Matheson Collection > Gleanings from Irish manuscripts

FAREWELL TO INIS FAIL
Of the foregoing F is the most accurate, as one
would expect, but it contains many mistakes,
as a glance at the variants will show. It seems
to have been copied hurriedly. It and H are the
only authorities which give all seven stanzas,
Eg not being independent. The sixth and seventh
are given in inverse order in H, and they were
probably so in O Donovan's manuscript, for he
has the corrupt reading duna doirbhghéis the same
as Hardiman. N gives the seventh stanza but
not the sixth, while G and M omit both.
It is not easy to decide the question of the
authorship of the poem. It is anonymous in F,
and of course in Eg, in N, and in G, while O
Longáin in M ascribes it to Seathrún Céitinn. It
may be taken for granted that the attribution to
Céitinn is a mere guess, based perhaps on a certain
similarity of treatment of the same theme by
that author in a well-known poem. Compare also
the opening line of our piece with Céitinn's soraidh
da tulchaibh aonaigh.^ Hardiman's heading runs
as follows : Gearróid Nuinsionn ar bhfágbháil
Eireann do, ' Garret Nugent (composed it) after
having left Ireland.' O Donovan's copy had a
similar title.9 Hardiman seems to have had no
doubt about the matter, neither does Douglas
Hyde,io but O Grady says '* the verses were no
8 Fr. MacErlean's ed. of Céitinn*s poems i8, 1. 27.
9 " It would appear from the little poem above alluded
to that Gerald or Garrett [Nugent], the author of it, was
either the baron of Delvin or at least a brother of his."
10 Literary History of Ireland 492.