An Essay on the Antient and Modern State of Ireland

Dedication

TO

Matthew Mc. Namara,

Of LIMERICK, Esq;

Counsellor at LAW.

Justly sensible, Sir, how sincerely You have the Character and Esteem of our Native Country at Heart, I take Leave to offer to Your Perusal, and commend to Your favourable Acceptance, the following Sheets.

What gave them Rise, was my happening, some Time since, to have fallen into Company with two or three sprightly young Gentlemen, then just returned from their Continental Rambles, – who – altho' little burthened with the Religion, Laws, Learning, Policy, Customs, Habits, Manners, or Languages of any, or the several Countries they had scampered thro', affected, nevertheless, an high Contempt for this, – their Native.

I listened with silent Indignation, and determined to contribute my Mite towards giving such unattentive, uninformed Youths, a more adequate Idea of this Kingdom, under its ancient and under its present happy Establishment.

The common Accidents of Time must lead them by better Authority to clearer Knowledge: In the mean while, I profess my Obligations to them, as they have given me this Opportunity of declaring my Regard to my Country in general, and the particular Attachments that ever bind me, in the strictest Sense of Fidelity and Esteem, to a Friend so worthy as You have been to,

Sir,

Your very obliged, and

Most obedient Servant.

Essay

In a Nation, where almost every Gentleman is better acquainted, and more conversant, with the Nature and Circumstances of other Countries than those of his own, the Publication of such Hints as may somewhat contribute to remove so odd an Inattention, and induce those far better qualified to render a Subject so interesting some Justice, will not, I hope, be deemed an Impertinence; in one especially who, by this Essay, however feeble, hath nothing beside the Honour and Advantage of Ireland in View, a Kingdom whereof he is, without Vanity, proud of being a Native.

As the Story of Savages and Barbarians can contain nothing instructive, or entertaining, the Antemilesian Inhabitants of this Land having been mostly such, and all surviving Accounts of them almost totally overcast with Fable, we are therefore, in treating of the antient Scotia, or modern Ireland, to refer principally to three distinguished æras, whereof the first is, its being peopled by an Iberian or Spanish Colony: The second, truly glorious, the Arrival of St. Patrick, in his most salutary Mission: The third and last, its Cession to Henry the Second, King of England, (the first of the Royal Race of Plantagenet) partly from a pretended Title of Adrian the Fourth, Pope of Rome; partly from the restless and insatiable Desires of Henry; more from the manifold Infirmities of the then reigning Irish Chiefs – but above all, from the peculiarly adverse Fate of Roderick, the last of our Kings.

The assiduous, exact, and candid Author of the Dissertations,1 lately published, on the Origin, Government, Letters, Sciences, Religion, Manners and Customs of the antient Inhabitants of this Country, hath put all those Matters in so clear and happy, and, at the same Time, in so strong a Light, by the Powers of various foreign Testimonies, of undeniable Authenticity, coincident with our own, that scarce any Thing new can be offered on the same Subject.

It may, however, in general be observed, that Milesius, a Spanish Prince, so far back as the Reign of Solomon (instigated by Necessity, or induced by Ambition) with a considerable Number of Associates and Followers, landed from the Western Parts of Spain, on the Southern Coasts of this Island, where it is probable they met little, or but faint Opposition, from wild and undisciplined Inhabitants.

Those People, from their early Knowledge of the Phœnician Arts and Letters, imported such Rudiments of Government and Learning, as those primitive Times admitted; a Truth visible from the Similarity or rather Identity of the Phœnician and Scotic Alphabet.

This antient Colony quietly settled here, remote from the Storms and Revolutions of the greater World, and secured by Situation from its hostile Incursions, there is no Doubt but the Cultivation of Religion, Philosophy, Politicks, Poetry, and Musick, became the chief Objects of popular Study and Application: The Spirit of Ambition in succeeding Ages, with its unhappy concomitant Train of Sedition, Faction, and Violence, the foreign Invasions, and often the intestine Oppressions and Calamities, to which our neighbouring Nations were subject, calling forth the protective or conciliating Aids of those ancient Heroes, made them great Masters also in the Art military.

