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Popular History of Ireland, Book 02-Thomas D'Arcy McGee · Characters of Shakespeare's Plays

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Speaker 1: Chapter one of A Popular History of Ireland, Book two.
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Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
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Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by John Freeman. A Popular
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Speaker 1: History of Ireland from the earliest period to the Emancipation
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Speaker 1: of the Catholics, Book two by Thomas Darcy McGee. Chapter one,
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Speaker 1: the Danish Invasion. Hugh the sixth, surnamed Orny, succeeded to
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Speaker 1: the throne vacant by the death of Donna I a d.
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Speaker 1: Seven ninety seven, and reigned twenty two years. Connor the
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Speaker 1: second succeeded a d. Eight nineteen and reigned fourteen years.
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Speaker 1: Nile the third, called from the place of his death
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Speaker 1: Nile of Callan, reigned thirteen years. Malache I succeeded a d.
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Speaker 1: Eight forty five and reigned fifteen years. Hugh the seventh
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Speaker 1: succeeded in Rei sixteen years, dying a d. Eight seventy seven.
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Speaker 1: Plan surnamed Flan of the Shannon, succeeded at the latter
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Speaker 1: date and reigned for thirty eight years. Far into the
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Speaker 1: tenth century. Of these six kings whose reigns averaged twenty
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Speaker 1: years each. We may remark that not one died by violence,
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Speaker 1: if we accept perhaps Nile of Callan drowned in the
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Speaker 1: river of that name in a generous effort to save
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Speaker 1: the life of one of his own servants. Though no
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Speaker 1: former princes had ever encountered dangers equal to these. Yet
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Speaker 1: in no previous century was the person of the ruler
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Speaker 1: so religiously respected if this was evident in one or
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Speaker 1: two instants only. If this was evident in one or
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Speaker 1: two instances only, it would be idle to lay much
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Speaker 1: stress upon it. But when we find the same truth
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Speaker 1: holding good of several successive reigns, it is not too
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Speaker 1: much to attribute it to that wide diffusion of Christian
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Speaker 1: morals which we have pointed out as the characteristic of
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Speaker 1: the two preceding centuries. The kings of this age owed
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Speaker 1: their best protection to the purer ethics which overflowed from
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Speaker 1: Armagh and Bangor and Lismore. And if we find hereafter
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Speaker 1: the regicide habits of former times partially revived, it will
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Speaker 1: only be after the new paganism, the paganism of interminable
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Speaker 1: anti Christian invasions, had recovered the land and extinguished the
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Speaker 1: beacon lights of the three first Christian centuries. The enemy
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Speaker 1: who were now to assault the religious and civil institutions
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Speaker 1: of the Irish must be admitted to possess many great
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Speaker 1: military qualities. They certainly exhibit in the very highest degree
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Speaker 1: the first of all military virtues, unconquerable courage. Let us
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Speaker 1: say cheerfully that history does not present, in all its
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Speaker 1: volumes a braver race of men than the Scandinavians of
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Speaker 1: the ninth century. In most respects, they closely resembled the
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Speaker 1: Gothic tribes, who, whether starting into historic life on the
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Speaker 1: Euxine or the Danube, or faintly heard of by the
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Speaker 1: Latins from far off Baltic filled with constant alarm the
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Speaker 1: Roman statesmen of the fourth century. Nor can the invasions
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Speaker 1: of what we may call the maritime Goths be better
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Speaker 1: introduced to the reader than by a rapid sketch of
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Speaker 1: the previous triumphs of their kindred tribes over the Roman Empire.
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Speaker 1: It was in the year of our Lord three seventy
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Speaker 1: eight that these long dreaded barbarians defeated the Emperor Valens
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Speaker 1: in the plain of Andreanople, and as early as four
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Speaker 1: hundred four, twenty six years after their first victory in
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Speaker 1: Eastern Europe, they had taken and burned Great Rome herself
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Speaker 1: again and again in four ten, in four fifty five,
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Speaker 1: and in four seventy two they captured and plundered the
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Speaker 1: Imperial City. In the same century, they had established themselves
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Speaker 1: in Burgundy, in Spain, and in northern Africa. In the
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Speaker 1: next another branch of the Gothics stock twice took Rome,
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Speaker 1: and yet another found of the Lombard Kingdom in northern Italy.
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Speaker 1: Would these Goths thus for a time masters of the
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Speaker 1: Roman Empire, whose genius and temper has entered so deeply
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Speaker 1: into all subsequent civilization, War was considered the only pursuit
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Speaker 1: worthy of men. According to their ideas of human freedom,
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Speaker 1: that sacred principle was supposed to exist only in force
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Speaker 1: and by force. They had not the faintest conception, and
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Speaker 1: at first received with unbounded scorn the Christian doctrine of
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Speaker 1: the unity of the human race, the privileges and duties
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Speaker 1: annexed to Christian baptism, and the sublime ideal of the
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Speaker 1: Christian Republic. But they were very far from being so
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Speaker 1: cruel or so faithless as their enemies represented them, they
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Speaker 1: were even better than they cared to represent themselves. And
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Speaker 1: they had amongst them men of highest capacity and energy,
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Speaker 1: well worthy to be the founders of new nations. Alaric,
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Speaker 1: Attila and Genseric were fierce and unmerciful, it is true,
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Speaker 1: but their acts are not all written in blood. They
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Speaker 1: had their better moments and higher purposes in the intervals
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Speaker 1: of battle, and the genius for civil government of the
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Speaker 1: Gothic race was in the very beginning demonstrated by such
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Speaker 1: rulers as Theodoric in Italy and in Gaul. The rear
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Speaker 1: guard of this irresistible Barbaric invasion was now about to
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Speaker 1: break in upon Europe by a new route, instead of
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Speaker 1: the long land marches by which they had formerly concentrated
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Speaker 1: from the distant Baltic and from the tributaries of the
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Speaker 1: Danube on the capital of the Roman Empire. Instead of
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Speaker 1: the tedious expeditions striking across the continent, hewing their paths
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Speaker 1: through dense forests, arrested by rapid rivers and difficult mountains,
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Speaker 1: the last northern invaders of Europe had sufficiently advanced in
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Speaker 1: the arts of ship building and navigation to strike boldly
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Speaker 1: into the open sea and commence their new conquests Among
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Speaker 1: the Christian islands of the West. The defenders of Roman
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Speaker 1: power and Christian civilization in the fifth and sixth centuries
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Speaker 1: were arrayed against a warlike but pastoral people encumbered with
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Speaker 1: their women and children. The defenders of the same civilization
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Speaker 1: in the British Islands in the ninth and tenth centuries
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Speaker 1: were contending with kindred tribes who had substituted maritime arts
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Speaker 1: and habits for the pastoral arts and habits of the
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Speaker 1: companions of Attila and Theodoric. The Gothic invasion of Roman
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Speaker 1: territory in the earlier period was with the single exception
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Speaker 1: of the naval expedition of Genseric from his new African
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Speaker 1: kingdom a continental war, and notwithstanding the partiality of Genseric
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Speaker 1: for his fleet as an arm of offense and defense,
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Speaker 1: his companions and successors abandoned the ocean as an uncongenial element.
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Speaker 1: The only parallel for the new invasion of which we
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Speaker 1: are now to speak is to be found in the
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Speaker 1: history and fortunes of the Saxons of the fifth century,
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Speaker 1: first the Allies and afterwards the conquerors of part of Britain,
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Speaker 1: but even their descendants in England had not kept pace,
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Speaker 1: either in the arts of navigation or in thirst for adventure,
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Speaker 1: with their distant relatives, who remained two centuries later among
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Speaker 1: the friths and rocks of Scandinavia. The first appearance of
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Speaker 1: these invaders on the Irish and British coasts occurred in
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Speaker 1: seven ninety four. Their first descent on Ireland was at
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Speaker 1: Rathlin Island, which may be called outpost of Erin towards
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Speaker 1: the north. Their second attempt eighty seven ninety seven was
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Speaker 1: at a point much more likely to arouse attention, at
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Speaker 1: Skerry's off the coast of Meath now Dublin. In eight
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Speaker 1: o three and again in eightos six they attacked and
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Speaker 1: plundered the Holy Iona, but it was not until a
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Speaker 1: dozen years later they became really formidable. In eight eighteen
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Speaker 1: they landed at Health, and the same year and probably
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Speaker 1: the same party, sacked the sacred edifices in the estuary
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Speaker 1: of the Slainy by them afterwards called Wexford. In eight
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Speaker 1: twenty they plundered Cork, and in eight twenty four, most
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Speaker 1: startling blow of all, they sacked and burned the schools
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Speaker 1: of Bangor. The same year they revisited Iona and put
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Speaker 1: to death many of its inmates. Destroyed Moville received the
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Speaker 1: severe check in Lecale, near Strangford Low, one of their
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Speaker 1: favorite stations. Another party fared better in a land Foray
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Speaker 1: and Ossory, where they defeated those who endeavored to arrest
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Speaker 1: their progress and carried off a rich booty. In eight
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Speaker 1: thirty and eight thirty one, their ravages were equally felt
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Speaker 1: in Leinster, in Meath and in Ulster, and besides many
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Speaker 1: prisoners of princely rank, they plundered the primatial city of
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Speaker 1: Armagh for the first time in the year eight thirty two.
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Speaker 1: The names of their chief captains at this period are
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Speaker 1: carefully preserved by those who had so many reasons to
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Speaker 1: remember them, and we now begin to hear of the Ivars, Olifs,
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Speaker 1: and Cityx strangely intermingled with the Hughes, Niles, Conners and Phelims,
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Speaker 1: who contended with them in battle or in diplomacy. It
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Speaker 1: was not till the middle of this century eighty eight
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Speaker 1: thirty seven that they undertook to fortify Dublin, Limerick and
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Speaker 1: some other harbors which they had seized to winter in
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Speaker 1: Ireland and declare their purpose to be the complete conquest
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Speaker 1: of the country. The earliest of these expeditions seemed to
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Speaker 1: have been annual visitations, and as the northern winter sets
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Speaker 1: in about October and the Baltic is seldom navigable before May,
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Speaker 1: the summer was the season of the depredations, awaiting the
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Speaker 1: breaking up of the ice. The intrepid adventurers assembled annually
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Speaker 1: upon the islands in the Caddagat or on the coast
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Speaker 1: of Norway, awaiting the favorable moment of departure. Here they
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Speaker 1: beguiled their time between the heathen rites. They rendered to
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Speaker 1: their gods, their wild baccanal festivals, and the equipment of
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Speaker 1: their galleys. The largest ship built in Norway and probably
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Speaker 1: in the North before the eleventh century, had thirty four
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Speaker 1: banks of oars. The largest class a vessel carried from
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Speaker 1: one hundred to one hundred twenty men. The Great Fleet
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Speaker 1: which invaded Ireland at eight thirty seven counted one hundred
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Speaker 1: twenty vessels, which, if of average size for such long voyages,
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Speaker 1: would give a total force of some six thousand men.
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Speaker 1: As the whole population of Denmark in the region of Canute,
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Speaker 1: who died in ten thirty five is estimated at eight
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Speaker 1: hundred thousand souls. We may judge from their fleets how
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Speaker 1: large a portion of the men were engaged in these
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Speaker 1: piratical pursuits. The ships on which they prided themselves so
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Speaker 1: highly were flat bottom craft, with little or no keel,
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Speaker 1: the sides of wicker work covered with strong hides. They
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Speaker 1: were impelled either by sails or oars, as the changes
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Speaker 1: of the weather allowed. With favorable winds, they often made
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Speaker 1: the voyage in three days, as if to favor their designs.
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Speaker 1: The North and Northwest blast blows for a hundred days
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Speaker 1: of the year over the sea they had to traverse.
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Speaker 1: When land was made in some safe estuary, their galleys
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Speaker 1: were drawn up on shore a convenient distance beyond high
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Speaker 1: water mark, where they formed a rude camp. Watch. Fires
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Speaker 1: were lighted, sentinels set, and the fearless adventurers slept as
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Speaker 1: soundly as if under their own roofs in their own country.
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Speaker 1: Their revels after victory or on returning to their homes
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Speaker 1: were as boisterous as their lives. In food. They looked
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Speaker 1: more to quantity than quality, and one of their most
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Speaker 1: determined prejudices against Christianity was that it did not sanction
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Speaker 1: the eating of horse flesh. An exhilarating beer made from
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Speaker 1: heath or from the spruce tree was their principal beverage,
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Speaker 1: and the recital of their own adventures or the national
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Speaker 1: songs of the Skalds, were their most cherished amusement. Many
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Speaker 1: of the Vikings were or themselves Skalds, and excelled, as
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Speaker 1: might be expected in the composition of war songs. The
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Speaker 1: pagan belief of this formidable race was in harmony with
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Speaker 1: all their thoughts and habits, and the exact opposite of Christianity.
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Speaker 1: In the beginning of time, according to their tradition, there
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Speaker 1: was neither heaven nor earth, but only universal chaos and
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Speaker 1: a bottomless abyss, where dwelt surtur in, an element of
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Speaker 1: unquenchable fire. The generation of their gods proceeded amid the
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Speaker 1: darkness and void from the union of heat and moisture,
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Speaker 1: until Odin and the other children of asa Thor or
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Speaker 1: the Earth slew Yumur Or, the evil One, and created
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Speaker 1: the material universe out of his lifeless remains. These heroic
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Speaker 1: conquerors also collected the sparks of eternal fire flying about
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Speaker 1: in the abyss and fixed them as stars in the firmament.
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Speaker 1: In addition, they erected in the far east Asgard, the
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Speaker 1: city of the gods. On the extreme shore of the ocean,
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Speaker 1: stood Utgard, the city of Nor and his giants. And
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Speaker 1: the wars of these two cities of their gods and
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Speaker 1: giants filled the first and most obscure ages of the
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Speaker 1: Scandinavian legend. The human race had as yet no existence
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Speaker 1: until Odin created a man and woman ask an emble
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Speaker 1: out of two pieces of wood ash and elm, thrown
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Speaker 1: upon the beach by the waves of the sea. Of
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Speaker 1: all the gods of Asgard, Odin was the first in
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Speaker 1: place and power. From his throne, he saw everything that
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Speaker 1: happened on the earth, and lest anything should escape his knowledge,
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Speaker 1: two ravens, Spirit and Memory, sat on his shoulders and
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Speaker 1: whispered in his ears whatever they had seen in their
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Speaker 1: daily excursions round the world. Night was a divinity and
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Speaker 1: the father of Day, who traveled alternately throughout space with
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Speaker 1: two celebrated steeds called Shining Maine and frost Maine. Frigo
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Speaker 1: was the daughter and wife of Odin, the mother of
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Speaker 1: Thor the Mars, and of the beautiful Balder, the apollo
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Speaker 1: of Asgard. The other gods were of inferior rank to these,
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Speaker 1: and answered to the lesser divinities of Greece and Rome.
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Speaker 1: Niord was the neptune, and friga, daughter of Niord, was
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Speaker 1: the venus of the north. Heimdahl, the watchman of Asgard,
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Speaker 1: whose duty it was to prevent the rebellious giants scaling
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Speaker 1: by surprise the walls of the celestial city dwelt under
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Speaker 1: the end of the rainbow. His vision was so perfect
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Speaker 1: he could discern objects one hundred leagues distant, either by
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Speaker 1: night or day, and his ear was so fine he
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Speaker 1: could hear the wool growing on the sheep and the
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Speaker 1: grass springing in the meadows. The Hall of Odin, which
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Speaker 1: had five hundred forty gates, was the abode of heroes
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Speaker 1: who had fought bravest in battle. Here they were fed
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Speaker 1: with the lard of a wild boar, which became whole
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Speaker 1: every night, though devoured every day, and drank endless cups
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Speaker 1: of hydromel drawn from the utter of an inexhaustible she goat,
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Speaker 1: and served out to them by the nymphs, who had
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Speaker 1: counted the slain in cups which were made of the
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Speaker 1: skulls of their enemies. When they were wearied of such enjoyments,
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Speaker 1: the sprites of the Brave exercised themselves in single combat,
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Speaker 1: hacked each other to pieces on the Flora Valhalla, resumed
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Speaker 1: their former shape and returned to their lard in their hydromault,
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Speaker 1: believing firmly in this system, looking forward with undoubting faith
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Speaker 1: to such an eternity, the Scandinavians were zealous to serve
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Speaker 1: their gods according to their creed. Their rude hill altars
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Speaker 1: gave way as they increased in numbers and wealth to
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Speaker 1: spacious temples at Uppsala, Ledra, Tronheim, and other towns and ports.
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Speaker 1: They had three great festivals, one at the beginning of
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Speaker 1: February in honor of Thor, one in spring in honor
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Speaker 1: of Odin, and one in summer in honor of the
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Speaker 1: fruitful daughter of Njord. The ordinary sacrifices were animals and birds,
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Speaker 1: but every ninth year there was a great festival at Uppsala,
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Speaker 1: at which the kings and nobles were obliged to appear
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Speaker 1: in person and to make valuable offerings. Wizards and sorcerers,
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Speaker 1: male and female, haunted the temples and good and ill winds,
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Speaker 1: length of life, and success in war were spiritual commodities
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Speaker 1: bought and sold. Ninety nine human victims were offered at
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Speaker 1: the Great Uppsala festival, and in all emergencies, such sacrifices
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Speaker 1: were considered most acceptable to the gods. Captives and slaves
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Speaker 1: were at first selected, but in many cases princes did
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Speaker 1: not spare their subjects, nor fathers their own children. The
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Speaker 1: power of a priesthood who could always enforce such a
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Speaker 1: system must have been unbounded and irresistible. The active pursuits
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Speaker 1: of such a population were necessarily maritime. In their short summer,
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Speaker 1: such crops as they planted, ripened rapidly, but their chief
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Speaker 1: sustenance was animal food and the fish that abounded in
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Speaker 1: their waters. The artisans in highest repute among them were
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Speaker 1: the shipwrights and smiths. The hammer and anvil were held
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Speaker 1: in the highest honor, and of this class the armorers
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Speaker 1: held the first place. The kings of the North had
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Speaker 1: no standing armies, but their lieges were summoned to war
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Speaker 1: by an arrow in pagan times, and a cross after
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Speaker 1: their conversion. Their chief dependence was an infantry, which they
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Speaker 1: formed into wedgelike columns and so clashing their shields and
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Speaker 1: bringing hymns to odin, they advanced against their enemies. Different
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Speaker 1: divisions were differently armed, some with a short two edged
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Speaker 1: sword and a heavy battle axe, others with the sling,
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Speaker 1: the javelin and the bow. The shield was long, in light,
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Speaker 1: commonly of wood and leather, but for the chiefs ornamented
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Speaker 1: with brass, with silver, and even with gold locking. The
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Speaker 1: shields together formed a rampart which it was not easy
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Speaker 1: to break in bad weather. The concave shield seems to
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Speaker 1: have served the purpose of our umbrella. In sea fights,
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Speaker 1: the vanquished often escaped by swimming ashore on their shields armor.
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Speaker 1: Many of them wore the bursukas, or champions, were so
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Speaker 1: called from always engaging bare of defensive armor. Such were
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Speaker 1: the men, the arms, and the creed against which the
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Speaker 1: Irish of the Ninth Age, after three centuries of exemption
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Speaker 1: from foreign war, were called upon to combat a people
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Speaker 1: one third of whose youth and manhood had embraced the
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Speaker 1: ecclesiastical state, and all whose tribes now professed the religion
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Speaker 1: of Pea Peese mercy and forgiveness, were called to wrestle
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Speaker 1: with a race whose religion was one of blood, and
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Speaker 1: whose beatitude was to be in proportion to the slaughter
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Speaker 1: they made while on earth. The Northmen hated Christianity as
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Speaker 1: a rival religion and despised it as an effeminate one.
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Speaker 1: He was the soldier of Odin the elect of Valhalla,
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Speaker 1: and he felt that the offering most acceptable to his
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Speaker 1: sanguinary gods was the blood of those religionists who denied
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Speaker 1: their existence and execrated their revelation. The points of attack,
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Speaker 1: therefore were almost invariably the great seats of learning and religion.
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Speaker 1: There too was to be found the largest bulk of
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Speaker 1: the portable wealth of the country, in richly adorned altars,
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Speaker 1: jeweled chalices and shrines of saints. The ecclesiastical map is
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Speaker 1: the map of their campaigns in Ireland, and it is
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Speaker 1: to avenge or save these innumerable sacred places, as countless
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Speaker 1: as the saints of the last three centuries, that the
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Speaker 1: Christian population have deroused themselves year after year, hurrying to
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Speaker 1: a hundred points at the same time to the better
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Speaker 1: and nobler spirits. The war becomes a veritable crusade, and
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Speaker 1: many of those slain in single hearted defense of their
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Speaker 1: altars may well be accounted martyrs. But a war so
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Speaker 1: protracted and so devastating will be found in the sequel
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Speaker 1: to foster and strengthen many of the worst vices, as
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Speaker 1: well as some of the best virtues of our humanity.
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Speaker 1: The early events were few and ill known. During the
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Speaker 1: reign of Hugh the sixth, who died in eight nineteen,
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Speaker 1: their hostile visits were few and far between. His successors,
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Speaker 1: Connor the Second and Nile the Third were destined to
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Speaker 1: be less fortunate in this respect. During the reign of Connor, Cork, Lismore, Dundock,
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Speaker 1: Banger and Armagh were all surprised, plundered and abandoned by
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Speaker 1: the Gentiles, as they were usually called in Irish annals,
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Speaker 1: and with the exception of two skirmishes in which they
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Speaker 1: were worsted on the coasts of Down and Wexford, they
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Speaker 1: seemed to have escaped with impunity. At Bangor they shook
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Speaker 1: the bones of the revered Founder out of the costly
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Speaker 1: shrine before carrying it off. On their first visit to Kildare,
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Speaker 1: they contented themselves with taking the gold and silver ornaments
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Speaker 1: of the tomb of Saint Bridget without desecrating the relics.
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Speaker 1: Their main attraction at armand was the same, But there
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Speaker 1: the relics seemed to have escaped. When in eight thirty
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Speaker 1: the Brotherhood of Iona apprehended their return, they carried into
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Speaker 1: Ireland for greater safety the relics of Saint Columbkille. Hence
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Speaker 1: it came that most of the memorials of Saint Patrick,
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Speaker 1: Bridget and Columkill were afterwards united at Downpatrick. While these
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Speaker 1: deplorable sacrileges, too rapidly executed, perhaps to be often either
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Speaker 1: prevented or punished, were taking place, Connor the King had
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Speaker 1: on his hand a war of succession waged by the
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Speaker 1: ablest of his contemporaries, Phelim, King of Munster, who continued
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Speaker 1: during this in the subsequent reign to maintain a species
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Speaker 1: of rival monarchy in Munster. It seems clear enough that
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Speaker 1: the abandonment of Kara as the seat of authority greatly
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Speaker 1: aggravated the internal weakness of the Malesian constitution. While over
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Speaker 1: centralization is to be dreaded as the worst tendency of
20:10
Speaker 1: imperial power, it is certain that the want of a
20:13
Speaker 1: sufficient centralization has proved as fatal, on the other hand,
20:17
Speaker 1: to the independence of many nations and anarchical usages once admitted.
20:23
Speaker 1: We see from the experience of the German Empire and
20:26
Speaker 1: the Italian republics how almost impossible it is to apply
20:29
Speaker 1: a remedy. In the case before us, when the Irish
20:33
Speaker 1: kings abandoned the old mental domain and betook themselves to
20:36
Speaker 1: their own patrimony, it was inevitable that their influence and
20:40
Speaker 1: authority over the southern tribes should diminish and disappear. Eleechs
20:45
Speaker 1: in the far North could never be to them what
20:47
Speaker 1: Terra had been. The charm of conservatism. The halo of
20:51
Speaker 1: ancient glory could not be transferred Whenever. Therefore, ambitious and
20:56
Speaker 1: able princes arose in the south, they found the border
20:58
Speaker 1: tribe's rife for bad acting their pretensions against the Northern dynasty.
21:03
Speaker 1: The Bards, too, plied their craft, reviving the memory of
21:06
Speaker 1: former times, when hebre the Fair divided Arin equally with Hereman,
21:10
Speaker 1: and when Eugene More divided it a second time with
21:13
Speaker 1: Khan of the Hundred Battles. Phelim the son of krimthen
21:17
Speaker 1: the contemporary of Connor the Second and Nile the Third,
21:20
Speaker 1: during the whole term of their rule, was the resolute
21:22
Speaker 1: assertor of these pretensions, and the Bards of his own province.
