Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Ireland" to "Isabey, Jean Baptiste"

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Title: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Ireland" to "Isabey, Jean Baptiste"

Author: Various

Release date: May 23, 2012 [eBook #39775]

Language: English

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Produced by Marius Masi, Don Kretz and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

Transcriber's notes:

(1) Numbers following letters (without space) like C2 were originally
printed in subscript. Letter subscripts are preceded by an
underscore, like C_n.

(2) Characters following a carat (^) were printed in superscript.

(3) Side-notes were relocated to function as titles of their respective
paragraphs.

(4) Macrons and breves above letters and dots below letters were not
inserted.

(5) [root] stands for the root symbol; [alpha], [beta], etc. for greek
letters.

(6) The following typographical errors have been corrected:

ARTICLE IRELAND: "The Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 entirely
altered the parliamentary representation of Ireland. Twenty-two
small boroughs were disenfranchised." 'disenfranchised' amended
from 'disfranchized'.

ARTICLE IRELAND: "Catholics could not take longer leases than
thirty-one years at two-thirds of a rack rent; they were even
required to conform within six months of an inheritance accruing,
on pain of being ousted by the next Protestant heir." 'thirty'
amended from 'thiry'.

ARTICLE IRELAND: "It would be hard to name four other men who,
within the same period, used Shakespeare's language with equal
grace and force." 'four other' amended from 'other four'.

ARTICLE IRON AND STEEL: "This usefulness iron owes in part, indeed,
to its abundance, through which it has led us in the last few
thousands of years to adapt our ways to its properties; but still
in chief part first to the single qualities in which it excels,
such as its strength, its magnetism ..." Added 'properties'.

ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA

A DICTIONARY OF ARTS, SCIENCES, LITERATURE
AND GENERAL INFORMATION

ELEVENTH EDITION

VOLUME XIV, SLICE VII

Ireland to Isabey, Jean Baptiste

ARTICLES IN THIS SLICE:

IRELAND IRONWOOD
IRELAND, CHURCH OF IRON-WOOD
IRENAEUS IRONY
IRENE IROQUOIS
IRETON, HENRY IRRAWADDY
IRIARTE Y OROPESA, TOMAS DE IRREDENTISTS
IRIDACEAE IRRIGATION
IRIDIUM IRULAS
IRIGA IRUN
IRIS (Greek mythology) IRVINE
IRIS (botany) IRVING, EDWARD
IRISH MOSS IRVING, SIR HENRY
IRKUTSK (government of Russia) IRVING, WASHINGTON
IRKUTSK (Russian town) IRVINGTON
IRMIN ISAAC (child of Abraham)
IRNERIUS ISAAC I.
IRON ISAAC II.
IRON AGE ISAAC OF ANTIOCH
IRON AND STEEL ISABELLA (queen of Castile)
IRON MASK ISABELLA II.
IRON MOUNTAIN ISABELLA (wife of Charles VI)
IRONSIDES ISABELLA OF HAINAUT
IRONTON ISABEY, JEAN BAPTISTE

IRELAND, an island lying west of Great Britain, and forming with it the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It extends from 51 deg. 26'
to 55 deg. 21' N., and from 5 deg. 25' to 10 deg. 30' W. It is encircled
by the Atlantic Ocean, and on the east is separated from Great Britain
by narrow shallow seas, towards the north by the North Channel, the
width of which at the narrowest part between the Mull of Cantire
(Scotland) and Torr Head is only 13(1/2) m.; in the centre by the Irish
Sea, 130 m. in width, and in the south by St George's Channel, which has
a width of 69 m. between Dublin and Holyhead (Wales) and of 47 m. at its
southern extremity. The island has the form of an irregular rhomboid,
the largest diagonal of which, from Torr Head in the north-east to Mizen
Head in the south-west, measures 302 m. The greatest breadth due east
and west is 174 m., from Dundrum Bay to Annagh Head, county Mayo; and
the average breadth is about 110 m. The total area is 32,531 sq. m.

Ireland is divided territorially into four provinces and thirty-two
counties:--(a) _Ulster_ (northern division): Counties Antrim, Armagh,
Cavan, Donegal, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry, Monaghan, Tyrone. (b)
_Leinster_ (eastern midlands and south-east): Counties Carlow, Dublin,
Kildare, Kilkenny, King's County, Longford, Louth, Meath, Queen's
County, Westmeath, Wexford, Wicklow. (c) _Connaught_ (western midlands):
Counties Galway, Leitrim, Mayo, Roscommon, Sligo. (d) _Munster_
(south-western division): Counties Clare, Cork, Kerry, Limerick,
Tipperary, Waterford.

_Physical Geography._--Ireland stands on the edge of the European
"continental shelf." Off the peninsula of Mullet (county Mayo) there are
100 fathoms of water within 25 m. of the coast which overlooks the
Atlantic; eastward, northward and southward, in the narrow seas, this
depth is never reached. The average height of the island is about 400
ft., but the distribution of height is by no means equal. The island has
no spinal range or dominating mountain mass. Instead, a series of small,
isolated clusters of mountains, reaching from the coast to an extreme
distance of some 70 m. inland, almost surrounds a great central plain
which seldom exceeds 250 ft. in elevation. A physical description of
Ireland, therefore, falls naturally under three heads--the coasts, the
mountain rim and the central plain.

Coasts.

The capital city and port of Dublin lies a little south of the central
point of the eastern coast, at the head of a bay which marks a sudden
change in the coastal formation. Southward from its northern horn, the
rocky headland of Howth, the coast is generally steep, occasionally
sheer, and the mountains of county Wicklow approach it closely.
Northward (the direction first to be followed) it is low, sandy and
fringed with shoals, for here is one point at which the central plain
extends to the coast. This condition obtains from 53 deg. 25' N. until
at 54 deg. N. the mountains close down again, and the narrow inlet or
fjord of Carlingford Lough separates the abrupt heights of the
Carlingford and Mourne Mountains. Then the low and sandy character is
resumed; the fine eastward sweep of Dundrum Bay is passed, the coast
turns north again, and a narrow channel gives entry to the
island-studded lagoon of Strangford Lough. Reaching county Antrim,
green wooded hills plunge directly into the sea; the deep Belfast
Lough strikes some 10 m. inland, and these conditions obtain nearly to
Fair Head, the north-eastern extremity of the island. Here the coast
turns westward, changing suddenly to sheer cliffs, where the basaltic
formation intrudes its strange regular columns, most finely developed
in the famous Giant's Causeway.

The low land surrounding the plain-track of the Bann intervenes
between this and the beginning of a coastal formation which is common
to the north-western and western coasts. From the oval indentation of
Lough Foyle a bluff coast trends north-westward to Malin Head, the
northernmost promontory of the island. Thence over the whole southward
stretch to Mizen Head in county Cork is found that physical appearance
of a cliff-bound coast fretted with deep fjord-like inlets and fringed
with many islands, which throughout the world is almost wholly
confined to western seaboards. Mountains impinge upon the sea almost
over the whole length, sometimes, as in Slieve League (county
Donegal), immediately facing it with huge cliffs. Eight dominant
inlets appear. Lough Foyle is divided from Lough Swilly by the
diamond-shaped peninsula of Inishowen. Following the coast southward,
Donegal Bay is divided from Galway Bay by the hammer-like projection
of county Mayo and Connemara, the square inlet of Clew Bay
intervening. At Galway Bay the mountain barrier is broken, where the
great central plain strikes down to the sea as it does on the east
coast north of Dublin. After the stern coast of county Clare there
follow the estuary of the great river Shannon, and then three large
inlets striking deep into the mountains of Kerry and Cork--Dingle Bay,
Kenmare river and Bantry Bay, separating the prongs of the forklike
south-western projection of the island. The whole of this coast is
wild and beautiful, and may be compared with the west coast of
Scotland and even that of Norway, though it has a strong individuality
distinct from either; and though for long little known to travellers,
it now possesses a number of small watering-places, and is in many
parts accessible by railway. The islands though numerous are not as in
Scotland and Norway a dominant feature of the coast, being generally
small and often mere clusters of reefs. Exceptions, however, are Tory
Island and North Aran off the Donegal coast, Achill and Clare off
Mayo, the South Arans guarding Galway Bay, the Blasquets and Valencia
off the Kerry coast. On many of these desolate rocks, which could have
afforded only the barest sustenance, there are remains of the
dwellings and churches of early religious settlers who sought solitude
here. The settlements on Inishmurray (Sligo), Aranmore in the South
Arans, and Scattery in the Shannon estuary, had a fame as retreats of
piety and learning far outside Ireland itself, and the significance of
a pilgrimage to their sites is not yet wholly forgotten among the
peasantry, while the preservation of their remains has come to be a
national trust.

The south coast strikes a mean between the east and the west. It is
lower than the west though still bold in many places; the inlets are
narrower and less deep, but more easily accessible, as appears from
the commercial importance of the harbours of Cork and Waterford.
Turning northward to the east of Waterford round Carnsore Point, the
lagoon-like harbour of Wexford is passed, and then a sweeping, almost
unbroken, line continues to Dublin Bay. But this coast, though
differing completely from the western, is not lacking in beauty, for,
like the Mournes in county Down, the mountains of Wicklow rise close
to the sea, and sometimes directly from it.

Mountains.

Every mountain group in Ireland forms an individual mass, isolated by
complex systems of valleys in all directions. They seldom exceed 3000
ft. in height, yet generally possess a certain dignity, whether from
their commanding position or their bold outline. Every variety of form
is seen, from steep flat-topped table-mountains as near Loughs Neagh
and Erne, to peaks such as those of the Twelve Pins or Bens of
Connemara. Unlike the Scottish Highlands no part of them was capable
of sheltering a whole native race in opposition to the advance of
civilization, though early customs, tradition and the common use of
the Erse language yet survive in some strength in the wilder parts of
the west. From the coasts there is almost everywhere easy access to
the interior through the mountains by valley roads; and though the
plain exists unbroken only in the midlands, its ramifications among
the hills are always easy to follow. Plain and lowland of an elevation
below 500 ft. occupy nearly four-fifths of the total area; and if the
sea were to submerge these, four distinct archipelagos would appear, a
northern, eastern, western and south-western. The principal groups,
with their highest points, are the Mournes (Slieve Donard, 2796 ft.)
and the Wicklow mountains (Lugnaquilla, 3039) on the east; the
Sperrins (Sawel, 2240) in the north; the Derryveagh group in the
north-west (Errigal, 2466); the many groups or short ranges of Sligo,
Mayo and Galway (reaching 1695 ft. in the Twelve Pins of Connemara);
in the south-west those of Kerry and Cork, where in Carrantuohill or
Carntual (3414) the famous Macgillicuddy Reeks which beautify the
environs of Killarney include the highest point in the island; and
north-east from these, the Galtees of Tipperary (3018) and Slieve
Bloom, the farthest inland of the important groups. Nearer the south
coast are the Knockmealdown (2609) and Commeragh Mountains (2470) of
county Waterford.

Central plain.

It will be realized from the foregoing description that it is
impossible to draw accurate boundary lines to the great Irish plain,
yet it rightly carries the epithet central because it distinctly
divides the northern mountain groups from the southern. The plain is
closely correlated with the bogs which are the best known physical
characteristic of Ireland, but the centre of Ireland is not wholly
bog-land. Rather the bogs of the plain are intersected by strips of
low-lying firm ground, and the central plain consists of these bright
green expanses alternating with the brown of the bogs, of which the
best known and (with its offshoots) one of the most extensive is the
Bog of Allen in the eastern midlands. But the bogs are not confined to
the plain. They may be divided into black and red according to the
degree of moisture and the vegetable matter which formed them. The
black bogs are those of the plain and the deeper valleys, while the
red, firmer and less damp, occur on the mountains. The former supply
most of the peat, and some of the tree-trunks dug out of them have
been found so flexible from immersion that they might be twisted into
ropes. Owing to the quantity of tannin they contain, no harmful miasma
exhales from the Irish bogs.

Rivers.

The central plain and its offshoots are drained by rivers to all the
coasts, but chiefly eastward and westward, and the water-partings in
its midst are sometimes impossible to define. The main rivers,
however, have generally a mountain source, and according as they are
fed from bogs or springs may be differentiated as black and bright
streams. In this connexion the frequent use of the name Blackwater is
noticeable. The principal rivers are--from the Wicklow Mountains, the
Slaney, flowing S. to Wexford harbour, and the Liffey, flowing with a
tortuous course N. and E. to Dublin Bay; the Boyne, fed from the
central plain and discharging into Drogheda Bay; from the mountains of
county Down, the Lagan, to Belfast Lough, and the Bann, draining the
great Lough Neagh to the northern sea; the Foyle, a collection of
streams from the mountains of Tyrone and Donegal, flowing north to
Lough Foyle. On the west the rivers are generally short and
torrential, excepting the Erne, which drains the two beautiful loughs
of that name in county Fermanagh, and the Shannon, the chief river of
Ireland, which, rising in a mountain spring in county Cavan, follows a
bow-shaped course to the south and south-west, and draws off the major
part of the waters of the plain by tributaries from the east. In the
south, the Lee and the Blackwater intersect the mountains of Kerry and
Cork flowing east, and turn abruptly into estuaries opening south.
Lastly, rising in the Slieve Bloom or neighbouring mountains, the
Suir, Nore and Barrow follow widely divergent courses to the south to
unite in Waterford harbour.

Lakes

The lakes (called loughs--pronounced _lochs_) of Ireland are
innumerable, and (apart from their formation) are almost all contained
in two great regions, (1) The central plain by its nature abounds in
loughs--dark, peat-stained pools with low shores. The principal of
these lie in county Westmeath, such as Loughs Ennel, Owel and
Derravaragh, famed for their trout-fishing in the May-fly season. (2)
The Shannon, itself forming several large loughs, as Allen, Ree and
Derg; and the Erne, whose course lies almost wholly through
loughs--Gowna, Oughter and the Loughs Erne, irregular of outline and
studded with islands--separate this region from the principal
lake-region of Ireland, coincident with the province of Connaught. In
the north lie Loughs Melvin, close above Donegal Bay, and Gill near
Sligo, Lough Gara, draining to the Shannon, and Lough Conn near
Ballina (county Mayo), and in the south, the great expanses of Loughs
Mask and Corrib, joined by a subterranean channel. To the west of
these last, the mountains of Connemara and, to a more marked degree,
the narrow plain of bog-land between them and Galway Bay, are sown
with small lakes, nearly every hollow of this wild district being
filled with water. Apart from these two regions the loughs of Ireland
are few but noteworthy. In the south-west the lakes of Killarney are
widely famed for their exquisite scenic setting; in the north-east
Lough Neagh has no such claim, but is the largest lake in the British
Isles, while in the south-east there are small loughs in some of the
picturesque glens of county Wicklow.

_Climate._--The climate of Ireland is more equable than that of Great
Britain as regards both temperature and rainfall. No district in Ireland
has a rainfall so heavy as that of large portions of the Highlands of
Scotland, or so light as that of several large districts in the east of
Great Britain. In January the mean temperature scarcely falls below 40
deg. F. in any part of Ireland, whereas over the larger part of the
eastern slope of Great Britain it is some 3 deg. lower; and in July the
extremes in Ireland are 59 deg. in the north and 62 deg. in Kilkenny.
The range from north to south of Great Britain in the same month is some
10 deg., but the greater extent of latitude accounts only for a part of
this difference, which is mainly occasioned by the physical
configuration of the surface of Ireland in its relations to the
prevailing moist W.S.W. winds. Ireland presents to these winds no
unbroken mountain ridge running north and south, which would result in
two climates as distinct as those of the east and west of Ross-shire;
but it presents instead only a series of isolated groups, with the
result that it is only a few limited districts which enjoy climates
approaching in dryness the climates of the whole of the eastern side of
Great Britain. (O. J. R. H.)

_Geology._--Ireland, rising from shallow seas on the margin of the
submarine plateau of western Europe, records in its structure the
successive changes that the continent itself has undergone. The first
broad view of the country shows us a basin-shaped island consisting of
a central limestone plain surrounded by mountains; but the diverse
modes of origin of these mountains, and the differences in their
trend, suggest at once that they represent successive epochs of
disturbance. The north-west highlands of Donegal and the Ox Mountains,
with their axes of folding running north-east and south-west, invite
comparison with the great chain of Leinster, but also with the
Grampians and the backbone of Scandinavia. The ranges from Kerry to
Waterford, on the other hand, truncated by the sea at either end, are
clearly parts of an east and west system, the continuation of which
may be looked for in South Wales and Belgium. The hills of the
north-east are mainly the crests of lava-plateaux, which carry the
mind towards Skye and the volcanic province of the Faeroe Islands. The
two most important points of contrast between the geology of Ireland
and that of England are, firstly, the great exposure of Carboniferous
rocks in Ireland, Mesozoic strata being almost absent; and, secondly,
the presence of volcanic rocks in place of the marine Eocene of
England.

The fact that no Cambrian strata have been established by
palaeontological evidence in the west of Ireland has made it equally
difficult to establish any pre-Cambrian system. The great difference
in character, however, between the Silurian strata at Pomeroy in
county Tyrone and the adjacent metamorphic series makes it highly
probable that the latter masses are truly Archean. They form an
interesting and bleak moorland between Cookstown and Omagh, extending
north-eastward into Slieve Gallion in county Londonderry, and consist
fundamentally of mica-schist and gneiss, affected by earth-pressures,
and invaded by granite near Lough Fee. The axis along which they have
been elevated runs north-east and south-west, and on either flank a
series of "green rocks" appears, consisting of altered amygdaloidal
andesitic lavas, intrusive dolerites, coarse gabbros and diorites, and
at Beagh-beg and Creggan in central Tyrone ancient rhyolitic tuffs.
Red and grey cherts, which have not so far yielded undoubted organic
remains occur in this series, and it has in consequence been compared
with the Arenig rocks of southern Scotland. The granite invades this
"green-rock" series at Slieve Gallion and elsewhere, but is itself
pre-Devonian. Even if the volcanic and intrusive basic rocks prove to
be Ordovician (Lower Silurian), which is very doubtful, the
metamorphic series of the core is clearly distinct, and appears to be
"fundamental" so far as Ireland is concerned.

The other metamorphic areas of the north present even greater
difficulties, owing to the absence of any overlying strata older than
the Old Red Sandstone. Their rocks have been variously held to be
Archean, Cambrian and Silurian, and their general trend has
undoubtedly been determined by post-Silurian earth-movements. Hence it
is useful to speak of them merely as "Dalradian," a convenient term
invented by Sir A. Geikie for the metamorphic series of the old
kingdom of Dalriada. They come out as mica-schists under the
Carboniferous sandstones of northern Antrim, and disappear southward
under the basaltic plateaux. The red gneisses near Torr Head probably
represent intrusive granite; and this small north-eastern exposure is
representative of the Dalradian series which covers so wide a field
from central Londonderry to the coast of Donegal. The oldest rocks in
this large area are a stratified series of mica-schists, limestones
and quartzites, with numerous intrusive sheets of diorite, the whole
having been metamorphosed by pressure, with frequent overfolding.
Extensive subsequent metamorphism has been produced by the invasion of
great masses of granite. Similar rocks come up along the Ox Mountain
axis, and occupy the wild west of Mayo and Connemara. The quartzites
here form bare white cones and ridges, notably in Errigal and Aghla
Mt. in county Donegal, and in the group of the Twelve Bens in county
Galway.

Following on these rocks of unknown but obviously high antiquity, we
find fossiliferous Ordovician (Lower Silurian) strata near Killary
harbour on the west, graduating upwards into a complete Gotlandian
(Upper Silurian) system. Massive conglomerates occur in these series,
which are unconformable on the Dalradian rocks of Connemara. In the
Wenlock beds of the west of the Dingle promontory there are
contemporaneous tuffs and lavas. Here the Ludlow strata are followed
by a thick series of barren beds (the Dingle Beds), which have been
variously claimed as Upper Silurian and Lower Devonian. No certain
representative of the Dingle Beds has been traced elsewhere throughout
the south of Ireland, where the Old Red Sandstone succeeds the
uptilted Silurian strata with striking unconformity. The Silurian
rocks were indeed greatly folded before the Old Red Sandstone was laid
down, the general trend of the folds being from south-west to
north-east. The best example of these folds is the axis of Leinster,
its core being occupied by granite which is now exposed continuously
for 70 m., forming a moorland from Dublin to New Ross. On either flank
the Silurian shales, slates and sandstones, which are very rarely
fossiliferous, rise with steep dips. They are often contorted, and
near the contact with the granite pass into mica-schists and
quartzites. The foothills and lowlands throughout southern Wicklow and
almost the whole of Wexford, and the corresponding country of western
Wicklow and eastern Kildare, are thus formed of Silurian beds, in
which numerous contemporaneous and also intrusive igneous rocks are
intercalated, striking like the chain N.E. and S.W. In south-eastern
Wexford, in northern Wicklow (from Ashford to Bray), and in the
promontory of Howth on Dublin Bay, an apparently earlier series of
green and red slates and quartzites forms an important feature. The
quartzites, like those of the Dalradian series, weather out in cones,
such as the two Sugarloaves south of Bray, or in knob-set ridges, such
as the crest of Howth or Carrick Mt. in county Wicklow. The radial or
fan-shaped markings known as _Oldhamia_ were first detected in this
series, but are now known from Cambrian beds in other countries; in
default of other satisfactory fossils, the series of Bray and Howth
has long been held to be Cambrian.

