Chapter 25

Since then, and indeed all along, the struggle in Ireland itself has been almost wholly an agrarian one. The love of and desire for the land, rather than for any particular political development, is what there dominates the situation. A heavy fall of prices has led to a widespread refusal to pay rent, save at a considerable abatement upon the already reduced Government valuations. Where this has been refused a deadlock has set in, rents in many cases have not been paid at all, and eviction has in consequence been resorted to. Eviction, whether carried out in West Ireland or East London, is a very ugly necessity, and one, too, that is indelibly stamped with a taint of inhumanity. At the last extremity, it is, however, the only one open to any owner, _qua_ owner, let his political sympathies or proclivities be what they may, so that it does not necessarily argue any double portion of original sin even on the part of that well-laden pack-horse of politics--the Irish landlord--to say that his wits have not so far been equal to the task of dispensing with it.

Within the last two years only one question has risen to the surface of politics which gravely affects the destinies of Ireland, but that one is of so vast and all-important a character that it cannot be evaded. The question I mean, of course, of Home Rule. Complicated as its issues are, embittered as the controversy it has awakened, dark still as are its destinies, its history as a piece of projected, and so far unsuccessful, legislation has at least the merit of being short and easily stated. In the month of December, 1885, just after the close of the general election, it began to be rumoured as forming part of the coming programme of the Liberal leader. On April 8, 1886, a Bill embodying it was brought forward in the House of Commons by Mr. Gladstone; upon June 7th, it was rejected upon the second reading by a majority of thirty, and at the general election which followed was condemned by a large majority of the constituencies.

And afterwards? What follows? What is its future destined to be? Will it vanish away, will it pass into new phases, or will some form of it eventually receive the sanction of the nation? These are Sphinx questions, which one may be excused from endeavouring to answer, seeing that the strongest and most far-reaching heads are at this moment intent upon them--not, so far as can be seen, with any strikingly successful result. The Future is a deep mine, and we have not yet struck even a spade into it.

In every controversy, no matter how fierce the waves, how thick the air with contending assertions, there is almost always, however, some fact, or some few facts, which seem to rise like rocks out of the turmoil, and obstinately refuse to be washed or whittled away. The chief of these, in this case, is the geographical position, or rather juxtaposition, of the two islands. Set before a stranger to the whole Irish problem--if so favoured an individual exists upon the habitable globe--a map of the British islands, and ask him whether it seems to him inevitable that they should remain for ever united, and we can scarcely doubt that his reply would be in the affirmative. This being so, we have at least it will be said one fact, one sea-rock high above the reach of waves or spray. But Irishmen have been declared by a great and certainly not an unfavourable critic--Mr. Matthew Arnold--to be "eternal rebels against the despotism of fact." If this is so--and who upon the Irish side of the channel can wholly and absolutely deny the assertion?--then our one poor standing-point is plucked from under our feet, and we are all abroad upon the waves again. Will Home Rule or would Home Rule, it has been asked, recognize this fact as one of the immutable ones, or would it sooner or later incline to think that with a little determination, a little manipulation, the so-called fact would politely cease to be a fact at all? It is difficult to say, and until an answer is definitely received it does not perhaps argue any specially sloth-like clinging to the known in preference to the unknown to admit that there is for ordinary minds some slight craning at the fence, some not altogether unnatural alarm as to the ground that is to be found on the other side of it. "Well, how do you feel about Home Rule now that it seems to be really coming?" some one inquired last spring, of an humble but life-long Nationalist. "'Deed, sir, to tell the truth, I feel as if I'd been calling for the moon all me life and was told it was coming down this evening into me back garden!" was the answer. It is not until a great change is actually on top of us, till the gulf yawns big and black under our very eyes, that we fully realize what it means or what it may come to mean. The old state of things, we then begin to say to ourselves, was really very inconvenient, very trying to all our tempers and patience, but at least we know the worst of it. Of the untravelled future we know nothing. It fronts us, with hands folded, smiling blankly. It may be a great deal better than we expect, but, on the other hand, it may be worse, and in ways, too, which as yet we hardly foresee. Whatever else Home Rule may, would, could, or should be, one thing friends and foes alike may agree to admit, and that is that it will mark an entirely new departure--a departure so new that no illustration drawn from the last century, or from any other historical period, is of much avail in enabling us to picture it to ourselves. It will be no resumption, no mere continuation of anything that has gone before, but a perfectly fresh beginning. A beginning, it may be asked, of what?

