Beauties and Antiquities of Ireland

Each story keeps the passage it was read from. Open one to read the passage as the book has it, and, where the companion has written its own telling, that too.

1. Mass Grave of Danish Massacre Victims Unearthed at Donnybrook

   Donnybrook · parish · Dublin

   Workmen levelling ground for a house at Donnybrook near Dublin unearthed the skeletons of over six hundred people of all ages buried together only eighteen inches under the surface near the river Dodder, evidently victims of a Danish raid; a Danish leader's body with a silver-hilted sword was found nearby, and the remains were examined by scientists including Dr Wm. Fraser.

   Read the passage

   An interesting as well as gruesome illustration of what Ireland suffered from Danish raids was revealed some few years ago while workmen were levelling ground for the erection of a house at Donnybrook, near Dublin. They unearthed the skeletons of over six hundred people, of almost all ages; from those of full-grown men to those of babies, all buried in one grave, and only about eighteen inches under the surface. This vast grave was close to the banks of the little river Dodder. The Northmen had evidently gone up the river in their galleys, for at full tide it had enough of water to float them. By some chance the leader, or one of the leaders, of the Danes was killed in the foray, for his body was found a little distance from the grave of the victims. His sword was buried with him; it was of recognised Danish make, and had a splendid hilt inlaid with silver. Not a vestige of clothing or ornaments was found on the bodies of the slain, save a common bronze ring on the finger of one of them. Everything they had seems to have been taken. A village had evidently stood in the locality; it was raided by the Danes, the inhabitants all killed, and everything of value they possessed, even to their clothing, taken; for if they had been buried in their clothing, which must have been almost entirely of woollen material, which resists decay for a long time, some vestige of it would have been discovered. The remains of the victims of the massacre were carefully examined by the most eminent scientists and archaeologists of Dublin, among them Dr Wm. Fraser, who wrote an article on the discovery that may be seen in the transactions of the Royal Irish Academy. Irish history and annals are silent about this terrible massacre, and it is hardly to be wondered at that they should not have mentioned it, for such things were of such frequent occurrence in Ireland during the time of the Northmen that it was impossible to keep track of them all.

   Project Gutenberg #39500, Chapter 24

   As the companion tells it

   As you pass through the parish of Donnybrook, just outside Dublin, the ground holds a grim record of what Ireland suffered from Danish raids. Some years ago, workmen were levelling ground here for the erection of a house. They unearthed the skeletons of over 600 people, of almost all ages, from full-grown men to babies, all buried in one grave, only about 18 inches under the surface. The grave lay close to the banks of the little river Dodder. The Northmen had evidently gone up the river in their galleys, for at full tide it had enough water to float them. By some chance the leader, or one of the leaders, of the Danes was killed in the foray, for his body was found a little distance from the grave of the victims. His sword was buried with him. It was of recognised Danish make, and had a splendid hilt inlaid with silver. Not a vestige of clothing or ornaments was found on the bodies of the slain, save a common bronze ring on the finger of one of them. Everything they had seems to have been taken. A village had evidently stood in the locality. It was raided by the Danes, the inhabitants all killed, and everything of value they possessed, even to their clothing, taken. For if they had been buried in their clothing, which must have been almost entirely of woollen material, which resists decay for a long time, some vestige of it would have been discovered. The remains were carefully examined by the most eminent scientists and archaeologists of Dublin, among them Dr Wm. Fraser, who wrote an article on the discovery that may be seen in the transactions of the Royal Irish Academy. Irish history and annals are silent about this terrible massacre. Such things were of such frequent occurrence in Ireland during the time of the Northmen that it was impossible to keep track of them all.

2. Origin of the Leinster Tribute at Tara

   near Tara · hill or hills · Meath

   King Tuathal of Tara's two daughters Fihir and Darine were both deceived and married in turn to Eochy, King of Leinster, at his dun in western Wicklow; both died of shock and grief. Tuathal then invaded Leinster and imposed the enormous annual Leinster Tribute.

   Read the passage

   In the first century of the Christian era, an over-king called Tuathal, from whom the common Irish surname O'Tool, or Tool, seems to have originated, reigned in Tara. He had two daughters, famed for their beauty. We are told in the "Book of Leinster" that they were "fairer than the clouds of heaven." Their names were Fihir and Darine. A king of Leinster named Eochy married Fihir, the elder of the two sisters. He got tired of her after a short time, went to Tara, told Tuathal that Fihir was dead, and that he wanted to marry her sister Darine. Tuathal consented, and Eochy took his new wife home to his _dun_, which was in the western part of the present county of Wicklow. Darine had been only a short time in her new home when she met her sister Fihir, who she had been told was dead. Darine was so overwhelmed by shame that she died, and Fihir was so shocked at the death of her sister that she died of grief. So Tuathal's two beautiful daughters were dead, and were buried in the same grave. When Tuathal heard of their deaths he summoned his vassals, the kings of Ulster and Connacht; his army and theirs invaded Leinster, defeated and killed its king, ravaged it, and imposed the celebrated Tribute on the unfortunate province--namely, fifteen thousand cows, fifteen thousand sheep, fifteen thousand pigs, fifteen thousand silver chains, fifteen thousand bronze or copper pots, and fifteen thousand linnen (?) cloaks, together with one great cauldron into which, _Hibernice_, "twelve beeves and twelve pigs 'would go,' in the house of Tara itself." This was, indeed, a prodigious pot that could boil four-and-twenty quadrupeds of the sort, for Ireland was always famous for its large pigs and beeves. Such a cauldron having been used, shows that however poorly the inhabitants of other parts of Ireland may have fared in ancient times, the people of Tara lived well. When it is remembered that ancient Leinster was little more than half the size of the modern province, such a tribute appears enormous. Ancient Leinster, or, to speak more correctly, the Leinster of the time of Tuathal, went no further north than a line running from Dublin to Athlone. The counties of Meath, Westmeath, Longford, and Louth belonged to the province of Meath that had been carved out of parts of the four old provinces by Tuathal himself. The Tribute was to be paid every year, but it was not, for, as the Leinstermen's own great Chronicle says, "It never was paid without a fight"; and sometimes when they succeeded, as they very often did, in licking the combined armies of all the other provinces, it used not to be paid for many years. It was, however, paid on and off for over five hundred years, and to forty over-kings. It was remitted in the seventh century; but many attempts were subsequently made to re-impose it on the unfortunate Leinstermen, who paid more dearly for the treacherous act of one of their kings than any other province or nation mentioned in history. One of their poets has said in a yet untranslated poem in the "Book of Leinster":

   Project Gutenberg #39500, Chapter 3

3. The Book of Kells: History and Recovery

   Kells · town · Meath · 1006–1620

   The Book of Kells, though possibly not written there, belonged to the Church of Kells and remained there for centuries, containing archaic Irish charters relating to its clergy. It was seemingly in Kildare in the twelfth century, was stolen by Danes and stripped of its golden cover in 1006, later found buried, and stayed at Kells until Archbishop Ussher saved it in 1620.

   Read the passage

   That wondrous manuscript known as the Book of Kells, although it is not believed to have been written in that town, has been named from it, and consequently should be mentioned in connection with it. That the book found its way to Kells, and that it was there for many centuries, there cannot be any doubt. Neither can there be any doubt that it belonged to the Church of Kells, for there are curious charters in it, written in Irish of a very archaic kind, relating to the clergy of that town. It seems to have been in Kildare in the twelfth century, for it is evidently of it that Giraldus Cambrensis speaks when he says, "Of all the wonders of Kildare, I found nothing more wonderful than the marvellous book that was written in the time of St Brigit." It was in the church of Kells until 1620, when Archbishop Ussher saved it from being destroyed. It is a Latin version of the Gospels, with some Gaelic charters, relating to the Church of Kells, that were bound into it many centuries after it was written. It was taken by the Danes, it is believed, and the golden cover torn off it; it was found buried in the ground some time after. This is recorded to have happened in 1006. It is the most wonderful work of art of its kind known to exist in any country, and it is no wonder that in a credulous age it should have been believed to be the work of angels. Westwood, an Englishman, and author of the greatest work on illuminated manuscripts ever written, says of it: "It is unquestionably the most elaborately executed manuscripts of so early a date now in existence." Doctor Waagen, Conservator of the Royal Museum of Berlin, says of it: "The ornamental pages, borders, and initial letters exhibit such a rich variety of beautiful and peculiar designs, so admirable a taste in the arrangement of colours, and such an uncommon perfection of finish, that one feels absolutely struck with amazement." Where and when the Book of Kells was executed, and by whom, will probably never be known; but it must have been written as early as the sixth century. Tradition attributes it to Columba, or, as he is usually called, Columb Cille. The late Dr Todd, one of the most learned archaeologists, and one of the best Gaelic scholars that ever Ireland produced, believed that it was as early as the time of Columba. The author of _Topographia Hiberniae_ says of it: "The more frequently I behold it, the more diligently I examine it, the more I am lost in admiration of it." No one who has not seen the Book of Kells can form an idea of its beauty. In the pages that have not been soiled the colours are as pure and as bright as if they were laid on only yesterday. The naked eye cannot follow all its delicate and minute tracings; to see it aright, it should be seen through a microscope. It is beyond any doubt the most wonderful book of its kind in the world. In it and in the Tara Brooch Ireland possesses two works of ancient art, two gems of artistic beauty which are unequalled of their kind and of their age. The art treasures of metallurgy exhumed in Pompeii, and all that have been found in Greece and Asia Minor by Schliemann, contain nothing equal in exquisite finish to the Tara Brooch; and in all the treasures of illuminated manuscripts in the libraries of the world, there is nothing of its kind equal to the Book of Kells. The Tara Brooch can be seen in the Museum, Kildare Street, Dublin, and the Book of Kells in Trinity College, in the same city.

   Project Gutenberg #39500, Chapter 19

   As the companion tells it

   As you come through Kells in Meath, this is the town that gave its name to the Book of Kells, though it was probably not written here. It belonged to the Church of Kells for centuries, and it contains archaic Irish charters relating to the town's clergy. In 1006 the Danes took it, tore off its golden cover, and it was found buried in the ground some time after. It seems to have been in Kildare in the twelfth century, for Giraldus Cambrensis spoke of a marvellous book at Kildare written in the time of St Brigit. It stayed in the church of Kells until 1620, when Archbishop Ussher saved it from being destroyed. It is a Latin version of the Gospels with Gaelic charters bound into it long after it was written. Tradition attributes it to Columba, and the late Dr Todd, one of Ireland's greatest Gaelic scholars, believed it was as early as the sixth century. Westwood called it "unquestionably the most elaborately executed manuscripts of so early a date now in existence," and Doctor Waagen of the Royal Museum of Berlin said its ornaments show "such an uncommon perfection of finish, that one feels absolutely struck with amazement." The colours on unsullied pages are as bright as if laid on yesterday, and the naked eye cannot follow all its tracings. Today you would have to go to Trinity College in Dublin to see it.

4. Destruction of Emania by the three Collas, 331 AD

   near Navan · monument · Armagh · 331

   Emania was destroyed in A.D. 331 when the three Collas, chieftains from a hostile province, made war on Ulster, defeating and slaying King Fergus and burning the ancient stronghold, ending the dynasty that had long ruled Ulster.

   Read the passage

   So far as can be gathered from the most authentic sources, the palace of Emain Macha, or Emania, was erected by the over-king Cimboath, about five hundred years before the Incarnation. It continued to be the seat of the Ulster kings down to A.D. 331, when it was destroyed by the three Collas, chieftains of the race of the over-kings of Ireland from a hostile province, that made war on Ulster. The destruction of Emania is recorded by the Four Masters under the year 331, when Fergus, King of Ulster, was defeated and slain by the three Collas. Emania was burned, and the ancient dynasty that had so long ruled the province of Ulster was destroyed. Emania may be said to have been a desolation since then; for though we are told that one of the O'Neill's built a house within the ruins of the fort in 1387, no vestige of it now remains, and it is not probable that it was long in existence.

   None of the ancient palaces or great _duns_ of ancient Ireland shows such utter desolation, or bears evidence of having been so uprooted as does Emania. The great fosse by which it was once surrounded is entirely obliterated save on the west side, where it is nearly twenty feet in depth. Much as Tara has been obliterated, its monuments are more easily traced than are those of Emania. The county Meath seems to have been a grazing country almost from time immemorial. This saved Tara from being entirely uprooted; but the country round this ancient seat of the Ulster kings is essentially agricultural; it is mostly in the possession of small farmers owning from ten to twenty acres; consequently they have levelled most of the great circular embankments that formerly enclosed an area of nearly a dozen acres, and have filled up most of the deep fosse which, if we can judge by the small part of it that still remains, must have been, when Emania was in its glory, between twenty and thirty feet deep. So potatoes are growing and corn is waving over a large extent of the inside of the fortress, where vast wooden buildings once stood, and where mirth and revelry and clash of arms once resounded.

   Project Gutenberg #39500, Chapter 4

5. Muircheartach captures the Danish King of Dublin

   Dublin · city · Dublin · 942

   During his Circuit, Muircheartach carried off the King of Ulster and arrived at Dublin, then the Danes' greatest stronghold, where the Danish king surrendered without a fight. A romantic episode with a Danish maiden at the fortress is also recorded by the poet Cormacan.

   Read the passage

   "Were a night at fair Ath-cliath [Dublin]; It was not a pleasure to the foreigners: There was a damsel in the strong fortress Whose soul the son of Niall was; She came forth until she was outside the walls, Although the night was constantly bad."

   Muircheartach then proceeded south-west from Dublin to Aillinn, and carried away the King of Leinster. He then made for Cashel, where the King of Munster lived. But Callachan, that was his name, showed fight, and Muircheartach's men threw off their leather cloaks and prepared to stand by him. However, seeing that things were beginning to look serious, the King of Munster yielded and was carried away prisoner with a golden fetter on him. The leader of the Circuit then turned northwards into Connacht, and carried away the king of that province. So he had the four provincial kings in his power, and also the Danish King of Dublin. But he did them neither hurt nor harm, for he seems to have been in a good humour all the time he was "on circuit"; and we are told by his poet laureate that on their halts the soldiers amused themselves in many ways, especially by music and dancing, and he says--

   Project Gutenberg #39500, Chapter 9

   As the companion tells it

   As you come into Dublin, you are entering what was, in 942, the Danes' greatest stronghold in Ireland. Muircheartach, son of Niall, arrived here during his Circuit, and the Danish king surrendered without a fight. The poet Cormacan recorded what happened that night. A damsel in the strong fortress, whose soul was the son of Niall, came forth outside the walls, though the night was constantly bad. Cormacan's words: "It was not a pleasure to the foreigners." Muircheartach then carried on south-west from Dublin to Aillinn, where he carried away the King of Leinster. He made for Cashel, where Callachan, King of Munster, showed fight. Muircheartach's men threw off their leather cloaks and stood by him. Callachan yielded and was taken prisoner with a golden fetter on him. Then northwards into Connacht, where he carried away that king too. So Muircheartach held the four provincial kings and the Danish King of Dublin. He did them neither hurt nor harm, and his poet tells us the soldiers amused themselves with music and dancing at their halts.

6. St Ruadhan Curses Tara, Ending Its Role as Royal Seat

   near Tara · hill or hills · Meath · 565

   Dermot MacCarroll, the last chief king to live at Tara, died in 565 after a dispute with clergy over a man he wished punished; St Ruadhan cursed Tara in response, and it was forever abandoned as the seat of Irish royalty.

   Read the passage

   The last chief king who lived in Tara was Dermot MacCarroll, who died in the year 565. He was evidently only half a Christian, for it has been fully proved that Druidism lingered in Ireland for many years after the death of St Patrick. Dermot got into a dispute with the clergy because they sheltered a man who had done something that displeased him. The end of the dispute was that St. Ruadhan, one of the prominent ecclesiastics of the time, cursed Tara, and it was forever abandoned as the seat of royalty. It is almost certain that the real cause of the cursing of Tara by the clergy was that druidical or pagan rites continued to be practised in it after the bulk of the people had become Christians; for it had been for untold centuries the seat of paganism as well as of royalty. It has to be admitted, however, that great a benefit to the true faith as the abandonment of Tara as a political centre undoubtedly was, it was disastrous to the authority of the chief kings, for they appear to have lost much of their authority over the provincial rulers when they abandoned Tara and made their abodes in various places in Meath, Westmeath, and Donegal.

   The vast antiquity given to Tara cannot be reasonably considered as the mere invention of Irish bards or chroniclers. It is inconceivable that they would invent the names of forty or fifty kings, most of whom ruled there over a thousand years before the Christian era. The Irish annalists who wrote about the very remote historical events of Irish history lived and wrote long before Ireland came under English domination. They would have no object in inventing historic falsehoods. The Tuatha de Daanans and Firbolgs, who possessed the country before the Milesians, had vanished more than a thousand years before the most ancient annals we possess were written. What object could men who claimed to be Milesians have in inventing historic falsehoods about races who possessed the country before them? Besides, the general correctness of Irish annalists in recording purely historic events is now admitted by all those capable of forming an opinion. The men who wrote the oldest chronicles that we possess of events in the very far-back past of their country, evidently wrote what had been handed down to them, either in writing or by tradition. They would have had no object in becoming fabricators.

   Project Gutenberg #39500, Chapter 3

7. Cuchulainn's Standing Death at the Pillar-Stone

   Castletown · townland · Louth

   Mortally wounded near the dun, Cuchulainn asked to go to a nearby lake, then bound himself with his breast-girdle to a pillar-stone so that he might die standing rather than lying down.

