To relate the afflicting and melancholy events which crowd the history of Ireland, without incurring the charge of prejudice, or the suspicions of party, will perhaps be impossible. Such suspicions, however, do not discourage the attempt to give a brief narrative of our history, with truth, and with impartiality; with an anxiety to please all parties, but with a determination to sacrifice the cause of justice to none.

It is hoped that the reader of this cheap and compendious volume, will find that the first and last feeling which influenced the pen of him who wrote it, was a sincere and zealous anxiety for the establishment of political and religious freedom among Irishmen of every persuasion.

January 1st, 1814.

THE

HISTORY OF IRELAND,

PREVIOUS AND SUBSEQUENT TO THE INTRODUCTION OF

CHRISTIANITY.

THE HISTORY OF IRELAND, previous to the introduction of Christianity, has been considered by the enemies of her ancient fame, as much the theme of the poet, as the calm subject of the dispassionate historian. The faithful records of our country are rejected as the tales of credulity, and the established glories of its ancient state are considered the dreams of poetry, or the fabrications of national vanity. The satisfactory and laborious researches of O'Connor, O'Halloran, and Vallancey, excite the sneer of scepticism, and their triumphant demonstrations are sarcastically styled the elaborate fictions of a credulous imagination: thus do we often see the English reader, interested perhaps in the calumny and dishonour of Ireland, smile at the honest labours of the patriot, and repel with the affectation of profound philosophy, the struggles of those who have succeeded in proving that Ireland