The Irish Race in the Past and the Present

tions of the Germanic tribes, and of the Huns, more savage still, the island was at peace, opened her schools to the youth of all countries-to Anglo- Sax

Celts themselves, and no vessel neared the Irish coast save the peaceful curraghs which

he doctrines of the Gospel alive in Europe, after those terrible invasions, and of leading into the fold of Christ many a shepherdless flock. The peaceful messengers wh

enly upon them. It was but the beginning of their woes, the first step in that long road to Calvary, where they were to be crucified with him, to be crucified wellnigh to the death before their f

t Germanic wave, may be said to have lasted from the eighth to the twelfth century. Down from the North Sea came the shoc

fierceness of the attack, let

ame of Norway and Sweden, and a lesser one on the southwest, now called Denmark. The first was known to the Romans as Scania; the second was called by them the Cimbric Chersonesus. From Sca

eir sustenance: first, by fishing; later on, by piracy. They soon became expert navigators, though their ships were me

; the Danes dark, and of smaller size. Hence the Irish distinguished the first, whom they called Finn Galls, from the second, whom

. But whether the Goths were of the same race as the Norwegians or Danes is a question. Certain it is that the various German nations which first overwhelmed the R

andinavian invasions; nor, indeed, have they ever been so fond of maritime enterprises as the two other nations. Mo

s the gulfs of Finland and Bothnia. At length, emboldened by success, they ventured out into the ocean, attacked the nations of Western

urope, and a large trade was carried on between those northern peninsulas and the various islands of

what the Mediterranean and the coasts of Spain and Africa had long before been for the Phoenicians and Carthagin

h nations chiefly derive their noble or ignoble qualities. We shall find b

ope at the time of the irruption of these Northmen, and the poems of those savage tribes preserved to our own days, and comprised under the name of Edda, besides the numerous sag

ainly: 1. In battling with the elements, particularly on the sea, under the protection of Thor; 2. In slaying their enemies, or being themselves slain, as Odin willed -the giving or receiving death being apparently

navian mytholog

divinities, which are supposed to be emblematical of the superior natural forces, their numerous progeny, that of Odin especially, together with an incredible number of malicious giants and good- natured ases-a kind of fairy-any skilful theorist, gifted with the requisite imagination, may extract from the whol

ve been made. The English, a more sober people, although of Scandinavian b

vivid colors in the rude atmosphere of the arctic regions, bursting at the first breath of the north wind! How could

thology of the East or of the South has ever given rise to that of Scandinavia. There is not the slightest resemblance between it and any other. It must have originated with the Scandinavians themselves; a

ous system still flourished or was fresh in the minds of all- solved the question ages ago, and demonstrated beforehand the falsehood of those future theories by stating with old-time simplicity that the abominable stories of the Edda and the sagas w

breeze nine hundred years ago in the polar seas, and bellowed forth in boisterous and drunken chorus during the n

s facts which those legends express ought to be discarded altogether? At least we hope that, when philosophers come to be the real rulers of the world, they will not give to their subtle and abstract ideas of relig

gender, by whose blood it is their custom to appease the gods. The dead bodies of the victims are suspended in a grove which surrounds the temple. The place is in their eyes invested with such a sacred character that the trees are believed to be divine on account of the blood and gore with which they are besmeared. With the animals, d

d Frigga, were frightful idols, as represented in the Upsala temple, and the small statues carried by the Scandinavian sailors on their expeditions and set in the place of honor on board their ships

and shocking Walhalla. Yet, such as it was, admittance to its halls could only be aspired to by the warriors and heroes, the great amon

of the Celts. The sons of a chieftain could never form a sept, but at his death the eldest replaced him; the younger brothers, deprived of their titles and goods, were forced to separate and acquire a title to rank and honor by piracy; and that right of primogeniture, which was the