21:26
Speaker 1: Do not hesitate to confer on him the high title
21:29
Speaker 1: of Ardrai as a punishment for adhering to the High
21:32
Speaker 1: Nile dynasty or for some other offense. This Christian king,
21:36
Speaker 1: in rivalry with the Gentiles, plundered Kildare Borough and Colomucnois,
21:42
Speaker 1: the latter, perhaps for siding with Connau in the dispute
21:44
Speaker 1: as to whether the present County of Claire belonged to
21:47
Speaker 1: Conneau or Munster. Twice he met in conference with the
21:52
Speaker 1: monarch at Bier and at Cloncerrie. At another time he
21:55
Speaker 1: swept the plain of Meath and held temporary court in
21:58
Speaker 1: the royal wrath of Terra. With all his vices lie
22:02
Speaker 1: united in extraordinary energy, and during his time no Danish
22:06
Speaker 1: settlement was established on the southern rivers. Shortly before his
22:10
Speaker 1: decease eighty eight forty six, he resigned his crown and
22:14
Speaker 1: retired from the world, devoting the short remainder of his
22:17
Speaker 1: days to penance and mortification. What we know of his
22:21
Speaker 1: ambition and ability makes us regret that he ever appeared
22:24
Speaker 1: upon the scene, or that he had not been born
22:27
Speaker 1: of that dominant family, who alone were accustomed to give
22:31
Speaker 1: kings to the whole country. King Connor died eighty eight
22:35
Speaker 1: thirty three and was succeeded by Nile the Third, surnamed
22:39
Speaker 1: Nile of Callan. The military events of this last reign
22:42
Speaker 1: are so intimately bound up with the more brilliant career
22:45
Speaker 1: of the next ruler mc glahan or Malachy Ie, that
22:49
Speaker 1: we must reserve them for the introduction to the next chapter.
22:55
Speaker 1: End of chapter one.
23:02
Speaker 2: Chapter two of A Popular History of Ireland, Book two.
23:06
Speaker 2: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
23:10
Speaker 2: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
23:15
Speaker 2: visit LibriVox dot org. Reading by Mary Rody, A Popular
23:21
Speaker 2: History of Ireland from the earliest period to the Emancipation
23:25
Speaker 2: of the Catholics, Book two by Thomas Darcy mac Gee.
23:30
Speaker 2: Chapter two, Kings of the ninth century continued Nial the Third,
23:36
Speaker 2: Malachi the First, Hugh the seventh, when in the year
23:42
Speaker 2: eight hundred thirty three ni' All the third received the
23:45
Speaker 2: usual homage and hostages which ratified his title of Ardrich.
23:51
Speaker 2: The Northern invasion had clearly become the greatest danger that
23:55
Speaker 2: ever yet had threatened the institutions of Erin attacks at
24:01
Speaker 2: first predatory and provincial had so encouraged the genteel leaders
24:07
Speaker 2: of the second generation that they began to concert measures
24:11
Speaker 2: and combine plans for conquest and colonization to the Vikings
24:17
Speaker 2: of Norway, the fertile island with which they were now
24:21
Speaker 2: so familiar, whose woods were bent with the autumnal load
24:25
Speaker 2: of acorns, masts, and nuts, and filled with numerous herds
24:30
Speaker 2: of swine their favorite food, whose pleasant meadows were well
24:35
Speaker 2: stored with beeves and oxen, whose winter was often as
24:40
Speaker 2: mild as their northern summer, and whose waters were as
24:44
Speaker 2: fruitful in fish as their own laufoden frits. To these men,
24:51
Speaker 2: this was a prize worth fighting for, and for they
24:55
Speaker 2: fought long and desperately. King Nial inherited a disputed sovereignty
25:03
Speaker 2: from his predecessor, and the southern annalists say he did
25:08
Speaker 2: homage to Felim of Munster, while those of the North,
25:13
Speaker 2: and with them the majority of historians, reject this statement
25:17
Speaker 2: as exaggerated and untrue. He certainly experienced continual difficulty in
25:24
Speaker 2: maintaining his supremacy, not only from the Prince of Cashul,
25:29
Speaker 2: but from lords of lesser grade like those of Ussiri
25:33
Speaker 2: and Ulidia, so that we may say, while he had
25:38
Speaker 2: the title of King of Ireland, he was in fact
25:42
Speaker 2: king of no more than Leothcan or the northern half
25:47
Speaker 2: the central province Miath, long deserted by the monarchs, had
25:52
Speaker 2: run wild into independence, and was parceled out between two
25:57
Speaker 2: or three chiefs, descendants of the same common ancestor as
26:01
Speaker 2: the kings, but distinguished from them by the tribe name
26:06
Speaker 2: of the Southern High Nial. Of these heads of new houses,
26:12
Speaker 2: by far the ablest and most famous was Melachlin, who
26:16
Speaker 2: dwelt near Mollingar and lorded it over western Mieth, a
26:20
Speaker 2: name with which we shall become better acquainted. Presently, it
26:25
Speaker 2: does not clearly appear that Melachlin was one of those
26:29
Speaker 2: who actively resisted the prerogatives of this monarch, though others
26:34
Speaker 2: of the Southern High Nial did at first reject his
26:37
Speaker 2: authority and were severely punished for their insubordination. The year
26:42
Speaker 2: after his assumption of power, in the fourth year of
26:47
Speaker 2: Nial the third a d. Eight hundred thirty seven, arrived
26:52
Speaker 2: the great Norwegian fleet of one hundred twenty sail, whose
26:56
Speaker 2: commanders first attempted on a combined plan the conquests of
27:01
Speaker 2: Erin sixty of the ships entered the Boyne, the other
27:06
Speaker 2: sixty the Liffey. This formidable force, according to all Irish accounts,
27:12
Speaker 2: was soon after united under one leader, who is known
27:16
Speaker 2: in our annals as Turguayes or Turgesius, but of whom
27:21
Speaker 2: no trace can be found under that name in the
27:24
Speaker 2: chronicles of the Northmen. Every effort to identify him in
27:30
Speaker 2: the records of his native land has hitherto failed, so
27:34
Speaker 2: that we are forced to conclude that he must have
27:37
Speaker 2: been one of those wandering sea kings whose fame was
27:41
Speaker 2: one abroad, and whose story, ending in defeat, yet entailing
27:46
Speaker 2: no dynastic consequences on his native land, possessed no national
27:51
Speaker 2: interest for the authors of the Old Norse sagas to
27:57
Speaker 2: do all the Scandinavian chronicler's justice in cases which come
28:01
Speaker 2: directly under their notice. They acknowledge defeat as frankly as
28:06
Speaker 2: they claim victory proudly. Equal praise may be given to
28:10
Speaker 2: the Irish annalists in recording the same events, whether at
28:15
Speaker 2: first or second hand. In relation to the campaigns and
28:20
Speaker 2: sway of Turgesius. The difficulty we experience in separating what
28:25
Speaker 2: is true from what is exaggerated or false is not
28:29
Speaker 2: created for us by the analysts, but by the bards
28:33
Speaker 2: and story tellers, some of whose inventions adopted by Combrensis
28:39
Speaker 2: have been too readily received by subsequent writers. For all
28:46
Speaker 2: the acts of national importance with which his name can
28:50
Speaker 2: be intelligibly associated, we prefer to follow, in this, as
28:54
Speaker 2: in other cases, the same sober historians who condense the
28:59
Speaker 2: events of year, years, and generations into the shortest space
29:04
Speaker 2: and the most matter of fact expression. If we were
29:09
Speaker 2: to receive the chronology while rejecting the embellishments of the bards,
29:14
Speaker 2: Tourgesius must have first come to Ireland with one of
29:18
Speaker 2: the expeditions of the year eight hundred and twenty, since
29:22
Speaker 2: they speak of him as having been the scourge of
29:25
Speaker 2: the country for seventeen years before he assumed the command
29:29
Speaker 2: of the forces landed from the fleet of eight hundred
29:32
Speaker 2: thirty seven. Nor is it unreasonable to suppose that an
29:37
Speaker 2: accurate knowledge of the country, acquired by years of previous
29:42
Speaker 2: warfare with its inhabitants, may have been one of the
29:46
Speaker 2: grounds upon which the chief command was conferred on Tourgesius.
29:51
Speaker 2: This knowledge was soon put to account Dublin was taken
29:55
Speaker 2: possession of, and a strong fort according to the Scande
30:00
Speaker 2: navyan method was erected on the hill where now stands
30:04
Speaker 2: the castle. This fort and the harbor beneath it were
30:08
Speaker 2: to be the rendezvous and arsenal for all future operations
30:12
Speaker 2: against Leinster, and the foundation of foreign power. Then laid
30:18
Speaker 2: continued in foreign hands, with two or three brief intervals,
30:22
Speaker 2: until transferred to the Anglo Norman chivalry. Three centuries and
30:27
Speaker 2: a half later, similar lodgment was made at Waterford, and
30:32
Speaker 2: a third was attempted at Limerick, but at this period
30:35
Speaker 2: without success. The Danish fort at the latter point is
30:40
Speaker 2: not thought older than the year eight hundred and fifty five.
30:44
Speaker 2: But Turgisius, if indeed the independent acts of contemporary and
30:49
Speaker 2: even rival chiefs be not too often attributed to him,
30:54
Speaker 2: was not content with fortifying the estuaries of some principal rivers.
31:00
Speaker 2: He established inland centers of operation, of which the cardinal
31:04
Speaker 2: one was on Lochrie the expansion of the Shannon north
31:09
Speaker 2: of Athlone. Another was at a point called Lindwaukiel on Lochnia.
31:15
Speaker 2: On both these waters were stationed fleets of boats constructed
31:20
Speaker 2: for that service and communicating with the forts on shore.
31:25
Speaker 2: On the eastern border of Lochrie, in the midst of
31:28
Speaker 2: its meadows, stood clonmuch noise, rich with the offerings and
31:34
Speaker 2: endowments of successive generations. Here, three centuries before, in the
31:40
Speaker 2: heart of the desert, Saint Kieron had erected with his
31:44
Speaker 2: own hands a rude Sylvan cell, where, according to the
31:49
Speaker 2: allegory of tradition, the first monks who joined him were
31:54
Speaker 2: the Fox, the Wolf, and the bear. But time had
31:58
Speaker 2: wrought wonders on them that hallowed ground, and a group
32:02
Speaker 2: of churches. At one time as many as ten in
32:05
Speaker 2: number were gathered within two or three acres round its
32:10
Speaker 2: famous schools and presiding cathedral. Here it was Togesius made
32:16
Speaker 2: his usual home, and from the high altar of the cathedral,
32:21
Speaker 2: his unbelieving Queen was accustomed to issue her imperious mandates
32:26
Speaker 2: in his absence. Here for nearly seven years, this conqueror
32:31
Speaker 2: and his concert exercised their far spread and terrible power
32:38
Speaker 2: according to the custom of their own country, a custom
32:41
Speaker 2: attributed to Odin as its author. They exacted from every
32:46
Speaker 2: inhabitant subject to their sway. A piece of money annually,
32:50
Speaker 2: the forfeit for the non payment of which was the
32:54
Speaker 2: loss of the nose, hence called nose money. Their exactions
33:01
Speaker 2: were a union of their own northern imposts with those
33:05
Speaker 2: levied by the chiefs, whose authority they had superseded, but
33:09
Speaker 2: whose prerogatives they asserted for themselves. Three quarters for their soldiery,
33:16
Speaker 2: and a system of inspection extending to every private relation
33:20
Speaker 2: of life were the natural expedients of a tyranny so
33:24
Speaker 2: odious on the ecclesiastical order. Especially their yoke bore with
33:31
Speaker 2: peculiar weight, since, although avowed pagans, they permitted no religious
33:37
Speaker 2: house to stand unless under an abbot or at least
33:40
Speaker 2: an aaronnoch or treasurer of their approval. Such is the
33:46
Speaker 2: complete scheme of oppression presented to us, that it can
33:50
Speaker 2: only be likened to a monstrous spider web spread from
33:54
Speaker 2: the center of the island over its fairest and most
33:58
Speaker 2: populous districts. Glendelore, Ferns, Castledermead and Kildare in the east, Lismore,
34:07
Speaker 2: Cork Clornfert in the southern country, down Dalk, Bangor Dairy
34:13
Speaker 2: and Armagh in the north, all groaned under this triumphant
34:18
Speaker 2: despot or his colleagues. In the meanwhile, King Neal seems
34:23
Speaker 2: to have struggled resolutely with the difficulties of his lot,
34:28
Speaker 2: and in every interval of insubordination, to have struck boldly
34:32
Speaker 2: at the common enemy. But the tide of success for
34:37
Speaker 2: the first few years after eight hundred thirty seven ran
34:41
Speaker 2: strongly against him. The joint hosts from the Liffey and
34:46
Speaker 2: the Boyne swept the rich plains of Mieth, and in
34:49
Speaker 2: an engagement at Invernebark the present Bray gave such a
34:54
Speaker 2: complete defeat to the southern high Nial clans as prevented
34:58
Speaker 2: them making head again in the field until some summers
35:01
Speaker 2: were past and gone. In this campaign, zach Slvey, who
35:06
Speaker 2: is called the chief of the foreigners, was slain, and
35:11
Speaker 2: to him, therefore, if to any commander in chief, Togesius
35:15
Speaker 2: must have succeeded. The shores of all the inland lakes
35:20
Speaker 2: were favorite sites for the rats and churches, and the
35:23
Speaker 2: beautiful country around Loch Erne shared the Fury ordeal which
35:28
Speaker 2: blazed on Lochrie and Lochnia in eight hundred and thirty nine.
35:33
Speaker 2: The men of Connaught also suffered a defeat equal to
35:37
Speaker 2: that experienced by those of Meath in the previous campaign,
35:42
Speaker 2: but more unfortunate than the Methians. They lost their leader
35:46
Speaker 2: and other chiefs on the field. In eight hundred and
35:50
Speaker 2: forty ferns and cork were given to the Flames, and
35:54
Speaker 2: the fort at Lyndwaukiel or Morhralyn poured out its ravages
35:59
Speaker 2: in every direction over the adjacent country, sweeping off flocks,
36:04
Speaker 2: herds and prisoners, laymen and ecclesiastics to their ships. The
36:11
Speaker 2: northern depredators counted among their captives several bishops and learned men,
36:17
Speaker 2: of whom the Abbot of Crocher and the Lord of
36:20
Speaker 2: Galtrim are mentioned by name. Their equally active colleagues of
36:26
Speaker 2: Dublin and Waterford took captive Hugh Abbot of Clonagh, and
36:31
Speaker 2: foreignun Archbishop of Armagh, who had fled southwards with many
36:36
Speaker 2: of the relics of the Metropolitan Church, escaping from one
36:40
Speaker 2: danger only to fall into another a little farther off.
36:45
Speaker 2: These prisoners were carried into Munster, where Abbot Hugh suffered
36:50
Speaker 2: martyrdom at their hands, but the archbishop, after being carried
36:55
Speaker 2: to their fleet at Limerick, seems to have been rescued
36:59
Speaker 2: or ransomed, as we find him dying in peace at
37:02
Speaker 2: Armagh in the next reign. The martyrs of these melancholy
37:08
Speaker 2: times were very numerous, but the exact particulars being so
37:13
Speaker 2: often unrecorded, it is impossible to present the reader with
37:17
Speaker 2: an intelligible account of their persons and sufferings. When the
37:23
Speaker 2: Anglo Normans taunted the Irish that their church had no
37:26
Speaker 2: martyrs to boast of, they must have forgotten the exploits
37:31
Speaker 2: of their Norse kingsmen about the middle of this century,
37:36
Speaker 2: but the hour of retribution was fast coming round, and
37:40
Speaker 2: the native tribes, unbound, divided, confused, and long unused to
37:46
Speaker 2: foreign war, were fast recovering their old martial experience and
37:52
Speaker 2: something like a politic sense of the folly of their
37:55
Speaker 2: border feuds. Nothing, perhaps so much tended to arouse and
38:01
Speaker 2: combine them together as the capture of the successor of
38:05
Speaker 2: Saint Patrick, with all his relics, and his imprisonment among
38:10
Speaker 2: a pagan host in Irish waters. National humiliation could not
38:16
Speaker 2: much farther go, and as we read, we pause prepared
38:21
Speaker 2: for either alternative mute submission or a brave uprising. King
38:28
Speaker 2: Neal seems to have been in this memorable year eight
38:32
Speaker 2: hundred forty three, defending as well as he might his
38:36
Speaker 2: ancestral province Ulster against the ravagers of Lochniach and still
38:42
Speaker 2: another party, whose ships flocked into loss Willy in the
38:47
Speaker 2: ancient plain of Moynis, watered by the little river Finn,
38:52
Speaker 2: the present barony of Rapho. He encountered the enemy, and
38:56
Speaker 2: according to the annals, a countless number fell victory, being
39:01
Speaker 2: with Niall. In the same year or the next, Tourgesius
39:07
Speaker 2: was captured by Milachlin, lord of Westmiath, apparently by stratagem,
39:13
Speaker 2: and put to death by the rather novel process of drowning.
39:18
Speaker 2: The Bardic tale told to Cambrensis, or parodied by him
39:23
Speaker 2: from an old Greek legend of the death by which
39:26
Speaker 2: Tourgisios died is of no historical authority. According to this tale,
39:33
Speaker 2: the tyrant of Lochrie conceived a passion for the fair
39:37
Speaker 2: daughter of Melachlin and demanded her of her father, who,
39:42
Speaker 2: fearing to refuse, affected to grant the infamous request, but
39:46
Speaker 2: dispatched in her stead to the place of assignation twelve
39:51
Speaker 2: beardless youths habited as maidens to represent his daughter and
39:56
Speaker 2: her attendants by these masks. The Norwegian and his Boon
40:02
Speaker 2: companions were assassinated after they had drank to excess and
40:06
Speaker 2: laid aside their arms and armor. For all this superstructure
40:12
Speaker 2: of romance, there is neither groundwork nor license in the
40:16
Speaker 2: facts themselves. Beyond this that Togisius was evidently captured by
40:22
Speaker 2: some clever stratagem. We hear of no battle in Miath
40:27
Speaker 2: or elsewhere against him immediately preceding the event. Nor is
40:32
Speaker 2: it likely that a secondary prince, as Melachlin then was,
40:36
Speaker 2: could have hazarded an engagement with the powerful Master of Lochrie,
40:42
Speaker 2: if the local traditions of Westmeath may be trusted where
40:46
Speaker 2: Cambrensis is rejected. The Norwegian and Irish principles in the
40:51
Speaker 2: Tragedy of Looch o'well were on visiting terms just before
40:55
Speaker 2: the denouement, and many curious particulars of their peaceful but
41:01
Speaker 2: suspicious intercourse used to be related by the modern story
41:05
Speaker 2: tellers around Castle Pollard. The anecdote of the rookery of
41:11
Speaker 2: which Melachlin complained and the remedy for which his visitors
41:15
Speaker 2: suggested to be to cut down the trees and the
41:19
Speaker 2: rooks which fly has a suspicious look of the tall
41:23
Speaker 2: poppies of the Roman and Grecian legend. Two things only
41:28
Speaker 2: do we know for certain about the matter. Firstly, that
41:33
Speaker 2: Turgesius was taken and drowned in loch Owel in the
41:37
Speaker 2: year eight hundred forty three or eight hundred forty four,
41:42
Speaker 2: and secondly that this catastrophe was brought about by the
41:47
Speaker 2: agency and order of his neighbor Milachlin. The victory of
41:54
Speaker 2: Moynez and the death of Turgesius were followed by some
41:58
Speaker 2: local successes against other fleets and garrisons of the enemy.
42:03
Speaker 2: Those of Lochrie seemed to have abandoned their fort and
42:07
Speaker 2: fought their way, gaining in their retreat the only military
42:11
Speaker 2: advantage of that year towards Sligo, where some of their
42:15
Speaker 2: vessels had collected to bear them away. Their colleagues of Dublin,
42:21
Speaker 2: undeterred by recent reverses, made their annual foray southward into
42:26
Speaker 2: Ossari in eight hundred and forty four and immediately refined.
42:31
Speaker 2: King Nial, moving up from the north to the same
42:34
Speaker 2: scene of action in that district. He met his death
42:39
Speaker 2: in an effort to save the life of a gilla
42:42
Speaker 2: or common servant. The river of Kalan being greatly swollen,
42:47
Speaker 2: the gilla, in attempting to find a ford, was swept
42:50
Speaker 2: away in its turbid torrent. The king entreated some one
42:55
Speaker 2: to go to his rescue, but as no one obeyed,
42:58
Speaker 2: he generously plunged in himself and sacrificed his own life
43:03
Speaker 2: in endeavoring to preserve one of his humblest followers. He
43:09
Speaker 2: was in the fifty fifth year of his age and
43:12
Speaker 2: the thirteenth of his reign, and in some traits of
43:16
Speaker 2: character reminded men of his grandfather, the devout Nial of
43:21
Speaker 2: the Showers. The bards have celebrated the justice of his judgments,
43:27
Speaker 2: the goodness of his heart, and the comeliness of his
43:30
Speaker 2: brunette bright face. He left a son of age to
43:35
Speaker 2: succeed him, and who ultimately did become ardrich. Yet the
43:40
Speaker 2: present popularity of Melachlin of Miath triumph over every other interest,
43:46
Speaker 2: and he was raised to the monarchy, the first of
43:50
Speaker 2: his family who had yet attained that honor. Hugh, the
43:55
Speaker 2: son of Nial, sank for a time into the rank
43:59
Speaker 2: of a provinction prince. Before the ascendants star of the
44:03
Speaker 2: Captor of Turgesius, and is usually spoken of during this
44:07
Speaker 2: reign as Hugh of Ilioch. He is found towards its close,
44:13
Speaker 2: as if impatient of the succession, employing the arms of
44:17
Speaker 2: the common enemy to ravage the ancient Mansaul land of
44:21
Speaker 2: the Kings of Erin, and otherwise harassing the last days
44:25
Speaker 2: of his successful rival Melachlin or Malachi, the first sometimes
44:33
Speaker 2: called of the Shannon, from his patrimony along that river,
44:38
Speaker 2: brought back again the sovereignty to the center, and in
44:42
Speaker 2: happier days, might have become the second founder of Tara.
44:46
Speaker 2: But it was plain enough then, and it is tolerably
44:50
Speaker 2: so still, that this was not to be an age
44:53
Speaker 2: of restoration. The kings of Ireland after this time, says
44:58
Speaker 2: the quaint old translator of the Annals of Clonmachnois, had
45:03
Speaker 2: little good of it. Down to the days of King Brian.
45:08
Speaker 2: It was, in fact a perpetual struggle for self preservation,
45:12
Speaker 2: the first duty of all governments, as well as the
45:16
Speaker 2: first law of all nature. The powerful action of the
45:20
Speaker 2: genteel forces upon an originally ill centralized and recently much
45:26
Speaker 2: abused constitution seemed to render it possible that every new
45:31
Speaker 2: ardriche would prove the last. Under the pressure of such
45:36
Speaker 2: a deluge, all ancient institutions were shaken to their foundations,
45:42
Speaker 2: and the venerable authority of religion itself, like a hermit
45:46
Speaker 2: in a mountain torrent, was contending for the hope of
45:50
Speaker 2: escape or existence. We must not, therefore, amid the din
45:55
Speaker 2: of the conflicts through which we are to pass, condemn
45:59
Speaker 2: with outstint or qualification, those princes who were occasionally driven,
46:06
Speaker 2: as some of them were driven to the last resort
46:10
Speaker 2: the employment of foreign mercenaries, and those mercenaries often anti Christians,
46:16
Speaker 2: to preserve some show of native government and kingly authority.
46:22
Speaker 2: Grant that in some of them the use of such
46:25
Speaker 2: allies and agents cannot be justified on any plea or
46:29
Speaker 2: pretext of state necessity. Where base ends or unpatriotic motives
46:36
Speaker 2: are clear or credible, such treason to country cannot be
46:40
Speaker 2: too heartily condemned. But it is indeed far from certain
46:45
Speaker 2: that such were the motives in all cases, or that
46:49
Speaker 2: such ought to be our conclusion in any in the
46:53
Speaker 2: absence of sufficient evidence to that effect. Though the genteel
47:00
Speaker 2: power had experience towards the close of the last reign
47:04
Speaker 2: such severe reverses. Yet it was not in the nature
47:08
Speaker 2: of the men of Norway to abandon a prize which
47:11
Speaker 2: was once so nearly being their own. The fugitives who escaped,
47:17
Speaker 2: as well as those who remained within the strong ramparts
47:21
Speaker 2: of Waterford and Dublin, urged the fitting out of new
47:25
Speaker 2: expeditions to avenge their slaughtered countrymen and prosecute the conquest.
47:32
Speaker 2: But defeats still followed on defeat. In the first year
47:36
Speaker 2: of Malachi, they lost twelve hundred men in a disastrous
47:41
Speaker 2: action near Castle Dermot with Alcobar, the Prince Bishop of Cashel,
47:47
Speaker 2: and in the same or the next season they were
47:50
Speaker 2: defeated with the loss of seven hundred men by Malachi
47:54
Speaker 2: at Fork in Mieth. In the third year of Malachi, however,
47:59
Speaker 2: a new northern expedition arrived in a hundred and forty vessels, which,
48:04
Speaker 2: according to the average capacity of the longships of that age,
48:09
Speaker 2: must have carried with them from seven thousand to ten
48:12
Speaker 2: thousand men. Fortunately for the assailed, this fleet was composed
48:18
Speaker 2: of what they called black genteels or Danes, as distinguished
48:23
Speaker 2: from their predecessors the fair genteels or Norwegians. A quarrel
48:30
Speaker 2: arose between the adventurers of the two nations as to
48:34
Speaker 2: the possession of the few remaining fortresses, especially of Dublin,
48:40
Speaker 2: and an engagement was fought along the Liffey, which lasted
48:44
Speaker 2: for three days. The Danes finally prevailed, driving the Norwegians
48:50
Speaker 2: from their stronghold and cutting them off from their ships.
