OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

ALL THE SAINTS OF IRELAND

  • Church Reform

    To close this series of essays, below is an introduction to the subject of Church Reform by scholar Dorothy Africa.

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    Church Reform

    The medieval church had to adapt its institutional
    organization and administrative system to a new cultural environment in
    Ireland. The dwindling in size of population centers and the weakening civic
    powers of the state were already evident as Christianity was carried into the
    frontier regions of Gaul and Britain, but in Ireland even the vestiges of Roman
    culture and imperial administration in sub-Roman Britain were absent.
    Consequently, ecclesiastical organization in Ireland was as decentralized as
    its native systems of secular governance, and its centers of ecclesiastical
    prominence were monastic rather than metropolitan. During the sixth century,
    monastic communities were founded throughout Ireland. These centers followed
    customs of life established by their founders, but only a few monastic Rules
    survive from the early monastic period in Ireland between the sixth and twelfth
    centuries. This dearth of information makes references to reform movements
    somewhat misleading because there appears to have been no standard practice to
    reform. The term is useful, however, as a description of periodic efforts made
    within the Irish church to gain or recapture a larger Christian unity of
    practice.

    THE EASTER CONTROVERSY


    The
    earliest movements noted in the annals and other written records were both
    internal dissensions within Ireland, though with larger ramifications
    extending to England and the continent. The first dispute, which erupted in
    the early seventh century and was not resolved until the early eighth
    century, concerned the proper calculation of Easter. The problems over the
    calculation of Easter had their origins in continental practice. The
    mathematical calculations were difficult, and so the church issued standard
    tables, or cycles, listing when the date would fall over a period of years.
    These tables were subject to change or refinement, however, creating a
    potential rift in practice. This potential was realized in Ireland, where the
    most influential communities at Counties Armagh, Bangor, and Iona employed an
    eighty-four-year cycle established in the fifth century, but Irish
    communities in the south appear to have adopted a sixth-century version
    attributed to Victorious of Aquitaine and also favored on the Continent.
    Leading ecclesiastics from both north and south attempted to resolve the
    matter by appealing to Rome, but the papal response failed to settle the
    question. The conflict between the two systems was a major factor in two major
    political confrontations outside Ireland. One took place on the Continent
    between the churches of the insular mission led by Columbanus of Bangor and
    Frankish ecclesiastics in 610, the other in England at the Synod of Whitby in
    664 between supporters of Iona and those backing Wilfrid of York. Eventually,
    the adherents of the older cycle were persuaded to abandon it in favor of the
    majority view in the early eighth     century.
    CÉLI-DÉ

    A
    second issue of potential discord arose within Ireland’s monastic culture in
    the mid-eighth century when some influential figures and communities became
    advocates for the adoption of a stern ascetic regimen. By the early ninth
    century, adherents of these practices had become known as Céli-Dé (Culdees),
    or the companions of God. The term was itself probably older than this
    ascetic movement but became closely identified with it. The ascetic model for
    the movement was the communal life of the early Christian monastic
    communities in Egypt and the desert hermits as described by John Cassian, and
    other hagiographical texts such as The Life of Anthony by Athanasius.
    The attempts to emulate these holy men prompted some to seek out sites of
    extreme isolation. The large number of medieval Irish place-names with the
    element dysert or disert (desert) in them shows that the ideal
    of the desert hermit was popular across Ireland.

    There
    were also groups of Céli-Dé attached to larger monastic communities or
    forming separate monasteries. The monastic community of Tallaght under its
    abbot Maél Rúain (d. 792) was an early proponent and center for the
    asceticism favored by the Céli-Dé. There are some texts attributed to the
    community, the most famous of which is the Martyrology of Tallaght. It
    is clear from their books that communal life was as important as that of the
    hermit to the Céli-Dé, but the focus was clearly on the spiritual
    purification of those committed to the religious life rather than to
    missionary work or pastoral care. In the eleventh century there were a few
    reports of groups of Céli-Dé at some large monasteries, but asceticism no
    longer figured as a flourishing ideal within the church.
    DIOCESAN ORGANIZATION

    Even as
    the ideals of the Céli-Dé ossified as a monastic ideal within the Irish
    church, a new reform movement was on the horizon. During the eleventh
    century, Ireland had come into closer and more frequent communication with
    England and the Continent through a variety of channels. By the late eleventh
    century some of the Viking port communities established in Ireland, such as
    Dublin, Waterford, and Limerick, had subordinated themselves to English
    ecclesiastical centers, notably Canterbury and Winchester. There was also a
    series of papal legates to Ireland in the twelfth century, with both
    connections serving to assist indigenous Irish reformers in their efforts to
    renovate and reform Christian social and religious life in Ireland and to
    establish a diocesan system of governance. Reports of the divergence in Ireland
    followed in ecclesiastical customs and law from the rest of the church
    brought intense criticism and rebuke from the outside, heightening the
    concerns of native Irish churchmen. Beginning in the later eleventh century
    and extending into the twelfth, another reform movement arose in Ireland,
    this time centering its attention on ecclesiastical organization and
    institutional structure rather than the inner religious life.