All across Ireland, from the Ballyhoura Hills on the Cork border to
the southern shore of Belfast Lough, slaty and sandy Silurian beds
appear in the axes of the anticlinal folds, surrounded by Old Red
Sandstone scarps or Carboniferous Limestone lowlands. These Silurian
areas give rise to hummocky regions, where small hills abound, without
much relation to the trend of the axis of elevation. The most
important area appears north of the town of Longford, and extends
thence to the coast of Down. In Slieve Glah it reaches a height of
1057 ft. above the sea. Granite is exposed along its axis from near
Newry to Slieve Croob, and again appears at Crossdoney in county
Cavan. These occurrences of granite, with that of Leinster, in
connexion with the folding of the Silurian strata, make it highly
probable that many of the granites of the Dalradian areas, which have
a similar trend and which have invaded the schists so intimately as to
form with them a composite gneiss, date also from a post-Silurian
epoch of earth-movement. Certain western and northern granites are
however older, since granite boulders occur in Silurian conglomerates
derived from the Dalradian complex.

This group of N.E. and S.W. ridges and hollows, so conspicuous in the
present conformation of Donegal, Sligo and Mayo, in the axis of Newry,
and in the yet bolder Leinster Chain, was impressed upon the Irish
region at the close of Silurian times, and is clearly a part of the
"Caledonian" system of folds, which gave to Europe the guiding lines
of the Scottish Highlands and of Scandinavia.

[Illustration: Map of Ireland.]

On the land-surface thus formed the Devonian lakes gathered, while the
rivers poured into them enormous deposits of sand and conglomerate. A
large exposure of this Old Red Sandstone stretches from Enniskillen
to the Silurian beds at Pomeroy, and some contemporaneous andesites
are included, reminding us of the volcanic activity at the same epoch
in Scotland. The numerous "felstone" dikes, often lamprophyric,
occurring in the north and west of Ireland, are probably also of
Devonian age. The conglomerates appear at intervals through the
limestone covering of central Ireland, and usually weather out as
conspicuous scarps or "hog's-backs." The Slieve Bloom Mountains are
thus formed of a dome of Old Red Sandstone folded on a core of
unconformable Silurian strata; while in several cases the domes are
worn through, leaving rings of Old Red Sandstone hills, scarping
inwards towards broad exposures of Silurian shales. The Old Red
Sandstone is most fully manifest in the rocky or heather-clad ridges
that run from the west of Kerry to central Waterford, rising to 3414
ft. in Carrantuohill in Macgillicuddy's Reeks, and 3015 ft. in
Galtymore. In the Dingle Promontory the conglomerates of this period
rest with striking unconformity on the Dingle Beds and Upper Silurian
series. Here there may be a local break between Lower and Upper
Devonian strata. The highest beds of Old Red Sandstone type pass up
conformably in the south of Ireland into the Lower Carboniferous,
through the "Yellow Sandstone Series" and the "Coomhola Grits" above
it. The Yellow Sandstone contains _Archanodon_, the oldest known
fresh-water mollusc, and plant-remains; the Coomhola Grits are marine,
and are sometimes regarded as Carboniferous, sometimes as uppermost
Devonian.

[Illustration: Geological Map of Ireland.]

In the south, the Carboniferous deposits open with the Carboniferous
Slate, in the base of which the Coomhola Grits occur. Its lower part
represents the Lower Carboniferous Shales and Sandstones of the
central and northern areas, while its upper part corresponds with a
portion of the Carboniferous Limestone. The Carboniferous Limestone,
laid down in a sea which covered nearly the whole Irish area, appears
in the synclinal folds at Cork city and Kenmare, and is the prevalent
rock from the north side of the Knockmealdown Mountains to Enniskillen
and Donegal Bay. On the east it spreads to Drogheda and Dublin, and on
the west to the heart of Mayo and of Clare. Loughs Mask and Corrib are
thus bounded on the west by rugged Silurian and Dalradian highlands,
and on the east appear as mere water-filled hollows in the great
limestone plain.

The Lower Carboniferous Sandstones are conspicuous in the region from
Milltown near Inver Bay in southern Donegal to Ballycastle in county
Antrim. In the latter place they contain workable coal-seams. The
Carboniferous Limestone often contains black flint (chert), and at
some horizons conglomerates occur, the pebbles being derived from the
unconformable ridges of the "Caledonian" land. A black and often shaly
type called "calp" contains much clay derived from the same
land-surface. While the limestone has been mainly worn down to a
lowland, it forms fine scarps and table-lands in county Sligo and
other western regions. Subterranean rivers and water-worn caves
provide a special type of scenery below the surface. Contemporaneous
volcanic action is recorded by tuffs and lavas south-east of Limerick
and north of Philipstown. The beds above the limestone are shales and
sandstones, sometimes reaching the true Coal-Measures, but rarely
younger than the English Millstone Grit. They are well seen in the
high ground about Lough Allen, where the Shannon rises on them, round
the Castlecomer and Killenaule coalfields, and in a broad area from
the north of Clare to Killarney. Some coals occur in the Millstone
Grit horizons. The Upper Coal-Measures, as a rule, have been lost by
denudation, much of which occurred before Triassic times. South of the
line between Galway and Dublin the coal is anthracitic, while north of
this line it is bituminous. The northern coalfields are the L.
Carboniferous one at Ballycastle, the high outliers of Millstone Grit
and Coal-Measures round Lough Allen, and the Dungannon and Coalisland
field in county Tyrone. The last named is in part concealed by
Triassic strata. The only important occurrences of coal in the south
are in eastern Tipperary, near Killenaule, and in the Leinster
coalfield (counties Kilkenny and Carlow and Queen's County), where
there is a high synclinal field, including Lower and Middle
Coal-Measures, and resembling in structure the Forest of Dean area in
England.

The "Hercynian" earth-movements, which so profoundly affected
north-west and north-central Europe at the close of Carboniferous
times, gave rise to a series of east and west folds in the Irish
region. The Upper Carboniferous beds were thus lifted within easy
reach of denuding forces, while the Old Red Sandstone, and the
underlying "Caledonian" land-surface, were brought up from below in
the cores of domes and anticlines. In the south, even the
Carboniferous Limestone has been so far removed that it is found only
in the floors of the synclinals. The effect of the structure of these
folds on the courses of rivers in the south of Ireland is discussed in
the paragraphs dealing with the geology of county Cork. The present
central plain itself may be regarded as a vast shallow synclinal,
including a multitude of smaller folds. The earth-wrinkles of this
epoch were turned into a north-easterly direction by the pre-existing
Leinster Chain, and the trend of the anticlinal from Limerick to the
Slieve Bloom Mountains, and that of the synclinal of Millstone Grit
and Coal-Measures from Cashel through the Leinster coalfield, bear
witness to the resistance of this granite mass. The Triassic beds rest
on the various Carboniferous series in turn, indicating, as in
England, the amount of denudation that followed on the uplift of the
Hercynian land. Little encouragement can therefore be given in Ireland
to the popular belief in vast hidden coalfields.

The Permian sea has left traces at Holywood on Belfast Lough and near
Stewartstown in county Tyrone. Certain conglomeratic beds on which
Armagh is built are also believed to be of Permian age. The Triassic
sandstones and marls, with marine Rhaetic beds above, are preserved
mainly round the basaltic plateaus of the north-east, and extend for
some distance into county Down. An elongated outlier south of
Carrickmacross indicates their former presence over a much wider area.
Rock-salt occurs in these beds north of Carrickfergus.

The Jurassic system is represented in Ireland by the Lower Lias alone,
and it is probable that no marine beds higher than the Upper Lias were
deposited during this period. From Permian times onward, in fact, the
Irish area lay on the western margin of the seas that played so large
a part in determining the geology of Europe. The Lower Lias appears at
intervals under the scarp of the basaltic plateaus, and contributes,
as in Dorsetshire and Devonshire, to the formation of landslips along
the coast. The alteration of the fossiliferous Lias by dolerite at
Portrush into a flinty rock that looked like basalt served at one time
as a prop for the "Neptunist" theory of the origin of igneous rocks.
Denudation, consequent on the renewed uplift of the country, affected
the Jurassic beds until the middle of Cretaceous times. The sea then
returned, in the north-east at any rate, and the first Cretaceous
deposits indicate the nearness of a shore-line. Dark "green-sands,"
very rich in glauconite, are followed by yellow sandstones with some
flint. These two stages represent the Upper Greensand, or the sandy
type of the English Gault. Further sands represent the Cenomanian. The
Turonian is also sandy, but in most areas was not deposited, or has
been denuded away during a local uplift that preceded Senonian times.
The Senonian limestone itself, which rests in the extreme north on
Trias or even on the schists, is often conglomeratic and glauconitic
at the base, the pebbles being worn from the old metamorphic series.
The term "Hibernian Greensand" was used by Tate for all the beds below
the Senonian; the quarrymen know the conglomeratic Senonian as
"Mulatto-stone." The Senonian chalk, or "White Limestone," is hard,
with numerous bands of flint, and suffered from denudation in early
Eocene times. Probably its original thickness was not more than 150
ft., while now only from 40 to 100 ft. remain. This chalk appears to
underlie nearly the whole basaltic plateaus, appearing as a fringe
round them, and also in an inlier at Templepatrick. The western limit
was probably found in the edge of the old continental land in Donegal.
Chalk flints occur frequently in the surface-deposits of the south of
Ireland, associated with rocks brought from the north during the
glacial epoch, and probably also of northern origin. It is just
possible, however, that here and there the Cretaceous sea that spread
over Devonshire may have penetrated the Irish area.

After the Irish chalk had been worn into rolling downs, on which
flint-gravels gathered, the great epoch of volcanic activity opened,
which was destined to change the character of the whole north-west
European area. The critical time had arrived when the sea was to be
driven away eastward, while the immense ridges due to the "Alpine"
movements were about to emerge as the backbones of new continental
lands. Fissure after fissure, running with remarkable constancy N.W.
and S.E., broke through the region now occupied by the British Isles,
and basalt was pressed up along these cracks, forming thousands of
dikes, from the coast of Down to the Dalradian ridges of Donegal. One
of these on the north side of Lough Erne is 15 m. long. The more
deep-seated type of these rocks is seen in the olivine-gabbro mass of
Carlingford Mountain; but most of the igneous region became covered
with sheets of basaltic lava, which filled up the hollows of the
downs, baked the gravels into a layer of red flints, and built up,
pile upon pile, the great plateaus of the north. There was little
explosive action, and few of the volcanic vents can now be traced.
After a time, a quiet interval allowed of the formation of lakes, in
which red iron-ores were laid down. The plant-remains associated with
these beds form the only clue to the post-Cretaceous period in which
the volcanic epoch opened, and they have been placed by Mr Starkie
Gardner in recent years as early Eocene. During this time of
comparative rest, rhyolites were extruded locally in county Antrim;
and there is very strong evidence that the granite of the Mourne
Mountains, and that which cuts the Carlingford gabbro, were added at
the same time to the crust. The basalt again broke out, through dikes
that cut even the Mourne granite, and some of the best-known columnar
masses of lava overlie the red deposits of iron-ore and mark this
second basaltic epoch. The volcanic plateaus clearly at one time
extended far west and south of their present limits, and the
denudation of the lava-flows has allowed a large area of Mesozoic
strata also to disappear.

Volcanic activity may have extended into Miocene times; but the only
fossiliferous relics of Cainozoic periods later than the Eocene are
the pale clays and silicified lignites on the south shore of Lough
Neagh, and the shelly gravels of pre-glacial age in county Wexford.
Both these deposits may be Pliocene. Probably before this period the
movements of subsidence had set in which faulted the basalt plateaus,
lowered them to form the basin of Lough Neagh, and broke up the
continuity of the volcanic land of the North Atlantic area. As the
Atlantic spread into the valleys on the west of Ireland, forming the
well-known marine inlets, Europe grew, under the influence of the
"Alpine" movements, upon the east; and Ireland was caught in, as it
were, on the western edge of the new continent. It seems likely that
it was separated from the British region shortly before the glacial
epoch, and that some of the ice which then abutted on the country
travelled across shallow seas. The glacial deposits profoundly
modified the surface of the country, whether they resulted from the
melting of the ice-sheets of the time of maximum glaciation, or from
the movements of local glaciers. Boulder-clays and sands, and gravels
rearranged by water, occur throughout the lowlands; while the eskers
or "green hills," characteristic grass-covered ridges of gravel, rise
from the great plain, or run athwart valleys and over hill-sides,
marking the courses of sub-glacial streams. When the superficial
deposits are removed, the underlying rocks are found to be scored and
smoothed by ice-action, and whole mountain-sides in the south and west
have been similarly moulded during the Glacial epoch. In numerous
cases, lakelets have gathered under rocky cirques behind the terminal
moraines of the last surviving glaciers.

There is no doubt that at this epoch various movements of elevation
and subsidence affected the north-west of Europe, and modern Ireland
may have had extensions into warmer regions on the west and south,
while the area now left to us was almost buried under ice. In
post-Glacial times, a subsidence admitted the sea into the Lagan
valley and across the eastern shore in several places; but elevation,
in the days of early human occupation, brought these last marine
deposits to light, and raised the beaches and shore-terraces some 10
to 20 ft. along the coast. At Larne, Greenore and in the neck between
Howth and Dublin, these raised beaches remain conspicuous. To sum up,
then, while the main structural features of Ireland were impressed
upon her before the opening of the Mesozoic era, her present outline
and superficial contours date from an epoch of climatic and
geographical change which falls within the human period.

See maps and explanatory memoirs of the _Geological Survey of
Ireland_ (Dublin); G. Wilkinson, _Practical Geology and Ancient
Architecture of Ireland_ (London, 1845); R. Kane, _Industrial
Resources of Ireland_ (2nd ed., Dublin, 1845); G. H. Kinahan, _Manual
of the Geology of Ireland_ (London, 1878); E. Hull, _Physical Geology
and Geography of Ireland_ (2nd ed., London, 1891); G. H. Kinahan,
_Economic Geology of Ireland_ (Dublin, 1889); A. McHenry and W. W.
Watts, _Guide to the Collection of Rocks and Fossils, Geol. Survey of
Ireland_ (2nd ed., Dublin, 1898). (G. A. J. C.)

ECONOMICS AND ADMINISTRATION

_Population._--Various computations are in existence of the population
of Ireland prior to 1821, in which year the first government census was
taken. According to Sir William Petty the number of inhabitants in 1672
was 1,320,000. About a century later the tax-collectors estimated the
population at a little over 2,500,000, and in 1791 the same officials
calculated that the number had risen to over 4,200,000. The census
commissioners returned the population in 1821 as 6,801,827, in 1831 as
7,767,401, and in 1841 as 8,196,597. It is undoubted that a great
increase of population set in towards the close of the 18th century and
continued during the first 40 years or so of the 19th. This increase was
due to a variety of causes--the improvement in the political condition
of the country, the creation of leaseholds after the abolition of the
40s. franchise, the productiveness and easy cultivation of the potato,
the high prices during the war with France, and probably not least to
the natural prolificness of the Irish people. But the census returns of
1851 showed a remarkable alteration--a decrease during the previous
decade of over 1,500,000--and since that date, as the following table
shows, the continuous decrease in the number of its inhabitants has been
the striking feature in the vital statistics of Ireland.

_Decrease per cent. of Population 1841-1901._

+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+
| |1841-1851.|1851-1861.|1861-1871.|1871-1881.|1881-1891.|1891-1901.|
+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+
| Leinster | 15.25 | 12.86 | 8.11 | 4.49 | 6.8 | 3.5 |
| Munster | 22.47 | 18.53 | 7.93 | 4.98 | 11.8 | 8.4 |
| Ulster | 15.69 | 4.85 | 4.23 | 5.11 | 7.07 | 2.4 |
| Connaught| 28.81 | 9.59 | 7.33 | 3.43 | 12.4 | 9.7 |
+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+
| Ireland | 19.85 | 11.50 | 6.67 | 4.69 | 9.08 | 5.3 |
+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+

The cause of the continuous though varying decrease which these figures
reveal has been emigration. This movement of population took its first
great impulse from the famine of 1846 and has continued ever since. When
that disaster fell upon the country it found a teeming population
fiercely competing for a very narrow margin of subsistence; and so
widespread and devastating were its effects that between 1847 and 1852
over 1,200,000 of the Irish people emigrated to other lands. More than
1,000,000 of these went to the United States of America, and to that
country the main stream has ever since been directed. Between 1851 and
1905 4,028,589 emigrants left Ireland--2,092,154 males and 1,936,435
females, the proportion of females to males being extraordinarily high
as compared with the emigration statistics of other countries. Between
these years the numbers fluctuated widely--1852 showing the highest
total, 190,322 souls, and 1905 the lowest, 30,676 souls. Since 1892,
however, the emigrants in any one year have never exceeded 50,000,
probably because the process of exhaustion has been so long in
operation. As Ireland is mainly an agricultural country the loss of
population has been most marked in the rural districts. The urban
population, indeed, has for some years shown a tendency to increase.
Thus in 1841 the rural population was returned as 7,052,923 and the
urban as 1,143,674, while the corresponding figures in 1901 were
respectively 3,073,846 and 1,384,929. This is further borne out by the
percentages given in the above table, from which it will be seen that
the greatest proportional decrease of population has occurred in the two
provinces of Munster and Connaught, which may be regarded as almost
purely agricultural. That the United States remained the great centre of
attraction for Irish emigrants is proved by the returns for 1905, which
show that nearly 80% of the whole number for the year sailed for that
country. Ireland does little to swell the rising tide of emigration
that now flows from England and Scotland to British North America.

Turning now to the census figures of 1901, we find that the population
had diminished as compared with 1891 by 245,975. During the decade only
three counties, Dublin, Down and Antrim, showed any increase, the
increase being due to the growth of certain urban areas. Of the total
population of 4,458,775, 2,200,040 were males and 2,258,735 were
females. The inhabitants of the rural districts (3,073,846) decreased
during the decade by over 380,000; that of the urban districts, i.e. of
all towns of not less than 2000 inhabitants (1,384,929) increased by
over 140,000. This increase was mainly due to the growth of a few of the
larger towns, notably of Belfast, the chief industrial centre of
Ireland. Between 1891 and 1901 Belfast increased from 273,079 to
349,180; Dublin from 268,587 to 289,108; and Londonderry, another
industrial centre in Ulster, from 33,200 to 39,873. On the other hand,
towns like Cork (75,978), Waterford (26,743) and Limerick (38,085),
remained almost stationary during the ten years, but the urban districts
of Pembroke and of Rathmines and Rathgar, which are practically suburbs
of Dublin, showed considerable increases.

From the returns of occupation in 1901, it appears that the indefinite
or non-productive class accounted for about 55% of the entire
population. The next largest class was the agricultural, which
numbered 876,062, a decrease of about 40,000 as compared with 1891.
The industrial class fell from 656,410 to 639,413, but this
represented a slight increase in the percentage of the population. The
professional class was 131,035, the domestic 219,418, and the
commercial had risen from 83,173 in 1891 to 97,889 in 1901. The
following table shows the number of births and deaths registered in
Ireland during the five years 1901-1905.

+------+---------+---------+
| | Births. | Deaths. |
+------+---------+---------+
| 1901 | 100,976 | 79,119 |
| 1902 | 101,863 | 77,676 |
| 1903 | 101,831 | 77,358 |
| 1904 | 103,811 | 79,513 |
| 1905 | 102,832 | 75,071 |
+------+---------+---------+

The number of illegitimate births is always very small in proportion
to the legitimate. In 1905 illegitimate births numbered 2710 or 2.6 of
the whole, a percentage which has been very constant for a number of
years.

