HIBERNIA, the ancient name applied to Ireland (q.v.).
The Ancient Order of. This order traces its origin to those ancient orders into which the people of Ireland were divided for many centuries before the coming of Saint Patrick.
The Military Orders.— The first of the orders was the military order of the Golden Collar, instituted by Munemen, king of all Ireland about 900 s.c. The custom of dividing society into orders seems to have been a Milesian innovation, as the Milesian kings in stituted in succeeding centuries the bardic order, to sing the songs of war and peace; the order of druids, to offer sacrifices and per form all priestly offices; the order of brehens, to arrange and administer the laws and the ellamhs, to preserve genealogies and the his tory of the people. military orders made the most legible impression on the history of ancient Ireland of any of the divisions of the inhabitants. It was the military orders which were marshalled for the defense of the island when menaced by the Romans. In all foreign wars they provided the soldiers who crossed the Irish sea to fight the Picts, the sea-roving Danes or the Saxons, or even the Celtic in habitants of ancient Britain.
It was these military orders which accom panied Daithi, king of all Ireland, irr his inva sion of Gaul in 420 A.D., when he led the van of the immense multitude of warriors of all the northern nations which drove back the Roman power beyond the Alps. Niall of the Nine Hostages led the military orders in the forays to Britain and Gaul which are so well authen ticated because it was otr one of them that he brought back the boy Patrick, who afterward Christianized the country. While the Order of the Golden Collar was undoubtedly the first of the national military orders, yet the pro vincial orders of Munster, Connaught. Ulster and Leinster achieved immense celebrity be cause of their warlike deeds. The fame of these provincial orders was recounted in poems and sons by bards and ollamh's, and many of the loftiest sentiments ever uttered occur in the recitals of Osman when recounting the martial prowess of the heroes of these orders. The duels of Finn MacCool and Loda are told in an imagery equal to that of Homer in the im mortal narration of Achilles and the siege of Troy. Other old manuscripts tell of Queen Maeve, who led the Knights of Connaught, the Clanna Morna; of the Knights of the Red Branch of Ulster, of the Clanna Deagha of Munster, and of the Feni of Leinster. These orders had rules and vows, and the claim has been made that in Ireland will be found the first trace of standing armies and of the insti tution of chivalry.
Influence in Irish History.— When the people became Christian. the military orders seemed to have lost somewhat the old influence. But with the revival of the foreign wars and the first incursions of the Danes, the ancient orders once more took the leadership in so'"ety. In the 6th century the knightly orders were con secrated to the service of the Church, receiving the cross as their badge as the defenders of religion. This fact is chronicled in Ashmead's 'Ecclesiastical History of the Irish Church.'
Yet even the christianizing of the island did not weaken the strength of the traditions which had raised the old champions of the Knights of the Red Branch, the Feni, the Knights of Munster and Connaught with almost the at tributes of deities. The characteristic of all primitive peoples is to worship mighty men, and the feats of Loda, Finn MacCool, Fergus Mac Roy, and the other leaders were told through the generations, and even to this day are the basis of many of thetabits of the Irish people.
The written rules of the ancient orders are believed to have antedated any system of organized military knighthood among mankind. These rules required that the candidate should be of good moral character, in perfect physical health, of an uncorrupted lineage and be able to pass a severe test of body and mind. He en tered one of the military schools of the knights, where his education was directed for three years by the most learned teachers of literature and by the most celebrated masters of arms. The Abbe MacGeehegan, Mooney and other historians quote these rules from the original Gaelic manuscripts as evidence of the remark able attention given to the art of war in pagan Ireland. It is recorded in numerous tales, songs and genealogies that almost all the kings, bards, sages and statesmen were on the rolls of the ancient orders of knighthood. In the long list it is noticeable that certain families main tained an hereditary leadership in their respec tive orders. This peculiar fact is not unnatural among a people whose regard for geneallogy surpassed that of other nations. Among these families no line of descent is more renowned', nor marked with more legible clearness, than the family of Roderick the Great, which Originated with the great champions Conall Kearnach and Lugadh (Loda), whose mighty swords were in the fables and mythology of the pagan Irish analogous to the hammer of Thor and the fury of dEgir among4he Norse peoples. These warriors were the founders of the O'Moore family, who were regarded by the Irish people as the hereditary marshals of the ancient orders even after the coming of the Normans. It is upon the traditions which con nect this celebrated family with the ancient Orders that the descent of the present Ancient Order of Hibernians from the mists of the pre Christian past through the Middle Ages to modern times is so distinctly defined. Again and again this family appears in history, and almost invariably they are accompanied by a military band easily indentified as the succes sors of the ancient orders. Thus at the siege of Dublin in the 12th century by Roderick O'Connor, the last native king of all Ireland, there was a large body of the Knights of Con naught, degenerate, perhaps, in soldierly skill, but still preserving some trace of individuality. In the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries the Knights of the Red Branch appear in old chronicles, and in the wars against the English during the reign of Queen Elizabeth Rory Oge O'Moore, and his son Owen, carried on the martial fame of their ancestors, the captains of the ancient orders.