1 GENETIC JOYCE STUDIES – Issue 21 (Spring 2021) Source

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GENETIC JOYCE STUDIES – Issue 21 (Spring 2021)

Source Emendations in Gem Thief, Notebook VI.B.1: Topography of Ireland and Handbook of the Ulster Question

Viviana-Mirela Braslasu and Geert Lernout

Gerard of Wales or Giraldus Cambrensis was a Welsh-Norman priest, clerk of Henry II and writer of scholarly works. As a relative of some of the Normans who had invaded Ireland a generation earlier he visited the island on a number of occasions and he wrote an account of the Norman invasion, preceded by what he called a Topographia, a description of Ireland and the Irish, which he considered a barbarous people, which in itself justified the Norman invasion. This is the first book about Ireland by a non-resident and as Joep Leerssen has demonstrated, it stands at the beginning of a long tradition of negative images of the Irish. Joyce refers to Cambrensis in A Portrait when Temple tells young Dedalus that his family is mentioned by Geraldus and in Ulysses when the Citizen claims that Cambrensis described the sophistication and wealth of the nation, especially its exports among which he includes wine, whereas Cambrensis explicitly says that contrary to what the Venerable Bede claimed, there are no vineyards in Ireland. It is clear that the material Joyce borrows from Cambrensis is the most fantastic and silly bits, such as that there are no mice, no earthquakes and ospreys that have a talon and a webbed foot. The second book was a very recent production, part of the Free State’s campaign over the lost province and its cultural, social and political role in a united Ireland. This was a particularly relevant when the young Irish Free State was trying to establish its relationship with its northern neighbour which republicans saw as part of the country and it has puzzled both insiders and outsiders ever since. We know that Joyce was following the discussion closely because in 1924 he wrote to Miss Weaver about the stamps of the Irish Free State that included a drawing of the whole island, that it was a philatelic curiosity because it included the territory of another state (Letters I, 213). The handbook, published by the Stationery Office in Dublin (no longer His Majesty’s), first gives a history of Ireland as a unified nation and then it argues for the inclusion of the Northern counties in the new state, writing that no state in existence had uniformity of race, religion, character and ideals: “A nation is the reconciliation of differences, not the assertion of uniformity.” A short review in the November 1923 issue of Journal of the British Institute of International Affairs found it a useful one, “containing as it does a brief historical epitome, , full statistical tables with economic and geographic information, and several useful maps.” At least in his note-taking, Joyce seems to have concentrated on the historical survey, with relatively few notes from the more polemical final sections.

The authors wish to thank Dipanjan Maitra for his help in obtaining an electronic copy of the Handbook.

References

1. Wright, Thomas. Ed. The Historical Works of Giraldus Cambrensis. (incl. Topography of Ireland) London: George Bell & Sons, 1905. Online at: https://archive.org/details/historicalworkso00giraiala

2. Handbook of the Ulster Question. Issued by the North Eastern Boundary Bureau, Dublin: Stationery Office, 1923.

Topography of Ireland

VI.B.1.038 (a) Aran no mice — die / no corruption The Topography of Ireland 64: CHAPTER. VI. OF AN ISLAND WHERE HUMAN CORPSES EXPOSED TO THE ATMOSPHERE DO NOT SUFFER DECAY. THERE is an island called Aren,1 situated in the western part of Connaught, and consecrated, as it is said, to St. Brendan, where human corpses are neither buried nor decay, but, deposited in the open air, remain uncorrupted. Here men can behold, and recognise with wonder, grandfathers, great- grandfathers, and great-great-grandfathers, and the long series of their ancestors to a remote period of past time. There is another thing remarkable in this island. Although mice2 swarm in vast numbers in other parts of Ireland, here not a single one is found. No mouse is bred here, nor does it live if it be introduced; when brought over, it runs immediately away and leaps into the sea. If it be stopped, it instantly dies. 64n1: These legends belong to an island called Inisgluair, off the coast of Erris, co. Mayo, which was sacred to St. Brandan, and which Giraldus seems to have confounded with Aran. According to the legend, the latter island was visited by St. Brandan when he set out on his grand voyage. St. Bean is supposed to be the saint of that name commemorated in the Romish calendar on the 16th of December. 64n2: Giraldus uses the word mures, but some of the Irish antiquaries believe that by this word he meant the small black rat which abounds in Ireland. (b) Iverna / Iene ^+Ierna+^ / Erú Earú land / Irlandia / Ireland Note: Ireland. The English name has been derived inter alia, from Iverni, an Irish tribe mentioned by Ptolemy, and its variant hibernicised forms, including ‘Eriu’; Ierne, its Latin name, from which ‘Erin’ has also been derived. See also 039(l). (c) Suir / Nore / & Barrow } sisters The Topography of Ireland 23: Three noble rivers, then, rise at the foot of the Blandine mountain:7 they are called The Three Sisters, because they received their names from three sisters. These are the Beriia, which runs through Leighlin,8 the Eyrus, which runs through Ossory,9 and the Suyrus, which, after running through Archfinia and Tribarccia, falls into the sea at Waterford.10 23n7: Sliabh Bladhwa, or Slieve Bloom, an extensive mountain range; stretching across the King’s and Queen’s counties. The Three Sisters were the Barrow, Nore, and Suir.[…] 23n8: The Barrow, which rises in the north of Queen’s County, and empties itself into the bay of Waterford. 23n9: The Nore is a tributary of the Barrow. 23n10: The Suir rises in Tipperary, and flows into Waterford harbour. (d) rBrendan’s sea The Topography of Ireland 24n3: The Shannon, called in Irish, Sinain. It is not easy to account for the singular error into which Giraldus has fallen with regard to the course of this celebrated river. He seems to have imagined that it was a branch of the river Shannon which discharges itself into the sea at Ballyshannon, in the bay of Donegal. The Shannon, as is well known, takes its rise in Lough Allen, in the county of Leitrim, and takes first a southern and then a south-western course, till it discharges itself into the Atlantic, which was sometimes called St. Brandan’s sea, because it was the supposed scene of his marvellous voyages. (e) no earthquake > (f) thunder 1 a year The Topography of Ireland 55: CHAPTER. XVII. OF THE SINGULARLY TEMPERATE CHARACTER OF OUR CLIMATE; AND THAT WE ARE HAPPILY FREE FROM MANY DISADVANTAGES. Many other things are wanting here much to our advantage, such as vermin. Here there are no earthquakes, you scarcely hear thunder once in a year; thunder-claps do not terrify, nor flashes of lightning strike. Here are no cataracts to overwhelm, no earthquake to swallow you up; no lions to carry you off, no panthers to mangle you, no bears to devour you, no tigers to destroy you. Moreover, no suspicion of poison makes you recoil from food, even offered by an enemy. No stepson fears the poison cup of his mother-in-law, no matron that of a jealous mistress.

