lofty, 
 dome-shaped chamber, some twenty-seven feet high. 
 As we examine the walls more closely in the bright 
 flash of the magnesium wire, we observe quaint and 
 beautiful patterns on many of the huge blocks, running 
 round the corners where no human instrument or 
 hand could work, and which, therefore, must have been 
 carved with the Druid symbols before the stones 
 were placed in their present position. Thus we arrive 
 at the secret of the tumulus. The passage and the 
 chamber were first built of huge blocks carted up from 
 the bed of the Boyne, and, having been marked, were 
 placed in their present position, and the whole made 
 
IRISH TOMBS AND TOWERS. 113 
 
 more secure by a covering of earth and sods. There 
 are other passages converging on the chamber from 
 other entrances, all of which have now disappeared, 
 but a stone slab marked with the curious spiral forms 
 we have spoken of above, lying at the extreme north 
 of the mound, may indicate the position of another, 
 which has not been opened. We would not recommend 
 anyone to try to follow up one of these passages, as 
 they are not at all safe. In the apartment itself there 
 are three recesses formed by pairs of huge stones 
 leaning towards each other. Opposite two of these 
 recesses lie two great but shallow basins of solid stone, 
 a larger one being placed in the very centre of the 
 floor. These basins were evidently used in some 
 religious function by the Druids — presumably for 
 burning the dead or sacrificing the living. As we 
 look at them they do not seem so gruesome after 
 all, but if the stones could cry out what terrible tales 
 they would give of the deeds that were done in this 
 cemetery of the kings ! The story goes that Cormac 
 Mac Art ordered his followers not to place his body here 
 in Brug-na-Boyne, but in Ross-na-ree (the wood of the 
 kings). However, in spite of his last injunction, his men 
 thrice essayed to carry the corpse across the river, but 
 the floods prevented them from achieving their purpose, 
 so they were unwillingly compelled to lay it in the wood 
 on the south of the river, where curiously enough 
 some remains of a Celtic burial place have been recently 
 discovered. As we return to the town from our visit 
 
114 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
 to one of the best preserved Celtic monuments, we 
 pass over the great stone bridge which was considered 
 a strong post for miHtary operations by King William, 
 and beneath which the river, rushing down the weir 
 with great force, cuts a foaming course through the 
 many arches. Standing on the bridge we have a good 
 view of the Castle of Slane, the old keep of the 
 Flemings, situated on a noble site commanding the 
 surrounding country ; and we are not far from the 
 footsteps of St. Ere, the follower of St. Patrick, 
 who raised, it is said, at his Master's command, 
 a hermitage by the river's brink, where he died in 
 514. Here is to-day an ancient hermitage with a 
 rough-built cell and cave hewn out beneath, and a 
 stone-roofed chapel, now ivy-mantled and discrowned 
 by time and treason. A thousand years after the 
 death of Bishop Ere, Sir Christopher Fleming placed 
 two friars in the hermitage, which is now in ruins. 
 A little way from the entrance lies a long stone of 
 coffin shape, carved with twelve figures (apostles) on 
 two sides, and at the end with three figures, Christ 
 between two thieves, the one praying, the other 
 scoffing at His words, a living sermon wrought in 
 silent masonry. We are told the country-folk come 
 in numbers on the 15th August to worship here, 
 after hanging out their rags by the ancient well in 
 the demesne. The story is that the doom of Tara 
 was pronounced by the abbot of this hermitage 
 who, finding that the king had not respected the 
 
IRISH TOMBS AND TOWERS. 115 
 
 sanctuary, but had carried away a fugitive who had 
 sought refuge there from his vengeance, proceeded in 
 robes of office and in wrath to the gates of the great 
 settlement, and cursed it from its very foundation. 
 From that day Tara became a tradition of the past, 
 if we can beheve the old chroniclers. 
 
 We have yet to see the famous College of Slane, 
 where, it is said, Prince Dagobert, of France, was 
 educated and lived for twenty years, 653-673, before 
 he was recalled to his native land and kingdom. The 
 way of approach is by a long steep hill, on the crest 
 of which we find a group of interesting remains, con- 
 sisting of a ruined abbey and a dismantled church, 
 both of very ancient structure. On the outer wall of 
 the abbey is a stone slab supposed to have engraved 
 upon it the arms of Dagobert. A lion is distinctly 
 visible on the shield. The ruins are very extensive, 
 and well repay an inspection. From the tower of 
 the church, in which there is a beautifully carved 
 window a little to one side of the arched doorway 
 beneath it — a proof of antiquity — one has a view of 
 Drogheda and Tara. These buildings commemorate 
 a most important episode in the history of the nation 
 and the life of the national saint, namely, the lighting 
 of the Easter fires which kindled so great a conflagra- 
 tion in the land that it quite extinguished all the fires 
 of the pagan religion, as the Druids prophesied it 
 would. Whether it be true or not that the Saint 
 here encountered and defeated the Druids by feats 
 
ii6 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
 of magic which left them spellbound, is no concern of 
 ours to say or to believe. It is most probable, how- 
 ever, that Patrick made his way from this hill to the 
 court of the king, Laoghaire (Leary, son of Niall of 
 the Nine Hostages) at Tara, where he was well re- 
 ceived, and made many converts, young Ere being 
 among them. 
 
 The buildings we have described show the rough 
 usage of Danish spoilers and the cruel stains of war. 
 Speaking of the Danes, we are reminded of the great 
 round towers that were built to protect the religious 
 community from their inroads by enabling it to have 
 timely notice of their arrival and safe refuge from their 
 attack. A magnificent specimen, within easy distance 
 of Slane Hill, at Monasterboice, the ancient monas- 
 tery of Boetius, which has been in ruins since 1117, 
 when its last abbot died, raises its massive form amid 
 a regular cluster of antiquities, two ancient and mar- 
 vellously sculptured Irish crosses, and the ruined 
 gables and walls of two chapels. This tower is no 
 feet in height, and 15 in diameter, and is divided into 
 5 stories. The entrance being some distance from the 
 ground, commanding the entrance to the church, and 
 evidently approached by a ladder, which was drawn 
 up when the last stragglers of the little band had been 
 called in from the fields just in time to save their 
 precious manuscripts and other treasures, and to 
 escape the fire and sword of the invaders. Then the 
 iron-studded door was closed, and through the 
 
IRISH TOMBS AND TOWERS. 117 
 
 portholes, arrows and missiles were hurled against the 
 marauders, who presently withdrew^ after pilfering and 
 destroying everything they could lay their hands on. 
 
