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ARM
of the muscle, oyster, leech, together with dendrites,
belemnites, and madreporites, are also found; and in
the mountain streams are pure quartz crystals, of which
a valuable specimen, found near Keady, is in the pos-
session of Dr. Colvan, of Armagh.
ARMAGH, a city, market
and post-town, and a pa-
rish, partly in the barony of
O’NEILLAND WEST, but
chiefly in that of ARMAGH,
county of ARMAGH (of which
it is the capital), and province
of ULSTER, 31 miles (S. W.
by W.) from Belfast, and 65¾
(N.N.W.) from Dublin; con-
taining 10,518 inhabitants, of
which number, 9470 are with-
in the limits of the borough.
The past importance of this ancient city is noticed
by several early historians, who describe it as the chief
city in Ireland. St. Fiech, who flourished in the sixth
century, calls it the seat of empire; Giraldus Cam-
brensis, the metropolis 3 and, even so lately as 1580,
Cluverius styles it the head of the kingdom, adding
that Dublin was then next in rank to it. The original
name was Druim-sailech, “the hill of sallows,” which
was afterwards changed to Ard-sailech, “the height of
sallows,” and, still later, to Ard-macha, either from
Eamhuin-macha, the regal residence of the kings of
Ulster, which stood in its vicinity, or, as is more pro-
bable, from its characteristic situation, Ard-macha, sig-
nifying “the high place or field.”
Armagh is the head of the primacy of all Ireland,
and is indebted for its origin, and ecclesiastical pre-
eminence, to St. Patrick, by whom it was built, in 445.
He also founded, near his own mansion, the monastery
of St. Peter and St. Paul, for Canons Regular of the
order of St. Augustine, which was rebuilt by Imar
O’Hoedegan, and was the most distinguished of the
religious establishments which existed here, having ma-
terially contributed to the early importance of the place.
This institution received numerous grants of endow-
ment from the native kings, the last of whom, Roderick
O’Connor, made a grant to its professors, in 1169; in-
somuch that its landed possessions became very exten-
sive, as appears from an inquisition taken on its sup-
pression. Attached to it was a school or college, which
long continued one of the most celebrated seminaries in
Europe, and from which many learned men, not only of
the Irish nation, but from all parts of Christendom, were
despatched to diffuse knowledge throughout Europe.
It is said that 7000 students were congregated in it, in
the pursuit of learning, at one period; and the annals
of Ulster relate that, at a synod held by Gelasius at
Claonadh, in 1162, it was decreed that no person should
lecture publicly on theology, except such as had studied
at Armagh. The city was destroyed by accidental con-
flagrations in the year 670, 687, and 770, and also
sustained considerable injury in the last-mentioned year
by lightning. In subsequent periods it suffered severely
and repeatedly from the Danes, a band of whom having
landed at Newry, in 830, penetrated into the interior,
and having stormed Armagh established their head-
quarters in it for one month, and on being driven out,
plundered and reduced it to ashes. In 836, Tergesius
66
ARM
or Thorgis, a Danish chieftain, equally celebrated for
his courage and ferocity, after having laid waste Con-
naught and a great part of Meath and Leinster, turned
his arms against Ulster, which he devastated as far as
Lough Neagh, and then advancing against Armagh,
took it with little difficulty. His first act, after secur-
ing possession of the place, was the expulsion of the
Bishop Farannan, with all the students of the college,
and the whole body of the religious, of whom the bishop
and clergy sought refuge in Cashel. The numerous
atrocities perpetrated by the invaders at length excited
a combined effort against them. Nial the Third collected
a large army, and after having defeated the Danes in a
pitched battle in Tyrconnel, advanced upon Armagh,
where, after a second successful engagement, and while
preparing to force his victorious way into the city, the
main position of the enemy in these parts, he was
drowned in the river Callan, in an attempt to save the
life of one of his followers. Malachy, his successor,
obtained possession of the city, in which a public as-
sembly of the princes and chieftains of Ireland was
held, in 849, to devise the means of driving their fero-
cious enemies out of the island. In their first efforts
the Danes suffered several defeats; but, having con-
centrated their forces, and being supported by a rein-
forcement of their countrymen, they again marched
against Armagh, and took and plundered it about the
year 852.
The subsequent annals of Armagh, to the com-
mencement of the 11th century, are little more than a
reiteration of invasions and conquests by the Danes,
and of successful but brief insurrections of the natives,
in all of which this devoted city became in turn the
prize of each contending army, and suffered all the
horrors of savage warfare. In 1004, the celebrated
Brian Boru entered Armagh, where he presented at the
great altar of the church a collar of gold weighing 20
ounces; and after his death at the battle of Clontarf,
in 1014, his remains were deposited here, according to
his dying request, with those of his son Murchard, who
fell in the same battle. From this period to the English
invasion the history of Armagh exhibits a series of
calamitous incidents either by hostile inroads or ac-
cidental fires. Its annals, however, evince no further
relation to the events of that momentous period than
the fact of a synod of the Irish clergy having been held
in it by Gelasius, in 1170, in which that assembly came
to the conclusion that the foreign invasion and internal
distractions of the country were a visitation of divine
retribution, as a punishment for the inhuman practice
of purchasing Englishmen from pirates and selling them
as slaves; and it was therefore decreed that every
English captive should be liberated. The city suffered
severely from the calamities consequent on the invasion
of Edward Bruce, in 1315, during which the entire see
was lamentably wasted, and the archbishop was reduced
to a state of extreme destitution, by the reiterated incur-
sions of the Scottish army.
During the local wars in Ulster, at the close of the
15th and the beginning of the 16th centuries, this city
was reduced to a state of great wretchedness; and in
the insurrection of Shane O’Nial or O’Neal, Lord
Sussex, then lord-lieutenant, marched into Ulster to
oppose him; and having attacked him successfully at
Dundalk, forced him to retire upon Armagh, which the