[330] Find.—­Ib. vol. iii. p. 275.

[331] Usher’s Island.—­This was once a fashionable resort.  Moira House stood here.  It was ornamented so beautifully, that John Wesley observed, when visiting Lady Moira, that one of the rooms was more elegant than any he had seen in England.  Here, in 1777, Charles Fox was introduced to Grattan.  Poor Pamela (Lady Edward FitzGerald) was at Moira House on the evening of her husband’s arrest; and here she heard the fatal news on the following morning, her friends having concealed it from her until then.  In 1826 it was converted into a mendicity institution, and all its ornamental portions removed.

[332] Defeated.—­O’Neill’s bard, MacNamee, wrote a lament for the chieftains who fell in this engagement.  He states that the head of “O’Neill, King of Tara, was sent to London;” and attributes the defeat of the Irish to the circumstance of their adversaries having fought in coats-of-mail, while they had only satin shirts:—­

“Unequal they entered the battle, The Galls and the Irish of Tara; Fair satin shirts on the race of Conn, The Galls in one mass of iron.”

He further deplores the removal of the chief’s noble face from Down, lamenting that his resurrection should not be from amongst the limestone-covered graves of the fathers of his clan at Armagh.

[333] MacCarthy.—­Four Masters, vol. iii. p. 389.

[334] Ulster.—­The Annals of Innisfallen say he obtained this title in 1264, after his marriage with Maud, daughter of Hugh de Lacy the younger.

[335]

Ladies.—­“Tantz bele dames ne vi en fossee, Mult fu cil en bon sire nee, Re purreit choisir a sa volonte.”

[336]

Clergy.—­“E les prestres, quant on chante, Si vont ovrir au fosse, E travellent mut durement, Plus qe ne funt autre gent.”

This ballad has been published, with a translation by W. Crofton Croker.

CHAPTER XXI.

Reign of Edward I.—­Social State of Ireland—­English Treachery—­Irish Chieftains set at Variance—­The Irish are refused the Benefit of English Law—­Feuds between the Cusacks and the Barretts—­Death of Boy O’Neill—­The Burkes and the Geraldines—­Quarrel between FitzGerald and De Vesci—­Possessions obtained by Force or Fraud—­Why the Celt was not Loyal—­The Governors and the Governed—­Royal Cities and their Charters—­Dublin Castle, its Officers, Law Courts—­A Law Court in the Fourteenth Century—­Irish Soldiers help the English King—­A Murder for which Justice is refused—­Exactions of the Nobles—­Invasion of Bruce—­Remonstrance to the Pope—­The Scotch Armies withdrawn from Ireland.

[A.D. 1271—­1326.]