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Raspberry Pi Networking Cookbook Golden Digital
Instant Download
Author(s): Golden, Richard
ISBN(s): 9781849694605, 1849694605
Edition: New edition
File Details: PDF, 10.87 MB
Year: 2013
Language: english
www.it-ebooks.info
Raspberry Pi
Networking Cookbook

An epic collection of practical and engaging recipes for

the Raspberry Pi!

Rick Golden

BIRMINGHAM - MUMBAI

www.it-ebooks.info
Raspberry Pi Networking Cookbook

Copyright © 2013 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher,
except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the
information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without
warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing, and its dealers
and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or
indirectly by this book.

Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies
and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt
Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

First published: March 2013

Production Reference: 1270213

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

Livery Place
35 Livery Street
Birmingham B3 2PB, UK.

ISBN 978-1-84969-460-5

www.packtpub.com

Cover Image by Faiz Fattohi (faizfattohi@gmail.com)

www.it-ebooks.info
 Credits

Author Project Coordinator

Rick Golden Anurag Banerjee

Reviewers Proofreader
Hector Cuesta-Arvizu Jonathan Todd
Shea Silverman
Indexer
Acquisition Editor Monica Ajmera Mehta
Erol Staveley
Production Coordinator
Lead Technical Editor Shantanu Zagade
Mayur Hule
Cover Work
Technical Editors Shantanu Zagade
Sharvari Baet
Devdutt Kulkarni

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 About the Author

Rick Golden sat in the computer lab at SUNY Fredonia and completed his first CAI tutorial
for programming in APL. It was the summer of 1972; he was nine years old.

Most of the programming that he has done since then has been in Algol-based languages
such as PL/I, FORTRAN, BASIC, Pascal, C, C++, C#, Objective C, and Java. He did occasionally
write code in languages such as APL, FORTH, LISP, and Scheme; however, he could not find
an employer that would actually pay him to develop solutions using those non-structured
languages. In recent years he has had more success introducing organizations to scripting
languages such as Python, Perl, TCL, Ruby, Groovy, and Node.js.

He also had the privilege to work in many different domains applying leading technologies
through each cutting-edge wave of structured programming, architectural frameworks,
and design patterns. He has championed distributed computing, scripting languages, SOA,
browser applications, CMS, ESBs, web services, nosql and map-reduce, top-down structured
approach, UML, use cases, XP - extreme programming, iterative development, and agile
development. And, he is still moving forward.

Now, as he approaches his 40th year as a programmer, software architect, and product
manager—a career that has spanned eighty percent of his life. He greatly enjoys guiding and
coaching the next generation of programmers and software architects—awakening others to
the same joy and passion for computing that he has had for the past 40 years.

I'd like to thank my family for giving me the space to complete this book.
They have always been supportive and remain my biggest fans.
I'd also like to thank my colleagues Corny, David, Darren, and Pete who have
always been available for advice and snippets of code when I needed them;
Greg, John, and Steve who were long ago my interns but still remain sources
of inspiration; and Ingo who is now and will remain always my muse.
And, most importantly, I'd like to thank my father, George H. Golden Jr.,
who sat me down in front of a teletype when I was eight years old and
showed me how to play Hunt The Wumpus. Not only did my dad introduce
me to computers and computer programming, he also introduced me to
the Raspberry Pi. Without his encouragement, I could not have written
this book.

www.it-ebooks.info
 About the Reviewers

Hector Cuesta-Arvizu provides consulting services for software engineering and data
analysis with over 8 years of experience in a variety of industries including financial services,
social networking, e-learning, and Human Resources. He is a Raspberry Pi enthusiast.

Hector holds a Bachelor's Degree in Informatics and a Master's Degree in Computer

Science. His main research interests lie in Machine Learning, High Performance Computing,
Simulation, and Visualization. He has published 12 Scientific Papers in International
Conferences and Journals.

You can follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/hmCuesta.

Shea Silverman has been using computers since he was two years old. He has always
been drawn to technology, video games, education, and the public sector. He is currently a
member of the Orlando hackerspace FamiLAB, an alumni of the University of Central Florida,
and is working towards his Masters in Nonprofit Management.

I would like to thank my family and friends for their ongoing support in
my endeavors. I would also like to thank Liz, Eben, and the Raspberry
Pi Foundation for the creation of the Raspberry Pi, and the wonderful
community that has flourished since its release.

www.it-ebooks.info
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 Table of Contents
Preface 1
Chapter 1: Installation and Setup 7
Introduction 7
Preparing for the initial boot 9
Printing a case – the Punnet 18
Setting up new SD cards 22
Image writer for Windows cards (Win32DiskImager) 25
Convert and copy for Linux (dd) 27
Creating SD cards with BerryBoot 30
Booting the "official" Raspbian Linux distribution 37
Shutting down the Raspberry Pi (shutdown) 41
Chapter 2: Administration 45
Introduction 45
Configuring remote access (raspi-config) 46
Configuring memory usage (raspi-config) 50
Remote access (SSH) 53
Remote access (PuTTY) 58
Changing the login password (passwd) 62
Chapter 3: Maintenance 65
Introduction 65
Updating the operating system (apt-get) 66
Searching for the software packages (apt-cache) 74
Installing a package (apt-get) 75
Package management (aptitude) 79
Reading the built-in documentation (man) 83
Reading the built-in documentation (info) 86

www.it-ebooks.info
Table of Contents

Chapter 4: File Sharing 91

Introduction 91
Mounting USB drives (pmount) 92
Sharing folders from other computers (mount.cifs) 99
Automounting USB disks at boot (/etc/fstab) 103
Automounting a shared folder at boot 110
Creating a file server (Samba) 114
Sharing an attached USB disk via Samba 122
Accessing another computer's files (smbclient) 125
Chapter 5: Advanced Networking 133
Introduction 133
Creating a firewall with ufw 133
Connecting to the desktop remotely (xrdp) 137
Installing a web server (Apache, lighttpd, Nginx) 142
Installing a wiki (MediaWiki) 154
Creating a wireless access point with hostapd 170
Index 185

ii

www.it-ebooks.info
 Preface
Back in 2006, Eben Upton and his colleagues at the University of Cambridge's Computer
Laboratory noticed a disturbing trend—interviewees for degree course placement did not know
enough about what a computer is or how it worked. So, he set out to design an inexpensive
computer that would inspire kids to experiment with computers at home—a similar to the
hobbyist computers, such as the Apple II, Amiga, and Commodore 64 computers of a
generation before. On February 29, 2012, the first batch of 10,000 Raspberry Pis sold out
within a few minutes, crashing the websites of the stores selling them. By the end of 2012
more than 500,000 Raspberry Pis have been sold and not just to school children.

The Raspberry Pi credit-card-sized single-board computer costs about $35 and has as much
computing power as the early Xbox—more than enough power for playing games, running a
home media center, a file server, a website, a small database, or a wireless access point. Its
Broadcom System on a chip (SoC) architecture includes a powerful graphics processing
unit (GPU), and the single-board design includes a network port, an HDMI connection, two
USB ports, an SD card slot, and 512 MB of memory. There is more power and there are more
features available on this small, inexpensive computer today than there were on the expensive
desktop computers that ran the original Windows operating system.

