Page:Irish minstrelsy, vol 2 - Hardiman.djvu/152

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140
NOTES.

sonal deformity. The affair of Glenco in Scotland, and the subsequent violation of the articles of Limerick, rendered him an object of aversion to the Irish.


1GRANA WEAL.

Or more correctly Graine Uile. Grace O'Maley, mother of Theobald, the first Viscount Mayo. Lodge, in his Irish peerage, informs us, that "Mac William" (whom Sir Henry Sidney, on 28 April, 1576, informed Queen Elizabeth he "found verie sensible, though wanting the Englishe tongue, yet understanding the Lattin,") married Grana-na-Male daughter of Owen O'Maley of the Oules, an ancient Irish Chief, and widow of O'Flaherty. A lady much renowned among the natives of Conaught, who relate many adventures and remarkable actions of her courage and undaunted spirit, which she frequently performed on the sea."—vol. iv. p. 235.—For a curious account of this famous Heroine, and her visit to Queen Elizabeth, see the Anthologia Hihernica, vol. ii. p. 1, and iii. p. 340.—Her name has been frequently used by our Bards, to designate Ireland. Hence our Countrymen have been often called "Sons of old Grana Weal."

2This fine Jacobite relic was composed by John Mac Donnell, one of the most eminent of our modern Bards. He was born in the year 1691, in O'Keefe's Country, near Charleville, in the County of Cork, and was known by the name of "Claragh," from the residence of his family, which was situate at the foot of a mountain of that name, between Charleville and Mallow. The following account of this Bard is taken from O'Halloran's introduction to his History of Ireland.—"Mr. Mac Donnell, a man of great erudition, and a profound Irish antiquarian and poet, whose death I sensibly feel, and