A New Description OF IRELAND Wherein is described the disposition of the Irish whereunto they are inclined No lesse admirable to be perused then credible to be beleeued neither vnprofitable nor vnpleasant to bee read and vnderstood by those worthy Cittizens of London that be now vndertakers in Ireland By Barnabe Rich Gent Malui me diuitem esse quam vocari Printed at London for Thomas Adams 1610. The Contents of the Chapters contained in this Booke OF the little credite that is to bee giuen to their testimonies that haue hitherto written of Ireland Cap. 1. Of the temperature of the ayre and the fertility of the soile vniuersally through Ireland Cap. 2. Of the nature disposition of the Irish how they are inclined Cap. 3. From whence it proceedeth that the Irish are so repugnant to the English Cap. 4. That the Irish by nature are inclined to cruelty Cap. 5. Of the ingratitude of the Irish Cap. 6. Of the inciuilty both of manners and conditions vsed by the Irish Cap. 7. Of the Vulgar sotte of the Irish what account they make of an Oath Cap. 8 That a Conquest should draw after it Law Language and Habite Cap. 9. Of certain septs and degrees amongst the Irish Ca. 10. Of the manner of the Irish Coshering Cap. 11. How Ireland was purged from all venimous wormes by the praiers of Saint Patrick Cap. 12. Of the holy Saintes that hath beene borne bred and brought vp in Ireland Cap. 13. Of the superstitious conceit that is holden by the Irish about certaine Wels. Cap. 14. A true discription both of the Citty and Cittizens of Dubline Cap. 15. Of some defects in the gouernment of Dublin Ca. 16. Of the trade traffique that is vsed in Dublin Ca. 17. Of the ambition of the Irish Cap. 18. Of the Doctrine of the Pope how imbraced by the Irish Cap. 19. How the Papists of Ireland are neither ashamed nor afraid to manifest themselues Cap. 20. The inconuenience of Popery how it hurteth in Ireland Cap. 21. Whither there by any possibility that the Irish should be able to maintaine warre against the Kinges Maiestie Cap. 22. Of those lets and impedimentes that defeated our late gracious Qu. in her seruices against the Irish Ca. 23. Of Pardons and protections how hurtfull in Ireland Cap. 24. Of the dallying out the time of seruice and the delayes of Ireland Cap. 25. How Tyrone was still supplyed with Souldiors and all other prouisions for warre at the Queenes charges Cap. 26. That the Irish are more dangerous then necessary for his Maiestie seruice in Ireland Cap. 27. The conclusion To the Right Honourable Robert Earle of Salisbury Vicount Cranburn Baron Cecill of Essenden Lord High Treasurer of England principall Secretarie to his Maiestie one of the Lordes of his Honourable Priuie Councell and Knight of the Noble order of the Garter c. MOst Honorable and most worthie Earle the seuerall Bookes that are spread bearing the names and Titles of Histories of summaries of Chronicles of diuers other collections drawn from vnworthy Authors some of them printed some otherwise published here in Ireland by Papists by lieng Chroniclers by idle Poets by Bardes and Irish Rythmers all of them conteining matter of vntruth As the memories of superstitious foundations lies and Fables foolishly medled and compacted togither written rather in the maintenance and fauour of lewd misdemeanor of Superstition of Idolatry and do rather giue encouragement to wicked Subiects to enter the field of Rebellion to take Armes against the Prince to disobey to contemn to despise not onelie the Princes lawes and his Maiesties gracious proceedings but also setting open the wide gate that leadeth to many misdemeanors against the Prince himselfe I haue therefore thought it a matter much importing his Maiesties seruice to do my best endeuor to stop this gap thus broken downe that thus openeth the way to the wastfull spoile of Rebellion of Treason of Superstition of Idolatrie of Disobedience of Contempt and to giue a Booke to the well-disposed of that Realme of Ireland wherein they may behold that truth which they themselues haue heard with their eares haue seene with their eies and are able to testifie vpon dailie experience These lines thus squared out I durst not presume to present to your Honor in respect of anie abilitie that I acknowledge to be in my selfe I knowe there can come nothing from me that may be anie waies answerable to your exquisit iudgment or worthinesse but it is your owne vertue your owne affabilitie and Noble disposition that was yet neuer knowne to despice or discountenance any mans endeuours that were honestlie intended or vndertaken to a good end and purpose It is this your Honorable inclination that hath encouraged me this is it hath made me to presume of a fauorable acceptance To you therefore and to your honor alone I haue in most humble and submissiue manner bequeathed those experiments which forty yeares obseruation hath taught me to know To your Honor whose exquissite iudgment is best able to discerne and whose wisdome and knowledge is most fitting to redresse