This book contains recipes that take advantage of the power and features of the Raspberry Pi
to create a number of practical solutions that can be realized without programming—solutions
that anyone with minimal computer skills can apply in their home or office. This book is not
about educating or inspiring children to learn computer programming. This book is for parents,
hobbyists, and computer geeks who would like to learn more about the Raspberry Pi's "official"
Raspbian Linux operating system and the advanced networking solutions that are available
for the Raspberry Pi today.

www.it-ebooks.info
Preface

What this book covers

Chapter 1, Installation and Setup, introduces the Raspberry Pi, explains how to download
and install fresh images of popular Raspberry Pi distributions, and describes how to set up
for the initial boot.

Chapter 2, Administration, contains a collection of recipes for the Raspberry Pi that cover the
basic administration of the Raspberry Pi including how to access the Raspberry Pi remotely
using Secure Shell.

Chapter 3, Maintenance, has recipes that are for the basic maintenance of the Raspberry Pi
including installing and updating new software and accessing the built-in documentation.

Chapter 4, File Sharing, has recipes that are for sharing files with other computers on the
same local network including automounting disks and installing a file server.

Chapter 5, Advanced Networking, has recipes that are for advanced networking solutions
including setting up a webserver, a wiki, and a wireless access point.

What you need for this book

For the recipes in this book you will need the following:

ff A Raspberry Pi
ff A 5V power supply (the Raspberry Pi does not usually come with one)
ff A keyboard
ff A mouse
ff A display (a TV or a monitor)
ff A handful of SD cards
ff USB devices ( such as an external disk)
ff A network connection

Some recipes require:

ff An external USB disk

ff A USB wireless network adapter

You may also want to purchase a case and a powered USB hub. They will help you protect your
Raspberry Pi. The case protects the Raspberry Pi from the elements, and the powered USB
hub protects it from the power drain that results from connecting too many devices.

www.it-ebooks.info
 Preface

The recipes in the first three chapters do not require any additional devices other than the
Raspberry Pi and a network connection. The recipes in Chapter 4, File Sharing, show how to
connect a USB disk to the Raspberry Pi. And in Chapter 5, Advanced Networking, the final
recipe shows how to use a USB wireless network adapter to turn the Raspberry Pi into a
wireless access point.

For most of the recipes in this book, you will just need the Raspberry Pi, a power supply, and a
network connection. After completing the recipes in Chapter 2, Administration, the Raspberry
Pi can be accessed remotely and does not require a display, keyboard, or mouse.

Who this book is for

This book is for those who would like to use the Raspberry Pi for more than just an
educational tool or an experimenter's toy.

The book is also intended to turn the beginning Raspberry Pi user into an accomplished
Linux administrator. Even an advanced Linux user will find the recipes in this book useful
as a reference for creating advanced networking solutions with the Raspberry Pi.

The recipes in this book begin simply leading the reader through the installation and basic
administration of the Raspberry Pi. As the book progresses, the solutions become more
advanced, building on the knowledge gained from previous recipes. The final chapter contains
a number of advanced networking solutions.

Although inexpensive, the Raspberry Pi has enough power for a number of practical solutions
both at home and at the office. This book is for those who would like to use the Raspberry Pi
in practical solutions, not just as an educational toy.

Conventions
In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of
information. Here are some examples of these styles and an explanation of their meaning.

Code words in text are shown as follows: "This recipe shows how to update the Raspberry Pi
using the apt-get command."

Any command-line input or output is written as follows:

$ sudo apt-get install pianobar

New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, in
menus or dialog boxes for example, appear in the text like this: "Clicking the Next button
moves you to the next screen."

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Preface

Warnings or important notes appear in a box like this.

Tips and tricks appear like this.

Reader feedback
Feedback from our readers is always welcome. Let us know what you think about this
book—what you liked or may have disliked. Reader feedback is important for us to
develop titles that you really get the most out of.

To send us general feedback, simply send an e-mail to feedback@packtpub.com,

and mention the book title via the subject of your message.

If there is a topic that you have expertise in and you are interested in either writing or
contributing to a book, see our author guide on www.packtpub.com/authors.

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get the most from your purchase.

Errata
Although we have taken every care to ensure the accuracy of our content, mistakes do
happen. If you find a mistake in one of our books—maybe a mistake in the text or the
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http://www.packtpub.com/support.

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 Preface

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Piracy of copyright material on the Internet is an ongoing problem across all media. At Packt,
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www.it-ebooks.info
Random documents with unrelated
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had been most unworthily desecrated. At this Caroll, who was still
confined to bed, became angry and kicked her over with his foot in
the presence of all her attendants and ladies.
As her father, the High-king, would do nothing for her when she
besought him to wipe out the insult, and procure her reparation
from so unworthy a husband, her young kinsman Niall Glún-dubh, or
the Black-Kneed, took up her cause, and obtained for her a
separation from her husband and restoration of her dowry. When her
husband was killed, the year after this, by the Danes, she married
Niall, who in time succeeded to the throne as High-king of all
Ireland, and who was one of the noblest of her monarchs. He was
slain in the end by the Danes, and the monarchy passed away from
the houses both of her father and her husband, and she, the
daughter of one High-king, the wife of another, bewails in her old
age the poverty and neglect into which she had fallen. She dreamt
one night that King Niall stood beside her, and she made a leap
forwards to clasp him in her arms, but struck herself against the
bed-post, and received a wound from which she never recovered.[9]
Many of her poems are lamentations on her kinsman and husband
Niall. They seem to have been current amongst the Highland as well
as the Irish Gaels, for here is a specimen jotted down in phonetic
spelling by the Scotch Dean Macgregor about the year 1512:
"Take, grey monk, thy foot away,
Lift it off the grave of Neill!
Too long thou heapest up the clay
On him who cannot feel.[10]

Monk, why must thou pile the earth

O'er the couch of noble Neill?
Above my friend of gentle birth
Thou strik'st a churlish heel.

Let him be, at least to-night,

Mournful monk of croaking voice,
 Beneath thee lies my heart's delight,
Who made me to rejoice.

Monk, remove thy foot, I say!

Tread not on the sacred ground
Where he is shut from me away,
In cold and narrow bound!