48:55
Speaker 2: The new Northern leaders are named unlaff Or, Olaf, Citric,
49:01
Speaker 2: Sigurd and Ibar, the first of the Danish earls, who
49:05
Speaker 2: established themselves at Dublin, Waterford and Limerick, respectively. Though the
49:13
Speaker 2: immediate result of the arrival of the great fleet of
49:16
Speaker 2: eight hundred forty seven relieved for the moment the worst
49:20
Speaker 2: apprehensions of the invaded and enabled them to rally their
49:25
Speaker 2: means of defense. Yet, as Denmark had more than double
49:29
Speaker 2: the population of Norway, it brought them into direct collision
49:34
Speaker 2: with a more formidable power than that from which they
49:37
Speaker 2: had been so lately delivered. The tactics of both nations
49:42
Speaker 2: were the same. No sooner had they established themselves on
49:47
Speaker 2: the ruins of their predecessors in Dublin than the Danish
49:51
Speaker 2: forces entered East Meath under the guidance of Kenneth, a
49:55
Speaker 2: local Lord and overran the ancient Mensol from the sea
50:00
Speaker 2: to the Shannon. One of their first exploits was burning
50:04
Speaker 2: alive two hundred sixty prisoners in the tower of Taroit
50:10
Speaker 2: in the island of Loch Gower near Dunchoglin. The next year,
50:15
Speaker 2: his allies having withdrawn from the neighborhood, Kenneth was taken
50:20
Speaker 2: by King Malachi's men, and the trader himself drowned in
50:24
Speaker 2: a sack in the little River Nanny, which divides the
50:28
Speaker 2: two baronies of Dulik. This death penalty by drowning seems
50:34
Speaker 2: to have been one of the useful hints which the
50:36
Speaker 2: Irish picked up from their invaders. During the remainder of
50:42
Speaker 2: this reign, the genteel war resumed much of its old
50:46
Speaker 2: local and guerrilla character, the provincial chiefs and the Ardurich
50:51
Speaker 2: occasionally employing bands of one nation of the invaders to
50:55
Speaker 2: combat the other and even to suppress their native rivals.
51:01
Speaker 2: The only pitched battle of which we hear is that
51:04
Speaker 2: of the two Plains near Coolstown, King's County, in the
51:09
Speaker 2: second last year of Malachi a d. Eight hundred fifty nine,
51:15
Speaker 2: in which his usual good fortune attended the king. The
51:19
Speaker 2: greater part of his reign was occupied, as always must
51:23
Speaker 2: be the case, with the founder of a new line,
51:26
Speaker 2: in coercing into obedience his former peers. On this business
51:32
Speaker 2: he made two expeditions into Munster and took hostages from
51:36
Speaker 2: all the tribes of the Eugenian race. With the same
51:41
Speaker 2: object he held a conference with all the chiefs of Ulster,
51:45
Speaker 2: Hugh of Alioch only being absent at Armagh in the
51:49
Speaker 2: fourth year of his reign, and a general faith or
51:53
Speaker 2: assembly of all the orders of Ireland at Rothhu in
51:58
Speaker 2: West Maiath in his thirdieteenth year eighty eight hundred fifty seven.
52:04
Speaker 2: He found, notwithstanding his victories and his early popularity, that
52:09
Speaker 2: there are always those ready to turn from the setting
52:13
Speaker 2: to the rising sun. And towards the end of his
52:16
Speaker 2: reign he was obliged to defend his camp near Armagh
52:20
Speaker 2: by force from a night assault of the discontented Prince
52:24
Speaker 2: of Alioch, who also ravaged his patrimony. Almost at the
52:29
Speaker 2: moment he lay on his deathbed, Malachi the First departed
52:34
Speaker 2: this life on the thirteenth day of November a d.
52:38
Speaker 2: Eight hundred sixty, having reigned sixteen years. Mournful is the
52:45
Speaker 2: news to the Gaielles exclaims the elegiac bard red wine
52:51
Speaker 2: is spilled into the valley. Rin's monarch has died, and
52:57
Speaker 2: the lament contrasts his stately form as he rode the
53:01
Speaker 2: white stallion with the striking reverse, when his only horse
53:06
Speaker 2: this day, that is, the bier on which his body
53:10
Speaker 2: was born to the churchyard, is drawn behind two Oxen,
53:16
Speaker 2: the restless Prince of Alioc now succeeded as Hugh the Seventh,
53:21
Speaker 2: and possessed the perilous honor he so much coveted for
53:25
Speaker 2: sixteen years, the same span that had been allotted his predecessor.
53:31
Speaker 2: The beginning of this reign was remarkable for the novel
53:35
Speaker 2: design of the Danes, who marched out in great force
53:39
Speaker 2: and set themselves busily to breaking open the ancient mounds
53:43
Speaker 2: and the cemetery of the pagan kings beside the Boyne
53:47
Speaker 2: in hope of finding buried treasure. The three Earls Olaf,
53:52
Speaker 2: Citric and iWar are said to have been present while
53:56
Speaker 2: their gold hunters broke into in succession the mounds covered
54:01
Speaker 2: cave of the wife of Gobon at Drogheda, the cave
54:05
Speaker 2: of the Shepherd of Elkmore at Douth, the cave of
54:09
Speaker 2: the Field of al Dai at New Grange, and the
54:12
Speaker 2: similar cave at notthe What they found in these huge
54:17
Speaker 2: cairns of the old Tuatha is not related. But Roman
54:22
Speaker 2: coins of Valentinian and Theodosius, and torques and armlets of
54:27
Speaker 2: gold have been discovered by accident within their precincts, and
54:32
Speaker 2: an enlightened modern curiosity has not explored them in vain
54:36
Speaker 2: in the higher interests of history and science. In the
54:42
Speaker 2: first two years of his reign, Hugh the seventh was
54:45
Speaker 2: occupied in securing the hostages of his suffragans. In the
54:50
Speaker 2: third he swept the remaining Danish and Norwegian garrisons out
54:55
Speaker 2: of Ulster and defeated a newly arrived force on the
54:59
Speaker 2: borders of Loch Foyle. The next the Danish earls went
55:04
Speaker 2: on a foray into Scotland, and no exploit is to
55:08
Speaker 2: be recorded. In his sixth year, Hugh, with one thousand
55:12
Speaker 2: chosen men of his own tribe and the aid of
55:16
Speaker 2: Silmuri O'Connors of Connaught, attacked and defeated a force of
55:21
Speaker 2: five thousand Danes with their Leinster allies near Dublin, at
55:26
Speaker 2: a place supposed to be identical with Kilderry. Earl Oloff
55:32
Speaker 2: lost his son and erin her roydomna or heir apparent
55:37
Speaker 2: on this field, which was much celebrated by the bards
55:41
Speaker 2: of Ulster and of Connaught. Amongst those who fell was Flon,
55:46
Speaker 2: son of Conang, chief of the district which included the
55:50
Speaker 2: plundered cemeteries, fighting on the side of the plunderers. The
55:55
Speaker 2: mother of Flon was one of those who composed quatrains
55:59
Speaker 2: on the of the battle, and her lines are a
56:02
Speaker 2: natural and affecting alternation from joy to grief, joy for
56:08
Speaker 2: the triumph of her brother and her country, and grief
56:12
Speaker 2: for the loss of her self willed barlike son, Olaf,
56:17
Speaker 2: the Danish leader avenged in the next campaign the loss
56:21
Speaker 2: of his son by a successful descent on Armagh. Once
56:25
Speaker 2: again rising from its ruins, He put to the sword
56:30
Speaker 2: one thousand persons and left the primatial city lifeless, charred,
56:35
Speaker 2: and desolate. In the next ensuing year, the monarch chastised
56:40
Speaker 2: the Leinster allies of the Danes, traversing their territory with
56:45
Speaker 2: fire and sword, from Dublin to the border town of Gharan.
56:51
Speaker 2: This seems to have been the last of his notable
56:53
Speaker 2: exploits in arms. He died on the twentieth of November
56:59
Speaker 2: eight hundred six six, and is lamented by the bards
57:03
Speaker 2: as a generous, wise stayed man. These praises belong, if
57:09
Speaker 2: at all deserved, to his old age. Flonn, son of
57:16
Speaker 2: Maliki the First, and surnamed like his father of the Shannon,
57:21
Speaker 2: succeeded in the year eight hundred and seventy seven of
57:24
Speaker 2: the Annals of the Four Masters, or more accurately, the
57:29
Speaker 2: year eight hundred and seventy nine of our common era.
57:33
Speaker 2: He enjoyed the very unusual reign of thirty eight years.
57:38
Speaker 2: Some of the domestic events of his time are of
57:41
Speaker 2: so unprecedented a character, and the period embraced is so
57:46
Speaker 2: considerable that we must devote to it a separate chapter.
57:53
Speaker 2: End of book two, Chapter two.
58:06
Speaker 3: Chapter three of A Popular History of Ireland, Book two.
58:10
Speaker 3: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
58:13
Speaker 3: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
58:17
Speaker 3: visit LibriVox dot org. A Popular History of Ireland from
58:21
Speaker 3: the earliest period to the Emancipation of the Catholics, Book
58:25
Speaker 3: two by Thomas Darcy Macgee. Chapter three, Reign of Flan
58:30
Speaker 3: of the Shannon eighty eight seventy nine to nine sixteen.
58:35
Speaker 3: Midway in the reign, we are called upon to contemplate
58:38
Speaker 3: falls the centenary of the first invasion of Ireland by
58:41
Speaker 3: the Northmen. Let us admit that the scenes of that
58:44
Speaker 3: century are stirring and stimulating. Two gallant races of men,
58:48
Speaker 3: in all points strongly contrasted, can tend for the most
58:51
Speaker 3: beautiful part of the open field for the possession of
58:54
Speaker 3: a beautiful and fertile island. Let us admit that the
58:58
Speaker 3: Malaysian Irish, themselves invaders and conquerors of an older date,
59:02
Speaker 3: may have had no right to declare the era of
59:04
Speaker 3: colonization closed for their country, while its best harbors were
59:08
Speaker 3: without ships, and leagues of its best land were without inhabitants.
59:12
Speaker 3: Yet what gives to the contests its lofty and fearful interest,
59:16
Speaker 3: is that the foreigners who come so far and fight
59:19
Speaker 3: so bravely for their prize are a pagan people, drunk
59:22
Speaker 3: with the evil spirit of one of the most anti
59:24
Speaker 3: Christian forms of human error. And what is still worse,
59:28
Speaker 3: and still more to be lamented, it is becoming, after
59:31
Speaker 3: the experience of a century plainer and plainer that the
59:34
Speaker 3: Christian natives, while defending with unfaltering courage their beloved country,
59:39
Speaker 3: are yet descending more and more to the moral level
59:41
Speaker 3: of their assailants. Without the apology of their paganism. Degenerate
59:46
Speaker 3: civilization may be a worse element for truth to work
59:49
Speaker 3: in than original barbarism. And therefore, as we enter on
59:52
Speaker 3: the second century of this struggle, we begin to fear
59:55
Speaker 3: for the Christian Irish, not from the arms or the valor,
59:59
Speaker 3: but from the contact and example of the unbelievers. This
1:00:03
Speaker 3: it is necessary to premise before presenting to the reader
1:00:06
Speaker 3: a secession of bishops who lead armies to battle of abbots,
1:00:09
Speaker 3: whose voice is still for war, of treacherous tactics and
1:00:13
Speaker 3: savage punishments, of the almost total disruption of the last
1:00:16
Speaker 3: links of that federal bond, which, though light as air,
1:00:20
Speaker 3: were strong as iron before the charm of involubility had
1:00:23
Speaker 3: been taken away from the ancient constitution. We begin to
1:00:27
Speaker 3: discern in this reign that royal marriages have much to
1:00:30
Speaker 3: do with war and politics. Hugh the late King left
1:00:33
Speaker 3: a widow named Malmara, follower of Mary, daughter to Kenneth Malpin,
1:00:39
Speaker 3: king of the Caledonian Scots. This lady Flon married. The
1:00:43
Speaker 3: mother of Flan was the daughter of Dungal, Prince of Ossary,
1:00:46
Speaker 3: so that to the contemporary lords of that borderland, the
1:00:49
Speaker 3: monarch stood in relation of cousin. A compact seems to
1:00:53
Speaker 3: have been entered into in the past reign that the
1:00:56
Speaker 3: roydomna or successor should be chosen alternately from the northern
1:01:00
Speaker 3: and southern high Nial. And subsequently, when Nial, son of
1:01:04
Speaker 3: his predecessor, assumed that onerous rank, Flon, gave him his daughter,
1:01:08
Speaker 3: Gormley celebrated for her beauty, her talents, and her heartlessness
1:01:12
Speaker 3: in marriage. From these several family ties uniting him so
1:01:16
Speaker 3: closely with Ossary, with the Scots, and with his successor,
1:01:19
Speaker 3: much of the wars and politics of Planciono's reign take
1:01:22
Speaker 3: their caste and complexion. A still more fruitful source of
1:01:26
Speaker 3: new complication was the coequal power acquired through a long
1:01:30
Speaker 3: series of aggressions by the kings of Cashel. Their rivalry
1:01:34
Speaker 3: with the monarchy from the beginning of the eighth till
1:01:37
Speaker 3: the end of the tenth century was a constant cause
1:01:40
Speaker 3: of intrigues, coalitions, and wars, reminding us of the constant
1:01:44
Speaker 3: rivalry of Athens with Sparta, of Genoa with Venice. This
1:01:48
Speaker 3: kingship of castle, according to the monster law of secession,
1:01:52
Speaker 3: the will of Alilde ought to have alternated regularly between
1:01:55
Speaker 3: the descendants of his sons Eugene Moore and Carmat cass
1:01:59
Speaker 3: the un Genians and the Dalcassians. But the families of
1:02:03
Speaker 3: the former kindred were for many centuries the more powerful
1:02:06
Speaker 3: of the two, and frequently set at naught the testamentary
1:02:09
Speaker 3: law of their common ancestor, leaving the tribe of cass
1:02:12
Speaker 3: but the borderland of Thomund, from which they had sometimes
1:02:15
Speaker 3: to pay tribute to Cruchian and at others to Cashel.
1:02:19
Speaker 3: In the ninth century, the competition among the Eugenian houses,
1:02:23
Speaker 3: of which were too many of too nearly equal strength,
1:02:26
Speaker 3: seems to have suggested a new expedient, with a view
1:02:29
Speaker 3: of permanently setting aside the will of Olilde. This was
1:02:34
Speaker 3: to confer the kingship when vacant on, whoever happened to
1:02:37
Speaker 3: be Bishop of Emly or of Cashel, or on some
1:02:40
Speaker 3: other leading ecclesiastical dignitary, always provided that he was of
1:02:44
Speaker 3: Eugenian descent, a qualification easily to be met with since
1:02:48
Speaker 3: the great seas and advocacies were now filled for the
1:02:51
Speaker 3: most part by the sons of the neighboring chiefs. In
1:02:54
Speaker 3: this way we find Kenfalid, Felim, and El Kabar in
1:02:57
Speaker 3: this century styled prince bishop ships or prince Abbots. The
1:03:02
Speaker 3: principal domestic difficulty of Flanciona's reign followed from the elevation
1:03:06
Speaker 3: of Cormac, son of Kulanan, from the See of Emily
1:03:09
Speaker 3: to the throne of Cashel. Kormac, a scholar, and as
1:03:13
Speaker 3: became his calling, a man of peace, was thus, by
1:03:16
Speaker 3: virtue of his accession, the representative of the old quarrel
1:03:19
Speaker 3: between his predecessors and the dominant race of kings. All
1:03:23
Speaker 3: Munster asserted that it was never the intention of their
1:03:26
Speaker 3: common ancestors to subject the southern half of Erin to
1:03:29
Speaker 3: the sway of the North, that Eber and Owen more
1:03:31
Speaker 3: had resisted such pretensions when advanced by Emremhn and Khan
1:03:36
Speaker 3: of the Hundred Battles, that the Esker from Dublin to
1:03:39
Speaker 3: Galway was the true division, and that even admitting the
1:03:42
Speaker 3: title of the hal Nial king as Ardrig, all the
1:03:45
Speaker 3: tribes south of the Esker whether in Leinster or Connaught,
1:03:49
Speaker 3: still owed tribute by ancient right to Cashel. Their antiquaries
1:03:53
Speaker 3: had their own version in the Book of Rights, which
1:03:56
Speaker 3: countenanced these claims to co equal dominition, and their bards
1:04:00
Speaker 3: drew inspiration from the same high pretensions. Party spirit ran
1:04:04
Speaker 3: so high that tales and prophecies were invented to show
1:04:06
Speaker 3: how Saint Patrick had laid his curse on Terra and
1:04:09
Speaker 3: promised dominion to Casual and to Dublin in its stead.
1:04:13
Speaker 3: All Leinster except the lordship of Osary, identical with the
1:04:16
Speaker 3: present diocese of the same name, was held by the
1:04:19
Speaker 3: Brehens of Cashel to be tributary to their king, and
1:04:23
Speaker 3: this borua or tribute, abandoned by the monarchs at the
1:04:26
Speaker 3: intercession of Saint Moling, was claimed for the Munster rulers
1:04:30
Speaker 3: as an inseparable adjunct of their southern kingdom. The first
1:04:34
Speaker 3: act of Flanciona on his secession was to dash into Munster,
1:04:38
Speaker 3: demanding hostages at the point of the sword, and sweeping
1:04:41
Speaker 3: over both Thomond and Desmond with irresistible force. From Claire
1:04:45
Speaker 3: to Cork with equal promptitude, he marched through every territory
1:04:50
Speaker 3: of Ulster, securing by the pledges of their heirs and tanists,
1:04:54
Speaker 3: the chiefs of the elder tribes of the Hinial. So
1:04:57
Speaker 3: effectually did he consider his power established a the provinces,
1:05:01
Speaker 3: that he is said to have boasted to one of
1:05:02
Speaker 3: his hostages that he would, with no other attendance than
1:05:06
Speaker 3: his own servants, play a game of chess on Thurles
1:05:09
Speaker 3: Green without fear of interruption. Carrying out this foolish wager,
1:05:13
Speaker 3: he accordingly went to his game at Thurles and was
1:05:16
Speaker 3: very properly taken prisoner for his temerity, and made to
1:05:19
Speaker 3: pay a smart ransom to his captors. So runs the tale, which,
1:05:24
Speaker 3: whether true or fictitious, is not without its moral Flawn
1:05:28
Speaker 3: experienced greater difficulty with the tribes of Connaught. Nor was
1:05:31
Speaker 3: it till the thirteenth year of his reign eight ninety two,
1:05:35
Speaker 3: that Cathl, their prince, came into his house in Miez,
1:05:38
Speaker 3: under the protection of the clergy of Clonmacnoise, and made
1:05:41
Speaker 3: peace with him. A brief interval of repose seems to
1:05:45
Speaker 3: have been vouchsafed to this prince in the last years
1:05:48
Speaker 3: of the century. But a storm was gathering over Cashel,
1:05:51
Speaker 3: and the high pretensions of the Eugenian line were again
1:05:54
Speaker 3: to be put to the hazard of battle. Krmac, the
1:05:57
Speaker 3: Prince Bishop, began his rule over Munster in the year
1:06:00
Speaker 3: nine hundred of our common era, and passed some years
1:06:03
Speaker 3: in peace after his accession. If we believe his panegyrists,
1:06:07
Speaker 3: the land over which he bore sway was filled with
1:06:09
Speaker 3: divine grace and worldly prosperity, and with order so unbroken
1:06:13
Speaker 3: that the cattle needed no cowherd, and the flocks no shepherd.
1:06:17
Speaker 3: So long as he was king himself an antiquary and
1:06:20
Speaker 3: a lover of learning, it seems but natural that many
1:06:23
Speaker 3: books were written and many schools opened by his liberality
1:06:27
Speaker 3: during this enviable interval. Counselors of less pacific mood than
1:06:30
Speaker 3: their studious master were not wanting to stimulate his sense
1:06:33
Speaker 3: of kingly duty by urging him to assert the claim
1:06:36
Speaker 3: of Munster to the tribute of the southern half of Erin.
1:06:40
Speaker 3: As an antiquary himself, Cormac must have been bred up
1:06:43
Speaker 3: in undoubting belief in the justice of that claim, and
1:06:46
Speaker 3: must have given judgment in favor of its antiquity and validity.
1:06:49
Speaker 3: Before his accession. These dicta of his own were now
1:06:53
Speaker 3: quoted with emphasis, and he was besought to enforce by
1:06:56
Speaker 3: all the means within his reach, the learned judgments he
1:06:59
Speaker 3: himself had to delay. The most active advocate of a
1:07:02
Speaker 3: recourse to arms was Flaherty, abbot of Scattery in the
1:07:05
Speaker 3: Shannon himself and Eugenian and the kinsman of Cormac. After
1:07:10
Speaker 3: many objections, the peaceful prince Bishop allowed himself to be persuaded,
1:07:14
Speaker 3: and in the year nine of seven he took up
1:07:16
Speaker 3: his line of march in the fortnight of the Harvest,
1:07:19
Speaker 3: from Cashel to world Goweran at the head of all
1:07:22
Speaker 3: the armament of Munster. Lorcan, son of Lactna and grandfather
1:07:26
Speaker 3: of Bryan, commanded the Dalcassians under Cormac, and Aliol, lord
1:07:31
Speaker 3: of Daceys, and the warlike abbot of Scattery led on
1:07:34
Speaker 3: the other divisions. The monarch marched southward to meet his
1:07:38
Speaker 3: assailants with his own proper troops, and the contingents of
1:07:41
Speaker 3: Connaught under Cathol, Prince of that province, and those of
1:07:45
Speaker 3: Leinster under the lead of Kerbel their king. Both armies
1:07:49
Speaker 3: met at Vallach Moon in the southern corner of Kildare,
1:07:52
Speaker 3: not far from the present town of Carlo, and both
1:07:54
Speaker 3: fought with most heroic bravery. The Munster forces were utterly defeated.
1:07:59
Speaker 3: The lords of the decease of Fermoy, of Kinilmiki and
1:08:02
Speaker 3: of Kerrie, the Abbots of Cork and Kennedy, and Cormac
1:08:05
Speaker 3: himself with six thousand men fell on the ensanguine field.
1:08:10
Speaker 3: The losses of the victors are not specified, but the
1:08:12
Speaker 3: six thousand we may hope included the total of the
1:08:15
Speaker 3: slain on both sides. Flawn at once improved the opportunity
1:08:19
Speaker 3: of victory by advancing into Ossary and establishing his cousin Dermid,
1:08:24
Speaker 3: son of Kerbal, over that territory. This Dermid, who appears
1:08:28
Speaker 3: to have been banished by Munster intrigues, had long resided
1:08:31
Speaker 3: with his royal cousin previous to the battle, from which
1:08:34
Speaker 3: he was probably the only one that derived any solid
1:08:36
Speaker 3: advantage As to the abbot Flaherty, the instigator of this
1:08:40
Speaker 3: ill fated expedition, he escaped from the conquerors, and safe
1:08:45
Speaker 3: in his island sanctuary, gave himself up for a while
1:08:48
Speaker 3: to penitential rigors. The worldly spirit, however, was not dead
1:08:52
Speaker 3: in his breast, and after the decease of Cormac's next successor,
1:08:56
Speaker 3: he emerged from his cell and was elevated to the
1:08:58
Speaker 3: Kingship of Cashel. In the earlier and middle years of
1:09:02
Speaker 3: this long reign, the invasions from the Baltic had diminished,
1:09:05
Speaker 3: both in force and in frequency. This is to be
1:09:08
Speaker 3: accounted for from the fact that during its entire length
1:09:11
Speaker 3: it was contemporaneous with the reign of Harold the fair
1:09:14
Speaker 3: Haired King of Norway, the scourge of the Sea Kings.
