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CHAPTER. IV.

FROM 554 TO 800.

Dearth of Historical Records-Mode of election of Chief, Prince, and King -Their Privileges and Tributes-Boromean Tax-Its Abolition at the instance of St. Molaing of Ferns-Influence of Christianity on the Arts and Customs of the People-Learning fostered--Long Peace.

DURING the three subsequent centuries the history of Clare is involved in almost hopeless obscurity. As far as the present writer can ascertain, very little of it indeed is recorded in the MSS. of the Irish annalists.1 Nor can they be blamed for this. The Dalcassian clans were thrown into the background, being greatly outnumbered by their rivals for power in Munster, the Eoghanachts. In open violation of the will of their common ancestor, the latter, being able to outvote the Dalcassians, held fast hold of the sovereignty of Munster. Owing to the prominence of South Munster, Thomond fell for the time into the shade, so much so that even the Four Masters, those diligent searchers into the mists of the past, have little to say for her. Following the same rule of "might against right," of which the world even in our enlightened age knows something, the northern Hy Niall usurped the sovereignty of the whole island. As a set-off against the dearth of local history, it will not be amiss, even at the risk of some repetition, to glance here at the system of selection of chiefs and kings recognised by Irish law which operated so unfavourably against the clans of Thomond, as well as at the general aspect of Irish society in the bright period between the introduction of Christianity and the invasions of the Danes.

1 St. Colman, who, with the aid of his relative, Gauaire, King of Connaught, founded Kilmacduagh, A.D. 620, lived for the seven years preceding as a hermit in the gloomy wooded valley of Carron in Burren,

The succession to power and dignity in Erinn, in every grade, from that of chief of the clan up to the Ard-Righ himself, was regulated by a system, partly hereditary and partly elective. It is not quite clear that any method more just, or better calculated for the weal of the clan itself, or more ruinous to the general interest, ever existed in any other country, either in ancient or modern times. Every clan was a family, each member of which had well-defined rights to a portion of the clan territory, and had a vote for the selection of the chief. His office was to decide in all matters of dispute among his clansmen, in accordance with the interpretation of the common law of the land, as explained by the Brehon, or Judge, and to lead his clan in time of war. Stability of government was provided for, in the recognition of the claim of certain families in each clan or kingship, as being the first to be considered when an election was to take place. By an arrangement, somewhat like that which prevails in the relation of the President and Vice-President of the United States towards each other, the danger of disturbance on occasion of the death of the chief or king was averted. His successor was already selected by a vote of the whole people. And just as this wise provision secured the peaceful transmission of power, so the right on the people's part of selecting not the nearest of kin, but the most worthy of those. nearest in blood to the chief or king, afforded a healthy stimulant to the display of wisdom in council and valour in battle among the aspirants to the coveted dignity, while it tended to save the commonwealth from the evils arising from incompetency in its leaders.

The same principle regulated the election of the provincial kings and the Ard-Righ of all Ireland, but with the difference that for these higher and more exalted positions the electors were not the people generally, but the chiefs and subordinate princes. On the day fixed for voting, the electors met in the open air at the rath or mound specially erected or set apart for this most important purpose. The one on which the kings of Thomond were acknowledged, as will be seen later on, still maintains its attitude of immovable repose about half way between the villages of Tulla and Quin. The elect,

henceforth called the Tanist, or Righ Damna (or "making of a king"), having received from the chief or prince next in power the white straight wand typical of the purity and uprightness with which he should rule, took henceforth the place of honour and dignity and privilege next to the chief or sovereign. To use the modern phrase, he was recognised as heir-apparent to the throne.

The one flaw in the system, as there must be some weak spot in everything human, was the temptation, so pressing and so strong, on the elected to step as soon as possible into power, even if it had to be over the murdered remains of their predecessors. Yet with all this, though there had been deeds of violence in the struggle for the first place, they were few and far between, till the Danish invasion threw the country into a condition bordering on anarchy. Each monarch or king, or prince or chief, on accession to power, became entitled to certain well-defined privileges, and received fair warning against encroaching on the rights or privileges of others. These are all to be found in minute detail in that very ancient work, the Psalter of Cashel, and still more minutely in O'Curry's Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish. The former compilation is attributed to St. Benignus, the nephew and pupil of St. Patrick, and his successor in the See of Armagh and Primacy of all Ireland. To allay the jealousy excited against him among the people of Munster, for whom he ministered, by reason of his apparent preference for the people of Connaught, to whose spiritual needs also he largely devoted himself, he composed this book, wherein. the customs and claims of the princes of Munster receive special notice. It is highly probable that the work, now well known as the Leabhar-na-g-ceart, or Book of Rights, is a development and enlargement of that inserted by St. Benignus in his Saltair Chaisil or Psalter of Cashel. The original of the Psalter was literally and carefully preserved in various MSS. all along, but that portion of it dealing specially with the rights of the kings of Munster was, for an obvious reason, revised, and, so to speak, edited and continued, first under the direction of Cormac MacCuilenan, King of Munster and Archbishop of Cashel in the ninth

