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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/39500-8.txt b/39500-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2ffd7b4 --- /dev/null +++ b/39500-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8185 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Beauties and Antiquities of Ireland, by T. O. Russell + +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: Beauties and Antiquities of Ireland + +Author: T. O. Russell + +Release Date: April 21, 2012 [EBook #39500] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BEAUTIES, ANTIQUITIES OF IRELAND *** + + + + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive.) + + + + + + + + + +BEAUTIES AND ANTIQUITIES OF IRELAND + + + + +KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRÜBNER & Co., Ltd. + +NEW AND RECENT PUBLICATIONS. + +THE PAMPHLET LIBRARY. + +EDITED BY ARTHUR WAUGH. Crown 8vo. + +POLITICAL PAMPHLETS. Selected and arranged by A. F. +POLLARD. 6s. [_Ready._ + +LITERARY PAMPHLETS. Selected and arranged by ERNEST +RHYS. [_Immediately._ + + +_To be followed by_ + +RELIGIOUS PAMPHLETS. Selected and arranged by Rev. +PERCY DEARMER, and + +DRAMATIC PAMPHLETS. Selected and arranged by THOMAS +SECCOMBE. + + +MEMOIRS OF HAWTHORNE. By his daughter, ROSE HAWTHORNE +LATHROP. With Portrait. Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d. + +IN THE LAND OF THE BORA; or Camp-Life and Sport in +Dalmatia and the Herzegovina. By "Snaffle," author +of "Gun, Rifle, and Hound." With 10 Full-page +Illustrations by H. DIXON. Demy 8vo. 15s. + +THE CRIMEAN DIARY OF THE LATE GENERAL SIR CHARLES +WINDHAM, K.C.B. Edited by Major HUGH PEARSE. With +an Introduction by Sir WILLIAM H. RUSSELL, and a +portrait of General WINDHAM. Post 8vo. 7s. 6d. + + +PATERNOSTER HOUSE, CHARING CROSS ROAD. + + + + +[Illustration: CONG ABBEY. + +_Frontispiece._] + + + + + BEAUTIES AND ANTIQUITIES + OF IRELAND + + BEING + + A TOURIST'S GUIDE TO ITS MOST BEAUTIFUL + SCENERY & AN ARCHÆOLOGIST'S MANUAL + FOR ITS MOST INTERESTING RUINS + + + BY T. O. RUSSELL + AUTHOR OF "DICK MASSEY," "TRUE HEART'S TRIALS," ETC. + + + LONDON + KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO., LTD. + B. HERDER + 17 SOUTH BROADWAY + ST LOUIS, MO. + 1897 + + + + +PREFACE + + +To describe all the beauties and antiquities of Ireland, an encyclopedia, +instead of a volume the size of this one would be required. As one of the +objects of this book is to show that Irish history is as generally +interesting as Irish scenery is generally beautiful, few places are +noticed that are not historic; but in a volume of the size of this, all +the historic places could not be mentioned. Many books have been published +during the last three-quarters of a century that treat on Irish scenery +and antiquities. Some of them are very voluminous and copiously +illustrated. They were, for the most part, written by persons utterly +unfitted for the task they undertook. Their remarks on Irish scenery may +be of some value; they may have thought Killarney more beautiful than the +Bog of Allen; but wherever they touch on matters connected with history +and antiquities, they are so often incorrect and misleading that the books +they have published may, for the most part, be said to be useless. It is +not too much to say that many of these works would be actually increased +in value if the printed matter were torn out of them and nothing left but +the illustrations and covers. The people who wrote them were totally +unfitted to treat of Irish history and antiquities. They knew little about +the history of ancient Ireland, and nothing of the Irish language or its +literature. They could hardly be justified to treat of Irish architectural +remains, because they were ill-equipped to do so, and were unsympathetic +with the race that raised them. + +If there is any country in Europe about the scenery and antiquities of +which an interesting book could be written, it is Ireland. In no other +country are scenery and antiquities so closely allied, for the finest +remains of her ancient ruins are generally found where the scenery is most +weird, most strange, or most beautiful. In no other country, perhaps, can +so many places be identified with historic events, or historic personages, +as in Ireland. It contains more relics of a long vanished past than any +other European land. Great Britain seems a new country compared with +Ireland. In spite of the wanton and disgraceful destruction of her ancient +monuments that has been going on for centuries, more of such can be found +in a single Irish county than in a dozen in Great Britain. Although +Stonehenge is the finest druidic monument known to exist, the quantity of +druidic remains is much greater in Ireland than in England. In the latter +country we miss the _dun_, the _rath_, the _lis_, the round tower and the +sepulchral mound, some of which are found in almost every square mile of +Ireland. And coming down to later times, when men began to erect +structures of stone, we find the remains of castles and keeps in such +extraordinary numbers that we wonder for what purpose so many strongholds +were erected. Counting _raths_, _duns_, _lises_, _cromlechs_, round +towers, crumbling castles, and deserted fanes, Ireland may be called a +land of ruins beyond any other country in Europe. To make these +multitudinous monuments of a far-back past still more interesting, it will +be found that mention is made of most of them even in the remnant of +Gaelic literature that by the merest chance has been preserved. + +The place names of Ireland are as interesting and as extraordinary as her +antiquities, and to some are even more fascinating than her beauties. The +bewildering immensity of Irish place names is one of the most remarkable +things connected with Ireland; but like her ancient monuments, they are +every day disappearing--fading away with the language from which they +were formed. Even still, there are, probably, as many ancient place names +in a single Irish province as in the whole of Great Britain. If it is not +absolutely true when speaking of Ireland to say that, "No dust of hers is +lost in vulgar mould," it can at least be said that there is hardly a +square mile of her surface where some hoary relic of the past or some +beautiful object of nature can be met with that is not mentioned in +history, enshrined in legend, or celebrated in song. + +T. O. R. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PAGE + + KILLARNEY 1 + + Its fame world wide--Beauty of its name--Extract from + Macaulay in its praise--Comparative smallness of + Killarney--Admirable proportion of its scenic features-- + Softness and beauty its chief attractions--Its weather + often moist--Autumn the best time to see it--Its + overpowering beauty on fine autumn days--The country + round Killarney a wonderland of beauty--Its ruins; and + their historic interest. + + TARA 12 + + Its antiquity its chief attraction--Beautiful view from its + ruined ramparts--The most historic spot in these islands-- + Proof of the general correctness of early Irish history--Dr + Petrie's great work on the antiquities of Tara--His map of + it--Its adaptation for a seat of government in ancient + times--Its profanation by the erection of modern buildings + on it--Tracks of its principal monuments--No trace of stone + buildings found--Its praise sung by Gaelic poets--Was the + most important place in Ireland--The roads that centred + there--The Lia Fail, or Stone of Destiny; prophecy + concerning it; was brought from Tara to Scotland; now under + the coronation chair at Westminster; Petrie's mistake about + it; proofs that it was removed from Tara; the stone there + now not the Lia Fail; is the Lia Fail a meteoric stone?-- + Tara the great political centre of ancient Ireland--The + Leinster Tribute--Slaughter of 3030 maidens--Indifference + of the Irish heretofore about their history and literature-- + Many valuable gold ornaments found in Tara--The "Tara + Brooch"--King Laoghaire buried in Tara; his face to his + foes, the Leinstermen--The old feud between Meath and + Leinster not yet quite forgotten--Tara terribly uprooted-- + Saint Patrick's goat--Last King that reigned in Tara--Its + vast antiquity worthy of credence. + + LOCH REE 47 + + One of the least known of the great lakes of Ireland--Its + great beauty--Decline of population in the country round + it--Want of steam-boats on the Upper Shannon--Number of + Islands--Beauty of the Leinster shore of the lake; is + studded with gentlemen's seats--Goldsmith's house--Historic + interest of Loch Ree--The treaty of Blein Potóg--Athlone; + its beauty of situation; the most prosperous town on the + Upper Shannon; its manufactures--Decline of the Irish + language--Improvement in the condition of the Irish + peasantry. + + "EMANIA THE GOLDEN" 58 + + Emania a Latinised form of Emain Macha--The second most + historic spot on Irish soil--Its history--Its present + desolation--Its great extent--Denationalisation of the + peasantry in its vicinity; their almost total ignorance of + its history--Emania and the "Children of Uisneach"; extreme + beauty of that legend--The tomb of Deirdre--Many gold + ornaments found near Emania--Long preservation of a place + name--Queen Macha--The city of Armagh; its antiquity; + founded by St Patrick; ruined and plundered by the Danes; + was for some years the abode of a Danish King; its + picturesqueness. + + QUEEN MAB'S PALACE 71 + + Rathcroghan, where Queen Mab lived and reigned, a very + celebrated place--She was contemporary with Cleopatra, and + was Queen of Connacht--Few legends about her in Ireland; an + historic personage there--Proofs of the comparatively high + civilization of Ireland in ancient times--Extraordinarily + long preservation of the legend of Queen Mab or Medb, in + England; her very long reign and great age; death in + Iniscloran; her fondness for cold water baths; the Four + Masters do not mention her--Description of the Fort of + Rathcroghan; the wooden palace that once stood on it; + unlike any of the historic forts of Ireland--Rathcroghan + desolate since the time of Queen Mab; its vast ancient + cemetery; Queen Mab buried there--Longevity of the ancient + Irish--Strong proofs that the Connacht queen was the + prototype of the Mab of Shakespeare, Drayton, Spenser, etc.; + her sister's name still preserved in an Irish place name-- + Beauty of the country round Rathcroghan; its fertility-- + Many mentions of Rathcroghan in ancient Gaelic writings. + + THE HILL OF UISNEACH 84 + + One of the most historic of Irish hills; its peculiar + shape--Magnificence and beauty of the view from it-- + Knockcosgrey--Decay of rural population--Uisneach + peculiarly adapted for a stronghold--Aill na Mireann, or + rock of the divisions; now called the "Cat Stone"; its very + peculiar shape; was supposed to mark the geographical + centre of the island--Great Synod held in Uisneach in A.D. + 1111--Moat of Ballylochloe; its extreme beauty; supposed + origin of its name. + + CLONMACNOIS 97 + + Strangeness and uniqueness of its situation--Love of the + strange and beautiful among ancient Irish Churchmen--The + Shannon--Views from Clonmacnois--Small size of its + remaining ruined fanes--Its round towers and crosses-- + Wondrous beauty of its smaller round tower--Petrie's theory + of the origin of round towers--Destruction of Clonmacnois-- + Vandalism manifest--Occupation by the Danes--The nunnery-- + Clonmacnois founded by St Kieran--De Lacy's ruined castle-- + Beauty and diversity of scenery of the Shannon; historic + interest of so many places on its banks. + + KNOCK AILLINN 111 + + Third most historic hill in Ireland--Beauty of the view + from its summit--On it is the largest fort in Ireland-- + Anciently the Residence of Kings of Leinster--The hill of + Allen; Finn's residence according to all authentic + documents; but no trace of earthworks on it--John + O'Donovan's opinion about it--Probable confusion of the + names Aillinn and Allen--Probability that Aillinn was + Finn's dun--Immensity of the folk-lore about Finn; as + widespread in Scotland as in Ireland; extraordinary way in + which he impressed himself on his age; does not seem to + have been a lovable personage--Dermot O'Duibhne--Real name + of the Campbells of Argyle--Finn, the most powerful man in + Ireland in his time--His name incorrectly spelt _Fionn_. + + "KILDARE'S HOLY FANE" 126 + + Not much scenic beauty about Kildare--The Curragh--Few + ancient remains in Kildare--Its round Tower--Kildare once + a large place; famous on account of St Brigit--Its "bright + lamp"--Moore's noble lyric, "Erin, O Erin"--St Brigit's + life in the Leabhar Breac; extracts from it--Her benevolence + and charity; her love of the poor and the sick; she was + buried in Kildare. + + GLENDALOCH 138 + + Its weird situation--A good central point from which to + make excursions--"Sugar-loaf" mountain; its horrible + modern name, and grand ancient one--Glendaloch the most + celebrated place in Wicklow--St Kevin; his youth; his + piety; he did not drown Kathleen; he only whipped her with + nettles--Kevin the most popular of Leinster Saints--"St + Kevin's bed"--Glendaloch an almost utter ruin--Ancient + Irish monasteries; their great wealth--Antique gold + ornaments--The evils of Danish raids--How well the Irish + fought the Danes--Round towers--Their uses--Books destroyed + by the Northmen--Halo of legend and romance that is round + Glendaloch. + + "LORDLY AILEACH" 157 + + The second most historic spot in Ulster--Sublime view from + it--Noble work done in its partial restoration--Its early + history--Its destruction by a Munster King--A funny _rann_ + from the Four Masters about it--Its great antiquity--The + great Circuit of Ireland made from Aileach--Quotations from + an ancient poem on the Circuit--A great poem totally + ignored by the Irish cultured classes--Muircheartach + MacNeill a great prince--His capture of the provincial + Kings--His tragic and untimely death. + + "ROYAL AND SAINTLY CASHEL" 172 + + Peculiar situation--Ancient Irish churchmen's appreciation + of the beautiful in nature--Superb beauty of the site of + Cashel--A wonder that so few poets have been inspired by + it--Sir Aubrey de Vere's Sonnet on Cashel--Marred by the + erection of new monuments--Long the seat of Munster Kings-- + Antiquity of Cashel as a centre of Christian cult--Wondrous + beauty of Cormac's Chapel; the most remarkable of early + Irish churches--The ancient Irish had no castles; they were + introduced by the Norman French--The city of Cashel-- + Cashel, Glendaloch and Clonmacnois the most interesting + places of their kind in Ireland. + + LOCH ERNE 186 + + Loch Erne, Loch Ree and Loch Derg compared; the former the + most peculiar of all Irish Lochs--Its innumerable islands, + and the great beauty of its shores--Want of proper + passenger steamers on it--Tourists must have good + accommodation--Ireland's beauties can never be fully known + until good hotels are provided--No other country of its + size has so many lakes and rivers as Ireland--Historic + attractions of Loch Erne--Devinish Island. + + MELLIFONT AND MONASTERBOICE 195 + + They are the most interesting ecclesiastical ruins in + Louth--Great beauty of the site of Mellifont--Terrible and + wanton destruction of its ruins--Its name not Irish--Was + generally known as "the Drogheda Monastery"--Size of the + building--Was founded in 1142--Renaissance of Irish + ecclesiastical architecture; it began when Danish plundering + ceased--Effects of the Anglo-French invasion--Dearvorgil, + wife of O'Ruarc, buried in Mellifont--Antiquity of + Monasterboice--Its glorious ancient crosses--Its round + tower--Became a ruin many centuries before Mellifont--Beauty + and historic interest of locality--Drogheda--The burgs of + the Boyne, New Grange and Dowth. + + TRIM CASTLE 207 + + It is the largest of Irish Castles--The Anglo-French great + Castle builders--Hugo de Lacy--Many Castles erected by + him--He was the greatest of the invaders of Ireland--He + wanted to be King of Ireland--Distracted state of the + country in his time--Trim once an important place--Claims + to be the birth-place of Wellington; an anecdote about + him--The country round Trim most interesting and historic-- + The Boyne the most historic of Irish rivers. + + CONG ABBEY 218 + + The most interesting ruin in Connacht--Roderick O'Connor; + Moore's opinion of him--Cong founded by St Fechin--Was + endowed by O'Connor--Description of the Abbey--Its + sculptured stones--The Cross of Cong--Cong never plundered + by the Danes--Peculiarities and beauty of the country round + Cong--Loch Corrib--The Joyce country; a land of giants; + anecdote about one of them. + + LOCH DERG 231 + + Its great size--Want of islands its principal drawback--Its + hilly shores--Little traffic on it--Iniscealtra--St + Cainin--Killaloe; its ruined fanes--The Palace of Kincora; + no vestige of it remaining; totally destroyed by Turloch + O'Connor in 1118--MacLiag's Lament for Brian and Kincora-- + The rapids of Doonas; their great beauty. + + HOLYCROSS ABBEY 243 + + Its beautiful situation--One of the largest ruined churches + in Ireland--When founded--Its ruins not much marred--Was + inhabited until the suppression of monasteries--Beauty of + one of its sepulchral monuments--Founded too late to be + plundered by the Danes. + + DUNLUCE CASTLE 247 + + The most remarkable ruined Castle in Ireland--From its + situation it is the finest ruin of the kind in Europe--The + narrow causeway by which it is entered--Unusual thinness of + its walls--Was evidently erected before cannons were + perfected--An awful place in a storm--Giant's Causeway-- + Dunseverick Castle--Meaning of the name _Dunluce_--Not + known by whom or when it was founded--Was once owned by the + MacQuillins--Sorley Boy--Terrible catastrophe that once + happened at Dunluce--Must have been built before the + fifteenth century. + + BOYLE ABBEY 254 + + Not much known to the general public--Its limpid river-- + Rivers of muddy water an abomination--Irish rivers + generally clear--Extraordinarily luxuriant growth of ivy on + the ruins; their effect marred by the erection of a new + building close to them--Vandalism in Ireland--Ancient name + of Boyle--History of its monastery--Loch Key; the burning + of its _cranniog_--Loch Arrow. + + THE LAKES OF WESTMEATH 263 + + Few in search of the beautiful know anything about them; + are best known to fishermen--Not many places of historic + interest in Westmeath--Loch Ouel--Turgesius, the Dane, + drowned in it by Malachy the First--Legend about Malachy's + daughter--Lover's poem about her--Quotation from the Book + of Leinster about Turgesius--Loch Sheelin; beauty of its + name--Beauty of Celtic place names--Beauty of the name + Lorraine. + + KELLS IN MEATH 271 + + Its ancient name--Its great antiquity--Fertility of the + country round it--The tower of Lloyd--Tailltean; its + immense antiquity--The Irish Olympia--Proofs of the general + authenticity of early Irish history--Sir Wm. Wilde's + opinion of Irish chronology--Assemblies held in Tailltean + in recent times--Early Christian Monuments--Kells often + burned and plundered by the Danes--The Book of Kells and + the Tara Brooch. + + CUCHULAINN'S DUN AND CUCHULAINN'S COUNTRY 281 + + Scandalous desecration of his _dun_; its situation and vast + size; its existence another proof of the general truth of + Irish history--Cuchulainn, the Irish Hercules--Origin of + his name--Nothing told about his size or stature--Total + ignorance about Cuchulainn in his birth-place; immensity + of the literature in which he figures--Literary industry of + early Irish monks--Cuchulainn loved by women; his abduction + of Eimer; his _liaison_ with Fann; the tract about him in + the Book of the Dun Cow--Fann's rhapsody--"Cuchulainn's + Death" from the Book of Leinster; beauty of the view from + his _dun_--Numerous antiquities of the County Louth--The + Cooley and Mourne mountains--Neglect of the scenery of + Louth and Down. + + THE WILD WEST COAST 299 + + Its magnificence; comparison between it and the coasts of + Norway; its mild climate--Bantry Bay--The cliffs of Moher-- + Half Ireland has been swallowed by the sea--Constant + erosion by the waves--Killary Harbour--Clew Bay, the queen + of Irish Sea lochs; comparison between it and other bays-- + Croagh Patrick--Achill and its cliffs--Antiquities at + Carrowmore--Loch Gill--Sligo--Slieve League--Loch Swilly-- + Grandeur of the scenery from Cape Clear to Inishowen; its + wonderful variety; its mild climate and wild flowers--Ten + people visit the coasts of Norway for one that visits the + west coast of Ireland--Want of passenger steamers on the + west coast; its beauties can only be seen to advantage from + the sea--Few safe harbours on the Donegall coast. + + DUBLIN AND ITS ENVIRONS 325 + + Dublin not sufficiently appreciated by some of its + inhabitants--Its history--Its long Gaelic name--Danish + domination in it--Many times taken and sacked by the + Irish--Battle of Clontarf--Canute made no attempt to + conquer Ireland--Dublin has not suffered from a siege for + one thousand years--Its rapid growth in the eighteenth + century--Greatly improved during the last twenty-five + years--Its improvement undertaken under enormous + difficulties--Its educational advantages--Its libraries-- + Its museum of antiquities; disgraceful management of it-- + Dublin supposed to be a dirty city--Its situation--Its + public buildings--Its environs; their supreme beauty-- + Glasnevin Botanic Gardens--Dublin Bay; poem on it--Variety + of scenery round Dublin--The Dargle--Howth--Fingall--Dublin + situated in a land of flowers--Abundance of wild flowers in + Ireland--Phoenix Park--Three round towers close to Dublin; + error in its census--What the author has said in its praise + is true. + + BELFAST AND ITS ENVIRONS 357 + + Its rapid growth, and beauty of its environs--Its linen + trade--Business capacity of its inhabitants--Its history + and meaning of its name--The Giant's Ring--View from Davis + mountain--Belfast Loch--Hollywood--Scenic attractions of + the country round Belfast. + + CORK AND ITS ENVIRONS 366 + + Its ancient name--Its history--Its situation--Is not + growing as it should--Prophecy about it--Its fine public + buildings--Its noble harbour--Cork should be where + Queenstown is--Environs of Cork--Its antiquities--Its + sufferings from the Northmen; their ravages; Lord + Dunraven's theory about them; they met stranger opposition + in Ireland than in any other Country; what the Irish + suffered from them; the Northmen not builders-up of + nations; gruesome revelation of their cruelty found at + Donnybrook--The author's theory as to the cause of their + invasions. + + GALWAY AND ITS ENVIRONS 388 + + Its history--Was once a place of large trade--Frightful + decline of its population--Its splendid situation and noble + bay--Its environs--The Isles of Arran; their gigantic + cyclopean remains the most wonderful things of their kind + in Europe. + + THE CLOUD SCENERY OF IRELAND 394 + + Ireland the land of cloud scenery; its situation far out in + the "melancholy ocean"; its moist climate; its sunsets; + their gorgeousness in fine weather; not often seen in + perfection but in autumn. + + SOMETHING ABOUT IRISH PLACE NAMES 396 + + Ireland a peculiar country; its abundance of place names as + compared with Great Britain--Its _ballys_, _kills_, _raths_, + _duns_ and _lises_; their immensity--Dense rural population + of Ireland in ancient times--Antiquity of Ireland. + + + + +KILLARNEY + + +Killarney is famed and known all over the civilized world; but there are +places in Ireland where isolated scenes can be found as fair as any in +Killarney. Much has been written about this "Eden of the West," but most +of those who have attempted to describe it have omitted to mention its +chief charm--namely, diversity of scenic attractions within a small +compass. Almost everything that Nature could do has been done within a +tract of country hardly ten miles square. + +Except some favoured spots in Switzerland, there is no spot of European +soil more famed for beauty than Killarney. Its very name is beautiful, as +any one can know who has heard Balfe's grand song, "Killarney." No sounds +more harmonious or more fitted for a refrain could be uttered by the +organs of speech. The name signifies in Gaelic the church of the sloe or +wild plum-tree. The real name of the lake, or chain of lakes, which is one +of the charms of Killarney, is Loch Lein, but the latter name is now +almost obsolete. + +Before attempting to describe Killarney, it will be well to give the +reader an extract from Macaulay's "History of England." The passage is a +masterpiece of prose. It is a sketch of the scenic characteristics of that +part of Ireland where the famous lakes are situated: + +"The south-western part of Kerry is now well known as the most beautiful +tract in the British Isles. The mountains, the glens, the capes stretching +far out into the Atlantic, the crags on which the eagles build, the +rivulets branching down rocky passes, the lakes overhung by groves in +which the wild deer find covert, attract, every summer, crowds of +wanderers sated with business and the pleasures of great cities. The +beauties of that country are often, indeed, hidden in the mist and rain +that the west wind brings up from the boundless ocean. But, on rare days, +when the sun shines out in his glory, the landscape has a freshness and +warmth of colouring seldom found in our latitude. The myrtle loves the +soil; the arbutus thrives better than in Calabria; the turf has a livelier +hue than elsewhere; the hills glow with a richer purple; the varnish of +the holly and the ivy is more glossy, and berries of a brighter red peep +through foliage of a brighter green."[1] + +Macaulay, in spite of his Celtic name, was not a lover of Ireland and the +Irish, and there is no reason to suppose that this most wonderful +word-painting was evoked by any liking for the land it describes. He had +seen Killarney, and it must have inspired him to write the greatest +descriptive passage he ever penned. + +Those who expect to find in Killarney the grandeur of the Alps, the Rocky +Mountains, or even of the Scottish Highlands, will be disappointed. It is +too small to be sublime, for it could be ridden round in a day. The most +wonderful of its many wonders is variety of scenery in a small compass. In +this respect few parts of the known world can compare with it. Almost +every possible phase of Nature, almost everything she could do with land +and water, can be found in Killarney, and found on a little spot of earth +hardly larger than the space covered by London. Mountains, lakes, rivers, +rocks, woods, waterfalls, flowery islands, green meadows and glistening +strands, almost exhaust Nature's materials for forming the beautiful. But +all are found at Killarney. Man, who mars Nature so often, has helped her +here, for the castles and abbeys he raised of yore still stand, and their +ivy and flower-decked ruins, tenanted only by the bat and the bee, put the +finishing touch on this earthly Eden, and make it one of the scenic +wonders of the world. If Killarney had glaciers and eternally snow-clad +peaks, it would have everything that Switzerland has. + +Another wonderful thing about Killarney is the admirable proportion its +scenic features bear to one another. If the mountains were any higher they +would be too high for the lakes, and if the lakes were any bigger they +would be too big for the mountains. Even the rivers and waterfalls are +almost in exact proportion to the other phases of Nature. The monstrous +Mississippi or the thundering Niagara would spoil such a miniature +paradise; but the limpid Laune and O'Sullivan's babbling cascade suit it +exactly. Killarney is the most perfect effort of Nature to bring together +without disproportion all her choicest charms. + +Small as Killarney is, it would take at least a week, or perhaps two +weeks, to see it and know all its loveliness. It is only on foot and +without hurry that its beauties can be seen in perfection. Its mountains +may be ascended, and glorious views of sea and craggy heights obtained; +but the charm of Killarney is not grandeur, but beauty. There are mountain +views in Scotland finer than can be had from the summits of Mangerton or +Carn Thual. It would be something like waste of time to climb those +hills. Let the tourist rather wander in the hundreds of shady lanes or +paths that skirt the lakes, or take a boat and navigate that most +picturesque river, for its length, in the world, the Long Range, that +connects the upper with the lower lake. Let him mark the wondrous +luxuriance of grass, leaf, weed and flower. The arbutus grows so large +that it becomes a tree. Ferns of such gigantic proportions may be found in +shady nooks that they seem to belong to some far-back geological age. +Softness, freshness, luxuriance and _beauté riante_ are the real glories +of Killarney. In these it has no rival. + +There are two drawbacks to Killarney; there is the guide nuisance and the +rain nuisance. The nuisance of guides is probably no greater than in many +other places of tourist resort, and, by a strong effort of the will, can +be got rid of. But the rain is a more serious matter and must be borne +patiently. Some years come when not a dozen dry days occur throughout the +entire summer, but generally there is less rainfall than on the west +coasts of Scotland or England. There have been quite as many wet days in +Liverpool during the three last summers as there usually are in Killarney. +It does, however, too often happen that tourists are confined to the hotel +for four or five days at a time owing to the rain. It must be borne in +mind that this excessive moisture of atmosphere is what has given the +south-west of Ireland, and England too, their exquisite charm of verdure +and wild flowers. When a fine day comes after rain in summer or autumn all +Nature seems to laugh. Flowers of all hues open their petals, birds in +multitudes begin to sing, and wild bees and hosts of insects make the air +musical with their hum. The American tourist need have no fear when +insects are mentioned, for the mosquito is unknown in Killarney. Midges +are the only insect plague, but they never enter houses, and are +troublesome only before rain, early in the spring or late in the autumn. + +Most tourists go to Killarney early in the summer. June and July are +favourite times for Americans to visit it. As it lies almost in the direct +route between New York and Liverpool, they generally visit it before going +to England or the Continent of Europe. But the time to see Killarney is in +the autumn--it is then in all its glory. It should not be visited before +the 15th of August; from then until the 1st of October it is the most +beautiful place, perhaps, on the earth, provided always that the weather +is not wet. There is only one thing that mars the weather in the south of +Ireland--namely, rain. Cold, in the general sense of the word, is almost +unknown. Every day that is not wet must be fine. There is, it must be +confessed, rather more probability of having dry weather in Killarney in +the spring or early summer than in the autumn, but, by visiting it in the +spring, the tourist would gain nothing, and would lose the wild-flower +feast of autumn. No American, or even native of England, no matter from +what part of his country he comes, can form the faintest conception of +what a Killarney mountain is in September, if the weather be fine. The +wild-flower that is the glory of Ireland is the heath. It blossoms only in +the autumn. Next in glory to the heath comes the furze. Both furze and +heath are indigenous in the whole of the south-west of Europe, but, owing +to the mildness and moistness of the climate of Ireland, they grow and +blossom there with a luxuriance unknown in any other country. When a great +mountain becomes a mighty bouquet of purple and gold, a sight is revealed +which surpasses anything on earth in floral beauty. Almost every mountain +round about the "Eden of the West" is clothed from base to summit in a +vast drapery of heath. Some of the Killarney mountains are wooded for a +few hundred feet up their sides, but most of them are entirely covered +with heath interspersed with furze. When a fine autumn occurs, tens of +thousands of acres of mountain and moorland gleam in the sunlight, an +ocean of purple heath and golden furze. Not only do the heath and furze +blossom in the autumn, but myriads of other wild-flowers appear only at +that time of year, or blossom most luxuriantly then. Even white clover, +which rarely blossoms in other countries except in the spring or early +summer, open its flowers widest and sends out its most fragrant perfume in +an Irish autumn. The air is heavy with fragrance of flowers, the mountains +are musical with the hum of bees, and + + "Every wingèd thing that loves the sun + Makes the bright noonday full of melody." + +Killarney in a fine autumn becomes not only entrancing, but overpowering +in its loveliness. + +The whole country round Killarney is a wonderland. Macaulay's description +of it is true to the letter. In all his works nothing can be found of a +descriptive character equal to the passage quoted from him. He had a great +subject, and he handled it as no other writer of the English language +could. He has described one of the loveliest regions in the world in a few +lines that will stand for ever as one of the greatest efforts of a great +writer. His description is a brilliant gem of composition, just as the +place it describes is a brilliant gem of nature. + +No one should visit Killarney without visiting Glengariff. It is only +about twenty miles from Killarney, and can be reached by a sort of +low-backed car peculiar to Ireland. This car is a very curious sort of +conveyance. The occupants sit back to back, with their sides to the +horses. In fine weather there is no pleasanter mode of travelling than on +a low-backed car, but when it rains one is anything but comfortable. +Glengariff is thought by some to surpass even Killarney in beauty. It is a +deep glen surrounded by mountains of the most fantastic shapes, clothed +with a wealth of foliage that would astonish any one who had not seen +Killarney. The lake that is seen at Glengariff is sea-water, and opens +into Bantry Bay. The tourist will find an excellent hotel there, and no +matter how he may be satiated with the beauty of Killarney, he will see +other and more striking beauties in Glengariff. + +Killarney is well supplied with hotels. There are four or five, and they +are all good. Most of them are situated in sequestered places, where a +view of some enchanting scene spreads before the door. The village of +Killarney is about a mile from the lake; it is a place of no interest at +all, but there is a very good hotel in it, and many tourists stop there, +for it is just at the railway terminus. Hotel expenses at Killarney in the +tourist season are not so high as at some of the fashionable Continental +summer resorts. Guides are not much wanted, unless mountains are to be +ascended. Then they are indispensable, for mists may suddenly come during +the very finest day, and the tourist without a guide would run a chance of +spending a night on a bleak mountain or being drowned in a lake or +bog-hole. Ponies of a most docile character can be hired cheap. Pony-back +travelling is a favourite mode of "doing" Killarney, especially with +ladies and lazy men, but no one into whose soul the charm of Killarney +really enters would think of travelling through such lovely scenes on +horseback. On foot or in a boat is the way to see Killarney. + +[Illustration: ROSS CASTLE.] + +There are ruins of the most interesting kind in Killarney. Muckross Abbey +is not so large as some of the ruined shrines of England, but it is a +venerable and imposing building. It was built by one of the MacCarthys, +chiefs of the district, in 1340. Ross Castle is another imposing ruin. It +is situated on a green promontory that juts into the lake. There is some +doubt as to the exact time when it was erected, but it could hardly have +been before the fourteenth century. The most interesting ruin near +Killarney, and by far the most ancient, is the monastery on the supremely +beautiful island of Inisfallan. It was founded by Saint Finian in the +sixth century. It was there the yet unpublished "Annals of Inisfallan" +were compiled. Hardly any of the walls of the old monastery remain. The +arbutus and the hawthorn are growing where once were cloisters, and are +fast completing the ruin of what was one of the first of the ancient +churches that were erected in Ireland. + + + + +TARA + + +The supreme attraction of Tara is its antiquity. It must not, however, be +thought that a visit to this famous hill reveals no beauties. It is not +situated among mountains; hardly a lake is visible from its summit: yet +the view from it is so fine that if there was no historic interest +attached to it, the tourist in search of the beautiful alone would have +his eyes feasted with as fair a scene from one of its grassy ramparts as +could be gazed on in any part of Ireland. Eastward the view is obstructed +by the hill of Screen, but on every other side it is superb. Westward the +eye ranges over the fairest and most fertile part of Ireland, the great +plain of Meath and West Meath, anciently called _Magh Breagh_, or the fair +plain. And fair indeed it is in summer time, one great green sea of grass +and wild flowers, reaching to the Shannon, sixty miles away. But it is +southward that the view from Tara is most striking. The Dublin and Wicklow +mountains are more imposing when seen from Tara than from any other place. +They rise in a vast, blue rampart, and seem so colossal as to appear +thousands of feet higher than they are. Those old, barbaric Irish kings +and chieftains must have been lovers of the beautiful, for they almost +invariably fixed their strongholds not only in the fairest parts, but in +places commanding the fairest prospects. There are hardly two other places +in Ireland the surroundings of which are more beautiful than those of Tara +and Uisneach, or from which fairer prospects are to be seen. They were, +from far-back antiquity, the seats of those by whom the country was +_supposed_ to be ruled, for it often happened that he who was styled chief +king had but little control over his vassals. + +There is no other spot of European soil the records of which go so far +back into the dim twilight of the past as do the records of Tara. Before +the first Roman raised a rude hut on the banks of the Tiber, when the +place where the Athenian Acropolis now stands was a bare rock, kings, +whose names are given in Irish history, ruled in Tara. When one gazes on +those grassy mounds, that are almost all that remain of what our ancient +poets used to call "the fair, radiant, City of the Western World," he can +hardly believe that such a place could ever have been the abode of +royalty, the meeting-place of assemblies, and the permanent home of +thousands. Other desolated strongholds of ancient royalty and dominion +bear ample evidence of their former greatness. Ruined columns of +Persepolis yet remain. The site of Tadmor is marked by still standing +pillars of marble, and vast piles of decomposed bricks tell of the +greatness of ancient Babylon; but green, grassy mounds and partially +obliterated earth-works are almost all that remain of Tara. It is so +ruined that it can hardly be ruined any more. Time may yet destroy even +what remains of the bricks of Babylon, but time can hardly change what +remains of the ruins of Tara. + +No other spot of Irish earth can compare with Tara in historic interest or +in antiquity. Emania and Rathcroghan are little more than places of +yesterday compared with it. It is over three thousand years ago since the +first king reigned in Tara. Some may say that it is only bardic history +that tells of what took place in Ireland in those very remote times, and +that it is unworthy of credence. It is true that there is a great deal of +fiction mixed with the early history of Ireland, as there is with the +early history of all countries; but the ancient Irish chroniclers did not +attempt much more than a mere sketch of the salient points of Irish +history of very remote times, say from beyond the third century B.C. Some +of the facts they mention have been verified in remarkable ways by what +may be called collateral evidence. This evidence is found in place names, +and in the names of persons and things. One of those proofs of the general +correctness of what is related in Gaelic literature about far-back events +of Irish history is so remarkable that it deserves special mention. One of +the kings who ruled in Tara considerably over a thousand years B.C. was +named Lugh, or in English, Lewy or Louis. He established the games that +were held annually at Tailtean, near Kells, that were regularly celebrated +down to the time of the Anglo-French invasion, in honour of his mother, +whose name was Tailte. Those games were held in the first week in August, +and from them the Irish name for the month of August is derived; it is +_Lughnasa_. This is the only name known in Gaelic to the present hour for +the month of August, except a periphrastic one meaning "the first month of +autumn." This name for August is known in every part of Ireland and +Scotland where the old tongue still lives, but it has been corrupted to +_Lunasd_ in the latter country. The meaning of the word _Lughnasa_ is, the +games or celebrations of this same Lugh or Lewy, who lived and reigned +centuries before Rome was founded, and before a stone of the Athenian +Acropolis was laid. It seems almost impossible to conceive that the Gaelic +name for the month of August could have had any origin other than that +given above on the authority of one of the most learned of ancient Irish +ecclesiastics, Cormac MacCuillenan, Archbishop of Cashel, in the ninth +century. + +The descriptions of Tara given in ancient Gaelic writings have been +verified in the most remarkable manner by the researches of modern +archæologists. Dr Petrie's great work, "The Antiquities of Tara Hill," +would go far to remove the prejudices of the most bigoted despiser of +Irish historic records. He was one of the most learned and scientific +investigators of antiquities that ever lived, and was not only a good +Gaelic scholar himself, but had the assistance of the greatest Gaelic +scholar of the century, John O'Donovan. Those two gentlemen translated +every mention of Tara that they could find in prose or verse in ancient +Irish manuscripts; they compared every mention they could find of the +monuments of Tara with what remains of them at present; and they found +such a general agreement between ancient descriptions of those monuments +and the existing remains of them as proved what is said in Gaelic +manuscripts about the extent and splendour of Tara in Pagan times to be +well worthy of credence. Every one who visits Tara, and who is in any way +interested in archæology, should have Doctor Petrie's map of it, which +will be found in his minute and elaborate work on the "Antiquities of Tara +Hill." That map is reproduced here. The book is very scarce, as only a +small edition of it was printed, but it can be found in the "Transactions +of the Royal Irish Academy." Armed with Petrie's map a visit to Tara would +be one of the most interesting and enjoyable excursions that could be made +from Dublin. Kilmessan Station can be reached from the Broadstone terminus +in an hour, and less than two miles of a walk through a beautiful country +brings one to the summit of "the Hill of Supremacy," as it was called of +old when he who ruled in Tara ruled Ireland. No matter how confirmed an +archæologist he may be who stands for the first time on this celebrated +hill, his first feeling will be of joy at the beauty of the prospect that +is spread before him. To know how beautiful Ireland is, even in those +places that are not on the track of tourists, and that are seldom +mentioned in guide books, one should see the view from the hill of Tara. + +It would be hard to find any other hill in Ireland so well adapted for a +place of assembly or for the dwelling of a ruler as Tara. Uisneach, in +Westmeath, is, perhaps, the only hill in Ireland that possesses all the +advantages of Tara. In ancient times, when war was the rule and peace the +exception, it was imperative that a stronghold should be on a height. +Athens had its acropolis and so had Corinth. Tara had the advantage of +extent as well as of height, and could be made a permanent dwelling-place +as well as an acropolis, for there are fully a hundred acres on what may +be called the summit of the hill. It is unfortunate that some of the hill +has been enclosed, planted with deal trees, and a church erected on the +very track of some of the most ancient monuments. This plantation and +church have terribly interfered with the picturesqueness and antique look +of Tara. Planting deal trees and erecting a modern church amid the +hoariest monuments, and on the most historic spot of European soil, was +little less than sacrilege. If there had been a proper national spirit, or +a due veneration for their past among the Irish, they never would have +allowed a church or any modern building to be erected on the most historic +spot on Irish soil; and even now they ought to have the church removed, +the wall torn down, and the plantation uprooted. All Greece would rise up +in indignation were any one to erect a church or chapel amid the ruins of +the Athenian Acropolis. + +[Illustration: MONUMENTS ON TARA HILL. + +(_After Petrie's Map._)] + +The most interesting and best preserved of the antiquities of Tara is the +track of the banquetting-house. It must have been an enormous building, +for it was about 800 feet long and about 50 wide. It is wonderful how +perfectly plain and well-defined the track of this once great structure +appears after nearly fourteen hundred years, and in spite of the way this +historic spot has been uprooted and levelled. But not a vestige of +stone-work or of stones is to be seen near the ruins of the +banquetting-house. It seems absolutely certain that there were no +buildings of stone in Tara when it was at the height of its grandeur, and +that seems to have been about the middle of the third century, during the +reign of Cormac MacAirt. It must not be thought that buildings cannot be +fine unless they are of stone; but buildings of stone were very rare in +northern countries until comparatively recent times. Moore, in his +"History of Ireland," says, speaking of wooden buildings and of +Tara--"However scepticism may now question their architectural beauty, +they could boast the admiration of many a century in evidence of their +grandeur. That those edifices were of wood is by no means conclusive +either against the elegance of their structure or the civilisation of +those who erected them. It was in wood that the graceful forms of Grecian +architecture first unfolded their beauties." So the absence of stone +buildings in Tara in no way proves that it was not a place of grandeur as +well as of beauty; and the tenth century Gaelic poet may have been +justified in saying of it, + + "World of perishable beauty! + Tara to-day, though a wilderness, + Was once the meeting-place of heroes. + Great was the host to which it was an inheritance, + Though to-day green, grassy land." + +Every mention of Tara in the vast remnant of Gaelic manuscripts of the +ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries that still exists shows it +to have been, beyond all comparison, the most important place in ancient +Ireland. Oengus the Culdee, author of the longest poem in ancient Gaelic, +the famous Félire, recently translated by Mr Whitley Stokes, speaks thus +of this renowned but now ruined spot: + + "Tara's mighty burgh hath perished + With its kingdom's splendour; + With a multitude of champions of wisdom + Abideth great Ardmagh." + +The poet contrasts the desolation into which the strongholds of the Pagans +had fallen with the then flourishing condition of the centres of +Christian teaching. Tara was the political as well as the social centre +of ancient Ireland. It is in connection with it that the only mention made +of roads having names is found in ancient Gaelic writings. Five great +roads, as will be seen by the annexed map, led from Tara to the +extremities of the Island. The Slighe Dala went southward; the Slighe +Asail went north-west; the Slighe Midhluchra, went north-east; the Slighe +Cualann went south-easterly; and the Slighe Mór went in a south-western +direction. Traces of those roads may still be seen by the practised eye of +the archæologist. + +One of the most interesting things connected with Tara is the Lia Fail, or +Stone of Destiny. It was upon it the over-kings of Ireland had been +inaugurated from far-back antiquity. It is said to have been brought by +Fergus, brother of the then reigning chief King, to Scotland, in order +that he might be crowned king on it over the part of Scotland he had +conquered. It remained under the coronation chair of the Kings of Scotland +down to the time of Edward the First, who seized it and brought it to +Westminster, where it is now, and the sovereigns of England have been +crowned on it ever since his time. Petrie maintains that the Lia Fail is +still in Tara, and that the pillar stone that stands over the graves of +the men who fell in '98 is it. He adduces very strong evidence from +manuscripts of high authority and of great antiquity to prove what he +says. There is, on the other hand, strong testimony to prove that it was +brought to Scotland by Fergus. The question will probably never be finally +settled. The principal virtue supposed to be possessed by the Lia Fail was +that it would bring political power to the country in which it was, +particularly if its people were of Celtic stock. It is very remarkable +that soon after the stone supposed to be the Lia Fail was taken out of +Ireland, her political power began to decline, her over-kings lost a great +part of their former authority, and in the long run she lost her +independence. Scotland's political power and national independence +vanished not long after she had lost the Lia Fail, and in a few centuries +after England had got it she became one of the foremost nations in the +world. The English claim to be Saxons, but it is now generally admitted +that the Celtic element preponderates in the island of Great Britain, so +that the prophecy attached to the Lia Fail seems to be fulfilled. + +The Lia Fail is certainly the most extraordinary stone in Europe, if not +in the world. The famous Rosetta stone, covered as it is with archaic +writing, and verifying, as many suppose, the truth of Old Testament +history, is hardly more interesting than the rude granite slab that lies +under the coronation chair in Westminster, unmarked with a single letter. +It is about 25 inches in length, about 15 in breadth, and 9 in depth. How +such a rude, unshapely flag-stone could have such a history, and have been +an object of veneration and interest for so many centuries, is what +strikes with wonder those who see it. But if it is not the real Lia Fail, +if it is a sham, and if the stone still standing in Tara is the genuine +one, the wonder increases; for the fact of a spurious article having +become invested with such fame and regarded with such veneration is the +greatest wonder of all. + +Doctor Petrie says, in his "Antiquities of Tara Hill," that "it is in the +highest degree improbable that to gratify the desire of a colony the Irish +would have voluntarily parted with a monument so venerable for its +antiquity and considered essential to the legitimate succession of their +own kings." He quotes verses from a tenth century poet, Kenith O'Hartigan, +who says that the Lia Fail is + + "This stone on which are my two heels"; + +and he quotes from an ancient tract called the _Dinseanchus_, another +proof that when it was composed, and that time could not have been later +than the tenth century, the Lia Fail was in Tara. It often happens, +however, that Irish annalists and historians, so fond were they of looking +backward to the past, make things appear as they had been, and not as they +were when they wrote. The over-kings of Ireland were called Kings of Tara +five hundred years after Tara had been abandoned, and when it was as waste +and desolate as it is to-day. O'Dugan, in his topographical poem, written +in the fourteenth century, tells of clans inhabiting the English Pale, +when they had been banished westward by the invaders nearly two hundred +years before he wrote. He prefaces his topographical poem by saying + + "O'Maolseachlinn, chief King of Tara and Erin," + +but the last O'Maolseachlinn that was nominally chief King of Ireland and +Tara had died three hundred years before O'Dugan wrote! Why those old +Gaelic poets were so fond of describing things as they had been, and not +as they were when they wrote, is hard to understand. They may have got +their information from documents that were centuries old when they copied +them. It seems a certainty that the men whose writings Petrie quotes to +prove that the Lia Fail was in Tara in the tenth century, did what O'Dugan +did in his topographical poem--that is, speak of things as they had been +hundreds of years before. He never mentions the English at all. This +partially accounts for Irish writers of the tenth century speaking of the +Lia Fail being then in Tara. They intended to describe where it used to +be, but not where it was. When Petrie says that the Lia Fail is spoken of +by all ancient Irish writers in such a manner as to leave no doubt that it +remained in its original situation at the time when they wrote, he makes a +great mistake. Here is a quotation from the "Book of Leinster," a +manuscript of the highest authority, compiled in the early part of the +twelfth century, and mostly from writings of a much earlier date:--"It was +the Tuatha De Danaans who brought with them the great _Fal_, that is, the +stone of knowledge that _was_ in Tara; from which [the name of] Magh Fail +is on Ireland. He under whom it would roar was then [rightful] King of +Ireland."[2] + +There is another very strong proof brought to light by the publication of +"Silva Gadelica," by Mr Standish Hays O'Grady, that the Lia Fail was +removed from Tara. In the tract called the "Colloquy," one of the speakers +says: "This, then, and the Lia Fail, or stone of destiny, that _was_ there +(in Tara) were the two wonders of Tara. When Ireland's monarch stepped on +it, it would cry out under him," ... "And who was it that lifted that +flag, or that carried it away out of Ireland?" asked one of the listeners. +"It was a young hero of great spirit that ruled over" ... Here, +unfortunately, the tract ends abruptly. The "Colloquy," or "Agallamh na +Seanorach," is a tract of respectable antiquity. Its language seems to be +that of the fifteenth or perhaps the fourteenth century, but the version +that has come down to us may be, and probably is, but a transcript of a +much more ancient tract, the language of which was modernised. + +If Doctor Petrie had known of the existence of those two proofs given of +the Lia Fail having been removed from Tara, he never would have said that +all ancient Irish writers spoke of it in such a way as to leave no doubt +of its being there still. O'Reilly, author of Irish dictionary, says: "Lia +Fail, the stone of destiny, on which the ancient Irish monarchs used to be +crowned until the time of Mortogh Mac Earc, who sent it into Scotland +that his brother Fergus, who had subdued that country, might be crowned on +it. It is now in Westminster Abbey." O'Reilly was the most learned Irish +scholar and historian of his day, and was a painstaking, conscientious +man, who would hardly state any thing for which he did not have good +authority. It must, however, be admitted that up to the present no +positive statement seems to have been found in ancient Irish writings as +to when and by whom the Lia Fail was brought from Tara to Scotland; +neither does it seem to be known where O'Reilly got his information about +it. + +When Petrie spoke of the improbability of the Irish allowing such a +venerated monument as the Lia Fail to be taken out of Ireland, he should +have remembered that at the time when it is said to have been taken, in +the beginning of the sixth century, Christianity had become established in +Ireland. Paganism or Druidism may have survived among a few, but it had +got its death-blow. Pagan monuments of every kind had begun to be +disregarded. The Lia Fail was essentially a Pagan monument, and +consequently an abhorrence to Christians. The fathers, or at least the +grandfathers, of the men who allowed Fergus to take it to Scotland, would +probably have shed the last drop of their blood to keep it in Ireland. The +disrepute into which everything connected with Paganism had fallen after +the introduction of Christianity is plainly set forth in the "Book of +Leinster" in the very page from which the Gaelic extract about the Lia +Fail has been given:--"It happened that Christ was born not long after; it +was that which broke the power of the idols."[3] The Lia Fail was an idol +that had lost its power and prestige, so that the people would not be +likely to have any objection to its being removed to Scotland or anywhere +else. + +But there are still other even stronger objections for accepting Petrie's +theory that the Lia Fail is still in Tara. The pillar stone that is there +is not a _lia_, and never would have been called such by the ancient +Irish. _Lia_ means a stone of any kind in its general sense; but the +pillar stone in Tara would not be called a _lia_, but a _coirthe_. _Lia_ +is always applied to a flag-stone, both in ancient and modern Gaelic. The +stone under the coronation chair in Westminster is a real _lia_ or +flag-stone; the one in Tara is a _coirthe_, or pillar stone, for, judging +from its height above the ground, it cannot be much less than eight feet +in length; it is very nearly round, and was evidently fashioned into its +present shape by man. If the stone in Tara is the real Lia Fail, how did +it come to lose its original name and be know even still by an Irish name +that connects it with Fergus, the person by whom the real Lia Fail is +popularly believed to have been brought to Scotland? This loss of an +original name, and its substitution by a new one, could hardly have +occurred in the case of such a famous monument as the Lia Fail. If the +superstitious reverence with which it had been regarded before the +introduction of Christianity had vanished, its original name would have +remained. There are many place names in Ireland that have not changed +during twenty centuries, and it is almost impossible to conceive how the +name of the most venerated monument in all Ireland could have changed had +the monument itself remained in the country. Another strong objection +against the pillar stone in Tara being the real Lia Fail is its shape. The +real Lia Fail was intended to be stood upon by the chief king at his +inauguration; but the most flat-footed monarch that ever ruled Ireland +would have considerable difficulty in standing steadily on the _coirthe_ +in Tara, even if it were prostrate, for it is round and not flat. +Standing steadily on it would be nearly as difficult a performance as +"rolling off a log" would be an easy one. + +Taking everything into consideration, there seem to be very strong reasons +to believe that the Lia Fail was taken from Tara to Scotland at the time +it is popularly believed to have been taken--namely, about the year 503 of +the Christian era; that it was taken in order to have Fergus Mac Earc +inaugurated on it as king over that part of Scotland which he had brought +under his domination; that it was taken from Scone to Westminster by +Edward the First in the year 1296, and that it is now under the coronation +chair in Westminster Abbey. It seems strange how a man of Doctor Petrie's +archæological knowledge could have been led to believe that the pillar +stone still in Tara, for whatever use it may have been originally +intended, was the real Lia Fail, or Stone of Destiny. + +It would be most instructive and interesting if a scientific examination +was made of the stone under the coronation chair. If it was proved to be a +meteoric stone, its fame and the reverence with which it was so long +regarded could be easily understood. If an ancient tribe saw a stone +falling from heaven among them, they would regard such a thing as a +miracle, and think that the stone was sent to them for some special +purpose. They would, if possible, take it with them wherever they went. If +the Lia Fail was proved to be a meteoric stone, the esteem and honour in +which it was so long held, and the power which it was believed to possess, +would be easily accounted for. + +The history of Tara is, to a great extent, the history of ancient Ireland +of pre-Christian times. It was more of a political centre than London or +Paris is at present. The event that above all others left a permanent mark +as well as a blot on Irish history may be said to have had its origin in +Tara. The horrible Leinster Tribute and Tara are closely connected. + +In the first century of the Christian era, an over-king called Tuathal, +from whom the common Irish surname O'Tool, or Tool, seems to have +originated, reigned in Tara. He had two daughters, famed for their beauty. +We are told in the "Book of Leinster" that they were "fairer than the +clouds of heaven." Their names were Fihir and Darine. A king of Leinster +named Eochy married Fihir, the elder of the two sisters. He got tired of +her after a short time, went to Tara, told Tuathal that Fihir was dead, +and that he wanted to marry her sister Darine. Tuathal consented, and +Eochy took his new wife home to his _dun_, which was in the western part +of the present county of Wicklow. Darine had been only a short time in her +new home when she met her sister Fihir, who she had been told was dead. +Darine was so overwhelmed by shame that she died, and Fihir was so shocked +at the death of her sister that she died of grief. So Tuathal's two +beautiful daughters were dead, and were buried in the same grave. When +Tuathal heard of their deaths he summoned his vassals, the kings of Ulster +and Connacht; his army and theirs invaded Leinster, defeated and killed +its king, ravaged it, and imposed the celebrated Tribute on the +unfortunate province--namely, fifteen thousand cows, fifteen thousand +sheep, fifteen thousand pigs, fifteen thousand silver chains, fifteen +thousand bronze or copper pots, and fifteen thousand linnen (?) cloaks, +together with one great cauldron into which, _Hibernicè_, "twelve beeves +and twelve pigs 'would go,' in the house of Tara itself." This was, +indeed, a prodigious pot that could boil four-and-twenty quadrupeds of the +sort, for Ireland was always famous for its large pigs and beeves. Such a +cauldron having been used, shows that however poorly the inhabitants of +other parts of Ireland may have fared in ancient times, the people of +Tara lived well. When it is remembered that ancient Leinster was little +more than half the size of the modern province, such a tribute appears +enormous. Ancient Leinster, or, to speak more correctly, the Leinster of +the time of Tuathal, went no further north than a line running from Dublin +to Athlone. The counties of Meath, Westmeath, Longford, and Louth belonged +to the province of Meath that had been carved out of parts of the four old +provinces by Tuathal himself. The Tribute was to be paid every year, but +it was not, for, as the Leinstermen's own great Chronicle says, "It never +was paid without a fight"; and sometimes when they succeeded, as they very +often did, in licking the combined armies of all the other provinces, it +used not to be paid for many years. It was, however, paid on and off for +over five hundred years, and to forty over-kings. It was remitted in the +seventh century; but many attempts were subsequently made to re-impose it +on the unfortunate Leinstermen, who paid more dearly for the treacherous +act of one of their kings than any other province or nation mentioned in +history. One of their poets has said in a yet untranslated poem in the +"Book of Leinster": + + "It is beyond the testimony of the Creator, + It is beyond the word of supplicating Christ, + All the kings of the Irish + That make attacks on Leinstermen!"[4] + +It is not to be wondered at that the Leinster Tribute totally +denationalised the province on which it was levied, and made its harried +inhabitants side with the Danes and with the Anglo-Normans against their +own countrymen. But what is most astonishing about the Tribute is its +enormousness. That part of Leinster which was the ancient province could +hardly pay such a tax to-day. This matter seems to show that ancient +Ireland, in spite of a state of almost continual intestine warfare, was +far richer and more populous than is generally supposed. + +The most horrible act recorded in Irish history was committed at +Tara--that is, the slaughter of 3030 women by the Leinstermen in the year +241. Here is what the Four Masters say of it under that year:--"The +massacre of the girls at Cloonfearta at Tara, by Dunlang, King of +Leinster. Thirty royal girls was the number, and a hundred maids with +each of them. Twelve princes of the Leinstermen did Cormac put to death in +revenge of that massacre, together with the exaction of the Borumha +(Tribute) with an increase after Tuathal." The Cormac here spoken of was +the celebrated Cormac Mac Airt, one of the best over-kings that ever ruled +ancient Ireland. This horrible massacre of maidens in Tara is so often +mentioned in ancient Irish history and annals, and the same number of +victims so invariably given, that there cannot be any doubt whatever about +its having occurred. But particulars about it seem wanting. There was +probably some pagan festival to be celebrated in Tara, at which the +children of the upper classes only attended. The ladies may have arrived +from the different parts of the country before the men, and when the +harried Leinstermen made a raid on Tara, they found it unguarded save by +women, and killed them and burned Tara to the ground at the same time; or +it may have been that the women tried to help the few men that happened to +be there in protecting the place, and Dunlang made an indiscriminate +massacre of every one he found in it. This horrible act was caused by the +imposition of the Leinster Tribute. It is to be presumed that there were +no Leinster girls among those who were slaughtered. + +Those interested in Irish history, or in ancient history in general, +should read the tract called the _Borumha_, or Tribute, in the "Book of +Leinster." Translations of it have been recently made in the _Revue +Celtique_ and in _Silva Gadelica_. There is not in any ancient or mediæval +literature anything to excel it in general interest. It is an historic gem +that has been forgotten or overlooked for centuries. The indifference +which the educated classes of the Irish people have heretofore shown about +the ancient literature of their country was one of the most shocking, +sickening symptoms of national degradation ever shown by any civilised +people. They are latterly beginning to take more interest in it; but it is +greatly to be feared that they have been induced to turn their attention +to it more by the example shown them by foreigners than by any change of +opinion originating among themselves. Much as O'Donovan, O'Curry, and +Stokes have done to call the attention of the cultured classes of the +Irish people to the study of Celtic literature, it is doubtful if they +would have succeeded if the scholars of Continental Europe had not taken +an interest in it. The _renaissance_ of Celtic studies which seems to +have taken place owes a large part of its origin to the Germans and the +French. + +Many valuable gold ornaments of antique and beautiful design and +workmanship have been found in Tara and its immediate vicinity, but very +few of them have found their way to the Kildare Street Museum in Dublin, +one of the greatest, if not the very greatest, collection of ancient +weapons, implements, and ornaments to be seen in Europe. Most of the gold +ornaments found in Tara have been melted down. If one is to believe what +the peasantry living in its vicinity say, the quantity of gold ornaments +found there was very great. The famous Tara Brooch, preserved in the +Dublin Museum, and considered the most beautiful piece of metallurgy, +either ancient or modern, that is known to exist, was not found in Tara, +but on the seashore about three miles from Drogheda, and nine or ten from +this famous hill. It was found by an old woman, who is said to have sold +it to a shopkeeper in Drogheda for ninepence. The Royal Irish Academy paid +£500 for it. Many think that a regular, scientific exploration of Tara +Hill ought to be made, such an exploration as Schlieman made of the site +of Troy. If this were done under government surveillance, or by some +responsible and skilled antiquarian, there is hardly a doubt but that many +and precious ornaments in gold, and implements and weapons in bronze, +would be found, especially the latter, for there seems every reason to +believe that Tara was the seat of government long before iron was known, +and long before the bronze age came to an end. It would, however, be a +tremendous task to uproot several hundred acres merely on speculation. But +the quantity of antique gold ornaments that has been found in Ireland was +immense, more, it is thought by some, than has been found in all the rest +of Europe. They are being found almost every year. Nearly £300 worth of +golden fibulae was found in the County Waterford in 1894. They are now to +be seen in the Dublin Museum. + +[Illustration: TARA BROOCH.] + +The many things that are told about Tara in old Gaelic books would fill a +large volume. They are all interesting. They may be incredible, grotesque, +or funny, but they are never common-place: it is this uniqueness that is +the great charm of ancient Irish literature. What could be more unique +than this account of the burial of Laoghaire, the chief king who was +cotemporary with St Patrick, but of whom the Saint never succeeded in +making even a half decent Christian. It is taken from the book of the Dun +Cow. When Laoghaire was killed by "the elements," by lightning probably, +"his body was taken from the south and was buried with his warrior weapons +in the outward(?) south-eastern rampart of the Kingly Rath Laoghaire in +Tara, and its face to the south against the Leinstermen [as if] fighting +with them, for he had been an enemy of the Leinstermen when alive." The +idea of facing his enemies with his dead body, for Laoghaire must have +given orders as to how and where he should be buried, could only have +entered into the brains of ancient Irish kings, for they were grotesque or +original in almost everything. + +It is strange how long political memories last. The enmity between +Leinster and Meath has not even yet quite died out. Meath, as the seat of +the over-kings, represented Ireland, and was also the place from which the +hateful Leinster Tribute originated. This is not yet forgotten, for +whenever wrestling matches, or athletic sports of any kind, are held near +Dublin by the people of adjoining counties, the counties of Dublin, +Kildare, and Wicklow are always pitted against Meath. Dubhthach Mac U +Lugair, one of the first converts St Patrick made in Ireland, tells us, in +a poem of his in praise of his native province of Leinster, that its war +cry was "The magnification of Leinster, the destruction of Meath." +Dubhthach may have been a good Christian, but there are good grounds for +thinking that he was a better Leinsterman; for he says in the same poem +that-- + + "Except the host of Heaven round the Creator + There never was a host like Leinstermen round Crimhthan." + +Crimhthan was a king of Leinster, who is said to have had a stronghold in +Howth, where the Bailey Lighthouse now stands. + +Although few traces of cultivation are to be seen on the Hill of Tara, +there can be no doubt that it has been very much defaced and uprooted. +The great _rath_ of King Laoghaire, who was cotemporary with St Patrick, +has almost entirely disappeared. Its earthen rampart must have been of a +good height, when it served as a sepulchre for Laoghaire with his body in +an erect position, with its face turned southward, against the +Leinstermen. Laoghaire was never a Christian; or if he was such at one +time, there seems strong reason to think that he relapsed into paganism +towards the end of his career. At all events it is evident that he was not +a favourite of St Patrick's or of the early Irish Christians, and it is +quite likely that when Tara was abandoned, his _rath_ was uprooted, and +his body, or what remained of it, consigned to some unmarked grave. But +from whatever cause, this _rath_ has certainly been almost entirely +obliterated. It must have been considerably over two acres in area, if one +can judge by the small segment of it that can still be traced. + +The following story is told in the life of St Patrick in the Leabhar +Breac. Mr. Whitley Stokes says in his translation of the lives of the +Saints from the "Book of Lismore," that it so disgusted Thomas Carlyle +that it caused him to give up the study of Irish history: + +"Then three of Ui Meith Mendait Tire (a tribe that were located in the +vicinity of Tara) stole and ate one of the two goats that used to carry +water for Patrick, and came to swear a lie. Whereupon the goat bleated +from the stomachs of the three. 'By my good judge,' said Patrick, 'the +goat himself hides not the place where he is.'" It is hardly to be +wondered at that a story like this, that would make any right-minded man +laugh, only disgusted a hypochondriacal crank like Carlyle. + +The last chief king who lived in Tara was Dermot MacCarroll, who died in +the year 565. He was evidently only half a Christian, for it has been +fully proved that Druidism lingered in Ireland for many years after the +death of St Patrick. Dermot got into a dispute with the clergy because +they sheltered a man who had done something that displeased him. The end +of the dispute was that St. Ruadhan, one of the prominent ecclesiastics of +the time, cursed Tara, and it was forever abandoned as the seat of +royalty. It is almost certain that the real cause of the cursing of Tara +by the clergy was that druidical or pagan rites continued to be practised +in it after the bulk of the people had become Christians; for it had been +for untold centuries the seat of paganism as well as of royalty. It has to +be admitted, however, that great a benefit to the true faith as the +abandonment of Tara as a political centre undoubtedly was, it was +disastrous to the authority of the chief kings, for they appear to have +lost much of their authority over the provincial rulers when they +abandoned Tara and made their abodes in various places in Meath, +Westmeath, and Donegal. + +The vast antiquity given to Tara cannot be reasonably considered as the +mere invention of Irish bards or chroniclers. It is inconceivable that +they would invent the names of forty or fifty kings, most of whom ruled +there over a thousand years before the Christian era. The Irish annalists +who wrote about the very remote historical events of Irish history lived +and wrote long before Ireland came under English domination. They would +have no object in inventing historic falsehoods. The Tuatha de Daanans and +Firbolgs, who possessed the country before the Milesians, had vanished +more than a thousand years before the most ancient annals we possess were +written. What object could men who claimed to be Milesians have in +inventing historic falsehoods about races who possessed the country before +them? Besides, the general correctness of Irish annalists in recording +purely historic events is now admitted by all those capable of forming an +opinion. The men who wrote the oldest chronicles that we possess of +events in the very far-back past of their country, evidently wrote what +had been handed down to them, either in writing or by tradition. They +would have had no object in becoming fabricators. + +So far, then, Tara with its glamour of greatness and antiquity, its +uprootedness, its ruin, and its utter desolation. + + + + +LOCH REE + + +Of all the great lakes of Ireland there is none so little known to +tourists or the public in general as Loch Ree. It is the fourth in size, +Loch Neagh, Loch Erne, and Loch Corrib being the only Irish lakes of +greater extent, but none of them exceeds Loch Ree in beauty. Loch Erne is +a noble sheet of water, and is adorned with many beautiful islands, but +owing to its peculiar shape, one cannot take in all its charms from any +point on its shores; but there are dozens of places on the banks of Loch +Ree from which all its great expanse of water, and most of the charming +features of the country that surrounds it, can be taken in at a single +glance. If the shores of Loch Ree were mountainous it would be one of the +most beautiful lakes, not only in Ireland, but in the world. It is strange +that it is not more generally known, and it lying almost in the +geographical centre of Ireland, and surrounded by some of the richest land +and most beautiful _paysage_ scenery to be found anywhere. People rush to +Killarney, Connemara, Achill and many other places, and almost totally +neglect this noble expanse of the king of Irish rivers, the Shannon. It is +the unfortunate commercial state of Ireland that has caused the scenery of +the Shannon to be so little known. If there were dozens of thriving and +populous towns on its banks, as there would be if it flowed through any +other country than Ireland, large and commodious steamers would be plying +on its waters, and the beauties of Loch Ree and Loch Dearg would be as +well known as those of Windermere or Killarney. Nothing can more plainly +show how fast Ireland is retrograding from even the very mediocre trade +she enjoyed half a century ago than the fact that the passenger +steam-boats that used to ply almost daily in the summer season between +Carrick-on-Shannon or Lanesboro' and Killaloe have long ceased to run, and +are now rotting somewhere on the Lower Shannon. The decline in the +population, and the consequent decline in trade, became so great that it +was found that the money taken did not pay more than seventy per cent. of +even the working expenses of those steamers, and they had to stop running. +The writer travelled in one of them more than thirty years ago between +Athlone and Killaloe. They were large side-wheel steamers that would +carry over one hundred passengers, and on which excellent meals could be +obtained at a moderate price. There is probably not in Europe a more +generally interesting river than that from Athlone to Killaloe, but it is +now practically closed, not only to tourists, but to the public in +general, for a passenger steamer has not traversed the Upper Shannon for +well-nigh thirty years. It is no wonder, then, that the glories of Loch +Ree, with its almost countless islands, and the glories of Loch Dearg, +with its mountain-girded shores, are now nearly as unknown to tourists and +to the Irish public in general as are the reaches of the Congo or the +Niger. It is simply heartrending to think that decline of population and +general decay have made the mighty waters of the Shannon, that runs almost +from one end of Ireland to the other, an almost lifeless stream, for the +few little row-boats and sailing smacks one sees on it would not, all +told, hold more people than the life-boats of a single Atlantic steamer. +Bad as things are, they seem to be getting worse, for there is hardly a +single town or city on the Shannon that is not declining in trade and +population. At the rate things are going on, a turf boat will soon be the +only sort of craft to be seen on the waters of Ireland's greatest river! +It is, however, cheering to be able to state that there is good reason to +believe that steps are being taken to re-establish a line of passenger +steam-boats on the Upper Shannon. + +The tyranny and folly of man may mar towns and turn fields into +wildernesses, but they cannot mar nature. If no steam-boats plough the +waters of Loch Ree, and if men have given place to cattle and sheep on its +banks, it is still as beautiful as ever. Its sinuous shores are still as +fair to the eye as they were fifty years ago, when a teeming population +lived on them, and when twenty thousand people might be seen at the annual +regatta that used to be held every autumn on its waters. Nothing less than +an earthquake could destroy the beauty of Loch Ree. It has every element +of scenic beauty save mountains, but such are its general beauties that +mountains are hardly missed. Loch Dearg is almost surrounded by mountains, +but it is not nearly so fair to look upon as Loch Ree. The former lake is +almost entirely islandless, but Loch Ree is studded with them. In +traversing its entire length, from Lanesboro' to Athlone, a distance of +twenty miles, islands are ever in view. Hare Island is the most beautiful +island in the lake; seen from the waters or from the mainland it seems a +mass of leaves. The trees grow on it so thickly that they dip their +branches into the water almost all round it. Lord Castlemaine has a +charming rustic cottage on Hare Island, and the pleasure grounds attached +to it are laid out with very great taste and skill. It is one of the most +beautiful sylvan island retreats in Europe. Hare Island contains nearly a +hundred acres. Inchmore is still larger, but not so well wooded. Then +there are Inchbofin, Inis Cloran, Inchturk, Saints' Island, Hag's Island, +Carberry Island, and many others, the names of which would be tedious to +mention. The islands of Loch Ree are of almost all sizes, from a hundred +acres to a square perch. Except in the vast St Lawrence alone, with its +famed thousand islands, there are few river expansions in the world that +contain so many islands as Loch Ree. Its shores are fully as beautiful as +its islands. It would be hard to conceive anything in the way of shore +scenery more beautiful than the shores of Loch Ree for eight or ten miles +on the Leinster side of the lake between the mouth of the river Inny and +Athlone. The shores are so irregular and cut up into so many promontories +and headlands that, to follow the water's edge from Athlone to where the +Inny enters the Shannon, a distance of not more than ten miles as the crow +flies, would involve a journey of over fifty. Every headland is +tree-crowned, and every promontory rock-girded. Very little of the shores +of this beautiful lake are swampy; they are generally as rocky as those of +a Highland tarn, with deep, blue water ever fretting rock and stone into +thousands of fantastic shapes. So rocky are most parts of the shores of +Loch Ree, that those æsthetic persons living near it who wish to form +rock-works in their pleasure grounds find abundance of water-worn stones +on the shores of Loch Ree to make rock-work of any shape required. + +The shores of Loch Ree, particularly the Leinster shore, are more adorned +with gentlemen's seats than the shores of perhaps any other lake in +Ireland. From Athlone to nearly the head of the lake there is a succession +of gentlemen's seats. Many of them are kept with great care and taste, and +are in themselves well worth a visit. The house in which Goldsmith spent +his early youth is about two miles from Loch Ree, and about two-and-a-half +from the village of Glassan. The house is a ruin, but a well-preserved +one. When it was built seems unknown, but from what can be gathered from +the old men living in its vicinity, it seems to have been built about the +year 1700. The walls are still intact. It was two storeys high, and must +have contained seven or eight apartments. The name Auburn is still +applied to the townland on which the house stands; but the name seems to +have originated with Goldsmith himself, for the place does not appear to +have been so called before his time. Lissoy is its Irish name, but Auburn +does not seem to be an Irish name at all. The "Jolly Pigeons" public-house +still exists. It is about a mile from Auburn. There never was a village +called Auburn in the locality. The nearest place to Goldsmith's house that +could be called a village is Glassan. + +Loch Ree is not void of considerable historic interest. There are many +noble ruins on its shores; among them Randown Castle is the most +remarkable. It was one of the earliest Norman-French keeps erected in +Ireland. It is situated on a bold promontory jutting into the lake on the +Connacht side, about ten or twelve miles north of Athlone. It is now +generally called St John's Castle. At _Blein Potog_, or Pudding Bay, took +place in the year 999 one of the most important events in Irish +history--namely, the surrender of the sovereignty of Ireland to Brian +Boramha by Malachy the Second. The Munster king came up the Shannon with a +large army in a flotilla of boats, and Malachy met him there and +surrendered to him. Many think that it was, in a political point of view, +one of the most disastrous events of Irish history, for the usurpation of +the chief sovereignty by Brian caused such weakness and confusion after +his death, that each provincial ruler wanted to be chief king, and created +such wars and political chaos that no chief king that succeeded possessed +complete sway over the country, the so-called chief kings that succeeded +being kings only in name. For a full account of the treaty of Blein Potog, +the reader is referred to the "Wars of the Gaels and the Galls," +translated by the late Rev. Dr Todd. The site of the treaty is some ten +miles north of Athlone, on the Leinster shore of Loch Ree. + +Athlone is one of the most picturesque and interesting inland towns in +Ireland. Its situation is simply superb,--in the almost exact geographical +centre of Ireland, at the foot of one of the most beautiful of lakes, and +on the banks of a noble river, deep and wide enough to carry ships on its +waters. + +Athlone is one of the few towns--perhaps the only one--on the Shannon that +is not decaying at present. For many years after the famine it decayed +rapidly, but some thirty years ago a woollen factory was established; now +there are two woollen factories and a saw-mill that give employment to +some hundreds of hands, consequently Athlone has been saved from decay. +But comparatively prosperous as it is, it is not one-fourth as prosperous +as it ought to be considering its splendid situation and the fertility and +beauty of the country that surrounds it. It has recently become a great +railway centre; one can go by rail from Athlone to almost any part of +Ireland. But all the railways and all the fertility of all the world +cannot bring real prosperity to any country in which the population is +declining. The decline of the population in Athlone itself and in the +country surrounding it has, during the last fifty years, been something +frightful, and can only be fully realised by those who remember what it +was in former times. A market day in Athlone now is very different from a +market day there half a century ago. The writer recollects having been at +a market in Athlone when a small boy, about the year 1841 or '42, and saw +more people there in one market than could be seen in twenty markets there +now. The town was too small to contain much more than half of them; they +flowed out into the fields surrounding it. The crowds in the streets were +so dense that it would take hours to jostle one's way from one end of the +town to the other, and, what will hardly be credited by those whose +memories do not go back fifty years, there were certainly three persons +speaking Irish for one who spoke English. One might attend markets in +Athlone now every week in the year and not hear a word of any language but +English. Irish has completely died out of the country surrounding Athlone, +save in the south-western corner of the county Roscommon, where some old +people still speak it. There is something inexpressibly sad in the fading +away of any form of National speech, but, above all, in the fading away of +a tongue so old and once so cultivated as Irish. It seems to forebode not +only the death of all real National aspirations, but the death of heart +and soul. It seems to show that Philistinism is rapidly driving away +sentiment from the Irish people. But the life of the Irish peasant has +been so long such a battle for mere existence that it is no wonder that he +came to look with contempt on everything that did not administer to his +mere animal wants. He is rapidly improving since he has had a barrier put +between him and the generally cruel treatment he was wont to receive from +his landlord. None but those who remember what his position was fifty +years ago, and who see what it is now, can fully understand all the +advance he has made. In spite of the awful decline of population in the +rural districts of Ireland during the last fifty years, there is much to +be seen in them to gladden the heart of the philanthropist. Small farmers' +cottages, that would formerly be a disgrace to a Zulu or an Esquimaux, are +now not only generally clean, but sometimes beautiful. Flowers in pots in +the windows and evergreens creeping up the walls of a peasant's cottage +would have caused him to be laughed at by his neighbours fifty years ago, +but now they cause him to be respected instead of being laughed at. He +will become again what he once was, one of the most soulful and +un-Philistine of beings; it is probable he will become such when better +laws and freer institutions shall have raised him from the slough of +poverty and despondency in which he has been steeping for centuries. + +Tourists and the travelling public in general will find good accommodation +at the Prince of Wales Hotel in Athlone, in which town boats can be hired +by those going either up or down the Shannon. + + + + +"EMANIA THE GOLDEN" + + +Two miles west of the city of Armagh lies an earthen fort known as the +"Navan Ring." This is all that remains of the renowned palace of the Pagan +Kings of Ulster, the real name of which was Emain Macha, which has been +Latinised Emania, and corrupted into Navan. + +After Tara, Emania is the most historic spot of Irish soil. No other place +in all Ireland, Tara only excepted, is so often mentioned in the historic +and romantic tales that have been preserved in such abundance in ancient +Gaelic. Emania is the great centre of that wondrous cycle of legend, +history, and song known as the Cuchullainn cycle of Celtic literature. +Every tale and legend in it refer more or less to Emania. It is curious +that while hardly any of the treasures of ancient Irish manuscript +literature we possess were compiled in Ulster, there is hardly a page of +them, no matter in what province they were originally composed, that does +not mention this now almost obliterated stronghold of the Ulster kings. +The "Book of Leinster" was compiled in Kildare or in Glendoloch, and for +nearly a thousand years, or from the imposition of the Leinster Tribute +early in the second century down to the time of Brian Boramha, Leinster +and Ulster were inveterate enemies, yet the "Book of Leinster" teems with +mention of Emania. Even in the great manuscript books compiled in Connacht +and Munster, the name of Emania occurs next in frequency to that of Tara. + +So far as can be gathered from the most authentic sources, the palace of +Emain Macha, or Emania, was erected by the over-king Cimboath, about five +hundred years before the Incarnation. It continued to be the seat of the +Ulster kings down to A.D. 331, when it was destroyed by the three Collas, +chieftains of the race of the over-kings of Ireland from a hostile +province, that made war on Ulster. The destruction of Emania is recorded +by the Four Masters under the year 331, when Fergus, King of Ulster, was +defeated and slain by the three Collas. Emania was burned, and the ancient +dynasty that had so long ruled the province of Ulster was destroyed. +Emania may be said to have been a desolation since then; for though we are +told that one of the O'Neill's built a house within the ruins of the fort +in 1387, no vestige of it now remains, and it is not probable that it was +long in existence. + +None of the ancient palaces or great _duns_ of ancient Ireland shows such +utter desolation, or bears evidence of having been so uprooted as does +Emania. The great fosse by which it was once surrounded is entirely +obliterated save on the west side, where it is nearly twenty feet in +depth. Much as Tara has been obliterated, its monuments are more easily +traced than are those of Emania. The county Meath seems to have been a +grazing country almost from time immemorial. This saved Tara from being +entirely uprooted; but the country round this ancient seat of the Ulster +kings is essentially agricultural; it is mostly in the possession of small +farmers owning from ten to twenty acres; consequently they have levelled +most of the great circular embankments that formerly enclosed an area of +nearly a dozen acres, and have filled up most of the deep fosse which, if +we can judge by the small part of it that still remains, must have been, +when Emania was in its glory, between twenty and thirty feet deep. So +potatoes are growing and corn is waving over a large extent of the inside +of the fortress, where vast wooden buildings once stood, and where mirth +and revelry and clash of arms once resounded. + +Mons. Darbois de Jubainville, the eminent French archæologist and Celtic +scholar, made an exhaustive examination of Emania some years ago. He +found that the area within the original enclosure was four and a half +hectares, or between eleven and twelve English acres in extent, and that +the space enclosed was nearly circular. Like Tara, the buildings in Emania +must have been almost entirely of wood. Some of them may, like many of the +wooden houses in America, have been built on stone foundations, and there +are some traces of stone-work still to be seen. There is a magnificent +passage in the Féilere of Oengus the Culdee, written about A.D. 800, in +which the greatness and glory of the Christian cities of Ireland are +contrasted with the state of utter desolation into which the strongholds +of the Pagan kings had fallen. Speaking of Emania he says-- + + "Emain's burgh hath vanished + Save that its stones remain; + The Rome of the western world + Is multitudinous Glendaloch." + +There is no doubt that the ruins of Emania were in a much better state of +preservation when Oengus wrote, nearly eleven hundred years ago, than they +are in at present, and it is certain that many of its stones have been +carried away to build walls and houses. But it is also quite certain that +neither in Ireland, Great Britain, or in any northern country, were stone +buildings general in ancient times, and we may be sure that when Emania +was at the height of its splendour its best and largest buildings were of +wood. + +The area of eleven or twelve acres that was once surrounded by a deep +fosse and high embankment, and within which all the buildings of Emania +were erected, is not quite circular, nor is its surface level. +Considerable inequality of surface evidently existed in it before it was +chosen for the site of palace or _dun_. The highest part within the +enclosure is a good deal removed from its centre, and it was evidently on +it that the citadel stood. There was a dun within a dun, as there +generally was in all ancient Irish fortresses of any great extent. The +citadel having been on the highest ground within the enclosure, commanded +a view of the surrounding country for a considerable distance. Emania, +when at its best, with its vast surrounding fosse and high earthen +rampart, capped with a strong fence of wood, might, if properly +provisioned and manned, defy almost any army that could be brought against +it in ancient times when firearms were unknown. + +It is for the antiquarian rather than for the seeker of the picturesque +that Emania will ever have the most attraction. There is nothing very +striking from a scenic point of view in its environs. Its present +shockingly uprooted condition, and the almost total lack of interest the +peasantry living in its immediate vicinity take in it, have a depressing +effect on anyone interested in Irish literature, history, or antiquities. +During the writer's last visit to this historic spot he met a small farmer +whose potatoes were planted over part of the obliterated fosse and rampart +of this famous stronghold of Ulster. He had never heard of King Connor +MacNessa, of Connall Carnach, of Cuchullainn, or of the Red Branch +Knights. He knew no more about them than about the heroes of ancient +China. He said that he "ever an' always hard that the Navan Ring was built +by the Danes." This man had been born and bred in the locality, but he +took no more interest in the historic spot that had given him birth than +if he were a Hottentot instead of an Irishman. Anglicisation has indeed +been carried to an extreme pitch in most parts of Ireland, and is rapidly +turning the Irish peasant into the most generally uninteresting, prosy, +and