BOER BALLADS IN IRELAND

'Will you be as hard,Colleen, as you are quiet?Will you be without pityOn me for ever?'Listen to me, Noireen,Listen, aroon;Put healing on meFrom your quiet mouth.'I am in the little roadThat is dark and narrow,The little road that has ledThousands to sleep.'

'Will you be as hard,Colleen, as you are quiet?Will you be without pityOn me for ever?

'Listen to me, Noireen,Listen, aroon;Put healing on meFrom your quiet mouth.

'I am in the little roadThat is dark and narrow,The little road that has ledThousands to sleep.'

In his preface to the 'Love Songs of Connacht' he says he finds in them 'more of grief and trouble, more of melancholy and contrition of heart, than of gaiety or hope'; and he writes: 'Not careless and light-hearted alone is the Gaelic nature; there is also beneath the loudest mirth a melancholy spirit; and if they let on to be without heed for anything but sport and revelry, there is nothing in it but letting on.' There is grief and trouble, as I have shown, in many of his own songs, which the people have taken to their hearts so quickly; but there is also a touch of hope, of glad belief that, in spite of heavy days of change, all things are working for good at the last.

Here are some verses from a poem called 'There is a Change coming':—

'When that time comes it will come heavily;He will grow fat that was lean;He will grow lean that was fat,Without shelter for the head, without mirth, without help.'The low will be raised up, says the poet;The thing that was high will be thrown down again;The world will be changed from end to end:When that time comes it will come heavily.'If you yourself see this thing coming,And the country without luck, without law, without authority,Swept with the storm, without knowledge, without strength,Remember my words, and don't let your heart break.'This life is like a tree;The top green, branches soft, the bark smooth and shining;But there is a little worm shut up in itSucking at the sap all through the day.'But from this old, cold, withered tree,A new plant will grow up;The old world will die without pity,But the young world will grow up on its grave.'

'When that time comes it will come heavily;He will grow fat that was lean;He will grow lean that was fat,Without shelter for the head, without mirth, without help.

'The low will be raised up, says the poet;The thing that was high will be thrown down again;The world will be changed from end to end:When that time comes it will come heavily.

'If you yourself see this thing coming,And the country without luck, without law, without authority,Swept with the storm, without knowledge, without strength,Remember my words, and don't let your heart break.

'This life is like a tree;The top green, branches soft, the bark smooth and shining;But there is a little worm shut up in itSucking at the sap all through the day.

'But from this old, cold, withered tree,A new plant will grow up;The old world will die without pity,But the young world will grow up on its grave.'

Here is a fine vision of a battle-field:—

'The time I think of the cause of IrelandMy heart is torn within me.'The time I think of the death of the peopleWho protected Ireland bravely and faithfully.'They are stretched on the side of the mountainVery low, one with another.'Hidden under grass, or under tall herbs,Far from friends or help or friendship.'Not a child or a wife near them;Not a priest to be found there or a friar;'But the mountain eagle and the white eagleMoving overhead across the skies.'Without a defence against the sun in the daytime;Without a shelter against the skies at night.'It's many a good soldier, joyful and pleasant,That has had his laughing mouth closed there.'There is many a young breast with a hole through it;The little black hole that is death to a man.'There is many a brave man stripped there,His body naked, without vest or shirt.'The young man that was proud and beautiful yesterday,When the woman he loved left a kiss on his mouth.'There is many a married woman, with the child at her breast,Without her comrade, without a father for her child to-night.'There's many a castle without a lord, and many a lord without a house;And little forsaken cabins with no one in them.'I saw a fox leaving its denAsking for a body to feed its hunger.'There's a fierce wolf at Carrig O'Neill;There is blood on his tongue and blood on his mouth.'I saw them, and I heard the criesOf kites and of black crows.'Ochone! Is not the only Son of God angry;Ochone! The red blood that was poured out yesterday!'

'The time I think of the cause of IrelandMy heart is torn within me.

'The time I think of the death of the peopleWho protected Ireland bravely and faithfully.

'They are stretched on the side of the mountainVery low, one with another.

'Hidden under grass, or under tall herbs,Far from friends or help or friendship.

'Not a child or a wife near them;Not a priest to be found there or a friar;

'But the mountain eagle and the white eagleMoving overhead across the skies.

'Without a defence against the sun in the daytime;Without a shelter against the skies at night.

'It's many a good soldier, joyful and pleasant,That has had his laughing mouth closed there.

'There is many a young breast with a hole through it;The little black hole that is death to a man.

'There is many a brave man stripped there,His body naked, without vest or shirt.

'The young man that was proud and beautiful yesterday,When the woman he loved left a kiss on his mouth.

