The most casual reader of Irish history knows that within a few
centuries of the Norman invasion, the authority of the kings of
England had shrunk to within a day's easy ride of Dublin and the
outskirts of a few other towns. Standish O'Grady has noted the
constant alliance between town and crown in the Middle Ages. It was
not peculiar to Ireland. The merchants and the sovereign had a common
interest in resisting the encroachments of the great nobles. Even
despotic kings, as a rule, governed better in the interest of the
burgesses than any powerful oligarchy was likely to govern.
Why did the Norman conquest fail to be a conquest? Giraldus Cambrensis
gave to his story the title _Hibernia Expugnata_--"Ireland fought to a
finish." Four centuries later comes another historian, telling of
another conquest, and he calls his story _Hibernia Pacaia_--"Ireland
pacified." Why was the second conquest necessary?
There are two factors that make for the completeness and permanence of
conquest--namely, physical superiority and moral superiority. In the
art of war and in the apparatus of centralised government, the
invaders, we have seen, were superior to the Irish. They could even
use the Church as an instrument of the State, and Mr. Orpen boasts
that, whereas the Irish bishop of Dublin, Lorcán O'Tuathail, was only
a saint, the English bishops who succeeded him were statesmen. Warfare
by incastellation, carried on for seventy years, brought three-fourths
of the country under control. If to this physical superiority we must
add the moral superiority claimed for the Feudal _régime_ by modern
admirers--if not by its contemporary champion in letters,
Giraldus--there is left only one possible explanation of the failure,
the perversity of the Irish mind, afflicted with a double dose of
original sin, refusing to recognise either physical superiority in the
arts of war or moral superiority in the arts of peace.
Another factor must not be forgotten. The second generation of
Feudalism in Ireland was in full possession of all the military
resources of the greater part of the country. Just as, in the
beginning of the invasion, they had led armies of conquered Flemings
and conquered Welshmen, and as a few years later they led a force of
conquered Norsemen from Dublin to the battle of Thurles, where they
were defeated by Domhnall O'Briain, so in their later wars they led
armies of conquered Irishmen for the completion of the conquest. And
even conquered Irishmen were not bad fighting material.
Two causes have been assigned by modern writers for the failure of the
conquest. One cause alleged is the invasion by Edward Bruce in the
years 1315 to 1318. In view of the fact that Bruce's undertaking was
itself an ignominious failure, another cause assigned is the
transference of the Feudal lordship of Connacht and Ulster from the
De Burghs, resident in Ireland, to the Plantagenets, who were
absentees. This happened after 1333.
It will be shown that neither of these causes can be held to explain
the failure. The conquest was brought to a standstill and the tide was
turned more than half a century before the Bruce invasion. The
principal factor was national sentiment, intensified and supplied with
a more definite political form under a sense of national oppression.
Hardly had the sentiment of nationalism acquired this form when a new
and unexpected force came to its aid. The value of this new force was
crystallised into a proverb by one of the Feudal lords, Sir Robert
Savage of the Ards in East Ulster: "Better is a castle of bones than a
castle of stones." The policy of conquest by incastellation crumbled
away before the castles of bones built up first under the Irish
princes of Ulster, afterwards in Connacht, and in time all over
Ireland. By a castle of bones, Sir Robert Savage meant a well
organised, well armed, and well trained permanent field force. From
the days of the Fiana down to the thirteenth century, there had been
no such force under the command of an Irish king. Irish law and custom
were unfavourable to soldiering as a profession. The new force was not
supplied by Irishmen. It came from the Norse kingdom of Argyle and the
Hebrides. Already before 1263, when the rulers of this kingdom ceased
to be subject to Norway, we find Hebridean leaders helping the Irish
of Ulster. Before the close of the thirteenth century, we find
organised bodies of Hebridean fighting men on the Irish side, and a
common name for them already in use, Gallógláich, a word which was
afterwards transplanted into English in the form "galloglasses." It
means "foreign soldiers." You may learn from a number of books that
the galloglasses were heavy-armed Irish soldiers. They were men of
Argyle and the Hebrides who came over to Ireland for military service,
or descendants of such men who were settled in Ireland and held on to
the profession of soldiers. It may possibly be too much to say that no
Irish were admitted to their ranks; but with one very doubtful
instance every officer of galloglasses that I find named from the
thirteenth century, when they are first heard of, until the
seventeenth century, when they are last heard of, bears a Hebridean
surname; and the surnames of the majority of their commanders indicate
descent from Sumarlidi, who established the kingdom of the Hebrides
and Argyle in the twelfth century.
A century or so after the introduction of the galloglasses, we find
native Irish troops established in imitation of them. These, however,
bear a distinct name, _buannadha_, "buonies," meaning men on permanent
service.
It was this reintroduction of permanent military organisation that
ultimately broke down the force of feudal conquest. But as this
preceded the Bruce invasion, so also it will be seen that it was
itself preceded by a very definite national rally of the free Irish.
Let us trace the course of events in greater detail.
