Matters went so far that the Supreme Council, representing chiefly these Norman lords, had practically betrayed its trust to the Royalist party in England, and would have completed that betrayal had not the beheading of King Charles signalized the triumph of the Parliamentarians. Even then the Norman lords hoped for the Restoration, and strove in every way to undermine the authority of their own general, Owen Roe O'Neill, who was almost forced to enter into an alliance with the Puritans by the treachery of the Norman lords. It is of the greatest interest to find Monroe writing thus to Owen Roe in August, 1649: "By my own extraction, I have an interest in the Irish nation. I know how your lands have been taken, and your people made hewers of wood and drawers of water. If an Irishman can be a scourge to his own nation, the English will give him fair words but keep him from all trust, that they may destroy him when they have served themselves by him."

On November 6, 1649, this great general died after a brief illness, having for seven years led his armies to constant victory, while the Norman lords, who were in name his allies, were secretly plotting against him for their own profit. Yet so strong and dominant was his genius that he overcame not only the forces of his foes but the treacheries of his friends, and his last days saw him at one with the Normans, while the forces of the Parliamentarians in Ireland were calling on him for help.

We sea, therefore, that for full eight years, from the beginning of 1642 to the close of 1649, Ireland had an independent national government, with a regularly elected Representative Assembly, and a central authority, the Supreme Council, appointed by that Assembly, with judges going circuit and holding their courts regularly, while the Supreme Council held a state of almost regal magnificence, and kept several armies continuously in the field. While Owen Roe O'Neill lived, that part of the army under his command was able not only to secure an unbroken series of victories for itself, but also to retrieve the defeats suffered by less competent commanders, so that at his death he was at the summit of power and fame. If regret were ever profitable, we might well regret that he did not follow the example of the great English commander, his contemporary, and declare himself Lord Protector of Ireland, with despotic power.

After his death, the work he had done so well was all undone again, in part by treachery, in part by the victories of Oliver Cromwell. Yet ten years after the Lord Protector's arrival in Ireland, his own work was undone not less completely, and the Restoration saw once more enthroned every principle against which Cromwell had so stubbornly contended.



XIV.

THE JACOBITE WARS.

A.D. 1660-1750.

The Restoration saw Cromwell's work completely undone; nor did the class which helped him to his victories again rise above the surface. The genius of the Stuarts was already sowing the seeds of new revolutions; but the struggle was presently to be fought out, not between the king and the people, but between the king and the more liberal or more ambitious elements of the baronial class, who saw in the despotic aspirations of the Stuarts a menace to their own power.

These liberal elements in England selected as their champion Prince William of Nassau, before whose coming the English king found it expedient to fly to France, seeking and finding a friend in that apostle of absolutism, Louis XIV. We have already seen how the interests of the feudal lords of Ireland, with the old Norman families as their core, drew them towards the Stuarts. The divine right of the landowner depended, as we saw, on the divine right of kings; so that they naturally gravitated towards the Stuarts, and drew their tenants and retainers after them. Thus a considerable part of Ireland was enlisted on the side of James II, and shared the misfortunes which presently overtook him—or in truth did not overtake him, as the valiant gentleman outran them and escaped. Nothing is more firmly fixed in the memories of the whole Irish people than a good-natured contempt for this runaway English king, whose cause they were induced by the feudal lords to espouse. We shall follow the account of an officer in the Jacobite army in narrating the events of the campaigns that ensued.

James, having gained courage and funds from his sojourn at the court of Louis XIV, presently made his appearance in Ireland, relying on the support of the feudal lords. He landed at Kinsale, in Cork, on March 12, 1688, according to the Old Style, and reached Dublin twelve days later, warmly welcomed by Lord and Lady Tyrconnell. The only place in the country which strongly declared for William was the walled city of Derry, whence we have seen the Puritan forces issuing during the wars of the preceding generation. James, this officer says, went north to Derry, in spite of the bitterness of the season, "in order to preserve his Protestant subjects there from the ill-treatment which he apprehended they might receive from the Irish," and was mightily surprised when the gates were shut in his face and the citizens opened fire upon him from the walls.



James withdrew immediately to Dublin, assembled a Parliament there, and spent several months in vain discussions, not even finding courage to repeal the penal laws which Queen Elizabeth had passed against all who refused to recognize her as the head of the church. James was already embarked on a career of duplicity, professing great love for Ireland, yet fearing to carry out his professions lest he might arouse animosity in England, and so close the door against his hoped-for return.

Enniskillen, on an island in Lough Erne, dominated by a strong castle, was, like Derry, a settlement of Scottish and English colonists brought over by the first of the Stuarts. These colonists were up in arms against the grandson of their first patron, and had successfully attacked his forces which were besieging Derry. James, therefore, sent a small body of troops against them; but the expedition ended in an ignominious rout rather than a battle, for the Jacobite army seems hardly to have struck a blow. The Irish leader, Lord Mountcashel, who manfully stood his ground in the general panic, was wounded and taken prisoner.

The armies of James, meanwhile, made no headway against the courageous and determined defenders of Derry, where the siege was degenerating into a blockade, the scanty rations and sickness of the besieged being a far more formidable danger than the attacks of the besiegers. James even weakened the attacking forces by withdrawing a part of the troops to Dublin, being resolved at all risks to protect himself.

So devoid of resolution and foresight was James that we only find him taking means to raise an army when Schomberg, the able lieutenant of William, was about to invade the north of Ireland. Schomberg landed at Bangor in Down in August, 1689, and marched south towards Drogheda, but finding that James was there before him, he withdrew and established a strongly fortified camp near Dundalk. James advanced to a point about seven miles from Schomberg, and there entrenched himself in turn, and so the two armies remained; as one of Schomberg's officers says, "our General would not risk anything, nor King James venture anything." The long delay was very fatal to Schomberg's army, his losses by sickness and disease being more than six thousand men.

Early in November, as winter was already making itself felt, James decided to withdraw to Dublin; as our narrator says, "the young commanders were in some haste to return to the capital, where the ladies expected them with great impatience; so that King James, being once more persuaded to disband the new levies and raising his camp a little of the soonest, dispersed his men too early into winter quarters, having spent that campaign without any advantage, vainly expecting that his Protestant subjects of England who were in the camp of Schomberg would come over to him. And now the winter season, which should be employed in serious consultations, and making the necessary preparations for the ensuing campaign, was idly spent in revels, in gaming, and other debauches unfit for a Catholic court. But warlike Schomberg, who, after the retreat of James, had leisure to remove his sickly soldiers, to bury the dead, and put the few men that remained alive and were healthy into winter quarters of refreshment, took the field early in spring, before Tyrconnell was awake, and reduced the castle of Charlemont, the only place that held for James in Ulster, which was lost for want of provisions; and the concerns of the unfortunate James were ill-managed by those whom he entrusted with the administration of public affairs."

We come thus to the spring of 1690. Derry was still holding out valiantly against the horrors of famine and sickness, the blockade being maintained, though nothing like a determined storm was attempted. A little of the courage shown by the apprentices of Derry, had he possessed it, might have revived the drooping fortunes of the fugitive English king. It seems, however, that even Schomberg's withdrawal to Carrickfergus failed to arouse him to more vigorous and valiant measures. It is clear that he was ready to abandon his Irish allies, hoping by their betrayal to gain favor with his "subjects in England," whom he confidently expected to recall him, as they had recalled his brother Charles thirty years before. James found an able lieutenant in Tyrconnell, who thoroughly entered into his master's schemes of duplicity; and it is fairly clear that these two worthies, had occasion offered, would have betrayed each other with a perfectly good grace.

