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scoffer, the "Idoll of Trym," and believed to perform wonders and miracles, this and "The Staff of Jesus," or crozier of St. Patrick,2 were publicly burned.

The persecution suffered during these terrible days by the Irish Catholics was not surpassed by that endured by the Church of Christ in its very earliest times at the hands of the Pagan Emperors of Rome, "so that it is impossible to narrate or tell its description unless it should be narrated by one who saw it." In more remote and hidden places the monasteries, it is true, were not molested, simply because they were beyond the reach of the destroyers, but for no other reason.

The Lords of the Pale at this period felt that they must introduce Irish tenants; they were not content with the English tillers of the soil, who could not live in penury or wretchedness as the Irish, but must sustain

by lease payeing yearly 16d. Item, Oliver Arthur Fitzrobert, hath one gardine by lease, paying yearlie therefor 8d. Item, that Ellen Stacpol widdowe hath one gardine by lease payeing yearly 8d. Item, that Donogh O'Donnell hath one house by lease payeing yearly therefor, 16d. Item, there is half one plowland named Ballynagalleagh in the south side of the Curry there is underwood and pasture belonging to the same. Item, there is by Loughgair a towne called Ballynagalagh in the countye of Lymerick that pertayneth to the said nunnery and house of Keiloine aforesaid. Itein, wee finde that one Michael Arthur, merchant, deceased the 10th day of May, 32nd yeare of King Henry the Eighth, and that one Morris Herbert, archdeacon of our laidies church of Lymerick, did refuse and would not take of one David Arthur, and Genett Whyte executor of the said Michael Arthur, but according as it hath been paid of ould time contrary to the forme of the statute there in provided. Item, wee find that Tibbott Bourke of Caherkinlish in the county of Lymerick Gentl., the 10th day of Januarii, to 33 yeare of King Henry the VIII. and divers before and after did take of one William Young of Lymerick, merchant, for seaven loads of oaths, 7d. and so of divers others of the sayd cittie daylie. And of James Fox of the same for ten barrells of wyne departinge out of the same cittye into the countrie 2d. in extortion. Mahone O'Bryen of Carrigogunnel in the countie of Lymerick, gentl. did take of Domynick Whyte of Lymerick, mercht. the 10th daye of December, 33rd Henrci 8, for 3 barrells of wyne 3d. and for ten barrell of wyne 20d. and soe from day to day, from divers others of the said citty in extortion. And so did Murrough MacMahon of Balliolman of Christopher Creagh Fitzpatrick of Lymerick, merchant, for custom of 2 hogsetts of hearings 3s. 8d. and for 5 dykers of hydes 7s. 4d. and of every boath that cometh to that cittye by his castle 7s. 4d. and soe of divers others. And O'Conoughour of Carigfoyle did take of John Streech Fitzgeorge for his ship coming to that citty 3s. 4d. and 20 gallouns of wyne, and soe of every ship that cometh to that towne with wyne. Shiekus O'Cahaine of Keilruish in the countriey of Corkavaskin, the 10th day of December and 33rd H. 8, did take of every ship that cometh to that cittye and in especiall of John Fanning, 6s. 6d. by extortion. Donogh Gowe of Corrugraige, constable of the same under the Earl of Desmond, the 4th day of March and 33rd H. VIII. did take of Robert Heay, of Lymerick, merchant, for his boath of oysters that came to the citty a hundred oysters, and soe of every boath that cometh likewise. Darmitius M'Morrough of Finies, the 10th day of Februarii, and 33rd of Henry VIII. did take of William Yong of Lymerick, merchant, for one boath passing by the castle of Ffinies, 12 gallons of wyne and eight gallons of hony, and of every boath that passeth by the same, to the said citty. Item, Fineen M'Namara, and Taig M'Namara did daiely take of every barrell of wyne that passes out of the said cittie into the countrey by them 2d. and of every cow and horse passing by them to the said citty, 2d. and the tenth parte of all Linnen cloath passing by them to the said citty, and of every man passing by them to the said citty havinge a capp on his head, 6s. 8d. in extreame manner. Alsoe O'Bryen, doth levye and take all such things as aforesaid, except the 6s. 8d. for the capp. Item, in tyme past the Earls of Ormond and of Desmond have used such like customes which nowe they be content to remitt. Item, Donogh O'Bryen doth take of every pack that passeth from Lymerick to Waterfourd, 20d. and of every horse.load of wares coming from Waterfourd to Lymerick 5d. And that the said Donnogh the 15th day of Januarii last past tooke from John Harold, Nicholas Harold, Patricke Rochfort, and Richard Verdon for packs aleaven duccats and soe of divers others."

