Dermot son of Fergus Kervall became High-king in 544.  A chief named Aed Guairy murdered one of Dermot’s officers, and sought sanctuary with St. Ruadan of Lorrha, one of Findian’s twelve apostles, to whom he was related.  The king hailed him forth, and brought him to Tara for trial.  Thereupon the whole Church of Ireland rose to a man against the mere layman, the king, who had dared thus defy the spiritual powers.  They came to Tara in a body, fasted against him, and laid their heavy curse on him, on Tara, and, in the result, on the kingship.—­“Alas!” said Dermot, “for the iniquitous contest that ye have waged against me, seeing that it is Ireland’s good I pursue, and to preserve her discipline and royal right; but it is Ireland’s unpeace and murderousness ye endeavor after.” *

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* I quote this from Mr. Rollerstone’s book.
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Which was true.  The same trouble came up in England six centuries later, and might have ended in the same way.  But the dawn of a manvantara was approaching then, and the centrifugal forces in England were slowly giving place to the centripetal:  national unity was ahead, and the first two strong Williams and Henrys were able in the main to assert their kingly supremacy.  But in the Irish time not manvantara, but pralaya, was coming; and this not for Ireland only, but for all Europe.  In the natural order of things, the centrifugal forces were increasing always.  That is why Dermot MacKervall failed, where Henry II in part suceeded.  There was nothing in the cycles to support him against the saints.  Tara, accursed, was abandoned, and fell into ruin; and the symbol and center of Irish unity was gone.  The High-kingship, thus bereft of its traditional seat, grew weaker and weaker; and Ireland, except by Brian Boru, a usurper, was never after effectively governed.  So when the Norsemen came there was no strong secular power to defend the monasteries from them, and the karma of St. Ruadan’s churchly arrogance and ambition fell on them.  And when Strongbow and the Normans came, there was no strong central monarchy to oppose them:  the king of Leinster invited them in, and the king of Ireland lacked the backing of a united nation to drive them out; and Ireland fell.

Well; we have seen how often things tend to repeat themselves,—­ but on a higher level,—­after the lapse of fifteen centuries.  Patrick, probably, was born in or about 387.  In 1887 or thereabouts Theosophy was brought into Ireland.  Patrick’s coming led eventually to the period of the Irish illumination; the coming of Theosophy led in a very few years to the greatest Irish illumination, in poetry and drama especially, that had been since Ireland fell.  But Patrick did not complete things; nor did that first touch of Theosophy in the ’eighties and ’nineties of last century.  Theosophy, known in those days only to a score or so of Irishmen, kindled wonderful fires:  you know that English literature is more alive in Ireland now than anywhere