Thus matters dragged on quite indecisively until June, 1690, when King William landed at Carrickfergus with a mixed force of English, Scottish, Dutch, Danish, Swedish and German troops, and joined his forces to the remnant of Schomberg's army. James, as we saw, had disbanded his army on breaking up his camp in the previous autumn, and had made no effective effort to get a new army together. Nor could he have used a strong army, had he possessed one. Nevertheless James marched north with such troops as were available, leaving Dublin on June 16th. He took up a strong position on the borders of Ulster and Leinster, thus blocking William's way south to the capital, only to abandon it again on the news of William's approach, when he retired to Drogheda and encamped there. He thus gave the whole advantage of initiative into the hands of his opponent, a brave man and a skillful general.

James seems to have hoped that William's army would be mowed down by disease, as Schomberg's had been in the preceding campaign. And there is reason to believe that Tyrconnell, foreseeing the defeat of James, wished to avoid any serious fighting, which would be an obstacle in his way when he sought to patch up a peace with the victor and make terms for himself. But his opponent was inspired by a very different temper, and William's army advanced steadily southwards, to find James encamped on the southern bank of the Boyne.

There were several fords by which William's army would have to cross on its way south. But James was such an incapable general that he did not even throw up trenches to defend the fords. William's army arrived and encamped on the north bank of the river, and the next day, June 30th, was employed in an artillery duel between the two armies, when considerable injury was inflicted on William's forces, although he was far stronger in artillery than his opponent. During that night, James, already certain of defeat, sent away most of his artillery to Dublin, leaving only six guns with his army on the Boyne.

It seems tolerably certain that, when the battle began again next day, William's army numbered between forty-five and fifty thousand, with the usual proportion of cavalry,—probably a tenth of the whole. James, on the other hand, had from twenty to twenty-five thousand men, about a tenth of them, probably, being mounted; he had, by his own fault, only six guns against about fifty in William's batteries. William's line of battle was formed, as usual, with the infantry in the center and the cavalry on the wings. He gave the elder Schomberg command of the center, while Schomberg's son, with the cavalry of the right wing, was sent four or five miles up the river to Slane, to cross there and turn the left flank of the opposing army. William himself led the cavalry on the left wing, and later on in the battle, descending the river, crossed at a lower ford. He could thus attack the right flank of his opponent; the infantry composing the center of his army advancing, meanwhile, under cover of a heavy artillery fire, and forcing the fords of the Boyne.

The river is shallow here, and in the middle of summer the water is nowhere too deep for wading, so that it was a very slight protection to the army of James. A better general would at least have chosen a stronger position, and one which would have given him some manifest advantage. Such positions were to be found all along the road by which William had advanced from Carrickfergus. The country on both sides of the Boyne is flat; rolling meadows with the shallow river dividing them—a country giving every opportunity to cavalry.

William's right, under the younger Schomberg, made several unsuccessful attempts to cross the river at Slane, being repeatedly beaten back by Arthur O'Neill's horse. Finally, however, the way was cleared for him by a vigorous cannonade, to which O'Neill, having no cannon, was unable to reply, and William's right wing thus forced the passage of the Boyne.

William's center now advanced, and began the passage of the river, under cover of a heavy artillery fire. Every foot of the advance was stubbornly contested, and such headway was made by the Irish troops that Schomberg's bodyguard was scattered or cut to pieces, and he himself was slain. The center of William's army was undoubtedly being beaten back, when, crossing lower down with eighteen squadrons of cavalry, he fiercely attacked the right flank of the Irish army and thus turned the possibility of defeat into certain victory. That the Irish troops, although outnumbered two to one and led by a coward, fought valiantly, is admitted on all sides. They charged and re-charged ten times in succession, and only gave way at last under pressure of greatly superior numbers. The retreat of the Irish army was orderly,—the more so, doubtless, because the former king of England was no longer among them, having most valiantly fled to Dublin, and thence to Kinsale, where he took ship for France, leaving behind him a reputation quite singular in the annals of Ireland.

Within a week after the battle, the Irish army, which had preserved order and discipline even in the face of the flight of James, occupied Limerick, and made preparations to hold that strong position, with the untouched resources of the western province behind them, and the hope, unshaken by their rude experience, that the runaway king might reinforce them by sea. Through all the events that followed, presently to be narrated, it must be understood that Tyrconnell was steadily seeking to undermine the resolution of the Irish army, hoping the sooner to make his peace with King William, to secure his Irish estates, and, very possibly, be appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, under the new king.

William meanwhile brought his army southwards, being welcomed to Dublin by the large English element there, and presently continued his march to Waterford, which was surrendered to him, as was alleged, by Tyrconnell's orders. He also reduced Kilkenny, to which Tyrconnell had failed to send reinforcements, though repeatedly appealed to by its commander. About this time, on July 28th or a day or two later, the brave garrison of Derry was relieved by some of William's ships, which broke the line of blockade across the river and brought abundant provisions to the emaciated defenders.

A section of William's army under Douglas was sent to take Athlone, the strong fortress which guarded the ford, and later the bridge across the Shannon—the high road from Leinster to the western province of Connacht, beyond the river. Douglas, after a fierce attack lasting seven days, was compelled to retreat again to the main army encamped at Waterford. The French auxiliaries under Lauzun, who had not hitherto greatly distinguished themselves for valor, losing less than a score of men at the Boyne, now deserted Limerick and retreated to Galway, taking with them, if the fugitive king may be credited, a great quantity of ammunition from the fortress of Limerick.



Finally, on August 9th, William's army appeared before Limerick, and the famous siege began. Tyrconnell signalized himself by deserting the fords over the Shannon and departing to Galway, declaring that the town would certainly surrender within a week. The city, however, was of a different opinion. The garrison, under Sarsfield, made vigorous preparation for a defence, and a party under Sarsfield himself cut off one of William's convoys from Dublin, destroying the siege-train which was being brought for the attack on the city. William's cavalry, taking advantage of Tyrconnell's retreat, crossed the ford of the Shannon to complete the investment of the city on that side, but they presently returned, having done nothing effective.

We hear of more attempts by Tyrconnell to undermine the resolution of the army, and of attacks by William's force, which gave him possession of the outworks, so that he was able presently to begin cannonading the walls, to make a breach for an assault. The officer in the Irish army whom we have already quoted, gives this account of the siege: "Never was a town better attacked and better defended than the city of Limerick. William left nothing unattempted that the art of war, the skill of a great captain and the valor of veteran soldiers could put in execution to gain the place; and the Irish omitted nothing that courage and constancy could practice to defend it. The continual assaults of the one and the frequent sallies of the other consumed a great many brave men both of the army and the garrison. On the nineteenth day, William, after fighting for every inch of ground he gained, having made a large breach in the wall, gave a general assault which lasted for three hours; and though his men mounted the breach, and some even entered the town, they were gallantly repulsed and forced to retire with considerable loss. William, resolving to renew the assault next day, could not persuade his men to advance, though he offered to lead them in person. Whereupon, all in a rage, he left the camp, and never stopped till he came to Waterford, where he took shipping for England; his army in the meantime retiring by night from Limerick."

During this first siege of Limerick the garrison numbered some twenty thousand, by no means well armed. William's besieging army was about forty thousand, with forty cannon and mortars. His loss was between three and four thousand, while the loss of the defenders was about half that number.

William, presently arriving in England, sent reinforcements to his generals in Ireland, under Lord Churchill, afterwards famous as the Duke of Marlborough. Tyrconnell had meantime followed his runaway king to France, as was involved in a maze of contradictory designs, the one clear principle of which was the future advantage of Tyrconnell. Louis XIV, who had reasons of his own for wishing to keep the armies of William locked up in Ireland, was altogether willing to advise and help a continuance of hostilities in that country. James seems to have recognized his incapacity too clearly to attempt anything definite, or, what is more probable, was too irresolute by nature even to determine to give up the fight. Tyrconnell himself sincerely wished to make his peace with William, so that he might once more enjoy the revenues of his estates. The Irish army was thoroughly determined to hold out to the end.

