42 



appear from Eumenius, -whether the Britons invaded the Irish or the 

 Irish the Britons, yet the turn of the expression is evidently for the 

 latter interpretation, as being a comparison of the several invaders of 

 Britain ; and the term " hostibus," would scarcely be applied to the 

 Irish, if they had only shewn their enmity in resisting unwarrantable 

 encroachments ; besides the current of ancient English writers, Bede, 

 Gildas, Ordericus, &c,, establishes a practice of such invasions from 

 Ireland at many intervals of years, Q'- per multa annorum spatia ;") 

 while not one of them alleges a single instance of retaliation, until the 

 celebrated expedition in the reign of Egbert.* This errant chivalry 

 of the Hibernians is further confirmed by Lhuid, who demonstrates-f* 

 that the names of the principal commanders that opposed Caesar in 

 Gaul and Britain are Irish latinized ; and if it were allowable to 

 travel into the Irish annals, abundant evidence could be attained of 

 the same position. 



The reign of Conary is that which, in the history of Ireland,:|; is 

 consecrated by synchronizing with the birth of Christ, as well as by 

 its being the longest and the most abundant§ in the annals of that 

 nation ; and the second year of the Christian era is pointed out by 

 the same authority, as especially remarkable for the death of Cuchul- 

 lin, the chief ornament and support of a then very celebrated military 

 order in the north of Ireland, and conspicuous in the poems attributed 

 by M'Pherson to Ossian, as a prominent leader in the wars of Ulster; 

 " a hero of the highest class, daring, magnanimous, and exquisitely 

 sensible to honour. "|J These poems are not, however, cited as autho- 

 rity, but, as they are unquestionably grounded on highly ancient 



* Vide Post, per 2. sect. 1. f Archaeologia. 



t Book of Lecan, Book of Clonmacnois, Annals of Tigernach, Four Masters, &c. 



§ O'Conor, Rer. Hib. Script, v. 3. Annal. Four Masters. H Blair's Dissertotion, 