The Pentarchy originally formed by those Iberian or Celtic Spaniards, with a popular Right of Election, was certainly a Kind of Government extremely consistent with the Essence and Genius of true Liberty, and a System derived from the Patriarchs themselves. For when the various Necessities of Society required a Subordination, together with some stated Maxims to go by, to avoid the confused and promiscuous Intercourse in a State of Nature; then did the People elect the most Virtuous and Wise, to lead and conduct them in Times of War and Trouble; to govern, inform, and protect them, in milder and more auspicious Seasons. Then was the Motto of the Crown, or of the chief Ensign of Pre-eminence, Digniori detur, and so continued till the Degeneracy of Time, and the baneful Growth of Avarice and Pride, with the feverish Lust of Power, perverted it to —Rapiat Fortior!

Such, thro' a long Succession of Ages, was the Condition, and such at length the Fate of this Kingdom, destroyed after a longer Continuance than any other can boast, by the Abuse of its own Powers; a sure Argument that all created Beings, all sublunary Institutions, however wisely composed, in the very Essence of their Creation, and in the very Rudiments of their Formation, comprehend, at the same Time, the Seeds of Dissolution: Yet it is not more remarkable than true, that in the most boisterous Periods of this Kingdom's antient Establishment, the Arts and Sciences, with the fundamental Principles of Constitution, were preserved and cherished with inviolable Assiduity. The Priests, Philosophers, Advocates, Annalists, Poets and Musicians, were obliged to preserve Religion, political Wisdom, Law, History, &c. hereditarily in their respective Tribes, and to educate in these different Branches the Chiefs and Nobles of the Land, for which they were graciously maintained in secure and splendid Tranquillity: Those Sages attended the National Conventions, where all publick Acts were religiously recorded, and all Abuses of Power and Government retrenched or reformed; nor were they permitted, except in Case of extraordinary Necessity, or uncommon Merit, to deviate from their proper and primitive Spheres of Action: Since, where an harmonious Subordination of Rank and Order hath not been duly preserved, even in free Estates, Liberty itself (wisely attempered, the greatest of all social Blessings) hath often, from Abuse and Neglect, sickened into Licentiousness, the immediate lewd Mother of Anarchy! In the visible Creation, the direct Result of infinite Wisdom, the lesser Planets do not interfere with, much less shock or oppose the Motions and Revolutions of the greater; they constantly keep the Distances first prescribed them, and all move regularly to their respective Ends. The most verdant and fragrant Meadows may, from the too frequent Irruption of muddy Waters, degenerate into noxious Marshes, if some Care was not taken to divert those impure Gushings into their proper Channels. Hence it may be inferred, that laying open the most honorary, as well as important and useful Professions of Society, to the Intrusion, or rather pyratical Invasions, of the Scum and Dregs of the People, cannot, however varnished over with the fictitious Colourings of pretended Liberty, consist with true Political Wisdom.

Those ancient Sophi and Literati enjoyed their Places with the greater Security, that they were uninvadable by the inferior Classes of Mankind; with the greater Content and Chearfulness, that much Esteem and Emolument were connected with them: The Priest and Advocate informed and directed the Conscience and Conduct; the Historian and Annalist recorded the Institutions; the Poet and Musician celebrated and sung the Exploits of their Kings and Leaders: No Wonder then this Kingdom should have been revered at Home, and admired Abroad; when Religion formed, Erudition nurtured, Philosophy strengthened, History preserved, Rhetorick adorned, Musick softened, and Poesy refined, the National Wisdom and Accomplishments; to all which was added, a thorough Knowledge of Tactics, and great Skill and Agility in all the athletick Arts, and bodily Exercises.

In the Versions of some original Codes exported by our Countryman, the learned and pious St. Fiechry, still extant in the Navarre Library at Paris, the Constitutional Wisdom of Ireland appears in a clear and happy Light: Persons, Things, Actions, and Expressions, were cautiously attended to, by the Laws; Persons, in their Minority, Youth, and Manhood, according to their different Ranks in the State, so as by Care, Education, and Discipline, to render them, some subservient, others useful, some beneficial, and others ornamental thereunto. Things, so carefully, as to prevent, by prohibatory Laws, Wastes of whatsoever Kind, and to ascertain to each Individual, as well as Society, their proper and distinct Rights. Actions, by directing those in general, and particular, to the Honour of the Deity and Welfare of the Community: Expression, by the penal Interdiction of prophane Cursing and Swearing, Obscenity, Scurrility, Calumny, and Detraction, yet with a full Indulgence of proper Satire against such as merited popular Reprehension, or Contempt; the Satirist's Pen in those Days being as much dreaded, or rather more so, than the Magistrate's Rod, and consequently as diligently avoided by a Demeanour absolutely irreproachable.

