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This would elicit retort in kind from Oisin

"O Patrick of the crooked crozier,

Who make me that impertinent answer;
Thy crozier would be in atoms,

Were Oscar present.

"Were my son Oscar and God

Hand to hand on Cnoc-na-Fiann

If I saw my son down,

I would then say God was a stronger man."

But the ardent Patrick would insist on impressing this old heathen that in power, might, and all good qualities, God was infinitely beyond all mortals. This was very hard for Oisin to comprehend or admit—

"Hadst thou seen, O chaste cleric,

The Fenians one day on yonder Southern strand;
Or at Naas of Leinster of the gentle streams,

Then the Fenians thou wouldst greatly have esteemed.

"Patrick, enquire of God,

Whether he recollects when the Fenians were alive;
Or hath he seen East or West,

Men their equal, in the time of fight.

"Or, hath he seen in his own country,
Though high it be above our heads;
In conflict, in battle, or in might,
A man who was equal to Fionn."

Moreover, these old comrades of his, from whose example, and from the admiring of whom, Patrick strove to turn him— possessed those very virtues which, according to Patrick's preaching, should have won them Heaven

"We (the Fenians) never used to tell untruth,
Falsehood was never attributed to us;

By truth and the might of our hands,
We came safe out of every conflict.

"There never sat a cleric in a church,

Though melodiously ye think they chant psalms,
More true to his word than the Fian,

Men who never shrank from fierce conflicts.

"A cleric never sat in a church,

O Patrick mild of the sweet voice!

More hospitable than Fionn himself;

A man who was not niggardly in bestowing gold.

"Fionn never suffered in his day

Any one to be in pain or difficulty;

Without redeeming him, by silver or gold,
By battle or fight, till he got the victory.

"All that thou and thy clerics tell,

According to the laws of Heaven's king;

These (qualities) were possessed by the Fian of Fionn,
And they are more powerful in God's kingdom.

"Great would be the shame for God,

Not to release Fionn, from the shackles of pain;
For if God himself were in bonds,

The chief would fight on his behalf."

But desire for Oisin's delightful tales of these brave Pagans would overcome in Patrick the zest for theological controversy

"Oisin, sweet to me is thy voice,

And a blessing, furthermore, on the soul of Fionn!

Relate to us how many deer

Were slain at Sliabh-nam-Ban-Fionn."

And, Oisin, mollified, forgiving and forgetting Patrick's strictures on his Fian fellows, would forthwith launch into another of his rare tales,

CHAPTER XIV

THE BREAK OF ULSTER

Of the line of Ir, son of Milesius, to whom Ulster had been apportioned, that Branch called the Clan na Rory (after its great founder, Rory, who had been King of Ulster, and also High-King of Ireland) now had ruled the province for nearly 700 years, namely, for more than 300 years before the Christian Era, and more than 300 years after. And their capital city and the King's seat had been at Emain Macha. During practically all of this time, from that fort's first founding by Queen Macha, the Royal Court of Ulster had been a court of splendour, and ever noted as a centre of chivalry and the home of poetry.

And the power, and might, and courage of Ulster had ever acted as a brake on the ambitions of their neighbouring royal depredators, and especially the royal aggressors of Connaught, who were made to fear Ulster's name.

But in the beginning of the fourth century, Ulster's power was irrevocably broken, and by far the greater portion of her territory wrested from her-her people driven into miserably narrow bounds from which, ever after, they can hardly be said to have emerged.

It was when Muiredeach Tireach, grandson of Carbri of the Liffey, was High-King of Ireland, that Ulster was despoiled and broken by his nephews, the three Collas, who, on the ruins of the old kingdom of Uladh, founded a new kingdom of Oirgialla (Oriel) which was henceforth for nearly a thousand years to play an important part in the history of Northern Ireland.

