IRELAND. 317 



that they served as belfries to the monasteries; which, it is said, is 

 agreeable to the import of their Irish name cloghud. 



In Ireland are likewise found cairns, carnedhs, or piles of loose 

 stones, heaped up on the tops of hills, for the celebration of some pa- 

 gan rites ; circles of stones ; barrows, or artificial hillocks ; cromly- 

 eeaghs, or large flat stones raised from the ground, horizontal or in- 

 clined, intended, probably for the purposes of superstition ; and rude 

 fortresses, called raths, and diens ; supposed to have been built by 

 Scandinavian invaders. The ruins of stately castles, erected towards 

 the end of the twelfth century, by the Anglo-Norman colonists, 'are 

 found in almost every part of the country. 



History.. .The history of Ireland has been carried to a very re- 

 mote antiquity, and may, with greater justice than that of almost any 

 other country, be distinguished into the legendary and authentic. In 

 the reign of Edward II, an Ulster prince boasted to the pope of an 

 uninterrupted succession of one hundred and ninety-seven kings of 

 Ireland, to the year 1170. Even the more moderate Irish antiqua- 

 ries carry their history up to 500 years before the Christian aera, at 

 which time they assert that a colony of Scythians, immediately from 

 Spain, settled in Ireland, and introduced the Phoenician language and 

 letters into this country ; and that however it might have been peo- 

 pled still earlier from Gaul or Britain ; yet Heber, Heremon, and 

 Ith, the sons of Milesius, gave a race of kings to the Irish, distin- 

 guished from their days by the name of Gadelians, and Scuits, or 

 Scots. But as our limits will not permit us to enlarge on the dark 

 and contested parts of the Irish history, we shall only observe, that 

 it was about the middle of the fifth century that the great apostle of 

 Ireland, St. Patrick, was employed in the propagation of Christianity 

 in this country, though there had been Christian missionaries here 

 long before, by whose means it had made a considerable progress 

 among the inhabitants of Ireland. After this period, Ireland was oc- 

 casionally invaded by the Saxon kings of England ; but in the years 

 795 and 798, the Danes and Norwegians, or, as they were called, Eas- 

 terlings, invaded the coast of Ireland, and were the first who erect- 

 ed stone edifices in that kingdom. The common habitations of the 

 Irish, till that time, were hurdles, covered with straw and rushes, 

 and but very few of solid timber. The natives defended themselves 

 bravely against the Easterlings, who built Dublin, Waterford, Lime- 

 rick, Wexford, and Cork ; but they resided chiefly at Dublin, or in 

 its neighbourhood, which, by the old Irish, was called Fingal, or the 

 Land of Strangers. The natives, about the year 962, seem to have 

 called to their assistance the Anglo-Saxon king Edgar, who had then 

 a considerable maritime power; and this might have given occasion 

 for his clergy to call him king of great part of Ireland. It is cer- 

 tain that Dublin was about that time a flourishing city, and that the 

 native Irish gave the Easterlings several defeats, though supported 

 by their countrymen from the continent, the Isle of Man, and the He- 

 brides. 



In the twelfth century, Henry the Second of England formed a de- 

 sign of annexing Ireland to his dominions. He is said to have been 

 induced to this by the provocation he had received from some of the 

 Irish chieftains, who had afforded considerable assistance to his ene- 

 mies. His design was patronised by the pope, and a fair pretext of 

 attacking Ireland offered about the year 1168. Dermot Mac Mur- 

 rough, king of Leinster, a«d an oppressive tyrant, Quarrelled with 



