Ex Libris
C. K. OGDEN :
THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
LOS ANGELES
.^^^^^ M^y-^ v^~
11 IK
r OEMS
OP
THOMAS DAVIS.
NOW riRST COLLECTKD.
®R{t!) i^otfa nn^ Ijistorical tllustrations.
Thy strivinff, be it witli Loving;
ihy linng, l>c it in Dct-d.
Goethe.
DUBLIN :
rUI3LISIIi:D BY JAMES DUFFY
10, WKLLINGTUX-QL'AY.
LONDON: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL AND CO.,
STATIONERS" HALL COURT.
1846.
Brief, brave and glorious, was his young career,
His mourners were two hosts, his Mends and foes;
For he was Freedom's champion, one of those,
The few in number, who had not outstept
The charter to cliastise which she bestows
On such as wield her weapons. He had kept
The whiteness of his soul, and thus men o"er him wept.
Byron.
Sterf otyped and Printed by T. Coldwell, 50, CapeUstreet.
■PR ^
45-25
•p^9SAi7
ADVERTISEMENT,
I HAVE spared no pains to make this volume as correct
and complete as a first edition can be expected to be.
But there were obstacles in the way, which no solici-
tude on my part could overcome. The reader will bear
in mind, that one half of these poems were never col-
lected durinij^ the author's lifetime, and that many of
them had never received the slightest revision since their
first appearance in the columns of a weekly journal.
Tiirown off too, during the brief intervals of leisure,
which his multifarious pursuits afforded, they could
seldom have obtained that complete finish which would
have precluded the necessity of their revision.
The classification and order under which they appear
is altogether the work of the Editor. It has been his
aim to group them in such a manner as by contrast or
sequency, to make tliem throw light upon each other, and
produce their full eftect. Tlie passages from Mr. Davis's
prose writings have been inserted with the same view.
A partial attempt has been made in a few of the ballads,
to restore the Irish names of places and persons to their
correct forms. But from the opposite character of the
two languages, many diflS.culties arose, and the altera-
\f ADVERTISEMENT.
tians have been confined to a few of the Ballads in Part
III. Mr. Davis was a warm advocate of the restoration of
the Irish forms, where practicable, and he was constantly
making experiments to that end. Instances of the length
to which he carried this, may be found in the 4to Spirit
of the Nation. Bat he had the right to take any liber-
ties lie pleased with his own verses, and where be spoiled,
could alter and amend. But the Editor could not ven- .
ture to tamper to any such extent with the harmony and
integrity of the poems confided to him. Accordingly, the
reformation of the spelling of Irish names and places has
been confined to a few of the earlier Historical Ballads,
where these purely Irish forms seemed more in keeping
with the subject and the scene.
The Glossary of these phrases, which was promised,
and which is occasionally referred to in the notes, is un-
avoidably postponed until the next edition.
As Mr. Davis contributed largely to the Spirit of the
Nation, and to the Ballad Poetry of Ireland, it is neces-
sary to state here, that there are more than Thirty
Poems in this volume, which have not been included in
any previous collection.
T. W.
CONTENTS,
14
10
•JO
•_>1
i'.V';b
INTRODUCTION, BY THE EDITOR - - - ix
PAIIT I.— XATIOXAL liALLADS AXl) SONUS.
TIPPERARY - - - - 3
THE RIVERS - - - - 5
CLENGARIFF - - - - 7
THE west's ASLEEP - - - D
OH 1 FOR A STEED - - - - 11
CYMRIC RULE AND CYMRIC RULERS
A BALLAD OF FREEDOM
THE IRISH HURRAH
A SONG FOR THE IRISH MILITIA
OUR OWN AGAIN - - - - '24
CELTS AND SAXONS - - - 27
ORANGE AND GREEN - - - 30
PART n.— MISCELLANEOUS SONGS AND BALLADS.
THE LOST PATH - - - - 35
love's LONGINGS - - - - 36
hope deferred - - - - 38
eibhlin a ruin - - - - 39
the banks of the lee - - - 41
the girl of dunbwy - - - 42
duty and love - - - - 44
annie dear - - - - 45
blind mary - - - - 47
the bride of mallow - - - 48
a2
VI CONTENTS.
THE WELCOME - . - .
THE MI-NA-MEALA - . - -
MAIRE BHAN A STOIR
OH ! THE MARRIAGE . _ .
A FLEA FOR LOVE - - - -
THE bishop's DAUGHTER - - -
THE BOATMAN OF KINSALE -
MY DARLING NELL - _ _
LOVE CHAUNT .. . - -
A CHRIST3IAS SCENE . _ -
THE INVOCATION - - - .
LOVE AND WAR - . _ .
MY LAND . _ - -
THE RIGHT ROAD - - _ _
PART III.— HISTORICAL BALLADS AND SONGS.
JFirst Scrks.
A NATION ONCE AGAIN ' -
LAMENT FOR THE MILESIANS
THE FATE OF KING DATHI - - -
ARGAN MOR - - . _
THE victor's burial - - _
the true irish king . _ .
the geraldines - - - .
o'brien of ara - . _ _
em3ieline talbot - _ -
o'sullivan's return
the fate of the o'sullivans
the sack of baltimore
J.AMENT FOR THE DEATH OF OWEN ROE o'NEILL
A RALLY FOR IRELAND
THE BATTLE OF LIMERICK -
CONTENTS.
PART IV.— mSTOiaCAL BALLADS AND SOXGS.
ScconU Scries.
PAGK
the penal days - - . - 131
the death of sarsfield - - - 133
the surprise of cremona - - 135
the flower of finae . . - 138
the girl i left behind bie - - 140
Clare's dragoons ... ]42
when south winds blow ... 145
the battle-eve of the brigade - - 147
fontenoy ... - 149
the dungannon convention - - 153
song of the volunteers of 1782 - - 156
THE MEN OF 'eIGHTY-TWO . - - 158
NATIVE SWORDS .... 160
tone's GRAVE _ - - . 162
PART v.— IMISCELLANEOUS POEMS.
NATIONALITY - - - - 167
SELF-RELIANCE - - - - 169
SWEET AND SAD - - - - 171
THE BURIAL - - - - 174
WE MUST NOT FAIL - . . 178
o'cONNELL's STATUE - _ _ 180
THE GREEN ABOVE THE RED - - 184
THE VOW OF TIPPERARY - - - 187
A PLEA FOR THE BOG-TROTTERS - - 188
A SECOND PLEA FOR THE BOG-TROTTERS - 189
A SCENE IN THE SOUTH - - - 191
WILLIAM TELL - - - - 194
THE EXILE - - - - 196
MY HOME - - - - - 19S
MY GRAVE .... 203
APPENDIX ...» 207
The sun set; but set not his hope:
Stars rose; his faith was earlier up:
Fixed on the enormous palaxy,
Deeper and older seemed his eye:
And matched his siiffcrance sublime
The taciturnity of time.
He spoke, and words more soft tlian rain
Brought the Age of Gold again:
His action won such reverence sweet,
As hid all measure of the feat. ,
Emerson.
INTRODUCTION,
BY THE EDITOR.
It is my sincere belief, that no book has ever been pub-
lished, of more immediate and permanent interest to the
Irish People, than this little volume of the Poems of
Thomas Davis.
The momentary grief of the people for his loss was
loud and ardent enough. I have heard some touching
instances of the intensity witli which it manifested itself
in thousands, who had never seen his face, or heard his
voice, — to whom, indeed, liis very name and being were
unknown, until the tidings of his death awoke in them
the vain regret that they had not earlier known and
honoured the good great man who worked unseen
among them.
But, alas ! regrets of tliis description are in their very
nature transient ; and all ranks of the people have much
to learn before they can rightly appreciate what a trea-
sure of hope and energy, of life and love, of greatness and
glory for liimself and them, lies buried in that untimely
grave.
a3
X INTRODUCTION.
It has been the peculiar destiny of this Nation of Sor-
rows, to lose by unseasonable death, at the very crisis of
her peril, the only men who were endowed with the
genius and energy to guide her unharmed through the
strife. Too seldom have Ireland's champions lived to
reap the mature fruit of their toil. Too seldom hath
the calm evening of existence, o'ercanopied by victory,
and smiled on by such parting twiliglit as promises a
brighter morrow, heralded for them that glad repose,
which they only know who have laboured and seen their
labour blessed. The insidious angel of Death has pre-
ferred to take our chieftains unprepared in their noon of
manhood, — too often before that noon arrived, stabbing
them stealthily in their tents, as they donned their ar-
mour, at the dawn of some great day, or mused upon
the event of that encounter, which they had bent every
energy to meet, and yet were doomed never to see.
Long centuries hath the hand of God, for inscrutable
causes, been very heavy on Ireland ; and this alacrity of
Death is the fetter-key of his wrath. INIay this last
offering of our first-born propitiate him, and may the
kingly souls whom hereafter He may send among us to
rule and guide our people, no more be prematurely sum-
moned away, in the very dawn of their glory, with their
hopes unrealized, and their mission unfulfilled.
Fortunately, Davis was not a statesman and political
leader merely, but a thinker and a writer too, — more
than that, a genuine poet ; as, I trust, all who peruse
this little book will acknowledge. True, it is a mere
garland of blossoms, whose fruit was doomed never to
ripen ; a reliquary of undeveloped genius, but recently
awakened to a consciousness of its own power.
INTRODUCTION^. XI
The ambition, the activity, and above all, the over-
weening confidence of most young men of genius, se-
cures for them a spontaneous discipline in those pursuits
for which they are specially adapted. Goethe and Schil-
ler, Burns and Byron, Wordsworth and Coleridge, too
young as most of them were, when they commenced a
career of authorship, had written verses for years before
they became known to the public. Many are the re-
counted instances of precocious poetic power, both in
those, who afterwards became renowned as poets, and
in men destined to shine in far other pursuits, the first
exercise of whose intellectual energy has taken this di-
rection. Even men who, like Cowper and Alfieri, have
burst the shell of seclusion at comparatively a late pe-
riod of life, have betrayed in their boyish tastes or
habits, the peculiar bent of their genius. However way-
wardness or timidity may have retarded the public pro-
fession of their art, they had yet some forecast of their
destiny. They knew they had wings, and fluttered
them, though they had not yet strength to fly.
The case of Davis is different, and altogether so pe-
culiar, that it ought not to be passed over in the very
briefest introduction to his poetical remains. Until
about three years before his death, as I am assured, he
had never written a line of poetry. His efforts to ac-
quire knowledge, to make himself useful, and to find a
suitable sphere of action, were incessant ; but they tried
every path, and took every direction but this. The
warmth of his affections, and his intense enjoyment of
the beauties of nature and character, of literature and
art, ought early to have marked him out as one destined
to soar and sing, as well as to think and act. But the
XU INTRODUCTION.
fact is, that among his youthful cotemporaries, for many
a long year, he got as Uttle credit for any promise tliis
way, as he did for any other remarkable qualities, be-
yond extreme goodnature, untiring industry, and very
varied learning.
Truth to say, much of this early misconception of
his character Avas Davis's own fault. He learned much ;
suffered much, I have no doubt : felt and sympathised
much ; and hoped and enjoyed abundantly ; but he had
not yet learned to rely on himself. His poAvers were like
the nucleus of an embryo star, uncompressed, unpurified,
flickering and indistinct. He carried about with him
liuge loads of what other men, most of them statists
and logicians, had thought proper to assert ; but what
lie thought and felt himself, he did not think of putting
forward. The result was, that during his college course,
and for some years after, while he was very generally''
liked, he had, unless perhaps with some Avho knew him
intimately, but a moderate reputation for high ability of
any kind. In his twenty-fifth year, as I remember —
that is, in the spring of 1839, — he first began to break
out of this. His opinions began to have Aveight, and
his character and influence to unfold themselves in a
variety of ways. In the following year he entered poli-
tical life. But this is not the i^lace to recount the details
of his subsequent career.
The outbreak of his poetical power began in this
wise. In the autumn of 1842, taking an active part in
the establishment of a new popular journal, (the Nation,)
which Avas intended to advance the cause of Nationahty
by all the aids, AA'liich Uterary as Avell as political talent
could bring to its advocacy, Davis, and the friends asso-
INTRODUCTION. XllI
ciated with him, found that while their corps in otlier
respects was sufficiently complete, they had but scanty
promise of support in the poetical department. The
well-known saying of Fletcher of Saltoun, — " Give me
the ballads, and let who will make the laws," — had sunk
deeply into the minds of some of the projectors of the
journal : though <I am told that Davis himself was at
first not very solicitous on this point ; so little aware was
he of his own power in that respect, at the moment it
was about to break forth. But the Editor of the
journal had set his heart on it, having before partially
tried the experiment in a Northern paper. Ultimately,
however, all the founders of the Nation agreed in the
resolve, that come whence it would, poetry, — ^real living
poetry, gushing warm from the heart, and not mecha-
nically mimicing obsolete and ungenial forms, — was
worth a trial, as a fosterer of National feeling, and an
excitement to National hope. But it came not from any
outward source; and thereupon Davis and his com-
panions resolved, in default of other aid, to write the
poetry themselves. They did so ; they surprised them-
selves and every body else. The results of that de-
spairing attempt have since been made known, and ap-
plauded in every quarter of the globe. The right chord
had been struck, and the consequent stimulus to Irish
literature has been, and is, incalculable.
The rapidity and thrilling power, with which, from
the time that he got full access to the public ear, Davis
developed his energies as statesman, poUtical writer,
and poet, has been well described elsewhere. It excited
the surprise and admiration even of those who knew him
best, and won the respect of numbers, who from poll-
XIV INTRODUCTION.
tical or personal prejudices, had been originally most
unwilling to admit his worth. So signal a victory over
long- continued neglect and obstinate prejudice as he had
at length obtained, has never come under my observa-
tion, and I believe it to be almost unexampled. There
is no assurance of greatness so unmistakeable as this.
No power is so overwhelming, no energy so untiring, no
enthusiasm so indomitable, as that which slumbers for
years, unconscious and unsuspected, until the character
is completely formed, and then bursts at once into light
and life, when the time for action is come.
This was the true guarantee of Davis's greatness, — of
a genius which was equal to any emergency, which
would have been constantly placing itself in new aspects,
overcoming new difficulties, and winning fresh love and
honour from his countrymen, and from mankind. A
character so rich in promise, so full of life and energy,
of love and hope, as his, and at the same time so suited
for public life, is a rarity in history. Had he been spared
for a few years longer, the world would have known this
well. As it is, they must partly take it on trust from
those who knew the man. For none of his writings,
either in prose or verse, will enable thera to know liim
thoroughly. As, indeed, the richer and deeper, and
more vital and versatile a man's character is, the poorer
fragment of himself will his writings inevitably be.
Not, but that every tiling Davis has written, abounds
in admonition and instruction, for Irishmen of every
class, and for all in any country who have the sym-
pathies and affections of men. But from the activity
of his public life, it was impossible that lie could write
with that leisure and deliberate care, which the heart
INTRODUCTION, XV
and intellect require for finished composition. And ac-
cordingly, none of his works can be taken as an adequate
expression of his creative power. Had he lived, and been
enabled to shift a portion of his political burden upon
other shoulders, I have no doubt but he would have
more frequently retired into himself, and thus been
enabled to give the world the purer fruits of his unen-
cumbered leisure. But the weight of his toil cut him off
before that leisure came.
If anywhere, it is in this volume, that a key to Davis's
most engaging qualities, and to his inward heart, may
be found. But there is not room here, and I must
await some other opportunity of weighing the merits of
these poems, in relation to their author's character, and to
the wants of the time and country for which they were
written. It may, at all events, be better done when his
prose works also have been given to the public, and the
elite of the labours of his young statesmanship made
permanently and universally accessible. For literary
pre-eminence was not his ambition at all, and even use-
fulness through the channels of literature, but one of the
many means which he shaped to one great end.
For these and other reasons, apart from his want of
leisure, and his early death, his poems above all must
not be judged without a reference to his aims and his
mode of life. I do not believe that since the invention
of printing, there has been any volume of such sincere
effect, and varied power, produced under similar cir-
cumstances. The longer portion and by far the best of
them were written and published in a single year (1844),
and that the most active of the author's life, during
wliich his political labours, in addition to constant
XVI INTRor)ucTIo^^
writing for the journal -vrith which he was connected,
were almost as incessant and fatiguing as those of a
minister of state.
In these and in some not dissimilar instances wliich I
could recount of others, there seems good reason to hope
for our country and our age. Novalis used to lament
bitterly the severance of poetry from philosophy, and
surely not without abundant cause ; but with far better
reason might he have bemoaned the divorce of poetry
from life and action. For in no respect is there a greater
contrast betAveen these latter formalized ages, and the
wilder, healthier centuries of the world's antique life.
Solon was a poet, as well as a statesman and sage.
Sophocles was not only an unrivalled dramatist, but a
distinguished soldier, and in youth a miracle of beauty
and accomplishments, — the Sidney as well as the
Shakspeare of that glorious age. Pericles and Caesar
were orators, philosophers, soldiers, wits, poets, and
consummate statesmen, aU in one. Descending to a
later age, entirely different in character and aims, we
find Alfred teaching his people as well as ruling them.
Richard Cceur-de-lion was hardly less renowned for
poetry than for courage. Bertrand de Born was warrior
and patriot, poet and statesman, and it was not found
that his success in one pursuit was marred or defeated
by his proficiency in another. Among the Moslem
cotemporaries of all these men, abundant examples
might be adduced of such a combination of political
with poetical power. And recurring to the early
dwellers in the East, above all to those whom a peculiar
dispensation set apart from other men, jNIoses and David
were poets, as well as prophets and kings.
INTRODUCTION. avu
For such is the natural condition of health, in nations
as in men. Tlie mind and the body alike are agile for a
thousand feats, and equal to a tliousand labours. For
literature is then a part of life, a dweller in the common
landscape, a presence in sunshine and in shade, in camp
and festival, before the altar and beside the hearth, —
and not an intruding reminiscence, an antiquated
mocker}^ a ghastly effete excrescence, hiding with its
bloated bulk the worth of the present hour, and the
lovely opportunities of unused actual life, that ever lie
with mute appeal before the dullard man ; and which
he alone who feels the force of, can enter into the feel-
ings or appreciate the worth of bye-gone generations
too.
It is only the insidious materialism of modern existence,
that has rent the finest tissues of moral power, and
dwarfed into mechanical routine and huxtering sub-
serviency, the interchanging faculties of man, making
literature itself a statute-book, or a gin-shop, instead of
an overhanging canopy of the simple and sublime, a
fostering, embracing atmosphere to man's every thought
and act. And thus it is that poets and philosophers,-—
that is, men of purer, deeper, more genial and generative
faculty than others, — find all the avenues to power barred
against them by lawyers and diplomatists, and are driven
to suck their thumbs in corners, when they ought, by
virtue of tlie fiercer life and more powerful reason that
is in them, to be teaching tlie world by example as well
as precept ; and not by words alone, but by action too,
by the communities of peril, and the interchange of
sympathy, and love, to be filling the souls of men with
hope and resolution, with piety and truth.
XVlll INTRODUCTION'.
Here, at least, in this little book, is a precedent and
admonition to the honest man-of- letters of whatever
class or country — that if his feeling for his fellow-raen —
and who will feel for them, if he does not ? — should lead
him into political action, he need not despond because
he is a poet, if only he is, into the bargain, a self-reliant
man. Davis was a poet, but he was not for that the
less practical in public life, nor did the most prosaic of
his opponents ever object to him, that he was the less
fitted to advise and govern, because he occasionally ex-
pressed in verse the purer aspirations of his soul.
Pity it is, to be sure, that these aspirations had not
found a fuUer utterance, before the fiat of death had
liushed to unseasonable rest the throbbings of that large
heart. Fragments though they be of a most capacious
and diversified character, they are yet to a wonderful
degree its unaiiected utterance. Like wild flowers
springing from the mould in the clefts of a giant oak,
they relish of the open air, and have looked the sky in
the face. Doubtless in many ways the impress of the
poet's spirit, and of the graces of liis character, is but the
purer for this partial and too late development of its love-
liest folds. Like the first fragrance of the rose, ere its per-
fume becomes heavy with sweetness ; or as the violet
smells the sweetest, when hidden by its cherishing leaves
from the glare of the noonday sun.
Moreover, the supreme worth of books is as an index
of character ; as a fragmentary insight into unfathomed
worth and power. For the man who is not better than
his books, has ever seemed to me a poor creature. —
Many there are, no doubt, — men whose names are higli
in literature — who fail to produce on their cotempora-
INTRODUCTION. XIX
ries or on those who kuow their biography, an impres-
sion adequate to the promise of their writings — and
some, perhaps, who really have no corresponding inward
worth. Allowing for the too ardent expectations of
their admirers, this indicates ever some lamentable de-
ficiency. One cannot help occasionally, in moments of
ill humour, suspecting some of these authors to be paltry
secondhand thieves of other men's thoughts, or mimics
of other men's energy, and not as all good writers ought
to be, natural, self-taught, self-directed men. And,
therefore, in honest writing, above all things, is it true,
that "well begun, is half done;" be it but once tr ell
begun. Goldsmith's lovely nature is as visible, and
more distinct in the little volume of the Vicar of Wake-
field, than if he had written a dozen Waverley novels ; Ro-
samwid Gray, and Undine are a purer offspring of their
author's minds, and a more convincing evidence of
their worth, then any congeries of romances could have
been.
And thus, perhaps, after all, the soul of Davis will
shine from this book, as pure and clear, — though not
so bright, or comprehensive, or beneficent, — as if he
had been thirty years writing instead of three, and filled
a dozen of volumes instead of one. Ah! as far as writing
goes, there is enough to make men love him, and guess
at him, — and what more can the best of readers do with
the supremest writer, though he lived to the age of
Sophocles or Goethe. The true loss is of the oak's tim-
ber, the living tree itself, and not of its acorns or of the
flowers at its base. The loss of his immediate influence
on the events of his time, and on the souls of his cotem-
poraries by guidance and example, — that is the true
AX IXTRODrCTIOX.
bereavement ; one wliich possibly many generations to
come will be suffering from and expiating, consciously
or unconsciously. So complete an en(lo\vment as his is
a rare phenomenon, and no calamity can be compared
■with its untimely extinction.
Undoubtedly the circumstances -which attended the
development of Davis's powers, are a striking proof
of the latent energy, Avhich lies hid among our people,
imwrought and almost unthought of. Not that I enter-
tain the opinion, thou;,di it is a favourite theory with
some men, — and one which does not obtain the less ac-
ceptance because it flatters human nature, — that there
is an abundance of great men, ever walking the earth,
utterly unconscious of their power, and only wanting a
sufficient stimulus, themselves to know their power, and
make all men acknowledge it. A theory of life and
liistory, in any high sense of greatness, to which I can-
not assent : for it seems to me the very essence of the
great man is, that he is, in spite of himself, making ever
new acquaintance with the realities of life. All animate
and inanimate nature is in a conspiracy to make him
know himself, or at least to make others know him, and
by their love or hate, their fear or reverence, to awaken
his slumbering might. Destiny has a thousand electric
shocks in store for him, to wliich unearnest men are in-
sensible ; while his own unhasting yet unresting spirit is
ever fathoming new depths in the infinites of thought,
and suffering, and love. For, as the wisest of the an-
cients told the clods who condemned him, — the great
man is not born of a stock or a stone : but nature's
wants are strong in him, and the ties of heart and home
are as dear, or dearer to him than to any. And home
INTRODUCTION. XXI
is the great teacher, in childhood by its joys, in man-
hood by its sorrows, in age by its ebbing regrets.
No matter, tlien, whether thought or passion have the
mastery in the great man's nature, no matter whether
action or reception preponderates in his life, if he be
truly great, and live through man's estate, he will in
some way be recognised. Strange it were indeed, if every
other element in nature — the paltriest grain of sand, or
the most fleeting wave of light — were perpetual and un-
limited in its influence, and the mightiest power of all,
the plenitude of spiritual life, could remain unfelt by
kindred spirit, for the natural life of man. True, the
great man will often shun society, and court obscurity
and solitude : but let him withdraw into himself ever
so much, his soul will only expand the more with thought
and passion. The mystery of life will be the greater to
him, the more time he has to study it ; the loveliness of
nature will be the sweeter to him, the less his converse
with her is disturbed by the thoughtless comment of the
worldly or the vain. Let him retire into utter solitude,
and even if he were not great, that solitude, — if nature
whispers to him, and he listens to her, — would go near
to make him so : as Selkirk, when after his four years'
solitude, he trod again the streets of London, looked for
a while a king, and talked Uke a philosopher. For a
while, — since, as Eichard Steele ably tells the story, in
six months or so, the royalty had faded from his face,
and he had grown again, what he was at first, a sturdy
but common-place sailor.
But nature herself haunts incessantly the really great
man, and nothing can vulgarize him. And if it were only
on that account alone, whether tested by action, or un-
h
AXU INTRODUCTION.
tested by it, the great man is sure of recognition, if allowed
to live out his life. K he act, liis acts will shew him ; and
even if he do not act, his thoughts or his goodness will
betray him. " Hide the thoughts of such a man," says
a sage of our time : ' ' hide the sky and stars, hide the
" sun and moon ! Thought is all light, and publishes
" itself to the universe. It will speak, tliough you were
" dumb, by some miraculous organ. It will flow out of
" your actions, your manners and your face. It will
" bring you friendships, and impledge you to nature
'* and truth, by the love and expectations of generous
" minds."
And yet there is in many of the best and greatest men,
a tardiness of growth, which either beneficially slirouds
their budding graces from the handhng of impatient
i'riends ; or at least sets at naught that impatience, and
Imflfs the scrutiny of the interested watcher by perpetual
new growth of mere leaves, instead of the flowers and
fruit lie craves. Even where the natural tendency is to
active life, such men will for years evince an awkward-
ness, a shiftlessness, an indirectness of aim, and unstea-
diness of pursuit, — on the whole a hulking, slobbery
ponderousness, as of an overgrown school-boy, — which
will make men tardy in acknowledging their worth and
power, Avhen at length, after abundant waywardness,
their discipline is complete, their character formed, and
their strength matured.
As to the causes of all this, I dare not enter on them
now. They all centre in a good-natured simplicity, an
infantine acquiescence and credulity, which makes sucli
slow-growing men content to be hewers of wood and
drawers of water for half a life-time, until tlicT patieme
INTRODUCTION. XXll
is exhausted ; or until the trumpet call of duty, ever on
the watch to startle them, rouses them into life ; then at
length they commence their labours and assert their
rights. In their experiences likewise, tlicy are some-
times tardy, and as some ancient wrote, and Goethe
was fond of quoting : —
'O fjn) hipelg avOpioTrog ov TraiceveTai.
In some such frame may the history of Davis's mind
be set.
But though great men, wise men, kingly men, cannot
but be few, good men and true need not be so scarce as
they are, — men, I mean, true to their own convictions,
and prompt in tlieir country's need, — not greedy of dis-
tinction, but knowing well the hived sweetness that
abides in an unnoticed life, — and yet not shrinking from
responsibility, or avoiding danger, when the liour of trial
comes. It is such men that this country needs, and not
flaunting histrionists, or empty, platform patriots. She
wants men who can and will work as well as talk. Men
glad to live, and yet prepared to die. For Ireland is
approaching her majority, and what she wants is men.
And thus is it, above all, in the manliness of this book,
and of the author's character, that the germ abides of
hope for the country, and of consolation for his loss.
If such worth could grow up, and such success be won,
amid all the treacherous influences that sap the strength
of Ireland, what have we not a right to hope for?
What may not be yet the glory and gladness of that
distant time, when our National Genius shall at length
stand regenerated and disenthralled from the shackles of
foreign thought, and the contagion of foreign example ;
when beneath his own skies, with his own hills around,
XXiy INTRODUCTION.
and the hearts of a whole people echoing his passionate
words, he shall feel therein a content and exultation
which mere cosmojiolitan greatness is doomed never to
know; when satisfied with ministering to the wants of
the land that bore him, and having few or no affections
beyond the blue waves which are its eternal boundary,
he shall find his only and most ample reward in the gra-
titude and love of our own fervent people ?
Ah! some few short years ago, who could look for
such a result with confidence? Though some there
were, whom strong affections made strong in hope, that
never despaired, in the gloomiest season. Times are
altered since then. The eyes of our people are opened,
and their hearts are changed. A swift and a surprising,
and yet an easy change, for a nation perisheth not ex-
cept by its own sentence. Blind though it be, it needs
but be led toward the East and turned to the rising sun,
Tiresias-like, to recover its sight.
Well, until a spirit of Nationality had arisen m the
land, and spread from sea to sea, and was not only
talked of, but became an abiding principle in our lives,
how could we hope to have a manly book, or a manly
being among us ? Or was it that the man and the feel-
ing both arose together, like a high-tide Avith a storm at
its back? What else but the fostering breath of Nation-
aUty could make that genius strong, which, without
such sympathy and cherishing, must necessarily grow
up a weakling? For sympathy, given and received, is
the life and soul of genius: without such support it
crawls along a crippled abortion, when it ought to walk
abroad a giant and champion of men. Until we had
proved ourselves Avorthy of having great men among us ;
INTRODUCTIOX. XXV
until we had shewed respect unto our dead, and taken
the memory of our forgotten brave unto our hearts
again, and bid them live there for ever ; until we dared
to love and honour our own, as they deserved to be
loved and honoured,, what had we, the Irish People, a
right to expect? what goodness or greatness could we
presume to claim? Until all sects and parties had at
least begun to hold out a helping hand to each other, and
to bind their native land with one bond of labour and
love, what grace could even Nature's bounty bestow on
such a graceless people ?
Time was, as many alive may well remember — and I
have been often pained by the feeling — when, if the
report of any new genius arose among us, we had to
make up our minds to find much of its brightest pro-
mise blighted in the early bud, or stunted in maturer
growth, by the mingled chill of exotic culture and of
home neglect. In those days Ave could never approach
a product of the National Mind, without a cold fear at
our hearts, that we should find it unworthy of the
Nation; that we should find on it the stamp of the
slave, or the slimy trail of the stranger. And even as
we gazed with fondness and admiration on those, who in
our evil days had yet acliieved something for us, and
given us something to be proud of, we still expected to
meet in them some failure, some inconsistency, some
sad, some lamentable defect, and to see the strong man
totter like a weakling and a slave.
And otherwise it could not be, in our abandonment
both of our rights, and hope to recover them. Could
the orphaned heart of genius be glad like his who had a
parent, — a mother-country, a father-land ? Could he
6 2
XXVI INTRODUCTION.
who had no country, or doubted v'hat country he be-
longed to, and knew not -anytliing that he should care
to live or die for ; or if he dreamed of such an object,
had chosen sect instead of country ? — Could he be strong
in filial might, and firm in manly rectitude, and bold in
genial daring, — or can he yet be so among us, — like him
upon ■whose childish thought no jiarty spite hath shed
its venom, the tnilk of whose untried affections sectarian
hate hath curdled not ; but the greatness and glory of
his country illumined for liim the morning horizon of
life ; while home, and love, and freedom, the sovereign
graces of earth, have blended in one religion, and
strengthened his heart with a mighty strength, and
chastening his spirit for ever, have made the memory of
his young days, indeed inefiiibly divine ? Can he love
home as home should be loved, who loves not his country
too ? Can he love country right, who hath no home ?
Can he love home or country perfectly, to whose aching
heart the balm of love hath not been timely given?
Believe it not, ye sons of men ! — as he ought, he cannot.
As star poiseth star in the wilderness of the illimitable
heavens, even so the charities of life sustain each other,
and centre in the spirit of God, and bind all created
beings beneath the shelter of his love.
But enough, — a better and a brighter day is dawning,
and the
" flecked darkness like a drunkard reels
" From forth days pathway, made by Freedom's wheels."
And our lost Thomas Davis was our Phosphoros, or
bringer of light !
"Justice and Truth their winged cliild have found!"
INTRODUCTION. XXVU
But let us not be incautiously hopeful. Let us re-
member that the i^estilential influences, which Davis,
like all of us, had to struggle with and overcome, are
still rife among us. Let us not deceive ourselves. The
miseries of our country for seven centuries have had
foreign causes ; but there have been, ever from the be-
ginning of that misery, domestic causes too. "We were
divided, and did hate each other. We are divided and
do hate each other ; and therefore we cannot stand. It
is in many respects, too, an ill time, in which we are to
unlearn these errors, and abjure this vice, if ever we
abjure it. But He who sent the disease will send the
healing too. Ah, why were we not reconciled among
ourselves, in earlier, in better times than these ? The
fruit of our reconciliation then would have been greater
far than ever it can be now. Our native laws, and in-
stitutions, and language, were not then withered away.
The trees which our forefathers planted, had yet firm
root in the land. But now, in the old age of our Na-
tion, we have had to begin life again, and with delibe-
late effort, and the straining of every nerve, to repeat
those toils, which the gladness of youth made light for
our fathers long ages ago. And this autumn blossom of
our glory may go, too, as tribute to swell the renown of
those who so long enslaved us. Yet it is the best we
can do. There are millions of sad hearts in our land.
Are they to be so for ever ? There are millions who
have not food. Are they never to be filled ? Happy are
you, after all, O youth of Ireland ! fortunate if you but
knew it, for if ever a generation had, in hope, sometliing
worth living for, and in sacrifice, something worth dying
for, that blessed lot is yours.
XXVm INTRODUCTION.
And here, youth of Ireland ! in this little book is a
Psalter of Nationality, in Avhicli every aspiration of
j^our hearts will meet its due response, — your every aim
and effort, encouragement and sympathy, and wisest
admonition. High were the hopes of our young poet
patriot, and unforeseen by him and all the stroke of fate
which was to call liim untimely away. The greater
need that you should discipline and strengthen your
souls, and bring the aid of many, to what the genius of
him who is gone might have contributed more than all.
Hive up strength and knowledge. Be straightforward,
and sincere, and resolute, and undismayed as he was ;
and God will yet reward your truth and love, and bless
tlie land whose sons you boast yourselves to be.
T.W.
-20th April,! lSi6.
TO THE MEMORY OF DAVIS.
STo t^c i^cmorp of ©i^omas ©ab(s.
BY JOHN FISHER MURRAY.
WiiEi? on the field where fi-eedom bled,
I press tlie ashes of the brave,
Marvelling that man should ever dread
Thus to wipe out the name of slave;
No deep-dra\\Ti sigh escapes my breast-
No woman's drops my eyes distain,
I weep not gallant hearts at rest —
I but deplore they died in vain.
When I the sacred spot behold,
For aye remembered and renowned, "
Where daimtless hearts and arms as bold,
Strewed tn-ants and their slaves aroimd ;
High hopes exulting fire my breast —
High notes triumphant swell my strain,
Joy to the brave I in victorj- blest —
Joy! joy! they perished not in vain.
But when thy ever mournful voice.
My countiy, calls me to deplore
The champion of thy youthful choice,
Honoured, revered, but seen no more ;
Hea%'y and quick my sorrows fall
For him who strove, with might and main.
To leave a .lesson for us all,
How we might live — nor live in vain.
TO THE ME3I0RY OF DAVIS.
If, moulded of earth's common clay,
Thou had'st to sordid arts stooped down,
Thy glorious talent flung away,
Or sold for price thy gi'eat renown ;
In some poor pettifogging place,
Slothful, inglorious, thou had'st lain,
Herding amid the imhonoured race.
Who doze, and dream, and die in vain.
A spark of nis celestial fire.
The GrOD of freemen sti'uck from thee ;
Made thee to spm'n each low desire,
Nor bend the uncompromising knee ;
Made thee to vow thy life, to rive
With ceaseless tug, th' oppressor's chain ;
With IjTe, •with pen, with sword, to strive
For thy dear land— nor strive in vain.
How hapless is our coimtiy's fate, —
If Heaven in pit}- to us send
Like thee, one glorious, good, and great —
To guide, instmct us, and amend ;
How soon thy honom-ed life is o'er —
Soon Heaven demandeth thee again ;
We grope on darkling as before.
And fear lest thou hast died in vain.
In vain — no, never! O'er thy gi-ave.
Thy spirit dwelleth in the afr;
Thy passionate love, thy purjiose brave,
Thy hope assured, thy promise fair.
Generous and wise, farewell ! — Forego
Tears for the glorious dead and gone ;
His tears, if tears are his, still flow
For slaves and cowards li\ing on.
PART I.
NATIONAL
BALLADS AND SONGS,
" National Poetet is the very flowering of the soul,— the greatest
evidence of its health, the greatest excellence of its beauty. Its
melody is balsam to the senses. It is the playfellow of Childhood, ri-
pens into the companion of Manhood, consoles Age. It presents the
most dramatic events, the largest characters, the most impressive
scenes, and the deepest passions, in the language most famihar to us.
It magnifies and ennobles our hearts, our intellects, om- country, and
our countrymen,— binds us to the land by its condensed and gem-like
history; to the future by example and by aspiration. It solaces us in
travel, fires us in action, prompts our invention, sheds a grace beyond
the power of luxury round our homes, is the recognised envoy of our
minds among aU mankind, and to aU time."— Daviss Essays.
NATIONAL
BALLADS AND SONGS.
TIPPERARY.
AiK — Original. *
Lbt Britain boast her British hosts.
About them all right little care we ;
Not British seas nor British coasts
Can match The Man of Tipperary J
II.
Tall is his form, his heart is warm.
His spirit light as any fairy —
His wrath is fearful as the storm
That sweeps The Hills of Tipperary 1
III.
Lead him to fight for native land.
His is no courage cold and wary j
The troops live not on earth would stand
The headlong Charge of Tipperary 1
• Vide " Spirit of the Nation," 4to. p. 84.
BALLADS AND SONGS.
IV.
Yet meet him in liis cabin rude,
Or dancing with his dark-haired Mary,
You'd swear they knew no other mood
But Mirth and Love in Tipperary !
V.
You're free to share his scanty meal,
His plighted word he'll never vary-
In vain they tried with gold and steel
To shake The Faith of Tipperary !
VI.
Soft is his cailui's sunny eye,
Iler mien is mild, her step is airy.
Her heart is fond, her soul is high —
Oh ! she's The Pride of Tipperary !
VII.
Let Britain brag her motley rag ;
"We'll lift The Green more proud and airy ;.
Be mine the lot to bear that flag.
And head The Men of Tipperary !
VIII.
Tliough Britain boasts her British hosts,
About them all right little care wc —
Give us, to guard our native coa^^ts,
The Matchless Men of Tipperary !
THE RIVERS.
THE RIVERS.
Air — Kathleen O'More.
I.
There's a far-famed Blackwater that nins to Loch Neagh,
There's a fairer Blackwater that runs to the sea—
The glory of Ulster,
The beauty of Munster.
These twin rivers be.
II.
From the banks of that river Benburb's towers arise ;
This stream shines as bright as a tear from sweet eyes ;
This fond as a young bride.
That with foeman's blood dyed —
Both dearly we prize.
III.
Deep sunk in that bed is the sword of Monroe,
Since, 'twixt it and Donagh, he met Owen Eoe,
And Charlemont's cannon
Slew many a man on
These meadows below.
BALLADS AND SONGS.
The shrines of Armagh gleam far over yon lea,
Nor afar is Dungannon that nursed liberty,
And yonder Red Hugh
Marshal Bagenal o'erthrew
On Beal-an-atha-Buidhe.*
V.
But far kinder the woodlands of rich Convamore,
And more gorgeous the turrets of saintly Lismore j
There the stream, like a maiden
With love overladen,
Pants wild on each shore.
VI.
Its rocks rise like statues, tall, stately, and fair,
And the trees, and the flowers, and the mountains, and air,
"With "Wonder's soul near you,
To share with, and cheer you,
Make Paradise there.
VII.
I would rove by that stream, ere my flag I unrolled ;
I would fly to these banks my betrothed to enfold —
The pride of our sire-land.
The Eden of Ireland,
More precious than gold.
* Vulgo, Ballanabwee— the mouth of the yellow fbrd.— Ficfe Glob-
BART.
GLENGARIFF.
VIII.
May their borders be free from oppression and blight !
May their daughters and sons ever fondly unite —
The glory of Ulster,
The beauty of IMunster,
Our strength and dehght.
GLENGARIFF.
Air. — O'Sullivan's March.
I WANDERED at eve by Glengariff's street water,
Half in the shade, and half in the moon,
And thought of the time when the Sacsanach slaughter
Reddened the night and darkened the noon ;
Mo nuar ! mo nuart mo nuarl* I said, —
When I think, in tliis valley and sky —
Where true lovers and j)oets should sigh —
Of the time when its chieftain O'Sullivan fled.f
* "Alas." t Vid^post, page
BALLADS AND SONGS.
II.
Then my mind went along with O'Sullivan marching
Over Musk'ry's moors and Ormond's plain,
His curachs the waves of the Shannon o'erarching,
And his pathway mile-marked with the slain :
Mo nuar I mo nuar 1 mo nuar ! I said, —
Yet 'twas better far from you to go,
And to battle with torrent and foe,
Than linger as slaves where your sweet waters spread.
But my fancy burst on, like a clan o'er the border,
To times that seemed almost at hand,
When grasping her banner, old Erin's Lamh Laidir
Alone shall rule over the rescued land :
O baotho 1 haotho I O haotho ! * I said,—
Be our marching as steady and strong,
And freemen our vallies shall throng.
When the last of our foemen is vanquished and fled !
* "Oil, fine.' The meaning, &c., of all the Irisli phi-ascs in tliis
volume will be found In the Glossary.
THE WEST 8 ASLEEl'
THE WEST'S ASLEEP.
Air— The Brink of the White Rocks.
When all beside a vigil keep,
The West's asleep, the West's asleep —
Alas ! and well may Erin weep,
When Connaught lies in slumber deep.
There lake and plain smile fair and free,
'Mid rocks — their guardian chivalry —
Sing oh ! let man learn liberty
From crashing wind and lashing sea.
II.
That chainless wave and lovely land
Freedom and Nationhood demand —
Be sure, the great God never planned,
For slumbering slaves, a home so grand.
And, long, a brave and haughty race
Honoured and sentinelled the place —
Sing oh ! not even their sons' disgrace
Can quite destroy their glory's trace.
» Vide " Spiiit of the Xatinn," 4to. p. 70.
10 BALLADS AND SONGS.
HI.
For often, in O'Connor's van,
To triumph dashed each Connaught clan —
And fleet as deer the Normans ran
Through Corlieu's Pass and Ardrahan.
And later times saw deeds as brave ;
And glory guards Clanricarde's grave —
Sing oh ! they died their land to save,
At Aughrim's slopes and Shannon's wave.
IV.
And if, when all a vigil keep,
The West's asleep, the West's asleep —
Alas 1 and well may Erin weep.
That Connaught lies in slumber deep.
But — ^hark ! — some voice like thunder spake ;
" The West's awake, the West's awake'' —
** Sing oh I hurra ! let England quake,
We'U watch tiU death for Erin's sake !"
OH I FOR A 8TELD. 11
OHl FOK A STEED.
Alb — Oriyi/ial*
I.
On I for a steed, a rushing steed, and a blazing scimitar,
To hunt from beauteous Italy the Austrian's red hussar;
To mock their boasts,
And strew their hosts.
And scatter their flags afar.
n.
Oh ! for a steed, a rushing steed, and dear Poland gathered
around,
To smite her circle of savage foes, and smash them upon
the ground ;
Nor hold my hand
While, on the land ,
A foreigner foe was found.
• Vide " Spirit of the Nation," 4to. p. 20a
B3
12 BALLADS AND SOXGS.
Oh ! for a steed, a rushing steed, and a rifle that ne-^ er
failed,
And a tribe of terrible prairie men, by desperate valour
mailed,
Till "stripes and stars,"
And Eussian czars,
Before the Red Indian quailed.
IV.
Oh ! for a steed, a rushing steed, on the plains of Hin-
dustan,
And a hundred thousand cavaliers, to cliarge like a
single man,
Till our shirts were red,
And the English fled
Like a cowardly caravan.
Oh 1 for a steed, a rushing steed, -with the Greeks at
Marathon,
Or a place in the Switzer phalanx, when the Morat men
swept on,
Like a pine-clad hill
By an earthquake's will
Hurled the vallies upon.
OU ! FOR A STEED. 13
VI.
Oil ! for a steed, a rushing steed, when Brian smote
down the Dane,
Or a place beside great Aodh O'Neill, when Bagenal the
bold was slain,
Or a waving crest
And a lance in rest,
With Bruce upon Baunoch plain.
VII.
Oh ! for a steed, a rushing steed, on the Curragh of
Kildare,
And Irish squadrons skilled to do, as they are ready to
dare —
A hundred yards,
And Holland's guards
Drawn up to engage me there.
viir.
Oh ! for a steed, a rushing steed, and any good cause at all,
Or else, if you will, a field on foot, or guarding a lea-
guered wall
For freedom's right ;
In flushing fight
To conquer if then to fall.
14 BALLADS AND SONGS.
CYMRIC RULE AND CYMRIC RULERS.*
AiK — The March of the Men of Harlech.^
Once there was a Cymric nation ;
Few its men, but high its station —
Freedom is the soul's creation
Not the work of hands.
Coward hearts are self-subduing ;
Fetters last by slaves' renewing—
Edward's castles are in ruin,
Still his empire stands.
Still the Saxon's malice
Blights our beauteous valleys ;
Ours the toil, but his the spoil, and his the la\rs we
writhe in ;
"Worked like beasts, that Saxon priests may riot in our
tithing ;
Saxon speech and Saxon teachers
Crush our Cymric tongue !
Tolls our traffic binding,
Rents our vitals grinding —
• rj<f« Appendix. t Welsh air.
CYMRIC RULE AND CYMRIC RULERS. 15
Bleating sheep, we cower and weep, when, by one bold
endeavour,
We could drive from out our hive these Saxon drones
for ever.
♦' Cymric Rule and Cymric Rulebs" —
Pass along tlie word !
II.
We should blush at Arthur's glory —
Never sing the deeds of Rory —
Caratach's renowned story
Deepens our disgrace.
By the bloody day of Banchor !
By a thousand years of rancour 1
By the wrongs that in us canker 1
Up ! ye Cymric race —
Think of Old Llewellyn,—
Owen's trumpets swelling ;
Then send out a thunder shout, and every true man
summon,
Till the ground shall echo round from Severn to Plin-
limmon,
♦' Saxon foes, and Cymric brothers,
" Arthur's come again !"
Not his bone and sinew,
But Ms soul within you,
Prompt and true to plan and do, and firm as Monmouth
iron
For our cause, though crafty laws and charging troops
environ —
♦' Cymric Rule and Cymric Rulebs" —
Pass along the word I
16 BALLADS AND SONGS.
A BALLAD OF FREEDOM.
The Frenchman sailed in Freedom's name to smite the
Algerine,
The strife was short, the crescent sunk, and then his
guile was seen ;
For, nestling in the pirate's hold — a fiercer pirate far —
He bade the tribes yield up their flocks, the towns their
gates unbar.
Right on he pressed with freemen's hands to subjugate
the free.
The Berber in old Atlas glens, the Moor in Titteri ;
And wider had his razzias spread, liis cruel conquests
broader.
But God sent down, to face his frown, the gallant Abdel-
Kader —
The faithful Abdel-Kader ! unconquered Abdel-Kader !
Like falling rock.
Or fierce siroc —
No savage or marauder —
Son of a slave !
First of the brave !
Hurrah for Abdel-Kader!*
• This name is pronounced Ca\sdcr. The French say that their
IALLA.D OF FREEDOM. 17
The Englishman, for long, long years, had ravaged
Ganges' side —
A dealer first, intriguer next, he conquered far and
wide,
Till, hurried on by avarice, and thirst of endless rule,
His sepoys pierced to Candahar, liis flag waved in Cabul;
But still witliiu the conquered land was one unconquered
man,
The fierce Pushtani* lion, the fiery Akhbar Khan —
lie slew the sepoys on the snow, till Scindh'sf full flood
they swam it
Right rapidly, content to flee the son of Dost ]Mohammed,
The son of Dost jMohammed, and brave old Dost
Mohammed —
Oh ! long may they
Their mountains sway,
Akhbar and Dost Mohammed !
Long live the Dost !
Who Britain crost.
Hurrah for Dost Mohammed !
great foe was a slave's son. Be it so— he has a hero's and freeman's
heart. " HuiTah for Abdel-Kader !" — Authok's Note.
* This is the name by which the Affghans call themselves. Affghan
is a Persian name (see Elphinstono's delightful book on Cabul). —
Authok's Note.
t The real name of the Indus, which is a Latinised word.— Acxhok3
Note.
1ft BALLADS AND SON<JS.
III.
The Russian, lord of milliou serfs, and nobles serflier
stm,
Indignant saw Circassia's sons bear up against his will ;
With fiery ships he lines their coast, his armies cross
their streams —
He builds a hundred fortresses — his conquests done, he
deems.
But steady rifles — rushing steeds — a crowd of nameless
cliiefs —
The plough is o'er his arsenals ! — his fleet is on the ree£s !
The maidens of Kabyntica are clad in Moscow dresses —
His slavish herd, how dared they beard the mountain-
bred Cherkesses !
The lightening Cherkesses ! — the thundering Cherkesses !
May Elburz top
In Azof drop,
Ere Cossacks beat Cherkesses !
The fountain head
Whence Europe spread —
Hurrah I for the tall Cherkesses !*
• Cherkesses or Abdyes is the right name of the, so-called, Circas-
sians. Kabyntica is a town in the heart of the Caucasus, of which
Mount Elburz Is the summit. Blumenbach, and other physiologists,
assert that the finer European races descend from a Circassian stock i
Authok's Note.
BALLAD OF FREEDOM. 19
IV.
But Russia preys on Poland's fields, where Sobieski
reigned,
And Austria on Italy — the Roman eagle chained —
Bohemia, Servia, Hungary, within her clutclics, gasp ;
And Ireland struggles gallantly in England's loosening
grasp.
Oh ! would all these their strength unite, or battle on
alone,
Like Moor, Pushtani, and Cherkess, they soon would
have their own.
Hurrah ! hurrah ! it can 't be far, when from the Scindh
to Shannon
Shall gleam a line of freemen's flags begirt by freemen's
cannon I
The coming day of Freedom — the flashing flags of
Freedom !
The victor glaive —
The mottoes brave.
May we be there to read them 1
That glorious noon,
God send it soon —
Hurrah for human Freedom !
20 BALLADS AND SONGS.
THE lEISH HURRAH.
Air — Nach m-baineann sin do.
Have you hearkened the eagle scream over the sea ?
Have you hearkened the breaker beat under your lee ?
A something between the wild waves, in their play,
And the kingly bird's scream, is The Irish Hurrah.
II.
How it rings on the rampart when Saxons assail —
How it leaps on the level, and crosses the vale.
Till the talk of the cataract faints on its way,
And the echo's voice cracks with the Irish Hurrah.
III.
How it sweeps o'er the mountain when hounds are on
scent,
How it presses the billows when rigging is rent,
TiU the enemy's broadside sinks low in dismay,
As our boarders go in with The Irish Hurrah.
Oh ! there 's hope in the trumpet and glee in the fife.
But never such music broke into a strife.
As when at ita bursting the war-clouds give waj>
And there's cold steel along with The Irish Hurrah.
BONG FOR THE IRISH MILITIA. 21
V.
What joy for a death-bed, your banner abore.
And round you the pressure of patriot love,
As you 're lifted to gaze on the breaking array
Of the Saxon reserve at The Irish Hurrah.
A SONG FOR THE IRISH MILITIA.
Air — The Peacock.
The tribune's tongue and poet's pen
May sow the seed in prostrate men ;
But 'tis the soldier's sword alone
Can reap the crop so bravely sown !
No more I'll sing nor idly pine,
But train my soul to lead a line —
A soldier's Ufe's the life for me —
A soldier's death, so Ireland's free !
22 BALLADS AND SONGS.
II.
No foe would fear your thunder word*
If 'twere not for our light'ning swords —
If tyrants yield when millions pray,
'Tis lest they link in war array ;
Nor peace itself is safe, but when
The sword is sheathed by fighting men —
A soldier's life's the life for me —
A soldier's death, so Ireland's free !
III.
The rifle brown and sabre bright
Can freely speak and nobly write —
What prophets preached the truth so well
As HoFEB, Brian, Bruce, and Tell ?
God guard the creed these heroes taught, —
That blood-bought Freedom's cheaply bought.
A soldier's life's the life for me —
A soldier's death, so Ireland's free !
IV.
Then, welcome be the bivouac,
The hardy stand, and fierce attack,
Where pikes \7ill tame their carbineers,
And rifles thin their bay'neteers,
And every field the island through
Will show " what Irishmen can do 1"
A soldier's life's the life for me —
A soldier's death, bo Ireland's free !
SONG FOR THE IRISH MILITIA. 23
Yet, 'tis not strength, and 'tis not steel
Alone can make the English reel ;
But wisdom, working day by day.
Till comes the time for passion's sway—
The patient dint, and powder shock,
Can blast an empire like a rock.
A soldier's life's the life for me —
A soldier's death, so Ireland's free !
VI.
The tribune's tongue and poet's pen
May sow the seed in slavish men ;
But 'tis the soldier's sword alone
Can reap the harvest when 'tis grown.
No more I'll sing, no more I'll pine,
But train my soul to lead a line —
A soldier's life's the life for me —
A soldier's death, so Ireland's free I
24
BALLADS AND SONGS.
OUE OWN AGAIN.
Air — Original."
Let the coward shrink aside,
"We'll have our own again ;
Let the brawling slave deride,
Here's for our own again —
Let the tyrant bribe and lie,
March, threaten, fortify.
Loose his lawyer and his spy,
Yet we'll have our own again.
Let him soothe in silken tone,
Scold from a foreign throne ;
Let him come with bugles blown.
We shall have our own again.
Let us to our purpose bide,
We'll have our own again —
Let the game be fairly tried.
We'll have our own again.
• Vide "Spirit of the Nation," 4to. p. S08.
OUR OWN AGAIN. 25
II.
Send the cry throughout the land,
" Who's for our own again?"
Summon all men to our band, —
"Why not our own again ?
Rich, and jioor, and old, and young,
Sharp sword, and fiery tongue —
Soul and sinew firmly strung,
All to get our own again.
Brothers thrive by brotherhood —
Trees in a stormy wood —
Riches come from Nationhood —
Sha'n't we have our own again ?
Munster's woe is Ulster's bane !
Join for our own again —
Tyrants rob as well as reign, —
"We'll have our own again.
II.
Oft our fathers' hearts it stirred,
"Rise for our own again !"
Often passed the signal word,
" Strike for our own again !"
Rudely, rashly, and untaught.
Uprose they, ere they ought.
Failing, though they nobly fought,
Dying for their own again.
BALLADS AND SONGS.
Mind will rule and muscle yield.
In senate, ship, and field —
When we're sldll our strength to wield.
Let us take our own again.
By the slave his chain is wrought, —
Strive for our ovra again.
Thunder is less strong than thought,—
"We'll have our own again.
IV.
Calm as granite to our foes,
Stand for our own again ;
Till his wrath to madness grows.
Firm for our own again.
Bravely hope, and wisely wait,
Toil, join, and educate ;
Man is master of his fate ;
We'll enjoy our own again.
With a keen constrained thirst-
Powder's calm ere it burst —
Makmg ready for the worst,
So we'll get GUT own again.
Let us to our purpose bide,
We'll have our own again.
God is on the righteous side.
We'll have our own again.
CELTS AND SAXONS.
CELTS AND SAXONS.'
We hate the Saxon and the Dane,
We hate the Norman men —
We cursed their greed for blood and gain.
We curse them now again.
Yet start not, Irish born man,
If you're to Ireland true,
We heed not blood, nor creed, nor els
We have no curse for you.
II.
We have no curse for you or your's,
But Friendship's ready grasp,
And Faith to stand by you and your's,
Unto our latest gasp — .
To stand by you against all foes,
Howe'er, or whence they come.
With traitor arts, or bribes, or blows,
From England, France, or Rome.
* Written in reply to some very beautiful verses printed in the
Evening Mail, deprecating and defying the assumed hostility of tlie
Irish Celts to the Irish Saxons.— Authob's Note.
28 BALLADS AND SONG8.
III.
What matter that at different shrines
"We pray unto one God —
What matter that at different times
Our fathers won this sod —
In fortime and in name we're bound
By stronger links than steel ;
And neither can be safe nor sound
But in the other's weal.
IV.
As Nubian rocks, and Ethiop sand
Long drifting down the Nile,
Built up old Egypt's fertile land
For many a hundred mile ;
So Pagan clans to Ireland came,
And clans of Christendom,
Yet joined their wisdom and their fame
To build a nation from.
V,
Here came the bro^ra Phoenician,
The man of trade and toil —
Here came the proud Milesian,
Ahungering for spoil ;
And the Firbolg and the Cymry,
And the hard, enduring Dane,
And the iron Lords of Normandy,
With the Saxons in their train.
CKLTS AND SAXONS.
VI.
And oh 1 it were a gallant deed
To show before mankind,
How every race and every creed
Might be by love combined —
Might be combined, yet not forget
The fountains whence they rose.
As, filled by many a rivulet
The stately Shannon flows.
VII.
Nor would we wreak our ancient feud
On Belgian or on Dane,
Nor visit in a hostile mood
The hearths of Gaul or Spain ;
But long as on our country lies
The Anglo-Norman yoke.
Their tyranny we'll signalize.
And God's revenge invoke.
VIII.
We do not hate, we never cursed,
Nor spoke a foeman's word
Against a man in Ireland nursed,
Howe'er we thought he erred ;
So start not, Irish born man,
If you're to Ireland true.
We heed not race, nor creed, nor clan,
We've hearts and hands for vou.
30 BALLADS AND SONGS.
ORANGE AND GREEN WILL CARRY
THE DAY.
AiB — The Protestant Boys.
Ireland! rejoice, and England ! deplore —
Faction and feud are passing away.
•Twas a Tow voice, but 'tis a loud roar,
•* Orange and Green will carry the day."
Orange ! Orange !
Green and Orange I
Pitted together in many a fray —
Lions in fight !
And linked in their might.
Orange and Green will carry the day.
Orange! Orange!
Green and Orange !
Wave them together o'er mountain and bay,
Orange and Green .'
Our King and our Queen 1
** Orange and Green will carry the day I"
ORANGE AND GREEN. 31
II.
Rusty the swords our fathers unsheathed—
William and James are turned to clay —
Long did we till the wrath they bequeathed ;
Red was the crop, and bitter the pay I
Freedom fled us !
Knaves misled us !
Under the feet of the foemen we lay —
Riches and strength
"Well win them at length,
For Orange and Green will carry the day I
Landlords fooled us ;
England ruled us,
Hounding our passions to make us their prey j
But, in their spite,
The Irish Unite,
And Orange and Green will carry the day !
in.
Fruitful our soil where honest men starve •,
Empty the mart, and shipless the bay ;
Out of our want the Oligarchs carve ;
Foreigners fatten on our decay !
Disunited,
Therefore bUghted,
Ruined and rent by the Englishman's sway ;
Party and creed
For once have agreed-
Orange and Green will carry the day !
c3
32 BALLADS AND SONGS.
Boyne's old water,
Ked with slaughter !
Now is as pure as an infant at play ;
So, in our souls,
Its history rolls.
And Orange and Green will carry the day 1
IV.
English deceit can rule us no more.
Bigots and knaves are scattered like spray —
Deep Avas the oath the Orangeman swore,
*' Orange and Green must carry the day •!"
Orange ! Orange !
Bless the Orange !
Tories and Whigs grew pale with dismay.
When, from the North,
Burst the cry forth,
" Orange and Green will carry the day ; "
No surrender 1
No Pretender I
Never to falter and never betray —
With an Amen,
We swear it again,
Obange and Green shall carry the day.
" The elements of Irish Nationality are not only combining— In
fact, they are growing confluent in our minds. Such nationality as
merits a good man's help, and awakens a true man's ambition, — such
nationality as could stand against internal faction and foreign intrigue,
—such nationality as would make the Irish hearth happy, and the
Irish name "illustrious, is becoming understood. It must contain and
represent all the races of Ireland. It must not be Celtic ; it must not
be Saxon ; it must be Irish. The Brehon law, and the maxims of
Westminster ;— the cloudy and lightning genius of the Gael, the placid
strength of the Sacsanach, the marshaUing insight of the Norman ;— a
Literatm-e which shall exhibit in combination the passions and idioms
of all, and which shall equally express our mind, in its romantic, its
religious, its forensic, and its practical tendencies ;— finally, a native
government, which shaU. know and rule by the might and right of all,
yet yield to the arrogance of none;— these are the components of such
a nationality ,"~D A vis's Essays.
" It is not a gambling fortune, made at imperial play, Ireland wants
it is the pious and stem cultivation of her faculties and her virtues, the.
acquisition of fiiithful and exact habits, and the self-respect that re>
•wards a dutiful and sincere life. To get her peasants into snug home-
steads, with well-tilled fields and placid hearths, — to develops the inge-
nuity of her artists, and the docile industry of her artisans, — to make
for her own insti'uction a literature wherein our cUmate, history, and
passions shall breathe,— to gain conscious strength and integrity, and
the high post of holy freedom; — these are Ireland's wimts."
DaVI.'jS ES.SATS
PART II.
MISCELLANEOUS
ONGS AND BALLADS.
" The greatest achievement of the Irish people is their music. It
tells their histoiy, climate, and character; but it too much loves to
weep. Let us, when so many of our chains have been broken, — while
our strength is great, and our hopes high,— cultivate its bolder strains
— its raging and rejoicing; or if we weep, let it be like men whose
eyes are lifted, though their tears falL
" Music is the first faculty of the Irish; and scarcely anything has
such power for good over them. The use of this faculty and this
power, publicly and constantly, to keep up their sphlts, refine their
tastes, wann their coui'age, increase their union, and renew their zeal,
—is the duty of every patiior." — Davis's Essays
MISCELLANEOUS
SONGS AND BALLADS,
THE LOST PATH.
Air Gradh mo chroide.
I.
Sweet thoughts, bright dreams, my comfort be,
All comfort else has flown;
For every hope was false to me,
And here I am, alone.
What thoughts were mine in early youth 1
Like some old L-ish song,
Brimful of lore, and life, and truth,
My spirit gushed along.
II.
I hoped to right my native isle,
I hoped a soldier's fame,
I hoped to rest in woman's smile.
And win a minstrel's name —
36 SONGS AND BALLADS.
Oh 1 little have I served my land,
No laurels press my brow,
I have no -vroman's heart or hand,
Nor minstrel honours now.
III.
But fancy has a magic power,
It brings me -wTeath and crown,
And woman's love, the self- same hour
It smites oppression down.
Sweet thoughts, bright dreams, my comfort be,
I have no joy beside ;
Oh ! throng around, and be to me
Power, country, fame, and bride.
LOVE'S LONGINGS.
To the conqueror his crowning,
First freedom to the slave,
And air unto the drowning,
Sunk in the ocean's wave —
And succour to the faithful,
"Who fight their flag above,
Are sweet, but far less grateful
Than were my lady's love.
love's lonoiistos. 37
I know I am not worthy
Of one so young and bright ;
And yet I would do for thee
Far more than others might ;
I cannot give you pomp or gold,
If you should be my wife,
But I can give you love untold,
And true in death or life,
III.
Methinks that there are passions
Within that heaving breast
To scorn their heartless fashions,
And wed whom you love best.
Methinks you would be prouder
As the struggling patriot's bride.
Than if rank your home should crowd, or
Cold riches round you glide.
Oh ! the watcher longs for morning,
And the infant cries for light.
And the saint for hea^yen's warning,
And the vanquished pray for might ;
But their prayer, when lowest kneeling,
And their suppliance most true.
Are cold to the appealing
Of this longing heart to you,
P
38 SONGS AND BALLADS.
HOPE DEFERRED.
Air. — Oh l art thou gone, my Mary dear f
'Tis long since vre were forced to part, at least it seems
so to my grief,
Por sorrow wearies us like time, but ah ! it brings not
time's relief:
As in our days of tenderness, before me still she seems
to glide ;
And, though my arms are wide as then, yet she will not
abide.
The day-light and the star-light shine, as if her eyes
were in their light,
And, whispering in the panting breeze, her love-s#ugs
come at lonely night ;
While, far away with those less dear, she tries to hide
her grief in vain,
For, kind to all while true to me, it pains her to give
pain.
I know she never spoke her love, she never breathed a
single vow,
And yet I 'm sure she loved me then, and still doats on
me now ;
EIBHLIN A RUIN. 89
For, Avlien we met, her eyes grew glad, and heavy when
I left her side,
And oft she said she 'd be most happy aa a poor man's
bride-,
I toiled to win a pleasant home, and make it ready by
the spring ;
The spring is past — what season now my girl unto our
home will bring ?
I'm sick and weary, very weary — ^watching, morning,
night, and noon ;
How long you're coming — I am dying — will you not
come soon ?
EIBHLIN A RUIN.
Air — Eibhlin a ruin.
When I am far away,
Eibhlin a ruin,
Be gayest of the gay,
Eibhlin a ruih.
Too dear your happiness,
For me to wish it less-
Love has no selfishness.
Eibhlin a ruin.
SONGS AND BALLADS.
II.
And it must be our pride,
Eihhl'in a ruin.
Our trusting hearts to hide,
Eihhlin a ruin.
They \rish oui love to blight.
We'll wait for Fortune's light —
The flowers close up at night,
Eihhl'in a ruin.
III.
And when we meet alone,
Eihhl'in a ruin.
Upon my bosom thrown,
Eihhlin a ruin ;
That hour, with light bedecked.
Shall cheer us and direct,
A beacon to the wrecked,
Eihhl'in a ruin.
IV.
Fortune, thus sought, wiU come,
Eihhl'in a ruin,
Well win a happy home,
Eihhl'in a ruin ;
And, as it slowly rose,
'Twill tranquilly repose,
A rock 'mid melting snows,
Eihhlin a ruin.
THE BANKS OF THE LEE. 41
THE BANKS OF THE LEE.
Air — A Trip to the Cottage.
Oh ! the banks of the Lee, the banks of the Lee,
And love in a cottage for Mary and me ;
There's not in the land a lovelier tide,
And I'm sure that there's no one so fair as my bride.
She's modest and meek.
There's a dx)wn on her cheek,
And her skin is as sleek
As a butterfly's wing —
Then her step would scarce show
On the fresh-fallen snow,
And her whisper is low.
But as clear as the spring.
Oh ! the banks of the Lee, the banks of the Lee,
And love in a cottage for Mary and me,
I know not how love is happy elsewhere,
I know not how any but lovers are there !
II.
Oh 1 so green is the grass, so clear is the stream.
So mild is the mist, and so rich is the beam.
That beauty should ne'er to other lands roam.
But make on the banks of the river its home.
42 SONGS AND BALLADS.
When, dripping \\dth dew,
The roses peep through,
*ris to look in at you
They are growing so fast ;
While the scent of the flowers
Must be hoarded for hours,
'Tis poured in such showers
When my Mary goes past.
Oh I the banks of the Lee, the banks of the Lee,
And love in a cottage for Mary and me —
Oh, Mary for me — oh, Mary for me !
And 'tis little I'd sigh for the banks of the Lee 1
THE GIEL OF DUNBWY.
'Tis pretty to see the girl of Dunbwy
Stepping the mountain statelily —
Though ragged her gown, and naked her feet.
No lady in Ireland to match her is meet.
II.
Poor is her diet, and hardly she lies —
Yet a monarch might kneel for a glance of her eyes ;
The child of a peasant — yet England's proud Queen
Has less rank in her heart, and less grace in her mien.
THE GIRL OF DUNBWT. 43
III.
Her brow 'neath her raven hair gleams, just as if
A breaker spread white 'neath a shadowy cliff—
And love, and devotion, and energy speak
From her beauty-proud eye, and her passion-pale cheek.
IV.
But, pale as her cheek is, there's fruit on her lip,
And her teeth flash as white as the crescent moon's tip,
And her form and her step, Uke the reed-deer's, go past —
As hghtsome, as lovely, as haughty, as fast.
I saw her but once, and I looked in her eye.
And she knew that I worshipped in passing her by ;
The saint of the wayside — she granted my prayer,
Though we spoke not a word, for her mother was there.
VI.
I never can think upon Bantry's bright hills.
But her image starts up, and my longing eye fills ;
And I whisper her softly, " again, love, we'll meet,
And I '11 lie in your bosom, and live at your feet."
44 SONGS AND BALLADS.
DUTY AND LOVE.
Air. — My lodging is on the cold ground.
Oh ! ladj, tliink not that my heart has grown cold,
K I woo not as once I could woo ;
Though sorrow has bruised it, and long years have- rolled.
It still doats on beauty and you :
And were I to yield to its inmost desire,
I would labour by night and by day,
Till I won you to flee from the home of your sire,
To live with your love far away.
II.
But it is that my country's in bondage, and I
Have sworn to shatter her chains !
By my duty and oath I must do it or lie
A corse on her desolate plains ;
Then, sure, dearest maiden, 'twere sinful to sue,
And crueller far to win,
But, should victory smile on my banner, to you
I shall fly without sorrow or sin.
ANNIE DEAR. 45
ANNIE DEAR.
Air — Maids in May.
Our mountain brooks were rushing,
Annie, dear.
The Autumn eve was flushing,
Annie, dear;
But brighter was your blushing,
"When first, your murmurs husliing,
I told my love outgushing,
Annie, dear.
II.
Ah ! but our hopes were splendid,
Annie, dear.
How sadly they have ended,
Annie, dear;
The ring betwixt us broken,
When our vows of love were spoken,
Of your poor heart was a token,
Annie, dear.
d3
46 SONGS AND BALLADS.
HI.
The primrose flowers were shining,
Annie, dear,
When, on my breast reclining,
Annie, dear!
Began our Mi-na-meala,
And many a month did follow
Of joy — hut life is hollow,
Annie, dear.
IV.
For once, when home returning,
Annie, dear,
I found our cottage burning,
Annie, dear;
Around it were the yeomen,
Of every ill an omen,
The country's bitter foemen,
Annie, dear.
V.
But why arose a morrow,
Annie, dear,
Upon that night of sorrow,
Annie, dear?
Far better, by thee lying,
Their bayonets defying,
Than live an exile sighing,
Annie, dear.
BLIND MARY. 47
BLIND MARY.
Air Blind Mary.
I.
There flows from her spirit such love and delight,
That the face of BUnd Mary is radiant with light —
As the gleam from a homestead through darkness will
show,
Or the moon glimmer soft through the fast falling snow.
II.
Yet there's a keen sorrow comes o'er her at times,
As an Indian might feel in our northerly cUmes ;
And she talks of the sunset, like parting of friends,
And the starlight, as love, that nor changes nor ends.
Ah ! grieve not, sweet maiden, for star or for sun,
For the mountains that tower, or the rivers that run —
For beauty and grandeur, and glory, and light,
Are seen by the spirit, and not by the sight.
IV.
In vain for the thoughtless are sunburst and shade,
In vain for the heartless flowers blossom and fade ;
While the darkness that seems your sweet being to
bound
Is one of the guardians, an Eden around !
48 SONGS AND BALLADS.
THE BRIDE OF MALLOW.
I.
'TwAs dying they thought her,
And kindly they brought her
To the banks of Blackwater,
Wliere her forefathers lie ;
'Twas the place of her childhood,
And they hoped that its wild wood.
And air soft and mild would
Soothe her spirit to die.
II.
But she met on its border
A lad who adored her —
No rich man, nor lord, or
A coward, or slave ;
But one who had worn
A green coat, and borne
A pike from Slieve Mourne,
With the patriots brave.
III.
Oh ! the banks of the stream are
Than emeralds greener :
And how should they wean her
From loving the earth ?
Wliile the song-birds so sweet.
And the waves at their feet,
And each young pair they meet,
Are all flushing with mirth.
TllE BRIUE or MALLOW. 49
IV.
And she listed his talk,
And he shared in her walk —
And how could she baulk
One so gallant and true ?
But why tell the rest ?
Her love she confest,
And sunk on his breast,
Like the eventide dew.
Ah ! now her cheek glows
With the tint of the rose.
And her healthful blood flows,
Just as fresh as the stream
And her eye flashes bright,
And her footstep is light,
And sickness and blight
Fled away like a dream.
VI.
And soon by his side
She kneels a sweet bride.
In maidenly pride
And maidenly fears ;
And their children were fair.
And their home knew no care,
Save that all homesteads were
Not as happy as theirs.
50 SONGS AND BALLADS.
TPIE WELCOME.
Air — An buachaiUn hiddhe.
I.
Come in the evening, or come in the morning,
Come when you're looked for, or come without warning,
Kisses and welcome you'll find here before you,
And the oftener you come here the more I'll adore you.
Light is my heart since the day we were plighted,
Red is my cheek that they told me was blighted ;
The green of the trees looks far greener than ever.
And the linnets are singing, ' ' true lovers ! dou't sever."
II.
I'll pull you sweet flowers, to wear if you choose them ;
Or, after you've kissed them, they'll lie on my bosom.
I'll fetch from the mountahi its breeze to inspire you ;
I'll fetch from my fancy a talc that won't tire you.
Oh! your step's like the rain to the summer- vexed
farmer.
Or sabre and shield to a knight without armour ;
I'll sing you sweet songs till the stars rise above me,
Then, wandering, I'll wish you, in silence, to love mc.
THE WELCOME. 51
III.
We'll look through the trees at the cliflf, and the eyrie,
We'll tread round the rath on the track of the fairy,
We'll look on the stars, and we'll list to the river,
Till you ask of your darling what gift you can give her.
Oh ! she'll whisper you, " Love as unchangeably
beaming,
And trust, when in secret, most tunefully streaming,
Till the starlight of heaven above us shall quiver,
As our souls flow in one down eternity's river."
IV.
So come in the evening, or come in the morning,
Come when you're looked for, or come without warning,
Kisses and welcome you'll find here before you,
And the oftener you come here the more I'll adore you 1
Light is my heart since the day we were plighted,
Red is my cheek that they told me was blighted ;
The green of the trees looks far greener than ever,
And the linnets are singing, ' ' true lovers ! don't sever !"
