"Names. Every art is inscribed with them. Every life depends on them. I was to find out, as I searched for information about her, just how wounding their absence can be." -- Quotation, Ms. Eavan BOLAND's prose memoir, "Object Lessons." and from Dr. Eilis Ni Dhuibhne, National Library Ireland (1984) ROOTS Today a note from M. O'Brien Arrived in my letter tray. 'Can you trace my roots?' he asks. 'What will I have to pay?' 'My forefather is Brian Boru, I want you to link him to me On a tree of yellow calfskin. I'm prepared to pay a fee.' In his letter he encloses Data on his elders and betters: His father and mother, Their fathers and mothers And a couple of dozen sisters and brothers. The census of '51 Records the family in Chorly: The head of the household a weaver, The mother a mother, One son a hand in a mill And the other (aged 10) A drawer of coal. The census of '61 Records the family in Bolton: The father a power-loom weaver, The mother a mother, One son a hand in a mill The other a collier And one daughter (aged 10) A scholar. The census of '81 Records the family in Wigan: The head of the household 'blind,' The mother a fishmonger, One son a hand in a mill, The other a collier The daughter a frame tenter And a grandson (aged 10) A scholar: The father of Mister O'Brien Descendant of Brian Boru. I want to reply to his letter: Keep your cash: Clontarf hardly matters To one whose genes survived The pits and mills of Wigan, Whose mother's days were woven In the powerful looms of Bolton, Whose childhood hours were spent With the unsold herrings' stench. But instead I send an invoice For ten pounds fifty pence And enclose a coat of arms To adorn his bedside shelf -- Excerpts, Cork's "Irish Roots" magazine