'There is many a married woman, with the child at her breast,Without her comrade, without a father for her child to-night.

'There's many a castle without a lord, and many a lord without a house;And little forsaken cabins with no one in them.

'I saw a fox leaving its denAsking for a body to feed its hunger.

'There's a fierce wolf at Carrig O'Neill;There is blood on his tongue and blood on his mouth.

'I saw them, and I heard the criesOf kites and of black crows.

'Ochone! Is not the only Son of God angry;Ochone! The red blood that was poured out yesterday!'

I do not know who the following poem was written about, or if it is about anyone in particular; but one line of it puts into words the emotion of many an Irish 'felon.' 'It is with the people I was; it is not with the law I was.' For the Irish crime, treason-felony, is only looked on as a crime in the eyes of the law, not in the eyes of the people:—

'I am lying in prison,I am in bonds;To-morrow I will be hanged,Who am to-night so quiet,So quiet;Who am to-night so quiet.'I am in prison,My heart is cold and heavy;To-morrow I will be hanged,And there is no help for me,My grief;Och! there is no help for me.'I am in prison,And I did no wrong;I only did the workWas just, was right, was good,I did,Oh, I did the thing was good.'It is with the people I was,It is not with the law I was;But they took me in my sleep,On the side of Cnoc-na-Feigh;And soTo-morrow they will hang me.''I am weak in my body,I am vexed in my heart,And to-morrow I will be hanged;Lying beneath the clay,My sorrow,Lying beneath the clay.'May God give pardonTo my vexed, sorrowful soul;May God give mercyTo me now and forever,Amen!To me now and forever.'

'I am lying in prison,I am in bonds;To-morrow I will be hanged,Who am to-night so quiet,So quiet;Who am to-night so quiet.

'I am in prison,My heart is cold and heavy;To-morrow I will be hanged,And there is no help for me,My grief;Och! there is no help for me.

'I am in prison,And I did no wrong;I only did the workWas just, was right, was good,I did,Oh, I did the thing was good.

'It is with the people I was,It is not with the law I was;But they took me in my sleep,On the side of Cnoc-na-Feigh;And soTo-morrow they will hang me.'

'I am weak in my body,I am vexed in my heart,And to-morrow I will be hanged;Lying beneath the clay,My sorrow,Lying beneath the clay.

'May God give pardonTo my vexed, sorrowful soul;May God give mercyTo me now and forever,Amen!To me now and forever.'

But translation is poor work. Even if it gives a glimpse of the heart of a poem, too much islost in losing the outward likeness. Here are the last lines of the lament of a felon's brother:—

'Now that you are stretched in the cold graveMay God set you free:It's vexed and sorry and pitiful are my thoughts;It's sorrowful I am to-day!'

I look at them and read them; and wonder why when I first read them, their sound had hung about me for days like a sobbing wind; but when I look at them in their own form, the sob is in them still:

Nois ann san uaiġ ḟuair ó tá tu sínteGo saoraiġ Dia ṫuIs buaiḋcarṫa, brónaċ boċt atá mo smaointeIs bronaċ mé anḋiú.

Yesterday I asked a woman on the Echtge hills, if any of her neighbours had gone to the war. She said: 'No; but I know a great many that went to America when the war began—even boys that had business to do at home; they were afraid of being brought away by the Press.' On another part of the Echtge hills, where a rumour had come that the police were to be sent to the war, an old woman said to a policeman I know: 'When you go out there, don't be killing the people of my religion.' He said: 'The Boers are not of your religion'; but she said: 'They are; I know they must be Catholics, or the English would not be against them.' Others on that wild range think that this is the beginning of the great war that will end in the final rout of the enemies of Ireland. Old prophecies say this war is to come at the meeting of these centuries; and there is an old Irish verse which seems to allude to this, and which has been thus translated:—

'When the Lion shall lose its strength,And the bracket Thistle begin to pine,The Harp shall sound sweet, sweet, at length,Between the eight and the nine.'

Lonely Echtge still keeps old prophecies and old songs and some of the old speech, and but few newspapers are seen there; but on the lowland, sympathy with the Boers, and prophecies of their victory, are put into the doggerel English verse that must be poor in form, because a ballad, more than another song, must have a long tradition of folk-thought and folk-expression behind it; and in Ireland this tradition does not belong to the English language. Even the beautiful air of 'The Wearing of the Green' cannot give poetic charm to such verses as these, which, like the others that follow, have been sung and sold by ballad-singers in market-towns and at fairs, and at country race-meetings, during the last year:—

'Oh! Paddy dear, and did ye hearThe news that's going round?No cheers for brave Paul KrugerMust be heard on Irish ground.No more the English tourist atKillarney will be seen,Unless you join the pirate's cause,And chant "God save the Queen."'

