Page 59 - Demo

Chapter two 59
Oisín spoke
Patrick, enquire of God,
Whether He recollects when the Fiann shone bright, Or hath He seen, East or West,
Men their equal, in the time of ight,
Or hath He seen in His own country,
Though high it be above our place,
In conlict, in battle, or in might,
Mne who were equal to Fionn’s race.
According to tradition, Patrick had his scribe, Breogan, record for posterity, all the songs and narratives recounted by both Oisín and Caoilte; these then became the content of the renowned collection Agallamh na Seanórach –‘The Colloquy of the Ancients’.
Ossian! Two thousand years of mist and change Surround thy name-
Thy Fenian heroes now no longer range
The hills of fame
The very name of Finn and Goll sound strange- Yet thine the same-
By miscalled lake and desecrated grange- Remains and shall remain.
Oh, inspir’d giant! Shall we e’er behold, In our own time
One it to speak your spirit to the world Or seize your rhyme?
One pupil of the past as mighty-soul’d
As in the prime
Were the fond, fair, and beautiful, and bold- They of your song sublime.
About the early part of the irst century, at a time when Pope Peter 1 had established himself