After Tara and Uisneach, Knock Aillinn is the most historic hill in
Ireland--that is, if it was really the seat of the celebrated Finn, the
son of Cumhail. It is a different hill from the hill of Allen, which is
about nine miles north of it, and must not be confounded with it,
although, as it will be shown further on, the confusion of the two hills
seems to have taken place very long ago indeed. Knock Aillinn is some five
or six miles south of Newbridge, in the County Kildare. Apart from its
historic interest, it is well worth visiting, for it is situated in a rich
and beautiful part of the country, and the view from its summit is one of
the fairest and most extensive to be seen in any of the eastern counties.
Eastward the view is obstructed by the Wicklow mountains, but on every
other side it is very extensive, for Knock Aillinn is 600 feet high. So
fine is the view from this hill that O'Donovan, the celebrated Gaelic
scholar, was inspired by it to write a poem in Irish in praise of it, when
he was employed on the Government Survey in 1837. The poem may be seen in
his unpublished letters in the Royal Irish Academy. One verse of it,
translated into English, will show that it is a composition of more than
ordinary merit:--
"Beautiful the view from the hill of Aillinn,
Over lofty hills and fair plains,
Over mountains wreathed in veils of cloud;--
The view will remain in my memory for ever."
But beautiful and extensive as the prospect is from Knock Aillinn, and
greatly as the lovers of the beautiful may enjoy it, the chief interest
possessed by this hill is historic rather than scenic. On its summit is to
be seen the most gigantic of all Irish raths. O'Donovan called it
"prodigious." The whole top of the hill is surrounded by a mighty rampart
of earth, four hundred yards in diameter, that encloses over twenty acres.
After nearly two thousand years those earthen ramparts are still of great
height; and when, according to the fashion of the times, they were topped
with a strong palisade of timber, Knock Aillinn might be said to be an
almost impregnable fortress. To render it still stronger, the hill on
which it is placed is steep, and its ascent difficult. It was on this hill
that some think the renowned in Celtic song and legend, Finn, the son of
Cumhail, had his stronghold; but others, and it must be confessed that
they are the most numerous, think that Finn's dun was on the hill of
Allen, some eight or nine miles to the north.
That the vast _dun_, or enclosure, on Knock Aillinn was an ancient
residence of the Kings of Leinster is generally admitted; and that it was
erected long previous to the Christian era is also the opinion of those
best acquainted with early Irish history and literature. Proofs of this
can be obtained from the most reliable and ancient Gaelic writings. There
is hardly a vestige of antiquity to be seen on the summit of Knock Aillinn
save the vast earthen rampart. When one stands within it, and recalls to
mind what it must have been in days long gone by, when a large population
dwelt in it, and when armed multitudes issued from it, he will be tempted
to exclaim with Byron:--
"Shrine of the mighty! can it be
That this is all remains of thee?"
He will wonder that no vast masses of ancient masonry are to be seen. But
stone buildings of the kind that have been in use in these islands for
nearly a thousand years were unknown when the vast earth-works on Knock
Aillinn were erected. Walls built of dry stone have been used in Ireland
as fortresses from the most remote antiquity; but the art of building with
mortar was entirely unknown until after the introduction of Christianity.
The hill of Allen is the one on which, it is over and over again stated by
the most ancient and trustworthy Gaelic documents extant, Finn, the son of
Cumhail, had his palace. We are even told how, partly by force and
threats, he obtained Allen from his grandfather, Tadg; that he went to
live on it, and that it was his habitation as long as he lived. But here a
great difficulty meets us--there is not a vestige of dun or fort on the
hill of Allen. O'Donovan says in his unpublished letters, while on the
Ordnance Survey of Ireland, that Knock Aillinn was, according to various
ancient Irish authorities, one of the royal residences of the Kings of
Leinster, and that it received the name of _Aillinn_ from the _ail_, or
stone which was placed in the mound of the rath. On speaking of the hill
of Allen, where the celebrated Finn Mac Cool or Cumhail is said to have
had his seat, he says, "There are no traces of forts nor any other
monuments excepting one small mound called _Suidhe Finn_, or Finn's chair,
which occupies the highest point of the hill. On every side of this mound
there are faint traces of field works, but so indistinct that I could not
with any certainty decide whether they are traces of forts or of recent
cultivation, for the hill was tilled on the very summit. I travelled all
the hill, but could find upon it no monument from which it could be
inferred that it was ever a royal seat like Tara, Emania, Maistean, or any
of the other places of ancient celebrity whose localities have been
identified; and still in all Fingallian or Ossianic poems this hill (the
hill of Allen) is referred to as containing the palace of the renowned
champion, Finn Mac Cool, who seems to have been a real historical
character, who flourished here in the latter end of the third century."
