The story of Dublin

Front matter

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REMOTE STORAGE

WITHDRAWN University of illinois Library

Preface

LIKE forthe stranger within its gates and the liferesident, Dublin has an undoubted charm,

> Tanning east and west, bisects the city. two Hnes of main theroughfire, Grafton,

Preface

Visitors, however, will do well to. make use of the cheap and speedy electric trams, which penetrate to every corner of Dublin. Most of these start from Nelson’s Pillar and pass through, or close to, College Green. Again there is the national conveyance, the traditional sidecar, now become quite a luxurious affair with pneumatic tyres and other modern devices.

As the size of this book does not admit of footnotes, I may here acknowledge my indebtedness to the various authors from whom I have drawn the facts embodied in the work. Like everyone who enters this field, I am under a great debt to the researches of Sir John Gilbert, to whose ‘ Viceroys of Ireland ” and ‘¢ History of Dublin”’ there are many references, especially in Part I, Chaps, I1].—VI. and Part II. Sects. IV. and VII._XII. The remainder of Part I. is based on Todd’s *¢ Gaedhil and Gaill,”” Haliday’s “‘ Scandinavian Kingdom of Dublin,” Giraldus Cambrensis’ ‘*Expugnatio Hibernica,” Leland’s and Joyce’s Histories of Ireland and Lecky’s “ Ireland in the 18th Century.”

For Part II., I have had recourse to works on Christ Church Cathedral by Mr Butler, S. Patrick’s by Dean Bernard, Trinity College by Profs. Macneile Dixon and Stubbs, Dublin Castle by «F. E. R.”’ and Mr O’Connor Morris, Royal Hospital by Lieutenant Grimbly, also to Mr Litton Falkiner’s ‘¢ Illustrations of Irish History,” Mr MHarrison’s “ Memorable Dublin Houses,”’ the fine county histories of Messrs D’ Alton and Ball, and the series of ‘¢ Ancient Records of Dublin” published by the Corporation. My colleagues of the Public Record Office have also assisted me with information on several points. A good deal, however, of the matter is the result of my own personal research and may, therefore, be new to the wide public interested in Dublin history.

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Preface

My sincerest thanks are likewise due to the following public bodies, institutions, firms and private individuals, who courteously permitted me to view ancient relics and records in their charge :—The Lord Mayor and Corporation, the Deans of Christ Church and S. Patrick’s, the National Education Commissioners, Registrar-General, Chief Commissioner of Police, Mr Lanigan-O’Keeffe of Delville, S. Patrick’s, Mercer’s, Rotunda and Steevens’ Hospitals, The Royal Irish Academy, Bluecoat School, Christian Brothers (Marino), Yorkshire Assurance Company, Messrs Alexander and Ferrier, Pollock & Co.

The reproductions of pictures and of a page from the Book of Kells have been prepared from photographs taken by Mr W. Lawrence, Upper Sackville Street, with the kind permission of the authorities of the Irish National Gallery and Trinity College, Dublin.

Finally I must express my deep obligation to the officials of the National Library for the kind and unfailing help which they have rendered me on so many occasions.

DeAL GC:

CONTENTS PART I.—THE STORY CHAPTER I The Viking Stronghold, 150-1169 A.D. .

CHAPTER II The Coming of the Normans, 1169-1176

CHAPTER III From Strongbow’s Death to the Scottish Invasion, 1176-1316 CHAPTER IV The Decline of English Power, 1318-1399 -

CHAPTER V The Wars of the Roses, 1399-1485

CHAPTER VI The Fall of the Geraldines, 1485-1558

CHAPTER VII

The Last Struggle of the Irish eee oe 1603

CHAPTER VIII A Triangular Duel—Royalist, Roundhead and Catholic, 1603-1660 ;

xi

PAGE

Section XII

The Liberties —Scuth Great George's, Aungier, Kevin Streets and the Coombe SECTION XIII

The Southern Quays — O’Connell Bridge to

. Kingsbridge i : ¢ : SECTION XIV

The Northern Quays — O'Connell Bridge to Parkgate Street p :

