struck down to the earth, in his hoary old age, the man whose genius and force of character and soldierly qualities welded the discordant elements of Irish life into a force that successfully resisted and crushed for all time in Erinn the formidable foe whose iron hand smote down and kept in subjection the other peoples of Northern Europe.

Defender of the Faith. He gave it to the first Lord Clanrickard. From that family it passed to the MacMahons of Clenagh, near Newmarketon-Fergus, now represented by John O'Connell of Longfield and Kildysart, grand-nephew of the Liberator, and from them to the Right Hon. M. Conyngham in 1782. He gave it in charge to Trinity College, where it is jealously preserved.-Collectanea in Rebus Hibernicis.

CHAPTER VII.

FROM 1014 TO 1086.

Dissensions among the Victors-Brian's son Donogh procures the Murder of Teigue, his own Brother-He becomes King of Munster-Claims Supreme Rule-Parliament at Killaloe-Donogh flies to Rome with the Regalia of Ireland-Turlogh succeeds-His Exploits.

THE fall of Brian, with his son and grandson, all three together, in that glorious but fatal field, threw the whole kingdom once more into a state of anarchy. Had they survived, the whole current of Irish history might have taken a direction very different from that which it afterwards pursued. Supreme power would certainly rest with them. No Irish prince would be likely to measure his strength with the victors of Clontarf. The prestige acquired by such a splendid achievement could not but make more than ever potent for good the already acknowledged administrative capacity of the old monarch; and this, supported by such vigour and bravery as Morogh and his son Turlogh displayed in the battlefield, might well have secured to their house the allegiance of the whole nation. Under a strong central authority, time would cement together by degrees the elements of Irish society, and such a nation in those days would have been safe from the invasion which afterwards brought on Ireland prolonged and acute misery. But for this view of what might have happened after Clontarf, much as the Irish mind may love to dwell on it, there is only conjecture.

Still it is not to be supposed that the victory was entirely barren of good results. One great object was achieved-the Danish power was finally broken, and all fear of a permanent occupation of the country by these Northern barbarians disappeared. The conversion of some of them to Christianity had little if any effect on the general character of the invaders.

They remained to the end plunderers and devastators, attacking churches as freely as lay property, wherever they could, and in their incursions sparing neither age nor sex. Those of them who settled in the cities did indeed open up the great highway of the sea, by which commerce, to a degree unknown before, was greatly facilitated, but this advantage, substantial as it was, was, all things considered, but poor compensation. for the ruin they wrought during two centuries on the face of the whole country. The Dalcassian victory destroyed for ever their power for evil in the country. Some of them were allowed to remain in the interests of trade and commerce, but after Clontarf they are hardly to be heard of any more in Irish history.

1

In the Four Masters we find the following record: "Maelmuire" (which signifies servant of Mary), "son of Eochaidh, successor of Patrick, proceeded with the seniors and relics to Aord-Choluim-Chilli; and they carried from thence the body of Brian, King of Ireland, and the body of Murchadh, his son, and the head of Conaing and the head of Mothla. Maelmuire and his clergy waked the bodies with great honour and veneration; and they were interred in Ardmacha in a new tomb." We can well picture to ourselves the gloom and grief, struggling with pride, that settled down. on the people of Thomond, when it became known that they were not to have the sad satisfaction of receiving the hero's remains. But they belonged to Ireland more than to Thomond, and it was becoming that Erinn's Primatial See should be their shrine, and St. Patrick's successor their custodian.

Henceforward in the pages of this narrative, events of a very different character, sad to say, will have to be recorded for the most part. Dissension sprung up at once, not only among the rival clans, but even among the Dalcassians themselves. Immediately after the quotation given above, from the Four Masters, relating the mode and place of Brian's and Morogh's burial, we read the following: "A battle between the two sons of Brian, i.e. Dounchadh and Tadgh. Dounchadh was defeated, and Ruaideri Ma Donnagain, Lord of Aradh, and ' O'Donovan's translation, which, with his learned notes, is largely availed of through this work.

many others along with him fell in the battle." Thus the disappearance of Brian and Morogh from the scene began only too soon, in the very year of their great triumph, to foreshadow disaster. But before this acute crisis among the Dalcassians themselves was reached, they had to encounter, in their weakened condition, two grave and threatening dangers. Malachy, who had acted with such magnanimity throughout, was, immediately after the battle of Clontarf, acknowledged King of Ireland once more. The death of Brian, who had wrested the throne from him, cleared the way to his restoration. The Dalcassian princes, even if so inclined, were not in a position, after their enormous losses, to dispute his right. They were more concerned with resisting the claims advanced on the spot by Cian, representing the Eoghanachts, to the throne of Munster. He appealed to the well-known will of their common ancestor, Oilioll Oluim, regulating an alternate succession between the Eoghanacht and Dalcassian chiefs; but the latter alleged, as well they could, that the Eoghanachts had again and again violated the compact, and should not demand its revival. They would maintain, they declared, by force of arms, if driven to it, the rights won only by force of arms by their great father; and promptly refused to yield up hostages to Cian as a surrender of those rights. Fortunately for the decimated Dalcassians, as well as in the interests of peace, there was dissension among the Eoghanacht chiefs. Donal, son of Duvdavoren, viewed with jealousy the attempt of Cian, who had married Saibh, Brian's daughter, to seat himself on the throne of Munster. The design of Cian becoming known to him, he resolved to defeat it. Withdrawing his contingent from the Eoghanacht force, his rival found himself unable, singlehanded, to cope with the Dalcassian troops, and prudently turned southwards from the borders of Kildare towards his own country.

Another and an equally dangerous foe presented himself to the Thomond troops, on their way back. The people of Ossory, under their chief, MacGiolla Phadruig, through whose country the Thomond troops were marching home, seized the opportunity for revenge offered them by the weakness of

their hereditary enemy. They swarmed down on them with such determination, and in such numbers, as threatened to annihilate them. This treacherous and cowardly attack at such a time aroused the indignation of the Dalcassians to such a pitch, that even the wounded insisted on being allowed to share in the fight. At their urgent request, stakes from a neighbouring wood were fixed in the ground, on which they might support their weakened frames, keeping their right hand free to strike. Near each wounded man was posted a soldier to shield and succour him, and in this unexampled manner they presented an undaunted front to the foe. This extraordinary order of battle so impressed their enemies, that they dared not risk an encounter with such enthusiastic valour, and retreated, leaving the way open for the remnant of Brian's army to proceed to their own country. The memory of this strange incident, so creditable to the spirit of the Dalcassian wounded warriors, is still preserved in the name of the place where it occurred--Gorthnaclea, i.e. " field of stakes," a townland in the barony of Upper Ossory in the Queen's County. Moore has immortalised it in his beautiful song, "Remember the glories of Brian the Brave," but his version of it there is not historically correct. "The moss of the

valley" did not "grow red with their blood." They could not conquer, for the reason that the enemy did not close in the fight. Yet the poet's version is not unreasonably extravagant. The heroic spirit, ready to conquer or die, was certainly displayed there, and sheds a parting gleam of glory on the victors of Clontarf.

Though the Danes, after their long struggle to establish their rule in Ireland, as they had in England and some neighbouring nations, were finally crushed at Clontarf, yet it cannot be called a victory for Ireland. The death of Brian and Morogh and Turlogh in the same fatal hour, left the kingdom without any authoritative representative of that strong centralised authority which it was the whole aim of Brian's life to establish. The country literally fell to pieces. once more. Malachy, indeed, was recognised as monarch. He had clearly the best right to supreme authority. Most of the chiefs and territorial princes looked with great jealousy