Or this other, sung during the siege of Ladysmith:—

'And I met with White the General,And he's looking thin enough;And he says the boys in LadysmithAre running short of stuff.Faith, the dishes need no washing,Now they're left so nice and clean;Oh! it's anything but pleasantTo be starving for the Queen!'

The defender of Ladysmith is treated with greater courtesy than some other generals, for, in spite of sympathy with the besiegers, the singer says:—

'But if he gave in to-morrow,I would not think it rightTo throw the least disparagementOn a man like General White.He is making a bold resistance,As great as could be made,Against their deadly Mauser rifles,And their tremendous cannonade.'

The 'Song of the Transvaal Irish Brigade' has more literary quality:—

'The Cross swings low; the morn is near—Now, comrades, fill up high;The cannon's voice will ring out clearWhen morning lights the sky.A toast we'll drink together, boys,Ere dawns the battle's grey,A toast to Ireland, dear old Ireland!Ireland far away!Ireland far away! Ireland far away!Health to Ireland, strength to Ireland!Ireland, boys, hurrah!'Who told us that her cause was dead?Who bade us bend the knee?The slaves! Again she lifts her head—Again she dares be free!With gun in hand, we take our stand,For Ireland in the fray:We fight for Ireland, dear old Ireland!Ireland far away!Ireland far away! Ireland far away!We fight for Ireland, die for Ireland—Ireland, boys, hurrah!'Oh, mother of the wounded breast!Oh, mother of the tears!The sons you loved, and trusted best,Have grasped their battle spears.From Shannon, Lagan, Liffey, Lee,On Afric's soil to-day,We strike for Ireland, brave old Ireland!Ireland far away!Ireland far away! Ireland far away!We smite for Ireland, brave old Ireland!Ireland, boys, hurrah!'

'Who told us that her cause was dead?Who bade us bend the knee?The slaves! Again she lifts her head—Again she dares be free!With gun in hand, we take our stand,For Ireland in the fray:We fight for Ireland, dear old Ireland!Ireland far away!Ireland far away! Ireland far away!We fight for Ireland, die for Ireland—Ireland, boys, hurrah!

'Oh, mother of the wounded breast!Oh, mother of the tears!The sons you loved, and trusted best,Have grasped their battle spears.From Shannon, Lagan, Liffey, Lee,On Afric's soil to-day,We strike for Ireland, brave old Ireland!Ireland far away!Ireland far away! Ireland far away!We smite for Ireland, brave old Ireland!Ireland, boys, hurrah!'

'The Irish Boy,' which is sung to the air of 'The Minstrel Boy,' is also in honour of the Irish Brigade:—

'While the Irish boy is on the shore,He'll help to crush the stranger;He'll sweep them hence for evermore,And free thy land from danger.And then he'll pray to God above,That his courage ne'er shall falter,To guard him to the land he loves—To Ireland o'er the water.'

Mayo is the county to which John MacBride, the leader of the Irish Brigade, belongs; but I heard of a ballad-singer at Ballindereen, near my Galway home, the other day, whose refrain was:—

'And Erin watches from afar, with joy and hope and pride,Her sons who strike for liberty, led on by John MacBride!'

At Galway Railway Station, whence the Connaught Rangers set out for the war, I have heard that wives, saying good-bye, begged their husbands 'not to betoo hard on the Boers.' Anyhow, a 'Mother's lament for her son gone to the war,' that was sung at Galway Races the other day, shows more impartiality than most of the ballads:—

'When the battle rages fiercely, our boys are in the van;How I do wish the blows they struck were for dear Ireland!But duty calls, they must obey, and fight against the Boer,And many a cheerful Irish lad will fall to rise no more.'I wish my boy was home again! Oh! how I'd welcome him,With sorrow I'm broken-hearted, my eyes are growing dim;The war is dark and cruel, but whoever wins the fight,I pray to save my noble lad, and God defend the right!'

'I wish my boy was home again! Oh! how I'd welcome him,With sorrow I'm broken-hearted, my eyes are growing dim;The war is dark and cruel, but whoever wins the fight,I pray to save my noble lad, and God defend the right!'

But it is the small farmers of Ireland who look with special sympathy on their fellows in the Transvaal. They give them a warning:—

'England sends her grabbers,From far across the sea,To rob you of your friends and home,Likewise your liberty.'

And the Boers say in answer:—

'When we came to this country,'Twas but a barren plain;But the honest hand of labourWas rewarded for its pain.We found the precious metal,And of it we have great store;But Britain came to rob usAs she often done before.As she thought to do before,As she thought to do before;But Britain comes to rob us,As she often done before.'