52 SONGS AND BALLADS.
THE MI-NA-MEALA.
Like the rising of the sun,
Herald of briglit hours to follow,
Lo ! the marriage rites are done,
And begun the Ml-na-meala.
II.
Heart to heart, and hand to hand,
Vowed 'fore God to love and cherish,
Each by each in grief to stand,
Never more apart to flourish.
in.
Now their lips, low whisp'ring, speak
Thoughts their eyes have long been saying.
Softly bright, and richly meek.
As seraphs first their wings essaying.
Deeply, wildly, warmly, love —
*Tis a heaven-sent enjoyment,
Lifting up our thoughts above
Selfish aims aud cold employment.
THE MI-NA-MEALA. 53
V.
Yet, remember, passion wanes,
Romance is parent to dejection ;
Nought our happiness sustains
But thoughtful care and firm aflfection.
VI.
When the Mi-na-mealas flown,
Sterner duties surely need you ;
Do their bidding,— 'tis love's own, —
Faithful love will say God speed you.
VIL
Guard her comfort as 'tis worth.
Pray to God to look down on her ;
And swift as cannon-shot go forth
To strive for freedom, truth, and honour.
VllL
Oft recall — and never swerve —
Your children's love and her's will follow ;
Guard your home, and there preserve
For you an endless Mi-na-meala*
• Honeymoon. Vide GLoasAsr.
54 SONGS AND BALLADS.
MAIRE BHAN A STOIR.
Air — Original.
In a valley, far away,
With my Maire hhdn a stSir,*
Short would be the summer-day,
Ever lovmg more and more ;
Winter-days would all grow long,
With the light her heart would pour,
With her kisses and her song,
And her loving maith go le6r.\
Fond is Mdire bhan a stoir.
Fair is Mdire hhdn a stoir.
Sweet as ripple on the shore,
Sings my Mdire hhdn a stoir.
* WTiich means, "fair Mary my treasure." If we are to write gib-
berish to enable some of our readers to pronounce this, we must do so
thus, Maur-ya vantn asthore, and pretty looking stuff it is. Eeally
it is time for the inhabitants of Ireland to learn Irish. — Authoe's Note.
t Much plenty, or in abundance.— Autuok's Note.
MAIRE BHAN A STOIB. 55
II.
Oh ! her sire is very proud.
And her mother cold as stone ;
But her brother bravely vowed
She should be my bride alone ;
For he knew I loved her well,
And he knew she loved me too,
So he sought their pride to quell.
But 'twas all in vain to sue.
True is Mdire bhdn a stSir,
Tried is Mdire bhdn a stoir.
Had I wings I'd never soar.
From my Mdire bhdn a stoir.
III.
There are lands where manly toil
Surely reaps the crop it sows,
Glorious woods and teeming soil.
Where the broad Missouri flows ;
Through the trees the smoke shall rise,
From our hearth with maith go leor^
There shall shine the happy eyes
Of my Mdire bhdn a stoir.
Mild is Mdire bhdn a stoir.
Mine is Mdire bhdn a stoir,
Saints will watch about the door
Of my Mdire bhdn a stoir.
SONGS AND BALLADS.
OH! THE MARRIAGE.
Air The Swaggering Jig.
Oh ! the marriage, the marriage,
With love and mo hhuacliaill for me.
The ladies that ride in a carriage
Might envy my marriage to me ;
For Eoghan* is straight as a tower,
And tender and loving and true,
He told me more love in an hour
Than the Squires of the county could do.
Then, Oh ! the marriage, &c.
II.
His hair is a shower of soft gold,
His eye is as clear as the day.
His conscience and vote were unsold
When others were carried away ;
His word is as good as an oath,
And freely 'twas given to me ;
Oh ! sure 'twill be happy for both
The day of our marriage to see.
Then, Oh ! the marriage, &c.
* Vulgo Owen ; but that is, properly, a namo among the Cymry
(Welsh). — Author's Note.
OH I THE MARRIAGE. 57
III.
His kinsmen are honest and kind,
The neighbours tliink much of his skill,
And Eoghan's the lad to my mind,
Though he owns neither castle nor mill.
But he has a tilloch of land,
A horse, and a stocking of coin,
A foot for the dance, and a hand
In the cause of his country to join.
Then, Oh ! the marriage, &c,
We meet in the market and fair —
We meet in the morning and night —
He sits on the half of my chair,
And my people are wild with delight.
Yet I long through the winter to skim,
Though Eoghan longs more I can see,
When I will be married to him.
And he will be married to me.
Then, Oh ! the marriage, the marriage,
With love and mo hhuachaill for me,
The ladies that ride in a carriage.
Might envy my marriage to me.
68 SONGS AND BALLADS.
A PLEA FOR LOVE,
The summer brook flows in the bed,
The -vrinter torrent tore asunder ;
The sky-lark's gentle wings are spread.
Where -walk the lightning and the thunder:
And thus you'll find the sternest soul
The gayest tenderness concealing,
And minds, that seem to mock control.
Are ordered by some fairy feeling.
n.
Then, maiden 1 start not from the hand
That's hardened by the swaying sabre —
The pulse beneath may be as bland
As evening after day of labour ;
And, maiden ! start not from the brow
That thought has knit, and passion darkened —
Li twilight hours, 'neath forest bough.
The tenderest tales are often hearkened.
THE bishop's daughter. 59
THE BISHOP'S DAUGHTER.
AiB The Maid of Killah.
KiLLALA's halls are proud and fair ;
Tyrawley's hills are cold and bare ;
Yet, in the palace, you were sad,
While, here, your heart is safe and glad.
II.
No satin couch, no maiden train.
Are here to soothe each passing pain ;
Yet lay your head my breast upon, —
'Twill turn to down for you, sweet one !
Your father's halls are rich and fair.
And plain the home you've come to share ;
But happy love's a fairy king,
And sheds a grace on every thing.
60 SONGS AND BALLADS.
THE BOATMAN OF KINSALE.
Air An Cota Caol.
His kiss is sweet, his word is kind.
His love is rich to me ;
I could not in a palace find
A truer heart than he.
The eagle shelters not Ms nest
From hurricane and hail,
More bravely than he guards my breast —
The Boatman of Kin sale.
II.
The -wind that round the Fastnet sweeps
Is not a whit more pure —
The goat that down Cnoc Sheehy leaps
Has not a foot more sure.
No firmer hand nor freer eye
E'er faced an Autumn gale —
De Courcy's heart is not so high —
The Boatman of Kinsale.
TUE BOATMAN OF KINSALE. 61
III.
The brawling squires may heed him not,
Tlie dainty stranger sneer —
But who will dare to hurt our cot.
When Myles O'Hea is here.
The scarlet soldiers pass along —
They'd like, but fear to rail —
His blood is hot, his blow is strong —
The Boatman of Kinsale.
IV.
His hooker's in the Scilly van,
When seines are in the fbam ;
But money never made the man.
Nor wealth a happy home.
So, blest with love and liberty,
WhUe he can trim a sail,
He'll trust in God, and cling to me —
The Boatman of Kinsale.
62 SONGS AND BALLADS.
DARLING NELL.
Why should not I take her unto my heart ?
She has not a morsel of guile or art ;
Why should not I make her ray happy wife,
And love her and cherish her all my life ?
I've met with a few of as shining eyes,
I've met with a hundred of wilder sighs,
I think I met some whom I loved as well —
But none who loved me like my Darling Nell.
II.
She's ready to cry when I seem unkind,
But she smothers her grief within her mind j
And when my spirit is soft and fond,
She sparkles the brightest of stars beyond.
Oh ! 'twould teach the thrushes to hear her sing.
And her sorrow the heart of a rock would wring ;
There never was saint but would leave his cell,
If he thought he could marry my Darling Nell I
LOTE CHAUNT.
LOVE CHAUNT.
L
I THINK I've looked on eyes that shone
With equal splendour,
And some, but they are dimmed and gone,
As wildly tender.
I never looked on eyes that shed
Such home-light mingled with such beauty,
That 'mid all lights and shadows said,
" I love and trust and will be true to ye."
II.
I've seen some lips almost as red,
A form as stately ;
And some such beauty turned my head
Not very lately.
But not till now I've seen a girl
With form so proud, lips so delicious,
With hair like night, and teeth of pearl,—
Who was not haughty and capricious.
III.
Oh, fairer than the dawn of day
On Erne's islands !
Oh, purer than the thorn spray
In Bantry's highlands !
In sleep such visions crossed my view,
And when I woke the phantom faded ;
But now I find the fancy true.
And fairer than the vision made it.
64 SONGS AND BALLADS.
A CHRISTMAS SCENE;
OR, LOVE IN THE COUNTRY.
The hill blast comes howling through leaf-rifted trees,
That late were as harp-strings to each gentle breeze ;
The strangers and cousins and every one flown,
■\Yhile we sit happy-hearted — together — alone.
II.
Some are off to the mountain, and some to the fair,
The snow is on their cheek, on mine your black hair ;
Papa with his farming is busy to-day,
And mamma's too good-natured to ramble this way.
in.
The girls are gone — are they not ? — into town,
To fetch bows and bonnets, perchance a heau, down ;
Ah ! tell them, dear Kate, 'tis not fair to coquette —
Though you, you bold lassie, are fond of it yet !
IV.
You're not — do you say? — just remember last night,
You gave Harry a rose, and you dubbed Mm your knight ,
Poor lad 1 if he loved you — but no, darling ! no.
You're too thoughtful and good to fret any one so.
CHRISTMAS SCENE. 65
The painters are raving of light and of shade,
And Harry, the poet, of lake, hill, and glade j
While the light of your eye, and your soft wavy form
Suit a proser like me, by the hearth bright and vrarm.
VI.
The snow on those hills is uncommonly grand,
But, you know, Kate, it's not half so white as your hand ;
And say what you will of the grey Christmas sky,
Still I slightly prefer my dark girl's grey eye.
VII.
Be quiet, and sing me " The Bonny Cuckoo,"
For it bids us the summer and winter love through, —
And then I'll read out an old ballad that shews
How Tyranny perished, and Liberty rose.
VIII.
My Kate ! I'm so happy, your voice whispers soft.
And your cheek flushes wilder from kissing so oft ;
For town or for country, for mountains or farms.
What care I? — My darling's entwined in my arms.
eO
66 SONGS AND BALLADS.
THE INVOCATION
Air — Fanny Power.
Bright fairies by Glengariff's bay,
Soft -woods that o'er Ivillaruey sway,
Bold echoes born in Ceim-an-eich,
Your kinsman's greeting hear !
He asks you, by old friendship's name,
By all the rights that minstrels claim,
For Erin's joy and Desmond's fame.
Be kind to Fanny dear !
Her eyes are darker than Dunloe,
Her soul is whiter than the snow,
Her tresses like arbutus flow,
Her step like frighted deer :
Then, still thy waves, capricious lake !
And ceaseless, soft winds, round her wake,
Yet never bring a cloud to break
The smile of Fanin' dear !
THE INVOCATION, 67
III.
Oh ! let her see the trance-bound men,
And kiss the red deer in his den,
And spy from out a hazel glen
O'Donoghue appear ; —
Or, should she roam by wild Dunbwy,
Oh ! send the maiden to her knee,
I sung whilome,* — but then, ah ! me,
I knew not Fanny dear !
IV.
Old Mangerton ! thine eagles plume —
Dear Innisfallen ! brighter bloom —
And Mucruss ! whisper thro' the gloom
Quaint legends to her ear ;
Till strong as ash-tree in its pride,
And gay as sunbeam on the tide,
We welcome back to Liflfey's side.
Our brightest, Fanny dear.
* Vide ante, pagfi 42.
SONGS AND BALLADS.
LOVE AND WAR.
How soft is the moon on Glengariff 1
The rocks seem to melt -vrith the light ;
Oh ! would I were there with dear Fannj,
To tell her that love is as bright ;
And nobly the sun of July
O'er the waters of Adragoole sliines —
Oh ! would til at I saw the green banner
Blaze there over conquering lines.
n.
Oh ! love is more fair than the moonUght,
And glory more grand than the sun ;
And there is no rest for a brave heart,
Till its bride and its laurels are won ;
But next to the burst of our banner,
And the smile of dear Fanny, I crave
The moon on the rocks of Glengariff—
The sun upon Adragoole's wave.
MY LAND.
MY LAND.
I.
She is a rich and rare land ;
Oil ! she's a fresh and fair land ;
She is a dear and rare land —
This native land of mine.
II.
No men than her's are braver —
Her women's hearts ne'er waver ;
I'd freely die to save her,
And think my lot divine.
III.
She's not a dull or cold land ;
No ! she's a warm and hold land ;
Oh ! she's a true and old land —
This native land of mine.
IV.
Could beauty ever guard her,
And virtue still reward her,
No foe would cross her border —
No friend within it pine !
V.
Oh, she's a fresh and fair land ;
Oh, she's a true and rare land !
Yes, she's a rare and fair land —
This native land of mine.
70 SONGS AND BALLADS.
THE RIGHT ROAD.
I.
Let the fteble-hearted pine.
Let the sickly spirit whine,
But work and win be thine,
While you've life.
God smiles upon tlie bold —
So, when your flag's unrolled.
Bear it bravely till you're cold
Li the strife.
II.
If to rank or fame you soar,
Out your spirit frankly pour —
Lien will serve you and adore,
Like a king.
Woo your girl with honest pride,
Till you've won her for your bride —
Then to her, through time and tide.
Ever cling.
III.
Never under wrongs despair ;
Labour long, and everywhere,
Link your countrymen, prepare,
And strike home.
Thus have great men ever wrought,
Thus must greatness still be sought,
Thus laboured, loved, and fought
Greece and Rome.
PART III.
HISTORICAL
BALLADS AND SONGS.
£ix9t %(xits.
" This coraitry of oui-s is no sand-bank, thrown up by some recent
caprice of earth. It is an ancient land, honoured In the archives of
civilisation, traceable into antiquity by its piety, its valour, and its suf-
ferings. Every gi-eat European race has sent its stream to the river of
Irish mind. Long wars, vast organisations, subtle codes, beacon
crimes, leading virtues, and self-mightj' men were here. If wc live
Influenced by wind, and sun, and tree, and not by the passions and
deeds of the Past, we are a thriftles.s and hopeless people."
Davis's Essays.
BALLADS AND SONGS
ILLUSTRATIVE OF
IRISH HISTORY
A NATION ONCE AGAIN. *(«)
I.
When boyhood's fire was in my blood,
I read of ancient freemen.
For Greece and Rome who bravely stood,
Three Hundred men and Three MEN.(i)
And then I prayed I yet might see
Our fetters rent in twain,
And Ireland, long a province, be
A Nation once again.
* This little poem, though not strictly belonging to the historical
class, is placed first ; as strildng more distinctly than any other in the
collection, the key-note of the author's theme — Ed.
(a) Set to original music in the " Spirit of the Nation," 4to. p. 272.
Ed.
(6) The Three Hundred Greeks who died at Thermopylae, and tha
Three Romans who Kept the Sublician Bridge. — Author's Note.
F
HISTORICAL BALLADS.
II.
And, from that time, through \rildest woe.
That hope has shone, a far light ;
Nor could love's brightest summer glow
Outshine that solemn starlight :
It seemed to watch above my head
In forum, field, and fane ;
Its angel voice sang round my bed,
"A Nation once again."
III.
It whispered, too, that "freedom's ark
And service high and holy,
Would be profaned by feelings dark
And passions vain or lowly :
For freedom comes from God's right hand.
And needs a godly train ;
And righteous men must make our land
A Nation once again."
IV.
So, as I grew from boy to man,
I bent me to that bidding —
My spirit of each selfish plan
And cruel passion ridding ;
For, thus I hoped some day to aid —
Oh ! can such hope be vain ? —
When my dear country shall be made
A Nation once again.
LAMENT FOR THE MILESIANS.
LAMENT FOR THE MILESIANS.
Air — An bruach na carraige hdine.(<^)
Oh ! proud were the chieftains of greeu Inis-Fail ;
As truagh. gan oidhir 'n-a hh-farradh /(&)
The stars of our sky, and the salt of our soil ;
As truagh gan oidhir 'n-a hh-farradh !
Their hearts were as soft as a child in the lap,
Yet they were ** the men in the gap" —
And now that the cold clay their limbs doth enwrap ; —
As truagh gan oidhir 'n-a bh-farradh !
II.
'Gainst England long battling, at length they went down ;
As truagh gan oidhir 'n-a hh-farradh I
But they left their deep tracks on the road of renown ;
As truagh gan oidhir 'n-a hh-farradh I
We are heirs of their fame, if we're not of their race, —
And deadly and deep our disgrace.
If we live o'er their sepulchres, abject and base ; —
As truagh gan oidhir 'n-a hh-farradh!
(a) Set to this beautiful Tipperaiy aii' in the " Spirit of the Nation,"
4to. p. 236. For the meaning, &c., of this, and all the other Irish
phrases which occur throughout the volume, vide Glossakt at the
end. — Ed.
(6) " That is pitj^ without heir in their company," i. e. "WTiat a pity-
that there is no heir of their company. See the poem of GioUa losa
Mor Mac Firhislgh ui The Genealogies, Tribes, and Customs of the Ui
Fiachrach, or O'Dubhda's Country, printed for the Irish Arch . Soc. p.
230, line 2, and note d. Also CReilli/s Diet. voc&—/arradh.~Av'TBOJi's
NOTK.
76
HISTORICAL BALLADS.
III.
Oh ! sweet were the minstrels of kind Inis-Fail !
As truagh gan oidhir 'n-a bh-farradh !
"\Yliose music, nor ages nor sorrow can spoil ;
As truagh gan oidhir 'n-a bh-farradh !
But their sad stifled tones are like streams flowing hid.
Their caoine((^) and their pioprachtC^) were chid,
And their language, " that melts into music," forbid;
As truagh gan oidhir 'n-a bh-farradh I
IV.
How fair were the maidens of fair Liis-Fail!
As truagh gan oidhir 'n-a bh-farradh f
As fresh and as free as the sea-breeze from soil
As truagh gan oidhir 'n-a bh-farradh I
Oh ! are not our maidens as fair and as pure ?
Can our music no longer allure ?
And can we but sob, as such wrongs we endure ?
As truagh gan oidhir 'n-a bh-farradh !
V.
Their famous, theii- holy, their dear Inis-Fail !
Js truagh gan oidhir 'n-a bh-farradh I
Shall it still be a prey for the stranger to spoil ?
As truagh gan oidhir 'n-a bh-farradh !
Sure, brave men would labour by night and by day
To banish that stranger away ;
Or, dying for Ireland, the future would say
As truagh gan oidhir 'n-a bh-farradh !
(fl) Anglicc, keen. (6) Angl pibrocli.
THE FATE OF KING DATHI. 77
VI.
Oh ! shame — for unchanged is the face of our isle ;
As truagh gan oidhir 'n-a hh-farradh !
That taught them to battle, to sing, and to smile ;
As truagh gan oidhir 'n-a hh-farradh !
We are heirs of their rivers, their sea, and their land, —
Our sky and our mountains as grand —
We are heirs — oh ! we're not — of their heart and their hand;
As truagh gan oidhir 'n-a bh-farradh !
THE PATE OF KING DATHI.(«)
(a.d. 428.)(^)
Darkly their glibs o'erhang,
Sharp is their wolf-dog's fang,
Bronze spear and falchion clang —
Brave men might shun them !
Heavy the spoil they bear —
Jewels and gold are there —
Hostage and maiden fair —
How have they won them ?
(a) This and the remaining poems in Part I. have been arranged as
nearly as possible in chronological sequence. —Ed.
(6) Vide Appendix.
78 HISTORICAL BALLADS.
From the soft sons of Gaul,
Roman, and Frank, and thrall.
Borough, and hut, and hall, —
These have been torn.
Over Britannia wide,
Over fair Gaul they hied.
Often in battle tried, —
Enemies mourn !
III.
Fiercely their harpers sing, —
Led by their gallant king,
They wiU to Eire bring
Beauty and treasure.
Britain shall bend the knee —
Rich shall their households be —
When their long ships the sea
Homeward shall measure.
IV.
Barrow and Rath shall rise,
Towers, too, of wondrous size,
Tdiltin they'll solemnize,
Feis-Teamhrach assemble.
Samhain and Beal shall smile
On the rich holy isle —
Nay ! in a little while
CEtius shall tremble !(«)
(a) The consul CEtius, the shield of Italy, and terror of " the barba-
rian," was a cotempovary of King Dathi. Feis-Teamhrach, the Parliament
THE FATE OF KING DATHI. 79
V.
Up on the glacier's snow,
Down on the vales below,
Monarch and clansmen go —
Bright is the morning.
Never their march they slack,
Jura is at their back.
When falls the evening black.
Hideous, and warning.
VI.
Eagles scream loud on high ;
Far off the chamois fly ;
Hoarse comes the torrent's cry,
On the rocks wliitening.
Strong are the storm's wings ;
Down the tall pine it flings ;
Hail-stone and sleet it brings —
Thunder and lightning.
VII.
Little these veterans mind
Thundering, hail, or wind ;
Closer their ranks they bind —
Matching the storm.
While, a spear-cast or more.
On, the front ranks before,
Dathi the sunburst bore —
Haughty his form.
of Tai-a. Tailtin, games held at Tailte, cotinty Meath. Samhain and
Beal, the moon and sun which Ireland worsliipped — Axtthob's Notk.
80 HISTORICAL BALLADS.
VIIL
Forth from the thunder-cloud
Leaps out a foe as proud —
Sudden the monarch bowed —
On rush the vanguard ;
Wildly the king they raise —
Struck by the lightning's blaze-
Ghastly his dying gaze,
Clutching his standard !
Mild is the morning beam,
Gently the rivers stream,
Happy the valleys seem ;
But the lone islanders —
Mark how they guard their king !
Hark, to the wail they sing !
Dark is their counselling —
Helvetia's highlanders
X.
Gather, like ravens, near —
Shall Dathi's soldiers fear ?
Soon their home-path they clear —
Rapid and daring ;
On through the pass and plain.
Until the shore they gain.
And, with their spoil, again,
Landed in Eirinn.
THE FATE OF KING DATHI. 81
Little does Eire(«) care
For gold or maiden fail —
•' Where is King Dathi ? — where,
Where is my bravest ?"
On the rich deck he lies,
O'er him his sunburst flies —
Solemn the obsequies,
Eire ! thou gavest.
XII.
See ye that countless train
Crossing Ros-Comain's(&) plain.
Crying, like hurricane,
Uih Uu aif —
Broad is his cam's base —
Nigh the "King's burial-place, "(<0
Last of the Pagan race,
Lietli King Dathi !
(a) The tiiic ancient and moJeim name of this island. Vid^ Glos-
SAKT in voc. — Ed.
(7») Angl. Roscommon.
(c) Hibernke, Eoilig na Riogli, vulgo, Religuaree — " A famous burial
place ne^ Cniachan, in Connacht, where the kings were usually in-
terred, before the establishment of the Christian religioa in Ireland."—
O'Briens Ir. Did.
f3
HISTORICAL BALLADS.
AEGAN m6r.(«)
Air — Argan M6r.
The Danes rush around, around ;
To the edge of the fosse they bound ;
Hark ! hark, to their trumpets' sound,
Bidding them to the war
Hark ! hark to their cruel cry,
As they swear our hearts' cores to dry,
And their Earen red to dye ;
Gluttmg their demon, Tlior.
II.
Leaping the Rath upon,
Here's the fiery Ceallachan —
He makes the Lochlonnach(^) wan,
Lifting his brazen spear !
Ivor, the Dane, is struck down,
For the spear broke right through his crown ;
Yet worse did the battle fro^m
Anlaf is on our rere J
(a) Vid€ Appendix. (?.) Kortlunfu,— ridtf Glossaiy.
ARGAN MUR. Si
See ! see I the Rath's gates are broke 1
And in — in, like a cloud of smoke,
Burst on the dark Danish folk,
Charging us everywhere —
Oh, never was closer fight
Than in Argan M6r that night —
How little do men want light,
Fighting within their lair
IV.
Then girding about our king,
On the thick of the foes we spring-,
Down — down we trample and fling,
Gallantly though they strive :
And never our falchions stood,
Till we were all wet with their blood.
And none of the pirate brood
Went from the Rath alive I
^7*
84 HISTORICAL BALLADS.
THE VICTOR'S BURIAL.
I.
Wrap him in liis banner, the best shroud of the
brave —
Wrap him in his onchu,{a) and take him to his grave —
Lay him not down lowly, like bulwark overthrown,
But, gallantly upstanding, as if risen from his throne,
With his craiseachip) in his hand, and his sword on his
thigh.
With his war-belt on his waist, and his cathbharri<^) on
high-
Put his fleasgW upon his neck — his green flag round
him fold,
Like ivy round a castle wall — not conquered, but grown
old—
'Mhuire as truagh ! A mhuire as truagh I A mhuire
as truagh / orkon !\>i)
Weep for liim ! Oh ! weep for him, but remember, in
your moan.
That he died, in his pride, — with his foes about him
strown.
II.
Oh ! shrine him in Beinn-Edair (/) with his face towards
the foe.
As an emblem that not death our defiance can lay
low —
(a) Flag. (6) Spear. (c) Holmet. (d) CoUar.
(e) Anfflke, Wirrasthrue, ochond (/) Howth.
THE TRUE IRISH KING. 85
Let him look across the waves from the promontory's
breast,
To menace back The East, and to sentinel The "West ;
Sooner shall these channel waves the iron coast cut
through,
Than the spirit he has left, yield, Easterlings I to you —
Let Ixis coffin be the hill, let the eagles of the sea
Chorus -with the surges round, the tuirenmh(a) of the
free !
^Mhuire as truagh ! A mhuire as truagh ! A mhidre
as truagh ! ocTion !
Weep for him ! Oh ! weep for him, but remember, in
your moan,
That he died, in his pride, — with his foes about him
strown !
THE TRUE IRISH KING.(6^
The C«sar of Rome has a wider demesne,
Andii\\QArd Righ of France has more clans in his train
The sceptre of Spam is more heavy with gems.
And our crowns cannot vie with the Greek diadems ;
But kinglier far before heaven and man
Are the Emerald fields, and the fiery-eyed clan,
The sceptre, and state, and the poets who sing.
And the swords that encircle A True Irish King !
(a) A masculine lament. (6) Vide Appendix.
86 HISTORICAL BALLADS.
IL
For, he must have come from a conquering race
The heir of their valour, their glory, their grace :
His frame must be stately, his step must be fleet,
His hand must be trained to each warrior feat.
His face, as the harvest moon, steadfast and clear,
A head to enlighten, a spirit to cheer ;
While the foremost to rush where the battle-brands ring,
And the last to retreat is A True Irish King !
m.
Yet, not for his courage, his strength, or his. name,
Can he from the clansmen their fealty claim.
The poorest, and highest, choose freely to-day
The chief, that to-night, they'll as truly obey ;
For loyalty springs from a people's consent.
And the knee that is forced had been better unbent —
The Sacsanach serfs no such homage can bring
As the Irishmen's choice of A True Irish King !
IV.
Come, look on the pomp when they "make an O'Neill ;
The muster of dynasts — O'h- Again, O'Shiadhail,
O'Cathain, 0'h-Anluain,(«) O'Blireislein, and all,
From gentle Aird Uladh(^) to rude Dun na n-gall :(c)
(a) Angl O'Hagan, OShiel OCalian, or Kaiie, Ollanlon.
(6) Angl. The Ards. U) Angl. Donegal
THE TRUE IRISH KING. 87
**St. Patrick's comharba,"(cO with bishops thirteen,
And oliamhsi^) Sin(lbreitheamhs,(c) and minstrels, are seen,
Eound Tulach-OgC'^) Rath, like the bees in the spring,
All swarming to honour A True Irish King !
TJnsandalled he stands on the foot-dinted rock ;
Like a pillar-stone fixed against every shock.
Round, round is the Rath on a far-seeing hill ;
Like his blemishless honour, and vigilant will.
The grey-beards are telling how chiefs by the score
Have been crowned on '* The Rath of the Elings" here-
tofore.
While, crowded, yet ordered, within its green ring.
Are the dynasts and priests round The True Irish King I
VI.
The chronicler read him the laws of the clan,
And pledged him to bide by their blessing and ban ;
His skian and his sword are unbuckled to show
That they only were meant for a foreigner foe ;
A white wiUow wand has been put in his hand —
A type of pure, upright, and gentle command —
While hierarchs are blessing, the slipper they fling,
And O'Cathain proclaims him A True Irish King !
(a) Successor— com/w(r6a Phadruig— the Archbishop of (Ard-macha)
Armagh
(6) Doctors or learned men. (c) Judges. Angl Brehons.
(d) In the coimty {Tir-Eoghain) Tyrone, between Cookstown and
Stewartstown.
bo HISTORICAL BALLADS.
VII.
Thrice looked he to Heaven with thanks and with
prayer —
Thrice looked to his borders with sentinel stare —
To the waves of Loch n-Eathach,(«) the heights of Srath-
bhan;(6)
And thrice on his allies, and thrice on his clan —
One clash on their bucklers ! — one more ! — they are still —
What means the deep pause on the crest of the hill ?
Why gaze they above him ? — a war-eagle's wing I
" 'Tis an omen ! — Hm-rah ! for The True Irish King !"
VIIL
God aid him ! — God save him ! — and smile on his reigii —
The terror of England — the ally of Spain.
May his sword be triumphant o'er Sacsanach arts !
Be his throne ever girt by strong hands, and true hearts !
May the course of his conquest run on till he see
The flag of Plantagenet sink in the sea !
May minstrels for ever his victories sing,
And saints make the bed of The True Irish King !
(o) Angl Lciigh Nca^li. (6) Angl. fctrabanc
TUB GERALDINES,
THE GERALDINES,
The Geraldines ! the Geraldines ! — 'tis full a thousand
years
Since, 'mid the Tuscan vineyards, bright flashed their
battle-spears ;
"When Capet seized the crown of France, their iron
shields were known,
And their sabre-dint struck terror on the banks of the
Garonne :
Across the downs of Hastings they spurred hard by
William's side,
And the grey sands of Palestine with Moslem blood they
dyed ;—
But never then, nor thence, till now, have falsehood or
disgrace
Been seen to soil Fitzgerald's plume, or mantle in his
face.
90 HISTORICAL BALLADS.
II.
The Geraldines ! the Geraldines !— 'tis true, in Strong-
bow's van,
By lawless force, as conquerors, their Irish reign be-
gan;
And, oh 1 through many a dark campaign they proved
their prowess stern,
In Leinster's plains, and Munster's vales, on king, and
chief, and kerne :
But noble was the cheer within the halls so rudely
won.
And generous was the steel-gloved hand that had such
slaughter done ;
How gay their laugh, how proud their mien, you'd ask
no herald's sign —
Among a thousand you had kno:\Ti the princely Goral-
dine.
III.
These Geraldines ! these Geraldines !— not long our air
they breathed ;
Not long they fed on venison, in Irisli water seethed :
Not often had their children been by Irish mothers
nursed,
"When from their full and genial hearts an Irish feeling
burst 1
THE GERALDINES. 91
The English mouarchs strove in vain, by law, and force,
and bribe,
To win from Irish thoughts and ways this " more than
Irish" tribe ;
For still they clung to fosterage, to breitkeamh, cloak,
and bard :
What king dare say to Geraldine, ' ' your Irish wife
discard" ?
IV.
Ye Geraldines ! ye Geraldines ! — how royally ye reigned
O'er Desmond broad, and rich Kildare, and English
arts disdained :
Your sword made knights, your banner waved, free was
your bugle call
By Gleann's(«) green slopes, and Daingean'sC^) tide, from
Bearbha's(c) banks to Eochaill.C^)
What gorgeous shrines, what breitheamh(«) lore, what
minstrel feasts there were
In and around Magh Nuadhaid'sC/) keep, and palace-
laUed Adare !
But not for rite or feast ye stayed, when friend or kin
were pressed ;
And foemen fled, when " Crom Abu\9) bespoke your
lance in rest.
(a) Angl. Glyn. (6) Angl. Dingle. (c) Angl. Barrow,
(d) Angl. Youghal. (e) Angl. Brehon. (/) Angl. JIaynooth.
Ig) Formerly the war- cry of the Geraldines; and now their motto.
Tide Glossary in voc.
92
HISTORICAL BALLADS.
Ye Geraldines ! ye Geraldines ! — since Silken Thomas
flung
King Henry's sword on council board, the English
thanes among,
Ye never ceased to battle brave against the English
sway,
Though axe and brand and treachery your proudest cut
away.
Of Desmond's blood, through woman's veins passed on
th' exhausted tide ;
His title lives — a Sacsanach churl usurps the lion's hide :
And, though Kildare tower haughtily, there's ruin at
the root,
Else -why, since Edward fell to earth, had such a tree no
fruit ?
Vi.
True Geraldines ! brave Geraldines ! — as torrents mould
the earth,
You channelled deep old Ireland's heart by constancy
and worth :
When Ginckle 'leaguered Limerick, the Irish soldiers
gazed
To see if in the setting sun dead Desmond's banner
blazed !
THE GERALDINES. ifo
And still it is tlie peasants' liope upon the Ciiirreach's(«)
mere,
"They live, who'll see ten thousand men with good
Lord Edward here" —
So let them dream till brighter days, when, not by Ed-
ward's shade,
But by some leader true as he, their lines shall be
. arrayed !
VII.
These Geraldines ! these Geraldines ! — rain wears away
the rock,
And time may wear away the tribe that stood the
battle's shock,
But, ever, sure, while one is left of all that honoured
race,
In front of Ireland's chivalry is that Fitzgerald's place :
And, though the last were dead and gone, how many a
field and town,
From Thomas Court to Abbeyfeile, would cherish their
renown,
And men would say of valour's rise, or ancient power's
decline,
*' Twill never soar, it never shone, as did the Geral-
dine."
(a) Angl Ciirragh.
94 HISTORICAL BALLADS.
VIII.
Tlie Geraldines ! the Geraldines ! — and are there any
fears
Within the sons of conquerors for full a thousand years ?
Can treason spring from out a soil bedewed with martyr's
blood ?
Or has that grown a purling brook, which long rushed
down a flood ? —
By Desmond swept with sword and fire, — by clan and
keep laid low, —
By Silken Thomas and his kin, — by sainted Edward I
No!
The forms of centuries rise up, and in the Irish line
Command their son to take the post that fits
THE GeRALDINE !(«)
(a) The concluding stanza, now first publialied, was found among
the author's papers — Ed.
o'brien of ara. 96
O'BRIEN OF ARA.(«)
Air — The Piper of Blessington.
Tall are the towers of O'Ceinneidigb— (^)
Broad are the lands of MacCarrthaigh — (c>
Desmond feeds five hundred men a-day ;
Yet, here's to 0'Briain((?) of Ara !
Up from the Castle of Druim-amar,(e)
Down from the top of Camailte,
Clansman and kinsman are coming here
To give him the cead mile failte.
II.
See you the mountains look huge at eve —
So is our chieftain in battle —
Welcome he has for the fugitive, —
Uisce-beatha,{f) fighting, and cattle!
(o) Ara is a small mountain tract, south of Loch Deirgdheirc, and
lorth of the Camailte {vulgo the Keeper) hUls. It was the seat of a
)ranch of the Thomond princes, called the O'Briens of Ara, who
lold an important place in the Munster Annals.— Author's Note.
(6) Vulgo, O'Kennedy. (c) Vul. M Carthy. {d) Vul O'Brien.
(c) F«?. Dmmineer. (/) FmZ. Usquebaugh.
HISTORICAL BALLAPS.
Up from the Castle of Druim-aniar,
Down from the top of Camailte,
Gossip and ally are coming here
To give him the cead mile failte.
III.
Horses the valleys are tramping on,
Sleek from the Sacsanach manger —
Creachs the hills are encamping on,
Empty the bans of the stranger !
Up from the Castle of Druim-aniar,
Do-vvn from the top of Camailte,
Ceithearnia) and buannacht are coming here
To give him the cead mile failte.
IV.
He has black silver from Cill-da-lua(^) —
Rian(c) and Cearbhall(<^) are neighbours —
'N Aonach(e; submits with a.fuililiu —
Butler is meat for our sabres !
Up from the Castle of Druim-aniar,
Down from the top of Camailte,
Rian and Cearbhall are coming here
To give him the cead mile failte.
(a) Vulgo, Kerne. (b) Vul. Killaloc. (c) Vul. Ryan,
(d) Vul Carroll. (e) Vvl Nenagh.
O'BRIEN OF ARA. 97
'Tis scarce a week since through Osairghe(«)
Chased he the Baron of Durmhagh — (^)
Forced him five rivers to cross, or he
Had died by the sword of Ked Murchadli !(c)
Up from the Castle of Druim-aniar,
Down from the top of Camailte,
All the Ui Bhriain are coming here
To give him the cead mile failte.
VI.
Tall are the towers of O'Ceinneidigh —
Broad are the lauds of MacCarrthaigh —
Desmond feeds five hundred men a-day ;
Yet, here's to O'Briain of Ara !
Up from the Castle of Druim-aniar,
Down from the top of Camailte,
Clansman and kinsman are coming here
To give him the cead mile failte.
(o) Vulgo, Ossory. (6) Vul. Durrow. (c) Vul Mvirrough.
HISTORICAL BALLADS.
EMMELINE TALBOT.
A BALLAD OF THE PALE.
[The Scene is on the bordere of Dublin and Wicklow.]
I.
'TwAs a September day —
In Glenismole,(«)
Emmeline Talbot lay
On a green knoll.
She -was a lovely thing,
Fleet as a falcon's "vving,
Only fifteen that spring —
Soft was her soul.
Danger and dreamless sleep
Much did she scorn,
And from her father's keep
Stole out that morn.
Towards Glenismole she liies ;.
Sweetly the valley lies,
"Winning the enterprise, —
Ko one to warn.
(a) J7r6ef7uce,— Gleann-an smrilL
EMMELINE TALBOT. 99
111.
Till by the noon, at length,
High in the vale,
Emmeline found her strength
Suddenly fail.
Panting, yet pleasantly,
By Dodder-side lay she —
Thrushes sang merrUy,
"Hail, sister, hail!"
IV.
P Hazel and copse of oak
Made a sweet lawn.
Out from the thicket broke
Eabbit and fawn.
Green were the eiscirs round,
Sweet was the river's sound.
Eastwards flat Cruach frowned.
South lay Sliabh Ban.
V.
Looking round Barnakeel,(«)
Like a tall Moot
Full of impassioned zeal.
Peeped brown Kippure.C*
Dublin in feudal pride,
And many a hold beside,
Over rinn-ghaill(<:;' preside —
Sentinels sure !
(a) Eib. Bearna-chael. (6) Jlib. Keap-iubhair. (c) Vuln. Fingal.
I
100 HISTORICAL BALLADS.
VI.
Is that a roebuck's eye
Glares from the green ? —
Is that a thrush's crv
Eings in the screen ?
^lountaineers round her sprung,
Sarage their speech and tongue,
Fierce vras their chief and young-
Poor Emmeline !
VII.
"Hurrah, 'tis Talbot's child,"
Shouted the kerne,
*' Off to the mountains wild,
Faire,(a) 0"Byme!"
Like a bird in a net,
Strove the sweet maiden yet,
Praying and shrieking, ' ' Let —
Let me return."
VIII.
After a moment's doubt,
Forward he sprung.
With his sword flashing out —
"Wrath on his tongue.
•' Touch not a hair of her's —
Dies he, who finger stirs I"
Back fell his foragers —
To him she clung.
(a) Vulg. Farrali.
EMMEHNE TALBOT. 101
IX.
Soothing tlie maiden's fears,
Kneeling was he,
When burst old Talbot's spears
Out on the lea.
March-men, all staunch and stout,
Shouting their Belgard shout —
' ' Down with the Irish rout,
Prets d'accomplir."((i)
X.
Taken thus unawares,
Some fled amain —
Fighting like forest bears.
Others were slain.
To the chief clung the maid —
How could he use his blade ? —
That night, upon him weighed
Fetter and chain.
XI.
Oh ! but that night was long.
Lying forlorn.
Since, 'mid the wassail song,
These words were borne —
" Nathless your tears and cries,
Sure as the sun shall rise,
Connor O'ByrneC^) dies,
Talbot has sworn,"
(a) The motto and ciy of the Talhots. {b) Ilib. Conchobhar O'Broln.
g3
102 HISTORICAL BALLADS.
XII.
Brightly on Tamhlacht(«) hill
Flashes the sun ;
Strained at his window-sill.
How his eyes run
From lonely Sagart slade
Down to Tigh-bradan glade,
Landmarks of border raid,
Many a one.
XIII.
Too well tlie captive knows
Belgard's main wall
Will, to his naked blows.
Shiver and fall,
Ere in his mountain hold
He shall again behold
Those whose proud hearts are cold,
Weeping his thrall.
XIV'.
*• Oh ! for a mountain side,
Bucklers and brands !
Freely I could have died
Heading my bands,
But on a felon tree" —
Bearing a fetter key,
. By him all silently
Emmcline stands. * »
(a) Vulg. Tull.ight.
EMMELINE TALBOT, 103
Late rose the castellan,
He had drunk deep, —
Warder and serving-man
Still were asleep, —
Wide is the castle-gate,
Open the captive's grate.
Fetters disconsolate
Flung in a heap. * »
XVI.
'Tis an October day,
Close by Loch Dan
Many a creach lay,
Many a man.
'Mongst them, in gallant mien,
Connor O'Byrne's seen
Wedded to Emmeline,
Girt by his cLan !
104
HISTORICAL BALLADS.
O'SULLIVAN'S RETURN.(a)
Air — An crdisgin lanX^)
O'SuiLLEBHAiN has come
AYitliin sight of his home, —
He had left it long years ago ;
The tears are in his eyes,
And he prays the wind to rise,
As he looks towards his castle, from the prow, from the
prow ;
As he looks towards his castle, from the prow.
II.
For the day had been calm.
And slow the good ship swam,
And the evening gun had been fired ;
He knew the hearts beat wild
Of mother, wife, and child.
And of clans, who to see him long desired, long desired ;
And of clans, who to see him long desired.
(o) Vide Appendix. ih) Slow time.
o'siillivan's return. 105
IIT.
Of the tender ones the clasp,
Of the gallant ones the grasp,
He thinks, until his tears fall warnj :
And full seems his wide hall,
With friends from wall to wall,
Where their welcome shakes the banners, like a storm,
like a storm ;
Where their welcome shakes the banners like a storm.
IV.
Then he sees another scene —
Norman churls on the green —
" O' SuiUeabhuin abu" is the cry ;
Eor filled is his ship's hold
With arms and Spanish gold.
And he sees the snake-twined spear wave on high, wave
on high ;
And he sees the snake- twined spear wave on high.(o)
(a) The standard bearings of O'Sullivan. See O'Donovan's edition
of the Banquet of Diin na n-Gedh, and the Battle of Magh Rath, for
the Archaeological Society, App. p. 349.—" Bearings of O'Sullivan at
the Battle of Caisglinn."
" I see, mightily advancing on the plain,
The banner of the race of noble Finghin ;
His spear witli a venomous adder (entwined),
His host all flery champions."
Finghin was one of their most ftiraous progenitors. — Author's Note.
IOC HISTORICAL BALLADS.
V.
"Finghfii's race shall be freed
From the Korman's cruel breed —
My sires freed Bear' once before,
"When the Barnwells were stre\ra
On the fields, like hay in June,
And but one of them escaped from our shore, from our
shore ;
And but one of them escaped from our shore. "(«)
VI.
And, warming in his dream.
He floats on victory's stream.
Till Desmond—till all Erin is free !
Then, how calmly he'll go down,
Full of years and of renown,
To his grave near that castle by the sea, by the sea ;
To his grave near that castle by the sea !
VII.
But the wind heard his word,
As though he were its lord.
And the ship is dashed up the Bay.
Alas ! for that proud barque,
The night has fallen dark,
'Tis too late to EadarghabhaK^-) to bear away, boar away ;
'Tis too late to Eadarghabhal to bear away.
(a) The Bamwells were Nonnans, who seized part of Beara in tl e
rclgn of Henry II. ; but the O'Sullivans came down on them, and cnt
o'siillivan's rkturn. 107
VIII.
Black and rough was the rock,
And terrible the shock,
As the good ship crashed asunder ;
And bitter was the cry,
And the sea ran mountains high,
And the wind was as loud as the thunder, the thunder ;
And the wind was as loud as the thunder.
IX.
There 's woe in Beara,
There's woe in Gleann-garbh,(c)
And from Beanntraigherc^)unto Diin-kiarain ;(«)
All Desmond hears their grief,
And wails above their chief —
" Is it thus, is it thus, that you return, you return —
Is it thus, is it thus, that you return ?"
ofif all save one — a young man who settled at Drimnagh Castle, Co.
Dublin, and was ancestor to the BamweUs, Lords of Trimlestone and
Kingsland. — Author's Note.
(&) Vul Adragoole. (c) Vul. Glengariff. (d) Vul Bantry.
(e) Vul. DunkejTon.
i()8 HISTORICAL BALLADS.
THE FATE OF THE O'SULLIVANS .fa;
•' A nABY in the mountain gap —
Oh 1 wherefore bring it hither ?
Restore it to it's mother's lap,
Or else 'twill surely wither.
A baby near the eagle's nest I
How should their talons spare it ?
Oh ! take it to some woman's breast.
And she will kindly care it."
(a) After the taking of Dunbwy and the ruin of the O'Snllivan'a
country, the chief marched right through Muskeixy and Ormond,
hotly pursued. He crossed the Shannon in curachs made of his
horses' skins. He then defeated the English forces and slew their
commander, Manhy, and finally fought his -way into O'Euarc's countiy.
During his absence his lady {Beantighmrna) and infant were supported
in the mountains, by one of his clansmen, M'Swiney, who, tradition
says, used to rob the eagles' nests of their prey for his charge. O'Sul-
Uvan was excepted from James the First's ivumesty on account of his
persevering resistance. He went to Spain, and was appointed goveraor
of Comnna and Viscount Berehaven. His march from Glenganiflf to
Lcitvim is, perhaps, the most romantic and gallant achievement of his
age — Acthok's Note.
FATE OF THE o'sULUVANS. 109
II.
** Fear not for it," M'Swiney said,
And stroked his cul-jionn(a) slowly,
And proudly raised his matted head.
Yet spoke me soft and lowly —
' ' Fear not for it, for, many a day,
I climb the eagle's eyrie.
And bear the eaglet's food away
To feed our little fairy.
III.
' ' Fear not for it, no Bantry bird
Would harm our chieftain's baby" —
He stopped, and something in him stirred —
'Twas for his chieftain, may be.
And then he brushed his softened eyes.
And raised his bonnet duly,
And muttered "the Beantighearna lies
Asleep in yonder huaili."(fi)
IV.
He pointed 'twixt the cliflf and lake,
And there a hut of heather,
Half hidden in the craggy brake,
Gave- shelter from the weather ;
The little tanist shrieked with joy,
Adown the guUey staring —
The clansman swelled to see the boy,
O'SuUivan-like, daring.
(a) Yulgo, coulin, (.6) Vulgo, bonlle.
110 HISTORICAL BALLADS.
V.
Oh ! what a glorious sight vras there.
As from the summit gazing,
O'er winding creek and islet fair,
And mountain waste amazing ;
The Caha and Dunkerron hills
Cast half the gulfs in shadoAV,
While shone the sun on Culiagh's rills.
And "Whiddy's emerald meadow —
vr.
The sea a sheet of crimson spread,
From Foze to Dursey islands ;
While flashed the peaks from Mizenhead
To Musk'ry's distant highlands —
I saw no kine, I saw no sheep,
I saw nor house nor furrow ;
But round the tarns the red deer leap,
Oak and arbutus thorough.
VII.
Oh ! Avhat a glorious sight was there,
That paradise o'ergazing —
When, sudden, burst a smoky glare,
Above GlengaiTiff blazing —
The clansman sprung upon his feet —
Well might the infant wonder —
His hands were clenched, his brow was knit,
His hard lips just asunder.
FATE OF THE o'sULLIVANS. Ill
VIII.
Like shattered rock from out the ground,
He stood there stiff and silent —
Our breathing hardly made a sound,
As o'er the baby I leant ;
His figure then went to and fro,
As the tall blaze would flicker —
And as exhausted it sunk low,
His breath came loud and thicker.
IX.
Then slowly turned he round his head.
And slowly turned his figure ;
His eye was fixed as Spanish lead,
His limbs were full of rigour —
Then suddenly he grasped the child,
And raised it to his shoulder,
Then pointing where, across the wild.
The fire was seen to smoulder ; —
X.
" Look, baby 1 — ^look, there is the sign.
Your father is returning.
The ' generous hand' of Finghin's line
Has set that beacon burning.
* The generous hand' — Oh ! Lord of hosts—
Oh, Virgin, ever holy !
There's nought to give on Bantry's coasts — .
Duubwy is lying lowly.
il2 HISTORICAL BALLADS.
XI.
" The halls, where mirth and minstrelsy
Than Beara's ^rind rose louder,
Are flung in masses lonelily,
And black with English powder —
The sheep that o'er our momitains ran,
The kine that filled our valleys,
Are gone, and not a single clan
O'Sullivan now rallies.
XII.
" He, long the Prince of hill and bay !
The ally of the Spaniard !
Has scarce a single cath to-day,
Nor seaman left to man yard" —
M'Swiney ceased, then fiercely strode,
Bearing along the baby,
Until we reached the rude abode
Of Bantry's lovely lady.
XIII.
We found her in the savage shed —
A mild night in mid winter —
The mountain heath her only bed,
Her dais the rocky splinter !
The sad Beantighearri' had seen the fire-
'Twas plain she had been praying —
She seized her son, as we came nigher,
And welcomed me, thus saying —
FATE OF THE o'SULLIVANS. U3
XIV.
*' Oar gossip's friend I gladly greet,
Though scant'ly I can cheer him ;"
Then bids the clansman fly to meet
And teU her lord she's near him.
M'Swiney kissed his foster son,
And shouting out his /aire —
** O' Suillebkdin aba" — is gone
Like Marchman's deadly arrow !
XV.
An hour went by, when, from the shore
The chieftain's horn winding.
Awoke the echoes' hearty roar —
Their fealty reminding :
A moment, and he faintly gasps —
" These — these, thank heav'n, are left me"—
And smiles as wife and child he clasps —
" They have not quite bereft me."
I never saw a mien so grand,
A brow and eye so fearless —
There was not in his veteran band
A single eyelid tearless.
His tale is short — O'Ruarc's strength
Could not postpone his ruin.
And Leitrim's towers he left at length.
To spare his friend's undoing.
114 HISTORICAL BALLADS.
To Spain — to Spain, he now will sail,
His destiny is wroken —
An exile from dear Inis-fail, —
Nor yet his will is broken ;
For still he hints some enterprise,
Wlien fleets shall bring them over,
Dunbwy's proud keep again shall rise.
And mock the English rover. * *
XVIII.
I saw them cross Slieve Miskisk o'er,
The crones around them weeping —
I saw them pass from Culiagh's shore,
Their galleys' strong oars sweeping ;
I saw their sliip unfurl its sail —
I saw their scarfs long waven —
They saw the hills in distance fail —
They never saw Berehaven !
THE SACK OF BALTIMORE. 115
THE SACK OF BALTIMORE. («)
I.
The summer sun is falling soft on Carbery's hundred
isles —
The summer's sun is gleaming still through Gabriel's
rough defiles —
Old Inisherkin's crumbled fane looks like a moulting
bird;
And in a calm and sleepy swell the ocean tide is heard ;
The hookers lie upon the beach ; the children cease their
play;
The gossips leave the little inn ; the households kneel to
pray—
And full of love, and peace, and rest — its daily labour
o'er —
Upon that cosy creek there lay the town of Baltimore.
(a) Baltimore is a small seaport in the barony of Carbery, in South
!Miinster. It grew up round a Castle of O'DriscoUs, and was, after
his ruin, colonized by the English. On the 20th of June, 1631, the
crew of two AlgerLne galleys landed in the dead of the night, sacked
the town, and bore off into slaveiy all who were not too old, or too
young, or too fierce for their purpose. The pirates were steered up the
intricate channel by one Hackett, a Dimgarvan fisherman, whom they
had taken at sea for the purpose. Two years after he was convicted
and executed for the crime. Baltimore never recovered this. To the
artist, the antiquary, and the naturali^*-, its neighbourhood is most in-
teresting.— See " The Ancient and Present State of the County and
City of Cork," by Charles Smith, M. D., vol. 1, p.270. Second edition.
Dublin, 1774 — Author's Note.
116 HISTORICAL BALLADS.
A deeper rest, a starry trance, has come with midnight
there ;
No sound, except that throbbing Avave, in earth, or sea,
or air.
The massive capes, and ruined towers, seem conscious of
the calm ;
The fibrous sod and stunted trees are breathing heavy
balm.
So still the night, these two long barques, round Dun-
ashad that glide,
Must trust their oars — methinks not few — against the
ebbing tide —
Oh ! some sweet mission of ti-ue love must urge them to
the shore —
They bring some lover to his bride, who sighs in Balti-
more !
III.
AH, all asleep within each roof along that rocky street,
And these must be the lover's friends, with gently gli-
ding feet —
A stifled gasp ! a dreamy noise ! ' ' the roof is in a
flame !"
From out their beds, and to their doors, rush maid, and
sire, and dame —
And meet, upon tlie threshold stone, the gleaming sabre's
fall.
And o'er each black and bearded face the white or crim-
son shawl —
The yell of "Allah" breaks above the prayer, and
shriek, and roar —
Oh, blessed God ! the Algerine is lord of Baltimore !
THE SACK OF BALTIMORE. 117
IV.
Then flung the youth his naked hand agamst the shear-
ing sword ;
Then sprung the mother on the brand with which her
son was gored ;
Then sunk the grandsire on the floor, his grand-babes
clutching Avild ;
Then fled the maiden moaning faint, and nestled with
the child ;
But see, yon pirate strangled lies, and crushed with
splashing heel,
While o'er him in an Irish hand there sweeps his Syrian
steel —
Though virtue sink, and courage fail, and misers yield
their store,
There's one hearth well avenged in the sack of Balti-
more !
V.
IVIid-summer morn, in woodland nigh, the birds began to
sing—
They see not now the milking maids — deserted is the
spring !
Iklid-summer day — this gallant rides from distant Ban-
don's town —
These hookers crossed from stormy Skull, that skiff from
Affadown ;
I They only found the smoking walls, with neighbours'
\ blood besprent,
' And on the strewed and trampled beach awhile they
wildly went —
; Then dashed to sea, and passed Cape Cleire, and saw five
' leagues before
\ The pirate galleys vanishing that ravaged Baltimore.
3
118 HISTORICAL BALLADS.
V.
Oh ! some must tug the galley's oar, and some must
tend the steed —
This boy will bear a Scheik's chibouk, and that a Bey's
jerreed.
Oh! some are for the arsenals, by beauteous Dardanelles;
And some are in the caravan to Mecca's sandy dells.
The maid that Bandon gallant sought is chosen for the
Bey-
She's safe — she's dead — she stabbed him in the midst of
his Serai ;
And, when to die a death of fire, that noble maid they
bore.
She only smiled — O'Driscoll's child — she thouc-dit of
Baltmiore.
VIL
' Tis two long years since sunk the town beneath that
bloody band.
And all around its trampled hearths a larger concourse
stand,
AVhere, high upon a gallows tree, a yelling wretch is
seen —
'Tis Hackett of Dungarvan — he, who steered the Alge-
rine !
He fell amid a sullen shout, with scarce a passing
prayer,
For he had slain the kith and kin of many a hundred
there —
Some muttered of MacMurchadh, who brought the
Norman o'er —
Some cursed him with Iscariot, that day in Baltimore.
LAMENT FOR EOGHAN RU.VDH. 119
LAMENT FOR THE DEATH OF EOGHAN
RUADH 0'NEILL,(«)
[Time — lOth Nov., 1649. Scene— Onnond's Camp, Coimty Waterford.
Speakers— A Veteran of Eoghan O'Neill's clan, and one of the horse-
men, just arrived with an account of his death,]
I.
' • Did they dare, did they dare, to slay Eoghan Ruadh
O'Neill?"
' ' Yes, they slew with poison him, they feared to meet
with steel."
"May God wither up their hearts! l^Iay their blood
cease to flow !
May they walk in living death, who poisoned Eoghan
Ruadh !
II.
Though it break my heart to hear, say again the bitter
words."
*♦ From Derry, against Cromwell, he marched to measure
swords ;
But the weapon of the Sacsanach met him on his way,
And he died at Cloch Uachtar,(&) upon Saint Leonard's
day.'
(a) Commonly called Owen Roe O'XeiH, Vide Appendix.
(&) Vulgo, Clough Oughter.
120 HISTORICAL BALLADS.
"Wail, wail ye for The l^Iighty Oue ! Wail, wail ye
for the Dead ;
Quench the hearth, and hold the breath — with ashes
strew the head.
How tenderly we loved him ! How deeply we deplore !
Holy Saviour ! but to think we shall never see him more.
IV.
Sagest in the council was he, kindest in the hall !
Sure we never won a battle — 'twas Eoghan won them all.
Had he lived — had he lived — our dear country had been
free;
But he's dead, but he's dead, and 'tis slaves we'll ever be.
O'Farrell and Clanrickarde, Preston and Red Hugh,
Audley and JMac Mahon — ye are valiant, wise, and true ;
But — what, what are ye all to our darling who is gone ?
The Rudder of our Ship was he, our Castle's corner
Btone !
I
Wail, wail him through the Island ! Weep, weep for
our pride 1
Would that on the battle-field our gallant chief had died 1
LAMENT FOR EOGHAN RUADH. 121
Weep the Victor of Beann-bhorbh(«) — weep him, young
man and old ;
Weep for him, ye women — your Beautiful lies cold 1
VII.
We thought you would not die — we were sure you
would not go.
And leave us in our utmost need to Cromwell's cruel
blow —
Sheep without a shepherd, when the snow shuts out the
sky—
Oh ! why did you leave us, Eoghan ? Why did you die ?
VIII.
Soft as woman's was your voice, O'Neill! bright wad
your eye,
Oh ! why did you leave us, Eoghan ? why did you die ?
Your troubles are all over, you're at rest with God on
liigh ;
But we're slaves, and we're orphans, Eoghan ! — ^why did
you die ?"
la) Vitl. Benbuvb.
122 HISTORICAL BALLADS.
A RALLY FOR IRELAND. («)
[may, 1G89.](^)
I.
Shout it out, till it ring
From Beann-mhor to Cape CK'ire,
For our country and king,
And religion so dear.
Rally, men ! rally —
Irishmen ! rally !
Gather round the dear flag, that, wet with our tears,
And torn, and bloody, lay hid for long years.
And now, once again, in its pride re-appears.
See 1 from The Castle our green banner waves,
Bearing fit motto for uprising slaves —
For Now OR NEVER !
N0"W AND FOR EVER !
Bids you to battle for triumph or graves —
Bids you to burst on the Sacsanach knaves —
Rally, then, rally !
Irishmen, rally !
Shout Now OR NEVER !
Now AND FOR EVER !
Heed not their fury, however it raves,
"Welcome their horsemen with pikes and with staves,
Close on their cannon, their bay'nets, and glaives,
Down with their standard wherever it waves;
Fight to the last, and ye cannot be slaves !
Fight to the last, and ye cannot bo slaves!
(a) Set to original niiisie in • .^^pirit of Nation," ■Jtc . p. IJl.
(6) Vide Appendix.
RALLY FOR IRELAND. 123
JI.
Gallant Sheldon is here,
And Hamilton, too,
And Tirchonaill so dear,
And Mac Carrthaigh, so true.
And there are Frenchmen ;
Skilful and staunch men —
De Rosen, Pontee, Pusignan, and Boisseleau,
And gallant Lauzun is a coming, you know.
With Balldearg, the kinsman of great Eoghan Ruadh.
From Sionainn to Banna, from Life to Laoi,C«)
The country is rising for Libertie.
Tho' your arms are rude,
If your courage be good,
As the traitor fled will the stranger flee,
At another Drom-m&r, from " the Irishry."
Arm, peasant and lord !
Grasp musket and sword !
Grasp pike-stafl" and skian f
Give your horses the rein !
March, in the name of his Majesty —
Ulster and Munster unitedly —
Townsman and peasant, like waves of the sea —
Leinster and Counacht to victory —
Shoulder to shoulder for Liberty,
Shoulder to shoulder for Liberty.
(a) Vulgo Shannon, Bann, Liffey, and Lee.
124 HISTORICAL BALLADS.
III.
Kirk, Schomberg and Churchill
Are coming — what then ?
We'll drive them and Dutch Will
To England again ;
We can laugh at each threat,
For our Paliament 's met —
De Courcy, O'Briain, Mac Domhnaill, Le Poer,
O'Neill and St. Lawrence, and others go leor,
The choice of the land from Athluain («) to the shore 1
They'll break the last hnk of the Sacsanach chain —
They'll give us the lands of our fathers again 1
Then up ye 1 and fight
For your King and your Right,
Or ever toil on, and never complain,
Tho' they trample your roof-tree, and rifle your fane.
RaUy, then, rally !
Irishmen, rally —
Fight Now OB NKVER,
Now AND FOR EVERI
Laws are in vain without swords to maintain-.
So, muster as fast as the fall of tlie rain :
Serried and rough as a field of ripe grain.
Stand by your flag upon mountain and plain :
Charge till yourselves or your foemen are slain 1
Fight till yourselves or your focraen are slain I
(a) Vul. Alhlone.
THE BATTLE OF LIMERICK. 125
THE BATTLE OF LIMERICK/")
[August 27, 1690.]
Air — Garradh Eoghain.i^)
Oh, hurrah ! for the men, who, when danger is nigh,
Are found in the front, looking death in the eye.
Hurrah ! for the men who kept Limerick's wall.
And hurrah ! for bold Sarsfield, the bravest of all.
King William's men round Limerick lay,
His cannon crashed from day to day,
Till the southern wall was swept away
At the city of Luimneach Unn-ghlas.C^')
*Tis afternoon, yet hot the sun,
When Wniiam fires the signal gun,
And, like its flash, his columns run
On the city of Lxiimneach linn-ghlas.
(a) Vide Appendix.
(b) Vulgo, Garryowen.
ic) "Limerick of the azure river." See "The Circuit of Ireland,
p. 47. — AurnoB.'s Note.
126 HISTORICAL BALLADS.
Yet, hurrah ! fbr the men, who, when clanger is nigh,
Are found in the front, looking death in tlie eye.
Hurrah ! for the men who kept Limerick's wall,
And hurrah ! for bold Sarsfield, the bravest of fill.
The breach gaped out two perches wide,
The fosse is filled, the batteries plied ;
Can the Irishmen that onset bide
At the city of Luimneach Unn-ghlas.
Across the ditch the columns dash,
Their bayonets o'er the rubbish flash,
"When sudden comes a rending crash
From the city oi Luimneach Unn-ghlas.
111.
Then, hurrah ! for the men, who, when danger is nigh,
Are found in the front, looking death in the eye.
Hurrah 1 for the men who kept Limerick's wall,
And hurrah! for bold Sarsfield, the bravest of all.
The bullets rain in pelting shower,
And rocks and beams from wall and tower ;
The Englishmen are glad to cower
At the city of Luimneach Unn-ghlas
But, rallied soon, again they pressed.
Their bayonets pierced full many a breast.
Till they bravely won the breach's crest
At the city of Luimneach Unn-ghlas.
THE BATTLE OF LIMERICK. 127
IV.
Yet, hurrah ! for the men, who, when danger is nigh,
Are found in the front, looking death in the eye.
Hurrah 1 for the men who kept Limerick's wall,
And hurrah ! for bold Sarsfield, the bravest of all.
Then fiercer grew the Irish yell,
And madly on the foe they fell,
Till the breach grew like the jaws of hell —
Not the city of Luimneach linn-ghlas.
The women fought before the men.
Each man became a match for ten.
So back they pushed tlie villains then,
From the city of Luimneach linn-ghlas.
V.
Then, hurrah ! for the men, who, when danger is nigh.
Are found in the front, looking death in the eye.
Hurrah ! for the men who kept Limerick's wall.
And hm-rah ! for bold Sarsfield, the bravest of all.
But Bradenburgh the ditch has crost,
And gained our flank at little cost —
The bastion's gone — the town is lost ;
Oh ! poor city of Luimneach linn-ghlas.
When, sudden, Sarsfield springs the mine —
Like rockets rise the Germans fine.
And come down dead, 'mid smoke and shine,
At the city of Luimneach linn-ghlai.
128 HISTORICAL BALLADS.
VI.
So, hurrah ! for the men, who, when danger is nigh,
Are found in the front, looking death in the eye.
Hurrah ! for the men who kept Limerick's wall,
And hurrah ! for bold Sarsfield, the bravest of all.
Out, with a roar, the Irish sprung,
And back the beaten EngUsh flimg,
Till William fled, his lords among.
From the city of Luimneach-linn-yhlas.
'Twas thus was fought that glorious fight,
By Irislunen, for Ireland's right —
May all such days have such a night
As the battle of Luimneach linn-yklas.
i
I
PART IV.
HISTORICAL
BALLADS AND SONGS
Secontr Series.
" Bt a Ballad History we do not mean a metrical chronicle, or any
continued work, but a string of ballads chronologically arranged, and
illustrating the main events of Irish llistorj', its characters, costumes,
scenes, and passions.
Exact dates, subtle plots, minute connexions and motives, rarely ap-
pear in Ballads ; and for tlicse ends the worst prose history is superior
to the best Ballad series ; but these are not the highest ends of his-
tory. To hallow or accurse the scenes of glory and honour, or of
shame and son-ow— to give to the imagination the arms, and homes,
and senates, and battles of ether days — to rouse and soften and
strengthen and enlarge us with the passions of great periods — to lead
us into love of self-donial. of justice, of beaut}-, of valoiu", of generous
life and proud death- -and to set up in our souls the memory of great
men, v,ii.. shall then bp as models and judges of our actiois— these are
the highest duties of History, and these are best taught by a Ballad
History."— Da VTs'3 Essays.
BALLADS AND SONGS
ILLUSTRATIVE OF
IRISH HISTORY.
THE PENAL DAYS.
Ai-R— The Wheelwright.
Oh ! weep those days, the penal days,
When Ireland hopelessly complained.
Oh ! weep those days, the penal days,
When godless persecution reigned ;
When, year by year,
For serf, and peer,
Fresh cruelties were made by laAv,
And, filled with hate,
Our senate sate
To weld anew each fetter's flaw.
Oh ! weep those days, those penal days
Their memory still on Ireland weighs.
132 HISTORICAL BALLADS.
They bribed the flock, they bribed the son,
To sell the priest and rob the sire ;
Their dogs were taught alike to run
Upon the scent of wolf and friar.
Among the poor,
Or on tlie moor,
"Were hid tlie pious and the true —
While traitor knave,
And recreant slave,
Had riches, rank, and retinue ;
And, exiled in those penal days.
Our banners over Europe blaze.
A stranger held the land and tower
Of many a noble fugitive ;
No Popisli lord had lordly power,
The peasant scarce had leave to live ;
Above liis head
A ruined shed,
No tenure but a tyrant's will —
Forbid to plead.
Forbid to read,
Disarmed, disfrancliised, imbecile —
^'VVhat wonder if our step betrays
The frecdman, born in penal days ?
THE PENAL DAYS. 133
IV.
They're gone, they're gone, those penal days !
All creeds are equal in our isle ;
Then grant, Lord, thy plenteous grace,
Our ancient feuds to reconcile.
Let all atone
For blood and groan,
For dark revenge and open wrong ;
Let all unite
For Ireland's right,
And drown our griefs in freedom's song ;
Till time shall veil in twilight haze.
The memory of those penal daj^s.
THE DEATH OF SARSFIELD.*
A CHAUNT OF THE BRIGADE.
I.
Sarsfield has sailed from Limerick Town,
He held it long for country and crown ;
And ere he yielded, the Saxon swore
To spoil our homes and our shrines no more.
* Sarsfield was slain on the '29th July, 1693, at Landen, heading his
ountrj-men in the van of victory, — King William flying. He could
I
134 HISTORICAL BALLADS.
II.
Sarsfield and all liis chivalry
Are fighting for France in the low countrie —
At his fiery charge the Saxons reel,
They learner! at Limerick to dread the steel.
Sarsfield is dying on Landen's plain ;
His corslet hath met the ball in vain —
As his life-blood gushes into his hand,
He says, " Oh ! that this was for father-land 1'
IV.
Sarsfield is dead, yet no tears shed we —
For he died in the arms of Victory,
And liis dying words shall edge the brand.
When we chase the foe from our native land !
not have died better. Ilis last Uioughts were for his country. As he
lay on the field unhelmed and dying, he put his hand to his breast.
When he took it away, it was full of his best blood. Looking at It
sadly with an eye in which rictory shone a moment before, he said
faintly, " Oh I that this were for Trcland." He said no more; and
historj- records no nobler saying, nor any more becoming death. —
AcrnoK's XoTE. — Vide Appendix, for a brief sketch of the services of
the Irish Brigade, in which most of the allusions in these and Bcvcral
of the following poems are explained Ed.
SURPRISE OF CREMONA. 135
THE SUKPRISE OF CREMONA.
(1702.)
From Milan to Cremona Duke Villeroy rode,
And soft are the beds in his princely abode ;
In billet and barrack the garrison sleep,
And loose is the watch which the sentinels keep :
'Tis the eve of St. David, and bitter the breeze
Of that mid- winter night on the flat Cremonese ;
A fig for precaution ! — Prince Eugene sits down
In winter cantonments round Mantua town 1
II.
Yet through Ustiano, and out on the plain,
Horse, foot, and dragoons are defiling amain.
"That flash!" said Prince Eugene, "Count Merci,
push on" —
Like a rock from a precipice Merci is gone.
Proud mutters the prince — " That is Cassioh's sign :
Ere the dawn of the morning Cremona '11 be mine —
For Merci will open the gate of the Po,
But scant is the mercy Prince Vaudemont will shew 1"
136 HISTORICAL BALLADS.
III.
Through gate, street and square, "svith his keen cavaliera—^
A flood through a gulley — Count Merci careers —
They ride -without getting or giving a blow,
Kor halt 'till they graze on the gate of the Po —
' ' Surrender the gate" — but a volley replied,
For a handful of Irish are posted inside.
By my faith, Charles Vaudemont will come rather late,
If he stay 'till Count Merci shall open that gate !
IV.
But in through St. Margaret's the Austrians pour,
And billet and barrack are ruddy -with gore ;
Unarmed and naked, the soldiers are slain —
There's an enemy's gauntlet on Villeroy's rein —
' ' A thousand pistoles and a regiment of horse —
Kelease me, MacDonnell !" — they hold on their course.
Count Merci has seized upon cannon and wall.
Prince Eugene's head- quarters are in the Town-hall \
Here and there, through tlie city, some readier band,
For honour and safety, undauntedly stand.
At tlie head of the regiments of Dillon and Burke
Is Major O'Mahony, fierce as a Turk.
His sabre is flashing — the major is drest,
But muskets and sliirts are the clothes of the rest !
Yet they rush to the ramparts — the clocks have tolled ten-
And Count Merci retreats with the half of his men.
SURPRISE OF CREMONA. 137
«• In on them," said Friedberg, — and Dillon is broke,
Like forest-flowers crushed by the fall of the oak ;
Through the naked battalions the cuirassiers go ; —
But the man, not the dress, makes the soldier, I trow.
Upon them with grapple, with bay 'net, and ball,
Like wolves upon gaze-hounds, the L*ishmeu fall —
Black Friedberg is slain by O'Mahony's steel,
And back from the bullets the cuirassiers reel.
VII.
Oh ! hear you their shout in your quarters, Eugene ?
In vain on Prince Vaudemont for succour you lean !
The bridge has been broken, and, mark ! how pell-mell
Come riderless horses, and volley and yell ! —
He's a veteran soldier — he clenches his hands,
He springs on his horse, disengages his bands —
He rallies, he urges, till, hopeless of aid,
He is chased through the gates by the Irish Brigade.
VIII.
News, news, in Vienna ! — King Leopold's sad.
News, news, in St. James's ! — King William is mad.
News, news, in Versailles — " Let the Irish Brigade
Be loyally honoured, and royally paid."
News, news, in old Ireland — liigh rises her pride,
And high sounds her wail for her children who died,
And deep is her prayer, — " God send I may see
" MiicDonnell and Mahony fighting for me."
i3
138 HISTORICAL BALLADS.
THE FLOWER OF FINAE.
Bright red is tlie sun on the waves of Lough Sheelin,
A cool gentle breeze from the mountain is stealing,
While fair round its islets the small ripples play,
But fairer than all is the Flower of Finae.
II.
Her hair is like night, and her eyes like grey morning,
She trips on the heather as if its touch scorning,
Yet her heart and her lips are as mild as May day,
Sweet Eily MacMahon, the Flower of Finae.
III.
But who down the hill side than red deer runs fleeter ?
And who on the lake side is hastening to greet her ?
Who but Fergus O'Farrell, the fiery and gay.
The darling and pride of the Flower of Finae ?
One kiss and one clasp, and one wild look of gladness ;
Ah ! why do tliey change on a sudden to sadness —
lie has told his hard fortune, nor more he can stay,
Ho must leave his poor Eily to pine at Finae.
V.
For Fergus O'Farrell was true to his sire-land,
And the dark hand of tyranny drove him from Ireland
THE FLOWER OF FINAE. 139
He joins the Brigade, in the wars far away,
But he vows he'll come back to the Flower of Finae.
VI.
He fought at Cremona — she hears of liis story ;
He fought at Cassauo — she's proud of his glory,
Yet sadly she sings Siuhhail a rain* all the day,
" Oh, come, come, my darling, come home to Finae."