_Railways._--The first act of parliament authorizing a railway in
Ireland was passed in 1831. The railway was to run from Dublin to
Kingstown, a distance of about 6 m., and was opened in 1834. In 1836 the
Ulster railway to connect Belfast and Armagh, and the Dublin and
Drogheda railway uniting these two towns were sanctioned. In the same
year commissioners were nominated by the crown to inquire (_inter alia_)
as to a general system for railways in Ireland, and as to the best mode
of directing the development of the means of intercourse to the channels
whereby the greatest advantage might be obtained by the smallest outlay.
The commissioners presented a very valuable report in 1838, but its
specific recommendations were never adopted by the government, though
they ultimately proved of service to the directors of private
enterprises. Railway development in Ireland progressed at first very
slowly and by 1845 only some 65 m. of railway were open. During the next
ten years, however, there was a considerable advance, and in 1855 the
Irish railways extended to almost 1000 m. The total authorized capital
of all Irish railways, exclusive of light railways, at the end of 1905
was L42,881,201, and the paid-up capital, including loans and debenture
stock, amounted to L37,238,888. The total gross receipts from all
sources of traffic in 1905 were L4,043,368, of which L2,104,108 was
derived from passenger traffic and L1,798,520 from goods traffic. The
total number of passengers carried (exclusive of season and periodical
ticket-holders) was 27,950,150. Under the various acts passed to
facilitate the construction of light railways in backward districts some
15 lines have been built, principally in the western part of the island
from Donegal to Kerry. These railways are worked by existing companies.

The following table shows the principal Irish railways, their mileage
and the districts which they serve.

There is no lack of cross-channel services between Ireland and Great
Britain. Belfast is connected by daily sailings with Glasgow,
Ardrossan, Liverpool, Feetwood, Barrow and Heysham Harbour, Dublin
with Holyhead and Liverpool, Greenore (Co. Down) with Holyhead, Larne
(Co. Antrim) with Stranraer, Rosslare (Co. Wexford) with Fishguard and
Kingstown (Co. Dublin) with Holyhead.

_Navigable Waterways._--Ireland is intersected by a network of canals
and waterways, which if efficiently managed and developed would prove
of immense service to the country by affording a cheap means for the
carriage of goods, especially agricultural produce. Two canals--the
Grand and the Royal--connect Dublin with the Shannon; the former
leading from the south of Dublin to Shannon Harbour and thence on the
other side of that river to Ballinasloe, with numerous branches; the
latter from the north side of Dublin to Cloondera on the Shannon, with
a branch to Longford. The Barrow Navigation connects a branch of the
Grand canal with the tidal part of the river Barrow. In Ulster the
Bann navigation connects Coleraine, by means of Lough Neagh, with the
Lagan navigation which serves Belfast; and the Ulster canal connects
Lough Neagh with Lough Erne. The river Shannon is navigable for a
distance of 143 m. in a direct course and occupies almost a central
position between the east and west coasts.

_Agriculture._--Ireland possesses as a whole a soil which is naturally
fertile and easily cultivated. Strong heavy clay soils, sandy and
gravelly soils, are almost entirely absent; and the mixture of soil
arising from the various stratifications and from the detritus carried
down to the plains has created many districts of remarkable richness.
The "Golden Vein" in Munster, which stretches from Cashel in Tipperary
to near Limerick, probably forms the most fertile part of the country.
The banks of the rivers Shannon, Suir, Nore, Barrow and Bann are lined
with long stretches of flat lands capable of producing fine crops. In
the districts of the Old and New Red Sandstone, which include the
greater part of Cork and portions of Kerry, Waterford, Tyrone,
Fermanagh, Monaghan, Mayo and Tipperary, the soil in the hollows is
generally remarkably fertile. Even in the mountainous districts which
are unsuitable for tillage there is often sufficient soil to yield, with
the aid of the moist atmosphere, abundant pasturage of good quality. The
excessive moisture in wet seasons in however hostile to cereal crops,
especially in the southern and western districts, though improved
drainage has done something to mitigate this evil, and might do a great
deal more.

Irish political history has largely affected the condition of
agriculture. Confiscations and settlements, prohibitive laws (such as
those which ruined the woollen industry), penal enactments against the
Roman Catholics, absenteeism, the creation for political purposes of
40s. freeholders, and other factors have combined to form a story which
makes painful reading from whatever point of view, social or political,
it be regarded. Happily, however, at the beginning of the 20th century
Irish agriculture presented two new features which can be described
without necessarily arousing any party question--the work of the
Department of Agriculture and the spread of the principle of
co-operation. Another outstanding feature has been the effect of the
Land Purchase Acts in transferring the ownership of the land from the
landlords to the tenants. Before dealing with these three features, some
general statistics may be given bearing upon the condition of Irish
agriculture.

_Number of Holdings._--Before 1846 the number of small holdings was
inordinately large. In 1841, for example, there were no less than
310,436 of between 1 and 5 acres in extent, and 252,799 of between 5
and 15 acres. This condition of affairs was due mainly to two
causes--to the 40s. franchise which prevailed between 1793 and 1829,
and after that date to the fierce competition for land by a rapidly
increasing population which had no other source of livelihood than
agriculture. But the potato famine and the repeal of the Corn Laws,
occurring almost simultaneously, caused an immediate and startling
diminution in the number of smaller holdings. In 1851 the number
between 1 and 5 acres in extent had fallen to 88,033 and the number
between 5 and 15 acres had fallen to 191,854. Simultaneously the
number between 15 and 30 acres had increased from 79,342 to 141,311,
and the number above 30 acres from 48,625 to 149,090.

Since 1851 these tendencies have not been so marked. Thus in 1905 the
number of holdings between 1 and 5 acres was 62,126, the number
between 5 and 15 acres 154,560, the number between 15 and 30 acres
134,370 and the number above 30 acres 164,747. Generally speaking,
however, it will be seen from the figures that since the middle of the
19th century holdings between 1 and 30 acres have decreased and
holdings over 30 acres have increased. Of the total holdings under 30
acres considerably more than one-third are in Ulster, and of the
holdings over 30 acres more than one-third are in Munster. The number
of holdings of over 500 acres is only 1526, of which 475 are in
Connaught. A considerable proportion, however, of these larger
holdings, especially in Connaught, consist of more or less waste land,
which at the best can only be used for raising a few sheep.

_Tillage and Pasturage._--The fact that probably about 1,000,000 acres
formerly under potatoes went out of cultivation owing to the potato
disease in 1847 makes a comparison between the figures for crops in
that year with present figures somewhat fallacious. Starting, however,
with that year as the most important in Irish economic history in
modern times, we find that between 1847 and 1905 the total area under
crops--cereals, green crops, flax, meadow and clover--decreased by
582,348 acres. Up to 1861, as the area formerly under potatoes came
back gradually into cultivation, the acreage under crops increased;
but since that year, when the total crop area was 5,890,536 acres,
there has been a steady and gradual decline, the area in 1905 having
fallen to 4,656,227 acres. An analysis of the returns shows that the
decline has been most marked in the acreage under cereal crops,
especially wheat. In 1847 the number of acres under wheat was 743,871
and there has been a steady and practically continuous decrease ever
since, the wheat acreage in 1905 being only 37,860 acres. In that year
the wheat area, excluding less than 5000 acres in Connaught, was
pretty equally divided between the other three provinces. Oats has
always been the staple cereal crop in Ireland, but since 1847 its
cultivation has declined by over 50%. In that year 2,200,870 acres
were under oats and in 1905 only 1,066,806 acres. Nearly one-half of
the area under oats is to be found in Ulster; Leinster and Munster are
fairly equal; and Connaught has something over 100,000 acres under
this crop. The area under barley and rye has also declined during the
period under review by about one-half--from 345,070 acres in 1847 to
164,800 in 1905. The growing of these crops is confined almost
entirely to Leinster and Munster. Taking all the cereal crops
together, their cultivation during the last 60 years has gradually
declined (from 3,313,579 acres in 1847 to 1,271,190 in 1905) by over
50%. The area, however, under green crops--potatoes, turnips,
mangel-wurzel, beet, cabbage, &c., shows during the same period a much
less marked decline--only some 300,000 acres. There has been a very
considerable decrease since about 1861 in the acreage under potatoes.
This is probably due to two causes--the emigration of the poorer
classes who subsisted on that form of food, and the gradual
introduction of a more varied dietary. The total area under potatoes
in 1905 was 616,755 acres as compared with 1,133,504 acres in 1861.
Since about 1885 the acreage under turnips has remained fairly
stationary in the neighbourhood of 300,000 acres, while the
cultivation of mangel-wurzel has considerably increased. Outside the
recognized cereal and green crops, two others may be considered, flax
and meadow and clover. The cultivation of the former is practically
confined to Ulster and as compared with 20 or 30 years ago has fallen
off by considerably more than 50%, despite the proximity of the linen
industry. The number of acres under flax in 1905 was only 46,158. The
Department of Agriculture has made efforts to improve and foster its
cultivation, but without any marked results as regards increasing the
area sown. During the period under review the area under meadow and
clover has increased by more than 50%, rising from 1,138,946 acres in
1847 to 2,294,506 in 1905. It would thus appear that a large
proportion of the land which has ceased to bear cereal or green crops
is now laid down in meadow and clover. The balance has become
pasturage, and the total area under grass in Ireland has so largely
increased that it now embraces more than one-half of the entire
country. This increase of the pastoral lands, with the corresponding
decrease of the cropped lands, has been the marked feature of Irish
agricultural returns since 1847. It is attributable to three chief
reasons, the dearth of labour owing to emigration, the greater fall in
prices of produce as compared with live stock, and the natural
richness of the Irish pastures. The following table shows the growth
of pasturage and the shrinkage of the crop areas since 1860.

+------+------------+------------+------------+-----------+------------+
| | | Cultivated |Crops (other| Meadow | |
| Year.| Total Area.| Area (Crops|than Meadow | and | Grass. |
| | | and Grass).|and Clover).| Clover. | |
+------+------------+------------+------------+-----------+------------+
| 1860 | 20,284,893 | 15,453,773 | 4,375,621 | 1,594,518 | 9,483,634 |
| 1880 | 20,327,764 | 15,340,192 | 3,171,259 | 1,909,825 | 10,259,108 |
| 1900 | 20,333,344 | 15,222,104 | 2,493,017 | 2,165,715 | 10,563,372 |
| 1905 | 20,350,725 | 15,232,699 | 2,410,813 | 2,224,165 | 10,597,721 |
+------+------------+------------+------------+-----------+------------+

One more table may be given showing the proportional areas under the
various kinds of crops, grass, woods and plantations, fallow, bog,
waste, &c., over a series of years.

+------+------+------+-------+------+------------+------+-------+------+
| |Cereal|Green |Meadow | | Total | | | |
| Year.|Crops.|Crops.| and |Grass.|Agricultural|Woods.|Fallow.|Waste.|
| | | |Clover.| | Land. | | | |
+------+------+------+-------+------+------------+------+-------+------+
| 1851 | 15.2 | 6.7 | 6.1 | 43.0 | 71.0 | 1.5 | 1.0 | 25.7 |
| 1880 | 8.1 | 5.5 | 8.1 | 50.5 | 72.2 | 1.7 | 0.0 | 22.8 |
| 1905 | 6.3 | 5.3 | 11.3 | 52.1 | 75.0 | 1.5 | 0.0 | 23.5 |
+------+------+------+-------+------+------------+------+-------+------+

_Produce and Live Stock._--With the decrease of the area under cereal
and green crops and the increase of pasturage there has naturally been
a serious fall in the amount of agricultural produce and a
considerable rise in the number of live stock since the middle of the
19th century. Thus in 1851 the number of cattle was returned as
2,967,461 and in 1905 as 4,645,215, the increase during the
intervening period having been pretty gradual and general. Sheep in
1851 numbered 2,122,128 and in 1905 3,749,352, but the increase in
this case has not been so continuous, several of the intervening years
showing a considerably higher total than 1905, and for a good many
years past the number of sheep has tended to decline. The number of
pigs has also varied considerably from year to year, 1905 showing an
increase of about 150,000 as compared with 1851.

_The Department of Agriculture._--By an act of 1899 a Department of
Agriculture and other industries and technical instruction was
established in Ireland. To this department were transferred numerous
powers and duties previously exercised by other authorities, including
the Department of Science and Art. To assist the department the act also
provided for the establishment of a council of agriculture, an
agricultural board and a board of technical instruction, specifying the
constitution of each of the three bodies. Certain moneys (exceeding
L180,000 per annum) were placed by the act at the disposal of the
department, provisions were made for their application, and it was
enacted that local authorities might contribute funds. The powers and
duties of the department are very wide, but under the present section
its chief importance lies in its administrative work with regard to
agriculture. In the annual reports of the department this work is
usually treated under three heads: (1) agricultural instruction, (2)
improvement of live stock, and (3) special investigations.

1. The ultimate aim of the department's policy in the matter of
agricultural instruction is, as defined by itself, to place within the
reach of a large number of young men and young women the means of
obtaining in their own country a good technical knowledge of all
subjects relating to agriculture, an object which prior to the
establishment of the department was for all practical purposes
unattainable. Before such a scheme could be put into operation two
things had to be done. In the first place, the department had to train
teachers of agricultural subjects; and secondly, it had to demonstrate
to farmers all over Ireland by a system of itinerant instruction some
of the advantages of such technical instruction, in order to induce
them to make some sacrifice to obtain a suitable education for their
sons and daughters. In order to accomplish the first of these two
preliminaries, the department established a Faculty of Agriculture at
the Royal College of Science in Dublin, and offered a considerable
number of scholarships the competition for which becomes increasingly
keen. They also reorganized the Albert Agricultural College at
Glasnevin for young men who have neither the time nor the means to
attend the highly specialized courses at the Royal College of Science;
and the Munster Institute at Cork is now devoted solely to the
instruction of girls in such subjects as butter-making,
poultry-keeping, calf-rearing, cooking, laundry-work, sewing and
gardening. In addition to these three permanent institutions, local
schools and classes have been established in different parts of the
country where systematic instruction in technical agriculture is given
to young men. In this and in other branches of its work the department
is assisted by agricultural committees appointed by the county
councils. The number of itinerant instructors is governed entirely by
the available supply of qualified men. The services of every available
student on completing his course at the Royal College of Science are
secured by some county council committee. The work of the itinerant
instructors is very varied. They hold classes and carry out field
demonstrations and experiments, the results of which are duly
published in the department's journal. The department has also
endeavoured to encourage the fruit-growing industry in Ireland by the
establishment of a horticultural school at Glasnevin, by efforts to
secure uniformity in the packing and grading of fruit, by the
establishment of experimental fruit-preserving factories, by the
planting of orchards on a large scale in a few districts, and by
pioneer lectures. As the result of all these efforts there has been an
enormous increase in the demand for fruit trees of all kinds.

2. The marked tendency which has been visible for so many years in
Ireland for pasturage to increase at the expense of tillage makes the
improvement of live-stock a matter of vital importance to all
concerned in agriculture. Elaborate schemes applicable to
horse-breeding, cattle-breeding and swine-breeding, have been drawn up
by the department on the advice of experts, but the working of the
schemes is for the most part left to the various county council
committees. The benefits arising from these schemes are being more and
more realized by farmers, and the department is able to report an
increase in the number of pure bred cattle and horses in Ireland.

3. The special investigations carried out by the department naturally
vary from year to year, but one of the duties of each instructor in
agriculture is to conduct a number of field experiments, mainly on the
influence of manures and seeds in the yield of crops. The results of
these experiments are issued in the form of leaflets and distributed
widely among farmers. One of the most interesting experiments, which
may have far-reaching economic effects, has been in the cultivation of
tobacco. So far it has been proved (1) that the tobacco plant can be
grown successfully in Ireland, and (2) that the crop when blended with
American leaf can be manufactured into a mixture suitable for smoking.
But whether Irish tobacco can be made a profitable crop depends upon a
good many other considerations.

_Agricultural Co-operation._--In 1894 the efforts of a number of
Irishmen drawn from all political parties were successfully directed
towards the formation of the Irish Agricultural Organization Society,
which has for its object the organizing of groups of farmers on
co-operative principles and the provision of instruction in proper
technical methods. The society had at first many difficulties to
confront, but after the first two or three years of its existence its
progress became more rapid, and co-operation became beyond all question
one of the most hopeful features in Irish agriculture.

Perhaps the chief success of the society was seen in the establishment
of creameries, which at the end of 1905 numbered 275--123 in Ulster,
102 in Munster, 20 in Leinster and 30 in Connaught. The members
numbered over 42,000 and the trade turnover for the year was
L1,245,000. Agricultural societies have been established for the
purchase of seed, implements, &c., on co-operative lines and of these
there are 150, with a membership of some 14,000. The society was also
successful in establishing a large number of credit societies, from
which farmers can borrow at a low rate of interest. There are also
societies for poultry-rearing, rural industries, bee-keeping,
bacon-curing, &c., in connexion with the central organization. The
system is rounded off by a number of trade federations for the sale
and purchase of various commodities. The Department of Agriculture
encourages the work of the Organization Society by an annual grant.

_Land Laws._--The relations of landlord and tenant in Ireland have been
a frequent subject of legislation (see _History_ below). Under the act
of 1881, down to the 31st of March 1906, the rents of 360,135 holdings,
representing nearly 11,000,000 acres, had been fixed for the first
statutory term of 15 years either by the land commissioners or by
agreements between landlords and tenants, the aggregate reduction being
over 20% as compared with the old rents. The rents of 120,515 holdings,
representing over 3,500,000 acres, had been further fixed for the second
statutory term, the aggregate reduction being over 19% as compared with
the first term rents. Although the acts of 1870 and 1881 provided
facilities for the purchase of holdings by the tenants, it was only
after the passing of the Ashbourne Act in 1885 that the transfer of
ownership to the occupying tenants began on an extended scale. Under
this act between 1885 and 1902, when further proceedings were suspended,
the number of loans issued was 25,367 (4221 in Leinster; 5204 in
Munster; 12,954 in Ulster, and 2988 in Connaught) and the amount was
L9,992,536. Between August 1891 and April 1906, the number of loans
issued under the acts of 1891 and 1896 was 40,395 (7838 in Leinster;
7512 in Munster; 14,955 in Ulster, and 10,090 in Connaught) and the
amount was L11,573,952. Under the Wyndham Act of 1903 the process was
greatly extended.

The following tables give summarized particulars, for the period from
the 1st of November 1903 to the 31st of March 1906, of (1) estates for
which purchase agreements were lodged in cases of sale direct from
landlords to tenants; (2) estates for the purchase of which the Land
Commission entered into agreements under sects. 6 and 8 of the act;
(3) estates in which the offers of the Land Commission to purchase
under sect. 7 were accepted by the land judge; and (4) estates for the
purchase of which, under sections 72 and 79, originating requests were
transmitted by the Congested Districts Board to the Land Commission:--

+-------------------+--------+---------+----------------------------------------+
| | | | Purchase Money. |
| | No. of | No. of +------------+------------+--------------+
| Classification. |Estates.| Purchas-| | Amount of | Amount of |
| | | ers. | Price. | Advances | Proposed |
| | | | |applied for.|Cash Payments.|
+-------------------+--------+---------+------------+------------+--------------+
| Direct Sales | 3446 |86,898 |L32,811,564 |L32,692,066 | L119,498 |
| Sections 6 and 8 | 54 | 3,567^1 | 1,231,014 | 1,226,832 | 4,182 |
| Section 7 | 29 | 1,174^1 | 383,388 | 381,722 | 1,666 |
| Sections 72 and 79| 67 | 5,606^1 | 975,211 | 975,211 | .. |
+-------------------+--------+---------+------------+------------+--------------+
| Total | 3596 |97,245 |L35,401,177 |L35,275,831 | L125,346 |
+-------------------+--------+---------+------------+------------+--------------+

+-------------------+--------+---------+----------------------------------------+
| | | | Purchase Money. |
| | No. of | No. of +------------+------------+--------------+
| Classification. |Estates.| Purchas-| | Amount of | Amount of |
| | | ers. | Price. | Advances |Cash Payments.|
| | | | | made. | |
+-------------------+--------+---------+------------+------------+--------------+
| Direct Sales | 925 | 16,732 | L8,317,063 | L8,226,736 | L90,327 |
| Sections 6 and 8 | 40 | 3,047 | 1,048,459 | 1,047,007 | 1,452 |
| Section 7 | 29 | 1,174 | 383,388 | 381,722 | 1,666 |
| Sections 72 and 79| 12 | 763 | 199,581 | 199,581 | .. |
+-------------------+--------+---------+------------+------------+--------------+
| Total | 1006 | 21,716 | L9,948,491 | L9,855,046 | L93,445 |
+-------------------+--------+---------+------------+------------+--------------+
^1 Estimated number of purchasers on resale.

