Oh! they want the wild sweet briery fence, Which round the flowers of Erin dwells, Which warns the touch, while winning the sense, Nor charms us least when it most repels. Then remember, wherever your goblet is crown'd, Through this world whether eastward or westward you roam, When a cup to the smile of dear woman goes round, Oh! remember the smile which adorns her at home. III. In France, when the heart of a woman sets sail, On the ocean of wedlock its fortune to try, Love seldom goes far in a vessel so frail, But just pilots her off, and then bids her good-bye! While the daughters of ERIN keep the boy Ever smiling beside his faithful oar, Through billows of woe and beams of joy The same as he look'd when he left the shore. Then remember, wherever your goblet is crown'd, Through this world whether eastward or westward you roam, When a cup to the smile of dear woman goes round, Oh! remember the smile which adorns her at home. EVELEEN'S BOWER. AIR.—Unknown. I. When to Eveleen's bower The moon hid her light From the heavens that night, And wept behind her clouds o'er the maiden's shame. The clouds pass'd soon From the chaste cold moon, But none will see the day When the clouds shall pass away, II. On the narrow path-way, And many a deep print On the white snow's tint The next sun's ray Soon melted away Every trace on the path where the false Lord came; But there's a light above, Which alone can remove That stain upon the snow of fair EVELEEN's fame. LET ERIN REMEMBER THE DAYS OF OLD. AIR.--The Red Fox. I. Let Erin remember the days of old, Ere her faithless sons betray'd her; Which he won from her proud invader; Led the Red-Branch Knights to danger ;- t" Military orders of knights were very early established in Ere the emerald gem of the western world Was set in the crown of a stranger. On Lough Neaga's bank as the fisherman strays,* When the clear, cold eve's declining, In the wave beneath him shining ! Catch a glimpse of the days that are over ; For the long faded glories they cover! Ireland. Long before the birth of Christ we find an hereditary order of Chivalry in Ulster, called Curaidhe na Craoibhe ruadh, or the knights of the Red Brancb, from their chief seat in Emania, adjoining to the palace of the Ulster kings, called Teagh na Craoibhe ruadh, or the Academy of the Red Branch; and contiguous to which was a large hospital, founded for the sick knights and soldiers, called Bron-bhearg, or the house of the sorrowful soldier."--O’HALLORAN's Introduction, etc. part i. chap. 5. * It was an old tradition, in the time of Giraldus, that Lough Neagh had been originally a fountain, by whose sudden overflowing the country was inundated, and a whole region, like the Atlantis of Plato, overwhelmed. He says that the fishermen, in clear weather, used to point out to strangers the tall ecclesiastical towers under the water Piscatores aquæ illius turres ecclesiasticas, quæ more patriæ arctæ sunt et altce, necnon et rotundce, sub undis manifeste, sereno tempore conspiciunt et extrancis transeuntibus, reique causas admirantibus, frequenter ostendunt.-Topogr. Hib. Dist. 2. c. 9. (the es, i he enof gold other, eland, hed in THE SONG OF FIONNUALA.* AIR.- Arrah my dear Eveleen. I. SILENT, oh Moyle! be the roar of thy water, Break not, ye breezes, your chain of repose, While murmuring mournfully, Lir's lonely daughter Tells to the night-star her tale of woes. When shall the swan, her death-note singing, Sleep, with wings in darkness furl'd ? When will Heaven, its sweet bell ringing, Call my spirit from this stormy world? II. Sadly, oh Moyle! to thy winter wave weeping, Fate bids me languish long ages away; * To make this story intelligible in a song, would require a much greater number of verses than any one is authorised to inflict upon an audience at once; the reader must therefore be content to learn, in a note, that Fionnuala, the daughter of Lir, was, by some supernatural power, transformed into a Swan, and condemned to wander, for many hundred years, over certain lakes and rivers in Ireland, till the coming of Christianity, when the first sound of the mass-bell was to be the signal of her release. - I found this fanciful fiction among some manuscript translations from the Irish, which were begun under the direction of that enlightened friend of Ireland, the late Countess of Moira. |