



Produced by Chris Curnow, Asad Razzaki, The Internet Archive
for some images and the Online Distributed Proofreading
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Transcriber's note:

      Some typographical and punctuation errors have been
      corrected. A complete list follows the text.

      Variations in spelling and hyphenation have been
      retained as in the original.

      Words italicized in the original are surrounded by
      _underscores_.

      Words with bold emphasis in the original are surrounded
      by =equals signs=.




 A READING BOOK
 IN
 IRISH HISTORY

 BY

 P. W. JOYCE, LL.D.

 _One of the Commissioners for the Publication of
 the Ancient Laws of Ireland_

 Author of

 "A SHORT HISTORY OF IRELAND" "A CHILD'S HISTORY OF IRELAND"
 "IRISH NAMES OF PLACES," "OLD CELTIC ROMANCES"
 "ANCIENT IRISH MUSIC"
 AND OTHER WORKS RELATING TO IRELAND

 LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.

 LONDON, NEW YORK, AND BOMBAY

 DUBLIN: M. H. GILL AND SON
 1900

 [_All rights reserved_]




PREFACE.


As this little book is intended chiefly for children, the language is
very simple. But to make matters still easier, all words and allusions
presenting the smallest difficulty are explained either in footnotes or
in the "Notes and Explanations" at the end.

Advantage has been taken of the descriptions under the several
Illustrations to give a good deal of information on the customs and
usages of the ancient Irish people.

Although the book has been written for children, it will be found, I
hope, sufficiently interesting and instructive for the perusal of older
persons.

The book, as will be seen, contains a mixture of Irish History,
Biography, and Romance; and most of the