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Home  »  Anthology of Irish Verse  »  110. The Lament for O’Sullivan Beare

Padraic Colum (1881–1972). Anthology of Irish Verse. 1922.

By Jeremiah Joseph Callanan

110. The Lament for O’Sullivan Beare

THE sun of Ivera

No longer shines brightly,

The voice of her music

No longer is sprightly;

No more to her maidens

The light dance is dear,

Since the death of our darling

O’Sullivan Beare.

Scully! thou false one

You basely betrayed him;

In his strong hour of need

When thy right hand should aid him;

He fed thee—he clad thee—

You had all could delight thee:

You left him, you sold him

May heaven requite thee!

Scully! May all kinds

Of evil attend thee!

On thy dark road of life

May no kind one befriend thee!

May fevers long burn thee

And agues long freeze thee!

May the strong hand of God

In his red anger seize thee!

Had he died calmly

I would not deplore him;

Or if the wild strife

Of the sea-war closed o’er him:

But with ropes round his white limbs

Through Ocean to trail him,

Like a fish after slaughter

’Tis therefore I wail him.

Long may the curse

Of his people pursue them;

Scully that sold him

And soldier that slew him!

One glimpse of Heaven’s light

May they see never!

May the hearthstone of Hell

Be their best bed forever!

In the hole where the vile hands

Of soldiers had laid thee,

Unhonored, unshrouded,

And headless they laid thee,

No eye to rain o’er thee,

No dirge to lament thee,

No friend to deplore thee!

Dear head of my darling

How gory and pale

These aged eyes see thee,

High spiked on their jail!

That cheek in the summer sun

Ne’er shall grow warm;

Nor that eye e’er catch light

From the flash of the storm!

A curse, blessed ocean,

Is on thy green water

From the Haven of Cork

To Ivera of Slaughter:

Since the billows were dyed

With the red wounds of fear

Of Muirtach Og

Our O’Sullivan Beare!