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 IRELAND

99

IRELAND

Ireland is unknown. They wore Celts, and probalily came from Gaul to Britain, and from Britain to Ire- land, rather than direet from Spain. Under the lead- ership of Hcremon and Heber they soon liecame mas- ters of the island. Some of the Firliol^s, it is saiil, crossed the sea to the Isles of Arran, wlicre they Imill the fort of Dun Engus, which still stands and which tradition still associates with their name. Heber and Heremon soon quarrelled, and, Heber falling in battle, Heremon became sole ruler, the first in a long line of kings. This list of kings, however, is not reliable, and we are warned Ijy Tighearnach, the most trustworthy of Irish chroniclers, that all events before the reign of Cimbaeth (300 b. c.) are uncertain. Even after the dawn of the Christian Era fact and fiction are inter- woven and events are often shroutied in the shadows and mists. Such, for instance, are the exploits of CuchuUain and Finn Macumhael. Nor have many of these early kings been remark- able, if we except Conn of the Hundred Battles, who lived in the first century after Christ; Cormac, who lived a century later; Tuathal, who established the Feis of Tara; Niall, who invaded Britain; and Dathi, who in the fifth century lost his life at the foot of the Alps.

The Irish were then pagans, but not barbarians. Their roads were indeed ill-constructed, their wooden dwellings rude, the dress of their lower orders scanty, their implements of agriculture and war primitive, and so were their land vehicles, and the boats in which they traversed the sea. On the other hand, some of their swords and shields showed some skill in metal-working, and their war- like and commercial voyages to Britain and Gaul argue some proficiency in shipbuilding and navigation. They certainly loved music; and, besides their inscribed Ogham writing, they had a knowledge of letters ~

Ireland (ardri), and suliject to him were the proviiicial kings and chiefs of tribes. Each of these received tribute from his immediate inferior, and even in a sept the political and legal administration was complete. There was the druid who explained religion, the brehon who dispensed justice, the brughaid or public hospitaller, the l)ard who sang the praises of his chief or urged his kinsmen to battle; and each was an offi- cial and had his appointed allotment of land. Kings, though taken from one family, were elective, the tanist or heir-apparent being frequently not the nearest re- lation of him who reigned. This peculiarity, together with gavelkind by which the lands were periodically redistributed, impeded industry and settle<l govern- ment. Nor was there any legislative assembly, and the Brehon law under which Ireland lived was judge- made law. Sometimes the ardri's tribute remained unpaid and his authority nominal; but if he was a strong man he exacted obedience and tribute. The Boru tribute levied on the King of Leinster was exces- sive and unjust, and led to many evils. The pagan Irish believed in Druidism (q. v.), resembling some- what the Druidism Csesar saw in Gaul ; but the pagan creed of the Irish was indefinite and their gods do not stand out clear. They held the immortality and the transmigration of souls, worshipped the sun and moon, and, with an inferior worship, mountains, riv- srs, and wells. And they sacrificed to idols, one of

St. M There was a high-king of

which, Crom Cruach, they are said to have propitiated with human sacrifices. They also believetl in fairies, holding that the Tuatha-de-Danaiuis, when defeated by the Milesians, retired into the bosom of the moun- tains, where they held their fairy revels. One of the women fairies (the banshee) watched the fortunes of great families, and when some great misfortune was impending, the doomed family was warned at night by her mournful wail.

E.\RLY Christian Period. — Intercourse with Brit- ain and the Continent through commerce and war sufficiently accounts for the introduction of Christian- ity before the fifth century. There must have Ijeen then a considerable number of Christians in Ireland ; for in 430 Palladius (q. v.), a bishop and native of Britain, was sent by Pope Celestine "to the Scots be- lieving in Christ ". Palladius, however, did little, and almost immediately returned to Britain, and in 432 the same pope sent St. Patrick (q. v.). He is the Apostle of Ireland, but this does not im- ply that he found Ireland al- together pagan and left it altogether Christian. It is however quite true that when St. Patrick did come paganism was the predominant belief, and that at his death it had been supplanted as such by- Christianity. The extraordi- nary work which St. Patrick did, as well as his own attrac- tive personal character, has furnished him with many Ijiog- raphers; and even in recent years his life and works liave engaged erudite and able pens. But in .spite of all that lias lieen written many things in his life are .still doubtful and olj.scure. It is still doubtful when and where he was born, how he spent his life between his first leaving Ireland and his return, and in what year he died. It has been maintained that he never existed; that he and Pal- ladius were the same man; that there were two St. Patricks; again, some, like Jocelin, have multiplied his miracles beyond belief. These contradictions and exaggerations have encouraged the scoffer to sneer; and Gibbon was sure that in the sixty-six lives of St. Patrick there must have been sixty-six thousand lies. In reality there seems no solid reason for rejecting the traditional account, viz., that St. Patrick was born at Dumbarton in Scotland about 372; that he was captured and brought to Ire- land by the Irish king, Nial; that he was sold as a slave to an Ulster chief Slilcho, whom he served for six years; that he then escaped and went back to his own people; that in repeated visions he, a pious Christian, heard the plaintive cry of the pagan Irish inviting him to come among.st them; that, believing he was called by God to do so, he went first to the monastery of St. Martin of Tours, then to that of St. Germanus of Aux- erre, after which he went to Lerins and to Rome; and then, being consecrated bishop, he was sent by Pope Celestine to Ireland, where he arrived in 432.

From Wicklow, where he landed, his course is traced to Antrim; back by Downpatrick, near which he con- verted Dichu and got from him a grant of land for his first church at Saul; thence by Dundalk, where Be- nignus was converted ; and to Slane, where in sight of Tara itself he lighted the paschal fire. The enraged druids pointed out to the ardri the heinousness of the offence, for during the great pagan festival then being celel)rated it was deatli to light any fire except at