sources and from three or four manuscripts, for the communication of which the editor is indebted to Dr. Lee of Hartwell, to Sir Lucius O'Brien, Bart., and to Sir William Betham, the present selection of specimens of the keen of the South of Ireland has been made, and is now with some diffidence submitted for the indulgent consideration of the members of the Percy Society. As some apology for various defects and blemishes in the translations made by the editor, he has to plead that the versification has been hastily executed amid active public employment, so much so as scarcely to permit a second reading before the passage was committed to the press. There are many lines which the editor could have improved, such as the line at p. 27,

"If by them one could gain,"

which would unquestionably read better"If by them there was gain."

But this and similar blemishes he hopes will not be severely criticized. The notes might readily have been extended, and possibly with advantage. The passage, p. 19,

"On stormy Slieve Mis

Spread the cry far and wide,"

will remind the reader of Stanihurst's translation of Virgil:

"And nymphs in mountains high typ doe squeak hullelo yearning,

That day cros and dismal," &c.

Some keens which have come into my possession are so spirit-stirring, that I do not consider it prudent to print them under the sanction of the Council of the Percy Society; enough, it is presumed, will be fonnd in the present collection of specimens to shew that private and political feeling are often strongly infused into these compositions ; and a reference to a manuscript volume, chiefly of Irish poetry (about 300 pages), which is in the possession of Sir William Betham, will at once illustrate this assertion. It appears to have been principally written in the years 1773 and '74, and contains, among other curious verses, a keen in Irish upon Thomas Maude, which is followed by a very poor translation into English by Patrick Reddan, who was probably the author of the original, and seems to have been a schoolmaster. My translation is made from another copy, in which Thomas Maude is styled Sir; and there seems little doubt that the person keened was Lord de Montalt. Sir Thomas Maude (the second baronet of that name), resided at Dundrum in the county of Tipperary, and represented that county in parliament in 1761. He was made governor of the county in June 1770, and in 1776

was created a peer, with the title of Baron de Montalt, of Hovenden, in the county of Tipperary. He died 17th of May, 1777.

Hail, happy year! hail, happy day

That Maude's vile corse consigned to clay;
And blessed be the heavenly dart
That pierced a passage to his heart.

In Dundrum's vale his mansion stood,
The seat of falsehood, fraud, and blood,—
Hell-hound accursed, whose murderous trade
The oaths of perjured wretches made.

Thro' iron bars, and walls of stone,
Burst the heart-broken prisoner's groan,-
The orphan's cry,-the widow's grief,
Our God has heard, and grants relief.

Disgorge, fair earth, his filthy frame,
That savage dogs may gnaw the same;
Let ravens, crows, and eagles come
To tear the monster from his tomb.

The sparkling rills proclaim their joy,
Nor murmuring brooks the sound alloy ;
The fields put on a smile of mirth,
Since cruel Maude was laid in earth.

By angels wafted to the skies,

The martyred Sheehy "Vengeance" cries,-
Proud dweller with the heavenly choir,
Whilst thou art doomed to endless fire.

Pluto and Nero, fiend and man,

In hellish deeds thy acts outran ;

Cromwell and Judas, two in one

Thou wert, and where they went thou'rt gone.

Perfidious Maude, thy long farewell,
To Dundrum's plain, and sweet Clonmel,
Gives peace and hope, and all around,
Rejoice that flames thy soul surround.

Earth, yield at once thy hell-doom'd dead,
Too cold thou art to be the bed

Of hands by blessed blood profaned,

Of heart with guilt of malice stained.

It may be asked, how this display of unchristian feeling can be accounted for? and to answer this it is necessary to go a little into the secret political history of the year 1760, when Thurot, it may be remembered, in command of a small French squadron, surprised and captured the town of Carrickfergus, in the North of Ireland. Previous to this a large irregular military force in the pay of France had been organized in the South of Ireland. This body (now recollected as "the White boys"), was officered and disciplined by intrepid young Irishmen who held commissions in the French service, and wore (for the editor has seen one of the uniform jackets) a white coat with green collar, cuffs, and lining, and the buttons of which were of white metal, and bore the arms of France, three fleurs de lys. These troops were paid with French coin, which was regularly im

ported through the custom house in Dublin, and the reason for which fact seems to have puzzled Lord Charlemont (see Hardy's memoir of him.) A Father Sheehy was the chaplain to this foreign force, and contemporary accounts of their turbulent proceedings exist in the Gentleman's Magazine, and in honest John Wesley's Journal. Some of the affidavits respecting Sheehy's conduct, are preserved in the appendix to Sir Richard Musgrave's history of the Irish Rebellions. Sheehy, who appears to have been prosecuted by Mr. or Sir Thomas Maude, was convicted of the murder of an idiot lad named Bird, who it is now generally believed was sent out of the country-at least there is no evidence of the body of Bird ever having been found, and it is said that he was seen (I think) in Newfoundland, alive about the year 1802. Although the defeat of Conflans by Hawke had terminated all immediate prospect of an invasion of Ireland by France, Father Sheehy continued to preach the boldest treason to his flock, and the jury, under excited feelings, found him guilty of the murder of Bird, for which he was hanged, as it is still popularly asserted, innocently, and he thus died with the reputation of a martyr. From his tomb, which is in the quiet little church yard of Clogheen, I copied the following inscription.