Plan of Chapter Two and Fragments for The History of Ireland

From Marxists-en
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 1870


First published in Marx-Engels Archives, Russian edition, Vol. X, Moscow, 1948
Printed according to the manuscript
Source: Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 21
Keywords : History, Ireland

The plan of Chapter Two and the most significant fragments for Engels’ History of Ireland comprise part of his preparatory material for this work. Chapter Two, “Old Ireland”, remained unfinished, but its plan gives an idea of the problems Engels wanted to raise.

In English this plan is published for the first time in this volume. Some - fragments were first published in English in Marx and Engels, Ireland and the Irish Question, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1971.

In this volume the plan an d fragments are printed according to the manuscript written mostly in German , and partly in English. English words used by Engels a r e given in small caps.

Old Ireland I. Sources. 1) The ancients. 2) Irish literature, buildings and inscriptions. 3) Foreign sources: the Scandinavians, St. Bernard, Giraldus.— 4) Later sources, especially late 16th century.[1]

II a. Race and language. Legends about the invaders. Information from the ancients. What can be deduced about Irish literature from the laws, Gifaldus and later sources,

b. The clan system, landownership, laws.

Ill a. Introduction of Christianity. Ir[ish] missionaries and scholars. J. Scotus Erig[ena].

b. Danish period, etc., up to invasion. System of government at this time.

Ad I

[Ad II]

a. Senchus Mor, XI.[2]Giraldus.— Spenser, Davies, Camden, Campion, etc., Ledwich.[3]

b. N[ennius], Brit.[4] S[enchus] M[or], XI and orig[ina]l. Cf. also Ledwich.

Ad III T. Moore, II, pp. 9 ff and orig[ina]l. Chron[ology]. Gordon.[5] Hegel, Geschichte der Philosophie.— Danica.

Tigernach (Tierna) the ANNALIST died in 1088 according to the Annals of the Four Masters.

...............................

The Annals of the Four Masters compiled in the 17th century by M. O'Clary and 3 others from ancient Irish annals.[6]

...............................

The Annals of Ulster exist in a manuscript dated 1215.

...............................

Poet-chroniclers, mainly 9th-llth centuries.

...............................

An eclipse of the sun correctly recorded by Irish chroniclers on May 3, 664 (in Tigernach).

...............................

Irish chiefs of all ranks constantly waged war not only among themselves but also with their superior princes as well as the nominal king.

...............................

The TANIST is believed to have been both chief commander and chief judge, that is very powerful against the king. His title (supreme king) Righ-damnha= rex in fieri,[7] but minor chiefs also had their TANISTS.

...............................

The hierarchical relations; between princes in Ireland are believed only to have involved tributes, COSHERY,[8] BONAGHTY but by no means military service.

...............................

The supremacy of the kings of Meath and the chroniclers' triennial national assembly in Tnamor (Tara) seems to have only existed on paper, it might have been enforced from time to time but always lapsed again.

...............................

The land allocated to the chief of the clan was not divided (ditto that belonging to soldiers, priests, singers, chroniclers). The remaining land owned by the clan and could be divided up.

...............................

With communal property the right of inheritance of illegitimate sons—in the whole clan—was unquestioned. Gavelkind: Davies (p. 136) describes the division of land "TO EACH ACCORDING TO HIS ANTIQUITY" (i.e. his traditional rank in the clan),[9] which in Moore (Vol. I, p. 177)[10] has already been turned into SENIORITY!

...............................

According to an obscure tradition the Milesians or Scots did not apparently practise any crafts until Tuathal died in A. D. 164; from then on, however, they did as a result of his [restoration] expulsion in 126 by the Plebeians (attacots-attach-tuatha translated by O’Reilly as Plebeians). In any case [from] at the time of the invasion all traces of the ruling race had disappeared although the families of the chiefs may have been Scottish. The first Plebeian war A. D. 90.— In both cases the legitimate Scottish family finally regained power.

...............................

There are some Irish poems, believed to date back to the earliest days of the Milesians, which in the manuscript c have notes in between the lines. Without them they are incomprehensible, but even the notes are in a very obsolete language and very difficult to understand.

...............................

Hereditable positions in families (i.e. not all of them, only certain ones). Thus in Camden's time, and later too, the O'Cullinan family in Cork constantly had one or more doctors, and people used to say that if someone had resigned himself to death not even an O'Cullinan could cure him. Similarly with herolds, bards, musicians (and Seanachies[11]). This natural considering the land allocated to them.