   Read the passage

   The death of Cuchulainn in the "Book of Leinster" is one of the finest things in ancient literature. It has not yet been fully translated, but a partial translation of it by Mr Whitley Stokes appeared in the _Revue Celtique_ in 1876. An epitome of it here can hardly be out of place: When Cuchulainn's foes came against him for the last time, signs and portents showed that he was near his end. One of his horses would not allow himself to be yoked to the war chariot, and shed tears of blood. But Cuchulainn goes to the battle, performs prodigies of valour; but at last he receives his death wound. Though dying, his foes are afraid to approach him. He asks to be allowed to go to a lake that was close by to get a drink. He is allowed to go, but he does not want a drink, he merely wants to die like a hero, standing up; for there is a pillar-stone close by, and he throws his breast-girdle round it, so that he might die standing up, and not lying down. His friend Conall determines to avenge his death. Here the literal translation is so fine that it must be given: "Now there was a comrades' covenant between Cuchulainn and Conall--namely, that whichever of them was first killed, should be avenged by the other. 'And if I be first killed,' said Cuchulainn, 'how soon wilt thou avenge me?' 'The day on which thou shalt be slain,' says Conall; 'I will avenge thee before that evening.' 'And if I be slain,' says Conall, 'how soon wilt thou avenge me?' 'Thy blood will not be cold on earth,' says Cuchulainn, 'when I shall avenge thee.'" Lugaid, the slayer of Cuchulainn, had lost his right hand in the fight. He goes south in his chariot to a river to rest and drink. His charioteer says, "One horseman is coming to us, and great are the speed and swiftness with which he comes. Thou wouldst deem that all the ravens of Erin were above him, and that flakes of snow were specking the plain before him." "Unbeloved is the horseman that comes there," says Lugaid. "It is Conall mounted on [his steed] the Dewy-Red. The birds thou sawest above him are sods from that horse's hoofs. The snowflakes thou sawest specking the plain before him are foam from that horse's lips and nostrils." Conall and Lugaid fight, of course; but as Lugaid has but one hand, Conall has one of his hands bound to his side with ropes, so that he should have no advantage over his foe. They fight for hours, until at last Lugaid falls by Conall, and Cuchulainn is avenged. The tale winds up thus: "And Conall and the Ulstermen returned to Emain Macha (Emania). That week they entered it not in triumph. But the soul of Cuchulainn appeared there to the fifty queens who had loved him; and they saw him floating in his spirit-chariot over Emain Macha, and they heard him chaunt a mystic song of the coming of Christ and the Day of Doom."

   Project Gutenberg #39500, Chapter 20

8. Muircheartach's Circuit of Ireland begins at Aileach

   near Grianan of Aileach · monument · Donegal · 942

   Muircheartach Mac Neill, heir apparent to the chief kingship of Ireland, started his famous winter Circuit of Ireland from Aileach in 942, choosing his thousand men through a test involving a fierce dog and armed man in a tent.

   Read the passage

   But it is in more recent times that the history and records of Aileach become supremely interesting. It was from there that Muircheartach Mac Neill, styled the Hector of the west of Europe by old annalists, started on his celebrated "Circuit of Ireland" in the year 942. He was heir apparent to the chief kingship of Ireland, and wanted to show the provincial rulers that he was fit to rule _them_. So he determined to start on his circuit in the depth of winter, when it appears the ancient Irish seldom went on forays, and either make or persuade the provincial rulers to acknowledge his right to the throne when the then reigning chief king, Donacha, died. The way he is said to have chosen men for the expedition is very curious and very Irish. He caused a tent to be erected, keeping the cause of its erection unknown, and made his men to go into it at night. A fierce dog attacked every one that entered; and opposite to where the dog was, an armed man also attacked those that entered; both man and dog simultaneously attacking the intruder. If he who entered the tent flinched neither from dog nor man, but showed fight to both, he was chosen; but whoever showed the least sign of cowardice was rejected. Out of his whole army we are told that Muircheartach could only get a thousand men, and with that small army, protected by strong leather cloaks, he started on his Circuit of Ireland to force, intimidate, or coax the provincial kings to acknowledge that he was their master, and that he was to be their next suzerain.

   Our principal source of information about the Circuit comes from a poem of undoubted authority and antiquity, written by one called Cormacan Eigeas, who accompanied Muircheartach on the expedition. It is one of the most remarkable poems of its age, not only in Gaelic, but in any language. It was translated more than forty years ago, and may be seen in the "Transactions" of the Royal Irish Academy; but it is not probable that even forty persons have ever read it, so little general interest has heretofore been taken in Gaelic literature or Irish history. For these reasons it cannot be uninteresting to give some extracts from it. It commences:

   Project Gutenberg #39500, Chapter 9

9. Site of Brian Boru's Palace of Kincora

   near Killaloe · townland · Clare · 1088–1118

   On the hill opposite Killaloe bridge stood Brian Boramha's palace of Kincora, of which no trace remains today. The palace was demolished in 1088 by Donnell MacLachlin, burned by lightning in 1107 along with Cashel, and finally destroyed by Turloch O'Connor in 1118 who hurled its stones and timber into the Shannon.

   Read the passage

   But the most historic and probably the most interesting thing about Killaloe is the site of King Brian's palace of Kincora, a place so famed in history and song. Perhaps it will be better to let such a famous man on Irish history and archaeology as O'Donovan tell about Kincora. He says in his unpublished letters while on the Ordnance Survey: "On the summit of the hill opposite the bridge of Killaloe stood Brian Boramha's palace of Kincora, but not a trace of it is now visible. It must have extended from the verge of the hill over the Shannon, to where the present Roman Catholic chapel stands. I fear that it will be impracticable to show its site on the Ordnance map, as no field works are visible. Of the history of the palace of Kincora little or nothing is known, but from the few references to it we occasionally find, we may safely infer that it was first erected by Brian, _Imperator Scottorum_, and that it was not more than two centuries inhabited by his successors. Kincora was demolished in 1088 by Donnell MacLachlin, king of Aileach (Ulster), and we are told that he took 160 hostages consisting of Danes and Irish." Kincora must have been rebuilt after it was demolished by MacLachlin, for we are told in the Annals of the Four Masters that in 1107 Kincora and Cashel were burned by lightning, and sixty vats of metheglin and beer were destroyed; but it must have been again rebuilt, for the same annals say that in 1118 Turloch O'Connor (King of Connacht), at the head of a great army of Connachtmen, burned Kincora and hurled it, both stones and timber, into the Shannon. Kincora was, like all dwelling-places in those times, built almost entirely of wood; and it is hardly to be wondered at that after having been burned so often by man and by the elements, no vestige of it should remain. It has been completely wiped out.

   A description of Kincora would hardly be complete without giving MacLiag's Lament for it, translated by Clarence Mongan. MacLiag was chief poet and secretary to Brian Boramha. The poem is little known even in Ireland; to the English reader it will be absolutely new. The writer gives two prime reasons for reproducing it; one, because it is such a very fine poem; and the other, because it has heretofore never been correctly given.

   Project Gutenberg #39500, Chapter 14

10. Tara Brooch Found Near Drogheda, Not at Tara

    Drogheda · town · Louth

    The famous Tara Brooch, now in the Dublin Museum and considered the finest example of ancient metallurgy, was actually found on the seashore about three miles from Drogheda, not at Tara itself, and was sold by an old woman for ninepence before the Royal Irish Academy paid L500 for it.

    Read the passage

    Many valuable gold ornaments of antique and beautiful design and workmanship have been found in Tara and its immediate vicinity, but very few of them have found their way to the Kildare Street Museum in Dublin, one of the greatest, if not the very greatest, collection of ancient weapons, implements, and ornaments to be seen in Europe. Most of the gold ornaments found in Tara have been melted down. If one is to believe what the peasantry living in its vicinity say, the quantity of gold ornaments found there was very great. The famous Tara Brooch, preserved in the Dublin Museum, and considered the most beautiful piece of metallurgy, either ancient or modern, that is known to exist, was not found in Tara, but on the seashore about three miles from Drogheda, and nine or ten from this famous hill. It was found by an old woman, who is said to have sold it to a shopkeeper in Drogheda for ninepence. The Royal Irish Academy paid L500 for it. Many think that a regular, scientific exploration of Tara Hill ought to be made, such an exploration as Schlieman made of the site of Troy. If this were done under government surveillance, or by some responsible and skilled antiquarian, there is hardly a doubt but that many and precious ornaments in gold, and implements and weapons in bronze, would be found, especially the latter, for there seems every reason to believe that Tara was the seat of government long before iron was known, and long before the bronze age came to an end. It would, however, be a tremendous task to uproot several hundred acres merely on speculation. But the quantity of antique gold ornaments that has been found in Ireland was immense, more, it is thought by some, than has been found in all the rest of Europe. They are being found almost every year. Nearly L300 worth of golden fibulae was found in the County Waterford in 1894. They are now to be seen in the Dublin Museum.

    [Illustration: TARA BROOCH.]

    Project Gutenberg #39500, Chapter 3

    As the companion tells it

    As you come through Drogheda, you are passing near the place where the most celebrated piece of metalwork ever found in Ireland was discovered. The Tara Brooch, preserved in the Dublin Museum and considered the most beautiful piece of metallurgy, ancient or modern, known to exist, was not found at Tara at all. It was found on the seashore about three miles from Drogheda, and nine or ten miles from the famous hill itself. An old woman found it and sold it to a shopkeeper in Drogheda for ninepence. The Royal Irish Academy later paid five hundred pounds for it. The name is misleading. Many gold ornaments have been found at Tara and its immediate vicinity, but very few reached the Kildare Street Museum in Dublin. Most were melted down. The peasantry living near Tara say the quantity of gold ornaments found there was very great. There are those who think a scientific exploration of Tara Hill ought to be made, the kind Schliemann made of the site of Troy, under government surveillance or by some responsible and skilled antiquarian. They believe many precious gold ornaments and bronze implements and weapons would be found, especially the latter, for Tara seems to have been the seat of government long before iron was known, and long before the bronze age came to an end. The quantity of antique gold ornaments found in Ireland was immense, more, it is thought by some, than in all the rest of Europe. They are being found almost every year. Nearly three hundred pounds worth of golden fibulae was found in County Waterford in 1894. They too are now in the Dublin Museum.

11. The Battle of Clontarf, 1014

    Clontarf · parish · Dublin · 1014

    The famous battle of Clontarf, in which the Northmen suffered a terrible defeat fully acknowledged in the Icelandic Sagas, originated in a family quarrel between King Brian and Gormfhlaith. Brian had earlier allowed the Danes to hold Dublin as traders and had married a daughter to Sitric, the Danish governor of Dublin.

    Read the passage

    It is curious, and for the Irish a source of very legitimate pride, that of all the countries attacked by the Northmen, they got the hardest blows and the most terrible, as well as the most frequent, defeats in Ireland. They seem to have made more frequent attacks on it than on any other country, and to have poured more men into it than into any other country. This appears not only from Irish annals and history, but from Icelandic literature, which was the common property of all the Scandinavian nations, and the only literature in which the doings of the Vikings are recorded by writers who were nearly contemporary with them. There appears to be more written about Ireland and its people in the Icelandic Sagas than about any other country or people the Vikings harried. The terrible defeat the Northmen suffered at Clontarf in 1014 is fully acknowledged in the Icelandic Sagas. It must, however, in truth be admitted that that battle, while it turned out to be a national one, originated in a family quarrel, and was brought about, as many battles had been brought about before, by a bad and beautiful woman. If Gormfhlaith and King Brian had not quarrelled, if Broder had not been desperately enamoured of her, and if she had not been of the royal blood of the terribly maltreated and so often ravaged province of Leinster, the battle of Clontarf never would have been fought. Brian was an elderly man when he became over-king, and was quite willing to allow the Danes to hold Dublin and other sea-ports as trading points, for after a time they became traders and carriers. He was willing to let them alone provided that they let him alone. This is proved by his having given one of his daughters in marriage to Sitric, the Danish King or Governor of Dublin. The Danes, knowing they had the entire strength of the province of Leinster at their back by Brian's quarrel with Gormfhlaith, who was sister to the King of Leinster, seem, probably for the first time, to have seriously contemplated the complete conquest of Ireland.

    Project Gutenberg #39500, Chapter 24

12. Emania: the ruined palace of the Ulster kings

    near Navan · monument · Armagh

    Two miles west of Armagh lies the Navan Ring, all that remains of Emain Macha, the ancient palace of the pagan Kings of Ulster, built by over-king Cimboath around 500 BC and central to the Cuchullainn cycle of Celtic literature.

    Read the passage

    Two miles west of the city of Armagh lies an earthen fort known as the "Navan Ring." This is all that remains of the renowned palace of the Pagan Kings of Ulster, the real name of which was Emain Macha, which has been Latinised Emania, and corrupted into Navan.

    After Tara, Emania is the most historic spot of Irish soil. No other place in all Ireland, Tara only excepted, is so often mentioned in the historic and romantic tales that have been preserved in such abundance in ancient Gaelic. Emania is the great centre of that wondrous cycle of legend, history, and song known as the Cuchullainn cycle of Celtic literature. Every tale and legend in it refer more or less to Emania. It is curious that while hardly any of the treasures of ancient Irish manuscript literature we possess were compiled in Ulster, there is hardly a page of them, no matter in what province they were originally composed, that does not mention this now almost obliterated stronghold of the Ulster kings. The "Book of Leinster" was compiled in Kildare or in Glendoloch, and for nearly a thousand years, or from the imposition of the Leinster Tribute early in the second century down to the time of Brian Boramha, Leinster and Ulster were inveterate enemies, yet the "Book of Leinster" teems with mention of Emania. Even in the great manuscript books compiled in Connacht and Munster, the name of Emania occurs next in frequency to that of Tara.

    Project Gutenberg #39500, Chapter 4

13. Danish plundering of Glendaloch in 833, 886 and 982

    Glendalough · electoral division · Wicklow · 833–982

    Despite the Northmen being allies of Leinster for a long time, they plundered Glendaloch in the years 833, 886, and 982, owing to its proximity to Dublin and the sea. Its wealth as an ecclesiastical establishment made it a prime target for Viking raids.

    Read the passage

    Although the Northmen were allies of Leinster for a long time, they plundered Glendaloch in the years 833, 886, and 982. It was so near Dublin and so near the sea that their alliance with Leinster did not prevent them from raiding it. It was one of the rich ecclesiastical establishments in Ireland, and one of those most exposed to the incursions of the Northmen. Its round tower was, therefore, in all probability, one of the first that was erected. It is now generally believed by those most competent to form an opinion that the round towers of Ireland were erected as places of security against the Northmen, and that they were sometimes used as belfries. Their Irish name, _cloigtheach_, means a bell house and nothing else; but it is quite clear that, although they sometimes served as belfries, the primary object of their erection was to secure a place of safety for the treasures of the church or monastery, close to which they were invariably erected. Of the hundred and eight round towers which are known to have been erected in Ireland, and of which remains exist, every one of them is known to have been erected close to where a church or monastery stood. More than half of them are in ruins; of some only a few feet of the walls remain; and of some others the foundations only remain. It may seem hard for some, in these days of far-reaching projectiles to imagine how those slender towers, so chaste and beautiful in their construction, could serve as places of defence or security against the Danes. They could not have served as such if the Danes had come as conquerors to form permanent settlements, but as they were only raiders the towers were generally perfect defences against them. A dozen men shut into a round tower, the door of which was generally from ten to fourteen feet from the ground, could laugh at an army of Danes who had neither battering rams nor artillery of any kind. There was only one way by which a round tower could be taken or destroyed by men like the plundering hosts of the Vikings, who did not, and could not, take ponderous implements like battering rams with them on their raids, and that was by undermining it--digging its foundations so that it would fall. But this would have been a very tedious business, for the foundations of many of the round towers are six and even ten feet below the surface. A few dozen resolute men in a round tower might defy an army of Danes, provided the besieged had enough of food and drink in their stronghold. It must, however, be admitted that the Northmen did sometimes succeed in taking and plundering round towers, but by what means we do not know.

    Project Gutenberg #39500, Chapter 9

14. Goldsmith's ruined boyhood home at Auburn

    Lissoy · townland · Westmeath · 1700

    The house where Oliver Goldsmith spent his early youth, near Loch Ree and Glassan, survives as a well-preserved two-storey ruin believed to date from around 1700; the townland retains the name Auburn, given by Goldsmith himself, though the place's Irish name was Lissoy.

    Read the passage

    The shores of Loch Ree, particularly the Leinster shore, are more adorned with gentlemen's seats than the shores of perhaps any other lake in Ireland. From Athlone to nearly the head of the lake there is a succession of gentlemen's seats. Many of them are kept with great care and taste, and are in themselves well worth a visit. The house in which Goldsmith spent his early youth is about two miles from Loch Ree, and about two-and-a-half from the village of Glassan. The house is a ruin, but a well-preserved one. When it was built seems unknown, but from what can be gathered from the old men living in its vicinity, it seems to have been built about the year 1700. The walls are still intact. It was two storeys high, and must have contained seven or eight apartments. The name Auburn is still applied to the townland on which the house stands; but the name seems to have originated with Goldsmith himself, for the place does not appear to have been so called before his time. Lissoy is its Irish name, but Auburn does not seem to be an Irish name at all. The "Jolly Pigeons" public-house still exists. It is about a mile from Auburn. There never was a village called Auburn in the locality. The nearest place to Goldsmith's house that could be called a village is Glassan.

    Project Gutenberg #39500, Chapter 4

15. Hugo de Lacy builds Trim Castle before his death in 1186

    Trim Castle · monument · Meath · 1180–1186

    Trim Castle was built by Hugo de Lacy before 1186, the year he was killed while building Durrow Castle by an Irishman who struck off his head with an axe. The author disputes Lewis' claim that Trim Castle was built in 1220.

