Ireland's crown of thorns and roses

Front matter

Class JlAlM Book .7^/9 7 pightN^

COPffilGHT DEPOSIT.

/ 36

Introduction

There is no study that should so naturally interest the people of any nation as much as that of their own history. The great pulpit orator, Very Rev. Thomas N. Burke, 0. P., in his lecture on ''The Future of the Irish Race at Home and Abroad," has truly said ''Every race, every people have their own history, have their tale to tell of joy or of sorrow, of triumph and of shame ; and among the great family of nations we Celtic Irishmen have our history to look back upon, a history covering many centuries, and going back to as ancient and honorable a source as any people on the face of God's earth. And from its earliest beginnings down to the present I hour, although that history is written on many pages in tears \ and in blood, and although it tells of centuries of unavailing struggles and defeats, and of a people ground into the very dust, it is still a history of which no Irishman need be; ashamed— we should look into the past history of our race, ' in order that in our day we may cultivate all that made our fathers great and at the same time, taught by the light of past experience, avoid the mistakes into which they fell." As it is with religion, so is it also with patriotism. The more we study and understand our religion, the more religious we become ; and the more we study and understand our history the more patriotic we become. It is for this very reason that some of the most intellectual and far-seeing men of our race have many tunes called attention to the lack of study of Irish history by the youth at home and abroad; knowing well that this deplorable neglect will result in the present and future generations forgetting and even repudiating their glorious ancestry. What citizen of America is not made more intensely patriotic by the study of American history, of its providential discovery by Columbus, of the development of her colonies ; of the Revolutionary war ; of her seven years* struggle for independence; of Lexington, Bunker Hill, Valley Forge and Yorktown; of her glorious Declaration of Independence ; and of her Star Spangled Banner proudly floating on the breezes of heaven and proclaiming to the world Equality and Liberty to the oppressed of all nations?

And what Irishman, studying the pages of Irish history is not thrilled by the antiquity and sublimity of her Civilization even many centuries before Christianity, her ancient literature, wealth, manufacture and commerce famed in all the marts and ports of Europe ; her bards and learned men whose place of honor at her assemblies was assigned next to her Kings; her great military power under Niall of the Nine Hostages recognized all over Europe ; her parliamentary constitutions of Tara which form the basis of parliamentary procedure even to the present day? Of Ireland the venerable Arch OUamb writes: ''0 Erin, thy granaries are full, thy children are happy, thy daughters are virtuous, thy sons are brave, thy old men are wise, thy rulers are just, and thy homes are in peace. ' ' And since the dawn of Christianity in Ireland [what nation presents a grander history?

Almost from the very beginning of St. Patrick's mission her Kings, her warriors, and her wise-men recognized in him a divine messenger. They listened with reverence as he told them of the one true God. How he came down from heaven and was born of an humble Virgin in Bethlehem's manger. How he lived on earth in poverty and misery ; how he gave sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf and speech to the dumb. And oh ! how they listened with breathless silence as he told them of the ingratitude of man for such benefits— of the dark sea of sorrow and anguish— of his passion and his crucifixion by those whom he had so often befriended. The recital of such wrongs was too much for their noble natures to endure. Tradition tells us how they drew their swords and with mighty indignation exclaimed: '^Oh, that we were there to avenge the death of this mild and this merciful Lord. ' ' Yes, they listened and they loved. They loved a religion which corresponded to the natural inclinations and aspirations of this noble race, and they vowed that never— no never, would they abandon the religion which Patrick had brought them. And thus, from the tall and stately halls of Tara down to the poorest cottage, from the proudest chieftain down to the humblest clansman, through the length and breadth of the land, did the pure light of Christian faith shine forth with noon-day splendor. Monasteries, convents and seats of learning sprang up on all sides, and many of her Princes and high born dames and maidens, forsaking the world, sought in the cloister that happiness the world could never give.

