Chapter LXI: Conclusion

"Concluded not completed," is the verdict of Carlyle upon one of his earlier studies, and "concluded not completed," conscience is certainly apt to mutter at the close of so necessarily inadequate a summary as this. Much of this inadequacy, it may fairly be confessed, is individual, yet a certain amount is also inherent in the very nature of the task itself. In no respect does this inadequacy press with a more penitential weight than in the case of those heroes whose names spring up at intervals along our pages, but which are hardly named before the grim necessities of the case force us onwards, and the hero and his doings are left behind.

Irish heroes, for one reason or another, have come off, it must be owned, but poorly before the bar of history. Either their deeds having been told by those in whose eyes they found a meagre kindness, or else by others who, with the best intentions possible, have so inflated the hero's bulk, so pared away his merely human frailties, that little reality remains, and his bare name is as much as even a well-informed reader pretends to be acquainted with. Comparing them with what are certainly their nearest parallels--the heroes and semi-heroes of Scotch history--the contrast strikes one in an instant, yet there is no reason in the nature of things that this should be. Putting aside those whose names have got somewhat obscured by the mists of the past, and putting aside those nearer to us who stand upon what is still regarded as debateable ground, there are no lack of Irish names which should be as familiar to the ear as those of any Bruce or Douglas of them all. The names of Tyrone, of James Fitzmaurice, of Owen Roe O'Neill, and of Sarsfield, to take only a few and almost at random, are all those of gallant men, struggling against dire odds, in causes which, whether they happen to fit in with our particular sympathies or not, were to them objects of the purest, most genuine enthusiasm. Yet which of these, with the doubtful exception of the last, can be said to have yet received anything like a fair meed of appreciation? To live again in the memory of those who come after them may not be--let us sincerely hope that it is not--essential to the happiness of those who are gone, but it is at least a tribute which the living ought to be called upon to pay, and to pay moreover ungrudgingly as they hope to have it paid to them in their turn.

Glancing with this thought in our minds along that lengthened chronicle here so hastily overrun, many names and many strangely-chequered destinies rise up one by one before us; come as it were to judgment, to where we, sitting in state as "Prince Posterity," survey the varied field, and judge them as in our wisdom we think fit, assigning to this one praise, to that one blame, to another a judicious admixture of praise and blame combined. Not, however, it is to be hoped, forgetting that our place in the same panorama waits for another audience, and that the turn of this generation has still to come.

AUTHORITIES.

* * * * *

Adamnan, "Life of St. Columba" (_trans_.).

Arnold (Matthew), "On the Study of Celtic Literature."

Bagwell, "Ireland under the Tudors."

Barrington (Sir Jonah), "Personal Recollections," "Rise and Fall
of the Irish Nation."

Brewer, "Introduction to the Carew Calendar of State Papers."

Bright (Rt. Hon. J.), "Speeches."

Burke (Edmund), "Tracts on the Popery Laws," "Speeches and Letters."

Carlyle, "Letters and Speeches of Cromwell."

Carew, "Pacata Hibernia."

Cloncurry, "Life and Times of Lord Cloncurry."

Clogy, "Life and Times of Bishop Bedell."

Cornwallis Correspondence.

Croker (Rt. Hon. W.), "Irish, Past and Present."

Davis (Thomas), "Literary and Historical Essays."

Davies (Sir John), "A Discoverie of the True Causes why Ireland was
never Subdued."

Dennis, "Industrial Ireland."

Domenach (Abbé), "Larerte Erinn."

Dymock (John), "A Treatise on Ireland."

Duffy (Sir Charles Gavin), "Four Years of Irish History."

Essex, "Lives and Letters of the Devereux, Earls of."

Froude (J.A.), "History of England," "The English in Ireland."

Giraldus Cambrensis,
"Conquest of Ireland," Edited by J. Dimock,
Master of the Rolls Series, 1867;
"Topography of Ireland," Edited by J. Dimock,
Master of the Rolls Series, 1867.
Green, "History of the English People."
Grattan, "Life and Speeches of Rt. Hon. Henry Grattan."

Halliday, "Scandinavian Kingdom of Dublin." Hennessy (Sir Pope), "Sir Walter Raleigh in Ireland." Hardiman, "History of Galway." Howth (Book of), from O'Flaherty's "Iar Connaught."

Joyce, "Celtic Romances."

Kildare (Marquis of), "The Earls of Kildare."

Lodge, "Desiderata Curiosa Hibernica." Lecky, "History of England in the Eighteenth Century," and "Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland." Leland, "History of Ireland." Maine (Sir H.), "Early History of Institutions,"

"Village Communities, East and West." Max Müller's Lectures. M'Gee (T. Darcy), "History of Ireland." McGeoghegan, "History of Ireland." Mitchell (John), "History of Ireland." Montalembert, "Monks of the West." Murphy (Rev. Denis), "Cromwell in Ireland." Madden, "History of Irish Periodical Literature." McCarthy (Justin), "History of Our Own Times."

O'Connor (T.P.), "The Parnell Movement." O'Flaherty, "Iar Connaught."

Petty (Sir W.), "Political Anatomy of Ireland." Petrie (Dr.), "Round Towers of Ireland."

Prendergast, "Tory War in Ulster,"
"The Cromwellian Settlements."

Richey (A.G.), "Lectures on the History of Ireland."

