lier period; and the
country being less mountainous, was more easily cultivated. But this
portion of Ireland contained the well-known Curragh of Kildare, which
has its history also, and a more ancient one than its modern visitors
are likely to suppose. The Curragh is mentioned for the first time in
the _Liber Hymnorum_, in a hymn in praise of St. Brigid. The Scholiast
in a contemporary gloss says: "_Currech, a cursu equorum dictus est_."
It is also mentioned in Cormac's Glossary, where the etymology is
referred to running or racing. But the most important notice is
contained in the historical tale of the destruction of the mansion of Da
Derga.[271] In this, Connaire Mor, who was killed A.D. 60, is
represented as having gone to the games at the Curragh with four
chariots. From this and other sources we may conclude, that
chariot-races preceded horse-races in ancient Erinn, and that the
Curragh has been used as a place of public amusement for the last 2,000
years. It would appear that every province in Ireland possessed an
_Aenach_ or "fair-green," where the men assembled to celebrate their
games and festivals. In an old list of Irish Triads, the three great
_Aenachs_ of Ireland are said to have been _Aenach Crogan_, in
Connaught; _Aenach Taillten_, in Meath; and _Aenach Colmain_, the
Curragh. The last would appear, however, to have been frequented by
persons from all parts of Ireland; and it is not a little strange that
it should still be used in a similar manner as a place of public
amusement. Ireland in the tenth century and Ireland in the nineteenth
form a painful contrast, notwithstanding the boasted march of intellect.
The ancient forests have been hewn down with little profit[272] to the
spoiler, and to the injury in many ways of the native. The noble rivers
are there still, and the mountains look as beautiful in the sunsets of
this year of grace as they did so many hundred years before; but the
country, which was in "God's keeping" then, has but little improved
since it came into the keeping of man; for the poor tenant, who may be
here to-day, and to-morrow cast out on the wayside, has but substituted
ill-fenced and ill-cultivated fields for wide tracts of heather and
moorland, which had at least the recommendation of attractive scenery,
and of not suggesting painful reflections.

[Illustration: HEADS OF IRISH WOLF DOGS.]

The most formidable, if not the largest, of the carnivora in this
island, was the brown be