98 Prevailing Prejudices against the Irish. 



It is humiliating to contemplate the preju- 

 dices which have prevailed from the earliest 

 times against the Irish, John Derriche wrote 

 and published a poem on Ireland, in 1581, de- 

 dicated to " Philip Sidney, Esq." 



From the " Epistle Dedicatorie," I have ex- 

 tracted sufficient to show what was the spirit 

 of the author agreeable to, and encouraged by, 

 the then ruling powers. " Truth is, my very 

 good Ledies of credit, vain, being given to the 

 artificer simply as he meaneth, the substance is 

 all one, the matter I mean to the very title of 

 that which is here called Woodkarne, who dis- 

 allowing their knavishe manner affirme their 

 dissolute life, and inordinate living fitter to 

 pertain unto infidelities and heathen, than for 

 those which, in any respect, professe the name 

 of Christe (and what Christians these are, 

 right honourable, judge ye), wherefore be not 

 then offended, O ye defenders of virtue and 

 embracers of civility, that I should so loathe 

 and inveigh those base unseemly manners, set- 

 ting out in lively profiture, in contemplating the 

 same, both their shape and execrable occasions 

 (for in very truth) my hate dooeth detest those 

 wild shamrocke manners, yea so much, that 

 rather because there is no society or fellowship 



