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diff --git a/37840.txt b/37840.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..17a6217 --- /dev/null +++ b/37840.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3503 @@ +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: ASCII + +*** 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.) + + + + + + + + + +THE SOUTH ISLES OF ARAN + + + + + THE SOUTH ISLES OF ARAN + (_COUNTY GALWAY_) + + BY + OLIVER J. BURKE, A.B., T.C.D. + + Knight of the Order of St. Gregory the Great + + _BARRISTER-AT-LAW_ + + AUTHOR OF "THE HISTORY OF ROSS ABBEY," "HISTORY OF THE LORD CHANCELLORS + OF IRELAND," "HISTORY OF THE ARCHBISHOPS OF TUAM," "ANECDOTES OF + THE CONNAUGHT CIRCUIT" + + "Signs and tokens round us thicken, + Hearts throb high and pulses quicken" + + LONDON + KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH & CO., 1, PATERNOSTER SQUARE + 1887 + + + + +(_The rights of translation and of reproduction are reserved._) + + + + +TO THE HON. MR. JUSTICE O'HAGAN, + +ONE OF THE JUSTICES OF THE SUPREME COURT IN IRELAND. + + * * * * * + +MY DEAR JUDGE O'HAGAN, + +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. + + Believe me to remain + Sincerely yours, + OLIVER J. BURKE. + + OWER, HEADFORD, + CO. GALWAY, + _August 8, 1887_. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + CHAPTER I. + + PAGE + + 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--_Pinus + maritima_ 1 + + + CHAPTER II. + + Monuments of Druidism--Druids--Cairns--Cromlechs--Baal, + worship of--Zodiacal rings--Sacred fires--Druidical + religion--Sir Edward Coke, on--Groves--Immense + fortresses--Dun AEngus--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--_Teampul-Chiarain_--_Teampul + McDuach_--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 13 + + + CHAPTER III. + + Aran, 14th-18th centuries--A.D. 1308. O'Brien, lord of the + isles--In consideration of twelve tuns of wine annually + engages to protect the trade of Galway--A.D. 1334. + Aran plundered by Darcy--A.D. 1400. Henry IV. gives + license to certain persons to attack rebels in Aran--A.D. + 1485. Franciscan monastery built--A.D. 1537. Suppression + of religious houses--A.D. 1560. Shipwreck of + Teige O'Brien, lord of the isles--A.D. 1570. Mortgage + of the islands--A.D. 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 + _Mayor of Galway_ v. _Digby_--1754, 1786. Earldom of + Aran--1857 31 + + + CHAPTER IV. + + 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.--_Sta viator_--Isle of O'Brazil--Gerald + Griffin's poem on 52 + + + CHAPTER V. + + 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 65 + + + CHAPTER VI. + + Re-afforesting Aran--Dr. Lyons--Dermot O'Conor Donelan, + J.P.--Forest industries in Germany--Supports + 300,000 families--Paper from young timber, etc. 82 + + + CHAPTER VII. + + 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 88 + + + APPENDIX A. + + 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 105 + + + APPENDIX B. + + Statistics of Aran 110 + + + + +THE SOUTH ISLES OF ARAN. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + "Oh, Aranmore! loved Aranmore, + How oft I dream of thee, + And of those days when by thy shore + I wandered young and free; + Full many a path I've tried since then, + Through pleasure's flowery maze, + But ne'er could find the bliss again + I felt in those sweet days." + + THOMAS MOORE. + +[Sidenote: POPE GREGORY THE GREAT] + +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 separated from Inishmore, the largest and most +westerly island, by the North Sound, five and a half miles wide, called +by the natives _Bealagh-a-Lurgan_, "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 _Bealagh-ne-Hayte_, +"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. + +[Sidenote: MANOR OF IAR CONNAUGHT.] + +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 valuation, L1576; rent, L2067; 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, +_et hoc genus omne_; 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 L6 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 L34 12_s._ 2_d._ + +[Sidenote: THE ARAN MAIL-BOAT.] + +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 AEngus, 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 +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. + +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. + +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 have happily +lived on in blissful ignorance of the painful turmoils that reigned +around. + +[Sidenote: THE BLACK-EYED HEBE.] + +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 Hebe who ministered to the wants of the writer of these +pages. + +[Sidenote: THE FLORA OF ARAN.] + +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 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. + +[Sidenote: ORNITHOLOGY OF ARAN.] + +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? + +[Sidenote: TANKS WANTING IN ARAN.] + +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 (_Anas Leucopsis_); the popular belief being that +they spring from the driftwood[1]. 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 +_Boonaun-Laynagh_, 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 in those islands, and the expense of +their construction must be a trifling matter indeed. + +[Sidenote: ICE-CUT FURROWS.] + +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. + +[Sidenote: BOULDERS.] + +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 striae, 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 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 +_Illaun-a-naur_, on the south-easterly side of the great island, are +sea-terraced cliffs which are fendered by a rampart formed 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. + +[Sidenote: SEA WEEDS.] + +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. + +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 _Pinus maritima_, 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 movement of the sand-hills, but also of +the appearance of fields and buildings submerged on the sea-coast. + +[Sidenote: MOVING SANDS IN ARAN.] + +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. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] Denis Florence McCarthy's Poems, p. 87 note. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + "Remnants of things that have passed away, + Fragments of stone reared by creatures of clay." + + _Siege of Corinth._ + + +[Sidenote: THE DRUIDS.] + +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. + +[Sidenote: DRUIDISM.] + +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 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 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."[2] + +[Sidenote: SIR EDWARD COKE ON DRUIDISM.] + +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? + +[Sidenote: FORTRESSES OF ARAN.] + +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 AEngus, 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 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 +manoeuvres. 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 _chevaux-de-frise_ of modern +fortifications. The doorway with sloping jambs of Egyptian pattern +through the outer wall admits only one or two assailants together. + +[Sidenote: DUN AENGUS.] + +Dun Conor, an oval fort on the middle island, is much larger than Dun +AEngus, 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. + +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 +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, _Dubh Cahn_, "the black fort," a Dun +or fortress of very rude masonry, of enormous thickness, and overlooking +the cliffs. + +[Sidenote: ST. ENDA.] + +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 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 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. + +[Sidenote: ST. BRENDAN.] + +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 _Irland it Milka_, "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:-- + + "Hearing how blessed Enda lived apart, + Amid the sacred caves of Aran-moer, + And how beneath his eye, spread like a chart, + Lay all the isles of that remotest shore; + And how he had collected in his mind + All that was known to the man of the "old sea,"[3] + I left the hill of miracles behind, + And sailed from out the shallow sandy Leigh. + + "Again I sailed and crossed the stormy sound, + That lies beneath Binn-Aite's rocky height, + And there upon the shore, the saint I found + Waiting my coming through the tardy night. + He led me to his home beside the wave, + Where with his monks the pious father dwelled, + And to my listening ear he freely gave + The sacred knowledge that his bosom held. + + "When I proclaimed the project that I nursed, + How it was for this that I his blessing sought, + An irrepressible cry of joy outburst + From his pure lips, that blessed me for the thought. + He said that he, too, had in visions strayed, + O'er the untrack'd ocean's billowing foam; + Bid me have hope, that God would give me aid, + And bring me safe back to my native home. + + "Thus having sought for knowledge and for strength, + For the unheard-of voyage that I planned, + I left those myriad isles, and turned at length + Southward my barque, and sought my native land. + There I made all things ready day by day; + The wicker boat with ox-skins covered o'er, + Chose the good monks, companions of my way, + And waited for the wind to leave the shore." + +[Sidenote: ST. FINNIAN.] + +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. + +[Sidenote: ST. COLUMBA.] + +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:-- + + 1. + + "Farewell to Aran isle, farewell! + I steer for Hy; my heart is sore, + The breakers burst, the billows swell, + 'Twixt Aran's isle and Alba's shore. + + 2. + + "Thus spake the son of God, 'Depart!' + Oh Aran isle, God's will be done! + By angels thronged this hour thou art: + I sit within my barque alone. + + 3. + + "Oh Modan, well for thee the while! + Fair falls thy lot and well art thou, + Thy seat is set in Aran isle, + Eastward to Alba turns my prow. + + 4. + + "Oh Aran, sun of all the west! + My heart is thine! as sweet to close + Our dying eyes in thee as rest + Where Peter and where Paul repose. + + 5. + + "Oh Aran, sun of all the west, + My heart its grave hath found; + He walks in regions of the blest, + The man that hears thy church bells sound. + + 6. + + "Oh Aran blest--oh Aran blest! + Accursed the man that loves not thee; + The dead man cradled in thy breast + No demon scares him--well is he."[4] + + +[Sidenote: ST. FURSA.] + +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 _Inferno_. 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!"