Arthur's Guinevere, both in its pathos and its penitence, and in the ruin it brought upon her native land. The chancel of Rahan Church near Clara, the most enterprising locality in the South of Ireland, is of rugged masonry, and it possesses in its rose window an architectural feature, of which Dr. Petrie said, "it is not only the most curious of its kind in the British Isles, but also the most ancient." These churchesall that is left of them-are a testimony to the fact that Celtic art and architecture were developing gradually and gracefully on their own lines when they were suddenly and cruelly arrested in their course. The county is skirted on three sides for many miles by the Shannon, Barrow and Boyne; but its own rivers, the Brosna, Silver River, and Camcor are small. The lakes are not extensive but picturesque. Of these Lough Pallas and Lough Anna are the largest. Lough Coura, which was once a considerable lake, has been drained within the last twenty years by Mr. Thomas Drought, of Whigsboro'. That lake is chiefly remarkable for its islets and island forts, on one of which are the ruins of an ancient castle and circular tower of great extent and strength called Le Porte Castle, near which an Irish canoe, old weapons, and several curious bronzes have been found. In the vicinity is Dowris, celebrated for the find of bronzes made there in 1825. And not far off is the plain of Moylena, where the sanguinary battle, Cath Muighelena, was fought in 192 A.D. between Conn of the Hundred Battles and Owen More of Munster, and another in 907 between Cormac, King and Archbishop of Cashel, and Flann Sionna, the Ard-ri, when the latter was defeated. The county contains twelve baronies. Of these Ballyboy, Ballybrit, Clonlisk, Eglish and Garrycastle form the Birr Parliamentary division; while the remaining seven, Geashill, Kilcoursey, Lower and Upper Philipstown, Warrenstown and Coolestown constitute the Tullamore division. Of these baronies the O'Connors of Offaly possessed Warrenstown and Coolestown with portion of Geashill and Philipstown. They were also lords of the baronies of East and West Offally in Kildare, and of Portnehinch and Tinnehinch in Queen's County. The district of Ely O'Carroll comprised Clonlisk and Ballybrit, with the baronies of Ikerrin and Elyogarty of County Tipperary. The O'Mulloys, princes of Fearcall, were rulers of Ballyboy, Eglish and part of Ballycommon, the other portion being held by the O'Dempseys, lords of Clanmalire. The MacCoglans, the chiefs of Delvin, divided with the O'Maddens of Siol Ammchada (Silancia) Garrycastle, the largest of the baronies and the most interesting, inasmuch as it can boast of the historic fair of Banagher and the famous abbey and churches of Clonmacnoise. The hills and plains and vales of the county are thinly populated. The soil is light and the pasture moderate. There is little more than fragrant breezes on bog and mountain for the people to enjoy. While, generally speaking, they lack the arts as well as the means of living. The industrious may exist upon their small farms happily if frugally, while the idler must pass forth to pastures new. The population, which was 144,225 in 1831, has since fallen to 60,187, but mules and asses, for which the county has always been famous, are on the increase, according to the returns of the Agricultural Department. CHAPTER IV. THE O'CONNORS AND THE PALE. ACCORDING to the early historians of Ireland a great battle was fought on the Slieve Bloom hills between the Fomorians and Nemedians a thousand years before Christ, and at Geashill, Heremon and Heber Fionn, sons of Melesius, fought for the supremacy, and Heber fell, to leave his son, Conmaol, an avenger of his father's cause. For the scene of Heber's defeat witnessed the discomfiture of Heremon's army and the death of Palpa, his son. The conflict between the brothers arose, as the ancient poets inform us, through a quarrel between their wives. For "they reigned in peace until the ambition of a woman's heart, the wife of Heber, urged them on to war." She desired to possess three vales which were said to be the most fruitful in the land, but one of these Heremon possessed and would not surrender. Whereupon Heber's wife, as the poet describes her, "raged passionately, and swore she would never sleep on Irish ground till she was mistress of the three vales." Then followed the battle of Geisioll, or Geashill, where Heber fell a sacrifice to the ambition of his wife, and Heremon reigned as king. As the poet says:— Three of the fruitful valleys of the isle, Druim Finginn, Druim Clasach and Druim Beathach, Where vailant Heber fell. To descend from these lofty clouds of fancy to the lowly plains of fact, it is fairly certain that there was a personage called Cathaoir More (Cahirmore) monarch of Ireland, about A.D. 120. He was descended from the posterity of Heremon, and had thirty sons, according to the Irish poet, who were "most renowned in arms, most comely personages, and heroes all." But ten alone survived him. The eldest of these was Ros-Failge or Ros-of-the-Rings. From this Ros are descended the O'Connors of Offaly. History tells us little of Ros, save that his father addressed him as my fierce Ros, my vehement Ros." These qualities of fierceness and vehemence have been duly transmitted and remarkably displayed by members of his sept. "They have exerted themselves as a posterity worthy of such ancestors," wrote Keating. "For they have shown themselves a valiant and generous tribe, free and hospitable, and true patriots when the cause of their country required their arms. They were so free of their blood in its defence that the family in process of time, were reduced to a small number, for the bravery of this illustrious house exposed them to the greatest dangers and difficulties and they would never fly or retreat, though oppressed by superior strength, but rather chose to sell their lives dearly upon the spot." That ancient document, the "Will of Cahirmore," translated in the Book of Rights, contains the information that Cahirmore bequeathed to his son, Ros-of-the-Rings, Leinster, ten swords, ten shields, ornamented with gold and silver and ten golden goblets. The family of this Ros Faly were called Hy Faily or descendants of Faly to distinguish them from other families of O'Connor or O'Conchobar, and gave the name of Offaly to the districts occupied by their clan which contain extensive remains of previous civilizations in the shape of cairns, cromlechs, sepulchral mounds and fortified raths. In the fourteenth century we find the O'Connors ruling from the green hill of Cruachan, near Croghan and at Dangan, their chief fortress, now Philipstown, which they retained until the time of Mary and Philip. After the conversion of the Irish territory into shire land by Queen Mary-a deed performed with great crueltythe O'Diomosaigh or O'Dempsey, Lord of Clanmalire, became the representative of the sept, holding strong castles at Geashill, Ballybrittas and Portnehinch until the Revolution of 1685. But almost from the time of the English Invasion in 1169, the Norman Welsh Fitzgeralds of Kildare, afterwards Dukes of Leinster, encroached upon the lands of the tribe and obtained the districts of the sept, that lay within the English Pale. These lands, known as "English Offaly " gave the title of Baron to the Fitzgeralds; while the Irish chieftains, the O'Connors Faily, were kings of the "Irish Offaly" in King's and Queen's County. The O'Connor is celebrated by the bard O'Heerin in the verses : Let us westward proceed to Offaley; To which brave heroes make submission, Of their laws I make mention, Of their convention I make remembrance. The Lord of Offaley, a land of mirth, Is O'Conor, the mainstay of the fair plain, Who rules at the green mound of Cruachan. There is the record of a battle fought about 1212 at |