Irish Druids and Old Irish Religions

IrisJI
Bards.
43
no one was admitted unless proved to be a poetical genius,
well acquainted with the twelve books of poetry.
The Dimi Seanchas has poems by the Irish Bard of the
second century, Finin Mac Luchna
; and it asserts that
" the people deemed each other's voices sweeter than the
warblings of the melodious harp." On Toland's authority
we learn that, for a long time after the English Conquest,
the judges. Bards, physicians, and harpers held land tenures
in Ireland. The O'Duvegans were hereditary Bards of
the O'Kellies ;
the O'Shiels were hereditary doctors ;
the
O'Brodins, hereditary antiquaries ;
the Maglanchys, hereditary
judges. The Bards were Strabo's hymn-makers.
Mrs. Bryant felt that " The Isle of Song was soon to
become the Isle of Saints ;"
and considered " Ireland of the
Bards knew its Druids simply as men skilled in all magical
arts, having no marked relation either to a system of theology,
or to a scheme of ceremonial practice."
The BreJion Law gives little information respecting
Druids, though the Brehons were assumed to have been
originally Druid judges. St. Patrick has the credit of
compiling this record.
These Brehons had a high reputation for justice ;
and
yet it is confessed that when one was tempted to pass a
false sentence, his chain of office would immediately
tighten round his neck most uncomfortably as a warning.
Of the Brehons, it is said by the editors—O'Mahon}- and
Richey— " The learning of the Brehons became as useless
to the public as the most fantastic discussions of the
Schoolmen, and the whole system crystallized into a form
which rendered social progress impossible." Though those
old Irish laws were so oppressive to the common people,
and so favourable to the hereditary chiefs, it was hard
indeed to get the people to relinquish them for Enghsh
laws.