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Burke, A.B., T.C.D.. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + } /* page numbers */ + + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + .sidenote {width: 20%; padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em; margin-left: 1em; + float: right; clear: right; margin-top: 1em; + font-size: smaller; color: black; background: #eeeeee; border: dashed 1px;} + + .bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} + .bl {border-left: solid 2px;} + .bt {border-top: solid 2px;} + .br {border-right: solid 2px;} + .bbox {border: solid 2px;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + .u {text-decoration: underline;} + + .caption {font-weight: bold;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + .figleft {float: left; clear: left; margin-left: 0; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: + 1em; margin-right: 1em; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .figright {float: right; clear: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + .footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + .fnanchor {vertical-align: super; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span.i0 {display: block; margin-left: 0em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The South Isles of Aran, by Oliver J. Burke + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The South Isles of Aran + +Author: Oliver J. Burke + +Release Date: October 24, 2011 [EBook #37840] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SOUTH ISLES OF ARAN *** + + + + +Produced by Brian Foley, Jane Hyland and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<h1>THE SOUTH ISLES OF ARAN<br /></h1> + +<h3>(<i>COUNTY GALWAY</i>)<br /><br /></h3> + +<h5>BY</h5> + +<h2>OLIVER J. BURKE, A.B., T.C.D.<br /><br /></h2> + +<h3>Knight of the Order of St. Gregory the Great<br /></h3> + +<h4><i>BARRISTER-AT-LAW</i><br /></h4> +<h5> +AUTHOR OF "THE HISTORY OF ROSS ABBEY," "HISTORY OF THE LORD CHANCELLORS<br /> +OF IRELAND," "HISTORY OF THE ARCHBISHOPS OF TUAM," "ANECDOTES OF<br /> +THE CONNAUGHT CIRCUIT"<br /> +<br /></h5> + +<p class="center"> +"Signs and tokens round us thicken,<br /> +Hearts throb high and pulses quicken"<br /> +<br /></p> +<h3>LONDON</h3> +<h4>KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH & CO., 1, PATERNOSTER SQUARE<br /> +1887<br /></h4> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="center">(<i>The rights of translation and of reproduction are reserved.</i>)</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h5><a name="TO" id="TO"></a>TO</h5> +<h3>THE HON. MR. JUSTICE O'HAGAN,</h3> + +<h5>ONE OF THE JUSTICES OF THE SUPREME COURT IN +IRELAND.</h5> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">My dear Judge O'Hagan,</span></p> + +<p>During the vacation of last autumn I applied +myself to collecting as much information as possible concerning +the South Isles of Aran, which I had visited in +connection with the Land Commission in the previous +month of July. Pressure of business and a severe illness +compelled me to defer until recently the arranging of my +notes, which, in the hope that they may direct the attention +of those in power to the long neglected Islands, I +have resolved to publish, and I look on it as a good omen +of the success of my efforts that you have kindly allowed +me to dedicate my work to you, who have won so high a +place in law and in literature.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Believe me to remain</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 12em;">Sincerely yours,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 18em;">OLIVER J. BURKE.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap" style="margin-left: 1em;">Ower, Headford</span>,<br /> +<span class="smcap" style="margin-left: 3em;">Co. Galway</span>,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;"><i>August 8, 1887</i>.</span><br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<div class="center"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="contents"> + +<tr><td align='center'>CHAPTER I.</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'> </td><td align="center"><span class="smcap">page</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Island of Aran—Galway bay, anciently Lough Lurgan—Population— +Religion, etc.—Inishmore, ruins on—Inishmaan, ruins on—Inisheer, ruins on—Mail +boat—Hotel—Aran landscape—Flora—Potatoes—Aran wildfowl— +Capture of the puffin—Cragsmen—Geology of islands—Limestone terraces— +Boulders—Cliffs on islands—Seaweeds—Moving sands—<i>Pinus maritima</i></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align='center'>CHAPTER II.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Monuments of Druidism—Druids—Cairns—Cromlechs—Baal, +worship of—Zodiacal rings—Sacred fires—Druidical religion—Sir Edward Coke, +on—Groves—Immense fortresses—Dun Ængus—Its situation, dimensions, +etc.—Dun Conor—Christian remains—St. Enda, romantic story of—His hapless +love—Becomes a monk—Obtains grant of Aran from King of Cashel—St. Brendon— +His leaving Aran for countries beyond the Atlantic—Rendered into verse by Denis Florence MacCarthy— +St. Columba, his grief at leaving Aran—Rendered into verse by Sir Aubrey De Vere—St. Fursa— +Residence in Aran—Pilgrimage to Rome—Buried in Aran—Aran monuments, pagan and Christian, +vested in Board of Works—Churches facing the east—The north—Cloghauns—Dwellings +of the monks—<i>Teampul-Chiarain</i>—<i>Teampul McDuach</i>—Holy well— +Childless marriages—Description of churches—Lonely lives of the monks—One of the +Popes said to be buried in Aran—Ordnance Survey—Its vast stores of learning unprinted</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_13">13</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align='center'>CHAPTER III.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Aran, 14th-18th centuries—<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1308. O'Brien, + lord of the isles—In consideration of twelve tuns of wine annually engages to protect the trade of +Galway—<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1334. Aran plundered by Darcy— +<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1400. Henry IV. gives license to certain persons to attack rebels in +Aran—<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1485. Franciscan monastery built—<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1537. +Suppression of religious houses—<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1560. Shipwreck of Teige O'Brien, lord of the +isles—<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1570. Mortgage of the islands—<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> +1579. Mayor of Galway appointed admiral of Galway bay, including Aran—1586. O'Brien expulsed from Aran +by the O'Flaherties—1587. Queen Elizabeth grants islands to Sir John Rawson—1588. Corporation +of Galway petition in favour of O'Briens—Annals, 1618, 1641, 1645, 1651—Surrender of the islands +to the Commander-in-Chief of the Parliamentary forces—Annals, 1653, 1670, 1687, 1691, 1700, 1746, +case of <i>Mayor of Galway</i> v. <i>Digby</i>—1754, 1786. Earldom of Aran—1857</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_31">31</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align='center'>CHAPTER IV.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Noble character of Aranite peasantry—Letters, 1841, by Dr. Petrie; 1852, by Sir +Francis Head, K.C.B.; 1875, by Frank Thorpe Porter, Esq., B.L.; 1886, by Mr. R. F. Mullery, clerk of Galway +Union; by Philip Lyster, Esq., R.M., B.L.—Rev. Fathers O'Donohoe, P.P., and Waters, C.C.— +<i>Sta viator</i>—Isle of O'Brazil—Gerald Griffin's poem on</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_52">52</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align='center'>CHAPTER V.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Healthful islands—Old age in—Land Commission in Aran—Aran +fisheries—Letters, 1886, from Sir Thomas F. Brady, fishery commissioner, on; from C.T. Redington, +J.P., D.L., on public works in islands; from Rev. William Killride, on employment and on timber—"Many +places in the islands covered with trees" fifty years ago—Poverty of fishermen—Baltimore fisheries— +Baroness Burdett-Coutts—Irish Reproductive Loan Fund—Bounties given by Irish Parliament, in 1787, to +encourage deep sea fisheries—Trawling</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_65">65</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align='center'>CHAPTER VI.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Re-afforesting Aran—Dr. Lyons—Dermot O'Conor Donelan, J.P.—Forest +industries in Germany—Supports 300,000 families—Paper from young timber, etc.</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_82">82</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align='center'>CHAPTER VII.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Superstitions of the grove—Concerning the oak—The ash—The mountain ash— +The aspen—The pine—The holly—The ivy—The hawthorn—The blackthorn—The +rose—The fern—The fairy flax—The hazel</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_88">88</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align='center'>APPENDIX A.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Conversant with the O'Briens—Bryan Boroimhe—His descendants Kings of Thomond— +and their descendants Lords of Inchiquin, junior branch of Kings of Thomond—Marshal MacMahon—Also junior branch, +O'Briens of Ballynalacken</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_105">105</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align='center'>APPENDIX B.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Statistics of Aran</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_110">110</a></td></tr> +</table></div> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_SOUTH_ISLES_OF_ARAN" id="THE_SOUTH_ISLES_OF_ARAN"></a>THE SOUTH ISLES OF ARAN</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<div style="margin-left:18em;"> +"Oh, Aranmore! loved Aranmore,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">How oft I dream of thee,</span><br /> +And of those days when by thy shore<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">I wandered young and free;</span><br /> +Full many a path I've tried since then,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Through pleasure's flowery maze,</span><br /> +But ne'er could find the bliss again<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">I felt in those sweet days."</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left:27em;" class="smcap">Thomas Moore.</span><br /> +</div> + +<div class="sidenote">POPE GREGORY THE GREAT</div> + +<p>The south isles of Aran, which shelter the Galway +bay from the heavy swell of the Atlantic, are Inishmore, +the large island, nine miles in length; Inishmaan, the +middle island, two and a half miles in length; Inisheer, +the lesser, two miles in length; Straw Island, upon +which the lighthouse stands, and the Brannock Rocks +or islands, all forming that group which to the west +bounds the Galway bay, and the ancient jurisdiction +of the Admiral of Galway. They lie in a line drawn +from the north-west to the south-east from Iar Connaught +to the county of Clare. Iar Connaught is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> +separated from Inishmore, the largest and most +westerly island, by the North Sound, five and a half +miles wide, called by the natives <i>Bealagh-a-Lurgan</i>, +"Lough Lurgan way." Lough Lurgan was the +ancient name of a lake that formerly lay west of +Galway, and the tradition is that in the old times +before us—213 years from the Flood—the waters of +the Atlantic, sweeping in the full fury of their force +across the Aran barriers, united with the waters of +the lake and formed the Bay of Galway, leaving the +islands of Aran the towering remnants of the barriers +which were too strong even for the Atlantic billows to +carry away. Between Inishmore and Inishmaan is +Gregory's Sound, a mile and a half wide, called by +the natives <i>Bealagh-ne-Hayte</i>, "Hayte's way." The +present name was given to it by the monks, who +called the sound "Gregory," in honour of Pope +Gregory the Great, after he had converted or aided +in converting the Anglo-Saxons to the Christian faith. +Between the middle island, Inishmaan, and Inisheer, +the eastern and smallest island, is the "foul sound," four +miles wide; and between Inisheer and the county of +Clare is the "south sound," four miles wide. This +is the great waterway between "the old sea," as the +natives call the Atlantic, and the Bay of Galway.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">MANOR OF IAR CONNAUGHT.</div> + +<p>The sum of the lengths of the three islands and of +the two intervening sounds is eighteen miles. The +area of the entire group is 11,288 acres; poor law +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span>valuation, £1576; rent, £2067; poor rate, a shilling +in the pound; average poor rate for ten years, +three shillings; population, 3118 Catholics, and 45 +Protestants. Aran is in the Catholic archdiocese and +in the Protestant diocese of Tuam. In the islands +are three Catholic churches and one Protestant, two +priests, one parson, and one doctor, and there are +schools, schoolmasters, schoolmistresses, and scholars, +<i>et hoc genus omne</i>; and there is a petty sessions court, +and there are three police-barracks and eighteen +policemen. The fishing-boats or curraghs of the third +class, which are ribs covered with canvas, and worth +£6 each, are 130 in number; of the second class +there are 34 boats, and of the first class there are +none. There are no paupers from the islands in the +workhouse, which is in Galway, and there is no workhouse +on the island; neither is there an auxiliary +workhouse, nor an hospital, nor an infirmary, nor a +midwife, nor a jail, nor grand jury works, though +there is a grand jury cess of £34 12<i>s.</i> 2<i>d.</i></p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE ARAN MAIL-BOAT.</div> + +<p>Of Inishmore, or the great island, Kilronan is the +capital—a village with a good hotel. Killeany was +the ancient capital, formerly the residence of the lords +of the manor of Iar Connaught. The other places +of note are Oghil, Onaght, Bungowla, Kilmurry, Dun +Ængus, Dun Eochla, Dubh Chathair or the black fort. +So also on that island are the ruins of the churches of +Tempul Benin with its rectangular enclosures and group<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> +of cells, of Tempul Brecan and Cross, of Tempul Beg +Mac Dara, of Tempul More Mac Dara, of Tempul +Assurniadhe, of Tempul-an-cheathrair-Aluin, and of +St. Enda and the ruins of the seven churches.</p> + +<p>On the middle island of Inishmaan are the ruins of +the fortresses of Dun Chona and Dunfarbagh, and the +villages, five in number. On the eastern island of +Inisheer are St. Gobnet's chapel, Ballyhees, Largi, +Furmina, Trawkera, near which there is a lake a +quarter of a mile in circumference and of great depth, +which might be converted into a useful harbour by +cutting an entrance into it through the rocky shore.</p> + +<p>The harbour of Kilronan is spacious, but not fitted +for vessels of heavy tonnage. A pier of four or five +hundred yards is built out into the sea, alongside of +which was moored during the tempestuous days of +the last week of July (1886) her Majesty's mail-boat—a +large-sized sailing yacht, provided with a cabin and +forecastle, and manned by a remarkably civil and +obliging crew. But it is to be lamented that no steamer +has as yet been placed on the line between Galway +and Aran, in consequence of which, frequently for four +or five days, communication with the mainland becomes +impossible. Letters remained unanswered, and newspapers +remained unread; so that nation might rise +against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, but the +islanders in happy repose, undisturbed by the postman +or by the magnetic wire, would in their isles of peace<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> +have happily lived on in blissful ignorance of the painful +turmoils that reigned around.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE BLACK-EYED HEBÈ.</div> + +<p>At the hotel the tourist will be served with a homely +and wholesome fare—prime veal and sweet and +tender mutton, for the Aran herbage is renowned +for the tenderness of the meat that it produces. At +dinner a bottle of the mountain-dew, with a smell +as divine as it is illegal, may be by accident produced; +and for all this, when the guest requests that he might +be informed of the charges, the reply ten to one will +be, "Oh, anything your honour likes to give!"—at +least, such was said by the black-eyed Hebè who +ministered to the wants of the writer of these pages.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE FLORA OF ARAN.</div> + +<p>The Aran landscape as your vessel approaches from +Galway is a peculiar one—peculiar to Aran. From +the soft sea beach on the Galway side of the island, +which varies in breadth from one to four miles across, +slope fields of bare rocks terrace over terrace, sometimes +nine in number, until they reach the topmost +cliff on the south-west or ocean side hundreds of feet +over the Atlantic. This terraced landscape has the +appearance of being a barren and rocky wilderness; +but on closer inspection threads of fresh green herbages +can be traced in the cleavages and deeply cut fissures +of the rocks, and it is in those cleavages that the +richest profusion of botanical specimens are to be +found. The cleft upon which we stood was teeming +with purple heather, foxglove, scarlet geranium, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> +wild thyme, with the golden leaf of the variegated +ivy; the crimson berries of the orchis and the red +fruit of the wild strawberry forming a rich contrast to +the delicate blue of the forget-me-not. Here, too, +were the harebell and speedwell, fringed with the +delicate frond of the maidenhair fern. In other +clefts was the richness of the white and red clover, +intermingled with a variety of medicinal herbs, amongst +which were the wild garlic and the kenneen or fairy +flax, much relied on for its medicinal qualities. In +several of the localities in the islands the tormentil +root, which serves in place of bark for tanning, and +another plant which gives a fine blue dye and which +the islanders use in colouring woollen cloths manufactured +by them for their own wear, are to be found. +The Aran isles contain many rare plants; but, owing +to the absence of turf bogs and scarcity of damp +ground, there are neither marshy nor heathy plants, +nor sedges, nor rushes. Even so, the flora of Aran is +decidedly rich. On the hillsides are a great variety +of flowering plants indigenous to the soil, which +blossom at different times of the year. In the rocky +dells there are several kinds of convolvulus of very +rich florescence. The Madagascar periwinkle seems +to be perfectly acclimatized and blossoms profusely, +and we were happy to find an abundant growth of +hops, the introduction of which is ascribed to the +monks of the olden time.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span></p> + +<div class="sidenote">ORNITHOLOGY OF ARAN.</div> + +<p>The tillage of the islands comprises potatoes, +mangold wurzel, vetches, rape, clover, oats, and barley. +The potatoes almost exclusively planted are "the +Protestants;" and a Protestant tourist unarmed felt +somewhat alarmed at the startling intelligence that +"dinner would be ready as soon as the Protestants +that were on the gridiron would be roasted." The +dinner brought up, need it be told that our Anglican +friend enjoyed the joke of our witty waitress quite as +much as we ourselves did?</p> + +<div class="sidenote">TANKS WANTING IN ARAN.</div> + +<p>The crops are greatly devastated by caterpillars and +grubs. The abundance of these pernicious insects is +attributed to the great scarcity of sparrows and other +small birds. Starlings are seldom seen; but never a +swallow. Sea gulls are numerous, and amongst the +sea birds the osprey or sea eagle is a conspicuous +object. Neither the raven, rook, crow, nor jackdaw +visits the islands; but there is a handsome bird which +is very numerous, especially in the north island. The +chough, which, in addition to plumage dark and +glossy like that of the jackdaw, displays a beak and +legs of bright scarlet. It is said that this bird was +formerly to be seen in flocks on various parts of the +English coasts, and that now it cannot be found in +any part of the United Kingdom except in Aran. +Plovers, gannets, pigeons, duck, teal, and divers breed +abundantly on the rocky ledges. The cliffs are the +resort of countless puffins (<i>Anas Leucopsis</i>); the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> +popular belief being that they spring from the driftwood<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a>. +Their flesh supplies a rich lamp oil, and +their feathers fetch a high price in the London +markets. The capture of these birds is a dangerous +occupation for the cragsmen, who descend from +the cliffs by means of a rope to the haunts of the +puffin, and having spent the night in the dangerous +occupation, ensnaring and killing them as they +sleep on the rocky ledges, they are hauled up in +the morning, having realized ten or twelve shillings +during the night. In the summer of 1816, two unfortunate +fellows engaged in this frightful occupation +missed their footing, and falling, were dashed to pieces +on the rocks below. The solitary bittern, called in +Irish the <i>Boonaun-Laynagh</i>, frequents the low-lying +ground on the Galway side of the island, and hares +and rabbits are very plentiful also. On the barren +sheets of rocks the peasants (denominated lazy and +idle, by lazy and idle writers and speakers) have with +tireless toil walled in and made numberless gardens +in which potatoes mealy and dry are grown. The +meteorological aspirations of the Aran peasant are +for rain, diametrically the opposite of what their +brethren on the mainland desire. A dry summer +gives to Aran a parched and burnt-up hue, when the +cattle faint and die if not removed to the mainland. +Tanks, such as they have in Ceylon, are sadly wanting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> +in those islands, and the expense of their construction +must be a trifling matter indeed.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">ICE-CUT FURROWS.</div> + +<p>One of the most remarkable features in the conformation +of Inishmore is, that between the overlapping +strata or terraces of limestone, thirty-seven +feet in thickness in some places and eighteen in others, +are beds of shale. The highest of the terraces is +320 feet over high-water mark, on the perpendicular +cliff overlooking the Atlantic. On the sixth lowest +of these descending steps the village of Kilronan, the +capital of the island, over against the Galway bay, is +built, and under that terrace and over the seventh is +a shale bed which contains the water supply for the +glebe and upper village wells.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">BOULDERS.