It will be seen from these two tables that though the amount of
advances applied for during the period dealt with amounted to over
L35,000,000 the actual advances made were less than L10,000,000. It
will be seen further that the act operated almost entirely by means of
direct sales by landlords to tenants. Of the total amount advanced up
to March 31, 1906, almost one-half was in respect of estates in the
province of Leinster, the balance being divided pretty equally between
estates in the other three provinces.

_Fisheries._--The deep-sea and coast fisheries of Ireland form a
valuable national asset, which still admits of much development and
improvement despite the fact that a considerable number of acts of
parliament have been passed to promote and foster the fishing industry.
In 1882 the Commissioners of Public Works were given further powers to
lend money to fishermen on the recommendation of the inspectors of
fisheries; and under an act of 1883 the Land Commission was authorized
to pay from time to time such sums, not exceeding in all L250,000, as
the Commissioners of Public Works might require, for the creation of a
Sea Fishery Fund, such fund to be expended--a sum of about L240,000 has
been expended--on the construction and improvement of piers and
harbours. Specific acts have also been passed for the establishment and
development of oyster, pollan and mussel fisheries. Under the Land
Purchase Act 1891, a portion of the Sea Fisheries Fund was reserved for
administration by the inspectors of fisheries in non-congested
districts. Under this head over L36,000 had been advanced on loan up to
December 31, 1905, the greater portion of which had been repaid. In 1900
the powers and duties of the inspectors of fisheries were vested in the
Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction. Under the Marine
Works Act 1902, which was intended to benefit and develop industries
where the people were suffering from congestion, about L34,000 was
expended upon the construction and improvement of fishery harbours in
such districts.

For administrative purposes Ireland is divided into 31 deep-sea and
coast fisheries and during 1905, 6190 vessels were engaged in these
districts, giving employment to a total of 24,288 hands. Excluding
salmon, nearly one million hundredweights of fish were taken, and
including shell-fish the total money received by the fishermen
exceeded L414,000. In the same year 13,436 hands were engaged in the
25 salmon fishing districts into which the country is divided. In
addition to the organized industry which exists in these salmon
districts, there is a good deal of ordinary rod and line fishing in
the higher reaches of the larger rivers and good trout fishing is
obtainable in many districts.

_Mining._--The mineral produce of Ireland is very limited, and its mines
and quarries in 1905 gave employment to only about 6000 persons.
Coal-fields are found in all the provinces, but in 1905 the total output
was less than 100,000 tons and its value at the mines was given as
L43,000. Iron ore is worked in Co. Antrim, over 113,000 tons having been
produced in 1905. Alum clay or bauxite, from which aluminium is
manufactured, is found in the same county. Clays of various kinds,
mainly fire and brick clay, are obtained in several places and there are
quarries of marble (notably in Connemara), slate, granite, limestone and
sandstone, the output of which is considerable. Silver is obtained in
small quantities from lead ore in Co. Donegal, and hopes have been
entertained of the re-discovery of gold in Co. Wicklow, where regular
workings were established about 1796 but were destroyed during the
Rebellion.

_Woollen Manufacture._--At an early period the woollen manufactures of
Ireland had won a high reputation and were exported in considerable
quantities to foreign countries. Bonifazio Uberti (d. c. 1367) refers in
a posthumous poem called _Dita mundi_ to the "noble serge" which Ireland
sent to Italy, and fine mantles of Irish frieze are mentioned in a list
of goods exported from England to Pope Urban VI. In later times, the
establishment of a colony from the German Palatinate at Carrick-on-Suir
in the reign of James I. served to stimulate the manufacture, but in the
succeeding reign the lord-deputy Strafford adopted the policy of
fostering the linen trade at the expense of the woollen in order to
prevent the latter from competing with English products. An act of the
reign of Charles II. prohibited the export of raw wool to foreign
countries from Ireland as well as England, while at the same time
Ireland was practically excluded by heavy duties from the English
markets, and as the Navigation Act of 1663 did not apply to her the
colonial market was also closed against Irish exports. The foreign
market, however, was still open, and after the prohibition of the export
of Irish cattle to England the Irish farmers turned their attention to
the breeding of sheep, with such good effect that the woollen
manufacture increased with great rapidity. Moreover the improved quality
of the wool showed itself in the improvement of the finished article, to
the great alarm of the English manufacturer. So much trade jealousy was
aroused that both Houses of Parliament petitioned William III. to
interfere. In accordance with his wishes the Irish parliament in 1698
placed heavy additional duties on all woollen clothing (except friezes)
exported from Ireland, and in 1699 the English Parliament passed an act
prohibiting the export from Ireland of all woollen goods to any country
except England, to any port of England except six, and from any town in
Ireland except six. The cumulative effect of these acts was practically
to annihilate the woollen manufacture in Ireland and to reduce whole
districts and towns, in which thousands of persons were directly or
indirectly supported by the industry, to the last verge of poverty.
According to Newenham's tables the annual average of new drapery
exported from Ireland for the three years ending March 1702 was only 20
pieces, while the export of woollen yarn, worsted yarn and wool, which
to England was free, amounted to 349,410 stones. In his essay on the
Trade of Ireland, published in 1729, Arthur Dobbs estimated the medium
exports of wool, worsted and woollen yarn at 227,049 stones, and he
valued the export of manufactured woollen goods at only L2353. On the
other hand, the imports steadily rose. Between 1779 and 1782 the various
acts which had hampered the Irish woollen trade were either repealed or
modified, but after a brief period of deceptive prosperity followed by
failure and distress, the expansion of the trade was limited to the
partial supply of the home market. According to evidence laid before the
House of Commons in 1822 one-third of the woollen cloth used in Ireland
was imported from England. A return presented to Parliament in 1837
stated that the number of woollen or worsted factories in Ireland was
46, employing 1321 hands. In 1879 the number of factories was 76 and the
number of hands 2022. Since then the industry has shown some tendency to
increase, though the number of persons employed is still comparatively
very small, some 3500 hands.

_Linen Manufacture._--Flax was cultivated at a very early period in
Ireland and was both spun into thread and manufactured into cloth. In
the time of Henry VIII. the manufacture constituted one of the principal
branches of Irish trade, but it did not prove a very serious rival to
the woollen industry until the policy of England was directed to the
discouragement of the latter. Strafford, lord-deputy in the reign of
Charles I., did much to foster the linen industry. He invested a large
sum of his own money in it, imported great quantities of flax seed from
Holland and induced skilled workmen from France and the Netherlands to
settle in Ireland. A similar policy was pursued with even more energy by
his successor in office, the duke of Ormonde, at whose instigation an
Irish act was passed in 1665 to encourage the growth of flax and the
manufacture of linen. He also established factories and brought over
families from Brabant and France to work in them. The English parliament
in their desire to encourage the linen industry at the expense of the
woollen, followed Ormonde's lead by passing an act inviting foreign
workmen to settle in Ireland, and admitting all articles made of flax or
hemp into England free of duty. In 1710, in accordance with an
arrangement made between the two kingdoms, a board of trustees was
appointed to whom a considerable sum was granted annually for the
promotion of the linen manufacture; but the jealousy of English
merchants interposed to check the industry whenever it threatened to
assume proportions which might interfere with their own trade, and by an
act of George II. a tax was imposed on Irish sail-cloth imported into
England, which for the time practically ruined the hempen manufacture.
Between 1700 and 1777 the board of trustees expended nearly L850,000 on
the promotion of the linen trade, and in addition parliamentary
bounties were paid on a considerable scale. In 1727 Arthur Dobbs
estimated the value of the whole manufacture at L1,000,000. In 1830 the
Linen Board ceased to exist, the trade having been for some time in a
very depressed condition owing to the importation of machine-made yarns
from Scotland and England. A year or two later, however, machinery was
introduced on a large scale on the river Bann. The experiment proved
highly successful, and from this period may be dated the rise of the
linen trade of Ulster, the only great industrial manufacture of which
Ireland can boast. Belfast is the centre and market of the trade, but
mills and factories are to be found dotted all over the eastern counties
of Ulster.

In 1850 the number of spindles was 396,338 and of power looms 58; in
1905 the corresponding figures were 826,528 and 34,498. In 1850 the
number of persons employed in flax mills and factories was 21,121; in
1901 the number in flax, hemp and jute textile factories was 64,802.

_Cotton Manufacture._--This was introduced into Ireland in 1777 and
under the protection of import duties and bounties increased so rapidly
that in 1800 it gave employment to several thousand persons, chiefly in
the neighbourhood of Belfast. The trade continued to grow for several
years despite the removal of the duties; and the value of cotton goods
exported from Ireland to Great Britain rose from L708 in 1814 to
L347,606 in 1823. In 1822 the number of hands employed in the industry
was stated to be over 17,000. The introduction of machinery, however,
which led to the rise of the great cotton industry of Lancashire, had
very prejudicial effects, and by 1839 the number of persons employed had
fallen to 4622. The trade has dwindled ever since and is now quite
insignificant.

_Silk Manufacture._--About the end of the 17th century French Huguenots
settled in Dublin and started the manufacture of Irish poplin, a mixture
of silk and wool. In 1823 between 3000 and 4000 persons were employed.
But with the abolition of the protective duties in 1826 a decline set
in; and though Irish poplin is still celebrated, the industry now gives
employment to a mere handful of people in Dublin.

_Distilling and Brewing._--Whisky has been extensively distilled in
Ireland for several centuries. An excise duty was first imposed in 1661,
the rate charged being 4d. a gallon. The imposition of a duty gave rise
to a large amount of illicit distillation, a practice which still
prevails to some extent, though efficient police methods have largely
reduced it. During recent years the amount of whisky produced has shown
a tendency to decrease. In 1900 the number of gallons charged with duty
was 9,589,571, in 1903 8,215,355, and in 1906 7,337,928. There are
breweries in most of the larger Irish towns, and Dublin is celebrated
for the porter produced by the firm of Arthur Guinness & Son, the
largest establishment of the kind in the world. The number of barrels of
beer--the inclusive term used by the Inland Revenue Department--charged
with duty in 1906 was 3,275,309, showing an increase of over 200,000 as
compared with 1900.

The following table shows the net annual amount of excise duties
received in Ireland in a series of years:--

+--------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
| Articles. | 1900. | 1902. | 1904. | 1906. |
+--------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
| Beer | L983,841 |L1,200,711 |L1,262,186 |L1,227,528 |
| Licences | 209,577 | 213,092 | 213,964 | 214,247 |
| Spirits | 4,952,061 | 4,292,286 | 4,311,763 | 3,952,509 |
| Other sources| 502 | 436 | 508 | 798 |
+--------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
| Total |L6,145,981 |L5,706,525 |L5,788,421 |L5,395,082 |
+--------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+

_Other Industries._--Shipbuilding is practically confined to Belfast,
where the firm of Harland and Wolff, the builders of the great "White
Star" liners, have one of the largest yards in the world, giving
employment to several thousand hands. There are extensive engineering
works in the same city which supply the machinery and other requirements
of the linen industry. Paper is manufactured on a considerable scale in
various places, and Balbriggan is celebrated for its hosiery.

_Commerce and Shipping._--From allusions in ancient writers it would
appear that in early times Ireland had a considerable commercial
intercourse with various parts of Europe. When the merchants of Dublin
fled from their city at the time of the Anglo-Norman invasion it was
given by Henry II. to merchants from Bristol, to whom free trade with
other portions of the kingdom was granted as well as other advantages.
In the Staple Act of Edward III., Dublin, Waterford, Cork and Drogheda
are mentioned as among the towns where staple goods could be purchased
by foreign merchants. During the 15th century the trade of these and
other towns increased rapidly. With the 17th century began the
restrictions on Irish trade. In 1637 duties were imposed on the chief
commodities to foreign nations not in league with England. Ireland was
left out of the Navigation Act of 1663 and in the same year was
prohibited from exporting cattle to England in any month previous to
July. Sir William Petty estimated the value of Irish exports in 1672 at
L500,000 per annum, and owing principally to the prosperity of the
woollen industry these had risen in value in 1698 to L996,000, the
imports in the same year amounting to L576,000. A rapid fall in exports
followed upon the prohibition of the export of woollen manufactures to
foreign countries, but in about 20 years' time a recovery took place,
due in part to the increase of the linen trade. Statistics of exports
and imports were compiled for various years by writers like Newenham,
Arthur Young and Cesar Moreau, but these are vitiated by being given in
Irish currency which was altered from time to time, and by the fact that
the method of rating at the custom-house also varied. Taking the
figures, however, for what they are worth, it appears that between 1701
and 1710 the average annual exports from Ireland to all parts of the
world were valued at L553,000 (to Great Britain, L242,000) and the
average annual imports at L513,000 (from Great Britain, L242,000).
Between 1751 and 1760 the annual values had risen for exports to
L2,002,000 (to Great Britain, L1,068,000) and for imports to L1,594,000
(from Great Britain, L734,000). Between 1794 and 1803 the figures had
further risen to L4,310,000 (to Great Britain, L3,667,000) and
L4,572,000 (from Great Britain L3,404,000). It is clear, therefore, that
during the 18th century the increase of commerce was considerable.

In 1825 the shipping duties on the cross-Channel trade were abolished
and since that date no official figures are available as to a large part
of Irish trade with Great Britain. The export of cattle and other
animals, however, is the most important part of this trade and details
of this appear in the following table:--

+------+---------+---------+---------+-----------+
| Year.| Cattle. | Sheep. | Swine. | Total. |
+------+---------+---------+---------+-----------+
| 1891 | 630,802 | 893,175 | 505,584 | 2,029,561 |
| 1900 | 745,519 | 862,263 | 715,202 | 2,322,984 |
| 1905 | 749,131 | 700,626 | 363,973 | 1,813,730 |
+------+---------+---------+---------+-----------+

The value of the animals exported in 1905 was estimated (at certain
standard rates) at about L14,000,000.

Since 1870 the Board of Trade has ceased to give returns of the
foreign and colonial trade for each of the separate kingdoms of
England, Scotland and Ireland. Returns are given, however, for the
principal ports of each kingdom. Between 1886 and 1905 these imports
at the Irish ports rose from L6,802,000 in value to L12,394,000 and
the exports from L825,000 to L1,887,000.

The following table shows the value of the total imports and exports
of merchandise in the foreign and colonial trade at the ports of
Dublin, Belfast and Limerick in each of the years 1901-1905:--

+-----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+
| Ports. | 1901. | 1902. | 1903. | 1904. | 1905. |
+-----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+
| Dublin-- | L | L | L | L | L |
| Imports |2,666,000 |2,856,000 |3,138,000 |2,771,000 |2,664,000 |
| Exports | 54,000 | 63,000 | 122,000 | 79,000 | 78,000 |
| Belfast-- | | | | | |
| Imports |6,626,000 |6,999,000 |7,773,000 |7,033,000 |6,671,000 |
| Exports |1,442,000 |1,344,000 |1,122,000 |1,332,000 |1,780,000 |
| Cork-- | | | | | |
| Imports |1,062,000 |1,114,000 |1,193,000 |1,156,000 |1,010,000 |
| Exports | 15,000 | 17,000 | 6,000 | 8,000 | 5,000 |
| Limerick--| | | | | |
| Imports | 826,000 | 913,000 | 855,000 | 935,000 | 854,000 |
| Exports | 2,000 | 400 | 3,000 | 600 | 3,000 |
+-----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+

The Department of Agriculture published in 1906 a report on the
imports and exports at Irish ports for the year 1904. In this report,
the compiling of which presented great difficulties in the absence of
official returns, are included (1) the direct trade between Ireland
and all countries outside of Great Britain, (2) the indirect trade of
Ireland with those same countries via Great Britain, and (3) the local
trade between Ireland and Great Britain. The value of imports in 1904
is put at L55,148,206, and of exports at L46,606,432. But it is
pointed out in the report that while the returns as regards farm
produce, food stuffs, and raw materials may be considered
approximately complete, the information as to manufactured
goods--especially of the more valuable grades--is rough and
inadequate. It was estimated that the aggregate value of the actual
import and export trade in 1904 probably exceeded a total of
L105,000,000. The following table gives some details:--

+-----------------------------------------+-----------+------------+
| | Imports. | Exports. |
+-----------------------------------------+-----------+------------+
| I. Farm Produce, Food and Drink Stuffs--| | |
| (a) Live-stock, meat, bacon, fish and | | |
| dairy produce |L3,028,170 |L23,445,122 |
| (b) Crops, fruit, meal, flour, &c. |11,859,201 | 1,721,753 |
| (c) Spirits, porter, ale, &c. | 919,161 | 4,222,194 |
| (d) Tea, coffee, tobacco, spices, &c. | 4,230,478 | 1,121,267 |
| II. Raw Materials-- | | |
| (a) Coal | 2,663,523 | .. |
| (b) Wood | 1,880,095 | 235,479 |
| (c) Mineral | 1,012,822 | 282,081 |
| (d) Animal and vegetable products | 4,529,002 | 3,067,398 |
| III. Goods, partly manufactured or of | | |
| simple manufacture | 7,996,143 | 2,576,993 |
| IV. Manufactured goods. |17,059,611 | 9,934,145 |
+-----------------------------------------+-----------+------------+

From the figures given in the report it would appear that there was in
1904 an excess of imports amounting to over L8,500,000. But owing to
the imperfect state of existing information, it is impossible to say
with any certainty what is the real state of the balance of visible
trade between Ireland and other countries.

Shipping returns also throw some light upon the commercial condition
of Ireland. Old figures are not of much value, but it may be stated
that Arthur Dobbs gives the number of ships engaged in the Irish trade
in 1721 as 3334 with a tonnage of 158,414. According to the statistics
of Cesar Moreau the number of ships belonging to Irish ports in 1788
was 1016 with a tonnage of over 60,000, and in 1826 they had
increased, according to the trade and navigation returns, to 1391 with
a tonnage of over 90,000. In 1905 the vessels registered at Irish
ports numbered 934 with a tonnage of over 259,000. In the same year
the vessels entering and clearing in the colonial and foreign trade
numbered 1199 with a tonnage of over 1,086,000, and the vessels
entering and clearing in the trade between Great Britain and Ireland
numbered 41,983 with a tonnage of over 9,776,000.

_Government, &c._--The executive government of Ireland is vested in a
lord-lieutenant, assisted by a privy council and by a chief secretary,
who is always a member of the House of Commons and generally of the
cabinet. There are a large number of administrative departments and
boards, some, like the Board of Trade, discharging the same duties as
the similar department in England; others, like the Congested Districts
Board, dealing with matters of purely Irish concern.

_Parliamentary Representation._--The Redistribution of Seats Act 1885
entirely altered the parliamentary representation of Ireland. Twenty-two
small boroughs were disenfranchised. The towns of Galway, Limerick and
Waterford lost one member each, while Dublin and Belfast were
respectively divided into four divisions, each returning one member. As
a result of these changes 85 members now represent the counties, 16 the
boroughs, and 2 Dublin University--a total of 103. The total number of
electors (exclusive of Dublin University) in 1906 was 686,661; 113,595
for the boroughs and 573,066 for the counties. Ireland is represented in
the House of Lords by 28 temporal peers elected for life from among the
Irish peers.

_Local Government._--Irish local government was entirely remodelled by
the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898, which conferred on Ireland the
same system and measure of self-government enjoyed by Great Britain. The
administrative and fiscal duties previously exercised by the grand jury
in each county were transferred to a county council, new administrative
counties being formed for the purposes of the act, in some cases by the
alteration of existing boundaries. To the county councils were also
assigned the power of assessing and levying the poor rate in rural
districts, the management of lunatic asylums, and the administration of
certain acts such as the Explosives Act, the Technical Education Act and
the Diseases of Animals Act. Subordinate district councils, urban and
rural, were also established as in England and Scotland to manage the
various local areas within each county. The provisions made for the
administration of the Poor Law by the act under consideration are very
complicated, but roughly it may be said that it was handed over to these
new subordinate local bodies. Six towns--Dublin, Belfast, Cork,
Limerick, Londonderry and Waterford--were constituted county boroughs
governed by separate county councils; and five boroughs--Kilkenny,
Sligo, Clonmel, Drogheda and Wexford--retained their former
corporations. The act provides facilities for the conversion into urban
districts of (1) towns having town commissioners who are not sanitary
authorities and (2) non-municipal towns with populations of over 1500
and entitled to petition for town commissioners.

