else they had set foot, but, after Clontarf, the few cities they
still occupied were compelled to pay tribute to the Irish Ard-Righ.
Hence all attempts to substitute the Scandinavian social system
for that of the Irish septs and clans were forever frustrated.
City life and maritime enterprises, together with commerce and trade,
were as scornfully rejected as the worship of Thor and Odin.

Soon after this first victory of Ireland over Northern Europe, the
Anglo-Norman invasion originated a second struggle of longer
duration and mightier import. The English Strongbow replaced the
Danes with Norman freebooters, who occupied the precise spots
which the new owners had reconquered from the Northmen, and never
an inch more. Then a great spectacle was offered to the world,
which has too much escaped the observation of historians, and
to which we intend to draw the attention of our readers.

The primitive, simple, patriarchal system of clanship was
Confronted by the stern, young, ferocious feudal system, which
was then beginning to prevail all over Europe. The question was,
Would Ireland consent to become European as Europe was then
organizing herself? The struggle, as we shall see, between the
Irish and the English in the twelfth century and later on, was
merely a contest between the sept system and feudalism, involving,
it is true, the possession of land. And, at the end of a contest
lasting four hundred years, feudalism was so thoroughly defeated
that the English of the Pale adopted the Irish manners, customs,
and even language, and formed only new septs among the old ones.

Hence Ireland escaped all the commotions produced in Europe by
the consequences of the feudal system: