We know of 2229 Irish Saints, even not counting their companions, of whom 300 preached the gospel in foreign countries, not counting their companions. Of these 529 were holy abbots; 330 were bishops and martyrs, and numberless holy bishops; 31 archbishops of Armagh were saints; 21 of whom immediately succeeded each other; 990 Irish monks were martyred by the Danes in the monastery of Benchear; 1200 Irish monks were martyred by the Danes together with their abbot Abel; 777 Irishmen martyrs in England; and only one, St. Odronus, Proto martyr, was martyred in Ireland by the Irish. 23 English saints received their studies and education in Ireland; 3000 others have studied in Ireland; 100 Cambri or from Brittany have studied in Ireland. Innumerable were the Italians, French, in short from all nations who had recourse to Ireland in order to perfect themselves in their studies, and the knowledge of the scriptures; so that it may well be doubted whether Ireland acquired more glory from the great number of saints whom it sent abroad in order to teach and preach the gospel to foreign nations, or from the great number of foreigners who resorted to Ireland in order to be perfected in all manner of literature and knowledge.1 There were four principal Universities in Ireland, viz. Ardmagh, Cashel, Lismore, and Dunda-leathglass. In Armagh, under St. Dubthach, Bishop, anno 513, were 7000 scholars. In Cashel, under Cormac Mac Cullenan, King and Archbishop in the year 901, were 5000 students, and six hundred Conventual monks; the like number were in Lismore and Dun-da-leathglass. Many were the other great schools dispersed throughout the kingdom; whereas even after the coming of the English at Cluanraid near Ennis, there were 600 Scholars, and 350 Monks, supported by O'Brien, King of Limerick. The Irish in these days made a beginning of the University of Oxford in England, founded the University of Paris and that of Pavia. Fifty-two Catholic kings reigned in Ireland until the coming of the English, consequently, 197 kings in all reigned in Ireland until that event. Whoever reads the antiquities must be convinced that it abounded in gold and silver, as every person of distinction wore a golden ring and a golden chain; in the reign of Candaridtheach, their helmets were made of silver, all their chalices and Church utensils were made of gold and silver; and the ounce of gold paid to the Danes yearly, as a tribute for every nose in the kingdom, is a proof of their riches.-Hugh M'Curtin. CHAPTER VI. THE NORMAN INVASION. Ir was thus that Ireland was situated with regard to religion and education, at the period of the invasion, which must have been regarded by the Norman conquerors of England as an inevitable and necessary supplement to the conquest of the Anglo-Saxons, though it was not attempted for a full century after the battle of Hastings. But from the time that Henry II. had obtained from the Englishman, Nicholas Breakspere, who then filled the chair of St. Peter under the name of Adrian IV., the Bull of donation which had been procured under the hypocritical representation that the Irish Church was in a state of deplorable corruption, the attempt at invasion was only a question of time. Unfortunately our countrymen were divided at the time, which made the work of the invaders comparatively easy. The Irish were admittedly more divided then, than they were at any previous period of their history; and if they suspected the lengths to which the ambition of the first invaders would extend, which it does not appear they did, for the Annals of the Four Masters say the Irish thought nothing of these "fleets of the Flemings," as they called the invaders, they were still quite unprepared for the work of treachery which has conferred lasting infamy on the name of Dermod MacMorrogh. We regret to have to record that the house of O'Brien, forgot in this crisis of the national fortunes the noble principle of its founder, Brian, who never on any occasion could be induced to avail himself of the assistance of foreigners against the general interest of the nation. Unfortunately, the king of Thomond had not yet forgiven Roderick for the assumption of the chief Sovereignty, nor forgotten the long continued supremacy of the dymasty to which he himself belonged. The important events of the invasion commencing in the descent of three or four hundred men, and terminating in the recognition by O'Connor of Henry as Suzerain, together with the formation of the armed colony called the English Pale, belonging to the general history of Ireland, cannot with propriety be given in detail in a local history. Stanihurst and a contemporary, Newbrigensis, give a very unfavorable notion of the characters, circumstances, and motives of the leaders of this expedition, which is generally supposed to have occurred in the