O'Donovan says also in the same unpublished letters that "The antiquary
may draw his own conclusion from the non-existence of a dun on the hill of
Allen at this day. It is possible that there were forts on it a thousand
years ago, and that the progress of cultivation has effaced them; but it
is strange that these alone should disappear, while those of Tara, Emania,
Aileach, Naas, Maistean, and Raoirean remain in good preservation.... It
is curious to remark that all the monuments mentioned in the
_Dinnseanchus_ and the authentic annals still exist, while no trace is to
be found of Finn Mac Cool's palace on the hill of Allowin (Allen).... If
he had such a palace as this on Aillinn, near Kilcullen, on his hill of
Allowin, it would not disappear, because the labour of levelling it would
be so great that no agriculturist would undertake to level it."
It would seem as if the two hills, Aillinn, or Knock Aillinn as it is now
called, and Allen got confounded, and at an early date too. Allowing
liberally for exaggeration and discounting tradition, one has to believe
in the extent of Finn's house or palace, however rude and barbaric its
arrangements may have been. He was the most powerful man in Ireland, more
powerful even than the chief king. The fame of his household was spread
abroad, not only over all Ireland, but all Scotland. This we know by the
publication of the poems collected in the Highlands by the Dean of Lismore
in the sixteenth century, and translated by the late Mr T. M'Lauchlan, and
also from a host of other poems. They abound with allusions to Finn and
his house and household, as does almost all the folk-lore of the
Celtic-Scotch. One thing seems certain, that neither Finn nor his house or
palace were myths; his house must have existed, and, like all places of
its kind in the days when it existed, it must have been surrounded with an
earthen rampart no less high than that to be seen on Knock Aillinn. But no
vestige of house or rampart can be traced on the hill of Allen. A still
greater difficulty meets one in the size of the summit of the hill. It is
not much over half an Irish acre in extent, and where would there be room
on such a limited space for the vast household of Finn? His residence was
known from far-back times as "Almhuin riogha leathan mor Laighean," the
kingly, great-broad Allen of Leinster; but no _dun_ or habitation situated
on the narrow space on the top of the hill of Allen could be
"great-broad;" but the existing remains on Knock Aillinn would suit the
description almost exactly. We may be sure that if any man in Ireland in
those days had a big house, it was Finn. The names Allen and Aillinn are
so much alike, and both hills are so comparatively near each other, and
both seem to have been abandoned as strongholds at such an early date,
that confusion of one with the other could easily have taken place;
besides, Finn's name does appear to be, in some measure at least,
associated with Knock Aillinn. Here is a passage from the "Dinnseanchus"
at page 162 of the "Book of Leinster." Treating of Knock Aillinn, these
lines occur:--
"Faichthi ruamand ruamnad rinn
Co failgib flatha for Fhind."
Irish scholars may interpret these lines as they like, but it would seem
that the last word is a proper name, and that it relates to Finn.
