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MICHAEL J. REDDING 
 
Brochure of Irish Achievements 
 
 IN 
 
 Government, Art, Architecture, 
 Literature and Poetry 
 
 Mr M ig 
 
 BY 
 
 Michael J. Redding 
 
 885 Park Avenue 
 
 Corner of Howard Street 
 
 Baltimore, Maryland 
 
 July 
 
 Fourteenth 
 Nineteen 
 Hundred 
 and Thirteen 
 
J 
 
 ^v.^ 
 
 ^.^ 
 
 Copyright, 1^13, by Michael J. Redding. 
 
 ^;? ^^ 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 m it m 
 
 Page 
 
 FOREWORD 5 
 
 GOVERNMENT IS 
 
 ART 27 
 
 ARCHITECTURE 37 
 
 LITERATURE 65 
 
 POETRY 85 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 An Irish poem in assigning characteristics to 
 different nations, says: 
 
 "For acuteness and valor, the Greeks: 
 
 ERUATA 
 
 p. 7 Line 13 should be Murray's instead of Murry's. 
 
 P. 38 Ivine 10 "^ive" instead of "gives". 
 
 p. 40 After line 5 insert as heading "Assyria". 
 
 1>. 5+ Une 17 that is from "Islay," Scotland. 
 
 p. 131 Ivine 14 should read. "Arren More". 
 
 lensiics 01 tne Ueltic mind, blended with an im- 
 agination vivid enough to fill the soil just below 
 the roots of the shamrock with sprites, and the air 
 with spirits, make of the Irishman a being which 
 cannot be appealed to, like the saxon, through a 
 table d 'hote. For while his humanity compels his 
 feet to touch earth, his spirit lives in illimitable 
 space communing with eternity. 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 An Irish poem in assigning characteristics to 
 different nations, says: 
 
 ''For acuteness and valor, the Greeks: 
 
 "For acquisition and excessive pride, the 
 ' ' Romans : 
 "For thrift and application, the Germans: 
 
 "For tenacity and dissimulation the English; 
 "and 
 "For impulsiveness, patriotism and sensibility, 
 "the Irish." 
 
 The quick impulsiveness and emotional charac- 
 teristics of the Celtic mind, blended with an im- 
 agination vivid enough to fill the soil just below 
 the roots of the shamrock with sprites, and the air 
 with spirits, make of the Irishman a being which 
 cannot be appealed to, like the saxon, through a 
 table d 'hote. For while his humanity compels his 
 feet to touch earth, his spirit lives in illimitable 
 space communing with eternity. 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 He eats only that lie might live ; he prefers soul 
 to surloin. 
 
 He talks of food neither before, while, nor after 
 eating; his table etiquette is hospitality seasoned 
 with exquisite sensibility and spiced with spoken 
 sunshine. 
 
 Why should he talk of food, who, 
 
 ' ' Ne 'er distrusts his God for cloth or bread 
 
 ''While lilies flourish and the raven's fed!" 
 
 While ever ready to protect the land of his 
 adoption, and the birthplace of his children, his 
 heart is ever crooning: 
 
 "Yes give me the land where the ruins are 
 
 spread 
 And the living tread light o'er the hearts of 
 the dead". 
 
 His etherial nature banquets on the ancient his- 
 tory of his country. 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 He knew as a pagan, long before he got faith, 
 his intuition told him, that God regulates the 
 night's length by the planets, and he feels in the 
 history of his country it is early morning, and 
 the day orb of freedom must soon rise. 
 
 It would take the vocabulary of Edmund Burke 
 to do Ireland's genius justice, but posterity can 
 glory in the race from which it sprang even with 
 circumscribed limitations of expression. 
 
 And if pride in ancestry, like a nation's glory 
 in antiquity is a laudable feeling, I am proud 
 of my grandfathers, on the distaff as well as the 
 male side who made no mistakes in "Murry's 
 grammer", and who had no brogue in the patois 
 of "Gurth and Wamba", for like Richard I. 
 (1175) they never learned the bartering trade- 
 mark of the bargain counter, fit only to shop with. 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 Which although supplemented as it is, with 
 Greek, Irish, Latin and French, barely enables 
 one to but half express his feelings of love, affec- 
 tion, joy, delight, rapture, faith, hope, charity 
 and contentment. 
 
 The only outlet it gives the heart is to be 
 sweetly mawkish, and the only vent for the intel- 
 lect is to be smoothly dull. 
 
 Edward Gibbon, whose great pen-picture of the 
 "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" with 
 its geographical accuracy and careful marshalling 
 of every detail to give color and strength to his 
 biased view-point used but 58 per cent, of English 
 words. 
 
 In England 's lagging, limited lexicon there are 
 but two words of endearment, — ''Dear" and "Af- 
 fectionate" — applicable alike to father, mother, 
 sister, brother, cousin and friend. 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 In this dearth of soul language, the emotions 
 are in a "pent-up Utica", the imagination is 
 caged, and the spirit trammeled in its tenderness 
 and affection. 
 
 Irishmen do not, cannot, think like Englishmen, 
 and a mental thraldom must necessarily exist 
 when forced to express Gaelic ideas with English 
 idioms, which are but as a painted strawberry to 
 a saucer of the real smothered in cream. 
 
 And this condition appertains, in a degree, with 
 an Irishman who can speak only English, yea and 
 speak it well, but whose ancestors for thousands 
 of years were Gaelic in thought, language and lit- 
 erature. 
 
 The few examples of Irish genius given in this 
 opuscle, simply annotating, for my own pleasure, 
 only show what might be brought forth by one 
 with ability, untrammeled by trade, and with time 
 untaxed. 
 
10 FOREWORD 
 
 Montaigne says: that in the matchless polic;/ of 
 Sparta, the land of heroes who won Thermopylae, 
 the only one book-study absolutely enforced in 
 Sparta was history: the men of Sparta well knew 
 the power of history to enlarge the intellect, for- 
 tify the mind and expand the soul: by it purpose 
 is ennobled, courage is uplifted and solitude 
 changed into a great communion with the past. 
 
 Every Irishman, yea, and every Irishman's son 
 should know by heart every flower of fact, culled 
 from many gardens, and set out in this little book 
 as a rosary of achievement in Ireland's past great- 
 ness. 
 
 "Virginius", the tragedy, written by James 
 Sheridan Knowles equals any emanation of 
 Shakespeare, who is outclassed in comedy by 
 Sheridan's "Rivals" and "School for Scandal." 
 
FOREWORD 1 1 
 
 Shakespeare, — the bard with the Norman- 
 French name, with ideas and fairies imported 
 from Ireland in his * ' Midsummer Night 's Dream ' ', 
 and with the majority of the plots of his other 
 plays borrowed from the Celtic genius of Europe, 
 says, in an aphorism twisted, and borrowed from 
 the ancient Celts: "Let all the ends thou aim'st 
 at be thy country's, thy God's and truth". 
 
 Well I may not hit the bull's-eye but here is for 
 
 the aim. 
 
 MICHAEL J. REDDING. 
 
13 
 
 IRISH GOVERNMENT 
 
 If the reader will kindly bear with me, I shall 
 attempt, in a modest way, to portray Ireland 
 linked with Art and Literature, from the most 
 ancient times to the present day, and if not enter- 
 taining, I hope it will be, at least interesting, to 
 hear from unbiased authorities, for you will notice 
 as I go along, that I call not upon one Irishman, to 
 give evidence of the exalted niche in Arts, Archi- 
 tecture and Poetry, which Ireland occupied 
 hundreds of years before the Birth at Bethlehem. 
 
 But why, it may be asked, turn the telescope 
 on one small Island among the nations of the 
 earth, a glimmer in aphelion, when numberless 
 stars of the first magnitude, in periphelion, can be 
 seen by the naked eye. 
 
 Why should men lose themselves in a maze, to 
 travel in the unsuccessful path of a small national- 
 ity? 
 
14 IRISH GOVERNMENT 
 
 When by keeping to the highways of the world 's 
 progress, we can have pass before us in grand 
 panoramic procession, the great Dominions and 
 mighty Empires that impelled the material prog- 
 ress which we now enjoy. 
 
 Well, if man was all animal and lived by bread 
 alone, material progress would be our measuring- 
 rod, and the history of powerful kingdoms might 
 act as a condiment and gratify the taste. 
 
 But until we lose the lesson conveyed by the 
 Son of Man in dealing with the Prince of Evil, 
 whom He told on the mountain -top: 
 
 "Get thee behind Me satan", the intellectuality 
 of a people will count for more than the towers, 
 temples, trade and treasuries of mighty Empires 
 and colossal Kingdoms, which satan showed the 
 Saviour. 
 
IRISH GOVERNMENT I5 
 
 It is to small countries, then, that we must look 
 for that intensity of national life, which has 
 inspired all that is best in literature, poetry, 
 painting, sculpture and music. . 
 
 And the ultimate power of the artist lies in the 
 spirit of local patriotism and pride in the race 
 from which he sprang. 
 
 The Irish Celt, or Gael is one of the oldest, if 
 not the oldest people in Europe today. 
 
 Their old home may have been upon the plains 
 and valleys once occupied by the Medes and Per- 
 sians, in the lands watered by those five rivers of 
 the Punjab, which flow into the North- West of 
 the Indus. 
 
 Or, we may look for their old home westward, 
 from the Indus to the Euphrates ; northward from 
 the shores of the Persian Gulf and the Arabian 
 Sea, to the Caucasus, the Caspian and the river 
 Oxus, of Asia. 
 
16 IRISH GOVERNMENT 
 
 Or, it may be possible that the Phoenicians peo- 
 pled Ireland, whose home was along the East 
 Coast of the Mediterranean, and north of Palestine 
 
 Or they may have come, as some think probable, 
 from Spain, migrating by sea to the western coast 
 of Ireland, long before the Visigoths, from north 
 of the Black Sea invaded sunny Spain; long be- 
 fore the Alemanni occupied the Rhine provinces 
 and a thousand years before the Huns invaded 
 Rome, Phoenician and Spanish ships anchored in 
 Irish harbors. 
 
 Moore happily expresses this fact in his song of 
 Innisfail, with the ancient air of "Peggy Bawn", 
 which translated means "Fair Margaret". 
 
 But whether the Phoenicians from the banks of 
 the Mediterannean, or the Milesians of Spain, peo- 
 pled Ireland, or whence they came, or however 
 early they came, the gift of genius was the splen- 
 did contribution of the Irishman, to Government, 
 Art, Architecture, Literature and Poetry. 
 
IRISH GOVERNMENT 17 
 
 Let lis take Government first: 
 
 Willi^ the American poet, says: "The inhab- 
 itants of another country look upon the small 
 space occupied by Ireland on the map of the world 
 v/itli mingled wonder and admiration when they 
 read the long roll of her illustrious sons". 
 
 "The law vv'itli them was the law of the people". 
 
 The Irish conception of an enduring state or 
 Nation was a thousand years ahead of the times. 
 
 Nine hundred years before the advent of Christ, 
 Ireland had a National Legislature. 
 
 When Saint Patrick first set foot in the island 
 he found it governed by four pro\dncial Kings, 
 with one chief sovereign. 
 
 What ! says the man who has forgotten the day 
 of small kingdoms, at the beginning of the Chris- 
 tian era, four Kings and one chief sovereign to 
 make laws for a country as small as Ireland. 
 
18 IRISH GOVERNMENT 
 
 Forgetting the murderous English Heptarchy, 
 of seven Kings, and Bede's history of England, 
 which tells us that 700 years later (or in A. D. 
 680) there were four Kings in England — Egfird, 
 King of the Northumbrians; Ethelfrid, King of 
 the Mercians; Aldhulf, King of East Angles, and 
 Lothair,King of Kent; and completely overlooking 
 the fact that if we use the title King in none but 
 its governing sense, in which sense only, it applies 
 to Ireland, we have here in Maryland twenty-seven 
 State Senators, who are more potential than was 
 any Irish King, and a Governor for an Ard Righ 
 much more potential than was Brian Boru, the 
 head King of Ireland under the Clan system. 
 
 Born could take no land forcibly, the demeanse 
 around his palace situated on the spot now oc- 
 cupied by the town of Killaloe in County Clare 
 on the river Shannon, was given to him by the 
 Dalcassians, a brave and powerful clan, who oc- 
 cupied the district now called the County Clare. 
 
IRISH GOVERNMENT 
 
 This family of whom Mahon was one, being the 
 brother of Born, had for generations given Kings 
 to Thomond, and Mahon, himself, now became 
 King of all Munster, both Thomond and Desmond. 
 
 It may be of some importance to state that: The 
 provinces of Munster and Leinster were not cut- 
 up into counties until A. D., 1210. The province 
 of Connought not until 1516, and the province of 
 Ulster not until 1584. 
 
 The Irish Clan system was essentially a pure 
 democracy, in fact, it went so far as to include the 
 initiative, referendum and recall, for each tribe 
 was supreme within its own borders. 
 
 It elected its own chief and could depose him, 
 as they did, Dermod MacMurragh, if he acted 
 against the laws of the commonwealth over which 
 he presided 
 
20 IRISH GOVERNMENT 
 
 The Irish had no hereditary class, ability alone, 
 not family gave one Kingship in Ireland over a 
 nation of free men. 
 
 The Ard Righ or head King was the representa- 
 tive of the whole national life, but his power 
 rested on the tradition of the people and the con- 
 sent of the clans. 
 
 He conld no more impose a new law than our 
 own President can, without the consent of Con- 
 gress, and it was not possible for him to force a 
 demand of service outside the law. 
 
 Sir Henry Sumner Maine, Professor of Law at 
 Oxford, says: 
 
 "The basic feature and structural interpreta- 
 tion of Ireland's brehon laws which fathered and 
 fostered the accused being tried by his peers, was 
 borrowed by England from which sprung trial by 
 jury." And Magna Charta was stolen completely 
 from Ireland without giving it credit. 
 
IRISH GOVERNMENT 21 
 
 The fundamental liberties of the people were 
 never encroached upon by these brehon laws. 
 
 It punished crime wherever found and relig- 
 iously protected the innocent when falsely ac- 
 cused. 
 
 The Brehons followed the natural laws of 
 justice in their decisions, and their code main- 
 tained its ground amongst Irishmen down to the 
 beginning of the 17th century; and its spirit be- 
 cause of its inherent justice is still alive in Ire- 
 land. 
 
 Above all, it recognized the family as the unit 
 of society, and the home as the most sacred spot 
 on earth, which the most powerful King dare not 
 desecrate without a pre-paid passage of flight 
 from Ireland to England, where the unclean could, 
 and did get the ear of Royalty, as in the case of 
 Dermod Mac Murragh, King of Leinster, who find- 
 
22 IRISH GOVERNMENT 
 
 ing an Irish princess, Dearbhorgil, the wife of 
 O'Bouark, willing to assume the character of 
 Helen, the Grecian lady, thought he could play 
 Paris with impunity but immediately found that 
 Ireland, unlike ancient Troy, demanded from its 
 Kings the same chastity which it ever found in 
 its women; hence Ireland was not large enough to 
 hold Mac Murragh. 
 
 In the ultimate the people ruled and demanded 
 the same brand of purity from prince as from 
 peasant. 
 
 They never lost their trust in the people, lieuce 
 they never exalted a central authority for their 
 law needed no such sanction. 
 
 The code was for the whole race, while the ad- 
 ministration of the code was divided into the 
 widest possible range of self-governing communi- 
 ties which were bound together in a willing fed- 
 eration. 
 
IRISH GOVERNMENT 23 
 
 And the force and strength of the union of this 
 great people were not material nor military but 
 intellectual, and far more exalted than the miser- 
 able feudal system of the middle ages. 
 
