The Language and Literature of Ireland

The Language and Literature of Ireland

word still makes the port of Galway with its fishing villiage Oir ta a croidhe ]e n-a ceile ’g a eugadh. lead a stranger to believe that if lie was n’t quite out of his as all who have visited it perceive, by a southern wits he had at least pitched care to the deuce for the rest of inhabited, Budh iad nbhrain duthchais a tir’ fein do sheinn,’ race in some of whose customs and superstitions the present his life. Rinn gach fearsa d’ar ail leis do mheamhradh ; writer was struck with the resemblance existing between them It may not, perhaps, be out of to remark here, that 0 ’a beagimnidhe locht cluinste a ceolta binn, place and those of the inhabitants of Majorca and Ivica, which have there does seem to be some latent between the phys- A croidhe bheith ’g a bhriseadh gan cabhradh ! similarity undoubtedly a Phoenician origin. Oath, a battle, is the prefix ical nature of a country and its inhabitants. The parts of old as of Do mhair se d’ a rQn, se d’a or intermediate syllables of many local British words agus d’eag chrich; Great Britain to which the Gaelic race was confined, differ very So an meud bhi a air talarnh others in ancient France, Spain, and Italy, where we find it ’g oheanghail ; much in physical aspect from the remainder of the island, and Ni luath athire aon The also a component of personal names. The Roman poet Catul- ’ghabhfas trom-ghul sgith, are wonderfully like Ireland. eastern seaboard of Great ’S ni bheidh bh-fad a oheile an uaimh fallamh. lus, for instance, has a purely Celtic name, (it is written Cathell gan Britain is, for the most pirt, flat and unpieturesque. It con- an old Gaulish and means to a multitude reaches of hundreds of in inscription) “equal 0! dean uaimh dhi ’a an ait bh fail na gaeth’ greine fiar sists of sandy miles, without harbors, it was the titie to some Celtic and almost without but the coasts of the Gael in battle”; evidently given ’Nuar gheallean siad murach glorach ; indentations; chieftain from whom the was descended. The are the most and rock in the poet greatest Beid soilsiughadh air a suan mar smigeadh an iar indented, varied, bound, perhaps, men them all is wildness or literary of Italy came from the north, Cisalpiue Gaul, 0 n-a dil innse fein ata bronach ! world. Along grandeur, beauty or ter- whose original population was Celtic, as the names of places ror. From Cork harbor, in the south of Ireland, to Cape She is far from the land where her young hero sleeps, and persons testify. Thus Verona, the birth-place of Catullus, Wrath, in the north of Scotland, following the indented, rock- And lovers around her are sighing ; was originally a residence of the Fear are or noble men,” the bound coast, more scenes of wierd, lonely magnificence are to But she turns from their and re- coldly gaze weeps, of the chieftains of a Celtic tribe. Virgil also was born in this be met than in perhaps any other spot habitable globe. For her heart in his is sur- grave lying. but gion near Mantua, on the river Mincio, and many will be There is no such thing as sameness, startling successions prised to learn that the name of the author of the Bucolics and She sings the wild notes of her dear native plains— from loveliness to terror. Here is a stupendous sea cliff1, black, -Eneid while pure Celtic, illustrates the original location or Every thought which he loved awaking,— frowning, and horrible; there is a smooth bay, where all is occupation of' the tribe from which lie sprung. Virgil is Fearl Ah ! little they think who delight in her strains, beauty and loveliness, where fairy islets, carpeted with eternal Gil. the “man of the water or river” ; the Celtic/ changing How the heart of the minstrel is breaking ! verdure, rise above the quiet waters. Then we reach some into the Latin v as in all such cases. sinuous sea luke that leads far into the interior, amid moun- He had lived for his love, for his country he died,— tains of fantastic and The Romans derived several of their from the forms, cloud-capped hoath-clad, riven gods Etruiia, They were all that to life had entwined him ; asunder into inhabitants have formed a by gloomy passes, ar.d opening glens where the poet modern Tuscany—whose long puzzle Nor soon shall the tears of his country be dried, came from in Asia or the painter might dwell forever. Never ending variety and to historians, some supposing they Lydia Nor long will his love stay behind him. sudden transitions are the characters of the land of wonders. Minor, some from Egypt, chiefly