Matheson Collection > Gleanings from Irish manuscripts

GLEANINGS FROM
IRISH MANUSCRIPTS
FAREWELL TO INIS FAIL.
A TEXT of the following poem was published
/\ by James Hardiman in 1831, together
X^ ^ with a metrical version by the Rev. William
Hamilton Drummond, D.D. Of those who have
read either, few will be disposed to quarrel with the
judgment of John O Donovan, which says that ** in
that edition the original text is much corrupted, and
the metre destroyed by the addition of unnecessary
words and syllables, and the English translation
conveys ideas which the author never intended." ^
It is hoped that the present edition will enable
the reader to estimate more accurately the merits
of the piece. O Donovan says of it that it is " a
nice little poem, written in very pure Irish,**^ and
Standish Hayes O Grady calls it ** a pretty bit. "3
The text has been prepared with the help of
the following sources :
F, the O Gara Manuscript, preserved in the
Royal Irish Academy, and numbered 23 F 16 ;
" compiled in 1656 at Antwerp and at Lisle by
Ferghal dubh Gadhra (* Nicholas * in religion),
priest O.S.A., whom Cromwell's dissolution of
the religious houses had forced with many more
1 Ordnance Survey Letters of the county of Westmeath ii, 7 5 •
2 Ibid.
3 Catalogue of Irish Manuscripts in the British Museum 48 1 .