by John Healy

“ But the cause was a failing one. The new régime had everything in its favour. The old system had lost its vitality, and only showed the last gasps of a life the vigour of which belonged to another age. ”

“ Early in the reign of Henry II. of England, the king had turned his attention to the conquest of the neighbouring island. A plausible pretext for thus attacking a perfectly independent state presented itself in the slave trade which the Irish had long carried on, buying the children of needy Englishmen, and disposing of them in different parts of Ireland. As further justification there was the religious one, that Ireland alone of Western nations was not subject to the see of Rome, and that, according to the current ideas of that time, the position of her Church was schismatical and heretical. ”

“ The story of the conquest of Ireland is one that belongs to the secular history, and need not here be repeated. We have only to consider its influence on the religious condition of the country. On the English side the conquest was regarded as a holy war. The Irish were enemies to the Church, and were to be subdued in order to bring them to obedience. ”