In violation of the Treaty of Windsor, the lordship of all Connacht,
still unconquered, had been granted to William de Burgh. Marriage with
De Lacy's heiress had added the lordship of all Ulster, likewise
unconquered, and the Earls of Ulster, chiefs of the great house of De
Burgh, thus became titular lords of two-fifths of Ireland. To make
their dominion a reality was a great incentive to the completion of
the conquest. Half a century after the invasion, the conquest extended
to about two-thirds of the country. In Leinster, the mountainous parts
southward from Dublin were unsubdued; and in the midlands a group of
the old Irish states, side by side, had resisted penetration, under
the O'Connors of western Offaly, the O'Mores of Leix, the FitzPatricks
of Upper Ossory, and the O'Carrolls of Ely. In Munster, MacCarthy More
held out in Muskerry and kept the title of king of Desmond. The kings
of Thomond preserved more real power, though part of their territory
was occupied by the Norman de Clares. In Connacht, the O'Connor kings
were still recognised by the Foreigners, and the kings of Breifne were
intact. Along the western seaboard, too, the conquest had not taken
effect. The De Burghs were established in the fortress of Galway and
in the middle plain of Connacht. In the other parts of Leinster and
Munster, and all over the old kingdom of Meath, the Irish states had
either been altogether subverted or reduced to subjection.
In Ulster, the Earls of Ulster held effective dominion over so much
territory as is now comprised in the counties of Down and Antrim.
The Irish rally may be dated from the year 1241. In that year
Maeleachlainn O'Domhnaill became king of Tir Conaill, and by his aid
Brian O'Neill became king of Tir Eoghain, defeating in battle the last
king of the MagLochlainn line, one who was favourable to the
Foreigners and no doubt acknowledged the dominion of the Earl of
Ulster. The viceroy, or, as he was then called, justiciar, of the
English king as lord of Ireland, was Maurice FitzGerald. He was the
most active and enterprising of the new rulers since the first
generation of bold adventurers had passed away, and he set himself the
task of completing the conquest of Ireland by making the Earl de Burgh
effective ruler of his titular lordships of Connacht and Ulster. In
Connacht, he succeeded so far as to make the king of Connacht,
Feidhlimidh O'Connor, his subject ally, allowing him to retain the
title of king. In 1242, FitzGerald took the first step towards the
reduction of Ulster by leading an army from Connacht against Tir
Conaill and compelling the king, Maeleachlainn O'Domhnaill, to give
him hostages. As yet, no fresh occupation of Ulster territory was
attempted.
From the earliest times until the Confiscation of Ulster, the southern
frontier of that province made invasion difficult. It was protected by
broad lakes and rivers and deep woods, and probably also by the
remains of that great ancient line of earthworks of which I have
spoken in an earlier lecture. When Ulster was invaded by land, the
approach was almost always on the eastern side from Dundalk or Ardee
towards Armagh, or on the western side between Lower Loch Erne and
the sea-coast. Maurice FitzGerald planned to invade it, building
castles as he gained ground, both on east and west. In 1244 we read of
a new castle built at Donaghmoyne, near Carrickmacross.
Next year, 1245, FitzGerald was summoned by Henry III. to aid him in
an invasion of Wales. He went across with an Irish army and his
subject king of Connacht. The enterprise did not answer expectation,
and Henry sent FitzGerald back deprived of the viceroyship. FitzGerald
nevertheless resumed his plan of conquest, the new viceroy,
FitzGeoffroi, seconding him. In 1247 he built a castle at Sligo, as a
basis of operations towards the Erne. This done, the next step was to
seize and fortify the passage of the Erne at Ballyshannon; but he
found the king of Tir Conaill there on guard. FitzGerald ordered his
Connacht auxiliaries to pretend a retirement and to make a circuit
crossing the Erne some miles further up. The stratagem succeeded. The
king of Tir Conaill, attacked in front and flank, was defeated and
fell in the fight. At his side fell a chief named MacSomhairlidh, "the
son of Sumarlidi." This name is the first sign of the Hebridean
Galloglach element in Irish wars.
Next year, 1248, the justiciar FitzGeoffroi cooperated in the campaign
against Ulster. He led an army to Coleraine, where already there was a
castle on the eastern side of the Bann. He built a bridge and built a
second castle on the western side, thus securing a new way for
invasion. Brian O'Neill did not remain inactive. He brought ships
over land from Loch Foyle to Loch Erne, and attacked and demolished a
castle at Belleek, newly built by FitzGerald. Fast upon this followed
a revolt of Feidhlimidh O'Connor. The viceroy marched to FitzGerald's
aid and Feidhlimidh was driven out, but returned next year and
continued to hold his own.
In 1250, taking advantage of a dispute about the succession,
FitzGerald invaded Tir Conaill but did not remain there. In 1252, he
renewed the attack, building a new castle near Belleek and another on
the eastern frontier near Banbridge. The viceroy also came on with a
strong army, penetrating into Tir Eoghain by way of Armagh. O'Neill
bent before the storm and made submission. This was the culminating
point. Next year, 1253, hoping to enforce his advantage, the viceroy
once more invaded Tir Eoghain, but this time he obtained no submission
and was forced to retreat with heavy loss. O'Neill forthwith took the
offensive, invaded the Earl of Ulster's territory, and destroyed a
number of castles including the new castle near Banbridge. There is a
lull at the turning of the tide. For several years, hostilities cease
on both sides. Then in 1257, Godfrey O'Domhnaill, king of Tír Conaill,
destroys again the castle of Caoluisce near Belleek and attacks Sligo,
burning the town. Retiring, he fights a rearguard action, and both he
and Maurice FitzGerald receive wounds of which they afterwards die.
Under the following year, 1258, is chronicled an event in itself of
the greatest significance and also an index of the significance of
foregoing events. Of the unsubdued Irish outside of Ulster, the chief
potentates at this time were Tadhg O'Briain, king of Thomond, and Aodh
O'Connor, king of Connacht, son of Feidhlimidh who had cast off the
authority of FitzGerald and De Burgh. These two kings assembled their
nobles and their forces and marched together to Caoluisce on the Erne,
the site of the demolished fort. They met there Brian O'Neill, king of
Tyrone, "and," says the annalist, "all those nobles gave the supreme
authority to Brian O'Neill." That is to say, so far as lay in their
power, by a spontaneous act, they restored the monarchy of Ireland.
