The second is a ‘Lament for the Death of Eoghan Ruadh O’Neill,’ commonly called Owen Roe O’Neill (1590?-1649), patriot and general, who led the Irish against the Scotch and Parliamentary forces in Ireland (1642–1649).
The Author’s Note is as follows:—‘Time.—November 10, 1649. Scene.—Ormond’s camp, county Waterford. Speakers.—A veteran of Eoghan O’Neill’s clan, and one of the horsemen, just arrived with an account of his death.’
l. 2. Poison. There is no truth in the assertion that O’Neill was poisoned. He died a natural death.
7. Sacsanach. Saxon, English.
8. Cloc Uachtar. Clough Oughter, in county Cavan, where the O’Reillys had a stronghold.
19. Beinn Burb. Benburb, on the Blackwater, where O’Neill defeated the Scotch army under Monro (June 5, 1646).
[CLXXIX]
Innisfail and Other Poems (Macmillan & Co., 1877), and Poetical Works, six vols. (Macmillan & Co., 1884). By permission of author and publishers.
‘The Little Black Rose’ (l. 1) and ‘The Silk of the Kine’ (l. 5) were mystical names applied to Ireland by the bards. Athenry (l. 12), in county Galway, was the scene of a battle in which the Irish under Felim O’Conor were defeated by the English forces under Sir William de Burgh (1316).
[CLXXX]–[CLXXXI]
The first appeared in The Nation, 1st April 1843, and both are included in Sonnets and Other Poems (A. & C. Black, 1900). By permission of author and publishers.
[CLXXXII]–[CLXXXIII]
Bards of the Gael and Gall (T. Fisher Unwin, 1897). By permission of author and publisher. Both are translations from Irish poems of the seventeenth century.