After the death of St Patrick the bond between the numerous church families which his authority supplied was greatly relaxed; and the saint’s most formidable opponents, the druids, probably regained much of their old power. The transition period which follows the loosening of a people’s faith in its old religion and before the authority of the new is universally accepted is always a time of confusion and relaxation of morals. Such a period appears to have followed the fervour of St Patrick’s time. To judge from the early literature the marriage-tie seems to have been regarded very lightly, and there can be little doubt that pagan marriage customs were practised long after the introduction of Christianity. The Brehon Laws assume the existence of married as well as unmarried clergy, and when St Patrick was seeking a bishop for the men of Leinster he asked for “a man of one wife.” Marriage among the secular clergy went on in Ireland until the 15th century. Like the Gaulish druids described by Caesar, the poet (fili) and the druid possessed a huge stock of unwritten native lore, probably enshrined in verse which was learnt by rote by their pupils. The exalted position occupied by the learned class in ancient Ireland perhaps affords the key to the wonderful outbursts of scholarly activity in Irish monasteries from the 6th to the 9th centuries. That some of the filid embraced Christianity from the outset is evident from the story of Dubthach. As early as the second half of the 5th century Enda, a royal prince of Oriel (c. 450-540), after spending some time at Whithorn betook himself to Aranmore, off the coast of Galway, and founded a school there which attracted scholars from all over Ireland. The connexion between Ireland and Wales was strong in the 6th century, and it was from south Wales that the great reform movement in the Irish monasteries emanated. Findian of Clonard (c. 470-548) is usually regarded as the institutor of the type of monastery for which Ireland became so famous during the next few centuries. He spent some time in Wales, where he came under the influence of St David, Gildas and Cadoc; and on returning to Ireland he founded his famous monastery at Clonard (Co. Meath) about 520. Here no less than 3000 students are said to have received instruction at the same time. Such a monastery consisted of countless tiny huts of wattles and clay (or, where stone was plentiful, of beehive cells) built by the pupils and enclosed by a fosse, or trench, like a permanent military encampment. The pupils sowed their own corn, fished in the streams, and milked their own cows. Instruction was probably given in the open air. Twelve of Findian’s disciples became known as the twelve apostles of Ireland, the monastic schools they founded becoming the greatest centres of learning and religious instruction not only in Ireland, but in the whole of the west of Europe. Among the most famous were Moville (Co. Down), founded by another Findian, c. 540; Clonmacnoise, founded by Kieran, 541; Derry, founded by Columba, 546; Clonfert, founded by Brendan, 552; Bangor, founded in 558 by Comgall; Durrow, founded by Columba, c. 553. The chief reform due to the influence of the British church[4] seems to have been the introduction of monastic life in the strict sense of the word, i.e. communities entirely separated from the laity with complete separation of the sexes.
One almost immediate outcome of the reformation effected by Findian was that wonderful spirit of missionary enterprise which made the name of Scot and of Ireland so well known throughout Europe, while at the same time the Irish were being driven out of their colonies in Wales and south-west Britain owing to the advance of the Saxon power. In 563 Columba founded the monastery of Hí (Iona), which spread the knowledge of the Gospel among the Picts of the Scottish mainland. From this same solitary outpost went forth the illustrious Aidan to plant another Iona at Lindisfarne, which, “long after the poor parent brotherhood had fallen to decay, expanded itself into the bishopric of Durham.” And Lightfoot claims for Aidan “the first place in the evangelization of the English race. Augustine was the apostle of Kent, but Aidan was the apostle of England.” In 590 Columbanus, a native of Leinster (b. 543), went forth from Bangor, accompanied by twelve companions, to preach the Gospel on the continent of Europe. Columbanus was the first of the long stream of famous Irish monks who left their traces in Italy, Switzerland, Germany and France; amongst them being Gallus or St Gall, founder of St Gallen, Kilian of Würzburg, Virgil of Salzburg, Cathald of Tarentum and numerous others. At the beginning of the 8th century a long series of missionary establishments extended from the mouths of the Meuse and Rhine to the Rhône and the Alps, whilst many others founded by Germans are the offspring of Irish monks. Willibrord, the apostle of the Frisians, for instance, spent twelve years in Ireland. Other Irishmen seeking remote places wherein to lead the lives of anchorites, studded the numerous islands on the west coast of Scotland with their little buildings. Cormac ua Liathain, a disciple of St Columba, visited the Orkneys, and when the Northmen first discovered Iceland they found there books and other traces of the early Irish church. It may be mentioned that the geographer Dicuil who lived at the court of Charlemagne gives a description of Iceland which must have been obtained from some one who had been there. The peculiarities which owing to Ireland’s isolation had survived were brought into prominence when the Irish missionaries came into contact with Roman ecclesiastics. The chief points of difference were the calculation of Easter and the form of the tonsure, in addition to questions of discipline such as the consecration of bishops per saltum and bishops without dioceses. With regard to tonsure it would seem that the druids shaved the front part of the head from ear to ear. St Patrick doubtless introduced the ordinary coronal tonsure, but in