But whether Finn lived in Knock Aillinn or in Allen, or whether he lived
in both places off and on, is a matter of minor importance. The real
wonder about him is the way he impressed himself not only on the age in
which he lived but on every age since then. No other man in any age or
country seems to have so fastened himself in the memories of the people of
his own race and lineage. It may be safely said that neither Julius Caesar
nor Charlemagne have impressed themselves on popular imagination so much
as Finn and those associated with him have. Those who have not studied the
Celtic folk-lore of Ireland and Scotland can form but an incomplete idea
of the overwhelming immensity of the folk-lore about Finn and his cycle
that exists even yet. But with the decay of Gaelic speech it is rapidly
fading away. It is hardly too much to say that when Gaelic was the
language of the fireside all through Ireland and a large part of
Scotland, and that is only a few centuries ago, there was not a parish
from Kerry to Caithness in which dozens of different stories about Finn
and his contemporaries did not exist; and it is equally safe to say that
not the tenth, probably not the twentieth, part of them was ever committed
to writing. Finn, Ossian, and Caoilte were the _dramatis personae_ of the
most extensive, if not the choicest, popular, unwritten folk-lore that
probably ever existed in any country. But one of the strangest things
connected with the cycle of Finn and Ossian is that its folk-lore hardly
appears at all in really ancient Gaelic literature. The Gaelic scribes of
the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries took but little notice of it;
it was to the events of the Cuchulainn cycle that they gave almost their
entire attention. In the "Book of Leinster," the greatest repertory of
Gaelic literature that exists in one volume, there is only one story that
can be called an Ossianic or Finnian one, while nearly half the book is
taken up with tracts and stories relating to the cycle of Cuchulainn,
which was nearly three centuries earlier than that of Ossian and Finn. But
the Cuchulainn cycle, from whatever cause will probably be never known,
seems to have entirely failed to take hold of the popular imagination.
Folk-lore relating to the Cuchulainn cycle is rare. There are a few in
which Cuchulainn is mentioned, and M'Pherson in his Ossian mixes the
Ossianic and Cuchulainn cycles together, although they were three
centuries apart. Of all the prominent names belonging to the Cuchulainn
cycle, Queen Medb or Meave was one of the most prominent, but not a single
story exists about her in the oral Gaelic folk-lore of Ireland or Scotland
of which the writer has ever heard. She seems to have found her way into
the folk-lore of England, but not into that of Ireland or the
Gaelic-speaking parts of Scotland. She figures very prominently in Irish
history and literature, but in folk-lore she does not figure at all. The
reason of this may be that Finn, Ossian, and others of their "set" were
supposed to have lived so long that they met St Patrick and were converted
to Christianity by him; but there is no foundation for such a belief, for
authentic Irish history says that Finn was killed in the year 283 at Ath
Brea on the Boyne.
It is not easy to see clearly why Finn so impressed his memory and his
cycle on the minds of his countrymen, for he does not appear to have been
an altogether amiable personage. There are very many discreditable things
told of him in the multitudinous stories of which he is the central
figure. In one of them, the "Pursuit of Dermot and Graine," he plays the
part of a revengeful, unforgiving, bad man; while his great enemy, Dermot
O'Duibhne, is a bold, open-hearted hero, the very opposite of his
unrelenting pursuer. With all the absurdities and impossibilities of the
"Pursuit," the leading characters in it are sustained with a consistency
that would do credit even to Shakespeare. Finn at the end of the story is
just what he was at the beginning, unforgiving and bad; and Graine, who is
bad at the beginning is bad also at the end; while Dermot, a hero at the
beginning of the story, is still a hero at its close. It may interest some
to know that most Irish historians and scholars think that Dermot
O'Duibhne was the person from whom the barony of Corcaguiney, in the
County Kerry, is called. In correct orthography it would be _Corc Ui
Dhuibhne_, and would be pronounced very nearly as the name of the barony
is written at present. If it be true that Corcaguiney got its name from
Dermot O'Duibhne, and there seems no reason to doubt that it did, another
proof is given of the general correctness of at least the salient points
in Irish history. It may also interest some to know that the Campbells of
Argyll are popularly believed, even in their own country, to be descended
from this same Dermot O'Duibhne. They have been known for centuries as the
Clann Diarmid, or children of Dermot, as will be remembered by any one who
has read Scott's "Legend of Montrose." The real name of the Argyll
Campbells seems to be really O'Duibhne. It was so that they generally
signed their names up to a comparatively recent date. Bishop Carsewell,
who translated John Knox's Prayer Book into Gaelic in 1567, the first
Gaelic book that was ever printed, dedicates it to the Duke of Argyll,
whom he calls Gilleasbuig O'Duibhne.[5] Carsewell would hardly have dared
to address his patron, and the most powerful nobleman in Scotland, by a
false name or a sobriquet. The Campbells seem to have been called
O'Duibhne down to the middle of the seventeenth century, for in the
national manuscripts of Scotland there is a very fine Gaelic poem on the
death of a Campbell, who is styled "O'Duibhne" in the Gaelic.