[5] 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! + +[Sidenote: GIBBON.] + +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 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 _quondam_ brethren +he now, awaiting the resurrection of the just, reposes. + +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.) + +[Sidenote: RUINS.] + +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. + + COUNTY OF GALWAY. + + BARONY OF ARAN. + + --------------+----------------+-------------------------------------- + Parish. | Townland. | Monuments. + --------------+----------------+-------------------------------------- + Inisheer, | Inisheer | Great Fort, with stone-roofed Cells, + or | | and O'Brien's Castle. + Lesser Island | | Fort with Mound and Monument. + | | Ruins of Church--Kill-Gobnet, etc. + | | Ruins of Church--Burial-place of + | | Seven Daughters, whose names are + | | unknown. + | | Ruins of Church--Tempul Coemhan. + | | + Inishmaan, | Carrowntemple | Fort Mothar Dun. + or | Carrownlisheen | Fort of Conor. + Middle Island | | Ruins of Church--Kill Canonagh. + | | Ruins of Church--Tempul Caireach + | | Derquin. + | | + Inishmore, | Onaght | Fort Dun AEngus. + or | Killeaney | Fort Dun Eochla. + Great Island | | Dubh Chathair or the Black Fort. + | | Ruins of Church--Tempul Benin, with + | | rectangular enclosure and group + | | of Cells. + | | Ruins of Church--Tempul Brecan and + | | Cross. + | | Ruins of Church--Tempul beg mac Dara. + | | Ruins of Church--Tempul more mac + | | Dara. + | | Ruins of Church--Tempul Assurniadhe. + | | Ruins of Church--Tempul Ciara + | | Monastir. + | | Ruins of Church--Tempul a Phoill (the + | | seven churches). + | | Ruins of Church--Tempul an Cheathrair + | | Aluin. + | | Ruins of Church--Teglach Enda (St. + | | Enda's Church). + --------------+----------------+-------------------------------------- + +[Sidenote: CLOGHAUNS.] + +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. +_Teampul-Chiarain_ has a beautiful eastern window, with some crosses. +Four miles from Kilronan are Kilmurvey and _Teampul McDuach_, 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, _Teampul-beg_, 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, are the remains of the seven churches, one of which is called +_Teampul Brecain_--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 _Teampul-saght-Machree_ is an object of +interest on the middle island. The eastern island in ancient times was +called _Aran-Coemhan_ in honour of _St. Coemhan_ (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. + +[Sidenote: CHILDLESS MARRIAGES.] + +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,[6] when the +Lord bestowed on her childless marriage a child who was afterwards the +prophet Samuel. + +[Sidenote: ARAN CHURCHES.] + +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, 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. + +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. + +[Sidenote: LIVES OF THE MONKS.] + +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 +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. "_Laborare est +orare_" 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."[7] + +[Sidenote: ORDNANCE SURVEY.] + +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 +_Leabhar-braec_ 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. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[2] II. Coke's Reports, part iii. Preface, p. viii. + +[3] The "Old Sea," the ancient name of the Atlantic in Irish. + +[4] Sir Aubrey De Vere, "Irish Odes," p. 274. + +[5] Colgani, Acta SS. Hiberniae. + +[6] 1 Sam. i. 9-17. + +[7] Pliny, Hist. Nat., v. 15. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +ISLES OF ARAN, 14TH-18TH CENTURIES. + + "Long thy fair cheek was pale, + _Erin Aroon_-- + Too well it spake thy tale, + _Erin Aroon_-- + Fondly nursed hopes betrayed, + Gallant sons lowly laid, + All anguish there portrayed, + _Erin Aroon._" + + _Sliabh Cuilinn._ + +[Sidenote: ANNALS OF ARAN.] + +A.D. 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 L24 15_s._ 2_d._ at that port, and in 1392, L118 5_s._ +10_d._ 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,[8] 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. + +A.D. 1334. In this year the islands were plundered by Sir John Darcy, +who sailed with fifty-six ships around the Irish coasts. + +[Sidenote: REVOLT OF ARAN.] + +A.D. 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. + +[Sidenote: ROYAL LICENSE.] + +Thereupon the King did by royal license permit certain persons to attack +the rebels in the said island, which license is as follows:-- + +"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 +KNOW YE ALL MEN 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 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--A.D. 1400 'By the +King himself'"[9] The town however returning to its allegiance, the +above license was in the same year revoked. + +[Sidenote: THE REFORMATION.] + +A.D. 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, A.D. 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 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 '_Straits of Dover_'[10] that +has not been completely destroyed." + + +[Sidenote: A STORM.] + +A.D. 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. + +A.D. 1570. Morchowe O'Brien, in consideration of a sum of money to him +in hand paid, conveyed these islands by way of mortgage to James Lynch +Fitz Ambrose and his heirs. + +[Sidenote: THE O'BRIENS.] + +A.D. 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.[11] + +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 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."[12] + +[Sidenote: THE CLANRICARDES.] + +A.D. 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 +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. + +A.D. 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. + +[Sidenote: THE FEROCIOUS O'FLAHERTIES.] + +A.D. 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, A.D. 1587, +instead 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.[13] + +[Sidenote: CLAN OF MAC TIEGE O'BRIEN.] + +A.D. 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 and liege +people to the crown of England, to maintain, succour, and assist the +town. + + "(Signed), "JOHN BLAKE, Mayor of Galway, + + "WALTER MARTIN, Bailiff, + + "ANTHONY KIRWAN, Bailiff." + +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 _Farran-na-Cann_, "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. + +[Sidenote: AN INDUSTRIOUS DISCOVERER.] + +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. + +[Sidenote: LYNCHES.] + +After this period the property and inheritance of the islands became +and 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. + + +A.D. 