1:09:18
Speaker 3: This more fortunate Charles the Twelfth, born in eight fifty three,
1:09:21
Speaker 3: died at the age of eighty one, after sixty years
1:09:24
Speaker 3: of almost unbroken successes over all his Danish, Swedish and
1:09:28
Speaker 3: Insular enemies. It is easy to comprehend, by reference to
1:09:32
Speaker 3: his exploits upon the Baltic the absence of the usual
1:09:35
Speaker 3: northern force from the Irish waters during his lifetime, and
1:09:39
Speaker 3: that of his contemporary plan of the Shannon. Yet the
1:09:42
Speaker 3: race of the Sea Kings was not extinguished by the
1:09:44
Speaker 3: fair Haired Herald's victories over them at home. Several of
1:09:48
Speaker 3: them permanently abandoned their native coasts, never to return, and
1:09:52
Speaker 3: recruited their colonies, already so numerous in the Ortneys, Scotland, England,
1:09:57
Speaker 3: Ireland and the Isle of Man. In eight eighty five,
1:10:00
Speaker 3: Flann was repulsed in an attack on Dublin, in which
1:10:03
Speaker 3: repulse the abbots of Kildare and Kildalki were slain. In
1:10:07
Speaker 3: the year eight ninety Aliac was surprised and plundered by
1:10:11
Speaker 3: Danes for the first time, and Armagh shared its fate.
1:10:15
Speaker 3: In eight eighty seven, eighty eight and eight ninety one,
1:10:18
Speaker 3: three minor victories were gained over separate hordes in Mayo,
1:10:21
Speaker 3: at Waterford and at Ulidia Down In eight ninety seven
1:10:26
Speaker 3: Dublin was taken for the first time in sixty years,
1:10:29
Speaker 3: its chiefs put to death, while its garrison fled in
1:10:32
Speaker 3: their ships beyond sea. But in the first quarter of
1:10:35
Speaker 3: the tenth century, better fortune begins to attend the Danish cause.
1:10:39
Speaker 3: A new generation enters on the scene, who dread no
1:10:42
Speaker 3: more the long arm of the age stricken Herald, nor
1:10:45
Speaker 3: respect the treaties which bound their predecessors in Britain to
1:10:48
Speaker 3: the Great Alfred. In nine twelve Waterford received from Sea
1:10:53
Speaker 3: a strong reinforcement, and about the same date or still earlier, Dublin,
1:10:57
Speaker 3: from which they had been expelled in eight ninety seven,
1:11:00
Speaker 3: was again in their possession in nine thirteen, and for
1:11:03
Speaker 3: several subsequent years the Southern Garrisons continued their ravages in Munster,
1:11:08
Speaker 3: where the warlike abbot of Scattery found a more suitable
1:11:11
Speaker 3: object for the employment of his valor than that which
1:11:14
Speaker 3: brought him with the studious Karmac to the fatal field
1:11:17
Speaker 3: of Balagmun. The closing days of Flan of the Shannon
1:11:21
Speaker 3: were embittered and darkened by the unnatural rebellion of his
1:11:24
Speaker 3: sons Connor and Donnag and his successor, Nial surnamed Blackney Glundub,
1:11:30
Speaker 3: the husband of his daughter Gormley. These children were by
1:11:33
Speaker 3: his second marriage with Gormley, daughter of that son of Kanang,
1:11:37
Speaker 3: whose name has already appeared in connection with the plundered
1:11:40
Speaker 3: sepulchers upon the boy at the age of three score
1:11:43
Speaker 3: and upwards. Flan is frequently obliged to protect by recourse
1:11:46
Speaker 3: to arms his mental lands in meet their favorite point
1:11:49
Speaker 3: of attack, or to defend some faithful adherent whom these
1:11:53
Speaker 3: unnatural princes sought to oppress. The daughter of Flan, thus
1:11:57
Speaker 3: wedded to a husband in arms against her father, seems
1:12:00
Speaker 3: to have been as little dutiful as his sons. We
1:12:04
Speaker 3: have eligaic stanzas by her on the death of two
1:12:06
Speaker 3: of her husbands and of one of her sons, but
1:12:09
Speaker 3: none on the death of her father, although this form
1:12:12
Speaker 3: of tribute to the departed by those skilled in such
1:12:15
Speaker 3: compositions seems to have been as usual as the ordinary
1:12:18
Speaker 3: prayers for the dead. At length. In the thirty seventh
1:12:21
Speaker 3: year of his reign and the sixty eighth of his age,
1:12:24
Speaker 3: King Flan was at the end of his sorrows, as
1:12:27
Speaker 3: became the prevailing character of his life. He died peacefully
1:12:30
Speaker 3: in a religious house at Canay in Kildare, on the
1:12:33
Speaker 3: eighth of June in the year nine sixteenth of the
1:12:35
Speaker 3: Common era. The bards praise his fine shape and august mien,
1:12:39
Speaker 3: as well as his pleasant and hospitable private habits. Like
1:12:43
Speaker 3: all the kings of his race, he seems to have
1:12:45
Speaker 3: been brave enough, but he was no lover of war
1:12:47
Speaker 3: for war's sake, and the only great engagement in his
1:12:50
Speaker 3: long reign was brought on by enemies who left him
1:12:53
Speaker 3: no option but to fight. His munificence rebuilt the cathedral
1:12:57
Speaker 3: of clonmac Noise with the co operation of Coulman the Abbot,
1:13:01
Speaker 3: the year after the battle of Baloch Moon nine oh eight,
1:13:04
Speaker 3: for which age it was the largest and finest stone
1:13:07
Speaker 3: church in Ireland. His charity and chivalry both revolted at
1:13:11
Speaker 3: the cruel excesses of war, and when the head of
1:13:14
Speaker 3: Cormac of Cashal was presented to him after his victory,
1:13:18
Speaker 3: he rebuked those who rejoiced over his rivals, fall kissed
1:13:21
Speaker 3: the reverend lips of the dead, and ordered the relics
1:13:24
Speaker 3: to be delivered as Cormac had himself willed it, to
1:13:26
Speaker 3: the Church of Castle Dermott for Christian burial. These traits
1:13:30
Speaker 3: of character, not less than his family afflictions, and the
1:13:34
Speaker 3: generally peaceful tenour of his long life, have endeared to many.
1:13:37
Speaker 3: The memory of the plan of the Shannon end of
1:13:40
Speaker 3: chapter three.
1:13:46
Speaker 4: Chapter four of A Popular History of Ireland, Book two.
1:13:51
Speaker 4: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
1:13:55
Speaker 4: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
1:13:59
Speaker 4: visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Leon Meyer. A Popular
1:14:05
Speaker 4: History of Ireland from the earliest period to the Emancipation
1:14:09
Speaker 4: of the Catholics, Book two by Thomas Darcy McGee. Chapter four,
1:14:16
Speaker 4: Kings of the tenth century Kneel the fourth, Dono the second,
1:14:20
Speaker 4: Congol the third, Donald the fourth. Niel the fourth, surnamed Blackney,
1:14:27
Speaker 4: succeeded his father in law, Flan of the Shannon a. D.
1:14:31
Speaker 4: Nine sixteen, and in the third year of his reign
1:14:34
Speaker 4: fell in an assault on Dublin. Dono, the second, son
1:14:38
Speaker 4: of Flanciona, reigned for twenty five years. Congol the third
1:14:43
Speaker 4: succeeded and was slain in an ambush by the Dublin
1:14:46
Speaker 4: Danes in the twelfth year of his reign a d.
1:14:50
Speaker 4: Nine fifty six. Donald fourth, in the twenty fourth year
1:14:54
Speaker 4: of his reign, died at Armagh a d. Nine seventy nine.
1:14:58
Speaker 4: Which four reigns bring us to the period of the
1:15:01
Speaker 4: accession of malached the second as Arduri and the entrance
1:15:05
Speaker 4: of Brian Boureux on the national stage as King of
1:15:08
Speaker 4: Cashel and competitor for the monarchy. The reign of Neil
1:15:13
Speaker 4: Blackney was too brief to be memorable for any other
1:15:17
Speaker 4: event than his heroic death in battle the Danes, having
1:15:21
Speaker 4: recovered Dublin and strengthened its defenses, Nil, it is stated,
1:15:26
Speaker 4: was incited by his confessor, the Abbot of Bangor, to
1:15:29
Speaker 4: attempt their re expulsion accordingly, in October nine nineteen, he
1:15:35
Speaker 4: marched towards Dublin with a numerous host. Connor, son of
1:15:40
Speaker 4: the late king, and Rohdamna, the lords of Ulydia, down Oriel, Louth, Breea,
1:15:47
Speaker 4: East Meath and other chiefs with their clans accompanying him.
1:15:52
Speaker 4: Citric and Ivar, sons of the first Danish leaders in Ireland,
1:15:56
Speaker 4: marched out to meet them, and near Rethfarnum on the Dodge,
1:16:00
Speaker 4: a battle was fought in which the Irish were utterly defeated.
1:16:04
Speaker 4: In their monarch slain this Nil left a son named Mercertach, who,
1:16:09
Speaker 4: according to the Compact, entered into between the northern and
1:16:13
Speaker 4: southern high Nil became the roy Damna of the next
1:16:16
Speaker 4: reign and the most successful leader against the Danes since
1:16:20
Speaker 4: the time of Malachi the First. He was the stepson
1:16:24
Speaker 4: of the poetic lady Gormley, whose lot it was to
1:16:27
Speaker 4: have been married in succession to the King of Munster,
1:16:30
Speaker 4: the King of Leinster, and the monarch. Her first husband
1:16:34
Speaker 4: was Cormac, son of Kulanon before he entered holy orders,
1:16:39
Speaker 4: her second Kerbal of Leinster, and her third Nil Blackney.
1:16:44
Speaker 4: She was an accomplished poetess. Besides being the daughter, wife
1:16:48
Speaker 4: and mother of kings. Yet after the death of Nil,
1:16:52
Speaker 4: she begged from door to door, and no one had
1:16:55
Speaker 4: pity on her fallen state. By what vices she had
1:16:59
Speaker 4: done us estrange from her, every kinsman and every dependent
1:17:03
Speaker 4: we are left to imagine. But that such was her
1:17:07
Speaker 4: misfortune at the time her brother was monarch and her
1:17:10
Speaker 4: stepson's successor, we learned from the annals which record her
1:17:14
Speaker 4: penance and death under the date of nine forty eight.
1:17:19
Speaker 4: The defeat sustained near reth Farnum by the late king
1:17:23
Speaker 4: was amply avenged in the first year of the New
1:17:25
Speaker 4: ard Re a d. Nine twenty, when the Dublin Danes,
1:17:29
Speaker 4: having marched out, taken and burned kels in Meath, were
1:17:34
Speaker 4: on their return through the Plaine of Bria, attacked and
1:17:37
Speaker 4: routed with unprecedented slaughter. There fell on the nobles of
1:17:41
Speaker 4: the Norsemen there say the old analysts, as many as
1:17:45
Speaker 4: fell of the nobles and plebeians of the Irish at
1:17:48
Speaker 4: Athcliath Dublin. The Northern Hydra, however, was not left headless. Godfrey,
1:17:55
Speaker 4: grandson of Ivar, and Tomar, son of Alghie, took command
1:17:59
Speaker 4: at Dublin and Limerick, infusing new life into the remnant
1:18:03
Speaker 4: of their race. The youthful son of the late king,
1:18:06
Speaker 4: soon after, at the head of a strong force a
1:18:09
Speaker 4: d nine twenty one, compelled Godfrey to retreat from Ulster
1:18:13
Speaker 4: to his ships and to return by sea to Dublin.
1:18:17
Speaker 4: This was Murcertack, fondly called by the Eleegac Bards, the
1:18:22
Speaker 4: Hector of the West, and for his heroic achievements, not
1:18:26
Speaker 4: undeserving to be named after the gallant defender of Troy.
1:18:31
Speaker 4: Murkertack first appears in our annals at the year nine
1:18:34
Speaker 4: twenty one and disappears in the thick of the battle
1:18:37
Speaker 4: in nine thirty eight. His whole career covers seventeen years.
1:18:42
Speaker 4: His position throughout was subordinate and expectant for King Dono
1:18:46
Speaker 4: outlived his heir. But there are few names in any
1:18:50
Speaker 4: age of the history of his country more worthy of
1:18:53
Speaker 4: historical honor than his. While Dono was king in name,
1:18:57
Speaker 4: Mercertack was king in fact. On him devolved the burden
1:19:01
Speaker 4: of every negotiation and the brunt of every battle, unlike
1:19:06
Speaker 4: his ancestor Hugh of Ailiac. In opposition to Dono's ancestor
1:19:12
Speaker 4: Malachi the First, he never attempts to counteract the king
1:19:15
Speaker 4: or to harass him in his patrimony. He rather does
1:19:19
Speaker 4: what is right and needful himself, leaving Dono to claim
1:19:22
Speaker 4: the credit if he be so minded. True, a coolness
1:19:27
Speaker 4: and a quarrel arises between them, and even a challenge
1:19:30
Speaker 4: of battle is exchanged, but better counsels prevail, peace is restored,
1:19:35
Speaker 4: and the king and the Roydamna marches one man against
1:19:39
Speaker 4: the common enemy. It has been said of another, but
1:19:42
Speaker 4: not wholly dissimilar form of government, that crown princes are
1:19:46
Speaker 4: always in opposition. If this saying holds good of father
1:19:50
Speaker 4: and son as occupant and expectant of a throne, how
1:19:54
Speaker 4: much more likely is it to be true of a
1:19:56
Speaker 4: successor and a principle chosen from different dynasties, which the
1:20:00
Speaker 4: view to combine or add worse to balance conflicting hereditary interests.
1:20:06
Speaker 4: In the conduct of Mercer Tack, we admire in turn
1:20:09
Speaker 4: his many shining personal qualities, which even tasteless panegyric cannot hide,
1:20:15
Speaker 4: and the prudence self denial, patience, and perseverance with which
1:20:19
Speaker 4: he awaits his day of power, unhappily for one every
1:20:23
Speaker 4: way so worthy of it, that day never arrived at
1:20:28
Speaker 4: no former period, not even at the height of the
1:20:30
Speaker 4: tyranny of Turgisius, was a capable prince more needed in Erin.
1:20:35
Speaker 4: The new generation of Northmen were again upon all the
1:20:39
Speaker 4: estuaries in inland waters of the island. In the years
1:20:42
Speaker 4: nine twenty three, nine twenty four and nine twenty five.
1:20:46
Speaker 4: Their light armored vessels swarmed on locke Urn, loche Ree
1:20:50
Speaker 4: and other lakes, spreading flame and terror on every side.
1:20:54
Speaker 4: Clon Macnois and Kildare, slowly recovering from former pillage, were
1:20:59
Speaker 4: again left empty and in ruins. Mercertach, the base of
1:21:03
Speaker 4: whose early operations was his own patrimony in Ulster, attacked
1:21:08
Speaker 4: near Newry, a northern division under the command of the
1:21:10
Speaker 4: son of Godfrey A d. Nine twenty six, and left
1:21:14
Speaker 4: eight hundred dead on the field. The escape of the
1:21:18
Speaker 4: remnant was only secured by Godfrey marching rapidly to their
1:21:21
Speaker 4: relief and covering the retreat his son lay with the dead.
1:21:27
Speaker 4: In the years nine thirty three at sleeve Bema in
1:21:30
Speaker 4: his own province, Mercertach won a third victory, and in
1:21:35
Speaker 4: nine thirty six, taking political advantage of the result of
1:21:38
Speaker 4: the Great English Battle of Brunanburg, which had so seriously
1:21:42
Speaker 4: diminished the Danish strength. The roy Damna, in company with
1:21:46
Speaker 4: the King, assaulted Dublin, expelled its garrison, leveled its fortress,
1:21:51
Speaker 4: and left the dwellings of the Northmen in ashes. From Dublin,
1:21:55
Speaker 4: they proceeded southward through Leinster and Munster, and after taking
1:21:59
Speaker 4: hostages of every tribe, Donno returned to his Methian home
1:22:03
Speaker 4: and Mercertack to Ailiac. While resting in his own fort
1:22:07
Speaker 4: a d. Nine thirty nine, he was surprised by a
1:22:10
Speaker 4: party of Danes and carried off to their ships. But,
1:22:15
Speaker 4: says the old translator of the annals of Clenmacnoi's, he
1:22:19
Speaker 4: made a good escape from them, as it was God's will.
1:22:23
Speaker 4: The following season he redoubled his efforts against the enemy,
1:22:27
Speaker 4: attacking them on their own element. He ravaged their settlements
1:22:30
Speaker 4: on the Scottish coasts and among the isles of the
1:22:33
Speaker 4: inn Sigul. The hebrides returned laden with spoils and hailed
1:22:39
Speaker 4: with acclamations as the liberator of his people. Of the
1:22:44
Speaker 4: same age with mrker Tack. The reigning prince at Cashel
1:22:47
Speaker 4: was Kalikhan, one of the heroes of the latter bards
1:22:50
Speaker 4: and storytellers of the South. The romantic tales of his
1:22:54
Speaker 4: capture by the Danes and captivity in their flute at Dundalk,
1:22:58
Speaker 4: of the love which Citrix wife bore him, and of
1:23:01
Speaker 4: his gallant rescue by the Dalcassians and Eugenians have no
1:23:06
Speaker 4: historical sanction. He was often both at war and at
1:23:10
Speaker 4: peace with the foreigners of Cork and Limerick, and did
1:23:14
Speaker 4: not hesitate more than once to employ their arms for
1:23:17
Speaker 4: the maintenance of his own supremacy. But his only authentic
1:23:21
Speaker 4: captivity was as a hostage in the hands of Mercertak.
1:23:26
Speaker 4: While the latter was absent on his expedition to n
1:23:29
Speaker 4: Si Gaul, Kalikhan fell upon the Diisai and Ossurians and
1:23:34
Speaker 4: inflicted severe chastisement upon them, alleging as his provocation that
1:23:39
Speaker 4: they had given hostages to Mercertak and acknowledged him as
1:23:42
Speaker 4: Rodamna of all Erran in contempt of the co equal
1:23:46
Speaker 4: rights of cashl. When Murcertacht returned from his Scotch expedition
1:23:51
Speaker 4: and heard what had occurred and on what pretexts Kalakan
1:23:54
Speaker 4: had acted, he assembled at Aliac all the branches of
1:23:58
Speaker 4: the northern highnal for whom this was cause. Indeed, out
1:24:03
Speaker 4: of those he selected one thousand chosen men, whom he provided,
1:24:07
Speaker 4: among other equipments, with those leathern coats which lent the
1:24:11
Speaker 4: sobriquet to his name. And with these ten hundred heroes,
1:24:15
Speaker 4: he set out, strong in its popularity and his alliances,
1:24:19
Speaker 4: to make a circuit of the entire island. Eight nine
1:24:22
Speaker 4: forty he departed from Aliac, says his bard, whose itinerary
1:24:27
Speaker 4: we have, keeping his left hand to the sea. Dublin,
1:24:31
Speaker 4: once more rebuilt, acknowledged his title and citric. One of
1:24:36
Speaker 4: his lords went with him as hostage for Earl Blacare
1:24:39
Speaker 4: and his countrymen. Leinster surrendered him lorcan Its King Kelikan
1:24:45
Speaker 4: of Cashle, overawed by his superior fortune, advised his own
1:24:49
Speaker 4: people not to resist by force, and consented to become
1:24:53
Speaker 4: himself the hostage for all Munster in Connaught Connor, for
1:24:59
Speaker 4: whom the O'Connor take their family name, son of the Prince,
1:25:03
Speaker 4: came voluntarily to his camp and was received with open arms.
1:25:08
Speaker 4: Kalakan alone was submitted to the indignity of wearing a fetter.
1:25:12
Speaker 4: With these distinguished hostages, Mercertac and his leather cloak, ten
1:25:16
Speaker 4: hundred returned to Ailiac, where for five months they spent
1:25:21
Speaker 4: a season of unbounded rejoicing. In the following year, the
1:25:25
Speaker 4: roy Damna transferred the hostages to King Donno as his suzerin,
1:25:30
Speaker 4: thus setting the highest example of obedience from the highest place.
1:25:34
Speaker 4: He might now look abroad over all the tribes of Erin,
1:25:37
Speaker 4: and feel himself without arrival among his countrymen. He stood
1:25:41
Speaker 4: at the very summit of his good fortune. When the
1:25:44
Speaker 4: Danes of Dublin reinforced from abroad after his circuit, renewed
1:25:49
Speaker 4: their old plundering practices. They marched north at the close
1:25:53
Speaker 4: of winter under Earl Blacare, their destination evidently being Armagh,
1:26:00
Speaker 4: with some troops hastily collected, disputed their passage at the
1:26:04
Speaker 4: Ford of rd An engagement ensued on Saturday the fourth
1:26:08
Speaker 4: of March nine forty three, in which the noble Roy
1:26:12
Speaker 4: Damna fell. King Dono, to whose reign his vigorous spirit
1:26:17
Speaker 4: has given its main historical importance, survived him but a
1:26:21
Speaker 4: twelvemonth the monarch died in the bed of repose, his
1:26:25
Speaker 4: destined successor in the thick of battle. The death of
1:26:29
Speaker 4: the brave and beloved Mercertack filled all Errand with grief
1:26:32
Speaker 4: and rage, and as King Dono was too old to
1:26:36
Speaker 4: avenge his destined successor, that duty devolved on Congol, the
1:26:40
Speaker 4: new roy Damna. In the year after the fatal action
1:26:44
Speaker 4: at Ardi, Congol, with Bran, King of Leinster and Kellac,
1:26:49
Speaker 4: Heir of Leinster, assaulted and took Dublin, and wreaked a
1:26:53
Speaker 4: terrible revenge for the nation's loss. The women, children and
1:26:57
Speaker 4: plebeians were carried off captive. The greater part of the
1:27:01
Speaker 4: garrison were put to the sword, but a portion escaped
1:27:04
Speaker 4: in their vessels to their fortress on daki An Island
1:27:08
Speaker 4: in the Bay of Dublin. This was the third time
1:27:11
Speaker 4: within a century that Dublin had been rid of its
1:27:14
Speaker 4: foreign yoke, and yet as the Gaelic Irish would not
1:27:18
Speaker 4: themselves dwell in fortified towns, the site remained open and unoccupied,
1:27:23
Speaker 4: to be rebuilt as often as it might be retaken.
1:27:26
Speaker 4: The gallant Congol the same year succeeded on the death
1:27:30
Speaker 4: of Dono to the sovereignty, and so soon as he
1:27:34
Speaker 4: had secured a seat and surrounded it with sufficient hostages,
1:27:38
Speaker 4: he showed that he could not only avenge the death,
1:27:40
Speaker 4: but imitate the glorious life of him whose place he held.
1:27:45
Speaker 4: Two considerable victories in his third and fourth years increased
1:27:49
Speaker 4: his fame and rejoiced the hearts of his countrymen. The
1:27:53
Speaker 4: first was one it slain aided by the Lord of
1:27:56
Speaker 4: Brefni or Rourke and by Olaf the Crooked, a North chief.
1:28:01
Speaker 4: The second was fought at Dublin nine forty seven, in
1:28:04
Speaker 4: which Blockhair, the victor at r D, and sixteen hundred
1:28:08
Speaker 4: of his men were slain. Thus was the death of
1:28:11
Speaker 4: mercer Tack finally avenged. It is very remarkable that the
1:28:18
Speaker 4: first conversions to Christianity among the Danes of Dublin should
1:28:22
Speaker 4: have taken place immediately after these successive defeats in nine
1:28:26
Speaker 4: forty eight. Nor, although quite willing to impute the best
1:28:31
Speaker 4: and most disinterested motives to these first neophytes, can we
1:28:34
Speaker 4: shut our eyes to the fact that no change of life,
1:28:38
Speaker 4: such as we might reasonably look for, accompanied their change
1:28:41
Speaker 4: of religion. Godfried, son of Citric and successor of Blockair,
1:28:46
Speaker 4: who professed himself a Christian in nine forty eight, plundered
1:28:50
Speaker 4: and destroyed the churches of East Meath in nine forty
1:28:53
Speaker 4: nine burnt one hundred and fifty persons in the oratory
1:28:57
Speaker 4: of Drummery, and carried off as captives through thousand persons.
1:29:02
Speaker 4: If the tree is to be judged by its fruits,
1:29:04
Speaker 4: this first year's growth of the New Faith is rather alarming.
1:29:08
Speaker 4: It compels us to disbelieve the sincerity of godfreed at least,
1:29:12
Speaker 4: and the fighting men who wrought these outrages and sacrileges.
1:29:16
Speaker 4: It forces us to rank them with the incorrigible heathens
1:29:19
Speaker 4: who boasted that they had twenty times received the sacrament
1:29:22
Speaker 4: of baptism and valued it for the twenty white robes
1:29:26
Speaker 4: which had been presented to them on those occasions. Still
1:29:30
Speaker 4: we must endeavor hereafter when we can to distinguish Christian
1:29:34
Speaker 4: from pagan Danes, and those of Irish birth sons of
1:29:38
Speaker 4: the first Comers from the foreign born kinsmen of their ancestors.