VII.
Eight long years have passed, till she's nigh broken-
hearted,
Her reel, and her rock, and her^a:r she has parted ;
She sails with the " Wild Geese" to Flanders away.
And leaves her sad parents alone in Finae.
VIII.
Lord Clare on the field of Ramillies is charging —
Before liim, the Sacsanach squadrons enlarging —
Behind him the Cravats their sections display —
Beside him rides Fergus and shouts for Finae,
IX.
On the slopes of La Judoigne the Frenchmen are flying,
Lord Clare and liis squadrons the foe still defying,
Outnumbered, and wounded, retreat in array ;
And bleeding rides Fergus and thinks of Finae.
X.
In the cloisters of Ypres a banner is swaying,
And by it a pale weeping maiden is praying ;
That flag's the sole trophy of Ramillies' fray ;
This nun is poor Eily, the Flower of Finae.
* Vulgo, Shule aroon.
liO HISTORICAL BALLADS.
THE GIRL 1 LEFT BEHIND ME.
Air — The girl I left behind me.
The dames of France are fond and fiee.
And Flemish lips are -willing,
And soft the maids of Italy,
And Spanish eyes are tlirilling ;
Still, though I bask beneath their smile,
Their charms fail to bind me.
And my heart flies back to Erin's isle.
To the girl I left behind me.
II.
For she's as fair as Shannon's side.
And purer than its water,
But she refused to be my bride
Though many a year I sought her
Yet, since to France I sailed away,
Her letters oft remind me
Tliat I promised never to gainsay
The girl I left behind me.
THE GIRL I LEFT BEHIND ME. HI
III.
She says — '* My own dear love, come home.
My friends are rich and many,
Or else abroad with you I'll roam
A soldier stout as any ;
If you'll not come, nor let me go,
I'll think you have resigned me."
My heart nigh broke when I answered — No !
To the girl I left behind me.
For never shall my true love brave
A life of war and toiling ;
And never as a skulking slave
I'll tread my native soil on ;
But, were it free or to be freed,
The battle's close would find me
To Ireland bound — nor message need
From the girl I left behind me.
142 HISTORICAL BALLADN.
//
CLARE'S DRAGOONS.
Air — Viva la.
When, on Ramillies' bloody field,
The baffled French were forced to yield,
The victor Saxon backward reeled
Before the charge of Clare's Dragoons.
The Flags, we conquered in that fray.
Look lone in Ypres' choir, they say,
We'll win them company to-day,
Or bravely die like Clare's Dragoons.
Viva la, for Ireland's wrong!
Viva la, for Ireland's right 1
Viva la, in battle throng.
For a Spanish steed, and sabre bright!
Vide Appendix.
CLARE'S DRAGOONS. 143
The brave old lord died near the fight,
But, for each drop he lost that night,
A Saxon cavalier shall bite
The dust before Lord Clare's Dragoons,
For, never, when our spurs were set,
And never, when our sabres met,
Could we the Saxon soldiers get
To stand the shock of Clare's Dragoons.
CHORUS.
Viva la, the New Brigade !
Viva la, the Old One, too !
Viva la, the rose shall fade.
And the Shamrock shine for ever new 1
HI.
Another Clare is here to lead,
The worthy son of such a breed ;
The French expect some famous deed.
When Clare leads on his bold Dragoons.
Our colonel comes from Brian's race,
His wounds are in his breast and face,
The bearna baoghail* is still his place,
The foremost of his bold Dragoons.
CHORUS.
Viva la, the New Brigade !
Viva la, the Old One, too
Viva la, the rose shall fade,
And the Shamrock shine for ever new I
* Gap of danger.
144 HISTORICAL BALLADS.
IV.
There's not a man in squadron here
Was ever known to flinch or fear ;
Tliough first in charge and last in rere,
Have ever been Lord Clare's Dragoons ;
But, see ! we'll soon have work to do,
To shame our boasts, or prove them true.
For hither comes the English crew.
To sweep awaj Lord Clare's Dragoons.
CHORUS.
Viva la, for Ireland's wrong !
Viva la, for Ireland's right !
Viva la, in battle throng.
For a Spanish steed and sabre bright !
V.
Oh ! comrades ! think how Ireland pines,
Her exiled lords, her rifled shrines,
Her dearest hope, the ordered lines,
And bursting charge of Clare's Dragoons.
Then fling your Green Flag to the sky,
Be Limerick your battle-cry,
And charge, till blood floats fetlock-high,
Around the track of Clare's Dragoons !
CHORUS.
Viva la, the New Brigade !
Viva la, the Old One, too !
Viva la, the rose shall fade,
And the Shamrock shine for ever new I
WUEN SOUTH WINDS HLoW. l-iiJ
WHEN SOUTH WINDS BLOW.
Air — The gentle Maiden.
Why sits the gentle maiden there.
While surfing billows splash around ?
Why doth she southwards wildly stare,
And sing, with such a fearful sound —
" The Wild Geese fly where others walk ;
The Wild Geese do what others talk —
The way is long from France, you kiiovr—
He'll come at last when south winds blow.
II.
Oh ! softly was the maiden nurst
In Castle Connell's lordly towers,
Where Skellig's billows boil and burst,
And, far above, Dunkerron towers ;
And she was noble as the liill —
Yet battle-flags are nobler still :
And she was graceful as the wave-
Yet who would live a tranquil slave ?
146 HISTORICAL BALLADS.
III.
And, so, her lover weut to France,
To serve the foe of Ireland's foe ;
Yet deep he swore — "Wliatevcr chance,
** I'll come some day when south -winds blow.
And prouder hopes he told beside,
How she should be a prince's bride,
How Louis would the "Wild Geese* send,
And Ireland's weary woes should end.
IV.
But tyrants quenched her father's hearth,
And wrong and absence warped her mind ;
The gentle maid, of gentle birth,
Is moaning madly to the wind —
" He said he'd come, whate'er betide :
He said I'd be a happy bride :
Oh ! long the way and hard the foe —
He'll come when south — when south winds blow !'
• The recruiting for the Brigade was carried on in the French ships
•which smuggled brandies, wines, siliis, &c., to the western and south-
western coasts. Their return cargoes were recruits for the Brigade,
and were entered in their books as Wild Geese. Hence this became
the common name in Ireland for the Irish serving in the Brigade. The
recruiting was chiefly from Clare, Limerick, Cork, Kcitv, and Galway.
— Adthob's Note.
BATTLE EVE OF THE BRIGADE. 147
THE BATTLE EVE OF THE BRIGADE.
Air — Contented I am.
The mess-tent is full, and the glasses are set,
And the gallant Count Thomond is president yet ;
The vet'ran arose, like an uplifted lance,
Crying — "Comrades, a health to the monarch of
France !"
With bumpers and cheers they have done as he bade.
For King Louis is loved by The Irish Brigade.
II.
•'A health to King James," and they bent as they
quaffed,
•'Here's to George the Elector" and fiercely they
laughed,
*' Good luck to the girls we wooed long ago.
Where Shannon, and Barrow, and Blackwater flow ;"
•' God prosper Old Ireland," — you'd think them afraid.
So pale grew the chiefs of The Irish Brigade.
148 HISTORICAL BALLADS.
III.
♦♦ But, surely, that light cannot come from our lamp ?
And that noise — are they all getting dnmk in the
camp ?"
' ' Hurrah ! boys, the morning of battle is come,
And the generates beating on many a drum."
So they rush from the revel to join the parade:
For the van is the right of The Irisli Brigade.
IV.
They fought as they revelled, fast, fiery, and true,
And, though victors, they left on the field not a few ;
And they, who survived, fought and drank as of yore,
But the land of their heart's hope they never saw more >
For in far foreign fields, from Dunkirk to Belgrade,
Lie the soldiers and chiefs of The Irish Brigade.
FONTENOy. i49
/I
rONTENOY.*
C1745.)
I.
Thrice, at the huts of Fontenoy, the English column
failed,
And. twice, the lines of Saint iVntoine, the Dutch in vain
assailed ;
For town and slope were filled with fort and flanking
battery,
And well they swept the English ranks, and Dutch
auxiliary.
As vainly, through De Barri's wood, the British soldiers
burst,
The French artillery droA'e them back, diminished, and
^ dispersed.
The bloody Duke of Cumberland beheld with anxious
eye,
And ordered up his last reserve, his latest chance to try.
On Fontenoy, on Fontenoy, how fast his generals ride !
And mustering come his chosen troops, like clouds at
eventide.
* Tide Appendix.
loO HISTORICAL BALLADS.
II.
Six thousand English veterans in stately column tread,
Their cannon blaze in front and flank, Lord Hay is at
their head ;
Steady they step a-down the slope — steady they climb
the hUl ;
Steady they load — steady they fire, moving right on-
Avard still,
BetwLxt the wood and Fontenoy, as through a furnace
blast.
Through rampart, trench, and palisade, and bullets
showering fast ;
And on the open plain above they rose, and kept their
course,
Witli ready fire and grim resolv-e, that mocked at hos-
tile force :
Past Fontenoy, past Fontenoy, while thinner grow their
ranks —
They break, as broke the Zuyder Zee through Holland's
ocean banks.
More idly than the summer flies, French tirailleurs rush
round ;
As stubble to the lava tide, French squadrons strew the
ground ;
Bomb-shell, and grape, and round-shot tore, still on they
marched and fired —
Fast, from each volley, grenadier and voltigcur retired.
FONTENOY. 151
«* Push on, my household cavalry !" King Louis madly
cried .-
To death they rush, but rude their sliock — not una-
venged they died.
On through the camp the column trod — King Louis
turns his rein :
'• Not yet, my liege," Saxe interposed, "the L-ish troops
remain ;"
And Fontenoy, famed Fontenoy, had been a "Waterloo,
Were not these exiles ready then, fresh, vehement, and
true.
IV.
'♦Lord Clare," he says, " you have your wish, there are
your Saxon foes !"
The Marshal almost smiles to see, so furiously he goes !
How fierce the look these exiles wear, who're wont to be
so gay,
The treasured wrongs of fifty years are in their hearts
to-day —
The treaty broken, ere the ink wherewith 'twas writ
could dry,
Their plundered homes, their ruined shrines, their wo-
men's parting cry,
Their priesthood hunted down like wolves, their country
-* overthroAvn, — /
Each looks, as if revenge for all were staked on him
alone.
On Fontenoy, on Fontenoy, nor ever yet elsewhere,
Rushed on to fight a nobler band than these proud exiles
were.
152 HISTORICAL BALLADS.
V.
O'Brien's voice is hoarse Avitli joy, as, halting, he com-
mands,
'Fix bay 'nets" — "charge," — Like mountain storm, rush
on these fiery bands !
Tliin is the English colimin now, and faint their volleys
grow,
Yf t, must'ring all the strength they have, they make a
gallant show.
They dross their ranks upon the hill to face that battle-
wind —
Their bayonets the breakers' foam ; like rocks, the men
behind !
One volley crashes from their line, when, through the
surging smoke,
With empty guns clutched in their hands, the headlong
Irish broke.
On Fontenoy, on Fontenoy, hark to that fierce huzza !
" Revenge ! remember Limerick ! dash down the
Sacsanach !"
VI.
Like lions leaping at a fold, when mad with hunger's
pang,
Kight up against the English line tlie Irish exiles
sprang:
Bright was their steel, 'tis bloody now, their guns arc
filled with gore ;
Through shattered ranks, and severed files, and trampled
flags they tore ;
THE DUNOANNOM CONVENTION. 153
The English strove with desperate strength, j)auseJ, ral-
lied, staggered, fled —
The green hill side is matted elose with dying and with
dead.
Across the plain, and far away passed on that hideous
wrack.
"While cavalier and fantassin dash in upon their track.
On Fontcnoy, on Fontenoy, like eagles in the sun,
^Vith bloody plumes the Irish stand — the field is fought
and won !
THE DUNGANNON CONVENTION.
(1782.)
I.
The church of Dungannon is full to the door,
And sabre and spur clash at times on the floor,
While helmet and shako are ranged all along,
Yet no book of devotion is seen in the throng.
In the front of the altar no minister stands.
But the crimson-clad chief of these warrior bands ;
And though solemn the looks and the voices around,
You'd listen in vain for a litany's sound.
Say ! what do they hear in the temple of prayer ?
Oh ! why in the fold has the lion his lair ?
K 3
154 HISTORICAL BALLADS.
Sad, Avounded, aud wan was the face of our isle,
By English oppression, and falsehood, and guile ;
Yet when to invade it a foreign fleet steered,
To guard it for England the North volunteered.
Erom the citizen-soldiers the foe fled aghast —
Still they stood to their guns when the danger had past.
For the voice of America came o'er the wave,
Crying — "Woe to the tyrant, and hope to the slave [ —
Indignation and shame through their regiments speed
They liave arms in their hands, and what more do they
need ?
III.
O'er the green hills of Ulster their banners are spread.
The cities of Leinster resound to their tread,
The vallies of Munster with ardour are stirred,
And the plains of wild Connaught their bugles have heard ;
A Protestant front-rank and Catholic rere —
For — forbidden the arms of freemen to bear
Yet foeman and frieud are full sure, if need be,
The slave for his country will stand by the free.
By green flags supported, the Orange flags wave,
And the soldier half turns to unfetter tlie slave!
THE DU>fGANNON CONVBNTION. 155
More honoured that church of Dungannon is now.
Than when at its altar communicants bow ;
More welcome to heaven than anthem or prayer,
Are the rites and the thoughts of the warriors there ;
In the name of all Ireland the Delegates swore :
" We've suffered too long, and we'll suffer no more —
Unconquered by Force, we were vanquished by Fraud
And now, in God's temple, we vow unto God,
That never again shall the Englishman bind
Ills chains on our limbs, or his laws on our mind."
The church of Dungannon is empty once more —
No plumes on the altar, no clash on the floor.
But the councils of England are fluttered to see,
In the cause of their country, the Irish agree ;
So they give as a boon what they dare not withhold,
And Ireland, a nation, leaps up as of old.
With a name, and a trade, and a flag of her own.
And an army to fight for the people and throne.
But woe worth the day if to falsehood or fears
She surrender the guns of her brave Volunteers 1
1^0 mSTORICAl- BALLADS.
SONG OF THE VOLUNTEERS OF 1782.
Air — Boyyie Water.
Hurrah ! 'tis done — our freedom's won-
Hurrah for the Volunteers !
No laws we own, but those alone
Of our Commons, King, and Peers.
The chain is broke — the Saxon yoke
From oflf our neck is taken ;
Ireland awoke — Dungannon spoke —
"With fear was England shaken.
11.
When Grattau rose, none dared oppose
The claim he made for freedom :
They knew our swords, to back his words,
Were ready, did he need them.
Then let us raise, to Grattans praise,
A proud and joyous anthem ;
And wealth, and grace, and length of days,
May God, in mercy grant him !
THE VOLUNTEERS. 15]
III.
Bless Harry Elood, who nobly stood
By us, through gloomy years !
Bless Charlemont, the brave and good,
The Chief of the Volunteers 1
The North began ; the North held on
' The strife for native land ;
Till Ireland rose, and cowed her fbes —
God bless the Northern land !
IV.
And bless the men of patriot pen —
Swift, Molyneux, and Lucas ;
Bless sword and gun, which "Free Trade" won-
Bless God ! who ne'er forsook us !
And long may last, the friendship fast.
Which binds us all together ;
While we agree, our foes shall flee
Like clouds in stormy weather.
V.
Remember still, through good and ill,
How vain were prayers and tears —
How vain were words, till flashed the swords
Of the L-ish Volunteers.
By arms we've got the rights we sought
Through long and wretched years
Hurrah ! 'tis done, om' Freedom's won
Hurrah for the Volunteers !
158 HISTORICAL BALLADS.
THE MEN OF 'EIGHTY-TWO
Air. — An Crdiaqhi J An.
To rend a cruel chain,
To end a foreign reign,
The swords of the Vohuiteers were drawn,
And instant from their sway,
Oppression fled away ;
So we'll drink them in a cruisgin Ian, Ian, I'm,
"We'll drink them in a cruiftgln Ian !
Within that host were seen
The Orange, Blue, and Green —
The Bishop for it's coat left his lawn —
The peasant and the lord
Kanked in with one accord,
Like brothers at a cruisgin Ian, Ian, Ian,
Like brothers at a cruisgin Ian /
III.
With liberty there came
Wit, eloquence, and fame ;
Our feuds Avent like mists from tlie dawn
THE MEN OF 'eIGHTY-TWO. 159
Old bigotry disdained —
Old privilege retained —
Oil ! sages, fill a craifigm Ian, Ian, Ian,
And, boys ! fill up a craisgln Ian !
IV.
The trader's cofiers filled.
The barren lands were tilled,
Our ships on the waters thick as spawn —
Prosperity broke forth,
Like summer in the north —
i''e merchants 1 fill a cruisgin Ian, Ian, Ian,
Ye farmers ! fill a cruisgin Ian !
V.
The memory of that day
Shall never pass away,
Tlio' its fame shall be yet outshone;
We'll grave it on our shrines,
We'll shout it in our lines —
Old Ireland ! fill a cruisgin Ian, Ian, Ian,
Young Ireland ! fill a cruisgin Idn !
VI.
And drink — The Volunteers,
Their generals, and seers,
Thoir gallantry, their genius, and their brawn
With water, or with wine —
The draught is but a sign —
The purpose fills the cruisgin Ian, Ian, Ian.
This purpose fills the cruisgin Ian !
160 HISTORICAL BALLADS.
That ere Old Ireland goes.
And while Young Ireland glows,
The swords of our sires be girt on,
And loyally renew
The work of 'Eighty-Two —
Oh ! gentlemen — a cruisghi Ian, Ian, Idn,
Our freedom ! in a cruisg'm Ian !
NATIVE SWORDS.
(a volunteer song 1st jcly, 179"2.)
Air — Boyne Water.
We've bent too long to braggart wrong,
^^'^lile force our prayers derided ;
We've fought too long, ourselves among,
By knaves and priests divided ;
United now, no more we'll bow.
Foul faction, we discard it ;
And now, thank God 1 our native sod
lias Native Swords to guard it.
NATIVE SWORDS,
II.
161
Like rivers, which, o'er valleys rich,
Bring ruin in their water,
On native land, a native hand
Flung foreign fraud and slaughter.
From Dermod's crime to Tudor's time
Our clans were our perdition ;
Religion's name, since then, became
Our pretext for division.
III.
But, worse than all, with Lim'rick'd fall
Our valour seem'd to perish ;
Or, o'er the main, in France and Spain,
For bootless vengeance flourish.
The peasant, here, grew pale for fear
He'd sufier for our glory,
While France sang joy for Fontenoy,
And Europe hymned our story.
IV.
But, now, no clan, nor factious plan,
The East and West can sunder —
Why Ulster e'er should Munster fear,
Can only wake our wonder.
Religion's crost, when union's lost,
And " royal gifts" retard it ;
But now, thank God ! our native sod
Has Native Swords to guard it.
162 HISTORICAL BALLADS.
TONE'S GRAVE.
In Bodensto'WTi Churchyard there is a green grave,
And wildly along it the winter winds rave ;
Small shelter, I ween, are the ruined walls there,
When the storm sweeps down on the plains of Blildare.
II.
Once I lay on that sod — it lies over Wolfe Tone —
And thought how he perished in prison alone,
His friends unavenged, and his country unfreed —
*' Oh, bitter," I said, " is the patriot's meed ;
III.
For in him the heart of a woman combined
With a heroic life, and a governing mind —
A martyr for Ireland — his grave has no stone —
His name seldom named, and his virtues unknoTTi.
IV.
I was woke from my dream by the voices and tread
Of a band, who came into the home of the dead ;
They carried no corpse, and they carried no stone,
And they stopped when they came to the grave of Wolfe
Tone.
tone'« grave. 163
There were students and peasants, the wise and the
brave,
And an old man who knew him from cradle to grave,
And children who thought me hard-hearted ; for they,
On that sanctified sod, were forbidden to play.
VI.
But the old man, who saw I was mourning there, said,
«"We come, sir, to weep where young "VYolfe Tone is
■ laid.
And we're going to raise him a monument, too —
A plain one, yet fit for the simple and true."
VII.
My heart overflowed, and I clasped his old hand,
! And I blessed him, and blessed every one of his band ;
' " SAveet ! sweet ! 'tis to find that such faith can remain
! To the cause, and the man so long vanquished and slain."
VIII.
In Bodenstown Churchyard there is a green grave.
And freely around it let winter winds rave —
Far better they suit him — the ruin and gloom, —
Till Ireland, a Nation, can build him a tomb.
" A Baixad Histokt is welcome to childhood, from its rhymes, Its
high coloming, and its aptness to memory. As we grow into boyhood,
the violent passions, the vague hopes, the romantic sorrow of patriot
ballads are in time with our fitful and luxuriant feeUngs. In man-
hood we prize the condensed narrative, the grave firmness, the criti-
cal art, and the poUtical sway of ballads. And in old age they are
doubly dear ; the companions and reminders of our life — the toys
and teachers of our children and grand-children. Every generation
finds its account in them. They pass from mouth to mouth like salu-
tiitions ; and even the minds which lose their words are imder their
influence, as one can recall the starry heavens who cannot renve the
form of a single constellation.'"— Davis's Essays.
PART Y.
MISCELLANEOUS POEMS.
" Natiokautt is no longer an unmeiining or despised name among
us. It is -welcomed by the higher ranks, it is the inspiration of the
bold, and the hope of the people. It is the smnmarj- name for many
things. It seeks a Literature made by Irislmien, and coloured by our
scenery, manners, and character. It desires to see Art applied to ex-
press Irish thoughts and belief. It would make our Music sound in
every parish at twilight, our Pictures sprinkle the walls of every house,
and our Poetry and Iliatory sit at every hearth.
" It would thus create a race of men faU of a more intensely Irish
character and knowledge, and to that race it would give Ireland. It
would give them the seas of Ireland to sweep with their nets and launch
on with their navy ; the harbours of Ireland, to receive a greater com-
merce than any island in the world ; the soil of Ireland to live on, by
more millions than starve here now ; the fame of Ireland to enhance
by their genius and valour ; the Independence of Ireland to guard by
laws and arms." — Davis's Essays,
MISCELLANEOUS
POEMS.
NATIONALITY.
A nation's voice, a nation's voice —
It is a solemn thing !
It bids the bondage-sick rejoice —
'Tis stronger than a king.
'Tis like the hght of many stars,
The sound of many waves ;
Which brightly look through prison-bars ;
And sweetly sound in caves.
Yet is it noblest, godliest known,
When righteous triumph swells its tone.
168 MISCELLANEOUS POKMS.
II.
A nation's flag, a nation's flag —
K wickedly unrolled,
May foes in adverse battle drag
Its every fold from fold.
But, in the cause of Liberty,
Guard it 'gainst Earth and HeU :
Guard it till Death or Victory —
Look you, you guard it -well !
No saint or king has tomb so proud,
As he whose flag becomes his slroud,
III.
A nation's right, a nation's right —
God gave it, and gave, too,
A nation's sword, a nation's might.
Danger to guard it through.
'Tis freedom from a foreign yoke,
'Tis just and equal laws,
Wliich deal unto the humblest folk,
As in a noble's cause.
On nations fixed in right and truth,
God would bestow eterngl youth.
May Ireland's voice be ever lieard
Amid the world's applause !
And never be her flag-staff stirred,
D»it in an honest cause 1
SELF-RELIANCE.
May Freedom be her very breath,
Be Justice ever dear ;
And never an ennobled death
May son of Ireland fear 1
So the Lord God will ever smile,
With guardian grace, upon our isle.
SELF-RELIANCE,
Though savage force and subtle schemes.
And alien rule, through ages lasting.
Have swept your land like lava streams,
Its wealth, and name, and nature blasting,
Rot not, therefore, in dull despair,
Nor moan at destiny in far lands ;
Face not your foe with hoSom bare.
Nor hide your chains in pleasure's garlands.
The wise man arms to combat wrong.
The brave man clears a deu of lions,
The true man spurns the Helot's song ;
The freeman's friend is Self-Reliance !
L
170 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS.
Thougli France, that gave your exiles bread,
Your priests a home, your hopes a station.
Or that young land, where first was spread
The starry flag of Liberation, —
Should heed your wrongs some future day,
And send you voice or sword to plead 'em,
"With helpful love their help repay,
But trust not even to them for Freedom.
A Nation freed by foreign aid
Is but a corpse by wanton science
Convulsed like life, then flung to fade —
The life itself is Self-Reliance 1
III.
Oh 1 see your quailing tyrant run
To courteous lies, and Roman agents ;
His terror, lest Dungannon's sun
Should rise again with riper radiance.
Oh ! hark the Freeman's welcome cheer.
And hark your brother sufferers sobbing ;
Oh ! mark the universe grow clear,
And mark your spirit's royal throbbing —
'Tis Freedom's God that sends such signs.
As pledges of his blest alliance ;
He gives bright hopes to brave designs,
And lends his bolts to Self-Kcliance !
SWEET AND SAD. 171
Then, flung alone, or hand-in-hand,
In mirthful hour, or spirit solemn ;
In lowly toil, or high command,
In social hall, or charging column ;
In tempting wealth, and trying woe,
In struggling with a mob's dictation ;
In bearing back a foreign foe,
In training up a troubled nation :
Still hold to Truth, abound in Love,
Refusing every base compliance —
Your Praise within, your Prize above,
And live and die in Self-Reliance !
SWEET AND SAD.
A PRISON SERMON.
'Tis sweet to climb the mountain's crest,
And run, like deer-hound, down its breast
'Tis sweet to snuflf the taintless air,
And sweep the sea with haughty stare :
And, sad it is, when iron bars
Keep watch between you and the stars ;
And sad to find your footstep stayed
By prison-wall and palisade :
17- MISCELLANEOUS POEMS.
But 't\rere better be
A prisoner for ever,
With no destiny
To do, or to endeavour ;
Better life to spend
A martyr or confessor,
Than in silence bend
To alien and oppressor.
ir.
'Tis sweet to rule an ample realm,
Tlirough weal and woe to hold the helm ;
And sweet to strew, with plenteous liand,
Strength, health, and beauty, round your land
And sad it is to be unprized,
While dotards rule, unrecognized ;
And sad your little ones to see
Writhe in the gripe of poverty :
But 'twere better pine
In rags and gnawing hunger.
While around you whine
Your elder and your younger ;
Better lie in pain,
And rise in pain to-morrow,
Than o'er millions reign,
While those millions sorrow.
SWEKT AND SAU. 173
III.
'Tis sweet to own a quiet hearth,
Begirt by constancy and mirth ;
'Twere sweet to feel your dying clasp
Returned by friendship's steady grasp :
And sad it is, to spend your life,
Like sea-bird in the ceaseless strife — •
Your lullaby the ocean's roar,
Your resting-place a foreign shore :
But 'twere better live,
Like ship caught by Lofoden,
Than your spirit give
To be by chains corroden ;
Best of all to yield
Your latest breath, when lying
On a victor field.
With the green flag flying !
IV.
Human joy and human sorrow.
Light or shade from conscience borrow ;
The tyrant's crown is lined with flame,
Life never paid the coward's shame :
The miser's lock is never sure,
The traitor's home is never pure ;
Wliile seraphs guard, and cherubs tend
The good man's life and brave man's end
l3
174
MISCELLANEOUS POEMS.
But their fondest care
Is the patriot's prison,
Hjmuing through its air —
•' Freedom hath arisen,
Oft from statesmen's strife,
Oft from battle's flashes,
Oft from hero's life,
Oftenest from his ashes !"
THE BURIAL."
Why rings the knell of the funeral bell from a hundred
village shrines?
Through broad Fingall, where hasten all those long and
ordered lines ?
With tear and sigh they're passing by, — the matron and
the maid —
Has a hero died — is a nation's pride in that cold coffin
laid?
* Written on the funeral of the Rev. V. J. Tyrrell, T. P. of Lusk ;
one of those indicted Tftith OConnell in the government prosecutions
of 1843 Ed.
THK BURIAL. 175
With frown and curse, behind liie hearse, dark men go
tramping on —
Has a tyrant died, that they cannot hide their wrath till
the rites are done ?
THE CHAUNT.
" Ululu ! ululu ! high on the wind,
' ' There's a home for the slave where no fetters can bind.
" Woe, woe to his slayers" — comes wildly along.
With the trampling of feet and the funeral song.
And now more clear
It swells on the ear ;
Breathe low, and listen, 'tis solemn to hear.
" Ululu I ululu ! wail for the dead.
' ' Green grow the grass of Fingall on his head ;
' ' And spring-flowers blossom, ere elsewhere appearing,
** And shamrocks grow thick on the Martyr for Erin.
" Ululu ! ululu ! soft fall the dew
" On the feet and the head of the martyred and true."
For awhile they tread
In silence dread —
Then muttering and moaning go the crowd,
Surging and SAvaying like mountain cloud,
176 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS.
And again the wail comes fearfully loud.
THE CHAUNT.
*' Uhilu ! ululu ! kind was his heart 1
" Walk slower, walk slower, too soon we shall part.
" The faithful and pious, the Priest of the Lor""
" His pilgrimage over, he has his reward.
" By the bed of the sick, lowly kneeling,
" To God with the raised cross appealing —
" He seems still to kneel, and he seems still to pray,
*' And the sins of the dying seem passing away.
" In the prisoner's cell, and the cabin so dreary,
" Our constant consoler, he never grew weary;
"But he's gone to his rest,
' ' And he's now with the blest,
" Where tyrant and traitor no longer molest —
" Ululu ! ululu ! wail for the dead !
" Ululu ! ululu ! here is his bed."
Short was the ritual, simple the prayer,
Deep was the silence and every head bare ;
The Priest alone standing, they knelt all around,
Myriads on myriads, like rocks on the ground.
Elneeling and motionless — "Dust unto dust."
" He died as becometh the faitliful and just —
•' Placing iu God his reliance and trust;"
THE BURIAL. 177
Kneeling and motionless — "ashes to ashes" —
Hollow the clay on the coffin-lid dashes ;
I^eeling and motionless, wildly they pray,
But they pray in their souls, for no gesture have they —
Stern and standing — oh ! look on them now,
Like trees to one tempest the multitude bow ;
Like the swell of the ocean is rising their vow :
THK vow.
We have bent and borne, though we saw him torn
from his home by the tyrant's crew —
And we bent and bore, when he came once more,
though suffering had pierced him tlirough :
' And now he is laid beyond our aid, because to Ireland
true —
■ A martyred man— the tyrant's ban, the pious patriot
slew.
' ' And shall we bear and bend for ever,
* ' And shall no time our bondage sever,
' ' And shall we kneel, but battle never,
" For our own soil?
** And shall our tyrants safely reign
" On thrones built up of slaves and slain,
' ' And nought to us and ours remain
' ' But chains and toil ?
" No ! round this grave our oath we plight,
* ' To watch, and labour, and unite,
' ' Till banded be the nation's might —
' ' Its spirit steeled,
17H MISCELLANEOUS POEMS.
" And then, collecting all our force,
*' We'll cross oppression in its course,
•' And die — or all our rights enforce,
" On battle field.
Like an ebbing sea that will come again.
Slowly retired that host of men ;
Methinks they'll keep some other day
The oath they swore on the martyr's clay.
WE MUST NOT FAIL.
We must not fail, we must not fail,
However fraud or force assail ;
By honour, pride, and policy,
By Heaven itself! — we must be free.
Ji.
Time had already thinned our chain,
Time would have dulled our sense of pain ;
By service long, and suppliance vile.
We might have won our owner's smile.
We spurned the thought, our prison burst.
And dared the despot to tlie worst ;
Renewed the strife of centuries,
And flung our banner to the breeze.
WE MUST NOT FAFL. 179
IV.
We called the ends of earth to view
The gallant deeds we swore to do :
They knew us wronged, they knew us brave,
And, all we asked, they freely gave.
V.
We took the Carving peasant's mite
To aid in winning back his right,
We took the priceless trust of youth ;
Their freedom must redeem our truth.
VI.
We promised loud, and boasted high,
" To break our country's chains, or die;"
And, should we quail, that country's name
Will be the synonyme of shame.
VII.
Earth is not deep enough to hide
The coward slave who shrinks aside ;
Hell is not hot enough to scathe
The ruffian wretch who breaks his faith.
Vlll.
But — calm, my soul ! — we promised true
Her destined v/ ork our land shall do ;
Thought, courage, patience will prevail [
We shall not fail— we shall not fail !
JtiO MISCELLANEOUS POEMS.
O'CONNELL'S STATUE.
(lines to hog an.)
Chisel the likeness of The Chief,
Not in gaiety, nor grief;
Change not by your art to stone,
Ireland's laugh, or Ireland's moan.
Dark her tale, and none can tell
Its fearful chronicle so well.
Her frame is bent — her wounds are deep-
Wlio, like liim, her woes can weep ?
He can be gentle as a bride,
While none can rule with kinglier pride.
Calm to hear, and wise to prove,
Yet gay as lark in soaring love.
"Well it were, posterity
Should have some image of his glee;
That easy humour, blossoming
Like the thousand flowers of spring !
Glorious the marble which could show
His bursting sympathy for woe ;
o'connell's statue.
Could catch the pathos, flowing wild,
Like mother's milk to craving child.
And oh ! how prmcely were the art
Could mould his mien, or tell his heart.
When sit ting sole on Tara's hill,
While hnng a million on his will !
Yet, not in gaiety, nor grief.
Chisel th3 image of our Chief;
Nor even in that haughty hour
When a i lation owned his power.
But wovil 1 you by your art unroll
His own, and Ireland's secret soul,
And give to other times to scan
The greatest greatness of the man ?
Fierce defiance let him be
Hurling at our enemy —
From a bi-se as fair and sure
As our lo^'e is true and pure,
Let his statue rise as tall
And firm as a castle wall ;
On his broad brow let there be
A type of Ireland's history ;
Pious, generous, deep, and warm.
Strong an I changeful as a storm;
Let whole centuries of wrong
Upon his recollection throng —
181
182 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS.
Strongbow's force, and Henry's wile,
Tudor's wrath, and Stuart's guile.
And iron Strafford's tiger jaws,
And brutal Bnmswick's penal laws ;
Not forgetting Saxon faith,
Not forgetting Norman scaith,
Not forgetting "William's word,
Not forgetting Cromwell's sword.
Let the Union's fetter vile —
The shame and ruin of our isle-
Let the blood of 'Ninety-Eight
And our present blighting fate —
Let the poor mechanic's lot,
And the peasant's ruined cot,
Plundered wealth and glory flown,
Ancient honours overthrown —
Let trampled altar, rifled urn,
Knit his look to purpose stern.
MoTild all this into one thought,
Like wizard cloud with thunder fraught ;
Still let our glories through it gleam,
Like fair flowers through a flooded stream,
Or like a flashing wave at night,
Bright, — 'mid the solemn darkness bright.
Let the memory of old days
Shine through the statesman's anxiuus face —
Dathi's power, and Brian's fame,
And headlong Sarsfield's sword of flame^
OCONNEl.i. S STATUE. 183
And the spirit of Red Hugli,
And the pride of 'Eighty-Two,
And the victories he Avon,
And the hope that leads him on !
Let whole armies seem to fly-
Fro in his threatening hand and eye ;
Be the strength of all the land
Like a falchion in his hand,
And be his gesture sternly grand.
A braggart tyrant swore to smite
A people struggling for their right —
O'Connell dared him to the field,
Content to die, but never yield.
Fancy such a soul as his,
In a moment such as this,
Like cataract, or foaming tide,
Or army charging in its pride.
Thus he spoke, and thus he stood,
Proffering in our cause his blood.
Thus his country loves him best
To image this is your behest.
Chisel thus, and thus alone,
If to man you'd change the stone.
184 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS.
HE GREEN ABOVE THE RED
Air — Irish Molly O
FiTLL often vrhcn our fathers saw the Red above the
Greeu,
They rose in rude but fierce array, with sabre, pike, and
scian,
And over many a noble town, and many a field of dead,
They proudly set the Irish Green above the English Red.
II.
But in the end, throughout the land, the shameful sight
was seen —
The English Red in triumph high above the Irish Green ;
But well they died in breach and field, who, as their
spirits fled,
vStill saw the Green maintain its place above the English
Red.
« This, and the three following pieces are properly street ballads.
The reader must not expect depth or finish in verses of this descriptioii,
written for a temporary purpose Ed.
THE GREEN ABOVE THE RED. 185
III.
And they who saw, in after times, the Red above the
Green,
Were withered as the grass that dies beneath a forest
screen ;
Yet often by this healthy hope their sinking hearts were
fed,
That, iu some day to come, the Green should flutter o'er
the Red.
IV.
Sure 'twas for this Lord Edward died, and Wolfe Tone
sunk serene —
Because they could not bear to leave the Red above the
Green ;
And 'twas for this that Owen fought, and Sarsfield nobly
bled—
Because their eyes were hot to see the Green above the
Red.
So, when the strife began again, our darling Irish Green
Was down upon the earth, while high the English Red
was seen ;
Yet still we held our fearless course, for sometliing in us
said,
•' Before the strife is o'er you '11 see the Green above the
Red."
)86 MISCELLANEOUS P0E3IS.
VI.
And 'tis for tliis we think and toil, and knowledge strive
to glean,
That we may pull the English Red below the Irish Green,
And leave our sons sweet Liberty, and smiling plenty
spread
Above the land once dark with blood — the Green above
the Red!
VII.
The jealous English tyrant now has banned the Irisli
Green,
And forced us to conceal it like a something foul and
mean ;
But yet, by Heavens ! he '11 sooner raise his victims
from the dead
Than force our hearts to leave the Green, and cotton to
the Red I
VIII.
We '11 trust ourselves, for God is good, and blesses those
who lean
On their brave hearts, and not upon an earthly king or
queen ;
And, freely as we lift our hands, we vow our blood to
shed
Once and for evermore to raise the Green above the Kcd !
THE VOW OF TIPPERARY. 187
THE VOW OF TIPPERARY.
Air — Tipperary.
I.
From Oaxrick streets to Shannon shore,
Prom Slievenamon to Ballindeary,
From Longford Pass to Gaillte Mor,
Come hear Tuj Vow of Tipperary.
u.
Too long we fbught for Britain's cause,
And of our blood were never chary ;
She paid us back with tyrant laws,
And thinned The Homes of Tipperary.
III.
Too long, with rash and single arm,
The peasant strove to guard his eyrie.
Till Irish blood bedewed each farm,
And Ireland wept for Tipperary.
IV.
But never more we'll lift a hand —
We swear by God and Virgin Mary !
Except in war for Native Land,
And that's The Vow of Tipperary !
188 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS.
A VLEA FOR THE BOG-TROTTERS.
" I' AS E Bog-trotters," says the Times,
" Brown with mud, and black with crimes,
Turf and lumpers dig betimes
(We grant you need 'em),
But never lift your heads sublime,
Nor talk of Freedom."
Yet, Bog-trotters, sirs, be sure.
Are strong to do, and to endure,
Men whose blows are hard to cure- -
Brigands ! what's in ye.
That the fierce man of the moor
iDan't stand again ye ?
111.
The com.non drains in ISIushra moss
Are wider than a castle fosse,
Connaught swamps are hard to cross,
And histories boast
That Allen's Bog has caused the loss
Of many a host.
PLEAS FOR THE BOG-TROTTERS. 189
IV.
Oh ! were you in an Irish bog,
Full of pikes, and scarce of prog.
You'd wish your J'me.s-ship was incoj
Or far away,
Though Saxons, thick as London fog,
Around you lay.
A SECOND PLEA FOR THE BOG-
TROTTERS.
The Mail says, that Hanover's King
Twenty Thousand men will bring,
And make the "base bog-trotters" sing
A pillileu ;
And that O'Connell high shall swing.
And others too.
There is a tale of Athens told,
Worth at least its weight in gold
To fellows of King Erne:.:'s mould,
(The royal rover).
Who think men may be bought and sold,
Or ridden over.
m3
190 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS.
III.
Darius (an Imperial wretch,
A Persian Ernest, or Jack Ketch,)
Bid his knaves from Athens fetch
"Earth and water,"
Or else the heralds necks he'd stretch,
And Athens slaughter.
IV.
The Athenians threw them in a well,
And left them there to help themsel*,
And when his armies came, pell-mell,
Thej tore his banners,
And sent his slaves in shoals to hell,
To mend their manner.-*.
V.
Let those who bring and those who send
Hanoverians, comprehend
Persian-like may be their end.
And the " bog-trotter"
May drown their knaves, their banners rend,
Their armies slaughter.
A SCENE IN THE SOUTH. 191
A SCENE IN THE SOUTH.
I WAS walking along in a pleasant place.
In the county Tipperary ;
The scene smiled as happy as the holy face
Of the Blessed Virgin Mary ;
And the trees were proud, and the sward was green.
And the birds sang loud in the leafy scene.
II.
Yet somehow I felt strange, and soon I felt sad,
And then I felt very lonely ;
I pondered in vain why I was not glad,
In a place meant for pleasure only :
For I thought that grief had never been tliere,
And that sin would as lief to heaven repair.
III.
And a train of spirits seemed passing me by,
The air grew as heavy as lead ;
I looked for a cabin, yet none could I spy
In the pastures about me spread ;
Yet each field seemed made for a peasant's cot,
And I felt dismayed when I saw them not.
192 MISCELLANEOCS POE.MS.
IV.
As I stayed on the field, I saw — Ob, my God !
The marks where a cab'n had been :
Through the midst cf the flelds, some feet of the sod
Were coarser and far less green,
And three or four trees in the centre stood,
But they seemed to freeze in their solitude.
V.
Surelj' here was the road that led to the cot,
For .'t ends just beneath the trees.
And the trees Hke mourrers are watching the spot,
And a miauning with the breeze ;
And their st.^ms are bare with children's play.
But the childi en — where, oh ! where are they ?
VI.
An old man unnoticed had come to my side.
His hand in L\y arm linking —
A reverend man, without haste or pride —
And he said : — ' ' I know what you're thinking ;
"xV cabin stood once onderneath the trees,
"Full of kindly ones — but alas 1 for these !
VII.
" A loving old couple, and tho' somewhat poor,
" Their children had leisure to play ;
"And the piper, and stranger, and beggar were sure
*' To bless them in going away ;
"But the typhus came, and the agent too
" Ah ! need I name the worst of the two ?
A SCENE IN THE SOUTH. 193
VIII.
*' I'heir cot was unroofed, yet they strove to hide
* * In its walls tiU the fever was passed ;
*' Their crime was found out, and the cold ditch side
" Was their hospital at last :
** Slowly they went to poorhouse and grave,
"But the Lord they bent to, their souls will save.
IX.
*• And thro' many a field you passed, and will pass,
" In this lordling's * cleared' demesne,
** Where households as happy were once — but, alas !
" They too are scattered or slain."
Then he pressed my hand, and he went away ;
I could not stand, so I knelt to pray :
X.
* God of justice !" I sighed, " send your spirit down
" On these lords so cruel and proud,
** And soften their hearts, and relax their frown,
•' Or else" I cried aloud —
*' Vouchsafe thy strength to the peasant's hand
*' I'o drive them at length from off the land !"*
• The scene is a mere actual landscape which I saw. — Authok"?
KoiK.
194 BIISCELLANEODS POEMS.
WILLIAM TELL AND THE GENIUS OF
SWITZERLAND.*
Tell. — You have no fears,
My native land !
Then dry your tears,
And draw your brand.
A million made a vow
To free you — Wherefore, now,
Tears again, my native land?
II.
Genius — I weep not from doubt,
I weep not for dread ;
There's strength in your shout.
And trust in your tread.
I weep, for I look for the coming dead,
Who for Liberty's cause shall die ;
And I hear a wail from the widow's bed
Come mixed with our triumph-cry.
Though dire my woes, yet how can I
Be calm when I know such suffering's nigh ?
* J«st bcfoie the insimcction which expelled the Austilans, Tell
and some of his brother conspirators spent a night on the shore of the
Underwald Lake, consulting for liberty-; and ■while they were tlius i-n
WILLIAM TELL. 195
Tell. — ^Deatli comes to all,
My native land !
Weep not their fall —
A glorious band !
Famine and slavery
Slaughter more cruelly
Than Battle's blood-covered hand I
IV.
Genius Yes, and all glory
Shall honour their grave,
"With shrine, song, and story,
Denied to the slave.
Thus pride shall so mingle with sorrow.
Their wives half their weeping will stay ;
And their sons long to tempt on the morrow
The death they encounter to-day.
Then away, sons, to battle away !
Draw the sword, lift the flag, and away !
gaged, the genius of Switzerland appeared to them, and she W£
armed, but weeping. " Why weep you, mother ?" said Tell ; and sh<
answered, "I see dead patriots, and hear their oi'phans wailing;"—
and he said again to her, " The tjTant kills us with his prisons and
taxes, and poisons our air with his presence ; war-death is better ,-"
and she said, " It is better" — and the cloud passed from her brow and
she gave him a spear and bade him conquer — Author's Note.
196 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS.
THE EXILE.
(paraphrased from the FRENCH.)
I.
I've passed througli the nations unheeded, unknown ;
Thougli all looked upon me, none called me their own.
I shared not their laughter — they cared not my moan —
For, ah ! the poor exile is always alone.
II.
At eve, when the smoke from some cottage uprose.
How happy I've tliought, at the weary day's close.
With his dearest around, must the peasant repose ;
But, ah ! the poor exile is always alone.
III.
Where hasten those clouds ? to the land or the sea —
Driven on by the tempest, poor exiles, like mc ?
What matter to either where either shall flee ?
For, ah ! the poor exile is always alone.
IV.
Those trees they are beauteous — those llowers they arc
fair;
But no trees and no flowers of my country are there.
They speak not unto me — they heed not my care ;
For, ah ! the poor exile is always alone.
THE EXILE. 197
V.
Q'hat brook murmurs softly its way through the plain ;
But the brooks of my childhood had not the same strain.
It reminls me of nothing — it murmurs in vain;
For, ah ! the poor exile is always alone.
VI.
Sv^eet are those songs, but their sweetness or sorrow
No c) lari a from the songs of my infancy borrow,
I hear them to-day and forget them to-morrow ;
For, ah ! the poor exile is always alone.
VII.
They've asked me, " Why weep you?" I've told them
my woe —
Ihey listed my words, as the rocks feel the snow.
No symp ithy bound us ; how could their tears flow ?
For, sure the poor exile is always alone.
VIII.
AVhon soft on their chosen the young maidens smile,
]ak(! the dawn of the morn on Erin's dear isle,
With no love-smile to cheer me, I look on the while ;
For, ah ! the poor exile is always alone.
IX.
Like boughs round the tree are those babes round their
m.)ther,
And these friends, like its roots, clasp and grow to each
other ;
Biit, none call me child, and none call me brother;
For, ah ! the poor exile is ever alone.
198 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS.
X.
Wives never clasp, and friends never smile,
Mothers ne'er fondle, nor maidens beguile ;
And happiness dwells not, except in our isle, —
And so the poor exile is always alone.
XI.
Poor exile, cease grieving, for all are like you —
Weeping the banished, the lovely, and true.
Our country is Heaven — 'twill welcome you, too ;
And cherish the exile, no longer alone !
MY HOME.
A DREAM.
I HAVE dreamt of a home — a happy home —
The ficklest from it would not care to roam :
'Twas a cottage home on native ground,
Where all things glorious clustered round —
For highland glen and lowland plain
Met within that small demesne.
In sight is a tarn, with cliffs of fear,
Wliere the eagle defies the mountaineer,
And the cataract leaps in mad career,
And through oak and holly roam the deer.
On its brink is a ruined castle, stem, —
The mountains are crowned with rath and earn,
Robed with heather, and bossed with stone,
And belted with a pine wood lone.
MY HOME. 199
Thro' that mighty gap in the mountain chain.
Oft, like rivers after rain,
Poured our clans on the conquered plain.
And there, upon their harassed rear,
Oft pressed the Norman's bloody spear ;
Men call it " the pass of the leaping deer."
Wild is the region, yet gentle the spot —
As you look on the roses, the rocks are forgot ;
For garden gay, and primrose lawn
Peep through the rocks, as thro' night comes dawn.
And see, by that bum the children play ;
In that valley the vUlage maidens stray,
Listing the thrush and the robin's lay,
Listing the burn sigh back to the breeze.
And hoping — guess whom ? 'mong the thorn trees.
Not yet, dear girls — on the uplands green
Shepherds and flocks may still be seen.
Freemen's toils, with fruit and grain,
The valley fill, and clothe the plain.
There's the health which labour yields
Labour tilling its own fields.
Freed at length from stranger lord —
From his frown, or his reward —
Each the owner of his land,
Plenty springs beneath his hand.
200 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS.
Meet these men on land or sea
Meet them in council, war, or glee ;
Voice, glance, and mien, bespeak them free-
Welcome greets you at their hearth ;
Reverend they to age and worth ;
Yet prone to jest and full of mirth.
Fond of song, and dance, and crowd* —
Of harp, and pipe, and laughter loud ;
Their lay of love is low and bland,
Their wail for death is wild and grand ;
Awful and lovely their song of flame,
When they clash the chords in their country's name.
They seek no courts, and own no sway,
Save the counsels of their elders grey ;
For holy love, and homely faith.
Rule their hearts in hfe and death.
Yet their rifles would flash, and their sabres smite,
And their pike-stafifs redden in the fight.
And young and old be swept away.
Ere the stranger in their laud should sway.
But the setting sun, ere he sink in the sea,
Flushes and flashes o'er crag and tree,
Kisses the clouds with crimson sheen,
And sheets with gold the ocean's green.
• Correctly cruU, the Irish name for the violin. — Autros's Note.
20]
Where the stately frigate lies in the bay,
The friendly fleet of the Frenchmen lay.
Yonder creek, and yonder shore
Echoed then the battle's roar ;
Where, on slope after slope, the west sun shines,
After the fight lay our conquering lines.
The triumph, though great, had cost us dear ;
And the "wounded and dead were lying near —
When the setting sun on our bivouac proud.
Sudden burst through a riven cloud,
An answering shout broke from our men —
Wounds and toils were forgotten then,
And dying men were heard to pray
The light would last till they passed away —
They wished to die on our triumph day.
We honoured the omen, and thought on times gone,
And from chief to chief the word was passed on,
The " harp on the green" our land-flag should be.
And the sun through clouds bursting, our flag at sea,
The green borne harp o'er yon battery gleams,
From the frigate's topgallant the ** sun-burst" streams.
In that far-off isle a sainted sage
Built a lowly hermitage.
Where ages gone made pilgrimage.
Over his grave, with what weird delight.
The grey trees swim in the flooding light :
202 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS.
How a halo clasps their solemn head,
Like heaven's breath on the rising dead.
Longing and languid as prisoned bird,
"With a powerless dream my heart is stirred.
And I pant to pierce beyond the tomb,
And see the light, or share the gloom.
But vainly for such power we pray.
God wills — enough — ^let man obey.
Two thousand years, 'mid sun and storm,
That tall tower has lifted its mystic form.
The yew-tree shadowing the aisle,
'Twixt airy arch and mouldering pile,
And nigh the hamlet that chapel fair
Shew religion has dwelt, and is dwelling there.
While the Druid's crom-leac up the vale
Tells how rites may change, and creeds may faiL
Creeds may perish, and rites may fall,
But that hamlet worships the God of all.
In the land of the pious, free, and brave,
Was the happy home that sweet dream gave.
But the mirth, and beauty, and love that dwell
Within that home — I may not tell.
MY GRAVE. 203
MY GRAVE.
Shall they bury me in the deep,
Where wind-forgetting waters sleep ?
Shall they dig a grave for me,
Under the green- wood tree ?
Or on the wild heath,
Where the wilder breath
Of the storm doth blow ?
Oh, no ! oh, no !
Shall they bury me in the Palace Tombs,
Or mider the shade of Cathedral domes ?
Sweet 'twere to lie on Italy's shore ;
Yet not there — nor in Greece, though I love it more.
In the wolf or the vulture my grave shall I find ?
Shall my ashes career on the world-seeing "vnnd ?
Shall they fling my corpse in the battle mound,
Where coflSnless thousands lie imder the ground ?
Just as they fall they are buried so—
Oh, no ! oh, no I
No ! on an Irish green hill-side,
On an opening lawn — ^but not too wide ;
204 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS.
For I love the drip of the wetted trees —
I love not the gales, but a gentle breeze,
To freshen the turf— put no tombstone there,
But green sods decked -with daisies fair ;
Nor sods too deep, but so that the dew,
The matted grass-roots may trickle througli.
Be my epitaph writ on my country's mind,
"He served his country, and loved his kind.
Oh 1 'twere merry unto the grave to go,
If one were sure to be buried so.
'Oy yap (piXel OeoQ y\ airoQvi)aKit ydoQ,
APrENPIX.
ADVERTISEMENT.
It was at first the mtention of the Editor, that the fol-
lowing Appendix should include illustrations of all the
Historical Ballads ; but want of space has compelled liim
to omit several papers which were in preparation. He
hopes to remedy this defect in a future edition.
Tlie Glossary of Irish Plirases, which has been referred
to in some of the notes, is likewise unavoidably post-
poned for the present. It will appear in the next edi-
tion.
\
APPENDIX.
Deep sunk in that bed is the sword of Monro,
Since, twixt it and Donag\* Tie met Owen Eoe,
Poems, page 5.
The Blackwater in Ulster is especially remarkable as the scene of
the tv\-o most memorable victories obtained by the Irish over the Eng-
lish power for several centnries past. The particulars of these battles
are so little kno-wn, that it is hoped the following accounts of them,
taken from the best accessible sources, will be acceptable to the reader.
The first is from the pen of Mb. Davis.
THE BATTLE OF BENBURB.
(5th Jrs-E, 1646.)
The battle of Benburb was fought upon the slopes of ground, now
called the Thistle Hill, from being the property of the Thistles, a family
of Scotch farmers, now represented by a fine old man of over eighty
» So this line runs, as originally published, and ILke-nise in the text
of the present edition. But I have a strong suspicion that the author
wrote it — "Since "twixt it and Oonagh," &c., meaning the river
Oonagh. Vide description of the battle, especially the first paragraph.
1 would not, however, alter the text, without some search after the
origin;il MS. ; or, in defiiult of that, a critical examination of the topo-
graphy of a district, in the description of which so many eiTors have
been committed — Ed.
208 APPENDIX.
years. This ground is two and a quarter miles in a right line, or three
by the road, from the church of Benbm-b, and about six miles below
Caledon, in the countj- TjTone ; in the angle between the Blackwater
and the Oonagh, on the llenburb side of the latter, and close to Battle-
ford Biidge. We are thus p;irticular in mai-kiug the exact place,
because of the blunders of many writers on it.
Jlajor General Kobert Monro landed with several thousand Scots at
CaiTickfergus, in the middle of April, 164-2, and on the "iStli and 2yth
■was joined by Lord Conway and Colonel Chichester, &c., with 1800
foot, five troops of horse, and two of dragoons. Early in May, a junc-
tion was effected between Monro and Titchborae, and an army of 12,000
foot, and between 1,000 and 2,000 horse, was made up. Yet, with this
vast force, Monro achieved nothing but plunder, unless the ti'eacherous
seizure of Lord Antiim be an exception. Thus was the spring of 1 642
wasted. Yet, so overwhelming was Alonros force, that the Irish chiefs
were thinking of gi\ing up the war, when, on the 13th July, Owen
KoE Mac-Art OX kill landed at Doe Castle, count)- Donegal, and
received the command.
Owen Hoe was born in Lister, and at an early age entered the
Spanish— the imperial service— influenced, doubtless, by the same
motives that led Marshal Mac Donald into the French — that "the gates
of promotion were closed at home." Owen, from his great connexions
and greater abilities, rose rapidly, and held a high post in Catalonia.
We have heard, through Dr. Gartland, the worthy head of the Sala-
manca College, that Eugenio Rufo is still remembered there. He held
AiTas m 1(J40 against the French, and (says Carte) -'surrendered it at
'•last upon honourable teiTus, yet his conduct in tlie defence was such
"as gave him great reputation, and proceed him extraordinii-y
"respect even from the enemy."
Owen was sent for at the first outbreak in 1641, but it was not till
the latter end of Jime, 1642, that he embaiked from Dunkirk, •with
many of the officers and men of his own regiment, and supplies of anns.
He sailed round the nortli of Scotland to Donegal, wliile another
frigate brought similar succom-s to \\ ex ford, under Ilenrj' OXeill and
Richard O'Fan-ell. Owen was uumeili.itely conducted to Chailcmont,
and Invested with the command of Ulster.
Immediately on Owens landing, Lesley, Earl of Leven, and General
of the Scotch troops, wrote to him, saying " he wtis sony a man of his
reputation and experience abroad, should come to Irekuid for the
maintaining of so bad a cause;" and advising his retm'u! O'Neill
replied, " he had more reason to come to relieve the deplorable state of his
country, than Lesley had t^ march at the head of an army into Eng-
land against his kijig, at a time when tlu-y (the Scots) were already
BATTLE OF BENBURB. 209
masters of all Scotland." No conti-ast could be greater or better put.
Lord Lcvcn immediately embarked for Scotland, telling Jlonro, whom
he left in command, " that he would certainly be ousted, if O'Neill
once got an army together." And so it tirnied out. Owen sustained
himself for four years against Monro on one side and Ormond on the
other— harassed by the demands of the other pro\incial generals, and
distressed for want of pnnisions— defying Jlonro by any means to
compel him to fight a battle until he was ready for it. But at length,
ha\ing his ti'oops in fine fighting order, he fought and won the greatest
battle fought in Ireland since the " Yellow Ford." But wc must tell
how this came about.
Throughout 1643, and in the summer of 1643, Slonro made two
attempts to beat up O'Neill's quarters ; and though the Irish General
had not one tenth of ^Monro's force, he compelled him to retire with loss
into Antrim and Down. Assailed by Stewart's army on the Donegal
side, Owen Roe retreated into Longford and Leitrim, hopuig in the
rugged districts to nurse up an army which would enable him to meet
Monro in the field-
By the autimin of 164", after ha\ing suffered many trifling losses, he
had got together a militia army of 3,000 men, and the cessation having
been concluded, he marched into ileath, joined Sir James Dillon, and
reduced the entire district. In 1644, Monro's army amounting to
13,000 men, — OXeill, after having for a short time occupied great
part of LTster, agam returned to Noi-th Leinster. Here he was joined
by Lord Castlehaven with 6,000 men; but except tiifling skirmishes,
no engagement took place, and Castlehaven returned, disgusted with
a wai-, which he had not patience to value, nor profundity to practise.
1645 passed over in similar skirmishes, in which the country suffered
terribly from the plundering of Monro's army.
The leaders imder Owen Roe were, Sir Phelim O'Neill, and his
brother Turlough; Con, Connac, Hugh, and Brian O'Neill; and the
following chieftains -with their clans:— Bernard Mac Mahon, the son of
Hugh, chief of IMonaghan, and Baron of Daitry ; Colonel Mac Mahon,
Colonel Patrick Mac Neney (who was manied to Helen, sister of
Bernard Mac Mahon) ; Colonel Richard O'Ferrall of Longford ; Roger
Maguire of Fermanagh ; Colonel Philip O'Reilly, of BaUjTiacargy castle
in the county of Cavan (who was manied to Rose O'Neill, the sister of
Owen Roe) ; and the valiant Maolmora O'Reilly (kinsman to Philip),
who from his great strength and deteiTuined bravery, was called Miles
the Slasher. The O'Reillys brought 200 chosen men of their own
name, and of the Mac Bradys, :\rac Cabes, Mac Gowans, Fitzpatricks,
and Fitzsimons, from Cavan. Some fighting men were also brought
by Mac Gavuran of Templeport, and Mac Tenian of Croghan; some
n3
210 APPENDIX.
Connanght forces came, with the O'Rorkes, Mac Dermotts, O'Connors
and O'Kellys; there came also some of the O'Donnells and O'Doghertys
of Donegal; Manus O'Cane of Deny; Sir Constantine Magennis, county
of Do'ma ; the OHanlons of Armagh, regal standard hearers of Ulster;
and tlie O'Hagans of TjTone.
Lords Bhiney, Conway, and Montgomery commanded mider Monro.
In the spring of 1(J46, Owen Roe met the Nmicio at Kilkenny, and
received from the council an ampler provision than heretofore ; and
by May he had completed his force under it to 5,000 foot and 500
horse. Tliis army consisted partly of veterans trained by the fom-
preceding campaigns, and partly of new levies, whom he rapidly
bronghtjnto discipline by his organising genius, ^d his stem punish-
ments.
With this force he marched into the coimty Armagh, and Monro,
hearing of his movements, advanced against him by rapid marches,
hoping to surprise him in Armagli citv'. Monros forces consisted, ac-
cording to all the best authorities, of C.OOO foot, 800 horse, and 7 field-
pieces; though some accounts raise his foot to 8,500, and he hinvself
lowers it in his apologetic dispatch to 3,400, and states his field-piecos
ate.
Simultaneously with Monro's advance, his brother, Colonel George
Monro, marched from Coleraine, along tlie west shore of Loch Neagh,
with three troops of horse ; and a jimction was to have been eflfected
between the two Monros and the TjTconnell forces at Glasslough, a
place in the count}- ilonaghan, but only a few miles S.W. of Armagh.
On the 4tli of Jime Owen Roe marched from Glasslough to Benburb,
confident, by means of the river and hilly countrj-, that he could pre-
vent the intended junction. Monro bivouacked the same night at
Hamilton's Bawn, four mUes from Armagh. Before dawn, on Friday,
the 5th, Monro marched to Armagh town, bm-ning houses, and wasting
crops, as he advanced. I" earful lest his brother, who had reached
Dungannon, should be cut off, he marched towards Benburb, and on
finding the strength of the Irish position there, advanced up the riglit
bank of the Blackwater, hoping to tempt Owen from his ground. In
the mean time a body of Irish horee, detached against George Monro,
had met him near Dungannon, and checked liis advance, though with
some loss.
A good part of the day was thus spent, and it was two o'clock in the
afternoon before Monro crossed the Blackwater at Kiuuird (now Ca-
ledon), and led his anny down the left bank of the river ag^iiust
O'Neill. Tins advance of O^vcns to BallykUgavin, was only to con-
simic time and wciuy the enemy, for he shortly after retreated to
Knocknacliagh, where he had deteiuiuied to fiijht. It was now piiat
BA riVLE OF liKNBUKU. 211
four o'clock, when the enemy's foot adviinced in a double line of co-
lumns. The first line consisted of five, and the second of four columns,
much too close for manoeuvring. The Irish front consisted of four,
and the resei-ve of three divisions, with ample room.
O'Neill's position was defended on the right by a wet bog, and on
the left by the junction of the lilackwater and the Oonagh. In his
front was rough, hillocky gi-ound, covered " vnth scrogs and bushes."
Lieutenant-Colonel Richard O'Farrell occupied some strong ground
in advance of Owen's position, but Colonel Cunningham, with 500
musketeers, and the field-pieces, earned the pass, andO'FaiTell etfected
his retreat >\ith little loss, and no disorder. Tlie field gmis were
pushed in advance by Monro with most of his cavtdry, but Owen kept
the main body of his liorse in reserve.
A good deal of skirmishing took place, and though the enemy had
gained much ground, his soldiers were growing weary, it was five
o clock, and the evening sun of a clear and fiery Jmie glared in their
faces. While in this state, a body of cavahy was seen advancing from
the north-west; Monro declared them to be his brother's squadrons,
and became confident of success. But a fcAv minutes sufficed to unde-
ceive him, — they were the detachments, vuider Colonels Bernard ilac
Mahon and Patiick Jlac Xeney, retm'nmg from l)vmi;annon, after
having di-iven George Monro back upon liis route.
The Scotch musketeei-s continued for some time to gain ground
along the banks of the Oon;tgh, and threatened Ovvens left, till the
light cavaliy of the Msh broke in among them, sabred many, di"ove
the rest across the stream, and returned without any loss. The battle
now became general. The Scotch cannon posted on a slope annoyed
O'Neill's centi e, and there seemed some danger of ilonro s manoeuv-
ring to the west sufficiently to communicate -with George ilonros corps.
Owen, tlierefore, decided on a general attack, keeping only Koiy Ma-
guire's regiment as a reserve. His foot moved on in steady columns,
and Ms horse in the spaces between the first and second charge of his
masses. In vain did ^I euro's cavaliy charge tliis determined mfantry ;
it threw back from its face squacUon after squadron, and kept con-
stantly, rapidly, and evenly advancing. In vain did Lord Blauey take
pike in htmd, and stand in the ranks. Though exposed to the play of
Monro's gims and musketry, the Irish infantry charged up hill with-
out firing a shot, and closed with sabre and pike. They met a gallant
resistance. Blaney and his men held their gTound long, till the su-
perior ^^vacity and fi'esluiess of the Irish clansmen bore him down.
An attempt Avas made with the columns of the rere line to regain
the gi-ound ; but ti-om the confined space in which they were drawn up,
the attempt to manoiuATe them only produced disorder ; and just as
212 APPENDIX.
this moment, to complete theii- ruin, O'Neills cavalry, ■wheeling by the
flanks of his colimins, charged the Scotch cavalrj', and drove them
T>ell-mell upon the shaken and confused infantry. A total route fol-
lowed. Monro, Lord Conway, Captain Bmke, and forty of the horse-
men escaped across the Blackwater, but most of the foot were cut to
piece?, or drowned in the river. 3,423 of the enemy were found on
the battle-field, and Lord Jlontgomery, with 21 officers and 150 men
were taken prisoners. OXeill lost 70 killed (including Colonel llanua
Mac Xcill and Garve O'Donnell). and' 200 wovmded (including Lt.-Col.
OTarrell and Phelim Mac Tuohill O'Neill). He took all the Scots
artilK'ry. twenty stand of colours, and all the arms, save those of Sir
James Montgomer>% whose regiment being on Monro's extreme right,
efTectcd its retreat in some order. 1,500 draft horses and two months'
provisions were also taken, but, unfortunately, Monro's ammunition
blew up shortly after the battle was won. Monro fled without coat or
wig to Lislium. Moving from thence he commanded everj^ household
to fumltiD two musketeers; he wrote an apologetic and deceptious dis-
patch to the liish committee in London, burnt Dundrmn, and deserted
most of I'own. Put all his eft'orts would have been in vain ; for O'Neill,
having increased his anny by Scotch deserters and fic-sh levies, to
10,000 foot and 21 troops of horse, was in the very act of breaking in
on him. with a certainty- of expelling the last invader from Lister,
when the fatal command of the Nmicio reached Owen at Tandcragee,
ordering him to march soutliward to support that factious ecclesiastic
against the peace. O'Neill, in an unhappy hour, obeyed the Nuncio,
abandoned the fmits of liis splendid victory, and marched to Kilkenny.
II.
And Charlemont's cannon
Sleie matiu a man on
These meaMws belotc.
Poems, page 5.
The following passage will sufficiently explain tliis allusion:—
" Early in June (1602) Lord Slountjoy marched by Dundallc to
Armagh, and from thence, without intemiption, to the banks of
the r>lackwater, about five miles to the easnv.ard of Portmorc, and
nearer to Lough Neagh. He sent Sii- J.'icliard JIor)son to tlio
BATTLE OF BE AL-AN-ATH A-BUIDHE. 213
nortli bank of the river, commenced the building of a bridge at that
point, and a castle, which he named Charlemont, fi'om his own chris-
tian name, and stationed a garrison of one himdred and fifty men
there, under the command of Captain Toby Caulfield— the founder of
a noble fumily, which has held that spot from that day to this ; but
which afterwards (as is usual with settlers in Ireland) became more
Irish than many of the Irish themselves."
Mitchells Life of Aodh O'Neill, p. 219.
Vide Irish Penny Journal fqr 1841-2, p. 217.
III.
And yonder Red Hugh
Marshal Bagenal o'erthrew
On £eal-an-aiha-buidhe.
Poems, page 6.
THE BATTLE OF BEAL-AN-ATliA-BUIDHE.
(10th August, 1595.)
" Tlie tenth morning of August rose bright and serene upon the
towers of Armagh and the silver waters of Avonmore. Before day
dawned, the English anny left the citj- in three divisions, and at sua-
rise they were winding through the hills and woods behind the spot
where now stands the Uttle chmxh of Grange. The sim was glancing
on the corslets and spears of their glittering cavahy; their banners
waved proudly, and their bugles rung clear in the morning air; when,
suddenl)', from the thickets on both sides of thek path, a deadly volley
of musketry swept through the foremost ranks. Neill had stationed
here five huncb-ed hght- armed ti-oops to guard the defiles; and in the
shelter of thick groves of fir-trees they had silently waited for the
enemy. Now they pom-ed in their shot, volley after volley, and killed
great numbers of the English : but the first division, led by Bagnal in
person, after some hard figliting, cimied the pass, dislodged the marks-
men from their position, and drove them backwards into the plain. —
The centime divi-^ion under Cosby and Wingfield, and the rear guard
led by Cuin and Billing, supported in flank by the cavalry imder
Brooke, Moutacute and Fleming, now pushed foiTN-ard, speedily cleared
the difucult covmtry, and fomied in the open gi'ound in ti-ont of the
Irish lines. ' It was not quite safe,' says an Irish chronicler, in adrui-
214 APPENDIX.
ration of Bagnal's disposition of his forces) ' to attack the nest of grif-
fins and den of lions in which were placed the soldiers of London.'
Lagnal, at the head of his first division, and aided by a body of cavalry,
charged the Irish light-armed troops up to the very entrenchments, in
front of which O'Neills foresight had prepared some pits, covered over
with wattles and grass; and many of the English cavalry rushing im-
petuously forward, rolled headlong, both men and horses, into these
trenches and perislied. Still the Jlarshal's chosen troops, with loud
cheers and shouts of 'St. George, for meiT>' England!' resolutely at-
tacked the entrenchments that stretched across the pass, battered them
with cannon, and in one place succeeded, though with heavj- loss, in
forcing back their defenders. Then first the main body of O'Xeill's
troops was brought into action ; and with bag-pipes sounding a charge,
they fell upon the English, shouting their fierce batUe-cries, Lamh-
dtarg! and O'DomhnaiU Aim! O'Neill himself, at the head of a body of
horse, pricked forward to seek out Bagnal amidst the throng of battle;
but they never met : the marshal, who had done his devoir that day
like a good soldier, was shot through the brain by some unknown
marksman : tlie division he had led was forced back by the fuiious on-
slaught of the Irish, and put to utter rout; and, what added to their
confusion, a cart of gunpowder exploded amidst the English ranks
and blew many of their men to atoms. And nov the cavalry of Tyr-
connell and Tyr-owen dashed into the plain and bore down the rem-
nant of Brooke's and Fleming's horee: the columns of V.ingfield and
Cosby reeled before tlieir nishing charge — while in front, to the war-cry
of Batailkt Abu! the swords and axes of the hea^'>•-armed galloglasses
were raging amongst the Saxon ranks. By this time the cannon were
all taken ; tlie cries of ' St. George' had failed, or turned into death-
shrieks; and once more, England's royal standard sunk before the Red
Hand of Tyr-owen.
"The last who resisted was the ti-aitor O'Reilly : twice he tried to
rally the flying squadrons, but was slain in the attempt: and at last the
whole of that fine army was utterly routed, and fled pell-mell towards
Annagli, ■\Nith tiie Irish hanging fiercely on their rear. Amidst the
woods and marshes all connexion and order were speedily lost ; and as
(TDonnell's chronicler has it, they were ' pursued in couples, in threes,
in scores, in thirties, and in hundreds." and so cut down in detail by
their avenging pui-suers. In one spot especially the caniage was ter-
rible, and the countrj- people yet point out the lane where that liideous
rout passed by, and call it to this day the ' Bloody Loaning.' Two
thousand five Imndi-cd English were slain in the battle and fii»rht, in-
cluding twenty-three superior officers, besides lieutenants and ensigns.
Twelve thousand gold pieces, thirty-four standards, all the musical
CYMRIC RULE AND CYMRIC RULERS. 215
instruments and cannon, with a long train of provision waggons, wero
a rich spoil for tho Irish anny. The confederates had only two hundred
slain and six hundred wounded."
MilcMVs Life of Aodh O^Neill, pp. 141—144.
IV.
CYMRIC RULE AND CYMRIC RULERS.
J Poems, page 14.
This poem has less title than any other in Part I. to be ranked among
National {i. e. either in subject, or by aim or allusion, Irish) Ballads
and Songs, unless the afBnity of the CjTnric with the Irish Celts, and
the fact that the author himself was of Welsh extraction by the fa-
ther's side, be considered a sufficient justification.
Mr. Da^is was veiy fond of the air—" The March of the men of
Harlech," to which this poem is set. To evince his strong pai-tiality
for, and syropathy with, the Welsh people, it is enough to quote the
following passages from one of his political essays. —
" Wc just now opened M'CuIlocKs Geographical Dictionary., to ascer-
tain some Welsh statistics, and found at the name " Wales" a reference
to " England and Wales," and at the latter title nothing distinct on the
Principality ; and what was there, was rather inferior to the Informa-
tion on Cumberland, or most English counties.
" * And has time, then,' we said, ' mouldered away that obstinate
and fiery tiibe of Celts which baflaed the Plantagenets, which so often
trod upon the breasti^lates of the Norman, wliich sometimes bent in
the summer, but ever rose when the fierce elements of winter came to
aid the native ? Has that race passed away which stood under Llewel-
lyn, and rallied under Owen Glendower, and gave the Dragon flag and
Tudor kings to England ? Is the prophecy of twelve himdred years
false — 'are the people and tongue passed away ?'