on the ground of a few such Oh! make her a where the sunbeams rest the race it seems made of indications in the Latin writers, who were equally ignorant of grave Like that dwells in it, up contradic- When they promise a glorious morrow, tions. and terror come so close that almost touch. the country whence they originated—and from their writing Beauty they on They’ll shine her sleep like smiles from the west scene is and extreme in its character. There are from the right hand to the left like all Semitic and most an- Every unique O’er her own loved Island of Sorrow. the of Clew and the horrors of Loch Coruisk one cient eastern peoples. We are not aware that the fragments glories Bay ; a all softness and the other all and of the language of the mysterious Etruscans, as found in in- Modern literature might be searched in vain for more per- beauty, frightfulness sterility. are and were else scriptions at Luna, Cortona, Clusium, and other ruined Cyclo- fect translation than the foregoing. The rhyme, the rhythm, Both peerless scenes, they anywhere would the sense, and the are so that one be known to the world and visited the but unfortu- pean cities, have been compared with the Celtic ; it is general- pathos, preserved exactly by great; almost one. lie too far amid and the mis- ly considered, excepting a few words,incomprehehsible by classi- might suppose the composer and translator Eng- nately they away, famishing Celts, lishmen—solt-heuded creatures who write in the Mall Ga- fortunes of the race that dwells them have deterred travel- cal scholars ; but there can be no doubt that the names of the Pall by ers fiom them. We all hate to on human wretch- deities alone referred to, not to speak of many local Etrurian zette and Saturday Review—should have this translation thrust visiting gaze down their throats whenever Gaelic was a barbarous and it is no wonder that men from Con- names, are of Celtic origin; such as Luna, from lun, the moon, they’d say edness, keep away Venus from funn, desire, Minerva (she) with the wise mouth or language. naught and the Isle of Skye. speech, and the goddess of wisdom, «Stc. The Celtic settle- Some one has said that the songs of a people have more in- The Celt is a3 many-sided and as varied as his country. He on than holds all of a and olten without ments, indeed, extended not only over the centre of north fluence them hisiory. The saying certainly good changes sudden, any apparent cause, to from to from to Italy, but at one time also over the Latin plain, the site of as far as Ireland is concerned. Irish nationality owes most of from joy sorrow, hope despair, meekness Rome and the neighboring antique cities with whom her earli- its existence to poetry. Moore and Davis have made more ferocity. Like a musical instrument of greatest compass, he than or can almost at the same note from the est war8, memorised by Livy, commenced. Of this fact we Itish rebels cither Cromwell Judge Keogh. Conquer- sound, instant, every subdue and madden a but to the treble. He can be the the the could adduce many traces, but will merely offer a remarkable ors and perjurers may nation, neither diapason gayest, saddest, and the most brutal of mankind. He seems a com- one in the name of Caesar. The Romans have generally three have the power to kill its songs. The tyrant and ruffian die, gentlest, but “the of lives of and his mental attributes bear a names, one personal like our Christian name, one illustrating and their power ceases, Spirit Song” forever, pound contradictions, strong and influences after If the of of the of the of their tribe, and an agnomen indicative of some personal pecu- generation generation. poetry impression physical peculiarities birth-place a have the of Ossian liarity or historical association. In this they resembled alike Ireland could be killed, then, indeed, might she cease to be his race. Who could conceived imageries we are an but amid the scenes of chaotic of which the chieftains of Greece as we find in Horner, and those of difficulty to English statesmen. But supposing im- anywhere grandeur true can never die as are the embodiments? The of Morven seems Ireland. Thus we have Neall of the nine hostages, Shane an- possibility, for the and the beautiful ; and they poetic spirit over them all. There is in them diomais, John of the ambition, Aedli Geimhleach, Aedli of the long as Irish hearts throb to the music of their glorious melo- to preside every physical pe- a so of the northern land of the the Fetters.

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