Introduction.
In the sixteenth century we are suddenly confronted by a system of Irish prosody based on motives entirely different from those which regulated the verse-building of the traditional school. From that time onward there was concurrent use of the old and new systems, the new ever growing, the old ever waning, until the first half of the present century. The new system finally gained complete mastery when Sémus mac Cuirtin of Thomond ceased to write some time after 1847. The following specimen of his style ag cur slán le gaedhilge (Ren. 70, Irish Battles after Cath Gabhradh), is probably the last example of legitimate Irish versification:—
Mór an beud mar chuadh ar fághan († fán)
Ar ndaimh léighionda gan meilleán
‘Sa chaint cheolmhilis ba áille blas
Ba fada bhí fa dheighmheas.
Vid. ib. a dirge of his in the same metre on the death of O'Connell d’eacc in Genoa san mbliadhain 1847.
Dr. Keatynge a priest of the Diocese of Lismore who died at an advanced age before 1644[1] used both of these metrical systems. His address to Tadg ó Cobhthaigh crutaire begins: (Mur. Vol. ff p. 115.)
Cia an t-saoi le seinntar an chruit
Le niocthar nimh gach nuadhluit
Tré ghoradh guithbhinn a chláir
Mar shruith bhinn fhoghar orgáin.
- ↑ For an account of all that can now be gleaned of Keatynge’s life see Rev. W. P. Burke on the journal of the Waterford Historical and Archeological Society for April 1895, Vol. 1, no, 4.