Another ballad explains:—

'Those Boers can't be blamed, as you might understand;They are trying to free their own native land,Where they toil night and day by the sweat of their brow,Like the farmers in Ireland that follow the plough.Farewell to Old Ireland, we are now going away,To fight the brave Boers in South Africa;To fight those poor farmers we are not inclined:God be with you, Old Ireland, we are leaving behind.'

Some verses—'The Boer's Prayer'—that I have not seen on a ballad-sheet, but in a weekly paper, give better expression to this feeling of farmer sympathy:—

'My back is to the wall;Lo! here I stand.O Lord, whate'er befall,I love this land!'This land that I have tilled,This land is mine;Would, Lord, that Thou hadst willed,This heart were Thine!'This land to us Thou gaveIn days of old;They seek to make a graveOr field of gold!'To us, O Lord, Thy hand,Put forth to save!Give us, O Lord, this landOr give a grave!'

'My back is to the wall;Lo! here I stand.O Lord, whate'er befall,I love this land!

'This land that I have tilled,This land is mine;Would, Lord, that Thou hadst willed,This heart were Thine!

'This land to us Thou gaveIn days of old;They seek to make a graveOr field of gold!

'To us, O Lord, Thy hand,Put forth to save!Give us, O Lord, this landOr give a grave!'

'A New Song for the Boers' says:—

'Hark! to the curses ringingFrom all smitten lands;In sob and wail, they tell the taleOf England's blood-red hands.'And wheresoe'er her standard flingsForth its folds of shame,A people's cries to heaven ariseFor vengeance on her name!'

'Hark! to the curses ringingFrom all smitten lands;In sob and wail, they tell the taleOf England's blood-red hands.

'And wheresoe'er her standard flingsForth its folds of shame,A people's cries to heaven ariseFor vengeance on her name!'

But for passionate expression, one cannot, as I have already said, look to the comparatively new and artificial English ballad form; one must go to the Irish, with its long tradition. Here is a poem, 'The Curse of the Boers on England,' which I have translated literally from the Irish:—

'O God, we call to Thee,This hour and this day,Look down on this EnglandThat has come down in our midst.'O God, we call to Thee,This day and this hour,Look down on England,And her cold, cold heart.'It is she was a Queen,A Queen without sorrow;But we will take from her,Quietly, her Crown.'That Queen that was beautifulWill be tormented and darkened,For she will get her rewardIn that day, and her wage.'Her wage for the bloodShe poured out on the streams;Blood of the white man,Blood of the black man.'Her wage for those heartsThat she broke in the end;Hearts of the white man,Hearts of the black man.'Her wage for the bonesThat are whitening to-day;Bones of the white man,Bones of the black man.'Her wage for the hungerThat she put on foot;Her wage for the fever,That is an old tale with her.'Her wage for the white villagesShe has left without men;Her wage for the brave menShe has put to the sword.'Her wage for the orphansShe has left under pain;Her wage for the exilesShe has spent with wandering.'For the people of India(Pitiful is their case);For the people of AfricaShe has put to death.'For the people of Ireland,Nailed to the cross;Wage for each peopleHer hand has destroyed.'Her wage for the thousandsShe deceived and she broke;Her wage for the thousandsFinding death at this hour.'O Lord, let there fallStraight down on her headThe curse of the peoplesThat have fallen with us.'The curse of the mean,And the curse of the small,The curse of the weak,And the curse of the low.'The Lord does not listenTo the curse of the strong,But He will listenTo sighs and to tears.'He will always listenTo the crying of the poor,And the crying of thousandsIs abroad to-night.'That crying will rise upTo God that is above;It is not long till every curseComes to His ears.'The crying will be put away;Tears will be put away,When they come to God,These prayers to His kingdom.'He will make for EnglandStrong chains, very heavy;He will pay her wagesWith strong, heavy chains.

'O God, we call to Thee,This hour and this day,Look down on this EnglandThat has come down in our midst.

'O God, we call to Thee,This day and this hour,Look down on England,And her cold, cold heart.

'It is she was a Queen,A Queen without sorrow;But we will take from her,Quietly, her Crown.

'That Queen that was beautifulWill be tormented and darkened,For she will get her rewardIn that day, and her wage.

'Her wage for the bloodShe poured out on the streams;Blood of the white man,Blood of the black man.

'Her wage for those heartsThat she broke in the end;Hearts of the white man,Hearts of the black man.

'Her wage for the bonesThat are whitening to-day;Bones of the white man,Bones of the black man.

'Her wage for the hungerThat she put on foot;Her wage for the fever,That is an old tale with her.

'Her wage for the white villagesShe has left without men;Her wage for the brave menShe has put to the sword.

