Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/266

 250 IRELAND [HISTORY. Lindisfarnc, which, as Mr Hill Burton, the historian of Scotland, says, &quot;long after the poor parent brotherhood had fallen to decay, expanded itself into the bishopric of Durham, or as some will have it the archbishopric of York itself ; for of all the Christian missions to England that of Aidan seems to have taken the firmest root.&quot; l This was also the period of the great missionaries of the Continent, Columbanus, Gall, Killian, and many others. Nor had the old daring on the sea, which distinguished the Scotic adventurers who had ravaged the coasts of Britain, and which still characterizes the Celtic fishermen of the west of Scotland, the Isle of Man, Cornwall, and Brittany, and the colony of Newfoundland, died out among the Gael of South Minister, for besides Sfc Brendan, whose voyages have given rise to a widespread myth, there was another navigator, Connie, a disciple of St Columcille, who visited the Orkneys, and discovered the Faroe Islands and Iceland, long before the Northmen set foot on them. Other Irish men seeking remote places to lead there the lives of anchorites followed in their tracks, and when the Northmen first discovered Iceland they found there books and other traces of the Irish of the early church. The peculiarities; which, owing to Ireland s isolation, had survived were, as we have said, brought into prominence when the Irish missionaries came into contact with Roman ecclesiastics. Those peculiarities, though only survivals of customs once general in the Christian church, shocked the ecclesiastics of the Roman school accustomed to the order and discipline which were everywhere being introduced into the Western Church. On the Easter question especially a contest arose which waxed hottest in England, and as the Irish monks stubbornly adhered to their tradi tions they were vehemently attacked by their opponents. This controversy occupies much space in the history of the Western Church, and led to an unequal struggle between the Roman and Scotic clergy in Scotland, England, the east of France, Switzerland, and a considerable part of Germany, which naturally ended in the Irish system giving way before the Roman. The monasteries following the Irish rule were supplanted by or converted into Benedictine ones. Owing to this struggle the real work of the early Irish missionaries in converting the pagans of Britain and central Europe, and sowing the seeds of culture there, has been overlooked when not wilfully misrepresented. Thus, while the real work of the conversion of the pagan Germans was the work of Irishmen, Winifred or, as he is better known, St Boniface, a man of great political ability, reaped the field they had sown, and is called the apostle of Germany, though it is very doubtful if he ever preached to the heathen. The southern Irish, who had been more in contact with the South British and Gauls, were the first to accept the Roman method of reckoning Easter, which they did in 633 A.D. In the north of Ireland, which was in connexion with the Columban church, it was adopted fully only on the community of lona yielding in 716, one hundred and fifty years after the commence ment of the controversy, while Wales only conformed, according to the Welsh annals, in 768. The Dynasty of the Ihti Neill. Niall of the Nine Hostages had many sons, of whom eight became stem-fathers of important clans. Four Loegairc, Conall Crimthand, Fiacc, and Maine settled in Meath and adjoining territories, and their posterity were called the southern llui or Hy Neill. The other four Eogan, Enna Find, Cairprc, and Conall Gulban like the three Collas before mentioned, went into Ulster and made sword-land of a large part of it. Their descendants were the northern Hui Neill. The territory of Eogan was known as Tir Eogain, which has survived in the county of Tyrone ; that of Conall Gulban was called Tir Conaill (Tyr Council) corresponding nearly to the present county of Donegal. The pos terity of Eogan were the O Neills and their numerous kindred septs ; the posterity of Conall Gulban were the O Donnells and their 1 History of Scotland, i. 333. dndral septs. Loegaire the son of Niall was succeeded by Ailill ilolt, the son of N fall s predecessor Dathi. After a reign of twenty kindred Molt, years (463-483) he was slain in the battle of Ocha by~Lugaid, son of Loegaire. This battle marks an epoch in Irish history, for it made the posterity of Niall the dominant race in Ireland for live hundred years, during which the Hui Neill held the kingship with out a break. The power of the Hui Neill over Munster, or indeed over any part of Mug s Half, which included Leinster, was, however, often only nominal. At this period the king of the southern half of Ireland was Oengus son of Natfraech, who is said to have been baptized by St Patrick. Whatever may have been the character of Oengus s religious belief, his wife Ethne &quot; the Terrible&quot; was a pagan. She was the daughter of a Druid, and used Druidical in cantations in the battle in which she was slain with her husband. Yet this was the age of St Brigit, St Ailbe, and other saints, who were then laying the foundation of that monasticism which in the following centuries absorbed the intellect and the energy of the nation. The first king of the southern Hiii Neill was Diarmait, son of Fergus Mac Cerbaill (538-558). He undoubtedly professed Chris tianity, but still clung to many pagan practices, such as a plurality of wives and the use of Druidical incantations in battle. He quarrelled with the church about the right of sanctuary, with disastrous results for the country. The king held an assembly (feis orfcss) of the kings and princes of Ireland at Tara in 554, at which Curnan, son of the king of Connaught, slew a nobleman. By ancient usage homicide and certain other offences committed at such assemblies were punishable with death without the privilege of compounding for the crime. Curnan, knowing his fate, lied for sanctuary to Columcille ; but Diarmait pursued him, and, dis regarding the opposition of the saint, seized Curnan and hanged him. The kinsmen of Columcille, the northern Hui Neil), took up his quarrel, and attacked and defeated the king in a battle in 555. It is probable that the part taken by Columcille in this affair had much to do with his leaving Ireland for his great mission to the Ficts two years after. So ardent, energetic, and imperious a spirit must have chafed at any impediment in the way of his work, and, as many of his establishments were under the king s hand, he must have decided to seek another field. This was not the only quarrel about the right of sanctuary which Diarmait had with the church. The chief of Hui Maine, having slain the herald of the king, took sanctuary with St Ruadan of Lothra in Lower Ormond. Diarmait, despite the remonstrances of St Ruadan, seized him by force. The saint, accompanied by St Brendan of Birr, followed the king to Tara, and solemnly cursed it. After the death of Diarmait, who was slain in 558, Tara was deserted, and no assembly was again held there. Subsequent kings resided at their hereditary duns the northern Hui Neill at Ailech, near Derry, those of the southern branch in Westmeath. The desertion of Tara was one of the chief causes which disintegrated the Irish nation, in which the idea of a central government had taken firm root, and might under favourable circumstances have acquired suf ficient force to evolve a higher political state out of the tribal system. The reign of Aed, son of Ainmire, of the race of Conall Gulban of the northern Hui Neill (572-599), marks another important epoch in Irish history. Thejilul, whom we shall conventionally call bards, and who were part of the transformed Druidic order, had increased in number to such an extent that they are said to have included one-third of the freemen. An ollam fill, the highest grade of the order, was entitled to a large retinue of pupils, with their horses and dogs, with free quarters wherever he went. There was thus quite an army of impudent swaggering idlers roaming about the country and quartering themselves on the chiefs and nobles during the winter and spring, story-telling, and lampooning those who dared to refuse, or even to hesitate, to comply with their demands. Aed determined to banish them from Ireland ; and, as this could only be done with the consent and cooperation of all the kings and chiefs, he summoned a convention (fcis or f ess), such as formerly met at Tara, to assemble at Druimceta, in the north of Ireland. The political geography of the country at the time may be understood from the princes who attended. Besides Aed him self, the &quot;Ard Ri&quot; or over-king, there came there the over-king of Minister, the king of West Monster or Desmond, the king of Leinster, the king of Ossory, the chiefs of which had then begun to acquire that power and independence which gave them promi nence in the Dano-Irish wars, the kings of the three principalities into which Connaught was then divided, the chief of the Cinel Eogain branch of the northern Hui Neill (Aed, the over-king, re presented the Tir Conaill branch), two kings of the Airgeill, the king of Dal-Araide, the representative of the once powerful kings of *he Ulaid, before the conquests of the Scots, and Aedan, son of Gabran king of the Dalriata of Alba. Two other causes were also to be discussed at the assembly, one of which is of considerable his toric interest, namely, Acd s proposal to impose a tribute payable to the over-king upon the Dalriadic kingdom in Alba, which had hitherto paid no rent, though bound to assist the Irish king in his.