Translations that have been recently made from Gaelic manuscripts of high
authority have thrown considerable light on Finn, and the events of his
epoch. We are told in the tract called the "Boramha," or "Tribute," to
which reference has been already made, that when Bresal, a king of
Leinster, in the third century, was given his choice to pay the tribute or
fight the rest of Ireland, he asked help from Finn. A person called
Molling was sent to ask Finn to help the men of Leinster. Molling told
Finn that he should not come with a small army to fight the chief king,
who had the national army with him. The number of men that Finn had, was,
we are told in the "Boramha," fifteen hundred chiefs, each having thirty
men under him, making the total number of men that Finn brought to help
Leinster forty-five thousand, a very large army in those days. They joined
the Leinster men, inflicted a crushing defeat on the forces of the chief
king, so that the tribute was not paid for many years after. Nine thousand
of the "men of Ireland," as the "Book of Leinster" almost invariably calls
the national forces, were slain in the battle.
The militia of which Finn was the Commander-in-Chief, and of which his
father and grandfather had also been commanders, are the heroes of
hundreds of Ossianic tales and poems. It would appear that they numbered
twenty-one thousand men on a peace footing, but could raise their numbers
to double that amount in time of need. They became so extortionate and
arrogant in the long run, that the chief king, Cairbre, and it would seem
all the provincial rulers except the King of Leinster, determined to crush
them. So a great battle was fought at Garristown in the County Dublin in
the year 290 or 296, and the militia of Finn was totally destroyed. It
would seem that neither Knock Aillinn nor the hill of Allen has been since
then inhabited.
It may not be out of place to state here that students of Gaelic are often
puzzled on seeing the name of Finn spelt _Fionn_. It seems certain that
_Finn_ is the proper orthography. The name is invariably so spelt in all
cases in the "Book of Leinster," one of the most correct of all the great
Gaelic books; but the editor of "Silva Gadelica" makes it _Fionn_ in all
cases except in the genitive. It is difficult to understand why, when
copying from a manuscript of such high authority as the "Book of
Leinster," he did not follow its orthography. In the northern half of
Ireland the name is pronounced according to its correct orthography, but
in the south of Ireland it is pronounced as if written _Fyun_.
Those who visit Knock Aillinn and its mighty _dun_ should also visit the
hill of Allen. If there is nothing to be seen on it, there is a great
deal to be seen from it, for the view is very extensive. If any one wanted
to know how vast the bog of Allen is, he should ascend the hill of Allen,
from which he will see a very large part of it. If he is in any doubt as
to the exact place in which Finn had his dwelling and _dun_, he will at
least be in the locality that has given birth to the most colossal
folk-lore that perhaps ever existed,--stories that in the far-back past,
before the world was tormented by newspapers and bewildered by
politicians, beguiled many a tedious hour and delighted many a sad heart.
"KILDARE'S HOLY FANE"
Those in search of the picturesque alone will not find very much to
interest them in Kildare or its immediate vicinity. There may be said to
be hardly any remarkable scenic beauties in its neighbourhood. There is
the broad expanse of the Curragh not far from the town, one of the finest
places for military manoeuvres in the British Isles. It is strange why it
is called a curragh--more correctly, _currach_--for the word means a
marsh, a place that _stirs_ when trodden on. There is only a very small
part of the land to which the name is applied that is a marsh. It is
almost all perfectly dry upland. However, it was called _Currach Life_
from very early times, that is the marsh or swamp of the Liffy. It would
seem as if the word _Life_ meant originally the country through which the
river Liffy flows, and that the river took its name from the country; for
when King Tuathal wanted revenge on Leinstermen, for the death of his two
daughters, who have been mentioned in the article on Tara, he says--
"Let them be revenged on Leinstermen,
On the warriors _in_ the Life."