I am Gormly—king of men
Was my father, Flann the brave.
I charge thee, stand thou not again,
Bald monk, upon his grave."
Another poet of the ninth century was Flanagan, son of Ceallach,
king of Bregia. He is quoted by the "Four Masters."[11] One poem of
his, of 112 lines, on the deaths of the kings of Ireland, is preserved
in the Yellow Book of Lecan.
Mailmura, of Fahan, whom the "Four Masters" call a great poet, was
a contemporary of his, and wrote a poem on the Milesian Migrations.
[12]

Several other poets lived in the ninth century, the chief of whom was
probably Flann mac Lonáin, for the "Four Masters" in recording his
death style him "the Virgil of the Scottic race, the chief ollamh of all
the Gaels, the best poet that was in Ireland in his time." Eight of his
poems, containing about one thousand lines, have survived. He was
from the neighbourhood of Slieve Echtgé, or Aughty, in South
Connacht. One of his poems records how Ilbrechtach the harper was
travelling over these barren mountains along with the celebrated
poet Mac Liag, and, as they paused to rest on Croghan Head, Mac
Liag surveyed the prospect beneath him, and said, "Many a hill and
lake and fastness is in this range; it were a great topographical
knowledge to know them all." "If Mac Lonáin were here," said the
harper, "he could name them all, and give the origin of their names
as well." "Let this fellow be taken and hanged," said Mac Liag. The
harper begged respite till next day, and in the meantime Mac Lonáin
comes up and recites a poem of one hundred and thirty-two lines
beginning—Aoibhinn aoibhinn Echtgé árd.
Amongst other things, he relates that he met a Dalcassian—i.e., one
of Brian Boru's people from Clare—at Moy Finé in Galway, who had
just finished serving twelve months with a man in that place, from
whom he had received a cow and a cloak for payment. On his way
home to the Dalcassians with his cloak and his cow he met the poet,
and said to him—
"'Sing to me the history of my country,
It is sweet to my soul to hear it.

Thereupon I sang for him the poem,

Nor did he show himself the least loath:
All that he had earned—not mean nor meagre—
To me he gave it without deduction.

The upright Dalcassians heard of this,

They received him with honour in their assembly;
They gave to him—the noble race—
Ten cows for every quarter of his own cow.'"
Mac Lonáin was the contemporary of Cormac mac Culinan, whom he
eulogises.
Some other poets of great note flourished during the Danish period,
such as Cormac "an Eigeas," who composed the celebrated poem to
Muircheartach, or Murtagh of the Leather Cloaks,[13] son of the Niall
so bitterly lamented by Gormly, on the occasion of his marching
round Ireland, when he set out from his palace at ancient Aileach
near Derry, and returned to it again after levying tribute and
receiving hostages from every king and sub-king in Ireland. This
great O'Neill well deserved a poet's praise, for having taken Sitric,
the Danish lord of Dublin, Ceallachan of Munster, the king of
Leinster, and the royal heir of Connacht as hostages, he,
understanding well that in the interests of Ireland the High-kingship
should be upheld, positively refused to follow the advice of his own
clan and march on Tara, as they urged, to take hostages from
Donagh the High-king. On the contrary, he actually sent of his own
accord all those that had been given him during his circuit to this
Donagh as supreme governor of Ireland. Donagh, on his part, not to
be out-done in magnanimity, returned them again to Murtagh with
the message that he, into whose hands they had been delivered,
was the proper person to keep them. It was to commemorate this
that Cormac wrote his poem of two hundred and fifty-six lines:—
"A Mhuircheartaigh Mheic Néill náir
Ro ghabhais giallu Inse-Fáil."[14]
But the names of the poets Cinaeth or Kenneth O'Hartigan, and
Eochaidh O'Flynn, are the most celebrated amongst those of the
tenth century. Allusions to and quotations from the first, who died in
975, are frequent, and nine or ten of his poems, containing some
eight hundred lines, have been preserved perfect for us. Of O'Flynn's
pieces, fourteen are enumerated by O'Reilly, containing in the
aggregate between seventeen and eighteen hundred lines. In them
we find in verse the whole early and mythical history of Ireland. We
have, for instance, one poem on the invasion of Partholan; one on
the invasion of the Fomorians; another on the division of Ireland
between the sons of Partholan; another on the destruction of the
tower of Conaing and the battles between the Fomorians and the
Nemedians; another on the journey of the Nemedians from Scithia
and how some emigrated to Greece and others to Britain after the
destruction of Conairé's tower; another on the invasion of the sons
of Milesius; another on the history of Emania built by Cimbaeth
some three hundred years before Christ, up to its destruction by the
Three Collas in the year 331. This poet in especial may be said to
have crystallised into verse the mythic history of Ireland with the
names and reigns of the Irish kings, and to have thrown them into
the form of real history. O'Clery, in his celebrated Book of Invasions,
has drawn upon him very largely, quoting, often at full length, no
less than twelve of his poems. Hence many people believe that he
was one of the first to collect the floating tribe-legends of very early
Irish kings, and the race-myths of the Tuatha De Danann and their
contemporaries, and that he cast them into that historical shape in
which the later annalists record them, by fitting them into a
complete scheme of genealogical history like that of the Old
Testament. But whether all these things had taken solid shape and
form before he versified them anew we cannot now decide.
According to O'Reilly and O'Curry this poet died in 984, nine years
after O'Hartigan; but M. d'Arbois de Jubainville remarks that he has
been unable to find out any evidence for fixing upon this date.
A little later lived Mac Liag, whom Brian Boru elevated to the rank of
Arch-Ollamh of Erin, and who lived at his court at Kincora in the
closest relationship to him and his sons. He has been credited—
erroneously according to O'Curry—with the authorship of a Life of
Brian Boru, which unfortunately has perished, only a single ancient
leaf, in the hand-writing of the great antiquary Mac Firbis, surviving.
Several of his poems, however, are preserved,[15] containing
between twelve and thirteen hundred lines in all, and are of the
highest value as throwing light both on the social state and the
policy of Ireland under Brian. One of his poems gives a graphic
description of the tribute of Ireland being driven to Brian at his
palace in Kincora in the present county of Clare. The poet went out
from the court to have a look at the flocks and herds, and when he
returned he said to the King, "Here comes Erin's tribute of cows to
thee, many a fat cow and fat hog on the plain before thee." "Be they
ever so many," said the King, "they shall be all thine, thou noble
poet." Amongst the other part of the tribute which the poet
describes as coming in to Brian were one hundred and fifty butts of
wine from the Danes of Dublin, and a tun of wine for every day in
the year from the Danes of Limerick. He describes Brian as sitting at
the head of the great hall of Kincora,[16] the king of Connacht sat on
his right hand and the king of Ulster on his left; the king of Tir-
Eóghain [Tyrone] sat opposite to him. At the door-post nearest to
Brian sat the king of Leinster, and at the other post of the open door
sat Donough, son of Brian, and Malachy,[17] king of Meath.
Murrough, the king's eldest son who died so valiantly at Clontarf, sat
in front of his father with his back turned to him, with Angus, a
prince of Meath, and the king of Tirconnell on his left. One of his
poems ends with two complimentary stanzas to Brian Boru, his son
Murrough, his nephew Conaing, and Tadhg [Teig] O'Kelly, the king of
Ui Máine—all four of whom a short time afterwards were left stiff
and stark upon the field of Clontarf.
The shadow of the bloody tragedy there enacted hangs heavily over
all Mac Liag's later poems and those of his contemporaries, and
there are few more pathetic pieces in the language than his wail
over Kincora left desolate by the death of almost every chieftain who
had gone forth from it to meet the Danes.
"Oh where, Kincora, is Brian the great!
Oh, where is the beauty that once was thine!
Oh, where are the princes and nobles that sate
At the feast in thy halls, and drank the red wine.[18]
Where, oh, Kincora?