LIX.

CONCLUSION.

"Concluded not completed," is the verdict of Carlyle upon one of his earlier studies, and "concluded not completed," conscience is certainly apt to mutter at the close of so necessarily inadequate a summary as this. Much of this inadequacy, it may fairly be confessed, is individual, yet a certain amount is also inherent in the very nature of the task itself. In no respect does this inadequacy press with a more penitential weight than in the case of those heroes whose names spring up at intervals along our pages, but which are hardly named before the grim necessities of the case force us onwards, and the hero and his doings are left behind.

Irish heroes, for one reason or another, have come off, it must be owned, but poorly before the bar of history. Either their deeds having been told by those in whose eyes they found a meagre kindness, or else by others who, with the best intentions possible, have so inflated the hero's bulk, so pared away his merely human frailties, that little reality remains, and his bare name is as much as even a well-informed reader pretends to be acquainted with. Comparing them with what are certainly their nearest parallels--the heroes and semi-heroes of Scotch history--the contrast strikes one in an instant, yet there is no reason in the nature of things that this should be. Putting aside those whose names have got somewhat obscured by the mists of the past, and putting aside those nearer to us who stand upon what is still regarded as debateable ground, there are no lack of Irish names which should be as familiar to the ear as those of any Bruce or Douglas of them all. The names of Tyrone, of James Fitzmaurice, of Owen Roe O'Neill, and of Sarsfield, to take only a few and almost at random, are all those of gallant men, struggling against dire odds, in causes which, whether they happen to fit in with our particular sympathies or not, were to them objects of the purest, most genuine enthusiasm. Yet which of these, with the doubtful exception of the last, can be said to have yet received anything like a fair meed of appreciation? To live again in the memory of those who come after them may not be--let us sincerely hope that it is not--essential to the happiness of those who are gone, but it is at least a tribute which the living ought to be called upon to pay, and to pay moreover ungrudgingly as they hope to have it paid to them in their turn.

Glancing with this thought in our minds along that lengthened chronicle here so hastily overrun, many names and many strangely-chequered destinies rise up one by one before us; come as it were to judgment, to where we, sitting in state as "Prince Posterity," survey the varied field, and judge them as in our wisdom we think fit, assigning to this one praise, to that one blame, to another a judicious admixture of praise and blame combined. Not, however, it is to be hoped, forgetting that our place in the same panorama waits for another audience, and that the turn of this generation has still to come.

AUTHORITIES.

* * * * *

Adamnan, "Life of St. Columba" (_trans_.).

Arnold (Matthew), "On the Study of Celtic Literature."

Bagwell, "Ireland under the Tudors."

Barrington (Sir Jonah), "Personal Recollections," "Rise and Fall of the Irish Nation."

Brewer, "Introduction to the Carew Calendar of State Papers."

Bright (Rt. Hon. J.), "Speeches."

Burke (Edmund), "Tracts on the Popery Laws," "Speeches and Letters."

Carlyle, "Letters and Speeches of Cromwell."

Carew, "Pacata Hibernia."

Cloncurry, "Life and Times of Lord Cloncurry."

Clogy, "Life and Times of Bishop Bedell."

Cornwallis Correspondence.

Croker (Rt. Hon. W.), "Irish, Past and Present."

Davis (Thomas), "Literary and Historical Essays."

Davies (Sir John), "A Discoverie of the True Causes why Ireland was never Subdued."

Dennis, "Industrial Ireland."

Domenach (Abbé), "Larerte Erinn."

Dymock (John), "A Treatise on Ireland."

Duffy (Sir Charles Gavin), "Four Years of Irish History."

Essex, "Lives and Letters of the Devereux, Earls of."

Froude (J.A.), "History of England," "The English in Ireland."

Giraldus Cambrensis, "Conquest of Ireland," Edited by J. Dimock, Master of the Rolls Series, 1867; "Topography of Ireland," Edited by J. Dimock, Master of the Rolls Series, 1867. Green, "History of the English People." Grattan, "Life and Speeches of Rt. Hon. Henry Grattan."