1:29:43
Speaker 4: Between these two classes there grew a gulf of feeling
1:29:46
Speaker 4: and experience which a common language in common dangers only
1:29:51
Speaker 4: partially bridged over, not seldom, the interests and inclinations of
1:29:55
Speaker 4: the Irish born Dane, especially if a true Christian were
1:29:59
Speaker 4: at open variants with the interests and designs of the
1:30:03
Speaker 4: new arrivals from Denmark, and it is generally, if not invariably,
1:30:08
Speaker 4: with the former, that the Leinster and other Irish princes
1:30:12
Speaker 4: enter into coalitions for common political purposes. The remainder of
1:30:16
Speaker 4: the reign of Congol is one vigorous battle. The Lord
1:30:20
Speaker 4: of Brefny, who had fought beside him on the Hill
1:30:23
Speaker 4: of Slain, advanced his claim to be recognized Rodamna, and
1:30:28
Speaker 4: this being denied, broke out into rebellion and harassed his patrimony. Donald,
1:30:34
Speaker 4: son of Mercertach and grandson of Neil the First, who
1:30:38
Speaker 4: took the name of Uei Nil or O'Neill, disputed these
1:30:42
Speaker 4: pretensions of the Lord of Brefne, carried his boat's overland
1:30:46
Speaker 4: from Ailiac to locke Urn in Fermanagh, and loche Otter
1:30:50
Speaker 4: and Cavan attacked the Lake islands where the treasure and
1:30:54
Speaker 4: hostages of Brefni were kept, and carried them off to
1:30:57
Speaker 4: his own fortress. The warlike and indefatigable king was in
1:31:02
Speaker 4: the field summer and winter, enforcing his authority on Monster
1:31:06
Speaker 4: and Connat, and battling with the foreign garrisons. Between times.
1:31:11
Speaker 4: No former Ardre had a severer struggle with the insubordinate
1:31:15
Speaker 4: elements which beset him from first to last. His end
1:31:19
Speaker 4: was sudden but not inglorious. In returning from the chariot
1:31:23
Speaker 4: races at Kura of Kildare, he was surprised and slain
1:31:27
Speaker 4: in an ambuscade laid for him by Godfried at a
1:31:31
Speaker 4: place on the banks of the Liffey called Tyrarris or
1:31:34
Speaker 4: Tirrarus House. By his side, fighting bravely fell the lords
1:31:39
Speaker 4: of Tafia and Ferrard, two of his nephews, and others
1:31:43
Speaker 4: of his personal attendants and companions. The Dublin Danes had,
1:31:47
Speaker 4: in their turn a day of rejoicing and of revenge
1:31:50
Speaker 4: for the defeats they had suffered at Congol's hands. This
1:31:55
Speaker 4: reign is not only notable for the imputed first conversion
1:31:58
Speaker 4: of the Danes to Christianity, but also for the general
1:32:01
Speaker 4: adoption of family names. Hitherto we have been enabled to
1:32:05
Speaker 4: distinguish clansmen only by tribe names formed by prefixing high Kennel, Sill, Munter, Dull,
1:32:13
Speaker 4: or some synonymous term meaning race, kindred, sept, district, or
1:32:18
Speaker 4: part to the proper name of a remote common ancestor,
1:32:22
Speaker 4: as high Nil, Kennel, Connell, sil, Murray, Munter, Eolay, dull
1:32:28
Speaker 4: Kai and dal Ryata. But the great tribes now begin
1:32:32
Speaker 4: to break into families, and we are hereafter to know
1:32:36
Speaker 4: particular houses by distinct hereditary surnames, as O'Neil, O'Connor, macmurrow,
1:32:42
Speaker 4: and McCarthy. Yet the whole body of relatives are often
1:32:46
Speaker 4: spoken of by the old tribal title, which, unless exceptions
1:32:50
Speaker 4: are named, is supposed to embrace all the descendants of
1:32:53
Speaker 4: the old connection to whom it was once common. At first,
1:32:58
Speaker 4: this alternate use of tribe and family names may confuse
1:33:01
Speaker 4: the reader, for it is rather puzzling to find a
1:33:04
Speaker 4: MacLaughlin with the same paternal ancestor as An O'Neill, and
1:33:08
Speaker 4: a MacMahon of Thomond as An O'Brien. But the difficulty
1:33:12
Speaker 4: disappears with use and familiarity, And though the number and
1:33:16
Speaker 4: variety of newly coined names cannot be at once committed
1:33:20
Speaker 4: to memory, the story itself gains indistinctness by the change.
1:33:25
Speaker 4: In the year nine fifty five, Donald O'Neill, son of
1:33:28
Speaker 4: the brave and beloved Murcer Tack, was recognized as Ardree
1:33:33
Speaker 4: by the recognized number of provinces without recourse to coercion.
1:33:38
Speaker 4: But it was not to be expected that any ardree should,
1:33:42
Speaker 4: at this period of his country's fortunes, reign long in peace.
1:33:46
Speaker 4: War was then the business of the king, the first
1:33:50
Speaker 4: art he had to learn and the first to practice.
1:33:53
Speaker 4: Warfare in Ireland had not been a stationary science since
1:33:57
Speaker 4: the arrival of the Norwegians and their successors the day
1:34:01
Speaker 4: something they may have acquired from the natives, and in
1:34:04
Speaker 4: turn the natives were not slow to copy whatever seemed
1:34:07
Speaker 4: most effective in their tactics. Donald fourth was the first
1:34:11
Speaker 4: to imitate their habit of employing armed boats on their
1:34:14
Speaker 4: inland lakes. He even improved on their example by carrying
1:34:18
Speaker 4: these boats with him overland and launching them wherever he
1:34:22
Speaker 4: needed their co operation, as we have already seen him
1:34:25
Speaker 4: do in his expedition against Brefni while roy Damna, and
1:34:30
Speaker 4: as we find him doing again in the seventh year
1:34:33
Speaker 4: of his reign, when he carried his boats overland from
1:34:36
Speaker 4: Armagh to Westmeath in order to employ them on Loch
1:34:39
Speaker 4: Annel near Mullingar. He was at this time engaged in
1:34:44
Speaker 4: making his first royal visitation of the provinces, upon which
1:34:48
Speaker 4: he spent two months in Leinster with all his forces,
1:34:52
Speaker 4: coerced the monster chiefs by fire and sword into obedience,
1:34:56
Speaker 4: and severely punished the insubordination of Fergle O'Rourke, King of Connaught,
1:35:01
Speaker 4: his fleet upon loche Ennel and his severities. Generally while
1:35:05
Speaker 4: in their patrimony, so exasperated the powerful families of the
1:35:09
Speaker 4: southern Highneal, the elder of which was now known as
1:35:12
Speaker 4: O Malachlan, that on the first opportunity they leagued with
1:35:16
Speaker 4: the Dublin Danes under their leader Oloft the crooked a
1:35:20
Speaker 4: D nine sixty six and drove King Donald out of
1:35:24
Speaker 4: Leinster and Meath, pursuing him across Sleeve Fuade almost to
1:35:28
Speaker 4: the walls of Ailiac, But the brave tribes of Tyrconnell
1:35:32
Speaker 4: and yurohan rallied to his support, and he pressed south
1:35:37
Speaker 4: upon the insurgents of Meath and Dublin Westmeath. He rapidly
1:35:41
Speaker 4: overran and planted a garrison in every cantred from the
1:35:45
Speaker 4: Shannon to Kels. In the campaigns which now succeeded each
1:35:49
Speaker 4: other without truce or pause for nearly a dozen years.
1:35:54
Speaker 4: The Leinster people generally sympathized with and assisted those of
1:35:57
Speaker 4: West Meath, and Olaff of Dublin, who recruited his ranks
1:36:02
Speaker 4: by the junction of the Lachmans, a warlike tribe from
1:36:05
Speaker 4: n Sigaul. The Hebrides. Ossary, on the other hand, acted
1:36:10
Speaker 4: with the monarch and the son of its Teinis eighty
1:36:13
Speaker 4: nine seventy four was slain before Dublin by Olaf and
1:36:17
Speaker 4: his Leinster allies with twenty six hundred men of Ossary
1:36:21
Speaker 4: and Ulster. The campaign of nine seventy eight was still
1:36:26
Speaker 4: more eventful. The Leinster men quarreled with their Danish allies,
1:36:30
Speaker 4: who had taken their king captive, and in an engagement
1:36:33
Speaker 4: at Bilan near Athai, defeated their forces with the loss
1:36:38
Speaker 4: of the Heir of Leinster, the lords of Kinsala, Leah
1:36:41
Speaker 4: and Morit, and other chiefs. King Donald had no better
1:36:45
Speaker 4: fortune at Kilmoon in Meath the same season, where he
1:36:49
Speaker 4: was utterly routed by the same force with the laws
1:36:52
Speaker 4: of Artgall, Heir of Ulydia, and Kenneth, Lord of Treconnell.
1:36:58
Speaker 4: But for the victories gained about the same peace period
1:37:00
Speaker 4: in Munster by Mahone and Bryan, the sons of Kennedy
1:37:04
Speaker 4: over the Danes of Limerick, of which we shall speak
1:37:07
Speaker 4: more fully hereafter the balance of victory would have strongly
1:37:10
Speaker 4: inclined towards the Northmen. At this stage of the contest,
1:37:15
Speaker 4: a leader, second in fame and in services only to Bryan,
1:37:19
Speaker 4: was now putting forth his energies against the common enemy
1:37:22
Speaker 4: in Meath. This was Malachlin, better known afterwards as Malachi,
1:37:27
Speaker 4: the second, son of Donald, son of King Donno, and
1:37:31
Speaker 4: therefore great grandson to his namesake Malachi the First. He
1:37:36
Speaker 4: had lately attained to the command of his tribe, and
1:37:39
Speaker 4: he resolved to earn the honors which were in store
1:37:41
Speaker 4: for him as successor to the sovereignty. In the year
1:37:46
Speaker 4: nine seventy nine, the Danes of Dublin and the Isles
1:37:49
Speaker 4: marched in unusual strength into Meath under the command of Rannal,
1:37:53
Speaker 4: son of Olaf the Crooked and Conail the Order of
1:37:57
Speaker 4: Athcliath Dublin. Malachi with his allies gave them battle near
1:38:03
Speaker 4: Tera and achieved a complete victory. Earl Rannall and the
1:38:07
Speaker 4: Order were left dead on the field. With it is
1:38:10
Speaker 4: reported five thousand of the foreigners. On the Irish side
1:38:14
Speaker 4: fell the Heir of Leinster, the Lord of Morgallion and
1:38:17
Speaker 4: his son, the lords of Fertilaw and Cremorne, and a
1:38:21
Speaker 4: host of their followers. The engagement in true Homeric spirit,
1:38:26
Speaker 4: had been suspended on three successive nights and renewed three
1:38:30
Speaker 4: successive days. It was a genuine, pitched battle, a trial
1:38:34
Speaker 4: of main strength, each party being equally confident of victory.
1:38:39
Speaker 4: The results were most important and most gratifying to the
1:38:43
Speaker 4: national pride. Malachi, accompanied by his friend the Lord of
1:38:47
Speaker 4: Ulydia Down, moved rapidly on Dublin, which, in its panic,
1:38:52
Speaker 4: yielded to all his demands. The King of Leinster and
1:38:56
Speaker 4: two thousand other prisoners were given up to him without rends.
1:39:01
Speaker 4: The Danish Earl solemnly renounced all claims to tribute or
1:39:04
Speaker 4: find from any of the dwellers without their own walls.
1:39:08
Speaker 4: Malachi remained in the city three days, dismantled its fortresses
1:39:12
Speaker 4: and carried off its hostages and treasure. The unfortunate Olaf
1:39:17
Speaker 4: the Crooked fled beyond seas and died at Iona in
1:39:20
Speaker 4: exile and a Christian. In the same year, and in
1:39:24
Speaker 4: the midst of universal rejoicing, Donald died peacefully and piously
1:39:29
Speaker 4: at Armagh in the twenty fourth year of his reign.
1:39:33
Speaker 4: He was succeeded by Malachi, who was his sister's son,
1:39:37
Speaker 4: and in whom all the promise of the lamented murcer
1:39:40
Speaker 4: Tack seemed to revive. The story of Maliki the Second
1:39:45
Speaker 4: is so interwoven with the still more illustrious career of
1:39:48
Speaker 4: Brian Boureux, that it will not lose an interest by
1:39:52
Speaker 4: being presented in detail. But before entering on the rivalry
1:39:56
Speaker 4: of these great men, we must again remark on the
1:39:59
Speaker 4: altered position which the Northmen of this age holds to
1:40:02
Speaker 4: the Irish, from that which existed formerly. A century and
1:40:06
Speaker 4: a half had now elapsed. Since their first settlement in
1:40:09
Speaker 4: the seaports, especially of the Eastern and southern provinces. More
1:40:14
Speaker 4: than one generation of their descendants had been born on
1:40:17
Speaker 4: the banks of the Liffey, the Shannon and the Schuer.
1:40:20
Speaker 4: Many of them had married into Irish families, had learned
1:40:24
Speaker 4: the language of the country and embraced its religion. When
1:40:28
Speaker 4: Limerick was taken by Bryan Ivar, its Danish lord fled
1:40:32
Speaker 4: for sanctuary to Scattery Island, and when Dublin was taken
1:40:36
Speaker 4: by Malachi the second, Olaf the Crooked fled to iona
1:40:41
Speaker 4: intermarriages with the highest Gaelic families became frequent after their
1:40:45
Speaker 4: conversion to Christianity. The mother of Malachi, after his father's death,
1:40:50
Speaker 4: had married Olaff of Dublin, by whom she had a
1:40:53
Speaker 4: son named Gloonyaran Irony from his armor, who was thus
1:40:58
Speaker 4: half brother to the king. It is natural enough to
1:41:02
Speaker 4: find him the ally of Malachi a few years later
1:41:05
Speaker 4: against Ivar of Waterford, and curious enough to find Ivar's
1:41:09
Speaker 4: son called Gilla Patrick, servant of Patrick Kalakhan of Cashel,
1:41:14
Speaker 4: had married a Danish and Citric of the Silken Beard
1:41:18
Speaker 4: and Irish lady. That all the Northmen were not even
1:41:22
Speaker 4: in Ireland converted in one generation is evident. Those of
1:41:27
Speaker 4: in Si Gaul were still perhaps Pagans. Those of Orkney's
1:41:31
Speaker 4: and of Denmark who came to the Battle of Clontarf
1:41:34
Speaker 4: in the beginning of the next century chose to fight
1:41:37
Speaker 4: on Good Friday under the advice of their heathen oracles.
1:41:41
Speaker 4: The first half of the eleventh century, the age of
1:41:44
Speaker 4: Saint olaf In of Canute, is the era of the
1:41:47
Speaker 4: establishment of Christianity among the Scandinavians, and hence the necessity
1:41:51
Speaker 4: for distinguishing between those who came to Ireland direct from
1:41:55
Speaker 4: the Baltic from those who born in Ireland and bred
1:41:58
Speaker 4: up in the Christian faith had as much to apprehend
1:42:02
Speaker 4: from such an invasion as the Celts themselves. End of
1:42:09
Speaker 4: chapter four.
1:42:15
Speaker 3: Chapter five of A Popular History of Ireland, Book two.
1:42:19
Speaker 3: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
1:42:22
Speaker 3: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
1:42:26
Speaker 3: visit LibriVox dot org. A Popular History of Ireland from
1:42:30
Speaker 3: the earliest period to the emancipation of the Catholics, Book
1:42:34
Speaker 3: two by Thomas Darcy McGee, Chapter five. Reign of Malachi
1:42:39
Speaker 3: the Second and rivalry of Brian Malaglin or Malachi the Second,
1:42:44
Speaker 3: fifth in direct descent from Malachi the First. The founder
1:42:48
Speaker 3: of the Southern Heiinial dynasty, was in his thirtieth year
1:42:51
Speaker 3: when eighty seven eighty he succeeded to the monarchy. He
1:42:56
Speaker 3: had just achieved the mighty victory of Tera when the
1:42:58
Speaker 3: death of his predecessor opened his way to the throne.
1:43:02
Speaker 3: And seldom did more brilliant dawn usher in a more
1:43:04
Speaker 3: eventful day than that which fate held in store for
1:43:08
Speaker 3: this victor king. None of his predecessors, not even his
1:43:12
Speaker 3: ancestor and namesake had ever been able to use the
1:43:15
Speaker 3: high language of his noble proclamation, when he announced on
1:43:19
Speaker 3: his accession, let all the Irish who are suffering servitude
1:43:23
Speaker 3: in the land of the Stranger, return home to their
1:43:25
Speaker 3: respective houses and enjoy themselves in gladness and in peace.
1:43:29
Speaker 3: In obedience to this edict and the power to enforce it,
1:43:33
Speaker 3: established by the victory at Tera, two thousand captives, including
1:43:37
Speaker 3: the King of Leinster and the Prince of Aliac, were
1:43:40
Speaker 3: returned to their homes. The hardest task of every ard
1:43:44
Speaker 3: rig of this and the previous century had been to
1:43:46
Speaker 3: circumscribe the ambition of the Kings of Cassel within provincial bounds.
1:43:51
Speaker 3: Whoever ascended the southern throne, whether the warlike Felim or
1:43:55
Speaker 3: the learned Cormac, we have seen the same policy adopted
1:43:59
Speaker 3: by them. All the descendants of Hebre had tired of
1:44:02
Speaker 3: the long ascendancy of the race of Heremon and the
1:44:05
Speaker 3: desertion of Terra. By making that ascendency still more strikingly provincial,
1:44:10
Speaker 3: had increased their antipathy. It was a struggle for supremacy
1:44:14
Speaker 3: between North and South, a contest of two geographical parties,
1:44:18
Speaker 3: an effort to efface the real or fancied dependency of
1:44:21
Speaker 3: one half of the island on the will of the other.
1:44:24
Speaker 3: The Southern Hainial dynasty springing up as a third power
1:44:28
Speaker 3: upon the Methian bank of the Shannon, and balancing itself
1:44:32
Speaker 3: between the contending parties, might perhaps have given a new
1:44:35
Speaker 3: center to the whole system. Malachi the second was in
1:44:39
Speaker 3: the most favorable position possible to have done so, had
1:44:42
Speaker 3: he not had to contend with a rival, his equal
1:44:44
Speaker 3: in battle and superior in council, in the person of Bryan,
1:44:48
Speaker 3: the son of Kennedy of King Kora. The rise to
1:44:51
Speaker 3: sovereign rank of the House of Kincora the O'Briens is
1:44:54
Speaker 3: one of the most striking episodes of the tenth century. Descending,
1:44:59
Speaker 3: like most of the left eating families of the South,
1:45:01
Speaker 3: from Olilde. The Clandalgais had long been excluded from the
1:45:05
Speaker 3: throne of Cashel by successive coalitions of their elder brethren,
1:45:09
Speaker 3: the Eugenians Lactna and Lorcan, the grandfather and father of Kennedy,
1:45:14
Speaker 3: intrepid and able men, had strengthened their tribe by wise
1:45:18
Speaker 3: and vigorous measures, so that the former was able to
1:45:21
Speaker 3: claim the succession, apparently with success. Kennedy had himself been
1:45:26
Speaker 3: a claimant for the same honor the alternate provision in
1:45:29
Speaker 3: the will of Olilde against Kelikan Cashel a d. Nine
1:45:33
Speaker 3: forty to two. But at the convention held at Glenworth
1:45:37
Speaker 3: on the River Fuchion for the selection of king, the
1:45:40
Speaker 3: aged mother of Kelikan addressed his rival in a quatraine.
1:45:44
Speaker 3: Beginning Kennedy cuss Revere the law which induced him to
1:45:48
Speaker 3: abandon his pretensions. This prince, usually spoken of by the
1:45:52
Speaker 3: bards as the chaised Kennedy, died in the year nine fifty,
1:45:56
Speaker 3: leaving behind him four or five out of the twelve
1:45:59
Speaker 3: sons with whom he had been blessed. Most of the
1:46:02
Speaker 3: others had fallen in Danish battles, three in the same
1:46:06
Speaker 3: campaign nine forty three, and probably in the same field.
1:46:10
Speaker 3: There appear in after scenes Mahon, who became king of Cashel, Achtyrna,
1:46:15
Speaker 3: who was chief of Thomund under Mahon, Marken an ecclesiastic,
1:46:20
Speaker 3: and Bryan born in nine forty one, the benjamin of
1:46:23
Speaker 3: the household. Mahon proved himself as prince and captain every
1:46:28
Speaker 3: way worthy of his inheritance. He advanced from victory to
1:46:32
Speaker 3: victory over his enemies foreign and domestic. In nine sixty
1:46:36
Speaker 3: he claimed the throne of Munster, which claim he enforced
1:46:39
Speaker 3: by royal visitation five years later. In the latter year,
1:46:43
Speaker 3: he rescued Clan mac Noise from the Danes, and in
1:46:46
Speaker 3: nine sixty eight defeated the same enemy with a loss
1:46:49
Speaker 3: of several thousand men at Silcoyd. This great blow he
1:46:53
Speaker 3: followed up by the sack of Limerick, from which he
1:46:56
Speaker 3: bore off a large quantity of gold and silver and jewels.
1:47:00
Speaker 3: In these and in all his expeditions. From a very
1:47:03
Speaker 3: early age, he was attended by Bryan, to whom he
1:47:06
Speaker 3: acted not only as a brother and prince, but as
1:47:09
Speaker 3: a tutor in arms. Fortune had accompanied him in all
1:47:12
Speaker 3: his undertakings. He had expelled his most intractable rival, Molloy,
1:47:17
Speaker 3: son of Bran, Lord of Desmond. His rule was acknowledged
1:47:20
Speaker 3: by the Northmen of Dublin Cork, who opened their fortresses
1:47:24
Speaker 3: to him and served under his banner. He carried all
1:47:27
Speaker 3: the hostages of Munster to his house, which had never
1:47:30
Speaker 3: before worn so triumphant an aspect. But family greatness begets
1:47:35
Speaker 3: family pride, and pride begets envy and hatred. The Eugenian families,
1:47:39
Speaker 3: who now found themselves overshadowed by the brilliant career of
1:47:43
Speaker 3: the sons of Kennedy, conspired against the life of Mahon, who,
1:47:47
Speaker 3: from his too confiding nature, fell easily into their trap. Malloy,
1:47:51
Speaker 3: son of Bryan, by the advice of Ivar, the Danish
1:47:54
Speaker 3: Lord of Limerick, proposed to meet Mahon in friendly conference
1:47:57
Speaker 3: at the house of Donovan, a Eugenian shi chief whose
1:48:00
Speaker 3: wraith was at Bury on the River may The safety
1:48:04
Speaker 3: of each person was guaranteed by the Bishop of Cork,
1:48:07
Speaker 3: the mediator. On the occasion, Mayhun proceeded unsuspiciously to the conference,
1:48:13
Speaker 3: where he was suddenly seized by order of his treacherous
1:48:15
Speaker 3: host and carried into the neighboring mountains of Nechinrioin Here
1:48:20
Speaker 3: a small force placed for the purpose by the conspirators
1:48:24
Speaker 3: had orders promptly to despatch their victim, but the foul
1:48:27
Speaker 3: deed was not done unwitnessed. Two priests of the Bishop
1:48:30
Speaker 3: of Cork followed the prince, who, when arrested, snatched up
1:48:34
Speaker 3: the Gospel of Saint Berry on which Moloy was to
1:48:36
Speaker 3: have sworn his fealty as the swords of the assassins
1:48:40
Speaker 3: were aimed at his heart. He held up the Gospel
1:48:42
Speaker 3: for a protection, and his blood spouting out, stained the
1:48:45
Speaker 3: sacred scriptures. The priests, taking up the blood stained volume,
1:48:49
Speaker 3: fled to their bishop, spreading the horrid story as they went.
1:48:53
Speaker 3: The venerable successor of Saint Berry wept bitterly and uttered
1:48:56
Speaker 3: a prophecy concerning the future fate of the murderers, prophecy
1:49:00
Speaker 3: which was very speedily fulfilled. This was in the year
1:49:04
Speaker 3: nine seventy six, three or four years before the Battle
1:49:07
Speaker 3: of Terra and the accession of Malachi. When the news
1:49:11
Speaker 3: of his noble hearted brother's murder was brought to Brian
1:49:14
Speaker 3: at King Kora, he was seized with a most violent grief.
1:49:18
Speaker 3: His favorite harp was taken down, and he sang the
1:49:20
Speaker 3: death song of Mahon, recounting all the glorious actions of
1:49:24
Speaker 3: his life. His anger flashed out through his tears as
1:49:27
Speaker 3: he wildly chanted, my heart shall burst within my breast
1:49:31
Speaker 3: unless I avenge this great king, they shall forfeit life
1:49:35
Speaker 3: for this foul deed, or I must perish by a
1:49:37
Speaker 3: violent death. But the climax of thus lament was that
1:49:41
Speaker 3: Mahon had not fallen in battle behind the shelter of
1:49:44
Speaker 3: his shield, rather than trust in the treacherous words of Donovan.