Her fair valleys and smiling plains, her steep mountains and shady glens were adorned with religious institutions. The clear tones oi ine vesper bell resounded from hill to hill. A continuous praise was sent up to the throne of the Almighty and Ireland became the *'Isle of saints and scholars." The fame of her learning spread throughout the distant countries of Europe and thousands of pupils thirsting for knowledge came to drink it in at its fountain head. Monarchs and Princes invited her professors to civilize their countries, to found their universities and preside over their colleges, and Ireland became the instructress of Europe.

In Pagan times Ireland sent her soldiers all over Europe ; in Christian times she sent her Missionaries. Where her / warriors carried the sword her missionaries carried the cross and planted it from the rising to the setting sun.

And studying the political phase of Irish history, what student is not amazed at the almost super-human struggle for liberty which her people waged for centuries against the most ferocious tyranny and oppression? History tells us, that for more than seven hundred years the swords of Ireland's sons were never sheathed!

In that great struggle for national existence what a glorious history Ireland presents, what examples of noble bravery and self-sacrifice, what fidelity to God and Country, what loyalty to honor and manly principle, what patient resignation in hunger and privations and above all, what purity and virtue on the part of the sons and daughters of Ireland! The names of O'Neill and 'Donnell, of Sarsfield and Wolfe Tone, of Grattan and 'Council, of Fitzgerald, Emmet, and Parnell, with a host of others who in their own sphere were equally famous, present a galaxy of warriors and statesmen unequalled, much less surpassed by any other nation. True, they have not been always successful even though many of them sacrificed their lives upon Freedom's altar and for that reason, and sometimes also because they were Irishmen, the world occasionally minimizes their praises. To use a familiar phrase—* ' Nothing succeeds like success. ' ' Had Washington failed in his struggle for freedom he might have been looked upon as a rash revolutionist aspiring for personal honor, but because he succeeded the world accords to him the glory he so justly deserves ; and if the different revolutionary leaders in Ireland succeeded, no doubt they also would be looked upon as Washingtons, Jeffersons and Franklins. But whether they succeeded or not they will for ever live enshrined in the hearts of their countrymen, and they have given not only to Ireland but to the whole world the most brilliant examples of matchless eloquence, indomitable bravery and uncompromising patriotism.

Their memories will forever keep alive the flame of liberty in the hearts of Irishmen until England is forced to pay homage at their shrines.

What impresses the student of Irish history perhaps more than anything else, is England's policy of persistent tyranny and persecution of Ireland from the days of Henry II down to the present day. And even when England was forced to grant any concessions to Ireland she always did so in such a mean and contemptible manner as to spoil the good effects it might have produced. This evidently arises either from ignorance or misconception of Irish character, or else from a determination to keep the people of Ireland in poverty, ignorance and dis-union, in order the better and easier to keep them under her yoke. This has been the blindest policy England ever pursued. She ought to have discovered long ago that she can never rule Ireland by tyranny, and that if she had treated the people of Ireland with even partial justice they would have been not only her best friends but also her staunchest allies and defenders. Henry Grattan in his famous speech in favor of a native Parliament for Ireland in 1782 said: "Let other nations basely suppose that people were made for governments. Ireland had declared that govermnents were made for the people, and even crowns, those great luminaries, whose brightness they all reflect, can receive their cheering fire only from the pure flame of a free constitution. England has the plea of necessity for acknowledging the independence of America. For admitting Irish independence she has the plea of justice. America has shed much English blood and America is to be set free. Ireland sheds her own blood for England and is Ireland to remain in fetters 1 Is Ireland to be the only nation whose liberty England will not acknowledge and whose affections she cannot subdue? We have received the Civic crown from our people, and shall we, like slaves, lay it down at the feet of British supremacy?"

The present volume, entitled ''Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Eoses," supplies a long-felt want in the study of Irish literature. In many works on the same subject, the reader is liable to get lost in the maze of a remote antiquity, and in a vast confusion of names and dates, but all these disagreeable features have been almost entirely eliminated from the present work. It does not become tiresome or monotonous, and the reader does not feel like putting it aside, for it sustains an intense interest from beginning to end. It is as the author has well said in his title-page, "The Best of Irish History by the best of Ireland's writers, and reads as entertainingly as a novel. ' '

The brilliant array of writers and orators in connection with the present work ought to be its highest recommendation, for they are men of profound learning, and international fame. Their very names are enough to adorn the pages of any book, and there is no Irish or Irish- American family which should not possess, and above all, study a work of this kind.

