LIBERALISM L.T. HOBHOUSE, M.A. CRIME AND INSANITY DR. C.A. MERCIER, F.R.C.P., F.R.C.S. *** Other volumes in active preparation IRISH NATIONALITY BY ALICE STOPFORD GREEN AUTHOR OF "TOWN LIFE IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY" "HENRY II," "THE MAKING OF IRELAND," ETC. [Illustration] NEW YORK HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY LONDON WILLIAMS AND NORGATE COPYRIGHT, 1911, BY HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A. CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE I THE GAELS IN IRELAND 7 II IRELAND AND EUROPE 29 III THE IRISH MISSION 40 IV SCANDINAVIANS IN IRELAND 57 V THE FIRST IRISH REVIVAL 77 VI THE NORMAN INVASION 96 VII THE SECOND IRISH REVIVAL 111 VIII THE TAKING OF THE LAND 125 IX THE NATIONAL FAITH OF THE IRISH 141 X RULE OF THE ENGLISH PARLIAMENT 158 XI THE RISE OF A NEW IRELAND 182 XII AN IRISH PARLIAMENT 198 XIII IRELAND UNDER THE UNION 219 SOME IRISH WRITERS ON IRISH HISTORY 255 IN MEMORY OF THE IRISH DEAD IRISH NATIONALITY CHAPTER I THE GAELS IN IRELAND Ireland lies the last outpost of Europe against the vast flood of the Atlantic Ocean; unlike all other islands it is circled round with mountains, whose precipitous cliffs rising sheer above the water stand as bulwarks thrown up against the immeasurable sea. It is commonly supposed that the fortunes of the island and its civilisation must by nature hang on those of England. Neither history nor geography allows this theory. The life of the two countries was widely separated. Great Britain lay turned to the east; her harbours opened to the sunrising, and her first traffic was across the narrow waters of the Channel and the German Sea. But Ireland had another aspect; her natural harbours swelled with the waves of the Atlantic, her outlook was over the ocean, and long before history begins her sailors braved the perils of the Gaulish sea. The peoples of Britain, Celts and English, came to her from the opposite lowland coasts; the people of Ireland crossed a wider ocean-track, from northern France to the shores of the Bay of Biscay. The two islands had a different history; their trade-routes were not the same; they lived apart, and developed apart their civilisations.