(g) fat deer / younger horns The Topography of Ireland 43: CHAPTER. XIX. OF WILD ANIMALS, AND THEIR NATURES. THIS island contains nearly all the species of wild animals which are bred in the western countries. It produces stags so fat that they lose their speed, and the more slender they are in shape, the more nobly they carry their heads and branching antlers.

VI.B.1.039 (a) cranes The Topography of Ireland 34-5: CHAPTER. X. OF THE CRANE, AND ITS NATURE. CRANES assemble in such numbers, that a hundred, or about that number, are often seen in one flock. By natural in-[34]stinct they keep watch in turns at night for their common safety, perched on one foot, and holding a stone in the other featherless claw, that if they should fall asleep, the fall of the stone may rouse them to renew their watch. (b) fish cannot be [translaked] The Topography of Ireland 26: In Meath, near Fovera, are three lakes, not far from each other, each of which has its own distinct and peculiar species of fish, and which are frequented by no other, although they are connected by streams affording communications between them; and if a fish of one kind is carried down into the water frequented by another, it either perishes or finds its way back to its first abode. (c) admirably unnatural / manner The Topography of Ireland 70-1: CHAPTER. IX. OF A GREAT LAKE WHICH ORIGINATED IN A REMARKABLE MANNER. THERE is a lake in Ulster of vast size, being thirty miles long and fifteen broad,1 from which a very beautiful river, called the Banna, flows into the Northern ocean. The fishermen in this lake make more frequent complaints of the quantity of fish inclosed in their nets and breaking them than of the want of fish. In our time a fish was caught here which had not come up from the sea, but was taken [70] descending the lake, and was in shape very like a salmon, but it was so large that it could neither be dragged out or conveyed whole, and therefore was carried through the province cut in pieces. It is reported that this lake had its origin in an extraordinary calamity. The land now covered by the lake was inhabited from the most ancient times by a tribe sunk in vice, and more especially incorrigibly addicted to the sin of carnal intercourse with beasts more than any other people of Ireland. Now there was a common proverb in the mouths of the tribe, that whenever the well-spring of that country was left uncovered (for out of reverence shown to it, from a barbarous superstition, the spring was kept covered and sealed), it would immediately overflow and inundate the whole province, drowning and destroying all the population. It happened, however, on some occasion that a young woman, who had come to the spring to draw water, after filling her pitcher, but before she had closed the well, ran in great haste to her little boy, whom she heard crying at a spot not far from the spring, where she had left him. But the voice of the people is the voice of God; and on her way back, she met such a flood of water from the spring that it swept off her and the boy, and the inundation was so violent that they both, and the whole tribe, with their cattle, were drowned in an hour in this partial and local deluge. The waters, having covered the whole surface of that fertile district, were converted into a permanent lake, as if the Author of nature judged the land which had been witness to such unnatural bestialities against the order of nature to be unfit for the habitation of men, either then or thereafter. 70n1: Giraldus refers to Lough Neagh, in the N.W. of Ulster, from which the river Bann issues, forming the boundary between the counties of Londonderry and Antrim in its course northward. The legend given by Giraldus, from ancient traditions, of the inundation which formed this vast lake, is recorded by Tigernach, the oldest of the Irish annalists; and the names of the tribes who occupied the plain so covered are given in ancient documents. The date of the catastrophe is fixed to A.D. 62. (d) rh beard of 2 colours The Topography of Ireland 65: CHAPTER. VII. OF THE WONDERFUL NATURES OF SOME FOUNTAINS. THERE is a well in Munster, in the waters of which whoever bathes has his hair immediately turned grey. I have seen a man, part of whose beard, having been washed in this water, had become white, while the other part retained its dark natural colour. On the contrary, there is a spring in Ulster, which

prevents people who wash in its waters from ever becoming grey-haired. It is frequented by women, and by men who are desirous of avoiding grey hairs. MS 47472-154v, ScrTsLPA: ^+Ruin of the Small Trader Armenian Atrocity, Milk & butter beard Sickfish Bellyup+^ | JJA 45:196 | early 1927 | I.3§1.3/2.3/3.3 | FW 072.10 (e) no female beast The Topography of Ireland 61-2: CHAPTER. IV. OF TWO ISLANDS, IN ONE OF WHICH NO ONE DIES, AND IN THE OTHER, NO ANIMAL OF THE FEMALE SEX ENTERS. THERE is a lake in the northern parts of Munster, containing two islands, one large, the other small. In the larger island there is a church held in great veneration from the [61] earliest times; the smaller island contains a chapel, which is devoutly served by a few celibates, called Heaven-worshippers, or God-worshippers. No woman, nor any animal of the female sex, could ever enter the larger island without instant death. This has been often proved by dogs and cats, and other animals, of the female sex, which, having been carried over for sake of the experiment, immediately expired. It is an extraordinary fact, that while male birds perch on the bushes on all parts of the island in great numbers, the female birds with whom they pair, fly back, avoiding the island from some natural instinct of its qualities, as if it were infested with the plague. (f) black sheep / — wool garment > (g) short cape > (h) switch on horse The Topography of Ireland 122-3: CHAPTER. X. OF THE CHARACTER, CUSTOMS, AND HABITS OF THIS PEOPLE. But although they [the people] are richly endowed with the gifts of nature, their want of civilization, shown both in their dress and mental culture, makes them a barbarous people. For they wear but little woollen, and nearly all they use is black, that being the colour of the sheep in this country. Their clothes are also made after a barbarous fashion. Their custom is to wear small, close-fitting hoods, hanging below the shoulders a cubit’s length, and generally made of parti-coloured strips sewn together. Under these, they use woollen rugs instead of cloaks, with breeches and hose of one piece, or hose and breeches joined together, which are usually dyed of some colour.1 Likewise, in riding, they [122] neither use saddles, nor boots, nor spurs, but only carry a rod in their hand, having a crook at the upper end, with which they both urge forward and guide their horses. They use reins which serve the purpose both of a bridle and a bit, and do not prevent the horses from feeding, as they always live on grass. Moreover, they go to battle without armour, considering it a burthen, and esteeming it brave and honourable to fight without it. 122n1f: Seu braccis caligatis, seu caligis braccatis. The account given by Giraldus of the ancient dress of the Irish, in a language which supplied no equivalent terms, is necessarily obscure; but, connecting it with other sources of information, we find that it consisted of the following articles: —1. What our author calls caputium, was a sort of bonnet and hood, protecting not only the head, but the neck and shoulders from the weather. It was of a conical form, and probably made of the same sort of stuff as the mantle. 2. The cloak or mantle; to describe which Giraldus has framed the Latin word phalingium, from the Irish falach, which signifies a rug or covering of any sort. This cloak had a fringed border sown or wove down the edges. It was worn almost as low as the ancles, and was usually made of frieze, or some such coarse material. It was worn by the higher classes of the same fashion, but of better quality, according to their rank and means; and was sometimes made of the finest cloth, with a silken or woollen fringe, and of scarlet or [122] other colours. Many rows of the shag, or fringe, were sown on the upper part of the mantle, partly for ornament and partly to defend the neck from the cold; and along the edges ran a narrow fringe of the same texture as the outward garment. 3. The covering for the lower part of the body, the thighs and legs, consisted of close breeches, with hose or stockings made in one, or sewn to them. It was a garment common to the Celtic nations, and is often mentioned by Roman writers.[…] (i) inhospitable Not found in sequence in The Topography of Ireland, but probably suggested by the context. See (h) above. (j) unarmed