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 L50 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, "_great +trees_, mines, and minerals, and hawks, at an annual rent of L3 Irish, +and a proportion of port corn, as therein is set forth." + +A.D. 1641. The clan Tiege O'Briens still claimed the islands as their +legitimate inheritance, and, taking 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.[14] + +[Sidenote: ARCHBISHOP O'QUEELY.] + +A.D. 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. + +A.D. 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. + +[Sidenote: SURRENDER OF ARAN.] + +On the 15th the islands surrendered on the following terms:-- + +"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. + +"(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 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." + +[Sidenote: ERASMUS SMITH.] + +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. + +A.D. 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[15] until they could be +transported to the West Indies, they being allowed sixpence a day each +for their support. + +[Sidenote: QUIT RENT.] + +A.D. 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_s._ 5-1/2_d._ 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 (_Quietus Redditus_) 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 L14 8_s._ 4_d._ + +A.D. 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 (1868) on the revenues and condition of +the Established Church, page 191. + +A.D. 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. + +[Sidenote: THE FLORA OF ARAN.] + +A.D. 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. + +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 L100, 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. + +[Sidenote: ROYAL FRANCHISE.] + +A.D. 1746. The case of _The Mayor of Galway_ v. _Digby_, 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 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 L160. +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. + +Counsel for the defendant did not feel so sure of the success of his +learned friend's case as his learned 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, _sturgeone observetur quod rex illum habebit integrum: de +Balena vero sufficit si rex habeat caput et regina caudam_." 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. + +A.D. 1754. John Digby demised the island of Inisheer to William +MacNamara of Doolin, county Clare, for thirty-one years, at an annual +rent of L90. + +[Sidenote: ARCHBISHOP PHILLIPS.] + +A.D. 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 _de jure sed non de +facto_ of Great Britain and Ireland, nominated as appears by the +apostolic letter of Clement XIII., dated Rome, November 24, 1760. + +[Sidenote: EARL BUTLER OF ARAN.] + +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 +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 L10,000 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 _de jure_ 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. + +[Sidenote: GORE, EARL OF ARAN.] + +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, fifth Earl of Aran, born +on the night of storm, January 6, 1839. + +A.D. 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. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[8] O'Hart's "Landed Gentry," p. 124, edit. 1884. + +[9] Pat. Rolls, 1 Hen. IV. 7. m. + +[10] "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." + +[11] Hardiman, "History of Galway," p. 208 note. + +[12] Hardiman's History of Galway, p. 207. + +[13] Pat. Rolls, 31 Eliz. + +[14] Clanricarde Memoirs, p. 71. + +[15] Froude's English in Ireland, vol. i., p. 134. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + "Where the tints of the earth and the hues of the sky, + In colour though varied, in beauty may vie, + And the purple of ocean is deepest in dye." + + _Bride of Abydos._ + + +[Sidenote: THE ARAN ISLANDERS.] + +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: + +"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. + +[Sidenote: A POLITE PEOPLE.] + +"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 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. + +"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. + +"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 +loquacious; inquisitive after information, but delicate in seeking it, +and grateful for its communication. + +"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."[16] + +[Sidenote: RESIGNATION OF THE ARANITES.] + +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 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!" + +[Sidenote: THEIR PURITY OF MORALS.] + +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. + +Sir F. Head. "How long have you been on duty in Galway?" + +The officer replies, "Only six months." + +_Question._ "During that time have you known of many instances of +illegitimate children being born in the Claddagh?" + +_Answer._ "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 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." + +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,[17] and whilst he was +there several cases of typhus fever of a malignant type occurred. + +[Sidenote: THEIR KINDNESS.] + +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 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 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." + +[Sidenote: THEIR HOSPITALITY.] + +On