 Under the feudal system of Europe every coun- 
 try was divided and subdivided into a vast num- 
 ber of independent principalities. 
 
 Thus in the 10th century France was parti- 
 tioned among about a hundred and fifty overlords. 
 
 All exercising equal and co-ordinate powers of 
 sovereignty. 
 
 Many of these lords were richer and stronger 
 than the King himself, and if they chose to cast 
 off their allegiance to hini he found it impossible 
 to reduce them to obedience. 
 
 The King's time was chiefly occupied in inef- 
 fectual efforts to reduce his haughty and refrac- 
 tory nobles to proper submission, and in feebly in- 
 tervening to compose their endless quarrels with 
 one another. 
 
24 IRISH GOVERNMENT 
 
 It is easy to conceive the disorder and wretched- 
 ness produced by this never ceasing turmoil. 
 
 But the splendid (tribal) system of the Irish 
 was most beneficial in the diffusion of a very 
 high intelligence among the whole people. 
 
 A varied education spread over many centres 
 fertilized and enriched the individual man and ex- 
 alted human nature in the Clan system by the 
 administration of its own affairs, because a so- 
 ciety must of needs be enriched with the life of 
 opportunity involved in the participation of all 
 the activities that go to make up a full community. 
 
 It is, therefore, easy to understand why the 
 Irish never would submit to the Norman feudal 
 system, and why they so readily adapt themselves 
 to the principles as exemplified by the govern- 
 ment of the United States; being to all intents 
 Americans as soon as they touch these shores. 
 
IRISH GOVERNMENT 25 
 
 Their conception of liberty was akin to that of 
 Americans today, and whether men be Irish or 
 American they can all subscribe to these oft- 
 qnoted words which have endeared Moore to all 
 lovers of Liberty: 
 
 ' ' Far dearer the grave or the prison, 
 Illumined by one patriot's name. 
 Than the trophies of all who have risen 
 On Liberty 's ruins to fame. ' ' 
 
27 
 
 IRISH ART 
 
 And now of Art: 
 
 The most beautiful specimen of illuminated 
 penmanship in the world today is the Book of 
 Kells done by Irish writers, and now in Trinity 
 College, Dublin. 
 
 So expert were they in the art of drawing that 
 they could form the Gothic arch without rule or 
 compass. 
 
 We know that Vulcan was a Grecian God; and 
 the ancient Irish had their metal-god Goibniu, 
 the Dedannan, who figures in many of the old 
 romances. 
 
 While the Saxons, Danes and Normans — all be- 
 longing to the race of Northmen — were pursuing 
 their regular vocation of ravishing, murdering 
 and plundering the people of other nations in 
 Western Europe, the Irish were engaged in the 
 nobler occupation of spreading Christianity, art 
 and learning throughout the world. 
 
28 IRISH ART 
 
 For the truth of this statement we have the 
 testimony of not only English historians, but his- 
 torians of other countries. 
 
 Mosheim, Protestant ecclesiastical historian of 
 Germany, said: 
 
 "Tiiat the Irish were lovers of Learning and 
 Art and distinguished themselves in those times 
 of ignorance beyond all other European nations. ' ' 
 
 The Irish artists in Metal work were quite as 
 skillful as the scribes were in penmanship. 
 
 Professor Westwood, an Englishman, says: Art 
 cultivated in Ireland and by Irishmen, known as 
 Keltic, was absolutely distinct from that of all 
 other parts of the civilized world; it attained in 
 Ireland a perfection almost marvelous, and it was 
 in after ages adopted by the Continental schools 
 visited or established by Irish artisans. 
 
IRISH ART 29 
 
 The ornamental patterns consisted of the most 
 beautiful curves with interlacements, and the 
 materials employed were gold, silver, bronze of a 
 whitish color, gems, and enamel. 
 
 Wonderful jewels enriched the great Church of 
 Clonmacnois, embossed chalices and golden gob- 
 lets carved in the most exquisite manner by Irish 
 artists whose splendid work was admired in all 
 parts of Europe. 
 
 A great number of the beautiful articles made 
 by those accomplished artists have been found 
 from time to time, of which the most remarkable 
 are the Cross of Cong, tlie Limerick Chalice, and 
 the Tara Brooch, of the 6th century, all now to be 
 seen in the National Museum, Dublin. 
 
30 IRISH ART 
 
 When the Tara brooch was exhibited some years 
 ago, ill one of the great London exhibitions it 
 drew the eyes of all visitors. One English writer 
 who examined it says: that he found a difficulty 
 in conceiving how any fingers could have made it 
 and that it looked more like the work of fairies 
 than of a human artist. 
 
 Mr. Ernest A. Smith, of the Royal School of 
 Mines, London, says : No other country in Europe 
 possesses so much manufactured gold belonging to 
 early times; how much wealthier was Ireland than 
 Great Britain may be imagined from the fact 
 that while the collection in the British Museum 
 of pre-historic gold from England, Scotland, and 
 Wales together amounts to but thirty-six ounces, 
 that in the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin 
 weigh s five hundred and seventy ounces. 
 
 The art of stained-glass manufacture was 
 brought to the very highest pitch of perfection. 
 
IRISH ART 31 
 
 In one of the Churches in Kilkenny were very 
 ancient stained-glass windows so superb in design 
 and finish that hundreds of years later the Papal 
 Legate Rinuccini offered $4,000 for the East win- 
 dow of Kilkenny Church 
 
 Mural decoration has suffered much from its 
 lack of harmony with stained-glass color schemes, 
 and artists have been baffled by the problem of 
 making the windows harmonize with and, in fact, 
 become a part of the interior decoration. 
 
 Mr. Thomas A. 'Shaughnessy, a distinguished 
 Irish-American artist of Chicago, after several 
 years in endeavoring to find a means to overcome 
 this difficulty in church decoration, has succeeded 
 in making a window in which the surface mosaic 
 effect of the window at night enriches the church 
 interior as much as does the effect obtained when 
 the sunlight shines upon and through the window. 
 
32 IRISH ART 
 
 He is now engaged in making a worthy repre- 
 sentation of ancient Irish art, working on a 
 canopy 12iA feet by 16 feet for the sanctuary of 
 St. Patrick's Church, Chicago, and has installed 
 the first window made by this new process in St. 
 Mel's Church, of the same city. 
 
 Irish woolen fabrics and Irish laces of the most 
 deli<iate texture and ornate patterns were cele- 
 brated on the continent one thousand years before 
 Columbus set sail for America. 
 
 Centuries before the Norman invasion, woolen 
 cloaks of Irish make were for sale in all the mar- 
 kets of Europe. 
 
 The Pope's collector was given special per- 
 mission to carry away with him free of duty em- 
 bossed mantles of Irish cloth, A. D. 1382. 
 
 A Limerick cloak in its style and finish was 
 a worthy gift from one great minister of Eliza- 
 beth's court to another. 
 
IRISH ART 33 
 
 Irish serge was used in Naples as trimming for 
 the robes of the King and Queen. 
 
 Irish serge was known in Bologna, in Genoa, in 
 Coma and in Florence. 
 
 It was famous in southern Spain. 
 
 Irish friezes found a market in France. 
 
 They passed up the Rhine; Richard II. gave 
 leave to a Cologne merchant to export Irish cloth. 
 
 At Bruges and Antwerp the Irish sold the 
 famous serges, Irish cloaks and linen sheets. 
 
 The leather of Ireland was also well known in 
 France, Flanders, Bruges, and in England and 
 Scotland. Belts and straps for spurs finely orna- 
 mented were gifts fit for a poet's reward. 
 
 Their fine and acute sense of color, in those early 
 days, made their cloth dyes renowned. 
 
34 IRISH ART 
 
 Much madder was grown in Ireland, a plant of 
 the genus Rubia, and woad from the leaves of 
 which a matchless and exquisite blue was ob- 
 tained. 
 
 Other traditional dyes were handed down, and 
 Oatalonian manufacturers who rivaled the skill of 
 the Florentines sought the secret of Irish colors 
 as well as of their fabrics. 
 
 The beautiful illumination of the Book of Kells, 
 the Book of Mac Durnan, and numerous other old 
 manuscripts, proves that the ancient Irish were 
 very skilful in the production of colors. 
 
 The readers of modern Irish history know that 
 for the last one hundred and fifty years the most 
 important Irish manufactures were by English 
 law deliberately destroyed. 
 
 Nevertheless, in spite of adverse circumstances, 
 Ireland has succeeded in maintaining a position 
 of excellence in the manufacturing industry. 
 
IRISH ART 35 
 
 This is admitted by the most implacable enemy 
 that Ireland has ever had, the "London Times." 
 It says: 
 
 "The world is, perhaps, so little accustomed 
 to think of Ireland as a manufacturing country 
 (as, indeed, it is essentially an agricultural one) 
 that few people probably have ever considered the 
 peculiarly high reputation which Irish made 
 goods have won for themselves in a variety of 
 lines. 
 
 Irish embroidery, Irish knitted gloves and 
 coats, Irish tweeds, Irish carpets, Irish linen, 
 Irish lace and Irish ships, all as familiar to the 
 public outside of Ireland as are the names of Irish 
 bacon and Irish race horses. 
 
 At Naas, Kildare, is made the sumptuous rugs 
 (the orders being secured in competition with the 
 world) for such hotels as the Carlton and Ritz in 
 London, for other palatial hotels and great pri- 
 vate houses in America, and for such steamships 
 as the Titanic and Britannic. 
 
36 IRISH ART 
 
 These Irish rugs are Irish designed, Irish dyed, 
 Irish made and Irish finished. 
 
 The figures given for 1911 of Ireland's export of 
 manufactured goods reach the total of $135,000,- 
 000. 
 
 This under alien rule, gives the mind but a 
 glimpse of what it will be under Home rule. 
 
37 
 
 IRISH ARCHITECTURE 
 
 And now of Architecture: 
 
 Architecture is the art of investing a building 
 designed for use, with interest, power, grandeur, 
 unity and beauty, and that all these elements 
 might exist and be harmoniously combined, the 
 builder must have either the Greek or the Celtic 
 gift of imagination. 
 
 The many relics of structures left by primeval 
 man have an archaeological, but no architectural 
 value, such as the prehistoric Cromlechs of Ire- 
 land consisting of one very large flat stone sup- 
 ported by others which are uprig-'ht. 
 
 For the beginnings of the art, grand even in 
 their infancy — we must turn to Egypt. 
 
 The oldest works of the Egyptians were the 
 embankment of the Nile, the temple of Vulcan, 
 and the Great Pyramid, the most gigantic work 
 in the world — one which perhaps never will be sur- 
 passed. 
 
38 IRISH ARCHITECTURE 
 
 Next to the pyramids in massive grandeur 
 eomes the Great Sphinx, its height from the plat- 
 form on which it lies to the top of the head is 
 100 feet, its total length is 146 feet; across its 
 shoulders is 34 feet, and its head from the chin to 
 the top is 28 feet 6 inches. 
 
 It may be interesting to state that a temple was 
 built between its paws. 
 
 But the beautiful minaret and handsome dome 
 which gives such a charming variety of outline, 
 were unknown to the Egyptians, and their invari- 
 able use of enormous stones for lintels, bespeak 
 plainly their ignorance of the arch. 
 
 Such is Egyptian accomplishments. 
 
 What of Jewish Architecture I 
 
 Jewish architecture is practically nil. Their 
 long sojourn in Egypt and the fact that their 
 chief employment there seems to have been the 
 manufacture of bricks, unfitted them for either 
 architects or builders. 
 
IRISH ARCHITECTURE 39 
 
 On the conquest of Canaan, the Jews took 
 possession of the dwellings of the vanquished peo- 
 ple, without attempting to build any themselves. 
 
 The construction of no important building 
 stands to their credit till the days of Solomon. 
 And at the erection of Solomon's temple at so 
 low an ebb was the art of building, that the Jews 
 did not even know how to hew timber properly. 
 (I Kings V. 6.) 
 
 Solomon therefore applied to a pagan, Hiram, 
 King of Tyre, with whom he was on friendly 
 terms, and that monarch sent an architect and 
 staff of skilled workmen, to raise the first splen- 
 did temple to the true God. Sad, but true, Phoeni- 
 cian pagans from the City of Tyre built Solomon 's 
 temple. 
 
 This Hiram much improved insular Tyre, and 
 in this respect was the Augustus of that ancient 
 City, which was near the banks of the Mediter- 
 ranean. 
 
40 IRISH ARCHITECTURE 
 
 The earliest Indian architecture is in fact rock- 
 cut caves, supported on massive piers, but the 
 people of India were fond of tower building. 
 
 T'hey built a nine storied tower to commemorate 
 the defeat of Mohammed of Malwa in 1439. 
 
 In Nineveh are found fragments of great build- 
 ings constructed chiefly of sun-dried bricks, these 
 buildings are somewhat out of proportion, they 
 have the striking peculiarity of being elongated 
 beyond anything known in other styles of archi- 
 tecture, some of them being 220 feet long by 25 
 feet wide, remind one of Baltimore 's 12 foot front 
 houses standing on a lot 100 feet deep. 
 
 Persia in its ancient architecture we note the 
 tomb of Cyrus, East of the head of the Persian 
 Gulf, and 50 years later the chief buildings of 
 Susa were constructed. Large portions still re- 
 main and form some of the grandest ruins in 
 existence. 
 
IRISH ARCHITECTURE 41 
 
 The Doric style of architecture dates back to 
 
 B. C. 650. 
 
 Dorus, King of Peloponnesus built a temple to 
 Juno in the ancient city of Argos, it was erected 
 in the manner we now call Doric ; from its founder 
 Dorus. 
 
 The Ionic style of architecture dates back to B. 
 
 C. 450. 
 
 And the Corinthian style of architecture dates 
 back to B. C. 350. 
 
 These three latter styles are, as their names 
 imply, Greek emanations. 
 
 The exquisite beauty of fonn and tasteful dec- 
 oration which pervade not only Greek buildings, 
 but every article of Greek origin, whether coin, 
 medallion, vase, implement of war or husbandry, 
 or even the simplest article of domestic or per- 
 sonal use, is evidence of their artistic ability. 
 
42 IRISH ARCHITECTURE 
 
 But the Greeks neglected, or were ignorant of, 
 the properties of the arch, and if it was known to 
 the Egyptians they certainly neglected it in their 
 greatest works. 
 
 It is not known who invented the arch. The 
 Irish with their knowledge of Geometry could, 
 and may have evolved the semi-circle, but who- 
 ever did, and at whatever date, the Romans made 
 extensive practical use of it, and by its means 
 they succeeded in doing what their predecessors 
 in civilization had never effected. 
 
 It enabled them to carry secure and permanent 
 roads across wide and rapid rivers, and to make 
 brick more extensively useful than ever before. 
 
 The Romans surpassed every other nation in 
 road-building. 
 
 But to the Greeks, however, the Romans were 
 indebted for their knowledge of the more polished 
 forms of architecture. 
 
IRISH ARCHITECTURE 43 
 
 Before the conquest of Greece by Rome the 
 structures of Rome appear to have been rude and 
 inelegant. 
 
 The Romans stole outright from the Greeks, the 
 Corinthian style of architecture, and this style 
 became to the Romans what the Doric had been to 
 the Greeks — their national style of architecture. 
 
 The temple of Vesta, at Tivoli, is built in this 
 style. 
 
 And like the Jews who got the Phoenicians from 
 the City of Tyre to build Solomon's temple, the 
 Romans got Corinthian Greeks to raise the temple 
 of Vesta, the most beautiful example of the Cor- 
 inthian order in existence. 
 
 In speaking about the domestic and public archi- 
 tecture of Pompeii we must remember that its 
 beauty and glory is to be attributed to the fact 
 that Pompeii was a Greek colony. 
 
