All praise to the man who brought us the Faith! 'Tis a staff by day and our pillow in death! All praise I say to that blessed youth, Who heard in a dream from Tyrawley's strand That wail, 'Put forth o'er the sea thy hand: In the dark we die: give us hope and Truth!' But Patrick built not on Iorras' shore That convent where now the Franciscans dwell: Columba was mighty in prayer and war: But the young monk preaches as loud as his bell, That love must rule all, and all wrongs be forgiven, Or else he is sure we shall reach not heaven! This doctrine I count right cruel and hard, And when I am laid in the old churchyard, The habit of Francis I will not wear: Nor wear I his cord or his cloth of hair In secret. Men dwindle: till psalm and prayer Had softened the land no Dane dwelt there! I forgive old Cathbar who sank my boat: Must I pardon Feargal who slew my son: Or the pirate, Strongbow, who burned Granote, They tell me, and in it nine priests, a nun, And worse--St. Finian's old crozier staff? At forgiveness like that, I spit and laugh! My chief in his wine-cups forgave twelve men: And of these a dozen rebelled again. There never was chief more brave than he! The night he was born Loch Gar up-burst: He was bard-loving, gift-making, fond of glee, The last to fly, to advance the first. He was like the top spray upon Uladh's oak, He was like the tap-root of Argial's pine: He was secret and sudden: as lightning his stroke: There was none that could fathom his hid design. He slept not: if any man scorned his alliance He struck the first blow for a frank defiance, With that look in his face, half night, half light, Like the lake just blackened yet ridged with white! There were comely wonders before he died: The eagle barked, and the Banshee cried, The witch-elm wept with a blighted bud, The spray of the torrent was red with blood: The chief returned from the mountains bound, Forgot to ask after Bran his hound. We knew he would die: three days were o'er, He died. We _waked_ him for three days more: One by one, upon brow and breast, The whole clan kissed him: In peace may he rest!