least _spirituel_ of mortals. As a rule, the more Anglicised he +becomes the more intolerable he is. If the peasantry living round Emania +had preserved their native language, while at the same time knowing +English, if they were bilingual, like millions of their class in different +European countries, many things connected with the history of this +celebrated place would be known to them; but having lost the link that +bound them to the past, they are like a new race in a new country. It is +well known that the masses of the Greek peasantry, notwithstanding that a +large percentage of them are illiterate, know more about the history and +traditions of their country than any Irishman, save a specialist, knows +about the history and traditions of Ireland. In very few European +countries will such a knowledge of its past be found among the masses as +in Greece, and principally because the Greeks have preserved their +language. + +Although Tara is more ancient and more historic than Emania, the latter +place is connected with the most pathetic, the most dramatic, and most +generally beautiful tale in all the vast mass of ancient Gaelic +literature--"The Fate of the Children of Uisneach." It was in Emania that +their betrayer and murderer, Connor, King of Ulster, lived; it was there +that they themselves were killed, and it was there that Deirdre died. The +tale appeared almost a century ago in a book brought out by a Gaelic +Society that then existed in Dublin. The Irish text was given, with a +translation by Theopholus O'Flanagan. It was thought by some that he had +no ancient copy of the tale, and that he might have embellished it, for he +did not say from what manuscript he had taken it. The story, as given in +the "Book of Leinster," while agreeing in the main with O'Flanagan's +version, is not nearly of such literary value as his, and is not more than +one quarter the length. But all doubts as to the existence of an ancient +version of the story given by O'Flanagan have been removed, for an ancient +copy of it, supposed to be of the fourteenth century, was found some years +ago in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh, and has been edited and +translated by Mr. Whitley Stokes. It may be seen in Windische's _Irische +Texte_. It agrees almost exactly with the version given by O'Flanagan. It +would be hard to give a clearer proof of the utter neglect with which +Celtic literature has heretofore been treated, than by a statement of the +fact that there are not probably a hundred persons living, at least of the +literary class, who have read this wondrously beautiful tale of the +Children of Uisneach. For pathos, dramatic power, and pure poetry it would +be hard to get anything in the way of romance superior to it. If such a +literary gem existed in the literature of any European language but Irish, +if such existed even in Arabic or Persian, it would be known to literary +people almost all over the world. But how can people of other nations be +blamed for their ignorance of Gaelic literature when the Irish themselves +are more indifferent about it than the Germans or the French? A text and +translation of the "Fate of the Children of Uisneach" is sorely +wanted--not merely as a text for scholars, but for the people at large. +When such appears it will make a visit to Emania infinitely more +interesting; for, after reading such a pathetic tale, he would indeed be +hard-hearted and unsympathetic that would not, if he could find where she +was buried, shed a tear over the grave of Deirdre. The very fine poem by +the late Doctor Robert Dwyer Joyce, published in Boston, America, in 1877, +was the only attempt ever made to popularise the story of the Children of +Uisneach and the fate of the unfortunate but true and noble Deirdre. + +The country in the vicinity of Emania, while containing no striking +objects of scenic interest, is, at the same time, picturesque and +beautiful. Southern Ulster, even where it is not mountainous, is usually +most varied and interesting in its general features. It is essentially a +land of hills and valleys; but the hills are never so high that they +cannot be cultivated, and the best land is sometimes found on their very +tops. The country round Emania is extremely broken, hill and valley are on +every side. It is generally, like most parts of Ulster, well cultivated. +There are many antiquarian curiosities in the neighbourhood of this +ancient fortress. Some of the most perfect Druid circles in Ireland are in +its vicinity. There is a very remarkable one about a mile from it which a +thrifty farmer has turned into a haggard. It encloses about quarter of an +acre of ground. The stones of which it is composed stand about four feet +over the surface, and must average nearly a ton each in weight. But +vandalism is strong in the vicinity, for it is only a short time since +another splendid Druid circle, nearly as large as the one mentioned, was +torn down, and its stones broken to mend roads withal. Thus are many of +the relics of ancient Erin disappearing before the march of +denationalisation. + +Those who live in the vicinity of Emania tell many stories about the +finding of treasure-trove close to and in this ancient fortress. According +to them, gold ornaments of great value were found by some persons many +years ago who suddenly became rich, much to the surprise of their +neighbours. Those ornaments were, of course, melted down, and like +hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of similar articles found in almost +every part of Ireland, never found their way to any museum, and are lost +to the country for ever. There can hardly be any doubt that some very +valuable articles in gold have been found near Emania. + +One of the most interesting instances of the long survival of a place name +is to be found adjacent to this celebrated spot. Most Irish persons have +heard of the Red Branch Knights. Moore has immortalised them in his +exquisite lyric, "Let Erin Remember the Days of Old." Few believe that +such an institution as the Red Branch Knights ever existed. It is +generally looked on as a bardic fable; but there is a townland close to +Emania which is still called Creeve Roe, in correct orthography, _Craobh +Ruadh_, which means Red Branch. The preservation of this place name for +nearly two thousand years cannot be regarded as an accident. It goes far +to prove that the Red Branch Knights did exist, and that the townland took +its name from them. This extraordinarily long survival of a place name, +the historic fame and antiquity of the locality, lend a supreme interest +to this ruined stronghold, which, centuries after its glories had +vanished, Gaelic bards used still to call "Emania the Golden." + +Ardmagh is so near Emania, only two miles from it, that one place could +hardly be described without saying something about the other. Its ancient +name was Ardmacha, meaning the height of Macha. This Macha was queen, or +at least ruler, of that part of the country in far-back pagan times. It +was also from her that Emain Macha, or Emania, was named. Ardmagh was +founded by St Patrick in the year 457. A man named Daire, chief of the +district, is said, in the "Annals of the Four Masters," to have given +Patrick the site on which the city is built. Patrick appointed twelve men +to build the town, and ordered them to erect an archbishop's city there, +and churches for the different religious orders. It seems strange that the +saint should have chosen Ardmagh for the site of the chief religious +establishment in Ireland. Emania had been ruined and desolated in the +previous century, but it is evident that it was the fame of the ancient +stronghold of Ulster that induced Patrick to choose its immediate vicinity +as a site for his new Christian city, because Emania had been for so many +centuries previous the political centre of the province, and, next to +Tara, the chief political centre of Ireland. Of the old ecclesiastical +buildings of Ardmagh, not a vestige remains. Some of its new ones are, +however, magnificent. The new Catholic cathedral is the finest building of +its kind in Ireland. It is hardly to be wondered at that none of the +ancient buildings of Ardmagh should remain, for of all towns in Ireland, +it was burned, plundered, and razed the oftenest. In the course of the two +centuries and a half ending in 1080, it was plundered and wholly or +partially burned _twelve times_ by the Danes. No other city in Ireland +seems to have suffered so much from the Northmen. Turgesius, the Danish +king, captured it and lived there for some years. The present city is one +of the most picturesque towns of its size in Ireland, but it is not +growing much. It once had a good linen trade, but since the introduction +of cotton fabrics, its linen trade has entirely ceased. + + + + +QUEEN MAB'S PALACE + + +Rathcroghan, about two miles from Tulsk, in the county Roscommon, is one +of the most celebrated places in Irish history, legend, and song. It was +there that Queen Mab, spelt Medb in old Irish, and Meave at present, had +her palace, and it was there she was buried. That she was a real historic +personage, and not a myth or a fairy, there can be no doubt at all, and +that she was a very extraordinary woman cannot be doubted either. She was +Queen of Connacht, and was cotemporary with Cleopatra; but if the Egyptian +queen is mentioned in history she is forgotten in legend, while Mab has +lived in legend for more than eighteen centuries. It is remarkable that +the myths and legends about her should have been more prevalent during the +sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in England than in Ireland. There are +few legends about her in Ireland; she is simply an historic personage +there, but in England she became a fairy. There is hardly a popular +English writer of the two centuries referred to that has not said +something about Queen Mab; and it is very probable that none of them knew +that she was a reality in Irish history. Shakespeare, Spenser, Drayton, +and other English writers contemporary with them, speak of her as a fairy, +and even Shelley considers her a sprite; but she is rarely, if ever, +mentioned as such by the Gaelic writers of any epoch. Why legends about +Queen Mab, or, as we call her at present, Meave, should be so rare in +Ireland is probably owing to the fact that she belongs to what is known as +the Cuchulainn cycle of Irish history and legend. That cycle is almost +forgotten by the people, and has been for many centuries. It has been +eclipsed by the greater popularity of the Finn cycle, which is some +centuries more recent. For the one legend existing in the most +Gaelic-speaking parts of Ireland and Scotland about Cuchulainn or his +cycle there are a score about Finn, Oisin, Caoilte, and others of their +contemporaries. It may have been that the introduction of Christianity had +much to do in stereotyping the legends of the Finn cycle in the memories +of the masses, for Finn is said to have lived so long that he saw St +Patrick, and held converse with him. One of the most remarkable literary +productions in Irish, the "Dialogue of the Sages," consists of converse +between the Saint and Finn, and others belonging to the same cycle. + +There could hardly be a stronger proof of the high civilisation that +existed in Ireland in ancient times as compared with that which existed in +England than the fact that the remembrance of Irish historic personages +continued widely spread in England in spite of so many changes, not only +in government, but in race and language. There is no traditional +remembrance in Ireland of any English historic personage contemporary with +Queen Meave, or of any such that lived for many centuries after her time. +That a knowledge of her and Lir, the Lear of Shakespeare, should have +existed among the ancient Britons is not to be wondered at, for they were +kin to the Irish, and must have spoken the same, or nearly the same, +language; but that this remembrance of Irish historic personages should +have continued to exist in England under Roman, Saxon, Dane, and +Frenchman, is very remarkable. If it was knowledge obtained through books +it would be less to be wondered at; it was knowledge transmitted by +legend, and like all legendary knowledge, it had a tendency to go astray. +The legends that existed in England about Meave and Lir did go astray, for +they made a little fairy of the one and a King of Britain of the other. +But Meave was not a little fairy, but a very fine woman of flesh and +blood; and Lir was not King of Britain, but an Irish pirate whose +principal stronghold appears to have been the Isle of Man. It is called +after him, for his full name was Mananan Mac Lir. It seems more than +probable that both Dunleer and Liverpool are also called after him, for +the latter place is written "Lyrpul" in the earliest known document in +which the name occurs, and it is Lyrpul still in Welsh. It is probable +that Lir had possessions in England as well as in Ireland and the Isle of +Man. + +Medb or Meave, Queen of Connacht, was daughter to Eochy Fayloch, over-king +of Ireland. She lived about half a century before the Christian era. +Keating says, in his "History of Ireland," that she reigned ninety-eight +years. This very long reign is doubted by some Irish historians, but it is +generally admitted by them that her reign, as well as her life, was +remarkably long. She had more husbands than even the woman of Samaria is +credited with. It was evidently her extraordinary long life and reign that +caused her to be ultimately believed to be something supernatural, and to +be regarded as a fairy. She was, however, no fairy, but a bold, bad, and +warlike woman. She, even more than Cuchulainn, is the central figure of +the greatest prose epic in the Irish language, the _Tain Bo Chuailgne_, or +Cattle Raid of Cooley. By lies and bribes she persuaded the other +provincial rulers to join her in a totally unjustifiable war on Ulster, so +that she was able to invade that province with a great army of fifty-four +thousand men. She carried off a great prey from Ulster, but not without +suffering some defeats and losing some of her bravest warriors. It is said +that Mr Ernest Windisch is engaged in translating this great epic into +German, but it seems not yet finished. Meave, like most of the prominent +people of her day, met with a violent death. She had many enemies, +especially in Ulster. One of them, a son to the king of that province, +killed her by a cast from a sling as she was about taking a cold water +bath in Iniscloran, an island in Loch Ree. She must have been considerably +over a hundred years old when she was killed, but she appears, even at +that great age, to have been the admiration of every one that saw her on +account of the great beauty of her face and figure. Perhaps it was her +cold water baths that were the chief means of preserving her youth and +good looks, for we are told in the "Book of Leinster" that she was under +_geis_, or bonds, not to let any morning pass by without taking a bath. +It is no wonder that such a person should have in the long run passed into +the realm of fairie, and have been thought something supernatural. It is, +however, a wonder that the Four Masters do not mention the name of Meave, +although they do mention the name of her father; but there are many +similar strange omissions in their annals. Meave is, however, mentioned in +the Annals of Clonmacnoise, in which many hard things are said of her. + +The fort, as it is generally called, of Rathcroghan, upon which Queen +Meave's palace must have stood, is unlike any other place of its kind +known to the writer. Strictly speaking, it is not a fort at all, and it is +impossible to conceive how it ever could have been used for purposes of +defence, or for any purpose other than to build some sort of habitation +on. It is nothing but a raised circular elevation, an English acre in +area, in a perfectly level field, without a vestige of the fosse or +rampart that usually surrounds the ruined strongholds of Celtic chiefs and +kings. Long ago as it is since Rathcroghan was the seat of kings or queens +of Connacht, some traces of the surrounding ramparts would almost +certainly be yet visible had they ever existed. Queen Meave seems to have +depended more on her soldiers to defend her than on ramparts of stone or +earth. She seems to have relied on "castles of bones" rather than on +castles of stones; for her palace, so far as can be judged from existing +remains, seems to have been without defending ramparts of any kind. There +are many references in old Gaelic manuscripts to the splendour of Queen +Meave's palace. It is said to have been built of pine and yew, and to have +contained beds enough to accommodate a small army. It was probably an +immense round wigwam that covered all or nearly all of the raised platform +that still remains. That platform is about eight or nine feet above the +level of the field on which it stands, and has two entrances into it, one +exactly opposite the other. If the vast circular wooden building that +stood on it was roofed, as it almost certainly was, the walls would have +to be fifty feet or more in height to give it anything of an imposing +appearance. It may have been that the entire raised platform was not +covered by the wooden structure, but the descriptions of its great size +given in old books would lead one to think that it was. + +Rathcroghan does not appear to have been a place of residence of any of +the rulers of Connacht since the time of the celebrated Queen Meave. If it +was, the writer has not been able to find trustworthy evidence of the +fact. It may, however, have been used as a place for assemblies in +comparatively recent times. _Relig na Riogh_, or the cemetery of kings, at +Rathcroghan, was one of the great burial places of the Pagan Irish Kings. +It is a circular enclosure, about half a mile from the platform on which +Queen Meave's palace stood. It bears all the marks of extreme antiquity, +and has suffered much from the ravages of time. It covers between two and +three acres, and at first sight appears nothing more than a piece of +ground of very broken surface, for the mounds that marked the graves of +kings and chiefs have become nearly obliterated. But it was here that many +of the kings and heroes of ancient Ireland were buried, and it is here +that the bones of Queen Meave rest, that is, if we are to believe the most +trustworthy records of Irish history. It is thought by some that she was +buried under the vast cairn of stones that crowns the summit of +Knocknarea, near Sligo, for it is called to this day _Moisgan Meabha_, +literally Meave's butter-dish; but by extension it probably means Meave's +heap or cairn. There is no historic evidence to prove that she was +interred under the cairn on Knocknarea, however it came to be called by +its present Irish name; and according to the late Sir Samuel Ferguson, her +name, or a name closely resembling it, has been found written in Ogam +characters on a stone in _Reilig na Riogh_. + +That there was such a person as Queen Meave there cannot be any doubt +whatever. History and legend never yet existed about a fabulous personage, +and Meave figures in both. Whatever impossible things may be related about +her in legend, history says nothing about her that cannot be easily +believed, her great age and length of reign excepted. It must, however, be +remembered that the ancient Irish were a very long-lived people. This fact +is so apparent in so many places in ancient Gaelic literature that it has +to be believed. We have as strong proof as can be afforded by history that +in comparatively modern times Henry Jenkins lived to be over a hundred and +sixty, and Old Parr to be over a hundred and fifty years old, and why +could not Queen Meave have lived to as great or even a greater age? She +was an extraordinary woman, and her name sheds a halo of romance round the +place where she lived, and where her remains rest in peace after her long +and stormy career. It was also in _Reilig na Riogh_ that Dathi, the last +pagan Irish Chief King, was buried. His mound is marked by a pillar stone, +and O'Donovan, one of the most cautious and least impulsive investigators +of Irish history and antiquities, saw no reason to doubt that the pillar +stone marks his grave. + +It may be said that no proof has been given that the Connacht Queen Medb +or Meave was the prototype of the Mab of Shakespeare, Drayton, Spenser, +and other English poets. True, no absolute proof has been given, and +probably never will; but there is that which may be called negative proof, +which in such a case is very strong. The negative proof, if it can be +called such, that the Connacht queen was the prototype of the Queen Mab of +English poets and English legend, is found in the complete silence of +history and of tradition as to how else the legend of Queen Mab +originated, for it must have originated somewhere and from some one. We +are, then, and in a great measure by the total lack of any other way to +account for the origin of the legend of Queen Mab being queen of the +fairies, forced to come to the conclusion that the Connacht queen is the +only person known to history who furnishes the prototype for her. But +there is something more. It has been stated that the old Irish form of the +name was _Medb_. It is well known to Celtic savants that what is now +called "aspiration," or the change in sound, and sometimes the entire +suppression of certain consonants in pronunciation, did not take place +nearly so often in old Irish as in the modern language; so that the name +_Medb_ would in ancient times be pronounced _Mab_, or something very like +it. It is curious that in Drayton's poem, "The Nymphadia," Queen Mab, +though a fairy, is remarkable for those things for which her Irish +prototype was also remarkable--namely, her chariots, her amours, and her +beauty. + +A very strong proof that Queen Meave was an historic personage and not a +myth is to be found in the name of the island in Loch Ree where she was +killed. It is usually pronounced and written Iniscloran; but Inis Clothran +is how it ought to be spelled, and how it is invariably spelled in the +"Annals of the Four Masters" where the name frequently occurs, the island +having been the seat of more than one church in early Christian times, and +therefore often mentioned in annals. Meave had a sister named Clothru who +lived in Iniscloran, and who was Queen of Connacht before Meave. Here is a +translation from the "Book of Leinster," page 124: "It was there that +Clothru used to explain the laws of Connacht in Inis Clothran in Loch +Ree." The island was evidently called after Clothru (Clothran in the +genitive), sister to Meave. This preservation of a place name connected +with the name of an historic personage for two thousand years is most +remarkable, and shows that Irish history is more truthful than is +generally supposed. It is thought that Meave had Clothru killed, in order +that she herself might become Queen of Connacht. + +The country around Rathcroghan abounds in antiquities of far-back ages. +Sepulchral mounds, ruined raths, tortuous caves, and weather-worn +cromlechs are to be found on almost every side. It is a spot where the +antiquarian might revel for weeks and find something every day to interest +him. It is a beautiful country also, not a plain, in the strict sense of +the word, and yet not hills, but what an American would call "rolling," +and a Frenchman "accidenté." It is the "Magh Aoi" of Queen Meave's time, +and "Machaire Chonnacht," or plain of Connacht, of later days. It is part +of the celebrated Plains of Boyle, and is considered to contain some of +the best grass land in Ireland. No fairer spot could be found in Connacht +for the dwelling of a potentate who dealt largely in cattle than the green +eminence on which Queen Meave had her palace, and both history and legend +say that her flocks and herds were well-nigh innumerable. She made her +home in the centre of the fairest and richest part of the province she +ruled; and long as that home has been desolate, it has not been forgotten +in history or in song, for that noble melody which Moore has made +immortal--"Avenging and Bright Fall the Swift Sword of Erin"--was first +known as "Croghan na Veena," or "Croghan of the Heroes"; and the incident +to which it refers--the murder of the children of Uisneach--occurred when +Queen Meave was at the height of her splendour, when Rathcroghan was in +its glory, and when it was really the dwelling-place of heroes. + +There are many mentions of Rathcroghan in ancient Gaelic writings, and all +of them speak of it as one of the most important places in Ireland in +Pagan times. Oengus, the Culdee, whose poem has been already referred to, +says of it-- + + "Rathcroghan hath vanished + With Ailill, offspring of victory; + A fair sovranty above Kingdoms + Is in Cluain's city." + +The Ailill mentioned was one of Queen Meave's many husbands, and "Cluain's +City" means Clonmacnois. + +The nearest railway station to Rathcroghan is Castlerea, from which it is +about eight miles distant. Its long distance from a railway and the want +of good accommodation for tourists in its vicinity have helped to cause +this celebrated place to be so neglected and forgotten. + + + + +THE HILL OF UISNEACH + + +Uisneach is one of the most historic hills in Ireland, yet there are +probably not five per cent. of the people of Ireland that have ever heard +of it, and not one per cent. of them that has ever seen it. Apart even +from its historic interest, it is well worth seeing, for it is not only a +beautiful hill, but it affords from its summit one of the most extensive +and lovely views in Ireland. The hill of Uisneach is in the Barony of +Rathconrath, County Westmeath, and only about four Irish miles from +Streamstown Station on the Midland Great Western Railway, so that it is +easily reached. There is, unfortunately, no hotel where tourists could be +accommodated nearer to it than Moat, which is about eight Irish miles from +it; and Mullingar is about the same distance. The village of Ballymore is +five miles from the hill, but as there is no hotel there, Moat and +Mullingar are the only towns within any moderate distance of it where +tourists could get either lodgings or meals. It is not certain if even a +car could be hired at Streamstown or near it, consequently those wishing +to visit Uisneach should either have a private conveyance or make up their +minds to "do it" on foot. + +Uisneach is one of the most peculiarly-shaped hills in Ireland. It is only +six hundred feet in height--a fair elevation in a part of the country +where there are no mountains--but no matter from what side it is +approached, it cannot be seen until one is almost at its base. The country +immediately around it is so broken and so cut up by many hills and hollows +of almost all shapes, that Uisneach, the highest of all the hills near it, +can hardly be noticed until one is just at it. A public road runs close to +its base, so there is no difficulty in reaching it, and the ascent is by +no means steep. It is not until one is on the top of Uisneach that he +finds out how high it is, for the view from its summit is extensive and +beautiful almost beyond power of description. The country on every side of +it consists of some of the richest pasture lands, not only in Ireland, but +in the world. No matter in what direction one looks, a vast, undulated +expanse of green meets the eye. If the view from Uisneach is seen in +autumn, when the too few and far between grain-fields are turning yellow, +it is as fair a sight as human eye ever gazed on. The country for scores +of miles on every side is so rich, so green, and so varied with hill, +dale, wood, and water, that the Biblical phrase that is applied to parts +of Palestine, "the garden of the Lord," might well be applied to the land +round this hill. But it is safe to say that no Israelite ever gazed from +Gilboa or Carmel on so fair a prospect. The vast extent of the view from +this hill seems out of all proportion with its moderate height. On a clear +day one can very nearly see from the Irish Channel to Galway Bay. The +Wicklow hills seem close by. The mountains, not only of Cavan, but of +Leitrim, are distinctly visible. On every side, save the south-west, the +prospect is what some would be tempted to call boundless. On the +south-west the view is obstructed by the hill of Knock Cosgrey, an +eminence slightly higher than Uisneach, and one of the most beautiful +hills in Ireland. It is about four miles south-west of Uisneach. Unlike +Uisneach, however, it is, seen from a distance, both striking and bold. It +has the misfortune to be called by so many different names, or rather, its +name is pronounced in so many different ways, that strangers are often +sadly puzzled what to call it. It is called Kunna Kostha and Kruck Kostha +by the peasantry, and by the gentlefolk generally Knock Ash. But its +proper name is _Cnoc Cosgraigh_, and is so written by the Four Masters, +who are, undoubtedly, the highest authority we possess on place names. +Seen from the road from Moat to Ballymahon, Knock Cosgrey is one of the +most charming sights imaginable. It is nearly a mile from top to base, and +forms a green pyramid of almost perfect symmetry. Its surface is entirely +under grass; for this part of Ireland has been largely turned into +pastures; and sometimes one may drive for six miles and not see a field of +grain. "The bold peasantry" of whom Goldsmith speaks in his "Deserted +Village" have become so few in these parts that miles may be travelled at +mid-day through as fine a country as there is in the world without meeting +a human being. Sheep and cattle, and not men and women, seem the +prevailing living creatures. Knock Cosgrey is not only higher than +Uisneach, but more near the true geographical centre of the island; but it +possesses hardly any historic interest from the fact that its summit was +too narrow to allow the ancient Irish either to build or assemble on it. +Uisneach, with its over a hundred acres of nearly level land on its top, +was therefore chosen, for a hundred thousand men could find space on it. +It became, for that reason, one of the most historic, and in ancient times +one of the most celebrated, hills in Ireland. + +There is probably not another hill in Ireland so well adapted both for a +place for assemblies and a site for building as Uisneach. Its summit is +extensive. There are springs of the purest water on it. Plenty of stones +of almost every size abound, and the soil, even in the most elevated +parts, is of great fertility. In the troublesome times of yore, Uisneach +possessed advantages that were most important in its elevation, and the +extensive view it commanded; for they made it impossible for an army to +approach it from any side without being seen by the watchers on its top. +From the many advantages that this beautiful and extraordinary hill +possesses, it seems strange that it was not chosen by the ancient Irish +for a place of central government. It would have been even better suited +for such a purpose than Tara. It probably would have been the chief seat +of ancient Irish sovereignty if it had not been that the mistake made in +selecting Tara instead of it, occurred so far back in what may be called +prehistoric times, and antiquity had given Tara such a prestige that it +continued to be the most important place in Ireland until it was +abandoned as a seat of government in the sixth century. But Uisneach was +also used as a place of residence by the Irish over-kings. That they +sometimes resided there can be proved from ancient Gaelic writings. It was +supposed to be the geographical centre of Ireland, and before the +formation of the province of Meath by the over-king, Tuathal, in the early +part of the second century, the four provinces met at Uisneach Hill. It is +curious what a close guess the ancients made to locate the exact centre of +the island. They seem, however, to have placed it four or five miles too +far to the north-east, for, according to the most recent surveys, the hill +of Knock Cosgrey is in the exact geographical centre of Ireland. In +far-back ancient times, before the province of Meath had been formed by +taking parts of the four original provinces, the hill of Uisneach was in +Connacht. This almost exact quaternal division of Ireland into provinces, +and their meeting at a point that was supposed to be the exact centre of +the island, is a very curious and interesting feature in ancient Irish +polity. In other countries, provinces seem to have originated by mere +accident, some being big, and some little; but in Ireland they seem to +have been laid out by line and rule, for the four provinces that met at +Uisneach must have been very nearly of equal area. The celebrated Cat +Stone on the hill of Uisneach was known from remote antiquity as _Ail na +Mireann_, or "the rock of the divisions," because the four provinces met +at it. This rock was known by this name among the peasantry of the +neighbourhood up to recent times, until Irish became a dead language in +this part of the country. + +Ail na Mireann, or, as it is now called, the Cat Stone, is the greatest +curiosity on Uisneach Hill. It is not on the top of the hill, but on its +side. It is, perhaps, the most puzzling rock in Ireland, for it is hard to +say whether it was placed in its present position by an iceberg in the +glacial age, or whether it was placed there by human agency, and intended +for a rude cromlech. Here is what the eminent scholar and antiquarian, +John O'Donovan, says about it in his yet unpublished letters when he was +on the Government Survey of Ireland in 1837:--"The huge rock on this hill +of Uisneach, a part of which was split and formed into a cromlech, is now +called the Cat Stone, from a supposed resemblance to a cat sitting and +watching a mouse." If this stone is a cromlech, or Druid's altar, it is +unlike anything of the kind found elsewhere in Ireland or other +countries, for the four upright stones which usually support the flat one, +are not to be seen here. The weight of this enormous mass of stone can +hardly be less than twenty tons, and if it was put in its present position +by human agency, it is by far the most extraordinary thing of its kind in +Ireland. But a majority of those who see it think that it is merely a +boulder of peculiar shape. If it is a boulder it is a very extraordinary +one, and if it is a cromlech it is a more extraordinary one still. + +It was on Uisneach Hill, or in its immediate vicinity, that the +ecclesiastical synod met in the year 1111. This great meeting is mentioned +in almost all Irish annals. It was attended by fifty bishops, three +hundred priests, and upwards of three thousand students, and by the nobles +of the southern half of Ireland, with Muircheartach O'Briain, King of +Munster, at their head. We are told that the synod was convened to +regulate the manners and mode of living of both clergy and laity. It does +not seem to have done much good on account of the then chaotic political +state of the country, caused by almost constant wars between the aspirants +for chief kingship. + +There are many interesting things besides the cromlech to be seen on the +vast undulated summit of Uisneach. There is a hollow known as St +Patrick's bed, and there are the remains of the walls of large stone +buildings on the most elevated part of the hill. There is also one of the +finest raths in Ireland, which must have been a place of great strength, +for the embankments are still of immense height, and are overgrown with +hawthorn bushes of great size. This rath, unlike the generality of such +structures, is not round, but oblong. It encloses a space of nearly an +acre in extent. + +Apart from antiquarianism, the hill of Uisneach is well worth seeing, for +it is as strange in shape as it is beautiful in verdure. It is only a few +miles from a railroad; it is easy to ascend, for a carriage might be +driven to its summit. The longest summer day might be passed on it, and +some new curiosity of antiquity or some fresh beauty of scenery be +continually discovered. The surface of the hill is so broken, and is of +such great extent, that to explore it thoroughly, and to enjoy all the +varied prospects to be seen from it, even a long summer day would hardly +be long enough. + +[Illustration: MOUNT OF BALLYLOCHLOE.] + +When treating of hills and of the country in the vicinity of Uisneach, it +may be interesting to say something about the most beautiful and +perfect _artificial_ hill in Ireland--namely, the Moat of Ballylochloe. It +is about nine miles west of Uisneach, and three north-west of Moat. It was +evidently erected for a sepulchral mound, but seems to have also been used +as a place of defence. A ridge of sand-hills has been cut, and a most +perfect and symmetrical _moat_ has been formed. It cannot be less than a +hundred and fifty feet in height. When seen from the road approaching it +from the east, it is almost Alpine in appearance, and looks like a small +mountain. Neither history nor legend throws much light on the origin of +this gigantic mound. We are told, however, that in the time of Queen +Meave, about the year 50 B.C., there was a terrible battle in a place +called Cloch Bruighne, now called Cloch Brian, some two miles from where +the moat now stands, in which battle a wealthy farmer called Da Choga was +killed, and his house burned. His wife, whose name was Lucha, died of +grief, and was buried, it is said, near Loch Lucha, which seems to have +been called after her. In Irish, the name of this place is _Baile Loch +Lucha_. From the fact of the name of the wife of the farmer, or _bruighe_, +being contained in the name of the stead, the late Mr W. M. Hennessy, an +excellent authority on such matters, thought that the mound was erected +over the remains of the woman Lucha. In former times, there was a small +lake at the foot of the moat, hence the modern name Ballylochloe. + +This beautiful artificial hill is well worth seeing. It is only three +miles from the railway station at Moat. + + + + +CLONMACNOIS + + +The ruins of Clonmacnois form by far the most interesting architectural +remains on the Shannon. Their situation is unique--on a sandy knoll +overlooking the winding river, as it flows in great reaches among marshy +meadows of apparently illimitable extent. Thousands of acres of them on +both banks of the Shannon are spread before one's gaze when standing at +the base of any of the ruined shrines of this ancient seat of piety and +learning. The ecclesiastics of ancient Ireland seem to have been gifted +with an extraordinary amount of appreciation for the beautiful and unique +in nature. The wilder and the more beautiful a place was, the more it +seems to have attracted them. Cashel's solitary Rock, Glendaloch's gloomy +vale, and this barren sandhill overlooking the most peculiar scenery in +all the island, were the places in which they reared their most cherished +fanes and most beautiful buildings. The situation of Clonmacnois cannot be +said to be beautiful, but it is strange and weird to the last degree--more +strange and weird, perhaps, than any other place in Ireland. + +The best and most agreeable way to reach Clonmacnois is from Athlone. It +is twelve English miles from Athlone by road, and ten by river. By river +is not only the cheapest way but the most interesting. Sails can be used +on this part of the Shannon almost as well as on Loch Ree, for the banks +are so low that every breeze that blows can be fully utilised; and the +river is so crooked, that no matter from what quarter the wind comes it +can sometimes fill the sail. The Shannon here is no tiny stream like the +Liffey, but a wide river, never less than from 150 to 200 yards in +breadth, and generally deep enough to float a small ocean steamer. The +current is, however, not rapid. + +The first thing that strikes the stranger who sees Clonmacnois for the +first time is the extraordinary view from it over the largest extent of +callow meadows to be seen in any part of Ireland. It must not be thought +that these meadows are mere bogs, for some of the finest hay is raised on +them. The grass that grows on them must be of a fairly good quality, for +they let at from £5 to £6 per Irish acre, the purchaser having to save the +hay, and run all the risk attending the making it in land so liable to be +flooded. Not infrequently, the taker of meadow on the vast flats that +border the Shannon between Loch Ree and Loch Derg, will awaken some fine +morning and find all his small cocks of hay afloat, sailing placidly +southward, and more likely to find their way to Killaloe than to his +haggard. The second thing that will strike the observant stranger in +Clonmacnois is the small size of the churches. That it was one of the most +important ecclesiastical establishments in ancient Ireland there cannot be +any doubt, for it is more frequently mentioned in ancient Irish history +and annals than any other place of its kind in the country. Yet the +largest church in it, the ruins of which exist, would not, by any stretch +of imagination, accommodate more than three or four hundred worshippers. +There are the ruins of but three churches existing in Clonmacnois; the +largest of them is called Cathedral, the two smaller ones can hardly be +called churches. They must have been oratories, and would not combined +contain over two hundred persons. When Clonmacnois was in its most +prosperous condition--that was in the early part of the ninth century, or +about the time when the Danish invasions were heaviest and most +harassing--Ireland must have been a very populous country. There are so +many proofs of this in ancient Gaelic annals and literature that it may +be regarded as a fact. How, then, did it happen that the churches in +Clonmacnois were so small? This is a question that cannot be answered +fully. It may be that what now remains of its churches is of comparatively +recent origin, and may not have been erected until the decadence of the +population had commenced at the time of the Danish invasions, which +decadence became more and more pronounced down to the latter part of the +sixteenth century. Or it may have been that there were large wooden +Churches in Clonmacnois in ancient times, not a vestige or trace of which +would be found after fire had done its work on them. + +[Illustration: ROUND TOWER, CLONMACNOIS.] + +The two round towers are by far the most interesting and beautiful +buildings in Clonmacnois. The larger one wants apparently twenty or thirty +feet of the top; whether it was struck by lightning, or knocked off by +cannon, no one seems to know. The smaller tower is as perfect as it was +when its builder pronounced it finished a thousand years ago. No more +beautiful piece of architecture in the way of a tower ever was erected. It +seems to be absolute perfection. The most skilled modern artisan in stone +could not find an imperfection in it. It is built entirely of cut +stones. The roof or dome is made of lozenge-shaped stones, fitted so +closely and finished so well that time and weather seem to have passed +over it in vain, for it is, as far as can be seen from the ground at its +base, as perfect as it ever was. Of all round towers in Ireland, it is the +most beautiful and perfect. The larger tower seems to have been built of +stones similar to those of the smaller one, but as it wants its top its +beauty is almost entirely spoiled. What remains of it seems about as +perfect in its architecture as human hands could make it. The smaller +tower appears to afford positive proof of Petrie's theory as to the +post-Christian origin of the Irish round towers, for it and the little +church or oratory at its base, and out of which it rises, were evidently +built at the same time, for the walls of both are actually in some places +one. Like some few of the existing round towers (the one near Navan, for +instance), the smaller one at Clonmacnois has no opening in the roof by +which the sound of bells could be emitted, showing clearly that it could +never have been erected solely for a belfry; for no matter how big a bell +might be, its sound would not have been heard a hundred yards away, if +rung under the windowless stone roof of this most perfect and beautiful of +Irish round towers. That round towers were sometimes used as belfries +seems very probable; but that their principal use, and the prime object +for which they were erected, were to protect the clergy and the treasures +of the churches from the marauding Northmen is the theory regarding them +that is now most generally accepted. + +Clonmacnois is not so rich in ancient crosses as some other places like +it. There are only two to be seen there at present. They are not nearly so +well carved and ornamented as many that still remain in other Irish +cemeteries. There is not, so far as can be seen by the passer-by, a single +inscription in the Irish language visible, though some scores of such +inscriptions exist in it, every one of which has been faithfully copied +and translated by Doctor Petrie in his great work, "Christian Inscriptions +in the Irish Language." The inscribed stones are, very properly, stowed +away in a vault under lock and key where they are safe from the mischief +of so many who would delight in marring and effacing any thing they could +not understand. There are plenty of inscriptions in English to be seen in +Clonmacnois, for it is still used as a place of interment. This takes away +a great deal of its antique charm and general interest. It seems a sort of +profanation to erect a modern tomb with an English inscription on it at +the very base of a hoary round tower that was a wonder of art and beauty +when London was little else than a large village, and when England itself +was hardly civilised, and as politically powerless as Saint Domingo or +Corea. + +Clonmacnois has suffered as much from vandalism as any other place of its +kind in Ireland. It was taken and spoiled by the Danes when at the height +of its splendour in the ninth century. But it was not the Danes that +committed the worst depredations in this wonderfully unique and ancient +place. They were committed by men who used gunpowder, for it was evidently +by it that most of the old buildings of Clonmacnois were destroyed. It is +generally believed that it was by one of Cromwell's captains who was +stationed with some troops at Athlone when the Royalist cause had been +lost that most of the destruction at Clonmacnois was accomplished. The +blowing up of the magnificent castle erected here by Hugo de Lacy in the +twelfth century, is attributed to Cromwell's troopers, as is also the +demolition of some thirty or forty feet of the larger of the two round +towers, known as O'Ruarc's tower. + +There are the remains of only three churches extant in Clonmacnois; but +we know from authentic annals and history that there were nearly a dozen +churches in it at one time. What became of them, or where they stood, +cannot now be known. Many of them were, probably, wooden churches, and, +when once destroyed, left no trace. The ruins of the ancient nunnery are +distant nearly quarter of a mile from the churchyard, on the grounds of a +gentleman named Charlton. It is only about thirty years ago since an +attempt was made to clear away the rubbish in which they were buried, and +to try if any of the sculptured stones could be recovered. The excavations +were made under the supervision of the Protestant Bishop of Limerick. +Sculptured stone-work of the highest order of art was dug up from many +feet under the surface where the destroyers had buried it. Visitors to +Clonmacnois will not have any difficulty in seeing the ruins of the +nunnery, for Mr Charlton willingly permits visitors to see them. It is not +only curious, but hopeful and pleasant, to find people of the same +religious belief altering so much for the better as time rolls by. Whilom +Protestant men and a whilom Protestant Government did all they could in +the seventeenth century to turn Clonmacnois into a heap of ruins, almost +as void and as shapeless as those of Babylon; but Protestant men and a +Protestant Government in the nineteenth century have done everything in +their power to save it from further decay, and to dig up its sculptured +stones from the dust in which ancient Protestant fanaticism and bigotry +had buried them. + +Clonmacnois was founded by St Kieran, who died in the year 549. There are +records of the erection of most of its ancient buildings to be found in +Irish annals and history. According to the _Chronicon Scottorum_, a work +of high authority, the Cathedral was built in the year 909. The Cathedral +that existed when Turgesius the Dane obtained sway for some years over the +greater part of Ireland, and when his wife used to issue her orders from +that building, was probably of wood, for no trace of it appears extant. +Doctor Petrie says that the larger round tower was erected in the tenth +century, and the smaller one in the eleventh or early part of the twelfth. +There is good authority to prove that the nunnery was erected and endowed +by the too well-remembered Dearvorgil, wife of O'Ruairc, whose _liaison_ +with Dermot Mac Murrough, King of Leinster, is popularly believed to have +brought about the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland. + +One of the great curiosities of Clonmacnois is the powder-blown-up castle +built by Hugo de Lacy in the latter part of the twelfth century, the +remains of which stand on a hill about two hundred yards from the +cemetery. It is generally known as the Prior's house, but it was evidently +built as a place of defence. It was one of the strongest castles ever +erected in Ireland. Although comparatively small, building and enclosure +not covering more than half an acre, it was a place of immense strength, +and before the invention of gunpowder could have defied a host. It is +encompassed by a fosse in some places forty feet in depth, that descends +sheer from the walls. The walls are of immense thickness and strength, +from six to eight feet thick in many places, and so firmly are the stones +embedded in grouting that to detach one of them from the powder-riven +walls, or from the vast masses of blown-up masonry that lie scattered +around, a hammer and chisel would be required. Huge heaps of the ruined +walls, some of them tons in weight, have been tumbled into the deep fosse +that surrounds the castle, but they are still almost as solid as rocks. If +ever the art of building solid walls was brought to perfection, it was by +those who reared this now ruined pile. To know the strength of gunpowder +and the solidity of ancient masonry, one should see this ruined castle of +Clonmacnois. + +With all the beauties and diversity of scenery of the Shannon, on the +banks of which stands all that remains of Clonmacnois, and with all the +places of historic interest laved by its waters, it is a disgrace to +Ireland at large that there is not a single passenger steam-boat on it +above Limerick. It is nearly a hundred and fifty miles from +Carrick-on-Shannon to Killaloe, and in all that vast distance of spreading +lake and winding river there is not a passenger steam-boat to be seen! +There may be said to be no obstacle to navigation in all that distance for +boats drawing from five to six feet of water, and there are only four or +five locks to pass through. No other river of equal length affords more +variety of scenery than the Shannon. Sometimes the voyager passes by +wooded banks, anon through apparently illimitable meadows, and then +through great lakes like veritable inland seas,--island-studded or +mountain-girded,--change of scene occurring in almost every mile. Let it +be hoped that a line of passenger steamers will soon again be seen on the +waters of this great and beautiful river,--this "ancient stream," as its +Gaelic name is said to mean,--that has on its banks so many relics of the +past-the grass-grown rath, the hoary round tower, the crumbling castle, +and above all, the ruined fanes of Clonmacnois. + + + + +KNOCK AILLINN + + +After Tara and Uisneach, Knock Aillinn is the most historic hill in +Ireland--that is, if it was really the seat of the celebrated Finn, the +son of Cumhail. It is a different hill from the hill of Allen, which is +about nine miles north of it, and must not be confounded with it, +although, as it will be shown further on, the confusion of the two hills +seems to have taken place very long ago indeed. Knock Aillinn is some five +or six miles south of Newbridge, in the County Kildare. Apart from its +historic interest, it is well worth visiting, for it is situated in a rich +and beautiful part of the country, and the view from its summit is one of +the fairest and most extensive to be seen in any of the eastern counties. +Eastward the view is obstructed by the Wicklow mountains, but on every +other side it is very extensive, for Knock Aillinn is 600 feet high. So +fine is the view from this hill that O'Donovan, the celebrated Gaelic +scholar, was inspired by it to write a poem in Irish in praise of it, when +he was employed on the Government Survey in 1837. The poem may be seen in +his unpublished letters in the Royal Irish Academy. One verse of it, +translated into English, will show that it is a composition of more than +ordinary merit:-- + + "Beautiful the view from the hill of Aillinn, + Over lofty hills and fair plains, + Over mountains wreathed in veils of cloud;-- + The view will remain in my memory for ever." + +But beautiful and extensive as the prospect is from Knock Aillinn, and +greatly as the lovers of the beautiful may enjoy it, the chief interest +possessed by this hill is historic rather than scenic. On its summit is to +be seen the most gigantic of all Irish raths. O'Donovan called it +"prodigious." The whole top of the hill is surrounded by a mighty rampart +of earth, four hundred yards in diameter, that encloses over twenty acres. +After nearly two thousand years those earthen ramparts are still of great +height; and when, according to the fashion of the times, they were topped +with a strong palisade of timber, Knock Aillinn might be said to be an +almost impregnable fortress. To render it still stronger, the hill on +which it is placed is steep, and its ascent difficult. It was on this hill +that some think the renowned in Celtic song and legend, Finn, the son of +Cumhail, had his stronghold; but others, and it must be confessed that +they are the most numerous, think that Finn's dun was on the hill of +Allen, some eight or nine miles to the north. + +That the vast _dun_, or enclosure, on Knock Aillinn was an ancient +residence of the Kings of Leinster is generally admitted; and that it was +erected long previous to the Christian era is also the opinion of those +best acquainted with early Irish history and literature. Proofs of this +can be obtained from the most reliable and ancient Gaelic writings. There +is hardly a vestige of antiquity to be seen on the summit of Knock Aillinn +save the vast earthen rampart. When one stands within it, and recalls to +mind what it must have been in days long gone by, when a large population +dwelt in it, and when armed multitudes issued from it, he will be tempted +to exclaim with Byron:-- + + "Shrine of the mighty! can it be + That this is all remains of thee?" + +He will wonder that no vast masses of ancient masonry are to be seen. But +stone buildings of the kind that have been in use in these islands for +nearly a thousand years were unknown when the vast earth-works on Knock +Aillinn were erected. Walls built of dry stone have been used in Ireland +as fortresses from the most remote antiquity; but the art of building with +mortar was entirely unknown until after the introduction of Christianity. + +The hill of Allen is the one on which, it is over and over again stated by +the most ancient and trustworthy Gaelic documents extant, Finn, the son of +Cumhail, had his palace. We are even told how, partly by force and +threats, he obtained Allen from his grandfather, Tadg; that he went to +live on it, and that it was his habitation as long as he lived. But here a +great difficulty meets us--there is not a vestige of dun or fort on the +hill of Allen. O'Donovan says in his unpublished letters, while on the +Ordnance Survey of Ireland, that Knock Aillinn was, according to various +ancient Irish authorities, one of the royal residences of the Kings of +Leinster, and that it received the name of _Aillinn_ from the _ail_, or +stone which was placed in the mound of the rath. On speaking of the hill +of Allen, where the celebrated Finn Mac Cool or Cumhail is said to have +had his seat, he says, "There are no traces of forts nor any other +monuments excepting one small mound called _Suidhe Finn_, or Finn's chair, +which occupies the highest point of the hill. On every side of this mound +there are faint traces of field works, but so indistinct that I could not +with any certainty decide whether they are traces of forts or of recent +cultivation, for the hill was tilled on the very summit. I travelled all +the hill, but could find upon it no monument from which it could be +inferred that it was ever a royal seat like Tara, Emania, Maistean, or any +of the other places of ancient celebrity whose localities have been +identified; and still in all Fingallian or Ossianic poems this hill (the +hill of Allen) is referred to as containing the palace of the renowned +champion, Finn Mac Cool, who seems to have been a real historical +character, who flourished here in the latter end of the third century." + +O'Donovan says also in the same unpublished letters that "The antiquary +may draw his own conclusion from the non-existence of a dun on the hill of +Allen at this day. It is possible that there were forts on it a thousand +years ago, and that the progress of cultivation has effaced them; but it +is strange that these alone should disappear, while those of Tara, Emania, +Aileach, Naas, Maistean, and Raoirean remain in good preservation.... It +is curious to remark that all the monuments mentioned in the +_Dinnseanchus_ and the authentic annals still exist, while no trace is to +be found of Finn Mac Cool's palace on the hill of Allowin (Allen).... If +he had such a palace as this on Aillinn, near Kilcullen, on his hill of +Allowin, it would not disappear, because the labour of levelling it would +be so great that no agriculturist would undertake to level it." + +It would seem as if the two hills, Aillinn, or Knock Aillinn as it is now +called, and Allen got confounded, and at an early date too. Allowing +liberally for exaggeration and discounting tradition, one has to believe +in the extent of Finn's house or palace, however rude and barbaric its +arrangements may have been. He was the most powerful man in Ireland, more +powerful even than the chief king. The fame of his household was spread +abroad, not only over all Ireland, but all Scotland. This we know by the +publication of the poems collected in the Highlands by the Dean of Lismore +in the sixteenth century, and translated by the late Mr T. M'Lauchlan, and +also from a host of other poems. They abound with allusions to Finn and +his house and household, as does almost all the folk-lore of the +Celtic-Scotch. One thing seems certain, that neither Finn nor his house or +palace were myths; his house must have existed, and, like all places of +its kind in the days when it existed, it must have been surrounded with an +earthen rampart no less high than that to be seen on Knock Aillinn. But no +vestige of house or rampart can be traced on the hill of Allen. A still +greater difficulty meets one in the size of the summit of the hill. It is +not much over half an Irish acre in extent, and where would there be room +on such a limited space for the vast household of Finn? His residence was +known from far-back times as "Almhuin riogha leathan mór Laighean," the +kingly, great-broad Allen of Leinster; but no _dun_ or habitation situated +on the narrow space on the top of the hill of Allen could be +"great-broad;" but the existing remains on Knock Aillinn would suit the +description almost exactly. We may be sure that if any man in Ireland in +those days had a big house, it was Finn. The names Allen and Aillinn are +so much alike, and both hills are so comparatively near each other, and +both seem to have been abandoned as strongholds at such an early date, +that confusion of one with the other could easily have taken place; +besides, Finn's name does appear to be, in some measure at least, +associated with Knock Aillinn. Here is a passage from the "Dinnseanchus" +at page 162 of the "Book of Leinster." Treating of Knock Aillinn, these +lines occur:-- + + "Faichthi ruamand ruamnad rinn + Co failgib flatha for Fhind." + +Irish scholars may interpret these lines as they like, but it would seem +that the last word is a proper name, and that it relates to Finn. + +But whether Finn lived in Knock Aillinn or in Allen, or whether he lived +in both places off and on, is a matter of minor importance. The real +wonder about him is the way he impressed himself not only on the age in +which he lived but on every age since then. No other man in any age or +country seems to have so fastened himself in the memories of the people of +his own race and lineage. It may be safely said that neither Julius Caesar +nor Charlemagne have impressed themselves on popular imagination so much +as Finn and those associated with him have. Those who have not studied the +Celtic folk-lore of Ireland and Scotland can form but an incomplete idea +of the overwhelming immensity of the folk-lore about Finn and his cycle +that exists even yet. But with the decay of Gaelic speech it is rapidly +fading away. It is hardly too much to say that when Gaelic was the +language of the fireside all through Ireland and a large part of +Scotland, and that is only a few centuries ago, there was not a parish +from Kerry to Caithness in which dozens of different stories about Finn +and his contemporaries did not exist; and it is equally safe to say that +not the tenth, probably not the twentieth, part of them was ever committed +to writing. Finn, Ossian, and Caoilte were the _dramatis personæ_ of the +most extensive, if not the choicest, popular, unwritten folk-lore that +probably ever existed in any country. But one of the strangest things +connected with the cycle of Finn and Ossian is that its folk-lore hardly +appears at all in really ancient Gaelic literature. The Gaelic scribes of +the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries took but little notice of it; +it was to the events of the Cuchulainn cycle that they gave almost their +entire attention. In the "Book of Leinster," the greatest repertory of +Gaelic literature that exists in one volume, there is only one story that +can be called an Ossianic or Finnian one, while nearly half the book is +taken up with tracts and stories relating to the cycle of Cuchulainn, +which was nearly three centuries earlier than that of Ossian and Finn. But +the Cuchulainn cycle, from whatever cause will probably be never known, +seems to have entirely failed to take hold of the popular imagination. +Folk-lore relating to the Cuchulainn cycle is rare. There are a few in +which Cuchulainn is mentioned, and M'Pherson in his Ossian mixes the +Ossianic and Cuchulainn cycles together, although they were three +centuries apart. Of all the prominent names belonging to the Cuchulainn +cycle, Queen Medb or Meave was one of the most prominent, but not a single +story exists about her in the oral Gaelic folk-lore of Ireland or Scotland +of which the writer has ever heard. She seems to have found her way into +the folk-lore of England, but not into that of Ireland or the +Gaelic-speaking parts of Scotland. She figures very prominently in Irish +history and literature, but in folk-lore she does not figure at all. The +reason of this may be that Finn, Ossian, and others of their "set" were +supposed to have lived so long that they met St Patrick and were converted +to Christianity by him; but there is no foundation for such a belief, for +authentic Irish history says that Finn was killed in the year 283 at Ath +Brea on the Boyne. + +It is not easy to see clearly why Finn so impressed his memory and his +cycle on the minds of his countrymen, for he does not appear to have been +an altogether amiable personage. There are very many discreditable things +told of him in the multitudinous stories of which he is the central +figure. In one of them, the "Pursuit of Dermot and Gráine," he plays the +part of a revengeful, unforgiving, bad man; while his great enemy, Dermot +O'Duibhne, is a bold, open-hearted hero, the very opposite of his +unrelenting pursuer. With all the absurdities and impossibilities of the +"Pursuit," the leading characters in it are sustained with a consistency +that would do credit even to Shakespeare. Finn at the end of the story is +just what he was at the beginning, unforgiving and bad; and Gráine, who is +bad at the beginning is bad also at the end; while Dermot, a hero at the +beginning of the story, is still a hero at its close. It may interest some +to know that most Irish historians and scholars think that Dermot +O'Duibhne was the person from whom the barony of Corcaguiney, in the +County Kerry, is called. In correct orthography it would be _Corc Ui +Dhuibhne_, and would be pronounced very nearly as the name of the barony +is written at present. If it be true that Corcaguiney got its name from +Dermot O'Duibhne, and there seems no reason to doubt that it did, another +proof is given of the general correctness of at least the salient points +in Irish history. It may also interest some to know that the Campbells of +Argyll are popularly believed, even in their own country, to be descended +from this same Dermot O'Duibhne. They have been known for centuries as the +Clann Diarmid, or children of Dermot, as will be remembered by any one who +has read Scott's "Legend of Montrose." The real name of the Argyll +Campbells seems to be really O'Duibhne. It was so that they generally +signed their names up to a comparatively recent date. Bishop Carsewell, +who translated John Knox's Prayer Book into Gaelic in 1567, the first +Gaelic book that was ever printed, dedicates it to the Duke of Argyll, +whom he calls Gilleasbuig O'Duibhne.[5] Carsewell would hardly have dared +to address his patron, and the most powerful nobleman in Scotland, by a +false name or a sobriquet. The Campbells seem to have been called +O'Duibhne down to the middle of the seventeenth century, for in the +national manuscripts of Scotland there is a very fine Gaelic poem on the +death of a Campbell, who is styled "O'Duibhne" in the Gaelic. + +Translations that have been recently made from Gaelic manuscripts of high +authority have thrown considerable light on Finn, and the events of his +epoch. We are told in the tract called the "Boramha," or "Tribute," to +which reference has been already made, that when Bresal, a king of +Leinster, in the third century, was given his choice to pay the tribute or +fight the rest of Ireland, he asked help from Finn. A person called +Molling was sent to ask Finn to help the men of Leinster. Molling told +Finn that he should not come with a small army to fight the chief king, +who had the national army with him. The number of men that Finn had, was, +we are told in the "Boramha," fifteen hundred chiefs, each having thirty +men under him, making the total number of men that Finn brought to help +Leinster forty-five thousand, a very large army in those days. They joined +the Leinster men, inflicted a crushing defeat on the forces of the chief +king, so that the tribute was not paid for many years after. Nine thousand +of the "men of Ireland," as the "Book of Leinster" almost invariably calls +the national forces, were slain in the battle. + +The militia of which Finn was the Commander-in-Chief, and of which his +father and grandfather had also been commanders, are the heroes of +hundreds of Ossianic tales and poems. It would appear that they numbered +twenty-one thousand men on a peace footing, but could raise their numbers +to double that amount in time of need. They became so extortionate and +arrogant in the long run, that the chief king, Cairbre, and it would seem +all the provincial rulers except the King of Leinster, determined to crush +them. So a great battle was fought at Garristown in the County Dublin in +the year 290 or 296, and the militia of Finn was totally destroyed. It +would seem that neither Knock Aillinn nor the hill of Allen has been since +then inhabited. + +It may not be out of place to state here that students of Gaelic are often +puzzled on seeing the name of Finn spelt _Fionn_. It seems certain that +_Finn_ is the proper orthography. The name is invariably so spelt in all +cases in the "Book of Leinster," one of the most correct of all the great +Gaelic books; but the editor of "Silva Gadelica" makes it _Fionn_ in all +cases except in the genitive. It is difficult to understand why, when +copying from a manuscript of such high authority as the "Book of +Leinster," he did not follow its orthography. In the northern half of +Ireland the name is pronounced according to its correct orthography, but +in the south of Ireland it is pronounced as if written _Fyun_. + +Those who visit Knock Aillinn and its mighty _dun_ should also visit the +hill of Allen. If there is nothing to be seen on it, there is a great +deal to be seen from it, for the view is very extensive. If any one wanted +to know how vast the bog of Allen is, he should ascend the hill of Allen, +from which he will see a very large part of it. If he is in any doubt as +to the exact place in which Finn had his dwelling and _dun_, he will at +least be in the locality that has given birth to the most colossal +folk-lore that perhaps ever existed,--stories that in the far-back past, +before the world was tormented by newspapers and bewildered by +politicians, beguiled many a tedious hour and delighted many a sad heart. + + + + +"KILDARE'S HOLY FANE" + + +Those in search of the picturesque alone will not find very much to +interest them in Kildare or its immediate vicinity. There may be said to +be hardly any remarkable scenic beauties in its neighbourhood. There is +the broad expanse of the Curragh not far from the town, one of the finest +places for military manoeuvres in the British Isles. It is strange why it +is called a curragh--more correctly, _currach_--for the word means a +marsh, a place that _stirs_ when trodden on. There is only a very small +part of the land to which the name is applied that is a marsh. It is +almost all perfectly dry upland. However, it was called _Currach Life_ +from very early times, that is the marsh or swamp of the Liffy. It would +seem as if the word _Life_ meant originally the country through which the +river Liffy flows, and that the river took its name from the country; for +when King Tuathal wanted revenge on Leinstermen, for the death of his two +daughters, who have been mentioned in the article on Tara, he says-- + + "Let them be revenged on Leinstermen, + On the warriors _in_ the Life." + +It is thought that the name Liffy comes from the adjective _liomhtha_, +meaning smooth, or polished, for part of the country through which the +river flows is very smooth and beautiful. + +Hardly a vestige of the ancient buildings of Kildare remain save the round +tower. It is over one hundred and thirty feet in height, and therefore one +of the highest in Ireland. It seems as perfect as it was the day it was +finished. It is sad to say that it is the most completely +spoiled--bedevilled would probably be a better word--of all the Irish +round towers; for some person or persons whose memories should be held in +everlasting abhorrence by every archæologist, have put an incongruous, +ridiculous, castellated top on it that makes it look as unsightly and as +horrible as a statue of Julius Cæsar would look with a stove-pipe hat on +its head. The people of Kildare and its vicinity should at once raise +funds and have a proper, antique roof put on their tower, for it is an +absolute disgrace to them as it is at present. The top of the tower may +have been destroyed by lightning, or, like many other round towers, it may +have been left unfinished, and may never have had a top or roof on it. But +whatever may have happened to it, its present castellated roof is a +disgraceful incongruity. + +The cathedral of Kildare is a modern and rather plain building of mediocre +interest. It is supposed to be built in, or nearly in, the place where the +old church stood that was founded by St Brigit in the sixth century. +Kildare seems to owe its origin to St Brigit, for the name means the cell +or church of the oak; and as Brigit was contemporary with St Patrick, hers +must have been the first Christian establishment founded at Kildare. It is +stated in the _Trias Thaumaturga_ of Colgan that when she returned to her +own district, a cell was assigned to her in which she afterwards led a +wonderful life; that she erected a monastery in Kildare, and that a very +great city afterwards sprang up, which became the metropolis of the +Lagenians, or Leinster folk. It requires a great stretch of imagination to +conceive how Kildare could ever have been a "very great city," for it is +now, and has for many years, been a small, a very small country town, +hardly any more than a village. It seems strange that Kildare is not +larger and more prosperous, for if not situated in a picturesque part of +the island, the country round it is very fair and fertile, and beautiful +as any flat country could be. There is, however, a passage in the +"Calendar of Oengus," written in the latter end of the eighth or the +beginning of the ninth century, that goes far to prove that what is said +in the _Trias Thaumaturga_ about Kildare having been once a large place is +true. Speaking of the fall of the strongholds of the Pagans, and the rise +of Christian centres, Oengus says-- + + "Aillinn's proud burgh + Hath perished with its warlike host: + Great is victorious Brigit: + Fair is her multitudinous city." + +The "multitudinous city" was, of course, Kildare. It is curious that +Oengus should mention Aillinn, and not mention Allen, the supposed seat of +Finn, for wherever he had his stronghold must have been, in his epoch, the +most important place in Ireland, Tara alone excepted. + +Kildare is famous and historic solely on account of St Brigit. Of all +Irish Saints, she is the most to be loved. Her charity, her love for +humanity, was so absolutely divine, that reading her life as narrated in +the _Leabhar Breac_, we are moved to our very heart's depths. The miracles +she is said to have performed are so wondrous, and show such a love for +mankind, especially for the poor, that when we read them we long to be +children again in order that we might unhesitatingly believe such +beautiful fables. It was in Kildare that that wondrous lamp was which is +said to have + + "Lived through long ages of darkness and storm," + +without having been replenished by human hand; and it was this legend that +inspired Moore to compose the noblest national lyric ever written, "Erin, +O Erin." If he never wrote a line of poetry save what is contained in that +song, the Irish people would be justified in raising a statue of gold to +his memory. It is, beyond anything of the kind known to humanity, + + "Perfect music set to noble words"; + +yet, heart-sickening to think of, the masses of the Irish people hardly +know it at all! + +When St Brigit is contrasted with St Patrick, she appears very different +from him. The lives of Ireland's three great Saints are in the _Leabhar +Breac_, an Irish manuscript compiled early in the fourteenth century; but +the greater part of it is made up of transcripts from documents that were +probably many hundred years old when they were copied into it. The three +Saints whose lives appear in it are Patrick, Brigit, and Columba, or Colum +Cill, as he is generally called in Ireland. These lives were translated +some years ago by Mr Whitley Stokes, the greatest of living Gaelic +scholars; but as only a few dozen copies were printed for private +circulation, the book is practically as unknown to the general public as +if it never had been printed at all. Extracts from it, therefore, cannot +fail to be interesting to the readers of this book. + +Brigit shines out a star of the first magnitude, totally eclipsing the +lesser two lights, Patrick and Columba. Nothing shall be said about +Columba at present, but it has to be admitted that Patrick, as he is +represented in the _Leabhar Breac_, makes a poor show when contrasted with +glorious St Brigit. Patrick is represented as spending a large part of his +time in cursing and killing, but St Brigit spends most of hers in blessing +and relieving. If St Patrick converts a great many, he is represented as +killing a great many; but St Brigit kills nobody. The narrative of her +life in the _Leabhar Breac_ is probably as wonderful a piece of biography +as ever was written. There is no effort at style in it, and no attempt at +book-making. The narrative is simplicity in the true sense of the word. +One of the wonderful things about it is the side light it throws both on +the social and political conditions of ancient Ireland; but, curiously +enough, no such light is thrown on the state of the country by the lives +of St Patrick and St Columba, written in the same book and probably by the +same author. + +St Brigit seems to have acted on some of the precepts found in the +"Ancient Mariner" fourteen hundred years before the poem was written. She +seems to have known that-- + + "He prayeth best + Who loveth best + All things both great and small," + +for we are told that her father, who at present would be called Duffy, +"sundered a gammon of bacon into five pieces, and left it with Brigit to +be boiled for his guests. A miserable, greedy hound came into the house to +Brigit. Brigit, out of pity, gave him the fifth piece. When the hound had +eaten that piece, Brigit gave another piece to him. Then Duffy came and +said to Brigit, 'Hast thou boiled the bacon, and do all the portions +remain?' 'Count them,' saith Brigit. Duffy counted them and none of them +was wanting. The guests declared unto Duffy what Brigit had done. +'Abundant,' said Duffy, 'are the miracles of that maiden.' Now the guests +ate not the food, for they were unworthy thereof, but it was dealt out to +the poor and needy of the Lord." + +The following narrative shows St Brigit's love of animals in a still +stronger light: + +"Once upon a time a bondsman of Brigit's family was cutting firewood. It +came to pass that he killed a pet fox of the King of Leinster's. The +bondsman was seized by the King. Brigit ordered a wild fox to come out of +the wood. So he came, and was playing and sporting for the hosts and for +the King at Brigit's order. But when the fox had finished his feats, he +went safe back to the wood, with the hosts of Leinster after him, both +foot and horse and hounds." + +This is simply beautiful. St Brigit, while she got the poor bondsman out +of trouble, managed to do so without depriving the fox of his liberty. + +Here is another extract that makes one wish that the life of St Brigit in +the _Leabhar Breac_, instead of containing only about twenty octavo pages, +contained a thousand:-- + +"Then came Brigit and her mother with her to her father's house. +Thereafter Duffy (her father) and his consort were minded to sell the holy +Brigit into bondage, for Duffy liked not his cattle and his wealth to be +dealt out to the poor, and that is what Brigit used to do. So Duffy fared +in his chariot, and Brigit along with him. Said Duffy to Brigit, 'Not for +honour or reverence to thee art thou carried in a chariot, but to take +thee and sell thee, and to grind the quern for Dunlang Mac Enda, King of +Leinster.' When they came to the King's fortress, Duffy went in to the +King, and Brigit remained in her chariot at the fortress door. Duffy had +left his sword in the chariot near Brigit. A leper came to Brigit to ask +alms. She gave him Duffy's sword. Said Duffy to the King, 'Wilt thou buy a +bondmaid, namely, my daughter?' says he. Said Dunlang, 'Why sellest thou +thine own daughter?' Said Duffy, 'She stayeth not from selling my wealth +and giving it to the poor.' Said the King, 'Let the maiden come into the +fortress.' Duffy went for Brigit, and was enraged against her because she +had given his sword to the poor man. When Brigit came into the King's +presence, the King said to her, 'Since it is thy father's wealth that thou +takest, much more if I buy thee, wilt thou take of _my_ wealth and _my_ +cattle, and give them to the poor.' Said Brigit, 'The Son of the Virgin +knoweth if I had thy might with all Leinster and with all thy wealth, I +would give them to the Lord of the Elements.' Said the King to Duffy, +'Thou art not fit on either hand to bargain for this maiden, for her merit +is higher before God than before men.' And he gave Duffy for her an +ivory-hilted sword. So was St Brigit saved from bondage." + +The idea of giving a sword to a poor crippled leper because she had +nothing else to give could hardly have entered into the head of any saint +but an Irish one. + +The next extract from this marvellous biography is, perhaps, the most +curious and interesting of all. In another interview that Brigit had with +the King of Leinster, "a slave of the slaves of the King came to speak +with Brigit, and said to her, 'If thou wouldst save me from the servitude +wherein I am, I would become a Christian, and would serve thee thyself.' +Brigit said, 'I will ask that of the King.' So Brigit went into the +fortress and asked her two boons of the king, the forfeiture of the sword +to Duffy, and his freedom for the slave. Said Brigit to the King, 'If thou +desirest excellent children and a kingdom for thy sons, and heaven for +thyself, give me the two boons I ask.' Said the King to Brigit, 'The +kingdom of heaven, as I see it not, and as no one knows what thing it is, +I seek it not; and a kingdom for my sons I seek not, for I shall not +myself be extant, and let each one serve his time. But give me length of +life in my kingdom, and victory always over the Hui Neill, for there is +often war between us; and give me victory in the first battle, so that I +may be trustful in the other fights.' And this was fulfilled in the +battle of Lochar which was fought against the Hui Neill." + +By the "Hui Neill" the people of the entire north of Ireland, including +Meath, were meant. They represented the national party because the chief +kings, for some centuries previous, were of the race of Niall of the Nine +Hostages. Mr Stokes says, speaking of the above extract in his preface to +the translation, "The conversation between Brigit and Dunlang (King of +Leinster) seems to preserve the authentic utterance of an Irish pagan +warrior." + +One extract more to show in a still stronger light the angelic kindness +and love for humanity, especially for suffering humanity, that glowed in +the heart of this wonderful woman: + +"Once upon a time the King of Leinster came unto Brigit to listen to +preaching and celebration on Easter Day. After the ending of the form of +celebration the King fared forth on his way, and Brigit went to refection. +Lomman, Brigit's leper, said he would eat nothing until the warrior +weapons, _arm gaisgedh_, of the King of Leinster were given to him, spear, +sword, and shield, that he might move to and fro under them. A messenger +was sent after the King. From mid-day to evening was the King going +astray, and attained not even a thousand paces, so that the weapons were +given by him and bestowed on the leper." + +This instance of going to such trouble to please a poor crippled pauper, +for Lomman was evidently such, and of working a miracle so that the King +of Leinster should lose his way, and not go so far that he could not be +overtaken, is one of the most extraordinary instances of trouble taken to +please a pauper that is to be found in all the records of benevolence and +charity. + +The "Annals of the Four Masters" say that St Brigit was buried in +Downpatrick, in the same grave with St Patrick; but the learned editor and +translator of their annals says that she and Bishop Conlaeth were buried, +one on the right, and one on the left of the altar, in the church of +Kildare, and he gives Colgan's great book, _Trias Thaumaturga_, as his +authority, and no authority could be higher. + + + + +GLENDALOCH + + +There are not many places in Ireland more interesting than this strange +and weird glen. It can hardly be called beautiful. It is gloomy and grand; +and there is something depressing about it even in the finest day in +autumn when the sombre mountains by which it is surrounded on all sides +but one are mantled in their most gorgeous crimson drapery of +full-blooming heather. It is just such a spot as an anchorite like St +Kevin would choose as a place for contemplation and prayer. + +Glendaloch--it ought _not_ to be spelled _Glendalough_--is very nearly in +the centre of the romantic county of Wicklow. It is a good central point +from which to make excursions to the many beautiful and interesting places +in its vicinity, such as Glen Molur, the Glen of Imail, the Meeting of the +Waters, and the Mountain of Lugnacuilla, the highest in Leinster. The +interior of the County Wicklow may be said to be a vast wilderness of +mountains, bogs, and glens. But its mountains have, with one exception, +the defect of being round-topped. They lack the boldness of the hills of +Connemara and Donegal. The mountain that is the most bold and alpine in +the county, and that forms an exception to the general contour of its +hills, is the famous one called the "Sugar-loaf," near Bray. The Dublin +grocer, or whoever he was that gave this beautiful hill such an abominable +name, should have his memory held in everlasting contempt. Its real name +is a grand one, Sleeve Coolan, _rectè_ Sliabh Cualann. But in spite of +the generally rounded outlines of the Wicklow Mountains, there are some +splendid alpine views to be seen among them; and none finer than from the +Glen of Lugalaw, about seven or eight miles from Bray. + +[Illustration: GLENDALOCH.] + +But of all places in Wicklow, Glendaloch is the most famous. It ought to +be so, for there is nothing like it in Ireland. There are many glens as +wild and as gloomy as it, but they lack the historic interest and the +legendary halo that make Glendaloch dear to the archæologist, the poet, +and the dreamer. Its history goes back almost to the beginning of +Christian times. For five hundred years it was one of the most important +ecclesiastical and educational places in Ireland. Its name constantly +occurs in Irish annals and history; and its history was for centuries as +gloomy as itself, for the Danes plundered it and burned it so often that +it seems strange that it was not abandoned many centuries sooner. It was +so near their great stronghold, Dublin, that it was harried by them on and +off for over two hundred years. + +St Kevin's name is indissolubly associated with Glendaloch, or the Seven +Churches, as it is most frequently called, for it is supposed that there +were seven churches in it at one time. St Kevin, according to the best +authority who ever wrote on Irish history and archæology, the famous John +O'Donovan, came of a distinguished family in the County Wicklow. His name, +in correct orthography, _Coemhgen_, means "fair offspring." He seems to +have been predestined to be a Saint, for many miraculous things are told +of his infancy and early youth. When he was a baby a white cow is said to +have come miraculously to supply him with milk. The story about his having +murdered Kathleen, the girl with eyes of "unholy blue," by throwing her +into that lake that the "Skylark never warbles o'er," is a mere fable. It +seems a pity that the story upon which Moore founded his very beautiful +lyric, "By that Lake, whose gloomy Shore," should have hardly any +foundation in fact. That a certain girl fell in love with him and caused +him a good deal of annoyance is quite true; but he did not kill her or +throw her into the lake. He only administered a rather mild castigation, +as shall be seen. O'Donovan says that the following extract, taken from +the _Codex Killkenniensis_, which, there are good reasons to believe, has +never yet been made public by translation, is the oldest and most +trustworthy account of the transaction known to exist; and that the +trouble between St Kevin and the girl did not take place in Glendaloch, +but in another place in the County Wicklow. O'Donovan's translation of +the story is the one now given:-- + +"While the most holy Caemhgen (Kevin) was as yet remaining in the house of +his parents, the Lord performed many miracles through him.... The parents +of Kevin observing so great a grace in him, committed him to the care of +the holy seniors, Eoganus, Lochanus, and Enna, in order that he might in +their cell be brought up for Christ; and St Kevin was sedulously reading +with those saints. When he was grown up in the first flower of his youth, +a young girl saw him out in a field along with the brethren, and fell +passionately in love with him, for he was exceedingly handsome. And she +began to make known her friendship for him in astute words. And she was +always laying snares for him in every way she could, by looks, by +language, and sometimes by messengers. But the holy youth rejected all +these allurements. On a certain day she sought the opportunity of finding +him alone, and on a day when the brethren were working in a wood, she +passed by them, and seeing St Kevin working by himself in the wood, she +approached him, and clasped him in her arms with fondest embrace. But the +soldier of Christ arming himself with the sacred sign, and full of the +Holy Ghost, made strong resistance against her, and rushed out of her +arms in the wood; and finding nettles, took secretly a bunch of them, and +struck her with them many times on the face, hands, and feet. And when she +was blistered with the nettles, the pleasure of her love became extinct. +And she being sorrowful of heart, asked on her bended knees pardon of St +Kevin in the name of the Lord. And the Saint praying for her to Christ, +she promised him that she would dedicate her virginity to the Lord. The +brothers finding them discussing together, wondered very much; but the +virgin related to them what had passed; and the brethren hearing such, +were confirmed in their love for chastity. And that little girl afterwards +became a prudent and holy virgin, and diligently observed the holy +admonitions of St Kevin." + +The above translation has not, to the writer's knowledge, ever been +previously published. John O'Donovan, the greatest authority on such +matters that ever lived, says in his unpublished letters, while on the +Ordnance Survey of Ireland, that the above extract "is the oldest and only +authority for the story about St Kevin and the lady, and shows clearly +that the scene of it is erroneously placed at Glendaloch by oral tradition +and modern writers. It will also be sufficient evidence that this Saint +did not murder the lady Kathleen, but inflicted a somewhat mild +punishment by flogging her with a bunch of nettles!" + +So poor St Kevin's memory is cleared. It is a pity that Moore did not see +the _Codex Killkenniensis_ before he wrote the beautiful lyric that casts +such a cloud on Wicklow's greatest saint. That the name of St Kevin was +highly esteemed not only in Wicklow in ancient times, but all through +Leinster, there is ample proof in ancient Gaelic literature. A poet named +Broccan, writing in the tenth century in praise of his native province of +Leinster and the great people it produced, said: + + "I never heard in any province, + Between earth and holy heaven, + Of a nun like St Brigit + Or a cleric like Kevin."