The Keen of the South of Ireland: As Illustrative of Irish Political and ...

SPECIMENS OF THE KEEN OF THE

SOUTH OF IRELAND.

THE LAMENT OF O'GNIVE.

VERSIFIED FROM THE IRISH BY MR. CALLANAN.

AFTER a literal translation in O'Connor's Dissertations on Irish History. Here reprinted from the "Recluse of Inchidony, and other Poems, by J. J. Callanan." (London, 1830), in which volume it is thus prefaced:

"Fearflatha O'Gniamh, was family olamh, or bard, to the O'Neil of Clanaboy, about the year 1556. The poem, of which the following lines are the translation, commences with 'Mo thruaid mar atáid gaoidhil,' " p. 135.

Mr. Callanan's versification was first printed in Bolster's Magazine (Cork, No. 5, January 1827), and in a letter, addressed to the author of a memoir of Mr. Callanan in a subsequent No. of the same publication, upon the appearance of these verses, Callanan says "I am much indebted to you for the manner in which my 'O'Gnive' came to light; your deep reading in our history, and acquaintance with the past state of Ireland, enabled you to elucidate it very satisfactorily." The notes to be ascribed to this source are distinguished by a star at the end.

As it is stated in the Transactions of the Iberno-Celtic Society, that this poem "Upon the miserable condition of the Irish in those parts of the country where the power of the English prevailed,"

consists of ninety-two verses, it is evident that Mr. Callanan has versified only a very small portion of it, and the first line, which signifies literally "Alas for the state of the Gathelians," is sufficient to shew how much in his version he has embellished the original.

An imperfect translation may be seen in O'Connor's Dissertations on the History of Ireland (p. 72, Christie's Ed. Dublin, 1812). "Copies of the original are in the hands of almost every Irish scholar." Trans. Ib. Celtic Soc. 4to. Dublin, 1820, p. cxxxvii.

How dimm'd is the glory that circled the Gael,
And fall'n the high people of green Innisfail ;*
The sword of the Saxon is red with their gore ;
And the mighty of nations is mighty no more!

Like a bark on the ocean, long shattered and tost
On the land of your fathers at length you are lost;
The hand of the spoiler is stretched on your plains,
And you're doom'd from your cradles to bondage and
chains.

O, where is the beauty that beam'd on thy brow?
Strong hand in the battle!-how weak art thou now!
That heart is now broken that never would quail,
And thy high songs are turned into weeping and wail.

Bright shades of our sires! from your home in the skies,

O blast not your sons with the scorn of your eyes!

* Innisfail the island of destiny, one of the names of Ireland.*

Proud spirit of Gollam,* how red is thy cheek,
For thy freemen are slaves, and thy mighty are weak!

O'Nealf of the Hostages;-Con‡ whose high name,
On a hundred red battles has floated to fame,
Let the long grass still sigh undisturbed o'er thy sleep;
Arise not to shame us, awake not to weep.

In thy broad wing of darkness enfold us, O night!
Withhold, O bright sun, the reproach of thy light;
For freedom, or valour, no more canst thou see,
In the home of the brave, in the isle of the free.

Affliction's dark waters your spirits have bow'd,

And oppression hath wrapped all your land in its shroud,

Since first from the Brehon's§ pure justice you stray'd, And bent to those laws the proud Saxon has made.

We know not our country, so strange is her face ;
Her sons, once her glory, are now her disgrace;

* Gollamh-a name of Milesius, the Spanish progenitor of the Irish O's and Macs.*

† Nial—of the Nine Hostages, the heroic monarch of Ireland in the 4th century, and ancestor of the O'Neil family.*

Con Cead Catha-Con of the Hundren Fights, monarch of the Island in the 2nd century; although the fighter of a hundred battles, he was not the victor of a hundred fields;—his valorous rival, Owen, king of Mnnster, compelled him to a division of the kingdom.*

§ Brehons-the hereditary judges of the Irish Septs.*

Gone, gone is the beauty of fair Innisfail,

For the stranger now rules in the land of the Gael.

Where, where are the woods that oft rung to your cheer,

Where you waked the wild chace of the wolf and the

deer?

Can those dark heights with ramparts all frowning and

riven,

Be the hills where your forests wav'd brightly in heaven?

O bondsmen of Egypt! no Moses appears

To light your dark steps thro' this desert of tears;
Degraded and lost ones, no Hector is nigh,
To lead you to freedom, or teach you to die!

DR. GEOFFRY KEATING.

GEOFFRY KEATING, well known as the author of a History of Ireland, appears to deserve consideration as a poet. Besides the poems of which the two following specimens are fragments, he was the author of thirty-six verses in praise of Teige O'Coffey, a celebrated performer on the harp, beginning:

"Cia an tsaoi le seinntear an chruit."

"(Who is the sage by whom the harp is struck?)"

In Ryan's Worthies of Ireland, an elegy on the death of Lord Decies is ascribed to Keating, and also a burlesque poem on his servant Simon, whom he compares with the heroes of antiquity. Keating was a Roman Catholic priest, and took his degree of

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