the period following his death the old druidical tonsure was again revived. In the calculation of Easter the Irish employed the old Roman and Jewish 84-years’ cycle which they may have received from St Patrick and which had once prevailed all over Europe. Shut off from the world, they were probably ignorant of the new cycle of 532 years which had been adopted by Rome in 463. This question aroused a controversy which waxed hottest in England, and as the Irish monks stubbornly adhered to their traditions they were vehemently attacked by their opponents. As early as 633 the church of the south of Ireland, which had been more in contact with Gaul, had been won over to the Roman method of computation. The north and Iona on the other hand refused to give in until Adamnán induced the north of Ireland to yield in 697, while Iona held out until 716, although by this time the monastery had lost its influence in Pictland. Owing to these controversies the real work of the early Irish missionaries in converting the pagans of Britain and central Europe, and sowing the seeds of culture there, is apt to be overlooked. Thus, when the Anglo-Saxon, Winfrid, surnamed Boniface, appeared in the kingdom of the Franks as papal legate in 723, to romanize the existing church of the time, neither the Franks, the Thuringians, the Alemanni nor the Bavarians could be considered as pagans. What Irish missionaries and their foreign pupils had implanted for more than a century quite independently of Rome, Winfrid organized and established under Roman authority partly by force of arms.
During the four centuries which elapsed between the arrival of St Patrick and the establishment of a central state in Dublin by the Norsemen the history of Ireland is almost a blank as regards outstanding events. From the time that the Milesians of Tara had come to be recognized as suzerains of the whole island all political development ceases. The annals contain nothing save a record of intertribal warfare, which the high-king was rarely powerful enough to stay. The wonderful achievements of the Irish monks did not affect the body politic as a whole, and it may be doubted if there was any distinct advance in civilization in Ireland from the time of Niall Nóigiallach to the Anglo-Norman invasion. Niall’s posterity held the position of ardrí uninterruptedly until 1002. Four of his sons, Loigaire, Conall Crimthand, Fiacc and Maine, settled in Meath and adjoining territories, and their posterity were called the southern Hy Neill. The other four, Eogan, Enna Find, Cairpre and Conall Gulban, occupied the northern part of Ulster. Their descendants were known as the northern Hy Neill.[5] The descendants of Eogan were the O’Neills and their numerous kindred septs; the posterity of Conall Gulban were the O’Donnells and their kindred septs. Niall died in 406 in the English Channel whilst engaged in a marauding expedition. He was succeeded by his nephew Dathi, son of Fiachra, son of Eochaid Muigmedóin, who is stated to have been struck by lightning at the foot of the Alps in 428. Loigaire, son of Niall (428-463), is identified with the story of St Patrick. According to tradition it was during his reign that the codification of the Senchus Mór took place. A well-known story represents him as constantly at war with the men of Leinster. His successor, Ailill Molt (463-483), son of Dathi, is remarkable as being the last high-king for 500 years who was not a direct descendant of Niall.
In 503 a body of colonists under Fergus, son of Erc, moved from Dalriada to Argyll and effected settlements there. The circumstances which enabled the Scots to succeed in occupying Kintyre and Islay cannot now be ascertained. The little kingdom had great difficulty to maintain itself, and its varying fortunes are very obscure. Neither is it clear that bodies of Scots had not already migrated to Argyll. Diarmait, son of Fergus Cerbaill (544-565), of the southern Hy Neill, undoubtedly professed Christianity though he still clung to many pagan practices, such as polygamy and the use of druidical incantations in battle. The annals represent him as getting into trouble with the Church on account of his violation of the right of sanctuary. At an assembly held at Tara in 554 Curnan, son of the king of Connaught, slew a nobleman, a crime punishable with death. The author of the deed fled for sanctuary to St Columba. But Diarmait pursued him, and disregarding the opposition of the saint seized Curnan and hanged him. St Columba’s kinsmen, the northern Hy Neill, took up the quarrel, and attacked and defeated the king at Culdreimne in 561. In this battle Diarmait is stated to have employed druids to form an airbe druad (fence of protection?) round his host. A few years later Diarmait seized by force the chief of Hy Maine, who had slain his herald and had taken refuge with St Ruadan of Lothra. According to the legend the saint, accompanied by St Brendan of Birr, followed the king to Tara and solemnly cursed it, from which time it was deserted. It has been suggested that Tara was abandoned during the plague of 548-549. Others have surmised that it was abandoned as a regular place of residence long before this, soon after the northern and southern branches of the Hy Neill had consolidated their power at Ailech and in Westmeath. Whatever truth there may be in the legend, it demonstrates conclusively the absence of a rallying point where the idea of a central government might have taken root. Aed, son of Ainmire (572-598) of the northern Hy Neill, figures prominently in the story of St Columba. It was during his reign that the famous assembly of Drumcet (near Newtown-limavaddy in Co. Derry) was held. The story goes that the filid had increased in number to such an extent that they included one-third of the freemen. There was thus quite an army of impudent swaggering idlers roaming about the country and quartering themselves on the chiefs and nobles during the winter and spring, story-telling, and lampooning those who dared to hesitate to comply with their demands.