With these conflicting desires and designs, no single-hearted and resolute action was possible. Matters seem to have drifted till about January, 1691, when Tyrconnell returned; "but he brought with him no soldiers, very few arms, little provision and no money." A month later a messenger came direct to Sarsfield, then with the army at Galway, from Louis XIV, promising reinforcements under the renowned soldier Saint Ruth. This letter to a great extent revealed the double part Tyrconnell had been playing at the French court, and did much to undermine his credit with the better elements in the Irish army.

The French fleet finally arrived at Limerick in May, 1691, under Saint Ruth, bringing a considerable quantity of provisions for the Irish army; but it is doubtful whether this arrival added any real element of strength to the army. The Irish army, soon after this, was assembled at Athlone, to defend the passage of the Shannon. Much vigorous fighting took place, but Ginkell, William's general, finally captured that important fortress in June. The road to Galway was now open, and Ginkell's army prepared to march on that important city, the strongest place in Connacht. Saint Ruth prepared to resist their approach, fixing his camp at Aughrim, The Hill of the Horses, some eighteen miles from Athlone and thirty-five from Galway. We may once more tell the story in the words of an eye-witness:

"Aughrim was then a ruined town, and the castle was not much better, situated in a bottom on the north side of the hill, where the Irish army encamped. The direct way from Ballinasloe was close by the castle, but there was another way about, on the south-east side of the hill. The rest of the ground fronting the camp was a marsh, passable only for foot. The army of Ginkell appeared in sight of Aughrim on July 12th. The Irish army, composed of about ten thousand foot, two thousand men-at-arms, and as many light horse, was soon drawn up by Saint Ruth in two lines; the cavalry on both wings flanking the foot; and having placed Chevalier de Tesse on the right wing of the horse, and Sarsfield on the left, and giving their several posts to the rest of the chief commanders, Saint Ruth obliged himself to no certain place, but rode constantly from one side to another to give the necessary orders where he saw occasion. Ginkell being now come up at so near a distance that his guns and other battering engines might do execution, he ordered them to be discharged, and as he had a vast number of them he made them play incessantly on the Irish army, hoping by that means to force them from the hill, which was of great advantage. But the Irish, encouraged by the presence and conduct of Saint Ruth, kept their ground and beat the English as often as they advanced towards them. The fight continued from noon till sunset, the Irish foot having still the better of the enemy; and Saint Ruth, observing the advantage of his side, and that the enemy's foot were much disordered, was resolved, by advancing with the cavalry, to make the victory complete, when an unlucky shot from one of the terrible new engines, hitting him in the head, made an end of his life, and took away the courage of his army. For Ginkell, observing the Irish to be in some disorder, gave a notable conjecture that the general was either killed or wounded, whereupon he commanded his army to advance. The Irish cavalry, discouraged by the death of Saint Ruth, and none of the general officers coming to head them in his place, gave back, and quitted the field. The foot who were engaged with the enemy, knowing nothing of the general's death or the retreat of the cavalry, continued fighting till they were surrounded by the whole English army; so that the most of them were cut off, and no quarter given but to a very few; the rest, by favor of the night then approaching, for Saint Ruth was killed about sunset, made their escape."

To this we may add the testimony of the runaway monarch: "The Irish behaved with great spirit. They convinced the English they had to do with men no less resolute than themselves. Never assault was made with greater fury nor sustained with greater obstinacy. The Irish foot repulsed the enemy several times, particularly in the center. They even looked upon the victory as certain.... The Irish lost four thousand men. The loss of the English was not much inferior."

The army of Ginkell, thus in possession of the key of Connacht, advanced upon its most important city, arriving before Galway a few days after the battle of Aughrim. Galway, however, was full of divided counsels, and speedily surrendered, so that Limerick alone remained. Limerick was greatly weakened, now that Galway, and with Galway the whole of Connacht to which alone Limerick could look for supplies, was in the hands of the enemy. Ginkell turned all his efforts in the direction of Limerick, appearing before the city and pitching his camp there on August 25, 1691. Beginning with the next day, our narrator tells us, "he placed his cannon and other battering engines, which played furiously night and day without intermission, reducing that famous city almost to ashes. No memorable action, however, happened till the night between September 15 and 16, when he made a bridge of boats over the Shannon, which being ready by break of day, he passed over with a considerable body of horse and foot on the Connacht side of the river, without any opposition. This so alarmed Sheldon, who commanded the cavalry at that time, that without staying for orders, he immediately retired to a mountain a good distance from Limerick, and marched with such precipitation and disorder, that if a hundred of the enemy's horse had charged him in the rear, they would in all likelihood have defeated his whole party, though he had near upon four thousand men-at-arms and light horse; for the man, if he was faithful, wanted either courage or conduct, and the party were altogether discouraged to be under his command. But Ginkell did not advance far, and after showing himself on that side of the bridge, returned back into his camp the same day. Yet Sheldon never rested till he came, about midnight, fifteen miles from the Shannon, and encamped in a fallow field where there was not a bit of grass to be had: as if he had designed to harass the horses by day and starve them by night.... Ginkell, understanding that the Irish horse was removed to such a distance, passed the river on the twenty-third day with the greatest part of his cavalry, and a considerable body of foot, and encamped half-way between Limerick and the Irish horse camp, whereby he hindered all communication between them and the town. On the twenty-fourth, the captains within Limerick sent out a trumpet, desiring a parley," and as a result of this parley, a treaty was ultimately signed between the two parties, Limerick was evacuated, and the war came to an end. This was early in October, 1691.

The war had, therefore, lasted nearly four years, a sufficient testimony to the military qualities of the Irish, seeing that throughout the whole period they had matched against them greatly superior numbers of the finest troops in Europe, veterans trained in continental wars, and at all points better armed and equipped than their adversaries.

What moves our unbounded admiration, however, is to see the troops displaying these qualities of valor not only without good leadership, but in face of the cowardice of the English king, and of duplicity amounting to treachery on the part of his chief adherents. Foremost among these time-servers was Talbot, Earl of Tyrconnell, whose name shows him to have sprung from one of the Norman families, and we see here the recurrence of a principle which had worked much harm in the eight years' war of the preceding generation. The Duke of Ormond, sprung from the Norman Butlers, was then the chief representative of the policy of intrigue, and many of the reverses of both these wars are to be attributed to the same race.

It is tragical to find the descendants of the old Norman barons, who at any rate were valiant fighters, descending thus to practices quite unworthy; yet we can easily understand how the fundamental injustice of the feudal principle on which they stood, not less than the boundless abuse of that already bad principle under the first Stuarts, could not fail to undermine their sense of honor and justice, preparing them at length for a policy of mere self-seeking, carried on by methods always doubtful, and often openly treacherous.

The old tribal chieftains lived to fight, and went down fighting into the night of time. Owen Roe O'Neill, last great son of a heroic race, splendidly upheld their high tradition and ideal. No nobler figure, and few more gifted captains, can be found in the annals of those warlike centuries. The valor of Cuculain, the wisdom of Concobar, the chivalry of Fergus—all were his, and with them a gentle and tolerant spirit in all things concerning religion, very admirable in an age when so many men, in other things not lacking in elements of nobility, were full of bitter animosity, and zealous to persecute all those who differed from them concerning things shrouded in mystery.

It may be said, indeed, that Owen Roe is in this only a type of all his countrymen, who, though they suffered centuries of persecution for a religious principle, never persecuted in return. Their conduct throughout the epoch of religious war and persecution was always tolerant and full of the sense of justice, contrasting in this, and contrasting to their honor, with the conduct of nearly every other nation in Christendom.