[6] + +Glendaloch must have been founded in the latter part of the sixth century, +for St Kevin died in 617, aged 120 years. There cannot be any doubt that +it was he who founded Glendaloch. We are told that he sought the sombre +valley for a retreat in which to contemplate and pray, and that before +there were any buildings in it he lived for a long time in a hollow tree, +and subsisted on wild fruit and water. The cave in the cliff overhanging +the lake, known as St Kevin's Bed, the entrance to which is not only +difficult but dangerous, seems also to have given him shelter for a long +time before there were any habitations in the glen. It is said that if +_nouvelles mariées_ succeed in getting into this dark and dismal cavern, +they are sure to be blessed with large families. Why such a belief should +be current is not easy to understand, because St Kevin, after whom the +cavern is called, not only had no children, but was a decided woman-hater. +If he did not drown Kathleen, he at least whipped her with nettles, a +thing that no gallant man would think of doing to a girl who loved him. It +will, however, be the general opinion of most of those who read this +version of the story, that St Kevin "served her right." + +Glendaloch has been ruined and uprooted in a shocking manner. Of all its +edifices there are only two that still stand--namely, the round tower and +the building known as "Kevin's Kitchen." This latter is stone-roofed, and +is considered to be one of the oldest buildings of the kind in Ireland. +Archæologists are not agreed as to what particular use it was originally +intended, but that it was an ecclesiastical edifice of some kind seems to +be the opinion of everyone. There are, it is said, the remains of seven +churches still to be seen in Glendaloch. It appears to have been a walled +city, and Petrie, one of the most painstaking and learned archæologists +that ever Ireland produced, claimed to have traced the tracks of the walls +in many places. That it contained a large population in the eighth and +ninth centuries seems to admit of little doubt. Oengus the Culdee, whose +verse in which Glendaloch is mentioned has been given in the article on +"Emania the Golden," calls it "multitudinous Glendaloch," and "the Rome of +the western world." Allowing for the exaggeration of which ancient Gaelic +poets may have been rather too fond, it must be admitted that what they +say cannot be entirely ignored; and it is more than probable that +immediately before the Danes and other northern nations began their raids +on Ireland, Glendaloch may have been, and probably was, a large monastic +city, as cities were in those days. The Irish monasteries of the eighth +and ninth centuries were probably the wealthiest in the world, if not in +lands, at least in gold and silver. Where or how they got, or where or how +the ancient Irish got, such quantities of the precious metals is a mystery +that may never be solved; but that Ireland had an enormous amount of gold +and silver in ancient times there can be no doubt at all. This would be +sufficiently proved by the quantity, not of coined money, for they had +not any, but of ornaments of almost every kind that have been found in all +parts of the country, more, it is said, than have been found in the rest +of Europe. There is hardly a barony in Ireland, it might be said hardly a +parish, in which stories are not told of people having become suddenly +rich by finding, it is naturally supposed, treasure trove in the shape of +gold ornaments, very few of which have been preserved, for they were +generally melted down. Sir Wm. Wilde mentions, in one of his catalogues of +articles in the Royal Irish Academy, a find of £3000 worth of gold +ornaments in the County Clare some fifty years ago. It seems a +well-ascertained fact that two labourers found over £20,000 worth of gold +ornaments when working on a railway in Munster some forty odd years ago. +The founder of one of the largest jewellery houses in Ireland told a +friend of the writer's that his first "rise" in business was brought about +by buying antique gold ornaments, at sometimes not half their value, from +people who brought them to him from the country. + +When the marauding Northmen first raided Ireland, they seem not to have +had the most remote idea of either conquering the country or making +permanent settlements in it. They may not have despised Irish beef and +mutton, but what they wanted above all was gold and silver. When +Christianity was firmly established in Ireland, the monasteries became the +great depositories of the wealth of the country, and the clergy may be +said to have become its bankers. The monasteries, therefore, became, to a +certain extent, what banks are now, and it was to the monasteries the +Danes gave their first attention. It can hardly be proved from Irish +history that the Danes ever tried to conquer Ireland but once, and that +was at the battle of Clontarf. Even under Turgesius, when they succeeded +in establishing themselves almost everywhere there was salt water or fresh +water to float their ships, they played the part of raiders and not of +conquerors, and never formed a permanent settlement out of sight of their +galleys. In England and in France they acted quite differently. They +conquered and kept all England and a considerable part of France. They +went to England and France to establish themselves, but they went to +Ireland to plunder. The question to be solved is, Why did the Danes act so +differently in Ireland from the way they acted in England and in other +countries? There seems to be no way to answer this question except by +saying that there was so much more of the precious metals in Ireland, +that to get them, and not to conquer the country or form permanent +settlements in it, was their prime object. If history was absolutely +silent about the doings of the Northmen in Ireland, we would, from a surer +guide than history, know that plunder and not settlement was what they had +in view. That guide is place names. There are more Scandinavian place +names to be found in some parishes in the north-east of England than there +are in all Ireland. There are hardly a dozen Scandinavian place names in +Ireland, and they are _all_ on the sea coast but _one_. That one is +Leixlip, and it is only a few miles from the sea, on a river which the +galleys of the Northmen could easily ascend. The only time at which a +serious attempt seems to have been made by the Northmen to become +possessed of Ireland was shortly before the battle of Clontarf, and that +attempt seems to have owed its origin to that horrible but beautiful +woman, Gormfhlaith, sister to the king of Leinster, and whose last of many +husbands was Brian Boramha. That attempt utterly failed, and no other was +ever made. If the Northmen cannot be said to have seriously contemplated +the conquest of Ireland prior to the time immediately before the battle of +Clontarf, it does not seem to have been from lack of men in the country, +for Irish annals and history speak of their vast numbers in such a way as +hardly leaves a doubt as to the awfulness of the scourge they were to the +country at large. So great were their numbers at one time during the ninth +century that we are told that it seemed as if the sea vomited them forth, +and that there was hardly a harbour on the Irish coasts in which there was +not a Danish or a Norwegian fleet. It has to be admitted that the Irish +fought them with the most astonishing persistency and valour. In spite of +the way the country was split into petty kingdoms, with chief kings, who +were generally such only in name, the reception the Northmen got in +Ireland was very different from that which they got in England. The Saxons +often got rid of them by paying them to go away, but the Irish got rid of +them only by the sword. Those who want to know what Ireland suffered from +the raids of the Northmen should read the "Wars of the Gael and the +Gaill." The book is generally believed to have been written by M'Liag, who +was living when the battle of Clontarf was fought, and who was chief poet, +or secretary, to Brian Boramha. + +Although the Northmen were allies of Leinster for a long time, they +plundered Glendaloch in the years 833, 886, and 982. It was so near +Dublin and so near the sea that their alliance with Leinster did not +prevent them from raiding it. It was one of the rich ecclesiastical +establishments in Ireland, and one of those most exposed to the incursions +of the Northmen. Its round tower was, therefore, in all probability, one +of the first that was erected. It is now generally believed by those most +competent to form an opinion that the round towers of Ireland were erected +as places of security against the Northmen, and that they were sometimes +used as belfries. Their Irish name, _cloigtheach_, means a bell house and +nothing else; but it is quite clear that, although they sometimes served +as belfries, the primary object of their erection was to secure a place of +safety for the treasures of the church or monastery, close to which they +were invariably erected. Of the hundred and eight round towers which are +known to have been erected in Ireland, and of which remains exist, every +one of them is known to have been erected close to where a church or +monastery stood. More than half of them are in ruins; of some only a few +feet of the walls remain; and of some others the foundations only remain. +It may seem hard for some, in these days of far-reaching projectiles to +imagine how those slender towers, so chaste and beautiful in their +construction, could serve as places of defence or security against the +Danes. They could not have served as such if the Danes had come as +conquerors to form permanent settlements, but as they were only raiders +the towers were generally perfect defences against them. A dozen men shut +into a round tower, the door of which was generally from ten to fourteen +feet from the ground, could laugh at an army of Danes who had neither +battering rams nor artillery of any kind. There was only one way by which +a round tower could be taken or destroyed by men like the plundering hosts +of the Vikings, who did not, and could not, take ponderous implements like +battering rams with them on their raids, and that was by undermining +it--digging its foundations so that it would fall. But this would have +been a very tedious business, for the foundations of many of the round +towers are six and even ten feet below the surface. A few dozen resolute +men in a round tower might defy an army of Danes, provided the besieged +had enough of food and drink in their stronghold. It must, however, be +admitted that the Northmen did sometimes succeed in taking and plundering +round towers, but by what means we do not know. + +Those who maintain that the round towers are pre-Christian structures, and +that there is nothing said in Irish annals about their erection, have very +little warrant for such an assertion. If they read Lord Dunraven's work on +ancient Irish architecture, they will find copies of more than one +allusion to their erection from the most authentic Irish annals known to +exist. Here is one taken from the _Chronicon Scottorum_, a work of the +highest authority and authenticity, compiled about the year 1124. "The +great _Cloigtheach_ (or belfry) of Clonmacnois was finished by Gillachrist +Ua Maeleoin and by Turloch O'Connor." This entry refers to the year 1120. + +While speaking of the uses of round towers, the wealth of Irish +monasteries, and of Ireland in general in ancient times, it may not be out +of place to say that that very wealth proved a curse to the country, for +if Ireland had not been so rich in precious metals, the Northmen would +probably never have invaded and raided it; or if they did invade it, they +would have done so with a view to subjugating it and forming permanent +settlements in it, as they did in England and France,--things that might +have been, and that probably would have been, of benefit to the country. +If Ireland had been conquered by the Northmen they would certainly have +destroyed the provincial kingdoms, and have brought the whole island under +the sway of one ruler; and whether that ruler was Irish or Norse, it would +have been of immense benefit to the country at large. Ancient Irish polity +was very good theoretically, but practically it was a frightful failure. +The Scandinavian invasions only added to the political confusion of +Ireland. They were of benefit to England and France, for they brought an +infusion of fresh blood into those countries. But to Ireland they brought +destruction and ruin, with only a slight infusion of fresh blood. They +made the political confusion of the country more confounded. They robbed +it of an immense quantity of its wealth, but worse than that, they +destroyed a large part of its literature. The monasteries were not only +the repositories of wealth but of books. It was impossible that +monasteries could be plundered and burnt without damage being done to the +books they contained. There is positive proof in Irish annals that the +Northmen were in the habit of _drowning_ the books they found in the +religious houses. Books were in those days, as is well known, made of +vellum, or prepared leather, a material hard to burn; they were +consequently cast into the nearest lake or river, from which very few of +them were probably ever recovered. If it had not been for Scandinavian +burnings and plunderings, mediæval Gaelic literature would, even now, be +so immense that it would command the respect of the world at large. Those +who say that the bulk of mediæval Gaelic writings has come down to us--and +there are those that have the unspeakable hardihood to say so--must be +classed as very prejudiced, or very ignorant of Irish history. + +The last entry in the Four Masters relating to Glendaloch occurs under the +year 1163. It appears to have been abandoned shortly after that date; but +why it was abandoned as an ecclesiastical establishment when Danish raids +and plunderings had ceased does not seem to be clearly known. + +Glendaloch has been thus lengthenedly treated on because it is the most +interesting ecclesiastical ruin in the province of Leinster, Clonmacnois +only excepted. Its strange and gloomy, yet romantic situation, its +antiquity, its sad history of burnings and plunderings, the utter ruin +that has overtaken most of its monuments, the halo of legend and romance +that is around it, give it a charm even to the non-imaginative and the +rude. For the archæologist, the poet, the romancer, or the dreamer, it has +attractions and charms greater, perhaps, than they could find on any other +spot of Irish soil. + + + + +"LORDLY AILEACH" + + +Next to Emania and Ardmagh, Aileach is the most historic spot in the +province of Ulster. It lies four miles west of the city of Derry, on a +round, heath-clad hill, some eight hundred feet above the level of the +sea. It is one of the most ancient cyclopean fortresses in Ireland, or, +perhaps, in the world. There is no scenic beauty in the immediate vicinity +of Aileach, but there is a view from the hill-top on which it is situated +that for wildness and sublimity can hardly be equalled anywhere in the +British Isles,--a view which will amply repay any one who sees it on a +clear day. On the north the hills of Inishowen obstruct the view, but west +and south-west it is sublime. The eye ranges over a wilderness of +fantastic-shaped mountains, some shooting up sharp as arrows, others round +and ridgy, separated by sinuous sea-lochs and glittering tarns,--a land of +awful ruggedness and desolation,--of rock-bound shores cleft into myriad +bays and fiords by the thundering almost ever restless northern sea that +beats against them. If no hoary ruin crowned the hill on which the +"Lordly Aileach" of Gaelic poets stands, the view from its summit would be +worth a journey of a hundred miles to see, for most of the wildness and +grandeur of "Dark Donegall" are spread before the eye. On the north-east +and north-west the waters of Loch Foyle and Loch Swilly spread themselves +almost beneath the feet of the gazer from Aileach. It stands on a hill +that commands a view of both Loch Foyle and Loch Swilly; and the site of +this ancient fortress was evidently chosen on account of the view it +commands of those two sea-lochs, for no fleet could enter them for any +distance without being seen by the watchers on the walls of Aileach. + +The first thing that should be mentioned when speaking of Aileach is the +noble work that has been lately accomplished regarding it. An article +appeared about it some twenty years ago in the _Irish Times_ of Dublin, +calling attention to its antiquity, the historic and legendary renown of +that ancient place; and a Mr Barnard of Londonderry became interested in +Aileach and determined to make an effort to have the demolished fortress +restored as far as was possible. He made a pilgrimage among the farmers +living in the locality, and got promises of help in the way of men to +work for so many days at the restoration of the fortress. The farmers kept +their word, gave him the help of the men they had promised, and in a +comparatively short time the walls of the ruined fortress, under the +surveillance of Mr Barnard, once again crowned the hill of Greenan, after +having been in ruins for well-nigh eight hundred years. Mr Barnard, and +the farmers that gave him assistance in the good work, deserve the thanks +of every one who is a patriot, or has any reverence for the ancient +monuments of his country, or any respect for the hallowed past. + +The early history of Aileach is "lost in the twylight of fable." It is a +pre-historic building, almost as much so as a Pyramid of Egypt. It was +used as a stronghold down to the beginning of the twelfth century; but +when it was built, or by whom, cannot be said to be known from authentic +history, for the many poems that exist about its origin in ancient Gaelic +are legendary rather than historic. There may be, and there probably is, a +great deal of truth in them, but they cannot be accepted as history. + +Aileach is a circular, dry-stone fortress with walls nine feet thick. It +was levelled down to the ground when Mr Barnard undertook its restoration. +The history of its destruction is so strange, so unique, and so Irish, +that it must be given. Let the Four Masters tell it. They say, under the +year 1101, that "A great army was led by O'Brian, King of Munster, with +the men of Munster, Ossory, Meath and Connacht, across Assaroe into +Innishowen.... He demolished Grianan Aileach in revenge of Kinncora, which +had been razed and demolished by Muircheartach O'Lochlainn some time +before. O'Brian commanded his army to carry with them from Aileach to +Limerick a stone of the demolished building for every sack of provisions +they had. In commemoration of which was said (by some unknown poet)-- + + "'I never heard of the billeting of grit stones, + Though I heard of the billeting of companies, + Until the stones of Aileach were billeted + On the horses of the King of the West.'" + +This is the only attempt at anything like humour in all the dreary annals +of the Four Masters. Such quiet sarcasm would be a credit to Mark Twain. +But if the poet had said "King of the South" instead of "King of the +West," although it might not have answered his Gaelic rhyme or assonance +quite so well, it would have been more correct, for although Munster is +west of Aileach, it is more south than west. It can never be known how +high the walls of Aileach had been before they were pulled down by +O'Brien, because we don't know how many cavalry he had, or how many stones +he carried to Limerick. Never before was an army loaded with such +impedimenta; but that the story of the stones of Aileach, or at least, +stones similar to them, having been brought to Limerick or its immediate +vicinity, there cannot be much doubt, for they were found there. + +The fortress of Aileach is nearly a hundred feet in diameter in the +inside. It is not known if it was ever roofed, but it is probable that it +was. There were two lines of earthen ramparts round it, but they have +nearly disappeared. John O'Donovan thought that the entire hill of +Grianan, on which the fortress stands, was once enclosed by a vast rampart +of earth, and that cultivation has destroyed all but the faintest traces +of it. It seems probable that Aileach was intended more for a stronghold +than for a permanent dwelling-place. It may have been inhabited only when +a siege or an invasion was expected. One of its names, or rather the first +part of one of its names, "Grianan," would indicate that it was intended +only as a summer residence, like the Dunsinane = _Dún soinine_, fine +weather fortress, of Macbeth. Those who could live in winter on top of +the wind-swept hill on which Aileach stands without getting coughs or +colds would require constitutions of iron and lungs of brass. + +O'Donovan says that if any reliance can be placed on Irish chronology, the +antiquity of Aileach must be very great, no less than upwards of a +thousand years before the Christian era. He says, also, that the poet, +part of whose poem on Aileach is given below, in making the Tuata de +Danaan King, Eochy, generally known in Irish history and legend as the +Dagda, contemporaneous with the Assyrian King, Darcylus, exactly agrees +with the chronology of O'Flaherty and Usher, who say that he reigned 1053 +years before the Christian era. + +There is a poem in the "Book of Lecan" on Aileach by the poet to whom +O'Donovan alludes, that in language and _tournure_ bears the marks of +extreme antiquity. Even O'Donovan, great a Celtic scholar as he was, had +apparently extreme difficulty in translating it. It has never been +published. The first dozen or so lines are given here:-- + +"Aileach Fridreann, arena of mighty kings. A _dun_ through which ran roads +under heroes through five ramparts. Hill on which slept the Dagda. Red its +flowers. Many its houses. Just its spoils. Few its stones. A lofty castle +is Aileach. Fort of the great man. A sheltering _dun_ over the lime +[white] schools. A delightful spot is Aileach. Green its bushes. The sod +where the Dagda found the mound wherein rested Hugh." + +But it is in more recent times that the history and records of Aileach +become supremely interesting. It was from there that Muircheartach Mac +Neill, styled the Hector of the west of Europe by old annalists, started +on his celebrated "Circuit of Ireland" in the year 942. He was heir +apparent to the chief kingship of Ireland, and wanted to show the +provincial rulers that he was fit to rule _them_. So he determined to +start on his circuit in the depth of winter, when it appears the ancient +Irish seldom went on forays, and either make or persuade the provincial +rulers to acknowledge his right to the throne when the then reigning chief +king, Donacha, died. The way he is said to have chosen men for the +expedition is very curious and very Irish. He caused a tent to be erected, +keeping the cause of its erection unknown, and made his men to go into it +at night. A fierce dog attacked every one that entered; and opposite to +where the dog was, an armed man also attacked those that entered; both man +and dog simultaneously attacking the intruder. If he who entered the tent +flinched neither from dog nor man, but showed fight to both, he was +chosen; but whoever showed the least sign of cowardice was rejected. Out +of his whole army we are told that Muircheartach could only get a thousand +men, and with that small army, protected by strong leather cloaks, he +started on his Circuit of Ireland to force, intimidate, or coax the +provincial kings to acknowledge that he was their master, and that he was +to be their next suzerain. + +Our principal source of information about the Circuit comes from a poem of +undoubted authority and antiquity, written by one called Cormacan Eigeas, +who accompanied Muircheartach on the expedition. It is one of the most +remarkable poems of its age, not only in Gaelic, but in any language. It +was translated more than forty years ago, and may be seen in the +"Transactions" of the Royal Irish Academy; but it is not probable that +even forty persons have ever read it, so little general interest has +heretofore been taken in Gaelic literature or Irish history. For these +reasons it cannot be uninteresting to give some extracts from it. It +commences: + + "O Muircheartach, son of the valiant Niall, + Thou hast taken the hostages of Inis Fail, + Thou hast brought them all into Aileach, + Into the stone-built palace of steeds! + + "Thou didst go forth from us with a thousand heroes + Of the race of Eoghan of red weapons, + To make the great Circuit of Ireland, + O Muircheartach of the yellow hair! + + "The day thou didst set out from us eastwards + Into the fair province of Connor,[7] + Many were the tears down beauteous cheeks + Among the fair-haired women of Aileach." + +Muircheartach carried off the King of Ulster; and, as the old chroniclers +tell us, keeping his left hand to the sea, he fared to Dublin, then the +greatest stronghold the Danes had, not only in Ireland but in the west of +Europe. He did not have to fight the Danes of Dublin, although he had +often fought them before, for their king, probably thinking that +"discretion was the better part of valour," surrendered himself a +prisoner. And here one of these inconsequential incidents is related, +which no one but an ancient Irish poet would dream of mentioning. +Muircheartach seems to have had no objection to make love to a Danish +maiden, often as he had fought Danish men. Cormacan, the poet, tells us +that they + + "Were a night at fair Ath-cliath [Dublin]; + It was not a pleasure to the foreigners: + There was a damsel in the strong fortress + Whose soul the son of Niall was; + She came forth until she was outside the walls, + Although the night was constantly bad." + +Muircheartach then proceeded south-west from Dublin to Aillinn, and +carried away the King of Leinster. He then made for Cashel, where the +King of Munster lived. But Callachan, that was his name, showed fight, and +Muircheartach's men threw off their leather cloaks and prepared to stand +by him. However, seeing that things were beginning to look serious, the +King of Munster yielded and was carried away prisoner with a golden fetter +on him. The leader of the Circuit then turned northwards into Connacht, +and carried away the king of that province. So he had the four provincial +kings in his power, and also the Danish King of Dublin. But he did them +neither hurt nor harm, for he seems to have been in a good humour all the +time he was "on circuit"; and we are told by his poet laureate that on +their halts the soldiers amused themselves in many ways, especially by +music and dancing, and he says-- + + "Music we had on the plain and in our tents, + Listening to its strains, we danced awhile; + There, methinks, a heavy noise was made + By the shaking of our hard cloaks." + +The next three verses are magnificent. They are full of dramatic power and +naturalness. When the triumphant army, but triumphant without having shed +a drop of blood, approach Aileach, a messenger is sent forward to announce +its arrival:-- + + "From the green of Lochan-na-neach + A page is despatched to Aileach + To tell Duvdaire[8] of the black hair + To send women to cut rushes. + + "'Rise up, O Duvdaire (_said the page_), + There is a company coming to thy house; + Attend every man of them + As a monarch should be attended.' + + "'Tell me (_she said_) what company comes hither + To the lordly Aileach Rigreann, + Tell me, O fair page, + That I may attend them?' + + "'The Kings of Erin in fetters (_he replies_), + With Muircheartach, son of the warlike Niall.'" + +The kingly prisoners were all brought to Aileach, where they were feasted +for five months; and the following list of their bill of fare will show +that they lived well. Let the same poet tell it:-- + + "Ten score hogs--no small work, + Ten score cows, two hundred oxen, + Were slaughtered at festive Aileach + For Muircheartach of the great fetters. + + "Three score vats of curds, + Which banished the hungry look of the army, + With a sufficiency of cheering mead, + Were given by magnanimous Muircheartach." + +When the five kings were feasted--and it is to be hoped fattened--for five +months, Muircheartach brought them to the chief king or emperor, Donacha, +and gave them up to him. The following extraordinary dialogue, taken from +the same poem, occurs between them. Muircheartach says: + + "'There are the noble kings for thee.' + Said Muircheartach, the son of Niall; + 'For thou, O Donacha, it is certain to me, + Art the best man of the men of Erin.' + + "_Donacha._ + "'Thou art a better man thyself, O King, + With thee no one can vie; + It is thou who didst take captive the noble kings, + O Muircheartach, son of the great Niall.' + + "_Muircheartach._ + "'Thou art better thyself, O Donacha the black haired, + Than any man in our land; + Whoever is in strong Tara + It is he that is monarch of Erin.' + + "_Donacha._ + "'Receive my blessing, nobly, + O son of Niall Glundubh, bright, pure; + May Tara be possessed by thee, + O Prince of the bright Loch Foyle![9] + + "'May thy race possess Moy Breagh,[10] + May they possess the white-sided Tara, + May the hostages of the Gael be in thy house, + O good son, O Muircheartach!'" + +It is sad to know that this extraordinary poem, with its uniqueness, its +dramatic power, and its raciness of the soil and of the time, +notwithstanding the fact that it was translated and published in the +Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy over forty years ago, is to-day +hardly any more known than it was when it lay unheeded and unknown in the +archaic Gaelic of the tenth century. It might, for all the notice that has +been taken of it, as well not have been translated at all. No other people +on earth would have treated such an archaic literary gem with such +coldness and contempt. It would seem as if the Irish people were losing +not only their soul but their brains. If such a poem were written in +Finnish or in Ojibaway it could not have been more ignored than it has +been by a people who call themselves intellectual. + +In this poem the same anachronism may be noticed that led Petrie so much +astray about the Lia Fail having been in Tara in the tenth century. +Muircheartach addresses Donacha as if he were living in Tara, although +Tara had been abandoned four hundred years before, and was as waste and as +desolate in the time of Donacha as it is to-day; the chief kings of his +epoch and for centuries before it, lived usually in Westmeath or in +Donegal. + +That Muircheartach Mac Neill, though a sort of Rory O'More of the tenth +century, was a great man can hardly be doubted. He seems to have +contemplated the entire overthrow of the pentarchy and the union of all +the provinces under one sole king, namely, himself. He could hardly have +been ignorant of what had occurred in England in the century previous--how +Alfred had broken up the Saxon heptarchy and made himself practically sole +king in England. If Muircheartach had succeeded in destroying the wretched +system of provincial nationality, and had made the country a political +unit, the subsequent history of Ireland would probably be very different +from what it has been. But Muircheartach was killed by his old enemies the +Danes, the year after he made his famous circuit. They also killed his +father, Niall Glundubh, at the battle of Killmoshogue, near Dublin, in the +year 917. Here is what the Four Masters say about him under the year +941[11]: "Muircheartach of the Leather Cloaks, Lord of Aileach, the Hector +of the west of Europe in his time, was slain at Ardee (in Louth) by +Blacaire, the son of Godfrey, Lord of the Foreigners, on the 26th of +March. In lamentation of him it was said-- + + "'Vengeance and destruction + Have descended on the race of Conn for ever; + As Muircheartach does not live, alas! + The country of the Gael will always be an orphan.'" + + + + +"ROYAL AND SAINTLY CASHEL" + + +The situation of three of the most historic and remarkable ecclesiastical +establishments in Ireland, namely, Clonmacnois, Glendaloch, and Cashel, is +very peculiar. The first is on a barren sandhill surrounded by the most +strange and unique scenery in Ireland, consisting of almost illimitable +meadows interspersed with bogs. The second is in one of the gloomiest and +weirdest glens in the island; but Cashel is on a towering rock amid some +of the richest land, not only in Ireland but in the world, and overlooking +as goodly a country as human eye perhaps ever gazed on. Ancient Irish +monks and churchmen must have been peculiarly gifted with an appreciation +of the strange, unique, and beautiful in nature, or they would not have +fixed their retreats in such peculiar places. If ancient Irish kings loved +to place their strongholds on hills such as Tara, Aileach, Knock Aillinn, +and Uisneach, ancient Irish ecclesiastics seemed not to have cared whether +their churches were on hills or in hollows, provided they were somewhere +that was strange, weird, or beautiful. + +The situation of Cashel is not only beautiful but superb. There is no +other place of its kind in Ireland situated like it. Its situation is as +peculiar as that of Glendaloch or Clonmacnois. It is, perhaps, the most +imposing pile of ecclesiastical ruins in Europe. Mont St Michael in France +can hardly compare with Cashel in commanding beauty of situation. One +overlooks the chilly sea, but the other overlooks as warm, as fair, and as +fertile a country as there is in the world. + +[Illustration: BUILDINGS ON THE ROCK OF CASHEL.] + +Cashel has inspired many poets; but, unfortunately, none of the great +English masters of song has made it a theme; and it is strange that our +own Moore, who has celebrated Glendaloch, the Vale of Avoca, and other +famous places, never composed a lyric on Cashel. No other place in Ireland +could have given him a grander theme to write poems of the kind in which +he delighted, and in the composition of which he was such an acknowledged +master. It is indeed strange that so few of those who may be called our +minor poets have written about Cashel, and so seldom taken it as their +theme. There exists, however, a short poem on Cashel of the class usually +known as sonnets, and it is probable that neither Moore, nor any of the +other great masters of song, could have written anything superior to it. +It is by the late Sir Aubry de Vere. It first appeared in the _Dublin +Penny Journal_ some sixty years ago; but it has so long been partially +forgotten that it can hardly be out of place to reproduce it here: + + "Royal and saintly Cashel! I could gaze + Upon the wreck of thy departed powers, + Not in the dewy light of matin hours, + Nor the meridian pomp of summer's blaze; + But at the close of dim autumnal days + When the sun's parting glance thro' slanting showers + Sheds o'er thy rock-throned pediments and towers + Such awful gleams as brighten on Decay's + Prophetic cheek;--at such a time methinks + There breathes from thy lone courts and voiceless aisles + A melancholy moral, such as sinks + On the worn traveller's heart amid the piles + Of vast Persepolis on her mountain stand, + Or Thebes half buried in the desert's sand." + +It is strange that Cashel has not inspired more poets; but it is stranger +still that the once soulful people of Ireland would have allowed it to be +defaced by any modern building erected on the rock on which stands its +hallowed and ruined piles. Some gentleman named Scully has erected a brand +new round tower almost in the very centre of the hoary monuments that are +so sanctified by antiquity. The new tower is not shown on the annexed +plate, because of the horrible picture it would make. It is strange that +those living near Cashel did not prevent, if they could have done so, the +marring of one of the most striking, beautiful and soul-inspiring ruins +not only in Ireland but in Europe. It may be that Mr Scully thought that +by erecting a new monument of antique type there would not be any +incongruity manifested by it, and that by having his name written on it in +the Irish language and in Irish characters he would atone for the error he +committed. If he thought so, he made a great mistake, for _anything_ new, +whether a round tower, a cross, or a brick-built grocery, would destroy +all the antique charm of such noble ruins as those on the rock of Cashel. +It may be willingly granted that it is a pity there are any ruins at all +in the world, and that buildings cannot last new for ever. It should be +remembered, however, that nothing can last always; and that when buildings +become ruined by time, and, above all, when they have become historic like +those on the rock of Cashel, and when they serve to show either the piety +or the civilisation of those who have passed away, it becomes absolute +barbarism to mar them and mock them by erecting _anything_ new in their +immediate vicinity. A modern church on the Hill of Tara is bad enough, but +a new building on the Rock of Cashel is little else than a profanation. + +Cashel was a seat of the kings of Munster from a time so far back in the +dim past, that one almost shudders to think how long ago it is. Long +before a Christian edifice crowned the Rock of Cashel, the barbaric dry +stone fortress of some Munster pagan king certainly covered it; for very +little work would have to be bestowed on it to render it an almost +impregnable fortress in ancient times. Some have derived the word Cashel +from _cios_, rent, and _ail_, a rock, making it to mean "rent rock"; for +it is certain that when the kings of Munster lived in Cashel, it was the +place where they received most of their tributes or rents; but the best +modern Gaelic scholars, including Dr P. W. Joyce, author of that most +useful and learned book, "Irish Names of Places," maintain that the word +_Caiseal_ means simply a circular building of dry stones, for the name +occurs in scores of places throughout Ireland; and such a building was no +doubt on this rock in pre-Christian times. + +Cashel became a seat of Christian cult at a very early period, and there +are good reasons to think that St Patrick founded a church there. The Rock +of Cashel has for very many centuries been known as _Carraig Phadraig_, or +Patrick's Rock. The first Christian Irishman whose writings have come down +to us was Dubhthach, or, as the name would probably now be Anglicised, +Duffy, Mac U Lugair. In his poem in praise of the prowess of Leinstermen, +he says, that they "unyoked their horses on the ramparts of clerical +Cashel." As this Duffy was a disciple of St Patrick's, and one of the +first converts made by him in Ireland, we are forced to think that one of +the first Christian churches ever erected in Ireland was the one erected +in Cashel, as it appears to have been in existence when Duffy wrote his +poem, which could hardly have been later than the middle of the sixth +century. But no vestige of the church of St Patrick's time remains. It was +probably a wooden building, and may have disappeared as far back as +thirteen centuries ago. The oldest building on the Rock of Cashel is the +round tower, not Mr Scully's incongruous edifice, but the original one, +built probably in the ninth century. It is ninety feet high, and in a +fairly good state of preservation. The cathedral is thought to have been +built in 1169 by O'Brien, King of Munster, but there does not appear to be +much of the building he erected to be seen now, for the ruined cathedral +which exists cannot, from the style of its architecture, be older than the +fourteenth century. We know from authentic history that one of the +Fitzgeralds burned the cathedral in 1495, because he wanted to burn +Archbishop Creagh, who, he thought, was in it; but it does not seem to be +fully known whether the building was entirely or only partially destroyed +by Fitzgerald. Divine service is said to have been celebrated in it so +late as 1752, but it must have been in a semi-ruined condition even then. + +[Illustration: INTERIOR OF CORMAC'S CHAPEL.] + +But it is Cormac's Chapel that is the real architectural glory of the Rock +of Cashel. It is by some wrongly attributed to the time of Cormac Mac +Cullenann in the ninth century. It was built by Cormac Mac Carthy, a +king of Minister, in the early part of the twelfth century. The principal +proof that it was built at that time is found in the _Chronicon +Scottorum_, in which it is stated that Cormac's Chapel at Cashel was +consecrated in 1130. It is more than probable that the chapel was +consecrated very soon after it was finished. It does not come within the +scope of a work like this to enter into technical details on matters +connected with architecture; but for chaste beauty, for elaborate carving, +and solidity of structure, it may be said that Cormac's Chapel is one of +the most wonderful ecclesiastical buildings of its age in Christendom. The +practised eye of the trained architectural critic might notice some signs +of decay about it, some effacement in the gorgeous carvings or designs +with which almost every stone of the interior is more or less covered; but +to the ordinary observer, the whole building, within and without, seems +almost as perfect as it was the day its architect pronounced it finished. +If Cormac's Chapel were only larger, it would be the noblest and most +remarkable ecclesiastical building of its age in the British Isles, or +probably in Europe. But, unfortunately, it is very small, the nave being +only about thirty feet in length, and the choir only about eighteen. But +what it lacks in size is made up in elaborate carving, chaste design, and +solidity of structure. It looks as if it would last until the day of doom, +and as if nothing but an earthquake could destroy it. Its very roof seems +as strong and as perfect as its walls. It is of cut stone laid on with +geometrical exactness, as sound and as solid as ever it was. However +imposing the _coup d'oeil_ that "the rock-throned pediments and towers" of +Cashel may present from without, it is an examination of this gem of +antique architectural beauty that gives one the highest opinion of the +artistic skill of those whose appreciation of the unique and beautiful led +them to choose this towering rock as a fit place on which to raise +edifices dedicated to the Deity. + +It is strange how it was that the ancient or rather the mediæval Irish, +who knew how to erect such beautiful and enduring stone and mortar +structures as the round towers, and such gems of architectural beauty as +Cormac's Chapel is, and as Mellifont Abbey certainly was, should have +housed their kings and chiefs in dwellings of wood, whose only defence was +an earthen rampart surmounted by a palisade of stakes, or in a Cyclopean +fortress of dry stones. It is absolutely certain that not a single castle +built of stones and mortar existed in Ireland prior to the Anglo-French +invasion. The Irish knew how to build round towers and churches, but seem +never to have thought of building castles until their invaders taught them +to build them. The thing looks very curious, but, on closer examination, +it does not appear so strange, for it is now pretty well known that none +of the Northern nations had castles before the eleventh century. The +French seem to have been the first of the Northern nations that had +castles. It is very doubtful if there was a castle in Great Britain before +the Norman-French conquest. If there were castles in England or Scotland +before the battle of Hastings, they were imitations of those on the +Continent, and were probably designed and built by Continental architects +and mechanics. Neither the Scandinavians nor Northern-Germans appear to +have had castles until late in the middle ages, when they copied them from +more Southern nations. But it was the Norman-French that brought the art +of castle building to its greatest perfection. + +The ruins of Hoar Abbey, or St Mary's Abbey, as it is sometimes called, +are situated close to the Rock, but not on it. It is believed to have been +founded by the Benedictine order in the thirteenth century. + +Cashel is interesting in almost every way. There is a magnificent view +from its ruin-crowned rock over some of the fairest and most fertile land +in Ireland. Nor is a mountain view wanting, for the Galtees, the second +highest range of mountains in Ireland, are visible, and a noble range they +are, not rounded lumps like so many of the Wicklow Hills, but steep, +sheer, cloud-piercing heights,--Alps in miniature. It is a pity that the +town, or rather the city, of Cashel is not larger and more thriving. It +may have been, like Glendaloch and Kildare, much larger in early Christian +times than it is at present, but there does not seem to be any statement +of the fact in any of the old Gaelic books, so far as is known to the +writer. But whatever may have been the past history of the city of Cashel, +no one in search of the picturesque, the unique, or the historic in +Ireland should fail to see its Rock. It is said that when Scott visited +Ireland he was more impressed by the Rock of Cashel than by anything else +of its kind that he saw in the country. + +Of all the remains of Christian edifices in Ireland, Cashel, Glendaloch, +and Clonmacnois are the most interesting. It is not only by the beauty or +peculiarity of their situations that they impress us, for their histories +go so far back into the past, when the combat of Christianity with +Druidism was still going on, that we may regard them as the advance posts +of a purer cult in the ground conquered from paganism. It would be hard to +find in Europe three other places of a similar kind more antique, more +interesting, or more worthy of being respected. What remains of their +hallowed ruins should be guarded with jealous care, and saved from any +further uprooting or profanation. + + + + +LOCH ERNE + + +Loch Erne and Loch Ree are not only the most beautiful, but the most +historic of the great lakes of Ireland. Loch Neagh is larger than either +of them, and Loch Dearg and Loch Corrib are probably nearly as large; but +none of those three is as picturesque as either of the two first-mentioned +lakes. The shores of Loch Dearg are bolder and more mountainous than those +of either Loch Erne or Loch Ree, but Loch Dearg lacks the island-studded +surface of the two latter, which is their great charm. Whether Loch Erne +or Loch Ree is the more beautiful is not easy to decide. Both are as +beautiful sheets of water as can be easily found, but both lack mountain +scenery in the true sense of the phrase. There are some high lands on the +lower part of Loch Erne, but they can hardly be called mountains. In +number and variety of its islands, Loch Erne is only surpassed by that +famous lake on the vast St Lawrence, known as the Thousand Isles. + +[Illustration: VIEW ON UPPER LOCH ERNE.] + +Loch Erne is certainly the most peculiar and also the longest lake in +Ireland. From where it may be said to begin, near Belturbet in the County +Cavan, to where it ceases to be a lake, and pours its waters into the sea +through the river Erne, it is fully thirty-five miles long in a bird line. +Its peculiarity consists in its extraordinary beginnings, and the number +of its islands. Its beginnings are winding, mazy, and, on the map, almost +untraceable water ways, that twist and turn in almost every direction +through swamps and bogs, with no attraction save for the sportsman in +pursuit of water fowl. As one approaches Enniskillen the glories of Loch +Erne commence. There is nothing in the shape of mountains to be seen, but +they are not missed; for such is the beauty of green round hills on both +sides, and such the wondrous number and variety of the islands, that if +there were mountains as lofty as the Alps in view, one could hardly spare +time to look at them. The islands seem innumerable, and the shores are so +indented with bays, and the lake itself so pierced by jutting headlands, +that on sailing on Loch Erne it is often impossible to know an island from +a peninsula, or a peninsula from an island. There is certainly no lake in +Ireland or in Great Britain whose shores are so indented as are those of +Loch Erne. The great charm of its shores and islands is their roundness +and their greenness. They are not low or swampy, but high and swelling, +forming scenes of quiet, and, it might be said, pastoral beauty, on which +one could gaze for days and weeks without tiring. Variety of the most +striking kind is one of the peculiarities of Loch Erne. It begins in +tortuous, narrow, confused bog streams. It then assumes its fairest +aspect, studded with innumerable islands, and sometimes so narrowed by +far-entering promontories that it is in some places only a few hundred +yards wide; but as it spreads northwards it gets wider and wider, until at +last it is like a great inland sea, seven or eight miles wide. If finer +views may be had of Loch Ree than of Loch Erne, in variety of scenery, +number of islands, and startling contrasts, Loch Erne is without a rival +among Irish lakes. If it and Loch Ree had the mountains of Killarney, +Killarney might well tremble for the fame it enjoys of being the most +beautiful of Irish lakes. + +Loch Erne is divided into upper and lower lakes. The clean and thriving +town of Enniskillen is situated on the straight, or narrow river, that +joins the two lakes; but it may be said that there are not two lakes, but +only one, for Enniskillen is situated where the lake narrows into what +might be called a river, but a river full of islands and bays, just as the +upper lake is. Its multitude of islands is the charm of Loch Erne. The +best authorities say that there are a hundred and nine islands in the +lower lake, and ninety in the upper. It is a shame that a small steam-boat +does not ply regularly, at least in summer time, from one end of this +noble sheet of water to the other. If Loch Erne, with its marvellous +variety and beauty of scenery, were in any other European country, there +would be not one but half-a-dozen steam-boats on it. It is strange that +the inhabitants of Enniskillen do not make an effort to establish a line +of light draft-steamers on Loch Erne that would ply on both upper and +lower lakes. A small steamer does sometimes, according to report, ply in +the summer between Enniskillen and Beleek; but it does not appear that any +steamer has ever navigated the waters of the upper lake, which is the more +picturesque of the two. Nothing could more plainly show the backward +condition of Ireland than the fact that there is no regular line of +passenger steam-boats either on the Upper Shannon or on Loch Erne. +Tourists, or those in search of picturesque localities, will never go to +places where there is not proper accommodation for them. No matter how +beautiful the scenery may be, it will not be visited by any large number +of people unless they can have comforts in travelling and lodging. +Switzerland attracts more rich people to visit it in summer-time than any +other country in the world; but, with all its marvellous beauties of +mountain, lake, and river, it would never attract the multitudes that go +there every year if they did not find good travelling and good hotel +accommodation. In Switzerland there are steam-boats on every lake and on +every river where there are beautiful sights to be seen. There are lakes +in it that are visited every year by crowds of tourists, who would find +sights as beautiful on Loch Erne or on Loch Ree, and who would visit those +lakes if they knew that they could find on their waters, or on their +shores, the travelling comforts and the hotel comforts they find in +Switzerland. It has to be frankly admitted that the reason why the +beauties of Ireland are so comparatively little known is largely owing to +the Irish themselves. Let them provide better accommodation for the +travelling public, and Ireland will attract people who heretofore have +never visited it. + +Loch Erne is, as has been already stated, thirty-five miles long, and is +navigable, or could with very little expense be made navigable, for light +draft steam-boats all that distance. If there is anything in the shape of +an aquatic excursion that could be really delightful, it would be a sail +on Loch Erne, especially on the narrow waters of the upper lake, where, on +the windiest day, the most nervous or the most delicate would have nothing +to fear from a rough sea, as they would on Loch Ree or on Loch Dearg, +where the water is sometimes very far from smooth, even in summer. On Loch +Erne, especially on the upper lake, change of scene takes place every +minute. It is a continual surprise of green islands, flowery promontories, +swelling hills, and tortuous passages, and is on a fine summer or autumn +day something to enchant even the most indifferent to the beauties of +nature. + +It is really deplorable that not alone the antiquities but the beauties of +Ireland are not better known to people of other countries. They never can +be known as they should be until better facilities for knowing them are to +be had. Much has been done of late in providing better hotel +accommodation, and much more will be done in the same line before long. Up +to a few years ago it was impossible to find an hotel where any +respectable person would like to stay in some of the most beautiful places +and amid some of the grandest scenery of Donegal, Mayo, and Kerry; but +there are now dozens of hotels in those localities where the most +fastidious will find all the comforts they could reasonably expect. But +the internal navigation of the country is fearfully neglected. The +peculiar glory, or at least one of the principal attractions of Ireland in +a scenic point of view, is its lakes and rivers. No other country perhaps +in the world, of equal size, has such an abundance of lakes and rivers; +but in no country, except it may be Finnland or Central Africa, are so few +steam-boats to be seen on inland waters. It was right to move first in the +direction of good hotel accommodation, but the next move ought to be to +provide passenger steam-boats to ply on the great waters of such noble +lakes as Loch Erne, Loch Corrib, Loch Ree, and Loch Dearg, and on all the +waters of the Upper Shannon. It is to be hoped that the present sad want +of accommodation on Irish lakes and rivers will be of short duration, for +the people of Ireland seem to be awakening to the knowledge not only that +they have a country, but that it is one of the most beautiful countries in +the world. + +But Loch Erne has attractions besides its multitudinous islands, its +jutting promontories, winding shores, and encircling hills. It has +attractions for the antiquarian as well as for the lover of nature. + +One of the most ancient of Ireland's ancient round towers stands on +Devinish Island, in the upper lake. It is one of the most perfect, if it +is not one of the highest, round towers in the country. There would be no +use in speculating on its age, for we are generally left completely in the +dark as to the time of the erection of round towers. There are many +allusions to them in Irish annals, but the time of the building of them is +mentioned only in a few places. The first mention of Devinish by the Four +Masters is in A.D. 721, telling of the death of one of its abbots. +Devinish, spelled correctly, _Daimhinis_, means "ox island." A Christian +church was erected on it at a very early date, probably during the +lifetime of St Patrick, for we are told in ancient Annals that Molaise, +who appears to have been the first abbot of the monastery that was there, +died in 563. A Latin life of St Aeden says that Molaise "ruled many monks +in an island in _Stagno Erne_, called Daimhinis by the Irish." It was +plundered and burnt many times by the Danes, or some other Northmen, but +almost devastated by them in 836, and at other times; it was burnt in 1157 +and in 1360. It seems, not like Glendaloch, Monasterboice, and many other +places that were abandoned at an early date, to have had a church or +monastery on it until the beginning of the seventeenth century. The last +mention of it by the Four Masters is under the year 1602. + + + + +MELLIFONT AND MONASTERBOICE + + +Of all the ancient remains in the County Louth connected with Christian +antiquities, the ruins of Mellifont and Monasterboice are by far the most +interesting and important. They are only two miles apart, and only about +four from Drogheda. Starting from there both places can easily be seen in +one day. There is not, even in the beautiful and picturesque county of +Louth, a more beautiful location for a church or monastery than the glen +in which all the remains of Mellifont is to be seen. It is not a mountain +glen; there is no wildness or savageness about it; it is simply a +depression in a rich lowland country, with luxuriant crops of grain and +grass all round it, and a clear rushing river flowing through +it,--supremely beautiful in summer-time and charming even in winter. In +summer and autumn days when the hills around it are radiant with flowers +of almost every hue, Mellifont even in its desolation is worth journeying +a hundred miles to see. + +But in spite of the beauty of the glen in which the ruins are situated, +and in spite of the beauty of what remains of the ruins themselves, no +right-minded person, no matter what his creed or nationality may be, can +look on Mellifont without being not only pained but shocked at the +desolation that has been wrought upon it, and the traces of barbarism, +hate, and vandalism that stare him in the face. Why such uprooting was +done in Mellifont one can easily understand, but _how_ it was done is a +puzzle. Here stood probably the largest and most beautiful of all Irish +monasteries, but hardly a square foot of it remains overground, save the +baptistry and chapter house. The walls have been levelled down to their +very foundations. A building of such enormous size must have had high +walls, but hardly a vestige of them remains. If they were blown up by +gunpowder, the material of which they were made would remain, if it had +not been carried away. Few traces of the walls are to be seen, +consequently one must conclude that the greater part of the very stones of +which they were built has been removed to some place of which no one now +alive knows anything. A mill was built close by the river about eighty +years ago, but it contains in its walls few, if any, of the stones of +Mellifont. They had disappeared long before the erection of the mill. The +spoilers of Mellifont were not satisfied by uprooting it, for they seem to +have removed the greater part of the stones of which it was built. If +Mellifont had not been so razed to the ground it would, even in its +nakedness and desolation, be one of the most beautiful ecclesiastical +ruins in Europe, and would attract a hundred visitors for the one it +attracts now. + +Mellifont is one of the few Irish ruined abbeys that has a Latin instead +of an Irish name. No one seems to have yet found out what its Irish name +is, or if it ever had one. Our annalists almost invariably call it the +"Drogheda Monastery." The Four Masters call it "Mellifont" only once. In +the "Annals of Loch Cé" it is called the "Great Monastery," for there +seems no doubt that it was the largest house of the kind in Ireland. The +extent of the church itself can now be distinctly traced, thanks to the +excavations that were made by the Board of Works some years ago. It was +180 feet in length, with proportional breadth; the entire area covered +with buildings was fully an English acre, and there were evidently many +outlying buildings connected with, or forming part of the monastery, +hardly a trace of which now remains. The small chapel on a hill outside of +the monastery is thought to have been founded by St Bernard at the time +the monastery was built. There is also about the fourth of what was once +a strong castle remaining. It was evidently built after the Anglo-French +invasion, but by whom seems not to be definitely known. + +Mellifont was founded in 1142, and richly endowed by O'Carrol, Prince of +Oriel. He was famed for his generosity and piety. The establishment was +built for the Order of Cistercians. From the middle of the eleventh +century to the middle of the twelfth was the time when most of the large +abbeys and monasteries of Ireland were founded; and many of them, like +that of Cong, were built in places that had long been occupied by smaller +and plainer ecclesiastical structures like those remaining in Clonmacnois +and Monasterboice. The _renaissance_ of Irish ecclesiastical architecture +in the eleventh and twelfth centuries is, probably, attributable to two +things--the cessation of Danish plundering and the conquest of England by +the Norman-French. The Danish military power in Ireland got a blow at +Clontarf from which it never recovered; after that battle there were +comparatively few monasteries raided, and the Irish began to erect large +and costly structures in place of the small and often severely plain +churches of an earlier period. The Norman-French introduced into England +what is called a Romanesque ecclesiastical architecture that was much +superior to that of the Saxons; and it seems certain that the Irish +copied, to a certain extent, the style of building adopted by the +conquerors of the Saxons; but the invasion of Ireland by those same +conquerors in the latter half of the twelfth century seems to have +arrested the development, not only of architecture, but of almost +everything that tended to benefit the country. Most of the great churches +and abbeys of Ireland were erected before Strongbow set foot in it. It is +strange and hard to be understood how it came to pass that, terrible as +were the ravages of the Danes, they put no stop to the development of Art +in Ireland. Monasteries would be raided and churches burned by them many +times within a few years, but this seems not to have put a stop either to +the establishment of monasteries or the building of churches. Lord +Dunraven says, in his book on ancient Irish architecture, that "it is +remarkable that the fearful struggle with the Norsemen, which lasted for +over two hundred years, and ended in their final defeat in 1014 [at +Clontarf] does not seem to have materially paralysed the energies of the +Irish nation as regards their native arts." It is, however, certain that +it was not until the military power of the Norseman was broken that +ecclesiastical architecture became a real glory in Ireland. But the +Anglo-French invasion seems to have put a stop, not only to the +development of architecture, but of art of all kinds. It is a strange fact +that the heathen Dane should have been less of a curse to Irish art than +the Christian Englishman. + +The first mention of Mellifont by the Four Masters occurs under the year +1152, when a great synod of three thousand ecclesiastics was held there. +It was in Mellifont that the woman whose crime is supposed to have been +the cause of the English invasion of Ireland died in the year 1193. This +was Dearvorgil, the faithless wife of O'Ruarc, whom Moore has called +"falsest of women." It is, however, now thought by most of those who have +studied Irish history closely that Dermott MacMorrough's relations with +this lady had nothing whatever to do with his banishment. They point out +the fact that it was about ten years after Dearvorgil had been restored to +her people that MacMorrough was banished, and maintain that the true cause +of his banishment was in order to re-impose the tribute on the province of +Leinster, the Danes being no longer able to assist the Leinstermen as they +were wont to do. The other provincial rulers wanted to have the King of +Leinster put out of the way, for, as he was a warlike man, they knew he +would fight to the bitter end for the protection of his province. If this +version of the matter is true, it goes far to free Dermott MacMorrough +from the odium that rests on his memory. + +Monasterboice is one of the oldest places connected with Christianity in +Ireland. Its foundation may have been as old as the time of St Patrick, +for Buite, from whom it takes its name, and by whom it probably was +founded, died in the year 524. There seems good reason to believe that +"Buite" is the original form of the now very plentiful name "Boyd," but +how Monaster Buite got twisted into Monasterboice is a mystery. The +situation of this ancient place is not nearly so picturesque as that of +Mellifont. There is no rushing river and no deep glen. Still the situation +is good, and the country around very fine, and, like most parts of Louth, +well cultivated. The peculiar glories of Monasterboice are its crosses and +its round tower. There are three crosses, two in good preservation, but +one was so broken that it had to be patched or fastened into solid stone +work. It is most likely that it was purposely destroyed, for barbarians +have done their best to cut down the great cross that stands in the same +enclosure--the finest of all ancient Irish crosses. It must have taken +days for a strong man with a heavy sledge-hammer to make such a deep +indentation in the hard stone of which the cross is made. It was its +extreme hardness that saved it from destruction and defacement. But hard +as the stone of those crosses may be, it cannot resist the action of the +elements, for the sculptures with which they are covered are now so +effaced by time and weather, that they seem little more than masses of +unintelligible tracings; but when those noble crosses were fresh from +their makers' hands they must have been magnificent specimens of early +Irish art. + +The round tower of Monasterboice is one of the finest in Ireland. Its top +has been broken off by lightning, but what remains of it is 110 feet in +height. It must have been at least 130 feet high when perfect, which would +make it one of the highest of the round towers of Ireland. The mason work +is of the very best kind, although the stones are uncut, and were +evidently found in the immediate neighbourhood of the tower. There is a +peculiarity about this tower which is not to be seen in any other +structure of the same kind--it is not quite perpendicular. The author of +the great book on ancient Irish architecture, already referred to, says +that "it leans to one side on the north-west, and has a very peculiar +curve. Where the curve commences a distinct change of masonry is visible. +When the tower was built to this height the foundation began to settle +down, and when this was perceived the builders very skilfully carried up +the building in a nearly vertical line, so as to counteract the tendency +to lean and to preserve the centre of gravity." It seems a pity that the +Board of Works does not repair this splendid structure, and put a new top +of antique model on it; it would be, if perfect, the grandest of Irish +round towers. + +Monasterboice became a ruin many centuries before Mellifont; the latter +continued to be a Catholic religious establishment down to the time of +Elizabeth, but Monasterboice seems to have been abandoned in the twelfth +or thirteenth century. The last notice of it, or any one connected with +it, by the Four Masters, is under the year 1122, when they record the +death of Fergna, "a wise priest." What caused this famous establishment to +be abandoned, or at least to cease to be mentioned in Irish annals at such +an early period, seems enveloped in a good deal of mystery. It was +plundered more than once by the Danes, and it may be that any wooden +buildings it contained were burnt by them and never re-erected, for, like +Clonmacnois, what remains of its two churches shows them to have been so +small that they could not accommodate any large number of persons. Being +so near Mellifont may also have led to its abandonment when the latter +place became one of the greatest religious houses in Ireland. If +Monasterboice was not so large as Mellifont, its abbots and professors +seem to have been greater scholars and harder workers than those of the +great monastery. Flann of Monasterboice was one of the most noted literary +men of ancient, or rather of mediæval, Ireland, for he flourished in the +eleventh century. He is considered one of the most truthful and correct of +Irish annalists, and has left behind him important works that have been +preserved to the present day. + +The country in the vicinity of Mellifont and Monasterboice is not only +very fair to look on, but highly interesting in an archæological point of +view. The town of Drogheda, the nearest place to the interesting ruins +treated of in this article, is the only place in their vicinity where +hotel accommodation can be found. It is full of historic interest and +curious remains of the past. But to the antiquarian, to one who wants to +see monuments as old as the Pyramids of Egypt, the _Brogha na Bóinne_, or +burghs of the Boyne, should be a great attraction. They are the most +colossal things of the kind known to exist in any part of Europe. One is +known by the name of New Grange, and the other is called Dowth. Both +places are on the Boyne, and only a few miles west of Drogheda. They are +enormous, partially underground caverns, lined and roofed with great +flag-stones. They are entirely pre-historic, and are supposed to have been +used as places in which to deposit the ashes of the dead; but their real +use can hardly be more than guessed at. It is generally thought by +archæologists that they were erected by the Tuatha de Danaans, who +occupied Ireland before the Milesians; but authentic history is silent +about these gigantic structures. More than a dozen of such structures were +discovered some years ago in the Sleeve na Caillighe Hills, near +Oldcastle, in the County Meath. They are just like those in New Grange and +Dowth, but not nearly so large. The flat stones that form the linings of +those curious caverns or tumuli are covered with incised and generally +semi-circular markings. They bear all the appearance of being writing of +some kind, but no clue to its interpretation has yet been discovered. +These markings were certainly not made for fun; neither could they have +been made for ornament, for they are _not_ ornamental. There are +thousands of them, counting what are in the tumuli on the banks of the +Boyne and in the same kind of places in the hills near Oldcastle. It is a +pity that no one competent for it has ever tried to decipher this curious +writing, for writing of some kind it certainly is. When the cuniform +inscriptions on the bricks of Assyria have been interpreted, it is strange +that no one has tried to find out the meaning of the writing on the stones +of these Irish tumuli. + + + + +TRIM CASTLE + + +Of all the buildings for defensive purposes that the Anglo-Normans, or, +more correctly, the Anglo-French, ever raised in Ireland, the castle of +Trim is the largest and most imposing. It has stood many a siege, and it +seems that one wing of it has entirely disappeared; but what remains of it +still is a gigantic structure. No other Anglo-French keep in Ireland had +such an extensive _enceinte_. There cannot be much less than three acres +of enclosed ground round it. The outworks have been, to a large extent, +demolished, but enough of them remains to show that when the castle was in +repair, when its outward defences were perfect, and before the invention +of gunpowder, it could have defied the largest army that ever Irish king +or chieftain led. The place chosen for the site of this castle is +perfectly flat. It is not on a hill. Its builder seems to have known that +its six feet thick walls would be impregnable to any army that could be +brought against it, whether it was on a hill or in a hollow. Its situation +is very fine on the banks of the Boyne, and in the centre of a country +considered by many to be the richest land in Ireland. + +[Illustration: TRIM CASTLE.] + +Never did any people bring the art of castle-building to such perfection +as did the Anglo-French; and, strange as it may appear, it was not in +England they raised their finest castles, but in Wales and in Ireland. +They must have known almost immediately after the battle of Hastings that +no serious resistance would ever be made against them in England, but they +were not so sure about Ireland and Wales; there do not seem, therefore, +to have been any castles erected by them in England during the twelfth and +thirteenth centuries as fine as those they erected in those parts of their +dominions like Ireland and Wales, that were not fully conquered. Conway +and Caernarvon Castles in Wales, and Trim Castle in Ireland, are thought +to be the finest they ever erected. With all the architectural skill the +Greeks and Romans possessed, it is very doubtful if they understood the +art of castle building as well as the Norman-French did. The latter built +buildings that would last almost as long as the earth itself. That part of +the walls of Trim Castle that yet remains is as sound as it was the day it +was built; and if let alone and not overturned by an earthquake it will be +as sound a thousand years hence as it is to-day. + +[Illustration: TRIM CASTLE.] + +Trim Castle was built towards the close of the twelfth century by Hugo de +Lacy, the greatest castle builder ever the Anglo-French produced. He built +the great castle at Clonmacnois, which has been already described. He +built another fine one in Carlow, and was building the castle of Durrow, +in the King's County, when a young Irishman, who had evidently come +prepared to kill him, struck off his head with a blow of an axe as he was +stooping down to examine the work. If Hugo de Lacy had not been killed, he +would certainly have built many more castles, not only in the English +Pale, but throughout Ireland. But Trim Castle was the finest structure of +its kind that he ever raised. Lewis' Irish Topography says that the Castle +of Trim was built in 1220. This is just such a mistake as one would expect +to find in books like it, Hall's, and others of their kind, which were +written by persons almost wholly unacquainted with the history of the +country about which they wrote, and entirely unacquainted with its +language and native literature. Trim Castle must have been built before +1186, for Hugo de Lacy was killed in that year. The same extraordinary +publication says that Trim was burned by Connor O'Melaghlin in 1108, and +that over two hundred people were burned in the monastery. It would be +interesting to know where Lewis got his information about this matter. He +did not get it from any authentic source, for the annals of the Four +Masters, the annals of Clonmacnois, the annals of Inisfallan, the annals +of Ulster, and the _Chronicon Scottorum_ are all silent about it. + +Hugo de Lacy was undoubtedly the greatest of the Anglo-French invaders of +Ireland. Although he was killed, he was not killed for any other cause +except that of his having been an invader; for in spite of his +castle-building propensities, he was in no way prejudiced against the +native Irish. This is proved by his having married a daughter of Roderick +O'Connor, King of Connacht, and nominally, but only nominally, King of +Ireland. For having done so, he was recalled from the nominal government +of Ireland with which he had been entrusted by Henry the Second; but +Henry, probably finding that he could not get anyone else so well fitted +for the office, allowed him to retain it. But Hugo appears to have again +given offence to Henry on account of his leniency to the Irish lords who +were under him, and Prince John, who was afterwards King, was sent to +Ireland by Henry because Hugo did not exact any tribute from the Irish. We +are not told how he got out of this scrape, and he was killed the next +year. He was buried in Bective Abbey, but his body was afterwards removed +to Dublin. Hugo de Lacy seems to have been as friendly to the Irish as it +was possible for one in his position to be, and it is almost certain that +he cherished the hope of bringing the whole island under his rule and +making himself King. It was evidently his ambition, of which Henry appears +to have been fully aware, that caused the trouble between him and his +master. That the Irish petty kings, and the Irish people of the time, +would have accepted the rule of a stranger who had proved himself a strong +man, is very probable, for the country was in the very deepest slough of +political confusion and anarchy. Never, during the worst times of Danish +plundering, had Ireland been in such a state of political chaos as she was +in the twelfth century. The usurpation of the chief kingship by Brian +Boramha was followed by a century and a half of revolution caused by those +who aspired to be chief kings. O'Brians, O'Connors, O'Lochlainns, Mac +Murroughs, all aspirants for the monarchy, made the island, as the Four +Masters so graphically put it, "a shaking sod," and the Irish would have +accepted the rule of anyone who would have saved them from themselves. It +was the state of political chaos into which the country had fallen that +accounts for the slight resistance that Strongbow met in Ireland. The +Northmen were met by the sword, and fought for over two hundred years, +until they were, if not entirely banished, at least reduced to political +powerlessness; but a mere handful of invaders, whose military prowess was +in no way superior to that of the Northmen, became, _de facto_, the rulers +of the country in a few years after they had landed. It is more than +probable that if Hugo de Lacy had lived, he would have risked a war with +Henry, and have tried to make himself King of Ireland; and it is more than +probable that the Irish would have willingly accepted his rule. + +If de Lacy's gigantic castle had never been built in Trim, it would still +be an historic place. According to the most authentic annals, St Patrick +founded a church there as early as 432, and Bishop Ere is the first name +that is mentioned in connection with it after that of St Patrick. Trim +continued to be an important place on account of its castle and its Church +of St Mary's, until the time of Cromwell. It was strongly garrisoned by +the Royalists; but after hearing of the taking of Drogheda, and the +shocking massacre committed there, the garrison surrendered. Only one +gable of the old Church of St Mary's remains. Judging by the great height +of the part that remains, the Church must have been a very large one. The +exact date of the building of the church or monastery to which the +still-standing tower or steeple belonged, is not known with certainty, but +it could not have formed part of the original one erected in the time of +St Patrick. + +The most celebrated place in the immediate vicinity of Trim is Dangan +Castle, where the Duke of Wellington is said by some to have been born. +When Dangan passed out of the Duke's family, it was inhabited by a person +who let it go partially to ruin. It was burned early in the present +century, and is now an unsightly ruin. It is curious that there should be +such doubt about the birth-place of one who made such a figure in the +world as Wellington. Some say he was born in Dangan Castle; some say he +was born in Dublin; but the people of Trim maintain that he was born in +their town. The last time the writer was in Trim he was shown the house in +which the Duke was said to have been born. He was told by a truthful and +respectable resident of Trim that the Duke's mother had started from +Dangan on her way to Dublin so that she might have the best medical aid +during her expected accouchement, but having been taken ill when she got +as far as Trim, she took lodgings in the town, and that it was there the +Duke of Wellington was born. The exact truth about the matter will +probably never be known. + +A curious story is told in Trim about the early boyhood of Wellington. It +is said that he clomb the still standing tower or gable of the old church +so high that he found it impossible to get down, and was in a position of +great danger. All the ropes and ladders in the town were brought out, but +it was found impossible to get him down. A rough tower like that at Trim +might be clomb easily enough, but it might not be so easy to get down. The +afterwards victor of Waterloo was told that he could not be saved, and +that, if he had any will to make, to make it without delay. He is said to +have taken the announcement very coolly, and to have willed his tops, +balls, and other playthings to the boys that were his favourites, and not +to have shed a tear or shown any fear whatever. After having been many +hours in his dangerous and far from comfortable situation, he was at +length, and with great difficulty, rescued. + +The country round Trim is most interesting and full of ruined fanes. The +church of Trim was believed to contain an image or picture of the Virgin, +at which we are told many and extraordinary miracles were performed. Trim +was a sort of Irish Lourdes in the middle ages, to which the sick and +suffering used to go in multitudes. There was also the Abbey of Newtown, +the ruins of which still stand on the banks of the Boyne close by Trim. It +was founded in the year 1206 by Simon Rochefort, Bishop of Meath, the +first Englishman that is known to have had so high an ecclesiastical +position in Ireland after the invasion. The ruins of Bective Abbey are +only a few miles up the river from Trim, in a beautiful situation on the +banks of the "clear, bright Boyne," as the old Gaelic poets loved to call +it. Bective was founded for the Cistercian order by O'Melachlinn, King of +Meath, about the middle of the twelfth century. It is a beautiful ruin, +and in a beautiful locality. + +There is, perhaps, no part of Ireland more interesting to the antiquarian, +the historian, or the lover of rich landscapes than the valley of the +Boyne. That little stream is the most historic waterway in Ireland. Its +name occurs oftener in Irish history and legend than that of any other +river. On its banks are to be seen the pre-historic tumuli of New Grange +and Dowth, the oldest monuments of pre-historic civilisation that have yet +been discovered on Irish soil. The Boyne may be said to be the river of +Tara, for it flows almost at the foot of that hill so celebrated in Irish +history, legend, and song. + + + + +CONG ABBEY + + +It is doubtful if there is in Ireland--there certainly is not in the +province of Connacht--a more interesting ruin than Cong Abbey. Its +situation is beautiful, between two great lakes, with a background of some +of the wildest and ruggedest mountains in Ireland. It would be hard to +conceive of a place more suited for a life of religious meditation than +this venerable pile, into which he who is called Ireland's last chief king +retired to bewail his sins and lament for the power that his own +pusillanimity and carelessness had allowed to pass away from him and his +family for ever. If Roderick O'Connor was the last of Ireland's monarchs, +he was also one of her worst. History hardly tells of a good act of his +except the endowment of the Abbey of Cong; and the greater the light is +that is thrown on the history of Ireland by the translation of her ancient +annals, the weaker and more imbecile the character of Roderick appears, +and the more just and merited that which Moore says of him in his history +of Ireland:--"The only feeling the name [of Roderick] awakens is that of +pity for the doomed country which at such a crisis of its fortunes, when +honour, safety, independence, and national existence were all at stake, +was cursed for the crowning of its evil destiny with a ruler and leader so +entirely unworthy of his high calling." If the Anglo-French invasion of +Ireland had occurred in the reign of his brave and warlike father, +Turloch, one of the greatest of those who claimed the chief sovereignty of +Ireland, the invaders would almost certainly have been all killed within a +month after they landed, and the subsequent history of Ireland would +probably be very different from what it has been. + +Irish annals tell us that the first religious establishment in Cong was +founded by St Fechin in the year 624; but John O'Donovan says in a note in +his translation of the Four Masters that Roderick O'Connor founded and +endowed the Abbey of Cong. That a religious house of some kind was founded +in it by St Fechin there can be no doubt at all, for up to a recent period +it was known as Cunga Fechin, or Cong of Fechin. O'Donovan may have meant +that Roderick O'Connor endowed and founded the abbey, the remains of +which exist at present, for not a vestige of the original building +founded by St Fechin remains. It was, like most of the very early churches +and religious houses of ancient Ireland, built entirely of wood, and has +consequently long ago disappeared. Cong was originally a bishopric. There +were five bishoprics in the province of Connacht--namely, Tuam, Killala, +Clonfert, Ardcharne, and Cong. The Synod that settled the question of the +bishoprics of Connacht met at Rathbrassil, in what is now the Queen's +County, in 1010. The abbey, the remains of which still exist, was founded +in 1128 by the Augustinians, during the reign of Roderick O'Connor's +heroic father, Turloch. Roderick subsequently endowed it, and ended his +days in it. It is an interesting and suggestive fact that most of the +great religious establishments of Ireland were not only founded but built +in the material that now remains of them before the Anglo-French invasion, +showing clearly that that event put a stop to almost everything that could +be called progress. The invaders, although professing the same faith as +the invaded, were much more anxious to build castles than churches. There +was hardly a castle in Ireland before the time of Strongbow. This was not +caused by ignorance of the art of building among the Irish, for some of +the round towers and churches erected long before the time of Strongbow +are as perfect specimens of architecture as were erected in any country at +the same period. The native Irish king, or chief, was contented with a +wooden house surrounded by an embankment, capped with a palisade of wood; +but the Norman raised mighty edifices of stone to protect him from the +wrath of those he had robbed. + +Cong Abbey is a large building nearly 150 feet in length. Few of the +ancient churches of Ireland are any longer, and many of them are not +nearly so long. It would be a mistake to say that the ruins at Cong are in +a good state of preservation, for traces of violence and vandalism are +apparent almost everywhere on them. The whole place has a terribly +dilapidated look. It has been said that only for ivy and the Guinnesses +the Abbey of Cong would have tumbled down long ago. It is true that ivy +has prevented great masses of masonry from falling; and it is true that +the late Sir Benjamin Guinness did a good deal of mending on the old +walls. But it was before his time, when religious intolerance was worse +than it is at present, that Cong Abbey was mutilated and defaced. It is +sad to know that there is hardly an old religious edifice in Ireland that +has not suffered from sectarian animosity. The ruins of Mellifont, near +Drogheda, have been torn up from their foundations, so that hardly a trace +of that once magnificent abbey now remains except the crypts and the vast +walls and fosses by which it was surrounded. Ruthless vandals tried their +best with sledges and hammers to overthrow the great cross of +Monasterboice in Louth, but the stone of which it consists was too hard +for them, for they only succeeded in mutilating what they could not +destroy. + +In its present dilapidated condition it is hardly possible to form a +correct idea of what Cong Abbey was in the days of its splendour. It is +almost impossible, also, to form an exact idea of its general plan, for +many comparatively modern additions have evidently been made to it. Its +having been used as a burying place within recent times has, as the same +thing has done at Clonmacnois, sadly interfered with its picturesqueness. +But, as at Mellifont, "enough of its glory remains" to show that it must +have been a building of exquisite beauty. Some of its floral capitals +carved on limestone are as fine specimens of the carver's art as can be +found anywhere in the world. Both Sir William Wilde and Doctor Petrie +agree in this. There was probably no abbey in Ireland that contained more +beautiful specimens of the carver's art than Cong. Vast numbers of its +sculptured stones have been defaced by vandalism or carried away to build +walls or out-houses. It is not easy to know what was the exact extent of +the gardens or mensal grounds of the abbey, for the walls that enclosed +them cannot be fully traced, and are not intact like the walls around the +Abbey of Boyle in the County Roscommon. The Abbey of Cong seems to have +been the great depository for the precious things of the province of +Connacht. The Order of Augustinians, to whom it belonged, was very rich, +and had vast possessions in the province, and it would seem that no abbey +in it was as rich as that of Cong. In it were kept deeds, books, records, +and many other precious things, all of which have disappeared save the +marvellously beautiful cross now to be seen in the Dublin Museum, and +which artists and connoisseurs have pronounced to be "the finest piece of +metal work of its age to be found in Europe." It is known from the Gaelic +inscription on the Cross of Cong that it was made in Roscommon, for the +name of the maker is identified with that town. The fact of such a +priceless relic and such a gem of art having been kept in the Abbey of +Cong shows that it was considered to be the most important and most secure +place in the province. The Cross of Cong was supposed to be formed from +part of the real cross. The Irish inscription on it is perfectly legible, +and can be easily understood by any one who knows the modern language. The +name of the maker is on it, and also that of Turloch O'Connor, who claimed +to be chief King of Ireland, and for whom it was made in the year 1123. + +The Abbey of Cong was never plundered by the Danes; if it was, no record +of its having been plundered is to be found in the Annals of the Four +Masters, or in the Annals of Loch Key. This fact of Cong not having +suffered from the Danes would seem to show that it did not contain much +wealth during the ninth and tenth centuries, when the maraudings of the +Norsemen were at their worst. If the Abbey of Cong was worth plundering, +it is hard to conceive how it could have been spared by them. It is +probable that the church founded there by St Fechin was very small, and +that the establishment became important only when the O'Connor family rose +to prominence in the province, for it was richly endowed by Turloch and +by Roderick O'Connor, both of whom claimed to be chief kings of Ireland. + +[Illustration: CROSS OF CONG.] + +None of our ancient seats of piety and learning will repay a visit better +than Cong. In it and around it there is a great deal to interest the +antiquarian, the tourist, and the lover of Nature. The neck of land that +lies between Loch Corrib and Loch Mask is one of the most curious, varied, +and beautiful spots in Ireland. It has rushing, limpid rivers above, and +boiling, roaring ones below. The whole country in the vicinity of Cong +seems to be honeycombed by subterranean waters. There is probably as much +running water underground and overground in the narrow strip of country +between Loch Corrib and Loch Mask as would turn all the grist mills in +Ireland, but unfortunately there is hardly a wheel moved by it. + +There is much in the vicinity of Cong, outside of its glorious old abbey, +to interest both the antiquarian and the tourist. It was close to it that +the greatest battle history records as having been fought on Irish soil +took place--namely, that of Moy Tuireadh, between the Firbolgs and the +Tuatha de Danaans, a full account of which will be found in Sir William +Wilde's charming book "Loch Corrib," which should be read by every one +who desires to visit Cong or its vicinity. + +Cong is very nearly on the road to Connemara, which, with the exception of +parts of Donegal, is the wildest, most savage, and most extraordinary part +of Ireland. Those who want to see all the wildness of Connemara, its +chaotic mountains, its innumerable lakes, far-entering bays, and +illimitable bogs, should drive from Cong, or from Oughterard to Clifden, +and go from there to Galway by rail. Whoever travels that route will see +some of the most charming as well as some of the most terrific scenery in +Ireland. He will see more lakes than can be found on an area of equal size +in any part of the known world. If the visit is made when the heath is in +full bloom, he will have such a world of flowers to feast his eyes on as +can hardly be seen anywhere else, not even in Ireland. + +Loch Corrib, at the head of which Cong is situated, is one of the great +lakes of Ireland. The traveller going to Cong sails up it from Galway. +There is not very much of antiquarian interest on its shores or on its +islands, save the ruins of _Caisleán na Ceirce_, or the Hen's Castle. They +are on a promontory on the lake. It is not a very old building, being +probably of the fourteenth century, and was built, it is supposed, by one +of the O'Flaherties. + +There are the ruins of what antiquarians think are those of one of the +oldest churches ever erected in Ireland, on the bleak island of +Incha-goile. There are also the ruins of another church on the same +island; but judging from the extremely archaic architecture of the one +first mentioned, it must be many centuries older than the other. Both +churches must have been very small. + +But although the lower part of Loch Corrib cannot boast of much scenic +beauty, its upper part is magnificent. It thrusts its sinuous arms up into +the wildest recesses of the Joyce Country, and among mountains of +fantastic forms. The Joyce Country, _Duthaigh Sheoghach_ in Gaelic, has +ever been remarkable for the gigantic size of its men. There have been +scores of Joyces who were from six feet four to six feet six in height, +and stout in proportion. There are still some of its men of immense size. +It is said that not so very long ago a giant Joyce was going home from a +fair or market, and that a faction of ten men who were not on perfectly +friendly terms with him, followed him to beat or perhaps kill him. Joyce +had no weapons or means of defence of any kind, so he unyoked the horse +from the cart or dray on which he was riding, tore it to pieces, armed +himself with one of its shafts as a "shillelagh," and awaited his enemies; +but they seem not to have liked being hit with the shaft of a cart and +retreated. Those who like can believe or not believe this story. It is +given as the writer heard it from a very respectable gentleman who knew +Joyce. + + + + +LOCH DERG + + +This is another of the great lakes of Ireland. It is over twenty miles +long and between two and three miles in average breadth. It is really +curious that a small island like Ireland should have so many immense lakes +in it. There is, probably, no other country in the world of the same +size--there is certainly no island of the same size--on which so much +fresh water is to be found. It would seem as if nature intended Ireland +for a continent, and not for an island, by giving it lakes so entirely +disproportioned to its size. + +Loch Derg, anciently called Deirgdheirc, and at present pronounced Dharrig +by the peasantry, would be the most beautiful of all the great lakes of +Ireland if its islands were as numerous as those of Loch Erne, or even of +Loch Ree. It has the defect that almost all lakes have whose shores are +mountainous or hilly. Want of islands is the great drawback to the +picturesqueness of most of the Scotch lakes and those of the north of +England. A few islands do not add much to the beauty of a lake. There +must be plenty of them to produce full effect. The few islands in Loch +Lomond, because they are so few, hardly add to its beauty. The islands in +Loch Derg are very few, and the most picturesque of them are so near the +shore that they seem part of it to the voyager on the lake. There is one +very large island, Illaunmore--the great island, as its name +signifies--but it does not add very much to the scenic attractions. The +charms of Loch Derg are its semi-mountainous shores. It would be incorrect +to call the bold hills on either side of the lake mountains, for very few +of them reach an altitude of more than a thousand feet; but they are most +graceful in their outlines, and are, for the most part, covered with +luxuriant grass up to their very summits. The lake is by no means +straight; its shores are tortuous and full of indentations, so that there +is a good deal of change of scene when sailing on it. But if the tourist +or traveller who wishes to sail on Loch Derg is not what is usually called +a "good sailor," he should consult the barometer before he goes on to this +great lake, for sometimes, when the south-west wind sweeps up its twenty +or twenty-five miles of water, a sea almost worthy of the Channel will +sometimes rise in a very short time. Many a sea-sick passenger used to be +seen in the good times long ago on Loch Derg, when large side-wheel +passenger boats used to run regularly between Athlone and Killaloe. Those +boats were large enough to carry over a hundred passengers without being +in the least crowded, and the cabins were large enough to accommodate +fifty people at dinner. A trip from Athlone to Killaloe on a fast boat +would, on a fine summer day, be one of the most enjoyable things in the +way of an excursion by water that can be imagined. It is over thirty years +since the writer experienced the pleasure of it, and the remembrance of +its enjoyableness haunts him still. The shores of Loch Derg are much +wilder than the shores of Loch Erne or Loch Ree. Very few houses, and +nothing that could be called a town, can be seen through the whole +twenty-five miles of the lake. The hills that bound it both on the Munster +and on the Connacht sides are almost altogether grass land, and very +little cultivation is therefore to be seen. But the bold, winding shores +and the green hills form a landscape of a very striking kind, and there +are many who maintain that the scenery of Loch Derg is finer than that of +Loch Ree. Both lakes are magnificent sheets of water, and environed with a +fair and goodly country; and were they anywhere else but in Ireland, +their waters would be the highway for dozens of steamers, while at present +they are almost deserted, and may be said to be + + "As lone and silent + As the great waters of some desert land." + +Loch Derg is full of interest for the antiquarian, especially its lower +part. One of the most ancient and important ecclesiastical establishments +of ancient Ireland, Iniscealtra, the island of the churches, is on its +western shore, close to the land, separated from it only by about a +quarter of a mile of water. Iniscealtra was one of the most important +places of its kind in the south of Ireland. It was founded by St Cainin +certainly not later than the end of the sixth or beginning of the seventh +century, for he died in 653. John O'Donovan in his unpublished letters +says that he is represented in ancient Irish literature as "A very holy +man, a despiser of the world, and an inexorable chastiser of the flesh. He +is said to have been author of commentaries on the Psalms. He was buried +in Iniscealtra." There is a fine round tower in Iniscealtra which is +traditionally supposed to have been built by St Senanus. It is eighty feet +in height, and in fairly good preservation, but it wants the top. The +ruins of St Cainin's Church show it to have been a small building. There +are the ruins of two other churches on the island, one called St Mary's +and the other St Michael's. The establishments on Iniscealtra are of very +great antiquity. It is first mentioned in the Annals of the Four Masters +under the year 548, recording the death of St Colam in the island. The +oldest church in it was dedicated to St Cainin, who was evidently the +founder of the place, and the first who sought it as a retreat. He is said +to have lived for a long time in a solitary cell, until the fame for +holiness he acquired brought an immense number of disciples, for whom he +erected a noble monastery in the island, which afterwards became famous. +The ruins of St Cainin's Church prove that it must have been a very +beautiful building. It was thought by Petrie and other antiquarians that +it and the very beautiful one of Killaloe were erected during the short +time in the tenth and eleventh centuries when Brian Boramha and Malachy +the Second, by their victories over the Danes, gave the country some rest +from the plunderings of those marauders. + +At the extreme lower end of Loch Derg is the small but ancient town of +Killaloe. Its real name is Cill Dalua, it was called after an ecclesiastic +of the name of Dalua, sometimes written Malua, who lived in the sixth +century. He placed his disciple, Flannan, over the church. He was made +Bishop of Killaloe in the seventh century. The church is known generally +as St Flannan's. The Earl of Dunraven, speaking of the beauty of the ruins +of this church and the buildings attached to it, says, "These ancient +buildings are on a wooded hill which slopes in a gentle incline down to +the brink of the Shannon. The cathedral and small stone-roofed church +stand side by side, and the walls of the latter are thickly covered with +ivy. Nothing can be more impressive than the aspect of this venerable and +simple building, surrounded by majestic trees, and hidden in deep shadows +of thick foliage. A solemn mystery seems to envelop its ancient walls, and +the silence is only broken by the sound of the river that rolls its great +volume of water along the base of the hill on which it stands." + +But the most historic and probably the most interesting thing about +Killaloe is the site of King Brian's palace of Kincora, a place so famed +in history and song. Perhaps it will be better to let such a famous man on +Irish history and archæology as O'Donovan tell about Kincora. He says in +his unpublished letters while on the Ordnance Survey: "On the summit of +the hill opposite the bridge of Killaloe stood Brian Boramha's palace of +Kincora, but not a trace of it is now visible. It must have extended from +the verge of the hill over the Shannon, to where the present Roman +Catholic chapel stands. I fear that it will be impracticable to show its +site on the Ordnance map, as no field works are visible. Of the history of +the palace of Kincora little or nothing is known, but from the few +references to it we occasionally find, we may safely infer that it was +first erected by Brian, _Imperator Scottorum_, and that it was not more +than two centuries inhabited by his successors. Kincora was demolished in +1088 by Donnell MacLachlin, king of Aileach (Ulster), and we are told that +he took 160 hostages consisting of Danes and Irish." Kincora must have +been rebuilt after it was demolished by MacLachlin, for we are told in the +Annals of the Four Masters that in 1107 Kincora and Cashel were burned by +lightning, and sixty vats of metheglin and beer were destroyed; but it +must have been again rebuilt, for the same annals say that in 1118 Turloch +O'Connor (King of Connacht), at the head of a great army of Connachtmen, +burned Kincora and hurled it, both stones and timber, into the Shannon. +Kincora was, like all dwelling-places in those times, built almost +entirely of wood; and it is hardly to be wondered at that after having +been burned so often by man and by the elements, no vestige of it should +remain. It has been completely wiped out. + +A description of Kincora would hardly be complete without giving MacLiag's +Lament for it, translated by Clarence Mongan. MacLiag was chief poet and +secretary to Brian Boramha. The poem is little known even in Ireland; to +the English reader it will be absolutely new. The writer gives two prime +reasons for reproducing it; one, because it is such a very fine poem; and +the other, because it has heretofore never been correctly given. + + MACLIAG'S LAMENT FOR KINCORA. + + "Where, oh Kincora, is Brian the Great? + And where is the beauty that once was thine? + Oh where are the princes and nobles that sate + At the feasts in thy halls and drank the red wine, + Where, oh Kincora? + + "Where, oh Kincora, are thy valorous lords, + Oh whither, thou Hospitable, are they gone? + Oh where the Dalcassians of cleaving swords, + And where are the heroes that Brian led on, + Where, oh Kincora? + + "And where is Morough, descendant of kings, + Defeater of hundreds, the daringly brave, + Who set but light store on jewels and rings, + Who swam down the torrent and laughed at the wave, + Where, oh Kincora? + + "And where is Donagh, King Brian's brave son, + And where is Conaing, the beautiful chief, + And Cian and Corc? alas, they are gone! + They have left me this night all alone in my grief, + Alone, oh Kincora! + + "And where are the chiefs with whom Brian went forth, + The ne'er vanquished sons of Evin the Brave, + The great King of Eogh'nacht,[12] renowned for his worth, + And Baskin's great host from the western wave, + Where, oh Kincora? + + "And where is Duvlann of the swift-footed steeds, + And where is Cian who was son of Molloy, + And where is King Lonergan, the fame of whose deeds + In the red battle-field, no time can destroy? + Where, oh Kincora? + + "And where is the youth of majestic height, + The faith-keeping prince of the Scotts?