All we know of their history seems to prove that with them

cious and wholesale murders, still to become a great chieftain and even aspire to supreme power. Iceland was colonized by outlaws from Norway; and the fre

ieftains with the exception of the eldest born; the necessity for the younger sons abandoning their home and native country, and roaming the ocean in search of plunder

a social system. The gratification of brutal passions and the most utter selfishness constituted the rule for all; and even the fear of an inexorable judge after death could n

arbarous expeditions. It is, indeed, difficult for a modern reader to wade through the whole of their Edda poems, or even their long sagas, so full is their l

enough to have a fleet at his command, he looks out for a single boat of his own nation-there being no other in those seas. Urged by a mutual impulse, the two crews attack each other at sight; the sea reddens with blood; the savage bravery is eq

re they can land, they pillage, slay, outrage women, and give full sway to their unbridled passions. The more ferocious they are the braver they esteem themselves. It is a positive fact, as we may gather from all th

refore, is the chief burden of their poetry, if poetry it can be called. It would seem as though they were destined by Natu

ed of many arms to kill a greater number of enemies, or of giant stature to overcome all obstacles, or of e

orships Frigga as well as Odin. But this is not the place to give even an id

authorities from which the details we have give

y. All these nations, even the first, were Scandinavians, and naturally fall under our review. The story is already known to those who are acquainted with the

anization for defence, so characteristic of Celtic or purely Germano-Franco society, the savage bravery and reckless impetuosity of the invaders themselves, increased their rashness, and urged them to enter fearlessly into the very heart of a country which lay prostrate with fear before them. All the cities on the river-banks were plundered a

consider as martyrs the priests and monks who were slain by the pagan Scandinavians. Their sanguinary and hideous idolatry showed its hatred of truth and holiness in always manifesting a peculiar atrocity when coming in contact with the Church of Christ and her ministers. And, our chief object in sp

tes, to guard against such a contingency, looked for some island or projecting rock, difficult of access, which they fortified, and, placing there the plunder which loaded their boats, they left a portion o

on the Tagus and Guadalquivir in Spain, where two at least of their large expeditions penetrated. This continued for several centuries, until at last they thought of

-laden ships, coming from far distances or preparing to start on long voyages. They had become a great colonizing race, and, after establishing their sway in the Hebrides, the Orkneys, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, and Greenland, they made England their own, first by the Jute and Anglo-S

dividing it among themselves and establishing their barbarous laws and feudal customs wherever they went. Dudo of St. Quentin, among other writers, describes at length in his rude poem the army of

ame straightway civilized, and that the spirit of refinement at once shed its mild manners and gentle habits over their newly- constructed towns and castles. For a long time they rem

he first Norman dukes in France, has left the following terrible character, on reading which in fu

g to Dud

ursed and fie

in dark

pest of d

on savage

, stained wit

cunning,

nting, rash,

pring of un

their conversion to Christianity, his countrymen for a long time retained their inborn love of b

n Duke of Normandy, Adhemar,

hipped. And he also distributed a vast amount of money to the Christian churches in honor of the true God in whose na

in Ireland. It will be seen that the deep attachment of the Irish Celts for their religion, its altars, shrines, and monuments, was the re

w stood the ca

conquests made by the same people, and, in the last two instances, over those who were not only descended from the same stock, but who had immigrated from the very same localities. The Jutes, Angles, and

king, after having previously repudiated his wife. The sixth duke in succession from Rollo was William, illegitimate son of Robert le Diable and Herleva, a concubine. By the battle of Hastings, which William gained in

and Danish invaders

n bre

before a new one; and it is not a little remarkable that the very year in which Brian Boru deal

forts of his life to subdue and convert the northern Saxons would fail to obtain for his successors the peace he had hoped to win by his sword, and, knowing from the Saxons themselves the relentless ferocity, audacity, and frightful cruelty, inoculated in their Scandinavian blood, he could not but expect for his empire the fierce attacks which were preparing in the a

