256
AN GAODHAL.
And when ye struggled sore in the tempest,
They breasted the surge by your side;
They shared the sad mirk of your midnight,
They sang in your solace of noon,
In all change they were yours, yours only,
Your brothers, your Soggarths Aroon!
When the bare sky above was their roof-tree
And the damp heath of bogs was their bed,
Did the threat of the thunder affright them,
Or the lightnings that leaped overhead?
Did the deadlier trump of the cannon,
Or the fataller sheen of the spear,
Ever wake in their heroic bosoms
One partial pulsation of fear ?
Did they not in your days of disasters
Pray for you, plead for you, bleed for you, die
With their face to the face of your foemen,
With their eyes on the crown in the sky
That should crown all their life-long endeavor
That never knew care but your souls,
And the fame of the faith of your fathers
That was blazed to the opposite poles?
When your lean eyes were sore in their sockets
And your mouths were a-hunger for bread
And the merciless monster of famine
Had worn you white as the dead:
When the fire-tipped finger of fever
Had branded its brand on your brow,
Sure your priests were but less than the angels
Are they lost to their ministering now?
And are ye, "but cowards of despots?"
"Mindless, brainless" helots are ye,
Or men with the might of a tempest
As terrible, fearless, and free?
Now is the time for the lightning
That lurks in the soul of a man,
(That frights, and smites, and avenges,
Since the march of the world began.
In storms of shot and of shell-rain,
Your fathers stood to their guns,
And died ere they dared to imperil
The faith and the fame of their sons;
Be not seen as a shame on your sires,
Be not chivalry dead in your breast,
Nor slink from the slur and the challenge
Ye were flung in that town of the West!
But show to the world your Judgment;
That truth and that justice must stand —
If ye can give help to that issue —
Once more in the bounds of the land;
That ye know, heart deep, that your pastors
Were your friends when your slanderer shammed
As they will "to the end of the chapter."
When the judge and his judgement are damned.
* This last line refers only to men's judgment.
ODE to BRYAN NA MURTHA O'ROURKE.
[ From the Tuam News. ]
This distinguished chieftain (surnamed na Mur¬
tha, i.e. "of the bulwarks,") was one of the most
powerful and determined opponents of the Eng¬
lish, during the reign of Elizabeth. His life was
a continued scene of warfare, but he was finally
obliged to flly for shelter to James VI of Scotland.
That mean-spirited prince though he secretly fom¬
ented the troubles in Ireland, basely delivered up
the unhappy exile to the vengeance of his enemies,
and sent him, a close prisoner to the murderers of
his own mother, shortly after Mary's decapitation.
On this occasion it is said that the "virgin queen"
struck with the noble deportment and manly beau¬
ty of her captive, had apartments assigned to him
in her own palace, and intimated to her council
that she wished, herself, privately to examine him
as to the affairs of Ireland. The particulars of
their intercourse, as handed down by tradition,
may be partly seen in Walker's Memoirs of the
Irish Bards. After some time the royal inquisitor
aware that "dead men tell no tales," transferred
her victim to the care of the law. This occurred
in 1592. The following account of his trial and
death is taken from an unpublished manuscript
history of Ireland, page 245, written about 1646,
and preserved in the library of the Royal Irish
Acadmey, Dublin :— "Bryan O'Rourke, the Irish
potentate, being thus, by the King of Scots, sent in
to England, was arranged in Westminster-hall
His indictments were, that he had stirred up Al¬
lexaner Mac Connell and others to rebell; and
scornfully dragged the Queen's picture at horse
tail and disgracefully cut the same in pieces, giv¬
ing the Spaniards entertainment against a procla¬
tion; fir'd many houses, &c. This being told him
by an interpreter (for he understood no English,)
he said he would not submit himself to a tryall of
twelve men, nor make answer, except the Queen
satt in person to judge him." (This latter pas¬
sage seems to corroborate the traditional story re¬
lated by Walker.) "The lord chief justice made
answer againe, by an interpreter, that whether he
would submit himself or not to try by a jury of
twelve, he should be judged by law according to
the particulars alledjed against him. Whereto he
reyly'd nothing but 'if it must be soe, let it be
soe.' Being condemned to dye, he was shortly af¬
tor carried unto Tyburne, to be executed as a trai¬
tar, whereat he seemed to be nothing moved,
scorning the archbishop of Caishill, (Miler Ma¬
grath) who was there to counsill him for his soul's
health, because he had broken his vow from a
Franciscan turning Protestant." — Orig MS.
The Londoners exulted at his death. Even "the
brightest, meanest of mankind," Bacon, for a mo¬
ment forgot his bribes and philosophy, to be wit¬
ty on the occasion. "He (O'Rourke gravely peti-
