Page:Irish minstrelsy, vol 2 - Hardiman.djvu/18

6 the head of each. The bards have been exterminated; but the priests, sustained by a higher power, survive, for what end yet remains to be developed.

The persecuted bards of Ireland, like their brethren of ancient Wales, had long, and assiduously laboured in the service of their country. They sung of its ancient glories, they mourned over its woes, and lamented its downfall. They incessantly exerted themselves to rouse their fellow countrymen to resist the invader, and stimulated them to almost incredible deeds of heroism and romantic valour. Hence they became particularly obnoxious to the English, by whom they were invariably proscribed and persecuted. This extraordinary succession of men, has, notwithstanding, left behind imperishable memorials