P. W. Joyce

“ It was no wonder that the people of Great Britain and the Continent, when they met such scholars, all from Ireland, [Pg 50] came to the conclusion that the schools which educated them were the best to be found anywhere. Accordingly, students came from all parts of the known world, to place themselves under the masters of these schools. From Germany, France, Italy, Egypt, came priests and laymen, princes, chiefs, and peasant students—all eagerly seeking to drink from the fountain of Irish learning. ”

“ It is indeed quite refreshing to read in some of the tales a description of a hunt and of the immense delight the people took in the sport and all its joyous accompaniments. The hunters led the chase chiefly on foot, with different breeds of hunting-dogs, according to the animals to be chased. The principal kinds of game were deer, wild pigs, badgers, otters, and wolves; and hares and foxes were hunted with beagles for pure amusement. Pig-hunting was a favourite sport. Wolves were hunted down with the great Irish wolf-dogs, some of which were as big as a colt or an ass. ”

“ In the religious tales music is always one of the delights of heaven; and a chief function of the angels who attend on God is to chant music of ineffable sweetness to Him, which they generally do in the shape of beautiful white birds. A good example of the people’s intense fondness for music is found in an old Irish religious poem, in which the hard lot of Adam and Eve for a whole year after their expulsion from Paradise is described, when they were—as the poem expresses it—“without proper food, fire, house, music, or raiment.” ”

“ May the good God have mercy on us all. I have here collected practical rules of medicine from several works, for the honour of God, for the benefit of the Irish people, for the instruction of my pupils, and for the love of my friends and of my kindred. I have translated many of them into Gaelic from Latin books, containing the lore of the great leeches of Greece and Rome. These are sweet and profitable things which have been often tested by us and by our instructors. ”

“ The exquisite skill of the ancient Irish brasiers is best proved by the articles they made, of which hundreds are preserved in our museums. The gracefully-shaped spear-heads, which, in point of artistic excellence, are fully equal to any of those found in Greece, Rome, or Egypt, were cast in moulds: and we have not only the spear-heads themselves but many of the moulds, usually of stone. In one glass case in the National Museum there are more than forty moulds for bronze axes, spear-heads, arrow-heads, etc.: some looking as fresh as if they had been in use yesterday. ”

“ A Christian philosopher of the fourth century of our era, named Ethicus of Istria, travelled over the three continents, and has left a description of his wanderings, in what he calls a ‘Cosmography’ of the World. He visited Ireland more than a hundred years before the arrival of St. Patrick; and he states that he found there many books, and that he remained for some time in the country examining them. So far then as Ethicus records the existence of Irish books in the fourth century, he merely corroborates our own native accounts. ”

“ The Irish “passion for pilgrimage and preaching” never died out: it is a characteristic of the race. This great missionary emigration to foreign lands has continued in a measure down to our own day: for it may be safely asserted that no other missionaries are playing so general and successful a part in the conversion of the pagan people all over the world, and in keeping alight the lamp of religion among Christians, as those of Ireland. ”

“ They could drive a man mad by their sorcery—a power which was dreaded most of all by the people in general. For this purpose the druid prepared what was called a ‘madman’s wisp,’ that is, a little wisp of straw or grass, into which he pronounced some foul, baleful verses; and, watching his opportunity, he flung it into the face of the poor victim, who straightway became a madman, or, what was just as bad, an idiot—all beyond cure. Many other instances of the power of their spells are related in old Irish tales. ”

“ Hospitality and generosity were virtues highly esteemed in ancient Ireland; in the old Irish Christian writings indeed they are everywhere praised and inculcated as religious duties; and in the secular literature they are equally prominent. The higher the rank of the person the more was expected from him, and a king should be hospitable without limit. There were all over the country Public Hostels for the free lodging and entertainment of travellers. At the head of each was an officer called a Brewy or Beetagh, a public hospitaller or hosteller, who was held in high honour. ”

