The History of Dundalk, and its environs; from the earliest period to the present time; with memoirs of its eminent men

Front matter

MR. D'ALTOFS MANUSCRIPT COLLECTIONS, HISTORICAL, TOPOGRAPHICAL, AND GENEALOGICAL, TO BE SOLD, Wliolly, or in Lots, as classified at the commencement of his " Annals of Boyle," or singly, as they may be sought, for any Locality or Surname. Three Volumes of Indexes, small quarto, detailing references and authorities for illustrating upwards of 2,500 surnames, alpha betically arranged. Nine Volumes of Indexes, octavo, affording similar references in aid of the history of Irish localities ; directing the inquirer to the historic associations, legal records, and statistics of every Province, County, Barony, and Parish of Ireland; every City, Borough, Castle, Town, Lake, River, &c. ; and all details thereof are so alphabeted and arranged that, in a successive investigation from the particular locality to the Parish, the Barony, the County, the Province, no repetitions waste the time of the inquirer.

One Volume Genealogia Generalis, thick octavo, containing direc tions and aids in searches on family Pedigrees chronologically from the earliest period. This digest classifies the materials for its object and the authorities, by periods, as under the reigns of the successive Sovereigns of England from the Conqueror to the present day, with especial attention to the attainders and forfeitures incurred in the civil wars of Ireland, This portion of the Volume is followed by distinct classifications of collections for more pecu liarly provincial pedigrees of Leinster, Ulster, Munster, and Connaught ; then of Scotch and Welsh pedigrees ; and, lastly, of those of English origin, through each respective County of England. A Eleven Volumes octavo, giving extracts from MSS. of rare access, as those of Trinity College, the Royal Dublin Society, Primate Marsh, the Surveyor-General's Office, the British Museum, the First Fruits' Office, the Hanaper, the Rolls, Bermingham Tower, the King's Inns, the Registry Office, and the Tower of London.

Sixty-eight Volumes octavo, containing compilations of annals, records, and events, with reference to authorities, chronologically arranged for distinct Histories of the several Counties of Ireland, through their respective Baronies, Parishes, and leading localities, with notes of excursions and personal observations in some. Two Volumes octavo. — The first containing complete materials of chronological reference for a History of the Archbishops of Armagh, from the earliest period to the present day ; the second a similar collection for Memoirs of the Bishops of Meath. With three other Volumes of Diocesan Digests. Thirty-three Volumes quarto and octavo, containing chronological notices of Families of Ireland, as well those of the native septs as of the Anglo-Norman introduction. One Volume, large folio, comprising a full list of all the Outlaw ries that issued from the King's Bench in Ireland for " treasons," from 1640 to 1698, alphabetically arranged in columns, under the respective heads of "Parties' Names," "Places of Residence," "Dates of Inquisitions," and " Places Where Held."

Chapter I. From The Early Ages To The Time Of St

PATRICK. The traditions of the early annalists of our country, as adopted by the Four Masters, and confirmed by Nennius, the British historian, relate that in the year of the world 2859, before pestilence destroyed the adventurers whom Nemedius had led to invade Ireland, the forests were cut down which covered the tract of country whose vicissitudes it is the object of this history to record, and which was thereupon denominated Magh- Muirthemne — i. _., the Plain of the Sea. According to custom a fortress was erected upon the clearance ; and, in the credence which, in the seventeenth century, those pious historians conceded to the vast mass of native manuscripts then before them, but which, like the chivalry and spirit of the nation, perished soon after in desolating civil wars, it may be admissible to identify the earthwork of Nemedius with the remarkable fort which yet stands at the place now known as Castletown.

This mound lies about a mile from Dundalk, in a position that eminently fitted it for overlooking and commanding the bay and the surrounding country, to the mountains of Carlingford. Examination of the work shows b it to have been throughout artificial, and surrounded with a formidable ditch.* The height of the terrace work from the plane of the trench is in some places fifty feet, and the circumference of the top is upwards of 560. At its east and west sides are two other forts or redoubts, adjoining to the outward vallum of the ditch, which are again themselves surrounded by a ditch; and these together with the main mount cover a considerable surface ; indeed the whole summit of the hill, and seen for several miles to the north and south, present a very formidable appearances The Four Masters, at this period of their Annals, record the erection of many other forts or raths by the same colonists throughout Ireland, as well as the cutting down of forests and the opening of (tochars) roads through the various spaces so prepared for occupation.