estern Europe. Starting from the banks of the Rhine, they subjugated the north as far as the Baltic Sea; they conquered Italy as far south as Beneventum, by their victories over the Lombards; by the subjugation of Aquitaine, they

y centre of the Frankish dominion; for it was at the mouth of the Rhine, in the island of Walcheren, that they formed their first camp. From Walcheren they swept both banks of the Rhine, and, after enriching themsel

siege, and finally bought them off by tribute. The military power of the nation was annihilated all at

the Irish met the sam

were independent save in name. Not only were they often reluctant to obey the Ard-Righ, but they were not seldom at open war with him. Nor are we to suppose that, at least in the case of a serious attack from without, their patriotism overcame their private differences, and made

to be, would have required all the energies and resources of the whole country united unde

essive cargoes of human fiends, bent on rapine and carnage, and altogether proof against fear of even t

want of centralization was greatly aggravated by a change occ

ces of this new quasi-dynasty rendered its personal power very inferior to that of the northern branch, and consequently lessened the influence possessed by the ruling family in past times. In Ireland the con

his line, succeeded King Niall of Callan in 843. The Danes were already in the country and had committed depredations.

enough to kindle in the breasts of the people the spirit of resistance and retaliation. Iona was laid waste in 797, and again in 801 and 805. "To save from the rapacity of the Danes," says Montalembert in his Monks of the West, "a treasure which no pious liberality could replace, the body of S. Col

d as the Island of Saints was at the time of their descent covered with churches and monasteries, the Scandinavian barbarians found in these a rich harvest which induced them to return again and again. The first expedition consisted of onl

htered in a single day. The majority of the inmates of those houses fled with their books and the relics of their saints at the approach

A force was generally mustered in the neighborhood to meet and repel the attack, an

bishops and monks, nevertheless Christianity reigned supreme in their inmost hearts. And when they beheld pagans landed on their shores, to insult their faith and destroy the monuments of their religion, to shed the blood of holy men, of consecrated virgins,

turing far inland. When but a small number of boats arrived, the invaders found in the neighborhood a clan ready to receive them. The clansmen speedily assembled, and, falling on th

l in Mayo; by Corrach, lord of Killarney, in the same year; by the men of Ulidia and by Carbry with

ditions were continually arriving. In the words

ith such poor countries as Greenland and the islands in the north Atlantic, must, therefore, have especially turned their attention to the 'Emerald Isle,' particularly as it bordered closely upon their colonies in England and Scotland. But to make conquests in Ireland, and to acquire by the sword alone permanent settlements there, was no easy task.... When we consider that neither the Romans nor the

ements" amounted to; the quotation is worthy of note, as presenting in a few words the mot

d burning the churches and holy houses which they had erected; they saw their island, hitherto protected by the ocean from foreign attack, and resting in the enjoyment of a constant round of Christian festivals and joyful feasts, now desecrated by the presence and

clan no longer sufficed to avenge the cause of God and humanity, and the Ard-Righ was compelled to throw himself on the sce

re scattered, though never destroyed; as centuries later, under the Saxon, the people took their books or writing materials to their miserable cottages or hid them in the mountain fastnesses, and thus, for the first time in their history, the hedge school succ

pect. It was not a few boats only which came to the shores of the devoted island; but the m

rway and Denmark have been examined with a view to elucidate this passage in Irish history, but thus far fruitlessly. It is known, however, that many Sagas have been lost which might have contained an account of it. The Irish annals are too unanimous on the subject to leave any po

of Scandinavians already in the country acknowledged his leadership and flocked to his standard. McGeogheg

and schools. There were then within its walls seven thousand students, according to an ancient roll which Keating says has been dis

head of that great ecclesiastical centre, celebrated for its many convents of holy women. The tendency to add insult to outrage, when the object of the outrage is the religion of Christ, is old in the blood of the northern barbarians; and

