Above : A Piece From Book Of Leinster

This period, so often represented as one of purposeless turmoil and general confusion, was one most fruitful in both literature and art. It produced not only two of the most important existing relics of early Irish literature in ” Leabhar na h-Uidhre,” and ” Leabhar Laighean,” but also learned historians and many poets. And the writings of the time afford clear testimony to the unity in culture of the nation at the time that it was forcibly developing unity in political life. To all the writers of the time the identity of the Gael was unmistakably definite and distinct; Eire was their common country.

It was also a period most fruitful in Irish art, particularly in architecture and metal work, and from it come the most celebrated of our existing memorials of these arts.

Before referring particularly to the two earliest ” Books ” of Irish MSS. which remain to us, it appears desirable to point out the nature of these collections which figure so frequently in our literature.* They were large books of vellum, carefully preserved in some monastery or by some family of historians, into which was copied by qualified scribes such miscellaneous literature as was thought worthy of being copied. They consist, therefore, of detached pieces which had already been committed to writing in manuscripts nearly all of which are now lost, and they include poems, saga, genealogies, annals, biography, etc. Many of these detached pieces are ascribed to certain authors, but most of them are anonymous. Many of the ” Books ” were compiled by a single writer, but some of them are the product of the work of successive generations of scribes who are often unknown.

” Leabhar na h-Uidhre.”–The oldest of the ” Books ” that we have is called ” teAbA^nA n-Urope ” (” Leabhar na h-Uidhre “—” The Book of the Dun Cow “). It was compiled in Clonmacnoise—still a home of learning despite its frequent sufferings from the Norse—by a scribe named Maolmhuire, who died in the year 1106. It contains some very ancient pieces—some of them in a form of Gaelic so old that it had to be heavily ” glossed ” by the copyist and is now almost untranslateable. Its contents include a version of the ” Tain ” and of ”Da Derga’s Hostel,” numerous “Red Branch” stories, and some “Fenian” ones. Much of it has been lost, but 138 pages still remain in the Royal Irish Academy.

The second in date of the Books is Book Of Leinster compiled about 50 years later. But it is mostly written in Latin during the years before and after 1160 by Finn Mac Gorman, Bishop of Kildare and Aodh Mac Criffan, tutor to Diarmuid Mac Murrough. Amongst the pieces it contains—nearly 1,000 in all—are the oldest copies of the Dinnseanchus, and of the ” Fate of the Sons of Uisneach,” a very full version of the ” Tain,” the story of the ” Borumha ” tribute and numerous ” Fenian ” poems ; 410 pages are preserved in Trinity College, Dublin.

This was the period of some of our earliest historians. Flann Mainistreach, a lay scribe of Monasterboice, who died 1056, compiled elaborate ” synchronisms ” which professed to give the Kings of Ireland who reigned at the same times as the various rulers of Babylon, Greece, Rome, etc. He threw traditional history into verse, much of which is copied into the ” Book of Leinster.” Clonmacnoise produced our first critical historian in Tighearnach, who died in 1088. In his ” annals,” several copies of which survive, he displays much learning and careful judgment. He rejected as unreliable all accounts of early Ireland before the foundation of Eamhain Macha . Other annals now lost were written by Dubhdaleithe, Archbishop of Armagh, who died in 1065. Another book of annals, called the ” Chronicon Scotorutn ” is attributed to a writer named O’Malone, who lived in Clonmacnoise about the year 1123. The original has been lost, but it was copied by the celebrated Duald Mac Firbis in the seventeenth century, and this copy still remains.

Above : St. Patrick’s Bell Shrine

Many poets also flourished during this time. Of some of these a portion of their work—often a mere fragment—has been preserved. Others we only know through the references to them made by later writers. The principal poets of whose work an appreciable portion exists were : In the first half of the eleventh century, Mac Coise, who described the Battle of Clontarf, and probably assisted Mac Liag in writing the ” Wars of the Gael and the Gaill,” and Cuan O Lochain, the alleged joint ruler of Ireland {page 91), one of whose poems contains a description of Tara, which was even then in ruins ; in the second half of the eleventh century we have Giolla Caoimhghin, who amongst other works wrote a chronological poem on the same lines as Flann, and also translated Nennius’ ” History of the Britons “; and Colman O’Sesnain ; of the twelfth century writers, O’Mulconry, O’Cassidy and O’Dunn (” Giolla na Naomh “) have been the most fortunate in the amount of their work preserved. The quantity of existing poetry which has been identified with these writers ranges from 900 lines of O’Cassidy’s to 1,400 verses of O’Dunn’s.

