Legendary Heroes of Ireland

by Harold F. Hughes

He placed a guard on a hill overlooking every harbor of Erin. These men were supposed never to leave their posts without placing some one to watch in their stead. At the important harbors, the watch was strictly kept, year after year. But the guards of the small and unimportant ports grew careless and spent much of their time asleep or in the nearby villages.

So it happened that when the great fleet finally came, there was no one to give warning. The harbor of Ventry Strand was the one picked out by Donn for his landing. He chose this harbor because it was small and unimportant. He was guided by a traitor who had been expelled from the ranks of the Fenians, a man who knew the placing of the forces and who knew that the guards of the small harbors like Ventry Strand had become very careless.

When the guard on the hill awoke he was horrified to see the water black with ships, and hundreds of men landing on the shore. He could see what a tremendous force the High King had gathered. There were the banners of the Kings of France, of Spain, of Norway, of Denmark, and many others he did not recognize.

The guard was terrified at the results of his neglect of duty. He was afraid to face Finn and admit that he had not been faithful to his charge. He did the next best thing. He sent a messenger to his chief telling him of the arrival of the enemy. Then he went down to meet the hosts alone, and died fighting bravely as was the duty of a Fenian.

But this guard was not the only one to show his bravery that day. All through history we find records of small bodies of devoted men who held back great armies while their comrades prepared for the fight. The battle of Ventry Strand was no exception. This time, however, it was not men, but boys who sacrificed themselves to hold back the enemy until the Fenians could arrive.

In many of our stories you have read of the requirements of strength necessary to become a Fenian. No doubt you have wondered if there was not some training school for boys who would be eligible, if they could pass the test. There was such a training. It was called the Boys’ Corps. All boys could join this group when old enough to begin their training. They remained in it until they were able to join the Fenians or had failed to pass the entrance test. Here they began their training about the age of twelve, though some of the great heroes enrolled and became leaders at a much younger age. Finn, you remember, defeated the giant Midna at the age of ten, but he had proved himself a leader of the Boys’ Corps long before that.

These groups had teachers who instructed their pupils in the Twelve Books of Poetry, and gave them training in the use of the weapons of the chase and of warfare. The boys did not live at home, but camped with the others of the group and lived on what they could kill, just as did the Fenians. Their training was much the same as that described in stories of the Spartan boys in Greece.

One of these training groups was in the hills of Ventry when the forces of Donn were landing. Their leader, a boy of sixteen, who had proven himself the most expert in his training, saw the situation and thus addressed his companions:

“Behold, an enemy has landed upon the shores of Erin, and there is no one to stay them. It will take Finn and his men all day to reach here. In the meantime, there are two courses open to us. We can seek safety in the hills and let the foreigner pillage our country, or we can go down and die fighting in its defense. It is for you to choose. If we hide we may grow up to become Fenians. But can we look Finn in the face and tell him that we proved our worth by hiding?“