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AN GAODHAL.
ara d' iaran teann
Chum geuga Éireann do cheangal suas,
aig maga faoi a brón,
Mar bheidhedh go rabh fuaith 's eud anns
an d-tír go mór aig fás,
Chum gean 's grádh do mhúcha, gach am go
gheodhach siad spás;
Maille le eochuir órdha do fhosgail an
croidhe broghach,
Agus tnúth ságtha g-coinne rath le sáis
marbhach, nimhneach, dúbhach!
Faoi chosa Sacsa a ndu, a ndu, níor dhá
dhúinn luidhe,
Ná bheith do dheasga saoirseacht le cumh¬
thúgha scioba uainn, aig chaoi!
Dá mbeidheach a clann go léir treun 's
fíor; ná ní bheidheach an naire dheasga
Air Éire bocht go deogh nuair a cluin¬
tear ainm Mac Murracha. —
Go rabh saoirseacht Éireann ainghioracht
is beagán ná creidfigh é,
Nuair d'árduigh Ua Niall treun an uai¬
thne, os cionn a fheadhm crógach réidh,
Trath do chuaigh sluaighte Sacsa síos, ag
Beannborb 's Áthbhuidhe,
Roimh Aodh Ruadh, mar do chuaigh sluaigh¬
te Pheuródh roimh an Thriath, —
Do ghlac ua Ghradhtham, fionghal! an cumh¬
a, is gach deighní air Éire do chreach,
Do bhagair an Tíbir chum Aodh Ua Niall
go shuaineach sé a cheann tuirseach;
Tá éagla 's dóchus aig oibriugh'dh 'nis
góir máistireacht 'nna chroidhe,
Nuair ba threise dóchus meáthan sé go
réigh chum a shuan gan críoch;
Acht ba bhaoth iad ar dóchusa ar luan;
shill sé deora leis gan bhrighe,
Mar tá trí cheud bliadhanna 'nis imigh¬
the, 's tá Éire íseal fós aig luidhe. —
Ar mian le Éire a h-ainm d' árdughadh,
no saoirseacht go deo d' fhaghail?
CORMAC'S INSTRUCTIONS,
(Continued.)
COPY OF A LETTER.
FROM CHARLES O'CONNOR, ESQ., To JOHN PINKERTON,
ESQ.
From Belanagar, near Roscommon,
April &, 1786.
Sir, — Through the kindness of my Lord Bishop
of Dromore, and the conveyance of my learned
friend, Mr. Walker, an officer in our Irish Treas¬
ury, I this week received your letter of the 13th of
March. It gratified me to find a gentleman of your
candour and abilities employed on the antiquities
of the ancient Scots, a distinct people, among the
other various tribes inhabiting our Britannic Isles;
and it would add highly to my gratification if I
could supply you with any useful document on the
subject — a subject of importance, but long under
a cloud, thickened by prejudices from our
country as well as from our own. Luckily those
prejudices begin to subside here — a circumstance
which encouraged me to draw up a Prospectus, on
the Origin, Civil Government, and Manners of the
ancient Scots in their heathen state. How it will
be received in the Committee of Antiquities, be¬
longing to our Royal Irish Academy, I know not.
It may fail of giving satisfaction from such hands
as mine ; but I doubt not of its success when the
subject falls into better hands. This I am bold
to assert, for some materials of authentic infor¬
mation are still preserved among us. I say some
materials, for most of our historical details are ir¬
recoverably lost. Our archives, deposited in the
monasteries of Ireland, have been consumed in the
fires of the heathen barbarians of the North, who, in
frequent incursions despoiled France, Britain, and
Ireland, in the 8th and 9th centuries. They de¬
molished our nurseries of learning ; and it was on¬
ly on the reduction of their power here, that some
Irish patriots have set about collecting as much
of our historical wreck as escaped. A collection
has been made; but some of the collectors wanted
critical skill in their choice, they, however, want¬
ed not the art of flattering the vanity of a declin¬
ing nation, by following such documents as gave
the Scots too high an antiquity in this island.
In consequence, they published genealogies, with
redundant generations, and gave us a correspond¬
ing catologue of kings, who only obtained their
titles by the courtesy of their several factions.
They are confounded with the few monarchs who
had a legitimate election from the concurrence of
the majority of the nation ; and these injudicious
publishers have put our titular kings in success¬
ion to each other, as a son would succeed to a fa¬
ther in modern monarchies. Such was the art
employed to gain the Scots a high antiquity, thor¬
oughly inconsistent with the state of affairs in
Europe before the commencement of the Persian
Empire. This fabric, therefore, of technical ge¬
nealogies and and technical succession of 90 kings
before Christian Era, cannot stand ; and your coun¬
tryman, Mr. Innes (a priest of the Scotch College
in Paris ) has sufficiently exposed its weak founda¬
tion, though in other respects a very mistaken
writer. To Giolla Colman, and Flan, of Bute Ab¬
bey, we owe the publicatian of the Regal List I
mentioned. They were esteemed as able antiqua¬
ries by the majority of their contemporaries, in
the eleventh century ; and the majority since their
time (even our learned O’Flaherty) have adopted
a popular error. I have done so in my youth, but
