which were entirely in the hands of the native Irish. In the former districts we must distinguish between those parts, such as the four counties of the Pale, the south of Wexford, Waterford, Kilkenny, &c., where English laws of inheritance prevailed, and those others such as Mayo and Galway in which the settlers had completely adopted Irish customs, and where the inheritance of land was in accordance with the Irish customs of tanistry and gavelkind.
As regards the districts in Irish hands the chief point to be noted is that the Irish element was quite free from any foreign admixture. Some countries such as Tirconnell and Tirowen had never been occupied by the invaders; in others, such for example as Sligo and north Tipperary, the settlers had been altogether rooted out.
Common to the whole island was an almost complete divorce between occupancy of the land and the legal ownership of it. The whole of Ireland had been parcelled out among the invaders, and the claims of their descendants still held good in law. No length of occupation could give a valid title to an Irishman to any lands ever held by an Englishman. Even where there had never been effective occupation it would seem doubtful, whether any Irishman could claim a legal estate.
And in the districts in the hands of the colonists there was a great confusion as to title. The Burkes of Connaught held their lands in defiance of the law, and disposed of them according to tanistry as regards the chiefs, and to gavelkind as regards the lesser proprietors. The title of the Desmonds to their vast possessions was more than