</div> + +<p>Those who delight in geological speculations will +find in these isles much to interest them. Here are +deep furrows in the hard rocks, cut as they say by +passing icebergs. One of these ice-cut furrows may be +seen near the shore of Killeany Bay, about two hundred +yards north-east of Lough Atalia, and a quarter +of a mile from Kilronan. It is about seven yards long, +nearly a yard wide, having a bearing of east by north. +Though the icebergs have left their striæ, and though +their passage is marked by the deep furrows cut by +them as they moved, nevertheless the patches of boulder +drift on the surface are few; but the bergs in their +passage from the north district did drop some huge +metamorphic rocks, not one of which is indigenous, so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> +to speak, to the islands, but have been carried from a +district such as that of Oughterard. Strange that some +limestone boulders have also been dropped, carried +from some far-off limestone district. These boulders +have withstood the wreck of ages, but the weather-beaten +rocks under them are so worn as here +and there to present the appearance of pedestals +bearing up the superincumbent masses. Whilst there +is much to arrest the attention as you look from the +hotel windows towards Galway over the Galway bay, +bounded on the north by the grotesque desolation of +the Connemara mountains, and on the south by the +rocky mountains of the county of Clare, it is on the +south-west side of the islands of Aran that the scene +is awfully sublime, terrific, and impressive—rendered +more awful by reason of the confusion of the waters +and of the roaring of the waves of the sea. The heavy +swell of the Atlantic there rolls in angry billows +against the cliffs dark and perpendicular, hundreds of +feet in height—cliffs perforated by winding caverns +worn by the violence of the waves, from one of which, +having an aperture in the surface, was projected a +column of water to the height of a ship's mast. Whilst +many of these cliffs rise perpendicularly from the +ocean, many of them have sea terraces or steps at foot +below the high-water mark. At <i>Illaun-a-naur</i>, on +the south-easterly side of the great island, are sea-terraced +cliffs which are fendered by a rampart formed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> +of enormous blocks of limestone upheaved from the +depths of the ocean and hurled with violence on the +rampart which now forms a foot barrier against +the further encroachment of the Atlantic.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">SEA WEEDS.</div> + +<p>The seaweeds around the Aran islands are peculiarly +fitted for the production and manufacture of kelp, of +which there are two varieties, one made from the +black weed, and the other from the red. The black +usually grows above the low-water mark of the neap-tide, +whilst all the red grows below it. The red +weed kelp is the most valuable, as in general it gives +salts containing iodine. Marine plants, such as the +sea-anemones, the rock-grown samphire, and the sea-cabbage +grow around the islands in great profusion.</p> + +<p>Another remarkable feature in Aran is the enormous +amount of fine quartzose—moving sands which, blown +in thick clouds by the winds, fill the nooks and corners +and crevices of the islands. These sands, which are +said to possess the property of preserving bodies +uncorrupted after death, might be fixed and utilized +in the same manner as the sands of Arcachon on the +west coast of France have been fixed and utilized, +by planting therein vast forests of the <i>Pinus maritima</i>, +the interlacery of whose roots would do the twofold +duty of fixing the sands and creating a soil enriched +by the amount of nitrogen therein digested and deposited. +At Trawmore, on the south of Killeany Bay, +proofs have lately been discovered not only of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> +movement of the sand-hills, but also of the appearance +of fields and buildings submerged on the sea-coast.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">MOVING SANDS IN ARAN.</div> + +<p>These islands in prehistoric times must have suffered +much from the convulsions which then shook the +world—in later times they appear to have suffered +little, though Richard Kirwan the chemist relates that +in his memory, in the year 1774, a fearful thunderstorm +visited Inishmore, when a granite block of +enormous dimensions, called the "Gregory," was +struck by lightning, shattered to atoms, and flung into +the sea.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Denis Florence McCarthy's Poems, p. 87 note.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<div style="margin-left:16em;"> +"Remnants of things that have passed away,<br /> +Fragments of stone reared by creatures of clay."<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 14em;"><i>Siege of Corinth.</i></span> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">THE DRUIDS.</div> + +<p>The "remnants of things that have passed away" are +many on these islands. In no other part of the +United Kingdom are there confined in spaces so +narrow so many monuments of Pagan times; here are +evidences of two great ages of civilization—that of the +Druids and that of the Christians; but, whether of the +Druids or of the Christians, Aran had been the retreat +in early times of the contemplative and the learned. +Sequestered and undisturbed, the natives have even to +this day preserved much of the moral and physical +remains of the ancient world.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">DRUIDISM.</div> + +<p>The Aranites in their +simplicity consider the remains of the Druids as inviolable, +being as they fondly imagine the enchanted +haunts and property of aerial beings, whose power of +doing mischief they greatly dread and studiously propitiate. +The natives believe that the "cairns" or +circular mounds are the sepulchres of the mighty men<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> +of old, men of renown, whose acts and deeds even +now are celebrated in songs sung at the cottage firesides +by minstrels to the strings of the wandering +harper: on every lip are the exploits of Churcullen, +of Gol, son of Morna, of Oscar, and of Ossian, +and here are pointed out the places where they lived +and died. We have also the immense "cromlechs" +or altar flags, supported on perpendicular pillars, as we +may venture to call the unhammered stones of about +three feet in height, whilst under those "cromlechs" +still rest the remains of heroes whose faithful dogs +interred with them bear them company even in death. +Here, too, no bad memory is retained of the sacred +fires of Bal (another name for the sun), which were +kept burning; for the sun, and the moon, and the +stars were by them reverenced; but the sun of the +Druids was supposed to be the most noble type +of the Godhead—the most glorious object of the +material creation. The mysterious stones, twelve in +number, encircling the altars of sacrifice, sometimes +said to be zodiacal rings, after the twelve signs of the +zodiac, are here frequently to be found. The purifying +ordeals the cattle were subject to at Aran until a very +late period are yet there remembered. The sacred +fires on the first day of each of the quarters blazed +from cairn to cairn, amid prayers for the fruits of the +earth, and even yet, on St. John's Eve in June, huge +bonfires are lighted near every village through the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> +island, for the holy flame was considered essential to +the cattle as a preservative from contagious disorders. +The Druids kindled after their manner two immense +fires, with great incantations, close to each other, whilst +between those fires the cattle were driven, and if they +escaped unharmed it was considered as auspicious +as it would be inauspicious for man and beast to be +therein harmed, and hence the saying, "Placed between +the two fires of Baal." Concerning the mysteries of +their religion, the Druids did not commit them to +writing, and therefore it is that so little is known of +their teachings or of what they taught, and what they +did teach is said by some to have been taught in +the Greek language, "to the end," writes Sir Edward +Coke, "that their discipline might not be made so +common amongst the vulgar, nay more, their very +names and appellations may serve as a proof of their +use of the Greek tongue, they being called Druids +from [Greek: Drys], an oak, because, saith Pliny, they frequent +the woods where oaks are, and in all their sacrifices +they use the leaves of those trees."<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p> + +<div class="sidenote">SIR EDWARD COKE ON DRUIDISM.</div> + +<p>With Druidism departed the forests of the ilex and +the quercus from Aran. May we venture to hope +that, in the coming changes, Aran may once more be +re-afforested, and that the islanders, who have now no +coal, no timber, and no turf to burn, may have at least +timber to burn in great abundance in the near future?</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span></p> +<div class="sidenote">FORTRESSES OF ARAN.</div> + +<p>The immense fortresses on the islands are said to be +the finest specimens of barbaric military structures +extant in Europe. Built by the pagan Firbolgs in the +first century of the Christian era, these mortarless +walls, Cyclopean as they are called, having braved the +tempests of nineteen hundred years, still stand. On +the large island, and within four miles of our hotel, +is Dun Ængus, which, covering many acres, is on a +precipice hundreds of feet in height. This fortress, +in the form of a horse-shoe, is unapproachable on the +sea side, where the Atlantic surges heavily against the +solid rock, whose surfaces are seamed, and scarred, +and torn by the violence of the billows driven against +them by the winter tempests. Unapproachable by an +enemy from the sea, it is equally unapproachable by +an enemy from the land, the only entrance thereto +being by a narrow avenue skirting the edge of the +cliff. The fortress consists of three enclosures, the +inner, the middle, and the outer. The inner +measures 160 feet, on what may be called the axis +major from north to south of the horse-shoe on the +ground plan, whilst along the cliff it measures 144 +feet. The mortarless wall which surrounds this inmost +enclosure is about 1100 feet from end to end, by +18 feet in height, and 12 feet in thickness. Now +this one wall is made up of three walls, each four feet +thick, one against the other, like the coats of an +onion, which arrangement occurs in the middle and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> +outside enclosures, and which has this advantage, +that if an enemy should succeed in breaking down the +exterior envelope, he would find behind it a new face +of masonry, instead of the easily disturbed loose +interior of a dry stone wall. The space between this +inner and the next outside, or middle enclosure, is +perfectly clear, leaving ample scope for military +manœuvres. The outside wall, which is almost an +ellipse, encloses about eleven acres, all studded over +with an army of white pointed stones, set slope-wise +into the earth, like almonds on a plum-pudding, +save where a narrow avenue is left, so that no +assailing force could possibly approach the second +wall, without having its ranks broken by those intricate +piles which answer the <i>chevaux-de-frise</i> of modern +fortifications. The doorway with sloping jambs of +Egyptian pattern through the outer wall admits only +one or two assailants together.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">DUN ÆNGUS.</div> + +<p>Dun Conor, an oval fort on the middle island, is +much larger than Dun Ængus, of which we have just +been speaking, the axis major of Dun Conor +measuring 227 feet. It also stands on a high cliff, +and its dry and mortarless walls are built also on the +coat of the onion principle.</p> + +<p>Inisheer, the eastern island, contains a circular Dun +called Creggan-keel. Furmena Castle, also on this +island, was, in later times, the stronghold of the +O'Briens—lords of the islands of Aran—and upon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> +these islands are many more fortresses. There is, +on the north side of Inishmore, Dun Onaght, a +circular Firbolgic fort, measuring 92 feet across; and +on the south-west side, <i>Dubh Cahn</i>, "the black fort," +a Dun or fortress of very rude masonry, of enormous +thickness, and overlooking the cliffs.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">ST. ENDA.</div> + +<p>The Christian remains of the islands are many, and +many are the names of the saints still remembered +who congregated here in the early days of Irish +Christianity. Amongst those remarkable heroes of +the Cross, none appears to have been greater than +St. Enda, who has left his name everywhere in the +islands. To him, indeed, is due much of the success +that followed the footsteps of those missionaries who +won, in the course of centuries, for Aran the appellation +of "Aran of the Saints." Enda was the only son of +Conel, King of Oriel, whose territories included the +modern counties of Louth, Armagh, and Fermanagh. +This Enda had, however, several sisters, the elder +being the wife of the King of Cashel, whose death +is chronicled in the annals of the Four Masters as +of the year 489; the younger was Fancha, the abbess +of an abbey, or nunnery, wherein were educated +ladies of the court, amongst whom was one remarkable +for her great mental and personal attractions. Enda +loved her, and hoped that she would one day share +with him the glories, such as they were, of the throne +of his fathers. His love for his affianced bride amounted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> +to an idolatry, but his idolatry must end, and his idol +must die an early death. The abbess brought him +weeping into the chamber where the corpse of his +loved one was laid. Fancha then reminded him of +how favour is deceitful and how beauty is vain, and +how the day, dim and remote, would still come when +he would be as his affianced bride now was. "Love +not the world, nor the things that are in the world!" +exclaimed the abbess with a vehemence that her +earnestness inspired. That world was then abjured, +and straightway he entered a religious order, that of +the Regular Canons of St. Augustine, and after years +of study and probation, was ordained priest in Rome. +He thence returned to the kingdom of Oriel in +Ireland, where he built several churches. Having +visited his sister and her husband the King of Cashel, +the latter was, after much hesitation, persuaded to +confer upon God and upon Enda the islands of Aran. +Possession of a place so retired and so suited to study +and contemplation being thus obtained, Enda introduced +there a multitude of holy men, monks to live +like the Essenes of old, a contemplative life. He +divided the islands into ten parts, and built ten +monasteries, each under the rule of its proper superior; +whilst he chose a place for his own residence on the +eastern coast of the western island of Inishmore, and +there erected a monastery, the name and site of which +are preserved even to this day in the little village of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> +Killeany (Kil-Enda), about a mile from Kilronan. +Half the island was assigned to this monastery, and +multitudes from afar flocked to Aran, which became +the home of the learned and the pious.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">ST. BRENDAN.</div> + +<p>Amongst +the remarkable men that there clustered, were St. +Kieran, founder of Clonmacnoise, who died in 549, +and St. Brendan. The history of the latter abounds +with fable, but it is admitted that a thousand years +before Christopher Columbus, he crossed the Atlantic +and landed on the coast of Florida, where there is +a strip of country which, according to Humboldt, in +his Cosmos, bore the name of <i>Irland it Milka</i>, +"Ireland of the white man." The visit of St. +Brendan to Aran, previous to his departure to the +great western continent, has been described by one +of the most musical of our poets—Denis Florence +MacCarthy—as follows:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left:15em;"> +"Hearing how blessed Enda lived apart,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Amid the sacred caves of Aran-mör,</span><br /> +And how beneath his eye, spread like a chart,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lay all the isles of that remotest shore;</span><br /> +And how he had collected in his mind<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">All that was known to the man of the "old sea,"<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></span><br /> +I left the hill of miracles behind,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And sailed from out the shallow sandy Leigh.</span><br /> +<br /> +"Again I sailed and crossed the stormy sound,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That lies beneath Binn-Aite's rocky height,</span><br /> +And there upon the shore, the saint I found<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Waiting my coming through the tardy night.</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span>He led me to his home beside the wave,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Where with his monks the pious father dwelled,</span><br /> +And to my listening ear he freely gave<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The sacred knowledge that his bosom held.</span><br /> +<br /> +"When I proclaimed the project that I nursed,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">How it was for this that I his blessing sought,</span><br /> +An irrepressible cry of joy outburst<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">From his pure lips, that blessed me for the thought.</span><br /> +He said that he, too, had in visions strayed,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">O'er the untrack'd ocean's billowing foam;</span><br /> +Bid me have hope, that God would give me aid,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And bring me safe back to my native home.</span><br /> +<br /> +"Thus having sought for knowledge and for strength,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For the unheard-of voyage that I planned,</span><br /> +I left those myriad isles, and turned at length<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Southward my barque, and sought my native land.</span><br /> +There I made all things ready day by day;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The wicker boat with ox-skins covered o'er,</span><br /> +Chose the good monks, companions of my way,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And waited for the wind to leave the shore."</span><br /> +</div> + +<div class="sidenote">ST. FINNIAN.</div> + +<p>Another of St. Enda's disciples was St. Finnian of +Moville—and it was from Aran he set out on his +pilgrimage to Rome. Soon after he returned to +Ireland, bringing with him a copy of the Gospels, the +Papal benediction, and the Canons of St. Finnian. +Again departing for Italy, he was made Bishop of +Lucca, in Italy, where he died in 588.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">ST. COLUMBA.</div> + +<p>St. Columba +spent years in Aran, and deeply was he grieved at +leaving it for Iona. His bitter lament in Irish verse +has been translated into English metre by the late Sir +Aubrey De Vere, Bart., in part as follows:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span>—</p> + +<div style="margin-left:15em;"> +<span style="margin-left:6em;">1.</span><br /> +<br /> +"Farewell to Aran isle, farewell!<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">I steer for Hy; my heart is sore,</span><br /> +The breakers burst, the billows swell,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'Twixt Aran's isle and Alba's shore.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left:6em;">2.</span><br /> +<br /> +"Thus spake the son of God, 'Depart!'<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Oh Aran isle, God's will be done!</span><br /> +By angels thronged this hour thou art:<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">I sit within my barque alone.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left:6em;">3.</span><br /> +<br /> +"Oh Modan, well for thee the while!<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Fair falls thy lot and well art thou,</span><br /> +Thy seat is set in Aran isle,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Eastward to Alba turns my prow.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left:6em;">4.</span><br /> +<br /> +"Oh Aran, sun of all the west!<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">My heart is thine! as sweet to close</span><br /> +Our dying eyes in thee as rest<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Where Peter and where Paul repose.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left:6em;">5.</span><br /> +<br /> +"Oh Aran, sun of all the west,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">My heart its grave hath found;</span><br /> +He walks in regions of the blest,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The man that hears thy church bells sound.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left:6em;">6.</span><br /> +<br /> +"Oh Aran blest—oh Aran blest!<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Accursed the man that loves not thee;</span><br /> +The dead man cradled in thy breast<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">No demon scares him—well is he."<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></span><br /> +</div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span></p> +<div class="sidenote">ST. FURSA.</div> + +<p>Amongst the other ecclesiastical notabilities that +frequented Aran in the sixth century was St. Fursa, +whose life has been written by scores of writers, as +well by the Venerable Bede as by Archbishop Usher, +the greatest ornament of the Protestant Church in +Ireland. The visions of Fursa were, we are informed +by the Rev. J. Carey, in his admirable translation of +Dante, the groundwork of the <i>Inferno</i>. The beautiful +imagery of Fursa's fancy, which threw a charm over +every subject that he handled, may be well illustrated +by his rhapsodies on seeing for the first time the city +of Rome, as staff in hand he wended his way to the +Eternal City. Falling on his knees, with outstretched +arms, he exclaimed, "Rome! oh, Rome! I hail thee, +admirable by apostolic triumphs. Rome, decorated +by the roses of the martyrs, whitened by the lilies of +the confessors, crowned by the palms of the virgins, +thou that containest the bones and relics of the saints, +may thy authority never fade!"<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> Strange, is it not, that +the first sight of the city of Rome should produce in +the minds of men feelings which words almost fail to +convey!</p> + +<div class="sidenote">GIBBON.</div> + +<p>It was eleven hundred years after Fursa's first +salutation to the city of Rome that Edward Gibbon, +when musing amid the ruins of the Capitol whilst +the barefooted friars were singing vespers in the +temple of Jupiter, formed the idea of writing "The +Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," and what his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> +feelings were on seeing for the first time the holy city +he thus in that immortal work informs us: "My +temper is not very susceptible of enthusiasm, and the +enthusiasm which I do not feel I have ever scorned +to affect, but at the distance of twenty-five years, I +can neither forget nor express the strong emotions +which agitated my mind as I first approached and +entered the Eternal City. After a sleepless night I +trod with a lofty step the ruins of the Forum." St. +Fursa, returning on foot through France, died at +Peronne, and his body was conveyed to the island of +Aran, where amongst his <i>quondam</i> brethren he now, +awaiting the resurrection of the just, reposes.