notes p.37 , The Countermanding Order : The Countermanding Order was an order issued by Eoin MacNeill, Commander-in-Chief of the Irish Volunteers, and published in the Sunday Independent, Dublin, on Easter Sunday 1916. Its aim was to prevent the countrywide uprising planned by a secret military committee drawn from the Irish Volunteers and Irish Citizen Army, including Patrick Pearse, Thomas Clarke, Thomas McDonagh and James Connolly. p.51, The Ring-forts : cathair, dún, lios, Gaelic terms for ringforts. p.58, Post-box in wall at Rosbrin : a stóirín, Gaelic, ‘my little treasure’. p.66 , The Song of the Books: Amhrán na Leabhar was written by the poet-schoolmaster, Tomás Rua Ó Súilleabháin (1785–1848). He had been transferred from Derrynane, near the southern tip of the Iveragh Peninsula in Co. Kerry, to Port McGee, twenty-five miles further north. The boat on which his precious books and his other belongings were being transported sank shortly after leaving Derrynane. It is possible that the very beautiful melody predated the song and may have been a harping air.

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