The Highland monthly - National Library of Scotland

Ireland befoj'e the Conquest. 79
law, or even of any attempt at regular or civilised govern-
ment. That the high kingship was coveted, and held a
powerful sway over the imaginations of Irishmen, is obvious
from the incessant conflicts which were waged to attain the
dignity ; but the dignity was a shadowy one, and its
possession involved no real power. Each prince who
attained it, or thought he had done so, took hostages and
exacted tribute from the chiefs and princes who submitted
to him. When he was at peace he lived in his own dune
or rath in his own hereditary dominions—no doubt in a
state of considerable barbaric pomp and magnificence ;
and when at war he could call on his tributaries to bring
their tribes to his assistance ; but he did not attempt to
govern, did not attempt to control, his tributaries in their
exercise of what they considered their kingly power in
their own dominions or over their own tribes. The
shadowy and merely nominal nature of the sovereignty is
shown by the following passage in the Annals of Clonmacnoise,
a record believed to be ancient, but which now
exists only in a translation made in 1627 :— "The kings or
chief monarchs of Ireland were reputed and reckoned to be
absolute monarchs {i.e., supreme monarchs) in this manner ;
if he were of Leigh-Con, or Con's half in deal, and one
province of Leath-Moye, or Moyes half, he was reputed to
be of sufficient power to be king of Tarogh or Ireland ;
but
if the party were of Leath Moye, if he could not command
all Leath-Moye and Taragh, with the lordship thereunto
belonging, and the province of Ulster or Connacht (if not
both), he would not be thought to be sufficient to be king
of all." From this passage it would appear that the
tradition of sovereignty still lingered around Tara, but the
annalists cease during the period of which we are treating
to call the supreme king King of Tara, and the title is
constantly applied to the princes of Meath, and even to
the princes of that division of Meath in which Tara is
situated.