Irish Nationality

								

the wonder of the old and of the modern world. Many influences had
come in--Oriental, Byzantine, Scandinavian, French--and the Irish took
and used them all, but their art still remained Gaelic, of their
native soil. No jeweller's work was ever more perfect than the Ardagh
chalice of the ninth or tenth century, of pure Celtic art with no
trace of Danish influence. The metal-workers of Munster must have been
famous, from the title of "king Cellachan of the lovely cups"; and the
golden case that enclosed the Gospel of Columcille in 1000 was for its
splendour "the chief relic from the western world." The stone-workers,
too, carried on their art. There were schools of carvers eminent for
skill, such as that of Holy Island on Lough Derg. One of the churches
of Clonmacnois may date from the ninth century, five others from the
tenth; finely sculptured gravestones commemorated saints and scholars;
and the high-cross, a monolith ten feet high set up as a memorial to
king Flann about 914, was carved by an Irish artist who was one of the
greatest sculptors of northern Europe.
The temper of the people was shown in their hero-king Brian Boru,
warrior and scholar. His government was with patience, mercy and
justice. "King Brian thrice forgave all his outlaws the same fault,"
says a Scandinavian saga, "but if they misbehaved themselves oftener,
then he let them be judged by the law; and from this one may mark what
a king he must have been." "He sent professors and masters to teach
wisdom and knowledge, and to buy books beyond the sea and the great
ocean, because the writings and books in every church and sanctuary
had been destroyed by the plunderers; and Brian himself gave the price
of learning and the price of books to every one separately who went on
this service. Many churches were built and repaired by him, bridges
and roads were made, the fortresses of Munster were strengthened."
Such was the astonishing vitality of learning and art among the Irish.
By their social system the intellectual treasures of the race had
been distributed among the whole people, and committed to their care.
And the Irish tribes had proved worthy guardians of the national
faith. They had known how to profit by the material skill and
knowledge of the Danes. Irishmen were willing to absorb the
foreigners, to marry with them, and even at times to share their wars.
They learned from them to build ships, organise naval forces, advance
in trade, and live in towns; they used the northern words for the
parts of a ship, and the streets of a town. In outward and material
civilisation they accepted the latest Scandinavian methods, just as in
our days the Japanese accepted the latest Western inventions. But in
what the Germans call culture--in the ordering of society and law, of
life and thought, the Irish never abandoned their national loyalty.
During two centuries of Danish invasions and occupations the Gaelic