The Seven States
Above : Illustration Picture From Battle of Kinsale
The establishment of the new dynasties in the West and North-west by the brothers and sons of Niall respectively completed the political organisation of Ireland as we find it in strictly historical times. The seven independent states into which the island was thus divided, remained—modified under changing conditions—the fields of political influence in Ireland until the whole Gaelic fabric was destroyed after the Battle of Kinsale in 1603. The formation of the seven dynasties has been traced ; their existence as independent political bodies at the time of the coming of St. Patrick is proved, as will be seen, by an authority, which professes to date from that period ; it is certain that for ever afterwards it was those dynasties, and those alone, which gave independent rulers to any part of Ireland, and, in later troubled times, the recognised leaders of the Gaelic clans.
