HOLY ISLAND, LOUGH DERG.
(From a painting by Watkins.)
The Story of the Nations
THE
STORY OF IRELAND
BY
THE HON. EMILY LAWLESS
AUTHOR OF "HURRISH: A STUDY," ETC
WITH SOME ADDITIONS BY
MRS. ARTHUR BRONSON
1896
To
THE EARL OF DUFFERIN, K.P., G.C.B., F.R.S., &c.,
VICEROY OF INDIA.
SGEUL NA H-ÉIREANN
DON ÉIREANNACH AS FIÚ.
PREFACE.
Irish history is a long, dark road, with many blind alleys, manysudden turnings, many unaccountably crooked portions; a road which,if it has a few sign-posts to guide us, bristles with threateningnotices, now upon the one side and now upon the other, the veryground underfoot being often full of unsuspected perils threateningto hurt the unwary.
To the genuine explorer, flushed with justified self-confidence,well equipped for the journey, and indifferent to scratches orbruises, one may suppose this to be rather an allurement thanotherwise, as he spurs along, lance at rest, and sword on side. Tothe less well-equipped traveller, who has no pretensions to thename of explorer at all, no particular courage to boast of, andwhose only ambition is to make the way a little plainer for someone travelling along it for the first time, it is decidedly aserious impediment, so much so as almost to scare such a one fromattempting the rôle of guide even in the slightest andleast responsible capacity.
Another and perhaps even more formidable objection occurs. Ahistory beset with such distracting problems, bristling with suchthorny controversies, a history, above all, which has so muchbearing upon that portion of history which has still to be born,ought, it may be said, to be approached in the gravest and mostauthoritative fashion possible, or else not approached at all. Thisis too true, and that so slight a summary as this can put forwardno claim to authority of any sort is evident enough. National"stories," however, no less than histories, gain a gravity, it mustbe remembered, and even at times a solemnity from their subjectapart altogether from their treatment. A good reader will read agreat deal more into them than the mere bald words convey. Thelights and shadows of a great or a tragic past play over their easysurface, giving it a depth and solidity to which it could otherwiselay no claim. If the present attempt disposes any one to study atfirst hand one of the strangest and most perplexing chapters ofhuman history and national destiny, its author for one will be morethan content.