[13] even he, + As wide as his fame was, as great as his might, + Was tributary, oh Kincora, to thee, + To thee, oh Kincora! + + "They are gone, those heroes of royal birth, + Who plundered no churches and broke no trust + 'Tis weary for me to be living on earth + When they, oh Kincora, lie low in the dust. + Low, oh Kincora! + + "Oh never again will princes appear + To rival Dalcassians of cleaving swords! + I can ne'er dream of meeting afar or near, + In the east or the west, such heroes and lords, + Never, Kincora! + + "Oh dear are the images mem'ry calls up + Of Brian Boru,[14] how he never would miss + To give me at banquet the first bright cup,-- + Oh, why did he heap on me honour like this, + Why, oh Kincora? + + "I am MacLiag, and my home's on the lake; + And oft to that palace whose beauty has fled + Came Brian to ask me,--I went for his sake;-- + Oh my grief! that I live when Brian is dead! + Dead, oh Kincora!" + +So far the demolished palace of Brian, and the writer, like Brian himself, +"returns to Kincora no more." + +No lover of the beauties of nature should be on this part of the Shannon +and not visit the great rapids of Doonass. They are only about ten miles +below Killaloe. If seen when the river is full they are the grandest thing +of their kind in the British Isles. The Shannon here looks like a +continental river, containing ordinarily a volume of water greater than +any river in France. The country round Doonass, though flat, is +superlatively beautiful. The limpid, rushing river flows on among meadows +and pastures of the brightest verdure, adorned with stately trees, and +bright in summer-time with innumerable flowers. There is nothing terrible +or awe-inspiring about Doonass. It is quiet and peaceful in the true sense +of the word. Even the great rushing river, as it glides down the gentle +slope of the rapids, makes no noise except a deep, musical murmur that +would lull to sleep rather than startle. The rapids of Doonass form a +scene so incomparably lovely, and so unlike anything to be seen in Great +Britain, or to be seen in any other part of Ireland, that it is a wonder +they are not better known. They can be reached best from Limerick, being +not over three miles from that city. One of the most curious things about +those grand and beautiful rapids, is the almost total ignorance which +exists about them, not only in Great Britain, but in Ireland itself. If +they were situated on a wild, hard-to-be-got-at part of the Shannon, the +general ignorance that exists about them among seekers after the +beautiful, would not excite so much wonder. A scene of such great beauty +and uniqueness, so near a fine and interesting city like Limerick, to be +so little known to those who go so far in search of the beautiful, shows +how much the world at large, and even the Irish themselves, have to learn +about Ireland. If the rapids of Doonass were in England, or even in the +United States, there would be not only one, but perhaps three or four +hotels on their banks,--hotels which would be full of guests every summer. +Let us hope that the beauties of this charming place will be soon better +known. + + + + +HOLYCROSS ABBEY + + +The situation of this abbey, like most places of its kind in Ireland, is +very beautiful--on the banks of the gentle-flowing Suir, and surrounded by +a fine fertile country. Holycross is thought to have been, with the +exception of Mellifont, the largest of the ancient churches of Ireland. +There is some doubt as to the exact time of its foundation--some +authorities say the year 1182, and others 1208. The probability is that +both dates may, in a certain sense, be correct. It may have been begun to +be built in 1182, and may not have been finished before 1208. Although +founded after the Anglo-French invasion, it was a purely Irish +institution, for all authorities say that it was founded by Donagh +Cairbreach O'Brian, King of Munster, and that it was founded on account of +his having obtained what was believed to be a piece of the cross on which +Christ suffered. It is called in Irish annals _Mainister na croiche +naoimhe_, or Monastery of the Holy Cross. This relic is said, on good +authority, to be at present in the keeping of the nuns of the Presentation +Order at Black Rock, near Cork. O'Brian, the founder of the Church, +endowed it with a great tract of land, so that it was for many centuries +one of the most important places of its kind, not only in the province of +Munster, but in Ireland. + +[Illustration: HOLYCROSS ABBEY.] + +Holycross is two miles from the neat and thriving town of Thurles, in the +County Tipperary. Unlike so many ruined shrines of former days, and +especially unlike Mellifont in the County Louth, most of the walls of +Holycross still remain. The existing ruins show it to have been a large +church. Its length is 130 feet; the nave is 58 by 49 feet. The entire +ruins are very beautiful and impressive, and their situation on the banks +of the Suir, amid as fine pastoral scenery as can be found in the fine +county of Tipperary, make them well worth a visit. Holycross was founded +for the Cistercian order, and remained in undamaged condition until the +suppression of monasteries in the latter part of the seventeenth century. +It appeals that it lost its distinctively Irish character soon after +English domination became established in Ireland, for in 1267 it was +subjected by the abbot of Clairveaux to the abbey of Furness in England. +It is the opinion of many antiquarians and judges of ecclesiastical +structures that many additions and alterations were made to and in the +abbey, and some of them in comparatively recent times. Some judges of +church architecture have been loud in their praise of the beauties of the +ruins of Holycross, while others have expressed their disappointment. + +Here is the testimony of O'Donovan, one of the greatest of Irish +antiquarians, on the subject: "The ruins of this abbey entirely +disappointed my expectations. The architecture of the choir and side +chapel is indeed truly beautiful, but they are not lofty, but the nave and +side aisles are contemptible. I am certain, however, that this newer part +of the abbey is not more than four centuries old." + +The sepulchral monument that was erected to the memory of Elizabeth, +daughter of Gerald, Earl of Kildare, who died about the year 1400, is +considered one of the most chaste, remarkable, and beautiful things of its +kind in Ireland. If nothing remained of Holycross but this remarkable +monument, it would be well worth a visit. + +There is not so much historical interest connected with Holycross as there +is with smaller establishments of its kind throughout Ireland. It was +founded too late to be plundered by the Danes, and in all the troublesome +times between its foundation and the time when it was abandoned, it does +not seem to have been plundered or burned, neither do the vandals seem to +have damaged or defaced it much. It is a beautiful and impressive ruin +that will for a long time to come attract the notice of lovers of the +abandoned fanes that are to be found in almost every parish of +Ireland--the land that is richer in ruins than perhaps any other country +in the world, Egypt alone excepted. + + + + +DUNLUCE CASTLE + + +If Cashel is the most remarkable ecclesiastical ruin in Ireland owing to +its situation, Dunluce Castle is, for the same reason, the most remarkable +military one. Cashel has, however, the advantage of being remarkable from +whatever side it is looked at; but Dunluce is remarkable only when seen +from the sea, or from the strand from which the rock the ruins rest on +rises. From the road that goes along the shore, Dunluce looks absolutely +disappointing, because the road is as high, apparently somewhat higher, +than the castle itself. But seen from a boat on the sea under it, or from +the base of the cliffs on which the road to it runs, it forms the grandest +and most imposing sight of a Viking's ruined stronghold that is to be seen +anywhere in Europe. The rock on which the ruins stand rises sheer from the +sea to the height of over a hundred feet. Before the castle was built on +it, the rock was completely isolated, and must have been an island, +standing about thirty feet from the mainland. Across the profound gulf +that separated the rock from the land, a mighty bridge of solid masonry +has been erected, over which all who enter the castle must pass. This +bridge is only about twenty inches wide, and few, except masons, or those +who are accustomed to ascend heights, would care to cross it, for there is +not, or at least there was not in 1873, a rope, railing, or protection of +any kind for those who wanted to visit the ruins of the castle. No one but +such as have steady nerves and good heads should think of crossing this +bridge, for a fall from it would mean certain death on the jagged rocks +more than a hundred feet below. + +[Illustration: DUNLUCE CASTLE.] + +The first thing that strikes one after examining the ruins is the unusual +thinness of the walls. They are no thicker than those of a modern +stone-built house. The reason of this is easily understood; for when the +castle was built, which must have been before cannons were so perfected +that they could be used for battering down buildings, it was absolutely +impregnable, as no battering-ram, or mediæval siege-engine, could by any +possibility approach near enough to the walls to be used against them. +There was, therefore, no necessity that the walls should be thick. The +space on the top of the rock is entirely covered with the ruins of the +castle. The walls rise up sheer from the most outward margins of the rock. +On looking out from one of the narrow windows the sea is straight below +one. When the castle was inhabited its inmates must have had an awful +experience during the storms that so often sweep over the wild west and +north coast of Ireland, when the giant waves of the stormiest ocean in the +world beat against the rock on which the ruins stand. If such a place was +secure against the assaults of men, it was not secure against the fury of +the elements; and it would seem that some of the cliff did at one time +give way, for there are some gaps in the walls that appear to have been +caused by rock, upon which they were built, having given way. + +The Giant's Causeway and Dunseverick Castle are both in the immediate +vicinity of Dunluce, only a few miles west of it; both are well worth +seeing; but nothing on all that magnificent, iron-bound, cliff-guarded +coast of Antrim can compare in interest with Dunluce. The isolated, almost +sea-surrounded rock on which it stands, the great bridge that connects it +with the mainland, the narrow and dangerous footpath overlooking horrible +depths, and over which the castle can only be entered, make it one of the +grandest and most suggestive ruins in the world. Dunluce is a revelation. +It shows, perched on its storm-beaten, once impregnable rock, the awful +savagery of the time when might was the only law recognised by humanity; +and that only a few centuries ago life and property were no safer in +Christendom than they are to-day in the Soudan. + +The name Dunluce is a combination of the two most generally used Irish +words to express a military stronghold _dun_ and _lios_, and may be +translated "strong fort"; and strong it must have been in olden times, +when cannons were either unknown altogether, or principally remarkable for +the noise they made, and the greater danger they were to those who used +them than to those they were used against. The name of this place is +spelled _Dúnlis_ or _Dúnlios_ in ancient annals. The earliest mention of +it by the Four Masters, and in the "Annals of Loch Key," is under the year +1513. It does not appear to be mentioned in any of the other Irish annals, +unless it is mentioned in the "Annals of Ulster"; but as they have been as +yet translated only down to the year 1375, the question cannot be yet +decided. + +It is remarkable that so little is known about the early history of such a +remarkable place as Dunluce Castle. No trustworthy statement as to when +and by whom it was built has, so far, come to light. It was in the +possession of the Mac Quillins, spelled _Mac Uidhlin_ by the Four Masters, +in 1513. It then, by conquest or in some other way, passed into the hands +of Sorley Boy, one of the Scotch McDonnells, who kept it until 1584, when +it was besieged and taken by Sir John Perrott, Lord Chief Justice of +Ireland. Fifty thousand cows, and all his land in Antrim County, of which +he had an immense quantity, were taken from Sorley Boy. But he repaired to +Dublin, made his submission to Queen Elizabeth, and was reinstated in his +possessions in Antrim, but we are not told if he got back his cows. +Dunluce seems to have become a ruin early in the seventeenth century, and +is becoming more ruined every day, for it is not in the nature of things +that the sea is not gradually undermining and weakening the rock on which +the ruins stand, exposed as it is to the wrath of the stormiest ocean +probably in the world. It is said that long before Dunluce was abandoned, +the kitchen and its staff of cooks were swallowed up on a night of a +fearful gale of wind. This could only have happened by part of the rock +foundations of the castle having been washed away by the sea. The gap in +one part of the walls would seem to indicate that some such catastrophe +did occur. + +Dunluce must have been built before the invention of what is now known as +artillery. It is not possible to tell by the style of its architecture in +what century it was built, for there was practically no change in the +architecture of Irish castles for nearly four centuries. The art of +castle-building was just as well understood in the twelfth century as in +the fourteenth. Those who pretend to be able to tell within a century of +the time when a castle was built, by examining its masonry and +architecture, draw greatly on their imaginations. If Dunluce was built +after artillery had become so perfected that castles could be destroyed by +it at half a mile, or even a quarter of a mile distant, those who built +Dunluce were fools, for guns could be brought within fifty yards of it. If +it was built to resist artillery, the walls would have been made three +times as thick as they are. It was evidently built before artillery began +to be used for battering down walls. It must, therefore, have been built +before the year 1400, for even at that early date the principal use that +was made of artillery was for battering down walls. Half a dozen shots +from the very rude and imperfect artillery of the date mentioned would +have made a heap of ruins of the thin walls of Dunluce Castle. + + + + +BOYLE ABBEY + + +There are very few of the once great abbeys of Ireland of which so little +is generally known to the public as of Boyle Abbey. One reason of this may +be the remoteness of its situation, and its invisibleness from the town of +Boyle. It is not on the track of tourists, and is in a rather +uninteresting part of the country in a scenic point of view. Besides, the +Abbey is not in the town of Boyle, but over quarter of a mile from it, on +a road not so much frequented as some others in the locality. It is a +wonder that more is not known about this noble ruin. It may not be so +interesting in its architecture as Holycross, or so striking in its +situation as Cashel, but it is, nevertheless, one of the finest +ecclesiastical ruins in Ireland. + +[Illustration: BOYLE ABBEY.] + +If the country round Boyle Abbey cannot be said to be very interesting or +beautiful, the place where the ruins stand is charming. They rise from the +banks of the Boyle river, the first large tributary of the Shannon. The +river rushes under the very walls of the monastery with a rapid current, +and at its highest flood it is generally as clear as crystal, for it +rises in, or at least flows through, Loch Ui Gara, which is only a few +miles from Boyle, and its waters are filtered in that lake before they +reach Boyle. And here it may not be out of place to say that the generally +clear waters of most of the rivers of Ireland add greatly to the beauty of +its scenery. Scotch rivers are also generally clear, and the reason they +are clear is the reason why the Irish rivers are clear, and that is, +because they are filtered in the lakes through which they generally flow. +A limpid river is one of the most beautiful things in nature, but a river +of dirty water would not be beautiful if it flowed through the Garden of +Eden. Almost all rivers that are not filtered by passing through lakes are +sure to be dirty. For this reason the St Lawrence may be said to be the +only one of the great American rivers the waters of which are clear. To +know what an abomination a river of dirty water is, one should see the +Missouri. The river that rushes past the ruins of Boyle Monastery is not +only clear but limpid. Its pure, rushing waters are one of the principal +attractions in the vicinity of the ruins. + +The ruins of Boyle Abbey are very fine. The monastery was a large one, one +of the largest in Ireland, and was surrounded on almost every side with +extensive gardens. The walls of many of those gardens still remain, and +seem as sound as they were when first built. The ruins of the Monastery, +and the ruins of its adjoining buildings, are covered with the most +luxuriant growth of ivy to be seen on any ruins in Ireland. The thickness +of its stems, and the size and deep green of its leaves, are remarkable. +This extraordinary growth of ivy must eventually tumble down the walls. It +may preserve them for a time, but will destroy them in the long run. But +without its ivy and its limpid river, the ruined Monastery of Boyle, grand +and interesting as it is, would lose a great deal of its attractions. + +The ruins of the great church of Boyle, like the ruins of Cashel, and like +the historic hill of Tara, have been spoiled by the erection of modern +buildings near them. Some parson has erected here a new, intensely vulgar +gimcrack house that almost touches the hoary ruins, it is so close to +them. It entirely spoils their effect, and would disgust any one with any +veneration for the past. In no other country, perhaps, in the world has +the want of respect for the antique been more manifest among the masses +than in Ireland. In no other country have so many monuments of the past +been more wantonly destroyed, more defaced, and less respected. If it had +not been for the care exercised by the Board of Works, during the last +thirty years, most of the ruins of Ireland would now be either entirely +uprooted, or so marred, like the Rock of Cashel, or the Monastery of +Boyle, by the erection of new buildings in their vicinity, that they would +have little attraction for any one in whose soul there remained the +slightest reverence for the past. There are, however, unmistakable signs +that more patriotic and enlightened ideas about their country, and +everything relating to it, are rapidly gaining ground among all classes of +the Irish people, but especially among the more educated. Irish history, +Irish antiquities, and even the Irish language get more of the attention +of the upper and middle classes in Ireland now than they ever got before. +It seems almost a certainty that the ancient monument-defacing epoch has +passed, or is rapidly passing away from a country to which it has been a +disgrace so long. It is not enough that the Board of Works should continue +to do the good work it has been doing for the last quarter of a century in +the preservation of our ruins, it should prevent such outrageous bad taste +as the erection of new buildings in the very centre of time-honoured +monuments like those on the Rock of Cashel and on the Boyle river. + +The ancient name of Boyle was _Ath dá laarg_, that is, the "ford of two +forks." It is not easy to understand why such a curious name should have +been given to it, for the river at Boyle, even in time of floods, is +fordable, and has usually not over six or eight inches of water in it. It +has, however, been proved that the rivers of Ireland, and probably of most +other countries, had much more water in them in ancient times than at +present. The other name for Boyle was _Búil_, whence Boyle. The word +_Búil_ is entirely obsolete. It is supposed to mean handsome or beautiful. +The Monastery, of which the ruins exist, was founded in 1161 by Maurice +O'Duffy, a noted ecclesiastic of the period, but it is known that a +smaller and more ancient monastery occupied the site on which the larger +one was built at the date mentioned. Boyle Abbey was an offshoot of the +great Abbey of Mellifont in the County Louth, that had been founded some +twenty years before the Abbey of Boyle. Both abbeys belonged to the +Cistercian order; and it would appear that so many monks flocked to +Mellifont that accommodation could not be made for them all there, so the +Abbey of Boyle was erected for them. The "Annals of Boyle," known also as +the "Annals of Loch Cé, or Key," say that the Church of Boyle was +consecrated in 1220; but that the church was built in 1161 there seems no +reason to doubt. The Four Masters mention it under the year 1174. Their +last mention of it is under the year 1602, and it must have been abandoned +very soon after. It was granted to Sir John King in 1603, when it must +have ceased to be a monastery. + +No one should visit Boyle and its grand ruins and not see the two very +beautiful lakes that are near it, Loch Key and Loch Arrow. Loch Key is not +over a mile from the town, and Loch Arrow not more than three. The very +fine domain of Rockingham may be said to be almost surrounded by Loch +Key. It was on an island in this lake that the McDermotts, chieftains of +Moylurg, had a stronghold. The island has a castle on it at present, but, +seen from the shore, both island and castle appear very small. The +fortress the McDermotts had on the island must have been a sort of +_crannióg_, or wooden castle, like so many that have been discovered both +in Ireland and Scotland in the tracks of dried-up lakes. Those _cranniógs_ +were sometimes built entirely on piles, and sometimes on islands, with +extensions on piles if the water was not too deep. This last must have +been the kind of fortress the McDermotts had on Loch Key, for it must have +been much larger than the present island, and must have been large enough +to give space to a multitude of people to assemble on it. We read in the +annals of Loch Key of the following awful catastrophe that happened on it +in 1184: "The Rock of Loch Key was burned by lightning--_i.e._, the very +magnificent, kingly residence of the Muintir Maolruanaigh (the McDermotts) +where neither goods nor people of all that were there found protection; +where six or seven score of distinguished persons were destroyed, along +with fifteen men of the race of kings and chieftains, with the wife of +McDermott ... and every one of them who was not burned was drowned in +that tumultuous consternation in the entrance of the place; so that there +escaped not alive therefrom but Connor McDermott with a very small number +of the multitude of his people." The same catastrophe is mentioned by the +Four Masters, but under the year 1187. This account of the burning of the +castle, or, as the annalist calls it, a residence, shows that it was a +wooden structure, for it would hardly have been possible to burn a +building of stone so quickly that the people in it would not have had time +to escape, even if it were on an island. + +Loch Arrow is the least known of all the beautiful lakes of Ireland, and +beautiful it is in very nearly the highest style of beauty. There are no +mountains round Loch Arrow, and none to be seen from its waters; but its +numberless attractions in the way of wooded islands, bold promontories, +and swelling shores render it one of the lovely lakes of Ireland; and yet, +few, except those living in its immediate vicinity, know anything about +it, or have ever heard of it. The land near it seems to be, for the most +part, in the hands of small farmers; and neater or more attractive peasant +homesteads cannot be found in any part of Ireland than on the banks of +Loch Arrow. It is not more than four miles from Boyle; and small as it is, +not more than five miles long, and from two to two and a half miles broad, +it is a gem of a lake that seems to be forgotten by the world. + + + + +THE LAKES OF WESTMEATH + + +The lakes of Westmeath, like Loch Arrow in Sligo, are almost unknown to +those who go to Ireland in search of the picturesque. These lakes are, for +the greater part, in the centre of the County. Loch Ree is not included in +them. There may be said to be only four of them worthy of the attention of +those who see something to be admired in a lake besides the excellence of +the fish that is in it. Those in search of the beautiful very seldom go to +see the lakes of Westmeath. The only people who generally visit them are +fishermen, very few of whom would turn round their heads to gaze on the +fairest prospect the lakes afforded, for seldom, indeed, do those usually +styled sportsmen trouble themselves very much to see the beauties of +nature, and they are, unfortunately, about the only class of people who +come from afar to visit the lake district of Westmeath. + +The lakes best worth seeing in Westmeath are Loch Deravarragh, Loch Ouel, +Loch Ennel, usually called Belvedere Lake, Loch Iron, and Loch Sheelin. +The last mentioned lake lies on the borders of four counties--Longford, +Cavan, Meath, and Westmeath. It cannot be claimed by the most devoted +admirer of the Westmeath lakes that there is very much historic interest +attached to any of them. It would be hardly possible to find a square mile +of Irish soil wholly devoid of historic interest; but while it may truly +be said that there is no country in Europe, not excepting even Greece, +where so many places of historic interest are to be found as in Ireland, +some parts of it are richer than others in memorials of the past. From +whatever cause it happened is not very clear, but it is a fact that +Westmeath is one of the least historic of Irish counties. The hill of +Uisneach is its most historic spot. There are, at the same time, some +other places of historic interest in it. Its most beautiful lake, Loch +Ouel, anciently called Loch Uair, is the one in which Malachy the First +drowned Turgesius the Dane. Turgesius seems to have had what Americans +would call "a high old time" in Ireland for some years--robbing churches +and monasteries, and living on the fat of the land; until the Irish, under +Malachy, at length defeated him in battle, took him prisoner, and drowned +him in one of the most beautiful lakes in Ireland. It seems queer that +Malachy, instead of giving him a grave in such a beautiful sheet of water, +did not fling him into a bog hole, and it is a pity that there should not +be any really trustworthy authority for the legend according to which it +was love for King Malachy's beautiful daughter that was the means of +entrapping Turgesius. Keating gives a very interesting account of the +capture of the Danish Viking in his History of Ireland; how Turgesius +asked Malachy for his daughter: how Malachy said that the marriage, or +rather the _liaison_ should not be made public for fear of giving offence +to the Irish; and how fifteen beardless youths, dressed as girls, +conducted Malachy's daughter to the Dane, overpowered his guard, took +himself prisoner, and then drowned him. A great deal of romance has been +written about this affair, but it remained for the inimitable Sam Lover to +write the funniest thing in the way of a poem about it. He said that the +tyranny of the Danes was so heavy on the Irish that the clergy ordered +them a long time of prayer and fasting to seek Divine aid to rid +themselves of their persecutors. But it would appear that the unfortunate +Irish had been keeping a compulsory fast for a long time previous, for +the Danes had left them nothing to eat. They could not understand being +ordered to fast still more, and said to the clergy:-- + + "We can't fast faster than we're fastin' now." + +The account of the drowning of Turgesius is given with tantalising +curtness in the "Book of Leinster": "This is the year, A.D. 843, that +Turgesius was taken by Maelseachlainn (Malachy). He was then drowned in +Loch Uair."[15] The "Book of Leinster" does not say that Turgesius was +taken in battle, but those who do not believe Keating's story think he +was. If he had been taken in battle and defeated, it must be admitted that +it is strange that Irish annalists did not say so and give particulars of +the battle. This omission makes it appear probable that there is some +truth in the version of his capture as given by Keating, although it is +altogether discredited by those best read in Irish History. + +Loch Ouel can be seen from the train on the Sligo division of the Great +Western Railway. Passing as the glimpse of it is from the train, it is +enough to reveal some of the beauties of this fairest of Westmeath lakes. +But to see it properly one should wander by its pebbly shores, for not a +yard of them is swampy, or ascend one of the hills of brilliant green that +are on all sides of it. Loch Ouel has the great defect of being almost +islandless. There are only one or two small ones in it. If it had +proportionately as many islands in it as Loch Erne, it would be one of the +fairest sheets of water of its size in Ireland. + +Belvedere Lake is a good deal larger than Loch Ouel, and its shores are +better wooded, but part of them, in fact a very large part of them, is +boggy. Its banks are adorned with gentlemen's seats, and in spite of the +swampy shore on one side of it, it is a very beautiful lake. + +Loch Derravaragh is the most peculiarly-shaped of all the Westmeath lakes. +It is shaped something like a tadpole, only that, unlike a tadpole, it is +its head that is narrow, and its tail, or lower part, that is wide. It has +bolder shores than any other lake in the county, some of the hills near it +being almost mountains. It has hardly any islands, and its shores are +wilder than any other of the Westmeath lakes. It wants the woods that do +so much to adorn the swampy shores of Belvedere Lake; but comparatively +bare as the shores of Loch Derravaragh are, it is a most picturesque +lake, and some think it more beautiful than Loch Ouel. Both Loch +Derravaragh and Loch Iron are formed by the river Inny, but it does not, +as most rivers do, flow through the lakes it forms and feeds, for it flows +out of them within a short distance of where it enters them, and the lakes +extend in an opposite direction from where they receive their water. This +is rather a strange fact in physical geography. + +The next most important of the Westmeath lakes is Loch Sheelin, but as +three other counties--Longford, Meath, and Cavan--border it, it cannot be +strictly called a Westmeath lake. However, as it is so close to the very +picturesque sheets of water which are the chief scenic attractions of the +county they adorn, it has been thought best to include it when describing +them. Loch Sheelin has only a few islands, but its shores, although low, +are very well wooded. Seen from the hills in the vicinity of Oldcastle in +Meath, it is as fair a sight as can well be imagined, with its +wood-crowned, indented shores. If there are fairer lakes in Ireland than +Loch Sheelin, there are few that have a more beautiful name. It is euphony +itself. Its name is the original one of Moore's sweet melody, "Come, rest +in this Bosom." It has often been said, "What's in a name?" There is a +great deal. A name so beautiful as Loch Sheelin would give a certain charm +to a bog hole. It must be confessed that Celtic, of all European +languages, seems to contain the most sonorous place names. Such names as +Bassenthwaitewater, Ullswater, Conistonwater, Derwentwater, Thuner See, +and Zuger See, sound very tame compared with Loch Lomond, Loch Erne, Loch +Awe, Loch Ree, Loch Layn, and Loch Sheelin. There is, however, one +continental place-name of wonderful beauty of sound, and that is Lorraine. +Its German name is Lothringen, but the French, by eliding its consonants, +or by what is generally called aspiration in Gaelic grammar, have turned +the harsh German name into one of the most euphonious and beautiful in the +world. + +Loch Iron and Loch Lene, pronounced Loch Layne, are small sheets of water, +but are well worth a visit, even from those who are neither fishers of +fish nor of men. The country all round the Westmeath lakes is as beautiful +as it is possible for any country to be in which there are neither +mountains nor waterfalls. It is never flat, and never uninteresting, +covered almost everlastingly with verdure, for although most of the county +is hilly, it is one of the most fertile in Ireland. Its still, clear +lakes, undulating surface, and rich soil, make it, even in the absence of +mountains (and, unfortunately, in the absence of good hotels in its small +towns and villages), one of the most picturesque of the counties of +Leinster. + + + + +KELLS OF MEATH + + +Kells, the ancient name of which was Ceannanus, and the one by which it is +still known in Irish, is one of the most ancient towns in Ireland. +According to Irish annalists it was founded by an over-king called Fiacha, +1203 years B.C. If its situation and environs are of no great beauty, it +is yet a place of great historic interest. It can boast of the possession +of one of the finest round towers in Ireland, a very ancient cross, and a +still more ancient stone-roofed church. If there are no mountains or +romantic scenery round Kells, it has the advantage of being situated in +the midst of the most generally fertile of Irish counties. It is on the +river Blackwater, a tributary of the historic Boyne. Nothing can exceed +the fertility of the land round Kells; but that does it no good, for the +land is almost all in grass, the rural population sparse, and +consequently, of very little outside support to the town. But Kells is no +worse off than the other towns of Meath. It is, as far as soil is +concerned, the richest county in Ireland, but its towns are either in a +state of absolute decay, or at a standstill. There is hardly any tilled +land in the county; its herds are large, and its population consequently +declining. Where cattle abound, people are generally scarce. + +For those who visit Kells merely to see the wondrous luxuriance of its +grassy environs, the best thing they can do is to ascend the hill of +Lloyd, which is close to the town, and go to the top of the tower that +crowns the summit of the hill. It is over a hundred feet high, with a +winding flight of stairs, and a turret on top, capable of containing a +dozen people. The view from the tower is very fine, and will well repay +those who see it. Almost the whole of Meath, Louth, Cavan, and parts of +other counties can be seen. The tower was built more than a hundred years +ago by the first Earl of Bective. It is sometimes called "Bective's +Folly," because it serves for nothing except giving a fine view to those +who ascend it. It is generally known as the tower of Lloyd. + +To the antiquarian, the neighbourhood of Kells is of supreme interest. +Four miles south-east of it, on the banks of the Blackwater, lies the site +of what is considered, next to Tara, the most ancient spot of Irish +soil--namely, the place where the games of Tailltean were, for some +thousands of years, celebrated. The place is now called Telltown, an +evident Anglicisation of its Irish name; but it is still called Tailltean +by any old persons in its vicinity who speak Irish. If any credence can be +given to Irish annals and history, the antiquity of this place is +astounding. The sceptic has to admit that the mere fact of the +preservation down to the present day of the name by which it was known +from remote antiquity is in itself an extraordinary fact. The games or +sports of Tailltean were somewhat similar to the Olympic games of Greece, +except that those of Tailltean were celebrated every year. The whole of +Ireland used to assist at them, and they seem to have been celebrated +every year down to 1168, when they were for the last time celebrated by +the unfortunate and foolish Roderick O'Connor, the last of those who were, +even in name, chief kings of Ireland. In spite of internal wars, Danish +invasions and plunderings, a single year does not appear to have elapsed +from the time they were first established down to the twelfth century in +which they were not celebrated. It would also seem that no matter what +wars or troubles were distracting the country, the games of Tailltean +were never omitted. They took place at the beginning of August, as has +been mentioned in the article on Tara, and from them the Irish name of the +month of August--_Lughnasa_--is derived. The name Tailltean is the +genitive case of Taillte, the woman in whose memory they were established +by her son, Lugh, who lived and reigned in Tara, according to the +chronology of the Four Masters, which differs only slightly from that of +other annalists, 1824 years B.C.! It is no matter how we may smile or +shake our heads when this astounding antiquity is mentioned, the +preservation of those two names, _Lughnasa_ and _Tailltean_, down to the +present day, drives away the smile and makes us look serious. Such +collateral proofs of the existence of historic personages of such +antiquity cannot be furnished by any other nation in the world, not even +by Egypt or by Greece. + +We must not pooh-pooh the statement of Irish annalists as to the enormous +antiquity they give to persons who figure in early Irish history. Here is +what the late Sir William Wilde says in his book, "Loch Corrib": "With +respect to Irish chronology, we believe it will be found to approach the +truth as near as that of most other countries; and the more we investigate +it and endeavour to synchronise it with that of other lands, the less +reason we shall have to find fault with the accounts of our native +annalists." + +There are not many monuments of the past to be seen at Tailltean save an +earthen fort of about a hundred paces in diameter, and two small lakes +that bear evidence of having been formed artificially. To show how long +traditions live in countries that even partially preserve their ancient +language, it need only be said that up to about a hundred years ago, the +peasantry of the neighbourhood used to meet on the first of _Lughnasa_, or +August, at Tailltean to have games and athletic sports of different kinds. +The meeting was called a _pattern_, but it was not held on any patron +saint's day. It was merely the traditional remembrance of the old games +that had not been celebrated for seven hundred years previously, that +caused the peasantry to meet at Tailltean. It is said that on account of +the drinking and consequent fighting that used to take place, the clergy +forbid the people to assemble. Irish history and annals, while they +constantly mention the games of Tailltean, leave us a good deal in the +dark about the nature of the sports that used to take place. But they do +say that marriages, or, rather, alliances of a somewhat evanescent kind +used to be contracted; and to this day, all through the part of the +country in the neighbourhood of Tailltean, when a matrimonial alliance +turns out badly, or when the parties separate, it is called "a Telltown +marriage." No one who has ever written about Telltown, not even such +profound archæologists as O'Donovan and Petrie, has ever had any doubt +about its being the exact place where the games of Tailltean were held in +ancient times. + +There cannot be said to be any very ancient monuments of Christian times +to be seen in Kells save a very fine round tower, the top of which is +gone; a very ancient cross in the market-place, two in the churchyard, and +a stone-roofed church or oratory. The last is the oldest and most +interesting ancient monument in Kells. It is a small building, only +nineteen feet long, fifteen broad, and twenty-five high. It is one of the +most ancient edifices built with cement that exists in Ireland. Its +foundation is attributed to St Columba; and it is considered to be at +least of his time, or the middle of the sixth century. It is apparently as +sound and as solid as it was the day it was built. Everything that could +with any certainty be believed to have been part of the great monastery +that was in Kells has disappeared. Its stones were probably taken to +build the present church that stands near to where the monastery was. The +stones of the ancient building that has been described would also probably +have been used for some purpose if they could have been easily removed, +but it is so solid, and the stones are so firmly bound together by +grouting, that the labour of tearing it down deterred the vandals from +destroying it. + +Kells was so often burned and so often plundered by the Northmen that it +is a wonder how anything in it remains. According to the annals it was +burned twenty-one times, and plundered seven times, before the twelfth +century! Every vestige of the great castle, that was built either by Hugo +de Lacy or John de Courcy, has disappeared. This castle must have been +nearly as large as that of Trim, for it was built for the protection of +some of the most valuable country conquered by the invaders. It is said +that the monastery was in a ruined condition at the close of the twelfth +century, and that de Lacy renovated it and richly endowed it. + +That wondrous manuscript known as the Book of Kells, although it is not +believed to have been written in that town, has been named from it, and +consequently should be mentioned in connection with it. That the book +found its way to Kells, and that it was there for many centuries, there +cannot be any doubt. Neither can there be any doubt that it belonged to +the Church of Kells, for there are curious charters in it, written in +Irish of a very archaic kind, relating to the clergy of that town. It +seems to have been in Kildare in the twelfth century, for it is evidently +of it that Giraldus Cambrensis speaks when he says, "Of all the wonders of +Kildare, I found nothing more wonderful than the marvellous book that was +written in the time of St Brigit." It was in the church of Kells until +1620, when Archbishop Ussher saved it from being destroyed. It is a Latin +version of the Gospels, with some Gaelic charters, relating to the Church +of Kells, that were bound into it many centuries after it was written. It +was taken by the Danes, it is believed, and the golden cover torn off it; +it was found buried in the ground some time after. This is recorded to +have happened in 1006. It is the most wonderful work of art of its kind +known to exist in any country, and it is no wonder that in a credulous age +it should have been believed to be the work of angels. Westwood, an +Englishman, and author of the greatest work on illuminated manuscripts +ever written, says of it: "It is unquestionably the most elaborately +executed manuscripts of so early a date now in existence." Doctor Waagen, +Conservator of the Royal Museum of Berlin, says of it: "The ornamental +pages, borders, and initial letters exhibit such a rich variety of +beautiful and peculiar designs, so admirable a taste in the arrangement of +colours, and such an uncommon perfection of finish, that one feels +absolutely struck with amazement." Where and when the Book of Kells was +executed, and by whom, will probably never be known; but it must have been +written as early as the sixth century. Tradition attributes it to Columba, +or, as he is usually called, Columb Cille. The late Dr Todd, one of the +most learned archæologists, and one of the best Gaelic scholars that ever +Ireland produced, believed that it was as early as the time of Columba. +The author of _Topographia Hiberniae_ says of it: "The more frequently I +behold it, the more diligently I examine it, the more I am lost in +admiration of it." No one who has not seen the Book of Kells can form an +idea of its beauty. In the pages that have not been soiled the colours are +as pure and as bright as if they were laid on only yesterday. The naked +eye cannot follow all its delicate and minute tracings; to see it aright, +it should be seen through a microscope. It is beyond any doubt the most +wonderful book of its kind in the world. In it and in the Tara Brooch +Ireland possesses two works of ancient art, two gems of artistic beauty +which are unequalled of their kind and of their age. The art treasures of +metallurgy exhumed in Pompeii, and all that have been found in Greece and +Asia Minor by Schliemann, contain nothing equal in exquisite finish to the +Tara Brooch; and in all the treasures of illuminated manuscripts in the +libraries of the world, there is nothing of its kind equal to the Book of +Kells. The Tara Brooch can be seen in the Museum, Kildare Street, Dublin, +and the Book of Kells in Trinity College, in the same city. + + * * * * * + +All the ecclesiastical establishments that have been described owed their +origin to native piety, benevolence, and enterprise. + + + + +CUCHULAINN'S DUN AND CUCHULAINN'S COUNTRY + + +No one, whether an Irishman or a stranger, can look on the vast mound and +vast earthen ramparts that mark the home of him whom the most trustworthy +of Irish annalists, Tighearnach, calls _fortissimus heros Scottorum_, +without feelings of indignation and shame--indignation at the way one of +the greatest and most interesting monuments of Irish antiquity has been +profaned, and shame that so little reverence for their country's past +should be found among the Irish people. If the Copts and Arabs of Egypt +sell and uproot the antiquities of that country, they can, at least, say +that they are not the descendants of the men who lived under the sway of +the Pharaos; but those who have, in recent times, done most to obliterate +and profane the most historic monuments of Ireland are the lineal +descendants of the men who raised them. Nothing that ancient Irish +monuments have suffered, and they have suffered a great deal, can exceed +the wrong committed by him who built a horrible, modern, vulgar, gewgaw +house on top of the _dun_ of Cuchulainn! To show how utterly obtuse, and +how unsympathetic with his country's past the person was who built the +vulgar structure on one of the most curious and interesting historic +monuments in Ireland, he has actually engraved his name and the date of +the erection of the house on its front wall! seeming to glory in the +vandalism he committed. The legend on the wall says that the house was +built in 1780 by a person named Patrick Byrne for his nephew. + +[Illustration: CUCHULAINN'S DESECRATED DUN.] + +About a mile from the Dundalk railway station, crowning the summit of a +hill that rises amid green fields and rich pastures, stands all that +remains of the _dun_ on which the wooden dwelling of Cuchulainn stood +wellnigh two thousand years ago. Before it was partially levelled to build +the gewgaw house that now stands on it, it must have been the finest +monument of its kind in Ireland. It is quite different from the remains of +Tara, Knock Aillinn, Emania, or Dinrigh. Those places were evidently +intended to accommodate large numbers of people; but Cuchulainn's _dun_ +was evidently that of one person or one family. It answered to the Norman +keep that some lords of the soil built for their own private protection in +later times. Cuchulainn's _dun_ was immense, and its remains are even +still immense in spite of the way it has been ruined. It is yet over forty +feet in perpendicular height, and, like most structures of its kind, is +perfectly round. It has an area of over half an acre on its summit. The +_enceinte_ outside the central _dun_ encloses fully two acres, and where +it has not been levelled, is still colossal, being thirty feet high in +some parts. The immense labour it must have taken to raise such a gigantic +mound, and to dig such vast entrenchments on so high a hill, strikes one +with astonishment. If it had not been ruined and partially levelled by +the utterly denationalised and soulless person who built the vulgar +structure on it, it would be the finest thing of its kind in Ireland, and +would attract antiquarians from all parts of these islands and from the +Continent. + +The existence of this fort is another collateral proof of the general +truth of what has been called Irish bardic history. It says that +Cuchulainn lived at Dundealgan, or Dundalk, and there his _dun_ is found. +He can hardly be said to figure in what are generally known as Irish +authentic annals. The "Annals of the Four Masters" do not mention him at +all, although they do mention some of his contemporaries. Tighearnach, who +lived in the eleventh century, is the only one of the Irish annalists who +mentions him. His annals have not yet been translated or published; but +the following passage occurs in them: "Death of Cuchulainn, the most +renowned champion of Ireland, by Lughaidh, the son of Cairbre Niafer +[chief king of Ireland]. He was seven years old when he began to be a +champion, and seventeen when he fought in the Cattle Spoil of Cooley, and +twenty-seven when he died." Tighearnach makes Cuchulainn and Virgil +contemporary. He and Queen Meave are the two great central figures in the +longest and greatest prose epic in the Irish language, the Tain Bo +Cuailgne, or Cattle Spoil of Cooley, which Sir Samuel Ferguson has made +familiar to the English reader in his poem, "The Foray of Meave." + +Cuchulainn is the Hercules of Irish romantic history; but in spite of all +the fabulous tales of which he is the hero, there cannot be any doubt that +he was an historic personage, that his dwelling-place was on the _dun_ +that has been described, and that he lived shortly before the Christian +era. The name Cuchulainn is a sobriquet; it means "the hound Culann." This +Culann was chief smith to Connor, King of Ulster. He had a fierce dog that +he used to let out every night to watch and guard his premises, which were +in the vicinity of Emania, the palace of the Ulster kings. Cuchulainn, who +was nephew to Connor, was going to some entertainment at his uncle's; but +having been out later than usual, was attacked by Culann's fierce hound. +He had no weapon with which to defend himself save his hurling ball; but +he cast it with such force at the dog that he killed him on the spot. +Culann complained to King Connor about the loss of his great watch dog, +and Cuchulainn, who was then only a boy of eight or nine years old, said +that he would act as watch dog for the smith and be Culann's hound, or +dog. Whether he did so or not is left untold. + +It is very curious that in all the romantic tales in which Cuchulainn +figures, and in spite of his incredible strength and prowess, there does +not seem to be a passage in any tract that has been translated about him +up to the present where anything is mentioned about his size or stature. +We are left under the impression that he was no bigger than ordinary men; +and it may have been that he was not. Size and strength do not always go +together. Some of the feats that he is said to have performed are utterly +incredible; such as flinging his spear haftwise, and killing nine men with +the cast; and pulling the arm from its socket out of a giant whom he was +unable to get the better of with weapons. It is very natural that such +impossible feats would, in a credulous age, be attributed to any one who +was possessed of more than ordinary prowess. Things quite as impossible +are found in the classics relative to Hercules. The Irish had just as good +a right to relate impossibilities about Cuchulainn as the Greeks had to do +the same about Hercules. But Cuchulainn figures in Celtic legend and +romance in a manner in which Hercules does not figure in the legends of +Greece, for the Irish hero was more of a ladies' man than was the giant +of the Greeks. + +If Cuchulainn did not fill such an important place in what may be called +classic Gaelic literature, the total ignorance about him in the very place +where he was born and where he lived would not be such a national disgrace +as it is. The mere remnant of Gaelic literature in which he is the central +figure is immense. No other race in Europe would have so totally lost +sight of a personage that was the hero of so many tracts and stories, and +who was, besides, an historic character, and not a myth. Even sixty years +ago, during the Ordnance Survey of Louth, the parties employed on it found +that no one in the neighbourhood of Castletown, the modern name of the +place in which Cuchulainn's fort is situated, knew or heard anything about +him. They were told by the peasantry that the fort was made by the Danes! +Some said it was the work of Finn Mac Cool; but of the real owner of it, +they knew nothing. + +It is evident that the Irish monks of early mediæval times were much more +broad-minded and liberal than their countrymen of the same class of more +recent years. It is to monks and inmates of monasteries that we owe +nine-tenths of the Gaelic literature that has come down to us. They +produced more books in proportion to their numbers than perhaps any class +of men of their kind that lived in ancient times. They were sincere +Christians, but, like patriots, they loved to record the deeds of their +pagan ancestors. Just as soon as national decay set in they were succeeded +by men of their own calling, who appear to have thought little worth +recording except the works of saints, or at least of those who professed +Christianity. If the monks of the early centuries of Christian Ireland +were as narrow-minded as the Four Masters, we never, probably, would know +anything about Cuchulainn, Queen Meave, Conall Carnach, or any of the +heroes of pagan Ireland, round whom there is woven such a wondrous web of +legend, romance, and song. Every patriotic Irishman should revere the +memories of those liberal-minded monks who handed down to us the doings of +their pagan forefathers. To show how much those men valued the literature, +and loved to recount the exploits of their pagan ancestors, it will only +be necessary to give the words of the dear old soul who copied the _Tain +Bó Cuailgne_, the great epic of pagan times, into the "Book of Leinster": +"A blessing on every one who will faithfully remember the _Tain_ as it is +[written] here, and who will not put another shape on it." + +Cuchulainn, above all men who figure in ancient Irish literature, seems to +have been "_grádh ban Eireann_," the darling of the women of Ireland. +While yet in his teens, the nobles of Ulster came together to determine +who should be a fitting wife for him. After a long search they found a +lady named Eimir, accomplished in all the feminine education of the time; +but her father, a wealthy chief or noble who lived near Lusk, in the +present County of Dublin, did not like to give his daughter to a +professional champion. Cuchulainn had seen her, and had succeeded in +gaining her love. She was guarded for a year in her father's _dun_; and +during all that time, Cuchulainn vainly strove to see her. At last he lost +patience and became desperate, scaled the three fences that encircled her +father's fort, had a terrible fight for her; killed three of her brothers; +half killed half-a-dozen others who opposed him, and carried her and her +maid northward in his chariot to his home in Dundalk. + +Like all violent love, Cuchulainn's love for Eimir seems soon to have +cooled, for we find that a lady called Fann, the wife of Manannan MacLir, +King of the Isle of Man, or some place east of Ireland, fell in love with +him. She came to see her father, a man of rank and wealth, who lived +somewhere on the east coast of Ireland. She eloped with Cuchulainn, and +Eimir, finding that she and her erring husband were staying at Newry, in +the present County of Down, followed him, attended by fifty maids armed +with knives, in order to kill Fann. This lady, in spite of her errors, +must have been an intellectual woman, for her speech when leaving +Cuchulainn and going home with MacLir is very fine, and would be a credit +to the literature of any language. The tract in which it occurs is in the +Book of the Dun Cow, an Irish manuscript compiled in the eleventh century, +and is entitled "The Sick Bed of Cuchulainn and only Jealousy of Eimir." +It was admirably translated nearly forty years ago by Eugene O'Curry, and +was published in the long since dead periodical, the _Atlantis_. None but +a few Celtic savants have ever read it. To the general public it will be +absolutely new. Fann, finding that she must leave Cuchulainn, says:-- + + "It is I who shall go on a journey; + I give consent with great affliction; + Though there is a man of equal fame, + I would prefer to remain [here]. + + "I would rather be here + To be subject to thee without grief, + Than go, though it may wonder thee, + To the sunny palace of Aed Abrat.[16] + + "Woe to the one who gives love to a person, + If he does not take notice of it! + It is better for one to be turned away, + Unless he is loved as he is loved." + +It seems that by some occult means it was revealed to Manannan MacLir that +his wife, Fann, was in trouble between the jealous women of Ulster and +Cuchulainn. So he came from the east to seek his eloped spouse. When Fann +found out that Manannan had found _her_ out, she utters the following very +quaint, extraordinary, and touching rhapsody:-- + + "Behold ye the valiant son of Lir + From the plains of Eoghan of Inver,-- + Manannan, lord of the world's fair hills, + There was a time when he was dear to me. + + "Even to-day if he were nobly constant,-- + My mind loves not jealousy; + Affection is a subtle thing; + It makes its way without labour. + + "When Manannan the Great me espoused + I was a spouse worthy of him; + He could not win from me for his life + A game in excess at chess. + + "When Manannan the Great me espoused + I was a spouse of him worthy; + A bracelet of doubly tested gold + He gave me as the price of my blushes. + + "I had with me going over the sea + Fifty maidens of varied beauty; + I gave them unto fifty men + Without reproach,--the fifty maidens. + + "As for me I would have cause [to be grieved] + Because the minds of women are silly; + The person whom I loved exceedingly + Has placed me here at a disadvantage. + + "I bid thee adieu, O beautiful Cu; + Hence we depart from thee with a good heart; + Though we return not, be thy good will with us; + Every condition is noble in comparison with that of going away." + +It would appear that Cuchulainn was as much distracted about Fann as she +was about him; for when he found that she had gone home with Manannan +MacLir, he became desperate, and the tale says, with extraordinary +grotesqueness and apparent inconsequence, that "It was then Cuchulainn +leaped the three high leaps and the three south leaps of Luachair; and he +remained for a long time without drink, without food, among the mountains; +and where he slept each night was on the road of Midhluachair." But what +good did the jumping do him, or why did he jump? + +Connor, King of Ulster, and the nobles and Druids of the province, had a +hard time with Cuchulainn after Fann left him, as he seems to have gone +downright crazy. The tale says that Connor had to send poets and +professional men to seek him out in his mountain retreat, and that when +they found him he was going to kill them. At last the Druids managed to +give him a drink of forgetfulness, so that he remembered no more about +Fann. + +The death of Cuchulainn in the "Book of Leinster" is one of the finest +things in ancient literature. It has not yet been fully translated, but a +partial translation of it by Mr Whitley Stokes appeared in the _Revue +Celtique_ in 1876. An epitome of it here can hardly be out of place: When +Cuchulainn's foes came against him for the last time, signs and portents +showed that he was near his end. One of his horses would not allow himself +to be yoked to the war chariot, and shed tears of blood. But Cuchulainn +goes to the battle, performs prodigies of valour; but at last he receives +his death wound. Though dying, his foes are afraid to approach him. He +asks to be allowed to go to a lake that was close by to get a drink. He is +allowed to go, but he does not want a drink, he merely wants to die like a +hero, standing up; for there is a pillar-stone close by, and he throws +his breast-girdle round it, so that he might die standing up, and not +lying down. His friend Conall determines to avenge his death. Here the +literal translation is so fine that it must be given: "Now there was a +comrades' covenant between Cuchulainn and Conall--namely, that whichever +of them was first killed, should be avenged by the other. 'And if I be +first killed,' said Cuchulainn, 'how soon wilt thou avenge me?' 'The day +on which thou shalt be slain,' says Conall; 'I will avenge thee before +that evening.' 'And if I be slain,' says Conall, 'how soon wilt thou +avenge me?' 'Thy blood will not be cold on earth,' says Cuchulainn, 'when +I shall avenge thee.'" Lugaid, the slayer of Cuchulainn, had lost his +right hand in the fight. He goes south in his chariot to a river to rest +and drink. His charioteer says, "One horseman is coming to us, and great +are the speed and swiftness with which he comes. Thou wouldst deem that +all the ravens of Erin were above him, and that flakes of snow were +specking the plain before him." "Unbeloved is the horseman that comes +there," says Lugaid. "It is Conall mounted on [his steed] the Dewy-Red. +The birds thou sawest above him are sods from that horse's hoofs. The +snowflakes thou sawest specking the plain before him are foam from that +horse's lips and nostrils." Conall and Lugaid fight, of course; but as +Lugaid has but one hand, Conall has one of his hands bound to his side +with ropes, so that he should have no advantage over his foe. They fight +for hours, until at last Lugaid falls by Conall, and Cuchulainn is +avenged. The tale winds up thus: "And Conall and the Ulstermen returned to +Emain Macha (Emania). That week they entered it not in triumph. But the +soul of Cuchulainn appeared there to the fifty queens who had loved him; +and they saw him floating in his spirit-chariot over Emain Macha, and they +heard him chaunt a mystic song of the coming of Christ and the Day of +Doom." + +There are few views in Ireland more beautiful than that from the summit of +the mound on which Cuchulainn's mansion stood. It may not be so extensive +as other views in the locality, but for beauty and variety it can hardly +be exceeded. If admittance is obtained into the house that is built on the +track of Cuchulainn's, the view will be still finer. It is said by some +that that house is haunted. It is to be hoped that it is; and that +Cuchulainn's ghost will drive away sleep from the eyes of every one of +Patrick Byrne's descendants who stop in it. + +The ancient name of the country round Dundalk was Muirimhne; but it has +not been called by that name for some centuries. It appears to have been +the patrimony of Cuchulainn; for in the tale, in the "Book of the Dun +Cow," from which extracts have been given, Fann calls him, "Great chief of +the plain of Muirimhne." He, probably, or the clan of which he was the +head, owned all that part of northern Louth where the land is level, and +up to the foot of the Cooley hills. All the County Louth is fairly studded +with ruins of one sort or another. It is one of the most interesting +counties in Ireland in an antiquarian point of view. It contains the +remains of nearly thirty castles in almost all stages of preservation. One +of the finest of them is only a few hundred yards from the _dun_ of +Cuchulainn. It is not in the least ruined, but its architecture shows it +to be one of the oldest castles erected by the Anglo-Normans in Ireland. +Its style is almost exactly that of the castle at Trim, which we know was +built before the end of the twelfth century. Like Dunsochly Castle, near +Finglas, in the County Dublin, the one near Cuchulainn's _dun_ must have +been inhabited at a comparatively recent date, for modern windows have +been opened on its front. The only light that was admitted into those old +castles was what came through the narrow slits in the walls, about three +feet long and six or eight inches wide. These served the double purpose of +letting in light and discharging arrows through them. It does not seem to +be known by whom the very fine Norman Keep at Castletown, County Louth, +was built. There are many larger castles of the same kind in different +parts of Ireland, but there are not many of its age in such a good state +of preservation. There is a church in the immediate proximity of the +castle, and the exact date of its erection seems also unknown. It is in a +state of almost utter ruin. The County Louth can boast of having been the +birth-place of St Brigit. She was born at Fachart, only a few miles from +Castletown, but it was in Kildare she spent almost all her life, and it +was there she died and was buried. + +There are few parts of Ireland more beautiful than the country round the +ancient _dun_ of Cuchulainn, and few parts less generally visited by +tourists. Carlingford Loch is only a few miles from Dundalk, and except +Clew Bay, and one or two others, there is nothing finer on all the coasts +of Ireland. But the grandest and most striking scenery in this part of the +country are the Mourne mountains in the County Down. There are higher +mountain ranges in Ireland, but there are not any more bold, or more truly +Alpine. Seen from the central parts of the County Louth, they and the +Cooley mountains seem to form a continuous range of "sky-pointing peaks," +forming one of the finest, if not the very finest, mountain view in +Ireland. The ancient name of the Mourne mountains was the Beanna Boirche. +They were called the Mourne mountains from being in a territory anciently +called Crioch Mughorna. It gave a title to Lord Cremorne, from whom, it is +generally believed, the Cremorne Gardens in London derive their name. It +has to be admitted that, in this instance, the Anglicised form of the name +is the more euphonious. + +The County Louth, and all that part of the County Down bordering on it, +have not had their due share of attention from those who go in search of +the picturesque and beautiful. Although the direct route between the two +largest cities in Ireland, northern Louth and southern Down are not at all +known as well as they should be. There are, even in Kerry or Connemara, +few places in which finer views of mountain, bay, and plain can be had, +and all within less than two hours by rail from Dublin or Belfast. And as +for antiquities, no county of its size in Ireland possesses so many as +Louth. + + + + +THE WILD WEST COAST + + +By the west coast is meant the whole of that wondrous succession of +far-penetrating fiords and bays, cliff-guarded shores, and sea-washed +mountains from Bantry Bay to Malin Head, a distance of over four hundred +miles. There may be wilder scenery on the coasts of Norway, Labrador, or +Scotland, but for wildness, sublimity, and beauty combined, there is +hardly in Europe, or in the world, another four hundred miles of coast +equal to it. Its variety is one of its principal charms. There is the +grandeur and wildness of Norwegian coast scenery, together with scenes of +radiant beauty which cannot be found on the coasts of Norway or of +Scotland. The more southern latitude of the Irish west coast, and its +consequently milder climate, give it a great advantage over the coasts of +Norway or of Scotland. Its grass is greener and more luxuriant, and its +flowers bloom earlier in spring and later in autumn than those of more +northern climes. The mild climate of the southern part of the Irish west +coast is almost phenomenal. Winter, in its real sense, or as it generally +is on the coasts of Norway, or even of Scotland, may be said to be unknown +on the west coast of Munster. Snow is seldom seen, and frost still less +frequently. Rain and wind are about all the climatic disagreeableness that +those living on the south-west coasts of Ireland have to contend against. +It is, however, a fact that the rainfall is not so heavy immediately on +the coast as it is some ten or twenty miles inland. This is owing to the +fact that the higher mountains are generally some distance from the sea; +and it is well-known that mountains are great attractors of rain. + +Bantry Bay is the first great sea loch of the south-western coast. It is +one of the finest natural harbours in Europe, but, unfortunately, ships +are seldom seen in it except when they take shelter from the "wild west +wind," which blows on these storm-beaten shores with a fury hardly known +anywhere else in the world. The whole of the coast of Kerry, up to the +mouth of the Shannon, is a succession of the wildest and grandest scenery, +with here and there land of only slight elevation, with level meads and +pastures of perennial green. Still further north, we come to the mouth of +the Shannon, which forms another very fine harbour. About twenty miles +north of the Shannon the famous cliffs of Moher appear. There are higher +isolated cliffs than those on the west coast, but there is no long range +of cliffs so high. They average between six and seven hundred feet in +perpendicular height above the sea. To be seen in all their grandeur they +should be seen from the sea, but to be seen in all their terribleness, +they should be seen in a storm. Such is the force of the west wind on +these coasts, sweeping over three thousand miles of unbroken, islandless +sea, that the waves sometimes break over the cliffs of Moher in spite of +their nearly seven hundred feet of perpendicular height. In no other part +of the world is the force of the sea, when driven before a gale from the +west, more terrific than on the west coast of Ireland. Old men who lived +close to this iron-bound coast on the night of the great storm of January +6, 1839, known over the most of Ireland as the "Night of the Big Wind," +say that none but those who were near these coasts on that awful night +could have even a faint idea of what the Atlantic is when a storm from the +south-west drives it against the rocky barriers that seem to have been +placed where they are to prevent it from overwhelming the whole island. +They say that when some gigantic wave of millions of tons of water was +hurled against these cliffs, the noise made was so loud that it could be +heard miles inland above the roar and din of the storm; and that the very +earth would tremble at every assault of the waves on those tremendous +barriers to their fury. + +Recent soundings taken off the west and south-west coast of Ireland have +fully proved that a very large part of the island has been washed away by +the fury of the west wind and the sea, and that at some far-back epoch it +extended nearly three hundred miles further towards the south-west. The +sea, for some two or three hundred miles west and south-west of Ireland, +is shallow--hardly deeper than the Channel between Great Britain and +Ireland--but at that distance there is a sudden increase of over two +thousand feet in the depth of the sea. Scientists think that this +submerged mountain was once the south-west coast of Ireland, and that the +shallow sea between the present coast and the deep sea, about three +hundred miles south-west, was once dry land, and, of course, part of +Ireland. There do not seem to be any reasonable grounds to doubt this +theory, for the fury of the sea is every year washing away both land and +rock on these western coasts, and the way it has encroached, even in the +memory of living persons, is very remarkable. Not a year passes during +which hundreds of thousands of tons of rocks are not washed away from +cliff and mountain by the ceaseless assaults of the stormy sea that beats +with such force on the western coast of Ireland. Were it not for the +cliffs and mountains that guard the whole of the west coast, the +probability is that thousands of acres would be submerged every year, +until there would be very little of the country left in the long run. It +may be said that there must be a time coming when those barriers of cliff +and mountain that now guard almost the entire west coast will be swept +away, seeing that they are being constantly broken down and washed into +the sea. Such a time must certainly come, unless some unforeseen event +should alter the course of the Gulf Stream, or change the prevailing west +and south-west winds to opposite points of the compass. The question is, +How long will it be until there is real danger from the encroachment of +the sea on the west coast of Ireland? This is a question which the most +profound geologist living could not answer with even approximation to +correctness. It is impossible to know what amount of erosion takes place +every year, or what amount has taken place in any given number of years; +but that not only the cliffs of Moher, but the still more gigantic ones +of Slieve More in Achill, and Slieve League in Donegal, must finally +succumb to the fury of the Atlantic's waves there can hardly be a doubt. +Thousands of years may elapse before the cliff barriers on the western +coast become so weakened that the island will be in danger from the +assaults of the sea. + +From the cliffs of Moher to the Killaries, or Killary Bay, or Harbour, for +it is known by all these names, there are many scenes of very great +beauty; but to take even passing notice of all of them would be entirely +beyond the scope of a work of the size of this. The coasts of Connemara, +if not remarkable for very striking cliff scenery, are wild, sea-indented, +strange, and interesting in a very high degree. But Killary Bay is one of +the glories of the wild west coast. It has more the character of a +Norwegian fiord than any other sea loch in Ireland. It divides the +counties of Galway and Mayo. Some put it before the famed Clew Bay, and +Inglis said, over half a century ago, that if the shores of the Killaries +were as well wooded as Killarney, the latter might tremble for the +supremacy it enjoys of being the fairest lake either of fresh or salt +water in Ireland. The Killaries run some ten or fifteen miles inland, +between some of the highest hills in the province of Connacht, with +Maolrea, the king of Connacht mountains, on its northern side. This fiord, +or narrow sea loch, is one of the most splendid harbours, not only in +Ireland, but in the world, with not only complete shelter from winds from +all points, but with depth of water enough to float the biggest ship that +ever has been or ever will be built. But, unfortunately, there is little +to attract commerce to these desolate shores, where there are no large +towns, and only a sparse population. It has been said by some who have +seen almost all the fiords of Norway, that there are few of them superior +to the Killaries in everything that constitutes beauty, sublimity, and +wildness. That this sea loch is, in a certain degree, dark and gloomy has +to be admitted, because the mountains come so close to it that they seem +in some places to rise almost perpendicularly out of the water. But +Killary harbour is a glorious place on a clear, sunny mid-day, when its +sombre mountains cast but little shade on its ever calm waters; for no +matter how rough the sea may be outside, this mountain fiord is ever calm, +as it is sheltered on all sides by towering heights. As an enchanting bay +it is the only one on all the Irish coasts of which Clew Bay or Dublin +Bay, were they living things and tormented with human passions, could +possibly feel jealous. + +We now approach the queen, not alone of Irish bays, but of all bays in +these islands, and, according to its most ardent admirers, of all bays in +Europe. This is the glorious sheet of salt water, presided over by the +most symmetrical and beautiful of Irish mountains, Croagh Patrick, and +guarded from the stormy Atlantic by the rocky shores of Clare Island. This +is Clew Bay, the radiant beauty, the "matchless wonder of a bay," that not +one in a hundred of those in search of the beautiful know anything about. +It is indeed strange that this gem of sea lochs is not better known, now +that a railway brings one to its very shores. + +It is almost impossible to draw a comparison between Clew Bay and the many +magnificent arms of the sea that penetrate the west coasts of Ireland and +Scotland, for it is so unlike most of them: Dublin Bay, while less grand +and not so beautiful as Clew Bay, is the one that is most like it. Howth +has somewhat the same position with regard to Dublin Bay that Clare Island +occupies with regard to Clew Bay, and Slieve Coolan--in the name of all +that's decent let that abominable name "Sugarloaf" be dropped for +ever--is the presiding mountain genius of Dublin Bay, just as Croagh +Patrick is the presiding mountain genius of Clew Bay. Both bays are +beautiful rather than sublime; they are bright and cheerful rather than +dark and frowning. With all the wildness and grandeur of the many +far-entering fiords of the coast of Scotland, with all the Alpine glories +of their shores, there is not one of them that for beauty alone can be +compared with Clew Bay. It is shrouded by no terror-striking precipices. +No cataracts pour into it even in flood time. No mountains overhang it. It +seems to have been made to cheer and to delight, and not to terrify or to +startle. It seems to have said to the mountains round it--"Stand back; +come not too near me lest your shadows should fall on me and hide, even +for an instant, one gleam of my radiant loveliness." So the mountains +round it do stand back, and this is the one cause of its winsomeness, +brightness, and cheerfulness. When the tide is full on a sunny day, Clew +Bay seems absolutely to laugh. No shadow of surrounding hills can fall +upon it, for they are too far away. It is as bright and as radiant a bay +as there is in the world, and the glory of the coasts of Connacht. + +Clew Bay has a great advantage over the greater part of the bays on the +Irish coast on account of its size. Killary Bay is in no place more than a +mile wide, but Clew Bay is fully seven miles wide at its narrowest part, +and about sixteen miles long--that is from Clare Island to the quay at +Westport. Those who desire to see this splendid bay aright should not +attempt to look at it from the town of Westport, for it cannot be seen to +advantage from there. Neither can it be seen to advantage except during +high tide, when all its multitude of islands are clearly defined. Let them +ascend the high lands east of the town of Westport for about a mile, and +then look back on the scene beneath them. If the day is fine, if there is +plenty of sunlight, they will have to be the least sensitive of mortals if +they can gaze on such a scene unmoved. Scenes sublimer and grander, and +views more extensive, can be found in other countries; but for pure +beauty--a beauty that seems to laugh and rejoice at its own matchless +charms--Clew Bay may challenge anything of its kind on earth. + +North of the bay rises that most symmetrical of Irish mountains, Croagh +Patrick, or the Reek, as it is frequently called. It seems to have been +made to order, it is so regular and at the same time so graceful and +grand in its outlines. There are few mountains of its height that look so +high as Croagh Patrick. It is somewhat less than three thousand feet high, +but owing to its symmetry and its steepness it looks higher and more +imposing than many mountains of double its altitude. Exactly at the mouth +of the bay, stretching almost straight across it, and almost completely +shutting it in from the Atlantic, rises the great mass of Clare Island, +making the bay a safe harbour as well as adding in a most extraordinary +degree to its beauty. Clare Island is almost a mountain; its highest point +cannot be less than fifteen hundred feet above the sea level, and it rises +sheer from the water. It is almost as beautiful an object as Croagh +Patrick itself. The hills on the north side of the bay are rather tame, +but the beauty of the famous Reek is such that almost any other mountain +would appear tame in comparison with it. The number of islands in Clew Bay +is said to be three hundred and sixty-five--one for every day in the year. +There seem not to be any exact details as to the number of these islands, +but it cannot be much less than the number stated. They seem so numerous +as to be uncountable. The reason that those wishing to see this wondrous +bay at its best are advised to see it when the tide is full is because all +the islands do not appear at low water. This is certainly a defect, but no +sea loch looks so well at low water as when the tide is full. The citizens +of Dublin know what a difference the tide being in or out makes in the +appearance of their own magnificent bay. But in Clew Bay the difference in +its appearance caused by the tide being full or low is much greater than +in the bay of Dublin, for the reason that has been already stated. However +much the difference the state of the tide may make in Clew Bay, it is +beyond all doubt the most beautiful bay, not only in Ireland, but in all +those countries known as the British Isles. + +Those who go to this part of the west coast in search of the sublime and +beautiful should not omit to ascend Croagh Patrick, and gaze from its top +on one of the grandest and most extensive views to be seen in Ireland. The +mountain, seen from Westport or its environs, appears wellnigh +inaccessible, but it is not so steep on its south side, and can be +ascended with no great amount of difficulty. The view from Croagh Patrick +is one of the most sublime that can be imagined. The whole of that wild, +storm-beaten, cliff-guarded coast of Connacht, from Slyne Head in +Connemara to the most northern part of Mayo, lies before one; and Clew +Bay, beautiful as it is from wherever it is seen, seems fairer than ever +when seen from the summit of Croagh Patrick. + +Going north from Clew Bay the next most interesting and wild spot is the +island of Achill, and the grandest things there are the cliffs of Minnaun +and Slieve More. As we are going north, Minnaun Cliffs, which are on the +southern side of Achill, must be spoken about first. They are seven +hundred feet in height, and will, therefore, average higher than the +cliffs of Moher in the County Clare, but they do not rise perpendicularly +from the sea as those of Moher do. But their sea sides are so steep as to +be quite inaccessible even to the wild goats which still haunt the cliffs +of Achill. The cliffs of Minnaun are magnificent, but if they rose sheer +from the sea they would form a much more grand and impressive sight. + +But the cliffs of Minnaun, gigantic as they are, are only insignificant +things compared with the great sea wall on the northern shores of the +island, formed by Slieve More and Croghan. The whole northern shore of +Achill, from Achill head in the extreme west of the island to the narrow +straight that separates it from the mainland on the east, a distance of +some thirteen miles, may be said to be a terrific barrier of cliffs, +rising to the height of over two thousand feet at the hills Croghan and +Slieve More. It is generally allowed that the north shore of Achill has +the most stupendous mural cliffs that are to be seen anywhere nearer than +Norway, and that even Norway has not very much cliff scenery more +magnificent. There is nothing in the shape of cliffs or sea walls in these +islands that can compare with the cliffs of Achill in grandeur except +Slieve League in Donegal, of which mention will soon be made. A geologist +has said, speaking of the cliffs of Achill, that it appeared to him as if +part of the mountain which forms the western extremity of the island, and +terminates in the noted cape of Achill head, had suffered dis-severance +from a sunken continent by some convulsion of Nature. These gigantic +cliffs can only be seen to advantage from the sea, but in the almost +entire absence of passenger steam-boats on these coasts, it is very +difficult for those who visit them to get a proper means of seeing them as +they ought to be seen. They rise from out of one of the stormiest oceans +in the world, that even in summer-time is often rough and dangerous; and +very few would care to risk their lives in the cockle-shell boats, or +_currachs_, of fishermen to see the stupendous cliffs of Achill from where +they look best. In far distant Norway there are plenty of large and +commodious steamboats to take tourists all round its coasts; but if they +want to see some of the grandest and most beautiful scenery of their own +country to its best advantage, they must trust to a fisherman's cot. + +It would take at least a week of the longest summer days to see all the +wonders and grandeur of these tremendous cliffs, or rather cliff +mountains, of Achill. In the interior of the island there is not anything +of great interest to be seen, but it has more cliff scenery of the +stupendous sort to boast of than perhaps any other island of its size in +the world. + +It is a "far cry" from Achill to Slieve League in Donegal--considerably +over a hundred miles if the coast is followed; but between the giant sea +walls of that island and Slieve League there is nothing of their kind that +will in any way bear comparison with them. There is, however, much +magnificent scenery on the northern coast of Connacht, and also a great +many things of antiquarian interest. There is the extraordinary Druid +remains of Carrowmore, only three miles from Sligo town, where there are +almost, if not quite, half a hundred cromlechs to be seen on about half a +dozen acres. They are of almost all sizes. Some of them are baby +cromlechs, the top stones of which are not much more than a hundredweight. +This place must have been a sort of Stonehenge at one time. In no other +known spot of either these islands or France are so many cromlechs to be +seen in so small a space, and very few seem to know anything about it. Sir +Samuel Ferguson seems to have been the only person who has written +anything about it. But here the same disrespect for monuments of antiquity +that has been so long prevalent all over the country may be noticed. Many +of the cromlechs have been torn down, and some of them have been actually +made to serve as road walls and have been built over. Fully half of them +have been either utterly torn down or in some way mutilated. Their +generally small size has made them an easy prey for those who wanted +stones to build walls or houses. These curious relics of far-back ages +should not be allowed to be any further ruined. + +[Illustration: LOCH GILL.] + +The country in the vicinity of Sligo is one of the most interesting and +beautiful in Ireland. Close to it is the famous Loch Gill, the queen of +the fresh water lakes of Connacht. It is so near the coast that it is +not improper to say something about it in treating of the scenery of the +coast. It is connected with the sea by a river only a few miles in length +that passes through the town of Sligo, consequently it is only three or +four miles in a direct line from the sea. There is no other large fresh +water lake in Ireland, except Loch Corrib, so near the sea as Loch Gill. +It is fully ten miles in extreme length, and from three to four in +breadth. Its shores cannot be said to be mountainous, but the hills around +it are so bold, and their lower parts are so well wooded, that Loch Gill, +in spite of its having comparatively few islands, is yet one of the most +beautiful lakes in Ireland, and no one in search of the beautiful should +omit to see it. There is no other town in Ireland that has more objects of +scenic and archæological interest in its vicinity than Sligo. There is the +immense cairn on top of Knocknarea, sixteen hundred feet above the level +of the sea. There are four or five other immense cairns close to the town, +and there is the extraordinary mountain of Ben Bulben, anciently Ben +Gulban, that is shaped like a gigantic rick of turf. It is a couple of +miles long, and some sixteen hundred feet above the level of the sea. Its +summit is perfectly flat. It can be ascended in a carriage from the south +side; but on the north side, facing the sea, it is not only perpendicular, +but overhangs its base in some places. If not the highest or most +beautiful mountain in Ireland, it is certainly the most extraordinary. + +We now approach the famous Slieve League, the grandest, the boldest, the +steepest, if not the highest, of all the cliff barriers on the coasts of +these islands, and one of the most remarkable in the known world. It can +be seen from the shore near Sligo, rising almost perpendicularly from the +sea. The cliff-mountains of Achill, colossal as they are, seem to shun the +full fury of the western gales, for they face the north-west; but Slieve +League looks almost due south-west, and thrusts itself out into the ocean +as if to court the most tremendous shock of the Atlantic's billows. It +forms the culminating point of a range of cliffs that are over six miles +in extent, extending from Carrigan Head to Teelin Head, the lowest cliff +of which is over seven hundred feet in height. Slieve League is two +thousand feet high, and almost perpendicular. It is two hundred feet lower +than the highest of the cliff-mountains of Achill, but it is bolder, +nearer being perpendicular, grander, and more rugged than they. Those who +have not been on the sea at the base of Slieve League cannot form a true +idea of its awful grandeur. Its summit is almost as sharp as a knife +blade; and he who could look from the jagged rocks that form its cone down +on to the seething ocean under him without feeling giddy should have a +steady head and strong nerves. Those who go from these islands to Norway +in search of the sublime should first see this king Irish cliff-mountains, +and know how grand and beautiful are the sights that may be seen at home. + +The whole of the coast of Donegal is magnificent. There is no other cliff +on it as high or as grand as Slieve League, but there are hundreds of +places along its nearly a hundred miles of iron-bound, storm-beaten coast +that are well worth seeing. It has nothing like Clew Bay, but it has +gigantic cliffs, narrow arms of the sea, some of which are nearly as wild +and as grand as the famous Killary Bay that has already been described. +There may be certain places in the more southern coasts that are finer and +fairer than anything on the coasts of Donegal with the exception of Slieve +League, but for general wildness and cliff scenery there is hardly any +sea-coast county in Ireland can equal it. It has the longest sea loch in +the island on its coast--namely, Loch Swilly. Following its windings from +its mouth to where it begins must be over five and twenty miles. It is a +beautiful lake also, and hardly known at all to tourists, and never can be +known until better means are supplied for seeing it from a steamer on its +waters. The "wild west coast" may be said to end at the mouth of Loch +Swilly. From there eastward it is the northern coast. There is much of the +grand, beautiful, and curious to be seen on the northern coast from +Inishowen to Fair Head, including the celebrated Giant's Causeway, and +"high Dunluce's castle walls." The latter have been already described. + +It would be hard to find anywhere in the world another sea coast of the +same length as that from Cape Clear in the south to Inishowen in the +north, where there is so much to be seen of the grand, the terrible, and +the beautiful. If the mountains on the coasts of Norway are higher, if its +fiords penetrate further inland, and if in some places the shining glacier +may be seen from them, there is not such astonishing variety of scenery on +the coasts of Norway as there is in the west coast of Ireland. The climate +of Norway does not permit the growth of many species of wild flowers +which add so much to the beauty of even the wildest and most sterile parts +of Ireland. In Norway there are no mountains radiant with purple heather +and golden furze,--mountains that may be unsightly and sombre for ten +months out of the twelve, but are, in autumn, turned into living bouquets, +thousands of feet in height, and with areas of tens of thousands of acres. +Moisture and mildness of climate are the parents of flowers. If rain and +mist hide for days and weeks the most beautiful scenery in Ireland, there +is ample compensation afterwards in the bloom of wild flowers more +luxuriant and more plentiful than can be found where there is more +sunlight and less moisture. + +It is a curious and humiliating fact that, so far as can be learned from +the sources at command, there are ten people who go from these islands to +the coasts of Norway every year for the one that visits the west coast of +Ireland. It may be that many people go to Norway just because it has +become fashionable to go there, but all the fashion in the world would not +send people five or six hundred miles across a stormy sea if there was not +good accommodation for them to go to that distant country, and good means +for seeing its beauties. Let there be the same means for seeing the +beauties of the west coast of Ireland as there are for seeing the coast of +Norway, and thousands will visit the former every year. Those who want to +see the grandeur of the Norwegian coast go in large and well-equipped +steamers, and live in them, eat and sleep in them for weeks together, +while they are brought from fiord to fiord and from town to town. Let +similar means be had for those who desire to see the west coast of +Ireland, and it will not be long unknown. + +There is no way to see coast scenery properly except from the sea. One +might be looking at Slieve League or the Cliffs of Moher all his life from +the land, but he could never have a full idea of their grandeur unless he +saw them from the sea at their base. Those who see the cliffs and +cliff-mountains of Norway from the deck of a commodious steamer see them +aright. Most of those who make the trip to Norway are loud in praise of +its magnificent coast scenery; but if they had to go by land from fiord to +fiord, as they would have to do on the west coast of Ireland did they want +to see its beauties, would they be so enchanted? They certainly would not. +When tourists go to see the Norwegian fiords, they need not trouble +themselves about engaging beds, or worry themselves by fearing that the +hotel in such a place will