Reliques of Irish Poetry. Consisting of Heroic Poems, Odes, Elegies, and Songs, Translated into English Verse: With Notes Explanatory and Historical; and the Originals in the Irish Character. To Which is Subjoined an Irish Tale by Miss Broke. Dublin: J. Christie, 1816. Second Edition. Pp cxxxvi, 464. Ex library copy with stamps in a library cloth binding. Contents in nice bright condition.

Charlotte Brook poet, dramatist, and pioneer in the introduction of Irish culture to the English reader, was born at Rantavan House, Mullagh, Co. Cavan. This work, first published in 1789, acclaims her as a forerunner of the whole literary movement for the revival of Irish in the nineteenth century and the formation of the Gaelic League.

It includes five poems from the Fenian cycle, two poems from the Ulster cycle, three songs by Carolan, and a poem by Pádraig Mac a Liondain. In her notes she wrote of her work as paraphrasing, rather than translating, the Irish poems, since so much of the subtlety of the original is lost in translation.

The significance of the ‘Reliques of Irish Poetry’ lies in the fact that it was the first time that a fairly wide selection of Irish verse appeared in print. In the circumstances of the time it set an encouraging example. [DNB]