t,z* 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 LAYS 
 
 OF 
 
 KILLARNEY LAKES.
 
 LAYS 
 
 OF 
 
 KILLAENET LAKES, 
 
 AND 
 
 OCCASIONAL POEMS. 
 
 BY 
 
 THOMAS GALLWEY, AM. 
 
 With other ministrations thou, Nature ! 
 Healest thy wandering and distempered child : 
 Thou pourest on him thy soft influences, 
 Thy sunny hues, fair forms, and breathing sweets ; 
 Thy melodies of woods and winds and waters! 
 
 Coleridge's "Remorse.'' 
 
 DUBLIN : 
 HODGES, FOSTER & CO., GRAFTON STREET, 
 
 PUBLISHERS TO THE UNIVERSITY. 
 1 871.
 
 PR 
 
 4no% 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Frontispiece, — Innisf alien 
 Dedication 
 
 Page. 
 
 i 
 
 ix 
 
 An Evening Ramble by the Lakes of Killarney, 
 
 comprising — 
 Innisf alien 
 Cuddy's Sleep 
 O'Donoghue's White Horse 
 The Flesk River 
 The Old Weir Bridge 
 The Eagle's Nest 
 The Mangerton Hymn 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 .. 
 
 8 
 
 
 .. 
 
 12 
 
 
 .. 
 
 16 
 
 
 
 . 21 
 
 
 
 25 
 
 
 
 . 29 
 
 Sonnets, on — 
 
 The Pap Mountains 
 Glean-na-Coppull .. 
 
 868827 
 
 33
 
 VI 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 
 Paj e, 
 
 Bcnaunmorc 
 
 35 
 
 The Killarney Echo 
 
 36 
 
 Carari-Tual 
 
 37 
 
 Caher-con-Eigh 
 
 38 
 
 Dunlo Castle 
 
 39 
 
 Aghadoe 
 
 40 
 
 Irrelagli Abbey 
 
 41 
 
 Derryiiane Abbey 
 
 42 
 
 Roman Catholic Cathedral, . 
 
 Killarney ... 43 
 
 St. Anne's, Killarney 
 
 44 
 
 St. Joseph's, Killarney 
 
 45' 
 
 Lunatic Asylum . . . 
 
 46 
 
 Sister Agnes 
 
 47 
 
 Convents 
 
 48 
 
 Association of Ideas 
 
 ... 49 
 
 Life and Death 
 
 50 
 
 The Catastrophe ... 
 
 51 
 
 France 
 
 ... 52 
 
 Victor Emmanuel ... 
 
 53 
 
 To His Royal Highness Prin 
 
 ce Arthur ... 54 
 
 Occasional Pieces. 
 
 
 To the Hon. Margaret Brow 
 
 Tie ... .. 55
 
 CONTENTS. Vll 
 
 Page. 
 Foundation Stone of Derrycunnihy Chapel ... 57 
 Killarney Boatmen's Song, (Lady Spencer on 
 
 the Lake) ... ... ... 59 
 
 Long Ago 
 A True Story 
 
 Marathon 
 
 Lines on Innisfallen 
 The Lament of Dunquin 
 Russia's Circular ... 
 
 62 
 64 
 66 
 67 
 69 
 71 
 
 Rhymes on the Land, comprising — 
 
 Lines to John Bright, Esq. ... ... ... 73 
 
 Awake ! the long and weary night ... ... 75 
 
 Oh ! mock not thus those grand decrees ... 77 
 
 When shall the solid land be free ... ... 74 
 
 Oh England, freedom's fatherland ... ... 81 
 
 When chiefs of old unsheathed the sword ... 84 
 
 Address to the Irish Members ... • . 86 
 
 From the Ladies of Killarney to the Work-house 
 
 children ... ... • • ••- 89 
 
 Instructions for a Christmas Tree by the Killarney 
 
 P. L. G 92
 
 viii CONTENTS. 
 
 Page. 
 
 Aqua Vitas ... ... ... . . ..05 
 
 An Incident of the War ... ... ... 96 
 
 Woman's rights ... .. ... ... 98 
 
 Alma Mater ... ... ... 101 
 
 Notes. ... ... ... ... ... 103
 
 jjebkafe. 
 
 To thee ! light of my home, my heart, my life, 
 I bring the offspring of some careless hours, 
 Not cradled in sweet fancy's fairy bowers, 
 But in the sad resorts of care and strife. 
 These gifts to thee I bring, my own dear wife ! 
 For they shall be to thee — like fresh-culled flowers 
 Still redolent of May and vernal showers — 
 With mutual thoughts and happy memories rife. 
 The many-pointed, many- wooded range 
 Of mountains, circling in all forms of grace 
 Round scenes, where lake and isle reflect each change 
 That courses through the sky with driving chase — 
 These in my mind have made a dwelling place ; 
 What are they all without thy loved familiar face ?
 
 gtn ^Bbtnht0 gamble Ijd % Dalits of 
 JtUIhmicg. 
 
 As once with closing day we strayed, 
 
 My love and I, beside Loch-lein * 
 Her gentle hand in mine she laid, 
 
 And brought back vanished scenes again, 
 In words that breathed so soft a tone, 
 
 They seemed but passing fancies wrought 
 By the mute promptings of my own 
 
 Unconscious melancholy thought. 
 
 • The antient and appropriate name of Killarne)' Lakes. 
 So called in the Annals of Innisfallen, the Annals of the 
 Four Masters, and every other compilation not modern. 
 The name is derived from a small stream running down 
 Tore mountain. It is pronounced Lough-lane. (Note 21.) 
 
 B
 
 2 AN EVENING RAMBLE 
 
 Still evening o'er the landscape hung, 
 
 Fringed by the light of parting day ; 
 The rising moon of harvest flung 
 
 The Castle's shadow o'er the bay ; 
 The loveliest isle of all the isles 
 
 That gem-like deck Loch-lein's fair breast, 
 Eeflected still the lingering smiles, 
 
 The farewell glances from the West. 
 
 " Tell me the tale of yon dear isle, 
 
 Where we were wont to charm the hours 
 In musing o'er each ruined pile, 
 
 And roaming through its hawthorn bower 
 So spoke her low sweet voice, — and 1, 
 
 Who would the happy dream prolong 
 Of those first days of wedded joy, 
 
 Thus answer made in careless song.
 
 BY THE LAKES OF KILLARNEY. 
 
 giraisfallcK. a). 
 
 In the old, old days of Erin, when her life was 
 in its prime, 
 
 (For the youngest days of nations are the eldest 
 born of time)* 
 
 When the forest, and the covert for the wild- 
 deer, reached the line, 
 
 Where the mountains' lofty summits into 
 liquid light refine, 
 
 Innisf alien rested queen-like on her marble- 
 founded throne, 
 
 Crowned with light from emerald bowers, 
 cinctured by her crystal zone. 
 
 There, whilst over half the nations feebly glim- 
 mered twilight wan, 
 
 * Antiquitas SEeculi juventus niundi. 
 
 B 2
 
 AN EVENING RAMBLE 
 
 Shone, matured to noontide brilliance, light — 
 
 the quickening life of man. 
 There too workers, meek and holy, bending 
 
 o'er the deathless page, 
 Garnered up, for future story, fruit from each 
 
 successive age.* 
 
 Vain, alas ! the hope, the promise, — soon, too 
 
 soon, the vernal bloom, 
 Rudely dashed by soiling fingers, sought the 
 
 dark and silent tomb. 
 Brief, loved isle, thy tide of glory ! ebbing once, 
 
 it ceased to flow; 
 Crumbling pile, and mouldering ruin, mark 
 
 thy thousand years of woe. 
 Still men say that phantom-spirits haunt thy 
 
 crystal-cinctured shore, 
 
 * The Annals of Innisfallen.
 
 BY THE LAKES OF KILLARNEY. 
 
 Midnight strains of music mingling with the 
 distant torrent's roar. 
 
 I remember ! I remember ! what in after days 
 
 befel, 
 When the hunter searched the mountains, and 
 
 the bugle note the dell, 
 Gaily flew the streaming pennons, fleets of 
 
 barges thronged the bay, 
 And ten thousand eager faces marked the 
 
 coming of the prey. 
 Here he comes ! the antlered monarch, with an 
 
 eve and front sublime, 
 Like a herald bearing tidings from men of the 
 
 old, old time. 
 Hark the cry ! he shall not perish ! through 
 
 his w 7 ild woods let him roam ! 
 And Loch-lein ! thy bounding waters bear 
 
 the monarch to his home.
 
 b AN EVENING RAMBLE 
 
 Now away ! away ! returning, shoots each 
 
 homeward-veering skiff, 
 As the bugle sounds the signal from the chapel 
 
 on the cliff, 
 And the queenly island echoes mirth and music 
 
 o'er the wave, 
 From the gentle and the simple, from the 
 
 lovely and the brave. 
 But 'tis gone, the fairy vision which my 
 
 wayward fancy saw ; 
 With changed times we too are changing, 'tis 
 
 a universal law ; 
 Save alone the peerless island, with its beauty 
 
 ever new, 
 Yet old as the circling waters, or the heaven's 
 
 o'erarching blue.
 
 BY THE LAKES OF KILLARNEY. 
 
 II. 
 
 " Oh ! turn not yet from yonder shore, 
 
 While peals far off the vesper chime, 
 But sins me from the island lore, 
 
 Some legend of the old, old time." 
 So spoke the same soft voice again, 
 
 And I, the thrall of her sweet will, 
 Searched through the fancies of my brain, 
 
 And found a chord responsive still.
 
 8 AN EVENING RAMBLE 
 
 ftbe £tgenb of $zthtt Cobbg. (2). 
 
 O'er the starry vault of Heaven streams the 
 
 moonbeam's silver flood, 
 Tracing forth in softest outline, mountain, 
 
 island, lake, and wood, 
 And the castle grandly looming, with its 
 
 barbicon and fosse — ■ 
 (Ah ! more potent now in ruin, ivy-mantled 
 
 tower of Rosse). 
 
 O'er the waters sweetly floating, comes the 
 
 midnight call to prayer, 
 Raising human hearts to Heaven, drawing 
 
 spirits down from air ; 
 Interchange of earth with Heaven, passing as 
 
 the passing bell,
 
 BY THE LAKES OF KILLARNEY. V 
 
 But around yon isle of beauty, casting then a 
 living spell. 
 
 For, responsive to the summons, see a light 
 
 skiff passes o'er, 
 From its moorings by the mainland, Innisfallen ! 
 
 to thy shore. 
 Wan and wasted is its tenant, though in sooth 
 
 he little deems 
 That he comes back from long tarrying in the 
 
 shadow-land of dreams. 
 
 Him no eye of kindness welcomes, but mute 
 
 records of the dead, 
 And the stare from wondering faces meet his 
 
 troubled gaze instead. 
 Lo ! the sappling by him tended stands aloft a 
 
 giant oak ; 
 And the tree wherein he sheltered long has 
 
 felt the woodman's stroke.
 
 10 AN EVENING RAMBLE 
 
 Altered -words and foreign accents bring no 
 greeting to his ears, 
 
 All is changed save he the changeless, in the 
 long, long lapse of years. 
 
 Like a mass of rock primeval breaking through 
 a newer zone, 
 
 He among, but still not of them, stands un- 
 friended and alone. 
 
 Soon he feels his spirit ebbing from its 
 
 tenement of clay, 
 Dust to dust collapsing quickly ; but the soul 
 
 pursues its way, 
 Moving onward to the mansions never changing, 
 
 ever new, 
 Home of old divinely promised to the meek, 
 
 the pure, the true. 
 
 Still the dweller by these waters, simple- 
 minded, fancy-free,
 
 BY THE LAKES OF KILLARNEY. 11 
 
 At the witching hour of midnight, as he 
 
 lingers on the lea, 
 Sees the light skiff with its tenant wan and 
 
 wasted passing o'er, 
 From its moorings by the mainland, isle of 
 
 beauty ! to thy shore. 
 
 in. 
 
 " See now the moon is at its height, 
 
 And lights the Castle walls across ; 
 Tell me of his, the Chieftain's, flight 
 
 From yonder ivied Keep of Ross, 
 Who gave to all the region round 
 
 His name, a living memory." 
 She spoke, and at the whispered sound, 
 
 I told this tale as told to me.
 
