Part 8

It is most interesting to observe that Shakespeare himself employs alliteration in his epitaph, and used it in a manner so closely conforming to the regular Irish system, as to suggest his acquaintance with it, _e.g._:

"Good =f=riend for Jesus' sake =f=orbeare, To =d=ig the =d=ust enclosed here, =B=lesst =b=e he who =s=pares these =s=tones, And cursed =b=e he who moves my =b=ones."

[17] It has been computed that, in the petty princedom of Tyrconnell (now Donegall county nearly) the real estate allocated to maintenance of the _literati_ amounted in value to £2,000 yearly, present currency.

[18] Delivered before the Irish National Literary Society in Dublin, November 25th, 1892.

[19] As an instance of this, I mention the case of a young man I met on the road coming from the fair of Tuam, some ten miles away. I saluted him in Irish, and he answered me in English. "Don't you speak Irish," said I. "Well, I declare to God, sir," he said, "my father and mother hasn't a word of English, but still, I don't speak Irish." This was absolutely true for him. There are thousands upon thousands of houses all over Ireland to-day where the old people invariably use Irish in addressing the children, and the children as invariably answer in English, the children understanding Irish but not speaking it, the parents understanding their children's English but unable to use it themselves. In a great many cases, I should almost say most, the children are not conscious of the existence of two languages. I remember asking a gossoon a couple of miles west of Ballaghaderreen in the Co. Mayo, some questions in Irish and he answered them in English. At last I said to him, "_Nach labhrann tu Gaedheilg?_" (_i.e._, "Don't you speak Irish?") and his answer was, "And isn't it Irish I'm spaking?" "No _a-chuisle_," said I, "it's not Irish you're speaking, but English." "Well then," said he, "that's how I spoke it ever"! He was quite unconscious that I was addressing him in one language and he answering in another. On a different occasion I spoke Irish to a little girl in a house near Kilfree Junction, Co. Sligo, into which I went while waiting for a train. The girl answered me in Irish until her brother came in. "Arrah now, Mary," said he, with what was intended to be a most bitter sneer; "and isn't that a credit to you!" And poor Mary--whom I had with difficulty persuaded to begin--immediately hung her head and changed to English. This is going on from Malin Head to Galway, and from Galway to Waterford, with the exception possibly of a few spots in Donegal and Kerry, where the people are wiser and more national.

[20] The following are a few instances out of hundreds of the monstrous transmographying of Gaelic names into English. The Gillespies (Giolla-Easbuig, _i.e._, Bishop's servant) are Archbolds or Bishops. The Mackays (Mac Aodha, _i.e._, son of Ae or Hugh) are Hughes. The Mac Reevys or Mac Culreevys (Mac Cùil-Riabhaigh, _i.e._, son of the grey poll) are Grays. The Mac Eóchagains instead of being all Gahagans or Geoghegans have--some of them--deformed their name into the monstrosity of Goggin. The Mac Feeachrys (Mac Fhiachraidh) are Vickors or even Hunters. The Mac Feehalys are often Fieldings. Mac Gilleesa (Mac Giolla Iosa, _i.e._, sons of Jesus' devotee) are either Gillespie or Giles. The Mac Gillamurrys (Mac Giolla-Mhuire, _i.e._, son of the Virgin's devotee) is often made Marmion, sometimes more correctly Macilmurray or Mac Ilmurry. Mac Gillamerry (Mac Giolla Meidhre, _i.e._, son of the servant of merriment) is Anglicised Merryman. Mac Gillaree (Mac Giolla-righ, _i.e._, son of the king's servant) is very often made King, but sometimes pretty correctly Mac Gilroy or Mac Ilroy--thus the Connemara people have made Kingston of the village of Ballyconry, because the _ry_ or _righ_ means a king. The Mac Irs, sons of Ir, earliest coloniser of Ireland, have, by some confusion with _geirr_, the genitive of _gearr_, "short," become Shorts or Shortalls, but sometimes, less corruptly, Kerrs. The honourable name of Mac Rannell (Mac Raghnaill) is now seldom met with in any other form than that of Reynolds. The Mac Sorarans (Mac Samhradháin, the clan or tribe name of the Mac Gaurans or Mac Governs) have become Somers, through some fancied etymology with the word _samhradh_. The Mac Sorleys (Mac Samharlaigh) are often Shirleys. The honourable and poetic race of Mac-an-bháirds (sons of the bard) are now Wards to a man. The Mac-intleevys (Mac an tsléibhe, _i.e._, sons of the mountain) are Levys or Dunlevys. The Macintaggarts (Mac an tsagairt, _i.e._, son of the priest) are now Priestmans, or occasionally, I do not know why, Segraves. The Macgintys (Mac an tsaoi, _i.e._, son of the sage) are very often Nobles. The Macinteers (Mac an tsaoir, _i.e._, son of the carpenter) instead of being made MacIntyre as the Scots always have it, are in Ireland Carpenters or Wrights, or--because _saor_ means "free" as well as Carpenter--Frees and Freemans. Many of the O'Hagans (O h-Aodhgáin) are now Fagans, and even Dickens's Fagan the Jew has not put a stop to the hideous transformation. The O'Hillans (Mac Ui Iollain, _i.e._, sons of Illan, a great name in Irish romance) have become Hylands or Whelans. It would be tedious to go through all the well-known names that immediately occur to one as thus suffering; suffice it to say, that the O'Heas became Hayses, the O'Queenahans, Mosses, Mossmans, and Kinahans, the O'Longans Longs, the O'Naghtens Nortons, the O'Reardons Salmons, the O'Shanahans Foxes, and so on _ad infinitum_.

