IRISH NATIONAL ANTHEM.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume III, Issue 127, 8 October 1875, Page 6

IRISH NATIONAL ANTHEM.

BY JAMES CLARENCE SIANGAN. 0 Ireland! Ancient Ireland ! Ancient! yet for ever young ! ■ i Thou our mother, home and sireland — Thou at length, hast found a tongue-— Proudly thou, at length, Resistest in triumphant strength. Thy flag of freedom floats unfurled; And as that mighty God existeth, Who giveth victory when and where He listeth, Thou yet shalt wake and shake the nations of the world. For this dull world still slumbers, Weetless of its wants or loves, Though, like Galileo, numbers Cry aloud, " It moves ! it moves I" N In a midnight dream, Drifts it down Time's wreckful stream — All march, but few descry the goal. '■ O Ireland ! be it thy high duty ; To teach the world the might of Moral Beauty, A*nd stamp God's image truly on the struggling soul. Strong in thy self-reliance, Not in idle threat or boast, Hast thou hurled thy fierce defiance -At the haughty Saxon host — Thou hast claimed, in sight Of high heaven, thy long-lost right. Upon thy hills —along thy plains — In the green bosom of tby valleys, The new-burn soul of holy freedom rallies, . And calls on thee to trample down in dust thy chains ! Deep, saith the Eastern story, Burns in Iran's mines a gem, For its dazzling hues and glory Worth a Sultan's diadem. But from human eyes Hidden there it ever lies ! The aye-travelling Gnomes alone, Who toil to form the mountain's treasure., May gaze and gloat with pleasure without measure Upon the lustrous beauty of that wonder-stone. So is it with a nation Which would win for its rich dower That bright pearl, Self-Liberation — It must labor hour by hour. Strangers, who travail To* lay bare the gem, shall fail; Within itself, must grow, must glow — Within the depths of its own bosom Must flower in living might, mu^t broadly blossom, The hopes that shall be born ere Freedom's Tree can blow. Go on, then, all-rejoicef ul! March on thy career unbowed! Ireland ! let thy noble, voiceful Spirit cry to God aloud ! Man will bid the specd — God will aid thee m thy need — The Time> the Hour, the Power are near — Be sure thou soon shalt form vanguard Of that illustrious band, whom Heaven and Man guard; And these word comes lrom one whom some have called a Seer.