CHAPTER VII. From the death of Gelasius, till the period of the conquest of Ulster by De Courcy. A. D. 1174, CORNELIUS MAC CONCALEDE abbot of the Convent of Saint Peter and Saint Paul succeeded GELASIUS in the see, and died at Rome, in 1175.* GILBERT (or GILCOMGE) O CARAN was translated from Raphoe to the see of Armagh, in 1175, and died in 1180. This prelate was one of the subscribing witnesses to a charter of confirmation of the possessions of the abbey of Newry, (or de viridi ligno) made by Maurice Mac Lochlin king of Ireland, about the year 1160. He is therein called bishop of Tirçonnel. The rights granted by this charter to the abbot-bishop of the institution are now vested in Lord Killmorey. GILBERT, who was a pious man, made a liberal grant of the town of Ballybachall (so called “a baculo Sancti Patricii”) to Saint Mary's Abbey near Dublin. He was succeeded in the see by THOMAS (or Tomultach) O CONNOR, who, in 1181, held a visitation in Tirone. This prelate resigned the primacy, after holding it about four years, to MELISSA O CARROL, archbishop elect, who died on his way to Rome, in 1184.+ AMLAVE O MURID, his successor, died in the year 1185, at Duncruther, and was buried in Derry. After O MURID's decease, TOMULTACH O CONNOR resumed the see, which he governed, with zeal and ability for sixteen years. At his persuasion, Jocelyne compiled his life of SAINT PATRICK. Primate O CONNOR died in the year 1201, and was honourably interred in the abbey of Mellifont. • Tria Thaum, p. 310. Ware's Bishops, p. 61. +1bid, p. 61.270. A. D. 1177, John De Courcy undertook the conquest of Ulladh or Ulidia,, (the county of Down,) and rapidly gained possession of Dunum (Downpatrick) itself. In the neighbourhood of this town, he defeated Roderick Mac Dunleve prince of the country, who assailed him with ten thousand men. In a subsequent battle fought by him, on the twenty-fourth of June, one thousand five hundred of the Ulster Irish were slain, and, in the same year, he made a hostile incursion into Tirone, which he barbarously wasted with fire and sword.+ Encouraged by success, he now commenced a regular system of operations for the subjugation of all Ulster. To this attempt he was stimulated, not only by the king's grant, but by a prophecy, generally believed to have been written by Saint Columba, which predicted that a stranger, mounted on a white horse, and bearing a shield charged with painted birds, should conquer that country.‡ Predictions of this nature are often efficient causes of their own fulfilment. Those who superstitiously believe such prophecies to be of divine origin, deem all opposition vain, and the parties themselves, who seem singled out and predestined by Providence, for the performance of certain great exploits specifically foretold, undertake the most perilous adventures in full confidence of perfect success. "Possunt quia posse viden- . tur." Ardent, enterprising and desperately valiant, De Courcy was peculiarly fitted for the accomplishment of the most hazardous enterprise. Relying on his own per sonal prowess, and the valour of his troops, as well as on the predicted symbols of his glory, the painted shield and milk-white steed, he sallied forth for the conquest of Ulster, anticipating success and fearless of the issue. In Daleradia, he encountered and slew in battle Donald Mac Cahasy king of that territory. In the country of the Mac Mahons, (Monaghan,) he obtained a considerable tract, partly by force of arms and partly by a Hanmer. Ware. Gir. Camb. Ware's Ann. p. 17, Edit. Dublin, 1705, treaty of alliance with one of its chieftains, who was connected with him by the then sacred tie of Gossipred. De Courcy erected forts, and castellated the country as he advanced. Relying on the fidelity of his friend Mac Mahon, he committed one of these to his charge. But the Irish chieftain, disdaining the confinement of stone walls, and probably regretting the connexion he had formed with the invader of Ulster, levelled it to the earth. Enraged at this conduct, De Courcy marched into his territories, which he wasted and pillaged without mercy. On his return, he drove before him numerous herds of cattle, which his troops had seized from the inhabitants of the country. But the Irish, who had viewed the devastation of their lands with horror, had cautiously assembled in vast force, and had placed 11,000 men in ambush, amidst the darkness and obscurity of a deep wood, through which the British commander was necessitated to pass. De Courcy's army, subdivided into various corps and occupied with driving forward the cattle, were, at the same instant, unexpectedly assailed in every direction by an overwhelming force. Encumbered with spoil, embarrassed with the kine and entangled amongst thickets, their military skill was of little avail. Many were slain by the Irish army and many trodden down by the cattle. De