It is thought that the name Liffy comes from the adjective _liomhtha_,
meaning smooth, or polished, for part of the country through which the
river flows is very smooth and beautiful.
Hardly a vestige of the ancient buildings of Kildare remain save the round
tower. It is over one hundred and thirty feet in height, and therefore one
of the highest in Ireland. It seems as perfect as it was the day it was
finished. It is sad to say that it is the most completely
spoiled--bedevilled would probably be a better word--of all the Irish
round towers; for some person or persons whose memories should be held in
everlasting abhorrence by every archaeologist, have put an incongruous,
ridiculous, castellated top on it that makes it look as unsightly and as
horrible as a statue of Julius Caesar would look with a stove-pipe hat on
its head. The people of Kildare and its vicinity should at once raise
funds and have a proper, antique roof put on their tower, for it is an
absolute disgrace to them as it is at present. The top of the tower may
have been destroyed by lightning, or, like many other round towers, it may
have been left unfinished, and may never have had a top or roof on it. But
whatever may have happened to it, its present castellated roof is a
disgraceful incongruity.
The cathedral of Kildare is a modern and rather plain building of mediocre
interest. It is supposed to be built in, or nearly in, the place where the
old church stood that was founded by St Brigit in the sixth century.
Kildare seems to owe its origin to St Brigit, for the name means the cell
or church of the oak; and as Brigit was contemporary with St Patrick, hers
must have been the first Christian establishment founded at Kildare. It is
stated in the _Trias Thaumaturga_ of Colgan that when she returned to her
own district, a cell was assigned to her in which she afterwards led a
wonderful life; that she erected a monastery in Kildare, and that a very
great city afterwards sprang up, which became the metropolis of the
Lagenians, or Leinster folk. It requires a great stretch of imagination to
conceive how Kildare could ever have been a "very great city," for it is
now, and has for many years, been a small, a very small country town,
hardly any more than a village. It seems strange that Kildare is not
larger and more prosperous, for if not situated in a picturesque part of
the island, the country round it is very fair and fertile, and beautiful
as any flat country could be. There is, however, a passage in the
"Calendar of Oengus," written in the latter end of the eighth or the
beginning of the ninth century, that goes far to prove that what is said
in the _Trias Thaumaturga_ about Kildare having been once a large place is
true. Speaking of the fall of the strongholds of the Pagans, and the rise
of Christian centres, Oengus says--
"Aillinn's proud burgh
Hath perished with its warlike host:
Great is victorious Brigit:
Fair is her multitudinous city."
The "multitudinous city" was, of course, Kildare. It is curious that
Oengus should mention Aillinn, and not mention Allen, the supposed seat of
Finn, for wherever he had his stronghold must have been, in his epoch, the
most important place in Ireland, Tara alone excepted.
Kildare is famous and historic solely on account of St Brigit. Of all
Irish Saints, she is the most to be loved. Her charity, her love for
humanity, was so absolutely divine, that reading her life as narrated in
the _Leabhar Breac_, we are moved to our very heart's depths. The miracles
she is said to have performed are so wondrous, and show such a love for
mankind, especially for the poor, that when we read them we long to be
children again in order that we might unhesitatingly believe such
beautiful fables. It was in Kildare that that wondrous lamp was which is
said to have
"Lived through long ages of darkness and storm,"
without having been replenished by human hand; and it was this legend that
inspired Moore to compose the noblest national lyric ever written, "Erin,
O Erin." If he never wrote a line of poetry save what is contained in that
song, the Irish people would be justified in raising a statue of gold to
his memory. It is, beyond anything of the kind known to humanity,
"Perfect music set to noble words";
yet, heart-sickening to think of, the masses of the Irish people hardly
know it at all!