    Read the passage

    Trim Castle was built towards the close of the twelfth century by Hugo de Lacy, the greatest castle builder ever the Anglo-French produced. He built the great castle at Clonmacnois, which has been already described. He built another fine one in Carlow, and was building the castle of Durrow, in the King's County, when a young Irishman, who had evidently come prepared to kill him, struck off his head with a blow of an axe as he was stooping down to examine the work. If Hugo de Lacy had not been killed, he would certainly have built many more castles, not only in the English Pale, but throughout Ireland. But Trim Castle was the finest structure of its kind that he ever raised. Lewis' Irish Topography says that the Castle of Trim was built in 1220. This is just such a mistake as one would expect to find in books like it, Hall's, and others of their kind, which were written by persons almost wholly unacquainted with the history of the country about which they wrote, and entirely unacquainted with its language and native literature. Trim Castle must have been built before 1186, for Hugo de Lacy was killed in that year. The same extraordinary publication says that Trim was burned by Connor O'Melaghlin in 1108, and that over two hundred people were burned in the monastery. It would be interesting to know where Lewis got his information about this matter. He did not get it from any authentic source, for the annals of the Four Masters, the annals of Clonmacnois, the annals of Inisfallan, the annals of Ulster, and the _Chronicon Scottorum_ are all silent about it.

    Project Gutenberg #39500, Chapter 12

    As the companion tells it

    Right here beside you is Trim Castle, the finest structure Hugo de Lacy ever raised. He was the greatest castle builder the Anglo-French produced, and he built this towards the close of the twelfth century. He also built the great castle at Clonmacnois and another fine one in Carlow. But he never finished his work across Ireland, because while he was building the castle of Durrow, a young Irishman who had come prepared to kill him struck off his head with a blow of an axe as he was stooping down to examine the work. That was in 1186, so Trim Castle must have been built before then. Lewis' Irish Topography says the Castle of Trim was built in 1220, which the author calls just such a mistake as one would expect from books written by persons almost wholly unacquainted with the country's history and entirely unacquainted with its language and native literature. The same publication says Trim was burned by Connor O'Melaghlin in 1108, and that over 200 people were burned in the monastery. The annals of the Four Masters, the annals of Clonmacnois, the annals of Inisfallan, the annals of Ulster, and the Chronicon Scottorum are all silent about it.

16. Legend of young Wellington trapped atop Trim's church tower

    Trim · town · Meath

    A local story tells that the young Duke of Wellington climbed the tower of the old church at Trim so high he could not descend, and was thought doomed, calmly bequeathing his toys before being rescued after many hours.

    Read the passage

    A curious story is told in Trim about the early boyhood of Wellington. It is said that he clomb the still standing tower or gable of the old church so high that he found it impossible to get down, and was in a position of great danger. All the ropes and ladders in the town were brought out, but it was found impossible to get him down. A rough tower like that at Trim might be clomb easily enough, but it might not be so easy to get down. The afterwards victor of Waterloo was told that he could not be saved, and that, if he had any will to make, to make it without delay. He is said to have taken the announcement very coolly, and to have willed his tops, balls, and other playthings to the boys that were his favourites, and not to have shed a tear or shown any fear whatever. After having been many hours in his dangerous and far from comfortable situation, he was at length, and with great difficulty, rescued.

    The country round Trim is most interesting and full of ruined fanes. The church of Trim was believed to contain an image or picture of the Virgin, at which we are told many and extraordinary miracles were performed. Trim was a sort of Irish Lourdes in the middle ages, to which the sick and suffering used to go in multitudes. There was also the Abbey of Newtown, the ruins of which still stand on the banks of the Boyne close by Trim. It was founded in the year 1206 by Simon Rochefort, Bishop of Meath, the first Englishman that is known to have had so high an ecclesiastical position in Ireland after the invasion. The ruins of Bective Abbey are only a few miles up the river from Trim, in a beautiful situation on the banks of the "clear, bright Boyne," as the old Gaelic poets loved to call it. Bective was founded for the Cistercian order by O'Melachlinn, King of Meath, about the middle of the twelfth century. It is a beautiful ruin, and in a beautiful locality.

    Project Gutenberg #39500, Chapter 12

    As the companion tells it

    As you pass through Trim, there is a story told here about the boyhood of the Duke of Wellington. He climbed the still-standing tower of the old church, so high that he could not get down, and was in great danger. All the ropes and ladders in the town were brought out, but none of it was enough to reach him. A rough tower like that one might be climbed easily enough, but coming back down is another matter. The boy who would one day be victor of Waterloo was told he could not be saved, and that if he had any will to make, he should make it without delay. He took the announcement very coolly. He willed his tops, his balls, and his other playthings to the boys who were his favourites. He did not shed a tear or show any fear. After many hours in that dangerous and far from comfortable situation, he was at length rescued, and with great difficulty. The country round Trim is full of ruined churches. The church of Trim was believed to contain an image or picture of the Virgin, at which extraordinary miracles were said to have been performed. In the Middle Ages Trim was a sort of Irish Lourdes, where the sick and suffering came in multitudes. The Abbey of Newtown stands in ruins on the banks of the Boyne close by Trim, founded in 1206 by Simon Rochefort, Bishop of Meath, the first Englishman known to have held so high an ecclesiastical position in Ireland after the invasion. Bective Abbey's ruins stand a few miles up the river, founded for the Cistercian order by O'Melachlinn, King of Meath, about the middle of the twelfth century.

17. Tara as the ancient seat of Ireland's over-kings

    Tara · parish · Meath

    Tara's records reach far back into antiquity, with kings named in Irish history ruling there before Rome or Athens were founded. Only grassy mounds and earthworks remain of what was once called 'the fair, radiant, City of the Western World.'

    Read the passage

    There is no other spot of European soil the records of which go so far back into the dim twilight of the past as do the records of Tara. Before the first Roman raised a rude hut on the banks of the Tiber, when the place where the Athenian Acropolis now stands was a bare rock, kings, whose names are given in Irish history, ruled in Tara. When one gazes on those grassy mounds, that are almost all that remain of what our ancient poets used to call "the fair, radiant, City of the Western World," he can hardly believe that such a place could ever have been the abode of royalty, the meeting-place of assemblies, and the permanent home of thousands. Other desolated strongholds of ancient royalty and dominion bear ample evidence of their former greatness. Ruined columns of Persepolis yet remain. The site of Tadmor is marked by still standing pillars of marble, and vast piles of decomposed bricks tell of the greatness of ancient Babylon; but green, grassy mounds and partially obliterated earth-works are almost all that remain of Tara. It is so ruined that it can hardly be ruined any more. Time may yet destroy even what remains of the bricks of Babylon, but time can hardly change what remains of the ruins of Tara.

    Project Gutenberg #39500, Chapter 3

18. The Night of the Big Wind at the Cliffs of Moher

    near Cliffs of Moher · cliff or cliffs · Clare · 1839

    Old men who lived near the coast recalled the great storm of January 6, 1839, known as the 'Night of the Big Wind,' when waves broke over the nearly seven-hundred-foot cliffs of Moher. The noise of the waves striking the cliffs could be heard miles inland, and the earth trembled with each assault.

    Read the passage

    Bantry Bay is the first great sea loch of the south-western coast. It is one of the finest natural harbours in Europe, but, unfortunately, ships are seldom seen in it except when they take shelter from the "wild west wind," which blows on these storm-beaten shores with a fury hardly known anywhere else in the world. The whole of the coast of Kerry, up to the mouth of the Shannon, is a succession of the wildest and grandest scenery, with here and there land of only slight elevation, with level meads and pastures of perennial green. Still further north, we come to the mouth of the Shannon, which forms another very fine harbour. About twenty miles north of the Shannon the famous cliffs of Moher appear. There are higher isolated cliffs than those on the west coast, but there is no long range of cliffs so high. They average between six and seven hundred feet in perpendicular height above the sea. To be seen in all their grandeur they should be seen from the sea, but to be seen in all their terribleness, they should be seen in a storm. Such is the force of the west wind on these coasts, sweeping over three thousand miles of unbroken, islandless sea, that the waves sometimes break over the cliffs of Moher in spite of their nearly seven hundred feet of perpendicular height. In no other part of the world is the force of the sea, when driven before a gale from the west, more terrific than on the west coast of Ireland. Old men who lived close to this iron-bound coast on the night of the great storm of January 6, 1839, known over the most of Ireland as the "Night of the Big Wind," say that none but those who were near these coasts on that awful night could have even a faint idea of what the Atlantic is when a storm from the south-west drives it against the rocky barriers that seem to have been placed where they are to prevent it from overwhelming the whole island. They say that when some gigantic wave of millions of tons of water was hurled against these cliffs, the noise made was so loud that it could be heard miles inland above the roar and din of the storm; and that the very earth would tremble at every assault of the waves on those tremendous barriers to their fury.

    Project Gutenberg #39500, Chapter 21

    As the companion tells it

    Somewhere about Cliffs of Moher, the cliffs run in a long range, averaging between 600 and 700 feet straight up above the sea. There are higher isolated cliffs elsewhere on the coast of Ireland, but no long stretch of cliffs so high as this. To see them in all their grandeur you should see them from the sea. But to see them in all their terribleness, you should see them in a storm. The force of the west wind on these coasts sweeps over 3000 miles of unbroken, islandless sea, and the waves sometimes break over the cliffs of Moher in spite of their nearly 700 feet of height. Old men who lived close to this iron-bound coast remembered the night of the great storm of January 6, 1839, known over most of Ireland as the Night of the Big Wind. They said that none but those who were near these coasts on that awful night could have even a faint idea of what the Atlantic is when a storm from the south-west drives it against the rocky barriers that seem to have been placed where they are to prevent it from overwhelming the whole island. When some gigantic wave of millions of tons of water was hurled against these cliffs, the noise was so loud it could be heard miles inland above the roar and din of the storm. And the very earth would tremble at every assault of the waves on those tremendous barriers to their fury.

19. Cuchulainn's Dun Desecrated by 1780 House

    Castletown · townland · Louth · 1780

    A vulgar modern house was built atop Cuchulainn's ancient dun at Castletown near Dundalk in 1780 by Patrick Byrne for his nephew, partially levelling the monument. The builder engraved his name and the date on the wall, seemingly glorying in the vandalism.

    Read the passage

    No one, whether an Irishman or a stranger, can look on the vast mound and vast earthen ramparts that mark the home of him whom the most trustworthy of Irish annalists, Tighearnach, calls _fortissimus heros Scottorum_, without feelings of indignation and shame--indignation at the way one of the greatest and most interesting monuments of Irish antiquity has been profaned, and shame that so little reverence for their country's past should be found among the Irish people. If the Copts and Arabs of Egypt sell and uproot the antiquities of that country, they can, at least, say that they are not the descendants of the men who lived under the sway of the Pharaos; but those who have, in recent times, done most to obliterate and profane the most historic monuments of Ireland are the lineal descendants of the men who raised them. Nothing that ancient Irish monuments have suffered, and they have suffered a great deal, can exceed the wrong committed by him who built a horrible, modern, vulgar, gewgaw house on top of the _dun_ of Cuchulainn! To show how utterly obtuse, and how unsympathetic with his country's past the person was who built the vulgar structure on one of the most curious and interesting historic monuments in Ireland, he has actually engraved his name and the date of the erection of the house on its front wall! seeming to glory in the vandalism he committed. The legend on the wall says that the house was built in 1780 by a person named Patrick Byrne for his nephew.

    [Illustration: CUCHULAINN'S DESECRATED DUN.]

    Project Gutenberg #39500, Chapter 20

20. Muircheartach slain at Ardee by the Danes

    Ardee · townland · Louth · 941

    The Four Masters record that Muircheartach of the Leather Cloaks, Lord of Aileach and 'the Hector of the west of Europe,' was slain at Ardee in Louth by Blacaire, son of Godfrey, Lord of the Foreigners, in 941.

    Read the passage

    That Muircheartach Mac Neill, though a sort of Rory O'More of the tenth century, was a great man can hardly be doubted. He seems to have contemplated the entire overthrow of the pentarchy and the union of all the provinces under one sole king, namely, himself. He could hardly have been ignorant of what had occurred in England in the century previous--how Alfred had broken up the Saxon heptarchy and made himself practically sole king in England. If Muircheartach had succeeded in destroying the wretched system of provincial nationality, and had made the country a political unit, the subsequent history of Ireland would probably be very different from what it has been. But Muircheartach was killed by his old enemies the Danes, the year after he made his famous circuit. They also killed his father, Niall Glundubh, at the battle of Killmoshogue, near Dublin, in the year 917. Here is what the Four Masters say about him under the year 941[11]: "Muircheartach of the Leather Cloaks, Lord of Aileach, the Hector of the west of Europe in his time, was slain at Ardee (in Louth) by Blacaire, the son of Godfrey, Lord of the Foreigners, on the 26th of March. In lamentation of him it was said--

    "'Vengeance and destruction Have descended on the race of Conn for ever; As Muircheartach does not live, alas! The country of the Gael will always be an orphan.'"

    Project Gutenberg #39500, Chapter 9

21. Burial of King Laoghaire at Tara, Facing His Leinster Enemies

    near Tara · hill or hills · Meath

    Laoghaire, the chief king contemporary with St Patrick, was buried standing upright in the south-eastern rampart of the Rath Laoghaire at Tara, his body facing south toward Leinster as if still fighting his old enemies.

    Read the passage

    The many things that are told about Tara in old Gaelic books would fill a large volume. They are all interesting. They may be incredible, grotesque, or funny, but they are never common-place: it is this uniqueness that is the great charm of ancient Irish literature. What could be more unique than this account of the burial of Laoghaire, the chief king who was cotemporary with St Patrick, but of whom the Saint never succeeded in making even a half decent Christian. It is taken from the book of the Dun Cow. When Laoghaire was killed by "the elements," by lightning probably, "his body was taken from the south and was buried with his warrior weapons in the outward(?) south-eastern rampart of the Kingly Rath Laoghaire in Tara, and its face to the south against the Leinstermen [as if] fighting with them, for he had been an enemy of the Leinstermen when alive." The idea of facing his enemies with his dead body, for Laoghaire must have given orders as to how and where he should be buried, could only have entered into the brains of ancient Irish kings, for they were grotesque or original in almost everything.

    It is strange how long political memories last. The enmity between Leinster and Meath has not even yet quite died out. Meath, as the seat of the over-kings, represented Ireland, and was also the place from which the hateful Leinster Tribute originated. This is not yet forgotten, for whenever wrestling matches, or athletic sports of any kind, are held near Dublin by the people of adjoining counties, the counties of Dublin, Kildare, and Wicklow are always pitted against Meath. Dubhthach Mac U Lugair, one of the first converts St Patrick made in Ireland, tells us, in a poem of his in praise of his native province of Leinster, that its war cry was "The magnification of Leinster, the destruction of Meath." Dubhthach may have been a good Christian, but there are good grounds for thinking that he was a better Leinsterman; for he says in the same poem that--

    Project Gutenberg #39500, Chapter 3

22. Cuchulainn's Abduction of Eimir near Lusk

    Lusk · town · Dublin

    Eimir's father, a wealthy chief, lived near Lusk in County Dublin and kept his daughter guarded in his dun for a year to prevent her marrying Cuchulainn. Cuchulainn scaled the fort's three fences, killed three of her brothers, and carried her off to Dundalk.

    Read the passage

    Cuchulainn, above all men who figure in ancient Irish literature, seems to have been "_gradh ban Eireann_," the darling of the women of Ireland. While yet in his teens, the nobles of Ulster came together to determine who should be a fitting wife for him. After a long search they found a lady named Eimir, accomplished in all the feminine education of the time; but her father, a wealthy chief or noble who lived near Lusk, in the present County of Dublin, did not like to give his daughter to a professional champion. Cuchulainn had seen her, and had succeeded in gaining her love. She was guarded for a year in her father's _dun_; and during all that time, Cuchulainn vainly strove to see her. At last he lost patience and became desperate, scaled the three fences that encircled her father's fort, had a terrible fight for her; killed three of her brothers; half killed half-a-dozen others who opposed him, and carried her and her maid northward in his chariot to his home in Dundalk.

    Like all violent love, Cuchulainn's love for Eimir seems soon to have cooled, for we find that a lady called Fann, the wife of Manannan MacLir, King of the Isle of Man, or some place east of Ireland, fell in love with him. She came to see her father, a man of rank and wealth, who lived somewhere on the east coast of Ireland. She eloped with Cuchulainn, and Eimir, finding that she and her erring husband were staying at Newry, in the present County of Down, followed him, attended by fifty maids armed with knives, in order to kill Fann. This lady, in spite of her errors, must have been an intellectual woman, for her speech when leaving Cuchulainn and going home with MacLir is very fine, and would be a credit to the literature of any language. The tract in which it occurs is in the Book of the Dun Cow, an Irish manuscript compiled in the eleventh century, and is entitled "The Sick Bed of Cuchulainn and only Jealousy of Eimir." It was admirably translated nearly forty years ago by Eugene O'Curry, and was published in the long since dead periodical, the _Atlantis_. None but a few Celtic savants have ever read it. To the general public it will be absolutely new. Fann, finding that she must leave Cuchulainn, says:--

    Project Gutenberg #39500, Chapter 20

23. Dun Aengus, Dun Onacht, Dun Eochla on Arran Mor

    Inishmore · electoral division · Galway

    The principal prehistoric fortresses of Dun Aengus, Dun Onacht and Dun Eochla stand on the Great Island (Arran Mor), among the most gigantic cyclopean remains in Europe.