1:49:48
Speaker 3: Brian was now in his thirty fifth year, was married
1:49:51
Speaker 3: and had several children. Morog, his eldest, was able to
1:49:55
Speaker 3: bear arms, and shared in his ardor and ambition. His
1:49:59
Speaker 3: first effort, says an old chronicle, was directed against Donovan's allies,
1:50:03
Speaker 3: the Danes of Limerick, and he slew Ivar, their king
1:50:06
Speaker 3: and two of his sons. These conspirators, for seeing their fate,
1:50:10
Speaker 3: had retired into the holy Isle of Scattery, but Brian
1:50:14
Speaker 3: slew them between the horns of the altar for this
1:50:17
Speaker 3: violation of the sanctuary. Considering his provocation, he was little blamed.
1:50:22
Speaker 3: He next turned his rage against Donovan, who had called
1:50:26
Speaker 3: to his aid the Danish townsmen of Desmond. Bryan, says
1:50:30
Speaker 3: the analyst of Ennisfallen, gave them battle, where Oliph and
1:50:34
Speaker 3: his Danes and Donovan and his Irish forces were cut off.
1:50:38
Speaker 3: After that battle, Bryan sent a challenge to Moloy of Desmond,
1:50:41
Speaker 3: according to the custom of that age, to meet him
1:50:44
Speaker 3: in arms near Machroum, where the usual coalition Danes and
1:50:48
Speaker 3: Irish were against him. He completely routed the enemy and
1:50:51
Speaker 3: his son Morog Then but a lad killed the murderer
1:50:55
Speaker 3: of his uncle Mahon with his own hand. Moloy was
1:50:58
Speaker 3: buried on the north side of the mountain where Mayhon
1:51:00
Speaker 3: was murdered and interred on Mayhun the southward sun shone
1:51:04
Speaker 3: full and fair, but on the grave of his assassin
1:51:07
Speaker 3: the black shadow of the northern sky rested always. Such
1:51:11
Speaker 3: was the tradition which all Munster piously believed. After this
1:51:15
Speaker 3: victory over Maloy, son of Brian A d. Nine seventy eight,
1:51:19
Speaker 3: Brian was universally acknowledged King of Munster, and until Malachi
1:51:23
Speaker 3: had won the Battle of Terra, was justly considered the
1:51:26
Speaker 3: first Irish captain of his age. Malachi, in the first
1:51:31
Speaker 3: year of his reign, having received the hostages of the
1:51:33
Speaker 3: Danes of Dublin, having liberated the Irish prisoners and secured
1:51:37
Speaker 3: the unity of his own territory, had his attention drawn
1:51:40
Speaker 3: naturally enough towards Bryan's movements. Whether Brian had refused him homage,
1:51:46
Speaker 3: or that his revival of the old claim to the
1:51:48
Speaker 3: half kingdom was his offense, or from whatever immediate cause,
1:51:52
Speaker 3: Malachi marched southwards, enforcing homage as he went, entering Thomond.
1:51:58
Speaker 3: He plundered the Dalcassians, and marching to the Mounded Adair,
1:52:02
Speaker 3: where under an old oak the Kings of Thomond had
1:52:04
Speaker 3: long been inaugurated, he caused it to be dug from
1:52:07
Speaker 3: the earth with its roots and cut into pieces. This
1:52:11
Speaker 3: act of Malachi's certainty bespeaks an embittered and aggressive spirit,
1:52:15
Speaker 3: and the provocation must indeed have been grievous to palliate
1:52:19
Speaker 3: so barbarous an action, but we are not informed what
1:52:22
Speaker 3: the provocation was. At the time Brian was an Ossary
1:52:26
Speaker 3: enforcing his tribute. The next year we find him seizing
1:52:29
Speaker 3: the person of Gilipatrick, Lord of Ossary, and soon after
1:52:33
Speaker 3: he burst into Mieth avenging with fire and sword the
1:52:36
Speaker 3: wanton destruction of his ancestral oak. Thus were these two
1:52:41
Speaker 3: powerful princes openly embroiled with each other. We have no
1:52:44
Speaker 3: desire to dwell on all the details of their struggle,
1:52:47
Speaker 3: which continued for fully twenty years. About the year nine
1:52:51
Speaker 3: eighty seven, Bryan was practically king of half Ireland, and
1:52:54
Speaker 3: having the power, though not the title, he did not
1:52:57
Speaker 3: suffer any part of it to lie waste. His activity
1:53:01
Speaker 3: was incapable of exhaustion in ossary in Leinster in connot
1:53:05
Speaker 3: his voice and his arm were felt everywhere. But a
1:53:09
Speaker 3: divided authority was of necessity so favorable to invasion that
1:53:13
Speaker 3: the Danish power began to loom up to its old proportions.
1:53:17
Speaker 3: Citric with the Silken Beard, one of the ablest of
1:53:20
Speaker 3: Danish leaders, was then at Dublin, and his occasional incursions
1:53:24
Speaker 3: were so formidable that they produced what probably nothing else
1:53:28
Speaker 3: could have done, an alliance between Bryan and Malachi, which
1:53:32
Speaker 3: lasted for three years and was productive of the best consequences. Thus,
1:53:37
Speaker 3: in nine ninety seven they imposed their yoke on Dublin,
1:53:41
Speaker 3: taking hostages and jewels from the foreigners. Reinforcements arriving from
1:53:45
Speaker 3: the north. The indomitable Danes proceeded to plunder Leinster, but
1:53:49
Speaker 3: were routed by Bryan and Malachi at Glen Mamma in Wicklow,
1:53:53
Speaker 3: with the loss of six thousand men and all their
1:53:55
Speaker 3: chief captains. Immediately after this victory, the two kings, according
1:53:59
Speaker 3: to the Annals, entered into Dublin and the fort thereof,
1:54:03
Speaker 3: and there remained seven knights, and at their departure took
1:54:06
Speaker 3: all the gold, silver hangings and other precious things that
1:54:09
Speaker 3: were there with them burnt, the town, broke down the
1:54:13
Speaker 3: fort and banished Citric from THENCE eighty nine ninety nine.
1:54:18
Speaker 3: The next three years of Bryan's lie for the most
1:54:20
Speaker 3: complex in his career. After resting a night in Miethe
1:54:24
Speaker 3: with Malachi, he proceeded with his forces towards Armagh, nominally
1:54:29
Speaker 3: on a pilgrimage, but really as it would seem to
1:54:32
Speaker 3: extend his party. He remained in the sacred city a
1:54:35
Speaker 3: week and presented ten ounces of gold at the cathedral altar.
1:54:39
Speaker 3: The Archbishop Marian received him with a distinction due to
1:54:42
Speaker 3: so eminent a guest, and a record of his visit,
1:54:45
Speaker 3: in which he is styled Imperator of the Irish, was
1:54:48
Speaker 3: entered in the Book of Saint Patrick. He however, got
1:54:51
Speaker 3: no hostages in the north, but on his march southward
1:54:55
Speaker 3: he learned that the Danes had returned to Dublin, were
1:54:57
Speaker 3: rebuilding the city and fort, and were ready to offer
1:55:01
Speaker 3: submission and hostages to him. While refusing both to Malachi.
1:55:05
Speaker 3: Here Brian's eagerness for supremacy misled him. He accepted the hostages,
1:55:10
Speaker 3: joined the foreign forces to his own, and even gave
1:55:13
Speaker 3: his daughter in marriage to Citric of the Silken Beard.
1:55:16
Speaker 3: Immediately he broke with Malachi, and with his new allies
1:55:20
Speaker 3: and son in law, marched into Mieth in hostile array. Malachi, however,
1:55:24
Speaker 3: stood his defense, attacked and defeated Bryan's advance guard of
1:55:28
Speaker 3: Danish horse, and the latter, unwilling, apparently to push matters
1:55:32
Speaker 3: to extremes, retired as he came, without battle or hostage
1:55:36
Speaker 3: or spoil of any kind. But his design of securing
1:55:40
Speaker 3: the monarchy was not for an instant abandoned, and by
1:55:43
Speaker 3: combined diplomacy in force he affected his end. His whole
1:55:47
Speaker 3: career would have been incomplete without the last and highest
1:55:50
Speaker 3: conquest over every rival. Patiently but surely, he had gathered
1:55:54
Speaker 3: influence and authority by arms, by gifts, by connections on
1:55:58
Speaker 3: all sides. He had propitiated the chief families of Connaught
1:56:02
Speaker 3: by his first marriage with Mora, daughter of o'haine, and
1:56:06
Speaker 3: his second marriage with Duchalvey, daughter of O'Connor. He had
1:56:10
Speaker 3: obtained one of the daughters of Godwin, the powerful Earl
1:56:14
Speaker 3: of Kent, for his second son, had given a daughter
1:56:17
Speaker 3: to the Prince of Scots and another to the Danish
1:56:19
Speaker 3: King of Dublin. Malachi in diplomatic skill, in foresight and
1:56:24
Speaker 3: in tenacity of purpose was greatly inferior to Brian, though
1:56:28
Speaker 3: in personal gallantry and other princely qualities every way his equal.
1:56:33
Speaker 3: He was of a hospitable, outspoken, enjoying disposition. As we
1:56:37
Speaker 3: gather for many characteristic anecdotes, he is spoken of as
1:56:41
Speaker 3: being generally computed the best horsemen in those parts of Europe,
1:56:45
Speaker 3: and as one who delighted to ride a horse that
1:56:47
Speaker 3: was never broken, handled or ridden until the age of
1:56:50
Speaker 3: seven years. From an ancient story which represents him as
1:56:54
Speaker 3: giving his revenues for a year to one of the
1:56:56
Speaker 3: court poets, and then fighting him with a headless staff
1:56:59
Speaker 3: to compel the poet to return them, it would appear
1:57:02
Speaker 3: that his good humor and profusion were equal to his horsemanship.
1:57:06
Speaker 3: Finding Brian's influence still on the increase. West of the Shannon, Malachi,
1:57:10
Speaker 3: in the year of Our Lord one thousand, threw two
1:57:13
Speaker 3: bridges across the Shannon, one at Athlone, the other at
1:57:16
Speaker 3: the present Landsborough. This he did with the consent and
1:57:20
Speaker 3: assistance of O'Connor, But the issue was as usual. He
1:57:24
Speaker 3: made the bridges and Brian profited by them. While Malachi
1:57:28
Speaker 3: was at Athlona, superintending the work. Brian arrived with a
1:57:31
Speaker 3: great force recruited from all quarters except Ulster, including danish men.
1:57:36
Speaker 3: At armour at Ethlona was held the conference so memorable
1:57:39
Speaker 3: in our annals, in which Brian gave his rival the
1:57:42
Speaker 3: alternative of a pitched battle within a state of time
1:57:45
Speaker 3: or abdication. According to the Southern annalists, first a month
1:57:50
Speaker 3: and afterwards a year were allowed the monarch to make
1:57:52
Speaker 3: his choice. At the expiration of the time, Brian marched
1:57:56
Speaker 3: into Mieth and encamped at Terra, where Malachi, having vainly
1:58:00
Speaker 3: endeavored to secure the alliance of the northern high Nial
1:58:03
Speaker 3: in the interval, came and submitted to Brian without safeguard
1:58:07
Speaker 3: or surety. The unmade monarch was accompanied by a guard
1:58:11
Speaker 3: of twelve score horsemen, and on his arrival, proceeded straight
1:58:14
Speaker 3: to the tent of his successor. Here the rivals contended
1:58:18
Speaker 3: in courtesy, as they had often done in arms, and
1:58:21
Speaker 3: when they separated, Brian, as Lord Paramount, presented Malachi as
1:58:25
Speaker 3: many horses as he had horsemen in his train when
1:58:28
Speaker 3: he came to visit him. This event happened in the
1:58:31
Speaker 3: year one thousand one when Brian was in his sixtieth
1:58:34
Speaker 3: and Malachi in his fifty third year. There were present
1:58:38
Speaker 3: in the assembly all the princes and chiefs of the Irish,
1:58:41
Speaker 3: except the Prince of Eliach and the lords of Oriel, Ulidia,
1:58:45
Speaker 3: Tyrouin and Tyrconnel, who were equally unwilling to assist Malachi
1:58:50
Speaker 3: or to acknowledge Brian. What is still more remarkable is
1:58:54
Speaker 3: the presence in this national assembly of the Danish lords
1:58:57
Speaker 3: of Dublin, Carmen, Wexford, Waterford and Court, whom Brian at
1:59:02
Speaker 3: this time was trying hard to conciliate by gifts and alliance.
1:59:07
Speaker 3: End of chapter.
1:59:07
Speaker 1: Five, Chapter six of A Popular History of Ireland, Book two.
1:59:24
Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
1:59:28
Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
1:59:32
Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Joan Freeman. A Popular
1:59:37
Speaker 1: History of Ireland from the earliest period to the emancipation
1:59:41
Speaker 1: of the Catholics, Book two by Thomas Darcy McGee. Chapter
1:59:47
Speaker 1: six Brian Ardrey Battle of Clontarf, by the deposition of
1:59:54
Speaker 1: Malachi iiO and the transfer of supreme power to the
1:59:57
Speaker 1: long excluded line of Hebrew Brian Mayan completed the revolution
2:00:01
Speaker 1: which time had wrought in the ancient Celtic constitution. He
2:00:06
Speaker 1: threw open the sovereignty to every great family as a
2:00:09
Speaker 1: prize to be won by policy or force, and no
2:00:13
Speaker 1: longer an inheritance to be determined by usage and law.
2:00:17
Speaker 1: The consequences were what might have been expected. After his death.
2:00:22
Speaker 1: The O'Connors of the West competed with both O'Neill's and
2:00:25
Speaker 1: O'Brien's for supremacy, and a chronic civil war prepared the
2:00:29
Speaker 1: path for Strongbow and the Normans. The term kings with
2:00:34
Speaker 1: opposition is applied to nearly all who reigned between Brian's
2:00:38
Speaker 1: time and Roderick O'Connor's, meaning thereby kings who were unable
2:00:43
Speaker 1: to secure general obedience to their administration of affairs. During
2:00:48
Speaker 1: the remainder of his life, Brian wielded with accustomed vigor
2:00:52
Speaker 1: the supreme power. The Hinniles were, of course, his chief difficulty.
2:00:58
Speaker 1: In the year one thousand two we find him at
2:01:00
Speaker 1: Balisedare in Sligo, challenging their obedience. In one thousand four
2:01:06
Speaker 1: we find him at Armagh, offering twenty ounces of gold
2:01:09
Speaker 1: on Patrick's altar, staying a week there and receiving hostages.
2:01:15
Speaker 1: In one thousand five he marched through Cannot, crossed the
2:01:18
Speaker 1: River Erne at Ballyshannon, proceeded through Terrcanal and Tyrewin, crossed
2:01:24
Speaker 1: the Man into Antrim, and returned through Down and Dundalk
2:01:27
Speaker 1: about La Mass to Tara. In this and the two
2:01:32
Speaker 1: succeeding years, by taking similar circuits, he subdued Ulster without
2:01:37
Speaker 1: any pitched battle, and caused his authority to be feared
2:01:41
Speaker 1: and obeyed nearly as much at the Giant's Causeway as
2:01:44
Speaker 1: at the Bridge of Athlone. In his own house of Cancora,
2:01:49
Speaker 1: Bryan entertained at Christmas three thousand guests, including the Danish
2:01:54
Speaker 1: lords of Dublin and Man, the fugitive Earl of Kent,
2:01:57
Speaker 1: the young King of Scots, certain Welch princes, and those
2:02:02
Speaker 1: of Munster, Ulster, Leinster and Couno, besides his hostages. At
2:02:08
Speaker 1: the same time, Malachi, with the shadow of independence, kept
2:02:12
Speaker 1: his unfrequented court in westmeth amusing himself with wine and
2:02:16
Speaker 1: chess and the taming of unmanageable horses, in which last
2:02:20
Speaker 1: pursuit after his abdication we hear of his breaking a
2:02:24
Speaker 1: Limb to support the hospitalities of Cancora. The tributes of
2:02:28
Speaker 1: every province were rendered in kind at his gait. On
2:02:32
Speaker 1: the first day of November, Connote sent eight hundred cows
2:02:36
Speaker 1: and eight hundred hogs. Ulster alone five hundred cows and
2:02:40
Speaker 1: as many hogs and sixty loads of iron, Leinster three
2:02:44
Speaker 1: hundred bullocks, three hundred hogs and three hundred loads of iron.
2:02:48
Speaker 1: Orcery Desmond and the smaller territories in proportion, the Danes
2:02:53
Speaker 1: of Dublin one hundred fifty pipes of wine, and the
2:02:55
Speaker 1: Danes of Limerick three hundred sixty five of red wine.
2:02:59
Speaker 1: The Dulcasians, his own people, were exempt from all tribute
2:03:03
Speaker 1: and taxation, while the rest of Ireland was thus catering
2:03:07
Speaker 1: for Kencora. The lyric poets, in then nature, courtiers and
2:03:15
Speaker 1: given to enjoyment, flocked, of course to this bountiful palace.
2:03:19
Speaker 1: The harp was seldom silent night or day. The strains
2:03:23
Speaker 1: of penegyric were as prodigal and incessant as the falling
2:03:26
Speaker 1: of the shannon over killaloe. Among these eulogiums, none is
2:03:30
Speaker 1: better known than that beautiful allegory of the poet mac
2:03:33
Speaker 1: League whose song that a young lady of great beauty,
2:03:37
Speaker 1: adorned with jewels and costly dress, might perform unmolested, a
2:03:41
Speaker 1: journey on foot through the island, carrying a straight wand
2:03:45
Speaker 1: on the top of which might be a ring of
2:03:46
Speaker 1: great value. The name of Brian was thus celebrated as
2:03:51
Speaker 1: in itself a sufficient protection of life, chastity, and property
2:03:55
Speaker 1: in every corner of the island. Not only the poets,
2:03:59
Speaker 1: but the more exact and simple annalists applaud Brian's administration
2:04:03
Speaker 1: of the laws and his personal virtues. He labored hard
2:04:07
Speaker 1: to restore the Christian civilization, so much defaced by two
2:04:11
Speaker 1: centuries of pagan warfare. To facilitate the execution of the laws,
2:04:16
Speaker 1: he enacted the general use of surnames, obliging the clans
2:04:20
Speaker 1: to take the name of a common ancestor, with the
2:04:23
Speaker 1: addition of mac or o words which signify of or
2:04:27
Speaker 1: son of a forefather. Thus the Northern Hinhiles divided into O'Neill's, O'Donnell's, McLoughlin's,
2:04:35
Speaker 1: et cetera. The sil Murray took the name of O'Connor,
2:04:40
Speaker 1: and Brian's own posterity became known as O'Brien's. To justice
2:04:45
Speaker 1: he added munificence. And of this the churches and schools
2:04:49
Speaker 1: of the entire island were the recipients. Many a desolate
2:04:52
Speaker 1: shrine he adorned, Many oblique chancel he hung with lamps.
2:04:57
Speaker 1: Many a long silent tower had its bells restored. Monasteries
2:05:03
Speaker 1: were rebuilt, and the praise of God was kept up
2:05:05
Speaker 1: perpetually by a devoted brotherhood. Roads and bridges were repaired,
2:05:11
Speaker 1: and several strong stone fortresses were erected to command the
2:05:15
Speaker 1: passes of lakes and rivers. The vulnerable points along the
2:05:19
Speaker 1: Shannon and the Sewer, and the lakes as far north
2:05:22
Speaker 1: as the Foil were secured by forts of clay and stone.
2:05:26
Speaker 1: Thirteen royal houses in Munster alone are said to have
2:05:30
Speaker 1: been by him restored to their original uses. What increases
2:05:35
Speaker 1: our respect for the wisdom and energy thus displayed is
2:05:38
Speaker 1: the fact that the author of so many improvements enjoyed
2:05:42
Speaker 1: but five short years of peace after his accession to
2:05:45
Speaker 1: the monarchy. His administrative genius must have been great, when,
2:05:50
Speaker 1: after a long life of warfare, he could apply himself
2:05:54
Speaker 1: to so many works of internal improvement and external defense
2:05:59
Speaker 1: in the five years of peace. Just spoken of From
2:06:02
Speaker 1: one thousand five to one thousand ten, Bryan lost by
2:06:05
Speaker 1: death his second wife, a son called Donald, and his
2:06:09
Speaker 1: brother Markhan, called in the Annals head of the clergy
2:06:12
Speaker 1: of Munster. Hugh, the son of Mahan, also died. About
2:06:16
Speaker 1: the same period. His favorite son and heir, Moreau, was left,
2:06:21
Speaker 1: and Moreau had at this time several children. Other sons
2:06:25
Speaker 1: and daughters were also left him by each of his wives,
2:06:28
Speaker 1: so that there was every prospect that the posterity for
2:06:32
Speaker 1: whom he had so long sought the sovereignty of Ireland,
2:06:35
Speaker 1: would continue to possess it for countless generations. But God
2:06:40
Speaker 1: disposes of what man only proposes. The Northmen had never
2:06:46
Speaker 1: yet abandoned any soil on which they had once set foot,
2:06:50
Speaker 1: and the policy of conciliation which the veteran king adopted
2:06:53
Speaker 1: in his old age, was not likely to disarm men
2:06:56
Speaker 1: of their stamp. Every intelligence of the achievements of their
2:07:00
Speaker 1: race in other realms stimulated them to new exertions and
2:07:05
Speaker 1: shamed them out of peaceful submission. Rollo and his successors had,
2:07:10
Speaker 1: within Bryan's lifetime founded in France the Great Dukedom of Normandy,
2:07:14
Speaker 1: while Swain had swept irresistibly over England and Wales and
2:07:19
Speaker 1: prepared the way for a Danish dynasty. Pride and Shame
2:07:23
Speaker 1: alike appealed to their warlike compatriots not to allow the
2:07:27
Speaker 1: fertile Iberania to slip from their grasp, and the great
2:07:31
Speaker 1: age of its long dreaded king seemed to promise them
2:07:35
Speaker 1: an easier victory than heretofore was possible. In one thousand
2:07:39
Speaker 1: twelve we find Bryan at lal Foyle, repelling a new
2:07:43
Speaker 1: Danish invasion and giving freedom to Patrick's churches. The same year,
2:07:48
Speaker 1: an army under Moreau and another under Malachi was similarly
2:07:51
Speaker 1: engaged in Leinster and Meath, the former carrying his arms
2:07:56
Speaker 1: to Kilmenham on the south side of Dublin, the other
2:08:00
Speaker 1: to Houth on the north. In this year also the
2:08:03
Speaker 1: Gentiles or Pagan Northmen made a descent on Cork and
2:08:07
Speaker 1: burned the city, but were driven off by the neighboring chiefs.
2:08:12
Speaker 1: The great event, however, of the long war, which had
2:08:15
Speaker 1: now been waged for full two hundred years between the
2:08:18
Speaker 1: men of Erin and the men of Scandinavia, was approaching
2:08:22
Speaker 1: what may fairly be called the last field Day of Christianity,
2:08:26
Speaker 1: and paganism on Irish soil was near at hand. A
2:08:30
Speaker 1: taunt thrown out over a game of chess at Cancora
2:08:34
Speaker 1: is said to have hastened this memorable day. Melmura, Prince
2:08:38
Speaker 1: of Leinster, playing or advising on the game, made or
2:08:42
Speaker 1: recommended a false move, upon which Moreau's son of Brian, observed.
2:08:46
Speaker 1: It was no wonder his friends, the Danes to whom
2:08:49
Speaker 1: he owed his elevation, were beaten at Glen Mamma if
2:08:52
Speaker 1: he gave them advice like that. Melmura, highly incensed by
2:08:57
Speaker 1: this illusion, all the more severe for its bitter truth, arose,
2:09:02
Speaker 1: ordered his horse and rode away in haste. Brian, when
2:09:06
Speaker 1: he heard it, dispatched a messenger after the indignant guest,
2:09:10
Speaker 1: begging him to return. But Melmura was not to be
2:09:13
Speaker 1: pacified and refused. We next tear of him as concerting
2:09:18
Speaker 1: with certain Danish agents, always open to such negotiations, those
2:09:24
Speaker 1: measures which led to the Great Invasion of the year
2:09:26
Speaker 1: oneenty fourteen, in which the whole Scanian race from Anglicia
2:09:31
Speaker 1: to man North to Norway bore an active share. Brian,
2:09:45
Speaker 1: when he heard it, dispatched a messenger after the indignant guest,
2:09:49
Speaker 1: begging him to return, but Melmura was not to be
2:09:52
Speaker 1: pacified and refused. We next hear of him as concerting
2:09:56
Speaker 1: with certain Danish agents, always open to such negotiation, those
2:10:00
Speaker 1: measures which led to the Great Invasion of the year
2:10:02
Speaker 1: one thousand fourteen, in which the whole Scanian race from
2:10:06
Speaker 1: Anglesia to Man, north to Norway bore an active share.