Halliday, "Scandinavian Kingdom of Dublin." Hennessy (Sir Pope), "Sir Walter Raleigh in Ireland." Hardiman, "History of Galway." Howth (Book of), from O'Flaherty's "Iar Connaught."

Joyce, "Celtic Romances."

Kildare (Marquis of), "The Earls of Kildare."

Lodge, "Desiderata Curiosa Hibernica." Lecky, "History of England in the Eighteenth Century," and "Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland." Leland, "History of Ireland." Maine (Sir H.), "Early History of Institutions,"

"Village Communities, East and West." Max Müller's Lectures. M'Gee (T. Darcy), "History of Ireland." McGeoghegan, "History of Ireland." Mitchell (John), "History of Ireland." Montalembert, "Monks of the West." Murphy (Rev. Denis), "Cromwell in Ireland." Madden, "History of Irish Periodical Literature." McCarthy (Justin), "History of Our Own Times."

O'Connor (T.P.), "The Parnell Movement." O'Flaherty, "Iar Connaught."

Petty (Sir W.), "Political Anatomy of Ireland." Petrie (Dr.), "Round Towers of Ireland."

Prendergast, "Tory War in Ulster," "The Cromwellian Settlements."

Richey (A.G.), "Lectures on the History of Ireland."

Smith (Goldwin), "Irish History and Irish Character." Spenser (Edmund), "View of the State of Ireland." Stokes (Miss), "Early Christian Architecture of Ireland." Stokes (Professor George), "Ireland and the Celtic Church."

Tone (Wolfe), "Autobiography."

Vere de (Aubrey), "Queen Meave and other Legends of the Heroic Age," and "Legends of St. Patrick,"

Walpole, "Kingdom of Ireland." Webb (Alfred), "Compendium of Irish Biography." Wilde (Sir W.), "Lough Corrib," and "The Boyne and the Blackwater."

Young (Arthur), "Tour in Ireland."

INDEX.

Abercromby, Sir Ralph, 359 Act of Supremacy, 152 Act of Uniformity, 278 Adamnan, 43 Adare, 188 Affane, battle of, 183 Aidan (Saint) and Irish monk, 45 Alcansar, battle of, 184 Allen, an Irish priest, 184 Allen, hill of, 14 Allen, John, Archbishop of Dublin, 146 Allen, the Fenian prisoner, 406 Andrews, Dean of Limerick, 237 Angareta, mother of Giraldus, 78 Angelsea, settlement of, 67 Anglo-Norman invasion, 76 Annals of Lough Cè, 109 Anselm (Saint), Archbishop of Canterbury, 81 Arctic hare, the, 4 Ard-Reagh, or Over-king, 91 Ardscul, battle of, 108 Arklow Head, 93 Armagh, Book of, 33 Armagh, cathedral of, burnt by Thorgist, 55 Armdu, a Viking, 68 Arran, isles of, 38 Art McMurrough, or Art Kavanagh, 119; master of Leinster, 119; has recourse to Black-rent, 123; entertained by Richard II., 120; knighted, 120; thrown into prison, 120; released, 120; he hastens to Meath, 121; defeats the royal army, 121; he again meets Richard II. in battle, 121; victorious, 123 Ascendency, the Protestant, 307 Ashton, Sir Arthur, a royalist officer, 261 Askeaton, castle of, 187; destroyed, 188 Association, Loyal National Repeal, 386 Attainder, Bill of, drawn and passed, 287 Athenry, battle of, 110; enfeebled state, 175 Athlone, fortress of, 104, 292 Athy, bridge of, 128 Aughrim, battle of, 293 Augustine (Saint), 44 D'Aguilar, Don Juan, 215 D'Avaux, Count, envoy to James II., 283

