5 '20 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



zation remain, the Norsemen left a very large share of their bone and sinew 

 to be mingled with the Celtic popidation. In evidence thereof we might cite 

 the physiognomy and build of the population in many parts of Ireland, 

 particularly on the " fingers " of Kerry and Cork ; the presence until recent 

 years, especially near the Shannon and towards the north, and in spite of 

 severe competition, of many of the hornless breed of cattle which were 

 introduced by the Norsemen 1 ; the presence of a very unusual number of dun- 

 coloured horses (stdl exceedingly common in Norway) in the West of Ireland 

 as well as in the Highlands of Scotland ; and the peculiar arrangement 

 of some villages to be seen, again, more especially in Kerry and west Cork. 

 To these might be added the likeness of the folk-tunes of Ireland to those 

 of the Highlands of Scotland and Scandinavia. 2 



The other disintegrating element affecting the Irish tribal system was 

 the Anglo-Norman invasion, the chief effect of which, from our present 

 point of view, was to divide Ireland into three parts for four hundred years. 

 The smallest part was the English Pale, whose boundaries were somewhat 

 uncertain and inconstant, but which was inhabited for the most part by English 

 settlers, who spoke English, who lived under English law, and whose feudal lord 

 was the King of England himself. After the invasion it was agreed between 

 King Henry II and Strougbow that while " Dublin and all the other port towns, 

 with the lands adjoining, should be handed over to the king . . . the earl and 

 his heirs should hold all other conquests of him and his heirs." 8 



The largest part was that over which the Normans were made the 

 feudal lords under the king, namely the southern half of Ireland from 

 Louth to Galway, with the exception of the Pale. English settlers were 

 introduced to this part of the country, but never at once in very large 

 numbers ; and, in time, they and their feudal lords adopted the speech 

 and some part of the customs and laws of the Irish. The third part was 

 all that was left to the north, which was always inhabited by people of 

 Irish race and speech, who lived under Irish laws and customs, with the 

 occasional exception of narrow strips of English and Scotch settlers on the 

 coasts of Antrim and Down. 



It will be most convenient to consider the purely Celtic position first. 

 Just as in Wales, there were two main classes of people, the free and the non- 

 free, the tribesmen and the non- tribesmen, the landed and the landless. Of 

 the tribesmen there were many grades ; but for our purpose they may be 



1 See " The Scandinavian Origin of the Hornless Cattle of the British Isles," Scient. Proc. 

 Royal Dublin Society, 1909. 



2 In the summer of 1910 Professor Marstrander heard Irish songs sung to tunes like those of 

 Norway on the Blaskets. 



3 Bagwell's Ireland under the Tudors, vol. i, p. 46. 



