Chapter V: Ireland (3)

One other dolmen deserves being illustrated before going further, as it belongs to a class of monuments common in Brittany, hitherto unknown in Great Britain. It consists of a cell 12 feet 8 inches long internally, with a width of 4 feet at the entrance, but diminishing to 3 feet at its inner end. It is situated near Monasterboice, at the northern limit of the parish, and not far, consequently, from New Grange, and close to Greenmount. Locally it is known as the house or tomb of Calliagh Vera, or Birra,[261] the hag whose chair is illustrated in woodcut No. 73, and whose name is indissolubly connected with the Lough Crew tombs. According to the traditions collected by Dr. O'Donovan and Mr. Conwell, she broke her neck before completing the last tumulus, and was buried, close to where she died,[262] in the parish of Diarmor, where, however, nothing remains to mark the spot.

From the mode in which it is constructed, it seems hardly doubtful that the original intention was to cover it with a tumulus; but probably it never was occupied. If I am correct in my surmise as to its age, its builder may have been converted to Christianity before he had occasion for it. But, be that as it may, its exposed position may serve to explain how a king or chief who had erected such a structure for his burying-place might very well have amused himself, if his life were prolonged, in adorning both the interior and exterior with carvings. I cannot believe that the internal ornaments were ever executed by artificial light, and both, therefore, must have been completed before the chamber was buried.

Last year, General Lefroy excavated a tumulus at Greenmount, Castle Bellingham, about five miles north of Calliagh Birra's so-called house.[263] In it he found a chamber, 21 feet long by about 4 feet wide and 5 feet high, enclosed by two parallel walls built of small stones, and closed at each end by similar masonry.

The roof was formed of slabs in two rows, the lower projecting as brackets and the upper stretching across beyond the walls on each side. In plan, therefore, it was identical with the Birra's house, though longer and larger. But, from the mode in which it was constructed, it was evidently more modern,--the most modern, in fact, of all the chambered sepulchral tumuli yet discovered in Ireland.

Nothing was found in the chamber: it had been rifled before, but by whom and at what period there was nothing to show. At 9 or 10 feet below the summit, but still 6 or 7 feet above the floor of the chamber, a bronze monument was found with a Runic inscription on it, which, with the assistance of the Danish antiquaries, the General decides to belong to the ninth century (852?). The one question is, is it coeval with the building of the tomb or its destruction? The name Domnal, or Domhnall, being Irish, and the position in which it was found seem to prove that it belongs to the period of the raising of the mound, not to that of its being rifled; and if so, this grave approaches the age to which Maeshowe in the Orkneys may belong.

The circumstance, however, which interests us most at present is the similarity of the Greenmount Chamber to the Lady Birra's tomb. Being locally so close to one another, and so like in plan, they cannot be very distant in date, though the more southern is, from its megalithic character, undoubtedly the more ancient of the two. If we allow two or three centuries it is a long stretch, though even that takes us far away from any connexion with the monuments at Lough Crew, and barely allows of it following very close on those at Brugh na Boinne.

The similarity of this tomb with those at Glen Columbkille has already been pointed out, and no doubt others exist in Ireland, and will be brought to light as soon as attention is directed to the subject. But meanwhile they seem, so far as we can at present judge, to make up an extensive group of pagan or semi-pagan monuments, extending from the time of St. Patrick to that of St. Columba, and, as such, are among the latest, and certainly among the most interesting, monuments of the class in Ireland.

Vague as all this may probably appear, there is one dolmen in Ireland which seems to have a date. The great grandson of Dathi, whose red pillar-stone at Rath Croghan, erected A.D. 428, we have already pointed out, was named Ceallach. He was murdered by his four foster-brothers through envy about the sovereignty. They were hanged for their crime at a spot known as Ard-na-Riagh, near Ballina, and were buried on a hill on the opposite side of the river, where a dolmen still stands, and is pointed out as the grave of the four Maols, the murderers. These particulars are related in the Dinnsenchus, in the Book of Lecan, and in the Annals of the Hy Fiachrach, translated by Dr. O'Donovan (p. 35), who, in a note, adds that "this evidence, coupled with the description of the situation on the other side of the Moy, opposite Ard-na-Riagh, leaves no doubt of its identity."

