t much of an army left to the Danes
that time, for he made a great scatter of them. A great man he was, and
his own son was as good, that is Murrough. It was the wife brought him
to his end, Gormleith. She was for war, and he was all for peace. And he
got to be very pious, too pious, and old and she got tired of that."

THE BATTLE OF CLONTARF

"Clontarf was on the head of a game of chess. The generals of the Danes
were beaten at it, and they were vexed; and Cennedigh was killed on a
hill near Fermoy. He put the Holy Gospels in his breast as a protection,
but he was struck through them with a reeking dagger. It was Brodar,
that the Brodericks are descended from, that put a dagger through
Brian's heart, and he attending to his prayers. What the Danes left in
Ireland were hens and weasels. And when the cock crows in the morning
the country people will always say 'It is for Denmark they are crowing.
Crowing they are to be back in Denmark.'"

THE ENGLISH

"It was a long time after that, the Pope encouraged King Henry to take
Ireland. It was for a protection he did it, Henry being of his own
religion, and he fearing the Druids or the Danes might invade Ireland."

THE QUEEN OF BREFFNY

"Dervorgilla was a red-haired woman, and it was she put the great curse
on Ireland, bringing in the English through MacMurrough, that she went
to from O'Rourke. It was to Henry the Second MacMurrough went, and he
sent Strongbow, and they stopped in Ireland ever since. But who knows
but another race might be worse, such as the Spaniards that were
scattered along the whole coast of Connacht at the time of the Armada.
And the laws are good enough. I heard it said the English will be dug
out of their graves one day for the sake of their law. As to
Dervorgilla, she was not brought away by force, she went to MacMurrough
herself. For there are men in the world that have a coaxing way, and
sometimes women are weak."

KING HENRY VIII.

"Henry the Eighth was crying and roaring and leaping out of the bed for
three days and nights before his death. And he died cursing his
children, and he that had eight millions when he came to the Throne,
coining leather money at the end."

ELIZABETH

"Queen Elizabeth was awful. Beyond everything she was. When she came to
the turn she dyed her hair red, and whatever man she had to do with, she
sent him to the block in the morning, that he would be able to tell
nothing. She had an awful temper. She wo