Pagan Ireland.

by Eleanor Hull

The Five Provinces

1923

The Five Provinces

The country was divided into five provinces, Leinster, Ulster, Connaught, Munster and Meath, which was called Royal Meath, because it formed the special estate of the Kings of Tara. These provinces were not at first fixed; Munster was at the beginning divided into two, and in fact, though afterwards con- sidered one province only, North Munster or Thomond was practically independant of South Munster or Des- mond through the greater part of the history, f The province of Meath was created later than the rest, by

The Icelanders and Northmen fought single combats on islands in a river or marsh, called the Holm. The rules of the duel or Holmgang are laid down in Kormak's Saga (Chaps, ix., x.). A recent translation of this saga has been published by W. G. Collingwood, M.A., and Dr. Jon Stefansson ; it contains a note on the Holmgang on pp. 69-71.

It was first divided into East and West Munster, afterwards into North and South Munster. a king called Tuathal (Toole) the " Legitimate " or the " Possessor," a monarch who restored the Milesian line in his person after its usurpation by some inferior tribes, about 130 A.D. A great stone, still called the " Stone of Divisions," stood, and still stands, at the place where the four provinces then met, and which was supposed to be the centre of Ireland ; the new province was formed by taking an equal piece round the stone from each of the other divisions.

Tribes and Clans.

But besides the five provinces, which had their own kings, of whom the Ard-Righ, or High-King of Tara, was chief, the country was further broken up into a multitude of clans or tribes, each having a chief of its own. This was a cause of perpetual warfare, for every powerful chief would aspire to add to his territories and possessions by making raids on his neighbours and carrying off cattle or booty. The largest part of an Irishman's life in early times was spent in such raids and petty wars. All the men were trained to war, and they were always ready to leave the more peaceful occupations of tilling the land and minding the cattle to join in a foray on a neighbour's lands. Especially between Ulster and Munster, and Ulster and Connaught, there was great jealousy, and consequently constant fighting and bloodshed. Many of the raids were undertaken simply for the purpose of increasing the number of cattle possessed by the tribe. Some clans had not cattle enough to stock their lands, and the easiest way to get more was to steal it from another tribe; so that cattle raids were frequent.

These raids, or " Tains " as they were called, gave rise to a number of romantic tales which the old story tellers loved to relate. The greatest story of Ireland is the raid made by a famous Queen of Connaught, named Maive, to carry off a wonderful bull called the "Donn" or Brown Bull of Cuailnge (Cooley, Co. Louth) which belonged to a chief of Leinster. In this raid all the hosts of Ireland were engaged for a whole winter, and they traversed all the North of the country from west to east. It was in this raid or " Tain " that the hero Cuchulain fought, standing alone against all the forces of Erin, although he was only a youth and beardless. This story shows how much importance was attached to the possession of cattle in those old days. The value of everything was reckoned by its worth in cows. A slave-woman was worth three cows or five head of horned cattle.

Tributes.

Even the tributes to the chiefs were paid in cattle, sheep, hunting dogs, pigs, and horses, and in bond men and bond-women; for the Irish, like all other mediaeval nations, practised slavery. The lowest class of the community were slaves, and were bought and sold like cattle; the captives taken in war added to their numbers, as they seem to have been made slaves of as a matter of course by their conquerors. Ornaments, such as rings and necklets, drinking-horns, caldrons, swords and coats of mail, cloaks, and, near the sea-coast, boats and ships, were also given in tribute in later times, and perhaps also in the pagan period. As there was no money, all transactions had to be made by the gift or exchange of goods.

When a man had not enough cattle to stock his farm, it was the duty of the chief, who was generally rich in live stock, to loan or give him the animals he needed out of the cattle brought in tribute. These were paid to the chief's steward, who was called a Bruighfer and who lived in one of the " Hospitable Houses " of which we shall afterwards speak. He had large farms and out-houses, in which the live stock brought in tribute were kept; but as it was of no use to a chief to possess more cattle than he had land to put them upon, he loaned out these cattle to the small farmers, who generally possessed more land than stock.

Vassalage.

But to receive stock in this way from the chief made the farmer the chief's man, and brought him under a sort of vassalage. He was then called a " Daer-Ceile " and he was obliged, in return, not only to render military service to his chief, but to assist in harvesting and agricultural work on his land. He was obliged also to give a certain fixed supply of food and refreshment whenever the chief made a visitation into his neighbourhood, which the chiefs lost no opportunity of doing, for they and their followers were supported free from all charge during the time they remained, and it was a cheap way of living.

The farmer might take much or little stock from the chief. If he took little he was called a " Saer-Ceile " and remained a freeman, with all his tribal rights; at the end of seven years he ceased to be the chief's tenant, and the cattle became his own. He gave in return, milk and the young of the animals to the chief, besides homage and manual labour, i.e., assistance in the building of his fort or reaping of his harvest; instead of which he seems, if he preferred it, to have been permitted to follow the chief to war. But the Daer stock tenant sank into a lower position, and his duties and tributes were very heavy. He became a farmer of a lower rank, and seems to have partly lost his freedom. The necessity for having cattle, nevertheless, induced large numbers to accept Daer stock, and this increased considerably the power of the chiefs. No man was permitted to take stock from any jhief but his own, as in that case he would have become the vassal to a chief of another tribe.

Besides these vassals, the chief had even more power among" another class of persons, who were called Fuidhirs, and who often owned no connection with the tribe^ and no master but the chief himself. In those days, when disputes were frequent between the chief and his people, and between one member of the tribe tind another, many persons or families were obliged to fly from their own tribe and people, and take refuge in another tribe. Sometimes they fled to escape from punishment, sometimes perhaps to escape their debts. In one way or another, they had broken the tribal bond and had to depart in order to make for themselves a home among a strange tribe. We read of whole septs or clans sometimes moving from their tribal lands and settling elsewhere. The family or sept of the Deisi, who originally belonged to Meath, were expelled by Cormac Mac Airt, and went into Munster, where they found a new home. But the Fuidhirs were generally criminals or broken men, and the chief of the territory in which they took refuge treated them with little respect or mercy. He generally allotted them portions of the waste lands belonging to the tribe, which were not allocated to any particular person, but were avail- able for anyone who wished to use them, for it was to the chief's benefit to attract as many outlaws or wan- derers as he could. The members of the tribe were almost independent of the chief, but the Fuidhir was his slave, whom he could rack-rent at pleasure and command to do anything he chose. The more Fuidhirs the chief had under him the more independent was his position, and the greater his wealth and power. These wandering tenants were naturally hated by the tribesmen, and they were indeed often of a low and despised class; many of them were not even entitled, as were all other tribesmen, to compensation for injuries done to themselves or their families, while, on the other hand, any injury done by a Fuidhir was compensated by his lord and owner; he was himself an outlaw and of no account.

The highest classes of noble freemen next to the chief were the "Aires," some of whom were wealthy through the possession of land and others through the possession of cattle. Each of these ranks was distinguished, after the knowledge of dyeing had been acquired, by a difference in the colour of the dress; when they travelled, each rank was attended by a fixed number of servants or followers. Next to the chief, who had twelve, came the different grades of the "Aires" or land-owners, who had from three to nine. Their wives were allowed half the number, but they seem to have taken more than they were legally allowed. Queens ought, according to the rule, to have been satisfied with six, but Queen Maive never had less than nine. In this they only copied their lords, whose retinues became so large and burdensome, that they had to be suppressed. It was an immense tax on their people to have constantly to receive and support such large companies, and this burden, which in later historic times was known as " coshering-," or " coign and livery," was continued on into the seventeenth century or later.