"The very women were not in early times exempt from war service, nay, probably would have scorned to be so. They fought beside their husbands, and slew or got slain with as reckless a courage as the men, and it was not until the time of St Columba, late in the sixth century, that a law as passed ordering them to remain in their homes ... "
- Emily Lawless, The Story of Ireland, 1896