2:10:11
Speaker 1: These agents, passing over to England and Man, among the
2:10:14
Speaker 1: Scottish isles, and even to the Baltic followed up the
2:10:17
Speaker 1: design of an invasion on a gigantic scale. Swibney, Earl
2:10:21
Speaker 1: of Man, entered warmly into the conspiracy and sent the
2:10:25
Speaker 1: war arrow through all those out islands which obeyed him
2:10:29
Speaker 1: as lord. A yet more formidable potentate, Sigurd of the Orkneys,
2:10:35
Speaker 1: next joined the league. He was the fourteenth Earl of
2:10:39
Speaker 1: Orkney of Norse origin, and his power was at this
2:10:42
Speaker 1: period a balance to that of his nearest neighbor, the
2:10:45
Speaker 1: King of Scots. He had ruled since the year nine
2:10:49
Speaker 1: hundred ninety six, not only over the Orkneys, Shetland and
2:10:52
Speaker 1: Northern Hebrides, but the coasts of Caithness and Sutherland, and
2:10:57
Speaker 1: even Ross and Moray. Rendered him homage and tribute. Eight
2:11:01
Speaker 1: years before the Battle of Clontarf, Malcolm the second of
2:11:04
Speaker 1: Scotland had been fain to purchase his alliance by giving
2:11:07
Speaker 1: him his daughter in marriage, and the kings of Denmark
2:11:10
Speaker 1: and Norway treated with him unequal terms. The hundred inhabited
2:11:14
Speaker 1: isles which lie between Yell and Man Isles, which after
2:11:17
Speaker 1: their conversion contained three hundred churches and chapels, sent in
2:11:21
Speaker 1: their contingents to swell the following of the renowned Earl Sigurd.
2:11:26
Speaker 1: As his fleet bore southward from Kirkwall, it swept the
2:11:29
Speaker 1: subject coast of Scotland and gathered from every lao, its galleys,
2:11:33
Speaker 1: and its fighting men. The rendezvous was the Isle of Man,
2:11:37
Speaker 1: where Subni had placed his own forces under the command
2:11:41
Speaker 1: of brodar or Broderick, a famous leader against the Britons
2:11:44
Speaker 1: of Wales and Cornwall. In conjunction with Sigurd, the manks
2:11:49
Speaker 1: Men sailed over to Ireland, where they were joined in
2:11:51
Speaker 1: the Liffey by Karl Knutsen, Prince of Denmark, at the
2:11:56
Speaker 1: head of fourteen hundred champions clad in armor. Citric of
2:12:01
Speaker 1: Dublin stood or affected to stand neutral in these preparations,
2:12:05
Speaker 1: but Malmura of Leinster had mustered all the forces he
2:12:08
Speaker 1: could command for such an expedition. He was himself the
2:12:12
Speaker 1: head of the powerful family of Auberne, and was followed
2:12:16
Speaker 1: in his alliances by others of the descendants of caher Moore,
2:12:19
Speaker 1: o'noland and Omoor with a truer sense of duty fought
2:12:23
Speaker 1: on the patriotic side. Bryan had not been ignorant of
2:12:28
Speaker 1: the exertions which were made during the summer and winter
2:12:30
Speaker 1: of the year one thousand thirteen to combine an overwhelming
2:12:34
Speaker 1: force against him. In his exertions to meet force with force,
2:12:38
Speaker 1: it is gratifying to every believer in human excellence to
2:12:41
Speaker 1: find him actively supported by the prince whom he had
2:12:44
Speaker 1: so recently deposed. Malachi during the summer of one thousand thirteen,
2:12:48
Speaker 1: had indeed lost two sons in skirmishes with Citric and Malmura,
2:12:54
Speaker 1: and had therefore his own personal wrongs to avenge. But
2:12:58
Speaker 1: he cordially co operated with Bryan for those occurrences, and
2:13:02
Speaker 1: now loyally seconded it all his movements. The lords of
2:13:07
Speaker 1: the Southern Half Kingdom, the lords of Desese, fermoy Inchiquin, Corcobascin, Kenomiki,
2:13:15
Speaker 1: Carrie and the lords of Hymeni and High Fuchera in
2:13:19
Speaker 1: Conneau hastened to his standard. Omor and O'Nolan of Leinster
2:13:23
Speaker 1: and Donald Steward of Marr In Scotland were the other
2:13:26
Speaker 1: chieftains who joined him before Clontarf. Besides those of his
2:13:30
Speaker 1: own kindred. None of the Northern Highnail took part in
2:13:34
Speaker 1: the battle. They had submitted to Bryan, but they never
2:13:37
Speaker 1: cordially supported him Clontarf. The lawn or meadow of Bulls,
2:13:42
Speaker 1: stretches along the crescent shaped north strand of Dublin Harbor
2:13:46
Speaker 1: from the ancient salmonweir at ballybeau Bridge toward the promontory
2:13:50
Speaker 1: of Health. Both horns of the crescent were held by
2:13:54
Speaker 1: the enemy and communicated with his ships, the inland point
2:13:58
Speaker 1: terminating in the roofs of Doublin, and the seaward marked
2:14:01
Speaker 1: by the lion like head of Howth. The meadow land
2:14:05
Speaker 1: between sloped gently upward and inward from the beach, and
2:14:08
Speaker 1: for the myriad duels which formed the ancient battle, no
2:14:11
Speaker 1: field could present less positive vantage ground to combatants on
2:14:15
Speaker 1: either side. The invading force had possession of both wings,
2:14:20
Speaker 1: so that Bryan's army, which had first encamped at Kilmenham,
2:14:24
Speaker 1: must have crossed the Liffey higher up and marched round
2:14:28
Speaker 1: by the present Drumcondra in order to reach the appointed field.
2:14:32
Speaker 1: The day seems to have been decided on by formal challenge,
2:14:35
Speaker 1: for we are told Brian did not wish to fight
2:14:38
Speaker 1: in the last week of Lent, but a pagan oracle,
2:14:41
Speaker 1: having assured victory to Brodar, one of the northern leaders,
2:14:44
Speaker 1: if he engaged on a Friday. The invaders insisted on
2:14:47
Speaker 1: being led to battle on that day, and it so
2:14:51
Speaker 1: happened that, of all fridays in the year, it fell
2:14:54
Speaker 1: on the Friday before Easter, that awful anniversary when the
2:14:58
Speaker 1: altars of the Church are veiled throughout Christendom and the
2:15:02
Speaker 1: dark Stone is rolled to the door of the mystic Sepulcher.
2:15:06
Speaker 1: The forces on both sides could not have fallen short
2:15:09
Speaker 1: of twenty thousand men under Karl Knutsen fought the ten
2:15:14
Speaker 1: hundred in Armor as they are called in the Irish Annals,
2:15:17
Speaker 1: or the fourteen hundred as they are called in Northern
2:15:20
Speaker 1: chronicles under Brodar, the Manksmen and the Danes of Angleicia
2:15:25
Speaker 1: and Wales. Under Segurd, the men of Orkney and its
2:15:28
Speaker 1: dependencies under Mailmura of Leinster, his own tribe and their
2:15:32
Speaker 1: kinsmen of Opheli and Collen, the modern Kildare and Wicklow
2:15:37
Speaker 1: under Bryan's son Moreau, were the tribes of Munster under
2:15:41
Speaker 1: the command of Malachi, those of Meath under the lord
2:15:44
Speaker 1: of Hymeni, the men of Counot, and the Stuart of
2:15:47
Speaker 1: mar had also his command. The engagement was to commence
2:15:52
Speaker 1: with the morning, so that as soon as it was day, Bryan,
2:15:55
Speaker 1: crucifix in hand, harangued his army. On this day Christ
2:16:00
Speaker 1: died for you was the spirit stirring appeal of the
2:16:04
Speaker 1: venerable Christian king at the entreaty of his friends. After
2:16:08
Speaker 1: this review, he retired to his tent, which stood at
2:16:12
Speaker 1: some distance, and was guarded by three of his aides.
2:16:15
Speaker 1: Here he alternately prostrated himself before the crucifix, or looked
2:16:20
Speaker 1: out from the tent door upon the dreadful scene that
2:16:22
Speaker 1: lay beyond. The sun, rose to the zenith, and took
2:16:26
Speaker 1: his way towards the west. But still the roar of
2:16:28
Speaker 1: the battle did not abate. Sometimes, as their right hands
2:16:33
Speaker 1: swelled with the sword hilts, well known warriors might be
2:16:36
Speaker 1: seen falling back to bathe them in a neighboring spring,
2:16:39
Speaker 1: and then rushing again into the melee. The line of
2:16:43
Speaker 1: the engagement extended from the seminweir towards Health not less
2:16:46
Speaker 1: than a couple of miles, so that it was impossible
2:16:49
Speaker 1: to take in at a glance the probabilities of victory. Once,
2:16:53
Speaker 1: during the heat of the day, one of his servants
2:16:55
Speaker 1: said to Brian, a vast multitude are moving toward us.
2:17:00
Speaker 1: What sort of people are they, inquired Bryan. They are
2:17:04
Speaker 1: green naked people, said the attendant. Oh, replied the king,
2:17:08
Speaker 1: They are the Danes in armor. The utmost fury was
2:17:13
Speaker 1: displayed on all sides. Sir Gourd, Earl of Orkney, fell
2:17:17
Speaker 1: by Thurlow, grandson of Brian, and Enrod, one of the
2:17:21
Speaker 1: captains of the men in armor, by the hand of
2:17:23
Speaker 1: his father Moreau, but both father and son perished in
2:17:27
Speaker 1: the dreadful conflict. Melmura of Leinster with his lords fell
2:17:32
Speaker 1: on one side, and Conning, nephew of Bryan O'Kelly o'hane
2:17:37
Speaker 1: and the Steward of mar on the other. Hardly a
2:17:40
Speaker 1: nobly born man escaped or sought to escape the ten
2:17:45
Speaker 1: hundred in armor, and three thousand others of the enemy,
2:17:48
Speaker 1: with about an equal number of the men of Ireland,
2:17:51
Speaker 1: lay dead upon the field. One division of the enemy
2:17:54
Speaker 1: were towards sunset, retreating to their ships, when Brodar, the Viking,
2:17:58
Speaker 1: perceiving the tent of Bryan standing apart without a guard
2:18:02
Speaker 1: and the aged king on his knees before the crucifix,
2:18:05
Speaker 1: rushed in, cut him down with a single blow, and
2:18:09
Speaker 1: then continued his flight. But he was overtaken by the
2:18:13
Speaker 1: guard and despatched by the most cruel death they could devise.
2:18:18
Speaker 1: Thus on the field of battle in the act of
2:18:20
Speaker 1: prayer on the day of our Lord's crucifixion fell the
2:18:24
Speaker 1: Christian King in the cause of native Land and Holy Cross.
2:18:30
Speaker 1: Many elegies have been dedicated to his memory, and not
2:18:33
Speaker 1: the least noble of these strains belonged to his enemies.
2:18:37
Speaker 1: In death, as in life, he was still Brian. Of
2:18:40
Speaker 1: the tributes, the deceased hero took his place at once
2:18:44
Speaker 1: in history national and foreign. On hearing of his death, Melmurah,
2:18:49
Speaker 1: Archbishop of Armand, came with his clergy to swords in
2:18:53
Speaker 1: Meath and conducted the body to Armand, where with his
2:18:56
Speaker 1: son and nephew and the Lord of Desse's He was
2:18:59
Speaker 1: solemnly interred in a new tomb. The fame of the
2:19:03
Speaker 1: event went out through all nations. The chronicles of Wales,
2:19:08
Speaker 1: of Scotland and of Man, the Annals of Adamar and Mariannas,
2:19:13
Speaker 1: the sagas of Denmark and the Isles all record the event.
2:19:18
Speaker 1: In the Orcades of Thermodus Torpheus, a whale over the
2:19:22
Speaker 1: defeat of the islesmen is heard, which they call Orkney's
2:19:26
Speaker 1: woe and Randvar's bane. The Norse settlers in Caithness saw
2:19:33
Speaker 1: terrific visions of Valhalla the day after the battle. In
2:19:38
Speaker 1: the Nyala Saga, a Norwegian prince is introduced as asking
2:19:41
Speaker 1: after his men, and the answer is they were all killed.
2:19:46
Speaker 1: Malcolm of Scotland rejoiced in the defeat and death of
2:19:48
Speaker 1: his dangerous and implacable neighbor. Bryan's battle, as it is
2:19:52
Speaker 1: called in the Sagas, was, in short such a defeat
2:19:55
Speaker 1: as prevented any general Northern combination for the subsequent in
2:20:00
Speaker 1: of Ireland. Not that the country was entirely free from
2:20:04
Speaker 1: their attacks to the end of the eleventh century, but
2:20:07
Speaker 1: from the day of Clontarf forward, the long cherished Northern
2:20:11
Speaker 1: idea of a conquest of Ireland seems to have been
2:20:15
Speaker 1: gloomily abandoned by that indomitable people. End of chapter six.
2:20:37
Speaker 3: Chapter seven of A Popular History of Ireland, Book two.
2:20:40
Speaker 3: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
2:20:44
Speaker 3: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
2:20:48
Speaker 3: visit LibriVox dot org. A Popular History of Ireland from
2:20:53
Speaker 3: the Earliest Period to the Emancipation of the Catholics, Book
2:20:57
Speaker 3: two by Thomas Darcy McGee d. Chapter seven. Effects of
2:21:03
Speaker 3: the rivalry of Brian and Malachi on the ancient Constitution.
2:21:08
Speaker 3: If a great battle is to be accounted lost or won,
2:21:11
Speaker 3: as it affects principles rather than reputations, then Brian lost
2:21:15
Speaker 3: at Clontarpe. The leading ideas of his long and political
2:21:19
Speaker 3: life were evidently centralization and in hereditary monarchy. To beat
2:21:24
Speaker 3: back foreign invasion, to conciliate and to enlist the Irish
2:21:27
Speaker 3: born Danes under his standard were preliminary steps for Moragg,
2:21:32
Speaker 3: his first born, and for Moragu's descendants. He hoped to
2:21:35
Speaker 3: found an hereditary kinship after the type universally copied throughout Christendom.
2:21:41
Speaker 3: He was not ignorant of what Alfred had done for England,
2:21:44
Speaker 3: Harold for Norway, Charlemagne for France, and Altho for Germany.
2:21:48
Speaker 3: And it was inseparable from his imperial genius to desire
2:21:52
Speaker 3: to reign in his posterity long after his own brief
2:21:55
Speaker 3: term of Sway should be forever ended. A new center
2:21:59
Speaker 3: of royal authority should be established on the banks of
2:22:01
Speaker 3: the great Middle River of the island, itself the best
2:22:04
Speaker 3: bond of union, as it was the best highway of intercourse.
2:22:08
Speaker 3: The Daalgaeus dynasty should there flourish for Ages and the
2:22:12
Speaker 3: descendants of Brian and of the tributes through after centuries
2:22:16
Speaker 3: eclipsed the glory of the descendants of Niel of the Hostages.
2:22:19
Speaker 3: It is idle enough to call the projector of such
2:22:22
Speaker 3: a change an usurper, and a revolutionist. Usurper he clearly
2:22:26
Speaker 3: was not, since he was elevated to power by the
2:22:28
Speaker 3: action of the old legitimate electoral principle. Revolutionist he was
2:22:33
Speaker 3: not because his design was defeated at Clontarf in the
2:22:36
Speaker 3: death of his eldest son and grandson. Not often have
2:22:40
Speaker 3: three generations of princes of the same family been cut
2:22:43
Speaker 3: off on the same field. Yet at Clontarfe. It so happened. Hence,
2:22:47
Speaker 3: when Brian fell and his heir with him and his
2:22:50
Speaker 3: heir's heir, the projected Dalgaeus dynasty, like the royal oak
2:22:55
Speaker 3: at Adair, was cut down and its very roots destroyed.
2:22:59
Speaker 3: For an the new dynasty to be left suddenly without
2:23:02
Speaker 3: indisputable heirs, is ruinous to its pretensions and partisans, and
2:23:07
Speaker 3: in this the event of the battle proved destructive to
2:23:09
Speaker 3: the Celtic constitution. Not from the Anglo Norman invasion, but
2:23:14
Speaker 3: from the day of Clontarfe, we may date the ruin
2:23:16
Speaker 3: of the old electoral monarchy. The spell of ancient authority
2:23:20
Speaker 3: was effectually broken, and a new one was to be established. Time,
2:23:24
Speaker 3: which was indispensable, was not given. No prince of the
2:23:28
Speaker 3: blood of Brian succeeded immediately to himself on Clontarf Morog,
2:23:33
Speaker 3: and Morog's heir fell in the same day and hour.
2:23:37
Speaker 3: The other sons of Brian had no direct title to
2:23:40
Speaker 3: the succession, and naturally enough, the deposed Malachi resumed the
2:23:44
Speaker 3: rank of monarch without the consent of Munster, but with
2:23:47
Speaker 3: the approval of all the princes who had witnessed with
2:23:50
Speaker 3: ill conceived envy the sudden ascendancy of the sons of Kennedy.
2:23:54
Speaker 3: While mcleigh was lamenting for Brian by the Cascade of Killaloe,
2:23:58
Speaker 3: the Laureate of Terra, in an elegy over a Lord
2:24:01
Speaker 3: of Brethny, was singing, joyful are the race of Khan
2:24:05
Speaker 3: After Bryan's fall in the Battle of Clontarf. A new
2:24:08
Speaker 3: dynasty is rarely the work of one able man designed
2:24:12
Speaker 3: by genius. It must be built up by a secession
2:24:14
Speaker 3: of politic princes before it becomes an essential part of
2:24:17
Speaker 3: the framework of the state. So all history teaches, and
2:24:21
Speaker 3: Irish history after the death of Bryan very clearly illustrates
2:24:25
Speaker 3: that truth. Equally true is that when a nation breaks
2:24:29
Speaker 3: up of itself or from external forces, and is not
2:24:32
Speaker 3: soon consolidated by a conqueror, the most natural result is
2:24:36
Speaker 3: the aggrandizement of a few great families. Thus it was
2:24:40
Speaker 3: in Rome when Julius was assassinated, and in Italy when
2:24:43
Speaker 3: the Empire of the West fell to pieces of its
2:24:45
Speaker 3: own weight. The kindred of the late sovereign will be
2:24:48
Speaker 3: sure to have a party, The chief of innovators will
2:24:51
Speaker 3: have a party, and there is likely to grow up
2:24:54
Speaker 3: a third or moderate party so it fell out. In Ireland,
2:24:58
Speaker 3: the high Nials of the North, decribed of the secession
2:25:01
Speaker 3: rallied about the princes of Aliach as their head. Mayoth
2:25:05
Speaker 3: left crownless, gave room to the ambition of the sons
2:25:08
Speaker 3: of Maliki, who under the name of O'mechhlen took provincial
2:25:13
Speaker 3: rank Ossary like Issachar long groaning beneath the burdens of
2:25:17
Speaker 3: Terra and of Cashel, cruelly revenged on the Daalgaeas returning
2:25:22
Speaker 3: from Clontarf, the subjection to which Mahon and Brian had
2:25:25
Speaker 3: forcibly reduced that borderland. The Eugenians of Desmond withdrew in
2:25:30
Speaker 3: disgust from the banner of Donnac O'Brien because he had
2:25:33
Speaker 3: openly proclaimed his hostility to the alternate secession, and left
2:25:37
Speaker 3: his surviving clansmen as easy prey to the enraged Assurians.
2:25:42
Speaker 3: Leinster soon afterwards passed from the House of Oberon to
2:25:45
Speaker 3: that of macmurragh. The O'Briens maintained their dominant interest in
2:25:49
Speaker 3: the south, as after many local struggles the O'Connors did
2:25:52
Speaker 3: in the West. For one hundred and fifty years after
2:25:55
Speaker 3: the death of Maliki, the second, the history of Ireland
2:25:58
Speaker 3: is mainly the history of these five families O'Neill's, o'mechlin's, mcmurro's, O'Brien's,
2:26:04
Speaker 3: and O'Connor's, and for ages after the Normans enter on
2:26:09
Speaker 3: the scene. The same provincial spirit, the same family ambitions, feuds, hates,
2:26:14
Speaker 3: and coalitions, with some exceptional passages, characterize the whole history.
2:26:19
Speaker 3: Not that there will be found any want of heroism
2:26:22
Speaker 3: or piety, or self sacrifice, or of any virtue or
2:26:25
Speaker 3: faculty necessary to constitute a state, save and accept the
2:26:29
Speaker 3: power of combination alone. Thus, judged by what came after
2:26:34
Speaker 3: him and what was happening in the world abroad, Brian's
2:26:37
Speaker 3: design to recentralize the island seems the highest dictate of
2:26:41
Speaker 3: political wisdom in the condition to which the Norwegian and
2:26:44
Speaker 3: Danish wars had reduced it previous to his elevation to
2:26:47
Speaker 3: the monarchy. Malachi, the second of the events of whose
2:26:51
Speaker 3: second reign some mention will be made hereafter, held the
2:26:54
Speaker 3: sovereignty after Brian's death until the year ten twenty three,
2:26:58
Speaker 3: when he died in edifying death in one of the
2:27:00
Speaker 3: islands of Loch Ennel, near the present Mullingar. He is
2:27:05
Speaker 3: called in the Annals of clonmac Noise the last king
2:27:08
Speaker 3: of Ireland of Irish blood that had the crown. An
2:27:11
Speaker 3: ancient quatrain quoted by Jeffrey Keating is thus literally translated
2:27:16
Speaker 3: after the happy Meleglin, son of Donald, son of Dunnagh.
2:27:20
Speaker 3: Each noble king ruled his own tribe, but aaron owned
2:27:23
Speaker 3: no sovereign lord. The annals of the eleventh and twelfth
2:27:27
Speaker 3: centuries curiously illustrate the workings of this anarchical constitution. To
2:27:32
Speaker 3: employ a phrase first applied to the Germanic Confederation after
2:27:36
Speaker 3: Malachie's death, says the quaint old Annalist of clonmac Noise,
2:27:39
Speaker 3: this kingdom was without a king twenty years, during which
2:27:43
Speaker 3: time the realm was governed by two learned men, one
2:27:46
Speaker 3: called Con o'lachlan, a well learned temporal man and chief
2:27:50
Speaker 3: poet of Ireland, the other Corkoran Cleric, a devout and
2:27:54
Speaker 3: holy man that was anchrite of all Ireland, whose most
2:27:58
Speaker 3: abiding was at Lismore. The land was governed like a
2:28:01
Speaker 3: free state and not like a monarchy. By them, nothing
2:28:05
Speaker 3: can show the headlessness of the Irish constitution. In the
2:28:08
Speaker 3: eleventh century clearer than this interregnum, No one prince could
2:28:12
Speaker 3: rally strength enough to be elected, so that two arbitrators,
2:28:15
Speaker 3: an illustrious poet and a holy priest were appointed to
2:28:18
Speaker 3: take cognizance of national causes. The associating together of a
2:28:22
Speaker 3: priest and a layman, a Southerner and a Northerner is
2:28:26
Speaker 3: conclusive proof that the bond of Celtic unity frittered away
2:28:29
Speaker 3: during the Danish period was never afterwards entirely restored. Con o'lachlan,
2:28:35
Speaker 3: having been killed in Tafea after a short jurisdiction, the
2:28:38
Speaker 3: Holy Corkren exercised his singular jurisdiction until his decease, which
2:28:43
Speaker 3: happened at Listsmore a d. Ten forty. His death produced
2:28:47
Speaker 3: a new paroxysm of anarchy, out of which a new
2:28:50
Speaker 3: organizer arose among the tribes of Leinster. This was Dermid,
2:28:54
Speaker 3: son of Dunnagh, who died a d. Ten o five.
2:28:57
Speaker 3: When Durmand must have been a mere infant, as he
2:28:59
Speaker 3: does not feel in the annals till the year ten
2:29:01
Speaker 3: thirty two, and the acts of young princes are seldom
2:29:04
Speaker 3: overlooked in Galic chronicles. He was the first mc Murrough
2:29:08
Speaker 3: who became king of Leinster, that royalty having been in
2:29:11
Speaker 3: the Oberne family until the son of Melmurah of Clontarf,
2:29:14
Speaker 3: was deposed by O'Neill in ten thirty five and retired
2:29:18
Speaker 3: to a monastery in Colonna, where he died in ten
2:29:21
Speaker 3: fifty two. In ten thirty six or ten thirty seven,
2:29:24
Speaker 3: Dermid captured Dublin and Waterford, married the grand daughter of Bryan,
2:29:29
Speaker 3: and by forty one was strong enough to assume the
2:29:31
Speaker 3: rank of ruler of the Southern Half Kingdom. This dignity
2:29:35
Speaker 3: he held with a strong and warlike hand thirty years
2:29:38
Speaker 3: when he fell in battle at Ova in Mieth. He
2:29:41
Speaker 3: must have been at that time full threescore years and ten.
2:29:45
Speaker 3: He is described by the Elagic Bards as of ruddy complexion,
2:29:49
Speaker 3: with teeth, laughing in danger, and possessing all the virtues
2:29:52
Speaker 3: of a warrior king, whose death, as the lamentation, brought
2:29:56
Speaker 3: scarcity of peace with it, so that there will not
2:29:59
Speaker 3: be peace. There will not be armistice between Meeth and Leinster.
