St. Feargal, or Virgilus, etc., are still venerated in those countries, as well as in the land of their birth. To the latter, who became Bishop of Salzburg, are attributed some of the hymns now in use in the Roman Breviary, as well as a knowledge of the sphericity of the earth. He was the first to propound to an unbelieving age this new and startling doctrine. A controversy on this strange subject was maintained with vigour for some time between him and St. Boniface in Germany. His eminence in such and kindred knowledge procured for him the title of "The Geometer." For a considerable period, too, a difference of opinion more serious, more prolonged, and more exciting, prevailed in the Irish Church at home, on the question of the proper day for the celebration of the Easter. It was not, of course, a vital dogma of faith, only a matter of discipline; and though for a while the anxiety of the Irish to retain the usage introduced by St. Patrick brought them into conflict with the rest of the Church, which had, after his time, adopted the more correct Alexandrian computation, yet the feeling of loyalty to the Chair of Peter inculcated by the Irish apostle set the question at rest. The Irish Church became one on this point of discipline with the Church Universal. The names of the Saints who shed a bright lustre on those first three centuries of Christianity in Ireland need not be recorded here. They are on every one's lips. They succeeded in welding, as it were into one, Catholic faith and Irish character, thus preparing the country for the fierce struggles it had to undergo, and out of which it came victorious in the succeeding ages.

It is easy to understand how, under all these healing and civilising influences, old rivalries and animosities softened. down. That worst of all curses, intestine war, almost entirely disappeared. Upon a country thus lapped, almost continuously for three centuries, in Christian peace, came that terrible avalanche of paganism and barbarity-the Danish invasion. It supplied, as the sequel will show, only too much material for history.

After this rapid survey of the general conditions of the country, we turn to events occurring in Clare, or with which the county had intimate connection.

CHAPTER V.

FROM 800 TO 952.

Earthquake in West Clare-Danish Invasion-Cormac MacCuilenanFlahertach, Abbot of Iniscatha-Both defeat Flann, the Ard-Righ, at Tullamore-Defeated near Carlow--Cormac surrenders the crown of Munster to Lorcan, Prince of Thomond-His Death and CharacterCallaghan, King of Cashel--Brian Boroimhe born-His father, Ceinnidigh, defeated and slain by Callaghan.

THE Four Masters, under the year A.D. 799, recte 804, give the following description of a terrible convulsion of nature along the west coast of Clare: "There happened great wind, thunder, and lightning, on the day before the festival of St. Patrick in this year, so that one thousand and ten persons were killed in the territory of Corca - Bhaiscinn, and the sea divided the island of Fitha into three parts." This island is now called Iniscuireach, or Mutton Island. The other Irish annalists all bear the same testimony, differing only in the year,-a proof that they quoted from different but very ancient MSS., now unhappily lost. For instance, here is how the Ann. Clon. write of it: "A.D. 801.-There was such horrible great thunder the next day before St. Patrick's day, that it put asunder a thousand and ten men between Corca-Bascynn and the land about it; the sea divided an island there in three parts, the seas and sand thereof did cover the earth near it." The annalists all agree upon the day, as is natural, it being a remarkable onethe eve of St. Patrick-and upon the number lost; but it is not unlikely that the "ten" affixed to the "thousand" means idiomatically some considerable but indefinite addition to the multitude surely destroyed. It is quite clear that this was much more than a mere thunderstorm. The "dividing of the island into three parts" implies disturbance by an

earthquake; and thus well - authenticated history gives support to the tradition handed down among the people of West Clare, that in one of those awful convulsions of nature the whole coast-line was changed. The land lying between Baltard and Hag's Head, with all its inhabitants, was engulfed in the ocean; leaving only Iniscuireach, with its neighbouring little rocky islands, visible, and making navigation along the submerged sunken reefs so difficult and so dangerous. Though the account of this disastrous event marks the first notable glimpse after a long interval, thanks to the destruction by Dane and Saxon of Irish records into Clare life, yet, before the present chapter closes, we will find the country of the Dal-Cas leaping out into the light of authentic history, taking henceforth a foremost and a justly famous part in Irish affairs.