month of May 1169, at a place near Fethard in Wexford, called Baganbon, where traces of the slight fortification mentioned by Maurice Regan in his Fragment of Irish History still exist.' On the arrival of Strongbow, which had been preceded by that of Raymond le Gros, the invaders made rapid progress. They took Loughgarnan (Wex, ford), and entered Portlairge (Waterford) by storm. Gillemaire (or Reginald), a Dane who commanded the tower, and Ua Faelain (O'Phelan), lord of the Decies, were put to the sword, with seven hundred men. The invaders next enforced the submission of the Danish occupants of Dublin. O'Ruarc and O'Carroll were obliged to retire after besieging Dublin for three days; and Asgall, or Asculphus, the Danish ruler, was deposed to make room for King In the local traditions, these entrenchments, which are situated near Fethard, are called "Strongbow's Camp ;" but the place of Strongbow's debarkation was at Waterford, as that of Raymond le Gros was at Dundonnel. The name of Baganbon is said to be derived from Fitzstephen's two ships, the Bague and Bonne, which the Anglo-Norman adventurers burned after their landing. Dermod, who made several destructive forays in Meath and Breffny, and returned to Dublin laden with spoils. Macarthy, with the troops of Desmond, had gained a victory at Waterford, but this was the only success obtained at the time, and it appears to have been of little value. It is mortifying to have to record of a scion of the illustrious house of Brian, whose descendants, as we have stated in an earlier chapter, still occupy territories which have been in the possession of this ancient race for full 1600 years-that Donald O'Brien of Thomond, and his valiant Dalcassians, joined the enemies of their country against the Irish monarch, Roderick O'Connor-though we shall find the O'Briens and Dalcassians fighting against and defeating the English shortly after. Towards the close of the year 1170, a Connaught fleet, followed by a Connaught army, descended the Shannon, invaded Thomond, plundered Ormond, and destroyed the wooden bridge at Killaloe. The next year was rendered remarkable for the death of Dermod Macmorrogh. 1 On the death of MacMorrogh, "Diarmaid na Gall," "Dermot of the Foreigners," as the Irish historians call him, Earl Strongbow got himself proclaimed King of Leinster, to which he had no right whatever according to the Irish laws. In the meantime, while the northern dynasts were employed in quarrelling amongst themselves, the territories of the degenerate king of Thomond were harassed by continual expeditions from Connaught.2 In the meantime, Henry had determined upon paying a visit to Ireland, and in the month of October, 1172, he landed safely at Waterford, where he established his head quarters.3 On the arrival of Henry, who was accompanied in this expedition by a force consisting of four hundred knights and four hundred men at arms, Strongbow presented him with the keys of the city of Waterford, and did homage after the feudal manner for the kingdom of Leinster. Dermod M'Carthy, prince of Desmond, on the next day surrendered the city of Cork, did homage and consented to pay tribute; and King Henry, now an acknowledged sovereign, advanced at the head of his army to Lismore, from which, 1 "Dermod Macmorrogh, King of Leinster, by whom a trembling sod was made of all Ireland-after having brought over the Saxons-after having done extensive injuries to the Irish-after having plundered and burnt many churches, such as Kells, Clonard, and others, died before the end of a year, (after his ravages through Meath), of an insufferable and unknown disease, for he became putrid while still living, through the miraculous power of God, Columbkille, and Finneen, and the other saints of Ireland whose churches he had violated and burned some time previously. He died in Ferna-mor without making a will, without repentance, without the body of Christ, without being anointed, as his evil conduct merited."—Annals of the Four Masters. It is pleasant to have to state that the Danes and Irish of the towns (Wexford, Waterford, and Dublin) in which the Danes had settled, offered a brave and not always ineffectual resistance to the new invaders. The Danes of Duleek, for instance, had severely revenged an insult offered by the English to their patron saint, St. Kianan, by the Knights of Milo de Cogan; but Asgall, the Dublin Dane, who had procured reinforcements from the Danes of Man and the Hebrides, was not equally successful, being defeated and slain by the same Milo de Cogan, with the leader of his allies. At last Roderick saw the necessity of an energetic effort, and accompanied by O'Ruarc and O'Carroll, of Oriel, advanced against Strongbow and De Cogan. Unfortunately, however, he abandoned the siege of Dublin, for an expedition into Leinster, whither he proceeded for the purpose of destroying the standing corn, and leaving his camp slightly defended, was defeated, with the loss of so great a quantity of supplies that they victualled Dublin for a year. Another army of O'Ruarc was also defeated by De Cogan. In this battle O'Ruarc lost his son, who had greatly distinguished himself in the engagement which was fought outside the fortifications of the city, and with no other result than the loss of many lives on both sides. 