[20] Bonnacht is a "mercenary soldier."
[21] "O Néill Oiligh a's Eamhna
Ri Teamhrach agus Tailltean,
Tugsad ar iarlacht Uladh
Ríoghacht go h-úmhal aimhghlic."
I.e., "O'Neill of Aileach and of Emania, King of Tara and of Tailtinn, they have given away for the earldom of Ulster, a kingdom submissively unwisely."
[22] Manus O'Donnell died in 1563, so that this poem must have been composed somewhat earlier.
[23] This account of the later bardic schools is chiefly derived from a curious book, the "Memoirs of Clanrickard," printed in London in 1722.
[24] Hence the bardic expression, "luidhe i leabaibh sgol," i.e., "to lie in the beds of the schools," equivalent to becoming a poet.
[25] Campion, who wrote in 1574, says of the Irish of his day: "They speake Latine like a vulgar language learned in their schooles of Leachcraft and law, whereat they begin children and holde on sixteene or twentie yeares." After the Battle of the Curlew Mountains, MacDermot, anxious to let the Governor know where the body of Sir Conyers Clifford lay, wrote a note to him in Latin.
[26] See above, pp. [518-523].
[27] Of Little Rannaigheacht I gave an example a few pages back in the poem "Fooboon." Séadna [Shayna] was another great favourite, built on the model of the following verse, with or without alliteration—
"Teig of herds the Gallant Giver,
Right receiver of our love,
Teig thy Name shall KNow no ending,
Branch un-Bending, Erin's glove."