 The origin of the bell tower, the cloig teach, accord- 
 ing to the eminent Dr. Petrie, was Christian not Pagan. 
 The bell tolled the hours of service and sounded the 
 alarm ; while the towers, lit up with tapers at night, 
 served the country-folk as beacons in the dense and 
 dangerous woods. On the round tower of Roscrea 
 there are curious figures of an antique ship, an axe 
 as well as a cross carved on the arch of the second 
 window, which have led certain people to believe in 
 the Pagan origin of these towers. But two of these 
 signs are Christian, and the use of the tower was 
 distinctly Christian. The idea of the round tower 
 seems to have been brought from France to Ireland. 
 The French suffered as much as we did from the sea- 
 robbers of the North, and in order to protect their 
 churches in the valleys of the Loire and Seine they 
 raised these towers and gave the hint to Irish ecclesi- 
 astics like Malachy, who were ever passing backwards 
 and forwards between Ireland and the Continent. In 
 Ravenna similar towers of cylindrical form and 
 conical roof are to be seen. They are the earliest 
 specimens of the Campanile. Eastern influence is 
 evident in the French towers. And this is to be 
 accounted for by the fact that a regular influx of 
 artists and sculptors passed from the East into France 
 after the severe iconoclastic measures of the Emperor 
 
ii8 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
 Leo. Charlemagne was glad to employ these 
 strangers, and to them the cylindrical form of these 
 structures is to be attributed. And so we have reason 
 for asserting that they were not fire-temples or 
 Druid ical monuments or anchorite towers, but that 
 they served as belfries and places of security for the 
 religious community who dwelt under their shadow. 
 
 Ascending this tower by the ladders, which lead 
 from one storey to another, we gain a splendid view 
 of the surrounding country, the hills of Slane and 
 Tara being distinctly visible on one side, and 
 Drogheda and the sea beyond on the other. 
 
 The two crosses we have mentioned are very 
 remarkable. In the first place, they are like all old 
 crosses, Celtic in form and association. The taller of 
 them, apparently of one single block of stone, is 
 eighteen feet high. It is called St. Bo3nie's Cross, 
 probably after some inmate of the monastery. Some 
 almost obliterated letters at the base of the other are 
 supposed to stand for the name, Muredach. an abbot 
 who died here in 923 while figures in high relief all down 
 the shaft represent Scriptural subjects. This the smaller 
 cross is the handsomer of the two. It is divided on its 
 four sides into three panels. Scriptural subjects being 
 represented by grotesque figures with fierce 
 moustachios in high relief on the front panels, the 
 Ascension (1) being represented in the centre of the 
 circle. Plaster casts of both, we believe, are to be 
 seen in the Science and Art Museum, in Kildare street. 
 
IRISH TOMBS AND TOWERS. 119 
 
 Concerning the Irish cross, much has been said and 
 written. There is a great variety and a great number 
 of crosses in Ireland. The word Cross itself, as Dr, 
 Joyce has pointed out, is the name of about thirty 
 townlands. and it forms the first syllable of about 1 50 
 others. There is Crosserlough (Cros-air-loch), the 
 cross on the lake ; Crossmolina (Cros-ui-Mhaeilfhina), 
 O'Mulleeny's cross ; Crossgar, short cross ; Crusheen, 
 little cross ; Crossfarnoge, the cross of the 
 alder tree, &c. At first these crosses were simple. 
 and without ornament; but gradually they became 
 highly ornamented and elaborated. They are 
 connected not only with religious establishments, but 
 were also raised, as Dr. Reeves has pointed out, 
 wherever any providential visitation took place. 
 Among varieties of the cross might be mentioned the 
 inscribed slab marked with a cross, the perforated 
 stone marked with ^ cross ; the pillar stone marked 
 with a cross ; the earlier form of the Celtic cross, and 
 the high cross with Celtic circle called cross na 
 screaptya, or cross of the Scriptures. There are only five 
 of these high crosses in Scotland and eight in England, 
 but yet it has been pointed out that there are 300 
 localities in Scotland, 250 in England, and only 64 in 
 Ireland where crosses are found. The Irish crosses 
 are not only remarkable for the delicate beauty of 
 their ornamentation, but also for the variety and 
 boldness of the subjects depicted on their panels. 
 They thus combined utility with beauty. For while 
 
120 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
 their graceful forms impressed the cultured, the 
 ignohile vulgus stood awestruck before their represen- 
 tations of Scripture subjects and scenes in the lower 
 world, the art-teaching of the Celtic Church. 
 
 The solitary romance connected with these build- 
 ings is that the supposed founder, Buite or Boetius 
 (Boice) McBronaigh, " the man of the fair band with 
 the glories of clean deeds," had travelled far and wide? 
 but returned to Ireland that " the place of his birth 
 might be the place of his resurrection." He is said 
 to have died on the same day that Columba was born. 
 
 The next place of interest which awaits us is Tara, 
 better known, perhaps, through Moore's ballad than 
 for its own departed glories. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 tara's halls. 
 
