12 AUGUST 1922, Page 16
" THE PATHLESS WILDS OF CONNEMARA." [To TEE EDITOR OP
THE " SPECTATOR.")
SIR,—I have not seen the lines about "Dick Martin," to which you allude in your footnote to Mr. Bayne's letter, for something like half a century, but to the best of my recollection they run as follows :— " Place me amid O'Rourkes, O'Toolee, The royal ragged race of Tara, Or place me where Dick Martin rules The pathless wilds of 'Connemara."
I cannot say whether Moore was the author of the verse, and it is not like him to tell the disparaging truth about the ancient Irish " Kings," even for the sake of alliteration. But perhaps he was only alluding to their more recent descendants.—I am,