Cia is sine cairt ar chrích Néill

[27]

‘Sloinn,’ ar Fionnchú na bhfeart ngrinn,

‘cia, a Shéadna, shaorfas Éirinn

ar searg d’uaislibh cláir Chonnla

ón dáimh dhuaibhsigh dhanardha?’

[28]

‘Adhainfidh isan aird teas

aoibheal bheó ar nach bia dímheas

ó mbiad réidhshlighthe im ráith gCuinn;

éindrithle cháich san chogaill.

[29]

‘Gluaisfid Gréagaigh ghuirt Mháighe,

re a gcois sin sluagh combáidhe:

roighne triathGhall Teamhrach Breagh

is fialchlann mheanmnach Mhíleadh.

[30]

‘Féachfaid d’fhaobhraibh a n-arm dte —

cia díobh chlaoidhfeas a chéile? —

an sluagh fraochdha a fódmhuigh Chuinn

’s an ógbhaidh laochdha ó Lunnainn.

[31]

‘Sloinn, a phríomhfháidh phuirt nimhe,

ón troid-se a-taoi d’fháisdine

don dá chliathghasraidh cia an dream

‘ga mbia an t-iathmhagh-soin Éireann?’

[32]

‘Biaidh,’ ar Séadna na salm nglan,

– báidh leam clódh ar cath Lunndan! –

‘críoch Fhloinn ‘ga fionnGhallaibh féin

ón droing iodhlannaigh aigmhéil‘.

[33]

‘D’éis an treasa tig ‘nar ndiaidh

fan ngort bhfionnghlan-sa i bhfinnChliaigh

biaidh cladh do chnámhaibh Saghsan

nach sáraigh cradh comharsan‘.

Narrative

These quatrains are taken from the poem beginning Cia is sine cairt ar chrích Néill? ‘Whose is the oldest charter to the land of Niall?’ by Clare poet Domhnall (mac Dáire) Mac Bruaideadha. It is a stirring poem of incitement to James ﬁtz Maurice Fitzgerald (Séamas (mac Muiris mheic Sheaáin) Mac Gearailt), who died in 1579. It was likely composed at the beginning of the first Desmond rebellion (1569–73). At this time, fitz Maurice had become leader of the Geraldines in Munster following the detention of the earl of Desmond and his brother in the Tower of London. The poem amounts to a charter for fitz Maurice to wage war with the English. Its message is conveyed with reference to both native history and prophecy.

The quatrains excerpted here are from a lengthy apologue that forms a section of the poem (for apologues in bardic poetry, see general guide to Cú Chulainn an chroidhe mhir). The apologue in Cia is sine cairt ar chrích Néill? comprises a prophecy revealed in the form of a dialogue between St. Fionnchú, who died c. 664, and a prophet named Séadna. The prophecy is unambiguous: Séadna foretells the coming of a Greek whose descendants will rule Munster and protect Ireland. This ‘Greek’ may be understood as referring to the Anglo-Norman progenitor of the Munster Fitzgeralds (the Fitzgeralds are conventionally referred to as Greek in bardic poetry). In time, Ireland will be treacherously taken over by English forces who will leave the country in misery and suppress its religion. This is the point at which our excerpt (qq. 27–33 of the poem) occurs, bringing the apologue to a close: responding to Fionnchú, Séadna foretells that a hero will rise up in the south to lead the ‘Greeks’ and an alliance of both Old-English and Gaelic Irish to victory over the English in a decisive battle. Following this, ﬁtz Maurice is addressed directly, equated with the hero of the prophecy, and urged to take up arms against the English.

Copies of the poem appear in 19 different manuscripts. The earliest, written c. 1577, is defective. The seventeenth-century copy linked here (RIA MS 23 D 14 - image courtesy of Irish Script on Screen) is derived from the earliest copy.

**The full apologue consists of quatrains 17-33 of the poem. We provide the present quatrains as a "trailer" and are currently preparing the remaining ones for inclusion here. Watch this space for updates!**

[27]

‘Sloinn,’ ar Fionnchú na bhfeart ngrinn,

‘cia, a Shéadna, shaorfas Éirinn

ar searg d’uaislibh cláir Chonnla

ón dáimh dhuaibhsigh dhanardha?’

[28]

‘Adhainfidh isan aird teas

aoibheal bheó ar nach bia dímheas

ó mbiad réidhshlighthe im ráith gCuinn;

éindrithle cháich san chogaill.

[29]

‘Gluaisfid Gréagaigh ghuirt Mháighe,

re a gcois sin sluagh combáidhe:

roighne triathGhall Teamhrach Breagh

is fialchlann mheanmnach Mhíleadh.