 Some twelve miles from Slane, among a succession of 
 gently-rising hillocks, is Teamhair, or Tara, meaning 
 a ridge commanding a view. Such is the name of the 
 locality, which has ever been associated with the 
 glories and victories of the Irish race. There the 
 King of Ireland held his court, and the princes and 
 potentates, bards and druids of Erin, assembled 
 every third year, since the days of Ollamh Fodhla, to 
 deliberate, and discuss matters of government, educa- 
 tion, and religion. The stronghold of Pagan darkness, 
 its circular forts were destined to become the centre of 
 Christian light, what time the eagle eye of Saint 
 Patrick recognised its importance as the key of 
 Ireland. From the smooth sward all traces of human 
 habitation have been completely obliterated. But 
 though the sods are silent as the grave, imagination 
 might summon around us the "chiefs and ladies 
 bright," and awake the echoes of the harp in Tara's 
 halls. To re-animate the buried past, and fill it with 
 moving figures, is at best an experiment. But many 
 would like to form some conception of how that 
 memorable day was spent that ended with the 
 approach of the saint. For, although it has been 
 
122 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
 proved to demonstration that that part of Ireland 
 which stood in close contact with the south-west of 
 Britain was Christian previous to his coming, the tra- 
 dition of Patrick has not yet been conclusively over- 
 thrown.* 
 
 In the early morn of the day two fires were kindled 
 by the Druids, with great incantations, for the Irish 
 were probably celebrating their Mayday, or Belltaine, 
 festival at this time. In the halls of Tara there would 
 be profuse hospitality for all comers, and the country 
 round would present an interesting spectacle, enlivened 
 by the moving figures of men and women, horsemen 
 and charioteers, in gaily-coloured robes. Athletic 
 games, pastimes, and even marriages would be cele- 
 brated on this occasion, which could not, however, 
 coincide with Easter. 
 
 It is not too far-fetched an idea, and it is one that 
 ancient records confirm, that horse-racing and chariot- 
 driving were the principal amusements of this warlike 
 people. The following might be a sketch of the 
 day's proceedings : — 
 
 There is first a horse race, for which the youth of 
 different tribes are entered. Off they start at the 
 word, urging their steeds with their heavy lashes of 
 plaited thongs and their long, sharp spurs, grasping 
 their iron bridles in their hands.- Bareback they 
 ride. And now they are turning the course for the 
 
 ♦See, however, on this subject Heinrich Zimmer's Celitc Church 
 in Britain and Ireland. 
 
TARA'S HALLS. 123 
 
 last time, and as they pass the pavilion where the 
 King is seated the cheering rends the air. They have 
 surrounded the winner, and are leading his horse back 
 to his tent in triumph. To-night his name will be 
 praised by the national bard. Now the young men 
 are preparing for the foot race. They are removing 
 their cloak pins, and taking off their brilliantly- 
 coloured capes. And now they unwind the broad 
 scarf from their waist, the heavy kilt is thrown 
 aside, and in their light silk tunics and hosen they 
 bound lightly into the course, their great, muscular 
 arms and throats, tattooed with quaint designs, exposed 
 to the admiring crowd. The word is given, and the 
 competitors bound forth at full speed, now clearing 
 an iron bar, breast high, with the greatest ease, and 
 now gliding as rapidly beneath a two-foot rail. The 
 race is keenly competed, and as keenl}- watched. It 
 is over, and the victor is carried off by his friends in 
 triumph. Now the great bell-mouthed trumpets blare, 
 and the people crowd to the course to see the chariot 
 race, for this is the great event of the day. Caesar 
 gives a glowing description of the agility and strength 
 of the British charioteers who fought against the 
 Roman legions four hundred years before. It is, 
 therefore, no stretch of imagination to suppose that 
 these Irish charioteers, who had often encountered 
 the Roman legions, were as skilful as their kinsmen in 
 Britain, whose land they were wont to harry, when 
 Cormac MacArt and Dathi were the terror of the 
 
124 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
 Continent of Europe. Now the chariots of bronze are 
 driven upon the course one after another, and as each 
 warrior appears, his name is loudly taken up by his 
 friends and admirers, until the whole place rings again. 
 The signal is given, and the teams rush madly forward 
 from the post. The course narrows, and one of the 
 drivers slackens, but the rest drive madly on. There 
 is only room for one, but three dash into the gorge 
 almost abreast. There is but a yard dividing the first 
 from the second, while the third, lashing his steeds, 
 forces the pace, and forging ahead, dashes his axle 
 against the linch-pin of the preceding car, which falls 
 out. Then the wheel rolls off, and the chariot is 
 turned over on the ground, but the driver, nimbly 
 bounding over his horses' heads, escapes destruction. 
 Meanwhile, the audacious third gets clear, and pass- 
 ing the first, drives home amid the cheers and plaudits 
 of the spectators. His name, too, will be sung by the 
 national bard to-night among other heroes of the long- 
 poled, heavily-driven chariots of bronze. Now the 
 evening is drawing to a close, and the people return 
 to their homes. The king and his guests once more 
 seek the great hall, where the banquet is prepared. 
 The chief Brehon is the Master of Ceremonies. The 
 king and queen and the greater nobles are conducted 
 within the principal fort to a raised dais, where they 
 take their places at their table. And then the other 
 chieftains and guests, who had stood up when the 
 royalties were announced, were accommodated with 
 
TARA'S HALLS. 125 
 
 seats at the long table that ran down the centre of 
 
 the hall. The feast begins, and sounds of merriment 
 
 are heard. When this repast is over, the dishes are 
 
 removed, and great bronze flagons of mead and beer 
 
 are placed upon the tables. At a signal from 
 
 the king, a henchman quickly rises, and leaves the 
 
 hall, and presently returns, leading by the hand a 
 
 gentle youth, who carries a harp upon his arm. This 
 
 was the minstrel. Seating himself at the feet of the 
 
 king, who smiled kindly upon him, he began to sing in a 
 
 light tenor voice. Accompanying himself on his harp 
 
 as he composed, he deftly weaves into his lay the names 
 
 of the sturdy youths who have proved victorious in the 
 
 games. Anon his music takes a loftier course, as he 
 
 sings of the Spirit divine, who whispers in the air and 
 
 breathes in the wind, whose voice is the murmur of 
 
 the waterfall, and whose words are like the sound of 
 
 many waters. The mists and clouds hide His Face 
 
 when he is provoked by men, distant thunder is heard, 
 
 and the storm breaks forth. Then men pray, and all 
 
 is peace in the heart, for the anger of God is removed. 
 
 So the bard sang on, and all sat breathless the while, 
 
 when suddenly the door is thrown open, and the 
 
 white-robed Druids, the priests, came in tumultuously. 
 