3 The authorities followed in this account of the English invasion, are, the Hybernia Expurgata of Giraldus Cambrensis, the Metrical Chronicle in Regan, Ware's Annals, O'Flaherty's Ogygia, and the Annals of the Four Masters, under the years in which they occur. after a brief sojourn, he proceeded to Cashel, where, in Cormac's Chapel, he received in succession the submission of Donald O'Brien, king of Thomond, who surrendered to him his city of Limerick, promised tribute and swore fealty-an example which was followed by Donchad of Ossory, O'Faolan (Phelan) of the Desies, and other chiefs of Munster. We have already mentioned that King Roderick O'Connor had dispatched an army into Thomond to punish the defection of O'Brien, who had formed an alliance. with Macmorrogh, and had fought several battles with the Irish monarch, being assisted by Fitzstephen, who was now a prisoner in Reginald's Tower at Waterford,' whither he had been brought by the men of Wexford. On returning to Waterford, however, Henry set Fitzstephen free, inflicted severe punishment upon his treacherous enemies, and annexed Wexford and the adjoining territory to his royal domain. There is no authority whatever in the native annals for the statement that Henry was now recognised by a meeting of the states of Ireland; nor that all the Archbishops and Bishops of Ireland now waited upon Henry, and not only tendered their own submission, but gave him letters signed and sealed, and making over to him and his heirs for ever the sovereignty of Ireland. In the year 1172 was held the celebrated Synod of Cashel, in which various rules were made for the enforcement of discipline and morality, for there was no doctrinal matter discussed at this much misrepresented meeting, whatever assertions to the contrary may have been made by interested parties. The payment of tythes, which had been previously enjoined at the Synod of Kells, was again enforced, at this Synod, as also the catechising of infants, the rejection of marriages with relations, and the exemption of ecclesiastical property from the exactions of laymen, as well as from the erics or contributions for homicide. In other respects the Irish laws were not interfered with, the people being governed by their own Brehon Laws and their native usages and institutions from the time of Henry the II. to that of Elizabeth. Matthew Paris, Littleton, Ware, and even O'Connor, have strangely mistaken the nature of another meeting held by Henry at Lismore, which they misrepresent as a parliament that "communicated to Ireland the laws and customs of England." Whereas it appears clearly from the proceedings of the Synod that there was no interference with the old laws and customs. Amongst the territories granted in the county of Limerick to Fitzgerald and his relatives, besides those in Cork and Kerry, were 100,000 acres of land in the barony of Connello, ceded to them by the native family of O'Connell (from whom Castleconnell and Carrig O'Connell, now Carrigogunnell, received their name) "in consideration," says Lynch, "of lands assigned them in the counties of Kerry and Clare, where branches of that family2 continue to the Fitzstephen was also confined in Beg Erin, in Wexford Harbour, about two miles from Wexford. DESMONDS.-The territory which gave its enormous power to the great house of Desmond, was acquired under curious circumstances. King John gave Desmond and Decies to FitzAnthony. This feudal lord, had five daughters, all of whom were married, the youngest being the wife of John Fitz Thomas FitzGerald. In the Irish civil wars, he was the only one of the sons-in-law of FitzAnthony who took the king's side; so Edward I., as Lord of Ireland, gave him Decies and Desmond in 1258. John Fitz Thomas came to Dublin with the royal lettters patent, and called upon the Lord Justice to grant him seisin of this fine estate. But Stephen de Longespee, who then held the office, had secret ties which bound him to the other sons-in-law of the late Lord of Desmond, and he would not comply with this reasonable demand. Fitz Thomas showed the letters patent. The king, said Longespee, has been grossly deceived. Furious at such a charge, the haughty Geraldine departed from Dublin, and set the first example of resistance to the constituted authorities for which his house were afterwards so famous. He called the tenants of |