* * * * *
Stay! some one seems a good deal the worse
For this much-debated Vatican curse;
And that is the Pope himself, for he,
By even the issue of his “Decree,”
Made public the fact, beyond recall,
That he knows of Ireland nothing at all.
The Irish Bishops ’tis true, have tried,
To soften the blow to their Pontiff’s pride;
While the Irish people have treated his curse