Not found in sequence in The Topography of Ireland, but probably suggested by the context. See (h) above. (k) riches not to work The Topography of Ireland 124-5: The Irish are a rude people, subsisting on the produce of their cattle only, and living themselves like beasts—a people that has not yet departed from the primitive habits of pastoral life. In the common course of things, mankind progresses from the forest to the field, from the field to the town, and to the social condition of citizens; but this nation, holding agricultural labour in contempt, and little covering the wealth of towns, as well as being exceedingly averse to civil institutions—lead the same life their fathers did in the woods and open pastures, neither willing to abandon their old habits or learn anything new. They, therefore, only make patches of tillage; their pastures are short of herbage; cultivation is very rare, and there is scarcely any land sown. This want of tilled fields arises from the neglect of those who should cultivate them; for there are large tracts which are naturally fertile and productive. The whole habits of the people are contrary to agricultural pursuits, so that the rich glebe is barren for want of husbandmen, the fields demanding labour which is not forthcoming. Very few sorts of fruit-trees are found in this country, a defect arising not from the nature of the soil, but from [124] want of industry in planting them; for the lazy husbandman does not take the trouble to plant the foreign sorts which would grow very well here. There are four kinds of trees indigenous in Britain which are wanting here. Two of them are fruit-bearing trees, the chesnut and beech; the other two, the arulus and the box, though they bear no fruit, are serviceable for making cups and handles. Yews, with their bitter sap, are more frequently to be found in this country than in any other I have visited; but you will see them principally in old cemeteries and sacred places, where they were planted in ancient times by the hands of holy men, to give them what ornament and beauty they could. The forests of Ireland also abound with fir-trees, producing frankincense and incense. There are also veins of various kinds of metals ramifying in the bowels of the earth, which, from the same idle habits, are not worked and turned to account. Even gold, which the people require in large quantities, and still covet in a way that speaks their Spanish origin, is brought here by the merchants who traverse the ocean for the purposes of commerce. They neither employ themselves in the manufacture of flax or wool, or in any kind of trade or mechanical art; but abandoning themselves to idleness, and immersed in sloth, their greatest delight is to be exempt from toil, their richest possession the enjoyment of liberty. (l) Ogygia The Topography of Ireland 115n2f: A different account of the long existence of Ruanus, who is elsewhere called Tuan, is given in the Ogygia, p. 4 :—“In varias brutorum formas per multa sæcula transmutatus, tandem circa A.D. 527, e salmone, filius Carelli regis Ultoniæ evasit.” [After having been for many ages transmuted into the shape of various animals, at last, about [115] the year of our Lord 527, he came out from that of a salmon, as the son of Carell, king of Ulster.] It appears that the earliest Irish races held the eastern doctrine of the transmigration of souls; and fabulous accounts of the transmutation of the human species into animals received credit in Ireland even as late as the time of Giraldus.

VI.B.1.040 (a) Ireland / Gt Brit “/” Spain Note: See reproduction. At the top of the page there is a pencil drawing possibly resembling an island. The Topography of Ireland 17: CHAPTER. I. OF THE SITUATION OF IRELAND. IRELAND, the largest of islands after Britain, lies in the Western ocean, a short day’s sail beyond Wales, in Britain; but between Ulster and Galway, in Scotland, the sea contracts into a narrower strait of about half the breadth. There are, moreover, promontories on the coasts of both islands, which may be seen and made out from the opposite side more or less distinctly, but in all cases clearly enough in favourable weather. Ireland is the most remote of the western islands, having Spain parallel to it on the south, at the distance of three ordinary days’ sail, Great Britain on the east, and the ocean alone on the west. On the north lies Iceland, the largest of the northern islands, at a distance of about three days’ sailing. (b) black swans The Topography of Ireland 39: CHAPTER. XIV.