    As
    noted earlier, prominent abbots and other officials of monastic communities
    dominated the affairs of the Irish church in the early medieval period. These
    clerics often came from ecclesiastical families closely related to local
    secular dynasties. In addition, annal records name abbots and other
    ecclesiastical officials who inherited their positions from their fathers or
    were succeeded by their sons, indicating either that they remained laymen, or
    that the Irish church did not require them to be celibate. The Irish church
    was also castigated for its neglect of pastoral care and instruction to the
    laity, in part, perhaps, as a consequence of the ideal of the reclusive
    ascetic cultivated by the Irish religious. Some of the Irish reformers came
    from the same prominent families historically associated with powerful
    monasteries. This insider status gave these men the social and political
    access essential to effecting changes, and the discernment necessary to gauge
    the pace of change acceptable to contemporary society.
    In 1101
    there was enough internal sympathy toward the cause of reform for a synod to
    be convened at Cashel. The most prominent ecclesiastic at the synod was
    Bishop Maél Muire Ua Dunáin. Little is known of his early life and career,
    but he was clearly of high office and greatly revered. Ua Dunáin may have
    begun his ecclesiastical career at the community of Clonard, an old and
    prominent foundation in Meath, where he died in 1117. He was also probably
    acting at the synod as the papal legate of Pope Pascal II. The brief reports
    on the resolutions of the synod indicate that it took cautious steps toward
    reform. The synod moved on several fronts to limit lay control and influence
    over ecclesiastical property and offices. It also issued a decree against
    marriage among close family members.
    Perhaps
    encouraged by the gains of the Cashel synod, another meeting convened ten
    years later at Rath Breasail. Ua Dunáin was in attendance, but the presiding
    ecclesiastic was Gille Easpuig (Gilbert), the bishop of Limerick and
    successor to Ua Dunáin as papal legate. The details of Gilbert’s origins and
    career are also largely unknown. He was probably of Norse-Irish origin and is
    known principally for his surviving work, De statu ecclesiastico, on
    the organization of the church. Also present was Cellach, the prominent
    reform-minded abbot of Armagh. The gathering at Rath Breasail adopted for
    Ireland a full-scale reorganization of the administrative structure of the
    church under two metropolitans, each with a dozen suffragan (diocesan)
    bishops. The two metropolitan seats were assigned to Counties Armagh and Cashel,
    and the dioceses assigned to each were generally named according to the old
    monastic and tribal centers. This allocation was immediately challenged by
    entrenched contemporary powers, secular and lay, resulting in substantial
    changes to the original plan in the immediate aftermath of the conference.
    Continuing the work begun earlier at Cashel, the synod also formally removed
    all churches in Ireland from lay control.
    The
    period between the meeting at Rath Breasail and the Synod of Kells in 1152
    was politically very turbulent, but the reform movement continued to advance
    under the guidance of the successor to Abbot Cellach of Armagh, Maél Maédóc
    Ua Morgair (Malachy). Malachy had ties to native ecclesiastical families
    through both his parents, but he allied himself firmly with the cause of
    reform. He became abbot of Armagh upon the death of Cellach in 1129, and,
    despite initial hostility toward him, he instituted there the observance of
    the canonical hours, the practice of regular confession, and other customs of
    the church. Malachy left the abbacy of Armagh to become first abbot of
    Bangor, and then a regional bishop, but he continued to work for the national
    cause of reform. He was instrumental in the introduction into Ireland of the
    Cistercian order and the spread of the order of Augustine canons. He also
    presided over meetings to amend the diocesan system drawn up at Rath
    Breasail. In 1140 Malachy made a trip to Rome, where he requested palls
    (church vestmants, or cloaks, worn by archbishops) for the two metropolitans
    from Pope Innocent II. The pope directed Malachy to convene another meeting
    to confirm the choice before he would grant the request. Malachy returned to
    his work in Ireland, but did not abandon his hopes for formal recognition of
    the Irish ecclesiastic centers. He presided over a synod at Inis Pádraig near
    Dublin in 1148, which provided the needed confirmation, but he died at
    Clairvaux in 1149 on his way back to Rome. The palls that Malachy had sought
    arrived in Ireland in 1152 and were conferred upon the metropolitan sees
    established by the Synod of Kells held in that year. That synod added two
    additional metropolitan seats at Tuam and Dublin to the original ones at
    Armagh and Cashel, as well as additional dioceses, but otherwise the earlier
    scheme was left largely intact.
    The
    arrival of the Normans in Ireland in force after 1170 brought new leadership
    to the Irish church, but the organizational structure created by the
    reformers remained. The Normans assisted the introduction of continental
    orders and practices into Ireland, but they were not any more successful in
    curbing the Irish social practices so disturbing to the church than the
    earlier reformers had been. Throughout the late medieval period complaints
    about the marital failings of the native Irish and the crassness of the Irish
    clergy continued, though these reports are often suspect in light of the
    political and religious divisions of the period.
    Bibliography
    Bernard
    of Clairvaux. The Life and Death of Saint Malachy the Irishman.
    Translated and annotated by Robert T. Meyer. 1978.
    Bethell,
    Denis. “English Monks and Irish Reform in the Eleventh and Twelfth
    Centuries.” Historical Studies 8 (1971): 111–135.
    Carey,
    John. King of Mysteries: Early Irish Religious Writings. 1998.
    Charles-Edwards,
    Thomas M. Early Christian Ireland. 2000.
    Gwynn,
    Aubrey. The Irish Church in the 11th and 12th centuries. Edited by
    Gerard O’Brien. 1992.
    Hughes,
    Kathleen. The Church in Early Irish Society. 1966.
    Dorothy
    Africa