44 IRISH ARCHITECTURE 
 
 The Romans copied their leading forms from 
 the Greeks. 
 
 True the Apse, and the circle on plane, the dome, 
 and the arch in elevation were his. 
 
 But he never dreamt of the pointed arch, or 
 Gothic style of architecture. 
 
 Hence, through Italy, Asia Minor, Sicily, 
 France, Syria, Africa and England was built a 
 Romanized style of Greek architecture, suitable 
 to private, public or pagan purposes. 
 
 The East modified to some extent Roman art, 
 and this modification is known as Byzantine, of 
 which St. Mark's in Venice is a splendid example. 
 
 A hurried bird's eye view of the mainland of 
 Europe will satisfy one that armaments not archi- 
 tecture occupied the minds of men and that Ire- 
 land in those times of turmoil was the only spot 
 
IRISH ARCHITECTURE 45 
 
 on all the earth that was peaceful enough to give 
 birth to that religious style of architecture — the 
 Gothic, with an aspect so holy that it is used but 
 for worship only and within its portals one feels, 
 as it were, the breath of God. 
 
 From the days when the Romans called upon 
 their gods to save them from Hannibal to the 
 breaking up of the Roman empire, which was 
 overwhelmed in the West by Odoacer, King of 
 Heruli, a German tribe, and who was first to as- 
 sume the title, King of Italy, A. D. 476 ; all Europe 
 was a battle field. 
 
 And the Eastern part of the Roman Empire 
 ended with the capture of Constantinople and the 
 death of Constatine XIII. in 1453. Drawing the 
 contour of mountains and maps of roads, not Gothic 
 or any other style of architecture, is the work of 
 warriors. 
 
46 IRISH ARCHITECTURE 
 
 Theodoric, an Ostrogoth (eastern Goth) was 
 ruler of Italy, and after his death in 527, Justinian, 
 Emperor of the East came and ravished her fields, 
 and with her cities in ruins was reunited to the 
 Empire. 
 
 But the Lombards, a barbarian tribe entered 
 Italy in 568, and conquered the lower part of the 
 peninsula which was again lost to the Empire, 
 
 And the Lombards in turn were destroyed by 
 Charles the Great (in 774), — burning, not building 
 was their trade. 
 
 The Visigoths (Western Goths) (in 711) were 
 in the possession of Southern Gaul and Spain until 
 their rule was ended by the Saracens in the 8th 
 century. Swordsmen, not Gothic draughtsmen, 
 were these. 
 
 The Burgundians (in 534) were in South-East- 
 ern Gaul and came into collision with the Franks 
 on the north and were reduced by them to a state 
 of dependence. They were familiar with the 
 pointed sword, but not with the pointed arch. 
 
IRISH ARCHITECTURE 47 
 
 The Vandals under the lead of Greiseric bore 
 down upon Rome and sailed down the Tiber with 
 heavy spoils of the ancient City. 
 
 He did yield to the prayers of Pope Leo the 
 Great, and promised to leave the inhabitants of 
 the Imperial City their lives; but being Arian 
 christians, robbery of the orthodox christians was 
 to them more religious than building temples. 
 
 The Franks whom Clovis united and laid the 
 foundation of the French nation, became so weak 
 after his death in (A. D. 511) that for a century 
 and a half her inefficient rulers were contempt- 
 uously called do-nothing Kings. The French in 
 those days did not produce new styles of architec- 
 ture, even in ladies hats. 
 
 In Britain, when Rome withdrew her legions, 
 in the 5th century, in order to protect Italy, Eng- 
 land was submerged by hosts of Anglo-Saxon cor- 
 sairs from the Continent. 
 
48 IRISH ARCHITECTURE 
 
 And although the famous Celtic chief, King 
 Arthur, made heroic resistance against the pagan 
 invaders — the Angles, Saxons and Jutes — the 6th 
 century saw the savage saxons successful. 
 
 They set up 8 or 10 kingdoms euphonously, but 
 inaccurately, called a Heptarchy, and amidst per- 
 petual strife until the middle of the 9th century 
 or 840, they slayed and murdered one another for 
 supremacy. 
 
 All Europe outside of Ireland was given over 
 to war; worshipped Mars of the mailed hand, and 
 had neither the inclination nor time to produce a 
 style of architecture — the Gothic — which indis- 
 solubly links architecture with religion. 
 
 What architecture the English had previous to 
 and including the 11th century was derived solely 
 from Roman examples. 
 
IRISH ARCHITECTURE 49 
 
 Saint Paul's, in London, the Church of which 
 Macauley predicts, some New Zealander will view 
 its ruins from a broken arch of London bridge, 
 was not commenced until late in the seventeenth 
 century (1675) and was not finished until the 
 tenth year of the Eighteenth century. 
 
 It was left for a christian people, on whose trees 
 the Roman Eagle never perched — the Irish — to 
 produce a style of architecture — the Gothic — so 
 holy, even in its exterior outlines, that in passing, 
 we lift our hat in reverence to the living God. 
 
 The Irish were great builders, as we see by the 
 round Towers many of which were built in pre- 
 christian times, but not all, for some of them, in 
 Ulster, owe their existence to Gobban Saer — Gob- 
 ban the Builder — a distinguished architect born 
 on the coast north of Dublin, who built the Round 
 Towers of Antrim, and many others throughout 
 Ireland. 
 
50 IRISH ARCHITECTURE 
 
 Aengus McNathamore, a distinguished Irish 
 builder of the first century erected Dun Aengus 
 the great fort of Aranmore upon the summit of 
 cliffs 300 feet high. Its sea front measures 1,150 
 feet, the walls are 13 feet thick and 18 feet high. 
 This fort has been characterized as ' ' The greatest 
 monument of its kind in Europe." 
 
 Whether the Round Towers of Ireland were 
 built for the emergency of war, or as an index 
 finger pointing to omnipotence, they proclaim, like 
 the great pyramids of Egypt, of their builders, 
 that our early ancestors had an intimate acquaint- 
 ance not only with square, plumb, compass, level 
 and circle but attained the very highest proficiency 
 in Geometry. 
 
 The Englishman, Dr. Reeves, says, that "Gob- 
 ban Saer's Church in the County Dublin, built 
 with a pointed, or Gothic, arch in the 7th century 
 received its name from this Irish architect. 
 
IRISH ARCHITECTURE 51 
 
 On mountain cliffs, in valleys, by the waterside, 
 on secluded islands, lie ruins of ancient Irish 
 Churches, many of them small in size, but built in 
 the Gothic style of architecture of which Grace 
 Protestant Episcopal Church, on the corner of 
 Park Avenue and Monument Street, in its size and 
 outline, if put on the banks of Lough Neagh, 
 Lough Corrib, or "by Killarney's lakes and dells" 
 would be typical of the little buildings which pre- 
 served for centuries an apostolic simplicity. 
 
 In the dedication of these truly national 
 churches no foreign saints were taken, only their 
 own holy Irishmen were honored as patrons. 
 
 Even Spenser, who thought it necessary to de- 
 fame Ireland that he might, with better grace, laud 
 Elizabeth, says: 
 
 ' ' Of hewen stone the porch was fairly wrought, 
 Stone more of value, and more smooth and fine 
 Than jet or marble far, from Ireland brought. ' ' 
 
 (Spenser, Fairy Queen B. II. Canto IX vers. 24). 
 
52 IRISH ARCHITECTURE 
 
 One of the best historians of architecture, Mr. 
 James Fergusson, when preparing the ground for 
 his work of 4 vols., by a survey of the characteris- 
 tics of different races in relation to his art, says, 
 that : 
 
 "The true glory of the Celt in Europe, is his 
 artistic eminence: it is not too much to assert 
 that without his intervention, we should not have 
 possessed in modern times, a picture, or a statue or 
 a church worthy of the name ' \ 
 
 To the Irish Celts we are indebted for the most 
 beautiful and religious style of church architecture 
 in existence — 
 
 The Grothic, with its pure pointed arch a style 
 of arch unknown in Europe before it evolved from 
 an Irish mind, for as you know the Goths, like 
 the Huns and Vandals, tore down instead of build- 
 ing up. 
 
IRISH ARCHITECTURE 53 
 
 Many attempts have been made by Englishmen, 
 to do away with the term Gothic, and call the 
 pointed arch style British. 
 
 In fact the British Society of Antiquaries, such 
 men as Horace Walpole and John Carter have con- 
 tended for the exclusive term English. 
 
 But John Ruskin who knew as much about 
 architecture as any other man in England, rather 
 than rob the Irish outright of the honor, preferred, 
 in true English style, to do an egg-dance around 
 the subject. Listen to what he says, in "The 
 Stones of Venice:" 
 
 * * I am not sure when the word ' Gothic ' was first 
 generically applied to the architecture of the 
 North, but I presume that, whatever the date of 
 its original usage, it was intended to imply re- 
 proach. It never implied that its builders were lit- 
 erally of Gothic lineage, and far less that the style 
 had been originally invented by the Goths them- 
 selves. ' ' 
 
54 IRISH ARCHITECTURE 
 
 It simply meant that it was foreign to the eyes 
 of the Roman Empire which were used to seeing 
 the Doric, Ionic and Corinthian styles of architec- 
 ture all evolved in Greece, and considered every 
 innovation the act of a people rude like the Goths. 
 
 Now if Ruskin's racial antipathies had not im- 
 pelled him to close his eyes and do an injustice to 
 Ireland, he could have seen. 
 
 Holy Cross Abbey, County Tipperary, built in 
 1082, which is cruciform in design and Gothic in 
 character. 
 
 Or he could have examined 
 
 Askeaton Abbey, County Limerick, and found 
 it one of the finest remains of the Gothic style and 
 of ancient art in Ireland. 
 
 Or he could have gone to Scotland, and on a 
 clear day he could have looked across the narrow 
 channel, and see a splendid specimen of an early 
 Gothic arch in 
 
IRISH ARCHITECTURE 55 
 
 Donegal Abbey, County Donegal, Ireland, (15th 
 Cent) 
 
 But lest, Holy Cross, Askeaton, and Donegal 
 Abbeys, built from the 11th to the 15th century, 
 be considered Mediaeval and not ancient enough 
 to credit Ireland with the emanation of the Gothic 
 style of architecture. 
 
 We will take the doubter back until he must 
 doubt his doubt, by placing him in the magnificent 
 Gothic door-way of 
 
 Castledermot Abbey, County Kildare, 
 which was founded by Diarmid, son of King Aedh 
 Roin, of Ulidia, in the year 800, that should cer- 
 tainly, satisfy the doubt of any doubter. 
 
 But should he still doubt Ireland's claim, and 
 want like Thomas to put his finger in an earlier 
 Gothic opening, he can go to 
 
 County Cork, Ireland, and see 
 Cloyne Abbey, 
 built in the 6th Century. 
 
56 IRISH ARCHITECTURE 
 
 And Ruskin could have seen that the windows 
 and doors of this Abbey are pure and magnificent 
 examples of the Gothic style of architecture. 
 
 No inquiry. 
 No investigation. 
 No pervestigation. 
 No research. 
 
 Will enable Ruskin or any one else, to find in all 
 Europe a Gothic building ante-dating, 
 
 Cloyne Abbey, 
 of the 6th century. 
 
 But Ruskin, is an Englishman, and it may be 
 possible that that fact impells him, to use the word 
 North, when he means Ireland, for if you look at a 
 map of Europe, you will find that Ireland is north 
 of every other country in the mainland of Europe, 
 and on a level with Denmark, the pirates from 
 which gave Ireland a three hundred year war. 
 
IRISH ARCHITECTURE 57 
 
 Their King Gu thrum made Alfred the Great flee 
 for his life to the marshes of the river Parret (in 
 878). 
 
 They overran England until Alfred (in 895) de- 
 feated them. 
 
 But as late as the Eleventh century the Danes 
 came back conquered England giving her five 
 Kings— Sweyn (1013) Canute (1014) Canute IT. 
 (1016) Harold Harefoot (1035) and Hardicanute 
 (1039 to 1042). In A. D. 800 the Danes planted a 
 colony in England on every inlet of the sea. 
 
 King Edmond they shot to death with arrows 
 (1016) during the reign of Canute II. 
 
 They slew every English King, and wiped out 
 every English royal house, save that of Wessex, 
 and in their place set up their own Kings, in 
 Northumbria and East Anglia, and by their con- 
 federations of towns they ruled England by Dan- 
 ish law. 
 
58 IRISH ARCHITECTURE 
 
 At last Wessex itself was conquered and a Dan- 
 ish King, Canute (1013) ruled over all England 
 from centre to sea. 
 
 Canute's object was to subdue Ireland, make a 
 vast Northern Empire with its centre at London. 
 
 But the invincible power of the Irish tribal sys- 
 tem for defense barred the way of the invaders. 
 
 In this terrific struggle Magnus III. King of 
 Norway (in 1103) was killed in an attempt to sub- 
 due Ireland. 
 
 A Norwegian leader, Thorgils, made one su- 
 preme effort to conquer Ireland. 
 
 He fixed his capital at Armagh, and set up at 
 its shrine the worship of Thor, while his wife, who 
 was a kind of Mrs. Eddie Baker, of her day, gave 
 her oracles from the high altar of Clonmacnois, on 
 the banks of the Shannon, in the prophetess' 
 cloak set with precious stones to the hem, the neck- 
 lace of cut-glass beads, the staff, and the great 
 skin pouch of charms; but the deep penetrating 
 mind of the Celt was, at that day, too actue for 
 the religious nonsense of Norway's necromancy. 
 
IRISH ARCHITECTURE 59 
 
 Thorgils was taken prisoner, executed, and his 
 wife, the Charming channer, owing to Irish chiv- 
 alry, was but sent back to the barren rocky cliffs 
 of Norway. 
 
 The Danes who held long and secure possession 
 of England and a great part of Scotland and Nor- 
 mandy were never able to occupy permanently any 
 part of Ireland. 
 
 Through 300 years of war no Irish royal house 
 was destroyed, no Kingdom was extinguished, and 
 no national supremacy of the Danes replaced the 
 national supremacy of the Irish. 
 
 But the possession and supremacy of the Danes 
 over England, was held until the death of Hardi- 
 canute (in 1042) when the English line to the 
 throne was restored, in the person of Edward the 
 Confessor. 
 
 The Danes and Northmen were brave and hardy 
 sailors, and their ungenerous, rocky soil impelled 
 them to piracy and destruction. 
 
60 IRISH ARCHITECTURE 
 
 They were not in the Gothic building business. 
 
 The world must give credit to religious Ireland, 
 for the emanation of that religious style of archi- 
 tecture, known as Gothic but which should be 
 called Irish. 
 
 Because the Irish were essentially a pastoral 
 people, who like the Persians, would not confine 
 their Gods within walls. 
 
 They with their druid priests, worshipped in 
 the groves, where they often saw the Gothic style 
 spring from nature, when an avenue of trees, with 
 the trunks apart, but whose boughs and branches 
 would lovingly kiss at the top. 
 
 But there was a further reason, which impelled 
 Irish architects to adopt the pointed arch, not 
 alone that it was the strongest form, which it is, 
 but that it was also the most beautiful form in 
 which a window or a door-head can be built. 
 
IRISH ARCHITECTURE 61 
 
 For its outlines are but patterned after the 
 Irish ash-leaf, which has a Gothic contour, that 
 delights the eye with its grace and character; be- 
 cause it is the work of God in nature. 
 
 And buildings built in this religious style, admit 
 of as much variety, as the Almighty gave the very 
 leaves of the Irish ash. 
 
 A magnificent example of nature's Gothic, can 
 be seen by standing in front of the Mansion 
 House, in Druid Hill Park, a name borrowed from 
 Ireland, and looking toward the Lake. 
 
