The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Story Of Ireland, by Emily Lawless

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

Title: The Story Of Ireland

Author: Emily Lawless

Release Date: April 5, 2004 [EBook #11917]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF IRELAND ***

Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Charlie Kirschner and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team.

[Illustration: HOLY ISLAND LOUGH DERG. (_From a painting by Watkins._)]

The Story of the Nations

THE

STORY OF IRELAND

BY

THE HON. EMILY LAWLESS

AUTHOR OF "HURRISH: A STUDY," ETC

WITH SOME ADDITIONS BY

MRS. ARTHUR BRONSON

NEW YORK

LONDON

1896

To

THE EARL OF DUFFERIN, K.P., G.C.B., F.R.S., &c.,

VICEROY OF INDIA.

* * * * *

SGEUL NA H-EIREANN

DON EIREANNACH AS FIU.

PREFACE.

Irish history is a long, dark road, with many blind alleys, many sudden
turnings, many unaccountably crooked portions; a road which, if it has a
few sign-posts to guide us, bristles with threatening notices, now upon
the one side and now upon the other, the very ground underfoot being
often full of unsuspected perils threatening to hurt the unwary.

To the genuine explorer, flushed with justified self-confidence, well
equipped for the journey, and indifferent to scratches or bruises, one
may suppose this to be rather an allurement than otherwise, as he spurs
along, lance at rest, and sword on side. To the less well-equipped
traveller, who has no pretensions to the name of explorer at all, no
particular courage to boast of, and whose only ambition is to make the
way a little plainer for some one travelling along it for the first
time, it is decidedly a serious impediment, so much so as almost to
scare such a one from attempting the _role_ of guide even in the
slightest and least responsible capacity.

Another and perhaps even more formidable objection occurs. A history
beset with such distracting problems, bristling with such thorny
controversies, a history, above all, which has so much bearing upon that
portion of history which has still to be born, ought, it may be said, to
be approached in the gravest an