Xiil

PAGE

—

Contents SECTION xv The Worth Cay—Sacbed, Heary, Mari- Lervugh, Domizich and Heearitta Sire: . 286 SECTION X¥s Tic Put f Debitw—OCowadl Bridge to Einzsead and Saadyomst 2. 2. 29 SECTION x15 a 310 SECTION 207115

SECTION XIX 2 The Beathere iaburls—_Ktmucinhan, CLaddbtin, Fiathmiats, Bathfarnhom, Rasclagh, and Duaylruk - - - - , 327 SELTION XX The Worth Shore ff the Bay—Clotarf, The Worth Bull, Sutton, Howth » 336 SECTION xxE

Grerzes Vevex > - Z - - 357

ILLUSTRATIONS

Pace _ S. Patrick’ s—The Interior ~ Frontispiece Barly Irish Metal Werk—Cress of Cong : 5 Gap Chit Check Cate pine

ef rerctow and ee eget aa 16

S. Patrick's Cathedral . 25 | Old City Gate, S. Audeen’s Arch 5 sk _ S. Patrick's Cathedral, View across Nave

—— Seuth Transept oe SS (Old City Wall ond South Freat of Castle . 6 Boyle Monument in S. Patrick's < oy he Rayal Hospital. 84

Street and O° Connell Mancmient ~" aig

Library 2 Page, Book of Kells ~ ‘ facing 184

Illustrations

PAGE Dean Swift : : : ; ge TGA Royal Hospital—the Hall : : : : 197 King William’s Statue : 202

Carved Wooden Pulpit, 8. Worburce s Chee 215 S. Audoen’s Church—Ruined Aisle 3 ah ney Powerscourt House. : : : 235 S. Stephen’s Green (Malton) ; , jee 238 Cross of Muredach, Monastirboice a Whale Peep o Day Boy’s Cabin, West of Ireland

(Wilkie). - : . facing 254 Chapter Place—Showing. a Corner of 8. Patrick's. : ‘ : ; eer) Weaver Square . , eaiWed ee 2 View of the Law-Courts, obing ‘e pe Life (Matton) . : . facing 264 Steevens’ Hospital ; , : : aE 1) S. Michan’s Churth . zou The Venus Library, Char Tout Hout C eiling and Part of Dome : : P 2) 1208 Leinster Market . : : , : Se D299 The Custom House P : : <a 2309 Phenix Monument p ; : : in GUNS The Strawberry Beds . : , ‘ oh wes LS Addison's Walk, Glasnevin . é ‘ ay E323

Clondalkin Round Tower : Ruined Abbey and Harbour, Hoses 5 Se I Bullock Castle 3 :

Map of Environs ; : : Py iriaivaee Plan of City

XV

AO re

; DUBLIN AND ITS ENVIRONS

PART. I.—THE STORY CHAPTER I The Viking Stronghold

‘¢ Thirty men they each commanded, Iron-sinewed, horny-handed, Shoulders broad, and chests expanded,

Tugging at the oar.”

—Long fellow.

[HE name of the capital of Ireland is as appropriate now as when it was first bestowed some two housand years ago. It is a compound of two Gaelic yords (Dubh -linn) which signify “the black pool.’ Ihe waters of the Liffey were then, and are still, inged a deep brown by a subterranean peat bog, which inderlies the foundations of the city and forms the bed yf the river. The volume of the stream is here nereased by the Dodder, Tolka and some other ributaries, so that it becomes wide and deep enough to A t accommodate sea-going vessels. This harbour was the ‘black pool,’? which the ancient Irish saw and named.

However, the settlement had another designation and another claim to notice. It was the lowest practicable ford on the Liffey. Here the coast road from Wicklow to Tara, in Meath, the then capital of Ireland, passed over the river on its way northward. Some unknown benefactor had paved the swampy crossing with wicker hurdles, and the village was accordingly called Baile-Ath-Cliath (pronounced Ballaclee), ‘the town of the hurdle ford.” Irish annalists prefer the latter title, but the Danes and their successors the English, fearing no doubt, the myriad pitfalls of Irish pronunciation, always employed the shorter and more convenient form.