Therefore, when I say that Brian O'Neill's defence of Ulster, with the
co-operation of the kings of Tir Conaill, marks the definite rallying
point against the Norman conquest, I give something more than a
private opinion or a modern inference. It is a fact to which, in the
year 1258 on the banks of the Erne, the kings and nobles and fighting
men of Thomond and Connacht, as well as of Tyrone, render the clearest
and most solemn testimony possible. Never before in Irish history had
the chief provincial kings thus spontaneously and peacefully awarded
the high-kingship to one of their number. The act implied a
repudiation of the authority that set up feudal lords over Irish
kings, and amounted to a declaration of national independence. Half a
century later, Brian O'Neill's son, in a letter to the Pope, again
declares the Plantagenet lordship of Ireland to be null and void and
asserts the right of the Irish to determine their own sovereignty.
These facts prove that the first factor in the Irish rally of the
thirteenth century was the sense of nationality, intensified by
adversity. Of this we shall see new and striking proofs.
About this time, the Irish began to strengthen their domestic polity
by adopting the custom of tanistry.
In 1260, Brian O'Neill led an army of Ulstermen and Connachtmen
against the Earl of Ulster's stronghold, Downpatrick. The viceroy,
warned of his movements, was there to meet him. Brian was defeated and
killed, and, as though his death were a greater glory than his life,
he is known to his countrymen of later times as Brian Catha an Dúin,
"Brian of the Battle of Down."
Three years later, in 1263, when king Hakon of Norway came with his
fleet to the Hebrides, he received a message from Ireland. Sir George
Dasent, the English editor of the history of king Hakon, undertakes to
say quite gratuitously and quite as absurdly that this embassy in 1263
came from the Ostmen of Dublin. The facts are related by Sturla, a
contemporary, a councillor of king Hakon, and no doubt on the
testimony of eye-witnesses. Sturla and his informants knew the
difference between Ostmen and Irishmen. Sturla says that, after
Hakon's first arrival in the Hebrides, "there came these messages to
him from Ireland, that the Irishmen offered to come into his power,
and said they needed much that he should free them from that thraldom
which the English had laid on them, for that they held then all the
best towns along the sea. But when king Hakon lay at Gigha (off
Cantire) he sent men out to Ireland in a light cutter, and that man
with them who was called Sigurd the South-Islander (_i.e._ the
Hebridean, no doubt as interpreter). They were to find out in what way
the Irish invited them to come thither." Before their return, Hakon's
expedition had proved unsuccessful. As he lay at Lamlash, in the Firth
of Clyde, "thither came to him those men that he had sent to Ireland,
and told him that the Irish would keep the whole host that winter, on
the understanding that king Hakon would free them from the sway of the
English. King Hakon was very much inclined to sail to Ireland, but
that was much against the mind of all his people. And so, because the
wind was not fair, then the king held a _thing_ (_i.e._ an assembly)
with his force, and gave it out that he would give them all leave to
sail to the Hebrides as soon as the wind was fair; for the host had
fallen short of victuals."
It is not unlikely that Hakon gave the Irish to understand that he
would come to them later. The entry of his death in the Annals of
Ulster shows that at that time, two months after he left Lamlash, he
was expected in Ireland. The annalist says: "Ebdonn, king of Norway,
dies in the Orkney Islands on his way to Ireland."
Here we have the second attempt within fifteen years on the part of
the Irish to determine the sovereignty under which they were to live.
There was a third attempt, in 1314, after the battle of Bannockburn,
when Domhnall, son of Brian O'Neill, with other Irish princes, offered
the sovereignty of Ireland to Robert Bruce, and, at his instance,
chose his brother Edward to be king of Ireland.
A rapid survey of events will enable us to trace the development of
the Irish resistance from these beginnings. We shall see the extension
of Irish rule over territories once in Feudal occupation, the
destruction or reduction of Feudal castles, the building of castles by
the Irish, the spread of the galloglass organisation, the renewal of
distinctive elements of national life.
Since the immigration of Hebridean soldiers was continuous for about
three centuries, so as to form a considerable new element in the
population of Ireland, and since their descendants are numerous among
us to-day, I shall put in a word here about the principal families
that reached Ireland in this way.
In Tir Conaill, the leaders of galloglasses belonged to the family of
MacSuibhne, englished MacSweeny or Sweeny.
In Tir Eoghain, MacDomhnaill (englished MacDonnell and MacConnell),
MacRuaidhri (englished MacRory and Rogers), and MacDubhghaill
(englished MacDugall in Scotland, MacDowell and Doyle and Coyle in
Ireland). These three families are descended from Sumarlidi, first
king of Argyle and the Hebrides.
In Connacht, MacDomhnaill, MacRuaidhri and MacSuibhne. In Munster,
MacSuibhne and MacSithigh (englished MacSheehy, Sheehy, and Shee).
This family is a branch of the MacDonnell family. In Leinster,
MacDomhnaill. In Oriel, MacCába, "MacCabe."
Of galloglass commanders on record, those of the race of Sumarlidi far
outnumber all the rest together.
The galloglass chiefs obtained grants of land for their support. About
a fourth of the whole territory of Tir Conaill was held by the three
MacSuibhnes. Besides these principal names, many less prominent
surnames, especially in Ulster, are of galloglass origin.
The events hereinafter related are drawn from the Annals of Ulster
mainly.
