.JOURNAL OF THE COUNTY DONEGAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY OOFERENCES FROM ANCIENT IRISH UTEBATURE Our Ancient Irish literature contains many references to fancy cloaks and coloured .garments.· In the Ulster ·army as descriibed in the Tai:n Bo Cuailgne. the~e were "some red cloaks; others with light blue c10·aks; others with deep !blue cloaks; others ·with gr.een or ·blay or white, or yellow cloaks, bright and fiutter'i.ngi fabout them; and there is a young, red, freckled lad with a crimson cloak in their midst." King Tigermus ruled many centuries before the ChrisUan era, and we are told that he made exact regulations for the wearing of colours by the di:ffierent ranks of his subjects. A slave was to be dressed in clothes Of one colour, a peasant in two and so on up to a king or an olla~e. all of whom were privileged to wear six. Again, we are tiold that in the seventh century King Domnan sentamanycoloured tunic to his foster son, Prince Congal, "like Joseph's coat of many colours."2 TltADE WITH }10RE1GN LANDS For centuri·es before the Norman invasion <H69) Irish traders were to be .found in the ·marts and markets of English cities. They sold "friezes and s:erges, cloth white and red and russet and green.'r Their cloaks and mantles were of such superior quality that they were regarded as worthy gift,s from one English nobleman to another. And a certain S'ir T. Heneage when building a new house wrote for a dozen of the light1est Irish rugs that can be got "to lay upon beds."3 The finest Spanish wool was imported for the· making of the best faibncs'. It was not in England alone that our textiles were famous, tut throughout the greater :part of Europe. Fine Irish "saia" or serge was used in \Naples in the thirteenth century as trimming for" the robes of the king and queen. ''Staia d'Irianda" clothed the nobles of tBo}ogna, of Genoa, of Como and of Florence. It was famous in Southern Spain, and found a ready market in France and along the towns of the RJhine. At Bruges and :Antwerp and in t'h,.e !Blralbant fairs the Irish sold both a lowp.riced cloth and th.e famous serges, Irish cloaks and linen sheets.3 ANCIENT TWEED MARKS In 1282 a law was enforced in the markets of !Flanders whereby the cloth of each country had to ibear a distinguishing mark on the first f olct. The English had three crosses, the Scotch two, the Irish one, and the Flemish half-a-cross. It may be that the Harris trade mark which is a cross mounted on an orb had its origin in this ancient enactment.3 JEALOUSY OF ENGLISH MANUFACTURERS The popularity of Itish cloth on the Continent caused no small· amount of uneasiness. to the woollen trade in England. IBY sell1ng at lower prices cloth of a superior quality the Irish had :already completely cap·tured the markets of Bruges and other ·towns. The English were not prepared. to give up without a struggle and a long and bitter confiict ensued. An improvemen~ in quality accompanied by a reduction in price would seem well-nigh impossible under present conditions, but in these dark and evil days,.when the worker, more often than not, received less consideration than a beast of burden, it was not so difficult to accomplish. And English manufacturers in the violence of the struggle ·were not aibove resorting to kidnappings and sl.a very to gain the1r ends. 169 BRISTOL SLAVE TRADE, 1439 The town of Bristol is· deserving of special mention for its prominence in this terrible race. The story of its slave markets of 1439 is vividly told in the "taed Book of Bristol." The greedy manufactu:r:ers of the town c:~st Jealous eyes a·cross the Channel to the trained workers of Ireland, "rivals of Catalonians and Florentines,'' and for '1profit, provoked \and, stirr:ed Ui'P divers merchants and others to bring into the town strian:gers and aliens no·t born under the1 king's obeisance, but rebelli:ous, which has· been sold to them, as it were, a heathen people, who were received
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