77
AN GAOḊAL.
IRELAND'S TONGUE.
Translation — By MICHAEL CAVANAGH.
Contempt to the heartless and spiritless crew,
Who love not the music and tongue of their land;
May hate and disgrace the mean creatures pursue, —
In Erinn, Alas! they're a plentiful band.
Oh! daily I hearken to people proclaim —
In vehement language their love for the Isle;
They, glibly, descant on her sorrows and shame
And curse her oppressors in epithets vile.
These fellows are always (if we take their word),
Fierce (ready-made) soldiers, and generals brave;
Impatient to handle the pike or the sword,
To free their loved and from the taint of the slave.
They, evermore, wail, and they, whimpering, weep,
The tortures, oppressions, and woes of the "Gael";
They vow, from the Isle, they'll the "Sassanach" sweep,
Who left us poor exiles from dear Innisfail.
'Twould please this same crowd to have "Land without
[Rent"
They'd like that their right to 'Home-Rule' should be won;
They'd wish the whole brood of land-tyrants be sent,
To quarters most hot — though they're far from the sun.
But talk to these folk of their native land's tongue,
The language our fore-fathers talked in of yore;
The tongue that, by right, should be spoken and sung,
By good men and patriots true — evermore.
And speak to the tribe of our bards' olden rhymes,
And play them their music — the sweetest on earth;
Recite to them tales of those glorious old times,
When learning illumined the Isle of their birth.
The answer, most likely, you'll get from the crew —
"The language of Ireland for ever is dead,
We've one tongue already — we've no need of two —
To English we'll cling — at its fount we've been fed."
O! shame on this tribe! — 'tis no wonder our land
And people are poor, low, and abject, to-day;
No wonder we're marked with indignity's brand —
Disgraced, as we are, by such wretches as they.
That truthful old saying should ever be prized :—
"Respect shall be theirs who themselves doth respect."
The Irish must ever be justly despised,
If they their land's language let die through neglect.