It appeareth that, under the antient Government of Ireland, the Education of the landed Gentry, when Luxury, with its wasteful Catalogue of Vices, had not rendered Property so mutable and wavering as in modern Ages, was provided for; whether by the immediate Care of Parents, or essential Attention of Guardians, by the Laws of the Land; in order that Gentlemen should, to the Antiquity of Birth and Possession, add the important Dignity of Learning, and social Refinement of Arts: Since a Man at the Head of an original Estate, who should want the necessary Cultivation of Letters, was considered only as a Peasant in Disguise, and not more respected than a Hewer of Wood, or Drawer of Water.

In these Writings of St. Fiechry, the legislative Wisdom of Olam-Fodla; the philosophically-religious Capacity of Cormac-O Quin, who, from the pure Light of Nature, in a great Measure defeated the absurd Polytheism of the Druids; the consummate Integrity and Impartiality of Federach the Just, and Moran his Chief Justice; the Magnanimity of Con-Ked-Cathagh; the Conquests of Kineth Mac Alpin; the long, glorious, and peaceful Reign of Conary the Great, coæval with the Birth of our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, (undoubtedly the happiest, brightest, and most blissful Period the World ever saw;) are all displayed in a copious masterly Style, yet with strict chronological Exactness.

This learned St. Fiechry was Founder of the University in Paris, in the Beginning of the 8th Century. The better to enable him to carry on that noble Work, he obtained of Charles the Great a Tax on all Wheel-Carriages, within the Barriers of that City: Whence, a Hackney-Coach is at this Day technically term'd Fiacre.

Charles the Great, in order to repair the cruel and truly lamentable literary Dilapidations of the ferocious North-men, invited Numbers of the learned and pious Irish to the Continent, where he established and entertained them with Dignity, Tenderness, and Respect. In a curious Manuscript of Nicholaus Gurtlerus, (now in the French King's Parisian Library) Author of the Origines Mundi, where he alludes to these Times, you find the following favourable, but true Account of Ireland. —Temporibus illis, barbaris Normannorum Cohortibus undequaque irrumpentibus, Religio, Fides, Philosophia, Virtus, Hospitalitas, Fortitudo, Castitas, necnon et Amœniores omnium generum Artes, Hibernia solummodò natali, veluti Solo, viguerunt; little Wonder that Ireland should have been esteemed the Ierne, or sacred Isle of the Greeks, the Insula Sanctorum, or Island of Saints of the Romans. – Would to Heaven our Countrymen had, upon all considerable Occasions, recollected those deserved Encomiums, thereby to approve them worthy their applauded Origin, and native Soil!

We now proceed to consider Ireland in her happiest and brightest View, after the Admission and Propagation of Christianity. It is certain there were many Christians in Ireland, before the Arrival of Palladius in 431, or of St. Patrick the Year following: St. Kieran, St. Ailbe, St. Declan, and St. Ibar, whom Ussher calls the Precursors, or Forerunners of St. Patrick, are pregnant Proofs of this; they were of the Birth of Ireland, from whence they travelled to Rome, in Search of Education and Learning, where they lived some Years, were ordained, and returned Home about the Year 402.

It seems that those early Preachers confined their Labours to particular Places, in which they had considerable Success, but fell very short of converting the Body of the Nation: However, they sowed the Seed which St. Patrick came after to water: And it is certain that St. Patrick was so well satisfied with the Progress they made, in their particular Districts in Munster, that this was the last Province in Ireland he thought proper to visit. That there were many Christians in Ireland, at this Period, seems to be confirmed by Prosper, who, in giving an Account of the Mission of Palladius, says, that he was ordained by Pope Celestin, and sent the first Bishop to the Scots believing in Christ. This Passage can mean nothing else, but that Palladius, born in Britain, was sent to the Scots [i.e. the Irish] who had already formed Churches under Kieran, Ailbe, Declan and Ibar; and so the Bishop of St. Asaph expounds it. This then was the next Attempt that was made for the Conversion of the Irish: Palladius engaged in a more ample and extensive Design than his Predecessors, yet he failed in the Execution of it, stay'd but a short Time in Ireland, and did little worth remembring; he converted, however, a few, and is said to have founded three Churches; but he had neither Courage to withstand the Fierceness of the heathen Irish, nor Abilities, for Want of the Language, proper for the Work.