[21] It is questionable, however, whether Partholan as a modern Christian name is not itself an Irishised form of Bartholomew.

[22] For more information about Tailtin, see an article by me incorporated in the "Rules of the Gaelic Athletic Association," recently published.

[23] In Irish it is Beul-áth-an-righ contracted into B'l'áth'n-righ, pronounced _Blawn-ree_.

UNWIN BROTHERS, THE GRESHAM PRESS, CHILWORTH AND LONDON

THE PATRIOT PARLIAMENT

Of 1689, with its Statutes, Rites, and Proceedings.

By THOMAS DAVIS.

Edited, with an Introduction, by the Hon. Sir CHARLES GAVAN DUFFY, K.C.M.G.

LONDON: T. FISHER UNWIN, Paternoster Square. DUBLIN: SEALY, BRYERS & WALKER, Middle Abbey Street. NEW YORK: P. J. KENEDY, Barclay Street.

NOTICES OF THE BRITISH PRESS.

_From_ THE DAILY NEWS.

The remarkable Series of papers on "The Patriot Parliament."

_From_ THE PALL MALL GAZETTE.

The papers are by far the most valuable of Davis's contribution to Irish history. Mr Lecky, in his history, has spoken of them with much admiration, and has adopted many of their conclusions. The account of the Jacobite Parliament which is given by Lord Macaulay has long been generally accepted in England, but we believe that any one who will candidly examine the evidence that is collected by Davis will arrive at the conclusion that this account is seriously misleading.

To many, however, the most attractive part of this little volume will be the introduction which is written by Sir Gavan Duffy. It is a brilliant and powerful indictment of the government of Ireland under the Stuarts. It is impossible to mistake the accent of sincerity that runs through his pages, and very few men have written Irish history with such eloquence and force.

_From_ THE WESTMINSTER GAZETTE.

We have Mr. Lecky's testimony that Davis's account of what he calls the Patriot Parliament is "the best and fullest" he is acquainted with. He has made it clear that Macaulay's condemnation of the Parliament was over coloured.

_From_ NOTES AND QUERIES.

We do not discuss politics, even when upwards of two hundred years intervenes between the then and the now. From the literary point of view, taking into consideration the limitations of a popular book, we have little but praise to give to Davis's "Patriot Parliament." He wrote as a partisan; but we detect no perversion of facts. Sir Charles Gavan Duffy's introduction is remarkably interesting. Some of our readers will like to put this volume on the shelf where they keep their books of historic reference, for in the appendix is a carefully compiled catalogue of the Lords and Commons of the Parliament of 1689.

_From_ THE TIMES.

A reprint of a politico-historical tract by a writer highly commended by Mr. Lecky, with an appreciative biographical introduction from the pen of a well-known authority on Irish history.

_From_ THE GLOBE.

Mr. Lecky once described Davis's work as "by far the best and fullest account" of the assembly in question, and in reproducing it the Irish Society have earned the thanks of all students of Irish history.

_From_ THE SCOTSMAN.

The work is a valuable and instructive account of the work done by "the Popish Parliament of James II." It is introduced by a paper in which its editor tells all that need be known of Davis, and shows in what respects his account corrects Macaulay. The reissue should be welcome to every one interested in Irish history.

