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301 ANONYMOUS (1776) This unusual poem appeared in Walker’s Hibernian Magazine in July 1776, two years before the foundation of the Irish Volunteers. Patriotic fervour was building up throughout Ireland as British soldiers were withdrawn to fight in the American War of Independence (1775–83). Landowners and men of property saw the reduction in troops as an opportunity to put pressure on the British government to relax the laws that were stifling Irish trade. From this grew demands for legislative independence for Ireland; this was finally obtained in Grattan’s parliament of 1782 and brought to an end by the Act of Union of 1801. The poet imagines the river god of the river Lagan (which flows through Ulster from south to north) rising up and calling on those freeholders of Antrim who are of an ‘independent’ mind to support the local candidate for the Irish parliament, Ezekiel Davys Wilson. Wilson, who was mayor of Carrickfergus, was duly elected MP for the county borough in 1785. He voted against the Union in 1799 and 1800. Lagan upon the Mountain Hard by those plains where Lagan gently flows, And scenes of wealth in his smooth bosom shews, As lately walking, by the dawn of day, To court the Zephyr, or perhaps to pray; I saw the waves a sudden lustre spread, I saw old Lagan leave his oozy bed, And lightly skimming up the verdant hills, Touch the glad founts, and wake the warbling rills; Then full on Collan’s1 peaky summit rest, And gaze around and shake his weedy crest. 10 Rejoice, he cries, you independent train, Who sacred truth and liberty maintain,2 Bold let the gallant sons of Antrim rise, Extol their hero3 to the bending skies: The southernmost of the main Belfast Hill summits, Colin Mountain dominates the 1 Lisburn side of the Belfast Hills. The Colin river is the main tributary of the Lagan. During the 1770s, Irish political life became polarised between those who sought free 2 trade and political concessions from the British government (who often, following the example of the American colonists, asserted that they were fighting for ‘liberty’and some kind of ‘independence’) and those who supported the Dublin administration. Presumably Ezekiel Wilson of line 22. 3 302 Let Antrim’s self4 attend the joyful call, And ride triumphant from his mossy hall, Bear the loud pæns to each secret cell, Along the moor, or down the dusky dell, Whirl up the mountain, on the valley strain, Follow the brook, and sweep the breezy plain; 20 Bid all his people mutually proclaim, That Liberty and Wilson are the same.5 Fair flow such merit to the latest song, And catch new incense as it rolls along: Well, meek Ierne! Well it were for thee, Were all thy people so completely free; Did all freeholders, spite of lawless sway, The genial impulse of the mind obey;6 Not, as they do, for some vile futile fee, Stoop to the yoke, and bend the supple knee. 30 Well wot7 I then how goodly would appear, The rural labour and the sylvan cheer: How would I then my own dear seats8 survey, My seats for ever pleasant, for ever gay; Where lads go lightsome, splendid villas rise, And hills of linen whiten to the skies;9 Where love the heart while honour guides the soul, And female sweetness dignifies the whole. This said, down shoots the river God, to gain The shady coverts of sweet Ballydrain.10 40 i.e. the famous Randall MacDonnell, First Marquess of Antrim, lieutenant-general of the 4 forces of the Irish confederacy in the 1640s – a figure admired by those striving for Irish independence. Ezekiel Davys Wilson (1738–1821). 5 Carrickfergus was a county borough, which meant that both freeholders and citizens 6 could vote for its member of parliament. The next line refers to bribery and corruption in parliamentary elections. know. 7 Several contemporary poems refer to the beautifully-sited country houses above the 8 Lagan river and its tributaries. Since linen manufacture was a staple industry of the area, large sheets of fresh linen 9 could often be seen spread out to bleach in the sun in ‘bleach-fields’. Ballydrain is a small community located outside Comber on the shores of Strangford Lough. 10 ...

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