In 1264, the year after Hakon's death, Aodh Buidhe O'Neill, who
succeeded Brian as king of Tir Eoghain, extended his sovereignty over
Oriel. After his time, the kings of Tir Eoghain take the title of
kings of Ulster.
1265. The kings of Connacht and Tir Conaill join forces and destroy
the castle of Sligo.
1267. Murchadh MacSuibhne is captured by the Earl of Ulster and dies
in prison. He is the first of his surname in the Irish record.
1269. Roscommon castle built by the viceroy D'Ufford, and Sligo Castle
rebuilt.
1270. The king of Connacht defeats the Earl of Ulster (lord of
Connacht), and next year destroys the castles of Teach Teampla,
Roscommon, Sligo, and Áth Liag; and the year after, 1272, he destroys
the castle of Rinndown. This king of Connacht was the same who joined
in offering the sovereignty of Ireland to Brian O'Neill in 1258.
In 1278, Donnchadh O'Briain, king of Thomond, defeated the Earl of
Clare at Quin. His father had been taken three years earlier by the
same Earl of Clare and put to death by being drawn asunder by four
horses.
In 1286, Ricard de Burgh, the Red Earl of Ulster, comes to the front
with a sustained effort to recover power in Ulster and Connacht.
Several times he forced a king of his own choosing on Tír Eoghain in
place of Domhnall O'Neill, son of Brian of the Battle of Down.
Domhnall, however, time after time recovered the kingship, and held it
until his death in 1325.
1289. De Birmingham is defeated by the Irish of Offaly, under their
king, Calbhach O'Conor.
1290. Toirdhealbach O'Domhnaill, "with the help of his mother's
kindred, the MacDonnells of Scotland, and many other galloglasses,"
deposes his brother and makes himself king of Tir Conaill. This is the
first mention of galloglasses by name and also of the MacDonnells as
galloglass chiefs, in the Annals of Ulster, but the context indicates
that the word was already in established use.
1291. The Red Earl exacts the hostages of Connacht and harries Tir
Conaill.
1292. FitzGerald of Offaly rebuilds the castle of Sligo and takes the
king of Connacht prisoner. Next year, this king, having got free,
destroys the castle of Sligo.
1295. Geoffrey O'Farrell destroys three border castles of Meath. The
O'Farrell territory was at this time a small part of the present
county of Leitrim. It was gradually extended after this until it
comprised the county of Longford in addition. Longford takes its name
from Longphort Ui Fhearghail, "O'Farrell's camp," a name significant
of the new military organisation.
1305. Sir Piers de Bermingham caused three of the Irish ruling family
of Offaly and twenty-nine nobles of their people to be murdered at a
banquet to which he had invited them in his own castle. For this he
received a reward in money from the Viceroy and Council, with the
consent of Ricard de Burgh, Earl of Ulster.
In the same year, the Earl of Ulster built a castle in Inishowen, no
doubt with a view to commanding Loch Foyle and hindering the landing
of galloglasses. It may be noted that the Irish name of Milford Haven,
a little farther west, is Port na nGalloglach, "the port of the
galloglasses." This year we find a MacSuibhne in command of
galloglasses in Breifne.
1307. Donnchadh O'Ceallaigh, king of Ui Maine, in retaliation for the
burning of his town of Ath Eascrach, attacks Roscommon, kills a great
part of the defenders, and captures the Sheriff.
1308. The Foreigners of North Connacht are defeated by the Irish at
Ballysodare.
1310. Geoffrey O'Farrell marches against Donore Castle in Westmeath,
and Ruaidhri, king of Connacht, attacks the De Burgh castle of Bun
Finne.
1315. At the instance of the northern Irish, Robert Bruce, having
himself declined to accept the sovereignty of Ireland, sends his
brother Edward to Ireland at the head of a strong expedition.
Now that we have reached this point, it is fairly evident that the
Bruce invasion, so far from being the origin or cause of the Irish
reaction against Feudalism and the English sovereignty, was itself a
consequence of that reaction. Notwithstanding several great victories
and successful marches through the country, Edward Bruce showed
himself incapable of any constructive policy. His victories were more
than counterbalanced by the crushing defeat of the western Irish at
Athenry and by his own defeat and death at Fochairt, near Dundalk, in
1318. The northern annalist, in chronicling this event, makes it plain
that the Irish of Ulster who suffered least during the invasion, knew
no reason to grieve over its ending. This is his record of the event:
1318. "Edward Bruce, the destroyer of Ireland in general, of Irish as
well as Foreigners, is killed by the Foreigners of Ireland through
strength of fighting at Dundalk, and along with him are killed
MacRuaidhri, king of the Hebrides, and MacDomhnaill, king of Argyle."
In the previous year, the same annalist tells that Robert Bruce came
to Ireland to aid his brother in expelling the Foreigners, and brought
with him many galloglasses. It may be noted that the purpose, "to
expel the Foreigners," is identical with that proposed half a century
earlier by the Irish embassy to King Hakon. The failure of Edward
Bruce, after a campaign of four years, must have restored some of the
lost prestige of the Feudal colonists. On the other hand, the Irish of
Thomond, by the defeat and death of Ricard de Clare, rid themselves of
invasion.
We come now to the next event which has been described as the turning
point in the fortunes of the great struggle. In 1326, the Red Earl
died, having recovered all that he had lost in East Ulster from
Bruce's occupation, but not all in the same condition as before. He
was succeeded by his son, the Brown Earl, William de Burgh. A feud
arose among the De Burghs, and the young earl captured his kinsman
Walter de Burgh, and starved him to death in the Red Earl's new castle
of Inishowen. Death by starvation in prison is so frequent an incident
of the Feudal _regime_ as to suggest that these magnates obeyed the
commandment, "Thou shalt not kill," by allowing God to allow their
enemy to die, themselves not interfering. The event shows that,
despite the Bruce invasion, the old earl held on to his isolated
fortress among his Ulster enemies. The kinsmen and friends of Walter
de Burgh avenged his death by assassinating the young earl near
Carrickfergus. He died without male heir, his sole child, an infant
daughter, became by law the ward of the king of England, who made her
over in marriage, with the titular lordships of Connacht and Ulster,
to his son Lionel, duke of Clarence.
