I cannot adequately thank Professor Eoin MacNeill for generously allowing me to embody in my first chapter some of his researches on the history of the Scot wanderings between Scotland and Ireland; it is earnestly to be hoped that he will publish before long the results of his original work. I owe my warm thanks also to Mr. F. J. Bigger for his unstinted help in references and suggestions out of the stores of his topographical knowledge. I may mention as an instance the grave-stone in Kilclief churchyard carved with a Celtic cross, which he discovered while these pages were going through the press, so that I have been able to note it for the first time among Lecale antiquities. Mr. R. I. Best has rendered me more services than I can here tell, however gratefully I acknowledge them. The account of Ardglass has been re-printed with additions, by the kind permission of the Editor of the _Nation_. I have to thank the Editor of the _Nineteenth Century_ for leave to add the article on Tradition in History, which is inserted at the request of readers in Ireland. To prevent mistake I may add a word of explanation that the map, or rather diagram, which is entitled Scandinavian Trade Routes, contains not only those lines of sea-commerce, but also an indication of the ways across Europe which were used by Irish travellers from earlier times. The difference between these routes is clearly indicated in the text. ALICE STOPFORD GREEN. _April 25, 1912._ IN MEMORY OF THE IRISH DEAD CONTENTS Page I. THE WAY OF HISTORY IN IRELAND 1 II. THE TRADE ROUTES OF IRELAND 63 III. A GREAT IRISH LADY 100 IV. A CASTLE AT ARDGLASS 130 V. TRADITION IN IRISH HISTORY 168 THE OLD IRISH WORLD CHAPTER I THE WAY OF HISTORY IN IRELAND