ruling prince, had a dispute with his cousin Dermot, who is called the son of Bishop O'Brien, about some land. It ended in the slaying of Teigue. Dermot was immediately taken prisoner and hanged by the enraged father.

This tragic occurrence was followed by peace in Clare for a period of more than twenty years. Within that time, at the end of 1482, died two of the chiefs of the MacClanchys, who were hereditary Brehons or judges of Thomond. In the beginning of the following year, Mahon O'Griffy, Bishop of Killaloe, was buried in the Abbey of the Canons Regular of St. Augustine, in the island at the mouth of the Fergus, called after them Canon Island, and the ruins of which to the present day lend such a picturesque effect to that broad expanse of the Shannon. At this period, Nicholas O'Grady, upon whom, in recognition of his eminent qualities, the freedom of the city of Limerick was conferred, presided as abbot at Tomgraney. There is mention made also of Donnell MacGorman of Ibricken, as "the richest man in Ireland in live stock," which shows how settled was the condition of Clare as regards the possession of property. But as yet there was not sufficient protection for life, as we read in the Four Masters that "Cumara MacNamara was exultingly slain by the sons of Donogh MacNamara" in A.D. 1486. In the same year died "Raighnault, daughter of John MacNamara, wife of Turlogh, son of Teigue O'Brien, lord of East Thomond," 2 and in the year following, "Hugh, son of Philip Roe MacNamara, a brave and warlike man.' In the west of the county the MacMahons were engaged in an internal struggle, fomented by two rival claimants to the chieftaincy. But the most important event of the dying century in Clare was the inroad made upon the Dalcassians by the Lord-Deputy, the Earl of Kildare, in revenge for their support of the illegitimate claimant to the earldom of Ormond, the rightful heir having married his sister. He marched an army across

1 Four Masters.

"3

2 Ibid.

3 And brother of Slaine MacNamara, who was wife of the MacWilliam Oughther.

A famine decimated the whole country in 1497, so dreadful that in many places the dead were left unburied.

the Shannon through Limerick, surprised and seized the castle of Ballycullen, in the MacNamara country, and, leaving there a garrison, pushed on towards the O'Brien fortress at Clonroad. Conor-na-Srona hastily summoned together the Dalcassian clans to repel this invasion of their territory. The opposing forces met a little beyond Quin, near the castle. of Ballyhicky, and there, after a hotly-contested battle, the English and their allies were put to rout. They fled across the Shannon in great confusion. Kildare had the mortification to be obliged to abandon the MacNamara castle, which he had so lately occupied. So once more Clare soil was rid of the foreigner. An attempt made two years later on by Kildare and Ormond to retrieve this disaster, was promptly met by the Dalcassians, who soon took the offensive, penetrated into Ormond, and at Moyaliff inflicted on them another severe defeat.

CHAPTER XIII.

Internal Condition of Thomond at this period-Its Religion-Its
Politics The Manners and Customs of its People.

THE sixteenth century was destined to witness a complete revolution in the religious and political life of Europe. The history of every country is full of the startling incidents of the new birth. Change in almost everything became the order of the day-much of it for good, but much of it also for evil. Our little remote Clare did not escape. For the first time in over one thousand years since the Dalcassian conquest, its right to self-government was seriously called into question. It is a curious fact, and not perhaps clearly known. or appreciated by many of its own people, that for more than three hundred years after Henry II. had received the mock submission of the King of Munster, no English law ran or was at all recognised in Thomond. It will be interesting to take a look once again into its inner life at this eventful period, as far as the scant records remaining after pillage and plunder permit it.