 12 AN EVENING RAMBLE 
 
 gtymlt of O'gcwoglras of &ass. (3). 
 
 Like an eagle o'er its eyrie, newly poised upon 
 
 the wing, 
 On the verge of towering ramparts stood erect 
 
 the wizard king, 
 All around him stretched the forest, over 
 
 mountain, over plain ; 
 At his feet his fairy palace, in the depths of 
 
 fair Loch-Lein. 
 
 Once he dwelt beneath those waters, but for- 
 sook his spirit-race, 
 
 Lured by light from heaven beaming on an 
 earth-born maiden's face. 
 
 She was lovely, but as fleeting as the cloudless 
 dawn of day,
 
 BY THE LAKES OF KILLARNEY. 13 
 
 When the spring, with •wild-flowers laden, 
 comes to greet the laughing May. 
 
 For his love was more than mortals', and she 
 
 faded soon in air, 
 As the tender dew drop passes in the noontide's 
 
 sultry glare. 
 Passing fair are Loch-lein's waters, passing 
 
 fair its starry isles ; 
 Softest zephyrs float around them, Flora there 
 
 perpetual smiles ; 
 Lofty mountains, nobly out-lined, guard fond 
 
 nature's treasured love, 
 And sweet Echo, softly soothing, music makes 
 
 thro' hill and grove. 
 
 But for him, the lonely elf-king, beauty blooms 
 
 on earth no more, 
 When the light of love had left him, naught 
 
 could beauty's sense restore.
 
 14 AN EVENING RAMBLE 
 
 Now his courser from the ramparts, thither 
 
 brought by mystic spells, 
 Bears him downward thro' the waters to the 
 
 halls where Echo dwells. 
 There sweet Echo soothes his sorrow, calls in 
 
 tones once-loved his name, 
 And the shape he cherished taking, gives him 
 
 back an answering flame. 
 
 Still as each recurring season ushers in tne 
 
 halcyon May, 
 Milk-white coursers bear the elf-king, bear 
 
 him thro' the silvery spray, 
 To the scenes where earth's fair daughter 
 
 shared his more than mortal love, 
 While the elf-band scatter favours where his 
 
 light- winged coursers move.
 
 BY THE LAKES OF KILLARNEV. 15 
 
 IV. 
 
 " Now silence spreads from shore to shore 
 
 A sense of awe which is not fear, 
 And even the torrent's distant roar, 
 
 More silent makes the silence here." 
 Then I — " that torrent's roar I deem 
 
 The forward notes that hither come 
 To herald in the parent stream, 
 
 That seeks in fair Loch-lein a home. 
 Then dream we on our evening dream, 
 
 And bv its bank in fancy roam."
 
 1G AN EVENING RAMBLE 
 
 Ebc gtffew <fksli. w- 
 
 Bubbling up among the mountains, at the 
 
 gate-ways of the day,* 
 First it trickles from its fountains, as a child 
 
 first feels its way ; 
 Quickly gains it speed and volume, and rolls 
 
 merrily along, 
 Perfect image of the boyhood of a joyous child 
 
 of song ; 
 For it kisses, as it passes, flowery bank and 
 
 drooping spray 
 And each streamlet from the mountains sent 
 
 to speed it on its way. 
 
 * "Gate-ways of the day,"— the reader will doubtless 
 recoguise this phrase from Tennyson's Locksley Hall.
 
 BY THE LAKES OF KILLARNEY. 17 
 
 Now, like Samson blind and captive, from his 
 bed among the rocks 
 
 See the river-god, uprising, shakes his liberated 
 locks, 
 
 And assails the deep foundation of the rock- 
 built robbers den ; 
 
 Rushes onwards, bearing havoc, to the dwellers 
 in the glen. 
 
 Slowly gliding, gently winding, now it seeks 
 
 some calm retreat 
 Where the wild ash hangs its berries, and the 
 
 oak and holly meet ; 
 There prepares the pebbly pavement, in its 
 
 pools below the wood 
 For the pride of all the waters — silver monarch 
 
 of the flood. 
 
 If the golden orb be setting, with full splen- 
 dour, in the west,
 
 18 AN EVENING RAMBLE 
 
 And the busy voice of nature, save its waters', 
 
 is at rest ; 
 Then this river blows a trumpet, making 
 
 music of its own, 
 Now approaching, now receding in a pleasant 
 
 monotone ; 
 And the blazing splendour flashes from the 
 
 Castle (5) on the height ; 
 Tis the glory of the river, and the home of 
 
 calm delight. 
 
 Name not here in words outspoken, who are 
 
 Lord and Lady there, 
 But the thought will bring unbidden to my 
 
 lips the earnest prayer, 
 That its towers may ever flourish, its broad 
 
 woods be ever green, 
 And the gentle life within it ever harmonize 
 
 the scene.
 
 BY THE LAKES OF KILLARNEY. 19 
 
 Now once more unto the river ! see it hastens 
 
 on amain 
 To the goal of all its longings, the sweet bosom 
 
 of Loch-lein ; 
 There it courses through the Eden where the 
 
 pleasant waters throng, 
 Guarded round by comely mountains, lulled 
 
 by echo's sweetest song, 
 And recounts the varied marvels that befel it 
 
 on its way 
 From its bubbling crystal fountain at the 
 
 gate- ways of the way. 
 
 " No sino-le fount with tribute feeds 
 
 The brimming bosom of Loch-lein ; 
 
 The waving corn has many seeds, 
 
 And many a fount the watery plain. 
 
 c 2
 
 20 AN EVENING RAMBLE 
 
 Straight rose the vision to my mind 
 
 Of that sweet spot where Scotland's pride, (o) 
 
 The household friend of all mankind, 
 Enraptured viewed the double tide.
 
 BY THE LAKES OF KILLARNEY. 21 
 
 %\i (DIb Urn gribgc. ro- 
 
 In beauty's bowers tliere be many fairest spots 
 
 among the fair, 
 Food for after-thoughts and day-dreams, hints 
 
 for castles built in air, 
 Pleasant places in the vista leading back to 
 
 bygone years, 
 Lights amid thick-coming shadows, smiles 
 
 across fast-fallina; tears. 
 
 o 
 
 Such a spot of peerless beauty comes across 
 
 my fancy now, 
 Like a gem of faultless lustre sparkling on a 
 
 queenly brow ; 
 Low-browed arches, pent-up waters, foaming 
 
 o'er the barrier-ridge, 
 Named a name which tells its story, named of 
 
 old the Old Weir Bridge.
 
 22 AN EVENING RAMBLE 
 
 Here they come, the gallant bargemen ! each 
 
 reclining on his oar, 
 With the mountain-wall for back-ground, 
 
 and the tranquil pools before ; 
 Gaily bounding shoots the vessel to the haven 
 
 of its rest, 
 Darting swiftly through the rapids, like a 
 
 falcon to its nest. 
 
 Mark the green leaves of the forest kiss the 
 
 river as it flows ! 
 Mark the pine-wood on the island where it 
 
 seeks a brief repose ! 
 Brief repose and hasty parting ! here the stream 
 
 divides in twain, 
 Flowing eastward, flowing westward, ne'er to 
 
 meet but in the main. 
 
 So are parted kindred spirits on the current 
 stream of life,
 
 BY THE LAKES OF KILLARNEY. 23 
 
 Some divided by ill-fortune, others by a petty 
 
 strife ; 
 Others to the land of shadows, fate relentless 
 
 calls away, 
 Whilst the loved ones and the lovely vainly 
 
 bid the doomed one stay. 
 
 Old Weir Bridge ! once through these waters 
 
 England's Queen came gaily down,* 
 By her sat one loved and trusted, bearing sway 
 
 without a crown ; 
 Few short moons had waned in heaven, ere 
 
 the splendid dream had fled, 
 England's Queen was steeped in sorrow, lowly 
 
 lay the uncrowned head. 
 
 * Allusion is here made to the " shooting of the bridge," 
 as the passing under it is called, by her Majesty the Queen, 
 on the 27th August, 1861, during the visit with which she 
 honoured Lord and Lady Castlerosse.
 
 24 
 
 AN EVENING RAMBLE 
 
 VI. 
 
 " Methinks my fancy can descry 
 
 Two types of beauty native here, 
 The soaring eagle for the eye, 
 
 And sweet-toned echo for the ear. 
 For king and queen they well might stand, 
 
 To poets' eye in olden time, 
 Of this enchanted fairy-land !" 
 
 I caught and turned the thought to rhyme.
 
 BY THE LAKES OF KILLARNEY. 25 
 
 ftjye <5n$lz$ ftest. (8). 
 
 Once sweet Echo and the Eagle had their dwell- 
 ings side by side 
 
 In a rock beside a river with a gently winding 
 tide; 
 
 In a rock which rose to Heaven like a trophy 
 from the ground 
 
 With green banners gaily streaming and with 
 oak and ivy crowned. 
 
 When the infant world was forming here 
 young Echo dwelt alone, 
 
 Watching early nature's lispings, making every 
 voice her own. 
 
 Once she heard an Eagle screaming as he 
 soared to view the sky, 
 
 And gave back the sound with rapture, answer- 
 ing with her mimic cry.
 
 26 AN EVENING RAMBLE 
 
 As he heard the mimic accents through the 
 
 azure blithely run, 
 Straight he staid his golden pinions on their 
 
 journey toward the sun ; 
 Downward swooping, soon he rested on the 
 
 rock whence came the calls, 
 And unconscious fixed his eyrie 'mid sweet 
 
 Echo's tuneful halls. 
 
 Many chambers had sweet Echo, reaching up 
 from foot to crest, 
 
 But one only had the Eagle for his imme- 
 morial nest; 
 
 And sweet Echo wooed the Eagle through the 
 portals of his ears 
 
 With the pealings of the thunder, grand old 
 music from the spheres. 
 
 There for ages dwelt together nature's well- 
 assorted pair,
 
 BY THE LAKES OF KILLARNEY. 27 
 
 'Till low aims and human folly scared the bird 
 
 who rules the air. 
 Since then Echo sits there lonely, by the gently 
 
 winding stream, 
 Only in the distance hearing, not for her, the 
 
 Eagle scream. 
 
 So high hopes too often vanish, passing shapes 
 
 of Heaven-sent truth, 
 Balmy breath of early morning, soft and 
 
 downy bloom of youth ; 
 And sharp pangs of wasting sorrow cast their 
 
 shadows in between, 
 While sad memory tells, like Echo, not what is 
 
 but what hath been, 
 
 VII. 
 
 " The night with all its starlight glory 
 Now robes the calmly sleeping lake, 
 
 And on each cliff and promontory 
 Ever and anon the ripples break
 
 28 AN EVENING RAMBLE 
 
 Most drowsily, as though to mark 
 The hour for him to seek repose 
 
 Who would awaken with the lark, 
 And crown day's labour by its close. 
 
 " See where the broad-backed Mangerton 
 
 Looms in the sky-line to the east ; 
 Recall the wrong by Saxon done 
 
 To peasant's faith and Celtic priest 
 Within yon mountain's peaceful dell, — 
 
 A wrong may ne'er be done again ! " 
 My lips obeyed the soft-voiced spell, 
 
 And thus I sung my farewell strain.
 
 BY THE LAKES OF KILLARNEY. 29 
 
 %ht Ufaugcrton: |)jrmit. (9). 
 
 We will go unto God's altar at the breaking of 
 the day, 
 
 Whilst the dew is on the heather and the mist 
 hangs round our way ; 
 
 We will go unto God's altar, where the sun- 
 beams longest shine 
 
 And woods and winds and waters sing a 
 melody divine. 
 
 How we loved thy temple's beauty, where our 
 
 fathers oft have knelt, 
 Regal shrines by mighty masters, where, 
 
 O Lord ! thy glory dwelt ! 
 But the glory is departed, and the beauty 
 
 passed away 
 To the field among the mountains where we 
 
 meet and kneel to-day.
 
 30 AN EVENING RAMBLE 
 
 Gently judge thy faithful people; mark us out 
 among our foes ; 
 
 Faith is now our only portion, they on all we 
 lost repose ; 
 
 Crimson-handed, iron-hearted, they raise high 
 the clang of might 
 
 O'er the voice of pleading reason and the gen- 
 tle rule of right. 
 
