This battle was one of the most sanguinary that is recorded in Irish history, and from it, as from a new era, many of the Irish historians date. There perished in the battle with the monarch Art, his ally, the King of Connaught, and numbers of distinguished chieftains, whose names are recorded in the piece above alluded to.

O'Curry in his lectures gives the following account of this battle and what led to it 1:-" Art, the chief monarch of Ireland, was killed in the battle of Magh Mucruimhe, that is, the plain of Mucrivy, about A.D. 195, by Mac Con, who was the son of his sister. This Mac Con was a Munster prince, who had been banished out of Erinn by Oilil Olum, King of Munster, after which, passing into Britain and Scotland, he returned in a few years at the head of a large army of foreigners. They sailed round by the coast of Ireland, and landed in the Bay of Galway, and being joined there by some of Mac Con's Irish adherents, they overran and ravaged west Connaught. Art immediately mustered all the forces he could command, and marched into Connaught, where he was joined by Mac Con's six or seven step-brothers, sons of Oilil Olum, and the forces of Munster. A battle ensued at a place between Athunree and Galway, in which Art was killed, leaving behind him an infant son Cormac.'

CORMAC, son of ART, about A.D. 227 to A.D. 267.

Whether Cormac was actually born at the time of his father's death or not, he was certainly not of an age to succeed to the throne, which was at once seized by the victorious Mac Con. Under such circumstances, it is not surprising that historians should inform us that " Cormac's youth was passed in. adversity;" but we are also told "that to the ambition of filling the throne of his ancestors, he added the more laudable one of wishing to merit it." Under the teaching of the Druids, he became an accomplished scholar, and was such an adept in the use of arms, that he was regarded as one of the first champions of Ireland in those days of martial enterprise.

At the age of twenty-five he visited Munster and Connaught, with the view of obtaining support to regain the throne. Shortly after, an assassin laid the way open before him. Mac Con was assassinated near his palace at Tara, and the Irish monarchy was again vacant. Cormac at once openly aspired to the dignity, and solicited the support of the chieftains. His only important rival was Fergus, King of Ulster, and he, by a shabby and malicious manœuvre, succeeded for a time in obtaining the sovereignty.

'O'Curry's Lectures on MS. Materials for Irish History, Lecture II., p. 43.
According to the prophecy, Cormac was yet unborn.

It was one of the fundamental rules which governed the Irish succession, that no one could be king who was subject to any personal deformity, and no one could be a candidate whose person was not in every way perfect. The hair of the head and the beard were considered the principal adjuncts of the features. To cut off the hair of an adversary was considered a mark of the highest contempt, and no one dare appear abroad with such a brand of infamy. In order to do away with Cormac's chance of being elected, Fergus so arranged that, during the entertainments which took place preparatory to the election, Cormac's hair and beard were set on fire, and burned off his head and face. Smarting under the disgrace and pain of this outrage, Cormac was obliged to retire and hide himself, and his rival being relieved from the opposition of the only dangerous candidate with whom he had to contend, was proclaimed monarch without difficulty. Fergus was not left long in undisturbed possession of the dignity which he had gained in such an unworthy way. As soon as Cormac had regained all his personal qualifications, he was not slow in asserting the claims which his misfortune had obliged him temporarily to relinquish. Having secured the support of the King of Munster, and engaged the services of Teige, son of Cean, one of the great warriors of the day, he collected a large army, and invaded Leinster. Fergus was not behindhand in preparations to receive him, and a decisive battle was fought in Meath. In this battle Fergus and his three brothers were killed. Notwithstanding the loss of their leader, the Ulster men maintained the contest, which remained doubtful, until Teige himself, at the head of a select body of troops, that had not yet been engaged, rushed into the conflict, scattered the Ulster king's forces, and pursued them for many miles.

After this battle Cormac claimed the throne of Ireland as his right by conquest as well as descent, and was soon after proclaimed with great pomp. His inauguration is described in the Book of Ballymote in the following terms:-"A noble and illustrious king assumed the sovereignty and rule of Erinn, namely, Cormac, the grandson of Conn of the Hundred Battles. The world was full of all goodness in his time. There were no killings or plunderings, but everyone occupied his land in happiness.

"The nobles of Erinn assembled to the banquet at Tara with Cormac at a certain time." Then a list is given of the different kings who assembled. "Magnificently did Cormac come to this great assembly, for no man his equal in beauty had preceded him, excepting Conaire, or Angus. His hair was slightly curled, and of a golden colour: a scarlet shield, with engraved devices, and golden

hooks and clasps of silver he bore: a wide-folding purple cloak on him, with a gem-set gold brooch over his breast: a gold torque round his neck: a whitecollared shirt, embroidered with gold, upon him: a girdle with golden buckles, and studded with precious stones, around him: two golden network sandals, with golden buckles, upon his feet: two spears with golden sockets, and many red bronze rivets, in his hand; while he stood in the full glow of beauty without defect or blemish. You would think it was a shower of pearls that were set in his mouth his lips were rubies: his symmetrical body was as white as snow: his cheek was like the mountain-ash berry: his eyes were like the sloe: his brows and eyelashes were like the sheen of a blue black lance."

Such was the Irish monarch, according to this ancient record, when he presented himself to what is styled "the noblest convocation ever held in Erinn before the Christian era; for the laws and enactments instituted in that meeting were those which shall prevail in Erinn for ever."