Holy Angel's Church.

Composed from the Book of Kails.

Section I

MOST REV. JOHN HEALY, D. D., Archbishop of Tuam

A, M. SULLIVAN, Author of the "Story of Ireland," "New Ireland," Etc.

VERY REV. SYLVESTER MALONE, M. R. I. A.

THOMAS O'NEIL RUSSELL, Author of several GaeHc works

FULL ACCOUNT OF OUR MILESIAN ANCESTORS— LEARNING IN IRELAND BEFORE ST. PATRICK— COMING OF ST. PATRICK— THE LEINSTER TRIBUTE- DEFEAT OF THE DANES — ST.

PATRICK'S BURLAL PLACE

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.

Learning in Ireland Before St. Patrick.

BY MOST rev. JOHN HEALY, D. D., ARCHBISHOP OF TUAM.

Many writers have asserted that there was not only no literary culture of any kind in Ireland before the time of St. Patrick, but that even the use of written characters was quite unknown in pre-Christian Ireland. We have no intention of discussing this wide question in all its various aspects. We think, however, without becoming too learned, it can be clearly shown, by examining the history of even one single monarch, that considerable progress had been made in pagan Ireland both in the arts of war and peace at least two centuries before the advent of St. Patrick to our shores.

The reign of Cormac Mac Art furnishes, perhaps, the most interesting chapter in the history of pre-Christian Ireland. He was, we think, the greatest king that ever reigned in ancient Erin. He was, as our poets tell us, a sage, a judge, and a scholar, as well as a great king and a skilful warrior. His reign furnished, indeed, many rich themes for the romantic poets and story-tellers of subsequent ages, in which they greatly indulged their perfervid Celtic indignation. But the leading facts of his reign are all within the limits of authentic history, and are provable by most satisfactory evidence.

Cormac was the son of Art, the Solitary, or the Melancholy, as he is sometimes called, and was grandson of the celebrated Conn the Hundred-Fighter. Hence he is sometimes called Cormac O'Cuinn, as well as Cormac Mac Art. His father was slain about the year A. D. 195, in the great battle of Magh Mucruimhe where, as at the battle of Aughrim in the same county, a kingdom was lost and won. Magh Mucruimhe was the ancient name of the great limestone plain extending from Athenry towards Oranmore ; and the spot where King Art was killed has been called Tulach Art even down to our own times. It was between Oranmore and Kilcornan, and close to the townland of Moyvaela. The victor in this great battle was Lughaidh, surnamed Mac Con, who had been for many years a refugee in Britain, and now returned with a king of that country and a host of foreigners to wrest the kingdom from Art, who was his maternal uncle. The flower of the chivalry of Munster perished also on that fatal field; for the seven sons of Oilioll Olum who had come to assist King Art, their mother's brother, were slain to a man on the field or in the rout that followed.

Fortunately for young Cormac, the king's son, he was at that time at fosterage in Connaught, probably with Nia Mor, who was his cousin, and one of the sub-kings of the province at that time. So Mac Con, the usurper, found no obstacle to prevent him assuming the sovereignty of Tara; and we are told that he reigned some thirty years, from A, D. 196 to A. D. 226.

Meantime young Cormac was carefully trained in all martial exercises, as well as in all the learning befitting a king, until he came to man's estate. Then he came to Tara in disguise, and according to one account, was employed in herding the sheep of a poor widow, who lived close to Tara, when some of the sheep were seized for trespassing on the queen's private green or lawn. When this case of trespass was brought before the king in his court on the western slope of the Hill of Tara, he adjudged that the sheep should be forfeited for the trespass. *'No," said Cormac, who was present, * * the sheep have only eaten of the fleece of the land, and in justice their own fleece only should be forfeited for that trespass." The bystanders murmured their approval, and even Mac Con himself cried out: *'It is the judgTuent of a king," for kings were supposed to possess a kind of inspiration in giving their decisions. But immediately recognizing Cormac, whom he knew to be in the country, he tried to seize him on the spot. But Cormac leaped the mound of the Claenfert, and not only succeeded in effecting his escape, but also in raising such a body of his and his father's friends, that he was able to drive the usurper from Tara. Mac Con fled to his own relatives in the South of Ireland, where he was shortly afterward killed, at a place called Gort-an-Oir, near Cahir, in the County Tipperary.