"This image," say the annalists, "used to heal the blind, and the deaf, and the crippled, and persons afflicted with all sorts of diseases."

2 This staff was said to have been received by St. Patrick from a hermit in an island of the Etruscan sea, to whom it was delivered, as was believed, by the Redeemer himself, whence the name "Bachall Isa," and was in Dublin performing miracles from the time of St. Patrick down to that day, and had been in the hands of Christ whilst he was amongst men.-Note in Annals of

Four Masters.

3 Annals of the Four Masters.

themselves and "keep honest residence ;" and it became a matter of grievous complaint that they were obliged to chose those who could neither speak the English language, nor "wore cap or bonnet."

In the year 1540 Murrogh O'Brien and the chiefs of Thomond, by the consent and permission of the superiors of the order of St. Francis, bestowed the monastery of Clonroad on the friars of the Observance, but wherever the English extended their power, they persecuted and banished the religious orders, and in this year the monastery of Monaghan was destroyed, and the guardian and some of the friars were beheaded.

Whilst the common enemy was thus at work, the old intestine divisions and wars continued to prevail among the leaders of the people. So general were these wars, that the death "in his bed" of Torlough O'Brien, in 1542, at Inchiquin, is specially mentioned, he being "the most expert man at arms, the most famous and illustrious of his years, in his time." The progress of the Reformation was slow, but the plunder of church property and the destruction of churches, went on unchecked, and many relics of older times were brought to light.3

The Geraldines again gave trouble to the Government in revenge of their expulsion from their patrimony. The Lord Justice (St. Ledger) going into Offally, wrought vengeance upon them--he burned churches and monasteries, destroyed crops and corn, proclaimed O'Connor and O'More traitors, and confiscated their territories to the King.1

In 1547, just in the crisis of troubles and misfortunes, Maurice Russell of Dublin, gentleman, was appointed curator, bailiff, commissioner, or trustee of the city of Limerick during pleasure, with the like fees as John White or any other received in said office, and the yearly sum of 40s. sterling out of the fee farm of the city, and was again so appointed the 10th August, 1549. In 1547 Henry VIII. died, and Edward VI. ascended the throne on the day of his father's death, viz. 28th of January, 1547. Henry was styled "Defender of the Faith," for his book against Luther, yet in the two and twentieth year of his reign he issued a proclamation, that no person should purchase anything from the Court of Rome; in the three and twentieth the clergy submitted themselves to the King for being found guilty of a premunire, and were the first that called him supreme head of the Church, yet with this restriction, so far as it was in accordance with God's word and not otherwise; and he proceeded from bad to worse, until in his thirty-fifth year all colleges, chantries and hospitals were given up to him. Notwithstanding

1 Annals of the Four Masters.

The castle at this lake, which was built by the head of the O'Briens sometime after the expulsion of the family of O'Quin.

3 In breaking down a part of Christ Church, Dublin, in the year 1545, a stone coffin was discovered in which the body of a bishop, in his episcopal dress, with ten gold rings on his ten fingers and a gold meys chalice standing beside his neck. The body lay in a hollow, so cut by a chisel, in the stone as to fit its shape; it was taken up, all parts adhering together, and placed in a standing position, supported against the altar, and left there for some time; no part of the dress had faded or rotted, and this was regarded as a great sign of sanctity.-Annals of the Four Masters.

• Cox remarks of the state of education at this time, that "most of the letters of the great Irish lords (even some of English extraction) are subscribed with a mark, very few of them being able to write their names. Most of the Irish chieftains neither understood nor sought to understand the English language, and carried on their correspondence in Latin, supplied by the Catholic clergy." Cox errs in some respects, as O'Neill and other Irish lords unquestionably wrote their names.

5 Sir R. Baker's Chronicle, p. 425.

these enormous confiscations, Cox' adds that the necessities of the State obliged the King to coin brass or mixed moneys, and to make it current in Ireland by proclamation, to the great dissatisfaction of all the people, especially the soldiers. This base money was circulated in Limerick as well as elsewhere.3 At this time the power of the English was very extensive in Ireland; "so that the bondage in which the people of Leath-Mhoga were, had scarcely been ever equalled before that time." Just at this time Sir William Brabazon, Lord Justice, who was elected by the Council, committed the government of Tipperary to Edmond Butler, Archbishop of Cashel, and made a journey to Limerick, where Teig O'Carroll submitted, and entered into covenants of paying a yearly tribute into the Exchequer, and of serving the King with a certain number of horse and foot at his own charge, and of renouncing his pretensions to the barony of Ormond; and afterwards the same Teig O'Carroll surrendered to the King his country of Ely O'Carroll, containing ninety-three plowlands and a half; and the King regranted the same to him, and created him Baron of Ely. By O'Carroll's means, Mac Murrough, O'Kelly, and O'Melaghlin, were now taken into protection and pardoned; and by the Lord Deputy's mediation, the Earls of Desmond and Thomond who were wrangling about bounds, and the protection of each other's Tories or outlaws, were reconciled on the 11th of March.5