On the religious aspect little need be said. The faith as preached by St. Senan, St. Benignus, St. Flannan, and St. Molua, remained all along unchanged. The ruins of hermitages, monasteries, convents, and churches scattered all over the county, from Bishop's Island and Iniscatha to Killaloe, and from Corcomroe to Canons' Island, all plainly devoted to Catholic uses and worship, leave no room for rational doubt on that subject. The very stones speak out. They tell us from first to last of hermit, and priest, and nun, and abbot, and bishop, and altar, and purgatory, till not one distinctive dogma of Catholic faith as it is now known is left unattested. Be they right or be they wrong, the hard facts are still there, pointing to undisturbed continuity. Only in one particular

is there found a want of harmony. The term " abbot's son," or" bishop's son," occasionally turns up in the ancient manuscripts, and is faithfully given by such undoubted supporters of ecclesiastical celibacy as the Four Masters. But the explanation is not far to find. Undoubtedly there were some through all those troubled times who were unfaithful to their vows, and whose rank in their clans afforded them a kind of impunity. Rome was far off in those days, and communications with her were few and far between, except for the purpose of appointment to Church dignities. Other causes, however, contributed in a far greater degree to this anomaly in a country like Ireland, where chastity was assuredly held in such high esteem. Church emoluments were tempting baits, and many looked for them late in life. For instance, the Bishop O'Brien, whose son slew his cousin in 1474, as already related, was consecrated, as Maziere Brady testifies. in his valuable work1 in 1482, eight years afterwards. His son, then, was born to him long before, and probably in lawful wedlock, before he entered on the ecclesiastical state. But apart from that, a great abuse had crept in under cover of the confusion caused by the Danish irruptions. Members of the ruling families seized on the Church revenues, and usurped therefrom the title of bishop or abbot, while only laics, but providing, of course, and maintaining ecclesiastics chiefly from the religious bodies to discharge the religious functions. Not to speak of other numerous authorities to whom appeal can be made in support of this fact, Fr. Malone, in his learned Church History of Ireland, chap. iii., quotes extracts from two authors, "far as the poles asunder," but whose testimony is therefore placed beyond reach of doubt-St. Bernard and Gerald Barry. They are well worth reproducing as all-sufficient for the purpose. The holy Saint in his Life of St. Malachy, chap. vii., writes: "Well, from about the year 920 down for two hundred years, there were in the See of Armagh eight married men bishops, but not in orders, before Archbishop Celsus; and the practice deserved death." Gerald Barry, in his Itinerarium, says: "Many churches through 1 Episcopal Succession, vol. ii. p. 116.

custom.

Ireland have a lay abbot. This arose from a wicked They leave only the offerings to the clergy, and cause themselves to be unduly called abbots. They impudently possessed themselves of the Church lands, which they leave to their children." 1 Looking to what has happened since, especially after the English occupation, on a much larger scale, and with no pretence of supplying the religious requirements, one may well say with Solomon, "There is nothing new under the sun." Save this innovation, no religious difference, certainly no doctrinal difference, no clashing of sects, disturbed the even tenor of religious life in Thomond for more than a thousand years since St. Patrick's mantle fell on St. Senan. If St. Cummian, whose learning illuminated the first half of the seventh century, and whom Dr. Lanigan believes to be identical with Cumin Fadha,2 son of Fiachna, King of West Munster, could appear and address once more, in the beginning of the sixteenth century, the descendants of his kinsmen of Thomond, his language and his doctrines would be alike intelligible to them.

The clans, too, held their ground. Centuries came and went, leaving the great Dalcassian families all along in possession of their ancient territories. The Danes did not go inland. Plundering Iniscatha and holding Limerick contented them. Beyond a hazy tradition, originating probably in the name itself,-the Danes being sometimes called Laughlins, there is no authentic proof that they settled down in and colonised Burren, and were the ancestors of the O'Loughlin clan. Surely the crags and rocks of that district could have little charm for those fierce freebooters

of the sea. Neither did the English, Saxon, or Norman take any foothold. With the exception of the De Clare incident, which ended so disastrously for the invaders, no serious attempt was made by them, for four full centuries, to bring the war-loving Dalcassians under subjection. During all this time, notwithstanding the boasted conquest of Ireland in 1172, England might as well have been at the Antipodes as far as her influence upon Clare life is to be 1 Church History of Ireland, by Fr. Malone, chap. iii. 2 Ecc. Hist. of Ireland, vol. ii. chap. xv. p. 398.