Sir John Gilbert, in his history of the Viceroys of Ireland, writes
soberly and judiciously. He has one weakness. Just as Mr. Orpen revels
in grants of land, which he takes to be the bedrock of civilisation,
and therefore declares to have been no structural element in the Irish
polity, attaching to them a sacred efficacy of which neither Henry II.
nor John nor their grantees in Ireland appear to have been fully
sensible; so Gilbert revels in details of court procedure, and
overloads his book with them: to be excused, perhaps, on the ground
that he is writing the history of a court not of a country and
people. Gilbert does not regard the Bruce invasion as a deciding
factor in the attempted conquest; but he does attach this character to
the demise of the Feudal lordships of Connacht and Ulster from the
great house of De Burgh, resident in Ireland, upon a branch of the
Plantagenets, absentees in England. He pictures to us the De Burgh
chiefs forthwith abandoning their allegiance to the English sovereign
as lord of Ireland and at the same time suddenly adopting the
language, laws, customs and manners of the Irish; and the other Feudal
lords infected by their example. We may readily believe that the
titular dominion of the De Burgh earls over Connacht and Ulster had
been a strong incentive to urge them to complete the conquest of those
provinces, and the Feudal authority exercised by the earls, backed up
by the power of the viceroys, furnished military resources which might
conceivably have sufficed for such a conquest. It is further probable
that Feudal law, so far as it could subject the De Burghs to the
dominion of an absent prince, found little favour with them. There is
no evidence forthcoming that the De Burghs in the fourteenth century
were more reverent than De Prendergast, De Courci, or the De Lascis of
the invasion period in their interpretation of the obligations of
Feudal allegiance. Their loyalty was measured by the power and
prestige of their overlord, so far as he could make it felt. The
decline of the Feudal regime was as much cause as effect of the
estrangement of the De Burghs from the English interest. As for any
sudden change of language, we must bear in mind that the
"Anglo-Normans" of the invasion did not speak English. So far as their
language was not French, it was Welsh, with a mixture of Flemish.
There was not much use for any of these languages in Connacht, where
the De Burghs and other Feudal settlers led Irish armies and
intermarried with Irish families. In short, the sudden and deliberate
turning Irish of the De Burghs, after they had killed off their last
earl, seems to be no better than a fantastic inference. Instead of
adopting any common counsel or common policy, the De Burgh chiefs,
after the Earl's assassination, engaged in violent warfare against
each other.
From this time on we can trace the gradual and rapid spread of the
galloglass organisation in various parts of Ireland; and this
continues until the time of Elizabeth who employed galloglasses on her
own side and rewarded their chiefs with grants of Irish land.
Meanwhile resurgent Ireland began to assimilate her "Old Foreigners."
In 1374, the annalist, recording the death of Jenkin Savage, says that
"he leaves poetry an orphan." This foster-father of Irish poetry was
of the family of old Sir Robert Savage who said "a castle of bones is
better than a castle of stones," Feudal lord of the Ards in East
Ulster.
The year after his death, 1375, a second battle of Downpatrick was
fought. The Irish were commanded by Niall O'Neill, great-grandson of
"Brian of the battle of Down," so little were the Irish of that age
daunted by the apparent disasters of their forefathers. The Foreigners
were commanded by Sir James Talbot of Malahide. O'Neill was
victorious. Talbot fell in the fight. The battle put an end to the
Feudal dominion established over East Ulster by the valiant de Courci.
Of this fact we have a striking proof in the succession of bishops to
the sees, then separate, of Down and Connor. From De Courci's time
until the second battle of Down, during two centuries, no man of the
Irish nation had been allowed to hold either bishopric. Soon after
this, we find appointed bishop of Connor a man named O'Lúcharáin, and
Irish surnames become very frequent in the clergy of both Down and
Connor.
In 1384, Niall O'Neill attacked and destroyed the fortress of
Carrickfergus, and (says the annalist) "obtained great power over the
Foreigners." In 1392, the Feudal colonists of Dundalk submitted to
him. In the record of his death in 1397, he is entitled "king of
Ulster."
About this time, Eoin MacDomhnaill, brother to Domhnall of Harlaw,
king of Argyle and the Islands, acquired the Feudal title to the Glens
of Antrim through marriage to the heiress of Biset. Having taken
possession, the MacDonnells did not concern themselves about Feudal
duties to an overlord, an Earl of Mortimer or an Earl of March.
Afterwards, in the official language of the Elizabethan government,
the MacDonnells of the Glens were intruding Scots: a point of view
which their chief, Somhairle Buidhe, countered bluntly by proclaiming
that "plainly the English have no right to be in Ireland."
In the fourteenth century and still more in the fifteenth, the Irish
built castles for themselves and took possession of many castles built
for their subjugation. They turned the policy of incastellation
against its proprietors and patentees. In this they were facilitated
by the galloglass organisation, always ready for military service. The
principal family of galloglass chiefs, the MacDonnells, had for their
heraldic motto "Toujours prêts"--"always ready." In this period, too,
a number of the old petty kingdoms, after long abeyance under Feudal
lords, once more emerge into prominence.