century, and secondly by command of Brian Boru, monarch of Ireland in the eleventh century. Alas! most of those ancient MSS., so full of interest to students of Irish history, were destroyed or lost in the troubled period when Irish as a spoken language became banned by the Saxon usurper. Connell MacGeoghegan, in dedicating his translation of the Annals of Clonmacnoise to Terence Coghlan, dated April 20, 1627, laments their great loss in the following strain : "Kinge Bryen, seeing into what rudeness the kingdom was fallen, after setting himself in the quiet government thereof, and restored each one to his auncient patrimonye and repaired their churches and houses of religion, he caused open schools to be kept in the several parishes to instruct their youth, which by the said warres were growen rude and altogether illiterate. He assembled together all the nobilitie of the kingdom, as well spirituall as temporall, to Cashel in Munster, and caused them to compose a booke containing all the inhabitations, events, and septs, that lived in this land

which booke they caused to be called by the name of the Psalter of Cashel; signed it with his owne hand, together with the hands of the kings of the five provinces, and also with the hands of all the bishoppes and prelates of the kingdome; caused several copies thereof to be given to the kings of the provinces . .

"Since which time there were many scepts in the kingdome. that lived by itt, and whose profession was to chronicle and keep in memorie the state of the kingdome . . . and now

neglect their bookes and choose rather to putt their children to learn English than their own native language, insomuch that some taylors do cutt with their scissars the leaves of the said bookes which were [once] held in greate account, and sleice them in long peeces to make measures of, so that the posterities are like to fall into grose ignorance of any things which happened before their time." 1

The rights or privileges claimed by the kings and princes of Ireland were, in some instances, of a distinctly Christian origin. For instance, the King of Cashel-i.e. of all Munster-claimed from the territory of Corcovaskin "ten hundred oxen and ten

1 Book of Rights, Introduction, p. 23.

1

hundred cows," and from Burren "a thousand cows and a thousand oxen, and a thousand rams and a thousand cloaks ;" but it is carefully noted that "it is not for inferiority (of race) that they pay these tributes, but for their territories and for the superiority of the right of Caiseal and for its having been blessed by Patrick." It would appear from an examination into these nicely adjusted rights and prerogatives all over Ireland, that while the kings of Ireland and the provincial kings received large contributions in kind from the whole country over which they ruled, they in turn had to make grants and distribute favours to some of the minor princes and chiefs. For instance, the King or chief of Corcovaskin was entitled to receive from the King of Thomond "a drinking horn, two score steeds, and a king's or chief's apparel;" and the chief of Corcomruah received from him "his choice ship on a day of voyage, two hundred cows, and his blessing with his daughter in marriage,”—a rather curious arrangement, but illustrative of the manner in which the clans and great families were, for their mutual advantage, kept in a state of dependence on each other. This policy of "give and take" established between them a strong bond of union for offensive and defensive operations. In this same chapter of the Book of Rights the following appears: "The first with him (the King of Caiseal or Thomond) into another country belongs to the King of Dal Chais;" which, of course, means that in the wars of the King of the province of Munster, the place of honour as well as danger, the leading of the van, belonged to the Dalcassian clans. In modern times they were said to be always "the first into the fight and the last out of it." Here we have in this ancient record proof indisputable of the fact that they were regarded from time immemorial as remarkable for valour among the bravest people on the face of the earth.

ance.

The Clare of to-day may well be proud of such an inheritAs this county will be found, later on, to be identified with the most glorious pages of Irish history during the reign over all Ireland of its most illustrious son, Brian Boroimhe, it may be well here to quote from the Book of Rights the law 1 Book of Rights.

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