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Ireland and the Making of Britain
skilled scribe, succeeded by sitting up several nights, in
making a secret transcription which Finnian, when he
learned of it, claimed as his property. Columcille refused
to surrender his transcription and the matter was brought
up for decision at the court of the High Monarch, Diarmuid
II, at Tara. The decision is the first we know of
in the law of copyright and as such is extremely inter-
esting, tho it is condemned by most of the Irish annalists,
Appealing to the precedent of the old Irish laws that
le gach boin a boinm "with every cow her calf!" the
monarch decided in favor of Finnian, adjudging that
"as with every cow her calf, so with every book its son."
The decision greatly offended Columcille, to whom
books were a passion, and fuel was added to his resentment
by another event It happened during the great
Feis, or Parliament, of Tara, that the son of the King of
Connacht, in violation of the law of sanctuary which was
universally held as sacred on these occasions, slew the son
of the High King's steward and, knowing the penalty
was certain death fled to tKe residence in the royal city
of the northern princes, Fergus and Domhnaill, who im-
mediately placed him under the protection of Columcille.
The offense was too grave, however, for temporizing, and
King Diarmuid, who was a strenuous upholder of the
law, had him immediately seized and put to death. The
action exasperated Columcille to the last degree. Shak-
ing the dust of Tara from his feet He sped northward
and called on his kindred for vengeance. A great army
was collected, led by Prince Fergus and Prince Domhnaill,
two first cousins of Columcille, and by the King
of Connacht, whose son had been fc> put death. The
High King marched to meet the combination with all
the troops he could muster, with the result that a furious
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