be full, for they have an hotel on board the +steamer, are carried from place to place, and are given ample time to see +the beauties of each place. If there were the best hotels in the world at +every romantic spot on the west coast of Ireland it would never attract +visitors, and never would be known as it should be, and as its wondrous +grandeur and beauty entitle it to be, until large and commodious steamers +were provided in which people could live, if they chose, while being +brought from one place of attraction to another, or from one town to +another. There are few coasts in the world better provided with harbours +than the west coast of Ireland. It could hardly happen that a steamer like +those that take tourists from Leith to the coasts of Norway could be +caught by a gale on any part of the coast from Cape Clear to Malin Head, +ten miles from a harbour in which she could not take shelter. The danger +of shipwreck would be so small as to be infinitesimal. The trip from Cape +Clear to Malin Head, or even to the Giant's Causeway, could be made in two +weeks, and give sufficient time to stop a day or more at such remarkable +places as Clew Bay or the Arran Islands, where things of more than +ordinary interest are to be seen, such as the view of Clew Bay from the +high lands east of it, and the cyclopean ruins in the islands Arran, the +most colossal and extraordinary things of their kind in Europe. There +ought to be enterprise enough in Ireland to put a steamer, like those that +take tourists to Norway every summer, on the Irish west coast for three or +four months every year. Without such means of seeing the beauties of the +west coast, as only a large, commodious steamer could furnish, the +beauties and the grandeur of the cliffs of Moher, Clew Bay, Slieve More, +and Slieve League will never be known as they should be. + +There is only one part of the Irish west coast where harbours for large +craft are scarce, and that is the Donegal coast. It is said that there is +no safe harbour between Killybegs and Loch Swilly, a distance of nearly a +hundred miles. This is unfortunate; but stormy as the north-west coast is, +there are always many days in summer when steamers could go from harbour +to harbour in a calm sea. + + + + +DUBLIN AND ITS ENVIRONS + + +Some may think, especially natives of Ireland, that writing about Dublin +and its environs is mere waste of time, ink, and paper, seeing that there +is so much known about them already. It should, however, be remembered +that this book is intended for people who are not Irish, as well as for +the Irish themselves. But even the Irish, and above all, the natives of +Dublin, want to be told something that may be new to some of them about a +city which so many of them seem neither to love nor admire as they should. +There is, unfortunately, a certain class of people in Dublin who, although +many of them were born there, think that it is one of the most backward +and unpleasant places in Europe. They do not admire the beauty of its +environs, and will not acknowledge willingly that it has been improved so +much as it has been during the last twenty-five years. It has been +improved and beautified in spite of them. Those citizens of Dublin who +take no pride in it should go abroad and see as many cities as the author +of this book has seen, and they would come back with more just ideas +about Dublin. If there is any other city in Europe as large as Dublin, +with environs more beautiful, where life is more enjoyable, and where life +and property are more secure, it would be interesting to know where that +city is. Dublin is a great deal too good for a good many who live in it. + +The history of Dublin may be said to commence with the Danish invasions of +Ireland. It is rarely mentioned in Irish annals before the time when the +Danes took it, and first settled in it in the year 836, according to the +Four Masters. It probably existed as a small city long before the Danes +got possession of it, and there is reason to believe that it was a place +of some maritime trade at a remote period. It is stated on legendary more +than on historic authority, that when Conn of the Hundred Battles and +Eoghan Mór divided the island between them in the third century, the +Liffey was, for a certain part of its length, the boundary between their +dominions; and that the fact of more ships landing on the north side of +the river than on the south side gave offence to Eoghan, who owned the +southern shore of the Liffey, and caused a war between the two potentates. +It is, however, hardly probable that Dublin was a place of much importance +before its occupation by the Scandinavians in the first half of the +ninth century. + +[Illustration: SACKVILLE STREET (O'CONNELL STREET).] + +The Irish name of Dublin is, perhaps, the longest one by which any city in +Europe is called. It is _Baile Atha Cliath Dubhlinne_, and means the town +of the ford of hurdles of black pool. In ancient Irish documents it is +generally shortened to _Ath Cliath_, and sometimes to _Dubhlinn_. We have +no means of knowing what was the size or population of Dublin in Danish +times; but long after it became the seat of English government in Ireland, +it extended east no further than where the city hall now stands in Dame +Street, no further west than James Street, and no further south than the +lower part of Patrick Street; both Patrick's cathedral and the Comb having +been outside the city walls. + +We have no account of the first siege of Dublin by the Danes in 836. The +annals merely say that a fleet of sixty ships of Northmen came to the +Liffey, and that that was the first occupation of the city by them. The +Irish captured and plundered Dublin a great many times, but do not appear +to have ever tried to banish the Danes permanently out of it. It is +probable that the Irish found them useful as carriers of merchandise to +them from foreign countries; for seeing how often the city was captured +and plundered by the Irish, it is incredible that they could not have held +it had they chosen to do so. The Four Masters record its capture and +plunder by the Irish in A.D. 942, 945, 988, and 998. In 994 Malachy II. +sacked Dublin and carried off two Danish trophies, the ring of Tomar and +the sword of Karl; and in 988 he besieged it for twenty days and twenty +nights, captured it, and carried off an immense booty; and issued the +famous edict, "Every Irishman that is in slavery and oppression in the +country of the foreigners (Danes) let him go to his own country in peace +and delight." But the Irish were not always lucky in their attacks on the +Danes of Dublin, for in 917 Niall Glundubh, King of Ireland, was killed by +them, and his army defeated at Killmashogue, beyond Rathfarnham. He +evidently intended to take Dublin from the south, because it was so well +defended on the north by the Liffey. The battle usually known as the +battle of Clontarf was not fought in the locality now called by that name, +but between the Liffey and the Tolka. Where Amien Street is now was +probably the very centre of the battle-field. Here it may not be out of +place to make a remark on the curious fact that the Danes never made any +serious attempt to conquer Ireland after the battle of Clontarf, although +they were at the height of their power some six or eight years after by +the terrible defeat they gave the Saxons at Ashington, in Essex, which +gave Canute the crown of England. He thus became not only King of England, +but was King of Denmark and Norway as well--the most powerful potentate in +Christendom in his time. It is strange that historians have not taken any +notice of this extraordinary fact. There was comparatively little fighting +between the Irish and the Danes after the battle of Clontarf, although the +foreign people held Dublin until the arrival of Strongbow, and made a very +poor stand against him, for he captured the city with very little +difficulty. Dublin has hardly suffered what could be called a siege since +988, when Malachy II. took it from the Danes. When Strongbow held it, the +Irish under the wretched Roderick O'Connor marched a great army under its +walls, and were going to take it; but before they began siege operations, +and while they were amusing themselves by swimming in the Liffey, +Strongbow sallied out on them and totally defeated them. That was the last +serious attempt to besiege Dublin. + +Dublin does not appear to have grown much until after the wretched, and +for Ireland terribly unfortunate, Jacobite wars were over. It grew and +prospered rapidly almost all through the eighteenth century when a native +parliament sat there; but from about 1820 until about 1870 there was not +very much either of growth or improvement in it. Since then, in spite of +what the census may show, it has grown considerably, and has been improved +immensely. It is not easy to see what has caused such improvement in +Dublin since 1870. The only way that the improvement in the state of the +streets, the pulling down of old buildings and the erection of new ones, +can be accounted for, is by the fact that the local government of the city +is in the hands of a different class of men from those who ruled it so +long and so badly up to about the time mentioned. When one considers all +that has been done since then in the paving of streets, the laying down of +new side walks, the tearing down of old buildings, the erection of +cottages for the working classes where rotten and pestiferous houses had +stood, the deepening of the river so that the largest ships can now enter +it, the extension and perfecting of the tram-car system, and other +improvements too numerous to mention, it strikes him as something +astonishing; but when it is remembered that all these improvements have +taken place in the face of declining trade, declining population, and +declining wealth in the country at large, what has been accomplished +becomes absolutely sublime. It shows clearly that there is a class of the +Irish people who, with all their faults, possess hearts and souls + + "that sorrows have frowned on in vain, + Whose spirit outlives them, unfading and warm"; + +and that they never give up and never despair. Never has any city been so +much improved in so short a time, and in the face of such difficulties. +The improvements are still being carried on. If they are carried on for +another quarter of a century at the same rate at which they were carried +on during the last quarter of a century, Dublin will be one of the +cleanest, pleasantest, healthiest, and most beautiful cities in the world. + +In an educational point of view, there are very few cities either in these +islands or on the Continent that offer more facilities for culture than +Dublin. Its new National Library is, for its size, one of the finest and +best organised and best managed in Europe. It is not a British Museum, nor +is it a Bibliothèque Nationale; and the citizens of Dublin who have +children who are fond of reading, and who wish to add to their store of +knowledge, ought to feel very well satisfied that their National Library +is _not_ like either the monstrous and little-good-to-the-masses +institution in London, or the still more monstrous and still less +good-to-the-masses institution in Paris. Those to whom time is of little +value can afford to wait during a considerable part of the day to get a +book from the great libraries of London and Paris; but for any one to whom +time is really valuable, to visit the great libraries mentioned as a +reader of their books, should, in most cases, be the last thing he should +think of. + +There are three libraries in Dublin, of which two are free to any one +known as a respectable person--these are the National Library and the +Royal Irish Academy. To become a reader in Trinity College Library costs, +to a person known to be respectable, only a couple of shillings a year. +Seeing the facilities that are in Dublin for cultured people, or for those +who wish to become cultured, it is strange that it does not stand higher +as an educational centre. The three great libraries it contains--that is, +the National Library, Trinity College Library and the Royal Irish +Academy--contain almost every sort of book required for the most complete +education in every art and science known to civilised men. But one of the +grand advantages of these institutions, an advantage almost as great to +the people at large as the treasures they contain, is the fact that they +are not controlled by "red tapeism." The amount of trouble and downright +humiliation one has to go through to become a reader in the British Museum +of London, or in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, is enough to deter +any but a person of nerve from seeking admittance to them as a reader. The +British Museum is not so bad in the matter of "red tapeism" as it might +perhaps be; but the Bibliothèque Nationale puts so many obstacles in the +way of those who desire to become readers, that it is little else than a +disgrace to Paris and to France. For ridiculous red tapeism it beats any +institution of its kind on earth. There are probably not three libraries +in the world more easy of access than the three Dublin ones that have been +mentioned, and in which there is less red tapeism, or more courtesy shown +to readers. + +The buildings that have been recently erected in Kildare Street, Dublin, +the Library and the Museum, would be considered chaste and elegant in any +city in the world; and it is questionable if any buildings of their kind +can be found in any city to surpass them in architectural beauty. Even the +Picture Gallery and the Natural History Gallery, close to them in Leinster +Lawn, are very handsome buildings. If the front of Leinster House, facing +Kildare Street, were brightened up and made to look like its rear, the +whole group of buildings, including Leinster House itself, would form an +architectural panorama hardly to be surpassed anywhere; and if Dublin +contained nothing else worthy of being seen, it would make Dublin worth +travelling hundreds of miles to see. + +But it is the Museum of Irish Antiquities that is, or that ought to be, +the glory of this splendid group of buildings, and it is the only one of +them with the management of which fault can be justly found. The way it +has been managed ever since the articles it contains were removed from the +Royal Irish Academy in Dawson Street is a disgrace to all Ireland, and a +blot on the Irish people. There is not room to show the public much more +than half the objects of antiquity. They are stowed away in drawers, and +have been so for nearly ten long years. They might as well be in the earth +from which they were recovered as be packed into drawers in a back room +where none but officials can see them. If there was a decent and proper +national spirit among the Irish people, such treatment of Ireland's +wonderful and unique antiquities would not be tolerated for a single week. +Her antiquities are among the chief glories of Ireland. In monuments of +the past she stands ahead of almost all countries save Greece and Egypt. +It is not alone in her ruined fanes, round towers, gigantic _raths_, +sepulchral mounds, and Cyclopean fortresses that she can boast of +antiquarian curiosities more numerous and more unique than those of almost +any other country, but also in her multitudinous articles in gold, bronze, +and iron. A good many of these--the greater part of them, perhaps--are in +positions where they can be seen; but thousands of them are where no one +but an official can see them. If the Irish antiquarian department were +properly arranged, and if _all_ the objects it possesses that have been +dug up from Irish soil were properly exhibited, Ireland could boast of an +exhibition of national antiquities greater, more entirely her own, and +more unique than that possessed by any other country in Europe. + +Some may think that this statement is not true. They may point to the +enormous collection of antiquities in the museum in Naples. It is, +however, hardly fair to class the treasures of that museum with the +objects found in Ireland. It was the accidental calamity that befel +Herculaneum and Pompeii that stocked the museum in Naples. If that +calamity had not happened, it is all but certain that not a single object +in the Neapolitan museum would now be extant. It was by no accidental +calamity that the enormous number of Irish antique objects were brought to +light. They were found from time to time all over the country. There are +many private collections in the hands of private individuals in almost all +the large towns in Ireland, and a very large percentage of the bronze +objects in the British Museum were found in Ireland. No other country of +its size has yielded so many objects of a far-back antiquity. It seems a +pity that those who have so many private collections of antique objects in +so many parts of Ireland do not send them all to the Royal Irish Academy; +but if they are to lie there, stowed away in drawers in a back room, they +might better remain in the hands of private collectors. If there was a +real national press in Ireland, there would be such widespread indignation +awakened at the way Irish antiquities have been treated since they were +removed to the Museum in Kildare Street that those who manage it would be +_forced_ to treat one of the finest collections of its kind in the world +in a very different manner. Hardly a word has appeared in the Dublin press +protesting against the way the department of Irish antiquities has been +managed. + +With all the advantages Dublin possesses over most of the European +capitals in great facilities for education, in cheap house rent as +compared with many other cities, in uncommon beauty of environs, very few +rich, retired people with families to educate, choose it for a residence. +It is not to be wondered at that wealthy English and Scotch people should +prefer to live in their own countries, but wealthy Irish people seem not +to desire to live in Dublin unless it is their native place. Ireland, +unfortunately, does not possess very many rich people, but she has at +least some outside of Dublin; but very few of these, even if they have +young, growing-up families, go to reside in the capital in order to +educate them. Some seem to think that outside of Trinity College, Dublin +has no advantages in an educational point of view worth speaking of. This +is not now the case. It is true that some years ago Trinity College was +the only institution in Dublin where high-class education could be +obtained, but it is not so any longer, since the rise of other educational +institutions. But it is in the excellence of its libraries, and the easy +access that there is to them, that Dublin offers such great advantages to +those who do not desire to enter Trinity College. There is, of course, a +much larger collection of books in the British Museum, and in many of the +Continental libraries, than there is in the libraries of Dublin; but +between red tapeism, and the greater number of readers that frequent those +places as compared with the Dublin libraries, it is safe to say that more +reading could be done and more knowledge gained by a student in one week +in a Dublin library than in two weeks in any of those enormous places +where there are such crowds and consequently such loss of time. + +It is, however, hardly to be wondered at that Dublin has heretofore +attracted so few rich people to it. It got a name for being dirty and +ill-governed; and it has to be confessed that the name was, in a large +measure, deserved. Dublin _was_ dirty and _was_ badly governed, but it is +not now. A bad name lasts a long time, and is not easily got rid of; and +the improvements made in Dublin are of such recent origin that it is only +natural that outsiders should think it is still what it was thirty years +ago. Let Dublin continue to be improved for the next twenty years as it +has been during the twenty years that have elapsed, and it will be one of +the most attractive of the European capitals. It is not yet what it should +be; there are many things of many kinds in it which require improvement or +alteration; but so much good has been done already that it is only +reasonable to expect that still more will be done, and that the time +cannot be far distant when the city "of the black pool," badly as its +English translation may appear, will attract not only visitors from all +parts of the world, but rich people who will take up permanent abode +there, attracted by the educational advantages it will afford, by the +beauty and cleanliness of the city itself, and by the superlative beauty +of the country around it. + +The situation of Dublin can hardly be called romantic. It is built at the +mouth of a river, and consequently not on high ground; but the site is +good, for the ground rises on both sides of the Liffey, making the +drainage easy. When the system of main drainage that is now being carried +out is finished, it will be one of the best drained cities in the world. +Dublin has not such a picturesque site as Edinburgh has, neither has any +other city in Europe; but outside of Edinburgh there are no objects of +scenic interest unless one goes forty or fifty miles away to see them. But +if the site of Dublin cannot be called picturesque, it can boast of having +some of the most beautiful, if not the largest, public buildings in the +world. For chasteness, harmony, symmetry, and grace, the Bank of Ireland, +if it has any equals at all in modern architecture, has very few. The +Custom House is one of the finest buildings in Europe. The new public +buildings, containing the National Library and the Museum, are gems of +architectural beauty; so are some of the banks, and so is the Great +Southern Railway Terminus, and so are many other public buildings. Dublin +cannot boast of possessing any building as large as St Paul's or the +Tuileries; but size and beauty are two different things. + +But it is in its environs that Dublin stands ahead of all the capitals in +Europe, or, perhaps, of any other city of equal size in any country. +Because the beauties around Dublin were not described in the first +chapters of this work does not imply that they are much inferior to what +may be seen in other parts of the country. There is nothing like the Lakes +of Killarney in the environs of Dublin, and Dublin Bay is hardly equal to +Clew Bay; but barring those two gems of scenic loveliness, it is +questionable if there is, for beauty alone, leaving sublimity aside, +anything in Ireland that surpasses the immediate environs of Dublin, +without going further north than Howth, or further south than Bray. Every +inch of the country round Dublin has some peculiar scenic charm of its +own. The Botanic Gardens of Glasnevin are the most interesting and +beautiful in Europe; not so much for the care that has been taken of +them, or the quantity and variety of the plants that are in them, but +principally on account of the charming locality in which they are +situated. It is not meant to be implied that they are not well taken care +of, or that their collection of plants is not both rare and large. What is +meant is that had they the rarest and largest collection of plants to be +seen in any gardens in the world, they would not have the same attraction +were they situated in a less picturesque locality. If ever there was a +place made to spend a hot summer day in, it is these gardens, with their +murmuring river, their shaded, sunless walks, their gigantic trees and +deep glens. The place where the flower gardens of Glasnevin are would +still be beautiful if there wasn't a flower in it. + +Its bay is the great scenic attraction round Dublin. It cannot be seen to +real advantage but from the south-west side of the hill of Howth. The bay +has very few islands, but its background of mountains on one side and +woodland on the other is so wonderfully fair, that were there myriads of +islands to be seen, they could hardly add to the wondrous beauty of the +view. What a Scotch mechanic said about the view of Dublin Bay from the +high land on the south-west of Howth the first time he was there will +give the reader a better idea of Dublin Bay than a whole chapter of +descriptions, and loses nothing by being expressed in the strong doric of +the north: "Ech, mon, I seed mony a bonny sicht in Scótland, but this +beats a'." There are many who think the view from Killiney Hill finer than +that from Howth. The view from the former takes in Sorrento Bay, which is +in reality part of the Bay of Dublin that can hardly be seen from Howth, +and also takes in many valleys in Wicklow and plains in the interior that +are not visible from Howth. It is not easy to say which of the views is +the finer; but either is worth travelling not only ten miles, but a +hundred miles, afoot to see. + +In describing the beauties of Dublin Bay, it cannot be out of place to +give the finest poetic address to it that was ever written. It will be new +to most English and many Irish readers. The poem is by the late D. F. +M'Carthy:-- + + "My native Bay, for many a year + I've loved thee with a trembling fear, + Lest thou, though dear and very dear, + And beauteous as a vision, + Shouldst have some rival far away, + Some matchless wonder of a bay, + Whose sparkling waters ever play + 'Neath azure skies elysian. + + "'Tis love, methought, blind love that pours + The rippling magic round these shores, + For whatsoever love adores + Becomes what love desireth; + 'Tis ignorance of aught beside + That throws enchantment o'er the tide, + And makes my heart respond with pride + To what mine eye admireth. + + "And thus unto our mutual loss, + Whene'er I paced the sloping moss + Of green Killiney, or across + The intervening waters; + Up Howth's brown side my feet would wend + To see thy sinuous bosom bend, + Or view thine outstretched arms extend + To clasp thine islet daughters. + + "My doubt was thus a moral mist,-- + Even on the hills when morning kissed + The granite peaks to amethyst, + I felt its fatal shadow; + It darkened o'er the brightest rills, + It lowered upon the sunniest hills, + And hid the wingèd song that fills + The moorland and the meadow. + + "But now that I have been to view + All that Nature's self could do, + And from Gaeta's arch of blue + Borne many a fond memento; + And gazed upon each glorious scene, + Where beauty is and power has been, + Along the golden shores between + Misenum and Sorrento; + + "I can look proudly on thy face, + Fair daughter of a hardier race, + And feel thy winning well-known grace, + Without my old misgiving; + And as I kneel upon thy strand, + And clasp thy once unhonoured hand, + Proclaim earth holds no lovelier land + Where life is worth the living." + +One great charm of the country around Dublin, like one of the great charms +of Killarney, is its diversity. There are mountain, bay, woodland, and +river. There is a variety of scenery in the immediate vicinity of Dublin +such as cannot be found so near any other European capital, and such as +not even Naples itself can boast of. Great indeed is the difference in the +style of scenery between the cliffs of Howth and the green lanes of +Clontarf, although both places are hardly more than four miles apart. To +go a few miles further from the city, Bray is reached. It is only +twenty-five minutes by train from Dublin. There one finds himself almost +within a gunshot of some of the most picturesque and peculiar scenery in +the world. The Dargle and Powerscourt Waterfall are in the same locality. +They are gems of loveliness that surpass anything of their kind in these +islands. Even Killarney has nothing like them. Their very smallness adds +to their charms. The Dargle is exactly what its name, _Dair-gleann_, +signifies, an oak-glen. It is a chasm some two or three hundred feet deep, +every inch of the sides of which is covered in summer-time with some sort +of tree, shrub, or flower. In its depths laughs or murmurs a limpid stream +that can rarely be noticed, such is the thickness and luxuriance of the +trees and shrubs that overhang it. Powerscourt Waterfall is close by the +Dargle. The river that forms it leaps down a rock nearly three hundred +feet in height, into a valley of brightest verdure, covered with a thick +growth of primeval oak-trees. An enchanting spot--which it is gross folly +to attempt to describe--in a land of towering hills and flower-crowned +rocks. Its wildness, winsomeness, and loveliness must be seen in order to +form anything like a just idea of it. And all within about twelve miles of +Dublin! + +Then there is Howth on the north side, and only nine miles from Dublin, +one of the most wonderful spots of earth for its size in Europe. It is a +hill-promontory that juts out into nearly the middle of the bay, about +three miles in width and nearly the same in length. It is over five +hundred feet high, and in autumn is a pyramid of crimson and gold; for +wherever there are not trees or cultivation, there are furze and heath. A +place of wondrous beauty of its own, in no way like the Dargle or +Powerscourt. From the summit of Howth there is one of the most enchanting +and extensive views conceivable, reaching north to the Mourne Mountains +and east to Wales. And all this about nine miles from Dublin! Yet with all +these glories at her very feet, Dublin is still the Cinderella among the +capitals of Europe. + +There is beauty of a "truly rural" kind within half-an-hour's walk from +the Dublin General Post Office, or from the centre of the city. Thackeray +said in his "Irish Sketch Book," half a century ago, that it was curious +how some of the streets of Dublin so suddenly ended in potato fields; but +the potato fields Thackeray saw there are all covered with houses now. It +is true, however, that on the north side of Dublin one gets into the real +country by walking only a quarter of an hour from the city limits; no sham +country of cabbage gardens, but real fields of grass and grain growing +from soil of the most exuberant fertility. Trees and hedgerows abound; so +do some of the best and most thrifty farmers in Ireland, who generally pay +enormous rents for their land. The country north of Dublin is almost +perfectly flat, while on the south side the mountains commence within a +few miles of the city limits. But flat as the country north of Dublin is, +it is one of the finest and most fertile parts of Ireland, and was known +in ancient times as Fingall, because some _Finn Galls_, or fair-haired +foreigners from Scandinavia settled in it when they ceased to plunder +churches and monasteries. Those who prefer a flat, well-wooded, and very +fertile country to a land of mountains and valleys, like that on the south +side of Dublin, should see the plains of Fingall. + +It has been said that the gentle and refined are ever fond of flowers. If +this be so, the gentle and refined ought to be very plentiful in Dublin +and its environs, for in no other part of this planet known to man are +there as many wild flowers to be seen so near a great city as in the +environs of Dublin. This statement is made in sober earnestness, and with +absolute certainty as to its truth. It may be asked, if this is so, how is +it to be accounted for? It is easy of explanation. To begin, Ireland is, +_par excellence_, the land of wild flowers because of its moist, mild +climate and generally rich soil. Sunlight, when it is the burning sunlight +of southern climes, is death to flowers. Dublin enjoys a milder climate +than any city in Great Britain, although not so mild as Cork or some other +Irish southern cities. It is only a few miles from the mountains on the +south of Dublin to Howth on the north. Between Howth and the mountains, +if the whole of the mountains of Wicklow are counted and taking +inequalities of surface into account, for government surveys always mean +level surfaces, there are every autumn at least a hundred thousand acres +of wild flowers within half a day's journey of Dublin. It may be said that +these wild flowers are nearly all of one species--heath. That is true; but +heath, or heather as it is more frequently called, is a wild flower, and +one of the most beautiful that grows. The reason the Irish mountains +produce so much more heath than those of Great Britain is because they are +less rocky and more boggy, and are in a milder climate. The mountains of +Wales, being so stony, have hardly any heath on them. Then there is the +furze or gorse, as it is generally called in England. Heath and gorse +bloom side by side over thousands of acres in Howth and on the Dublin and +Wicklow mountains. Then there is the hawthorn. Where in these islands, or +on the continent of Europe, are there as many hawthorns to be seen on an +equal space of ground as in the Phoenix Park, Dublin? Let those who have +seen them in their snowy glory of white blossoms in the early summer +answer. But there are still other flowers that do certainly bloom in +greater luxuriance, and are more plentiful round Dublin than round any +other city in these islands--one of these is laburnum. Florists have said +that nowhere else does it bloom with such luxuriance as around the Irish +capital. Dublin is indeed seated in a flowery land, for it is well known +that even the rich soil of Ireland produces more wild flowers than the +rich soil of Great Britain. It is true that not only the flora but the +fauna of Ireland are less numerous in species than those of Great Britain. +There are a great many species of flowering plants that are common in the +larger island but unknown in the smaller one except in gardens. It is not +easy to account for this; but if there are fewer indigenous flowering +plants in Ireland than in Great Britain, the former country produces those +that are natural to it in much greater abundance than the latter. The +reason of this is easily understood. It is because the climate of Ireland +is milder and moister than that of Great Britain; and it is probable that +the soil is of a different quality in Ireland. But one thing is certain, +that not in England or in any European country are there such a quantity +of wild flowers to be seen as in Ireland. It is not alone on Irish bogs +and mountains that wild flowers are more abundant than in most other +countries, for the most fertile soil in Ireland, the best fattening land, +generally grows wild flowers in such abundance that pastures become +parterres. + +Dublin and its vicinity are not quite so rich in antiquities as some other +parts of Ireland. Very few traces of the old Danish city have been left. +Its walls can be traced in some few places. But what sort of houses the +people lived in can only be guessed at. They were probably, for the most +part, built of wood; for it cannot be too often impressed on those who +have a taste for antiquarian studies, that in ancient, and even what is +generally known as mediæval times, almost the entire populations of +northern countries lived in houses of wood or of mud, and sometimes in +houses made of both materials. For centuries after the art of building +with stone and mortar was well understood, stone houses were rarely used +by the masses either in towns or country places. They had stone-built +churches and round towers, and sometimes castles, but the people lived in +wooden or in mud houses. Dublin has more round towers in its immediate +vicinity than any other Irish city. There are three of them within a few +miles' distance. That of Clondalkin is on the Great Southern Railway; that +of Lusk is on the Great Northern; and that of Swords is only seven miles +from Dublin by road, and only two miles from Malahide Station on the Great +Northern. All these towers are in a good state of preservation; but the +one at Swords will soon be a ruin if the ivy, with which it has been +foolishly allowed to become completely covered, is not removed from it. +Ivy holds up for a time a building that is in a state of decay, but in the +long run it is sure to ruin it completely; for when the ivy becomes strong +enough, it forces its way between the stones, gradually displaces them, +and the building then tumbles down. If it is the Board of Works that has +charge of the Swords round tower, they are greatly to blame for allowing +the ivy to be gradually but surely bringing it to certain ruin. If it is +under the control of a private person, public opinion should compel him to +have the ivy removed from what was not long ago one of the most perfect +and best preserved of Irish round towers. + +There is something connected with the census of Dublin published in Thom's +directory from official documents which may be more interesting to some +than any description of the Irish capital, however graphic. This something +is an evident error that has, by some means, been made in enumeration of +its inhabitants. According to the published census, there were in round +numbers 13,000 more people in Dublin in 1851 than in 1891; and only 14,000 +more in county and city included in 1891 than in 1851. There is a gross +error here, for between the two epochs mentioned, the increase in what is +generally known as the metropolitan district has been so great that it is +visible to anyone who has been familiar with Dublin for forty years. It is +known that since 1851 nearly 25,000 houses have been erected in city and +county. That number of houses would represent at least 100,000 people, but +it only represents 14,000 according to the census, or two-thirds of a +person to each house! It may be said that a great many houses have been +pulled down in the city since 1851. True, there have; but ten have been +built since then for the one that has been pulled down. There are at least +a dozen streets, large and small, in Dublin, the population of which is +four times greater than it was in 1851; for there were no tenement houses +in those streets then, whereas they are all tenement houses now, and +consequently there are four or five families instead of one in each house. +The great increase in the population of Dublin during the last forty or +forty-five years is quite apparent in the more crowded state of the +thoroughfares. It seems not only probable, but certain, from all the data +that can be got at outside the census, that there are from fifty to one +hundred thousand more people in what is known as the metropolitan district +of Dublin than is shown by the published census. This will go far to +account for the weekly death-rate of Dublin being generally higher than +that of any other city in these islands; for if the weekly number of +deaths is based on a population less than what it is, it will make the +weekly death-rate per thousand higher than it should be. This is a very +serious matter for Dublin, for nothing has a more detrimental effect on +the welfare of a city than getting the name of being unhealthy. + +It is to be hoped that the reader will not set down either to national +bigotry or private advantage what has been said in praise of Dublin and +its environs. The writer may be national in the broad sense of the word, +but he has no sentimental love for Dublin beyond any other Irish city. He +is not influenced by the _genius loci_; he has no personal interest +whatever in Dublin. What he has said in its praise, and in praise of its +environs, would be said of Timbuctoo had he the same knowledge of the +African city that he has of Dublin, and were Timbuctoo and its environs as +worthy of laudation. Dublin is not his native city; but even if it were +he would be perfectly justified in telling the truth about it. If what he +has said about Dublin be untrue, it can easily be shown to be untrue. If +that city has not been improved and beautified in a most remarkable manner +during the last twenty-five years; if some of its public buildings are not +remarkable specimens of architectural excellence; if its environs are not +beautiful beyond those of any other European capital; if any of these +statements be untrue, let them be proved to be so at the very earliest +opportunity. + + + + +BELFAST AND ITS ENVIRONS + + +Belfast is not only the second city in Ireland in population and wealth, +but the second in beauty of environs. Its growth has been, during the last +three-quarters of a century, greater than that of any city in these +islands. It is an immense jump in population from 37,000 in 1821 to +273,000 in 1891. In splendour of public buildings, cleanliness of streets, +and general appearance, Belfast can be favourably compared with any city +of equal size in any country. Its citizens are proud of it, and so they +ought to be, for it was their own enterprise that made it what it is. The +extraordinarily rapid growth of Belfast shows what manufactures can do for +a city, for without them it would still be hardly more important than any +of the provincial towns of Ulster. It has an excellent harbour, and +besides its linen manufactures, it has become one of the most important +ship-building places in the world. But it was its linen manufactures that +gave Belfast the start. It is the largest linen mart in the world; but +unfortunately for it, and every other place in which the manufacture of +linen is carried on, the competition of cotton fabrics is rapidly making +the manufacture of linen less profitable, and threatens to drive it out of +use almost entirely in the long run. If cotton were unknown, Belfast would +be now, in all probability, a place of a million of inhabitants, and +Ireland would be one of the richest, if not the very richest, country of +its size in the world. It is well known that for flax growing and for +linen bleaching Ireland is ahead of all countries. Experts say that in no +other country can flax be grown with a fibre so strong and yet so fine as +in Ireland. It seems to be the country of all others that is best suited +for the growth of flax out of which the finest linen fabrics can be made. +It would almost seem as if Ireland was fated to be for ever suffering some +sort of ill-luck, and that things which are blessings to humanity at large +are often misfortunes to her. There cannot be any doubt but that the +cotton plant has proved one of the greatest of blessings to mankind in +general, but it has been a great misfortune to Ireland. Were it not for +cotton, three-fourths of the land of Ireland would now be growing flax, +and it would most likely contain a dozen linen manufacturing centres as +large as Belfast. Whatever the future of the linen trade may be, it is +hardly possible that Belfast can ever sink into insignificance, for its +people have so much of the true commercial spirit in them that if linen +became as useless as the chain armour of the middle ages, they would turn +their energies to some other branch of manufacture and make it a success. + +Belfast hardly figures at all in ancient Irish history or annals. It is a +comparatively new place. It is first mentioned in the Annals of the Four +Masters under the year 1476, where it is said, "A great army was led by +O'Neill against the son of Hugh Boy O'Neill; and he attacked the castle of +Bel-feiriste, which he took and demolished, and then returned to his +house." The name Belfast is a corruption of _Bél-feiriste_, or as it would +probably be written in modern Irish, Beulfearsaide, the mouth or pass of +the spindle. This seems nonsense, but the following, from Joyce's "Irish +Names of Places," will explain it: "The word _fearsad_ is applied to a +sand-bank formed near the mouth of a river by the opposing currents of +tide and stream, which at low water often formed a firm and comparatively +safe passage across. The term is pretty common, especially in the west, +where these _fearsets_ are of considerable importance; as in many places +they serve the inhabitants instead of bridges. A sand-bank of this kind +across the mouth of the Lagan gave name to Belfast, which is called in +Irish authorities Bel-feirisde, the ford of the _farset_; and the same +name in the uncontracted form, Belfarsad, occurs in Mayo." The Irish name +for a spindle is _fearsaid_; it also means a sand-bank, as described +above, probably because the shape of such sand-banks is generally +something like that of a spindle. According to the orthography of the Four +Masters, whose spelling of place names is generally correct, _feiriste_ is +the genitive singular of _fearsaid_; while in the name "Belfarsad," +mentioned by Joyce, _forsad_ seems to be the genitive plural. + +Belfast and its environs cannot be said to be very rich in monuments of +antiquity. There are, however, two round towers not far from it; one at +Antrim, some fifteen miles away, in excellent preservation; and one at +Drumbo, in the County Down, about five miles from the city. The last is in +a ruined condition--not much more than thirty feet of it remains. But +Belfast can boast of the most extraordinary monument of antiquity of its +kind in Ireland being in its immediate vicinity. This is the vast _rath_ +known as the Giant's Ring. There is nothing in Ireland so fine as it. The +_rath_ on the summit of Knock Aillinn, in the County Kildare, which has +been already described in the article on that hill, is much larger, and +encloses three times the space; but the earthen ramparts are not nearly so +high as those of the Giant's Ring. The space enclosed by this gigantic +rath is seven statute acres. When standing in the centre of this ancient +fortress, nothing is seen but the sky above and the vast earthworks all +around. The centre is as level and almost as smooth as a billiard table, +and exactly in the centre stands a cromlech. Old men living in the +locality say that the ramparts were for many years planted with potatoes. +This must have reduced their height by many feet; but they are still +nearly, if not quite, twenty feet high. Like most ancient raths, it has +two entrances, one exactly opposite the other. It would give ample room to +a population of some thousands, and was evidently an ancient city. But one +of the most extraordinary things connected with the Giant's Ring is that +annals, history, and legend are silent about it. So far, there seems to be +no more known about those who built the Giant's Ring than about the +builders of the temples of Central America. It is the same with many of +the vast Cyclopean forts along the west coast, of which the Stague fort in +Kerry and the forts in the islands of Arran in Galway are the most +remarkable. There are, however, very few large earthen forts in any part +of Ireland about which annals and history are alike silent. The Giant's +Ring is by far the most remarkable structure of its kind in Ireland, and +the most remarkable of all the ancient remains in the vicinity of Belfast. +It has been much better preserved than most of the remains of its kind in +Ireland, for the landlord on whose property it is has built a stone wall +round it, so it is safe from spoliation. + +The environs of Belfast are finer and more interesting than those of any +Irish city, Dublin alone excepted. It is really curious that so little +notice has been taken of them. The view from Devis Mountain, the top of +which is hardly more than four miles from the centre of the city, is one +of the finest and most extensive that can be seen in any part of Ireland. +The greater part of the north of Eastern Ulster can be seen from it. Ailsa +Craig in the Firth of Clyde seems almost at one's feet when standing on +the summit of Devis Mountain. To know the immensity of Loch Neagh, it +should be seen from there. It appears like a vast inland sea, out of all +proportion to the size of the island to which it is a curse rather than an +adornment; for it is one of the most utterly uninteresting of Irish +lakes. The view from Cave Hill is also very fine. This hill is only three +or four miles from Belfast. + +[Illustration: BELFAST LOCH.] + +Belfast Loch, as it is called, if not as picturesque as Dublin Bay, is, +nevertheless, a very fine bay, and has most beautiful and sumptuous +residences on its shores, particularly on the southern side. It is on this +side of the loch that Hollywood is situated. There are more fine, +well-kept residences in Hollywood than there are in the neighbourhood of +any other Irish city. The people of Belfast are proud of Hollywood, and +they ought to be. There are few places in the immediate vicinity of any +city of the size of Belfast in England or Scotland where so many fine, +well-kept, and sumptuous residences can be seen as in Hollywood. The +greater part of them are owned by Belfast merchants. + +Few go to Belfast in search of the picturesque. It has got such a +commercial name that those who have never been there think that it has no +attractions save for the business man. But if Belfast is visited in the +summer time, if the views from its hills are seen, and if its beautiful +suburb of Hollywood is seen, it will be found that there are scenic +attractions of a very high order in the neighbourhood of the northern +capital. + + + + +CORK AND ITS ENVIRONS + + +Cork, like Dublin, is a place of considerable antiquity. It does not +figure in the annals or history of pagan Ireland, but Christian +establishments were founded there very soon after the time of St Patrick. +Its Irish name, and the one by which it is mentioned in all ancient Irish +annals and history is _Corcach Mór Mumhan_, literally, the great swamp of +Munster. A very inappropriate name seemingly, for, although the place +where the city is built might have been a swamp, it never could have been +a big one, as it is a narrow, and by no means a long, valley. It is, +however, clear that the word _mór_--big--was not intended to relate to the +size of the swamp, but to the greatness of either the town or +ecclesiastical establishments that grew up in it. + +The earliest notice of Cork that appears in Irish annals is in the still +unpublished "Annals of Inisfallen," where it is stated, under the year +617, that "In this year died Fionnbarre, first bishop of Cork, at Cloyne. +He was buried in his own church at Cork." Under the year 795, the +following curious entry occurs in the same annals:--"In this year the +Danes first appeared cruising on the coast [of Ireland] spying out the +country. Their first attacks were on the ships of the Irish, which they +plundered." The same annals say that Cork, Lismore, and Kill Molaïse were +plundered by the Danes in the year 832, and that in 839 they burned Cork; +and that in 915 they plundered Cork, Lismore, and Aghabo. They also state +that in 978 Cork was plundered twice, presumably by the Danes. The +_Chronicon Scottorum_ says that Cork was also plundered by the Danes in +822. It was so often plundered by them that it is hardly to be wondered at +that the annalists should not have been able to keep account of every time +it was harried by the Northmen. But the Danes were not the only parties by +whom the south of Ireland suffered, for we read in the Four Masters, that +in the year 847 Flann, over-king of Ireland, for what reason does not +appear, harried Munster from Killaloe to Cork. They say also that a great +fleet of foreigners (Northmen) arrived in Munster in 1012 and burned Cork. +They were, however, defeated by Cahall, son of Donnell. This fleet had +evidently come to Cork for the purpose of making a diversion in the south +of Ireland, so that the great Danish army, whose headquarters were in +Dublin, and who contemplated the entire conquest of the country, should +not have the men of Munster to oppose them. The Danish army that came to +Cork in 1012 (the correct date seems to be 1013), were not able to give +any assistance to their countrymen at the battle of Clontarf by making a +diversion in Munster, for it would appear that they were wholly destroyed. +There is no record in the Irish annals of the Danes making any attack on +Cork after the battle of Clontarf. + +The situation of Cork, like that of Dublin and Belfast, is at the mouth of +a river, and on low-lying land. While the country round the city is +exceedingly fine, it has not, like the country in the neighbourhood of +Dublin and Belfast, any places from which extensive views can be had. The +country round Cork is by no means flat, but there is nothing near it that +could be called a mountain, or even a high hill. It is, however, as +beautiful as any country of its kind could be, with green, rounded +eminences, but not as much wood on them as there should be to make them +look to best advantage. The river between Cork and the Cove, or +Queenstown, as it is now called, is one of the finest six or eight miles +of river scenery to be found anywhere. The people of Cork are proud of it, +as they may well be. + +Cork, unfortunately, is not growing as Dublin and Belfast are. There is a +curious belief, partly a prophecy, that it will yet be the capital of +Ireland. "Limerick was, Dublin is, but Cork will be the capital," is +frequently heard in the south of Ireland. So far, there is not much sign +that the southern city will overtake Dublin, nor is it quite clear that +Limerick was ever the principal city of Ireland. It was, however, a very +important place during the greater part of the eleventh century. Limerick +seems to have been in the possession of the Danes for nearly a hundred +years, until Brian Boramha took it from them about the year 970. It +continued to grow as long as his descendants retained political power, +which they did for nearly a century after his death. Giraldus Cambrensis +calls Limerick "a magnificent city," but it must have begun to decline +even before he saw it, about the year 1190, for the O'Briens, or +descendants of Brian Boramha, had by that time lost a great deal of their +political power. Cork has, for at least two centuries, been a more +important place than Limerick. + +Some of the streets and public buildings in Cork are very fine, and will +compare favourably with those of any city. But it is evident that the +city was built too far up the river. Cork should be where Queenstown is. +If it were, there would be a chance of its becoming at some future day the +capital of Ireland. It is curious that almost all cities that are built on +rivers, and that were founded in ancient times, are generally at the head +of navigation. This habit of building cities as far up rivers as ships +could go was followed in order to give greater security from attacks by +sea. The farther up a river a city was, the more easily it could be +defended from attacks by sea. In olden times, when the largest ships drew +no more than eight or ten feet of water, Cork was as advantageously +situated for trade where it is as if it were where Queenstown is. But such +is not the case now. This defect of being too far up the river is the only +thing in its situation that is not favourable. It has one of the finest +harbours in Europe, and one of the finest in the world, but the harbour is +too far from the city. + +If there is a single place on the whole of the west coast of Europe +especially adapted for the site of a great city, it is the spot on which +Queenstown is built. It was nothing but the constant warfare of ancient +times that prevented Cork from being built there. There is that +magnificent harbour that the mightiest ironclad leviathan that floats can +enter at any state of the tide and be in it in five minutes from the time +she leaves the main ocean. Then there is that splendid site for a great +city on a gentle ascent, where street behind street and terrace behind +terrace could deck the hill-side, and all look down on that glorious +land-locked bay where a thousand ships could anchor. + +There cannot be any doubt that with the ever-growing trade and passenger +traffic between Europe and America, both Cork and Queenstown must be +benefitted. Even if an American packet station were established at Galway, +it would hardly interfere seriously with Queenstown or Cork, for harbours +like the Cove are too scarce on the coasts of Europe, and the trade +between Europe and America is too great and increasing too fast to leave +Loch Mahon[17] in the slightest danger of being deserted. As long as ships +navigate the Atlantic they must enter it. Nothing but the establishment of +aërial traffic between Europe and America can ever leave the Cove of Cork +shipless. + +The country round Cork is very fine, and there are many splendid and +well-kept gentlemen's seats in its suburbs. It would be hard to find any +city more picturesque in its situation, although built very nearly at the +mouth of a river. It is, more than any large place in Ireland, a city of +hills and hollows. Some of its streets are very steep, rather too much so +for pleasant walking. But this hillyness makes it all the more +picturesque, and makes the drainage all the better. Cork is a beautiful +city, and--surrounded by a beautiful country. If it has not the busy +appearance of Belfast, or the metropolitan appearance of Dublin, it is, +nevertheless, a fine city, and on account of its magnificent harbour, it +has, in all probability, a great and prosperous future before it. + +The antiquities of Cork have almost entirely disappeared. It suffered so +much from the Northmen and was so often plundered and burned by them that +it is not to be wondered at that so few of its ancient monuments exist. It +had a fine round tower, of which nothing is left but the foundation. It +was, presumably, the Northmen who destroyed it. Every vestige of the old +church founded by St Finnbar has disappeared long ago. The fact that Cork +was so often plundered by the Danes and other Northmen shows that it must +have been an important place, at least in the matter of churches and +monasteries. The Danes knew that wherever the largest religious +establishments were the most wealth was. This is proved by history and +annals telling us that Armagh, Kildare, Cork, Glendaloch, Downpatrick, +Clonmacnois, and other important religious centres, were most frequently +plundered by them. Just in proportion to the importance of a place in an +ecclesiastical point of view, the more frequently it was plundered by the +Danes. When they began their attacks on Ireland, they seem to have known, +as well as the Irish themselves, where the principal wealth of the country +would be found. + +As Cork is the last large place that suffered greatly from the Danes that +shall be mentioned in this work, it cannot be uninteresting or out of +place to give an extract from the Earl of Dunraven's book on ancient Irish +architecture about those terrible Vikings, and the causes that made them a +terror to all the maritime nations of Europe for so many years, more +especially as such an expensive work is not generally read, and not within +reach of the masses: "Dense as is the obscurity in which the cause of the +wanderings and ravages of the Scandinavian Vikings is enveloped, yet the +result of the investigations hitherto made on the subject is, that they +were, in a great measure, consequent on the conquests of Charlemagne in +the north of Germany, and on the barrier which he thereby--as well as by +the introduction of Christianity--set on their onward march. It can hardly +be attributed to accident that, with the gradual strengthening of the +Frankish dominions, the hordes of Northmen descended on the British Isles +in ever-increasing numbers. The policy of Charlemagne in his invasion of +Saxony, and the energy by which he succeeded in driving his enemies beyond +the Elbe and the German Ocean, were manifestly intensified by religious +zeal. The Saxons were still heathens; and the first attack made by the +Frankish King was on the fortress of Eresbourg, where stood the temple of +Irminsul, the great idol of the nation. We read that he laid waste their +temples and broke their idols to pieces.... However it may appear from +ancient authorities that for some centuries before then, the Scandinavians +had occasionally infested the southern shores of Europe; yet in the added +light that is cast by the Irish annals on the subject, we perceive that +from this date their piratical incursions afford evidence not before met +with of preconcerted plan and incessant energy; and these events in the +reign of Charles may lead us to discover what was the strong impulse that +thus tended, in some measure, to condense and concentrate their desultory +warfare. Impelled by some strong, overmastering passion, these hordes of +northern warriors held on from year to year their avenging march; and such +was the fury of their arms that even now, after the lapse of a thousand +years, their deeds are in appalling remembrance throughout Europe, not +only in every city on the sea-shore, or on river, but even in the peasant +traditions of the smallest village." + +It is curious, and for the Irish a source of very legitimate pride, that +of all the countries attacked by the Northmen, they got the hardest blows +and the most terrible, as well as the most frequent, defeats in Ireland. +They seem to have made more frequent attacks on it than on any other +country, and to have poured more men into it than into any other country. +This appears not only from Irish annals and history, but from Icelandic +literature, which was the common property of all the Scandinavian nations, +and the only literature in which the doings of the Vikings are recorded by +writers who were nearly contemporary with them. There appears to be more +written about Ireland and its people in the Icelandic Sagas than about any +other country or people the Vikings harried. The terrible defeat the +Northmen suffered at Clontarf in 1014 is fully acknowledged in the +Icelandic Sagas. It must, however, in truth be admitted that that battle, +while it turned out to be a national one, originated in a family quarrel, +and was brought about, as many battles had been brought about before, by a +bad and beautiful woman. If Gormfhlaith and King Brian had not quarrelled, +if Broder had not been desperately enamoured of her, and if she had not +been of the royal blood of the terribly maltreated and so often ravaged +province of Leinster, the battle of Clontarf never would have been fought. +Brian was an elderly man when he became over-king, and was quite willing +to allow the Danes to hold Dublin and other sea-ports as trading points, +for after a time they became traders and carriers. He was willing to let +them alone provided that they let him alone. This is proved by his having +given one of his daughters in marriage to Sitric, the Danish King or +Governor of Dublin. The Danes, knowing they had the entire strength of the +province of Leinster at their back by Brian's quarrel with Gormfhlaith, +who was sister to the King of Leinster, seem, probably for the first time, +to have seriously contemplated the complete conquest of Ireland. + +That the Irish suffered some terrible defeats from the Northmen has to be +admitted. In justice to those who compiled the various Irish annals, it +must be said that they always freely acknowledge when the invaders had the +best of it in a battle. It is, however, evident that, taking the almost +continuous fighting between the invaders and the invaded for two hundred +years, or from about the year 814 to the time of the battle of Clontarf in +1014, the net gains of the fighting was decidedly on the side of the +Irish. Many of those well-versed in Irish history think that if Ireland +had been really under the dominion of one sovereign, even as England was +under the later Saxon Kings, the Northmen would certainly have conquered +Ireland and held it as they held, for a time, England, Normandy, and other +countries. Very few of those called Irish chief kings were such except in +name. Their vassals used to lick them as frequently as they licked their +vassals. The Northmen defeated in battle and killed more than one Irish +chief king, but that does not seem to have brought them any nearer the +conquest of the island, for the provincial kings used to fight them on +their own account. The Northmen had too many heads to cut off, and none of +the heads controlled the destinies of the country. The most terrible +defeat that was probably ever inflicted on the Irish by the Northmen was +at the battle of Dublin in 917. The over-king, Niall Glundubh, was killed +in it, and from what the Irish annals say, it would seem that his whole +army was cut to pieces; but the victory was of little use to the invaders, +for the very next year they suffered a defeat from the Irish in Meath, in +which their whole army was destroyed and almost all their leaders slain. +We are told that only enough of the Danes were left alive to bear tidings +of their defeat. How the Irish managed to get the better of the Danes and +at the same time do so much fighting amongst themselves is one of those +historic puzzles the solution of which seems hopeless. + +Many thoughtful persons among the Irish regret that Ireland had not been +thoroughly conquered by the Northmen. They say that had it been conquered +by them it would have been united under one supreme ruler, the provincial +divisions would have been obliterated, a strong central government formed, +and intestine wars brought to an end. Such a state of things might have +come to pass; but it seems clear that the Northmen were not capable of +building up a nation. They failed to do it whenever they tried. They had +complete control in England for two generations when they were at the +height of their power, but they failed to keep their grip on England, +although having had the advantage of a large, and what might be called an +indigenous, Scandinavian population north of the Humber. Hardly a trace of +their nearly three hundred years' rule in some Irish cities remain, and in +the entire island all the traces left of their language is to be found in +less than a dozen place names. They became great in Normandy only when +they ceased to be Northmen and mingled their blood with that of the people +whom they had conquered, and became French. + +Whatever benefit other countries may have received from the Danes or +Northmen, Ireland received none. To her they were nothing but a curse. If +they had conquered her, they might, in the long run, have benefitted her. +It would be not only difficult, but absolutely impossible, to point out a +single way, except, perhaps, by an admixture of a little new blood, in +which Ireland was benefitted by the visits of the Northmen. In spite of +their very great skill in ship-building and navigation, they introduced +not a single art into Ireland. Confused as the political state of the +country was before they came to it, it was still more confused when they +ceased to be plunderers and became merchants. They had nothing themselves +that could be called literature, and were the greatest enemies that Irish +literature had ever encountered, for the number of books they must have +destroyed is beyond calculation. Not a monastery or church from one end of +Ireland to the other escaped being plundered by them, and most of the +monasteries were plundered _ten times_ during the two hundred years their +plunderings lasted. Iona, though not in Ireland, was an Irish +establishment; it was so often plundered by them, and its entire +population so often killed, that it had to be entirely abandoned in the +ninth century. It became a ruin, and remained such until the Northmen +ceased their raids; its treasures, or what remained of them, were removed +to Kells in Ireland. Nothing can show more plainly the knowledge the +Northmen possessed of the country, and their determination to leave +nothing in it unplundered, than their having plundered the anchorites' +cells on the Skelligs rocks, off the coast of Kerry. It is said that there +is but one spot at which a boat can land on these rocks, and then only on +the very finest and calmest day; but the Northmen found out the +landing-place, plundered the cells, and, of course, killed every one they +found in them. + +It is very curious how it came to pass that a people so very brave as the +Northmen undoubtedly were should be so lacking in almost every quality +that goes to form a great, conquering people and builders up of nations. +They never impressed themselves on any nation or province they conquered. +A very large part of the north of England was not only conquered but +settled by them, and three Danish kings reigned in England, yet it +remained Saxon England until the battle of Hastings. In France they not +only lost their language, but lost their identity in less than three +generations, and became absolutely French. They did not even call +themselves Northmen, or Normans; for on the Bayeux Tapestry we find the +legend, _Hic Franci pugnant_, showing plainly that they regarded +themselves as nothing but French. They conquered the greater part of the +island of Sicily, but, as usual, have left hardly a trace of their +occupation in it. It need hardly be repeated that in Ireland, in spite of +their having held and ruled some of its chief cities for three hundred +years, and in spite of their many alliances with Irish chiefs and nobles, +all they have left that in any way shows that they ever set foot on Irish +soil are less than a dozen place names. The Northmen might well be +forgiven for their plunderings and burnings if it were not for the +quantity of books they burned. But for them, ancient Celtic literature +would be so immense that it would be regarded with respect even by those +who would be most hostile to the nation that produced it. + +The successful resistance of the Irish against the Northmen is a very +curious historic fact. Of all countries in Europe in the middle ages, it +ought to have been, no matter what might be the valour of its inhabitants, +the most easy of subjugation on account of its political divisions, and +the consequent state of almost continual war that existed among the +provinces. Yet in spite of all, in no part of Europe which the Northmen +attacked, did they encounter such strong and such long-sustained +resistance as in Ireland, in spite of the fact that for many years before +the battle of Clontarf, the province of Leinster, whose soldiers from time +immemorial had been considered the bravest in Ireland, was in alliance +with the invaders. The successful resistance the Irish made against the +Northmen is proved from sources that are neither Scandinavian nor Irish; +for the Norman Chronicle says, "that the Franks, or French, were grateful +to the Irish for the successful resistance they made against the Danes; +and that in the year 848 the Northmen captured Bordeaux and other places +which they burned and laid waste; but that the Scotts (Irish) breaking in +on the Northmen drove them victoriously from their borders." It is +absolutely sickening to read of all the plunderings, murderings, and +burnings committed by the Northmen in Ireland. When we think of all the +similar sort of work the Irish practised on one another, we wonder how it +happened that there were any people left in the island; and we are almost +driven to the conclusion that if it had not been for the extraordinary +fecundity of the race, it would have become depopulated. It was not only +the numbers of Irish that were killed by the Northmen, but also the +numbers that were brought into captivity by them that tended to depopulate +the country. + +Under the year 949 the Annals of the Four Masters state that Godfrey, a +Danish king or general, plundered Kells and other places in Meath, and +carried off three thousand persons into captivity, and robbed the country +of an enormous quantity of gold, silver, and wealth of all kinds. That +sort of work had been carried on for nearly two hundred years, and it is a +wonder that the entire country was not utterly ruined. + +An interesting as well as gruesome illustration of what Ireland suffered +from Danish raids was revealed some few years ago while workmen were +levelling ground for the erection of a house at Donnybrook, near Dublin. +They unearthed the skeletons of over six hundred people, of almost all +ages; from those of full-grown men to those of babies, all buried in one +grave, and only about eighteen inches under the surface. This vast grave +was close to the banks of the little river Dodder. The Northmen had +evidently gone up the river in their galleys, for at full tide it had +enough of water to float them. By some chance the leader, or one of the +leaders, of the Danes was killed in the foray, for his body was found a +little distance from the grave of the victims. His sword was buried with +him; it was of recognised Danish make, and had a splendid hilt inlaid with +silver. Not a vestige of clothing or ornaments was found on the bodies of +the slain, save a common bronze ring on the finger of one of them. +Everything they had seems to have been taken. A village had evidently +stood in the locality; it was raided by the Danes, the inhabitants all +killed, and everything of value they possessed, even to their clothing, +taken; for if they had been buried in their clothing, which must have been +almost entirely of woollen material, which resists decay for a long time, +some vestige of it would have been discovered. The remains of the victims +of the massacre were carefully examined by the most eminent scientists and +archæologists of Dublin, among them Dr Wm. Fraser, who wrote an article on +the discovery that may be seen in the transactions of the Royal Irish +Academy. Irish history and annals are silent about this terrible massacre, +and it is hardly to be wondered at that they should not have mentioned it, +for such things were of such frequent occurrence in Ireland during the +time of the Northmen that it was impossible to keep track of them all. + +It is hard to agree with the Earl of Dunraven in what he says in the +passage that has been quoted a few pages back, as to the cause of the +invasions and plunderings of the Northmen. The victories of Charlemagne +over the Saxons could scarcely have caused the vast outpourings of +Northmen on southern and western Europe. The Saxons were Germans, pure and +simple; but there seems to have been a very great difference between +Northmen and Germans. They may both have belonged originally to the same +race, and their languages may have been, and undoubtedly were, closely +allied, but they seem to have had very little in common. One was an +essentially seafaring people, and keeps up a love for the sea to the +present day. The other was not a seafaring people, and hardly yet takes +kindly to maritime life. The Norse and German races lived side by side in +England for some centuries, but they lived apart, quite as much apart as +the Celts and Scandinavians lived apart in Ireland. It would rather seem +as if it was want, added to a bold and restless nature, that was the +primary cause of Norsemen's raids on the south-western coasts of Europe. +Their own country was barren, and cold, and unable to support a dense +population. It sometimes happens that people multiply faster than they can +be supported. Such a state of things occurred in Ireland in the early part +of the present century. Not that Ireland could not have supported a much +larger population than it ever contained, provided the social condition of +the country was different; but under the conditions that existed, the +people multiplied beyond their means of support. The same thing may have +occurred in Scandinavia. The people may have been forced by hunger to seek +a living by foul means or fair, somewhere else than in their own country. +Cruel as they were, they were probably not more cruel than any other +people of their time would have been under the same circumstances. It +would seem that it was exhaustion of population in Scandinavia that put an +end to Scandinavian raidings. Its people having become Christians may have +had some effect in softening their manners; but it is certain that it was +not hatred of Christianity that prompted them to plunder Christian +nations. It was love of plunder, intensified, in all probability, by want +and semi-starvation at home. It is, however, very curious that the people +who were once the terror of southern Europe should have become what they +are to-day, and what they have been for some centuries, as peaceable and +as law-abiding nations as there are in the world. + + + + +GALWAY AND ITS ENVIRONS + + +Galway is one of the most modern of the Irish provincial capitals. It does +not figure at all in ancient annals. The first mention of it in the annals +of the Four Masters is under the year 1124, when it is stated that the men +of Connacht erected a castle in Galway. The first mention of it in the +annals of Loch Key is under the year 1191, when it is stated that the +river Gaillimh, from which the town takes its name, was dried up. The +cause of this phenomenon is not stated. Galway was at one time a place of +considerable wealth and trade. It was, in the fifteenth and sixteenth +centuries, the port to which most of the Spanish wine destined for Ireland +used to come; and it is generally believed that a Spanish type of features +can still be noticed on some of its inhabitants. But whatever mercantile +prosperity Galway enjoyed some centuries ago, very little of it +unfortunately remains; for of all Irish towns the decrease of its +population has been the most terrible. In 1845 it contained very close on +35,000 inhabitants, in 1891 it had only 14,000! It is painful to walk +in the outskirts of the town and pass through whole streets in which +nothing remains save the ruins of cottages. Galway ought to be a +prosperous place, for it is situated on a noble bay that forms a spacious +harbour, sheltered from the fury of the Atlantic by the Isles of Arran. It +is pleasant to be able to state that the condition of this once fine city +is improving. + +[Illustration: OLD HOUSES IN GALWAY.] + +In spite of the signs of decay that are only too visible in Galway, it is +a very quaint and interesting town. It contains many buildings that were +erected centuries ago, in the days of its prosperity, that are evidences +of its former wealth and trade. In what may be called mediæval remains, it +is, perhaps, richer than any other town in Ireland, and will well repay a +visit. It is one of the few large towns in Ireland in which a majority of +the people are bilingual, using both the English and Irish languages. + +There is not much either of scenic or antiquarian interest in the +immediate vicinity of Galway; but if those who wish to see the most +ancient and gigantic cyclopean remains in Europe, or perhaps in the world, +go to the Isles of Arran, to which a small steamer sails from Galway, they +will be well repaid for a two hours' trip. The Arran Islands contain more +antique monuments of the pre-historic past and of a more interesting kind +than any other places of equal extent in these Islands. These monuments +consist of vast drystone fortresses that were raised by some pre-historic +race. There is what may be called historic tradition that they were built +by a remnant of the Firbolgs in the century preceding the Christian era; +but those most learned in things pertaining to Irish antiquities, do not +think there is any reliable historic evidence as to where or by whom they +were erected. The principal fortresses are, Dun Aengus, Dun Connor, Dun +Onacht and Dun Eochla. They are all in the Great Island, or Arran Mór, +except Dun Connor, which is in the Middle Island, or Inis Maan. Dun Connor +is the largest. It is considerably over two hundred feet long, and over a +hundred feet wide. Its treble walls are still twenty feet high in some +places, and from sixteen to eighteen feet in thickness. These vast +fortresses look as if they were the work of giants. Like almost every +relic of the past, they seem to have been more marred by men than by time. +They have evidently been injured by people looking for treasure; and a +good deal of their stones have been removed to build cabins and outhouses. +Miss Margaret Stokes, who has devoted almost all her life to the study of +Irish antiquities, and who consequently knows more about them, perhaps, +than any one in Ireland, says of these vast fortresses in Arran: "They are +the remains of the earliest examples of architecture known to exist in +Western Europe." There is something awfully grand and grim in the aspect +of these ruined fortresses. To gaze on their colossal dimensions and +barbaric rudeness seems to carry us back almost to the beginning of time, +when the earth was inhabited by beings unlike ourselves. But however old +the forts in Arran may be, it is evident that they were the strongholds of +a seafaring people; for the whole products of the barren islands on which +they stand would not be worth the labour of erecting such gigantic +fortresses for their protection. These islands support a good many people +now, thanks to the potato; but in ancient times, when it was unknown, it +is hard to understand how the multitude of men it must have taken to build +so many vast fortresses could have found sustenance on these barren isles; +and we are, therefore, almost driven to the conclusion that the fortresses +in the Isles of Arran were built by pirates or seafaring men of some +kind. + + + + +THE CLOUD SCENERY OF IRELAND + + +It is only those who have lived a long time in continental countries that +can fully appreciate the beauty of Irish cloud scenery. As a rule, insular +countries are richer in cloud scenery than continents. Any one who has +lived even in the western part of continental Europe knows that Great +Britain, owing to its being an island, is much richer in cloud scenery +than France; and the further east one goes, the drier the climate will be +found to be, the fewer the clouds, and consequently the less attractive +the sky. + +Ireland being situated so far out in the "melancholy ocean" is, beyond all +European countries, a land of clouds, and it has to be admitted that she +very often has too much of them. But if these clouds frequently pour down +more rain than is necessary for the growth of crops, there is a certain +amount of compensation given by skyey glories they create; and marvellous +these glories sometimes are. It is not only at sunset or sunrise that +Irish cloud scenery is fine; for often during even a wet summer, when the +rain ceases for a time, and the sun appears, the sky becomes what it is +hardly incorrect to call a wonderland of beauty, with its "temples of +vapour and hills of storm." But the real glories of Irish cloud scenery +are its sunsets. Ireland is, beyond any other country perhaps in the +world, the land of gorgeous sunsets. Sometimes they are such wonders of +golden glory that even the most stolid peasant gazes on them with emotion. +As a rule, it is only in the latter part of summer and the first half of +autumn that Irish sunsets can be seen in their greatest beauty. Sometimes, +when the summer is very wet, fine sunsets are seldom seen; but in fine +weather they are generally such as can be seen in no other country. For +months during the fine summer and autumn of 1893, every sunset was a +wonder of indescribable beauty, with almost half the heavens a blaze of +golden clouds. + + + + +SOMETHING ABOUT IRISH PLACE NAMES + + +It has been said that almost everything connected with Irish history and +topography is peculiar. The truth of this can hardly be doubted. If the +ancient Irish were a non-Aryan race, the strange phases of their history +and the abundance of Irish place names might not strike us as so curious. +But it is well known that the Irish are Aryans, and that they are +substantially the same people as the ancient Britons were; yet nothing in +the history of England or of Great Britain will satisfactorily account for +the fewness of place names in the latter country as compared with Ireland. +British, but especially English, place names are, in a vast majority of +cases, either of Saxon, Norse, or Celtic origin. Their fewness as compared +with Irish place names is what strikes a native of Ireland with +astonishment. There are probably as many place names in a single Irish +province as there are in the whole of England. The townland nomenclature +of Ireland is almost unknown in England. The names of all the townlands in +Ireland can be seen in the Government Survey of 1871. They number, +exclusive of the names of cities, towns, and villages, about 37,000. But +it is only the place names that mean human habitations, places erected by +men, and where men dwelt, that shall be mentioned here. Let five +denominations of place names suffice to show their immensity--namely, +_ballys_, _kills_, _raths_, _duns_ and _lises_. The first means towns or +steads; the second, churches or cells; and the three last mean fortified +habitations of some kind. Of _ballys_ there are 6700, of _kills_ 3420, of +_lises_ 1420, of _raths_ 1300, and of _duns_ 760, making altogether 13,600 +place names meaning habitations of some kind. But this is not the half of +them! The place names in the subdivisions of townlands are not mentioned +at all. There is a parish in Westmeath in which there are three place +names beginning with _rath_, and three with _kill_, none of which is +mentioned in the printed list of townlands. Multitudes of names in which +some one of the five words mentioned is included have been translated or +changed; just as Ballyboher has been made Booterstown, and Dunleary made +Kingstown. Many place names in which _bally_, _kill_, _dun_, _rath_, and +_liss_ occur are not included in the numbers given, for very often the +adjective goes before the noun, as in such names as Shanbally, Shankill, +Shanlis, Shandun, &c. Taking everything into consideration, it would seem +fair to estimate that not more than half the place names formed from the +five words that have been mentioned appear in the printed list of Irish +townlands; then we have the astounding total of over _twenty-seven +thousand_ place names in Ireland formed from five words that mean human +habitations. + +The only explanation of the astonishing number of ancient place names +found in Ireland, as compared with England, seems to be the dense rural +population that must have existed in the former country in ancient times. +That an enormous percentage of ancient place names have totally faded away +owing to the disuse of the Gaelic language, the consolidation of farms, +and the decline of population, there cannot be any doubt at all. The +puzzle about Irish place names is, if their extraordinary numbers were +caused by a more dense population in Ireland than in England--why was +Ireland more densely peopled than England in ancient times? The soil of +Ireland is hardly more fertile than the soil of England, and the climate +of Ireland is not as good, for it is much wetter than that of the larger +island. England is nearer to the Continent, and therefore was more easy of +access to continental traders. The situation as well as the soil and +climate of England were rather more favourable to the growth of a large +population than were those of Ireland. It is now generally conceded that +the ancient Britons and Irish were of the same race, and spoke a language +that was substantially the same. But why should there seem to have been +such a difference in the political and social condition of the Irish and +the ancient Britons who were their contemporaries? Why are there so +comparatively few ancient place names in Great Britain and such an +overwhelming number of them in Ireland? Why should Ireland have a history +that goes so far back into the dim twilight of the past, and England have +no history beyond the time of Cæsar? These are most interesting and +important questions, but how can they be answered? It is to be hoped that +some future savant will succeed in solving them. + + +THE END. + + +PRINTED BY TURNBULL AND SPEARS, EDINBURGH + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] "History of England," vol. iii., p. 107. + +[2] Is iat Tuata De Danaan tucsat leo in Fál mór; i. in lia fis _bai_ i +Temraig; di atá Mag Fail for Erinn. In ti fo ngéised saide bari Erenn. +"Book of Leinster," page 9. + +[3] Eemoing ni hed fota acht Crist do genemain; is sed ro bris cumachta +nan idal. "Book of Leinster," p. 9. + +[4] + + Is dar timna in Duleman, is dar + brethir Crist chaingnig + Do cech rig do Gaedelaib do beir + ammus for Laignib. + "Book of Leinster," p. 43. + +[5] In Carsewell's Gaelic, _Giollaeasbuig van duibhne_. The _v_ stands for +_u_; the spelling was intended to represent _Ua n Duibhne_. _Ua_ and _O_ +mean the same thing, grandson. The _n_ before Duibhne would not now be +used. + +[6] This poem is in the "Book of Leinster," and has not yet been +translated. + +[7] The eastern part of Ulster. + +[8] Duvdaire was Muircheartach's wife. She was daughter of the King or +Chief of Ossory. Rushes in those days served as carpets, as they did in +England. + +[9] A poetic name for Muircheartach, for his patrimony was on the shores +of Loch Foyle. + +[10] Moy Breagh, or the fine plain, was the country round Tara. To possess +Moy Breagh was the same as to possess Tara, and that was to be chief King. +But Tara was as deserted in the time of the Circuit as it is now. + +[11] This date is thought to be two years too early, and that 943 was the +year in which Muircheartach was killed. + +[12] The Eoghanachts were the posterity of Eoghan Mór, King of Munster in +the third century. Eoghanacht meant a people of Munster, descendants of +Eoghan; and Connacht, the descendants of Conn,--usually known as Conn of +the Hundred Battles, most of which were fought against Eoghan. + +[13] Prince of Scotts; this was evidently the great Steward, or _mór maor_ +of Lennox, who aided the Irish at the battle of Clontarf, and was killed +there. + +[14] This is an incorrect form of the word. It is _Boramha_ in the most +correct ancient manuscripts, and is a word of three syllables--Borava. It +means "of the tribute." + +[15] Is hi seo bliadain ra gabad Tuirgeis la Maelseachlainn. Ra baided ar +sain hé il Loch Uair. "Book of Leinster," p. 307. + +[16] Aed Abrat was Fann's father. + +[17] The old name of what is now called Queenstown Harbour. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Beauties and Antiquities of Ireland, by +T. O. 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Russell—A Project Gutenberg eBook + </title> + + <style type="text/css"> + + p {margin-top: .75em; text-align: justify; margin-bottom: .75em;} + + body {margin-left: 12%; margin-right: 12%;} + + .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right; font-style: normal;} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 {text-align: center; clear: both;} + + hr {width: 33%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; clear: both;} + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + .dent {padding-left: 2em;} + + .giant {font-size: 200%} + + .poem {margin-left: 15%;} + .footpoem {margin-left: 5%;} + .hang {margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;} + .title {text-align: center; font-size: 150%;} + .caption {text-align: center; font-size: small;} + + .right {text-align: right;} + .center {text-align: center;} + + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + .smcaplc {text-transform: lowercase; font-variant: small-caps;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + .bbox {border: solid 2px; color: gray; margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + a:link {color:#0000ff; text-decoration:none} + a:visited {color:#6633cc; text-decoration:none} + + .vertsbox {border: solid 2px; padding-left: 1em; padding-right: 1em; margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%;} + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's Beauties and Antiquities of Ireland, by T. O. Russell + +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: Beauties and Antiquities of Ireland + +Author: T. O. Russell + +Release Date: April 21, 2012 [EBook #39500] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BEAUTIES, ANTIQUITIES OF IRELAND *** + + + + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/cover.jpg" alt="" /></div> + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<h1><small>BEAUTIES AND ANTIQUITIES OF IRELAND</small></h1> + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<div class="vertsbox"> +<p class="title">KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRÜBNER & Co., Ltd.</p> +<p class="center">NEW AND RECENT PUBLICATIONS.</p> +<p class="center"><strong>THE PAMPHLET LIBRARY.</strong></p> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Edited by</span> ARTHUR WAUGH. Crown 8vo.</p> + +<p class="hang"><b>POLITICAL PAMPHLETS.</b> Selected and arranged by <span class="smcap">A. F. Pollard</span>. 6s. [<i>Ready.</i></p> +<p class="hang"><b>LITERARY PAMPHLETS.</b> Selected and arranged by <span class="smcap">Ernest Rhys</span>. [<i>Immediately.</i></p> + +<p> </p> +<p class="center"><i>To be followed by</i></p> +<p class="hang"><b>RELIGIOUS PAMPHLETS.</b> Selected and arranged by Rev. <span class="smcap">Percy Dearmer</span>, and</p> +<p class="hang"><b>DRAMATIC PAMPHLETS.</b> Selected and arranged by <span class="smcap">Thomas Seccombe</span>.</p> + +<p> </p> +<p class="hang"><b>MEMOIRS OF HAWTHORNE.</b> By his daughter, <span class="smcap">Rose Hawthorne Lathrop</span>. With +Portrait. Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d.</p> + +<p class="hang"><b>IN THE LAND OF THE BORA; or Camp-Life and Sport in Dalmatia and the +Herzegovina.</b> By “Snaffle,” author of “Gun, Rifle, and Hound.” With 10 +Full-page Illustrations by <span class="smcap">H. Dixon</span>. Demy 8vo. 15s.</p> + +<p class="hang"><b>THE CRIMEAN DIARY OF THE LATE GENERAL SIR CHARLES WINDHAM, K.C.B.</b> Edited +by Major <span class="smcap">Hugh Pearse</span>. With an Introduction by Sir <span class="smcap">William H. Russell</span>, and +a portrait of General <span class="smcap">Windham</span>. Post 8vo. 7s. 6d.</p> + +<p> </p> +<p class="center">PATERNOSTER HOUSE, CHARING CROSS ROAD.</p></div> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<p><span style="margin-left: 14em;"><i>Frontispiece.</i></span></p> +<div class="bbox" style="width: 600px; height: 372px;"><img src="images/img01.jpg" alt="" /></div> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Cong Abbey.</span></p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<p class="center"><span class="giant">BEAUTIES AND ANTIQUITIES<br /> +OF IRELAND</span></p> +<p> </p> +<p class="center"><small>BEING</small></p> +<p class="center">A TOURIST’S GUIDE TO ITS MOST BEAUTIFUL<br /> +SCENERY & AN ARCHÆOLOGIST’S MANUAL<br /> +FOR ITS MOST INTERESTING RUINS</p> +<p> </p> +<p class="center"><small>BY</small><br /> +T. O. RUSSELL<br /> +<small>AUTHOR OF “DICK MASSEY,” “TRUE HEART’S TRIALS,” ETC.</small></p> +<p> </p> +<p class="center">LONDON<br /> +KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO., <span class="smcap">Ltd.</span><br /> +B. HERDER<br /> +17 SOUTH BROADWAY<br /> +ST LOUIS, MO.<br /> +1897</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span></p> +<h2>PREFACE</h2> + + +<p>To describe all the beauties and antiquities of Ireland, an encyclopedia, +instead of a volume the size of this one would be required. As one of the +objects of this book is to show that Irish history is as generally +interesting as Irish scenery is generally beautiful, few places are +noticed that are not historic; but in a volume of the size of this, all +the historic places could not be mentioned. Many books have been published +during the last three-quarters of a century that treat on Irish scenery +and antiquities. Some of them are very voluminous and copiously +illustrated. They were, for the most part, written by persons utterly +unfitted for the task they undertook. Their remarks on Irish scenery may +be of some value; they may have thought Killarney more beautiful than the +Bog of Allen; but wherever they touch on matters connected with history +and antiquities, they are so often incorrect and misleading that the books +they have published may, for the most part, be said to be useless. It is +not too much to say that many<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[Pg viii]</a></span> of these works would be actually increased +in value if the printed matter were torn out of them and nothing left but +the illustrations and covers. The people who wrote them were totally +unfitted to treat of Irish history and antiquities. They knew little about +the history of ancient Ireland, and nothing of the Irish language or its +literature. They could hardly be justified to treat of Irish architectural +remains, because they were ill-equipped to do so, and were unsympathetic +with the race that raised them.</p> + +<p>If there is any country in Europe about the scenery and antiquities of +which an interesting book could be written, it is Ireland. In no other +country are scenery and antiquities so closely allied, for the finest +remains of her ancient ruins are generally found where the scenery is most +weird, most strange, or most beautiful. In no other country, perhaps, can +so many places be identified with historic events, or historic personages, +as in Ireland. It contains more relics of a long vanished past than any +other European land. Great Britain seems a new country compared with +Ireland. In spite of the wanton and disgraceful destruction of her ancient +monuments that has been going on for centuries, more of such can be found +in a single Irish county than in a dozen in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[Pg ix]</a></span> Great Britain. Although +Stonehenge is the finest druidic monument known to exist, the quantity of +druidic remains is much greater in Ireland than in England. In the latter +country we miss the <i>dun</i>, the <i>rath</i>, the <i>lis</i>, the round tower and the +sepulchral mound, some of which are found in almost every square mile of +Ireland. And coming down to later times, when men began to erect +structures of stone, we find the remains of castles and keeps in such +extraordinary numbers that we wonder for what purpose so many strongholds +were erected. Counting <i>raths</i>, <i>duns</i>, <i>lises</i>, <i>cromlechs</i>, round +towers, crumbling castles, and deserted fanes, Ireland may be called a +land of ruins beyond any other country in Europe. To make these +multitudinous monuments of a far-back past still more interesting, it will +be found that mention is made of most of them even in the remnant of +Gaelic literature that by the merest chance has been preserved.