An Essay On the Antient and Modern State of Ireland

In a Nation, where almost every Gentleman is better acquainted, and more conversant, with the Nature and Circumstances of other Countries than those of his own, the Publication of such Hints as may somewhat contribute to remove so odd an Inattention, and induce those far better qualified to render a Subject so interesting some Justice, will not, I hope, be deemed an Impertinence; in one especially who, by this Essay, however feeble, hath nothing beside the Honour and Advantage of Ireland in View, a Kingdom whereof he is, without Vanity, proud of being a Native.


As the Story of Savages and Barbarians can contain nothing instructive, or entertaining, the Antemilesian Inhabitants of this Land having been mostly such, and all surviving Accounts of them almost totally overcast with Fable, we are therefore, in treating of the antient Scotia, or modern Ireland, to refer principally to three distinguished aeras, whereof the first is, its being peopled by an Iberian or Spanish Colony: The second, truly glorious, the Arrival of St. Patrick, in his most salutary Mission: The third and last, its Cession to Henry the Second, King of England, (the first of the Royal Race of Plantagenet) partly from a pretended of Adrian the Fourth, Pope of Rome; partly from the restless and insatiable Desires of Henry; more from the manifold Infirmities of the then reigning Irish Chiefs--but above all, from the peculiarly adverse Fate of Roderick, the last of our Kings.