B

_Baculum Cristatum_, or Staff of St. Patrick, 158 Baggotrath, battle of, 260 Bagnall, Sir Henry, 198; Tyrone marries his sister, 201; becomes his enemy, 201; he marches against Tyrone, 204; he is shot, 205; his army defeated, 205; fort of Blackwater surrendered, 205 Ballinasloe, town of, 293 Baltimore, stronghold of pirates,127 Baltinglass, Lord, 189 Bannockburn, battle of, 108; its effects on Ireland, 108 Bannow, bay of, or "FitzStephen's stride," 83 Barnabie FitzPatrick, 157 Barries descendants of Nesta, 76 Barri, Robert de, 83 Barrington's Bridge, 107 Barrymore, Lord, 141 Beare O'Sullivan, 215 Bedell, bishop of Kilmore, 245 Beltane, Celtic festival of 1st May, 14 Belgic, colony of, 6 Bellingham, Sir Edward, 162 Belrath, castle of, 141 Ben Edar, now Howth, 17 Benignus, first disciple of St. Patrick, 35 Benturb, battle of, 255 Bermingham, Sir John de, victor of Athenry, 110, 111 Beresford, Chief Commissioner of Customs, 351 Bernard, Saint, of Clairvaux, 81 Betas, Celtic houses of hospitality, 14 Black-rent, use of, 119, 123, 129 Blackwater river, 183; battle of, 203 Blaney, Mr., member for Monaghan, 243 Book of Aicill, Aryan law, 25 Book of Armagh, 33 Book of Howth, the, 140 Borough, Lord, deputy, 203 Boulter, Archbishop of Armagh, 304, 320 Boyle, primate, 280 Boyne, battle of the, 288 Bramhall, primate, 277 "Brass Band," 403 Brehons, judges or law makers, 19, 25 Brian Boru, or Boruma, 60, 61; he defeats the Danes, 61; seizes throne of Cashel, 63; over-runs Leinster, 63; subdues Ossory, 63; attacks Meath, 63; burns the stronghold of Tara, 63; becomes Ard-Reagh in Malachy's place, 63; he is called Brian of the Tribute, 64; he becomes master of Ireland, 64; his victory at Clontarf, 66; he marches against Brodar, 68, 69; is killed, 69; mourned and buried, 69, 70. Bridget (Saint), 47; sacred fire of, 47 Brodar, a Viking, 66; killed Brian, 67 Brown, Archbishop of Meath, 159; deprived, 161 Bruce, Edward, in Ireland, 107; battle of Bannockburn, 108; its effects, 108; Bruce lands at Carrickfergus, 108; defeats Richard de Burgh, 108; defeats Sir Edmund Butler at Ardscul, 108; victorious at Kells, 108; meets his brother, 108; is crowned king, 109; devastates the country, 109; defeated and killed at Dunkalk, 110 Bruce, King Robert of Scotland, 108 Burren, district of the, in North Clare, 269 Burgh, Sir William FitzAldelm de, 103 Burgundy, Duchess of, 132, 136 Burke, Edmund, 330 Burke, Mr. Thomas, murder of, 411

C

Calvagh O'Donnell, 167 Camden, Lord (Lord-Lieutenant), 359. Campion, historian, the, 125 Carew, Sir George, 213, 215, 216, 226 Carew, Sir Peter, 178; his atrocities, 178 Carey, James, the informer, 412 Carhampton, Lord, 358 Carle Canuteson, 67 Carlow, 154 Carneg, rock of, 84 Carnot, 355 Catholic Confederacy, 249 Catholic Relief Bill carried, 381 Cashel, Synod of, 92 Castlehaven, 215 Castlereagh, Lord, Chief Secretary, 370 Caulfield, Lord, Governor of Charlemont, 243 Cavan, Lord, 365 Cavendish, Lord Frederick, murdered, 411 Cerd or Nuad of "the Silver hand," 9 Charlemont, Lord, 330 Charles I., accession, 231; he sends Strafford to Ireland, 231, 235, 238; his death, 279 Chester Castle, attack on, projected, 405 Chesterfield, Lord, Lord-Lieutenant, 344 Claims, Court of, 275 Clan Naim, 17 Clann Dichin, a malediction, 20 Clanricarde, Earl of, 105 Clarence, Lionel, Duke of, 114 Cliach, plains of, 14 Clocthech, round towers of, 56 Clogher, Bishop of, 241 Clonard, town of, 47 Clonmacnois, high altar at, 47 Clonmel, 262 Clontarf, battle of, 71, 74; strand of, 66 Clyn, Franciscan historian, 109 Cole, Dean of St. Paul's, story of, 163 Cole, Sir William, Governor of Enniskillen, 243 Coleraine, 243 Colkilla, hill of, 14 Colman, Bishop, 46 Columba (Saint), born, 43; his character, 42, 43; he leaves Ireland, 43; visits Scotland, 43; and Iona, 44 Connaught, landowner's case of, 230 Connaught, treaty of, 103 Connemara, anciently Iar Connaught, 8 Conciliation Hall, 386 Confederates, Young Irelanders, 395 Con O'Neill (Earl of Tyrone) 154 Cong, plains of, 7 Conyers, Clifford, Sir, Governor of Connaught, 209 Cooke, Under-Secretary of State, 351 Coote, Sir Charles, 244, 246, 273 Cork, town of, 119 Cormac, MacArt, 23 Cormac O'Conn, King, 11 Cornwallis, Marquis, Lord-Lieutenant, 365 Corrib Lough, 104 Cowper, Lord, 411 "Coyne and livery," 183 Croagh Patrick, mountain of, 34 Crofty, hill of, 247 Crom a Boo, war cry of the Fitzgeralds, 138 Cromwell, Henry, Lord-Lieutenant, 76 Cromwell in Ireland, 261; he takes Drogheda, 261; Wexford, 262; Kilkenny,262; Clonmel, 262; his army sickens, 263; Ireland under his rule, 264; the struggle continues, 264; Limerick and Galway yield at last, 264; close of civil war, 265; his methods, 266;