September 3, 1886, Mr. R.F. Mullery, clerk of the Galway Union, thus, +in answer to my letter to him, writes:-- + + "The present poundage-rate, one shilling in the pound, is + exceptionally low, owing to a grant of L440, 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. + + "I have the honour, etc., + + "ROBERT F. MULLERY." + + +The following extract from a letter written by my 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:-- + + "Belfast, September 26, 1886. + + "MY DEAR BURKE, + + "My absence from Galway upon special duty in the north has prevented + my replying to your note of the 18th inst. until now. + + [Sidenote: THEIR INDUSTRY.] + + "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 _bona-fide_ 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 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, + + "Sincerely yours, + + "PHILIP LYSTER." + + +[Sidenote: THEIR DRESS.] + +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. + +[Sidenote: THEIR PAMPOODIES.] + +The raw cow-hide, which is cut to fit 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. + +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: "_Sta viator._ Stay, traveller. O Lord have mercy on the soul +of Mac Dara Ternan, who departed this life 26th June, 1842." These +monuments of the dead, who are generally interred in far-distant +churchyards, have by moonlight a ghastly appearance. + +[Sidenote: THEIR HOLY WELLS.] + +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. + +[Sidenote: THE ISLE OF O'BRAZIL.] + +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 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. + +[Sidenote: A PHANTOM-ISLAND.] + +The phantom receded; he followed. Still following, he never returned to +Aran again, and his mournful fate is thus sung by Gerald Griffin:-- + + 1. + + "On the ocean that hollows the rocks where ye dwell, + A shadowy land has appeared, as they tell; + Men thought it a region of sunshine and rest, + And they called it O'Brazil, the Isle of the Blest. + From year unto year on the ocean's blue rim, + The beautiful spectre showed lovely and dim; + The golden clouds curtained the deep where it lay, + And it looked like an Eden away--far away. + + 2. + + "A peasant who heard of the wonderful tale, + In the breeze of the Orient loosened his sail; + From Aran, the holy, he turned to the west, + For though Aran was holy, O'Brazil was blest. + He heard not the voice that called from the shore, + He heard not the rising wind's menacing roar: + Home, kindred, and safety, he left on that day, + And he sped to O'Brazil away--far away. + + 3. + + "Morn rose on the deep, and that shadowy isle, + O'er the faint rim and distant reflected its smile; + Noon burned on the wave, and that shadowy shore + Seemed lovely, distant, and faint as before. + Lone evening came down on the wanderer's track, + And to Aran again he looked timidly back; + Oh! far on the verge of the ocean it lay, + Yet the isle of the blest was away--far away! + + 4. + + "Rash dreamer, return! oh, ye winds of the main, + Bear him back to his own peaceful Aran again; + Rash fool! for a vision of fanciful bliss + To barter thy calm life of labour and peace. + The warning of reason was spoken in vain, + He never revisited Aran again. + Night fell on the deep, amidst tempest and spray, + And he died on the waters away--far away." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[16] Stokes' "Life of Dr. Petrie," pp. 49, 50. + +[17] "Reminiscences of Frank Thorpe Porter, Esq.," 1875, p. 489. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + "Never Boreas' hoary path, + Never Eurus' poisonous breath, + Never baleful stellar lights + Taint _Aran_ with untimely blights." + + BURNS. + + +[Sidenote: OLD AGE IN ARAN.] + +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. + +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 L5 to L6 +each. Then all manner of shellfish are in abundance in those +waters--multivalves, bivalves, 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. + +[Sidenote: LAND COMMISSION IN ARAN.] + +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. + + +IRISH LAND COMMISSION. + +Michael O'Donel, tenant. + +Miss Digby, Landenstown, county Kildare, and the Hon. Thomas Kenelm +Digby St. Lawrence (second son of Thomas, twenty-ninth baron, third Earl +of Howth--by his second wife, Henrietta Digby, only child of Peter +Barfoot, Esq., of Landenstown, county Kildare), landlords. + +Mr. Concannon appeared as solicitor for the tenants; Mr. Stephens, +solicitor, for the landlords. + +Michael O'Donel sworn. + +Mr. Concannon. O'Donel, are you tenant of this holding? + +I am, your honour. + +How long are you tenant? + +Since I was born--and that's fifty years ago. + +Do you swear that, that you were tenant since you were born? How long +are you paying rent? + +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. + +Do you swear that? + +Well, of coorse I couldn't swear it out and out. + +What quantity of land have you in your holding? + +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 L3 18_s._ 6_d._, and it +was not worth that. + +To the court. The last change of rent was thirty years ago. + +What buildings have you? + +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. + +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 L3 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 L12; that includes L6 7_s._ 6_d._ 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_d._ 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_s._ 6_d._ for calves, and a shilling a head +for pigs. And wasn't he sixteen days weatherbound in Galway last +February, after the fair-day? + +Mr. Concannon would produce no valuer, he felt perfect confidence in the +commissioners. + +This closed the tenant's case. + +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 L2143, as fixed by valuation in that year. +In 1812 the rental was L2668; in 1827, L2145 10_s._ 4_d._; in 1846, +L1937 17_s._ 7_d._; in 1881, L2067; in 1885, L2067; 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." + +The learned chairman, Mr. Crean, B.L., inquired what a croggery meant. + +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. x 6qrs. x 16crog. x 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 L2577, being L5 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 L30 to L90. + +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 L3 18_s._ 6_d._ to L2 7_s._ 6_d._, being +39.75 per cent. reduction. + +All the other cases were similar to the last. + +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 +L384, which was now reduced to the new or judicial rent of L231, being a +reduction in favour of the tenants of L153, say forty per cent. 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? + +[Sidenote: BARONESS BURDETT-COUTTS.] + +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? + +[Sidenote: THE ARAN FISHERIES.] + +The ignorance of our fishing population is thus deplored in the report +of "the inspectors of the sea and inland fisheries of Ireland," 1887:-- + +"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 _importing_ about 10,000 tons of cured fish _annually_, when she +might be _exporting_ double, or even treble that quantity. + +"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."[18] + +The following letter, from Sir Thomas F. Brady, Inspector of Irish +Fisheries, Dublin Castle, on the Aran fishery, is worthy of note:-- + + "11, Percy Place, Dublin, Dec. 5, 1886. + + "MY DEAR BURKE, + + "I have your note here. There is a large number of open row boats + and curraghs on the three 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. + + "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. + + "Sincerely yours, + + "THOMAS F. BRADY." + + + +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:-- + + "Poor Relief (Ireland) Inquiry Commission, + + "Dec. 10, 1886. + + "DEAR MR. BURKE, + + "I have been engaged all the summer, in conjunction with Colonel + Fraser and Mr. Mahony, in expending a grant of L20,000 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. + + "Yours truly, + + "C.T. REDINGTON." + + +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:-- + + + "Aran, Dec. 11, 1886. + + "DEAR SIR, + + "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 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_s._ to 1_s._ + 6_d._ in spring, with his diet; at harvest, about 1_s._ 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_s._ 6_d._ and + diet, but this lasts only a week twice in the year." + + [Sidenote: TREES IN ARAN.] + + 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. + + "What kept the poor rate down both last year and this was the amount + of relief given out. Mr. Thompson, the agent, laid out L140 on a + road, and L136 on seed potatoes. Sir John Barrington has given me + upwards of L100 for this object, and this year he gave me L80 or L90 + for seed potatoes and L120 for relief and also money to assist + emigration and to buy turf. The people will suffer terribly this + year for want of fuel. The potato crop is all gone. No fish + whatever taken. Any further information you may want I will freely + give. + + "I am, dear Sir, + + "Yours, very sincerely, + + "WILLIAM KILLRIDE." + + +[Sidenote: BARONESS BURDETT-COUTTS.] + +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 L6 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 L600 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 +L34,585. 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 L20 a month, the others were +owned by a company of fish buyers, at a cost of L1 5_s._ a week each. +This for ten would amount to L3080, besides a large expenditure on +packers." Fancy the like sums scattered in Aran! + +[Sidenote: THE ARAN FISHERIES.] + +At Baltimore in 1886, sixteen steamers were employed in carrying the +fish to England, at an estimated cost of L400 each per month. + +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 L1500, +besides a large expenditure upon packers, etc. + +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. + +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. + +[Sidenote: LOANS FOR FISHERY PURPOSES.] + + "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. + + "II. In _special cases_, where the Inspectors of Irish 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. + + "III. Time for repaying any loan not exceeding ten years. + + "IV. Repayment by half yearly instalments with interest at the rate + of 2.5 per cent. per annum. + + [Sidenote: THE ARAN FISHERIES.] + + "NOTE.--It must be observed that loans under rule No. 2. can only be + recommended _under very_ _exceptional circumstances, and to a very + limited extent_, 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. + + "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. + + "By order, + + "GEORGE COFFEY, + + "Secretary. + + "Fisheries Office, Dublin Castle, February, 1886." + + +[Sidenote: IRISH FISHERIES--IRISH PARLIAMENT.] + +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 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., A.D. 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. + +[Sidenote: THE ARAN FISHERIES--TRAWLING.] + +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 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. + +"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."[19] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[18] Report of Inspectors of Irish Fisheries for 1887, p. 10. + +[19] Report of Inspectors of Fisheries, 1887, p. 8. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + "The darksome pines on yonder rocks reclined + Wave high and murmur to the hollow wind." + + POPE. + + +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. + +[Sidenote: RE-AFFORESTING ARAN.] + +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, 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 _Irish +Times_ and _Freeman's Journal_. To give those letters _in extenso_, +however instructive, would fill too many of our over-filled pages, but +we may be permitted to make a few quotations from them. + +[Sidenote: FORESTS IN BADEN.] + +"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. The labour connected with the forests of those countries and +their products have been estimated to be worth L9,450,000; 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. + +[Sidenote: FOREST INDUSTRIES.] + +"The mountains and bogs of Connemara, with the roots and remains of +trees scattered everywhere 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. 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_s._ to L2 10_s._ This difference will gradually +transfer the manufacture of paper and papier-mache 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, 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. + +"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. + +[Sidenote: RE-AFFORESTING ARAN.] + +"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. The consumption of paper in the +United Kingdom must be over L30,000,000 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 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." + +[Sidenote: FORESTS FORMERLY IN ARAN.] + +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 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. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +SUPERSTITIONS OF THE GROVE. + + "Oh the Oak, and the Ash, and the bonnie Ivy tree + Flourish best at hame in the North Countrie." + +[Sidenote: SUN-WORSHIP IN ARAN.] + +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."[20] And we are told that "Abraham planted +a grove in Bersabee, and there called upon the Name of the everlasting +God."[21] + +[Sidenote: WORSHIP OF BAAL IN ARAN.] + +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 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.[22] 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."[23] +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.[24] + +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 islands to William Anderson, his executors, etc., +for a long term of years, excepting thereout _great trees_. + +[Sidenote: NYMPHS OF TREES.] + +_The Oak._--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 +_Hamadryades_, 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 _Dryades_, 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. + +[Sidenote: THE OAK.] + +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 _Argo_, 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 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. + +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 _Dara_, and many an +Aranite bears that name. + +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, 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. + +[Sidenote: OAK--ASH.] + +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. + + "If the oak's before the ash, + Then you'll only get a splash; + If the ash precedes the oak, + Then you may expect a soak." + +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. + +The _Ash_ is "the Venus of the forest." On ashen sticks (dreadful in +matters of witchcraft, as appears 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-- + + "And if you find + An even-leaved ash and a four-leaved clover, + You'll see your true love 'fore the day is over." + +[Sidenote: ASH--ROWAN TREE.] + +Strange that the mountain ash, the _rowan tree_, 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 _aspen_, of which +it is said that it alone refused to bow, as the other trees did, to the +Redeemer, and that for such conduct the aspen leaf all over the world +trembleth even to this hour. + +[Sidenote: ELDER--PINE.] + +_The Elder._--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-- + + "Bourtree, bourtree, crooked wrung, + Never straight and never strong; + Ever bush and never tree, + Since our Lord was nailed to thee." + +The mushrooms growing in or near the elder are known as Judas's ears, of +wondrous virtue in curing coughs. + + "For a cough take Judas' ear, + With the parings of the pear; + And drink this without fear." + +The superstitions attached to this tree are many, and to tell them would +fill a volume. + +Stumps of _Pine_ and _Fir_ 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 a green fir +tree."[25] 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 _fir wood_, 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[26] 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. + +[Sidenote: HOLLY--IVY.] + +The _Holly_, or _Holy_, and the _Ivy_ 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 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. + +[Sidenote: HAWTHORN--BLACKTHORN.] + +The _Hawthorn_ and _Blackthorn_ 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 _it_ supplied the thorns, +wherefore 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 Arimathaea 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! + +[Sidenote: THE ROSE--SILENCE.] + +_The Rose._--"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 which +were reddened with the blood of Christ. From these comes the red rose, +emblematic, not alone of purity, but of martyrdom. + +[Sidenote: THE