No Poison there infects; no scaly Snake
Creeps thro' the Grass, nor Frog annoys the Lake:
An Island worthy of its pious Race,
In War triumphant, and unmatch'd in Peace.”
This Donat, Bishop of Fesula, was an Irishman, of the antient and hospitable Family, afterwards O Hogan; a Family which held ample and fair Possessions in the Province of Munster, and which, in former Times, adorned the See of Killaloe, with four very learned and exemplary Prelates; namely, with Matthew O Hogan, who succeeded to this Bishoprick, in the Reign of Henry the IIId, and in the Year of our Lord 1267; and who, having much enlarged his Diocese, and done many signal Acts of popular Charity, died in the Year, 1281, and was buried in Limerick, in a Convent of Dominican Friars. To this Bishop succeeded Maurice O Hogan, who governed this See with peculiar Zeal and Charity, upwards of sixteen Years, and died in 1298, or the Year following, and was buried in his own Church. Thomas O Hogan, Canon of Killaloe, was consecrated in 1343, and died on the 30th of October, 1354; five Days after which, he was buried among his worthy Ancestors at Nenagh; as may be seen in the Annals of that Place.
Richard O Hogan succeeded to the See of Killaloe, in 1525, and was in 1539 translated to Clon Mac Nois: He was a Prelate of great [pg 033] Learning and Capacity, in all spiritual and ecclesiastical Matters.
This antient Family is, at this Time, represented by Edmund O Hogan, Esq; High Sheriff of the County of Clare, a Gentleman, who, by the whole Tenor of his Life, hath proved Generosity of Heart, Charity, and Hospitality, to be Qualities inherent.
Dermod Mac Murchad, sovereign Prince of Hy-Kinsellagh, banished by Roderick O Connor, King of Ireland, for his various and high State Crimes, sought Sanctuary and Redress in the Court of England; where, in the Absence of Henry, then in Normandy, diverse adventurous Normans, Flemings, Saxons, and old Britons, (being themselves unsettled, and unestablished) acceded to the Fate and Fortunes of Dermod, under the Conduct of Strongbow, Earl of Pembroke; whose casual Success in Ireland, against Roderick (owing more to the general Defection, at that fatal Period, of the Irish Chiefs against their lawful Sovereign, than to any superior Valour or Address of those Adventurers) induced Henry to a deliberate and grand Invasion of a Kingdom, to which he could lay no Claim on the Score of Nature, Reason, or Right, and whither his pretended Mission, on the Score of collecting St. Peter's Dues, (which St. Peter himself never once thought of, or imagined) was as ridiculous as groundless. The Summa Dies, however, arrived: and the People of Ireland, wearied out with intestine Strife, acknowledged Henry for their Sovereign Lord; and a grand Charter of Rights and Covenants, mutual Protection and Allegiance, was entered into, anteriorly to that of England. How well this Charter was observed on the protective Side, the absolute Anarchy of [pg 034] near four Centuries, from its original Date and Perfection, to the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, demonstrates: A whole Nation, that sought Protection, and that agreed for quiet, regular, and lawful Government, upon rationable Terms, deprived of the Power of ordaining Laws for its own Security and Well-being, and precluded (all to four or five great and favourite Families) from the Benefits and Advantages accruing from those of that Kingdom, to which it had voluntarily united itself; exposed, through such a Length of Time, to arbitary Depredations, and unpunished, unredressed, uncensured Rapine, Quis talia sando temperet a Lachrymis!
King Henry called back into England, to lay the Storms raised by his rebellious Sons, with whom and Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, he was so constantly embroiled to the End of his Life, that he could little attend to the Settlement of the Affairs of this new acquired Sovereignty.
Richard the First, his immediate Successor, called away to the Holy Wars against the Saracens, had as little Leisure as his Predecessor to promote the Quiet, or Happiness of Ireland.