So Cormac, disciplined in adversity, came to the throne in the year 227 A. D., according to the Four Masters. During the earlier years of his reign he was engaged in continual wars with the provincial kings, who had yet to learn that Cormac was their master in fact as well as in right. We are told that he fought no less than fifty battles against the provincial kings to vindicate his own position as High King of Erin. The accurate Tighernach furnishes us with brief notices of these various battles against these refractory sub-kings. In one year he fought three battles against the Ultonians. In another he fought four times against the Momonians. The Leinster King Dunlaing, taking advantage of Cormac's absence from Tara, attacked the royal rath itself, and wantonly slaughtered thirty noble maidens with their attendants—thirty for each— who lived in a separate building on the north-western slope of Tara. Cormac promptly avenged this awful massacre by invading Leinster, and putting to death twelve sub-kings of that province, and besides he increased and enforced the payment of the ancient Borrumean or cow-tribute imjDosed by his predecessors on that province. The Ultonians, however, were his most inveterate foes; and twice, it seems, they succeeded in deposing him, that is, in driving him for some months from Tara. At length, however, the king gained a complete victory over his northern rivals, with the aid of Tadhg, a grandson of Oilioll Olum, and his Munster auxiliaries. Cormac rewarded the Munster hero by giving him, as he had promised, as much of the territory of Meath as Tadhg could drive round in his chariot from the close of the battle till sunset. The veteran hero, spent with loss of blood and battle toil, still contrived to drive his chariot round a district extending from Duleek to the Liffey, which was afterwards called Cianachta— the land of Cian's descendants, Tadhg 's father was a Cian, son of Oilioll Olum, hence the name.

Cormac, now undisputed master of his kingdom, took measures to preserve the public peace and secure the prosperity of his dominions. He was the first, and we may also say, the last king of Erin, who maintained a standing army to check the arrogance of his turbulent sub-kings. This Fenian militia was, it is said, modeled after the Roman legions which Cormac might have seen or heard of at the time in Britain. They were quartered on the people in winter ; but in summer they lived on the produce of the chase, and gave all their leisure to martial exercises. By this means they became most accomplished in all feats of arms, and the fame of these Fenian heroes has come down to our own time in the living traditions of the people. The celebrated Finn Mac Cumhail was their general— a poet, too, it was said, he was, and a scholar, as well as a renowned warrior. Ossian, the hero-poet, was his son, and the brave, gentle Oscar, who fell in the fatal field of Gavra, was his grandson. We are told, too, that Cormac kept

24 Intkoductory Chapter

a fleet on the sea for three years, and doubtless swept away the pirate ships of Britain and the islands that used to make descents from time to time on the eastern coast of Ireland.

But it is with the literary history of King Cormac's reign we are most concerned, and to this we invite the special attention of the reader. His first work was to re-establish the ancient Feis of Tara.

Tara even then had been the residence of the High Kings of Erin from immemorial ages. Slainge, the first king of the Firbolgs, was its reputed founder, and all the kings of that colony, as well as of the Tuatha de Danaan and the Milesian race, had generally dwelt on the same royal hill. Ollamh Fodhla, one of the most renowned kings in the bardic history, ''reigned forty years and died in his own house at Tara." It is said that this king was the first who convened the great Feis of Tara to legislate in solemn assembly for all the tribes of Erin. 'Flaherty adds that the same ancient monarch founded a ''Mur Ollamhan" or college of learned doctors at Tara; but Petrie could find no authority for this statement except the term *'Mur Ollamhan," which might, however, simply mean the mur, or fortified house of Ollamh Fodhla himself.

