General State of the Country

In the so-called ” civil districts ” the distress was great, owing to the debasing of the coinage, which had caused the prices of necessities to rise to a height previously unheard of. The soldiers, it was complained, being unpaid, plundered the people, and the military authorities seized provisions for the troops.

All this time, in spite of many obstacles, a certain standard of education was kept up amongst the Irish, and the old learning had not altogether decayed. We read of the death, in 1551, of O’Cassidy, Archdeacon of Clogher, ” called the Grecian,” evidently an eminent classical scholar, and of Teig O’Coffey, “preceptor of the Schools of Ireland, and poet,” who was taken prisoner by the English, and would have been put to death only that he escaped. For Irish learning, literature or art, the English officials had little respect. An order, made in 1549, directs that no poet should ” compose any poem or anything which is called ‘ Auran ‘ (&t>p&n), except to the King, under pain of forfeiture of goods.” Later, it is directed that a search shall be made for Irish harps, which, when found, are to be broken.

It must be confessed that there was some reason for this attitude, for the Irish poets did not love the ” Sassenach,” and viewed with distrust the action of the chiefs who visited and made alliances with the foreign monarch across the Channel, and accepted from him titles and gifts. One of them thus complains :— ” The race of the O’Brien of Banbha under Murrough Their covenant is with the King of England. They have turned their back, and sad is the deed To the inheritance of their fathers. Alas for the foreign grey gun I Alas for the yellow chains !”