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VI. Account of ancient Brehons and Lawgivers. 
The ancient Irish manuscripts preserve to us the names of several 
noted Lawgivers and Judges, besides those given by O’Flaherty 
in “ Ogygia,” who is followed by O’Conor in his “ Dissertations 
« on the History of Ireland.’ Some of those were co-eval with 
the settlement of the Celto-Iberian colony in Ireland, others lived 
between that period and the introduction of Christianity, and others 
subsequent to that event. Some of the laws of those persons are 
still extant; but it is to be lamented, that the greater portion is ir- 
recoyerably lost. This is not much to be wondered at, when we 
recollect, that it was the barbarous practice of the Danes to plunder 
and burn the Colleges and other seminaries for the education of 
youth, and to destroy the books wherever their power extended. 
A policy in which, to the eternal disgrace of the English govern- 
ment in Ireland, they were too closely imitated by the English co- 
lonists in this country, down to the reign of King James the First, 
and perhaps even later. 
Upon the landing of the Milesian colony in Ireland, we find them 
accompanied by Amergin, brother to Heber and Heremon, the first 
Iberno-Celtic Monarchs. Amergin was the Brehon of the colony, 
and was also a poet and a philosopher. Four poems, the produc- 
tions of this author, are mentioned in the Transactions of the 
Iberno-Celtic Society as being still extant. 
Eochaidh Eadgadhach (Eohy Eadgahagh) the 27th Monarch 
of Ireland, we find by the Leabhar Gabhala (Leaver Gavaula), 
first established the law, by which the different ranks in society 
were to be distinguished by the number of colours in their respective 
garments. ‘This Monarch, according to O’Flaherty’s chronological 
calculation, commenced his reign, A, M. 3041. 