The history of Ireland, for the half century which followed this war, offers few salient features for description. The Catholics during all this time were under the ban of penal laws. The old tribal chiefs were gone. The Norman lords were also gone. The life of the land hardly went beyond the tilling of the fields and the gathering of the harvests. And even here, men only labored for others to enter into their labor. The right of private taxation, confirmed by law, and now forfeited by the feudal lords, was given as a reward to the adherents of the dominant party in England, and their yearly exactions were enforced by an armed garrison. The more vigorous and restless elements of our race, unable to accept these conditions of life, sailed in great numbers to the continent, and entered the armies of many European powers. It is estimated that, during the half century after the Treaty of Limerick, fully half a million Irishmen fell in the service of France alone.



XV.

CONCLUSION.

A.D. 1750-1901.

The Treaty of Limerick, signed when the army of Sarsfield came to terms with the besiegers, guaranteed equal liberty to all Ireland, without regard to difference of religion. There is no doubt that William of Nassau, scion of a race which had done much for liberty, a house that had felt the bitterness of oppression, would willingly have carried this treaty out in a spirit of fidelity and honor. But he was, helpless. The dominant powers in England and Ireland were too strong for him, and within the next few years the treaty was violated in letter and spirit, and the indigenous population of Ireland was disarmed, deprived of civil rights, reduced to servitude.

It is best, wherever possible, to secure the word of witnesses who cannot be suspected of prejudice or favor. We shall do this, therefore, in describing the condition of Ireland during the eighteenth century. We find the Lord Chancellor of England declaring, during the first half of that period, that "in the eye of the law no Catholic existed in Ireland." The Lord Chief Justice affirms the same doctrine: "It appears plain that the law does not suppose any such person to exist as an Irish Roman Catholic." The law, therefore, as created by England for Ireland, deprived of all civil, religious, intellectual and moral rights four-fifths of the whole population, and gave them over as a lawful prey to the remaining fifth: a band of colonists and adventurers, who favored the policy of the party then dominant in England. This was the condition of the law. We shall see, presently, what was its result on the life of the nation. It should be a warning, for all time, of the dangers which arise when one nation undertakes to govern another. For it must be clearly understood that the Sovreign and Parliament of England believed that in this they stood for honor and righteousness, and had a true insight into the spirit and will of the Most High. It was, indeed, on this superior knowledge of the divine will that they based their whole policy; for what else is the meaning of legal discrimination against the holders of a certain form of faith?



In the second half of the eighteenth century, in 1775, the Congress of the United States sent its sympathy in these words to the people of Ireland: "We know that you are not without your grievances; we sympathize with you in your distress, and we are pleased to find that the design of subjugating us has persuaded the administration to dispense to Ireland some vagrant rays of ministerial sunshine. Even the tender mercies of the government have long been cruel to you. In the rich pastures of Ireland many hungry parasites are fed, and grow strong to labor for her destruction."

Three years later, in 1778, Benjamin Franklin wrote thus to the Irish people: "The misery and distress which your ill-fated country has been so frequently exposed to, and has so often experienced, by such a combination of rapine, treachery and violence as would have disgraced the name of government in the most arbitrary country in the world, has most sincerely affected your friends in America, and has engaged the most serious attention of Congress."

It must be assumed that the men who drew up the Declaration of Independence knew the value of words, and that when they spoke of misery and cruelty, of rapine, treachery and distress, they meant what they said. Franklin's letter brings us to the eve of the Volunteer Movement, of which much has been said in a spirit of warm praise, but which seems to have wrought evil rather than good. This Movement, at first initiated wholly by the Scottish and English colonists and their adherents, was later widened so as to include a certain number of the indigenous population; and an armed force was thus formed, which was able to gain certain legislative favors from England, with the result that a Parliament sitting in Dublin from 1782 to 1799 passed laws with something more resembling justice than Ireland was accustomed to.

But this Parliament was in no sense national or representative. It was wholly composed of the Scottish and English colonists and their friends, and the indigenous population had no voice in its deliberations. It is, therefore, the more honor to Henry Grattan that we find him addressing that Parliament thus: "I will never claim freedom for six hundred thousand of my countrymen while I leave two million or more of them in chains. Give the Catholics of Ireland their civil rights and their franchise; give them the power to return members to the Irish Parliament, and let the nation be represented." At this time, therefore, four-fifths of the nation had neither civil rights nor franchise,—because they differed from the dominant party in England as to the precedence of the disciples of Jesus.

It may be supposed, however, that, even without civil or religious rights, the fate of the people of Ireland was tolerable; that a certain measure of happiness and well-being was theirs, if not by law, at least by grace. The answer to this we shall presently see. The Volunteer Movement, as we saw, included certain elements of the indigenous population. The dominant party in England professed to see in this a grave danger, and determined to ward off that danger by sending an army to Ireland, and quartering troops on the peasants of all suspected districts. We must remember that the peasants, on whom a hostile soldiery was thus quartered, had no civil rights as a safeguard; that the authorities were everywhere bitterly hostile, full of cowardly animosity towards them.

The result we may best describe in the words of the English generals at the head of this army. We find Sir Ralph Abercrombie speaking thus: "The very disgraceful frequency of great crimes and cruelties, and the many complaints of the conduct of the troops in this kingdom—Ireland—has too unfortunately proved the army to be in a state of licentiousness that renders it formidable to everyone except the enemy." Sir Ralph Abercrombie declared himself so frightened and disgusted at the conduct of the soldiers that he threw up his commission, and refused the command of the army.

General Lake, who was sent to take his place, speaks thus: "The state of the country, and its occupation previous to the insurrection, is not to be imagined, except by those who witnessed the atrocities of every description committed by the military,"—and he gives a list of hangings, burnings and murders.

Finally, we have the testimony of another English soldier, Sir William Napier, speaking some years later: "What manner of soldiers were these fellows who were let loose upon the wretched districts, killing, burning and confiscating every man's property? ... We ourselves were young at the time; yet, being connected with the army, we were continually among the soldiers, listening with boyish eagerness to their experiences: and well remember, with horror, to this day, the tales of lust, of bloodshed and pillage, and the recital of their foul actions against the miserable peasantry, which they used to relate."

The insurrection against this misery and violence, which began in May, 1798, and its repression, we may pass over, coming to their political consequences. It is admitted on all hands that the morality and religion of England reached their lowest ebb at this very time; we are, therefore, ready to learn that the Act of Union between England and Ireland, which followed on the heels of this insurrection, was carried by unlimited bribery and corruption. The Parliament of Ireland, as we know, was solely composed of Protestants, the Catholics having neither the right to sit nor the right to vote; so that the ignominy of this universal corruption must be borne by the class of English and Scottish settlers alone.

The curious may read lists of the various bribes paid to secure the passage of the Act of Union in 1800, the total being about six million dollars—a much more considerable sum then than now. And it must be remembered that this entire sum was drawn from the revenues of Ireland, besides the whole cost of an army numbering 125,000 men, which England maintained in Ireland at the time the Act was passed. What the amenities of the last three years of the eighteenth century cost Ireland we may judge from these figures: in 1797, while the hangings, burnings and torturings which brought about the insurrection of the following year were in an early stage, the national debt of Ireland was under $20,000,000; three years later that debt amounted to over $130,000,000. It is profitless to pursue the subject further. We may close it by saying that hardly can we find in history a story more discreditable to our common humanity than the conduct of England towards Ireland during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

The French Revolution wrought a salutary change of heart in the governing class in England, for it must in justice be added that the tyranny of this class was as keenly felt by the "lower orders" in England as in Ireland itself. It is fairly certain that only the Reform Bill and the change of sovreigns which shortly followed prevented an insurrection of the peasants and servile classes in England which would have outdone in horrors the French Revolution itself. The Reform Bill was the final surrender of the baronial class in England; a surrender rather apparent than real, however, since most of the political and all the social power in the land still remains in the hands of the same class.