* * * * *

And where is the youth of majestic height,

The faith-keeping prince of the Scots? Even he
As wide as his fame was, as great as his might,
Was tributary, oh, Kincora, to me!
Me, oh, Kincora.

They are gone, those heroes of royal birth,

Who plundered no churches, who broke no trust;
'Tis weary for me to be living on earth
When they, oh, Kincora, lie low in the dust!
Low, oh, Kincora."[19]
In the same strain does Mac Gilla Keefe,[20] another contemporary
poet, lament, in a piece which, according to a manuscript quoted by
Hardiman, called the "Leabhar Oiris," he composed when in the
north of Greece, whither he had travelled in the itinerant Milesian
manner on his way to try if he could find the site of Paradise. The
poem begins:—

"Mournful night! and mournful WE!

Men we BE who know no peace.
We no GOLD for STRAINS of PRIDE
HOLD this SIDE the PLAINS of Greece."[21]
"'I remember my setting my face to pay a visit to Brian (Boru)
and he at that time feasting with Cian, the son of Mulloy,[22]
and he thought it long my being absent from him.'
"'God welcome you back to us,' cried Cian, 'O learned one, who
comest [back from the north] from the House of O'Neill. Poet,
your wife is saying that you have almost altogether forsaken
your own house.'
"'You have been away for three quarters of year, except from
yesterday to to-day.' 'Why that,' said Murrough, son of Brian, 'is
the message of the raven from the ark!'
"'[Come now] tell us all the wealth you have brought from the
north,' said Brian, the High-king of the host of Carn i Neid, 'tell
the nobles of the men of Innisfail, and swear by my hand that
you tell no lie.'
"'By the King who is above me,' [said I], 'this is what I brought
from the north, twenty steeds, ten ounces of gold, and ten
score cows of cattle.'
"'[Why] we, the two of us, shall give him more steeds and more
cattle [than that] without speaking of what Brian will give,' said
Cian, the son of Mulloy.
"'[And] by the King of Heaven who has brought me into silence
this night, and who has darkened my brightness, I got ten times
as much as that at the banquet before Brian lay down.
 "'I got seven town-lands, Oh, King of the Kings, who hast sent
me from the west, and a half town-land [besides] near every
palace in which Brian used to be.'
"Said Murrough, good son of Brian, 'To-morrow'—and it was
scarce sensible for him—'as much as you have got last night you
shall get from me myself, and get it with my love.'"[23]

Mag Liag was not at Clontarf himself, but his friend and fellow-poet,
Errard mac Coisé [Cŭsha] was in the train of Malachy, king of Meath,
to whom he was then attached. This poet gave Mac Liag a minute
account of the battle, and Mac Liag himself visited the spot before
the slain had been interred, as we see from another of his poems. In
a kind of dialogue between him and Mac Coisé he makes the latter
relate to him the names of the fallen, and describe the positions in
which their dead bodies were found upon the battlefield. It is
exceedingly probable that it was Mac Liag, perhaps with Mac Coisé's
aid, who compiled that most valuable chronicle called the "Wars of
the Gael with the Gaill," i.e., of the Irish with the Northmen.[24] This
narrative bears both external and internal evidence of its antiquity,
for there is a portion of it preserved in the Book of Leinster, a MS. of
about the year 1150. "The author," says Dr. Todd, who has edited it,
[25] "was either himself an eye-witness of the battle of Clontarf, or
else compiled his narrative from the testimony of eye-witnesses." It
is edited in 121 chapters, and is sufficiently long to fill over a
hundred of these pages. Beginning with the earliest Danish invasion
at the close of the eighth century, it traces the progress of the
Northmen in forty chapters up to the time when Mathgamhain
[Mahon] and Brian were ruling over the Dalcassians. After that the
book concerns itself chiefly with the history of Brian, describing the
deaths of his brother Mahon, and the revenge he took, and his
gradual but irregular attainment of the High-kingship, he being the
first of the race of Eber who had reached this dignity for hundreds of
years. The distress suffered by the Irish at the hands of the white
foreigners (the Norwegians) and the black foreigners (the Danes)—
who, by the way, were bitter enemies and often fought with each
other, even on Irish soil—is graphically described. The Northmen put,
says the writer,

"a king [of their own] over every territory, and a chief over
every chieftaincy, and an abbot over every church, and a
steward over every village, and a soldier in every house, so that
none of the men of Erin had power to give even the milk of his
cow, or as much as the clutch of eggs of one hen in succour or
in kindness to an aged man or to a friend, but was forced to
preserve them for this foreign steward or bailiff or soldier. And
though there were but one milk-giving cow in the house, she
durst not be milked for an infant of one night, nor for a sick
person, but must be kept for the steward or bailiff or soldier of
the foreigners. And however long he might be absent from the
house his share or his supply durst not be lessened: although
there were in the house but one cow, it must be killed for the
meal of one night, if the means of supply could not be
otherwise procured....
"In a word," continues the writer in a strain of characteristic
hyperbole, "although there were an hundred sharp, ready, cool,
never-resting, brazen tongues in each head, and a hundred
garrulous, loud-unceasing voices from each tongue, they could
not recount nor narrate, nor enumerate, nor tell, what all the
Gael suffered in common, both men and women, laity and
clergy, old and young, noble and ignoble, of hardship and of
injury, and of oppression in every house, from these valiant,
wrathful, foreign, purely-pagan people.
"And though numerous were the oft-victorious clans of the
many-familied Erin," yet could they do nothing against the
"untamed, implacable hordes by whom that oppression was
inflicted, because of the excellence of their polished, ample,
treble-heavy, trusty, glittering corslets, and their hard, strong,
valiant swords, and well-rivetted long spears, and ready brilliant
arms of valour, besides; and because of the greatness of their
achievements and of their deeds, their bravery, their valour,
 their strength, their venom, and their ferocity, and because of
the excess of their thirst and their hunger for the brave, fruitful,
nobly-inhabited, smooth-plained, sweet-grassy land of Erin, full
of cataracts, rivers, bays."

The book ends with the battle of Clontarf and the "return from
Fingall," i.e., the march of the Dalcassians to their homes in Munster.
The death of Brian in this great battle fought on Good Friday, the
23rd of April,[26] 1014, is thus described:—

DEATH OF BRIAN BORUMHA AT CLONTARF.