    Read the passage

    There is not much either of scenic or antiquarian interest in the immediate vicinity of Galway; but if those who wish to see the most ancient and gigantic cyclopean remains in Europe, or perhaps in the world, go to the Isles of Arran, to which a small steamer sails from Galway, they will be well repaid for a two hours' trip. The Arran Islands contain more antique monuments of the pre-historic past and of a more interesting kind than any other places of equal extent in these Islands. These monuments consist of vast drystone fortresses that were raised by some pre-historic race. There is what may be called historic tradition that they were built by a remnant of the Firbolgs in the century preceding the Christian era; but those most learned in things pertaining to Irish antiquities, do not think there is any reliable historic evidence as to where or by whom they were erected. The principal fortresses are, Dun Aengus, Dun Connor, Dun Onacht and Dun Eochla. They are all in the Great Island, or Arran Mor, except Dun Connor, which is in the Middle Island, or Inis Maan. Dun Connor is the largest. It is considerably over two hundred feet long, and over a hundred feet wide. Its treble walls are still twenty feet high in some places, and from sixteen to eighteen feet in thickness. These vast fortresses look as if they were the work of giants. Like almost every relic of the past, they seem to have been more marred by men than by time. They have evidently been injured by people looking for treasure; and a good deal of their stones have been removed to build cabins and outhouses. Miss Margaret Stokes, who has devoted almost all her life to the study of Irish antiquities, and who consequently knows more about them, perhaps, than any one in Ireland, says of these vast fortresses in Arran: "They are the remains of the earliest examples of architecture known to exist in Western Europe." There is something awfully grand and grim in the aspect of these ruined fortresses. To gaze on their colossal dimensions and barbaric rudeness seems to carry us back almost to the beginning of time, when the earth was inhabited by beings unlike ourselves. But however old the forts in Arran may be, it is evident that they were the strongholds of a seafaring people; for the whole products of the barren islands on which they stand would not be worth the labour of erecting such gigantic fortresses for their protection. These islands support a good many people now, thanks to the potato; but in ancient times, when it was unknown, it is hard to understand how the multitude of men it must have taken to build so many vast fortresses could have found sustenance on these barren isles; and we are, therefore, almost driven to the conclusion that the fortresses in the Isles of Arran were built by pirates or seafaring men of some kind.

    Project Gutenberg #39500, Chapter 25

24. Lightning burns the McDermott residence on Lough Key, 1184

    near Lough Key · lake or lakes · Roscommon · 1184–1187

    The annals of Loch Key record that in 1184 the fortress of the McDermotts on Lough Key was struck by lightning and burned, killing six or seven score distinguished persons including fifteen of the race of kings and chieftains, with only Connor McDermott and a few escaping.

    Read the passage

    No one should visit Boyle and its grand ruins and not see the two very beautiful lakes that are near it, Loch Key and Loch Arrow. Loch Key is not over a mile from the town, and Loch Arrow not more than three. The very fine domain of Rockingham may be said to be almost surrounded by Loch Key. It was on an island in this lake that the McDermotts, chieftains of Moylurg, had a stronghold. The island has a castle on it at present, but, seen from the shore, both island and castle appear very small. The fortress the McDermotts had on the island must have been a sort of _cranniog_, or wooden castle, like so many that have been discovered both in Ireland and Scotland in the tracks of dried-up lakes. Those _cranniogs_ were sometimes built entirely on piles, and sometimes on islands, with extensions on piles if the water was not too deep. This last must have been the kind of fortress the McDermotts had on Loch Key, for it must have been much larger than the present island, and must have been large enough to give space to a multitude of people to assemble on it. We read in the annals of Loch Key of the following awful catastrophe that happened on it in 1184: "The Rock of Loch Key was burned by lightning--_i.e._, the very magnificent, kingly residence of the Muintir Maolruanaigh (the McDermotts) where neither goods nor people of all that were there found protection; where six or seven score of distinguished persons were destroyed, along with fifteen men of the race of kings and chieftains, with the wife of McDermott ... and every one of them who was not burned was drowned in that tumultuous consternation in the entrance of the place; so that there escaped not alive therefrom but Connor McDermott with a very small number of the multitude of his people." The same catastrophe is mentioned by the Four Masters, but under the year 1187. This account of the burning of the castle, or, as the annalist calls it, a residence, shows that it was a wooden structure, for it would hardly have been possible to burn a building of stone so quickly that the people in it would not have had time to escape, even if it were on an island.

    Project Gutenberg #39500, Chapter 17

25. St Kevin founds Glendaloch in the sixth century

    Glendalough · electoral division · Wicklow · 570–617

    Glendaloch was founded by St Kevin in the latter part of the sixth century; he died in 617 aged 120. Before any buildings existed, he lived for a long time in a hollow tree, subsisting on wild fruit and water.

    Read the passage

    Glendaloch must have been founded in the latter part of the sixth century, for St Kevin died in 617, aged 120 years. There cannot be any doubt that it was he who founded Glendaloch. We are told that he sought the sombre valley for a retreat in which to contemplate and pray, and that before there were any buildings in it he lived for a long time in a hollow tree, and subsisted on wild fruit and water. The cave in the cliff overhanging the lake, known as St Kevin's Bed, the entrance to which is not only difficult but dangerous, seems also to have given him shelter for a long time before there were any habitations in the glen. It is said that if _nouvelles mariees_ succeed in getting into this dark and dismal cavern, they are sure to be blessed with large families. Why such a belief should be current is not easy to understand, because St Kevin, after whom the cavern is called, not only had no children, but was a decided woman-hater. If he did not drown Kathleen, he at least whipped her with nettles, a thing that no gallant man would think of doing to a girl who loved him. It will, however, be the general opinion of most of those who read this version of the story, that St Kevin "served her right."

    Project Gutenberg #39500, Chapter 9

26. St Patrick's founding of Armagh, 457

    near Armagh · town · Armagh · 457

    Armagh was founded by St Patrick in 457 after a chief named Daire gave him the site; Patrick appointed twelve men to build the town and ordered the erection of an archbishop's city and churches, choosing the site for its proximity to the famed stronghold of Emania.

    Read the passage

    Ardmagh is so near Emania, only two miles from it, that one place could hardly be described without saying something about the other. Its ancient name was Ardmacha, meaning the height of Macha. This Macha was queen, or at least ruler, of that part of the country in far-back pagan times. It was also from her that Emain Macha, or Emania, was named. Ardmagh was founded by St Patrick in the year 457. A man named Daire, chief of the district, is said, in the "Annals of the Four Masters," to have given Patrick the site on which the city is built. Patrick appointed twelve men to build the town, and ordered them to erect an archbishop's city there, and churches for the different religious orders. It seems strange that the saint should have chosen Ardmagh for the site of the chief religious establishment in Ireland. Emania had been ruined and desolated in the previous century, but it is evident that it was the fame of the ancient stronghold of Ulster that induced Patrick to choose its immediate vicinity as a site for his new Christian city, because Emania had been for so many centuries previous the political centre of the province, and, next to Tara, the chief political centre of Ireland. Of the old ecclesiastical buildings of Ardmagh, not a vestige remains. Some of its new ones are, however, magnificent. The new Catholic cathedral is the finest building of its kind in Ireland. It is hardly to be wondered at that none of the ancient buildings of Ardmagh should remain, for of all towns in Ireland, it was burned, plundered, and razed the oftenest. In the course of the two centuries and a half ending in 1080, it was plundered and wholly or partially burned _twelve times_ by the Danes. No other city in Ireland seems to have suffered so much from the Northmen. Turgesius, the Danish king, captured it and lived there for some years. The present city is one of the most picturesque towns of its size in Ireland, but it is not growing much. It once had a good linen trade, but since the introduction of cotton fabrics, its linen trade has entirely ceased.

    Project Gutenberg #39500, Chapter 4

27. The Lia Fail and the pillar stone over the 1798 graves

    Tara · parish · Meath · 1798

    The Lia Fail, or Stone of Destiny, was used to inaugurate the over-kings of Ireland at Tara. Petrie argued that the pillar stone standing over the graves of men who fell in 1798 is actually the true Lia Fail, disputing the claim that Fergus carried the real stone to Scotland.

    Read the passage

    One of the most interesting things connected with Tara is the Lia Fail, or Stone of Destiny. It was upon it the over-kings of Ireland had been inaugurated from far-back antiquity. It is said to have been brought by Fergus, brother of the then reigning chief King, to Scotland, in order that he might be crowned king on it over the part of Scotland he had conquered. It remained under the coronation chair of the Kings of Scotland down to the time of Edward the First, who seized it and brought it to Westminster, where it is now, and the sovereigns of England have been crowned on it ever since his time. Petrie maintains that the Lia Fail is still in Tara, and that the pillar stone that stands over the graves of the men who fell in '98 is it. He adduces very strong evidence from manuscripts of high authority and of great antiquity to prove what he says. There is, on the other hand, strong testimony to prove that it was brought to Scotland by Fergus. The question will probably never be finally settled. The principal virtue supposed to be possessed by the Lia Fail was that it would bring political power to the country in which it was, particularly if its people were of Celtic stock. It is very remarkable that soon after the stone supposed to be the Lia Fail was taken out of Ireland, her political power began to decline, her over-kings lost a great part of their former authority, and in the long run she lost her independence. Scotland's political power and national independence vanished not long after she had lost the Lia Fail, and in a few centuries after England had got it she became one of the foremost nations in the world. The English claim to be Saxons, but it is now generally admitted that the Celtic element preponderates in the island of Great Britain, so that the prophecy attached to the Lia Fail seems to be fulfilled.

    Project Gutenberg #39500, Chapter 3

28. Death of Dearvorgil at Mellifont

    Mellifont · townland · Louth · 1193

    Dearvorgil, the wife of O'Ruarc whose affair is traditionally blamed for triggering the English invasion of Ireland, died at Mellifont in 1193, though the author argues this traditional account of her role is likely mistaken.

    Read the passage

    The first mention of Mellifont by the Four Masters occurs under the year 1152, when a great synod of three thousand ecclesiastics was held there. It was in Mellifont that the woman whose crime is supposed to have been the cause of the English invasion of Ireland died in the year 1193. This was Dearvorgil, the faithless wife of O'Ruarc, whom Moore has called "falsest of women." It is, however, now thought by most of those who have studied Irish history closely that Dermott MacMorrough's relations with this lady had nothing whatever to do with his banishment. They point out the fact that it was about ten years after Dearvorgil had been restored to her people that MacMorrough was banished, and maintain that the true cause of his banishment was in order to re-impose the tribute on the province of Leinster, the Danes being no longer able to assist the Leinstermen as they were wont to do. The other provincial rulers wanted to have the King of Leinster put out of the way, for, as he was a warlike man, they knew he would fight to the bitter end for the protection of his province. If this version of the matter is true, it goes far to free Dermott MacMorrough from the odium that rests on his memory.

    Project Gutenberg #39500, Chapter 11

29. Dun Connor, the Largest Fortress on Inis Meáin

    Inishmaan · island or archipelago · Galway

    Dun Connor, on the Middle Island (Inis Maan), is the largest of the Arran fortresses, over two hundred feet long with treble walls up to twenty feet high and sixteen to eighteen feet thick, though damaged by treasure hunters and stone removal.

    Read the passage

    There is not much either of scenic or antiquarian interest in the immediate vicinity of Galway; but if those who wish to see the most ancient and gigantic cyclopean remains in Europe, or perhaps in the world, go to the Isles of Arran, to which a small steamer sails from Galway, they will be well repaid for a two hours' trip. The Arran Islands contain more antique monuments of the pre-historic past and of a more interesting kind than any other places of equal extent in these Islands. These monuments consist of vast drystone fortresses that were raised by some pre-historic race. There is what may be called historic tradition that they were built by a remnant of the Firbolgs in the century preceding the Christian era; but those most learned in things pertaining to Irish antiquities, do not think there is any reliable historic evidence as to where or by whom they were erected. The principal fortresses are, Dun Aengus, Dun Connor, Dun Onacht and Dun Eochla. They are all in the Great Island, or Arran Mor, except Dun Connor, which is in the Middle Island, or Inis Maan. Dun Connor is the largest. It is considerably over two hundred feet long, and over a hundred feet wide. Its treble walls are still twenty feet high in some places, and from sixteen to eighteen feet in thickness. These vast fortresses look as if they were the work of giants. Like almost every relic of the past, they seem to have been more marred by men than by time. They have evidently been injured by people looking for treasure; and a good deal of their stones have been removed to build cabins and outhouses. Miss Margaret Stokes, who has devoted almost all her life to the study of Irish antiquities, and who consequently knows more about them, perhaps, than any one in Ireland, says of these vast fortresses in Arran: "They are the remains of the earliest examples of architecture known to exist in Western Europe." There is something awfully grand and grim in the aspect of these ruined fortresses. To gaze on their colossal dimensions and barbaric rudeness seems to carry us back almost to the beginning of time, when the earth was inhabited by beings unlike ourselves. But however old the forts in Arran may be, it is evident that they were the strongholds of a seafaring people; for the whole products of the barren islands on which they stand would not be worth the labour of erecting such gigantic fortresses for their protection. These islands support a good many people now, thanks to the potato; but in ancient times, when it was unknown, it is hard to understand how the multitude of men it must have taken to build so many vast fortresses could have found sustenance on these barren isles; and we are, therefore, almost driven to the conclusion that the fortresses in the Isles of Arran were built by pirates or seafaring men of some kind.

    Project Gutenberg #39500, Chapter 25

30. Glendaloch as ecclesiastical and educational centre for five centuries

    Glendalough · electoral division · Wicklow

    For five hundred years Glendaloch was one of the most important ecclesiastical and educational places in Ireland, its name frequently appearing in Irish annals. Its proximity to Dublin, the great Danish stronghold, meant it was repeatedly plundered and burned by the Danes over two hundred years.

    Read the passage

    But of all places in Wicklow, Glendaloch is the most famous. It ought to be so, for there is nothing like it in Ireland. There are many glens as wild and as gloomy as it, but they lack the historic interest and the legendary halo that make Glendaloch dear to the archaeologist, the poet, and the dreamer. Its history goes back almost to the beginning of Christian times. For five hundred years it was one of the most important ecclesiastical and educational places in Ireland. Its name constantly occurs in Irish annals and history; and its history was for centuries as gloomy as itself, for the Danes plundered it and burned it so often that it seems strange that it was not abandoned many centuries sooner. It was so near their great stronghold, Dublin, that it was harried by them on and off for over two hundred years.

    St Kevin's name is indissolubly associated with Glendaloch, or the Seven Churches, as it is most frequently called, for it is supposed that there were seven churches in it at one time. St Kevin, according to the best authority who ever wrote on Irish history and archaeology, the famous John O'Donovan, came of a distinguished family in the County Wicklow. His name, in correct orthography, _Coemhgen_, means "fair offspring." He seems to have been predestined to be a Saint, for many miraculous things are told of his infancy and early youth. When he was a baby a white cow is said to have come miraculously to supply him with milk. The story about his having murdered Kathleen, the girl with eyes of "unholy blue," by throwing her into that lake that the "Skylark never warbles o'er," is a mere fable. It seems a pity that the story upon which Moore founded his very beautiful lyric, "By that Lake, whose gloomy Shore," should have hardly any foundation in fact. That a certain girl fell in love with him and caused him a good deal of annoyance is quite true; but he did not kill her or throw her into the lake. He only administered a rather mild castigation, as shall be seen. O'Donovan says that the following extract, taken from the _Codex Killkenniensis_, which, there are good reasons to believe, has never yet been made public by translation, is the oldest and most trustworthy account of the transaction known to exist; and that the trouble between St Kevin and the girl did not take place in Glendaloch, but in another place in the County Wicklow. O'Donovan's translation of the story is the one now given:--

    Project Gutenberg #39500, Chapter 9

31. Godfrey's Raid on Kells, 949

    Kells · town · Meath · 949

    The Annals of the Four Masters record that in 949 the Danish leader Godfrey plundered Kells and other places in Meath, carrying off three thousand persons into captivity along with an enormous quantity of gold, silver and wealth.

    Read the passage

    Under the year 949 the Annals of the Four Masters state that Godfrey, a Danish king or general, plundered Kells and other places in Meath, and carried off three thousand persons into captivity, and robbed the country of an enormous quantity of gold, silver, and wealth of all kinds. That sort of work had been carried on for nearly two hundred years, and it is a wonder that the entire country was not utterly ruined.

    An interesting as well as gruesome illustration of what Ireland suffered from Danish raids was revealed some few years ago while workmen were levelling ground for the erection of a house at Donnybrook, near Dublin. They unearthed the skeletons of over six hundred people, of almost all ages; from those of full-grown men to those of babies, all buried in one grave, and only about eighteen inches under the surface. This vast grave was close to the banks of the little river Dodder. The Northmen had evidently gone up the river in their galleys, for at full tide it had enough of water to float them. By some chance the leader, or one of the leaders, of the Danes was killed in the foray, for his body was found a little distance from the grave of the victims. His sword was buried with him; it was of recognised Danish make, and had a splendid hilt inlaid with silver. Not a vestige of clothing or ornaments was found on the bodies of the slain, save a common bronze ring on the finger of one of them. Everything they had seems to have been taken. A village had evidently stood in the locality; it was raided by the Danes, the inhabitants all killed, and everything of value they possessed, even to their clothing, taken; for if they had been buried in their clothing, which must have been almost entirely of woollen material, which resists decay for a long time, some vestige of it would have been discovered. The remains of the victims of the massacre were carefully examined by the most eminent scientists and archaeologists of Dublin, among them Dr Wm. Fraser, who wrote an article on the discovery that may be seen in the transactions of the Royal Irish Academy. Irish history and annals are silent about this terrible massacre, and it is hardly to be wondered at that they should not have mentioned it, for such things were of such frequent occurrence in Ireland during the time of the Northmen that it was impossible to keep track of them all.

