OURSELVES ALONE
The work that should today be wrought,
Defer not to tomorrow;
The help that should within be sought,
Scorn from without to borrow.
Old maxims these - yet stout and true -
They speak in trumpet tone,
To do at once what is to do,
And trust Ourselves Alone.
Too long our Irish hearts we schooled
In patient hope to bide,
By dreams of English justice fooled
And English tongues that lied.
That hour of weak delusions past -
The empty dream has flown:
Our hope and strength, we find at last,
Is in Ourselves Alone.
Aye ! bitter hate or cold neglect,
Or lukewarm love at best,
Is all we’ve found, or can expect,
We aliens of the West.
No friend, beyond our own green shore,
Can Erin truly own;
Yet stronger is her trust, therefore,
In her brave Sons Alone.
Remember, when our lot was worse -
Sunk, trampled to the dust -
‘ Twas long our weakness and our curse
In stranger aid to trust.
And if, at length, we proudly trod
On bigot laws o’erthrown,
Who won that struggle ? Under God,
Ourselves - Ourselves Alone.
Oh ! let its memory be enshrined,
In Ireland’s heart for ever !
It proves a banded people’s mind
Must win in just endeavor;
It shows how wicked to despair,
How weak to idly groan -
If ills at other’s hand ye bear,
The cure is in Your Own.
The foolish word “impossible“
At once, for aye, disdain !
No power can bar a people’s will,
A people’s right to gain.
Be bold, united, firmly set,
Nor flinch in word or tone -
We’ll be a glorious nation yet,
Redeemed - Erect - Alone !
John O’Hagan 1822 - 1890
NOTES ON JOHN O’HAGAN
John O’Hagan was born on March 19, 1822 in Newry, Ireland.He received his early education at the day school of the Jesuit Fathers in Dublin, and then attended Trinity College. After graduating in 1842, he became a lawyer on the Munster Circuit in southern Ireland. In 1861, when the English Education Act was applied to Ireland, he was appointed Commissioner of National Education. He achieved the position of Queen’s Counselor in 1865 and, later that same year on December 2, married Frances Mary O’Hagan daughter of First Lord Thomas O’Hagan of Belfast. Under Gladstone’s Land Act of 1881 he became the first Chairman of the Irish Land Commission making him a Judge of Her Majesty’s High Court of Justice.
John O’Hagan was held in high esteem by his countrymen not only for his political achievements but also for his writing. He is described in the Aeolus Episode of James Joyce’s novel “ Ulysses” as the “silvertongued O’Hagan”. He was an earnest Catholic, as shown in many of his writings, such as “ The Children’s Ballad Rosary”. His poems “Dear Land” and “ Ourselves Alone” were among the most influential features of the new Irish weekly newspaper The Nation. This Nationalist newspaper was founded by a group of Repeal Association members known as Young Ireland. He wrote for The Nation under the names “ Sliabh Cuilinn”, “O”, “J.O’H”, and “Carolina Wilhelmina Amelia” to conceal his identity as a Republican Agitator. In his last years he published the first English Translation of “ La Chanson de Roland” , recognized as a success by the Edinburg Review and all the critical journals. He died near Dublin on November 10, 1890 and is buried in the Garden Section of the Glasnevin Cemetery.
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