[From Manxiana, 1870]

CLAGH NA KILAGH AYNS CORNEIL DTHY HIE.*

May a stone of the kirk be found in our dwelling,
A saying of Manx, well-known to us all;
As the natives of old, in ages gone by,
Religiously kept any relic they could,
And rather than break down a cross or a kirk,
Or suffer the invaders of puritan zeal
Their fury to wreak on a catholic tomb,
Would piously go to the endanger'd kirk,
Take one of its stones and place in their house,
As a symbol of safety to both kirk and them ;
Then, as the Iconoclasts pass'd thro' the land,
Knocking down crosses — despoiling the kirks —
As they pass *d on their way, a curse on the isle,
Threat'ning houses and all in one common raid,
The sire from within would point to the stone,
" The kirk stone is sacred, ah ! leave us alone,
Else you'll rue it (I guess) ere to Ramsey you'll reach,
Touch this stone and you'll drown in the channel deep sea
Thus, as blood on the lintel in ancient of days,
Was the Passover mark that saved all within,
So as invasions many from Norway and Scot,
Swept over the Isle like a tempest at sea ;
The neighbours next meeting, as they look'd on the stone,
Consecrated for them — saw the good it had done,
The lives it had saved, the kirks it preserved,
They all cried in chorus and chanted the words.

* May a stone of the kirk be found in our dwelling.