 We are landless, we are homeless, our sole 
 dwelling in the cave, 
 
 And the shadow of yon Abbey, by the Yew- 
 tree, in the grave. 
 
 Show us there is balm in Gilead, pour on age 
 the light of truth, 
 
 And the flood of clear keen joyance on the 
 stainless heart of youth. 
 
 We will sing — tho' now in sorrow — joyous 
 songs of hope and praise
 
 BY THE LAKES OF KILLARNEY. 31 
 
 'Til each rock in hill and hollow gives us back 
 
 the shout we raise ; 
 For thy saving face shines on us, casting 
 
 stedfast light before, 
 As we journey thro' the desert to the land we 
 
 loved of yore. 
 
 " Now doth the gorse from many a hill 
 
 The night with heavy fragrance woo, 
 And every herb doth now distil 
 
 The clear, cold, bead of silver dew. 
 'Twere time at last we farewell bade 
 
 To lingering steps and careless song." — 
 " But not for long," her sweet voice said, 
 
 And echo answered, not for long !
 
 SONNETS. 33 
 
 Sounds. 
 
 »<>•-— 
 
 S% gjfrrantams tsMt " Ut pmrs"— in Irish "$a 
 Cic," Itallg % tbo $3n:nsis. (io>. 
 
 In bold relief against the eastern sky, 
 
 The twin, vast, rounded summits towering stand, 
 
 Like giant warders of the Fairy land 
 
 Which lies beneath ; or, to the Celtic eye, 
 
 Like holiest types of blest maternity. 
 
 Here once, whence beauty's lines serenely grand 
 
 In circles over heaven and earth expand, 
 
 The Queen of spells her palace reared on high. 
 
 Would'st trace the past in monumental stone 
 
 And shadowy outlines of primeval man, 
 
 These heights ascend, when noon -tide heat has flown, 
 
 And ruins bleached by countless winters scan; 
 
 Then sit and muse on Rites and Races gone, 
 
 As I do now, sad, silent and alone. 
 
 D
 
 34 SONNETS. 
 
 <8Irann-na-CoppuU. (ii). 
 (the horse's glen). 
 
 Unknown, untrodden by the foot of man, 
 Glen of the triple lakes, and barriers high — 
 Wave-washed below and cloud-capped in the sky — 
 Thy wild flowers bloom where late the torrent ran, 
 Thy garden shapes itself by nature's plan. 
 Like buried gold thy charms unheeded lie, 
 Save when the mountaineer with wondering eye 
 Pauses to view the rainbow's glittering span. 
 Child of the hills ! new risen with the day, 
 I see him o'er the heathery mountains flit, 
 I see him mark the many-colored ray, 
 Light in his eye and native mother wit; 
 Behold ! the Bow which lured him turns to grey, 
 And he too passes with its hues away.
 
 SONNETS. 35 
 
 Jemummor*. (12). 
 
 Now Benaunmore is bathed in summer haze ; 
 Below fast-cradled in its rocky dell 
 Loch Carrig-vea sleeps motionless and "well ; 
 High over-head the massive columns raise, 
 Tier above tier, memorials of old days, 
 When nature's early throes and labors fell 
 Framed the cool grot and close-sequestered cell 
 Whereon the world's wanderer loves to gaze. 
 Oh ! never surely, in her fondest mood, 
 Did nature build for man her sovran child, 
 A more alluring home where solitude 
 Might win him to his better self; beguiled, 
 By concord sweet of mountain, lake, and wood, 
 To blend the grandly fair and greatly good. 
 
 d 2
 
 36 SONNETS. 
 
 Z he JiUIarncn drtbo. 
 
 Roused from her couch beside the silent shore, 
 
 Where full-caparisoned her coursers stay, 
 
 She bears her message o'er the waveless bay, 
 
 Tells it in mountain-hall and cavern hoar, 
 
 By murmuring brook, still lake, and torrent's roar ; 
 
 Peak after peak she passes in array, 
 
 Then rushes o'er the hills and far away, 
 
 'Till circling home she sinks to earth once more. 
 
 Echo ! the place made vocal by thy strain 
 
 Is hallowed ground whereon our spirits feel 
 
 The thrill of long forgotten joy or pain — 
 
 The bugle-note, the cannon's deafening peal, 
 
 The full-voiced chorus, and the wild refrain, 
 
 And ah ! one voice that ne'er shall speak again.
 
 SONNETS. 37 
 
 Carmt-frml. (i3). 
 
 I saw the summer sun go down behind the sea, 
 And o'er the pale moon grow a golden light, 
 From lonely Caran-tual's topmost height 
 Towering aloft in cloudless majesty ; 
 The serried hills beneath seem in the night 
 Like billowy ocean, heaving in its might 
 And turned to stone ; while far as eye can see 
 The lengthening shadows o'er the surface flee. 
 Around, each crag and jutting fragments tell 
 The name and features of the beldam old, 
 Potent in herbs and versed in many a spell 
 Who dwelt unblest within her mountain hold. 
 Oh blame not if each shadow as it fell 
 Seemed the weird phantom of the haunted dell !
 
 38 SONNETS. 
 
 (ftaljxr (Con-ncjjj. (!*)• 
 
 His heart was fashioned in heroic mould 
 
 Who fixed his eyrie on this cloud-capped rock, 
 
 Scorning the wild waves' roar and tempest's shock ; 
 
 The better thus in one wide glance to hold 
 
 The ocean track, from where full Shannon rolled, 
 
 To that lone isle where first the billows broke 
 
 Their gathered strength, whilst sheltering coves invoke 
 
 The dauntless rovers on the watery wold. 
 
 Full many a time and oft, across the main, 
 
 From this high tower, the watchman's sleepless quest 
 
 Descried the swarming fleets of sunny Spain, 
 
 Urged on by fate to seek the utmost West. 
 
 E'en now as further lands are yet to gain, 
 
 No stop, no stay, 'tis Westward Ho ! again.
 
 SONNETS. 39 
 
 Bank Casilt. <">. 
 
 High on a cliff, thy gray square tower, Dunlo ! 
 
 O'erliangs the darkly-rolling, eddying Laune, 
 
 And fronts the mountain-gorge with threatening frown 
 
 As tho' in menace of the native foe ; 
 
 For hence " the Stranger " dealt out many a blow, 
 
 And from this stand-point drove the iron brand 
 
 Home to the heart of a distracted land. 
 
 Such musings from thy outward aspect grow, — 
 
 But turn within, and words will not define 
 
 The house-hold charm which breathes from all around ; 
 
 Here past and present mutely blending join 
 
 To build sweet home on immemorial ground, 
 
 — Joy of young hearts and dear to life's decline — 
 
 Long may'st thou guard the fondly cherished line !
 
 40 SONNETS. 
 
 ^gfratott. (16). 
 
 Within the compass of this narrow spot, 
 Remorseless ruin holds her wasting reign 
 O'er dungeon-Keep, round-Tower and holy Fane ; 
 The men who made and marred them botli forgot, 
 Their lineage, name, date, place, remembered not. 
 Still fancy deems the Lord of fair Loghlein 
 Might bless and rule from here his wide domain, 
 At once a Priest and Chieftain of the Scot. 
 No more the yews' twin shadows may return 
 To mark the field from nature named of old, 
 But through all time the pilgrims steps shall learn 
 To haunt the sunny slopes which hold 
 The loved and lost whom now the people mourn, 
 Deeming these walls one vast sepulchral urn.
 
 SONNETS. 
 
 41 
 
 ®Ije gtbbcg of Intlagl). <M). 
 (muckross abbey). 
 
 Yes ! they were men of a diviner mind, 
 
 Who sought and found ideal beauty here, 
 
 A breathing harmony from Heaven's own sphere ; 
 
 Where the poor, cowled, and cloistered monk combined 
 
 The love of heaven with love of his own kind. 
 
 Such didst thou once, loved Irrelagh ! appear, 
 
 Such wert thou still through many a changing year, 
 
 'Till the rude spoiler scattered to the wind 
 
 Thy gentle sway. But not for aye the prize 
 
 Remains, unchallenged, to mere force alone ; 
 
 Perennial spring all human sympathies, 
 
 And ffood men's deeds for foul misdeeds atone — 
 
 Behold again loved Irrelagh arise, 
 
 And lifts its beacon-light, to lure us to the skies !
 
 42 SONNETS. 
 
 THE RESIDENCE OF O'CONNELL. 
 
 Ye ocean gales, blow gently o'er these lone 
 And silent halls ! ye ocean waves rejoice 
 Low murmuring ! for here he tuned his voice — 
 Now soft as notes of lover's lute to one 
 Who tarries long to hear ; and now a tone 
 Fanning the breath of battle — Here slow grew 
 His mind to its full compass, till he drew 
 Within its ample folds, the wealth unknown 
 Of Celtic story ; here He learned the lore 
 Of antique liberty ; hence issuing forth 
 He broad-cast flung from his abounding store 
 Through all his native land, from south to north, 
 Fair freedom's seed, and coloured to the core 
 Her wild, sweet heart, thus never wooed before.
 
 SONNETS. 43 
 
 gjtontan Catjwlfr: (Eatfttbral. 
 
 KILLARNEY. 
 
 The beauty of the everlasting hills — 
 
 Now here with many a peak sublimely crowned, 
 
 Now there in undulations winding round, 
 
 And feeding, as they wind, with thousand rills, 
 
 The cradled lake below — with rapture fills 
 
 The gazer's heart ; but may not wholly sound 
 
 Of human consciousness the deep profound, 
 
 That at the beatific vision thrills. 
 
 So haply deem the great, wise men who rear, 
 
 Within the shadow of the mountain's brow, 
 A temple meet for such a spot, severe, 
 
 And inornate, where every knee may bow 
 
 In adoration of the far brought near, 
 
 Or music lift the soul to her harmonious sphere.
 
 44 SONNETS. 
 
 Ht. pirn's Ifgmg-iw pospital, Jlillnrncg. 
 
 (Established in 1865 by the Viscountess Castlerosse.) 
 
 Stranger stay, nor pass with heedless eye 
 
 Yon modest mansion ; mark its cold, grey wall ! 
 
 Tis worthier far than lordliest hall 
 
 Whate'er thou hast of human sympathy ; 
 
 For therein new-born babe and mother lie 
 
 Delicately tended, screened from all 
 
 The thousand pangs and perils that befall 
 
 The houseless poor, when that dread hour draws nigh. 
 
 That hour obedient to the high decree, 
 
 Which brings in sorrow forth to life and light 
 
 Creation's marvel, the epitome 
 
 Of nature's self, where Heaven and Earth unite. 
 
 Lo ! here reposes on the mother's knee 
 
 Her new-found bliss, the heir of all eternity.
 
 SONNETS. 45 
 
 §t, loscpb's |nimstml Sbool, JUHurnxg. 
 
 (Established in 1867 by the Viscountess Castlerosse.) 
 
 To stamp on childhood's eager plastic mind 
 
 A Father's image, truer (tho 5 supreme) 
 
 Than his, on whom the Orphan in its dream 
 
 Nightly, with unavailing love, reclined ; 
 
 To show the young, that heart and hand combined 
 
 Reveal the hidden meaning of the theme, 
 
 Wherein the cloistered sages say they deem 
 
 That Prayer and labor are the same in kind; 
 
 T'impart the varied household arts that span, 
 
 With arch of rain-bow hues, the wide abyss 
 
 Parting the age of rude, primeval man, 
 
 From modes of life which mould and govern this — 
 
 Such roll to fill unbidden, is to be 
 
 A worker true, a hand-maid of the Deity.
 
 46 SONNETS. 
 
 lunatic ^.s^Iui"-" 
 
 KILLARNEY. 
 
 • 
 
 On ! ne'er did nature in her softest mood 
 A fairer banquet to the sight supply 
 Than spreads itself beneath this palace high, 
 Unreason's home — the Giver of all good 
 Who gives each sense its own peculiar food, 
 Here reaches, through the gate-way of the eye, 
 Reason, unthroned, or fixed in vacancy, 
 Or lost mid dream-lands insubstantial brood. 
 A tree, a flower, the thin blue wreath of smoke, 
 Seen afar off against the mountain's slope, 
 May banished scenes and memories lost evoke, 
 To chase the fiend with which 'twere vain to cope, 
 And win dear reason back. — A flash, a stroke, 
 When cannon failed, has deepest slumber broke !
 