Nathi, the Son of Garcon, an Irish Prince, opposed his preaching; upon which Palladius left the Kingdom, and died in the Land of the Picts, on the 15th of December, 431. This glorious Work was reserved for St. Patrick, to whose holy Life, divine Mission, and extraordinary Success, I refer the Reader. This great Apostle of the Irish founded and built the Cathedral Church of Ardmagh, about the Year 444, or 45, which, from that early Period to this, hath continued the Metropolitan Church of all Ireland. So that 1194 Years passed away from the Founding of the City of Rome, to that of Ardmagh.

The various and most signal Blessings derived to this Nation, from the salutary Mission of this illustrious Saint, require, in Gratitude, our giving the Reader yet a further Account of the Author of such Happiness and Glory to Ireland.

He was born in the extreme Bounds of Britain, (in that Part thereof which is now comprehended within the Limits of the modern Scotland) at a Village called Banaven, in the Territory of Tabernia, (as he himself saith in his Confession) in Vico Banaven Taberniæ, &c. He tells us that he was born of a good Family. Ingennuus fui secundum Carnem. His Father was Calphurnius, a Deacon, who was the Son of Potitus, a Priest; from whence may be clearly inferred that the Clergy were not restrained from Matrimony in that Age. He was just advanced into his sixteenth Year, when he was taken Captive, the Manner of which is thus related by St. Evin and others: His Father, Mother, Brother, and five Sisters, undertook a Voyage to Aremorick Gaul, (now called Bass Bretagne) to visit the Relations of his Mother Couchessa. It happened about this Time, that the seven Sons of Factmude, a British Prince, were banished, and took to the Sea; that, making an Inroad into Aremorick Gaul, they took Patrick and his Sister, Lupita, (some say Tigrida also) Prisoners. They brought their Captives to the North of Ireland, and sold Patrick to Milcho Mac Huanan, a Prince of Dalaradia: Others tell the Story in a different Manner, and with a stronger Degree of Probability. That the Romans having deserted Britain, to preserve their own Country from the barbarous Incursions of the Northern Hive, the Irish made frequent Conquests, in North Britain especially, whence returning victorious, in one of those Expeditions among others brought Patrick Captive. But in this they all agree, and he himself confirms it, that he continued Prisoner in Ireland six Years; he was sold to Milcho and his three Brothers, which gave Occasion of his changing his Name into Cathraigh, or rather Ceathir-Tigh, because he served four Masters; Ceathir signifying four, and Tigh a House or Family. Milcho observing the Care and Diligence of his new Servant, bought out the Shares of his Brothers, and made him his own Property. He sent him to feed his Hogs on Sliev-Mis. And St. Patrick himself tells us his Behaviour in this Office.

“My constant Business was to feed the Hogs. I was frequent in Prayer; the Love and Fear of God more and more inflamed my Heart; my Faith was enlarged, and my Spirit augmented, so that I said an hundred Prayers by Day, and almost as many by Night. I arose before Day to my Prayers, in the Snow, in the Frost, and in the Rain, and yet I received no Damage; nor was I affected with Slothfulness; for then the Spirit of God was warm within me.” It was here he perfected himself in the Irish Language, the wonderful Providence of God visibly appearing in this Instance of his Captivity, that he should have the Opportunity in his tender Years of becoming well acquainted with the Language, Manners, and Dispositions of that People, to whom he was intended as a future Apostle. He continued six whole Years in Servitude, and in the seventh was released. There seems to have been a Law in Ireland for this Purpose, agreeable to the Institution of Moses, that a Servant should be released the seventh Year.

