OF THE

HISTORY OF IRELAND,

FROM THE EARLIEST PERIOD

TO THE

REIGN OF GEORGE I.

BY

JOHN LAWLESS, Esq.

PROPRIETOR AND EDITOR OF THE IRISHMAN,
PUBLISHED IN BELFAST.

Historia est temporum testis, lux veritatis, magistra vitæ, vita memoriæ,
et nuncia antiquitatis.-CICERO.

History is the witness of times past, the light of truth, the mistress of
life, the life of memory, and the herald of antiquity.

THIRD EDITION.

VOL. I.

EDINBURGH:

Printed by Michael Anderson,

AND SOLD BY

RICHARD GRIFFIN, GLASGOW;

AND JOSEPH SMYTH, HIGH STREET, BELFAST.

1823. C

ΤΟ

THE IRISH PEOPLE.

THE BOOK, which I now have the honour to present to my countrymen, has been written in the hope that it will contribute, in some degree, to the promotion of that liberal, enlightened and benevolent feeling, which has been making such rapid strides for the last thirty years of our history. If the author has been guilty of any exaggeration in description, or in commentary (which he has industriously struggled to avoid), let the Irishman reflect that his errors are on the side of the honour of his country; that his feelings, if too warm, are heated by an anxious desire to vindicate the insulted character of a people who have been eternally the victims of calumny, the prey to every speculator on their fame and their glory, the devoted sa