...............................

Slaves and slave trade.

...............................

Johannes Scotus Erigena.

...............................

The oldest Irish manuscripts late 9th century, and the oldest songs occur as SINGLE FRAGMENTS in the annals; these appear more frequently from the 6th century.

...............................

In the BREHON LAWS all fines were expressed in livestock, that means there was still no money as yet.

...............................

There are still numerous manuscripts in existence bearing on t h e BREHON LAWS.

...............................

St. Bernard was never in Ireland.

...............................

In Ireland in ancient times boats were made of wickerwork covered in skins; after 1810 these were still the only kind of boats on the west coast, cf. Wakefield,[12] XII, p. 6,[13] where the passages from Pliny and Solinus are also to be found.

...............................

Irish literature?—17th century, poetry, historical] and juridical literature], then completely suppressed due to the eradication of the Irish literary language—exists only in manuscript—publication is only just beginning—this is [possible] only with a downtrodden people. See Serbs, etc.

...............................

The English have been able to reconcile people of the most diverse races to their rule. The Welsh, who cling so strongly to their nationality and their language, have been completely integrated into the British Empire. The Scottish Celts, although rebellious until 1745,[14] and since then almost exterminated, first by the government and later by their own aristocracy, have no thought of rebellion. The French of the Channel Islands fought bitterly against France even during the Great Revolution. And even the Frisians of Heligoland,[15] sold to England by Denmark, are content with their lot, and it will surely be a long time before the laurels of Sadowa and the achievements of the North-German Confederation[16] arouse in them the agonised cry for unification with the great Fatherland. Only the Irish have proved too much for the English to cope with. The tremendous resilience of the Irish race is to blame for this. Despite the most savage suppression, shortly after each attempt to wipe them out the Irish stood stronger than ever before. Indeed, they drew their main strength from the foreign garrison imposed on them to subdue them. Within the lifetime of two generations, often of one, the foreigners had become more Irish than the Irish themselves, Hiberniores ipsis Hibernis; and the more they adopted the English language and forgot Irish, the more Irish they became.

...............................

The bourgeoisie turns everything into a commodity, hence also the writing of history. It is in its nature, a condition of its existence, to falsify all commodities: it falsified history. And the version of history which is most highly paid is that which is best falsified for the purposes of the bourgeoisie. Teste Macaulay,[17] who is therefore the unattainable model of the less skilled G. Smith.

...............................

QUEEN S EVIDENCE.— REWARDS FOR EVIDENCE.

England is the only country where the state openly dares to bribe witnesses, be it by an offer of exemption from punishment, or by ready cash. That prices are fixed for the betrayal of the whereabouts of a victim of persecution is comprehensible, but that they say: who gives me evidence on the strength of which someone can be sentenced as the perpetrator of some crime or another— this infamy is something not only the Code,[18] but also Pr[ussian] common law have left to Eng[lish] law. That COLLATERAL EVIDENCE is required alongside that given by the informer changes nothing; as a rule there is evidence for somebody to be suspected, or else it is fabricated, and the informer only has to adjust his lies accordingly.

Whether this pretty usage has its roots already in Eng[lish] legal proceedings is hard to say, but it is certain that it has received its development on Irish soil at the time of the Tories[19] and the penal laws.

...............................

On March 15, 1870, when the government sought to justify the removal of an Irish sheriff (Coote of Monaghan) by arguing that he had packed the jury panel, G. H. Moore, M. P. for Mayo, said in Parliament[20]:

* “If Capt. Coote had done all the things of which he had been accused, he had only followed the practice which, in political cases, had been habitually sanctioned by the Institute Executive.”

As one instance out of many that might be cited, he would mention that though County Cork had a proportion of 500,000 Catholics against 50,000 Protestants, at the time of the Fenian trials in 1865,[21]a jury panel was called, composed of 360 Protestants and 40 Catholics! *

...............................

The German Legion of 1806-13 was also sent to Ireland. Thus, the good Hanoverians who refused to put up with French [bondage] rule, were used by the English to preserve English rule in Ireland!

...............................

The agrarian murders in Ireland cannot be suppressed because and as long as they are the sole effective weapon against the extermination of the people by the landlords. They help, which is why they persist, and will persist, despite all coercive laws. Quantitatively they fluctuate, as do all social phenomena; at times they may even become epidemic, occurring on quite insignificant occasions. The epidemic can be suppressed, but not the disease itself.

...............................

