261 



can, and again in 940. In 887 they plundered Kildare, and repeated 

 their outrages there in 888, 895, 920, 924, 929, 953, and g62; 

 on the last occasion they took several captives, some of whom Neill 

 O'Hurley* ransomed with his own money. 'f' In 890 they levelled to 

 the ground the principal church, and different other sacred edifices at 

 Armagh, (" summam basilicam et diversa sacra aedificia.)J In or 

 about 896, according to the Antiquitates Celt. Scand. (p. 11,) the 

 same ecclesiastical city was plundered by Eric, the son of Harald. 

 (" Ericus Haraldi filius, ***** cum piraticam pri- 

 mum in mari orientali (Baltico) per annos quatuor exercuit, deinde 

 occidentem versus per mare vectus circa littora Scotiae, Bretlandiae, 

 Hiberniffi et Vallandiaj praedis grassabatur per annos etiam quatuor.") 

 In 902 a Danish fleet was routed by the people of Leinster.§ About 

 A. D. 903 two Danish princes, being furnished with ships of war, 

 committed great ravages on the coasts of Ireland, &c. They are said 

 to be the first who thoroughly reduced Dublin to the Danish sway ; 

 one of them was carried off by a poisoned draught, the other 



* The O'Hurleys or O'Herlihys are generally supposed to have been a famUy of English 

 extraction, who, becoming were Irish, assumed the native appellative. (Certainly the De Hor- 

 leys are recorded in Bedfordshire, in the reign of Edward the First, and the De Hurleys in 

 other parts of England, in the time of Edward the Third.) This mention, however, shews the 

 error of the deduction. The chief settlement of this sept was in Limerick, and accordingly 

 Ortelius's map places them there in the Barony of Coonagh. In 1642 Thomas Hurley was 

 Bishop of Emly, and a canonist of great reputation. In J 563 Thomas O'Herlihy, Bishop of 

 Ross, assisted at the Council of Trent. In 1583 Dermott Hurley, Archbishop of Cashel, suf- 

 fered martyrdom in Dublin, and was buried in Saint Kevin's Church, where his tomb bore the 

 repute of many alleged miracles. In 1638 James O'Hurley was Bishop of Emly. In 1647 

 Maurice Hurley of Kilduffe, was of the confederate Catholics who sat at Kilkenny, &c. &c. 

 The name, however, has now with many more illustrious, descended to the lower grades. In 

 Mr. Hardiman's Essay on ancient Irish Deeds, (p. 17,) there is preserved a very old and 

 curious mortgage of land to Connor Oge O'Hurly. 



f " Propriis pecuniis redemit Nellus Oherliubh." — Trias Thaumat. p. 630. 



% Trias Thaumat. p. 296. § Ware's Ant. Hib. 



