The Irish standard., 1916-02-19
thirty years together, ought to have
been executed Is public state robber
and parricide.

son and grandson Of Dermod as hos
ages for his future fidelity, dismisse
his troops into their several cour
tries. By this step he increased tn
faction and justified the opposition
against his Government. He raise
enemies for himself and the natio
more dangerous than any which
foreign Power could bring into tn
field against either and he lost tn
affection Of many real friends of both
II it were not presumption to recu
to an extraordinary act of Dtyin
Providence in the punishment of ,
perverse nation, while natural cause
are sufficient, one would not scrupl,
against ascribing the infatuation O
our councils at this time to pecula
judgment from heaven.
Dermod by gaining time gained ey
erything. He strengthened his inter
est at home by dispensing and diyid
ing his enemies and raised the hone.
OF the enemies of the nation by prom
Using much and granting a great deal
from time to time he stole some for
eign troops into Hy-kinsellagh, and a,
length brought over the Earl of Penn
broke, very considerable person, a,
the head of small but well chosen
army, who took Waterford by assault
and put seven hundred of the citi
zens to the sword.
The unfortunate Roderic discovered
MS mistake too late. Part of the
South Hy-Niall Joined the common
enemy; the O'Briens and all Dal.Cas
turned their arms against him, and
the Danes of Dublin betrayed him.
In this situation he did but little,
Instead of maintaining his ground in
Lefnster he was reduced to the neces.
sity of defending his own country of
Hy-Brune against an enemy whom he
rather dislodged than defeated.
The King of England, hearing of
the success of the Earl of Pembroke,
grew jealous that game was snatch
Ing out Of his hands which, if oppor.
tunity favored, he reserved to himself
the honor of playing; he therefore now
pulled off the mask and invaded Ire.
land with well-equipped fleet of four
hundred ships.
Henry was no sooner landed than
he found powerful party here to
fight his battles and wreak their re.
venge on the King of Ireland, by
whose arms they were so often dis
comfited. This match. therefore, be-
tween Henry and Roderic was UNI.
equal, and the latter, after several
brave but Intellectual struggles, was
obliged to submit.
Called away early out of Ireland to
suppress the rebellion of his sons,
Henry made no great progress in the
conquest of it. He therefore left this
unhappy kingdom in worse situation
than he found it.
The colonies planted here at that
time were motley mixture of Nor.
mans, Flemings, Saxons and old Brit.
ons, all tainted with the rude man.
ners of that ignorant age, but suffi-
GENTLY imbued with the martial spirit
OF their ancestors. They lived here
in a continual state of warfare with
the natives or with one another.
In the course of time many of this
race of newcomers entered into alli-
ances with the old natives and seemed
to coalite into one people. The fewer
In number overborne by the greater
lost their original language. and both
from the additional fierceness &C.
quired by the long state of anarchy
and the concord acquired by political
distresses common to each, grew tur.
bulent to a degree which threatened
some new revolution and the loss of
the whole island to England by the
posterity of those by whom it was
first partly mastered.
To obviate as much as possible SO
alarming danger to the neighboring
isle, regulations were made to treat
the English, thus allied with the Irish,
as rebels, and to render the disjunc.
ton of the latter more effectual, the
Irish themselves were no longer to be
treated as subjects, but as enemies
and aliens, to whom the benefit of the
English laws was by no means to ex.
tend, with ridiculous exception, how.
ever, to five prime families, *as If all
the rest were more criminal or more
powerful, although in fact they were
less so. Thus, to reclaim one part of
the nation, the other was devoted to
destruction. And l believe no history
ancient or modern, can furnish a par.
allel to this bloody prescription
whether we consider its duration OF
the systematical series Of cool, de
liberate, infiexiblc injustice with which
1t was conducted.
After the utter overthrow OF the
Irish Oeconomy under Roderic, it is
certain that no measure could be more
eligible or happy than a new settle
ment on the old Saxon plan of gov
eminent, the benefit of which the Irish
once enjoyed, and what they inces
sanity demanded from age to age OF
the Court of England, but all theil