Chapter 8
7 th and 8 th Centuries, and a wee bit of the 9 th A.C.
The Irish indeed produced many a grand Saint in those early Christian years, but they did not outnumber the sinners. There was no decline in the manufacture of weapons or of drink, and drink was and is a terrible thing, or so I have been told. Tis an invention of the devil himself, for the sole purpose of destroying the minds and souls of great men, and many more that are not so great at all. Now it is well known that the Danes, kin of the Fomorians, those Scandinavians out of deep darkest Africa, were great drinkers, and wouldn’t that be the reason for all the pillage and murder and rapine that they brought to this God loving and peaceful land? Aye, that it would, and with there only a wee drop left in this bottle here, let you and me be emptying it, so we’ll not be tempted by the evil stuff, and Satan himself can work no harm as we start our tale so...now hand me your glass!
We’ll start our history here, when mighty Kings were spending their time murdering and being murdered, with Niall, known as Hy-Nialls and his decendants. Now it is well known that the southern and northern branches were constantly fighting each other, when they were not fighting and killing anyone else that happened to be passing by.
One, a fellow named Cornall Guthvin, of the southern branch of the clan, achieved a wee bit of fame at this time when two Kings were ruling jointly by murdering both of them. One thing you could be saying about him was that he never was afraid of a bit of hard work.
In about 623, King Suivne was murdered by a Congal Caech, King of Ulidia, who then lost a mighty battle with Suivne’s successor, but kept his head by escaping to Britain, of all bloody places. Here, with promises of blood, loot and women, he recruited a mercenary army of Saxons, Britons, Picts (aye, there was still one or two about), and some Scots from Argyle, who really couldn’t see a reason why they should not kill a few of their relatives in Ireland for the chance of profit, as is well known with those people…always trying to get the last drop of blood from a penny, and putting coin before kin. Hell, a Scots love of money is more so than the Irish love of drink…and better to be wearing a woman’s hand-me-downs then buy pants, just to save a penny, is a highlanders thought.
Somehow Congal really didn’t put a lot of thinking in his battle plans, spending his time chasing women, drink and the Picts, just for the fun of it, and thought it would be best to attack Donnell, king of the northern Hy-Nialls, a terrible hard man, and one that had never lost a fight.
This battle lasted six day and as many nights, fought about Magh Rath in County Down, and as always, all having a grand time till most of Congal’s mercenaries, his kinmen and himself fell, and again as always, a plague arrived (the Irish never did like cleaning up after a party) which lasted for ten years and it is said that many a good soul, and many not so good died of it. Now there were some that was believing this a good thing, as there were to many people and not enough food. Others believed the clergy prayed for a thinning out of the inferior multitude’s who were doing all the eating…but God himself wasn’t pleased with the prayer and sending an angel to arrange a pestilence which would be tinning everyone out, including the holy men themselves.
Myself, I’m not believing it at all…if that story was being put about at that time, ‘twas done by lying heathens and motherless wonders for the sole purpose of discrediting the poor messengers of God. Who here has ever heard of a member of the clergy doing any soul a wrong! Wasn’t it Saint Ultan of Ardbraccan who establish the first orphan asylum for the children whose mothers died of the plague? Fed them with milk through the teats of cows, he did, which he cut off for that purpose.
Wouldn’t it have been better if he’d left them on you may ask, and I’d say no it would not! Cruelty to dumb animals that would have been. My God, can you imagine the poor feelings of a cow with a crying baby held upside down underneath it? Oh, his way was the best I’m believing…don’t people, even backward England, still do it till this day with teats made artificially? Would you be having the mothers of today talking their wee ones to the cowyard and frightening the wits out of every heifer in the bloody country? I think not…so then don’t be questioning the wisdom of good Saint Ultan…and don’t be getting me on any more improbable stories angels., pestilences and the holy saint’s themselves…there is no room in history for unbelieving heathen superstition.
Aye, and let us not be forgetting Saint Moling. He preached the abolition of the cow tribute, which he believed wasn’t worth all the years of trouble and bloodshed it had caused. Saint Adamon was responsible for the adoption of a law that called for the ending of killing of women…called: “The Law To Stop Killing Women”, it was presumed that in return for this piece of advanced social legislation women would restrain themselves from the killing of men, and has been known for saving the lives of many a son of ol’ Ireland!
Aye many other saints were operating schools as others roamed the world, preaching the holy words of Patrick himself “…lower you shields and you will be assimilated…Your biological and technological distinctiveness will be added to our own…Resistance is futile!”, they began establishing monasteries and acquiring reputations for holiness and for peaceful intentions…for what place, anywhere on this planet that an Irishman has set foot and not made it a wee bit better…well, for himself and his.
Saint Columbanus built a monastery at Bovium in the Apennines, and the village of San Columbano is named after him, and the city of St Gallen, near Lake Constance in Switzerland, is named after a disciple of his. Then there was Saint Fiacre who built a monastery near Meaux in France…aye, are not the horsedrawn vehicles, called ‘fiacres’, taking the crowds about the place not named after him? And what of Saint Virgilius, who was the first person to teach that the world was round, and got into a wee bit of trouble for it, and in so doing, talked his way out of it, as always the way with a people with a persuasive tongue, making him bishop of Salzburg right then and there. Irish saints also established a colony in Iceland, called Thule, but some unbelieving heathen pagans like the Norwegians have dispersed this.
It was written at this time by one historian that it was an age of simplicity and fervour and may well be called the golden age of Ireland, for while the heathen barbarian swarms were inundating Europe, each wave of desolation plunging the nations over which it passed in social chaos and demoralization, ol’ Erinn was engaged in prayer and study, and the general gloom of Europe only made her light shine the more brilliantly by contrast, and enhanced her glorious distinction as the ‘Island of Saint’.
Of course…it’s believed he was an Irish historian!
impressing!! like it!!!
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