“ One of the historians of the reign of Charlemagne, who wrote in the ninth century, has left us the following account of these two scholars:—When the illustrious Charles began to reign alone in the western parts of the world, and literature was almost forgotten, it happened that two Scots from Ireland came over with some British merchants to the shores of France, men incomparably skilled in human learning and in the Holy Scriptures. Observing how the merchants exhibited and drew attention to their wares, they acted in a similar fashion to force themselves into notice like the others. ”

“ In the household of every great lord in Ireland there is a physician who has a tract of land for his support, and who is appointed to his post, not on account of the great amount of learning he brings away in his head from colleges, but [Pg 104] because he is able to cure diseases. His knowledge of the healing art is derived from books left him by his forefathers, which describe very exactly the marks and signs by which the various diseases are known, and lay down the proper remedies for each. These remedies [which are mostly herbs] , are all produced in that country. ”

“ There is a pretty story, more than a thousand years old, in the Book of the Dun Cow, which tells how Prince Connla of the Golden Hair, son of the great king Conn the Hundred-Fighter, was carried off by a fairy in a crystal boat to Moy-Mell. One day—as the story relates—while the king and Connla, and many nobles were standing on the western sea-shore, a boat of shining crystal was seen moving towards them: and when it had touched the land, a fairy, like a human being, and richly dressed, came forth from it, and addressing Connla, tried to entice him into it. ”

“ The old Irish people became wonderfully skilful in some branches of Art; and many specimens of their handiwork still remain—preserved through the wreck of ages—which exceed in beauty of design and in perfection of execution all works of the kind done by the artists of other nations.
While Art was cultivated in several branches, the Irish attained more skill in Ornamental Penwork than in any other. They took special delight, and used their utmost efforts, in ornamenting religious and devotional books, especially the Gospels and other parts of the Holy Scripture ”

“ In very early times Irish professors of music were as eagerly sought after on the Continent as those of literature and general learning, so that they were sometimes placed at the head of great music-schools. At a later time it was quite common among the Welsh bards to come over to Ireland to receive instruction from the Irish harpers. In the eleventh century one of the Welsh kings, Griffith ap Conan, brought over to Wales a number of skilled Irish musicians, who, in conference with the native Welsh bards, carried out some great improvements in Welsh music. ”

“ Although there were no such institutions in ancient Ireland as pawn-offices, pledging articles as security for a temporary loan and its interest, was common enough. The practice was such a general feature of society that the Brehon Law stepped in to prevent abuses, just as our law now contains provisions to safeguard poor people from being wronged in their dealings with pawn-offices. A person might pledge any movable article—a horse, a brooch, a mantle, etc.—and the person holding the pledge might put it to its proper use while it remained with him. ”

“ People had to be careful of them, for they often did mischief when interfered with.
Mannanan Mac Lir was the Irish sea-god, like Neptune of the Greeks and Romans. He generally lived on the sea, riding in his chariot at the head of his followers. He is in his glory on a stormy night, and on such a night, when you look over the waste of waters, there before your eyes, in the dim [Pg 28] gloom, are thousands of Mannanan’s white steeds careering along after their great chief’s chariot. ”

“ The best possible proof that the Irish colonised and held possession of Man for ages is the fact that the Manx language is nothing more than Irish Gaelic, slightly changed by lapse of time. There are also still to be seen all over the island Irish buildings and monuments, mixed up, however, with many of Norse origin; and the great majority of both the place-names and the native family-names are Gaelic.
In our old historical books we have accounts of migrations of Irish people to Wales, some as invaders intending to return, some as colonists purposing to settle and remain. ”

“ Books abounded in Ireland when the Danes first made their appearance, about the beginning of the ninth century; so that the old Irish writers often speak with pride of “the hosts of the books of Erin.” But with the first Danish arrivals began the woeful destruction of manuscripts, the records of ancient learning. The animosity of the barbarians was specially directed against books, monasteries, and monuments of religion: and all the manuscripts they could lay hold on they either burned or “drowned”—i.e., flung them into the nearest lake or river. ”

