Archaeological Journal/Volume 3/Notices of New Publications: Some account of the Territory or Dominion of Farney

Some account of the Territory or Dominion of Farney, in the Province and Earldom of Ulster. By Evelyn Philip Shirley, Esq., M.A., one of the Knights of the Shire for the County of Monaghan. Pickering, 4to.

The Barony of Farney, so termed from the ancient Irish designation, "the plain of the Alder-trees," the aboriginal growth which covered the low marshy lands and margins of standing waters in an extensive district of central Ireland, was a division of the ancient territory of Oriel, or M'Mahon's country, which was subdivided into five baronies in the reign of Elizabeth. Mr. Shirley has collected from the most ancient records the annals of Donegal and of Ulster, commencing as early as the fourth century; the few scattered evidences relating to the habits of the earlier inhabitants, records which tell only of rapine and bloodshed, of internal strife and lawless aggressions. The existence of earthen forts, or Lis, crowning every eminence in the district of Farney, to the number of 220 and upwards, as also of the curious remains of abodes of petty chieftains, placed for security on natural or artificial islands in the numerous loughs of that country, and termed Crannoges, bear a striking testimony to the truth of the "Annals of the Four Masters," and other early memorials of Irish history, upon which attention has as yet been insufficiently bestowed. Amongst these a curious record exists in relation to the rights of the tribes and chiefs of the district, and the privileges claimed by the king and people of Oriel: it is found in the "Book of Lecan," compiled about the twelfth century. The subsidies payable by the monarch of Island to the king of Oriel, and other subordinate reguli, and their liabilities to their inferior chieftains, are therein detailed: the chief of Farney appears to have been entitled to six loricas, and as many cups, shields, swords, women-slaves and chess-boards. The introduction of the game of chess at so early a period, in a country torn by rapine and disorder, might have been questioned, although Mr. Petrie is possessed of two chess-men discovered in Ireland, considered to be of no less ancient a date than the eleventh century, but the fact appears to be established by the curious record now for the first time published. The indefatigable research of Mr. Shirley has brought to light many curious memorials relating to the occurrences of the period antecedent to the Norman invasion, as well as of succeeding centuries; and the history of Farney, although properly forming a monograph of a limited district, may be viewed by general readers with interest as a faithful picture of the civil strife and fatal disunion by which the prosperity of this fertile land was blasted. The Lis of the primeval inhabitants gave place to the more scientifically constructed fortresses of de Courcy, and the Anglo-Norman occupants, but still was each man's hand upraised against his neighbour, and the oppression of the more civilized invader tended only to aggravate miseries which had arisen from anarchy and barbarism.

It is, however, a remarkable fact, which can only be appreciated by examination of such collections of Irish antiquities, as the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy, that certain decorative arts, the craft of working in bronze and other metals, of producing elaborate ornaments of filagree or enamel, appear to have flourished in Ireland at a remote period, even amidst the aggravated miseries of that ill-fated country. These ornaments present great variety in form and design, and are for the most part marked by a peculiar character, distinguishing them from objects considered as of contemporary date, found in other countries of Europe. Several vestiges of the earliest period are yet to be traced in the barony of Farney, such as the remains of Druidical circles, trenches with a double row of great stones, about 40 feet in length, to which the popular name of the "Giants' graves" has been applied, and various stones of memorial, with which certain traditions are connected. The maul or hammer-head, formed of horn-stone, one of the best specimens which have been found in Ireland, and of which a representation, reduced to one half of the original size, is here presented to our readers, is remarkable on account of its peculiar form, and the skilful precision with which so hard a substance has been fashioned and polished. This object was found in a bog near the banks of Lough Fea^[1].

In another of those great treasuries of remains illustrative of the habits of the primitive inhabitants of the country, a curious boat, formed of the hollowed trunk of an oak tree, was found; it measured 12 feet in length, and 3 feet in breadth, and was furnished with handles at the extremities, evidently for facility of transport from one lough to another, in a district where so large a portion of the surface was covered by waters, which, as it has been observed, served to secure the insulated dwelling-places of the chieftains of Monaghan from hostile surprise.

