The Coming of Cuculain
By Standish O'Grady
The table was set for them upon the lawn before the great painted and glowing palace, and three-footed stools were put on either side of that table, and bright cloths flung over them. A knight to whom that was a duty brought forth and unfolded a chess-board of ivory on which silver squares alternated with gold, cunningly wrought by some ancient card, [Footnote: Craftsman.] a chief jewel of the realm; another bore in his hand the man-bag, also a wonder, glistening, made of netted wires of findruiney, [Footnote: A bright yellow bronze, the secret of making which is now lost.
The metal may be seen in our museums. In beauty, it is superior to gold. ] and took therefrom the men and disposed of them in their respective places on the board, each in the centre of his square. The gold men were on the squares of silver, and the silver on the squares of gold. The table was set under the shadowing branches of a great tree, for it was early summer, and the sun shone in his strength. So Concobar and Fergus, lightly laughing, affectionate, and laughable, the challenger and the challenged, came forth through the wide doorway of the dun. Armed youths went with them. The right arm of Fergus was cast lightly over the shoulder of Concobar, and his ear was inclined to him as the young king talked, for their mutual affection was very significant and like that of a great boy and a small boy when such, as often happens, become attached. So Concobar and Fergus sat down to play, though the Champion seldom won any game from the King.
Concobar beckoned to him, one of the young knights. It was Conall Carna, [Footnote: Conall the Victorious. He came second to Cuculain amongst the Red Branch Knights. He is the theme of many heroic stories. Once, in a duel, he broke his opponent’s right arm. He bade his seconds tie up his corresponding arm.] son of Amargin, youngest of the knights of Concobar. “Son of Amargin,” said the king, “do thou watch over the boys this day in their pastimes? See that nothing is done inappropriately or unjust. Observe narrowly the behaviour and disposition of the lads and report all things clearly to me on the morrow.” So saying, he moved one of the pieces on the board, and Conall Carna strode away southwards to where the boys were already dividing themselves into two parties for a match at hurling.
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Standish O'Grady
Standish James O’Grady (18 September 1846 – 18 May 1928) was an Irish author, journalist, and historian.
Biography.
O’Grady was inspired by Sylvester O’Halloran and played a formative role in the Celtic Revival, publishing the tales of Irish mythology, as the History of Ireland: Heroic Period (1878), arguing that the Gaelic tradition had rival only from the stories of Homeric Greece. O’Grady was a paradox for his times. Proud of his Gaelic heritage, he was also a member of the Church of Ireland, a champion of aristocratic virtues (particularly decrying bourgeois values and the uprooting cosmopolitanism of modernity), and at one point advocated a revitalized Irish people taking over the British Empire and renaming it the Anglo-Irish Empire. O’Grady’s influence crossed the divide of the Anglo-Irish and Irish-Ireland traditions in literature.
His influence was explicitly stated by the Abbey Theatre, which was set with Lady Gregory, W. B. Yeats, and George William Russell, attributing their interest in the Fenian Cycle of Gaelic tradition partly to him. Some of the figures associated with the political party Sinn Féin, including its founder Arthur Griffith, had positive things to say about his efforts in helping to retrieve the Gaelic heroic outlook from the past. He proved too unconventional of mind to settle into a career in the church and took a job as a schoolmaster at Midleton College, then in a period of expansion. He also qualified as a barrister, earning much of his living by writing for the Irish newspapers. Reading Sylvester O’Halloran’s “General History of Ireland” sparked an interest in early Irish history.
After an initial lukewarm response to his writing on the legendary past in “History of Ireland: Heroic Period” (1878–81) and “Early Bardic Literature of Ireland” (1879), he realized that the public wanted romance, and so followed the example of James Macpherson in recasting Irish legends in literary form, producing historical novels including “Finn and his Companions” (1891), “The Coming of Cuculain” (1894), “The Chain of Gold” (1895), “Ulrick the Ready” (1896) and “The Flight of the Eagle” (1897), and “The Departure of Dermot” (1913). He also studied Irish history of the Elizabethan period, presenting in his edition of Sir Thomas Stafford’s “Pacata Hibernia” (1896) the view that the Irish people had made the Tudors into kings of Ireland to overthrow their unpopular landlords, the Irish chieftains.
His “The Story of Ireland” (1894) was not well received, as it shed too positive light on the rule of Oliver Cromwell for the taste of many Irish readers. He was also active in social and political campaigns concerning issues such as unemployment and taxation. Until 1898, he was a journalist for the Daily Express of Dublin. Still, that year, finding Dublin journalism in decline, he moved to Kilkenny to become editor of the Kilkenny Moderator, printed at number 28 High Street. He became involved with Ellen Cuffe, Countess of Desart, and Captain Otway Cuffe. He engaged in the revival of the local woollen and woodworking industries. In 1900, he founded the All-Ireland Review and returned to Dublin to manage it until it ceased publication in 1908. O’Grady contributed to James Larkins’ The Irish Worker paper. O’Grady’s works influenced WB Yeats and George Russell, leading to him being known as the “Father of the Celtic Revival”. Being as proud of his family’s Unionism and Protestantism as of his Gaelic Irish ancestry – identities increasingly seen as antithetical in the late 1800s – he was described by Augusta, Lady Gregory as a “Fenian unionist”.
Standish O'Grady