The dolmen in question has nothing very remarkable about it. The cap-stone, which measures 9 feet by 7 feet, is hexagonal in form, and is supported on three uprights, arranged similarly to those of Kit's Cotty House. It is perfectly level, and stands about 4 feet above the level of the soil. The cap-stone may have been fashioned into its present form by art; but there is no sign of chiselling, and, altogether there is nothing that would attract especial attention.[264] The interest rests with its date. If it can be established that it belongs to the beginning of the sixth century, which I see no more reason for doubting than Dr. O'Donovan does, it is a point gained in our investigation, in so far at least as dates are concerned.

It would be tedious to enumerate the other dolmens in Ireland which have neither dates nor peculiarities to distinguish them from others of this class, but there is one monument of a megalithic character in Ireland which must be described before leaving the country, though it certainly is not a dolmen, and its date and use are both mysterious at present.

It stands in the deer park of the Hazlewood domain, about four miles east of Sligo. It is entered from the south, and consists first of an enclosure 54 feet by 24 feet. To the westward of this is a smaller apartment, about 30 feet by 12 feet, divided into two by two projecting stones. At the east end are two similar apartments side by side, but smaller, the whole length of the structure measuring about 115 feet.[265] The three entrances from the central to the side apartments are trilithons of squared and partially dressed stones, and would remind us of Stonehenge, were they not so small. They are only 3 feet under the lintel, and you must bow low indeed to pass under them. Indeed, when speaking of these enclosures as apartments, it must be borne in mind that one can enter anywhere by passing between the stones, and stepping over the walls, which are composed of stones hardly ever touching each other, the highest being only 3 or 4 feet high. Many of them, though massive, have only half that height.

What, then, is this curious edifice? It can hardly be a tomb, it is so unlike any other tomb which we know of. In plan it looks more like a temple; indeed, it is not unlike the arrangement of some Christian churches: but a church or temple with walls pervious, as these are, and so low that the congregation outside can see all that passes inside, is so anomalous an arrangement, that it does not seem admissible. At present it is unique; if some similar example could be discovered, perhaps we might guess its riddle.

It is situated on the highest plateau of the hill. A little lower down is a very fine stone Cathair, or circular fort, with an L-shaped underground apartment of some extent in its centre; and on a neighbouring eminence are several round tumuli, which, looking like the burying-places of the "Castellani," increase the improbability of the upper building being a sepulchre.

* * * * *

Before leaving this branch of the subject, it may be as well to allude to a point which, though not very distinct in itself, may have some influence with those who are shocked at being told that the rude stone monuments of Ireland are so modern as from the preceding pages we should infer they were. It is that every allusion to Ireland, in any classical author, and every inference from its own annals, lead us to assume that Ireland, during the centuries that elapsed between the Christian era and St. Patrick, was in a state of utter and hopeless barbarism. The testimony of Diodorus[266] and Strabo[267] that its inhabitants were cannibals is too distinct to be disputed, and according to the last named authority, they added to this an ugly habit of eating their fathers and mothers. These accusations are repeated by St. Jerome[268] in the fourth century with more than necessary emphasis. All represent the Irish as having all their women in common, and as more barbarous than the inhabitants of Britain,[269] indeed, than any other people of Europe. Nor can it be pleaded that these authors wrote in ignorance of the state of the country, for Ptolemy's description of the coasts and of the interior, of the cities and tribes shows an intimate acquaintance with the island which could only be derived from observation.[270] Their own annals do not, it is true, repeat these scandals; but nothing we now have can be said to have been reduced to writing in anything like the form in which we now possess it before the time of St. Patrick; and even that has passed through edition after edition at the hands of patriotic Irishmen before it assumed the form in which we now find it. Even these tell of nothing but fighting and assassination, and of crimes of every sort and kind. Even the highest title of one of their greatest kings, Conn "of a hundred battles," is sufficiently indicative of the life which he led, and the state of the country he governed. As we have every reason to believe that the progress of Ireland was steadily and equably progressive, it is evident that if it was so, a very short time prior to what we find in the early centuries of Christianity would take us back to the present state of the natives of Australia, and we should find a condition of society when any combined effort was impossible. So evident is this, not only from history, but from every inference that can be gathered from the state of Ireland in subsequent ages, that the wonder really is how such a people could have erected such monuments as those we find on the banks of the Boyne in the early centuries of our epoch. The answer is, of course, that the idleness of savages is capable of wonderful efforts. A nation of men who have no higher ambition than to provide for their daily wants, and who are willing to submit to any tyrant who will undertake to supply these in order to gratify his own pride or ambition, may effect wonders. The pyramids of Egypt and the temples of southern India are examples of what may be done by similar means. But to effect such things, the people must be sufficiently organised to combine, and sufficiently disciplined to submit; and we have no reason to suppose that in Ireland they were either before the Christian era, and it is even very difficult to understand how they came to be so far advanced even in the time of St. Patrick. That they were so their works attest; but if we had to trust to indications derived from history alone, the inference certainly would be that the monuments are considerably more modern than the dates above assigned to them; while it seems barely possible they should be carried back to any earlier period.