'Her wage for the orphansShe has left under pain;Her wage for the exilesShe has spent with wandering.

'For the people of India(Pitiful is their case);For the people of AfricaShe has put to death.

'For the people of Ireland,Nailed to the cross;Wage for each peopleHer hand has destroyed.

'Her wage for the thousandsShe deceived and she broke;Her wage for the thousandsFinding death at this hour.

'O Lord, let there fallStraight down on her headThe curse of the peoplesThat have fallen with us.

'The curse of the mean,And the curse of the small,The curse of the weak,And the curse of the low.

'The Lord does not listenTo the curse of the strong,But He will listenTo sighs and to tears.

'He will always listenTo the crying of the poor,And the crying of thousandsIs abroad to-night.

'That crying will rise upTo God that is above;It is not long till every curseComes to His ears.

'The crying will be put away;Tears will be put away,When they come to God,These prayers to His kingdom.

'He will make for EnglandStrong chains, very heavy;He will pay her wagesWith strong, heavy chains.

1901.

The Irish poem I give this translation of was printed in theRevue Celtiquesome years ago, and lately inAn Fior Clairseach na h-Eireann, where a note tells us it was taken from a manuscript in the Gottingen Library, and was written by an Irish priest, Shemus Cartan, who had taken orders in France; but its date is not given. I like it for its own beauty, and because its writer does not, as so many Irish writers have done, attribute the many griefs of Ireland only to 'the horsemen of the Gall,' but also to the faults and shortcomings to which the people of a country broken up by conquest are perhaps more liable than the people of a country that has kept its own settled rule.

My thoughts, alas! are without strength;My spirit is journeying towards death;My eyes are as a frozen sea;My tears my daily food;There is nothing in my life but only misery;My poor heart is torn,And my thoughts are sharp wounds within me,Mourning the miserable state of Ireland,Without ease, without mirth for any personThat is born on the plains of Emer.And here I give you the heavy story,And the tale of all the remnant of her deeds.She lost her pomp and her strength togetherWhen her strong men were banished across the sea;Her churches are as holds of pain,Without altars, without Mass, without bowing of knees;Stables for horses—this story is pitiful—Or without a stone of their stones together.Since the children of Israel were in EgyptUnder bondage, and scarcity along with that,There was never written in a book or never seenHardship like the hardships in Ireland.They parted from us the shepherds of the flockThat is the flock that is astray and is wounded,Left to be torn by wild dogs,And no healing for it from the hand of anyone.Unless God will look down on our distressIreland will indeed be lost for ever!Every old man, every strong man, every child,Our young men and our well-dressed women,Keening, complaining, and reproaching;Going under the power of the Gall or going across the sea.Our dear country without any ears of corn,Without store, without cattle, but only the green grass;Our fatherless children are wasted and weak,Famine and sickness travelling over Ireland,And every other scourge that was ever known,And the rest of her pain has not yet been told.Nevertheless, my sharp woe! I see with my eyesThat the High King has a bow ready in His hand,And His quiver is full of arrows with sharp points,And every arrow of them for our sore wounding,From the sole of our feet to the top of our head,To bruise our hearts and to tear our sinews;There is no spot of our limbs but is scarred;Misfortune has come upon us all together—The poor and the rich, the weak and the strong;The great lord by whom hundreds were maintained;The powerful strong man, and the man that holds the plough;And the cross laid on the bare shoulder of every man.I do not know of anything under the skyThat is friendly or favourable to the Gael,But only the sea that our need brings us to,Or the wind that blows to the harbourThe ship that is bearing us away from Ireland;And there is reason that these are reconciled with us,For we increase the sea with our tears,And the wandering wind with our sighs.We do not see heaven look kindly upon us;We do not see our complaint being listened to;Even the earth refuses us shelterAnd the wood that gives protection to the birds;Every cliff, every cave, every mountain-top,Every hill, every lough, and every meadow.Our feasts are without any voice of priests,And none at them but women lamenting,Tearing their hair, with troubled minds,Keening pitifully after the Fenians.The pipes of our organs are broken;Our harps have lost their strings that were tunedThat might have made the great lamentations of Ireland;Until the strong men come back across the sea,There is no help for us but bitter crying,Screams, and beating of hands, and calling out.It is not strength of hosts, not loss of food,Not the horsemen of the Gall coming from Britain,Nor want of power, nor want of calling to war,That has put defeat upon the armies of Ireland,And has filled the cities with a sad multitude,Alas! alas! but the greatness of our sins.See, we are now put in the crucibleIn which every worthless metal is tried,In which gold is cleansed from every tarnish;The Scripture is true in everything it says;It says we must suffer before we can be cured;It is through repentance we shall find forgiveness,And the restoring of all that we have lost.Let us put down the sum of our sins;Oppression of the poor, thieving, robbery,Great vows held in light esteem;Giving our soul to the man that is the worst;The strength of our pride was greater than our life,The strength of our debts was more than we could pay.It was with treachery Ireland was lost,And the ill-will of men one to another.There was no judge that would give a hearingTo the oppressed people whose life was under hardship.Outcasts and widows crying aloudWithout right judgment to be had or punishment.We were never agreed together,But as one ox bound and one free from the yoke;No right humility to be found.All trying for the headship of IrelandAt the time when her enemies were doing their work.No settlement to be made of any quarrel,The share of the wheat-ear for the man that was strongest;It is long that this has been the hurt of Ireland;It is thus that the battle ended with the Gael.Let us turn now and change our manners,Let us make repentance of our sins together—It is thus that the Israelites came out of Egypt;Nineveh was given pardon for all its sins,And even Peter for denying Christ.O saints of Ireland, arise now together;O Patrick, who hast care of us, bless this flock;We who are exiled, we who are forsaken,This sod is gone out unless thou blow upon it;Is thy sleep heavy or is thy hearing slowThat thou dost not give an answer to us?Awake quickly; let it not be as a tale with theeThat there is no help for the fate of the Gael.This, Patrick, is my own quarrel with theeThat every enemy of thy flock is sayingThat thy ears are not ears that listen,That thou art not troubled by the sight of thy people,That if they did trouble thee thou wouldst not deny them.Be with us nevertheless with thy strong power.Make our enemies to quit Ireland for ever.

