"The Boatman's Hymn." Taken from Sir Samuel Ferguson's Lays of the Western Gael, 1888, pp. 162-3. Original in Hardiman, ii. p. 383.
"Keen on Art O'Leary" by his wife. Original published in Mrs. Morgan J. O'Connell's The Last Colonel of the Irish Brigade (Kegan Paul, 1892), vol. ii., Appendix A., and reprinted with some corrections in the Gaelic Journal (vol. vii., Old Series, No. 74, May 1896), p. 18. Some corrections and additions are made in the following number (June 1896). Crofton Croker, in his Keens of the South of Ireland, tells us that he endeavoured to recover this dirge but without success. It is a true example of the spontaneous "keen," with its short broken lines, containing in quick, natural succession, appeals, reminiscences, laments; moving backwards and forwards as the irregular promptings of grief and affection dictate without form or premeditation. It is, however, lifted into the sphere of fine poetry by its exceeding simplicity, and by the passion of grief expressed in its lines.
The circumstances in which the poem had its origin are particularly tragic. Art O'Leary had been an officer in the Hungarian service, but he returned to Ireland, where he had a considerable property in Co. Cork, and where his handsome person and distinguished manners made him very popular. He married, against the wish of her parents, Eileen of the Raven Locks, as she was called from her dark hair, a daughter of Daniel O'Connell of Derrynane, grandfather of "the Liberator." The popularity of Art O'Leary excited the jealousy of a neighbour, a Mr. Morris, whose horse had been beaten in a race by O'Leary's beautiful mare. Taking advantage of the Penal Laws, which did not permit a Catholic to possess a horse valued at more than £5, he demanded the mare from Capt. O'Leary for this sum. O'Leary refused, saying that he "would surrender his mare only with his life." A local magistrate immediately proclaimed him an outlaw; soldiers were sent to lie in wait for him as he was returning home at night, and he was shot through the heart near Carrig-a-nimmy, in May 1773. His wife was informed of her husband's death by the return of the mare without its rider. It was many years before his body was even allowed to be buried in consecrated ground. Morris was tried for the murder, but acquitted; he was soon after shot in his house by Arthur's brother. Art O'Leary's grave is to be seen in the nave of Kilcrea Abbey, Co. Cork; the inscription states that he was only twenty-six years of age when he died.
"Prologue to 'The Midnight Court'" (Cuirt an Mheadhon Oidhche), by Bryan Merryman. The long satire of which we give the Prologue has been published by Mr. Richard Foley (Riscard O Foghludha) (Hodges, Figgis & Co.).
"Hymn to the Virgin Mary." Original in The Poems of Egan O'Rahilly (1st ed., Irish Texts Society, vol. iii., 1900), p. 290. The author, Conchubhar or Conor O'Riordan was a native of Co. Cork, where he taught the classics and other subjects to the youths of his district. He wrote, about the same time as Gray, a "Meditation in a Country Churchyard," to which this very beautiful address to the Virgin forms the Epilogue or "Binding" (ceangal as it is called in Irish). The whole poem is included in the appendix to Rev. P. S. Dinneen's edition of O'Rahilly's poems.
"Christmas Hymn." Original in Dr. Douglas Hyde's Religious Songs of Connacht (T. Fisher Unwin, 1906), vol. ii. pp. 224-6; from an old North of Ireland manuscript.
"O Mary of Graces." Ibid., p. 161. Taken down by Miss Agnes O'Farrelly from a lad in the Aran Islands, Co. Galway.
"The Cattle-shed." Original in Timthirid Chroidhe neamhtha Iosa or The Messenger (published by Gill & Son, Dublin), p. 90. The following nine poems and fragments are from the same publication, vol. i., Parts 1-4.
"The White Paternoster." Ibid., p. 58. The two versions of this favourite charm here given, of which the second is translated from the original in a Kerry journal, An Lochran (October 1900), should be compared with the copies printed by Dr. D. Hyde in his Religious Songs, vol. i. pp. 362-70.