"The nobles of Erinn proposed to make a new classification of the people, according to their various mental and material qualifications: both kings and ollamhs (chiefs of professions), and Druids and farmers and soldiers, and all different classes likewise." Previously, for a great number of years, “each man usurped the profession of another, until this great meeting around Cormac. They then again separated the professors of every art from each other on that great meeting, and each of them was ordained to his legitimate profession."

"Cormac ordered a new code of laws and regulations to be drawn up, extending to all classes and professions. He also put the State or Court regulations on a new and permanent footing, and revived obsolete tests and ordeals, and instituted some important new ones; thus making the law of testimony and evidence as perfect and safe as it could be in such times."

"If we take this and various other descriptions of Cormac's character as a man, a king, a scholar, a judge, and a warrior into account, we shall see that he was no ordinary prince; and that if he had not impressed the nation with a full sense of his great superiority over his predecessors and those who came after him, there is no reason why he should have been specially selected from all the rest of the line of monarchs, to be made above all the possessor of such excellence."

Such a man could scarcely have carried out his various behests without some written medium; and it is not unwarrantable presumption to suppose that either by his own hand, or at least in his own time, and by his command, his

'O'Curry's Lectures, p. 46.

laws were committed to writing. "There still exists," says O'Curry, "a law tract attributed to Cormac. It is called The Book of Acaill. It is found annexed to a law treatise by a learned compiler named Cennfaeled, who lived A.D. 634, and there is found with it an account of the time at which, and the circumstances under which, it was written. It was written at Accaill, or Akill, near Tara, in the time of Carbery, son of Cormac, by Cormac, after his having lost the sight from one eye."

Cormac's reign was not, however, altogether devoted to promoting the peaceful arts, and to legislative reforms. Like most of his predecessors, he became involved in domestic hostilities. One of his sons named Callach having committed an outrage on a neighbouring chieftain named Angus, was killed by the latter in the presence of the monarch at Tara. Enraged at the murder of his son, Cormac raised an army to attack Angus, who, on his side, had enlisted the support of the King of Munster, to whom he had fled for protection.

Since the division of the country which took place in the time of Conn, the Munster king had maintained a quasi-independence, and Cormac now attempted to put an end to this; but he found his opponents too strong, and he was obliged to come to terms with them, and to recognise formally the old division of the country, which he was obliged to swear that he would respect.

The difficulties into which the unsuccessful invasion of Munster threw the Irish monarch compelled him to undertake new enterprises. One of these was the subjugation of Connaught. After various encounters he destroyed the power of the Damnonian ruler of that kingdom, and reduced it to subjection to himself. It is supposed that in one of these expeditions he lost an eye, and was compelled to abdicate, and to withdraw into retirement.

According to other accounts, the accident to his eye occurred at the same time as his son Callach lost his life, and the perpetrator of the double deed was Angus. This, however, does not appear probable, as Cormac did not abdicate immediately on the death of his son; and that he was obliged to abdicate in consequence of this misfortune, is attested by all the records regarding him. The rule that no one could be king who had any personal defect told with very great hardship against Cormac. As we have seen, he was kept out of the sovereignty when a young man by this rule; and later on, when in the full vigour of his life, and in his greatest power as king, he was obliged by it to abdicate.

In his retirement he wrote the treatise above referred to. When his son

1 O'Curry's Lectures, p. 47.

Carbery was called to the throne, he wrote for his benefit another treatise in the form of a dialogue, entitled, Advice to a King. In it he treats of the duty of a king as a legislator, a soldier, a statesman, and a scholar, and of the laws of poets, philosophers, antiquarians, and Druids. It is also stated that he devoted much attention to the study of religion, and that he became acquainted with and embraced the tenets of Christianity, and that he was thus in reality the first of the kings of Ireland who embraced the Christian faith.

His death subsequently arose from an accident. He was choked by a fish bone which he swallowed, and which fastened in his throat, and could not be got up or down. His body was not interred-it is said, at his special requestwith his pagan ancestors at the royal burial-place; and as one proof that he had embraced Christianity, it is related that three centuries later his remains were sought for by St. Columba, and that a church and an altar were erected over them.

The character and career of Cormac have, if not from his own time, at least from a very remote period, formed the fruitful subject of panegyric to the poet, the historian, and the legislator. Our old and most accredited annalists record his victories and military glories. Our historians dwell with rapture on his honour, his justice, and the native dignity of his character. Our writers of historical romance make him the hero of many a tale of curious adventure; and our poets find in his personal accomplishments, and in the regal splendour of his reign, inexhaustible theme for their choicest numbers.

"The poet Maelmuira, who died A.D. 864, styles him 'Cormac Ceolach,' or Cormac the Musical. Kenneth O'Hartigan, who died A.D. 973, gives a glowing description of the magnificence of his palace at Tara; and Cuin O'Loughlin, A.D. 1024, is no less eloquent on the subject of his mental and personal qualities, and the glories of his reign."

During Cormac's reign the celebrated warrior, "Finn M'Cumhail," is supposed to have lived. Of him O'Curry says:-" It is quite a mistake to suppose that Finn MacCumhail was a purely imaginary character. Much that has been written of his exploits is no doubt apocryphal enough, but he himself is an undoubted historical personage, and that he lived about the time at which his appearance is recorded in the Annals, is as certain as that Julius Cæsar lived and ruled at the time stated by Roman historians."

One of the most ancient Irish tales which has been preserved and handed

1 O'Halloran (Vol. II., p. 267) states that this treatise is preserved entire in O'Dunegan's book— "a copy of which I have."

* O'Curry's Lectures on MS. Materials for Irish History, p. 42.

'O'Curry's Lectures, p. 303.