Catholic evictions, 267; his treatment of Sir Phelim O'Neill, Lord Mayo, and Lord Muskerry, 267; his death, 272 Crint, or stringed harp, 52 Cruachan, mountain of, 35 Curragh of Kildare, 14

D

Danaans, tribe of, 8 Danes, 53 Danes, Dublin, 67 Danes of Limerick, 58-61 Dangen, ancient name of Phillipstown, 162 Dashda, or Druid chieftain, 53 Davis, John, Sir, 95-117; he is elected Speaker, 227; quarrel which followed, 227, 228 Davis, Thomas (poet), 290 Davitt, Michael, Mr., 409 Declaration of Rights by Grattan, 320 Declaratory, Act of George I., 322 "Defenders," Association of, 345 Delvin, Lord, 191 Dermot McMurrough, King of Leinster, 83 Derry, town of, 171 Desmond, Earl of, taken to London, 176; vacillates about rebelling, 185; his death, 192 Desmond-Sugane or Straw, Earl of, 200 Dillon, Mr., 391 Donald, Chief of Ossory, 90 Donegal, chapels in, 43 Donore, hill of, 280 Douchad, son of O'Brien, 74. Dowdal, Archbishop of Armagh, 159 Downpatrick, town of, 99 Drapier Papers by Swift, 317 Drogheda, Parliament of, 138 Drogheda, taken by Cromwell, 261 Dublin Castle, 240; plot to seize it, 241; frustrated, 242 Dublin, Philosophical Association of, 311 Dublin, Society of, 311 Duffy, Sir Charles Gavin, 390 Dundalk, battle of, 110 Dungannon, Matthew, Baron of, 165 Dunsany, Lord, 247

E

Edgecombe, Sir Edward, 135 Edward, I., 107 Edward II., 108; Battle of Bannockburn, 108 Edward III., 113; he summons landowners, 114; appoints Lionel, Duke of Clarence, viceroy, 114; Statute of Kilkenny is passed, 115 Elizabeth, Queen, 165; entertains Shane O'Neill at Court, 68; account of his visit, 168; Ireland during her reign, 171-172 Emmett, Robert, 376 Emmett, Thomas Addis, 354 Encumbered Estate Court, 400 Enniskillen, town of, 247 Eochaidh king, tale of, 35 Essex, Robert Devereux, Earl of, 206; take the command in Ireland, 208; proceeds against Tyrone, 208; his disasters, 208; takes Cahir Castle, 208; meets Lugane Earl, 208; meets Tyrone at Lagan, 209; returns to England, 210 Eva, daughter of Dermot, 86 Everard, Sir John, 227, 228