</p> + +<p>The place names of Ireland are as interesting and as extraordinary as her +antiquities, and to some are even more fascinating than her beauties. The +bewildering immensity of Irish place names is one of the most remarkable +things connected with Ireland; but like her ancient monuments, they are +every day disappearing—fading away with the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[Pg x]</a></span> language from which they +were formed. Even still, there are, probably, as many ancient place names +in a single Irish province as in the whole of Great Britain. If it is not +absolutely true when speaking of Ireland to say that, “No dust of hers is +lost in vulgar mould,” it can at least be said that there is hardly a +square mile of her surface where some hoary relic of the past or some +beautiful object of nature can be met with that is not mentioned in +history, enshrined in legend, or celebrated in song.</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 4em;">T. O. R.</span></p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[Pg xi]</a></span></p> +<p class="title">CONTENTS</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table"> +<tr><td> </td><td align="right"><small>PAGE</small></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Killarney</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="dent">Its fame world wide—Beauty of its name—Extract from Macaulay in its praise—Comparative smallness of Killarney—Admirable +proportion of its scenic features—Softness and beauty its chief attractions—Its weather often moist—Autumn the best time to see it—Its +overpowering beauty on fine autumn days—The country round Killarney a wonderland of beauty—Its ruins; and their historic interest.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Tara</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_12">12</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="dent">Its antiquity its chief attraction—Beautiful view from its ruined ramparts—The most historic spot in these islands—Proof +of the general correctness of early Irish history—Dr Petrie’s great work on the antiquities of Tara—His map of +it—Its adaptation for a seat of government in ancient times—Its profanation by the erection of modern buildings on +it—Tracks of its principal monuments—No trace of stone buildings found—Its praise sung by Gaelic poets—Was the +most important place in Ireland—The roads that centred there—The Lia Fail, or Stone of Destiny; prophecy concerning +it; was brought from Tara to Scotland; now under the coronation chair at Westminster; Petrie’s mistake about it; proofs that it was removed +from Tara; the stone there now not the Lia Fail; is the Lia Fail a meteoric stone?—Tara the great political centre of ancient Ireland—The +Leinster Tribute—Slaughter of 3030 maidens—Indifference of the Irish heretofore about their history and literature—Many valuable gold +ornaments found in Tara—The “Tara Brooch”—King Laoghaire buried in Tara; his face to his foes, the Leinstermen—The old +feud between Meath and Leinster not yet quite forgotten—Tara terribly uprooted—Saint Patrick’s goat—Last King that reigned in +Tara—Its vast antiquity worthy of credence.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Loch Ree</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_47">47</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="dent">One of the least known of the great lakes of Ireland—Its great beauty—Decline of population in the country +round it—Want of steam-boats on the Upper Shannon—Number of Islands—Beauty of the Leinster shore of the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii">[Pg xii]</a></span>lake; is studded with gentlemen’s seats—Goldsmith’s house—Historic +interest of Loch Ree—The treaty of Blein Potóg—Athlone; its beauty of situation; the most prosperous town +on the Upper Shannon; its manufactures—Decline of the Irish language—Improvement in the condition of the Irish peasantry.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td>“<span class="smcap">Emania the Golden</span>”</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_58">58</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="dent">Emania a Latinised form of Emain Macha—The second most historic spot on Irish soil—Its history—Its present +desolation—Its great extent—Denationalisation of the peasantry in its vicinity; their almost total ignorance of +its history—Emania and the “Children of Uisneach”; extreme beauty of that legend—The tomb of Deirdre—Many +gold ornaments found near Emania—Long preservation of a place name—Queen Macha—The city of Armagh; its +antiquity; founded by St Patrick; ruined and plundered by the Danes; was for some years the abode of a Danish King; its picturesqueness.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Queen Mab’s Palace</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_71">71</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="dent">Rathcroghan, where Queen Mab lived and reigned, a very celebrated place—She was contemporary with Cleopatra, +and was Queen of Connacht—Few legends about her in Ireland; an historic personage there—Proofs of the comparatively +high civilization of Ireland in ancient times—Extraordinarily long preservation of the legend of Queen Mab +or Medb, in England; her very long reign and great age; death in Iniscloran; her fondness for cold water baths; the +Four Masters do not mention her—Description of the Fort of Rathcroghan; the wooden palace that once stood on it; +unlike any of the historic forts of Ireland—Rathcroghan desolate since the time of Queen Mab; its vast ancient +cemetery; Queen Mab buried there—Longevity of the ancient Irish—Strong proofs that the Connacht queen +was the prototype of the Mab of Shakespeare, Drayton, Spenser, etc.; her sister’s name still preserved in an +Irish place name—Beauty of the country round Rathcroghan; its fertility—Many mentions of Rathcroghan in ancient Gaelic writings.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">The Hill of Uisneach</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_84">84</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="dent">One of the most historic of Irish hills; its peculiar shape—Magnificence and beauty of the view from it—Knockcosgrey—Decay +of rural population—Uisneach peculiarly adapted for a stronghold—Aill na Mireann, or rock of the divisions; now called the “Cat Stone”; +its very peculiar shape; was supposed to mark the geographical centre of the island—Great Synod held in Uisneach in <span class="smcaplc">A.D.</span> +1111—Moat of Ballylochloe; its extreme beauty; supposed origin of its name.</td></tr> +<tr><td> <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii">[Pg xiii]</a></span></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Clonmacnois</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_97">97</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="dent">Strangeness and uniqueness of its situation—Love of the strange and beautiful among ancient Irish Churchmen—The +Shannon—Views from Clonmacnois—Small size of its remaining ruined fanes—Its round towers and crosses—Wondrous +beauty of its smaller round tower—Petrie’s theory of the origin of round towers—Destruction of Clonmacnois—Vandalism +manifest—Occupation by the Danes—The nunnery—Clonmacnois founded by St Kieran—De +Lacy’s ruined castle—Beauty and diversity of scenery of the Shannon; historic interest of so many places on its banks.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Knock Aillinn</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_111">111</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="dent">Third most historic hill in Ireland—Beauty of the view from its summit—On it is the largest fort in Ireland—Anciently +the Residence of Kings of Leinster—The hill of Allen; Finn’s residence according to all authentic documents; +but no trace of earthworks on it—John O’Donovan’s opinion about it—Probable confusion of the names Aillinn +and Allen—Probability that Aillinn was Finn’s dun—Immensity of the folk-lore about Finn; as widespread in +Scotland as in Ireland; extraordinary way in which he impressed himself on his age; does not seem to have been a lovable personage—Dermot +O’Duibhne—Real name of the Campbells of Argyle—Finn, the most powerful man in Ireland in his time—His name incorrectly spelt <i>Fionn</i>.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td>“<span class="smcap">Kildare’s Holy Fane</span>”</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_126">126</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="dent">Not much scenic beauty about Kildare—The Curragh—Few ancient remains in Kildare—Its round Tower—Kildare +once a large place; famous on account of St Brigit—Its “bright lamp”—Moore’s noble lyric, “Erin, O Erin”—St +Brigit’s life in the Leabhar Breac; extracts from it—Her benevolence and charity; her love of the poor and the sick; she was buried in Kildare.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Glendaloch</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_138">138</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="dent">Its weird situation—A good central point from which to make excursions—“Sugar-loaf” mountain; its horrible +modern name, and grand ancient one—Glendaloch the most celebrated place in Wicklow—St Kevin; his youth; his piety; he did not drown Kathleen; +he only whipped her with nettles—Kevin the most popular of Leinster Saints—“St Kevin’s bed”—Glendaloch an almost utter +ruin—Ancient Irish monasteries; their great wealth—Antique gold ornaments—The evils of Danish raids—How well the +Irish fought the Danes—Round towers—Their uses—Books destroyed by the Northmen—Halo of legend and romance that is round Glendaloch.</td></tr> +<tr><td> <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiv" id="Page_xiv">[Pg xiv]</a></span></td></tr> +<tr><td>“<span class="smcap">Lordly Aileach</span>”</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_157">157</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="dent">The second most historic spot in Ulster—Sublime view from it—Noble work done in its partial restoration—Its +early history—Its destruction by a Munster King—A funny <i>rann</i> from the Four Masters about it—Its great antiquity—The +great Circuit of Ireland made from Aileach—Quotations from an ancient poem on the Circuit—A great poem totally ignored by the Irish +cultured classes—Muircheartach MacNeill a great prince—His capture of the provincial Kings—His tragic and untimely death.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td>“<span class="smcap">Royal and Saintly Cashel</span>”</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_172">172</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="dent">Peculiar situation—Ancient Irish churchmen’s appreciation of the beautiful in nature—Superb beauty of the site +of Cashel—A wonder that so few poets have been inspired by it—Sir Aubrey de Vere’s Sonnet on Cashel—Marred by +the erection of new monuments—Long the seat of Munster Kings—Antiquity of Cashel as a centre of Christian cult—Wondrous +beauty of Cormac’s Chapel; the most remarkable of early Irish churches—The ancient Irish had no castles; they were introduced by the Norman +French—The city of Cashel—Cashel, Glendaloch and Clonmacnois the most interesting places of their kind in Ireland.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Loch Erne</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_186">186</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="dent">Loch Erne, Loch Ree and Loch Derg compared; the former the most peculiar of all Irish Lochs—Its innumerable +islands, and the great beauty of its shores—Want of proper passenger steamers on it—Tourists must have good +accommodation—Ireland’s beauties can never be fully known until good hotels are provided—No other country +of its size has so many lakes and rivers as Ireland—Historic attractions of Loch Erne—Devinish Island.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Mellifont and Monasterboice</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_195">195</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="dent">They are the most interesting ecclesiastical ruins in Louth—Great beauty of the site of Mellifont—Terrible and +wanton destruction of its ruins—Its name not Irish—Was generally known as “the Drogheda Monastery”—Size of +the building—Was founded in 1142—Renaissance of Irish ecclesiastical architecture; it began when Danish plundering +ceased—Effects of the Anglo-French invasion—Dearvorgil, wife of O’Ruarc, buried in Mellifont—Antiquity of +Monasterboice—Its glorious ancient crosses—Its round tower—Became a ruin many centuries before Mellifont—Beauty +and historic interest of locality—Drogheda—The burgs of the Boyne, New Grange and Dowth.</td></tr> +<tr><td> <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xv" id="Page_xv">[Pg xv]</a></span></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Trim Castle</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_207">207</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="dent">It is the largest of Irish Castles—The Anglo-French great Castle builders—Hugo de Lacy—Many Castles erected by +him—He was the greatest of the invaders of Ireland—He wanted to be King of Ireland—Distracted state of the +country in his time—Trim once an important place—Claims to be the birth-place of Wellington; an anecdote about +him—The country round Trim most interesting and historic—The Boyne the most historic of Irish rivers.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Cong Abbey</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_218">218</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="dent">The most interesting ruin in Connacht—Roderick O’Connor; Moore’s opinion of him—Cong founded by St +Fechin—Was endowed by O’Connor—Description of the Abbey—Its sculptured stones—The Cross of Cong—Cong never plundered +by the Danes—Peculiarities and beauty of the country round Cong—Loch Corrib—The Joyce country; a land of giants; anecdote about one of them.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Loch Derg</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_231">231</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="dent">Its great size—Want of islands its principal drawback—Its hilly shores—Little traffic on it—Iniscealtra—St +Cainin—Killaloe; its ruined fanes—The Palace of Kincora; no vestige of it remaining; totally destroyed by Turloch +O’Connor in 1118—MacLiag’s Lament for Brian and Kincora—The rapids of Doonas; their great beauty.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Holycross Abbey</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_243">243</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="dent">Its beautiful situation—One of the largest ruined churches in Ireland—When founded—Its ruins not much +marred—Was inhabited until the suppression of monasteries—Beauty of one of its sepulchral monuments—Founded too late to be plundered by the Danes.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Dunluce Castle</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_247">247</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="dent">The most remarkable ruined Castle in Ireland—From its situation it is the finest ruin of the kind in Europe—The +narrow causeway by which it is entered—Unusual thinness of its walls—Was evidently erected before cannons were +perfected—An awful place in a storm—Giant’s Causeway—Dunseverick Castle—Meaning of the name <i>Dunluce</i>—Not +known by whom or when it was founded—Was once owned by the MacQuillins—Sorley Boy—Terrible catastrophe that +once happened at Dunluce—Must have been built before the fifteenth century.</td></tr> +<tr><td> <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xvi" id="Page_xvi">[Pg xvi]</a></span></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Boyle Abbey</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_254">254</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="dent">Not much known to the general public—Its limpid river—Rivers of muddy water an abomination—Irish rivers +generally clear—Extraordinarily luxuriant growth of ivy on the ruins; their effect marred by the erection of a new building close to +them—Vandalism in Ireland—Ancient name of Boyle—History of its monastery—Loch Key; the burning of its <i>cranniog</i>—Loch Arrow.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">The Lakes of Westmeath</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_263">263</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="dent">Few in search of the beautiful know anything about them; are best known to fishermen—Not many places of +historic interest in Westmeath—Loch Ouel—Turgesius, the Dane, drowned in it by Malachy the First—Legend about +Malachy’s daughter—Lover’s poem about her—Quotation from the Book of Leinster about Turgesius—Loch Sheelin; +beauty of its name—Beauty of Celtic place names—Beauty of the name Lorraine.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Kells in Meath</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_271">271</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="dent">Its ancient name—Its great antiquity—Fertility of the country round it—The tower of Lloyd—Tailltean; its immense +antiquity—The Irish Olympia—Proofs of the general authenticity of early Irish history—Sir Wm. Wilde’s +opinion of Irish chronology—Assemblies held in Tailltean in recent times—Early Christian Monuments—Kells often +burned and plundered by the Danes—The Book of Kells and the Tara Brooch.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Cuchulainn’s Dun and Cuchulainn’s Country</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_281">281</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="dent">Scandalous desecration of his <i>dun</i>; its situation and vast size; its existence another proof of the general truth of +Irish history—Cuchulainn, the Irish Hercules—Origin of his name—Nothing told about his size or stature—Total +ignorance about Cuchulainn in his birth-place; immensity of the literature in which he figures—Literary industry of +early Irish monks—Cuchulainn loved by women; his abduction of Eimer; his <i>liaison</i> with Fann; the tract +about him in the Book of the Dun Cow—Fann’s rhapsody—“Cuchulainn’s Death” from the Book of Leinster; beauty +of the view from his <i>dun</i>—Numerous antiquities of the County Louth—The Cooley and Mourne mountains—Neglect of the scenery of Louth and Down.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">The Wild West Coast</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_299">299</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="dent">Its magnificence; comparison between it and the coasts of Norway; its mild climate—Bantry Bay—The cliffs of +Moher—Half Ireland has been swallowed by the sea—Constant <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xvii" id="Page_xvii">[Pg xvii]</a></span>erosion by +the waves—Killary Harbour—Clew Bay, the queen of Irish Sea lochs; comparison between it and other bays—Croagh Patrick—Achill and its +cliffs—Antiquities at Carrowmore—Loch Gill—Sligo—Slieve League—Loch Swilly—Grandeur of the scenery from Cape +Clear to Inishowen; its wonderful variety; its mild climate and wild flowers—Ten people visit the coasts of Norway +for one that visits the west coast of Ireland—Want of passenger steamers on the west coast; its beauties can +only be seen to advantage from the sea—Few safe harbours on the Donegall coast.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Dublin and its Environs</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_325">325</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="dent">Dublin not sufficiently appreciated by some of its inhabitants—Its history—Its long Gaelic name—Danish +domination in it—Many times taken and sacked by the Irish—Battle of Clontarf—Canute made no attempt to +conquer Ireland—Dublin has not suffered from a siege for one thousand years—Its rapid growth in the eighteenth +century—Greatly improved during the last twenty-five years—Its improvement undertaken under enormous difficulties—Its +educational advantages—Its libraries—Its museum of antiquities; disgraceful management of it—Dublin +supposed to be a dirty city—Its situation—Its public buildings—Its environs; their supreme beauty—Glasnevin +Botanic Gardens—Dublin Bay; poem on it—Variety of scenery round Dublin—The Dargle—Howth—Fingall—Dublin +situated in a land of flowers—Abundance of wild flowers in Ireland—Phoenix Park—Three round towers +close to Dublin; error in its census—What the author has said in its praise is true.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Belfast and its Environs</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_357">357</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="dent">Its rapid growth, and beauty of its environs—Its linen trade—Business capacity of its inhabitants—Its history and meaning of +its name—The Giant’s Ring—View from Davis mountain—Belfast Loch—Hollywood—Scenic attractions of the country round Belfast.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Cork and its Environs</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_366">366</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="dent">Its ancient name—Its history—Its situation—Is not growing as it should—Prophecy about it—Its fine public +buildings—Its noble harbour—Cork should be where Queenstown is—Environs of Cork—Its antiquities—Its sufferings from the Northmen; their +ravages; Lord Dunraven’s theory about them; they met stranger opposition in Ireland than in any other Country; what the Irish suffered from them; the Northmen not +builders-up of nations; gruesome revelation of their cruelty found at Donnybrook—The author’s theory as to the cause of their invasions.</td></tr> +<tr><td> <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xviii" id="Page_xviii">[Pg xviii]</a></span></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Galway and its Environs</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_388">388</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="dent">Its history—Was once a place of large trade—Frightful decline of its population—Its splendid situation and noble +bay—Its environs—The Isles of Arran; their gigantic cyclopean remains the most wonderful things of their kind in Europe.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">The Cloud Scenery of Ireland</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_394">394</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="dent">Ireland the land of cloud scenery; its situation far out in the “melancholy ocean”; its moist climate; its sunsets; +their gorgeousness in fine weather; not often seen in perfection but in autumn.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Something about Irish Place Names</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_396">396</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="dent">Ireland a peculiar country; its abundance of place names as compared with Great Britain—Its <i>ballys</i>, <i>kills</i>, <i>raths</i>, +<i>duns</i> and <i>lises</i>; their immensity—Dense rural population of Ireland in ancient times—Antiquity of Ireland.</td></tr></table> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> +<h2>KILLARNEY</h2> + + +<p>Killarney is famed and known all over the civilized world; but there are +places in Ireland where isolated scenes can be found as fair as any in +Killarney. Much has been written about this “Eden of the West,” but most +of those who have attempted to describe it have omitted to mention its +chief charm—namely, diversity of scenic attractions within a small +compass. Almost everything that Nature could do has been done within a +tract of country hardly ten miles square.</p> + +<p>Except some favoured spots in Switzerland, there is no spot of European +soil more famed for beauty than Killarney. Its very name is beautiful, as +any one can know who has heard Balfe’s grand song, “Killarney.” No sounds +more harmonious or more fitted for a refrain could be uttered by the +organs of speech. The name signifies in Gaelic the church of the sloe or +wild plum-tree. The real name of the lake, or chain of lakes, which is one +of the charms of Killarney, is Loch Lein, but the latter name is now +almost obsolete.</p> + +<p>Before attempting to describe Killarney, it will<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> be well to give the +reader an extract from Macaulay’s “History of England.” The passage is a +masterpiece of prose. It is a sketch of the scenic characteristics of that +part of Ireland where the famous lakes are situated:</p> + +<p>“The south-western part of Kerry is now well known as the most beautiful +tract in the British Isles. The mountains, the glens, the capes stretching +far out into the Atlantic, the crags on which the eagles build, the +rivulets branching down rocky passes, the lakes overhung by groves in +which the wild deer find covert, attract, every summer, crowds of +wanderers sated with business and the pleasures of great cities. The +beauties of that country are often, indeed, hidden in the mist and rain +that the west wind brings up from the boundless ocean. But, on rare days, +when the sun shines out in his glory, the landscape has a freshness and +warmth of colouring seldom found in our latitude. The myrtle loves the +soil; the arbutus thrives better than in Calabria; the turf has a livelier +hue than elsewhere; the hills glow with a richer purple; the varnish of +the holly and the ivy is more glossy, and berries of a brighter red peep +through foliage of a brighter green.”<a name='fna_1' id='fna_1' href='#f_1'><small>[1]</small></a></p> + +<p>Macaulay, in spite of his Celtic name, was not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> a lover of Ireland and the +Irish, and there is no reason to suppose that this most wonderful + +word-painting was evoked by any liking for the land it describes. He had +seen Killarney, and it must have inspired him to write the greatest +descriptive passage he ever penned.</p> + +<p>Those who expect to find in Killarney the grandeur of the Alps, the Rocky +Mountains, or even of the Scottish Highlands, will be disappointed. It is +too small to be sublime, for it could be ridden round in a day. The most +wonderful of its many wonders is variety of scenery in a small compass. In +this respect few parts of the known world can compare with it. Almost +every possible phase of Nature, almost everything she could do with land +and water, can be found in Killarney, and found on a little spot of earth +hardly larger than the space covered by London. Mountains, lakes, rivers, +rocks, woods, waterfalls, flowery islands, green meadows and glistening +strands, almost exhaust Nature’s materials for forming the beautiful. But +all are found at Killarney. Man, who mars Nature so often, has helped her +here, for the castles and abbeys he raised of yore still stand, and their +ivy and flower-decked ruins, tenanted only by the bat and the bee, put the +finishing touch on this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> earthly Eden, and make it one of the scenic +wonders of the world. If Killarney had glaciers and eternally snow-clad +peaks, it would have everything that Switzerland has.</p> + +<p>Another wonderful thing about Killarney is the admirable proportion its +scenic features bear to one another. If the mountains were any higher they +would be too high for the lakes, and if the lakes were any bigger they +would be too big for the mountains. Even the rivers and waterfalls are +almost in exact proportion to the other phases of Nature. The monstrous +Mississippi or the thundering Niagara would spoil such a miniature +paradise; but the limpid Laune and O’Sullivan’s babbling cascade suit it +exactly. Killarney is the most perfect effort of Nature to bring together +without disproportion all her choicest charms.</p> + +<p>Small as Killarney is, it would take at least a week, or perhaps two +weeks, to see it and know all its loveliness. It is only on foot and +without hurry that its beauties can be seen in perfection. Its mountains +may be ascended, and glorious views of sea and craggy heights obtained; +but the charm of Killarney is not grandeur, but beauty. There are mountain +views in Scotland finer than can be had from the summits of Mangerton or +Carn Thual. It would be something like waste of time<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> to climb those +hills. Let the tourist rather wander in the hundreds of shady lanes or +paths that skirt the lakes, or take a boat and navigate that most +picturesque river, for its length, in the world, the Long Range, that +connects the upper with the lower lake. Let him mark the wondrous +luxuriance of grass, leaf, weed and flower. The arbutus grows so large +that it becomes a tree. Ferns of such gigantic proportions may be found in +shady nooks that they seem to belong to some far-back geological age. +Softness, freshness, luxuriance and <i>beauté riante</i> are the real glories +of Killarney. In these it has no rival.</p> + +<p>There are two drawbacks to Killarney; there is the guide nuisance and the +rain nuisance. The nuisance of guides is probably no greater than in many +other places of tourist resort, and, by a strong effort of the will, can +be got rid of. But the rain is a more serious matter and must be borne +patiently. Some years come when not a dozen dry days occur throughout the +entire summer, but generally there is less rainfall than on the west +coasts of Scotland or England. There have been quite as many wet days in +Liverpool during the three last summers as there usually are in Killarney. +It does, however, too often happen that tourists are confined to the hotel +for four or five days at a time owing to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> rain. It must be borne in +mind that this excessive moisture of atmosphere is what has given the +south-west of Ireland, and England too, their exquisite charm of verdure +and wild flowers. When a fine day comes after rain in summer or autumn all +Nature seems to laugh. Flowers of all hues open their petals, birds in +multitudes begin to sing, and wild bees and hosts of insects make the air +musical with their hum. The American tourist need have no fear when +insects are mentioned, for the mosquito is unknown in Killarney. Midges +are the only insect plague, but they never enter houses, and are +troublesome only before rain, early in the spring or late in the autumn.</p> + +<p>Most tourists go to Killarney early in the summer. June and July are +favourite times for Americans to visit it. As it lies almost in the direct +route between New York and Liverpool, they generally visit it before going +to England or the Continent of Europe. But the time to see Killarney is in +the autumn—it is then in all its glory. It should not be visited before +the 15th of August; from then until the 1st of October it is the most +beautiful place, perhaps, on the earth, provided always that the weather +is not wet. There is only one thing that mars the weather in the south of +Ireland—namely, rain. Cold, in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> general sense of the word, is almost +unknown. Every day that is not wet must be fine. There is, it must be +confessed, rather more probability of having dry weather in Killarney in +the spring or early summer than in the autumn, but, by visiting it in the +spring, the tourist would gain nothing, and would lose the wild-flower +feast of autumn. No American, or even native of England, no matter from +what part of his country he comes, can form the faintest conception of +what a Killarney mountain is in September, if the weather be fine. The +wild-flower that is the glory of Ireland is the heath. It blossoms only in +the autumn. Next in glory to the heath comes the furze. Both furze and +heath are indigenous in the whole of the south-west of Europe, but, owing +to the mildness and moistness of the climate of Ireland, they grow and +blossom there with a luxuriance unknown in any other country. When a great +mountain becomes a mighty bouquet of purple and gold, a sight is revealed +which surpasses anything on earth in floral beauty. Almost every mountain +round about the “Eden of the West” is clothed from base to summit in a +vast drapery of heath. Some of the Killarney mountains are wooded for a +few hundred feet up their sides, but most of them are entirely covered +with heath interspersed with furze. When<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> a fine autumn occurs, tens of +thousands of acres of mountain and moorland gleam in the sunlight, an +ocean of purple heath and golden furze. Not only do the heath and furze +blossom in the autumn, but myriads of other wild-flowers appear only at +that time of year, or blossom most luxuriantly then. Even white clover, +which rarely blossoms in other countries except in the spring or early +summer, open its flowers widest and sends out its most fragrant perfume in +an Irish autumn. The air is heavy with fragrance of flowers, the mountains +are musical with the hum of bees, and</p> + +<p class="poem">“Every wingèd thing that loves the sun<br /> +Makes the bright noonday full of melody.”</p> + +<p>Killarney in a fine autumn becomes not only entrancing, but overpowering +in its loveliness.</p> + +<p>The whole country round Killarney is a wonderland. Macaulay’s description +of it is true to the letter. In all his works nothing can be found of a +descriptive character equal to the passage quoted from him. He had a great +subject, and he handled it as no other writer of the English language +could. He has described one of the loveliest regions in the world in a few +lines that will stand for ever as one of the greatest efforts of a great +writer. His description is a brilliant gem of composition, just<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> as the +place it describes is a brilliant gem of nature.</p> + +<p>No one should visit Killarney without visiting Glengariff. It is only +about twenty miles from Killarney, and can be reached by a sort of +low-backed car peculiar to Ireland. This car is a very curious sort of +conveyance. The occupants sit back to back, with their sides to the +horses. In fine weather there is no pleasanter mode of travelling than on +a low-backed car, but when it rains one is anything but comfortable. +Glengariff is thought by some to surpass even Killarney in beauty. It is a +deep glen surrounded by mountains of the most fantastic shapes, clothed +with a wealth of foliage that would astonish any one who had not seen +Killarney. The lake that is seen at Glengariff is sea-water, and opens +into Bantry Bay. The tourist will find an excellent hotel there, and no +matter how he may be satiated with the beauty of Killarney, he will see +other and more striking beauties in Glengariff.</p> + +<p>Killarney is well supplied with hotels. There are four or five, and they +are all good. Most of them are situated in sequestered places, where a +view of some enchanting scene spreads before the door. The village of +Killarney is about a mile from the lake; it is a place of no interest at +all, but there is a very good hotel in it, and many<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> tourists stop there, +for it is just at the railway terminus. Hotel expenses at Killarney in the +tourist season are not so high as at some of the fashionable Continental +summer resorts. Guides are not much wanted, unless mountains are to be +ascended. Then they are indispensable, for mists may suddenly come during +the very finest day, and the tourist without a guide would run a chance of +spending a night on a bleak mountain or being drowned in a lake or +bog-hole. Ponies of a most docile character can be hired cheap. Pony-back +travelling is a favourite mode of “doing” Killarney, especially with +ladies and lazy men, but no one into whose soul the charm of Killarney +really enters<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> would think of travelling through such lovely scenes on +horseback. On foot or in a boat is the way to see Killarney.</p> + +<p> </p> +<div class="bbox" style="width: 550px; height: 375px;"><img src="images/img02.jpg" alt="" /></div> +<p class="caption">ROSS CASTLE.</p> +<p> </p> + +<p>There are ruins of the most interesting kind in Killarney. Muckross Abbey +is not so large as some of the ruined shrines of England, but it is a +venerable and imposing building. It was built by one of the MacCarthys, +chiefs of the district, in 1340. Ross Castle is another imposing ruin. It +is situated on a green promontory that juts into the lake. There is some +doubt as to the exact time when it was erected, but it could hardly have +been before the fourteenth century. The most interesting ruin near +Killarney, and by far the most ancient, is the monastery on the supremely +beautiful island of Inisfallan. It was founded by Saint Finian in the +sixth century. It was there the yet unpublished “Annals of Inisfallan” +were compiled. Hardly any of the walls of the old monastery remain. The +arbutus and the hawthorn are growing where once were cloisters, and are +fast completing the ruin of what was one of the first of the ancient +churches that were erected in Ireland.</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span></p> +<h2>TARA</h2> + + +<p>The supreme attraction of Tara is its antiquity. It must not, however, be +thought that a visit to this famous hill reveals no beauties. It is not +situated among mountains; hardly a lake is visible from its summit: yet +the view from it is so fine that if there was no historic interest +attached to it, the tourist in search of the beautiful alone would have +his eyes feasted with as fair a scene from one of its grassy ramparts as +could be gazed on in any part of Ireland. Eastward the view is obstructed +by the hill of Screen, but on every other side it is superb. Westward the +eye ranges over the fairest and most fertile part of Ireland, the great +plain of Meath and West Meath, anciently called <i>Magh Breagh</i>, or the fair +plain. And fair indeed it is in summer time, one great green sea of grass +and wild flowers, reaching to the Shannon, sixty miles away. But it is +southward that the view from Tara is most striking. The Dublin and Wicklow +mountains are more imposing when seen from Tara than from any other place. +They rise in a vast, blue rampart,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> and seem so colossal as to appear +thousands of feet higher than they are. Those old, barbaric Irish kings +and chieftains must have been lovers of the beautiful, for they almost +invariably fixed their strongholds not only in the fairest parts, but in +places commanding the fairest prospects. There are hardly two other places +in Ireland the surroundings of which are more beautiful than those of Tara +and Uisneach, or from which fairer prospects are to be seen. They were, +from far-back antiquity, the seats of those by whom the country was +<i>supposed</i> to be ruled, for it often happened that he who was styled chief +king had but little control over his vassals.</p> + +<p>There is no other spot of European soil the records of which go so far +back into the dim twilight of the past as do the records of Tara. Before +the first Roman raised a rude hut on the banks of the Tiber, when the +place where the Athenian Acropolis now stands was a bare rock, kings, +whose names are given in Irish history, ruled in Tara. When one gazes on +those grassy mounds, that are almost all that remain of what our ancient +poets used to call “the fair, radiant, City of the Western World,” he can +hardly believe that such a place could ever have been the abode of +royalty, the meeting-place of assemblies, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> the permanent home of +thousands. Other desolated strongholds of ancient royalty and dominion +bear ample evidence of their former greatness. Ruined columns of +Persepolis yet remain. The site of Tadmor is marked by still standing +pillars of marble, and vast piles of decomposed bricks tell of the +greatness of ancient Babylon; but green, grassy mounds and partially +obliterated earth-works are almost all that remain of Tara. It is so +ruined that it can hardly be ruined any more. Time may yet destroy even +what remains of the bricks of Babylon, but time can hardly change what +remains of the ruins of Tara.</p> + +<p>No other spot of Irish earth can compare with Tara in historic interest or +in antiquity. Emania and Rathcroghan are little more than places of +yesterday compared with it. It is over three thousand years ago since the +first king reigned in Tara. Some may say that it is only bardic history +that tells of what took place in Ireland in those very remote times, and +that it is unworthy of credence. It is true that there is a great deal of +fiction mixed with the early history of Ireland, as there is with the +early history of all countries; but the ancient Irish chroniclers did not +attempt much more than a mere sketch of the salient points of Irish +history of very remote times, say from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> beyond the third century <span class="smcaplc">B.C.</span> Some +of the facts they mention have been verified in remarkable ways by what +may be called collateral evidence. This evidence is found in place names, +and in the names of persons and things. One of those proofs of the general +correctness of what is related in Gaelic literature about far-back events +of Irish history is so remarkable that it deserves special mention. One of +the kings who ruled in Tara considerably over a thousand years <span class="smcaplc">B.C.</span> was +named Lugh, or in English, Lewy or Louis. He established the games that +were held annually at Tailtean, near Kells, that were regularly celebrated +down to the time of the Anglo-French invasion, in honour of his mother, +whose name was Tailte. Those games were held in the first week in August, +and from them the Irish name for the month of August is derived; it is +<i>Lughnasa</i>. This is the only name known in Gaelic to the present hour for +the month of August, except a periphrastic one meaning “the first month of +autumn.” This name for August is known in every part of Ireland and +Scotland where the old tongue still lives, but it has been corrupted to +<i>Lunasd</i> in the latter country. The meaning of the word <i>Lughnasa</i> is, the +games or celebrations of this same Lugh or Lewy, who lived and reigned +centuries before Rome was founded, and before a stone<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> of the Athenian +Acropolis was laid. It seems almost impossible to conceive that the Gaelic +name for the month of August could have had any origin other than that +given above on the authority of one of the most learned of ancient Irish +ecclesiastics, Cormac MacCuillenan, Archbishop of Cashel, in the ninth +century.</p> + +<p>The descriptions of Tara given in ancient Gaelic writings have been +verified in the most remarkable manner by the researches of modern +archæologists. Dr Petrie’s great work, “The Antiquities of Tara Hill,” +would go far to remove the prejudices of the most bigoted despiser of +Irish historic records. He was one of the most learned and scientific +investigators of antiquities that ever lived, and was not only a good +Gaelic scholar himself, but had the assistance of the greatest Gaelic +scholar of the century, John O’Donovan. Those two gentlemen translated +every mention of Tara that they could find in prose or verse in ancient +Irish manuscripts; they compared every mention they could find of the +monuments of Tara with what remains of them at present; and they found +such a general agreement between ancient descriptions of those monuments +and the existing remains of them as proved what is said in Gaelic +manuscripts about the extent and splendour of Tara in Pagan times to be +well worthy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> of credence. Every one who visits Tara, and who is in any way +interested in archæology, should have Doctor Petrie’s map of it, which +will be found in his minute and elaborate work on the “Antiquities of Tara +Hill.” That map is reproduced here. The book is very scarce, as only a +small edition of it was printed, but it can be found in the “Transactions +of the Royal Irish Academy.” Armed with Petrie’s map a visit to Tara would +be one of the most interesting and enjoyable excursions that could be made +from Dublin. Kilmessan Station can be reached from the Broadstone terminus +in an hour, and less than two miles of a walk through a beautiful country +brings one to the summit of “the Hill of Supremacy,” as it was called of +old when he who ruled in Tara ruled Ireland. No matter how confirmed an +archæologist he may be who stands for the first time on this celebrated +hill, his first feeling will be of joy at the beauty of the prospect that +is spread before him. To know how beautiful Ireland is, even in those +places that are not on the track of tourists, and that are seldom +mentioned in guide books, one should see the view from the hill of Tara.</p> + +<p>It would be hard to find any other hill in Ireland so well adapted for a +place of assembly or for the dwelling of a ruler as Tara. Uisneach, in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span>Westmeath, is, perhaps, the only hill in Ireland that possesses all the +advantages of Tara. In ancient times, when war was the rule and peace the +exception, it was imperative that a stronghold should be on a height. +Athens had its acropolis and so had Corinth. Tara had the advantage of +extent as well as of height, and could be made a permanent dwelling-place +as well as an acropolis, for there are fully a hundred acres on what may +be called the summit of the hill. It is unfortunate that some of the hill +has been enclosed, planted with deal trees, and a church erected on the +very track of some of the most ancient monuments. This plantation and +church have terribly interfered with the picturesqueness and antique look +of Tara. Planting deal trees and erecting a modern church amid the +hoariest monuments, and on the most historic spot of European soil, was +little less than sacrilege. If there had been a proper national spirit, or +a due veneration for their past among the Irish, they never would have +allowed a church or any modern building to be erected on the most historic +spot on Irish soil; and even now they ought to have the church removed, +the wall torn down, and the plantation uprooted. All Greece would rise up +in indignation were any one to erect a church or chapel amid the ruins of +the Athenian Acropolis.</p> + +<p> <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span></p> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img02b_tmb.jpg" alt="" /><br /> +<a href="images/img02b.jpg"><small>Larger Image</small></a></div> +<p class="caption">MONUMENTS ON TARA HILL.</p> +<p class="center">(<i>After Petrie’s Map.</i>)</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span>The most interesting and best preserved of the antiquities of Tara is the +track of the banquetting-house. It must have been an enormous building, +for it was about 800 feet long and about 50 wide. It is wonderful how +perfectly plain and well-defined the track of this once great structure +appears after nearly fourteen hundred years, and in spite of the way this +historic spot has been uprooted and levelled. But not a vestige of +stone-work or of stones is to be seen near the ruins of the +banquetting-house. It seems absolutely certain that there were no +buildings of stone in Tara when it was at the height of its grandeur, and +that seems to have been about the middle of the third century, during the +reign of Cormac MacAirt. It must not be thought that buildings cannot be +fine unless they are of stone; but buildings of stone were very rare in +northern countries until comparatively recent times. Moore, in his +“History of Ireland,” says, speaking of wooden buildings and of +Tara—“However scepticism may now question their architectural beauty, +they could boast the admiration of many a century in evidence of their +grandeur. That those edifices were of wood is by no means conclusive +either against the elegance of their structure or the civilisation of +those who erected them. It was in wood that the graceful<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> forms of Grecian +architecture first unfolded their beauties.” So the absence of stone +buildings in Tara in no way proves that it was not a place of grandeur as +well as of beauty; and the tenth century Gaelic poet may have been +justified in saying of it,</p> + +<p class="poem">“World of perishable beauty!<br /> +Tara to-day, though a wilderness,<br /> +Was once the meeting-place of heroes.<br /> +Great was the host to which it was an inheritance,<br /> +Though to-day green, grassy land.”</p> + +<p>Every mention of Tara in the vast remnant of Gaelic manuscripts of the +ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries that still exists shows it +to have been, beyond all comparison, the most important place in ancient +Ireland. Oengus the Culdee, author of the longest poem in ancient Gaelic, +the famous Félire, recently translated by Mr Whitley Stokes, speaks thus +of this renowned but now ruined spot:</p> + +<p class="poem">“Tara’s mighty burgh hath perished<br /> +With its kingdom’s splendour;<br /> +With a multitude of champions of wisdom<br /> +Abideth great Ardmagh.”</p> + +<p>The poet contrasts the desolation into which the strongholds of the Pagans +had fallen with the then flourishing condition of the centres of +Christian<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> teaching. Tara was the political as well as the social centre +of ancient Ireland. It is in connection with it that the only mention made +of roads having names is found in ancient Gaelic writings. Five great +roads, as will be seen by the annexed map, led from Tara to the +extremities of the Island. The Slighe Dala went southward; the Slighe +Asail went north-west; the Slighe Midhluchra, went north-east; the Slighe +Cualann went south-easterly; and the Slighe Mór went in a south-western +direction. Traces of those roads may still be seen by the practised eye of +the archæologist.</p> + +<p>One of the most interesting things connected with Tara is the Lia Fail, or +Stone of Destiny. It was upon it the over-kings of Ireland had been +inaugurated from far-back antiquity. It is said to have been brought by +Fergus, brother of the then reigning chief King, to Scotland, in order +that he might be crowned king on it over the part of Scotland he had +conquered. It remained under the coronation chair of the Kings of Scotland +down to the time of Edward the First, who seized it and brought it to +Westminster, where it is now, and the sovereigns of England have been +crowned on it ever since his time. Petrie maintains that the Lia Fail is +still in Tara, and that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> the pillar stone that stands over the graves of +the men who fell in ’98 is it. He adduces very strong evidence from +manuscripts of high authority and of great antiquity to prove what he +says. There is, on the other hand, strong testimony to prove that it was +brought to Scotland by Fergus. The question will probably never be finally +settled. The principal virtue supposed to be possessed by the Lia Fail was +that it would bring political power to the country in which it was, +particularly if its people were of Celtic stock. It is very remarkable +that soon after the stone supposed to be the Lia Fail was taken out of +Ireland, her political power began to decline, her over-kings lost a great +part of their former authority, and in the long run she lost her +independence. Scotland’s political power and national independence +vanished not long after she had lost the Lia Fail, and in a few centuries +after England had got it she became one of the foremost nations in the +world. The English claim to be Saxons, but it is now generally admitted +that the Celtic element preponderates in the island of Great Britain, so +that the prophecy attached to the Lia Fail seems to be fulfilled.</p> + +<p>The Lia Fail is certainly the most extraordinary stone in Europe, if not +in the world. The famous<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> Rosetta stone, covered as it is with archaic +writing, and verifying, as many suppose, the truth of Old Testament +history, is hardly more interesting than the rude granite slab that lies +under the coronation chair in Westminster, unmarked with a single letter. +It is about 25 inches in length, about 15 in breadth, and 9 in depth. How +such a rude, unshapely flag-stone could have such a history, and have been +an object of veneration and interest for so many centuries, is what +strikes with wonder those who see it. But if it is not the real Lia Fail, +if it is a sham, and if the stone still standing in Tara is the genuine +one, the wonder increases; for the fact of a spurious article having +become invested with such fame and regarded with such veneration is the +greatest wonder of all.</p> + +<p>Doctor Petrie says, in his “Antiquities of Tara Hill,” that “it is in the +highest degree improbable that to gratify the desire of a colony the Irish +would have voluntarily parted with a monument so venerable for its +antiquity and considered essential to the legitimate succession of their +own kings.” He quotes verses from a tenth century poet, Kenith O’Hartigan, +who says that the Lia Fail is</p> + +<p class="poem">“This stone on which are my two heels”;</p> + +<p>and he quotes from an ancient tract called the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> <i>Dinseanchus</i>, another +proof that when it was composed, and that time could not have been later +than the tenth century, the Lia Fail was in Tara. It often happens, +however, that Irish annalists and historians, so fond were they of looking +backward to the past, make things appear as they had been, and not as they +were when they wrote. The over-kings of Ireland were called Kings of Tara +five hundred years after Tara had been abandoned, and when it was as waste +and desolate as it is to-day. O’Dugan, in his topographical poem, written +in the fourteenth century, tells of clans inhabiting the English Pale, +when they had been banished westward by the invaders nearly two hundred +years before he wrote. He prefaces his topographical poem by saying</p> + +<p class="poem">“O’Maolseachlinn, chief King of Tara and Erin,”</p> + +<p>but the last O’Maolseachlinn that was nominally chief King of Ireland and +Tara had died three hundred years before O’Dugan wrote! Why those old +Gaelic poets were so fond of describing things as they had been, and not +as they were when they wrote, is hard to understand. They may have got +their information from documents that were centuries old when they copied +them. It seems a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> certainty that the men whose writings Petrie quotes to +prove that the Lia Fail was in Tara in the tenth century, did what O’Dugan +did in his topographical poem—that is, speak of things as they had been +hundreds of years before. He never mentions the English at all. This +partially accounts for Irish writers of the tenth century speaking of the +Lia Fail being then in Tara. They intended to describe where it used to +be, but not where it was. When Petrie says that the Lia Fail is spoken of +by all ancient Irish writers in such a manner as to leave no doubt that it +remained in its original situation at the time when they wrote, he makes a +great mistake. Here is a quotation from the “Book of Leinster,” a +manuscript of the highest authority, compiled in the early part of the +twelfth century, and mostly from writings of a much earlier date:—“It was +the Tuatha De Danaans who brought with them the great <i>Fal</i>, that is, the +stone of knowledge that <i>was</i> in Tara; from which [the name of] Magh Fail +is on Ireland. He under whom it would roar was then [rightful] King of +Ireland.”<a name='fna_2' id='fna_2' href='#f_2'><small>[2]</small></a></p> + +<p>There is another very strong proof brought to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> light by the publication of +“Silva Gadelica,” by Mr Standish Hays O’Grady, that the Lia Fail was +removed from Tara. In the tract called the “Colloquy,” one of the speakers +says: “This, then, and the Lia Fail, or stone of destiny, that <i>was</i> there +(in Tara) were the two wonders of Tara. When Ireland’s monarch stepped on +it, it would cry out under him,” ... “And who was it that lifted that +flag, or that carried it away out of Ireland?” asked one of the listeners. +“It was a young hero of great spirit that ruled over” ... Here, +unfortunately, the tract ends abruptly. The “Colloquy,” or “Agallamh na +Seanorach,” is a tract of respectable antiquity. Its language seems to be +that of the fifteenth or perhaps the fourteenth century, but the version +that has come down to us may be, and probably is, but a transcript of a +much more ancient tract, the language of which was modernised.</p> + +<p>If Doctor Petrie had known of the existence of those two proofs given of +the Lia Fail having been removed from Tara, he never would have said that +all ancient Irish writers spoke of it in such a way as to leave no doubt +of its being there still. O’Reilly, author of Irish dictionary, says: “Lia +Fail, the stone of destiny, on which the ancient Irish monarchs used to be +crowned until the time of Mortogh Mac<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> Earc, who sent it into Scotland +that his brother Fergus, who had subdued that country, might be crowned on +it. It is now in Westminster Abbey.” O’Reilly was the most learned Irish +scholar and historian of his day, and was a painstaking, conscientious +man, who would hardly state any thing for which he did not have good +authority. It must, however, be admitted that up to the present no +positive statement seems to have been found in ancient Irish writings as +to when and by whom the Lia Fail was brought from Tara to Scotland; +neither does it seem to be known where O’Reilly got his information about +it.</p> + +<p>When Petrie spoke of the improbability of the Irish allowing such a +venerated monument as the Lia Fail to be taken out of Ireland, he should +have remembered that at the time when it is said to have been taken, in +the beginning of the sixth century, Christianity had become established in +Ireland. Paganism or Druidism may have survived among a few, but it had +got its death-blow. Pagan monuments of every kind had begun to be +disregarded. The Lia Fail was essentially a Pagan monument, and +consequently an abhorrence to Christians. The fathers, or at least the +grandfathers, of the men who allowed Fergus to take<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> it to Scotland, would +probably have shed the last drop of their blood to keep it in Ireland. The +disrepute into which everything connected with Paganism had fallen after +the introduction of Christianity is plainly set forth in the “Book of +Leinster” in the very page from which the Gaelic extract about the Lia +Fail has been given:—“It happened that Christ was born not long after; it +was that which broke the power of the idols.”<a name='fna_3' id='fna_3' href='#f_3'><small>[3]</small></a> The Lia Fail was an idol +that had lost its power and prestige, so that the people would not be +likely to have any objection to its being removed to Scotland or anywhere +else.</p> + +<p>But there are still other even stronger objections for accepting Petrie’s +theory that the Lia Fail is still in Tara. The pillar stone that is there +is not a <i>lia</i>, and never would have been called such by the ancient +Irish. <i>Lia</i> means a stone of any kind in its general sense; but the +pillar stone in Tara would not be called a <i>lia</i>, but a <i>coirthe</i>. <i>Lia</i> +is always applied to a flag-stone, both in ancient and modern Gaelic. The +stone under the coronation chair in Westminster is a real <i>lia</i> or +flag-stone; the one in Tara is a <i>coirthe</i>, or pillar stone, for, judging +from its height above the ground, it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> cannot be much less than eight feet +in length; it is very nearly round, and was evidently fashioned into its +present shape by man. If the stone in Tara is the real Lia Fail, how did +it come to lose its original name and be know even still by an Irish name +that connects it with Fergus, the person by whom the real Lia Fail is +popularly believed to have been brought to Scotland? This loss of an +original name, and its substitution by a new one, could hardly have +occurred in the case of such a famous monument as the Lia Fail. If the +superstitious reverence with which it had been regarded before the +introduction of Christianity had vanished, its original name would have +remained. There are many place names in Ireland that have not changed +during twenty centuries, and it is almost impossible to conceive how the +name of the most venerated monument in all Ireland could have changed had +the monument itself remained in the country. Another strong objection +against the pillar stone in Tara being the real Lia Fail is its shape. The +real Lia Fail was intended to be stood upon by the chief king at his +inauguration; but the most flat-footed monarch that ever ruled Ireland +would have considerable difficulty in standing steadily on the <i>coirthe</i> +in Tara, even if it were prostrate,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> for it is round and not flat. +Standing steadily on it would be nearly as difficult a performance as +“rolling off a log” would be an easy one.</p> + +<p>Taking everything into consideration, there seem to be very strong reasons +to believe that the Lia Fail was taken from Tara to Scotland at the time +it is popularly believed to have been taken—namely, about the year 503 of +the Christian era; that it was taken in order to have Fergus Mac Earc +inaugurated on it as king over that part of Scotland which he had brought +under his domination; that it was taken from Scone to Westminster by +Edward the First in the year 1296, and that it is now under the coronation +chair in Westminster Abbey. It seems strange how a man of Doctor Petrie’s +archæological knowledge could have been led to believe that the pillar +stone still in Tara, for whatever use it may have been originally +intended, was the real Lia Fail, or Stone of Destiny.</p> + +<p>It would be most instructive and interesting if a scientific examination +was made of the stone under the coronation chair. If it was proved to be a +meteoric stone, its fame and the reverence with which it was so long +regarded could be easily understood. If an ancient tribe saw a stone +falling from heaven among them, they would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> regard such a thing as a +miracle, and think that the stone was sent to them for some special +purpose. They would, if possible, take it with them wherever they went. If +the Lia Fail was proved to be a meteoric stone, the esteem and honour in +which it was so long held, and the power which it was believed to possess, +would be easily accounted for.</p> + +<p>The history of Tara is, to a great extent, the history of ancient Ireland +of pre-Christian times. It was more of a political centre than London or +Paris is at present. The event that above all others left a permanent mark +as well as a blot on Irish history may be said to have had its origin in +Tara. The horrible Leinster Tribute and Tara are closely connected.</p> + +<p>In the first century of the Christian era, an over-king called Tuathal, +from whom the common Irish surname O’Tool, or Tool, seems to have +originated, reigned in Tara. He had two daughters, famed for their beauty. +We are told in the “Book of Leinster” that they were “fairer than the +clouds of heaven.” Their names were Fihir and Darine. A king of Leinster +named Eochy married Fihir, the elder of the two sisters. He got tired of +her after a short time, went to Tara, told Tuathal that Fihir was dead, +and that he wanted to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> marry her sister Darine. Tuathal consented, and +Eochy took his new wife home to his <i>dun</i>, which was in the western part +of the present county of Wicklow. Darine had been only a short time in her +new home when she met her sister Fihir, who she had been told was dead. +Darine was so overwhelmed by shame that she died, and Fihir was so shocked +at the death of her sister that she died of grief. So Tuathal’s two +beautiful daughters were dead, and were buried in the same grave. When +Tuathal heard of their deaths he summoned his vassals, the kings of Ulster +and Connacht; his army and theirs invaded Leinster, defeated and killed +its king, ravaged it, and imposed the celebrated Tribute on the +unfortunate province—namely, fifteen thousand cows, fifteen thousand +sheep, fifteen thousand pigs, fifteen thousand silver chains, fifteen +thousand bronze or copper pots, and fifteen thousand linnen (?) cloaks, +together with one great cauldron into which, <i>Hibernicè</i>, “twelve beeves +and twelve pigs ‘would go,’ in the house of Tara itself.” This was, +indeed, a prodigious pot that could boil four-and-twenty quadrupeds of the +sort, for Ireland was always famous for its large pigs and beeves. Such a +cauldron having been used, shows that however poorly the inhabitants of +other<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> parts of Ireland may have fared in ancient times, the people of +Tara lived well. When it is remembered that ancient Leinster was little +more than half the size of the modern province, such a tribute appears +enormous. Ancient Leinster, or, to speak more correctly, the Leinster of +the time of Tuathal, went no further north than a line running from Dublin +to Athlone. The counties of Meath, Westmeath, Longford, and Louth belonged +to the province of Meath that had been carved out of parts of the four old +provinces by Tuathal himself. The Tribute was to be paid every year, but +it was not, for, as the Leinstermen’s own great Chronicle says, “It never +was paid without a fight”; and sometimes when they succeeded, as they very +often did, in licking the combined armies of all the other provinces, it +used not to be paid for many years. It was, however, paid on and off for +over five hundred years, and to forty over-kings. It was remitted in the +seventh century; but many attempts were subsequently made to re-impose it +on the unfortunate Leinstermen, who paid more dearly for the treacherous +act of one of their kings than any other province or nation mentioned in +history. One of their poets has said in a yet untranslated poem in the +“Book of Leinster”:</p> + +<p class="poem"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> +“It is beyond the testimony of the Creator,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">It is beyond the word of supplicating Christ,</span><br /> +All the kings of the Irish<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That make attacks on Leinstermen!”<a name='fna_4' id='fna_4' href='#f_4'><small>[4]</small></a></span></p> + +<p>It is not to be wondered at that the Leinster Tribute totally +denationalised the province on which it was levied, and made its harried +inhabitants side with the Danes and with the Anglo-Normans against their +own countrymen. But what is most astonishing about the Tribute is its +enormousness. That part of Leinster which was the ancient province could +hardly pay such a tax to-day. This matter seems to show that ancient +Ireland, in spite of a state of almost continual intestine warfare, was +far richer and more populous than is generally supposed.</p> + +<p>The most horrible act recorded in Irish history was committed at +Tara—that is, the slaughter of 3030 women by the Leinstermen in the year +241. Here is what the Four Masters say of it under that year:—“The +massacre of the girls at Cloonfearta at Tara, by Dunlang, King of +Leinster. Thirty royal girls was the number, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> a hundred maids with +each of them. Twelve princes of the Leinstermen did Cormac put to death in +revenge of that massacre, together with the exaction of the Borumha +(Tribute) with an increase after Tuathal.” The Cormac here spoken of was +the celebrated Cormac Mac Airt, one of the best over-kings that ever ruled +ancient Ireland. This horrible massacre of maidens in Tara is so often +mentioned in ancient Irish history and annals, and the same number of +victims so invariably given, that there cannot be any doubt whatever about +its having occurred. But particulars about it seem wanting. There was +probably some pagan festival to be celebrated in Tara, at which the +children of the upper classes only attended. The ladies may have arrived +from the different parts of the country before the men, and when the +harried Leinstermen made a raid on Tara, they found it unguarded save by +women, and killed them and burned Tara to the ground at the same time; or +it may have been that the women tried to help the few men that happened to +be there in protecting the place, and Dunlang made an indiscriminate +massacre of every one he found in it. This horrible act was caused by the +imposition of the Leinster Tribute. It is to be presumed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> that there were +no Leinster girls among those who were slaughtered.</p> + +<p>Those interested in Irish history, or in ancient history in general, +should read the tract called the <i>Borumha</i>, or Tribute, in the “Book of +Leinster.” Translations of it have been recently made in the <i>Revue +Celtique</i> and in <i>Silva Gadelica</i>. There is not in any ancient or mediæval +literature anything to excel it in general interest. It is an historic gem +that has been forgotten or overlooked for centuries. The indifference +which the educated classes of the Irish people have heretofore shown about +the ancient literature of their country was one of the most shocking, +sickening symptoms of national degradation ever shown by any civilised +people. They are latterly beginning to take more interest in it; but it is +greatly to be feared that they have been induced to turn their attention +to it more by the example shown them by foreigners than by any change of +opinion originating among themselves. Much as O’Donovan, O’Curry, and +Stokes have done to call the attention of the cultured classes of the +Irish people to the study of Celtic literature, it is doubtful if they +would have succeeded if the scholars of Continental Europe had not taken +an interest in it. The <i>renaissance</i> of Celtic studies which seems to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> +have taken place owes a large part of its origin to the Germans and the +French.</p> + +<p>Many valuable gold ornaments of antique and beautiful design and +workmanship have been found in Tara and its immediate vicinity, but very +few of them have found their way to the Kildare Street Museum in Dublin, +one of the greatest, if not the very greatest, collection of ancient +weapons, implements, and ornaments to be seen in Europe. Most of the gold +ornaments found in Tara have been melted down. If one is to believe what +the peasantry living in its vicinity say, the quantity of gold ornaments +found there was very great. The famous Tara Brooch, preserved in the +Dublin Museum, and considered the most beautiful piece of metallurgy, +either ancient or modern, that is known to exist, was not found in Tara, +but on the seashore about three miles from Drogheda, and nine or ten from +this famous hill. It was found by an old woman, who is said to have sold +it to a shopkeeper in Drogheda for ninepence. The Royal Irish Academy paid +£500 for it. Many think that a regular, scientific exploration of Tara +Hill ought to be made, such an exploration as Schlieman made of the site +of Troy. If this were done under government surveillance, or by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> some +responsible and skilled antiquarian, there is hardly a doubt but that many +and precious ornaments in gold, and implements and weapons in bronze, +would be found, especially the latter, for there seems every reason to +believe that Tara was the seat of government long before iron was known, +and long before the bronze age came to an end. It would, however, be a +tremendous task to uproot several hundred acres merely on speculation. But +the quantity of antique gold ornaments that has been found in Ireland was +immense, more, it is thought by some, than has been found in all the rest +of Europe. They are being found almost every year. Nearly £300<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> worth of +golden fibulae was found in the County Waterford in 1894. They are now to +be seen in the Dublin Museum.</p> + +<p> </p> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img03.jpg" alt="" /></div> +<p class="caption">TARA BROOCH.</p> +<p> </p> + +<p>The many things that are told about Tara in old Gaelic books would fill a +large volume. They are all interesting. They may be incredible, grotesque, +or funny, but they are never common-place: it is this uniqueness that is +the great charm of ancient Irish literature. What could be more unique +than this account of the burial of Laoghaire, the chief king who was +cotemporary with St Patrick, but of whom the Saint never succeeded in +making even a half decent Christian. It is taken from the book of the Dun +Cow. When Laoghaire was killed by “the elements,” by lightning probably, +“his body was taken from the south and was buried with his warrior weapons +in the outward(?) south-eastern rampart of the Kingly Rath Laoghaire in +Tara, and its face to the south against the Leinstermen [as if] fighting +with them, for he had been an enemy of the Leinstermen when alive.” The +idea of facing his enemies with his dead body, for Laoghaire must have +given orders as to how and where he should be buried, could only have +entered into the brains of ancient Irish kings, for they were grotesque or +original in almost everything.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span>It is strange how long political memories last. The enmity between +Leinster and Meath has not even yet quite died out. Meath, as the seat of +the over-kings, represented Ireland, and was also the place from which the +hateful Leinster Tribute originated. This is not yet forgotten, for +whenever wrestling matches, or athletic sports of any kind, are held near +Dublin by the people of adjoining counties, the counties of Dublin, +Kildare, and Wicklow are always pitted against Meath. Dubhthach Mac U +Lugair, one of the first converts St Patrick made in Ireland, tells us, in +a poem of his in praise of his native province of Leinster, that its war +cry was “The magnification of Leinster, the destruction of Meath.” +Dubhthach may have been a good Christian, but there are good grounds for +thinking that he was a better Leinsterman; for he says in the same poem +that—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Except the host of Heaven round the Creator<br /> +There never was a host like Leinstermen round Crimhthan.”</p> + +<p>Crimhthan was a king of Leinster, who is said to have had a stronghold in +Howth, where the Bailey Lighthouse now stands.</p> + +<p>Although few traces of cultivation are to be seen on the Hill of Tara, +there can be no doubt that it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> has been very much defaced and uprooted. +The great <i>rath</i> of King Laoghaire, who was cotemporary with St Patrick, +has almost entirely disappeared. Its earthen rampart must have been of a +good height, when it served as a sepulchre for Laoghaire with his body in +an erect position, with its face turned southward, against the +Leinstermen. Laoghaire was never a Christian; or if he was such at one +time, there seems strong reason to think that he relapsed into paganism +towards the end of his career. At all events it is evident that he was not +a favourite of St Patrick’s or of the early Irish Christians, and it is +quite likely that when Tara was abandoned, his <i>rath</i> was uprooted, and +his body, or what remained of it, consigned to some unmarked grave. But +from whatever cause, this <i>rath</i> has certainly been almost entirely +obliterated. It must have been considerably over two acres in area, if one +can judge by the small segment of it that can still be traced.</p> + +<p>The following story is told in the life of St Patrick in the Leabhar +Breac. Mr. Whitley Stokes says in his translation of the lives of the +Saints from the “Book of Lismore,” that it so disgusted Thomas Carlyle +that it caused him to give up the study of Irish history:</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span>“Then three of Ui Meith Mendait Tire (a tribe that were located in the +vicinity of Tara) stole and ate one of the two goats that used to carry +water for Patrick, and came to swear a lie. Whereupon the goat bleated +from the stomachs of the three. ‘By my good judge,’ said Patrick, ‘the +goat himself hides not the place where he is.’” It is hardly to be +wondered at that a story like this, that would make any right-minded man +laugh, only disgusted a hypochondriacal crank like Carlyle.</p> + +<p>The last chief king who lived in Tara was Dermot MacCarroll, who died in +the year 565. He was evidently only half a Christian, for it has been +fully proved that Druidism lingered in Ireland for many years after the +death of St Patrick. Dermot got into a dispute with the clergy because +they sheltered a man who had done something that displeased him. The end +of the dispute was that St. Ruadhan, one of the prominent ecclesiastics of +the time, cursed Tara, and it was forever abandoned as the seat of +royalty. It is almost certain that the real cause of the cursing of Tara +by the clergy was that druidical or pagan rites continued to be practised +in it after the bulk of the people had become Christians; for it had been +for untold centuries the seat of paganism as well as of royalty. It has to +be admitted, however, that great a benefit<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> to the true faith as the +abandonment of Tara as a political centre undoubtedly was, it was +disastrous to the authority of the chief kings, for they appear to have +lost much of their authority over the provincial rulers when they +abandoned Tara and made their abodes in various places in Meath, +Westmeath, and Donegal.</p> + +<p>The vast antiquity given to Tara cannot be reasonably considered as the +mere invention of Irish bards or chroniclers. It is inconceivable that +they would invent the names of forty or fifty kings, most of whom ruled +there over a thousand years before the Christian era. The Irish annalists +who wrote about the very remote historical events of Irish history lived +and wrote long before Ireland came under English domination. They would +have no object in inventing historic falsehoods. The Tuatha de Daanans and +Firbolgs, who possessed the country before the Milesians, had vanished +more than a thousand years before the most ancient annals we possess were +written. What object could men who claimed to be Milesians have in +inventing historic falsehoods about races who possessed the country before +them? Besides, the general correctness of Irish annalists in recording +purely historic events is now admitted by all those capable of forming an +opinion. The men who<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> wrote the oldest chronicles that we possess of +events in the very far-back past of their country, evidently wrote what +had been handed down to them, either in writing or by tradition. They +would have had no object in becoming fabricators.</p> + +<p>So far, then, Tara with its glamour of greatness and antiquity, its +uprootedness, its ruin, and its utter desolation.</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span></p> +<h2>LOCH REE</h2> + + +<p>Of all the great lakes of Ireland there is none so little known to +tourists or the public in general as Loch Ree. It is the fourth in size, +Loch Neagh, Loch Erne, and Loch Corrib being the only Irish lakes of +greater extent, but none of them exceeds Loch Ree in beauty. Loch Erne is +a noble sheet of water, and is adorned with many beautiful islands, but +owing to its peculiar shape, one cannot take in all its charms from any +point on its shores; but there are dozens of places on the banks of Loch +Ree from which all its great expanse of water, and most of the charming +features of the country that surrounds it, can be taken in at a single +glance. If the shores of Loch Ree were mountainous it would be one of the +most beautiful lakes, not only in Ireland, but in the world. It is strange +that it is not more generally known, and it lying almost in the +geographical centre of Ireland, and surrounded by some of the richest land +and most beautiful <i>paysage</i> scenery to be found anywhere. People rush to +Killarney, Connemara, Achill and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> many other places, and almost totally +neglect this noble expanse of the king of Irish rivers, the Shannon. It is +the unfortunate commercial state of Ireland that has caused the scenery of +the Shannon to be so little known. If there were dozens of thriving and +populous towns on its banks, as there would be if it flowed through any +other country than Ireland, large and commodious steamers would be plying +on its waters, and the beauties of Loch Ree and Loch Dearg would be as +well known as those of Windermere or Killarney. Nothing can more plainly +show how fast Ireland is retrograding from even the very mediocre trade +she enjoyed half a century ago than the fact that the passenger +steam-boats that used to ply almost daily in the summer season between +Carrick-on-Shannon or Lanesboro’ and Killaloe have long ceased to run, and +are now rotting somewhere on the Lower Shannon. The decline in the +population, and the consequent decline in trade, became so great that it +was found that the money taken did not pay more than seventy per cent. of +even the working expenses of those steamers, and they had to stop running. +The writer travelled in one of them more than thirty years ago between +Athlone and Killaloe. They were large side-wheel<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> steamers that would +carry over one hundred passengers, and on which excellent meals could be +obtained at a moderate price. There is probably not in Europe a more +generally interesting river than that from Athlone to Killaloe, but it is +now practically closed, not only to tourists, but to the public in +general, for a passenger steamer has not traversed the Upper Shannon for +well-nigh thirty years. It is no wonder, then, that the glories of Loch +Ree, with its almost countless islands, and the glories of Loch Dearg, +with its mountain-girded shores, are now nearly as unknown to tourists and +to the Irish public in general as are the reaches of the Congo or the +Niger. It is simply heartrending to think that decline of population and +general decay have made the mighty waters of the Shannon, that runs almost +from one end of Ireland to the other, an almost lifeless stream, for the +few little row-boats and sailing smacks one sees on it would not, all +told, hold more people than the life-boats of a single Atlantic steamer. +Bad as things are, they seem to be getting worse, for there is hardly a +single town or city on the Shannon that is not declining in trade and +population. At the rate things are going on, a turf boat will soon be the +only sort of craft to be seen on the waters of <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span>Ireland’s greatest river! +It is, however, cheering to be able to state that there is good reason to +believe that steps are being taken to re-establish a line of passenger +steam-boats on the Upper Shannon.</p> + +<p>The tyranny and folly of man may mar towns and turn fields into +wildernesses, but they cannot mar nature. If no steam-boats plough the +waters of Loch Ree, and if men have given place to cattle and sheep on its +banks, it is still as beautiful as ever. Its sinuous shores are still as +fair to the eye as they were fifty years ago, when a teeming population +lived on them, and when twenty thousand people might be seen at the annual +regatta that used to be held every autumn on its waters. Nothing less than +an earthquake could destroy the beauty of Loch Ree. It has every element +of scenic beauty save mountains, but such are its general beauties that +mountains are hardly missed. Loch Dearg is almost surrounded by mountains, +but it is not nearly so fair to look upon as Loch Ree. The former lake is +almost entirely islandless, but Loch Ree is studded with them. In +traversing its entire length, from Lanesboro’ to Athlone, a distance of +twenty miles, islands are ever in view. Hare Island is the most beautiful +island in the lake; seen from the waters or from the mainland it seems a +mass of leaves. The trees grow on it so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> thickly that they dip their +branches into the water almost all round it. Lord Castlemaine has a +charming rustic cottage on Hare Island, and the pleasure grounds attached +to it are laid out with very great taste and skill. It is one of the most +beautiful sylvan island retreats in Europe. Hare Island contains nearly a +hundred acres. Inchmore is still larger, but not so well wooded. Then +there are Inchbofin, Inis Cloran, Inchturk, Saints’ Island, Hag’s Island, +Carberry Island, and many others, the names of which would be tedious to +mention. The islands of Loch Ree are of almost all sizes, from a hundred +acres to a square perch. Except in the vast St Lawrence alone, with its +famed thousand islands, there are few river expansions in the world that +contain so many islands as Loch Ree. Its shores are fully as beautiful as +its islands. It would be hard to conceive anything in the way of shore +scenery more beautiful than the shores of Loch Ree for eight or ten miles +on the Leinster side of the lake between the mouth of the river Inny and +Athlone. The shores are so irregular and cut up into so many promontories +and headlands that, to follow the water’s edge from Athlone to where the +Inny enters the Shannon, a distance of not more than ten miles as the crow +flies, would involve a journey of over fifty. Every headland is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> +tree-crowned, and every promontory rock-girded. Very little of the shores +of this beautiful lake are swampy; they are generally as rocky as those of +a Highland tarn, with deep, blue water ever fretting rock and stone into +thousands of fantastic shapes. So rocky are most parts of the shores of +Loch Ree, that those æsthetic persons living near it who wish to form +rock-works in their pleasure grounds find abundance of water-worn stones +on the shores of Loch Ree to make rock-work of any shape required.</p> + +<p>The shores of Loch Ree, particularly the Leinster shore, are more adorned +with gentlemen’s seats than the shores of perhaps any other lake in +Ireland. From Athlone to nearly the head of the lake there is a succession +of gentlemen’s seats. Many of them are kept with great care and taste, and +are in themselves well worth a visit. The house in which Goldsmith spent +his early youth is about two miles from Loch Ree, and about two-and-a-half +from the village of Glassan. The house is a ruin, but a well-preserved +one. When it was built seems unknown, but from what can be gathered from +the old men living in its vicinity, it seems to have been built about the +year 1700. The walls are still intact. It was two storeys high, and must +have contained<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> seven or eight apartments. The name Auburn is still +applied to the townland on which the house stands; but the name seems to +have originated with Goldsmith himself, for the place does not appear to +have been so called before his time. Lissoy is its Irish name, but Auburn +does not seem to be an Irish name at all. The “Jolly Pigeons” public-house +still exists. It is about a mile from Auburn. There never was a village +called Auburn in the locality. The nearest place to Goldsmith’s house that +could be called a village is Glassan.</p> + +<p>Loch Ree is not void of considerable historic interest. There are many +noble ruins on its shores; among them Randown Castle is the most +remarkable. It was one of the earliest Norman-French keeps erected in +Ireland. It is situated on a bold promontory jutting into the lake on the +Connacht side, about ten or twelve miles north of Athlone. It is now +generally called St John’s Castle. At <i>Blein Potog</i>, or Pudding Bay, took +place in the year 999 one of the most important events in Irish +history—namely, the surrender of the sovereignty of Ireland to Brian +Boramha by Malachy the Second. The Munster king came up the Shannon with a +large army in a flotilla of boats, and Malachy met him there<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> and +surrendered to him. Many think that it was, in a political point of view, +one of the most disastrous events of Irish history, for the usurpation of +the chief sovereignty by Brian caused such weakness and confusion after +his death, that each provincial ruler wanted to be chief king, and created +such wars and political chaos that no chief king that succeeded possessed +complete sway over the country, the so-called chief kings that succeeded +being kings only in name. For a full account of the treaty of Blein Potog, +the reader is referred to the “Wars of the Gaels and the Galls,” +translated by the late Rev. Dr Todd. The site of the treaty is some ten +miles north of Athlone, on the Leinster shore of Loch Ree.</p> + +<p>Athlone is one of the most picturesque and interesting inland towns in +Ireland. Its situation is simply superb,—in the almost exact geographical +centre of Ireland, at the foot of one of the most beautiful of lakes, and +on the banks of a noble river, deep and wide enough to carry ships on its +waters.</p> + +<p>Athlone is one of the few towns—perhaps the only one—on the Shannon that +is not decaying at present. For many years after the famine it decayed +rapidly, but some thirty years ago a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> woollen factory was established; now +there are two woollen factories and a saw-mill that give employment to +some hundreds of hands, consequently Athlone has been saved from decay. +But comparatively prosperous as it is, it is not one-fourth as prosperous +as it ought to be considering its splendid situation and the fertility and +beauty of the country that surrounds it. It has recently become a great +railway centre; one can go by rail from Athlone to almost any part of +Ireland. But all the railways and all the fertility of all the world +cannot bring real prosperity to any country in which the population is +declining. The decline of the population in Athlone itself and in the +country surrounding it has, during the last fifty years, been something +frightful, and can only be fully realised by those who remember what it +was in former times. A market day in Athlone now is very different from a +market day there half a century ago. The writer recollects having been at +a market in Athlone when a small boy, about the year 1841 or ’42, and saw +more people there in one market than could be seen in twenty markets there +now. The town was too small to contain much more than half of them; they +flowed out into the fields surrounding it. The crowds in the streets were +so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> dense that it would take hours to jostle one’s way from one end of the +town to the other, and, what will hardly be credited by those whose +memories do not go back fifty years, there were certainly three persons +speaking Irish for one who spoke English. One might attend markets in +Athlone now every week in the year and not hear a word of any language but +English. Irish has completely died out of the country surrounding Athlone, +save in the south-western corner of the county Roscommon, where some old +people still speak it. There is something inexpressibly sad in the fading +away of any form of National speech, but, above all, in the fading away of +a tongue so old and once so cultivated as Irish. It seems to forebode not +only the death of all real National aspirations, but the death of heart +and soul. It seems to show that Philistinism is rapidly driving away +sentiment from the Irish people. But the life of the Irish peasant has +been so long such a battle for mere existence that it is no wonder that he +came to look with contempt on everything that did not administer to his +mere animal wants. He is rapidly improving since he has had a barrier put +between him and the generally cruel treatment he was wont to receive from +his landlord. None but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> those who remember what his position was fifty +years ago, and who see what it is now, can fully understand all the +advance he has made. In spite of the awful decline of population in the +rural districts of Ireland during the last fifty years, there is much to +be seen in them to gladden the heart of the philanthropist. Small farmers’ +cottages, that would formerly be a disgrace to a Zulu or an Esquimaux, are +now not only generally clean, but sometimes beautiful. Flowers in pots in +the windows and evergreens creeping up the walls of a peasant’s cottage +would have caused him to be laughed at by his neighbours fifty years ago, +but now they cause him to be respected instead of being laughed at. He +will become again what he once was, one of the most soulful and +un-Philistine of beings; it is probable he will become such when better +laws and freer institutions shall have raised him from the slough of +poverty and despondency in which he has been steeping for centuries.</p> + +<p>Tourists and the travelling public in general will find good accommodation +at the Prince of Wales Hotel in Athlone, in which town boats can be hired +by those going either up or down the Shannon.</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span></p> +<h2>“EMANIA THE GOLDEN”</h2> + + +<p>Two miles west of the city of Armagh lies an earthen fort known as the +“Navan Ring.” This is all that remains of the renowned palace of the Pagan +Kings of Ulster, the real name of which was Emain Macha, which has been +Latinised Emania, and corrupted into Navan.</p> + +<p>After Tara, Emania is the most historic spot of Irish soil. No other place +in all Ireland, Tara only excepted, is so often mentioned in the historic +and romantic tales that have been preserved in such abundance in ancient +Gaelic. Emania is the great centre of that wondrous cycle of legend, +history, and song known as the Cuchullainn cycle of Celtic literature. +Every tale and legend in it refer more or less to Emania. It is curious +that while hardly any of the treasures of ancient Irish manuscript +literature we possess were compiled in Ulster, there is hardly a page of +them, no matter in what province they were originally composed, that does +not mention this now almost obliterated stronghold of the Ulster kings. +The “Book of Leinster” was compiled in Kildare or in Glendoloch, and for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> +nearly a thousand years, or from the imposition of the Leinster Tribute +early in the second century down to the time of Brian Boramha, Leinster +and Ulster were inveterate enemies, yet the “Book of Leinster” teems with +mention of Emania. Even in the great manuscript books compiled in Connacht +and Munster, the name of Emania occurs next in frequency to that of Tara.</p> + +<p>So far as can be gathered from the most authentic sources, the palace of +Emain Macha, or Emania, was erected by the over-king Cimboath, about five +hundred years before the Incarnation. It continued to be the seat of the +Ulster kings down to <span class="smcaplc">A.D.