Page:English Historical Review Volume 37.djvu/628

 620 SHORT NOTICES October In their Short History of the Irish People (London : Longmans, 1921) Professor Mary Hayden and Mr. George A. Moonan have aimed at pro- ducing a text-book on the subject for students. The authors make no special claim to originality, but ' while writing from a frankly national standpoint, they claim to have made every effort to attain accuracy and avoid prejudice '. Though somewhat savouring of a lecturer's note-book, the work shows marks of careful preparation. The writers too have preserved a certain detachment, and have at least avoided indiscriminate abuse of what they no doubt regard as anti-national activities. In the earlier sections a sober view is presented of Irish traditions, but when recorded history is reached, an impression is given, owing rather to omissions than to positive statements, that from the sixth to the ninth centuries the Irish were a peaceful, orderly people, mainly composed of saints and scholars, who sent forth missionaries to benighted Europe, and that only when disturbed by invaders from without did the country become a prey to turmoil and disorder. The authors too have not always kept abreast of the results of modern research, but have reproduced many errors of former writers which have been exposed, and have added some fresh ones of their own. For example : the location of Glenmama near Dunlavin has been disproved (p. 75) ; Strongbow did not assume the title of king of Leinster (p. 113) ; Rory O'Connor in 1171 was ready to leave Strongbow in possession of Dublin, Wexford, and Waterford (p. 114) ; Adrian's Bull does not ' purport to make a grant of Ireland to Henry ' (p. 116) ; the ' earldom ' of Ulster was not granted to John de Courcy, nor that of Connaught to William de Burgh (p. 117) ; Raymond le Gros is no longer regarded as ancestor of the Fitz Maurices (p. 123) ; William de Burgh did not succeed Strongbow as viceroy (p. 124, this is the old confusion with William Fitz Audelin) ; Walter de Lacy was not besieged in Trim by William Marshal, but aided the marshal to besiege it (p. 128) ; it was not through a (supposed) marriage with Hugh de Lacy's daughter that Walter de Burgh obtained Ulster (p. 131) ; nor was it through a marriage with the same Hugh's grand-daughter that Roger Mortimer became entitled to lands in Meath (p. 153). Errors such as these and the list might be extended would have been avoided by a little more care. It is more serious to find cases where authorities, evidently consulted, form the bases of charges which they do not support. Thus we are told that ' St. Laurence O'Toole had to suspend 140 of the Norman clergy for their irregular lives ' (p. 147). The authority is no doubt the saint's Life published by Surius, where however nothing is said about the nationality of the delinquents ; and seeing that up to the archbishop's death in 1180 all the bishops of Ireland were native Irishmen, one wonders how so many incontinent Normans had already gained preferment there. Again, we read : ' In 1465 it was declared that any Irishman, found in the Pale, not in the company of a faithful man in English apparel might be killed and the slayer rewarded ' (p. 184). The statute in question, however, declares nothing about Irishmen, but is concerned with ' thieves found robbing or going to rob '. The suggestion that the outbreak of the insurrection of 1798 in Wexford was caused by the burning of the chapel of Boleyvogue is also a curious misreading of the evidence (p. 433). Finally, we must