  • The Norman Conquest of Ireland

    Below is a short introductory essay by a modern scholar on the coming of the Normans to Ireland.

    Norman Conquest and Colonization

    Seán Duffy

    The Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland began with a trickle of mercenaries from South Wales landing in County Wexford in the summer of 1167, in aid of the exiled king of Leinster, Diarmait Mac Murchada; substantial reinforcements arrived two years later, who were intent on staying and winning Irish lands. The most famous of the invaders was Richard “Strongbow” de Clare, lord of Pembroke and Chepstow (Strigoil), who did not arrive until August 1170, when he married Mac Murchada’s daughter, claimed the right to succeed him as king of Leinster, and conquered Dublin from its Hiberno-Norse rulers. These latter events caused the reigning king of England, Henry II, to reassess the benign but “hands-off” stance that had hitherto characterized his response to the invasion. Since his youth, he had been interested in conquering Ireland himself and adding it to the many territories that were his Angevin “empire.” He had accepted Mac Murchada’s declaration of fealty, made in Aquitaine in 1166 to 1167, carrying the reciprocal duty to protect Diarmait from his enemies, and had authorized him to seek support from among Henry’s vassals.

    The problem was that Strongbow was an errant vassal, out of royal favor after having taken the wrong side in the civil war that preceded Henry’s accession. The latter had denied him the title of earl for his Welsh estates, and was hardly likely to allow him become king of Leinster, which Strongbow was intending to do following Mac Murchada’s death in May 1171. Attempts having failed to forbid Strongbow’s departure for Ireland, to call home his associates, and to blockade their supplies, Henry decided to come to Ireland, to regularize the position of Strongbow and the other adventurers who were making rapid strides there, and to oversee the conquest in person. And so, when he landed near Waterford on 17 October 1171, with five hundred knights and four thousand archers, Henry II became the first English king to enter Ireland.

    It was no glittering prize, although its Viking-founded towns were certainly an asset, and Henry was quick to take possession of them from Strongbow and his followers. Without its wealthy ports, especially Dublin, Leinster was a far less attractive acquisition, and hence Henry allowed Strongbow to hold it in return for supplying the military service of 100 knights. The kings of Thomond and Desmond, Ó Briain and Mac Carthaig, voluntarily came to Henry at Waterford and submitted to him, and most other important kings and prelates did likewise, the kings hoping that Henry might restrain the more acquisitive of the invaders (he did so, to a degree, for several years), while the clergy believed that the Irish church could be more successfully modernized if subjected to English influence, an arrangement formalized at the Synod of Cashel during Henry’s brief visit.