 The cause of their coming is briefly related — *• Yonder 
 
 on the Hill of Slane is kindled a fire, and the royal 
 
 law which forbids that any fire should be kindled 
 
 before the royal fire at Tara be lit is broken by 
 
 strangers." "What does it mean?" demands the 
 
126 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART, 
 
 king. And the Druid answers : " It means that the 
 fire which has been kindled before the royal fire will 
 never be extinguished unless it be so this night. 
 Moreover, it will conquer all the fires of our religion, 
 and he who has lighted it will conquer us all, and will 
 seduce all your subjects, and all kingdoms will fall 
 before him, and he will fill all things, and will reign 
 for ever and ever." In great wrath the king ordered 
 his chariots to be prepared and taking his page, 
 Eric, and his principal magicians, drives madly to the 
 Hill of Slane, where the stranger had kindled his 
 Easter fires. To pass over the marvellous details ot 
 that interview, let it be sufficient for us to know that 
 the stranger, whether Palladius or Patricius was his 
 name, made an impression upon the king and his 
 followers, and that the name and power of Christ 
 silenced and subdued the Druid priests. 
 
 Centuries later the scene of the principal festivities 
 of Erin was swept away by some untoward disaster 
 or rupture between the tribes. The popular legend is 
 that Teamhair was cursed in the 6th century by the 
 abbot Ruadhan because the Ardrigh refused to 
 return a poor wretch who had been torn from the 
 altar where he had sought sanctuary. Whatever 
 may have been the cause of its fall it is certain that 
 its desertion led to the disintegration of the Gaelic 
 nation. " Its tribes," as Moore has said, '• can no 
 longer be said to have had any common bond of 
 union between them, any Fan Gaedalon, where they 
 
TARA'S HALLS. 127 
 
 could meet in harmony, and be reminded of their 
 common origin." Tara was no longer used as a 
 royal residence, or a centre of national life. The 
 tribes naturally fell asunder, the Spirit of Erin 
 passed away. Patriotism, in the larger and grander 
 sense, died a violent death. And the land became 
 the prey of any roving bands that chose to mix 
 themselves up in the intestine feuds of the tribes. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 AN ANCIENT CELTIC SETTLEMENT. 
 
 Starting from Nenagh, the ancient A enach Urmhum- 
 han, the market-place of the tribes of East Munster 
 for centuries, where an hospital for Augustinian 
 Canons, Tyone, or St. John's House, dating from the 
 1 2th century, lies in ruins, and leaving behind us the 
 lofty and massive circular donjon of the Butler's keep, 
 a conspicuous object for miles round, still bearing 
 marks of the great fire of 1688, when Long Antony 
 Carrol, Sarsfield's officer, burnt it to cover his retreat, 
 we come out on the Limerick Road. As we ride 
 along we pass by on the left hand a splendid 
 specimen of a rath, an ancient house, and an interest- 
 ing watchtower, through which an ivy tree has 
 burst its way, so that now a strange mixture of 
 tree and tower on the verge of the glade bursts 
 on our view. This find bids us halt and dismount. 
 We first approach the house on the hill. As we 
 draw near to it, we are astonished at its size. 
 Although in ruins, we can infer from what remains, 
 the massive stones of which it is built, the extent of 
 ground it covers, and the thickness of the walls, that 
 it must have been the house of some person of 
 consequence. 
 
AN ANCIENT CELTIC SETTLEMENT. 129 
 
 As we walk along the field we come to the tree- 
 tower we have just described. This was evidently a 
 watch tower, being too small for anything more. 
 There are many remains of such towers in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Nenagh ; but it is hard to say to what 
 age they are to be assigned, if not to the days of the 
 O'Carrol greatness ; perhaps they are much more 
 recent than we believe. But as we turn our steps 
 down the field the antiquarian's appetite for the 
 historic will be satisfied with the sight of two splendid 
 raths, one encircled by a grove of tall fir trees, and 
 the other consisting of a huge grassy mound. The 
 country people regard these places as sacred, they 
 will not touch a berry that is taken from one of them, 
 much less move a sod therefrom. They also tell us 
 that wherever we see one there is another within 
 sight of it. This is, indeed, true in man\' places. For 
 it was in this way that the ancient Irish laagered. 
 Marking out a circular space of ground sufficient for 
 their wants, if possible near running water, they dug 
 a deep, wide fosse all round, and heaped up the earth 
 they had taken from the circumference towards the 
 centre where their chieftain pitched his tent. Within 
 these entrenchments they were safe for the night from 
 the attacks of their enemy, who could only hurl 
 their missiles from a distance at a foe they feared 
 at close quarters. Of course, if the occupation of the 
 place was intended to be permanent, the earth- 
 works would be on a larger scale — the mound or 
 
 K 
 
130 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART, 
 
 mote* which we have just described being nearly thirty- 
 feet high — and the surrounding fosse would be filled 
 with water. In some cases, as at Rathurles, the demesne 
 of Colonel Brereton, a friend of the writer, there was a 
 double circle of entrenchments, an inner and an 
 outer, and water running through both channels. 
 Such places were doubly secure. As sufficient has 
 been said on this subject we may resume our journey, 
 and make for Killaloe. As we ride along we skirt 
 on the right hand a pleasant pastoral country, rising 
 to a gentle but respectable height, while on the left, 
 the sombre shadows of the Silvermines form a barrier 
 that is broken now and then by gaps, and diversified 
 here and there with shrubby hillocks and dales, until 
 it gradually opens out into a pretty valley, at the 
 bottom of which the rail runs now. This is Birdhill 
 and, our road lying to the right, we are shut out for 
 the nonce from the view of our picturesque surround- 
 ings, until we are brought face to face with the dark 
 blue range of the Keeper. And so we travel up hill 
 and down dale in the blithest fashion until we come 
 out on the banks of the Shannon, and a charming 
 landscape opens before us. Indeed we might say that 
 from this point the country is unsurpassed in beauty. 
 The river making a wide detour and throwing both its 
 banks into the foreground, is spanned by an ancient 
 
 * The word mote, Irish mota, signifies a high conical mound. 
 See Joyce, -Irish Names, p. 290. Westropp Guide to Irish 
 Antiquities (Science and Art Museum), Part V., p. 19. The 
 word moat which may hke it be connected with the French 
 motte, hill, means dike. 
 