Through the salutary fear which was inspired by the horrors of the French Revolution, and perhaps through a certain moral awakening, the governing classes in England came to a less vicious mind in their dealings with Ireland. They were, therefore, the more ready to respond to the great national movement headed by Daniel O'Connell, with his demand that Irishmen might all equally enjoy civil and political rights, regardless of their form of faith. In 1829, as the result of this great movement, the Catholics were finally relieved of the burden of penal laws which, originally laid on them by the Tudors, were rendered even more irksome and more unjust by Cromwell and William of Nassau,—men in other things esteemed enlightened and lovers of liberty.

Thus the burden of persecution was finally taken away. To those who imposed it, the system of Penal Laws will remain a deep dishonor. But to those who bore that burden it has proved a safeguard of spiritual purity and faith. The religion of the indigenous race in Ireland was saved from the degeneration and corruption which ever besets a wealthy and prosperous church, and which never fails to engender hypocrisy, avarice and ambition. In England, the followers of the Apostles exercise the right to levy a second tax on the produce of all tilled lands, a second burden imposed upon the conquered Saxons. As a result, the leaders of the church live in palaces, while the people, the humbler part of their congregation; have sunk into practical atheism. In France, the reaction against a like state of things brought the church to the verge of destruction, and led the masses to infidelity and materialism. The result to the moral life of the people is too well known to need remark. Not less evil consequences have flowed from the enriching of the church in other lands. That wealth has always carried with it the curse, so prophetically pronounced, against those who trust in riches. For the ministers of religion, in a supreme degree, the love of money has been the root of evil.

We may, therefore, see in the spirituality and unworldliness of the native church in Ireland a result of all the evil and persecution the church suffered during almost three hundred years. From this purification by fire it comes that the people of Ireland are almost singular throughout Christendom in believing sincerely in the religion of gentleness and mercy—the kingdom which is not of this world.

In 1829 the Catholics were at last freed from the galling burdens which had weighed on them since 1537, when they failed to recognize Henry VIII as the representative of God on earth. They were still, however, under the shadow of a grave injustice, which continued to rest on them for many years. When their church lands were confiscated and their faith proscribed by law under the Tudors, a new clergy was overlaid on the country, a clergy which consented to recognize the Tudors and their successors as their spiritual head. As a reward, these new ministers of religion were allowed to levy a second tax on land, exactly as in England; and this tax they continued to collect until their privilege was finally taken away by Gladstone and the English Liberals. Needless to say that through three centuries and more four-fifths of this tax was levied on the indigenous Catholics, in support of what was to them an alien, and for most of the time a persecuting church.

One heavy disability still lay on the whole land. With its partial removal a principle has emerged of such world-wide importance in the present, and even more in the future, that we may well trace its history in detail.

The Normans, as we saw, paid themselves for conquering the Saxons and Angles by assuming a perpetual right to tax their produce; a right still in full force, and forming the very foundation of the ruling class in England. The land tenure thus created was, under the Tudors and the first Stuarts, bodily transferred to Ireland. In Ireland the land had ever been owned by the people, each tribe, as representing a single family, holding a certain area by communal tenure, and electing a chief to protect its territory from aggression. For this elective chieftainship the English law-courts substituted something wholly different: a tenure modeled on the feudal servitude of England. This new principle made the land of the country the property not of the whole people but of a limited and privileged class: the favorites of the ruling power—"hungry parasites" as the Congress of 1775 called them. This "landed" class continued to hold absolute sway until quite recently, and it was this class which succumbed to bribery in 1800, and passed the Act of Legislative Union with England. The clergy of the Established church were little more than the private chaplains of the "landed" class, the two alien bodies supporting each other.

Folly, however, was the child of injustice; for so shortsighted were these hungry parasites that they developed a system of land-laws so bad as to cause universal poverty, and bring a reaction which is steadily sweeping the "landed" class of Ireland to extinction and oblivion. The fundamental principle of these bad land-laws was this: the tenant was compelled to renew his lease from year to year; and whenever, during the year, he had in any way improved the land in his possession,—by draining marshes, by reclaiming waste areas, by adding farm-buildings, the "owner" of the land could demand an enhanced rent, as the condition of renewing the lease. The tenant had to submit to a continually ascending scale of extortion, sanctioned by law and exacted by armed force; or, as an alternative, he had to give up the fruit of his industry without compensation and without redress.

Anything more certain to destroy energy, to cut at the roots of thrift, to undermine all the best qualities of manhood, it would be impossible to imagine. The slave on the plantation could in time purchase his freedom. The tiller of the soil in Ireland found, on the contrary, that the greater his industry, the greater was the sum he had to pay for the right to exercise it. We saw that there never was any pretence of free contract in the feudal land-tenure of England; that there never was any pretence of an honest bargain between farmer and landlord, for their mutual benefit. The tenant paid the landlord for services rendered, not to him, but to his Norman conqueror. So it was, in an even greater degree, in Ireland. There was no pretence at all that tenant and landlord entered into a free contract for their mutual benefit. Nor did either law, custom, religion or opinion require the landlord to make any return to his tenants for the share of the fruit of their toil he annually carried away.

The tiller of the soil, therefore, labored from year to year, through droughts and rains, through heat and cold, facing bad seasons with good. At the end of the year, after hard toil had gathered in the fruit of the harvest, he saw the best part of that fruit legally confiscated by an alien, who would have been speechless with wonder, had it been suggested to him that anything was due from him in return. Nor was that all. This alien was empowered, and by the force of public opinion incited, to exact the greatest possible share of the tiller's produce, and, as we saw, he was entitled to the whole benefit of whatever improvements the tiller of the soil had made; and could—and constantly did—expel the cultivator who was unable or unwilling to pay a higher tax, as the penalty for improving the land.

It may be said that bad as this all was, it was not without a remedy; that the cultivator had the choice of other occupations, and might let the land lie fallow, while its "owner" starved. But this only brings to mind the fact that during the eighteenth century England had legislated with the deliberate intention of destroying the manufactures and shipping of Ireland, and had legislated with success. It should be added that this one measure affected all residents in Ireland equally, whatever faith or race. There was practically no alternative before the cultivator. He had the choice between robbery and starvation.

It would be more than miraculous if this condition of things had not borne its fruit. The result was this: it ceased to be the interest of the cultivator of the land to till it effectively, or to make any improvement whatever, whether by drainage, reclaiming waste land, or building, or by adopting better agricultural methods. In every case, his increase of labor, of foresight and energy, would have met with but one reward: when the time came to renew the lease, he would have been told that his land had doubled in value during the year, and that he must, therefore, pay twice as much for the privilege of tilling it. If he refused, he at once forfeited every claim to the fruit of his own work, the whole of his improvements becoming the property of the land owner.

The cultivators, as an inevitable consequence, lost every incentive to labor, energy, foresight and the moral qualities which are fostered by honestly rewarded work. They worked as little as possible on their farms, and the standard of cultivation steadily declined, while the mode of living grew perpetually worse. If it were intended to reduce a whole population to hopeless poverty, no better or more certain way could be imagined.

The steady lowering of the arts of cultivation, the restriction of crops, the tendency to keep as close as possible to the margin of sustenance, thus zealously fostered, opened the way for the disastrous famine of 1846 and 1847, which marks the beginning of a rapid decline in population,—a decrease which has never since been checked. The inhabitants of Ireland shortly before the famine numbered considerably over eight millions. Since that time, there has been a decrease of about four millions—a thing without parallel in Christendom.

The amendment of the land-laws, which were directly responsible for these evil results, was by no means initiated in consequence of the famine. It was due wholly to a great national agitation, carried out under the leadership of Charles Stewart Parnell, which led to the land-acts of 1881 and 1887. These new laws at last guaranteed to the cultivator the fruit of his toil, and guarded him against arbitrary increase of the tax levied on him by the "owner" of the land. But they did not stop here; they initiated a principle which will finally make the cultivator absolute owner of his land, and abolish the feudal class with their rights of private taxation. This cannot fail to react on England, so that the burdens of the Angles and Saxons will at last be lifted from their shoulders, as a result of the example set them by the Gaels, for generations working persistently, and persistently advancing towards their goal. Nor will the tide thus set in motion spread only to Saxon and Angle; its influence will be felt wherever those who work are deprived unjustly of the fruit of their toil, whether by law or without law. The evils suffered by Ireland will thus be not unavailing; they will rather bring the best of all rewards: a reward to others, of whatever race and in whatever land, who are victims of a like injustice.

