During the wise and impartial government of Hugh de Lacy, Munster appears to have enjoyed considerable tranquillity, until the treacherous assassination of Milo de Cogan, and a son of Fitz-Stephen, at Lismore. The assassin, boasting of his exploit, roused the people to arms, and the Prince of Desmond laid siege to Cork, which was defended by the elder Fitz-Stephen. But Raymond le Gross arriving from Wexford with a reinforcement, Fitz-Stephen made a sally, and routed the Irish at the first onset; and after putting several of their chiefs to death, and banishing others, he again reduced the neighbouring territory to obedience.

The flame thus rekindled in Munster was widely extended in 1185, by the overbearing and insolent conduct of Prince John's attendants to the Irish chieftains, who repaired to Waterford to greet his arrival. Enflamed with resentment, they flew to the chiefs of Desmond, Thomond, and Connaught, who rushing to arms, carried slaughter and devastation into all the English settlements. At Lismore Robert Barry was slain with his whole troop; and the gallant Le Poer met a similar fate in Ossory. Mac Arthy of Desmond again laid siege to Cork, but he experienced such a brave resistance from Theobald Fitz-Walter, (the founder of the Ormond family,) that he was slain with many of his troops. Donald of Limerick at the same time attacked Ardfinnan, a castle recently erected by the English, and put the

whole garrison to the sword. O'Brien soon after advanced into Connaught, and reinstated Roderick on the throne from which he had been driven by an unnatural son.

The rapacious and arbitrary conduct of Prince John's courtiers tending daily to increase the disorders which threatened the total extirpation of the English power in Ireland, Henry, aroused to a sense of the impending danger, recalled his son, and entrusted the government to John De Courcy, whose dauntless intrepidity seemed well suited to check the rising storm. He commenced his government with vigorously taking vengeance on the assassins of the late governor, Hugh de Lacy; and as the natives in the provinces of Ulster and Connaught were at this time torn by intestine factions, he would have found leisure completely to have re-established the English settlements, had not his impetuous valour caused him to make an attempt upon the distracted province of Connaught, where the rebellious sons of Roderick had again taken up arms against their unhappy father, and compelled him to resign the sovereignty to Connor Moienmoy. He accordingly advanced with a large force into a country which he expected to find an easy conquest. But the event proved otherwise, for Donald O'Brien marched from Limerick with a considerable army to the assistance of Connor, and their united force rendered them much superior to their adversaries.

De Courcy now perceived that he had an enemy to oppose, who by their constant warfare and intercourse with the English had become much improved both in arms and discipline, and he was compelled to adopt the mortifying resolution of retiring into Ulster. He had proceeded, however, but a short distance on his march, when he learned that another powerful army was stationed on his route, to oppose his progress. The troops of Thomond and Connaught soon pressed upon him from every side, and his troops, after repelling reiterated assaults, were at length forced to cut their way through the enemy, which was not effected without considerable loss, including some of his bravest knights. The state of Connaught was however little improved by this victory, for Connor was assassinated by the contrivance of his own brother, and this brother was slain soon after in revenge by a son of Connor.

The death of Henry II. which occurred in 1189, made no change in the unhappy state of Ireland.— Richard I. soon joined the crusaders in the Holy Land, leaving the government of his dominions in the hands of his brother John, to whom he gave a full confirmation of his father's grant as Lord of Ireland. The administration of the Irish government was entrusted to Hugh de Lacy the younger; and De Courcy, disgusted at being thus supplanted, retired to his settlements in Ulster. Cathal, a younger son of Roderick O'Connor, had now succeeded to

the sovereignty of Connaught, and his warlike character and detestation of the foreigners, procured him willing allies in the Munster chieftains. While Cathal for some time waged a successful war against the English forces in Ulster, Donald O'Brien attacked them again in the neighbourhood of Thurles, when victory declared in favour of his arms. But notwithstanding this success, the English found means to renew hostilities, and carry their ravages into the heart of Thomond, and they so completely over-ran Desmond, that they erected castles throughout the whole of that country, and excited such jealousies between Mac Arthy and O'Brien, that sanguinary hostilities would have been the probable result, but for the death of the latter chieftain in 1194.

Donald O'Brien governed the kingdom of North Munster, Thomond, or Limerick, by which several names it has been alternately denominated, for twenty-six years, during a most eventful period of Irish history. Anxious to maintain the independence of his country, his whole life was a continued contest with the English, whom he frequently defeated in the field, and during the last fifteen years of his reign he kept possession of the city of Limerick in defiance of their power. The abuse of the confidence reposed in him by Raymond le Gross has been justly condemned by English historians—— but it is to be lamented that in that barbarous age

the force of moral obligations was little felt by any party. Donald has also been renowned for his munificence to the Church: he is said to have founded eighteen religious houses, besides the cathedrals of Cashel and Limerick. He was interred at Killaloe, the chief burial place of his ancestors.

Though history is silent on the subject, it is probable that the English again obtained possession of Limerick immediately after the death of Donald, for we find it governed by an English magistracy in 1195, when John Spafford was appointed its first Provost. Mortogh-Dall, the eldest son and successor of Donald, was taken prisoner by the conquerors, who put out his eyes, an act of cruelty too frequently practised in that age by the Irish themselves and his brother Connor-Ruadh was deposed and slain in 1198, by his nephew Mortogh-Fionn.

The English were not long permitted to enjoy their triumph-for while Cathal, the warlike Sovereign of Connaught, by a sudden incursion into Munster, destroyed a great number of their castles, Mac Arthy of Desmond forced them once more to abandon Limerick; and the garrison of Cork, their last strong hold in Munster, soon followed this example. But dissensions in the family of O'Brien, and fatal jealousies among the other Irish chieftains, opened the way for fresh inroads of the English.

John having ascended the throne of England on