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744). Keating supplements this information by
describing the two raids made by the Irish Scots into Armorica; the
first of which took place in the year 388, and the second in 402, or
about that time. This Irish historian is considered by Professor Stokes
to be a most trustworthy authority. "Keating," writes the Professor,
"had access to the Munster Documents, which are now lost. He gives a
long account of the Irish invasions of England and France exactly
corresponding to the statements of the Roman historian, Amianus
Marcellinus, and to the 'Annals of the Four Masters'" ("Ireland and the

Celtic Church," p. 38, note).
Of the raids of King Niall into Armorica the first is the more interesting,
for it proves, first, that St. Patrick was born in the year 373, and, next,
that he was captured neither in North Britain, nor Wales, but in
Armorican Britain.
To escape from these conclusions, Doctor Lanigan, who held that St.
Patrick was born in the year 387, writes as follows: "I find in Keating
but one expedition of Niall to the coast of Gaul, during which he says,
in another place, that St. Patrick with two hundred of the noblest youth
were brought away. . . . This event occurred in the latter end of Niall
Naoigiallach's reign, and not as early as the ninth year of it. . . . We
have no authority," continues Lanigan, "for his having visited Gaul at
any time until the period already given, and which is clearly marked in
Irish history. Our Saint's captivity may be assigned to 403, and to a
time not long prior to King Niall's death. Thus the date of his birth and
captivity, considering the circumstances now mentioned, help to
confirm each other, and, combined with his age at consecration,
authorizes his birth in 387" ("Eccl. Hist, of Ireland," vol. i., pp. 137,
138).
Contrary to what Dr. Lanigan has just stated, a close study of Keating's
"History" will prove that King Niall made two raids into Armorica, the
first in the ninth and the second in the twenty-seventh year of his reign,
and the account of the two expeditions is clear and unmistakable.
"There is an old manuscript in vellum, exceedingly curious, entitled
'The Life of St. Patrick,' which treats likewise of the lives of Muchuda
Albain and other Saints, from which I," writes Keating, "shall
transcribe a citation that relates to St. Patrick.
"Patrick was a Briton born and descended from religious parents," and
in the same place is the following remark: "The Irish Scots, under Niall
the King, wasted and destroyed many provinces in Britain in opposition
to the power of the Romans. They attempted to possess themselves of
the northern part of Britain, and, at length, having driven out the old
inhabitants, these Irish seized upon the country and settled in it." The
same author (of the manuscript) upon this occasion remarks that from

henceforth Great Britain was divided into three kingdoms, that were
distinguished by the names of Scotia, Anglia, and Britia.
This ancient writer likewise asserts that when Niall, the hero of the
Nine Hostages, undertook the expedition for settling the tribe of the
Dailraida in Scotland, the Irish fleet sailed to the place where St.
Patrick resided; "At this time the fleet out of Ireland plundered the
country in which St. Patrick then lived, and, according to the custom of
the Irish, many captives were carried away from thence, among whom
was St. Patrick, in the sixteenth year of his age, and his two sisters,
Lupida and Darerca; and St. Patrick was led captive into Ireland in the
ninth year of the reign of Niall, King of Ireland, who was the mighty
monarch of the kingdom for seven-and-twenty years, and brought away
spoils out of England, Britain, and France."
"By this expression it is supposed," continues Keating, "that Niall of the
Nine Hostages waged war against Britain or Wales, and perhaps made
a conquest of the country; and it is more than probable that, when the
Irish Prince had finished his design upon the kingdom of Wales, he
carried his arms in a fleet to France and invaded the country at the
time called Armorica, but now Little Brittany, and from thence he led St.
Patrick and his two sisters into captivity.
"And this I am rather induced to believe, because the mother of St.
Patrick was sister of St. Martin, the Bishop of Tours in France; and I
have read in an ancient Irish manuscript, whose authority I cannot
dispute, that St. Patrick and his two sisters were brought captive into
Ireland from Armorica, or Brittany, in the kingdom of France. It is
evident likewise that when Niall, the King of Ireland, had succeeded
with the Britons, he despatched a formidable fleet to plunder