In 1423, the Irish of Tír Eoghain and Tir Conaill, aided now by the
Irish of East Ulster, defeat the viceroy, the Earl of Ormond, at
Dundalk. In 1425, the Earl of March, heir to the lordship of Ulster
and Connacht, is sent to Ireland as viceroy and receives the formal
submission of the Ulster princes. This does not count for much, for in
five years time Eoghan O'Neill, son of the king of Ulster, received in
his father's name the allegiance of O'Farrell, king of Annaly,
O'Connor, king of Offaly, O'Molloy, king of Fir Ceall, O'Melaghlin,
titular king of Meath, and other Irish rulers in the midlands; also of
Nugent, Baron of Delvin, the Plunkets, the Herberts, and the
Foreigners of Westmeath in general. This, in the year 1430, marks the
highest point of power reached by the kings of Tir Eoghain at any
time. On his father's death in 1432, Eoghan O'Neill, says the
annalist, "went to Tulach Óg, and was there inaugurated king on the
stone of the kings by the will of God and men, of bishops and chief
poets."
In the year following, 1433, Margaret, daughter of O'Carroll, king of
Eile, and wife of O'Connor, king of Offaly, held those two festivals
for the learned of Ireland that have been justly described as national
events of high and singular importance, proving that the Irish of that
time acted on a clear and definite consciousness of nationality. It
should however, be made plain that Margaret's achievement marked no
new expression of the national consciousness, either in conception or
execution. Eighty-two years earlier, in 1351, what we may call a fair
of Irish learning was held by William O'Kelly, king of Ui Maine, in
his own territory.
A contemporary account of O'Kelly's assemblage has been left us by one
of his guests, Gofraidh Fionn Ó Dálaigh, official poet to MacCarthy,
king of Desmond. Miss Knott, who has edited the poem in _Ériu_,[4]
says properly that these assemblies of the learned under Irish rulers
had a political import: the poets fulfilling in that age a function
proper to the journalists of our time.
The poet makes the occasion clear. O'Kelly had regained power in his
ancestral territory, long under the control of the Foreigners, whom he
had expelled, and was about to divide it again among his own people.
In celebration of his good fortune, he offers a Christmas feast to all
the men of learning and art of his nation: to the seven orders of
poets, to the jurists, the historians, musicians, craftsmen, and
jugglers also and jesters. Wide avenues were laid out with lines of
conical roofed houses of timber and wickerwork: a street for the
poets, one for the musicians, one for the chroniclers and
genealogists, one for the rhymers and jugglers. These structures are
compared to the letters on a page, O'Kelly's castle to the illuminated
capital letter at their head. Craftsmen are busy carving animal
figures on its oakwork. It is in the midst of a rich country,
re-conquered by O'Kelly. On its bounds are Athenry, Athlone, and
Athleague, three famous fords. "Loch Derg, a cause of pride, Loch Ree
with its green marshes, these blue bays on which the sun shines
brightly are the boundaries of William's land." Before William's
ancestors, the land belonged to the hero Goll MacMorna and his
brethren. It is a country of plenty, with every variety of surface,
tillage and grasslands and forest. "We men of learning have come
through evil days--the time of conquest and disruption--our lore
neglected, our affluence reduced, most of our country against us; but
a better time has come. Our host to-night has delivered us from
sorrow."
[Footnote 4: "Eriu," vol. V., page 50.]
It was among a people once more confident of the future that a
congress of this kind was planned and successfully held. The poet
bears witness that the king's invitation has brought together a
concourse from every part of Ireland, from Ulster, Thomond, Desmond,
Leinster and Meath. The annals tell us they came away well pleased.
Could any event be more typical of a conscious and constructive
national idea?
In 1387, Niall Ó'Néill the younger, in the reign of his father, the
victor of Downpatrick, built a hostel for the learned of all Ireland
in Eamhain Macha, the site of the ancient home of the kings of Ulster.
Margaret O'Carroll's great festival of the learned in 1433 was thus
the third such occasion within three generations, noteworthy above the
other two in this respect among others, that it revived the fulness of
national tradition on the very borders of the Pale.
The true beginning of the Irish rally was in the minds of those kings
and nobles and fighting men of Thomond and Connacht who marched to the
Erne in 1258 to offer the headship of the free Irish to a king of Tir
Eoghain. Both O'Brien and O'Connor were closer in the line of descent
to kings of Ireland than O'Neill was. There was no country in Europe
at that time whose magnates were not willing to have civil war rather
than abandon plausible claims to sovereignty. From this worthy
beginning I have traced the progress of resurgent Ireland down to a
worthy fruition, the generous homage of an Irish queen to that
literary tradition which, as Mrs. Green has so clearly shown us in a
recent work, is the most characteristic element in Irish nationality.
And there I leave the story.
Another time of dark adversity came afterwards. What stands for the
history of Ireland in that dark time is mainly the history of a
government which nobody pretends to have been Irish. We need a new
history from the fifteenth century onward, written out of the records
of the Irish people. But as I have set down the Irish rally as the
subject of this lecture, I may properly be asked how this resurgent
movement ended. I shall go as near as I can to imitate the brevity of
Sir Robert Savage. The Plantagenets invoked Peter, the Tudors invoked
saltpetre. When the Plantagenets undertook to become missionaries in
Ireland, and incidentally to pay Peter's Pence, as Giraldus says, out
of the profits, they were under the impression that Irish kings had
control of secret gold mines. When Elizabeth's ministers professed a
yearning to bring the Irish to civility, they were calculating how
much land could be acquired by the expenditure of the stock of
saltpetre available from time to time at so much per ton. It may shock
the proper sense of the "Ireland under" historians that this
villainous substance should be blown betwixt the wind and their
civility, but just as the true keynote of what is called "Ireland
under the Normans" is incastellation, so the true keynote of "Ireland
under the Tudors" is gunpowder. There is more mental profit in one
fact of this kind than in the painful perusal of stacks of State
papers, evidence mainly against those who write them.