</p> + +<p>Of the monuments, as well pre-Christian as Christian, +in these islands, there are twenty-one, vested in the +secretary of the Commissioners of Public Works in +Ireland, to be preserved as national monuments. +(See next page.)</p> + +<div class="sidenote">RUINS.</div> + +<p>Ruins everywhere meet the eye of the tourist in +Aran—ruined abbeys, ruined monasteries, ruined nunneries, +ruined cells, ruined churches, ruined schools, +ruined forts, ruined forests, and ruined towers. With +one exception the churches of Aran face the east. I +heard somewhere, when on the islands, that that is +not exactly true, but that they faced the point of the +compass at which the sun rose on the day that the +foundation stone was laid. Be that as it may, there +is the Oratory of St. Banon, which directly faces the +north. It is fifteen feet long, by seventeen feet high +to the summit of the gables, by eleven feet in breadth. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span></p> + +<p class="center">COUNTY OF GALWAY.</p> +<h5>BARONY OF ARAN.</h5> + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" summary="galway"> +<tr><td align='left'>Parish.</td><td align='left'>Townland.</td><td align='center'>Monuments.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left' rowspan="5" valign="top">Inisheer,<br /> or <br />Lesser Island</td><td align='left' rowspan="5" valign="top">Inisheer</td><td align='left'>Great Fort, with stone-roofed Cells, and O'Brien's Castle.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Fort with Mound and Monument.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Ruins of Church—Kill-Gobnet, etc.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Ruins of Church—Burial-place of Seven Daughters, whose names are unknown.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Ruins of Church—Tempú Coemhan.<br /> </td></tr> +<tr><td align='left' rowspan="4" valign="top">Inishmaan, <br />or <br />Middle Island</td><td align='left' rowspan="4" valign="top">Carrowntemple<br />Carrownlisheen</td><td align='left'>Fort Mothar Dún.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Fort of Conor.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Ruins of Church—Kill Canonagh.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Ruins of Church—Tempú Caireach Derquin.<br /> </td></tr> +<tr><td align='left' rowspan="12" valign="top">Inishmore,<br /> or <br />Great Island</td><td align='left' rowspan="12" valign="top">Onaght<br />Killeaney</td><td align='left'>Fort Dún Ængus.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Fort Dún Eochla.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Dubh Chathair or the Black Fort.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Ruins of Church—Tempú Benin, with rectangular enclosure and group of Cells.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Ruins of Church—Tempú Brecan and Cross.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Ruins of Church—Tempú beg mac Dara.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Ruins of Church—Tempú more mac Dara.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Ruins of Church—Tempú Assurniadhe.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Ruins of Church—Tempú Ciara Monastir.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Ruins of Church—Tempú à Phoill (the seven churches).</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Ruins of Church—Tempú an Cheathrair Aluin.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Ruins of Church—Teglach Enda (St. Enda's Church).<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span></td></tr> +</table></div> + + +<div class="sidenote">CLOGHAUNS.</div> + +<p>Close by are the remains of the hermitage, partly sunk +in the rock, and of some cloghauns, or stone-roofed +dwellings. How those solitaries, who for centuries +held up the lamp of learning which shone across +Europe during the long night which followed the +breaking up of the Roman empire, could live in such +comfortless cells, it is impossible to apprehend: +circular chambers about twenty feet in exterior +diameter, with a hole in the stone beehive roof for a +chimney, and with an Egyptian-like doorway that a +tall man could with difficulty enter. <i>Teampul-Chiarain</i> +has a beautiful eastern window, with some +crosses. Four miles from Kilronan are Kilmurvey +and <i>Teampul McDuach</i>, a sixth-century church, consisting +of nave and choir in beautiful preservation. +There are windows there of remote antiquity, with +lintels formed of two leaning stones; and there is +a semicircular window of great beauty of a more +recent date. There is a stone leaning against the +eastern gable with a rudely cut opening which seems +to have been the head of the more ancient window. +The narrow doorway is like the entrance to an +Egyptian tomb. Another small church, <i>Teampul-beg</i>, +together with a holy well and monastic enclosure, is +worthy of inspection. At the north-western side of +the Inishmore island, and six miles from Kilronan,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> +are the remains of the seven churches, one of which +is called <i>Teampul Brecain</i>—the church of St. Braccan, +who was the founder of the monastery of Ardbraccan, +now the cathedral church of the diocese of Meath. +The ruined church of <i>Teampul-saght-Machree</i> is an +object of interest on the middle island. The eastern +island in ancient times was called <i>Aran-Coemhan</i> in +honour of <i>St. Coemhan</i> (St. Kevin), brother of St. +Kevin of Glendalough. He was one of the most +renowned of the saints of Aran, and is believed to +have not unfrequently abated storms after being +piously invoked.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">CHILDLESS MARRIAGES.</div> + +<p>There is a legend in the islands +worthy of remembrance by those whose marriages are +as yet unblest with children. We speak of that of +St. Braccan's bed, where many a fair devotee has +prayed and has had her prayers granted, as Anna of +old had in the temple of Silo,<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> when the Lord bestowed +on her childless marriage a child who was afterwards +the prophet Samuel.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">ARAN CHURCHES.</div> + +<p>The churches are all of small dimensions—never +more than sixty feet in length—at the eastern end of +which is not unfrequently a chancel in which the altar +was placed. Between the nave of the church and the +chancel was the chancel arch of a semicircular form, +a very beautiful specimen of which exists in the +Protestant cathedral of Tuam. These temples, very +imperfectly lighted by small windows splaying inwards,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> +do not appear to have ever been glazed. The chancel +had usually two or three windows—one of which is +always in the centre of the east end, with another in +the south wall, another in the south wall of the nave, +sometimes, though rarely, two in number. The +windows are frequently triangular-headed, but more +usually arched semicircularly, whilst the doorway is +almost universally covered by a horizontal lintel +consisting of a single stone. In all cases the sides +of the doorways incline like the doorways in the +old Cyclopean buildings, to which they bear a +striking resemblance. The smaller churches were +usually roofed with stone, whilst the larger ones were +roofed with wood covered with thatch. The wells are +carefully preserved, the scarcity of water rendering the +possession of a well almost as precious to them as to +the Eastern shepherds in the days of Rebecca.</p> + +<p>The Aran churches, it must be admitted, have little +in them to interest the mind or captivate the senses; +nevertheless, in their symmetrical simplicity, their +dimly lighted naves, in the total absence of everything +that could distract attention, there is an expression +of fitness for their purpose too often wanting +in modern temples of the highest pretensions.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">LIVES OF THE MONKS.</div> + +<p>The +monastic establishments close by contained little that +would savour of luxury. The cells of the friars were +low, narrow huts, built of the roughest materials, +which formed, by the regular distribution of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> +streets, a large and populous village, enclosing within +a common wall a church and hospital, perhaps +a library. The austere inmates slept on the ground, +on a hard mat or a rough blanket, and the same +bundle of palm leaves, served them as a seat by day +and a pillow by night. The brethren were supported +by their manual labour, and the duty of labour was +strenuously recommended as a penance, as an exercise, +and as the most laudable means of securing their daily +subsistence. "<i>Laborare est orare</i>" was a monastic +maxim. The garden and the fields which the industry +of the monks had rescued from the forest or +the morass were cultivated by their ceaseless toil. +In the evening they assembled for vocal or mental +prayer, and they were awakened by a rustic horn, +or by the convent bell in the night, for the public +worship of the monastery. Even sleep, the last +refuge of the unhappy, was rigorously measured; and +it was to lives of self-denial like this that great +multitudes in the first century of the Christian era +betook themselves. Pliny, who lived when Christ was +crucified, surveyed with astonishment the monks of +the first century, "a solitary people," he says, "who +dwelt amongst the palm trees near the Dead Sea, who +increased, and who subsisted without money, who +fled from the pleasures of life, and who derived from +the disgust and repentance of mankind a perpetual +supply of voluntary associates."<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span></p> +<div class="sidenote">ORDNANCE SURVEY.</div> + +<p>On Inisheer island is a signal tower, and near it +is an old castle on an eminence. Here is shown the +"bed of St. Coemhan," much famed for its miraculous +cures. On the south-west point is a lighthouse +showing a light one hundred and ten feet in height. +It is stated in the <i>Leabhar-braec</i> that one of the Popes +was interred in the great island of Aran. The same +is repeated in one of the volumes of the Ordnance +Survey, a work which, never printed, is stowed away +on the shelves of the Royal Irish Academy, liable +at any moment to be destroyed by a conflagration. +In the three or four volumes on the county of Galway +are contained, and in the English language, the +inquisitions of Elizabeth, the subsequent patents of +James I., and much learning touching tithes, fisheries, +abbeys, abbey lands, priories, and monasteries, as +well as letters on these subjects between Petrie and +O'Donovan and other antiquarians employed on that +survey.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> II. Coke's Reports, part iii. Preface, p. viii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> The "Old Sea," the ancient name of the Atlantic in Irish.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> Sir Aubrey De Vere, "Irish Odes," p. 274.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> Colgani, Acta SS. Hiberniæ.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> 1 Sam. i. 9-17.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> Pliny, Hist. Nat., v. 15.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<p class="center">ISLES OF ARAN, 14TH-18TH CENTURIES.</p> + +<div style="margin-left:18em;"> +"Long thy fair cheek was pale,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9em;"><i>Erin Aroon</i>—</span><br /> +Too well it spake thy tale,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9em;"><i>Erin Aroon</i>—</span><br /> +Fondly nursed hopes betrayed,<br /> +Gallant sons lowly laid,<br /> +All anguish there portrayed,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9em;"><i>Erin Aroon.</i>"</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 13em;"><i>Sliabh Cuilinn.</i></span> +</div> + +<div class="sidenote">ANNALS OF ARAN.</div> + +<p><span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1308. The trade of Galway, which at the time +of the Anglo-Norman invasion in the twelfth century +was at zero, rapidly rose to a comparatively high +figure in the fourteenth century. In 1300 the customs +receipts were £24 15<i>s.</i> 2<i>d.</i> at that port, and in 1392, +£118 5<i>s.</i> 10<i>d.</i> This augured well for the progressive +improvement of the town; but that improvement was +blasted for a season by the appearance in the bay of +a fleet of pirates who swept the ships from the seas. +The merchants applied to their powerful neighbour,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span><a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> +Dermot More O'Brien, lord of the isles of Aran, to +succour them in their straits; and for that succour and +the protection which he agreed to give them they +agreed to pay him yearly twelve tuns of wine; the +trade, commerce, and harbour of the town to be +protected, and otherwise by him and his successors +defended, from all and every attack of pirates and +privateers whatsoever, to which intent and purpose, +and for the considerations aforesaid, he covenanted +and agreed to maintain a suitable maritime force. +This Dermot More O'Brien was descended from +Brian [Boru] Boroimhe, slain at the battle of Clontarf +in 1014.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1334. In this year the islands were plundered +by Sir John Darcy, who sailed with fifty-six ships +around the Irish coasts.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">REVOLT OF ARAN.</div> + +<p><span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1400. The rebellion of the Mayo and Clanrickarde +Burkes in the province of Connaught, consequent +on the murder, in 1333, of William De Burgh, +Earl of Ulster and fifth Lord of Connaught, caused +the overthrow for nearly two hundred years, of the +English power in that province. The town of Galway, +oscillating in its allegiance between the Crown and +the Clanricardes, joined that powerful family against +Henry IV., and in their revolt they were joined by the +South Isles of Aran.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">ROYAL LICENSE.</div> + +<p>Thereupon the King did by +royal license permit certain persons to attack the +rebels in the said island, which license is as follows:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span>—</p> + +<p>"The King to all and singular our admirals +mayors and others in our kingdom of England and +lordship of Ireland greeting At the supplication of +John Roderic William Pound Edward White and +Philip Taylor all of Bristol and of Nicholas Kent +burgess of Galway in Ireland In as much as our +aforesaid liege subjects have given to us security that +they shall not nor will presume to make war or afford +cause for making war against any of our faithful Irish +subjects or attempt anything against the form of the +truces entered into between us Wherefore know ye +that we have granted and given license and do hereby +grant and give licence to them the said John Roderic +William Pound Edward White Philip Taylor and +Nicholas Kent that they with as many men at arms +as they choose to have and provide at their own +expenses may take their course for and pass over to +our said lordship of Ireland in four ships called by +the divers names of 'The Christopher' 'the Trusty' +'the Nicholas' and 'the May of Bristol' and there +make war against the rebels and enemies of us in the +said town of Galway and also in the islands of Arran +which lie full of gallies to ensnare capture and plunder +our liege English and further <span class="smcap">know ye all men</span> that +if said John and William and Edward and Philip and +Nicholas shall be able by force and armed power to +obtain and take the town and islands aforesaid they +may have hold and inhabit the same town and islands<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> +taking to their own use and profit all and singular the +property of the aforesaid rebels and enemies of us +and all that which they shall be able so to obtain +and take The right nevertheless and other the rents +revenues services and other moneys whatsumever to +our royal prerogative there pertaining always saved +unto us saving also the right of the son and heir +of Roger de Mortimer late Earl of March deceased +being within age and within our wardship and the +rights of all other liege subjects whomsoever—given +at our Palace at Westminster on the 22nd day of +May in the first year of our reign—<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1400 'By the +King himself'"<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> The town however returning to +its allegiance, the above license was in the same year +revoked.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE REFORMATION.</div> + +<p><span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1485. A monastery was built in this year on +the great island for the Franciscans of the strict +observance; but this community was doomed to be +short lived, for the word had gone forth from Henry +VIII. to suppress the monasteries and they were +suppressed; and the annalists thus, in the Annals of +the Four Masters, <span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1537, chronicle not alone +their overthrow, but the spread of a new religion in +England, "A new heresy and error arose in England +through pride, vain-glory, avarice, sensuality, and +many strange speculations, so that the people of +England went into opposition to the Pope and to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> +Rome. They have demolished the abbeys, sold their +roofs and bells, and there is not one single monastery +from Aran of the Saints to the '<i>Straits of Dover</i>'<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> +that has not been completely destroyed."</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">A STORM.</div> + +<p><span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1560. A tragic occurrence occurred in this +year when Teige O'Brien, lord of the isles, was +returning, loaded with booty if not with honours, to +Aran, from a plundering expedition which he had +made into Munster; from one of the seaports of +which province he had the rashness with his homeward +bound barque to put to sea when a tempest was +said by his sailors to be impending. Deceived by +the "calm before the storm" he insisted on weighing +anchor. It was weighed, and as the starless night was +closing and deepening around him, the gale freshened +as he advanced—his tempest-tossed vessel struggled +amidst the waves, for the wind was high against it—and +when the morning rolled the clouds away, a +broken spar, an oarless boat, were all that remained +to tell the ghastly tale, that every hand on board was +lost. At the entrance of the Great Man's Bay, which +was far out of their course, is even now shown the +spot where on that fatal night they perished.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1570. Morchowe O'Brien, in consideration of +a sum of money to him in hand paid, conveyed these<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> +islands by way of mortgage to James Lynch Fitz +Ambrose and his heirs.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE O'BRIENS.</div> + +<p><span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1575. In June of this year it was agreed +between the mortgagor and mortgagee of the islands +"that in case the sept of clan Tiege O'Brien, the said +mortgagor, should decease and perish, then that James +Lynch Fitz Ambrose, the mortgagee, should be their +sole heir, and possess, Aran, and all other their lands, +and that said O'Brien should not alienate or mortgage +any part or parcel of Aran to any person without the +mortgagee's consent and license." It appears, however, +that Tieg Eturgh, Morchowe Morowe, Conchor McMurchowe, +Terrilagh Meeagh, Tieg McTerrilagh, Dermot +McMurchowe, Tieg McTerrilagh Oge, and Conchor +McMoriertagh, McBrene, gentlemen, all of Aran, and +Dermot McCormick McConnor, of the Castle of +Trowmore, afterwards on July 14, 1575, appointed +Captain Morchowe McTerrilagh O'Brien their attorney +for ransoming the isles of Aran from James Lynch, +that all such parts as he should so ransom should +belong to him (O'Brien) and his heirs for ever.<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a></p> + +<p>It would appear that this Captain Morchowe +McTerrilagh O'Brien, of the Clantiege of Aran, on July +14 of the same year, 1575, was in Galway; and being +there, was minded to claim the privilege his ancestors +had, he alleged, enjoyed of lodgings and meals for two +days and two nights in the town, and the "mayor<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> +calling before him auncient old credibel witnesses, +they declared upon their oaths that they never +heard of their parents or saw the said sept have +no more than two meals in the town, and it was +thereupon ordered that said sept shall have no more +than two meals, they being always bound to serve +attend and wait upon us and in our service as +their ancestors had been, and further that it was +the O'Brien sept that was bound to give lodging +and entertainment to all the commons of Galway, +when they shall repair to the islands of Aran. And +the said mayor did grant and promise O'Brien to be +aiders, helpers, maintainers and assisters, of him +against all persons that would lay siege to spoil the +islands or castle of Aran or otherwise wrong the said +Morchowe or his sept."<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE CLANRICARDES.</div> + +<p><span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1579. Queen Elizabeth, by her charter to the +town of Galway, having recited that Richard III., late +King of England, out of his abundant grace and for +the greater security and safeguard of the town of +Galway, willed and ordained that neither MacWilliam +Burke, Lord of Clanricarde, nor his heirs, should have +any rule or power in the said town of Galway, therein +to act, exact, receive, ordain, or dispose of anything +without the special license, and by the assent and +superintendence of the mayor, bailiffs, and commonalty +of the said town of Galway; appointed the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> +mayor of Galway to be admiral of her and her +successors within the town aforesaid and within and +over the islands of Aran and from the said islands to +Galway.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1580. There died in this year in the islands of +Aran an islander who had reached the extreme old +age of two hundred and twenty years. This patriarchal +inhabitant killed a bullock in his own house every year +for one hundred and eighty years.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE FEROCIOUS O'FLAHERTIES.