AN ANCIENT CELTIC SETTLEMENT. 131 
 
 bridge of many arches, crowned by the turreted 
 steeple of its venerable cathedral, while a purple moun- 
 tain range forming an impressive background, and 
 the romantic groves and waters of Lough Derg 
 stretching far away into the distance, add to the 
 attractiveness of the picture. 
 
 Arriving at the village of Ballina, the ancient Bel- 
 an-atha, or town on the ford, we cross the great stone 
 bridge that leads us to the town over against us, which 
 is no less than the historic Killaloe, one of the most 
 ancient in Ireland, principally known now-a-days as 
 the Paradise of Anglers. Some philologists tell us 
 that the name of Killaloe signifies the Church of St. 
 Lua or Molua, grandson of a Munster king with an 
 unpronounceable name, who founded here an Abbey 
 and a See in the sixth century. Kill-da-lua would 
 then be the proper form of the word. Others, 
 however, tell us that the meaning of the name is " the 
 Church upon the waters." Whatever be the interpreta- 
 tion of its name, the place has been the residence of a 
 Bishop since 639, when St. Flannan was consecrated. 
 Another and later name, Claresford, the ford of Clare, 
 given to it by Richard de Clare, who got possession 
 of it in the 1 3th century, is preserved in the designa- 
 tion of the episcopal palace, within the beautiful 
 grounds of which may be seen a fine specimen of an 
 Irish cross, which, by the way, was brought from 
 Kilfenora. 
 
 While here we may inspect the ancient cathedral, a 
 
132 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
 cruciform structure, with a heavy square tower in the 
 centre, which is said to have been built by Donald, 
 King of Limerick, in the middle of the 12th century. 
 Parts of this building seem to belong to an earlier 
 date. And the tradition that a church on this site 
 was repaired by Brian Boroihme, the monarch of 
 Ireland, seems to be verified, by appearances at least. 
 In the nave is a highly ornamented Romanesque 
 doorway, now walled up. thought by some to mark the 
 tomb of Brian, but evidently leading into another and 
 more ancient building, which has long disappeared. A 
 curious old slab of stone is laid across the threshold of 
 this door. The east window is very fine, consisting of 
 three lancet windows, the central light being rounded 
 at the head. To the north of the cathedral, and 
 within the same enclosure, is a still more ancient 
 edifice, now called the Oratory of St. Molua. This 
 was evidently a church. The roof, highly-pitched and 
 of stone — as the old damliaghs were — has been 
 recently renovated. The door at the west end is 
 rounded at the top, where it is narrower than at the 
 base. Its deeply moulded arch-springs form two 
 short columns, on the capitals of which are grotesque 
 figures in which some see resemblances to an elephant 
 and a baboon. In the gable is a corresponding 
 window, rounded at the head, and narrowing towards 
 the arch-spring. At the east end is a large opening 
 with pointed Gothic arch, apparently the entrance to 
 another building. Such is a brief and very inadequate 
 
AN ANCIENT CELTIC SETTLEMENT. 133 
 
 description of an ecclesiastical structure which should 
 be seen to be admired. Taking a small boat — called 
 in these waters a cott — we put out across the river, 
 and land in a few minutes on what seems to be a great 
 tangle of thickets, bramble, and brushwood, untrodden 
 by the foot of man, and after fighting our way through 
 this scrub we find ourselves in front of one of the earliest 
 Christian buildings in Ireland — St. Lua's Cell, or the 
 Church on the waters. This miniature chapel lies 
 north and south, its doorway is about 5ft. 3 in. high, 
 is cut through a wall some four feet deep, and is 
 narrower across the head, which is formed by one 
 great slab of stone, than at the base, which is also a 
 slab of stone. The entrance in the south wall of the 
 tiny hermitage is cut in a similar fashion, without an 
 arch. Within the little chapel there is a window, 
 elaborately cut through the stone, four feet deep, a 
 light set, as it were, in a four-fold frame of rock. The 
 roof is also of stone, and pointed, rising some twenty 
 feet high. It is much to be regretted that history has 
 naught to tell us of the ancient worshippers in this 
 small shrine, who doubtless did their share in an 
 unostentatious way in spreading the light of 
 Christianity among the unruly Septs of the West. 
 
 The archaeological interest of the locality does not, 
 however, end here, for below the bridge there is an 
 ancient rath called Kincora, the headquarters of Brian 
 Boroihme, or " Brian of the Tributes." Kincora 
 represents the Irish words Ceann Coradh, or the head 
 
134 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 
 
 of the weir, and the name tells us that there was in 
 olden days a weir in the river to keep the water at a 
 sufficient height for the fish, which brought in a large 
 revenue to the King of Munster. To this fort, or dun, 
 the great Brian used to return in triumph from his 
 raids and forays into Leinster, and Munster, and 
 Meath, driving before him across the ford the Borumha 
 (Boro), or the tribute of cattle he had levied from his 
 beaten foes, and which gave him his name Boroihme. 
 From this ford, Ath-na-borumha, or the ford of the 
 tribute, the little town opposite Killaloe is called 
 Ballina, which means the town on the ford, Bel-an- 
 atha. The Four Masters tell us of the erection of a 
 caher or stone fort here among other works of this 
 monarch. Planted in front of a great wood, and on 
 the brow of a steep headland, washed on three sides of 
 its base by the Shannon, and commanding the salmon 
 weir, Kincora gradually grew so important that it 
 attracted the notice of the Connaughtmen, who were 
 led by the O' Conors again and again against the 
 " palace " of the O'Briens, and ultimately with success, 
 for we read that they destroyed the outworks, burnt 
 the timber, threw the stones into the river, and ate the 
 salmon. All that now remains of this residence of 
 kings is a large circular mound, crowned with trees, 
 and encircled by a dike almost filled up. 
 