She lost her pomp and her strength togetherWhen her strong men were banished across the sea;Her churches are as holds of pain,Without altars, without Mass, without bowing of knees;Stables for horses—this story is pitiful—Or without a stone of their stones together.

Since the children of Israel were in EgyptUnder bondage, and scarcity along with that,There was never written in a book or never seenHardship like the hardships in Ireland.They parted from us the shepherds of the flockThat is the flock that is astray and is wounded,Left to be torn by wild dogs,And no healing for it from the hand of anyone.Unless God will look down on our distressIreland will indeed be lost for ever!Every old man, every strong man, every child,Our young men and our well-dressed women,Keening, complaining, and reproaching;Going under the power of the Gall or going across the sea.Our dear country without any ears of corn,Without store, without cattle, but only the green grass;Our fatherless children are wasted and weak,Famine and sickness travelling over Ireland,And every other scourge that was ever known,And the rest of her pain has not yet been told.

Nevertheless, my sharp woe! I see with my eyesThat the High King has a bow ready in His hand,And His quiver is full of arrows with sharp points,And every arrow of them for our sore wounding,From the sole of our feet to the top of our head,To bruise our hearts and to tear our sinews;There is no spot of our limbs but is scarred;Misfortune has come upon us all together—The poor and the rich, the weak and the strong;The great lord by whom hundreds were maintained;The powerful strong man, and the man that holds the plough;And the cross laid on the bare shoulder of every man.

I do not know of anything under the skyThat is friendly or favourable to the Gael,But only the sea that our need brings us to,Or the wind that blows to the harbourThe ship that is bearing us away from Ireland;And there is reason that these are reconciled with us,For we increase the sea with our tears,And the wandering wind with our sighs.

We do not see heaven look kindly upon us;We do not see our complaint being listened to;Even the earth refuses us shelterAnd the wood that gives protection to the birds;Every cliff, every cave, every mountain-top,Every hill, every lough, and every meadow.

Our feasts are without any voice of priests,And none at them but women lamenting,Tearing their hair, with troubled minds,Keening pitifully after the Fenians.The pipes of our organs are broken;Our harps have lost their strings that were tunedThat might have made the great lamentations of Ireland;Until the strong men come back across the sea,There is no help for us but bitter crying,Screams, and beating of hands, and calling out.

It is not strength of hosts, not loss of food,Not the horsemen of the Gall coming from Britain,Nor want of power, nor want of calling to war,That has put defeat upon the armies of Ireland,And has filled the cities with a sad multitude,Alas! alas! but the greatness of our sins.

See, we are now put in the crucibleIn which every worthless metal is tried,In which gold is cleansed from every tarnish;The Scripture is true in everything it says;It says we must suffer before we can be cured;It is through repentance we shall find forgiveness,And the restoring of all that we have lost.

Let us put down the sum of our sins;Oppression of the poor, thieving, robbery,Great vows held in light esteem;Giving our soul to the man that is the worst;The strength of our pride was greater than our life,The strength of our debts was more than we could pay.

It was with treachery Ireland was lost,And the ill-will of men one to another.There was no judge that would give a hearingTo the oppressed people whose life was under hardship.Outcasts and widows crying aloudWithout right judgment to be had or punishment.

