Page:The Gaelic State in the Past & Future.djvu/52

 the progress quickened with each decade. It began with the integration of the Normans in the middle of the fourteenth century; and it continued till the end of the English Wars of the Roses. The poet took up his song again; the historian his pen; and the scholar his books. Great convocations of learned men were held; and new law tracts were written, drafted for changed conditions. The stateships became the centres of new activity. Corn was exported in considerable quantities. The guilds of artisans became busy again, to judge from the exports of woollen, linen, leather and metal wares. The literary activity—or at least such of it as escaped the soldiers' burning—has remained to us. The other activity can only be discovered by the trade books of other countries; for Ireland, having no organised State of her own, could keep no record of her commerce. But these books reveal the considerable trade Ireland conducted with the continent of Europe. The Irish ports, chiefly on the western and southern coasts, with their own corporate stateships, became the avenue through which the industry of the internal stateships supplied the demand of Europe. And since there was no Irish State to create a medium of exchange, at least one of the territories, that of the O'Reillys, had to mint its own coinage for the conduct of its trade.

It seemed as though once again the Irish State was about to complete itself. But once again an invading soldiery brought, ruin. This time it was the final ruin. England had settled her dynastic