Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes. Ireland: Vol. V. 187679.
James Clarence Mangan (18031849)
This poem is ascribed to the celebrated poet Mac Liag, the secretary of the renowned monarch Brian Borù, who, as is well known, fell at the battle of Clontarf, in 1014, and the subject of it is a lamentation for the fallen condition of Kinkora, the palace of that monarch, consequent on his death. The palace, which was situated on the banks of the Shannon, near Killaloe, is now a heap of ruins.
O, WHERE, Kinkora! is Brian the Great?
And where is the beauty that once was thine?
O, where are the princes and nobles that sate
At the feast in thy halls, and drank the red wine!