 The Irish of those times enobled labor; they 
 followed nature, and the man that did the thinking 
 did the execution; he was a human being, not an 
 animated tool, for the same man that designed, 
 was, like Michael Angelo, able to put into execu- 
 tion the emanation of his mind, and thus labor 
 was dignified by the blending of muscle and intel- 
 lect in the artisan. 
 
62 IRISH ARCHITECTURE 
 
 Irish stone-masons, in the 7th, 8th and 9th 
 centuries, went throughout Europe, building these 
 beautiful Gothic temples to God, asking no re- 
 numeration but their food while working. 
 
 Free-masons they were, indeed, in the literal 
 acceptation of the term, building several of them 
 in France, Switzerland and Germany. 
 
 The Cologne Cathedral is one of the most 
 imposing monuments of Gothic architecture in the 
 world. 
 
 This edifice was begun in the 11th Century, but 
 was not finished until our own day (1880). 
 
 We have splendid specimens of this Irish style 
 of architecture — for Gothic is a misnomer — in our 
 own City here, the Mount Vernon Place Methodist 
 Episcopal Church, corner of Mount Vernon Place 
 and Charles Street, and the First Presbyterian 
 Church on the Northwest corner of Park Avenue 
 and Madison Street, which was built almost ex- 
 clusively by Irish stone-masons. 
 
IRISH ARCHITECTURE 63 
 
 Neither sneer nor smirk will shadow the fact, 
 nor vanish the verity, that the early Irish, who 
 were the educators of Germany; wiio gave the 
 Italian, Dante, the groundwork for his Divine 
 Comedy; who taught the English their letters; 
 wha educated Alfred the Great, and christianized 
 his pagans ; who were the most expert jewel-smiths 
 then in the world, and Whose astronomical knowl- 
 edge was taken advantage of and utilized by 
 Charlemagne, could and did evolve the Gothic 
 (Irish) style of architecture. 
 
65 
 
 IRISH LITERATURE 
 
 And now of Literature: 
 
 Separated froni the mainland of Europe where 
 Infinity seemed to have encircled it from the ruin 
 of European civilization, the culture of Erin was 
 never interrupted by the Northern hordes which 
 overran the continent, hence Ireland's intellectu- 
 ality was the aurora borealis, in the otherwise 
 starless "night of the middle ages. 
 
 The fall of the Roman Empire which scattered 
 the Goths and Vandals, Burgundians and Franks 
 over the West of Europe to the Atlantic and South 
 across the Mediterranean to Africa and the Sax- 
 ons northward to Great Britain, left Ireland, 
 because untouched and unconquered, the School- 
 house of Europe. 
 
 The pagan English (in 547) had set up a mon- 
 archy in Northumbria and the lowlands, intending 
 to wipe out the Picts and the Irish or Scot settle- 
 ments along the coast. 
 
66 IRISH LITERATURE 
 
 But the statesman, patriot, poet, scholar and 
 leader of the Celtic world, Columcille, through 
 power of the principles of human brotherhood and 
 religion converted the King of the Picts at Inver- 
 ness (in 565), restored the Scot settlement from 
 Ireland which later gave its name to Scotland, 
 and consecrated as King the Irish Aidan, ancestor 
 of the Kings of Scotland and England. 
 
 Irish missionaries went over the most of Eng- 
 land and had it practically christianized before 
 Pope Gregory sent St. Augustine, with his Roman 
 missionaries (597) who with much trepidation 
 landed on the Island of Thanet where they were 
 detained by the order of Ethelbert until he as- 
 sured himself that their magic was not superior 
 to his. 
 
 But Augustine and his 40 missionaries on ac- 
 count of hating "barbarism", and speaking no 
 English made no, or but little progress, and after 
 some reverses their labors were practically con- 
 fined to Kent. 
 
IRISH LITERATURE 67 
 
 In 662 there was but one Bishop in the whole 
 of England who was not of Irish consecration. 
 
 And this Bishop, Agilbert of Wessex, was a 
 Frenchman who had been, for years, educated in 
 Ireland. 
 
 The great school of Malmesbury, in Wessex was 
 founded by an Irishman, as that of Lindisfame — 
 a small Island off Northumberland (3 x If^ miles; 
 at low water it can be walked to; high water the 
 strait covered by sea is IV2 miles — ) had been 
 in the north by the Irish Bishop Aidan. 
 
 "That man is to be little envied whose patriot- 
 ism would not gain force upon the plains of Mara- 
 thon, or whose piety would not grow among the 
 ruins of lona" the ancient home of Columcille, 
 so says: Dr. Johnson, (Scotch Western Isles 
 Journey.) 
 
68 IRISH LITERATURE 
 
 It was Columcille more than any other one man 
 who found England a mere congeries of warring 
 tribes, civilized it, and by christianizing it, 
 brought it into union with the rest of Europe: 
 so says the Englishman, The Venerable Bede. 
 
 Not that Columcille was able to uproot all the 
 paganism and savagery that then existed in Eng- 
 land; 
 
 Neither he nor Augustine did that; 
 
 For Saxo Grammaticus, the Danish historian, 
 tells us that ' ' their lives were so primeval in prac- 
 tices and concepts, — a people so suspicious, 
 melancholy and full of grim slaughter, that for 
 analogues we have to turn to surviving savage 
 tribes. 
 
 In the 7th century (A. D. 665) two Kings of 
 the East Saxons, Sighers and Sebbi ; Sighers with 
 his people turned apostate during a pestilence 
 and became idolaters. 
 
IRISH LITERATURE 69 
 
 What Columcille did for England, Columbanus 
 the finished scholar of Gaelic, Latin, Greek and 
 Hebrew, did for France. 
 
 He founded a school in Luxenil among the 
 ruined heaps of a Roman City once the cross-roads 
 between Italy and France, but now left by the 
 barbarians a wilderness for wild beasts. 
 
 Other houses from this one branched out into 
 France and Switzerland and (in 600) he founded 
 his monastery and school at Bobio in the Apen- 
 nines, wherein were taught rhetoric, geometry 
 and poetry. 
 
 For a quarter of a century he spoke and battled 
 against the vice and ignorance of half-pagan 
 Bergundy, did this Irishman. 
 
 At Rome he was received graciously by Gregory 
 the Great, and his passion for piety took such a 
 hold on the people that for a time it seemed as if 
 the rule of the Irishman Columbanus might outdo 
 that of the Italian, St. Benedict. (Green.) 
 
70 IRISH LITERATURE 
 
 Bede tells us that, during the reign of Sigbert 
 over the East-Saxons, the Irishman Fursa, after 
 preaching and teaching for years in Ireland, went 
 over to England (A. D. 730) to christianize the 
 East Angles. 
 
 And Sigbert was so pleased at his coming that 
 h-e gave him Burg Castle, in Suffolk, and gladly 
 built schools for him on the ground of the realm 
 and the King of the province Annu embellished it 
 with more stately buildings and an endowment. 
 
 Oswald, King of the Northumberland (7th 
 Cent) induced the splendid French, Latin and 
 Gaelic scholar, Aidan, to go over to England to 
 help in the education and conversion of his sub- 
 jects to Christianity. 
 
 A County Waterford man — Gotofor — was a 
 distinguished classical, French and Arabic scholar 
 (13th Cent.) 
 
IRISH LITERATURE 71 
 
 He travelled extensively in the East, and trans- 
 lated several works from Latin, Greek and 
 Arabic into the French language. 
 
 St. Gall, a disciple of Columbanus, is patron 
 Saint of St. Gall, called after him in Switzerland. 
 
 Charlemagne (in A. D. 792) hearing of the wis- 
 dom and learning of Albin and Clement, two 
 Irishmen, who were then in France, sent for them 
 and requested of Albin that he teach in the mon- 
 astery of St. Augustine at Pavia, in Italy; and 
 was delighted to get Clement, to whom he en- 
 trusted the education of Frenchmen in one of the 
 principal schools of Paris. 
 
 St. Kilian christianized Bavaria and is the 
 apostle of Franconia. 
 
 Pelagius, the subtle and persuasive heresiarch, 
 whose family name was Morgan, taught in Rome, 
 in the year 400. 
 
12 IRISH LITERATURE 
 
 He carried on a discussion in Jerusalem in 415 
 with Orosius, the Spaniard, in which he spoke 
 Greek while Orosius needed an interpreter and 
 Zimmer reminds us that had he not learned Greek 
 in Ireland he could not have learned it in Rome. 
 
 And though his ideas on original sin were (er- 
 roneous and) not in accord with Church doctrine, 
 his literary ability is a proof that, at that early 
 time, even before St. Patrick came to Ireland, a 
 liberal education was possible and common to 
 many. 
 
 The patron Saint of the Canton of Glarus in 
 Switzerland is an Irishman whom the Swiss in 
 their violent way of translating Celtic names 
 called St. Fridslan. (Feehan.) 
 
 The astronomer Dungal was an Irishman from 
 the County Clare. 
 
IRISH LITERATURE 73 
 
 He was eminent as a teacher of astronomy and 
 (in 811 A. D.) was consulted by Charlemagne con- 
 cerning an eclipse which had taken place the year 
 before. 
 
 Now why was Dungal consulted by Charle- 
 magne? Because Irish astronomers knew more 
 about the movement of the heavenly bodies at 
 that time than any other people on earth. 
 
 It is of little use to make a statement unless one 
 can corroborate it by facts. 
 
 And it is only by facts, that I shall prove that 
 the work of the civil engineers and astronomers 
 of Ireland was pre-eminent, thousands of years 
 ago. 
 
 Let us brush away the technical and come down 
 to the practical that everyone understands. 
 
 Tlhe length of a mile, should correspond to one- 
 sixtieth part of the length of a degree, or one 
 minute of latitude, which is, 6,075 80-100 feet. 
 
74 IRISH LITERATURE 
 
 Now that being a fact you can make your own 
 calculation, and find that the Irish mile of 6,720 
 feet, is really 152 feet nearer to accuracy than the 
 English mile of 5,280 feet. 
 
 This is really wonderful when we take into con- 
 sideration the very early period in pre-christian 
 times in which Irish engineers and astronomers 
 legalized the standard of the Irish mile, and con- 
 trasting it with the English mile which was made 
 legal as late as the reign of Elizabeth. 
 
 Washington Irving tells us that one of the mov- 
 ing causes which led Columbus to enquire of the 
 land beyond the ocean was the Roman records of 
 the mariner, Brendan, the Irishman who discov- 
 ered America 515. 
 
 Matthew Arnold, speaking of Brendan says: 
 
 *'St. Brendan sails the northern main. 
 The brotherhood of Saints are glad. 
 
 He greets them once, he sails again — 
 
 So late — such storms — the Saint is mad." 
 
IRISH LITERATURE 75 
 
 Sir James Ware all of whose ancestors were 
 English proves in his "Treatise on Irish writers" 
 that the English Saxons received from the Irish 
 their characters or letters and with them the arts 
 and sciences that have flourished since among 
 these people. 
 
 Moreri, the French biographer, says: Ireland 
 has given the most distinguished professors to 
 the most famous universities of Europe, as Claud- 
 ius Clements to Paris; Albuinus to Pavia, 
 Virgilius (Ferghil) who taught the existence of 
 the antipodes eight hundred years before Galileo, 
 to Salzburg; and Scotus Erigenia to Oxford, Eng- 
 land. Green the English historian, says : 
 
 Irishmen brighteneci the intellect of Europe by 
 education, but they could not in those early days 
 take all the animal out of man. 
 
76 IRISH LITERATURE 
 
 Irish scholars journeyed to Compostello, in 
 Spain, to Rome and through Greece to the Jordan 
 and Jerusalem teaching poetry and their fine art 
 of illuminated writing, and those who among them 
 were priests preaching the gospel to the people. 
 
 The Irish Bishop, John of Mecklenburg, 
 preached to the Vandals between the Elbe in Ger- 
 many and the Vistula, the great river of Poland. 
 
 Marianus, the Irishman, on his pilgrimage to 
 Rome, stopped at Regensburg on the Danube and 
 founded there (A. D. 1068) two monasteries; there 
 were, about this time, twelve Irish convents in 
 Germany and Austria. 
 
 Irishmen who went to the Continent in those 
 days always took latin names which were general- 
 ly translations of their Irish names. An Irish 
 Abbot was head of a monasterv in Bulgaria. 
 
IRISH LITERATURE 77 
 
 It was an Irish professor, in the Paris Univer- 
 sity, (A. D. 1100) who taught the only English- 
 man that ever sat in the Papal chair, — Adrian IV 
 — and it is a tradition with the Munster people 
 that, that Irish professor did a self-imposed pen- 
 ance for four years, from the time Adrian issued 
 the "bull" to Henry II. (1155) empowering him 
 to go over to Ireland to improve a people who 
 were the school-masters of Europe, to the English 
 Pope's death (in 1159). 
 
 England would have Irishmen forget the thou- 
 sand years of their ancient glory and commence 
 their history from Adrian's "Bull." 
 
 Irishmen were chaplains of Conrad III (1152) 
 who led an army to the holy wars, and which was 
 destroyed by Greek treachery, and of his succes- 
 sor Frederick Barbarossa, Emperor of Germany 
 (who destroyed Milan 1162). 
 
 The Irishman Fursa is as well known on the 
 continent as in Munster, his birthplace. 
 
78 IRISH LITERATURE 
 
 Dr. Reeves says: that St. Fursa has profoundly 
 affected the eschatology of Christianity by de- 
 fining the conceptions of men with regard to that 
 mysterious region on which every man enters after 
 death. 
 
 It was this Fursa whose visions were known all 
 over Ireland, Great Britain, and France; Bede, 
 himself dedicates a good deal of space to Fursa 's 
 visions. 
 
 Now Dante was acquainted with Bede's writ- 
 ings, for he expressly mentions him, and Bede's 
 account of Fursa and Fursa 's own life may have 
 been familiar to Dante and furnished him with 
 the groundwork of part of the Divine Comedy 
 of wliich it seems a kind of prototype; a large 
 number of close parallels has been pointed out 
 between Fursa 's vision and Dante's poem which 
 seem altogether too striking to be fortuitous. 
 
IRISH LITERATURE 79 
 
 Ireland is a country which will not yield and 
 cannot die, qualities which make Ealph Waldo 
 Emerson, the eminent New England scholar, say: 
 
 "The Irish are the oldest people on earth today. 
 He asks. Where are the Greeks'? Where are the 
 Etrurians? Where are the Romans? But the 
 Celts, have come down to the present day, of 
 whose beginning there is no memory, and their 
 end is likely to be still more remote in the future. 
 They educated Britain and gave to the seas and 
 mountains names which are poems and imitate 
 the pure voices of nature; they had an alphabet, 
 astronomy and a rare culture, long, long in the 
 past. ' ' 
 
 Rev. Isaac Taylor, — an Englishman, says, "that 
 there is not a stream, current, brook or channel in 
 Europe which is not Celtic named; the names of 
 all the large rivers of Europe and a very great 
 number of the smaller streams are Gaelic though 
 distorted in orthography". 
 
80 IRISH LITERATURE 
 
 In Gaelic the word for water is "UISGE", from 
 which we get a great number of streams and riv- 
 ers, as ESK, ESKER, ISIS, ISCA, and UX and 
 many others. 
 
 The word "REA" in Gaelic means rapid from 
 which we get names for many English rivers, such 
 as the RAY, RHEE, ROY, ROE, RODEN and 
 RIBBLE. On the Continent we find the RHINE, 
 RHONE, REGGE, RHA and RHENO. 
 
 DON, — is an obsolete Gaelic word for water; it 
 is found in the names of many rivers in Europe. 
 
