A Book of Irish Verse: Selected from modern writers, with an introduction and notes by W. B. Yeats
General
A Book of Irish Verse: Selected from modern writers, with an introduction and notes by W. B. Yeats
English poetry -- Irish authors; Ireland -- Poetry
Several Welsh families, associates in the invasion of Strongbow, settled
in the West of Ireland. Of these, the principal, whose names have been
preserved by the Irish antiquarians, were the Walshes, Joyces, Heils (_a
quibus_ MacHale), Lawlesses, Tolmyns, Lynotts, and Barretts, which last
draw their pedigree from Walynes, son of Guyndally, the _Ard Maor_, or
High Steward of the Lordship of Camelot, and had their chief seats in
the territory of the two Bacs, in the barony of Tirawley, and county of
Mayo. _Clochan-na-n'all_, i. e. 'The Blind Men's Stepping-stones,' are
still pointed out on the Duvowen river, about four miles north of
Crossmolina, in the townland of Garranard; and _Tubber-na-Scorney_, or
'Scrags Well,' in the opposite townland of Carns, in the same barony.
For a curious _terrier_ or applotment of the Mac William's revenue, as
acquired under the circumstances stated in the legend preserved by Mac
Firbis, see Dr. O'Donovan's highly-learned and interesting 'Genealogies,
&c. of Hy. Fiachrach,' in the publications of the _Irish Archæological
Society_--a great monument of antiquarian and topographical erudition.
Page 90, line 6. 'William Conquer' was William Fitzadelm De Burgh, the
Conqueror of Connaught.
Page 91, line 4. Sir Samuel Ferguson introduces the poem as follows:--
Aideen, daughter of Angus of Ben-Edar (now the Hill of Howth), died of
grief for the loss of her husband, Oscar, son of Ossian, who was slain
at the battle of Gavra (_Gowra_, near Tara in Meath), A.D. 284. Oscar
was entombed in the rath or earthen fortress that occupied part of the
field of battle, the rest of the slain being cast in a pit outside.
Aideen is said to have been buried on Howth, near the mansion of her
father, and poetical tradition represents the Fenian heroes as present
at her obsequies. The Cromlech in Howth Park has been supposed to be her
sepulchre. It stands under the summits from which the poet Atharne is
said to have launched his invectives against the people of Leinster,
until, by the blighting effect of his satires, they were compelled to
make him atonement for the death of his son.
Page 99. 'There was then no man in the host of Ulster that could be
found who would put the sons of Usnach to death, so loved were they of
the people and nobles. But in the house of Conor was one called Mainé
Rough Hand, son of the king of Lochlen, and Naesi had slain his father
and two brothers, and he undertook to be their executioners. So the sons
of Usnach were then slain, and the men of Ulster, when they beheld their
death, sent forth their heavy shouts of sorrow and lamentation. Then
Deirdre fell down beside their bodies wailing and weeping, and she tore
her hair and garments and bestowed kisses on their lifeless lips and
bitterly bemoaned them. And a grave was opened for them, and Deirdre,
standing by it, with her hair dishevelled and shedding tears abundantly,
chanted their funeral song.' (_Hibernian Nights' Entertainment_.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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