_From_ THE MANCHESTER GUARDIAN.

It is a vigorous and readable paper, and it carries weight with it.

_From_ THE NEWCASTLE CHRONICLE.

Sir Charles Gavan Duffy's introduction extends to nearly one hundred pages, and traces in bold and rapid lines the history of Ireland under the Stuarts. It is written with that ease, lucidity, and decision which marks the style of Davis's colleague of fifty years ago, who now does this service to the history of his country and to the memory of his friend.

_From_ THE SCOTTISH LEADER.

It would not have been easy indeed to make a better opening of such a series as this aspires to be. "The Patriotic Parliament" is only a characteristic fragment of the work of one of Ireland's most notable heroes, and it is also a contribution of real merit to Irish history. A perusal of this little book will fully justify Mr. Lecky's praise of the skill and industry displayed by Davis, at the same time that it will fill one with a kind of amused admiration of the fervid and somewhat youthful enthusiasm of the "Young Ireland" of 1845.

_From_ THE FREEMAN.

The Irish Parliament of 1690 has been seriously maligned by Macaulay, Froude, Ingram, and others. This is a vindication, and the work of an Irish Protestant. The introduction by Sir Charles Gavan Duffy is very vividly written and gives a view of the colonisation of Ulster of a very serious character. We have not space for the story as given here, but we commend it to our readers who desire to understand the springs of Irish discontent.

_From_ THE BAPTIST.

To impartial students of history Davis's work will be indispensable.

_From_ THE METHODIST TIMES.

This humble-looking little book marks an era. Sir Charles Duffy has prefixed an introduction in which he tells once more the long story of Ireland's wrongs. The perusal of it makes one feel that England will never lay aside her prejudices and look at Irish questions as she looks at Italian or Russian questions. After Sir C. G. Duffy's introduction comes Thomas Davis's modest preface. It fills five pages; it was written just fifty years ago. It is altogether admirable in tone and sentiment.

_From_ THE UNIVERSE.

We are of opinion that the issue of this new library will tend to place the position of our country more fairly before the public, and will foster a much-wanted knowledge of Ireland, its requirements and its failings, amongst our own people. We bid the patriotic venture most heartily welcome.

As a necessity, this opening book is identified with Thomas Davis--not by any means that it is the best specimen of his thought or writing--as in some sort acting as a hyphen between his era and ours--the era of glorious promise and that of partial fruition. Sir Gavan Duffy--thanks that he still survives--supplies a masterly introduction, which to us is the kernel of the volume.

_From_ THE CATHOLIC TIMES.

Not the least of the many services which Sir Charles Gavan Duffy's prolific pen has rendered to the country which gave him birth, and which he has long loved and served with patriotic devotion, is the interesting historical introduction he has prefixed to Thomas Davis's "Patriotic Parliament." The mind of the statesman, the heart of the patriot, and the hand of the practised politician are strikingly evident on every page of this powerful polemic.

_From_ THE WEEKLY REGISTER.

We are, it may be hoped, at the beginning of a better time. Along with the publications of the Irish Literary Society, which have just begun so well with "The Patriotic Parliament of 1689," the joint work of Thomas Davis and Gavan Duffy, the twin brethren of modern literature in Ireland, may we see also many a publication by the Irish clergy of such books as the two we have named, and the volumes published some years ago by the present Coadjutor-Bishop for Kildare and Leighlin.

_From_ THE COLONIES AND INDIA.

The book before us is one which no student of Irish history can well be without, for it discloses in what is no doubt the true light the character of the Catholic Parliament of James II.

_From_ THE WEEKLY DESPATCH.

The volume, a very graphic account of the "Patriot Parliament" of 1689, written by Thomas Davis, the Irish patriot of two generations back, is an interesting and very instructive narrative, correcting the slanders and false statements of Macaulay and other English historians, and showing how just, and even how tolerant of Protestant aliens, Irish Catholics could be in the short time allowed to them, more than a hundred years before Grattan's Parliament came into existence, for experimenting in Home Rule. But the most readable portion of the volume is the long introduction supplied by the editor, Sir Charles Gavan Duffy, who here succinctly reminds us of some of the wrongs inflicted on his fellow-countrymen and fellow-religionists in the old days, and not yet redressed.

_From_ THE WEEKLY SUN.

