Page [47], line 6. The two Meaths once formed a distinct province.
Page [55], line 7. This poem is an account of Mangan's own life, and is, I think, redeemed out of rhetoric by its intensity. The following poem, 'Siberia,' describes, perhaps, his own life under a symbol.
Page [59]. Hy Brasail, or Teer-Nan-Oge, is the island of the blessed, the paradise of ancient Ireland. It is still thought to be seen from time to time glimmering far off.
Page [61]. Mo Craoibhin Cno means my cluster of nuts, and is pronounced Mo Chreevin Knò.
Page [64]. Mr. O'Keefe has sent the writer a Gaelic version of this poem, possibly by Walsh himself. A correspondent of his got it from an old peasant who had not a word of English. A well-known Gaelic scholar pronounces it a translation, and not the original of the present poem. Mairgréad ni Chealleadh is pronounced Mairgréd nei Kealley. The Ceanabhan, pronounced Kanovan, is the bog cotton, and the Monadan is a plant with a red berry found on marshy mountains.
Page [69]. A cuisle geal mo chroidhe, pronounced A cushla gal mo chre, means 'bright pulse of my heart.'
Page [74]. Sir Samuel Ferguson introduces the poem as follows:—
Several Welsh families, associates in the invasion of Strongbow, settled in the West of Ireland. Of these, the principal, whose names have been preserved by the Irish antiquarians, were the Walshes, Joyces, Heils (a quibus MacHale), Lawlesses, Tolmyns, Lynotts, and Barretts, which last draw their pedigree from Walynes, son of Guyndally, the Ard Maor, or High Steward of the Lordship of Camelot, and had their chief seats in the territory of the two Bacs, in the barony of Tirawley, and county of Mayo. Clochan-na-n'all, i. e. 'The Blind Men's Stepping-stones,' are still pointed out on the Duvowen river, about four miles north of Crossmolina, in the townland of Garranard; and Tubber-na-Scorney, or 'Scrags Well,' in the opposite townland of Carns, in the same barony. For a curious terrier or applotment of the Mac William's revenue, as acquired under the circumstances stated in the legend preserved by Mac Firbis, see Dr. O'Donovan's highly-learned and interesting 'Genealogies, &c. of Hy. Fiachrach,' in the publications of the Irish Archæological Society—a great monument of antiquarian and topographical erudition.
Page [90], line 6. 'William Conquer' was William Fitzadelm De Burgh, the Conqueror of Connaught.
Page [91], line 4. Sir Samuel Ferguson introduces the poem as follows:—