</div> + +<p><span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1586. In this year the O'Briens, long the +lords of the islands of Aran, "were expulsed from their +territory by ye ferocious O'Flaherties of Iar Connaught." +The matter was brought under the knowledge of the +Crown, who resolved to put an end to the lawless +savagery which existed in those parts, whereby one +sept could, in times of peace, sail on a plundering +expedition against another and expel them, wasting +the country with fire and sword all the time; and +accordingly a commission, under the great seal, was +issued for the purpose of examining the title, if any, +of the O'Flaherties to the islands. Having gone +through the mockery of an inquisition, the commissioners +found that the islands belonged not to the +O'Briens, lords of the isles, nor yet to the O'Flaherties, +who had no title at all, but that they belonged +to her Majesty Queen Elizabeth in right of +her crown and dignity; and accordingly she, by her +letters patent dated January 15th, <span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1587, instead<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> +of restoring them to the ancient proprietors, granted +them entire to Sir John Rawson, of Athlone, gentleman, +and his heirs, on condition that he should retain +constantly on the islands twenty foot-soldiers of the +English nation.<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></p> + +<div class="sidenote">CLAN OF MAC TIEGE O'BRIEN.</div> + +<p><span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1588. When the return of the inquisition +and subsequent patent granting the lands away from +the O'Briens became known, the corporation of +Galway thus petitioned the Queen, in favour of +Murrough McTurlogh O'Brien: "That the Mac +Tieges of Aran, his ancestors, were under her Majesty +and her predecessors the temporal captains or lords +of the islands of Aran, and held their territories +and hereditaments elsewhere under the name of Mac +Tiege O'Brien of Aran, time out of man's memory, +and that they the said corporation, had seen the said +Murrough McTurlogh authorized by all his sept, as +chief of that name, and in possession of the premises +as his own lawful inheritance, as more at large doth +appear in our books of record, wherein he continued +until of late he was, by the usurping power of the +O'Flaherties expelled; and we say, moreover, that +the sept of the Mac Tiege O'Briens of Aran, since the +foundation of this city, were aiding and assisting ourselves +and our predecessors against the enemies of +your majesty and your predecessors in all times and +places, whereunto they were called as true and faithful<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> +and liege people to the crown of England, to maintain, +succour, and assist the town.</p> + +<p> +"(Signed), "<span class="smcap">John Blake</span>, Mayor of Galway,<br /> +<span class="smcap" style="margin-left:4em;">"Walter Martin</span>, Bailiff,<br /> +<span class="smcap" style="margin-left:4em;">"Anthony Kirwan</span>, Bailiff."<br /> +</p> + +<p>Queen Elizabeth heard the appeal, but her Majesty +was inexorable. It is more than probable that the +O'Briens had caused, at least remotely, the alienation +of their inheritance by their own domestic feuds. At +the north extremity of Inishmore, the large island, not +far from Port Murvey, the islanders show a field where +human bones are frequently dug up, and for which +reason it is called <i>Farran-na-Cann</i>, "the field of the +sculls." Here the O'Briens are said at some remote +period to have slaughtered each other almost to +extermination. This sort of self-destruction is the +blackest blot on the page of Irish history. It has +always been, and alas! is Ireland's sad and unalienable +inheritance.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">AN INDUSTRIOUS DISCOVERER.</div> + +<p>Of the patentee, John Rawson, little is +remembered, save that in an instrument enrolled in +the Rolls Office, in 1594, he is called "an industrious +discoverer of lands for the Queen." The O'Flaherties +had now the gratification of seeing the O'Briens, also +an Irish sept, turned out of their inheritance, and the +same granted to a stranger.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">LYNCHES.</div> + +<p>After this period the +property and inheritance of the islands became and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> +were vested in Sir Roebuck Lynch, of Galway. How +Sir Roebuck became proprietor of the islands we +have been unable, with certainty, to learn; but we +might hazard a plausible guess that Sir John Rawson +was granted whatever estate O'Brien had forfeited, +and that what O'Brien did forfeit as mortgagor was +the equity of redemption in the islands; that consequently +Lynch, the mortgagee, remained in possession +of the legal estate, and he, on Rawson failing +to perform the covenants in mortgage deed contained, +foreclosed the mortgage, and thus probably the +fee and the equity of redemption became united in +one and the same person, Sir Roebuck Lynch.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1618. "Indenture of June 20th, between Henry +Lynch, son and heir of Roebuck Lynch, of Galway, +deceased, of the one part, and William Anderson, of +Aran, in said county, of the other, whereby he, the +said Henry Lynch, for and in consideration of a sum +of £50 of English currency to him paid, did thereby +demise and assign all that and those, a moiety of the +said three islands to him, the said William Anderson, +his executors, administrators, and assigns, for a long +term of years, excepting thereout" what must have +then been in the islands, "<i>great trees</i>, mines, and +minerals, and hawks, at an annual rent of £3 Irish, +and a proportion of port corn, as therein is set forth."</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1641. The clan Tiege O'Briens still claimed +the islands as their legitimate inheritance, and, taking<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> +advantage of the troubles of this troubled year, prepared +to attack them with a considerable force, and +with the aid of a gentleman of extensive property +and influence in the county of Clare, Boetius Clancy +the younger. This project, however, was frustrated +by the opposition of the Marquis of Clanricarde, then +governor of the county of Galway.<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a></p> + +<div class="sidenote">ARCHBISHOP O'QUEELY.</div> + +<p><span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1645. The death of Malachy O'Queely, +Catholic Archbishop of Tuam, occurred in this year. +To him John Colgan was indebted for a description +of the three islands of Aran and their churches.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1651. When the royal authority was fast +declining, the Marquis of Clanricarde resolved to +fortify these islands, wherein he placed 200 musketeers +with officers and a gunner, under the command of +Sir Robert Lynch, owner of the islands. The fort of +Ardkyn, in the large island, was soon after repaired +and furnished with cannon, and by this means held +out against the Parliamentary forces near a year after +the surrender of Galway. In December, 1650, the Irish, +routed in every other quarter, landed here 700 men. +On the 9th of the following January, 1300 foot, with +a battering piece, were shipped from the Bay of Galway +to attack them, and 600 men were marched to Iar +Connaught, to be thence sent, if necessary, to the assistance +of the assailants.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">SURRENDER OF ARAN.</div> + +<p>On the 15th the islands surrendered +on the following terms:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span>—</p> + +<p>"Articles concluded between Major James Harrisson +and Captain William Draper, on behalf of the Commissary-General +Reynolds, Commander-in-Chief of the +Parliamentary forces in the isles of Aran, and Captain +John Blackwall and Captain Brien Kelly, commissioners +appointed by Colonel Oliver Synnot, commander +of the Fort of Ardkyn, for the surrender of +the said Fort.</p> + +<p>"(1) It is concluded and agreed that all the officers +and soldiers both belonging to sea and land shall have +quarters, as also all others the clergyman and other +persons within the Fort. (2) That they shall have six +weeks for their transportation into Spain or any other +place in amity with the State of England, and that +hostages shall be given by Colonel Synnot for the +punctual performance of these Articles. (3) That +Colonel Synnot shall deliver up, with all necessaries +of war, by three o'clock this 15th of January, 1652, +before which time all officers and soldiers belonging +to the said Fort shall march with drums beating to the +Church near Ardkyn and there lay down their arms. +(4) That Colonel Synnot and the captains, eight in +number, shall have liberty to carry their swords, the +other officers and soldiers to lay down their arms; +that Commissary Reynolds shall nominate four officers +of the Fort hostages. (5) That Colonel Synnot, with +the rest of the officers and all other persons in the +Fort shall, upon delivering their arms and delivering<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> +their hostages, be protected from the violence of the +soldiery, and with the first conveniency be sent to +the county Galway, there to remain for six weeks in +quarters, in which time they are to be transported +as aforesaid, provided that no person whatsoever +belonging to the Fort of Ardkyn found guilty of +murder be included in these articles, or have any +benefit thereby."</p> + +<div class="sidenote">ERASMUS SMITH.</div> + +<p>The Parliamentary forces, on taking possession of +the fortifications, found several large pieces of cannon, +with a considerable quantity of arms and ammunition; +they seized also a French shallop with twenty-eight +oars and several large boats. The Fort was soon +after repaired and strongly reinforced. The late proprietor +of the islands, Sir Robert Lynch, was declared +a forfeiting traitor, and his right made over to Erasmus +Smith, Esq., a London adventurer whose interest was +afterwards purchased by Richard Butler, created Earl +of Aran in 1662.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1653. The castle of Ardkyn was by order of +the Lord Protector pulled down, and a strong fort +erected in its place. Thenceforth Aran became the +place of transportation for the Catholic clergy, whilst +on the mainland the most violent acts of oppression +and injustice openly took place. The King's arms and +every other emblem of royalty were torn down, and +fifty priests were shipped for Aran<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> until they could<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> +be transported to the West Indies, they being allowed +sixpence a day each for their support.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">QUIT RENT.</div> + +<p><span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1670. On the 9th of September, Charles II., +by patent under the Act of Settlement, granted to +Richard, Earl of Aran, the great island, containing 2376 +acres statute measure, all situate in the half barony +of Aran, county of Galway, at the annual rent of +18<i>s.</i> 5½<i>d.</i> crown rent, payable to the King and his +successors. We may observe that the "crown rent" +payable to the Crown for lands is the same rent as +that which was formerly paid to the abbot or prior +of the abbeys and priories confiscated from them +under the statute of Henry VIII.—consequently +lands held under the religious houses pay crown +rent even to this day. Quit rent (<i>Quietus Redditus</i>) +in the province of Connaught, merely three halfpence +an acre, was for the first time imposed at +the Restoration, and amounts in the islands of Aran +to £14 8<i>s.</i> 4<i>d.</i></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1687. A grant was made in this year by James +II. of three-fourths of the tithes of Aran islands to the +Most Reverend John Vesey, D.D., Protestant Lord +Archbishop of Tuam, and his successors in the See. +One could readily account for his Majesty's bestowing +the tithes in question on the Catholic archbishop, +but why he bestowed them on the Protestant line +appears unaccountable; yet so it is stated in the +appendix to the report of the Royal Commission<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> +(1868) on the revenues and condition of the Established +Church, page 191.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1691. On the surrender of Galway to the +arms of William and Mary, a garrison was sent to +Aran, and a barrack therein built in which soldiers +were for many years stationed.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE FLORA OF ARAN.</div> + +<p><span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1700. An excursion was made to the islands +in this year by one whose name is well known by +those who prefer to contemplate the silent life of +vegetation to the saddening spectacle of man at variance +with his fellow-man. Edward Lnwyd spent many +months inspecting the flora of the islands, and having +done so, made his report upon them, which is said to +be a marvel in its way.</p> + +<p>The fee of the islands had become vested in +Edmund Fitzpatrick of Galway, Esquire; and he in +1717 demised the whole island of Inisheer to Andrew +French of Galway, merchant, for thirty-one years, at +the yearly rent of £100, with liberty to cut and carry +away as much straw from Straw Island as should be +deemed necessary to thatch the houses on the island +of Inisheer.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">ROYAL FRANCHISE.</div> + +<p><span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1746. The case of <i>The Mayor of Galway</i> v. +<i>Digby</i>, conversant as it was with the royalties of the +islands of Aran, caused great excitement in the town +during the summer assizes of the year. The action was +tried before Mr. Justice Caufield. Mr. Staunton, Mr. +French, and another, appeared as counsel for the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> +plaintiff; Mr. John Bodkin and Mr. Morgan for the +defendant. The case as stated by the learned counsel +for the plaintiff was that from times of remote antiquity +the O'Briens were lords of the isles of Aran, or to use +somewhat of legal phraseology, were lords of the +manor of Aran, and as such, and in their manorial +rights they were entitled to all the royal franchises, +wrecks, and other strays washed on the shores either +of the islands or mainlands of the bay. But the Crown +had made a grant of the royal franchises away from +the lords of the manor, and had conferred the same +on the Admiral of the Bay of Galway, the office of +Admiral of the Bay belonging to and being held by +the mayor of the town. Now, on the 1st of August, +1745, a great whale, which appeared in the Aran waters, +was stranded, and harpooned by the defendant, who +obtained from it no less than fifty gallons of oil. The +blubber and the whalebone were all there ready to be +transported to the Dublin market, and the defendant +had actually converted to his own use so much of +this royal franchise as would realize a sum of £160. +Plaintiff's patent was full, ample, and large; so full, so +ample, and so large, that he, counsel, could not but +wonder that any lawyer at the bar would sign the +pleadings in a case in which a verdict must be +directed on the spot for the plaintiff.</p> + +<p>Counsel for the defendant did not feel so sure of +the success of his learned friend's case as his learned<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> +friend did—quite the reverse; he must and at once ask +the learned judge for a direction that the verdict be +entered for him. He, Mr. Bodkin, admitted that a +sturgeon and a whale were royal fish, but they were +governed by widely different principles of law. If a +sturgeon had been washed on the shore, then the +King or his grantee could claim it and grant it to +whomsoever they pleased, and the grantee here would +not be entitled to it at all; but the whale is not the +King's property to grant. Half of the whale is the +perquisite of the Queen consort, and that being so, +the grant fails. The King is only entitled to the head +and the Queen to the tail. It was in old law laid +down to be for the Queen's convenience to have +abundance of whalebone for her boudoir, and so it +is said in Bracton [l. 3. ch. 3], "of the sturgeon let +it be noted that the King shall have it entire, but it +is otherwise of the whale, for the King shall have the +head and the queen the tail, <i>sturgeone observetur quod +rex illum habebit integrum: de Balena vero sufficit si +rex habeat caput et regina caudam</i>." A verdict was +directed against the plaintiff, but whether any after +move was made in the matter, or whether the Attorney-General +intervened, we have been unable to discover. +Suffice it to say that the corporation of Galway +interfered no more in the matter.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1754. John Digby demised the island of +Inisheer to William MacNamara of Doolin, county<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> +Clare, for thirty-one years, at an annual rent of +£90.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">ARCHBISHOP PHILLIPS.</div> + +<p><span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1786. The Catholic Archbishop of Tuam, the +most Rev. Philip Phillips, D.D., partaking of the hospitality +of the parish priest of Aran, stopped a week in +the islands: sleeping, however, on a bed of rushes, +to which he had been unused, he got an attack of +bronchitis, of which he shortly after died at Cloonmore, +in the county of Mayo. One would have thought that +he could have outlived a discomfort of that trivial +kind, for he had been in early life a soldier—not a +feather-bed soldier, but a distinguished officer in the +Austrian service, and therefore it was that he was +called Captain Phillips to the last hour of his life. +It is not unworthy of remark that this prelate had, +previous to his translation to Tuam, been Bishop of +Killala, to which see he had in 1760 [1 Geo. III.] +been by James III., King <i>de jure sed non de facto</i> of +Great Britain and Ireland, nominated as appears by +the apostolic letter of Clement XIII., dated Rome, +November 24, 1760.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">EARL BUTLER OF ARAN.</div> + +<p>In the peerage we find that the earldom of Aran +has been twice bestowed on families bearing different +names. First in 1662, when Richard Butler (son of +James, the twelfth Earl and first Duke of Ormonde) +was created Earl of Aran. The honours of this +nobleman having expired on his death without issue, +the earldom was revived in 1693 in favour of Lord<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> +Charles Butler, brother of James, the second Duke +of Ormonde. The story of the second Duke of +Ormonde is a sad one. Having filled the highest +offices in the state in Ireland under Charles II., +he forgot his allegiance to his brother James II., +and went over to the ranks of William and Mary. +In 1702 he was constituted by Queen Anne Commander-in-Chief +of the Forces of Great Britain, sent +against France and Spain, when he destroyed the +French fleet and sunk the Spanish galleons in the +harbour of Vigo, for which important services he +received the thanks of both houses of Parliament. In +1715 (2 George I.), his grace was attainted by +the British but not by the Irish House of Parliament +of high treason, and £10,000 set upon his head should +he land in Ireland. His grace then retired to Avignon, +and died in 1745, a pensioner of the crown of Spain. +Upon the duke's death the Earl of Aran became +entitled <i>de jure</i> to the dukedom, but was not aware +of his rights, which he never claimed, being of opinion +that the British Parliament destroyed not only the +English but the Irish titles of honour of his deceased +brother, the second duke. The Earl of Aran died +without issue male, December 17, 1758, when the title +became and was extinct.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">GORE, EARL OF ARAN.</div> + +<p>After four years, in 1762, the +earldom was bestowed on another noble house, that of +Gore, in the person of Sir Arthur Gore, and from him +is descended Sir Arthur Charles William Fox Gore,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> +fifth Earl of Aran, born on the night of storm, January +6, 1839.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1857. The islands were visited by the +British Association, under the leadership of Sir William +Wilde, M.D., and the results of the visit were subsequently +embodied in an interesting pamphlet by +Martin Haverty, Esq., long assistant librarian to the +Honourable Society of the King's Inns, Dublin. +Subsequently the Earl of Dunraven, accompanied +by a number of scientific friends, proceeded to the +islands, when a series of magnificent photographs +were executed, printed, and published under the +supervision and direction of the accomplished editor, +Miss Stokes, who has edited that ponderous work +which throws so much light on the early history of +this country.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> O'Hart's "Landed Gentry," p. 124, edit. 1884.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> Pat. Rolls, 1 Hen. IV. 7. m.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> "The Straits of Dover" does not occur in the Annals, but +the word which does so occur is construed by the commentator +to be those "straits."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> Hardiman, "History of Galway," p. 208 note.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> Hardiman's History of Galway, p. 207.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> Pat. Rolls, 31 Eliz.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> Clanricarde Memoirs, p. 71.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> Froude's English in Ireland, vol. i., p. 134.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<div style="margin-left:16em;"> +"Where the tints of the earth and the hues of the sky,<br /> +In colour though varied, in beauty may vie,<br /> +And the purple of ocean is deepest in dye."<br /> +<span style="margin-left:10em;"><i>Bride of Abydos.</i></span><br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">THE ARAN ISLANDERS.</div> + +<p>We have thus far spoken of the scenery of the islands, +and of their natural history, of their antiquities, Pagan +and Christian, and of their annals; let us now turn to +speak of their people and of what others think of them. +Doctor Petrie thus, in 1841, writes:</p> + +<p>"I had heard so much of the Aran islanders, of +their primitive simplicity, and singular hospitality, +that I could not help doubting the truth of a picture +so pleasing and romantic, and felt anxious to ascertain +by personal observation how far it might be real. +Collectively, the inhabitants may be said to exhibit +the virtues of the Irish character with as little intermixture +of vices as the lot of humanity will permit.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">A POLITE PEOPLE.</div> + +<p>"They are a brave and hardy race, industrious and +enterprising, as is sufficiently evidenced, not only by +the daily increasing number of their fishing vessels, +the barren rocks which they are covering with soil<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> +and making productive, but still more by the frequency +of their emigration from their beloved homes and +friends to a distant country, led solely by the +hope that their indefatigable labour may be employed +there to the greater ultimate benefit of their +families.</p> + +<p>"They are simple and innocent, but also thoughtful +and intelligent, credulous, and, in matters of faith, +what persons of a different creed would call superstitious. +Lying and drinking, the vices which Arthur +Young considers as appertaining to the Irish character, +form at least no part of it in Aran, for happily their +common poverty holds out less temptation to the +vices of lying and drinking.