THE STORY OF IRELAND

New Zealand Tablet, 19 June 1919, Page 7

THE STORY OF IRELAND

(By A. M. Sullivan.)

-- CHAPTER XXVII.— ? £?nt • From the first sentence in the concluding passage of the foregoing extract ; it will be gathered that it was at this juncture the vainglorious Richard made his first visit to Ireland. He had just recently been a candidate for the Imperial ‘Throne of the Germanic Empire, and had . been rejected in a manner- most wounding to his pride. So he formed the project of visiting Ireland with a display of pomp, power, and Royal splendor, such as had not been seen in Europe for a long time, and would, he was firmly persuaded, enable him to accomplish the complete subjugation of the Irish kingdom after the manner of that Roman general who came and saw and conquered. Early in October he landed at Waterford with a force of 30,000 bowmen and 4000 men-at-arms; a force in those days deemedample to overrun and conquer the strongest kingdom/ and far exceeding many that /sufficed to change the fate of empires previously and subsequently in Europe. This vast army was transported across channel in a fleet of some 300 ships or galleys. Great pains were taken to provide the expedition with all- the appliances arid features of impressive pageantry * and in the king’s train, as usual, came the chief nobles of England — his. uncle, the Duke of Gloster,. the young Earl of March (heir-apparent), and of earls and lords a goodly attendance, besides several prelates, abbots, and other ecclesiastical dignitaries. But with this vast expedition King Richard accomplished in Ireland just as much as that king in a ballad, who “marched up the hill, and then marched down again.” Pie rehearsed King Henry and King John on Irish soil. The Irish princes were invited to visit their “friend” the mighty and puissant King of England. They did visit him, and were subjected, as of old, to the “dazzling” process. They were patronisingly fondled ; made to understand that their magnanimous suzerain was 'a most powerful, and most grand, and most gorgeous potentate, own brother of the Sun and Moon. They accepted his flattering attentions ; but they did not altogether so deary understand or accept a proposition he made them as to surrendering their lands arid chieftaincies to him, and receiving, instead, royal pensions and English titles from his most gracious hand. Many of the Irish princes yielded, from one motive or another, to this insidious proposition. But foremost amongst those who could not be persuaded to see the excellence of this arrangement was the young Prince of Leinster, whose fame had already filled the land, and whose victories had made the English King feel ill at ease. Art would not come to “court” to reason over the matter with the bland and puissant king. He was obdurate. He resisted all “dazzling.” He mocked at the Royal pageants, and snapped his fingers at the brother of the Sun and Moon. All this was keenly mortifying to the vainglorious Richard. There was nothing for it but to send a Royal commissioner to treat with Art. He accordingly dispatched the Earl Marshal (Mowbray) to meet and treat with the Prince of Leinster. On the plain of Balligory, near Carlow, the conference took place, Art being accompanied by his uncle Malachi. The Earl Marshal soon found that he had in Art a statesman as well as a soldier to treat with. Art proudly refused to treat with an inferior. If he was to treat at all, it should be with the king himself! Mowbray had to bend to this humiliating rebuff arid try to palaver the stern McMxxrrogh. In vain ! Art’s final answer was, that “so far from yielding his own lands, his wife’s patrimony in Kildare should instantly be restored to him ; or— —.” Of course/ this broke up ;the conference/ The Earl Marshal returned with 5 the unwelcome news to the king, who flew into a rage. What ! ' He, the great, the courtly, the puissant, and gorgeous King Richard of England, thus haughtily treated by a mere Irish prince! —By - the toe-nails of William the Coixqueror, this astounding conduct

meet a dreadful chastisement ! ,-He would wipe out this haughty prince! The : defiant- McMurrogh should be made to feel the might of England’s royal arm! So, putting himself at the head of his grand army, King Richard set out wrathfully to annihilate Art. But the Lagenian chief soon taught him a bitter lesson. Art’s superior military genius, the valor of his troops, and the patriotism of the population soon caused the vastness of the invading English host to be a weakness, not a strength. Richard found his march tedious and tardy. It was impossible to make in that strange »and hostile country commissariat arrangements for such an enormous army. Impenetrable forests and impassible bogs were varied only by mountain defiles defended with true'Spartan heroism by the fearless McMurrogh clansmen. Then the weather broke into severity awful tto endure. Fodder for the horses, food for the men, now became the sole objects of each day’s labor on the part of King Richard’s grand army : “but,”, says the historian, “McMurrogh swept off everything of the nature of food—took advantage of his knowledge of the country to burst upon the enemy by night, to entrap them into ambuscades, to separate the cavalry from the foot, and by many other stratagems to thin their ranks and harass the stragglers.” In fine, King Richard’s splendid army, stuck fast in the Wicklow mountains, was a wreck: while the vengeful and victorious Lagenians hovered around, daily growing more daring in their disastrous assaults. Richard found there was nothing for it but to supplicate Art, and obtain peace at any price. A deputation of “the English and Irish of Leinster” was dispatched to him by the king, making humble apologies and inviting him to a conference with his Majesty in Dublin, where, if he would thus honor the king, he should be the royal guest, and learn how highly his valor and wisdom were esteemed by the English Sovereign. Art acceded, and permitted Richard to make his way in peace northward to Dublin, crestfallen and defeated, with the relics of his grand army and the tattered rags of the gilt silk banners, the crimson canopies and other regal “properties” that were to have “dazzled” the sept of McMurrogh. (To be continued.)