Soon after the more successful invasion of Milesius, which occurred, according to the chronology of the same historians, in A.M. 3500, his followers encountered the natives in battle at Slieve Mis, and in the progress of subsequent engagements the fall of Cuailgne, one of the Milesian leaders, gave his * On the summit of one of the highest of the Malvern ridge of hills is a noble and commanding rath, termed " the Herefordshire Beacon," to which this of Castletown is considered closely to assimilate. It is thus described : — " In area an irregular oblong, 175 feet in its longest diameter, and 110 in its shortest, surrounded by a high steep vallum, or bank of stones, and earth, now covered with turf, and by a very deep ditch on the outside. A large but lower outwork grows from it, like a bastion at one end, as does a second at another end, each being surrounded by a high bank and ditch.

That great work of ancient times, like this of Castle town, commanded the pass of the country around it for centuries after its erection." — King's Munimenta Antiqua, vol. vi., p. 20. t Wright's Louthiana, part i. name to the mountains of Cooley, between this town and Carlingford, a district which it will be seen was afterwards more strikingly associated with bardic history. At this time, also, the erection of raths or forts by Heremon, and his younger brother, Amergin, are recorded. Tradition says these earth-works, as seems obvious, were all crowned with buildings, and that the very fosses were arched over in covered ways ; but there seems no doubt that all such structures must have been of wood or wicker-work, possibly covered with the ready heath or fern. Those spoken of in the Leges Wallicœ, as erected for the use of the Welch kings, suggest the adoption of these materials.

They comprised halls, refectories, kitchens and dormitories, with out houses for stabling horses and dogs, workshops, granaries, and forges ; and fines for injuries thereto, " by hewing or burning," were rated according to the number of pillars and beams that con tributed to sustain the particular edifice.* The most remarkable of the royal raths of Ireland was that of Eamania, erected within this province by Cimbaeth, the fifty-sixth monarch in the succession of the Milesian dynasty, in A.M. 4484 (according to the chronology of the Four Masters) ; from which period it continued to be the seat of the Ulster kings, down to the time of its destruction, in the beginning of the fourth century. The annotators of Geraghty's Annals of the Four Masters calculate that there are upwards of 30,000 raths yet existing over Ireland, although many more have been levelled for the uses of agriculture, notwithstanding the popular superstition which long protected them. * Leges Wallicœ, pp. 167, 263, &c. B There is no direct evidence extant of agricultural pursuits during this pagan era of Ireland, at least so far as any system of tillage or farm cultivation.

The habits of the people were like those of other countries at the day— pastoral and patri archal. Forests, lakes, and rivers afforded abundance for the hunter and the fisherman, while a partial domestication of herds of oxen, sheep, and pigs, is indicated in the payments of animal currency as tributes to the kings and chiefs, for ransoms of prisoners, fines of malefactors, and such traffic as was then practised — while the mention of mills and the frequent discoveries of rude querns must suggest some agri cultural manufactures at this pagan era. The years which immediately preceded the birth of Christ are spoken of as influenced, in the language of the annalists, by that coming event, — " the sea gave up abundance of fish; the woods were pressed down by the weight of their fruits ; the nuts over hanging the rivers impeded their current ; the herds of cattle wandered safe without the necessity of a shepherd, by reason of the prevalence of peace and order, and no rough wind affected the herds."

In the second year of what may be here termed the Christian era — although Christianity had not been revealed to Ireland for many years after — died the hero of bardic commemoration — Cuchullin, " chief of Erin's wars." Tigernach, the most candid and learned historian of Northern Europe, and who himself died in 1018 (four years after the memorable Battle of Clontarf), records the death of this warrior. He calls him "fortissimus heros Scotorum," and mentions that he had been knighted (as was the early native custom), at the age of seven ; that he was engaged in that fierce foray which alone disturbed the halcyon times of Conary the Great, and which is popularly entitled the " Tain-bo-Cuailgne" — "the spoiling of the cattle at Cuailgne ;"* and lastly, that he was slain in the above year, being the twenty-seventh of his age.

