THE

HEARTS OF STEEL.

AN IRISH HISTORICAL TALE

OF THE LAST CENTURY.

BY THE AUTHOR OF "THE WILDERNESS,"
"O'HALLORAN," &c.

Learn hence, ye great, 'tis dangerous to inflame

A hardy peasantry who fear for nothing:

They feel aggrieved, and give the reins to vengeance;

And oft, too oft, in merciless career,

Devoid of reason, on their course they urge
In madness and in slaughter, till themselves
And their oppressors, both become the victims
Of their wild passions headlong and terrific.

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

PHILADELPHIA:
A. R. POOLE, 66 CHESNUT STREET.

J. HARDING, PRINTER.

1825

The Irish Soothsayer.

THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

243217

ASTOR, LENOX AND
TILDE'!

DATIONS.

1902

PREFACE.

EVERY reader of Irish history must have some knowledge of the daring association of men, which, under the denomination of the "Hearts of Steel," agitated the province of Ulster, during the early part of the reign. of George the Third. But the knowledge relative to these men afforded by any history yet extant, is extremely limited and unsatisfactory. This is a circumstance which, when the extent of their depredations, the boldness of their enterprises, and the alarm and terror which their power and ferocity spread over a large district of country, are considered, is indeed surprising, and can only be accounted for by the little attention which historians, until very lately, have been in the habit of paying to Irish affairs.

The traditions of the country, however, where the Hearts of Steel prevailed, afford abundant details concerning them, which remoteness of period does not yet prevent from being well authenticated, and which are amply sufficient to supply the omissions of history. Being a native of that country,