</p> + +<p>"I do not mean to say they are rigidly temperate, +or that instances of excess, followed by the usual Irish +consequences of broken heads, do not occasionally +occur—such could not be expected, when their convivial +temperament and dangerous and laborious +occupations are remembered. They never swear, +and they have a high sense of decency and propriety, +honour and justice. In appearance they are healthy, +comely, and prepossessing; in their dress (with few +exceptions) clean and comfortable; in manner serious +yet cheerful, and easily excited to gaiety; frank and +familiar in conversation, and to strangers polite and +respectful, but at the same time free from servile +adulation. They are communicative, but not too<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> +loquacious; inquisitive after information, but delicate +in seeking it, and grateful for its communication.</p> + +<p>"If the inhabitants of the Aran islands could be +considered as a fair specimen of the ancient, and +present wild Irish, the veriest savages in the globe, +as the learned Pinkerton calls them—those whom +chance has led to their hospitable shores to admire +their simple virtues would be likely to regret that +the blessings of civilization had ever been extended +to any portion of this very wretched country."<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a></p> + +<div class="sidenote">RESIGNATION OF THE ARANITES.</div> + +<p>The devotional expressions of the Aranites and the +meekness and resignation with which they bear misfortunes +or afflictions is the most striking feature in +their character. "I had a beautiful girl for a daughter," +said an Aranite peasant, "and I laid her in her grave +yesterday, praise be to His holy Name that took her +to Himself." A poor woman asking for charity tells +you that "she hasn't eaten a bit this day, thanks be +to God." Another says, "In troth I have been suffering +for a long time from poverty and sickness, glory +be to God." Their mode of salutation, too, is worthy +of remembrance. The visitor on entering a house +says, "God save all here." Meet a man on the road, +greet him with a "God save you, sir;" instantly he'll +remove his hat and reply, "God save you kindly, your +honour." If you pass by men working in a field, always +address them with a "God bless the work, boys;" they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> +will answer, "And you too, sir," and if you speak in +Irish so much the better, and how their eyes will +brighten up at hearing their mother-tongue spoken by +"a gentleman's honour!"</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THEIR PURITY OF MORALS.</div> + +<p>To the purity of the morals of the Aran women +there are many testimonies. Births of illegitimate +children are of rare occurrence indeed. Sir Francis +Head, in 1852, made a tour through Ireland, looking +into every police barrack as he passed, and when all +that was done he published a work entitled "A Fortnight +in Ireland." Unsparing in his vilifications of the +Catholic clergy, he is compelled to compare the +people to whom they minister favourably with those +of other countries in the world. Arriving in Galway +his first visit was to the police barrack, where he +inquired of the officer as to the morals of the +Claddagh people, when the south isles of Aran thus +came to be mentioned.</p> + +<p>Sir F. Head. "How long have you been on duty +in Galway?"</p> + +<p>The officer replies, "Only six months."</p> + +<p><i>Question.</i> "During that time have you known of +many instances of illegitimate children being born +in the Claddagh?"</p> + +<p><i>Answer.</i> "Not a single case—not one; and not +only have I never known of such a case, but I never +heard any person attribute immorality to the fishwomen. +I was on duty in the three islands of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> +Aran, inhabited almost exclusively by fishermen, who +also farm potatoes, and I never heard of any one of +their women (who are remarkable for their beauty) +having had an illegitimate child, nor did I ever hear +it attributed to them. Indeed I have been informed +by a magistrate who lived in Galway for eight years, +and has been on temporary duty in the isles of Aran, +that he has never heard there of a case of that nature. +These people, however, when required to pay poor-rates, +having no native poor of their own in the +workhouse, resisted the payment of what they considered +a very unjust tax. In fact they closed their +doors when the rate was only partially collected."</p> + +<p>Three and twenty years after Sir Francis Head wrote +the above we read in the writings of Frank Thorpe +Porter, Esq., a member of the Irish Bar, long a divisional +magistrate for the city of Dublin, and some time +acting chief justice for Gibraltar, a further testimony +of the worth of the islanders. On his return from +Spain, he visited his son, Mr. Frank Porter, M.D., +medical officer of the islands,<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> and whilst he was there +several cases of typhus fever of a malignant type +occurred.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THEIR KINDNESS.</div> + +<p>The cottages are, with three or four exceptions, +thatched and without any upper storey. The invariable +course adopted during the prevalence of the +epidemic was to nail up the door of the patient's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> +apartment, to take out the sashes of the window, and +render it the sole means of external communication. +The medical attendant, priests, and nurse tenders had +no other means of ingress and egress, and no objection +appears to have ever been made to the system. +Doctor Porter was stricken down by the disease, and +although ten days had elapsed before a medical +gentleman arrived from Galway, the doctor surmounted +the fearful malady. "I spent," writes Mr. +Porter, "each night in my son's apartment, and +during the day he was attended by a nurse. Almost +every night I heard some gentle taps outside the +vacant window, and on going over to it, I would be +told 'My wife is afther making a pitcher of whey for +the poor docthor, you'll find it on the windy-stool;' or +'I brought you two jugs of milk to make whey for +your son.' When the crisis had passed, and nutriment +and stimulants were required, I would be told, 'We +biled down two chickens into broth for the docthor, +I hope it will sarve him.' Rabbits, chickens, and +joints of kid were tendered for his use, and a bottle of +'rale Connemara Puttyeen,' was deposited on the +window-stool. The people were all kind and anxious, +and when he became able to walk out he was constantly +saluted and congratulated; but no person would +approach him if they could avoid it. They were all +dreadfully apprehensive that he might impart the +dreadful contagion. I brought him home as soon as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> +possible, but he and I will always remember most +gratefully the unvarying kindness and sympathy we +experienced in Aran where they refused to take a +farthing either for gratuity or compensation."</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THEIR HOSPITALITY.</div> + +<p>On September 3, 1886, Mr. R.F. Mullery, clerk +of the Galway Union, thus, in answer to my letter +to him, writes:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The present poundage-rate, one shilling in the +pound, is exceptionally low, owing to a grant of £440, +under the 'relief of the distressed Unions Act,' having +been made to the islands. The average rate for the +last ten years was three shillings in the pound. We +never have islanders. There is no hospital, though +there ought to be one, on the islands, as the sick poor +are deterred from coming thirty miles by boat to the +workhouse. The general health is exceptionally good, +and very many live to a very old age. I have an +opportunity of knowing this, as I have to examine the +registry of deaths at the end of each quarter. The +islanders as a rule are very intelligent, and quick at +picking up anything they can either hear or see; +and, best of all, they are a moral people, a case of +illegitimacy scarcely ever occurring in the islands, and +then it is looked on as a crime of the blackest dye.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 20em;">"I have the honour, etc.,</span><br /> +<span class="smcap" style="margin-left: 24em;">"Robert F. Mullery.</span>"<br /> +</p></div> + +<p>The following extract from a letter written by my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> +learned friend, Philip Lyster, Esq., barrister-at-law, +resident magistrate of the district in which Aran is +situated, bears testimony to the peaceful and law-abiding +character of the islanders:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p><span style="margin-left: 22em;">"Belfast, September 26, 1886.</span></p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">My dear Burke</span>, +</p> + +<p>"My absence from Galway upon special +duty in the north has prevented my replying to your +note of the 18th inst. until now.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THEIR INDUSTRY.</div> + +<p>"The Aran islanders as a body are an extremely +well-behaved and industrious people. There are +sometimes assaults on each other, which invariably +arise out of some dispute in connection with the land, +and are generally between members of the same family. +There are very few cases of drunkenness. I have +known two months to elapse without a single case +being brought up. I should say that for four years, +speaking from memory, I have not sent more than +six or seven persons to jail without the option of a +fine. There is no jail on the islands. We hardly +ever have a case of petty larceny. I remember only +one case of potato stealing, when the defendant was +sent for trial and punished. There are often cases of +alleged stealing of seaweed in some <i>bona-fide</i> dispute as +to the ownership, which we then leave to arbitration +by mutual consent. I know very little of the history +of the islands. In the last century justice used to be +administered by one of the O'Flaherty family, the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span>father of the late James O'Flaherty, of Kilmurvy House, +Esq., J.P. He was the only magistrate in the islands, +but ruled as a king. He issued his summons for +'the first fine day,' and presided at a table in the open +air. If any case deserved punishment he would say +to the defendant, speaking in Irish, 'I must transport +you to Galway jail for a month.' The defendant +would beg hard not to be transported to Galway, +promising good behaviour in future. If, however, his +worship thought the case serious, he would draw his +committal warrant, hand it to the defendant, who +would, without the intervention of police or any one +else, take the warrant, travel at his own expense to +Galway, and deliver himself up, warrant in hand, at +the county jail. I am afraid things are very much +changed since those days. Excuse my not going more +fully into the subject-matter of your letter. Duties +here are heavy. Believe me,</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 22em;">"Sincerely yours,</span><br /> +<span class="smcap" style="margin-left: 24em;">"Philip Lyster.</span>"<br /> +</p></div> + +<div class="sidenote">THEIR DRESS.</div> + +<p>The dress of the islanders is said, by those who +understand such things, to be picturesque; but beyond +all doubt their shoes, or rather slippers, made of +untanned cow-hide with the hairy side out, and +without heels and without soles, are the most +unpicturesque foot-dress in Europe. These they call +Pampoodies.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THEIR PAMPOODIES.</div> + +<p>The raw cow-hide, which is cut to fit<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> +the foot, is stitched down the instep to the toe and +also on the back of the heel. Soft as a glove, the +wearer soon acquires an elasticity of step and an erect +and noble bearing in his walk, to which the wearer +of the more picturesque boot can never attain. +There are two things, it is said, not to be found in +Aran—corns on the foot and frogs in the fens. +The young women on Sundays have their hair +trimmed and bound up very tastily; but what ornament +can these young people put on equal to the +virtuous characters they bear? On Sundays and +holy days the churches are well filled, and the altars +well served by priests as zealous as the Catholic +Church can in Ireland lay claim to—the Rev. Father +O'Donohoe, P.P., and the Rev. Father Waters, C.C.</p> + +<p>The extreme politeness of the islanders, and their +desire to impart any knowledge they possess of +antiquarian lore or of the legends or fairy tales with +which the islands abound, must strike with force the +mind of the observing tourist. Their reverence for +the dead, and their affection for their loved and +departed friends, impel them to erect, sometimes in +long lines on the roadside, square stone pillars about +ten feet in height by three feet each side, all of the +same measurements, surmounted each with a well-cut +stone cross and with inscriptions such as the following: +"<i>Sta viator.</i> Stay, traveller. O Lord have +mercy on the soul of Mac Dara Ternan, who departed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> +this life 26th June, 1842." These monuments of the +dead, who are generally interred in far-distant churchyards, +have by moonlight a ghastly appearance.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THEIR HOLY WELLS.</div> + +<p>The +reverence of the Aranite for holy wells is great, nor +will he suffer in silence his faith in them to be ridiculed. +"Can you," said a stranger, "be so silly as to believe +that that well gushing out of the hillside was placed +there by a saint, in dim and remote ages?" The +peasant replied that a well on a mountain side or on +a mountain top appeared to him to be miraculous. +"And isn't it, sir, wonderful to see water on the top +of a hill? And it must flow up the hill inside before it +can flow down the hill outside;" and water flowing up +the hill inside or outside was to his mind miraculous. +The stranger answered that, "the water may have +been forced up from some far-off lake on a higher +level." The peasant's answer was, "that may be so +and it may not be so, but your honour does not give +us any proof that it is so." Wells in all ages and in +all places are associated with the marvellous, even +from the well of Zem-zem to that on the Aran rocks, +and we are not so sure that the geological stranger was +quite satisfactory as to his theory of wells on a +mountain summit.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE ISLE OF O'BRAZIL.</div> + +<p>Speaking of the wonders by which the native of +Aran is surrounded, what wonder can be greater than +that of the mirage, an island that is said to rise after +sunset from the Atlantic? A phantom island which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> +the people call "O'Brazil, the Isle of the Blest," upon +which a city like the New Jerusalem is built, and the +old men say that that city hath no need of the sun +nor of the moon to shine in it, neither does it need +the light of the lamp any more at all. That island +with that city has, they say, over and over again +appeared far away on the Atlantic. Alison, we +remember, somewhere in his charming account of the +French in Egypt, gives a note on the mirage of the +desert, where the parched-up soldiers of the French +republic, in 1798, used to see far-distant lakes into +which tumbled the waters of mighty waterfalls. On, +on the French soldiers rushed. Alas! the phantom +vanished; and so vanishes the phantom city seen on a +summer evening from the lofty cliffs of the Aran +islands. To follow in search of this "Isle of the Blest" +an Aranite peasant once resolved. He had heard of +St. Brendan and of Christopher Columbus, and of those +mariners who, sailing over the seas in search of fame +and of gold, were fortunate enough to find both. The +peasant, in spite of all persuasion, set sail.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">A PHANTOM-ISLAND.</div> +<p> +The phantom receded; he followed. Still following, he +never returned to Aran again, and his mournful fate +is thus sung by Gerald Griffin:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left:16em;"> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">1.</span><br /> +"On the ocean that hollows the rocks where ye dwell,<br /> +A shadowy land has appeared, as they tell;<br /> +Men thought it a region of sunshine and rest,<br /> +And they called it O'Brazil, the Isle of the Blest.<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span>From year unto year on the ocean's blue rim,<br /> +The beautiful spectre showed lovely and dim;<br /> +The golden clouds curtained the deep where it lay,<br /> +And it looked like an Eden away—far away.<br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">2.</span><br /> +<br /> +"A peasant who heard of the wonderful tale,<br /> +In the breeze of the Orient loosened his sail;<br /> +From Aran, the holy, he turned to the west,<br /> +For though Aran was holy, O'Brazil was blest.<br /> +He heard not the voice that called from the shore,<br /> +He heard not the rising wind's menacing roar:<br /> +Home, kindred, and safety, he left on that day,<br /> +And he sped to O'Brazil away—far away.<br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">3.</span><br /> +<br /> +"Morn rose on the deep, and that shadowy isle,<br /> +O'er the faint rim and distant reflected its smile;<br /> +Noon burned on the wave, and that shadowy shore<br /> +Seemed lovely, distant, and faint as before.<br /> +Lone evening came down on the wanderer's track,<br /> +And to Aran again he looked timidly back;<br /> +Oh! far on the verge of the ocean it lay,<br /> +Yet the isle of the blest was away—far away!<br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">4.</span><br /> +<br /> +"Rash dreamer, return! oh, ye winds of the main,<br /> +Bear him back to his own peaceful Aran again;<br /> +Rash fool! for a vision of fanciful bliss<br /> +To barter thy calm life of labour and peace.<br /> +The warning of reason was spoken in vain,<br /> +He never revisited Aran again.<br /> +Night fell on the deep, amidst tempest and spray,<br /> +And he died on the waters away—far away."<br /><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> +</div> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> Stokes' "Life of Dr. Petrie," pp. 49, 50.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> "Reminiscences of Frank Thorpe Porter, Esq.," 1875, p. 489.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2> + +<div style="margin-left:20em;"> +Never Boreas' hoary path,<br /> +Never Eurus' poisonous breath,<br /> +Never baleful stellar lights<br /> +Taint <i>Aran</i> with untimely blights."<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 10em;" class="smcap">Burns.</span> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">OLD AGE IN ARAN.</div> + +<p>The extreme old age to which the inhabitants live +in Aran proves the excellence of the air and of the +food. Neither asthma, nor gout, nor rheumatism are +known in portions of the islands. Formerly there +were forests of oak and of pine in Inishmore, which +must have been peculiarly suited to those who suffered +from diseases of the chest.</p> + +<p>The fishery here begins in the spring, and great +quantities of spillard, cod, ling, haddock, turbot, +gurnet, and mackerel are caught. The natives look +much to the herring fishery, which seldom disappoints +their expectations. In May the pursuit of the sun-fish +gives employment to many, and it appears, from +evidence given before the Irish House of Commons +in 1762, that sun-fish of average size were worth from +£5 to £6 each. Then all manner of shellfish are +in abundance in those waters—multivalves, bivalves,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> +and univalves—lobsters, oysters, periwinkles. The +Aranite may be said to be an amphibious animal—a +fisherman and a farmer, but as a fisherman he +is powerless to cope with them whose ships are built +for the deep sea fishery.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">LAND COMMISSION IN ARAN.</div> + +<p>It was as a farmer we had +the pleasure of seeing him, and in the court of the Land +Commission, which sat in Kilronan on the 20th of +July, 1886. The Land Court presented an animated +appearance on that day, the islanders crowding in to +hear their cases. Unlike any Europeans that we know +of, the men sat or squatted on the floor in manner as +the Mahometans would in the mosques of Bussorah. +Remarkably intelligent, they gave their evidence in +court with an ease and precision, especially when +examined in Irish, which it was refreshing to hear. +Many of the cases stood over from the Land Commission +sittings in the islands on June 25, 1885, +on which occasion there were ninety-five listed for a +hearing, and of these the following, the first heard, is +a fair specimen of all the rest, the Commission +being composed of Mr. Crean, B.L., Professor Baldwin, +and Mr. Barry.</p> + + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Irish Land Commission.</span></p> + +<p>Michael O'Donel, tenant.</p> + +<p>Miss Digby, Landenstown, county Kildare, and the +Hon. Thomas Kenelm Digby St. Lawrence (second +son of Thomas, twenty-ninth baron, third Earl of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> +Howth—by his second wife, Henrietta Digby, only +child of Peter Barfoot, Esq., of Landenstown, county +Kildare), landlords.</p> + +<p>Mr. Concannon appeared as solicitor for the +tenants; Mr. Stephens, solicitor, for the landlords.</p> + +<p>Michael O'Donel sworn.</p> + +<p>Mr. Concannon. O'Donel, are you tenant of this +holding?</p> + +<p>I am, your honour.</p> + +<p>How long are you tenant?</p> + +<p>Since I was born—and that's fifty years ago.</p> + +<p>Do you swear that, that you were tenant since you +were born? How long are you paying rent?</p> + +<p>Since my father's death, about eight years ago last +Pathrickmuss,—that's the time I'm the rale tenant. +My father and his father were tenants on that holding +since the Deluge at all events—couldn't swear longer +than that.</p> + +<p>Do you swear that?</p> + +<p>Well, of coorse I couldn't swear it out and out.</p> + +<p>What quantity of land have you in your holding?</p> + +<p>Well, twenty-two acres exactly, be the same more or +less. [Mr. Stephens, for the landlords, said that twenty-two +acres was the true area of his farm.] Five of the +twenty-two acres were nothing but rocks and stones, +without one blade of grass in them, so that it was +seventeen acres of productive land he had, at an +annual rental of £3 18<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i>, and it was not worth that.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span></p> + +<p>To the court. The last change of rent was thirty +years ago.</p> + +<p>What buildings have you?</p> + +<p>The house is my own, and the barn. Both are +thatched. [Mr. Stephens did not claim the houses.] +Improvements?—Well, there are walls, but did not +measure them, and small gardens.