GAELIC NOTES.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXI, Issue 51, 19 April 1895, Page 19

GAELIC NOTES.

These recently died in Paris, in his 83rd year, the Viscount O'Neill de Tyrone— one of the descendants of those Irish princely families who found in foreign lands a refuge from the hostile hand of Bogland. Tbe traditions of his Irish descent always remained dear to Viscount O'Neill, and it had been a privilege he valued highly to preside, in aocordanca with them, at the celebration of 8t Patrick's day, held annually in tbe French capital. It was Fearflatha O'Gnfaib, the ollav of John O'Neill— SeAgban a' Diomuie, John of the Piide— who, in the reign of Qaeea Elizabeth, at whose court he had been a visitor in attendance on his chief, composed a Borrowf ol poem on the fall of Ireland. It was entitled '• Ar ch6im- f)B na nGaodhal." As an example of its verses, we lake tha following :— T6 brat-chiach os 4r g-cionn Miiihas g!6ir Gaodhal Kirionn Mar neull g.ceath gbrian-bbaitheas goil Do leath iaighi Aitheaa orraiun. Dr Douglas Hyde gives the literal translation :— There is a mist-cloak over onr heads, Qienching the glory of the Gaels of Erin. Like a cloud of Bhowera sun-drowning valour, Viole- cc (1) has spread upon U9. It has been recently pointed out by a correspondent of the Catholic Times that a similarity in their names frequently onuses a mistake to be made as to the identity of two saints— The one Irish the other Swedish ; but, as the correspondent also notes, the names are, or ought to be, spelled differently. That of tbe Swedish saint is Bridget, The Irish saint we find hailed by a bard 1000 years ago— Brighid baad ioh, buail pa fiiv, Victorioii9 Brigid, victory of tbo tribe A curious reverence wr,n in mediaeval Ireland to the handbells that the B»ints of some furf >ur or five hundred years earlier had used. That of St Patrick is now preserved in the museum of the Royal Irish Academy. It is rude in form and differs little from cattlo-bel's now in use. These bells, however, wm enclosed in splendid shrinea and guardei as the moat precious tn-aaaio of those into whose hands they had come — that is, families representing tho founders of monasteries, to whose abbots the bells had belonged. An interesting relic of antiquity has lately been discovered in the neighbourhood of Newry. lc waa buried in tbe earth— a boat comedown from prehistoric times:— Tais ancient craft was hollowed oat of the heart of a single oak tree, which must hay.i been a monarch of the foresi, for the canoe is 25ft. long, and from 3ft. wide near one end to 2ft. 8 in. at the other and 19 inches deep on the inside. The keel projects at the bow and stern, reminding one btrongly of the rams of our modern warships, anl of Boman and Grecian triremes of old. Thero are two pairs of brackets left projecting, oa which seals, probably for the oarsmen, were placed, while tho hull or shell of the boat was strengthened by leaving projecting ribs oa the inner side, three of which ere still visible. Wbat are supposed to ba tho rowers' Beats are three feet apan, and lying between them was a portioa of the handle and blade of a paddle or Boiili oar. This waa so much decayed that it crumbled when touched, A celebration of St Patrick's Day in New York was to take th« shape of a sermon preached in Irish by the Bey John J. Carroll pastor of St Thomas' church. The sermon was to be preached at High Mass, and to be attended in a body by all the Gaelic classes of the city.