F

Falkland, Lord, 231 Famine, the first symptoms of, 96; great distress, 397; Mr. Forster reports, 397; Relief Act passed, 399; the ruin which followed it, 400; after effects, 403 Fedlim O'Connor, king of Connaught, 108 Fenian prisoners, rescue of, at Manchester, 405 Fenian rising, 401 Fenni or Fenians, II Fercal, tribes of, 161 Ferns, town of, 83 Finn, McCumal, 14 Finn or Fingal, father of Ossian, 11 Finvarragh, king of the fairies, 21 Firbolgs, race of, 6 Fitton, Sir Edward, 176 Fitzgerald, Lord Edward, 354-359 Fitzgerald, Maurice, 83 Fitzgerald, Mr., member for Clare, 380 Fitzgerald, Raymond (le Gros), 85 Fitzgerald, Sir James, 191 Fitzgerald, Sir John, 191 FitzHenry, Robert and Meiler, sons of Nesta, 76 Fitzmaurice, Lady, 188 Fitzmaurice of Lexnaw, 111 Fitzmaurice, Sir James, 178; breaks into rebellion, 178; relations between him and Sir James Perrot, 179; burns Kilmallock 179; marches into Ulster, 179; burns Athlone, 179; joins the Mac-an-Earlas, 180; lays Galway waste, 180; crosses the Shannon, 180; surrenders and takes the required oaths at Kilmallock, 180; sails to France, 180; returns, 184; his death, 187 Fitzsimons, Walter, Archbishop of Dublin, 137 FitzStephen, Robert, 83 FitzUrse of Louth, 111 Fitzwilliam, Lord, Lord-Lieutenant, 349-350 Fitzwilliam, Sir William, Lord-deputy, 199 Flood, Rt. Hon. Henry, 323 Foltlebar and Feradach, Legends, 16 Formorians, race of, 5 Forster, Mr. W.E., 397 Forty-shilling Freeholders, Bill of, 349 "Four Masters," the annals of the, 9 Foyle, Lough, 165 _Freeman's Journal_, 322 Fuidhar, or "broken man," 28

G

Gall (Saint), 36 Galway, bay and town of, 104 Galway, Jury of, 247 George, Duke of Clarence, 129 Gerald de Barri, Gerald of Wales, or Giraldus Cambrensis, 78; grandson of Nesta, 78; priest and chronicler, 78; his character as a writer, 78 Gerald, 8th Earl of Kildare, son of Geroit Mor, 130 Gerald of Windsor, husband to Nesta, 76 Geraldines, 101; Giraldus' opinion of them, 101; ancestors of Earls Kildare and Desmond, 102; important position, 102; their keep at Maynooth, 102; power in Ireland, 102; Geroit Mor, or Gerald the Great, 7th Earl of Kildare, 130 Gilbert, Sir Humphry, 179 Gilla Dacker and his horse, legend of, 14 Ginkel, Dutch general of William III., 291 Gladstone, Mr. W.E., 406; disestablished the Irish Church, 406; introduced Irish Land Act of 1870, 407; of 1881, 409; imprisoned members of Land League, 411; proposed measure of Home Rule of 1886, 414 Glenmama near Dunlaven, 68 Godred, King of Man, 87 Gormanstown, Lord, 249 Granard, Lord Justice, 280 Grattan, Henry, 328; his loyalty and patriotism, 328; he enters Parliament, 330; his eloquence, 330; Declaration of Rights, 330; retires into private life, 332; protests against the Union, 332; member of English Parliament, 332; his death and burial, 333 "Great Darcy of Platten," 132 Gregory, Pope, 44 Grey, de Wilton, Lord-deputy, 189 Grey, Leonard, Lord, Deputy, 151, 152 Griffiths, Sir Richard, Irish geologist, 312

H

Habeas Corpus Act, 351 Hadrian IV., Pope, 81 Hamilton, Sir Richard, 282 Harcourt, Lord, 325 Hardi, French General, 365 Harvey, Bagenal, United Irishman and general of the rebels, 363 Hasculph, Danish Governor, 86-87 Hatton, Sir Christopher, "an Undertaker," 194 Heber and Heremon, sons of Milesius, 10 Hoadly, Archbishop of Armagh, 320 Hoche, General, 355 _Hoche_, vessel called the, 365 Home Rule, the question of, 44 Howth, Earl of, 134, 136 Humbert, French general, 364 Hy-Nial, or royal house of O'Neil, 42, 52

I