*'No! spite of the massacre of bards, and the burning of records —
spite of political extinction, there is a million of these Kymrys in
Wales and its marches; and nine out of ten of these speak their old
tongue, follow their old customs, sing the songs which the sleepers
upon Snowdon made, have their religious rites in KjTnric, and hate
the Logi-ian as much as ever their fathers did. * * *
" Twenty-nine Welsh members could do much if imited, more espe-
cially if they would co-operate with the Irish and Scotch members in
demanding their share of the imperial expenditure ; or what would be
safer and better, in agitating for a local council to administer the local
■2\6 APPENDIX.
affairs of the Principality. A million of the Kjthit, who are still |
apart in their mountains, who have immei^se mineral resources, and |
some good harbom-s, one ( ililford; the best in Britain, and who are of ;
our blood, nearly of our old and un-English language, have as good a
right to a local senate, as the 700,000 people of Greece, or the half mil-
lion of Cassel or ilecklenburgh have to independence, or as each of
the States of America has to a local congress. Localisation by means
of Federahsm seems the natural and best resource of a country like
Wales, to guard its purse, and language, and character, from imperial
oppression, and its soil from foi-eign invasion. As powers run, it is not
like Ireland, quite able, if free, to hold her ovra ; but it has importance
enough to entitle it to a local congress for its lociil affairs."
THE IRISH HU^IR All.)
I Poems, page 20.
The second stanza of this poem, as it appears in the text, was
omitted by the author in a later copy ; it would seem, with a view of
adapting it better to the air to which it is set.
VI.
A CHRISTMAS SCENE. .
Poems, page 64.
The first sketch of this poem differs a good deal fi-om that in the
text. It is so pleasing, that it is given here, as originally published.
It wi« then entitled:
: A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
I.
The hill-blast comes howling from leaf-rifted trees,
Which late were as harp-sti'ings to each gentle breeze;
The sport:>men have parted, the blue-stockings gone,
While we sit happy-hearted — together, alone, j
II.
The glory of nature through the window has charms.
But N\-ithin, gentle Kate, you Ye entwined in my arms;
The sportsmen may seek for snipe, woodcock and hare —
The snow is on their cheek, on mine your black hair.
FATE OF KING DATHI. 217
III.
The painters may rave of the light and the shade,
The blues and the poets of lake, hill, and glade ;
While tlie liglit of your eye, and your soft wavy form
Suit a proser hko me by the hearth bright and warm.
IV.
My Kate, I'm so happy, your voice whispers soft,
And your cheek fluslies wilder by kissing so oft ;
Should om* kiss grow less fond, or the weatlier serene, '
Forth together we'll wander to see each loved scene.
V.
And at eve, as the sportsmen and pedants will say.
As they swallow their dinner, how they spent the day,
Your eye, roguish-smiling, to me only -ftoll say
That more sweetly than any, you and I spent the day.
VII.
THE FATE OF KING DATHI.
Poems, p. 77.
The real adventures of this warlike king, the last of the Pagan mo-
nai'chs of Ireland, and like-n-ise the last who extended his conquests to
the continent of Europe, are, like too much of the ancient annals of this
country, obscured by the mixture of pious or romantic legends with
authentic history. An accurate account of Dathi, and Ms immediate
predecessors will be found] in the Addenda to Mr. O'Donovan's excel-
lent edition of the Tribes and Customs of the Ui-Fiachrach, printed for
the Irish Archteological Societj- ; from which the following passages
are extracted.
" In the life-time of Xiall of the Nine Hostages, Brian, his brother of
the half blood, became King of Connaught, and his second brother of
the half-blood, Fiachra, the ancestor of the O'Dowds and all the Ui-
Fiachrach tribes, became chief of the district extending from Cam
Fearadhaigh, near Limerick, to ]\ragh Mucroime, near Athenry. But
dissensions soon arose between Brian and his brother Fiachra, and the
result was that a battle was fought betsveen them, in which the latter
was defeated, and deUvered as a hostage into the hands of his half-
brother, Niall of the Nine Hostages. After this, however, Dathi, a
very warlike youth, waged war on his uncle Brian, and challenged him
to a pitched battle, at a place called, Damh-cluain,'not far from Knock-
218 APPENDIX.
mca-liiU, near Tuam. In tliis battle, in whicli Datbi was assisted by
Crimthann, son of Enna Cennselocb, Iviug of Leinster, Brian and bis
forces were routed, and pursued from the field of battle to Fulcha
Dombnaill, where he was overtaken and slain by Ciimthann. * * *
" After the fall of Brian, Fiachra was set at libertj' and installed
King of Connaught, and enjoyed that dignitj- for twelve years, diu'ing
which period he was genend of the forces of his brother Xiall. * •
According to the book of Lecan, this Fiachra had five sons, of which
the most eminent were Dathi, and Amhalgaidli (riiJgo Awley) King of
Connaught, who died in the year 449. The seven sons of this Amhal-
gaidh, together with twelve thousand men, are said to have been bap-
tized in one day by St Patrick, at FoiTach Mac n'Amhalgaidh, near
Killala.
" On the death of his father Fiachra, Dathi became King of Con-
naught, and on the death of his imcle, Xiall of the Nine Hostages, he
became Monarch of Ireland, leaving the government of Connaught to
his less warlike brother Amhalgaidh. King Dathi, following the ex-
ample of his predecessor, Xiall, not only invaded the coasts of Gaul,
but forced his way to the very foot of the Alps, where he was killed by
a flash of lightning, leanng the throne of Ireland to be filled by a line
of Christian kings."
Tribes and Customs of the Ui-Fiachrach — Addenda, pp. 344 — C
VIII.
AKGAN MOR.
Poems, page S2.
Mr. Davis was verj' fond of the air, for which this poem was com-
posed, and which suggested its name. It is a simple air, of great an-
tiquity, preserved in Buntings Third Collection, where it is No. V. of
the airs marked "veiy ancient." The followmg is Mr. Bmiting's ac-
count of it : —
*• Argan Mor. — An Ossianlc air, still sung to the words preserved by
Dr. Yoiuig, and published In the first voliune of the Transactions of
the Royal Ii-i.^h Academy. The editor took down the notes from the
singing, or rather recitation, of a native of ^Miuioch, in the county of
Antrim. This sequestered distiict lies along the sea-shore, between
Tor Point and Fair Head, and is still rife with traditions, both r.uvsi-
cal and legendary. From the neighbouring ports of Cushendmi and
Cashendall was the principal line of communication with Scotland ; and,
doubtless, it was by this route that the Ossianic poems themselves found
their way into that cowwivy."— Ancient Music of Jiclanti—Vvc^acc, p. S"^
o'sullivan's return. 219
IX.
THE TIIUE IRISH KIXG.
Poems, page 85.
In an essay on Ballad History, Mr. Davis refers to this poem, as an
attempt to shew how the materials and hints, scattered through anti-
quarian volumes, may be brought together and presented with effect
in a poetical fonn. The subject is one involved in unusual obscurity,
considering its importance in Irish History. The chief notices of the
custom have been collected by Jlr. ODonovan in the Addenda to his
edition of the Tribes and Customs of the Ui-Fiaclirach, pp. 42.5 — 452, to
which work the reader is referred, who may wish to ti'ace the disjecta
membra poematis, in the scattered hints and ti'aditions of which Mr.
Davis has availed himself.
X.
OSULLIVAXS RETURX.
Toems, page 104.
The folloA\-ing description was prefixed to this ballad by the author,
on its first publication: — •
" Tills ballad is founded on an ill-remembered storj' of an Iilsh
chief, returning after long absence on the Continent, and being wrecked
and dl■o^vned close to his own castle.
" The scene is laid in Bantry Baj', which runs up into the coimtj- of
Cork, in a north- easterly dii-ection. A few miles from its mouth, on
yom- left-hand as j^ou go up, lies Beare Island (about seven miles long),
and between it and the mainland of Beare lies Beare Haven, one of
the finest harbours in the world. Dunboy Castle, near the present
Castletown, was on the main, so as to command the south-western en-
trance to tlie haven.
" Further up, along the same shore of Beare, is Adragoole, a small
gulf off Bantiy Bay.
" The scene of the wreck is at the south-eastern shore of Beare
Island. A ship, steering from Spain, by Mizenhead for Dunboy, and
caught by a southerly gale, if miable to rovmd the point of Beare and
to make the Haven, should leave herself room to nm up the bay, to-
wards Adragoole, or some other shelter."'
220 APPENDIX.
XI.
—Dunbicy is lying loicly.
The halh ichere mirth and minstrelsy
Than Beara's wind rose louder.
Are flung in masses lonelily,
And black with English poicder.
Poems, pp. Ill, 112.
The destruction of O'Sullivan's Castle of Diuiboy or Dunbwj', (cor-
rectly Dunbaoi or Bunbuidhe) is well described by Mr. Mitchel: —
"Mountjoy spent that spring in Miinster, with the President, re-
ducing those fortresses wliich still remained in the hands of the Irish,
and fiercely crushing dowTi every vestige of the national war. Rich-
aril TyiTcll, however, still kept the field ; and OSuUivan Beare held
his strong castle of Dun-buidhe, which he ^Tested fi-om the Spaniards
after Don Juan liad stipulated to yield it to the enemy.* This castle
commanded Bantiy Day, and was one of the most important fortresses
in M mister; and therefore Carew determined, at whatever cost, to
make himself master of it. Dun-buidhe was but a square tower, with
a court -yard and some out-works, and had but 140 men; yet it was so
sti-ongly situated, and so bravely defended, that it held the Lord Pre-
sident and an anny of four thousand men, with a great train of artil-
ler>- and some ships of war, fifteen days before its walls. After a
breach was made, the storming parties were twice driven back to their
lines ; and even after the great hall of the castle was carried, the gar-
rison, under their indomitable commander, Mac Geohegan, held their
ground in the vaults undenieath for a whole day, and at last fairly
beat the besiegers out of the hall. The English cannon then played
furiously upon the walls; and the President swore to burj- these obsti-
nate Irish imder the i-uins. Again a desperate sortie was made by
foi-t>' men— they were all -slain: eight of them leaped into the sea to
save themselves by swimming; but Carew, anticipating this, had sta-
tioned Captain Hany, ' with three boats to keepe the sea, but had the
killing of them all ;' and at last, after Mac Geohegan was mortally
wounded, the remnant of the gairison laid down their anns. Mac
» " Among other places, which were neither yielded nor taken to
the end they should be delivered to the English. Don Juan tied himself
to deliver my castle and haven, the only key of mine inheritance,
•whereupon the living of many thousand persons doth rest, that live
some twenty leagues upon the sea-coast, into the hands of my cniell,
cursed, misbelieving enemies."— Letter of Donald O'Sullivan heare to
the King of Spain. Pac Jlib.
LAMENT FOR OWEN ROE o'NEILL. 221
Geobegan lay, bleeding to death, on the floor of the vault; yet when
he saw the besiegers admitted, he raised himself up, snatched alighted
torch, and staggered to an open powder-ban-el— one moment, and the
castle, with all it contained, would have rushed skyward in a pyramid
of flame, when suddenly an English soldier seized him in his anus: he
was killed on the spot, and all the rest were shortly after executed.
• The whole number of the ward,' says Carew, ' consisted of one hun-
dred and forty-three selected men, being the best choice of all their
forces, of wliich not one man escaped, but were either slain, executed,
or buried in the ruins ; and so obstinate a defence hath not been seen
within this kingdom.' Perliaps some will think that the survivors of
so brave a band deserved a better fate than hanging."
MitcMS Life of Aodh ONeill, pp. 216—218.
XII.
LAMENT FOR OWEN EOE O'NEILL.
Poems, p. 119.
The most notable events in the career of this great chieftain, will be
found in the account of the Rattle of Benburb, ante. pp. 207—212. The
closing scenes of his life were briefly narrated as follows by JIr. Davis
In a little sketch, published A\ith this poem, when it first appeared:—
" In 1649, the countrj- being exhausted, Owen made a trace with
Jlonk, Coote, and tlie Independents — a truce obsei-ved on both sides,
though Monk Avas severely censured by the English Parliament for it.
^(Journals, 10th August, 1649. ) On its expiration, O'Neill concluded
a treat)' with Ormond, 12th October, 1649; and so eager was he for it,
that ere it was signed, he sent over 3,000 men, imder Major-General
OTaiTell, to join Ormond, (which they did October 25th.) Owen him-
self sti-ove with all haste to follow, to encounter Cromwell, who had
marched south after the sack of Drogheda. But fate and an unscru-
pulous foe forbade. Poison, it is believed, had been given him either
at Derrj', or shortly after. His constitution struggled vnih. it for some
time ; slowly and sinking he marched through TjTone and ^Monaghan
into Cavan, and, — anxiously looked for by Ormond, O'Farrell, and the
southern corps and army, — lingered till the 6th of November (St. Leo-
nard's feast), when he died at Clough Oughter Castle, — then the seat
of Maelmorra O'Reilly, and situated on a rock in Lough Oughter, some
six miles west of Cavan. He was buried, says Carte, in Cavan Abbey ;
but report says his sepulchre was concealed, lest it should be violated
by the English. The news of his death reached Ormond s camp when
the Dulie v/as preparing to fight Cromwell,— when Owen's genius and
222 APPENDIX.
soldiers were most needed. All -^mters (eren to the sceptical Dr. 0"Conor,
of Stowe) admit that had Owen lived, he would have saved Ireland.
His gallantly, his influence, his genius, his soldiers, all combine to ren-
der it probable. The rashness with which the stout bishop, Ebher Mac
Mahon. led 4,000 of Owen's veterans to death at Letterkenny, the year
after ; and the way m which Ormond frittered away the strength of
OTarrell's division (though 1,200 of them slew 2,000 of Cromwell's
men in the breach at Clonmel), — and the utter prostration wliich fol-
lowed, showed Ireland how great was her loss when Owen died.
"OTarreU, Red Hugh O'Neill, and Mac Mahon, were Ulster generals;
Audley, Lord Castlehaven, and Preston, commanded in the south and
east ; the ^larquis of Clamlckarde was president of Connaught."
XIII.
A RALLY FOR IRELAND.
Poems, page 122.
There is no period in Irish, or in English Historj-, which has been so
mucli misrepresented, or of wliich so utterly discordant opinions are still
entertained, as the Revolution of 1688 — 91. The English history of that
revolution has been elaborately sifted, and its hidden causes succes-
sively dragged to light, by men of remarkable eminence in literature
and in poUtics. It is sutficient to mention in England, Jlr. Fox, Sir
James Mackintosh, Mr. Hallam, Dr. Lingard, and Mr. Ward ;— in
France, JI. Thierrv* {Historical Essays, Xo. VI.,) M. Carrel, and Zil.
De ^lazire, — and among Irishmen, Mr. W. "V\'allacc, {Continuation of
Mackintosh's History,) and Mr. ToiTcns Jfac Cullagh, (Articles in the
Soi-th of England Jfa{;!azine, for 1842. and in the Dublin Magazine, for
1843. ) A minute study of some at least of these writers,— Mr. ^\'al-
lace's Historj' is, perhaps, on the whole, the fairest and most compre-
hensive,— is indispensable to a correct understanding of the Irish
question.
In the Dublin Magazine, for 1843, January to April, 5Ir. Davis
devoted a series of papers to a critical examination of some of the
Irish authorities on this subject, principally in regard to the Irish
Parliament of 1689. His aim was to \indicate the character of that
legislature, and to refute some of the most glaring falsehoods, which
had hitherto by dint of impudent reassertion, passed iUmost unques-
tioned by Irishmen of cveiy shade of political opinion. Falsehoods of
a more injurious tendency have never been current among a people;
and the effort to expose them was with Mr. Davis, a labom- of zeal
SKETCH OF THE IRISH BRIGADE. 223
and love; for he knew well, how much of the religious dissension
which has been and is the ruin of Ireland, took its rise from, and
stands rooted in, erroneous conceptions of that time. To these papers
the reader is referred, who is anxious to form an accurate, and withal
a national, judgment of the cardinal crisis in Irish History.
IIow high the hopes of Ireland were at the commencement of this
struggle, and how she cherislied afterwards the memories and hopes
bequeathed from it, is abundantly illustrated by the Jacobite Relics in
Sfr. Hardiman's Irish Minstrelsy, and in the more recent collection of
Mr. Daly.
XIV.
BALLADS AND SONGS OF THE BRIGADE.
Poems, pp. 133 to 152.
So considerable a space in this volume is occupied by poems, founded
on the adventures and services of the Irish Brigade, that it seemed
right to include here the following sketch, written by ilr. Davis in the
year 1844:—
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE IRISH BRIGADE.
INTRODUCTION.
The foreign military achievements of the Irish began on their own
account. They conquered and colonized Scotland, fi-equently overran
England during and after the Roman dominion there, and more than
once penetrated into Gaiil. During the time of the Danish invasion,
they had enough to do at home. The progress of the English conquest
brought them again to battle on foreign ground. It is a melancholy
fact, that in the brigades wherewith Edward I. ravaged Scotland, there
were numbers of Irish and "Welsh. Yet Scotland may be content ;
Wales and Ireland suffered from the same baseness. The sacred
heights of Snowdon (the Parnassus of "Wales) were first forced by Gas-
con mountaineers, whose independence had perished; and the Scotch
did no small share of bioodwork for England here, from the time of
Monro's defeats in ;the Seventeenth Centmy, to the Fencible victories
over dninken peasants in 1798.
In these levies of Edward I., as in those of his son, were numbers
of native Irish. The Connaught clans in particular seem to have
served these Plantagenets.
From Edward Brace's invasion, the English control "was so broken
that the Irish clans ceased to serve altogether, and indeed, shortly
224 APPENDIX.
after, m-vle in^iny of the Anglo-Irish pay tliera bribute. But tl;e lonls
of the Pale took aii active and prominent part in the wars of the Eoses;
and their vassals shared the victories, the defeats, and the carnage of
the time.
In the Continental wars of Edward III. and ITemy Y., the Xorman-
Irish serA'ed with much distinction.
Henrj' VIII. demanded of the Irish government 2000 men, 1000 of
whom were, if possible, to be ^nners, i. e. aiTned Avitb matchlocks.
The services of these Irish dming the short war in France, and espe-
cially at the siege of Boulogne, are well known.
At the submission of Ireland in 1^;03, 0"Sullivan Bcarra and some
others excepted fi-ora the amnesty, took service and obtained high rank
in Spain; and after the flight of ONeill and OPonnell in 1607, num-
bers of Irish crowded into all the Continental ser\iccs. We find them
holding commissions in Spain, France, Austria, and Italy.
Scatte)-ed among " Strafford's Letters." various indications are dis-
coverable of the estimation in which the Irish were held as soldiers in
foreign senices during the early part of the seventeenth century. The
Spanish government in particular seems to have been extremely desi-
rous of enlisting in Ireland, their own troops at that time being equal,
if not superior, to any in the world, especially their infantrj*.
Nor were the Irish troops less active for the English king. Strafford
had increased the Irish army. These he paid regularly, clothed well,
and frequently " drew out in large bodies." He meant to oppress, but
discipline is a precious thing, no matter who teaches it — a Strafford or
a Wellington ; and during the wars which followed 1641, some of these
troops he had raised, served Ireland. In 1609, when the first row with
tlie Scotch took place, Wentw-orth was able .to send a gamson of 500
Irish to Carlisle, and other forces to assist Charles. And the victories
of Montrose were oaring to the valom- and discipline of the Irisli aux-
iliaries under Colkitto (left-handed) Alister Mac Donnell.
Many of the Irish who had lost then- foitunes by the Cromwellian
wars, served on the Continent.
Tyrconncll increased the Irish army, but with less judgment than
Strafford. Indeed, numbers of his regiments were ill-otBcered mobs,
and, when real work began in 1689, were disbanded as having neither
arms nor discipline. His sending of tlie Irish troops to England hastened
the Revolution by exciting jealousy, and they were too mere a handful
to resist. They were forced to enter tlie senice of German princes,
especially the Prussian.
lAn account of the formation of the Irish Brigade^ with the names ami
iitnnlyers of the regiments, tic, is omitted here, as more accurate details trill
be found ui " The History of the Irish Brigade.'' tchich is to appear in tin
" Library of Irehind."]
SKETCH OF THE IRISH BRIGADE. 225
SERVICES OF THE IRISH BRIGADE.
The year before the English Revolution of '88, William effected
the league of Augsburg, and combined Spain, Italy, Holland, and the
empire, against France ; but, except some sieges of imperial towns,
the war made no great progress till U)90. In that year France 1)lazed
out ruin on all sides. The Palatinate was ovemm and deA\astated. —
The defeat of Humieres at Valcourt was overweighed by Luxemburgh's
great victoiy over Prince Waldech'at Fleurus.
But, as yet, no Irish troops served north of the Alps. It was other-
wise in Italy.
The Duke of Savoy having joined the Allies, Marshal Catinat en-
tered his teiTitories at the head of 18,000 men. Mountcashel's brigade,
which landed in Jlay and had seen service, formed one-third of this
corps. Catinat, a disciple of Turenne, relied on his infantrj^ ; nor did
he err in this instance. On the 8th of August, l«:f>0, he met tiie Duke
of Savoy and Prince Eugene at Staffardo, near Salucco. The battle
began by a feigned attack on the Allies' right wing. The real attack
was made by ten battalions of infantiy, who crossed some marshes
heretofore deemed impassable, tumed the left wing, commanded by
Prince Eugene, drove it in on the centi-e, and totally routed the enemy.
The Irish, troops (" bog-ti'otters," the Times calls us now) proved that
there are more qualities in a soldier than the light step and hardy
frame which the Irish bog gives to its inhabitants.
But the gallant :Movmtcashel received a wound, of which he died
Boon after at Bareges.
This same brigade continued to serve under Catinat throughout the
Italian campaigns of '91, '92, and '93.
The principal action of this last year was at JIarsiglia on the 4th Oc-
tober. It was not materially different in tactic from Staffardo. Catinat
cannonaded the Allies from a height, made a feigned attack in the centre,
while his right wing lapped round Savoy's left, tumbled it in, and
routed the army with a loss of 8,000, including Duke Schomberg, son
to him who died at the Boyne. On this day, too, the Munster soldiers
had their full share of the laurels.
They continued to serve during the whole of this war against Savoy ;
and when, in 1796, the Duke changed sides, and, uniting his forces
with Catinat's, laid siege to Valenza in North Italy, the Irish dis-
tinguished themselves again. Ko less than six Irish regiments were
I at this siege.
\ "While these campaigns were going on in Italy, the garrison
i of Limerick landed in France, and the second Irish Brigade was
' formed.
I , The Flanders campaign of '91 hai'dly went beyond skirmishes.
226
APPENDIX.
Louis opened 16.0-2 by besieging Numiir at the head of 120,000 iiirn.
inchiding the bulk of the Irish Brigade. Luxemburgh was the actu .1
commander, and Vauban the engineer. Namiir, one of the greati -t
fortresses of Flanders, -was defended by Coehom, the all but equal uf
Vauban ; and William advanced to its relief at the head of 100,000 men,
— ilustiioiis players of that fearful game. But French and Irish valour,
pioneered by Vauban and mimceuvred by Luxemburgh, prevailed. In
seven days Xaniiu- was taken, and shortly after the citadel surren-
dered, though witliin shot of WilUams camp.
Louis returned to Versailles, and Luxembm'gh continued his
progress.
On the 24th of July, 1692, William attempted to steal a victory
from the JIarshal who had so repeatedly beaten him. Having forced
a spy to persuade Luxemburgh that the Allies meant only to forage,
he made an attack on the French camp, then placed between Stcen-
ku'k and Enghien. Wirtemburg and Mackay had actually pene^.•ated
the French camp ere Luxemburgh moiuited his horse. But, so rapid
were his movements, so skilfully did he di\-ide the Allies and crush
AVirtemburg ere Count Sohnes could help hira, that the enemy was
diiven oflf with the loss of 3,000 men, and many colom-s and cannon.
Sarsfield, who commanded the Brigade tliat day, was publicly
thanked for his conduct. In March, 1693, he was made a Mareschal
de Camp.
But his proud career wa.s drawing to a close. He was slain on the
29th July, 16ii3, at Landen, heading his counti-jinen in the van of
victor)-. King William tlnng. He could not have died better. His
last thoughts were for his comitry. As he lay on the field unhelmed
and d>ing, he put his hand to his breast. When he took it away, it
was full of his best blood. Looking at it sadly with an eye in wliich
victorj- shone a moment before, he said faintly, "Oh! that this were
for Ireland." He said no more; and history records no nobler saying,
nor any more becoming death.*
It is needless to follow out the details of tlie Italian and Flanders
campaigns. Suffice that bodies of the Irish troops sened in each of
the great armies, and maintained their position in the French ranks
dming years of hard and incessant war.
James II. died at St. Gennain's on the 16th September, 1701, and
was bmied in the chmch of the English Benedictines in Paiis. I>ut
• Acconling to Mr. O'Conor, (^f^it(lr>l I/istor;/ of the Irish Xatum,
p. 220.) '"there was no Irisli corps in the army of Luxemburgh. and
Sai-stield fell leading on a charge of strangere." But this only makes
liis death, and the regrets which accompanied it, the more aftecting. Ei>.
SKETCH OF THE IRISH BRIGADE. 227
his death did not affect tlie Brigade. Louis immediately acluiowledged
his son James III., and tlie Brigade, upon which tlie king's hopes of
restoi'ation lay, was continued.
In 1701, Sheldon's cavaln-, then serving under Catinat in Italy, had
an engagement with the cavalry coi^s under the famous Count ISIerci,
and handled them so roughly that Sheldon was made a lieutenant-
general of France, and the supernumeraries of his corps were put on
full pay.
In Januarj', 1702, occurred the famous rescue of Cremona. Villeroy
succeeded Catinat in August, 1701, and having with his usual rashness
attacked Eugene's camp at Cliiari, he was defeated. Both parties
retired eai'ly to winter quarters, Eugene encamping so as to blockade
Mantua. ^Vhile thus placed, he opened an intrigue with one Cassoli,
a priest of Cremona, where Villeroy had his head quarters. An old
aqueduct passed under Cassoli's house, and he had it cleared of mud
and weeds by the authorities, under pretence that his house was
injured from want of drainage. Having opened this way, he got seve-
ral of Eugene's grenadiers into the to\ni disguised, and now at the end
of January aU was ready.
Cremona lies on the left bank of the river Po.* It was then five
miles round, was guarded by a sti'ong castle and by an encdnte, or con-
tinued fortification all round it, pierced by five gates. One of these
gates led almost directly to the bridge over the Po. This bridge was
fortified by a redoubt.
, Eugene's design Avas to surprise the town at night. He meant to
penetrate on two sides, south and nortli. Prince Charles of Vaude-
mont crossed the Po at Firenzola, and marching up the right bank
with 2,500 foot and 500 horse, was to assault the bridge and gate of
the Po, as soon as Eugene had entered on the north. As this northern
attack was more complicated, tmd as it succeeded, it may be best
described in the nan-ative of events.
On the olst of Januaiy Eugene crossed the Oglio at Ustiano, and
approached the north of tlie to^vn. Marshal ViUeroy had that night
returned fi-om a war coimcil at Milan.
At 3 o'clock in the morning of the 1st of February, the allies closed
in on the to^-n m the follo-ning order: 1,100 men under Coimt Kufstein
entered by the aqueduct ; 300 men were led to the gate of St. Mar-
garet's, which had been walled jup, and immediately commenced
removing the wall from it; meantime, the other ti'oops under Kufstein
* In talking of right or left banks of rivers, you are supposed to be
looldng down the sti-eam. Thus, Connaught is on the right bank of
the Shannon ; Leinster and Jtlunster on its left bank.
228 APPENDIX.
pushed on and secured the ramparts to some distance, and as soon ;is
the gate was cleared, a vanguard of h^rse under Count Merci daslied
through the town. Eugene, Staremherg, and Prince Commerci fol-
lowed with 7,000 horse and foot. Patrols of cavalrj' rode the streets;
Staremberg seized the great square ; the ban-acks of four regiments
were surrounded, and the men cut down as tliey appeared.
Slarshal Villeroy hearing the tumult, hastily burned his papers and
rode out attended only by a page, lie was quickly snapped up by a
party of Eugene's cavalrj' commanded by an Irishman named Mac-
donncll. Villeroy seeing himself in tlie lunds of a soldier of fortune,
hoped to escape by bribery. He made offer after offer. A thousand,
pistoles and a regiment of liorse were refused by this poor Irish captain ;
and Villeroy rode out of the town with his captor.
Tlie JIarquis of Mongon, General Crenant, and other oflacers, shared
the same fate, and Eugene assembled the town council to take an oath
of allegiance, and supply him with 14.000 rations. All seemed lost.
All was not lost. Ihe Po gate was held by oo Irishmen, and to
ilerci's charge and shout they answered with a fire that forced their
assailant to pass on to the rampart, wliere he seized a bntteiy. This
imexpected and almost rash resistance was the verj' turning point of '
the attack. Had Merci got this gate, lie luid only to ride on and open
the bridge to Prince Vaudemont. Tlie entr>- of o,000 men more, and
on that side, would have soon ended the contest.
Not far from this same gate of the Po were the quarters of two hi-
regiments, Dillon (one of Mountcashels old brigade) and Burke (tl
Athlone regiment). Dillon's regiment was, Ln Colonel Lacy's absent r,
commanded by Major Mahony. He had ordered his regiment to a>
semble for exercise at day-break, and lay down. He was woke by the
noise of the Imperial Cuirassiers pa.ssing his lodgings. He jumped up,
and finding how things were, got off to tlie two coips, and found them
turning out in their shirts to check the Imperialists, who swarmed
round their quarters.
He had just got his men together when General D'Arenes came up,
put himself at the head of these regiments, who liad notliing but tlieir
muskets, shirts, and cartouches about them. He instantly led them
against Merci's force, and after a sharp stiniggle, drove them from the
ramparts, killing large numbers, and taking many prisoners, amongst
others Macdonnell, who returned to fight after securing Villeroy.
In tlie mean time Estrague's regiment had made a post of a few
houses in the great square: Count Hevel had given the word "Trench
to the ramparts,"' and retook All-Saints' Gate, while M. Pra.sHn made
head against the Imperial Cavalry patroles. I'ut when Pevel at-
tempted to pnsh further roimd the rampirts and regain ^^t. MiU'garct's
SKKTCH OF THE IRISH BRIGADE. 229
Gate, he was repulsed -with heavj' loss, and D'Arcncs, -who seems to
f have been every where, was wounded.
I It -was now ten o'clock in the day, and Mahony had received orders
j to fight his way from the I'o to the Mantua Gate, leaving a detach-
; ment to guard the rampart from which he had driven ilerci. He
pushed on, driving the enemies' infantry before him, but suffering
: much from their fire, when Baron P'reiberg at the head of a regiment
1 of Imperial Cuirassiers, burst into I)illon's regiment. For a while
; tlieir cas;.' seemed desperate ; but almost naked as they were, they
[ gra]>pled with their foes. The linen shirt and the steel cuirass— the
I naked footmen and the harnessed cavalier met, and the conflict was
desperate and doubtful. Just at tliis moment JIahony grasped the
bridle of Freiberg's horse, and bid him ask quarter. " No quarter to-
day," said Freiberg, dashing his spurs into his horse; he was instantly
shot. The Cuirassiers saw and paused; the Irish shouted and slashed
at them. Tlie volley came better and the sabres w^avored. Few of
the Cuirassiers lived to fly; but all who sm^ived did fly: and there
stood these glorious fellows in the wintry streets, bloody, triumphant,
lialf-nakcd. Eourke lost seven officers and forty-two soldiers killed,
and June officers and fiftj' soldiers wounded ; Dillon had one officer
and forty nine soldiers killed, and twelve officers and seventy-nine sol-
dieis wounded.
r>ut what matter for death or wounds! Cremona is saved. Eugene
■waited long for Vaudemont, but the French, guarded from Merci's
attack by the Irish picquet of 35, had ample time to evacuate the re-
doubt and ruin the bridge of boats.
On hearing of Freiberg's death, Eugene made an effort to keep the
town by frightening the coimcil. On hearing of the destruction of the
bridge, he despaired, and effected his retreat with consummate skill,
retaining Villeroy and 100 other officers prisoners.
Europe rang with applause. Wr. Forman mentions what we think
a very doubtful saying of King William's about this event. There is
no such question as to King Louis. He sent his public and formal
thanks to them, and raised their pay forthwith. We would not like to
meet the Irishman who, knowing these facts, would pass the north of
Italy, and not track the steps of the Irish regiments through the streets
and gates and ramparts of Cremona.
In the campaigns of 1703, the Irish distinguished themselves under
'V'endorae in Italy, at Vittoria, .Luzzara, Cassano, and Calcinato, and
1 still more on tlie Rhine. When Yillars won the battle of Frei'llingcn,
tbe Irish had their share of the gloiy. At Spires, when Tallard de-
feated the Germans, they had more. Tallard had surprised the enemy,
' :eir commander, the Prince of Hesse, rallied his men. and although
A three horses shot under him, he repelled the attack and was
230 APPENDIX.
getting his troops well into hand. At this crisis Xugent's regiment of
horse was ordered to charge a coips of German cuirassiers. They did
so effectiialh^ The Gennan cavaliy was cut up ; the French infantry
thus covered returned to their work, and Hesse was finally defeated
with immense loss.
And now the fortunes of France began to waver, but the valour of
the Brigade did not change.
It is impossible in our space to do more than glance at the battles in
which they won fame amid general defeat.
At the battle of Hochstet or Blenheim in 1704, Marshal TaUard was
defeated and taken prisoner by Marlborough and Eugene. The French
and Bavarians lost 10,000 killed, 13,000 prisoners, and 90 pieces of
cannon. Yet amid this monstrous disaster, Clare's dragoons were vic-
torious over a portion of Eugene's famous cavalrj', and took two
standards. And in the battle of Ramillies in 170G, where Villeroy was
utterly routed, Clare's dragoons attempted to cover the wreck of the
retreating French, broke through an English regiment, and followed
them into the thronging van of the Allies. Mr. Forman states that
they were generously assisted out of this predicament by an Italian re-
giment, and succeeded in carrying off the English colours they had
taken.
At the sad days of Oudenarde and Malplaquet, some of them were
also present; but to the Aictories which brightened this time, so dark
to France, the Brigade contributed materially. At the battle of Al-
manza (13th Jlarch, 1707), several Irish regiments served under Ber-
wick. In the early part of the day the Bortuguese and Spanish auxi-
liaries of England were broken, but the English and Dutch fought suc-
cessfully for a long time; nor was it till repeatedly charged by the elite
of Berwick's army, including the Irish, that they were forced to reti-eat.
3,000 killed, 10,000 prisoners, and 120 standards attested the magni-
tude of the victon,'. It put King Philip on the tlirone of Spain. In
the siege of Barcelona, DUlon's regiment fought ^nth great effect. In
their ranks was a boy of twelve years old ; he was the son of a Galway
gentleman, Mr. Lally or OLally of Tulloch na Daly, and his micle had
sat in James's parliament of 1689. This boy, so early trained, wa»
aftenvards the famous Count Lally de Tollendal, whose sen-ices in
every part of the globe make his cjfcccution a stain upon the honour as
well as upon the justice of Louis XVI. And when "S'illars swept off
the whole of Albemarle's battalions at Denain, in 1712, the Irish were
in his van.
The treaty of I'ti-echt and the dismissal of iFarlborough put an end
to the war in Flanders, but still many of the Irish continued to servo
in Italy and Germany, and thus fought at Banna, Guastalla, and Phi-
SKETCH OF THE IRISH BRIGADE.
231
lipsburg. In the next war tlieiv great anil peculiar achievement was
at the battle of Fontcnoy.
Louis in person had laid siege to Tournay: Marshal Saxe was the
actual commander, and had under him 79,000 men. The Duke of
Cumberland advanced at the head of 55,000 men, chiefly English and
Dutch, to relieve the town. At the Dulve's approach, Saxe and the
King advanced a few miles from Touniay with 45,000 men, leaving
\ 18,000 to continue the siege, and 6,000 to guard the Scheld. Saxe
I posted his army along a range of slopes thus: his centre was on the
■ village of Fontenoy, his left sti-etched off through the wood of Barri,
! his right reached to the town of St. Antoine, close to the Scheld. He
( fortified his right and centi-e by the villages of Fontenoy and St. An-
toine, and redoubts near them. His exti-eme left was also strengthened
by a redoubt in the MOod of Barri, but his left centre, between that wood
and the village of Fontenoy, was not giiarded by any thing save sliglit
lines. Cumberland had the Dutch, under Waldeck, on his left, and twice
they attempted to carry St. Antoine, but were repelled with hea^y loss.
The same fate attended the English in the centime, who thrice forced
their way to Fontenoy, but returned fewer and sadder men. Ingoldsby
was then ordei'cd to attack the wood of Barri with Cumberland's right.
He did so, and broke into the wood, when the artilleiy of the redoubt
suddenlj' oppened on him, which, assisted by a constant fire from the
French tirailleurs (liglit infantry), di'ove him back.
The DulvC resolved to make one great and final effort. He selected
his best regiments, veteran English corps, and formed them into a sin-
gle column of 6,000 men. At its head were six cannon, and as many
more on the flanks, which did good ser\ice. Lord John Hay com-
manded tins great mass.
Every thing being now ready, the column advanced slowly and
evenly, as if on the parade ground. It mounted the slope of Saxe's
position, and pressed on between the wood of BaiTi and the village of
Fontenoy. In doing so, it was exposed to a cruel fire of artillery and
sharp-shooters; but it stood the stonn, and got behind Fontenoy. The
moment the object of the column was seen, the French troops were
tiun-ied in upon them. The cavalry charged ; but the English hardly
aaused to offer the raised bayonet, and then pom'ed in a fatal fire,
rhey disdained to rush at the picked infantry of France. On they
iyent tiU V ithin a short distance, and then threw in their balls with
?reat precision, the officers actually laying their canes along the mus-
tets, to make the men fire low. Mass after mass of infantrj^ was bro-
len, and on went the column, reduced, but still apparently invincible.
"hie Richelieu had four cannon InuTied to the fi-ont, and he literally
mttered the head of the column, while the household cavalry sui*-
232 APPfiXDtx.
roimded them, and, in repeated charges, wore Aowa their streiv_
but these French Mere fearful sufferers. Louis was about to lea^\
field. In this juncture Saxe ordered up his last reseiTC — the Irisli 1 .
gade. It consisted that day of the regiments of Clare, Lally, Lill m,
Berwick, Roth, and Buckley, with Fitzjames's horse. O'Brien, Lord
Clare, was in command. Aided by the French regiments of Xor-
mandy and ^'aisseany, they were ordered to charge upon the flank of
the English with fixed baj-onets, without firing. Upon the approach
of this splendid body of men, the English were halted on the slope of
a liill, and up that slope the Brigade rushed rapidly and in fine order.
" They were led to immediate action, and the stimulating ciy of
' Cuimhnigidh ar Luimneac agus arfheile iia Sacsanach'* was re-echoed
fi-om man to man. The fortune of the field was no longer doubtful,
and ^ictory the most decisive crowned the arms of France."
The English were weary with a long day's figliting, cut up by cannon,
chai'ge and musketiy, and dispirited by the ajipearance of the Bri-
gade^fresh, and consisting of young men in high spmts and disci-
pline—still they gave their fire well and fatally, but they were literally" ;
stiuined by the shout and shattered by the Irish charge. They broke
before the Irish bayonets, and tumbled down the far side of the hill, 1
disorganized, hopeless, and falhng by hundi-eds. The Irish ti'oops did !
not pursue them far: the French cavalry and light ti'oops pressed on
till the reUcs of the column were succom'ed by some En^^lish cavaln-.
and got within the batteries of their camp. ITie victory was blooly
and complete. Louis is said to have ridden down to the Irish bivouac,
and personally thanked them ; and George II., on hearing it. uttered
that memorable imprecation on the Penal Code, "Cm"sed be tlie laws '
which deprive me of such subjects." The one English volley, and tlie
short struggle on the crest of the hill, cost the Irish dear. One fourth
of the officers, including Colonel Dillon, were lulled, and one third of
the men.
Their history, after Fontenoy, may be easily given. In 1747, they
carried the village of Laufeldt. after three attacks, in which another
Colonel I>illon, 1-30 other officers, and l.'JOU men were killed ; and ia
1751 they were at Maestricht. Lally s regiment served in India, and
the other regiments in Germany, during the war from 1756 to 1762;
an! dm-mg the American war, they fought in the French West India
Islands.
At this time they were gi"eatly reduced, and at the Revolution, com-
pletely broken up.
* ' Remember Limerick and British f;.itli.'
THE FXD.
LITERART AND HISTORICAL
ESSAYS.
BY THOMAS DAVIS.
" A Soul came into Ireland."
DUBLIN :
PUBLISHED BY JAMES DUri'Y;
23, ANQLESEA-STREET.
1846,
Stereotvped and Printed by
T. CoLUWELL, 50, Capkl-strbet,
I DEDICATE
THIS VOLUME OF THE AVORKS OF
THOMAS DAVIS
TO
JOHN B. DILLON,
HIS DEAR AND TRUSTED FRIEND
AND
MINE.
THE EDITOR.
Dec. 18i5.
Vlll PREFACE.
I meditated, originally, accompanying these
Essays with some account of his intellectual cha-
racter and his influence upon his time and his
contemporaries. But, neither his life^nor writings
need any defence, and the period for interpreting
between him and the people has not yet come.
It is not Death alone, but Time and Death
that canonize the Patriot.
We are still too near to see his proportions
truly. The friends to whom his singularly noble
and^loveable character was familiar, and who
knew all the great designs he was bringing to
maturity, are in no fit condition to measure his
intellectual force with a calm judgment. The
people who knew him imperfectly, or not at all — -
for it was one of the practical lessons he taught
the young men of his generation, to be chary of
notoriety — have still to gather from his works
whatever faint image of a true Great Man, can
ever be collected from books. Till they have
done this, they will not be prepared to hear the
whole truth of him.
All he was, and might have become, they can
never fully know ; as it is, their unconsciousness
of what they have lost, impresses those who
knew him, and them, with that pitying pain w(^
PREFACE. IX
feel for the indifference of a child tZ the death of
his father
Students who will be eager to estimate him
for themselves, must take in connexion with his
works the fact, that over the grave of this man,
living only to manhood, and occupying only a
private station, there gathered a union of parties,
and a combination of intellect that would have
met round the tomb of no other man living, or
who has lived in our time. No life — not that of
Guttenberg, or Franklin, or Tone, illustrates
more strikingly than his, how often it is neces-
sary to turn aside from the dais on which stan4
the great and titled, for the real moving power
of the time — the men who are stirring like a soul
in the bosom of society. Such a one they wiU
speedily discover Davis to have been.
It is perhaps unnecessary to announce that his
friends will give his entire works in succession
to the public. All that is left of him, his re-
putation and his labours, will be their dear and
special care.
His poetry, carefully edited and noted by
(me of his friends, will form an early volume in
this series — ^his political writings (which cannot
be included in the " Library of Ireland/*) will
X PREFACE.
be selected and classified by another friend, and
appear in a distinct shape. When these have
had time to sink into the people's mind, his
" Life and Correspondence" will be published —
and some attempt made to convey an impression
of what he was in life and action.
All the Essays in the present collection are
taken from The Nation ; selections from his
Pamphlets, and contributions to The Irish
Monthly Magazine will make another volume
of the same character.
C. G. D.
CliristQias. Evo, 1845.
CONTENTS.
Page
Dedication, ... ... ... .. iii
Preface, ... ... ... ... v
Study, 13
Means and Aids to Self-Education, ... ... 21
The History of Ireland, ... ... ... 28
Ancient Ireland, ... ... ... 39
Historical Monuments of Ireland, ... ... 43
Irish Antiquities, ... ... ... 46
The Sea Kings, ... ... ... 54
The Round Towers of Ireland, ... ... 62
Ethnology of the Irish Race, ... ... 80
The Irish Brigade, ... ... ... 89
The Speeches of Grattan, ... ... 94
Memorials of Wexford, ... ... ... 104
The History of To-Day, ... ... ... 108
The Resources of Ireland ... ... 113
Irish Topography, .., ... ... 122
The Valuation of Ireland, ... ... ... 134
Commercial History of Ireland, ... ... 147
National Art, ... ... ... ... 153
Art Unions, ... ... ... ... 162
Illustrations of Ireland, ... ... ... 165
Hints for Irish Historical Paintings, ... 169
Our National Language, ... ... ... 173
O'Donovan's Irish Grammar, ... ... 183
Institutions of Dublin, ... ... ... 187
Ireland's People — Lords, Gentry, Commonalty, 198
The State of the Peasantry, ... ... 204
Habits and Character of the Peasantry, ... 208
Irish Scenery, ... ... ... ... 210
Irish Music and Poetry, ... ... ... 216
Ballad Poetry of Ireland, ... ... 220
A Ballad History of Ireland, ... ... 231
Repeal Reading Rooms, ... ... ... 241
; Influences of Education, ... ... ... 246
LITERARY AND HISTORICAL
ESSAYS.
STUDY.
Beside a library, how poor are all the other
greatest deeds of man — his constitution, brigade,
factory, man of war, cathedral — how poor are
all miracles in comparison ! Look at that wall of
motley calf-skin, open those slips of inked rags —
who would fancy them as valuable as the rows of
stamped cloth in a warehouse ? Yet Aladdin's
lamp was a child's kaliedoscope in comparison.
There the thoughts and deeds of the most efHcient
men during three thousand years are accumu-
lated, and every one who will learn a few con-
ventional signs — 24 (magic) letters — can pass at
pleasure from Plato to Napoleon, from the Ar-
gonauts to the Affghans, from the woven mathe-
matics of La Place to the mythology of Egypt,
and the lyrics of Burns. Young reader ! pause
steadil}^, and look at this fact till it blaze before
you ; look till your imagination summon up even
B
14 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
the few acts and thoughts named in that last sen-
tence ; and when these visions — from the Greek
pirate to the fiery-eyed Scotchman — have begun
to dim, solemnly resolve to use these glorious
opportunities, as one whose breast has been
sobbing at the far sight of a mountain, resolves
to climb it, and already strains and exults in his
purposed toil.
Throughout the country, at this moment,
thousands are consulting how to obtain and use
books. We feel painfully anxious that this noble
purpose should be well directed. It is possible
that these sanguine young men, who are wildly
pressing for knowledge, may grow weary or be
misled — to their own and Ireland's injury. "We
intend, therefore, to put down a few hints and
warnings for them. Unless they, themselves,
ponder and discuss these hints and warnings they
will be useless, nay, worse than useless.
On the selection and purchase of books it is
hard to say what is useful without going into de-
tail. Carlyle says that a library is the true Uni-
versity of our days, where every sort of know-
ledge is brought together to be studied ; but the
student needs guides in the library as much as in
the University. He does not need rules nor rulers ;
but light and classification. Let a boy loose in a
library, and if he have years of leisure and a
creative spirit he will come out a master-mind.
If he have the leisure without the original spring
he will become a book-worm — a useful help,
perhaps, to his neighbours, but himself a very
feeble and poor creature. For one man who gains
weapons from idle reading, we know twenty who
STUDY. 15
lose their simplicity without getting strength,
and purchase cold recollections of other men's
thoughts by the sacrifice of nature.
Just as men are bewildered and lost from want
of guides in a large library, so are others from
an equal want of direction in the purchase of a
small one. We know from bitter experience
how much money it costs a young man to get a
sufficient library. Still more hard we should
think it for a club of young men to do so. But
worse than the loss of money, are the weariness
from reading dull and shallow books, the corrup-
tion from reading vicious, extravagant, and con-
fused books, and the waste of time and patience
from reading idle and impertinent books. The
remedy is not by saying " this book you shall
read, and this other you shall not read under
penalty;" but by inducing students to regard their
self-education solemnly, by giving them infor-
mation on the classification of books, and by
setting them to judge authors vigorously and for
themselves.
Booksellers, especially in small towns, exer-
cise no small influence in tlie choice of books —
I yet they are generally unfit to do so. They are
li like agents for the sale of patent medicines —
j knowing the prices but not the ingredients, nor
j the comparative worth of their goods, yet puffing
i them for the commission sake.
If some competent person would write a book
Ion books, he would do the world a great favour ;
jbut he had need be a man of caution, above po-
iilitical bias or personal motive, and indifferent to
hthe outcries of party. Todd's Students' Manual,
16 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
Vericour's Modern French Literature, and the
like, are rather childish affairs, though better
than nothing. M'Cullagh's " Rise and Study
of History" is, on its peculiar subject, a book of
much value. Men will differ in judging the
style ; but it honestly, learnedly, and in a sug-
gestive, candid way examines the great histories
from Horodotus down. We wish to see it more
generally in the people's hands. Occasionally
one meets in a Review a comprehensive and just
estimate of the authorities on some subject ; but
most of these periodicals are written for some
party or interested purpose, and are not trust-
worthy. Hallam's Literature of Europe, Sis-
mondi and Schlegel are guides of the highest
value in the formation of a large library, but we
fear their use in Ireland is remote.
One of the first mistakes a young, ardent
student falls into is, that he can master all know-
ledge. The desire for universal attainment is
natural and glorious ; but he, who feels it, is in
danger of hurrying over a multitude of books,
and confusing himself into the belief that he is
about to know every thing because he has
skimmed many things.
Another evil is apt to grow from this. A
young man who gets a name for a great variety
of knowledge often is ashamed to appear ignorant
of what he does not know. He is appealed to as
an authority, and, instead of manfully and wisely
avowinoj his iirnorance, he haransjues from the
title-page, or skilfully parades the opmions oi
other men as if they were his own observations.
Lookiner through books in order to talk of
STUDY. 17
them is one of the worst and commonest vices.
It is an acted lie, a device to conceal laziness
and ignorance, or to compensate for want of wit ;
a stupid device, too, for it is soon found out, the
employer of it gets the character of being a
literary cheat, he is thought a pretender, even
when well-informed, and a plagiarist when most
original.
Reading to consume time is an honest but weak
employment. It is a positive disease Avith mul-
titudes of people. They crouch in corners, going
over novels and biographies at the rate of two
volumes a day, when they would have been far
better employed in digging or playing shuttle-
cock. Still it is hard to distinguish between this
long-looking through books and the voracity of
a curious and powerful mind gathering stores
which it will afterwards arrange and use. Indeed
the highest reading of all (what we may name
epic reading) is of this class. When we are
youngest and heartiest we read thus. The fate
and passions of men are all in all to us ; for
we are then true-lovers, candidates for laurel
crowns, assured Liberators and conquerors of the
earth, rivals of archangels perchance in our
dreams. We never pause then upon the ar-
tistical excellence of a book — we never try to
look at and realise the scenery or sounds de-
scribed (if the author make them clear, well and
good — if not, no matter) — we hurry on to the
end of the shipwreck, or the battle, the courtship,
or the journey — palpitating for our hero's fate.
This, we repeat, is the highest kind of reading.
18 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
This sort of reading is most common in human
narrative.
Earnest readers of science read their books at
first as ordinary people do their histories — for
the plot.
Some of us can recollect the zealous rush
through a fresh book on mathematics or chymis-
try to know the subtle scheme of reasoning, or
understand the just unveiled secrets of nature, as
we read " Sinbad the Sailor" or " Mungo Park's
Travels."
But most readers of science read in order to
use it. They try to acquire command over each
part for convenience sake, and not from curiosity
or love. All men who persevere in science do
this latter mainly ; but all of them retain or ac-
quire the epic spirit in reading, and we have seen
a dry lawyer swallow a stiff treatise, not think-
ing of its use in his arguments, but its intrinsic
beauty of system and accuracy of logic.
He who seeks to make much use, too, of nar-
rative literature (be it novel, poem, drama, his-
tory, or travel), must learn scientific as well as
epic reading.
He need not formally criticise and review
every book, still less need he pause on every sen-
tence and word till the full meaning of it stands
before him.
But he must often do this. He must analyse
as well as enjoy. He must consider the elements
as well as the argument of a book just as, long
dwelling on a landscape, he will begin to know
the trees and rocks, the sun-flooded hollow, and
STUDY. 19
the cloud-crowned top, which go to make the
scene — or, to use a more illustrative thought —
as one, long listening to the noise on a summer
day, comes to separate and mark the bleat of the
lamb, the hoarse caw of the crow, the song of
the thrush, the buzz of the bee, and the tinkle of
the brook.
Doing this deliberately is an evil to the mind
whether the subject be nature or books. The
evil is not because the act is one of analysis,
though that has been said. It is proof of higher
power to combine new ideas out of what is before
you, or to notice combinations not at first ob-
vious, than to distinguish and separate. The
latter tends to logic, which is our humblest ex-
ercise of mind, the former to creation, which is
our highest. Yet analysis is not an unhealthy
act of mind, nor is the process we have described
always analytical.
The evil of deliberate criticism is, that it ge-
nerates scepticism. Of course we do not mean
religious, but general scepticism. The process
goes on till one sees only stratification in the
elope, gases in the stream, cunning tissues in
the face, associations in the mind, and an astro-
nomical machine in the sky. A more miserable
state of soul no mortal ever suffered than this.
But an earnest man living and loving vigorously
is in little danger of this condition, nor does it
last long with any man of strong character.
Another evil, confined chiefly to men who
write or talk for effect, is that they become spies
(as Emerson calls them) on Nature. They do
not wonder at love, or hate what they see. All
20 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
books and men are arsenals to be used, or, more
properly, stores to be plundered by them. But
their punishment is sharp. They love insight
into the godlier qualities, they love the sight of
sympathy, and become conscious actors of a poor
farce.
Happiest is he who judges and knows books,
and nature, and men (himself included), spon-
taneously or from early training — wliose feelings
are assessors with his intellects, and who is tho-
roughly in earnest. An actor or a spy is weak
as well as wretched ; yet it may be needful for
him who was blinded by the low principles, the
tasteless rules, and the stupid habits of his family
and teachers, to face this danger, deliberately to
analyze his own and others' nature, deliberately to
study how faculties are acquired and results pro-
duced, and thus to cure himself of blindness,
and deafness, and dumbness, and become a man,
observant and skilful. He will suffer much, and
run great danger, but if he go through this faith-
fully, and then fling himself into action and
undertake responsibility, he shall be great and
luippy.
MEANS AND AIDS TO SELF-EDUCATION. 21
MEANS AND AIDS TO SELF-EDUCATION.
" What good were it for me to manufacture perfect
iron, while my own breast is full of dross ? What
would it stead me to put properties of land in order,
while I am at variance with myself? To speak it in a
word ; the cultivation of my individual self, here as I
am, has from my youth upwards been constantly though
dimly my Avish and my purpose."
" JNIen are so inclined to content themselves with
what is commonest ; the spirit and the senses so easily
grow dead to the impressions of the beautiful and per-
fect ; that every one should study to nourish in his
mind the faculty of feeling these things by every
method in his power. For no man can bear to be
entirely deprived of such enjoyments: it is only be-
cause they are not used to taste of what is excellent,
that the generality of people take delight in silly and
insipid things, provided they be new. For this reason,
he would add, ' one ought every day at least to hear a
little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if
it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.' " —
Goethe.
We have been often asked by certain of the
Temperance Societies to give them some advice
on Self-Education. Lately we promised one of
these bodies to write some hints, as to how the
members of it could use their association for their
mental improvement.
We said, and say again, that the Temperance
Societies can be made use of by the people for
their instruction as well as pleasure. Assemblies
of any kind are not the best places either for
B 3
22 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
Study or invention. Home or solitude are bet-
ter — home is the great teacher. In domestic
business we learn mechanical skill, the nature of
those material bodies with which we have most
to deal in life — we learn labour by example and
by kindly precepts — we learn (in a prudent
home) decorum, cleanliness, order — in a virtuous
home we learn more than these, we learn rever-
ence for tlie old, affection without passion, truth,
piety, and j ustice. These are the greatest things
man can know. Having these he is well ; with-
out them attainments of wealth or talent are of
little worth. Home is the great teacher ; and its
teaching passes down in honest homes from
generation to generation, and neither the gene-
ration that gives, nor the generation that takes
it, lays down plans for bringing it to pass.
Again, to come to designed learning. We
learn arts and professions by apprenticeships,
that is, much after the fashion we learned walk-
ing or stitching, or fire-making, or love-making
at home — by example, precept, and practice com-
bined. Apprentices at anything, from ditching,
basket-w^ork, or watch-making, to merchant-
trading, legislation, or surgery, submit either to
a nominal or an actual apprenticeship. They
see other men do these things, they desire to do
the same, and they learn to do so by watching
hoiL\ and when, and asking, or guessing ichi/
each part of the business is done ; and as fast as
they know, or are supposed to know^, any one
part, whether it be sloping the ditch, or totting
the accounts, or dressing the limb, they begin to
' ) that, and, being directed when they fail, they
MEANS AND AIDS TO S'^.LF-EDUCATION. 23
learn at last to do it well, and are thereby pre-
pared to attempt some other or harder part of the
business.
Thus it is by experience — or trying to do, and
often doing a thing — combined with teaching, or
seeing, and being told how and why other people,
more experienced, do that thing, that most of the
practical business of life is learned.
In some trades, formal apprenticeship and
planned teaching exist as little as in ordinary
home-teaching. Few men are, of set purpose,
taught to dig; and just as few are taught to
legislate.
Where formal teaching is usual, as in what
are called learned professions, and in delicate
trades, fewer men know anything of these busi-
nesses. Those who learn them at all, do so ex-
actly and fully, but commonly practise them in a
formal and technical way, and invent and im-
prove them little. In those occupations which
most men take up casually — as book-writing,
digging, singing, and legislation, and the like —
there is much less exact knowledge, less form,
more originality and progress, and more of the
public know something about them in an unpro-
fessional way.
The Caste system of India, Egypt, and Ancient
Ireland, carried out the formal apprenticeship
plan to its full extent. The United States of
America have very little of it. Modern Europe
is between the two, as she has in most things
abolished caste or hereditary professions (kings
and nobles excepted), but has, in many things,
retained exact apprenticeships.
24 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
Marriage, and the bringing up of children, the ;
employment of dependants, travel, and daily i
sights, and society, are our chief teachers of \
morals, sentiment, taste, prudence, and manners. '
Mechanical and literary skill of all sorts, and i
most accomplishments, are usually picked up in
this same way.
We have said all this, lest our less-instructed
readers should fall into a mistake common to all
beginners in study, that books, and schooling,
and lectures, are the chief teachers in life ;
whereas most of the things we learn here are
learned from tlie experience of home, and of the
practical parts of our trades and amusements.
"\Ye pray our humbler friends to think long
and often on this.
But let them not suppose we undervalue, or
wish them to neglect other kinds of teaching ;
on the contrary, they should mark how much
the influences of home, and business, and society,
are affected by the quantity and sort of their
scholarship.
Home life is obviously enough affected by
education. Where the parents read and write,
the children learn to do so too, early in life, and
with little trouble ; where they know something
of their religious creed, they give its rites a
higher meaning than mere forms ; where they
know the history of the country well, every field,
every old tower or arch is a subject of amuse-
ment, of fine old stories, and fine young hopes ;
where they know the nature of other people and
countries, their own country and people become
texts to be commented on, and likewise supply
MEANS AND AIDS TO SELF-EDUCATION. 25
a living comment on those peculiarities of which
they have read.
Again, where tlie members of a family can
read aloud, or play, or sing, they have a well of
pleasant thoughts and good feelings, which can
hardly be dried or frozen up ; and so of other
things.
And in the trades and professions of life, to
study in books the objects, customs, and rules of
that trade or profession to which you are going
saves time, enables you to improve your practice
of it, and makes you less dependent on the teach-
ing of other practitioners, who are often inte-
rested in delaying you.
In these, and a thousand ways besides, study
and science produce the best effects upon the
practical parts of life.
Besides, the first business of life is the im-
provement of one's own heart and mind. The
study of the thoughts and deeds of great men,
the laws of human, and animal, and vegetable,
and lifeless nature, the principles of fine and
mechanical arts, and of morals, society, and re-
ligion — all directly give us nobler and greater
desires, more wide and generous judgments, and
more refined pleasures.
Learning in this latter sense may be got
either at home, or at school, by solitary study, or
in associations. Home learning depends, of
course, on the knowledge, good sense, and leisure
of the parents. The German Jean Paul, the
American Emerson, and others of an inferior
sort, have written deep and fruitful truths on
bringing up, and teaching at home. ^ Yet, con-
26 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
sidering its importance, it has not been suf-
ficiently studied. Upon schools much has been
written. Almost all the private schools in this
country are bad. They merely cram the memo-
ries of pupils with facts or words, without deve-
loping their judgment, taste, or invention, or
teaching them the application of any knowledge.
Besides, the things taught are commonly those
least worth learning. This is especially true of
the middle and richer classes. Instead of being
taught the nature, products, and history, first of
their own, and then of other countries, they are
buried in classical frivolities, languages which
they never master, and manners and races which
they cannot appreciate. Instead of being dis-
ciplined to think exactly, to speak and write
accurately, they are crammed with rules, and
taught to repeat forms by rote.
The National Schools are a vast improvement
on anything hitherto in this country, but still
they have great faults. From the miserably
small grant, the teachers are badly paid, and
therefore hastily and meagerly educated.
The maps, drawing, and musical instruments,
museums, and scientific apparatus, which should
be in every school, are mostly wanting altogether.
The books, also, are defective.
The information has the worst fault of the
French system ; it is too exclusively on physical
science and natural history. Fancy a Natioiial
School which teaches the children no more of
the state and history of Ireland than of Belgium
or Japan ! AYe have spoken to pupils, nay, to
masters of the National Schools, who were igno-
MEANS AND AIDS TO SELF-EDUCATION. 27
rant of the physical character of every part of
Ireland except their native villages — who knew
not how the people lived, or died, or sported, or
fought — who had never heard of Tara, Clontarf,
Limerick, or Dungannon — to whom the O'Neills
and Sarsfields, the Swifts and Sternes, the Grat-
tans and Barrys, our generals, statesmen, authors,
orators, and artists, were alike and utterly un-
known ! Even the hedge schools kept up some-
thing of the romance, history, and music of the
country.
Until the National Schools fall under national
control, the people must take diligent care to pro-
cure books on the history, men, language, music,
a7id manners of Ireland for their children. These
schools are very good so far as they go, and the
children should be sent to them ; but they are
not national, they do not use the Irish language,
nor teach anything peculiarly Irish.
As to solitary study, lists of books, pictures,
and maps, can alone be given ; and to do this use-
fully would exceed our space at present.
As it is, we find that we have no more room,
and have not said a word on what we proposed
to write — namely. Self- Education through the
Temperance Societies.
We do not regret having wandered from our
professed subject, as, if treated exclusively, it
might lead men into errors which no after-
thought could cure.
What we chiefly desire is, to set the people on
making out plans for their own and their chil-
<lren's education. Thinking cannot be done by
deputy — they must think for themselves.
28 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
THE HISTORY OF IRELAND.
Something has been done to rescue Ireland
from the reproach, that she was a wailing and
ignorant slave.
Brag as we like, the reproach w^as not unde-
served, nor is it quite removed.
She is still a serf-nation, but she is struggling
wisely and patiently, and is ready to struggle
with all the energy her advisers think politic, for
liberty. She has ceased to wail — she is begin-
ning to make up a record of English crime and
Irish suffering, in order to explain the past, to
justify the present, and caution the future. She
begins to study the past — not to acquire a beg-
gar's eloquence in petition, but a hero's wrath in
strife. She no longer tears and parades her
wounds, to win her smiter's mercy ; and now she
should look upon her breast and say — " That
wound makes me distrust, and this makes me
guard, and they all will make me steadier to
resist, or, if all else fails, fiercer to avenge."
Thus will Ireland do naturally and honour-
ably.
Our spirit has increased — our liberty is not
far off..
But to make our spirit lastinL*" and Avise as it is
bold — to make our liberty an inlieritance lor our
children, and a charter for our prosperity, we
must study as well as strive, and learn as well as
feel.
THE HISTORY OF IKELAND. 29
If we attempt to govern ourselves without
statesmanship — to be a nation without a know-
ledge of the country's history, and of the propen-
sities to good and ill of the people — or to fight
without generalship, we will fail in policy, so-
ciety, and war. These — all these things — we,
people of Ireland, must know if we would be a
free, strong nation. A mockery of Irish inde-
pendence is not what we want. The bauble of
a powerless parliament does not lure us. We
are not children. The office of supplying Eng-
land with recruits, artizans, and corn, under the
benign interpositions of an Irish Grand Jury,
shall not be our destiny. By our deep con-
viction — by the power of mind over the people,
we say. No !
We are true to our colour, " the green," and
true to our watchword, " Ireland for the Irish."
We want to win Ireland and keep it. If we win
it, we will not lose it, nor give it away to a
bribing, a bullying, or a flattering minister.
But, to be able to keep it, and use it, and govern
it, the men of Ireland must know what it is,
what it was, and what it can be made. They
must study her history, perfectly know her pre-
sent state, physical and moral — and train them-
J selves up by science, poetry, music, industry,
1 skill, and by all the studies and accomplishments
I of peace and war.
If Ireland were in national health, her history
I would be familiar by books, pictures, statuary,
; and music to every cabin and shop in the land —
I her resources as an agricultural, manufacturing,
! and trading people, would be equally known —
30 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
and every young man would be trained, and
every grown man able to defend her coast, her
plains, her towns, and her hills — not with his
right arm merely, but by his disciplined habits
and military accomplishments. These are the
pillars of independence.
Academies of art, institutes of science, col-
leges of literature, schools and camps of war are
a nation's means for teaching itself strength, and
winning safety and honour ; and when we are a
nation, please God, we shall have them all. Till
then, we must work for ourselves. So far as we
can study music in societies, art in schools, lite-
rature in institutes, science in our colleges, or
soldiership in theory, we are bound as good
citizens to learn. Where these are denied by
power, or unattainable by clubbing the re-
sources of neighbours, we must try and study
for ourselves. We must visit museums and anti-
quities, and study, and buy, and assist books of
history to know what the country and people
were, how they fell, how they suffered, and how
they rose again. We must read books of statis-
tics — and let us pause to regret that there is no
w^ork on the statistics of Ireland, except the
scarce lithograph of Moreau, the papers in the
second Report of tlie Railway Commission, and the
chapters in M'CidloclCs Statistics of the British
Empire — the Repeal Association ought to have
a hand-book first, and then an elaborate and vast
account of Ireland's statistics brought out.
To resume, we must read such statistics as we
have, and try and get better ; and we must get
the best maps of the country — the Ordnance and
THE HISTORY OF IRELAND. 3 1
County Index Maps, price 2*. 6d. each, and the
Railway Map, price 1/. — into our Mechanics*
Institutes, Temperance Reading-rooms, and
schools. We must, in making our journeys of
business and pleasure, observe and ask for the
nature and amount of the agriculture, commerce,
and manufactures of the place we are in, and its
shape, population, scenery, antiquities, arts,
music, dress, and capabilities for improvement.
A large portion of our people travel a great deal
within Ireland, and often return with no know-
ledge, save of the inns they slept in, and the
traders they dealt with.
We must give our children in schools the best
knowledge of science, art, and literary elements
possible. And at home they should see and hear
as much of national pictures, music, poetry, and
military science as possible.
And, finally, we must keep our own souls, and
try, by teaching and example, to lift up the souls
of all our family and neighbours, to that pitch
of industry, courage, information, and wisdom
necessary to enable an enslaved, dark, and
starving people to become free, and rich, and
rational.
"Well, as to this National History — L'Abbe
MacGeoghegan published a history of Ireland,
in French, in 3 vols, quarto, dedicated to the
Irish Brigade. Writing in France, he was free
from the English censorship ; writing for *' The
Brigade," he avoided the impudence of Huguenot
historians. The sneers of the Deist Voltaire,
and the lies of the Catholic Cambrensis, receive
a sharp chastisement in his preface, and a full
32 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
answer in his text. He was a man of the most
varied acquirements and an elegant writer.
More full references and the correction of a
few errors of detail, would render his book more
satisfactory to the professor of history, but for
the student it is the best in the world. He is
graphic, easy, and Irish. He is not a bigot,
but apparently a genuine Catholic. His in-
formation as to the numbers of troops, and other
facts of our Irish battles, is superior to any other
general historian's ; and they who know it well
need not blush, as most Irishmen must now, at
their ignorance of Irish history.
But the Association for liberating Ireland has
offered a prize for a new history of the country,
and given ample time for preparation.
Let no man postpone the preparation who
hopes the prize. An original and highly-finished
work is what is demanded, and for the com-
position of such a work the time affords no
leisure.
Few persons, we suppose, hitherto quite igno-
rant of Irish history, will compete ; but we would
not discourage even these. There is neither in
theory nor fact any limit to the possible achieve-
ments of genius and energy. Some of the great-
est works in existence were written rapidly, and
many an old book-worm fails where a young
book-thrasher succeeds.
Let us now consider some of the qualities
which should belong to this history.
It should^ in the first place^ be written from
the original authorities. We have some notion
of giving a set of papers on these authorities, but
THE HISTORY OF IRELAND. 53
there are reasons against such a course, and we
counsel no man to rely on us — every one on
himself; besides, such a historian should rather
make himself able to teach us, than need to learn
from us.
However, no one can now be at a loss to know
what these authorities are. A list of the choicest
of them is printed on the back of the Volunteer's
card for this year, and was also printed in the
NationJ^ These authorities are not enough for a
* The following is the list of books given as the pre-
sent sources of history : —
SOBIE OF THE ORIGINAL SOURCES OF IRISH HISTORY.
ANCIENT IRISH TIMES.
Annals of Tigernach, abbot of Clonmacnoise, from a. d.
200, to his death, 1188, partly compiled from writers
of the eighth, seventh, and sixth centuries.
Lives of St. Patrick, St. Columbanus, &c.
Annals of Four Masters, from the earliest times to 1616.
Other Annals, such as those of Innisfallen, Ulster, Boyle,
&c. Publications of the Irish Archaeological Society,
Danish and Icelandic Annals.
ENGLISH INVASION AND THE PALE.
Gerald de Barri, surnamed Cambrensis "Topography"
and " Conquest of Ireland." Four Masters, Tracts in
Harris's Hibernica. Campion's, Hanmer's, Marlbo-
rough's, Camden's, Holingshed's, Stanihurst's, and
Ware's Histories. Hardiraan's Statutes of Ivilkenny.
Henry VIII. and Elizabeth — Harris's Ware. O'Sulli-
van's CathoUc ^History. Four Masters. Spencer's
View. Sir G. Carew's Pacata Hibernia. State Papers,
Temp. H. VIII. Fyne's Morrison's Itinerary.
James I — Harris's Hibernica. Sir John Davies' Tracts.
Charles I — Strafford's Letters. Carte's Life of Or-
mond. Lodge's Desiderata. Clarendon's Eebellion.
Tichborne's Drogheda. State Trials. Einuncini's
34 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
historian. The materials, since the Revolution
especially, exist mainly in pamphlets, and even
for the time previous only the leading authori-
ties are in the list. The list is not faulty in this,
as it was meant for learners, not teachers ; but
any one using these authorities will readily learn
from them what the others are, and can so track
out for himself.
There are, however, three tracts specially on
the subject of Irish writers. First is Bishop
Letters. Pamphlets. Castlehaven's Memoirs. Clan-
rickarde's Memoirs. Peter Walsh. Sir J. Temple.
Charles II — Lord Orrery's Letters. Essex's Letters.
James II. and Wilham III King's State of Protestants,
and Lesley's Answer. The Green Book. Statutes
of James's Parliament, in Dublin Magazine, 1843.
Clarendon's Letters. Kawdon Papers. Tracts.
]\Iolyneux's Case of Ireland.
George I. and II Swift's Life. Lucas's Tracts. How-
ard's Cases under Popery Laws. O'Leary's Tracts.
Boulter's Letters. O'Connor's and Parnell's Irish
CathoUcs. Foreman on " The Brigade."
George III — Grattan's and Curran's Speeches and Lives
— Memoirs of Charlemont. Wilson's Volunteers.
Barrington's Rise and Fall. Wolfe Tone's ^Memoirs.
Moore's Fitzgerald. AVyse's Catholic Association.
Madden's United Irishmen. Hay, Teeling, &e., on
'98. Tracts. Mac Nevin's State Trials. O'Counell's
and Shell's Speeches. Plowden's History.
Compilations — ^loore. IM'Geoghehan. Curry's Civil
Wars. Carey's Vindicias. O'Connell's Ireland. Le-
land.
Current Authorities — The Acts of Parliament. Lords'
and Commons' Journals and Debates. L}Tich's Legal
Institutions.
Antiquities, Dress, Arms — Eoyal Irish Academy's
Transactions and Museum. Walker's Irish IBards.
British Costume, in Library of Entertaining Know-
• ledge.
THE HISTORY OF IRELAND. 35
Nicholson's " Irish Historical Library." It gives
accounts of numerous writers, but is wretchedly
meagre. In Harris's " Hibernica" is a short
tract on the same subject ; and in Harris's edi-
tion of Ware's works an ample treatise on Irish
Writers. This treatise is most valuable, but
must be read with caution, as Ware was slightly,
and Harris enormously, prejudiced against the
native Irish and against the later Catholic writers.
The criticisms of Harris, indeed, on all books
relative to the Religious Wars are partial and
deceptious ; but we repeat that the work is of
: great value.
1 The only more recent work on the subject is a
j volume written by Edward O'Reilly, for the
; Iberno-Celtic Society, on the Native Irish Poets ;
an interesting work, and containing morsels in-
valuable to a picturesque historian.
By the way, we may hope, that the studies for
this prize history will be fruitful for historical
I ballads.
; Too many of the original works can only be
i bought at an expense beyond the means of most
! of those likely to compete. For instance, Harris's
* "Ware," Fynes' "Morrison," and "The State Pa-
pers of Henry the Eighth," are very dear. The
I works of the Archaeological Society can only be
\ got by a member. The price of O'Connor's "Re-
: rumHibernicarum Scriptores Yeteres," is eighteen
I guineas ; and yet, in it alone, the annals of
\ Tigernach, Boyle, Innisfallen, and the early
i part of the " Four Masters," are to be found.
