Volume 1

Tracts relating to Ireland.

Date:
1841-1843
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Tracts relating to Ireland. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    day on wliich they plundered Armagh; the tenth, his killing of Kineth Caur, King of Ive-Leary, in Meath; and the eleventh and last, his slaughter of the Ulidians, when he carried olf three hundred of their heads. It is curious that in this poem the death of Muircheartach, or the manner of it, is not mentioned; but the object of the poem was to give a catalogue of the triumphs of the great kings and warriors of the race of Eoghan, and, there- fore, does not take any notice of their disasters or deaths. His character is eloquently drawn from these materials by the venerable Charles O’Conor, of Belanagare, who may well be pardoned if, in his zeal for the honour of his country and her ancient chieftains, he has somewhat exag- gerated the merits of a hero, certainly most eminent in his day for consistent patriotism and valour, and who had not received that justice from the popular historians of Ireland to which he seems to have been in all fairness entitled. O’Conor’s account of him is as follows: “ Two extraordinary characters distinguish these times: their rank, their birth, and their abilities, would bring them forward, and give them the lead in times of the greatest eclat: Callaghan, oy Cellachan of Cashel, King of Munster ; wad. Mur- kertach, the Roydamna we have just mentioned: the one was artful, insinuating, and popular; the other generous, resentful, and sincere. Cellachan turned out an enemy to his country; Murkertagh sacrificed every just resentment to its interests. Having taken such difierent sides, the one endeavoured to ensnare the other by negociation, and became the victim of his own treachery. Mur- kertagh seized on him, in the midst of his own province, and brought him a captive to Tyrone. Never did one enemy experience more generosity in another. “ Murkertagh made improvements in the art of war. His character lyes entombed in the history of a people, hardly enquired after in our own time. He had as great a genius for war, as any man that this island has, perhaps, ever produced. The endowments of his heart were still greater. He, for some time, valued himself and his party too much; but loving his country more, he relented, and reconciled himself to his sovereign and brother-in-law” {recti father-in-law.] “ Thenceforward he never relapsed into faction. Of all enemies, he was the most generous; of all commanders, the most affable. He never descended from his dig- nity ; but reconciled famiharity to a rank, which, in the ordinary course of things, must be kept separate from it. Elevated, benevolent, and captivating, he was unhappily
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