Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 3.djvu/113



Barony of Farney, so termed from the ancient Irish designation, "the plain of the Alder-trees," the aboriginal growth which covered the low marshy lands and margins of standing waters in an extensive district of central Ireland, was a division of the ancient territory of Oriel, or M'Mahon's country, which was subdivided into five baronies in the reign of Elizabeth. Mr. Shirley has collected from the most ancient records the annals of Donegal and of Ulster, commencing as early as the fourth century; the few scattered evidences relating to the habits of the earlier inhabitants, records which tell only of rapine and bloodshed, of internal strife and lawless aggressions. The existence of earthen forts, or Lis, crowning every eminence in the district of Farney, to the number of 220 and upwards, as also of the curious remains of abodes of petty chieftains, placed for security on natural or artificial islands in the numerous loughs of that country, and termed Crannoges, bear a striking testimony to the truth of the "Annals of the Four Masters," and other early memorials of Irish history, upon which attention has as yet been insufficiently bestowed. Amongst these a curious record exists in relation to the rights of the tribes and chiefs of the district, and the privileges claimed by the king and people of Oriel: it is found in the "Book of Lecan," compiled about the twelfth century. The subsidies payable by the monarch of Island to the king of Oriel, and other subordinate reguli, and their liabilities to their inferior chieftains, are therein detailed: the chief of Farney appears to have been entitled to six loricas, and as many cups, shields, swords, women-slaves and chess-boards. The introduction of the game of chess at so early a period, in a country torn by rapine and disorder, might have been questioned, although Mr. Petrie is possessed of two chess-men discovered in Ireland, considered to be of no less ancient a date than the eleventh century, but the fact appears to be established by the curious record now for the first time published. The indefatigable research of Mr. Shirley has brought to light many curious memorials relating to the occurrences of the period antecedent to the Norman invasion, as well as of succeeding centuries; and the history of Farney, although properly forming a monograph of a limited district, may be viewed by general readers with interest as a faithful picture of the civil strife and fatal disunion by which the prosperity of this fertile land was blasted. The Lis of the primeval inhabitants gave place to the more scientifically constructed fortresses of de Courcy, and the Anglo-Norman occupants, but still was each man's hand upraised against his