Page:The Gaelic State in the Past & Future.djvu/38

 dynasty—when his son died in battle with him without being able to claim the reversion of his father's work—Ireland was thrown into a dynastic war. Had Ireland remained without invasion the Nation must have solved that difficulty by eventually winning some system in which the executive stability would have been secured. Unhappily the country was invaded by a militarist system, which, being a militarist system, lived on no. economic labour of its own but preyed on the economic labour of the country and played off one part of the dynastic dispute against another in order to secure the fruits of its robbery. It so happened that the Nation had no means of resistance. The Fianna Eireann had been disbanded because it had threatened the State. The stateships could not be called upon for more than six weeks' military service at a time, and then not during Spring or Harvest, for the Nation had to continue its economic life or endure famine; while the feudal Normans preying on the economic labour of others could make war at all times and without cessation. And every year saw them making good their hold, while the stateships weakened, until finally when Hebridean mercenaries were introduced and quartered on the stateships it was too late to eject the invader.