Page:Irish minstrelsy, vol 2 - Hardiman.djvu/15



The publication of the popular songs of the modern Greeks, is considered as one of the most remarkable events which have taken place in the literature of our days. The Border and Jacobite ballads of Scotland are long before the world, and have been received with deserved approbation, but the political songs of Ireland, more patrio, have hitherto remained unnoticed and unknown. That these effusions are not, how- ever, inferior to those either of the Scots or Greeks, and particularly in strong expression of national feeling, will it is rather confidently anticipated, appear from the few specimens, now for the first time, laid before the public.

The political situation of the Irish with respect to England, has been frequently compared with that of the Greeks in their