When St Brigit is contrasted with St Patrick, she appears very different
from him. The lives of Ireland's three great Saints are in the _Leabhar
Breac_, an Irish manuscript compiled early in the fourteenth century; but
the greater part of it is made up of transcripts from documents that were
probably many hundred years old when they were copied into it. The three
Saints whose lives appear in it are Patrick, Brigit, and Columba, or Colum
Cill, as he is generally called in Ireland. These lives were translated
some years ago by Mr Whitley Stokes, the greatest of living Gaelic
scholars; but as only a few dozen copies were printed for private
circulation, the book is practically as unknown to the general public as
if it never had been printed at all. Extracts from it, therefore, cannot
fail to be interesting to the readers of this book.
Brigit shines out a star of the first magnitude, totally eclipsing the
lesser two lights, Patrick and Columba. Nothing shall be said about
Columba at present, but it has to be admitted that Patrick, as he is
represented in the _Leabhar Breac_, makes a poor show when contrasted with
glorious St Brigit. Patrick is represented as spending a large part of his
time in cursing and killing, but St Brigit spends most of hers in blessing
and relieving. If St Patrick converts a great many, he is represented as
killing a great many; but St Brigit kills nobody. The narrative of her
life in the _Leabhar Breac_ is probably as wonderful a piece of biography
as ever was written. There is no effort at style in it, and no attempt at
book-making. The narrative is simplicity in the true sense of the word.
One of the wonderful things about it is the side light it throws both on
the social and political conditions of ancient Ireland; but, curiously
enough, no such light is thrown on the state of the country by the lives
of St Patrick and St Columba, written in the same book and probably by the
same author.
St Brigit seems to have acted on some of the precepts found in the
"Ancient Mariner" fourteen hundred years before the poem was written. She
seems to have known that--
"He prayeth best
Who loveth best
All things both great and small,"
for we are told that her father, who at present would be called Duffy,
"sundered a gammon of bacon into five pieces, and left it with Brigit to
be boiled for his guests. A miserable, greedy hound came into the house to
Brigit. Brigit, out of pity, gave him the fifth piece. When the hound had
eaten that piece, Brigit gave another piece to him. Then Duffy came and
said to Brigit, 'Hast thou boiled the bacon, and do all the portions
remain?' 'Count them,' saith Brigit. Duffy counted them and none of them
was wanting. The guests declared unto Duffy what Brigit had done.
'Abundant,' said Duffy, 'are the miracles of that maiden.' Now the guests
ate not the food, for they were unworthy thereof, but it was dealt out to
the poor and needy of the Lord."
The following narrative shows St Brigit's love of animals in a still
stronger light:
"Once upon a time a bondsman of Brigit's family was cutting firewood. It
came to pass that he killed a pet fox of the King of Leinster's. The
bondsman was seized by the King. Brigit ordered a wild fox to come out of
the wood. So he came, and was playing and sporting for the hosts and for
the King at Brigit's order. But when the fox had finished his feats, he
went safe back to the wood, with the hosts of Leinster after him, both
foot and horse and hounds."
This is simply beautiful. St Brigit, while she got the poor bondsman out
of trouble, managed to do so without depriving the fox of his liberty.
Here is another extract that makes one wish that the life of St Brigit in
the _Leabhar Breac_, instead of containing only about twenty octavo pages,
contained a thousand:--
"Then came Brigit and her mother with her to her father's house.