"As for Brian, son of Cenneidigh [Kennedy], when the battalions

joined arms in the battle, his skin was spread for him, and he
opened his psalter and joined his hands, and began to pray
after the battle had commenced, and there was no one with him
but his own attendant, whose name was Latean (from whom
are the O'Lateans still in Munster.)[27] Brian said to the
attendant, 'Look thou at the battalions and the combat whilst I
sing the psalms.' He sang fifty psalms and fifty prayers and fifty
paternosters, and after that he asked the attendant how were
the battalions. And the attendant answered, 'Mixed and closely
confronted are the battalions, and each of them has come
within the grasp of the other, and not louder on my ears would
be the echo of blows from Tomar's wood if seven battalions
were cutting it down, than the thud-blows on heads and bones
and sculls between them.' And he asked how was Murchadh's
[Murrough's son's] standard, and the attendant said, 'It stands,
and many of the banners of the Dál Cais [North Munster, i.e.,
Brian's own men] around it, and many heads thrown to it, and a
multitude of trophies and spoils with heads of foreigners are
along with it.' 'That is good news indeed,' said Brian.
"His skin cushion was readjusted beneath him, and he sang the
psalms and the prayers and the paters as before, and he again
asked the attendant how the battalions were, and the attendant
answered and said, 'There is not living on earth the man who
could distinguish one from the other, for the greater part of the
hosts on each side are fallen, and those who are alive are so
covered with spatterings of crimson blood and armour, that a
man could not know his own son—they are so intermingled.' He
then asked how was Murchadh's standard. The attendant said it
was far from him, and that it passed through the battalions
westward, and was still standing. Brian said, 'The men of Erin
will be well,' said he, 'so long as that standard stands, for their
courage and valour shall remain in them all, so long as they can
see that standard.'
"His cushion was readjusted under Brian, and he sang fifty
psalms and fifty prayers and fifty paters, and all that time the
fighting continued. After that he again asked the attendant how
went the battalions, and the attendant answered, 'It is like as if
Tomar's wood were after burning its undergrowth and young
trees, and that seven battalions had been for six weeks cutting
them down, and it with its stately trees and huge oaks still
standing, just so are the battalions on both sides, after the
greater part of them have fallen leaving but a few valiant heroes
and great chieftains still standing. So are the battalions on both
sides pierced and wounded and scattered, and they are
disorganised all round like the grindings of a mill turning the
wrong way; and the foreigners are now defeated, and
Murchadh's standard is fallen.' 'That is piteous news,' said Brian;
'by my word,' said he, 'the generosity and valour of Erin fell
when that standard fell; and truly Erin has fallen of that, for
there shall never come after him a champion like him. And what
the better were I though I should escape this, and though it
were the sovereignty of the world I should attain, after the fall
of Murchadh and Conaing and the other nobles of the Dál Cais.'
"'Woe is me,' said the attendant, 'if thou wouldst take my advice
thou wouldst get thee to thy horse, and we would go to the
camp and remain there amongst the gillies, and every one who
comes out of the battle will come to us, and round us they will
rally, for the battalions are now mixed in confusion, and a party
of the foreigners have rejected the idea of retreating to the sea,
and we know not who shall come to us where we now are.'
"'Oh God; boy,' said Brian, 'flight becomes me not, and I myself
know that I shall not go from here alive, and what should it
profit me though I did, for Aoibheall [Eevil][28] of Craig Liath
[Lee-a], came to me last night,' said he, 'and she told me that
the first of my sons whom I should see this day would be he
who should succeed me in the sovereignty, and that is
Donough,[29] and go thou OLatean,' said he, 'and take these
steeds with thee, and receive my blessing and carry out my will
after me, that is to say, my body and soul to God and to St.
Patrick, and that I am to be carried to Armagh, and my blessing
to Donough for discharging my last bequests after me, that is to
say, twelve score cows to be given to the co-arb of Patrick and
the Society of Armagh, and their own proper dues to Killaloe
and the Churches of Munster, and he knows that I have not
wealth of gold or silver, but he is to pay them in return for my
blessing and for his succeeding me. Go this night to Sord
[Swords] and desire them to come to-morrow early for my body,
and to convey it thence to Damhliag of Cianan, and then let
them carry it to Lughmhagh [Loo-wā, i.e., Louth], and let
Maelmuiré mac Eochadha, the co-arb of Patrick and the Society
of Armagh come to meet me at Lughmhagh.'
"While they were engaged in this conversation the attendant
perceived a party of the foreigners approaching them. The Earl
Brodar was there and two warriors along with him.
"'There are people coming towards us here,' said the attendant.
"'What kind of people?' said Brian.
"'Blue stark-naked people,' said the attendant.
"'My woe,' said Brian, 'they are the foreigners of the armour,
and it is not for good they come.'
 "While he was saying this he arose and stepped off his cushion
and unsheathed his sword. Brodar passed him by and noticed
him not. One of the three who were there and who had been in
Brian's service said 'Cing, Cing!' said he, that is, 'This is the
king.' 'No, no! but príst príst,' says Brodar, 'not he,' said he, 'but
a noble priest.' 'By no means,' said the soldier, 'but it is the
great king Brian.' Brodar then turned round and appeared with
a bright gleaming battle-axe in his hand, with the handle set in
the middle [of the head]. When Brian saw him he looked
intently at him, and gave him a sword-blow that cut off the left
leg at the knee and the right leg at the foot. The foreigner gave
Brian a stroke which crushed his head utterly, and Brian killed
the second man that was with Brodar, and they fell mutually by
each other.
"There was not done in Erin, since Christianity—except the
beheading of Cormac mac Culinan—any greater deed than this.
He was, in sooth, one of the three best that ever were born in
Erin, and one of the three men who most caused Erin to
prosper, namely, Lugh the Long-handed, and Finn mac Cúmhail
[Cool], and Brian, son of Kennedy; for it was he that released
the men of Erin and its women from the bondage and iniquity of
the foreigners and the pirates. It was he that gained five-and-
twenty battles over the foreigners, and who killed them and
banished them.... In short, Erin fell by the death of Brian."

The "War of the Gael with the Gaill" appears to me to be a book

which throws a strong light upon the genesis and value of the
historical saga of Ireland. Here is a real historical narrative of
unquestionable authority, and of the very highest value for the
history of these countries, which is contemporaneous,[30] or almost
so, with the events which it relates. Its accuracy on matters of fact
have been abundantly proved from Danish as well as from Irish
sources. And yet the whole account is dressed up and bedizened in
that peculiarly Irish garb which had become stereotyped as the dress
of Irish history. It contains the exaggeration, the necessary touch of
the marvellous, and above all the poetry, without which no Irish
composition could hope for a welcome.
First as to the exaggeration: the whole piece is full of it. A good
example is the description of the armies meeting on Clontarf:—

"It will be one of the wonders of the day of judgment to relate

the description of this tremendous onset. There arose a wild,
impetuous, precipitate, furious, dark, frightful, voracious,
merciless, combative, contentious vulture, screaming and
fluttering over their heads. There arose also the Bocanachs and
the Bananachs and the wild people of the glens, and the
witches and the goblins and the ancient birds, and the
destroying demons of the air and firmament, and the feeble
demoniac phantom host, and they were screaming and
comparing the valour and combat of both parties."

