Beauties and Antiquities of Ireland: Being a Tourist's Guide to Its Most Beautiful Scenery & an Archæologist's Manual for Its Most Interesting Ruins — John Shaqi
Beauties and Antiquities of Ireland: Being a Tourist's Guide to Its Most Beautiful Scenery & an Archæologist's Manual for Its Most Interesting RuinsRussell, Thomas O'Neill
History
Beauties and Antiquities of Ireland: Being a Tourist's Guide to Its Most Beautiful Scenery & an Archæologist's Manual for Its Most Interesting Ruins
Russell, Thomas O'Neill
Ireland -- Antiquities; Ireland -- Description and travel
Although Tara is more ancient and more historic than Emania, the latter
place is connected with the most pathetic, the most dramatic, and most
generally beautiful tale in all the vast mass of ancient Gaelic
literature--"The Fate of the Children of Uisneach." It was in Emania that
their betrayer and murderer, Connor, King of Ulster, lived; it was there
that they themselves were killed, and it was there that Deirdre died. The
tale appeared almost a century ago in a book brought out by a Gaelic
Society that then existed in Dublin. The Irish text was given, with a
translation by Theopholus O'Flanagan. It was thought by some that he had
no ancient copy of the tale, and that he might have embellished it, for he
did not say from what manuscript he had taken it. The story, as given in
the "Book of Leinster," while agreeing in the main with O'Flanagan's
version, is not nearly of such literary value as his, and is not more than
one quarter the length. But all doubts as to the existence of an ancient
version of the story given by O'Flanagan have been removed, for an ancient
copy of it, supposed to be of the fourteenth century, was found some years
ago in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh, and has been edited and
translated by Mr. Whitley Stokes. It may be seen in Windische's _Irische
Texte_. It agrees almost exactly with the version given by O'Flanagan. It
would be hard to give a clearer proof of the utter neglect with which
Celtic literature has heretofore been treated, than by a statement of the
fact that there are not probably a hundred persons living, at least of the
literary class, who have read this wondrously beautiful tale of the
Children of Uisneach. For pathos, dramatic power, and pure poetry it would
be hard to get anything in the way of romance superior to it. If such a
literary gem existed in the literature of any European language but Irish,
if such existed even in Arabic or Persian, it would be known to literary
people almost all over the world. But how can people of other nations be
blamed for their ignorance of Gaelic literature when the Irish themselves
are more indifferent about it than the Germans or the French? A text and
translation of the "Fate of the Children of Uisneach" is sorely
wanted--not merely as a text for scholars, but for the people at large.
When such appears it will make a visit to Emania infinitely more
interesting; for, after reading such a pathetic tale, he would indeed be
hard-hearted and unsympathetic that would not, if he could find where she
was buried, shed a tear over the grave of Deirdre. The very fine poem by
the late Doctor Robert Dwyer Joyce, published in Boston, America, in 1877,
was the only attempt ever made to popularise the story of the Children of
Uisneach and the fate of the unfortunate but true and noble Deirdre.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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