 SONNETS. 47 
 
 gisto gigttjes. (is). 
 
 Her eyes are lit with calm unconscious light, 
 Such radiance as illumes the burnished west 
 When sunset brings to toil the hour of rest ; 
 From her close hood no tress escapes to view, 
 Tho' fancy deems it silken, whatso'er the hue ; 
 Her smile sheds sunshine on the stricken breast, 
 Her voice seems melody itself comprest 
 To its prime essence — such the being bright, 
 By strength invisible who walks secure 
 Thro' courts and camps and lowly haunts 
 Of fevered misery, intent to pour 
 The oil and wine for whoso solace wants — 
 'Tis Sister Agnes ! friend of rich and poor, 
 The bride of Heaven, la sceur de bon secoui*.
 
 48 SONNETS. 
 
 Confronts. 
 
 Joy, unalloyed by pain, is rare to find. 
 The chance unveiling of long hidden love ; 
 In danger's searching hour, the quick resolve ; 
 A law of nature, big with change, divined ; 
 A battle fought and won, to save mankind ; 
 Sudden to meet, when crowds unfriendly prove, 
 The tender gaze we set all store above ; 
 These call up joy, but care rides post behind. 
 Now pass we in review the convent-roll ; 
 There joy unwavering meets us face to face, 
 For there the ail-but disembodied soul 
 Communes with beings of a kindred race, 
 And every act tends onward to the goal 
 Beyond the bigot's ken or statesman's vain control.
 
 SONNETS. 49 
 
 gssariaibn of |btas. 
 
 I hear the Silent, in the tempest's roar, 
 
 In the low music of the evening's sigh, 
 
 In thunder pealing thro' the nether sky, 
 
 In the loud boom along the rock-bound shore, 
 
 In insects' hum, when thro' the bowers they pour 
 
 On drowsy lids their noontide lullaby; 
 
 I see th' Unseen, when dawn first meets the eye 
 
 On ocean's verge; I see it evermore 
 
 Within the clear obscure of starry night, 
 
 And in the lowly, flower-embroidered plain, 
 
 In roused Atlantic surging to its height, 
 
 And in thy placid depths — beloved Loughlein ! — 
 
 What'er awakens awe or yields delight 
 
 Stirs a new life in hearing and in sight. 
 
 E
 
 50 SONNETS. 
 
 fife anb £1 cat It. 
 
 Some die, cut off in full and bounding life 
 And strength of thought ; with such, the beacon-light 
 Of many a heart is quenched in sudden night, 
 Mayhap the quiet of a home and darling wife, 
 The clash of mind with mind, the glorious strife, 
 Which prompts ambition's most ennobling flight 
 To combat wrong and set the wronger right — 
 These seem to die, but leave the world still rife 
 With their o'ermastering presence. Some again 
 Survive their proper selves, and manhood's bloom, 
 'Till of the paragon doth nought remain, 
 But palsy creeping to the joyless tomb. 
 Then strike no balance here of loss and gain, 
 Tis only after death that all shall be made plain.
 
 SONNETS. 51 
 
 ®!jc Catastrophe- 
 
 {Written after the Surrender at Sedan, September, 1S70). 
 
 A star that gemmed the forehead of the sky, 
 A grace that clothed in beauty whatsoe'er 
 It touched, a fragrance filling all the air, 
 Vanished from earth, and like a dream passed by, 
 What time the Gaul, remorseless Lord of war 
 And pleasure's slave, went forth on conquest's car, 
 (Embattled squadrons daring to defy) 
 And fell all-blasted from his flight on high. 
 Fair France ! thy sensuous rule is o'er ; for lo ! 
 Thine idol's vaunted laurels are the foil 
 To feet of clay ; thy cheek's voluptuous glow 
 Surmounts the sinuous serpent's scaly coil ; 
 On waxen pinions thou would'st heavenward go ; 
 Thy guerdon is — unutterable woe. 
 
 e2
 
 52 SONNETS. 
 
 prance, 
 
 (Written after the Surrender of Met:, 29tt October, 1 70.) 
 
 Peal after peal reverb'rates through the sky, 
 Sounding the tocsin of a nation's doom — 
 Its name and fortunes buried in the gloom 
 Of anarchy, and never more to ply 
 The bloody trade of war, or reassume 
 The flush of life, new-risen from the tomb 
 Of dark oblivion, where, when empires die, 
 The shattered fragments of dominion lie. 
 Persia, the Mede, Chaldasa, Carthage, Rome, 
 Poland and Spain have vanished in the past ; 
 Another now, dearer and nearer home, 
 Is blotted out, smit by the furnace blast 
 Of desolation. Thence no more shall come 
 The cannon sroar, the trumpet-call, or beat of. drum.
 
 SONNETS. 53 
 
 Victor (Emmanuel titters glome at the beab of t\}t gleooluiion. 
 
 Methinks I see the founder of old Rome, 
 (By she-wolf suckled, stained by brother's blood, 
 King o'er the gathered outlaws' robber brood) 
 A phantom grim now hovering o'er the dome 
 Which faith has hallowed, genius made the home 
 Of worshippers, and in exultant mood, 
 As in the days of Jove viewing the flood 
 Of midnight murder, fraud, and rapine come 
 With him mis-called Emmanuel. But no ! 
 The stream of time will not roll back its course ; 
 Nor human breast the hope assured forego 
 That moral right will conquer lawless force ; 
 All else shall pass, thrones fall, and kingdoms sever, 
 The promise is — for ever and for ever !
 
 54 SONNETS. 
 
 <Dn |]ruu£ Arthur's £hp;Trturc from JliUnrrrtjj, 
 April, 18C9. 
 
 The time will come when other scenes than these 
 Will compass thee and fill thine eye and heart 
 When centred in the great world's greatest mart, 
 Where meet all joys of sense and arts that please, 
 Borne from all lands and over all the seas. 
 In splendour's midst, of which thou'lt be a part, 
 (And noblest one, if thou but faithful art 
 To youthful promise) suffer not to cease 
 From memory's teeming page, the circling zone 
 Of mountain peaks, the lake of many isles, 
 Sweet echo imaging the bugle's tone, 
 The pleasant ramble in the steep defiles, 
 The cheer that welcomed in the Royal Son, 
 The farewell greeting to thyself alone.
 
 OCCASIONAL PIECES. 00 
 
 (Bttmtmd Dteas. 
 
 TO THE HON. MARGARET BE0WNE, AGED EIGHT YEARS 
 DAUGHTER OF LORD AND LADY CASTLEROSSE. 
 
 8 be $;risjj, ibc |karl, raib ggargnmte * 
 
 A flower it is that comes before 
 
 The thrush is on the wing, 
 A link between the winter hoar, 
 
 And happy hours of spring. 
 The skies of night are not more bright 
 
 When spangled o'er with gold, 
 Than lawn and lea when decked with thee, 
 
 First offspring of the wold ! 
 
 * Marguerite, Fr. for daisy, Margarita, Lat, and Marga- 
 ritas, Grk. for pearl.
 
 56 OCCASIONAL PIECES. 
 
 2. 
 
 A gem it is that hath its birth 
 
 Beneath the ocean waves; 
 It grows to beauty, size and worth 
 
 Within the coral caves. 
 The milky way in bright array 
 
 Spanning the world beneath, 
 Is not more fair than raven hair, 
 
 Bearing the pearly wreath ! 
 
 3. 
 
 Fair daughter of an ancient line ! 
 
 They bade, in happiest hour, 
 The sweetly-burthened name be thine, 
 
 Pearl of the House and Flower ! 
 May earth and air their blessings bear 
 
 To thee, bright flower of love ! 
 May the deep sea send bliss to thee, 
 
 And Heaven the teaching dove !
 
 OCCASIONAL PIECES. 57 
 
 • 
 
 f aging % first state of $mgtmrtt% <%P £l - 
 
 The incident here related occurred on the occasion when the 
 Hon. Margaret Browne (8 years old) laid the foundation stone 
 of Lady Castlerosse's Chapel, on the lofty eminence overlooking 
 Derrycunnihy Cottage. The words attributed to the little 
 founder were spoken, and the reason of the name given, by the 
 little Lady without a moment's hesitation. 
 
 Tis here beside this guarding rock, 
 
 Thus far upon the height 
 Which backwards rolls the tempest's shock, 
 
 We mark the chosen site. 
 Yon gentle child shall turn the sod, 
 
 And lay the parent stone, 
 For here we build a house to God, 
 
 The reflex of His throne.
 
 58 OCCASIONAL PIECES. 
 
 Oli ! deem it not a fancy wild 
 
 That spirits from the sphere, 
 In hovering o'er that gentle child, 
 
 Made music in her ear ! 
 For hark! the little maid exclaimed, 
 
 " Thou shalt he called from high 
 " Saint Mary of the angels, — named 
 
 " As neighbour to the sky !" 
 
 Oh ! long may wave o'er glen and glade 
 
 The many-tinted woods ! 
 Long wildly leap in broad cascade 
 
 The darkly -rolling floods ! 
 And long be heard through all the vale 
 
 Her voice in Sabbath bells 
 Sing " Mary of the angels, hail ! " 
 
 And run through all the dells.
 
 OCCASIONAL PIECES. 59 
 
 ®Ije ^illamcg boatmen's ^oirg, 
 
 Commemorative of Her Excellency the Countess Spencer's Visit to the Lakes 
 
 in April, 18G9. 
 
 To our oars ! to our oars ! 
 There's a fairy on the lake ; 
 To our oars ! to our oars ! 
 We must follow in her wake. 
 
 Can you tell, can you tell 
 Is she dark or is she fair ? 
 Does she come, can you say, 
 From the earth or from the air ? 
 
 She is fair, she is fair, 
 As the dawning of the day, 
 And she comes, oh ! she comes 
 From the cradle of the May.
 
 60 OCCASIONAL PIECES. 
 
 In her eye is a beam 
 From the setting of the sun, 
 And her smile caught its ray 
 When his race had just begun. 
 
 In her voice is a note 
 From the warble of the bird 
 Which makes musical the nii^ht 
 Where his melody is heard. 
 
 And of late when she passed 
 O'er the daisies on the lawn, 
 They believed that they felt 
 But the shadow of the dawn ! 
 
 From Mulla* is a voice, 
 Ever sinmnjj in her train, 
 
 * Mulla is the antient name of the river now called Aubeg, 
 on whose banks Spenser composed his Faerie Queene.
 
 OCCASIONAL PIECES. 61 
 
 'Tis the Queen, Fairy Queen, 
 Come to visit us again ! 
 
 And a voice from the shore, 
 At the close of every strain, 
 Calls out, " Queen, Fairy Queen, 
 Come to visit us again." 
 
 So to oars ! to our oars ! 
 There's a fairy on the lake, 
 To our oars ! to our oars ! 
 We must follow in her wake.
 
 62 OCCASIONAL PIECES. 
 
 $ ong &ga. 
 
 Long ago! When was that? it was when 
 We were boys, and we thought ourselves men ; 
 When the hope of our life was sublime 
 And we ne'er thought the joy of our prime 
 
 Would seem so 
 
 Long ago ! 
 
 There's a face, very grave, very mild, 
 Gazing down on the couch of a child, 
 With the eyes, very dark, full of play; 
 Tis a face that still haunts me to-day 
 
 Though she's low 
 
 Long ago.
 
 OCCASIONAL PIECES. 
 
 Many years, unperceived, have gone by, 
 Since my love, yes my love ! you and I 
 Were by fate, happy fate! joined together; 
 Should our life now along thus for ever, 
 
 We'll not know 
 
 Long ago. 
 
 In fair France the six months are an age 
 Since the King first took up the war-gage ; 
 But the blood, and the shame, and the pain, 
 Ever-green, ever-fresh, shall remain, 
 
 And ne'er grow 
 
 LonQ' aejo. 
 
 'Tis the heart is the true test of time ; 
 
 As it beats, so we run or we climb ; 
 
 As our joy gives to years their light wings, 
 
 From one hour of great grief there up-springs, 
 
 With its woe, 
 
 Long ago.
 