The first appearance of Dublin in history is about the year 150-.D. A warlike Irish king, picturesquely styled ‘Conn of the Hundred Battles,” who had long been the acknowledged overlord of all the numerous petty monarchs of the country, was defeated’ by his rival, Mogh of Munster, and obliged to consent to a division of his dominions. ‘The line of demarcation was drawn across the country from High Street, Dublin, to the Atlantic Ocean at Galway. Mogh is said to have been dissatisfied because his portion did not include the harbour of Dublin, which must, therefore, already have been a place of considerable commerce. A dispute arose over this point, and the interminable tribal wars broke out afresh.

Three centuries later a legend connects the ford over the Liffey with the apostolic wanderings of S. Patrick. As he was making his way to his home in Armagh from a missionary journey in Wicklow, he rested a night at Dublin before resuming his travels,

The Viking Stronghold

His hosts complained to him of the bad quality of the marsh water they were obliged to drink, whereupon the saint caused a miraculous fountain to spring up at their doors. The conversion of the heathen followed, and the place became the site of a church dedicated to S. Patrick, which in later years developed into a great cathedral. A stone marked with an ancient Celtic cross was recently dug up near the steeple of S. Patrick’s, and is thought to have marked the site of the holy well. It has been set up within the walls of the church as close as possible to the place of its discovery.

The references to Dublin in Irish annals are, however, very few and far between until the coming of the Danes at the beginning of the ninth century. These marauders had a keen eye for a good harbour and a defensible position. Not only at Dublin, but at Wexford, Cork, Waterford, and Limerick, they founded towns, whose natural advantages have secured their prosperity to this very day. Their first appearance was in 795. It was the beginning of a series of terrible raids. Every year the foreigners landed from their long ships and sacked some chieftain’s fortress, or, still more to their taste, a great monastery enriched by the offerings of the faithful and protected only by a religious sanctity, which entirely failed to impress the pagan from the sea. In 836 fleets sailed up the Liffey and the Boyne, plundering the rich pastures of Kildare and Meath. This expedition led to a permanent settlement at Dublin, The situation was very advantageous to the Danes. ‘Their fortified posts in the Hebrides and on both sides of the Irish Sea and S. George’s Channel formed a sort of maritime empire reaching from the Orkneys to the south of Ireland. The site of their new colony was at the very centre of their scattered dominions. It would serve as a headquarters and port of call for ships making the great western cruise through the narrow waters that lie between Great Britain and Ireland. Furthermore it was conveniently situated for raids into the interior, the greater part of which lay within easy striking distance. In the year 840 the Danes built a fortress at Dublin, probably on the slight elevation where the Norman castle was subsequently erected. Their leader was one Turgesius or Thorkils, a remarkable man, whose aims were far in advance of those of his plundering companions. He designed to conquer all Ireland, and set about the task most strategically. ‘Three fleets, one on Lough Neagh, another on the upper Shannon, and another in Carlingford Lough, co-operated under the direction of Thorkils, who established himself at the sacred city of Armagh, where his wife delivered heathen oracles on the very ground consecrated by S. Patrick. Success was within the reach of the pagan leader when a turn came. According to the legend Thorkils cherished a passion for an Irish maiden. At his entreaty she consented to a secret meeting on an island in Lough Owel, to which each party should bring some companions of his or her own sex and age. ‘The Viking came, according to promise, with a few unarmed followers. But the lady’s handmaids were armed young men of her clan, disguised as women. When the Danes grew warm in their love-making, the Irishmen tore off their disguises and stabbed their enemies with the daggers they had concealed. Thorkils was taken alive and hurried before his beloved’s father, Malachi, King of Meath, who promptly had him drowned in the lake.

