Aogán ó Rathaille

[seafoid]

I came across this by chance today.It's about Aogán ó Rathaille, the Kerry poet of the early 1700s.
An acquired taste but what  a legend he was.

http://www.drb.ie/more_details/09-03-21/Riddled_With_Light.aspx

[Billys Boots]

Our Irish teacher waxed lyrical manys the time about this guy, but, in the folly of my youth I had more important things to be thinking about ...

[seafoid]

I remember doing one of his poems for the Leaving Cert and some great ones from Mairtin O Direain that I think about every so often.   

[Billys Boots]

'Faoiseamh a gheobhadsa' (O'Direain) is one of my standard responses when asked what I want.

[seafoid]

I like Stoite especially this line

Dúinn is éigean Cónaí a dhéanamh In árais ó dhaoine A leagfadh cíos Ar an mbraon anuas.

today those people are the bond markets

[Shamrock Shore]

Our Irish teacher waxed lyrical manys the time about this guy

I assume that this was national school or Ballymun Teck as I never recall this guy from secondary school.

Was I in that day or pulling a sickie

[Billys Boots]

You and I were never in the same Irish class, owing to your lack of proficiency in the native tongue. 

[lynchbhoy]

Our Irish teacher waxed lyrical manys the time about this guy

I assume that this was national school or Ballymun Teck as I never recall this guy from secondary school.

Was I in that day or pulling a sickie

rem for inter cert Irish...
cant rem if it was a poem or a story from fios feasa text book that he wrote...

in it he was saying to a house owner that a blackbird /crow was squawking ' aogan, aogan o'raithaille' at him as he walked up to the house - intimating that the bird recognised him.
it was however, a cute kerry hoorish way of letting the owner know who he was and most likely looking for a free feed !

[seafoid]

Shamrock

Did ye go to the same school ?
My daughter got a present of the Cd Gugalai Gug which is a collection of songs and nursery rhymes in irish. One of the musicians went to school somewhere in Longford and he remembers learning loads of them there.
I didn't realise longford was such a stronghold.   

[Billys Boots]

The Larries are everywhere - except in Longford.

[seafoid]

We stayed in a lovely B&B outside Abbeylara a few weeks ago and went to a pub in Gowna for some food.  I would have stayed longer but we had other things on.  I'd say Longford would be a nice place for a fishing holiday and the laid back nature of the place would appeal to lots of stressed city people. For a bit of faoiseamh. The only downside for me would be the local taste in music but you can't have everything.   

[lynchbhoy]

We stayed in a lovely B&B outside Abbeylara a few weeks ago and went to a pub in Gowna for some food.  I would have stayed longer but we had other things on.  I'd say Longford would be a nice place for a fishing holiday and the laid back nature of the place would appeal to lots of stressed city people. For a bit of faoiseamh. The only downside for me would be the local taste in music but you can't have everything.   

was that the 'pikers lodge' pub/restaurant in gowna - fantastic food in there !

[seafoid]

Yes. Great atmosphere as well. 

[Shamrock Shore]

You and I were never in the same Irish class

Ah yes - I did pass Irish for the Leaving Cert. I hated the subject. You were the swot and did honours. No wonder I never heard of this chap. We were stuck on 'Oro se do bheata abhaile' agus the 'haon-do-tri'.

Seafoid myself and Billy attended the same secondary school in Longford town as boarders. Grim times. But only a small part of our time was in the 70s so it could have been grimmer.

[Myles Na G.]

A Grey Eye Weeping

That my old bitter heart was pierced in this black doom,
That foreign devils have made our land a tomb,
That the sun that was Munster's glory has gone down
Has made me a beggar before you, Valentine Brown

That royal Cashel is bare of house and guest,
That Brian's turreted home is the otter's nest,
That the kings of the land have neither land nor crown
Has made me a beggar before you, Valentine Brown.

Garnish away in the west with its master banned,
Hamburg the refuge of him who has lost his land,
An old grey eye, weeping for lost renown,
Have made me a beggar before you, Valentine Brown

(translated by Frank O'Connor)