* * * * *

There may be other rude stone monuments in Ireland besides those described or alluded to in the preceding pages, but they can scarcely be very numerous or very important, or they could hardly have escaped notice. They are not, consequently, likely to disturb any conclusion that may be arrived at from the examination of those which are known. From these, we may safely conclude that all, with perhaps the exception of the Hazlewood monument, are certainly sepulchral; and all, unless I am very much mistaken, were erected subsequently to the building of Emania by Eochaidh Ollamb Fodlha in the third century B.C. There may be cairns, and even dolmens, belonging to the earlier Hiberni before the Scoti were driven from the Continent, by the Punic or Roman wars, to seek refuge and repose in the green island of the West, but they must be insignificant, and probably must remain for ever unrecognizable.

From the date, however, of the founding of Emania we seem to have a perfectly consecutive and intelligible series commencing with the smaller and ruder cairns of Lough Crew, and rising at last to the lordly sepulchres of Brugh na Boinne. Between these two stand the monuments on the battle-fields of Moytura, and contemporary with the last are the Raths on the far-famed hill of Tara. Beyond these we seem to have the tomb of the four Moels, the so-called house of Calliagh Birra, and the dolmens of Glencolumbkille, all apparently belonging to the sixth century. The tumulus at Greenmount is later than any of these, but hardly belongs to our Irish series.

From these we pass by easy gradations to the beehive cells and oratories of the early Christians. No such stone dwellings probably existed before the time of St. Patrick, or we should have found traces of them at Tara, or Armagh, or Telltown; but as none such existed in these royal seats of the Scots, we may fairly assume that for domestic purposes wood and turf alone were used. But as soon as the use of stone became prevalent for such purposes, as was the case with the introduction of Christianity, we soon find the round towers, with their accompanying churches, springing up in every corner of the land, and Irish architecture progressing steadily in a groove of its own, till its forms were modified, but not obliterated, by the changes introduced by the English conquerors. The history of their style from St. Patrick to the English conquerers has been so well written by Petrie, that little now remains to be said about that division. But the history of the preceding seven centuries still remains for some one with the leisure requisite to explore the country, and with patience and judgment sufficient to read aright the many enigmas which are still involved in it, although the main outlines of the story seem sufficiently clear and intelligible. If it were written out in detail and fully illustrated, it would prove a most valuable commentary on the dark period of the history of Ireland before the introduction of Christianity, and when the concomitant introduction of alphabetic writing first rendered her annals intelligible and trustworthy.

In one other respect the study of these early monuments of Ireland seems to afford a subject of most engrossing interest. It is in Ireland that we first begin to perceive the threefold division, which, if it can be established, will lead to the most important ethnographical determinations. It appears that in this island the stone circles of the Scandinavians were introduced simultaneously with the dolmens of the Iberians or Aquitanians, and we can trace the rude barrows of the Celts growing up between them till they expanded into the great mounds of the Boyne. That these three forms ever were at any one time absolutely distinct is most unlikely, and equally so that they should have long remained so in the same country, even if it could be shown that at any one time they belonged to three separate races. Generally, however, it seems hardly doubtful that they do point to ethnographic peculiarities, which may become most important. Combined with their history and a knowledge of their uses, these monuments promise to rescue from oblivion one of the most curious chapters of Irish history, which without them might remain for ever unwritten.