Some idea of the style of living of the learned professions in early Ireland may be gathered from the income enjoyed in later times by the literati of Tír Conaill (Co. Donegal). It has been computed that no less than £2000 was set aside yearly in this small state for the maintenance of the class. No wonder, then, that Aed determined to banish them from Ireland. At the convention of Drumcet the number of filid was greatly reduced, lands were assigned for their maintenance, the ollams were required to open schools and to support the inferior bards as teachers. This reform may have helped to foster the cultivation of the native literature, and it is possible that we owe to it the preservation of the Ulster epic. But the Irish were unfortunately incapable of rising above the saga, consisting of a mixture of prose and verse. Their greatest achievement in literature dates back to the dawn of history, and we find no more trace of development in the world of letters than in the political sphere. The Irishman, in his own language at any rate, seems incapable of a sustained literary effort, a consequence of which is that he invents the most intricate measures. Sense is thus too frequently sacrificed to sound. The influence of the professional literary class kept the clan spirit alive with their elaborate genealogies, and in their poems they only pandered to the vanity and vices of their patrons. That no new ideas came in may be gathered from the fact that the bulk of Irish literature so far published dates from before 800, though the MSS. which contain it are much later. Bearing in mind how largely the Finn cycle is modelled on the older Ulster epic, works of originality composed between 1000 and 1600 are with one or two exceptions conspicuously absent.
At the convention of Drumcet the status of the Dalriadic settlement in Argyll was also regulated. The ardrí desired to make the colony an Irish state tributary to the high-king; but on the special pleading of St Columba it was allowed to remain independent. Aed lost his life in endeavouring to exact the boroma tribute from Brandub, king of Leinster, who defeated him at Dunbolg in 598. After several short reigns the throne was occupied by Aed’s son Domnall (627-641). His predecessor, Suibne Menn, had been slain by the king of Dalaraide, Congal Claen. The latter was driven out of the country by Domnall, whereupon Congal collected an army of foreign adventurers made up of Saxons, Dalriadic Scots, Britons and Picts to regain his lands and to avenge himself on the high-king. In a sanguinary encounter at Mag Raith (Moira in Co. Down), which forms the subject of a celebrated romance, Congal was slain and the power of the settlement in Kintyre weakened for a considerable period. A curious feature of Hy Neill rule about this time was joint kingship. From 563 to 656 there were no less than five such pairs. In 681 St Moling of Ferns prevailed upon the ardrí Finnachta (674-690) to renounce for ever the boroma, tribute, which had always been a source of friction between the supreme king and the ruler of Leinster. This was, however, unfortunately not the last of the boroma. Fergal (711-722), in trying to enforce it again, was slain in a famous battle at Allen in Kildare. As a sequel Fergal’s son, Aed Allan (734-743), defeated the men of Leinster with great slaughter at Ballyshannon (Co. Kildare) in 737. If there was so little cohesion among the various provinces it is small wonder that Ireland fell such an easy prey to the Vikings in the next century. In 697 an assembly was held at Tara in which a law known as Cáin Adamnáin was passed, at the instance of Adamnán, prohibiting women from taking part in battle; a decision that shows how far Ireland with its tribal system lagged behind Teutonic and Latin countries in civilization. A similar enactment exempting the clergy, known as Cáin Patraic, was agreed to in 803. The story goes that the ardrí Aed Oirdnigthe (797-819) made a hostile incursion into Leinster and forced the primate of Armagh and all his clergy to attend him. When representations were made to the king as to the impropriety of his conduct, he referred the matter to his adviser, Fothud, who was also a cleric. Fothud pronounced that the clergy should be exempted, and three verses purporting to be his decision are still extant.