_Justice._--The Supreme Court of Judicature is constituted as follows:
the court of appeal, which consists of the lord chancellor, the lord
chief justice, and the master of the rolls and the chief baron of the
exchequer as _ex-officio_ members, and two lords justices of appeal; and
the high court of justice which includes (1) the chancery division,
composed of the lord chancellor, the master of the rolls and two
justices, (2) the king's bench division composed of the lord chief
justice, the chief baron of the exchequer and eight justices, and (3)
the land commissions with two judicial commissioners. At the first
vacancy the title and rank of chief baron of the exchequer will be
abolished and the office reduced to a puisne judgeship. By the County
Officers and Courts (Ireland) Act 1877, it was provided that the
chairmen of quarter sessions should be called "county court judges and
chairmen of quarter sessions" and that their number should be reduced to
twenty-one, which was to include the recorders of Dublin, Belfast, Cork,
Londonderry and Galway. At the same time the jurisdiction of the county
courts was largely extended. There are 66 resident (stipendiary)
magistrates, and four police magistrates in Dublin.

_Police._--The Royal Irish Constabulary were established in 1822 and
consisted at first of 5000 men under an inspector-general for each of
the four provinces. In 1836 the entire force was amalgamated under one
inspector-general. The force, at present consists of about 10,000 men of
all ranks, and costs over L1,300,000 a year. Dublin has a separate
metropolitan police force.

_Crime._--The following table shows the number of persons committed for
trial, convicted and acquitted in Ireland in 1886, 1891, 1900 and
1905:--

+------+----------+----------+----------+
| Year.|Committed.|Convicted.|Acquitted.|
+------+----------+----------+----------+
| 1886 | 3,028 | 1,619 | 1286 |
| 1891 | 2,112 | 1,255 | 669 |
| 1900 | 1,682 | 1,087 | 331 |
| 1905 | 2,060 | 1,367 | 417 |
+------+----------+----------+----------+

Of the 1367 convicted in 1905, 375 were charged with offences against
the person, 205 with offences against property with violence, 545 with
offences against property without violence, 52 with malicious injury
to property, 44 with forgery and offences against the currency, and
146 with other offences. In 1904, 81,775 cases of drunkenness were
brought before Irish magistrates as compared with 227,403 in England
and 43,580 in Scotland.

_Poor Law._--The following table gives the numbers in receipt of indoor
and outdoor relief (exclusive of persons in institutions for the blind,
deaf and dumb, and for idiots and imbeciles) in, the years 1902-1905,
together with the total expenditure for relief of the poor:--

+------+-----------------------------+--------------+
| | Aggregate number relieved | |
| Year.| during the year. | Total Annual |
| +---------+---------+---------+ Expenditure. |
| | Indoor. | Outdoor.| Total. | |
+------+---------+---------+---------+--------------+
| 1902 | 363,483 | 105,501 | 468,984 | L1,026,691 |
| 1903 | 363,091 | 99,150 | 452,241 | 986,301 |
| 1904 | 390,047 | 98,607 | 488,654 | 1,033,168 |
| 1905 | 434,117 | 124,697 | 558,814 | 1,066,733 |
+------+---------+---------+---------+--------------+

The average daily number in receipt of relief of all kinds (except
outdoor relief) during the same years was as follows: 1902, 41,163;
1903, 43,600; 1904, 43,721; 1905, 43,911. The percentage of indoor
paupers to the estimated population in 1905 was 1.00.

_Congested Districts Board._--This body was constituted by the Purchase
of Land Act 1891, and is composed of the chief secretary, a member of
the Land Commission and five other members. A considerable sum of money
was placed at its disposal for carrying out the objects for which it was
created. It was provided that where more than 20% of the population of a
county lived in electoral divisions of which the total rateable value,
when divided by the number of the population, gave a sum of less than
L1, 10s. for each individual, these divisions should, for the purposes
of the act, form a separate county, called a congested districts county,
and should be subject to the operations of the board. In order to
improve the condition of affairs in congested districts, the board was
empowered (1) to amalgamate small holdings either by directly aiding
migration or emigration of occupiers, or by recommending the Land
Commission to facilitate amalgamation, and (2) generally to aid and
develop out of its resources agriculture, forestry, the breeding of
live-stock, weaving, spinning, fishing and any other suitable
industries. Further provisions regulating the operations of funds of the
board were enacted in 1893, 1896, 1899 and 1903; and by its constituting
act the Department of Agriculture was empowered to exercise, at the
request of the board, any of its powers and duties in congested
districts.

_Religion._--The great majority of the Irish people belong to the Roman
Catholic Church. In 1891 the Roman Catholics numbered 3,547,307 or 75%
of the total population, and in 1901 they numbered 3,308,661 or 74%. The
adherents of the Church of Ireland come next in number (581,089 in 1901
or 13% of the population), then the Presbyterians (443,276 in 1901 or
10% of the population), the only other denomination with a considerable
number of members being the Methodists (62,006 in 1901). As the result
of emigration, which drains the Roman Catholic portion of the population
more than any other, the Roman Catholics show a larger proportional
decline in numbers than the Protestants; for example, between 1891 and
1901 the Roman Catholics decreased by over 6%, the Church of Ireland by
a little over 3%, the Presbyterians by less than 1%, while the
Methodists actually increased by some 11%. The only counties in which
the Protestant religion predominates are Antrim, Down, Armagh and
Londonderry.

The Roman Catholic Church is governed in Ireland by 4 archbishops,
whose sees are in Armagh, Dublin, Cashel and Tuam, and 23 bishops, all
nominated by the pope. The episcopal emoluments arise from the mensal
parishes, the incumbency of which is retained by the bishops, from
licences and from an annual contribution, varying in amount, paid by
the clergy of the diocese. The clergy are supported by fees and the
voluntary contributions of their flocks. At the census of 1901 there
were 1084 parishes, and the clergy numbered 3711. In addition to the
secular clergy there are several communities of regular priests
scattered over the country, ministering in their own churches but
without parochial jurisdiction. There are also numerous monasteries
and convents, a large number of which are devoted to educational
purposes. The great majority of the secular clergy are educated at
Maynooth College (see below).

The Protestants of Ireland belong mainly to the Church of Ireland
(episcopalian) and the Presbyterian Church. (For the former see
IRELAND, CHURCH OF).

The Presbyterian Church, whose adherents are found principally in
Ulster and are the descendants of Scotch settlers, was originally
formed in the middle of the 17th century, and in 1840 a reunion took
place of the two divisions into which the Church had formerly
separated. The governing body is the General Assembly, consisting of
ministers and laymen. In 1906 there were 569 congregations, arranged
under 36 presbyteries, with 647 ministers. The ministers are supported
by a sustentation fund formed of voluntary contributions, the rents of
seats and pews, and the proceeds of the commutation of the Regium
Donum made by the commissioners under the Irish Church Act 1869. Two
colleges are connected with the denomination, the General Assembly's
College, Belfast, and the Magee College, Londonderry. In 1881 the
faculty of the Belfast College and the theological professors of the
Magee College were incorporated and constituted as a faculty with the
power of granting degrees in divinity.

The Methodist Church in Ireland was formed in 1878 by the Union of
the Wesleyan with the Primitive Wesleyan Methodists. The number of
ministers is over 250.

_Education._--The following table shows that the proportion per cent
of the total population of five years old and upwards able to read and
write has been steadily rising since 1861:--

+-----------------------+-----------------------------+
| | Proportion per cent. |
| +-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
| |1861.|1871.|1881.|1891.|1901.|
+-----------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
| Read and write | 41 | 49 | 59 | 71 | 79 |
| Read only | 20 | 17 | 16 | 11 | 7 |
| Neither read nor write| 39 | 33 | 25 | 18 | 14 |
+-----------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+

Further details on the same subject, according to provinces and
religious denominations in 1901, are subjoined:--

+---------------------------+---------+--------+-------+----------+
| |Leinster.|Munster.|Ulster.|Connaught.|
+---------------------------+---------+--------+-------+----------+
| Roman Catholics-- | | | | |
| Read and write | 80 | 80 | 70 | 72 |
| Read only | 7 | 5 | 11 | 7 |
| Neither read nor write | 13 | 15 | 19 | 21 |
| Protestant Episcopalians--| | | | |
| Read and write | 95 | 95 | 81 | 93 |
| Read only | 1 | 2 | 9 | 3 |
| Neither read nor write | 4 | 3 | 10 | 4 |
| Presbyterians-- | | | | |
| Read and write | 97 | 96 | 88 | 95 |
| Read only | 1 | 2 | 7 | 3 |
| Neither read nor write | 2 | 2 | 5 | 2 |
| Methodists-- | | | | |
| Read and write | 97 | 97 | 90 | 96 |
| Read only | 1 | 1 | 5 | 2 |
| Neither read nor write | 2 | 2 | 5 | 2 |
| Others-- | | | | |
| Read and write | 91 | 91 | 90 | 94 |
| Read only | 2 | 2 | 6 | 1 |
| Neither read nor write | 7 | 7 | 4 | 5 |
| Total-- | | | | |
| Read and write | 83 | 81 | 79 | 72 |
| Read only | 6 | 5 | 9 | 7 |
| Neither read nor write | 11 | 14 | 12 | 21 |
+---------------------------+---------+--------+-------+----------+

_Language._--The number of persons who speak Irish only continues to
decrease. In 1881 they numbered 64,167; in 1891, 38,192; and in 1901,
20,953. If to those who spoke Irish only are added the persons who
could speak both Irish and English, the total number who could speak
Irish in 1901 was 641,142 or about 14% of the population. The purely
Irish-speaking population is to be found principally in the province
of Connaught, where in 1901 they numbered over 12,000. The efforts of
the Gaelic League, founded to encourage the study of Gaelic literature
and the Irish language, produced results seen in the census returns
for 1901, which showed that the pupils learning Irish had very largely
increased as compared with 1891.

Universities and colleges.

The university of Dublin (q.v.), which is for practical purposes
identical with Trinity College, Dublin, was incorporated in 1591. The
government is in the hands of a board consisting of the provost and the
senior fellows, assisted by a council in the election of professors and
in the regulation of studies. The council is composed of the provost
(and, in his absence, the vice-provost) and elected members. There is
also a senate, composed of the chancellor or vice-chancellor and all
doctors and masters who have kept their names on the books of Trinity
College. Religious tests were abolished in 1873, and the university is
now open to all; but, as a matter of fact, the vast majority of the
students, even since the abolition of tests, have always belonged to the
Church of Ireland, and the divinity school is purely Protestant.

In pursuance of the University Education (Ireland) Act 1879, the Queen's
University in Ireland was superseded in 1882 by the Royal University of
Ireland, it being provided that the graduates and students of the former
should have similar rank in the new university. The government of the
Royal University was vested in a senate consisting of a chancellor and
senators, with power to grant all such degrees as could be conferred by
any university in the United Kingdom, except in theology. Female
students had exactly the same rights as male students. The university
was simply an examining body, no residence in any college nor attendance
at lectures being obligatory. All appointments to the senate and to
fellowships were made on the principle that one half of those appointed
should be Roman Catholics and the other half Protestants; and in such
subjects as history and philosophy there were two courses of study
prescribed, one for Roman Catholics and the other for Protestants. In
1905 the number who matriculated was 947, of whom 218 were females, and
the number of students who passed the academic examinations was 2190.
The university buildings are in Dublin and the fellows were mostly
professors in the various colleges whose students were undergraduates.

The three Queen's Colleges, at Belfast, Cork and Galway, were founded in
1849 and until 1882 formed the Queen's University. Their curriculum
comprised all the usual courses of instruction, except theology. They
were open to all denominations, but, as might be expected, the Belfast
college (dissolved under the Irish Universities Act 1908; see below) was
almost entirely Protestant. Its situation in a great industrial centre
also made it the most important and flourishing of the three, its
students numbering over 400. It possessed an excellent medical school,
which was largely increased owing to private benefactions.

The Irish Universities Act 1908 provided for the foundation of two new
universities, having their seats respectively at Dublin and at Belfast.
The Royal University of Ireland at Dublin and the Queen's College,
Belfast, were dissolved. Provision was made for a new college to be
founded at Dublin. This college and the existing Queen's Colleges at
Cork and Galway were made constituent colleges of the new university at
Dublin. Letters patent dated December 2, 1908, granted charters to these
foundations under the titles of the National University of Ireland
(Dublin), the Queen's University of Belfast and the University Colleges
of Dublin, Cork and Galway. It was provided by the act that no test of
religious belief should be imposed on any person as a condition of his
holding any position in any foundation under the act. A body of
commissioners was appointed for each of the new foundations to draw up
statutes for its government; and for the purpose of dealing with any
matter calling for joint action, a joint commission, half from each of
the above commissions, was established. Regulations as to grants-in-aid
were made by the act, with the stipulation that no sum from them should
be devoted to the provision or maintenance of any building, or tutorial
or other office, for religious purposes, though private benefaction for
such purposes is not prohibited. Provisions were also made as to the
transfer of graduates and students, so that they might occupy under the
new regime positions equivalent to those which they occupied previously,
in respect both of degrees and the keeping of terms. The commissioners
were directed to work out schemes for the employment of officers already
employed in the institutions affected by the new arrangements, and for
the compensation of those whose employment could not be continued. A
committee of the privy council in Ireland was appointed, to be styled
the Irish Universities Committee.

The Roman Catholic University College in Dublin may be described as a
survival of the Roman Catholic University, a voluntary institution
founded in 1854. In 1882 the Roman Catholic bishops placed the buildings
belonging to the university under the control and direction of the
archbishop of Dublin, who undertook to maintain a college in which
education would be given according to the regulations of the Royal
University. In 1883 the direction of the college was entrusted to the
Jesuits. Although the college receives no grant from public funds, it
has proved very successful and attracts a considerable number of
students, the great majority of whom belong to the Church of Rome.

The Royal College of Science was established in Dublin in 1867 under the
authority of the Science and Art Department, London. Its object is to
supply a complete course of instruction in science as applicable to the
industrial arts. In 1900 the college was transferred from the Science
and Art Department to the Department of Agriculture and Technical
Instruction.

Maynooth (q.v.) College was founded by an Irish act of parliament in
1795 for the training of Roman Catholic students for the Irish
priesthood. By an act of 1844 it was permanently endowed by a grant from
the consolidated fund of over L26,000 a year. This grant was withdrawn
by the Irish Church Act 1869, the college receiving as compensation a
lump sum of over L372,000. The average number of students entering each
year is about 100.

There are two Presbyterian colleges, the General Assembly's College at
Belfast, which is purely theological, and the Magee College,
Londonderry, which has literary, scientific and theological courses. In
1881 the Assembly's College and the theological professors of Magee
College were constituted a faculty with power to grant degrees in
divinity.

In addition to the foregoing, seven Roman Catholic institutions were
ranked as colleges in the census of 1901:--All Hallows (Drumcondra),
Holycross (Clonliffe), University College (Blackrock), St Patrick's
(Carlow), St Kieran's (Kilkenny), St Stanislaus's (Tullamore) and St
Patrick's (Thurles). In 1901 the aggregate number of students was 715,
of whom 209 were returned as under the faculty of divinity.

Schools.

As regards secondary schools a broad distinction can be drawn
according to religion. The Roman Catholics have diocesan schools,
schools under religious orders, monastic and convent schools, and
Christian Brothers' schools, which were attended, according to the
census returns in 1901, by nearly 22,000 pupils, male and female. On
the other hand are the endowed schools, which are almost exclusively
Protestant in their government. Under this heading may be included
royal and diocesan schools and schools upon the foundation of Erasmus
Smith, and others privately endowed. In 1901 these schools numbered 55
and had an attendance of 2653 pupils. To these must be added various
private establishments, which in the same year had over 8000 pupils,
mainly Protestants. Dealing with these secondary schools as a whole
the census of 1901 gives figures as to the number of pupils engaged
upon what the commissioners call the "higher studies," i.e. studies
involving instruction in at least one foreign language. In 1881 the
number of such pupils was 18,657; in 1891, 23,484; and in 1901,
28,484, of whom 17,103 were males and 11,381 females, divided as
follows among the different religions--Roman Catholics 18,248,
Protestant Episcopalians 5669, Presbyterians 3011, Methodists 760, and
others 567. This increase in the number of pupils engaged in the
higher studies is probably due to a large extent to the scheme for the
encouragement of intermediate education which was established by act
of parliament in 1879. A sum of L1,000,000, part of the Irish Church
surplus, was assigned by that act for the promotion of the
intermediate secular education of boys and girls in Ireland. The
administration of this fund was entrusted to a board of commissioners,
who were to apply its revenue for the purposes of the act (1) by
carrying on a system of public examinations, (2) by awarding
exhibitions, prizes and certificates to students, and (3) by the
payment of results fees to the manager of schools. An amending act was
passed in 1900 and the examinations are now held under rules made in
virtue of that act. The number of students who presented themselves
for examination in 1905 was 9677; the amount expended in exhibitions
and prizes was L8536; and the grants to schools amounted to over
L50,000. The examinations were held at 259 centres in 99 different
localities.

Primary education in Ireland is under the general control of the
commissioners of national education, who were first created in 1831 to
take the place of the society for the education of the poor, and
incorporated in 1845. In the year of their incorporation the schools
under the control of the commissioners numbered 3426, with 432,844
pupils, and the amount of the parliamentary grants was L75,000; while
in 1905 there were 8659 schools, with 737,752 pupils, and the grant
was almost L1,400,000. Of the pupils attending in the latter year, 74%
were Roman Catholics, 12% Protestant Episcopalians and 11%
Presbyterians. The schools under the commissioners include national
schools proper, model and workhouse schools and a number of monastic
and convent schools. The Irish Education Act of 1892 provided that the
parents of children of not less than 6 nor more than 14 years of age
should cause them to attend school in the absence of reasonable excuse
on at least 150 days in the year in municipal boroughs and in towns or
townships under commissioners; and provisions were made for the
partial or total abolition of fees in specified circumstances, for a
parliamentary school grant in lieu of abolished school fees, and for
the augmentation of the salaries of the national teachers.

There are 5 reformatory schools, 3 for boys and 2 for girls, and 68
industrial schools, 5 Protestant and 63 Roman Catholic.

Technical instruction.

By the constituting act of 1899 the control of technical education in
Ireland was handed over to the Department of Agriculture and Technical
Instruction and now forms an important part of its work. The annual
sum of L55,000 was allocated for the purpose, and this is augmented in
various ways. The department has devoted itself to (1) promoting
instruction in experimental science, drawing, manual instruction and
domestic economy in day secondary schools, (2) supplying funds to
country and urban authorities for the organization of schemes for
technical instruction in non-agricultural subjects--these subjects
embracing not only preparation for the highly organized industries but
the teaching of such rural industries as basket-making, (3) the
training of teachers by classes held at various centres, (4) the
provision of central institutions, and (5) the awarding of
scholarships.

_Revenue and Expenditure._--The early statistics as to revenue and
expenditure in Ireland are very fragmentary and afford little
possibility of comparison. During the first 15 years of Elizabeth's
reign the expenses of Ireland, chiefly on account of wars, amounted,
according to Sir James Ware's estimate, to over L490,000, while the
revenue is put by some writers at L8000 per annum and by others at less.
In the reign of James I. the customs increased from L50 to over L9000;
but although he obtained from various sources about L10,000 a year and a
considerable sum also accrued from the plantation of Ulster, the revenue
is supposed to have fallen short of the expenditure by about L16,000 a
year. During the reign of Charles I. the customs increased fourfold in
value, but it was found necessary to raise L120,000 by yearly subsidies.
According to the report of the committee appointed by Cromwell to
investigate the financial condition of Ireland, the revenue in 1654 was
L197,304 and the expenditure L630,814. At the Restoration the Irish
parliament granted an hereditary revenue to the king, an excise for the
maintenance of the army, a subsidy of tonnage and poundage for the navy,
and a tax on hearths in lieu of feudal burdens. "Additional duties" were
granted shortly after the Revolution. "Appropriate duties" were imposed
at different periods; stamp duties were first granted in 1773, and the
post office first became a source of revenue in 1783. In 1706 the
hereditary revenue with additional duties produced over L394,000.

