Irish Nationality

								

power of defence which made conquest by the foreigner impossible; he
had first to exterminate the entire people. The same division into
administrative districts gave also a singular authority to law. In
mediæval states, however excellent were the central codes, they were
only put in force just so far as the king had power to compel men to
obey, and that power often fell very far short of the nominal
boundaries of his kingdom. But in Ireland every community and every
individual was interested in maintaining the law of the people, the
protection of the common folk; nor were its landmarks ever submerged
or destroyed. Irish land laws, for example, in spite of the changes
that gradually covered the land with fenced estates, did actually
preserve through all the centuries popular rights--fixity of rates for
the land, fixity of tenure, security of improvement, refusal to allow
great men to seize forests for their chase: under this people's law no
Peasant Revolt ever arose, nor any rising of the poor against their
lords. Rights of inheritance, due solemnities of election, were
accurately preserved. The authority and continuity of Irish law was
recognised by wondering Englishmen--"They observe and keep such laws
and statutes which they make upon hills in their country firm and
stable, without breaking them for any favour or reward," said an
English judge. "The Irish are more fearful to offend the law than the
English or any other nation whatsoever."
The tribal system had another benefit for Irishmen--the diffusion of a
high intelligence among the whole people. A varied education, spread
over many centres, fertilized the general life. Every countryside that
administered its own affairs must of needs possess a society rich in
all the activities that go to make up a full community--chiefs,
doctors, soldiers, judges, historians, poets, artists and craftsmen,
skilled herds, tillers of the ground, raisers and trainers of horses,
innkeepers, huntsmen, merchants, dyers and weavers and tanners. In
some sequestered places in Ireland we can still trace the settlements
made by Irish communities. They built no towns nor needed any in the
modern sense. But entrenchments of earth, or "raths," thickly gathered
together, mark a site where men lived in close association. Roads and
paths great and small were maintained according to law, and boats
carried travellers along rivers and lakes. So frequent were the
journeys of scholars, traders, messengers from tribe to tribe, men
gathering to public assemblies, craftsmen, dealers in hides and wool,
poets, men and women making their circuit, that there was made in
early time a "road-book" or itinerary, perhaps some early form of map,
of Ireland.
This life of opportunity in thickly congregated country societies gave
to Ireland its wide culture, and the incredible number of scholars and
artificers that it poured out over Europe with generous ardour. The