HISTORY Of IRELAND

The beginning of the history of Ireland is enveloped in fable. As in Western Europe generally, the earliest inhabitant. are believed to have been of Iberian race, and, therefore, akin to the modern Basque. They were followed by the Celts, different tribes of whom probably arrived at different times, giving rise to such names as Firbolgs, Milesians, &c. Among these the Scot. were the latest and latterly got the upper hand, so that their name became generally applied to all the inhabitants. There is no evidence that the Irish had the use of letters before the middle of the 5th century, when Christianity and Christian literature were introduced by St. Patrick. Subsequently Ireland became the seat of western learning; and its monasteries were the schools whence missionaries proceeded throughout continental Europe. Its internal condition, however, was far from satisfactory. Divided among a number of hostile kings or chiefs, it had been long torn by internal wars, and for nearly two centuries ravaged by the Danes, numbers of whom settled in the country, when, in the beginning of the 11th century, Brian Boroimhe united the greater part of the island under his. sceptre, restored tranquility, and subdued the northern invaders.

After the death of Brian at the close of the battle of Clontarf, 1014, gained against the Danes and their Irish allies, the island relapsed into its former state of division and anarchy. In this state of matters Henry II. of England obtained a papal bull giving him the right to subdue it, and the way was paved to this when Dermot, prince of Leinster, who bad been driven from the country, was reinstated by the aid of Richard de Clare (Strongbow) and other Norman nobles. In 1172 Henry entered Ireland himself, and partly through the favour of the clergy and his affability, the great princes did homage to him and acknowledged his supremacy. Many Norman barons and their followers now settled in the country, but the English power was far from being established over it. For long only a part was recognized as English territory (generally known as the Pale'), and this was governed by various nobles, subject to a viceroy. The nobles quarreled among themselves, and were very often at open feud. In 1315 Edward Bruce, brother of the Scotch King, landed at the head of a large force, and was crowned king, but was defeated by the English in 1317 near Dundalk . The English power was greatly reduced by this expedition however, and a number of the barons renounced their allegiance to England, and adopted the Irish language, laws, manners, and customs, This led to the passing of the Statute of Kilkenny (1367), forbidding, under severe penalties, intermarriages between English and Irish, the assumption of Irish names by persons of English blood, the ties of the Irish language, the native (Brehon) law, &c. But the English rule became so weak that the viceroy found it necessary to protect the Pale by payments of money to the Irish chiefs, and this state of matters long continued. In the reign of Henry VII. (1495) was passed Poyning's Act (so called from Sir Edward Poyning, lord-deputy of Ireland), which provided that all former laws passed in England should be in force in Ireland, and that no Irish, parliament, that is the parliament of the English settlers, should be held without previously stating the reasons why it was to be summoned, and the laws it was intended to enact. At the beginning of the 16th century the greater part of the island still remained un-concerned by the English. The native Irish lived according to their old customs under their own chiefs, and in manners and mode of life were still totally uncivilized.

Henry VIII. assumed (by act of the Irish parliament) the title of King of Ireland, instead of Lord which he had before borne as a vassal of the pope and the Irish chiefs generally acknowledged his authority; but the change of religion was bitterly opposed, and Mary was easily able to undo all that had been done in this direction by her two predecessors. Elizabeth imposed a Protestant clergy upon the people, and her reign was marked by a series of rising, which terminated in the reduction of the whole island. Great stretches were taken from the Irish chiefs, and distributed among English noblemen and others, who were to settle their new estates with English farmers. Little was done in this way, however, compared with the great plantation of the North by James I., under whom 800,000 acres of land in Ulster were declared forfeited, a large part of this being entirely withdrawn from the Irish, and divided among Scotch or English settlers. In 1641 there began an attempt to shake off the English yoke, in which great atrocities were perpetrated on both sides.

In 1649 Cromwell was appointed lieutenant, and energetically, but cruelly, reduced the whole country within nine months, The next struggle was that which followed the Revolution, when James II. landed in 1689, and hoped to regain his crown by French and Irish aid. He failed to reduce Londonderry, which held out, enduring the extremity of famine, till it was relieved by some ships from England. In the following year (1690) William III. arrived, and on the 1st of July gained a decisive victory over the forces of James on the Boyne, near Drogheda. In 1691 another victory was gained over the Irish at Aughrim in Calway, and in October Limerick, the last place that held out for James, capitulated, a treaty being concluded at the same time, by which the Catholic Irish were to be allowed the free exercise of their religion. The Treaty of Limerick was ill kept by the English. By a decree of parliament upwards of 1,000,000 acres were confiscated and divided among Protestants. Cruel penal laws were passed against those who adhered to the Catholic religion. The Catholic ecclesiastical dignitaries were banished; the subordinate priests were not allowed to leave their counties; no Catholic could hold a public office, acquire landed property, enter into a marriage with a Protestant, &c.