[30]

‘Féachfaid d’fhaobhraibh a n-arm dte —

cia díobh chlaoidhfeas a chéile? —

an sluagh fraochdha a fódmhuigh Chuinn

’s an ógbhaidh laochdha ó Lunnainn.

[31]

‘Sloinn, a phríomhfháidh phuirt nimhe,

ón troid-se a-taoi d’fháisdine

don dá chliathghasraidh cia an dream

‘ga mbia an t-iathmhagh-soin Éireann?’

[32]

‘Biaidh,’ ar Séadna na salm nglan,

– báidh leam clódh ar cath Lunndan! –

‘críoch Fhloinn ‘ga fionnGhallaibh féin

ón droing iodhlannaigh aigmhéil‘.

[33]

‘D’éis an treasa tig ‘nar ndiaidh

fan ngort bhfionnghlan-sa i bhfinnChliaigh

biaidh cladh do chnámhaibh Saghsan

nach sáraigh cradh comharsan‘.

Translation

[27]*

‘Declare,’ said Fionnchú of the swift miracles,

‘who is it, o Séadna, that will free Ireland,

after the nobles of Connla’s plain [i.e. Ireland] wane,

from the stern English troop?’

[28]

[There] will flare up in the south

a living ember [i.e. a firebrand hero] who will not be disrespected

[and] from whom there will be peaceful roads throughout Conn’s fort [i.e. Ireland] –

the single spark [i.e. firebrand hero] of all [will be] in the embers.

[29]

The Greeks [i.e. the FitzGeralds] of the land of the Maigue will proceed,

by their side [there will be] an allied host:

the choicest of the noble [Old English] foreigners of Breagha’s Tara [i.e. of Ireland]

and the spirited nobles of the descendants of Míl.

[30]

They will look to the sharp edges of their fierce weapons –

which of them will overcome the other? –

the fierce host from the land of Conn

and the valorous young warriors from London.

[31]

Declare, o great prophet of the abode of Heaven,

from this fight that you are prophesying,

of the two battle-troops, which [is] the group

that will possess that land-plain of Ireland?

[32]

Said Séadna of the pure psalms

– [the] overthrow of London's host pleases me –

her [i.e. Ireland's] own fair [Old English] foreigners will have the land of Flann [i.e. Ireland]

from the fierce zealous throng.

[33]

After the fight that is coming in the future

over this bright pure land in fair Cliú

there will be a wall of English bones

that the cattle of neighbours do not [i.e. will not be able to] breach.

* For quatrain [27], a more natural rendering in English would see line 4 appear before line 3 in the translation. In the interest of easier comparison between the original and translation, however, we have here kept to the line order of the Irish text. As a general point when translating bardic poetry, it often makes better sense to move the order of the lines of poetry, or indeed parts of the lines.

[27]

‘Sloinn,’ ar Fionnchú na bhfeart ngrinn,

‘cia, a Shéadna, shaorfas Éirinn

ar searg d’uaislibh cláir Chonnla

ón dáimh dhuaibhsigh dhanardha?’

[28]

‘Adhainfidh isan aird teas

aoibheal bheó ar nach bia dímheas

ó mbiad réidhshlighthe im ráith gCuinn;

éindrithle cháich san chogaill.

[29]

‘Gluaisfid Gréagaigh ghuirt Mháighe,

re a gcois sin sluagh combáidhe:

roighne triathGhall Teamhrach Breagh

is fialchlann mheanmnach Mhíleadh.

[30]

‘Féachfaid d’fhaobhraibh a n-arm dte —

cia díobh chlaoidhfeas a chéile? —

an sluagh fraochdha a fódmhuigh Chuinn

’s an ógbhaidh laochdha ó Lunnainn.

[31]

‘Sloinn, a phríomhfháidh phuirt nimhe,

ón troid-se a-taoi d’fháisdine

don dá chliathghasraidh cia an dream

‘ga mbia an t-iathmhagh-soin Éireann?’

[32]

‘Biaidh,’ ar Séadna na salm nglan,

– báidh leam clódh ar cath Lunndan! –

‘críoch Fhloinn ‘ga fionnGhallaibh féin

ón droing iodhlannaigh aigmhéil‘.

[33]

‘D’éis an treasa tig ‘nar ndiaidh

fan ngort bhfionnghlan-sa i bhfinnChliaigh

biaidh cladh do chnámhaibh Saghsan

nach sáraigh cradh comharsan‘.

