Pagan Ireland.

by Eleanor Hull

A Period of Disturbance.

CHAPTER XVI

Authorities: Keating's History of Ireland, with the romance en- titled "The Sickbed of Cuchulain," Edited by O'Curryin Atlantis, Vols. I., II

AFTER the Death of Conaire M6r a space of seven years passed by without the election of any king to the throne of Tara. At length the inconvenience grew to be so great that it was determined to call together the princes of the four southern provinces, as they then were, namely Connaught, North Munster, South Munster, and Leinster, to elect a king. The King of Ulster, Conchobar (Conor) mac Nessa, they would not call to the Council, because at that time the whole of Ireland was in opposition to Ulster. A bull feast was made in the usual manner, and having eaten of the feast a man slept, and the druids pronounced a spell over him. Then in a dream there was shown to the sleeping man a vision of the prince whom they should elect as king. " I see," he said, " a young man strong and noble, with two red marks on his body, and he sitting beside a sick man at Emain Macha of Ulster." The young man was Lugaid (Lewy) of the Red Stripes, the pupil and friend of Cuchulain, and it was beside the sick bed of Cuchulain that he sat, comforting and solacing him.

It was not pleasant to those who were gathered at the Convention of Tara to take their king from among the nobles of their enemies; nevertheless they dared not disobey the voice of the soothsayer, and they sent messengers at once to Emain Macha to bring Lugaid to Tara. As the messengers entered the room where Cuchulain lay sick in a decline, he arose out of his sleep and shook his weakness from him, and he uttered wise words ot counsel and instruction to Lugaid how he should conduct himself as Monarch of Erin. These are some of the admonitions he gave to Lugaid. " Be not proud, passionate, or hasty. Be not elated by wealth, and stir not up sharp and ignoble contests. Be not coldhearted to friends, but be vigorous against your foes. Avoid disputes. Do not gossip or abuse others. Waste not, hoard not, part not with the possessions of your throne. Do not sacrifice justice to the passions of men. Do not take part in feats of strength, lest you make men jealous; be not lazy, lest you become weak; ask not gifts, lest men despise you. Do you consent to follow these counsels, my son?" Lugaid answered, " The counsels are all worthy to be observed, and before all men I will prove my obedience." Then Lugaid went with the messengers to Tara, and reigned as King of Erin.

Lugaid had a fair wife named Dervorgil, daughter of a Norse chieftain of the Western Isles, whom Cuchulain had rescued from pirates and had given to his friend to wife. Lugaid loved Dervorgil, and on her death he died of grief for her.

About this time the Irish were largely engaged in foreign warfare and in endeavouring to extend their dominions beyond the shores of Ireland. We have spoken of the expedition of Labraid the Voyager to France. Ugaine the Great is described as " King of Ireland and the whole west of Europe as far as the Muir Toirrian " (i.e., the Mediterranean Sea). Though this description is probably much exaggerated, there is little doubt that the Irish were engaged at this period and for the next four hundred years in trying to obtain possession of lands in Alba (Scotland), Britain, and the West of France. Their young chiefs seem to have been sent to Britain or Alba to study the arts both of peace and war, and the friendly com- munication between these countries, points to the existence of settlements of Gaelic speaking people even at this period on the western coasts of Scotland. There were also early settlements in Wales, the Isle of Man, and Devon. But several successive kings attempted further to extend their dominions on the Continent of Europe, and we read that Crimthan, who reigned soon after the death of Lugaid, was killed by a fall from his horse at his fortress on Benn Edair, or the Hill of Howth, near Dublin, after returning from a successful foreign expedition, in which he secured costly jewels and treasures and much spoil. He reigned at the beginning of the Christian Era.

While Crimthan was engaged in foreign expeditions, a most serious revolution was preparing at home, and the discontent of the people burst out into a wholesale rebellion and massacre immediately on his death. The insurrection was organised by the tenants or labouring classes against the nobility, and it is supposed, with great probability, that these people were chiefly the descendants of the Firbolg race, who had been reduced to a lower rank by the dominion of the Milesians. They were called Aithech Tuatha, that is, the rent-paying class; and no doubt they had been ground down by their masters, the chiefs and princes, who thought more of carrying on their foreign wars than of the good of their people at home. They organised a massacre of all the nobles whom they could induce to come together to a feast at a place called Magh Cru, or the "Bloody Plain," in County Galway, and there set up one of their own party, called Cairbre Cathead, to be King of Erin. He was socalled because it was said by his enemies that the shape of his head resembled that of a cat. They succeeded so well that no one dared to offer resistance, and for five years Cairbre reigned, a most disastrous period for Erin, according to the accounts written by their opponents, for evil is said to have flourished during his reign, and there was no happiness or prosperity in the land. He had, however, a son, who was a wise counsellor to the King, named Moran the Just, the fame of whose wisdom became a proverb in Erin. There is a legend that he possessed a golden collar, which he put round the neck of any person who was accused of a crime. When the report of the crime was true, the collar closed round the neck of the criminal until it choked him. But if he were innocent, it grew larger, and fell off. This is, I suppose, a way of saying that Moran always gave judgments which were just and true.

After the death of Cairbre Cathead the crown was offered to Moran, but he refused it, saying that the rightful princes should be brought back and one of them made king.

So the young princes of royal blood who were in exile with their mothers were sent for to resume their authority. One was the son of Crimthan, King of Erin, and the others were sons of the blind King of Munster and of the King of Ulster. Their mothers were said to be princesses of the royal houses of the Picts, the South Britains and the South Saxons. The tradition of these intermarriages shows that there was frequent and friendly communication between Ireland and the neighbouring

The story of Moran belongs properly to the Cuchulain tales, the Saxons did not come to Britain till mnch later than this.

The young princes and their royal mothers had each taken refuge with the mother's relations, and there the youths were brought up and educated. On their return, the rebels swore a solemn oath by heaven and earth, by the sun and moon and all the elements, that they would be obedient to them and their descendants, so long as the sea flowed round the shores of Ireland. Each of the princes then settled down on his hereditary domain, Feradach, the " Fair Righteous One," becom- ing King of Ireland, and progenitor of the race of Conn, of whom are the chief families of Ulster and Connaught; Corb Olum, the forefather of Olioll Olum, and head of the principal families of Munster, becoming King of Munster; and Tibraid becoming King of Ulster.

But in spite of their oaths of subjection, the Aithech continued their uprisings. At length a prince ascended the throne after defeating them in twenty-five battles who was strong enough to hold them in check. His name was Tuathal or Toole the " Lawful," and he not only forced the rebels to renew their oaths of allegiance, but he erected or fortified four strong kingly residences in Meath as a protection to the monarchs of Tara. They were named Tlachtga, Usnech, Taillte, and Tara itself; the last had long been a royal palace, but he probably strengthened it with ramparts. We are not to think of these as stone built castles, but as groups of wooden, earthen, or wicker buildings, with earthen raths surrounding them. It was at Tlachtga that the festival fire was burned once a year by druids, when all other fires were ordered to be extinguished throughout Ireland, and it was the disobedience of St. Patrick to this old custom that brought about the collision between him and King Laegaire, as we shall see. At Usnech and at Taillte there had been from early times annual meetings and games of skill, and from Taillte the King of Ulster received his rents. It was there also that the marriages of the year were arranged; the young men stood on one side and the girls on the other while the parents arranged the preliminaries and decided how much the bride-gift should be.

The History of the Aithech Tuatha is much confused in the Irish accounts probably it is mythical, at least, in parts.