Long tradition, religiously preserved, suggests that the Nemedian fort, before alluded to, then called Dun-Dalgan, was the palace of Cuchullin. Here he lived, surrounded by those Knights of the Red Branch whose achievements, in the seven years of feudal hostilities through which the Tain-bo-Cuailgne extended, are the subject of a native poem of considerable length, and yet extant,! recently translated by the lamented Eugene O'Curry. The Danish historians record invasions of Ulster at this time by their sea-kings, which afforded Cuchullin a more natural and meritorious mode of evincing his courage and patriotism, and which MacPherson has gladly adopted in his Ossian's Poems, as more suited to the poetical machinery of that interesting imposition : — " Swaran wasted Erin . He advanced as a stream that burst from the desert ; the hills are rolled in its course, and the rocks have sunk by its side, but Cuchullin stood before him like a hill that catches the clouds of heaven.

The winds contend on its head of pines, and the hail rattles on its rocks, but firm in its strength it stands and shades the silent vale of Cona."| Were the narrative of the Scottish editor of these poems to be relied on as trustworthy, the country around Castletown would have been associated with the military appearance of this hero of the North. " The car of war comes on like the * A locality which Dr. O'Donovan identifies with Slieve Cooley, between this town and Carlingford. f See D' Alton's History of Drogheda, vol ii., p. 12, and Professor 0' Curry's Lectures, p. 14. t Fingal, book flame of death — the rapid car of Cuchullin. It bends behind like a wave near a rock, like the sun-streaked mist of the heath. Its sides are embossed with stones, and sparkle like the sea round the boat of night.

Of polished yew is its beam, its seat is of the smoothest bone ; the sides are replenished with spears ; the bottom is the footstool of heroes. Before the right side of the car is seen the snorting horse, the high maned, broad-breasted, proud, wide-leaping, strong steed of the hill. Loud and resounding is his hoof; the spreading of his mane above is like a stream of smoke on a ridge of rocks. Bright are the sides of the steed; his name is Suleen-Sifadda. Before the left side of the car is seen the snorting horse, the thin-maned, high-headed, strong-hoofed, fleet-bounding son of the hill. His name is Duo-ronnal among the stormy sons of the sword. Hard polished bits shine in a wreath of foam ; thin thongs, bright studded with gems, bend on the stately necks of the steeds, that like wreaths of mist fly over the streamy vales; the wildness of deer is in their course, the strength of eagles descending on their prey.

Their noise is like the blast of winter in the sides of the snow-headed Gormal. Within the car is seen the chief, the strong-armed son of the sword ; the hero's name is Cuchullin."* Apochryphal as the description of this chariot of the ruler of" Dundalgan" may appear, it must not be denied that the arts had, even previous to his time, made no inconsiderable progress in our island. The Four Masters record, from far more ancient chronicles, the manufacture of corslets and bracelets, in A.M. 3656; the classifying of dresses and robes, by colours, with sumptuary regulations, in A.M. 3664; the working of collars and necklaces of gold, in A.M. 3872; and, * Fingal, book i. yet more to the illustration of the present inquiry, the intro duction of chariots for four horses into Ireland, upwards of ten centuries previous to the era of Cuchullin : while in the ninth year of the Christian era, being seven years after the death of this warrior, the same annalists, narrating the memorable expedition of Crimthain, King of Ireland, into Britain, give a note of the precious spoils he brought home, and amongst them a valuable car, ornamented with gold ; arms, adorned with gold, and inlaid with gems ; cloaks and housings of wool, with fringes of gold ; a war sword, with figures of serpents laid in gold upon it ; a shield, with silver bosses ; a lance, a sling, and two hunting dogs, with a silver chain worth 300 heifers; and many other precious articles.

All these articles, however, it must be admitted, were imports. But at a later period, the chariot of St. Patrick, and those of other saints, are made mention of, and this not as novelties. Numerous ornaments, crowns, bracelets, gorgets, clasps, and vessels for civil and religious uses, which could not have been manufactured without great insight into the art of smelting, refining, and working metals, have been discovered throughout the country, and are abundantly displayed in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy. Dun-dalgan gave its name to the town, which, as will be seen, grew up along the shore, and a portion is still described as Ballynatraga — i. e., the town on the strand, or Seatown. The appellation Dundalgan, corrupted to Dundalk, was extended over that vicinage now known as the Baronies of Upper and Lower Dundalk ; but previously the former was denominated Hy Mac Uais, and ruled by the MacScanlons, the latter as Fera-lerg, or Lurgan,* the whole country being * Gough's Camden. still chronicled as Magh-Muirthemne, or sometimes Conall- Muirthemne, from Conall Carnach, chief of the Red Branch Knights of Ulster ; and the Four Masters record, at A.D. 248, a battle fought at Faughart, as within Muirthemne, by Cormac Ulfada, that illustrious King of Ireland, who, although he could not be said to have believed in Christ, yet professed during his fife such utter abhorrence of the pagan rites of the day as greatly facilitated the subsequent reception of St. Patrick* His son-in-law, Finn-Mac-Coul, was, according to bardic legends, the dynast of Dundalk at the close of this century, or the commencement of the fourth, and is the person whom, under the more euphonious appellation of Fingal, Mac- Pherson, regardless of chronology, makes the contemporary of Cuchullin.

