Cé go leagtaí dánta eile air, ní heol go cinnte gur scríobh sé aon dán eile seachas ‘Tuireamh na hÉireann’ (nó ‘Aiste Sheáin Uí Chonaill’). Is dán fada 496 line é a insíonn stair na hÉireann ó aimsir na díleann go dtí teacht Chromail agus tá sé in eagar ag Cecile O’Rahilly [Sisile Ní Rathaille B2] in Five Seventeenth-Century Political Poems, 1952. Roimhe sin d’fhoilsigh Michael Clarke aistriúchan faoin teideal Ireland’s dirge, an historical poem written in Irish by the Right Rev. John O’Connell, Bishop of Kerry. Translated into English verse by Michael Clarke, 1827. Thug Clarke cabhair d’Éadbhard Ó Raghallaigh chun cuntas ar Thoirdhealbhach Ó Cearbhalláin a scríobh agus síleann Ní Rathaille gurbh é Ó Raghallaigh ba thúisce, b’fhéidir, a rinne an cur síos botúnach ar an bhfile mar ‘Roman Catholic Bishop of Ardfert or Kerry’ in A Chronological Account of Nearly Four Hundred Irish Writers..., 1820; taispeánann sí nach raibh aon easpag i gCiarraí ó 1653 go 1702; toisc tagairte do Jamaica (‘Transplant, transport go Jamaica’) agus gan aon tagairt d’athchur an rí is dóigh léi gur idir 1655 agus 1659 a cumadh an dán. Tá le tuiscint ón dán féin gurbh in Uíbh Ráthach a rugadh an file agus go raibh sé i gcleithiúnas Mhic Chárthaigh Mhóir. I lámhscríbhinn amháin tugtar ‘Seán mac Muiris Ó Conaill’ air agus tuairimítear gurbh é sin an Muiris i gCathair Bhearnach a aistríodh go Lios Dún Bhearna, Co. an Chláir, agus a raibh Seán ar dhuine dá mhic. Bhí an-tóir ar an dán seo ar fud na hÉireann uile agus tá breis is céad cóip i lámhscríbhinní in Acadamh Ríoga na hÉireann, Coláiste na Tríonóide, Maigh Nuad agus Leabharlann na Breataine.

Deir Ní Rathaille: ‘A century after the composition of Tuireamh na hÉireann, Friar O’Sullivan of Muckross noted that the poem was “repeated and kept in memory on account of the great knowledge of antiquity comprehended in it.” He was probably right in thus explaining the popularity of the poem. At a time when Irishmen were deprived of property, industry and the right to learning, a poem which purported to be the record of their race’s history, filled with the resounding names of their great men and told with a bare simplicity of language, was worthy of being stored in the people’s memory.’ Seo iad na línte deiridh: ‘Pater noster qui es in coelis, / sie nomen tuum sanctificetur, / debita nostra feasta ná héilimh / sed libera nos ó thuille péine, / Ave Maria, gratia plena, / benedicta tu, Dominus tecum, / ora pro nobis, a chara na héigne, / nune et semper is do-gheabhair éisteacht.’

Diarmuid Breathnach

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