UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN The person charging this material is re- sponsible for its return to the library from which it was withdrawn on or before the Latest Date stamped below. Theft, mutilation, and underlining of iMeks are reasons for disciplinary action and may result in dismissal from the University. To renew call Telephone Center, 333-8400 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN JAN ^ 4 Ii4 ..., ( -r m I i^^Qzsm L161—O-1096 />>u; THE MAKING OF IRELAND AND ITS UNDOING MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO DALLAS • SAN FRANCISCO THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. TORONTO THE MAKING OF IRELAND AND ITS UNDOING 1 200- 1 600 ALICE ^(^TOPFORD GREEN MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON 1913 COPYRIGHT. First Edition June 1908 Reprinted July and September 1908, January and February i9.->9 Second Edition October 1909 Reprinted 1913- C.-.ASGOW : PKINTF.D AT THF UNIVERSITY PRKSS I'V HPISKIIT MACLEHOSE AND CO. I.Tli. motniAOiT) Anoif OAOine cifc^thLA, 7 Af« tiAicfte 00 ^ein pnn. Oo oibftig AD Ci^eAptiA st6i|i iti6|t mAttte pid cp^ iia th4|\coii)Achc 6n ccoj*Acli. An tlicf)c piAif\ UActiCAf\AnAc)ic lotiA ftfo^Achc, VAOine ni6pt)il,A£A ji tiA cconiAcVicAibli A5 CAbAipc 6oniAij\te fkitiA ccuicpn, 7 Ag poillfittgAoVi fAiseD6i)\eAchcA. C;Aeopaigc6if\ An f>obAil te nA doifiAi|\te, 7 le beottif a b^^lomcA lomcubAi'oh x>on pobAi, c)\ionnA 'oeAglAbApcAd Ann a cceAgAfCAibb. An T>|\ong ftJAi]\ AniAch ftiinn reotb, 7 t>o Aicpi|-eAt> vAncA a fcpibmn. t)AOine fAi'6b|\e ai]\ mbeic ^L£up>A \A ctamAf, ai]\ mbeich fio<>- dAncA ionA nAicib cotiin«iiT>e. T>o bondfxtiigeAvtt lAOfo tiiLe lonA iisineAlAdtiibh, 7 t>o but) iat> gtbip A nAimpjxe. AcAiT) cnio x)ioh x>o fig Ainm lonA nt>iAi$, lonoof 50 nAicf\eofCAOi A moLcA. Aguf ACA1T) T>Aoine Ann A15 nAcb bf cuithne aij\ biocb op)tA, vivo Af mAj\ nAC beiTjif }\\a,m Ann, CAinic AnnfA piocbc foin Aihoit. nAch beA]\CAOi )\iAm iao, 7 a cclAnn lonA noiAtgb. Acfic hat t>AOine cp6cAifteA6A lAVfo nAd a]\ t>eA]\fflAT>A<> [a] bppeAncAcVic. Aig A fLiocbc AnpiiT) A ccoinnu{t>e otgpeAcbc itiaicIi, 7 acaio ^ cclAnn CAob ApMJ won ctinpAT>1i. tTlAipit) A yio\j 50 feAjTnAcb 7 a cctAnn ai]* a fonfAn. mAippit) A ffob 50 b]\Ach, 7 ni fcni|ifi5eAi\ AmAch a n^Lditt. AcAiT) A cctiiftp AT)lAicce A Ho^dAin, Achc mAipiT>h A nAinm ^o jmcbuin. [From the unpublished MS. of the translaiioH done under Bishop Bedell in Marsh's Library, Dublin.'] [Let us now :: : Let us now praise famous men, and our fathers that begat us. The Lord hath wrought great glory by them through his great power from the beginning. Such as did bear rule in their kingdoms, men renowned for their power, giving counsel by their understanding, and declaring prophecies Leaders of the people by their counsels, and by their knowledge of learning meet for the people, wise and eloquent in their instructions Such as found out musical tunes, and recited verses in writing : Rich men furnished with ability, living peaceably in their habitations All these were honoured in their generations, and were the glory of their times. There be of them, that have left a name behind them, that their praises might be reported. And some there be, which have no memorial ; who are perished, as though they had never been ; and are become as though they had never been born ; and their children after them. But these were merciful men, whose righteousness hath not been forgotten. With their seed shall continually remain a good inheritance, and their children are within the covenant. Their seed standeth fast, and their children for their sakes. Their seed shall remain for ever, and their glory shall not be blotted out. Their bodies are buried in peace ; but their name liveth for evermore. PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION Many reasons have prevented the writing of Irish history. The invading people effaced the monuments of a society they had determined to extirpate, and so effectively extinguished the memory of that civilization that it -will need a generation of students to recover and interpret its records. The people of the soil have been in their subjugation debarred from the very sources of learn- ing, and from the opportunities of study, and association which are necessary for the historical scholar. The subject too has transcended the courage of the Irish patriot. Histories of nations have been inspired in times of hope and confidence, when the record of triumph has kindled the writers and gladdened the readers. The only story of a " decline and fall " was composed when the dividing width of Europe, with the span of a dozen