" Fingal, thou man of battles, early were thy deeds in arms ; Lochlin was consumed in thy wrath ; when thy youth strove with the beauties of maids, they smiled at the fair blooming face of the hero, but death was in his hand. He was strong as the waters of Lorra ; hi8 followers were like the roar of a thousand streams. They took the King of Lochlin in battle, but restored him to his ships. His big heart swelled with pride, and the death of the youth was dark in his soul, for none ever but Fingal overcame the strength of the mighty Storno." Thus far, perhaps, may be pardoned quotations from this poetic production, as illustrative of characters undoubtedly connected with Dundalk. Whitaker actually relied upon MacPherson's Ossian as historical authority ; and certainly it should be a source of great satisfaction to Irishmen and Scotch men if, on such an inference, Whitaker's judgment were sound, * See D* Alton's History of Drogheda, vol. ii., p. 13, &c. and MacPherson's veracity unimpeachable. The poems of the latter are certainly a beautiful mirage — at first too much extolled, and now, by an equality of reaction, too much neglected.

Chapter II. From The Time Of St

PATRICK TO THE INVASION OF STRONGBOW. When early in the fifth century, and before his apostolic mission, St. Patrick was carried captive from Armoric Bri tanny to Ireland,* according to one of the early biographers of the apostle, as published by Colgan, Lupita, bis sister, was the sharer of his destiny. She was sold on this shore of Connal-Muirthemne, while her brother was carried northward to Dalaradia, where, in the service of Milca, his employment was the care of pigs through the trees and forests that sur rounded Slieve-Mis. In fifteen years after his subsequent triumphant arrival as bishop from Rome to Ireland, St. Brigid, the future Patroness of Leinster, and foundress of female religious communities in the land, was born at Faughart, near this town. At the Kalends of May, A.D. 664, according to the Annals of Tigernach, an eclipse occurred, which was succeeded, in the summer, by appearances as if the firmament were on fire ; and, in the Kalends of August, of the same year, a great mortality fell upon Ireland.

This pestilence had previously ravaged England, from whence, passing over, it made its first appearance on the plain of May Ith of Faughard. * See D' Alton's Annals of Boyle, vol. ii., p. 60, &c. The Four Masters record, at the year 686, a battle was fought at Imle-phich, between Neal, son of Carnach, and Conall, son of Conory, in which the former was victorious, and Ureraidhe O Osene, chief of Connal Muirthemne, was slain. In nine years after they relate that Magh-Muirthemne was devastated by the " Britons,"* and the people of Ulster. This hostile incursion furnished materials for an Irish romantic tale, copies of which are said to be yet extant. In 732 another battle was fought at Faughart, in Connal Muirthemne, by Hugh Allain, then King of Ireland, aided by the sept of the Northern Nials, against the people of Ulidia, whose ruler, say the " Masters," was beheaded at the gate of the church at Faughart, on the stone of decapitation.!

Many other victims of that day's field are mentioned by the annalists, who attribute the contest to the desecration of a church by the vanquished Ulidian ruler.t In 751, say the Four Masters, an army of the men of Leinster, was led up by Donald MacMurrough, joined by the sept of the Nials, into Magh-Muirthemne, but the historians do not suggest the object or the result of the expedition. So early as the year 833, a Danish incursion was made upon this coast, in which, as Ledwich§ gives the tradition, Mac- Scanlan, a remarkable chieftain of this vicinage, was engaged. About thirty yards from the rath of Bally-mac-Scanlan, is the entrance into a cave which runs under it, and the work is * The appellation of Scots was not then yet popularly attributed to the Irish colony of North Britain. t The scene of this avenging death is still distinguishable, and the stone is still pointed out at the door of the Church of Faughart O'Donovan's Four Masters, note at p. 330, vol. i. % Colgan's Trias Thaumalurga. § Antiq., p. 47. regarded as MacScanlan's tomb; while at a short distance from it is a cromlech called " the Giant's load," presenting a stone of enormous size, and incumbent on three supports.