Large numbers of Irish monks still continued, as already noted, to cross to the monasteries of Central Europe, and there maintained the early traditions of scholarship. Chief amongst them were two whose names have been similarly Latinised as ” Marianus Scotus.” The first Marianus (known as the ” Chronicler “) was named Maolbhrighde, and was a student of Moville. He left Ireland in 1056, and lived principally in Mayence, where he compiled a Chronicle and a Psalter, both preserved in the Vatican. The second Marianus was named Muireadach Mac Robhartaigh, and left Ireland eleven years later than the former. He founded the monastery at Ratisbon which soon became the chief centre of Irish influence whence many other monasteries sprang. He wrote numerous manuals and books of devotion, and was regarded as the most learned man of his age.

It has been noticed that during the time of the Norse Invasion an improvement in Irish architecture had taken place. In early times most of the buildings in Ireland—apart from the prehistoric uncemented ” Cyclopean ” structures such as the Staigue Fort in Kerry and Dun Aonghus in the Arran Islands —had been of wood. It was of timber that the palaces at Eamhain tvlacha and Tara were constructed, and in the monasteries and schools the only building of stone was generally a small chapel. But in the eleventh and twelfth centuries a great development took place in the art of building in stone. Kings like Brian and Turlough O’Connor and Cormac O’Kelly of Ui Maine, and many minor chiefs built castles and re-built churches on a new and larger scale. Greatest of these was the beautiful Cormac’s chapel on the Rock of Cashel built 1127-1134 for Cormac MacCarthy, who also erected Muckross Abbey near Killarney. With the arrival of the new Orders of monks, a new style came into vogue, and great abbeys were erected wherein the entire community might live under a single roof. Mellifont (page 102) was the first of these, and it was quickly followed by the Abbeys of Bective, Cong, Baltinglass, and elsewhere.

A great development of architecture was taking place all over Europe at this time, and its influence was felt in Ireland. The Irish had adopted the new ideas, and were employing the new craftsmen in masonry for over a generation before those great builders of castles and abbeys, the Normans, ever set foot in the island.

“Tara” Brooch : ” Ardagh ” Chalice.—The dates of two of the most beautiful specimens of Irish metal work cannot be definitely fixed, lhe Tara brooch, and the chalice of Ardagh, give us no name of King or ecclesiastic for whom they were wrought—ask no prayer for the artist for whom they were designed.”* But they probably come from early in this period, if not earlier, for they both supply the most perfect examples of the ” divergent spiral” pattern, which disappeared about the middle of the eleventh century. The ” Tara ” brooch was found on the sea-shore near the Boyne in 1850. Described as being ” superior to any hitherto found in the variety of its ornaments, and in the exquisite delicacy and perfection of its execution “* it is ornamented with no fewer than seventy-six varieties of designs, whose perfection can only be fully appreciated with the aid of a microscope. The ” Ardagh ” chalice was discovered near Ardagh, also by accident. It is a double-handled chalice of exquisite design, beautifully ornamented with chiselled interlacings, silver bands, gold plaques, filigree and enamel.

Belonging to a period later than the preceding is the Processional Cross of Ccng. This beautiful work is feet high, and is adorned with elaborate tracery decked out with crystals and jewels. An inscription upon it shows that it was executed about the year 1123 for Turlough O’Connor, to contain a portion of the true Cross, and was presented by that King to his adviser and counsellor, O’Duffy, Bishop of Tuam. It was afterwards brought to the Abbey of Cong, and was discovered in the last century after being carefully concealed for over two hundred years. A relic almost as beautiful is the ” Crosier ” of Lismore, the inscription on which shows it to have been made shortly before the year 1113. It enshrines what is probably the original staff of St. Carthage.

Chief amongst the many other relics of this period are the ” Crosier ” of Kells, and the ” cumhdachs ” of St. Patrick’s Bell, of the ” Domhnach Airgid ” and of the ” Cathach ” .