    However, Henry did not meet the high king, Ruaidrí Ó Conchobair (Rory O’Connor), and the Anglo-Norman settlement did not proceed easily when faced with his opposition, although his armies proved ineffective against the sophistication of the Norman military machine and the invulnerability to Irish assault of the castles with which they were busy dotting the landscape. A compromise was required, and in 1175 the “treaty” of Windsor was negotiated whereby Ruaidrí accepted the Anglo-Norman colony, which was confined within its existing boundaries (Leinster, Munster from Waterford to Dungarvan, and Meath, which Henry had given to Hugh de Lacy in 1172), while Henry acknowledged Ruaidrí as the paramount power elsewhere. However, this had little appeal for the land-hungry colonists and was soon abandoned in favor of a policy of all-out conquest, with speculative grants of Desmond and Thomond being made to favorites of the king, while John de Courcy won east Ulster for himself in 1177. In that year, a royal council was held at Oxford at which the youngest of Henry’s four sons, John, was made lord of Ireland. He was not expected to succeed to the throne, and so Henry envisaged a loose constitutional arrangement whereby Ireland would be ruled by a junior branch of the English royal family.

    It was 1185 before John visited Ireland, but his youthful folly in his dealings with the Irish kings alienated them from their new lord, who was busy building castles on Leinster’s frontier and granting lands in Munster to the ancestors of the Butlers and Burkes, while what is now County Louth was also taken from the Irish. In terms of fostering relations with the Irish, John’s expedition proved disastrous, but it did advance the conquest and saw the establishment in Ireland of a form of government modeled on that of England, a pattern that has prevailed. John’s later expedition in 1210 was hardly more productive since he was again inept in his treatment of the native rulers, although he reasserted his faltering authority over the colonists and further expanded the apparatus and reach of royal government. In the meantime, in 1199, John had ascended the throne, and hence the lordship of Ireland and kingship of England were, by an accident of history, reunited in the same person, as remained the case long thereafter.

    By the time of John’s second visit the country had been immeasurably transformed. The power of the Irish kings, except in the northwestern quadrant of the island, had been minimized, and their best ancestral lands taken from them by Anglo-Norman barons intent on expanding even further. They were able to do so by virtue of their advanced military equipment and tactics and their policy of encastellation. Beginning with rapidly erected timber structures atop earthen mounds (the motte-and-bailey), they were soon constructing massive stone fortresses like Trim and Carrickfergus, a sign for all to see that they were there to stay. But these would have meant nothing to the Irish if conquest were not followed by large-scale colonization. Only then, by the banishment of the native population from the fertile plains or their reduction to servile status, and the introduction of a new, loyal English population, could the colony feel secure and, just as important, provide a profit for those adventurers who had risked all on crossing the Irish Sea to start a new life.

    In the aftermath of the invasion, therefore, Ireland witnessed nothing short of an economic and agricultural revolution. The great lords parceled up their conquests among members of the lesser gentry from their homelands who were prepared to join them on this new frontier. The latter in turn persuaded others to follow suit (probably not too difficult at a time of population growth), and as each took ownership of their new estates, they enticed over their English and Welsh tenants, offering more attractive terms of tenure. They built new towns and boroughs and persuaded burgesses to inhabit them by less rigorous taxes and regulation. Just as towns needed merchants, traders, and craftsmen, so too manors needed laborers and parishes needed priests. Everything required to turn this new colony into a facsimile of England was found and shipped over from the neighboring isle, and within a generation or two the transformation was immense. But it was never complete. In the north and west, and in the uplands and bogs, the native Irish remained intact. Denied access to the law and treated as enemies in their own land, they remained a potential threat, and although the colony continued to expand until about the year 1300, its unfinished nature meant that an Irish resurgence was inevitable.

    Bibliography

    Cosgrove, Art, ed. A New History of Ireland. Vol. 2, Medieval Ireland, 1169–1534. 1987. Reprint, 1993.
    Duffy, Seán. Ireland in the Middle Ages. 1997.
    Flanagan, Marie Therese. Irish Society, Anglo-Norman Settlers, Angevin Kingship. 1989.
    Orpen, Goddard Henry, ed. The Song of Dermot and the Earl. 1892.
    Orpen, Goddard Henry. Ireland under the Normans. 4 vols. 1911–1920.
    Scott, Alexander Brian, and Francis Xavier Martin, eds. Expugnatio Hibernica: The Conquest of Ireland by Giraldus Cambrensis. 1978.

  • Early Medieval Ireland and Christianity

     

    Below is a useful introduction to the history of Christianity in Early Medieval Ireland, even if I don’t agree that Saint Brigid may never have existed!

    Early Medieval Ireland and Christianity

    Colin A. Ireland

    The history of early medieval Ireland can be understood only against the background of the conversion to Christianity that introduced ideas that changed the culture and society of pagan Ireland forever. Christian doctrine and theology shaped social behavior and altered cultural practice, yet much was kept that did not contravene Christian conscience as affirmed by some early Irish law tracts. Christianity, as the “religion of the book,” required literacy so that believers could read the Bible and perform the Latin liturgy. With literacy in Latin came literacy in the vernacular, that is, in Irish (Gaelic). The early Irish took readily to these intellectual pursuits, and Ireland produced the earliest, and arguably the richest, vernacular literature in medieval Western Europe.

