Upon my heart and on my head.
Great glorious One vouchsafe relief
From all the ills that bring me grief;
Ere I am laid beneath the sod:
Before me smooth my way to God.
Another poem of Muireadhach is a curious dialogue between himself and Cathal Cròdhearg, King of Connaught, who lived towards the end of the 12th century. Both of them were then entering on a monastic life. It has been inferred from the dialogue that Murdoch was a man of high birth. Another poem of his in the Dean of Lismore’s book I have translated as follows:—
’Tis time to leave for Paradise
Since it is hard this pain to bear,—
To win unsoiled, the heavenly prize
Which others cannot with us share.