THE SCOTCH-IRISH BLEND
Those who have studied deeply the subject of the ethnology of the Scotch
and Irish races will know, and have often used as an illustration, the
likeness, which is discernible to all, between the inhabitants of the
Hebrides, off the coast of Scotland, and those who people the islands
off Mayo and Galway, and indeed those who live on the western shores of
the Irish mainland itself.
In the Scottish islands Gaelic is still spoken, of a variety easily
understood by Irish-speaking people. Observing the striking similarity
in language, physique, and mode of life, one is led to investigate the
history, social and otherwise, of these islands, and learn something of
their past records. With advantages for travel existing in this
twentieth century, one is prone to underrate the intercourse that took
place between the peoples living widely apart in ancient times. As far
as the Hebrides are concerned, their intercourse with Ireland was much
greater centuries ago than it is now. In the early ages of Christianity,
and for many centuries afterward, the Irish had a great disposition for
roaming all over Western Europe, either as teachers, missionaries, or
soldiers.
Before the Christian era, one can trace many connecting links between
the Scottish Isles and Ireland. It is recorded that one of the very
first Irish kings, Lugh Lamhfada, spent his early years in the island of
Mull, and, closer to Christian times, Irish warriors crossed the sea to
Alba for their military training. The renowned Ulster hero, Cuchullain,
with several companions, visited the island of Skye for the same
purpose, and a range of hills called the Cuchullins in that island still
retains his name.
A little to the east of Ballycastle, toward Fair Head, is a long,
projecting rock, which forms a little sheltered spot still known as Port
Usnach. In the first century of our era there was here perpetrated a
great massacre of the royal family and Milesian nobility of Ireland,
known in history as the Attacotti rebellion. The son of a Scottish
princess came in after years to revenge the treachery, and was joined by
a great number of local sympathizers. A great battle was fought, in
which the stranger was entirely successful, with the result that he
became king, and was known as Tuathal Teachtmar.
He reigned wisely and well for many years after, and the country became
ever and ever more prosperous. The incident is mentioned here as showing
a connecting link between Ireland and Scotland at a very remote time.
Passing through the centuries, the intercourse between Ireland and the
Scottish Isles became very close indeed. About the year A. D. 500, a
great colony left what is now County Antrim and sailed in their curraghs
across the narrow sea that separates it from the Mull of Cantire, whence
they colonized Islay, Jura, and Iona, and other Scottish islands, where
their direct descendants still live. To understand this migration, one
must recall that about the year 500 A. D. a great movement of this sort
occurred in the north of Ireland to the opposite coast of Alba, now
called Scotland. Three brothers, who were paramount chiefs of a
territory known as Dalriada, called Loarn, Angus, and Fergus, removed
with their people to Cantire. These brothers were great-grandsons of
Colla Uaish, a King of Tara, who wedded a Scottish princess. Colla Uaish
was one of the three Collas who invaded Emania two centuries before the
northern Irish province was ruled from Emania by the Clan Rury for over
six hundred years. On leaving Antrim, Loarn, the eldest brother,
occupied the territory in the west of Scotland, still known as Lorne,
and from which the eldest son of the Duke of Argyle takes his title as
Marquis of Lorne. The next brother, Angus, occupied the islands of
Islay, Jura, and Iona. Fergus, the youngest brother, who had the largest
following, occupied Cantire, Cowal, and Argyle. Fergus survived his two
brothers, and, after their death, consolidated the three territories
into a kingdom, which he called Dalriada, after his native territory in
Ireland. This kingdom was the foundation of the Scottish kingdom, and
extended from the estuary of the Clyde in the south to Lough Broom in
Sutherland in the north, and was separated from the Pictish kingdom on
the east by a chain of mountains; it also included the Hebrides and
other islands of the west coast.
