for anything of strong individual interest. One sees nowhere the exceptional man who is too strong to submit to discipline. Irishmen make good soldiers, we reflect, and seem to like strict discipline.
Suddenly one notices a gigantic figure striding along. He wears no uniform. He does not trouble to keep step with others. He laughs at the sergeants, he mocks the officers. He takes no pains to assume a stiff, dignified carriage. But how free and large is his stride! How sure his pace! Truly this must be a remarkable man!
It is in fact Brian Merriman, a schoolmaster of the County Clare, the author of "Cúirt an Ṁeaḋon Oiḋċe," a poem which the opinion of a majority of critics and scholars has pronounced the most remarkable, powerful and artistic work that modern Gaelic literature can boast.
III.
Genius generally spells catastrophe. Nature revenges herself on the abnormal being that refuses to conform to type. The man whose ideas are not those of his time, who resists his environment, who revolts against convention, is usually the victim of his strength. Brian's life could hardly be called a tragic one. He seems to have led a peaceful, orderly and not unprosperous life during a most troubled period in Irish history.
In fact it was the typical conventional Irish poet of the eighteenth century who suffered most. It was a miserable time and the gift of song only meant for the poets keener sensibility, outraged pride, bitterness at their fallen estate and the downfall of the Gaeldom. Their dissatisfaction with their lot broke out in irregularities of life, in the squalid heroism of the tavern, leading to later penitence. Their
