A Reading Book in Irish History Part 5

"Come, holy cleric, and baptise us without delay, for our death is near.

You will grieve after us, O Kemoc; but in truth you are not more sorrowful at parting from us than we are at parting from you. Make our grave here and bury us together; and as I often sheltered my brothers when we were swans, so let us be placed in the grave--Conn standing near me at my right side, Ficra at my left, and Aed before my face."[43-1]

Come, holy priest, with book and prayer Baptise and bless us here: Haste, cleric, haste, for the hour has come And death at last is near!

Dig our grave--a deep, deep grave, Near the church we loved so well; This little church, where first we heard The voice of the Christian bell.

As oft in life my brothers dear Were sooth'd by me to rest-- Ficra and Conn beneath my wings, And Aed before my breast;

So place the two on either hand-- Close, like the love that bound me; Place Aed as close before my face, And twine their arms around me

Thus shall we rest for evermore, My brothers dear and I; Haste, cleric, haste, baptise and bless, For death at last is nigh!

[43-1] In Ireland, in old times, the dead were often buried standing up in the grave. It was in this way Finola and her brothers were buried.

[Ill.u.s.tration: An Ogham stone. See note, next page.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Bronze spear-head. A long handle was fixed in the socket and fastened by a rivet.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Bronze sword. A hilt was fixed on by rivets.]

Then the children of Lir were baptised, and they died immediately. And when they died, Kemoc looked up; and lo, he saw a vision of four lovely children, with light, silvery wings, and faces all radiant with joy.

They gazed on him for a moment; but even as they gazed, they vanished upwards, and he saw them no more. And he was filled with gladness, for he knew they had gone to heaven; but when he looked down on the four bodies lying before him, he became sad and wept.

And Kemoc caused a wide and deep grave to be dug near the little church; and the children of Lir were buried together, as Finola had directed--Conn at her right hand, Ficra at her left, and Aed standing before her face. And he raised a grave-mound over them, placing a tombstone on it, with their names graved in Ogham;[45-1] after which he uttered a lament for them, and their funeral rites were performed.

[45-1] Ogham, a sort of writing often used on tombstones to mark the names of the persons buried. It consisted of lines and points generally cut on the edges of the stone.

So far we have related the sorrowful story of the Fate of the Children of Lir.

From "Old Celtic Romances," by P. W. JOYCE, LL.D.

IX.

HOW RELIGION AND LEARNING FLOURISHED IN IRELAND.

As soon as St. Patrick had entered on his mission in Ireland, he began to found monasteries, which continued to spread through every part of the country for hundreds of years after his time. Though religion was their main object, these establishments were among the chief means of spreading general enlightenment among the people. Almost every monastery had a school or college attached, at the head of which was some man who was a great scholar and teacher. The teachers were generally monks: but many learned laymen were also employed. Some colleges had very large numbers of students: for instance, we are told that there were 3000 in each of the two colleges of Clonard and Bangor[46-1]; and many others might be named, which, though not so large, had yet several hundred students in each.

[46-1] Clonard, in Meath, on the Boyne. Bangor, in the Co. Down.

In these monasteries and their schools all was life and activity. The monks were always busily employed; some at tillage on the farm round the monastery--ploughing, digging, sowing, reaping--some teaching, others writing books. The duty of a few was to attend to travellers, to wash their feet and prepare supper and bed for them: for strangers who called at the monastery were always received with welcome, and got lodging, food, and attendance from the monks, all free. Others of the inmates, again, employed themselves in cooking, or carpentry, or smithwork, or making clothes, for the use of the community. Besides all this they had their devotions to attend to, at certain times, both day and night, throughout the year. As for the students, they had to mind their own simple household concerns, and each day when these were finished they had plenty of employment in their studies: for the professors kept them hard at work.

There were also great numbers of schools not held in monasteries, conducted by laymen, some for general learning, such as History, Poetry, Grammar, Latin, Greek, Irish, the Sciences, &c.; and some for teaching and training young men for professions, such as lawyers and doctors. And these schools helped greatly to spread learning, though they were not so well known outside Ireland as the monastic schools.

The Irish professors were so famed for their learning, and the colleges were so excellent, that students came to them from every country of Europe: but more from Great Britain than elsewhere. The Irish were very much pleased to receive these foreign students: and they were so generous that they supplied them with food, gave them the ma.n.u.script books they wanted to learn from, and taught them too, all free of charge. Ireland was in those times the most learned country in Europe, so that it was known by the name of the Island of Saints and Scholars.

But the Irish scholars and missionaries did not confine themselves to their own country. Great numbers of them went abroad--to Britain and elsewhere--to teach and to preach the Gospel to the people. The professors from Ireland were held in such estimation that they were employed to teach in most of the schools and colleges of Great Britain and the Continent.

We shall see that the Northern Picts of Scotland were converted by St.

Columkille and his monks from Iona (see p. 144): and a large proportion of the people of England became Christians through the preaching of Irish monks before the arrival of St. Augustine.[48-1]

[48-1] St. Augustine came to England in the year 596--having been sent by Pope Gregory--and converted to Christianity those of the English who had not been already converted.

