“Fierce and hard was the Wednesday
    On which hosts were strewn under the fall of shields;
    It shall be called, till judgment’s day,
    The destructive burning of Ath-cliath.”

The lamentation of Nial was, moreover, said:—­

    “Sorrowful this day is sacred Ireland,
    Without a valiant chief of hostage reign! 
    It is to see the heavens without a sun,
    To view Magh-Neill[205] without a Nial.”

    “There is no cheerfulness in the happiness of men;
    There is no peace or joy among the hosts;
    No fair can be celebrated
    Since the sorrow of sorrow died.”

Donough, son of Flann Sinna, succeeded, and passed his reign in obscurity, with the exception of a victory over the Danes at Bregia.  Two great chieftains, however, compensated by their prowess for his indifference; these were Muircheartach, son of the brave Nial Glundubh, the next heir to the throne, and Callaghan of Cashel, King of Munster.  The northern prince was a true patriot, willing to sacrifice every personal feeling for the good of his country:  consequently, he proved a most formidable foe to the Danish invader.  Callaghan of Cashel was, perhaps, as brave, but his name cannot be held up to the admiration of posterity.  The personal advancement of the southern Hy-Nials was more to him than the political advancement of his country; and he disgraced his name and his nation by leaguing with the invaders.  In the year 934 he pillaged Clonmacnois.  Three years later he invaded Meath and Ossory, in conjunction with the Danes.  Muircheartach was several times on the eve of engagements with the feeble monarch who nominally ruled the country, but he yielded for the sake of peace, or, as the chroniclers quaintly say, “God pacified them.”  After one of these pacifications, they joined forces, and laid “siege to the foreigners of Ath-cliath, so that they spoiled and plundered all that was under the dominion of the foreigners, from Ath-cliath to Ath-Truisten."[206]

In the twenty-second year of Donough, Muircheartach determined on a grand expedition for the subjugation of the Danes.  He had already conducted a fleet to the Hebrides, from whence he returned flushed with victory.  His first care was to assemble a body of troops of special valour; and he soon found himself at the head of a thousand heroes, and in a position to commence “his circuit of Ireland.”  The Danish chief, Sitric, was first seized as a hostage.  He then carried off Lorcan, King of Leinster.  He next went to the Munster men, who were also prepared for battle; but they too yielded, and gave up their monarch also, “and a fetter was put on him by Muircheartach.”  He afterwards proceeded into Connaught, where Conchobhar, son of Tadhg, came to meet him, “but no gyve or lock was put upon him.”  He then returned to Oileach, carrying these kings with him as hostages.  Here he feasted them for five months with knightly courtesy, and then sent them to the Monarch Donough.