Part VI : Something of the Reality

We have told you a legend in the preceding chapters-a legend with much of reality in it and we have refused to be beguiled away from our subject into discussions on where legend ends and truth begins. There is no reason though, wily the reader should not thus beguile himself.
He who wishes may pursue the subject. He may profitably go to the National Museum. Carefully displayed in glass cases he will find objects labeled "Late Bronze Age" and "Early Iron Age." These are the objects which once belonged to such people as we have written of. Some of them are time-stained and battered, some almost as fresh as the day they were made; and they were not made to display in glass cases. The attractive leaf-shaped swords and graceful rapiers were wrought for slashing heads and piercing hearts; the great cauldrons were made for use; and used. Examine them and see how carefully they have been repaired. Study the bronze trumpets with their many rivets; the enameled horse trappings, the brazen shields; add to them all the wealth of skilled carpentry now lost, all the art of the textile maker and the leather worker. Consider, too, the iron-smith, for though we designate an age by iron we can but guess at what he wrought; rust has corrupted almost all his work. Envisage all this craftsmanship and think about the men who desired and owned such things, the skilled workers who fashioned them. Turn to the cases in the central hall and examine the heavy golden torcs their chieftains hung about their necks, the beads, the bracelets, the rings with which they decorated their womenfolk. The cattle and kine they demanded of each other in tribute are but dust now, but the gold is here before our eyes, fashioned by goldsmiths, who knew their trade, for an aristocracy who appreciated their skill.
This is no myth or legend and though it dazzles us to-day it must be but a fraction of what once was; the fraction lost by the careless or unfortunate; the fraction recovered by chance to tell a skeptical age that our historians were not all airy dreamers, our poets purveyors only of myths and fables.
When you have tired of the glamour of the museum exhibits turn to the reports of the archaeologists. There you can find plans of primitive houses and the ramparts and fortifications that surrounded them, discussions on domestic habits and early burial customs. There you can find incontrovertible facts and hardly a fancy at all.
When you are wearied with facts turn back again to our legendary tales for entertainment. We have given you but a glimpse of them in this story. Their vigour, the imagery of their language and the freshness of their outlook have delighted generations of Irishmen. That they are not readily available to the present generation is unfortunate but we can hope the demand for them will increase as knowledge of them grows.

The Annals of the Four Masters. Edited by John O'Donovan.
Silva Cadelica-Standish O'Grady.
A Literary History ofIreland~DougIas Hyde.
Old Celtic Romonces~Joyce.
Tara~ a Pagan Sanctuary of Ancient Ireland-R. A. S. Macalistcr.
The History and Antiquities of Tara Hill-G. Petrie.
The Metrical Dindsenchas-Translated by Edward Gwynn.
The Cycles of the Kings-Myles Dillon.
A History of Ireland-Geoffrey Keating.
Pagan Ireland-Eleanor Hull.
Early Christian Ireland-Eleanor Hull.
Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race-T. W. Rolleston.
The Destruction of Da Derga's Hostel-Translated by Whitly Stokes.
Life of Saint Patrick-Jocelyn.
Concise Dictionary of Irish Biography-. S. Crone.

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From 'The Legend of Tara' Elizabeth Hickey / Dundalgan Press, Ltd. 1996