The Enniskillen *

Boys are willing,

There's not one man a damn'd rogue;
Blackpool will join

True Blue and Boyne,

And mount the verdant shamrock.

O rally, O rally, &c.

THE GREEN LITTLE SHAMROCK OF IRELAND.

The words by Andrew Cherry, the music by Shield, and sung by Mrs. Mountain in her entertainment called "Travellers at Spa," at the little Opera House, Capel Street, Dublin, 1806. "This entertainment," observes Mrs. Mountain, in a most obliging communication to the Editor," was entirely recited and sung by me, and attracted crowded houses in defiance of the denouncement of Mr. Jones, the manager of the Crow Street Theatre, who threatened and did in part proceed against me. I am," continues Mrs. Mountain, "extremely proud of this era in my life, because talent (however humble) triumphed over oppression."

Cherry, the author of this song, was the son of a printer and bookseller in Limerick. He was born in 1762, and

*The original manuscript of the "Rules of the Enniskillen Armed Society of Cork," with the signatures of the members, is in the possession of Mr. Bennett of that city. It is without date; and is in the autograph of the Colonel, John Bennett, afterwards Recorder of the city of Cork, and Judge.

+ Horse; John Harding, Esq., colonel.

THE GREEN LITTLE SHAMROCK OF IRELAND. 45

apprenticed in Dublin to his father's trade; but, becoming "stage-struck," joined a company of strollers at Naas, where, at the age of seventeen, Cherry appeared as Colonel Feignwell in Mrs. Centlivre's Comedy of "A Bold Stroke for a Wife," on which occasion his exertions were rewarded by the sum of ten pence half-penny. After enduring, for some time, all the wretched vicissitudes of a stroller's life, he "returned to reason and the shop," and remained as his father's assistant for three or four years, when he again determined to follow the stage as a profession; and he joined the provincial company of Mr. Knipe, whose widow he subsequently married. In 1787, Cherry succeeded Mr. Ryder on the Dublin stage, where he continued a favourite comic actor till 1793; about which time he was engaged by Tate Wilkinson for the Yorkshire circuit, to fill the parts which had become vacant by Fawcett's engagement at Covent Garden. In 1796, Cherry returned to Dublin; there he performed for two years, and then, through the theatres of Manchester and Bath, obtained an engagement in 1802 at Drury Lane, where he was received with much applause. He afterwards became manager of the Swansea and Monmouth theatres, and died at the latter place of dropsy on the brain, on the 12th February, 1812.

The titles of ten theatrical pieces, written by Cherry, are to be found in the "Biographia Dramatica;" of which the most popular was a comedy called "The Soldier's Daughter."

That Andrew Cherry was a humourist, is evident from the laconic note which he addressed to the manager of the Dublin Theatre, whose breach of faith had occa

sioned Cherry's leaving the Irish stage, in answer to an application, after his success at Drury Lane, to enter into an engagement.

"SIR,-I am not so great a fool as you take me for. I have been bitten once by you, and I will never give you an opportunity of making two bites of

A. CHERRY."

The meaning of the last verse of the following song, which now appears obscure, and indeed the line " ourselves by ourselves be befriended," which is rather nonsensical, probably had considerable point, under the circumstances stated by Mrs. Mountain respecting the monopolylogue in which this lyric was introduced.

There's a dear little plant that grows in our isle,
"Twas St. Patrick himself, sure, that set it;
And the sun of his labour with pleasure did smile,
And with dew from his eye often wet it.

It thrives through the bog, through the brake, through the

mireland;

And he called it the dear little shamrock of Ireland,
The sweet little shamrock, the dear little shamrock,
The sweet little, green little, shamrock of Ireland.

This dear little plant still grows in our land,

Fresh and fair as the daughters of Erin,

Whose smiles can bewitch, whose eyes can command,
In each climate that they may appear in ;

THE GREEN LITTLE SHAMROCK OF IRELAND. 47

And shine through the bog, through the brake, through the mireland,

Just like their own dear little shamrock of Ireland.

The sweet little shamrock, &c.

This dear little plant that springs from our soil,
When its three little leaves are extended,
Denotes from one stalk we together should toil,

And ourselves by ourselves be befriended:

And still through the bog, through the brake, through the mireland,

From one root should branch, like the shamrock of Ireland. The sweet little shamrock, &c.

THE POTATO.

"Sublime potatoes! that, from Antrim's shore
To famous Kerry, form the poor man's store;
Agreeing well with every place and state
The peasant's noggin, or the rich man's plate.
Much prized when smoking from the teeming pot,
Or in turf-embers roasted crisp and hot.
Welcome, although you be our only dish;
Welcome, companion to flesh, fowl, or fish ;
But to the real gourmands, the learned few,
Most welcome, steaming in an Irish stew."

THIS extract from "A Grand National Poem," which the Editor fears must remain in manuscript, as no enterprising publisher will undertake the risk of printing it, places clearly before the reader the merits of

"Erin's unrivalled potato,

Pride of the land of the great O!”

It is well known that "sublime potatoes" form the principal food of the larger portion of the inhabitants of "the green island,"

"From Fairhead to Kilcrumper."