The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1915-01-09
An Irish Champion of Women

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
st. Albanian has a place in our
ecclesiastical, our literary, and our
political history; he was one of Col
um-Cille's successors in Iona; he was
a friend of the Venerable Bede, and a
leader in the clerical party that broke
down the local usages that had grown
up since st. Patrick's time, and that
endeavored with ultimate success to
bring the Irish Church into more
direct contact with Western Chris
tianity. He wrote a life of Column
Cille in Latin, that is spoken of as
one of the most complete of medieval
biographies; and one of those Visions
that afterwards gave material for
Dante's epic, written in Irish, is also
attributed to him. His political activ-
ity was remarkable, and it seems to
have been in right direction. Stu
dents of Irish history are constantly
telling us that one of the things that
stood in the way of Irish union, was
the position of Leinster amongst the
Irish kingdoms. The kings that held
what may be called the imperial pow
er, constantly tried to draw tribute
that Leinster ever regarded as unjust.
Leinster was made sort Of Alsace-
Lorraine, and she entered into alli-
ances with outsiders. Albanian tried
to secure the repeal of the tribute.
He requested the High King not to
take it until "Luan." Now "Luan''
means Monday, but it also means the
Judgment Day. Adamnan's device
was not so futile as it now sounds.
A great deal depended on a kings
word in those days, and after giving
it to such an important person as
Albanian, the High King would find
it difficult to go on as if nothing had
happened. Adamnan's Intervention
did not save Leinster; it let's US see,
however, that he had something of
the statesman's vision.
A very honorable measure asso-
ciated with his name is the "Cain
Adamnain," or law of Albanian, which
later generations regarded as the char
ter of woman's freedom in Ireland.
The "Cain Adamnain," is written as
If applying to Britain also; among
the ninety notables who endorsed it
is Bishop Egbert and Bruide, king of
the Pict-folk." Adamnan's Law was
promulgated in the year 694-5.
The treatise on Adamnan's Law has
been translated into very eloquent
English by DR.. Kuno Meyer. It be-
gins with q most gloomy account of
the position of women in Ireland be-
fore Albanian was reused to better it.
The name for women generally was
"Cumhalacht," a word derived from
"Cumhal'-a bond woman. According
to the writer of this tenth-century
treatise, women had only very servile
position in the household, and they
were actually forced into military
service. The writer, wishing to give
Albanian greater glory, probably ex-
aggerates the distress, for the Irish
laws and romances do not bear out
his picture. But grave hardships must
have been inflicted upon women at
the time, and 1t seems certain that in
parts of the country they had to en-
gage in war. The writer of the treat
Use describes a woman going into bat
tie: ION one side of her she would
carry her bag Of provisions, and on
the other her babe. Her wooden pole
upon her back. Thirty feet long it
was, and had at one end an iron hook,
which she would thrust into the tress
of some woman in the opposite bat
talon" Give ages before the birth
of Christ" says the writer of the
treatise, "to wit, from Adam to the
Flood, from the Flood to Abraham,
from Abraham to David, from David
to the Captivity in Babylon, from the
Captivity to the Birth of Christ
during that time women were in bond
age and slavery, until Albanian, son
of Roman, son of Ffnne, son of Aed,
son of Colum, son of Lugaid, son Of
Seine, son of Fergus, son of Conall,
son of Mall, came"
The movement for the relief of wo-
men began in this way: Albanian,
travelling with his mother, offered to
carry her on his back. She refused his
help, saying that she would take no
favor from an undutiful son. Wherein
had he failed in his duty? Albanian
asked. He had failed, his mother told
him, because he had not liberated the
women of ireland, from encounter,
from camping, from fighting, from
hosting, from wounds, from the bond
age of the cauldron." They travelled
farther, and came to battlefield
that was strewn with the bodies of
women. Albanian by his sanctity was
able to raise up one of them. Mother
and son listened to her history, and
when Albanian showed himself much