OF SWANS AND STORKS AND THEIR NATURES. SWANS abound in the northern part of Ireland; but storks are very rare throughout the island, and their colour is black. It is remarkable in swans that they teach us not to grieve at the fate of death; for in their last moments, making a virtue of necessity, they exhibit by their funeral songs contempt for the loss of life. (c) flying crane The Topography of Ireland 34-5: CHAPTER. X. OF THE CRANE, AND ITS NATURE. CRANES assemble in such numbers, that a hundred, or about that number, are often seen in one flock. By natural in-[34]stinct they keep watch in turns at night for their common safety, perched on one foot, and holding a stone in the other featherless claw, that if they should fall asleep, the fall of the stone may rouse them to renew their watch. (d) eagles The Topography of Ireland 30: CHAPTER. IX. OF THE EAGLE, AND ITS NATURE. EAGLES are as numerous here as kites are in other countries. These birds eye with fixed gaze the full effulgence of the solar rays; and it is reported that they teach their young to do the same, though unwilling. Hence, eagles {aquilæ) are so called from their piercing eyes {acumine). (e) [quirfrisius] Not found in The Topography of Ireland. (f) one web foot / one talon The Topography of Ireland 37-8: CHAPTER. XII. OF BIRDS OF TWOFOLD SPECIES AND MIXED BREED. THERE are also many birds here of a twofold nature, which are called ospreys, in size less than eagles, and larger than hawks. By an extraordinary contrivance of sportive nature, one of their feet spreads open, armed with talons and adapted for taking their prey; the other is close, harmless, and only fit for swimming. It is wonderful how these birds—and I have often witnessed it myself—hover in the air over the waves supported by their wings, remaining still, that they may command a better view of the depths below; and when, with a penetrating glance, they discover through the great space of turbulent air and water small fishes lurking in the sand beneath the waves, they pounce upon them from on high with headlong speed, and diving and coming to the surface, use their web-foot in swimming, while with the other armed with talons they seize and [37] carry off their prey. (g) rhobbies Not found in The Topography of Ireland. In Ulysses the citizen erroneously claims that according to Cambrensis horses were an export product, as they are in his time, and he adds “the Irish hobbies.” MS 47482b-106, ScrLMS: the hinny and the mule and the many donkeys ^+the jennet and the pooka and the capal and the hobbies+^ | JJA 58:079 | Dec 1924 | III§3A.*2+/3B.*0+ | FW 000.00 (h) stick pole in Neagh The Topography of Ireland 66: There is a spring in the most northern part of Ulster, which is so excessively cold that it hardens wood, which has been immersed in it for seven years, into stone. We find in Norway another spring having the same property, only being nearer the Frigid Zone, it is still more powerful; for not only timber, but flax and woollen webs, are congealed into the hardest stone when they have been immersed in this spring a single year. In consequence, Oxippale, a Norwegian bishop, brought to Waldemar, king of Denmark in our time, an object which he had received from him the year before, for the purpose of making the experiment. It had now two different parts, as far as the middle, having been immersed in the water, it was stone; the other part, which had lain out of the water, retained its original nature. In Great Britain, near the monastery of Wimborn, stands a grove of fruit trees, the wood of which, when it happens to fall into the water, or on the earth at that spot, is at a year’s end converted to stone; so that stakes fixed in a hedge and planted in the soil, have different properties above and below the surface of the ground. Moreover, any articles carved in wood, and deposited either in the water, or in the earth, at that place for a year, are taken out by the inhabitants changed into stone.2 66n2f: What Giraldus relates of the petrifaction of wood and other substances immersed in certain springs, was probably derived from reports which had reached him of the calcareous and silicious

incrustations produced by the deposits of these waters.[…] [67] the mass which adhered to the stick, […] was several inches in thickness. (i) low part iron / — stones / — sword ?The Topography of Ireland 124: Thus it has happened, in my own time, that one blow of the axe has cut off a knight’s thigh, although it was incased in iron, the thigh and leg falling on one side of his horse, and the body of the dying horseman on the other. When other weapons fail, they hurl stones against the enemy in battle with such quickness and dexterity, that they do more execution than the slingers of any other nation. (j) fishful Erne The Topography of Ireland 24n4: The river which empties itself into the sea, at Ballyshannon, it merely the outlet of the waters of lake Earne. (k) complaints of / torn nets The Topography of Ireland 70-1: CHAPTER. IX. OF A GREAT LAKE WHICH ORIGINATED IN A REMARKABLE MANNER. THERE is a lake in Ulster of vast size, being thirty miles long and fifteen broad,1 from which a very beautiful river, called the Banna, flows into the Northern ocean. The fishermen in this lake make more frequent complaints of the quantity of fish inclosed in their nets and breaking them than of the want of fish. (l) Avonliffey The Topography of Ireland 22-3: CHAPTER. VI. OF THE FINE PRINCIPAL RIVERS, AND SEVERAL OTHERS WHICH HAVE BURST FORTH OF LATE. THE island is intersected and watered by nine noble rivers, which have been celebrated from the earliest ages, even from tbe time of Bartholanus, who first settled in it after the flood. Their names are these: the Avenlifius, [22] at Dublin; the Banna runs througli Ulster; the Moadus, through Connaught; the Slichenis and Samarius, through Kenelcunnill; the Modarnus and Phinnus, through Keneleonia; and the Saverennus and Luvius, through Cork.

VI.B.1.041 (e) xS. Patrick Purg The Topography of Ireland 63: CHAPTER. V. OF AN ISLAND, ONE PART OF WHICH IS FREQUENTED BY GOOD SPIRITS, THE OTHER BY EVIL SPIRITS. THERE is a lake in Ulster containing an island divided into two parts. In one of these stands a church of especial sanctity, and it is most agreeable and delightful, as well as beyond measure glorious for the visitations of angels and the multitude of the saints who visibly frequent it. The other part, being covered with rugged crags, is reported to be the resort of devils only, and to be almost always the theatre on which crowds of evil spirits visibly perform their rites. This part of the island contains nine pits, and should any one perchance venture to spend the night in one of them (which has been done, we know, at times, by some rash men), he is immediately seized by the malignant spirits, who so severely torture him during the whole night, inflicting on him such unutterable sufferings by fire and water, and other torments of various kinds, that when morning comes scarcely any spark of life is found left in his wretched body. It is said that any one who has once submitted to these torments as a penance imposed upon him, will not afterwards undergo the pains of hell, unless he commit some sin of a deeper dye. This place is called by the natives the Purgatory of St. Patrick.1 63n1: Tradition places St. Patrick’s Purgatory, as Giraldus describes it, on an island in a lake in the province of Ulster, Lough Derg, in Donenegal, near the town and bay of the same name, and about three-quarters of an Irish mile in extent; but Giraldus is the only writer who speaks of its division into paradisaic and purgatorial regions. The text-book on St. Patrick’s Purgatory, in the middle ages, was a Latin narrative by Henry of Saltery, which is dated 1152, and is common in old manuscripts; it was translated into various languages. Giraldus had evidently not seen this book, as his account differs very much from it. MS 47474-27, ScrTsILS: his punishment ^+pawdry’s purgatory+^ was more | JJA 47:407 | Apr-May 1925 | I.7§1.3/2.3 | FW 177.04