Returns of the ordinary revenue were first presented to the Irish
parliament in 1730. From special returns to parliament the following
table shows net income and expenditure over a series of years up to
1868:--

+------+-----------+------------+
| Year.| Income. |Expenditure.|
+------+-----------+------------+
| 1731 | L405,000 | L407,000 |
| 1741 | 441,000 | 441,000 |
| 1761 | 571,000 | 773,000 |
| 1781 | 739,000 | 1,015,000 |
| 1800 | 3,017,757 | 6,615,000 |
| 1834 | 3,814,000 | 3,439,800 |
| 1850 | 4,332,000 | 4,120,000 |
| 1860 | 7,851,000 | 6,331,000 |
| 1868 | 6,176,000 | 6,621,000 |
+------+-----------+------------+

The amount of imperial revenue collected and expended in Ireland under
various heads for the five years 1902-1906 appears in the following
tables:--

_Revenue._

+------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+----------+---------+------------+-----------+
| | | |Estate, &c.| Property | Post | Miscel- | Total | Estimated |
| Year.| Customs. | Excise. | Duties |and Income | Office. | laneous.| Revenue. | True |
| | | |and Stamps.| Tax. | | | | Revenue. |
+------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+----------+---------+------------+-----------+
| 1902 |L2,244,000 |L5,822,000 |L1,072,000 |L1,143,000 | L923,000 |L149,000 |L11,353,000 |L9,784,000 |
| 1903 | 2,717,000 | 6,011,000 | 922,000 | 1,244,000 | 960,000 | 148,500 | 12,002,500 |10,205,000 |
| 1904 | 2,545,000 | 5,904,000 | 1,033,000 | 1,038,000 | 980,000 | 146,500 | 11,646,500 | 9,748,500 |
| 1905 | 2,575,000 | 5,584,000 | 1,016,000 | 1,013,000 |1,002,000 | 150,500 | 11,340,500 | 9,753,500 |
| 1906 | 2,524,000 | 5,506,000 | 890,000 | 983,000 |1,043,000 | 150,000 | 11,096,000 | 9,447,000 |
+------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+----------+---------+------------+-----------+

_Expenditure._

+------+---------+-----------+---------------------+-----------+----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
| | | | Local Taxation | | | | | |
| | Consoli-| | Accounts. | Total | | | | Estimated |
| Year.| dated | Voted. +---------+-----------+ Civil |Collection| Post | Total | True |
| | Fund. | | Local | Exchequer | Charges. | of Taxes.| Office. | Expended. | Revenue. |
| | | |Taxation | Revenue. | | | | | |
| | | | Revenue.| | | | | | |
+------+---------+-----------+---------+-----------+-----------+----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
| 1902 |L169,000 |L4,271,000 |L389,000 |L1,055,000 |L5,884,000 | L243,000 |L1,087,000 |L7,214,000 |L9,784,000 |
| 1903 | 168,500 | 4,357,500 | 383,000 | 1,058,000 | 5,967,000 | 246,000 | 1,140,000 | 7,353,000 |10,205,000 |
| 1904 | 170,000 | 4,569,000 | 376,000 | 1,059,000 | 6,174,000 | 248,000 | 1,126,000 | 7,548,000 | 9,784,500 |
| 1905 | 166,000 | 4,547,000 | 374,000 | 1,059,000 | 6,146,000 | 249,000 | 1,172,000 | 7,567,000 | 9,753,500 |
| 1906 | 164,000 | 4,582,500 | 385,000 | 1,059,000 | 6,191,500 | 245,000 | 1,199,000 | 7,635,500 | 9,447,000 |
+------+---------+-----------+---------+-----------+-----------+----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+

Subtracting in each year the total expenditure from the estimated true
revenue it would appear from the foregoing table that Ireland
contributed to imperial services in the years under consideration the
following sums: L2,570,000, L2,852,000, L2,200,500, L2,186,500 and
L1,811,500.

The financial relations between Great Britain and Ireland have long been
a subject of controversy, and in 1894 a royal commission was appointed
to consider them, which presented its report in 1896. The commissioners,
though differing on several points, were practically agreed on the
following five conclusions: (1) that Great Britain and Ireland must, for
the purposes of a financial inquiry, be considered as separate entities;
(2) that the Act of Union imposed upon Ireland a burden which, as events
showed, she was unable to bear; (3) that the increase of taxation laid
upon Ireland between 1853 and 1860 was not justified by the then
existing circumstances; (4) that identity of rates of taxation did not
necessarily involve equality of burden; (5) that, while the actual tax
revenue of Ireland was about one-eleventh of that of Great Britain, the
relative taxable capacity of Ireland was very much smaller, and was not
estimated by any of the commissioners as exceeding one-twentieth. This
report furnished the material for much controversy, but little practical
outcome; it was avowedly based on the consideration of Ireland as a
separate country, and was therefore inconsistent with the principles of
Unionism.

The public debt of Ireland amounted to over L134,000,000 in 1817, in
which year it was consolidated with the British national debt.

_Local Taxation._--The Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898 effected
considerable changes in local finance. The fiscal duties of the grand
jury were abolished, and the county council which took the place of
the grand jury for both fiscal and administrative purposes was given
three sources of revenue: (1) the agricultural grant, (2) the licence
duties and other imperial grants, and (3) the poor rate. These may be
considered separately. (1) It was provided that the Local Government
Board should ascertain the amount of county cess and poor rate levied
off agricultural land in Ireland during the year ending (as regards
the poor rate) on the 29th of September, and (as regards the county
cess) on the 21st of June 1897; and that half this amount, to be
called the agricultural grant, should be paid annually without any
variation from the original sum out of the consolidated fund to a
local taxation account. The amount of the agricultural grant was
ascertained to be over L727,000. Elaborate provisions were also made
in the act for fixing the proportion of the grant to which each county
should be entitled, and the lord-lieutenant was empowered to pay
half-yearly the proportion so ascertained to the county council. (2)
Before the passing of the act grants were made from the imperial
exchequer to the grand juries in aid of the maintenance of lunatics
and to boards of guardians for medical and educational purposes and
for salaries under the Public Health (Ireland) Act. In 1897 these
grants amounted to over L236,000. Under the Local Government Act they
ceased, and in lieu thereof it was provided that there should be
annually paid out of the consolidated fund to the local taxation
account a sum equal to the duties collected in Ireland on certain
specified local taxation licences. In addition, it was enacted that
a fixed sum of L79,000 should be forthcoming annually from the
consolidated fund. (3) The county cess was abolished, and the county
councils were empowered to levy a single rate for the rural districts
and unions, called by the name of poor rate, for all the purposes of
the act. This rate is made upon the occupier and not upon the
landlord, and the occupier is not entitled, save in a few specified
cases, to deduct any of the rate from his rent. For the year ending
the 31st of March 1905, the total receipts of the Irish county
councils, exclusive of the county boroughs, were L2,964,298 and their
total expenditure was L2,959,961, the two chief items of expenditure
being "Union Charges" L1,002,620 and "Road Expenditure" L779,174.
During the same period the total receipts from local taxation in
Ireland amounted to L4,013,303, and the amount granted from imperial
sources in aid of local taxation was L1,781,143.

_Loans._--The total amount issued on loan, exclusive of closed
sources, by the Commissioners of Public Works, up to the 31st of March
1906, was L26,946,393, of which L15,221,913 had been repaid to the
exchequer as principal and L9,011,506 as interest, and L1,609,694 had
been remitted. Of the sums advanced, about L5,500,000 was under the
Improvement of Lands Acts, nearly L3,500,000 under the Public Health
Acts, over L3,000,000 for lunatic asylums, and over L3,000,000 under
the various Labourers Acts.

_Banking._--The Bank of Ireland was established in Dublin in 1783 with
a capital of L600,000, which was afterwards enlarged at various times,
and on the renewal of its charter in 1821 it was increased to
L3,000,000. It holds in Ireland a position corresponding to the Bank
of England in England. There are eight other joint-stock banks in
Ireland. Including the Bank of Ireland, their subscribed capital
amounts to L26,349,230 and their paid-up capital to L7,309,230. The
authorized note circulation is L6,354,494 and the actual note
circulation in June 1906 was L6,310,243, two of the banks not being
banks of issue. The deposits in the joint-stock banks amounted in 1880
to L29,350,000; in 1890 to L33,061,000; in 1900 to L40,287,000; and in
1906 to L45,842,000. The deposits in the Post Office Savings Banks
rose from L1,481,000 in 1880 to L10,459,000 in 1906, and the deposits
in Trustee Savings Banks from L2,100,165 in 1880 to L2,488,740 in
1905.

_National Wealth._--To arrive at any estimate of the national wealth
is exceptionally difficult in the case of Ireland, since the largest
part of its wealth is derived from agriculture, and many important
factors, such as the amount of capital invested in the linen and other
industries, cannot be included, owing to their uncertainty. The
following figures for 1905-1906 may, however, be given: valuation of
lands, houses, &c., L15,466,000; value of principal crops,
L35,362,000; value of cattle, &c., L81,508,000; paid-up capital and
reserve funds of joint-stock banks, L11,300,000; deposits in
joint-stock and savings banks, L58,791,000; investments in government
stock, transferable at Bank of Ireland, L36,952,000; paid-up capital
and debentures of railway companies, L38,405,000; paid-up capital of
tramway companies, L2,074,000.

In 1906 the net value of property assessed to estate duty, &c., in
Ireland was L16,016,000 as compared with L306,673,000 in England and
L38,451,000 in Scotland; and in 1905 the net produce of the income tax
in Ireland was L983,000, as compared with L27,423,000 in England and
L2,888,000 in Scotland.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--Agriculture: Accounts of the land systems of Ireland
will be found in James Godkin's _Land War in Ireland_ (1870);
Sigerson's _History of Land Tenure in Ireland_ (1871); Joseph Fisher's
_History of Land Holding in Ireland_ (1877); R. B. O'Brien's _History
of the Irish Land Question_ (1880); A. G. Richey's _Irish Land Laws_
(1880). General information will be found in J. P. Kennedy's Digest of
the evidence given before the Devon Commission (Dublin, 1847-1848);
the _Report_ of the Bessborough Commission, 1881, and of the
commission on the agriculture of the United Kingdom, 1881. The
Department of Agriculture publishes several official annual reports,
dealing very fully with Irish agriculture.

Manufactures and Commerce: _Discourse on the Woollen Manufacture of
Ireland_ (1698); _An Inquiry into the State and Progress of the Linen
Manufacture in Ireland_ (Dublin, 1757); G. E. Howard, _Treatise on the
Revenue of Ireland_ (1776); John Hely Hutchinson, _Commercial
Restraints of Ireland_ (1779); Lord Sheffield, _Observations on the
Manufactures, Trade and Present State of Ireland_ (1785); R. B.
Clarendon, _A Sketch of the Revenue and Finances of Ireland_ (1791);
the annual reports of the Flax Supply Association and other local
bodies, published at Belfast; reports by the Department of Agriculture
on Irish imports and exports (these are a new feature and contain much
valuable information).

Miscellaneous: Sir William Petty, _Political Anatomy of Ireland_
(1691); Arthur Dobbs, _Essay on the Trade of Ireland_ (1729);
_Abstract of the Number of Protestant and Popish Families in Ireland_
(1726); Arthur Young, _Tour in Ireland_ (1780); T. Newenham, _View of
the Circumstances of Ireland_ (1809), and _Inquiry into the Population
of Ireland_ (1805); Cesar Moreau, _Past and Present State of Ireland_
(1827); J. M. Murphy, _Ireland, Industrial, Political and Social_
(1870); R. Dennis, _Industrial Ireland_ (1887); Grimshaw, _Facts and
Figures about Ireland_ (1893); _Report of the Recess Committee_
(1896, published in Dublin); _Report of the Financial Relations
Commission_ (1897); Sir H. Plunkett, _Ireland in the New Century_
(London, 1905); Filson Young, _Ireland at the Cross-Roads_ (London,
1904); Thom's _Almanac_, published annually in Dublin, gives a very
useful summary of statistics and other information. (W. H. Po.)

EARLY HISTORY

Historical sources.

On account of its isolated position we might expect to find Ireland in
possession of a highly developed system of legends bearing on the
origins of its inhabitants. Ireland remained outside the pale of the
ancient Roman world, and a state of society which was peculiarly
favourable to the preservation of national folk-lore survived in the
island until the 16th century. The jealousy with which the hereditary
antiquaries guarded the tribal genealogies naturally leads us to hope
that the records which have come down to us may shed some light on the
difficult problems connected with the early inhabitants of these islands
and the west of Europe. Although innumerable histories of Ireland have
appeared in print since the publication of Roderick O'Flaherty's
_Ogygia_ (London, 1677), the authors have in almost every case been
content to reproduce the legendary accounts without bringing any serious
criticism to bear on the sources. This is partly to be explained by the
fact that the serious study of Irish philology only dates from 1853 and
much of the most important material has not yet appeared in print. In
the middle of the 19th century O'Donovan and O'Curry collected a vast
amount of undigested information about the early history of the island,
but as yet J. B. Bury in his monograph on St Patrick is the only trained
historian who has ever adequately dealt with any of the problems
connected with ancient Ireland. Hence it is evident that our knowledge
of the subject must remain extremely unsatisfactory until the chief
sources have been properly sifted by competent scholars. A beginning has
been made by Sir John Rhys in his "Studies in Early Irish History"
(_Proceedings of the British Academy_, vol. i.), and by John MacNeill in
a suggestive series of papers contributed to the _New Ireland Review_
(March 1906-Feb. 1907). Much might reasonably be expected from the
sciences of archaeology and anthropology. But although Ireland is as
rich as, or even richer in monuments of the past than, most countries in
Europe, comparatively little has been done owing in large measure to the
lack of systematic investigation.

It may be as well to specify some of the more important sources at the
outset. Of the classical writers who notice Ireland Ptolemy is the only
one who gives us any very definite information. The legendary origins
first appear in Nennius and in a number of poems by such writers as
Maelmura (d. 884), Cinaed Uah Artacain (d. 975), Eochaid Ua Flainn (d.
984), Flann Mainistrech (d. 1056) and Gilla Coemgin (d. 1072). They are
also embodied in the _Leabhar Gabhala_ or _Book of Invasions_, the
earliest copy of which is contained in the _Book of Leinster_, a
12th-century MS., Geoffrey Keating's _History_, Dugald MacFirbis's
_Genealogies_ and various collections of annals such as those by the
Four Masters. Of prime importance for the earlier period are the stories
known collectively as the Ulster cycle, among which the lengthy epic the
_Tain Bo Cualnge_ takes first place. Amongst the numerous chronicles the
_Annals of Ulster_, which commence with the year 441, are by far the
most trustworthy. The _Book of Rights_ is another compilation which
gives valuable information with regard to the relations of the various
kingdoms to one another. Finally, there are the extensive collections of
genealogies preserved in Rawlinson B 502, the _Books of Leinster_ and
_Ballymote_.

_Earliest Inhabitants._--There is as yet no certain evidence to show
that Ireland was inhabited during the palaeolithic period. But there are
abundant traces of man in the neolithic state of culture (see Sir W. R.
W. Wilde's _Catalogue_ of the antiquities in the Museum of the Royal
Irish Academy). The use of bronze was perhaps introduced about 1450 B.C.
The craniological evidence is unfortunately at present insufficient to
show whether the introduction of metal coincided with any particular
invasion either from Britain or the European continent. At any rate it
was not until well on in the Bronze Age, perhaps about 600 or 500 B.C.,
that the Goidels, the first invaders speaking a Celtic language, set
foot in Ireland. The newcomers probably overran the whole island,
subduing but not exterminating the older race with which they doubtless
intermarried freely, as pre-Celtic types are frequent among the
populations of Connaught and Munster at the present day. What the
language was that was spoken by the neolithic aborigines is a question
which will probably never be settled. The division into provinces or
"fifths" (Ulster, Leinster, Connaught, E. Munster and W. Munster)
appears to be older than the historical period, and may be due to the
Goidels. Between 300 B.C. and 150 B.C. various Belgic and other
Brythonic tribes established themselves in Britain bringing with them
the knowledge of how to work in iron. Probably much about the same time
certain Belgic tribes effected settlements in the S.E. of Ireland. Some
time must have elapsed before any Brythonic people undertook to defy the
powerful Goidelic states, as the supremacy of the Brythonic kingdom of
Tara does not seem to have been acknowledged before the 4th century of
our era. The early Belgic settlers constituted perhaps in the main
trading states which acted as intermediaries of commerce between Ireland
and Gaul.[1] In addition to these Brythonic colonies a number of Pictish
tribes, who doubtless came over from Scotland, conquered for themselves
parts of Antrim and Down where they maintained their independence till
late in the historical period. Picts are also represented as having
settled in the county of Roscommon; but we have at present no means of
ascertaining when this invasion took place.

_Classical Writers._--Greek and Roman writers seem to have possessed
very little definite information about the island, though much of what
they relate corresponds to the state of society disclosed in the older
epics. Strabo held the inhabitants to be mere savages, addicted to
cannibalism and having no marriage ties. Solinus speaks of the luxurious
pastures, but the natives he terms an inhospitable and warlike nation.
The conquerors among them having first drunk the blood of their enemies,
afterwards besmear their faces therewith; they regard right and wrong
alike. Whenever a woman brings forth a male child, she puts his first
food on the sword of her husband, and lightly introduces the first
_auspicium_ of nourishment into his little mouth with the point of the
sword. Pomponius Mela speaks of the climate as unfit for ripening grain,
but he, too, notices the luxuriance of the grass. However, it is not
until we reach Ptolemy that we feel we are treading on firm ground. His
description is of supreme importance for the study of early Irish
ethnography. Ptolemy gives the names of sixteen peoples in Ireland,
several of which can be identified. As we should expect from our
knowledge of later Irish history scarcely any towns are mentioned. In
the S.E., probably in Co. Wicklow, we find the Manapii--evidently a
colony from N.E. Gaul. North of them, perhaps in Kildare, a similar
people, the Cauci, are located. In Waterford and Wexford are placed the
Brigantes, who also occur in Yorkshire. The territory to the west of the
Brigantes is occupied by a people called by Ptolemy the Iverni. Their
capital he gives as Ivernis, and in the extreme S.W. of the island he
marks the mouth of the river Iernos, by which the top of Dingle Bay
called Castlemaine Harbour is perhaps intended. The Iverni must have
been a nation of considerable importance, as they play a prominent part
in the historical period, where they are known as the Ernai or Eraind of
Munster. It would seem that the Iverni were the first native tribe with
whom foreign traders came in contact, as it is from them that the Latin
name for the whole island is derived. The earliest form was probably
_Iveriyo_ or _Iveriyu_, genitive _Iveryonos_, from which come Lat.
_Iverio_, _Hiverio_ (Antonine Itinerary), _Hiberio_ (Confession of St
Patrick), Old Irish _Eriu_, _Heriu_, gen. _Herenn_ with regular loss of
intervocalic v, _Welsh Iwerddon_ (from the oblique cases). West of the
Iverni in Co. Kerry Ptolemy mentions the Vellabori, and going in a
northerly direction following the coast we find the Gangani, Autini
(Autiri), Nagnatae (Magnatae). Erdini (cf. the name Lough Erne),
Vennicnii, Rhobogdii, Darini and Eblanii, none of whom can be identified
with certainty. In south Ulster Ptolemy locates a people called the
Voluntii who seem to correspond to the Ulidians of a later period (Ir.
_Ulaid_, in Irish Lat. _Uloti_). About Queen's county or Tipperary are
situated the Usdiae, whose name is compared with the later Ossory (Ir.
_Os-raige_). Lastly, in the north of Wexford we find the Coriondi who
occur in Irish texts near the Boyne (Mid. Ir. _Coraind_). It would seem
as if Ptolemy's description of Ireland answered in some measure to the
state of affairs which we find obtaining in the older Ulster epic
cycle.[2] Both are probably anterior to the foundation of a central
state at Tara.