Translation

Below are some tips to understanding and navigating particular sections of the poem that may challenge learners. Some of these were generated with the input from participants in workshops at the 2018 Tudor-Stuart Ireland Conference (held at Queen's University, Belfast) and at the Oxford Celtic Seminar. Our thanks to the organizers of both sessions for the opportunity to present; special thanks to John Cunningham and David Heffernan for the former, and Archie Cornish and Mark Williams for the latter.

[27]

shaorfas

While this translates as ‘that will free’, it should be noted that Classical Irish has no direct relative particle. (The lenition of the initial s- in shaorfas and the 3 sg -as ending are relative markers.) The particle do, which appears before verbs in the past tense, past habitual and conditional, began to be used as a relative particle during the Early Modern period, and can be found in some Early Modern prose texts. It became widespread in the post-classical period and was reduced in form to a, which is the form still used as a direct relative particle in present-day Irish.

Note that this preposition (by-form iar) is one of a small number of prepositions that cannot combine with personal pronouns to form prepositional pronouns in Classical Irish.

danardha

This adjective, originally meaning ‘Danish’, came to used of any Viking, and then of any cruel or fierce foreigner, including the English. It may be translated here as ‘fierce’ or the like, or with specificity, ‘English’.

[28]

bia

From the perspective of Modern Irish we might expect the verb to be eclipsed following nach; however, although eclipsis developed in this position in the Early Modern period, it was not Classical.

Although this looks like the simple preposition ó 'from', it is in fact the preposition ó in combination with the indirect relative particle a, which is followed by eclipsis. The particle is elided, but the eclipsis remains.

[29]

Gluaisfid Gréagaigh

unlike in Modern Irish, number of verb and subject must agree; note, however, that the 3^rdperson singular form of verbs can be used with the various personal pronouns, including plural forms (e.g gluaisfidh siad> gluaisfid).

Gréagaigh

In the early part of the poem (not included here) reference is made to the Greek origins attributed to the various legendary invaders of Ireland, including the Gaels. This ties in neatly with the notion common in Bardic poetry that the FitzGeralds, who are being referred to here, were also Greek in origin. The epithet ghuirt Mháighe ‘of the land of the Maigue river (mostly in Limerick)’ makes clear that it is the FitzGeralds of the Earldom of Desmond who are being referred to.Gréagach can appear as both noun (Greek person, as here) or as adjective (Greek); for another example of the motif of the Greek origin of the Gaelic Irish, see Text selection Brian Ó Ruairc mo rogha leannán.

ghuirt

From the context, it is clear that what we have here is the genitive of gort, i.e. guirt, and not the adjective goirt/guirt ‘bitter’. It may be worth noting that the genitive of gart, which is a by-form gort, is goirt. Contrast Modern Irish gort, genitive goirt.

re a gcois sin

The phrase re cois is a compound preposition composed of a simple preposition and a noun, and places a following noun in the genitive. It would be ungrammatical, however, to place a pronoun after it. Instead, a possessive adjective is used to indicate a pronominal governed by it. Think ‘by its side’ instead of ‘by the side of it’. To understand this construction, it may be helpful to compare the modern expression lena chois ‘along with it’, or with the demonstrative particle, lena chois sin ‘along with that’. The compound preposition le cois ‘along with’ may be followed by a noun (in the genitive), but it cannot be followed by a pronoun (e.g. le cois+ é). Instead, one must use a possessive adjective (lena chois), rather like saying ‘by its side’ instead of ‘by the side of it’. The number/gender of the possessive adjective matches that of the thing being referred to. Other compound prepositions behave in the same way, e.g. i ndiaidh ‘after’, ina dhiaidh ‘after it’, ina dhiaidh sin ‘after that’, ina ndiaidh ‘after them’, ina ndiaidh sin ‘after those’.

[30]

Féachfaid…sluagh/ógbhaidh

One could take the subject of Féachfaid as implied in its form, i.e. ‘they’, and then regard sluagh and ógbhaidhas referring back to this subject (in apposition), clarifying who ‘they’ are; or one could take sluagh and ógbhaidh themselves as the two subjects of Féachfaid.

The classical form of this preposition is a h-. As happened with many other prepositions, the 3^rdsingular masculine prepositional pronoun, as ‘out of him/it’, progressively replaced it. This development has its roots in Middle Irish but the form as was not recognised by the poets as acceptable for use before nouns. The form a survived vestigially in some Munster dialects and is the main form used in Scottish Gaelic.