 64 OCCASIONAL PIECES. 
 
 §1 ttxit Jstorij. 
 
 There dwelt in a cottage beside a brook 
 
 A grey-haired recluse bent double with years ; 
 A gold-headed staff and emblazoned book 
 Were the sole remains 
 From wide domains 
 Lavished in youth on his gay compeers. 
 
 By the old man's side, there silently grew 
 
 A blooming child, then a maiden fair; 
 The light of her eyes was a violet hue, 
 And every fold 
 Reflected gold 
 From each wavy tress of her auburn hair.
 
 OCCASIONAL PIECES. 65 
 
 An oak hard-by, all gnarled and bare, 
 
 An ever- green's tendrils lovingly bound, 
 ('Twas the last of a forest that once grew there) — 
 Thus the maiden wound 
 His old heart round 
 With her violet eyes and golden hair. 
 
 A Knight coining by in evil hour 
 
 Harried the heart of this motherless fair, 
 And lured her away to his lonely tower ; — 
 The old heart broke 
 Beneath the stroke 
 Which severed the bond of the golden hair. 
 
 Thus, long ago, was a grand-sire slain 
 
 By a belted knight from his fort in the hills, 
 — The hills which circle the fair Loch-lein — 
 Ah ! crueller far 
 Than scath of war 
 Is the base contriver of home-spun ills.
 
 6G OCCASIONAL PIECES. 
 
 |$antbcw. 
 
 April 29th, 1870. 
 
 But yesterday thou wert a star 
 
 Radiant to every clime, 
 A spell, to rouse the heart in war, 
 
 To build the loftiest rhyme ! 
 
 A household word, a golden link 
 Drawn out from age to age, 
 
 For all who greatly do and think 
 Upon the world's wide stage ! 
 
 But now, that latest deed annuls 
 The Persian's famous grave, 
 
 Thou Golgotha, thou place of skulls, 
 Thou lair for Thug and slave !
 
 OCCASIONAL PIECES. 07 
 
 $musfalIiK. 
 
 Just thirteen hundred years gone-by, 
 
 Ere Echo's tuneful halls 
 Save to the welkin made reply 
 
 And wild deer's clamorous calls ; 
 
 Like Eden in a solitude, 
 
 Or gem of purest ray, 
 Or star the first in magnitude, 
 
 The lovely island lay — 
 
 Lay guarded by its zone of mountains, 
 
 Lay on thy crystal plain 
 
 — Fed by a thousand teeming fountains- 
 
 Oh ! grandly fair Loch-lein ! 
 
 F 2
 
 68 OCCASIONAL PIECES. 
 
 There thither led by voice divine, 
 Saint Finan ceased his quest, 
 
 And reared to God a votive shrine, 
 To man a place of rest. 
 
 And ages ere the keep of Ross 
 Frowned o'er its land-locked bay, 
 
 Or hunter's horn was heard across 
 The lake at break of day, 
 
 The convent bells rang sweet and clear 
 The early morning chime, 
 
 While echo from her airy sphere 
 Gave back each note sublime.
 
 OCCASIONAL PIECES. 69 
 
 £bt lament of gmiqiritr. (19). 
 
 [On the 5th of May, 1870, a dreadful catastrophe occurred 
 from the explosion of a cask of paraffin caught by the Dunquin 
 fishermen floating on the waves.] 
 
 Let the wild winds wail around Dunmore Head, 
 And murmuring ocean boom hoarsely below, 
 
 For the heirs of the sea lie stark and dead, 
 
 And the hearts of the living are steeped in woe. 
 
 It was not the tempest, or angry surge, 
 
 Which stilled the strong hearts of the toiling 
 brave ; 
 
 No mother looked forth from the tall cliff's verge 
 Calling in vain for some hand to save.
 
 70 OCCASIONAL PIECES. 
 
 Like ;i snake coiled up in a flowery wreath, 
 Or a bandit arrayed in gentle guise, 
 
 The subtle destroyer, the angel of deatli 
 Entered the cot as the fisherman's prize. 
 
 Smerwick, and Ventry, and Ferriter Bay 
 
 Were crimsoned with blood in the wars of yore ; 
 
 But, peace all around, a far ghastlier day 
 Illumines the slaughter by Dunquin shore.
 
 OCCASIONAL PIECES. 71 
 
 Ihtssia's Circular. 
 
 Now face to face, upon the world's wide stage 
 
 The two opposing Powers, brute force and right, 
 In view of troubled nations, fiercely wage 
 
 The old, hereditary, fated fight 
 
 First fought by Satan with the Lord of light, 
 As weird Apocalypse and Milton say ; 
 
 For force and fraud with kingly power unite 
 To combat public law, and wrench away 
 The guard of freedom dear against despotic sway. 
 
 Sound sweet-voiced Freedom ! sound through all 
 thy coasts, 
 
 From Nova Zembla's weary, wintry night, 
 To southern climes, where England boasts 
 
 Her latest scions. Summon to the fight,
 
 72 OCCASIONAL PIECES. 
 
 Where'er his dwelling be, the stainless knight 
 Not yet extinct; and call from pole to pole 
 
 Thy sons who better love to die outright, 
 Than, having reason, will, heart, mind and soul, 
 To bow those sovereign gifts to one vain man's 
 control.
 
 OCCASIONAL PIECES. 
 
 ibjnncs on % ^m\b. 
 
 The following "Rhymes on the Land" were written during the progress of 
 the Land Bill through Parliament. 
 
 TO JOHN BRIGHT, ESQ., M.P. 
 
 " I have often travelled on a road and seen a hill a mile off 
 that looked very steep but coming near the slope appeared much 
 more gradual. The Irish land question is not at all that sort of 
 question." — Mr. Bright' 's speech at Birmingham. 
 
 Tho' bold and steep the mountain face 
 
 O'erhung by many a rock, 
 The Saxon is a dauntless race 
 
 And loves the alpen-stock. 
 
 Two snowy peaks rise high above 
 
 The elemental war; 
 But one* is reached, then onward move 
 
 Crying — " Excelsior! " 
 
 * Alluding to the settlement of the Church question.
 
 74 OCCASIONAL PIECES. 
 
 Great Tribune ! ever in the van 
 Of the onward march of mind, 
 
 Delay not thou the steep to scan, 
 Nor cast a look behind. 
 
 Still freedom as of old delights 
 To dwell apart from crowds, 
 
 Who wins her still must scale the heights, 
 And bravely pierce the clouds.
 
 OCCASIONAL PIECES. 75 
 
 gUjimtts on thz iTattb. 
 
 January 28$, 1870. 
 
 " The tenth Avatar comes !" — Campbell. 
 
 Awake ! the long and weary night 
 
 Of bondage rolls away, 
 And Freedom's glorious orb of light 
 
 Is ushering in the day. 
 
 Arise ! no anger in the heart, 
 
 But firm resolve to win 
 A home from which they ne'er shall part, 
 
 For Irish kith and kin. 
 
 No more the children of the soil 
 
 Shall meet an early grave, 
 Bowed down by unrequited toil, 
 
 Or driven beyond the wave.
 
 76 OCCASIONAL PIECES. 
 
 Justice and law shall on their way, 
 
 Go hand in hand together. 
 To Cffisar we will tribute pay, 
 
 But hold Free land* for ever. 
 
 The sickly train of town-bred ills 
 
 Gives place to rural joys, 
 The echoing horn rings through the hills, 
 
 And merry shout of boys ; 
 The shout of boys, the maiden's song, 
 
 And all the world at play, 
 Oh ! I will join the happy throng 
 
 And troll my roundelay! 
 
 * Commercially free, the sense in which Mr. Bright used 
 the words.
 
 OCCASIONAL PIECES. 77 
 
 HJjgttttS on ibc JjJanb. 
 
 February 8th, 1 870. 
 
 The following lines were suggested by a scene at Aunascaul 
 Petty Sessions, where the priest and people were arrayed against 
 the proprietor of Inch island in Castlemaine bay, who claimed 
 patent rights to the coral sand and sea-weed, to the exclusion 
 of the public. 
 
 Oh ! mock not thus those grand decrees 
 Which ruled creation's hirth : 
 
 " The gathered waters he called seas, 
 " The dry land he called earth I" 
 
 And ne'er did sea or earth ignore 
 The sovereign, prime decree ; 
 
 The sea has washed the shingly shore, 
 The shore turned back the sea.
 
 78 OCCASIONAL PIECES. 
 
 Still each pursues its course alone, 
 
 True to a general plan ; 
 The sea yields tributes of its own 
 
 To earth, which teems for man. 
 
 For ever within coral caves 
 
 The living myriads toil, 
 And meadows grow beneath the waves 
 
 To fertilize the soil. 
 
 Shall then monopoly control 
 
 The boon so freely given, 
 Or set aside by parchment scroll 
 
 The title-deeds of Heaven ? 
 
 Oh ! let not feudal rights impair 
 
 Or in abeyance keep 
 The right divine of all to share 
 
 The blessings of the deep !
 
 OCCASIONAL PIECES. 79 
 
 !%mrs on ibc fanb. 
 
 February 15, 1S70. 
 
 When shall the solid land be free, — 
 
 Free as the viewless wind, 
 Free as the rolling boundless sea, 
 
 Or thoughts that shake mankind ? 
 
 Strike from the mind the leaden chains 
 
 Of ignorance and sloth, 
 Wash from the heart the crimson stains 
 
 Of envy, hate, and wrath. 
 
 Let sordid aims and party strife 
 
 No public men defile ; 
 Cast from the sphere of private life 
 
 All forms of force and guile.
 
 80 OCCASIONAL PIECES. 
 
 Let sensual pleasures cease to sway 
 
 The instinct and the will, 
 Let love alone with tempered ray 
 
 Rain down her influence still ; 
 
 Freedom shall compass then the land, 
 And search it through and through ; 
 
 Nor shall again submissive stand 
 The many to the few.
 
 OCCASIONAL PIECES. 81 
 
 l^rgmes on i\z |Tatib. 
 
 April 1st, 1870. 
 
 Where any newspaper printed in Ireland contains any 
 treasonable or seditious engraving, matter, or expressions .... 
 all printing-presses, engines, machinery, types, implements, 
 utensils, paper, and other plant and materials used for the pur- 
 pose of printing or publishing such newspaper, shall be forfeited 
 to her Majesty, and may be seized under the Lord Lieutenant's 
 Warrant." — The Peace Preservation {Ireland) Act, 1870. Sees. 
 27 & 28. 
 
 O England ! Freedom's Fatherland 
 
 In thought, in word, in deed, 
 Why strike with parricidal hand 
 
 Thy stay in every need ? 
 
 What made thee great, what raised thee high 
 
 Before the nations' eyes? 
 Where poets, warriors, sages, vie, 
 
 What gives to thee the prize ?
 
 OCCASIONAL PIECES. 
 
 'Twas treason and sedition sped 
 Fresh from the printers' mart, — 
 
 Twas they raised up thy sov'reign head, 
 And made thee what thou art. 
 
 Why at the mimic tones grow pale 
 
 Of this thy wayward child? 
 Not thus did Milton's spirit quail, 
 
 When faction revelled wild. 
 
 Oh ! tell it not across the wave, 
 
 Where thoughts and words combine 
 
 To strike the fetters from the slave, 
 And make free men divine. 
 
 Rejoice ye despots of the World ! 
 
 Bind fast the toiling herd ; 
 Lo ! slavery's banner is unfurled — 
 
 Tis England gives the word!
 
 OCCASIONAL PIECES. 83 
 
 But mourn, my country, thus to thee 
 
 The double boon assigned ; 
 What boots it that the land is free 
 
 If chains are on the mind. 
 
 6 2
 
 84 OCCASIONAL PIECES. 
 
 gUmmrs on the ^mxb. 
 
 April 8th, 1870. 
 
 The Member for East Surrey contrasted the land systems 
 under the Irish Chieftains, the Norman Barons, and the law of 
 contract. — (Mr. Buxton's Speech in Committee on Clause 3.) 
 
 When Chiefs of old unsheathed the sword, 
 
 Fast flew the signal-light, 
 The clansman hurried to his lord, 
 
 And backed him in the fight. 
 