The Irish missionaries, who went to the Continent, in their eagerness to spread religion and knowledge, penetrated to all parts of Europe: they even found their way to Iceland. Few people have any idea of the trials and dangers they encountered. Most of them were persons in good position, who might have lived in plenty and comfort at home. They knew well, when setting out, that they were leaving country and friends probably for ever: for of those that went, very few ever returned. Once on the Continent, they had to make their way poor and friendless, through people whose language they did not understand, and who were in many places ten times more rude and dangerous in those ages than the inhabitants of these islands: and we know, as a matter of history, that many were killed on the way. Then these earnest men had, of course, to learn the language of the people among whom they took up their abode: for until they did this they had to employ an interpreter, which was a very troublesome and slow way of preaching. But the n.o.ble-hearted missionaries went forth to do their good work; and no labours, hardships, or dangers could turn them from their purpose.

More than three hundred years ago the great English poet, Edmund Spenser, lived some time in Ireland, and made himself very well acquainted with its history. He knew what kind of a country it was in past ages; so that in one of his poems he speaks of the time

"When Ireland florished in fame Of wealth and goodnesse, far above the rest Of all that beare the British Islands name."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ancient Irish solid gold ornament, now in the National Museum Dublin. It is double the size of the picture, and weighs 5-1/4 oz. Great numbers of gold objects, shaped like this, are in the National Museum, some very large--one of them weighing 33 oz.: while others are quite small, not bigger than a common coat-b.u.t.ton. Besides being ornaments, it is believed that they were used as money, as there were no coins in use in very ancient times in Ireland.]

X.

THE RED BRANCH KNIGHTS.

Nearly two miles west of Armagh are the remains of the ancient palace of Emain, or Emain Macha, often called Emania. They consist of a great circular _rath_ or rampart of earth, with a deep trench outside it, and a high mound within, the whole structure covering a s.p.a.ce of about thirteen acres. At one time the circular ring was complete, but of late years some portions of it have been levelled or removed. The houses in which the kings and heroes of old, with their numerous households, lived and feasted, stood mostly within the enclosure, and were all of wood, not a trace of which remains. This great fort is now called by the people of the place, the "Navan Fort," or "Navan Ring."

According to Irish legendary history, Emain was founded about three centuries before the beginning of the Christian era, by Macha of the Golden Hair, queen of Ulster; and for more than six hundred years it was the residence of the kings of that province. But about the year A.D.

331, it was destroyed by three princes from Tara, who invaded and conquered that part of Ulster; after which Emain was no longer inhabited.

Early in the first century of the Christian era flourished the Red Branch Knights, a band of heroes in the service of Concobar (or Conor) Mac Nessa, king of Ulster. There were several bodies of them, under separate commanders, who lived in different parts of the province. These leaders were the great heroes of the Red Branch, who are celebrated in ancient Irish romance, and who are mentioned by Moore in his song, "Let Erin remember":--

"When her kings with standard of green unfurled Led the Red Branch Knights to danger."

Every year during the summer months, various companies of the Knights came to Emain under their several commanders, to be drilled and trained in military science and feats of arms. They were lodged in a large separate building beside Emain, called Creeveroe or the Red Branch--from which the whole force took its name: and the townland in which this great house stood is still called Creeveroe. Each day the leaders were feasted by King Concobar Mac Nessa in his own banquetting hall at Emain.

The greatest of all the Red Branch heroes was Cu-Culainn--"the mightiest hero of the Scots," as he is called in one of the oldest of the Irish books--whose residence was _Dundalgan_, a mile west of the present town of Dundalk. This dun or fort consists of a high mound surrounded by an earthen rampart and trench, all of immense size, even in their ruined state; but it has lost its old name and is now called the Moat of Castletown, while the original name Dundalgan, slightly altered, has been transferred to Dundalk.

Another of these Red Branch Knights' residences stands beside Downpatrick: viz., the great fort anciently called (among other names) Dun-Keltair or Rath-Keltair, where lived the hero, Keltar of the Battles. It consists of a huge embankment of earth, nearly circular, with the usual deep trench outside it, covering a s.p.a.ce of about ten acres.

Next to Cuculainn, the most renowned of those knights were Fergus Mac Roy, Leary the Victorious, Conall Carnagh, and the three Sons of Usna.

There were, at this same time, similar orders of knights in the other provinces. Those of Munster were commanded by Curoi Mac Dara, who lived in a great stone fortress high up on the side of Caherconree Mountain, near Tralee, the remains of which may be seen to this day. He was a mighty champion, and on one occasion vanquished Cuculainn in single combat. The Connaught knights were in the service of Maive, the warlike queen of that province, whose residence was the palace of Croghan, the ruins of which still remain near the village of Rathcroghan in the north of Roscommon.

In the Book of the Dun Cow, the Book of Leinster, and other old ma.n.u.scripts (which will be found described farther on), there are great numbers of romantic stories about those Red Branch Knights, and about the Knights of Munster and Connaught, of which many have been translated and published.