Tugadh an t-ár-seo ar Éirinn: dán polaitiúil ó thús an seachtú haois déag

Abstract

This paper provides a discussion and edition of Tugadh an t-ár-so ar Éirinn, an early seventeenth-century political poem attributed to Eóghan Mac Craith. The poem, which is a lament on the state of Ireland, abounds in imagery and motifs that are typically associated with the accentual political poetry of the middle of the century, and contains what is, perhaps, one of the earliest examples of the gendered depiction of Ireland as a neglectful mother who has abandoned her children. The poem also contains interesting supplementary quatrains, or iargcomhairc, to Donnchadh Ó Briain, the fourth Earl of Thomond. It will be suggested here that these stanzas, in which the Virgin Mary is invoked, may, in fact, be a cloaked rebuke of the earl’s staunch
Protestantism. The question of the poem’s date of composition, which has hitherto caused some confusion, will also be addressed.