    The richness and variety of literary texts in the early Irish language has encouraged many to see this literature as a repository of pre-Christian lore and belief. But most Celticists accept that it is impossible to recreate accurately the pagan beliefs and practices of pre-Christian Ireland based on archaeology and the surviving literature. Most medieval texts that purport to represent pre-Christian Irish characters and events were compiled several centuries after the introduction of Christianity, and vast cultural and societal changes separate them from the times they pretend to portray. Many texts reveal direct influence from identifiable Christian authors and their writings. Critics now accept that a tenth-century Irish saga from the Ulster Cycle, for example, tells us as much about Ireland in the time of its tenth-century redactor as it does about the pre-Christian Irish characters depicted in the saga.

    THE EARLY SAINTS

    The first firm date in Irish history does not come from Irish sources but rather from the south of France in a chronicle written by Prosper of Aquitaine (c. 390–463). Prosper’s Chronicle states that in 431 a certain Palladius was ordained bishop by Pope Celestine and sent “to the Irish believing in Christ.” Prosper made it clear that Saint Patrick was not the first Christian missionary to Ireland. In addition to Palladius, there are traditions of Christian saints and their communities in Ireland, particularly in the south and east, before Patrick’s arrival. These pre-Patrician Christians may have developed the earliest Irish writing system, known as ogham.

    Saint Patrick may have flourished any time during the period around 432, when Irish chronicles say that he arrived in Ireland, to around 492, when they claim that he died. These dates represent a period that critics accept as being too long to accurately reflect Patrick’s career in Ireland. Most scholars state simply that Patrick flourished sometime in the mid to late fifth century. Although we do not have firm dates for Saint Patrick, we are fortunate that writings by him do survive—his Confession and the Letter to (the soldiers of) Coroticus. Both reveal much about the character and personality of the man even if they tell us little about Ireland in his time.

    By the late seventh century the richness of early Irish literature becomes evident in several saints’ lives written in Latin. Irish hagiography (from the Greek words meaning “writings about holy persons”) includes early texts about the saints Patrick, Brigit, and Columba. Besides their emphasis on religious topics, we see their propaganda value as they attempt to promote certain regions and dynastic families who supported an individual saint’s cult.

    Two surviving seventh-century lives of Saint Patrick reveal much about how Irish clerics of that period viewed Patrick, but they do not add much reliable information about Patrick himself or about Ireland in his lifetime. Tírechán of Armagh compiled around 670 a collection of anecdotes about Saint Patrick (Collectanea de Sancto Patricio). A near contemporary of Tírechán, Muirchú maccu Machthéni, wrote a life of Saint Patrick around 690 (Vita Sancti Patricii) that is a more finished work of hagiography than Tírechán’s. Muirchú’s work relates, among other episodes, the conversion of King Lóeguire at Tara and Patrick’s contests with Lóeguire’s druids. Both of these seventh-century hagiographical works reveal a northern bias in their acceptance of the primacy of the see of Armagh and Patrick as patron saint of all Ireland, and both stress the role of the Uí Néill (O’Neill) dynastic family.

    While the hagiography about Patrick tended to emphasize sites and families in central and northern Ireland, Leinster in the east also had its special saint. Cogitosus wrote around 680 a life of the female saint Brigit (Vita Sanctae Brigitae). Brigit’s cult is centered in Kildare, a monastic city that became famous for its scriptorium and a center from which many Irish scholars departed for the continental schools in the Carolingian age. There is no firm historical evidence for Brigit, and she may be the one case of an early pagan Celtic goddess being transformed into an Irish saint. The struggle between the Uí Néill dynasts of the north and the ruling families of Leinster are reflected in the competition between Armagh and Kildare, with Armagh eventually gaining supremacy throughout Ireland but allowing Kildare and its saint Brigit to maintain their importance within Leinster.

    The first firmly historical Irish saint was Saint Columba (Columba the Elder, c. 521–597; Colum Cille in Irish). Adomnán (+704), abbot of Iona, wrote a life of Columba (Vita Sancti Columbae) sometime in the last decade of the seventh century. The life of Columba follows typical hagiographical motifs rather than offering historical details and describes prophetic revelations and miracles. Columba, like Patrick, was a missionary. As the first Irish pilgrim (peregrinus) saint, Columba left Ireland sometime around 563 and founded the monastery of Iona on a small island off the coast of Scotland. Tradition relates that Columba went into exile as a penance for his part in the dynastic wars of his Uí Néill relatives.