by whose Honorable care for the good of the common-weale England and Ireland are both made happie By whose prouidence and wisdome next vnder his Maiestie we haue hitherto reaped the fruits of a most happie and blessed gouernment To your Honor therefore I submit my labors my Loue my lines my seruice my selfe my endeuors all that I haue to be at your Honors dispose and thus will rest to praie for your Honour that GOD would still continue his blessinges vpon you as hitherto he hath done Your Honors in all humble and dutifull affection Barnabe Rych ⧠To the Curteous and friendly Reader either English or Irish either Protestant or Papist either learned or vnlearned or to any other whosoeuer I care not ONe of the diseases of this age is the multitude of Books that doth so ouercharge the worlde that it is not able to disgest the abundance of idle matter that is euery day hatched and brought into the world that are as diuers in their formes as their Authors be in their faces It is but a thriftlesse and a thankelesse occupation this writing of Bookes a man were better to sit singing in a Coblers shop for his pay is certaine a penny a patch but a Booke-writer if hee get sometimes a few commendations of the Iudicious he shall be sure to reape a thousande reproaches of the Malicious Bookes are like Cheese that is neuer well seasoned to euery mans tast for one will say it is too salt another wil say it is too fresh a thirde will say it is to tart another thinkes it to be too milde one will haue it too hard another too soft another too tough another too brittle it neuer pleaseth euery mans tast no more do Bookes I am censured for writing of a Book to be a malicious enemy to Ireland to poore Ireland that God knoweth is rather to be pittied
that those of the Irish that haue reduced themselues to ciuility were it not for their Religion are otherwise of very good conuersation and aswell in their manners as in the decencie of their apparell they are very modest and comly but they are so charmed by their ghostly fathers that if an Angell shoulde come from heauen and speake against Poperie he should be condemned amongst them yea and holden for accursed CHAP. X. Of certaine Septes and degrees among the Irish how they are reputed THere is amongst the Irish as amongst all the Nations of the world diuers degrees accorto the which each man is regarded For the Nobilitie of that Realme they are amongst them as Honorable and as worthy to bee honoured as of any other Nation whatsoeuer so likewise againe both of Knights and Gentlemen After their Gentlemen whereof a great number of them are rude and vnciuill enough the horsmen succeedeth in the next ranke who is more fit to serue his lord and Captaine in an action of Rebellion then in the seruice of his Prince The Galloglas succeedeth the Horsman and hee is commonly armed with a Scull a shirt of maile and a Galoglas Axe his seruice in the field is neither good against horsmen nor able to endure an encounter of Pikes yet the Irish do make great account of them The Kerne of Ireland are next in request the very drosse and scum of the Countrey a generation of Villaines not worthy to liue these be they that liue by robbing and spoiling the poore Countrey-man that maketh him many times to buy bread to giue vnto them though he want for himselfe and his poore children These are they that are ready to run out with euerie Rebell and these are the verie Hags of Hell fit for nothing but for the gallows We are now come to the hors-boyes so tearmed by their professions which is to keep or dress horse and as in England we cal them hors-keepers so in Ireland he carries the name but of a horse boy how yong or old soeuer There are other Septes or professions namely of Bardes which are in manner of Poets or Rythmers which do nothing but sit and compose lies Then they haue Harpers and those are so reuerenced among the Irish that in the time of Rebellion they will forbeare to hurt either their persons or their goods but are rather inclined to giue them are verie bountifull either to Rymers or Fooles Then is there a certaine brotherhood called by the name of Karrowes and these be common gamsters that do onely exercise playing at Cards and they will play away their mantels and their shirts from their backs and when they haue nothing left them they will trusse themselues in straw this is the life they lead and from this they will not be reclaimed But here is now a matter to be noted that among all these sorts and professions of the Irish the child is euer desirous to imitate what his father hath bin before him If the father hath been a horseman the sonne will be a horsman if the father hath beene a Galoglas the sonne will be a Galloglas if the father hath beene a Kerne the sonne will be a Kerne if the father haue been a horse boy the son will be no better But this is most of al to be wondred at that if the father had bin a Rythmer the son would bee a Rithmer which seemeth strange vnto mee that Poetry in Ireland should succeed by