 The sides of the high vallum slope gently towards 
 the west, where there is an entrance and steps of 
 large unquarried slabs of stone, which once formed 
 
AN ANCIENT CELTIC SETTLEMENT. 135 
 
 part of a great stairway leading within the enclosure. 
 Here a soldier on guard could easily see any 
 ship with the serpent prow and the raven 
 standard gliding round the pretty point of the 
 lake, and give the alarm to the garrison. Here ad- 
 mission was gained to the palace of the king, for which 
 there was ample room in the large circular plot of 
 ground, some thirty-five paces in diameter. It need 
 not surprise us to find merely a few stray slabs of stone 
 on the site of Brian's abode. For we are told that 
 the dwellings of those days were made of wickerwork, 
 with a covering of clay or earth, and had a white 
 appearance. Such is all that we can tell of this 
 impregnable fortress of the brave Brian, whose heart 
 was stout to fight, and whose hand was strong to 
 strike those terrible invaders, the Danes, the Vikings 
 of the north. But fancy can fill the ramparts with 
 the living forms of warriors, and the large hall of 
 wood with thegleeman's song and the maiden's laugh. 
 For those were gallant days, the days of tribal 
 attachment, the days of daring courage in the chase, 
 noble bravery in the battle, and gentle courtesy in the 
 camp. There were tried knights then in Ireland, 
 men who had taken the oath not to retreat before 
 nine, not to take a dowry with a wife, not to betray 
 a friend, refuse a civility to a stranger, or offer 
 violence to a wayfarer. These were the Fenia or 
 Militia of the king, his personal attendants in peace, 
 his vanguard in battle. For many a time, when the 
 
I3b TYPES OF CELTIC UFE AND ART. 
 
 white sails of the Landleapers gleamed in the sun, 
 did the battle grow dark on the blue waves of 
 Lough Derg. Then the sons of Erin were convened, 
 like the meeting of many waters, by the striking 
 of the spear on the bossy shield, the shrill-sound- 
 ing signal of war. Then the glittering brand of 
 Brian was unsheathed, and lightened through the 
 gloom of battle, and the invaders melted away before 
 his fierce onset. Not seldom in the silence of night, 
 under cover of the darkness, the terrible Danes, with 
 the fire of slaughter in their eyes, stole darkly upon the 
 host like gathering wreaths of mist from the water's 
 edge ; and men were slain in their dreams, and the 
 cry of the babe pinned by the spear to his mother's 
 breast was mocked by the ruthless invader. Many a 
 fresh tomb did the morning sun see on the heath, and 
 the land dripping with gore, and the bards mourning 
 for the dead. But for all that, the Dane was held 
 back, and his city of Luimneach was taken by Brian 
 and his men after Kincora had sunk to rise 
 again from its ashes. So the light of glory 
 passed from the halls under the old oak trees 
 to the battlements and keeps of the " Barren 
 land." Here no longer the chiefs dispense hospi- 
 tality to the stranger at " The head of the weir,"and bid 
 them " Go see the great feast in the dun." No longer do 
 the freemen of the Dalcassian tribe, the " death or glory 
 boys" of the lOth century, whose motto was, •' First 
 in the field, and last to leave it," meet to elect their 
 
AN ANCIENT CELTIC SETTLEMENT, 137 
 
 chief in the forest glades ; no longer do the young 
 men assemble for battle or sport, or, after the chase in the 
 woods of the lake, bring back the deer which their high- 
 bounding dogs have followed to the feast in Kincora. 
 The harps of the minstrels are no longer unstrung, and 
 the voices of the maidens are no longer uplifted in 
 praise of the brave, or in songs of the sweet long-ago 
 in the echoing halls. The wassail no longer is raised 
 from the festive board ; for Kincora is no more. But 
 a characteristic record of ancient splendours of 
 Kincora is preserved in the Munster welcome, " Were 
 mine the boire of the Dane, or the wine of Kincora, it 
 would be poured for you." Mangan, a modern Irish 
 poet, translated the ancient lamentation over the fall of 
 the king and his mighty men, made by Brian's own 
 bard MacLiag, in verses which suspire with the wist- 
 fulness and sympathy of the Celtic spirit. 
 
 " O where, Kincora ! is Brian the Great ? 
 
 And where is the beauty that once was thine ? 
 O where are the princes and nobles that sate 
 
 At the feast in thy halls and drank the red wine ? 
 Where, O Kincora ? 
 
 They are gone, those heroes of royal birth, 
 
 Who plundered no churches and broke no trust ; 
 
 'Tis weary for me to be living on earth. 
 When they, O Kincora, be low in the dust. 
 Low, O Kincora." 
 
BY THE SAME AUTHOR, 
 
 The Mystery of the Cross : Studies in our 
 Lord's Last Passion. 
 
 " A carefully written narrative of the 
 events of Holy Week. . . Of consider- 
 able expository service." — Guardian. 
 
 " A solid contribution to the cause of 
 sacred literature." — Church of Ireland 
 Gazette, 
 
 "Stimulating and suggestive." — Irish 
 
 Times. 
 
 " A volume which all can read and 
 benefit by." — National Church. 
 
 Clement of Alexandria. 
 
 *' An excellent account of the life, the 
 writings, the teaching and surroundings of 
 a truly lovable man." — Guardian. 
 
 " An original and very searching study." 
 Church of Ireland Gazette. 
 
 S. Augustine's "City of God": A translation 
 with notes. 
 
The Foundation of the Hospital and 
 Free School of King Charles II.. 
 
 OXMANTOWN, DUBLIN, 
 
 Known as the Blue Coat School, with notices of some of its 
 Governors, and contemporary events in Dublin. 
 
 BY 
 
 The Rii^ht Hon. SIR F. R. FALKINER, K.C., 
 
 Some time Recorder of Dublin. 
 
 ROYAL 8vo., ILLUSTRATED 7s, 6d. 
 