Near it is seen an erection of stones, curiously bounding a space thirty feet long by five broad, and covered at the head by a large oblong stone, incumbent on others. It is called the Giant's Grave, and might well suit the carrier of the cromlech. In 877, during the existence of a war of reprisals between some Irish and the natives of Galloway, Gregory, King of Scotland, as Buchanan relates, in order to reimburse his subjects for injuries alleged to have been done to them, passed with an army into Ireland, took Dundalk and Drogheda, and afterwards laid siege to Dublin. Holinshed, adopting the Scottish legend, says: — "that King Gregory, pretending a title to Ireland, as belonging to him by right of lawful succession, made this journey thither, and within a small time made a conquest of the country.

This Gregory (he adds) lies buried in one of the out isles, called Iona, or Columbkill, where they speak, naturally, Irish, and therefore some of the Scots would seem to make the conquest of Henry the Second in Ireland a revolting from the right inheritors." A record in the Four Masters of the death of Gibhlecan, son of Maolbrigidian, tanist of Connal Muirthemne in the year 886, is succeeded by notices that indicate sanguinary hostilities between the natives of that territory and those of Meath. In 887 Maolmordh, son of Garbeth, tanist of Connal Muirthemne, was beheaded by Ceallach, the son of Flanagan. In 904 Amalgaid, son of Connal, tanist of Bregia, and Flan, his brother, were slain by the people of Conal-Muirthemne. In four years afterwards Murdoch, abbot of Drominisclan, and Garbeth, son of Maolmordth, tanist of Conal-Muirthemne, were slain in the refectory of Drominisclan by Conal, the son of Garbeth.

This Murdoch is commemorated by the annalists as " the great denouncer of homicides, a light to the heaven ol saints, a shining beacon of harmony." His death was immediately after avenged by the people of Muirthemne, who slew Conal his murderer. In 910, say the annalists, Nial, King of Alichia, led an army into Meath, and having reached Grellach Elte, he proceeded to make spoil over the country, until O'Melaghlin raised a force to oppose him ; and a skirmish ensuing, Donald and the son of the before-mentioned Garbeth, and who was then himself ruler of Conal-Muirthemne, was slain. In 939 was made the memorable political visitation of all parts of Ireland by Murtough, son of that Nial who had been monarch of Ireland some years previously, but was succeeded in his authority by Donough, son of Flan Sionna.

In this military movement by Murtough, he gathered to his cause, after plundering the Ebudes, the septs of Conal and Eogan, and all the warriors of the North, and, at the head of 1200 chosen heroes, marched to Alichia, and thence with a hostile army to Dublin, where he seized Sitric, the Danish Prince of that city, and carried him off as a hostage. He afterwards desolated Leinster and Munster, taking prisoner Callaghan, ruler of that province. Conor, son of Thady, King of Connaught, came to the encampment of Murtough, who took no hostages or prisoners from him. He then returned to Alichia with his troops, hostages, and prisoners, and there sojourned nine months in feasting and triumph, after which he honourably transmitted the hostages he had gained to Donough, the reigning king.* * Annals of the Four Masters.

This circuit was the subject of an Irish poem, recently published in the Tracts of the Irish Archæological Society. The Danes of Ireland, at this period, were ruled by Sitric, son of Turgesius, whose name was sufficient to inspire the Irish with terror. Through policy he professed willingness to enter into a treaty of peace with Callaghan, King of Munster ; and, as proof of his sincerity, offered him his sister, the Princess Royal of Denmark, in marriage. The Irish King had fallen in love with this amiable and beautiful princess, and he readily consented to the fair and liberal measures proposed. He sent word to Sitric he would visit him ; and, attended by a royal retinue, to be followed in a little time by his guards, as escort for his future queen, proceeded to meet his royal bride. Sitric's project of inveigling the King of Munster into his district, in order to make him prisoner, under the expectation of being married to the Princess of Denmark, having been disclosed to his wife, who was of Irish birth, she determined to warn the intended victim of the meditated treachery, and accordingly she disguised herself, and placed herself in a pass which Callaghan should traverse, and met him.