Although these laws were not always rigorously carried out, yet they excited great bitterness of feeling, and produced frequent revolutionary associations (Whiteboys and others), which mark the history of Ireland. In 1778 the penal laws against the Catholics, though not repealed, were made much more lenient. Catholic, were henceforth permitted to acquire landed property, to erect schools, and to observe their own religion under fewer restrictions. In 1782 Poyning's Act was repealed, and freedom of legislation allowed to the Irish, though Catholics were still excluded from parliament, and did not even have the franchise till 1793. The French revolution had a great effect on the minds of the Irish people, and it was partly through this influence that the Society of United Irishmen was formed, and that rebellion broke out in 1798. Great atrocities were perpetrated, but the rising was speedily crushed. A body of French soldiers, 1500 strong, landed in Killala Bay, but were compelled to surrender.
The British government now resolved to unite the Irish and English parliaments, and an act providing for the legislative union of the two countries passed the Irish parliament in May, 1800, and the British parliament in July of the same year, in virtue of which the union was effected on the 1st of January, 1801. But although this measure bound the destinies of the two countries still more closely, yet it was far from putting an end to the troubles which had so long divided them. In 1829, mainly through the efforts of O'Connell, the Catholic Emancipation act was passed under which Catholics could take a seat in parliament, and were admitted to most public offices. The Irish national party now tried to repeal the Union, for which purpose O'Connell founded the Repeal Association. This movement collapsed in 1843, and afterwards the potato famine in 1845, and again in 1846, cast all other interests into the back-ground. To mitigate this calamity parliament granted enormous sums of money; yet thousands died from starvation, and hundreds of thousands emigrated to America. Anarchical outbursts, agrarian murders, and other act, of violence distracted the land. Meanwhile O'Connell died, and his party was replaced by one still more advanced, called the Young Ireland Party. In these circumstances the French revolution in 1848 had a great effect upon Ireland. The leaders of the Young Ireland party, Smith O'Brien, Mitchel, Duffy, Meagher, and others, entered into relations with the provisional government at Paris, and the people began openly to exercise themselves in the use of arms. But the rebellion turned out a mere fiasco. After the famine and great emigration a general improvement became visible among the inhabitants. Agriculture revived, and the manufacturing industries began to compete with those of England.

The year 1865 witnessed a new conspiracy designed to separate England and Ireland. This originated in the United States, when the numerous Irish during the civil war in that country hoped for a rupture between it and England, of which they might take advantage. This conspiracy, the members of which called themselves Fenians, soon spread to Ireland; but before they could take any overt action in that island their design was stifled by the British government (1865 - 66). The ministry now resolved to do all in their power to render the Irish people loyal and contented; and accordingly the Irish Episcopal Church was disestablished in 1869, and another act was passed to improve the tenure of land, in 1870.

Since 1871 an agitation for what is called Home Rule has made itself prominent. Its chief supporters, designated 'Nationalists, ' profess not to desire the severance of Ireland from Britain; what they mainly want, is to have an Irish parliament for matters exclusively Irish. In 1880 Ireland became the scene of an agitation carried on mainly by a body known as the Land League. The movement was so lawless that two special acts, a 'coercion' act and a peace preservation act, were passed. Still further to redress Irish grievances a land act was also passed in 1881, the chief provisions of which have already been mentioned. The Land League was suppressed, but a body called the National League was soon organized in its place. In 1885, 86 Nationalist members (under the leadership of Mr. Parnell) were returned to parliament, and their pressure on the government led to Mr. Gladstone's scheme in 1886 by which Ireland was to receive a parliament of her own and the Irish members to be withdrawn from the Imperial parliament. This and the accompanying scheme for the buying out of Irish landlords were rejected by parliament and the majority of the constituencies, thus bringing a Conservative government under Lord Salisbury into power. A permanent act for the repression of crime in Ireland was passed in 1887, and an act (Lord Ashbourne's) for the benefit of Irish tenants, under which money is advanced to aid them in buying their farms. A Home Rule bill passed the Commons in 1893, but did not become law. The Local Government Act of 1898 established local councils similar to those in Great Britain.

Language
The Irish language belongs to the Gaelic or Gaedhelic branch of the Celtic stem of languages, being closely akin to the Gaelic of Scotland and the Manx, and more remotely allied to the British dialects (Welsh, Cornish, and Armoric). The modern dialects or varieties of Irish, which differ very much from the ancient, are spoken by the rural classes in Connaught and Munster, and the more remote parts of Ulster. In 1881 there were 64,000 people in Ireland who spoke Irish only, and over 885,000 who could speak it along with English. Gaelic may be considered a comparatively modern form of ancient Irish, which, both linguistically and from the extent and antiquity of its literature, is a far more important language than Gaelic.

Literature.
Irish literature is rather varied and extensive, including history, legendary and actual, in prose and verse, annals, genealogies and pedigrees, mythological and imaginative tales, lyric poetry, satire, lives of saints, treatises on law, science, grammar, &c. Some of these may be as old as the 5th century of our era. One of the earliest historic pieces is a metrical life of Patrick. (St.). Among the most important of the heroic tales is the Tain Bo' Cuailnge or Cattle Spoil of Cualng, the centre of a series of epic tales. A certain number of poems and tales, forming a cycle of their own, maybe called Ossianic most of them are comparatively modern. The glosses written to Latin works by Irish ecclesiastics, in the monasteries on the Continent founded during the 7th and 8th centuries, are among the oldest specimens of the language. Many bardic remains belong to the period of the English conquest, but after that date Irish poetry appears to have sunk. Many bards, however, who were till maintained by the native chiefs, helped by their songs to keep up a national feeling hostile to the English domination. The native authorities for Irish history may go back to Patrick (St.) at the very earliest. The oldest list of kings dates from the middle of the 11th century. The oldest and by far the ablest annalist, whose works have been at least partially preserved, is Tighernach O'Brian, who belonged to the royal family of the O'Connors of Connaught. He died in 1088. The other chief annals are the Ulster Annals, the Annals of Innsfail, and the Annals of the Four Masters (from its four different compilers). The most important Irish manuscripts are contained in the library of Trinity College, and the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, in the Bodleian Library, and the British Museum.