376 A. D. 800. An unfaithful Church the object of God's anger. [Book III, be led to suppose that there was a providential connection between the misery which then began to reign in this land, and the corruption of religion that had gone before. We must indeed in any attempt to interpret the divine judgments, endeavour to proceed with the deepest humility and reverence; but still, even entertaining such feelings in the highest degree, we may observe in the present case much that seems strongly to favor the opinion, that the calamities which Ireland suffered in past ages were allowed to fall upon her by the permission of a righteous God, to avenge the deep dishonour which had been done by her people to His Holy Name. The offence committed was one that might well be thought sufficient to call down the just wrath of the Almighty: it was quickly followed by fearful affliction and distress of the guilty Church and to suppose a connection existing between the two things, and to regard one of them as the consequence of the other, would only be to adopt an opinion agreeing with what had been delivered to the Irish people by their ancient teachers, and preserved among them by tradition in after time;* an opinion too in accordance with the tenor of God's Holy Word, and confirmed in that Word by many examples.† * Vid. vol. i. p. 56. Joceline Vit. S. Patr. c. 95. † Judges ii. 13, 14, &c. Ps. lxxviii. 62. &c. Ezek. v. 11. &c., &c. * CH. I.] Some account of the Nortmans and Ostmans. * 377 A. D. 800. Who the & Ostmans were. But however this may be, the history of our country, ecclesiastical and civil, in the ninth and tenth centuries, is chiefly remarkable for the Nortmans troubles and calamities caused by the invasions of the barbarian tribes commonly classed togegether under the name of Danes, but more properly known, as it would seem, by the names of Nortmans, Normans, or Northmen, and Ostmans, i.e. Eastern men. The Nortmans were, as Camden observes, the Norwegians and Danes; the Ostmans, he says, came from the sea coast of Germany: and he adds, that these invaders, having gained possession of some cities under the pretext of carrying on extensive mercantile business, afterwards harassed the country with most unmanageable wars. Their first entrance into the island, however, appears to have been caused rather by a desire of pillage and military plunder, according to the savage customs of those times, which prevailed also to a large extent among the Irish themselves. ties commit robbers. In the eighth century vast numbers of these The barbabarbarous tribes, leaving their own inhospitable rous atrocideserts, issued forth to invade and plunder the ted by these more fertile regions which lay to the south and west of their homes. England, France, and Scotland suffered severely from their fierce incursions; and Ireland also was soon after overrun and * Camden's Britannia, Lond. 1607. pag. 730. 378 A. D. 800. Ireland an their fury in of its own time. Ireland under its ancient form of government [Book III. infested by their savage bands. The cities and towns throughout the island were plundered and burned by them over and over again in many instances; persons of every age, sex, and condition of life, became the victims of their horrid atrocities, and the Christian clergy in particular were the marked objects of their hatred and malice. In their expeditions in search of plunder all the natives who fell into their hands were put to death without mercy, and hundreds of monks and priests thus perished by their swords. What gave peculiar facilities to the Danes easy prey to for oppressing and subjugating Ireland, was consequence the want of unity and combination among the state at that natives, which then existed. Ireland, at the time of which we speak, was divided into five petty kingdoms, styled Leinster, Ulster, Munster, Connaught, and Meath. Among the kings of these five provinces it usually was the case that one was acknowledged as supreme monarch; but there was no sufficient subordination among the different kingdoms, and as might naturally be expected, endless disorder and confusion arose from encroachments made by the different princes on one another's rights, and constant war and bloodshed was the consequence. These internal contentions and disputes among themselves rendered the Irish an easy prey to foreign CH. I.] peculiarly exposed to foreign invasions. 379 ------- invaders; and when the Danes began to make A. D. 800. their incursions upon our country, instead of uniting steadily to oppose the common foe, the provincial kings were often occupied with unhappy quarrels and dissensions among themselves, and at times even made use of the assistance of their invaders, for the purpose of overpowering one another. of Rathlin Danes, The year 795 appears to have been that in The island which these plunderers first attacked the coasts first attacked of Ireland; or they may perhaps have com- by the menced their work of desolation a few years A.D. 795. earlier, as some suppose. They began by laying waste the small island of Rechran, Raghery, or Rathlin, off the coast of Antrim, a place where there had been for a long time previously, a church and religious establishment: and from this period, their inroads became continually more frequent and more destructive. In 798 Other places they attacked the coasts of Ulster, and in 802 ravaged by set fire to the monastery of Iona, destroying after. in the flames many of "the family" (i. e. the monks) of the place. In 806 they depopulated it again with great fury. In 807 they effected a landing in Ireland and penetrated as far as Roscommon, which they then destroyed, laying waste also the surrounding country.* *Lanigan's Ec. Hist. vol. iii. pp. 236, 241. them soon 380 A. D. 812. L. ous defeat. Commencement of the Danish Invasions. [Book III. The earliest authentic notice of these invasions They meet Occurring in foreign authors, appears to be one with a seri- that we meet with in the ancient French annals,* where we read that in A.D. 812, "the fleet of the Normans, having attacked Ireland, the island of the Scots, after a battle had been fought with the Scots, and no small part of the Normans killed, returned home in disgraceful flight." Thirty years of misery under the tyranny of the Danish usurper A.D. 815. But it was in or about the year 815 that the worst period of suffering from these piratical wars began to afflict our land. For it was at this time, (or as some say, 818,)† that the Turgesius. famous Turgesius (son of Harold Harfager, king of Norway) commenced his ravages; and making a descent with a numerous army upon the north of Ireland, he soon spread devastation and death in every quarter, while his fleets were at the same time engaged in destroying and plundering the seaport towns of the South. Under the blighting influence of this usurper, whose tyranny lasted for about thirty years, the Christian religion was discouraged and persecuted, and every means used apparently to efface if possible the remains of it, while its professors were obliged often to seek concealment in woods and caves of the earth. Many churches and abbeys, monasteries, colleges, and * Historiæ Francorum Scriptores. Lut. Par. 1636. vol. ii. pag. 24. + Vid. Lanigan, ut sup. |