Transcriber's Notes:
Variations in spelling and hyphenation have been retained as in theoriginal.
A few typographical errors have been corrected. A complete list ofchanges follows the text.
Words listed in the Notes and Explanation arelinked in the text like this. Click on the word to see the explanation.
A READING BOOKINIRISH HISTORYBY
One of the Commissioners for the Publication of the Ancient Laws of Ireland
Author of
"A SHORT HISTORY OF IRELAND" "A CHILD'S HISTORY OF IRELAND"
"IRISH NAMES OF PLACES," "OLD CELTIC ROMANCES"
"ANCIENT IRISH MUSIC"
AND OTHER WORKS RELATING TO IRELAND
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
LONDON, NEW YORK, AND BOMBAY
DUBLIN: M. H. GILL AND SON
1900
[All rights reserved]
PREFACE.
As this little book is intended chiefly for children, thelanguage is very simple. But to make matters still easier,all words and allusions presenting the smallest difficultyare explained either in footnotes or in the "Notes andExplanations" at the end.
Advantage has been taken of the descriptions under theseveral Illustrations to give a good deal of informationon the customs and usages of the ancient Irish people.
Although the book has been written for children, it willbe found, I hope, sufficiently interesting and instructivefor the perusal of older persons.
The book, as will be seen, contains a mixture of IrishHistory, Biography, and Romance; and most of the piecesappear in their present form now for the first time. Aknowledge of the History of the country is conveyed, partlyin special Historical Sketches, partly in the Notes underthe Illustrations, and partly through the Biography ofimportant personages, who flourished at various periodsfrom St. Brigit down to the Great Earl of Kildare. Andbesides this, the Stories, like those of all other ancientnations, teach History of another kind, very important inits own way.
Ancient Irish Manuscript books contain great numbersof Historical and Romantic Tales; and the specimens givenhere in translation will, I am confident, give the reader avery favourable impression of old Irish writings of this class.
I make the following acknowledgments of assistance, with pleasureand thanks:—
To the Council of the Royal Irish Academy I am indebted for theuse of the blocks of many Illustrations in Wilde's "Catalogue ofIrish Antiquities."
I owe to the Council of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Irelandseveral Illustrations from their Journal.
Colonel Wood-Martin has given me the use of the blocks of severalof the Illustrations in his "Pagan Ireland."
Lord Walter FitzGerald has given me permission to reproduce thedrawing of the old Chapter House door in St. Patrick's Cathedral,Dublin, from the "Journal of the Kildare Archæological Society."
And lastly, Messrs. Macmillan & Co. have permitted me to printportions of Lord Tennyson's poem, "The Voyage of Maildune."