In inserting the poem of "Ferdiah" I was influenced by its subject as
well as by the wish of friends. A few extracts appeared in a magazine
several years ago, and it was afterwards completed without any view to
publication. It follows the present Irish text[8] as closely as the
laws of metre will allow. Since these pages were in the printer's hands
Mr. Aubrey de Vere has given to the world his treatment of the same
theme,[9] adorning as usual all that he touches. As he well says: "It
is not in the form of translation that an ancient Irish tale of any
considerable length admits of being rendered in poetry. What is needed
is to select from the original such portions as are at once the most
essential to the story, and the most characteristic, reproducing them in
a condensed form, and taking care that the necessary additions bring out
the idea, and contain nothing that is not in the spirit of the
original." (Preface, p. vii.) The "Tale of Troy Divine" owes its form,
and we may never know how much of its tenderness and grace, to its
Alexandrian editor. However, the present version may, from its very
literalness, have and interest for some readers.

Many of the earlier poems here collected have been admirably rendered
into French by the late M. Ernest de Chatelain.[10] The Moore Centenary
Ode has been translated into Latin by the Rev. M. J. Blacker, M. A.

My thanks are due to the Rev. Matthew Russell, S. J., for his kind
assistance in preparing this book for the press, and to the Publishers
for the accuracy and speed with which it has been produced.

I cannot let pass this opportunity of expressing my gratitude for the
self-sacrificing labours of the committee formed at the suggestion of
Mr. William Lane Joynt, D. L., to honour my father's memory, and for the