 In the British Isles are DON, DANE, DUN, 
 EDEN, TYNE, TEIGNE, TYNET and BANDON. 
 
 Gaelic river names are spread throughout the 
 Continent, such as DANUBE, DON, ADONIS, 
 DERDON, ROSCODON and many others. 
 
 From the Gaelic TAM, which means spreading 
 —or quiet— we get the rivers TAME, THAMES, 
 TEMA and TAVE. 
 
IRISH LITERATURE 81 
 
 From CAM, — the Gaelic for Crooked is derived 
 CAMLAD, CAMBECK and CAMON. 
 
 GRAV, in Gaelic means rough, from which we 
 get GARRA, YARE, GARWAY, YARROW and 
 GARELOCH. 
 
 Many other groups of Gaelic river names 
 might be traced and added to these to support 
 our claim that early Irish scholars spread learn 
 iug and literature from the Shannon to the 
 Thames, from the Thames to the Tiber and from 
 the Tiber to the Tigris. 
 
 Queen Osberga looked through all Europe in 
 A, D. 864 for a fully equipped school to which she 
 could send her son Alfred, afterwards Alfred the 
 Great, and selected Ireland as the place wherein 
 history, mathematics, geography and poetry could 
 be best taught. 
 
82 IRISH LITERATURE 
 
 And when Alfred became King in A. D. 875, 
 his first care after driving out the Danes in A. D. 
 878, was the education of the English people in 
 the higher branches of learning and poetry, and 
 with that end in view, he invited, and was de- 
 lighted to get, one of the greatest scholars of his 
 time, John Scotus Erigenia, an Irishman. 
 
 Erigenia was distinguished for his knowledge 
 of Greek which was taught in Ireland's schools 
 for hundreds of years previously, and none but 
 God knows how it got there, but there it was in 
 all its pristine vigor and native purity. 
 
 So proficient were they in latin that they trans- 
 lated the ''Iliad" from latin into their native 
 tongue the Gaelic. 
 
 Throughout Europe Irishmen became chancel- 
 lors of universities, professors in colleges, and 
 high officials in every European state. 
 
 A Kerry man was physician to the King of 
 Poland. 
 
IRISH LITERATURE 83 
 
 Another Kerry man, confessor to the Queen of 
 Portugal and sent by the King on an embassy to 
 Louis XIV. 
 
 A Donegal man, O'Glacan, was privy council- 
 lor to the King of France. 
 
 And in modem times one of the finest pieces pf 
 literature; as great a pen picture as ever was 
 written is Burke's ''Essay on the Sublime and 
 Beautiful". Its excellence of diction and origin- 
 ality of thought and luxuriant flow of English at 
 once attracted the attention of Blair, Hume, Sir 
 Joshua Reynolds and other eminent men of the 
 time. 
 
 Even Dr. Johnson, who at that time was in the 
 zenith of his power surrounded by a constellation 
 of which every star was of the first magnitude, 
 and before whose caustic criticisms the literary 
 world trembled, acknowledged the youthful 
 Irishman, Edmund Burke, of 26 years, his equal; 
 whose penetration was more searching and com- 
 prehensive than his own. 
 
84 IRISH LITERATURE 
 
 I like Burke, not only for his splendid ''Essay 
 on the Sublime and Beautiful", but for the beau- 
 tiful and sublime words he spoke in 1776 in favor 
 of American independence. 
 
 The world has no parallel, never had a parallel 
 in its history where there was cast out of any 
 country such genius, learning, and industry", as the 
 English flung, as it were, into the sea. 
 
 And along with that supreme and unselfish loy- 
 alty to their race and the unswerving fidelity 
 with which they cherished the language, poetry, 
 history and freedom of their country Irish exiles 
 have stood pre-eminent for their love of liberty, 
 even to the laying down of their lives when th^ 
 lands of their adoption needed the sacrifice. 
 
85 
 
 ^CK^fd /in-« do€*e /^o^n e^fncin /o ^^^^ae^t , ^■n,<c 
 
 IRISH POETRY 
 
 What of Irish Poetry: 
 
 Music, is the universal language of man, the 
 same in all tongues, because it appeals to the heart 
 and, "their never was separate heart-beat in all 
 the races of men." 
 
86 IRISH POETRY 
 
 The pleasures of the taste are varied because 
 animalistic. 
 
 The pleasures of the eye are pleasures of the 
 intellect, demanding contrast and variety running 
 to square, round, octagon, blue, black, gray or 
 green appealing to the mind. 
 
 It was through the eye to the mind that St. 
 Patrick appealed when he plucked the Shamrock 
 from the sod, held it up in full view of King, 
 Druids, Bards and people and explained the Trin- 
 ity by its three leaves from one stem. 
 
 But the pleasures of the ear go right to the 
 heart entrancing it with delight, or appealing to 
 the most tender emotions, as the effect of the cry 
 of a babe has on the heart of a mother, going 
 right to her soul. 
 
IRISH POETRY 87 
 
 And the Irish people have a mountain of music 
 and melody which speak, not so much to the in- 
 tellect of the chosen few, as German or Italian 
 oratorios, but which is the language of the emo- 
 tions the bursting forth into song of the heart 
 and the soul of the Irishman, yea, of the plain 
 people of all nationalities. 
 
 The Celt has never looked upon life as the pro- 
 gression of a protoplasm vivified by a sun-ray. 
 
 He rides no such moon-beams. 
 
 He knows that he is made in the image and 
 likeness of God. 
 
 And he has too much faith in the Almighty, to 
 act as did Goethe's Faust, who because he could 
 not know all things, threw himself into the em- 
 brace of Mephistopheles. 
 
 To the Irish mind there is nothing more natural 
 than the supernatural. 
 
88 IRISH POETRY 
 
 He feels that God is behind every phenomenon 
 of the universe, and this sublime faith satisfies 
 the longings of his soul, and keeps him from 
 going, — like Saul in disguise, or otherwise, to "A 
 Witch of Endor." 
 
 He knows that at his door every morning the 
 musical melody of the spheres out of the Irish 
 horizon can be felt as the day god advances on 
 his march to the Zenith, vivifying his ideas by 
 clothing them with hope; and diamond-decorating 
 them with a faith which carry him to the verge 
 of infinity where the gossamer of sacredness but 
 barely veils the presence of God. 
 
 Under the poetic inspiration of this — Ireland's 
 beautiful scenery, Handel produced his Oratorio 
 of the Messiah", and this, the noblest and grand- 
 est of all church music was first played in the City 
 of Dublin o 
 
IRISH POETRY 89 
 
 From the very earliest times the Irish were cel- 
 ebrated for their skill in music, and Irish profes- 
 sors and teachers of music were almost as much in 
 request in foreign countries as those of literature. 
 
 The poetic influence of the ancient Irish on the 
 continent says Dr. Sigerson, began in the works 
 of the Irishman Sedulius, wliose "Carmen Pas- 
 chale", published in the fifth century, is the first 
 great Christian epic worthy of the name. 
 
 This Irishman who lived in the first half of the 
 fifth century is called the virgil of theological 
 poetry. 
 
 He traveled through Gaul and Italy passing 
 into Greece wherein he made Achaia his home. 
 (Sedulius-Shiel). 
 
 The bards of ancient Ireland were one of the 
 privileged orders; a class of great influence who 
 might be made either powerful friends or turned 
 into unrelenting foes. 
 
90 IRISH POETRY 
 
 St. Patrick recognized the propriety of dealing 
 with this potential class. 
 
 As a class, they had no special interest like the 
 Druids, — priests of the sun worship — to be op- 
 posed to St. Patrick. 
 
 And here let me say that if there is an exalted 
 worship outside of a belief in one true God, our 
 pagan Irish ancestors had it; no bowing down to 
 a block, or rock, or a golden calf, but a lifting up 
 of the heart and soul to the visible giver of all 
 material life, fructification and prosperity — the 
 Sun. 
 
 Hence Dubthach Mac Luchair, the arch poet of 
 Erin became Patrick's fast friend and most saga- 
 cious counsellor, and his influence with the people 
 when he said: "This harp of mine will never 
 again resound save in the praises of love and Pat- 
 rick's God." 
 
 Worked for the interest of the infant Church, 
 bringing it many converts. 
 
IRISH POETRY 91 
 
 And this friendly alliance of St. Patrick with 
 the bards of Erin is recognized in all our national 
 traditions, and finds expression in the ancient 
 tales of the Saint's kindly relations with Ossian, 
 the most renowned of all the bards of Erin, and 
 whom MacPherson, the Scotchman, attempted to 
 steal from us. History is full of robberies, Amer- 
 ica should be called Columbia, not as a poetical 
 title, but to emphasize an historical fact, and Sco- 
 tia, Minor, Scotland has attempted — often with 
 undeserving success — to steal from Scotia, Major, 
 Ireland facts which belong to, and which should 
 shed lustre on Ireland. 
 
 In the middle of the 7th century, Gertrude, 
 Abbess of Nivelle, in Belgium, daughter of Pepin, 
 Mayor of the Palace, and who became virtual 
 master of the Frank monarchy, engaged Saint 
 Foillan and Saint Ultan, brothers of the Irish 
 Saint Fursa, to instruct her pupils in psalmody. 
 
92 IRISH POETRY 
 
 In ike latter half of the 9th century the cloister 
 schools of St. Gall, in Switzerland, were con- 
 ducted by an Irishman, Maengel, or Marcellus, 
 under whose teaching the music there attained its 
 highest fame. 
 
 It was the Irish Celts who taught the English 
 the Art of Rhyme. 
 
 The English knew something of 
 
 *'Apt Alliteration's Artful Aid" but they knew 
 absolutely nothing of Rhyme. 
 
 And might I, myself, alliterate a little on them, 
 and say that they knew neither Rhyme nor Reason 
 in dealing with Ireland, or with the Boers of 
 South Africa, or with the people of India which 
 was the land of gold and gems and of palaces that 
 were dreams of beauty, until England's lust for 
 loot ladronized it. 
 
IRISH POETRY 93 
 
 They were taught to rhyme by our Erigena's 
 and hundreds of Irish literary teachers, called 
 "Culdees" — from Angus Ceile De, a missionary 
 monk of the eighth century — who went from Ire- 
 land ' ' to soothe the Saxons ' savage breast. ' ' And 
 show the Cross as heaven's crest. 
 
 Think not, my friends, that my native feeling- 
 gives birth to these words you have just heard 
 from me, it does not, these words are from the 
 lips of two Englishmen, Mathew Arnold and John 
 Morley. 
 
 And Mr. Morley, the Englishman says that 
 "The main current of English literature cannot 
 be disconnected from the lively Celtic wit in 
 which it has its source and a poetic imagination 
 but for which the Northmen's blood in France 
 would not have quickened, nor would Germanic 
 England have produced a Shakespeare," who got 
 his plot for his Mid-summer Night's Dream from 
 Irish Fairy folk-lore. 
 
94 IRISH POETRY 
 
 Mathew Arnold says: "The Saxon doesn't 
 claim an open and clear mind nor a quick flexible 
 intelligence" hence their inability to voice the 
 ideal and paint in words what they never either 
 mentally or spiritually felt. 
 
 In speaking of the Irish Arnold again says: 
 ''The ancient Celt's quick feeling for that which 
 is noble and distinguished gave his poetry style; 
 his indomitable personality gave it pride and pas- 
 sion; his sensibility and nervous exaltation gave 
 it a better gift still — the gift of rendering with 
 wonderful felicity the musical charm of nature. 
 
 And to add to the authority of these two splen- 
 didly educated Englishmen, let us hear what the 
 erudite German philologist, the great Zeus, says 
 on this tremendous claim for the Irishman, a 
 claim in comparison with which everything else 
 that he has done in literature pales into insignifi- 
 cance; yet it has been made for him by the 
 foremost scholars of Europe. 
 
IRISH POETRY 95 
 
 The great Zeus, himself is emphatic on this 
 point : 
 
 **The form of Irish poetry" he writes, "to 
 judge both from the older and the more recent ex- 
 amples adduced, is more ornate than the poetic 
 form of any other nation and from the fact of 
 their greater orateness, it undoubtedly came to 
 pass at the very time the Eoman Empire was 
 hastening to its ruin, the Irish poems passed over 
 not only into the song of the Latins, but also into 
 those of other nations and remained in them, and 
 the advance toward Rhyme made in the Latin 
 poetry of the Anglo-Saxons is to be unhesitatingly 
 ascribed to Irish influence/' 
 
 **We must believe," writes Zeus, that this form 
 was introduced among them by the Irish as were 
 the arts of writing and of painting and of orna- 
 menting manuscripts, since they, themselves, in 
 common with the other Germanic nations made 
 use in their poetry of nothing but alliteration. 
 
96 IRISH POETRY 
 
 Kuno Meyer, the great German literatus and 
 Gaelic scholar, gives a wonderful example of 
 technical difficulties overcome by an Irish bard in 
 a six-syllable metre with dissyllabic endings. 
 
 I shall hand up to some poet the "tour de force" 
 of this which consists of laying stress in the begin- 
 ning of each succeeding stanza upon the word 
 which ended the last. 
 
 The first stanzas translated into the metre of 
 the original, run as follows: 
 
 "Bless, O Christ, my speaking 
 
 King of heavens seven, 
 Strength and wealth and power 
 
 In this hour be given. 
 
 Given, thou brightest, 
 
 Destined chains to sever, 
 King of Angels glorious. 
 
 And victorious ever. 
 
 Ever o'er us shining. 
 
 Light to mortals given. 
 Beaming daily, nightly. 
 
 Brightly out of heaven." 
 
IRISH POETRY 97 
 
 This may not excel in the true poetic spirit, but 
 Kuno Meyer thought it was a splendid instance 
 of mastering the difficult. 
 
 Macaulay says: "That the most wonderful and 
 splendid proof of genius, in a people, is their 
 facility of expressing the power of the intellect, 
 and the emotions of the heart in poetry" and in 
 this the Irish were pre-eminent. 
 
 Hence sincerely the Immortal Mozart said: '^I 
 would rather be the composer of that beautiful 
 Irish melody 'Eileen Aroon' than all the works 
 that ever came from my pen". 
 
 The great accomplished Italian, Francesco 
 Geminiani, left in his history of music these 
 words : * ' there is no original music in the West of 
 Europe, except that which is left us by Irish 
 bards." 
 
 Most people, owing to their comparative neglect 
 of Irish history, are of the opinion that the bards 
 were harpers, or at least musicians of some sort. 
 
 But they were nothing of the kind. 
 
98 IRISH POETRY 
 
 Not until the latter half of the Seventeenth cen- 
 tury, after the Treaty of Limerick was violated 
 (1691) did the verse-maker or bard merge into 
 the musician, and the harper and bard became 
 fused in one, as was the case with Carolan, com- 
 monly called the last of the bards, and who died, 
 in 1738, a few years before Moore was born. 
 
 It was this same Turlough 'Carolan, born in 
 Meath, 1670, who in 1730 gave us the air ''Ana- 
 creon in Heaven" this air was first published in 
 America by Mathew Carey, an Irishman, in ' ' The 
 Vocal Companion" in 1796. 
 
 And Francis Scott Key directed his song ''The 
 Star-Spangled Banner" to be sung to the air of 
 "Anacreon in Heaven." 
 
 Stafford Smith, the alleged composer of the air, 
 entered the copyright of his ''Fifth Book of Can- 
 zonets," the collection of which contained it, on 
 May 14, 1799, and he only arranged the tune in the 
 form of a glee; and though he lived till 1836 he 
 never laid claim to its composition. 
 
IRISH POETRY 99 
 
 "Anacreon in Heaven" had been printed in 
 1771, before Smith had published anything. 
 
 The music and words were reprinted by Anne 
 Lee, of Dublin, in 1780, and it had appeared in 
 many collections before Smith included it in his. 
 