    Project Gutenberg #39500, Chapter 24

    As the companion tells it

    Coming through Kells now. In 949, the Annals of the Four Masters record that Godfrey, a Danish king or general, plundered this town and elsewhere in Meath. He carried off 3000 persons into captivity, and robbed the country of an enormous quantity of gold, silver, and wealth. That sort of work had been carried on for nearly 200 years, and it is a wonder the entire country was not utterly ruined. What those raids were like came to light some years ago when workmen were levelling ground for a house at Donnybrook, near Dublin. They unearthed the skeletons of over 600 people, from men to babies, all buried in one grave, about 18 inches under the surface. The grave was close to the banks of the river Dodder. The Northmen had gone up the river in their galleys, for at full tide it had water enough to float them. By chance one of the Danish leaders was killed in the foray. His body was found near the grave. His sword was buried with him, of recognised Danish make, with a splendid hilt inlaid with silver. No clothing or ornaments were found on the bodies of the slain, save a common bronze ring on the finger of one of them. Everything had been taken from a village that had stood in the locality. The Danes raided it, killed all the inhabitants, and took everything of value, even their clothing. The remains were examined by Dublin scientists and archaeologists, among them Doctor William Fraser, who wrote an article on the discovery in the transactions of the Royal Irish Academy. Irish annals are silent about this massacre. Such things were of such frequent occurrence during the time of the Northmen that it was impossible to keep track of them all.

32. Malachy drowns Turgesius the Dane in Loch Ouel

    Lough Owel · lake or lakes · Westmeath · 843

    Loch Ouel (anciently Loch Uair) is the lake in which Malachy the First drowned the Danish leader Turgesius after defeating him, according to tradition involving a ruse with disguised youths and Malachy's daughter, as recounted by Keating. The Book of Leinster records only that Turgesius was taken by Malachy in 843 and drowned in Loch Uair.

    Read the passage

    The account of the drowning of Turgesius is given with tantalising curtness in the "Book of Leinster": "This is the year, A.D. 843, that Turgesius was taken by Maelseachlainn (Malachy). He was then drowned in Loch Uair."[15] The "Book of Leinster" does not say that Turgesius was taken in battle, but those who do not believe Keating's story think he was. If he had been taken in battle and defeated, it must be admitted that it is strange that Irish annalists did not say so and give particulars of the battle. This omission makes it appear probable that there is some truth in the version of his capture as given by Keating, although it is altogether discredited by those best read in Irish History.

    Loch Ouel can be seen from the train on the Sligo division of the Great Western Railway. Passing as the glimpse of it is from the train, it is enough to reveal some of the beauties of this fairest of Westmeath lakes. But to see it properly one should wander by its pebbly shores, for not a yard of them is swampy, or ascend one of the hills of brilliant green that are on all sides of it. Loch Ouel has the great defect of being almost islandless. There are only one or two small ones in it. If it had proportionately as many islands in it as Loch Erne, it would be one of the fairest sheets of water of its size in Ireland.

    Project Gutenberg #39500, Chapter 18

    As the companion tells it

    As you pass Lough Owel in Westmeath, you are beside the lake the old records call Loch Uair. In 843 the Danish leader Turgesius was taken by Malachy, and then drowned in this lake. The Book of Leinster records only that bare fact and nothing more. Keating told a longer tale, that the capture came through a ruse involving disguised youths and Malachy's daughter, but those best read in Irish history altogether discredit that version. The Book of Leinster does not even say Turgesius was taken in battle, and those who reject Keating's story think he was, though the annalists gave no particulars of any fight. That silence is what makes some think there may be a grain of truth in Keating's account after all. The lake itself is called the fairest in Westmeath, with pebbly shores and green hills all around it, though it has almost no islands. It can be glimpsed from the railway, but the story it holds is older than any line that runs past it. The record gives the year, the two names, and the water, and lets the rest go.

33. Malachy II Sacks Danish Dublin

    Dublin · city · Dublin · 988–994

    In 994 Malachy II sacked Dublin and carried off two Danish trophies, the ring of Tomar and the sword of Karl. In 988 he had besieged the city for twenty days and nights, captured it, and issued a famous edict freeing enslaved Irishmen.

    Read the passage

    We have no account of the first siege of Dublin by the Danes in 836. The annals merely say that a fleet of sixty ships of Northmen came to the Liffey, and that that was the first occupation of the city by them. The Irish captured and plundered Dublin a great many times, but do not appear to have ever tried to banish the Danes permanently out of it. It is probable that the Irish found them useful as carriers of merchandise to them from foreign countries; for seeing how often the city was captured and plundered by the Irish, it is incredible that they could not have held it had they chosen to do so. The Four Masters record its capture and plunder by the Irish in A.D. 942, 945, 988, and 998. In 994 Malachy II. sacked Dublin and carried off two Danish trophies, the ring of Tomar and the sword of Karl; and in 988 he besieged it for twenty days and twenty nights, captured it, and carried off an immense booty; and issued the famous edict, "Every Irishman that is in slavery and oppression in the country of the foreigners (Danes) let him go to his own country in peace and delight." But the Irish were not always lucky in their attacks on the Danes of Dublin, for in 917 Niall Glundubh, King of Ireland, was killed by them, and his army defeated at Killmashogue, beyond Rathfarnham. He evidently intended to take Dublin from the south, because it was so well defended on the north by the Liffey. The battle usually known as the battle of Clontarf was not fought in the locality now called by that name, but between the Liffey and the Tolka. Where Amien Street is now was probably the very centre of the battle-field. Here it may not be out of place to make a remark on the curious fact that the Danes never made any serious attempt to conquer Ireland after the battle of Clontarf, although they were at the height of their power some six or eight years after by the terrible defeat they gave the Saxons at Ashington, in Essex, which gave Canute the crown of England. He thus became not only King of England, but was King of Denmark and Norway as well--the most powerful potentate in Christendom in his time. It is strange that historians have not taken any notice of this extraordinary fact. There was comparatively little fighting between the Irish and the Danes after the battle of Clontarf, although the foreign people held Dublin until the arrival of Strongbow, and made a very poor stand against him, for he captured the city with very little difficulty. Dublin has hardly suffered what could be called a siege since 988, when Malachy II. took it from the Danes. When Strongbow held it, the Irish under the wretched Roderick O'Connor marched a great army under its walls, and were going to take it; but before they began siege operations, and while they were amusing themselves by swimming in the Liffey, Strongbow sallied out on them and totally defeated them. That was the last serious attempt to besiege Dublin.

    Project Gutenberg #39500, Chapter 22

    As the companion tells it

    As you pass through Dublin, this is a city the Danes held for centuries, and the Irish took back many times. The annals record its capture and plunder by the Irish in 942, 945, 988, and 998. The first Danish occupation came in 836, when a fleet of sixty ships of Northmen came to the Liffey. In 988 Malachy the Second besieged Dublin for twenty days and twenty nights, captured it, and carried off an immense booty. He issued a famous edict: every Irishman that is in slavery and oppression in the country of the foreigners, let him go to his own country in peace and delight. Then in 994 Malachy sacked Dublin again and carried off two Danish trophies, the ring of Tomar and the sword of Karl. The Irish captured and plundered Dublin a great many times but do not appear to have ever tried to banish the Danes permanently. It is probable the Irish found them useful as carriers of merchandise from foreign countries, for seeing how often the city was taken, it is incredible they could not have held it had they chosen to. The Irish were not always lucky against the Danes of Dublin. In 917 Niall Glundubh, King of Ireland, was killed by them and his army defeated at Killmashogue, beyond Rathfarnham. He evidently intended to take Dublin from the south, because it was so well defended on the north by the Liffey. Dublin has hardly suffered what could be called a siege since 988, when Malachy took it from the Danes. The foreign people held Dublin until the arrival of Strongbow, and made a very poor stand against him, for he captured the city with very little difficulty.

34. Queen Meave's Palace at Rathcroghan

    near Rathcroghan · monument · Roscommon

    Rathcroghan, near Tulsk in Roscommon, was the seat of Queen Medb/Meave of Connacht, an historic personage contemporary with Cleopatra. Her palace, built of pine and yew, stood on a raised circular platform without defensive ramparts, unlike typical Celtic strongholds.

    Read the passage

    Medb or Meave, Queen of Connacht, was daughter to Eochy Fayloch, over-king of Ireland. She lived about half a century before the Christian era. Keating says, in his "History of Ireland," that she reigned ninety-eight years. This very long reign is doubted by some Irish historians, but it is generally admitted by them that her reign, as well as her life, was remarkably long. She had more husbands than even the woman of Samaria is credited with. It was evidently her extraordinary long life and reign that caused her to be ultimately believed to be something supernatural, and to be regarded as a fairy. She was, however, no fairy, but a bold, bad, and warlike woman. She, even more than Cuchulainn, is the central figure of the greatest prose epic in the Irish language, the _Tain Bo Chuailgne_, or Cattle Raid of Cooley. By lies and bribes she persuaded the other provincial rulers to join her in a totally unjustifiable war on Ulster, so that she was able to invade that province with a great army of fifty-four thousand men. She carried off a great prey from Ulster, but not without suffering some defeats and losing some of her bravest warriors. It is said that Mr Ernest Windisch is engaged in translating this great epic into German, but it seems not yet finished. Meave, like most of the prominent people of her day, met with a violent death. She had many enemies, especially in Ulster. One of them, a son to the king of that province, killed her by a cast from a sling as she was about taking a cold water bath in Iniscloran, an island in Loch Ree. She must have been considerably over a hundred years old when she was killed, but she appears, even at that great age, to have been the admiration of every one that saw her on account of the great beauty of her face and figure. Perhaps it was her cold water baths that were the chief means of preserving her youth and good looks, for we are told in the "Book of Leinster" that she was under _geis_, or bonds, not to let any morning pass by without taking a bath. It is no wonder that such a person should have in the long run passed into the realm of fairie, and have been thought something supernatural. It is, however, a wonder that the Four Masters do not mention the name of Meave, although they do mention the name of her father; but there are many similar strange omissions in their annals. Meave is, however, mentioned in the Annals of Clonmacnoise, in which many hard things are said of her.

    Project Gutenberg #39500, Chapter 5

    As the companion tells it

    Somewhere about Rathcroghan stood the palace of Queen Meave, who ruled Connacht about half a century before the Christian era. She was daughter to Eochy Fayloch, over-king of Ireland, and according to Keating she reigned 98 years, though some Irish historians doubt that figure. Her palace was built of pine and yew, on a raised circular platform without the defensive ramparts you would expect of a Celtic stronghold. Meave is the central figure of the Tain Bo Chuailgne, the great prose epic of the Irish language. By lies and bribes she persuaded the other provincial rulers to join her in a war on Ulster, and invaded that province with an army of 54,000 men. She carried off a great prey, but not without suffering defeats and losing some of her bravest warriors. She had many enemies, especially in Ulster. One of them, a son to the king of that province, killed her with a cast from a sling as she was about to take a cold water bath on Iniscloran, an island in Loch Ree. She must have been considerably over 100 years old when she died, yet she was still admired for the great beauty of her face and figure. The Book of Leinster says she was under bonds not to let any morning pass without taking a bath, and perhaps those cold baths preserved her youth. Her long life and reign caused people to believe she was something supernatural, a fairy, but she was no fairy. She was a bold, bad, and warlike woman. The Four Masters do not mention her name, though they mention her father, but she is named in the Annals of Clonmacnoise, where many hard things are said of her.

35. Repeated Burning and Plundering of Kells by the Northmen

    Kells · town · Meath · 800–1199

    According to the annals, Kells was burned twenty-one times and plundered seven times by Viking raiders before the twelfth century, making it remarkable that any ancient remains survive there at all.

    Read the passage

    Kells was so often burned and so often plundered by the Northmen that it is a wonder how anything in it remains. According to the annals it was burned twenty-one times, and plundered seven times, before the twelfth century! Every vestige of the great castle, that was built either by Hugo de Lacy or John de Courcy, has disappeared. This castle must have been nearly as large as that of Trim, for it was built for the protection of some of the most valuable country conquered by the invaders. It is said that the monastery was in a ruined condition at the close of the twelfth century, and that de Lacy renovated it and richly endowed it.

    Project Gutenberg #39500, Chapter 19

    As the companion tells it

    As you pass through Kells in Meath, it is worth knowing what this town endured. According to the annals, Kells was burned 21 times and plundered 7 times by the Northmen before the 12th century. It is a wonder anything remains. Every vestige of the great castle, built either by Hugo de Lacy or John de Courcy, has disappeared. It was nearly as large as the castle at Trim, built to protect some of the most valuable country the invaders had conquered. The monastery here was in a ruined condition by the close of the 12th century, and de Lacy renovated it and richly endowed it.

36. The Cross of Cong made in Roscommon in 1123 for Turloch O'Connor

    near Cong Abbey · ecclesiastical site · Mayo · 1123

    The Cross of Cong, considered the finest piece of metal work of its age in Europe and kept at the Abbey of Cong as its greatest treasure, bears a Gaelic inscription showing it was made in Roscommon in 1123 for Turloch O'Connor, and is now in the Dublin Museum.

    Read the passage

    In its present dilapidated condition it is hardly possible to form a correct idea of what Cong Abbey was in the days of its splendour. It is almost impossible, also, to form an exact idea of its general plan, for many comparatively modern additions have evidently been made to it. Its having been used as a burying place within recent times has, as the same thing has done at Clonmacnois, sadly interfered with its picturesqueness. But, as at Mellifont, "enough of its glory remains" to show that it must have been a building of exquisite beauty. Some of its floral capitals carved on limestone are as fine specimens of the carver's art as can be found anywhere in the world. Both Sir William Wilde and Doctor Petrie agree in this. There was probably no abbey in Ireland that contained more beautiful specimens of the carver's art than Cong. Vast numbers of its sculptured stones have been defaced by vandalism or carried away to build walls or out-houses. It is not easy to know what was the exact extent of the gardens or mensal grounds of the abbey, for the walls that enclosed them cannot be fully traced, and are not intact like the walls around the Abbey of Boyle in the County Roscommon. The Abbey of Cong seems to have been the great depository for the precious things of the province of Connacht. The Order of Augustinians, to whom it belonged, was very rich, and had vast possessions in the province, and it would seem that no abbey in it was as rich as that of Cong. In it were kept deeds, books, records, and many other precious things, all of which have disappeared save the marvellously beautiful cross now to be seen in the Dublin Museum, and which artists and connoisseurs have pronounced to be "the finest piece of metal work of its age to be found in Europe." It is known from the Gaelic inscription on the Cross of Cong that it was made in Roscommon, for the name of the maker is identified with that town. The fact of such a priceless relic and such a gem of art having been kept in the Abbey of Cong shows that it was considered to be the most important and most secure place in the province. The Cross of Cong was supposed to be formed from part of the real cross. The Irish inscription on it is perfectly legible, and can be easily understood by any one who knows the modern language. The name of the maker is on it, and also that of Turloch O'Connor, who claimed to be chief King of Ireland, and for whom it was made in the year 1123.

    Project Gutenberg #39500, Chapter 13

37. Cashel as ancient seat of Munster kings and Patrick's foundation

    Cashel · townland · Tipperary

    Cashel was long a seat of the kings of Munster, originally a pagan dry-stone fortress, and later became a Christian site, with tradition holding that St Patrick founded a church there, giving the rock its name Carraig Phadraig.

    Read the passage

    Cashel became a seat of Christian cult at a very early period, and there are good reasons to think that St Patrick founded a church there. The Rock of Cashel has for very many centuries been known as _Carraig Phadraig_, or Patrick's Rock. The first Christian Irishman whose writings have come down to us was Dubhthach, or, as the name would probably now be Anglicised, Duffy, Mac U Lugair. In his poem in praise of the prowess of Leinstermen, he says, that they "unyoked their horses on the ramparts of clerical Cashel." As this Duffy was a disciple of St Patrick's, and one of the first converts made by him in Ireland, we are forced to think that one of the first Christian churches ever erected in Ireland was the one erected in Cashel, as it appears to have been in existence when Duffy wrote his poem, which could hardly have been later than the middle of the sixth century. But no vestige of the church of St Patrick's time remains. It was probably a wooden building, and may have disappeared as far back as thirteen centuries ago. The oldest building on the Rock of Cashel is the round tower, not Mr Scully's incongruous edifice, but the original one, built probably in the ninth century. It is ninety feet high, and in a fairly good state of preservation. The cathedral is thought to have been built in 1169 by O'Brien, King of Munster, but there does not appear to be much of the building he erected to be seen now, for the ruined cathedral which exists cannot, from the style of its architecture, be older than the fourteenth century. We know from authentic history that one of the Fitzgeralds burned the cathedral in 1495, because he wanted to burn Archbishop Creagh, who, he thought, was in it; but it does not seem to be fully known whether the building was entirely or only partially destroyed by Fitzgerald. Divine service is said to have been celebrated in it so late as 1752, but it must have been in a semi-ruined condition even then.

    [Illustration: INTERIOR OF CORMAC'S CHAPEL.]