The reader expected some traditional flourish such as this, and the
essential truth of the narrative is no whit impaired by it.
Nor does the miraculous episode of Dunlang O'Hartigan, fresh from
the embraces of the fairy queen, foretelling to Murrough that he
must fall, detract from the truth that he does fall. Dunlang had
promised Murrough not to abandon him, and he appears beside him
on the very eve of the battle. Murrough gently reproaches him and
says:—

"'Great must be the love and attachment of some woman for

thee which has induced thee to abandon me.' 'Alas, O King,'
answered Dunlang, 'the delight which I have abandoned for
thee is greater, if thou didst but know it, namely, life without
death,[31] without cold, without thirst, without hunger, without
decay, beyond any delight of the delights of the earth to me,
until the judgment, and heaven after the judgment, and if I had
not pledged my word to thee I would not have come here, and,
moreover, it is fated for me to die on the day that thou shalt
die.'
 "'Shall I receive death this day then?' said Murrough.
"'Thou shalt, indeed,' said Dunlang, 'and Brian and Conaing shall
receive it, and almost all the nobles of Erin, and Turlough thy
son.'
"'That is no good encouragement to fight,' said Murrough, 'and
if we had had such news we would not have told it to thee, and
moreover,' said Murrough, 'often was I offered in hills, and in
fairy mansions, this world and these gifts, but I never
abandoned for one night my country nor mine inheritance for
them.'"

Some such touch as this, of the weird and the miraculous, the
reader also expected.
As for poetry, the whole piece is full of it. It contains over five
hundred lines of verse, in poems attributed to Brian Boru himself
and his brother Mahon, to Maelmhuadh or Molloy, who so
treacherously slew Mahon, to the sister of Aedh Finnliath [Finleea],
king of Ireland in 869;[32] to Cormac mac Culinan, the king-bishop;
to Cuan O'Lochain, a great poet who died in 1024; to Beg mac Dé
the prophet, and to Columcille, his contemporary; to Colman mac
Lenin, the poet-saint; to Gilla Mududa O'Cassidy, a poet
contemporaneous with Mac Liag; to Mac Liag himself; to Gilla
Comgaill O'Slevin, inciting O'Neill against Brian; to a poet called
Mahon's blind man; to St. Bercan the prophet; to an unnamed cleric,
and to at least six anonymous poets.
I have dwelt at some length upon these peculiarities of composition,
because I wish to lay stress on the fact that the narrative form and
the romantic dress in which the early history of Ireland is preserved
(through the medium of sagas) need not detract from its substantial
veracity. We can prove the minute accuracy of the Clontarf story and
there seems scarcely more reason to doubt that of the battle of
Moyrath, fought in Adamnan's time, or possibly the substantial
accuracy of the battles of Cnoca, or of Moy Léana; we must,
however, remember that with each fresh redaction, fresh miraculous
agencies, and fresh verbiage were added.
The battle of Clontarf put an end to the dream of a Danish kingdom
in Ireland, and though numerous bodies of the Northmen remained
in their sea-coast settlements, and continued for many years after
this to give much trouble, yet it put a stop to all further invasion
from their mother country, and once more the centres of Irish
learning and civilisation could breathe freely.
[1] It was not he, however, who built Cormac's Chapel at Cashel, but Cormac Mac
Carthy, in the twelfth century. I am not sure whether Cashel had been formed into
an archiepiscopal see at this time, but he is certainly called bishop of Cashel.
[2] The celebrated Vocabularius S. Galli was, according to Zimmer, the work of an
Irish monk.
[3] Leabhar na gCeart.
[4] It has been most carefully edited and translated in a large volume by
O'Donovan for the Celtic Society, in 1847.
[5] 903 according to the "Four Masters."
[6] From the fragment copied by Duald Mac Firbis in 1643 from a vellum MS. of
Mac Egan of Ormond, a chief professor of the old Brehon Law, a MS. which was so
worn as to be in places illegible at the time Mac Firbis copied it; published by
O'Donovan for the Archæological Society. I have altered O'Donovan's translation
very slightly.
[7] In Irish, "Flaithbheartach."
[8] The plain where this battle of Bealach Múghna or Ballaghmoon was fought is in
the very south of the county Kildare, about 2½ miles to the north of the town of
Carlow.
[9] So it is stated in Mac Echagain's Annals of Clonmacnois, but O'Curry thinks this
is a mistake and that she did recover.
[10] The first verse runs thus in modern Gaelic:
"Beir a mhanaigh leat do chos
Tóg anois i de thaoibh Néill
Is ró mhór chuiris de chré
Ar an té le' luidhinn féin."
See p. 75 of the Gaelic part of the book of the Dean of Lismore.
Literally: "Monk, remove thy foot, lift it off the grave of Niall, too long heapest
thou the earth on him by whom I fain would lie!
"Too long dost thou, O monk there, heap the earth on noble Niall. Go gently,
brown friend, press not the earth with thy sole.
"Do not firmly close the grave; sorrowful, cleric, is thy office; lift [thy foot] off the
bright Niall Black-knee; monk, remove thy foot!
"The son of the descendant of Niall of the white gold, 'tis not of my will that he is
bound [in the grave]; let his grave and stone be left: monk, remove thy foot!
"I am Gormly, who compose the verse; daughter of hardy Flann. Stand not upon
his grave! Monk, remove thy foot!"
[11] One of his pieces, quoted by the "Four Masters," shows he was a true poet. It
is on the death of the king, Aedh Finnliath, who died in 877, and runs thus:—
"Long is the wintry night,
With fierce gusts of wind,
Under pressing grief we have to encounter it,
Since the red-speared king of the noble house lives no longer.
It is awful to observe
The waves from the bottom heaving,
To these may be compared
All those who with us lament him."
See O'Curry's "Manners and Customs," vol. ii. p. 96, and "Four Masters" sub anno.
[12] Published by the Irish Archæological Society in the "Irish Nennius," in 1847.
[13] Na gcochal croicinn.
[14] "O Muircheartach, son of noble Niall,
Thou hast taken hostages of Inisfail."
[15] The "Four Masters" thought so highly of Mac Liag's poetry that they actually
go out of their way to record both the first verse he ever composed and the last.
An extraordinary compliment!
[16] Or Kancora, in Irish Ceann Coradh—i.e., "the head of the weir."
[17] In Irish "Maelsheachlainn," often contracted into the sound of "M'louglinn,"
and now always Anglicised Malachy.
[18] Thus Mangan; in the original—
"A Chinn-Choradh, caidhi Brian,
No caidhi an sciamh do bhi ort;
Caidhi maithe no meic righ
Ga n-ibhmís fín ad port?"
[19] Literally: "O Kincora, where is Brian? or where is the splendour that was upon
thee? Where are the nobles and the sons of kings with whom we used to drink
wine in thy halls.... Where is the man most striking of size, the son of the king of
Alba who never forsook us? Although great were his valour and his deeds, he used
to pay tribute to me (the poet), O Kincora.... They have gone, side by side, the
sons of kings who never plundered church; there shall never be their like in the
world again, so in my wisdom I testify, O Kincora."
See Hardiman's "Irish Minstrelsy," vol. ii. p. 196, where the text of this poem is
published, with a fearful metrical translation which, under the influence of
Macpherson, calls the Dalcassian princes "the flower of Temora"! which, however,
is advantageously used to rhyme with Kincora!
[20] In Irish: "Mac Giolla Caoimh."
[21] This verse is an imitation of the original, which runs—
"Uathmhar [i] an oidhche anocht
A chuideacht [fhíor-]bhocht gan bhréig,
Crodh ni SA[O]ILTÎ dh[ao]ibh air DHUAN
Air an TTAOIBHSI THUAIDH do'n nGréig."
See Hardiman's "Irish Minstrelsy," vol. ii. p. 202, where a poetical version of this
lyric is given in the metre of Campbell's "Exile of Erin"! He does not say from what
MS. he has taken this poem. O'Curry is silent on Mac Gilla Keefe, but O'Reilly
mentions another poem of his on the provinces of Munster.
[22] In Irish, "Maolmhuadh."
[23] I am not sure that I have translated this correctly.
"Do rádh Murchadh deagh-mhac Bhriain
Air na mhárach, 's níor chiall uaidh
Uiriod a bhfuairís aréir
Geabhair uaim féin's ni air th-fhuath."
[24] Charles O'Conor ascribes it to him, but neither Keating, the "Four Masters,"
nor Colgan, who all make use of it, mention a word about the author.
[25] In the "Master of the Rolls" Series, in 1867. "That the work was compiled
from contemporary materials," says Dr. Todd, "may be proved by curious incidental
evidence. It is stated in the account given of the Battle of Clontarf that the full tide
in Dublin Bay on the day of the battle (23rd April, 1014) coincided with sunrise,
and that the returning tide at evening aided considerably in the defeat of the
enemy. It occurred to the editor, on considering this passage, that a criterion
might be derived from it to test the truth of the narrative and of the date assigned
by the Irish Annals to the Battle of Clontarf. He therefore proposed to the Rev.
Samuel Haughton, M.D., Fellow of Trinity College, and Professor of Geology in the
University of Dublin, to solve for him this problem: 'What was the hour of high
water at the shore of Clontarf in Dublin Bay on the 23rd of April, 1014.' The editor
did not make known to Dr. Haughton the object he had in view in this question,
and the coincidence of the result obtained with the ancient narrative is therefore
the more valuable and curious."
Dr. Haughton read a paper on the mathematics of this complex and difficult
question before the Royal Irish Academy, in May, 1861, in which he proved that
the tide—a neap tide—was full along the Clontarf shore at about 5h. 30m. a.m.,
and that the evening tide was full in about 5h. 55m. p.m. "The truth of the
narrative," says Dr. Todd, "is thus most strikingly established. In the month of April
the sun rises at from 5h. 30m. to 4h.30m. The full tide in the morning therefore
coincided nearly with sunrise; a fact which holds a most important place in the
history of the battle, and proves that our author if not himself an eye-witness,
must have derived his information from those who were. 'None others,' as Dr.
Haughton observes, 'would have invented the fact that the battle began at sunrise
and that the tide was then full in. The importance of the time of tide became
evident at the close of the day, when the returned tide prevented the escape of
the Danes from the Clontarf shore to the north bank of the Liffey.'"
[26] An ancient Irish missal preserved in the Bodleian contains this petition for the
Irish king and his army, in its Litany for Easter Eve: "Ut regem Hibernensium et
exercitum ejus conservare digneris—ut eis vitam et sanctitatem atque victoriam
dones." If this missal is posterior to 1014 it must have been the reminiscence of
Clontarf which inspired the prayer for the day following the battle. If the missal is
older than the battle, then the coincidence is curious. The prayer was just a day
late. The same missal mentions in its Litanies the names Patrick, Brendan, Brigit,
Columba, Finnian, Ciaran, and St. Fursa, and contains collect, secret and post
communion pro rege [for the Irish king].
[27] Evidently the interpolation of a copyist.
[28] The family banshee of the Royal house of Munster.
[29] In Irish, Donnchadh, pronounced "Dunnăχa," as Murchadh is pronounced
"Murrăχa," in English Murrough.
[30] It is edited from the Book of Leinster, a MS. which was copied about 1150,
which contains the first 28 chapters, from a vellum of about two centuries later,
which wants five chapters at the beginning and eight at the end, and from a
perfect transcript made by the indefatigable Brother Michael O'Clery in 1635 "out
of the book of Cuconnacht O'Daly," who died according to the "Four Masters," in
1139.
[31] I.e., Beside his fairy lover. This incident is greatly expanded in the modern
MS. story of the Battle of Clontarf, of which there exist numerous copies; in these
the gliding of history into romance is very apparent. In the modern version the
fairy Aoibheall is introduced begging O'Hartigan not to fight and promising him life
and happiness for two hundred years if he will put off fighting for only one day.
"A Dhunlaing seachain an cath
Gus an mhaidin amárach.
Geobhair da chéad bliadhan de ré
Agus seachain cath aon-laé."
[32] This is genuine, and is also quoted by the "Four Masters" and O'Clery in his
Book of Invasions. Probably all the poems are genuine except the prophecies and
the pieces put into the mouths of the actors, that is of Brian, Mahon, Molloy, and
the cleric. These were probably composed by the writer of the history.

