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the four provinces of Ireland as clearly indicative of Scandinavian occu- 
pation. It had been suggested that the suffix ster, added to the Irish 
names of those three, had been by some scholars held to be of Saxon 
origin, derivable from a root in that language implying government, or 
rule; but Mr. Smith showed that this opinion was incorrect; and adduced 
proofs from the writings of eminent Norse and Danish philologists, as 
well as from a comparison with cognate terms in the Irish or Celtic lan- 
uage. 
: In speaking of the permanent settlement which the Northmen, or 
Fasterlings, as they were often termed, had effected in Dublin—or, as 
they called it, Dyflinar-shire,—and where they maintained the state of 
regult or kings, he described its extent, not only inland, but also in- 
cluding a long line of coast, from the little river called the Nanny Water, 
in the county of Meath, to Arklow Head, which (upon the authority of 
Mr. Charles Halliday, who had devoted much attention to matters con- 
nected with the port of Dublin and its commercial interests), Mr. Smith 
stated to be coextensive with, and, as nearly as possible, occupying ex- 
actly the same length of sea-shore as that along which the mayor and 
corporation of Dublin, under the government of England, have for the 
last seven hundred years exercised jurisdiction. He commented on the 
fact, that, while native authorities all showed that the Irish retained in 
their own language distinct names for the harbours and islands occupied 
by the Northmen,—thus exhibiting an inextinguishable feeling of hosti- 
lity,—the Norse names had been adopted and preserved by the English 
and Norman invaders of Ireland in the twelfth century, who had conti- 
nued the same line of policy towards the aborigines as that which had 
been pursued by the Norsemen and the Danes: thus giving the clearest 
evidence of a remarkable identity of language and of race. 
Various passages from our annalists were read by Mr. Smith, in evi- 
dence of their impartiality and adherence to truth, as shown in their ad- 
missions that many of the native Irish united with the Lochlanns, the 
Norwegians, and the Danes, in their expeditions and forays into the in- 
terior of the country, for the purposes of plunder and taking preys. 
In a brief reference to the celebrated battle of Clontarf in the eleventh 
century, in which the Northmen of Dublin sustained a signal defeat, 
Mr. Smith pointed out the circumstance that one of the most distinguished 
of the Norwegian leaders was Sichfrith mac Lodair, Jarl of Orkney, who 
was slain in that battle. The narrative ofa still later engagement, towards 
the close of the twelfth century, between Miles De Cogan and Asgall, 
son of Ragnvald, or Reginald, King of Dublin, in which the Danes of 
Dublin sustained a signal defeat, showed that the Danish power was not 
till then totally overthrown. 
In conclusion, Mr. Smith called attention to the important assis= 
tance which would be given to the elucidation of the entire of this period 
of our history, from the geographical identification of the various places 
mentioned in the Norse accounts of Ireland, and in the Sagas, without 
which the records of the time, during which they maintained a mili- 
tary occupation of so many places on our coasts—will still require much 
investigation; and finally suggested that there was reason to think 