There ought to be many such books in circulation in England and Ireland, and I hope that this volume will run through many editions. Ignorance has been the bane of the two countries hitherto. Books like "The Irish Parliament under James II." will go far to cement that feeling of friendship by showing the people of this country how erroneous their preconceived opinions of the character of the Irish people have been.

_From_ THE FREEMAN'S JOURNAL.

Though written fifty years ago, it is as much alive with lessons for the hour as any composition of recent date. The introduction is in itself a most valuable summary of the story of Ireland during the Stuart period. Together with Davis's work it forms a book of which no student of Irish history or Irish politics can afford to remain in ignorance.

_From_ THE LYCEUM.

Sir Charles Gavan Duffy in his Introduction gives us a sketch of the times immediately preceding the 1689 Parliament, beginning with the Plantation of Ulster under James I. Step by step he traces the course of events through the dark period of Cromwell's campaigns, through the reign of Charles II., with his lack of good faith and honour in his dealings with Ireland, down to the time when James, a fugitive from his own country and in peril of his life, landed on the shores of Ireland and summoned a Parliament of his Irish subjects. Davis's writings on this Parliament and his ample vindication of it from the contumely and abuse so freely bestowed on it, have now, for the first time, been collected together and given to the reading world as a connected whole. It is a book to be closely studied as throwing a bright and instructive light on a dark and much misrepresented portion of Irish history.

_From_ THE DUBLIN DAILY INDEPENDENT.

To Sir Charles Gavan Duffy this work must have been much of a labour of love. Of that company of devoted Irishmen who had gathered together in Dublin nigh fifty years ago--he alone survives with one other, a busy philanthropist in a southern city who has enhanced the beauty of our national ballads and endeared himself to his countrymen thereby. The coming home of Gavan Duffy to renew the work of his early manhood after half a century of exile is an interesting incident. The young fresh revival in Irish literature in its connection with these few fine old men is as the return of the Son of Cool to the few remaining old Fians who kept true to the traditions of their youth in the heart of the wooded hills of Connaught. It is the proof that their fond hopes cannot be for ever unfulfilled. Sharing with Sir Charles Gavan Duffy the _kudos_ of editing the New Library were two men--not unknown to their countrymen. One of them, as _An Chraoibhin Aoibhinn_, has laboured earnestly and well to resuscitate an interest in the purely Gaelic side of Irish literature--Dr. Douglas Hyde. The other, recognising that Thomas Davis's influence is of that peculiar kind rather bequeathed than withdrawn, has gone forth zealously to the endeavour of making Thomas Davis understanded of the people, and with confidence to Mr. T. W. Rolleston may be entrusted the gathering up the fragments that remain--that nothing be lost--of those who brought a new soul into Erinn.

_From_ THE DUBLIN EVENING TELEGRAPH.

An able work, by Thomas Davis, edited by Sir Charles Gavan Duffy, with a magnificent essay on the Stuart and Cromwell period. That we should get such a jewel as this first volume, such a thing of beauty for a shilling, is little short of a marvel.

_From_ THE CORK HERALD.

It might be said, without exaggeration, that the appearance of this work--the forerunner as it is of a series in which Irish life, Irish genius, and Irish character will be represented--constitutes an event of no ordinary importance in Irish history. It is the outcome of a desire and a want which have been long felt that the Irish people should know accurately and intimately everything connected with the past history of their country, with its literature, its music, its antiquities, and its art. The same idea which is now taking visible shape, presented itself to the minds of the leaders of the Young Ireland movement fifty years ago, when a series of little books was published which have since been the companions, the inspiration, and the delight of two generations of Irishmen at home and abroad. There are few Irishmen who have not at one time or another received a potent intellectual stimulus from the writings of Davis or Duffy, Mitchell or M'Nevin. We do not err, therefore, when we say that great possibilities lie hidden in this new movement.

WORKS by DOUGLAS HYDE, LL.D. (An Chraoibhin Aoibhinn).

"LEABHAR SGEULUIGHEACHTA."

_viii--261 pp., 8vo. Price =5/-=. Gill & Son, O'Connell Street, Dublin._

Containing some sixteen Folk Tales, Riddles, Ranns, &c., in Irish, with copious Notes on the Pronunciation, Vocabulary, and Dialect.