 The legend of the air's English origin was cre- 
 ated by Chappell who mistook Smith's collection 
 for Smith's composition, and Mr. Sonneck, chief 
 of the Division of Music in the library of Congress 
 followed Chappell. 
 
 It seems Providential in its fitness that this 
 magnificent American national air should origin- 
 ate in Ireland and in its being set by Key's order 
 to the deathless song that was inspired by the 
 sight of the American flag floating triumphantly 
 from Fort MacHenry. 
 
 Doctor MacHenry, Washington's army surgeon 
 in 1776 and Secretary of War in 1796, and for 
 whom the fort was named was an Irishman. 
 
100 IRISH POETRY 
 
 But to get out of the boreen into which the flag 
 of our heart, and Key, enticed us. 
 
 l^he popular conception of the bard with long 
 white beard and the large harp may be poetic 
 but it is grotesquely wrong. 
 
 The bards were verse makers pure and simple, 
 and they were no more musicians than the poet 
 laureate of England. 
 
 Their business was to construct their poems 
 after the wonderful and complex models of the 
 schools and the musicians or harpers who ren- 
 dered these poems, though A numerous, educated 
 and honorable class were absolutely distinct from 
 the bards. 
 
 This honorable class which in cultured, ancient 
 Erin was respected, honored and laureled, was 
 repressed, discouraged and penalized, by the 
 modern Vandals who in Moore's day despoiled 
 Ireland, not only of her temporal possessions, but 
 destroyed her temples and drove her scholars to 
 caves. 
 
IRISH POETRY 101 
 
 Yet throughout all these bitter years Ireland's 
 patriotic, poetical spirit produced priceless gems 
 in verse. 
 
 Listen to the patriot, Thomas Osborne Davis, 
 whose fancy clothed with interest many incidents 
 in the history of Ireland, and whose spirit of tol- 
 erance ever tended to assuage race rancor: 
 
 And oh! it were a gallant deed 
 
 To show before mankind, 
 How every race and every creed 
 
 Might be by love combined — 
 Might be combined, yet not forget 
 
 The fountains whence they rose. 
 As filled by many a rivulet 
 
 The stately Shannon flows. 
 
102 IRISH POETRY 
 
 John Boyle O'Reilly, poet, journalist and pa- 
 triot, whose life emphasizes that: 
 
 "There is a divinity that shapes our ends 
 Rough hew them as we may." 
 
 He who was transported to Australia for his at- 
 tempt to make Ireland a nation, and rescued by 
 Irish- Americans after a seven year's exile, 
 
 Says, in answer to the question, What did Irish- 
 men bring toward the up-building of this mighty 
 nation : 
 
 "No treason we bring from Erin — nor bring we 
 
 shame or guilt! 
 The Sword we hold may be broken, but we have 
 
 not dropped the hilt! 
 The wreath we bear to Columbia is twisted of 
 
 thorns, not bays; 
 And the songs we sing are saddened by thoughts 
 
 of desolate days. 
 But the hearts we bring for freedom are washed 
 
 in the surge of tears; 
 And we claim our right by a people's fight out — 
 
 living a thousand years!" 
 
IRISH POETRY 103 
 
 J. J. Callanan, in his description of natural 
 scenery, is unrivalled, and whose lyre was ever 
 attuned to tenderness, says: 
 
 "Oh! yes — this heart would sooner break, 
 Than one unholy thought awake; 
 
 I'd sooner slumber into clay, ; 
 
 Than cloud thy spirit's beauteous ray; 
 
 Go, free as air — as angel free 
 And, lady, think no more of me." 
 
104 IRISH POETRY 
 
 Samuel Ferguson, author of the *' Tain-Quest," 
 an heroic poem descriptive of the earlier cycle of 
 Irish history. In it are recorded the exploits of 
 Conor MacNessa; Fergus MacRoy; Maev, Queen 
 of Connaught; Conall Camach, and Cuchullin: — 
 one verse of which runs: 
 
 ''Not for selfish gawds or baubles 
 
 Dares my soul disturb the graves 
 Love consoles, but song enobles 
 
 Songless men are meet for slaves 
 Fergus, for the Gael's sake, waken 
 
 Never let the scornful Gauls 
 'Mongst our land's reproaches reckon 
 
 Lack of song within our walls." 
 
IRISH POETRY 105 
 
 Edward Fitzgerald's splendid translation of 
 "Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam" stamps him as a 
 man of extraordinary genius, and though it 
 teaches the false philosophy of a religious infidel, 
 Fitzgerald's metrical rendering lulls one with 
 sounds of sweetest melody. 
 
 The Hon. John Hay travelled to the very verge 
 of truth when he said of it, — ' ' Wherever the Eng- 
 lish language is spoken it has taken its place as a 
 classic, not a hill-post in India, not a village in 
 England, in the Eastern States of America, as 
 well as the cities of the West, and in desolate 
 spots of the high Rockies but you will find a co- 
 terie to whom Omar Khayyam is a bond of 
 union." — Gush. — ^But here are three quartrains: 
 
 "Why if the soul can fling the dust aside 
 And naked on the air of Heaven ride 
 
 Were't not a shame — were it not a shame for him 
 In this clay carcase crippled to abide." 
 
 ''When you and I behind the veil are past 
 
 Oh, but the long, long while the World shall 
 last 
 Which of our Coming and Departure heeds 
 
 As the sea's self should heed a pebble cast." 
 '*Yon rising moon that looks for us again — 
 
 How oft hereafter will she wax and wane; 
 How oft hereafter rising look for us 
 
 Through this same Garden — and for one in 
 vain. ' ' 
 
106 IRISH POETRY 
 
 Denis F. McCarthy, in one amongst his many 
 splendid poems described the "Round Towers" 
 thus: 
 
 "The pillar towers of Ireland how wonderously 
 they stand 
 By the lakes and rushing rivers through the 
 valleys of our land 
 In mystic file through the isle they lift their heads 
 sublime 
 Tfhese gray old pillar temples — these con- 
 
 querers of time! 
 
 # * * # 
 
 What terror and what error; what gleams of love 
 
 and truth, 
 Have flashed from these walls since the earth was 
 
 in its youth. 
 
 » * # # 
 
 While the breast needeth rest may these gray old 
 
 temples last 
 Bright prophets of the future, as preachers of the 
 
 past!" 
 
IRISH POETRY 107 
 
 Richard Brinsley Sheridan, who wrote **The 
 Rivals" and the ** School for Scandal" which are 
 superior in comedy to anything else we have, has 
 also given us the best models of lyric poetry, in 
 the best Opera — "The Duenna," in which there 
 is this verse. 
 
 ''Then how my soul can we be poor 
 
 Who own what kingdoms could not buy 
 Of this true heart thou shall be queen 
 
 And serving thee — a monarch I, 
 And thus controll'd in mutual bliss 
 
 And rich in love's exhaustless mine — 
 Do thou snatch treasures from my lip 
 
 And I'll take kingdoms back from thine." 
 
108 IRISH POETRY 
 
 Aubrey De Vere, whose poetry has a strong and 
 healthy patriotism, says this of the men of the 
 West of Ireland — 
 
 ^'All praise to King Roderick, the prince of Clan 
 Conor 
 The King of all Erin, and Cathall his son. 
 May the million-voiced chant that in endless ex- 
 pansion 
 Sweep onward to heaven his praises prolong; 
 May the heaven of heavens this night be his 
 mansion 
 Of the good King who died in the cloister.s 
 of Cong." 
 
IRISH POETRY 1C9 
 
 Thomas Parnell, portrayed in his poetry char- 
 acters of ease, sprightliness, fancy, clearness of 
 language and melody of versification. 
 
 Who having once read can forget "The Her- 
 mit" portraying the world as it really is, giving 
 to those who already have, and taking from those 
 who have not; all regulated by the providence 
 of God. 
 
 Far in a wild unknown to public view 
 
 From youth to age a reverend hermit grew 
 The moss his bed, the cave his humble cell, 
 
 His food the fruits, his drink the crystal well 
 Remote from men with God he passed his days, 
 
 Prayer all his business, all his pleasure praise, 
 A life so sacred, such serens repose. 
 
 Seemed Heaven itself — 
 
110 IRISH POETRY 
 
 William Congrave, whose style, Haslitt, says: 
 
 "Is inimitable, nay, perfect; every sentence re- 
 plete with sense and satire, conveyed in the most 
 polished terms, which presents a shower of bril- 
 liant epigrams in prose." 
 
 The great Johnson, says: ''That in Congrave 
 can be found a finer passage than any that can 
 be found in Shakespeare. 
 
 Here is the passage describing the feelings of 
 Almeria meeting her husband whom she thought 
 dead, but now disguised as the captive Osmyn at 
 the tomb of his father Anselmo — 
 
 *'It strikes an awe 
 
 And terror on my aching sight; the tombs 
 
 And monumental caves of death look cold, 
 
 And shoot a chillness to my trembling heart. 
 
 Give me thy hand, and let me hear thy voice 
 
 Nay, quickly speak to me, and let me hear 
 
 Thy voice — my own affright me with its echoes." 
 
IRISH POETRY 111 
 
 Samuel Lover, while best known as a novelist, 
 was a sweet singer of verse, and in speaking of 
 his native music says: 
 
 *'0h! native music! beyond comparing 
 The sweetest far on the ear that falls 
 Thy gentle numbers the heart remembers 
 Thy strains enchain us in tender thralls 
 Thy tones endearing 
 Or sad or cheering 
 The absent soothe on a foreign strand 
 Ah! who can tell 
 What a holy spell 
 Is in the song of our native land.'* 
 
112 IRISH POETRY 
 
 James Clarence Mangan, whose acquaintance 
 with foreign tongues was so extensive that his 
 translations may be seen from most every 
 language in the world says: 
 
 To leave the world a name is nought; 
 To leave a name for golden deeds 
 
 And works of love — 
 A name to waken lightning thought 
 And fire the soul of him who reads, 
 
 This tells above. 
 Napoleon sinks today before 
 The ungilded shrine, the single soul 
 
 Of Washington ; 
 Truth's name, alone, shall man adore 
 Long as the waves of time shall roll 
 
 Henceforward on! 
 
IRISH POETRY 113 
 
 Gerald Griffin produced "Gisippus," which 
 Haslitt pronounced "the greatest drama of our 
 time" and at twenty-five wrote "The Collegians." 
 
 Describing a Sister of Charity, one of the verses 
 runs thus: 
 
 "Unshrinking when pestilence scatters his breath 
 
 Like an angel she moves 'mid a vapor of 
 
 death 
 
 Where rings the loud musket, and flashes the 
 
 sword 
 
 Unf earing she walks for she follows the Lord. 
 
 How sweetly she bends o'er each plague-tainted 
 face 
 With looks that are lighted with holiest 
 grace ! 
 How kindly she dresses each suffering limb 
 
 For she sees in the wounded the image of 
 Him." 
 
114 IRISH POETRY 
 
 Who could forget, wlio knows anything of Irish 
 poetry, the poems of Francis Mahony (Father 
 Prout) and his "Shandon Bells." Listen 
 
 ''With deep affection 
 
 And recollection 
 I often think of those Shandon bells 
 
 Whose sound so wild would 
 In days of childhood 
 
 Fling round my cradle their magic spells. 
 
 On this I ponder 
 
 Where'er I wonder 
 And thus grow fonder sweet Cork of thee 
 
 With thy bells of Shandon 
 That sound so Grand on 
 
 The pleasant waters of the river Lee." 
 
IRISH POETRY 115 
 
 Oliver Goldsmith, dear, delightful, improvident 
 "Ollie." 
 
 Writer of the "Vicar of Wakefield," that peace- 
 ful poem in prose, which we read with benefit in 
 youth and age and bless the memory of an author 
 who contrives so well to reconcile us to human 
 nature. 
 
 When Carl Schurz, on coming to this country, 
 wanted to perfect himself in the English language 
 enquired what author would be best to translate 
 from English into German and then metaphrase 
 back again into English — he was advised to take 
 Goldsmith's "Vicar of Wakefield" as a work of 
 purest English. 
 
 The condition of his country is truly portrayed 
 in the "Deserted village" thus — 
 
 "111 fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, 
 Where wealth accumulates and men decay 
 
 Princes and lords may flourish or may fade — 
 A breath can make them, as a breath has made; 
 
 But a bold peasantry, their country's pride 
 When once destroyed, can never be supplied." 
 
116 IRISH POETRY 
 
 At Moore's birth the ancient Irish nation, the 
 nation that earlier gave an education to Alfred 
 the Great was indeed all but annihilated, and 
 every syllable of Goldsmith's verse was but a 
 faithful verity of existing conditions. 
 
 Someone has said that everything depends on 
 the accident of time. 
 
 And without being fatalists we may concede 
 that very much depends on the accident of time. 
 
 Tbe golden era of Italian letters came before 
 the reformation, so that Italian literature would 
 have remained essentially Catholic even if Italy 
 had become Protestant during the reformation. 
 
 Even now, when much of the writing in Italy 
 comes from Agnostics, the models to which they 
 must refer are the old Catholic masters. 
 
 Dante will ever remain the sun around which 
 all Italian literature must revolve, and Dante 
 lived before the reformation. 
 
IRISH POETRY 117 
 
 On the other hand, if the reformation in Eng- 
 land, which took place in 1534, during the reign 
 of Henry VIII, had fallen just fifty years later, or 
 in 1584, more than half of Elizabeth 's reign would 
 have been Catholic and the golden age of English 
 letters, language and literature would have been 
 Catholic and would have become for evermore an 
 asset for the old Church. That fifty years of the 
 reformation has, however, tinged English letters 
 and literature Protestant. 
 
 Yet one cannot help but think that Elizabeth's 
 England shone like luna, by borrowed light, the 
 glories of her age are not her glories. 
 
 Fifty years is not sufficient time to metamor- 
 phose a Protestant people into Catholics or a 
 Catholic people into Protestants. 
 
 No matter the lip service they thought as Cath- 
 olics, it is impossible to conceive otherwise, one 
 cannot think of them as a nation of caterpillars 
 changing over night. 
 
118 IRISH POETRY 
 
 The Irishman, James Usher, the Protestant 
 archbishop of Armagh, made the chronology of, 
 and gave dates to the books of the Bible, yet his 
 uncle, Richard Stanyhnrst was a Catholic and a 
 Jesuit. 
 
 Their greatest poet, Shakespeare, lived and 
 died breathing Catholicity. 
 
 Every Catholic religious character he staged 
 was put there with reverential deference to the 
 ancient faith. 
 
 Tennyson, the poet laureate of England, no mat- 
 ter the altar he faced, was a member of the an- 
 cient Church while writing of the Virgin Mother 
 and the saints, and his laudation of the sacrament 
 of penance in St. Simeon Stylites. 
 
 Those brilliant minds that made the times of 
 Elizabeth memorable were the fruitage of kindly 
 ancient Irish culture, and the English protestant 
 historian, Cobbett, describes how she paid us back 
 in these words : 
 
IRISH POETRY 119 
 
 "She could not harrass the Irish in detail, there- 
 fore she murdered them in masses." 
 
 Such are the words, not of an Irishman, but of 
 a protestant historian and an Englishman. 
 
 Along came, then, the short-lived Irish protes- 
 tant parliament under Henry Grattan, in 1782 to 
 1800, granted by England. 
 
 Which displayed a narrowness that was due 
 more to the religious miasma of the times than to 
 their creed. 
 
 Yet Catholic Irishmen, like Byron's modern 
 Greek might console themselves by reflecting that: 
 
 Their tyrants then. 
 
 Were still, at least, their countrymen. 
 
