34 



loth April, 



The President, R. L. Patterson, Esq., in the Chair. 



A Paper was read by Rev. R. Workman, Newtownbreda, on 

 THE WARFARE OF ANCIENT IRELAND. 



This paper was the result of an inquiry into the facts and 

 practices of Irish warfare, from the English invasion till the 

 settlement of Ulster, with a view to throw light on the social 

 condition of Ireland during this period. 



Three races made this country their battle ground ; — the 

 English, the native Irish, and the Scots from the Western Isles. 

 Besides this, the native Irish, divided into hostile clans, made 

 constant war upon one another, to such an extent as reduced the 

 country to desolation, and made improvement impossible. 



The native Irish soldiery were hardy and irrepressible, able to 

 dispense with shelter, and to bear hardships to an extraordinary 

 degree. They had neither castles nor forts to stand a siege, 

 their plan was to make sudden raids on the English, and carry 

 off the cattle into woods and bogs that were inaccessible. 



The dress and accoutrements of the Irish and Scots were very 

 primitive, and they had little mercy for the vanquished. 



The reader showed that the English also treated their Irish 

 foes with great cruelty, which he attributed to their regarding 

 them as barbarous beyond possibility of civilization. 



Under such circumstances, very little tillage was practised ; — 

 the population was too moveable, and the chance of being 



