The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1898-06-15
A QUESTION OF HISTORY.

Scandinavian peninsula had contributed
enormously to the population of all the
countries Of Europe. The able editor
of the Irish Standard" of Minneapolis,
did us the honor to republish our adj
dress in eXtenso and comment upon it
terms
In another column Of his paper he
makes this point:
Says Ignatius Donnelly: The wife Of
Brian Boru was Scandinavian, and his
da sg married a man of that race called
kindly. give in the columns Of The Repre-
sentative his authority for that statement?
We would refer him to THE History
of the Viceroys of Ireland, by ]. T. Gill
bert, Dublin, 1865" page 5, where we
find the following statement:
"The intimate connections existing
between the Irish and the Scandinav-
ians, in the eleventh century, are exem-
plified in the marriage Of Melsachlin
II, monarch of Ireland, to the daughter
of Olaf, Morse king of Dublin. After
Olafs DEATH his widow, Gormly,
or Kormolda, married Melsachin,
and subsequently became the wife
of Brian Borumha, who espoused
his own daughter to Sigtrig
of the silken beard king OF Dublin, son
of Gormly by Olaf"
The Scandinavian "sagas" are full Of
illusions to the intimate relations which
\ ic%o
Irish.
The Scandinavians established their
settlement in Dublin in A. D. 836. and
built dun" or fortress there. They
were called by the Irish ''the figures of
Ath Cliath. Dublin was known as
-cliath, the town of the ford
OF hurdles; the hurdles were made of
tWlgs and branches Of trees and used
as rude floating bridge
The same authority Just quoted says.
p. 4:
Many Of the important Scandinavian
settlers became allied and intermarried
with the natives, with whose interests
they thus grew Identified; consequently
In the majority of hostings and engage
ments from the ninth to the twelfth
century, Gaels and Norsemen were to
be found ranged on both Sides"
In the middle of the twelfth century.
when the Norman-English invaded Ire
land, Fitz-Gislebert beseiged Dublin,
then a Norwegian town, ruled over by
king named Hanskuld Mac Thorkel.
The English won in the fight: and
Hanskuld fled. This shows that dis
tinct Scandinavian occupancy of parts
OF Ireland continued down to the COM
Ing of the English.
IN 500, (see Keating's History Of Ire
land, VOL 2. p. 99). Torgesius or Thor
gesius, king of Norway. became king of
! Ireland, and held possession of the
whole island for IL years. Heating
says: "A soldier was billeted by author
ity upon every house and cottage,
throughout the whole kingdom. The
insolence and rapines of these common
soldiers were insupportable, for the
master Of the family had no power in
his own house; he could not command
the use OF hen or chicken of his
own, for fear of giving offence to this
rascally foreigner; whose vengeance he
dreaded, and whose resentment perhaps
would dispossess him Of all he had"
Such state of things in rude age
must have led to great mixture OF
races.
The Irish finally rose in rebellion
against this despotism. It is a curious
and interesting story
The old king, Torgesius, coveted thu
handsome daughter of the Irish king OF
Meath, his neighbor. and compelled him
to send her to his palace The Irish
king pretended to cheerfully acquiesce;
and offered to send with his daughte,
Is of the handomest girls in his king
dom. Torgesius was delighted, and in
vited Is OF his chief mobiles to receive
them. But when the princess came she
was accompanied not by girls, but by
Is beardless young warriors, dressed as
maidens, but armed with short swords
hidden under their garments; and the
impatient lovers finished their festivi
ties in the arms of death Torgesius
was killed and all his chief courtiers.
A general uprising followed and the
conqderors were in part, driven out Of
Ireland-but their blood was left In the
veins of tens of thousands of children;
and is represented today by millions OF
fair-haired and blue-eyed Irish men and
| women.
And fortunate for Ireland was it thai
such an intermixture of races took place
and fortunate for Scandinavia that col.
onies of Irishmen, in the remote past
invaded that PENINSULA and left behind
it great populations Of dark-haired and
dark-eyed people.
The surest guaranty of the greatness
of the American race Is found today, In
similar interfusion of stocks.
We visited the insane asylum q.
Omagh, Ireland, in 1888, and saw SOC
4