To relate the afflicting and melancholy, events which crowd the history of Ireland, without incurring the charge of prejudice, or the suspicions of party, will perhaps be impossible. Such suspicions, however, do not discourage the attempt to give a brief narrative of our history, with truth, and with impartiality; with an anxiety to please all parties, but with a determination to sacrifice the cause of justice to none. It is hoped that the reader of this cheap and compendious volume, will find that the first and last feeling which influenced the pen of him who wrote it, was a sincere and zealous anxiety for the establishment of political and religious freedom among Irishmen of every persuasion. 1 January 1st, 1814. 4 1 THE HISTORY OF IRELAND, Previous and subsequent to the introduction of Christianity. THE HISTORY OF IRELAND, previous to the introduction of Christianity, has been considered by the enemies of her ancient fame, as much the theme of the poet, as the calm subject of the dispassionate historian.-The faithful records of our country are rejected as the tales of credulity, and the established glories of its ancient state are considered the dreams of poetry, or the fabrications of national vanity. The satisfactory and laborious researches of O'Connor, O'Halloran, and Vallancey, excite the sneer of scepticism, and their triumphant demonstrations are sarcastically styled the elaborate fictions of a credulous imagination: thus do we often see the English readcalumny and dishonour of er, interested perhaps in the Ireland, smile at the honest labours of the patriot, and repel with the affectation of profound philosophy, the struggles of those who have succeeded in proving that Ireland has been distinguished among the nations of Europe, as the asylum of the muses, the seat of learning, and dispenser of knowledge. The enemies of Ireland will in vain labour to tear from the Irish bosom those dear and fond remembrances which their faithful historians have handed down to posterity. The history of ancient Ireland will ever be read by the Irishman as a source of instructive gratification: he will ever look back with honest pride upon those days of her history, when her bards were heard attuning their harps to the glory of their country; immortalizing by their verses the heroism of her sons, and rousing her pride by the ardour and enthusiasm of their appeals. The Irishman has often found refuge from the misfortunes which were pressing him, in the cherished and sacred reflection, that however afflicted his country, or however borne down her liberties-however oppressed his countrymen, or however hopeless their cause, still he could look back on the history of his country with some degree of complacency; for he saw her described as the instructress of Europe, the dispenser of justice, and the island of saints. With O'Flaherty, he speaks with rapture of the one hundred and seventy one monarchs, who governed Ireland for two thousand years previous to the invasion of Henry II. all of the same house and lineage:—with him he passionately recurs to his monuments of ancient renown, and contends, with an honest and honourable warmth, for the veracity of poetry, and the accuracy of fancy. He cannot be the friend of Ireland, who would wantonly attempt to shake the Irish belief in the ancient magnificence and honours of his country; it should never be forgotten that the finest feelings of the heart are produced by the strong impressions of the ancient fame and glory of our country; that the human mind is improved and animated by the splendid examples which the historian has recorded, and that he who would advance the cause of religion or of morality, should not struggle to throw a shade on the authenticity of those achievements, or dispute the existence of those names, which as long as they are credited must excite the admiration, and perhaps the imitation of mankind.-For those reasons it is hoped that the early history of Ireland would be read by every Irishman as a source of instructive reflection, not as a subject of cold and critical scepticism-he should sympathize with the ardour of the patriot, and shed tears over the grave which covered him-his heart should swell with the independence of his country-with the gallant achievements of her heroes, and he should sink into sadness when those achievements were performed in vain, or when perhaps the most precious blood of his countrymen was sacrificed to the exaltation of foreign or domestic tyranny-with those sentiments I shall proceed to give a brief and faithful, though rapid review of the ancient state of Ireland. It seems to be acknowledged, that there are no literary monuments in Ireland previous to the introduction of Christianity; that the evidence of any transaction anterior to this period, solely rests on the credit of Christian writers: that these, lastly, have taken transcripts from the ancient Irish bards, or from records composed during the ages of paganism. A long list of kings is thus made out from the earliest ages of the world, such as Partholan and his sons, with his hounds and his oxen, the gigantic Fomerians, the Numidians, the Firbolgs, and the Tuatha de Danans. These ancient records state that about 500 years before the Christian era, a colony of Scythians immediately from Spain, settled in Ireland, and introduced the Phoenician language and letters; it is also conjectured that previous to the invasion of the Scythians, Ireland might have been peopled from Gaul or Britain; but it is more generally supposed that the sons of Milesius, Heber, |