Fergus's residence in Scotland was Dunstaffnage, on the west coast, near
to the Sound of Mull, which continued to be the residence of the
Scottish kings for many centuries afterward. King Edward VII. traces his
pedigree back through the Scottish Stuarts to this King Fergus. At a
late period of his life, Fergus wished to revisit his native country,
but was unfortunately wrecked on the voyage and drowned. His body was
landed at Carrickfergus, from which incident that ancient town derived
its name. For half a century this domain in Scotland was held by the new
settlers, under three different kings, but the king of the Picts gave
them a severe defeat in the year 560.
It was at this time that Columba formed the idea of going to Scotland
and attempting the conversion of the Picts to Christianity. He had spent
the first forty years of his life in Ireland, founding churches and
monasteries, and, as an itinerant missionary, preaching all over
Ireland. He started from Derry, where stood his favourite monastery, and
proceeded, accompanied by twelve of his followers, along the beautiful
shores of Lough Foyle to Innishowen Head, where the little bay is still
shown from which his curragh sailed to the Scottish Isles. It was about
the year 563 when he left Ireland, and, as he was born in 521, he was
then forty-two years of age. Monasticism had already taken a firm hold
in Ireland, and the more zealous of the Irish monks were founding
monasteries in the islands around the Irish coast, as well as on islands
in the larger lakes. Islands were the favourite spots where these
institutions flourished. What was for their safety and security at
first,--that is, their isolated position,--ultimately, during the Danish
period, led to their destruction. Columba stopped at several islands on
his way. He called at Oransay with the idea of remaining, but, as he
could see the summits of the mountains of Ireland from it, he proceeded
to Iona, where he got a grant of land and founded his famous monastery.
For two years he never left the island, getting the little community
into order, building his monastery, and tilling his ground. By his holy
life, example, and conversation, he impressed most favourably all who
came in contact with him. His little colony was like an oasis in the
desert of that wild country. During this period he was studying the
Pictish tongue, of the same family as the Gaelic, as the most likely
means to succeed in his mission. He formed the bold resolution of going
direct to King Brude, and preaching first to him, well knowing that if
he succeeded with the king the nobles and people would follow. The
stronghold of the king of the Picts was situated near Inverness. Columba
was wise, for he took with him two of his disciples, who were Irish
Picts by birth, namely, Comghal, who was born at Muckamore, and
afterward founded the great monastery of Bangor, and Canice, who
afterward gave his name to the church and the town of Kilkenny. King
Brude was at first unwilling to receive Columba, as one learns from the
history of his life, written by his successor, Adamnau, Abbot of Iona.
This life, as is well known, was translated by Bishop Reeves, and,
thanks to Adamnau and Bishop Reeves, there is no saint in the early
Irish calendar of whom so much is known. He was entirely successful in
his mission to the Pictish king, who became a convert to the Christian
faith. The leading nobles followed, and, for years after, his labours
amongst the Pictish nation never flagged until the whole nation embraced
Christianity. The result which he anticipated followed, and the
mellowing influence of the gospel caused a marked improvement in the
relations between the Picts and the Scots, and led to their ultimate
union into one Scottish kingdom.
The monastery of Iona became celebrated over Western Europe, and for
centuries afterward shone as a bright beacon of Christianity in this
far-off isle of the sea. In the burial-ground known as the Relig Oran
there are buried forty-eight Scottish kings, four Irish kings, eight
Norwegian kings, and Egfrid, a King of Northumbria; few spots on earth
contain more remains of illustrious dead than does Iona. It was the
parent of many monasteries, not alone in Scotland and the isles, but in
Ireland and the north of England. The monastery of Kells, in Meath, also
acknowledged Iona as the head of the Columban monasteries. During all
the time it remained a Columban monastery, the abbots were Irishmen,
that is, for a period of almost seven hundred years.
The Danish invasion of Ireland, which began toward the end of the eighth
century, had an important effect on the Scottish Isles as well as on
Ireland. For more than two centuries the northerners dominated
everything in both countries. In the twelfth century, however, a great
leader arose in Argyle, called Somerled, who drove the Northmen out of
the west of Scotland as well as from the isles. He was the ancestor of
the Macdonnells, Lords of the Isles, and it was he who laid the
foundations of their power. This great leader was ultimately
assassinated, and was succeeded by his son Randal, who had two sons,
Donal and Rorie. The first was founder of the Macdonnells of Islay, and
the latter of the MacRories. Islay was the territory and residence of
the Macdonnells, Lords of the Isles, and Bute that of MacRory.