</span> 331, when it was destroyed by the three Collas, +chieftains of the race of the over-kings of Ireland from a hostile +province, that made war on Ulster. The destruction of Emania is recorded +by the Four Masters under the year 331, when Fergus, King of Ulster, was +defeated and slain by the three Collas. Emania was burned, and the ancient +dynasty that had so long ruled the province of Ulster was destroyed. +Emania may be said to have been a desolation since then; for though we are +told that one of the O’Neill’s built a house within the ruins of the fort +in 1387, no vestige of it now remains, and it is not probable that it was +long in existence.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span>None of the ancient palaces or great <i>duns</i> of ancient Ireland shows such +utter desolation, or bears evidence of having been so uprooted as does +Emania. The great fosse by which it was once surrounded is entirely +obliterated save on the west side, where it is nearly twenty feet in +depth. Much as Tara has been obliterated, its monuments are more easily +traced than are those of Emania. The county Meath seems to have been a +grazing country almost from time immemorial. This saved Tara from being +entirely uprooted; but the country round this ancient seat of the Ulster +kings is essentially agricultural; it is mostly in the possession of small +farmers owning from ten to twenty acres; consequently they have levelled +most of the great circular embankments that formerly enclosed an area of +nearly a dozen acres, and have filled up most of the deep fosse which, if +we can judge by the small part of it that still remains, must have been, +when Emania was in its glory, between twenty and thirty feet deep. So +potatoes are growing and corn is waving over a large extent of the inside +of the fortress, where vast wooden buildings once stood, and where mirth +and revelry and clash of arms once resounded.</p> + +<p>Mons. Darbois de Jubainville, the eminent French archæologist and Celtic +scholar, made an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> exhaustive examination of Emania some years ago. He +found that the area within the original enclosure was four and a half +hectares, or between eleven and twelve English acres in extent, and that +the space enclosed was nearly circular. Like Tara, the buildings in Emania +must have been almost entirely of wood. Some of them may, like many of the +wooden houses in America, have been built on stone foundations, and there +are some traces of stone-work still to be seen. There is a magnificent +passage in the Féilere of Oengus the Culdee, written about <span class="smcaplc">A.D.</span> 800, in +which the greatness and glory of the Christian cities of Ireland are +contrasted with the state of utter desolation into which the strongholds +of the Pagan kings had fallen. Speaking of Emania he says—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Emain’s burgh hath vanished<br /> +Save that its stones remain;<br /> +The Rome of the western world<br /> +Is multitudinous Glendaloch.”</p> + +<p>There is no doubt that the ruins of Emania were in a much better state of +preservation when Oengus wrote, nearly eleven hundred years ago, than they +are in at present, and it is certain that many of its stones have been +carried away to build walls and houses. But it is also quite certain that +neither in Ireland, Great Britain, or in any<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> northern country, were stone +buildings general in ancient times, and we may be sure that when Emania +was at the height of its splendour its best and largest buildings were of +wood.</p> + +<p>The area of eleven or twelve acres that was once surrounded by a deep +fosse and high embankment, and within which all the buildings of Emania +were erected, is not quite circular, nor is its surface level. +Considerable inequality of surface evidently existed in it before it was +chosen for the site of palace or <i>dun</i>. The highest part within the +enclosure is a good deal removed from its centre, and it was evidently on +it that the citadel stood. There was a dun within a dun, as there +generally was in all ancient Irish fortresses of any great extent. The +citadel having been on the highest ground within the enclosure, commanded +a view of the surrounding country for a considerable distance. Emania, +when at its best, with its vast surrounding fosse and high earthen +rampart, capped with a strong fence of wood, might, if properly +provisioned and manned, defy almost any army that could be brought against +it in ancient times when firearms were unknown.</p> + +<p>It is for the antiquarian rather than for the seeker of the picturesque +that Emania will<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> ever have the most attraction. There is nothing very +striking from a scenic point of view in its environs. Its present +shockingly uprooted condition, and the almost total lack of interest the +peasantry living in its immediate vicinity take in it, have a depressing +effect on anyone interested in Irish literature, history, or antiquities. +During the writer’s last visit to this historic spot he met a small farmer +whose potatoes were planted over part of the obliterated fosse and rampart +of this famous stronghold of Ulster. He had never heard of King Connor +MacNessa, of Connall Carnach, of Cuchullainn, or of the Red Branch +Knights. He knew no more about them than about the heroes of ancient +China. He said that he “ever an’ always hard that the Navan Ring was built +by the Danes.” This man had been born and bred in the locality, but he +took no more interest in the historic spot that had given him birth than +if he were a Hottentot instead of an Irishman. Anglicisation has indeed +been carried to an extreme pitch in most parts of Ireland, and is rapidly +turning the Irish peasant into the most generally uninteresting, prosy, +and least <i>spirituel</i> of mortals. As a rule, the more Anglicised he +becomes the more intolerable he is. If the peasantry living round Emania +had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> preserved their native language, while at the same time knowing +English, if they were bilingual, like millions of their class in different +European countries, many things connected with the history of this +celebrated place would be known to them; but having lost the link that +bound them to the past, they are like a new race in a new country. It is +well known that the masses of the Greek peasantry, notwithstanding that a +large percentage of them are illiterate, know more about the history and +traditions of their country than any Irishman, save a specialist, knows +about the history and traditions of Ireland. In very few European +countries will such a knowledge of its past be found among the masses as +in Greece, and principally because the Greeks have preserved their +language.</p> + +<p>Although Tara is more ancient and more historic than Emania, the latter +place is connected with the most pathetic, the most dramatic, and most +generally beautiful tale in all the vast mass of ancient Gaelic +literature—“The Fate of the Children of Uisneach.” It was in Emania that +their betrayer and murderer, Connor, King of Ulster, lived; it was there +that they themselves were killed, and it was there that Deirdre died. The +tale appeared almost a century ago in a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> book brought out by a Gaelic +Society that then existed in Dublin. The Irish text was given, with a +translation by Theopholus O’Flanagan. It was thought by some that he had +no ancient copy of the tale, and that he might have embellished it, for he +did not say from what manuscript he had taken it. The story, as given in +the “Book of Leinster,” while agreeing in the main with O’Flanagan’s +version, is not nearly of such literary value as his, and is not more than +one quarter the length. But all doubts as to the existence of an ancient +version of the story given by O’Flanagan have been removed, for an ancient +copy of it, supposed to be of the fourteenth century, was found some years +ago in the Advocates’ Library, Edinburgh, and has been edited and +translated by Mr. Whitley Stokes. It may be seen in Windische’s <i>Irische +Texte</i>. It agrees almost exactly with the version given by O’Flanagan. It +would be hard to give a clearer proof of the utter neglect with which +Celtic literature has heretofore been treated, than by a statement of the +fact that there are not probably a hundred persons living, at least of the +literary class, who have read this wondrously beautiful tale of the +Children of Uisneach. For pathos, dramatic power, and pure poetry it would +be hard to get anything in the way of romance<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> superior to it. If such a +literary gem existed in the literature of any European language but Irish, +if such existed even in Arabic or Persian, it would be known to literary +people almost all over the world. But how can people of other nations be +blamed for their ignorance of Gaelic literature when the Irish themselves +are more indifferent about it than the Germans or the French? A text and +translation of the “Fate of the Children of Uisneach” is sorely +wanted—not merely as a text for scholars, but for the people at large. +When such appears it will make a visit to Emania infinitely more +interesting; for, after reading such a pathetic tale, he would indeed be +hard-hearted and unsympathetic that would not, if he could find where she +was buried, shed a tear over the grave of Deirdre. The very fine poem by +the late Doctor Robert Dwyer Joyce, published in Boston, America, in 1877, +was the only attempt ever made to popularise the story of the Children of +Uisneach and the fate of the unfortunate but true and noble Deirdre.</p> + +<p>The country in the vicinity of Emania, while containing no striking +objects of scenic interest, is, at the same time, picturesque and +beautiful. Southern Ulster, even where it is not mountainous, is usually +most varied and interesting in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> its general features. It is essentially a +land of hills and valleys; but the hills are never so high that they +cannot be cultivated, and the best land is sometimes found on their very +tops. The country round Emania is extremely broken, hill and valley are on +every side. It is generally, like most parts of Ulster, well cultivated. +There are many antiquarian curiosities in the neighbourhood of this +ancient fortress. Some of the most perfect Druid circles in Ireland are in +its vicinity. There is a very remarkable one about a mile from it which a +thrifty farmer has turned into a haggard. It encloses about quarter of an +acre of ground. The stones of which it is composed stand about four feet +over the surface, and must average nearly a ton each in weight. But +vandalism is strong in the vicinity, for it is only a short time since +another splendid Druid circle, nearly as large as the one mentioned, was +torn down, and its stones broken to mend roads withal. Thus are many of +the relics of ancient Erin disappearing before the march of +denationalisation.</p> + +<p>Those who live in the vicinity of Emania tell many stories about the +finding of treasure-trove close to and in this ancient fortress. According +to them, gold ornaments of great value were found by some persons many +years ago who suddenly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> became rich, much to the surprise of their +neighbours. Those ornaments were, of course, melted down, and like +hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of similar articles found in almost +every part of Ireland, never found their way to any museum, and are lost +to the country for ever. There can hardly be any doubt that some very +valuable articles in gold have been found near Emania.</p> + +<p>One of the most interesting instances of the long survival of a place name +is to be found adjacent to this celebrated spot. Most Irish persons have +heard of the Red Branch Knights. Moore has immortalised them in his +exquisite lyric, “Let Erin Remember the Days of Old.” Few believe that +such an institution as the Red Branch Knights ever existed. It is +generally looked on as a bardic fable; but there is a townland close to +Emania which is still called Creeve Roe, in correct orthography, <i>Craobh +Ruadh</i>, which means Red Branch. The preservation of this place name for +nearly two thousand years cannot be regarded as an accident. It goes far +to prove that the Red Branch Knights did exist, and that the townland took +its name from them. This extraordinarily long survival of a place name, +the historic fame and antiquity of the locality, lend a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> supreme interest +to this ruined stronghold, which, centuries after its glories had +vanished, Gaelic bards used still to call “Emania the Golden.”</p> + +<p>Ardmagh is so near Emania, only two miles from it, that one place could +hardly be described without saying something about the other. Its ancient +name was Ardmacha, meaning the height of Macha. This Macha was queen, or +at least ruler, of that part of the country in far-back pagan times. It +was also from her that Emain Macha, or Emania, was named. Ardmagh was +founded by St Patrick in the year 457. A man named Daire, chief of the +district, is said, in the “Annals of the Four Masters,” to have given +Patrick the site on which the city is built. Patrick appointed twelve men +to build the town, and ordered them to erect an archbishop’s city there, +and churches for the different religious orders. It seems strange that the +saint should have chosen Ardmagh for the site of the chief religious +establishment in Ireland. Emania had been ruined and desolated in the +previous century, but it is evident that it was the fame of the ancient +stronghold of Ulster that induced Patrick to choose its immediate vicinity +as a site for his new Christian city, because Emania had been for so many +centuries previous the political centre of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> province, and, next to +Tara, the chief political centre of Ireland. Of the old ecclesiastical +buildings of Ardmagh, not a vestige remains. Some of its new ones are, +however, magnificent. The new Catholic cathedral is the finest building of +its kind in Ireland. It is hardly to be wondered at that none of the +ancient buildings of Ardmagh should remain, for of all towns in Ireland, +it was burned, plundered, and razed the oftenest. In the course of the two +centuries and a half ending in 1080, it was plundered and wholly or +partially burned <i>twelve times</i> by the Danes. No other city in Ireland +seems to have suffered so much from the Northmen. Turgesius, the Danish +king, captured it and lived there for some years. The present city is one +of the most picturesque towns of its size in Ireland, but it is not +growing much. It once had a good linen trade, but since the introduction +of cotton fabrics, its linen trade has entirely ceased.</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span></p> +<h2>QUEEN MAB’S PALACE</h2> + + +<p>Rathcroghan, about two miles from Tulsk, in the county Roscommon, is one +of the most celebrated places in Irish history, legend, and song. It was +there that Queen Mab, spelt Medb in old Irish, and Meave at present, had +her palace, and it was there she was buried. That she was a real historic +personage, and not a myth or a fairy, there can be no doubt at all, and +that she was a very extraordinary woman cannot be doubted either. She was +Queen of Connacht, and was cotemporary with Cleopatra; but if the Egyptian +queen is mentioned in history she is forgotten in legend, while Mab has +lived in legend for more than eighteen centuries. It is remarkable that +the myths and legends about her should have been more prevalent during the +sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in England than in Ireland. There are +few legends about her in Ireland; she is simply an historic personage +there, but in England she became a fairy. There is hardly a popular +English writer of the two centuries referred to that has not said +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span>something about Queen Mab; and it is very probable that none of them knew +that she was a reality in Irish history. Shakespeare, Spenser, Drayton, +and other English writers contemporary with them, speak of her as a fairy, +and even Shelley considers her a sprite; but she is rarely, if ever, +mentioned as such by the Gaelic writers of any epoch. Why legends about +Queen Mab, or, as we call her at present, Meave, should be so rare in +Ireland is probably owing to the fact that she belongs to what is known as +the Cuchulainn cycle of Irish history and legend. That cycle is almost +forgotten by the people, and has been for many centuries. It has been +eclipsed by the greater popularity of the Finn cycle, which is some +centuries more recent. For the one legend existing in the most +Gaelic-speaking parts of Ireland and Scotland about Cuchulainn or his +cycle there are a score about Finn, Oisin, Caoilte, and others of their +contemporaries. It may have been that the introduction of Christianity had +much to do in stereotyping the legends of the Finn cycle in the memories +of the masses, for Finn is said to have lived so long that he saw St +Patrick, and held converse with him. One of the most remarkable literary +productions in Irish, the “Dialogue of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> the Sages,” consists of converse +between the Saint and Finn, and others belonging to the same cycle.</p> + +<p>There could hardly be a stronger proof of the high civilisation that +existed in Ireland in ancient times as compared with that which existed in +England than the fact that the remembrance of Irish historic personages +continued widely spread in England in spite of so many changes, not only +in government, but in race and language. There is no traditional +remembrance in Ireland of any English historic personage contemporary with +Queen Meave, or of any such that lived for many centuries after her time. +That a knowledge of her and Lir, the Lear of Shakespeare, should have +existed among the ancient Britons is not to be wondered at, for they were +kin to the Irish, and must have spoken the same, or nearly the same, +language; but that this remembrance of Irish historic personages should +have continued to exist in England under Roman, Saxon, Dane, and +Frenchman, is very remarkable. If it was knowledge obtained through books +it would be less to be wondered at; it was knowledge transmitted by +legend, and like all legendary knowledge, it had a tendency to go astray. +The legends that existed in England about Meave and Lir did go astray, for +they made a little fairy of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> the one and a King of Britain of the other. +But Meave was not a little fairy, but a very fine woman of flesh and +blood; and Lir was not King of Britain, but an Irish pirate whose +principal stronghold appears to have been the Isle of Man. It is called +after him, for his full name was Mananan Mac Lir. It seems more than +probable that both Dunleer and Liverpool are also called after him, for +the latter place is written “Lyrpul” in the earliest known document in +which the name occurs, and it is Lyrpul still in Welsh. It is probable +that Lir had possessions in England as well as in Ireland and the Isle of +Man.</p> + +<p>Medb or Meave, Queen of Connacht, was daughter to Eochy Fayloch, over-king +of Ireland. She lived about half a century before the Christian era. +Keating says, in his “History of Ireland,” that she reigned ninety-eight +years. This very long reign is doubted by some Irish historians, but it is +generally admitted by them that her reign, as well as her life, was +remarkably long. She had more husbands than even the woman of Samaria is +credited with. It was evidently her extraordinary long life and reign that +caused her to be ultimately believed to be something supernatural, and to +be regarded as a fairy. She was, however, no fairy, but a bold, bad, and +warlike woman. She, even<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> more than Cuchulainn, is the central figure of +the greatest prose epic in the Irish language, the <i>Tain Bo Chuailgne</i>, or +Cattle Raid of Cooley. By lies and bribes she persuaded the other +provincial rulers to join her in a totally unjustifiable war on Ulster, so +that she was able to invade that province with a great army of fifty-four +thousand men. She carried off a great prey from Ulster, but not without +suffering some defeats and losing some of her bravest warriors. It is said +that Mr Ernest Windisch is engaged in translating this great epic into +German, but it seems not yet finished. Meave, like most of the prominent +people of her day, met with a violent death. She had many enemies, +especially in Ulster. One of them, a son to the king of that province, +killed her by a cast from a sling as she was about taking a cold water +bath in Iniscloran, an island in Loch Ree. She must have been considerably +over a hundred years old when she was killed, but she appears, even at +that great age, to have been the admiration of every one that saw her on +account of the great beauty of her face and figure. Perhaps it was her +cold water baths that were the chief means of preserving her youth and +good looks, for we are told in the “Book of Leinster” that she was under +<i>geis</i>, or bonds, not to let any morning pass by without taking a bath.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> +It is no wonder that such a person should have in the long run passed into +the realm of fairie, and have been thought something supernatural. It is, +however, a wonder that the Four Masters do not mention the name of Meave, +although they do mention the name of her father; but there are many +similar strange omissions in their annals. Meave is, however, mentioned in +the Annals of Clonmacnoise, in which many hard things are said of her.</p> + +<p>The fort, as it is generally called, of Rathcroghan, upon which Queen +Meave’s palace must have stood, is unlike any other place of its kind +known to the writer. Strictly speaking, it is not a fort at all, and it is +impossible to conceive how it ever could have been used for purposes of +defence, or for any purpose other than to build some sort of habitation +on. It is nothing but a raised circular elevation, an English acre in +area, in a perfectly level field, without a vestige of the fosse or +rampart that usually surrounds the ruined strongholds of Celtic chiefs and +kings. Long ago as it is since Rathcroghan was the seat of kings or queens +of Connacht, some traces of the surrounding ramparts would almost +certainly be yet visible had they ever existed. Queen Meave seems to have +depended more on her soldiers to defend<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> her than on ramparts of stone or +earth. She seems to have relied on “castles of bones” rather than on +castles of stones; for her palace, so far as can be judged from existing +remains, seems to have been without defending ramparts of any kind. There +are many references in old Gaelic manuscripts to the splendour of Queen +Meave’s palace. It is said to have been built of pine and yew, and to have +contained beds enough to accommodate a small army. It was probably an +immense round wigwam that covered all or nearly all of the raised platform +that still remains. That platform is about eight or nine feet above the +level of the field on which it stands, and has two entrances into it, one +exactly opposite the other. If the vast circular wooden building that +stood on it was roofed, as it almost certainly was, the walls would have +to be fifty feet or more in height to give it anything of an imposing +appearance. It may have been that the entire raised platform was not +covered by the wooden structure, but the descriptions of its great size +given in old books would lead one to think that it was.</p> + +<p>Rathcroghan does not appear to have been a place of residence of any of +the rulers of Connacht since the time of the celebrated Queen Meave. If it +was, the writer has not been able to find trustworthy evidence of the +fact. It may, however,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> have been used as a place for assemblies in +comparatively recent times. <i>Relig na Riogh</i>, or the cemetery of kings, at +Rathcroghan, was one of the great burial places of the Pagan Irish Kings. +It is a circular enclosure, about half a mile from the platform on which +Queen Meave’s palace stood. It bears all the marks of extreme antiquity, +and has suffered much from the ravages of time. It covers between two and +three acres, and at first sight appears nothing more than a piece of +ground of very broken surface, for the mounds that marked the graves of +kings and chiefs have become nearly obliterated. But it was here that many +of the kings and heroes of ancient Ireland were buried, and it is here +that the bones of Queen Meave rest, that is, if we are to believe the most +trustworthy records of Irish history. It is thought by some that she was +buried under the vast cairn of stones that crowns the summit of +Knocknarea, near Sligo, for it is called to this day <i>Moisgan Meabha</i>, +literally Meave’s butter-dish; but by extension it probably means Meave’s +heap or cairn. There is no historic evidence to prove that she was +interred under the cairn on Knocknarea, however it came to be called by +its present Irish name; and according to the late Sir Samuel Ferguson, her +name, or a name closely resembling it, has been found<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> written in Ogam +characters on a stone in <i>Reilig na Riogh</i>.</p> + +<p>That there was such a person as Queen Meave there cannot be any doubt +whatever. History and legend never yet existed about a fabulous personage, +and Meave figures in both. Whatever impossible things may be related about +her in legend, history says nothing about her that cannot be easily +believed, her great age and length of reign excepted. It must, however, be +remembered that the ancient Irish were a very long-lived people. This fact +is so apparent in so many places in ancient Gaelic literature that it has +to be believed. We have as strong proof as can be afforded by history that +in comparatively modern times Henry Jenkins lived to be over a hundred and +sixty, and Old Parr to be over a hundred and fifty years old, and why +could not Queen Meave have lived to as great or even a greater age? She +was an extraordinary woman, and her name sheds a halo of romance round the +place where she lived, and where her remains rest in peace after her long +and stormy career. It was also in <i>Reilig na Riogh</i> that Dathi, the last +pagan Irish Chief King, was buried. His mound is marked by a pillar stone, +and O’Donovan, one of the most cautious and least impulsive investigators +of Irish<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> history and antiquities, saw no reason to doubt that the pillar +stone marks his grave.</p> + +<p>It may be said that no proof has been given that the Connacht Queen Medb +or Meave was the prototype of the Mab of Shakespeare, Drayton, Spenser, +and other English poets. True, no absolute proof has been given, and +probably never will; but there is that which may be called negative proof, +which in such a case is very strong. The negative proof, if it can be +called such, that the Connacht queen was the prototype of the Queen Mab of +English poets and English legend, is found in the complete silence of +history and of tradition as to how else the legend of Queen Mab +originated, for it must have originated somewhere and from some one. We +are, then, and in a great measure by the total lack of any other way to +account for the origin of the legend of Queen Mab being queen of the +fairies, forced to come to the conclusion that the Connacht queen is the +only person known to history who furnishes the prototype for her. But +there is something more. It has been stated that the old Irish form of the +name was <i>Medb</i>. It is well known to Celtic savants that what is now +called “aspiration,” or the change in sound, and sometimes the entire +suppression of certain consonants in pronunciation,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> did not take place +nearly so often in old Irish as in the modern language; so that the name +<i>Medb</i> would in ancient times be pronounced <i>Mab</i>, or something very like +it. It is curious that in Drayton’s poem, “The Nymphadia,” Queen Mab, +though a fairy, is remarkable for those things for which her Irish +prototype was also remarkable—namely, her chariots, her amours, and her +beauty.</p> + +<p>A very strong proof that Queen Meave was an historic personage and not a +myth is to be found in the name of the island in Loch Ree where she was +killed. It is usually pronounced and written Iniscloran; but Inis Clothran +is how it ought to be spelled, and how it is invariably spelled in the +“Annals of the Four Masters” where the name frequently occurs, the island +having been the seat of more than one church in early Christian times, and +therefore often mentioned in annals. Meave had a sister named Clothru who +lived in Iniscloran, and who was Queen of Connacht before Meave. Here is a +translation from the “Book of Leinster,” page 124: “It was there that +Clothru used to explain the laws of Connacht in Inis Clothran in Loch +Ree.” The island was evidently called after Clothru (Clothran in the +genitive), sister to Meave. This preservation of a place name connected +with the name of an historic personage for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> two thousand years is most +remarkable, and shows that Irish history is more truthful than is +generally supposed. It is thought that Meave had Clothru killed, in order +that she herself might become Queen of Connacht.</p> + +<p>The country around Rathcroghan abounds in antiquities of far-back ages. +Sepulchral mounds, ruined raths, tortuous caves, and weather-worn +cromlechs are to be found on almost every side. It is a spot where the +antiquarian might revel for weeks and find something every day to interest +him. It is a beautiful country also, not a plain, in the strict sense of +the word, and yet not hills, but what an American would call “rolling,” +and a Frenchman “accidenté.” It is the “Magh Aoi” of Queen Meave’s time, +and “Machaire Chonnacht,” or plain of Connacht, of later days. It is part +of the celebrated Plains of Boyle, and is considered to contain some of +the best grass land in Ireland. No fairer spot could be found in Connacht +for the dwelling of a potentate who dealt largely in cattle than the green +eminence on which Queen Meave had her palace, and both history and legend +say that her flocks and herds were well-nigh innumerable. She made her +home in the centre of the fairest and richest part of the province she +ruled; and long as that home has been desolate, it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> has not been forgotten +in history or in song, for that noble melody which Moore has made +immortal—“Avenging and Bright Fall the Swift Sword of Erin”—was first +known as “Croghan na Veena,” or “Croghan of the Heroes”; and the incident +to which it refers—the murder of the children of Uisneach—occurred when +Queen Meave was at the height of her splendour, when Rathcroghan was in +its glory, and when it was really the dwelling-place of heroes.</p> + +<p>There are many mentions of Rathcroghan in ancient Gaelic writings, and all +of them speak of it as one of the most important places in Ireland in +Pagan times. Oengus, the Culdee, whose poem has been already referred to, +says of it—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Rathcroghan hath vanished<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With Ailill, offspring of victory;</span><br /> +A fair sovranty above Kingdoms<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Is in Cluain’s city.”</span></p> + +<p>The Ailill mentioned was one of Queen Meave’s many husbands, and “Cluain’s +City” means Clonmacnois.</p> + +<p>The nearest railway station to Rathcroghan is Castlerea, from which it is +about eight miles distant. Its long distance from a railway and the want +of good accommodation for tourists in its vicinity have helped to cause +this celebrated place to be so neglected and forgotten.</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span></p> +<h2>THE HILL OF UISNEACH</h2> + + +<p>Uisneach is one of the most historic hills in Ireland, yet there are +probably not five per cent. of the people of Ireland that have ever heard +of it, and not one per cent. of them that has ever seen it. Apart even +from its historic interest, it is well worth seeing, for it is not only a +beautiful hill, but it affords from its summit one of the most extensive +and lovely views in Ireland. The hill of Uisneach is in the Barony of +Rathconrath, County Westmeath, and only about four Irish miles from +Streamstown Station on the Midland Great Western Railway, so that it is +easily reached. There is, unfortunately, no hotel where tourists could be +accommodated nearer to it than Moat, which is about eight Irish miles from +it; and Mullingar is about the same distance. The village of Ballymore is +five miles from the hill, but as there is no hotel there, Moat and +Mullingar are the only towns within any moderate distance of it where +tourists could get either lodgings or meals. It is not certain if even a +car could be hired at Streamstown or near it,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> consequently those wishing +to visit Uisneach should either have a private conveyance or make up their +minds to “do it” on foot.</p> + +<p>Uisneach is one of the most peculiarly-shaped hills in Ireland. It is only +six hundred feet in height—a fair elevation in a part of the country +where there are no mountains—but no matter from what side it is +approached, it cannot be seen until one is almost at its base. The country +immediately around it is so broken and so cut up by many hills and hollows +of almost all shapes, that Uisneach, the highest of all the hills near it, +can hardly be noticed until one is just at it. A public road runs close to +its base, so there is no difficulty in reaching it, and the ascent is by +no means steep. It is not until one is on the top of Uisneach that he +finds out how high it is, for the view from its summit is extensive and +beautiful almost beyond power of description. The country on every side of +it consists of some of the richest pasture lands, not only in Ireland, but +in the world. No matter in what direction one looks, a vast, undulated +expanse of green meets the eye. If the view from Uisneach is seen in +autumn, when the too few and far between grain-fields are turning yellow, +it is as fair a sight as human eye ever gazed on.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> The country for scores +of miles on every side is so rich, so green, and so varied with hill, +dale, wood, and water, that the Biblical phrase that is applied to parts +of Palestine, “the garden of the Lord,” might well be applied to the land +round this hill. But it is safe to say that no Israelite ever gazed from +Gilboa or Carmel on so fair a prospect. The vast extent of the view from +this hill seems out of all proportion with its moderate height. On a clear +day one can very nearly see from the Irish Channel to Galway Bay. The +Wicklow hills seem close by. The mountains, not only of Cavan, but of +Leitrim, are distinctly visible. On every side, save the south-west, the +prospect is what some would be tempted to call boundless. On the +south-west the view is obstructed by the hill of Knock Cosgrey, an +eminence slightly higher than Uisneach, and one of the most beautiful +hills in Ireland. It is about four miles south-west of Uisneach. Unlike +Uisneach, however, it is, seen from a distance, both striking and bold. It +has the misfortune to be called by so many different names, or rather, its +name is pronounced in so many different ways, that strangers are often +sadly puzzled what to call it. It is called Kunna Kostha and Kruck Kostha +by the peasantry, and by the gentlefolk<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> generally Knock Ash. But its +proper name is <i>Cnoc Cosgraigh</i>, and is so written by the Four Masters, +who are, undoubtedly, the highest authority we possess on place names. +Seen from the road from Moat to Ballymahon, Knock Cosgrey is one of the +most charming sights imaginable. It is nearly a mile from top to base, and +forms a green pyramid of almost perfect symmetry. Its surface is entirely +under grass; for this part of Ireland has been largely turned into +pastures; and sometimes one may drive for six miles and not see a field of +grain. “The bold peasantry” of whom Goldsmith speaks in his “Deserted +Village” have become so few in these parts that miles may be travelled at +mid-day through as fine a country as there is in the world without meeting +a human being. Sheep and cattle, and not men and women, seem the +prevailing living creatures. Knock Cosgrey is not only higher than +Uisneach, but more near the true geographical centre of the island; but it +possesses hardly any historic interest from the fact that its summit was +too narrow to allow the ancient Irish either to build or assemble on it. +Uisneach, with its over a hundred acres of nearly level land on its top, +was therefore chosen, for a hundred thousand men could find space on it.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> +It became, for that reason, one of the most historic, and in ancient times +one of the most celebrated, hills in Ireland.</p> + +<p>There is probably not another hill in Ireland so well adapted both for a +place for assemblies and a site for building as Uisneach. Its summit is +extensive. There are springs of the purest water on it. Plenty of stones +of almost every size abound, and the soil, even in the most elevated +parts, is of great fertility. In the troublesome times of yore, Uisneach +possessed advantages that were most important in its elevation, and the +extensive view it commanded; for they made it impossible for an army to +approach it from any side without being seen by the watchers on its top. +From the many advantages that this beautiful and extraordinary hill +possesses, it seems strange that it was not chosen by the ancient Irish +for a place of central government. It would have been even better suited +for such a purpose than Tara. It probably would have been the chief seat +of ancient Irish sovereignty if it had not been that the mistake made in +selecting Tara instead of it, occurred so far back in what may be called +prehistoric times, and antiquity had given Tara such a prestige that it +continued to be the most important place in Ireland until it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> was +abandoned as a seat of government in the sixth century. But Uisneach was +also used as a place of residence by the Irish over-kings. That they +sometimes resided there can be proved from ancient Gaelic writings. It was +supposed to be the geographical centre of Ireland, and before the +formation of the province of Meath by the over-king, Tuathal, in the early +part of the second century, the four provinces met at Uisneach Hill. It is +curious what a close guess the ancients made to locate the exact centre of +the island. They seem, however, to have placed it four or five miles too +far to the north-east, for, according to the most recent surveys, the hill +of Knock Cosgrey is in the exact geographical centre of Ireland. In +far-back ancient times, before the province of Meath had been formed by +taking parts of the four original provinces, the hill of Uisneach was in +Connacht. This almost exact quaternal division of Ireland into provinces, +and their meeting at a point that was supposed to be the exact centre of +the island, is a very curious and interesting feature in ancient Irish +polity. In other countries, provinces seem to have originated by mere +accident, some being big, and some little; but in Ireland they seem to +have been laid out by line and rule, for the four provinces that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> met at +Uisneach must have been very nearly of equal area. The celebrated Cat +Stone on the hill of Uisneach was known from remote antiquity as <i>Ail na +Mireann</i>, or “the rock of the divisions,” because the four provinces met +at it. This rock was known by this name among the peasantry of the +neighbourhood up to recent times, until Irish became a dead language in +this part of the country.</p> + +<p>Ail na Mireann, or, as it is now called, the Cat Stone, is the greatest +curiosity on Uisneach Hill. It is not on the top of the hill, but on its +side. It is, perhaps, the most puzzling rock in Ireland, for it is hard to +say whether it was placed in its present position by an iceberg in the +glacial age, or whether it was placed there by human agency, and intended +for a rude cromlech. Here is what the eminent scholar and antiquarian, +John O’Donovan, says about it in his yet unpublished letters when he was +on the Government Survey of Ireland in 1837:—“The huge rock on this hill +of Uisneach, a part of which was split and formed into a cromlech, is now +called the Cat Stone, from a supposed resemblance to a cat sitting and +watching a mouse.” If this stone is a cromlech, or Druid’s altar, it is +unlike anything of the kind found elsewhere in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> Ireland or other +countries, for the four upright stones which usually support the flat one, +are not to be seen here. The weight of this enormous mass of stone can +hardly be less than twenty tons, and if it was put in its present position +by human agency, it is by far the most extraordinary thing of its kind in +Ireland. But a majority of those who see it think that it is merely a +boulder of peculiar shape. If it is a boulder it is a very extraordinary +one, and if it is a cromlech it is a more extraordinary one still.</p> + +<p>It was on Uisneach Hill, or in its immediate vicinity, that the +ecclesiastical synod met in the year 1111. This great meeting is mentioned +in almost all Irish annals. It was attended by fifty bishops, three +hundred priests, and upwards of three thousand students, and by the nobles +of the southern half of Ireland, with Muircheartach O’Briain, King of +Munster, at their head. We are told that the synod was convened to +regulate the manners and mode of living of both clergy and laity. It does +not seem to have done much good on account of the then chaotic political +state of the country, caused by almost constant wars between the aspirants +for chief kingship.</p> + +<p>There are many interesting things besides the cromlech to be seen on the +vast undulated summit<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> of Uisneach. There is a hollow known as St +Patrick’s bed, and there are the remains of the walls of large stone +buildings on the most elevated part of the hill. There is also one of the +finest raths in Ireland, which must have been a place of great strength, +for the embankments are still of immense height, and are overgrown with +hawthorn bushes of great size. This rath, unlike the generality of such +structures, is not round, but oblong. It encloses a space of nearly an +acre in extent.</p> + +<p>Apart from antiquarianism, the hill of Uisneach is well worth seeing, for +it is as strange in shape as it is beautiful in verdure. It is only a few +miles from a railroad; it is easy to ascend, for a carriage might be +driven to its summit. The longest summer day might be passed on it, and +some new curiosity of antiquity or some fresh beauty of scenery be +continually discovered. The surface of the hill is so broken, and is of +such great extent, that to explore it thoroughly, and to enjoy all the +varied prospects to be seen from it, even a long summer day would hardly +be long enough.</p> + +<p> <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span></p> +<div class="bbox" style="width: 600px; height: 366px;"><img src="images/img04.jpg" alt="" /></div> +<p class="caption">MOUNT OF BALLYLOCHLOE.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span>When treating of hills and of the country in the vicinity of Uisneach, it +may be interesting to say something about the most beautiful and +perfect <i>artificial</i> hill in Ireland—namely, the Moat of Ballylochloe. It +is about nine miles west of Uisneach, and three north-west of Moat. It was +evidently erected for a sepulchral mound, but seems to have also been used +as a place of defence. A ridge of sand-hills has been cut, and a most +perfect and symmetrical <i>moat</i> has been formed. It cannot be less than a +hundred and fifty feet in height. When seen from the road approaching it +from the east, it is almost Alpine in appearance, and looks like a small +mountain. Neither history nor legend throws much light on the origin of +this gigantic mound. We are told, however, that in the time of Queen +Meave, about the year 50 <span class="smcaplc">B.C.</span>, there was a terrible battle in a place +called Cloch Bruighne, now called Cloch Brian, some two miles from where +the moat now stands, in which battle a wealthy farmer called Da Choga was +killed, and his house burned. His wife, whose name was Lucha, died of +grief, and was buried, it is said, near Loch Lucha, which seems to have +been called after her. In Irish, the name of this place is <i>Baile Loch +Lucha</i>. From the fact of the name of the wife of the farmer, or <i>bruighe</i>, +being contained in the name of the stead, the late Mr W. M. Hennessy, an +excellent authority on such matters, thought<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> that the mound was erected +over the remains of the woman Lucha. In former times, there was a small +lake at the foot of the moat, hence the modern name Ballylochloe.</p> + +<p>This beautiful artificial hill is well worth seeing. It is only three +miles from the railway station at Moat.</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span></p> +<h2>CLONMACNOIS</h2> + + +<p>The ruins of Clonmacnois form by far the most interesting architectural +remains on the Shannon. Their situation is unique—on a sandy knoll +overlooking the winding river, as it flows in great reaches among marshy +meadows of apparently illimitable extent. Thousands of acres of them on +both banks of the Shannon are spread before one’s gaze when standing at +the base of any of the ruined shrines of this ancient seat of piety and +learning. The ecclesiastics of ancient Ireland seem to have been gifted +with an extraordinary amount of appreciation for the beautiful and unique +in nature. The wilder and the more beautiful a place was, the more it +seems to have attracted them. Cashel’s solitary Rock, Glendaloch’s gloomy +vale, and this barren sandhill overlooking the most peculiar scenery in +all the island, were the places in which they reared their most cherished +fanes and most beautiful buildings. The situation of Clonmacnois cannot be +said to be beautiful, but it is strange and weird to the last degree—more +strange<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> and weird, perhaps, than any other place in Ireland.</p> + +<p>The best and most agreeable way to reach Clonmacnois is from Athlone. It +is twelve English miles from Athlone by road, and ten by river. By river +is not only the cheapest way but the most interesting. Sails can be used +on this part of the Shannon almost as well as on Loch Ree, for the banks +are so low that every breeze that blows can be fully utilised; and the +river is so crooked, that no matter from what quarter the wind comes it +can sometimes fill the sail. The Shannon here is no tiny stream like the +Liffey, but a wide river, never less than from 150 to 200 yards in +breadth, and generally deep enough to float a small ocean steamer. The +current is, however, not rapid.</p> + +<p>The first thing that strikes the stranger who sees Clonmacnois for the +first time is the extraordinary view from it over the largest extent of +callow meadows to be seen in any part of Ireland. It must not be thought +that these meadows are mere bogs, for some of the finest hay is raised on +them. The grass that grows on them must be of a fairly good quality, for +they let at from £5 to £6 per Irish acre, the purchaser having to save the +hay, and run all the risk attending the making it in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> land so liable to be +flooded. Not infrequently, the taker of meadow on the vast flats that +border the Shannon between Loch Ree and Loch Derg, will awaken some fine +morning and find all his small cocks of hay afloat, sailing placidly +southward, and more likely to find their way to Killaloe than to his +haggard. The second thing that will strike the observant stranger in +Clonmacnois is the small size of the churches. That it was one of the most +important ecclesiastical establishments in ancient Ireland there cannot be +any doubt, for it is more frequently mentioned in ancient Irish history +and annals than any other place of its kind in the country. Yet the +largest church in it, the ruins of which exist, would not, by any stretch +of imagination, accommodate more than three or four hundred worshippers. +There are the ruins of but three churches existing in Clonmacnois; the +largest of them is called Cathedral, the two smaller ones can hardly be +called churches. They must have been oratories, and would not combined +contain over two hundred persons. When Clonmacnois was in its most +prosperous condition—that was in the early part of the ninth century, or +about the time when the Danish invasions were heaviest and most +harassing—Ireland must have been a very populous country. There are so +many<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> proofs of this in ancient Gaelic annals and literature that it may +be regarded as a fact. How, then, did it happen that the churches in +Clonmacnois were so small? This is a question that cannot be answered +fully. It may be that what now remains of its churches is of comparatively +recent origin, and may not have been erected until the decadence of the +population had commenced at the time of the Danish invasions, which +decadence became more and more pronounced down to the latter part of the +sixteenth century. Or it may have been that there were large wooden +Churches in Clonmacnois in ancient times, not a vestige or trace of which +would be found after fire had done its work on them.</p> + +<p> <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span></p> +<div class="bbox" style="width: 248px; height: 500px;"><img src="images/img05.jpg" alt="" /></div> +<p class="caption">ROUND TOWER, CLONMACNOIS.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span>The two round towers are by far the most interesting and beautiful +buildings in Clonmacnois. The larger one wants apparently twenty or thirty +feet of the top; whether it was struck by lightning, or knocked off by +cannon, no one seems to know. The smaller tower is as perfect as it was +when its builder pronounced it finished a thousand years ago. No more +beautiful piece of architecture in the way of a tower ever was erected. It +seems to be absolute perfection. The most skilled modern artisan in stone +could not find an imperfection in it. It is built entirely of cut +stones. The roof or dome is made of lozenge-shaped stones, fitted so +closely and finished so well that time and weather seem to have passed +over it in vain, for it is, as far as can be seen from the ground at its +base, as perfect as it ever was. Of all round towers in Ireland, it is the +most beautiful and perfect. The larger tower seems to have been built of +stones similar to those of the smaller one, but as it wants its top its +beauty is almost entirely spoiled. What remains of it seems about as +perfect in its architecture as human hands could make it. The smaller +tower appears to afford positive proof of Petrie’s theory as to the +post-Christian origin of the Irish round towers, for it and the little +church or oratory at its base, and out of which it rises, were evidently +built at the same time, for the walls of both are actually in some places +one. Like some few of the existing round towers (the one near Navan, for +instance), the smaller one at Clonmacnois has no opening in the roof by +which the sound of bells could be emitted, showing clearly that it could +never have been erected solely for a belfry; for no matter how big a bell +might be, its sound would not have been heard a hundred yards away, if +rung under the windowless stone roof of this most perfect and beautiful of +Irish round towers. That round<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> towers were sometimes used as belfries +seems very probable; but that their principal use, and the prime object +for which they were erected, were to protect the clergy and the treasures +of the churches from the marauding Northmen is the theory regarding them +that is now most generally accepted.</p> + +<p>Clonmacnois is not so rich in ancient crosses as some other places like +it. There are only two to be seen there at present. They are not nearly so +well carved and ornamented as many that still remain in other Irish +cemeteries. There is not, so far as can be seen by the passer-by, a single +inscription in the Irish language visible, though some scores of such +inscriptions exist in it, every one of which has been faithfully copied +and translated by Doctor Petrie in his great work, “Christian Inscriptions +in the Irish Language.” The inscribed stones are, very properly, stowed +away in a vault under lock and key where they are safe from the mischief +of so many who would delight in marring and effacing any thing they could +not understand. There are plenty of inscriptions in English to be seen in +Clonmacnois, for it is still used as a place of interment. This takes away +a great deal of its antique charm and general interest. It seems a sort of +profanation<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> to erect a modern tomb with an English inscription on it at +the very base of a hoary round tower that was a wonder of art and beauty +when London was little else than a large village, and when England itself +was hardly civilised, and as politically powerless as Saint Domingo or +Corea.</p> + +<p>Clonmacnois has suffered as much from vandalism as any other place of its +kind in Ireland. It was taken and spoiled by the Danes when at the height +of its splendour in the ninth century. But it was not the Danes that +committed the worst depredations in this wonderfully unique and ancient +place. They were committed by men who used gunpowder, for it was evidently +by it that most of the old buildings of Clonmacnois were destroyed. It is +generally believed that it was by one of Cromwell’s captains who was +stationed with some troops at Athlone when the Royalist cause had been +lost that most of the destruction at Clonmacnois was accomplished. The +blowing up of the magnificent castle erected here by Hugo de Lacy in the +twelfth century, is attributed to Cromwell’s troopers, as is also the +demolition of some thirty or forty feet of the larger of the two round +towers, known as O’Ruarc’s tower.</p> + +<p>There are the remains of only three churches<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> extant in Clonmacnois; but +we know from authentic annals and history that there were nearly a dozen +churches in it at one time. What became of them, or where they stood, +cannot now be known. Many of them were, probably, wooden churches, and, +when once destroyed, left no trace. The ruins of the ancient nunnery are +distant nearly quarter of a mile from the churchyard, on the grounds of a +gentleman named Charlton. It is only about thirty years ago since an +attempt was made to clear away the rubbish in which they were buried, and +to try if any of the sculptured stones could be recovered. The excavations +were made under the supervision of the Protestant Bishop of Limerick. +Sculptured stone-work of the highest order of art was dug up from many +feet under the surface where the destroyers had buried it. Visitors to +Clonmacnois will not have any difficulty in seeing the ruins of the +nunnery, for Mr Charlton willingly permits visitors to see them. It is not +only curious, but hopeful and pleasant, to find people of the same +religious belief altering so much for the better as time rolls by. Whilom +Protestant men and a whilom Protestant Government did all they could in +the seventeenth century to turn Clonmacnois into a heap of ruins, almost +as void<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> and as shapeless as those of Babylon; but Protestant men and a +Protestant Government in the nineteenth century have done everything in +their power to save it from further decay, and to dig up its sculptured +stones from the dust in which ancient Protestant fanaticism and bigotry +had buried them.</p> + +<p>Clonmacnois was founded by St Kieran, who died in the year 549. There are +records of the erection of most of its ancient buildings to be found in +Irish annals and history. According to the <i>Chronicon Scottorum</i>, a work +of high authority, the Cathedral was built in the year 909. The Cathedral +that existed when Turgesius the Dane obtained sway for some years over the +greater part of Ireland, and when his wife used to issue her orders from +that building, was probably of wood, for no trace of it appears extant. +Doctor Petrie says that the larger round tower was erected in the tenth +century, and the smaller one in the eleventh or early part of the twelfth. +There is good authority to prove that the nunnery was erected and endowed +by the too well-remembered Dearvorgil, wife of O’Ruairc, whose <i>liaison</i> +with Dermot Mac Murrough, King of Leinster, is popularly believed to have +brought about the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span>One of the great curiosities of Clonmacnois is the powder-blown-up castle +built by Hugo de Lacy in the latter part of the twelfth century, the +remains of which stand on a hill about two hundred yards from the +cemetery. It is generally known as the Prior’s house, but it was evidently +built as a place of defence. It was one of the strongest castles ever +erected in Ireland. Although comparatively small, building and enclosure +not covering more than half an acre, it was a place of immense strength, +and before the invention of gunpowder could have defied a host. It is +encompassed by a fosse in some places forty feet in depth, that descends +sheer from the walls. The walls are of immense thickness and strength, +from six to eight feet thick in many places, and so firmly are the stones +embedded in grouting that to detach one of them from the powder-riven +walls, or from the vast masses of blown-up masonry that lie scattered +around, a hammer and chisel would be required. Huge heaps of the ruined +walls, some of them tons in weight, have been tumbled into the deep fosse +that surrounds the castle, but they are still almost as solid as rocks. If +ever the art of building solid walls was brought to perfection, it was by +those who reared this now ruined pile. To know<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> the strength of gunpowder +and the solidity of ancient masonry, one should see this ruined castle of +Clonmacnois.</p> + +<p>With all the beauties and diversity of scenery of the Shannon, on the +banks of which stands all that remains of Clonmacnois, and with all the +places of historic interest laved by its waters, it is a disgrace to +Ireland at large that there is not a single passenger steam-boat on it +above Limerick. It is nearly a hundred and fifty miles from +Carrick-on-Shannon to Killaloe, and in all that vast distance of spreading +lake and winding river there is not a passenger steam-boat to be seen! +There may be said to be no obstacle to navigation in all that distance for +boats drawing from five to six feet of water, and there are only four or +five locks to pass through. No other river of equal length affords more +variety of scenery than the Shannon. Sometimes the voyager passes by +wooded banks, anon through apparently illimitable meadows, and then +through great lakes like veritable inland seas,—island-studded or +mountain-girded,—change of scene occurring in almost every mile. Let it +be hoped that a line of passenger steamers will soon again be seen on the +waters of this great and beautiful river,—this “ancient stream,” as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> its +Gaelic name is said to mean,—that has on its banks so many relics of the +past-the grass-grown rath, the hoary round tower, the crumbling castle, +and above all, the ruined fanes of Clonmacnois.</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span></p> +<h2>KNOCK AILLINN</h2> + + +<p>After Tara and Uisneach, Knock Aillinn is the most historic hill in +Ireland—that is, if it was really the seat of the celebrated Finn, the +son of Cumhail. It is a different hill from the hill of Allen, which is +about nine miles north of it, and must not be confounded with it, +although, as it will be shown further on, the confusion of the two hills +seems to have taken place very long ago indeed. Knock Aillinn is some five +or six miles south of Newbridge, in the County Kildare. Apart from its +historic interest, it is well worth visiting, for it is situated in a rich +and beautiful part of the country, and the view from its summit is one of +the fairest and most extensive to be seen in any of the eastern counties. +Eastward the view is obstructed by the Wicklow mountains, but on every +other side it is very extensive, for Knock Aillinn is 600 feet high. So +fine is the view from this hill that O’Donovan, the celebrated Gaelic +scholar, was inspired by it to write a poem in Irish in praise of it, when +he was employed on the Government Survey in 1837. The poem may<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> be seen in +his unpublished letters in the Royal Irish Academy. One verse of it, +translated into English, will show that it is a composition of more than +ordinary merit:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Beautiful the view from the hill of Aillinn,<br /> +Over lofty hills and fair plains,<br /> +Over mountains wreathed in veils of cloud;—<br /> +The view will remain in my memory for ever.”</p> + +<p>But beautiful and extensive as the prospect is from Knock Aillinn, and +greatly as the lovers of the beautiful may enjoy it, the chief interest +possessed by this hill is historic rather than scenic. On its summit is to +be seen the most gigantic of all Irish raths. O’Donovan called it +“prodigious.” The whole top of the hill is surrounded by a mighty rampart +of earth, four hundred yards in diameter, that encloses over twenty acres. +After nearly two thousand years those earthen ramparts are still of great +height; and when, according to the fashion of the times, they were topped +with a strong palisade of timber, Knock Aillinn might be said to be an +almost impregnable fortress. To render it still stronger, the hill on +which it is placed is steep, and its ascent difficult. It was on this hill +that some think the renowned in Celtic song and legend, Finn, the son of +Cumhail, had his stronghold; but others, and it must be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> confessed that +they are the most numerous, think that Finn’s dun was on the hill of +Allen, some eight or nine miles to the north.</p> + +<p>That the vast <i>dun</i>, or enclosure, on Knock Aillinn was an ancient +residence of the Kings of Leinster is generally admitted; and that it was +erected long previous to the Christian era is also the opinion of those +best acquainted with early Irish history and literature. Proofs of this +can be obtained from the most reliable and ancient Gaelic writings. There +is hardly a vestige of antiquity to be seen on the summit of Knock Aillinn +save the vast earthen rampart. When one stands within it, and recalls to +mind what it must have been in days long gone by, when a large population +dwelt in it, and when armed multitudes issued from it, he will be tempted +to exclaim with Byron:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Shrine of the mighty! can it be<br /> +That this is all remains of thee?”</p> + +<p>He will wonder that no vast masses of ancient masonry are to be seen. But +stone buildings of the kind that have been in use in these islands for +nearly a thousand years were unknown when the vast earth-works on Knock +Aillinn were erected. Walls built of dry stone<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> have been used in Ireland +as fortresses from the most remote antiquity; but the art of building with +mortar was entirely unknown until after the introduction of Christianity.</p> + +<p>The hill of Allen is the one on which, it is over and over again stated by +the most ancient and trustworthy Gaelic documents extant, Finn, the son of +Cumhail, had his palace. We are even told how, partly by force and +threats, he obtained Allen from his grandfather, Tadg; that he went to +live on it, and that it was his habitation as long as he lived. But here a +great difficulty meets us—there is not a vestige of dun or fort on the +hill of Allen. O’Donovan says in his unpublished letters, while on the +Ordnance Survey of Ireland, that Knock Aillinn was, according to various +ancient Irish authorities, one of the royal residences of the Kings of +Leinster, and that it received the name of <i>Aillinn</i> from the <i>ail</i>, or +stone which was placed in the mound of the rath. On speaking of the hill +of Allen, where the celebrated Finn Mac Cool or Cumhail is said to have +had his seat, he says, “There are no traces of forts nor any other +monuments excepting one small mound called <i>Suidhe Finn</i>, or Finn’s chair, +which occupies the highest point of the hill. On every side of this mound +there are faint traces of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> field works, but so indistinct that I could not +with any certainty decide whether they are traces of forts or of recent +cultivation, for the hill was tilled on the very summit. I travelled all +the hill, but could find upon it no monument from which it could be +inferred that it was ever a royal seat like Tara, Emania, Maistean, or any +of the other places of ancient celebrity whose localities have been +identified; and still in all Fingallian or Ossianic poems this hill (the +hill of Allen) is referred to as containing the palace of the renowned +champion, Finn Mac Cool, who seems to have been a real historical +character, who flourished here in the latter end of the third century.”</p> + +<p>O’Donovan says also in the same unpublished letters that “The antiquary +may draw his own conclusion from the non-existence of a dun on the hill of +Allen at this day. It is possible that there were forts on it a thousand +years ago, and that the progress of cultivation has effaced them; but it +is strange that these alone should disappear, while those of Tara, Emania, +Aileach, Naas, Maistean, and Raoirean remain in good preservation.... It +is curious to remark that all the monuments mentioned in the +<i>Dinnseanchus</i> and the authentic annals still exist, while no trace is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> to +be found of Finn Mac Cool’s palace on the hill of Allowin (Allen).... If +he had such a palace as this on Aillinn, near Kilcullen, on his hill of +Allowin, it would not disappear, because the labour of levelling it would +be so great that no agriculturist would undertake to level it.”</p> + +<p>It would seem as if the two hills, Aillinn, or Knock Aillinn as it is now +called, and Allen got confounded, and at an early date too. Allowing +liberally for exaggeration and discounting tradition, one has to believe +in the extent of Finn’s house or palace, however rude and barbaric its +arrangements may have been. He was the most powerful man in Ireland, more +powerful even than the chief king. The fame of his household was spread +abroad, not only over all Ireland, but all Scotland. This we know by the +publication of the poems collected in the Highlands by the Dean of Lismore +in the sixteenth century, and translated by the late Mr T. M’Lauchlan, and +also from a host of other poems. They abound with allusions to Finn and +his house and household, as does almost all the folk-lore of the +Celtic-Scotch. One thing seems certain, that neither Finn nor his house or +palace were myths; his house must have existed, and, like all places of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> +its kind in the days when it existed, it must have been surrounded with an +earthen rampart no less high than that to be seen on Knock Aillinn. But no +vestige of house or rampart can be traced on the hill of Allen. A still +greater difficulty meets one in the size of the summit of the hill. It is +not much over half an Irish acre in extent, and where would there be room +on such a limited space for the vast household of Finn? His residence was +known from far-back times as “Almhuin riogha leathan mór Laighean,” the +kingly, great-broad Allen of Leinster; but no <i>dun</i> or habitation situated +on the narrow space on the top of the hill of Allen could be +“great-broad;” but the existing remains on Knock Aillinn would suit the +description almost exactly. We may be sure that if any man in Ireland in +those days had a big house, it was Finn. The names Allen and Aillinn are +so much alike, and both hills are so comparatively near each other, and +both seem to have been abandoned as strongholds at such an early date, +that confusion of one with the other could easily have taken place; +besides, Finn’s name does appear to be, in some measure at least, +associated with Knock Aillinn. Here is a passage from the “Dinnseanchus” +at page 162 of the “Book of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> Leinster.” Treating of Knock Aillinn, these +lines occur:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Faichthi ruamand ruamnad rinn<br /> +Co failgib flatha for Fhind.”</p> + +<p>Irish scholars may interpret these lines as they like, but it would seem +that the last word is a proper name, and that it relates to Finn.</p> + +<p>But whether Finn lived in Knock Aillinn or in Allen, or whether he lived +in both places off and on, is a matter of minor importance. The real +wonder about him is the way he impressed himself not only on the age in +which he lived but on every age since then. No other man in any age or +country seems to have so fastened himself in the memories of the people of +his own race and lineage. It may be safely said that neither Julius Caesar +nor Charlemagne have impressed themselves on popular imagination so much +as Finn and those associated with him have. Those who have not studied the +Celtic folk-lore of Ireland and Scotland can form but an incomplete idea +of the overwhelming immensity of the folk-lore about Finn and his cycle +that exists even yet. But with the decay of Gaelic speech it is rapidly +fading away. It is hardly too much to say that when Gaelic was the +language of the fireside all through Ireland and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> a large part of +Scotland, and that is only a few centuries ago, there was not a parish +from Kerry to Caithness in which dozens of different stories about Finn +and his contemporaries did not exist; and it is equally safe to say that +not the tenth, probably not the twentieth, part of them was ever committed +to writing. Finn, Ossian, and Caoilte were the <i>dramatis personæ</i> of the +most extensive, if not the choicest, popular, unwritten folk-lore that +probably ever existed in any country. But one of the strangest things +connected with the cycle of Finn and Ossian is that its folk-lore hardly +appears at all in really ancient Gaelic literature. The Gaelic scribes of +the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries took but little notice of it; +it was to the events of the Cuchulainn cycle that they gave almost their +entire attention. In the “Book of Leinster,” the greatest repertory of +Gaelic literature that exists in one volume, there is only one story that +can be called an Ossianic or Finnian one, while nearly half the book is +taken up with tracts and stories relating to the cycle of Cuchulainn, +which was nearly three centuries earlier than that of Ossian and Finn. But +the Cuchulainn cycle, from whatever cause will probably be never known, +seems to have entirely failed to take hold of the popular<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> imagination. +Folk-lore relating to the Cuchulainn cycle is rare. There are a few in +which Cuchulainn is mentioned, and M’Pherson in his Ossian mixes the +Ossianic and Cuchulainn cycles together, although they were three +centuries apart. Of all the prominent names belonging to the Cuchulainn +cycle, Queen Medb or Meave was one of the most prominent, but not a single +story exists about her in the oral Gaelic folk-lore of Ireland or Scotland +of which the writer has ever heard. She seems to have found her way into +the folk-lore of England, but not into that of Ireland or the +Gaelic-speaking parts of Scotland. She figures very prominently in Irish +history and literature, but in folk-lore she does not figure at all. The +reason of this may be that Finn, Ossian, and others of their “set” were +supposed to have lived so long that they met St Patrick and were converted +to Christianity by him; but there is no foundation for such a belief, for +authentic Irish history says that Finn was killed in the year 283 at Ath +Brea on the Boyne.</p> + +<p>It is not easy to see clearly why Finn so impressed his memory and his +cycle on the minds of his countrymen, for he does not appear to have been +an altogether amiable personage. There are very many discreditable things +told of him in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> multitudinous stories of which he is the central +figure. In one of them, the “Pursuit of Dermot and Gráine,” he plays the +part of a revengeful, unforgiving, bad man; while his great enemy, Dermot +O’Duibhne, is a bold, open-hearted hero, the very opposite of his +unrelenting pursuer. With all the absurdities and impossibilities of the +“Pursuit,” the leading characters in it are sustained with a consistency +that would do credit even to Shakespeare. Finn at the end of the story is +just what he was at the beginning, unforgiving and bad; and Gráine, who is +bad at the beginning is bad also at the end; while Dermot, a hero at the +beginning of the story, is still a hero at its close. It may interest some +to know that most Irish historians and scholars think that Dermot +O’Duibhne was the person from whom the barony of Corcaguiney, in the +County Kerry, is called. In correct orthography it would be <i>Corc Ui +Dhuibhne</i>, and would be pronounced very nearly as the name of the barony +is written at present. If it be true that Corcaguiney got its name from +Dermot O’Duibhne, and there seems no reason to doubt that it did, another +proof is given of the general correctness of at least the salient points +in Irish history. It may also interest some to know that the Campbells of +Argyll are popularly believed, even in their own<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> country, to be descended +from this same Dermot O’Duibhne. They have been known for centuries as the +Clann Diarmid, or children of Dermot, as will be remembered by any one who +has read Scott’s “Legend of Montrose.” The real name of the Argyll +Campbells seems to be really O’Duibhne. It was so that they generally +signed their names up to a comparatively recent date. Bishop Carsewell, +who translated John Knox’s Prayer Book into Gaelic in 1567, the first +Gaelic book that was ever printed, dedicates it to the Duke of Argyll, +whom he calls Gilleasbuig O’Duibhne.<a name='fna_5' id='fna_5' href='#f_5'><small>[5]</small></a> Carsewell would hardly have dared +to address his patron, and the most powerful nobleman in Scotland, by a +false name or a sobriquet. The Campbells seem to have been called +O’Duibhne down to the middle of the seventeenth century, for in the +national manuscripts of Scotland there is a very fine Gaelic poem on the +death of a Campbell, who is styled “O’Duibhne” in the Gaelic.</p> + +<p>Translations that have been recently made from Gaelic manuscripts of high +authority have thrown considerable light on Finn, and the events of his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> +epoch. We are told in the tract called the “Boramha,” or “Tribute,” to +which reference has been already made, that when Bresal, a king of +Leinster, in the third century, was given his choice to pay the tribute or +fight the rest of Ireland, he asked help from Finn. A person called +Molling was sent to ask Finn to help the men of Leinster. Molling told +Finn that he should not come with a small army to fight the chief king, +who had the national army with him. The number of men that Finn had, was, +we are told in the “Boramha,” fifteen hundred chiefs, each having thirty +men under him, making the total number of men that Finn brought to help +Leinster forty-five thousand, a very large army in those days. They joined +the Leinster men, inflicted a crushing defeat on the forces of the chief +king, so that the tribute was not paid for many years after. Nine thousand +of the “men of Ireland,” as the “Book of Leinster” almost invariably calls +the national forces, were slain in the battle.</p> + +<p>The militia of which Finn was the Commander-in-Chief, and of which his +father and grandfather had also been commanders, are the heroes of +hundreds of Ossianic tales and poems. It would appear that they numbered +twenty-one thousand men on a peace footing, but could raise their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> numbers +to double that amount in time of need. They became so extortionate and +arrogant in the long run, that the chief king, Cairbre, and it would seem +all the provincial rulers except the King of Leinster, determined to crush +them. So a great battle was fought at Garristown in the County Dublin in +the year 290 or 296, and the militia of Finn was totally destroyed. It +would seem that neither Knock Aillinn nor the hill of Allen has been since +then inhabited.</p> + +<p>It may not be out of place to state here that students of Gaelic are often +puzzled on seeing the name of Finn spelt <i>Fionn</i>. It seems certain that +<i>Finn</i> is the proper orthography. The name is invariably so spelt in all +cases in the “Book of Leinster,” one of the most correct of all the great +Gaelic books; but the editor of “Silva Gadelica” makes it <i>Fionn</i> in all +cases except in the genitive. It is difficult to understand why, when +copying from a manuscript of such high authority as the “Book of +Leinster,” he did not follow its orthography. In the northern half of +Ireland the name is pronounced according to its correct orthography, but +in the south of Ireland it is pronounced as if written <i>Fyun</i>.</p> + +<p>Those who visit Knock Aillinn and its mighty <i>dun</i> should also visit the +hill of Allen. If there is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> nothing to be seen on it, there is a great +deal to be seen from it, for the view is very extensive. If any one wanted +to know how vast the bog of Allen is, he should ascend the hill of Allen, +from which he will see a very large part of it. If he is in any doubt as +to the exact place in which Finn had his dwelling and <i>dun</i>, he will at +least be in the locality that has given birth to the most colossal +folk-lore that perhaps ever existed,—stories that in the far-back past, +before the world was tormented by newspapers and bewildered by +politicians, beguiled many a tedious hour and delighted many a sad heart.</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span></p> +<h2>“KILDARE’S HOLY FANE”</h2> + + +<p>Those in search of the picturesque alone will not find very much to +interest them in Kildare or its immediate vicinity. There may be said to +be hardly any remarkable scenic beauties in its neighbourhood. There is +the broad expanse of the Curragh not far from the town, one of the finest +places for military manœuvres in the British Isles. It is strange why +it is called a curragh—more correctly, <i>currach</i>—for the word means a +marsh, a place that <i>stirs</i> when trodden on. There is only a very small +part of the land to which the name is applied that is a marsh. It is +almost all perfectly dry upland. However, it was called <i>Currach Life</i> +from very early times, that is the marsh or swamp of the Liffy. It would +seem as if the word <i>Life</i> meant originally the country through which the +river Liffy flows, and that the river took its name from the country; for +when King Tuathal wanted revenge on Leinstermen, for the death of his two +daughters, who have been mentioned in the article on Tara, he says—</p> + +<p class="poem"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> +“Let them be revenged on Leinstermen,<br /> +On the warriors <i>in</i> the Life.”</p> + +<p>It is thought that the name Liffy comes from the adjective <i>liomhtha</i>, +meaning smooth, or polished, for part of the country through which the +river flows is very smooth and beautiful.</p> + +<p>Hardly a vestige of the ancient buildings of Kildare remain save the round +tower. It is over one hundred and thirty feet in height, and therefore one +of the highest in Ireland. It seems as perfect as it was the day it was +finished. It is sad to say that it is the most completely +spoiled—bedevilled would probably be a better word—of all the Irish +round towers; for some person or persons whose memories should be held in +everlasting abhorrence by every archæologist, have put an incongruous, +ridiculous, castellated top on it that makes it look as unsightly and as +horrible as a statue of Julius Cæsar would look with a stove-pipe hat on +its head. The people of Kildare and its vicinity should at once raise +funds and have a proper, antique roof put on their tower, for it is an +absolute disgrace to them as it is at present. The top of the tower may +have been destroyed by lightning, or, like many other round towers, it may +have been left unfinished, and may never have had a top or roof on it. But +whatever may<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> have happened to it, its present castellated roof is a +disgraceful incongruity.</p> + +<p>The cathedral of Kildare is a modern and rather plain building of mediocre +interest. It is supposed to be built in, or nearly in, the place where the +old church stood that was founded by St Brigit in the sixth century. +Kildare seems to owe its origin to St Brigit, for the name means the cell +or church of the oak; and as Brigit was contemporary with St Patrick, hers +must have been the first Christian establishment founded at Kildare. It is +stated in the <i>Trias Thaumaturga</i> of Colgan that when she returned to her +own district, a cell was assigned to her in which she afterwards led a +wonderful life; that she erected a monastery in Kildare, and that a very +great city afterwards sprang up, which became the metropolis of the +Lagenians, or Leinster folk. It requires a great stretch of imagination to +conceive how Kildare could ever have been a “very great city,” for it is +now, and has for many years, been a small, a very small country town, +hardly any more than a village. It seems strange that Kildare is not +larger and more prosperous, for if not situated in a picturesque part of +the island, the country round it is very fair and fertile, and beautiful +as any flat country could be. There is,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> however, a passage in the +“Calendar of Oengus,” written in the latter end of the eighth or the +beginning of the ninth century, that goes far to prove that what is said +in the <i>Trias Thaumaturga</i> about Kildare having been once a large place is +true. Speaking of the fall of the strongholds of the Pagans, and the rise +of Christian centres, Oengus says—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Aillinn’s proud burgh<br /> +Hath perished with its warlike host:<br /> +Great is victorious Brigit:<br /> +Fair is her multitudinous city.”</p> + +<p>The “multitudinous city” was, of course, Kildare. It is curious that +Oengus should mention Aillinn, and not mention Allen, the supposed seat of +Finn, for wherever he had his stronghold must have been, in his epoch, the +most important place in Ireland, Tara alone excepted.</p> + +<p>Kildare is famous and historic solely on account of St Brigit. Of all +Irish Saints, she is the most to be loved. Her charity, her love for +humanity, was so absolutely divine, that reading her life as narrated in +the <i>Leabhar Breac</i>, we are moved to our very heart’s depths. The miracles +she is said to have performed are so wondrous, and show such a love for +mankind, especially for the poor, that when we read them we long to be +children again<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> in order that we might unhesitatingly believe such +beautiful fables. It was in Kildare that that wondrous lamp was which is +said to have</p> + +<p class="poem">“Lived through long ages of darkness and storm,”</p> + +<p>without having been replenished by human hand; and it was this legend that +inspired Moore to compose the noblest national lyric ever written, “Erin, +O Erin.” If he never wrote a line of poetry save what is contained in that +song, the Irish people would be justified in raising a statue of gold to +his memory. It is, beyond anything of the kind known to humanity,</p> + +<p class="poem">“Perfect music set to noble words”;</p> + +<p>yet, heart-sickening to think of, the masses of the Irish people hardly +know it at all!</p> + +<p>When St Brigit is contrasted with St Patrick, she appears very different +from him. The lives of Ireland’s three great Saints are in the <i>Leabhar +Breac</i>, an Irish manuscript compiled early in the fourteenth century; but +the greater part of it is made up of transcripts from documents that were +probably many hundred years old when they were copied into it. The three +Saints whose lives appear in it are Patrick, Brigit, and Columba, or Colum +Cill, as he is generally called in Ireland. These lives were translated +some years ago by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> Mr Whitley Stokes, the greatest of living Gaelic +scholars; but as only a few dozen copies were printed for private +circulation, the book is practically as unknown to the general public as +if it never had been printed at all. Extracts from it, therefore, cannot +fail to be interesting to the readers of this book.</p> + +<p>Brigit shines out a star of the first magnitude, totally eclipsing the +lesser two lights, Patrick and Columba. Nothing shall be said about +Columba at present, but it has to be admitted that Patrick, as he is +represented in the <i>Leabhar Breac</i>, makes a poor show when contrasted with +glorious St Brigit. Patrick is represented as spending a large part of his +time in cursing and killing, but St Brigit spends most of hers in blessing +and relieving. If St Patrick converts a great many, he is represented as +killing a great many; but St Brigit kills nobody. The narrative of her +life in the <i>Leabhar Breac</i> is probably as wonderful a piece of biography +as ever was written. There is no effort at style in it, and no attempt at +book-making. The narrative is simplicity in the true sense of the word. +One of the wonderful things about it is the side light it throws both on +the social and political conditions of ancient Ireland; but, curiously +enough, no such light is thrown on the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> state of the country by the lives +of St Patrick and St Columba, written in the same book and probably by the +same author.</p> + +<p>St Brigit seems to have acted on some of the precepts found in the +“Ancient Mariner” fourteen hundred years before the poem was written. She +seems to have known that—</p> + +<p class="poem">“He prayeth best<br /> +Who loveth best<br /> +All things both great and small,”</p> + +<p>for we are told that her father, who at present would be called Duffy, +“sundered a gammon of bacon into five pieces, and left it with Brigit to +be boiled for his guests. A miserable, greedy hound came into the house to +Brigit. Brigit, out of pity, gave him the fifth piece. When the hound had +eaten that piece, Brigit gave another piece to him. Then Duffy came and +said to Brigit, ‘Hast thou boiled the bacon, and do all the portions +remain?’ ‘Count them,’ saith Brigit. Duffy counted them and none of them +was wanting. The guests declared unto Duffy what Brigit had done. +‘Abundant,’ said Duffy, ‘are the miracles of that maiden.’ Now the guests +ate not the food, for they were unworthy thereof, but it was dealt out to +the poor and needy of the Lord.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span>The following narrative shows St Brigit’s love of animals in a still +stronger light:</p> + +<p>“Once upon a time a bondsman of Brigit’s family was cutting firewood. It +came to pass that he killed a pet fox of the King of Leinster’s. The +bondsman was seized by the King. Brigit ordered a wild fox to come out of +the wood. So he came, and was playing and sporting for the hosts and for +the King at Brigit’s order. But when the fox had finished his feats, he +went safe back to the wood, with the hosts of Leinster after him, both +foot and horse and hounds.”</p> + +<p>This is simply beautiful. St Brigit, while she got the poor bondsman out +of trouble, managed to do so without depriving the fox of his liberty.</p> + +<p>Here is another extract that makes one wish that the life of St Brigit in +the <i>Leabhar Breac</i>, instead of containing only about twenty octavo pages, +contained a thousand:—</p> + +<p>“Then came Brigit and her mother with her to her father’s house. +Thereafter Duffy (her father) and his consort were minded to sell the holy +Brigit into bondage, for Duffy liked not his cattle and his wealth to be +dealt out to the poor, and that is what Brigit used to do. So Duffy fared +in his chariot, and Brigit along with him. Said Duffy to Brigit, ‘Not for +honour or reverence to thee art<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> thou carried in a chariot, but to take +thee and sell thee, and to grind the quern for Dunlang Mac Enda, King of +Leinster.’ When they came to the King’s fortress, Duffy went in to the +King, and Brigit remained in her chariot at the fortress door. Duffy had +left his sword in the chariot near Brigit. A leper came to Brigit to ask +alms. She gave him Duffy’s sword. Said Duffy to the King, ‘Wilt thou buy a +bondmaid, namely, my daughter?’ says he. Said Dunlang, ‘Why sellest thou +thine own daughter?’ Said Duffy, ‘She stayeth not from selling my wealth +and giving it to the poor.’ Said the King, ‘Let the maiden come into the +fortress.’ Duffy went for Brigit, and was enraged against her because she +had given his sword to the poor man. When Brigit came into the King’s +presence, the King said to her, ‘Since it is thy father’s wealth that thou +takest, much more if I buy thee, wilt thou take of <i>my</i> wealth and <i>my</i> +cattle, and give them to the poor.’ Said Brigit, ‘The Son of the Virgin +knoweth if I had thy might with all Leinster and with all thy wealth, I +would give them to the Lord of the Elements.’ Said the King to Duffy, +‘Thou art not fit on either hand to bargain for this maiden, for her merit +is higher before God than before men.’ And he gave Duffy for her an +ivory-hilted sword. So was St Brigit saved from bondage.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span>The idea of giving a sword to a poor crippled leper because she had +nothing else to give could hardly have entered into the head of any saint +but an Irish one.</p> + +<p>The next extract from this marvellous biography is, perhaps, the most +curious and interesting of all. In another interview that Brigit had with +the King of Leinster, “a slave of the slaves of the King came to speak +with Brigit, and said to her, ‘If thou wouldst save me from the servitude +wherein I am, I would become a Christian, and would serve thee thyself.’ +Brigit said, ‘I will ask that of the King.’ So Brigit went into the +fortress and asked her two boons of the king, the forfeiture of the sword +to Duffy, and his freedom for the slave. Said Brigit to the King, ‘If thou +desirest excellent children and a kingdom for thy sons, and heaven for +thyself, give me the two boons I ask.’ Said the King to Brigit, ‘The +kingdom of heaven, as I see it not, and as no one knows what thing it is, +I seek it not; and a kingdom for my sons I seek not, for I shall not +myself be extant, and let each one serve his time. But give me length of +life in my kingdom, and victory always over the Hui Neill, for there is +often war between us; and give me victory in the first battle, so that I +may be trustful in the other fights.’ And this was fulfilled in the +battle<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> of Lochar which was fought against the Hui Neill.”</p> + +<p>By the “Hui Neill” the people of the entire north of Ireland, including +Meath, were meant. They represented the national party because the chief +kings, for some centuries previous, were of the race of Niall of the Nine +Hostages. Mr Stokes says, speaking of the above extract in his preface to +the translation, “The conversation between Brigit and Dunlang (King of +Leinster) seems to preserve the authentic utterance of an Irish pagan +warrior.”</p> + +<p>One extract more to show in a still stronger light the angelic kindness +and love for humanity, especially for suffering humanity, that glowed in +the heart of this wonderful woman:</p> + +<p>“Once upon a time the King of Leinster came unto Brigit to listen to +preaching and celebration on Easter Day. After the ending of the form of +celebration the King fared forth on his way, and Brigit went to refection. +Lommān, Brigit’s leper, said he would eat nothing until the warrior +weapons, <i>arm gaisgedh</i>, of the King of Leinster were given to him, spear, +sword, and shield, that he might move to and fro under them. A messenger +was sent after the King. From mid-day to evening was the King going +astray, and attained<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> not even a thousand paces, so that the weapons were +given by him and bestowed on the leper.”</p> + +<p>This instance of going to such trouble to please a poor crippled pauper, +for Lommān was evidently such, and of working a miracle so that the +King of Leinster should lose his way, and not go so far that he could not +be overtaken, is one of the most extraordinary instances of trouble taken +to please a pauper that is to be found in all the records of benevolence +and charity.</p> + +<p>The “Annals of the Four Masters” say that St Brigit was buried in +Downpatrick, in the same grave with St Patrick; but the learned editor and +translator of their annals says that she and Bishop Conlaeth were buried, +one on the right, and one on the left of the altar, in the church of +Kildare, and he gives Colgan’s great book, <i>Trias Thaumaturga</i>, as his +authority, and no authority could be higher.</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span></p> +<h2>GLENDALOCH</h2> + + +<p>There are not many places in Ireland more interesting than this strange +and weird glen. It can hardly be called beautiful. It is gloomy and grand; +and there is something depressing about it even in the finest day in +autumn when the sombre mountains by which it is surrounded on all sides +but one are mantled in their most gorgeous crimson drapery of +full-blooming heather. It is just such a spot as an anchorite like St +Kevin would choose as a place for contemplation and prayer.</p> + +<p>Glendaloch—it ought <i>not</i> to be spelled <i>Glendalough</i>—is very nearly in +the centre of the romantic county of Wicklow. It is a good central point +from which to make excursions to the many beautiful and interesting places +in its vicinity, such as Glen Molur, the Glen of Imail, the Meeting of the +Waters, and the Mountain of Lugnacuilla, the highest in Leinster. The +interior of the County Wicklow may be said to be a vast wilderness of +mountains, bogs, and glens. But its mountains have, with one exception, +the defect of being<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> round-topped. They lack the boldness of the hills of +Connemara and Donegal. The mountain that is the most bold and alpine in +the county, and that forms an exception to the general contour of its +hills, is the famous one called the “Sugar-loaf,” near Bray. The Dublin +grocer, or whoever he was that gave this beautiful hill such an abominable +name, should have his memory held in everlasting contempt. Its real name +is a grand one, Sleeve Coolan, <i>rectè</i> Sliabh Cualann. But in spite of +the generally rounded outlines of the Wicklow Mountains, there are some +splendid alpine views to be seen among them; and none finer than from the +Glen of Lugalaw, about seven or eight miles from Bray.</p> + +<p> </p> +<div class="bbox" style="width: 442px; height: 500px;"><img src="images/img06.jpg" alt="" /></div> +<p class="caption">GLENDALOCH.