(f) cf SD Not found in The Topography of Ireland. (g) Meath > (h) a bit of all from 4 / brothers for Slanius > (i) rnavel The Topography of Ireland 117-8: CHAPTER. IV. OF THE FOURTH IMMIGRATION BY THE FIVE BROTHERS AND SONS OF DELA. five chiefs, all brothers, who were the sons of Dela, and among the descendants of Nemedus, who had taken refuge in Greece, arrived in Ireland, and, finding it uninhabited, divided the country into five equal parts, of which each took one. Their bounds meet at a stone standing near the castle of Kyllari, in Meath, which stone is called the navel of Ireland, because it stands in the middle of the country. [117] Hence that part of Ireland is called Meath (Media), because it lies in the middle of the island; but it formed neither of the five famous provinces whose names I have before mentioned. For, when the aforesaid five brothers, Gandius, Genandius, Sagandius, Rutherrargus, and Slanius, had divided the island into five parts, each of these parts had a small portion of Meath, abutting on the stone just mentioned [...] In process of time [...] Slanius alone obtained the monarchy of the whole of Ireland.[...] He first reunited the five portions of Meath, and forming them into one province, appropriating the whole of Meath to the royal table. (j) chambre d’Irlande Not found in The Topography of Ireland. (k) repose of ships Not found in The Topography of Ireland. (l) bunn = fleet Not found in The Topography of Ireland. (m) shannon / old river The Topography of Ireland 24: the Boandus, through Meath; the Avonmore, through Lignioria; and the Sinnenus, through Limerick.3 Of all the rivers in Ireland, new or old, the Sinnenus deservedly claims the first rank, both for its full and majestic stream, which flows through vast tracts of country, and for the abundance of fish contained in its waters. It has its source in a lake which divides Connaught from Munster, and forms two branches which take opposite courses; one branch flowing eastward, and washing the city of Killaloe in its course, after embracing Limerick, and separating for one hundred miles and more the two parts of Munster, falls into the sea of Brandon. The other branch, of equal importance, divides Meath and the further districts of Ulster from Connaught, and after various windings falls into the Northern Ocean.4 24n3: The Shannon, called in Irish, Sinain. It is not easy to account for the singular error into which Giraldus has fallen with regard to the course of this celebrated river. He seems to have imagined that it was a branch of the river Shannon which discharges itself into the sea at Ballyshannon, in the bay of Donegal. The Shannon, as is well known, takes its rise in Lough Allen, in the county of Leitrim, and takes first a southern and then a south-western course, till it discharges itself into the Atlantic, which was sometimes called St. Brandan’s sea, because it was the supposed scene of his marvellous voyages. 24n4: The river which empties itself into the sea, at Ballyshannon, it merely the outlet of the waters of lake Earne.

Handbook of the Ulster Question

VI.B.1.105 (f) fifth > (g) Irish & Norse end Handbook of the Ulster Question 1: The Gaelic Conquest of the Picts (B.C. 350-A.D. 462) The name of Ulster, like that of Munster and Leinster, contains an Irish name with a Norse ending. The corresponding Irish name is Cuigeadh Uladh, anciently Coiced Uloth, meaning the Fifth of the 10

Uluti. This name comes down from the Irish Pentarchy, when Ireland was divided into five principal kingdoms, each of which was called a Fifth. (h) Pretani > (i) rcycling Handbook of the Ulster Question 1: At the time of the Celtic or Gaelic occupation of Ireland, about 350 B.C., the chief people of this region were those afterwards known as the Picts. Their Celtic name was Qreteni, the Cruithni of Irish literature. In the Celtic of Britain and Gaul, this name became Pretani, from which Julius Caesar formed the name Brittania; for the Gauls, who were the main source of Caesar’s information, regarded the Pretani as the original and principal inhabitants of both Britain and Ireland. Ptolemy, the celebrated Greek geographer, writing about A.D. 150, still uses the name Pretani, and calls Britain and Ireland the “Pretanic Islands,” which really means the Pictish islands. The great Irish epic tale of Tain Bo Cuailnge, the most celebrated piece of Irish literature, along with its numerous companion tales of the “Ulster Cycle,” has been the subject of study by many modern scholars.[…] This Ulster epic has held the primacy in the national literature of Ireland since the seventh century when it was first written down. MS Cornell-6, ScrPrBMA: they used to be flapping ^+and cycling+^ around the waists of the ships | JJA 56:104 | Mar 1924 | II.4§2.5/3.7 | FW 394.14 (j) 101 battles Handbook of the Ulster Question 2: the Picts became again the dominant race in Ulster. Against them Conn of the Hundred Battles, endeavouring to consolidate all Ireland under one monarchy, measured his strength, and in the last of the hundred fights, the celebrated Conan MacAirt, renewed the struggle. At first he was worsted and driven by the Picts from Tara, but he gathered help, returned, and won a decisive victory over the Picts at the battle of Crinna, about A.D. 250. The result of this battle was to push back the bounds of Ulster from the Boyne to somewhere near its present line, and to establish the authority of the kings of Tara over all Ireland. (k) rcattleraiders ?Handbook of the Ulster Question 4: In the third and fourth centuries, the weakening of the Roman power in Britain tempted the Gaels and Picts to invasion and plunder, and many Irish settlements were made that lasted for centuries on the western coastlands of Britain from Devonshire to Argyleshire. It was in this period that the Irish came to be known in Latin by the name Scotti or Scots, probably an old Celtic name meaning “raiders.” Centuries later the Norsemen began to give this name to the Irish colonists in Scotland, distinguishing them by it from the Irish of the mother country. MS Cornell-2, ScrPrBMS: American visitors ^+cattleraiders+^ | JJA 56:100 | Mar 1924 | II.4§2.5/3.7 | FW 387.02 (l) Fomorians back as Firbolg Handbook of the Ulster Question 2: Hard by Dun Sobairce and now more famous is Clochan na Fomorach, “the Giant’s Causeway,” named from the “Fomorians,” a race of gods of storm and pestilence, who had a stronghold in Toraigh, Tory Island. The siege of this stronghold led to the overthrow of Nemed’s people, the second race of colonists of Ireland in ancient legend. The remnant of this colony fled from Ireland, and came back under the name of Fir Bolg. One of their kings was Genann, from whom Dungannon takes its name. (m) Black Pig’s Dyke / Worm Ditch Handbook of the Ulster Question 2: The Picts, fearing that further loss of territory might follow, now sought to fortify their frontier in imitation of the Roman walls of Northern Britain—for it was about this time, as we learn from Latin writers, that both the Picts and the Gaels or Scots are first told of as joint invaders of the Roman border in Britain. Linking up the natural barriers of lake and river and marsh and forest, they raised a mighty earthwork along the southern border of Ulster from sea to sea. Extensive remains of this great Wall of Ulster are still extant, named in one place the Black Pig’s Dyke, in another the Worm Ditch, in another the Dunchladh, “the fortified earthwork.” (n) Dorsey (Gate) Handbook of the Ulster Question 3: The great road passed through openings in the northern and southern walls of this work, which thus got the name of Doirse Emna, “the gates of Emain,” and is still known as “the Dorsey.”