Dublin botanical gardens—total absence of protection for the flowers and yet no abuse on the part of the public as in England—Churchyard in Glasnevin like no other in England.

...............................

THE ENGLISH LADY. There is no creature more superfluous and useless on earth. Custom, education and inclination exclude her from all the truly intellectual aspects of life, whereas THE FRIVOLITIES OF LIFE, or at the most dabbling with serious matters, make up the entire content of her life and are alone taken seriously by her.

  1. ↑ This paragraph is crossed out in the manuscript.— Ed.
  2. ↑ Engels refers to his notebook containing excerpts from Senchus Mor.—Ed.
  3. ↑ Engels refers to the works on the history of ancient Ireland by Ed. Ledwich, a well-known Irish archaeologist.
  4. ↑ Nennius, Historia Britonum, London, 1819.— Ed.
  5. ↑ J. Gordon, A History of the Rebellion in Ireland in 1789, Dublin, 1801; A History of Ireland..., Dublin, 1805.— Ed.
  6. ↑ See This volume, p. 173.— Ed.
  7. ↑ Future king.— Ed.
  8. ↑ Coshery—an ancient right, dating back to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, of an Irish chief of a tribe or a clan with his retainers to claim bed and board at the expense of a dependent . This right was widely exercised during festivals.
  9. ↑ J. Davies, Historical Tracts, London, 1786.— Ed.
  10. ↑ Th. Moore, The History of Ireland, Vol. I, Paris, 1835.— Ed.
  11. ↑ Chroniclers.— Ed.
  12. ↑ Ed. Wakefield, An Account of Ireland. Statistical and Political, Vols. I-II, London, 1812.— Ed.
  13. ↑ Engels refers to his notebook containing excerpts from Wakefield.— Ed.
  14. ↑ A reference to an uprising of the Scottish highlanders in 1745. The rebellion was caused by oppression and eviction from the land carried out in the interests of the Anglo-Scottish landed aristocracy and bourgeoisie. Part of the nobility'in the Scottish Highlands, who supported the claims of the overthrown Stuart dynasty to the English Crown (the official aim of the insurgents was to enthrone Charles Edward , the grandson of James II), took advantage of the discontent among the highlanders. The suppression of the rebellion put an end to the clan system in the Scottish Highlands and resulted in more evictions.
  15. ↑ The Island of Heligoland (North Sea) was settled in early times by a Germanic tribe, the Frisians. Having become a Danish possession in the eighteenth century, it was captured by the English in 1807 and ceded to England in 1814 by the Treaty of Kiel.
  16. ↑ The Prussians defeated the Austrians on July 3, 1866, near the village of Sadowa, in the vicinity of the town of Königgrätz in Bohemia (now Hradec Kralové). On the North-German Confederation see Note 102.
  17. ↑ Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, London, 1862.— Ed.
  18. ↑ Code Napoléon, Paris, Leipzig, 1808.— Ed.
  19. ↑ The name given in Ireland to those who took part in the movement against the colonial authorities and landlords in the latter half of the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. The name was derived from the original meaning of the word— a bully, a ruffian. The Tories were mostly peasants, their leaders — expropriated Irish noblemen . At the end of the seventeenth century there emerged detachments made up of peasants alone , the rapparees. The authorities used extremely brutal methods in the fight against the Tories and rapparees. Those caught were hanged, drawn and quartered . Informers were rewarded generously. In England the nickname Tory was given by the Whigs to their opponents — the representatives of the conservative aristocratic circles supporting the absolutist claims of the Stuarts, who were restored in 1660. On the Penal Laws see Note 238.
  20. ↑ Moore spoke in the House of Commons on March 14, 1870. See The Times, No. 26699, March 15, 1870.— Ed.
  21. ↑ A reference to the trial, held in Dublin at the end of 1865, of the prominent Fenians, accused of organising an anti-government plot. The principal defendants were O'Leary, Luby, Kickham and O'Donovan Rossa, the publishers and editors of The Irish People, the Fenian newspaper suppressed by the police on September 15. Many other Fenians were also arrested on denunciation by agents provocateurs and traitors. The picked pro-English jury was hostile to the Irish rebels. Th e sentences were extremely severe: twenty years' penal servitude to O'Leary an d Luby, fifteen years' penal servitude to Kickham and penal servitude for life to O'Donovan Rossa.
Retrieved from "https://wikirouge.net/texts/en/w/index.php?title=Plan_of_Chapter_Two_and_Fragments_for_The_History_of_Ireland&oldid=92122"