ROSARY--FERNS.] + +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. + +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. + +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. + +_Ferns._--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 "1 Henry IV.," act ii. scene 1: + + "We have the receipt of fern seed, we walk invisible." + +[Sidenote: FERNS--INVISIBILITY.] + +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. Flinging them off, he at once became visible to +everybody. + +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. + +[Sidenote: FAIRY FLAX--FAIRIES.] + +The _Fairy Flax_ 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,[27] 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 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. + +[Sidenote: SATURDAY'S SPINNING--HEMP.] + +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 B.C.![28] 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-- + + "See what in hell at last I've won, + Because on Saturdays I've spun." + +_Hemp._--I don't remember seeing hemp growing in Aran to any great +extent. Sowing the seed of hemp 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":-- + + "At eve last midsummer no sleep I sought, + But to the field a bag of hemp seed brought: + I scattered round the seed on every side, + And three times in a trembling accent cried, + 'This hemp seed with my virgin hand I sow, + Who shall my true love be the crop shall mow.' + I straight looked back, and, if my eyes speak truth, + With his keen scythe behind me came the youth. + 'With my sharp heel I three times mark the ground, + And turn me thrice around, around, around!" + +[Sidenote: HAZEL--DIVINING-RODS.] + +The _Hazel_, 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. + +[Sidenote: FAREWELL INISHMORE.] + +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 into these +islands, where frosts never wither, where snows never rest? And so +farewell to Inishmore, the island-home of St. Enda--Inishmore--once + + "Notissima fama + Insula dives opum, _Hiberniae_ dum regna manebant + Nunc tantum sinus, et statio mala fida carinis." + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[20] Hos. iv. 13. + +[21] Gen. xxi. 33. + +[22] 1 Chron. x. 12. + +[23] Deut. xvi. 21. + +[24] 2 Kings xxiii. 5, 6. + +[25] Hos. xiv. 9. + +[26] 1 Kings v. 10, 11. + +[27] 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.--_Vide_ "Lalla-Rookh," "Paradise and the Peri." + +[28] 2 Kings xvii. 6. + + + + +APPENDIX A. + + "Adorned with honours on their native shore, + Silent they sleep and dream of wars no more." + + POPE'S _Iliad_. + +[Sidenote: O'BRIENS LORDS OF ARAN.] + +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, 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: _parler-les-mens_, +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, _mutatis mutandis_, 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 field.[29] 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 Thermopylae, fell +fighting the foreign foe for the liberties of his country. + +[Sidenote: O'BRIENS LORDS INCHIQUIN.] + +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 +A.D. 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 A.D. 1654) and third Marquis of +Thomond (A.D. 1800), died without issue 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. + +[Sidenote: MARSHAL MACMAHON.] + +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. + +[Sidenote: O'BRIENS OF BALLYNALACKEN.] + +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 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. + +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. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[29] 2 Sam. xii. 31. + + + + +APPENDIX B. + +STATISTICS OF ISLANDS OF ARAN. + + + Area, 11,288 acres. + + Population--Census 1815, 2400 + " " 1871, 3049; increase, 640 + " " 1881, 3163 " 114 + Inhabited houses, 1815 395 + " " 1881 576 " 181 + + Petty Sessions District, Aran. + + Religion of Aranites, 1871, 2993 Roman Catholics + " " " 55 Protestant Episcopalians + " " " 1 Presbyterian + ---- + Total 3049 + + Religion of Aranites, 1881, 3118 Roman Catholics; increase, 125 + " " " 44 Protestant Episcopalians; + decrease, 11 + " " " 1 Presbyterian + ---- + Total 3163 + + Number speaking Irish only in Aran, 1871 835 + " " English and Irish " 1924 + " " Irish only, 1881 889 + " " English and Irish, 1881 1829 + + Constabulary barracks, 1871 1 + " " 1881 3 + Number of constabulary, 1871 6 + " " 1881 18 + Coastguard barracks, 1881 2 + + Quarter Sessions--Galway. + Petty Sessions--Held on the islands. + + Roman Catholic churches in Aran 4 + Protestant Episcopal church 1 + Protestant church accommodation 180 + Annual income of parish priest, 1801 L60[30] + " " Protestant incumbent L125[31] + National schools in islands 4 + Average attendance, Sept., 1886, to June, + 1887 524 + Manager, Rev. M. O'Donoghoe, P.P. + + Fishing boats on islands, 1st class, 1887 0 + " " 2nd " " 34 + " " 3rd " " 130 + Poor-law valuation L1576 + Rent, 1881 L2067 + Average poor rate, last ten years 3_s._ in the L + Paupers in workhouse 0 + Distance of workhouse from islands 30 miles + Numbers receiving outdoor relief 43 + + Grand jury works on island, Spring assizes, 1887 0 + Grand jury cess " " " L34 12s. 2d. + + Crown rent (_sup._, p. 45) 18s. 5-1/2d. + Quit rent (_sup._, p. 45) L14 8s. 4d. + Labourer's wages 1s. _per diem_ + " " spring and harvest 1s. 6d., with diet + +FOOTNOTES: + +[30] 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. + +[31] Charles's "Irish Church Directory." + + +THE END. + +PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AND BECCLES. + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The South Isles of Aran, by Oliver J. 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