During the shadowy period that follows down to the Christian era, we hear little of Tara, even in the bardic history. An undoubtedly historical king, Tuathal Teachtmar, about the year 85 of the Christian era, took a portion of each of the four provinces to make a mensal demesne for the High King of Tara. He convened the states of the kingdom, too, on the royal hill in solemn assembl)^, and induced the assembled kings and chiefs to swear on all the elements that they would always yield obedience to the princes of his race.

The Feis of Tara, then, was in existence before the time of Cormac, but it was seldom convened and had almost fallen into disuse. Cormac it was who made arrangements for the regular meetings of this great parliament of the nation, and provided adequate accommodation for the assembled notables. Here we are on firm historic ground, and can enter into more minute details with security.

The object of this Feis of Tara was mainly three-fold. First, to enact and promulgate what was afterwards called the cain-law, which was obligatory in all the territories and tribes of the kingdom, as distinguished from the urradhas, or local law. Secondly, to test and sanction the Annals of Erin. For n this purpose the local Seanachies or historians brought in a record of the notable events that took place in their own territories. These were publicly read for the assembly, and when duly authenticated were entered on the great record of the King of Tara, called afterwards the ''Saltair of Tara." Thirdly, to record in the same great national record the genealogies of the ruling families, to assess the taxes, and settle all cases of disputed succession among the tribes of the kingdom. Too often was this done by the strong hand ; but it was Cormac's idea to fix the succession, as far as possible, according to definite principles amongst the ruling families. The neglect of a strong central government to enforce this most wise provision was one main cause of the subsequent distracted state of the kingdom.

This great national assembly, convened for these purposes, met once every three years. The session continued for a week, beginning the third day before, and ending the third day after November Day. When so many turbulent chieftains, oftentimes at feud amongst themselves, met together, it was necessary to keep the peace of Tara by very stringent regulations, enforced under the most rigorous penalties. It is to Cormac's prudent forethought we owe these regulations, which were afterwards inviolably observed as the law of Tara. Every provincial king and every sub-king had his own fixed place alloted to him near the High King by the Marshals of Tara ; and every chief was bound to take his seat under the place where his shield was hung upon the wall. Brawling was strictly forbidden, and to wound another was a capital crime.

In order to provide suitable accommodation for this great assembly, Cormac erected the Teach Miodhchuarta, which was capable of accommodating 1,000 persons, and was at once a parliament house, banquet hall and hotel. We have two accounts of this great building, as well as of the monuments at Tara, written about nine hundred years ago— one in poetry, the other in prose. The statements made by these ancient writers have been verified in every essential point by the measurements of the officers of the Ordnance Survey, who were enabled from these documents to fix the position and identity of all these ancient monuments at Tara.

"The TeacJi Miodhchuarta/' says the old prose writer in the Dinnseanchus, '.4s to the north-west of the eastern mound. The ruins of this house— it was then in ruins— are situate thus : the lower part to the north and the higher part to the south; and walls are raised about it to the east and to the west. The northern side of it is enclosed and small, the lie of it is north and south. It is in the form of a long house, with twelve doors upon it, or fourteen, seven to the west and seven to the east. This was the great house of a thousand soldiers." We ourselves have lunched on the grass-green floor of this once famous hall, and we can of our own knowledge testify to the accuracy of this ancient writer. The openings for the doors can still be traced in the enclosing mound, and, curiously enough, one is so nearly obliterated that it is difficult still to say whether there were six or seven openings on each side. The building was seven hundred and sixty feet long, and originally nearly ninety feet wide, according to Petrie's measurements. There was a double row of benches on each side, running the entire length of the hall. In the centre there was a number of fires in a line between the benches, and over the fires there was a row of spits depending from the roof, at which a large number of joints might be roasted. There is in the Book of Leinster a ground-plan of the building, and the rude figure of a cook in the centre turning the spit with his mouth open, and a ladle in his hand to baste the joint.

The king of Erin took his place at the head of the hall to the south, surrounded by the provincial kings. The nobles and officers were arranged on either side according to their dignity, down to the lowest, or northern end of the hall, which was crowded with butlers, scullions and retainers. They slept at night under the couches or sometimes upon them.

