Irish History
And
The Fighting Irish
And
The Fighting Irish
( Irish Invasions of Britain )
In
spite of their apparently isolated position the Irish, from the earliest times, seem to have kept up a fair
intercourse with foreign countries. being intimate with Alba ( Scotland ) and Britain and somewhat less intimate with France, and other Continental countries. The ancient traditions of all lands naturally reflect the true manners and customs of those countries, and echo truly the old-time happenings. The ancient Irish tales bristle with references to the aforementioned intercourse, and with evidence that foreigners of diverse races were frequently entertained in Irish courts, foreign mercenaries sometimes employed in Irish wars, and foreign matrimonial alliances occasionally contracted by Irish Royal Families.
Labraid Loingseach in very distant, pre-Christian days was said to have brought back from his exile in France, two thousand Gallish soldiers, by whom he avenged his grandfather's murder, and put himself upon the throne. The very ancient poetical account of the Battle of Ross-na-ri says that Conor Macnessa ( who reigned in Ulster at the begining of the Christian Era ) sent an embassy to some foreign country, and that Cano, a foreigner, went as pilot, to teach them their way over the surface of the sea. The Tain tells us that Queen Meave ( Conor's contemporary ) had a number of Gallish mercenaries in her army when she went against Ulster.
British and Pictish visitors are frequent in the old tales - and even the Nothmen - these latter almost always as enemies. Saxo Grammaticus says that the Northmen beseiged Dublin, or some great fort that stood there, in the first century. Cuchullain, in the old tales, is made to fight a Scandinavian Swaran, the son of Starno. And the Fianna in the legends had many an encounter with the Northmen. At the Battle of Magh Mochruime ( in the final years of the second century ) we are told that MacCon had in the army which he led against Art the Lonely many foreigners whom he had gathered with him on his travels - Franks, Saxons, Britons. and Albans. That great old tale
the Bruidean da Dearga, shows Saxons at the court of Conari Mor ( in the century before Christ )
Although the Irish were not a sea-going people - in this respect bearing not the remotest comparison with the Northmen, and probably because, unlike the Northmen, their country was so rich and fruitful as not to make sea-going a neccessity, yet they seem to have been moderately well equipped for sea travel and very good in the art.
They certainly travelled as far as France, and several of the stories would indicate that they sailed to Spain. But this is highly doubtful. Yet the Book of Rights ( said to have been first compiled in the eraly third century, under direction of Cormac MacArt ) informs us that ten ships with beds was part of the yearly tribute paid from the King of Cashel to the Ard-Righ. Part of the Book of Acaill ( also said to have been compiled by Cormac MacArt ) contains Muir-Brethra, Sea-laws, and defines the rights and duties of foreign trading vessels. The annals of Tighernach tell us that in the year 222 Cormac's fleet sailed over the sea for three years. We are told the Niall took his fleet with him when he invaded Britain; that he had it sail around British Coast, and then convey his army to France. And Cormac's Glossary says that Breccan, grandson of Niall, had a trade fleet of 50 currachs sailing between Ireland and Scotland - which were swallowed up by the whirlpool off Rayhlin Island - ever since called Coire-Breccain after him who met disaster there.
There is a tale of how Conal Cearnach, once, at the instigation of Fraech, went over the sea eastward into Britain, over the Muir Nicht to the Continent, over Saxony to the North of Lombady till he reached the Alps, to recover plunder. In Patrick's time we find the slave boy quitting his slavery, arrive at the sea just in time to catch a ship about to sail for foreign lands. And a little later still when the troublesome Irish agitator and denouncer of royal vice, Columbanus, is ordered to be deported from France to his own country, they readily find a ship at Nantes, just about to sail for Ireland. These historic happenings imply that there must have been fairly intimate intercourse between Ireland and other lands. Of course in the pre-Christian days practically all Irish foreign military expeditions were into Alba and Britain. The Romans though they valued and held Britain a long time and even penetrated deep into Alba, never once ventured into Ireland, though it is recorded that at one time they were collecting their forces in the Northeast of Britain, to attempt the Irish conquest. The Roman General, Agricola, who in the year 80 AD, finished the conquest of Britain, evidently considered the conquest of Ireland. His historian son-in-law, Tacitus, mentions how he frequently talked with Agricola on that subject; that Agricola had had an Irish prince ( an exile, or a prisoner ) from whose talk he concluded that the conquest of Ireland might be accomplished by one Roman Legion, and a small number of auxiliary troops.
