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Sat 04 Apr 2009A poem to honour a higher rank
IRISH LANGUAGE:Cérbh í Meg Russell?By Máire Mhac an tSaoi, with Máire Mac Conghail and Lis Ó DromaLeabhar Breac, 132 pp, €15
THIS BEAUTIFULLY illustrated book concerns a romantic interlude in the shared history of early 17th-century Ireland and England. At the heart of the matter is a graceful syllabic poem in Irish by Piaras Feiritéar (1653), accomplished poet of Catholic Old-English stock in West Kerry. Feiritéar wrote it in honour of Meg Russell, the ógh Ghallda or “foreign girl” identified therein as a relation of the contemporary earl of Bedford. This was Francis Russell, the 4th earl.
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