[31]

phríomhfháidh

Spelling is more variable in Early Modern than in Modern Irish and can pose problems for learners. Some of this variation is essentially orthographic, e.g. st/sd, as in fáisdine (q. 31) which may equally be spelt fáistine (the spelling used in Dinneen’s dictionary); editors usually normalize this type of variation. Sometimes, however, the variation is phonological; for example, fáidh, the second element of phríomhfháidh here, has the by-forms fádh, fáith and fáth; other examples of such variation in the present text include cradh (by-form: crodh) and Saghsan (by-form: Sagsan). In the case of the latter, its -gs- variant would not be metrically acceptable in the present instance (as it would make imperfect rhyme with comharsan), thus illustrating that this sort of variation is not merely orthographic in nature. (Note that the spelling Sacsan, also common in manuscripts, is essentially an orthographic variant of Sagsan.)

d’fháisdine

making sense of the various constructions that include the preposition do and the verbal noun is essential. To get a sense for this particular construction, compare Modern Irish tá mé ag déanamh na hoibre versus an obair atá mé a dhéanamh. The a in the latter is a reduced form of do. (Note that in Munster Irish ag has become acceptable in this position too, e.g. an obair atáim a’ (< ag) déanamh, where déanamh is unlenited following ag.)

don

While de and do are separate and independent words – see paradigms for each in the Grammar – the preposition de has largely fallen together with do in form (excepting prepositional pronouns). Examples of this convergence are readily found, and to be seen in other Texts on this site.

dá

The numeral dá takes the ‘dual’ case, which is no longer a feature of Modern Irish. This should not cause much confusion, but it is worth being aware of. In form, the dual case appears as either nominative or accusative singular, or as genitive plural when genitive.

chliathghasraidh

Here we have an example of a compound built of two nouns. This is an extremely common feature of Early Modern Irish, and can cause some problems attempting to look up words in dictionaries/glossaries. When encountering a long, complicated word like this, consider that it might be a compound and look for the initial word, while bearing in mind that the second word is going to be lenited (unless the initial letter is a vowel or a consonant that does not take lenition, such as l, n or r).

cia

The unexpressed but implied copula is a very common feature of bardic poetry. Further examples can be found in other texts on this site, for example the first line of Brian Ó Ruairc mo rogha leannán.

mbia

In workshopping this text at the Tudor-Stuart Conference, a number of attendees wondered if this might be an eclipsed version of bia, the Modern Irish word for ‘food’. As such, it serves as an excellent example of the false cognate (or ‘false friend’) element of moving from Modern to Early Modern Irish. There are numerous Early Modern Irish words that seem to match Modern words. Sometimes this is the case, but often it is not. Especially when reading bardic poetry it repays to look up words and not assume their definition. The latter can lead to some wild translations, and subsequent frustration.

[32]

Biaidh

One of the trickiest elements of bardic poetry is the fact that semantic units can be separated by intervening text and spaced across lines of the quatrain. For instance, the subject of this verb does not appear until the third line of the quatrain (i.e. críoch). This example is fairly straightforward in that subject and verb are part of a quotation and thus divided by reference to the speaker and an interjection helpfully set apart by dashes. Identifying semantically contiguous units is not always so easy, however, and one must be prepared to read across lines and within them to follow the meaning of the quatrain.

nglan

The rules for initial mutation are more complex in Early Modern than in Modern Irish and here is one example: this adjective is eclipsed as it follows a genitive plural noun.

báidh

Here again is an example of an implied copula, which we note again here merely to reinforce how common a feature this is of the poetry.

One might reasonably wonder why ar is not causing lenition in the following noun cath. This preposition, however, is not always predictable on this point: sometimes it is taken to lenite, other times not. Let the particular edition/manuscript be your guide on this point, bearing in mind the variance.

críoch

Here is an example of a variation on the false cognate problem: not mistaking the word, but rather taking a different definition. In workshopping this poem, a number of readers suggested that this was a form of the verb críochnaigh ‘complete/finish’ rather than the noun críoch, which carries the secondary meaning of ‘land, territory’. So, again, it’s never a bad move to double check assumptions against the Glossary (or DIL, or Dinneen).

Fhloinn

A rich and evocative element of bardic verse is the many, many poetic names for Ireland it contains, often connected to the names of great lords of yore, noble progenitors and the like. See Eleanor Knott’s discussion of this point, with numerous examples: Poems of Tadhg Dall Ó hUiginn, vol I., p. lvii.

[33]

bhfionnghlan-sa

As noted above, the rules of initial mutation are more complicated in Early Modern Irish, here eclipsis follows an accusative singular noun.

Chunk Title Goes Here, the Original Text

Definition

Form

Function