"Atomrigh indiu niurt Dé dom luamaracht
Cumachta Dé dom chumgabail
Ciall Dé domm imthús
Rose Dé dom reimcíse,
Cluas Dé dom éstecht
Briathar Dé dom erlabrai,
Lám De domm imdegail
Intech Dé dom remthechtas.
Sciath Dé dom dítin
Sochraite Dé domm anucul
Ar intledaib demna
Ar aslaigthib dualche
Ar cech nduine míduthrastar dam,
ícéin ocus i n-ocus
i n-uathed ocus hi sochaide," etc.
[22] Thus translated almost literally by Dr. Sigerson, "Bards of the Gael and Gall," p. 138. This is not the only poem attributed to St. Patrick, several others are ascribed to him in the "Tripartite Life," and a MS. in the Bibliothèque Royale contains three others. Eight lines of one of them is found in the Vatican Codex of Marianus Scotus and are given by Zeuss in his "Grammatica Celtica," p. 961, second edition. The lines there given refer to St. Brigit. There is also a rann attributed to St. Patrick quoted by the "Four Masters," and the "Chronicon Scotorum" attributes to him a rann on Bishop Erc.
[23] "Canticum ejus scotticum semper canere," which a marginal note in the book explains as Ymnus Comanulo, which Father Hogan interprets as protectio Clamoris, adding "ac proinde synonyma voci Faith Fiada," which has been interpreted clamor custodis or "The Guardsman's Cry" by Stokes. The poem, then, was extant in the seventh century, was attributed to St. Patrick, and was sung in the churches—a strong argument for its authenticity.
[24] "Even to this day," says Dr. Healy, in "Ireland's Ancient Schools and Scholars," p. 77, "the original is chanted by the peasantry of the south and west in the ancestral tongue, and it is regarded as a strong shield against all dangers natural or supernatural." I, myself, however, in collecting the "Religious Songs of Connacht," have found no trace of this, and I am not sure that the learned Bishop of Clonfert, led astray by Petrie, is not here confounding it with the "Marainn Phadraig," which mysterious piece is implicitly believed to be the work of St. Patrick, and is still recited all over the west, with the belief that there is a peculiar virtue attached to it. I have even known money to have been paid for its recital in the west of Galway, as a preventive of evil. For this curious piece, which is to me at least more than half unintelligible, see my "Religious Songs of Connacht." It appears to have been founded upon an incident similar to that recorded by Muirchu Maccu Machteni, book i. chap. 26.
[25] Of Dunshaughlin recté Dunsaughnil (Domhnach Seachnaill) in Meath.
[26] As this was probably the first poem in Latin ever composed in Ireland, it deserves some consideration. It is a sort of trochaic tetrameter catalectic, of the very rudest type. The ictus, or stress of the voice, which is supposed to fall on the first syllable of the first, third, fifth, and seventh feet, seldom corresponds with the accent. The elision of "m" before a vowel is disregarded, no quantities are observed, and the solitary rule of prosody kept is that the second syllable of the seventh foot is always short, with the exception of one word, indutus, which the poet probably pronounced as indŭtus. The third verse runs thus, with an evident effort at vowel rhyme ("Liber Hymnorum," vol. i. p. 11).
"Beati Christi custodit mandata in omnibus
Cujus opera refulgent clara inter homines."
Muratori printed this hymn, from the so-called Antiphonary of Bangor, a MS. of the eight century preserved in the Ambrosian Library. The rude metre is that employed by Hilary in his hymn beginning—
"Ymnum dicat turba fratrum, ymnum cantus personet,"
which, as Stokes points out, is the same as that of the Roman soldiers, preserved in Suetonius,