Invasion of the Northmen.—The first incursion of the Northmen took place in A.D. 795, when they plundered and burnt the church of Rechru, now Lambay, an island north of Dublin Bay. When this event occurred, the power of the over-king was a mere shadow. The provincial kingdoms had split up into more or less independent principalities, almost constantly at war with each other. The oscillation of the centre of power between Meath and Tír Eogain, according as the ardrí belonged to the southern or northern Hy Neill, produced corresponding perturbations in the balance of parties among the minor kings. The army consisted of a number of tribes, each commanded by its own chief, and acting as so many independent units without cohesion. The tribesmen owed fealty only to their chiefs, who in turn owed a kind of conditional allegiance to the over-king, depending a good deal upon the ability of the latter to enforce it. A chief might through pique or other causes withdraw his tribe even on the eve of a battle without such defection being deemed dishonourable. What the tribe was to the nation or the province, the fine or sept was to the tribe itself. The head of a sept had a voice not only in the question of war or peace, for that was determined by the whole tribe, but in all subsequent operations. However brave the individual soldiers of such an army might be, the army itself was unreliable against a well-organized and disciplined enemy. Again, such tribal forces were only levies gathered together for a few weeks at most, unprovided with military stores or the means of transport, and consequently generally unprepared to attack fortifications of any kind, and liable to melt away as quickly as they were gathered together. Admirably adapted for a sudden attack, such an army was wholly unfit to carry on a regular campaign or take advantage of a victory. These defects of the Irish military system were abundantly shown throughout the Viking period and also in Anglo-Norman times.
The first invaders were probably Norwegians[6] from Hördaland in search of plunder and captives. Their attacks were not confined to the sea-coasts; they were able to ascend the rivers in their ships, and already in 801 they are found on the upper Shannon. At the outset the invaders arrived in small bodies, but as these met with considerable resistance large fleets commanded by powerful Vikings followed. With such forces it was possible to put fleets of boats on the inland lakes. Rude earthen or stockaded forts, serving as magazines and places of retreat, were erected; or in some cases use was made of strongholds already existing, such as Dun Almain in Kildare, Dunlavin in Wicklow and Fermoy in Cork. Some of these military posts in course of time became trading stations or grew into towns. During the first half of the 9th century attacks were incessant in most parts of the island. In 801 we find Norwegians on the upper Shannon; in 820 the whole of Ireland was harried; and five years later we hear of Vikings in Co. Dublin, Meath, Kildare, Wicklow, Queen’s Co., Kilkenny and Tipperary. However, the invaders do not appear to have acted in concert until 830. About this time a powerful leader, named Turgeis (Turgesius), accompanied by two nobles, Saxolb and Domrair (Thorir), arrived with a “royal fleet.” Sailing up the Shannon they built strongholds on Lough Ree and devastated Connaught and Meath. Eventually Turgeis established himself in Armagh, whilst his wife Ota settled at Clonmacnoise and profaned the monastery church with pagan rites. Indeed, the numerous ecclesiastical establishments appear to have been quite as much the object of the invaders’ fury as the civil authorities. The monastery of Armagh was rebuilt ten times, and as often destroyed. It was sacked three times in one month. Turgeis himself is reported to have usurped the abbacy of Armagh. To escape from the continuous attacks on the monasteries, Irish monks and scholars fled in large numbers to the continent carrying with them their precious books. Among them were many of the greatest lights in the world of letters of the time, such as Sedulius Scottus and Johannes Scottus Erigena. The figure of Turgeis has given rise to considerable discussion, as there is no mention of him in Scandinavian sources. It seems probable that his Norwegian name was Thorgils and he was possibly related to Godfred, father of Olaf the White, who figures prominently in Irish history a little later. Turgeis apparently united the Viking forces, as he is styled the first king of the Norsemen in Ireland. A permanent sovereignty over the whole of Ireland, such as Turgeis seems to have aimed at, was then as in later times impossible because of the state of society. During his lifetime various cities were founded—the first on Irish soil. Dublin came into existence in 840, and Waterford and Limerick appear in history about the same time. Although the Norsemen were constantly engaged in conflict with the Irish, these cities soon became important commercial centres trading with England, France and Norway. Turgeis was captured and drowned by the ardrí Maelsechlainn in 844, and two years later Domrair was slain. However cruel and rapacious the Vikings may have been, the work of disorder and ruin was not all theirs. The condition of the country afforded full scope for the jealousy, hatred, cupidity and vanity which characterize the tribal state of political society. For instance, Fedilmid, king of Munster and archbishop of Cashel, took the opportunity of the misfortunes of the country to revive the claims of the Munster dynasty to be kings of Ireland. To enforce this claim he ravaged and plundered a large part of the country, took hostages from Niall Caille the over-king (833-845), drove out the comarba of St Patrick, or archbishop of Armagh, and for a whole year occupied his place as bishop. On his return he plundered the termon lands of Clonmacnoise “up to the church door,” an exploit which was repeated the following year. There is no mention of his having helped to drive out the foreigners.
