Plenty of food and plenty of drink.
After that, an old man among old men;
Respect on you and honour on you.

Head of the court, of the jury, of the meeting,
And the counsellors not the worse for having you.

At the end of your days death, and then
Hiding away; the boards and the church.

What are you better after to-night
Than Ned the beggar or Seaghan the fool?




_Forgaill's Praise of Columcille_


This now is the poem of praise and of lamentation that was made for
Columcille, Speckled Salmon of the Boyne, High Saint of the Gael, by
Forgaill that was afterwards called Blind Forgaill, Chief Poet of
Ireland:

It is not a little story this is; it is not a story about a fool it
is; it is not one district that is keening but every district, with
a great sound that is not to be borne, hearing the story of Columcille,
without life, without a church.

It is not the trouble of one house, or the grief of one harp-string;