Ierne, to the world's remotest parts,
Renown'd for valour, policy, and arts.
Hither from Colchos[1], with the fleecy ore,
Jason arriv'd two thousand years before.
Thee, happy island, Pallas call'd her own,
When haughty Britain was a land unknown[2]:
From thee, with pride, the Caledonians trace
The glorious founder of their kingly race:
Thy martial sons, whom now they dare despise,
Did once their land subdue and civilize:
Their dress, their language, and the Scottish name,
Confess the soil from whence the victors came.
Well may they boast that ancient blood, which runs
Within their veins, who are thy younger sons.
A conquest and a colony from thee.
The mother-kingdom left her children free;
From thee no mark of slavery they felt:
Not so with thee thy base invaders dealt;
Invited here to vengeful Morrough's aid[3],
Those whom they could not conquer, they betray’d.
Britain, by thee we fell, ungrateful isle!
Not by thy valour, but superiour guile:
- ↑ Orpheus, or the ancient author of the Greek poem on the Argonautick expedition, whoever he be, says, that Jason, who manned the ship Argos at Thessaly, sailed to Ireland.
- ↑ Tacitus, in the life of Julius Agricola, says, that the harbours of Ireland, on account of their commerce, were better known to the world than those of Britain.
- ↑ In the reign of Henry II, Dermot McMorrough, king of Leinster, being deprived of his kingdom by Roderick O'Connor, king of Connaught, he invited the English over as auxiliaries, and promised Richard Strongbow earl of Pembroke his daughter and all his dominions as a portion. By this assistance, McMorrough recovered his crown, and Strongbow became possessed of all Leinster.