Despite the death ofits founder, Dublin maintained its position and its hold over the adjacent country ; the sea still, in the phrase of the annalists, ‘* vomited floods of foreigners into Erin.” At length dissensions

The Viking Stronghold among her enemies gave Ireland relief. Although all the Norsemen are usually classed together under the generic name of “Danes,” they were of two distinct races, the Danes proper from Denmark, whom the Irish called Dubh-Gaill (dark strangers), and the Norwegians or Finn-Gaill (fair strangers ). The two nationalities quarrelled, probably over the division of the spoil. Malachi of eath, fresh from disposing of "Thorkils, headed a rally of the natives, which drove both branches of the foreigners out of Dublin. But the worst feature of EARLY IRISU METAL WORK, these tribal efforts CROSS OF CONG,

was their — short

duration. The Trish armies went home or melted slowly away. ‘The Danes came back and, under the leadership of a great warrior, whom both parties were glad to accept, fixed themselves firmly in their old possession. Olaf the White, the new Danish chief, was perhaps a greater scourge than any of his predecessors. No place within seventy miles of his

| Dbe Viking Stronghold

= Lee Eo cememite Se Gers ot oh Eve fhe Siew ses eee Fe

In the meantime Brian Boru, King of the Daleassians of Co. Clare, had gained great prestige by driving the Norsemen of Munster out of their stronghold at Limerick. His ambition aimed at attaining the sovereignty of all Ireland. Malachi, the possessor of the title, was compelled to concede the southern half of his dominions to his rival. Mailmora, sub-king of Leinster, did not appreciate the new arrangement, which brought him under the strong hand of Brian. In concert with the Dublin Danes he rebelled, only to meet with a complete defeat at Glenmama, near Dunlavin, in Wicklow. After the battle Mailmora, who had hidden ina yew tree, was captured by the victor, but was kindly treated and taken into favour. Dublin was again plundered, and its king forced to enter into matrimonial alliances with Brian. The Dane’s mother married the Irish king, who in turn bestowed his daughter on the foreigner. The star of Malachi was waning, as that of his rival rose. In 1002, without the semblance of a struggle, the overlord and vassal exchanged their relative positions. Brian had soon to justify his elevation. Mailmora of Leinster and Sitric of Dublin were again in revolt. ‘The affair rose out of an angry taunt of Brian’s son Murrough. He had been playing chess, when Mailmora, who was looking on, advised a certain move, which in the end proved disastrous.

*'That,”? said Murrough in chagrin at losing the game, ‘was like the advice you gave the Danes which lost them Glenmama.”’ }

«1 will give them advice now,’’ returned the other, ‘and they shall not be again defeated.”

“Then you had better remind them to provide a yew tree for your reception,” was the reply.

Mailmora flung out of the palace in bitter wrath, and mounting immediately, returned to his kingdom, Brian sent a messenger to bring him back, but Mail-

The Viking Stronghold mora’s only answer was to crack the skull of the unfortunate emissary with a blow of his mace. On his arrival in Leinster he began to organise a great confederacy of Danes and Irish. Sitric summoned all his fellow-countrymen within the four seas of Britain. From the Orkneys and the Isle of Man they came, a motley, but formidable host. The most notable person in their ranks was the heathen sorcerer Brodar, tall and strong, wearing a magic coat on which no steel would bite, and with black, snaky locks so long that in the fight they were tucked into his belt. He fought with the fury of the renegade, for he had formerly been a Christian. ‘I'wo thousand mail-clad mercenaries attended this warrior alone, Brian encamped at Kilmainham, and set out to provoke the Dubliners to a fight by wasting the entire district of Fingal to the north of the city. Here were many Norse settlements, and indeed the district received its name from the Finn-Gaill, the “fair strangers’’ or Norwegians, who contended with the Dubh-Gaill in the early days of the colony.