Undoubtedly he formed this conclusion from learning that Ireland ( as an ancient Latin hisorian puts it ) contained sixteen differnt nations - by which he meant different tribes. Having successfully won the rule of Britain, by assaulting seperatley the many tribes of that country, it was a natural conclusion that tribal Ireland should as easily fall into the Roman net. And his conjecture was probably correct. The want of a strong and permanent autocratic central authority in Ireland , commanding the respect and obedience of the various sub-kingdoms and unifying Ireland's power, always left the nation open to the great danger of foreign conquest. Tactitus says that two tribes of the Britons could rarely be got together against the foreign foe. The self-same was always the weakness of Ireland and of all the tribal nations. Yet the Romans never launched their attack against Ireland's independence; though often they must have been sorely provoked to do so, because of the frequent harassing attacks of the Irish upon their territories in Britain. Thier discovery of the fierceness of Irish warriors may have played a part in dissuading them from their Irish venture. The recklessness and persistency of Irish fighting taught them to respect Irish fighters, and Irish Commanders. Continental records show that the Romans recruited one and possibly many
Irish regiments, for Continental service. Latin inscriptions have been found on the Rhine front showing that the
" Primi Scotti " ( First Scots ) regiments safe guarde the Roman Empire there. The Emperor Diocletian appointed a
Commander in Gaul an Irishman of distinguished ability. This was Carausius, who had charge of the defence of the maritime parts. Eventually they broke with him - and broke him, because they say, of his greed of gold. However, considering himself as good as his masters, he went into Britain, and set up opposition to them there. He assumed the Kingship of the Britons, and as he was an able statesman as well as a fine warrior and fighter, and ruled Britain for seven years. Carausius was native of an Irish city which the Roman historian calls " Menapia in Ireland " It was in the reign of Carbri Lifeachar over Ireland that this, his brother Irishman, was ruling over Britain. Of Course various Kings of Ireland were, at various times, styled Kings of Britain also. And parts of Britain if not all of it, paid tribute to these Irish overloards. Cormac's Glossary tells that the first lap-dog was brought into Ireland by Irish envoys who were collecting the Irish tribute from southwestern England. " For at that time " says the Glossary, " The sway of the Gaels was great over the Britons. They divided Alba between them, and each one knew that habitation of his friends." ( Which is to say that the various resident Irish lords or deputies in Britain, were thickly located and in touch with one another ) " And " it continues " The Gaels did not carry on less agriculture at the east of the seas, than at home in Scotia. And they erected habitations and regal forts there. "
Roman coins, some taken in tribute, some in war booty, and some in trade, have been found in various parts of Ireland. Gold coins in the times of Theodosius and Valentinian, and copper coins of Nero, have been found in Meath, Antrim and Derry, respectively. Though because of the independent tribal system, and the consequent want of cohesion, the Irish nation was weak in defence, yet it was strong in offence, and could, and did, again and again take on the best of the Roman legions. It was their wonderful discipline and their weight of numbers, that enabled the Romans to overcome the bold Irish attacks in Britain. And when at length Rome, threatened by the invading hordes nearer home , had to call back from her island outposts, legion after legion of her soldiers, so that her army in Britain was weakened, The Irish ( Scots as they were always called by the Roman historians ) in alliance with the Picts, helped to push south the garrisons that were left and eventually to crowd them off the island. Britain was left at the mercy of her northern and western neighbours, and as the British had grown feete under Roman occupation, and were no longer fighters, they suffered fearfully from these invasions. It was after the destruction of Emania ( AD. 331 ) that the Irish and Pictish invasions of Britain assumed their most serious phase.
The Connaught Royal House and its kin was then securely established over the greater part of Ireland, and probably because of this easy security at home the Irish fighters had both time and inclination to look abroad for the excitement and adventure which was the breath of their nostrils. Soon, so successfully and so threateningly did they carry on their British operations that in 343, the Emperor himself, Constantine, had to take charge of repelling them.
Marcellinus records another invasion of the Picts and Scots in the year 360, when they proved a terror to the Romans, and still another in the year 364, at the convenient time when Gaul was being ravaged by Continental enemies of the Roman Empire, and yet again in 368. He always refers to them as the Scots ( the country we now know as Scotland was then inhabited by the Picts in the North and by the Caledonii in the South. The colony of Scots from Ireland which later gave the country its name, was still an insignificant tribe clinging to the islands and headlands opposite Antrim ) Probably this latter invasion, as well as some subsequent ones, was conducted by the Ard-Righ Crimthann, uncle of Niall. Irish records say that Crimthann the Great reigned over Britain ( meaning of course, a cheif part of Britain ) for 13 years, from 366 to 379. The Roman General Theodosius. father of the Emperor of that name, led the Roman Legions against the victorious Irish King and finally drove him out.
