Mommsen that it is ridiculous to inquire “into what is neither capable of being known or worth the knowing”, for instance, the legendary history of Rome. The straitest historian may well be staggered by such a proposition; the archæologist and folk-lorist will simply pass it by with a smile, knowing full well that it is far more important to understand the genesis and growth of Roman traditional history than to ascertain, could it be ascertained, the year in which some obscure families first settled on the site that was to be Rome, and the names of those families. Be this as it may, the author’s quotation indicates his standpoint, that of confirmed scepticism with regard to the pre-Christian history of Ireland, and in especial with regard to the age of the rude stone monuments which are such a characteristic feature of County Sligo. “Ireland in pre-Christian times was utterly unlettered and barbarous . . . the outcome of research before long will probably be to bring all or nearly all the existing antiquities of the County within the Christian era.”[1] Such are the propositions to which, in the course of a rambling, higgledy-piggledy, but, as regards mediæval and modern Ireland, most instructive and suggestive work, he commits himself with the utmost ingenuity of special pleading. Take, for instance, his treatment of the Carrowmore rude stone monuments. These have hitherto been regarded as pre-historic by sober-minded antiquaries, or, by the older school of Irish historians, have been brought into connection with various events of the legendary annals, such as the battle of the Southern Moytura. Dr. O’Rorke looks upon the monuments as commemorating the battle of Sligo, fought about 540 A.D., between the invading Ulstermen, comprising both branches of the Northern Hy Neill, and Eoghan Bel, King of Connaught, at the head of all the forces of Connaught. The Connaught men were routed and Eoghan Bel was slain; his head, according to the account preserved in the Annals of the Four Masters, here, as usual, favourable to the Hy Neill, being carried off
- ↑ O’Rorke, op. cit., i, p. xi.
