The "Old Files" of Ireland, Chapters I-III [pp. 20-32]

1885.] TiiE "OLD FILES" oFh?ELAKD. 27
great to live under. Undoubtedly the nucleus of such tales,
that attest the power of satirical verses, belongs to pagan times.
The popularity of the fi/6 must often have interfered with the
chiefs or kinglets, the " bosses" in the unending snarl of Irish
politics; and we have excellent testimony that at various epochs
thefi/ed/~a, or literary fellowships, were attacked by the king, much
as in other lands the clergy has been assailed. Keating tells us
that King Aedh assembled at Dromketh a great convention, and
brought before it as one of the first needs of the country the
immediate expulsion of the poets from Ireland. This was not,
as ~he modern humorist might suggest, because he was tired of
bearing from the singe~s how much braver, stronger, more magnanimous and munificent than himself were the heroes of a preceding cycle. It was "Qn account of the greatness of their numbers
and of the difficulty there was both in governing themselves and
in satisfying their demands. For the train attendant upon an
Ollamh (a poet of the first rank) numbered thirty persons, and that
attendant upon the Annruith (the next in the order) was fifteen.
So that about that epoch nearly one-third of the men of Ireland
belonged to the Poetic Order, all of whom were wont to quarter
themselves upon the other inhabitants from the season of Samhain to that of Beltaini." As a matter of fact, it seems to have
been the rulers rather than the ruled who threatened the literary men, though it is plain that the latter, like the Brahman
caste of India, grew at times oppressively large and arrogated to
themselves privileges that no self-respecting people would bear.
However, we are safe in believing that as a rule the temporal
chief was embarrassed by the fondness displayed by the people
for these intellectual leaders, who held the folk by recital of the
myths and hero~tales, colored the history of the past, and checked
the king by calling up precedents that did not suit his claims.
The fi16 occupied a position apparently subordinate, perhaps historically subsequent, to the fufly pagan Druid, while
between him and the bard it is difficult to draw the line. We
must not take too literally the wonderful tableau of ranks and
orders laid down as goyerning the guild. Undoubtedly there
was some such division into poets of the first, second, and third
ranks, whose places at th~e grand councils were duly appointed,
their dress regulated, the number of their attendants limited.
But among social elements so loosely held together the schedule
must be considered to show what was desirable rather than what
was put into practice. If the Druid was a compositq of priest,
physician, lawyer, and chief; if he retained traditions of a time