Humphrys genealogy

Genealogy research by Mark Humphrys.


My ancestors - O'Rahilly - Contents


  The Curse of Cromwell by Yeats

Kerry Poets Monument, Killarney

The traditional air O'Rahilly's Grave

Other

Error

The poet's tomb, Muckross Abbey

"O'Rathaille's Grave" by Gan Ainm

  


Memorials to the poet Aodhagán Ó Rathaille

Memorials to the poet Aodhagán Ó Rathaille.



The Curse of Cromwell by Yeats

The Curse of Cromwell, by William Butler Yeats, in New Poems (1938).

Online here and here.

It refers to the poet Aodhagán Ó Rathaille's deathbed poem.


YOU ask what - I have found, and far and wide I go:
Nothing but Cromwell's house and Cromwell's murderous crew,
The lovers and the dancers are beaten into the clay,
And the tall men and the swordsmen and the horsemen, where are they?
And there is an old beggar wandering in his pride -
His fathers served their fathers before Christ was crucified.
O what of that, O what of that,
What is there left to say?

All neighbourly content and easy talk are gone,
But there's no good complaining, for money's rant is on.
He that's mounting up must on his neighbour mount,
And we and all the Muses are things of no account.
They have schooling of their own, but I pass their schooling by,
What can they know that we know that know the time to die?
O what of that, O what of that,
What is there left to say?

But there's another knowledge that my heart destroys,
As the fox in the old fable destroyed the Spartan boy's
Because it proves that things both can and cannot be;
That the swordsmen and the ladies can still keep company,
Can pay the poet for a verse and hear the fiddle sound,
That I am still their servant though all are underground.
O what of that, O what of that,
What is there left to say?

I came on a great house in the middle of the night,
Its open lighted doorway and its windows all alight,
And all my friends were there and made me welcome too;
But I woke in an old ruin that the winds howled through;
And when I pay attention I must out and walk
Among the dogs and horses that understand my talk.
O what of that, O what of that,
What is there left to say?





Kerry Poets Monument, Killarney

Kerry Poets Monument (or Four Poets Monument), Killarney.
At the small roundabout where Fair Hill meets East Ave. See map.

Erected in 1940 in memory of four Kerry poets:

  1. Piaras Feiritear
  2. Geoffrey O'Donoghue
  3. Aodhagán Ó Rathaille
  4. Eoghan Ruadh Ó Súilleabháin
The statue is the "Speir Bhean" (Beautiful Woman), who personifies Ireland.



Kerry Poets Monument, Killarney.
Photo 2000.
See larger and full size.
See other scan.



Wider view of Kerry Poets Monument, Killarney.
Photo 2000. See larger and full size.
See wider view. See view from behind. Photos 2000.
See street view.




The traditional air O'Rahilly's Grave

  


Julia Clifford plays O'Rahilly's Grave.


  

Other

  



There is a tune called "O'Rahilly's March".
Its relationship (if any) to the poet is unclear.
(todo) It apparently appears in McCullough's Irish warpipe tutor and tune book, Dublin, 1926, [NLI] Ir 7889 m 6.




Error: Song 44 by The Gloaming

  

Song 44 (also here) appears on the album The Gloaming (2014) by the band The Gloaming.
It is an adaptation of the poem Aisling thruagh do mhear mise (16th century) by Domhnall Mac Carthaigh.
This poem appears as Poem 44 (hence "Song 44") in Dánta grádha: an anthology of Irish love poetry (1925) by T.F. O'Rahilly.





  

The poet's tomb, Muckross Abbey



  

The album "O'Rathaille's Grave" by Gan Ainm

  





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