[Footnote 201: Stokes, 'Life of Petrie;' London, 1868, p. 99 _et
seq._]

[Footnote 202: In the following pages it is proposed to follow the
popular and pronounceable spelling of Irish proper names. One half
of the difficulty of following the Irish annals is the unfamiliar
and uncouth mode in which proper names are spelt, and which we
learn, from Eugene O'Curry's lectures, never represents the mode
in which they are pronounced. In a learned work intended for Irish
scholars, like the 'Annals of the Four Masters,' the scientific
mode of spelling is, of course, the only one that could be adopted,
but in such a work as this it would be only useless and prejudicial
pedantry.]

[Footnote 203: 'Lough Corrib, its Shores and Islands.' Dublin,
1867. Sir William possesses a residence on the battle-field, where
I was hospitably entertained for some days when I visited that
neighbourhood last year.]

[Footnote 204: These, and all the particulars of the battle of
South Moytura, are taken from the eighth chapter of Sir W. Wilde's
book, pp. 211-248, and need not, therefore, be specially referred
to.]

[Footnote 205: 'Annals of the Four Masters,' translated by J.
O'Donovan, i. p. 23.]

[Footnote 206: Eugene O'Curry's 'Materials for Ancient Irish
History,' p. 246.]

[Footnote 207: Stokes, 'Life of Petrie,' p. 253.]

[Footnote 208: _l. c._ p. 242.]

[Footnote 209: I regret very much that the state of my health,
and other circumstances, prevented my mapping and drawing these
remains, but I hope some competent person will undertake the task
before long. Carrowmore is more easily accessible than Carnac.
The inns at Sligo are better than those at Auray, the remains are
within three miles of the town, and the scenery near Sligo is far
more beautiful than that of the Morbihan; yet hundreds of our
countrymen rush annually to the French megaliths, and bring home
sketch-books full of views and measurements, but no one thinks of
the Irish monuments, and no views of them exist that are in any way
accessible to the public.]

[Footnote 210: It is unfortunately only an eye-sketch, hurriedly
taken, and thus not to be implicitly depended upon. The two stones
outside, that look like the rudiments of the avenue, I take to mark
only an external interment.]

[Footnote 211: These, and several other photographs of the field
and localities near it, were specially made for me by Mr. A.
Sleater, 26, Castle-street, Sligo, who executed my commission both
cheaply and intelligently.]

[Footnote 212: O'Curry's 'Materials for Ancient Irish History,'
Appendix xxv. p. 41.]

[Footnote 213: "Meaba Regina occisa est a Furba dio filio Concobari
7 Vespasiano," ii. p. 23.]

[Footnote 214: Stokes, 'Life of Petrie,' p. 256.]

[Footnote 215: Petrie's 'Round Towers,' p. 107.]

[Footnote 216: It will be found at more length in E. O'Curry's
'Materials for Ancient Irish History,' pp. 247-250.]

[Footnote 217: It was, according to the same authorities, "during
this interval that Lugh, the then reigning king, established
the fair at Tailtean, in commemoration of his foster-mother,
the daughter of Magh Mor, king of Spain," "This fair," adds Dr.
O'Donovan, "continued famous down to the time of Roderic O'Conor,
last monarch of Ireland; and the traditions of it are still so
vivid, that Telltown was till recently resorted to by the men of
Meath for hurling, wrestling, and manly sports." It would be a
wonderful instance of the stability of Irish institutions if a
fair, established in a miserable inland village eighteen centuries
before Christ, should flourish through the middle ages, and hardly
now be extinct! It may have been established about the Christian
era, but certainly not before, and thus becomes another piece of
evidence as to the date of the events we are describing.--'Annals
of the Four Masters,' p. 23.]

[Footnote 218: 'Mon. Hist. Brit.' xcviii.]

[Footnote 219: Madsen, 'Antiquités préhistoriques du Danemark.'
Copenhagen, 1869.]

[Footnote 220: Sjöborg Samlingar för Nordens Fornälskare,' i. p.
12.]