Muiredeach's father, Fiacha (son of Carbri), was reigning High-King at Tara in the beginning of the fourth century. Muiredeach, a young man of exceeding ability, was made King of Connaught (for during some centuries now the Ard-Righship was in possession of the Connaught royal family) and the throne of Connaught was usually the stepping-stone to the high throne at Tara. Yet because of the general Irish custom which alternated the headship of a kingdom or a chieftainry between two collateral branches

of a paramount family, King Fiacha's nephew, Colla Uais (the Noble), ambitioned the Ard-Righship in succession to Fiacha.

Now, at a time when Muiredeach was in Munster, fighting his father's battles with great success and bright renown Colla Uais saw himself eclipsed, and popular feeling leaning to the victorious Muiredeach as the proper successor to his father, Fiacha. So Colla Uais, and his two brothers, Colla Da-Crioch and Colla Maen, gathered an army of their own adherents, formidably augmented it by seducing from their allegiance a large portion of Ard-Righ Fiacha's army, and giving battle to Fiacha, at Taillten in Meath, overthrew and slew him.

They seized the throne for Colla Uais who reigned Ard-Righ for four years. At the end of that time he, in turn, was overthrown by Muiredeach, and fled with his two brothers and their followers, to Alba, to the King of the Picts, who was his mother's father.

Then Muiredeach became Ard-Righ of Ireland, and reigned for 27 years.

But in the third year of Muiredeach's reign the three Collas returned. The story says, a Druid at the court of the king of the Picts divined that should they return to Ireland, and Muiredeach take the life of one of them, the Irish crown should fall to the survivors. And on the Druid's disclosure, they, keenly covetous of the Ard-Righship, promptly acted.

They sailed for Ireland, went to Tara, and into the presence of the King. Muiredeach was naturally surprised to find his father's slayers audaciously present themselves before him; but, being a man of superior qualities, he surprised them by his kindly greeting. Then he asked what news they brought. They, determined to provoke this good man, replied, tauntingly: "We killed your father."

"That," said Muiredeach calmly, "is not news to me."

"Then," they said, with bravado, "you want your revengeand may have it."

"Yes," said the great man, "I want my revenge-so, you are all three forgiven your crime."

The three Collas were at first dumbfounded by a great-mindedness incomprehensible to them. But they were not to be turned from their object. This dull man must be baited to vengeance. They said, "You take the way of a coward."

And the great Muiredeach, far from resenting the insolent taunt again surprised and dumbfounded them by a noble, gentle reply-which completely won their hearts to him, and filched from

their minds the foul ambition. They thereupon professed their profound sorrow, and swore fealty to him.

But the keen-minded Muiredeach knew that these bold youths were not meant to loll at court, and that if he did not find fitting trouble for them, they would, themselves, in all certainty find trouble which might be in no way welcome to him. So he directed them to face North and win swordland for themselves from the Ultach (Ulstermen)—on which direction they promptly acted.

The ostensible cause of their attack upon Ulster was the ancient grudge borne that province because many generations before, the Ulster king, Tiobraide, had sent to Tara fifty robbers disguised as women, who had slain Conn of the Hundred Battles-and because, a generation later, the Ulster prince, Fergus Blacktooth, had, by setting fire to his hair at a feast, put a blemish upon Cormac MacArt, which, for a time, debarred him from the throne which Fergus then usurped.

But the Collas first went to their kin in Connaught and there gathered a great army for the invasion of Ulster. On the plain of Farney in Monaghan they met the Ulstermen under their king, Fergus, and on seven successive days broke battle upon them, finally slaying Fergus and putting the Ultach to complete rout. Then they ravaged and destroyed famed and ancient Emain Macha, and drove the Ultach east of the Uri River and Loch Neaghfrom the great expanse of their olden kingdom, hemming them into the straitened limits of the new kingdom, which comprised only parts of the present two counties of Antrim and Down. Of the conquered portion of Ulster, from Louth in the south to Derry in the north, and from Loch Neagh to Loch Erne, the Collas made themselves the new kingdom of Oirgialla (Oriel), which was possessed, afterwards, by their descendants, the MacMahons, O'Hanlons, O'Carrolls, and MacGuires.

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