Thereafter Duffy (her father) and his consort were minded to sell the holy
Brigit into bondage, for Duffy liked not his cattle and his wealth to be
dealt out to the poor, and that is what Brigit used to do. So Duffy fared
in his chariot, and Brigit along with him. Said Duffy to Brigit, 'Not for
honour or reverence to thee art thou carried in a chariot, but to take
thee and sell thee, and to grind the quern for Dunlang Mac Enda, King of
Leinster.' When they came to the King's fortress, Duffy went in to the
King, and Brigit remained in her chariot at the fortress door. Duffy had
left his sword in the chariot near Brigit. A leper came to Brigit to ask
alms. She gave him Duffy's sword. Said Duffy to the King, 'Wilt thou buy a
bondmaid, namely, my daughter?' says he. Said Dunlang, 'Why sellest thou
thine own daughter?' Said Duffy, 'She stayeth not from selling my wealth
and giving it to the poor.' Said the King, 'Let the maiden come into the
fortress.' Duffy went for Brigit, and was enraged against her because she
had given his sword to the poor man. When Brigit came into the King's
presence, the King said to her, 'Since it is thy father's wealth that thou
takest, much more if I buy thee, wilt thou take of _my_ wealth and _my_
cattle, and give them to the poor.' Said Brigit, 'The Son of the Virgin
knoweth if I had thy might with all Leinster and with all thy wealth, I
would give them to the Lord of the Elements.' Said the King to Duffy,
'Thou art not fit on either hand to bargain for this maiden, for her merit
is higher before God than before men.' And he gave Duffy for her an
ivory-hilted sword. So was St Brigit saved from bondage."
The idea of giving a sword to a poor crippled leper because she had
nothing else to give could hardly have entered into the head of any saint
but an Irish one.
The next extract from this marvellous biography is, perhaps, the most
curious and interesting of all. In another interview that Brigit had with
the King of Leinster, "a slave of the slaves of the King came to speak
with Brigit, and said to her, 'If thou wouldst save me from the servitude
wherein I am, I would become a Christian, and would serve thee thyself.'
Brigit said, 'I will ask that of the King.' So Brigit went into the
fortress and asked her two boons of the king, the forfeiture of the sword
to Duffy, and his freedom for the slave. Said Brigit to the King, 'If thou
desirest excellent children and a kingdom for thy sons, and heaven for
thyself, give me the two boons I ask.' Said the King to Brigit, 'The
kingdom of heaven, as I see it not, and as no one knows what thing it is,
I seek it not; and a kingdom for my sons I seek not, for I shall not
myself be extant, and let each one serve his time. But give me length of
life in my kingdom, and victory always over the Hui Neill, for there is
often war between us; and give me victory in the first battle, so that I
may be trustful in the other fights.' And this was fulfilled in the
battle of Lochar which was fought against the Hui Neill."
By the "Hui Neill" the people of the entire north of Ireland, including
Meath, were meant. They represented the national party because the chief
kings, for some centuries previous, were of the race of Niall of the Nine
Hostages. Mr Stokes says, speaking of the above extract in his preface to
the translation, "The conversation between Brigit and Dunlang (King of
Leinster) seems to preserve the authentic utterance of an Irish pagan
warrior."
One extract more to show in a still stronger light the angelic kindness
and love for humanity, especially for suffering humanity, that glowed in
the heart of this wonderful woman:
"Once upon a time the King of Leinster came unto Brigit to listen to
preaching and celebration on Easter Day. After the ending of the form of
celebration the King fared forth on his way, and Brigit went to refection.
Lomman, Brigit's leper, said he would eat nothing until the warrior
weapons, _arm gaisgedh_, of the King of Leinster were given to him, spear,
sword, and shield, that he might move to and fro under them. A messenger
was sent after the King. From mid-day to evening was the King going
astray, and attained not even a thousand paces, so that the weapons were
given by him and bestowed on the leper."
This instance of going to such trouble to please a poor crippled pauper,
for Lomman was evidently such, and of working a miracle so that the King
of Leinster should lose his way, and not go so far that he could not be
overtaken, is one of the most extraordinary instances of trouble taken to
please a pauper that is to be found in all the records of benevolence and
charity.
The "Annals of the Four Masters" say that St Brigit was buried in
Downpatrick, in the same grave with St Patrick; but the learned editor and
translator of their annals says that she and Bishop Conlaeth were buried,
one on the right, and one on the left of the altar, in the church of
Kildare, and he gives Colgan's great book, _Trias Thaumaturga_, as his
authority, and no authority could be higher.