Page:The Gaelic State in the Past & Future.djvu/18

 II

THE MAKINGS OF A POLITY

myth of Invasions, elaborated from the seventh century onwards, shrouds the earliest Irish history from our view. Something authentic, aged and significant passes behind that screen, but we cannot clearly see what it is. Irish history only begins to emerge from that screen, and to pass into the clearer light of knowledge, with the opening centuries of our era. We then begin to get parts of information that can more and more be checked with one another and with other known facts, so building up a history that can be submitted to criticism; and it is interesting to notice that the emergence into greater certitude occurs at the very moment when the national life begins to be framed into a distinct and recognisable polity, ever tending towards a central authority.

The process begins with or about Tuathal Teachtmhair, Tuathal the Arriver, about the middle of the second century. With him there is still much twilight, but with him the daylight quickens. The main outlines of his life and work, even of his personality, can be checked with one another and take their place in a logical and reliable whole. With him the makings of the new State begin; and they continue, in spite of periods of disrepair, until at the end of the first millenium [sic] the State was knit