During this century the Danes began their organised incursions into Ireland. It is stated, but it has not been clearly established, that their first inroad was along the Shannon, making their way up even into Lough Derg. If so, they passed close to a place which became afterwards, to their nation, a name of terror-Kincora. In the year

830 they first plundered Armagh, and this city of the See of St. Patrick must have afforded tempting loot to those pagan marauders, for we read that three times within one. month they seized its spoils. The Irish evidently were completely taken by surprise, never imagining that a place so holy could be so ruthlessly and so sacrilegiously assailed. Besides, they had no standing army or navy; and enemies like the Danes hovering about the coast could choose at their leisure the time and place for attack most suitable to them, and had always their ships to retreat to when they had reason to fear their being outnumbered or overpowered. So, during the years following, from year to year we find in the Four Masters a disinal record of the incursions of these northern barbarians into all parts of the kingdom. Wherever they had reason to expect that objects of value were to be found, there they fixed their hungry eyes, and, watching a favourable opportunity, pounced like hawks upon their prey. Churches and monasteries were unmercifully

and repeatedly plundered; and sometimes men of note were carried away as hostages, and also with a view to their afterwards securing a good reward for their ransom. The Danes gratified at once, in these ravages, their rapacious instincts and their hate of the Christian religion.

Nor were they alone guilty of such sacrilege. We find Feidlim, son of Crimhthan, of the race of the Eoghanachts, King of Munster, imitating their barbarous example. In the year 831, and again in 832, he ravaged and burnt to the very door of the church the property of the monastery of Clonmacnoise.1 This sacrilege was well and justly avenged by Cathal, King of Connaught, who defeated, with much slaughter, Feidlim and the Munster forces in two battles the first in 834, the second in 836. It is more than probable that the Thomond clans had no share either in the sacrilege or its punishment, as the continued usurpation of the throne of Munster by the Eoghanachts caused constant feuds between them and the Dalcassians. The first approach to a right understanding between the two great Munster families was made by Cormac MacCuilenan, Archbishop of Cashel and King of Munster. This prince ascended the throne in the year 895. Though already charged with the solemn duties of an archbishop, the burden and cares of the crown of Munster devolved on him. His reign was a very memorable one. As might be expected, he was a great patron of learning and a strenuous upholder of Church rights; but the unseemly spectacle was presented of a bishop of the Prince of Peace driven frequently into the field of battle. He may have tried to avoid it, but could not. We have proof that it was forced on him. In the year 901, Muireach, son of the King of Leinster, led an attack on the Munstermen, but was defeated and slain. In the same year, and probably by concert, Flann, the monarch of Ireland, who had signalised the first year of his reign in 877 by an assault on the province of Munster, plundering "from Boraimhe to Corcagh," i.e. from Killaloe to Cork, made another successful raid on the dominions of King Cormac, plundering "from Gobhran to 2 Ibid.

1 Four Masters, Ann. Clon.

Luimneach." 1 But Cormac, ecclesiastic as he was, being a prince of more than ordinary vigour, determined to avenge this unprovoked insult. He conciliated the. Dalcassians by a promise, which he afterwards honourably fulfilled, of restoring to their prince the right to the throne of Munster, of which they were so long wrongfully deprived. Flahertach, his kinsman, the warlike Abbot of Iniscatha, rallied them to the standard of the King-Bishop of Cashel. With the united clans of all Munster, Cormac marched to give battle to the monarch Flann. The latter had with him the united forces of Leathcuin, i.e. the northern half of Ireland. The opposing forces met at Magh-Lena, near the present town of Tullamore, and here the Eoghanachts and Dalcassians paid off old scores, by defeating, with great loss, the monarch and his army. Cormac and Flahertach did not rest content with this victory. They turned their arms against the southern Hy Nialls and Connaughtmen, who had in all probability taken sides with the monarch Flann, and, defeating these also, "they carried away the hostages of Connaught in their great fleets on the Shannon; and the islands of Loch Ribh were plundered by them." 2

These events deserve special notice in this history, as they brought for the first time for centuries into bold prominence the strength and valour of the Dalcassian race, and gave promise of the greater prominence which they were soon afterward to acquire. Elated by these successes, some of the Munster princes, and notably Flahertach, the restless Abbot of Iniscatha, urged Cormac to revive the long-abandoned claim for tribute from Leinster. The son of the King of Leinster had indeed invaded Munster three years before, but paid for his rashness the penalty of his life. Cormac felt that this could be no justification for such an arrogant claim. Against his will he was dragged, however, into the assertion of it; and it was perhaps this sense of the injustice of the demand that filled him with a foreboding of disaster. Before venturing on the unlucky expedition, he made presents of gold and silver and altar vessels to the religious establishments at Ardfinnan, Lismore, Cork, Cashel, Armagh, and 2 Ibid.

1 Four Masters.