 The King's Hospital, which is the first and only School of Royal 
 Foundation in Dublin, was from its origin and till the passing of the 
 Municipal Corporations Act, 1840, under the direct government of the 
 Municipal Authority. It owed its birth to the sad condition of the country 
 after the twenty years of war and rebellion in the time of Charles I. and 
 the Commonwealth, and obtained its Charter from Charles II., through 
 the influence of the Duke of Ormonde and his son Lord Ossory, after the 
 Restoration. The object of the book, whilst tracing the annals of the 
 School during its connection with the city, is to show its connection all 
 through with the government of the city and incidentally with the great 
 events and personages of the country during the above period. 
 
ELIZABETHAN IRELAND, 
 
 NATIVE AND ENGLISH, 
 
 By G. B. O'CONNOR. 
 
 Crown 8vo, - - - 3/6 
 
 PRECIS OF CONTENTS. 
 
 The arrangement, which is unusual in this species of work, was selected 
 with the object of placing before the reader a presentation of Elizabethan 
 Ireland and its inhabitants as they would have appeared to an observer at the 
 time. The opening chapters give an exhaustive representation of the physical 
 aspects of the country and towns, buildings and communications, not omitting 
 the climate ; the racial and physical characteristics of the people, their mode of 
 living, dress, and amusements, domestic customs, and social and political 
 conditions ; emphasising the points of agreement or difference between the 
 two nationalities. With the view of elucidating the native attitude to the new 
 conditions sought to be imposed by English administrators, a chapter is devoted 
 to the Brehon system of laws (especially relative to land proprietorship) and 
 society. Thus as it were furnished with all necessary information, the reader 
 is introduced to the domestic and political administration of the English 
 ofGcials. The feuds and actions of chiefs and nobles, their characters as a 
 class, and effect upon the English connection, are also discussed, the contention 
 sought to be established being that then, as now, the land question was the 
 vital one. The ever recurring question of Ireland as a factor in English foreign 
 relations is treated more from the native aspect. Illustrating both domestic 
 and foreign policies, stress is laid upon the personal equation of the officials 
 regulating them. In the chapter devoted to the religious question, the former 
 Irish relations with Rome, ecclesiastical properties, and the actual condition of 
 religion, both previous to and after the attempt at the substitution of the royal 
 for papal supremacy is outlined. As was inevitable from the unsettled state of 
 the period, the chapter devoted to Irish soldiers and Elizabethan warfare is the 
 longest. Without being a mere recapitulation of battles and sieges the actual 
 trend of hostilities is not lost sight of, and the determing effect of English sea 
 power on their result is given due weight. 
 
 The concluding chapter on the Armada Massacres is in refutation of the 
 allegation that inhuman brutality was shown by the West Coast natives. A 
 long list of authorities, quoted and utilised, is given with, in the introduction, 
 reasons for preferring some to others, usually considered to be authentic. A 
 large-size map of the period and copious index precede and conclude the 
 volume. 
 
T^ TD r) Tilt A TVT A ♦ The Memoirs of an Irish 
 
 Family. 
 
 BY 
 
 THERESA MUIR MacKENZIE 
 
 (Theresa Villiers Stuart). 
 Crown 8vo, Illustrated, 5S> net. 
 
 ** This unpretentious volume possesses the prime quality, often absent from 
 books of this kind, of being thoroughly enjoyable. It is a bright, racy, 
 readable account of the Irish Fitzgeralds and their descendants. The volume 
 is well illustrated with views and portraits .... is well printed on good 
 paper and is appropriately bound in Emerald Green." — Glasoow Herald. 
 
 " The authoress has given us in this book a very readable record of family 
 history. The part which the Geraldines played throughout the different 
 centuries of warfare in Ireland is, indeed, a considerable part of the history of 
 Ireland itself. We think we have said enough to induce all those who are 
 interested in Irish family history to buy a copy of *Drom?.na,' which indeed 
 is a most valuable work strikingly illustrated." — Kerry Evening Star. 
 
 " Dromana on the Blackwater is an ancient and finely placed seat of the 
 Fitzgeralds, where their descendants have held possession for five centuries. 
 One cannot wonder that Mrs. Muir MacKenzie, herself a daughter of the old 
 house, has been inspired by the venerable portraits and the ancient within its 
 walls to tell its story. Thomas Carlyle brought away from the Castle of 
 Dromana the happiest of his Irish memories. Mrs. Muir MacKenzie has thrown 
 round it the air of romance and of genuine history." — Scotsman. 
 
 " The gifted authoress of the work informs the reader in her foreword that 
 these mernoirs were gathered together in a great measure for the sake of 
 making a link between the past generation to whom Dromana descended in 
 unbroken succession for five hundred years and generations yet to be born. 
 That she has fulfilled that aim the pages of the handsome volume before us 
 amply prove, and we believe her trust is not misplaced, that a large circle of 
 readers will be found for these memoiis.'" — WaUrford Mws. 
 
 "The subject teems with interest, being the ramified history of the 
 Geraldine family." — Cork Constitution. 
 
 "The writing of this book has evidently been a labour of love to the 
 mthor. Posterity will thank her for her labour." — IrzsA Times. 
 
 "Mrs. Muir MacKenzie's charming story of the illustrious owners of 
 Dromana is preferable to a ponderous family hXstoxy. ''—JndeJ'endent. 
 
The bloody BRIDGE, 
 
 and Other Papers relating to the Insur- 
 rection of 1641. (Sir Phelim O'Neiirs 
 Rebellion). 
 
 BY 
 
 THOMAS FITZPATRICK, LL.D., 
 
 Author of *'The King of Claddagh." 
 
 This work embodies a course of studies on the chief aspects of 
 a movement which has been strenuously distorted and misrepre- 
 sented by so-called historians from the days of Jones and Temple 
 to those of Carlyle and Froude, or even later. 
 
 The special feature will, perhaps, be found in the very great 
 amount of matter extracted by the Author from T.C.D. MSS. — 
 Depositions, Letters, Diaries, Despatches, etc. — and more 
 especially in the uses to which, in the present undertaking, these 
 are applied. 
 