The great majority of the books, however, are
i tolerably clieap ; some of the dearer books might
3H LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
be got by combination among several persons, and
afterwards given to the Repeal Reading-rooms.
However, persons resident in, or able to visit
Dublin, Cork, or Belfast, can study all, even the
scarcest of these works, without any real difficulty.
As to the qualities of such a history, they
have been concisely enough intimated by the
Committee.
It is to be A History. One of the most ab-
surd pieces of cant going is that against history, ;
because it is full of wars, and kings, and usurpers,
and mobs. History describes, and is meant to
describe, /orce*, rot proprieties — the mights, the
acted realities of men, bad and good — their his-
torical importance depending on their mightiness,
not their holiness. Let us by all means have
then a " graphic" narrative of what was, not a set
of moral disquisitions on what ought to have been.
Yet the man who would keep chronicling the
dry events would miss writing a history. He
must fathom the social condition of the peasantry,
the townsmen, the middle-classes, the nobles, and
the clergy (Christian or Pagan,) in each period —
how they fed, dressed, armed, and housed them-
selves. He must exhibit the nature of the go-
vernment, the manners, the administration of
law, the state of useful and fine arts, of commerce,
of foreign relations. He must let us see the
decay and rise of great principles and conditions
— till we look on a tottering sovereignty, a rising
creed, an incipient war, as distinctly as, by turn-
ing to the higlnvay, we can see the old man, the
vigorous youth, or the infant child. He must
paint — the council robed in its hall — the priest
THE HISTORY OF IRELAND. 37
in his temple — the conspirator — the outlaw — the
judge — the general — the martyr. The arms must
clash and shine with genuine, not romantic like-
ness ; and the brigades or clans join battle, or
divide in flight, before the reader's thought.
Above all, a historian should be able to seize on
character, not vaguely eulogising nor cursing ;
but feeling and expressing the pressure of a great
mind on his time, and on after-times.
Such things may be done partly in disquisi-
tions, as in Mitchelet's " France ;" but they must
now be done in narrative ; and nowhere, not
even in Livy, is there a finer specimen of how
all these things may be done by narrative than
in'Augustine Thierry's " Norman Conquest and
Merovingian Scenes." The only danger to be
avoided in dealing with so long a period in
Thierry's way is the continuing to attach impor-
tance to a once great influence, when it has sunk
to be an exceptive power. He who thinks it
possible to dash ofl" a profoundly coloured and
shaded narrative like this of Thierry's will find
himself bitterly wrong. Even a great philoso-
phical view may much more easily be extempo-
rised than this lasting and finished image of past
times.
The greatest vice in such a work would be
bigotry — bigotry of race or creed. We know a
descendant of a great Milesian family who sup-
ports the Union, because he thinks the descen-
dants of the Anglo-Irish — his ancestors' foes —
would mainly rule Ireland, were she independent.
The opposite rage against the older races is still
more usual. A religious bigot is altogether unfit,
c
38 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
incurably unfit, for such a task ; and the writer
of such an Irish history must feel a love for all
sects, a philosophical eye to the merits and de-
merits of all, and a solemn and haughty impar-
tiality in speaking of all.
Need we say that a history, wherein glowing
oratory appeared in place of historical painting,
bold assertion instead of justified portraiture,
flattery to the living instead of justice to the
dead, clever plunder of other compilers instead
of original research, or a cramped and scholastic
instead of an idiomatic, " clear, and graphic''
style, would deserve rejection, and would, we
cannot doubt, obtain it.
To give such a history to Ireland as is now
sought, will be a proud and illustrious deed. —
Such a work would have no passing influence,
though its first political eflfect would be enormous ;
it would be read by every class and side ; for
there is no readable book on the subject ; it
would people our streets, and glens, and castles,
and abbeys, and coasts with a hundred genera-
tions besides our own ; it would clear up the
grounds of our quarrels, and prepare reconcilia-
tion ; it would unconsciously make us recognise
the causes of our weakness ; it would give us
great examples of men and of events, and mate-
rially influence our destiny.
Shall we get such a histor}^ ? Think, reader !
has God given you the soul and perseverance to
create this marvel ?
ANCIENT IRELAND. 39
ANCIENT IRELAND.
There was once civilization in Ireland. We
never were very eminent to be sure for manu-
factures in metal, our houses were simple, our
very palaces rude, our furniture scanty, our saf-
fron shirts not often changed, and our foreign
trade small. Yet was Ireland civilized. Strange
thing ! says some one whose ideas of civilization
are identical with carpets and cut glass, fine
masonry, and the steam-engine ; yet 'tis true.
For there was a time when learning was en-
dowed by the rich and honoured by the poor,
and taught all over our country. Not only did
thousands of natives frequent our schools and
colleges, but men of every rank came here from
the Continent to study under the professors and
system of Ireland, and we need not go beyond
the testimonies of English antiquaries, from Bede
to Camden, that these schools were regarded as
the first in Europe. Ireland was equally remark-
able for piety. In the Pagan times it was re-
garded as a sanctuary of the Magian or Druid
creed. From the fifth century it became equally
illustrious in Christendom. Without going into
the disputed question of whether the Irish church
was or was not independent of Rome, it is cer-
tain that Italy did not send out more apostles
from the fifth to the ninth centuries than Ireland,
and we find their names and achievements re-
membered through the Continent.
40 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
Of two names which Hallam thinks worth res-
cuing from the darkness of the dark ages one is
the Irish metaphysician, John Erigna. In a
recent communication to the " Association," we
had Bavarians acknowledging the Irish St.Kilian
as the apostle of their country.
Yet what beyond a catalogue of names and a
few marked events, do even the educated Irisli
know of the heroic Pagans or the holy Christians
of old Ireland. These men have left libraries of
biography, religion, philosophy, natural history,
topograpliy, history, and romance. They cannot
all he worthless ; yet, except tlie few volumes
given us by the Archjelogical Society, which of
their works have any of us read ?
It is also certain that we possessed written
laws with extensive and minute comments and
reported decisions. These Brehon laws have been
foully misrepresented by Sir John Davies. Their
tenures were the Gavelkind once prevalent over
most of the world. The land belonged to the
clan, and, on the death of a clansman his share
was re-apportioned according to the number and
wants of his family. The system of erics or fines
for offences has existed amongst every people
from the Hebrews downwards, nor can any one
knowing the multitude of crimes now punishable
by fines or damages, think the people of this em-
pire justified in calling the ancient Irish barba-
rous, because they extended the system. There
is in these laws, so far as they are known, mi-
nuteness and equity ; and, what is a better test of
their goodness, we learn from Sir John Davies
himself, and from the still abler Baron Finglass,
• ANCIENT IRELAND. 41
that the people reverenced, obeyed, and clung
to these laws, though to decide by or obey them
was a high crime by England's code. Moreover,
the Norman and Saxon settlers hastened to adopt
these Irish laws, and used them more resolutely,
if possible, than the Irish themselves.
Orderliness and hospitality were peculiarly cul-
tivated. Public caravansaries were built for tra-
vellers in every district, and we have what would
I almost be legal evidence of the grant of vast
1 tracts of land for the supply of provisions for
! these houses of hospitality. The private hospi-
tality of the chiefs was equally marked, nor was
it quite rude. Ceremony was united with great
freedom of intercourse ; age, and learning, and
rank, and virtue were respected, and these men
I whose cookery was probably as coarse as that of
; Homer's heroes, had around their board harpers
i and bards who sang poetry as gallant and fiery,
; though not so grand as the Homeric ballad-
i singers, and flung off a music which Greece
never rivalled.
Shall a people, pious, hospitable, and brave,
faithful observers of family ties, cultivators of
I learning, music, and poetry, be called less than
, civilized, because mechanical arts were rude, and
" comfort" despised by them ?
; Scattered through the country in MS., are
I hundreds of books wherein the laws and achieve-
I ments, the genealogies and possessions, the creeds,
1 and manners and poetry of these our predeces-
■ sors in Ireland are set down. Their music lives
in the traditional airs of every valley.
Yet mechanical civilization^ more cruel than
c 3
42 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
time, is trying to exterminate them, and, there-.
fore, it becomes us all who do not wish to losel
the heritage of centuries, nor to feel ourselves
living among nameless ruins, when we might
have an ancestral home — it becomes all who lo^ e
learning, poetry, or music, or are curious of
human progress, to aid in or originate a series
of efforts to save all that remains of the past.
It becomes them to lose no opportunity of in-
stilling into the minds of their neighbours, whe-
ther they be corporators or peasants, that it is a
brutal, mean, and sacrilegious thing, to turn a
castle, a church, a tomb, or a mound, into a
quarry or a gravel pit, or to break the lea^t
morsel of sculpture, or to take any old coin or
ornament they may find to a jeweller, so long as
there is an Irish Academy in Dublin to pay for
it or accept it.
Before the year is out we hope to see A So-
ciety FOR THE Preservation of Irish Mlsk
established in Dublin, under the joint patronaiie
of the leading men of all politics, with branches
in the provincial towns for the collection and
diffusion of Irish airs.
An effort — a great and decided one — must be
made to have the Irish Academy so endowed out
of tlie revenues of Ireland, that it may be A !Na-
TioNAL School of Irish History and Liti -
rature and a Museum of Irish Antiquities,
on the largest scale. In fact, the Academy should
be a secular Irish College with professors of our
old language, literature, history, antiquities, and
topography ; with suitable schools, lecture-rooms,
and museums.
HISTORICAL MONUMENTS OF IRELAND. 43
HISTORICAL MONUMENTS OF IRELAND.
We were a little struck the other day in taking
up a new book by Merimee to see after his name
the title of "Inspector-General of the Historical
Monuments of France." So, then, France, with
the feeding, clothing, protecting, and humouring,
of 36 million People to attend to, has leisure to
employ a Board and Inspector, and money to
pay them for looking after the Historical Monu-
ments of France, lest the Bayeux tapestry which
chronicles the conquest of England, or the
Amphitheatre of Nimes, which marks the so-
journ of the Romans, suffer any detriment.
And has Ireland no monuments of her history
to guard, has she no tables of stone, no pictures,
no temples, no weapons ? Are there no Brehon's
chairs on her hills to tell more clearly than Val-
lancey or Davies how justice was administered
here ? Do not you meet the Druid's altar, and
the Guebre's tower in every barony almost, and
the Ogham stones in many a sequestered spot,
and shall we spend time and money to see, to
guard, or to decipher Indian topes, and Tuscan
graves, and Egyptian hieroglyphics, and shall
every nation in Europe shelter and study the
remains of what it once was, even as one guards
the tomb of a parent, and shall Ireland let all go
to ruin ?
We have seen pigs housed in the piled friezes
44 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL. ESSAYS.
of a broken church, cows stabled in the palaces
of the Desmonds, and corn threshed on the floori
of abbeys, and the sheep and the tearing wind'
tenant the corridors of Aileach.
Daily are more and more of our crosses broken,
of our tombs eifaced, of our abbeys shattered, of
our castles torn down, of our cairns sacrilegiously ,
pierced, of our urns broken up, and of our coins ;*
melted down. All classes, creeds, and politics
are to blame in this. The peasant lugs down a
pillar for his sty, the farmer for his gate, the
priest for his chapel, the minister for his glebe.
A mill-stream runs through Lord Moore's Castle,
and the Commissioners of Galway have skakeii,
and threatened to remove, the "Warden's house — •
that fine stone chronicle of Galway heroism.
How our children will despise us for all this I
Why shall we seek for histories, why make
museums, why study the manners of the dead,
when we foully neglect or barbarously spoil their
homes, their castles, their temples, their colleges,
their courts, their graves ? He who tramples on
the past does not create for the future. Tlie
same ignorant and vagabond spirit which made
him a destructive, prohibits him from creating
for posterity.
Does not a man, by examining a few castles
and arms, know more of the peaceful and warrior
life of the dead nobles and gentry of our island
than from a library of books ; and yet a man is
stamped as unlettered and rude if he does not
know and value such knowledge. Ware's Anti-
quities, and Arclulall, speak not half so clearly
the taste, the habits, the every-day customs of
HISTORICAL MONUMENTS OF IRELAND. 45
, tlie monks, as Adare Abbey, for the fine preser-
I vation of which we owe so much to Lord Dun-
I
I raven.
; The state of civilization among our Scotic or
I Milesian, or Norman, or Danish sires, is better
' seen from the Museum of the Irish Academy,
and from a few raths, keeps, and old coast towns,
than from all the prints and historical novels we
have. An old castle in Kilkenny, a house in
; Galway give us a peep at the arts, the inter-
I course, the creed, the indoor, and some of the
' out-door ways of the gentry of the one, and of
!the merchants of the other, clearer than Scott
could, were he to write, or Cattermole were he
to paint for forty years.
We cannot expect Government to do anything
so honourable and liberal as to imitate the ex-
ample of France, and pay men to describe and
save these remains of dead ages. But we do ask
it of the Clergy, Protestant, Catholic, and Dis-
senting, if they Avould secure the character of
men of education and taste — we call upon the
gentry, if they have any pride of blood, and on
the people if they reverence Old Ireland, to spare
and guard every remnant of antiquity. We ask
them to find other quarries than churches, abbeys,
castles, and cairns — to bring rusted arms to a
collector, and coins to a museum, and not to iron
or gold smiths, and to take care that others do
the like. We talk much of Old Ireland, and
plunder and ruin all that remains of it — we
neglect its language, fiddle with its ruins, and
spoil its monuments.
46 LITERARY A^D HISTORICAL ESSAY?.
IRISH ANTIQUITIES.
There is on the north (the left) bank of the
Boyne, between Drogheda and Slane, a pile
compared to which, in age, the Oldbridge obe-
lisk is a thing of yesterday, and compared to
which, in lasting interest, the Cathedrals of
Dublin would be trivial. It is the Temple of
Grange. History is too young to have noted its
origin — Arclrjeology knows not its time. It is a
legacy from a forgotten ancestor, to prove that
he, too, had art and religion. It may have
marked the tomb of a hero who freed, or an in-
vader who subdued — a Brian or a Strongbow.
But whether or not a hero's or a saint's bones
consecrated it at first, this is plain, it is a tem])le
of nigh two thousand years, perfect as when the
last Pagan sacrificed within it.
It is a thing to be proud of, as a proof of
Ireland's antiquity, to be guarded as an illustra-
tion of her early creed and arts. It is one of a
thousand muniments of our old nationality,
which a national government would keep safe.
What, then, will be the reader's surprise and
anger to hear that some people, having legal
power or corrupt influence in Meath, are getting
or have got a presentment for a road to run
right through the Temple of Grange !
We do not know their names, nor, if the de-
sign be at once given up, as in deference ^to
IRISH ANTIQUITIES. 47
public opinion it must finally be, shall we take
the trouble to find them out. But if they persist
in this brutal outrage against so precious a land-
mark of Irish history and civilization, then we
frankly say if the law will not reach them public
opinion shall, and they shall bitterly repent the
desecration. These men who design, and those
svho consent to the act, may be Liberals or To-
ries, Protestants or Catholics, but beyond a doubt
;:hey are tasteless blockheads — poor devils without
"everence or education — men who as Wordsworth
•ays —
' ' "Would peep and botanize
Upon their mothers' graA^es."
All over Europe the governments, the aristo-
racies, and the people have been combining to
j.iscover, gain, and guard every monument of
i/hat their dead countrymen had done or been.
I'^rance has a permanent commission charged to
yatch over her antiquities. She annually spends
'lore in publishing books, maps, and models, in
lling her museums and shielding her monuments
;'om the iron clutch of time, than all the roads
,1 Leinster cost. It is only on time she needs to
I leep watch. A French peasant would blush to
leet his neighbour had he levelled a Gaulish
)mb, crammed the fair moulding of an abbey
iito his wall, or sold to a crucible the coins
'hich tell that a Julius, a Charlemagne, or a
'liilip Augustus swayed his native land. And
' it is everywhere. Republican Switzerland,
\-potic Austria, Prussia, and Norway, Bavaria
id Greece, are all equally precious of every-
iug that exhibits the architecture, sculpture,
48 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
rites, dress, or manners of their ancestors — nay,
each little commune would guard with arms,
these local proofs that they were not men of yes-
terday. And why should not Ireland be as pre-
cious of its ruins, its manuscripts, its antique
vases, coins, and ornaments, as these Frencli
and German men — nay as the English, for they
too, do not grudge princely grants to their mu-
seums, and restoration funds.
This island has been for centuries either ir
part or altogether a province. Now and thee
above the mist we see the wheel of Sarsfield's
sword, the red battle-hand of O'Neil, and the
points of O'Connor's spears; but 'tis a "view
through eight hundred years to recognise the
Sunburst on a field of liberating victory. ReC'
koning back from Clontarf, our history grows
ennobled (like that of a decayed house), and w€
see Lismore and Armagh centres of EuropeaB
learning ; we see our missionaries seizing and
taming the conquerors of Europe, and, farthei
still, rises the wizard pomp of Eman, and Tara —
the palace of the Irish Pentarchy. And are we,
tlie people to whom the English (whose fatheir
were painted savages, when Tyre and Sidon
traded with this land) can address reproaches foi
our rudeness and irreverence ? So it seems. The
AthencBum says : —
" It is much to be regretted that the society lately
estnbUshed in England, having for its object the preser-
vation of British antiquities, did not extend its design
over those of the sister island, which are dailj' becoming
fewer and fewer in number. Tliat the gold ornaments
which are so frequently found in various parts of Ireland
should be melted down for the sake of the very pur(
IRISH ANTIQUITIES. 49
gold of which they are composed, is scarcely surprising ;
but that carved stones and even immense druidical re-
mains should be destroyed is, indeed, greatly to bo
[ lamented. At one of the late meetings of the Royal
; Irish Academy a communication was made of the in-
I tention of the proprietor of the estate at New Grange,
I to destroy that most gigantic relic of druidical times,
1 which has justly been termed the Irish pyramid, merely
because its vast size ' cumbereth the ground.' At Mel-
lifont a modern corn-mill of large size has been built out
of tlie stones of the beautiful monastic buildings, some
of which still adorn that charming spot. At Monaster-
! boice, the churchyard of wliich contains one of the
; finest of the round towers, are the ruins of two of the
; little ancient stone Irish churches, and three most ela-
' borately carved stone crosses, eighteen or twenty feet
' high. The churchyard itself is overrun with weeds, the
sanctity of the place being its only safeguard. At Clon-
luaenoise, where, some forty years ago, several hundred
inscriptions in the ancient Irish character were to be seen
upon the gravestones, scarcely a dozen (and they the
' least interesting) are now to be found — the large flat
' stones on wliich they were carved forming excellent
I slabs for doorways, the copings of walls, &c. ! It was
1 the discovery of some of these carved stones in such a
i situation which had the efiect of directing the attention
I of Mr. Petre (then an artist in search of the pictu-
■resque, but now one of the most enlightened and con-
scientious of the Irish antiquaries) to the study of an-
itiquities ; and it is upon the careful series of drawings
,made by him that future antiquarians must rely for very
•much of ancient arcliitectural detail now destroyed. As
to Glendalough, it is so much a holiday place for the
IDubhners that it is no wonder everything portable has
iisappeared. Two or tliree of the seven churches are
lievelled to the ground — all tlie characteristic carvings
jlescribed by LedAvich, and which were * quite unique in
\Treland,' are gone. Some were removed and used as
Jtey-stonesfortlie arches of Derrybawn-bridge. Part of the
';hurchyard has been cleared of its gravestones, and forms
; famous place, where the villagers play at ball against
be old walls of the church. The little church, called
60 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
' St. Kevin's Kitchen,' is given up to the sheep, and tl^e
font lies in one corner, and is used for the vilest pur-
poses. The abbey church is choked up with trees and
brambles, and being a httle out of the Avay a very few
of the carved stones still remain there, two of the mo>t
interesting of which I found used as coping-stones to the
wall which surrounds it. The connexion between the
ancient churches of Ireland and the .orth of England
renders the preservation of the L'ish antiquities espe-
cially interesting to the English antiquarian ; and it is witli
the hope of dra\ving attention to the destruction of tlm-e
ancient Irish monuments that I have written these few
lines. The Irish themselves are, unfortunately, so en-
grossed with poUtical and religious controversies, that it
can scarcely be hoped that singlehanded they will be
roused to the rescue even of these evidences of their for-
mer national greatness. Besides, a great obstacle ex-
ists against any interference with the religious antiqui-
ties of the country, from the strong feelings entertained
by the people on the subject, although practically, as we
have seen, of so little weight. Let us hope that the
public attention directed to these objects will have a be-
neficial result and insure a greater share of * justice to
Ireland;' for -will it be believed that the only establish-
ment in Ireland for the propagation and ditfusion of sci-
entific and antiquarian knowledge — the Royal Irish Aca-
demy — receives annually the munificent sum of £300
from the government ! And yet, notAvithstanding this
pittance, the members of that society have made a step
in the right direction by the purchase of the late Dean
of St. Patrick's Irish Archaeological Collection, of which
a fine series of drawings is now being made at the ex-
pense of the academy, and of wliich they would, doubt-
less, allow copies to be made, so as to obtain a return of
a portion of the expense to whicli they are now subjected.
Small, moreover, as the collection is, it forms a strik-
ing contrastwitliourowniVa^jo/m/ Museum, which, richin
foreign antiquities, is almost without a single object of
native archaeological interest, if we except the series of
English and Anglo-Saxon coins and MSS."
The Catholic clergy were long and naturally
IRISH ANTIQUITIES. 51
the guardians of our antiquities, and many of
'' their archaiological works testify their prodigious
I learning. Of late, too, the honourable and wise
! reverence brought back to England has reached
I the Irish Protestant clergy, and they no longer
1 make antiquity a reproach, or make the maxims
, of the iconoclast part of their creed.
Is it extravagant to speculate on the possibility
of the Episcopalian, Catholic, and Presbyterian
clergy joining in an Antiquarian Society to pre-
serve our ecclesiastical remains — our churches,
j our abbeys, our crosses, and our fathers' tombs,
:; from fellows like the Meath road-makers. It
: would be a politic and a noble emulation of the
i sects, restoring the temples wherein their sires
worshipped for their children to pray in. There's
1 hardly a barony wherein we could not find an
! old parish or abbey church, capable of being re-
i stored to its former beauty and convenience at
< a less expense than some beastly barn is run up,
, as if to prove and confirm the fact that we have
I . little art, learning, or imagination.
' Nor do we see why some of these hundreds of
1 ! half-spoiled buildings might not be used for civil
' purposes — as alms-houses, schools, lecture-rooms,
town-halls. It would always add another grace
! to an institution to have its home venerable with
;age and restored to beauty. We have seen men
'of all creeds join the Archaeological Society to
, preserve and revive our ancient literature. Why
'may we not see, even without waiting for the aid
of an Irish Parliament, an Antiquarian Society,
: 'equally embracing the chief civilians and divines,
!and charging itself with the duties performed in
02 LITERAEY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
France by the Commission of Antiquities and
Monuments ?
The Irish antiquarians of the last century did
much good. They called attention to the history
and manners of our predecessors which we had
forgotten. They gave a pedigree to nationhood,
and created a faith that Ii'eland could and should
be great again by magnifying what she had been.
They excited the noblest passions — veneration,
love of glory, beauty, and vii^tue. They awoke
men's fancy by their gorgeous pictures of the
past, and magination strove to surpass them by
its creations. They believed what they wrote,
and thus their wildest stories sank into men's
minds. To the exertions of Walker, O'Halloran,
Vallancey, and a few other Irish academicians
in the last century, we owe almost all the Irish
knowledge possessed by our upper classes till
very lately. It was small, but it was enough to
give a dreamy renown to ancient Ireland ; and if
it did nothing else it smoothed the reception of
Bunting's music, and identified Moore's poetry
with his native country.
While, therefore, we at once concede that
Vallancey was a bad scholar, O'Halleran a cre-
dulous historian, and Walker a shallow anti-
quarian, we claim for them gratitude and at-
tachment, and protest, once for all, against the
indiscriminate abuse of them now going in our
educated circles.
But no one should lie down under the belief
that they were the deep and exact men their
cotemporaries thought them. They were not
patient nor laborious. They were very graceful,
IRISH ANTIQUITIES. 53
very fanciful, and often very wrong in their
statements and their guesses. How often they
avoided painful research by gay guessing we are
only now learning. O'Halloran and Keatinge
have told us bardic romances with the same tone
as true chronicles. Vallancey twisted language,
towers, and traditions into his wicker-work
theory of Pagan Ireland ; and Walker built great
facts and great blunders, granite blocks and
rotten wood, into his antiquarian edifices. One
of the commonest errors, attributing immense
antiquity, oriental origin, and everything noble
in Ireland, to the Milesians, originated with these
men ; or, rather, was transferred from the adula-
tory songs of clan-bards to grave stories. Now,
it is quite certain that several races flourished
here before the Milesians, and that every thin^
Oriental, and much that was famous in Ireland,
belonged to some of these elder races, and not to
the Scoti or Milesians.
Premising this much of warning and defence
as to the men who first made anything of ancient
Ireland known to the mixed nation of modern
Ii'eland, we tui'n with pure pleasure to their
successors, the antiquarians and historians of our
own time.
TVe liked for awhile bounding from tussach to-
tussach, or resting on a green esker in the domain
of the old academicians of Grattan's time ; but
'tis pleasanter, after all, to tread the firm ground
of our own archa3olo2ists.
54 LITERARY AND HISTOUICAL ESSAYS.
THE SEA KINGS.*
These Sea Kings were old friends and old foes
of Ireland. History does not reach back to the
age in which ships passed not between Ireland
and Scandinavia. It seems highly probable that
the Milesians themselves — that Scotic (or Scy-
thian) race who gave our isle the name of Scotia
Major — reached our shore, having sailed from
the Baltic. They were old Sea Kings,
So were the Jutes, or Getce, who came under
Hengist and Horsa to England in the fifth
century, and received the isle of Thanet as a
reward for repelling the Irish invaders ; and, not
content with this pay, used their saxes (or short
swords,) from whence we name them Saxons, till
all the east of England obeyed them. So, too,
were the Danes, who conquered that same Eng-
land over again in the tenth century. So were
the Black and White Strangers, who held our
coast and ravaged our inland till Brien of Tho-
mond trampled their raven at Clontarf on the
23d of April, 1014. And the Normans them-
selves, too, were of that self-same blood.
Mr. Laing has given us fresh materials for
judging the race so related to Ireland. He has
* The Heraskringla, or Chronicle of the Kings of Nor-
way, translated from the Icelandic of Snorro Sturleson,
with a preliminarj^ dissertation by Samuel Laing, Esq.
3 vols.
THE SEA KINGS. 55
translated the greatest of their histories, and pre-
faced it by an account of the creed, literature,
and social condition of the Scandinavians.
There are strong reasons for believing that
these people came from the east, through Mus-
covy, and preferring the fish-filled bays and
game-filled hills of Norway and Sweden to the
flat plains of Germany, settled far north. Such
is the tradition of the country and the expressed
opinion of all their writers. The analogy of their
language to the Sanscrit, their polygamy and
their use of horse-fiesh, all tend to prove that
they were once an equestrian tribe in Upper
Asia.
However this may be, we find them, from
remote times, living in the great Peninsula of the
North. Their manners were simple and hardy,
and their creed natural. The Cimbri, or Kymry,
whom Marius encountered, and the Milesians,
both apparently from Scandia, showed equal
valour, though not with the same fortune.
Their paganism was grand, though dark.
Idolaters they wpre, but idolatry is but an out-
ward sign. The people who bow to a stone have
got a notion of a god beyond it. That this
northern paganism originated in the natural
custom of all people to express their belief in
some soul mightier and better than their soul —
some ruler of the storm and the sun — we may
agree with Mr. Laing. But surely he is wrong
in jumping from this to a denial of Hero-worship.
Nothing seems more likely, nothing in mythology
is better proved, than that this feeling took the
shape of reverence for the soul of some dead chief
56 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
who had manifested superior might. Time would
obscure his history and glorify his attributes till
he became a demi-god.
The pagan gods rarely seem to be absolute
deities. Behind the greatest in renown of these
hero-gods lurks some Fate or Wisdom whose
creature he is.
The materials for the mythology of the Scan-
dians are, according to Mr. Laing, very small.
The principal work is the older Edda, composed
by Scemund. Of this there are only three frag-
ments : —
" The one is called the ' Yoluspa,' or the Prophecy of
Vola. In the Scotch words ' spse-wife,' and in the Eng-
lish word ' spy, ' we retain words derived from the same
root, and with the same meaning, as the word ' spa' of
the Voluspa. The second fragment is called ' Havamal,'
or the High Discourse ; the third is the Magic, or Song
of Odin. The Voluspa gives an account by the pro-
phetess of the actions and operations of the gods ; a de-
scription of chaos ; of the formation of the world ; of
giants, men, dwarfs ; of a final conflagration and disso-
lution of all things ; and of the future happiness of the
good, and punishment of the wicked. The Havamal is
a collection of moral and economical precepts. The
song of Odin is a collection of stanzas in celebration of
his magic powers. The younger Edda, composed 120
years after the older, by Snorro Sturleson, is a commen-
tary upon the Voluspa ; illustrating it in a dialogue be-
tween Gylfe, the supposed contemporary of Odin, under
the assumed name of Gangir, and three di^^nities — Har
(the High), Jafnhar (equal to the High), and Triddi
(the Tliird) — at Asgard (the abode of the gods, or the
original Asiatic seat of Odin) to which Gylfe liad gone
to ascertain the cause of the superiority of the Asiatics.
Both the Eddas appear to have been composed as hand-
books to assist in understanding the names of the gods,
and the allusions to them in tlie poetry of the Scalds :
THE SEA KINGS. 57
not to illustrate the doctrine of the religion of Odin.
The absurd and the rational are consequently mingled.
Many sublime conceptions, and many apparently bor-
rowed by Saemund and Snorro from Christianity — as for
instance the Trinity with which Gangir converses — are
mixed with fictions almost as puerile as those of the clas-
sical mythology. The genius of Snorro Sturleson shines
even in these fables. In the grave humour with which
the most extravagantly gigantic feats of Thor and Ut-
gaard are related and explained, Swift himself is not more
happy ; and one would almost believe that Swift had the
adventures of Thor and the giant Utgaard Loke before
him when he wrote of Brobdignac. Tlie practical forms
or modes of worship in the religion of Odin are not to be
discovered from the Eddas, nor from the sagas which the
two Eddas were intended to illustrate. It is probable
that much has been altered to suit the ideas of the age
in which they were committed to writing, and of the scribes
who compiled them. Christianity in Scandinavia seems,
in the II th century, to have consisted merely in the cere-
mony of baptism, without any instruction in its doc-
trines."
The priesthood consisted of the descendants of
the twelve diars or goddars, who accompanied
Odin from Asia; but they were judges as well as
priests. Their temples were few, small, and
rude. Their chief religious festivals were three
in number. The first possesses a peculiar in-
terest for us. It was called Yule from one of
Odin's names, though held in honour of Thor,
the supreme god of the Scandians. Occurring in
mid-winter it became mixed with the Christmas
festival, and gave its name thereto. The other
festivals were in honour of the goddess Friggia
(pronounced Freya,) and of Odin or Woden, the
I demigod or prophet. From these deities our
[ Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday take their
I names. The Valhalla, or heaven of these Pagans,
■ D 3
58 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
reserved for warriors, free from women, and
abounding in beer and metliegiin, is sufficiently
known.
Centuries after Christianity had been received
by their neighbours these Pagans held to Odinism,
and Pagans they were when, in the 9th century,
their great colonies went out.
The spread of the Northmen at that time came
to pass in this way. Along the broken coast of
the Northern peninsula reigned a crowd of in-
dependant chiefs, who lived partly on fishing and
hunting, but much more by piracy.
In the beginning of the 9th century their ex-
peditions became formidable. The north, and
finally the whole of England, was overrun, and
it took the genius of Alfred, Edmund, and Athel-
stane to deliver it even for a time. Ireland suf-
fered hardly less. Some of these rovers even:
penetrated the Mediterranean, and Charlemagne
is said to have wept at the sight of those galleys
laden with wrath. The achievements of one of
them, Regner Lodbrog, have been as nobly de-
scribed in an Icelandic poem as anything Homer
wrote of the Sea Kings of Greece who warred
against Troy.
So powerful abroad, they paid slight allegiance
to the King of Norway. At length, about 870,
King Harald Haarfager (or the Fair Haired)
resolved to stop their iniquities, or at least to free
his own dominions from them. In a series of
wars he subdued these sea kings, and forbade
piracy on his coast or isles. Thus debarred from
their old life at home they went out in still greater
colonies than before.
THE SEA KINGS. 59
One of these colonies was led by Rolf, who
was surnamed Gan'gr, or the AValker, as from
his great stature he could get no horse to carry
him, and walked with his followers. Sailing
south they entered the Seine, took Rouen, be-
sieged Paris, and finally extorted from Charles
the Bald that tract to which they gave the name
of Normandy. But these events took many years.
Other bands came to the aid of their friends
in England, Ireland, and the Scotch Isles, while
a large and illustrious colony went to Iceland.
In that land of snow they found fish and game-
They abandoned piracy and became merchants,
trading through the whole west of Europe. Nor
did they remain at this side of the Atlantic.
Sailing north-west, they occupied Greenland,
and visited some more southerly part of America,
which they called Vinland.
But still a higher honor belongs to the Ice-
landers. They were the most famous Scalds or
Bards who spoke the Norse tongue. Amongst
the earliest institutions of the North were the
laws of Gravelkind, and a strict entail of lands.
Lands could not be sold or devised, the next of
blood took them in equal shares. It was, there-
fore, of great value to preserve a knowledge of
relationship, and this office fell to the literary
class or Scalds. There was no law limiting the
bardic office to natives of Iceland, yet, in fact,
their superior skill won such an eminence for
them that an Icelandic scald was as needed in
every Norse settlement, from Rouen to Dron-
theim, as an Irish saint was in every part o£
Christian Europe.
60 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSATs/
Mr. Laing prints a list of about 200 Norse
histories, romances, &c. Originally, it seems
their sagas were oral, and it was not till the 12th
century that any progress was made in transfer-
ring them to writing. The reader of Mr. Laing's
details will be struck by many facts like those
used in the controversy as to whether the Iliad
was a collection of ballads, or an originally single
work.
It seems that there is no manuscript saga older
than the end of the 1 4th century in existence.
With his usual heartiness, Mr. Laing defends
the Norsemen through thick and thin. In his
opinion the best parts of the English constitution
are due to them. He describes the Saxons as
cowardly and slavish devotees when these gallant
and free Pagans came in and renewed their
vigour. The elective judges, and officers, and
juries he traces to the Danes ; and in the Things
or popular assemblies of these Northmen he finds
the origin of English parliaments. Nor would
he have us judge them by the report of trembling
monks who wrote Latin invectives and invoca-
tions against them, while through the window of
their transcribing room they could see the home-
stead blaze and the Raven soar.
In this part of his case he seems rather suc-
cessful. The writings of the Anglo-Saxons
were a few dry chronicles in Latin ; while the
Northmen had an endless mass of histories and
popular ballads. But even here he is in excess.
He seems forgetful of the Saxon ballads of Bru-
nanburgh, of Beowulf, and many others. If we
can trust our recollections, or Thierry's quota-
THE SEA KINGS. 61
tions, there are many touching and lofty passages
even in those old Latin Chronicles.
His proof of the knowledge of the useful arts
possessed by the Northmen is very ingenious.
It rests on the account of their shipping. One
ship is described as being as large as a 40-gun
frigate. To make vessels so large and efficient
as even their smaller ships required skill in work-
ing timber, in raising, smelting, and preparing
iron, masts, sails, ropes, and anchors for such
ships ; and the necessity of coopering water ves-
sels, and salting meat for long voyages, imply the
existence of several arts.
The amount of knowledge of countries and
men, sure to be acquired in their giant piracies,
should also be remembered.
He is very exclusive in his advocacy. So far
from sanctioning the claim of the Teutonic race
to general superiority over the Celts, he treats it
as "the echo of the bray" first heard in the
Ossianic controversy.
" The black hair, dark eye, and dusky skin of the
small-sized Celt, were considered by those philosophers
to indicate an habitation for souls less gifted than those
which usually dwell under the yellow hair, blue eye, and
fair skin of the bulky Goth. This conceit has been re-
vived of late in Germany, and in America ; and people
talk of the superiority of the Gothic, Germanic, or An-
glo- Saxon race, as if no such people had ever existed as
the Romans, the Spaniards, the French — no such men as
Caisar, Buonaparte, Cicero, Montesquieu, Cervantes,
Ariosto, Raphael, IVIichael Angelo, If the superiority
they claim were true, it would be found not to belong at
all to that branch of the one great northern race which
is called- Teutonic, Gothic, Germanic, or Anglo-Saxon —
for that branch in England was, previous to the settle-
62 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
ments of the Daues or Northmen in the 10th or 11th
centuries, and is at this day throughout all Germany,
morally and socially degenerate, and all distinct and dis-
tinguishing spirit or nationality in it dead ; but to the
small cognate branch of the Northmen or Danes, who,
between the 9th and 12th centuries brought their Pagan-
ism, energy, and social institutions, to bear against, con-
quer, mingle with, and invigorate the priest-ridden, in-
ert, descendants of the old Anglo-Saxon race."
Mr. Laing's translation comes fresh and racy.
He seems to like the ship-building, and roving,
and fighting. Cast a few centuries earlier, he
had made a famous Viking. Notwithstanding
his Benthamite notions, his heart is strong and
natural, and he relishes vigorous humanity wher-
ever it is found.
: THE ROUND TOWERS OF IRELAND.*
Accustomed from boyhood to regard these towers
as revelations of a gorgeous, but otherwise un-
defined antiquity — dazzled by oriental analogies —
finding a refuge in their primeval greatness from
the meanness or the misfortunes of our middle
ages, we clung to the belief of their Pagan origin.
In fancy, we had seen the white-robed Druid
tend the holy fire in their lower chambers — had
measured with the Tyrian-taught astronomer the
length of their shadows — and had almost knelt
to the elemental worship with nobles whose robes
had the dye of the Levant, and sailors whose
* The Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy. VoL
XX. Dubhn : Hodges and Smith, Grafton-street.
THE ROUND TOWERS OF IRELAND. 63
-cheeks were brown with an Egyptian sun, and
soldiers whose bronze arms ckished as the trum-
pets from the tower-top said, that the sun had
risen. What wonder that we resented the attempt
to cure us of so sweet a frenzy ?
We plead guilty to having opened Mr. Pe trie's
work strongly bigoted against his conclusion.
On the other hand, we could not forget the
authority of the book. Its author, we knew,
was familiar beyond almost any other with the
country — had not left one glen unsearched, not
one island untrod ; had brought with him the
information of a life of antiquarian study, a
graceful and exact pencil, and feelings equally
national and lofty. We knew, also, that he had
the aid of the best Celtic scholars alive in the
progress of his work. The long time taken in
its preparation ensured maturity ; and the honest
men who had criticised it, and the adventurers
who had stolen from it enough to make false re-
putations, equally testified to its merits.
Yet, we repeat, we jealously watched for flaws
in Mr. Petrie's reasoning ; exulted, as he set
«down the extracts from his opponents, in the
Jiope that he would fail in answering them, and
;at last surrendered with a sullen despair.
Looking now more calmly at the discussion,
^ve are grateful to Mr. Petrie for having driven
3away an idle fancy. In its stead he has given us
new and unlooked-for trophies, and more solid
information on Irish antiquities than any of his
predecessors. We may be well content to hand
«over the Round Towers to Christians of the sixth
*or the tenth century when we find that these
64 LTTERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
Christians were really eminent in knowledge as
well as piety, had arched churches by the side
of these campanilia, gave an alphabet to the
Saxons, and hospitality and learning to the stu-
dents of all western Europe — and the more
readily, as we get in exchange proofs of a Pagan
race having a Pelasgic architecture, and the
arms and ornaments of a powerful and cultivated
people.
The volume before us contains two parts of
Mr. Petrie's essay. The first part is an exami-
nation of the false theories of the origin of these
towers. The second is an account not only of
what he thinks their real origin, but of every
kind of early ecclesiastical structure in Ireland.
The third part will contain a historical and de-
scriptive account of every ecclesiastical building
in Ireland of a date prior to the Anglo-Norman
invasion of which remains now exist. The work
is crowded with illustrations drawn with wonder-
ful accuracy, and engraved in a style which
proves that Mr. O'Hanlon, the engraver, has be-
come so proficient as hardly to have a superior
in wood-cutting.
"We shall for the present limit ourselves to the
first part of the work on the
" ERRONEOUS THEORIES WITH RESPECT TO THE
ORIGIN AND USES OF THE ROUND TOWERS.
The first refutation is of the
" THEORY OF THE DANISH ORIGIN OF THE
TOWERS."
John Lynch, in his Ca?nbre9isis EvcrsuSy say$
THE ROUxND TOWERS OF IRELAND. 65
; that the Danes are reported {dicuntur) to have
\ first erected the Round Towers as ivatch-ioYfQYSy
\ but that the Christian Irisli changed them into
' clock or bell-towers. Peter Walsh repeated and
^ exaggerated the statement ; and Ledwich, the
West British antiquary of last century, com-
bined it with lies enough to settle his character,
though not that of the Towers. The only per-
son, at once explicit and honest, who supported
this Danish theory was Dr. Molyneux. His ar-
guments are, that all stone buildings, and indeed
all evidences of mechanical civilization, in Ire-
I land were Danish ; that some traditions attri-
; buted the Round Towers to them ; that they had
fit models in the monuments of their own coun-
' try ; and that the word by which he says, the
native Irish call them, viz., *' Clogachd," comes
' from ^the Teutonic root, clugga, a bell. These
, arguments are easily answered.
The Danes, so far from introducing stone
' architecture, found it flourishing in Ireland, and
, burned and ruined our finest buildings, and de-
stroyed mechanical and every kind of civilization
wherever their ravages extended — doing thus in
Ireland precisely as they did in France and
England, as all annals (their own included)
testify. Tradition does not describe the towers
as Danish watch-towers, but as Christian bel-
fries. The upright stones and the little barrows,
not twelve feet high, of Denmark, could neither
give models nor skill to the Danes. They had
much ampler possession of England and Scot-
land, and permanent possession of Normandy,
but never a Round Tower did they erect there ;
66 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
and, finally, the native Irish name for a Round
Tower is cloie-theach, from teach, a house, and
doc, the Irish word used for a bell in Irish
works before " the Germans or Saxons had
churches or bells," and before the Danes had
ever sent a war-ship into our seas.
We pass readily from this ridiculous hypothesis
with the remark, that the gossip which attributes
to the Danes our lofty monumental pyramids and
cairns, our Druid altars, our dry stone caisils or
keeps, and our raths or fortified enclosures for
the homes or cattle of our chiefs, is equally and
utterly unfounded ; and is partly to be accounted
for from the name of power and terror which
these barbarians left behind, and partly from
ignorant persons confounding them with the most
illustrious and civilized of the Irish races — the
Danaans.
THEORY OF THE EASTERN ORIGIN OF THE ROUND
TOWERS.
Among the middle and upper classes in Ireland
the Round Towers are regarded as one of the
results of an intimate connexion between Ireland
and the East, and are spoken of as either 1, Fire-
Temples ; 2, Stations from whence Druid festi-
vals were announced ; 3, Sun dials (gnomons)
and astronomical observatories; 4, Buddhist or
Phallic temples, or two or more of these uses
are attributed to them at the same time.
Mr. Petrie states that the theory of the Phoe-
nician or Indo-Scythic origin of these towers was
stated for the first time so recently as 1772 by
General Vallancey, in his "Essay on theAntiquity
THE ROUND TOWERS OF IRELAND. 67
of the Irish Language," and was re-asserted by
liim in many different and contradictory forms
in his " Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicis," pub-
lished at intervals in the following years.
It may be well to premise who
GENERAL CHARLES VALLANCEY
was. His family were from Berry in France ;
their name Le Brun, called de Valencia, from
their estate of that name. General Vallancey was
born in Flanders, but was educated at Eton Col-
lege. When a Captain in the 12th .Royal In-
fantry he was attached to the engineer depart-
ment in Ireland, published a book on Field En-
gineering in 1756, and commenced a survey of
Ireland. During this he picked up something of
the Irish language, and is said to have studied
it under Morris O'Gorman, clerk of Mary's-lane
chapel. He died in his house. Lower Mount-
street, 18th August, 1812, aged 82 years.
His " Collectanea" and his discourses in the
Royal Irish Academy, of which he was an ori-
ginal member, spread far and wide his oriental
theories. He was an amiable and plausible man,
but of little learning, little industry, great bold-
ness, and no scruples ; and while he certainly
stimulated men's feelings towards Irish antiqui-
ties, he has left us a re-producing swarm of false-
hood, of which Mr. Petrie has happily begun
the destruction. Perhaps nothing gave Vallan-
cey's follies more popularity than the opposition
of the Rev. Edward Ledwich, whose " Anti-
quities of Ireland" is a mass of falsehoods, dis-
paraging to the people and the country.
68 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
FIRE TEMPLES.
Vallancey's first analogy is plausible. The
Irish Druids honoured the elements and kept up
sacred fires, and at a particular day in the year
all the fires in the kingdom were put out, and
had to be re-lighted from the Arch-Druid's
fire. A similar creed and custom existed among
the Parsees or Guebres of Persia, and he takes
the resemblance to prove connexion and identity
of creed and civilization. From this he imme-
diately concludes the Round Towers to be Fire
Temples. Now, there is no evidence that the
Irish Pagans had sacred fires, except in open
spaces (on the hill tops), and, therefore, none of
course that they had them in towers round or
square ; but Vallancey falls back on the alleged
existence of Round Towers in the East similar
to ours, and on etymology.
Here is a specimen of his etymologies. The
Hebrew word gadul signifies great, and thence
a tower ; the Irish name for a round tower.
cloghad, is from this gadul or gad and clogh, a
stone : and the Druids called every place of wor-
ship cloghad. To which it is answered — gadul
is not gad — clogh, a sto7ie, is not cloch, a bell —
the Irish word for a Round Tower is cloch-thach,
or bell-house, and there is no proof that the
Druids called any place of worship cloghad.
Vallancey's guesses are numerous, and nearly
all childish, and we shall quote some finishing
specimens, with Mr. Petrie's answers : —
" This is another characteristic example of Vallancey'!^
mode of quoting authorities ; he first makes O'Brien say.
THE ROUND TOWERS OF IRELAND. 69
that Cuilceach becomes corruptly Claiceach, and then that
the word seems to be corrupted Cloy-theach. But O'Brien
does not say that Cuilceach is corruptly Claiceach, nor
has he the word Culkak or Claiceach in his book ; nei-
ther does he say that Cuilceach seems to be a corruption
of Clog-thcach, but states positively that it is so. The
following are the passages which Vallancey has so mis-
quoted and garbled : —
' Cuilceach, a steeple, cuilceach, Cluan-umba,
Cloyne steeple — This word is a corruption of Clog-
theach.
' Cloig-theach, a steeple, a belfry ; corrupte Cuilg-
theach.'
" Our author next tells us that another name for the
Round Towers is Sihheit, Sithbheit, and Sithhhein, and
for this he refers us to O'Brien's and Shaw's Lexicons ;
but this quotation is equally false with those I have al-
ready exposed, for the words Sihheit and Sithbheit are
not to be found in either of the works referred to. The
word Sithbhe is, indeed, given in both Lexicons, but
explained, a city, not a round tower. The word Sith-
bhein is also given in both, but explained a fort, a tur-
ret, and the real meaning of the word as still understood
in many parts of Ireland, is a fairy hill, or hill of the
fairies, and is applied to a green round hill crowned by
a small sepulchral mound.
" He next tells us that Caiceach, the last name he finds
for the Round Towers, is supposed by the Glossarists to
be compounded of cai, a house, and teach a house, an
explanation, which, he playfully adds, is tautology with
a witness. But where did he find authority for the word
Caiceach ? I answer, nowhere ; and the tautology he
speaks of was either a creation or a blunder of his own.
It is evident to me that the Glossarist to whom he refers
is no other than liis favourite Cormac ; but the latter
makes no such blunder, as will appear from the passage
which our author obviously refers to : —
* Cai t. teach unde dicitur ceard cha i. teach cearda ;
creas cha i. teach cumang.'
' Cai, i. e. a house ; luide dicitur ceard-cha, i. e. the
house of the artificer ; creas-cha, i. e. a narrow
house.' "
70 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
The reader has probably now had enough of
VaUancey's etymology, but it is right to add
that Mr. Petrie goes through every hint of such
proof given by the General, and disposes of them
with greater facility.
The next person disposed of is Mr. Beauford,
who derives the name of our Round Towers from
Tlacht, earth — asserts that the foundations of
temples for Vestal fire exist in Rath-na-Emhain,
and other places (poor devil I) — that the Persian
Magi overran the world in the time of the great
Constantine, introducing Round Towers in place
of the Vestal mounds into Ireland, combining
their fire-worship with our Druidism — and that
the present Towers were built in imitation of
these Magian Towers. This is all, as Mr. Petrie
says, pure fallacy, without a particle of autho-
rity ; but we should think " twelfth'' is a mis-
print for " seventh'^ in the early part of Beau-
ford's passage, and, therefore, that the last clause
of Mr. Petrie's censure is undeserved.
This Beauford is not to be confounded with
Miss Beaufort. She, too, paganizes the Towers
by aggravating some mis-statements of Mason's
Parochial Survey ; but her errors are not wortli
notice, except the assertion that the Psalters of
Tara and Cashel allege that the Towers were for
keeping the sacred fire. These Psalters are be-
lieved to have perished, and any mention of
sacred fires in the glossary of Cormac M'Culle-
nan, the supposed compiler of the Psalter ot*
Cashel, is adverse to their being in Towers. lie
says—
" Bclltane, i. e. bil tenc, i. c. tenchil, i. c. the goodly-
THE ROUND TOWERS OF IRELAND. 7l
fire, t. e. two goodly fires, which the Drukls were used
to make, with great incantations on them, and they used
to bring the cattle between them against the diseases of
each year."
Another MS. says —
" Behaine, i. e. Bel-dine : Bel was the name of an idol;
it was on it {i. e. the festival) that a couple of the young
of every cattle were exhibited as in the possession of
Bel; unde Beltine. Or, Beltine, i. e. Bil-tine, i. e.
the goodly fire, i. e, two goodly fires, which the Druids
were used to make with great incantations, and they
were used to drive the cattle between them against the
diseases of each year."
Mr. Petrie continues —
"It may be remarked, that remnants of this ancient
custom, in perhaps a modified form, still exist in the
^lay fires lighted in the streets and suburbs of Dublin,
and also in the tires lighted on St. John's Eve, in all other
parts of Ireland. The Tinne Eigen of the Highlands, of
which Dr. Martin gives the following account, is pro-
bably a remnant of it also, but there is no instance of
such fires being lighted in towers or houses of any de-
scription : —
' The Inhabitants here (Isle of Skye) did also make
use of a Fire call'd Tin-Egin {i. e.) a forced Fire, or
Fire of necessity, which they used as an Antidote against
the Plague or Murrain in Cattle ; and it was performed
thus : — All the Fires in the Parish were extinguish 'd,
and eighty one marry 'd Men, being thought the necessary
number for effecting this Design, took two great Planks
of Wood, and nine of 'em were employ'd by turns, who
by their repeated Efforts rubb'd one of the Planks against
the other until the Heat thereof produced Fire ; and
from this forc'd Fire each Family is supplied with new
Fire, which is no sooner kindled, than a Pot full of
water is quickly set on it, and afterwards sprinkled upon
the People infect€d with the Plague, or upon cattle that
have the Murrain. And this, they all say, they find
successful by Experience.' — Description of the Western
Islands of Scotland — (second edition,) p. 113.
72 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
"As authority for Miss Beaufort's second assertion, re-
lative to the Tower of ThUichtga, &c., we are referred
to the Psalter of Tara, by Comerford, (p. 41,) cited in
the Parochial Survey (vol. iii. p, 320) ; and certainly in
the latter work Ave do find a passage in nearly the sanic
words which Miss Beaufort uses. But if the lady had
herself referred to Comerford's little work, she would
have discovered that the author of the article in the Pa-
rochial Survey had in reality no authority for his asser-
tions, and had attempted a gross imposition on the cre-
dulity of his readers."
Mr. D' Alton relies much on a passage in
Camhre7isis, wherein he says that the fishermen
on Lough Neagh (a lake certainly formed by an
inundation in the first century — a. d. 62) point
to such towers under the lake ; but this only
shows they were considered old in Cambrensis'
time (King John's) for Chambrensis calls them
turres ecclesiasticas (a Christian appellation) ; and
the fishermen of every lake have such ^idle tra-
ditions from the tall objects they are familiar
with ; and the steeples of Antrim, &c., were
handy to the Loch N-Eathach men.
One of the authorities quoted by all the Pa-
ganists is from the " Ulster Annals" at the year
448 ; it is, " Ingenti terremotu per loca varia
imminente plurime urbes auguste muri recenti
adhuc re-edificatione constructi, cum LVIL tur-
ribus corrucrant." This was made to mean that
part of the wall of Armagh, with fifty-seven
Round Towers, fell in an eartlK^uake in 448,
whereas the passage turns out to be a quotation
from " Marcellinus" of the fall of part of the do-
fences of Constantinople — " L^rbis Augustas !"'
References to Towers in Irish annals are quoted
THE ROUND TOWERS OF IRELAND. 73
] by Mr. D' Alton ; but they turn out to be written
, iiijout the Cyclopean Forts, or low stone raths,
i such as we find at Aileach, &c.
I CELESTIAL INDEXES.
! Dr. Charles O'Connor, of Stowe, is the chief
i supporter of the astronomical theory. One of his
arguments is founded on the mistaken reading of
' the word " turaghu?i" (which he derives from tur
a tower, and aghan, or adhaii, the kindling of
1 flame), instead of " truaghan^^ an ascetic. The
! only other authority of his which we have not
; noticed is the passage in the " Ulster Annals,"
at the year 995, in which it is said that certain
' Fidhnemead were burnt by lightning at Armagh.
He translates the word celestial indexes, and
' paraphrases it Round Towers, and all because
, fiadh means witness, and neimhedh heavenly or
' sacred, the real meaning being holy wood, or
wood of the sanctuary, from jidh a wood, and
neimhedh holy, as is proved by a pile of exact
authorities.
Dr. Lanigan, in his ecclesiastical history, and
Moore, in his general history, repeat the argu-
ments which we have mentioned. They also
bring objections against the alleged Christian
origin, which we hold over ; but it is plain that
nothing prevailed more with them than the
alleged resemblance of these towers to certain
oriental buildings. Assuredly, if there were a
close likeness between the Irish Round Towers
and oriental fire temples of proved antiquity, it
would be an argument for identity of use ; and
though direct testimony from our annals would
£
<4 LITEllARY A^'D HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
come in and show that the present Towers were
built as Christian belfries from the sixth to the
tenth centuries, the resemblance would at least
indicate that the belfries had been built after
the model of Pagan fire towers previously exist-
ing here. But " rotundos of above thirty feet in
diameter" in Persia, Turkish minarets of the
tenth or fourteenth centuries, and undated tur-
rets in India, which Lord Yalentia thought like
our Round Towers, give no such resemblance.
We shall look anxiously for exact measurements
and dates of oriental buildinos resemblino- Round
Towers, and weigh the evidence which may be
offered to show that there were any Pagan models
for the latter in Ireland or in Asia.
Mr. Windele, of Cork, besides using all the
previously-mentioned arguments for the Pagan-
ism of these Towers, finds another in the sup-
posed resemblance to
THE NURAGGIS OF SARDINIA,
which are tombs or temples formed in that island,
and attributed to the Phoenicians. But, alas !
for the theory — they have turned out to be '' as
broad as they're long." A square building, 57
feet in each side, with bee-hive towers at each
angle, and a centre bee-hive tower reaching to
45 or Qo feet high, with stone stairs, is sadly un-
like a round tower !
The most recent theory is, that the Round
Towers are
HERO-MONUMEXTS.
Mr. Windele and the South Munster Antiqua-
TUB ROIKD TOWERS OF IRELAND. /5
rian Society started this, Sir William Betliam
sanctioned it, and several rash gentlemen dug
under Towers to prove it. At Cashel, Kinsale,
&c., they satisfied themselves that there were no
sepulchres or bones ever under the Towers, but
in some other places they took the rubbish bones
casually thrown into the Towers, and in two
cases the chance underlying of ancient bury ing-
grounds, as proofs of this notion. But Mr. Petrie
settles for this idea by showing that there is no
such use of the Round Towers mentioned in our
annals, and also by the following most interest-
ing account of the cemeteries and monuments of
all the races of Pagan Irish : —
HISTORY OF THE CEMETERIES.
<< ^ great king of great judgments assumed the sove-
reignty of Erin, i. e. Cormac, sou of Art, son of Conn
of the Hundred Battles. Erin was prosperous in his
time, because just judgments Avere distributed through-
out it by him ; so that no one durst attempt to wound
a man in Erin during the sliort jubilee of seven years ;
for Cormac had the faith of the one true God, according
to the law ; for he said that he would not adore stones,
or trees, but that he would adore 'Him who had made
them, and who had power over all the elements, i. e,
the one powerful God Avho created the elements ; in Him
he would believe. And he was the third person who
had believed, in Erin, before the arrival of St. Patrick.
Conchobor Mac Nessa, to whom Altus had told concern-
ing the crucifixion of Christ z^jas </ie ^rs^ ; Morann, the
son of Cairbre Cinncait (who was surnamed Mac Main)
was the second person ; and Cormac was the third ; and
it is probable that others followed on their track in this
belief.
" Where Cormac held his court was at Tara, in imita-
tion of the kings who preceded him, until his eye was
destroyed by Engus Gaibhuaiphnech, the son of Eoch-
76 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
aidh Finn Fuathairt : but afterwards he resided at Acaili
(the hill on which Serin Colaira Cille is at this day, ) and
at Cenannas (Kells, ) and at the house of Cletech ; for it
was not laAvful that a king with a personal blemish should
reside at Tara. In the second year after the injuring of
his eye he came by his death at the house of Cletech,
the bone of a salmon having stuck in his throat. And
he (Cormac) told his people not to bury him at Brugh
(because it was a cemetery of Idolaters, ) for he did not
worship the same God as any of those interred at Brugh ;
but to bury him at Ros na righ, with his face to the east.
He afterwards died, and his servants of trust held a
council, and came to the resolution of burying him at
Brugh, the place Avhere the kings of Tara, his prede-
cessors, were buried. The body of the king was after-
wards thrice raised to be carried to Brugh, but the Boyne
swelled up thrice, so as that they could not come ; so that
they observed that it was ' violating the judgment of a
prince' to break through this Testament of the king,
and they afterwards dug his grave at Eos na righ, as he
himself had ordered.
" These were the chief cemeteries of Erin before the
Faith (i. e. before the introduction of Christianity,) viz.
Cruachu, Brugh, Tailltin, Luachair, Ailbe, Oenach
Ailbe, Oenach Culi, Oenach Colmain, Temhair Erann.
"Oenach Cruachan, in the first place, it was there the
race of Heremon, i. e. the kings of Tara, were used to
bury until the time of Cremhthann, the son of Lughaidh
Riabh-n-derg, (who was the first king of them that was
interred at Brugh), viz., Cobhlhach Coelbregh, and
Labhraidh Loingsech, and Eocho Fedhlech Avith his
three sons (/. e. the three Fidhemhna, i. e. Bres, Nar,
and Lothor), and Eocho Airemh, Lughaidh Riabh-n-
derg, the six daughters of Eocho Fetlhlech (t. e. Medhbh,
and Clothru, INIuresc, and Drebriu, Mugain, and Ele),
and Adill Mac Mada with his seven brothers {i. e. Cet,
Anion, Doclie, \et ceteri), and all the kings down to
Cremhthann (these were all buried at Cruachan). Why
was it not at Brugh that the kings (of the race of Cobh-
thach down to Crimhthann) were interred? Not dif-
ficult ; because the two provinces, wliich the race of
Heremon possessed were the province of Gailian (i. «.
THE ROUND TOWERS OF IRELAND. 77
the province of Leinster), and the province of Olnec-
macht (i. e. tlie province of Connaught). In the first
place the province of Gailian was occupied by the race
of Labhraidh Loingsech, and tlie province of Connaught
was the peculiar inheritance of the race of Cobhtach
Coelbregh; wherefore it {i. e. the province of Con-
naught) was given to Medhbh before every other pro-
vince. (The reason that the government of this land
was given to Medhbh is, because there was none of the
race of Eochaidh fit to receive it but herself, for Lug-
haidh was not fit for action at the time.) And when-
ever, therefore, the monarchy of Erin was enjoyed by
any of the descendants of Cobhthach Coelbregh, the
province of Connaught was his ruidles (i. e. his native
principality). And for this reason they were interred at
Oenach na Cruachna. But they were interred at Brugh
from the time of Crimhthann (Madh-nar) to the time of
Loeghaire, "the son of Niall, except three persons,
namely. Art, the son of Conn, and Cormac, the son of
Art, and Niall of the Nine Hostages.
^ " We have already mentioned the cause for which Cor-
mac vras not interred there. The reason why Art was
not interred there is, because he ' believed, ' the day
before the battle of Muccramma was fought, and he
predicted the Faith, (i. e., that Christianity would pre-
vail in Erin,) and he said that his own grave would be
at Duraha Dergluachra, where Treoit [Trevet] is at this
day, as he mentioned in a poem which he composed —
viz., Caiii do denna den, (i. e., a poem which Art com-
posed, the beginning of which is Cain do denna den,
&c.) AVhen his (Art's) body was afterwards carried
eastwards to Dumha Dergluachra, if all the men of
!5^rin were drawing it thence, they could not, so that he
was interred in that place, because there was a Catho-
lic church to be afterguards at the place where he was
interred (i. e., Treoit hodie) because the truth and the
Faith had been revealed to him through his regal
righteousness.
"Where Niall was interred was atOchain, whence the
hill was called Ochain, i. e. Och Caine, i. e. from the
sighing and lamentation which the men of Erin made in
lamenting Niall.
78 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
" Conaire More was interred at Magh Feci in Bregiu
(i. e. at Fert Conaire) ; however some say that it was
Conaire Carpraige was interred there, and not Conaire
IVIor, and that Conaire i\Ior was tlie third king who was
interred at Tara, viz. Conaire, Loeghaira, and * *
"At Tailltin thekingsof Ulster were used to bury, viz.
Ollamh Fodhla, with liis descendants down to Conclioh-
har, who wished that he should be carried to a place be-
tween Slea and the sea, with his face to the east, on ac-
count of the Faith which he had embraced.
*' The nobles of the Tua ha De Danann were used to
bury at Brugh (i. e. the Dagda with his three sons ; also
Lughaidh and Oe, and Ollam, and Ogma, and Etan,
the Poetess, and Corpre, the son of Etan), and Cremh-
thann followed them because his wife Nar was of the
Tuatha Dea, and it was she solicited him that he should
adopt Brugh as a burial-place for himself and his de-
scendants, and this was the cause that they did not bury
at Cruachan,
" The Lagenians (i. e. Cathair with his race and tlio
kings who were before them) were buried at Oenacli
Ailbhe. The Clann Dedad (i. e. the race of Conaire and
Erna) at Temhair Erann ; the men of Munster (i. e. the
Dergthene) at Oenacli Culi, and Oenach Colmain ; and
the Connacians at Cruachan."
ANCHORITE TOWERS.
Because Simon Stylites lived in a domicile,
sized " scarce two cubits," on a pillar sixty feet
high, and because other anchorites lived on pil-
lars and in cells, Dean Richardson suggested that
the Irish Round Towers were for hermits ; and
was supported by Walter Harris, Dr. Milner,
Dr. King, &c The cloch angcoire, or hermit's
stone, quoted in aid of this fancy, turns out to
be a narrow cell ; and so much for the hermits!'.
The confusion of
TOURS AND TOWERS
is a stupid pun or a vulgar pronunciation in
THE ROUND TOWERS OP rRELAND. 79
English ; but in Irisli gave rise to the antiqua-
rian theory of Dr. Smith, who, in his " History
of Cork," concludes that the Round Towers were
penitential prisons, because the Irish word for a
penitential round or journey is turas!
THE PHALLIC THEORY ^^
never had any support but poor Henry O'Brien's
enthusiastic ignorance, and the caricaturing pen
of his illustrator.
We have now done with the theories of these
Towers, which Mr. Petrie has shown, past doubt,
to be either positively false or quite unproved.
His own opinion is that they were used — 1, as
belfries ; 2, as keeps, or houses of shelter for ihe
clergy and their treasures; and 3, as watch
towers and beacons ; and into his evidence for
this opinion we shall go at a future day, thanking
him at present for having displaced a heap of in-
congruous, though agreeable fancies, and given
us the most learned, the most exact, and the most
important work ever published on the antiquities
of the Ancient Irish Nation.
80 LITERAUT AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
ETHNOLOGY OF THE lEISH RACE.
Dr. Wilde, tlie traveller, read a paper to th
Dublin College of Physicians on the skulls of tlie
races that had died in Ireland, and this paper he
has printed, under the title of " A Lecture on
the Ethnology of the Ancient Irish."
He introduces the subject by a summary of the
means by which ancient races are commonly in-
vestigated. First, and rightly, he ranks architec-
tural and implimental remains. The palaces,
pyramids, and picture-filled tombs of Egypt tell
us now the state of their arts, their appearance,
government, and manners. How much we would
learn of Greece had her writings perished, and
her statnary and temples reached us ; and how
much of the Romans if Pompeii alone remained,
and remained without a clue to its manuscripts.
vSo, in Ireland, we have the monuments of diffe-
rent races. We have the Ogham pillar-stone,
the rested rock altar, the supported cromleach,
the arched stone fort, the trenched rath, with or
without stone facings, the clay or rubble pyramid,
with a passage and chamber, the flag-made tomb.
AYe have the round tower, the stone circle, the
Brehon's or Druid's chair, and the stone-roofed
crypt — to say nothing of our country castles, our
town residences, our churches and monasteries,
which one must see if he would know how men
lived here in the middle ages.
ETHNOLOGY OF THE IRISH RACE. 81
Monumental and other sculptures tell us dress
and arms better than any description in words.
We are amply supplied with these to illustrate
the middle ages in Ireland. Our old churches
are full of such tombs — but grievously they are
abused and neglected. Who can look upon the
shattered monuments of Jerpoint and Mellifont,
and not think that a double barbarism (that of
the people and that of their oppressors) has been
upon Ireland. Nay, within a few miles of Dub-
lin, in the church of Lusk, we, the other day,
found a noble monument broken in two, and it
and another fine tomb left to the mercies of un-
taught and irreverent children, for want of
a iive shilling door to the roofless, but otherwise
perfect church. AYho is to blame for this, the
Rector or the Commissioners ? Both, we say.
How fine a use may be made of these medioeval
tombs, without wantonly stirring them, is shown,
as we remarked before, in St. Canice's, Kilkenny,
disgraced as that cathedral is by whitewash.
Curse it for whitewash ! 'tis the dirtiest, ugliest
thing that ever was put outside a cottage wall or
inside a large building — for the inside of small
rooms 'tis well enough.
Then, again, there are weapons, and orna-
mental and economical implements to tell us the
I domestic and military habits, and the state of
I mechanical arts among a people. We shall have
1 more to say on this head some other time. We
pass to the other modes of investigating races.
The second means of Ethnology is language.
Having a number of words in common proves
82 LlTEnAPiT AND III3TOKICAL ESSATS.
communication between races. If these word^
are of a very simple and radical kind the com-
munication must have been long and ancient.
If, in addition, the structure and character of tlic
languages be the same — if their use of articles
and tenses, of inflections in the ends of words, :i>
in Greek, Latin, and German, or in the begin-
ning of them, as in Irish or Welsh, be alike, this
is evidence that their first language was one,
and, therefore, the races probably identical.
■ We say, probably identical, because identity
of language does not quite prove identity of
race. The negroes of the West Indies will mo-t
likely speak English when their islands are in •\
federal republic. The red men of Brazils will
most likely speak Portuguese. But the chaniic
of language is wonderfully slow in an indepen-
dent country. The people of Gascony and Pro-
vence do not speak French. They speak Gascon
and Provencal. The different English counties
have their dialects, showing what branch of
Saxons or Danes they descend from. The Welsli
language is now as flourishing as it was wlim
Edward outlaAved it ; and now, after centurie-
of wrong, when Anglicism has made us sert'>.
not a people, we have colleges founded for the
support of the Irish language.
Identity in the structure of language is, then,
a very strong proof of identity, and, as a stud}',
of the higliest interest.
The third means classified by Mr. Wilde for
Ethnologic research, is by the written history
and oral traditions of a country. In this section
ETUNOLOGY OF THE IRISH RACK. 83
he indulges in some sneers, which had been
I better omitted. We doubt the taste and correct-
ness of much of what he says on the topic.
There are other sorts of analo^jies, worth fol-
1 lowing out, not noticed by Mr. Wilde. Such is
,' that so ingeniously thought of, and ably illus-
\}, trated by Mr. Forde, of Cork. He dispi-oves the
L European origin of our music, and reduces it to
' either an original construction here, or to an
Eastern source. If Eastern, we could have got
it from the Oriental Christians, or Pagans. The
last seems Mr. Forde's opinion. We trust he
will have further means of following out this
subject.
Identity in form and substance of scientific
knowledge proves little, as one man, or one book
] could well produce it ; but musical characteris-
, tics are, perhaps, the most spiritual and safe from
confusion of any that can be imagined, and the
surest to last in a country, if it be independent,
or if it be rude. A country long refined, or en-
slaved, may lose every thing.
We now come to Mr. Wilde's peculiar subject,
and that to which he (faultily) restricts the term,
; Ethnography — namely, the natural history of
i man. The study of man's animal form shows
I that each simple race has peculiarities in size, in
j shape of bones and limbs, in play of features, and
, carriage of body, and in colour.
1 Many of these peculiarities can be studied
. from the bones of a race. Of course, the bones,
. or any of them, show the size of the race. The
I skull shows not only the shape of the head, but
! of the features. The skull of a man with an
84 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
aquiline nose, and open orbits, and massy jaws,
is as distinguishable from one with the nose or
eyes of a Hun or the jaw of a Bengalee, as from
that of a rabbit.
The marks left by the muscles in the bones
wherein their extremities worked, show, too, the
*'play of features" or expression of countenar.'
to some extent.
Taking these principles with him, Mr. WiL
examined a number of skulls in old churchyard-,
and in barrows and cairns, both here and abroad,
and tries from thence to classify the races of tli
Irish.
His conclusions are not very clearly made out,
and his proofs are frequently loose, but his tract
is suj^jirestive and serviceable.
His opinion is that the first inhabitants of this
country were what are called Firbolgs — men of
Teutonic or German blood — small, lively, with
aquihne noses, dark complexions, and heads of
great length from front to back. This race used
the stone and iiint hatchets, shell ornaments, bone
needles, stone mills, and clay urns. The secon 1
race, who came and subdued the Firbolgs, w«
(he conceives) those called Tuatha da Danaan —
men of " fair hair and large size," as Mac Firbis
says. They were, thinks Mr. Wilde, Celts, and
used bronze in their weapons and implement>.
He asserts, too, that Norway and Sweden were
colonised from Ireland by Firbolgs after tlicy
Lad learned the use of metals from the Tuatha
da Danaan. The proof given is that skulls, sm ii
as lie supposes peculiar to the Firbolgs, are foi.
iu Scandinavia associated witli metal weapon-
KTHNOLOGY OF THE lUISH RACE. 85
There is evidence, too, that these Tuatha da
Danaan were either Phoenicians, or from a
Phoenician colony and so of tlie next invaders —
the Milesians. Mr. Wilde seems to attribute a
iine globular head to these Danaans ; but he
seems elsewhere to say that no metal remains
liave been found with any heathen skulls, which
would contradict his own hypothesis.
We shall conclude with a couple of extracts —
tlie first, showing the uncertainty of the observa-
tions likely to be made, and the imprudence of
all generalities (Mr. Wilde's included) now, and
the other for illustration sake : —
' ' This leads me to the last locality in Avhich bones of
tlie ancient Irish people are said to have been found — I
alhide to the round towers, particularly to that lately
excavated at Drurnbo, in the county Down. Much in-
terest has, as you are aware, been lately excited by this
discovery, from tlie supposition that these human re-
mains would oifer some clue as to the origin and uses of
these strange monuments, or to assist in determining
tlie probable era of their erection. The enchanted palace
of the Irish round tower will shortly be opened for our
inspection, and, therefore, any, even a passing opinion
as to anything connected with it would be out of place.
Here, however, is a very beautiful cast of the skuU
found witliin the round tower of Drumbo ; and the mo-
ment it was presented to me, I felt convinced, that if it
is of a contemporaneous age with the structure beneath
which it was found, then the Irish round tower is not
the ancient building we suppose it to be ; for this, com-
pared with the other heads which I have laid before you,
is of comparatively modern date. Now, nearly all round
towers are in connexion with ancient burial places, and
this one, in particular, was so ; and I need only dig
around and without it to find many similar remains.
We read that the skeleton was found at full length, em-
bedded in the clay, witliin the ancient structure. Now,
F
86 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
I respectfully submit it to the antiquarian world that, if
the round tower was erected as a monument over the
person whose skeleton Avas found within it, it certainly
would not have been buried thus in the simple earth
without a vault or stone chamber, such as the en-
lightened architect who built the tower would be
thoroughly acquainted with. ^Moreover, I do not believe
that a skull thus placed loosely in the earth, without
any surrounding chamber, would have remained thus
perfect for the length of time, which even the most
modernising antiquaries assign as the date of the round
tower. At Lame, in the county of Antrim, a skeleton
was lately discovered, which, from the iron sword and
other weapons in connexion with it, appeared to have
been that of a templar ; and similar remains were, not
long since, discovered at Kilmainham. This templar's
skull, found at Lame, (which Mr. Wilde here produced)
although it has an Irish physiognomy, and a Fir-Bolg
form of head, cannot be traced back farther than the
eleventh or twelfth century for its date.