On the 4th of November, Charles Mac Art Kavenagh made his submission. to the Lord Deputy at Dublin, in presence of the Earls of Desmond, Thomond, Clanrickard and Tyrone, and the Lords Mountgarrett, Dunboyne, Cahir, and Ibracan, renounced the name of Mac Murrough, and parted with some of his usurped jurisdiction and estate. O'Carroll, however, did not long remain quiet. In this same year he burned Nenagh upon the "Red Captain," and the monastery of Tyone also. He destroyed the town from the fortress out. He set fire to the monastery of Abington in the county of Limerick, banished the Saxons out of it, created great confusion among them, by which he weakened their power and "diminished their bravery," so that he ordered them all out of his country, except a few warders who were at Nenagh in the tower of Mac Manus."

The Lord Justice (Brabazon) being in Limerick, held a great court, at which the Mayor was present, and took part in it as one of the Judges or Commissioners. In 1551, Edmond Butler, Archbishop of Cashel, and son of Pierce, Earl of Ormond, to whom the government of Tipperary had been committed a few years before, died; and Murrough O'Brien, Earl of Thomond, as he was styled by the English, and king,10 but styled O'Brien according to the custom of the Irish, died-he was the first man of the race of O'Brien

Cox's Hibernia Anglicana.

In the time of Henry VIII. the discovery of the American gold mines made a great change in the value of money; his Chief Baron of the Exchequer had a salary of £100 a year; the Barons, £46 13s. 4d. each; and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, then a less important personage than he now is, had £26 13s. 4d. a year.

It breaks and moulders away after very little handling; it is called copper by the Four Masters, who add that the men of Ireland were obliged to use it as silver."-Annals of the Four Masters.

Annals of the Four Masters.

5 Cox's Hibernia Anglicana, p. 287.

7 Annals of the Four Masters, en an 1548.

6 Ibid.

8 Ibid.

This was the name of the massive tower now called the "Round" of Nenagh; who this Mac Manus was it is impossible to say.-Dr. O'Donovan's note in Annals of the Four Masters. Could it be Magnus ?"

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10 Annals of the Four Masters.

who was styled Earl," a man valiant in making and puissant in sustaining an attack, influential, rich and wealthy," Donough O'Brien succeeded him; he had a contest with his uncle Daniel, who claimed the Estate by Tanistry; by the mediation of the Lord Deputy they came to an agreement, when an Indenture Tripartite was made between the Deputy, the Earl, and Daniel O'Brien: the Indenture bears date, May 7th, 15522. It had but a temporary effect; the Earl of Thomond and his uncles Donald and Turlogh were again in arms; they took Clonroad; the earl defended the castle for a time; but not long after he was murdered by Donald, his uncle, and the annalists add, that Dermot O'Brien died on the eve of St. Bridget and was buried in the monastery of Ennis.

If Edward VI. did no good to Limerick, he endeavoured to show his partiality for it by granting a charter to the city.

LIMERICK

CHAPTER XIV.

UNDER QUEEN MARY AND ELIZABETH.-THE WARS OF THE DESMONDS. THE BUTLERS AND THE O'BRIENS.-CONFISCATIONS, ETC.

THE news of the accession of Queen Mary to the throne of England was received with joy by the citizens of Limerick, who hoped that they might participate in the full fruition of their civil and religious rights and immunities. Casey, who had been the first Protestant Bishop of the see, now fled beyond the seas, imitating, in this respect, the conduct of Bale, Bishop of Ossory. Hugh Lacy, or Lees, was constituted by the Pope, Bishop of Limerick, and an immediate change in the aspect of affairs was apparent. A Parliament was held in Dublin, commencing on the 19th of June, 1557, and on the 2nd of July was adjourned to