[Footnote 221: 'Materials for Ancient Irish History,' p. 250.]

[Footnote 222: 'Annals of the Four Masters,' translated by J.
O'Donovan, i. p. 21.]

[Footnote 223: O'Curry, 'Materials for Ancient Irish History,' p.
246.]

[Footnote 224: O'Connor, ii. p. 1. O'Curry, 'Materials for Ancient
Irish History,' p. 63.]

[Footnote 225: 'Tighernachi Ann.' O'Connor, p. 11-23.]

[Footnote 226: 'Annals of the Four Masters,' i. p. 99.]

[Footnote 227: 'Essay on the Ancient Architecture of Ireland,' by
G. Petrie, pp. 97-109.]

[Footnote 228: Could this be the great Rath close to the
Netterville domain? See Sir W. Wilde, 'The Boyne and the
Blackwater,' p. 211.]

[Footnote 229: Tighernach, O'Connor, ii. p. 23, "Carcobarus filius
Nessæ obiit hoc anno--33."]

[Footnote 230: In the 'Annals of the Four Masters' (i. p. 89)
there is a king called Eochaid Aireamb. "Ideo dictus," says Lynch,
translating Keating, "quod tumulos effodi primus in Hiberniâ
curavit." I have no doubt the etymology is correct, and the fact
also; but it would hardly do to base our argument upon it, though
it accords perfectly with the conclusion I have arrived at from
other circumstances. He lived, according to the 'Four Masters,'
118 B.C. According to the more correct Tighernach, 45
B.C.]

[Footnote 231: The real name of the Daghda was, according to the
'Four Masters,' Eochaidh Ollathair; and Eochaid, or Eochy, is
one of the most common names in Irish history, and constantly
recurring.]

[Footnote 232: Since the above was written I have been gratified
to find so eminent an authority as Dr. Henthorn Todd, late
President of the Royal Irish Academy, arriving, by a very different
road, at very nearly the same conclusion:--"The Firbolgs, or
Belgæ," he says, "invaded Ireland, not from France, but from
Britain--Dumnonii, or Devon." "The conquest of Ireland was not much
older than Cæsar's time, if it were not a good bit later, and was
the first influx of civilization rude, indeed, but much superior to
that of the Hiberni."--_Irish Nennius_, translated by J. H. Todd,
D.D., Appendix C.]

[Footnote 233: The principal one of these is the rath of Queen
Meave, at some distance off. She, according to Tighernach,
was slain by her stepson, in the seventh year of Vespasian,
A.D. 75.]

[Footnote 234: According to Tighernach, Cormac, the grandson of
Conn of a Hundred Battles, commonly called Cormac Mac Art, reigned
218-266 A.D.]

[Footnote 235: 'Hist. and Ant. of Tara Hill.'--'Trans. R. I. A.'
xviii. p. 212.]

[Footnote 236: _Ibid._ xviii. pp. 81, 137, 170, &c.]

[Footnote 237: 'Materials for Ancient Irish History,' Appendix ii.
p. 463 _et seq._]

[Footnote 238: _Ibid._ p. 29 _et seq._]

[Footnote 239: 'Hist, and Ant. of Tara.'--'Trans. R. I. S.' xviii.
p. 46.]

[Footnote 240: Petrie, 'Round Towers,' 100 _et seq._]

[Footnote 241: L. c. 105.]

[Footnote 242: The Irish use ditch, as the Romans used vallum, or
the Scotch dyke, to designate either a rampart or the hollow from
which it was taken.]

[Footnote 243: Quotation from 'Book of Geneal,' p. 251. Petrie,
'Round Towers,' p. 107.]

[Footnote 244: Sir W. Wilde, 'The Boyne and the Blackwater,' 1849,
p. 188.]

[Footnote 245: Rowland's 'Mona Antiqua,' p. 314.]

[Footnote 246: 'Philosophical Transactions,' Nos. 335-336.]

[Footnote 247: This is well illustrated in Sir W. Wilde's book, p.
192, by a woodcut by Wakeman.]

[Footnote 248: Wakeman, 'Handbook of Irish Antiquities,' p. 25.]

