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FAMOUS SONGS
ence Mangan, who was born in Dublin, 1803, and died in 1849,1s one of the most remarkable ballads ever written, having all the fire and passion that one would express for a mistress, addressed to a country. Mangan translated it from the Irish, and the note to the work runs: "This impassioned ballad, entitled in the original f Roisin Dubh* (or ' The Black Little Rose') was written in the reign of the cele-brated Tirconnellian chieftain Hugh the Red O'Donnell. It purports to be an allegorical address from Hugh to Ireland on the subject of his love and struggles for her, and his resolve to raise her again to the glorious position she held as a nation before the irruption of the Saxon and Norman despoilers. The true character and meaning of the figurative allusions that abound are not difficult of grasping."
Besides translating the songs and ballads of the Munster and other bards, Mangan wrote a quantity of lyric poetry of surprising excellence. Another translation by Thomas Furlong retains the original title and is very spirited.
The Banshee and the Fetch are myths re-sponsible for a vast number of pieces, generally written in a very minor key. "The Banshee (from ban—bean—a woman, and shee—sidhe —a fairy) is an attendant fairy that follows the
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