of Munster were similarly employed in Bregia; and Conor, the reigning monarch of Ireland, instead of defending the invaded territories, was himself hard at work plundering Leinster to the banks of the river Liffey-(Haverty.) But, doubtless, none of those deluded Irish princes had yet heard of the pagan devastations and

in France. Turgesius saw that, in order to subdue the nation, it was necessary to establish military stations in the interior and f

nused as they were to naval conflicts. He stationed a part of his fleet on Lough Lee in the upper Shannon, another in Lough Neagh, south of Antrim, a third in Lough Lughmagh or Dundalk bay. These various military positions were strongholds which secured the supremacy of the Scandinavians in the north of the island

was covered with farm-houses placed at some distance from each other. Here and there large duns or raths, as they were called, formed the dwellings of their chieftains, and became places of refuge for the clansmen in time of danger.

the people could not but be radically opposed. And strange was their manner of introduction by these northern hordes. Keating tells us how Turgesius understood them. They were far worse than the imaginary laws of the Athenians as recorded

lowing terms the fierce tyr

ldernesses, where they lived in misery, but passed their time piously and devoutly, and now the same clergy prayed fervently to God to deliver them from that tyranny of Turgesius, and, moreover, they fasted against that tyrant, and

not supported in its entirety by the contemporaneous annals of the island; that the power of the Danes never was as universal and oppressive as is here supposed; and that though each of the facts mentioned may have

th their notions of superiority of race, trade on a large scale, and a consequent agglomeration of men in large cities, without t

ious assumptions, the noblest, highest, purest, and most sacred dignities of holy Church. A man, stained with the blood of so many prelates and priests, seated on the primatial throne of the country in sheer derision of their most profound feelings; his pagan wife ruling over the city which the vi

t he was assuming supreme authority over themselves, and reducing them to thraldom and vassalage, they became inspired with a fortitude of mind, and a loftiness o

nding with the victory of Malachi at Glas Linni, where we know from the Four Masters that Turgesius himsel

is predecessors, Conor and the Nialls. He was in truth a saviour of his country, and the death of th

ith the exception of a few strongholds, like Dublin, the whole of Ireland was free from the Northmen. Wherever they c

quench his thirst with it - could have scarcely permitted the apparently conquered people to enjoy all the advantages accruing to the owner from the possession of land. Yet in none of the chronicles of the time which we have seen is any mention made of open confiscation, and of the survey and division of the territory among the greedy followers of the sea- kong. We do not yet witness what happened shortly after in Normandy under Rollo, and what was to happen four hundred years later in Ireland. The Scandinavian

a superstitious and cruel idolatry. For surely, although the Irish chronicles fail to speak of it, the minstrels and historians being too full of their own misery to think of looking at the pagan rites of their enemies - those enemies worshipped Thor and Odin and Frigga, and as surely did they detest the Church which they were on a fair way to destroy utterly. This it was which gave the Irish the courage of despair. For

me the means of enkindling in their hearts a greater love for thei

he tyranny we have touched upon, we have small doubt that the first object of the care of those who, under God, had worked their own

n which was so dear to their hearts; they resolved on a change of policy, as they were still bent on taki

nfers, in order to entice the Irish to their destruction, by allowing the Northmen to carry on business transactions

ign of presenting them to the men of Ireland, in the hope of thus securing their friendship; for they believed that they might thus succeed in surreptitiously fixing a grasp upon the Irish soil, and might be enabled to oppress the Irish people again . . . . The three captains, therefore, coming from the ports of Norw

ject of conquering the North to fall on the South and conf

hem in 836. "Amlaf, or Olaf, or Olaus, came from Norway to Ireland in 851, so that all the foreig

y made it an important emporium, and such it continued even after the Scandinavian invasion had ceased. McFirbis says that in his time - 1650 - most of the merchants

r the whole island, resulted therefore only in the establishment of five or six petty principalities, wherein the Northmen, for

slightest inclination to repeat it; hence they were left in quiet possession of the places

establish himself permanently in that country, and had to direct a few missionaries from Hamburgh, where he fixed his see. It is known, moreover, that Denmark was only truly converted by Canute in the eleventh century, after his conquest of England. As to Norway, the first attempt at its conversion by King Haquin, who had become a Christian at the court of Athelstan in England, was a fai

ry and the people when they knew them thoroughly; they respected them for their bravery, which they had proved a thousand times; they felt attracted toward them on account of their geniality of temperament and their warm social feelin

