292 



engagements at sea, in which the Irish were sometimes victorious; 

 yet, the use of the primitive corraghs was not abandoned, and the 

 bark employed by the three pilgrims in 892, is described by Matthew 

 of Westminster* as of the rudest materials; this, however, might have 

 arisen from the exigence of the circumstances under which they fled. 



SECTION VI. 



Commerce, Customs, General Habits, ^c. 



The Irish were too powerfully overawed to continue their com- 

 mercial pursuits during this interval ; their oppressors were decidedly 

 masters of the sea, and the inertness induced by their despair was so 

 great, that Giraldus misrepresents it as a natural sloth and unfitness 

 for the business of life. -f Commerce did not, however, wholly desert 

 Ii'eland, it continued to be preserved with Gaul, and Giraldus is a 

 witness:|: that the Danish settlers themselves practised it extensively. 

 There are also evidences attainable of internal traffic ; we read of a 

 celebrated fair at Roscrea in 942, where the Danes most treacherously 

 attacked the Irish, but were defeated with much slaughter,§ and it is 

 alleged that such fairs were held annually. || 



The coinage of this interval would be worthy of some attention. 



* " Construxerunt namque sibi, ex tribus coriis bovinis et dimidio, naviculam quandam 

 brevissimam sine omni navis instrumento, qua adjuncto sibi unius septimanae victu clam mare 

 sunt ingressi, &c." — Flores. Hist, ad ann. 891. 



f " Quoniam enim innataj ociocitatis vitio gens Hibernica, ut diximus, nee maria lustrare 

 nee mercatura indulgere aliquatenus voluerat" — Top. Hib. Dist. 3. c. 43. 



t Ante, p. 260. § See Warner's Ireland, vol. i. p. 163. 



Ij O'Halloran's Ireland, vol. ii. p. 203. 