O'Donnell, of Tyconnell, employed these two sons of Randal to cross over
and assist him against the O'Neills. They arrived in their galleys in
Derry in the year 1211, with over a thousand followers. Three hundred
and fifty years later, Red Hugh O'Donnell employed a large number of
these Scotchmen, who arrived from the isles in seventy galleys, to
assist him against the English. O'Cleary, in his life of Red Hugh
O'Donnell, describes these Highland mercenaries as follows: "These were
recognized among the Irish soldiers by the difference of their arms and
clothing, their habits and language, for their exterior dress was
mottled cloaks to the calf of the leg, with ties and fastenings. Their
girdles were over the loins outside the cloaks. Many of them had swords
with hafts of horn, large and fit for war, from their shoulders. It was
necessary for the soldier to put his two hands together at the very haft
of his sword when he would strike a blow with it. Others of them had
bows of carved wood, strong for use, with well-seasoned strings of hemp,
and arrows, sharp-pointed, whizzing in flight."
From this point onward it is more easy to follow the development of the
special characteristics caused by the intermingling of the Scotch and
Irish races.
Donal was succeeded in Islay by his son Angus. He brought the Norwegian
King Hako to assist the islanders against Alexander, the third King of
Scotland, when they fought the battle of Largs. Angus had a son, Angus
Oge, who succeeded him. He married a daughter of O'Cahan, an Irish
chieftain of the family of O'Neill, who owned all the territory of the
present County Derry. Angus had greatly befriended Robert Bruce in the
time of his adversity; he brought him to Rathlin Island, off the Giant's
Causeway, and kept him there when pursued by his enemies. When Bruce
became king, he rewarded Angus Oge by granting him the isles of Mull,
Jura, Coll, and Tiree; he previously owned Islay and Cantire. Angus was
succeeded by his son John, who married for his second wife Margaret
Stuart, daughter of King Robert the second, the first Stuart king of
Scotland. John had by her several sons and one daughter, who married
Montgomery of Eglinton. John was the first of the island kings to make
an alliance with England,--a policy continued by his successors, and
which ultimately led to the downfall of his principality.
It is easy to trace the progress by which the Macdonnells became
connected with Antrim, and formed an Irish family, whose head is the
Earl of Antrim. John Mor Macdonnell, son of Eion of Islay, and grandson
through his mother of King Robert the Second, came to Antrim to seek the
hand of Margery Bysett, the heiress to all the lands included in the
Glens of Antrim. The Bysetts were an outlawed Scotch family who, about
the year 1242, were exiled from Scotland on a charge of supposed murder.
With their means they acquired their Irish territory. This lady's father
had married a daughter of the O'Neill, and, being the only child, the
property fell to her. After the marriage between John Macdonnell and
Margery Bysett in 1399, a greater number of the islanders settled in the
Glens, which continued to be a favourite resort and hiding-place when
any trouble arose in Scotland. The intercourse between Antrim and the
Isles, particularly Islay and Cantire, from this time became very close.
There was constant going to and from the Isles, and occasional forays
were made as far as Castlereagh, whence large preys of cattle would be
driven back to the Glens, and thence to Rathlin, to be taken afterward
to Islay at their convenience. In the year 1551 a feud existed between
the O'Neills of Castlereagh and the Macdonnells, "and the latter made an
incursion into Clannaboy, from which a great prey of cattle and other
valuables were lifted and removed to Rathlin."
The Macdonnells were able to strike a blow at England more easily
through the north of Ireland than any other quarter, and the government
in Dublin made up its mind to put them down. In 1551 four ships were
fitted out, and a large number of soldiers placed on board to proceed to
Rathlin, and, if possible, to carry off the plunder which was supposed
to be stored there. The ships, on their arrival, proceeded to land an
armed force of three hundred gunners and archers. The Macdonnells
awaited them on the shore, prepared to give them a warm reception. By a
sudden upheaval of the sea, the boats were driven high on the rocks,
and, before they could recover themselves, the Macdonnells attacked and
slew every man, except the two captains of the expedition. These were
retained as hostages,
[Illustration: DUNLUCE CASTLE.]
and afterward exchanged for the younger brother of the chief, the
afterward celebrated Sorley Boy, who was then a prisoner in Dublin
Castle.