 Whereas, heretofore, the prevalent notion has been that the 
 Depositions relating to the Insurrection of 1641 constitute " the 
 eternal witness" of an "Irish St. Bartholomew," the present 
 Author's contention, is, that, on the contrary — and in spite of 
 the original purpose— the refutation of such a charge may be 
 found in the very papers which the Temple-Froude school of 
 writers claim as their own. 
 
 That the worst things connected with the Insurrection were due 
 more to State policy than to any design on the part of the 
 Insurgents is shown in the Tenth Paper. 
 
 " The book is, indeed, a very effective piece of special pleading, and will 
 have to be carefully considered by all future historians of Ireland, who aim at 
 being accurate and above psntisznship." —Spectator. 
 
 " To the students of the painful confused chapters of Irish History, it will be 
 of considerable value." — Antiquary. 
 
 " It will be of the greatest importance that all possible light should be thrown 
 upon these depositions, and the manner in which they were obtained."— 
 Literary World. 
 
THE IRISH-AMERICAN HISTORY OF 
 THE UNITED STATES, 
 
 From the Earliest Times to the Accession and First 
 Presidential Message of His Excellency Theodore 
 Roosevelt, 
 
 In Forty-six Chapters, with Copious Notes and References. 
 By the Very Rev. John Canon O'Hanlon. With Sixty Por- 
 traits of Illustrious Americans, Twenty-tive War Maps, and 
 Complete Coloured Map of the United States. Preface and 
 Table of Contents, pp. i. to xxiv. Text of Chapters and Notes, 
 pp. I to 667. Appendix and Index, pp. i. to Ixxxviii. Imperial 
 4to. 25Sa 
 
 *'The research involved in ihc preparation of this work must have been very 
 great, and the volume is a notable achievement of industry and knowledge. 
 In addition to the tremendous range covered by this beautifully printed 
 volume, it is furnished with 60 portraits of men whose names take a prominent 
 place in the History of the United States, with 25 War Maps, a general Map 
 of the States, an appendix that would represent a moderately sized volume in 
 itself, and an index, a single page of which suggests a comprehensive encyclo- 
 paedia rather than a history of a country, the authentic story of which only 
 runs a few centuries in duration. — Northerii Whig, Belfast. 
 
 " We heartily congratulate Canon O'Hanlon on this latest product of his 
 industrious pen. The amount ot reading and research that this work gives 
 evidence of is stupendous, and we thank the author for the diligence which 
 has provided us with a work long desired — a full and accurate history of the 
 origin and development of the great American Republic. As the title of the 
 book may mislead our readers, we inform them that Canon O'Hanlon's work 
 is a comprehensive history of the great North American territory and peoples 
 long before the United States had left the regions of possibility, to the first 
 years of Theodore Roosevelt's presidency. Thus the opening chapter deals 
 with the early Irish traditions of Hy-Breasail, the great Western Land, the 
 Scandinavian traditions on the same, and the voyages of our early Irish saint 
 and hero mariners in search of the Land of Promise. The probability of St. 
 Brendan's acquaintance with America, and of an early Irish Christian settle- 
 ment there, is discussed with much learning and research, and the sketch of 
 the growth of the Brendan literature and of the influence of the Brendanite 
 traditions on European voyagers — on Christopher Columbus and Vespucius — 
 is as interesting as it is profound." — Irisli Ecclesiasiical Record. 
 
 " That every useful work bearing upon the work has been consulted, is 
 demonstrated not only in the text, but in some three or four thousand 
 notes and references." — The Nationalist, 
 
IRELAND UNDER ELIZABETH. 
 
 Chapters towards a History of Ireland in the reign of 
 Elizabeth, being a portion of the History of Catholic 
 Ireland. By DON Philip O'Sullivan Bear. 
 Translated from the Original Latin by MATTHEW 
 J. Byrne. Demy 8vo. CI. Boards. 7s- 6(1. 
 
 "Will no doubt be justified by becoming of importance to the Irish 
 Historian of the future." — Spectator. 
 
 *' A work of no small value, which is interesting not only from the wider 
 historical point of view, but for the many side lights it throws on the minor 
 details of the life of the period." — Antiquary. 
 
 " There is no more fascinating epoch in Irish History than this." — 
 Dundalk Democrat. 
 
 ** A very valuable production. Of Mr. Byrne's style of translation we 
 cannot speak too highly." — Cork Sun. 
 
 " One of the most important pieces of contemporary history relating to 
 the troubled and exciting period of the Elizabethan Wars in Ireland." — 
 Literary World. 
 
 " The book is valuable to the historian as giving impressions of the exiled 
 Irish Chief, and the sort of information given in Catholic Europe about the 
 state of Ireland." — The AtkencRum. 
 
 *' Mr. Matthew J. Byrne is to be congratulated on the distinguishing 
 excellence of his translation of this section of the historical writings of Don 
 Philip O'Sullivan Bear."— 7%^ Cork Constitution. 
 
 *'The Story of the Rebellion, as O'Sullivan sets it forth, is full of interest 
 for the historian and the philosopher. National character changes but little 
 with time." — New Ireland. 
 
 " An exhaustive index increases the usefulness of the book, as well as the 
 appendix on Irish Arms. The text also is illustrated by a reproduction of an 
 old Map by John Norders, between 1609 and 161 1, now preserved in the 
 State Paper Office, London." — Westmeath Independent. 
 
 " The book is a most interesting one. The opening pages provide an 
 index to the complete work of O'Sullivan Bear, from which we see that the 
 earliest chapters were introductory, and dealt with such subjects as the 
 situation and characteristics of Ireland, St. Patrick's Purgatory, the Irish 
 Language, the customs and religion of the Irish, and an outline of the English 
 invasion, with the beginning of the heretical tyranny, of which our author 
 always speaks so bitterly. I am very pleased with the translator's preface, and 
 with the general map in which he has set out O'Sullivan Bear's original title 
 page, and dedication to the King of Spain, together with his eloquent and 
 poetical address to the Catholic Reader. This is a book not to be perused, 
 but to be read, that one may muse on the lessons it contains, lessons applicable 
 to every moment of the present hour." — United Irishman. -, 
 
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