I must say that Irish history in the diatribal stage afflicts me much
less than Irish history in popular handbooks. This lecture has not
exhausted the subject from the time of Brian O'Neill to the time of
Margaret O'Carroll--less than two centuries. I claim to have shown
evidence of real life, growth, development, purpose and spirit in the
Irish nation during that time. Take up one of these popular handbooks
and what will you find? The dissensions of the Irish clans, Edward
Bruce's invasion, the perpetual Statute of Kilkenny, and how Richard
II. fared in Ireland. Much is made of the Statute of Kilkenny, as
though its oppressive operation were a necessary consequence of its
record on the Statute Book. The Irish dissensions are gravely
deprecated. They are the whole history of the nation during all this
period, and one example is given as sufficing for all. It tells how
Godfrey O'Donnell, after his fight with FitzGerald near Sligo,
returned to Tir Conaill never to recover from his wounds; how Brian
O'Neill used the occasion to invade Tir Conaill; how O'Donnell had
himself borne on a litter at the head of his forces, routed O'Neill,
and died in the hour of victory. All this story indeed is related in a
Latin chronicle of uncertain date and the place of battle is not
mentioned. The contemporary Annals of Ulster are the most copious and
minute record for that time of the affairs of Tir Eoghain and Tir
Conaill, having been written not far from the border of the two
territories. They say nothing about an invasion of Tir Conaill or
about any battle or hostility between the two kings. They relate the
death of O'Donnell in these words only: "_quievit in Christo_"--"he
fell asleep in Christ," the customary formula of the obit of a
churchman or of a layman who died in religious retirement in a
monastery. This leaves the romantic battle story open to question.
Whether the story be truth or fiction, when it stands with Edward
Bruce, Richard II., and the Statute of Kilkenny, as a representation
of Irish history during the period with which this lecture is
concerned, it is not the truth of history. Not indolence nor want of
access to the materials produces popular history of this sort. It is
the product of a peculiar obsession of mind, that makes Ireland appear
a sort of hotel, in which the important people are always
distinguished visitors, and the permanent residents, when they are not
under orders, are occupied with quarrelling children and other
household worries in the garret or the basement.
I have said in a former lecture that the "clan system," or, as some
prefer to say, the "tribal system," of medieval Ireland, is a modern
notion and is an illusion. Its basis is found in the prominence given
in Irish literature to the aristocratic kindreds and in the Irish
custom of naming territorial divisions by the names of the septs to
which their lords belonged. From this has arisen the notion that the
sept or clan from whom a territory was named was the people of the
territory. The illusion has been enlarged by the loose use of the term
"tribe," which quotation has shown applied to a family group
consisting of the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of
one man; the same term being applied to an ancient aristocratic
kindred like Dal Cuinn, spread over nearly half of Ireland. Common
tenure of land by a family group, necessitating redistribution of the
land as new generations come forward, with the use of the term "tribe"
to denote such groups, has created the further illusion of a tribal
territory held in common and periodically redistributed. These things
being illusions, I am reminded that I have not endeavoured to set out
the facts in their stead.
Let me then take a particular territory like William O'Kelly's kingdom
of Ui Maine. In the fifth century, the lordship of this territory,
carrying the title of king, was granted by a king of Connacht to his
kinsman Maine. His descendants, called Ui Maine, were the principal
nobility of the territory in later times. Before Maine, the territory
belonged to a Pictish folk, the Sogini or Soghain, also found in other
parts of the country. This Pictish folk continued to inhabit the
territory under the rule of the sept of Maine, and under the
subordinate rule of their own nobles. But even before Maine's time,
the population did not consist of a homogeneous tribe of Sogini, for
we find record of another folk dwelling there, distinguished from the
Picts and classed among the Fir Iboth, _i.e._ the Ebudeans or
Hebrideans; and their descendants also remained in occupation, and are
named and located in medieval documents. Successive conquests
established various degrees of freedom, the measure of freedom being
the degree of immunity from tributes and services. Besides these
permanent inhabitants, there were landless immigrants who obtained
holdings of land on very exacting terms, mitigated, however, by law
after long continued occupancy. At the bottom of the scale, there were
slaves, who could be bought, sold, or given away. In historical time,
the slaves were never numerous.
In addition there were professional men, the brehons or jurists, the
poets and historians, the physicians, the musicians; and with these
must be classed the master craftsmen. All these had lands for their
support. In the later age, lands were also set apart for the captains
of galloglasses and the constables of castles. The law of the family
or the _fine_ governed all property in land, including the high
proprietorship of the ruler. Under this and other influences, every
calling tended to be hereditary in the Irish sense, not necessarily
from father to son, but within the legal family group. It is even
clear from the annals that the clergy were drawn from certain families
much more than from others.
There were common rights over rough land unsuitable for tillage. The
remainder of the land was apportioned among family groups. There may
have been an older system of a more communal character, for there is a
tradition or legend about the enclosure and specific apportionment of
the lands of Ireland in the reign of Aodh Sláine, about A.D. 600.
Any king or lord could make grants of land within his jurisdiction;
and this can be shown to have been done in every age from the fifth to
the sixteenth century.