"The multitude of characteristic idioms and of those charmingly expressive turns of speech which one meets with daily among the peasantry is so great as to make the work a perfect treasure-house of rich jewels of thought.... Dr. Hyde deserves well, not only of his country, but of all scientific investigators and philologists."--_Freeman's Journal._

"This is the most noteworthy addition that has been made for nearly a century to modern Gaelic literature."--_Chicago Citizen._

"His collection of Irish Gaelic Folk Stories is the fruit of years of pious work. He has travelled into every corner of Ireland where the old tongue still lingers, gathering from the mouths of the Irish-speaking peasants the olden stories that linger among them."--_Nation._

"BESIDE THE FIRE."

_lviii--204 pp., large 8vo. Price =7/6=. David Nutt, Strand, London._

Containing Folk Tales and Fairy Stories in Irish and English, collected from the mouths of the peasantry. With Introduction and Notes, and additional Notes by ALFRED NUTT.

"Any reader conversant with the subject will at once recognise the fact that this book is distinctly the most valuable contribution that has ever been made to Irish Folk-lore. It would be hardly an exaggeration to say that it is the only work in that particular department that is trustworthy in its details and scientific in its treatment."--_Nature._

"We may say that Dr. Hyde's is the first [collection of Irish Folk-lore] which has been presented in a form entirely satisfactory to the scientific folk-lorist.... Few men know the living Gaelic tongue so well as Dr. Hyde, and he has made it his object to give these fragments of Gaelic tradition exactly as he gathered them from the lips of the peasantry, and with all the collateral information that the scientific investigator can require. The result is certainly one of the most interesting and entertaining books of Folk-lore that it has ever been our good fortune to come across."--_The Speaker._

"Perhaps the most interesting part of Dr. Hyde's collection of Irish tales, 'Beside the Fire,' is his Introduction."--_Saturday Review._

"We trust that his warning, though late, is not given in vain, and that a whole literature will not be allowed to die or to become a fossil in the studies of the Dryasdusts."--_Daily News leading article._

"COIS NA TEINEADH."

_60 pp., large 8vo. Price =1/6=. Gill & Son, O'Connell Street, Dublin._

Containing six Folk Stories in Irish, reprinted from the last volume. With Additional Notes, &c.

CONTES IRLANDAIS.

Being Extracts from the untranslated portion of the "Leabhar Sgeuluigheachta," translated into French by M. GEORGES DOTTIN, with the original Irish text in Roman letters as arranged by Monsieur DOTTIN on the opposite page.

_70pp., 4to. Price =7/6=. Gill & Son, O'Connell Street, Dublin._

ABHRÁIN GRÁDH; OR, LOVE SONGS OF CONNACHT.

Containing 45 Poems collected from the mouths of Connacht peasantry or from modern manuscripts, now for the first time collected, translated, and published, with metrical and literal versions in English on one side of the page and the Irish text on the other, with Notes, Anecdotes, and much Illustrative matter.

_160pp., 8vo. Price =2/6= net. T. Fisher Unwin, Paternoster Buildings, and Gill & Son, Upper O'Connell Street, Dublin._

"In these Connaught Love Songs Dr. Hyde has made, whether in verse or prose, the best transcript of Celtic poetry into English that we have yet had. So much of the magic, so much of the local colour, the native grace, the idiom of the Irish as he has given, one had thought it impossible to give."--ERNEST RHYS, _in the Academy, Oct. 13th, 1893._

"We cannot too cordially commend to ethnologists and Gaelic antiquarians these relics of Irish Folk Songs collected with so much industry and devotion by Dr. Hyde."--_The Times, July 20th, 1893._

"The price of this valuable and delightful work is only half-a-crown, and it should be welcomed by several classes of readers. The folk-lorists of course will pounce on it, but folk-lorists are a very small public and despised of men. Still less numerous are students of the Irish language, who here find what they need, the Erse poetry on the left page, the literal translation on the right.... There remains the class of English readers of poetry, and to them the 'Love Songs of Connacht' may be warmly recommended."--_From the Daily News leading article, Sept. 1st, 1893._

"No one who has examined Dr. Hyde's previous work can fail to see that he combines two gifts, the conjunction of which is rarely met with in one man; he adds to the knowledge, the love of accuracy, and the scientific spirit of a modern scholar that sense of the _form_, and love of the _spirit_ of his material which belongs to the creative far more than to the critical mind. And if such praise seems to any reader excessive, let him examine for himself the 'Fourth Chapter of the Songs of Connacht.'"--_From the Speaker, July 15th, 1893._