_Legendary Origins._--We can unfortunately derive no further assistance
from external sources and must therefore examine the native traditions.
From the 9th century onwards we find accounts of various races who had
colonized the island. These stories naturally become amplified as times
goes on, and in what we may regard as the classical or standard versions
to be found in Keating, the Four Masters, Dugald MacFirbis and
elsewhere, no fewer than five successive invasions are enumerated. The
first colony is represented as having arrived in Ireland in A.M. 2520,
under the leadership of an individual named Partholan who hailed from
Middle Greece. His company landed in Kenmare Bay and settled in what is
now Co. Dublin. After occupying the island for 300 years they were all
carried off by a plague and were buried at Tallaght (Ir. _Tamlacht_,
"plague-grave"), at which place a number of ancient remains (probably
belonging, however, to the Viking period) have come to light. In A.M.
2850 a warrior from Scythia called Nemed reached Ireland with 900
fighting men. Nemed's people are represented as having to struggle for
their existence with a race of sea-pirates known as the Fomorians. The
latter's stronghold was Tory Island, where they had a mighty fortress.
After undergoing great hardship the Nemedians succeeded in destroying
the fortress and in slaying the enemies' leaders, but the Fomorians
received reinforcements from Africa. A second battle was fought in which
both parties were nearly exterminated. Of the Nemedians only thirty
warriors escaped, among them being three descendants of Nemed, who made
their way each to a different country (A.M. 3066). One of them, Simon
Brec, proceeded to Greece, where his posterity multiplied to such an
extent that the Greeks grew afraid and reduced them to slavery. In time
their position became so intolerable that they resolved to escape, and
they arrived in Ireland A.M. 3266. This third body of invaders is known
collectively as Firbolgs, and is ethnologically and historically very
important. They are stated to have had five leaders, all brothers, each
of whom occupied one of the provinces or "fifths." We find them landing
in different places. One party, the Fir Galeoin, landed at Inber Slangi,
the mouth of the Slaney, and occupied much of Leinster. Another, the Fir
Domnand, settled in Mayo where their name survives in Irrus Domnand, the
ancient name for the district of Erris. A third band, the Firbolg
proper, took possession of Munster. Many authorities such as Keating and
MacFirbis admit that descendants of the Firbolgs were still to be found
in parts of Ireland in their own day, though they are characterized as
"tattling, guileful, tale-bearing, noisy, contemptible, mean, wretched,
unsteady, harsh and inhospitable." The Firbolgs had scarcely established
themselves in the island when a fresh set of invaders appeared on the
scene. These were the Tuatha De Danann ("tribes of the god Danu"), who
according to the story were also descended from Nemed. They came
originally from Greece and were highly skilled in necromancy. Having to
flee from Greece on account of a Syrian invasion they proceeded to
Scandinavia. Under Nuadu Airgetlaim they moved to Scotland, and finally
arrived in Ireland (A.M. 3303), bringing with them in addition to the
celebrated Lia Fail ("stone of destiny") which they set up at Tara, the
cauldron of the Dagda and the sword and spear of Lugaid Lamfada.
Eochaid, son of Erc, king of the Firbolgs, having declined to surrender
the sovereignty of Ireland, a great battle was fought on the plain of
Moytura near Cong (Co. Mayo), the site of a prehistoric cemetery. In
this contest the Firbolgs were overthrown with great slaughter, and the
remnants of the race according to Keating and other writers took refuge
in Arran, Islay, Rathlin and the Hebrides, where they dwelt until driven
out by Picts. Twenty-seven years later the Tuatha De had to defend
themselves against the Fomorians, who were almost annihilated at the
battle of north Moytura near Sligo. The Tuatha De then enjoyed
undisturbed possession of Ireland until the arrival of the Milesians in
A.M. 3500.

All the early writers dwell with great fondness on the origin and
adventures of this race. The Milesians came primarily from Scythia and
after sojourning for some time in Egypt, Crete and in Scythia again,
they finally arrived in Spain. In the line of mythical ancestors which
extends without interruption up to Noah, the names of Fenius Farsaid,
Goedel Glas, Eber Scot and Breogan constantly recur in Irish story. At
length eight sons of Miled (Lat. _Milesius_) set forth to conquer
Ireland. The spells of the Tuatha De accounted for most of their number.
However, after two battles the newcomers succeeded in overcoming the
older race; and two brothers, Eber Find and Eremon, divided the island
between them, Eber Find taking east and west Munster, whilst Eremon
received Leinster and Connaught. Lugaid, son of the brother of Miled,
took possession of south-west Munster. At the same time Ulster was left
to Eber son of Ir son of Miled. The old historians agree that Ireland
was ruled by a succession of Milesian monarchs until the reign of
Roderick O'Connor, the last native king. The Tuatha De are represented
as retiring into the _sid_ or fairy mounds. Eber Find and Eremon did not
remain long in agreement. The historians place the beginnings of the
antithesis between north and south at the very commencement of the
Milesian domination. A battle was fought between the two brothers in
which Eber Find lost his life. In the reign of Eremon the Picts are
stated to have arrived in Ireland, coming from Scythia. It will have
been observed that Scythia had a peculiar attraction for medieval Irish
chroniclers on account of its resemblance to the name Scotti, Scots. The
Picts first settled in Leinster; but the main body were forced to remove
to Scotland, only a few remaining behind in Meath. Among the numerous
mythical kings placed by the annalists between Eremon and the Christian
era we may mention Tigernmas (A.M. 3581), Ollam Fodla (A.M. 3922) who
established the meeting of Tara, Cimbaeth (c. 305 B.C.) the reputed
founder of Emain Macha, Ugaine Mor, Labraid Loingsech, and Eochaid
Feidlech, who built Rath Cruachan for his celebrated daughter, Medb
queen of Connaught. During the 1st century of our era we hear of the
rising of the _aithech-tuatha_, i.e. subject or plebeian tribes, or in
other words the Firbolgs, who paid _daer_- or base rent to the
Milesians. From a resemblance in the name which is probably fortuitous
these tribes have been identified with the Attecotti of Roman writers.
Under Cairbre Cinnchait ("cathead") the oppressed peoples succeeded in
wresting the sovereignty from the Milesians, whose princes and nobles
were almost exterminated (A.D. 90). The line of Eremon was, however,
restored on the accession of Tuathal Techtmar ("the legitimate"), who
reigned A.D. 130-160. This ruler took measures to consolidate the power
of the _ardri_ (supreme king). He constructed a number of fortresses on
the great central plain and carved out the kingdom of Meath to serve as
his mensal land. The new kingdom was composed of the present counties of
Meath, Westmeath and Longford together with portions of Monaghan, Cavan,
King's Co. and Kildare. He was also the first to levy the famous
Leinster tribute, the _boroma_, in consequence of an insult offered to
him by one of the kings of that province. This tribute, which was only
remitted in the 7th century at the instance of St Moling, must have been
the source of constant war and oppression. A grandson of Tuathal's, the
famous Conn Cetchathach ("the hundred-fighter"), whose death is placed
in the year 177 after a reign of about twenty years, was constantly at
war with the Munster ruler Eogan Mor, also called Mog Nuadat, of the
race of Eber Find. Eogan had subdued the Ernai and the Corco Laigde
(descendants of Lugaid son of Ith) in Munster, and even the supreme king
was obliged to share the island with him. Hence the well-known names
Leth Cuinn or "Conn's half" (north Ireland), and Leth Moga or "Mug's
half" (south Ireland). The boundary line ran from the Bay of Galway to
Dublin along the great ridge of gravel known as Eiscir Riada which
stretches across Ireland. Mog Nuadat had a son Ailill Aulom who plays a
prominent part in the Irish sagas and genealogies, and his sons Eogan,
Cian and Cormac Cas, all became the ancestors of well-known families.
Conn's grandson, Cormac son of Art, is represented as having reigned in
great splendour (254-266) and as having been a great patron of learning.
It was during this reign that the sept of the Desi were expelled from
Meath. They settled in Munster where their name still survives in the
barony of Decies (Co. Waterford). A curious passage in Cormac's
_Glossary_ connects one of the leaders of this sept, Cairpre Musc, with
the settlements of the Irish in south Wales which may have taken place
as early as the 3rd century. Of greater consequence was the invasion of
Ulster by the three Collas, cousins of the ardri Muredach. The
stronghold of Emain Macha was destroyed and the Ulstermen were driven
across the Newry River into Dalriada, which was inhabited by Picts.

The old inhabitants of Ulster are usually termed Ulidians to distinguish
them from the Milesian peoples who overran the province. With the advent
of Niall Noigiallach ("N. of the nine hostages" reigned 379-405) son of
Eochaid Muigmedoin (358-366) we are treading safer ground. It was about
this time that the Milesian kingdom of Tara was firmly established. Nor
was Niall's activity confined to Ireland alone. Irish sources represent
him as constantly engaged in marauding expeditions oversea, and it was
doubtless on one of these that St Patrick was taken captive. These
movements coincide with the inroads of the Picts and Scots recorded by
Roman writers. It is probably from this period that the Irish colonies
in south Wales, Somerset, Devon and Cornwall date. And the earliest
migrations from Ulster to Argyll may also have taken place about this
time. Literary evidence of the colonization of south Wales is preserved
both in Welsh and Irish sources, and some idea of the extent of Irish
oversea activity may be gathered from the distribution of the Ogam
inscriptions in Wales, south-west England and the Isle of Man.

_Criticism of the Legendary Origins._--It is only in recent years that
the Irish legendary origins have been subjected to serious criticism.
The fondly cherished theory which attributes Milesian descent to the
bulk of the native population has at length been assailed. MacNeill
asserts that in MacFirbis's genealogies the majority of the tribes in
early Ireland do not trace their descent to Eremon and Eber Find; they
are rather the descendants of the subject races, one of which figures in
the list of conquests under the name of Firbolg. The stories of the
Fomorians were doubtless suggested in part by the Viking invasions, but
the origin of the Partholan legend has not been discovered. The Tuatha
De do not appear in any of the earliest quasi-historical documents, nor
in Nennius, and they scarcely correspond to any particular race. It
seems more probable that a special invasion was assigned to them by
later writers in order to explain the presence of mythical personages
going by their name in the heroic cycles, as they were found
inconvenient by the monkish historians. In the early centuries of our
era Ireland would therefore have been occupied by the Firbolgs and
kindred races and the Milesians. According to MacNeill the Firbolg
tribal names are formed with the suffix -_raige_, e.g. _Ciarraige_,
Kerry, _Osraige_, Ossory, or with the obscure words _Corcu_ and _mocu_
(_maccu_), e.g. _Corco Duibne_, Corkaguiney, _Corco Mruad_, Corcomroe,
_Macu Loegdae_, _Macu Teimne_. In the case of _corcu_ and _mocu_ the
name which follows is frequently the name of an eponymous ancestor. The
Milesians on the other hand named themselves after an historical
ancestor employing terms such as _ui_, "descendants," _cland_,
"children," _dal_, "division," _cinel_, "kindred," or _sil_, "seed." In
this connexion it may be noted that practically all the Milesian
pedigrees converge on three ancestors in the 2nd century--Conn
Cetchathach king of Tara, Cathair Mor of Leinster, and Ailill Aulom of
Munster,--whilst in scarcely any of them are mythological personages
absent when we go farther back than A.D. 300. Special genealogies were
framed to link up other races, e.g. the Eraind and Corcu Loegdi of
Munster and the Ulidians with the Milesians of Tara.

The peculiar characteristic of the Milesian conquest is the
establishment of a central monarchy at Tara. No trace of such a state of
affairs is to be found in the Ulster epic. In the _Tain Bo Cualnge_ we
find Ireland divided into fifths, each ruled over by its own king. These
divisions were: Ulster with Emain Macha as capital, Connaught with
Cruachu as residence, north Munster from Slieve Bloom to north Kerry,
south Munster from south Kerry to Waterford, and Leinster consisting of
the two kingdoms of Tara and Ailinn. Moreover, the kings of Tara
mentioned in the Ulster cycle do not figure in any list of Milesian
kings. It would appear then that the central kingdom of Tara was an
innovation subsequent to the state of society described in the oldest
sagas and the political position reflected in Ptolemy's account. It was
probably due to an invasion undertaken by Brythons[3] from Britain, but
it is impossible to assign a precise date for their arrival. Until the
end of the 3rd century the Milesian power must have been confined to the
valley of the Boyne and the district around Tara. At the beginning of
the 4th century the three Collas founded the kingdom of Oriel
(comprising the present counties of Armagh, Monaghan, north Louth, south
Fermanagh) and drove the Ulidians into the eastern part of the province.
Brian and Fiachra, sons of Eochaid Muigmedoin, conquered for themselves
the country of the Ui Briuin (Roscommon, Leitrim, Cavan) and Tir
Fiachrach, the territory of the Firbolg tribe the Fir Domnann in the
valley of the Moy (Co. Mayo). Somewhat later south Connaught was
similarly wrested from the older race and colonized by descendants of
Brian and Fiachra, later known as Ui Fiachrach Aidni and Ui Briuin
Seola. The north of Ulster is stated to have been conquered and
colonized by Conall and Eogan, sons of Niall Noigiallach. The former
gave his name to the western portion, Tir Conaill (Co. Donegal), whilst
Inishowen was called Tir Eogain after Eogan. The name Tir Eogain later
became associated with south Ulster where it survives in the county name
Tyrone. The whole kingdom of the north is commonly designated the
kingdom of Ailech, from the ancient stronghold near Derry which the sons
of Niall probably took over from the earlier inhabitants. At the end of
the 5th century Maine, a relative of the king of Tara, was apportioned a
tract of Firbolg territory to the west of the Suck in Connaught, which
formed the nucleus of a powerful state known as Hy Maine (in English
commonly called the "O'Kelly's country"). Thus practically the whole of
the north and west gradually came under the sway of the Milesian rulers.
Nevertheless one portion retained its independence. This was Ulidia,
consisting of Dalriada, Dal Fiatach, Dal Araide, including the present
counties of Antrim and Down. The bulk of the population here was
probably Pictish; but the Dal Fiatach, representing the old Ulidians or
ancient population of Ulster, maintained themselves until the 8th
century when they were subdued by their Pictish neighbours. The
relationship of Munster and Leinster to the Tara dynasty is not so easy
to define. The small kingdom of Ossory remained independent until a very
late period. As for Leinster none of the Brythonic peoples mentioned by
Ptolemy left traces of their name, although it is possible that the
ruling family may have been derived from them. It would seem that the
Fir Galeoin who play such a prominent part in the _Tain_ had been
crushed before authentic history begins. The king of Leinster was for
centuries the most determined opponent of the _ardri_, an antithesis
which is embodied in the story of the _boroma_ tribute. When we turn to
Munster we find that Cashel was the seat of power in historical times.
Now Cashel (a loanword from Lat. _castellum_) was not founded Until the
beginning of the 5th century by Core son of Lugaid. The legendary
account attributes the subjugation of the various peoples inhabiting
Munster to Mog Nuadat, and the pedigrees are invariably traced up to his
son Ailill Aulom. Rhys adopts the view that the race of Eber Find was
not Milesian but a branch of the Ernai, and this theory has much in its
favour. The allegiance of the rulers of Munster to Niall and his
descendants can at the best of times only have been nominal.

In this way we get a number of over-kingdoms acknowledging only the
supremacy of the Tara dynasty. These were (1) Munster with Cashel as
centre, (2) Connaught, (3) Ailech, (4) Oriel, (5) Ulidia, (6) Meath, (7)
Leinster, (8) Ossory. Some of these states might be split up into
various parts at certain periods, each part becoming for the time-being
an over-kingdom. For instance, Ailech might be resolved into Tir Conaill
and Tir Eogain according to political conditions. Hence the number of
over-kingdoms is given variously in different documents. The supremacy
was vested in the descendants of Niall Noigiallach without interruption
until 1002; but as Niall's descendants were represented by four reigning
families, the high-kingship passed from one branch to another.
Nevertheless after the middle of the 8th century the title of _ardri_
(high-king) was only held by the Cinel Eogain (northern Hy Neill) and
the rulers of Meath (southern Hy Neill), as the kingdom of Oriel had
dropped into insignificance. The supremacy of the _ardri_ was more often
than not purely nominal. This must have been particularly the case in
Leth Moga.

_Religion in Early Ireland._--Our knowledge of the beliefs of the pagan
Irish is very slight. The oldest texts belonging to the heroic cycle are
not preserved in any MS. before 1100, and though the sagas were
certainly committed to writing several centuries before that date, it is
evident that the monkish transcribers have toned down or omitted
features that savoured too strongly of paganism. Supernatural beings
play an important part in the _Tain Bo Cualgne_, _Cuchulinn's Sickbed_,
the _Wooing of Emer_ and similar stories, but the relations between
ordinary mortals and such divine or semi-divine personages is not easy
to establish. It seems unlikely that the ancient Irish had a highly
developed pantheon. On the other hand there are abundant traces of
animistic worship, which have survived in wells, often associated with a
sacred tree (Ir. _bile_), bullans, pillar stones, weapons. There are
also traces of the worship of the elements, prominent among which are
sun and fire. The belief in earth spirits or fairies (Ir. _aes side_,
_sid_) forms perhaps the most striking feature of Irish belief. The
sagas teem with references to the inhabitants of the fairy mounds, who
play such an important part in the mind of the peasantry of our own
time. These supernatural beings are sometimes represented as immortal,
but often they fall victims to the prowess of mortals. Numerous cases of
marriage between fairies and mortals are recorded. The Tuatha De Danann
is used as a collective name for the _aes side_. The representatives of
this race in the _Tain Bo Cualgne_ play a somewhat similar part to the
gods of the ancient Greeks in the _Iliad_, though they are of necessity
of a much more shadowy nature. Prominent among them were Manannan mac
Lir, who is connected with the sea and the Isle of Man, and the Dagda,
the father of a numerous progeny. One of them, Bodb Derg, resided near
Portumna on the shore of Lough Derg, whilst another, Angus Mac-in-og,
dwelt at the Brug of the Boyne, the well-known tumulus at New Grange.
The Dagda's daughter Brigit transmitted many of her attributes to the
Christian saint of the same name (d. 523). The ancient Brigit seems to
have been the patroness of the arts and was probably also the goddess of
fertility. At any rate it is with her that the sacred fire at Kildare
which burnt almost uninterruptedly until the time of the Reformation
was associated; and she was commonly invoked in the Hebrides, and until
quite recently in Donegal, to secure good crops. Well-known fairy queens
are Clidna (south Munster) and Aibell (north Munster). We frequently
hear of three goddesses of war--Ana, Bodb and Macha, also generally
called Morrigu and Badb. They showed themselves in battles hovering over
the heads of the combatants in the form of a carrion crow. The name Bodb
appears on a Gaulish stone as (_Cathu_-)_bodvae_. The _Geniti glinni_
and _demna aeir_ were other fierce spirits who delighted in carnage.

When we come to treat of religious rites and worship, our sources leave
us completely in the dark. We hear in several documents of a great idol
covered with gold and silver named Cromm Cruach, or Cenn Cruaich, which
was surrounded by twelve lesser idols covered with brass or bronze, and
stood on Mag Slecht (the plain of prostrations) near Ballymagauran, Co.
Cavan. In one text the Cromm Cruach is styled the chief idol of Ireland.
According to the story St Patrick overthrew the idol, and one of the
lives of the saint states that the mark of his crosier might still be
seen on the stone. In the _Dindsenchus_ we are told that the worshippers
sacrificed their children to the idol in order to secure corn, honey and
milk in plenty. On the occasion of famine the druids advised that the
son of a sinless married couple should be brought to Ireland to be
killed in front of Tara and his blood mixed with the soil of Tara. We
might naturally expect to find the druids active in the capacity of
priests in Ireland. D'Arbois de Jubainville maintains that in Gaul the
three classes of druids, vates and gutuatri, corresponded more or less
to the pontifices, augurs and flamens of ancient Rome. In ancient Irish
literature the functions of the druids correspond fairly closely to
those of their Gaulish brethren recorded by Caesar and other writers of
antiquity. Had we contemporary accounts of the position of the druid in
Ireland prior to the introduction of Christianity, it may be doubted if
any serious difference would be discovered. In early Irish literature
the druids chiefly appear as magicians and diviners, but they are also
the repositaries of the learning of the time which they transmitted to
the disciples accompanying them (see DRUIDISM). The Druids were believed
to have the power to render a person insane by flinging a magic wisp of
straw in his face, and they were able to raise clouds of mist, or to
bring down showers of fire and blood. They claimed to be able to
foretell the future by watching the clouds, or by means of divining-rods
made of yew. They also resorted to sacrifice. They possessed several
means for rendering a person invisible, and various peculiar and
complicated methods of divination, such as _Imbas forosna_, _tein
laegda_, and _dichetal do chennaib_, are described in early authorities.
Whether or not the Irish druids taught that the soul was immortal is a
question which it is impossible to decide. There is one passage which
seems to support the view that they agreed with the Gaulish druids in
this respect, but it is not safe to deny the possible influence of
Christian teaching in the document in question. The Irish, however,
possessed some more or less definite notions about an abode of
everlasting youth and peace inhabited by fairies. The latter either
dwell in the sid, and this is probably the earlier conception, or in
islands out in the ocean where they live a life of never-ending delight.
These happy abodes were known by various names, as Tir Tairngiri (Land
of Promise), Mag Mell (Plain of Pleasures). Condla Caem son of Conn
Cetchathach was carried in a boat of crystal by a fairy maiden to the
land of youth, and among other mortals who went thither Bran, son of
Febal, and Ossian are the most famous. The doctrine of metempsychosis
seems to have been familiar in early Ireland. Mongan king of Dalriada in
the 7th century is stated to have passed after death into various
shapes--a wolf, a stag, a salmon, a seal, a swan. Fintan, nephew of
Partholan, is also reported to have survived the deluge and to have
lived in various shapes until he was reborn as Tuan mac Cairill in the
6th century. This legend appears to have been worked up, if not
manufactured, by the historians of the 9th to 11th centuries to support
their fictions. It may, however, be mentioned that Giraldus Cambrensis
and the _Speculum Regale_ state in all seriousness that certain of the
inhabitants of Ossory were able at will to assume the form of wolves,
and similar stories are not infrequent in Irish romance.

