E. Leahy

Life
Author of Brian Boiroimhe, A Sketch of His Life and Times, 4th ed.; 2nd thousand (Irish Messanger n.d.), 24pp. closes with Mangan’s “Kinkora”; also Owen Roe O’Neill [Epochs of Irish History ser., 4nd edn. 25th thousand] (Dublin: Irish Messanger 1919), 24pp., ends with stanzas from Mangan’s trans. of “The Lament of O’Daly for Owen Roe”, Irish History and Archaeology, [24 CTS and Irish Messanger c.1898-1919].

His “The Song of the Fairies” is reprinted in Eleanor Huill’s Poembook of the Gael (London 1913, p.73)

“The Song of the Fairies”
When they made the road across the bog of Lamrach for Mider, their King.

Pile on the soil; thrust on the soil:
Red are the oxen around who toil:
Heavy the troops that my words obey;
Heavy they seem, and yet men are they.
Strongly, as piles, are the tree-trunks placed:
Red are the wattles above them laced:
Tired are your hands, and your glances slant;
One woman’s winning this toil may grant!

 Rushes from Teffa are cleared away;
Grief is the price that the man shall pay:
Stones have been cleared from the rough Meath ground;
Where shall the gain or the harm be found?
Thrust it in hand! Force it in hand!
Nobles this night, as an ox-troop, stand;
Hard is the task that is asked, and who
From the bridging of Lamrach shall gain, or rue.
[ In Eleanor Hull, Poembook of the Gael (1913) at Gutenberg Project - online, or see copy - attached. ]

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