    Columba’s self-imposed exile from Ireland reveals much about the monastic ideals of his period. It was considered a penance to leave one’s homeland to reside among foreign people. But to do so for the love of God, or for Christ’s sake, was a powerful act of piety. We see this ideal in Patrick’s writings and actions. Patrick, who was originally from Britain, was captured by Irish raiders and taken in his teens as a slave to live in Ireland. When he escaped after years of servitude, his religious faith drove him to return to Ireland to convert to Christianity those who had enslaved him rather than return to his home in Britain. Deorad Dé (“exile of God”) was the Irish term for a person willing to undergo self-imposed pilgrimage (peregrinatio) or exile as an act of piety.

    Many examples of Irish pilgrim exiles exist. One of the most famous is Columbanus (Columba the Younger, c. 543–615)—not to be confused with Columba the Elder—who spent roughly twenty-five years on the continent as a pilgrim and founded several monasteries in France and one in Italy. Columbanus was educated at the monastery of Bangor, Co. Down, in Northern Ireland. He composed Latin texts that include sermons, a penitential, a monastic rule, and letters, some of which were addressed to popes. His writings reveal the depth of the education that he received at the monastic school in Ireland. He left Bangor sometime around 590, at about the age of fifty, and traveled with twelve companions on the continent, particularly in what is now France, where he founded monasteries at Annegray, Luxeuil, and Fontaines. But Columbanus was eager to move on and visit Rome. Although he never fulfilled his wish, he succeeded in founding the most important of his monasteries at Bobbio in Italy. Columbanus died around 615.

    This pattern of pilgrim saints founding monasteries on the continent was repeated frequently in subsequent centuries. One of Columbanus’s Irish disciples, a monk named Gall, was too ill to travel to Italy with Columbanus and stayed back, eventually founding a monastery at Saint Gallen in Switzerland. Gall died around 630. Another Irish missionary, Kilian, departed Ireland more than a century later with a group of companions and founded a monastery at Würzburg in Germany. Kilian is one of the few Irish pilgrim saints to have been martyred. He was assassinated, along with two companions, as a result of political intrigue after a trip to Rome around 687/9.

    MONASTERIES

    The ideals of Irish monastic life can be seen in the missionary work and training activities of Irish monasteries. During the early decades of the seventh century many Anglo-Saxon nobles were educated at Irish monasteries in northern Britain, specifically at Iona. When these Irish-educated English nobles returned to England, they invited Irish missionaries into their pagan kingdoms to evangelize. The Anglo-Saxon king Oswald invited the Irish bishop Aidan from Iona into his kingdom, and Aidan founded the monastery at Lindisfarne on the coast of Northumberland around 635. The English historian Bede (+735) shows that Irish missionary activity in northern England was more successful at converting the pagan English than that started by Rome in 597 from Canterbury in the south of England.

    Monastic schools in Ireland became centers of excellence for peoples from all over Europe, as can be seen by tracing the English who came to study and train as missionaries in them. The historian Bede and an earlier English contemporary Aldhelm (+709) report that sizeable contingents of English students trained as missionaries in Ireland, specifically at Rath Melsigi, Co. Carlow, in Leinster. These English monks trained in Ireland in order to convert their pagan Germanic relatives on the continent. Several of them had successful ecclesiastical careers after their Irish training.

    Bede and Aldhelm, as clerics, emphasized religious training, but both confirm that secular subjects were also taught at Irish monastic schools. Study of the scriptures was paramount, but they both make it clear that students often traveled from site to site seeking out teachers who had specialized knowledge in secular subjects as well. Bede said that the Irish willingly welcomed the English students, gave them food, and provided them with books and instruction, without seeking any payment (Book iii, chapter 27).

    Much early Irish literature is associated with monasteries, which shows that many of the learned persons of Ireland, whether secular or religious, received their educations at monastic schools. This means as well that the literature associated with these monasteries is preserved in both Latin and Irish.

    The monastery of Iona, founded by Columba, encouraged literary production in both languages. For example, one of its more famous abbots, Adomnán (679–704), mentioned already as the author of the Latin “Life of Columba,” wrote a description in Latin of the significant sites in the Holy Land called “On the Holy Places” (De Locis Sanctis). Abbot Adomnán also wrote and promulgated a law (Cáin Adomnáin, 697), written in Irish, which was intended to protect women, children, and clerics from the ravages of warfare.