 The Land and Chief for whom he fought, 
 Like coloured rays combined, — 
 
 Each with the other inly wrought, 
 Were imaged on his mind. 
 
 Next comes the Norman Baron bold, 
 With villein, squire and knight, 
 
 Who strike alone for what they hold, 
 Whose tenure is to fight.
 
 OCCASIONAL PIECES. 85 
 
 Then lords and vassals, rich and poor, 
 
 Were knit by mutual ties ; 
 None turned the wanderer from the door, 
 
 No traitor sought disguise. 
 
 The age of barter follows next, 
 
 When gold is all-in-all ; 
 And naught for naught is made the text 
 
 In cottage and in hall. 
 
 From rent alone all blessings flow, 
 
 It measures all desert; 
 The open hand is nerveless now, 
 
 The kindly heart inert. 
 
 Oh ! cease that strain ! see brightly burning 
 
 The star of hope above ; 
 The golden age is now returning, 
 
 And universal love !
 
 8C OCCASIONAL PIECES. 
 
 £ibnics on tht Ifanir. 
 
 ADDRESS TO THE IRISH MEMBERS BEFORE THE BATTLE 
 
 The trumpet-call sounds loud and clear 
 
 That summons to the fight ; 
 Then, to the onset! Brothers dear, 
 
 And God defend the right ! 
 
 Nor helm nor hauberk serves the turn 
 
 To champion freedom now ; 
 " The thoughts that breathe and words that 
 burn " 
 
 Must crown her glorious brow. 
 
 Oh ! for the tongue of him who swayed 
 The Irish senate's ear ;
 
 OCCASIONAL PIECES. 87 
 
 Who won a wreath, too soon to fade* 
 Upon his country's bier; 
 
 Or give us back for one short hour — 
 
 A greater still than he,t 
 The man who broke the bands of power 
 
 And made our altars free. 
 
 Alas ! the grave yields not its own — 
 
 Those uncrowned kings of men- 
 Union can weld our force alone 
 And make us strong again. 
 
 Time flies, but trust not vou to-morrow; 
 
 The tide is at its flood ; 
 This lesson take from bye-gone sorrow, 
 
 Let faction be withstood. 
 
 * Grattan— the legislative independence of 1782 was followed 
 by its extinction in 1800. 
 f O'Corinell.
 
 88 OCCASIONAL PIECES. 
 
 So shall your names be read in story, 
 
 The single-hearted band 
 Who wooed the beacon-light of glory 
 
 And saved their native land !
 
 OCCASIONAL PIECES. 89 
 
 Christmas, 1869. 
 
 INVITATION FROM THE KILLARNEY LADIES TO THE 
 CHILDREN IN THE KILLARNEY WORK HOUSE. 
 
 O "waifs and strays ! O waifs and strays 
 
 Of this life's stormy sea ! 
 From the highways and the byeways, 
 
 Flock round our Christmas tree ! 
 
 Come hither boy ! and quickly prove 
 
 Our shelter from the cold ; 
 Thou art the child of buried love, 
 
 Cast out upon the wold. 
 
 Come hither, too, thou little maiden ! 
 
 Seek refuge in our cage, 
 Sent from thine own nest sorrow-laden, 
 
 By a drunken fathers's rage.
 
 90 OCCASIONAL PIECES. 
 
 With noiseless footstep famine steals 
 
 Athwart the busiest mart, 
 But leaves behind what aye appeals 
 
 Not vainly to the heart. 
 
 When death strikes down the stalwart arm, 
 
 And artist's lordly head, 
 The orphans feel with wild alarm 
 
 Their only stay has fled. 
 
 The poor man's cot is levelled down 
 
 To suit the rich man's eve, 
 And all the tiny brood has flown 
 
 To bide the wintry sky. 
 
 waifs and strays ! the tribute given 
 
 From a vast sea of woe ! 
 To us you are bequests from heaven, 
 
 Its image here below !
 
 OCCASIONAL PIECES. 91 
 
 O little children ! here repair, 
 
 Most worthy of our love ! 
 For childhood's joys, like holiest prayer, 
 
 Ascend to heaven above.
 
 92 OCCASIONAL PIECES. 
 
 INSTRUCTIONS SUPPOSED TO BE GIVEN BY TIIE KILLARNEY 
 TOOR LAW GUARDIANS FOR THE PREPARATION OF A 
 CHRISTMAS TREE FOR THE YOUNG INMATES. 1870. 
 
 ' Suffer, suffer little children ; let them, let them 
 
 come to me,' 
 Should be graven on each bosom, and festoon each 
 
 Christmas Tree; 
 Tis a flash of light from Heaven, 'tis a spark that 
 
 runs through all, 
 From the gaily lighted salon, to the dimly lighted 
 
 hall. 
 
 Fathers! mothers! be not anxious for too early 
 
 ripen'd fruit, 
 And to teach the young idea prematurely how to 
 
 shoot; 
 Knowledge is not always useful, innocence is ever 
 
 good,
 
 OCCASIONAL PIECES. 93 
 
 Loss of it brought banishment, and long after- 
 wards the flood. 
 
 Let not Wisdom, then, the branches of our merry 
 Christmas Tree 
 
 Load with saws and moral maxims, proud Philo- 
 sophy ! from thee ; 
 
 Fun and frolic are our masters ; Fairy Queen is 
 mistress here, 
 
 They alone can season duly days that come but 
 once a year. 
 
 Here show forth in mimic marvels moving scenes 
 from real life, 
 
 Weddings, births, and merry meetings, frets and 
 jars of man and wife ; 
 
 Else old Square-toes and Blue-stockings, with 
 mnemonics and the schools 
 
 Will but make our darling dunces mere recep- 
 tacles for rules.
 
 94 OCCASIONAL PIECES. 
 
 Bring us Jack the Giant-Killer, with his comrade 
 
 Thomas Thumb, 
 And a file of martial soldiers, always inarching to 
 
 the drum ; 
 Merry Andrews, Punch and Judy, birds and 
 
 beasts from Noah's ark, 
 And the other fit materials for the bird they call 
 
 a lark. 
 
 Waxen babes, cocks, dogs, and horses, with a 
 
 nicffer here and there. 
 And a pretty little lady in a handsome chaise and 
 
 pair ; 
 Till delight on fair young faces (peals of laughter 
 
 ringing round), 
 Slowly wakes to merry music, chords that long 
 
 had ceased to sound.
 
 OCCASIONAL PIECES. 95 
 
 Whilst Adam dwelt in Eden yet 
 
 And fixed by name each living thing, 
 
 He saw a bubbling diamond jet 
 
 Beside the tree of knowledge spring. 
 
 " Water of life," our grand sire said 
 " I name this brightly bubbling fount, 
 
 " Named from the tree whose branches shed 
 " Perennial life o'er yonder mount." 
 
 Alas ! the idly wasted breath ! 
 
 For tho' the sparkling waters flow, 
 We find in life the cause of death, 
 
 In good the source of many a woe. 
 
 * Perhaps few are aware that the word whiskey is a corrup- 
 tion of the Irish word uisge signifying water. It is strange 
 that in languages which have so little affinity as the Irish 
 and English on the one hand, with the French and Latin on 
 the other, the name for this spirit should have the same meta- 
 phorical meaning. In Irish it is uisge (water), and beatha (life), 
 and hi the other languages named, respectively, water of life, 
 eau de vie, and aqua vita; .
 
 9G OCCASIONAL PIECES. 
 
 gut $nribcnl of t\z <T0Vur- 
 
 Oh ! whither is gone from the gay Belvedere 
 The flaxen-haired lad "with the light blue eye? 
 He sprang to his steed, and he couched his spear, 
 As he waved to his love a fond good-bye. 
 
 Oh ! whither is gone from the gay Belvedere 
 The tender-eyed lass with the dark -flowing hair? 
 She gave not a sign, and she dropt not a tear 
 As she sped through the folds of the icy air. 
 
 On a field of snow, all spotted with red, 
 Where the cold moon-beams are shining, 
 The youthful hussar has pillowed his head, 
 On her frozen breast reclining.
 
 OCCASIONAL PIECES. 97 
 
 Mighty, unquenchable power of love ! 
 Clear fountain and essence divine ! 
 Her love for her lover she died to prove, 
 And he for their home by the storied Rhine. 
 
 H
 
 98 OCCASIONAL PIECES. 
 
 (Slommv's flights. 
 
 I saw Aurora rise from rest 
 Where sky and ocean meet ; 
 
 A pale star glittered on her breast, 
 And silver veiled her feet. 
 
 A call of joy through nature ran 
 At this enchanting sight, 
 
 And sorrow fled the heart of man 
 Before this child of light. 
 
 I saw Apollo mount the sky, 
 With bended bow in hand ; 
 
 And saw his teeming arrows fly 
 Prolific through the land.
 
 OCCASIONAL PIECES. 99 
 
 It was the merry month of May, 
 
 And earth brought forth sweet flowers. 
 
 And man beneath the genial ray, 
 Put forth diviner powers. 
 
 Dian I saw serenely move 
 
 Across the starry maze, 
 And tower and town and hill and grove 
 
 Slept in her silver haze. 
 
 And such, methought, the sov'reign plan 
 
 Designed for woman's life, — 
 To cheer, to soothe, to strengthen man 
 
 Amid the rough world's strife. 
 
 Again I saw break drear and cold 
 
 The morning in the east; 
 
 And nature sickened to behold 
 
 The toiling man and beast. 
 
 h 2
 
 100 OCCASIONAL PIECES. 
 
 I saw at noon the driving rain 
 Make void the poor man's toil ; 
 
 At night beheld the foaming main 
 Gather the fated spoil. 
 
 Such are the types of her who fain 
 Would mingle in the strife ! 
 
 Not hers to calm a troubled brain, 
 Or smooth the path of life.
 
 OCCASIONAL PIECES. 101 
 
 aima Pater. 
 
 (On revisiting Trinity College, Dublin, on the 19th of February, 1871, after 
 an absence of many years). 
 
 Alma Mater ! once again I view, 
 
 When life has reached its autumn time, 
 Thy matron-grace which erst- while threw 
 
 Its chastening spells around my prime ; 
 Again I feel thy key unlock 
 
 The sealed up fountains of the heart, 
 Again thou strik'st the arid rock, 
 
 And forth the healing waters start. 
 
 Wise mother of enduring thought ! 
 
 Now thou dost search thy truant son, 
 Ask what ennobling work he wrought, 
 
 How closed life's battle here begun ;
 
 102 OCCASIONAL PIECES. 
 
 How used thy teachings from the lore 
 Gleaned from the wise and great of old; 
 
 The friends that reached his bosom's core 
 Retain they still their firm-set hold ? 
 
 Alma mater ! — no, I will not scan 
 
 Thy special creed ; I only find 
 Thine is a nobly thought-out plan 
 
 To mould and nurse the generous mind. 
 My hope is now that thou may'st stand, 
 
 — Thy halls and temples — long to be 
 A pillar of this Irish land, 
 
 A beacon-light of liberty.
 
 NOTES. 
 
 (1). INNISFALLEN. Page 3. 
 
 Innisfallen is, according to Joyce, derived from 
 Innis, an island, and Faithlen (pronounced Fahlen) 
 a man's name. According to the same authority 
 the small island off Howth, now known as Ireland's 
 Eye, was antiently called Innisfallen. The island 
 to which the poem refers is the most beautiful and 
 most celebrated of the islands in that portion of 
 Lough-lein, now known as the Lower Lake of 
 Killarney. It is composed of lime-stone rock which 
 in this district is often metamorphosed into beautiful 
 marble. In the month of May it presents a sheet of 
 hawthorn blossom, and in October of red berries. 
 A monastery for Augustinian friars, of which exten-
 
 104 NOTES. 
 
 sive ruins still remain, was here founded about the 
 year 550 by St. Finan, surnamed the leper. It was 
 by its abbots that were compiled the celebrated 
 Annals of Innisfallen, one of the oldest and most 
 authentic of the records of Ireland now extant. 
 These annals according to O'Curry (Lectures, p. 75) 
 were commenced about the year 1015 and were 
 continued down to the year 1215. It is to be 
 regretted that no complete translation of them has 
 as yet issued from the press. In the monastery 
 there existed a school for youth where many of the 
 chief men of the country received their education ; 
 the most celebrated was Brian Boroihme, the re- 
 nowned conquerer of the Danes at the Battle of 
 Clontarf. In later days the island became a place of 
 resort for pleasure-seekers, and many a gay festival 
 was held amid the ruins during the summer season. 
 A pretty chapel overhanging a cliff and facing 
 Rosse Castle became a favourite banqueting hall, and 
 after each stag-hunt, a pastime once native to the 
 Lakes, the walls rang with convivial merriment.
 