    Project Gutenberg #39500, Chapter 9

    As the companion tells it

    Close to Cashel, this rock was a seat of the kings of Munster long before it became a Christian site. Tradition holds that Saint Patrick founded a church here, and for centuries the place has been called Carraig Phadraig, Patrick's Rock. One of the first Christian Irishmen whose writings survive was Dubhthach, or Duffy, Mac U Lugair, a disciple of Patrick's and one of his first converts in Ireland. In a poem praising the prowess of Leinstermen, Duffy wrote that they "unyoked their horses on the ramparts of clerical Cashel." Since his poem could hardly have been later than the middle of the sixth century, the church Patrick founded must have been among the first Christian churches erected in Ireland. But no vestige of it remains. It was probably a wooden building, and may have disappeared as far back as thirteen centuries ago. The oldest structure still standing on the rock is the round tower, built probably in the ninth century, ninety feet high and in fairly good condition. A cathedral is thought to have been built in 1169 by O'Brien, King of Munster, but little of his building can be seen now. The ruined cathedral that survives cannot, from its style, be older than the fourteenth century. In 1495, one of the Fitzgeralds burned the cathedral because he wanted to burn Archbishop Creagh, who he believed was inside. It is not fully known whether the building was entirely or only partially destroyed. Divine service was said to have been celebrated in it as late as 1752, but it must have been semi-ruined even then.

38. Cyclopean Fortresses of the Arran Islands

    near Aran Islands · island or archipelago · Galway

    The Arran Islands contain vast prehistoric drystone fortresses, the largest collection of ancient monuments of their kind in these islands. Tradition holds they were built by a remnant of the Firbolgs before the Christian era, though scholars find no reliable evidence of who built them.

    Read the passage

    There is not much either of scenic or antiquarian interest in the immediate vicinity of Galway; but if those who wish to see the most ancient and gigantic cyclopean remains in Europe, or perhaps in the world, go to the Isles of Arran, to which a small steamer sails from Galway, they will be well repaid for a two hours' trip. The Arran Islands contain more antique monuments of the pre-historic past and of a more interesting kind than any other places of equal extent in these Islands. These monuments consist of vast drystone fortresses that were raised by some pre-historic race. There is what may be called historic tradition that they were built by a remnant of the Firbolgs in the century preceding the Christian era; but those most learned in things pertaining to Irish antiquities, do not think there is any reliable historic evidence as to where or by whom they were erected. The principal fortresses are, Dun Aengus, Dun Connor, Dun Onacht and Dun Eochla. They are all in the Great Island, or Arran Mor, except Dun Connor, which is in the Middle Island, or Inis Maan. Dun Connor is the largest. It is considerably over two hundred feet long, and over a hundred feet wide. Its treble walls are still twenty feet high in some places, and from sixteen to eighteen feet in thickness. These vast fortresses look as if they were the work of giants. Like almost every relic of the past, they seem to have been more marred by men than by time. They have evidently been injured by people looking for treasure; and a good deal of their stones have been removed to build cabins and outhouses. Miss Margaret Stokes, who has devoted almost all her life to the study of Irish antiquities, and who consequently knows more about them, perhaps, than any one in Ireland, says of these vast fortresses in Arran: "They are the remains of the earliest examples of architecture known to exist in Western Europe." There is something awfully grand and grim in the aspect of these ruined fortresses. To gaze on their colossal dimensions and barbaric rudeness seems to carry us back almost to the beginning of time, when the earth was inhabited by beings unlike ourselves. But however old the forts in Arran may be, it is evident that they were the strongholds of a seafaring people; for the whole products of the barren islands on which they stand would not be worth the labour of erecting such gigantic fortresses for their protection. These islands support a good many people now, thanks to the potato; but in ancient times, when it was unknown, it is hard to understand how the multitude of men it must have taken to build so many vast fortresses could have found sustenance on these barren isles; and we are, therefore, almost driven to the conclusion that the fortresses in the Isles of Arran were built by pirates or seafaring men of some kind.

    Project Gutenberg #39500, Chapter 25

39. Dearvorgil's endowment of the Clonmacnois nunnery

    Clonmacnoise · townland · Offaly

    The nunnery at Clonmacnois was erected and endowed by Dearvorgil, wife of O'Ruairc, whose liaison with Dermot Mac Murrough is popularly believed to have precipitated the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland.

    Read the passage

    Clonmacnois was founded by St Kieran, who died in the year 549. There are records of the erection of most of its ancient buildings to be found in Irish annals and history. According to the _Chronicon Scottorum_, a work of high authority, the Cathedral was built in the year 909. The Cathedral that existed when Turgesius the Dane obtained sway for some years over the greater part of Ireland, and when his wife used to issue her orders from that building, was probably of wood, for no trace of it appears extant. Doctor Petrie says that the larger round tower was erected in the tenth century, and the smaller one in the eleventh or early part of the twelfth. There is good authority to prove that the nunnery was erected and endowed by the too well-remembered Dearvorgil, wife of O'Ruairc, whose _liaison_ with Dermot Mac Murrough, King of Leinster, is popularly believed to have brought about the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland.

    One of the great curiosities of Clonmacnois is the powder-blown-up castle built by Hugo de Lacy in the latter part of the twelfth century, the remains of which stand on a hill about two hundred yards from the cemetery. It is generally known as the Prior's house, but it was evidently built as a place of defence. It was one of the strongest castles ever erected in Ireland. Although comparatively small, building and enclosure not covering more than half an acre, it was a place of immense strength, and before the invention of gunpowder could have defied a host. It is encompassed by a fosse in some places forty feet in depth, that descends sheer from the walls. The walls are of immense thickness and strength, from six to eight feet thick in many places, and so firmly are the stones embedded in grouting that to detach one of them from the powder-riven walls, or from the vast masses of blown-up masonry that lie scattered around, a hammer and chisel would be required. Huge heaps of the ruined walls, some of them tons in weight, have been tumbled into the deep fosse that surrounds the castle, but they are still almost as solid as rocks. If ever the art of building solid walls was brought to perfection, it was by those who reared this now ruined pile. To know the strength of gunpowder and the solidity of ancient masonry, one should see this ruined castle of Clonmacnois.

    Project Gutenberg #39500, Chapter 7

40. Decline of Irish language and population around Athlone

    Athlone · town · Westmeath · 1841–1842

    The author recalls a densely crowded market day in Athlone around 1841-42 when three people spoke Irish for every one who spoke English, contrasted with the present when Irish has died out except among some elderly people in southwest Roscommon.

    Read the passage

    Athlone is one of the few towns--perhaps the only one--on the Shannon that is not decaying at present. For many years after the famine it decayed rapidly, but some thirty years ago a woollen factory was established; now there are two woollen factories and a saw-mill that give employment to some hundreds of hands, consequently Athlone has been saved from decay. But comparatively prosperous as it is, it is not one-fourth as prosperous as it ought to be considering its splendid situation and the fertility and beauty of the country that surrounds it. It has recently become a great railway centre; one can go by rail from Athlone to almost any part of Ireland. But all the railways and all the fertility of all the world cannot bring real prosperity to any country in which the population is declining. The decline of the population in Athlone itself and in the country surrounding it has, during the last fifty years, been something frightful, and can only be fully realised by those who remember what it was in former times. A market day in Athlone now is very different from a market day there half a century ago. The writer recollects having been at a market in Athlone when a small boy, about the year 1841 or '42, and saw more people there in one market than could be seen in twenty markets there now. The town was too small to contain much more than half of them; they flowed out into the fields surrounding it. The crowds in the streets were so dense that it would take hours to jostle one's way from one end of the town to the other, and, what will hardly be credited by those whose memories do not go back fifty years, there were certainly three persons speaking Irish for one who spoke English. One might attend markets in Athlone now every week in the year and not hear a word of any language but English. Irish has completely died out of the country surrounding Athlone, save in the south-western corner of the county Roscommon, where some old people still speak it. There is something inexpressibly sad in the fading away of any form of National speech, but, above all, in the fading away of a tongue so old and once so cultivated as Irish. It seems to forebode not only the death of all real National aspirations, but the death of heart and soul. It seems to show that Philistinism is rapidly driving away sentiment from the Irish people. But the life of the Irish peasant has been so long such a battle for mere existence that it is no wonder that he came to look with contempt on everything that did not administer to his mere animal wants. He is rapidly improving since he has had a barrier put between him and the generally cruel treatment he was wont to receive from his landlord. None but those who remember what his position was fifty years ago, and who see what it is now, can fully understand all the advance he has made. In spite of the awful decline of population in the rural districts of Ireland during the last fifty years, there is much to be seen in them to gladden the heart of the philanthropist. Small farmers' cottages, that would formerly be a disgrace to a Zulu or an Esquimaux, are now not only generally clean, but sometimes beautiful. Flowers in pots in the windows and evergreens creeping up the walls of a peasant's cottage would have caused him to be laughed at by his neighbours fifty years ago, but now they cause him to be respected instead of being laughed at. He will become again what he once was, one of the most soulful and un-Philistine of beings; it is probable he will become such when better laws and freer institutions shall have raised him from the slough of poverty and despondency in which he has been steeping for centuries.

    Project Gutenberg #39500, Chapter 4

    As the companion tells it

    You are coming through Athlone, on the Shannon, a town the author says was saved from decay by woollen factories and a saw-mill employing hundreds. But he remembers it as a small boy around 1841 or 1842, when a market day drew crowds so dense it took hours to jostle from one end of the town to the other. The town was too small to hold them; they overflowed into the surrounding fields. What will hardly be credited now, he writes, there were certainly three persons speaking Irish for one who spoke English. Today one could attend markets every week of the year and not hear a word of anything but English. Irish has completely died out of the country around Athlone, save in the south-western corner of Roscommon, where some old people still speak it. The decline in population here over the last 50 years has been, in his words, something frightful. He calls the fading of a tongue so old and once so cultivated sad beyond expression, seeming to forebode the death of heart and soul. Yet he sees hope: peasant cottages that would once have been a disgrace are now clean and sometimes beautiful, with flowers in the windows and evergreens climbing the walls. He believes that when better laws have raised the people from poverty, the Irish peasant will become again what he once was, one of the most soulful of beings.

41. Five kings feasted at Aileach for five months

    near Grianan of Aileach · monument · Donegal · 942

    The captured provincial kings were brought to Aileach and feasted lavishly for five months, with vast quantities of hogs, cows, oxen, curds and mead consumed, before being handed over to the chief king Donacha.

    Read the passage

    The kingly prisoners were all brought to Aileach, where they were feasted for five months; and the following list of their bill of fare will show that they lived well. Let the same poet tell it:--

    "Ten score hogs--no small work, Ten score cows, two hundred oxen, Were slaughtered at festive Aileach For Muircheartach of the great fetters.

    Project Gutenberg #39500, Chapter 9

42. The great prehistoric tumuli of New Grange and Dowth

    Newgrange · townland · Meath

    New Grange and Dowth, on the Boyne near Drogheda, are enormous prehistoric underground stone chambers thought to have been used to deposit ashes of the dead, generally attributed to the Tuatha de Danaans, and covered in undeciphered incised markings.

    Read the passage

    The country in the vicinity of Mellifont and Monasterboice is not only very fair to look on, but highly interesting in an archaeological point of view. The town of Drogheda, the nearest place to the interesting ruins treated of in this article, is the only place in their vicinity where hotel accommodation can be found. It is full of historic interest and curious remains of the past. But to the antiquarian, to one who wants to see monuments as old as the Pyramids of Egypt, the _Brogha na Boinne_, or burghs of the Boyne, should be a great attraction. They are the most colossal things of the kind known to exist in any part of Europe. One is known by the name of New Grange, and the other is called Dowth. Both places are on the Boyne, and only a few miles west of Drogheda. They are enormous, partially underground caverns, lined and roofed with great flag-stones. They are entirely pre-historic, and are supposed to have been used as places in which to deposit the ashes of the dead; but their real use can hardly be more than guessed at. It is generally thought by archaeologists that they were erected by the Tuatha de Danaans, who occupied Ireland before the Milesians; but authentic history is silent about these gigantic structures. More than a dozen of such structures were discovered some years ago in the Sleeve na Caillighe Hills, near Oldcastle, in the County Meath. They are just like those in New Grange and Dowth, but not nearly so large. The flat stones that form the linings of those curious caverns or tumuli are covered with incised and generally semi-circular markings. They bear all the appearance of being writing of some kind, but no clue to its interpretation has yet been discovered. These markings were certainly not made for fun; neither could they have been made for ornament, for they are _not_ ornamental. There are thousands of them, counting what are in the tumuli on the banks of the Boyne and in the same kind of places in the hills near Oldcastle. It is a pity that no one competent for it has ever tried to decipher this curious writing, for writing of some kind it certainly is. When the cuniform inscriptions on the bricks of Assyria have been interpreted, it is strange that no one has tried to find out the meaning of the writing on the stones of these Irish tumuli.

    Project Gutenberg #39500, Chapter 11

43. Armagh repeatedly burned and plundered by Danes

    near Armagh · town · Armagh · 830–1080

    Over two and a half centuries ending in 1080, Armagh was plundered and wholly or partially burned twelve times by the Danes, more than any other Irish city, and Danish king Turgesius captured it and lived there for some years.

    Read the passage

    Ardmagh is so near Emania, only two miles from it, that one place could hardly be described without saying something about the other. Its ancient name was Ardmacha, meaning the height of Macha. This Macha was queen, or at least ruler, of that part of the country in far-back pagan times. It was also from her that Emain Macha, or Emania, was named. Ardmagh was founded by St Patrick in the year 457. A man named Daire, chief of the district, is said, in the "Annals of the Four Masters," to have given Patrick the site on which the city is built. Patrick appointed twelve men to build the town, and ordered them to erect an archbishop's city there, and churches for the different religious orders. It seems strange that the saint should have chosen Ardmagh for the site of the chief religious establishment in Ireland. Emania had been ruined and desolated in the previous century, but it is evident that it was the fame of the ancient stronghold of Ulster that induced Patrick to choose its immediate vicinity as a site for his new Christian city, because Emania had been for so many centuries previous the political centre of the province, and, next to Tara, the chief political centre of Ireland. Of the old ecclesiastical buildings of Ardmagh, not a vestige remains. Some of its new ones are, however, magnificent. The new Catholic cathedral is the finest building of its kind in Ireland. It is hardly to be wondered at that none of the ancient buildings of Ardmagh should remain, for of all towns in Ireland, it was burned, plundered, and razed the oftenest. In the course of the two centuries and a half ending in 1080, it was plundered and wholly or partially burned _twelve times_ by the Danes. No other city in Ireland seems to have suffered so much from the Northmen. Turgesius, the Danish king, captured it and lived there for some years. The present city is one of the most picturesque towns of its size in Ireland, but it is not growing much. It once had a good linen trade, but since the introduction of cotton fabrics, its linen trade has entirely ceased.

    Project Gutenberg #39500, Chapter 4

44. Battle of Dublin, 917 - Death of Niall Glundubh

    Dublin · city · Dublin · 917

    The most terrible defeat inflicted on the Irish by the Northmen was at the battle of Dublin in 917, where the over-king Niall Glundubh was killed and his whole army reportedly cut to pieces.

    Read the passage

    That the Irish suffered some terrible defeats from the Northmen has to be admitted. In justice to those who compiled the various Irish annals, it must be said that they always freely acknowledge when the invaders had the best of it in a battle. It is, however, evident that, taking the almost continuous fighting between the invaders and the invaded for two hundred years, or from about the year 814 to the time of the battle of Clontarf in 1014, the net gains of the fighting was decidedly on the side of the Irish. Many of those well-versed in Irish history think that if Ireland had been really under the dominion of one sovereign, even as England was under the later Saxon Kings, the Northmen would certainly have conquered Ireland and held it as they held, for a time, England, Normandy, and other countries. Very few of those called Irish chief kings were such except in name. Their vassals used to lick them as frequently as they licked their vassals. The Northmen defeated in battle and killed more than one Irish chief king, but that does not seem to have brought them any nearer the conquest of the island, for the provincial kings used to fight them on their own account. The Northmen had too many heads to cut off, and none of the heads controlled the destinies of the country. The most terrible defeat that was probably ever inflicted on the Irish by the Northmen was at the battle of Dublin in 917. The over-king, Niall Glundubh, was killed in it, and from what the Irish annals say, it would seem that his whole army was cut to pieces; but the victory was of little use to the invaders, for the very next year they suffered a defeat from the Irish in Meath, in which their whole army was destroyed and almost all their leaders slain. We are told that only enough of the Danes were left alive to bear tidings of their defeat. How the Irish managed to get the better of the Danes and at the same time do so much fighting amongst themselves is one of those historic puzzles the solution of which seems hopeless.

    Project Gutenberg #39500, Chapter 24

    As the companion tells it

    As you pass through Dublin, you are near the site of what was probably the most terrible defeat the Irish ever suffered at the hands of the Northmen. In 917, the over-king Niall Glundubh was killed in battle here, and from what the Irish annals say, it would seem his whole army was cut to pieces. The annalists always freely acknowledged when the invaders had the best of it, and this was their worst day. But the victory was of little use to the Northmen. The very next year, they suffered a defeat from the Irish in Meath in which their whole army was destroyed and almost all their leaders slain, and only enough of the Danes were left alive to bear tidings of their defeat. This region saw almost continuous fighting between the invaders and the Irish for about 200 years, from around 814 to the battle of Clontarf in 1014. Despite disasters like this one, the net gains of the fighting were decidedly on the side of the Irish. The Northmen defeated and killed more than one Irish chief king, but that never brought them any nearer the conquest of the island, for the provincial kings used to fight them on their own account. As the book puts it, the Northmen had too many heads to cut off, and none of the heads controlled the destinies of the country.

45. Cathedral at Cashel burned in 1495 to kill Archbishop Creagh

    Cashel · townland · Tipperary · 1495–1752

    One of the Fitzgeralds burned the cathedral at Cashel in 1495 in an attempt to kill Archbishop Creagh, whom he believed to be inside; divine service reportedly continued there as late as 1752.

