ANCIENT IRISH LITERATURE—No. IV.
The composition which we have selected as our fourth specimen of the ancient literature of Ireland, is a poem, more remarkable, perhaps, for its antiquity and historical interest, than for its poetic merits, though we do not think it altogether deficient in those. It is ascribed, apparently with truth, to the celebrated poet Mac Liag, the secretary of the renowned monarch Brian Boru, who, as our readers are aware, fell at the battle of Clontarf in 1014; and the subject of it is a lamentation for the fallen condition of Kincora, the palace of that monarch, consequent on his death.
The decease of Mac Liag, whose proper name was Muircheartach, is thus recorded in the Annals of the Four Masters, at the year 1015:—
“Mac Liag, i. e. Muirkeartach, son of Conkeartach, at this time laureate of Ireland, died.”
A great number of his productions are still in existence; but none of them have obtained a popularity so widely extended as the poem before us.
Of the palace of Kincora, which was situated on the banks of the Shannon, near Killaloe, there are at present no vestiges.