We were never agreed together,But as one ox bound and one free from the yoke;No right humility to be found.All trying for the headship of IrelandAt the time when her enemies were doing their work.No settlement to be made of any quarrel,The share of the wheat-ear for the man that was strongest;It is long that this has been the hurt of Ireland;It is thus that the battle ended with the Gael.

Let us turn now and change our manners,Let us make repentance of our sins together—It is thus that the Israelites came out of Egypt;Nineveh was given pardon for all its sins,And even Peter for denying Christ.

O saints of Ireland, arise now together;O Patrick, who hast care of us, bless this flock;We who are exiled, we who are forsaken,This sod is gone out unless thou blow upon it;Is thy sleep heavy or is thy hearing slowThat thou dost not give an answer to us?Awake quickly; let it not be as a tale with theeThat there is no help for the fate of the Gael.

This, Patrick, is my own quarrel with theeThat every enemy of thy flock is sayingThat thy ears are not ears that listen,That thou art not troubled by the sight of thy people,That if they did trouble thee thou wouldst not deny them.Be with us nevertheless with thy strong power.Make our enemies to quit Ireland for ever.

1900.

Mary Glyn lives under Slieve-nan-Or, the Golden Mountain, where the last battle will be fought in the last great war of the world; so that the sides of Gortaveha, a lesser mountain, will stream with blood. But she and her friends are not afraid of this; for an old weaver from the north, who knew all things, told them long ago that there is a place near Turloughmore where war will never come, because St. Columcill used to live there. So they will make use of this knowledge, and seek a refuge there, if, indeed, there is room enough for them all. There is a river by her house that marks the boundary between Galway and Clare; and there are stepping-stones in the river, so that she can cross from Connaught to Munster when she has a mind. But she cannot do her marketing when she has a mind; for the nearest town, Gort, is ten miles away. The roof of her little cabin is thatched with rushes, and a garden of weeds grows on it, and the rain comes through. But she is soon to have a new thatch; for she thinks she won't live long, and she wouldn't like the rain to be coming down on her when she is dead and laid out. There is heather in blow on the hillsabout her home, and foxglove reddens the clay-banks, and loosetrife the marshy hollows; and rush-cotton waves its little white flags over the bogs. Mary Glyn's neighbours come to see her sometimes, when the sun is going down, and the hurry of the day is over. Old Mr. Saggarton is one of them; he had his learning from a hedge-schoolmaster in the old times; and he looks down on the narrow teaching of the National Schools; and he was once in jail for nine months, having been taken in the very act of makingpoteen. And Mrs. Casey comes and looks at the stepping-stones now and again, for she is a Clare woman; and though she has lived fifty years in Connaught, she is not yet quite reconciled to it, and would never have made it her home if she could have seen it before she came. And some who do not live among the bogs and the heather, but among the green pastures and the grey stones of Aidne, come to Slieve Echtge and learn unwritten truths from the lips of Mary and her friends.

The duty of giving is taught as well as practised by these poor hill-people. 'For,' says Mary Glyn, 'the best road to heaven is to be charitable to the poor.' And old Mrs. Casey agrees, and says: 'There was a poor girl walking the road one night with no place to stop; and the Saviour met her on the road, and He said: "Go up to the house you see a light in; there's a woman dead there, and they'll let you in." So she went and she found the woman laid out, and the husband and other people;but she worked harder than they all, and she stopped in the house after; and after two quarters the man married her. And one day she was sitting outside the door, picking over a bag of wheat, and the Saviour came again, with the appearance of a poor man, and He asked her for a few grains of the wheat. And she said: "Wouldn't potatoes be good enough for you?" and she called to the girl within to bring out a few potatoes. But He took nine grains of the wheat in His hand and went away; and there wasn't a grain of wheat left in the bag, but all gone. So she ran after Him then to ask Him to forgive her; and she overtook Him on the road, and she asked forgiveness. And He said: "Don't you remember the time you had no house to go to, and I met you on the road, and sent you to a house where you'd live in plenty? and now you wouldn't give Me a few grains of wheat." And she said: "But why didn't You give me a heart that would like to divide it?" That is how she came round on Him. And He said: "From this out, whenever you have plenty in your hands, divide it freely for My sake."'

And this is a marvel that might occur again at any time; for Mary Glyn says further:—

'There was a woman I knew was very charitable to the poor; and she'd give them the full of her apron of bread, or of potatoes or anything she had. And she was only lately married; and one day, a poor woman came to the door with her children and she brought them to the fire, and warmed them, andgave them a drink of milk; and she sent out to the barn for a bag of potatoes for them. And the husband came in, and he said: "Kitty, if you go on this way, you won't leave much for ourselves." And she said: "He that gave us what we have, can give more." And the next day when they went out to the barn, it was full of potatoes—more than were ever in it before. And when she was dying, and her children about her, the priest said to her: "Mrs. Gallagher, it's in heaven you'll be at 12 o'clock to-morrow."'

