THE IRISH AGE OF GOLD

From Irish Ideas by William O'Brien, 1893

Page 144

THE IRISH AGE OF GOLD

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after times. Her monks gave their names to dioceses as far south as Sicily and as far eastwards as Lithuania, She enjoyed more peace at home than ever she has derived from foreign rulers, from Strongbow down to Mr. Balfour. She extended her power, her language, her creed over Highland Scotland, over the Isle of Man, over Northumberland and Western Wales, sometimes by arms, mostly by superior learning, piety, and social charm. Life was simple, pious, healthy, whole-hearted. Law and order were enforced with a minuteness that moves the astonishment of modern lawgivers. Every parish had its official house of public entertainment, whose curator was obliged to keep a fire ever-burning, and a pot full of good cheer ever-cooking thereon. The size of an hospital ward, the bath arrangements, the physician's fees, were all rigidly dictated. The law apportioned the support of shipwrecked mariners carefully amongst the people of the district who would have any claim for salvage. The full university course for doctors of law, poetry, or music extended over twelve years. The power exercised by the Order of Poets, although it led to abuses, was perhaps the most extraordinary triumph of culture over arms to be found in the history of the world. In most other European countries the Church was the only power that stood between the brutal barons and the enslaved masses. In Ireland barons and even monarchs shrank before the bards —the Fourth Estate of their day—even as an English Ministry shrinks from a chorus of condemnation from the London newspapers. An Ullave of the Poetic Art, clad in his white-feathered cloak, was entitled to make the circuit of Ireland like a monarch, and demand free quarters for his retinue, his horses, and dogs. The democratic lawgiver provided that the demand could only be made from … continue reading »

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