    Read the passage

    Cashel became a seat of Christian cult at a very early period, and there are good reasons to think that St Patrick founded a church there. The Rock of Cashel has for very many centuries been known as _Carraig Phadraig_, or Patrick's Rock. The first Christian Irishman whose writings have come down to us was Dubhthach, or, as the name would probably now be Anglicised, Duffy, Mac U Lugair. In his poem in praise of the prowess of Leinstermen, he says, that they "unyoked their horses on the ramparts of clerical Cashel." As this Duffy was a disciple of St Patrick's, and one of the first converts made by him in Ireland, we are forced to think that one of the first Christian churches ever erected in Ireland was the one erected in Cashel, as it appears to have been in existence when Duffy wrote his poem, which could hardly have been later than the middle of the sixth century. But no vestige of the church of St Patrick's time remains. It was probably a wooden building, and may have disappeared as far back as thirteen centuries ago. The oldest building on the Rock of Cashel is the round tower, not Mr Scully's incongruous edifice, but the original one, built probably in the ninth century. It is ninety feet high, and in a fairly good state of preservation. The cathedral is thought to have been built in 1169 by O'Brien, King of Munster, but there does not appear to be much of the building he erected to be seen now, for the ruined cathedral which exists cannot, from the style of its architecture, be older than the fourteenth century. We know from authentic history that one of the Fitzgeralds burned the cathedral in 1495, because he wanted to burn Archbishop Creagh, who, he thought, was in it; but it does not seem to be fully known whether the building was entirely or only partially destroyed by Fitzgerald. Divine service is said to have been celebrated in it so late as 1752, but it must have been in a semi-ruined condition even then.

    [Illustration: INTERIOR OF CORMAC'S CHAPEL.]

    Project Gutenberg #39500, Chapter 9

    As the companion tells it

    Somewhere close to Cashel stands the Rock of Cashel, known for centuries as Carraig Phadraig, Patrick's Rock. Cashel became a seat of Christian worship very early, and there are good reasons to think St Patrick founded a church there. The first Christian Irishman whose writings survive, Dubhthach, or Duffy, Mac U Lugair, a disciple of Patrick's, wrote of Leinstermen that they "unyoked their horses on the ramparts of clerical Cashel," suggesting a church existed there by the middle of the sixth century. No vestige of Patrick's church remains; it was probably wooden and may have disappeared thirteen centuries ago. The oldest building on the Rock is the round tower, built probably in the ninth century, ninety feet high and still fairly well preserved. The cathedral is thought to have been built in 1169 by O'Brien, King of Munster, though the ruined cathedral that survives cannot, from its architecture, be older than the fourteenth century. In 1495 one of the Fitzgeralds burned the cathedral because he wanted to burn Archbishop Creagh, who he believed was inside. It is not fully known whether the building was entirely or only partially destroyed. Divine service is said to have been celebrated in it as late as 1752, though it must have been semi-ruined even then.

46. Cromwellian destruction of Clonmacnois castle and O'Ruarc's tower

    Clonmacnoise · townland · Offaly · 1650–1660

    The blowing up of Hugo de Lacy's magnificent twelfth-century castle at Clonmacnois, along with the demolition of thirty or forty feet of O'Ruarc's tower, is attributed to Cromwell's troopers stationed at Athlone.

    Read the passage

    Clonmacnois has suffered as much from vandalism as any other place of its kind in Ireland. It was taken and spoiled by the Danes when at the height of its splendour in the ninth century. But it was not the Danes that committed the worst depredations in this wonderfully unique and ancient place. They were committed by men who used gunpowder, for it was evidently by it that most of the old buildings of Clonmacnois were destroyed. It is generally believed that it was by one of Cromwell's captains who was stationed with some troops at Athlone when the Royalist cause had been lost that most of the destruction at Clonmacnois was accomplished. The blowing up of the magnificent castle erected here by Hugo de Lacy in the twelfth century, is attributed to Cromwell's troopers, as is also the demolition of some thirty or forty feet of the larger of the two round towers, known as O'Ruarc's tower.

    There are the remains of only three churches extant in Clonmacnois; but we know from authentic annals and history that there were nearly a dozen churches in it at one time. What became of them, or where they stood, cannot now be known. Many of them were, probably, wooden churches, and, when once destroyed, left no trace. The ruins of the ancient nunnery are distant nearly quarter of a mile from the churchyard, on the grounds of a gentleman named Charlton. It is only about thirty years ago since an attempt was made to clear away the rubbish in which they were buried, and to try if any of the sculptured stones could be recovered. The excavations were made under the supervision of the Protestant Bishop of Limerick. Sculptured stone-work of the highest order of art was dug up from many feet under the surface where the destroyers had buried it. Visitors to Clonmacnois will not have any difficulty in seeing the ruins of the nunnery, for Mr Charlton willingly permits visitors to see them. It is not only curious, but hopeful and pleasant, to find people of the same religious belief altering so much for the better as time rolls by. Whilom Protestant men and a whilom Protestant Government did all they could in the seventeenth century to turn Clonmacnois into a heap of ruins, almost as void and as shapeless as those of Babylon; but Protestant men and a Protestant Government in the nineteenth century have done everything in their power to save it from further decay, and to dig up its sculptured stones from the dust in which ancient Protestant fanaticism and bigotry had buried them.

    Project Gutenberg #39500, Chapter 7

47. Danes Plunder the Anchorites' Cells on Skellig

    near Skellig Rock Great · townland · Kerry

    Despite the extreme difficulty of landing on the Skelligs rocks off the Kerry coast, where a boat can land only on the calmest days, the Northmen found the landing-place, plundered the anchorites' cells, and killed everyone they found there.

    Read the passage

    Whatever benefit other countries may have received from the Danes or Northmen, Ireland received none. To her they were nothing but a curse. If they had conquered her, they might, in the long run, have benefitted her. It would be not only difficult, but absolutely impossible, to point out a single way, except, perhaps, by an admixture of a little new blood, in which Ireland was benefitted by the visits of the Northmen. In spite of their very great skill in ship-building and navigation, they introduced not a single art into Ireland. Confused as the political state of the country was before they came to it, it was still more confused when they ceased to be plunderers and became merchants. They had nothing themselves that could be called literature, and were the greatest enemies that Irish literature had ever encountered, for the number of books they must have destroyed is beyond calculation. Not a monastery or church from one end of Ireland to the other escaped being plundered by them, and most of the monasteries were plundered _ten times_ during the two hundred years their plunderings lasted. Iona, though not in Ireland, was an Irish establishment; it was so often plundered by them, and its entire population so often killed, that it had to be entirely abandoned in the ninth century. It became a ruin, and remained such until the Northmen ceased their raids; its treasures, or what remained of them, were removed to Kells in Ireland. Nothing can show more plainly the knowledge the Northmen possessed of the country, and their determination to leave nothing in it unplundered, than their having plundered the anchorites' cells on the Skelligs rocks, off the coast of Kerry. It is said that there is but one spot at which a boat can land on these rocks, and then only on the very finest and calmest day; but the Northmen found out the landing-place, plundered the cells, and, of course, killed every one they found in them.

    Project Gutenberg #39500, Chapter 24

48. Local farmer's ignorance of Emania's heroic past

    near Navan · monument · Armagh

    During a visit to Emania, the author met a small farmer growing potatoes over the obliterated fosse who had never heard of King Connor MacNessa, Cuchullainn, or the Red Branch Knights, and believed the Navan Ring was built by the Danes.

    Read the passage

    It is for the antiquarian rather than for the seeker of the picturesque that Emania will ever have the most attraction. There is nothing very striking from a scenic point of view in its environs. Its present shockingly uprooted condition, and the almost total lack of interest the peasantry living in its immediate vicinity take in it, have a depressing effect on anyone interested in Irish literature, history, or antiquities. During the writer's last visit to this historic spot he met a small farmer whose potatoes were planted over part of the obliterated fosse and rampart of this famous stronghold of Ulster. He had never heard of King Connor MacNessa, of Connall Carnach, of Cuchullainn, or of the Red Branch Knights. He knew no more about them than about the heroes of ancient China. He said that he "ever an' always hard that the Navan Ring was built by the Danes." This man had been born and bred in the locality, but he took no more interest in the historic spot that had given him birth than if he were a Hottentot instead of an Irishman. Anglicisation has indeed been carried to an extreme pitch in most parts of Ireland, and is rapidly turning the Irish peasant into the most generally uninteresting, prosy, and least _spirituel_ of mortals. As a rule, the more Anglicised he becomes the more intolerable he is. If the peasantry living round Emania had preserved their native language, while at the same time knowing English, if they were bilingual, like millions of their class in different European countries, many things connected with the history of this celebrated place would be known to them; but having lost the link that bound them to the past, they are like a new race in a new country. It is well known that the masses of the Greek peasantry, notwithstanding that a large percentage of them are illiterate, know more about the history and traditions of their country than any Irishman, save a specialist, knows about the history and traditions of Ireland. In very few European countries will such a knowledge of its past be found among the masses as in Greece, and principally because the Greeks have preserved their language.

    Project Gutenberg #39500, Chapter 4

49. MacLiag's Lament for Kincora

    near Killaloe · townland · Clare · 1014

    MacLiag, chief poet and secretary to Brian Boramha, composed a famous lament mourning the vanished glory of Kincora and its heroes after Brian's death, translated by Clarence Mangan.

    Read the passage

    "Where, oh Kincora, is Brian the Great? And where is the beauty that once was thine? Oh where are the princes and nobles that sate At the feasts in thy halls and drank the red wine, Where, oh Kincora?

    "Where, oh Kincora, are thy valorous lords, Oh whither, thou Hospitable, are they gone? Oh where the Dalcassians of cleaving swords, And where are the heroes that Brian led on, Where, oh Kincora?

    Project Gutenberg #39500, Chapter 14

50. St Brigit's foundation at Kildare

    Kildare · town · Kildare

    Kildare owes its origin to St Brigit, who in the sixth century founded a monastery there on or near the site of the present cathedral; the Trias Thaumaturga records that a great city subsequently sprang up around it, becoming the metropolis of the Leinster people.

    Read the passage

    The cathedral of Kildare is a modern and rather plain building of mediocre interest. It is supposed to be built in, or nearly in, the place where the old church stood that was founded by St Brigit in the sixth century. Kildare seems to owe its origin to St Brigit, for the name means the cell or church of the oak; and as Brigit was contemporary with St Patrick, hers must have been the first Christian establishment founded at Kildare. It is stated in the _Trias Thaumaturga_ of Colgan that when she returned to her own district, a cell was assigned to her in which she afterwards led a wonderful life; that she erected a monastery in Kildare, and that a very great city afterwards sprang up, which became the metropolis of the Lagenians, or Leinster folk. It requires a great stretch of imagination to conceive how Kildare could ever have been a "very great city," for it is now, and has for many years, been a small, a very small country town, hardly any more than a village. It seems strange that Kildare is not larger and more prosperous, for if not situated in a picturesque part of the island, the country round it is very fair and fertile, and beautiful as any flat country could be. There is, however, a passage in the "Calendar of Oengus," written in the latter end of the eighth or the beginning of the ninth century, that goes far to prove that what is said in the _Trias Thaumaturga_ about Kildare having been once a large place is true. Speaking of the fall of the strongholds of the Pagans, and the rise of Christian centres, Oengus says--

    "Aillinn's proud burgh Hath perished with its warlike host: Great is victorious Brigit: Fair is her multitudinous city."

    Project Gutenberg #39500, Chapter 8

    As the companion tells it

    As you pass through Kildare, you are in a town whose name means the cell or church of the oak, and whose origin goes back to St Brigit in the sixth century. The cathedral here is a modern and rather plain building, but it is supposed to stand on, or very near, the place where Brigit's old church stood. Brigit was contemporary with St Patrick, and hers was the first Christian establishment founded at Kildare. Colgan's Trias Thaumaturga records that when she returned to her own district, a cell was assigned to her in which she afterwards led a wonderful life. She erected a monastery in Kildare, and a very great city sprang up around it, which became the metropolis of the Lagenians, the Leinster folk. It takes a great stretch of imagination to picture Kildare as a very great city, for it has long been a small country town, hardly more than a village. The country round it is fair and fertile, as beautiful as any flat country could be, so it seems strange that the place is not larger and more prosperous. But a passage in the Calendar of Oengus, written in the late eighth or early ninth century, goes far to prove the Trias Thaumaturga right. Speaking of the fall of the strongholds of the pagans and the rise of Christian centres, Oengus says: Aillinn's proud burgh hath perished with its warlike host. Great is victorious Brigit. Fair is her multitudinous city.

51. St Patrick and the Goat that Bleated the Truth at Tara

    near Tara · hill or hills · Meath

    A tribe near Tara stole and ate one of St Patrick's water-carrying goats, then swore a lie about it, but the goat bleated from within their stomachs, exposing the theft, according to the life of St Patrick in the Leabhar Breac.

    Read the passage

    "Then three of Ui Meith Mendait Tire (a tribe that were located in the vicinity of Tara) stole and ate one of the two goats that used to carry water for Patrick, and came to swear a lie. Whereupon the goat bleated from the stomachs of the three. 'By my good judge,' said Patrick, 'the goat himself hides not the place where he is.'" It is hardly to be wondered at that a story like this, that would make any right-minded man laugh, only disgusted a hypochondriacal crank like Carlyle.

    The last chief king who lived in Tara was Dermot MacCarroll, who died in the year 565. He was evidently only half a Christian, for it has been fully proved that Druidism lingered in Ireland for many years after the death of St Patrick. Dermot got into a dispute with the clergy because they sheltered a man who had done something that displeased him. The end of the dispute was that St. Ruadhan, one of the prominent ecclesiastics of the time, cursed Tara, and it was forever abandoned as the seat of royalty. It is almost certain that the real cause of the cursing of Tara by the clergy was that druidical or pagan rites continued to be practised in it after the bulk of the people had become Christians; for it had been for untold centuries the seat of paganism as well as of royalty. It has to be admitted, however, that great a benefit to the true faith as the abandonment of Tara as a political centre undoubtedly was, it was disastrous to the authority of the chief kings, for they appear to have lost much of their authority over the provincial rulers when they abandoned Tara and made their abodes in various places in Meath, Westmeath, and Donegal.

    Project Gutenberg #39500, Chapter 3

52. The Massive Earthworks of Cuchulainn's Dun

    Castletown · townland · Louth

    About a mile from Dundalk railway station, the remains of Cuchulainn's dun crown a hill, with a central mound over forty feet high and an enclosing rampart of two acres, some parts still thirty feet high. The author calls it potentially the finest monument of its kind in Ireland if not for its ruin.

    Read the passage

    About a mile from the Dundalk railway station, crowning the summit of a hill that rises amid green fields and rich pastures, stands all that remains of the _dun_ on which the wooden dwelling of Cuchulainn stood wellnigh two thousand years ago. Before it was partially levelled to build the gewgaw house that now stands on it, it must have been the finest monument of its kind in Ireland. It is quite different from the remains of Tara, Knock Aillinn, Emania, or Dinrigh. Those places were evidently intended to accommodate large numbers of people; but Cuchulainn's _dun_ was evidently that of one person or one family. It answered to the Norman keep that some lords of the soil built for their own private protection in later times. Cuchulainn's _dun_ was immense, and its remains are even still immense in spite of the way it has been ruined. It is yet over forty feet in perpendicular height, and, like most structures of its kind, is perfectly round. It has an area of over half an acre on its summit. The _enceinte_ outside the central _dun_ encloses fully two acres, and where it has not been levelled, is still colossal, being thirty feet high in some parts. The immense labour it must have taken to raise such a gigantic mound, and to dig such vast entrenchments on so high a hill, strikes one with astonishment. If it had not been ruined and partially levelled by the utterly denationalised and soulless person who built the vulgar structure on it, it would be the finest thing of its kind in Ireland, and would attract antiquarians from all parts of these islands and from the Continent.

    Project Gutenberg #39500, Chapter 20

53. The track of the great banquetting-house at Tara

    Tara · parish · Meath · 250

    The best-preserved antiquity at Tara is the track of the banquetting-house, an enormous structure about 800 feet long and 50 feet wide. No stonework survives, suggesting Tara's grand buildings were made of wood even at the height of its splendour under Cormac MacAirt around the mid-third century.

    Read the passage

    The most interesting and best preserved of the antiquities of Tara is the track of the banquetting-house. It must have been an enormous building, for it was about 800 feet long and about 50 wide. It is wonderful how perfectly plain and well-defined the track of this once great structure appears after nearly fourteen hundred years, and in spite of the way this historic spot has been uprooted and levelled. But not a vestige of stone-work or of stones is to be seen near the ruins of the banquetting-house. It seems absolutely certain that there were no buildings of stone in Tara when it was at the height of its grandeur, and that seems to have been about the middle of the third century, during the reign of Cormac MacAirt. It must not be thought that buildings cannot be fine unless they are of stone; but buildings of stone were very rare in northern countries until comparatively recent times. Moore, in his "History of Ireland," says, speaking of wooden buildings and of Tara--"However scepticism may now question their architectural beauty, they could boast the admiration of many a century in evidence of their grandeur. That those edifices were of wood is by no means conclusive either against the elegance of their structure or the civilisation of those who erected them. It was in wood that the graceful forms of Grecian architecture first unfolded their beauties." So the absence of stone buildings in Tara in no way proves that it was not a place of grandeur as well as of beauty; and the tenth century Gaelic poet may have been justified in saying of it,

    "World of perishable beauty! Tara to-day, though a wilderness, Was once the meeting-place of heroes. Great was the host to which it was an inheritance, Though to-day green, grassy land."

    Project Gutenberg #39500, Chapter 3

54. The Vanished Norman Castle of Kells

    Kells · town · Meath · 1170–1200

    A great castle at Kells, built by either Hugo de Lacy or John de Courcy for the protection of newly conquered territory, has completely disappeared, though it is said to have rivalled the castle of Trim in size. De Lacy is also said to have renovated and richly endowed the ruined monastery at the close of the twelfth century.