Having parted from his Master, after a great Variety of Distresses, he at length arrived to his Parents, who received him with extraordinary Joy; with these he remained two Years, and probably would much longer, had he not by a Vision been quickened to a more active and glorious Life. In this he thought he saw a Man coming to him from Ireland, whose Name was Victoricus, with a great Number of Letters; that he gave him one of them to read, in the Beginning of which were contained these Words, Vox-Hiberionacum, the Voice of the Irish: While he was reading this Letter, he thought the same Moment, that he heard the Voice of the Inhabitants who lived near the Wood of Foclut, in the Barony of Tyr-Awley, and County of Mayo, hard by the Western Sea, crying to him with an audible and distinct Voice, “We intreat thee, holy Youth, to come and walk among us.” He was greatly amazed at this Vision, and awoke; it animated him, however, to his future Studies and heavenly Progress; so far even, that he tells us himself, he thanked God, that after many Years he had dealt with the Irish, according to their crying out.

These early Scenes of this great Saint's Life, should, among many others, serve as lessons of Charity, Consideration, and Humility, to the Rich, the Great, the Proud, and the Wanton; who may recollect that, altho' he was well born, he was nevertheless, in the most vigorous Season of Life, a Slave and a Swine-Herd: Happy, though wretched Servitude! In which, his leisure Hours, mostly employed in Christian Confidence and Prayer, made him so signally the Favourite of Heaven, that from those cloudy Dawnings, he in Process of Time became a learned Doctor, a sanctified Missioner, a venerable Prelate, an eminent Primate, a national Apostle, and the bright Instructor of Kings! Such were the fruitful Rewards of uninterrupted unshaken Devotion, Piety, and Zeal! From this Time he formed the steady Resolution of converting the Irish; and, the better to accomplish the heavenly Task, he undertook a laborious Journey to foreign Countries, to enrich his Mind with Learning and Experience.

He continued abroad thirty-five Years, pursuing his Studies under the Direction principally of his Mother's Uncle, St. Martin, Bishop of Tours, who had ordained him Deacon; and after his Death, partly with St. German, Bishop of Auxerre, (who ordained him a Priest, and called his Name Magonius, which was the third Name he was known by,) partly among a Colony of Hermits and Monks, in some Islands of the Tuscan Sea; and he employed a good Part of the Time in the City of Rome, among the Canons Regular of the Lateran Church: At length, having his Soul thoroughly tempered with religious Virtue, enlightened with the true Evangelical Faith, and his Understanding enlarged by the most profitable and edifying Studies, he arrived in Ireland about the 60th Year of his Age; and in the Year of our Lord 432, landed in the County of Wicklow, where he began his Ministry, by the Conversion of Sinel, a great Man in that Country, the Grandson of Finchad, who ought to be remembered, as he was the first Fruits of St. Patrick's Mission in Ireland; he was the 8th in lineal Descent from Cormac, King of Leinster, and came afterwards to be enumerated among the Saints of Ireland.

From this Country he sailed to an Island on the Coast of the County of Dublin, called after him Inis Phadring, and by the English, Holm Patrick at this Day, where he and his faithful Companions rested after their Fatigues. From Inis Phadring, he sailed Northward to that Part of Ulster called Ulidia, and put in at Inbherslaying Bay. When he and his Fellow Labourers landed, Dichu, the Son of Trichem, Lord of the County, being informed that they were Pirates, came out with armed Men in order to kill them: But being struck with the venerable Appearance of St. Patrick, he gave him Audience, and listened attentively to the Word of Life preached by him; he changed his wicked Purpose, believed, and was baptized, and brought over all his Family to the Faith: It is further observed of him, that he was the first Person in Ulster, who embraced Christianity. He dedicated the Land whereon his Conversion was wrought to the Service of God, where a Church was erected, changed after to an eminent Monastery. He travelled hence by Land to Clunebois in Dalaradia, to endeavour the Conversion of his old Master Milcho, whose Service he had left thirty-eight Years before; but this obstinate Prince, hearing of the great Success of St. Patrick's preaching, and ashamed to be persuaded in his old Age, to forsake the Religion of his Ancestors, (by one especially who had been his Servant, in a most inferior Station,) made a funeral Pile of his House and Goods, and by the Instigation of the Enemy of Mankind, burned himself therein: Thus ended Milcho McHuanan.