, and bards, who flourished in
the epoch of which it treats. In the synchronisms of Tiherna, in the
metrical chronology of Flann, in all the various historical compositions
produced in various parts of the country, the main features and leading
characters of the Tan-bo-Cooalney suffer no material change, while the
minor divergencies show that the chronology of the annals and annalistic
poems were not drawn from the tale, but owe their origin to other
sources. Moreover, this epic is but a portion of the great Ultonian or
Red Branch cycle, all the parts of which pre-suppose and support one
another; and that cycle is itself a portion of the history of Ireland,
and pre-supposes other preceding and succeeding cyles, preceding and
succeeding kings. The event of which this epic treats occurred at the
time of the Incarnation, and its characters are the leading Irish kings
and warriors of that date. Such is the Tan-bo-Cooalney.

This being so, how have the English literary classes recognised, or
how treated, our claim to the possession of an antique literature of
peculiar historical interest, and by reason of that antiquity, a matter
of concern to all Aryan nations? The conquest has not more constituted
the English Parliament guardian and trustee of Ireland, for purposes of
legislation and government, than it has vested the welfare and fame
of our literature and antiquities in the hands of English scholarship.
London is the headquarters of the intellectualism and of the literary
and historical culture of the Empire. It is the sole dispenser of fame.
It alone influences the mind of the country and guides thought and
sentiment. It can make and mar reputations. What it scorns or ignores,
the world, too, ignores and scorns. How then has the native literature
of Ireland been treated by the representatives of English scholarship
and literary culture? Mr. Carlyle is the first man of letters of the
day, his the highest name as a critic upon, and historian of, the
past life of Europe. Let us hear him upon this subject, admittedly of
European importance.

Miscellaneous Essays, Vol. III., page 136. "Not only as the oldest
Tradition of Modern Europe does it--the Nibelungen--possess a high
antiquarian interest, but farther, and even in the shape we now see
it under, unless the epics of the son of Fingal had some sort of
authenticity, it is our oldest poem also."

Poor Ireland, with her hundred ancient epics, standing at the door of
the te