The appearance of Cormac at the head of this great hall is thus described in an extract copied into the Book of Ballymote from the older and now lost Book of Navan :

"Beautiful was the appearance of Cormac in that assembly. Flowing and slightly curling was his golden hair. A red buckler with stars and animals of gold, and fastenings of silver upon him. A crimson cloak in wide descending folds around him, fastened at his neck with precious stones. A neck torque of gold around his neck. A white shirt with a full collar, and intertwined with red gold thread, upon him. A girdle of gold inlaid with precious stones was around him. Two wonderful shoes of gold, with golden loops, upon his feet. Two spears with golden sockets in his hands, with many rivets of red bronze. And he was himself besides symmetrical and beautiful of form, without blemish or reproach."

This might be deemed a purely imaginary description if the collection of antiquities in the Eoyal Irish Academy did not prove beyond doubt that similar golden ornaments to those referred to in this passage were of frequent use in Ireland. In the year 1810 two neck torques of purest gold similar to those described above were found on the Hill of Tara itself, and are now to be seen in the Academy's collection.

*'Alas," says an old writer, ''Tara to-day is desolate, it is a green, grassy land, but it was once a noble hill to view, the mansion of warlike heroes, in the days of Cormac 'Cuinn —when Cormac was in his glory. ' '

Everything at Tara, even its present desolation, is full of interest, and reminds us of the days ''when Cormac was in his glory. ' ' His house is there within the circle of the great Rath na Riogli. The mound where he kept his hostages may still be seen beside his Eath. The stream issuing from the well Neamhnach, on which he built the first mill in Ireland for his handmaiden, Ciarnaid, to spare her the labor of grinding with the quern, still flows down the eastern slope of Tara Hill, and still, says Petrie, turns a mill. Even the well on the western slope beside which Cormac 's cuchtair, or kitchen, was built, has been discovered. The north-western claenfert, or declivity, where he corrected the false judgment of King Mac Con about the trespass of the widow's sheep, may still be traced. The Eath of his Mother, Maeve, may be seen not far from Tara, and to the west of the Teach Miodhchuarta may be noticed Eath Graine, the sunny palace of his daughter, the faithless spouse of Finn Mac Cumhail.

O'Fiaherty tells us on the authority of an old poem found in the Book of Shane Mor O'Dugan, who flourished about 1390, that Cormac founded three schools at Tara— one for teaching the art of war, the second for the study of history, and the third was a school of jurisprudence. This is extremely probable, especially as Cormac himself was an accomplished scholar in all these sciences. This brings us to the literary works attributed to Cormac Mac Art by all our ancient Irish scholars.

The first of these is a treatise still extant in manuscript entitled Teagusc na Riogh or Institutio Principum. It is ascribed to King Cormac in the Book of Leinster written before the Anglo-Norman Invasion of Ireland. It is in the form of a dialogue between Cormae and his son and successor Cairbre Lifeacbair; "and," says the quaint old MacGeogbegan, "tbis book contains as goodly precepts and moral documents as Cato or Aristotle did ever write." Tbe language is of tbe most archaic type, but extracts have been translated and published in the Dublin Penny Journal.

A still more celebrated work, now unfortunately lost, the Saltair of Tara, has been universally attributed to Cormae by Irish scholars. Perhaps we should rather say it was compiled under his direction. "It contained," says an ancient writer in the Book of Ballymote, "the synchronisms and genealogies, as well as the succession of the Irish kings and monarchs, their battles, their contests, and their antiquities from the world's beginning down to the time it was written. And this is 'the Saltair of Tara, which is the origin and fountain of the histories of Erin from that period down to the present time." "This," adds the writer in the Book of Ballymote, "is taken from the Book of Machongbhail"— that is, the Book of Navan, a still more ancient but now lost work. Not only does the writer in the ancient Book of Navan, and the copyist in the Book of Ballymote, expressl}^ attribute this work to Cormae, but a still more ancient authority, the poet Cuan O'Lochain, who died in 1024, has this stanza in his poem on Tara: