372
AN GAODHAL.
written by him a short time before his death for
some members of the great house of his ancient
patrons, the O'Donnells of Donegall.
The first of these is a poem of forty quatrains,
addressed to Torloch, the son of Cethbharr O'
Donnell. It is a philosophical and religious ad¬
dress on the vanities and the ffeeting dignities
and interests of the world. He condoles with O'
Donnell upon the fallen fortunes of his house, and
the dispersion of his family and people. He com¬
pliments him on having, after the plantation of
Ulster, collected about him a body of his own
people, and having visited at their head (during
the Cromwellian wars) all parts of Ireland, gain¬
ing honor and emolument with them wherever
they went, during the space of fourteen years;
and that then only he permitted them, when all
hope of success was past, to submit themselves
to the English law, and so disbanded them at
Port Erne, on the borders of their own ancient
territory. He exhorts the aged chieftain and war¬
rior, that as he had been granted such a long life
(being, at this time over seventy years of age), he
should now dismiss from his mind ambitious as¬
pirations, should rather turn it to devotion and to
penance for his sins. He says that he himself will
be the first of the two to be called before the hea¬
venly throne, and that this is his last literary eff¬
ort and gift bestowed upon him at the close of his
life.
The second poem is a poem of thirty-four quat¬
rains, in answer to one addressed to him by Calbh¬
ach Ruadh (1) O'Donnell. O'Donnell's poem
appears to have contained a request to O'Clery to
take up the genealogies of the Tirconnell race, as
he was bound to do, he being the last of their he¬
reditary Seanchaidhe. O'Donnell complains, too,
of his having been driven by the foreigners out of
Mayo, where his family had taken refuge, and for¬
ced to seek for a new home in the neighbourhood
of Cruachain, in the County Roscommon. In O'¬
Clery's poem the poet comends his young friend
O'Donnell to the attention of his own learned tu¬
tors, the O'Mulconrys and the O’Higginses of the
county of Roscommon, who will, he assures him,
extend to him the literary homage due to his own
worth and the well earned fame of his own family
Whatever may be the poetical value of these
pieces of Cucoigry O'Clery, they are not certainly
waiting in a clear appreciation of the shifting of
the scenes in this uncertain world, and the firmest
religious conviction of the interference of an All-
guiding hand in their direction. As specimens of
the writing of one of our literary scholars, they
cannot fail to be interesting.
I have now closed what I had prepared to say
to you about the O'Clery's. If any apology were
needed for my having dwelt so long upon their la¬
bours and themselves, remember that I have done
so on the ground of theirs being the last and
greatest school of Iris historians, and not on ac¬
count of the peculiar authority which, of itself,
every record and assertion of such careful and
critical scholars had ever since been held to bear,
and must ever continue to bear with it.
(To be continued).
THE SENTIMENTS OF OUR SUBSCRIBERS.
Cal — East Oakland, Rev W Gleeson.
D C — Washington, Henry Murray, $8. to help
the cause, T O'Dowd, per T J Lamb.
Fla — Key West, T O'Callaghan.
Ind — Peru, Counsellor John W O’Hara.
Mass — Worcester, Tim Quirk, $5. to extend the
Gael — Boston, Miss B Molloney — Chelsea, D O'
Sullivan.
Mo — Millwood Rev Thamas O'Cleary (an Sog¬
garth a ruin, gan bhreig) — Sedalia, Jere Sullivan.
St. Louis, J Cunniff, J O'Brien, T O S Meehan, P
Sarsfeld, D D Lane, per Mr Lane.
Mont — Anaconda, T Devine — Columbia Fall, J N
Beaton (a Brother Scotsman).
Neb — Fort Niobrara, Sergt. T Higgins, per D D,
Lane, St Louis, Mo.
N Y — Brooklyn, J Callaghan — City, P Morrissey
M A O'Byrne — Greenfield, P A Dougher. Also,
Brooklyn, L Slavin, the heart of an Irishman — Au¬
burn, P Mee, M Moore, per Mr Mee.
J — Jersey City, T Lyons.
O — Berea, T O'Donovan — Cleveland, John J
Burke — Springfield, Rev Martin L Murphy.
Pa — Phila, J J Lyons, per T Lyons, Jersey City
N J; J Clinton Wm McBride; Jas O'Kane, T
Roache P McFadden, per Mr McFadden.
R I — Providence. Revds T E Ryan. J C Walsh
per Fr. Ryan Rev Fr Ryan, J Holland, per Mr P
O'Casey.
Vt — Bellows Falls. John P Hartnett.
W Va — Wheeling, J McMullin. H Thurston, T
Devlin. Jas J Quinn per Dillon J McCormick; D
O'Brien, D O'Keeffe, per A Lally.
Canada — Longue Pointe, ner Montreal, Rev J
S Kelly.
The clergy make a good showing in this issue.
As a result of the big Gaelic meeting in Provi¬
dence, R I, on March 11, about 150 met in Liceum
Hall on the 29th and organized the "Rhode Island
Irish Language Revival Society," and elected
as its officers — President, Rev T E Rayn; V Pre¬
sident, P J McCarthy; Secretary. Edward De V. O'¬
Connor; Treasurer M J Henehan; Librarian, P J
O'Casey; Executive Committee, James Hughes, J
Cahill, Charles F O'Conner, H Mahoney, James
Gillrain and Miss Maggie Coyle.
As we are preparing for the press No. 48 of
the Gaelic Journal comes to hand. This, and the
succeeding Nos, will be valuable as a series of ea¬
sy Irish Lessons are commenced in it. We will
not insult common intelligence by suggesting the
why Irishmen all over the world should vie with
one another to make the circulation of the Journal
go up to the millions.