The story of Ireland, through many centuries, has thus been told. The rest belongs to the future. We have seen the strong life of the prime bringing forth the virtues of war and peace; we have seen valor and beauty and wisdom come to perfect ripeness in the old pagan world. We have seen that old pagan world transformed by the new teaching of gentleness and mercy, a consciousness, wider, more humane and universal, added from above to the old genius of individual life. With the new teaching came the culture of Rome, and something of the lore of Hellas and Palestine, of Egypt and Chaldea, warmly welcomed and ardently cherished in Ireland at a time when Europe was submerged under barbarian inroads and laid waste by heathen hordes. We have seen the faith and culture thus preserved among our western seas generously shared with the nascent nations who emerged from the pagan invasions; the seeds of intellectual and spiritual life, sown with faith and fervor as far as the Alps and the Danube, springing up with God-given increase, and ripening to an abundant harvest.

To that bright epoch of our story succeeded centuries of growing darkness and gathering storm. The forces of our national life, which until then had found such rich expression and flowered in such abundant beauty, were now checked, driven backward and inward, through war, oppression and devastation, until a point was reached when the whole indigenous population had no vestige of religious or civil rights; when they ceased even to exist in the eyes of the law.

The tide of life, thus forced inward, gained a firm possession of the invisible world, with the eternal realities indwelling there. Thus fixed and founded in the real, that tide turned once again, flowing outwards and sweeping before it all the barriers in its way. The population of Ireland is diminishing in numbers; but the race to which they belong increases steadily: a race of clean life, of unimpaired vital power, unspoiled by wealth or luxury, the most virile force in the New World.

It happens very rarely, under those mysterious laws which rule the life of all humanity, the laws which work their majestic will through the ages, using as their ministers the ambitions and passions of men—it happens rarely that a race keeps its unbroken life through thirty centuries, transformed time after time by new spiritual forces, yet in genius remaining ever the same. It may be doubted whether even once before throughout all history a race thus long-lived has altogether escaped the taint of corruption and degeneration. Never before, we may confidently say, has a single people emerged from such varied vicissitudes, stronger at the end in genius, in spiritual and moral power, than at the beginning, richer in vital force, clearer in understanding, in every way more mature and humane.

For this is the real fruit of so much evil valiantly endured: a deep love of freedom, a hatred of oppression, a knowledge that the wish to dominate is a fruitful source of wrong. The new age now dawning before us carries many promises of good for all humanity; not less, it has its dangers, grave and full of menace; threatening, if left to work unchecked, to bring lasting evil to our life. Never before, it is true, have there been so wide opportunities for material well-being; but, on the other hand, never before have there been such universal temptations toward a low and sensual ideal. Our very mastery over natural forces and material energies entices us away from our real goal, hides from our eyes the human and divine powers of the soul, with which we are enduringly concerned. Our skill in handling nature's lower powers may be a means of great good; not less may it bring forth unexampled evil. The opportunities of well-being are increased; the opportunities of exclusive luxury are increased in equal measure; exclusion may bring resentment; resentment may call forth oppression, armed with new weapons, guided by wider understanding, but prompted by the same corrupt spirit as of old.

In the choice which our new age must make between these two ways, very much may be done for the enduring well-being of mankind by a race full of clean vigor, a race taught by stern experience the evil of tyranny and oppression, a race profoundly believing the religion of gentleness and mercy, a race full of the sense of the invisible world, the world of our immortality.

We see in Ireland a land with a wonderful past, rich in tradition and varied lore; a land where the memorials of the ages, built in enduring stone, would in themselves enable us to trace the life and progress of human history; we see in Ireland a land full of a singular fascination and beauty, where even the hills and rivers speak not of themselves but of the spirit which builds the worlds; a beauty, whether in brightness or gloom, finding its exact likeness in no other land; we see all this, but we see much more: not a memory of the past, but a promise of the future; no offering of earthly wealth, but rather a gift to the soul of man; not for Ireland only, but for all mankind.



INDEX.

Abbey-Dorney, 303 Abbey-feale, 303 Abbey-leix, 303 Abbey of Ballintober, 305 Abbey-quarter, 29 Abercrombie, Sir Ralph, words of, 369, 370 Achill Island, 30 Act of Union, 371 Aed Allan, 225, 231 Aed Finnliat, 247 Aed Roin, 225 Aed, son of Colgan, 226 Ailill, 130, 131, 132, 141, 142, 146, 147, 152 Aiterni, 150 Alfred, king of the Northumbrian Saxons, 232 Alfred, king, ode of to the country he visited, 232, 233 Alny, 120, 129 Amargin, 150 Ambigatos, 103 Ancient seats of learning, 221 Ancient seats of learning, studies therein, 221, 222 Anglicans, 322 Angus, the Young, 92, 95, 96, 173 "Annals," history of the times as recorded in the, 235, 252 "Annals," quotations from, 224, 244, 264, 277, 293 Antrim, 5, 196 Archaic Darkness, 11 Archaic Dawn, 12 Ardan, 120, 129 Ard-Maca, 200 Armagh, 200, 208, 232, 241 At-Cliat, 242, 243, 275 Athlone, 140, 350, 354 Ath-uince, 163 Aughrim, 354, 355

Ballinasloe, 354 Ballysadare, 27, 87, 90 Balor of the Evil Eye, 90, 91, 93 Bangor, 221, 239, 240, 250, 342 Bann, 146 Bantry Bay, 104 Barrow, valley of the, 42 Battle of Kinvarra, 162 Battle of the Headland of the Kings, 13 Battle-verses, 248, 249 Bay of Murbolg, 143 Bay of Sligo, 29 Bective Abbey, 301 Bede, Venerable, 218 Belgadan, 85 Beltane, festival of, 47 Beltaney, 47 Black Lion Cromlech, 46 Blackwater, 39, 82 Bonamargy Abbey, 306 Book of Kells, 209, 249 Boyne, the, 5, 150, 242, 350 Brandon Hill, 42 Breagho, 34 Breas, 83, 84, 99, 91, 105 Breg, 149 Brehon Laws, the, 206 Brehon Laws, changes of, effected by St. Patrick, 207, 316 Bruce, Edward, invasion by, 292 Bruce, Edward, death of, 293 Brugh, on the Boyne, 93, 95 Bundoran, 29