(o) La Route Handbook of the Ulster Question 2-3: the main highway of Ulster on the eastern side was the road of Midluachair. This road connected Tara, the capital of Ireland, with Emain, the capital of Ulster. North of Emain, it parted into two branches, one on each side of Lough Neagh. The eastern branch which lead to Dunseverick, became known afterwards to the French-speaking Norman colonists of eastern Ulster as “la Route,” and this name, [2] the Route, is still given to the north-western part of County Antrim, traversed by the ancient road.

VI.B.1.106 (a) Dane’s Cast Handbook of the Ulster Question 3: The ancient kingdom of Airgialla extended from the bounds of Meath to the banks of Loch Foyle. In it were comprised the present counties of Armagh, Monaghan, Fermanagh, Tyrone, and about half of Derry. The defeated Picts still held sway in Iveagh and Kinelarty and also in the valley of the Lower Bann, north of Lough Neagh. Between the Newry valley and Loch Neagh they raised another earthwork, the remains of which are now called the Dane’s Cast. (b) Glunduff Blacknee Handbook of the Ulster Question 4: Niall’s descendants in western and middle Ulster were known as the Northern Ui Neill, his descendants in the Midlands as the Southern Ui Neill. Ui Neill is not to be confused with the surname O’Neill, given to the posterity of Niall Glundubh (black knee), king of Ireland, 916-919, who was himself a descendant of Niall of the Nine Hostages. (c) Oriel Handbook of the Ulster Question 4: In that early Christian period, the political devision of Ulster was as follows. Connacht was held to extend to the Lakes of Erne, Airgialla or “Oriel” from the Erne to Loch Neagh. North of this, from the Bann westwards, were the Northern Ui Neill. (d) Brigid, Columba & SP / buried together Handbook of the Ulster Question 4-5: It was in one of the Irish raids on Britain, about the year 403, that a youth of Roman Britain, afterwards known as Saint Patrick, was carried away captive with many others and became a slave to Milliuc, a chieftain whose lands were in the district of Sliabh Mis, “Slemish” mountain, in County Antrim. He escaped, and afterwards, in 432, returned to Ireland a Christian bishop to convert the Irish from heathenism. He first settled in the land of [4] the Ulaidh, where, among other churches, he founded the one which afterwards bore his name, Dun Padraig, Downpatrick. Some twenty years later he established his principal see at Armagh. After long and successful missionary labours in various parts of Ireland, he died in 461, and was buried in Downpatrick. It is an unquestionable tradition that in the same tomb with him were afterwards buried the two greatest saints of Irish birth, Brigid and Columba. (e) Maximus Barefoot Handbook of the Ulster Question 6: To establish his power over Domhnall, O Briain made alliance with the Ulaidh in East Ulster and also with Magnus Barefoot, king of Norway, who was then seeking to consolidate his own authority over the Norse settlements in Scotland, Ireland and the Isle of Man. O Briain bethrothed his daughter to a son of Magnus. In 1103 Mac Lochlainn defeated O Briain and his East Ulster allies near Banbridge and Magnus, who no doubt was coming to their aid, was cut off and killed on the Ulster coast. (f) Malachy Cistercian / † Clairvaux / S Bernard > Handbook of the Ulster Question 7: The most illustrious Irishman of his time was Maelmaedhog O Morgair, commonly called St. Malachy. His zeal and virtue earned him the love and admiration of the greatest churchman of that age, Saint Bernard. Malachy twice visited Bernard at Clairvaux with the object of having the Cistercian Order introduced in Ireland. On his second visit he fell ill and died at Clairvaux. His biography, written by Saint Bernard, is extant, as well as two sermons preached in his memory by the great Cistercian. Besides establishing the Cistercians at Mellifont, Malachy succeeded in abolishing the lay succession to the Primacy in Armagh. He became Bishop of Connor, a region which, during the Norse period had sunk into barbarism, and in a short time he restored his flock to the way of Christian ideals. (g) O’Connor / MacConnor

Handbook of the Ulster Question 7-8: The same Muircheartach Mac Lochlainn or O Lochlainn, for the surnames were interchangeable, King of Ailech, played a prominent part, but not a fortunate part in the national politics of his time. He was successor in the monarchy to Toirdhealbhach O Conchobhuir (O’Conor), King of Connacht, whom, in his lifetime, he had opposed. Toirdhealbhach (“Torlogh”) had ideas of a centralising monarchical policy. […] [7] […] Mac Lochlainn fell fighting. Ruaidhri O’Conchobhuir (“Roderick O’Conor”) succeeded to the monarchy. (h) rGallowglasses / — sbird / foreign soldiers Handbook of the Ulster Question 9: In Ulster especially a new factor in Irish history appeared. This was the “galloglass” organisation—Gall-oglaich, “foreign soldiers.” They got their name because they came from the Norse kingdom established about a century earlier by Sumarlidi in Argyle and the Hebrides. The galloglasses made their first appearance under a king of Tir Conaill, whose queen was a MacDonnell from Islay. Gradually they were introduced by the Irish prince of Tyrone, Fermanagh, Breifne, Connacht, and even Desmond. Everywhere they supplied what the Irish had not possessed for centuries, standing forces of well trained, well-armed soldiers, ready for either field or garrison duty. The galloglass immigration lasted continuously from about 1250 to 1600, and introduced into Ireland, and especially into Ulster a very large new element, half-Norse in origin. (i) Norse Hebrides Handbook of the Ulster Question 9: In 1263, the Norse kingdom of the Hebrides was hard pressed by Alexander II., King of Scotland. Argyle, Arran and Bute fell into his hands, and the Out Islands were invaded. Hakon, King of Norway, made a last effort to maintain Norwegian power in the West. Fitting out a strong fleet he soon recovered the islands and Cantire. An embassy from Ireland, probably from Ulster, met him off Cantire and offered him the Crown of Ireland on condition that he would dispossess the English. Hakon sent a commission of inquiry to Ireland, and on their return he proposed to accept the offer. His followers, tired of stormy seas and scanty fare, opposed him and he headed away to Norway, but fell sick and died in the Orkneys. He was still expected in Ulster, for the Annals of Ulster, a contemporary record, say that he died “on his way to Ireland.” The Hebrideans yielded an unwilling submission to Alexander, but their eyes were turned to Ireland and the Galloglass immigration was intensified. Very close relations, with many intermarriages, arose between Ulster and the Scottish isles, and lasted until James VI. of Scotland became King of England.

