The Dark Palace

[Milesian]

By Alice Milligan


THERE beams no light from thy hall to-night,
Oh, House of Fame;
No mead-vat seethes and no smoke upwreathes
O’er the hearth’s red flame;
No high bard sings for the joy of thy kings,
And no harpers play;
No hostage moans as thy dungeon rings
As in Muircherteach’s day.

Fallen! fallen! to ruin all in
The covering mould;
The painted yew, and the curtains blue,
And the cups of gold;
The linen, yellow as the corn when mellow,
That the princes wore;
And the mirrors brazen for your queens to gaze in,
They are here no more.

The sea-bird’s pinion thatched Gormlai’s grinnan;
And through windows clear,
Without crystal pane, in her Ard-righ’s reign
She looked from here
There were quilts of eider on her couch of cedar;
And her silken shoon
Were as green and soft as the leaves aloft
On a bough in June.

Ah, woe unbounded where the harp once sounded
The wind now sings;
The grey grass shivers where the mead in rivers
Was outpoured for kings;
The min and the mether are lost together
With the spoil of the spears;
The strong dun only has stood dark and lonely
Through a thousand years.

But I’m not in woe for the wine-cup’s flow,
For the banquet’s cheer,
For tall princesses with their trailing tresses
And their broidered gear;
My grief and my trouble for this palace noble
With no chief to lead
’Gainst the Saxon stranger on the day of danger
Out of Aileach Neid.

[Milesian]

Another poem mentioning my family
This one is about St Patrick by Eugene Mullen



"To all the seven kingdoms thou didst go
With toilsome journeyings, in sore privation.
Armagh thy see Primatial thou didst make
God's angel guiding. On the Willow Ridge
By that proud hill, which Macha, golden-haired
With aureate pin had lined to trace the site
Of Eamhain Fort and shape a home of valour
For the bold Craobh Ruadh, thy pastoral staff now marked
The place of more enduring battlement.
'Great glory this last House shall have' said the Lord
Of Hosts 'and in this place I will give thee peace'.
To kindly Cineal Eoghain thou didst grant
Wide sovereignty, wielded from fair Aileach"

[Eriugena]

Originally Posted by Milesian

Another poem mentioning my family

Seeing as we're in the mood for ancestor veneration . . .

Follow me up to Carlow
(Patrick Joseph McCall)

Curse and swear, Lord Kildare
Fiach will do what Fiach will dare
Now Fitzwilliam, have a care
Fallen is your star low
Up with halberd, out with sword
On we'll go for, by the Lord
Fiach McHugh has given the word
Follow me up to Carlow

Lift Mac Cahir Og your face, brooding o'er the old disgrace
That black Fitzwilliam stormed your place, drove you to the fern
Grey said victory was sure, soon the firebrand he'd secure
Until he met at Glen Malure with Fiach MacHugh O'Byrne

See the swords at Glen Imaal, they're flashing over the English pale
See all the children of the Gael beneath O'Byrne's banners
Rooster of a fighting stock, would you let a Saxon cock
Crow out upon an Irish rock - fly up and teach him manners

From Tassagart to Clonmore there flows a stream of Saxon gore
Well great is Rory Og O More at sending the loons to Hades
White is sick, Grey is fled, now for black Fitzwilliam's head
We'll send it over dripping red to Queen Liza and her ladies

(as sung by James Keelaghan)

[Milesian]

Mr Byrne?

I love that song, classic.
Hard to sing when drunk though

[Scáthach]

Feel like putting on Tabhair dom do lamh now, good work!

[Milesian]

Anyway...here's another one by the Bard of Carntogher


"Dungiven, when darkness and silence surround you,
Enfolding your mountains that rise by the Roe,
I think of the glories that covered and crowned you,
Your power and your splendour in days long ago.

Here stood the strong castle and halls of O'Cahan,
Here spread the broad acres held under his sway,
Beyond the Moyola, the Bann and the Faughan,
And here lies the dust of their chieftain to-day.

Yes, here does he rest in your old church, Dungiven,
Who often in battle defeated the foe,
Unfurled Erin's flag to the free winds of Heaven,
And marshalled his troops on the banks of the Roe."