</p> + +<p>In answer to Mr. Concannon: We claim to be +entitled to take the seaweed for manure. We have +no turf, nor timber to burn, and have to pay £3 a year +for two boat loads of turf. The stock on his farm +was a cow and a veal calf, a horse, five sheep, and +eight lambs. Shears them every year, but the wool he +never sells as he keeps it for his family. As for tillage, +he had about eighty stone of potatoes last year, +and by his stock he realized £12; that includes +£6 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> that he received for a couple of veal calves. +He had no grain crops. He had a couple of pigs too. +As for his stock, maybe it's little he'd have out of them +coming home to his wife and childher, and his was +a nice wife, thanks be to God. His sheep he brings +by boat to the county of Clare, sells them at the fair +of Ennistymon. Has to pay freight 3<i>d.</i> a head for +sheep and lambs. His cattle and pigs he puts on the +mail boat and sails them to Galway—the freight being +2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> for calves, and a shilling a head for pigs. And +wasn't he sixteen days weatherbound in Galway last +February, after the fair-day?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span></p> + +<p>Mr. Concannon would produce no valuer, he felt +perfect confidence in the commissioners.</p> + +<p>This closed the tenant's case.</p> + +<p>Mr. Thompson, of Clonskea Castle, county Dublin, +sworn. Is the agent on the estate; succeeded his father, +who had been agent for many years. Witness has in +his custody all the rentals and leases of the estate from +1794. "The rental in 1800 was £2143, as fixed by +valuation in that year. In 1812 the rental was £2668; +in 1827, £2145 10<i>s.</i> 4<i>d.</i>; in 1846, £1937 17<i>s.</i> 7<i>d.</i>; +in 1881, £2067; in 1885, £2067; the acreage of the +islands being 11,288 acres. The lands are in the +hands of tenants, with the exception of two croggeries +which are in my occupation."</p> + +<p>The learned chairman, Mr. Crean, B.L., inquired +what a croggery meant.</p> + +<p>Witness said that "croggery" was a very ancient +name for fourths. The entire islands were divided into +townlands, which townlands contained 4 or 6 quarters +each, every quarter containing 16 croggeries, and every +croggery containing 16 acres. Inishmore thus contained +4 townlands and 4t. × 6qrs. × 16crog. × 16ac. = 6144 acres. +On Inishmaan there are two townlands, which contain +6 quarters each. On Inisheer there is only one +townland containing 4 quarters. The tenants have +manure and seaweed from the sea shore free of +charge. The seaweed was very valuable in 1866, +when the kelp made on the islands realized £2577,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> +being £5 a ton. There is no kelp made now, owing +to the fall in prices. For twenty years the value +of a tenant's interest in a croggery varied from £30 +to £90.</p> + +<p>This closed the landlord's evidence, and the lay +sub-commissioners in due time inspected the farms. +The case came on for judgment, and the court +reduced the rent from £3 18<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> to £2 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i>, +being 39.75 per cent. reduction.</p> + +<p>All the other cases were similar to the last.</p> + +<p>On Tuesday, July 20, 1886, her Majesty's gunboat +was moored at the New Docks, Galway, for the +purpose of taking the Land Commission composed +of Mr. Crean, Lieut.-Colonel Bayley, Mr. Rice and +myself, to Aran. The voyage was one to be remembered. +The wind, from the S.S.W., rose to a tempest, +not a sail in sight. Nevertheless the vessel held on +her course, though the wind was high against her, +and she let drop her anchor in due time in the Bay +of Kilronan. No mail boat from "Europe" arrived +in the islands during the greater part of that week. +To fix a fair rent was the object of fifty-four originating +notices which now came on for hearing. Of +this number two were dismissed on points of law, +and forty-nine had their rents fixed, the sum of the +old rents being £384, which was now reduced to +the new or judicial rent of £231, being a reduction +in favour of the tenants of £153, say forty per cent.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> +This reduction, as a matter of course, was well +received by the islanders; but the questions that are +irresistibly forced on the mind are, can any reduction +of rent improve their condition? And can any tenure +of their farms, or any estate therein, however large, +raise them from their condition of comparative poverty +to that of wealth? And would it be of material benefit +to them to sweep from the landlord the last farthing +of his rent, and to grant the same to them? And +would it not be for their weal rather that they had +schools to instruct the young in the natural history of +the fish, and in the ways of science connected with +the deep sea fisheries, and in navigation and all its +kindred branches, such as mathematics, spherical +trigonometry, the use of the compass, magnetic +needle, the constellations, and nautical tables, etc., +together with all the trades incident to fishing such +as carpentering, ship building, nail making, sail, net, +rope, and line making?</p> + +<div class="sidenote">BARONESS BURDETT-COUTTS.</div> + +<p>And ought not the young and the old to be +familiarized with the name of the Baroness Burdett-Coutts, +and with her wonderful works in the cause of +the Baltimore Fishery? And would it not be for the +weal of the islanders, and of the nation, the Irish +nation, that the islanders should be supplied, not for +charity, with deep sea fishing appliances, as the +Baltimore fishermen have been?</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE ARAN FISHERIES.</div> + +<p>The ignorance of our fishing population is thus<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> +deplored in the report of "the inspectors of the sea +and inland fisheries of Ireland," 1887:—</p> + +<p>"It is melancholy to find how deficient our coast +population is in all these matters, and that the rising +generation are left untaught in arts, from the exercise +of which, wealth would be brought into our land, and +industry, self-reliance, and temperance inculcated, +while the seas around our island teem with fish; so +much so that often, when a great capture occurs, +quantities of fish are lost from the want of scientific +knowledge as to the best means of curing; and, at +the same time, Ireland is <i>importing</i> about 10,000 tons +of cured fish <i>annually</i>, when she might be <i>exporting</i> +double, or even treble that quantity.</p> + +<p>"Thousands of pounds are also sent annually from +Ireland to England, Scotland, and the Isle of Man, +for nets and lines alone, the great bulk, if not all, of +which might be kept at home, and our people +profitably employed."<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a></p> + +<p>The following letter, from Sir Thomas F. Brady, +Inspector of Irish Fisheries, Dublin Castle, on the +Aran fishery, is worthy of note:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p><span style="margin-left:20em;">"11, Percy Place, Dublin, Dec. 5, 1886.,</span><br /> +"<span class="smcap">My dear Burke,</span></p> + +<p>"I have your note here. There is a large +number of open row boats and curraghs on the three +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span>islands of Aran, but that is their only mode of fishing; +and they can only fish at short distances from the +land, and cannot fish except in suitable weather. +There is not a single first-class fishing vessel attached +to the islands. The people are too poor to provide +themselves with such, or obtain security for loans for +such. There is one drawback to such vessels being +kept, the want of proper harbour accommodation. +There is a pier at the north island, but vessels cannot +approach it unless near high water, and there is no +means of improving it by extension. To make a +good harbour it would be necessary to build a new +pier into deep water; then, if any quantity of fish is +taken, the vessels must lose their time and bring +them to Galway, thirty miles. If there were telegraphic +communication between the island and +mainland, the Galway steamer might be sent out +when there was a large quantity of fish, or if there +were a number of first-class vessels there, it might +pay a steamer to attend them regularly as they do in +the North Sea.</p> + +<p>"The Manx, Cornish, and French vessels, only go +there in the early part of the year when the mackerel +sets in. The Frenchmen slightly salt the fish on +board, and take them to France and come back +again for another cargo.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left:20em;">"Sincerely yours,</span><br /> +<span class="smcap" style="margin-left:24em;">"Thomas F. Brady</span>."<br /> +</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span></p></div> +<p>That a step, however small, in the right direction +has been taken, appears from the following letter from +Christopher Talbot Redington, Esq., J.P., D.L., of +Kilcornan, in the county of Galway:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p><span style="margin-left:20em;">"Poor Relief (Ireland) Inquiry Commission,</span><br /> + +<span style="margin-left:32em;">"Dec. 10, 1886.</span></p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Dear Mr. Burke</span>, +</p> + +<p>"I have been engaged all the summer, in +conjunction with Colonel Fraser and Mr. Mahony, in +expending a grant of £20,000 in the scheduled +unions under the provisions of the Poor Relief Ireland +Act, 1886. We have carried out several works in North +and South Aran. The Board of Works are building +a pier in the middle island.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left:24em;">"Yours truly,</span><br /> +<span class="smcap" style="margin-left:26em;">"C.T. Redington</span>."<br /> +</p></div> + +<p>The absence of first-class fishing boats accounts +for the absence of wealth in the islands. The Aran +fisherman sees the French fisherman fishing whilst he +becomes a farmer and a labourer at wages not worth +working for. The Rev. William Killride, rector +of Aran, thus writes:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p> +<span style="margin-left:32em;">"Aran, Dec. 11, 1886.</span><br /> +<br /> +"<span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>,<br /> +</p> + +<p>"Men's wages vary. There is no constant +work whatever. Spring and the seaweed gathering for +kelp are the chief harvests for the labourer. A labourer +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span>has seldom more than four months' labour in the year; +so that it is a necessity on his part to get gardens on +hire. Until last year or the year before he got from +1<i>s.</i> to 1<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> in spring, with his diet; at harvest, about +1<i>s.</i> with his diet, three meals in the day, bread and +tea for breakfast, etc. When there is a hurry in seaweeding +time he used to get 2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> and diet, but this +lasts only a week twice in the year."</p> + +<div class="sidenote">TREES IN ARAN.</div> + +<p>The writer +then speaks of several other matters connected with +the island and about the possibility of growing timber +there. "My little grove was planted by myself. I find +the greatest difficulty in preserving it, seven trees +being destroyed this year. Then I planted every +nook and cranny with evergreens; but they were +plucked up three several times. I got sick of this +thing. Many places in the island were covered +with trees. In fact, fifty years ago or so, I have +been informed that a large portion of the island +grew trees, especially hazel, from 20 to 26 feet in +height.</p> + +<p>"What kept the poor rate down both last year and +this was the amount of relief given out. Mr. Thompson, +the agent, laid out £140 on a road, and £136 +on seed potatoes. Sir John Barrington has given me +upwards of £100 for this object, and this year he +gave me £80 or £90 for seed potatoes and £120 +for relief and also money to assist emigration and to +buy turf. The people will suffer terribly this year for +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span>want of fuel. The potato crop is all gone. No fish +whatever taken. Any further information you may +want I will freely give.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left:10em;">"I am, dear Sir,</span> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left:14em;">"Yours, very sincerely,</span> +<br /> +<span class="smcap" style="margin-left: 18em;">"William Killride.</span>" +</p></div> + +<div class="sidenote">BARONESS BURDETT-COUTTS.</div> + +<p>The poverty of the Aran fishermen was equalled +until lately by that of the Baltimore fishermen in the +south of Ireland. Their altered state of circumstances +appears by a report of the inspectors of Irish fisheries +on the sea fisheries of Ireland, presented to his +Excellency the Lord Lieutenant in the autumn of +1886. The Baltimore fishing boats had been mere +curraghs worth about £6 each. Owing to the +liberality of Baroness Burdett-Coutts, of imperishable +fame, a number of deep sea fishing boats were built +at a cost of £600 each, which was lent to the Baltimore +men on easy rates of repayment. The report +states that at Baltimore, in the year 1885, there were +41,610 boxes of fish caught by fishermen previously +unemployed, and these boxes of fish realized a sum of +£34,585. Mostly every tradesman in the town was +employed; the carpenters in making boxes, the +smiths in strapping them round with hoop iron. +"Three vessels arrived in Baltimore loaded with ice, +and eight hulks were used for storing it, two at a +cost of £20 a month, the others were owned by a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> +company of fish buyers, at a cost of £1 5<i>s.</i> a week +each. This for ten would amount to £3080, besides +a large expenditure on packers." Fancy the like +sums scattered in Aran!</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE ARAN FISHERIES.</div> + +<p>At Baltimore in 1886, sixteen steamers were employed +in carrying the fish to England, at an estimated +cost of £400 each per month.</p> + +<p>Over 100 men were employed in the boats used by +the buyers; and at a rate of wages which, for twelve +weeks, would amount to about £1500, besides a large +expenditure upon packers, etc.</p> + +<p>In 1886 three vessels arrived with ice, containing +1423 tons, all of which were imported, and eight hulks +were used for storing it, owned by a company of fish +buyers.</p> + +<p>The following instructions to persons applying for +loans under the Irish Reproductive Loan Fund, and +Sea Fisheries Fund Acts, 37 and 38 Vict. chap. +86; 45 Vict. chap. 16; and 47 and 48 Vict. chap. 21, +would be read with delight and acted upon with +avidity were it not for the nasty note that appears at +the foot of so flaring an advertisement.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">LOANS FOR FISHERY PURPOSES.</div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"I. Loans will be made as heretofore for the +purchase or repairs of boats, vessels, or fishing gear, +on the security of borrowers and persons to be joined +with them as sureties in a joint and several bond and +promissory notes.</p> + +<p>"II. In <i>special cases</i>, where the Inspectors of Irish +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span>Fisheries shall deem it expedient that a new fishing +vessel should be supplied to a borrower instead of +money, they may, with the consent of the Lord +Lieutenant, recommend loans on the security of the +borrowers, and on the security of the fishing vessel +to be supplied. In such cases the borrowers must +give to the Commissioners of Public Works a joint +and several bond or promissory note as the case may +be, for the amount of the loan, and also execute a +deed providing that the vessel shall be registered in +the name of the Commissioners of Public Works, and +so continue registered until the loan with interest, +and any expense incurred, shall be repaid, and also +providing that in default of payment of any of the +instalments, by which such loan shall be made repayable, +or in default of the borrowers preserving the +same in proper order and condition, or in case the +said vessel should become in the opinion of the said +Commissioners a deficient security for the amount +of the loan for the time being unpaid, the said +Commissioners may cause such boat or vessel to be +sold.</p> + +<p>"III. Time for repaying any loan not exceeding +ten years.</p> + +<p>"IV. Repayment by half yearly instalments with +interest at the rate of 2.5 per cent. per annum.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE ARAN FISHERIES.</div> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Note.</span>—It must be observed that loans under +rule No. 2. can only be recommended <i>under very</i> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span><i>exceptional circumstances, and to a very limited extent</i>, +as the funds available for loans for new vessels are +quite insufficient to meet large demands. It will, +therefore, be impossible for the inspectors to do more +in carrying out this rule than to recommend loans +on the security of vessels in a few cases only, where +very exceptional circumstances exist, and only in +cases of new first-class fishing vessels being provided +for with thoroughly experienced fishermen of good +character.</p> + +<p>"No loans for the purchase of gear will be made +without personal security, as laid down by the rules +already in force, see No. 1.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left:8em;">"By order,</span> +<br /> +<span class="smcap" style="margin-left: 12em;">"George Coffey,</span> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left:18em;">"Secretary.</span><br /> +<br /> +"Fisheries Office, Dublin Castle, February, 1886." +</p></div> + +<div class="sidenote">IRISH FISHERIES—IRISH PARLIAMENT.</div> + +<p>Of the immensity of the fisheries we can form no +estimate. But to the islanders the fisheries are +worthless without boats, and without the means of +obtaining boats; without funds, and without the means +of obtaining funds. Except "under very exceptional +circumstances, and to a very limited extent," they are +unable to launch out into the deep and let down their +nets for a draught. It is said by one party that a +different state of things would prevail had the Irish +people an Irish Parliament. That may be so and it +may not be so; but one thing is certain, that whilst +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span>in 1887 no bonus of any kind can be obtained, in +1787 bonuses of many kinds could be obtained, and +were obtained. In the 27th year of George III., +<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1787, an Irish Act was passed "for the encouragement +of the fishery usually called the deep +sea fishery." The marginal note of that section, a +section too long to repeat, states that "bounties will +be given, 80 guineas for the greatest quantity of +herrings caught by the crew of any one vessel, and +imported between the 1st of June and the 31st of +December in any one year; 60 guineas for the +next greatest quantity, 40 guineas for the next, and +20 guineas for the next, to be paid on the 1st of +January following." By the same Act bounties of +four shillings a barrel were authorized to be given for +herrings; and by another section, the fourteenth, three +shillings and threepence by the hundredweight was +allowed for all dried cod, ling, and other fish mentioned +therein. Bounties, however, have long since been +discouraged by political economists, and loans have +long since been discouraged by other economists, and +between those scientists money for the improvement +of the Aran fishery was never so hard to be got at as +at this present time.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE ARAN FISHERIES—TRAWLING.</div> + +<p>From the coastguard return it would appear that +the Galway coastguard division is guarded by five +coastguard stations, two of them being on the Aran +islands, in which there has been an increase in 1886<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> +of two second class and sixteen third class boats solely +engaged in fishing. The trawlers work from Barna +to the islands of Aran. That trawling injures the +supply of fish is insisted upon by the one party and +denied by the other. A court of public inquiry was +held in Galway, where the entire question was +investigated; the result of which investigation will +form the subject of a special report. We shall only +observe that the Scotch Fishery Board has prohibited +trawling in some places in Scotland. "In the Galway +Bay trawling was prohibited for a number of years in +about half the bay. For about four years it was not +followed at all, and, so far as the evidence at public +inquiries could be relied on, there was no improvement +in the fisheries during the cessation of this +mode of fishing in either the whole, or part of the +bay. In the case of Dublin Bay trawling has been +prohibited for nearly forty-four years; and the question +arises whether the fisheries of that bay have increased +in that period.</p> + +<p>"In other bays no trawling has ever been carried on; +and the present state of the fisheries in such places +will have to be carefully inquired into."<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a></p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span></p> +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> Report of Inspectors of Irish Fisheries for 1887, p. 10.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> Report of Inspectors of Fisheries, 1887, p. 8.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<p style="margin-left: 15em;"> +"The darksome pines on yonder rocks reclined<br /> +Wave high and murmur to the hollow wind."<br /> +<span class="smcap" style="margin-left: 14em;">Pope.</span><br /> +</p> + + +<p>Having thus far spoken of the wealth that might +be realized by the islanders from the waters that +surround their islands, let us turn to speak of the wealth +that might be realized by the islanders from the +islands themselves—wealth produceable neither by +patches of potatoes, nor by tillage, nor by minerals, +nor by pasturage. On the islands are vast terraces +of naked rocks, and there are vast terraces of +rocks not naked on which grew those forests of oak, +of yew, and of fir of which we have already spoken, +when treating of Druidism.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">RE-AFFORESTING ARAN.</div> + +<p>To re-afforest the +disafforested wilderness has of late occupied the +thoughts of the thoughtful in our country. Dr. +Lyons, for some time M.P. for the city of Dublin, +gave to it much of his attention. He has been taken +away, but his mantle has fallen upon another. Dermot +O'Conor Donelan, Esq., J.P., of Sylane, near Tuam, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span>teaches us how the people of other countries are +enriched by their forests. Having made a tour +through the unwooded mountains of Connemara, he +subsequently in the present year made a tour through +the wooded mountains of the Grand Duchy of Baden. +His inquiries and the result of his inquiries in +that prosperous country he published in a series of +letters in the <i>Irish Times</i> and <i>Freeman's Journal</i>. +To give those letters <i>in extenso</i>, however instructive, +would fill too many of our over-filled pages, but we +may be permitted to make a few quotations from +them.</p> + +<p>"It is a noteworthy fact," writes Mr. Donelan, +"that from the class of lands similar to those that lie +waste in Ireland, the recent progress of Germany +is generally believed to proceed. Prussia, Bavaria, +Saxony, Wurtemburg, Baden, and Alsace-Lorraine have +a combined population of 40,644,000.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">FORESTS IN BADEN.