    Columba himself, the founder of Iona, has a Latin hymn, “Exalted Creator” (Altus Prosator), attributed to him, although not all critics accept the attribution. Three poems in praise of Columba rank among the oldest complete poems in the Irish language. One of them, the “Eulogy for Columba” (Amra Choluim Chille), has been dated on linguistic grounds to around 600, which coincides well with Columba’s death date of 597. According to tradition, Dallán Forgaill, a professional poet, composed it in order to eulogize Columba on his death. This poem is important for several reasons besides its great age. It reflects an ancient tradition of praising secular rulers, but it is unusual for praising instead a religious leader. It demonstrates how the learning of the monasteries blended native customs with Christian teachings. For example, it complies with the norms of secular eulogy by noting Columba’s aristocratic background and by providing genealogical information that can be corroborated in other sources. Columba is called a great champion, but rather than battling against his enemies and sharing largesse among his subjects, Columba excels in self-denial and Christian learning. His praiseworthy qualities are not those of a secular ruler, but of an ascetic, scholarly cleric.

    The monastery at Bangor also produced learned religious texts in Latin beside a vibrant vernacular literature of Irish tales. We have already noted that Columbanus, the Bangor-educated missionary to the continent, corresponded with popes and wrote sermons, a penitential, and a monastic rule in Latin. In the late seventh century a collection of beautiful religious poems and hymns in Latin, the “Antiphonary of Bangor,” was compiled there.

    Important vernacular literature also came from Bangor. “The Voyage of Bran” (Immram Brain), perhaps the earliest example of the Irish “otherworld voyage,” was written at Bangor. It tells of Bran’s voyage across the Western Ocean and recounts the wonders that he encountered in a sinless otherworld. It employs a motif whereby characters in a pre-Patrician context prophesy the coming of Christianity and the salvation of the Irish. Tales in Irish about the early cultural hero Mongán mac Fiachnai also originated at Bangor. The tales about Mongán portray the Irish Sea as a highway between Ireland and Britain and relate episodes that involve battles against English kingdoms.

    The mixture of Latin and Irish writings, like the texts produced at monasteries, is well illustrated by early Irish law tracts. Most, but not all, law texts produced for the church tend to be written in Latin. The “Irish Collection of Canons” (Collectio canonum hibernensis) of about 725, the primary example of Irish church law, is based on biblical and patristic sources. Penitentials and monastic rules represent the Irish tendency, evident in the vernacular law tracts, to codify and schematize social organization and behavior. A group of ecclesiastical laws in the vernacular is represented by cána (sg. cáin), of which Cáin Adomnáin (Adomnán’s Law, 697) has already been cited. Other examples include Cáin Phátraic (Patrick’s Law, 737) and Cáin Domnaig (Law of Sunday).

    The majority of secular law tracts, written in Irish, were redacted between around 650 and around 750. A collection of vernacular law tracts called the Senchas Már (the “Great Tradition”) appears to have been compiled in the northern midlands. A separate group of “poetico-legal” texts called the “Nemed school” probably originated in Munster. These law tracts reveal a great deal about the hierarchical nature of early Irish society and social custom. They discuss social rank and status, kinship structure, distribution of inheritance, rights to property, making and enforcing of contracts, the grading of professions, and so on. It is significant that the law tracts tended to be compiled during the same period that saw the spread of ecclesiastical literature.

    KINGSHIP

    The study of early Irish politics is made difficult by the proliferation of names of petty kings, none of whom ever clearly rose to prominence. The genealogies and regional king-lists preserved from early Irish sources are particularly rich when compared to other parts of medieval Western Europe. Part of the problem can be understood by recognizing that the Irish word translated as “king” (rí) does not designate a centralized, powerful monarch, as we might encounter on the continent, for example. Instead, it is used to describe the leader of any small local group based on blood kinship (tuath). These groups existed in varying hierarchical relationships to one another so that a local “king” might be a vassal to a stronger “king” in the next valley, and that neighboring “king” would in turn be subject to a regional “king” who might control, at least nominally, an entire province.

    The politico-geographical divisions of Ireland have a long history, whether the divide is between north (Leth Cuinn) and south (Leth Moga) or into the provinces that exist to this day: Ulster, Connacht, Munster, and Leinster. The notion that one king could rule all of Ireland—usually called the “High King of Tara”—had developed by our period, although it remained an ideal rather than a reality. Nevertheless, this ideal implies the incipient concept of an Irish nation encompassing the entire island.