 NOTES. 105 
 
 Sed tempora mutantur nos et mutamur in Hit's ; all 
 but the unchangeable beauty of the island has 
 altered with^opinions and manners. 
 
 (2). THE SLEEP OF CUDDY. Page 8. 
 
 A LEGEND OF INNISFAELEN. 
 
 It is related that one of the Augustinian Fathers 
 named Cuddy, an inmate of the Monastery of Innis- 
 fallen, on a day very many centuries ago, repaired 
 across the lake in a boat to the mainland, having 
 the intention of shortly returning to his convent. 
 Whilst engaged in prayer at a holy well situated on 
 a wooded eminence overlooking Loch-lein, Cuddy 
 was overtaken by a deep sleep, in which state he 
 continued uninterruptedly for a period of about two 
 hundred years. When he awoke, not being aware 
 that he had slept for more than a few hours, he 
 returned again by boat to Innisfallen, where he 
 expected to join his brethren at matins, to which the 
 summons happened just then to be sounding from
 
 106 NOTES. 
 
 the convent belfry. His astonishment, as may be 
 imagined, was great at the changes which had oc- 
 curred during his, as he supposed, short absence. 
 The faces that met his eye were all strange ; the 
 friars spoke a language unintelligible to him ; old 
 trees had vanished, and young ones had grown into 
 aged oaks. No one recognised him, and he was all 
 but treated as an imposter, when it occurred to one 
 of the more thoughtful of the community to consult 
 the archives of the house. This led to the discovery 
 that the new arrival was no other than the long lost 
 Cuddy, who, according to a tradition then still cur- 
 rent, had disappeared a couple of centuries before, 
 and whose fate had hitherto baffled all enquiry. 
 "When Cuddy was made aware of the facts, and of 
 the length of years to which he had attained without 
 bodily sustenance, his whole frame collapsed, and 
 nothing remained on the spot where he had been 
 standing but a small heap of fine dust. The trans- 
 formation was accompanied by strains of the sweetest 
 melody floating in the air. The hard stone where
 
 NOTES. 107 
 
 Cuddy's protracted slumber took place is still marked 
 by the supposed impress of his knees, as any one may 
 see who visits the spot. The same stone, from which 
 there is no outlet, and which has no inlet, is hollow 
 and basin-shaped. It contains, it is said, pure 
 spring water, which, according to the legend, 
 never fails, not even in the hottest weather or the 
 longest summer. It is called Clock na Cuddy (Cuddy's 
 Stone), and the faith of the dwellers in the adjoining 
 district is attested by the innumerable offerings still 
 hung by votaries on the surrounding trees. 
 
 (3.) LEGEND OF O'DONOGHUE. Page 12. 
 
 Several versions of the O'Donoghue legend are cur- 
 rent, which, though they vary in details, agree in 
 representing the O'Donoghue as a powerful chieftain 
 endowed with magical powers, who plunged from the 
 summit of his castle into the lake beneath. A fair 
 lady is also brought into connection with the tale in 
 one form or another. Another pervading feature is,
 
 1 08 NOTES. 
 
 that the departed returns periodically to visit the 
 scenes of his mortal pilgrimage. Moore, in his Irish 
 melody, " O'Donoghue's Mistress," has given his 
 version, which he probably learned during his visit to 
 Killarney in 1824. In Florence MacCarthy's poems 
 occurs another version, translated from the German, 
 under the title, " The Elf-King O'Donoghue." The 
 legend, as recounted by one versed in lake-lore, is 
 to the effect that O'Donoghue was a great prince, 
 endowed with wonderful magical powers, among 
 which was that of transforming himself into the sem- 
 blance of any other animal. His lovely wife, whom 
 he tenderly loved, desired anxiously to see some 
 manifestation of his power ; and, notwithstanding his 
 warning, that an outcry or exhibition of terror on 
 her part would produce an eternal separation, she 
 persevered, and at last prevailed. The legend says, 
 that O'Donoghue, having caused a huge vessel full 
 of water to be conveyed to the top of his castle, in 
 the presence of his wife jumped in and transformed 
 himself into a salmon, and swam several times around
 
 NOTES. 109 
 
 the tub. This change the wife bore without quail- 
 ing, but requested a second exhibition ; and her 
 husband then took the shape of an antlered stag, 
 and began to pace round the battlements, and look 
 down over the ledge ; thereupon the wife, in her 
 terror, uttered a piercing cry, and the stag jumped 
 into the lake below, and the chief never again 
 appeared, except in his phantom form at stated 
 periods. 
 
 (4.) THE RIVER FLESK. Page 1(3. 
 
 The River Flesk, flowing from an eastern direc- 
 tion, is one great source of supply to Loch-lein, 
 the other being the river flowing from the Upper Lake, 
 and which discharges its waters through the " Old 
 Weir Bridge." The scenery at this point, it is 
 said, particularly attracted the notice of Sir Walter 
 Scott, when he visited the lakes in 1825, and the 
 spot is always pointed out to tourists as that which 
 most excited the admiration of the great master.
 
 110 NOTES. 
 
 (5.) GLEN-FLESK CASTLE. Page II 
 The residence of D. C. Coltsmann, Esq. 
 
 (G.) Page 20. 
 See Note 4. 
 
 (7.) THE OLD WEIR BRIDGE. Pag 21. 
 
 The southern tributary to Loughlin flows underneath 
 this bridge. Though mentioned in guide-books as 
 the Long-range River, its proper name, now seldom 
 or never used, is Barrnasna, so called from the old 
 name of the Upper Lake, which discharges its over- 
 flow through this channel. 
 
 (8.) THE EAGLE'S NEST. Page 25. 
 
 The Eagle's Nest is too well known to require 
 description of any kind, save that it is remarkable
 
 NOTES. Ill 
 
 for the echo it gives forth as for its having been 
 the place where the eagle had his eyrie until very 
 recently. 
 
 " The cliff called the Eagle's nest forms a termin- 
 ation to a short range of mountains It 
 
 is scarcely in the power of language to convey an 
 adequate idea of the extraordinary effect of the 
 echoes under this cliff." . . . — Weld's Killamey, 
 p. 134. 
 
 (9.) PARC AN AIFERINN— A MANGERTON HYMN. 
 
 Page 29. 
 
 About half-way up the ascent of Mangerton, a few 
 hundred yards to the right of the road leading to the 
 Punch-bowl, there is an enclosed field called by the 
 mountaineers, " Pare an Aifcrinn" which being 
 translated signifies the "field of the mass." The 
 peasantry answer enquiries as to the origin of the 
 name by the statement that in the time of Cromwell,
 
 112 NOTES. 
 
 the Priest used to say Mass for the people within 
 the field in question. There is no doubt but the 
 name marks the precise spot where, in the days of 
 persecution, the Priest and people assembled to cele- 
 brate the Holy Sacrifice. The situation is secluded, 
 but commands a view of Loch-lein and the Abbey 
 of Irrelagh. It must be left to etymologists to 
 assign a derivation to the word aiferionn, the Irish 
 word as spelt in the nominative case, which signifies 
 mass ; it may be remarked, however, that whilst the 
 word " mass," or some modification of it, is embodied 
 in almost every other European language, it appears 
 in no shape or form in the Irish. 
 
 (10.) THE PAPS. Page 33. 
 
 Tradition has it that a celebrated Queen of the 
 Tuatha-de-Danann race built a palace on the -side of 
 the Pap mountains, the remains of which still exist 
 and are known far and near by the name of " the
 
 NOTES. 113 
 
 City," to which pilgrims from all parts of Ireland 
 resort on May eve. An allusion to these venerable 
 ruins is to be found in a note by O'Donovan in his 
 splendid edition of the Four Masters, vol. i., p. 23, 
 where he remarks — "The monuments ascribed by 
 the antient Irish writers to the Tuatha-de-Danann 
 colony still remain and are principally situated in 
 Meath, near the Boyne, as at Drogheda, Dowth, 
 Knowth, and New-grange. There are other monu- 
 ments of them at Cnoe-Aine and Cnoe-Greine, in the 
 county of Limerick, and on the Pap mountains, ' Da 
 cic Danainne,' in the S. E. of the county of Kerry." 
 
 (11.) GLEANN-NA-COPPULL— (the horse's glen.) 
 
 Page 34. 
 
 Gleann-na-Coppull, or, the Horse's Glen, is incom- 
 parably the finest mountain gorge in the Killarney 
 lake district. Nothing in the Gap of Dunlo, the 
 Black Valley, or Kippagh, approaches it in sublimity
 
 114 NOTES. 
 
 and that combination of softness and grandeur which 
 characterise the mountain valleys in the barriers 
 around. The glen in question is crescent-shaped, 
 one horn resting on a plateau, half way up the side 
 of Mangerton, the other horn penetrating into the 
 very bowels of the same mountain, and separated by 
 an inaccessible ledge of rock from the Punch-bowl. 
 There are three lakes in the glen, placed in succession, 
 one beyond the other, and each succeeding one more 
 beautiful than the one which went before. Lough- 
 Gearraig, or the bitter lake, Lough-Managli, or the 
 middle lake, and Loiiijh-Iarraigh,oT the western lake. 
 Around these lakes the cliffs rise in shapes of endless 
 variety to an immense height. The ground in 
 summer is covered with every species of wild flowers ; 
 and every variety of fern finds a nook in the endless 
 caverns which are formed by overhanging rocks. 
 At the top of the glen a small patch of incomparable 
 verdure is called by the mountaineers the " Gardene," 
 or little garden. Until lately this place was the 
 abode of eagles and foxes. The name Gleann-na-
 
 NOTES. 115 
 
 Coppull (Horse's Glen) is derived from a well-known 
 fact, that an eagle once pursued a young foal on the 
 heights above, and caused its fall down the 
 precipice into the gulf beneath. Nothing can sur- 
 pass the effect of the rainbow as it spans this glen. 
 The path-way at present accessible only to good 
 pedestrians affords by far the most picturesque 
 approach to the top of Mangerton. In the interior 
 are to be seen the remains of a Still, existing long 
 before the R.I.C., and the debris of a slate quarry 
 which once furnished covering to the houses in 
 Killarney town. 
 
 (12.) BENAUNMORE. Page 35. 
 
 Benaunmore (the great hillock, as distinguished from 
 Benaunbeg — the little hillock) is the name of the 
 very remarkable conical hill, which stands at the top 
 of Lough Guitane about 4 miles from Killarney, 
 Its name and site may be seen on the Ordnance Map
 
 116 NOTES. 
 
 of the County Kerry. It is flanked on one side by 
 the range of mountains of which Mangerton is the 
 chief, and on the other by the stately Crohane. It 
 is separated from its gigantic guardians by two 
 extremely narrow gorges — one on either side — called 
 respectively Esk-duive and Esk-Cael. The pedes- 
 trian, on entering the former, is introduced to a 
 scene of surpassing loveliness and grandeur, which 
 terminate in a perfect gem of beauty, the little lake 
 Carrig-Veh. This name signifies the Lake of the 
 birch covered rock, being compound of Carrig (rock) 
 and Beith (birch). It is named on the map, but not 
 according to the nomenclature of the mountaineers, 
 Crohane lake. One of the most remarkable features 
 in the scenery is communicated by the columnar 
 structure of the rocks, which line, tier upon tier, the 
 narrow gorge. These rocks are of volcanic origin 
 and are, some pentagonal, others hexagonal, and have 
 all clear and well denned outlines. They are classed 
 by geologists as felstone, and are thus described by 
 the late well-known professor Jukes in his Manual
 
 NOTES. 117 
 
 of Geology at page 72. " Benaunmore near Killar- 
 ney columnar, greenish gray, compact with facets of 
 felspar and globular specks of quartz." An analysis 
 of the stone by professor Haughton is given at p. 71 
 of the same work. It is impossible to traverse this 
 mountain pass on a calm day in summer without 
 being penetrated by the sense of unutterable solitude 
 and death-like stillness which reign around. 
 