2:30:03
Speaker 3: It may well be imagined that every new resort to
2:30:06
Speaker 3: the two third tests in the election of Ardrig should
2:30:09
Speaker 3: bring scarcity of peace to Ireland. We can easily understand
2:30:13
Speaker 3: the ferment of hope, fear, intrigue and passion which such
2:30:17
Speaker 3: an occasion caused among the great rival families. What canvassing
2:30:21
Speaker 3: there was in Kincora and Cashel, at Kruakin and Aliak,
2:30:25
Speaker 3: and at Fenimore. What piecing and passing of interests? What
2:30:29
Speaker 3: libels on opposing candidates? What exultation in the succession? What
2:30:34
Speaker 3: discontent in the defeated camp. The successful candidate for the
2:30:39
Speaker 3: southern half kingdom after Durmid's death was Thurlow, grandson of
2:30:42
Speaker 3: Brian and Foster, son of the late ruler. In his reign,
2:30:46
Speaker 3: which lasted thirty three years, the political fortunes of his
2:30:49
Speaker 3: house revived. He died in peace at Kingcora eighty ten
2:30:53
Speaker 3: eighty seven, and the war of succession again broke out.
2:30:57
Speaker 3: The rival candidates at this period were Maro O'Brien, son
2:31:00
Speaker 3: of the late king, whose ambition was to complete the
2:31:02
Speaker 3: design of Brian, and Donald, Prince of Eliak, the leader
2:31:06
Speaker 3: of the Northern High Nials, two abler men seldom divided
2:31:10
Speaker 3: a country by their equal ambition. Both are entered in
2:31:13
Speaker 3: the annals as kings of Ireland, but it is hard
2:31:15
Speaker 3: to discover that during all the years of their contest,
2:31:19
Speaker 3: either of them submitted to the other. To chronicle all
2:31:22
Speaker 3: the incidents of the struggle would take too much space here,
2:31:25
Speaker 3: and as it was to be expected, a third party,
2:31:27
Speaker 3: profited most by it, the West, came in in the
2:31:30
Speaker 3: person of O'Connor, to lord it over both north and south,
2:31:33
Speaker 3: and to add another element to the dynastic confusion. This
2:31:37
Speaker 3: brief abstract of our civil affairs after the death of
2:31:40
Speaker 3: Brian presents us with the extraordinary spectacle of a country
2:31:43
Speaker 3: without a constitution working out the problem of its stormy destiny.
2:31:47
Speaker 3: In despite of all internal and external dangers. Everything now
2:31:51
Speaker 3: depended on individual genius and energy, nothing on system usage
2:31:55
Speaker 3: or prescription. Each leading family and each province became in
2:32:00
Speaker 3: turn the head of the state. The supreme title seems
2:32:03
Speaker 3: to have been fatal for a generation to the family
2:32:05
Speaker 3: that obtained it, for in no case is there a
2:32:08
Speaker 3: lineal descent of the crown. The Prince of Eliac or
2:32:11
Speaker 3: King Kora, naturally preferred his permanent patrimony to an uncertain
2:32:15
Speaker 3: tenure of terra. An office not attached to a locality, became,
2:32:18
Speaker 3: of course, little more than an arbitrary title. Hence the
2:32:22
Speaker 3: titular king of Ireland might for one lifetime reigned by
2:32:25
Speaker 3: the Shannon, in the next by the Bond, in the
2:32:28
Speaker 3: third by lach Areb. The supremacy thus came to be
2:32:31
Speaker 3: considered a merely personal appurtenants. Was carried about in the
2:32:35
Speaker 3: old King's tent or on the young King's crupper, deteriorating
2:32:39
Speaker 3: and decaying by every transportation it underwent. Herein we have
2:32:43
Speaker 3: the origin of Irish disunion, with all its consequences, good,
2:32:47
Speaker 3: bad and indifferent. Are we to blame Brian for this
2:32:51
Speaker 3: train of events, against which he would have provided a
2:32:53
Speaker 3: sharp remedy in the hereditary principle, Or on the other hand,
2:32:57
Speaker 3: are we to condemn Malachi, the possessor of legitimate power,
2:33:01
Speaker 3: if he saw in that remedy only the ambition of
2:33:03
Speaker 3: an inspiring family already grown too great. Theirs was, in
2:33:08
Speaker 3: fact the universal struggle of reform and conservatism. The reformer
2:33:12
Speaker 3: and the heirs of his work were cut off on Clontart.
2:33:15
Speaker 3: The abuses of the elective principle continued, unrestrained by ancient
2:33:19
Speaker 3: salutary usage and prejudice, and the land remained attempting prey
2:33:23
Speaker 3: to such adventurers foreign or native as dare undertake to
2:33:26
Speaker 3: mold power out of its chaotic materials. End of chapter seven,
2:33:37
Speaker 3: Chapter eight of A Popular History of Ireland, Book two.
2:33:40
Speaker 3: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
2:33:44
Speaker 3: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
2:33:48
Speaker 3: visit LibriVox dot org. A Popular History of Ireland from
2:33:52
Speaker 3: the Earliest period to the Emancipation of the Catholics, Book
2:33:56
Speaker 3: two by Thomas Darcy McGee. Latter days of the Northmen
2:34:02
Speaker 3: in Ireland, Though Ireland dates the decay of Scandinavian power
2:34:06
Speaker 3: from Good Friday ten fourteen, yet the North did not
2:34:10
Speaker 3: wholly cease to send forth its warriors, nor were the
2:34:13
Speaker 3: shores of the western Niles less tempting to them than before.
2:34:17
Speaker 3: The second year after the Battle of Clontarfe, Canute founded
2:34:20
Speaker 3: his Danish dynasty in England, which existed in no little
2:34:24
Speaker 3: splendor during thirty seven years. The Saxon line was restored
2:34:28
Speaker 3: by Edward the Confessor in the forty third year of
2:34:31
Speaker 3: the century, only to be extinguished forever by the Norman
2:34:35
Speaker 3: conquest twenty three years later. Scotland during the same years
2:34:40
Speaker 3: was more than once subject to invasion from the same
2:34:43
Speaker 3: ancient enemy, Malcolm the second and the brave Usurper Macbeth
2:34:47
Speaker 3: fought several engagements with the northern leaders, and generally with
2:34:51
Speaker 3: brilliant success. By a remarkable coincidence, the Scottish chronicles also
2:34:56
Speaker 3: date the decadence of Danish power on their coast from
2:34:59
Speaker 3: ten Forotis eighteen, though several engagements were fought in Scotland
2:35:03
Speaker 3: after that year. Malachi the second had promptly followed up
2:35:07
Speaker 3: the victory of Clontarf by the capture of Dublin, the
2:35:10
Speaker 3: destruction of its fort, and the exemplary chastisement of the
2:35:14
Speaker 3: tribes of Leinster, who had joined Malmura as allies of
2:35:17
Speaker 3: the Danes. Citric himself seems to have eluded the suspicions
2:35:21
Speaker 3: and vengeance of the conquerors by a temporary exile, as
2:35:25
Speaker 3: we find in the secession of the Dublin vikings one
2:35:28
Speaker 3: Hymen and Usurper entered as ruling part of a year
2:35:32
Speaker 3: while Citric was in banishment. His family interest, however, was
2:35:36
Speaker 3: strong among the native princes, and whatever his secret sympathies
2:35:40
Speaker 3: may have been, he had taken no active part against
2:35:43
Speaker 3: them in the Battle of Clontarf. By his mother the
2:35:46
Speaker 3: lady Gormley of Opheli. He was half o Connor by marriage.
2:35:50
Speaker 3: He was son in law of Brian and uterine brother
2:35:53
Speaker 3: of Malachi. After his return to Dublin, when in ten
2:35:57
Speaker 3: eighteen Brian, son of Malmura, fell pritysoner into his hands,
2:36:01
Speaker 3: as if to clear himself of any lingering suspicion of
2:36:04
Speaker 3: an understanding with that family, he caused his eyes to
2:36:07
Speaker 3: be put out, a cruel but customary punishment in that age.
2:36:11
Speaker 3: This act procured for him the deadly enmity of the
2:36:14
Speaker 3: warlike mountaineers of Wicklow, who in the year ten twenty
2:36:18
Speaker 3: two gave him a severe defeat at Delgani. Even this
2:36:22
Speaker 3: he outlived and died seven years later, the acknowledged lord
2:36:25
Speaker 3: of his town and fortress, forty years after his first
2:36:29
Speaker 3: secession to that title. He was succeeded by his son,
2:36:32
Speaker 3: grandson and great grandson during the remaining half century. The
2:36:37
Speaker 3: kingdom of Leinster, in consequence of the defeat of Melmurah,
2:36:40
Speaker 3: the incapacity of Brian, and the destruction of other claimants
2:36:44
Speaker 3: of the same family, passed to the family of Macmurah.
2:36:47
Speaker 3: Another branch of the same ancestry, Dermid, the first and
2:36:51
Speaker 3: most distinguished King of Leinster of this house took Waterford
2:36:55
Speaker 3: eight ten thirty seven, and so reduced its strength that
2:36:59
Speaker 3: we find its host no longer formidable in the field.
2:37:02
Speaker 3: Those of Limerick continued their homage to the House of Kincora,
2:37:06
Speaker 3: while the descendants of Citric recognized Dermid of Leinster as
2:37:09
Speaker 3: their sovereign. In short, all the dano Irish from thenceforward
2:37:14
Speaker 3: began to knit themselves kindly to the soil, obeying the
2:37:17
Speaker 3: neighboring princes, to march with them to battle, and to
2:37:20
Speaker 3: pursue the peaceful calling of merchants upon sea. The only
2:37:24
Speaker 3: peculiarly Danish undertaking we hear of again in our annals
2:37:28
Speaker 3: was the attempt of a united fleet equipped by Dublin,
2:37:31
Speaker 3: Wexford and Waterford in the year ten eighty eight to
2:37:34
Speaker 3: retake court from the men of Desmond, when they were
2:37:36
Speaker 3: driven with severe loss to their ships. Their few subsequent
2:37:41
Speaker 3: expeditions were led abroad into the Hebrides the Isle of
2:37:44
Speaker 3: man Or Wales, where they generally figure as auxiliaries or
2:37:48
Speaker 3: mercenaries in the service of several local princes. They appear
2:37:52
Speaker 3: in Irish battles only as contingents to the native armies
2:37:55
Speaker 3: led by their own leaders, and recognized as a separate
2:37:58
Speaker 3: but subordinate force. In the year ten seventy three, the
2:38:02
Speaker 3: Dublin Danes did homage to the monarch Thurlough, and from
2:38:06
Speaker 3: ten ninety five until his death eighty eleven nineteen they
2:38:10
Speaker 3: recognized no other lord but Mercartek Mor O'Brien. This king,
2:38:15
Speaker 3: at their own request, had also nominated one of his
2:38:18
Speaker 3: family as Lord of the Danes and Welsh of the
2:38:20
Speaker 3: Isle of Man. The wealth of these Irish Danes before
2:38:25
Speaker 3: and after the time of Brian may be estimated by
2:38:27
Speaker 3: the annual tribute which Limerick paid to that prince, a
2:38:31
Speaker 3: pipe of red wine for every day in the year.
2:38:34
Speaker 3: In the year ten twenty nine, Olaf, son of Citric
2:38:37
Speaker 3: of Dublin, being taken prisoner by Oregan, the Lord of
2:38:40
Speaker 3: east Meath, paid for his ransom twelve hundred cows, seven
2:38:45
Speaker 3: score British horses, three score ounces of gold, sixty ounces
2:38:49
Speaker 3: of white silver, as his fetter ounce the sword of Carlis.
2:38:52
Speaker 3: Besides the usual legal fees for recording these profitable formalities.
2:38:58
Speaker 3: Being now Christians, they also began found and endowed churches
2:39:01
Speaker 3: with the same liberality which their Pagan fathers had once
2:39:04
Speaker 3: enriched the temples of Uppsala and Trondheim, the oldest religious
2:39:09
Speaker 3: foundations in the seaports they possessed owe their origin to them.
2:39:12
Speaker 3: But even as Christians they did not lose sight of
2:39:14
Speaker 3: their nationality. They contended for and obtained dano Irish bishops,
2:39:19
Speaker 3: men of their own race, speaking their own speech, to
2:39:22
Speaker 3: preside over the seas of Dublin, Waterford and Limerick. When
2:39:26
Speaker 3: the Irish synods or primates asserted over them any supervision
2:39:30
Speaker 3: which they were unwilling to admit, except in the case
2:39:33
Speaker 3: of Saint Malachi, they usually invoked the protection of the
2:39:36
Speaker 3: See of Canterbury, which, after the Norman conquest of England,
2:39:40
Speaker 3: became by far the most powerful archbishopric in either island.
2:39:44
Speaker 3: In the third quarter of this century there arose in
2:39:46
Speaker 3: the Isle of Man a fortunate leader who may almost
2:39:49
Speaker 3: be called the last of the Sea kings. This was
2:39:52
Speaker 3: Goddard Croven, the white handed, son of an Icelandic prince,
2:39:56
Speaker 3: and one of the followers of Harold Harfagar and Earl
2:39:59
Speaker 3: Tosti in their invasion of Northumbria a d. Ten sixty six.
2:40:04
Speaker 3: Returning from the defeat of his chief Scoddard saw and
2:40:07
Speaker 3: seized upon Man as the center of future expedition of
2:40:10
Speaker 3: his own, in the course of which he subdued the Hebrides,
2:40:13
Speaker 3: divided them with the gallant Summrld, ancestor of the MacDonalds
2:40:17
Speaker 3: of the Isles, and established his son Lagman, afterwards put
2:40:21
Speaker 3: to death by King Magnus Barefoot as his viceroy in
2:40:24
Speaker 3: the Ortneys and Shetlands. The weakened condition of the Danish
2:40:28
Speaker 3: settlement at Dublin attracted his ambition, and where he entered
2:40:32
Speaker 3: as a mediator, he remained as a master in the
2:40:35
Speaker 3: succession of the Dublin vikings. He has assigned a reign
2:40:37
Speaker 3: of ten years, and his whole course of conquest seems
2:40:40
Speaker 3: to have occupied some twenty years eighty ten seventy seven
2:40:44
Speaker 3: to ten ninety eight. At length, the star of this
2:40:47
Speaker 3: Viking of the Irish Sea paled before the mightier name
2:40:50
Speaker 3: of a King of Norway, whose brilliant ambition had a
2:40:53
Speaker 3: still shorter span. The story of this Magnus, called, it
2:40:57
Speaker 3: is said from his adoption of the Scottish Kiltnes Barefoot,
2:41:01
Speaker 3: forms the eleventh saga in the Chronicles of the Kings
2:41:03
Speaker 3: of Norway. He began to reign in the year ten
2:41:06
Speaker 3: ninety three, and soon after undertook an expedition to the
2:41:09
Speaker 3: south with many fine men and good shipping, taking the
2:41:14
Speaker 3: Ortneys on his way. He sent their earl's prisoners to
2:41:16
Speaker 3: Norway and placed his own son Sigurd in their stead.
2:41:20
Speaker 3: He overran the Hebrides, putting Lagman, son of Goddard Croven,
2:41:24
Speaker 3: to death. He spared only the Holy Island, as Ionia
2:41:28
Speaker 3: was now called even by the Northmen, and there in
2:41:31
Speaker 3: after years his own bones were buried. The Isles of
2:41:34
Speaker 3: Man and Anglesey and the coast of Wales shared the
2:41:37
Speaker 3: same fate, and thence he retraced his course to Scotland,
2:41:41
Speaker 3: where born in his galley across the Isthmus of Cantyr.
2:41:44
Speaker 3: To fulfill an old prophecy, he claimed possession of the
2:41:47
Speaker 3: land on both sides of Lochaul. It was while he
2:41:51
Speaker 3: wintered in the southern Hebrides, according to the saga, that
2:41:54
Speaker 3: he contracted his son Sigurd with the daughter of Mrcurtac O'Brien,
2:41:58
Speaker 3: called by the Northmen by Adminia. In summer he sailed
2:42:02
Speaker 3: homeward and did not return southward till the ninth year
2:42:05
Speaker 3: of his reign eighty eleven o two, when his son
2:42:09
Speaker 3: Sigurd had come of age and bore the title of
2:42:11
Speaker 3: King of the Ortneys and hebrides, he sailed into the
2:42:15
Speaker 3: west Sea, says the Saga, with the finest men who
2:42:17
Speaker 3: could be got in Norway. All the powerful men of
2:42:20
Speaker 3: the country followed him, such as Sigurd, Honnussen and his brother,
2:42:25
Speaker 3: ulf Vid Cunner, Johnson, dog Elifson, Sorker of sogen evand Olberg,
2:42:32
Speaker 3: the king's marshal, and many other great men. On the
2:42:36
Speaker 3: intelligence of this fleet having arrived in Irish waters, according
2:42:40
Speaker 3: to the annals, Murkertoc and his allies marched forth to Dublin, where, however,
2:42:45
Speaker 3: Magnus made peace with them for one year, and Murkertok
2:42:48
Speaker 3: gave his daughter to Sigurd with many jewels and gifts.
2:42:52
Speaker 3: That winter, Magnus spent with Murkertok at Kincora, and toward
2:42:56
Speaker 3: spring both kings went westward with their army all the
2:42:59
Speaker 3: way to Ulster. This was one of those annual visitations
2:43:02
Speaker 3: which kings whose authority was not yet established were accustomed
2:43:06
Speaker 3: to make. The circuit, as usual, was performed in about
2:43:09
Speaker 3: six weeks, after which the Irish monarch returned home, and
2:43:13
Speaker 3: Magnus went on board his fleet at Dublin to return
2:43:15
Speaker 3: to Norway. According to the Norse account, he landed again
2:43:20
Speaker 3: on the coasts of Ulydia, down where he expected cattle
2:43:23
Speaker 3: for ship provision, which Murkertock had promised to send him.
2:43:27
Speaker 3: But the Irish version would seem to imply that he
2:43:29
Speaker 3: went on shore to seize the cattle per force. It
2:43:32
Speaker 3: certainly seems incredible that Murkertok should send cattle to the
2:43:35
Speaker 3: shore of Strangford Lao from the pastures of Thomund, when
2:43:39
Speaker 3: they might be more easily driven to Dublin or the
2:43:42
Speaker 3: mouth of the Boying the cattle had not made their
2:43:44
Speaker 3: appearance on the eve of Bartholemew's Mass August twenty third,
2:43:48
Speaker 3: eighty eleven O three, says the saga, So when the
2:43:51
Speaker 3: sun rose in the sky, King Magnus himself went on
2:43:54
Speaker 3: shore with the greater part of his men. King Magnus continues,
2:43:57
Speaker 3: the skald had a helmet on his head, a red
2:43:59
Speaker 3: shield in which was inlaid a gilded lion, and was
2:44:03
Speaker 3: girt with the sword of leg Biter, of which the
2:44:06
Speaker 3: hilt was of ivory, and the hand grip wound about
2:44:08
Speaker 3: with gold thread, and the sword was extremely sharp.
2:44:12
Speaker 2: In his hand.
2:44:13
Speaker 3: He had a short spear and a red silk short cloak.
2:44:15
Speaker 3: Over his coat, on which both bore fore and behind
2:44:19
Speaker 3: was embroidered a lion in yellow silk, And all men
2:44:23
Speaker 3: acknowledged that they had never seen a brisker statelier man.
2:44:26
Speaker 3: A dust cloud was seen far inland, and the Northmen
2:44:29
Speaker 3: fell into order of battle. It proved, however, by their
2:44:32
Speaker 3: own account, to be the messengers with the promised supply
2:44:35
Speaker 3: of cattle. But after they came up, and while returning
2:44:38
Speaker 3: to the shore, they were violently assailed on all sides
2:44:41
Speaker 3: by the men of Down. The battle is described with
2:44:44
Speaker 3: true Homeric vigor by Sterlison the Irish, he says, shot boldly,
2:44:49
Speaker 3: and although they fell in crowds, there came always two
2:44:52
Speaker 3: in place of one. Magnus, with most of his nobles,
2:44:55
Speaker 3: were slain on the spot, but Vid Cunnor Johnson escaped
2:44:58
Speaker 3: the shipping with the king's banner and the sword leg biter,
2:45:02
Speaker 3: and the Saga of Magnus Barefoot concludes. Thus, now, when
2:45:06
Speaker 3: King Sigurd had heard that his father had fallen, he
2:45:08
Speaker 3: set off immediately, leaving the Irish King's daughter behind, and
2:45:12
Speaker 3: proceeding in autumn with the whole fleet directly to Norway.
2:45:16
Speaker 3: The annalists of Ulster barely record the fact that Magnus
2:45:20
Speaker 3: Keen of Lachlan and the Isles was slain by the Ulidians,
2:45:23
Speaker 3: with a slaughter of his people about him, while on
2:45:26
Speaker 3: a predatory excursion. They placed the event in the year
2:45:30
Speaker 3: eleven o four. Our account with the Northmen may here
2:45:33
Speaker 3: be closed. Borne along by the living current of events,
2:45:37
Speaker 3: we leave them behind, high up on the remoter channels
2:45:40
Speaker 3: of the stream. Their terrible ravens shall flit across our
2:45:43
Speaker 3: prospect no more. They have taken wing to their native North,
2:45:47
Speaker 3: where they may croak yet a little while over the
2:45:49
Speaker 3: cold and crumbling altars of Odin and Aesythor. The bright
2:45:53
Speaker 3: light of the Gospel has penetrated even to those last
2:45:56
Speaker 3: haunts of paganism, and the fierce but not ungenerous race
2:46:00
Speaker 3: with which we have been so long familiar begin to
2:46:02
Speaker 3: change their natures under its benign influence. Although both the
2:46:06
Speaker 3: skulls and chroniclers of the North frequently refer to Ireland
2:46:10
Speaker 3: as a favorite theater of their heroes, we derive little
2:46:13
Speaker 3: light from those of their works which have yet been
2:46:15
Speaker 3: made public. All connection between the two races had long
2:46:18
Speaker 3: ceased before the first scholars of the North began to
2:46:21
Speaker 3: investigate the earlier annals of their own country, And then
2:46:25
Speaker 3: they were content with a very vague and general knowledge
2:46:27
Speaker 3: of the western island for which their ancestors had so
2:46:31
Speaker 3: fiercely contended throughout so many generations. The oldest maps known
2:46:35
Speaker 3: in Scandinavia exhibit a mere outline of the Irish coast,
2:46:39
Speaker 3: with a few points in the interior. Fiords with Norse
2:46:42
Speaker 3: names are shown answering to locks Foyle, Swilly, Larne, Strangford
2:46:47
Speaker 3: and Carlingford. The provincial lines of Ulster and Cannot are
2:46:51
Speaker 3: rudely traced, and the situation of Enniskillen, Terra, Dublin, Glendalich, Waterford, Limerick,
2:46:58
Speaker 3: Swervich accurately laid down. It is thought that all those
2:47:02
Speaker 3: places ending in Wick or Ford on the Irish map
2:47:05
Speaker 3: are of Scandinavian origin, as well as the names of
2:47:09
Speaker 3: the islets Scarries, Lambie and the Salties, many noble families
2:47:14
Speaker 3: as the Plunkets, mac Ivors, archbowls, heralds, stacks, skiddies, cruises
2:47:19
Speaker 3: and Macauliffe's are derived from the same origin. During the
2:47:24
Speaker 3: contest we have endeavored to describe, three hundred and ten
2:47:27
Speaker 3: years had passed since the warriors of Lachland first landed
2:47:30
Speaker 3: on the shores of Erin ten generations, according to the
2:47:34
Speaker 3: measured span of adult life, were born and trained to
2:47:37
Speaker 3: arms and marshaled in battle, since the enemy powerful on
2:47:40
Speaker 3: sea first burst upon the shield shaped Isle of Saints.
2:47:45
Speaker 3: At the close of the eighth century, we cast back
2:47:47
Speaker 3: a grateful retrospect on the Christian ages of Ireland. Can
2:47:51
Speaker 3: we do so now at the close of the eleventh
2:47:54
Speaker 3: alas far from it. Bravely and in the main successfully
2:47:58
Speaker 3: as the Irish have borne themselves. They come out of
2:48:00
Speaker 3: that cruel, treacherous, interminable war with many rents and stains,
2:48:05
Speaker 3: in that vesture of innocence in which we saw the
2:48:07
Speaker 3: maaraid at the close of their third Christian century, Odin
2:48:11
Speaker 3: has not conquered but all the worst vices of warfare,
2:48:14
Speaker 3: its violence, its impiety, discontent, self indulgence, and contempt for
2:48:19
Speaker 3: the sweet paths of peace and mild consuls of religion.
2:48:23
Speaker 3: These must and did remain long after. Dane and Norwegian
2:48:26
Speaker 3: have forever disappeared end of chapter eight, end of a
2:48:32
Speaker 3: popular history of Ireland from the earliest period to the
2:48:36
Speaker 3: emancipation of the Catholics, Book two by Thomas Darcy macgee