present Scotland. They mingled with another Celtic people there and established the kingdom of Dalriada, mentioned in a previous chapter, which was one of the four early kingdoms that united to form the kingdom of Scotland.

Thus Scotland owed much to the older civilization of Ireland, including its name, its Christianity and part of its people. It is regrettable that in later centuries, the Irish religion which had changed to Roman Catholicism and the Scottish religion which had developed into Presbyterianism became a divisive element resulting in terrible suffering to both peoples. During the intervening 1100 years from around 500 to 1600, there were movements of peoples back and forth across the narrow North Channel between Scotland and Ireland, but the great pattern of the two nations had been established. Both peoples were largely of Celtic blood, though the Scots, particularly of the Lowlands, were greatly mixed with other strains. The Irish and the Scottish Highlanders were more purely Celtic and both spoke the Gaelic language, while the Lowlanders adopted the English tongue. Whatever Irish blood may flow in Houston veins came from this development in history and not from the family’s sojourn in Ulster in the 17th century.

The Pope of Rome granted Ireland to King Henry II of England in 1171. However, it was up to Henry to subdue the tiger the Pontiff had handed him. He launched an invasion of the island which at first met with surprising success. The chiefs of the Irish clans were jealous of each other and could not unite to oppose the Anglo-Norman invaders and hence were forced to submit to the English crown. There was one important exception: the province of Ulster under the rule of the Celtic chief, O’Neill, defended their freedom and withstood the English for four centuries.

Even the parts of Ireland which were so easily conquered in the beginning, bitterly resisted in later times. Fighting the English and battling among the chiefs and clans brought the country to a low state of poverty and degradation. The early superiority of the Irish civilization was reversed. Busy with fighting, the people had little opportuunity to till the soil. The open pastures were grazed by large herds of sheep and some cattle. The farmers raised some barley and oats which was used for making usquebagh, the native whiskey. Cows were raised for milk, rather than beef, providing a diet of milk, butter and cheese, with oatmeal, oat and barley bread and a few