Mangan's poetry fits into a variety of literary traditions. Most obviously, and frequently, his work is read alongside such nationalist political authors as John Mitchel, as they appeared in "The Nation", "The Vindicator" and the "United Irishman" newspapers; or as a manifestation of the 19th-century Irish Cultural Revival. It is hard not to acknowledge Mangan's debts to such translators and collectors of traditional Irish poetry as Samuel Ferguson and James Hardiman; many of Mangan's poems, for instance "Dark Roseleen", appear to be adaptations of earlier translations rather than original translations.