THE CORK CATHEDRAL BELLS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 56, 23 May 1874, Page 13

THE CORK CATHEDRAL BELLS.

By the Rev. M. Buckley..

Written on the occasion of erecting a peal of bells in St. Mary's athedral, Cork.] What joyous chimes, so new and sweet, King out upon the winter air ? See, people pause in crowded street, And peairants form their thanks in prayer ; The solemn day — the promised hour, The smiling face of nature tells That now at last from yonder tower Peal forth the Cork Cathedral bells. Three hundred years have come and gone Since last we heard those sacred chimes, But patient Faith kept burning on, Expectant of more gracious times, And Heaven's voice the tempest stays ; Once more the Christian besom swells, And Cork pours forth responsive praise "* To-day from her Cathedral bells. Three hundred years of night and gloom, En lightened statesmen, was your meed Of justice to a land whose doom Was to preserve her cherished creed. Vain all your arts to quench a flame Which God Almighty's breath compels Peal forth a Paean to His name, , Onco more ye Cork Cathedral bells. Ring out — the Lee, whose source Finnbarre Hath blessed, stops upon its way To hear the melodies, which are By his successor waked to-day — To hear those mellow numbers fill, Weaving in air their solemn spells, After oppression's iron thrall, To hear the Cork Cathedral bells.