VI.B.1.107 (a) MacDougal / — Kee / — Cabe / — Donnell Handbook of the Ulster Question 9: Many surnames, including some of the most frequent, are indicative of Galloglass descent. Mac Domhnaill (MacDonnell or MacConnell), Mac Ruaidhri (MacRory or Rogers), MacDubhghaill (MacDowell or Coyle), Mac Suibhne (MacSweeny or Sweeny), Mac Sithigh (MacSheehy, Sheehy, Shee, MacKee), Mac Somhairle (MacSorley, MacCorley, Corley), Mac Caba (MacCabe), are among the commonest. (b) signature / Mise O’Neill / I am — Handbook of the Ulster Question 10-1: All Ulster, except at times an O Domhnaill in his western fastness, recognised the rule of the O’Neills, and the kings of Tyrone now took the official title of kings of Ulster “righ Uladh.” Personally, the King of Ulster, like the head of any other Irish family, signed himself by the simple surname. [10] Letters of Seán a’ Diomuis (Shane of the Pride) are extant signed always “mise O’Neill”, “I am O’Neill.” (c) brown earl Handbook of the Ulster Question 10: The Earldom of Ulster before these events had reached the height of its power. The lordship of Connacht belonged to it and the “Red Earl” seemed like to reduce all Ulster to his obedience. To dominate the O’Neills and to control the Galloglass inflow, he had built in Inishowen a fortress to which was given the English name Northburgh. On his death in 1326 he was succeeded by his son, the “Brown Earl.” (d) lord of Ireland H 2 / K — — H 8 Handbook of the Ulster Question 11: In the fierce rivalry between England and Spain for possession of the wealth of the New World, the importance of Ireland’s position became apparent, especially to her English neighbours. Soon followed the great disruption of Christendom in which Ireland and England took different sides, and the long agony of modern Ireland began. Henry VIII., though he suppressed the Irish monasteries where he could, and seized their possessions, was less the “jealous, ruthless tyrant” in Ireland than in England. He called the principal Irish nobles to his Dublin 13

parliament, and conferred English titles of nobility on some of them, including O’Neill, who was entitled Earl of Tyrone. The same parliament gave Henry the title of King of Ireland, for till then the English kings claimed no more than the title of “lords of Ireland,” bestowed on them by the Popes. (e) arms (all sorts) ?Handbook of the Ulster Question 16: One of the most sensational events in the campaign was a march on Belfast in December, 1770, to secure the release of a Steelboy leader, David Douglas, of Templepatrick, Co. Antrim, who had been arrested on the charge of houghing cattle. Some 1,200 men, mobilised from districts all over South Antrim, and armed with guns, pistols, swords, and scythes, took part in the operation. Gathering reinforcements as they advanced, they entered Belfast in military order, and, having surrounded the barracks, sent in a written message demanding the release of Douglas. This was refused, and the Steelboys promptly opened a hot fire on the building. Finding the place too strong to be carried by direct assault, orders were given to wreck and burn the houses of merchants who had been speculating in the Donegall lands. There was grave danger that the whole town would go up in flames, and the magistrates who had taken refuge in the barracks persuaded the military to release the prisoner. Finally, at one o’clock in the morning, the Steelboys, who had lost five killed and nine wounded in the engagement, marched in triumph out of the town, carrying Douglas with them. (f) flood—regains old rights ?Handbook of the Ulster Question 17: In its inception the crusade, which established in 1782 the right of Ireland to be governed solely by the King, Lords and Commons of Ireland, was a Protestant movement designed to advance specific ally Protestant interests. But as Grattan told his followers: “The question is now whether we should be a Protestant settlement or an Irish nation . . . . for so long as we exclude Catholics from national liberty and the common rights of man, we are not a people.” Unfortunately, as far as legislative action was concerned, his words fell on deaf ears. By a fatal flaw in the Constitution, Executive power in College Green was in the hands of agents not of Ireland but of England; and these found it an easy task to rally to their sides the vested interests threatened with extinction by any scheme of Parliamentary reform. “A monopoly of power as complete as that which was possessed by a small group of borough owners in Ireland, has never, or scarcely ever,” in Lecky’s words, “broken down except by measures bordering upon revolution.”

VI.B.1.110 (a) Belfast parl no opposi / . .. an oppositio / parliament thrust / upon them > Handbook of the Ulster Question 36-7: In the first place, the Belfast Parliament did not come into existence, as national Parliaments have always done, in response to forces persistently demanding expression in that Parliament. It came into existence at a time when the right of Great Britain to legislate for Ireland was being contested by the vast majority of the Irish people, including 450,000 people now unwillingly held within the jurisdiction of the Belfast Parliament. The Act of 1920 which established that Parliament was a purely British Act passed in the British Parliament by British votes, not a single Irish representative having voted for it. A separate Parliament for the Six Counties was never demanded by the people of those counties, their Press or their political leaders.[…] [36] […] From this brief summary of the manner in which the Belfast Parliament came into being it is clear that that Parliament is not a national Parliament in any real sense. Rather does it represent the last form taken by the resistance of a privileged minority to the national movement for an All-Ireland Parliament. National Parliaments in all countries and at all times have come into being in response to dynamic forces acting from within; the Belfast Parliament is probably the only assembly in the world which owes its existence to an attitude of negation and to pressure from without. Such a Parliament may express a mood, a temper, a prejudice, a fear or a denial, but it certainly is not the expression of a national will. Had it been so it would have come in response to a popular and irresistible movement from within, and it would not have been satisfied with powers so limited as those conferred on the Belfast Parliament. The measure of a status of a Parliament is the measure of the organic forces behind it, and the Belfast Parliament is the product not of organic forces but of mere political expediency. It is probably the only Parliament in the world whose whole raison d’être is a negation. It is the result, not of an organic need, but of the resistance of a minority to a real organic need on the part of the Irish nation. It is the only Parliament in the world which has no genuine opposition, because it is itself an opposition to the will of the overwhelming majority of the Irish people. (b) do like again > (c) birth of nation / geog / hist / social