 This parliament was granted not because it was 
 just 
 
120 IRISH POETRY 
 
 But because Grattan bad 80,000 Irisb volunteers 
 to back up bis request for Home Rule, and Eng- 
 land had more than she could do with the Com- 
 modore Barrys and 'Briens, Patrick Henrys and 
 Montgomerys on this side of the Atlantic, com- 
 manded by Washington. 
 
 Not a very congenial or encouraging period for 
 a young Irish patriot poet. 
 
 In 1794 Moore entered Trinity College, Dublin, 
 which had only the year before been opened to 
 Catholics for the first time, and his ability in the 
 classical languages gave promise of a brilliant 
 future, and at 20 he published his "Odes of Ana- 
 creon," which made him famous at that early age. 
 
 Being full of energy he became the biographer 
 of his distinguished countrymen, Richard Brins 
 ley Sheridan, author of "The Rivals and School 
 for Scandal," two gems, which outrival anything 
 else in English comedy. 
 
IRISH POETRY 121 
 
 He wrote the life of Lord Edward Fitzgerald 
 and of his friend and admirer, Lord Byron. 
 
 He also wrote a history of Ireland. 
 
 Macaulay says that considered merely as a 
 composition, Moore's Life of Lord Byron, pub- 
 lished in 1830 deserves to be classed among the 
 best specimens of English prose our age has pro- 
 duced. 
 
 ''Lalla Rhook," an epic of Eastern life in its 
 faithful portrayal of the thought, histoiy, tradi- 
 tions, manners and even localities was regarded 
 as marvelous, stamping Moore as a poet of rare 
 genius and insight. 
 
 So enraptured were the admirers of the pen- 
 picture of this notable delineation of Eastern life 
 that they said, in its rich and luxurious imagery 
 the reader was so enveloped in the mystic atmos- 
 phere of the East that he could easily imagine the 
 rustle of Persian tapestries, the odor of the spices 
 and even the smell of the sandal wood of that mys- 
 terious land. 
 
122 IRISH POETRY 
 
 Lord Byron was intensely and sincerely en- 
 thusiastic over the reception it met with, not only 
 in Europe, but in India, and wrote a few lines in 
 rhyme to Moore, saying: 
 
 ' ' They tell me, Moore, can it be true, lucky man 
 That thy songs are sung in the Persian tongue 
 on the streets of Ispahan." 
 
 Byron it was also who called him ' ' The poet of 
 all circles and the Idol of his own" and this de- 
 scription was absolutely and happily true of the 
 position held by Moore among the most famous 
 men of his time. 
 
 But it is not as the writer of the "Odes of 
 Anacreon," of "The Epicurean," of the "Alci- 
 phron, ' ' or even of Lalla Rhook, though Irishmen 
 think, that one of its books. The Fire Worship- 
 ers, portrays their own struggle for freedom, no 
 it is not for any or all these, but for his imperish- 
 able Irish melodies, the emanation of Moore, the 
 patriot, that we hold him in grateful and affec- 
 tionate remembrance. 
 
IRISH POETRY 123 
 
 ''Byron declared that, "Moore's Melodies were 
 worth all the epics that ever were composed." 
 
 And yet were it not that, toward the end of 
 the eighteenth century, two worthy gentlemen, 
 Dr. Petrie and Edward Bunting, knowing the sub- 
 lime beauty of Irish airs, began to collect and 
 set down in rotation the national music of Ireland, 
 these splendid airs might have been in the chaos 
 of the time lost forever. 
 
 To some of the airs collected by Petrie and 
 Bunting, Moore began to write, and being a sweet 
 singer, commenced to enchant his audience with 
 his famous Melodies 106 years ago, in 1807 — and 
 they have not only endured the century, but have 
 remained as Samuel Lover wrote of Irish music, 
 "beyond comparing" to this day. 
 
 They have been translated into nine languages, 
 and they have been surpassed in none if equalled 
 by any. 
 
124 IRISH POETRY 
 
 No poetic license, no halting phrases or patched- 
 up limbs are found in Moore's poems or songs 
 which flow as gracefully as an Irish stream in 
 the twilight of a summer's eve, when Divinity 
 seems to blend nature into a scene of beauty and 
 repose. 
 
 The bravery, courage and heroism of the race 
 are poetically pictured in the "Minstrel Boy." 
 
 A Scottish writer has said of the "Minstrel 
 Boy" that it is the most perfect song in existence, 
 owing to the blending of words and music and the 
 placing of the long vowel sounds on the long 
 notes — ^that is A as in fate not in fat; E as in 
 mete not in met; I as in fine not in fin; as in 
 old not in odd; U as in use not in us; Y as in style 
 not in nymph. 
 
 Roosevelt says that "Garryowen" is the great- 
 est marching and fighting tune in the world. 
 
IRISH POETRY 125 
 
 Robert Emmet forbade the writing of his epi- 
 taph. 
 
 But what could be written in such full respect 
 to the injunction of his friend the dead patriot 
 and yet so calculated to keep his memory immor- 
 tal, as — Moore's 
 
 Oh breathe not his name, let it sleep in the shade 
 Where cold and unhonored his relics are laid 
 
 Sad, silent and dark be the tears that we shed 
 As the night dew that falls on the grass o 'er his 
 head. 
 
 The legendary and authentic history of Ireland 
 is enshrined in Moore's matchless melodies' — al- 
 most complete. 
 
 "Silent, Moyle be the roar of thy waters" 
 
 Is built on one of the earliest legends of Irish 
 literature. 
 
 "The Fate of the Children of Lir". 
 
126 IRISH POETRY 
 
 Who were condemned in the form of swans to 
 the Sea of Moyle to await the ringing of the first 
 Mass bell when the spell should be broken, and 
 they returned to the human world. 
 
 "Avenging and bright falls the swift sword of 
 Erin" strikingly depicts the most famous tale of 
 the Red Branch cycle of Irish epic romance, — the 
 sorrows of Deirdre whose lover is slain. 
 
 It was this romantic patriotic Music of Ireland 
 as expressed by her bards, its sincerity reaching 
 to heaven which was echoed back by the sound- 
 ing-shield of justice that strengthened the heart 
 and warmed the blood which was flowing from 
 every vein of my native land. 
 
 And which impelled Moore to sing 
 ''Forget not the field where they perished 
 The truest the last of the brave." 
 The splendid feats of Malachi and the formid- 
 able Red Branch Knights are storied in 
 
 **Let Erin Remember the Days of Old." 
 
IRISH POETRY 127 
 
 The heroic military achievements of the mighty 
 King, Brian Born, who vanquished the Danes are 
 proudly sung in: 
 
 "Remember the Glories of Brian the Brave". 
 
 Nor was war Brian's only glory. He is just 
 as renowned for his reign of peace, law, order, 
 contentment and education, during which, it is 
 said, a lovely and unprotected young lady heavily 
 jeweled went through Ireland without molesta- 
 tion will be remembered for all time, and Irish 
 chivalry applauded by: 
 
 "Rich and Rare Were the Gems She Wore". 
 
 Woman in Ireland was ever honored and re- 
 spected, there is no room there for Assuerus who 
 tempts Esther and entices her to supplant Veshti. 
 
 Marriage there is a sacrament for the man as 
 well as for the woman, and its desecration is not 
 tolerated. 
 
128 IRISH POETRY 
 
 And if the civilization of a people is marked by 
 the respect and honor its women hold, the Irish 
 stand high in civilization. 
 
 Moore was not only a great poet but he was, 
 what was better a manly man. 
 
 Before the keen and telling effect of his irony 
 and sarcasm, when deserved, the most powerful 
 in England shrank including the "Iron Duke of 
 Wellington" and the Prince Regent (George IV) 
 whom he called : 
 
 "The Fat Adonis of Fifty". 
 
 Which puts to shame the assertion that he 
 "dearly loved a Lord". 
 
 And marks him as one of the most independent 
 men of his time. 
 
 In a lecture here in Baltimore in 1847 the great- 
 est literary genius which America lias produced, 
 as well as the keenest, most impartial, but most 
 merciless critic, Edgar Allen Poe, uttered these re- 
 
IRISH POETRY 129 
 
 markable words: "It has become the fashion of 
 late to deny Moore imagination, while granting 
 him fancy. This is because the fancy of Moore 
 so far excels the fancy of all other poets that 
 many deem him fanciful only. 
 
 ''Never was a greater wrong done to a true 
 poet. The lines describing a desolate lake in Don- 
 egal, called 'Patrick's Purgatory' around which 
 trammeled souls hovered, commencing with, 'I 
 would I were by that dim lake' is one of the most 
 imaginative poems in all literature. ' ' 
 
 So said Edgar Allan Poe of Moore. 
 
 And the "Biographic Generale" of France says: 
 
 "Moore's poems have a sustained elegance which 
 is not marred by an air of rudeness which runs 
 through Bums". 
 
 Tenderness, rich and brilliant imagery give 
 them an enduring fascination. His poems are re- 
 markable for their felicitous expression, their 
 sweet musical flow and tender feeling, while gen- 
 ial wit and humor add to their attractiveness and 
 charm. 
 
130 IRISH POETRY 
 
 Moore died in 1852 at the age of 73 years. Did 
 I say died? No, his soul is as much in evidence 
 today as when his body formed its tabernacle. 
 
 The patriot never dies. 
 For Cicero tells us, 
 
 "That there is a certain separate place in 
 heaven for those who have preserved, aided and 
 ameliorated their country, where they may enjoy 
 happiness in the presence of God to all eternity." 
 
 The patriotic and religious never die, patriotism 
 •and religion were motives strong enough to impel 
 the Saviour of mankind to perform a miracle. 
 
 For when the centurian sent to Jesus to ask 
 that the servant who was dear to him and who 
 was sick be made well. 
 
 The messengers thought it all sufficient to state 
 of the centurian: 
 
 "For he loveth our nation", 
 Emphasizing his patriotism 
 
 "And he hath built us a synagogue," 
 
IRISH POETRY 131 
 
 Accentuating his religion by Ms building an edi- 
 fice to God. 
 
 And indeed both qualities are twins, for the man 
 who is religious is sincerely patriotic and the man 
 who is patriotic is inately religious. 
 
 1 will finish with two brief stanzas of the ode 
 written for the centenary of Thomas Moore in 
 this country, thirty-four years ago by another 
 Irish poet, T. D. Sullivan: 
 
 "Oh, Tara's hall may waste away 
 
 The Shannon's source may fail; 
 The mingled waters cease to play 
 
 Through fair Avoca's vale. 
 Loved Arran Moore may fade from sight 
 
 But you will still endure 
 In Irish hearts fresh, warm and bright 
 
 Enchanting songs of Moore. 
 
 Yea, even if our ancient race. 
 
 In time should cease to be 
 And if our dear old native place 
 
 Should sink into the sea, 
 The world would save from out the wave 
 
 And hold the prize secure 
 The harp you strung, the songs you sung, 
 
 Our own immortal Moore." 
 
133 
 
 AUTHORITIES QUOTED 
 
 Arnold, Mathew — English poet and critic. 
 
 Bible (31). 
 
 Byron, Lord — English poet. 
 
 Biography, General — of France. 
 
 Bede, Venerable — English historian. 
 
 Cicero. 
 
 Cobbett, William — English historian. 
 
 Emerson, Ralph Waldo — New England scholar, 
 author and essayist. 
 
 Encyclopedia Brittanica. 
 
 Ferguson, James — English historian of archi- 
 tecture. 
 
 Geminiani, Francesco — Great Italian musician. 
 
 Gibbon, Edward — English historian. 
 
 Grammaticus, Saxo — Danish historian. 
 
 Green — English historian. 
 
134 AUTHORITIES QUOTED 
 
 Johnson, Dr. Samuel — English lexicographer, 
 poet and essayist. 
 
 Key, Francis Scott — Author of "Star Spangled 
 Banner. ' ' 
 
 "London Times", The. 
 
 Mantaigne. 
 
 Macaulay, Thomas B. — English historian, biog- 
 rapher and essayist. 
 
 Maine, Prof. Henry Sumner — Professor of Law 
 at Oxford. 
 
 Meyer, Kuno — German Literatus. 
 
 Morley, John — English essayist and miscellan- 
 eous writer. 
 
 Moreri, Louis — French biographer. 
 
 Mozart, John Chrysostom — Austrian composer. 
 
 Mosheim, Johan Lorenz — Protestant ecclesias- 
 tical historian of Germany. 
 
 Myers, Philip Van Ness — German historian. 
 
AUTHORITIES QUOTED 135 
 
 Poe, Edgar Allan — American poet and critic. 
 
 Reeves, Dr. William — English Literateur. 
 
 Roosevelt, Theodore — American Literateur 
 and statesman. 
 
 Ruskin, John — English art critic. 
 Sigerson, Doctor. 
 
 Smith, Ernest — Of the Royal School of Mines, 
 London. 
 
 Spenser, Edmund — English poet. 
 
 Taylor, Rev. Isaac — English writer. 
 
 Tennyson, Lord Alfred — English poet. 
 
 Willis, Nathaniel Parker — American miscel- 
 laneous writer. 
 
 Westwood, Prof. John Obadiah — English. 
 
 Ware, Sir James — English. 
 
 Wolfson, Arthur Mayer — English historian. 
 
 Zeus, John Kaspar — German philologist. 
 
137 
 
 
139 
 
 INDEX 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Adrian IV ; taught by an Irish professor 11 
 
 Agnostics of Italy 116 
 
 Aldhulf, King of East Angles 18 
 
 Alemanni, of Germany 16 
 
 Alfred the Great 57 
 
 America, discovered by an Irishman 74 
 
 "Anacreon in Heaven," O'Carolan's 98 
 
 Ancestry, pride of 7 
 
 Angelo, Michael 61 
 
 Antiquaries, British society of 53 
 
 Antrim, Round towers of 49 
 
 Aphelion, Ireland glimmer in 13 
 
 Arabian Sea 15 
 
 Arch, unknown who invented the 42 
 
 Architecture, Byzantine 44 
 
 " Corinthian 41 
 
 " Doric 41 
 
 Egyptian 37 
 
 " English, derived from Rome 48 
 
 " Gothic, evolved by the Irish 44 
 
 Greek 41 
 
 " Indian 40 
 
 " Ionic 41 
 
140 INDEX 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Architecture, Irish, the pointed arch 37 
 
 " Jewish 38 
 
 Persian 40 
 
 Arnold, Mathew 74, 93, 94 
 
 "Arran More" 131 
 
 Art, Irish 27, 28 
 
 Arthur, Celtic King of England 48 
 
 Ash-leaf, Gothic Contour 61 
 
 Askeaton Abbey, County I^imerick 54 
 
 Assuerus 127 
 
 Bards, O'Carolan the last of Irish 98 
 
 Bede's history of England 18 
 
 Bible, chronology of the, by an Irishman 118 
 
 Biographic Generale of France 129 
 
 Bobio, school of, founded by Columbanus 69 
 
 Boru, Brian 18, 127 
 
 Brehon Laws, foundation of Trial by Jury 20 
 
 " " maintained their ground down to 
 
 17th Century 21 
 
 Brendan, early discoverer of America 74 
 
 Brogue, no, with Gaelic Speakers 7 
 
 Builders, Great Irish 49 
 
 Burgundians, in South-Eastern Gaul 46 
 
 Burke, Edmund 7, 83, 84 
 
INDEX 141 
 
 PACtK 
 
 Burns • _ . 129 
 
 Byron, Lord 119. 122, 123 
 
 Callanan, J. J 103 
 
 Canaan, conquest of 39 
 
 Canute, Danish King of England 57 
 
 Canute II, Danish King of England 57 
 
 Carey, Mathew, publisher 98 
 
 Carter, John, British Antiquary 53 
 
 Castledermot Abbey, County Kildare 55 
 
 Celt's, Artistic Eminence 52 
 
 Celts, Irish, taught the English Art of Rhyme 92 
 
 Characteristics, Different national 5 
 
 Charlemagne, got the Irishmen, Albin and Clement 
 
 to teach 71 
 
 Charles, the Great 46 
 
 Cicero 130 
 
 Clan System a pure democracy 19 
 
 Clare County 18 
 
 Cloaks, Irish woolen , 32 
 
 Clonmacnois, Church of 29 
 
 Clovis united the Franks 47 
 
 Cloyne Abbey, County Cork.. 55 
 
 Cobbett, historian 1 18 
 
142 INDEX 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Cologne Cathedral 62 
 
 Columbanus educated France 69 
 
 Columcille converts King of the Picts 66, 68, 69 
 
 Congrave, William, poet 110 
 
 Conrad III 77 
 
 Constantine XIII 45 
 
 Constantinople, capture of 45 
 
 Corinthian Architecture 4 1 
 
 Counties, Ireland's, when named 19 
 
 Cromlechs of Ireland 37 
 
 Chronology of Bible made by an Irishman 118 
 
 Cross of Cong 29 
 
 "Culdees" 93 
 
 Cyrus, tomb of 40 
 
 Dalcassiens 18 
 
 Danes held Scotland and Normandy 59 
 
 Danes overran all England 57 
 
 Dante knew of the Irishman Fursa's writings 78, 1 16 
 
 Davis, Thomas Osborne, poet 101 
 
 Dearbhorgil, wife of O'Rouark 22 
 
 Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire... 8 
 
 Deirdre 126 
 
 De Vere, Aubrey, poet 108 
 
INDEX 143 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Dome, unknown to the Egyptians 38 
 