1 Cox's Hibernia Anglicana, p. 292.

2 Sullivan mentions a curious fact which is quoted by Cox, in continuation of the wars between Daniel O'Brien and the Earl of Thomond in reference to the estates. He states that the Lord President Fitton got Daniel O'Brien into Limerick upon his oath that he would give him free and easy egress out of the gates; but the sophistical Englishman turned him out of the wrong gate (" so that there was the river Shenin between him and his army which was encamped in Thomond" and immediately sent the young earl to take possession of the country, which he did; and Daniel, who was so brave a man that many of the old and new Irish courted him to be king of Ireland) was forced to lie that tempestuous night in a cabbin; but when, according to the Irish fashion, he thought to lead his horse to stable in the same house with himself, the proud beast scorned to stoop, until the footboy whispered the horse in the ear and told him that his master O'Bryan would lodge that night in that cabbin, and desired that he would lower his crest and his crupper, and creep into the house to keep his master company; and the horse being well bred did comply in matter of ceremony; but when he came to supper he was at a loss, for he was used to wheat, and could not conform to country entertainment, until the footboy whispered him once more that his master O'Bryan, who fed on oaten cake, did command Rosinante to be content with the same fare, and then he fell to it.

Arthur MSS.

The Right Hon. Wm. Monsell, M.P., is a descendant of Bishop Casey, as is also Sir Vere de Vere, Bart.-Cotton's Fasti. Cotton adds that the Duke of Buckingham is also one of Bishop Casey's descendants.

10th of November to Limerick, and from Limerick, to the 1st of March in the following year, to Drogheda. The statutes of this Parliament enacted that all heresies should be punished, that all acts against the Pope made since 20th Henry 8th, should be repealed, &c. Sullivan (Catholic History, p. 81) gives every credit to Mary for propagating and supporting the old faith; but he adds that although the Queen was zealous, her ministers did not forbear to injure and abuse the Irish.1

Towards the close of her Majesty's reign, the Lord Deputy, Sussex, arrived to suppress a revolt of some inferior branches of the O'Brien family against their chief. Sussex mustered an army to march into Munster, and O'Brien another to oppose him; they, however, made peace; and on this occasion, Connor O'Brien, the earl and the freeholders of Thomond, after service in the cathedral church of St. Mary, swore fealty to the crown of England: "the Irish, from the Barrow to the Shannon, on the part of O'Brien, and the English of Munster on the part of the Lord Justice."2 Sussex brought over with him five hundred soldiers and an order to coin brass money, and to make it current by proclamation, which was done. On the 14th of June, he came to Limerick, and advanced afterwards to Thomond. Scattering his foes, he took the castles of Bunratty and Clare, and restored the country to the Earl of Thomond, who, together with the freeholders, swore, on Sunday the 10th of July, on the sacrament, and by all the relics in the church-book, bell, and candle light, to continue loyal to the Queen and to perform their agreements with the Lord Deputy. The progress of Sussex was not confined to this triumph-the Earl of Desmond made his submission on the 21st of June, and to strengthen the bonds of fealty and friendship, the Deputy, on the 26th, became godfather to the Earl's son, whom he named James Sussex, and gave the child a chain of gold, and gave another chain and pair of gilt spurs to Dermot M'Carthy of Muskerry. In this year, Turlough O'Brien, son of Turlough, son of Teigh-an-Chomaid, died.

Queen Mary died in the following year, and was succeeded by Queen Elizabeth, during whose eventful reign some of the most startling events in our local annals occurred, and first among them the lamented death of James, Earl of Desmond, of whom it is said "the loss of this good man was woeful to his country, for there was no need to watch cattle or close doors, from Dunquin, west of Ventry, in Kerry, to the green-bordered meeting of the three waters, on the confines of the province of Eochaidh, the son of Lucta and

1 Quæ tametsi Catholicam religionem tueri et amplificare conata est, ejus tamen præfecti et Concillarii injurias Hybernis inferi non desisterunt.

Sullivan speaks with great truth when he refers to the conduct of Mary's ministers and councillors in Ireland; they were as fierce and implacable against the old Irish race as any of their predecessors; and the annals are full of the misdeeds of Sussex against many of the ancient possessors of the land, whom he treated with unexampled oppression and cruelty.

2 O'Donovan's Annals of the Four Masters, cir an 1555.

3 Sussex's advent in Ireland is stated by the native annalists to have been followed by the most fearful disasters. He polluted the temples of God throughout Ireland; he uprooted and overturned the altars wherever he met them; he expelled the orthodox bishops and the clergy, and all members of religious houses; he drove out the nuns from their sanctified retreats, and introduced the Lutheran religion, the Lutheran liturgy, and the heterodox faith, wherever he could.-Arthur MSS.

4 These are the words of the herald's certificate.

5 Cox's Hibernia Anglicana, p. 307.

• Coad, a townland containing the ruins of a small church near Corofin, Co. Clare.

7 Annals of the Four Masters.

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