discent from the father to the sonne that must be holpen elsewhere not only by Nature but Art and therfore if their Irish Rymers be of such excellencie as the Irish themselues will commend I say it is wonderfull Euery great man in the Countrey hath his Rymer his Harper and his knowne Messenger to run about the Countrey with Letters These altogither among themselues do obserue the Law of Complements and euery profession hath his particular Decorum I cannot commend them for their Ciuility nor they do not superabound in honesty their Vertue is they will do nothing but what their Fathers haue done before them CHAP. XI Of the maner of the Irish Coshering and of the credulity in beleeuing of Lyes THere is amongst the Irish a kinde of feasting or banquetting which they call Coshering this is the maner of it Good company both of men and women being drawne together a feasting to entertaine the time betweene meales they haue their Rythmers their Harpers the one to sing and the other to play the songes that they vse to sing are vsually in the commendation of Theft of Murther of Rebellion of Treason and the most of them lying fixions of their owne Collections inuented but of purpose to stirre vp their hearts to imitate the example of their Ancestors making repetition how many Cowes they had stoln how many murthers they had committed how many times they had rebeld against their Prince and what spoiles and out-rages they had done against the English The maner of their sitting in this great feasting is this Stooles nor Tables they haue none but a good bundle of Straw strewed about the floure they set themselues downe one by another Another burden of straw being shaken ouer their legs doth serue them to set on their dishes Perhaps if it bee in the time of Summer or where the place will affoord it then in the stead of Straw they vse greene Rushes but whether it be Straw or Rushes thus strewed ouer their legges this is both Table and Table-cloath wheron they vse to place their dishes Victuals they shall haue plenty Beefe Mutton Porke Hens Rabits and all together serued in a great woodden platter Aqua vite they must haue good store or else it is not worthy to bee called a feast Vpon Wednesdayes Fridayes and Satterdaies they haue like plentie of fish for vpon those daies to eate a bit of flesh is a more deadly sinne then either drunkennesse or Letchery And commonly the Irish custome is that when they are serued with flesh they haue no bread with their meat but if their store be such that they hauebread their finest Manchets are ordinarily Oaten-Cakes in this sort prepared First in the remote places of Ireland in the stead of Threashing their Oats they vse to burne them out of the straw and then winnowing them in the wind from their burnt ashes they make them into meale but if I should say how vnhandsomely they doe grinde them or if I should tel how my selfe haue seene a woman sitting with a Mustarde Quearne betweene her bare thighes grinding of Oatmeale I thinke a man would haue little list to eate of the bread but of this Meale as ill in complexion to looke vppon as a little durt vnder a mans feet they make their Cakes for other bread they haue none and it is but seldome when they haue this I might tell some other vnmannerly tales vsed by the Irish in those times of Coshering but I will let them passe And as
the God that hath made vs we know how to receiue benefits and blessings from the Prince but we know not how to render that obedience that belongeth to Subiects My conclusion is that as men cannot make knowne their dreames till they bee awake no more can these acknowledge their faults till they meane to amend CHAP. XX. How the Papists of Ireland are neither afraid nor ashamed to manifest themselues THey say a manne ought not to be ashamed to speake what he seemeth not to thinke it should then follow that men should not be ashamed to heare of that they are not ashamed to doe The Irish are not ashamed to manifest themselues aswell by wordes as by deeds to be professed Papistes they are not affraid to confesse it and it may well be supposed that when men haue a daring to speake ill they haue likewise an intent to do ill But I must say they are al his Maiesties subiects and so I thinke they bee but I pray God send his Highnesse to haue neede of them against the Pope for if it came to voices betweene them two his Maiestie would hardly bee able to reckon with the Vsurer after ten in the hundred thrughout the whole Realme but that the Pope would still be able to encounter him with ten for one That the Irish are thus inclined to the Pope and to poperie I shal need no other testimony then their own demeanors and I would bee glad for their owne sakes that they could conuince mee of slaunder but as I hope they will not go about it so I thinke they will not be offended with me for speaking when they themselus are not ashamed so publikely to manifest it For as they do shew themselues to be apparantly malicious to his Maiesties lawes and proceedings