, however, the last to abandon paganism, and th

e Irish colony of Dal Riada in Scotland, which was literally surrounded by the invaders, succeeded in wresting North Britain from the Picts, drove them into the Lowlands, and so completely rooted them out, that history never more speaks of them, so that to this day the historical problem stands unsolved- What became of the Picts?- various as are the explanations given of their disappearance. And, what is more remark

Danes were often found on both sides, or if on one only, they soon joined the other. They had been brought to embrace the manners of the natives, and to adopt many of their customs and habits. Yet there always remain

so that, toward the middle of the tenth century, the Danes of Dublin having succeeded in obtaining a bishop of their own nation, they sent him to England t

y, on England; and later on, at the time of the invasion under Strongbow, the establishment of the English Pale was considerably faci

l, for, even after becoming Christians, the Danes could not resist the

all its details to the student of Irish history. It is not for us to trace the various steps by which Brian Boru mounted to supreme power, and superseded Malachi, to relate th

but to try anew to conquer what it had so often failed to conquer. For, in describing their preparations for this last attemp

at that time to Ireland, with an immense fleet, conveying even their wives and children, with a view of extirpating the Irish

the year 1031, so that in his opinion the writ

nvoys having been despatched into Norway, the Orkneys, the Baltic islands, so that a great number of Vik

ing conquest of England, which succeeded, Sweyn having been proclaimed

n army of twenty-one thousand freebooters being co

us one; they were merely permitted to occupy the sea-ports for the purpose of trade, a

stations, burnings, and horrors, have left a deep impression on the mind of the Irish; and, as they cannot suppose that such powerful enemies could have remained so long in their midst without leaving wonderful traces of their passage, they often attribute to them the construction of the very edifices which they destroyed. The general accuracy of their traditions seems here at fault. For there is no nation on earth so exact as the Irish in keeping the true remembrance of facts of their past h

d to them by the best antiquarians; among others, the great mound of New Grange, on the banks of the Boyne, which is still in perfect preservation, although opened and pillaged by the Danes- a work reminding the beholder of some Egyptian monument. The

are all the landmarks that remain of the Danish domination in Irelan

proof of the extirp

is afforded by Mr. Wo

of the Danes and N

, was to glorify his

ely in the three great divisions of the British Isles; and certainly the language of a conquering people alwa

geography of the country. In Mr. Worsaae's book there is a tabular view of 1,373 Danish and Norwegian names of places in England, a

ands- -a considerable number of names, or at least of termi

all that Mr. Worsaae could find in Ireland. So that the language of the Irish, not to speak of their government and laws, remained proof against the

on any thing in the island, as they did in England, Holland, and the north of France. The few drops of blood which they left in the count

ot influence the Irish; they refused to admit the systematic thraldom which the sternness of the Northmen would engraft upon their character, and preserved their free manners in s

to the Danes of the sea port towns, and they continued the agricultural life adapted to th

a place in the "Book of Rights" is still unknown to the best Irish antiquarians. John O'Donovan concludes from a verse in it that it was composed in the tenth century, after the conversion of the Danes of Dublin to Christianity. It proves certainly that the Scandinavians i

ted openly in the annals of the race that their greatest kings, both Malachi and Brian Boru, did not utterly expel the Danes from the country, in order that they

ver be induced to adopt it as a profession, whatever may ha

, they had previously been conducted; 2. The breaking up of the former constitution of the monarchy, by compelling the several clans which were attacked b

cter, language, or institutions, which, in fact, finally triumphed over the character, la