"N. B. — Since this lecture was delivered, I had the
gratification of receiving several communications from
diflerent parts of the country, on the subject of tumuli
and human remains ; so that one of the objects for which
it was undertaken — that of calling attention to the mat-
ter — has been attained. Among these communications,
I had the honour of receiving one of special interest,
from A. N. Nugent, Esq., who lately opened a sepul-
chral mound in the neighbourhood of Portaferry.—
' There was,' he writes to me, 'a circle of large stones,
containing an area of about a rood. Between each of
these stones, there was a facing of flat ones, similar to
the building of our modern fences. The outer coating
was covered with white pebbles averaging the size of a
goose-egg, of which there were several cart loads —
altliough it would be difficult to collect even a small
quantity at present along the beach.
" ' After tliis was taken away we came to a confused
heap of rubbish, stone, and clay, and then some large
flag stones on their ends — the tumulus still preserving a
cone shape. Tn the centre we came to a cliambor about
six feet long, formed by eiglit very hirge upright stones.
ETHNOLOGY OF THE IRISH RACE. 87
with a large flag stone at the bottom, on wliich lay, in
one heap, of a foot in thickness, a mixture of black
mould and bones.' These bones, some of which were
kindly forwarded to me, are all human, and consist of
portions of tlie ribs, vertebra?, and the ends of the long
bones, together with ])ieces of the skull and some joints
of the fingers of a full-grown person, and also several
bones of a very young child ; none of these have been
subject to the action of fire ; but among the parcel for-
warded to me are several fragments of incinerated or
calcined bones, also human. Either these latter were
portions of the same bodies burned, or they belonged to
an individual sacrificed to the manes of the person whose
grave this was ; and I am inclined to think the latter is
the more probable, from the circumstances under which
similar remains have been discovered in other localities.
Evidently this tumulus is of verj^ ancient date — long
prior to the authentic historic period — and was, I should
say, erected over some person or family of note in that
day. There were no urns, weapons, or ornaments dis-
covered in connexion with it ; but my informant states,
that in the field in Avhich this barroAv was opened, there
have been at various times, small stone chambers, or
kistvaens, discovered ; and in one of these a skull of the
long, flat, and narrow character, was some time ago dug
up. A farmer in the vicinity, likewise, told Mr. Nu-
gent that many years ago, while ploughing in that same
field, he turned up a stone chamber of the same kind,
and that it contained a skull with a portion of hair of a
deep red colour attached to it."
The subject is worthy of close study ; but
careless dabbling ivith it were loorse than ne-
glect. There are some people — very curious,
but neither reverent nor scientific — who, on read-
ing this, will long to plunge into every cairn or
iirave that looks a few centuries old, to see whe-
ther Wilde is right or Wilde is wrong. We
deprecate this. We entreat them to spare, nay,
to guard, these as if the}' were precious caskets
88 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
entrusted to them. The Irish tombs must not
be Grahamed. It is not right for any man, who
has not spent years in studying comparative ana-
tomy, to open the meanest tomb. Even had we
a scientific commission of the ablest men we
should insist upon a sparing and considerate use
of such violation of the dead man's home for the
sake of the live man's curiosity. He who does
not respect the remains of his fellow-creature,
and their last shelter, is without one of the finest
feelings of humanity. Even the hired soldier,
who slays for pay, is more human. Some of
these mounds can, and will be, opened hereafter
by the Irish Academy, when it is made, as it
must be, an Irish Antiquarian Institute. In the
meantime the subject had best be practically
left to Dr. Wilde and the few competent people
who are engaged on it. Let these tombs, whe-
ther on the mountain, or in the tilled field, or
the ruined churchyard, be religiously preserved ;
and, above all, let the children be brought up
with tender reverence for these sanctuaries of
the departed. We have room enough without
trespassing on the grave.
THE IRISH BRIGADE. 89
THE IRISH BRIGADE.
"When valour becomes a reproach, when patriot-
ism is thought a prejudice, and when a soldier's
sword is a sign of shame, the Irish Brigade will
be forgotten or despised.
The Irish are a military people — strong, nim-
ble, and hardy, fond of adventure, irascible,
brotherly, and generous — they have all the qua-
lities that tempt men to war and make them
good soldiers. Dazzled by their great fame
on the Continent, and hearing of their insular
wars chiefly through the interested lies of Eng-
land, Voltaire expressed his wonder, that a na-
tion which had behaved so gallantly abroad had
*' always fought badly at home." It would have
been most wonderful.
It may be conceded that the Irish performed
more illustrious actions on the Continent. They
fought with the advantages of French discipline
and equipment ; they fought as soldiers, with the
rights of war, not " rebels, with halters round
their necks ;" they fought by the side of great
rivals and amid the gaze of Europe.
In the most of their domestic wars they ap-
peared as divided clans or abrupt insurgents ;
they were exposed to the treachery of a more
instructed, of an unscrupulous and a compact
enemy ; they had neither discipline, nor gene-
ralship, nor arms ; their victories were those of
90 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
a mob, their defeats were followed by extermi-
nation.
AVe speak of their ordinary contests with Eng-
land from the time of Roderick O'Connor to that
of '98. Occasionally they had more opportuni-
ties, and their great qualities for war appeared.
In Hugh (or rather Aodh) O'Neill they found a
leader who only wanted material resources to
have made them an independent nation. Cau-
tious, as became the heir of so long a strife, he
spent years in acquiring military knowledge and
nursing up his clan into the kernel for a nation —
crafty as Bacon and Cecil, and every other man
of his time, he learned war in Elizabeth's armies,
and got help from her store-houses. When the
discontent of the Pale, religious tyranny, and the
intrigues and hostility of Spain and Home against
England gave him an opening, he put his ordered
clan into action, stormed the neighbouring gar-
risons, struck terror into his hereditary foes, and
gave hope to all patriots ; but finding that his
ranks were too few for battle, he negotiated suc-
cessfully for peace, but unavailingly for freedom;
his grievances and designs remained, and he
retired to repeat the same policy, till, after re-
peated guerillas and truces, he was strong enough
to proclaim alliance with Spain and war with
England, and to defeat and slay every deputy
that assailed him, till at last lie marched from the
triumph of Beal-an-ath-Buidhe (where Marshal
Bagenal and his army perished) to hold an almost
royal court in IMunster, and to reduce the Pale
to tlie limits it had formed in the wars of tlie '(
Roses ; and even when the neglect of Spain, the d
vt-
THE IHISU JJ11IGADJ2. 91
genius of INIountjoy, the resources and intrigues
of England, and the exhaustion and divisions
of Irehind had rendered success hopeless, the
Irish under O'Ruarc, O'Sullivan, and O'Doherty
vindicated their military character.
From that period they, whose foreign services,
since Dathi's time, had been limited to supplying
feudatories to the English kings, began to fight
under the flags of England's enemies in every
corner of Europe. The artifices of the Stuarts
legained them, and in the reign of Charles the
First they were extensively enlisted for the Eng-
lish allies and for the crown ; but it was under
the guidance of another O'Neill, and for Ireland,
they again exhibited the qualities which had sus-
tained Tyrone. The battle of Benburb affords
as great a proof of Irish soldiership as Fontenoy.
But it was when with a formal government
and in a regular war they encountered the Dutch
invader, they showed the full prowess of the
Irish ; and at the Boyne, Limerick, Athlone,
and Aughrim, in victory or defeat, and always
against immensely superior numbers and arma-^
ment, proved that they fought well at home.
Since the day when Sarsfield sailed, the Irish
have never had an opportunity of refuting the
calumny of England which Voltaire accepted. In
'98 they met enormous forces resting on all the
magazines of England ; they had no officers ;
their leaders, however brave, neither knew how
to organize, provision, station or mana^uvre troops
— their arms were casual — their ignorance pro-
found — their intemperance unrestrainable. If
they put English supremacy in peril (and had
92 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
Arklow or Ballinahinch been attffcked with skill,
that supremacy was gone,) they did so by mere
valour.
It is therefore on the Continent that one must
chiefly look for Irisli trophies. It is a pious and
noble search ; but he who pursues it had need
to guard against the error we have noticed in
Voltaire, of disparaging Irish soldiership at
home.
The materials for the history of the Irish Bri-
gade are fast accumulating. We have before us
the " Military History of the Irish Nation," by
the late Matthew O'Conor. He was a bar-
rister, but studied military subjects (as became a
gentleman and a citizen,) peculiarly interested
himself in the achievements of his countrymen,
and prepared materials for a history of them. He
died, leaving his work unfinished, yet happily
sufficiently advanced to offer a continuous narra-
tive of Irish internal wars, from Hugh O'Neill
to Sarsfield, and of their foreign services up to
the peace of Utrecht, in 1711. The style of the
Avork is earnest and glowing, full of patriotism
and liberality ; but Mr. O'Conor was no blind
partisan, and he neither hides the occasional
excesses of the Irish, nor disparages their oppo-
nents. His descriptions of battles are very supe-
rior to what one ordinarily meets in the works
of civilians, and any one reading them with a
military atlas will be gratified and instructed.
The value of the work is vastly augmented by
the appendix, which is a memoir of the Brigade.
written in French, in 1719, and including tlie
war-office orders, and all the changes in organ i-
THE IRISH BRIGADE. 93
sation, numbers, and pay of the Brigade to that
date. This memoir is autlienticated thus : —
"His Excellency, the Duke of Feltre, Minister of War,
was so kind as to comnuinicate to me tlie original me-
moir above cited, of which this is a perfect copy, which
I attest.
" De Montmorencv IMorres (Herve,)
Adjutant-Commandant, Colonel.
"Paris, 1st September, 1813."
To give any account of the details of Mr.
O'Conor's book we should abridge it, and an
abridgment of a military history is a catalogue of
names. It contains accounts of Hugh O'Neill's
campaigns, and of the wars of William and James
in Ireland. It describes (certainly a new chapter
in our knowledge) the services of the Irish in
the Low Countries and France during the reli-
gious wars in Henri Quatre's time, and the
hitherto equally unknown actions abroad during
Charles the Second's exile and reign.
The wars of Mountcashel's (the old) Brigade
in IG9O-I, under St. Ruth in Savoy, occupy
many interesting pages, and the first campaigns
of the New Brigade, with the death of Sarsfield
and Mountcashel, are carefully narrated. The
largest part of the work is occupied with the
wars of the Spanish succession, and contains
minute narratives of the battles and sieges of
Cremona, Spire, Luzzaca, Bleinheim, Cassano,
Ramilies, Almanza, Alcira, Malplaquet, and De-
nain, with the actions of the Ii'ish in them.
Here are great materials for our future History
of Ireland.
f3
94 LITEKARY AKD HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
THE SPEECHES OF GRATTAN.*
Of the long line of Protestant patriots Grat-
tan is the first in genius, and first in services.
He had a more fervid and more Irish nature
than Swift or Flood, and he accomplished what
Swift hardly dreamed, and Flood failed in — an
Irish constitution. He had immeasurably more
imagination than Tone ; and though he was far
behind the great Founder of the United Irishmen
in organising power, he surpassed him in inspi-
ration. The statues of all shall be in our forums,
and examples of all in our hearts, but that of
Grattan shall be pre-eminent. The stubborn
and advancing energy of Swift and Flood may
teach us to bear up against wrong; the principles
of Tone may end in liberation ; but the splendid
nationality of Grattan shall glorify us in every
condition.
The speeches of Grattan were collected and
his memoirs written by his son. The latter is
an accessible and an invaluable account of his.
life ; but the speeches were out of print, not
purchaseable under five or six guineas, and then,
were unmanageably numerous for any but a.
* The Select Speeches of the Right Hon. Henry
Grattan. To which is added his Letter on the Union,
with a Commentary on his Career and Character. By
Daniel Owen Madden, Esq., of the Inner Temple- i
Dublin, James Dutfy, 1845. 8vo, pp. 534.
THE SPEECHES OF GKATTAN. 95
professed politician. Mr. Madden's volume gives
for a trifle all Grattan's most valuable speeches,
with a memoir suflicient to explain the man and
the orator.
On the speeches of Grattan liere published we
have little to say. They are the finest specimens
of imaginative eloquence in the English, or in
any language. There is not much pathos, and
no humour in them, and in these respects Grat-
tan is far less of an Irishman, and of an orator,
too, than Curran ; but a philosophy, penetrating
constitutions for their warnings, and human
nature for its guides — a statesman's (as dis-
tinguished from an antiquarian's) use of history
— a passionate scorn and invective for the base,
tyrannical, and unjust — a fiery and copious zeal
for liberty and for Ireland, and a diction and
cadence almost lyrical, made Grattan the sud-
den achiever of a Revolution, and will make
him for ever one of the very elements of Ire-
land.
No other orator is so uniformly animated.
No other orator has brightened the depths of
political philosophy with such vivid and lasting
light. No writer in the language, except Shaks-
peare, has so sublime and suggestive a diction.
His force and vehemence are amazing — far be-
yond Chatham, far beyond Fox, far beyond any
orator we can recal.
To the student of oratory Grattan's speeches
are dangerously suggestive — overpowering spirits
that will not leave when bid. Yet, with all this
terrible potency, who would not bask in his
genius, even at the hazard of having his li^ht
96 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
for ever in your eyes. The brave student will
rather exult in his effulgence — not to rob, not to
mimic it — but to catch its inspiration, and then
go on his way resolved to create a glory of his
own which, however small, being genuine, shall
not pale within its sphere.
To give a just idea of Grattan's rush and
splendour to any one not familiar with his
speeches is impossible ; but some glimmer may
may be got by one reading the extracts we shall
add here. We shall take them at random, as we
open the pages in the book, and leave the reader,
untaught in our great orator, to judge, if chance
is certain of finding such gems, what would not
judicious care discover! Let him use that care
a^ain and aorain : —
"Sir, VTQ may hope to dazzle with illumination, and we
may sicken with addresses, but tlie public imagination
will never rest, nor will her heart be well at ease :
never ! so long as the parliament of England exercises
or claims a legislation over this country : so long as this
shall be the case, tliat very free trade, otherwise a per-
petual attachment, will be the cause of new discontent ;
it wiU create a i)ride to feel the indignity of bondage ;
it will furnish a strength to bite your chain, and tlie
liberty withheld will poison the good communicated.
" The British minister mistakes the Irish character ;
liad he intended to make Ireland a slave, he should have
kept her a beggar ; there is no middle poUcy ; vdw her
lieart by the restoration of lier right, or cut off the"
nation's right hand ; greatly emancipate, or fundamen-
tally destroy. We may talk plausibly to England, but
so long as she exercises a power to bind this country, so
loug are the nations in a state of war ; the claims of the
one go against the liberty of the otlier, and the senti-
ments of tlie latter go to oppose those claims to the last
drop of her blood. The English opposition, therefore.
THE SPEECHES OF GRATTAN. 97
are riglit ; mere trade will not satisfy Ireland : — they
judge of us by otlier great nations, by the nation whose
political life has been a struggle for liberty ; they
judge of us with a true knowledge, and just deference,
for our character : that a country enlightcd as Ireland,
chartered as Ireland, armed as Ireland, and injured as
Ireland, will be satisfied with nothing less than liberty.
" Impracticable ! impracticable ! impracticable, a zea-
lous divine will say ; any alteration is beyond tlie power
and wisdom of parliament ; above the faculties of man to
make adequate provision for 900 clergymen, who de-
spise riches. Were it to raise a new tax for their pro-
vision, or for that of a body less holy, how easy the
task ! how various the means ! but, when the proposal is
to diminish a tax already established, an impossibility
glares us in the face, of a measure so contrary to our
practices both in church and state."
We were wrong in saying there was no
humour in Grattan. Here is a passage humor-
ous enough, but it is scornful, rhetorical hu-
mour : —
"It does not aifect the doctrine of our religion; it does
not alter the church establishment ; it does not affect
the constitution of episcopacy. The modus does not
even alter the mode of their provision, it only limits the
quantum, and limits it on principles much less severe
than that charity which they preach, or that abstinence
whicli they inculcate. Is this innovation? — as if the
Protestant religion was to be propagated in Ireland, like
the influence of a minister, by bribery ; or like the in-
fluence of a county candidate, by money ; or like the
cause of a potAvalloping canvasser, by the weight of the
purse ; as if Christ could not prevail over the earth un-
less Mammon took him by the hand. Am I to under-
stand that if you give the parson 12s. in the acre for
potatoes, and lOs. for wheat, the Protestant religion is
safe on its rock ? But if you reduce him to 6s. the acre
for potatoes and wheat, then Jupiter shakes the Heavens
witftE his thunder, Neptune rakes up the deep with his
trident, and Pluto leaps from liis throne ! See the
98 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
curate — he rises at six to morning prayers ; he leaves
company at six for evening prayer ; he baptizes, he
marries, he churches, he buries, he follows "with pious
oflSces his fellow-creature from the cradle to the grave ;
for what immense income ! what riches to reward tliese
inestimable services ? (Do not depend on the penury of
the laity, let his own order value his deserts ;) 50/. ;i
year ! 50/. ! for praying, for christening, for marrying,
for churching, for burying, for following with Christian
offices his fellow-creature from cradle to grave ; so
frugal a thing is devotion, so cheap religion, so easy tlie
terms on which man may worship his Maker, and so
small the income, in the opinion of ecclesiastics, suffi-
cient for the duties of a clergyman, as far as he is con-
nected at all with the Christian religion.
"By this trade of parliament the King is absolute; his
vnU. is signified by both houses of parliament, who are
now as much an instrument in his hand as a bayonet in
the hands of a regiment. Like a regiment we have our
adjutant, who sends to the infirmary for the old and to
the brothel for the young, and men thus carted, as it
were, into this house, to vote for the minister, arc
called the representatives of the people ! Suppose
General "Washington to ring his bell, and order his ser-
vants out of livery to take their seats in Congress — you
can apply this instance.
"It is not life but tlie condition of living — the slave is
not so likely to complain of the want of property as the
proprietor of the want of privilege. The human mind
is progressive — the child does not look back to the
parent that gave him being, nor the proprietor to tlie
people that gave him the power of acquisition, but botli
look forward — the one to provide for the comforts of
life, and the other to obtain all the privileges of pro-
perty."
But we have fallen on one of his most marvel-
lous passages, and we give it entire : —
' ' I will put this question to my country ; I will suppose
her at the bar, and 1 will ask her. will you figlit for r>
THE SPEECHES OF GRATTAN. 99
Union as you would for a constitution ? Will you fight
for tliat Lords, and that Commons, who, in the last
century, took away your trade, and, in the present,
your constitution, as for that King, Lords, and Com-
mons, wlio have restored both ? Well, the minister has
destroyed this constitution ; to destroy is easy. The
edifices of the mind, like the fabrics of marble, require
an age to build, but ask only minutes to precipitate ;
and, as the fall of both is an etibrt of no time, so neither
is it a business of any strength — a pick-axe and a com-
mon labourer will do the one — a little lawyer, a little
pimp, a wicked minister the other.
"The constitution, which, with more or less violence,
has been the inheritance of this country for six hundred
years — that modus tenendi parliamentum, which lasted
and outlasted of Plantagenet the wars, of Tudor the
violence, and of Stuart the systematic falsehood — the
condition of our connexion — yes, the constitution he de-
stroys is one of the pillars of the British empire. He
may walk round it and round it, and the more he con-
templates the more must he admire it — such a one as
had cost England of money millions and of blood a
•deluge, cheaply and nobly expended — whose restoration
had cost Ireland her noblest efforts, and was the habi-
tation of her loyalty — we are accustomed to behold the
kings of these countries in the keeping of parliament —
I say of her loyalty as well as of her liberty, where she
'had hung up the sword of the Volunteer — her temple of
•fame as well as of freedom — where she had seated her-
<self, as she vainly thought, in modest security and in a
long repose.
' ' I have done with the pile which the minister batters,
I come to the Babel which he builds ; and as he throws
'down without a principle, so does he construct without
.a foundation. This fabric he calls a Union, and to tliis his
fabric, there are two striking objections — first, it is no
Union ; it is not an identification of people, for it ex-
cludes the Catholics ; secondly, it is a consolidation of
the Irish legislatures; that is to say, a merger of the
Irish parliament, and incurs every objection to a Union,
-without obtaining the only object which a Union pro-
ifesses ; it is an extinction of the constitution, and an
100 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
exclusion of the people. Well ! he has overlooked the
people as he has overlooked the sea. I say he excludes
the Catholics, and he destroys their best chance of ad-
mission — the relative consequence. Thus he reasons,
that hereafter, in course of time (he does not say when),
if they behave themselves (he does not say how), they
may see their subjects submitted to a course of discussion
(he does not say -vWth what result or determination) ;
and as the ground for this inane period, in which he
promises nothing, and in which, if he did promise much,
at so remote a period he could perform nothing, unless
he, like the evil he has accomplished, be immortal. For
this inane sentence, in which he can scarcely be said to
deceive the Catholic, or suffer the Catholic to deceive
himself, he exhibits no other ground than the physical
inanity of the Catholic body accomplished by a Union,
which, as it destroys the relative importance of Ireland,
so it destroys the relative proportion of the Catholic in-
habitants, and thus they become admissible, because
they cease to be anything. Hence, according to him,
their brilliant expectation: 'You were,' say his advo-
cates, and so imports his argument, ' before the Union
as three to one, you will be by the Union as one to
four.' Thus he founds their hopes of pohtical power on
the extinction of physical consequence, and makes the
inanity of their body and the non-entity of their comitry,
the j)illars of their future ambition. "
We now return to the memoir by Mr. Mad-
den. It is not the details of a life meagre for
want of space, and confused for want of princi-
ples, as most little biographies are ; it is an esti-
mate, a profound one of Grattan's original
nature, of the influences which acted on him
from youth to manhood, of his purposes, his
principles, and his influence on Ireland.
Henry G rattan was twenty-nine years of age
when he entered on politics, and in seven years
he was the triumphant leader of a people free
THE SPEECHES OF GRATTAN. 101
and victorious after hereditary bondage. He
entered parliament educated in the metaphysical
and political philosophy of the time, injured by
its cold and epigrammatic verse and its artificial
tastes — familiar with every form J of aristocratic
life from Kilkenny to London — familiar, too,
with Chatham's oratory and principles, and with
Flood's views and example. He came when
there were great forces rushing through the
land — eloquence, love of liberty, thirst for
commerce, hatred of English oppression, im-
patience, glory, and, above all, a military array.
He combined these elements, and used them to
achieve the Revolution of '82. Be he for ever
honoured !
Mr. Madden defends him against Flood on
i the question of Simple Repeal. Here is his
! reasoning : —
"It is an easy thing now to dispose of the idle question
of simple repeal. In truth, there was notliing whatever
deserving of attention in the point raised by Mr. Flood.
The security for the continuance of Irish freedom did
not depend upon an English act of parliament. It was
by Irish icill and not at Enghsh pleasure that the new
constitution Avas to be supported. The transaction be-
tween the countries was of a high pohtical nature, and
it was to be judged by political reason, and by states-
manhke computation, and not by the petty techni-
cahties of the court of law. The revolution of 1782, as
carried by Ireland, and assented to by England (in re-
peaUng the 6th George the First), was a pohtical com-
pact — proposed by one country, and acknowledged by
the other in the face of Europe : it was not (as Mr.
Flood and liis partisans construed the transaction) of the
nature of municipal right, to be enforced or annulled by
mere judical exposition."
102 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
This is unanswerable, but Grattan should
have gone further. The Revolution was effected
mainly by the Volunteers, whom he had in-
spired; arms could alone have preserved the
constitution. Flood was wrong in setting value
on one form — Grattan in relying on any ; but
both before, and after, '82 Flood seems to have
had glimpses that the question was one of might,
as well as of right, and that national laws could
not last under such an alien army.
Taken as military representatives, the Con-
vention at the Rot undo was even more valuable
than as a civic display. Mr. Madden censures
Grattan for having been an elaborate neutral
during these Reform dissensions ; but that tlie
result of stich neutrality ruined the Convention
proves a comparative want of power in Flood,
who could have governed that Convention in
spite of the rascally English and the feeble Irish
Whigs. Oh ! had Tone been in that council !
In describing Grattan's early and enthusiastic
and ceaseless advocacy of Catholic liberty, Mr.
Madden has a just subject for unmixed eulogy.
Let no one imagine that the interest of these
Emancipation speeches has died with the achieve-
ment of what they pleaded for ; they will ever
remain divinest protests against the vice and
impolicy of religious ascendency, of sectarian bit-
terness, and of bigot separation.
For this admirable beginning of the design of
giving Ireland its most glorious achievement —
the speeches of its orators — to contemplate, the
country should be grateful ; but if there can be
THE SPEECHES OF GRATTAN. 103
anything better for it to hear than can be had in
Grattan's speeches, it is such language as this
from his eloquent editor :
"Reader! if you be an Irish Protestant, and entertain
harsh prejudices against your Catholic countrymen —
study tlie works and life of Grattan — learn from him,
for none can teach you better, how to purify your
nature from bigotry. Learn from him to look upon all
your countrymen with a loving heart — to be tolerant of
infirmities, caused by their imhappy history — and, like
Grattan, earnestly sympathise with all that is brave and
generous in their character.
"Reader! if you be an Irish Catholic, and that you
confound the Protestant religion with tyranny — learn
from Grattan, that it is possible to be a Protestant, and
have a heart for Ireland and its people. Think that the
brightest age of Ireland was when Grattan — a steady
Protestant — raised it to proud eminence ; think also
that in the hour of his triumph, he did not forget the
state of your oppressed fathers, but laboured through
his virtuous life, that both you and your children should
enjoy unshackled liberty of conscience.
' ' JBut reader ! Avhether you be Protestant or CathoUc,
and Avhatever be your party, j'ou will do well as an
Irishman to ponder upon the spirit and principles wliieli
governed the public and private life of Grattan. Learn
from him how to regard your coimtrymen of all denomi-
nations. Observe, as he did, how very much that is
excellent belongs to both the great i)arties into Avhich
Ireland is divided. If (as some do) you entertain
dispiriting views of Ireland, recollect that any country,
containing such elements as those which roused the
genius of Grattan, never need despair. Sursum cor da.
Be not disheartened.
"Go — go — my countrymen — and, within your social
sphere, carry into practice those moral principles which
Grattan so eloquently taught, and which he so re-
markably enforced by his well-spent Ufe. He will teach
you to avoid hating men on account of their religious
professions, or hereditary descent. Prom him you will
learn principles which, if carried out, would generate a
new state of society in Ireland."
104 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
MEMORIALS OF WEXEORD.
'TwixT Croghan-Kinshela, and Hook Head,
'twixt Carnsore and Mount-Leinster, there is as
good a mass of men as ever sustained a state by
honest franchises, by peace, virtue, and intelli-
gent industry ; and as stout a mass as ever
tramped through a stubborn battle. There is a
county where we might seek more of stormy ro-
mance, and there is a county where prospers a
shrewder economy, but no county in Ireland is
fitter for freedom than Wexford.
They are a peculiar people — these Wexford
men. Their blood is for the most part English
and Welsh, though mixed with the Danish and
the Gaelic, yet they are Irish in thought and
feeling. They are a Catholic people, yet on
excellent terms with their Protestant landlords.
Outrages are unknown, for though the rents
are high enough, they are not unbearable by a
people so idustrious and skilled in farming.
Go to the fair and you will meet honest deal-
ing, and a look that heeds no lordling's frown —
for the Wexford men have neither the base bend
nor the baser craft of slaves. Go to the hust-
ings, and you will see open and honest voting ;
no man shrinking or crying for concealment, or
extorting a bribe under the name of " his ex-
penses." Go to their farms, and you will see a
snug homestead, kept clean, prettily sheltered
MEMORIALS OF WEXFORD. 105
(much what you'd see in Down), more green
crops than even in Ulster, the National School
and the Repeal Reading-room well filled, and
every religious duty regarded.
Wexford is not all it might be, or all that,
with more education and the life-hope of nation-
ality, it will be — there is something to blame and
something to lament, here a vice sustained, and
there a misfortune lazily borne ; yet, take it for
all in all, it is the most prosperous, it is the pat-
tern county of the South ; and when we see it
coming forward in a mass to renew its demand
for native government, it is an omen that the
spirit of the people outlives quarrels and jealou-
sies, and that it has a rude vitality which will
wear out its oppressors.
Nor are we indifferent to the memories of
Wexford. It owes much of its peace and pros-
perity to the war it sustained. It rose in '98
with little organisation against intolerable wrong;
and though it was finally beaten by superior
forces, it taught its aristocracy and the govern-
ment a lesson not easily forgiven, to be sure,
but far harder to be forgotten — a lesson that
popular anger could strike hard as well as sigh
deeply ; and that it w^as better to conciliate than
provoke those w^ho even for an hour had felt
their strength. The red rain made Wexford's
harvest grow. Their's was no treacherous assas-
sination — their's no stupid riot — their's no pale
mutiny. They rose in mass and swept the
country by sheer force.
Nor in their sinking fortunes is there anything
106 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
to blush at. Scullabogue was not burned by the
fifjhtino; men.
Yet, nowhere did the copper sun of that July
burn upon a more heart-piercing sight than a
rebel camp. Scattered on a hill-top, or screened
in a gap, were the grey-coated thousands, tlieir
memories mad at burned cabins, and militarv
whips, and hanged friends ; their hopes dimmed
by partial defeat ; their eyes lurid with care ;
their brows full of gloomy resignation. Some
have short o^uns, which the stern of a boat mi2:ht
bear, but which press through the slioulder of a
marching man ; and others have light fowling
pieces, with dandy locks — troublesome and
dangerous toys. Most have pikes, stout wea-
pons, too ; and though some swell to handspike^,
and others thin to knives, yet, for all that, fatal
are they to dragoon or musketeer if they can
meet him in a rush ; but how shall they do so ?
The gunsmen have only a little powder in scraps
of paper or bags, and their balls are few and
rarely fit. They have no potatoes ripe, and
they have no bread — their food is the worn cat-
tle they have crowded there, and which the first
skirmish may rend from them. There are women
and children seeking shelter, seeking those tliev
love ; and there are leaders busier, feebler, le.-s
knowing, less resolved than the women and the
children.
Great hearts ! how fiiithful ye were. How yo
bristled up when the foe came on, how ye set
your teeth to die as his shells and round-shot fell
steadily ; and with how firm a cheer ye dashed
MEMORIALS OF WEXFORD. 107
at him, if he gave you any chance at all of a
grapple. From the wild burst with which ye
triumphed at Oulart hill, down to the faint gasp
wherewith the last of your last column died in
the corn fields of Meath, there is nothing to
shame your valour, your faith, or your pa-
triotism. You wanted arms, and you wanted
leaders. Had you had them, you would have
guarded a green flag in Dublin Castle, a week
after you beat Walpole. Isolated, unorganised,
unofficered, half-armed, girt by a swarm of foes,
you ceased to fight, but you neither betrayed,
nor repented. Your sons need not fear to speak
of Ninety-eight.
You, people of Wexford, almost all Repealers,
are the sons of the men of '98 ; prosperous and
many, will you only shout for Repeal, and line
roads and tie boughs for a holiday ? Or will
you press your organisation, work at your edu-
cation, and increase your political power, so that
your leaders may know and act on the know-
ledge, that come what may, there is trust in
Wexford ?
108 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
THE HISTORY OF TO-DAY.
From 1793 to 1829— for thirty-six years — the
Irish Catholics struggled for Emancipation. That
Emancipation was but admission to the Bench,
the Inner Bar, and Parliament. It was won by
self-denial, genius, vast and sustained labours,
and lastly by the sacrifice of the forty- shilling
freeholders — the poor veterans of the war — and
by submission to insulting oaths ; yet it was
cheaply bought. Not so cheaply, perchance, as
if won by the sword ; for, on it were expended
more treasures, more griefs, more intellect,
more passion, more of all which makes life wel-
come, than had been needed for war ; still it Avas ,
cheaply bought, and Ireland has glorified herself,
and will through ages triumph in the victory
of '29.
Yet what was Emancipation compared to
Repeal ?
The one put a silken badge on a few members
of one profession ; the other would give to all
professions and all trades the rank and riches
which resident proprietors, domestic legislation,
and flourishing commerce, infallibly create.
Emancipation made it possible for Catholics to
sit on the judgment seat ; but it left a foreign
administration, which has excluded them, save
in two or three cases, where over- topping emi-
nence made the acceptance of a Judgeship no
THE HISTORY OF TO-DAY. 109
promotion ; and it left the local Judges — those
with whom the people has to deal — as partial,
ignorant, and bigotted as ever ; while Repeal
would give us an Irish code and Irish-hearted
Judges in every Court, from the Chancery to
the Petty Sessions.
Emancipation dignified a dozen Catholics with
a senatorial name in a foreign and hostile Legis-
lature. Repeal would give us a Senate, a Mi-
litia, an Administration, all our own.
The Penal Code, as it existed since 1793, in-
sulted the faith of the Catholics, restrained their
liberties, and violated the public Treaty of Li-
merick. The Union has destroyed our manufac-
tures, prohibits our flag, prevents our commerce,
drains our rental, crushes our genius, makes our
taxation a tribute, our representation a shadow,
our name a bye-word. It were nobler to strive
for Repeal than to get Emancipation.
Four years ago, the form of Repeal agitation
began — two years ago, its reality. Have we not
cause to be proud of the labours of these two
years? If life be counted, not by the rising
of suns, or the idle turning of machinery, but
by the growth of the will, and the progress of
thoughts and passions in the soul, we Irishmen
have spent an age since we raised our first cry
for liberty. Consider what we were then, and
what we have done since. We had a People
unorganised — disgusted with a Whig alliance —
beaten in a dishonourable struggle to sustain a
faction — ignorant of each others' will — without
books, without song, without leaders (save one),
without purposes, without strength, without
G
no LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
hope. The Corn-Exchaiige was the faint co]\v
of the Catholic Association, with a few enthu-
siasts, a few loungers, and a few correspondents.
Opposite to us was the great Conservative party,
with a majority exceeding our whole representa-
tion, united, flushed, led by the craftiest of living^
statesmen and the ablest of living generals. Oh !
how disheartening it was then, when, day by
day, we found prophecy and exhortation, lay
and labour, flung idly before a distracted People.
May we never pass through that icy ordeiil
again !
How different nov/! The People are united
under the greatest system of organisation ever
attempted in any country. They send in, l)y
their Collectors, Wardens, and Inspectors, to tlie
central office of Ireland, the contributions needetl
to carry on the Registration of Voters, the pub-
lic meetings, the publications, the law expense,-,
and the organisation of the Association ; and
that in turn carries on registries, holds meetings,
opens Reading-rooms, sends newspapers, and
books, and political instructions, back througli
the same channel ; so that the Central Committee
knows the state of every parish, and every parish
receives the teaching and obeys the will of the
Central Committee.
The Whig Alliance has melted, like ice before
the sun, and the strong souls of our People will
never again serve the purposes of a faction.
The Conservative party, without union and
without principle, is breaking up. Its English
section is dividing into the tools of expediency
and the pioneers of a New Generation — its
TllK HISTORY OF TO-DAY. 1 1 I
Irish section into Castle Hacks, and National
Conservatives.
Meantime, how much have the Irish People
gained and done ! They have received, and grown
rich under torrents of thought. Song, and ser-
mon, and music, speech and pamphlet, novel and
history, essay, and map, and picture, have made
the dull thoughtful, and the thoughtful studious,
and will make the studious wise and powerful.
They have begun a system of self-teaching in
their Reading-rooms. If they carry it, we shall,
before two years, have in every parish men able
to manufacture, to trade, and to farm — men ac-
quainted with all that Ireland was, is, and should
be — men able to serve The Irish Nation in peace
and war.
In the teeth, too, of the Government, we
held our meetings. They are not for this time,
but they v\^ere right well in their own time. They
showed our physical force to the Continent, to
ourselves, to America, to our rulers. They
showed that the People would come and go ra-
pidly, silently, and at bidding, in numbers enough
to recruit a dozen armies. These are literal
facts. Any one monster meeting could have
offered little resistance in the open country to a
regular army, but it contained the materials —
the numbers, intelligence, and obedience — of a
conquering host. Whenever the impression of
their power grows faint, we shall revive them
again.
The toleration of these meetings was the result
of fear ; the prosecution of their chiefs sprung
from greater fear. That prosecution was begun
112 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
audaciously, -was carried on meanly and with
virulence, and ended with a charge and a verdict
which disgraced the law. An illegal imprison-
ment afforded a glorious proof that the People
could refrain from violence under the worst temp-
tation ; that their leaders were firm ; and, better
than all, that had these leaders been shot, not
prisoned, their successors were ready. Such an
imprisonment served Ii'eland more than an ac-
quittal, for it tried her more ; and then came the
day of triumph, when the reluctant constitution
liberated our chiefs, and branded our oppressor ~.
This is a history of two years never surpassed
in importance and honour. This is a history
which our sons shall pant over and envy. This
is a history which pledges us to perseverance.
This is a history which guarantees success.
Energy, patience, generosity, skill, tolerance,
enthusiasm, created and decked the agitation.
The world attended us with its thoughts and
prayers. The graceful genius of Italy and tlie
profound intellect of Germany paused to wish us
well. The fiery heart of France tolerated our
unarmed effort, and proffered its aid. America
sent us money, thought, love — she made herself
a part of Ireland in her passions and her orga-
nisation. From London to the wildest settlement
which throbs in the tropics, or shivers nigh the
Pole, the empire of our misruler was shaken
by our effort. To all earth we proclaimed our
wrongs. To man and God we made oath that
we would never cease to strive till an Irish Na-
tion stood supreme on this island. The geniu-
which roused and organised us, the energy wliich
THE RESUUllCLIS OF IHELAND. 113
laboured, the wisdom that taught, the manhood
which rose up, the patience which obeyed, the
iuith which swore, and the valour that strained
for action, are here still, experienced, recruited,
resolute.
The future shall realise the promise of the
past.
THE RESOURCES OF IRELAND.*
Bishop Berkeley put, as a query, could the
Irish live and prosper if a brazen wall surrounded
their island ? The question has been often and
vaguely replied to.
Dr. Kane has at length answered it, and proved
the affirmative. Confining himself strictly to the
land of our island (for he does not enter on the
subjects of fisheries and foreign commerce,) he
has proved that we possess physical elements for
every important art. Not that he sat down to
prove this. Taste, duty, industry, and genius,
prompted and enabled him gradually to acquire
a kno^vledge of the physical products and powers
of Ireland, and his mastery of chemical and
mechanical science enabled him to see how these
could be used.
* The Industrial Resources of Ireland, by Robert
Kane, M.D., Secretary to the Council of the Royal
Irish Academy, Professor of Natural Philosophy to the
Royal Dublin Society, and of Chemistry to the Apothe-
caries' Hall of Ireland. Dublin : Hodges and Smith,
21, College-green.
G 3
114 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
Thus qualified, lie tried, in the Lecture-rooiii
of the Dublin Society, to communicate his kno^\ -
ledge to the public. He was as successful as any
man lecturing on subjects requiring accurate'
details could be ; and now he has given, in the
volume before us, all his lectures, and much mor<'.
He, then, is no party pamphleteer, pandering to
the national vanity ; but a philosopher, wlio
garnered up his knowledge soberly and surely.
and now gives us the result of his studies. Thi'i<
was, undoubtedly, a good deal of information on
the subjects treated of by Dr. Kane scatter '
through our topographical works and parliam*
tary reports, but that information is, for the m.
part, vague, unapplied, and not tested by scien-
Dr. Kane's work is full, clear, scientific, exact i;i
stating places, extent, prices, and every otlit r
working detail, and is a manual of the whole
subject.
In such interlaced subjects as industrial re-
sources we must be content with practical classi-
fications.
Dr. Kane proceeds in the following order : —
First, he considers the mechanical powers of the
country — viz., its fuel and its water powers.
Secondly, its mineral resources — its iron, copi)f r,
lead, sulphur, marble, slates, &c. Thirdly, the
agriculture of the country in its first function — •
the raising of food, and the modes of cropping,
manuring, draining, and stacking. Fourthly,
agriculture in its secondary use, as furnishing
staples for the manufacture of woollens, linen-.
starch, sugar, spirits, SiQ.. Fifthly, the mode-
carrying internal trade by roads, canals, an<l i
THE RESOURCES OF IRELAxND. 115
ways. Sixthly, the cost and condition of skilled
and unskilled labour in Ireland. Seventhly, our
state as to capital. And he closes by some
earnest and profound thoughts on the need of
industrial education in Ireland.
Now, let us ask the reader what he knows
u[)on any or all of these subjects ; and whether
he ought, as a citizen, or a man of education, or
a man of business, to be ignorant of tliem ? Such
iiinorance as exists here must be got rid of, or
our cry of " Ireland for the Irish" will be a whine
or a brag, and will be despised as it deserves.
We must know Ireland from its history to its
minerals, from its tillage to its antiquities, before
we shall be an Irish nation, able to rescue and
keep the country. And if we are too idle, too
dull, or too capricious to learn the arts of strength,
wealth, and liberty, let us not murmur at being
t^laves.
For the present, we shall confine ourselves to
the subjects of the mechanical powers and mi-
nerals of Ireland, as treated by Dr. Kane.
The first difference between manufactures now,
and in a?ii/ former time, is the substitution of
machines for the hands of man. It may, indeed,
be questioned whether the increased strength
over matter thus given to man compensates for
the ill effects of forcing people to work in crowds ;
of destroying small and pampering large capi-
talists, of lessening the distribution of wealth
even by the very means which increase its pro-
duction.
We sincerely lament, with Lord Wharncliffe,
116 LlTtRAKY AM) Hli^TOUICAL ESSAYS.
the • loss of domestic manufactures ; we would
prefer one house-wife skilled in the distaff and
the dairy — home-bred, and home-taught, and
home-faithful — to a factory full of creatures who
live amid the eternal roll, and clash, and glim-
mer of spindles and rollers, watching with aching
eyes the thousand twirls, and capable of but one
act — tying the broken threads. We abhor that
state ; we prefer the life of the old times, or of
modern Norway.
But, situated as we are, so near a strong
enemy, and in the new highway from Europe to
America, it may be doubted whether we can
retain our simple domestic life. There is but
one chance for it. If the Prussian Tenure Code
be introduced, and the people turned into small
proprietors, there is much, perhaps every hope
of retaining or regaining our homestead habits,
and such a population need fear no enemy.
If this do not come to pass, we must make the
best of our state, join our chief towns with rail-
ways, put quays to our harbours, mills on our
rivers, turbines on our coasts, and under restric-
tions and with guarantees set the steam-engine
to work at our flax, wool, and minerals.
The two great mechanical powers are fire and
water. Ireland is nobly endowed with both.
We do not possess as ample fields of flaming
coal as Britain ; but even of that we have large
quantities, which can be raised at about the same
rate at which English coal can be landed on our
coast.
The chief seats of flaming coal in Ireland are
THE RESOURCES OF IRELAND. Il7
to the west of Lough Allen, in Connaiight, and
'around Dungannon, in Tyrone. There is a small
! district of it in Antrim.
The stone coal, or anthracite, which having
little gas, does not blaze, and having much sulphur
is disagreeable in a room, and has been thought
unfit for smelting, is found — first, in the Kil-
kenny district, between the Nore and Barrow —
secondly, from Freshford to Casliel ; and thirdly,
in the great Munster coal country, cropping up
in every barony of Clare, Limerick, Cork, and
Kerry. By the use of vapour with it, the anthra-
cite appears to be freed from all its defects as a
smelting and engine coal, and being a much more
,pure and powerful fuel than the flaming coal,
there seems no reason to doubt that in it we have
a manufacturing power that would supply as for
generations.
Our bogs have not been done justice to. The
use of turf in a damp state turns it into an in-
ferior fuel. Dried under cover, or broken up
and dried under pressure, it is more economical,
because far more efficient. It is used now in the
Shannon steamers, and its use is increasing in
mills. For some purposes it is peculiarly good —
thus, for the finer iron works, turf, and turf-
charcoal are even better than wood, and Dr.
Kane shows that the precious Baltic iron, for
which from 15/. to 35/. per ton is given, could be
equalled by Irish iron smelted by Irish turf for
six guineas per ton.
Dr. Kane proves that the cost of fuel, even if
greater in Ireland, by no means precludes us
from competing with England ; he does so by
118 LITERACY AND IIISToKICAL >;Si^AYS.
showing that the cost of fuel in English factories
is only from 1 to 1-|^ per cent., while in Ireland
it would be only 2^ to 3-J per cent a difference
greatly overbalanced by our cheaper labour,
labour being over 33 per cent, of the whole ex-
pense of a factory.
Here is the analysis of the cost of producing
cotton in England in 1 830 : —
Cottonwool £8,244,693 or per cent. 26-27
Wages 10,419,000 " 33-16^
Interest on capital ... 3,400,000 " 10-84
Coals 339,680 " 108
Rent, taxes, insu-
rance, other charges
and profit 8,935,320 " 28 (Jo
£31,338,693 100-(>l>
In M'ater-power we are still better off. Dr.
Kane calculates the rain which falls on Ireland
in a year at over 100 billion cubic yards ; and of
this he supposes two-thirds to pass off in evapora-
tion, leaving one-third, equal to near a million
and a half of horse power, to reach the sea. His
calculations of the water-power of the Shannon
and other rivers are most interesting. The ele-
ments, of course, are the observed fall of rain by
the gauge in the district, and the area of the
catchment (or drainage) basins of each river and
its tributaries. The chief objection to water-
power is its irregularity. To remedy this he
proj)oses to do what has increased the water-
power on the Bann five-fold, and has made the
wealth of Greenock — namely, to make mill-lakes
by damming up valleys, and thus controlling and
equalising the supply of water, and letting none
THE RESOURCES OF IRELAND. 119
SO waste. His calculations of the relative merits
of undershot, overshot, breast, and turbine wheels,
are most valuable, especially of the last, which is
a late and successful French contrivance, acting
by pressure. He proposes to use the turbine in
coast mills, the tide being the motive power ;
and, strange as it sounds, the experiments seem
to decide in favour of this plan. —
" The Turbine was invented by M. Fourneyron.
I Coals being abundant, the steam-engine is invented in
England ; coals being scarce, the water-pressure engine
. and the turbine are invented in France. It is thus the
I physical condition of each country directs its mechanical
' genius. The turbine is a horizontal Avheel furnished
I with curved float-boards, on which the water presses
from a cylinder which is suspended over the wheel, and
I the base of which is divided by curved partitions, that
I the water may be directed in issuing, so as to produce
j upon the curved float boards of the wheel its greatest
I effect. The best curvature to be given to the fixed parti-
I tions and to the float-boards is a delicate problem, but
j practically it has been completely solved. The con-
' struction of the machine is simple, its parts not liable to
■ go out of order ; and as the action of the water is by
; pressure, the force is under the most favourable circum-
i stances for being utilized.
i ' ' The effective economy of the turbine appears to equal
' that of the overshot wheel. But this economy in the
; turbine is accompanied by some conditions which render
[ it peculiarly valuable. In a water wheel you cannot
i have great economy of power Avithout very slow motion,
I and hence where high velocity is required at the working
' point, a train of mechanism is necessary, which causes a
! material loss of force. Now, in the turbine the greatest
I economy is accompanied by rapid motion, and hence
; the connected machinery may be rendered much less
( complex. In the turbine also a change in the height of
I the head of water alters only the power of the m ichine
in that proportion, but the whole quantit}- of water is
120 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL, ESSAYS.
economized to the same degree. Thus if a turbine be
working with a force of ten horses, and that its supplv
of water be suddenly doubled, it becomes of tAvt-ntv
horse poAver ; if the supply be reduced to one-half, it
still works five horse power : whilst such sudden ant
extreme change Avould altogether disarrange watei
wheels, which can only be constructed for the minimum.
and allow the overplus to go to waste."
Our own predilection being in favour of water-
power — as cheaper, healthier, and more fit foi
Ireland than steam — gave the following peculiai
interest in our eyes : —
"I have noticed at such length the question of tht
cost of fuel and of steam power, not from my own opinioi
of its ultimate importance, but that we might at ouci.
break down that barrier to all active exertion which m
dolent ignorance constantly retreats behind. The ci-}
of, 'what can we do? consider England's coal mines," i:
answered by showing that we have available fuel enough i
The lament that coals are so dear with us and so cheaj J
in England, is, I trust, set at rest by the evidence o
how httle influential the price of fuel is. However
there are other sources of power besides coals ; there an
other motive powers than steam. Of the 83,000 hor-c
power employed to give motion to mills in Enghiml
21,000, even in the coal districts, are not moved by m\
but by fire water. The force of gravity in falhug watei
can spin and wave as well as the elasticity of steam ; auL
in this power we are not deficient. It is necessary ti
study its circumstances in detail, and I shall, therefore.
next proceed to discuss the condition of Ireland wit]
regard to Avater power. "
Dr. Kane proves that we have at Arigna an
inexhaustible supply of the richest iron ore, witl:
coals to smelt it, lime to 11 ux it, and infusible
sand-stone and fire-clay to make furnaces of on
the spot. Yet not a pig or bar is made there
THE UESOURCES OF IRELAND. 121
now. He also gives in great detail the extent,
analysis, costs of working, and every other leading
fact, as to the copper mines of Wicklow, Knock-
mahon, and Allihies ; the lead, gold, and sulphur
mines of Wicklow ; the silver mines of Bally-
lichey, and details of the building materials and
marbles.
He is everywhere precise in his industrial and
scientific statements, and beautifully clear in his
style and arrangement.
Why, then, are we a poor province? Dr.
I Kane quotes Forbes, Quetelet, &c., to prove the
' physical strength of our people. He might have
; quoted every officer who commanded them to
I prove their courage and endurance ; nor is there
much doubt expressed even by their enemies of
j their being quick and inventive. Their soil is
, productive — the rivers and harbours good — their
■ fishing opportunities great — so is their means of
I making internal communications across their
, great central plains. We have immense water,
and considerable fire power ; and, besides the
minerals necessary for the arts of peace, we are
' better supplied than almost any country with the
finer sorts iof iron, charcoal, and sulphur, where-
, with war is now carried on. Why is it, with
' these means of amassing and guarding wealth,
; that we are so poor and paltry ? Dr. Kane seems
I to think we are so from industrial education.
I He is partly ri^ht. The remote causes were
, repeated foreign invasion, forfeiture, and tyran-
nous laws. Ignorance, disunion, self-distrust,
, quick credulity, and caprice, were the weaknesses
j engendered in us by misfortune and misgovern-
f n
122 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
ment; and they were then the allies of oppression ;
for, had we been willing, we had long ago been
rich and free. Knowledge is now within our
reach, if we work steadily ; and strength of
character will grow upon us, by every month r ^
perseverance and steadiness in politics, tra-^
and literature.
IRISH TOPOGRAPHY.
Complaints had frequently been made of tlie
inequality of the grand jury taxation before any
attempt was made to remedy it. The committee
on grand jury presentments, in their report,
dated 12tli June, 1815, stated that these com-
plaints were well founded, and recommended
" that some mode should be devised for render-
ing such assessments more equal, the defect ap-
pearing to them to arise, in a great degree, from
the levy being made in reference to old surveys
(which were taken on the measure of land wliicb
was deemed profitable at the time of sucli sur-
veys), which, of course, cannot comprehend the
great improvements which have taken place in
Ireland since the period at which these survey5
took place."
Though some of the evidence given before thai
committee displays a remarkable ignorance oi
this and many other facts, yet the fact itself ol
the oppressive inequality was put beyond doubi
by the evidence of Daniel Mussenden, Est].
IRISH TOPOGRAPHY. 123
C. p. Leslie, Esq., Right Hon. Denis Browne,
Colonel Crosbie, General Arclulall, &c.
It appears, from their evidence, that the grand
jury cess was in some places distributed in equal
shares over districts of a size and value often dif-
ferring as one from six, and in other places distri-
buted in unequal shares, bearing no obvious
proportion to the size or value of the different
districts.
These districts were generally called town-
lands, sometimes ploughlands, cartrons, carvas,
tates, &c. Most of the witnesses fancied that
, these divisions had been originally equal, and
; made by James I., or Strafford, Sir W. Petty, or
, William IIL
Mr. Mussenden suggested that they were made
i by the old Irish. It is possible that the Con-
! naught divisions may have been affected by the
I Strafford survey, now lost ; Ulster by the settle-
1 ment in James's time, and many parts of Mun-
I ster, Leinster, and Connaught, by the forfeitures
. and divisions in William's, Cromwell's, Charles's,
James's, and Elizabeth's times, or even by those
' of earlier date. With respect to these, we would
• remark that the forfeitures were according to
■ previous divisions, and so the grants generally
', were.
! Some of the townlands, from their names, seem
' to have been household lands of princes, other
\ hospitality lands attached to the caravanserais
' which the ancient Irish so liberally endowed ;
but most of them must be accounted for in other
' ways. If these divisions grew marked in the
A middle ages, we should be disposed to say that
124 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
eacli was the possession of a large family or small
sept, by the aggregation of many of which the
great princedoms were made up. If these names ,
and divisions are of older date (as we believe), ;
then they either originated in, or were used for,
the annual distribution of lands which was cus-
tomary under the Brehon law ; and in either ,
case were likely to have been continued during
the middle ages for family purposes.
And here we would remark that this annual
distribution of land has been foolishly censured.
The Irish then lived partly as hunters — chieily
as shepherds and herds — very little as tillers.
The annual distribution of grazing land seems
not so unreasonable, nor could it have been at-
tended with the wasteful and disastrous results.
supposed to result from changeful tenures of til-
lage lands.
In a second report, in 1818, the Grand Jury
Presentment Committee urged the immediate and; ;
complete alteration of the system, and, in 1819,
a bill for the survey and valuation of Ireland'
was brought in. But this bill was soon aban-
doned.
In 1824 the subject was taken up in good ear-
nest. The Commons resolved that " it is expe-
dient, for the purpose of apportioning more
equally the local burthens of Ireland, to provide
for a general survey and valuation of that pari !
of the United Kingdom." Accordingly it votec'
£5,000 towards a trigonometrical survey, out
appointed an active and fair committee " to cou
sider of the best mode of apportioning mor<
equally the local burthens collected in Ireland
IRISH TOPOGRArny. 125
and to provide for a general sui'vey and valuation
of that part of the United Kingdom."
The committee sat and received the evidence
of Major Colby (now, and then, head of the sur-
vey in both kingdoms). Lieutenant Colonel
Keane, Mr. Spring Rice, (now Lord Monteagle),
Mr. Leslie Foster (late Baron of the Exchequer),
Mr. John Wilson Croker, Mr. Richard Griffiths
(since intrusted with the valuation of Ireland),
Messrs. Bald, Nimmo, Edgeworth, and Aher,
civil engineers, Captain Kater, and many otliers.
It reported on the 21st of June, 1824.
The report states that the grand jury taxes for
the preceding year were over £750,000, and that
the assessment of this was most unequal and
unjust, for the reasons before stated.
The committee speak separately on the survey
and valuation.
The most material part of their Report on the
Survey is as follows : —
They state the surface of Ireland at about
twelve millions Irish, or twenty millions English,
acres, divided in four provinces, thirty-two coun-
ties at large, eight counties of cities or towns
or other independent jurisdictions, two hundred
and fifty-two baronies, about two thousand four
hundred parishes, and an immense number of
townlands or minor sub-divisions.
Tlie existing surveys they describe as few and
defective. They omit any notice of the survey
of Ulster made in 1618-19, under royal commis-
sion, by Pymar and others, and printed in the
first part of Harris's collection of tracts on Ire-
land, entitled Hibernica.
126 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
They state, on Mr. Nimmo's .luthority, that
" Strafford's Survey of the Forfeited Lands" was
a memoir, terrier, or written description, accom-
panied by outline maps, and that all these docu-
ments have perished.
Mr. Hardiman, in a paper on Irish maps,
printed in the fourteenth volume of the Trans-
actions of the Irish Academy, states that surveys
had been made of Ireland by the Irish monarchs,
that fragments of these remain, and that in one
of them, by Fenton, some allusion to a map seems
to be made. If such ever existed, it no longer
does.
The earliest published map of Ireland, accor-
ding to Mr. Nimmo, is that in the " Itinerary of
Antonine," published by Ricardus Corinensis in
the fourteenth century, and taken from the table
of latitudes and longitudes, made by Ptolemy.
Ware notices that Ptolemy places Mona, Man,
&c., among the isles of Ireland, and adds that
Macianus (in Periplo) says that Ireland had six-
teen provinces, fifteen famous cities, five noted
promontories, and six eminent islands.
Mercator and Hondius published an inferior
map, taken chiefly from Norse and Danish au-
thorities. Mr. Bald refers to a map of Ireland
of the fourteenth century, contained in " Arrow-
smith's Memoir ;" but whether this is Ricardus's
or not, we do not know — neither can we get in
Dublin " Arrowsmith's Memoir," or '' Ricar-
dus's map." But Bertram, who re-printed Ri-
cardus, Nennius, and Gildas, in 1755, gives an
original and highly interesting map of Ireland.
Mercator was only copied until Elizabeth's time,
IRISH TOrOGRAPHY. 127
when a map fourteen English miles to one inch,
was published.
Tlien follow Speed's in 1610, of Ireland and
of the four provinces, Richard Blome's and Straf-
ford's, before alluded to.
In the State Papers (temp. Henry VIII.) there
are three Irish maps, for the first time printed
from old MSS. maps. The first of tliese is a map
of Illunster, the date of which is only shown by
its being noted in Lord Burleigh's hand. The se-
cond is a map of all Ireland, made by John Goghe
in 1557 ; and the third is also a map of Ireland,
made by John Morden, for the Earl of Salisbury,
in 1609. AH these contain clan names; one of
them has the arms of the principal families, and
they all, besides written names, contain topogra-
phical maps of much antiquarian value.
In the Pacata Hibernia, edited by Stafford in
1633, there are maps of Ireland, of Munster, and
fifteen plans of different places in Munster,
roughly engraved, but usefully drawn as picture-
maps or panoramas — the best style for small
plans at least, and lately revived on the conti-
nent in the panoramas of Switzerland, the Rhine,
&c.
Danville contains a map of ancient Ireland,
and he and Beaufort, and many others published,
made up maps of Ireland in the middle ages.
Ware, too, in his antiquities, prints a map of an-
cient Ireland, made from Ptolemy, Camden, and
in one place from Orosius.
We now come to the celebrated Down Survey.
It w^as executed by Sir William Petty, Physician-
General, under a commission, dated 11th De-
128 UTERARY A^D HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
cember, 1 654, at the payment of 20*. a-day and
Id. an acre. Petty got a lot of Cronnvellian sol-
diers into training in two months, and then sur-
veyed all the forfeited lands. These soldiers used
the chain and circumferentor, and their measure-
ments were sent to Dublin, and there plotted or
laid doum on paper, whence the work is called
The Down Survey.
This Survey contained both barony and parish
maps of two-thirds of Ireland ; the former on a
scale of forty perches to an inch, containing
parish and townland boundaries, mountain and
bog marks, &c. 1430 maps remain in the Re-
cord Tower — of these 260 are baronial, 1170
parochial. 130 baronial maps are perfect, 67
partially burned, 2 or 3 are '-missing." 780 pa-
rochial are perfect, 391 partly burnt in 1711. A '
copy of the baronial maps exists in Paris in the
King's Library, having been taken by a privateer j
when on their way to England for Sir W. Petty,
and tracings of these were made by General
Vallancey and Major Taylor. In the Queen's
Inns is copied his account of this survey. All
Petty's maps have marginal descriptions and re-
ferences to the " Book of Distributions" of the
forfeitures. These maps are evidence between
the crown and subject, and between two subjects
holding as grantees from the crown by that dis-
tribution. There are some maps relating to, or -
part of this, said to be in the Landsdowne Col-
lection.
Sir AYilliam Petty published a folio " County
Atlas" — so did Mr. Pratt. A miniature " County
Atlas" was printed in London, in 1720, by
IRISH TOPOGRAPHY 129
Rowles, taken from Petty and Pratt. The latest
*' County Atlas" is the meagre one published
with Lewis's " Topographical Dictionary."
The next official survey was that of the lands
forfeited in William's time, composing about two
millions acres. It is lodged in the vice-trea-
surer's office.
The following lists of maps and surveys was
given in by Mr. Bald as part of his evidence : —
" A map of Ireland in 1716, by Thomas Bakewill,
who also issued a map of the city of Dublin.
Herman Moll gave a map of Ireland.
Ortelinus (Charles O'Connor's) map of Ireland, with
the names of the septs at the beginning of the 17th
century.
Ditto, improved, containing proprietors' names in
1777, (Note too, that this has been re-printed in Mad-
den's United Irishmen — 2nd series.)
Ireland, by Pratt, six sheets.
Ditto, J. Rocque, four sheets.
Ditto, C. Bowles, four sheets-
Ditto, Jeffries, one sheet. ^
Ditto, Kitchin, one sheet.
Ditto, Major Taylor, one sheet, 1793,
Ditto, Beaufort, two sheets, 1793, accompanied
by a very had memoir.
Ditto, Arrowsmith, four sheets, 1811, reprinted
frequently since.
Taylor and Skinner's map of Irish roads, in 1777.
We may add, Ireland, by Overdon and Morgan; do.,
by Senex, &c., in 1711.
COUNTY MAPS OF IRELAND.
County of Dublin, published in 1700, by John Rocque,
scale not quite six inches to three English miles.
Survey of the county of Dublin, by William Duncan,
principal draughtsman to the quarter-master-general of
Ireland, published in 1821, scale three mches to one
mile, and has been constructed on trigonometrical prin-
ciplea.
H 3
130 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
County of Louth, surveyed by Taylor and Skinner in
1777, scale two inches to one mile.
A survey of Louth, by Mr. John M'Neill.
County of Armagh, surveyed by John Rocque, scale
two inches to one mile ; states the impossibility of find-
ing the barony bounds, and had recourse to Sir William
Petty's surveys.
Wexford, surveyed by Valentine Gill, four sheets.
Westmeath, by Wm. Larkin, since 1800~
Meath,
do.
do.
Scale of the
Waterford,
do.
do.
published
Leitrim,
do.
do.
> maps, two
Sligo,
do.
do.
inches to
Gahvay,
do.
do.
one mile.
Cavan,
do.
do.
All Mr. Larkin's county surveys were protracted from
a scale of four inches to one Irish mile, but do not
appear to have been constructed from triangular mea-
surements.
Cork, surveyed by Edwards and Savage in 1811.
f Londonderry, by the Rev. G. V. Sampson in 1813,
accompanied by a statistical memoir; sections on the
map, scale two inches to one mile.
Longford, surveyed by William Edgeworth. This
map vras constructed from trigonometrical data.
Roscommon, by Messrs. Edgeworth and Griffiths,
This survey has been done trigonometrically. The en-
graving was executed in a most superior manner.
County of Down, scale one inch to a mile ; pubhshed
in 1755. Hills drawn in profile ; no surveyor's name to
the map ; it has soundings along the coast.
County of Down, by Williamson, 1810.
Antrim, by John Lendrick, in 1780.
Kildare, by Major Alexander Taylor, in 1783. Scale
one inch and half to a mile.
Kerry, by Pelham.
Ditto, by Porter.
Wicklow, by Jacob Neville, in 1760.
Clare, by Henry Pelham, in 1787. Scale one inch
and half to the Irish mile.
Kilkenny has been surveyed by Mr. David Aher in
town lands.
IRISH TOrOGRAPHY. 131
Limerick, King's County, Donegal, Fermanagh, Mo-
naglian, Carlow, Queen's County, Tipperary, Mayo, and
King's County liave all been surveyed.
Chart of Kenmare River, by William Irwin, 1749.
Mr. Murdoch M'Kenzie made a general survey of the
whole harbours, bays, and shores of Ireland, on the
scale of one inch to an English mile, with general charts,
in two volumes. By the date of the variation in 1759,
it appears he was engaged about sixteen years. His
sailing directions are valuable ; and although the outline
of the coast is faulty, yet all chart-makers havg conti-
nued to copy his soundings.
Chart of Dublin Bay, by Seal and Richards, 1765.
Do. of tlie Shannon, by Cowan, 1795, two inches and
a half to an Irish mile.
Do. of Dublin Bay, by Captain Bligh.
Several charts of the harbours on the east coast of
Ireland have been published by the Fishery Board ;
they were surveyed under the direction of Mr. Nimmo,
and are among the finest engraved specimens of our
hydrographic surveys yet published.
Chart of Lough Derg, by Lougfield and Murray.
Chart of Lough Ree."
Rocque was a pupil of Cassini, the astronomer
and topographist, and came to Ireland in 1752.
Mr. Nimmo states that he founded a class of
surveyors and valuators, represented in 1824 by
Messrs. Brassington, Sherrard, &c. ; highly re-
spectable, but v/lio, not having much science, use
only the circumfe renter, chain and leveh He
added that the hydrographical survey of Dublin
Coast, by Scale and Richards' pupils of that old
French school was " respectable."
The survey of the forfeited estates in Scotland
founded a school with more science, using the
theodolite, &c. Among its pupils were Messrs.
132 LITERARY ASD HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
Taylor, v/ho, with Skinner, surveyed the roads
of Ireland, Scotland, and part of England, and
by others of this school the post-office road siir-
yeys were made.
Messrs. Nimmo and Bald, Scotchmen, Vig-
noles, an Englishman, and Messrs, Griffiths,
Edge worth, Aher, and M'Xeill, Irishmen, and
all men of very high abilities and science, bring
down the pedigree of civil topography in Ireland
to our time.
Among the greatest topographical works of
these men were the Bog Maps (four inches to
the mile) ; Mr. Nimmo's coast and harbour sur-
veys for the Fishery Board ; Mr. Vignoles' sur-
veys for the Railway Commission, and Mr. Bald's
superb map of Mayo, on a scale of four inches
to the mile, shaded, lithographed beautifully in
Paris, and accompanied by raised models of the
actual shape of parts of the county. Numerous
other surveys and maps were made by these
gentlemen, and by Mr. Griffiths, vtc, for the
Board of Works, the Woods and Forests, the
Shannon Commissioners, and various other pub-
lic departments.
The Ordnance made a slight military survey
by order of the Irish Parliament. At the head
of it was General Yallancey, assisted by Colonel
Tarrant and Major Taylor ; but the witnesses in
1824 treat it slightingly.
The present survey has, besides its own unri-
valled maps, given materials for several others.
Amongst these are the maps in the census report,
shaded to represent the density of population,
the diffusion of houses, of stock, and of know-
iniSH TOPOaRAPHT. 133
ledge. Indeed, Captain Larcom's application of
the electrotype to the multiplication of the cop-
per-plates enables him to represent on a map any
single attribute of the country separately, with
little trouble or expense. The materials for
single and double sheet maps of the Useful Know-
ledge Society, price 6d. and 1*., Avere supplied
from the Survey-office. The Railway Commis-
sioners' general map was also made at Mountjoy.*
This is the only large-sized map of Ireland,
shaded according to the slopes of the land, pos-
sessed of any accuracy. We can testify to this
accuracy. It is published in six sheets for £1
uncoloured. It is also issued at a higher price
coloured geologically. For those who have more
time and energy than money to spare, we know
no better in-door way of studying Irish geology
than to buy this map uncoloured, and to put in
the geological colouring from another copy.
The reader is, probably, wearied enough of
this catalogue, and yet if he be a young student
of his country's state or history, this catalogue
will be most useful to him. If he be master, not
apprentice, he will see how rude and imperfect
this list is. We must ask him to forgive these
crudities, and send us (as he well can) something
better, and we shall be glad to use it for our-
selves and the public. For a list of maps of Ireland,
and parts of it chiefly in MSS., in Trinity Col-
lege, Dublin, we must refer the reader to Mr.
Hardiman's valuable paper in the 14th volume
of the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy.
* The lat€ Mountjoy Barracks, in the Phoenix Park,
Dubhn.
134 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
THE VALUATION OF IRELAND.
The Committee of 1824 was but meagerly
supplied with evidence as to foreign surveys.
They begin that subject with a notice of the
Survey of England, made by order of William
the Conqueror, and called the Doomsday Book.
That book took six years to execute, and is most
admirably analysed by Thierry.
The following is their summary account of
some modern surveys : —
" In France, the great territorial surrey or cac?as?re,
has been in progress for many years. It "vras first sug-
gested in 1763, and after an interval of thirty years,
during which no progress was made, it was renewed by
the government of that day, and indiAiduals of the
highest scientific reputation, M. M. Lagrange, Laplace,
and Delambre, y>-ere consulted, with respect to the best
mode of carrying into effect the intention of govern-
ment. Subsequent events suspended any effectual ope-
rations in the French cadastre till the year 1802, when
a school of topographical engineering was organised
The operations now in progress were fully commenced
in 1808. The principle adopted, is the formation of a
central commission acting in conjunction with the local
authorities ; the classification of lands, according to an
ascertained value, is made by three resident proprietors
of land in each district, selected by the municipal coun-
cil, and by the chief officer of revenue. ' In the course
of thirteen years, one third only of each department
liad been surveyed, having cost the state £120,000 per
annum. At the rate at wliich it is carried on, it may
be computed as Hkelv to require for its completion, a
total sum of £4,680, 000, or an acreable charge of Si^/.
THE VALUATION OF IRELAND. 135
Tlie delay of the work us well as the increase of expense,
scciu to liave been tlie result of the minuteness of tlie
survey, which extends to every district field ; a minute-
ness whicli, for many reasons, your connnittee consider
both unnecessary and inexpedient to be sought for, in
the proposed Survey of Ireland.
" The survey of Bavaria is of modern date, but of
equal minuteness. It is commenced by a primary trian-
gulation, and principal and verification bases ; it is car-
ried on to a second trianj?ulation, with very accurate
instruments, so as to determine ' all the i)rincipal points;
the tilling up the interior is completed hy a peculiar
species of plane t-able ; and in order to do away with the
inaccuracies of the connnon chain, the triangulation is
carried down on paper to the most minute corners of
fields.' The map is laid doivn on a scale of 12 inches to
the mile, or one-five-thousandth part of the real size : and
as it contains all that is required in the most precise sur-
vetf of property, it is used in the purchase and sale of real
estates.
" Tiie cadastre of Savoy and Piedmont began in 17'29,
and is stated to have at once afforded the government
the means of apportioning justly all the territorial con-
tributions, and to have put an end to litigations between
individuals, by ascertaining, satisfactorily, the bounds of
properties.
" The Neapolitan survey under Visconti, and that of
the United States under Heslar, are both stated to be in
progress ; but your committee have not had the means
of ascertaining on what principles they are conducted."
The Committee adopted a scale for the maps
of six inches to a statute mile, believing, appa-
rently with justice, that a six-inch scale map, if
perfectly well executed, would be minute enough
for buyers and sellers of land, especially as the
larger holdings are generally townlands, the
bounds of which they meant to include. And,
wherever a greater scale was needed, the penta-
graph afforded a sufficiently accurate plan of
136 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS'.
forming maps to it. They, in another point,
proposed to differ from the Bavarian Survey, in
omitting field boundaries, as requiring too much
time and expense ; but they stated that barony, pa-
rish, and townland boundaries were essential to the
utility of the maps. They also seemed to think
that for private purposes their utility would
much depend on their being accompanied, as the
Bavarian maps were, by a memoir of the number
of families, houses, size, and description of
farms, and a valuation. And for this purpose
they printed all the forms. The valuation still
goes on of the townlands, and classes of soil in
each. The Statistical Memoir has, unfortu-
nately, been stopped, and no survey or valuation
of farms, or holdings as such, has been attempt-
ed. We would now only recall attention to the
design of the Committee of 1824 on the subject
They proposed to leave the whole Survey to
the Board of Ordnance, and the Valuation to
Civil Engineers.
The Valuation has been regulated by a series
of acts of Parliament, and we shall speak of it
presently.
The Survey commenced in 1826, and has
gone on under the superintendence of Colonel
Colby, and the local control of Captain Larcom.
The following has been its progress : — First,
a base line of about five miles was measured on
the flat shore of Lough Foyle, and from thence
triangular measurements were made by the theo-
dolite and over the whole country, and all the
chief points of mountain, coast, &c., ascertained.
How accurately this was done has been proved
THE VALUATION OF IRELAND. 137
by an astronomical measurement of the distance
from Dublin to Armagh (about seventy miles),
which only differed four feet from the distance
calculated by the Ordnance triangles.
Having completed these large triangles, a de-
tailed survey of the baronies, parishes, and town-
lands of each county foUoAved. The field books
were sent to the central station at Mountjoy, and
sketched, engraved on copper, and printed there.
The first county published was Derry, in 1833,
and now the townland survey is finished, and all
the counties have been engraved and issued ex-
cept Limerick, Kerry, and Cork.
The Survey has also engraved a map of Dub-
lin City on the enormous scale of five feet to a
statute mile. This map represents the shape and
space occupied by every house, garden, yard,
and pump in Dublin. It contains antiquarian
lettering. Every house, too, is numbered on the
map. One of its sheets, representing the space
from Trinity College to the Castle, is on sale,
as we trust the rest of it will be.
Two other sets of maps remain to be executed.
First — Maps of the towns of Ireland, on a scale
of five feet to the mile. Whatever may be said
in reply to Sir Denham Norreys' demand for a
survey of holdings in rural districts does not ap-
ply to the case of towns, and we therefore trust
that the holdings will be marked and separately
valued in towns.
The other work is a general shaded map of
Ireland, on a scale of one inch to the statute
' mile. At present, as we elsewhere remarked,
I the only tolerable shaded map of Ireland is that
138 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
of the Railway Commission, whicli is on a scale
of one inch to four statute miles. Captain Lar-
cora proposes, and the Commission on the Ord-
nance Memoir recommend, that contour lines
should be the skeleton of the shading. If this
plan be adopted the publication cannot be for
some years ; but the shading will have the accu-
racy of machine work instead of mere hand skill.