Labraid Loingseach in very distant, pre-Christian days was said to have brought back from his exile in France, two thousand Gallish soldiers, by whom he avenged his grandfather's murder, and put himself upon the throne. The very ancient poetical account of the Battle of Ross-na-ri says that Conor Macnessa ( who reigned in Ulster at the begining of the Christian Era ) sent an embassy to some foreign country, and that Cano, a foreigner, went as pilot, to teach them their way over the surface of the sea. The Tain tells us that Queen Meave ( Conor's contemporary ) had a number of Gallish mercenaries in her army when she went against Ulster.
British and Pictish visitors are frequent in the old tales - and even the Nothmen - these latter almost always as enemies. Saxo Grammaticus says that the Northmen beseiged Dublin, or some great fort that stood there, in the first century. Cuchullain, in the old tales, is made to fight a Scandinavian Swaran, the son of Starno. And the Fianna in the legends had many an encounter with the Northmen. At the Battle of Magh Mochruime ( in the final years of the second century ) we are told that MacCon had in the army which he led against Art the Lonely many foreigners whom he had gathered with him on his travels - Franks, Saxons, Britons. and Albans. That great old tale
the Bruidean da Dearga, shows Saxons at the court of Conari Mor ( in the century before Christ )
Although the Irish were not a sea-going people - in this respect bearing not the remotest comparison with the Northmen, and probably because, unlike the Northmen, their country was so rich and fruitful as not to make sea-going a neccessity, yet they seem to have been moderately well equipped for sea travel and very good in the art.
They certainly travelled as far as France, and several of the stories would indicate that they sailed to Spain. But this is highly doubtful. Yet the Book of Rights ( said to have been first compiled in the eraly third century, under direction of Cormac MacArt ) informs us that ten ships with beds was part of the yearly tribute paid from the King of Cashel to the Ard-Righ. Part of the Book of Acaill ( also said to have been compiled by Cormac MacArt ) contains Muir-Brethra, Sea-laws, and defines the rights and duties of foreign trading vessels. The annals of Tighernach tell us that in the year 222 Cormac's fleet sailed over the sea for three years. We are told the Niall took his fleet with him when he invaded Britain; that he had it sail around British Coast, and then convey his army to France. And Cormac's Glossary says that Breccan, grandson of Niall, had a trade fleet of 50 currachs sailing between Ireland and Scotland - which were swallowed up by the whirlpool off Rayhlin Island - ever since called Coire-Breccain after him who met disaster there.
There is a tale of how Conal Cearnach, once, at the instigation of Fraech, went over the sea eastward into Britain, over the Muir Nicht to the Continent, over Saxony to the North of Lombady till he reached the Alps, to recover plunder. In Patrick's time we find the slave boy quitting his slavery, arrive at the sea just in time to catch a ship about to sail for foreign lands. And a little later still when the troublesome Irish agitator and denouncer of royal vice, Columbanus, is ordered to be deported from France to his own country, they readily find a ship at Nantes, just about to sail for Ireland. These historic happenings imply that there must have been fairly intimate intercourse between Ireland and other lands. Of course in the pre-Christian days practically all Irish foreign military expeditions were into Alba and Britain. The Romans though they valued and held Britain a long time and even penetrated deep into Alba, never once ventured into Ireland, though it is recorded that at one time they were collecting their forces in the Northeast of Britain, to attempt the Irish conquest. The Roman General, Agricola, who in the year 80 AD, finished the conquest of Britain, evidently considered the conquest of Ireland. His historian son-in-law, Tacitus, mentions how he frequently talked with Agricola on that subject; that Agricola had had an Irish prince ( an exile, or a prisoner ) from whose talk he concluded that the conquest of Ireland might be accomplished by one Roman Legion, and a small number of auxiliary troops.