so they doe hate and detest him that doth but speake against their Pope or that will take any exceptions against that Catholick brood of the Pole-shorne order that they do both harbour in their houses and vphold with their purses without doubt to their great charge expences considering the abhominable number of those Balamites that doth so abound throughout that whole Realme in City town Countrey that doth daily practise against his Maiesties gouernment And what Prince in the world would indure to be thus crossed by this contemptious demeanor of vndutifull subiectes and would not make them to feele the penalty of their wilfull disobedience but that excelent Maiestie that is not onely inclined to all gracious clemency in his owne person but with the like royall disposition hee hath so prouided that his Ministers and those that he putteth in Authority in that Realm doth behaue themselues in their gouerment with that mercy mildnes whereunto he himselfe is addicted If I shoud speake of the gouernment how it is mannaged at this present by that most honorable Gentleman the Lord Deputy that now is who is likewise assisted with diuerse other of his Maiesties Counsaile of that Realme Men in like maner of great wisedome and iudgement I might perhaps faile in making a true relation of their worth and worthines I do therefore appeale to the Irish themselues when they did euer know Ireland to be better supplied either with a Deputy either with a Counsell either with a Clergy I meane those of the Clergy that haue beene inuested by a lawfull Authority from the Prince or that the affaires of that Realme were euery known to be mannaged with more mildnes with more mercy or with more loue and lenity then now they be and I would but demand of them againe when they did euer know the Papists of Ireland to bee more peruerse more obstinate or more apparantly contemptuous then now they are I could yet say more but I will wade no further in this and I am sure the papistes themselues although they will not let to lie for adantage yet they they will not for shame deny this truth The papistes of Ireland are as in other places of two kinds the seducers and the Seduced The Seducers are those that vnder a little shewe of litterature or vnder the pretence of being Trauellers that they can say they haue bin in Spain or at Remes or at Rome or that haue bin Iesuited or that carrieth the marke of a Monk of a Frier or a runnagate Priest that can but say a Masse or read our Ladies psalter any of these shewes any of these pretences or any of these tytles are enough to grace and credit a Dog and not only to bring him into a venerable estimation and to be holily accounted of but to giue him that reputation amongst the multitude that he shall be beleeued and he shall be beloued for men are commonly beleued as they are beloued And these seducing spirits vnder a counterfet shew of holinesse are still endeuoring to peruert the simpler sort of his Maiesties poore subiects to withdraw them from their duties and to arme them with all disobedience and contemptuous demeanour towards their Prince The second kind of Papists that I haue said to bee seduced are the vnlearned and ignorant sort that are abused and misled by the onely inducements of those counterfait Hypocrites thus formerly described Now if there be any comiseration to bee had to a people that are thus inchanted these are to be pittied and it is for their sakes onely that I haue endeuoured these lines the which if I woulde goe about to confirme by any authoritie drawne from the holy Scriptures I know it would be to very litle purpose when there is no testimony that can be alledged either frō Peter or from Paule or from any other of the Apost or from Christ himselfe that will be either admitted or receiued against the Pope Whatsoeuer I haue therefore related in this Description that may any waies concerne the Irish I haue neither inferred presidents nor inforced other matter but such as they themselues are best acquainted withall and what is most frequent and conuersant to their owue experiments And there is not a Nation vnder the sun that are more apt to make collections of accidentes that shall happen or that will soner refer them to presagements of misfortune then will the Irish And although our Papists of Ireland are generally compacted of a dull mettall that hath little sence or feeling but of ignorance arrogancy yet thus quick sighted they be to looke into those euents that doth make nothing at all for their purpose and are starcke blind on the other side to discerne of those matters that do especially concerne themselues If they woulde but remember what a number of runnagate shakerels the Pope hath sent from time to time laden with his trash with his Buls with his pardons with his Blessings and with his Ban-bels which they take to be a strong Supersedias against all perils dangers what or wheresoeuer and yet if there were but halfe that sanctitie in them that they suppose they could not all miscarrie some of