Contours are lines representing series of levels
through a country, and are inestimable for drain-
ing, road making, and military movements. But
though easily explained to the eye, we doubt our
ability to teach their meaning by words only.
To return to the townland or six-inch survey.
The names were corrected by Messrs. Petrie,
O'Donovan, and Curry, from every source acces-
sible in Ireland. Its maps contain the county,
barony, parish, townland, and glebe boundaries,
names and acreage ; names and representations of
all cities, towns, demesnes, farms, ruins, collie-
ries, forges, limekilns, tanneries, bleachgreens,
wells, &c., &c. ; also of all roads, rivers, canals,
bridges, locks, weirs, bogs, ruins, churclies,
chapels ; they have also the number of feet of
every little swell of land, and a mark for every
cabin.
Of course these maps run to an immense num-
ber. Thus for the county of Galway there are
1 37 double folio sheets, and for the small county
of Dublin 28. Where less than half the sheet is
covered with engraving (as occurs towards the
edges of a county) the sheet is sold uncoloured
for 2*. 6d. ; where more than half is covered the
price is 55.
THE VALUATION OF IRELAND. 139
In order to enable you to find any sheet so as
to know the bearings of its ground on any other,
there is printed for each county an index map,
representing the whole county on one sheet.
This sheet is on a small scale (from one to three
miles to an inch), but contains in smaller type
the baronies and parishes, roads, rivers, de-
mesnes, and most of the information of general
interest. This index map is divided by lines
into as many oblong spaces as there are maps of
the six-inch scale ; and the spaces are numbered
to correspond with the six-inch map. On the
sides of the index maps are tables of the acreage
of the baronies and parishes ; and examples of
the sort of marks and type used for each class of
subjects in the six-inch maps. Uncoloured, the
index map, representing a whole county, is sold
for 2*. Qd.
Whenever those maps are re-engraved, the
Irish words will, we trust, be spelled in an Irish
and civilised orthography, and not barbarously,
as at present.
It was proposed to print for each county one
or more volumes, containing the history of the
district and its antiquities, the numbers, and
past and present state and occupations of the
people, the state of its agriculture, manufactures,
mines, and fisheries, and what means of extend-
ing there existed in the county, and its natural
history, including geology, zoology, &c. All
this was done for the town of Derry, much to
the service and satisfaction of its people. All
this ought to be as fully done for Armagh, Dub-
lin, Cork, and every other part of Ireland.
140 LITERARY A\D HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
The commissioners recommend that the
geology of Ireland (and we would add natural
history generally) should be investigated and
published, not by the topographical surveyors
nor in counties, but by a special board, and for
the whole of Ireland ; and they are right, for
our plants, rocks, and animals are not within
civil or even obvious topogi-aphical boundaries,
and we have plenty of Irishmen qualified to
execute it. They also advise that the statistics
should be entrusted to a statistical staif, to be
permanently kept up in Ireland. This staff
would take the census every ten years, and would
in the intervals between the beginning and end-
ing of each census have plenty of statistical bu-
siness to do for parliament (Irish or Imperial)
and for public departments. If we are ever to
have a registry of births, deaths (with the cir-
cumstances of each case), and marriages, some
such staff will be essential to inspect the registry,
and work up information from it. But the his-
tory, antiquities, and industrial resources, the
commissioners recommend to have published in
county volumes. They are too solicitous about
keeping such volumes to small dimensions ; but
the rest of their plans are admirable.
The value of this to Ireland, whether she be
a nation or a province, cannot be overrated.
From the farmer and mechanic to the philoso-
pher, general, and statesman, the benefit will
extend, and yet so careless or so hostile are mi-
nisters that the}' have not conceded it, and so
feeble by dulness or disunion are Irishmen and
Irish members, that tliey canno4 extort even
this.
THE VALUATION OP IRELAND. 141
We now come to the last bnincli of tlie sub-
ject —
THE VALUATION.
The Committee of 1824 recommended only
principles of Valuation. They were three, viz. : —
" § 1. A fixed and uniform principle of valuation ap-
plicable tliroughout the wiiole work, and enablint^ the
valuation not only of townhinds hut that of counties, to
be conipareil by one conuuon measure. § 2. A central
authority, under the appointment of government, for
direction and superintendence, and for the generalisa-
tion of the returns made in detail. § 3. Local assistance,
regularly organised, furnisliing information on tlie spot,
and forming a check for the protection of private
rights."
Accordingly on the 5th of July, 1825, an act
was passed requiring, in the first instance, the
entry in all the grand jury records of the names
and contents of all parishes, manors, townlands,
and other divisions, and the proportionate assess-
ments. It then went on to authorise the Lord
Lieutenant to appoint surveyors to be paid out
of the Consolidated Fund. These surveyors
were empowered to require the attendance of
cess collectors and other inhabitants, and with
their help to examine, and ascertain, and mark
the " reputed boundaries of all and every or any
barony, half barony, townland, parish, or other
division or denomination of land," howsoever
called. The act also inflicted penalties on per-
sons removing or injuring any post, stone, or
other mark made by the surveyors ; but we be-
lieve there has been no occasion to enforce these
clauses, the good sense and good feeling of the
142 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
people being ample securities against such "\vanton
crime. Such survey was not to affect the rights
of owners, yet from it lay an appeal to the Quar-
ter Sessions.
This, as we see, relates to civil boundaries,
not valuations.
In May, 1820, another act was passed direct-
ing the Ordnance officers to send copies of their
maps, as fast as finished, to the Lord Lieutenant,
who was to appoint " one Commissioner of Valu-
ation for any counties ;" and to give notice of
such appointment to the grand jury of every
such county. Each grand jury was then to ap-
point an Appeal Committee for each barony, ana
a Committee of Revision for the whole county.
This Commission of Valuation was then to a}v-
point from three to nine fit valuators in the count} .
who, after trial by the Commissioner, were t
go in parties of three and examine all parts .
their district, and value such portion of it, an
set down such valuation in a parish field boo]^
according to the following average prices : —
"scale of prices.
"Wheat, at tlie general average price of 10s. per
cwt., of ll-21bs.
" Oats, at the general average price of 6s. per cwt.,
of 1121bs.
" Barley, at the general average price of 7s. per cwt.,
of 1121bs.
" Potatoes, at the general average price of Is. Id. per
cwt., of 1121bs.
"Butter, at the general average price of 69s. per
cwt., of 1121bs.
" Beef, at the general average price of 33s. per cwt^
of lr21bs.
THE VALUATION OF IRELAND. 143
"Mutton, at the general average price of 34s. Gd.
per cwt., of 1 1'ilbs.
"Pork, at the general average price of 25s. 6d. per
cwt., of ll'ilbs.
" That is, having examined each tract — say a hill, a
valley, an inch, a reclaimed bit, and by digging and
looking at the soil, they were to consider what crop it
could best produce, considering its soil, elevation, near-
ness to markets, and then estimating crops at the fore-
going rate, they were to say how mucli per acre the tract
was, in their opinion, worth.
"From this Parish Field Book the Commissioner was
to make out a table of the parishes and townlands, &c.,
in each barony, specifying the average and total value
of houses in such subdivisions, and to forward it to the
high constable, who was to post copies thereof. A vestry
of twenty pound freeholders and twenty shilling cess-
payers was to be called in each parish, to consider the
table. If they did not appeal, the table was to stand con-
firmed ; if they did appeal, the grand jury committee
of appeal, with the valuation commissioner as chairman,
were to decide upon the appeal ; but if the assessor were
dissatisfied the appeal Avas to go to the committee of re-
vision. The same committee were then to revise the
proportionate liabilities of baronies, subject to an appeal
to the Queen's Bench. The valuation so settled was to
be published in the Dublin Gazette, and thenceforward
all grand jury and parish rates and cesses were to be
levied in the proportions thereby fixed. But no land
theretofore exempt from any rate was thereby made liable.
The expenses were to be advanced from the consolidated
fund, and repaid by presentment from the county."
It made the proportionate values of parishes
and townlands, pending the baronial survey, and
the baronial valuation, to bind after revision and
publication in some newspaper circulating in the
county ; but within three years there was to be
a second revision, after which they were to be
published in the Dublin Gazette, S:c., and be
144 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
final as to ih^ proportions of all parish or grand
jury rates to be paid by all baronies, parishes,
and townlands. It also directed the annexation
of detached bits to the counties respectively sur-
rounding them, and it likewise provided for tlie
use of the valuation maps and field books in
applotting the grand jury cess charged on the
holders of lands, but such valuation to be merely
a guide and not final. From the varying si/e
and value of holdings this caution was essential.
Under this last act the valuation has been con-
tinued, as every reader of the country papers
must have seen by Mr. Griffith's Notices, and is
now complete in twenty counties, forward in six,
begun in four, and not yet begun in Cork, Kerry,
Limerick, or Dublin.
Mr. Griffith's instructions are clear and full,
and we strongly recommend the study of them,
and an adherence to their forms and classifica-
tions, to valuators of all private and public pro-
perties, so far as they go. He appointed two
classes of valuators — Ordinary Valuators to make
the first valuation all over each county, and
Check Valuators to re-value patches in every
district, to test the accuracy of the ordinary va-
luators.
The ordinaiy valuator was to have two copies
of the Townland (or 6-inch) Survey. Taking a
sheet with him into the district represented on
it, he was to examine the quality of the soil in
lots of from fifty to thirty acres, or still smaller
bits, to mark the bounds of each lot on the sur-
vey map, and to enter in his field book the val
thereof, with all the special circumstances s]
THE VALUATION OF IRELAND. 145
cially stated. The examination was to include
digging to ascertain the depth of the soil and the
nature of the subsoil. All land was to be valued
at its agricultural worth, supposing it liberally
set, leaving out the value of timber, turf, &c.
Reductions were to be made for elevation above
the sea, steepness, exposure to bad winds, patch-
iness of soil, bad fences, and bad roads. Addi-
tions were to be made for neighbourhood of
limestone, turf, sea, or other manure, roads, good
climate and shelter, nearness to towns.
The following classification of soils was recom-
mended : —
ARRANGEMENT OF SOILS.
" All soils may be arranged under four heads, each
representing the characteristic ingredients, as 1 . Argil-
laceous, or clayey; 2, Silicious, or sandy; 3. Calcareous,
or limy ; 4. Peaty.
' ' For practical purposes it will be desirable to subdi-
vide each of these classes : —
' ' Thus argillaceous soils may be divided into three
varieties, viz. : — Clay, clay loam, and argillaceous allu-
vial.
"Of silicious soils there are four varieties, viz. : —
Sandy, gravelly, slaty, and rocky.
'* Of calcareous soils we have three varieties, viz. : —
Limestone, limestone gravel, and marl.
" Of peat soils tAvo varieties, viz. : — Moor, and peat,
or bog.
' ' In describing in the field book the different quaUties
of soils, the following explanatory words may be used
as occasion may require : —
" Stiff— Where a soil contains a large proportion, say
one-half, or even more, of tenacious clay, it is called
stiflf. In dry weather this kind of soil cracks, and opens,
and has a tendency to form into large and hard lumps,
particularly if ploughed in wet weather.
146 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
^^ Friable — Wliere the soil is loose and open, as is gc-
nerallv the case in sandv, gravelly, and moory lauds.
" Strong — AYliere a soil contains a considerable pnr-
tionofclay, and has some tendency to form into clri-.
or lumps, it may be called strong.
" Deep — "Where the soil exceeds ten inches in deptli,
the term deep may be appKed.
" Shallow — Where the depth of the soil is less than
eight inches.
^^ Dry — Where the soil is friable, and the subsoil
porous, (^if there be no springs,) the term dry should be
used.
" Wet — Wliere the soil, or subsoil, is very tenacious.
or where springs are numerous.
" Sharp — Where there is a moderate proportion d
gravel, or small stones.
''Fine or Soft — Where the soil contains no gravel
but is cliiefly composed of very fine sand, or soft, liglit
earth without gravel.
" Cold — Where the soil rests on a tenacious claj^ sub-
soil, and has a tendency when in pasture, to produce
rushes and other aquatic plants.
" Sandy, or gravelly — Where there is a large propor-
tion of sand or gravel, through the soil.
" Slaty — 'WTiere the slaty substratum is much inter-
mixed with the soil.
'* Worn — Where the soil has been a long time under
cidtivation, without rest or manure.
" Poor — Where the land is naturally of bad quality.
" Hungry — AVhere the soil contains a considerable
portion of gravel, or coarse sand, resting on a gravelly
subsoil; on such land manure does not produce the
usual effect.
"The colours of soils may also be introduced, as
brown, yellow, blue, grey, red, black, &c.
" Also, where applicable, the words steep, level,
shrubby, rocky, exposed, &c., may be used."
Lists of market prices were sent with the field
books, and the amounts then reduced to a uni-
form rate, which Mr. Griffith fixed at 2s. 6d. per
COMMERCIAL HISTORY OF IRELAND. 147
pound over the prices of produce mentioned in
the act.
Rules were also given for valuation of houses,
but we must refer to Mr. Griffith's work for them.
COMMERCIAL HISTORY OF IRELAND.
While the Irish were excluded from English
law and intercourse, England imposed no restric-
tions on our trade. The Pale spent its time
tilling and fighting, and it was more sure of its
bellyful of blows than of bread. It had nothing
to sell, why tax its trade ? The slight commerce
of Dublin was needful to the comforts of the
Norman Court in Dublin Castle. Why should
it be taxed ? The market of Kilkenny was
guarded by the spears of the Butlers, and from
Sligo to Cork the chiefs and towns of Munster
and Connaught — the Burkes, O'Loghlens, O'Sul-
livans, Galway, Dingle, and Dunbay, carried on
a trade with vSpain, and piracy or war against
England. How could they be taxed ?
Commercial taxes, too, in those days were hard
to be enforced, and more resembled toll to a rob-
ber than contribution to the state. Every great
river and pass in Europe, from the Rhine and the
Alps to Berwick and the Blackwater, was affec-
tionately watched by royal and noble castles at
their narrowest points, and the barge anchored
and the caravan halted to be robbed, or, as the
receivers called it, to be taxed.
148 UTERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
At last the Pale was stretched round Ireland
by art and force. Solitude and peace were in
our plains ; but the armed colonist settled in it,
and the native came down from his hills as a
tenant or a squatter, and a kind of prosperity
arose.
Protestant and Catholic, native and colonist,
had the same interest — namely, to turn this waste
into a garden. They had not, nor could they
have had, other things to export than Sydney
or Canada have now — cattle, butter, hides, and
wool. They had hardly corn enough for them-
selves ; but pasture was plenty, and cows and
their hides, sheep and their fleeces, were equally
so. The natives had always been obliged to
prepare their own clothing, and, therefore, every
creaght and digger knew how to dress wool and
skins, and they had found out, or preserved, from
a more civilized time, dyes which, to this day,
are superior to any others. Small quantities of
woollen goods were exported, but our assertion
holds good that in our war-times there was no
manufacture for export worth naming.
Black Tom Wentworth, the ablest of despots,
came here 210 years ago, and found "small be-
ginnings towards a clothing trade." He at once
resolved to discourage it. He wrote so to the
king on July 25th, 1636, and he was a man true
to his enmities. " But," said he, "Pll give them
a linen manufacture instead." Now, the Irish
had raised flax and made and dyed linen from
time immemorial. The safli'on-coloured linen
shirt was as national as the cloak and birred ; so
that Straflbrd rather introduced the linen manu-
COMMERCIAL HISTORY OV lUELANI). 149
facture among the new settlers than among the
Irish. Certainly he encouraged it, by sending
Irishmen to learn in Brabant, and by bringing
French and Flemings to work in Ireland.
Charles the Second, doubtless to punish us for
our most unwise loyalty to him and his father,
assented to a series of acts prohibiting the export
of Irish wool, cattle, &c., to England or her co-
lonies, and prohibiting the direct importation of
several colonial products into Ireland. The chief
acts are 12 Charles, c. 4 ; 15 Charles, c. 7 ; and
22 and 23 Charles, c. 26. Thus were the value
of land in Ireland, the revenue, and trade, and
manuftictures of Ireland — Protestant and Catho-
lic — stricken by England.
Perhaps we ought to be grateful, though not
to England for these acts. They plundered our
pockets, but they guarded our souls from being
; Anglicised. To France and Spain the produce
; was sent, and the woollen manufacture continued
: to increase.
[ England got alarmed, for Ireland was getting
rich. The English lords addressed King William,
; stating that " the growth and increase of the
I woollen manufacture in Ireland had long been,
and would be ever, looked upon with great
• jealousy by his English subjects, and praying
him, by very strict laws, totally to prohibit and
i suppress the same." The Commons said like-
'wise; and William answered comfortably — "I
1 shall do all that in me lies to discourage the
'AvooUen manufacture in Ireland, and to encou-
;rage the linen manufacture there, and to promote
[the trade of England."
! I 3
150 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
He was as good as his word, and even whipped
and humbugged the unfortunate Irish Parliament
to pass an act, putting twenty per cent, duty on
broad, and ten per cent, on narrow cloths : —
"But it did not satisfy the English parliament, where
a perpetual law was made, prohibiting from thel20tli of
Jime, 1699, the exportation from Ireland of all gooils
made or mixed with wool, except to England and Wales,
and with the license of the commissioners of the reve-
nue ; duties had been before laid on the importation into
England equal to a prohibition, therefore, this act has
operated as a total prohibition of the exportation."
There was nothing left but to send the wool
raw to England ; to smuggle it and cloths to
France and Spain, or to leave the land unstocked.
The first was worst. The export to England de-
clined, smuggling prospered, " wild geese" for
the Brigade, and woollen goods, were run in ex-
change for claret, brandy, and silks ; but not
much land was left waste. Our silks, cottons,
malt, beer, and almost every other article was
similarly prohibited. Striped linens were taxed
thirty per cent., many other kinds of linen were
also interfered with, and twenty-four embargoes
in nineteen years straitened our foreign provi-
sion trade. Thus England kept her pledge of
wrath, and broke her promise of service to Ire-
land.
A vigorous system of smuggling induced her
to relax in some points, and the cannon of the
Volunteers blew away the code.
By the Union she was so drained of money^
and absentee rents and taxes, and of spirit in
every way, that she no longer needs a prohibi-
THE VALUATION OF IRELAND. 151
tory code to prevent our competing with her in
any market, Irish or foreign. The Union is
proliibition enough, and that England says she
will maintain.
Whether it be now possible to create home
manufactures, in the old sense of the word —
that is, manufactures made in the homes of the
workers, is doubted.
In favour of such a thing, if it be possible, the
arguments are numberless. Such work is a source
of ingenuity and enjoyment in the cabin of the
peasant; it rather fills up time that would be
otherwise idled, than takes from other work. —
Our peasants' wives and daughters could clothe
themselves and their families by the winter night
work, even as those of Norway do, if the pea-
sants possessed the little estates that Norway's
peasants do. Clothes manufactured by hand-
work are more lasting, comfortable, and hand-
some, and are more natural and national than
factory goods. Besides, there is the strongest of
all reasons in this, that the factory system seems
everywhere a poison to virtue and happiness.
Some invention, which should bring the might
of machinery in a wholesome and cheap form to
the cabin, seems the only solution of the diffi-
culty.
The hazards of the factory system, however,
should be encountered, were it sure to feed our
starving millions ; but this is dubious.
A Native Parliament can alone judge or act
usefully on this momentous subject. An ab-
sentee tax and a resident government, and the
progress of public industry and education, would
152 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
enable an Irish Parliament to create vast manu-
factures j^here by protecting duties in the first
instance, and to maintain them by our general
prosperity, or it could rely on its own adjustment
of landed property as sufficient to put the People
above the need of hazarding purity or content
by embarking in great manufactures.
A peasant proprietary could have wealtli
enough to import wrought goods, or taste and
firmness enough to prefer home-made manufac-
tures.
But these are questions for other years. We
wish the reader to take our word for nothing, but
to consult the writers on Irish trade. Laurence's
"Interest of Ireland," (1682;) Browne's " Tracts,"
(1728;) '"Dobbs on Trade," (1729 ;) Hutchin-
son's " Commercial Restraints," (1779 ;) " Shef-
field on Irish Trade," (1785;) "Wallace on
Irish Trade," (1798;) the various "Parliamen-
tary Reports," and the very able articles on the
same subject in the " Citizen."
Do not be alarmed at the list, reader, a month's
study would carry you through all but the Re-
ports, and it would be well spent. But if you
still shrink, you can ease your conscience by
reading Mr. John O'Connell's Report on " The
Commercial Injustices," just issued by the Repeal
Associatio]!. It is an elaborate, learned, and
most useful tract.
NATIONAL ART. 153
NATIONAL ART.
No one doubts that if he sees a place or an action
he knows more of it than if it had been described
to him by a witness. The dullest man, who
"put on his best attire" to welcome Caisar, had
a better notion of life in Rome than our ablest
artist or antiquary.
Were painting, then, but a coloured chronicle,
telling us facts by the eye instead of the ear, it
would demand the Statesman's care and the*
People's love. It would preserve for us faces
we worshipped, and the forms of men who led
and instructed us. It would remind us, and
teach our children, not only how these men
looked, but, to some extent, what they were, for
nature is consistent, and she has indexed her
labours. It would carry down a pictorial history
of our houses, arts, costume, and manners, to
other times, and show the dweller in a remote
isle the appearance of countries and races of his
cotemporaries.
As a register o? facts — as a portrayer of men,
singly or assembled — and as a depicter of actual
scenery, art is biography, history, and topography,
taught through the eye.
So far as it can express facts, it is superior to
writing ; and nothing but the scarcity o^ faithful
artists, or the stupidity of the public, prevents us
from having our pictorial libraries of men and
154 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
places. There are some classes of scenes — as
where continuous action is to be expressed — in
which sculpture quite fails, and painting is but a
shadowy narrator.
But this, after all, though the most obvious
and easy use of Painting and Sculpture, is far
indeed from being their highest end.
Art is a regenerator as well as a copyist. As
the historian, who composes a history out of
various materials, differs from a newspaper re-
porter, who sets down what he sees — as Plutarch
differs from Mr. Grant, and the Abbe Barthelmy
from the last traveller in India — so do the His-
torical Painter, the Landscape Composer (such
*as Claude or Poussin) differ from the most faith-
ful Portrait, Landscape, or Scene Drawer.
The Painter, who is a master of composition,
makes his pencil cotemporary with all times and
ubiquitous. Keeping strictly to nature and fact,
Romulus sits for him and Paul preaches. He
makes Attila charge and Mohammed exhort, and
Ephesus blaze when he likes. He tries not rashly,
but by years of study of men's character, and
dress, and deeds, to make them and their acts
come as in a vision before him. Having thus
got a design he attempts to realise the vision on
his canvass. He pays the most minute attention
to truth in his drawing, shading, and colouring,
and by imitating the force of nature in his com-
position, all the clouds that ever floated by him,
'' the lights of other days," and the forms of the
dead, or the stranger, hover over him.
But Art in its highest stage is more than this.
It is a creator. Great as Herodotus and Thierry
NATIONAL Ar.T. 155
are, Homer and Beranger are greater. The
ideal has resources beyond the actual. It is in-
finite, and Art is indefinitely powerful. The
Apollo is more than noble, and the Hercules
mightier than man. The Moses of Michael
Angelo is no likeness of the inspired law-giver,
nor of any other that ever lived, and Raphael's
Madonnas are not the faces of women. As Rey-
nolds says, " the effect of the capital works of
Michael Angelo is, that the observer feels his
whole frame enlarged." It is creation, it is re-
presenting beings and things different from our
nature, but true to their own. In this self-con-
sistency is the only nature requisite in works
purely imaginative. Lear is true to his nature,"
and so are Mephistopheles, and Prometheus, and
Achilles ; but they are not true to human nature ;
they are beings created by the poets' minds, and
true to their laws of being. There is no com-
moner blunder in men, who are themselves mere
critics, never creators, than to require consistency
to the nature of us and our world in the works of
poet or painter.
To create a mass of great pictures, statues,
and buildings, is of the same sort of ennoblement
to a people as to create great poems or histories,
or make great codes or win great battles. The
next best, though far inferior, blessing and power
are to inherit such works and achievements.
The lowest stage of all is neither to possess nor
to create them.
Ireland has had some great Painters — Barry
and Forde for example, and many of inferior but
great excellence ; and now she boasts high names
156 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
— Maclise, Hogan, and Mulready. But their '
works were seldom done for Ireland, and are i
rarely known in it. Our portrait and landscape {
Painters paint foreign men and scenes : and, at ■
all events, the Irish people do not see, possess,
nor receive knowledge from their works. Irish
history has supplied no subjects for our greatest
Artists ; and though, as we repeat, Ireland pos-
sessed a Forde and Barry, creative Painters of
the highest order, the pictures of the latter are
mostly abroad ; those of the former unseen and
unknown. Alas ! that they are so few.
To collect into, and make known, and publish
in Ireland, the best works of our living and dead;
Artists, is one of the steps towards procuring for
Ireland a recognised National Art. And this is,
essential to our civilization and renown. The;
other is by giving education to students and
rewards to Artists, to make many of this genera-
tion true representers, some of them great illus-i
trators and composers, and, perchance, to facili-
tate the creation of some great spirit.
Something has been done — more remains.
There are schools in Dublin and Cork. But
why are those so neglected and imperfect ? and
why are not similar or better institutions in Bel-
fast, Derry, Galway, Waterford, and Kilkenny?
"Why is there not a decent collection of casts
anywhere but in Cork, and why are they in a
garret there ? And why have we no gallery oi
Irishmen's, or any other men's, pictures in Ire-
land ?
The Art-Union has done a great deal. It has
helped to support in Ireland artists who should
NATIONAL ART. 157
otherwise have starved or emigrated ; it has dis-
persed one (when, oh when, will it disperse
another?) fine print of a fine Irish picture
through the country, and to some extent inter-
ested as well *as instructed thousands. Yet it
could, and we believe will, do much more. It
ought to have Corresponding Committees in the
principal towns to preserve and rub up old schools
of art and foster new ones, and it might by art
: and historical libraries, and by other ways, help
I the cause. We speak as friends, and suggest
I not as critics, for it has done good service.
I The Repeal Association, too, in offering prizes
! for pictures and sculptures of Irish historical
' subjects has taken its proper place as the patron
I of nationality in art ; and its rewards for Build-
ing Designs may promote the comfort and taste
' of the people, and the reputation of the country.
If artists will examine the rules by which the
; pictures, statues, and plates remain their pro-
! perty, they will find the prizes not so small as
; they might at first appear. Nor should they,
from interest or just pride, be indifferent to the
popularity and fame of success on national sub-
' jects, and with a People's Prizes to be contended
' for. If those who are not Repealers will treat
the Association's design kindly and candidly,
• and if the Repealers will act in art upon princi-
■ pies of justice and conciliation, we shall not only
, advance national art but gain another field of
I common exertion.
i The Cork School of Art owes its excellence
to many causes.
^ The intense, genial, and Irish charactei; of the
158 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
people, the southern warmth and variety of clime,
■with its effects on animal and vegetable beings,
are the natural causes.
The accident of Barry's birth there, and his great
fame, excited the ambition of the young artists.
An Irishman and a Corkman had gone out from
them, and amazed men by the grandeur and ori-
ginality of his works of art. He had thrown the
whole of the English painters into insignificance,
for who would compare the luscious common-place
of the Stuart painters, or the melo-dramatic
reality of Hogarth, or the imitative beauty of
Reynolds, or the clumsy strength of West, with
the overbearing grandeur of his works.
But the present glories of Cork, Maclise and
Hogan, the greater, but buried, might of Forde,
and the rich promise which we know is springing
there now, are mainly owing to another cause ;
and that is, that Cork possesses a gallery of the
finest casts in the world.
These casts are not very many — 117 only;
but they are perfect, they are the first from Ca-
nova's moulds, and embrace the greatest works
of Greek art. They are ill placed in a dim and
dirty room — more shame to the rich men of
Cork for leaving them so — but there they are, and
there studied Forde, "and Maclise, and the rest,
until they learned to draw better than any mo-
derns, except Cornelius and his living brethren.
In the countries where art is permanent there
are great collections, Tuscany and Rome for ex-
ample. But, as we have said before, the highest
service done by success in art is not in the pos-
session but in the creation of great works, the
NATIONAL ART. 15-9
spirit, labour, sagacity, and instruction, needed
by the artists to succeed, and flung out by them
on their country like rain from sunny clouds.
Indeed there is some danger of a traditionary
mediocrity following after a great epoch in art.
Superstition of style, technical rules in compo-
sition, and all the pedantry of art, too often fill
up the ranks vacated by veteran genius, and of
this there are examples enough in Flanders,
Spain, and even Italy. The schools may, and
often do, make men scholastic and ungenial, and
art remains an instructor and refiner, but creates
no more.
Ireland, fortunately or unfortunately, has every
thingto do yet. We have had great artists — we have
not their works — we own the nativity of great
living artists — they live on the Tiber and the
Thames. Our capital city has no school of art —
no facilities for acquiring it.
To be sure there are rooms open in the Dub-
lin Society, and they have not been useless, that
is all. But a student here cannot learn anatomy,
save at the same expense as a surgical student.
He has no great works of art before him, no
Pantheon, no Valhalla, not even a good museum
or gallery.
We think it may be laid down as unalterably
true, that a student should never draw from a
flat surface. He learns nothing by drawing from
the lines of another man — he only mimics. Better
for him to draw chairs and tables, bottles and
glasses, rubbish, potatoes, cabins, or kitchen
utensils, than draw from the lines laid dow^n by
other men.
160 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
Of those forms of nature whicli the student can
originally consult — the sea, the sky, the earth —
we would counsel him to draw from them in the
first learning ; for though he ought afterwards
analyse and mature his style by the study of works
of art, from the first sketches to the finished
picture, yet, by beginning with nature and his
own suggestions, he will acquire a genuine and
original style, superior to the finest imitation ;
and it is hard to acquire a master's skill without
his manner.
"Were all men cast in a divine mould of
strength, and straightness, and gallant bearinsr,
and all women proportioned, graceful, and fair,
the artist would need no gallery, at least to begin
his studies with. He would have to persuade or
snatch his models in daily life. Even then, as
art creates greater and simpler combinations than
ever exist in fact, he should finally study before
the superhuman works of his predecessors.
But he has about him here an indifierently-
made, ordinary, not very clean, nor picturesquely-
clad people ; though, doubtless, if they had the
feeding, the dress, and the education (for mind
beautifies the body) of the Greeks, they would
not be inferior, for the Irish structure is of the
noblest order.
To give him a multitude of fine natural mo-
dels, to say nothing of ideal works, it is neces-
sary to make a gallery of statues or casts. The
statues will come in good time, and we hope, and
are sure, that Ireland, a nation, will have a
national galleiy, combining the greatest works of
NATIONAL ART. l6l
the Celtic and Teutonic races. But at present
the most that can be done is to form a gallery.
Our readers will be glad to hear that this
great boon is about to be given to Irish Art. A
society for the formation of a gallery of casts in
Dublin has been founded.
It embraces men of every rank, class, creed,
politics, and calling, thus forming another of
those sanctuaries, now multiplying in Ireland,
where one is safe from the polemic and the par-
tizan.
Its purpose is to purchase casts of all the
greatest works of Greece, Egypt, Etruria, an-
cient Rome, and Europe in the middle ages.
This will embrace a sufficient variety of types
both natural and ideal to prevent imitation, and
will avoid the debateable ground of modern art.
Wherever they can afford it the society will buy
moulds, in order to assist provincial galleries,
and therefore the provinces are immediately in-
terested in its support.
When a few of these casts are got together,
and a proper gallery procured, the public will be
admitted to see, and artists to study them with-
out any charge. The annual subscription is but
10*., the object being to interest as many as pos-
sible in its support.
It has been suggested to us by an artist that
Trinity College ought to establish a gallery and
museum containing casts of all the ancient sta-
tues, models of their buildings, civil and mili-
tary, and a collection of their implements of art,
trade, and domestic life. A nobler institution, a
more vivid and productive commentary on the
162 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
classics could not be. But if the Board will not
do this of themselves, we trust they will see the
propriety of assisting this public gallery, and
procuring, therefore, special privileges for the
students in using it.
But no matter what persons in authority may
do or neglect, we trust the public — for the sake
of their ^vvn pleasure, their childrens' profit, and
Ireland's honour — will give it their instant and
full support.
ART UNIONS.
Art Unions are a substitute for State patronage.
The State can do much for art. It can furnish
teachers and models to a large class, and it can
enable an artist to live by great works. Private
patronage does not encourage great works. They
require much time, and occupy; a larger space
than suits the size of private dwellings. Tiieir
price is immense, not only from the labour they
require, but because of the rarity of men able to
execute them. Wherever the arts have flou-
rished, the State has been their chief patron.
So it was in Athens where art was a branch of
public business. In Rome, the patronage was
even more liberal, if not quite so just. When
arts revived, they were sustained by the monarchs
and ecclesiastical corporations of all Europe.
But, amongst their earliest, firmest, and wisest
friends, were the Httle republics of Italy and the
corporations of the Low Countries. Even now
ART UNIONS. 163
there is more art of a high order called out by
the patronage of the little court of Munich than
by any people in the world. When we speak of
high art, we mean art used to instruct and en-
noble men ; to teach them great deeds whether
historical, religious, or romantic ; to awaken their
piety, their pride, their justice, and their valour;
to paint the hero, the martyr, the rescuer, the
lover, the patriot, the friend, the saint, and the
Saviour — nor is it confined to expressing moral
excellence. It expresses intellectual and physical
might — the poet, the orator, the sage, the giant
I savage, the falling angel. Whatever can be
'■ painted or sculptured, of strength or sweetness,
of grace or terror, of piety or power — that belongs
to high art.
^ In prizing State patronage so high, we do not
I assume it sufficient to produce great artists.
I Public passions, strong thoughts, condensed and
; deep education must exist (along with facilities
1 to learn, and State patronage) to produce great
\ artists. The perfect success of the little states
of Greece, Italy, and the Low Countries in art,
1 was owing less to their patronising art than to
I the strong passions, the public spirit, the concen-
tration and earnestness of character produced by
' local government. Polygamy is not more un-
natural and debasing than central government,
i We do not hope to see art advance much till
' national character is restored by the break up of
! two or three of the huge and hateful empires.
I Latterly a substitute for state patronage has
i been found, or supposed to have been found, in
I Art Unions. The clubbed guineas of thousands
I form a sum large enough to buy the costliest
164 LITERARY AND HISTOKICAL ESSAYS.
pictures. We do not think these Unions can
realise all their more sanguine friends look for.
Some people subscribe to encourage art, most
people to get pictures and prints. There is
therefore a strong inducement among the mana-
gers of these institutions to have as many prizes
as possible to distribute. Their motive is excel-
lent. Their desire is to serve artists and sati:rfy
the public. They are all gratuitous labourers in
this excellent work. But the effect is to break
up the fund into small sums and to prevent Art
Committees from buying great, and, therefore,
costly pictures, and thus to discourage them.
Perhaps eTen in this respect these committees
are blameless ; a petty style existed, and has not
been got rid of, and it may be many years before
they have the opportunity of buying a picture
gi'eat in design and execution.
Still these institutions do and have done a
great deal. They have given the guineas of
tens of thousands to support artists who might
otherwise have starved or painted portraits.
They have put hundreds of pictures and thou-
sands of fine prints into houses where a catch-
penny London engraving, or nothing at all,
Avould have reached. They have created an ex-
citement about art. Men talk of it, read of it,
think of it, and recommend it, who, ten years
ago, would not have heeded its existence. Artists
thus encouraged and honored are improving, and
there .. is every hope that by the continuance of
such support, and by the increase of public spirit,
a school of eminent Irish artists will be created
to illustrate their country's history and character,
and to associate their fame with her's.
ILLUSTRATIONS OF IRELAND. 165
ILLUSTRATIONS OF IRELAND.
The most useful premium offered by tlie Art
Union is that for outline illustrations of Irish
books. More instruction in art, more service to
nationality, would follow from the success of
this project than of any other they have at-
tempted.
The preliminary to any excellence in painting
is correct drawing. The boldest imagination
cannot represent its thought without command
over outline. Had Raphael's Madonna crooked
eyes, or were the limbs of Angelo's Lazarus not
bone and sinew convulsed with returning life,
but galvanised blocks (as a pencil untrained to
correct outline would have drawn them), not all
the light, and shade, and colouring in the world
could have made these figures admirable. The
prints which glare in oar cabins are not more
abominable with brick- dust blood, and ochre-
skin, than the costlier trash of our drawing-
rooms with upright figures that could never
stand, eyes that look round corners, arms and
necks that seem the work of a carpenter, and
bodies, compared to which, gate-posts look
animated.
The glare and the prettiness reconcile our
ignorant peasants, and our more ignorant gentry,
to these deformities ; but the same drawings in
outline would not be tolerated even by them, ex-
K 3
166 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
cept as caricatures — dull caricatures. Accustom
people to outline drawings — train their eyes to ,
judge and admire correct outlines, vigour of \
action, strength and beauty of limb, possibility i
of attitude, unity of frame and of expression, and j
they will cease to value high colours or smooth i
graving — they will insist on nature, and faith, •
and power in works of art — they will appreciate i
the statues of Greece, the paintings of Italy, and i
Deutschland — they will demand of their own j
artists the excellence they are accustomed to, j
and they will recognise and reward that ex- 3
cellence. I
National interests would be served in another li
way by the publication of such designs. Our his- ^1
tory exists chiefly in dry annals or stupid compi- fj
lations. The original memoirs and letters are lit- N
tie known and hard of access. People think of ?
our history as a set of political facts, not as the i
lives and deaths of men clad in skins, and 'i
armour, and silk, bounding with strength and .^
beauty, flushed with love, wrinkled with rage, full 'il
of chivalrous ambition.
The Druid in his grove — the Monk in his f
abbey — the Creaght on his hill — the Pagan con- ,'i
queror — the Christian liberator — the Norman 'l
castle with its courted maidens, its iron barons,
and its plumed train — the Irish rath with its
circling trench, and circling woodland, its patri-
arch prince, its Tartar clan, its foster-love, and
its harping bards — the Dane in his galley — the
Viceroy in his council — the Patriot in his fore-
thought — the Martyr in his endurance — the
Hero in his triumph — his passing triumph — who
ILLUSTRATIONS OF IRELAND. 167
thought of these till lately? — who clearly sees
them now ? All these things an artist illustra-
ting Irish history — illustrating Moore, or Keat-
ing — illustrating (to give better texts) the pub-
lications of the Archasological Society — the
tracts in the Desiderata, or the Hihernica — the
State Papers — Carte's Ormond — AYare's Aiiti-
quities, or any of the minuter works on our his-
tory — can show us.
How suited for countless illustrations are our
Irish fictions, from our ancient fairy stories to
our modern novels. In The Collegians, Suil
Dhuv, Crohore, The Fetches, The Poor Scholar,
The Faction and Party Fight, Valentine
M'Clutchy, there are countless subjects for illus-
tration, ranging from the mildest beauty to the
utmost sublimity.
There is one work of fiction which we pecu-
liarly desire to see illustrated, and that is Grif-
fin's Invasion. Its great length, its hard words,
and its freedom from hot stimulants, moderate
its popularity — but there is in it the most ex-
quisite beauty of scene and form, the purest
loveliness, the most original heroism of any
work we own, and it contains besides invaluable
and countless hints on the appearance of ancient
Ireland. Nor do occasional antiquarian errors
materially lessen the value of the book to an
illustrator.
Of poetry, Maclise has taken the best subject
— The Melodies ; nor can we advise any one
to compete with him.
But we have wandered. The publication of
outlines on our historical and romantic literature
168 LITERABY AXD HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
would convey a deep and fresh sense of what
Ireland was and is, and of what her writers
have described or created. These illustrations
would instruct the public in the organisation and
costume of our races, give new and distinct
imagery to orator and writer, and, becoming
confluent, would represent Ireland in all her
periods — Ireland imaginative, as well as actual
and historical.
We entreat our artists as they love their
country, as they owe it a service, as they pity
its woes and errors, as they are wroth at its
sufferings, and as they hope to share and aid its
advance, to use this opportunity of raising the
taste and cultivating the nationality of Ireland.
We shall only, in addition, repeat the proposal
of the Art- Union : —
DRAWING AND C05IP0SITI0N.
"For the best series of not less than five Outline Draw-
ings, illustrative of the works of Irish writers, in poetry,
prose, or history, 30/.
"Correct drawing, beauty of form and expression, will
be especially looked for ; should the committee think it
adA-isable to engrave the outlines selected, a further re-
muneration Avill be given to the artist : the drawings,
with a sealed letter containing the name and address of
the artist, to be forwarded to the Secretary of the So-
ciety, Board-room, College-street, Dublin, previous to
the 1st of September next."
HINTS FOR IRISH HISTORICAL PAINTINGS. 169
HINTS FOR IRISH HISTORICAL PAINTINGS.
National art is conversant with national sub-
jects. We have Irish artists, but no Irish, no
national art. This ought not to continue ; it is
injurious to the artists, and disgraceful to the
country. The following historical subjects were
loosely jotted down by a friend. Doubtless, a
more just selection could be made by students
noting down fit subjects for painting and sculp-
ture, as they read. We shall be happy to print
any suggestions on the subject — our own are, as
we call them, mere hints with loose references to
the authors or books which suggested them.
For any good painting, the marked figures must
be few, the action obvious, the costume, arms,
architecture, postures, historically exact, and the
manners, appearance, and rank of the characters,
strictly studied and observed. The grouping and
drawing require great truth and vigour. A
similar set of subjects illustrating social life could
be got from the Poor Report, Carleton's, Ba-
nim's, or Griffin's Stories, or better still from
observation.
The references are vague, but perhaps suffi-
cient.
The Landing of the Milesians Keating, Moore's
Melodies.
Ollamh Fodhla Presenting his Laws to his People.
Keating's, ^loore's, and OTIalloran's Histories of Ire-
170 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
land Walker's Irish Dress and Arms, and Vallancey'*
Collectanea.
Xial and his Xine Hostages — Moore, Keating,
A Druid's Augury — Moore, O'Halloran, Keating.
A Chief Hiding Out of his Fort — Griffin's Invasion,
"Walker, Moore.
The Oak of Kildare— Moore.
The Burial of King Dathy in the Alps, his thinned
troops laying stones on iiis grave — M'Geoghegan,
I'Histoire de I'lrlande (French edition), Invasion, Wal-
ker, Moore.
St. Patrick brought before the Druids at Tara —
Moore and liis Authorities.
The First Landing of the Danes — See Invasion,
Moore, &c.
The Death of Turgesius Keating, Moore.
Ceallachan Tied to the Mast — Keating.
Murkertuch Returning to Aileach. — Archaeological
Society's Tracts.
Brian Eecounoitring the Danes before Clontarf.
The Last of the Danes Escaping to his Ship.
O'Ruarc's Return Keating, Moore's Melodies.
Raymond Le Gros Leaving his Bride. — Moore.
Roderic in Conference with the Normans. — Moore,
M'Geoghegan.
Donald O'Brien Setting Fire to Limerick — M'Geoghe-
gan.
Donald O'Brien Visiting Holycross — M'Geoghegan.
O'Brien, O'Connor, and M'Carthy, making Peace to
Attack the Xornians ^M'Geoghegan, Moore.
The Same Three Victorious at the Battle of Thur-
les Moore and O'Connor's Rerum Hibernicarum Scrip-
tores.
Irish Chiefs Leaving Prince John — Moore, &c.
M'Murrough and Gloster Harris's Hiberuica, p.
53.
Crowning of Edward Bruce — Leland, Grace's An-
nals, &c.
Edgecombe Vainly Trying to Overawe Kildare — Har-
ris's Hibernica.
KU-dare "on the Necks of the Butlers." — Leland.
Shane O'Neill at Elizabeth's Com't — Leland.
niNTS FOR IRISH HISTORICAL PAINTINGS, * l7l
Lord Sydney Entertained by Shane O'Neill.
The Battle of the Red Coats O'SuUivan's Catholic
History.
Hugh O'Neill Victor in Single Combat at Clonti-
bret — Fynes Moryson, O'SuUivan, M'Geoghegau.
The Corleius Dymmok's Treatise, Archaiological
Society's Tracts.
Maguire and St. Leger in Single Combat — M'Geoghe-
gan.
O'SuUivan Crossing the Shannon. — Pacata Iliber-
nica.
O'Dogherty Receiving the Insolent Message of the
Governor of Derry M'Geoghegan.
The Brehon Before the English Judges. — Davis's
Letter to Lord Salisbury.
Ormond Refusing to give up his Sword — Carte's Life
of Ormond,
Good Lookers on Stafford's Letters.
Owen ConoUy Before the Privy Council, 1641 —
Carey's Vindicise.
The Battle of Julianstown Temple's Rebellion, and
Tichbourne's Drogheda.
. Owen Roe Organising the Creaghts — Carte, and
also Belling and O'Neil in the Desiderata Curiosa
Hibernica.
Tlie Council of Kilkenny Carte.
The Breach of Clonmel.— Do.
Smoking Out the Irish Ludlow's Memoirs.
Burning Them Castlehaven's Memoirs.
Nagle i3efore the Privy Council Harris's William.
James's Entry into Dublin Dublin Magazine for
Marcli, 1843.
Bishop King Combining Ealsehoods into his Book.
The Bridge of Athlone Green Book and Authori-
ties.
St. Ruth's Death.— Do.
The Embarkation from Limerick. — Do.
Cremona Cox's Magazine.
Eontenoy Do.
Sir S. Rice Pleading against the Violation of the
Treaty of Limerick Staunton's Collection of Tracts in
reland.
172 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
Molyneux's Book Burned.
Liberty Boys Reading a Drapier's Letter. — 3iIason's
St. Patrick's Cathedral.
Lucas, Surrounded by Dublin Citizens in his Shojj.
Grattan Moving Liberty Memoirs.
Flood Apostropliising Corruption — Barrington,
Dungannon Convention — Wilson Barrington.
Curran Cross-examining Armstrong Memoirs.
Curran Pleading Before the Council in Alderman
James's Case.
Tone's First Societv — See his Memoirs.
The Belfast Club Madden's U.I., 2nd Series,
Vol. I.
Tone, Emmet, and Keogh, in the Eathfamham
Garden.
Tone and Carnot. — Tone's Memoirs.
Battle of Oulart Hay, Teeling, &c.
First Meeting of the Catholic Association.
O'Connell Speaking in a Munster Chapel. — ^Wyse's
Association.
The Clare Hustings — Proposal of O'Connell.
The Dublin Corporation Speech.
Father Mathew Administering the Pledge in a Mun-
ster County.
Conciliation — Orange and Green.
The Lifting of the Irish Flags of a National Fleet and
Array.
OUR NATIONAL, LANGUAGE. 173
OUR NATIONAL LANGUAGE.
Men are ever valued most for peculiar and ori-
ginal qualities. A man who can only talk com-
mon-place, and act according to routine, has
little weight. To speak, look, and do what your
own soul from its depths orders you, are creden-
tials of greatness which all men understand and
acknowledge. Such a man's dictum has more
influence than the reasoning of an imitative or
common-place man. He fills his circle with
confidence. He is self-possessed, firm, accurate,
and daring. Such men are the pioneers of
civilization, and the rulers of the human heart.
Why should not nations be judged thus? Is
not a full indulgence of its natural tendencies
essential to a people's greatness? Force the
manners, dress, language, and constitution of
Russia, or Italy, or Norway, or America, and you
instantly stunt and distort the whole mind of
either people.
The language, which grows up with a people,
is conformed to their organs, descriptive of their
climate, constitution, and manners, mingled in-
separably with their history and their soil, fitted
beyond any other language to express their pre-
valent thoughts in the most natural and efficient
way.
To impose another language on such a people
is to send their history adrift among the acci-
174 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
dents of translation — 'tis to tear their identity
from all places — 'tis to substitute arbitrary signs
for picturesque and suggestive names — 'tis to cut
oiF the entail of feeling, and separate the people
from their forefathers by a deep gulf — 'tis to
corrupt their very organs, and abridge their
power of expression.
The language of a nation's youth is the only
easy- and full speech for its manhood and for its
age And when the language of its cradle goes,
itself craves a tomb.
What business has a Russian for the rippling
language of Italy or India? How could a Greek
distort his organs and his soul to speak Dutch
upon the sides of Hymetus, or the beach of
Salamis, or on the waste where once was Sparta ?
And is it befitting the fiery, delicate-organed
Celt to abandon his beautiful tongue, docile and
spirited as an Arab, " sweet as music, strong as
the wave" — is it befitting in him to abandon this
wild liquid speecli for the mongrel of a hundred
breeds called English, which, powerful though it
be, creaks and bangs about the Celt who tries to
use it ?
We lately met a glorious thought in the
" Triads of Mochmed," printed in one of the
Welsh codes by the Record Commission: "There
are three things without which there is no
country — common language, common judicature,
and co-tillage land — for without these a coun-
try cannot support itself in peace and social
union."
A people without a language of its own is
only half a nation. A nation should guard its
OUR NATIONAL LANGUAGE. 175
language more than its territories — 'tis a surer
barrier, and more important frontier, than for-
tress or river.
And in good times it has ever been thought
so. Who had dared to propose the adoption of
Persian or Egyptian in Greece — how had
Pericles thundered at the barbarian ? How
had Cato scourged from the forum liim who
would have given the Attic or Gallic speech to
men of Rome ? How proudly and how nobly
Germany stopped " the incipient creeping" pro-
gress of French ! And no sooner had she suc-
ceeded, than her genius, which had tossed in a
hot trance, sprung up fresh and triumphant.
Had Pyrrlius quelled Italy, or Xerxes subdued
Greece for a time long enough to impose new
languages, where had been the literature which
gives a pedigree to human genius? Even
liberty recovered had been sickly and insecure
without the language with which it had hunted
in the woods, worshipped at the fruit-strewn
altar, debated on the council-hill, and shouted in
the battle-charge.
Tliere is a line song of the Fusians, which de-
scribes —
"Language linked to liberty."
To lose your native tongue, and learn that of an
alien, is the worst badge of conquest — it is the
chain on the soul. To have lost entirely the
national language is death ; the fetter has worn
through. So long as the Saxon held to his Ger-
nian speech, he could hope to resume his land
from the Norman ; now, if he is to be free and
1V6 LITERARY A\D HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
locally governed, he must build himself a new
home. There is hope for Scotland — strong hope
for TVales — sure hope for Hungary. The speech
of the alien is not universal in the one ; is gal-
lantly held at bay in the other; is nearly ex-
pelled from the third.
How unnatural — how corrupting 'tis for us,
three-fourths of whom are of Celtic blood, to
speak a medley of Teutonic dialects. If we add
the Celtic Scots, who came back here from the
thirteenth to the seventeenth centuries, and the
Celtic "Welsh, who colonised many parts of
AVexford and other Leinster counties, to the
Celts who never left Ireland, probably five-
sixths, or more, of us are Celts. What business
have we with the Norman- Sassenagh?
Nor let any doubt these proportions because
of the number of English names in Ireland.
With a politic cruelty, the English of the Pale
passed an act (3 Edw. IV., chap. 3), compelling
every Irishman within English jurisdiction, " to
go like to one Englishman in apparel, and
shaving off his beard above the mouth," " and
shall take to him an English sirname of one
town, as Sutton, Chester, Trym, Skryne, Corke,
Kinsale ; or colour, as White, Blacke, Browne ;
or art or science, as Smith, or Carpenter; or
otSce, as Cook, Butler ; and that he and his issue
shall use this name, under pain of forfeiting his
goods yearly."
And just as this parliament before the Refor-
mation, so did another after the Reformation.
By the 28th Henry VIII., c. 15, the dress and
language of the Irish were insolently described
OUR NATIONAL LANGUAGE. 177
as barbarous by the minions of that ruffian king,
and were utterly forbidden and abolished under
many penalties and incapacities. These laws
are still in force ; but whether the Archaeological
Society, including Peel and O'Connell, will be
prosecuted, seems doubtful.
There was also, 'tis to be feared, an adoption
of English names, during some periods, from
fashion, fear, or meanness. Some of our best
Irish names, too, have been so mangled as to re-
quire some scholarship to identify them. For
these and many more reasons, the members of
the Celtic race here are immensely greater than
at first appears.
But this is not all; for even the Saxon and
Norman colonists, notwithstanding these laws,
melted down into the Irish, and adopted all their
w^ays and language. For centuries upon centu-
ries Irish was spoken by men of all bloods in
Ireland, and English was unknown, save to a
few citizens and nobles of the Pale. 'Tis only
within a very late period that the majority of the
people learned English.
But, it w^ill be asked, how can the language
be restored now ?
We shall answer this partly by saying that,
through the labours of the Archaeological and
many lesser societies, it is being revived ra-
pidly.
We shall consider this question of the pos-
sibility of reviving it more at length some other
day.
Nothing can make us believe that it is natural
or honourable for the Irish to speak the speech
178 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
of the alien, the invader, the Sassenaj^h tyrant,
and to abandon the language of our kin^js and
heroes. What! give up the tongue of OUamh
Fodhla and Brian Boru, the tongue of jM'Carty,
and the 0'Nial?i, the tongue of Sarsfield's, Cur-
ran's, Mathew's, and O'Connell's boyhood, for
that of Strafford and Poynings, Sussex, Kirk,
and Cromwell !
No, oh ! no ! the " the brighter days shall
surely come," and the green flag sliall wave on
our towers, and tlie sweet old language be heard
once more in college, mart, and senate.
But, even should the effort to save it as the
national language fail, by the attempt we will
rescue its old literature, and hand down to our
descendants proofs that we had a language as fit
for love, and war, and business, and pleasure, as
the world ever knew, and that we had not the
spirit and nationality to preserve it !
Had Swift known Irish, he would have sowed
its seed by tlie side of that nationality which he
planted, and the close of the last century would
have seen the one as flourishing as the other.
Had Ireland used Irish in 1782, would it not
have impeded England's re-conquest of us?
But 'tis not yet too late.
For 7/oM, if the mixed speech called English
was laid with sweetmeats on your child's tongue,
English is the best speech of manhood. And yet,
reader, in that case you are unfortunate. The
hills, and lakes, and rivers, the forts and castles,
the churches and parishes, the baronies and
counties around you, liave all Irish names —
names Avhich describe the nature of tiie scenery
OUR NATIONAL LANGUAGE. 179
or ground, the name of founder, or chief, or
priest, or the leading fact in the history of the
place. To you these are names hard to pro-
nounce, and without meaning.
And yet it were well for you to know them.
That knowledge would be a topography, and a
history, and romance, walking by your side, and
helping your discourse. Meath tells its flatness,
Clonmel the abundant riches of its valley, Fer-
managh is the land of tlie Lakes, Tyrone the
country of Owen, Kilkenny the Church of St.
Canice, Dunmore the great fort, Athenry the
Ford of the Kings, Dunleary the Fort of O'Lea-
Tj ; and the Phoenix Park, instead of taking
its name from a fable, recognises as christener,
the " sweet water" which yet springs near the
East-gate.
All the names of our airs and songs are Irish,
and we every day are as puzzled and ingeniously
wrong about them as the man who, when asked
for the air, " I am asleep, and don't waken me,"
called it " Tommy M'Cullagh made boots for
me."
The bulk of our history and poetry are written
in Irish, and shall we, who learn Italian, and
Latin, and Greek, to read Dante, Livy, and
Homer in the original — shall we be content with
ignorance or a translation of Irish ?
The want of modern scientific words in Irish
is undeniable, and doubtless we should adopt the
existing names into our language. The Ger-
mans have done the same thing, and no one calls
German mongrel on that account. Most of
tliese names are clumsy and extravagant ; they
180 LITERARY A^'D HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
are almost all derived from Greek or Latin, and
cut as foreign a figure in French and English as
they would in Irish. Once Irish was recognised
as a language to be learned as much as French
or Italian, our dictionaries would fill up, and our
vocabularies ramify, to suit all the wants of life
and conversation.
These objections are ingenious refinements,
however, rarely thought of till after the other
and great objection has been answered.
The usual objection to attempting the revival
of Irish is, that it could not succeed.
If an attempt were made to introduce Irish,
either through the national schools or the courts
of law, into the eastern side of the island, it
would certainly fail, and the re-action might ex-
tinguish it altogether. But no one contemplates
this save as a dream of what may happen a hun-
dred years hence. It is quite another thing to
say, as we do, that the Irish language should be
cherished, taught, and esteemed, and that it can
be preserved and gradually extended.
AYhat we seek is, that the people of the upper
classes should have their children taught the
language which explains our names of persons
or places, our older history, and our music, and
which is spoken in the majority of our counties,
rather than Italian, German, or French. It
would be more useful in life, more serviceable to
the taste and genius of young people, and a
more flexible accomplishment for an Irish man
or woman to speak, sing, and Avrite Irish than
French.
At present the middle classes think it a sign
OUR NATIONAL LANGUAGE. 181
of vulgarity to speak Irish — the children are
everywhere taught English and English alone in
schools — and, what is worse, they are urged by
rewards and punishments to speak it at home,
for English is the language of their masters.
Now, we think the example and exertions of the
upper classes would be sufficient to set the oppo-
site and better fashion of preferring Irish ; and,
even as a matter of taste, we think them bound
to do so. And we ask it of the pride, the pa-
triotism, and the hearts of our farmers and shop-
keepers, Avill they try to drive out of their
children's minds the native language of almost
every great man we had, from Brian Boru to
O'Connell — will they meanly sacrifice the lan-
guage which names their hills, and towns, and
music, to the tongue of the stranger ?
About half the people west of a line drawn
from Derry to Waterford speak Irish habitually,
and in some of the mountain tracts east of that
line it is still common. Simply requiring the
teachers of the National Schools in these Irish -
speaking districts to know Irish, and supplying
them with Irish translations of the school books,
would guard the language where it now exists,
and prevent it from being swept away by the
English tongue, as the red Americans have been
by the English race from New York to New
Orleans.
The example of the upper classes would ex-
tend and develop a modern Irish literature, and
the hearty support they have given to the Archas-
ological Society makes us hope that they Avill
have sense and spirit to do so.
L
182 LTTERAUT AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
But the establishment of a newspaper partly
or wholly Irish would be the most rapid and
sure way of serving the language. The Irish-
speaking man would find, in his native tongue,
the political news and general information he has
now to seek in English ; and the English-speak-
ing man, having Irish frequently before him in
so attractive a form, would be tempted to learn
its characters, and by and by its meaning.
These newspapers in many languages are now
to be found everywhere but here. In South
America many of these papers are Spanish and
English, or French ; in North America, French
and English ; in Northern Italy, German and
Italian ; in Denmark and Holland, German is
used in addition to the native tongue ; in Alsace
and Switzerland, French and German ; in Por
land, German, French, and Sclavonic ; in Tur-
key, French and Turkish ; in Hungary, Maggar,
Sclavonic, and German ; and the little Canton
of Grison uses three languages in its press. With
the exception of Hungary, the secondary lan-
guage is, in all cases, spoken by fewer persons
than the Irish-speaking people of Ireland, and
while they everywhere tolerate and use one lan-
guage as a medium of commerce, they cherish
the other as the vehicle of history, the wings of
song, the soil of their genius, and a mark and
guard of nationality.
AN IRISH GRAMMAR. 183
O'DONOVAN'S IKISH GKAMMAR.
Mr. O'Donovan has the reputation (right well
earned, we believe) of being the best Celtic
scholar alive. He is a man eminently cautious ;
and disposed, from the highest motives, rather
against the pretensions of Gaelic literature. His
grammar, begun in 1828, has been gradually
ripened while he was engaged on the orthography
of the Ordnance Survey, and in editing the best
and most learned of the publications of the
Archaeological Society. It is now published as
the class-book, and with the guarantee of the
College of St. Columba. His capacity, disposi-
tion, and opportunities, and the circumstances of
the publication, will, therefore, place his gram-
mar at once, and without question, at the head
of Celtic literature.
The work is quite (shall we not say, wonder-
fully ?) free from the vehement style and sweep-
ing assertions, so often and so mischievously
carried from the forum to the study, by Irish
writers.
One need not be a master, nor even a student
of the Irish language, to find interest and know-
ledge in this work. It is no regiment of rules
without reason, illustration, or authority, like
most grammars. It is a profound and discursive
treatise on the pronunciation, inflections, struc-
ture, and prosody of the most perfect of the
184 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
Celtic tongues. There is not, we are sure, an
antiquarian or philologist in Europe but will
grasp it as the long-vvished-for key to facts locked
in the obscurity of a language, whose best gram-
marians had only the dialect of their own pa-
rishes, and whose most notable grammars were
the work of pretenders.
From the letters of the alphabet to the rules of
versification, every portion of the Grammar is
argued and illustrated — the argument not frantic
speculation on the tongues of Tyre or Babel,
but the philosophy of one who has weighed the
metaphysics of language in Tooke, Mill, and
Harris — the illustrations (drawn out of his own
and Mr. Curr}-'s reading and experience), ex-
tending from the hymns of the early saints, to
the Jacobite ballads, from Cormack's glossary, to
the slang of the Munster masons.
You cannot open a page of it without finding
some fact or fragment which lightens the history
of the country, the customs of the people, and
the idiom which they have brought into English.
In the chapter on Prepositions alone (running to
thirty-eight close pages) there are pleasant mate-
rials for long study to any student of Ireland, be
he ever so ignorant of Irish.
Yet no one must suppose that this work is
merely an antiquarian miscellany, or a philolo-
gical treatise, or both.
It is a thoroughly practical Irish Grammar.
It gives, with care and simplicity, the most per-
fect forms and rules (according to the best judg-
ment of its author), and then proceeds to explain
AN IRISH GRAMMAR. 185
the efftict of each rule, and the reasons for it to
show the variations from it during different ages
and in distant parts of the island.
These minute details of provincial pronun-
ciation are here given for the first time, and any
one who has ever attempted to learn Irish will
know the value of them.
It has been made a reproach to the Irish lan-
guage, that it varies from Kerry to Cork, fromi
Kilkenny to Galway, from Donegal to Armagh,
and from Louth to Antrim. The difference in
this last county is great ; but the Gaelic of the
Antrim glens is the Erse, or Albanian dialect,
brought from Argyleshire and the Hebrides dur-
ing the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth cen-
turies. It is a prodigal son returned a good
deal the worse for having been so long on the
shaughran I
The variety of dialects in Ireland is hardly
greater than in other countries. We have tried
hopelessly to understand a Zomerzetshire peasant
talking English, and the difference between York-
shire, Norfolkshire, and Cockneyshire are im-
mense. No two provinces in Germany speak
the one dialect. The Bavarian and the Olden-
burger, the Hessian and the Silesian, are as
wide from each other in dialect as the Kerryman
and the native of Armagh ; and the Low Dutch
of Holland and the Danish are as far from the
pure tongue of Frankfort, as Erse and Manx
from the classic speech of Galway.
By the way, let us pause for a moment to give
the original authority for the distinctive qualities
I. 3
186 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
of provincial speaking, with which we are all
familiar in a ruder way : —
•' The Munsterman has the accent without the pro-
priety.
" The Ulsterman has the propriety without the "ac-
cent.
" The Leinsterman has neither the propriety nor the
accent.
" The Connaughtman has the accent and the pro-
priety."
Mr. O'Donovan gives us a paraphrase of these
proverbs, published by Lombard, in his De
Regno in 1632 ; so that the notion is an old one.
But, talking of dialects, it was only since
Luther's Bible that Germany began to have a
standard language. Dante took up the speech
prevalent about Florence, and founded classic
Italian ; but to this hour neither the Venetian,
nor the Neapolitan, nor the Sicilian, have aban-
doned their old dialects. Similar differences exist
in France, Spain, and everywhere.
Let us no more hear, then, of this objection
to Irish ; but trust that the labours of Mr. O'Do-
novan, Mr. Curry, Mr. Connellan, the Rev. Mr.
O'Sullivan, of Bandon, and whoever besides are
the best of our Celtic scholars, will be combined
to produce such standards as will make this age
the founding-time or the epoch of restoration for
the Gaelic languasre.
INSTITUTIONS OF DUBLIN. 1B7
INSTITUTIONS OF DUBLIN.
Judged by the Directory^ Dublin is nobly sup-
plied with Institutions for the promotion of
Literature, Science, and Art ; and, judged by its
men, there is mind enough here to make these
Institutions prosper, and instruct and raise the
country. Yet their performances are far short
of these promises, and the causes for ill-success
are easily found. We believe these causes could
be almost as easily removed.
In the first place, we have too many of these
Institutions. Stingy grants from Government
and the general poverty of the people render
economy a matter of first consequence ; yet we
find these societies maintaining a number of
separate establishments, at a great expense of
rent and salaries.
The consequence, of course, is that none of
them flourishes as it ought — museums, meetings,
lectures, libraries, and exhibitions are all flittered
away, and nothing is done so well, as it might
be. Moreover, from the want of any arrange-
ment and order, the same men are dragged from
one society to another — few men do much,
because all are forced to attempt so many things.
But 'tis better to examine this in detail, and
in doing so we may as well give some leading
facts as to the chief of these bodies. Take for
example, as a beginning, the
188 literary and historical essays.
Institutions for the promotion of Fine
Arts.
And first there is the Hibernian Academy.
It was founded in 1823, received a present of its
house, in Abbey-street, and some books and casts,
from Francis Johnston (a Dublin architect,) and
has the miserable income of 300/. a year from
the Treasury. It has a drawing-school, with a
few casts, no pictures, bad accommodation, and
professors whose pay is nearly nominal.
It undoubtedly has some men of great ability
and attainments (and some who have neither) ;
but what can be done without funds, statues, or
pictures. To aggravate its difficulties, the Dub-
lin Society has another art school, still worse off
as to casts, and equally deficient in pictures. As
a place of instruction in the designing of patterns
for manufactures and the like, the Dublin Society
school has worked well ; and many of the best-
paid controllers of design in the English manu-
factories were educated there ; but as a school of
fine arts it does little ; and no wonder. Another
branch of the Hibernian Academy's operations
is its annual exhibitions of pictures. These ex-
hibitions attract crowds who would never other-
wise see a painting, promote thought on art, and
procure patronage for artists. In this, too, the
Hibernian Academy has recently found a rival
in the Society of Irish Artists established in 1842,
which has an annual exhibition in College-street,
and pays the expenses of the exhibition out of
the admission fees, as does the Hibernian Aca-
demy. We are not attaching blame to the Society
of Irish Artists in noticing the fact of its rivalry.
INSTITUTIONS OF DUBLIN. 189
There are three other bodies devoted to the
encouragement of art. One of these is the Art-
Union, founded in 1840, and maintained entirely
by subscriptions to its lottery. It distributes
fine engravings from Irish pictures among all its
members, and pictures and statues, bought in
the exhibitions of the Hibernian Academy, and
of the Society of Irish Artists, among its prize-
holders ; and it gives premiums for the vforks of
native or resident artists. Its operation is as
a patron of art ; and, in order to get funds for
this purpose, and also to secure superior works
and a higher competition, it extends its pur-
chases to the best foreign works exhibited here.
It has no collection, and has merely an office in
College- street — in fact, its best permanent pos-
session is its unwearied Secretary. The Society
of Ancient Art was established last year for the
formation of a public gallery of casts from classi-
cal and medoeval statues, and ultimately for pur-
poses of direct teaching by lectures, &c. It ob-
tained some funds by subscription ; bat under the
expectation, 'tis said, of a public grant, has done
nothing. Lastly, there is the " Institute of Irish
Architects," founded in 1839 "for the general
advancement of civil architecture, for promoting
and facilitating the acquirement of a knowledge
of the various arts and sciences connected there-
with, for the formation of a Library and Mu-
seum, &c."
To us it is very plain that here are too many
institutions, and that the efficiency of all suffers
materially from their want of connection and
Some at least, mi<2;ht be amal-
190 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS,
gamated with great advantage, or rather all,
except the Art Union. That is only a club of
purchasers, and any attempt materially to change
its nature would peril its funds. Some such plan
as the following would accomplish all that is
vainly attempted now. Let the Government be
pressed to give 2,000/. a year, if the public supply
1,000/. a year. Let this income go to a new
Hibernian Academy — the present Hibernian
Academy, Artists' Society, Society of Ancient
Art, the Art Schools of the Dublin Society, and
the Institute of L^ish Architects, being merged
in it. This merger could be easily secured
through the inducements secured by the charter,
and by accommodation, salaries, and utility of
the new body. The present property of these
bodies, with some moderate grant, would suffice
for the purchase of a space of ground ample for
the schools, museums, library, lecture-room, and
yards of such an institution.
At the head of it should be a small body
governing and accounting for its finances, but
?%o person should be a governing member of more
than one of its sections. These sections should
be for Statuary, Painting, Architecture, and
Design Drawing. Each of these sections should
have its own Gallery, and its ov/n Practice Rooms ;
but one Library and one public Lecture Room
would suffice for the entire. The architectural
section would also need some open space for its
experiments and its larger specimens. A present
of copies of the British Museum casts, along with
the fund of the Ancient Art Society, would
originate a Cast Gallery, and a few good pictures
INSTITUTIONS OF DUBLIN^. 191
could be bought as a commencement of a Na-
tional Gallery of Painting, leaving tlie economy
of the managers and the liberality of the public
gradually to fill it. Collections of native works
in canvass and marble, and architectural models
could be soon and cheaply procured. The Art
Library of the Dublin Society added to that of
the Hibernian Academy would need few addi-
tions to make it sufficient for the new body.
Such an Institute ought not to employ any but
the best teachers and lecturers. It should en-
courage proficiency by rewards that would in-
struct the proficient ; it should apply itself to
cataloguing, preserving, and making known all
the works of art in the country ; give prizes for
artistical works ; publish its lectures and transac-
tions ; issue engravings of the most instructive
works of art ; and hold evening meetings, to
which ladies would be admitted. It should allow
at least 400/. a year for the support of free pupils.
In connexion with its drawing and modelling
schools should be a professorship of anatomy, or,
what were better, some arrangement might be
made with the College of Surgeons, or some such
body, for courses of instruction for its pupils.
The training for its pupils in sculpture, painting,
and design, should include the study of ancient
and modern costumes, zoology, and of vegetable
and geological forms. For this purpose books
should not be so much relied on as lectures in
gardens, museums, and during student excur-
sions. Of course, the architectural pupils should
be required to answer at a preliminary examina-
tion in mathematics, and should receive special
192 LITEHAKY AND HISTORICAL ESSAY?.
instruction in the building materials, action of
climate, &c., in Ireland.
Were the buildings standing, and the society
chartered judiciously, the sum we have mentioned
would be sufficient. Four professors at from
200/. to 300/. a year each, four assistants at 100/.
a year each, a librarian at the same rate, with
payments for extra instruction in anatomy, itc,
&c., and for porters, premiums, and so fortli
would not exceed 2,000/. a year. So that if,
400/. were expended on free pupils, there woutd
rem^ain 600/. a year for the purchase of works
for the galleries.
At present there is much waste of money,
great annoyance, and loss of time to the sup-
porters of these institutions, and marvellously
little benefit to art. The plan we have proposed
would be economical both of time and money ;
but, what is of more worth, it would give us,
what we have not now, a National Gallery of
Statuary and Painting — good Exhibition-Rooms
for works of art — business-like Lecturers and
Lectures — great public excitement about art —
and, finally, a great National Academy.
If any one has a better plan, let him say it ;
we have told ours. At all events, some great
change is needed, and there can be no fitter time
than this for it.
In any community it is desirable to have Li-
terary Institutions, as well classified as legal
offices, and as free from counter-action ; but it is
especially desirable here now. Our literary class
is small, and its duties measureless. The diseased
suction of London — the absence of gentry, offices,
INSTITUTIONS OF DUBLIN. 193
anil Legislature — the heart-sickness that is on
every thoughtful man without a country — the
want of a large, educated, and therefore book-
buying class — and (it must be confessed) the
depression and distrust produced by rash experi-
ments and paltry failure, have left us with few
men for a great work. Palpably the great re-
medy is the restoration of our Parliament, bring-
ing back, as it would, the aristocracy and the
public offices, giving society and support to
Writers and Artists, and giving them a coun-
try's praise to move and a country's glory to re-
ward them.
But one of the very means of attaining na-
tionality is securing some portion of that literary
force which would gush abundantly from it ; and
therefore, consider it how you will, it is impor-
' tant to increase and economise the exertions of
' the literary class in Ireland. Yet the reverse is
! done. Institutions are multiplied instead of those
j being made efficient which exist ; and men talk
; as proudly of the new " Teach'em-every thing-in-
no-time- Society" as if its natty laws were a
library, its desk a laboratory and a museum, and
its members fresh labourers, when all they have
done is to waste the time of persons who had
business, and to delude those who had none into
the belief that they were doing good. Ephemeral
things ! which die not without mischief — they
) have wasted hours and days of strong men in
I spinning sand, and leave depression growing
from their tombs.
I It is a really useful deed to rescue from dissi-
j pation, or from idle reading, or from mammon-
M
194 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
hunting, one strong passionate man or boy, and
to set him to work investigating, arranginn,
teaching. It is an honest tasiv to shame the
'broidered youth from meditation on waistcoats
and the display of polka steps into manly pur-
suits. It is an angel's mission (oftenest the work
of love) to startle a sleeping and unconscious
genius into the spring and victory of a roused
lion. But it is worse than useless to establish
new associations and orders without well consi-
dering first whether the same machinery do not
-already exist and rust for want of the very energy
and skill which you need, too. There is a bridge
in a field near Blarney Castle where water never
ran. It was built "at the expense of the county."
These men build their mills close as houses in a
capita], taking no thought for the stream to turn
them.
"We have already censured this, in some detail,
with reference to societies for the promotion of
the Fine Arts, and have urged the formation,
out of all these fiddling, clashing bodies, of some ■
one great institution for the promotion of Paint-
ing, Sculpture, and Architecture, with a Mu-
seum, a Library, a Gallery, and Lecturers,
governed by professional minds, great enough
to be known and regarded by the people, and
popular and strong enough to secure Government
support.