“ CHAPTER I. HOW THE ANCIENT IRISH PEOPLE WERE GOVERNED BY THEIR KINGS AND CHIEFS.
There were in Ireland, from times beyond the reach of history, kings, who were of various grades according to the extent of the country or district they ruled over. The highest of all was the king of Ireland, who lived in the royal palace at Tara. He was called the Ard-ri [ard-ree] , i.e., ‘High king’ or Over-king, because he claimed authority over all the others. There was also a king over each of the five provinces—Leinster, Munster, Connaught, Ulster, and Meath—who were subject to the Ard-ri. ”

“ The more the students crowded to the Irish schools, whether from Ireland itself or from abroad, the more eagerly did the masters strive to meet the demand, by studying more and more deeply the various branches of learning, so as to equal or excel the scholars of other countries. ”

“ Irishmen were equally active in spreading secular knowledge. Indeed the two functions were generally combined; for it was quite common to find a man a successful missionary, while at the same time acting as professor in a college, or as head of some great seminary for general education. Irish professors and teachers were in those times held in such estimation that [Pg 57] they were employed in most of the schools and colleges of Great Britain, France, Germany, and Italy. The revival of learning on the Continent was indeed due in no small degree to those Irish missionaries. ”

“ They will find too that, as regards education, scholarship, and general mental culture, the Irish of those early ages were in advance of all other countries of Europe; that they helped most materially to spread Christianity, and to revive learning, all over the Continent; and that to Irish missionaries and scholars, the Anglo-Saxons of the Heptarchy were indebted for the greater part of their Christianity, and for the preservation and restoration of learning when it was threatened with extinction all over England by the ravages of the Danes. ”

“ In our Histories of Ireland we have read of the real Irish welcome they received—as recorded by the Venerable Bede and by others—and how the Irish, not only taught them, but gave them books and food for nothing at all! It was quite a common thing that young Englishmen, after they had learned all that their own schools were able to teach them, came to Ireland to finish their education. ”

“ From this word ‘brehon,’ the old Irish law is now commonly called the ‘Brehon Law.’
We have seen that every king kept in his household distinguished men of all the learned professions, and paid them well. Among these the brehon always held a high place; so that a large number of brehons found employment in this way. But many were unattached, and lived by deciding cases brought before them; for which they held courts, and were paid fees by the litigants in each case. On these fees they lived, [Pg 18] for they had no regular salaries. ”

“ Numerous places are still called after Irishmen, as, for instance, Holyhead, of which the Welsh name means the ‘Rocks of the Gaels.’ The Irish, wherever they settled down in Wales, built for themselves circular forts, as was their custom at home in Ireland. Many of these remain to this day, and are called ‘Irishmen’s Cottages.’ Moreover, the present spoken Welsh language contains a number of Irish words, borrowed by the people from their Irish neighbours in days of old. All this we are told—as already stated—by several great Welsh scholars. ”

“ Many of the old fairy hills all over the country are still well known; and to this day there is a superstition among many of the people that the fairies still remain in them, and that they also dwell in the old lisses, raths, or forts that are found everywhere in Ireland. The fairies were not always confined to their dwellings: they often got out, but they were generally invisible. Whenever they made themselves visible to mortals—and that was only seldom—they were seen to be very small, hardly the height of a man’s knee. ”

“ Everywhere through the Records we find evidences that the ancient Irish, both high and low, were passionately fond of music. It was mixed up with their daily home-life, and formed part of their amusements, meetings, and celebrations of every kind. ”

“ At the Irish fairs, wherever held, all kinds of amusements were carried on; for the people loved games, sports, and fun of every kind. In order to make sure that there should be nothing to spoil sport, there was a very strict law against brawls, quarrelling, or fighting. Anyone who struck a blow or raised any disturbance was sure to be punished: and if it was a very bad case, he was put to death. ”