On ane Friday, 1014, the famous battle of Clontarf took place, The Irish marched round from Kilmainham towards Drumcondra. ‘They found the enemy drawn up on the northern bank of the Liffey, their line extending from the bridge they had built near the Castle to the mouth of the ‘lolka at Clontarf. It was a day of single combats fought to the death. Murrough of the sharp tongue, after prodigies of valour, was slain by the last dying effort of a Norseman, whom he had overthrown. Another son of Brian’s, a boy of fifteen, was found drowned at the fishing weir of the 'Tolka, near the modern Ballybough Bridge, his hands still clutching the corpse of a foeman. The Claremen plied their battle-axes so well that to Brian, whose age rendered him a mere spectator, it seemed as if a great band of men were felling the trees of *‘Tomar’s Wood.” Towards evening the foreigners broke and fled, either to the city or to gain their ships in the bay. Brodar, the sorcerer, with a small band of followers, in the general confusion happened somehow upon the tent, where the old King was still praying for victory. Seeing but a man on his knees, he turned away with a contemptuous cry of “priest, priest,” but

CRYPT OF CHRIST CHURCH CATHEDRAL, a companion corrected his error by shouting ‘king, king.”’ Brian rose hastily and seized his sword, with one sweep of which he severed both’ the legs of the Dane. Atthe same moment the two-handed battle-axe of Brodar descended with deadly force on the King’s head. Each had perished by the other’s hand.

With the bloody day of Clontarf, the ‘ Danish terror ’’ passed away from Ireland. They were not, indeed, expelled from the country, as so many people still believe, but their power was broken for ever. Dublin was so weak that it gravitated into the hands

ike)

The Viking Stronghold of whichever Irish king gained a temporary supremacy. The ruler of Leinster was most often able to enforce his authority in the town, and a number of the native Celts came and settled in the neighbourhood. Irishtown, near Sandymount, may owe its name to some such immigration. This was really a wholesome chastening for the plundering Norsemen. After their great defeat the germs of civilisation and progress begin to sprout in a long barren soil. Clontarf was the last struggle of heathenism. Within a short space of time the Danes of Dublin were converted. Penned as they now were within the walls of their city, they set to work, with all the ardour of proselytes, to found religious establishments in their midst as a memorial of their piety. In 1038 King Sitric and Bishop Donat set up “I'he Church of the Blessed Trinity,’’ which developed into Christ Church Cathedral as it stands to-day. ‘There is a tradition, not borne out by architectural evidence, that the present crypt represents the erection of 1038. ‘he parish churches of Dublin began to spring up. ‘The strange old tower and vaults of S. Michan’s, with their weird associations, bear the name of a Danish saint, and have been assigned to the year 1095. ‘The great Cistercian monastery of S. Mary’s Abbey takes its rise somewhere during this period. In 1152 the see was raised to the level of an archbishopric by a decree of the papal legate published at the Synod of Kells. ‘The den of thieves on the Liffey was in a fair way to become an orderly and devout Christian city.

The great advances made by Dublin during this period were so remarkable that, at the time of the landing of Henry II., it stood out as unquestionably the leading city of Ireland and became the seat of

English government. Its only possible rival was the kindred Danish city of Waterford, which, though very

RE convenient as a port of entry from South Wales, was pot sufficiently central for the purpose of administration.

At the time of the invasion the citizens of Dublin were gradually merging their distinctive nationality in that of the Irish all around them. Their bishop was, if one may judge by his name, not of Norse origin. He bore the characteristically Irish cognomen of Lawrence O’Toole. Even their kings were beginning to use the Celtic patronymic “* Mac” with their Danish Christian names. We hear of Hasculf MacThorkil, not Hasculf Thorkilson. But the process of assimilation was rudely arrested by the unending wars and massacres which the reckless tyranny and violence of Dermot MacMarrough, King of Leinster, brought upon his hapless country.

CHAPTER Il

The Coming of the Normans 1169-1176

“For why? because the good old rule Sufficeth them, the simple plan, That they should take who have the power, And they should keep who can.”

—W ordsworth.

