OLD IRISH WARS.

Bush Advocate, Volume VII, Issue 650, 16 July 1892, Page 6

OLD IRISH WARS.

Perhaps not the first place in which people would look for an account of old Irish wars is old French poetry. Buitbe mcduuval French were tho one literary people of Europe, the one race who wrote about everything and who were universally road. That a irouvere Bhould indite a rhymed French chronicle of the early Jihiglish invasionof lreland, whether the lroiivhe were himself* uFrenchman oralearnedlrish clerk writing in " tho most commoii and delectable Bpeeoh,"iß thereloro not very extraordinary. The " Song of Dermot and the Earl" is a somewhat mutilated manuscript, now at Lambeth in tho Archbiship's Library, which has been translated and edited by Mr. Orpea, of Trinity College (Clarendon Press). It cannot be said to throw much light on the Irish Question, beyond showing that, oven before any English interference, Ireland was not precisely tha homo of sweet tramiuility. There were as many kiugs in tho country as in Heroic Greece, or in Palostine when Joshua invaded tho Holy Land. These kingß quarrelled, one of them invited English assistance, and so the trouble began which has not ended now. The author of the poem, or rather of the chronicle in xhyrae, is not known. He says that he got his- information from Maurice Ilegan; now Regan was the "latimer" or clerk of King Derinoi, an ill-treated monarch, who brought in the English to defend his cause. If Began was as old a* 80 whan he told the story the poem may be of 1227, aa the latest probable date. Mr. Orpen guesses that the poet may bo a learned Dominican, of the monastery in Wat erf old, a man who translated the media-vat legend of the Trojan War from the pretended Dares Phrygius. This author's name was lofroi, and for an Irish monk he wrote uncommonly good old French, and was a great credit to the Isle of Saints. But he was on the aide of King Dermot, and we can. hardly call any monarch a patriot who calls iv foreign auxiliaries lo assist him in a domestic quarrel. However, lofroi, if lofroi ho be, is an eager partisan, and simply describes his opponents as traitors all round. In the lay of Dermot, the" fightingest parts" are much the most interesting. We see a mere handful of Norman knights and English bowmen at war with vaguely-reckoned thousands of Ul-clad and ill-armed Celts. Like Roland Cheyne, the English say : My liov.se shall lide their ranks sue rude, As he would among the fern ; And ne'er shall the gentle Norman blood He spilt for the Irish kerne. King Uermot had a rival in a .king of the ancient and Bonorous name of O'Kourke. This ;Q*Ronrko bad a very pretty wife, who loved j&vftiff Dermot. It appears that her passion was not returned, but King Dermot, for sufficient political reasons, carried off the fair Devorguil, and lodged herat Ferns. Now this oofs look like the afory of Graiune, the wife of Fion, who insisted en eloping, against hi3wi)l, with Diarnmid, the heroic ancestor of thehouee of Argyll. Perhaps the legend is a myth. O'Hourko, not unnaturally vexed, complained of Dcrmol's conduct t» the Kins of Connaught, who, on hi3 p >rt, applied to I ho King of Ossory. Tho men of Ossory, according to ar.cicnt Iri«h belief, were (ho children of " the wolf," and they did not brook tho insolence of King Dermot. With Murrough O'Brien, "an evil rotel whom the doga devoured," they revolted against the lover of Dsvarguil. Dermot dressed up na a monk, anil tried in. that guise to have an interview with O'Brien, who easily saw that the cowl does not make the monk, and refused to have any dealiogß with him. Dermot, who certainly does not deserve our sympathy, then went to Bristol, and thence to Normandy, to seek King Henry, tailing here, he went to Earl Richard, and offered him Lemstor for his succour, and the hand of his daughter. Finally an English, or rather Norman, force sailed over to Dermot, but had the woreo of it in a first engagement with his enemies. Howcvei', his neighbours mado peaco with Dermot, and, at tho head of a coutiderable force, ho attacked .5,000 children of the wolf, in Ossory. The Irish entrenched themselves, and erected n stockade, a pah, as the? Maoris called it. The English ohaigod the stockado, and took it after hard fighting, in a Inter VattK the English set a small ambush of 40 archers in a wood, but when they saw tho overwhelming numbers of tho Irish they thought it the better pirt of valour to let them pass without losing an arrow. None tho lees, Maurice, Miles, Harvey, and other gallant knights charged tho Irish on an open plain and defeated them. " Eleven ecore of heads were brought to the King," as was usual iv Celtic warfare, -which was conducted on the principles of the DvaL-9. In a still later fight a set of wraitlißof armed men, "a vast nml marTellous host, which each man took for true," caused a great deal of terror. On another occasion the captured cattle, rushing out of tfce English camp, spread disorder among the I rich. In much later days the Spanish tried this device agaia&t the- Buccaneers, with no success. Aftov this affair tho English, having 70 prisoners, gave them all to a girl, who bohonded them with an axo of tempered steel, and threw their bodies over the cliff. " Was not this a. bravo bonny maid'r" — like Mary Ambree in the bal lad . Her name was Mice of Abervenny ; she had that day lost her loYfr in tho combat, and assuredly she had her revenge. Giraldug Cambrdusis givts a difieront account of the altair, and does not mention Alice, tko "leaguer lafs." But he admits that 70 prisoners had lho ; r limbs broken, and weic thrown over the cliff. This was a curious way of civilising the Irish. In another fight, the Irish were siirpri-od when bathing, and. lost many men, while of tho Euglieh onlyone foot-soldier was wounded. Nichol, a cowled monk, distinguished himself as an archer in yet smother affair of arms, aad slew a chief named O'Ryan. When the Norsemen, took the Irish side, great strokes were dealt l.y John the Wode — a Bersurk. apparently. He struck off a knight's leg at the thi«h, with a well-tempered axe, and Elew nine or tea other men of ours, but Miles de Cogan, a very good knight, ''killed the aforesaid John" outside Dublin, and tho Ncrse were driven into tho sea. And co " the noise of battle rolled" through the wretched island of Erin- a war of mail-clad men against plucky country people, wiich could only end iv tho victory of arms and discipline. Tho poet has not a very noble topic, but his heart is in it, and he never dreams of Llaminf; the champions of his own Bide. It wa3 not the ago of impartial history and justly balanced moral criticism. Miles de Cogan is fi plain, straightforward warrior, and it is a ■pity that wa get no detailsabout the slayingof John (he Woilc. Historians, however, will find much that is vnluahlo in Mr. Orpen's careful annotations. — Daily Niws,