Similar defects exist everywhere. Take the
Dublin Society for example. Nothing can be
more heterogeneous than its objects. We art
far from denying its utility. That utility is im-
mense, the institution is native, of old standiiiL
INSTITUTIONS OF DUBLIN. 195
(it was founded in 1731), national, and, when
it wanted support, our pen was not idle in its
behalf.
But we believe its utility greatly diminished
by its attempting too many things, and especially
by including objects more fitly belonging to other
institutions ; and on the opposite it is maimed,
by the interference of other bodies, in its na-
tural functions. The Dublin Society was founded
for the promotion of husbandry and other useful
arts. Its labours to serve agriculture have been
repeated and extensive, though not always judi-
cious. It has also endeavoured to promote ma-
nufactures. It has gardens and museums fitter
for scientific than practical instruction, admirable
lecturers, a library most generously opened, a
drawing school of the largest purposes and of
equivocal success, and various minor branches.
The Irish Academy has some of this fault. It
endeavours to unite antiquarianism and abstract
science. Its meetings are alternately entertained
with mathematics and history, and its transac-
tions are equally comprehensive. We yield to
none in anxiety for tlie promotion of antiquarian
studies ; we think the public and the government
disgraced by the slight support given to the aca-
demy. We are not a little proud of the honour
and strength given to our country by the science
of MacCullagh, Hamilton, and Lloyd ; but we
.protest against the attempt to mix the armoury
of the ancient Irish, or the Celtic dialects, or
the essay on Round Towers, wdth trigonometry
and the calculus, whether in a lecture-room or a
book.
196 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
Let us just set down, as we find them, some of
the Literary and Scientific Institutions. There
are the Royal Dublin Society, the Royal Irish
Academy (we wish these royalties were dropped
— no one minds them), the Irish Archseological
Society, the Royal Zoological Society, the Geo-
logical Society, the Dublin Natural History
Society, the Dublin Philosophical Society, the
Royal Agricultural Society, &c., &c. Now, we
take it that these bodies might be usefully re-
duced to three, and if three moderate govern-
ment grants were made under conditions, re-
warding such a classification, we doubt not it
would instantly be made.
In the first place, we would divorce from the
Irish Academy the scientific department, requir-
ing Trinity College to form some voluntary
organization for the purpose. To this non-col-
legiate philosophers should be admitted, and,
thus disencumbered, we would devote the Aca-
demy to antiquities and literature — incorporate
with it the Archaeological Society — transfer to it
all the antiques (of which it] had not duplicates
in Trinity College, the Dublin Society, &c., and
enlarge 'its museum and meeting-room. Its sec-
tion of " polite literature" has long been a name —
it should be made real. There would be nothing
inconvenient or strange in finding in its lecture-
rooms or transactions, the antiquities and litera-
ture of Ireland, diversified by general historical,
critical, and SBSthetical researches.
The Dublin Society would reasonably divide
into two sections. One, for the promotion of
husbandry, might be aggrandised by tempting
INSTITUTIONS OF DUBLIN. 197
tlie Agricultural Society to join it, and should
have a permanent museum, an extensive farm,
premiums, shows, publications, and special lec-
turers. The second section, for the encourage-
ment of manufactures, should have its museum,
work-shops, and experiment ground (the last,
perhaps, as the agricultural farm), and its special
lecturers. The library might well be joint, and
managed by a joint committee, having separate
funds. The general lecturers on chemistry and
other such subjects might be paid in common.
The drawing-school ( save that for pattern and
machine drawing) might be transferred to the
Art Institution ; and the botanic garden and
museum of minerals to a third body we propose.
This third body we would form from a union
of the Zoological, the Geological, the Natural
History and all other such societies, and endow
it with the Botanic and Zoological Gardens —
give it rooms for a general, and for a specially
Irish museum, and for lecture rooms in town,
and supply it with a small fund to pay lecturers,
who should go through the provinces.
We are firmly convinced that this re-arrange-
ment of the Institutions of Dublin is quite prac-
ticable, would diminish unproductive expenses,
economise the time, and condense the purposes
of oiir literary, scientific, and artistical men, and
increase enormously the use of the institutions
to the public.
Of course the whole plan will be laughed at as
fanciful and improbable ; we think it easy, and
we think it will be done.
198 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
lEELAND'S PEOPLE, LORDS, GENTRY, COM-
MONALTY.
When we are considering a country's resources
and its fitness for a peculiar destiny, its people
are not to be overlooked. How much they think,
how much they work, what are their passions, as
well as their habits, what are their hopes and
what their history, suggest inquiries as well
worth envious investigation as even the inside of
a refugee's letter.
And there is much in Ireland of that character
— much that makes her superior to slavery, and
much that renders her inferior to freedom.
Her inhabitants are composed of Irish nobles,
Irish gentry, and the Irish people. Each has
an interest in the independence of their country,
each a share in her disgrace. Upon each, too,
there devolves a separate duty in this crisis of
her fate. They all have responsibilities ; but
the infamy of failing in them is not alike in all.
The nobles are the highest class. They have
most to guard. In every other country they are
the champions of patriotism. They feel there is
no honour for them separate from their father-
land. Its freedom, its dignity, its integrity are
as their own. They strive for it, legislate for it,
guard it, fight for it. Their names, their titles,
their very pride are of it.
In Ireland they are its disgrace. They were
first to sell and would be last to redeem it. —
Ireland's people. 199
Treachery to it is daubed on many an escutclieon
in its heraldry. It is the only nation where
slaves have been ennobled for contributing to its
degradation.
It is a foul thing this — dignity emanating
from the throne to gild the filthy mass of national
treason that forms the man's part of many an
Irish lord.
We do not include in this the whole Irish
peerage. God forbid. There are several of
them not thus ignoble. Many of them worked,
struggled, sacrificed for Ireland. Many of them
were true to her in the darkest times.
They were her Chiefs, her ornaments, her sen-
tinels, her safeguards. Alas, that they, too,
should have shrunk from their position, and left
their duties to humbler, but bolder and better
men.
Look at their station in the State. Is it not
one of unequivocal shame ? They enjoy the
half mendicant privilege of voting for a repre-
sentative of their order, in the House of Lords,
some twice or thrice in their lives. One Irish
peer represents about a dozen others of his class,
and thus, in his multiplex capacity, he is admitted
into fellowship with the English nobility. The
borrowed plumes, and delegated authority of so
many of his equals raise him to a half-admitted
equality with an English nobleman. And, al-
though thus deprived of their inheritance of dig-
nity, they are not allowed even the privilege of
a commoner. An Irish lord cannot sit in the
House of Commons for an Irish county or city,
nor can he vote for an Irish member.
200 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
But an Irish lord can represent an English
constituency. The distinction is a strange one —
unintelligible to us in any sense but one of na-
tional humiliation. We understand it thus : —
An Irish lord is too mean in his own person, and
by virtue of his Irish title, to rank with the
British peerage. He can only qualify for that
honour by uniting in his the suffrages and titles
of ten or twelve others. But — flattering dis-
tinction I — he is above the rank of an Irish
commoner, nor is he permitted to sully his
name with the privileges of that order. And,
unspeakable dignity ! he may take his stand with
a British mob.
There is no position to match this in shame.
There is no guilt so despicable as dozing in it
without a blush or an effort, or even a dream for
independence. When all else are alive to indig-
nity, and working in the way of honour and
liberty, they alone, whom it would best become
to be earliest and most earnest in the strife, sink
back replete with dishonour.
Of tliose, or their descendants, who, at the
time of the Union, sold their country and the
high places they filled in her councils and in her
glory, for the promise of a foreign title, which
has not been redeemed, the shame and the morti-
fication has been, perhaps, too great to admit of
any hope in regard to them. Their trust was
sacred — their honour unsuspected. The stake
they guarded above life they betrayed then for a
lalse bauble ; and it is no wonder if they think
their infamy irredeemable, and eternal.
We know not but it is. There arc manv,
Ireland's tbofle. 201
however, not in that category. They struggled
at fearful odds, and every risk, against the fate
of their country. They strove when hope had
left them. Wherefore do they stand apart now,
when she is again erect, and righteous, and
daring ? Have they despaired for her greatness,
because of the infidelity of those to whom she
had too blindly trusted ?
The time is gone when she could be betrayed.
This one result is already guaranteed by recent
teaching. We may not be yet thoroughly in-
structed in the wisdom and the virtue necessary
for the independent maintenance of self-govern-
ment ; but we have mastered thus much of
national knowledge that we cannot be betrayed.
There is no assurance ever nation gave which
we have not given, or may not give, that our
present struggle shall end in triumph or in na-
tional death.
■ The writers of The Natio7t have never con-
cealed the defects or flattered the good qualities
of their countrymen. They have told them in
good faith that they wanted many an attribute of
a free people, and that the true way to command
happiness and liberty was by learning the arts
and practising the culture that fitted men for
their enjoyment. Nor was it until we saw
them thus learning and thus practising, that our
faith became perfect, and that we felt entitled to
say to all men, here is a strife in which it will be
stainless glory to be even defeated. It is one in
which the Irish nobility have the first interest
and the first stake in their individual capacities.
As they would be the most honoured and be-
202 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
nefitted by national success, they are the guiltiest
in opposing, or being indifferent to national pa-
triotism.
Of the Irish gentry there is not much to be
said. They are divisible into two classes — the
one consists of the old Norman race commingled
with the Catholic gentlemen, who either have
been able to maintain their patrimonies, or who
have risen into affluence by their own industry ;
the other the descendants of Cromwell's or Wil-
liam's successful soldiery.
This last is the most anti-Irish of all. They
feel no personal debasement in the dishonour of
the country. Old prejudices, a barbarous law>
a sense of insecurity in the possessions they know
were obtained by plunder, combine to sink them
into the mischievous and unholy belief that it is
their interest as well as their duty to degrade,
and wrong, and beggar the Irish people.
There are among them men fired by enthu-
siasm, men fed by fanaticism, men influenced by
sordidness ; but, as a whole, they are earnest
thinkers and stern actors. There is a virtue in
their unscrupulousness. They speak, and act,
and dare as men. There is a principle in their
unprincipledness. Their belief is a harsh and tur-
bulent one, but they profess it in a manly fashion.
We like them better than the other section of
the same class. These last are but sneaking
echoes of the other's views. They are coward
patriots and criminal dandies. But, they ought
to be different from what they are. We wish
them so. We want their aid now — for the
country, for themselves, for all. Would that
203
they understood the truth, that they thought
justly, and acted uprightly. They are wanted,
one and all. Why conceal it — they are obstacles
in our way, shadows on our path.
These are called the representatives of the
property of the country. They are against the
national cause, and, therefore, it is said that all
the wealth of Ireland is opposed to the Repeal of
the Union.
It is an ignorant and a false boast.
The people of the country are its wealth. —
They till its soil, raise its produce, ply its trade.
They serve, sustain, support, save it. They
supply its armies — they are its farmers, its mer-
chants, its tradesmen, its artists, all that enrich
and adorn it.
And after all, each of them has a patrimony
to spend, the honourable earning of his sweat, or
his intellect, or his industry, or his genius. —
Taking them on an average, they must, to live,
spend at least £15 each by the year. Multiply
it by seven millions, and see what it comes to.
Thirty-five millions annually — compare with
that the rental of Ireland ; compare with it the
wealth of the aristocracy spent in Ireland, and
are they not as nothing?
But a more important comparison may be
made of the strength^ the fortitude, the patience,
the bravery of those the enrichers of the country,
with the meanness in mind and courage of those
who are opposed to them.
It is the last we shall suggest. It is sufficient
for our purpose. To those who do not think it
of the highest value, we have nothing to say.
204 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
THE STATE OF THE PEASANTRY.
In a climate soft as a mother's smile, on a soil
fruitful as God's love, the Irish peasant mourns.
He is not unconsoled. Faith in the joys of
another world, heightened by his woe in this,
give him hours, when he serenely looks down on
the torments that encircle him — the moon on a
troubled sky. Domestic love, almost morbid
from external suffering, prevents him from be-
coming a fanatic or a misanthrope, and reconciles
him to life. Sometimes he forgets all, and springs
into a desperate glee or a scathing anger ; and
latterly another feeling — the hope of better days
— and another exertion — the effort for redress —
have shared his soul with religion, love, mirth,
and vengeance.
His consolations are those of a spirit — his mi-
sery includes all physical sufferings, and many
that strike tlie soul, not the senses.
Consider his griefs ! They begin in the cradle
— they end in the grave.
Suckled by a breast that is supplied from un-
wholesome or insufficient food, and that is fe-
vered witli anxiety — reeking with the smoke of
an almost chimneyless cabin — assailed by wind
and rain when the weather rages — breathing,
when it is calm, the exhalations of a rotten roof,
of clay walls, and of manure, which gives his
only chance of food — he is apt to perish in his
infancy.
THE STATE OF THE PEASANTRY. 205
Or he survives all this (happy if he have es-
caped from gnawing scrofula or familiar fever),
and, in the same cabin, with rags instead of his
mother's breast, and lumpers instead of his mo-
ther's milk, he spends his childhood.
Advancing youth brings him labour, and man-
hood increases it ; but youth and manhood leave
his roof rotten, his chimney one hole, his window
another, his clothes rags (at best muffled by a
holiday cotumore) — his furniture a pot, a table,
a few hay chairs and rickety stools — his food
lumpers and water — his bedding straw and a
coverlid — his enemies the landlord, the tax-
gatherer, and the law — his consolation the priest
and his wife — his hope on earth, agitation — his
hope hereafter, the* Lord God !
For such an existence his toil is hard — and
so much the better — it calms and occupies his
mind ; but bitter is his feeling that the toil, which
gains for him this nauseous and scanty livelihood,
heaps dainties and gay wines on the table of his
distant landlord, clothes his children or his harem
in satin, lodges them in marble halls, and brings
all the arts of luxury to solicit their senses —
bitter to him to feel that this green land, which
he loves and his landlord scorns, is ravished by
him of her fruits to pamper that landlord ; twice
bitter for him to see his wife, with weariness in
her breast of love, to see half his little brood
torn by the claws of want to undeserved graves,
and to know that to those who survive him he
can only leave the inheritance to which he was
lieir ; and thrice bitter to him that even his hovel
lias not the security of the wild beast's den — that
206 LITERAKY AND HISTOSICAL ESSAYS.
Squalidness, and Hunger, and Disease are insuf-
ficient guardians of his home — and that the puff
of the landlord's or the agent's breath may blow
him off the land where he has lived, and send
him and his to a dyke, or to prolong wretched-
ness in some desperate kennel in the next town,
till the strong wings of Death — unopposed lord
of such'suburbs — bear them away.
Aristocracy of Ireland, will ye do nothing ? —
will ye do nothing for fear ? The body who best
know Ireland — the body that keep Ireland within
the law — the Repeal Committee — declare that
unless some great change take place, an agrarian
war may ensue ! Do ye know Avhat that is, and
how it would come ? The rapid multiplication
of outrages, increased violence by Magistrates,
collisions between the People and the Police, co-
ercive laws and military force, the violation of
houses, the suspension of industry — the conflux
of discontent, pillage, massacre, war — the gen-
try shattered, the peasantry conquered and de-
cimated, or victorious and ruined (for who could
rule them) — there is an agrarian insurrection !
May Heaven guard us from it I — may the fear
be vain !
We set aside the fear I Forget it ! Think of
the long, long patience of the People — their
toils supporting you — their virtues shaming you
their huts, their hunger, their disease.
To whomsoever God hath given a heart less
cold than stone, these truths must cry day and
nisht. Oh I how they cross us like Banshees
wiien we would range free on the mountain —
how, a5 we walk in the evening light amid flow-
THE STATE OF THE PEASANTRY. 207
ers, they startle us from rest of mind ! Ye
nobles! whose houses are as gorgeous as the
mote's (who dwelleth in the sunbeam) — ye strong
and haughty squires — ye dames exuberant with
tingling blood — ye maidens, whom not splendour
has yet spoiled, will ye not think of the poor ? —
will ye not shudder in your couches to think how
rain, wind, and smoke dwell with the blanket-
less peasant ? — will ye not turn from the sump-
tuous board to look at those hard- won meals of
black and slimy roots on which man, woman,
and child feed year after year ? — will ye never
try to banish wringing hunger and ghastly dis-
ease from the home of such piety and love ? —
will ye not give back its dance to the village —
its mountain play to boyhood — its serene hopes
to manhood ?
Will ye do nothing for pity — nothing for love ?
Will ye leave a foreign Parliament to mitigate —
will ye leave a native Parliament, gained in your
despite, to redress these miseries — will ye for
ever abdicate the duty and the joy of making the
poor comfortable, and the peasant attached and
happy ? Do — if so you prefer ; but know that
if you do, you are a doomed race. Once more,
Aristocracy of Ireland, we warn and entreat you
to consider the State of the Peasantry, and to
save them with your own hands.
208 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
HxVBITS AND CHARACTER OF THE
PEASANTRY.*
TuERE are (thank God!) four hundred thousand
Irish children in the National Schools. A few
years, and they will be the People of Ireland —
the farmers of its lands, the conductors of its
traffic, the adepts in its arts. How utterly unlike
that Ireland will be to the Ireland of the Penal
Laws, of the Volunteers, of the Union, or of
the Emancipation ?
Well may Carleton say that we are in a transi-
tion state. The knowledge, the customs, the su-
perstitions, the hopes of the People are entirely
changing. There is neither use nor reason in
lamenting what we must infallibly lose. Our
course is an open and a great one, and will try us
severely; but, be it well or ill, we cannot resem-
ble our fathers. No conceivable effort will get
the people, twenty years hence, to regard tlie
Fairies but as a beautiful fiction to be cherished,
not believed in, and not a few real and human
characters are perishing as fast as the Fairies.
Let us be content to have the past chi'onicled
wherever it cannot be preserved.
Much may be saved — the Gaelic language and
the music of the past may be handed uncor-
riipted to the future ; but whatever may be tlK3
* "Tales nnil Sketches illustratino the Irish Peasan-
try. ' lly William Carleton. James Dufrv, DubUn,
1^15; 1 vol. ^vo, pp. 3'J3.
HABITS, &C., OF THE TEASANTRY. 209
substitutes, the Fairies and the Banshees, the
Poor Scholar and the Ribbonman, the Orange
Lodge, the Illicit Still, and the Faction Fight,
are vanishing into history, and unless this gene-
ration paints them no other will know what they
were.
It is chiefly in this way we value the work
before us. In it Carleton is the historian of the
peasantry rather than a dramatist. The fiddler
and piper, the seanachie and seer, the match-
maker and dancing-master, and a hundred cha-
racters beside are here brought before you,
moving, acting, playing, plotting, and gossip-
ing ! You are never wearied by an inventory of
wardrobes, as in short English descriptive fic-
tions ; yet you see how every one is dressed ;
you hear the honey brogue of the maiden, and
the downy voice of the child, the managed ac-
cents of flattery or traffic, the shrill tones of
woman's fretting, and the troubled gush of man's
anger. The moory upland and the corn slopes,
the glen where the rocks jut through mantling
heather, and bright brooks gurgle amid the
scented banks of w^ild herbs, the shivering cabin
and the rudely-lighted farm-house are as plain in
Carleton's pages as if he usedscanvass and colours
with a skill varying from Wilson and Poussin,
to Teniers and Wilkie.
But even in these sketches, his power of ex-
ternal description is not his greatest merit. Born
and bred among the people — full of their animal
vehemence — skilled in their sports — as credulous
and headlong in boyhood, and as fitful and varied
in manhood, as the wildest — he liad felt with
210 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
them and must ever sympathise with them. En-
dowed with the highest dramatic genius, he has
represented their love and generosity, their
wrath and negligence, their crimes and virtues,
as a hearty peasant — not a note-taking critic.
In others of his works he has created ideal
characters that give him a higher rank as a poet
(some of them not surpassed by even Shakspeare
for originality, grandeur, and distinctness) ; but
here he is a genuine Seanachie, and brings you to
dance and wake, to wedding and christening —
makes you romp with the girls, and race with
the boys — tremble at the ghosts, and frolic with
the fairies of the whole parish.
Come what change there may over Ireland, in
these " Tales and Sketches" the peasantry of the
past hundred years can be for ever lived with.
IRISH SCENERY.
"We no more see why Irish people should not
visit the Continent, than why Germans or
Frenchmen ought not to visit Ireland ; but there
is a difference between them. A German rarely
comes here who has not trampled the heath of
Tyrol, studied the museums of Dresden and the
frescoes of Munich, and shouted defiance on the
bank of the Rhine ; and what Frenchman who
has not seen the vineyards of Provence and the
Bocages of Brittany, and the snows of Jura and
IRISn SCENERY. 211
the Pyrenees, ever drove on an Irish jingle?
But our nobles and country gentlemen, our mer-
chants, lawyers, and doctors — and what's worse,
their wives and daughters — penetrate Britain
and the Continent without ever trying whether
they could not defy in Ireland the ennui before
which they run over seas and mountains.
The cause of this, as of most of our grievances,
was misgovernment, producing poverty, discom-
fort, ignorance, and misrepresentation. The
people were ignorant and in rags, their houses
miserable, the roads and hotels shocking ; we
had no banks, few coaches, and, to crown all,
the English declared the people to be rude and
turbulent, which they were not, as well as
drunken and poor, which they assuredly were.
An Irish landlord, who had ill-treated his own
tenants, felt a conscientious dread of all frieze-
coats, others adopted his prejudices, and a peo-
ple, who never were rude or unjust to strangers,
were considered unsafe to travel amongst.
Most of these causes are removed. The people
are sober, and are rapidly advancing to know-
ledge, their political exertions and dignity have
broken away much of the prejudices against
them, and a man passing through any part of
Ireland expects to find woful poverty and strong
discontent, but he does not fear the abduction of
his wife, or attempts to assassinate him on every
lonely road. The coaches, cars, and roads, too,
have become excellent, and the hotels are suffi-
cient for any reasonable traveller. One very
marked discouragement to travelling was the
want of information ; the maps were little daubs,
212 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL, ESSAYS.
and the guide-books were few and inaccurate. As
to maps we are now splendidly off. The Rail-
way Commissioners' Map of Ireland, aided by
the Ordnance Index Map of any county where
a visiter makes a long stay, are ample. We
have got a good general guide-book in Fraser,
but it could not hold a twentieth of the in-
formation necessary to a leisurely tourist ; nor,
till the Ordnance Memoir is out shall we have
thorough hand-books to our counties. Meantime
let us not burn the little guides to Antrim, Wick-
low, and Killarney, though they are desperately
dull and inexact — let us not altogether prohibit
Mrs. Hall's gossip, though she knows less about
our Celtic people than of the Malays ; and let
us be even thankful for Mr. O'Flanagan's vo-
lume on the Munster Blackwater (though it is
printed in London), for his valuable stories, for
his minute, picturesque, and full topography,
for his antiquarian and historical details, though
he blunders into making Alaster M'Donnell a
Scotchman, and for his hearty love of the
scenery and people he has undertaken to guide
us through.
And now, reader, in this fine soft summer,
when the heather is blooming, and the sky
laughing and crying like a hysterical bride, full
of love, where will you go — through your own
land or a stranger's ? If you stay at home you
can choose your own scenery, and have some-
thing to see in the summer, and talk of in the
winter, that will make your friends from the
Alps and Appenines respectful to you.
Did you propose to study economies among
^^" IRISH SCENERY. 213
the metayers of Tuscany or the artisans of Bel-
gium, postpone the trip till the summer of '45 or
'46, when you may have the passport of an Irish
office to get you a welcome, and seek for the
state of the linen weavers in the soft hainlets of
Ulster — compare the cattle herds of Meath with
the safe little holdings of Down, and the well-
fought farms of Tipperary, or investigate the
statistics of our fisheries along the rivers and
lakes and shores of our island.
Had a strong desire come upon you to toil over
the glacier, whose centre froze when Adam
courted Eve, or walk amid the brigand passes of
Italy or Spain — do not fancy that absolute size
makes mountain grandeur, or romance, to a
mind full of passion and love of strength (and
with such only do the mountain spirits walk) the
passes of Glenmalure and Barnesmore are deep
as Chamouni, and Carn Tual and Slieve Donard
are as near the lightning as Mount Blanc.
To the picture-hunter we can offer little,
though Vandyke's finest portrait is in Kilkenny,
and there is no county without some collection ;
but for the lover of living or sculptured forms —
for the artist, the antiquarian, and the natural
philosopher, we have more than five summers
could exhaust. Every one can see the strength
of outline, the vigour of colour, and the effec-
tive grouping in every fair, and wake, and cha-
pel, and hurling-ground, from Donegal to Wa-
terford, though it may take the pen of Grifiin or
the pencil of Burton to represent them. An
Irishman, if he took the pains, would surely find
something not inferior in interest to Colocrne or
214 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
the Alhambra in a study of the monumental
effigies which mat the floors of Jerpoint and
Adare, or the cross in a hundred consecrated
grounds, from Kells to Clonmacnoise — of the
round towers which spring in every barony — of
the architectural perfection of Plolycross and
Clare-Galway, and the strange fellowship of
every order in Athassel, or of the military keep?,
and earthen pyramids, and cairns, which tell of
the wars of recent, and the piety of distant cen-
turies. The Entomology, Botany, and Geology
of Ireland are not half explored ; tlie structure
and distinctions of its races are but just attract-
ing the eyes of philosophers from Mr. Wylde's
tract, and the country is actually full of airs
never noted, history never written, superstitions
and romances never rescued from tradition ; and
why should Irishmen go blundering in foreign
researches when so much remains to be done
here, and when to do it would be more easy,
more honourable, and more useful?
In many kinds of scenery we can challenge
comparison. Europe has no lake so dreamily
beautiful as Killarney ; no bays where the bold-
ness of Norway unites with the colouring of Na-
ples, as in Bantry ; and you might coast the
world without finding cliffs so vast and so terri-
ble as Achill and Slieve League. Glorious, too,
as the Rhine is, we doubt if its warmest admirers
would exclude from rivalry the Nore and tlie
Blackwater, iftheyliad seen the tall cli lis, and
the twisted slopes, and the ruined aisles, and
glancing mountains, and feudal castles' through
which you boat up from Youghal to Mallow, or
IRISH SCENERY. 215
glide down from Thomastown to Waterford har-
bour. Hear what Inglis says of this Avondhu : —
' ' We have had descents of the Danube, and descents
of the Rhine, and tlie Rhone, and of many other rivers ;
but we have not in print, as far as I know, any descent
of the Blackwater ; and yet, witli all these descents of
foreign rivers in my recollection, / think the desceiit of
the Blackivater not surpassed by any of them. A detail
of all that is seen in gliding- down the Blackwater from
Cappoquin to Youghal Avould fill a long chapter. There
is every combination that can be produced by the ele-
ments that enter into the picturesque and the beauti-
ful — deep shades, bold rocks, verdant slopes, with the
triumphs of art superadded, and made visible in magni-
ficent houses and beautiful villas, with their decorated
lawns and pleasure-grounds."
And now, reader, if these kaleidoscope glimpses
we have given you have made you doubt between
a summer in Ireland and one abroad, give your
country " the benefit of the doubt," as the law-
yers say, and boat on our lake or dive into our
glens and ruins, wonder at the basalt coast of
Antrim, and soften your heart between the banks
of the Blackwater.
21G LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
IRISH MUSIC AND POETRY,
No enemy speaks slightingly of Irish Music, and
no friend need fear to boast of it. It is without
a rival.
Its antique war-tunes, such as tliose of O'Byrne,
O'Donnell, Alestrom, and Brian Boru, stream and
crash upon the ear like the warriors of a hundred
glens meeting ; and you are borne with them to
battle, and they and you charge and struggle amid
cries and battle-axes and stinging arrows. Did
ever a wail make man's marrow quiver, and fdl
his nostrils with the breath of the grave like the
ululu of the north or the wirrasthrue of Munster 'i
Stately are tlieir slow, and recklessly splendid
their quick marches, their " Boyne "Water," and
Sios agus sios Horn," their " Michael Hoy," and
"Gallant Tipperary." The Irish jigs and planx-
ties are not only the best dancing tunes, but the
finest quick marches in the world. Some of them
would cure a paralytic, and make the marble-
legged prince in the Arabian Nights charge like a
Fag-an-Bealach boy. The hunter joins in every
leap and yelp of the " Fox Chase ; " the historian
hears the moan of the penal days in " Drimindhu,"
and sees the embarkation of the Wild Geese in
" Limerick Lamentation ; " and ask the lover if
his breath do not come and go, with " Savourneen
Deelish" and "Lough Sheelin."
Varied and noble as our music is, tlie P^nglish-
IRISH MUSIC AND POETRY. 2l7
speaking people in Ireland have been gradually
losing their knowledge of it, and a number of
foreign tunes — paltry scented things from Italy,
lively trifles from Scotland, and German opera
cries — are heard in our concerts, and what is
worse, from our Temperance bands. Yet we
never doubted that " The Sight ^Entrancing," or
" The Memory of the Dead," would satisfy even
the most spoiled of our fashionables better than
anything Balfe or Rossini ever wrote ; and, as it
is, " Tow-row-row " is better than poteen to the
teetotalers, wearied with overtures and insulted
by " British Grenadiers " and " Rule Britannia."
A reprint of Moore's Melodies on lower keys,
and at much lower prices, would probably restore
the sentimental music of Ireland to its natural
supremacy. There are in Bunting but two good
sets of words — " The Bonny Cuckoo," and poor
Campbell's " Exile of Erin." These and a few
of Lover's and Mahony's songs can alone compete
with Moore. But, save one or two by Xysaght
and Drennan, almost all the Irish political songs
are too desponding or weak to content a people
marching to independence as proudly as if they
had never been slaves.
The popularity and immense circulation of the
Spirit of the Nation proved that it represented
the hopes and passions of the Irish people. This
looks like vanity; but as a corporation so numerous
as the contributors to that volume cannot blush,
we shall say our say. For instance, who did not
admire " The Memory of the Dead ? " The very
Stamp officers were galvanised by it, and the
Attorney- General was repeatedly urged to sing
218 LITERARY A>'D HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
it for the jury. He refused — he had no music to
sing it to. We pitied and forgave him ; but we
Towed to leave him no such excuse next time.
If these songs were half so good as people called
them, they deserved to flow from a million throats
to as noble music as ever O'Neill or O'Connor
heard.
Some of them were written to, and some freely
combined with, old and suitable airs. These we
resolved to have printed with the music, certain
that, thus, tlie music would be given back to a
people who had been ungratefully neglecting it,
and the words carried into circles where they
were still unknown.
Others of these poems, indeed the best of them,
had no ante-types in our ancient music. New-
music was, therefore, to be sought for them. Not
on their account only was it to be sought. AVe
hoped they would be the means of calling out and
making known a cotemporary music fresh with
the spirit of the time, and rooted in the country.
Since Carolan's death there had been no ad-
dition to the store. Not that we were without
composers, but those we have do not compose
Irish-like music, nor for Ireland. Their rewards
are from a foreign public — their fame, we fear,
will suffer from alienage. Balfe is very sweet,
and Rooke very emphatic, but not one passion or
association in Ireland's heart would answer to
their songs.
Fortunately tliere was one among us (perchance
his example may light us to others) who can smite
upon our harp like a master, and make it sigh
witli Irish memories, and speak sternly with
IRISH MUSIC AND POETRY. 219
Ireland's resolve. To him, to his patriotism, to
his genius, and, we may selfishly add, to his friend-
ship, we owe our ability now to give to Ireland
music fit for " The Memory of the Dead " and
" The Hymn of Freedom," and whatever else was
marked out by popularity for such care as his.
In former editions of the Spirit we had thrown
in carelessly several inferior verses and some
positive trash, and neither paper nor printing
were any great honor to the Dublin press. Every
improvement in the power of the most enterprising
publisher in Ireland has been made, and every
fault, within our reach or his, cured — and whether
as the first publication of original airs, as a
selection of ancient music, or as a specimen of
what the Dublin press can do, in printing, paper,
or cheapness, we urge the public to support this
work of Mr. James Duffy's — and, in a pecuniary
way, it is his altogether.
We had hoped to have added a recommendation
to the first number of this work, besides whatever
attraction may lie in its music, its ballads, or its
mechanical beauty.
An artist, whom we shall not describe or he
would be known, sketched a cover and title for it.
The idea, composition, and drawing of that design,
were such as Flaxman might have been proud of.
It is a monument to bardic power, to patriotism, to
our music and our history. There is at least as much
poetry in it as in the best verses in the work it
illustrates. If it do nothing else, it will show our
Irish artists that refinement and strength, passion
and dignity, are as practicable in Irish as in Ger-
man painting ; and the lesson was needed sorely.
220 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
But if it lead him who drew it to see that our
history and hopes present fit forms to embody the
highest feelings of beauty, wisdom, truth, and
glory in, irrespectiveof party politics, then, indeed,
we shall have served our country when we induced
our gifted friend to condescend to sketching " a
title-page." We need not describe that design
now, as it will appear on the cover of the second
number, and on the title-page of the finished
volume.
BAULAD POETRY OF IRELAND.
How slow we have all been in coming to under-
stand the meaning of Irish Nationality !
Some, dazzled by visions of Pagan splendour,
and the pretensions of pedigree, and won by the
passions and romance of the olden races, conti-
nued to speak in the nineteenth century of an
Irish nation as they might have done in the
tenth. They forgot the English Pale, the Ulster
Settlement, and the filtered colonization of men
and ideas. A Celtic kingdom with the old names
and the old language, without the old quarrels,
was their hope ; and, though they would not re-
peat O'Neill's comment, as he passed Barrett's
castle on his march to Kinsale, and heard it
belonged to a Strongbownian, that " he hated
the Norman churl as if he came yesterday ;" yet
they quietly assumed that the Norman and Saxon
elements would disappear under the Gaelic ge-
BALLAD POETRY OF IRELAND. 221
nius, like the tracks of cavalry under a fresh
crop.
The Nationality of Swift and Grattan was
equally partial. They saw that the Government
and laws of the settlers had extended to the
island — that Donegal and Kerry were in the
Pale ; they heard the English tongue in Dublin,
and London opinions in Dublin — they mistook
Ireland for a colony wronged, and great enough
to be a nation.
A lower form of nationhood was before the
minds of those who saw in it nothing but a par-
liament in College Green. They had not erred
in judging, for they had not tried to estimate the
moral elements and tendencies of the country.
They were as narrow bigots to the omnipotency
of an institution as any Cockney Radical. Could
they, by any accumulation of English stupidity
and Irish laziness, have got possession of an
Irish government, they would soon have dis-
tressed every one by their laws, whom they had
not provoked by their administration, or disgusted
by their dulness.
Far healthier with all its defects, was the idea
of those who saw in Scotland a perfect model —
who longed for a literary and artistic nationality
— who prized the oratory of Grattan and Curran,
the novels of Griffin and Carleton, the pictures
of Maclise and Burton, the ancient music, as
much as any, and far more than most of the po-
litical nationalists, but who regarded political
independence as a dangerous dream. Unknow-
ingly they fostered it. Their writings, their
patronage, their talk was of Ireland ; yet it hardly
222 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
occurred to them that the ideal would flow into
the practical, or that they, with their dread of
agitation, were forwarding a revolution.
At last we are beginning to see what we are,
and what is our destiny. Our duty arises where
our knowledge begins. The elements of Irish
nationality are not only combining — in fact, they
are growing confluent in our minds. Such na--
tionality as merits a good man's help, and wakens
a true man's ambition — such nationality as could
stand as^ainst internal faction and foreio-n in-
trigue, such nationality, as would make the Irish
.hearth happy and the Irish name illustrious, is
becoming understood. It must contain and re-
present the races of Ireland. It must not be
Celtic, it must not be Saxon — it must be Irish.
The Brehon law, and the maxims of Westminster,
the cloudy and lightning genius of the Gael, the
placid strength of the Sasanach, the marshalling
insight of the Norman — a literature which shall
exhibit in combination the passions and idioms
of all, and which shall equally express our mind
in its romantic, its religious, its forensic, and its
practical tendencies — finally, a native govern-
ment, which shall know and rule by the might
and right of all ; yet yield to the arrogance of
none — these are components of such a nationality.
But what have these things to do with the
" Ballad Poetry of Ireland ?" Much every way.
It is the result of the elements we have named —
it is compounded of all ; and never was there a
book fitter to advance that perfect nationality to
which Ireland begins to aspire. That a country
is without national poetry proves its hopeless
BALLAD POETRY OF IRELAND. 223
dulness or its utter provincialism. National
poetry is the very flowering of the soul — the
greatest evidence of its health, the greatest ex-
cellence of its beauty. Its melody is balsam to
the senses. It is the playfellow of childhood,
ripens into the companion of his manhood, con-
soles his age. It presents the most dramatic
events, the largest characters, the most impres-
sive scenes, and the deepest passions in the
language most familiar to us. It shows us
magnified, and ennobles our hearts, our intellects,
our country, and our countrymen — binds us to
the land by its condensed and gem-like history,
to the future by examples and by aspirations. It
solaces us in travel, fires us in action, prompts
our invention, sheds a grace beyond the power of
luxury round our homes, is the recognised envoy
of our minds among all mankind and to all time.
In possessing the powers and elements of a
glorious nationality, we owned the sources of a
national poetry. In the combination and joint
development of the latter, we find a pledge and a
help to that of the former.
This book of Mr. Duffy's,* true as it is to the
wants of the time, is not fortuitous. He has
prefaced his admirable collection by an Intro-
duction, which proves his full consciousness of
the worth of his task, and proves equally his
ability to execute it. In a space too short for
the most impatient to run by he has accurately
investigated the sources of Irish Ballad Poetry,
vividly defined the qualities of each, and laboured
with perfect success to show that, all naturally
* "Ballad Poetry of Ireland"— Library of Ireland, is'^o. II.
224 LITERARY AXD HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
combine towards one great end, as the brooks to
a river, wliicli marches on clear, deep, and single,
though they be wild, and shallow, and turbid,
flowing from unlike regions, and meeting after
countless windings.
Mr. Duffy maps out three main forces which
unequally contribute to an Irish Ballad Poetry.
The^r*^ consists of the Gaelic ballads. True
to the vehemence and tendencies of the Celtic
people, and representing equally their vagueness
and extravagance during slavish times, they, ne-
vertheless, remain locked from the middle and
upper classes generally, and from the peasantry
of more than half Ireland, in an unknown lan-
guage. Many of them have been translated by
rhymers — few, indeed, by poets. The editor of
the volume before us, has brought into one house
nearly all the poetical translations from the Irisli,
and thus finely justifies the ballad literature of
the Gael from its calumnious friend : —
" With a few exceptions, all the translations -vre are
acquainted with, in addition to having abimdance of
minor faidts, are eminently un-Irish. They seem to
have been made by persons to whom one of the languages
was not familiar. Many of them were confessedly ver-
sified from prose translations, and are mere English
poems, without a tinge of the colour or character of the
country. Others, translated by sound Irish scholars,
are bald and hteral ; the writers sometimes wanting a
facihty of versification, sometimes a mastery over the
English language. The Irish scholars of the last century
were too exclusively national to study the foreign tongue
with the care essential to master its metrical resources ;
and the flexible and weiglity language which they had
not learned to wield hung heavily on them,
' Like Saul's plate armour on the shepherd boy, ^
Encumbering, and not arming them.'
BALLAD POETRY OF IRELAND. 225
If it were just to estimate our bardic poetry by the spe-
cimens we have received in this manner, it could not be
rated liighly. But it would manifestly be most unjust.
Noble and toucliing, and often subtle and profound
thoughts, which no translation could entirely spoil, shine
through the poverty of the style, and vindicate the cha-
racter of the originals. Like the costly arms and orna-
ments found in our bogs, they are substantial Avitnesses
of a distinct civilization ; and their credit is no more
diminished by the rubbish in wliich they chance to be
found than the authenticity of the ancient torques and
skians by their embedment in the mud. When the
entire collection of our Irish Percy — James Hardiman —
shall have been given to a public (and soon may such a
one come) that can relish them in their native dress, they
Avill be entitled to undisputed precedence in our national
minstrelsy."
About a dozen of the ballads in the volume, are
derived translated from the Irish. It is only in
this way that Clarence Mangan (a name to wliich
Mr. Duffy does just honour) contributes to the
volume. There are four translations by him
exhibiting eminently his perfect mastery of ver-
sification — his flexibility of passion, from loneliest
grief to the maddest humour. One of these,
" The Lament for O'Neill and O'DonneU," is the
strongest, though it will not be the most popular,
ballad in the work.
Callanan's and Ferguson's translations, if not
so daringly versified, are simpler and more Irish
in idiom.
Most, indeed, of Callanan's successful ballads
are translations, and well entitle him to what he
passionately prays for — a minstrel of free Erin
to come to his grave —
" And plant a wild wreath from the banks of the river,
O'er the heart and the harp that are sleeping for ever."
226 LITERARY AND UISTORICAL ESSAYS.
But, %ve are wrong in speaking of Mr. Fer-
guson's translations in precisely the same way.
His " "Wicklow War Song" is condensed, epi-
grammatic, and crashing as anything we know
of, except the " Pibroch of Donnil Dhu."
The second source is — the common people's
ballads. Most of these " make no pretence to
being true to Ireland, but only being true to the
jmrlieus of Cork and Dublin ;" yet, now and
then, one meets a line burst of passion, and
oftener a racy idiom. The " Drimin Dhu," the
"Blackbird," "Pegiry Bawn," "Irish Molly,"
"Willy Reilly," and tlie "Fair of Turlough-
more," are the specimens given here. Of these
" Willy Reilly" (an old and worthy favourite in
Ulster, it seems, but quite unknown elsev/here,)
is the best ; but it is too long to quote, and we
must limit ourselves to the noble opening verse
of " Turloughmore" : —
• ' Come tell me, dearest mother, Avhat makes my father
stay,
Or Aviiat can be tlie reason that he's so long a-way ?
' Oh ! hold your tongue, my darling son, your tears do
grieve me sore,
I fear he has been murdered in the fair of Turlough-
more.' "
The third and principal source consists of the
Anglo -Irish ballads, written during the last
twenty or thirty years.
Of this highest class, he who contributes most
and, to our mind, best, is Mr. Ferguson. We
have already spoken of his translations — his ori-
ginal ballads are lietter. There is nothing in
tills volume — nothing in "Percy's Relics," or the
BALLAD rOETRT OF IRELAND. 22/
*' Border Minstrelsy," to surpass, perhaps to equal,
"Willy Gilliland." It is as natural in structure as
''Kinmont Willie," as vigorous as " Otterbourne,"
and as complete as "Lochinvar." Leaving his
Irish idiom, we get in the " Forester's Com-
plaint" as harmonious versification, and, in the
*' Forging of the Anchor," as vigorous thoughts,
mounted on bounding words, as anywhere in
English literature.
We must quote some stray verses from ''Willy
Gilliland" :—
" Up in the mountain solitudes, and in a rebel ring,
He has worsliipped God upon the hill, in spite of church
and king ;
And sealed his treason with his blood on Both well bridge
he hath ;
So he must fly his father's land, or he must die the
death ;
For comely Claverhouse has come along with grim
Dalzell,
And his smoking roof tree testifies they've done their
errand well.
" His blithe work done, upon a bank the outlaw rested
now.
And laid the basket from his back, the bonnet from his
brow.
And there, his hand upon the Book, his knee upon the
sod,
He filled the lonely valley with the gladsome word of God ;
And for a persecuted kirk, and for her martyrs dear,
And against a godless church and king he spoke up loud
and clear.
228 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
"'My bonny mare! I've ridden you when Clarer'se
rode behind,
And from the thumbscrew and the boot you bore me like
the ^vind ;
And, wliile I have the life you saved, on your sleek
flank, I swear,
Episcopalian rowel shall never ruffle hair !
Though sword to wield they've left me none — yet Wallace
wight, I wis,
Good battle did, on Irvine side, wi' waur weapon than
this. ' —
" His fishing-rod with both his hands he griped it as he
spoke,
And, where the butt and top were spliced, in pieces twain
he broke ;
The limber top he cast away, with all its gear abroad.
But, grasping the tough hickory butt, with spike of iron
shod,
He groimd the sharp spear to a point ; then puUed his
bonnet down.
And, meditating black revenge, set forth for Carrick
town."
The only ballad equally racy is " The Croppy
Boy," by some anonymous but most promising
writer.
Griffin's " Gille Machree," is of another class —
is perfect — " striking on the heart," as Mr. Duffy
finely says, " like the cry of a woman ;" but his
" Orange and Green," and his " Bridal of Mala-
hide," belong to the same class, and sufler by
comparison with Mr. Ferguson's ballads.
Banim's greatest ballad, the " Soggarth Aroon,"
possesses even deeper tenderness and a more per-
fect Irish idiom than anything in the volum6.
Among the collection are Colonel Blacker's
famous Orange ballad, " Oliver's Advice" ("Put
your trust in God, my boys, but keep your pow-
BALLAD POETRY OF lELAND. 229
tier dry,") and two versions of the " Boyne
Water." The latter and older one, given in the
appendix, is by far the finest, and contains two
unrivalled stanzas : —
* ' Both foot and horse they marched on, intending them
to batter,
But the brave Duke Schomberg he was shot, as he crossed
over tlie water.
When that King William he observed the brave Duke
Schomberg falling.
He rein'd his horse, with a heavy heart, on the Ennis-
killeners calling ;
' What will you do for me, brave boys, see yonder men
retreating,
Our enemies encouraged are — and English drums are
beating ;'
He says, ' my boys, feel no dismay at the losing of one
commander,
For God shall be our King this day, and I'll be general
under.' "
Nor less welcome is the comment : —
* ' Some of the Ulster ballads, of a restricted and pro-
vincial spirit, having less in common with Ireland than
with Scotland ; two or three Orange ballads, altogether
ferocious or foreign in their tendencies (preaching mur-
der, or deifying an alien), will be no less valuable to the
patriot or the poet on this account. They echo faith-
fully the sentiments of a strong, vehement, and indo-
mitable body of Irishmen, who may come to battle for
their country better than they ever battled for preju-
dices or their bigotries. At all events, to know what
they love and believe is a precious knowledge."
On the language of most of the ballads, Mr.
Duffy says : —
"Many of them, and generally the best, a'e just as
essentially Irish as if tliey were written in Gaelic. They
could have groAvn among no other people, perhaps under
230 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
no other sky or scenery. To an Englishman, to any
Irishman educated out of the country, or to a dreamer
asleep to impressions of scenery and character, they
would be achievements as impossible as the Svvedish
Skalds or the Arabian Nights. They are as Irish as
Ossian or Carolan, and unconsciously reproduce the
spirit of those poets better than any translator can hope
to do. Tliey revive and perpetuate the vehement native
songs that gladdened the halls of our princes in their
triumplis, and wailed over their ruined hopes or mur-
dered bodies. In everything but language, and almost in
language, they are identical. That strange tenacity of
the Celtic race wliich makes a descriptien of tlieirliabits
and propensities when Ca3sar was still a Proconsul ir
Gaul, true in essentials of the Irish people to this day,
has enabled them to infuse the ancient and hereditary
spirit of tlie country into all that is genuine of our mo-
dern poetry. And even the language grew almost Irish.
The soul of the country stammering its passionate grief
and hatred in a strange tongue, loved still to utter them
in its old fiimiliar idioms and cadences. Uttering them,
perhaps, with more i)iercing earnestness, because of the
impeiliment ; and winning out of the very difllculty a
grace and a triumph."
How often have we wished for such a compa-
nion as this volume. Worse than meeting un-
clean beds, or drenching mists, or Cockney
opinions, was it to have to take the mountains
with a book of Scottish ballads. They were
glorious to be sure, but they were not ours, they
had not the brown of the climate on their cheek,
they spoke of places far, and ways which are not
our country's ways, and hopes whicli were not
Ireland's, and their tongue was not that we first
made sport and love v»'itli. Yet how mountaineer
without ballads, any more than without a shille-
lagh ? No ; we took the Scots ballads, and felt
our souls rubbing away with envy and alienage
A BALLAD HISTORY OF IRELAND. 231
amid their attentions ; but now, Brighid be
praised ! we can have all Irish thoughts on Irish
hills, true to them as the music, or the wind, or
the sky.
Happy boys! who may grow up with such
ballads in your memories. Happy men ! who
will find your hearts not only dutiful but joyous,
in serving and sacrificing for the country you
thus learned in childhood to love.*
A BALLAD HISTORY OF IRELAND.
Of course the first object of the work we project f
will be to make Irish History familiar to the
minds, pleasant to the ears, dear to the passions,
and powerful over the taste and conduct of the
Irish people in times to come. More events could
be put into a prose history. Exact dates, subtle
plots, minute connexions and motives, rarely
appear in Ballads, and for these ends the worst
prose history is superior to the best Ballad series;
but these are not the highest ends of history. To
hallow or accurse the scenes of glory and honor,
or of shame and sorrow ; to give to the imagina-
tion the arms, and homes, and senates, and battles
of other days ; to rouse, and soften, and strengthen,
f * A corresponding Essay on Songs, written by Davis,
will be found prefixed to Mr. Barry's collection of ' ' The
Songs of Ireland." — Ed.
f It had been proposed in the Nation, by another con-
tributor, to write ballads on the great events in our annals
and collect them into a '-Ballad History of Ireland." Ed.
232 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
and enlarge us with the passions of great periods ;
to lead us into love of self-denial, of justice, of
beauty, of valour, of generous life and proud death ;
and to set up in our souls the memory of great
men, who shall then be as models and judges of
our actions — these are the highest duties of history,
and these are best taught by a Ballad History.
A Ballad History is welcome to childhood, from
its rhymes, its high colouring, and its aptness to
memory. As we grow into boyhood, the violent
passions, the vague hopes, the romantic sorrow of
patriot ballads are in tune with our fitful and
luxuriant feelings. In manhood we prize the
condensed narrative, the grave firmness, the
critical art, and the political sway of ballads.
And in old age they are doubly dear ; the com-
panions and reminders of our life, the toys and
teachers of our children and grandchildren. Every
generation finds its account in them. They pass
from mouth to mouth like salutations ; and even
the minds which lose their words are under their
influence, as one can recall the starry heavens
who cannot revive the form of a single constella-
tion.
In olden times all ballads were made to music,
and the minstrel sang them to his harp or screamed
them in recitative. Thus they reached farther,
w^ere welcomer guests in feast and camp, and were
better preserved. We shall have more to say on
this in speaking of our proposed song collection.
Printing so multiplies copies of ballads, and inter-
course is so general, that there is less need of this
adaptation to music now. Moreover, it may be
disjjuted wlietlier the dramatic eflfeet in the more
A BALLAD HISTORY OF IRELAND. 233
solemn ballads is not injured by lyrical forms.
In such streaming exhortations and laments as
we find in the Greek choruses and in the adjura-
tions and caoines of the Irish, the breaks and
parallel repetitions of a song might lower the
passion. Were we free to do so, we could point
out instances in the Spirit of the Nation in which
the rejection of song-forms seems to have been
essential to the awfulness of the occasion.
In pure narratives, and in the gayer and more
slendid, though less stern ballads, the song forms,
and adaptation to music are clear gains.
In the Scotch ballads this is usual, in the English
rare. We look in vain through Southey's admi-
rable ballads — "Mary the Maid of the Inn,"
"Jaspar," "Inchkape Rock," "Bishop Hatto,"
" King Henry V. and the Hermit of Dreux," —
for either burden, chorus, or adaptation, to music.
In the " Battle of Blenheim " there is, however,
an occasional burden line ; and in the smashing
" March to Moscow " there is a great chorussing
about —
*' Morbleu ! Parbleu !
What a pleasant excursion to Moscow."
Coleridge has some skilful repetitions, and ex-
quisite versification, in his " Ancient Mariner,"
" Genevieve," " Alice du Clos," but no where a
systematic burden. Campbell has no burdens in
his finest lyric ballads, though the subjects were
fitted for them. The burden of the " Exile of
Erin " belongs very doubtfully to him.
Macaulay's best ballad, " The Battle of Ivry,"
is greatly aided by the even burden line ; but he
has not repeated the experiment, though he, too>
234 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
makes much use of repeating lines in his Roman
Lays and other ballads.
While, then, we counsel burdens in Historical
Ballads, we would recognise excepted cases where
they may be injurious, and treat them as in no
case essential to perfect ballad success. In songs,
we would almost always insist either on a chorus
verse, or a burden of some sort. A burden need
not be at the end of the verse ; but may, with
quite equal success, be at tlie beginning or in the
body of it, as may be seen in the Scotch Ballads,
and in some of these in the Spirit of the Nation.
The old Scotch and English ballads, and Lock-
hart's translations from the Spanish, are mostly
composed in one metre, though written down in
either of two ways. Macaulay's Koman Lays and
" Ivry " are in this metre. Take an example from
the last : —
"Press where ye see my Avhite plume shine, amid the
ranks of war.
And be your Oriflamme to-day the helmet of Navarre."
In the old ballads this would be printed in four
lines, of eight syllables and six alternately, and
rhyming only alternately — thus : —
' ' Press where ye see my white plume shine,
Amid the ranks of war,
And be your Oriflanmie to-day
The helmet of Navarre."
So Macaulay himself prints this metre in some
of his Roman Lays.
But the student should rather avoid than seek
this metre. The uniform old beat of eight and
six is apt to fall monotonously on the ear, and
some of the most startling effects are lost in it.
A BALLAD IIISTOIIY OF IRELAND. 235
In the Spirit of the Nation the student will find
many other ballad metres. Campbell's metres,
though new and glorious things, are terrible traps
to imitation, and should be warily used. The
German ballads, and still more, Mr. Mangan's
translations of them, contain great variety of new
and safe, though difficult metres. Next in fre-
quency to the fourteen syllable line is that in
eleven syllables, such as " Mary Ambree," and
" Lochinvar ; " and for a rolling brave ballad 'tis
a fine metre. The metre of fifteen syllables, with
doable rhymes (or accents) in the middle, and
that of tliirteen, with double rhymes at the end,
is tolerably frequent, and the metre used by Father
Prout, in his noble translation of " Duke
d'Alencon " is admirable, and easier than it seems.
By the way, what a grand burden runs through
that ballad —
" Fools! to l)elieve the sword could give to the children
of the Rhine,
Our GaUic fields — the land that yields tlie Olive and the
Vine ! "
The syllables are as in the common metre, but
it has thrice the rhymes.
We liave seen great materials wasted in a
struggle witli acrotchetty metre; tlierefore, though
we counsel the invention of metres, we would add,
that unless a metre come out racily and appro-
priately in tlie first couple of verses, it should be
abandoned, and some of these easily marked metres
taken u[).
A historical ballad will commonly be narrative
in its form but not necessarily so. A liymn of
exultation — a call to a council, an army, or a
236 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
people — a prophecy — a lament— or a dramatic scene
(as in Lochiel), may give as much of event,
costume, character, and even scenery, as a mere
narration. The varieties of form are infinite, and
it argues lack of force in a writer to keep always
to mere narration, though when exact events are
to be told, that may be the best mode.
One of the essential qualities of a good historical
ballad is truth. To pervert history — to violate
nature, in order to make a fine clatter, has been
the aim in too many of the ballads sent us. He
who goes to write a historical ballad should master
the main facts of the time, and state them truly.
It may be well for him perhaps either not to study
or to half-forget minute circumstances until after
his ballad is drafted out, lest he write a chronicle,
not a ballad ; but he will do well, ere he suffers
it to leave his study, to re-consider the facts of
the time, or man, or act of which he writes, and
see if he cannot add force to his statements, an
antique grace to his phrases, and colour to his
language.
Truth and appropriateness in ballads require
great knowledge and taste.
To write an Irish historical ballad, one should
know the events which he would describe, and
know them not merely from an isolated study of
his subject, but from old familiarity, which shall
have associated them with his tastes and passions,
and connected them with other parts of history.
How miserable a thing is to put forward a piece
of vehement declamation and vague description,
which might be uttered of any event, or by the
man of any time, as a historical ballad. We have
A BALLAD HISTOKY OF IRELAND. 237
had battle ballads sent us that would be as charac-
teristic of Marathon or Waterloo as of Clontarf —
laments that might have been uttered by a German
or a Hindu — and romances equally true to love
all the world over.
Such historical study extends not merely to the
events. A ballad writer should try to find the
voice, colour, stature, passions, and peculiar
faculties of his hero — the arms, furniture, and
dress of the congress, or the champions, or the
troops, he tells of — the rites wherewith the youth
were married — the dead interred, and God wor-
shipped ; and the architecture — previous history
and pursuits (and, therefore, probable ideas and
phrases) of the men he describes.
Many of these things he will get in books.
He should shun compilations, and take up original
journals, letters, state papers, statutes, and cotem-
porary fictions, and narratives, as much as possible.
Let him not much mind Leland or Curry (after
he has run over them), but work like fury at the
Archi3eological Society's books — at Harris's Hi-
bernica, at Lodge's Desiderata Curiosa Hibernica,
at Strafford's Pacata, Spencer's View, Giraldus's
Narrative, Fynes Moryson's Itinerary, the Or-
mond Papers, the State Papers of Henry the
Eighth, Strafford's and Cromwell's and Kinuncini's
Letters, and the correspondence and journals,
from Donald O'Neil's letter to the Pope down to
Wolfe Tone's glorious memoirs.
In the songs, and even their names, many a
fine hint can be got ; and he is not likely to be a
perfect Balladist of Ireland who has not felt to
o 3
238 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
tears and laughter the deathless passions of Irish
music.
We have condemned compilations ; but the
ballad student may well labour at Ware's Anti-
quities. He will find, in the History of British
Costume published by the Useful Knowledge
Society and in the illustrated work now in pro-
gress, called Old England, but, beyond all other
books, in the historical works of Thierry, most
valuable materials. Nothing — not even the
Border Minstrelsy, Percy's Relics, the Jacobite
Ballads, or the Archceological Tracts — can be of
such service as a repeated study of The Norman
Conquest, The Ten Years' Study, and The
Merrovingian Times of Augustine Thierry.
We know he has rashly stated some events on
insufficient authority, and drawn conclusions
beyond the warrant of his premises ; but there is
more deep dramatic skill, more picturesque and
coloured scenery, more distinct and characteristic
grouping, and more lively faith to the look and
spirit of the men and times and feelings of which
lie writes, in Thierry, than in any other historian
that ever lived. Pie has almost an intuition in
favor of liberty, and his vindication of the " men
of '98 " out of the slanderous pages of Musgrave
is a miracle of historical skill and depth of judg-
ment.
In the Irish Academy in Dublin there is a
collection (now arranged and rapidly increasing)
of ancient arms and utensils. Private collections
exist in many provincial towns, especially in
Ulster. Indeed, we know an Orange painter in
A BALLAD KISToRY OF IRELAND. 239
a nortliern village who lias a finer collection of
Irish antiquitiesthan all the Munster cities put
together. Accurate observation of, and discussion
on, such collections, will be of vast service to a
writer of Historical Ballads.
Topography is also essential to a ballad, or to
any Historian. This is not only necessary to
save a writer from such a gross blunder as we
met the other day in AYharton's Ballad, called
" The Grave of King Arthur," where he talks of
" the steeps of rough Kildare," but to give ac-
curacy and force to both general references and
local description.
Ireland must be known to her Ballad Historians,
not by flat, but by shaded maps, and topographi-
cal and scenic descriptions ; not by maps of to-day
only, but by maps (sucli as Ortelius and the maps
in the State Papers) of Ireland in time past ; and
finally, it must be known by the eye. A man
who has not raced on our hills, panted on our
mountains, waded our rivers in drought and flood,
pierced our passes, skirted our coast, noted our
old towns, and learned the shape and colour of
ground and tree, and sky, is not master of all a
Balladist's art. Scott knew Scotland thus, and,
moreover, he seems never to have laid a scene in
a place that he had not studied closely and alone .
What we have heretofore advised relates to^the
Structure, Truth, and Colouring of Ballads ; but
tiiere is sometliing more needed to raise a ballad
above the beautiful — it must have Force. Strong
passions, daring invention, vivid sympathy for
great acts — these are the result of one's Avhole Jife
and nature. Into the temper and training of
240 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
*' A Poet," we do not now presume to speak. Few
have spoken wisely of them. Emerson, in his
recent essay, has spoken like an angel on the
mission of " The Poet." Ambition for pure powder
(not applause) ; passionate sympathy with the
good, and strong, and beautiful ; insight into na-
ture, and such loving mastery over its secrets as
a husband hath over a wife's mind, are the surest
tests of one " called " by destiny to tell to men
the past, present, and future, in words so perfect
that generations shall feel and remember.
We merely meant to give some " Hints on the
Properties of Historical Ballads " — they will be
idle save to him who has the mind of a Poet.
REPEAL HEADING ROOMS. 241
REPEAL READING ROOMS.
Knowledge and organisation must set Ireland
free, and make her prosperous. If the People
be not wise and manageable, they cannot gain
liberty but by accident, nor use it to their ser-
vice. An ignorant and turbulent race may break
away from provincialism, but will soon relapse
beneath a cunning, skilful, and unscrupulous
neighbour. England is the one — Ireland must
not be the other.
If she is to be self-freed — if she is not to be
retaken slave, she must acquire all the faculties
possessed by her enemy, without the vices of that
foe. We have to defeat an old and compact go-
vernment. We must acquire the perfect struc-
ture of a nation. We have to resist genius, skill,
and immense resources ; we must have wisdom,
knowledge, and ceaseless industry.
We want the advisers of the People never for
a day to forget these facts, that of persons above
five years old, there are 829,000 females and
580,000 males who can only read, but cannot
write ; and that above the same age, there are
2,142,000 females and 1,623,000 males who can
neither read nor write. Let them remember,
too, that the arts of design do not exist here —
that the leading economical difference between
England and Ireland is the " industrial ignorance
of the latter" — that we have little military or
242 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
naval instruction — and that our literature is only
beginning to bud.
We are not afraid for all tliese things, nor do
we wish to muffle our eyes against them. "We
want a brave, modest, laborious, and instructed
People. It is deep pleasure to serve, and glory
to lead such a People. It is still deeper pleasure
and honour to head a race full of virtue and in-
dustry, and a thirst for knowledge. But for a
SAvaggering People, who shout for him who flat-
ters them, and turn from tliose who would lead
by plain, manful truth — who shall save them ?
The Repeal Association has fronted the diffi-
culty. You, it tells the People, are not educated
nor organised as you should be. Your oppressor
has millions, cunning in all arts and manufac-
tures, for your thousands. Her literature is
famous among men — your's still to be created.
rier organisation embraces everything, from the
machinery for moving an empire to that of go-
verning a parish. You, too, must learn arts,
and literature, and self-government, if you would
repel and surpass her.
The generation that will cover Ireland 'in
twenty years will have the instruction you want,
but you must not surrender your claim to know-
ledge and liberty. You, too, must go to school
and learn. You must learn to obey. You must
learn from each other, and obey the highest wis-
dom that is among you all.
The Repeal Association has resolved that it is
expedient to establish Reading-rooms in the Pa-
rishes of Ireland, and lias appointed a Committee
to carry out that resolution.
REPEAL IlEADINr. IIOOMS. 243
This is II <2;reat iindertukino^. A meetinsr, a
gossip, or eloquent circular, will not accomplish
it. It will take months of labour from strong
minds, and large sums of money, to establish
such a system ; and only by corresponding zeal
on the People's part can it be spread among
them all.
The Repeal Association has now constituted
itself Schoolmaster of the People of Ireland, and
must be prepared to carry out its pretension e
The People, knowing the attempt, must sustain
it with increased funds and zeal.
A Reading-room Committee must not stop its
preliminary labours till there is a Reading-room
in every village ; and then it will fill their hands
and draw largely on their funds to make 'them
Reading-rooms, and not idling rooms. Their
first duty will be, of course, to ascertain what
Reading-rooms exist — how each of them is sup-
ported — what books, maps, &c., it contains — at
what hours it is open — and how it is attended.
For each separate School — we beg pardon, Read-
ing-room — the Committee should make separate
arrangements. One will want increased space,
another will want industrial books, another maps,
another political and statistical tracts.
To the districts where the Irish language is
spoken, they should send a purely Irish Gram-
mar and an Anglo-Irish Grammar and Dic-
tionary for each room, to be followed by other
works containing general information, as well as
peculiarly Irish knowledge, in Irish. Indeed,
we doubt if the Association can carry out tlie
plan — which they began by sending down Dr.
244 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
MacHale's translations — without establishing a
newspaper, partly in English and partly in Irish,
like the mixed papers of Switzerland, New Or-
leans, and Hungary.
To come back, however, to the working of
such a Committee. Some of its members should
attend from day to day to correspond witii the
Repeal Inspectors, and the Protestant and Ca-
tholic Clergy, who may consent to act as patrons
of these Rooms. It will be most desirable that each
Committee have an agent in Dublin, who will
receive and forward gratis all books for it. The
cost of postage would absorb the price of a
library.
It seems to us to be almost necessary to have-
persons sent round the country from time to time
to organize these Reading Committees — to lix,
from inspection, the amount of help which the
Association should give to the rent of each room,
and to stimulate the People to fresh exertion.
This, of course, could be united with a Repeal
missionary system, on the same plan as the
*' Anti-Corn Law League" missions.
Help should be given by the Association in
some proportion to the local subscriptions (say a
third of them), or the Association might under-
take to supply a certain amount of books upon
proof of a local subscription large enough, and
sufficiently secured, for the wants of the neigh-
bourhood.
A catalogue of the books sent to each Room
should be always accessible in the Corn Ex-
change.
Of course, in sending books a regular system
REPEAL READING ROOMS. 245
should be adopted. The Ordnance index map of
the county, the townland map of the neighbour-
hood, a map of Ireland, and maps of the five
great sections of the globe (Asia, America, Aus-
tralia, Europe, and Africa), should be in every
Koom. Of course, the Keports of the Associa-
tion will be there ; and they, we trust, will soon
be a perfect manual of the industrial statistics,
topography, history, and county, municipal, and
general institutions of Ireland. Much has been
done, and the Parliamentary Committee consists
of men who are able and willing to carry out
their work. What other works, fitted to culti-
vate the judgment or taste of the People, may be
sent, must depend on the exertions of the parishes
and the faithfulness of the Committee.
Were such a Room in every village, you would
soon have a knot connected with it of young men
who had abjured cards, tobacco, dissipation, and
more fatal laziness, and were trying to learn
each some science, or art, or accomplishment —
anything that best pleased them, from mathe-
matics to music. We shall feel unspeakable sor-
row if, from the negligence of the Committee or
the dulness or want of spirit in our country
towns, this great opportunity pass away.
246 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
IXPLUENCES OF EDUCATION.
" Educate, that vou nmy be free." Wg are
most anxious to get the quiet, strong-minded
People who are scattered through the country to
see the force of this great truth ; and we therefore
ask them to listen soberly to us for a few mi-
nutes, and wlicn they have done, to think and
talk again and again over what we say.
If Ireland had all the elements of a nation, she
might, and surely would, at once assume the
forms of one, and proclaim lier independence.
AVherein does she now diifer from Prussia ? She
has a strong and compact territory, girt by tlie
sea ; Prussia's lands are open and flat, and flung
loosely through Europe, without mountain or
river, breed, or tongue, to boimd tliem. Ireland
has a military population equal to the recruitment
of, and a produce able to pay a first-rate army.
Her harbours, her soil, and her fisheries, are not
surpassed in Europe.
Wherein, we ask again, does Ireland now dif-
fer from Prussia ? Wliy can Prussia wave her
flag among the proudest in Europe, while Ire-
land is a farm ?
It is not in the name of a kingdom, nor in the
formalities of independence. We could assume
them to-morrow — we could assume them with
INFLUENCES OF EDUCATION. 24Y
better warrants from history and nature than
Prussia holds ; but the result of such assumption
would perchance be a miserable defeat.
The difference is in Knowledge. Were the
offices of Prussia abolished to-morrow — her col-
leges and schools levelled — her troops disarmed
and disbanded, she would within six months re-
gain her whole civil and military institutions.
Ireland has been struggling for years, and may
have to struggle many more, to acquire liberty to
form institutions.
Whence is the difference ? Knowledge !
The Prussians could, at a week's notice, have
their central offices at full work in any village in
the kingdom, so exactly known are their statistics,
and so general is official skill. Minds make ad-
ministration — all the desks, and legers, and pow-
ers of Downing-street or the Castle would be
handed in vain to the ignorants of any un-
taught district in Ireland. The Prussians could
open their collegiate classes and their professional
and elementary schools as fast as the order
therefor, from any authority recognized by the
People, reached town after town — we can hardly
in ten years get a few schools open for our peo-
ple, craving for knowledge as they are. The
Prussians could re-arm their glorious militia in
a month, and re-organize it in three days ; for
the mechanical arts are very generally known,
military science is familiar to most of the weal-
thier men, discipline and a soldier's skill are
universal. If we had been offered arms to de-
fend Ireland by Lord Heytesbury, as the Vo-
248 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
lunteers were by Lord Buckinghamshire, we
would have had to seek for officers and drill-
serjeanls — though probably we could more ra-
pidly advance in arms than anything else, from
the military taste and aptness for war of the
Irish People.
"Would it not be better for us to be like the
Prussians than as we are — better to have reli-
gious squabbles unknown, education universal,
the People fed, and clad, and housed, and inde-
pendent, as becomes men ; the army patriotic
and strong ; tlie public offices ably administered ;
the nation honoured and powerful ? Are not
these to be desired and souglit by Protestant
and Catholic ? Are not these things to he done,
if we are good and brave men ? And is it not
plain, from what we have said, that the rea-
son for our not being all that Prussia is, and
something more, is ignorance — want of civil and
military and general knowledge amongst all
classes ?
This ignorance has not been our fault, but our
misfortune. It was the interest of our ruler to
keep us ignorant, that we might be weak : and
she did so — first, by laws prohibiting education ;
then, by refusing any provision for it ; next, by
perverting it into an engine of bigotry ; and
now, by giving it in a stunted, partial, anti-
national way. Practice is the great teacher,
and the possession of independence is the na-
tural and best way for a People to learn all
tliat pertains to freedom and hap})iness. Our
greatest voluntary efforts, aided by the amplest
INFLUENCES OF EDUCATION. 249
provincial institutions, would teach us less in
a century than we would learn in five years of
Liberty.
In insisting on education, we do not argue
against the value of immediate independence.
That would be our best teacher. An Irish Go-
vernment and a national ambition would be to
our minds as soft rains and rich sun to a growing
crop. But we insist on education for the Peo-
ple, whether they get it from the Government
or give it to themselves, as a round-about, and,
yet, the only means of getting strength enough
to gain freedom.
Do our readers understand this ? Is what we
have said clear to you, reader! — whether you
are a shopkeeper or a lawyer, a farmer or a doc-
tor ? If not, read it over again, for it is your
own fault if it be not clear. If you now know
our meaning, you must feel that it is your duty
to your family and to yourself, to your country
and to God, to act upon it, to go and remove
some of that ignorance which makes you and
your neighbours weak, and therefore makes
Ireland a poor province.
All of us have much to learn, but some of us
have much to teach.
To those, who, from superior energy and abi-
lity, can teach the People, we now address our-
selves.
We have often before, and shall often again
repeat, that the majority of our population can
neither read nor write, and therefore that from
the small minority must come those fitted to be
250 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
of any civil or military use beyond the lowest
rank. The People may be and are honest, brave,
and intelligent ; but a man could as well dig with
his hands, as govern, or teach, or lead, without
the elements of Knowledge.
This, however, is a defect which time and
the National Schools must cure ; and the duty
of the class to which we speak is to urge the
establislnnent of such Schools, the attendance of
the children at them, and occasionally to observe
and report, either directly or through the press,
whether the admirable rules of the Board are at-
tended to. In most cases, too, the expenditure
of a pound note and a little time and advice
would give tlie children of a school that instruc-
tion in national history and in statistics so shame-
fully omitted by the Board. Header I will you
do this?
Then, of the three hundred Repeal Reading-
rooms we know that some, and fear that many
are ill-managed, have few or no books, and are
mere gossiping-rooms. Such a room is useless ;
such a room is a disgrace to its members and
their educated neighbours. The expense having
been gone to of getting a room, it only remains
for tlie members to establish fixed rules, and they
will be supplied with the Association Reports
(political reading enough for them), and it will
be the plain duty of the Repeal Wardens to bring
to such a room the newspapers supplied by the
Association. If such a body continue and give
proofs of being in earnest, the Repeal Associa-
tion will aid it by gifts of books, maps, v!i;c., and
INFI.UENCES OF EDUCATION. 251
thus a library, the centre of knowledge and nur-
sery of useful and strong minds, will be made in
that district. So miserably off is tlie country for
books, that we have it before us, on some autho-
rity, that there are ten counties in Ireland jvith-
out a single hooliseller in them. "We blush for
the fact; it is a disgrace to us; but Ave must
have no lying nor flinching. There is the hard
fact ; let us face it like men who are able for a
difficulty — not as children putting their heads
under the clothes when there is danger. Reader !
cannot you do something to remedy tliis great,
this disabling misery of Ireland ? Will not you
now try to get up a Repeal Reading-room, and,
when one is established, get for it good rules,
books from the Association, and make it a centre
of thought and power?
These are but some of the ways in which such
service can be done by the more, for the less,
educated. They have other duties, often pointed
out by us. They can sustain and advance the
different societies for promoting agriculture, ma-
nufactures, art, and literature, in Dublin and
the country. They can set on foot, and guide
the establishment of Temperance Bands and
Mechanics' Institutes, and Mutual Instruction
Societies. They can give advice and facilities
for improvement to young men of promise ; and
they can make their circles studious, refined, and
ambitious, instead of being, like too many in
Ireland — ignorant, coarse, or lazy. The cheap-
ness of books is now such, that^even Irish po-
252 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS.
verty is no excuse for Irish ignorance — -that
ignorance which prostrates us before England.
"We must help ourselves, and therefore we must
educate ourselves.
THE END.
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