Kentucky Irish American. (Louisville, Ky.) 1898-1968, 1899-09-30
Their Music Reused the Patriot
to Battle for His Country
and His Honor.
Their Chants RecOuntcd Her
Sorrows, Their Ditties En-
cited Mirth aud Love.
TURLOUGH O'CAROLAN, WESTMEATH.

Douglas Hyde, in his recently pub
lished Literary History of Ireland,
devotes page or SO to the memory of
Turlough O'Carolan, commonly styled
the Last of the Bards." The desig-
nation is more poetic than correct.
O'Carolan's patron, O'Conor of Bel
anagarc,. calls him in an obituary no.
,ice not bard but an DIR fideadh (err-
fl-ya). The popular notion is that the
bards were ministries, harpers-musi-
clans of some sort Mr.. Hyde tells us
that 1.-The popular conception of the
bard, with the long white beard and the
big harp, is grotesquely wrong" The
bards were verse makers pure and SIM
pie. They held some such relation to
their employers as the poet laureate
holds to the sovereign of England
Their business was TO write poetry.
When bard composed a piece for his
patron he brought along a harper and
possibly a singer to whom he had taught
the poem In The patrons presence the
verses were solemnly recited or sung to
the sound of the harp, the only instru-
ment allowed to be heard on such occa-
sions. The musician was called an DIR
fideadh. 1t was only after the complete
breakup of the Gaelic polity, after the
wars of Cromwell and Dutch William,
that the verse maker merged in the must
clan and the harper and the bard be
came fused in one.
A stirring page of Irish history is that
which tells about the place of the bards
in ancient Celtic life. They had many
privileges. Their dress was peculiar
their persons were sacred, their property
was inviolate. They were the repositories
of the rude civilization of their time
They were the teachers, the songmakers,
the historians of the people, and their in
fluence was paramount among the Cells
At last. however, they became so potent
that the Irish kings issued severe ordi-
nances against them. St. COLUMBIA pre-
vented their destruction in his day at the
hands of Hugh. A. ID. $50. A law of
Elizabeth's time forbade them to enter
the Pale, and this law was presently fol-
lowed by another which directed that all
bards be hanged wherever caught Their
recitals of the ancient glories of Erin,
their exhortations against submission to
the sway of the stranger excited the
wrath of the Virgin Queen" Gradual
w the race of baids became extinct.
Turlough O'Carolan was the last of the
Irish laureates. He was born in the
county Westmeath in 1870, where his
family had in former times held exten-
sive estates. But like many another
house of the old Celtic stock, the O'Caro-
lans were robbed to enrich the Norman
and the Saxon. He manifested at All
early age wonderful talent for music
and poetry. In his twenty-second year
he became blind from smallpox and
thenceforth devoted himself to the
career of a musician. He usually re-
sided in Connaught, but he travelled all
over Ireland, welcomed alike in the cot
tage of the peasant and in the castle of
the noble. He achieved in his day great
renown. He composed over two hundred
airs, specimens of which are given in Sir
John Stevenson's edition of Moore's
Irish Melodies" He constructed his
verses according to the requirements of
his music, and these have given him the
reputation of a poet. "They are" says
Mr.. Hyde, ''full. of curious turns and
twists of metre to suit his airs, to which
they are admirably we'd Very few are
in regular stanzas. They are usually of
a Pindaric nature. addressed to patrons
or to fair ladies. There are some excep-
lions, however, such as his celebrated ode
to whisky, one of the finest bacchanalian
songs in any language, and his much
more famous but imnieasurably inferior
Receipt for Drinking Very many of
his airs and nearly all his poetry with the
exception of about thirty pieces are lost.
OF his blindness he learned to think.
or at least to speak lightly. "My eyes,"
he used to say, "have been transplanted
TO my ears" A lady Of good family and
ancient name, Miss Mcguire, of the
County Fermanagh, became his bride,
and shared his joys and sorrows until her
death
A touching story is told of him which
illustrates the wonderful acuteness of
the blind. One day he was tuning his
harp by the sea shore. Hearing boat
approaching, he stretched out his hand
to help the occupants ashore. A lady
placed her hand in his, whereupon he
exclaimed: "This is the hand of my
gossip, Bridget Cruise" Miss Cruise
was O'Carolan's first love. The incident
inspired Samuel Lovers beautiful song,
beginning:
"True love can meier forget,
Fondly as when we met,
Dearest, love thee yet,
My own darling one"