'Woe Is He Who Does Not Praise the Mother of God': Another Poem Beginning Mairg nach molann máthair Dé

Abstract

In 1919 Lambert McKenna published a poem beginning Mairg nach molann máthair Dé in a collection entitled Dánta do chum Aonghus Fionn Ó Dálaigh. The poem edited here, which survives in TCD 1340 (H. 3. 19), begins with the same first line and as a result has been overlooked up to now. Unlike the poem published by McKenna, in which the author emphasises the difficulty in finding original praise for the Virgin Mary, our poem is straightforward in its direct and immediate praise of her.