    Read the passage

    Kells was so often burned and so often plundered by the Northmen that it is a wonder how anything in it remains. According to the annals it was burned twenty-one times, and plundered seven times, before the twelfth century! Every vestige of the great castle, that was built either by Hugo de Lacy or John de Courcy, has disappeared. This castle must have been nearly as large as that of Trim, for it was built for the protection of some of the most valuable country conquered by the invaders. It is said that the monastery was in a ruined condition at the close of the twelfth century, and that de Lacy renovated it and richly endowed it.

    Project Gutenberg #39500, Chapter 19

    As the companion tells it

    As you pass through Kells in Meath, you are moving through ground that once held a great Norman castle. Every vestige of it has disappeared. It was built either by Hugo de Lacy or John de Courcy to protect some of the most valuable country the invaders had conquered, and it must have been nearly as large as the castle of Trim. Kells itself was burned 21 times and plundered 7 times before the twelfth century. At the close of that century, when the monastery lay in ruins, de Lacy renovated it and richly endowed it.

55. True Site of the Battle of Clontarf

    Amiens Street · street · Dublin · 1014

    The battle usually known as the battle of Clontarf was not actually fought in the locality now called Clontarf, but between the Liffey and the Tolka, with the area near Amiens Street probably the centre of the battlefield.

    Read the passage

    We have no account of the first siege of Dublin by the Danes in 836. The annals merely say that a fleet of sixty ships of Northmen came to the Liffey, and that that was the first occupation of the city by them. The Irish captured and plundered Dublin a great many times, but do not appear to have ever tried to banish the Danes permanently out of it. It is probable that the Irish found them useful as carriers of merchandise to them from foreign countries; for seeing how often the city was captured and plundered by the Irish, it is incredible that they could not have held it had they chosen to do so. The Four Masters record its capture and plunder by the Irish in A.D. 942, 945, 988, and 998. In 994 Malachy II. sacked Dublin and carried off two Danish trophies, the ring of Tomar and the sword of Karl; and in 988 he besieged it for twenty days and twenty nights, captured it, and carried off an immense booty; and issued the famous edict, "Every Irishman that is in slavery and oppression in the country of the foreigners (Danes) let him go to his own country in peace and delight." But the Irish were not always lucky in their attacks on the Danes of Dublin, for in 917 Niall Glundubh, King of Ireland, was killed by them, and his army defeated at Killmashogue, beyond Rathfarnham. He evidently intended to take Dublin from the south, because it was so well defended on the north by the Liffey. The battle usually known as the battle of Clontarf was not fought in the locality now called by that name, but between the Liffey and the Tolka. Where Amien Street is now was probably the very centre of the battle-field. Here it may not be out of place to make a remark on the curious fact that the Danes never made any serious attempt to conquer Ireland after the battle of Clontarf, although they were at the height of their power some six or eight years after by the terrible defeat they gave the Saxons at Ashington, in Essex, which gave Canute the crown of England. He thus became not only King of England, but was King of Denmark and Norway as well--the most powerful potentate in Christendom in his time. It is strange that historians have not taken any notice of this extraordinary fact. There was comparatively little fighting between the Irish and the Danes after the battle of Clontarf, although the foreign people held Dublin until the arrival of Strongbow, and made a very poor stand against him, for he captured the city with very little difficulty. Dublin has hardly suffered what could be called a siege since 988, when Malachy II. took it from the Danes. When Strongbow held it, the Irish under the wretched Roderick O'Connor marched a great army under its walls, and were going to take it; but before they began siege operations, and while they were amusing themselves by swimming in the Liffey, Strongbow sallied out on them and totally defeated them. That was the last serious attempt to besiege Dublin.

    Project Gutenberg #39500, Chapter 22

    As the companion tells it

    Along here on Amiens Street, you are near what was probably the very centre of the battlefield of Clontarf, fought in 1014. The battle was not fought in the locality now called by that name, but between the Liffey and the Tolka. Where Amiens Street now stands was likely the heart of the fighting. The Danes first occupied Dublin in 836, when a fleet of 60 ships came to the Liffey. The Irish captured and plundered the city many times but never tried to banish the Danes permanently. The Four Masters record its capture in 942, 945, 988, and 998. In 994, Malachy II sacked Dublin and carried off two Danish trophies, the ring of Tomar and the sword of Karl. In 988, he besieged it for 20 days and 20 nights, captured it, and issued the edict: "Every Irishman that is in slavery and oppression in the country of the foreigners, let him go to his own country in peace and delight." But the Irish were not always fortunate. In 917, Niall Glundubh, King of Ireland, was killed by the Danes, his army defeated at Killmashogue beyond Rathfarnham. He had intended to take Dublin from the south, because it was well defended on the north by the Liffey. After Clontarf, the Danes never made any serious attempt to conquer Ireland, though they were at the height of their power some 6 to 8 years later when they gave the Saxons a terrible defeat at Ashington in Essex, which gave Canute the crown of England. He became King of England, Denmark, and Norway, the most powerful potentate in Christendom. There was little fighting between the Irish and the Danes after Clontarf, though the Danes held Dublin until Strongbow arrived and captured the city with very little difficulty.

56. Athlone's industrial revival after famine decline

    Athlone · town · Westmeath

    Athlone, situated centrally on the Shannon, decayed rapidly after the famine but was revived some thirty years later by the establishment of woollen factories and a saw-mill, and later became a railway centre.

    Read the passage

    Athlone is one of the few towns--perhaps the only one--on the Shannon that is not decaying at present. For many years after the famine it decayed rapidly, but some thirty years ago a woollen factory was established; now there are two woollen factories and a saw-mill that give employment to some hundreds of hands, consequently Athlone has been saved from decay. But comparatively prosperous as it is, it is not one-fourth as prosperous as it ought to be considering its splendid situation and the fertility and beauty of the country that surrounds it. It has recently become a great railway centre; one can go by rail from Athlone to almost any part of Ireland. But all the railways and all the fertility of all the world cannot bring real prosperity to any country in which the population is declining. The decline of the population in Athlone itself and in the country surrounding it has, during the last fifty years, been something frightful, and can only be fully realised by those who remember what it was in former times. A market day in Athlone now is very different from a market day there half a century ago. The writer recollects having been at a market in Athlone when a small boy, about the year 1841 or '42, and saw more people there in one market than could be seen in twenty markets there now. The town was too small to contain much more than half of them; they flowed out into the fields surrounding it. The crowds in the streets were so dense that it would take hours to jostle one's way from one end of the town to the other, and, what will hardly be credited by those whose memories do not go back fifty years, there were certainly three persons speaking Irish for one who spoke English. One might attend markets in Athlone now every week in the year and not hear a word of any language but English. Irish has completely died out of the country surrounding Athlone, save in the south-western corner of the county Roscommon, where some old people still speak it. There is something inexpressibly sad in the fading away of any form of National speech, but, above all, in the fading away of a tongue so old and once so cultivated as Irish. It seems to forebode not only the death of all real National aspirations, but the death of heart and soul. It seems to show that Philistinism is rapidly driving away sentiment from the Irish people. But the life of the Irish peasant has been so long such a battle for mere existence that it is no wonder that he came to look with contempt on everything that did not administer to his mere animal wants. He is rapidly improving since he has had a barrier put between him and the generally cruel treatment he was wont to receive from his landlord. None but those who remember what his position was fifty years ago, and who see what it is now, can fully understand all the advance he has made. In spite of the awful decline of population in the rural districts of Ireland during the last fifty years, there is much to be seen in them to gladden the heart of the philanthropist. Small farmers' cottages, that would formerly be a disgrace to a Zulu or an Esquimaux, are now not only generally clean, but sometimes beautiful. Flowers in pots in the windows and evergreens creeping up the walls of a peasant's cottage would have caused him to be laughed at by his neighbours fifty years ago, but now they cause him to be respected instead of being laughed at. He will become again what he once was, one of the most soulful and un-Philistine of beings; it is probable he will become such when better laws and freer institutions shall have raised him from the slough of poverty and despondency in which he has been steeping for centuries.

    Project Gutenberg #39500, Chapter 4

57. Clew Bay, queen of Irish bays

    near Clew Bay · bay · Mayo

    Clew Bay is praised as the most beautiful bay in Ireland or even Europe, presided over by Croagh Patrick and guarded by Clare Island, said to contain 365 islands, one for each day of the year.

    Read the passage

    We now approach the queen, not alone of Irish bays, but of all bays in these islands, and, according to its most ardent admirers, of all bays in Europe. This is the glorious sheet of salt water, presided over by the most symmetrical and beautiful of Irish mountains, Croagh Patrick, and guarded from the stormy Atlantic by the rocky shores of Clare Island. This is Clew Bay, the radiant beauty, the "matchless wonder of a bay," that not one in a hundred of those in search of the beautiful know anything about. It is indeed strange that this gem of sea lochs is not better known, now that a railway brings one to its very shores.

    It is almost impossible to draw a comparison between Clew Bay and the many magnificent arms of the sea that penetrate the west coasts of Ireland and Scotland, for it is so unlike most of them: Dublin Bay, while less grand and not so beautiful as Clew Bay, is the one that is most like it. Howth has somewhat the same position with regard to Dublin Bay that Clare Island occupies with regard to Clew Bay, and Slieve Coolan--in the name of all that's decent let that abominable name "Sugarloaf" be dropped for ever--is the presiding mountain genius of Dublin Bay, just as Croagh Patrick is the presiding mountain genius of Clew Bay. Both bays are beautiful rather than sublime; they are bright and cheerful rather than dark and frowning. With all the wildness and grandeur of the many far-entering fiords of the coast of Scotland, with all the Alpine glories of their shores, there is not one of them that for beauty alone can be compared with Clew Bay. It is shrouded by no terror-striking precipices. No cataracts pour into it even in flood time. No mountains overhang it. It seems to have been made to cheer and to delight, and not to terrify or to startle. It seems to have said to the mountains round it--"Stand back; come not too near me lest your shadows should fall on me and hide, even for an instant, one gleam of my radiant loveliness." So the mountains round it do stand back, and this is the one cause of its winsomeness, brightness, and cheerfulness. When the tide is full on a sunny day, Clew Bay seems absolutely to laugh. No shadow of surrounding hills can fall upon it, for they are too far away. It is as bright and as radiant a bay as there is in the world, and the glory of the coasts of Connacht.

    Project Gutenberg #39500, Chapter 21

58. Cormac's Chapel consecrated in 1130

    Cashel · townland · Tipperary · 1130

    Cormac's Chapel on the Rock of Cashel was built by Cormac Mac Carthy, King of Munster, in the early twelfth century and consecrated in 1130 according to the Chronicon Scottorum; it is praised as one of the most wonderful small ecclesiastical buildings of its age.

    Read the passage

    But it is Cormac's Chapel that is the real architectural glory of the Rock of Cashel. It is by some wrongly attributed to the time of Cormac Mac Cullenann in the ninth century. It was built by Cormac Mac Carthy, a king of Minister, in the early part of the twelfth century. The principal proof that it was built at that time is found in the _Chronicon Scottorum_, in which it is stated that Cormac's Chapel at Cashel was consecrated in 1130. It is more than probable that the chapel was consecrated very soon after it was finished. It does not come within the scope of a work like this to enter into technical details on matters connected with architecture; but for chaste beauty, for elaborate carving, and solidity of structure, it may be said that Cormac's Chapel is one of the most wonderful ecclesiastical buildings of its age in Christendom. The practised eye of the trained architectural critic might notice some signs of decay about it, some effacement in the gorgeous carvings or designs with which almost every stone of the interior is more or less covered; but to the ordinary observer, the whole building, within and without, seems almost as perfect as it was the day its architect pronounced it finished. If Cormac's Chapel were only larger, it would be the noblest and most remarkable ecclesiastical building of its age in the British Isles, or probably in Europe. But, unfortunately, it is very small, the nave being only about thirty feet in length, and the choir only about eighteen. But what it lacks in size is made up in elaborate carving, chaste design, and solidity of structure. It looks as if it would last until the day of doom, and as if nothing but an earthquake could destroy it. Its very roof seems as strong and as perfect as its walls. It is of cut stone laid on with geometrical exactness, as sound and as solid as ever it was. However imposing the _coup d'oeil_ that "the rock-throned pediments and towers" of Cashel may present from without, it is an examination of this gem of antique architectural beauty that gives one the highest opinion of the artistic skill of those whose appreciation of the unique and beautiful led them to choose this towering rock as a fit place on which to raise edifices dedicated to the Deity.

    Project Gutenberg #39500, Chapter 9

    As the companion tells it

    Somewhere close to Cashel stands Cormac's Chapel, consecrated in 1130. It was built by Cormac Mac Carthy, king of Munster, in the early part of the twelfth century. Some have wrongly attributed it to the time of Cormac Mac Cullenann in the ninth century, but the Chronicon Scottorum states that Cormac's Chapel at Cashel was consecrated in 1130, and it is probable the chapel was consecrated soon after it was finished. For chaste beauty, elaborate carving, and solidity of structure, it may be said that Cormac's Chapel is one of the most wonderful ecclesiastical buildings of its age in Christendom. A trained eye might notice some signs of decay, some effacement in the gorgeous carvings with which almost every stone of the interior is covered. But to the ordinary observer the whole building seems almost as perfect as the day its architect pronounced it finished. If it were only larger, it would be the noblest and most remarkable ecclesiastical building of its age in the British Isles, or probably in Europe. But it is very small. The nave is only about 30 feet in length, and the choir only about 18. What it lacks in size is made up in elaborate carving, chaste design, and solidity of structure. It looks as if it would last until the day of doom, as if nothing but an earthquake could destroy it. Its roof is of cut stone laid on with geometrical exactness, as sound and as solid as ever. However imposing the "rock-throned pediments and towers" of Cashel may present from without, it is an examination of this gem of antique beauty that gives the highest opinion of the skill of those who chose this towering rock as a fit place to raise edifices dedicated to the Deity.

59. Danish sack of Clonmacnois in its ninth-century splendour

    Clonmacnoise · townland · Offaly · 800–899

    Clonmacnois was taken and spoiled by the Danes when it was at the height of its splendour in the ninth century.

    Read the passage

    Clonmacnois has suffered as much from vandalism as any other place of its kind in Ireland. It was taken and spoiled by the Danes when at the height of its splendour in the ninth century. But it was not the Danes that committed the worst depredations in this wonderfully unique and ancient place. They were committed by men who used gunpowder, for it was evidently by it that most of the old buildings of Clonmacnois were destroyed. It is generally believed that it was by one of Cromwell's captains who was stationed with some troops at Athlone when the Royalist cause had been lost that most of the destruction at Clonmacnois was accomplished. The blowing up of the magnificent castle erected here by Hugo de Lacy in the twelfth century, is attributed to Cromwell's troopers, as is also the demolition of some thirty or forty feet of the larger of the two round towers, known as O'Ruarc's tower.

    There are the remains of only three churches extant in Clonmacnois; but we know from authentic annals and history that there were nearly a dozen churches in it at one time. What became of them, or where they stood, cannot now be known. Many of them were, probably, wooden churches, and, when once destroyed, left no trace. The ruins of the ancient nunnery are distant nearly quarter of a mile from the churchyard, on the grounds of a gentleman named Charlton. It is only about thirty years ago since an attempt was made to clear away the rubbish in which they were buried, and to try if any of the sculptured stones could be recovered. The excavations were made under the supervision of the Protestant Bishop of Limerick. Sculptured stone-work of the highest order of art was dug up from many feet under the surface where the destroyers had buried it. Visitors to Clonmacnois will not have any difficulty in seeing the ruins of the nunnery, for Mr Charlton willingly permits visitors to see them. It is not only curious, but hopeful and pleasant, to find people of the same religious belief altering so much for the better as time rolls by. Whilom Protestant men and a whilom Protestant Government did all they could in the seventeenth century to turn Clonmacnois into a heap of ruins, almost as void and as shapeless as those of Babylon; but Protestant men and a Protestant Government in the nineteenth century have done everything in their power to save it from further decay, and to dig up its sculptured stones from the dust in which ancient Protestant fanaticism and bigotry had buried them.

    Project Gutenberg #39500, Chapter 7

60. Eimir Pursues Cuchulainn and Fann to Newry

    near Newry · town · Down

    When Cuchulainn eloped with Fann, wife of Manannan MacLir, Eimir discovered the pair were staying at Newry and followed with fifty armed maids intending to kill her rival.

    Read the passage

    Like all violent love, Cuchulainn's love for Eimir seems soon to have cooled, for we find that a lady called Fann, the wife of Manannan MacLir, King of the Isle of Man, or some place east of Ireland, fell in love with him. She came to see her father, a man of rank and wealth, who lived somewhere on the east coast of Ireland. She eloped with Cuchulainn, and Eimir, finding that she and her erring husband were staying at Newry, in the present County of Down, followed him, attended by fifty maids armed with knives, in order to kill Fann. This lady, in spite of her errors, must have been an intellectual woman, for her speech when leaving Cuchulainn and going home with MacLir is very fine, and would be a credit to the literature of any language. The tract in which it occurs is in the Book of the Dun Cow, an Irish manuscript compiled in the eleventh century, and is entitled "The Sick Bed of Cuchulainn and only Jealousy of Eimir." It was admirably translated nearly forty years ago by Eugene O'Curry, and was published in the long since dead periodical, the _Atlantis_. None but a few Celtic savants have ever read it. To the general public it will be absolutely new. Fann, finding that she must leave Cuchulainn, says:--

    "It is I who shall go on a journey; I give consent with great affliction; Though there is a man of equal fame, I would prefer to remain [here].

    Project Gutenberg #39500, Chapter 20