For some years after the death of Turgeis the Norsemen appear to have lacked a leader and to have been hard pressed. It was during this period that Dublin was chosen as the point of concentration for their forces. In 848 a Danish fleet from the south of England arrived in Dublin Bay. The Danes are called in Irish Dubgaill, or black foreigners, as distinguished from the Findgaill[7] or white foreigners, i.e. Norwegians. The origin of these terms, as also of the Irish name for Norway (Lochlann), is obscure. At first the Danes and Norwegians appear to have made common cause, but two years later the new city of Dublin was stormed by the Danes. In 851 the Dublin Vikings succeeded in vanquishing the Danes after a three days’ battle at Snaim Aignech (Carlingford Lough), whereupon the defeated party under their leader Horm took service with Cerball, king of Ossory. Even in the first half of the 9th century there must have been a great deal of intermarriage between the invaders and the native population, due in part at any rate to the number of captive women who were carried off. A mixed race grew up, recruited by many Irish of pure blood, whom a love of adventure and a lawless spirit led away. This heterogeneous population was called Gallgoidel or foreign Irish (whence the modern name Galloway), and like their northern kinsmen they betook themselves to the sea and practised piracy. The Christian element in this mixed society soon lapsed to a large extent, if not entirely, into paganism. The Scandinavian settlements were almost wholly confined to the seaport towns, and except Dublin included none of the surrounding territory. Owing to its position and the character of the country about it, especially the coast-land to the north of the Liffey which formed a kind of border-land between the territories of the kings of Meath and Leinster, a considerable tract passed into the possession of so powerful a city as Dublin.
The social and political condition of Ireland, and the pastoral occupation of the inhabitants, were unfavourable to the development of foreign commerce, and the absence of coined money among them shows that it did not exist on an extensive scale. The foreign articles of luxury (dress, ornaments, wine, &c.) required by them were brought to the great oenachs or fairs held periodically in various parts of the country. A flourishing commerce, however, soon grew up in the Scandinavian towns; mints were established, and many foreign traders—Flemings, Italians and others—settled there. It was through these Scandinavian trading communities that Ireland came into contact with the rest of Europe in the 11th and 12th centuries. If evidence were needed it is only necessary to point to the names of three of the Irish provinces, Ulster, Leinster, Munster, which are formed from the native names (Ulaid, Laigin, Muma-n) with the addition of Norse staðr; and the very name by which the island is now generally known is Scandinavian in form (Ira-land, the land of the Irish). The settlers in the Scandinavian towns early came to be looked upon by the native Irish as so many septs of a tribe added to the system of petty states forming the Irish political system. They soon mixed in the domestic quarrels of neighbouring tribes, at first selling their protection, but afterwards as vassals, sometimes as allies, like the septs and tribes of the Goidel among themselves. The latter in turn acted in similar capacities with the Irish-Norwegian chiefs, Irish tribes often forming part of the Scandinavian armies in Britain. This intercourse led to frequent intermarriage between the chiefs and nobility of the two peoples. As an instance, the case of Cerball, king of Ossory (d. 887), may be cited. Eyvindr, surnamed Austmaðr, “the east-man,”[8] son of Björn, agreed to defend Cerball’s territory on condition of receiving his daughter Raforta in marriage. Among the children of this marriage were Helgi Magri, one of the early settlers in Iceland, and Thurida, wife of Thorstein the Red. Three other daughters of Cerball married Scandinavians: Gormflaith (Kormlöð) married Grimolf, who settled in Iceland, Fridgerda married Thorir Hyrna, and Ethne (Edna) married Hlöðver, father of Earl Sigurd Digri who fell at Clontarf. Cerball’s son Domnall (Dufnialr) was the founder of an Icelandic family, whilst the names Raudi and Baugr occur in the same family. Hence the occurrence of such essentially Irish names as Konall, Kjaran, Njall, Kormakr, Brigit, Kaðlin, &c., among Icelanders and Norwegians cannot be a matter for surprise; nor that a number of Norse words were introduced into Irish, notably terms connected with trade and the sea.