CHAPTER XXXIII

FROM CLONTARF TO THE NORMAN CONQUEST

Brian, semi-usurper though he was, was in every sense a great

statesman as well as a great warrior. He found almost every seat of
learning in ruins, and every town and palace in Ireland a shattered
wreck. Before he died he had gone far towards restoring them. He
rebuilt the monasteries, re-erected the churches, refounded the
schools. "He sent professors and masters to teach wisdom and
knowledge," says the history from which we have been quoting; but
the schools had been hopelessly broken up, the scribes had
perished, the books—"the countless hosts of the illuminated books
of the men of Erin"—had been burned and "drowned." Hence he
found himself obliged to despatch his emissaries and the few men of
learning who had survived that awful time, "to buy books beyond
the sea and the great ocean, because," says the history,

"their writings and their books in every church and in every

sanctuary where they were, were burnt and thrown into water
by the plunderers from beginning to end [of their invasions],
and Brian himself gave the price of learning, and the price of
books, to every one separately who went on this service." "By
him were erected also noble churches and sanctuaries in Erin ...
many works also, and repairs were made by him. By him were
erected the church of Cell Dálua[1] and the church of Inis
Cealtra, and the round tower of Tuam Gréine, and many other
works in like manner. By him were made bridges and causeways
and high roads. By him were strengthened also the dúns and
fortresses and islands and celebrated royal forts of Munster....
 The peace of Erin was proclaimed by him, both of churches and
people, so that peace throughout all Erin was made in his time.
He fined and imprisoned the perpetrators of murders, trespass,
robbery, and war. He hanged and killed and destroyed the
robbers and thieves and plunderers of Erin.... After the
banishment of the foreigners out of all Erin and after Erin was
reduced to a state of peace, a single woman came from Torach
in the north of Erin to Clíodhna in the south of Erin, carrying a
ring of gold on a horse-rod, and she was neither robbed nor
insulted."[2]