[THE restless enterprise of the Normans would, doubtless, have brought them across S. George’s Channel sooner or later, even had they not been in- _ yited by Dermot MacMurrough. Ireland, like the sister countries, was probably destined to come under the same authority as England. Yet it is a great pity that the conquest came about in the way it did. The coming of the English was associated with the barbarous vengefulness of a thoroughly bad man, and the hungry avarice of a pack of needy adventurers. The evil tree did not bring forth good fruit. Dermot, on whom rests the primary responsibility for the loss of his country’s freedom and the subsequent centuries of bloodshed, was a mere compact of es. One redeeming virtue he had—he was a good ier. But he was cruel with a savage fury, which ressed men even in that callous age. An English onicler relates with horror how MacMurrough, ognising the features of a personal enemy amid the le of heads laid before him after a battle, snatched up poor, mutilated fragment of humanity, and tore it his teeth in hideous frenzy. His passions were aS strong and evil. He abducted the wife of Ternan O’Rourke, King of Breffny (Co. Leitrim), and only released his prey when the angry husband marched an army into Dermot’s dominions. His violence and tyranny gave rise to a great coalition against him, which included O’ Rourke, the Dublin Danes, under their king, Hasculf MacThorkil, and even his own patient subjects of Leinster. No one stirred a- finger on behalf of the wicked prince. Dermot was banished, and fled to the court of Henry II., with the design of obtaining assistance there, and returning, so aided, to wreak a fearful vengeance. The English monarch, however, declined to assist Dermot for his own part, while he gave permission for any of his vassals to do so if they chose. A number of the barons of South Wales, finding but a poor subsistence in their rugged mountains, gladly embraced the opportunity of winning for themselves rich estates in a new country. The chief of these was Richard De Clare, Earl of Pembroke, known as Strongbow, a nobleman of good family but broken fortune. ‘To him was given the leadership of the expedition, with the promise of the hand of Dermot’s daughter, Eva, and the succession to the kingdom.

In May 1169 a force of 2000 Anglo-Normans, or Cambro-Normans, as they might perhaps better be called, under Fitzstephen and Prendergast, established themselves in Wexford after a sharp struggle. The King of Connaught, Roderick O’Connor, who was the acknowledged suzerain of all Ireland at the time, immediately marched against them. At this moment the invaders might easily have been crushed, but Roderick treated when he should haye fought. Eventually he was weak enough to restore Dermot to his kingdom and annul the sentence of banishment, on condition of the expulsion of the foreigners. As soon

The Coming of the Normans as the arch-king had marched away, reinforcements arrived from Wales, so that Dermot soon felt himself strong enough to break his promises and march on Dublin. He was specially inflamed against the citizens, for they had killed both his son and his father, adding insult to injury in the latter case by burying a dead dog in the same grave. Dermot and his allies carried fire and sword up to the very walls of the city, until the burghers were terrified into submission.

In the following summer Strongbow himself arrived with an army of 3000 men, and at once won a signal success by the capture of Waterford. His wedding with Eva was solemnised in the breach amid the corpses of the slain. Close on the ceremony came the tidings that Dublin was in revolt. The Danes were determined to hazard a battle for their independence. Dermot and his new son-in-law marched on the capital through the Wicklow mountains and by the dark, lonely valley of Glendalough, a route almost impassable for the heavy Norman men-at-arms, had it not been for the skilful guidance of the King of Leinster. ‘Their appearance in this quarter surprised the citizens, who, thinking the mountain road impracticable, had expected them to come by the plains of Carlow and Kildare. Archbishop Lawrence O’Toole was hastily sent out to ask a truce, while terms of surrender should be arranged. The request was granted, but, either through treachery or impatience, two Norman knights, Raymond Fitzgerald, called “le Gros,’ and Miles de Cogan, began a fierce assault, in which the city was carried by storm. Hasculf sailed away to the Northern Isles (the Scotch

_ Hebrides) to obtain assistance to recover his kingdom. Strongbow and his followers now felt secure in the saddle, especially as their ally, Dermot, who might aia dae or Ss om have been troublesome eventually, died in 1171. According to the Four Masters, his death was like that of Herod, for his flesh putrefied while he was still living. Such was the end of the man, who in their striking phrase, had made ‘*a trembling sod” of all Ireland.