Cael, 163, 165, 194, 262 Cael, poem of, 164, 165 Caher, 161 Caherconree, 32 Cailte, 162, 166 Cairbre, 89, 167, 168, 173, 241 Cairpre Nia Fer, 146, 147, 132 Callan River, 199 Calpurn, 182 Cantyre, 119, 123, 143 Carlingford Lough, 241 Carlingford Mountains, 44 Carrickfergus, 331, 344, 345, 347 Carrowmore, 27, 29 Cataract of the Oaks, 87, 90, 91 Catbad, 141, 142, 150 Cavan, 46 Cavancarragh, 35, 66 Cealleac, 224 Charlemont, castle of, 343 Chevalier de Tesse, 355 Chiefs of Tara, 82 Chieftain of the Silver Arm, 91 Chronicler's record of battles fought, 210, 211, 212, 217, 218 Chronicles of Ulster, 218 Church architecture, 298 Ciar, 104 Cistercian Abbey, 306 Clare, 31, 62 Clare Abbey, 306 Clidna, 166 Clocar, 161 Clondalkin, 241 Clonmacnoise, 208 Cluain Bronaig, 226 Coleraine, 331 Colum Kill, 208, 212 Colum Kill, death of, 215 Colum Kill, verses written by, 213, 214 Colum of the Churches, 223, 237 Conall Cernac, 149, 151 Concobar, 13, 113, 114, 117, 121, 122, 123, 124, 129, 130, 131, 141, 142, 143, 144, 145, 147, 148, 149, 150, 151, 152, 177, 194, 246, 258, 262, 360 Conditions existing in early years, 219, 220, 221, 222 Congus the Abbot, 225 Connacht, 5, 88, 133, 140, 144, 350, 357 Connemara, 85 Conn, lord of Connacht, 162 Conn of the Five-Score Battles, 88, 162 Copyright decision, an early, 213 Cork, 5 Cormac, 167, 171, 172 Cormac, precepts of, 167, 168, 169, 170, 171 Coroticus, 195 Corrib, 85 Crede of the Yellow Hair, 163, 178, 194, 262 Crimtan of the Yellow Hair, 162 Cromlech-builders, the, 51, 68 Cromlech of Howth, 43 Cromlech of Lisbellaw. 47 Cromlech of Lough Rea, 46 Cromlechs, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 37, 39, 42, 43, 45, 46, 47, 51, 52. 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58 Cromwell, 334, 339 Croom, 161 Cruacan, 131, 141, 146 Cryptic Designs on cromlechs, 47 Cuailgne, 132 Cuigead Sreing, 88 Culdaff, 47 Cumal, 162 Curlew hills, 37, 131 Cuculain, 13, 14, 15, 16, 133, 134, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139, 143, 144, 145, 152, 155, 181, 194, 246, 262, 360

DAGDA Mor, 96, 148 Dagda, the Mighty, 92, 95 Daire, 132, 133, 200, 262 Danes, conversion of the, 275 Danish Pyramid of Uby, 97 Dark Ages, the, 260, 261, 262 Day of Spirits, 140 De Danaans, the, 77, 79, 80, 82, 84, 86, 87, 89, 91, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 103, 105, 106, 112, 132, 148 De Courcey, 277 De Courceys, the, 319 Deer-park, 29 Deirdre, 13, 14, 15, 115, 123, 124, 129, 130, 178, 262 Deirdre, the fate of, 116, 117, 118, 119, 120, 121, 122 Deirdre, the Lament of, 125 De Lacys, the, 319 Deny, 331, 341, 342, 344, 350 Devenish, 250 Devenish Island, 221 Diarmuid, 171, 172, 173 Dicu, 240 Dingle Bay, 104 Dinn-Rig by the Barrow, 146 Dissenters, 322 Domnall, 211, 231 Donaghpatrick, 208 Doncad, 231, 232 Donegal, 29, 47 Donegal Highlands, 26 Donegal ranges, 5 Douglas, 350 Douin Cain, 81 Down, 5, 46 Downpatrick, 198, 240 Drogheda, 342, 345 Druids, 140 Druim Dean, 162 Drumbo, 46 Dublin, 5, 252, 340, 345 Dublin Parliament, 368 Duke of Ormond, 359 Dundalathglas, 240 Dundalk, 342 Dundelga, 143 Dundrum, 146 Dundrum Bay, 44, 45 Durrow, 221, 250

Early churches, 208 Early schools of learning, tongues first studied in, 208 Eclipses of the sun and moon, record of, 218 Edgehill, battle of, 326 Elias, Bishop of Angouleme, France, testimony of, 250, 251 Elizabeth, Queen, 321, 341 Emain, Banquet-hall of, 111 Emain of Maca, 13, 110, 112, 115, 122, 123, 129, 131, 140 Engineering skill ten thousand years ago, 43 Enniskillen, 34, 35, 341 Eocaid, son of Erc, 81, 84, 86, 87 Eocu, 146 Erin, 141, 144 Established Church, clergy of the, 376 Etan, 89 Evangel of Galilee, the, 16

Factna, son of Cass, 113 Fair Head, 143 Feidlimid, 242 Ferdiad, 134, 135, 136, 138, 139, 140 Fergus mac Roeg, 13, 15, 16, 113, 114, 121, 122, 123, 124, 129, 130, 131, 133 Fergus the Eloquent, 166, 177, 262, 360 Fermanagh, 33 Feudal system, the, 289 Feudal ownership, 291 Find, ode to Spring of, 156 Find, son of Cumal, 14, 16, 155, 161, 162, 163, 166, 167, 171, 172, 173, 177, 194, 246, 262 Find, son of Ros, 146, 147, 152 Finian, school of learning and religion founded by, 212 Finvoy, 46 Firbolgs, 60, 61, 69. 70, 77, 81, 82, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 90, 105, 106 Flann, 248 Fomorians, 69, 70, 77, 81, 90, 91, 92, 93, 106, 246 Ford of Ferdiad, Ath-Fhirdia, 140 Ford of Luan, 140 Ford of Seannait, 226 Ford of the Hurdles, 242, 243, 246 Ford of the river, 14 Franklin, Benjamin, letter of to Irish people, 367 French Revolution, the, 372

Gairec, 140 Galian of Lagin, 144 Galtee Mountains, 161 Galway, 5, 62, 350, 357 Galway Bay, 31, 162 Galway Lakes, 31 Gauls, the, 103 Giant Stones, 30 Ginkell, 354, 355, 357, 358 Gladstone, 375 Glanworth, 39 Glendalough, 208, 221 Glen Druid, 42 Gold Mines River, 109 Golden Vale, 161 Goll Mac Norna, 162 Grania, 15, 171, 172, 173, 178 Grattan, Henry, address of, to Dublin Parliament, 368 Gray Lake, 37 Grey Abbey, 302

Headland of the Kings, 148 Hill of Barnec, 162 Hill of Howth, 239, 252 Hill of Luchra, 146 Hill of Rudraige, 44 Hill of Tara, 155 Hill of the Willows, 200 Hill of Ward, 140 Holycross Abbey, 304 House of Delga, 143 House of Mead, 199 Howth, 239 Howth Head, 43 Hyperboreans, 60, 61, 62, 64, 69

Iarl Strangbow, 275 Indec, son of De Domnand, 90, 91 Inis Fail, the Isle of Destiny, 21 Inismurray, 237, 238, 239 Iona, 215 Ireland, art of working gold in, 108, 178 Ireland, causes of uprising in, 320 Ireland, condition of, in the eighteenth century, 365, 366, 367 Ireland, English influence in, 318 Ireland, life in, two thousand years ago, 177, 178, 179, 180 Ireland, national debt of, 372 Ireland, sympathy of U. S. Congress for people of, 366, 367 Ireland, traditions of, 110 Ireland, the Insurrection of, 370, 371, 372 Ireland, visible and invisible, 3 Irgalac, 149 Iriel, 149 Irish writing, earliest forms of, 177 Islay, 143 Islay Hills, 119

James II., 340, 341, 342, 343, 344, 345, 346, 347, 353 Jura, 119, 123, 143

Kenmare, 39 Kenmare Kiver, 39, 104 Kerry, 5, 62 Kildare, 210, 221, 232 Kilkenny, 42, 325, 326, 349 Killarney, 36, 39, 163 Killee, 34 Killmallock Abbey, 303 Killteran Village, 43 Kinsale, 340, 349 King Gorm's Stone, 97 King William, 345, 346, 347, 348, 349, 350, 352, 365 Knock-Mealdown Hills, 161 Knockmoy Abbey, 306 Knocknarea, 30