The bardic schools began to revive again, for the bards too had felt
the full pressure of the invasion, their colleges had been broken up,
and many of themselves been slain. One aim of the Norsemen was
to destroy all learning. "It was not allowed," writes Keating, "to give
instruction in letters." ... "No scholars, no clerics, no books, no holy
relics, were left in church or monastery through dread of them.
Neither bard nor philosopher nor musician pursued his wonted
profession in the land."
The eleventh and twelfth centuries, however, witnessed a great
revival of art and learning. Indeed, from the reign of Brian until the
coming of the Normans, Irish metal-work, architecture, and letters
flourished wonderfully. It is from this brief period of comparative rest
that the three most important relics of Celtic literature now in the
world date, the Leabhar na h-Uidhre, the Book of Leinster, and the
Book of Hymns. The eleventh and twelfth centuries produced also
many men of literature, including the annalist Tighearnach who was
Abbot of Clonmacnois and died in 1088; and Dubdaléithe,
Archbishop of Armagh, who died in 1065, who wrote Annals of
Ireland which are now lost, but which are quoted both in the Annals
of Ulster and in the "Four Masters." The greatest scholar,
chronologist, and poet of this period is unquestionably Flann, the
fear-léighinn or head-teacher of the school of Monasterboice, who
died in 1056. Though he is called Flann Mainstreach, or Flann of the
Monastery, he was really a layman—one proof out of many, that the
schools and colleges which grew up round religious institutions were
as much secular as theological. He composed a valuable series of
synchronisms, in which he synchronised the kings of the Assyrians,
Medes, Persians, Greeks, and the Roman emperors, with the kings of
Ireland, in parallel columns century by century, and sums up the
most important portions of his teaching in a poem of some twelve
hundred lines intended evidently as a class-book for his pupils. A
piece of more value is one which synchronises the reigns of the Irish
monarchs with those of the Irish provincial kings and the kings of
Scotland, from the time of King Laeghaire who received St. Patrick,
down to the death of Murtough O'Brien in 1119, these later years
having been completed by some other hand.
No fewer than two thousand lines of Flann's poetry were copied into
the Book of Leinster less than a hundred years after his own death,
and there are nearly as many more in other manuscripts. They are,
however, though composed in elaborate metres, anything but
creative and imaginative poems. The most of them consist of annals
or history versified, evidently with the intention of being committed
to memory, because the great ollamhs like Flann were really rather
historians and philosophers than what we call poets, and they used
their metrical art, very often though not always, to enshrine their
knowledge. There is, however—except to the historian—nothing
particularly inspiriting in a poem of 204 lines on the monarchs of Erin
and kings of Meath who are descended from Niall of the Nine
Hostages, giving the names, length of reign, and manner of death of
each, despite the undoubted skill with which the technical difficulties
of a thorny metre are overcome.[3] Some of his pieces, however, are
of more living interest, as his poem on the history of Oileach or
Ailech, the palace of the O'Neills near Derry, in which he takes us to
the time of the Tuatha De Danann, and in his poem on the battles
fought by the Kinel Owen. Indeed as O'Curry well puts it,

"Many a name lying dead in our genealogical tracts and which

has found its way into our evidently condensed chronicles and
annals, will be found in these poems connected with the death
 or associated with the brilliant deeds of some hero whose story
we would not willingly lose; while, on the other hand, many an
obscure historical allusion will be illustrated and many an
historical spot as yet unknown to the topographer will be
identified, when a proper investigation of these and other great
historical poems preserved in the Book of Leinster, shall be
undertaken as part of the serious study of the history and
antiquities of our country."[4]

This summing-up of O'Curry's as to the poems of Flann, is one which

may be also applied to several of his contemporaries and successors,
such as Coleman O'Seasnan who died in 1050, one of whose poems
on the kings of Emania and of Ulster contains 328 lines; Giolla
Caomhghin [Gilla Keevin], who died in 1072, some thirteen or
fourteen hundred lines of whose poetry has been preserved;
Tanaidhe O'Mulconry, who died in 1136; Giolla Moduda O'Cassidy,
who died in 1143, and whose poems, still extant, amount to nearly
nine hundred lines; and Giolla-na-naomh O'Dunn who died in 1160,
and of whom we still possess fourteen hundred verses.[5]
The compositions of two rather earlier poets, Erard mac Coisé
[Cŭsha] and Cuan O'Lochain possess more interest. They died in
1023 and 1024 respectively. Mac Coisé's four surviving poems and
his prose allegory are all of great interest. As for Cuan O'Lochain, he
was chief poet of Erin in his day, and according to Mac Echagain's
"Annals of Clonmacnois" and an entry in the Book of Leinster, he and
a cleric named Corcran were elected to govern Ireland during the
interregnum which succeeded the death of King Malachy, who
quietly reassumed, after the death of Brian Boru, the High-kingship
of which that monarch had deprived him. This is a convincing proof
of the honour attached to the office of "ollamh of all Ireland."
One of O'Lochain's pieces is of special value, because it describes
and names every chief building, monument, rath, and remarkable
spot in and around Tara, both those erected in Cormac mac Art's
time and those added afterwards; both those which were in ruins
when the poet wrote, and those which had been described by
former authors from the time of Cormac till his own.[6] Another
poem of his is on the geasa [gassa] or tabus of the king of Ireland,
and on his prerogatives. It was tabu for him to let the sun rise on
him when in bed in the plains of Tara, or for him to alight on a
Wednesday on the plain of Bregia, or to traverse the plain of
Cuillenn after sunset, or to launch his ship on the first Monday after
May Day, etc. Another is a beautiful poem on the origin of the river
Shannon, called from a lady Sinann, who ventured near Connla's
well, a thing tabu to a female—to steal the nuts of knowledge. There
grew nine splendid mystical hazel trees around this well, and they
produced the most beautiful nuts of rich crimson colour, and as
these lovely nuts, filled full with all that was loveliest and most
refined in literature, poetry, and art, dropped off their branches into
the well, they raised a succession of red shining bubbles. The
salmon at the sound of the falling nuts darted forward to eat them
and afterwards made their way down the river, their lower side
covered with beautiful crimson spots from the effect of the crimson
nuts. Whoever could catch and eat these salmon were in their turn
filled with the knowledge of literature and art, for the power of the
nuts had to some extent passed into the fish that eat them. These
were the celebrated "eó feasa" [yo fassa], or salmon of knowledge,
so frequently alluded to by the poets. To approach this well was tabu
to a woman, but Sinann attempted it, when the well rose up and
drowned her, and carried her body down in a torrent of water to the
river which was after her called Shannon.
Altogether about 1,200 lines of Cuan O'Lochain's poetry have been
preserved.[7] It would be useless for our purpose to go more
minutely into the history of those pre-Norman poets. It is not the
known poetry of early Irish poets which, as a rule, is of most interest
to the purely literary student, but rather the unknown and the
traditional.
We must now take a glance at the Irish of this later period upon the
Continent.
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