Undoubtedly he formed this conclusion from learning that Ireland ( as an ancient Latin hisorian puts it ) contained sixteen differnt nations - by which he meant different tribes. Having successfully won the rule of Britain, by assaulting seperatley the many tribes of that country, it was a natural conclusion that tribal Ireland should as easily fall into the Roman net. And his conjecture was probably correct. The want of a strong and permanent autocratic central authority in Ireland , commanding the respect and obedience of the various sub-kingdoms and unifying Ireland's power, always left the nation open to the great danger of foreign conquest. Tactitus says that two tribes of the Britons could rarely be got together against the foreign foe. The self-same was always the weakness of Ireland and of all the tribal nations. Yet the Romans never launched their attack against Ireland's independence; though often they must have been sorely provoked to do so, because of the frequent harassing attacks of the Irish upon their territories in Britain. Thier discovery of the fierceness of Irish warriors may have played a part in dissuading them from their Irish venture. The recklessness and persistency of Irish fighting taught them to respect Irish fighters, and Irish Commanders. Continental records show that the Romans recruited one and possibly many
Irish regiments, for Continental service. Latin inscriptions have been found on the Rhine front showing that the
" Primi Scotti " ( First Scots ) regiments safe guarde the Roman Empire there. The Emperor Diocletian appointed a
Commander in Gaul an Irishman of distinguished ability. This was Carausius, who had charge of the defence of the maritime parts. Eventually they broke with him - and broke him, because they say, of his greed of gold. However, considering himself as good as his masters, he went into Britain, and set up opposition to them there. He assumed the Kingship of the Britons, and as he was an able statesman as well as a fine warrior and fighter, and ruled Britain for seven years. Carausius was native of an Irish city which the Roman historian calls " Menapia in Ireland " It was in the reign of Carbri Lifeachar over Ireland that this, his brother Irishman, was ruling over Britain. Of Course various Kings of Ireland were, at various times, styled Kings of Britain also. And parts of Britain if not all of it, paid tribute to these Irish overloards. Cormac's Glossary tells that the first lap-dog was brought into Ireland by Irish envoys who were collecting the Irish tribute from southwestern England. " For at that time " says the Glossary, " The sway of the Gaels was great over the Britons. They divided Alba between them, and each one knew that habitation of his friends." ( Which is to say that the various resident Irish lords or deputies in Britain, were thickly located and in touch with one another ) " And " it continues " The Gaels did not carry on less agriculture at the east of the seas, than at home in Scotia. And they erected habitations and regal forts there. "
Roman coins, some taken in tribute, some in war booty, and some in trade, have been found in various parts of Ireland. Gold coins in the times of Theodosius and Valentinian, and copper coins of Nero, have been found in Meath, Antrim and Derry, respectively. Though because of the independent tribal system, and the consequent want of cohesion, the Irish nation was weak in defence, yet it was strong in offence, and could, and did, again and again take on the best of the Roman legions. It was their wonderful discipline and their weight of numbers, that enabled the Romans to overcome the bold Irish attacks in Britain. And when at length Rome, threatened by the invading hordes nearer home , had to call back from her island outposts, legion after legion of her soldiers, so that her army in Britain was weakened, The Irish ( Scots as they were always called by the Roman historians ) in alliance with the Picts, helped to push south the garrisons that were left and eventually to crowd them off the island. Britain was left at the mercy of her northern and western neighbours, and as the British had grown feete under Roman occupation, and were no longer fighters, they suffered fearfully from these invasions. It was after the destruction of Emania ( AD. 331 ) that the Irish and Pictish invasions of Britain assumed their most serious phase.
The Connaught Royal House and its kin was then securely established over the greater part of Ireland, and probably because of this easy security at home the Irish fighters had both time and inclination to look abroad for the excitement and adventure which was the breath of their nostrils. Soon, so successfully and so threateningly did they carry on their British operations that in 343, the Emperor himself, Constantine, had to take charge of repelling them.
Marcellinus records another invasion of the Picts and Scots in the year 360, when they proved a terror to the Romans, and still another in the year 364, at the convenient time when Gaul was being ravaged by Continental enemies of the Roman Empire, and yet again in 368. He always refers to them as the Scots ( the country we now know as Scotland was then inhabited by the Picts in the North and by the Caledonii in the South. The colony of Scots from Ireland which later gave the country its name, was still an insignificant tribe clinging to the islands and headlands opposite Antrim ) Probably this latter invasion, as well as some subsequent ones, was conducted by the Ard-Righ Crimthann, uncle of Niall. Irish records say that Crimthann the Great reigned over Britain ( meaning of course, a cheif part of Britain ) for 13 years, from 366 to 379. The Roman General Theodosius. father of the Emperor of that name, led the Roman Legions against the victorious Irish King and finally drove him out.
