Page:Irish minstrelsy, vol 2 - Hardiman.djvu/136

124 worse than Egyptian bondage. With respect to the memories of James and William, remove the penal code, and it may be fearlessly predicted, that the Irish catholics will unhesitatingly, join their protestant friends in commemorating the latter. In Ireland, bravery covers a multitude of sins.

Cliona is one of those fabled beings of the fairy tribe, called Benshees, so celebrated in Ireland. With these "pale aerial demons," "Le Deamnuib odhra aieor," the bards and scealuidhes enriched their poems and tales. The rock, "Carraig Cliodhna," lies within five miles of Mallow, on the right to the Cross of Donochmore, in a wild mountainous tract, supposed to be the head quarters of all the Munster fairies. It is a large grey stone, surrounded by a number of smaller ones, and is supposed to be the principal residence of Cliona, their queen.

Owen O'Rahally, a well known Irish bard, (who resided at Sliabh Luachra, in Kerry, about the beginning of the last century,) in a spirited poem on the misfortunes of Ireland, addressed to one of the Mac Carthy family, enumerates some of these "shadowy forms," in the following lines, beginning with Cliona.—