Here she informed him who she was, the design of Sitric against him, and warned him to return as fast as possible. This was not practicable. Sitric had barred the way with armed men ; and Callaghan and his escort, little prepared for an encounter, found themselves hemmed in by an overwhelming Danish force. To submit without a struggle was never the way with the Momonians. They formed a rampart round the person of their King, and cut through the Danish ranks. Fresh foes met them on every side; and, after a bloody struggle, the men of Munster were conquered. Callaghan the King, and Prince Duncan, son of Kennedy, were brought captives to Dublin. Then the royal prisoners were removed to Armagh, and their safe keeping entrusted to nine Danish earls, who had a strong military force at their orders to guard them. news of this insidious act rapidly fanned the ardour of the Munster troops to be revenged for the imprisonment of their beloved King.

Kennedy, the Prince of Munster, father of Duncan, was appointed regent, with ample powers to govern the country in the King's absence. The first step was to collect an army to cope with the Danes. To assemble a sufficient body of troops on land was easy; but the great strength of the northern rovers lay in their swift-sailing ships. " It must strike the humblest comprehension with astonish ment," says Marmion,* " that the Irish, although possessed of an island abounding with forests of the finest oak, and other suitable material for ship-building — enjoying also the most splendid rivers, loughs, and harbours, so admirably adapted to the accommodation of extensive fleets, should, not withstanding, for so many centuries, allow the piratical ravages of the Danes, and subsequently the more dangerous subversion of their independence by the Anglo-Normans, without an effort to build a navy that could cope with those invaders on that element from which they could alone expect invasion from a foreign foe."

This neglect has also been noticed by the distinguished Irish writer — Wilde — who, in his admirably executed Catalogue of the Antiquities in the Royal Irish Academy,] observes : — " Little attention has been paid to the subject of the early naval architecture of this country. So far as we yet know, two kinds of boats appear to have been in use in very early times in the British Isles — the canoe and the corragh ; the one formed of a single piece of wood, the other composed of wicker-work, covered with hides." Larger * Maritime Ports of Ireland, p. 272, a most valuable and instructive work. t Part i., p, 202. vessels there must have been ; though, from the length of time which has since elapsed, we have no traces of them now. Kennedy not only collected a formidable army by land, but " he fitted out a fleet of ships, and manned it with able seamen, that he might make sure of his revenge, and attack the enemy by sea and land."* The command of the fleet was conferred on an admiral perfectly skilled in maritime affairs, Failbhe Fion, King of Desmond.t When the army of Munster arrived near Armagh, they learnt the prisoners had been removed thence by Sitric, and placed on board ship.

Enraged at this disappointment, they gave no quarter to the Danes, and advanced rapidly to Dun dalk, where the fleet lay, with the King and young Prince on board. Sitric, unable to withstand the opposing army on shore, ordered his troops to embark, and resolved to avoid the encounter through means of his ships. While the baffled Irish army were chafing at this unexpected delay to their hoped for vengeance, they espied, from the shore of Dundalk, where they encamped, a sail of ships, in regular order, steering with a favourable gale towards the Danish fleet moored in Dundalk bay. Joy instantly filled their hearts; for they recognised the fleet of Munster, with the admiral's vessel in the van, and the rest ranged in line of battle. The Danes were taken by surprise ; they beheld an enemy approach from a side where they rather expected the raven flag of their country floating on the ships.

The Munster admiral gave them no time to form. He steered straight to Sitric's vessel, and, with his hardy crew, sprang on board. Here a sight met his gaze which filled his heart with rage — he saw his beloved Monarch, Callaghan, and the young prince, tied with cords to * Keating's History of Ireland, vol. ii., p. 232. t Id., p. 233. main-mast. Having, with his men, fought through the Danish troops to the side of the King and Prince, he cut the cords and set them free. He then put a sword into the hands of the rescued king, and they fought side by side. Mean while Sitric, and his brothers, Tor and Magnus, did all they could to retrieve the fortunes of the day. At the head of a chosen band they attacked the Irish admiral, and he fell, covered with wounds. His head, exposed by Sitric on a pole, fired the Danes with hope — the Irish with ten-fold rage.