 Donegal Abbey, County Donegal 55 
 
 Druid Hill Park, in which is nature's Gothic 61 
 Dungal, the Irishman, consulted by Charlemagne 
 
 for his knowledge of astronomy 72, 73 
 
 Dyes, Irish renowned for their 34 
 
 Rdmond, King of England, shot to death 57 
 
 Egfird, King of the Northumbrians 18 
 
 Egyptian Pyramid 37 
 
 "Eileen Aroon" 97 
 
 Elizabeth, Queen 1 17 
 
 Emerson, Ralph Waldo, New England scholar 79 
 
 Emmet, Robert 125 
 
 Emotions, caged in English language 9 
 
 Empires, Mighty, not essential to greatness 14 
 
 England's attempt to name the Gothic the English 
 
 style : 53 
 
 England submerged by Anglo-Saxon corsairs 47 
 
 England christianized by the Irish before St. 
 
 Augustine's time 66 
 
 English Bishops were of Irish consecration 67 
 
 English Characteristics 5 
 
 English Language, megre and mawkish 8 
 
144 INDEX 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Erigenia, John Scotus, distinguished Irish scholar. 82 
 
 Esther 127 
 
 Etherial nature of Irishman. 6 
 
 Ethelfrid, King of the Mercians 18 
 
 Euphrates, the river 15 
 
 Export, Ireland's 36 
 
 Family in Ireland recognized as unit of society 21 
 
 Ferguson, James, historian of architecture 52 
 
 Ferguson, vSamuel, poet 104 
 
 "Fire Worshippers," a portrayal of Ireland's 
 
 struggle 122 
 
 Fitzgerald, Edward, poet, 105 
 
 Fitzgerald, Eord Edward 121 
 
 Fort of Arranmore 50 
 
 France, educated by Columbanus 69 
 
 France, partitioned in 10th Century 23 
 
 Franks, united by Clovis 47 
 
 Free Masons, who built Catholic churches 62 
 
 Friezes, Irish, in France, passing the Rhine 33 
 
 Fursa, St., goes to England to teach. 70, 77, 78, 91 
 
 Gael, one of the oldest people 15 
 
 Gaelic Ideas versus English Idioms 9 
 
 Galileo 75 
 
INDEX 145 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Gall, St., patron Saint of St. Gall in Switzerland 71 
 
 "Garryowen," greatest marching and fighting tune 124 
 
 Geiseric, yields to the prayer of Leo the Great 47 
 
 Geminiani, P'rancesco, accomplished Italian 97 
 
 George IV 128 
 
 German Characteristics 5 
 
 Gertrude, Abbess of Nivelle 91 
 
 Gibbon, Edward, historian 8 
 
 Gobban Saer, the builder. 49 
 
 Goethe's Faust 87 
 
 Goibniu, ancient Irish metal god 21 
 
 Goldsmith, Oliver, poet 115 
 
 Gothic Arch 21, 50 
 
 Gothic style links architecture wnth religion 48 
 
 Gothic style evolved from the Irish mind 52, 60 
 
 Gotofor, County Waterford man, a great scholar 70 
 
 Grace Protestant Episcopal Church, Baltimore 51 
 
 Grammaticus, Saxo, Danish historian 68 
 
 Grattan, Henry, and the Irish parliament 119, 120 
 
 Greek Characteristics 5 
 
 Greeks, ignorant of the arch . 42 
 
 Griffin, Gerald, poet. 113 
 
 "Gurth and Wamba" 7 
 
 Guthrum, King of England 57 
 
146 INDEX 
 
 PAGK 
 
 "Handel's Oratorio," produced and first played in 
 
 Ireland 88 
 
 Hannibal 45 
 
 Hardicanute, Danish King of England 57 
 
 Harefoot, Harold, King of England 57 
 
 Helen, the Grecian lady 22 
 
 Henry VHI 117 
 
 Heptarchy. England's 18, 48 
 
 Hereditary Class, in Ireland no 20 
 
 Hirara, King of Tyre 39 
 
 Holy Cross Abbey, County Tipperary 54 
 
 Huns invaded Rome 16 
 
 "Iliad," translated from I,atin to Gaelic 82 
 
 Indus 15 
 
 Innisfail, song of 16 
 
 Ireland's church patrons were the names of her own 
 
 holy men 51 
 
 Ireland's National Legislature 900 years before 
 
 Christ 17 
 
 Ireland's intellectuality unaffected by fall of Roman 
 
 Empire 65 
 
 Irish Characteristic 5 
 
 Irish conception of law 17 
 
 Irish stone-masons 62 
 
INDEX 147 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Irish tribal system barred the way of the danes 58 
 
 Irishman's contribution to government, art, archi- 
 tecture, etc 16 
 
 Irishman patron Saint of Canton of Glarus 72 
 
 Irishmen rapidly Americanized 24 
 
 Irishmen educators of Germany 63 
 
 Irishmen enobled labor 61 
 
 Iron Duke of Wellington 128 
 
 Italian Agnostics 1 16 
 
 Johnson, Dr. Samuel, (Scotch Western Isles 
 
 journey) 67, 83, 110 
 
 Kells, book of 27 
 
 Key, Francis Scott, author "Star-SpangledBanner" 98 
 
 Kilian, St., christianized Bavaria 71 
 
 Killaloe, County Clare 18 
 
 Kings of Ireland, four provincial 17 
 
 Knowles, James Sheridan 10 
 
 Lace, Irish - 32 
 
 "Lalla Rhook" 121 
 
 Leather, beautiful Irish, gift fit for poet 33 
 
 Lee, Annie, of Dublin 99 
 
148 INDEX 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Limerick Chalice 29 
 
 Limerick Cloak 32 
 
 Lombards destroyed by Charles the Great 46 
 
 London Bridge 49 
 
 London "Times" 35 
 
 Lothair, King of Kent 18 
 
 Lover, Samuel, poet and novelist Ill, 123 
 
 Luxeuil, school of, founded by Colunibanus 69 
 
 Macauley, historian 49, 97, 121 
 
 Mahony, Rev. Francis (Father Prout) 114 
 
 Mahon, Brother of Brian Boru 19 
 
 MacDurnan, book of 34 
 
 MacHenry, Dr. , after whom is called Fort McHenrj' 99 
 
 MacLuchair, arch poet of Erin 90 
 
 MacMurragh,Dermod,who tried to play "Paris" 19, 21 
 
 MacPherson, tried to steal Ossian from the Irish 91 
 
 Madder, the plant 34 
 
 Maengel, the Irishman, taught music in Switzer- 
 land 92 
 
 Magna Charta, stolen by England from Ireland 20 
 
 Magnus III, King of Norway 58 
 
 Mangan, James Clarence, poet and linquist 112 
 
 Manufactures, Irish, deliberately destroyed 34 
 
INDEX 149 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Maine, Sir Henry Sumner 20 
 
 Maryland's Governor and Senators 18 
 
 Marianus, founded monasteries on the Danube 76 
 
 Marks, St., in Venice 44 
 
 Mantles, embossed Irish cloth 32 
 
 Marriage in Ireland indissoluble 127 
 
 McCarthy, Denis F., poet 106 
 
 McNathmore, Aengus, the builder 50 
 
 Medes and Persians 15 
 
 Mediterranean, coast of the 16 
 
 Mephistopheles 87 
 
 Meyer, Kuno, German literatus 96, 97 
 
 "Midsummer Night's Dream," from Irish fairy 
 
 folk-lore 11, 93 
 
 Mile, length of an Irish, more accurate than 
 
 England's 74 
 
 Mineret, unknown to the Egyptians 38 
 
 "Ministrel Boy" 124 
 
 Montaigne 10 
 
 Mount Vernon Place M. E. Church, Baltimore 62 
 
 Moreri, French biographer 75 
 
 25. 98, 100, 116, 120, 123, 
 
 Moore 
 
 ' 124, 125, 126, 128, 130, 131 
 
 Morley, John 93 
 
150 INDEX 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Mohammed, of Malwa 40 
 
 Mosheim, protestant ecclesiastical historian of 
 
 Germany 28 
 
 Mozart, German composer 97 
 
 Mural Decoration 31 
 
 Murry ' s Grammar 7 
 
 Nationalities, small 13 
 
 New Zealander, Maculey's 49 
 
 Nile Embankment 37 
 
 Nineveh's Buildings 40 
 
 Norway's Necromancy 58 
 
 O'Carolau, Turlough, last of the Irish bards 98 
 
 Odoacer, King of Heruli 45 
 
 O'Glacan, privy councillor to King of France 83 
 
 O'Reilly, John Boyle 102 
 
 O'Shaughnessy, Thomas A., artist 31 
 
 Ossian, poet of ancient Erin 91 
 
 Osberga, Queen of England, mother of Alfred the 
 
 Great 81 
 
 Oswald, King of Northumberland, got Aidan to 
 
 convert his subjects 70 
 
 Oxus, river of Asia 15 
 
 Pagans, from Tyre, built Solomon's Temple 39 
 
 Palagius, the subtle 71 
 
 Palestine 1 6 
 
INDEX 151 
 
 PAGH 
 
 Parnell, Thomas, poet 109 
 
 Parret, river 57 
 
 Paris, the Trojan gentleman 22 
 
 Patois of "Gurth and Wamba" 7 
 
 Patron saints of ancient Irish churches always 
 
 Irishmen 51 
 
 Patrick, St.. 17, 86, 90, 91 
 
 Paul's, St., church in London 49 
 
 "Peggy Bawn " — Fair Margaret 16 
 
 Persian Gulf 15 
 
 Petri, Dr., collected the Irish airs 123 
 
 Penmanship, illuminated 27 
 
 Phoenician Ships 16 
 
 Poe, Edgar Allen 128, 129 
 
 Poetry 85 
 
 Pompeii, architecture of 43 
 
 Presbyterian, First, Church, Baltimore 62 
 
 Protestant, Grace, Episcopal Church, Baltimore 51 
 
 Punjab, five rivers of the 15 
 
 Queen Osberga, mother of Alfred the Great 81 
 
 Red Branch cycle of Epic romance 126 
 
 Reformation, in England. 117 
 
 Reeves, Dr. 50 
 
 Richard 1 7 
 
 Rhine Province 16 
 
 Richard II 33 
 
152 INDEX 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Rinuccini, papal legate 31 
 
 "Rivals, The " 10 
 
 Roman Characteristic 5 
 
 Rome indebted to Greece for her architecture 42 
 
 Romans, great road builders 42 
 
 Roosevelt, Theodore 1 24 
 
 Roman Empire, effect of fall of 65 
 
 Round Towers, of Ireland 49 
 
 Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam 105 
 
 Ruskin, John 53, 54, 56 
 
 Saxon fond of table d'hote 5 
 
 Saul, in disguise 88 
 
 "vSchool for Scandal" 10 
 
 Schools of Malmesbury and Lindisfarne founded by 
 
 Irishmen 67 
 
 Sedulius' (shiel) "Carmen Paschale " first great 
 
 christian epic 89 
 
 Scotland .. ^ 1 
 
 Schurz, Carl, learned English from Goldsmith's 
 
 works 1 15 
 
 Serge, Irish, in Naples, Coma, Genoa, Bologna and 
 
 Florence 33 
 
 Shakespere 10, 11, 118 
 
INDEX 153 
 
 PAGR 
 
 Sheridan, Richard Brindsley 10, 107, 120 
 
 Sigbert, English King, pleased at Fursa's coming 
 
 to England 70 
 
 Sighers, English King, with his people, turned 
 
 apostate.._ 68 
 
 Smith, Ernest, of the Royal School of Mines, 
 
 London 30 
 
 Smith, Stafford, composer 98 
 
 Solomon's Temple, built by pagans 39 
 
 Spanish Ships 16 
 
 Sparta, men of 1 
 
 Spenser 5 1 
 
 Sphinx. Egyptian 38 
 
 Stanyhurst, Richard 1 18 
 
 "Star-Spangled Banner," set to an Irish air, 
 
 "Anacreon in Heaven" „ 98 
 
 Stone-masous, Irish 62 
 
 "Stones of Venice" 53 
 
 Stained Glass Windows, Irish 31 
 
 St. Augustine, hated English barbarism. 66 
 
 St. Benedict, outdone by Columbanus 69 
 
 St. Foillan 91 
 
 St. Fursa, christianized the East Angles 70 
 
 St. Mel's Church, Chicago 32 
 
 St. Patrick's Church, Chicago 32 
 
154 INDEX 
 
 PAGB 
 
 St. Simeon Stylites 118 
 
 St. Ultan 91 
 
 Sullivan, T. D., poet 131 
 
 Susa, buildings of 40 
 
 Table d'hote, Saxon fond of 5 
 
 Tara Brooch 29 
 
 Tara Brooch, exhibited in London 30 
 
 Taylor, Rev. Isaac, on names of rivers 79 
 
 Temple, Solomon's, built by pagans 39 
 
 Temple of Vesta, built by Corinthian Greeks. 43 
 
 Tennyson 1 1 8 
 
 Theodoric, ruler of Italy 46 
 
 Thomond and Desmond 19 
 
 Thorgils, Norwegian leader 58 
 
 Treaty of Limerick 98 
 
 Usher, James, Protestant Archbishop of Armagh ... 1 18 
 
 Vandals, dispoiled Rome 47 
 
 Veshti 127 
 
 Vesta, temple of 43 
 
 Virginius, the tragedy 10 
 
INDEX 155 
 
 PAGS 
 Virgilius (Ferghil) taught the existence of the 
 
 antipodes 75 
 
 Visigoths, from North of Black Sea in possession of 
 
 Southern Gaul and Spain 16, 46 
 
 Vulcan, Grecian iron god 27 
 
 Vulcan, temple of _ 37 
 
 Walpole, Horace, British antiquary 53 
 
 War, all Europe in, except Ireland 48 
 
 Ware, Sir James, "Treatise on Irish writers" 75 
 
 Washington, George 1 20 
 
 West wood , Professor 28 
 
 Willis, American poet 17 
 
 Zeuss, German philologist 94, 95 
 
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