DUBLIN
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DUBLIN
or Pole, clearly a survival of the earlier Black-Pool.
The natives distinguisheti the locality as Ath-Cliath,
i. e. "The Ford of Hurdles", from the wicker bridge or
ford by which the great road from Tara was conducted
across the Liffey into Cualann (South County Dublin
and Wicklow).
In 852, when Aulaf (Olaf) the Dane invaded Ire- land and subjected all the contending tribes of Danes, he erected a fortress on the triangle of elevated land formed by the confluence of the Duibhlinn with the Liffey, a site now occupied by Dublin Castle. This fortress, taking its name from the river over which it stood, was called in Scandina\nan Dyflin. In Anglo- Norman charters of the time of Henry II it became Duvelina; the legal scribes of King John brought it nearer to the name Dublin, which it has ever since re- tained. The fortress once established, there is no dif- ficulty in imagining a town or city growing up and clustering around it, which after some time was fur- nished with a defensive wall, some remnants of which are yet visible.
Early Chrlstian History. — The Christian Faith was preached in this territory, first by Palladius and then by St. Patrick. The stay of Palladius in Ireland was very short, scarcely a year, yet during that brief space he established three Christian communities, Teacli-Renjin {Tigroney),andDonard in County Wick- low, with Ceill-Finne in County ICildare. When the death of Palladius was known at Rome in 431, Patrick was immediately selected and consecrated bishop for this Irish mission. To him, therefore, thenceforth re- garded as the Apostle of Ireland, the See of Dublin looks as to its founder. His first visit after brief land- ings at Wicklow, Malahide, and Holmpatrick, was to his old slave-master in the northern parts of the coun- try. But so soon as he was able to gain the sanction of Leoghaire, Iving of Ireland, to preach the Gospel throughout the land, he visited every part of the island and made innumerable converts. At KilcuUen, in the Dublin Diocese, he established a bishop, and another at Lusk; while there are few parishes in the diocese that do not lay claim to a visit from him. Soon after his death in -192, the monastic system, which Patrick had himself partly initiated, became the settled form of ecclesiastical organization in Ireland. The number of tribes into which the coimtry was divided, and the fierce inter-tribal jealousy that prevailed at all times, rendered this system the more desirable. Each tribe had its own monastic establishment with a portion of the tribe lands set apart for its endowment, and in most of these centres a bishop was to be found, fre- quently (but not necessarily) the ruler of the commu- nity. It was in such establishments that the ecclesi- astical jurisdiction was centred. In this way we meet mention from time to time of bishops at Kilcullen, Lusk, Swords, Finglas, Glendalough, Taney, Clondal- kin, Castledermot, and Bray. We have no existing records and but scant traditions of any monastic es- tablishment known as Duibhlinn; but a tribe did lie scattered along the valley of the Coombe, which may have taken its name, as did the Danish fortress later on, from the Duibhlinn which meandered through its midst. The old church-dedications, which were cer- tainly Celtic, of Patrick, Bridget, Kevin, and Mac- Taill, in this very neighbourhood, would point to such a conclusion. Such a tribe would undoubtedly have had its monastery with its resident bishop. If this surmise be correct, it would help to explain a list of bishops given in Harris's edition of Ware's "Antiqui- ties of Ireland", and described as Bishops of Dublin; whilst from the invariable practice they all seem to have adopted, of embarking in some foreign mission- ary enterprise, they can scarcely be regarded as dio- cesan bishops in the accepted sense of the term, i. e. as prelates wedded to their sees.
The first of these bishops that we meet with is St. Livinus. He travelled into Belgium, where he con-
verted many, and was at length crowned with martyr-
dom, 12 November, G63, in which month his feast is cel-
ebrated. To him succeeded Disibod, who being driven
out by Naolence went to Germany, and after forty
years' labour in the neighbourhood of Disibodenberg,
named after him, died a very holy death. He flour-
ished about 675. St. Wiro is next. He emulated the
example of Livinus and passed over into Gaid. There,
at the request of Pepin of Heristal, he established him-
self about 700 at Roermond in Holland, where a por-
tion of his relics is preserved under the high altar of ■
the cathedral dedicated to him. St. Gualafer is men-
tioned as bishop in the eighth century, but of him
nothing is known except that he baptized and in-
structed his successor, who figures more conspicu-
ously. St. Rumold was certainly Irish-born, and is
reputed to have been some time Bishop of Dublin.
He cherished an ardent desire for martyrdom, and set-
ting out for Rome there received the pope's blessing.
On his return journey he preached at Mechlin with
great zeal and success. Having had occasion to re-
buke certain public sinners, he met at their hands the
longed-for martyrdom. He is the patron of Mechlin,
whose splendid cathedral is dedicated to him, and his
relics are preserved there in a sumptuous silver shrine.
St. Sedulius, who died in 785, is given by some writers
as "Bishop of Dublin", by others as "Abbot of Dub-
lin". In all probability he filled both offices. In or
about 890 there is mention of Corniac as bishop. Ware
could learn nothing about him. D'Alton says he was
bishop when Gregory, ffing of Scotland, besieged and
captured Dublin.
Dani.sh Period. — The year 815 is commonly as- signed as the date when Scandinavian invaders began to make permanent settlements in Ireland. Hitherto their repeated visits had been mere piratical expedi- tions. They landed, plundered, and departed. But that year Turgesius and his followers came to stay. The " Annals of the Four Masters" tell us that in 849 the Duibhgoill or "black foreigners" arrived at Ath Cliath and made a great slaughter of the Finngoill or "white foreigners". In 850 the former gained a still more decisive victory. Finally in 852 Aulaf (Olaf) invaded Ireland, "and all the foreign tribes submitted to him". Thus was founded the Danish city and kingdom of Dublin. Aulaf was succeeded by Ivar in 870, and as the latter was at the same time King of Northumbria, this dual sovereignty of the Danish kings of Dublin was with occasional brief interrup- tions maintained throughout a period of nearly a cen- tury and a half. Paganism was of course the cult of these rude Norsemen. They sedulously practised the worship of Thor and Woden, and thus during a great portion of their prolonged rule in Dublin its Christian history becomes a blank, varied at intervals by doleful recitals of the burning and plundering of celebrated monasteries, such as Glendalough, Lusk, Swords, Clondalkin, etc. The first of the Danish kings to em- brace Christianity was Sitric, who was baptized in England, and married King Athelstan's daughter in 925. But he very soon abjured the Faith, abandoned his wife, and died a pagan. His son, however, Aulaf Cuarann, on visiting England, was there converted in 943, aiul received at baptism by King pjimund. He remained firm in the Faith, and going to lona on a pil- grimage in 9S0, died there "after penance and a good life". It was the conversion of this Aulaf and his family, aided by the efforts of Northumbrian monks whom he had brought over with him, that led to the conversion of the Danes of Dublin which chroniclers assign to 948.
The great victory won by King Brian Boru on the plain of Clontarf in 1014 broke for e\er the power of the Danes in Ireland, liut it did not dispossess them of Dublin. Their kings continued to rule there for a century and a half; nevertheless, the completeness of the victory, together with the civilizing effects of
