Judges were called brehons; and the law they administered is, therefore, now commonly known as the ” Brehon Law.”* To become a brehon a person had to go through a regular, well-defined course oftraining. The brehons were a very influential class of men, and those attached to chiefs had free lands for their maintenance. Those not so attached lived simply on the fees of their profession. It generally required great technical skill to decide cases, the legal rules, as set forth in the law-books, were so complicated, and so many circumstances had to be taken into account. The brehon, moreover, had to be very careful, for he was himself liable to damages if he delivered a false or an unjust judgment.

* The proper designation for native Irish law is “fenechas.”

    The brehons had collections of laws in volumes or tracts by which they regulated their judgments. Many of these have been preserved, and of late years the most important of them have been published with translations, forming five printed volumes. Of the tracts contained in these volumes the two largest and most important are the Seanchus M6r (Shan a-hus M6re) and the Book of Acaill (Ack ill). The Seanchus M6r is chiefly concerned with the Irish civil law, and the Book of Acaillwith the criminal law and the law relating to personal injuries. At the request of St. Patrick, Laoghaire (Leary), the Ard-Rf, is said to have formed a committee of nine persons to revise the laws—three kings, three ecclesiastics, and three poets and antiquarians. These nine having expunged everything that clashed with the Christian faith, produced at the end of three years a revised code which was called Seanchus M6r. The very book left by St. Patrick and the others has been long lost. Successive copies were made from time to time, with commentaries and explanations appended, till the manuscripts we now possess were produced.

Above : Photo Of John Sadleir

As the new league therefore, scarcely at all diminished the grievances under w h the people suffered, the discontent continued to grow, and soon an outcry arose all over the country against the injustice of the Land over was accompanied by an insistent demand for their alteration. In the Northern Province a custom prevailed by which a tenant acquired what was called an ” interest ” in the land which he cultivated, and could dispose of this when he vacated the farm. The value of this ” Interest ” varied largely, according chiefly to the amount of ” unexhausted improvements ” made by the seller, but even when no improvements had been made, something was paid.