Volume 3 - Electric Scotland

HISTORY OF THE WESTERN ISLANDS. 41
the Isles by the name of Godred the second. Here, as
on many other occasions, we trace that intimate connexion
between the Western Isles and Ireland, which has been
the source of much misapprehension. If the earlier con-
nexions of the west coast with that country arose from
the Dalriadan settlements, and if that of lona formed
another bond of union, it is to the Norwegian rule, ex-
tending- alike over the maritime parts of both countries,
that we must look for that intimacy which almost ren-
dered them one people and has given rise to the High-
land claims on Irish genealogies. A conspiracy was
soon formed between Somerlid and Thorfin ; and the
result was, that some of the isles were conquered, and
given, as it is understood, to Somerlid's eldest son,
Dugald. Scottish historians say that Dugald inherited
at his father's death ; but there is a good deal of contra-
diction in the history of Somerlid's immediate descend-
ants. Paul Balkason, the governor of Sky, who appears
to have been a very honest man, having informed God-
red of this event, he arrived from Dublin with a fleet,
and was met by Somerlid with eighty ships, in 1156.
The contest however terminated in a treaty instead of an
action ; and a division of the Isles took place. There are
more difficulties here ; for the Scots say that Somerlid
had a right in this case, because his wife was Olave's
heiress. But Godred was not only in possession, and
that, a long acknowledged one, but had the superior
claim in being Olave's heir as a son and a legitimate
one ;
the wife of Somerlid being only a natural daughter.
Every thing in the history of Somerlid seems to show
that he was one of those Norwegian chiefs who had con-
trived, as others had done at various times with more or
less permanent success, to make himself independent of
and who
the Norwegian kings of Cantyre and the Isles ;