Lake, General, statement of, 370 Lake of Killarney, 161 Lakes of Erne, 81 Lambay, 236, 239, 241 Land of the Cromlech-builders, 57 Land of the Ever Young, 95, 96 Land tenure, 375, 376, 377, 378, 379, 380 Laogaire, 199, 240 Lame, 143 Lauzun, 350 Legamaddy, 45 Leinster, 5, 162, 225, 226, 232, 345, 350 Leitrim, 81 Leitrim Hills, 26 Lennan in Monaghan, 46 Life of the Cromlech-builders, 68 Liffey, the, 242 Limerick, 349, 350, 351, 354, 357 Leinstermen, 232, 238 Loing Seac, 224 Lough Erne, 341 Loch Etive, 119, 121 Lough Foyle, 247 Lough Garra, 37 Lough Gill, 29 Lough Gur, 38, 39 Lough Key, 37 Lough Leane, 161, 163 Lough Mask, 85 Lough Neagh, 110, 200 Lough Ree, 140 Loughcrew Hills, 43 Louis XIV, 337, 340, 353 Lug, surnamed Lamfada, the Long-Armed, 92, 93 Lusk, 241

Maca, Queen, 110 Maelbridge, 217 Mag Breag, 223 Mag Rein, 81 Mag Tuiread, 85, 87, 246 Mangerton, 162 Marlborough, Duke of, 352 Mask, 85 Mayo, 5, 62 Mayo Cliffs, 26 Meave, Queen of Connacht, 13, 14, 15, 25, 130, 131, 132, 133, 134, 136, 137, 140, 141, 142, 146, 147, 178, 262 Meath, 155, 242 Men of Oluemacht, 144 Message of the New Way, 264 Messenger of the Tidings, 182 Mide, 149 Miocene Age, the, 58 Modern form of old Irish names, 234 Monasterboice, 221 Monk, 326 Molana Abbey, 306 Molaise, 237 Monasteries and religious schools, 221 Monroe, 324, 326, 327, 323, 329, 330, 331, 333 Monument of Pillared Stones, 30 Moore, 326 Mount Venus Cromlech, 42 Mountcashel, Lord, 342 Mountains of Mourne, 44, 94, 146, 193, 231 Mountains of Storms, 26, 87 Moville, 221, 239, 262 Moytura, 31, 85 Munster, 5 Munstermen of Great Muma, 144 Murcad, 238

Naisi, 115, 116, 117, 118, 120, 121, 122, 129, 130 Napier, Sir William, testimony of, 370 Nectain's Shield, 232 Nemed's sons, 87 Nessa, 15, 113 Norsemen, waning of the, 284 Northern Cromlech Region, 54 Northmen, 234, 235, 236, 243, 251 Nuada, the De Danaan king, 85, 88, 89, 91, 92, 93

O'Connell, Daniel, 373 O'Donnell, 321, 322 O'Neill, Owen Roe, 321, 322, 323, 324, 332, 333, 334, 338 O'Neill, death of, 333 O'Neill, defeat of English army by, 326, 327, 328, 329, 330, 331, 360 Ogma, of the Sunlike Face, 92, 95, 96 Oscar, son of Ossin, 14 Oscur, 155, 171 Ossin, son of Find, 14, 15, 16, 155, 161, 162, 167, 171, 172, 177, 181, 194, 246, 262 Ox Mountains, 87

Parliament at Dublin, 323 Parliament of Ireland, 371 Parnell, Charles Stewart, 380 Patricius, 182 Patricius, appeal of, to fellow-Christians of Coroticus, 195, 196 Patricius, birthplace of, 182 Patricius, letter of, 182, 183, 184, 185, 186, 187, 188, 189, 190, 191, 192, 193 Patrick, 17 Patrick, his first victory commemorated, 198 Patrick, the dwelling of, 198 Peat, age of, 34, 36 Peat, rate of growth of, 33, 35, 66, 67 Penal Laws, the system of, 373 Plain of Nia, 85 Plain of the Headland, 82 Plain of the Pillars, 85 Plain of Tirerril, 91 Plantation of Ulster, 322 Poem of Ossin, 156 Potitus, 182 Prince William of Nassau, 339, 340, 342 Private taxation, 291 Pyramids of stone, 93, 94

Quoyle River, 198, 240

Ragallac, 217 Raid of the Northmen, 234, 235, 236, 237, 238, 239, 240, 241, 242, 243 Raids on islands of Irish coast, 257, 258, 259 Raphoe, 47 Rathcool, 162 Rath-Laogaire, 199 Rath of Badamar, 161 Red Hills of Leinster, 162 Reform Bill, the, 372 Restoration, the, 339 Roderick O'Conor, 61 Ros Ruad, 152 Ros, son of Rudraige, 112 Rudraige, 44, 112 Rudraige, hill of, 44, 231 Runnymead, 317

Saint Adamnan, 223, 224 Saint Bernard, 298 Saint Brigid, 210 Saint Camin's "Commentary on the Psalms," 222 "Saint Colum of the Churches," 212 Saint Dominick, 298 Saint Francis of Assisi, 298 Saint Mansuy, 60 Saint Patrick, body of laid at rest, 201 Saint Patrick, delivery of message by, to King Laogaire, 199 Saint Patrick, visit of to kings of Leinster and Munster, 200 Saint Patrick, work of, 199, 205 Saint Ruth, 354, 355 Saint Ruth, death of, 356 Saint Samtain, 226 Saint Samtain, epitaph of the saintly virgin, 226, 227 Sarsfield, 351, 353, 355 Saul, 208, 221 Schomberg, 342, 343, 344, 345, 347, 348 Second Epoch, 13 Senca, 144 Shannon, the, 5, 32, 37, 130, 141, 146, 350, 354, 357 Sheldon, 357, 358 Slane, 347, 348 Slieve Callan, 31, 39 Slieve League, 26, 90 Slieve Mish, 104, 132, 196 Slievemore Mountain, 30 Slieve na Calliagh, 95, 97 Slieve-na-griddle, 45, 46 Sligo, 25, 29, 90, 91 Sligo Hills, 26 Sons of Milid, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 112, 132 Sound of Jura, 119, 123 Southern Cromlech Province, 53 Sreng, 82, 83, 84, 91, 93, 105 Stone Circles, 27, 28, 29, 30, 32, 33, 34, 35, 38, 42, 45, 46, 47, 51, 52, 53, 55, 72 Stone Circles, clue to their building, 40 Stone Circles, measure of their years, 40 Strand of Tralee, 161 Strangford, 45 Strangford Lough, 198 Stuarts, the, 339 Sualtam, 13 Succat, 182 Suir, 161 Sullane River, 39 Summit of Prospects, 146

Tailten, 106, 132 Talbott, Earl of Tyrconnell, 359 Tara, 81, 84, 106, 146, 147, 198 Tara, Banquet-hall of, 112 "The Church of the Oak-woods," 210 The Gravestones of the Sons of Nemed, 87 Thenay Relics, the, 58 Third Epoch, 14 Three Waves of Erin, the, 146 Tigearnac, 265 Toppid Mountain, 35, 36 Traig Eotaile, 87 Tralee, 32 Treaty of Limerick, 361, 365 Tuata De Danaan, 79, 84 Twelve Peaks of Connemara, 31 Tyrconnell, Lady, 340 Tyrconnell, Lord, 340, 343, 344, 345, 349, 351, 352, 353

Uince, 162 Ui-Neill, the, 225, 232 Ulad, 113, 130, 131, 133, 141, 151 Ulaid, 113, 145, 150, 152 Ulaid, Councils of the, 113 Ulaid, men of the, 130 Ulster, 5, 345 Upper Erne, 32 Usnae, 115

Venice of Lough Rea, 37 Volunteer Movement, the, 367, 369

Waterford, 349, 350, 352 Water of Luachan, 146 Wave of Clidna, the, 146, 151 Wave of Rudraige, the, 146, 151 Wave of Tuag Inbir, the, 146, 151 Waves of Erin, the three, 146, 151 Weight of Cromlech-stones, 56 Wexford Harbor, 42 Wicklow, 5 Wicklow Gold-mines, the, 108, 109

Yellow Ford of Athboy, 140

THE END