 (13.) CARAN-TUAL. Page 37. 
 
 The derivation of Caran-tual is the subject of con- 
 troversy. The most probable is that which gives it 
 as Cam, a monumental mound, and Tuathal (pro- 
 nounced Tual), a pre-historic and celebrated Irish 
 hero and king. The not far distant town of Listowel 
 is admittedly derived from Lis, a fort and the same 
 " Tual." 
 
 Caran-tual, is the highest of the M'Gillicuddy 
 Reeks, and also the highest mountain in Ireland,
 
 1 1 8 NOTES. 
 
 being 3,256 feet above the level of the sea. It 
 would be difficult to match the view from this sum- 
 mit on a clear day. Far away to the west is seen 
 the Atlantic, with the headlands of Bantry-bay on 
 the south, and Valencia Island on the north of the 
 field of vision. In the intervening space is stretched 
 out a vast tract of mountains succeeding one another 
 like the waves of the sea. Some thousand feet below 
 lie the recesses of the Black Valley with its cluster 
 of small lakes, and immediately heyond Glen Carr 
 and Cara lake whose banks are dotted round with 
 pleasant villas. 
 
 The presiding genius of Caran-tual is emphatically 
 " The Hag," who forms the central figure in many a 
 tale. This person is commemorated at every turn 
 up the ascent. You have the Hag's glen, the Hag's 
 bed, and her looking-glass ; the Hag's lake, her tooth, 
 and jaw-bone. Every guide is conversant with the 
 history of this awful personage, whose spectre .is still 
 believed to haunt the Glen, emerging after night- fall 
 from her abode under the waters of the lake which
 
 NOTES. 119 
 
 bears her name. On these occasions she assumes an 
 appearance answering to the description of the cele- 
 brated sea-serpent ; in this guise she is said to have 
 almost frightened to death a small party of poachers, 
 who, on a recent occasion happened to be following 
 their piscatory instincts. 
 
 It is greatly to be regretted that the magnificent 
 scenery of this mountain region is not brought within 
 the range of ordinary pedestrians by the formation of 
 pathways easy of ascent. We should consider it an 
 intolerable grievance to be locked out from a picture 
 gallery provided at the public expense ; and here 
 we have a gallery of nature's own forming, inimitable 
 by art, from which we are shut out by the want of 
 a little judicious outlay. A few miles of road-way 
 through the mountains in the Lake-district would 
 invite and multiply tourists and greatly conduce to 
 the prosperity of the locality.
 
 120 NOTES. 
 
 (14.) CAHER CON-RIGH. Page 38. 
 
 This stone fortress stands on a pointed rock, rising 
 2,713 feet, almost sheer, above the glen beneath, or 
 nearly as high as Mangerton above the sea-level. 
 It consists of a circular stone wall, fifteen feet in 
 thickness by 20 in height, except on the sea-side 
 where an escarpment of rock completes the rampart. 
 The diameter of the fort is at least 100 feet. The 
 name Caher Con-Righ signifies in English the stone 
 fort of King Con. From its battlements are distinct- 
 ly visible to the naked eye, on the north side, Loop 
 Head where the Shannon mingles with the sea, and 
 on the south side the Island of Valencia, the distance 
 between the two points as a bird- would fly being 50 
 miles. The intervening arc of a circle is occupied 
 by various bays and inlets, among others, by the 
 mouth of the Shannon, Tralee and Dingle bays and 
 Valencia Harbour. Standing within this right-royal 
 fort, one can understand why the earliest battles 
 recorded in Irish annals should be connected with
 
 NOTES. 121 
 
 this locality. To such a one, acquainted with the 
 prominence given both in prose and verse, to the 
 battles of Slieve Mis and Finntraigh (Ventry) har- 
 bour, the reason why becomes at once apparent. 
 An invader's fleet steering from Spain would 
 evidently make for one of the harbours in view, 
 whilst it is equally clear that not a cockle-shell could 
 float in any one of them unperceived by the watcher 
 in King Con's tower. It remains only to add that 
 the word Ierne is supposed by some authorities to 
 mean the Island furthest west, and etymologists 
 countenance the supposition by deriving the word 
 from tar (west) and inis (island). This derivation may 
 perhaps only be the expression of a very general 
 conviction that the Celtic migration from the earliest 
 times tended westward. The name however pro- 
 bably does mean the expression of a geographical 
 fact.
 
 122 . NOTTS. 
 
 (15). DUNLOE. Page 39. 
 The Castle of Dunloe — in Irish Dun-Loich — is the 
 residence of Daniel Mahony, a descendant of an old 
 Milesian family. The Castle overhangs the river 
 Laune — in Irish Leamhain — it was originally built 
 in the year 1215 by Maurice, son of Thomas Fitz- 
 gerald, according to a most interesting note of Dr. 
 O'Donovan in his folio edition of the Four Masters, 
 vol. iii., p. 188. 
 
 (1G). AGHADOE. Page 40. 
 
 Three circumstances claim the special attention of 
 the visitor to this charming spot. — The panoramic 
 view of the Lower Lake, its islands and surrounding 
 mountains; the cluster of ruined buildings within 
 the narrow compass of a rood or two of land ; and 
 the names of places and coterminous townlands, 
 suggestive as they are of the antient history of the 
 locality in the absence of all historical record. The 
 ruins consist of a Keep or Castle once evidently of
 
 NOTES. 123 
 
 immense strength, called by the peasantry the 
 " Caislean," whose antiquity is supposed to reach 
 beyond even that of the neighbouring round tower ; 
 the only tradition remaining of this fortalice is, that 
 it was battered from Ross Castle by Ludlow in the 
 year 1652. The identical cannon which was instru- 
 mental in its demolition is still shown at Eoss, with 
 the date of 1590 inscribed, and passes by the name 
 of the " Toothless Judy," from its jagged muzzle. 
 The Eound Tower and antient Church complete the 
 group of ruins. Nothing is known of the date or 
 history of either, the only trace consisting of an entry 
 in the Annals of Innisfallen given in the Hibernicon 
 Monasticon to the effect " that the King of 
 Eogonacht-Lochlein died in 1231, and was buried 
 in his old abbey at Aghadoe." The names of the 
 place and the adjoining townlands are particularly 
 suggestive. Aghadoe itself means the " field of the 
 two yew trees," Aghad (field) do (two) and eo (yews). 
 Immediately co-terminous with the south and west 
 of the grave-yard is the townland of Farranaspig, or
 
 124 NOTES. 
 
 the Bishop's land — Farran (land) and aspig (bishop). 
 And on the north and east of the same lies the town- 
 land now barbarously called Nunstown, but whose 
 real name is Killeen-cailaight, or the little church of 
 the nuns — from Killeen (little church) and caillaght 
 (nuns), which word again is derived from caille, a 
 veil or hood. 
 
 It is unnecessary, perhaps, to add that Aghadoe 
 is now the favorite burial place of all the Milesian 
 families for many miles around ; but it may not be 
 altogether unnecessary to remind the reader that the 
 authentic and most antient name of the Irish was 
 Scot, and that the existence of Prince-bishops 
 amongst them was not an unknown occurrence. 
 
 The copy of the Annals of Innisfallen in the Royal 
 Irish Academy contains at folio 138 the following 
 entry: — "Anno 1158. The great Church of 
 Aghadoe was finished by Auliffe Mor-na-Ciummsio- 
 nach, Son of Aongus Donoghue, having obtained 
 the supreme government of Eoganacht Loca Lein 
 for his posterity."
 
 NOTES. 125 
 
 (17). THE ABBEY OF IRRELAGH. Page 41. 
 
 The Abbey of Irrelagh (now called Mucross Abbey) 
 derives its ancient name from the Irish words Oir 
 (East) and Bheallagh (pass). The legend respecting 
 the foundation of this abbey is given in the Annals 
 of the Four Masters, and more recently in Arch- 
 deacon Rowan's Lake Lore. It is to the effect that 
 the M'Carthy More of the time, being desirous to 
 found an abbey, was warned in a vision to erect it 
 on Carraig-an-cheol (the rock of music), and that 
 by supernatural agency he was directed to the spot 
 on which the present Mucross Abbey stands and 
 from which heavenly strains are said to have 
 emanated. The rock on which the ruins still exist 
 is known to this day among the peasantry as Carraig- 
 an-Cheol The foundation, according to the Annals 
 of the Four Masters, took place in 1340, and is due 
 to the Franciscans, the same order of men who have 
 lately revived its glories and name in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Killarney, where they have erected a
 
 126 NOTES. 
 
 splendid edifice and designated it by the name of 
 "New Muekross Abbey." It would be equally 
 impossible to describe the veneration of the people 
 for the old abbey as a burial place, and for the new 
 one as the abode of those whom they regard as 
 their best friends. If you ask a Mangerton moun- 
 taineer why he objects to emigrate ? his answer 
 will probably be because he wishes to be buried 
 down there in the Abbey. 
 
 (18). SISTER AGNES. Page 47. 
 The congregation of the Sceurs du bon Secours was 
 founded in 1824, the first vows in the congregation 
 being pronounced on the 24th January in that year 
 to Monseigneur de Quelin, Archbishop of Paris, who 
 took the title of founder and head superior of the 
 congregation. The Convent in Dublin was estab- 
 lished on the 6th May, 1861.
 
 NOTES. 127 
 
 (19). LAMENT OF DUNQUIN. Page 69. 
 
 " On Thursday, the 5th inst., the crew of a 
 Dunquin boat, whilst gathering seaweed from the 
 rocks, met with a cask of paraffin oil floating on the 
 waves. On their return to the shore they conveyed 
 it to the house of one of their number ; and towards 
 evening proceeded to divide the contents among the 
 captors, who, with several of their respective families, 
 men and women, young and old, were present on 
 the occasion. A spark was, in utter ignorance, 
 applied by one of the bye-standers to a portion of 
 the oil that overflowed. An appalling explosion 
 followed ; instantaneously the cottage was shattered 
 to pieces, and seven of the inmates reduced to cinders. 
 The heart-rending misery and destitution resulting 
 from the castrophe in the remote hamlet of Dunquin 
 are indescribable." * * * *— Abridged from the 
 narrative of Father Egan, P. P., Fcrriter.
 
 128 NOTES. 
 
 (21). LOCH-LEIN. Page 1. 
 
 Lough-ZczVi. The spelling of the word Lein has been 
 adopted from the annals of the Four Masters, where 
 it is invariably spelled as in the text, in preference 
 to that used in the Ordnance Survey. The name 
 Lein is derived from a stream so called which 
 descends into the lake from Tore Mountain. The 
 Earl of Kenmare is proprietor under grants from the 
 Crown of Lough-lein. The name Kenmare — equiva- 
 lent to the Scotch Kenmuire — is derived from ceann 
 (head) and mare (sea). It signifies an estuary of the 
 sea. The river Kenmare forming a noble estuary of 
 the Atlantic, and one of the chief geographical 
 features in Kerry, which can be seen from all the 
 mountains surrounding Longh-lein by the naked eye, 
 gives his title to the noble proprietor of the lakes. 
 Mr. Joyce in his admirable book on the Irish names 
 of places has fallen into an error in stating "that 
 the town of Kenmare in Kerry received its name 
 from a spot on the river Roughty." That charming
 
 NOTES. 129 
 
 little town was antiently and is still by Irish-speaking 
 people called Nedeen signifying little nest ; but 
 about a century since the name was changed by the 
 Earl of Shelburne, ancestor of the present Marquis 
 of Lansdowne, as a mark of friendship to the then 
 Lord Kenmare. This fact is stated by Arthur Young 
 in his Tour through Ireland 1776 — who says, speak- 
 ing of the town in question, " Lord Shelburne has a 
 plan for improving Nedeen, to which he has given the 
 name of Kenmare from his friend the nobleman with 
 that title, which when executed must be of consider- 
 able importance," p. 287, fol. ed. 1780. It appears 
 from lists attached to this book that Lord Shelburne 
 was a subscriber for five copies, and also gave Arthur 
 Young letters of introduction which are gratefully 
 acknowledged.
 
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