centuries, and the proud consciousness of the heir of the conquering race, encouraged the historian to describe the catastrophe of a ruined State. Thus the history of the Irish people has been left unrecorded, as though it had never been ; as though indeed, according to some, the history were one or dishonour and rebuke. It is the object of these studies to gather together some records of the civilization of Ireland before the r\ — M PREFACE immense destruction of the Tudor wars ; to trace her progress in industry, in wealth, and in learning ; and to discover the forces that ruined this national life. Three reasons have led me to undertake this work. It was the fashion among the Tudor statesmen, very confident of their methods, to talk of "the godly conquest," "the perfecting of Ireland." The writers of triumphant nations are enabled to give the story of their successes from their own point of view ; but from this partial tale not even the victorious peoples can learn what the warfare has implied, nor know how to count the cost nor credit the gain. The present state of Europe is the result of vast destructions and vast obliterations. The aspect of its troubled civilization may one day lead to a new and more searching study of the conditions of such destructions, with their interminable penalties both to the conqueror and the conquered. In the history of Ireland we may learn to measure the prodigious and endless waste of a "godly conquest" and of the "perfecting" of one race by another. There is no more pious duty to all of Ireland birth than to help in recovering from centuries of obloquy the memory of noble men, Irish and Anglo-Irish, who built up the civilization that once adorned their country. To them has been meted out the second death,—the lot feared beyond all else by men of honour. They have been buried by the false hands of strangers in the deep pit of contempt, reproach, and forgetfulness an unmerited grave of silence and of shame. The Irish of to-day have themselves suffered by the calumny of their dead. They, alone among the nations, — PREFACE xi have been taunted with ancestors sunk in primitive disorders, incapable of development in the land they wasted. A picture of unrelieved barbarism " hateful to God" served to justify to strangers the English extirpa- tion of Irish society ; and has been used to depress the hearts of the Irish themselves. For their birthright they have been told—they have inherited the failings of their race, and by the verdict of the ages have been proclaimed incapable of success in their own land, or pf building up there an ordered society, trade, or culture, and have indeed ever proved themseWes a people ready " to go headlong to the Devil " if England " seek not speedy remedy to prevent the same." Thus their energy has been lowered, and some natural pride abated. It is in the study of their history alone that Irishmen will find this just pride restored, and their courage assured. In this effort however Irishmen are confronted with a singular difficulty. In no other country in the world has it been supposed the historian's business to seek out every element of political instability, every trace of private disorder, every act of personal violence, every foreign slander, and out of these alone, neglecting all indications of industry or virtue, to depict a national life. Irish annals are still in our own days quoted by historians as telling merely the tale of a corrupted land feuds and battles, murderings and plunderings ; with no town or church or monastery founded, no law enacted, no controversy healed by any judgment of the courts. If the same method had been followed for England, what an appalling story we should have had of that mediaeval xii PREFACE time, of its land-thefts, its women-lifting, its local wars, the feuds handed on from father to son with their count- less murders and atrocities, devastating for generations whole country sides. In Germany or Italy or France the picture of anarchy would appear like hell let loose on earth. In all other histories however than that of Ireland a certain convention has been observed. Men by some high instinct of faith have agreed amid all disorders to lay stress on every evidence of reason, humanity, justice, and to leave out of the record the tale of local barbarities, the violences of the rich, the brutalities of the ignorant and the starving. No human society could endure in fact if these made up in any nation the sole history of the people. In our country alone the common convention has been reversed, and the comparison of its culture with that of other lands has thus been falsified at the outset.