</div> + +<p>The labour +connected with the forests of those countries and their +products have been estimated to be worth £9,450,000; +and those earnings suffice for the maintenance of +about 300,000 families." He then forms a painful +contrast between Baden and Ireland—between the +German mountain districts, and the mountain districts +of the same kind in Ireland where there is a +similarity of soil; but there the similarity ends.</p> + +<p>"The mountains and bogs of Connemara, with the +roots and remains of trees scattered everywhere<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> +amongst them, are lying there in their bare and +melancholy desolation, and but for the presence of +some miserable hovels, the whole scene might be inside +the Arctic circle. The mountains of Schwartzwald, +however, are covered with forests of silver fir, and by +their vast supplies of timber are creating vast industries. +In a tour which I made through it some +months ago, I observed that almost every branch +of wood-work was in active operation, and for miles +together the rattle of machinery was hardly ever +silent.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">FOREST INDUSTRIES.</div> + +<p>The manufacture of paper from wood, which +is comparatively new, has already assumed very large +proportions in South-Western Germany. Second class +wood-ends, etc., for paper-making, can be had for +about eight shillings a ton; while straw must always +cost from 30<i>s.</i> to £2 10<i>s.</i> This difference will +gradually transfer the manufacture of paper and papier-maché +to this and similar forest districts. Within +the last few years several mills have been established +for the manufacture of cellulose from wood. They +have been found successful, and it is expected that +this will soon be among the most important of the +forest industries. A list of the objects of which +cellulose is the basis would form a curious example of +recent invention. In the American Patent Office no +less than one hundred and twenty patents have been +taken out in connection with cellulose since 1870. +Gun-cotton, collodion, celluloid, artificial ivory,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> +handles for knives, etc; dental plates, cuffs, collars, +shoe-tips and in-soles, billiard balls, are a few names +taken from a long list, and which will give an idea of +the number of trades this one material is establishing +in many cities and towns of Germany. Celluloid can +be made as hard as ivory or be spread on like paint; +it is water proof, air proof, and acid proof. It can be +pressed or stamped, planed as wood, turned in a lathe, +and it can be transparent or opaque.</p> + +<p>"I am not able to state the quantity of basket and +wicker-work used in the United Kingdom, but at +the lowest computation it must be several millions +worth a year, the imports alone being very large.</p> + +<p>"It would not be possible to enumerate," he writes, +"the number of industries which supplies of timber +are capable of developing. Some of those would +spring up within twelve or fourteen years, and which +are further capable of enormous development. Poplar +grows rapidly in Ireland; in twelve years the thinnings +are of considerable size, and, according to Mr. +Herbert's report on the forestry of Russia (Blue Book, +commercial, 31, 1883), it appears that from poplar +most of the paper exported from Russia is manufactured.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">RE-AFFORESTING ARAN.</div> + +<p>The consumption of paper in the United +Kingdom must be over £30,000,000 a year, and if it +be probable that mountain forests are likely to be the +scene of a considerable portion of its production in +the future, what an opportunity is there then of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> +utilizing by means of forestry the waste lands and the +cheap labour of Donegal and Connemara. Ever +since 1800 the question of the waste lands has been +before the public. It was reported on in 1812, and +again by the Devon Commission of 1840. Every +writer on the industrial resources of Ireland had paid +it particular attention. It was mentioned by Sir +Richard Griffith, by Munns, by Dutton, and even +before 1800 by Arthur Young. There is hardly a +Government in Europe which has not undertaken the +work of reclaiming and afforesting waste lands."</p> + +<div class="sidenote">FORESTS FORMERLY IN ARAN.</div> + +<p>So writes the author of those interesting letters, +and he dissipates an illusion which is prevalent +amongst us, namely, that to turn planting into profit +requires long years and gross timber. On the contrary, +as his observations prove, in their earlier years +of growth forests will supply many industries for +which old timber is unsuited. A great objection to +re-afforesting mountains and rocky districts is the +length of time that is generally supposed must elapse +before so gigantic a work could become remunerative; +but Mr. O'Conor Donelan shows that no great length +of time is necessary, and that after a very few years +timber would be suitable for the works of which he +speaks. Would that the Government would take his +words to heart, and do in Ireland what German +statesmen have done in Germany! There are men +amongst us who would fain believe that Aran is too<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> +much exposed to the westerly winds to admit of +timber being grown on the islands; but the great +roots old in the earth tell of the great trees that grew +in Aran many centuries ago.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<p style="margin-left: 18em;">SUPERSTITIONS OF THE GROVE.<br /><br /> +"Oh the Oak, and the Ash, and the bonnie Ivy tree<br /> +Flourish best at hame in the North Countrie."<br /> +</p> + +<div class="sidenote">SUN-WORSHIP IN ARAN.</div> + +<p>In the present chapter we propose to give a few of +the legends with which groves were enriched when +the worship of the sun (Baal) was the religion of the +world—legends yet remembered in Aran. In the +groves they offered sacrifices, and "burnt," writes +the Prophet Hosea, "incense under the oak and the +poplar and the turpentine tree [the pine], because +the shadow thereof was good."<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> And we are told +that "Abraham planted a grove in Bersabee, and there +called upon the Name of the everlasting God."<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a></p> + +<div class="sidenote">WORSHIP OF BAAL IN ARAN.</div> + +<p>The selection of such places originated, no doubt, in +the fact that the gloom of the forest was calculated +to excite awe, and because they considered that the +spirits of the departed hovered over the places where +the bodies were buried; and it was common to bury +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span>the dead under trees, as appears from the eighth +verse of the thirty-fifth chapter of the Book of Genesis, +where it is stated that when Deborah, the nurse of +Rebecca, died, she was buried at the foot of Bethel +under an oak tree, and the name of that place was +called "The Oak of Weeping;" and when Saul, the first +King of Israel, fell at the battle of Gilboe, his bones +were buried under an oak tree at Jabesh.<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> Amongst +the Hebrews it was common, before the time of Moses, +to plant groves. But the idolatrous nations planted +them also; and groves and the places of idol-worship +soon became convertible terms. For the purpose, +therefore, of extirpating idolatry, the Lord thus spoke +through Moses: "Thou shalt plant no grove, nor +any tree near the altar of the Lord thy God."<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> And +in after-centuries, when Josias abolished the worship +of Baal in Judah, and destroyed them that offered +incense to the sun, and the moon, and to the twelve +signs, he caused the grove to be burnt there.<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a></p> + +<p>Whether the groves of Aran were destroyed at the +time of the destruction of the religion of Baal and of +the introduction of Christianity, or in after-ages, it is +impossible now to state. That great trees had existence +in the islands in 1618 is certain, as appears by +a partly hereinbefore recited indenture of that date, +when Henry Lynch did demise a moiety of the three<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> +islands to William Anderson, his executors, etc., for a +long term of years, excepting thereout <i>great trees</i>.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">NYMPHS OF TREES.</div> + +<p><i>The Oak.</i>—The chief object of worship was the +oak, which has not inaptly been called "the king +of the forest." With its life was bound up the life +of a nymph, for the nymphs of trees, called in classics +<i>Hamadryades</i>, were believed to die together with the +trees which had been their abode, and with which they +had come into existence. Those that presided over +woods in general were called <i>Dryades</i>, as the divinities +of particular trees were Hamadryades. Not unfrequently +has the axe of the woodman been stayed by +the voice of the nymph breaking from the groaning +oak.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE OAK.</div> + +<p>That misfortune was believed to follow in the footsteps +of those who wantonly felled an oak is abundantly +proved by the soothsayers in the olden time. +Often have oaks become attached to the lords of the +house with whose existence they were bound for +hundreds of years. If the leaves in a living state +have prophesied touching the affairs of men, so did +the dried timbers, as in the case of the <i>Argo</i>, when +they warned the Argonauts of the misfortunes that +awaited them. Not unfrequently has the falling of a +branch of the oak tree warned the protecting family +of coming disasters. The idols in idolatrous times +were manufactured from its wood, though more frequently +from that of the ash, and from it was cut the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> +yule-log which served to maintain the perpetual fire. +Once a year all fires and lights but one were extinguished, +and that was the oaken log, from which +every other fire in the islands was with much ceremony +relighted.</p> + +<p>The medicinal qualities of the tree, and the charmed +life it bore, prophetic, as we have said, and causing +diseases to depart by its spells and incantations, must +have made its existence, if it knew anything at all +about it, a happy one. The Irish of the "oak" is +<i>Dara</i>, and many an Aranite bears that name.</p> + +<p>Now, there was a blessed Saint, "Mac Dara," who +lived in those islands long ages ago, and there was a +renowned statue of him made of oak, which the people +venerated with an idolatrous veneration. It was in vain +that the Catholic clergy called on them to desist from +kneeling before the graven image, and from swearing +on it rather than on the Book of the Gospels, on which +all men swore. Malachy O'Queely, Roman Catholic +Archbishop of Tuam, was, however, resolved to put +down an exhibition which he considered a scandal to +the Catholic Church, and so, coming to the islands in +1645, he tore down the statue and flung it into the sea; +but ill luck awaited him. In the same year he was +sent by the Supreme Council of Kilkenny to accompany +the confederate troops to Sligo, which had been lately +taken by the Parliamentary forces. He did so, and +the warrior archbishop rushed to the relief of the town,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> +and for a season dislodged the enemy; but the tide of +victory turned, the Irish were routed, and the body of +the prelate was literally cut to pieces. Upon him +was found that treaty with Charles I. which afterwards +helped to bring the unhappy king to the +scaffold.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">OAK—ASH.</div> + +<p>Another of the superstitions that attaches to the +king of the forest is that, if his majesty leafs before +the ash, the coming season will be dry; if, however, the +ash leafs before the oak, then the coming season will +be wet.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 20em;"> +"If the oak's before the ash,<br /> +Then you'll only get a splash;<br /> +If the ash precedes the oak,<br /> +Then you may expect a soak."<br /> +</p> + +<p>Of the Irish oak and of the horror that insects have of +that tree, we may form an estimate from Hall, who, in +his Chronicles, says that "William Rufus builded Westminster +Hall, and the oaks with which the said Hall +was roof'd were felled in Oxmanstown Green, near +Dublin, and no spider webbeth and breedeth in that +roof of oak even to this day." Of the remote pedigree +of the oak we need not speak further than to remind +those who are curious about such matters that the +oak all over the world is said to be the first created +of all trees, and next to it comes the ash.</p> + +<p>The <i>Ash</i> is "the Venus of the forest." On ashen +sticks (dreadful in matters of witchcraft, as appears<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> +from the evidence given in the case of "the Dame +Alice Kettler," tried for witchcraft in Kilkenny, in +1324) witches were wont at night to ride "through +the fog and filthy air." To love-sick maidens the +even ash leaf—that is, where the leaflets of the leaf +are even in number—is of priceless value, "and +note that if a youngster meeteth and plucketh an +even ash leaffe and a four leaffed clover [shamrock], +they are most certaine to meet their husband or wyfe, +as the case may be, before the day passeth over;" +and so runs the old saw—</p> + +<p style="margin-left:14em;"> +<span style="margin-left: 11em;">"And if you find</span><br /> +An even-leaved ash and a four-leaved clover,<br /> +You'll see your true love 'fore the day is over."<br /> +</p> + +<div class="sidenote">ASH—ROWAN TREE.</div> + +<p>Strange that the mountain ash, the <i>rowan tree</i>, should +be held in horror by witches. "Of it whip-handles +are made, for the bewitched and stumbling horses +thereby become unbewitched and unstumblers." So +also the housewife should, before turning the cows +out to grass for the summer, tie a switch of mountain +ash with a red worsted thread around the cow's tail. +The churn, so often bewitched of its butter, is certain +to withstand the evil eye when the churn-staff is +manufactured of the rowan tree. The roots of the +ash or the mountain ash, in Aran, are of rare +occurrence; we shall, therefore, pass on to the <i>aspen</i>, +of which it is said that it alone refused to bow, as +the other trees did, to the Redeemer, and that for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> +such conduct the aspen leaf all over the world +trembleth even to this hour.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">ELDER—PINE.</div> + +<p><i>The Elder.</i>—The most unlucky of all trees is the +elder, now a mere bush; for out of it was made +the cross of Christ, and from one of its boughs +Judas hanged himself. In Scotland this tree is +known as the bourtree, and hence the rhyme—</p> + +<p style="margin-left:20em;"> +"Bourtree, bourtree, crooked wrung,<br /> +Never straight and never strong;<br /> +Ever bush and never tree,<br /> +Since our Lord was nailed to thee."<br /> +</p> + +<p>The mushrooms growing in or near the elder are +known as Judas's ears, of wondrous virtue in curing +coughs.</p> + +<p style="margin-left:20em;"> +"For a cough take Judas' ear,<br /> +With the parings of the pear;<br /> +And drink this without fear."<br /> +</p> + +<p>The superstitions attached to this tree are many, and +to tell them would fill a volume.</p> + +<p>Stumps of <i>Pine</i> and <i>Fir</i> are numerous in the Aran +islands. The fir tree has been ever highly esteemed. +It was amongst the materials employed in the building +of Solomon's temple. Together with the pine it was +held in such veneration in France, that St. Martin met +with the strongest possible opposition when he proposed +the destruction of the holy fir groves. The fir +grew luxuriantly in Palestine; and the Prophet Hosea +saith that the Lord will make Ephraim flourish "like<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> +a green fir tree."<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a> And another prophet, Ezechiel, +informs us, in the fifth verse of the twenty-seventh +chapter of his prophecy, that the navy of Tyre was +constructed of this tree, whilst the masts were from +the cedars (pines) of Libanus. It was the timber, too, +used for the manufacture of musical instruments in +Israel; for in the Second Book of Samuel (ch. vi. 5) +it is written that "David and all the house of +Israel played before the Lord on all manner of +instruments made of <i>fir wood</i>, even on harps, and +lutes, and timbrels, and cornets, and cymbals." And +when Hiram, King of Tyre, sent timber to Solomon +for the building of the temple, it was the cedar and +the fir<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> he sent, for which he was allowed twenty +thousand measures of wheat. It was, in Palestine, a +tall tree, on the tops of which, we are informed somewhere +in the Psalms, the storks built their nests.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">HOLLY—IVY.</div> + +<p>The <i>Holly</i>, or <i>Holy</i>, and the <i>Ivy</i> are indigenous in +the soil of Aran. In idolatrous times holly was +planted, according to Pliny, in the neighbourhood of +dwelling-houses, to keep away spirits and all manner +of enchantments. There can be no doubt that those +who believe dreams to be other than the wanderings +of the fancy can on any night have steady sensible +dreams of a reliable nature if they bring home in their +handkerchief (observing the strictest silence all the +time) nine leaves of thornless holly and place the same<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> +under their pillow. Amongst the conversions of the +trees of the forest from the pagan to the Christian +faith, that of the ivy was the most remarkable; it no +longer adorns the brow of a drunken Bacchus, but is +now entwined in wreaths over the altar at the midnight +Mass on Christmas night. Nevertheless, they that +would look into futurity can still read in the ivy leaf +of what is coming to pass in after-times. Place a leaf, +on New Year's Eve, in a basin of water, and take it out +on the eve of Twelfth Night; if it come out fresh, +health is on the house; but if it come out spotted, +sickness and death are sure to follow.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">HAWTHORN—BLACKTHORN.</div> + +<p>The <i>Hawthorn</i> and <i>Blackthorn</i> grow freely in the +islands. Need it be told that the antipathy between +these shrubs is so great that the one is never found to +be growing naturally near the other? Of course, if +planted together, they will struggle on for a time; but +one or other generally sickens and dies; for there is a +controversy between them as to which had the misfortune +to supply the crown of thorns to Christ on the +night of the Passion. The peasantry in England, +Scotland, and France believe it was the hawthorn, and +they look on it as an outrage to bring in flowering +hawthorn in May to their houses, it being unlucky and +accursed ever since that dreadful night preceding the +Crucifixion. So also the blackthorn in Austria and +the south of Europe is considered unlucky; as it is +there insisted on that <i>it</i> supplied the thorns, wherefore<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> +it is doomed to blossom when no other tree of the +forest dares, in the teeth of the poisonous Eurus, so to +do. On which side the truth lies we shall not venture +to speculate; but our astonishment is great when we +learn that the walking-stick of Joseph of Arimathæa +was of hawthorn, that in Glastonbury he stuck it +accidentally in the ground, and that ever since it and +its descendants bud, blossom, and fade on Christmas +Day!</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE ROSE—SILENCE.</div> + +<p><i>The Rose.</i>—"I am the Rose of Sharon." In the +East it is the pride of flowers for fragrance and +elegance. It was used amongst the ancients in +crowns and chaplets at festive meetings and religious +sacrifices. A traveller in Persia describes two rose +trees fully fourteen feet high, laden with thousands +of flowers, and of a bloom and delicacy of scent +that imbued the whole atmosphere with the most +exquisite perfume. Originally it was white, and the +white moss-rose was suspended over the door of the +Temple of Silence; whence it is that secrets are said +to be told "under the rose." At convivial banquets in +Greece the guests not unfrequently wore chaplets of +roses, and anything said by them whilst wearing the +emblem of silence was not to be repeated. The white +rose was the emblem of purity, and the term "Mystical +Rose" is applied by the Catholic Church to the Virgin +Mary. Under the cross there grew, amongst the wild +flowers of Calvary, a multitude of white roses, some of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> +which were reddened with the blood of Christ. From +these comes the red rose, emblematic, not alone of +purity, but of martyrdom.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE ROSARY—FERNS.</div> + +<p>The tomb of the Virgin +(the Rose that never fades) was found by the apostles +to be filled with roses after the Assumption. Her +altars ever after have been decorated with roses, and +it was a high privilege in the Middle Ages to have a +garden where no other flower was admitted. These +gardens, called rosaries, may have suggested to St. +Dominic the name given to that collection of prayers +which he arranged, and which he called the Rosary.</p> + +<p>The love of the nightingale for this flower is proverbial +in the East. It is unnecessary, of course, for +us to remind our readers that the white and red roses +were the badges of the rival houses of York and +Lancaster.</p> + +<p>As for the elm and the beech, countless superstitions +are attached to these trees, but as we fail to +find that they existed in Aran, so we shall not prosecute +further our inquiries on this head.</p> + +<p><i>Ferns.</i>—Not the least interesting amongst the +botanical curiosities of Aran are the ferns, that carry +their seed on their backs—a seed that has, it is said, +the extraordinary property of making the person in +whose shoes it is placed instantly invisible to all but +himself. So Shakespeare has it, too, in his play of +"<span class="smcap">1</span> Henry IV.," act ii. scene <span class="smcap">1</span>:</p> + +<p> +"We have the receipt of fern seed, we walk invisible."<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span></p> + +<div class="sidenote">FERNS—INVISIBILITY.</div> + +<p>A painful illustration of this property occurred, it is +told, when once upon a time a man was looking for a +foal that had strayed from his stable. He happened to +pass through a meadow just as the fern was ripened, +some of the seeds of which were shaken into his shoes. +After a wearisome and fruitless search during the night +he returned all travel-soiled in the morning, and sat +down in his house to join the family at breakfast. He +was amazed to see that neither wife nor children +welcomed him home, nor showed the slightest concern +at the night he had spent, nor even inquired about +the result of his search. At length, breaking silence, +he said, "I haven't found the foal." All were startled, +and they looked everywhere to see where he was +hiding. Believing that his family were treating him with +contempt, he repeated, in a towering passion, "I have +not found the foal!" They all sprang to their feet, +and his wife called him by name to give over that +nonsense, and to come out from his hiding-place. The +creaking of his shoes was distinctly heard, though the +wearer thereof could not be seen. At length, in +a voice of anger, he repeated, as he planted himself +opposite his wife at the foot of the table, "I say, I +have not found the foal!" Need we tell the terrors +of the family? But just then he remembered that he +had, on the previous night, crossed a meadow loaded +with ferns, and that some of the seed might have got +into his shoes, and that he was therefore invisible.