I had been often told, by supporters of either side, that there was one
contest between the two, at which Callinan 'made Raftery cry tears
down;' and I wondered how it was that his wit had so far betrayed him.
It has been explained to me lately. Raftery had made a long poem, 'The
Hunt,' in which he puts 'a Writer' in the place of the fox, and calls on
all the gentlemen of Galway and Mayo, and even on 'Sarsfield from
Limerick,' to come and hunt him through their respective neighbourhoods
with a pack of hounds. It contains many verses; and he seems to have
improvised others in the different places where he sang it. In the
written copy I have seen, Burke is the 'Writer' who is thus hunted. But
he probably put in the name of any other rival from time to time. This
is the story: 'He and the Callinans were sometimes vexed with one
another, but they'd make friends after; but there was one day he was put
down by them. There was a funeral going on at Killeenan, and Raftery was
there; and he was asked into the corpse-house afterwards, and the people
asked him for the song about Callinan, and he began hunting him all
through the country, and the people were laughing and making him go on;
but Callinan's brother had come in, and was listening to him, and
Raftery didn't see him, being blind; and he brought him to Killeenan at
last, and he said: "Where can the rogue go now, unless he'll swim the
turlough?" And at that Callinan's brother stood up and said, "Who is it
you are calling a rogue?" And Raftery tried to laugh it off, and he
said, "You mustn't expect poetry and truth to go together." But Callinan
said: "I'll give you poetry that's truth as well;" and he began to say
off some verses his brother had made on Raftery; and Raftery was choked
up that time, and hadn't a word.' This story is corroborated by an
eye-witness who said to me: 'It was in this house he was on the night
Callinan made him cry. My father was away at the time; if he had been
there, he never would have let Callinan come into the house unknown to
Raftery.' I have not heard all of Callinan's poem, but this is part of