“Ah, brothers! what did it avail,

That fiercely and triumphantly

Ye fought the English of the pale,

And stemmed De Bourgo’s chivalry?[58]

And what was it to love and me,

That barons by your standard rode;

Or beal-fires[59] for your jubilee,

Upon a hundred mountains glowed?

What though the lords of tower and dome

From Shannon to the North Sea foam,—