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> +Flinging them off, he at once became visible to +everybody.</p> + +<p>Fern seed has also the valuable property of doubling +a man's power in the working field, several examples +of which are given by writers on this interesting +subject.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">FAIRY FLAX—FAIRIES.</div> + +<p>The <i>Fairy Flax</i> of Aran we have frequently spoken +of in the preceding pages, and that flax may be spun +from year's end to year's end, and little realized +thereby, unless, indeed, "the good people," as the +fairies are called,<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a> take the spinner under their protection. +Now, there was once a man in humble circumstances, +who had an only daughter, the most +beautiful creature that ever was seen. She spent +much of her time spinning, but to no purpose. At +length a hideous dwarf, lame and blind of an eye, +came to her one day as she was spinning, and presented +her with a distaff full of flax, upon which, he +said, there was enough for her whole life, if she lived a +hundred years, provided she did not spin it quite off. +On she went spinning, but never spinning to the end, +and her loom produced the choicest of stuffs, for which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> +she received prices almost fabulous! Day by day her +wealth increased, and after a time she felt assured that +the produce of her labour had now secured so sure a +market that it made little difference whether she spun +the fairy flax right off or not; so, to try what would +be the effect, in her curiosity she spun it to the end. +In a moment the wheel stopped, and she had ever +after to repent the curiosity that stripped her of +immense wealth.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">SATURDAY'S SPINNING—HEMP.</div> + +<p>The spinning-wheel in Aran, the old crones say, +should never spin on Saturday. Whence this keeping +holy the Saturday I know not; but it does look as if +they who kept the Saturday holy, were of Israelitish +descent—were, perhaps, of the lost tribes carried into +Nineveh at the time of the Captivity by Salamanassar, +730 <span class="smcap">b.c.</span>!<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a> Now, there were two old women indefatigable +spinners, whose wheels never stood still, though +they were by the wise men warned not to spin on +Saturdays. At length one of them died, and on the +Saturday night following she appeared to the other, +who was as usual busy at the wheel, and showed her +her burning hand, saying—</p> + +<p style="margin-left:18em;"> +"See what in hell at last I've won,<br /> +Because on Saturdays I've spun."<br /> +</p> + +<p><i>Hemp.</i>—I don't remember seeing hemp growing in +Aran to any great extent. Sowing the seed of hemp<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> +on All Hallows' Eve in some parts of the country, and +on St. John's Night in others, is described in the +following lines from Gay's "Pastorals":—</p> + +<p style="margin-left:18em;"> +"At eve last midsummer no sleep I sought,<br /> +But to the field a bag of hemp seed brought:<br /> +I scattered round the seed on every side,<br /> +And three times in a trembling accent cried,<br /> +'This hemp seed with my virgin hand I sow,<br /> +Who shall my true love be the crop shall mow.'<br /> +I straight looked back, and, if my eyes speak truth,<br /> +With his keen scythe behind me came the youth.<br /> +'With my sharp heel I three times mark the ground,<br /> +And turn me thrice around, around, around!"<br /> +</p> + +<div class="sidenote">HAZEL—DIVINING-RODS.</div> + +<p>The <i>Hazel</i>, one of Thor's trees, is generally used as +a divining-rod to discover mines and lost treasures +supposed to be hidden underground. The person who +seeks for the treasure takes a hazel rod with an end in +each hand, and then slowly walks over the ground, +keeping the rod in a horizontal position before him; +when passing over the spot it bends down like a +bow in the middle, towards the place as if it were +magnetized, as the needle turns to the pole. Beyond +a doubt the hazel is known to miners, and to those +who look for minerals underground, as the divining-rod.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">FAREWELL INISHMORE.</div> + +<p>And now, bringing our legends to a close, we shall +bid farewell to these lonely and lovely isles, and in +bidding them farewell we shall merely ask how +it is that the travelling English public travel not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> +into these islands, where frosts never wither, where +snows never rest? And so farewell to Inishmore, the +island-home of St. Enda—Inishmore—once</p> + +<p style="margin-left:18em;"> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">"Notissima famâ</span><br /> +Insula dives opum, <i>Hiberniæ</i> dum regna manebant<br /> +Nunc tantum sinus, et statio mala fida carinis."<br /> +</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span></p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span></p> +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> Hos. iv. 13.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> Gen. xxi. 33.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> 1 Chron. x. 12.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> Deut. xvi. 21.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> 2 Kings xxiii. 5, 6.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> Hos. xiv. 9.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> 1 Kings v. 10, 11.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> Numbers of books treat of the superstitious belief in fairies. +The Irish fancy that they are the "fallen angels" mentioned in +Jude 6, and that on the day of judgment they will be released +from their hapless condition (2 Peter ii. 4). The belief in fairies +is universal in Mahomedan countries.—<i>Vide</i> "Lalla-Rookh," +"Paradise and the Peri."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> 2 Kings xvii. 6.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="APPENDIX_A" id="APPENDIX_A"></a>APPENDIX A</h2> + +<p style="margin-left:14em;"> +"Adorned with honours on their native shore,<br /> +Silent they sleep and dream of wars no more."<br /> + +<span class="smcap" style="margin-left:14em;">Pope's</span> <i>Iliad</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<div class="sidenote">O'BRIENS LORDS OF ARAN.</div> + +<p>We have spoken so much in the foregoing pages of the +O'Briens, lords of Aran, that we feel inclined to say a +word as to, who those O'Briens were, whence they came, +and whither they went; and first, let us state that their +pedigree is traced by Irish genealogists to a date earlier +than the Christian era. The O'Briens, lords of Aran, were +descended from Bryan Boroimhe, King of Thomond and +monarch of all Ireland, who conquered and fell at the +battle of Clontarf on April 23, 1014, when the Danish +power, all over Ireland, was scattered to the four winds +of heaven. In the third generation after the death of +Bryan, his descendant Dermod sat on the throne of +Thomond, and this Dermod had sons and daughters, +and the eldest of the sons was called Turlough, who in +1118 became, on his father's death, King of Thomond, +whilst his younger brother was Mahon, and his youngest +brother was Teige; and the clan MacTeige for 470 +years ruled those islands, we have no doubt, with a +very equitable and a very paternal rule, and wholly unhampered +with legislative bodies such as a Witenagemot,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> +or with the parliamentary institutions of the Normans, +where the members then, as now, had the liberty of speaking, +sometimes very plainly, their minds—as, indeed, +the Norman name of our legislative assembly imports: +<i>parler-les-mens</i>, a place for "speaking their minds." +That the Corporation of Galway recognized the power of +the O'Briens, lords of the isles, is plainly told in the foregoing +pages, where we remember that twelve tuns of wine +were annually paid to the lord for sweeping the sea, as +it were with a broom, clean of the Algerine pirates that +then infested the high seas; and there can be little if any +doubt that the O'Briens were ready, from time to time and +at all times, to massacre the foe wherever they met him, +and to convert his ships to their own use and behoof in +manner and form as by their indenture of treaty was +provided. It is not for us to criticize with critical pen +the policy of the respected lord of the isles, who, in +1560, was swallowed up in the deep, near the Great +Man's Bay, when he was returning from Thomond loaded +with the booty which, at the point of the sword, he had +won from the subjects of his cousin O'Brien of Thomond; +for it does not appear that ties of blood preserved his +Majesty of Thomond from the vengeance of his lordship +the lord of the isles, or, <i>mutatis mutandis</i>, the lord of the +isles from the vengeance of his Majesty. "An eye for an +eye and a tooth for a tooth," was their maxim, and it may +have been good law where the antagonists had each two +eyes and two teeth; but the vengeance was dreadful +when the punished party had only one eye and one tooth. +He was then blinded and untoothed out and out; and +frequently such dreadful vengeance did await the conquered. +Let us not, however, be too hard on the conquerors +when we remember that David sawed his prisoners +in two, and drove harrows over them in a harrowed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> +field.<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a> The O'Flaherties, an equally warlike race, dispossessed +the lords of the isles, and in 1588, the very year of +the Spanish Armada, Queen Elizabeth finally confiscated +their territories, and now the name of O'Brien is forgotten +in Aran. Not so on the mainland; the O'Briens are still +in Thomond and elsewhere, as, it is to be hoped, they +will be for centuries yet to come. The lords of the Isles +of Aran are extinct. The last of the male line was John +O'Brien of Moyvanine and Clounties, whose daughter +Sarah was married to Stephen Roche, from whom is +descended the present Thomas Redington Roche, of Ryehill, +Esq., J.P., Co. Galway. Amongst the families of +this house still existing in Thomond, are the noble house +of Inchiquin and the O'Briens of Ballynalacken, both of +whom trace up, in an unbroken succession, to Bryan +Boroimhe, who, like Leonidas at Thermopylæ, fell fighting +the foreign foe for the liberties of his country.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">O'BRIENS LORDS INCHIQUIN.</div> + +<p>The title of Inchiquin dates from the year 1543, but +no title was required to ennoble those who were of the +blood of kings, and were "nobler than the royalty that +first ennobled them." The untitled aristocracy in England +are often superior to the titled aristocracy, who cannot +trace back farther than the Wars of the Roses. Now, +the last King of Thomond resigned his royalty to Henry +VIII., who in return, by patent <span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1543, bestowed upon +Murrough O'Brien, and upon the heirs male of his body, +the title of Baron of Inchiquin. This Murrough had two +sons, the elder Dermot, and the younger Donough, and +Dermot on his father's death became Baron of Inchiquin; +and so the title descended from father to son until the +year 1855, when James, the twelfth baron, who was +also seventh Earl of Inchiquin (creation <span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1654) and +third Marquis of Thomond (<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1800), died without issue<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> +male, when the earldom and marquisate expired. Thereupon +the father of the present baron, who was also a +baronet, and brother to William Smith O'Brien, celebrated +as Member of Parliament and leader of the Irish people, +knowing his descent from Donough, second son of the +first baron, instructed his counsel to bring his case before +the Committee of Privileges of the House of Lords, to +whose satisfaction he proved that he was heir male of +the body of the first baron, and thereupon he was confirmed +in said barony, and became thirteenth baron.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">MARSHAL MACMAHON.</div> + +<p>Let us now go back to Dermod, the third generation from +Bryan Boroimhe, which Dermod died, as we said, in 1118, +leaving three sons, the eldest Turlough, King of Thomond, +the younger Mahon, and the youngest Teige, lord of the +isles; from Mahon is sprung Marshal MacMahon, whose +acts and deeds are known of by all men.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">O'BRIENS OF BALLYNALACKEN.</div> + +<p>This Turlough, King of Thomond, was ancestor of +Teige O'Brien, who married Annabella, daughter of +Ulick McWilliam Burke, of Clanrickarde, known as +"Ulick of the Wine," and by her had, with other +sons, Turlough Don, King of Thomond in 1498, and +Donal. Turlough Don was ancestor of the family of Inchiquin, +of which we have spoken, and from Donal sprang +Turlough O'Brien, who was married to a grandniece of +Sir Toby Butler, better known as the jovial Sir Toby, the +great luminary of the Connaught Circuit, Solicitor-General +for Ireland under James II., and the celebrated lawyer +who drafted that treaty which will be remembered by all +generations as the broken Treaty of Limerick. Turlough +was the grandfather of John O'Brien, of Ballynalacken, +who died in 1855, and of James O'Brien, Esq., Q.C., who +was Member of Parliament for the city of Limerick from +1854 to 1858, when he was raised to a judgeship in the +Queen's Bench. It is too near our own time to speak of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> +that learned lawyer further than to say that "he judged +not according to appearance, but judged just judgment;" +that in him the prisoner at the bar found a merciful judge, +and at the same time one who held the scales so that +crime could not escape with impunity. Let us hope that +when he went to a higher court he reaped the rewards +promised to a just judge; and let us hope that those who +come after him of his name and race may, when their +turn comes, follow in his footsteps, and thus show that +the wisdom of the wise still dwells in the brehons of +the Celtic race.</p> + +<p>The Ballynalacken O'Briens are now represented +amongst the landed gentry by James O'Brien, J.P., +D.L., and they are also represented at the Bar by his +brother, my learned friend, Peter, late Sergeant O'Brien, +now Solicitor-General for Ireland.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> 2 Sam. xii. 31.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="APPENDIX_B" id="APPENDIX_B"></a>APPENDIX B</h2> + +<p class="center">STATISTICS OF ISLANDS OF ARAN.</p> + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="table1"> +<tr><td> </td><td align='left'>Area,</td><td align='left' colspan="2">11,288 acres.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Population—Census</td><td align='left'>1815,</td><td align='right'>2400</td><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td align='center'>"</td><td align='left'>1871,</td><td align='right'>3049;</td><td align='left'>increase, 640</td></tr> +<tr><td align='center'>"</td><td align='left'>1881,</td><td align='right'>3163</td><td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">"</span><span style="margin-left: 2em;">114</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Inhabited houses, </td><td align='left'>1815</td><td align='right'>395</td><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td align='center'>"</td><td align='left'>1881</td><td align='right'>576</td><td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">"</span><span style="margin-left: 2em;">181</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='center' colspan="4">Petty Sessions District, Aran.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Religion of Aranites, </td><td align='left'>1871,</td><td align='right'> 2993</td><td align='left'> Roman Catholics</td></tr> +<tr><td align='center'>"</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>55 </td><td align='left'> Protestant Episcopalians </td></tr> +<tr><td align='center'>"</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>1 </td><td align='left'> Presbyterian</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td> </td><td align='right' valign="top"> —— </td><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td align='left'>Total</td><td align='right'>3049</td><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="5"> </td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Religion of Aranites, </td><td align='left'>1881,</td><td align='right'> 3118</td><td align='left'> Roman Catholics; increase, 125</td></tr> +<tr><td align='center'>"</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>44</td><td align='left'> Protestant Episcopalians; decrease, 11 </td></tr> +<tr><td align='center'>"</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>1 </td><td align='left'> Presbyterian</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td> </td><td align='right' valign="top"> —— </td><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td align='left'>Total</td><td align='right'>3163</td><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="4"> </td></tr> +</table></div> + +<div class="center"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="table2"> +<tr><td>Number speaking Irish only in Aran,</td><td>1871</td><td align="right">835</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">English and Irish,</td><td align="center">"</td><td align="right"> 1924</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">Irish only, </td><td>1881</td><td align="right"> 889</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">English and Irish,</td><td>1881</td><td align="right">1829</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3"> </td></tr> +</table></div> + +<div class="center"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="table3"> +<tr><td colspan="2">Constabulary barracks,</td><td align="right">1871</td><td align="right"> 1<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='center'>"</td><td align='center'>"</td><td>1881</td><td align="right">3</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2">Number of constabulary,</td><td align="right">1871</td><td align="right">6</td></tr> +<tr><td align='center'>"</td><td align='center'>"</td><td>1881</td><td align="right">18</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2">Coastguard barracks,</td><td align="right">1881</td><td align="right">6</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="4" align="center">Quarter Sessions—Galway.</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="4" align="center"> Petty Sessions—Held on the islands.</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="4"> </td></tr> +</table></div> + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="table4"> +<tr><td align='left'>Roman Catholic churches in Aran</td><td align='right'>4</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Protestant Episcopal church</td><td align='right'>1</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Protestant church accommodation</td><td align='right'>180</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Annual income of parish priest, 1801</td><td align='right'>£60<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">"</span><span style="margin-left: 2em;">"</span><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Protestant incumbent</span></td><td align='right'>£125<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>National schools in islands</td><td align='right'>4</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Average attendance, Sept., 1886, to June, 1887</td><td align='right'>524</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">Manager, Rev. M. O'Donoghoe, P.P.</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2"> </td></tr> +</table></div> + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="table5"> +<tr><td align='left'>Fishing boats on islands, 1st class, 1887</td><td align='right'>0</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">"</span><span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">"</span><span style="margin-left: 3em;">2nd</span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">"</span><span style="margin-left: 2em;">"</span></td><td align='right'>34</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">"</span><span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">"</span><span style="margin-left: 3em;">3rd</span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">"</span><span style="margin-left: 2em;">"</span></td><td align='right'>130</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Poor-law valuation</td><td align='right'>£1576</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Rent, 1881</td><td align='right'>£2067</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Average poor rate, last ten years</td><td align='right'>3<i>s.</i> in the £</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Paupers in workhouse</td><td align='right'>0</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Distance of workhouse from islands</td><td align='right'>>30 miles</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Numbers receiving outdoor relief</td><td align='right'>43</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Grand jury works on island, Spring assizes, 1887</td><td align='right'>0</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Grand jury cess<span style="margin-left: 3em;">"</span><span style="margin-left: 4em;">"</span></td><td align='right'>£34 12<i>s.</i> 2<i>d.</i></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Crown rent (<i>sup.</i>, p. 45)</td><td align='right'>18<i>s.</i> 5½<i>d.</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Quit rent (<i>sup.</i>, p. 45)</td><td align='right'>£14 8<i>s.</i> 4<i>d.</i></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Labourer's wages</td><td align='right'>1<i>s.</i> <i>per diem</i></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">"</span><span style="margin-left: 2em;">"</span><span style="margin-left: 2em;">spring and harvest</span></td><td align='right'>1<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i>, with diet</td></tr> +</table></div> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> Vide return made in 1801 by Most Rev. Edward Dillon, +D.D., Roman Catholic Archbishop of Tuam (Lord Castlereagh's +Correspondence, vol. iv. p. 126). I can find no subsequent +return.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> Charles's "Irish Church Directory."</p></div> + +</div> +<p class="center">THE END.</p> + +<p class="center">PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, +LONDON AND BECCLES.</p> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The South Isles of Aran, by Oliver J. 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