Handbook of the Ulster Question 39-40: THE IDEA OF A NATION. The truth is that the two-nation theory as applied to Ireland rests not only on a misrepresentation of the known facts but on a complete misunderstanding of what a nation really is. It is worth while, therefore, to inquire what is the true nature and function of a nation and to apply the results of our inquiry to the two-nation theory as applied to Ireland. It is easier to say what a nation is not than to say what precisely it is. We feel that the word describes a very vital and significant expression of corporate life, but as soon as we have made the attempt to define it we feel that something of the truth has been lost. “Though no term in politics is of more frequent use than nation,” said Lord Bryce, “it is not easy to define. There are almost as many accounts of it as we have found in other terms of the political dialect.” Professor Ramsay Muir expressed the same difficulty when he wrote: “Nationality is an elusive idea, difficult to define. It cannot be tested or analysed by formulæ.” Nevertheless, many thinkers have attempted to give satisfying definitions of the term, and though the words used to define it vary, their central thought is the same. According to one thinker “it is about consciousness of kind, as a determining principle, that all other motives organise themselves in the evolution of social choice, social volition or social policy.” Another expands this definition to “a social group, bound together by a consciousness of kind which springs from the tradition evoked by the group’s historic past, and is directly related to a definite home- country.” Still another defines it as “a form of corporate consciousness of peculiar intensity, intimacy, and dignity, related to a definite home-country.” Renan’s well-known definition is more flexible than those given above by more modern thinkers, but it runs parallel with them. “A nation is a living soul, a spiritual principle. Two things, which in truth are but one, constitute this soul, this principle. One is in the past; the other is in the present. One is the common possession of a rich heritage of memories of the other is the actual consent, the desire to live together, the will to preserve worthily the individual inheritance which has been handed down. To have common glories in the past, a common will in the present, to have done great things together; to will to do the like again—such are the essential conditions for the making of a people.” A LIVING ORGANISM. Now, all these definitions, however variously worded, are in fundamental agreement. A nation is a living organism growing out of a conscious identity of country, memories and interests. It is shaped first by geographical conditions, then by history, then by a sense of common interests and purposes. People living together in a well-marked geographical area evolve a sense of kinship. Historical happenings, not always against an outside enemy, become the com-[39]mon inheritance of all. A living organism, capable of continuous development, springs from these things and the nation is born. (d) rpartitionr / — Donegal / rwavy line > (e) Tullaghoge — cemetery / of O’Neills / inauguration Handbook of the Ulster Question 90: From the historic Province of Ulster there has been carved a new temporary political area, which has been named by its authors “Northern Ireland.” It consists of the six Counties of Antrim, Armagh, Derry, Down, Fermanagh and Tyrone, and includes the two Cities, or County Boroughs, of Belfast and Derry. “Northern Ireland” accordingly does not include the County Donegal, the most northerly county in Ireland. The land frontier of this new area has a length of about 240 miles, and runs from the south-western corner of Lough Foyle in a south-westerly direction to a point west of Lough Erne, and thence in an easterly direction, with large fluctuations north and south, to the Ulster frontier, running into Carlingford Lough. In its path it ignores in a manner even more arbitrary than the frontier of the province any natural features that might tend to constitute a barrier. It divides the basins of the River Foyle, Derg, Erme, Blackwater, Fane and Castletown. It cuts longitudinally the fertile valleys of the Foyle and Blackwater. It separates the Eastern and Western shores of Lough Foyle, leaving Moville the outport of Derry under the control of the Free State and Derry itself under the authority of “Northern Ireland.” Similarly the control of the Bay of Carlingford, the entrance to the port of Newry, is divided between two authorities. It almost isolates Tyrconnell (Co. Donegal) geographically leaving at its southern extremity a neck of only five miles in width connecting it with the Free State, which is not traversed by any railway. Thus Donegal is cut off from all direct railway connection with the rest of the Free State. As regards the delineation of the frontier, no barrier has ever pursued a more tortuous or irregular path. For very few miles at a time does it follow a reasonably straight course. It projects for many miles into the mountainous region of Donegal. It almost encloses the District Electoral Division of Drummully in the Co. Monaghan. This latter county itself breaks the southern level of the line for more than a third of its extent by stretching far into the north like a spear head. The whole course of the frontier is repugnant to both the natural and historic features of the county. The Grianán of Aileach, the ancient seat of Ulster’s political life, lies outside the new frontier, although

the upholders of “Northern Ireland” show a tendency to claim the title “Ulster” for their truncated area. On the other hand the national shrines of Armagh, the ecclesiastical metropolis, Downpatrick, the grave of Patrick, Brigid and Colmcille, and Tullaghoge, the place of inauguration of the O’Neill kings, are cut off territorially from the natural entity which venerates their memory. (f) Donegal / South Ireland >>

VI.B.1.111 (a) rural slums Handbook of the Ulster Question 113: THE ECONOMY OF DONEGAL. The economic position of County Donegal deserves special attention on account of the curious position in which the county has been placed by the arbitrary and unnatural partition of Ireland. The name of Donegal means “the fort of the stranger,” but it is nevertheless the most Irish of all Irish counties. It contains the most northerly point on the mainland of Ireland, and yet it forms part of the area described in the Act which introduced partition as “Southern Ireland.” This most northerly county of the Free State, although two-thirds of its area consists of rock, bog, marsh and poor mountain pasture, sustains a human being on every seven acres, whereas in the rich plains of fertile Meath the ratio is one to every nine acres. The county itself is divided by its mountain and river system into two well-defined economic regions. The rivers that flow north-east and empty themselves into Lough Foyle or Lough Swilly drain valleys of as fertile and well cultivated land as there is to be found anywhere in all Ireland. The rivers that flow west to a rock-bound coast, deeply indented by the waves of the Atlantic, are rapid mountain torrents. They pass through a country which is one vast expanse of brown bog, plentifully strewn with boulders, with here and there a few patches of green and a cluster of thatched cottages, where human beings greatly daring and much enduring have made habitations unto themselves, and carry on an unending struggle with a niggardly soil for the means of a bare subsistence.

THE ECONOMIC PROBLEM AND STATE POLICY.

These are the slums of rural Ireland. They obtained a legal definition in the Congested Districts Act of 1891, when the Congested Districts Board, or as it is called by its beneficiaries with unconscious humour the “Congested Board,” was constituted in order to operate for the social and economic improvement of people in areas where the poor law valuation per head of the population is less than 30%.