In every large territory there were church lands. The inhabitants of a
church estate formed a little body politic by themselves, with a chief
of their own, the _airchinnech_ (oirchinneach, "erenach," or
"herenagh"). O'Donovan thought that the lay succession to this title
was a consequence of the disorder caused by the Norse wars; in any
case, it was merely an assimilation of the temporal government of
church lands to the ordinary civil polity. The _airchinnech_ was
obliged to provide from his revenue for the support of the clergy and
the maintenance of religious services. Otherwise, his status was that
of any territorial lord. In medieval Ireland, as elsewhere, we find
the conflict between Church and State about the immunity of Church
possessions from rendering tributes and services to the secular
prince.
On broad and simple lines, the government of an Irish State resembled
that of the Roman republic, with the king added as chief officer of
State. Authority belonged to the patrician class, conditioned only by
the prudential maxim, _is treise tuath na tighearna_--"a people is
stronger than a lord." Of the election of a king I know only one
detailed account--the last instance in history--the election of Aodh
Ruadh O'Domhnaill in 1593. The nobles, meeting apart, came to a
decision, and then brought it before the popular assembly for
ratification. New laws, and even important legal decisions, such as
the sentence of death or deposition of a king, were also proposed for
ratification by assemblies.
The executive functions of the king and the relations of subordinate
to superior kings are well indicated in a law tract printed by Meyer
in _Eriu_. It deals with a case in which a plaintiff or creditor has a
claim to recover against a defendant or debtor who belongs to a
different State. The plaintiff's king has no jurisdiction over the
defendant. He must refer it to the next superior king, called "the
king of a major State." If the defendant is outside of this king's
jurisdiction, the major king must have recourse to the next higher
authority, traditionally called "the king of a fifth." This king, if
his jurisdiction does not extend to the defendant, must take the case
to the king of Ireland, whose duty it will then be to levy the claim.
From this it follows that, when the parties at litigation were both
subjects of the same petty king, it was his duty and function to give
effect to the law as between them.
The Irish Record Reports contain particulars of a class of State
papers, the Fiants, which, especially for the reign of Elizabeth,
contain lists of the principal followers of various Irish chiefs. No
one who examines these lists will entertain the illusion that the
people of an Irish territory were a homogeneous clan. In a single list
of the principal followers of O'Donnell, there are close on 150
distinct surnames, and among these the O'Donnells form a very small
fraction. With regard to occupation, in these lists we find gentlemen,
yeomen, husbandmen, surgeons, physicians, priests, rhymers, harpers,
pipers, goldsmiths, blacksmiths, tailors, butchers, carpenters,
masons, etc., and on the military side, horsemen, kerns, and
galloglasses.
There is no doubt that life in ancient Ireland was for the most part
rural life. It did not reach that social intensity and complexity
which are peculiar to towns and to countries in which town life is
dominant. Nevertheless it was probably as high a development of rural
life as any country had produced in any age.
What I have said about Irish institutions has of necessity taken often
the form of an apologia; of necessity, because I have found the
balance heavily weighted down. But, one may object, there must have
been some radical defect in this ancient civilisation, otherwise its
inherent soundness would have been more secure against either castles
or saltpetre. How came it that a brave and intelligent and energetic
people did not keep itself in the forefront of western development?
My answer to that is, that Ireland was ruled by a patrician class--and
that is not all, for other countries have made remarkable progress
under a patrician rule. The Irish nobility were rendered incapable of
using their intelligence to profit with the times by one defect--they
were perhaps the most intensely proud class of men that ever existed.
This pride was bred in their bones. It came to them out of an
immemorial past. The history of the Gaelic people falls into cycles of
four centuries, beginning with our earliest knowledge of the Celts in
the Hallstatt Period. There are four centuries of conquest, expansion
and domination, before the Celts came to Ireland. By this time, pride
of race was already their dominant sentiment. A Latin poet has
described a Celtic general:
"Before the rest, the rapid wing of the Boii, led on by Crixus,
charges headlong into the foremost ranks and their gigantic limbs
engage in battle, Crixus himself, swelling with ancestral pride,
boasted his descent from Brennus, and bore for his token the capture
of the Capitol. His shield depicted the Celts weighing out the gold of
Rome. His milk-white neck gleamed with a golden torque, his raiment
was embroidered with gold, the sleeves were stiff with gold, and the
same metal formed his helmet's nodding crest."
Four centuries more established the Celtic rule in Ireland. Their rule
in Ireland remained secure during four centuries of Roman domination
in Gaul and Britain. During four centuries of Germanic invasion and
conquest, Ireland stood intact. After four centuries of Norse
supremacy over neighbouring seas and lands, Ireland emerged
unconquered. Two thousand years of unbroken sway may suffice to set
pride above prudence in the tradition of any class. At the end of
another cycle, when the Irish nobles were scattered over Europe, the
nobility of their bearing and the distinction of their manners won
admiration for them in every land but one.
This intense pride is blazoned on the pages of our medieval
literature, in annals, genealogies, stories, poems. The poets lived by
ministering to it. In this respect, too, we can see the analogy with a
good deal of modern journalism.
Too much pride blinded the native rulers of Ireland to the insecurity
of their state, and made them careless of their safety, and neglectful
of the measures it required. Glorying in the long vista of their past,
they did not look before them. They were conservative, inadaptable,
unproviding. Herein lay the fatal weakness of medieval Ireland.
We are now nearing the end of the seventh cycle. It has brought us a
different experience. I must not speculate upon the outcome. If only I
have succeeded in convincing you that Irish history must contain life,
movement, colour, coherence, and human interest, beyond anything
depicted of it in many books that have been written about it, with
that and the recollection of your kind support I make a well contented
conclusion.