But when death comes, it is not enough to have been charitable; and it is not right to touch the body or lay it out for a couple of hours; for the soul should be given time to fight for itself, and to go up to judgment. And sometimes it is not willing to go; for Mrs. Casey says:—

'The Saviour, one time, told St. Patrick to go and prepare a man that was going to die. And St. Patrick said: "I'd sooner not go; for I never yet saw the soul depart from the body." But then he went, and he prepared the man. And when he was lying there dead, he saw the soul go from the body; and three times it went to the door, and three times it came back and kissed the body. And St. Patrick asked the Saviour why it did that: and He said: "That soul was sorry to part from the body, because it had held it so clean and so honest."'

When the hill-people talk of 'the time of the war,' it is the war that once took place in heaven that isunderstood. And when 'Those' are spoken of, the fallen angels are understood, the cloud of witness, the whirling invisible host; and it is only to a stranger that an explanation need be given.

'They were in heaven once,' Mary Glyn says 'and heaven is the first place there was war; and they were all to be done away with; and it was St. Peter asked the Saviour to help them, when he saw Him going to empty the heavens. So He turned His hand like this; and the earth and the sky and the sea were full of them, and they are in every place, and you know that better than I do, because you read books. Resting they do be in the daytime, and going about at night. And their music is the finest you ever heard, like all the fifers, and all the instruments, and all the tunes of the world. I heard it sometimes myself, and there is no music in the world like it; but not all can hear it. Round the hill it comes, and you going in at the door. And they are quiet neighbours if you treat them well. God bless them, and bring them all to heaven.'

And then, having mentioned Monday (a spell against unseen listeners), and said, 'God bless the hearers, and the place it is told in'—and her niece, Mary Irwin, having said, 'God bless all we see, and those we don't see,' they tell—first one speaking and then the other—that: 'One night there werebanabhsin the house; and there was a man coming to dig the potato-garden in the morning—and so late at night, Mary Glyn was making stirabout, and a cake to haveready for the breakfast of thebanabhsand the man; and Mary's brother Micky was asleep within on the bed. And there came the sound of the grandest music you ever heard from beyond the stream, and it stopped there. And Micky awoke in the bed, and was afraid, and said: "Shut up the door and quench the light," and so we did.' 'It's likely,' Mary says, 'they wanted to come into the house, and they wouldn't when they saw me up and the lights about.' But one time when there were potatoes in the loft, Mary and her brothers were pelted with the potatoes when they sat down to supper. And Mary Irwin got a blow on the side of the face, from one of them, one night in the bed. 'And they have the hope of heaven, and God grant it to them.' 'And one day, there was a priest and his servant riding along the road, and there was a hurling of them going on in the field. And a man of them came out and stood in the road, and said to the priest: "Tell me this, for you know it, have we a chance of heaven?" "You have not," said the priest. ("God forgive him," says Mary Irwin, "a priest to say that!") And the man that was of them said: "Put your fingers in your ears, till you have travelled two miles of the road; for when I go back and tell what you are after telling me to the rest, the crying and the bawling and the roaring will be so great that, if you hear it, you'll never hear a noise again in this world." So they put their fingers then in their ears; but after a while the servant said to the priest: "Let me take out my fingers now." Andthe priest said: "Do not." And then the servant said again: "I think I might take one finger out." And the priest said: "Since you are so persevering, you may take it out." So he did, and the noise of the crying and the roaring and the bawling was so great, that he never had the use of that ear again.'

Old Mr. Saggarton confirms the story of the fall of the angels and their presence about us, but goes deeper into theology. 'The soul,' he says, 'was the breath of God, breathed into Adam, and it is the possession of God ever since. And I could never have believed there was so much power in the shadow of a soul, till I sawthemone night hurling. They tempt us sometimes in dreams—may God forgive me for saying He would allow power to any to tempt to evil. And they would destroy the world but for the hope they have of being saved. Every Monday morning they think the day of judgment may be coming, and that they will see heaven.

'Half the world is with them. And when you see a blast of wind, and it comes sudden and carries the dust with it, you should say, "God bless them," and throw something after them. For how do you know but one of our own may be in it?

'There never was a funeral they were not at, walking after the other people. And you can see them if you know the way—that is, to take a green rush and to twist it into a ring, and to look through it. But if you do, you'll never have a stim of sight in the eye again.'

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