_Conversion to Christianity._--In the beginning of the 4th century there
was an organized Christian church in Britain; and in view of the
intimate relations existing between Wales and Ireland during that
century it is safe to conclude that there were Christians in Ireland
before the time of St Patrick. Returned colonists from south Wales,
traders and the raids of the Irish in Britain with the consequent influx
of British captives sold into slavery must have introduced the knowledge
of Christianity into the island considerably before A.D. 400. In this
connexion it is interesting to find an Irishman named Fith (also called
Iserninus) associated with St Patrick at Auxerre. Further, the earliest
Latin words introduced into Irish show the influence of British
pronunciation (e.g. O. Ir. _trindoit_ from _trinitat-em_ shows the
Brythonic change of a to o). Irish records preserve the names of three
shadowy pre-Patrician saints who were connected with south-east Ireland,
Declan, Ailbe and Ciaran.

In one source the great heresiarch Pelagius is stated to have been a
Scot. He may have been descended from an Irish family settled in south
Wales. We have also the statement of Prosper of Aquitaine that Palladius
was sent by Pope Celestine as first bishop to the Scots that believe in
Christ. But though we may safely assume that a number of scattered
communities existed in Ireland, and probably not in the south alone, it
is unlikely that there was any organization before the time of St
Patrick. This mission arose out of the visit of St Germanus of Auxerre
to Britain. The British bishops had grown alarmed at the rapid growth of
Pelagianism in Britain and sought the aid of the Gaulish church. A synod
summoned for the occasion commissioned Germanus and Lupus to go to
Britain, which they accordingly did in 429; Pope Celestine, we are told,
had given his sanction to the mission through the deacon Palladius. The
heresy was successfully stamped out in Britain, but distinct traces of
it are to be found some three centuries later in Ireland, and it is to
Irish monks on the European continent that we owe the preservation of
the recently discovered copies of Pelagius's _Commentary_. Palladius's
activity in Britain probably marked him out as the man to undertake the
task of bringing Ireland into touch with Western Christianity. In any
case Prosper and the Irish Annals represent him as arriving in Ireland
in 431 with episcopal rank. His missionary activity unfortunately is
extremely obscure. Tradition associates his name with Co. Wicklow, but
Irish sources state that after a brief sojourn there he proceeded to the
land of the Picts, among whom he was beginning to labour when his career
was cut short by death.

_St Patrick._--At this juncture Germanus of Auxerre decided to
consecrate his pupil Patrick for the purpose of carrying on the work
begun by Palladius. Patrick would possess several qualifications for the
dignity of a missionary bishop to Ireland. Born in Britain about 389, he
had been carried into slavery in Ireland when a youth of sixteen. He
remained with his master for seven years, and must have had ample
opportunity for observing the conditions, and learning the language, of
the people around him; and such knowledge would have been indispensable
to the Christian bishop in view of the peculiar state of Irish society
(see PATRICK, ST). The new bishop landed in Wicklow in 432. Leinster was
probably the province in which Christianity was already most strongly
represented, and Patrick may have entrusted this part of his sphere to
two fellow-workers from Gaul, Auxilius and Iserninus. At any rate he
seems rather to have addressed himself more especially to the task of
founding churches in Meath, Ulster and Connaught. In Ireland the land
nominally belonged to the tribe, but in reality a kind of feudal system
existed. In order to succeed with the body of the tribe it was necessary
to secure the adherence of the chief. The conversion in consequence was
in large measure only apparent; and such pagan superstitions and
practices as did not run directly counter to the new teaching were
tolerated by the saint. Thus, whilst the mass of the people practically
still continued in heathendom, the apostle was enabled to found
churches and schools and educate a priesthood which should provide the
most effective and certain means of conversion. It would be a mistake to
suppose that his success was as rapid or as complete as is generally
assumed. There can be no doubt that he met with great opposition both
from the high-king Loigaire and from the druids. But though Loigaire
refused to desert the faith of his ancestors we are told that a number
of his nearest kinsmen accepted Christianity; and if there be any truth
in the story of the codification of the Brehon Laws we gather that he
realized that the future belonged to the new religion. St Patrick's work
seems to fall under two heads. In the first place he planted the faith
in parts of the north and west which had probably not yet heard the
gospel. He also organized the already existing Christian communities,
and with this in view founded a church at Armagh as his metropolitan see
(444). It is further due to him that Ireland became linked up with Rome
and the Christian countries of the Western church, and that in
consequence Latin was introduced as the language of the church. It seems
probable that St Patrick consecrated a considerable number of bishops
with small but definite dioceses which doubtless coincided in the main
with the territories of the _tuatha_. In any case the ideal of the
apostle from Britain was almost certainly very different from the
monastic system in vogue in Ireland in the 6th and 7th centuries.

_The Early Irish Church._--The church founded by St Patrick was
doubtless in the main identical in doctrine with the churches of Britain
and Gaul and other branches of the Western church; but after the recall
of the Roman legions from Britain the Irish church was shut off from the
Roman world, and it is only natural that there should not have been any
great amount of scruple with regard to orthodox doctrine. This would
explain the survival of the writings of Pelagius in Ireland until the
8th century. Even Columba himself, in his Latin hymn _Altus prosator_,
was suspected by Gregory the Great of favouring Arian doctrines. After
the death of St Patrick there was apparently a relapse into paganism in
many parts of the island. The church itself gradually became grafted on
to the feudal organization, the result of which was the peculiar system
which we find in the 6th and 7th centuries. Wherever Roman law and
municipal institutions had been in force the church was modelled on the
civil society. The bishops governed ecclesiastical districts co-ordinate
with the civil divisions. In Ireland there were no cities and no
municipal institutions; the nation consisted of groups of tribes
connected by kinship, and loosely held together by a feudal system which
we shall examine later. Although St Patrick endeavoured to organize the
Irish church on regular diocesan lines, after his death an approximation
to the lay system was under the circumstances almost inevitable. When a
chief became a Christian and bestowed lands on the church, he at the
same time transferred all his rights as a chief; but these rights still
remained with his sept, albeit subordinate to the uses of the church. At
first all church offices were exclusively confined to members of the
sept. In this new sept there was consequently a twofold succession. The
religious sept or family consisted in the first instance not only of the
ecclesiastical persons to whom the gift was made, but of all the _celi_
or vassals, tenants and slaves, connected with the land bestowed. The
head was the coarb (Ir. _comarba_, "co-heir"), i.e. the inheritor both
of the spiritual and temporal rights and privileges of the founder; he
in his temporal capacity exacted rent and tribute like other chiefs, and
made war not on temporal chiefs only, the spectacle of two coarbs making
war on each other not being unusual. The ecclesiastical colonies that
went forth from a parent family generally remained in subordination to
it, in the same way that the spreading branches of a ruling family
remained in general subordinate to it. The heads of the secondary
families were also called the coarbs of the original founder. Thus there
were coarbs of Columba at Iona, Kells, Derry, Durrow and other places.
The coarb of the chief spiritual foundation was called the high coarb
(ard-chomarba). The coarb might be a bishop or only an abbot, but in
either case all the ecclesiastics in the family were subject to him; in
this way it frequently happened that bishops, though their superior
functions were recognized, were in subjection to abbots who were only
priests, as in the case of St Columba, or even to a woman, as in the
case of St Brigit. This singular association of lay and spiritual powers
was liable to the abuse of allowing the whole succession to fall into
lay hands, as happened to a large extent in later times. The temporal
chief had his steward who superintended the collection of his rents and
tributes; in like manner the coarb of a religious sept had his
_airchinnech_ (Anglo-Irish _erenach_, _herenach_), whose office was
generally, but not necessarily, hereditary. The office embodied in a
certain sense the lay succession in the family.

From the beginning the life of the converts must have been in some
measure coenobitic. Indeed it could hardly have been otherwise in a
pagan and half-savage land. St Patrick himself in his Confession makes
mention of monks in Ireland in connexion with his mission, but the few
glimpses we get of the monastic life of the decades immediately
following his death prove that the earliest type of coenobium differed
considerably from that known at a later period. The coenobium of the end
of the 5th century consisted of an ordinary sept or family whose chief
had become Christian. After making a gift of his lands the chief either
retired, leaving it in the hands of a coarb, or remained as the
religious head himself. The family went on with their usual avocations,
but some of the men and women, and in some cases all, practised
celibacy, and all joined in fasting and prayer. It may be inferred from
native documents that grave disorders were prevalent under this system.
A severer and more exclusive type of monasticism succeeded this
primitive one, but apart from the separation of the sexes the general
character never entirely changed.

Diocesan organization as understood in countries under Roman Law being
unknown, there was not that limitation of the number of bishops which
territorial jurisdiction renders necessary, and consequently the number
of bishops increased beyond all proportions. Thus, St Mochta, abbot of
Louth, and a reputed disciple of St Patrick, is stated to have had no
less than 100 bishops in his monastic family. All the bishops in a
coenobium were subject to the abbot; but besides the bishop in the
monastic families, every _tuath_ or tribe had its own bishop. The church
in Ireland having been evolved out of the monastic nuclei already
described the tribe bishop was an episcopal development of a somewhat
later period. He was an important personage, his status being fixed in
the Brehon laws, from which we learn that his honour price was seven
_cumals_, and that he had the right to be accompanied by the same number
of followers as a petty king. The power of the bishops was considerable,
as they were strong enough to resist the kings with regard to the right
of sanctuary, ever a fertile source of dissension. The _tuath_ bishop in
later centuries corresponded to the diocesan bishop as closely as it was
possible in two systems so different as tribal and municipal government.
When diocesan jurisdiction was introduced into Ireland in the 12th
century the _tuath_ became a diocese. Many of the old dioceses represent
ancient _tuatha_, and even enlarged modern dioceses coincide with the
territories of ancient tribal states. Thus the diocese of Kilmacduagh
was the territory of the Hui Fiachrach Aidne; that of Kilfenora was the
tribe land of Corco-Mruad or Corcomroe. Many deaneries also represent
tribe territories. Thus the deanery of Musgrylin (Co. Cork) was the
ancient Muscraige Mitaine, and no doubt had its tribe bishop in ancient
times. Bishops without dioceses and monastic bishops were not unknown
outside Ireland in the Eastern and Western churches in very early times,
but they had disappeared with rare exceptions in the 6th century when
the Irish reintroduced the monastic bishops and the monastic church into
Britain and the continent.

In the 8th and 9th centuries, when the great emigration of Irish
scholars and ecclesiastics took place, the number of wandering bishops
without dioceses became a reproach to the Irish church; and there can be
no doubt that it led to much inconvenience and abuse, and was subversive
of the stricter discipline that the popes had succeeded in establishing
in the Western church. They were accused of ordaining serfs without the
consent of their lords, consecrating bishops _per saltum_, i.e. of
making men bishops who had not previously received the orders of
priests, and of permitting bishops to be consecrated by a single bishop.
This custom can hardly, however, be a reproach to the Irish church, as
the practice was never held to be invalid; and besides, the Nicene
canons of discipline were perhaps not known in Ireland until
comparatively late times. The isolated position of Ireland, and the
existence of tribal organization in full vigour, explain fully the
anomalies of Irish discipline, many of which were also survivals of the
early Christian practices before the complete organization of the
church.

After the death of St Patrick the bond between the numerous church
families which his authority supplied was greatly relaxed; and the
saint's most formidable opponents, the druids, probably regained much of
their old power. The transition period which follows the loosening of a
people's faith in its old religion and before the authority of the new
is universally accepted is always a time of confusion and relaxation of
morals. Such a period appears to have followed the fervour of St
Patrick's time. To judge from the early literature the marriage-tie
seems to have been regarded very lightly, and there can be little doubt
that pagan marriage customs were practised long after the introduction
of Christianity. The Brehon Laws assume the existence of married as well
as unmarried clergy, and when St Patrick was seeking a bishop for the
men of Leinster he asked for "a man of one wife." Marriage among the
secular clergy went on in Ireland until the 15th century. Like the
Gaulish druids described by Caesar, the poet (_fili_) and the druid
possessed a huge stock of unwritten native lore, probably enshrined in
verse which was learnt by rote by their pupils. The exalted position
occupied by the learned class in ancient Ireland perhaps affords the key
to the wonderful outbursts of scholarly activity in Irish monasteries
from the 6th to the 9th centuries. That some of the _filid_ embraced
Christianity from the outset is evident from the story of Dubthach. As
early as the second half of the 5th century Enda, a royal prince of
Oriel (c. 450-540), after spending some time at Whithorn betook himself
to Aranmore, off the coast of Galway, and founded a school there which
attracted scholars from all over Ireland. The connexion between Ireland
and Wales was strong in the 6th century, and it was from south Wales
that the great reform movement in the Irish monasteries emanated.
Findian of Clonard (c. 470-548) is usually regarded as the institutor of
the type of monastery for which Ireland became so famous during the next
few centuries. He spent some time in Wales, where he came under the
influence of St David, Gildas and Cadoc; and on returning to Ireland he
founded his famous monastery at Clonard (Co. Meath) about 520. Here no
less than 3000 students are said to have received instruction at the
same time. Such a monastery consisted of countless tiny huts of wattles
and clay (or, where stone was plentiful, of beehive cells) built by the
pupils and enclosed by a fosse, or trench, like a permanent military
encampment. The pupils sowed their own corn, fished in the streams, and
milked their own cows. Instruction was probably given in the open air.
Twelve of Findian's disciples became known as the twelve apostles of
Ireland, the monastic schools they founded becoming the greatest centres
of learning and religious instruction not only in Ireland, but in the
whole of the west of Europe. Among the most famous were Moville (Co.
Down), founded by another Findian, c. 540; Clonmacnoise, founded by
Kieran, 541; Derry, founded by Columba, 546; Clonfert, founded by
Brendan, 552; Bangor, founded in 558 by Comgall; Durrow, founded by
Columba, c. 553. The chief reform due to the influence of the British
church[4] seems to have been the introduction of monastic life in the
strict sense of the word, i.e. communities entirely separated from the
laity with complete separation of the sexes.

One almost immediate outcome of the reformation effected by Findian was
that wonderful spirit of missionary enterprise which made the name of
Scot and of Ireland so well known throughout Europe, while at the same
time the Irish were being driven out of their colonies in Wales and
south-west Britain owing to the advance of the Saxon power. In 563
Columba founded the monastery of Hi (Iona), which spread the knowledge
of the Gospel among the Picts of the Scottish mainland. From this same
solitary outpost went forth the illustrious Aidan to plant another Iona
at Lindisfarne, which, "long after the poor parent brotherhood had
fallen to decay, expanded itself into the bishopric of Durham." And
Lightfoot claims for Aidan "the first place in the evangelization of the
English race. Augustine was the apostle of Kent, but Aidan was the
apostle of England." In 590 Columbanus, a native of Leinster (b. 543),
went forth from Bangor, accompanied by twelve companions, to preach the
Gospel on the continent of Europe. Columbanus was the first of the long
stream of famous Irish monks who left their traces in Italy,
Switzerland, Germany and France; amongst them being Gallus or St Gall,
founder of St Gallen, Kilian of Wurzburg, Virgil of Salzburg, Cathald of
Tarentum and numerous others. At the beginning of the 8th century a long
series of missionary establishments extended from the mouths of the
Meuse and Rhine to the Rhone and the Alps, whilst many others founded by
Germans are the offspring of Irish monks. Willibrord, the apostle of the
Frisians, for instance, spent twelve years in Ireland. Other Irishmen
seeking remote places wherein to lead the lives of anchorites, studded
the numerous islands on the west coast of Scotland with their little
buildings. Cormac ua Liathain, a disciple of St Columba, visited the
Orkneys, and when the Northmen first discovered Iceland they found there
books and other traces of the early Irish church. It may be mentioned
that the geographer Dicuil who lived at the court of Charlemagne gives a
description of Iceland which must have been obtained from some one who
had been there. The peculiarities which owing to Ireland's isolation had
survived were brought into prominence when the Irish missionaries came
into contact with Roman ecclesiastics. The chief points of difference
were the calculation of Easter and the form of the tonsure, in addition
to questions of discipline such as the consecration of bishops _per
saltum_ and bishops without dioceses. With regard to tonsure it would
seem that the druids shaved the front part of the head from ear to ear.
St Patrick doubtless introduced the ordinary coronal tonsure, but in the
period following his death the old druidical tonsure was again revived.
In the calculation of Easter the Irish employed the old Roman and Jewish
84-years' cycle which they may have received from St Patrick and which
had once prevailed all over Europe. Shut off from the world, they were
probably ignorant of the new cycle of 532 years which had been adopted
by Rome in 463. This question aroused a controversy which waxed hottest
in England, and as the Irish monks stubbornly adhered to their
traditions they were vehemently attacked by their opponents. As early as
633 the church of the south of Ireland, which had been more in contact
with Gaul, had been won over to the Roman method of computation. The
north and Iona on the other hand refused to give in until Adamnan
induced the north of Ireland to yield in 697, while Iona held out until
716, although by this time the monastery had lost its influence in
Pictland. Owing to these controversies the real work of the early Irish
missionaries in converting the pagans of Britain and central Europe, and
sowing the seeds of culture there, is apt to be overlooked. Thus, when
the Anglo-Saxon, Winfrid, surnamed Boniface, appeared in the kingdom of
the Franks as papal legate in 723, to romanize the existing church of
the time, neither the Franks, the Thuringians, the Alemanni nor the
Bavarians could be considered as pagans. What Irish missionaries and
their foreign pupils had implanted for more than a century quite
independently of Rome, Winfrid organized and established under Roman
authority partly by force of arms.

During the four centuries which elapsed between the arrival of St
Patrick and the establishment of a central state in Dublin by the
Norsemen the history of Ireland is almost a blank as regards
outstanding events. From the time that the Milesians of Tara had come to
be recognized as suzerains of the whole island all political development
ceases. The annals contain nothing save a record of intertribal warfare,
which the high-king was rarely powerful enough to stay. The wonderful
achievements of the Irish monks did not affect the body politic as a
whole, and it may be doubted if there was any distinct advance in
civilization in Ireland from the time of Niall Noigiallach to the
Anglo-Norman invasion. Niall's posterity held the position of _ardri_
uninterruptedly until 1002. Four of his sons, Loigaire, Conall
Crimthand, Fiacc and Maine, settled in Meath and adjoining territories,
and their posterity were called the southern Hy Neill. The other four,
Eogan, Enna Find, Cairpre and Conall Gulban, occupied the northern part
of Ulster. Their descendants were known as the northern Hy Neill.[5] The
descendants of Eogan were the O'Neills and their numerous kindred septs;
the posterity of Conall Gulban were the O'Donnells and their kindred
septs. Niall died in 406 in the English Channel whilst engaged in a
marauding expedition. He was succeeded by his nephew Dathi, son of
Fiachra, son of Eochaid Muigmedoin, who is stated to have been struck by
lightning at the foot of the Alps in 428. Loigaire, son of Niall
(428-463), is identified with the story of St Patrick. According to
tradition it was during his reign that the codification of the _Senchus
Mor_ took place. A well-known story represents him as constantly at war
with the men of Leinster. His successor, Ailill Molt (463-483), son of
Dathi, is remarkable as being the last high-king for 500 years who was
not a direct descendant of Niall.

In 503 a body of colonists under Fergus, son of Erc, moved from Dalriada
to Argyll and effected settlements there. The circumstances which
enabled the Scots to succeed in occupying Kintyre and Islay cannot now
be ascertained. The little kingdom had great difficulty to maintain
itself, and its varying fortunes are very obscure. Neither is it clear
that bodies of Scots had not already migrated to Argyll. Diarmait, son
of Fergus Cerbaill (544-565), of the southern Hy Neill, undoubtedly
professed Christianity though he still clung to many pagan practices,
such as polygamy and the use of druidical incantations in battle. The
annals represent him as getting into trouble with the Church on account
of his violation of the right of sanctuary. At an assembly held at Tara
in 554 Curnan, son of the king of Connaught, slew a nobleman, a crime
punishable with death. The author of the deed fled for sanctuary to St
Columba. But Diarmait pursued him, and disregarding the opposition of
the saint seized Curnan and hanged him. St Columba's kinsmen, the
northern Hy Neill, took up the quarrel, and attacked and defeated the
king at Culdreimne in 561. In this battle Diarmait is stated to have
employed druids to form an _airbe druad_ (fence of protection?) round
his host. A few years later Diarmait seized by force the chief of Hy
Maine, who had slain his herald and had taken refuge with St Ruadan

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