Smith (Goldwin), "Irish History and Irish Character." Spenser (Edmund), "View of the State of Ireland." Stokes (Miss), "Early Christian Architecture of Ireland." Stokes (Professor George), "Ireland and the Celtic Church."

Tone (Wolfe), "Autobiography."

Vere de (Aubrey), "Queen Meave and other Legends of the Heroic Age,"
and "Legends of St. Patrick,"

Walpole, "Kingdom of Ireland." Webb (Alfred), "Compendium of Irish Biography." Wilde (Sir W.), "Lough Corrib," and "The Boyne and the Blackwater."

Young (Arthur), "Tour in Ireland."

INDEX.

Abercromby, Sir Ralph, 359 Act of Supremacy, 152 Act of Uniformity, 278 Adamnan, 43 Adare, 188 Affane, battle of, 183 Aidan (Saint) and Irish monk, 45 Alcansar, battle of, 184 Allen, an Irish priest, 184 Allen, hill of, 14 Allen, John, Archbishop of Dublin, 146 Allen, the Fenian prisoner, 406 Andrews, Dean of Limerick, 237 Angareta, mother of Giraldus, 78 Angelsea, settlement of, 67 Anglo-Norman invasion, 76 Annals of Lough Cè, 109 Anselm (Saint), Archbishop of Canterbury, 81 Arctic hare, the, 4 Ard-Reagh, or Over-king, 91 Ardscul, battle of, 108 Arklow Head, 93 Armagh, Book of, 33 Armagh, cathedral of, burnt by Thorgist, 55 Armdu, a Viking, 68 Arran, isles of, 38 Art McMurrough, or Art Kavanagh, 119; master of Leinster, 119; has recourse to Black-rent, 123; entertained by Richard II., 120; knighted, 120; thrown into prison, 120; released, 120; he hastens to Meath, 121; defeats the royal army, 121; he again meets Richard II. in battle, 121; victorious, 123 Ascendency, the Protestant, 307 Ashton, Sir Arthur, a royalist officer, 261 Askeaton, castle of, 187; destroyed, 188 Association, Loyal National Repeal, 386 Attainder, Bill of, drawn and passed, 287 Athenry, battle of, 110; enfeebled state, 175 Athlone, fortress of, 104, 292 Athy, bridge of, 128 Aughrim, battle of, 293 Augustine (Saint), 44 D'Aguilar, Don Juan, 215 D'Avaux, Count, envoy to James II., 283

B

_Baculum Cristatum_, or Staff of St. Patrick, 158 Baggotrath, battle of, 260 Bagnall, Sir Henry, 198; Tyrone marries his sister, 201; becomes his enemy, 201; he marches against Tyrone, 204; he is shot, 205; his army defeated, 205; fort of Blackwater surrendered, 205 Ballinasloe, town of, 293 Baltimore, stronghold of pirates,127 Baltinglass, Lord, 189 Bannockburn, battle of, 108; its effects on Ireland, 108 Bannow, bay of, or "FitzStephen's stride," 83 Barnabie FitzPatrick, 157 Barries descendants of Nesta, 76 Barri, Robert de, 83 Barrington's Bridge, 107 Barrymore, Lord, 141 Beare O'Sullivan, 215 Bedell, bishop of Kilmore, 245 Beltane, Celtic festival of 1st May, 14 Belgic, colony of, 6 Bellingham, Sir Edward, 162 Belrath, castle of, 141 Ben Edar, now Howth, 17 Benignus, first disciple of St. Patrick, 35 Benturb, battle of, 255 Bermingham, Sir John de, victor of Athenry, 110, 111 Beresford, Chief Commissioner of Customs, 351 Bernard, Saint, of Clairvaux, 81 Betas, Celtic houses of hospitality, 14 Black-rent, use of, 119, 123, 129 Blackwater river, 183; battle of, 203 Blaney, Mr., member for Monaghan, 243 Book of Aicill, Aryan law, 25 Book of Armagh, 33 Book of Howth, the, 140 Borough, Lord, deputy, 203 Boulter, Archbishop of Armagh, 304, 320 Boyle, primate, 280 Boyne, battle of the, 288 Bramhall, primate, 277 "Brass Band," 403 Brehons, judges or law makers, 19, 25 Brian Boru, or Boruma, 60, 61; he defeats the Danes, 61; seizes throne of Cashel, 63; over-runs Leinster, 63; subdues Ossory, 63; attacks Meath, 63; burns the stronghold of Tara, 63; becomes Ard-Reagh in Malachy's place, 63; he is called Brian of the Tribute, 64; he becomes master of Ireland, 64; his victory at Clontarf, 66; he marches against Brodar, 68, 69; is killed, 69; mourned and buried, 69, 70. Bridget (Saint), 47; sacred fire of, 47 Brodar, a Viking, 66; killed Brian, 67 Brown, Archbishop of Meath, 159; deprived, 161 Bruce, Edward, in Ireland, 107; battle of Bannockburn, 108; its effects, 108; Bruce lands at Carrickfergus, 108; defeats Richard de Burgh, 108; defeats Sir Edmund Butler at Ardscul, 108; victorious at Kells, 108; meets his brother, 108; is crowned king, 109; devastates the country, 109; defeated and killed at Dunkalk, 110 Bruce, King Robert of Scotland, 108 Burren, district of the, in North Clare, 269 Burgh, Sir William FitzAldelm de, 103 Burgundy, Duchess of, 132, 136 Burke, Edmund, 330 Burke, Mr. Thomas, murder of, 411