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Monamolin, near Oulart. At the breaking out of hostilities in the County of Wexford, he threw himself heartily into the struggle. Courageous to desperation, his arm was shattered at the battle of Arklow, while leading his division against the royalist artillery. Confined in Wexford by this wound, he did all he could to prevent the disgraceful massacre of royalists on the bridge. He subsequently joined the insurgent force that, after the fall of Wexford, endeavoured to penetrate the County of Carlow, and for a time held out with Holt, Myles Byrne, and Dwyer in the glens of Wicklow. Returning to his home secretly to visit his relatives, he was arrested, and executed in July 1798. Few particulars are preserved of Esmonde Kyan. He is uniformly spoken of by his associates in terms of the highest respect, as a man of talents and nobility of character. Myles Byrne writes: "He was, of all the chiefs of our little Irish army, the one who merited most good terms from the English. Throughout the war he had shown the greatest humanity, and made unceasing exertions to save the lives of prisoners, even of those whose hands were steeped in the blood of the inhabitants of the County of Wexford." 65 331

Lacy, Peter, Count, Field-Marshal, was born at Killeedy, County of Limerick, 29th September 1678. At the capitulation of Limerick, Peter, a lad of but thirteen, was an ensign in Sarsfield's army, and quitting Ireland with the remains of his regiment, joined the Irish Brigade in France, and was appointed lieutenant in the Regiment of Athlone. He served with Marshal Cantinet's army in Italy until the end of 1696; and after the peace of Ryswick entered the service of Peter the Great, and rapidly rose to distinction. In 1708 he was appointed colonel of a regiment of infantry, and in December of that year distinguished himself while in command of 15,000 men at the assault of Rumna. In the following month he was given a regiment of grenadiers by the Czar. At Pultowa he commanded a brigade, and was wounded. In 1720 he was Lieutenant-General, and in that and the succeeding year commanded several descents on the Swedish coast. After Queen Catherine's accession we find him a general-in-chief; and in 1729 Governor of Livonia. In 1733, at the head of 30,000 men, he made an expedition to Poland to support the claims of Augustus of Saxony to the throne, and entered Warsaw triumphantly. Operations against Turkey, and notably the occupation of the Crimea, next engaged his services. In 1741 war with Sweden again broke out, and he was engaged in all the most important actions. In 1742 a Swedish force of 17,000 laid down their arms to him at Helsingfors, and he added part of Finland to the Russian crown. When peace was finally concluded he retired to his estates in Livonia, where he died 11th May 1751, aged 72, leaving five daughters and two sons. He left upwards of £60,000 personal property, as well as extensive estates. Lacy is described as tall and well made, vivacious yet cool, of sound judgment and prompt in action. His father and two brothers were killed in the French service. 34 186

Laeghaire, Monarch of Ireland from 427 to 457. His reign was rendered memorable by the advent of St. Patrick, and by the arrangement of Irish laws and customs in the Senchus Mor. Although his wife Agneis was a convert to Christianity, Laeghaire continued true to his old faith—nevertheless giving every facility for the spread of Christianity. The collection of the Senchus Mor, called also Nofis from the number of its compilers, is thus referred to by Keating: "Laegari was induced to call a general convention, at which the kings, clergy, and bard-sages of Ireland were assembled together for the purpose of rectifying the said national records. When this convention had met, its members selected nine of their number for the duty, to wit: 'three kings, three bishops, and three ollamhs.' The three kings were, Laegari, son of Niall, King of Ireland; Dari, King of Ulster; and Corc, son of Lugaidh, King of Munster; the three bishops were, Patrick, Benen, and Cairnech; the three ollamhs, or doctors of history, were, Dubthach, Fergus, and Rosa, son of Trichim. By these nine the traditions were purified and set in order. It is the work that resulted from their labour that is now called the Senchus Mor, that is, the great tradition." 171 Professor O'Curry considered "the recorded account of this great revision of the body of the laws of Erin is as fully entitled to confidence as any other well-authenticated fact in ancient history." The work, we are told, was composed at "Teamhair [Tara] in the summer and in the autumn, on account of its cleanness and pleasantness during these seasons; and Rath-guthaird [Lisanawer, near Nobber] was the place during the winter and the spring, on account of the nearness of its firewood and water, and on account of its warmth in the time of winter's cold." 300* Laeghaire was killed by lightning in 457, and was buried upright in the ramparts of Tara, "as if in the

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