The numerous objects formed of bronze, which have been found in Ireland, display remarkable skill in the art of casting and working that metal. The beautiful specimen, of which a representation is here given, was found at a fort in the Chase at Lough Fea; it is a bridle, the bit being formed of iron, in which respect it is unique; several bridles of bronze, with elegantly foliated ornaments of similar design, have been found in Ireland, but in no other instance in a perfect state, with the bit of iron.

Another curious specimen of skill in the working of metals was discovered in the barony of Farney, in the year 1834. It is a vessel in the form of a caldron, made of six plates of hammered bronze, riveted together with pins of the same metal, the heads of which are shaped into points, and serve to ornament the exterior surface of the vessel. Its dimensions are 60 inches in circumference, at the widest part, by 111/2 inches in height. The culinary vessels found in Ireland have usually three feet, being intended for use on an open hearth; the caldron here represented was obviously adapted only for suspension over the fire. It was found twelve feet below the surface of a bog. (See woodcut in the next page.)

Amongst the ancient customs of the Irish, illustrated by Mr. Shirley's careful researches, the remarkable usage observed at the election of a chieftain, by the ceremony of placing him on a certain stone, may deserve especial notice. This usage appears to have been retained so late as the sixteenth century^[2]. Spencer, in his View of the state of Ireland, says that "They use to place him that shalbe their captaine, upon a stone alwayes reserved for that purpose, and placed commonly upon a hill: in some of which I have seen formed and ingraven a foot, whichthey say was the measure of their first captaines foot, whereon hee standing, receives an oath to preserve all the auncient former customes of the countrey inviolable;—after which, descending from the stone, he turneth himself round, thrice forward and thrice backward." On the hill of Lech, or of "the Stone," near Monaghan, may still be seen the inauguration stone of the Mac-Mahons, under which the golden chair of the kings of Ireland is traditionally believed to have been deposited: the impression of a foot was effaced by the owner of the farm within the present century. The usages observed at the installation of chiefs are noticed at great length in "the Customs of Hy-Fiachrach," given in the valuable series of publications by the Irish Archæological Society; but this custom of the Mac-Mahon sept has not been noticed. Possibly the singular stone, marked with the print of a gigantic foot, traditionally attributed to Fingal, and still to be seen in the neighbourhood of Oban, in Argyllshire, may be the vestige of some similar inaugural custom.

Bronze Caldron found in Farney.

We must refer our readers to the pages of Mr. Shirley's interesting work for the detailed account of the superiority assumed by the O'Neils over the Mac-Mahon sept, and the settlement of Monaghan by Sir William Fitzwilliam, in 1590, compiled from the valuable evidences which are preserved in the State Paper Office. The history of Farney, under the various measures devised during the reign of Elizabeth, for the amelioration of the distracted state of the country, the relation of the expedition of the earl of Essex, and events of subsequent times, are carefully detailed, and illustrated by documents drawn from sources of information hitherto almost unexamined.

At the close of the volume an alphabetical list of names of the townlands of the barony is given, which may well serve to shew the value of such minor evidences, too frequently neglected by topographers. The popular name of some close, of an ancient track-way, or of some remote dell or eminence, traditionally preserved, or noticed in the title-deeds of estates, may often supply a link in the chain of evidence which has in vain been sought elsewhere by the local historian.

1. Hatchet-shaped weapons, or implements formed of flint or other hard stone, are of frequent occurrence; but the form of the specimen above represented is very uncommon. See Remarks on Stone Axes and Hammers, by Bishop Lyttleton and Pegge, Archæol., vol. ii. pp. 118, 124.
2. Ross Mac-Mahon, as appears by Sir William Drury's despatch, Feb. 1578-9, was chosen chief of his sept, by this customary ceremonial. See p. 73.