Courcy, at the head of the survivors, hewed his way through his enemies and gained one of his forts which he had strongly intrenched and garrisoned. The victors encamped within half a mile of his position and awaited the morning to renew the assault. Success had rendered them incautious-fearless of danger they gave themselves up to the sweets of repose. But at the tranquil hour of midnight, De Courcy and his garrison stole silently into the camp and commenced a dreadful scene of uninterrupted carnage. Many of the Irish warriors closed their slumbers in deaththose who were aroused by the groans of their dying friends fell an easy prey, naked and unarmed as they were, to De Courcy and his veteran troops. Of this so. lately victorious army, two hundred only survived the carnage.* Ware states that in 1178, De Courcy made an irruption into Uriel, where he was met and defeated by Murtoch O Carrol prince of that country and Roderick Mac Dunleve of Ulladh.+ Be this as it may, we find him sufficiently powerful in that very year to seize upon and plunder Armagh, where Thomas O Corcoran archdeacon of the abbey, was murdered. Colgan informs us that the city with its churches, &c. were this year burned, except the sanctuary of Saint Brigid and the Temple Na Fearta. But these events seem to have taken place in the year 1179,5 when the relics of Saint Brigid were destroyed, and William Fitz-Aldelm pillaged the city and robbed the abbey, of Saint Patrick's crosier, (or the staff of Jesus) which he carried to Dublin and presented to the cathedral of the blessed Trinity. This theft was deemed, in that superstitious age, sufficiently important to merit a place in the annals of the country. FitzAldelm, who is described by Cambrensis, as sensual, corrupt and rapacious, is said to have committed dreadful barbarities in Connaught. He was therefore publickly excommunicated for his crimes. Shortly afterwards, if Keating may be credited, he was seized with a species of horrible convulsions, in which his features were violently distorted and his whole frame agitated by the most excruciating pain. He died in agony, and his body was denied the rites of Christian sepulture. The corpse of the unhappy man was borne, by his enemies, to a ruined village in Connaught, whose inhabitants he had destroyed, and was there ignominiously cast into a pit from which it has never been removed. I The progress of the British arms in Ulster, as well as in the other provinces of the kingdom, was ruinous to the • Cox, vol. 1, p. 32, 33. Hanmer. Leland. + Ware, ut supra p. 19, Mac Geog. vol. 2, p. 23. Arch. Mon, Hib. Ann. Innisfal, $ Ibid. p. 15. Annals of S. Mary's abbey, Ms. O Connor's Keating, vol. 2, p. 370. Leabhar Breac apud idem. churches and the monasteries of the country. We learn from Cambrensis, that the people of Ireland were accustomed to deposit their provisions in such edifices, as in places of refuge and of safety. The English adventu rers paid little respect to those sanctuaries, which they pillaged without remorse, as often as they found their troops in want of food or raiment. The churches and abbeys soon became theatres of sanguinary warfare, and many of them were ruined by the contending parties. And now various literary works, which had escaped the ravages of the merciless Danes, were destroyed in the libraries of the monks.* At last the native Irish, in order to cut off the sources of supply which the invaders derived from the pillage of churches, began to imitate the British, by setting fire to these religious edifices with their own hands.† A. D. 1182, the Pope, by a bull, ordained that no arch. bishop or bishop should hold any assembly or hear any ecclesiastical causes in the diocess of Dublin, without the consent of the archbishop of Dublin, unless authorized so to do by the papal see or its legate. This bull laid the groundwork of a controversy betwixt the archbishops of Armagh and Dublin, concerning the right of primacy, and of bearing the crosier and hearing appeals in that diocess, which endured for centuries and was at last decided in favour of the see of Armagh.‡ In September, 1184, Philip of Worcester, then Lord Justice or governor of Ireland, proceeded on a circuit with a great military force, to visit the British garrisons stationed through the province. Altogether regard less of the trust committed to his care, and of the character of the prince whom he represented, this corrupt Giraldus Cambrensis informs us that Vivian the Pope's legate, granted a license to the English, that they might, when engaged in any expedition. withdraw the provisions stored in churches, on paying the full value to the superintendants, provided however that such provisions could not otherwise be obtained. † Annal. Anon. apud Leland, vol. 1, p. 123. Dublin apud Ware's Annals, Reign Henry II. p. 22. No. XVI, Register of Arch. of See Appendix, |