Pé in Éirinn í
(Whoever She Is In Ireland)

An Aisling poem written by Tipperary poet Liam Dall Ó hIfearnáin (William Dall Heffernan) (1720–1803).

Printed in:
Reliques of Irish Jacobite Poetry, by John Daly, 1844, pp.104-107.


Liam Dall Ó hIfearnáin, who lived in and around Lattin and Shronell in Co. Tipperary, developed blindness from disease early in life.

The Heffernans owned large tracts of land around Lattin and Shronell in the early 17th century. Then Cromwell's army came to Ireland in 1649 and took the land from them and given to soldiers and Englishmen. One Englishman was Joseph Damer who bought up many plots cheaply and became wealthy. The Heffernans became tenants with small plots of land. Joseph Damer's son John Damer was landlord to Liam Dall's family during most of his life. The two seemed to have had a fractious relationship, and when Damer died in 1768 Liam Dall composed a mock dirge with sentiment that expressed how negatively he viewed the landlord.

Liam Dall's mother died when he was young and his father married again, and the stepmother treated him harshly. Liam went to a hedge school where he was educated by the schoolmaster Valentine Roche, and later became an assistant teacher. He learnt to play the fiddle where he became a great fiddler and singer and would frequently play in homes and villages. In the village of Croom he befriended with the well known poet Seán Clárach Mac Domhnail, whom wrote the Jacobite poem "Mo Ghile Mear".

Much of Liam Dalls poetry was political, with some romantic and religious verse.
In the the final twenty years of his life he appears to have written little poetry, and may have even stopped composing during this period, when he lived in the household of a relative, Otho Heffernan, in poor circumstances.

Liam Dall never married, but he thought that he would be married to a girl in Shronell named Ellen Moloney, whom he said was the most beautiful and loveliest girl that was known, and he wrote a song about her "Eilís ó Srónfhaill". Ellen would dance to the playing of his fiddle. Apparently John Damer was also interested in Ellen, but she had her eyes on an officer of the dragoons named Captain Hartnett. However, Ellen died and she was buried in Craobh Ruadh.

After Ellen died Liam Dall wrote another song about her "Pé in Éirinn í ".

In this aisling poem the poet is infatuated by the vision of a woman of great beauty but is tormented each day by thinking of her. His life is sad and without purpose until the day she appears before him.


" 'Bé n-Éirinn í "
Reliques of Irish Jacobite Poetry, by John Daly, 1844, pp.104-107.

A ngleanntaibh séimh na héigse bhím,
A bhfanntais péinn a ngéibh gach laoi;
An tseang-bhean ghlé, ba bhéasach gnaoi,
Do scannradh mé, 'bé n-Éirinn í! 'bé n-Éirinn í!

Ní thráchda mé air chéile Naois,
Thug ár na nGaodhael air dtéachd don Chraoibh,
Ná 'n bháb ón nGréig do chéas an Traoi,
Le grádh mo chléibh, 'bé n-Éirinn í! 'bé n-Éirinn í!

'S breágha, deas, dréimreach, réig, a dlaoi,
Go bárr an fhéir na slaod air bígh;
A tláth-fholt réig, do dhéalradh an flíos,
Air ghrádh mo chléibh, 'bé n-Éirinn í! 'bé n-Éirinn í!

'S cásmhar, taodach, déurach, bhídhim!
Go cráidhte, créimeach, céusta ó mhnaoi!
Fághnach, faon gan chéill ar baois!
Le grádh don bhéith, 'bé n-Éirinn í! 'bé n-Éirinn í!

Air neóin nuair théighim air thaobh Suighe Finn,
Fá bhrón a gcéin 's gan aon dam bhuidhin;
Cia sheólfadh Aon-Mhac Dé am líon,
Achd stór mo chléibh, 'bé n-Éirinn í! 'bé n-Éirinn í!



"Whoever She is in Ireland"

In pleasant glens of learning I be,
In a painful faint trapped each day;
The pure slender woman, who was polite and kind,
Frightened me, whoever she is in Ireland.

I did not mention the partner of Naoise,
Who brought destruction to the Gaels on return to the Branch;
Nor the child from Greece who tormented Troy,
With the love of my heart, whoever she is in Ireland.

Her beautiful, neat tresses are unconfined,
On top of the grass in swathes of spirals;
Her tender head of hair resplendent as fleece,
Upon the love of my heart, whoever she is in Ireland.

It's sad, stubborn, tearful, I am!
Miserable, wounded, tortured by the woman,
Wandering, feeble, without sense and foolish!
With the love for the woman, whoever she is in Ireland.

At noon when I go to the side of Fionn's Seat,
In sadness alone with none of my company;
Who does the only Son of God send my way,
But the love of my heart, whoever she is in Ireland.



Naoise or Naisi is an Irish mythological character, who becomes the lover of Deirdre, a woman of great beauty, whom both go into exile in Scotland and then later come back to a tragic end and many deaths with a battle at the Red Branch (Cróeb Ruad or Craobh Rua, the royal house of the King of Ulster), which leads to considerable strife between Ulster and Connacht.

Fionn's Seat - resting place, or watch-tower of the mythical Fionn, who
being a man of the chase, selected those hills which appeared to him best calculated to afford a fair prospect of the surrounding country; Hence, the numerous hills known by that name throughout Ireland, particularly in Munster.



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