    The idealized concept of kingship was circumscribed by certain inherited proscriptions. For example, a king must not be physically blemished, as this implied an imperfection in his reign. The sacral character of kingship is shown by the idea that a just, righteous king would have a peaceful, prosperous reign; his “king’s truth” (fír flathemon) guaranteed the land’s fertility. Sovereignty, as an abstract concept, was portrayed as a female so that a king, when he assumed the kingship, symbolically married his kingdom.

    Kingship was not based on a strict father to son (or closest male relative) succession, but rather eligibility for kingship was based on blood kinship extending over several generations. This meant that grandsons and great-grandsons might be eligible to contend for the kingship if they could muster support from relatives and political allies. This system appears on the surface to provide a democratic method of selecting the most qualified and popular candidate, but it often led to social strife and political division.

    In the northern half of Ireland the Uí Néill dynasts dominated the political scene, but the Uí Néill must be understood as interrelated families who exerted the greatest political control. The Uí Néill themselves divided into northern and southern divisions, and each of these subdivided again into various branches. Each branch of the Uí Néill claimed descent from Niall of the Nine Hostages (Niall Noígiallach), a quasi-historical fifth-century character. The various branches of the Uí Néill, north and south, alternated as they supplied the high king of Tara, without any branch ever clearly predominating. Other dynastic families from other parts of Ireland frequently occupied the high kingship during this time as well.

    The hierarchical nature of early Irish society is well illustrated in this concept of descent through prominent families. It can be seen functioning in Irish monasteries as well. For example, nearly all of the abbots at Iona from Columba (+597) to Adomnán (+709) were descended from Columba’s own family, the Cenél Conaill branch of the northern Uí Néill.

    In Munster a high kingship was centered on the ecclesiastical site at Cashel, Co. Tipperary. The ruling dynastic families in Munster were known as the Éoganachta, descended from Corc of Cashel, a contemporary of Niall of the Nine Hostages. The Éoganachta of Munster, like the Uí Néill, divided into two major divisions, this time between east and west, and these two major branches had their own subdivisions. Connacht takes its name from the Connachta, a tribal group descended from Conn the Hundred-Battler (Conn Cétchathach), who is also an ancestor of Niall of the Nine Hostages. The Uí Briúin produced the major dynastic families of Connacht. In Leinster by the early historical period the Uí Cheinnselaig and Uí Dúnlainge were the families that dominated the region, but the major Leinster dynastic families had already passed their peak of influence.

    THE VIKING PERIODS

    In 795 the first recorded Norse raid took place on Ireland’s north coast. This Irish raid came soon after the first attacks in England. Iona was also attacked in 795 and again in 802. In 806 sixty-eight persons were killed at Iona by raiders. In 807 a new monastic community was begun at Kells, Co. Meath, and was completed by 814, by which time much of the administration had been moved from Iona to Kells. It was during this period or immediately before it that the magnificent illuminated manuscript, the Book of Kells, was completed.

    There are two great periods of Norse activity in Ireland. The first centers on the first four decades of the ninth century. During this period the incursion consisted primarily of hit-and-run raids conducted by fast-moving, seagoing Vikings. In the second half of the ninth century the Norse began establishing permanent settlements that eventually became important commercial and trade centers. These include modern port cities such as Dublin, Wicklow, Wexford, Waterford, Cork, and Limerick. Permanent Norse settlements were more prominent in the southern half of Ireland, in part because of the success of the northern Uí Néill at resisting their incursions.

    These Norse cities came to represent small kingdoms within Ireland that traded with, fought against, and in turn allied themselves with Irish kingdoms. By the early decades of the tenth century Irish kingdoms were often as not successful in their struggles against the Norse kingdoms. The Norse kingdoms tended to remain independent of each other and never presented a unified force against the Irish. The Norse in Ireland never controlled large areas the way they did in England, where vast territories came under the Danelaw. In France the entire province of Normandy memorializes the Norse kingdom that was established there and which eventually came to exert power over much of western Europe, including Ireland.

    The Battle of Clontarf (1014) has often been presented as the defeat of the Viking invaders by the Irish king Brian Boru. But, in fact, the battle represents the successful dynastic wars of the Uí Briain/O’Brien descendants of Brian Boru of Munster in their rise to supremacy and reveals Norse and Irish kingdoms allied with and against each other. The Uí Briain were allied with the Norse of Limerick against the Norse of Dublin and their Irish allies from Leinster. While Brian Boru’s victory (he was killed in the battle) may have marked the gradual demise of the Norse kingdom in Dublin, its real significance was the rise of the Uí Briain dynasts of Munster. With the decline of the Norse kingdoms we can recognize the outlines of modern Ireland emerging as the trading cities founded by the Norse continued to thrive.

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