There was, however, much trouble in store for Strongbow, who had now taken the title of King of Leinster. Dublin was destined to undergo three sieges by land and water in that year. Henry II. did not like the notion of his late vassal setting up an independent kingdom, and determined to hinder the development of any such ambitious scheme. He forbade any further dispatch of provisions or men to Ireland, at the same time ordering the adventurers already there to return before Easter, under pain of exile and’‘confiscation. As soon as the sea was open for navigation, the defeated Hasculf returned with a great fleet and army of Norsemen and laid siege to Dublin. The [rish of the city and suburbs also mustered under a chief called «‘ MacGilleMocholmog,”’ but were induced by Miles de Cogan to remain neutral spectators of the coming battle, with full liberty to fall on the defeated side, whichever it might be. They took their post on the rising ground where S. Andrew’s Church now stands. Rarely in their history have Irishmen been content to play this part amid the clash of arms. Probably only a fear for the lives of their hostages in De Cogan’s hands restrained them from participation on the Danish side.

The besiegers were led by a great Berserker of a Dane called ‘John the Mad.” He is said to have been capable of severing a mail-clad thigh with a single blow of his battle-axe, so that the leg fell on one side of the horse and the dying man on the other. Headed by this paladin, who slew that day nearly a

AND z ° a o) a ° a

The Coming of the Normans score of Normans with his own hand, the Danish attack was almost irresistible. The city was saved by the exertions of Miles de Cogan, who, like Raymond le Gros, often outshone his chief. A desperate charge of the defenders from the eastern gate (near the present entrance of the Lower Castle Yard) was repulsed, and the madman’s deadly axe was doing fearful execution, when Miles sent a small party under his brother Richard to slip out by the southern portal in Werburgh Street and fall on the rear of the assailants, now all but successful. By this unexpected movement the Danes were thrown into a confusion, which became a rout. John the Mad was slain, Hasculf was captured and brought before the Norman leaders. Somewhat imprudently, he fell to threats and boastings.

** With little power we came now,”’ said he, ‘and this was but assay of our might, but if I live, ere it be long, there shall come far more than these.”’

Whereon his captors, not unnaturally, ‘made siccar”’ by ordering his execution.

So passed away the Danish rule in Dublin after an existence of three hundred years. It has left few memorials of its presence. Some churches are, on rather dubious authority, ascribed to the Norsemen. But during the greater part of their occupation the Danes were destroyers, not builders. A place-name like Howth or Dalkey, a surname like Broderick or McAuliffe, an occasional flaxen head among the dark-haired crowds of Dublin, these are practically all the traces of their long stay which remain, unless we include the round towers which the Irish built for an outlook and a refuge from the plundering heathen.

Dublin was soon again besieged. The native chiefs were now thoroughly alarmed, and were glad to join a a confederation organised by Archbishop Lawrence

Toole against the invaders. Arch-king Roderick of Connaught was their general; his army of 30,000 men represented every clan in Ireland from the O’Rourkes of Leitrim to the Archbishop’s kinsmen, the O’Tooles of Wicklow. True to his somewhat fainéant character, Roderick preferred a blockade to an assault. ‘The garrison was soon starving, for in addition to Henry’s embargo their supplies were completely cut off by a Danish fleet in alliance with the Irish. Strongbow offered to surrender on terms of holding Leinster as a fief from Roderick, but his proposal was rejected. Negotiations were accordingly broken off, and under the influence of his hard-fighting subordinates, Raymond and Miles, the Norman commander resolved on a bolder course. With the scanty remnant of his followers, some six hundred war-worn men, he determined to sally forth, sword in hand, to cut his way through the ranks of the foe. At three o’clock on a sultry afternoon he made his attempt. Two months’ inactivity had demoralised the Irish forces, and the little band, to its own surprise, completely routed Roderick’s huge army. The Irish king was in his bath at the time, and escaped with difficulty in a half-naked condition.