The Irish standard., 1914-04-25
IRISH LEGENDS.
The Druids Of ireland.

of Druidism are inclined to hold the
view that it was purely philosophic
system whose main end was the at
tainment of knowledge, and that re-
ligion, in so far as it entered into the
system, was merely part and parcel
of that knowledge. This seems to be
sound view, and would accord with
the ready and eager acceptation of the
Christian Faith by the Pagan Irish,
and the small amount OF organized op.
position St. Patrick met with from the
Druids on his first coming to Ireland.
st. Patrick himself in his "Confes-
sions," a work which even the most
skeptical of critics is forced to regard
as authentic, expresses his amazement
at the numbers who flocked to CONVEX
sion (says the Irish Worldly. Had
the Druids been solely or even chiefly
devoted to the teaching of religious
dogma and the exercises of religious
functions, no human explanation will
adequately meet the fact of their
wholesale and almost immediate ma
tional conversion other than that the
Druids had been for long time pre-
viously sadly neglecting their duties,
or that miracle was wrought like
that after Penticost. Still less con-
vincing than these even is the ex-
PLANTATION adduced by Prof. Bury in his
Life of st. Patrick" that their almost
unquestioning reception of Christian
truth was due to the fact that the God
of the Christians was the God of the
great Roman Empire, and that this
union of Christ and Caesar was the
Christians most imposing argument
We are safe in stating that a people
who never knew physical fear before
the might of Imperial Rome at it's sum.
NIT of power would never allow Rome
in the fifth century to illumine by its
light or darken by its shadow the path
that led their souls to truth. The ra-
tional explanation, as far as it admits
of natural explanation, seems to lie
in the fact that the preachings of the
Druids left the minds of the people
free in their seeking after truth, and
to great extent guided them on the
way that led to it. We can only regret
that that self-imposed law which de-
barred the Druids themselves from
committing anything to writing has
deprived us of the true source of
knowledge which would put an end to
all controversy. But even from the
evidence we do possess it Is permits
sible to conclude that this system of
theirs so called allied in the tendency
in many Of its teachings to the great
pre-C Christian philosophic system of
Plato, was one suited to dispose the
mind of the Gael to embrace the sub
lime message which st. Patrick
brought. BY the great problem in
connection with our subject is con-
cerned with the nature of the sacrifice
of the Druids, was it human or other
wise. We strictly confine ourselves
here to consideration of the question
in SO far as it concerns Irish Druid,sm.
We know Caesar attributes human
sacrifice on a rather extensive scale to
the Gaelic Druidical rule; but we
should receive his testimony on this
point with much reserve, as he pro.
ceeds at once to state that: '.It is the
God Mercury they chiefly worship;
for Of him there are most images"
While we know that through all the
centuries from his time to our own
the remains of no idols or temples
have been discovered in Gaul that can
with any certainty be connected with
Druidism, many writer's, one follow
ing in the footsteps of another make
the assertion that all ancient records
containing any detail of Pagan wor-
ship were destroyed by the early Irish
Christians, that the Irish Saints were
so many Cromwells stalking over the
land bent on the effacement of all
traces of the old religion of the Gael.
If that be true we might ask why these
saints allowed to remain many things
on the pages of these records which
one would have imagined saints should
have removed. But the statement is
a gratuitous one. There were no re-
ligfous records to preserve, for the
Druids never committed doctrines or
ritual to writing, but were opposed to
such course, and it may be assumed
that they took precautions to have
their will observed by others in this
manner, SO that neither the Gaulish
Druids nor their Irish brethren have
left us single line to raise this cues.
tion from the pale of theory and con-
lecture. The references to sacrifices
of any kind in our post Christian an
nails and literature, SO far as has yet
been discovered, are very few and un-
satisfactory. In the account of the
destruction of Brudin Da Derga, the
greatest Of the six great centers of
hospitality In ancient Ireland. which
was near Tallaght, County Dublin, 1t
is related that when Conaire Nor, the
King of Erin, hurried from Tara to