The intimacies and relations between the Scotch and the Irish were
growing more and more involved, and a new race--a blend of the most
admirable qualities of both--was being propagated. The Macdonnells at
this time owned Dunluce Castle, which had been taken from the
MacQuillans, also Kenbane Castle and Dunanynie Castle, built on a cliff
near the sea at Ballycastle. Ballycastle, previously called Port
Brittas, was the place principally used for landing or embarking for
Cantire. It was also from here that Fergus was supposed to have embarked
when he and his brothers founded the Scottish kingdom. A little to the
east of Ballycastle is Port Usnach, whence Naysi and Derdrie sailed to
Alba. There were frequent intermarriages between the Macdonnells and the
leading families in the north of Ireland. John Mor, as already stated,
married Margery Bysett. Donald Ballach married a daughter of the
O'Donnells of Donegal. John of Islay married a daughter of the
O'Neills. Shane Cathanach married a daughter of Savage of the Ards.
James Macdonnell married Agnes, daughter of the Earl of Argyle, and
their daughter married Hugh, Prince of Tyconnell, and became the mother
of the celebrated Red Hugh O'Donnell. After the death of James
Macdonnell, his widow, the Lady Agnes, became the second wife of
Turlough Luineach O'Neill, and thus mother and daughter married the two
most powerful chiefs in Ulster.
James Macdonnell died in the dungeons of Shane O'Neill, and was
succeeded by his younger brother, Sorley Boy, the greatest of all the
Macdonnells of Antrim. During the latter half of Queen Elizabeth's
reign, Sorley Boy was able to hold his own against all the queen's
generals, as well as against the MacQuillans, O'Cahans, and O'Neills. He
died in 1589 in his castle of Dunanynie, and was buried at Bun-na-Margie
Abbey. His wife was Mary O'Neill, daughter of Conn, first Earl of
Tyrone, who died in 1582. He left five sons, and was succeeded by his
third son, who died suddenly in Dunluce Castle on Easter Monday, 1601.
His younger brother, Randal, next succeeded, who, in the reign of James
the First, was, in 1618, created Viscount Dunluce, and two years later,
in 1620, Earl of Antrim. James gave him a grant of all the lands lying
between the Bann of Coleraine and the Corran of Larne, a territory equal
to the ancient kingdom of Dalriada.
The second earl succeeded in 1644, and was created a marquis by Charles
the First. He was afterward deprived of his vast property by the
Cromwellians. In the reign of Charles the Second, after many
difficulties had been surmounted, he had the greater part of it
reconveyed to him. He died in 1682, and was succeeded by his younger
brother, Alexander, who was in time succeeded by his son Randal, who
died in 1721. The Macdonnells succeeded in holding a large portion of
their Irish property, whilst they lost Islay and Cantire.
From these brief facts one readily evolves the process by which grew up
the ancient and intimate connection between the Scotch and the Irish.
One realizes full well, too, that the peoples of the north of Ireland
and of the Scottish Isles were of the same race and language, and to a
great extent are so to-day.
In manners, customs, and arts, as well, there is a blending greatly to
be remarked. In Dunvegan Castle in Scotland one is shown a drinking-cup
made in the north of Ireland four hundred years ago. Naguire, of
Fermanagh, in the fifteenth century, married a lady from Skye, Catherine
Magrannal, and this cup was made at her expense and forwarded as a
present to her relatives there. The high crosses of Ireland are
reproduced in Scotland and the Isles, and the island monasteries of
Ireland and Scotland were similar in both architecture and discipline,
and ruins in the Flannan Islands and North Rona have their counterparts
in Innismurray, Arran, and the Skelligs.