[Footnote 249: In extenuation of this disfigurement, it must be
explained that these Irish cairns are extremely difficult to
explore without destroying them. Being wholly composed of loose
stones, it is almost impossible to tunnel into them, and almost as
difficult to sink shafts through them. The only plan seems to be to
cut into them, and, when this is done, disfigurement is inevitable.]

[Footnote 250: 'Archæologia,' xxx. pl. xii. p. 137.]

[Footnote 251: Sir W. Wilde, 'The Boyne and the Blackwater,' p.
209.]

[Footnote 252: 'Journal Royal Archæological Society,' xv. p. 270.]

[Footnote 253: Petrie's 'Round Towers,' p. 105.]

[Footnote 254: O'Curry's 'Materials for Irish History,' p. 636 _et
seq._ So, too, even Tighernach adds, in the year 33:--"Concobares
filius Nessæ obiit hoc anno."--_Ann._ p. 18.]

[Footnote 255: 'Petrie's Life,' by Stokes, p. 256.]

[Footnote 256: Eugene O'Curry, 'Materials,' &c., 314, 597.]

[Footnote 257: This most valuable contribution, with his
permission, is printed _in extenso_ in Appendix A.]

[Footnote 258: "Croagh Patrick, a mountain in Mayo, is famous in
legendary records as the scene of St. Patrick's final conflicts
with the demons of Ireland. From its summit he drove them into the
ocean, and completed their discomfiture by flinging his bell among
their retreating ranks. Passing northward they emerged from the
deep, and took up their abode in the savage wilds of Seang Cean,
on the south-west of Donegal. Here they remained unmolested till
our Tirconellian saint (Columba) was directed by an angel to rid
the place of its foul inhabitants. After a violent struggle he
completely routed them. His name was thenceforth associated with
the tract, and the wild parish of Glen Columbkille preserves, in
its topography and traditions, a living commentary on the legend of
St. Columba," &c.--Reeves, _Vita St. Adam._, p. 206.]

[Footnote 259: I cannot help thinking that the great rath at Dowth
was formed by a similar process. It may not, therefore, after all,
be a residential rath, as suggested above, but we are not yet in a
position to speak positively on such matters.]

[Footnote 260: 'Journal Kilkenny Archæo. Soc.' v. N. S. p. 479.]

[Footnote 261: If, instead of this silly legend, we could connect
this tomb with Brendanus Biorro, the founder of the monastery of
Birra, now Parsonstown, it would be a step in the right direction.
His date would accord perfectly with the architectural inferences;
for, according to Tighernach, he died 573.[*] The difficulty is to
believe that a Christian "propheta," as he is called, could have
thought of so pagan a form of sepulchre. It is not easy, however
to eradicate long-established habits, and his countrymen may not,
within a century of St. Patrick's time, have invented and become
reconciled to a new mode of burial. The Danes certainly buried
in howes for centuries after their conversion, and the Irish may
have been equally conservative. It is, however, hardly worth
while arguing the question here, as we have nothing but a nominal
similarity to go upon, which is never much to be relied upon.

* Reeves, 'Vita Adamnani,' p. 210.]

[Footnote 262: Eugene Conwell's pamphlet descriptive of the Lough
Crew Tumuli, p. 2.]

[Footnote 263: The following particulars are taken from a paper by
General Lefroy, in the 'Archæological Journal,' No. 180, 1870, pp.
281 _et seq._]

[Footnote 264: My attention was first directed to this monument by
Mr. Samuel Ferguson, Keeper of the Records, Dublin. He considered
it then as the only cromlech in Ireland with an authenticated date;
but, as he has not published this, I must not be considered as
committing him to anything except beyond the desire of putting me
on the scent of an interesting investigation.]

[Footnote 265: There is a model of this curious structure in the
Royal Academy Museum, Dublin, but not a correct one; and the
woodcut in their catalogue, taken from the model, has still less
pretensions to accuracy.]

[Footnote 266: Diodorus, v. p. 32.]

[Footnote 267: 'Geo.' iv. p. 201.]

[Footnote 268: Ed. Valersii, i. p. 413; ii. p. 335.]

[Footnote 269: Tacitus, 'Agricola,' p. 24.]

[Footnote 270: Mercator, 'Geogra.' p. 31.]