</p> +<p> </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span>But of all places in Wicklow, Glendaloch is the most famous. It ought to +be so, for there is nothing like it in Ireland. There are many glens as +wild and as gloomy as it, but they lack the historic interest and the +legendary halo that make Glendaloch dear to the archæologist, the poet, +and the dreamer. Its history goes back almost to the beginning of +Christian times. For five hundred years it was one of the most important +ecclesiastical and educational places in Ireland. Its name constantly +occurs in Irish annals and history; and its history was for centuries as +gloomy as itself, for the Danes plundered it and burned it so often that +it seems strange that it was not abandoned many centuries sooner. It was +so near their great stronghold, Dublin, that it was harried by them on and +off for over two hundred years.</p> + +<p>St Kevin’s name is indissolubly associated with Glendaloch, or the Seven +Churches, as it is most frequently called, for it is supposed that there +were seven churches in it at one time. St Kevin, according to the best +authority who ever wrote<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> on Irish history and archæology, the famous John +O’Donovan, came of a distinguished family in the County Wicklow. His name, +in correct orthography, <i>Coemhgen</i>, means “fair offspring.” He seems to +have been predestined to be a Saint, for many miraculous things are told +of his infancy and early youth. When he was a baby a white cow is said to +have come miraculously to supply him with milk. The story about his having +murdered Kathleen, the girl with eyes of “unholy blue,” by throwing her +into that lake that the “Skylark never warbles o’er,” is a mere fable. It +seems a pity that the story upon which Moore founded his very beautiful +lyric, “By that Lake, whose gloomy Shore,” should have hardly any +foundation in fact. That a certain girl fell in love with him and caused +him a good deal of annoyance is quite true; but he did not kill her or +throw her into the lake. He only administered a rather mild castigation, +as shall be seen. O’Donovan says that the following extract, taken from +the <i>Codex Killkenniensis</i>, which, there are good reasons to believe, has +never yet been made public by translation, is the oldest and most +trustworthy account of the transaction known to exist; and that the +trouble between St Kevin and the girl did not take place in Glendaloch, +but in another place in the County<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> Wicklow. O’Donovan’s translation of +the story is the one now given:—</p> + +<p>“While the most holy Caemhgen (Kevin) was as yet remaining in the house of +his parents, the Lord performed many miracles through him.... The parents +of Kevin observing so great a grace in him, committed him to the care of +the holy seniors, Eoganus, Lochanus, and Enna, in order that he might in +their cell be brought up for Christ; and St Kevin was sedulously reading +with those saints. When he was grown up in the first flower of his youth, +a young girl saw him out in a field along with the brethren, and fell +passionately in love with him, for he was exceedingly handsome. And she +began to make known her friendship for him in astute words. And she was +always laying snares for him in every way she could, by looks, by +language, and sometimes by messengers. But the holy youth rejected all +these allurements. On a certain day she sought the opportunity of finding +him alone, and on a day when the brethren were working in a wood, she +passed by them, and seeing St Kevin working by himself in the wood, she +approached him, and clasped him in her arms with fondest embrace. But the +soldier of Christ arming himself with the sacred sign, and full of the +Holy Ghost, made strong resistance against her,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> and rushed out of her +arms in the wood; and finding nettles, took secretly a bunch of them, and +struck her with them many times on the face, hands, and feet. And when she +was blistered with the nettles, the pleasure of her love became extinct. +And she being sorrowful of heart, asked on her bended knees pardon of St +Kevin in the name of the Lord. And the Saint praying for her to Christ, +she promised him that she would dedicate her virginity to the Lord. The +brothers finding them discussing together, wondered very much; but the +virgin related to them what had passed; and the brethren hearing such, +were confirmed in their love for chastity. And that little girl afterwards +became a prudent and holy virgin, and diligently observed the holy +admonitions of St Kevin.”</p> + +<p>The above translation has not, to the writer’s knowledge, ever been +previously published. John O’Donovan, the greatest authority on such +matters that ever lived, says in his unpublished letters, while on the +Ordnance Survey of Ireland, that the above extract “is the oldest and only +authority for the story about St Kevin and the lady, and shows clearly +that the scene of it is erroneously placed at Glendaloch by oral tradition +and modern writers. It will also be sufficient evidence that this Saint +did not murder the lady Kathleen, but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> inflicted a somewhat mild +punishment by flogging her with a bunch of nettles!”</p> + +<p>So poor St Kevin’s memory is cleared. It is a pity that Moore did not see +the <i>Codex Killkenniensis</i> before he wrote the beautiful lyric that casts +such a cloud on Wicklow’s greatest saint. That the name of St Kevin was +highly esteemed not only in Wicklow in ancient times, but all through +Leinster, there is ample proof in ancient Gaelic literature. A poet named +Broccan, writing in the tenth century in praise of his native province of +Leinster and the great people it produced, said:</p> + +<p class="poem">“I never heard in any province,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Between earth and holy heaven,</span><br /> +Of a nun like St Brigit<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Or a cleric like Kevin.”<a name='fna_6' id='fna_6' href='#f_6'><small>[6]</small></a></span></p> + +<p>Glendaloch must have been founded in the latter part of the sixth century, +for St Kevin died in 617, aged 120 years. There cannot be any doubt that +it was he who founded Glendaloch. We are told that he sought the sombre +valley for a retreat in which to contemplate and pray, and that before +there were any buildings in it he lived for a long time in a hollow tree, +and subsisted on wild fruit and water. The cave in the cliff overhanging +the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> lake, known as St Kevin’s Bed, the entrance to which is not only +difficult but dangerous, seems also to have given him shelter for a long +time before there were any habitations in the glen. It is said that if +<i>nouvelles mariées</i> succeed in getting into this dark and dismal cavern, +they are sure to be blessed with large families. Why such a belief should +be current is not easy to understand, because St Kevin, after whom the +cavern is called, not only had no children, but was a decided woman-hater. +If he did not drown Kathleen, he at least whipped her with nettles, a +thing that no gallant man would think of doing to a girl who loved him. It +will, however, be the general opinion of most of those who read this +version of the story, that St Kevin “served her right.”</p> + +<p>Glendaloch has been ruined and uprooted in a shocking manner. Of all its +edifices there are only two that still stand—namely, the round tower and +the building known as “Kevin’s Kitchen.” This latter is stone-roofed, and +is considered to be one of the oldest buildings of the kind in Ireland. +Archæologists are not agreed as to what particular use it was originally +intended, but that it was an ecclesiastical edifice of some kind seems to +be the opinion of everyone. There are, it is said, the remains of seven +churches still to be seen in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> Glendaloch. It appears to have been a walled +city, and Petrie, one of the most painstaking and learned archæologists +that ever Ireland produced, claimed to have traced the tracks of the walls +in many places. That it contained a large population in the eighth and +ninth centuries seems to admit of little doubt. Oengus the Culdee, whose +verse in which Glendaloch is mentioned has been given in the article on +“Emania the Golden,” calls it “multitudinous Glendaloch,” and “the Rome of +the western world.” Allowing for the exaggeration of which ancient Gaelic +poets may have been rather too fond, it must be admitted that what they +say cannot be entirely ignored; and it is more than probable that +immediately before the Danes and other northern nations began their raids +on Ireland, Glendaloch may have been, and probably was, a large monastic +city, as cities were in those days. The Irish monasteries of the eighth +and ninth centuries were probably the wealthiest in the world, if not in +lands, at least in gold and silver. Where or how they got, or where or how +the ancient Irish got, such quantities of the precious metals is a mystery +that may never be solved; but that Ireland had an enormous amount of gold +and silver in ancient times there can be no doubt at all. This would be +sufficiently proved by the quantity,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> not of coined money, for they had +not any, but of ornaments of almost every kind that have been found in all +parts of the country, more, it is said, than have been found in the rest +of Europe. There is hardly a barony in Ireland, it might be said hardly a +parish, in which stories are not told of people having become suddenly +rich by finding, it is naturally supposed, treasure trove in the shape of +gold ornaments, very few of which have been preserved, for they were +generally melted down. Sir Wm. Wilde mentions, in one of his catalogues of +articles in the Royal Irish Academy, a find of £3000 worth of gold +ornaments in the County Clare some fifty years ago. It seems a +well-ascertained fact that two labourers found over £20,000 worth of gold +ornaments when working on a railway in Munster some forty odd years ago. +The founder of one of the largest jewellery houses in Ireland told a +friend of the writer’s that his first “rise” in business was brought about +by buying antique gold ornaments, at sometimes not half their value, from +people who brought them to him from the country.</p> + +<p>When the marauding Northmen first raided Ireland, they seem not to have +had the most remote idea of either conquering the country or making +permanent settlements in it. They may not have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> despised Irish beef and +mutton, but what they wanted above all was gold and silver. When +Christianity was firmly established in Ireland, the monasteries became the +great depositories of the wealth of the country, and the clergy may be +said to have become its bankers. The monasteries, therefore, became, to a +certain extent, what banks are now, and it was to the monasteries the +Danes gave their first attention. It can hardly be proved from Irish +history that the Danes ever tried to conquer Ireland but once, and that +was at the battle of Clontarf. Even under Turgesius, when they succeeded +in establishing themselves almost everywhere there was salt water or fresh +water to float their ships, they played the part of raiders and not of +conquerors, and never formed a permanent settlement out of sight of their +galleys. In England and in France they acted quite differently. They +conquered and kept all England and a considerable part of France. They +went to England and France to establish themselves, but they went to +Ireland to plunder. The question to be solved is, Why did the Danes act so +differently in Ireland from the way they acted in England and in other +countries? There seems to be no way to answer this question except by +saying that there was so much more of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> precious metals in Ireland, +that to get them, and not to conquer the country or form permanent +settlements in it, was their prime object. If history was absolutely +silent about the doings of the Northmen in Ireland, we would, from a surer +guide than history, know that plunder and not settlement was what they had +in view. That guide is place names. There are more Scandinavian place +names to be found in some parishes in the north-east of England than there +are in all Ireland. There are hardly a dozen Scandinavian place names in +Ireland, and they are <i>all</i> on the sea coast but <i>one</i>. That one is +Leixlip, and it is only a few miles from the sea, on a river which the +galleys of the Northmen could easily ascend. The only time at which a +serious attempt seems to have been made by the Northmen to become +possessed of Ireland was shortly before the battle of Clontarf, and that +attempt seems to have owed its origin to that horrible but beautiful +woman, Gormfhlaith, sister to the king of Leinster, and whose last of many +husbands was Brian Boramha. That attempt utterly failed, and no other was +ever made. If the Northmen cannot be said to have seriously contemplated +the conquest of Ireland prior to the time immediately before the battle of +Clontarf, it does not seem to have been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> from lack of men in the country, +for Irish annals and history speak of their vast numbers in such a way as +hardly leaves a doubt as to the awfulness of the scourge they were to the +country at large. So great were their numbers at one time during the ninth +century that we are told that it seemed as if the sea vomited them forth, +and that there was hardly a harbour on the Irish coasts in which there was +not a Danish or a Norwegian fleet. It has to be admitted that the Irish +fought them with the most astonishing persistency and valour. In spite of +the way the country was split into petty kingdoms, with chief kings, who +were generally such only in name, the reception the Northmen got in +Ireland was very different from that which they got in England. The Saxons +often got rid of them by paying them to go away, but the Irish got rid of +them only by the sword. Those who want to know what Ireland suffered from +the raids of the Northmen should read the “Wars of the Gael and the +Gaill.” The book is generally believed to have been written by M’Liag, who +was living when the battle of Clontarf was fought, and who was chief poet, +or secretary, to Brian Boramha.</p> + +<p>Although the Northmen were allies of Leinster for a long time, they +plundered Glendaloch in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> the years 833, 886, and 982. It was so near +Dublin and so near the sea that their alliance with Leinster did not +prevent them from raiding it. It was one of the rich ecclesiastical +establishments in Ireland, and one of those most exposed to the incursions +of the Northmen. Its round tower was, therefore, in all probability, one +of the first that was erected. It is now generally believed by those most +competent to form an opinion that the round towers of Ireland were erected +as places of security against the Northmen, and that they were sometimes +used as belfries. Their Irish name, <i>cloigtheach</i>, means a bell house and +nothing else; but it is quite clear that, although they sometimes served +as belfries, the primary object of their erection was to secure a place of +safety for the treasures of the church or monastery, close to which they +were invariably erected. Of the hundred and eight round towers which are +known to have been erected in Ireland, and of which remains exist, every +one of them is known to have been erected close to where a church or +monastery stood. More than half of them are in ruins; of some only a few +feet of the walls remain; and of some others the foundations only remain. +It may seem hard for some, in these days of far-reaching projectiles to +imagine<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> how those slender towers, so chaste and beautiful in their +construction, could serve as places of defence or security against the +Danes. They could not have served as such if the Danes had come as +conquerors to form permanent settlements, but as they were only raiders +the towers were generally perfect defences against them. A dozen men shut +into a round tower, the door of which was generally from ten to fourteen +feet from the ground, could laugh at an army of Danes who had neither +battering rams nor artillery of any kind. There was only one way by which +a round tower could be taken or destroyed by men like the plundering hosts +of the Vikings, who did not, and could not, take ponderous implements like +battering rams with them on their raids, and that was by undermining +it—digging its foundations so that it would fall. But this would have +been a very tedious business, for the foundations of many of the round +towers are six and even ten feet below the surface. A few dozen resolute +men in a round tower might defy an army of Danes, provided the besieged +had enough of food and drink in their stronghold. It must, however, be +admitted that the Northmen did sometimes succeed in taking and plundering +round towers, but by what means we do not know.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span>Those who maintain that the round towers are pre-Christian structures, and +that there is nothing said in Irish annals about their erection, have very +little warrant for such an assertion. If they read Lord Dunraven’s work on +ancient Irish architecture, they will find copies of more than one +allusion to their erection from the most authentic Irish annals known to +exist. Here is one taken from the <i>Chronicon Scottorum</i>, a work of the +highest authority and authenticity, compiled about the year 1124. “The +great <i>Cloigtheach</i> (or belfry) of Clonmacnois was finished by Gillachrist +Ua Maeleoin and by Turloch O’Connor.” This entry refers to the year 1120.</p> + +<p>While speaking of the uses of round towers, the wealth of Irish +monasteries, and of Ireland in general in ancient times, it may not be out +of place to say that that very wealth proved a curse to the country, for +if Ireland had not been so rich in precious metals, the Northmen would +probably never have invaded and raided it; or if they did invade it, they +would have done so with a view to subjugating it and forming permanent +settlements in it, as they did in England and France,—things that might +have been, and that probably would have been, of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> benefit to the country. +If Ireland had been conquered by the Northmen they would certainly have +destroyed the provincial kingdoms, and have brought the whole island under +the sway of one ruler; and whether that ruler was Irish or Norse, it would +have been of immense benefit to the country at large. Ancient Irish polity +was very good theoretically, but practically it was a frightful failure. +The Scandinavian invasions only added to the political confusion of +Ireland. They were of benefit to England and France, for they brought an +infusion of fresh blood into those countries. But to Ireland they brought +destruction and ruin, with only a slight infusion of fresh blood. They +made the political confusion of the country more confounded. They robbed +it of an immense quantity of its wealth, but worse than that, they +destroyed a large part of its literature. The monasteries were not only +the repositories of wealth but of books. It was impossible that +monasteries could be plundered and burnt without damage being done to the +books they contained. There is positive proof in Irish annals that the +Northmen were in the habit of <i>drowning</i> the books they found in the +religious houses. Books were in those days, as is well known, made of +vellum, or prepared leather, a material hard to burn;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> they were +consequently cast into the nearest lake or river, from which very few of +them were probably ever recovered. If it had not been for Scandinavian +burnings and plunderings, mediæval Gaelic literature would, even now, be +so immense that it would command the respect of the world at large. Those +who say that the bulk of mediæval Gaelic writings has come down to us—and +there are those that have the unspeakable hardihood to say so—must be +classed as very prejudiced, or very ignorant of Irish history.</p> + +<p>The last entry in the Four Masters relating to Glendaloch occurs under the +year 1163. It appears to have been abandoned shortly after that date; but +why it was abandoned as an ecclesiastical establishment when Danish raids +and plunderings had ceased does not seem to be clearly known.</p> + +<p>Glendaloch has been thus lengthenedly treated on because it is the most +interesting ecclesiastical ruin in the province of Leinster, Clonmacnois +only excepted. Its strange and gloomy, yet romantic situation, its +antiquity, its sad history of burnings and plunderings, the utter ruin +that has overtaken most of its monuments, the halo of legend and romance +that is around it, give it a charm<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> even to the non-imaginative and the +rude. For the archæologist, the poet, the romancer, or the dreamer, it has +attractions and charms greater, perhaps, than they could find on any other +spot of Irish soil.</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span></p> +<h2>“LORDLY AILEACH”</h2> + + +<p>Next to Emania and Ardmagh, Aileach is the most historic spot in the +province of Ulster. It lies four miles west of the city of Derry, on a +round, heath-clad hill, some eight hundred feet above the level of the +sea. It is one of the most ancient cyclopean fortresses in Ireland, or, +perhaps, in the world. There is no scenic beauty in the immediate vicinity +of Aileach, but there is a view from the hill-top on which it is situated +that for wildness and sublimity can hardly be equalled anywhere in the +British Isles,—a view which will amply repay any one who sees it on a +clear day. On the north the hills of Inishowen obstruct the view, but west +and south-west it is sublime. The eye ranges over a wilderness of +fantastic-shaped mountains, some shooting up sharp as arrows, others round +and ridgy, separated by sinuous sea-lochs and glittering tarns,—a land of +awful ruggedness and desolation,—of rock-bound shores cleft into myriad +bays and fiords by the thundering almost ever restless northern sea that +beats against them. If no hoary ruin<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> crowned the hill on which the +“Lordly Aileach” of Gaelic poets stands, the view from its summit would be +worth a journey of a hundred miles to see, for most of the wildness and +grandeur of “Dark Donegall” are spread before the eye. On the north-east +and north-west the waters of Loch Foyle and Loch Swilly spread themselves +almost beneath the feet of the gazer from Aileach. It stands on a hill +that commands a view of both Loch Foyle and Loch Swilly; and the site of +this ancient fortress was evidently chosen on account of the view it +commands of those two sea-lochs, for no fleet could enter them for any +distance without being seen by the watchers on the walls of Aileach.</p> + +<p>The first thing that should be mentioned when speaking of Aileach is the +noble work that has been lately accomplished regarding it. An article +appeared about it some twenty years ago in the <i>Irish Times</i> of Dublin, +calling attention to its antiquity, the historic and legendary renown of +that ancient place; and a Mr Barnard of Londonderry became interested in +Aileach and determined to make an effort to have the demolished fortress +restored as far as was possible. He made a pilgrimage among the farmers +living in the locality, and got promises of help in the way of men to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> +work for so many days at the restoration of the fortress. The farmers kept +their word, gave him the help of the men they had promised, and in a +comparatively short time the walls of the ruined fortress, under the +surveillance of Mr Barnard, once again crowned the hill of Greenan, after +having been in ruins for well-nigh eight hundred years. Mr Barnard, and +the farmers that gave him assistance in the good work, deserve the thanks +of every one who is a patriot, or has any reverence for the ancient +monuments of his country, or any respect for the hallowed past.</p> + +<p>The early history of Aileach is “lost in the twylight of fable.” It is a +pre-historic building, almost as much so as a Pyramid of Egypt. It was +used as a stronghold down to the beginning of the twelfth century; but +when it was built, or by whom, cannot be said to be known from authentic +history, for the many poems that exist about its origin in ancient Gaelic +are legendary rather than historic. There may be, and there probably is, a +great deal of truth in them, but they cannot be accepted as history.</p> + +<p>Aileach is a circular, dry-stone fortress with walls nine feet thick. It +was levelled down to the ground when Mr Barnard undertook its restoration. +The history of its destruction is so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> strange, so unique, and so Irish, +that it must be given. Let the Four Masters tell it. They say, under the +year 1101, that “A great army was led by O’Brian, King of Munster, with +the men of Munster, Ossory, Meath and Connacht, across Assaroe into +Innishowen.... He demolished Grianan Aileach in revenge of Kinncora, which +had been razed and demolished by Muircheartach O’Lochlainn some time +before. O’Brian commanded his army to carry with them from Aileach to +Limerick a stone of the demolished building for every sack of provisions +they had. In commemoration of which was said (by some unknown poet)—</p> + +<p class="poem">“‘I never heard of the billeting of grit stones,<br /> +Though I heard of the billeting of companies,<br /> +Until the stones of Aileach were billeted<br /> +On the horses of the King of the West.’”</p> + +<p>This is the only attempt at anything like humour in all the dreary annals +of the Four Masters. Such quiet sarcasm would be a credit to Mark Twain. +But if the poet had said “King of the South” instead of “King of the +West,” although it might not have answered his Gaelic rhyme or assonance +quite so well, it would have been more correct, for although Munster is +west of Aileach, it is more south than west. It can never be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> known how +high the walls of Aileach had been before they were pulled down by +O’Brien, because we don’t know how many cavalry he had, or how many stones +he carried to Limerick. Never before was an army loaded with such +impedimenta; but that the story of the stones of Aileach, or at least, +stones similar to them, having been brought to Limerick or its immediate +vicinity, there cannot be much doubt, for they were found there.</p> + +<p>The fortress of Aileach is nearly a hundred feet in diameter in the +inside. It is not known if it was ever roofed, but it is probable that it +was. There were two lines of earthen ramparts round it, but they have +nearly disappeared. John O’Donovan thought that the entire hill of +Grianan, on which the fortress stands, was once enclosed by a vast rampart +of earth, and that cultivation has destroyed all but the faintest traces +of it. It seems probable that Aileach was intended more for a stronghold +than for a permanent dwelling-place. It may have been inhabited only when +a siege or an invasion was expected. One of its names, or rather the first +part of one of its names, “Grianan,” would indicate that it was intended +only as a summer residence, like the Dunsinane = <i>Dún soinine</i>, fine +weather fortress, of Macbeth. Those who could live in winter<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> on top of +the wind-swept hill on which Aileach stands without getting coughs or +colds would require constitutions of iron and lungs of brass.</p> + +<p>O’Donovan says that if any reliance can be placed on Irish chronology, the +antiquity of Aileach must be very great, no less than upwards of a +thousand years before the Christian era. He says, also, that the poet, +part of whose poem on Aileach is given below, in making the Tuata de +Danaan King, Eochy, generally known in Irish history and legend as the +Dagda, contemporaneous with the Assyrian King, Darcylus, exactly agrees +with the chronology of O’Flaherty and Usher, who say that he reigned 1053 +years before the Christian era.</p> + +<p>There is a poem in the “Book of Lecan” on Aileach by the poet to whom +O’Donovan alludes, that in language and <i>tournure</i> bears the marks of +extreme antiquity. Even O’Donovan, great a Celtic scholar as he was, had +apparently extreme difficulty in translating it. It has never been +published. The first dozen or so lines are given here:—</p> + +<p>“Aileach Fridreann, arena of mighty kings. A <i>dun</i> through which ran roads +under heroes through five ramparts. Hill on which slept the Dagda. Red its +flowers. Many its houses. Just its spoils. Few its stones. A lofty castle +is Aileach. Fort of the great man. A sheltering <i>dun</i> over the lime<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> +[white] schools. A delightful spot is Aileach. Green its bushes. The sod +where the Dagda found the mound wherein rested Hugh.”</p> + +<p>But it is in more recent times that the history and records of Aileach +become supremely interesting. It was from there that Muircheartach Mac +Neill, styled the Hector of the west of Europe by old annalists, started +on his celebrated “Circuit of Ireland” in the year 942. He was heir +apparent to the chief kingship of Ireland, and wanted to show the +provincial rulers that he was fit to rule <i>them</i>. So he determined to +start on his circuit in the depth of winter, when it appears the ancient +Irish seldom went on forays, and either make or persuade the provincial +rulers to acknowledge his right to the throne when the then reigning chief +king, Donacha, died. The way he is said to have chosen men for the +expedition is very curious and very Irish. He caused a tent to be erected, +keeping the cause of its erection unknown, and made his men to go into it +at night. A fierce dog attacked every one that entered; and opposite to +where the dog was, an armed man also attacked those that entered; both man +and dog simultaneously attacking the intruder. If he who entered the tent +flinched neither from dog nor man, but showed fight to both, he was +chosen; but whoever showed the least sign of cowardice<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> was rejected. Out +of his whole army we are told that Muircheartach could only get a thousand +men, and with that small army, protected by strong leather cloaks, he +started on his Circuit of Ireland to force, intimidate, or coax the +provincial kings to acknowledge that he was their master, and that he was +to be their next suzerain.</p> + +<p>Our principal source of information about the Circuit comes from a poem of +undoubted authority and antiquity, written by one called Cormacan Eigeas, +who accompanied Muircheartach on the expedition. It is one of the most +remarkable poems of its age, not only in Gaelic, but in any language. It +was translated more than forty years ago, and may be seen in the +“Transactions” of the Royal Irish Academy; but it is not probable that +even forty persons have ever read it, so little general interest has +heretofore been taken in Gaelic literature or Irish history. For these +reasons it cannot be uninteresting to give some extracts from it. It +commences:</p> + +<p class="poem">“O Muircheartach, son of the valiant Niall,<br /> +Thou hast taken the hostages of Inis Fail,<br /> +Thou hast brought them all into Aileach,<br /> +Into the stone-built palace of steeds!<br /> +<br /> +“Thou didst go forth from us with a thousand heroes<br /> +Of the race of Eoghan of red weapons,<br /> +To make the great Circuit of Ireland,<br /> +O Muircheartach of the yellow hair!<br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span><br /> +“The day thou didst set out from us eastwards<br /> +Into the fair province of Connor,<a name='fna_7' id='fna_7' href='#f_7'><small>[7]</small></a><br /> +Many were the tears down beauteous cheeks<br /> +Among the fair-haired women of Aileach.”</p> + +<p>Muircheartach carried off the King of Ulster; and, as the old chroniclers +tell us, keeping his left hand to the sea, he fared to Dublin, then the +greatest stronghold the Danes had, not only in Ireland but in the west of +Europe. He did not have to fight the Danes of Dublin, although he had +often fought them before, for their king, probably thinking that +“discretion was the better part of valour,” surrendered himself a +prisoner. And here one of these inconsequential incidents is related, +which no one but an ancient Irish poet would dream of mentioning. +Muircheartach seems to have had no objection to make love to a Danish +maiden, often as he had fought Danish men. Cormacan, the poet, tells us +that they</p> + +<p class="poem">“Were a night at fair Ath-cliath [Dublin];<br /> +It was not a pleasure to the foreigners:<br /> +There was a damsel in the strong fortress<br /> +Whose soul the son of Niall was;<br /> +She came forth until she was outside the walls,<br /> +Although the night was constantly bad.”</p> + +<p>Muircheartach then proceeded south-west from Dublin to Aillinn, and +carried away the King of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> Leinster. He then made for Cashel, where the +King of Munster lived. But Callachan, that was his name, showed fight, and +Muircheartach’s men threw off their leather cloaks and prepared to stand +by him. However, seeing that things were beginning to look serious, the +King of Munster yielded and was carried away prisoner with a golden fetter +on him. The leader of the Circuit then turned northwards into Connacht, +and carried away the king of that province. So he had the four provincial +kings in his power, and also the Danish King of Dublin. But he did them +neither hurt nor harm, for he seems to have been in a good humour all the +time he was “on circuit”; and we are told by his poet laureate that on +their halts the soldiers amused themselves in many ways, especially by +music and dancing, and he says—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Music we had on the plain and in our tents,<br /> +Listening to its strains, we danced awhile;<br /> +There, methinks, a heavy noise was made<br /> +By the shaking of our hard cloaks.”</p> + +<p>The next three verses are magnificent. They are full of dramatic power and +naturalness. When the triumphant army, but triumphant without having shed +a drop of blood, approach Aileach, a messenger is sent forward to announce +its arrival:—</p> + +<p class="poem"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> +“From the green of Lochan-na-neach<br /> +A page is despatched to Aileach<br /> +To tell Duvdaire<a name='fna_8' id='fna_8' href='#f_8'><small>[8]</small></a> of the black hair<br /> +To send women to cut rushes.<br /> +<br /> +“‘Rise up, O Duvdaire (<i>said the page</i>),<br /> +There is a company coming to thy house;<br /> +Attend every man of them<br /> +As a monarch should be attended.’<br /> +<br /> +“‘Tell me (<i>she said</i>) what company comes hither<br /> +To the lordly Aileach Rigreann,<br /> +Tell me, O fair page,<br /> +That I may attend them?’<br /> +<br /> +“‘The Kings of Erin in fetters (<i>he replies</i>),<br /> +With Muircheartach, son of the warlike Niall.’”</p> + +<p>The kingly prisoners were all brought to Aileach, where they were feasted +for five months; and the following list of their bill of fare will show +that they lived well. Let the same poet tell it:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Ten score hogs—no small work,<br /> +Ten score cows, two hundred oxen,<br /> +Were slaughtered at festive Aileach<br /> +For Muircheartach of the great fetters.<br /> +<br /> +“Three score vats of curds,<br /> +Which banished the hungry look of the army,<br /> +With a sufficiency of cheering mead,<br /> +Were given by magnanimous Muircheartach.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span>When the five kings were feasted—and it is to be hoped fattened—for five +months, Muircheartach brought them to the chief king or emperor, Donacha, +and gave them up to him. The following extraordinary dialogue, taken from +the same poem, occurs between them. Muircheartach says:</p> + +<p class="poem"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">“‘There are the noble kings for thee.’</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Said Muircheartach, the son of Niall;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘For thou, O Donacha, it is certain to me,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Art the best man of the men of Erin.’</span><br /> +<br /> +“<i>Donacha.</i><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">“‘Thou art a better man thyself, O King,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With thee no one can vie;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">It is thou who didst take captive the noble kings,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">O Muircheartach, son of the great Niall.’</span><br /> +<br /> +“<i>Muircheartach.</i><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">“‘Thou art better thyself, O Donacha the black haired,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Than any man in our land;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Whoever is in strong Tara</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">It is he that is monarch of Erin.’</span><br /> +<br /> +“<i>Donacha.</i><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">“‘Receive my blessing, nobly,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">O son of Niall Glundubh, bright, pure;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">May Tara be possessed by thee,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">O Prince of the bright Loch Foyle!<a name='fna_9' id='fna_9' href='#f_9'><small>[9]</small></a></span><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">“‘May thy race possess Moy Breagh,<a name='fna_10' id='fna_10' href='#f_10'><small>[10]</small></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">May they possess the white-sided Tara,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">May the hostages of the Gael be in thy house,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">O good son, O Muircheartach!’”</span></p> + +<p>It is sad to know that this extraordinary poem, with its uniqueness, its +dramatic power, and its raciness of the soil and of the time, +notwithstanding the fact that it was translated and published in the +Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy over forty years ago, is to-day +hardly any more known than it was when it lay unheeded and unknown in the +archaic Gaelic of the tenth century. It might, for all the notice that has +been taken of it, as well not have been translated at all. No other people +on earth would have treated such an archaic literary gem with such +coldness and contempt. It would seem as if the Irish people were losing +not only their soul but their brains. If such a poem were written in +Finnish or in Ojibaway it could not have been more ignored than it has +been by a people who call themselves intellectual.</p> + +<p>In this poem the same anachronism may be noticed that led Petrie so much +astray about<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> the Lia Fail having been in Tara in the tenth century. +Muircheartach addresses Donacha as if he were living in Tara, although +Tara had been abandoned four hundred years before, and was as waste and as +desolate in the time of Donacha as it is to-day; the chief kings of his +epoch and for centuries before it, lived usually in Westmeath or in +Donegal.</p> + +<p>That Muircheartach Mac Neill, though a sort of Rory O’More of the tenth +century, was a great man can hardly be doubted. He seems to have +contemplated the entire overthrow of the pentarchy and the union of all +the provinces under one sole king, namely, himself. He could hardly have +been ignorant of what had occurred in England in the century previous—how +Alfred had broken up the Saxon heptarchy and made himself practically sole +king in England. If Muircheartach had succeeded in destroying the wretched +system of provincial nationality, and had made the country a political +unit, the subsequent history of Ireland would probably be very different +from what it has been. But Muircheartach was killed by his old enemies the +Danes, the year after he made his famous circuit. They also killed his +father, Niall Glundubh, at the battle of Killmoshogue, near Dublin, in the +year 917. Here is what the Four Masters<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> say about him under the year +941<a name='fna_11' id='fna_11' href='#f_11'><small>[11]</small></a>: “Muircheartach of the Leather Cloaks, Lord of Aileach, the Hector +of the west of Europe in his time, was slain at Ardee (in Louth) by +Blacaire, the son of Godfrey, Lord of the Foreigners, on the 26th of +March. In lamentation of him it was said—</p> + +<p class="poem">“‘Vengeance and destruction<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Have descended on the race of Conn for ever;</span><br /> +As Muircheartach does not live, alas!<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The country of the Gael will always be an orphan.’”</span></p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span></p> +<h2>“ROYAL AND SAINTLY CASHEL”</h2> + + +<p>The situation of three of the most historic and remarkable ecclesiastical +establishments in Ireland, namely, Clonmacnois, Glendaloch, and Cashel, is +very peculiar. The first is on a barren sandhill surrounded by the most +strange and unique scenery in Ireland, consisting of almost illimitable +meadows interspersed with bogs. The second is in one of the gloomiest and +weirdest glens in the island; but Cashel is on a towering rock amid some +of the richest land, not only in Ireland but in the world, and overlooking +as goodly a country as human eye perhaps ever gazed on. Ancient Irish +monks and churchmen must have been peculiarly gifted with an appreciation +of the strange, unique, and beautiful in nature, or they would not have +fixed their retreats in such peculiar places. If ancient Irish kings loved +to place their strongholds on hills such as Tara, Aileach, Knock Aillinn, +and Uisneach, ancient Irish ecclesiastics seemed not to have cared whether +their churches were on hills or in hollows, provided they were somewhere +that was strange, weird, or beautiful.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span>The situation of Cashel is not only beautiful but superb. There is no +other place of its kind in Ireland situated like it. Its situation is as +peculiar as that of Glendaloch or Clonmacnois. It is, perhaps, the most +imposing pile of ecclesiastical ruins in Europe. Mont St Michael in France +can hardly compare with Cashel in commanding beauty of situation. One +overlooks the chilly sea, but the other overlooks as warm, as fair, and as +fertile a country as there is in the world.</p> + +<p> </p> +<div class="bbox" style="width: 500px; height: 392px;"><img src="images/img07.jpg" alt="" /></div> +<p class="caption">BUILDINGS ON THE ROCK OF CASHEL.</p> +<p> </p> + +<p>Cashel has inspired many poets; but, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span>unfortunately, none of the great +English masters of song has made it a theme; and it is strange that our +own Moore, who has celebrated Glendaloch, the Vale of Avoca, and other +famous places, never composed a lyric on Cashel. No other place in Ireland +could have given him a grander theme to write poems of the kind in which +he delighted, and in the composition of which he was such an acknowledged +master. It is indeed strange that so few of those who may be called our +minor poets have written about Cashel, and so seldom taken it as their +theme. There exists, however, a short poem on Cashel of the class usually +known as sonnets, and it is probable that neither Moore, nor any of the +other great masters of song, could have written anything superior to it. +It is by the late Sir Aubry de Vere. It first appeared in the <i>Dublin +Penny Journal</i> some sixty years ago; but it has so long been partially +forgotten that it can hardly be out of place to reproduce it here:</p> + +<p class="poem">“Royal and saintly Cashel! I could gaze<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Upon the wreck of thy departed powers,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Not in the dewy light of matin hours,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Nor the meridian pomp of summer’s blaze;</span><br /> +But at the close of dim autumnal days<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">When the sun’s parting glance thro’ slanting showers</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sheds o’er thy rock-throned pediments and towers</span><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Such awful gleams as brighten on Decay’s</span><br /> +Prophetic cheek;—at such a time methinks<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">There breathes from thy lone courts and voiceless aisles</span><br /> +A melancholy moral, such as sinks<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">On the worn traveller’s heart amid the piles</span><br /> +Of vast Persepolis on her mountain stand,<br /> +Or Thebes half buried in the desert’s sand.”</p> + +<p>It is strange that Cashel has not inspired more poets; but it is stranger +still that the once soulful people of Ireland would have allowed it to be +defaced by any modern building erected on the rock on which stands its +hallowed and ruined piles. Some gentleman named Scully has erected a brand +new round tower almost in the very centre of the hoary monuments that are +so sanctified by antiquity. The new tower is not shown on the annexed +plate, because of the horrible picture it would make. It is strange that +those living near Cashel did not prevent, if they could have done so, the +marring of one of the most striking, beautiful and soul-inspiring ruins +not only in Ireland but in Europe. It may be that Mr Scully thought that +by erecting a new monument of antique type there would not be any +incongruity manifested by it, and that by having his name written on it in +the Irish language and in Irish characters he would atone for the error he +committed. If he thought so, he made a great mistake, for <i>anything</i> new, +whether a round tower, a cross, or a brick-built<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> grocery, would destroy +all the antique charm of such noble ruins as those on the rock of Cashel. +It may be willingly granted that it is a pity there are any ruins at all +in the world, and that buildings cannot last new for ever. It should be +remembered, however, that nothing can last always; and that when buildings +become ruined by time, and, above all, when they have become historic like +those on the rock of Cashel, and when they serve to show either the piety +or the civilisation of those who have passed away, it becomes absolute +barbarism to mar them and mock them by erecting <i>anything</i> new in their +immediate vicinity. A modern church on the Hill of Tara is bad enough, but +a new building on the Rock of Cashel is little else than a profanation.</p> + +<p>Cashel was a seat of the kings of Munster from a time so far back in the +dim past, that one almost shudders to think how long ago it is. Long +before a Christian edifice crowned the Rock of Cashel, the barbaric dry +stone fortress of some Munster pagan king certainly covered it; for very +little work would have to be bestowed on it to render it an almost +impregnable fortress in ancient times. Some have derived the word Cashel +from <i>cios</i>, rent, and <i>ail</i>, a rock, making it to mean “rent rock”; for +it is certain that when the kings of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> Munster lived in Cashel, it was the +place where they received most of their tributes or rents; but the best +modern Gaelic scholars, including Dr P. W. Joyce, author of that most +useful and learned book, “Irish Names of Places,” maintain that the word +<i>Caiseal</i> means simply a circular building of dry stones, for the name +occurs in scores of places throughout Ireland; and such a building was no +doubt on this rock in pre-Christian times.</p> + +<p>Cashel became a seat of Christian cult at a very early period, and there +are good reasons to think that St Patrick founded a church there. The Rock +of Cashel has for very many centuries been known as <i>Carraig Phadraig</i>, or +Patrick’s Rock. The first Christian Irishman whose writings have come down +to us was Dubhthach, or, as the name would probably now be Anglicised, +Duffy, Mac U Lugair. In his poem in praise of the prowess of Leinstermen, +he says, that they “unyoked their horses on the ramparts of clerical +Cashel.” As this Duffy was a disciple of St Patrick’s, and one of the +first converts made by him in Ireland, we are forced to think that one of +the first Christian churches ever erected in Ireland was the one erected +in Cashel, as it appears to have been in existence when Duffy wrote his +poem, which could<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> hardly have been later than the middle of the sixth +century. But no vestige of the church of St Patrick’s time remains. It was +probably a wooden building, and may have disappeared as far back as +thirteen centuries ago. The oldest building on the Rock of Cashel is the +round tower, not Mr Scully’s incongruous edifice, but the original one, +built probably in the ninth century. It is ninety feet high, and in a +fairly good state of preservation. The cathedral is thought to have been +built in 1169 by O’Brien, King of Munster, but there does not appear to be +much of the building he erected to be seen now, for the ruined cathedral +which exists cannot, from the style of its architecture, be older than the +fourteenth century. We know from authentic history that one of the +Fitzgeralds burned the cathedral in 1495, because he wanted to burn +Archbishop Creagh, who, he thought, was in it; but it does not seem to be +fully known whether the building was entirely or only partially destroyed +by Fitzgerald. Divine service is said to have been celebrated in it so +late as 1752, but it must have been in a semi-ruined condition even then.</p> + +<p> <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span></p> +<div class="bbox" style="width: 600px; height: 364px;"><img src="images/img08.jpg" alt="" /></div> +<p class="caption">INTERIOR OF CORMAC’S CHAPEL.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span>But it is Cormac’s Chapel that is the real architectural glory of the Rock +of Cashel. It is by some wrongly attributed to the time of Cormac Mac +Cullenann in the ninth century. It was built by Cormac Mac Carthy, a +king of Minister, in the early part of the twelfth century. The principal +proof that it was built at that time is found in the <i>Chronicon +Scottorum</i>, in which it is stated that Cormac’s Chapel at Cashel was +consecrated in 1130. It is more than probable that the chapel was +consecrated very soon after it was finished. It does not come within the +scope of a work like this to enter into technical details on matters +connected with architecture; but for chaste beauty, for elaborate carving, +and solidity of structure, it may be said that Cormac’s Chapel is one of +the most wonderful ecclesiastical buildings of its age in Christendom. The +practised eye of the trained architectural critic might notice some signs +of decay about it, some effacement in the gorgeous carvings or designs +with which almost every stone of the interior is more or less covered; but +to the ordinary observer, the whole building, within and without, seems +almost as perfect as it was the day its architect pronounced it finished. +If Cormac’s Chapel were only larger, it would be the noblest and most +remarkable ecclesiastical building of its age in the British Isles, or +probably in Europe. But, unfortunately, it is very small, the nave being +only about thirty feet in length, and the choir only about eighteen. But +what it lacks in size is made up in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> elaborate carving, chaste design, and +solidity of structure. It looks as if it would last until the day of doom, +and as if nothing but an earthquake could destroy it. Its very roof seems +as strong and as perfect as its walls. It is of cut stone laid on with +geometrical exactness, as sound and as solid as ever it was. However +imposing the <i>coup d’oeil</i> that “the rock-throned pediments and towers” of +Cashel may present from without, it is an examination of this gem of +antique architectural beauty that gives one the highest opinion of the +artistic skill of those whose appreciation of the unique and beautiful led +them to choose this towering rock as a fit place on which to raise +edifices dedicated to the Deity.</p> + +<p>It is strange how it was that the ancient or rather the mediæval Irish, +who knew how to erect such beautiful and enduring stone and mortar +structures as the round towers, and such gems of architectural beauty as +Cormac’s Chapel is, and as Mellifont Abbey certainly was, should have +housed their kings and chiefs in dwellings of wood, whose only defence was +an earthen rampart surmounted by a palisade of stakes, or in a Cyclopean +fortress of dry stones. It is absolutely certain that not a single castle +built of stones and mortar existed in Ireland prior to the Anglo-French +invasion.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> The Irish knew how to build round towers and churches, but seem +never to have thought of building castles until their invaders taught them +to build them. The thing looks very curious, but, on closer examination, +it does not appear so strange, for it is now pretty well known that none +of the Northern nations had castles before the eleventh century. The +French seem to have been the first of the Northern nations that had +castles. It is very doubtful if there was a castle in Great Britain before +the Norman-French conquest. If there were castles in England or Scotland +before the battle of Hastings, they were imitations of those on the +Continent, and were probably designed and built by Continental architects +and mechanics. Neither the Scandinavians nor Northern-Germans appear to +have had castles until late in the middle ages, when they copied them from +more Southern nations. But it was the Norman-French that brought the art +of castle building to its greatest perfection.</p> + +<p>The ruins of Hoar Abbey, or St Mary’s Abbey, as it is sometimes called, +are situated close to the Rock, but not on it. It is believed to have been +founded by the Benedictine order in the thirteenth century.</p> + +<p>Cashel is interesting in almost every way. There<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> is a magnificent view +from its ruin-crowned rock over some of the fairest and most fertile land +in Ireland. Nor is a mountain view wanting, for the Galtees, the second +highest range of mountains in Ireland, are visible, and a noble range they +are, not rounded lumps like so many of the Wicklow Hills, but steep, +sheer, cloud-piercing heights,—Alps in miniature. It is a pity that the +town, or rather the city, of Cashel is not larger and more thriving. It +may have been, like Glendaloch and Kildare, much larger in early Christian +times than it is at present, but there does not seem to be any statement +of the fact in any of the old Gaelic books, so far as is known to the +writer. But whatever may have been the past history of the city of Cashel, +no one in search of the picturesque, the unique, or the historic in +Ireland should fail to see its Rock. It is said that when Scott visited +Ireland he was more impressed by the Rock of Cashel than by anything else +of its kind that he saw in the country.</p> + +<p>Of all the remains of Christian edifices in Ireland, Cashel, Glendaloch, +and Clonmacnois are the most interesting. It is not only by the beauty or +peculiarity of their situations that they impress us, for their histories +go so far back into the past, when the combat of Christianity with +Druidism was still going on, that we may regard them as the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> advance posts +of a purer cult in the ground conquered from paganism. It would be hard to +find in Europe three other places of a similar kind more antique, more +interesting, or more worthy of being respected. What remains of their +hallowed ruins should be guarded with jealous care, and saved from any +further uprooting or profanation.</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span></p> +<h2>LOCH ERNE</h2> + + +<p>Loch Erne and Loch Ree are not only the most beautiful, but the most +historic of the great lakes of Ireland. Loch Neagh is larger than either +of them, and Loch Dearg and Loch Corrib are probably nearly as large; but +none of those three is as picturesque as either of the two first-mentioned +lakes. The shores of Loch Dearg are bolder and more mountainous than those +of either Loch Erne or Loch Ree, but Loch Dearg lacks the island-studded +surface of the two latter, which is their great charm. Whether Loch Erne +or Loch Ree is the more beautiful is not easy to decide. Both are as +beautiful sheets of water as can be easily found, but both lack mountain +scenery in the true sense of the phrase. There are some high lands on the +lower part of Loch Erne, but they can hardly be called mountains. In +number and variety of its islands, Loch Erne is only surpassed by that +famous lake on the vast St Lawrence, known as the Thousand Isles.</p> + +<p> <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span></p> +<div class="bbox" style="width: 500px; height: 395px;"><img src="images/img09.jpg" alt="" /></div> +<p class="caption">VIEW ON UPPER LOCH ERNE.</p> +<p> </p> + +<p>Loch Erne is certainly the most peculiar and also the longest lake in +Ireland. From where it may be said to begin, near Belturbet in the County +Cavan, to where it ceases to be a lake, and pours its waters into the sea +through the river Erne, it is fully thirty-five miles long in a bird line. +Its peculiarity consists in its extraordinary beginnings, and the number +of its islands. Its beginnings are winding, mazy, and, on the map, almost +untraceable water ways, that twist and turn in almost every direction +through swamps and bogs, with no attraction save for the sportsman in +pursuit of water fowl. As one approaches Enniskillen the glories of Loch +Erne commence.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> There is nothing in the shape of mountains to be seen, but +they are not missed; for such is the beauty of green round hills on both +sides, and such the wondrous number and variety of the islands, that if +there were mountains as lofty as the Alps in view, one could hardly spare +time to look at them. The islands seem innumerable, and the shores are so +indented with bays, and the lake itself so pierced by jutting headlands, +that on sailing on Loch Erne it is often impossible to know an island from +a peninsula, or a peninsula from an island. There is certainly no lake in +Ireland or in Great Britain whose shores are so indented as are those of +Loch Erne. The great charm of its shores and islands is their roundness +and their greenness. They are not low or swampy, but high and swelling, +forming scenes of quiet, and, it might be said, pastoral beauty, on which +one could gaze for days and weeks without tiring. Variety of the most +striking kind is one of the peculiarities of Loch Erne. It begins in +tortuous, narrow, confused bog streams. It then assumes its fairest +aspect, studded with innumerable islands, and sometimes so narrowed by +far-entering promontories that it is in some places only a few hundred +yards wide; but as it spreads northwards it gets wider and wider, until at +last it is like a great inland sea, seven or eight<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> miles wide. If finer +views may be had of Loch Ree than of Loch Erne, in variety of scenery, +number of islands, and startling contrasts, Loch Erne is without a rival +among Irish lakes. If it and Loch Ree had the mountains of Killarney, +Killarney might well tremble for the fame it enjoys of being the most +beautiful of Irish lakes.</p> + +<p>Loch Erne is divided into upper and lower lakes. The clean and thriving +town of Enniskillen is situated on the straight, or narrow river, that +joins the two lakes; but it may be said that there are not two lakes, but +only one, for Enniskillen is situated where the lake narrows into what +might be called a river, but a river full of islands and bays, just as the +upper lake is. Its multitude of islands is the charm of Loch Erne. The +best authorities say that there are a hundred and nine islands in the +lower lake, and ninety in the upper. It is a shame that a small steam-boat +does not ply regularly, at least in summer time, from one end of this +noble sheet of water to the other. If Loch Erne, with its marvellous +variety and beauty of scenery, were in any other European country, there +would be not one but half-a-dozen steam-boats on it. It is strange that +the inhabitants of Enniskillen do not make an effort to establish a line +of light draft-steamers on Loch Erne that would ply on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> both upper and +lower lakes. A small steamer does sometimes, according to report, ply in +the summer between Enniskillen and Beleek; but it does not appear that any +steamer has ever navigated the waters of the upper lake, which is the more +picturesque of the two. Nothing could more plainly show the backward +condition of Ireland than the fact that there is no regular line of +passenger steam-boats either on the Upper Shannon or on Loch Erne. +Tourists, or those in search of picturesque localities, will never go to +places where there is not proper accommodation for them. No matter how +beautiful the scenery may be, it will not be visited by any large number +of people unless they can have comforts in travelling and lodging. +Switzerland attracts more rich people to visit it in summer-time than any +other country in the world; but, with all its marvellous beauties of +mountain, lake, and river, it would never attract the multitudes that go +there every year if they did not find good travelling and good hotel +accommodation. In Switzerland there are steam-boats on every lake and on +every river where there are beautiful sights to be seen. There are lakes +in it that are visited every year by crowds of tourists, who would find +sights as beautiful on Loch Erne or on Loch Ree, and who would visit those +lakes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> if they knew that they could find on their waters, or on their +shores, the travelling comforts and the hotel comforts they find in +Switzerland. It has to be frankly admitted that the reason why the +beauties of Ireland are so comparatively little known is largely owing to +the Irish themselves. Let them provide better accommodation for the +travelling public, and Ireland will attract people who heretofore have +never visited it.</p> + +<p>Loch Erne is, as has been already stated, thirty-five miles long, and is +navigable, or could with very little expense be made navigable, for light +draft steam-boats all that distance. If there is anything in the shape of +an aquatic excursion that could be really delightful, it would be a sail +on Loch Erne, especially on the narrow waters of the upper lake, where, on +the windiest day, the most nervous or the most delicate would have nothing +to fear from a rough sea, as they would on Loch Ree or on Loch Dearg, +where the water is sometimes very far from smooth, even in summer. On Loch +Erne, especially on the upper lake, change of scene takes place every +minute. It is a continual surprise of green islands, flowery promontories, +swelling hills, and tortuous passages, and is on a fine summer or autumn +day something to enchant even the most indifferent to the beauties of +nature.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span>It is really deplorable that not alone the antiquities but the beauties of +Ireland are not better known to people of other countries. They never can +be known as they should be until better facilities for knowing them are to +be had. Much has been done of late in providing better hotel +accommodation, and much more will be done in the same line before long. Up +to a few years ago it was impossible to find an hotel where any +respectable person would like to stay in some of the most beautiful places +and amid some of the grandest scenery of Donegal, Mayo, and Kerry; but +there are now dozens of hotels in those localities where the most +fastidious will find all the comforts they could reasonably expect. But +the internal navigation of the country is fearfully neglected. The +peculiar glory, or at least one of the principal attractions of Ireland in +a scenic point of view, is its lakes and rivers. No other country perhaps +in the world, of equal size, has such an abundance of lakes and rivers; +but in no country, except it may be Finnland or Central Africa, are so few +steam-boats to be seen on inland waters. It was right to move first in the +direction of good hotel accommodation, but the next move ought to be to +provide passenger steam-boats to ply on the great waters of such noble +lakes as Loch<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> Erne, Loch Corrib, Loch Ree, and Loch Dearg, and on all the +waters of the Upper Shannon. It is to be hoped that the present sad want +of accommodation on Irish lakes and rivers will be of short duration, for +the people of Ireland seem to be awakening to the knowledge not only that +they have a country, but that it is one of the most beautiful countries in +the world.</p> + +<p>But Loch Erne has attractions besides its multitudinous islands, its +jutting promontories, winding shores, and encircling hills. It has +attractions for the antiquarian as well as for the lover of nature.</p> + +<p>One of the most ancient of Ireland’s ancient round towers stands on +Devinish Island, in the upper lake. It is one of the most perfect, if it +is not one of the highest, round towers in the country. There would be no +use in speculating on its age, for we are generally left completely in the +dark as to the time of the erection of round towers. There are many +allusions to them in Irish annals, but the time of the building of them is +mentioned only in a few places. The first mention of Devinish by the Four +Masters is in <span class="smcaplc">A.D.</span> 721, telling of the death of one of its abbots. +Devinish, spelled correctly, <i>Daimhinis</i>, means “ox island.” A Christian +church was erected on it at a very early date, probably during the +lifetime of St Patrick, for we are told<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> in ancient Annals that Molaise, +who appears to have been the first abbot of the monastery that was there, +died in 563. A Latin life of St Aeden says that Molaise “ruled many monks +in an island in <i>Stagno Erne</i>, called Daimhinis by the Irish.” It was +plundered and burnt many times by the Danes, or some other Northmen, but +almost devastated by them in 836, and at other times; it was burnt in 1157 +and in 1360. It seems, not like Glendaloch, Monasterboice, and many other +places that were abandoned at an early date, to have had a church or +monastery on it until the beginning of the seventeenth century. The last +mention of it by the Four Masters is under the year 1602.</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span></p> +<h2>MELLIFONT AND MONASTERBOICE</h2> + + +<p>Of all the ancient remains in the County Louth connected with Christian +antiquities, the ruins of Mellifont and Monasterboice are by far the most +interesting and important. They are only two miles apart, and only about +four from Drogheda. Starting from there both places can easily be seen in +one day. There is not, even in the beautiful and picturesque county of +Louth, a more beautiful location for a church or monastery than the glen +in which all the remains of Mellifont is to be seen. It is not a mountain +glen; there is no wildness or savageness about it; it is simply a +depression in a rich lowland country, with luxuriant crops of grain and +grass all round it, and a clear rushing river flowing through +it,—supremely beautiful in summer-time and charming even in winter. In +summer and autumn days when the hills around it are radiant with flowers +of almost every hue, Mellifont even in its desolation is worth journeying +a hundred miles to see.</p> + +<p>But in spite of the beauty of the glen in which the ruins are situated, +and in spite of the beauty of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> what remains of the ruins themselves, no +right-minded person, no matter what his creed or nationality may be, can +look on Mellifont without being not only pained but shocked at the +desolation that has been wrought upon it, and the traces of barbarism, +hate, and vandalism that stare him in the face. Why such uprooting was +done in Mellifont one can easily understand, but <i>how</i> it was done is a +puzzle. Here stood probably the largest and most beautiful of all Irish +monasteries, but hardly a square foot of it remains overground, save the +baptistry and chapter house. The walls have been levelled down to their +very foundations. A building of such enormous size must have had high +walls, but hardly a vestige of them remains. If they were blown up by +gunpowder, the material of which they were made would remain, if it had +not been carried away. Few traces of the walls are to be seen, +consequently one must conclude that the greater part of the very stones of +which they were built has been removed to some place of which no one now +alive knows anything. A mill was built close by the river about eighty +years ago, but it contains in its walls few, if any, of the stones of +Mellifont. They had disappeared long before the erection of the mill. The +spoilers of Mellifont were not satisfied by uprooting it, for they seem to +have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> removed the greater part of the stones of which it was built. If +Mellifont had not been so razed to the ground it would, even in its +nakedness and desolation, be one of the most beautiful ecclesiastical +ruins in Europe, and would attract a hundred visitors for the one it +attracts now.</p> + +<p>Mellifont is one of the few Irish ruined abbeys that has a Latin instead +of an Irish name. No one seems to have yet found out what its Irish name +is, or if it ever had one. Our annalists almost invariably call it the +“Drogheda Monastery.” The Four Masters call it “Mellifont” only once. In +the “Annals of Loch Cé” it is called the “Great Monastery,” for there +seems no doubt that it was the largest house of the kind in Ireland. The +extent of the church itself can now be distinctly traced, thanks to the +excavations that were made by the Board of Works some years ago. It was +180 feet in length, with proportional breadth; the entire area covered +with buildings was fully an English acre, and there were evidently many +outlying buildings connected with, or forming part of the monastery, +hardly a trace of which now remains. The small chapel on a hill outside of +the monastery is thought to have been founded by St Bernard at the time +the monastery was built. There is also about the fourth of what was once<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> +a strong castle remaining. It was evidently built after the Anglo-French +invasion, but by whom seems not to be definitely known.</p> + +<p>Mellifont was founded in 1142, and richly endowed by O’Carrol, Prince of +Oriel. He was famed for his generosity and piety. The establishment was +built for the Order of Cistercians. From the middle of the eleventh +century to the middle of the twelfth was the time when most of the large +abbeys and monasteries of Ireland were founded; and many of them, like +that of Cong, were built in places that had long been occupied by smaller +and plainer ecclesiastical structures like those remaining in Clonmacnois +and Monasterboice. The <i>renaissance</i> of Irish ecclesiastical architecture +in the eleventh and twelfth centuries is, probably, attributable to two +things—the cessation of Danish plundering and the conquest of England by +the Norman-French. The Danish military power in Ireland got a blow at +Clontarf from which it never recovered; after that battle there were +comparatively few monasteries raided, and the Irish began to erect large +and costly structures in place of the small and often severely plain +churches of an earlier period. The Norman-French introduced into England +what is called a Romanesque ecclesiastical architecture that was much +superior<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> to that of the Saxons; and it seems certain that the Irish +copied, to a certain extent, the style of building adopted by the +conquerors of the Saxons; but the invasion of Ireland by those same +conquerors in the latter half of the twelfth century seems to have +arrested the development, not only of architecture, but of almost +everything that tended to benefit the country. Most of the great churches +and abbeys of Ireland were erected before Strongbow set foot in it. It is +strange and hard to be understood how it came to pass that, terrible as +were the ravages of the Danes, they put no stop to the development of Art +in Ireland. Monasteries would be raided and churches burned by them many +times within a few years, but this seems not to have put a stop either to +the establishment of monasteries or the building of churches. Lord +Dunraven says, in his book on ancient Irish architecture, that “it is +remarkable that the fearful struggle with the Norsemen, which lasted for +over two hundred years, and ended in their final defeat in 1014 [at +Clontarf] does not seem to have materially paralysed the energies of the +Irish nation as regards their native arts.” It is, however, certain that +it was not until the military power of the Norseman was broken that +ecclesiastical architecture became a real glory in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> Ireland. But the +Anglo-French invasion seems to have put a stop, not only to the +development of architecture, but of art of all kinds. It is a strange fact +that the heathen Dane should have been less of a curse to Irish art than +the Christian Englishman.</p> + +<p>The first mention of Mellifont by the Four Masters occurs under the year +1152, when a great synod of three thousand ecclesiastics was held there. +It was in Mellifont that the woman whose crime is supposed to have been +the cause of the English invasion of Ireland died in the year 1193. This +was Dearvorgil, the faithless wife of O’Ruarc, whom Moore has called +“falsest of women.” It is, however, now thought by most of those who have +studied Irish history closely that Dermott MacMorrough’s relations with +this lady had nothing whatever to do with his banishment. They point out +the fact that it was about ten years after Dearvorgil had been restored to +her people that MacMorrough was banished, and maintain that the true cause +of his banishment was in order to re-impose the tribute on the province of +Leinster, the Danes being no longer able to assist the Leinstermen as they +were wont to do. The other provincial rulers wanted to have the King of +Leinster put out of the way, for, as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> he was a warlike man, they knew he +would fight to the bitter end for the protection of his province. If this +version of the matter is true, it goes far to free Dermott MacMorrough +from the odium that rests on his memory.</p> + +<p>Monasterboice is one of the oldest places connected with Christianity in +Ireland. Its foundation may have been as old as the time of St Patrick, +for Buite, from whom it takes its name, and by whom it probably was +founded, died in the year 524. There seems good reason to believe that +“Buite” is the original form of the now very plentiful name “Boyd,” but +how Monaster Buite got twisted into Monasterboice is a mystery. The +situation of this ancient place is not nearly so picturesque as that of +Mellifont. There is no rushing river and no deep glen. Still the situation +is good, and the country around very fine, and, like most parts of Louth, +well cultivated. The peculiar glories of Monasterboice are its crosses and +its round tower. There are three crosses, two in good preservation, but +one was so broken that it had to be patched or fastened into solid stone +work. It is most likely that it was purposely destroyed, for barbarians +have done their best to cut down the great cross that stands in the same +enclosure—the finest of all ancient<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> Irish crosses. It must have taken +days for a strong man with a heavy sledge-hammer to make such a deep +indentation in the hard stone of which the cross is made. It was its +extreme hardness that saved it from destruction and defacement. But hard +as the stone of those crosses may be, it cannot resist the action of the +elements, for the sculptures with which they are covered are now so +effaced by time and weather, that they seem little more than masses of +unintelligible tracings; but when those noble crosses were fresh from +their makers’ hands they must have been magnificent specimens of early +Irish art.</p> + +<p>The round tower of Monasterboice is one of the finest in Ireland. Its top +has been broken off by lightning, but what remains of it is 110 feet in +height. It must have been at least 130 feet high when perfect, which would +make it one of the highest of the round towers of Ireland. The mason work +is of the very best kind, although the stones are uncut, and were +evidently found in the immediate neighbourhood of the tower. There is a +peculiarity about this tower which is not to be seen in any other +structure of the same kind—it is not quite perpendicular. The author of +the great book on ancient Irish architecture, already referred to, says +that “it leans to one side on the north-west, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> has a very peculiar +curve. Where the curve commences a distinct change of masonry is visible. +When the tower was built to this height the foundation began to settle +down, and when this was perceived the builders very skilfully carried up +the building in a nearly vertical line, so as to counteract the tendency +to lean and to preserve the centre of gravity.” It seems a pity that the +Board of Works does not repair this splendid structure, and put a new top +of antique model on it; it would be, if perfect, the grandest of Irish +round towers.</p> + +<p>Monasterboice became a ruin many centuries before Mellifont; the latter +continued to be a Catholic religious establishment down to the time of +Elizabeth, but Monasterboice seems to have been abandoned in the twelfth +or thirteenth century. The last notice of it, or any one connected with +it, by the Four Masters, is under the year 1122, when they record the +death of Fergna, “a wise priest.” What caused this famous establishment to +be abandoned, or at least to cease to be mentioned in Irish annals at such +an early period, seems enveloped in a good deal of mystery. It was +plundered more than once by the Danes, and it may be that any wooden +buildings it contained were burnt by them and never re-erected, for, like<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> +Clonmacnois, what remains of its two churches shows them to have been so +small that they could not accommodate any large number of persons. Being +so near Mellifont may also have led to its abandonment when the latter +place became one of the greatest religious houses in Ireland. If +Monasterboice was not so large as Mellifont, its abbots and professors +seem to have been greater scholars and harder workers than those of the +great monastery. Flann of Monasterboice was one of the most noted literary +men of ancient, or rather of mediæval, Ireland, for he flourished in the +eleventh century. He is considered one of the most truthful and correct of +Irish annalists, and has left behind him important works that have been +preserved to the present day.</p> + +<p>The country in the vicinity of Mellifont and Monasterboice is not only +very fair to look on, but highly interesting in an archæological point of +view. The town of Drogheda, the nearest place to the interesting ruins +treated of in this article, is the only place in their vicinity where +hotel accommodation can be found. It is full of historic interest and +curious remains of the past. But to the antiquarian, to one who wants to +see monuments as old as the Pyramids of Egypt, the <i>Brogha na Bóinne</i>, or +burghs of the Boyne, should be a great<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> attraction. They are the most +colossal things of the kind known to exist in any part of Europe. One is +known by the name of New Grange, and the other is called Dowth. Both +places are on the Boyne, and only a few miles west of Drogheda. They are +enormous, partially underground caverns, lined and roofed with great +flag-stones. They are entirely pre-historic, and are supposed to have been +used as places in which to deposit the ashes of the dead; but their real +use can hardly be more than guessed at. It is generally thought by +archæologists that they were erected by the Tuatha de Danaans, who +occupied Ireland before the Milesians; but authentic history is silent +about these gigantic structures. More than a dozen of such structures were +discovered some years ago in the Sleeve na Caillighe Hills, near +Oldcastle, in the County Meath. They are just like those in New Grange and +Dowth, but not nearly so large. The flat stones that form the linings of +those curious caverns or tumuli are covered with incised and generally +semi-circular markings. They bear all the appearance of being writing of +some kind, but no clue to its interpretation has yet been discovered. +These markings were certainly not made for fun; neither could they have +been made for ornament, for they are <i>not</i> ornamental. There are<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span> +thousands of them, counting what are in the tumuli on the banks of the +Boyne and in the same kind of places in the hills near Oldcastle. It is a +pity that no one competent for it has ever tried to decipher this curious +writing, for writing of some kind it certainly is. When the cuniform +inscriptions on the bricks of Assyria have been interpreted, it is strange +that no one has tried to find out the meaning of the writing on the stones +of these Irish tumuli.</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span></p> +<h2>TRIM CASTLE</h2> + + +<p>Of all the buildings for defensive purposes that the Anglo-Normans, or, +more correctly, the Anglo-French, ever raised in Ireland, the castle of +Trim is the largest and most imposing. It has stood many a siege, and it +seems that one wing of it has entirely disappeared; but what remains of it +still is a gigantic structure. No other Anglo-French keep in Ireland had +such an extensive <i>enceinte</i>. There cannot be much less than three acres +of enclosed ground round it. The outworks have been, to a large extent, +demolished, but enough of them remains to show that when the castle was in +repair, when its outward defences were perfect, and before the invention +of gunpowder, it could have defied the largest army that ever Irish king +or chieftain led. The place chosen for the site of this castle is +perfectly flat. It is not on a hill. Its builder seems to have known that +its six feet thick walls would be impregnable to any army that could be +brought against it, whether it was on a hill or in a hollow. Its situation +is very fine on the banks of the Boyne,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> and in the centre of a country +considered by many to be the richest land in Ireland.</p> + +<p> </p> +<div class="bbox" style="width: 500px; height: 373px;"><img src="images/img10.jpg" alt="" /></div> +<p class="caption">TRIM CASTLE.</p> +<p> </p> + +<p>Never did any people bring the art of castle-building to such perfection +as did the Anglo-French; and, strange as it may appear, it was not in +England they raised their finest castles, but in Wales and in Ireland. +They must have known almost immediately after the battle of Hastings that +no serious resistance would ever be made against them in England, but they +were not so sure about Ireland and Wales; there do<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> not seem, therefore, +to have been any castles erected by them in England during the twelfth and +thirteenth centuries as fine as those they erected in those parts of their +dominions like Ireland and Wales, that were not fully conquered. Conway +and Caernarvon Castles in Wales, and Trim Castle in Ireland, are thought +to be the finest they ever erected. With all the architectural skill the +Greeks and Romans possessed, it is very doubtful if they understood the +art of castle building as well as the Norman-French did. The latter built +buildings that would last almost as long as the earth itself. That part of +the walls of Trim Castle that yet remains is as sound as it was the day it +was built; and if let alone and not overturned by an earthquake it will be +as sound a thousand years hence as it is to-day.</p> + +<p> <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span></p> +<div class="bbox" style="width: 500px; height: 487px;"><img src="images/img11.jpg" alt="" /></div> +<p class="caption">TRIM CASTLE.</p> +<p> </p> + +<p>Trim Castle was built towards the close of the twelfth century by Hugo de +Lacy, the greatest castle builder ever the Anglo-French produced. He built +the great castle at Clonmacnois, which has been already described. He +built another fine one in Carlow, and was building the castle of Durrow, +in the King’s County, when a young Irishman, who had evidently come +prepared to kill him, struck off his head with a blow of an axe as he was +stooping down to examine the work. If Hugo de Lacy had not been killed, he +would certainly have built many more castles, not only in the English +Pale, but throughout Ireland. But Trim Castle was the finest structure of +its kind that he ever raised. Lewis’ Irish Topography says that the Castle +of Trim was built in 1220. This is just such a mistake as one would expect +to find in books like it, Hall’s, and others of their kind, which were +written by persons almost wholly unacquainted with the history of the +country about<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> which they wrote, and entirely unacquainted with its +language and native literature. Trim Castle must have been built before +1186, for Hugo de Lacy was killed in that year. The same extraordinary +publication says that Trim was burned by Connor O’Melaghlin in 1108, and +that over two hundred people were burned in the monastery. It would be +interesting to know where Lewis got his information about this matter. He +did not get it from any authentic source, for the annals of the Four +Masters, the annals of Clonmacnois, the annals of Inisfallan, the annals +of Ulster, and the <i>Chronicon Scottorum</i> are all silent about it.</p> + +<p>Hugo de Lacy was undoubtedly the greatest of the Anglo-French invaders of +Ireland. Although he was killed, he was not killed for any other cause +except that of his having been an invader; for in spite of his +castle-building propensities, he was in no way prejudiced against the +native Irish. This is proved by his having married a daughter of Roderick +O’Connor, King of Connacht, and nominally, but only nominally, King of +Ireland. For having done so, he was recalled from the nominal government +of Ireland with which he had been entrusted by Henry the Second; but +Henry, probably finding that he could not get<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> anyone else so well fitted +for the office, allowed him to retain it. But Hugo appears to have again +given offence to Henry on account of his leniency to the Irish lords who +were under him, and Prince John, who was afterwards King, was sent to +Ireland by Henry because Hugo did not exact any tribute from the Irish. We +are not told how he got out of this scrape, and he was killed the next +year. He was buried in Bective Abbey, but his body was afterwards removed +to Dublin. Hugo de Lacy seems to have been as friendly to the Irish as it +was possible for one in his position to be, and it is almost certain that +he cherished the hope of bringing the whole island under his rule and +making himself King. It was evidently his ambition, of which Henry appears +to have been fully aware, that caused the trouble between him and his +master. That the Irish petty kings, and the Irish people of the time, +would have accepted the rule of a stranger who had proved himself a strong +man, is very probable, for the country was in the very deepest slough of +political confusion and anarchy. Never, during the worst times of Danish +plundering, had Ireland been in such a state of political chaos as she was +in the twelfth century. The usurpation of the chief<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> kingship by Brian +Boramha was followed by a century and a half of revolution caused by those +who aspired to be chief kings. O’Brians, O’Connors, O’Lochlainns, Mac +Murroughs, all aspirants for the monarchy, made the island, as the Four +Masters so graphically put it, “a shaking sod,” and the Irish would have +accepted the rule of anyone who would have saved them from themselves. It +was the state of political chaos into which the country had fallen that +accounts for the slight resistance that Strongbow met in Ireland. The +Northmen were met by the sword, and fought for over two hundred years, +until they were, if not entirely banished, at least reduced to political +powerlessness; but a mere handful of invaders, whose military prowess was +in no way superior to that of the Northmen, became, <i>de facto</i>, the rulers +of the country in a few years after they had landed. It is more than +probable that if Hugo de Lacy had lived, he would have risked a war with +Henry, and have tried to make himself King of Ireland; and it is more than +probable that the Irish would have willingly accepted his rule.</p> + +<p>If de Lacy’s gigantic castle had never been built in Trim, it would still +be an historic place. According to the most authentic annals, St Patrick<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> +founded a church there as early as 432, and Bishop Ere is the first name +that is mentioned in connection with it after that of St Patrick. Trim +continued to be an important place on account of its castle and its Church +of St Mary’s, until the time of Cromwell. It was strongly garrisoned by +the Royalists; but after hearing of the taking of Drogheda, and the +shocking massacre committed there, the garrison surrendered. Only one +gable of the old Church of St Mary’s remains. Judging by the great height +of the part that remains, the Church must have been a very large one. The +exact date of the building of the church or monastery to which the +still-standing tower or steeple belonged, is not known with certainty, but +it could not have formed part of the original one erected in the time of +St Patrick.</p> + +<p>The most celebrated place in the immediate vicinity of Trim is Dangan +Castle, where the Duke of Wellington is said by some to have been born. +When Dangan passed out of the Duke’s family, it was inhabited by a person +who let it go partially to ruin. It was burned early in the present +century, and is now an unsightly ruin. It is curious that there should be +such doubt about the birth-place of one who made such a figure in the +world as Wellington. Some say<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> he was born in Dangan Castle; some say he +was born in Dublin; but the people of Trim maintain that he was born in +their town. The last time the writer was in Trim he was shown the house in +which the Duke was said to have been born. He was told by a truthful and +respectable resident of Trim that the Duke’s mother had started from +Dangan on her way to Dublin so that she might have the best medical aid +during her expected accouchement, but having been taken ill when she got +as far as Trim, she took lodgings in the town, and that it was there the +Duke of Wellington was born. The exact truth about the matter will +probably never be known.</p> + +<p>A curious story is told in Trim about the early boyhood of Wellington. It +is said that he clomb the still standing tower or gable of the old church +so high that he found it impossible to get down, and was in a position of +great danger. All the ropes and ladders in the town were brought out, but +it was found impossible to get him down. A rough tower like that at Trim +might be clomb easily enough, but it might not be so easy to get down. The +afterwards victor of Waterloo was told that he could not be saved, and +that, if he had any will to make, to make it without<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span> delay. He is said to +have taken the announcement very coolly, and to have willed his tops, +balls, and other playthings to the boys that were his favourites, and not +to have shed a tear or shown any fear whatever. After having been many +hours in his dangerous and far from comfortable situation, he was at +length, and with great difficulty, rescued.</p> + +<p>The country round Trim is most interesting and full of ruined fanes. The +church of Trim was believed to contain an image or picture of the Virgin, +at which we are told many and extraordinary miracles were performed. Trim +was a sort of Irish Lourdes in the middle ages, to which the sick and +suffering used to go in multitudes. There was also the Abbey of Newtown, +the ruins of which still stand on the banks of the Boyne close by Trim. It +was founded in the year 1206 by Simon Rochefort, Bishop of Meath, the +first Englishman that is known to have had so high an ecclesiastical +position in Ireland after the invasion. The ruins of Bective Abbey are +only a few miles up the river from Trim, in a beautiful situation on the +banks of the “clear, bright Boyne,” as the old Gaelic poets loved to call +it. Bective was founded for the Cistercian order by O’Melachlinn, King of +Meath, about the middle<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> of the twelfth century. It is a beautiful ruin, +and in a beautiful locality.</p> + +<p>There is, perhaps, no part of Ireland more interesting to the antiquarian, +the historian, or the lover of rich landscapes than the valley of the +Boyne. That little stream is the most historic waterway in Ireland. Its +name occurs oftener in Irish history and legend than that of any other +river. On its banks are to be seen the pre-historic tumuli of New Grange +and Dowth, the oldest monuments of pre-historic civilisation that have yet +been discovered on Irish soil. The Boyne may be said to be the river of +Tara, for it flows almost at the foot of that hill so celebrated in Irish +history, legend, and song.</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span></p> +<h2>CONG ABBEY</h2> + + +<p>It is doubtful if there is in Ireland—there certainly is not in the +province of Connacht—a more interesting ruin than Cong Abbey. Its +situation is beautiful, between two great lakes, with a background of some +of the wildest and ruggedest mountains in Ireland. It would be hard to +conceive of a place more suited for a life of religious meditation than +this venerable pile, into which he who is called Ireland’s last chief king +retired to bewail his sins and lament for the power that his own +pusillanimity and carelessness had allowed to pass away from him and his +family for ever. If Roderick O’Connor was the last of Ireland’s monarchs, +he was also one of her worst. History hardly tells of a good act of his +except the endowment of the Abbey of Cong; and the greater the light is +that is thrown on the history of Ireland by the translation of her ancient +annals, the weaker and more imbecile the character of Roderick appears, +and the more just and merited that which Moore says of him in his history +of Ireland:—“The only<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> feeling the name [of Roderick] awakens is that of +pity for the doomed country which at such a crisis of its fortunes, when +honour, safety, independence, and national existence were all at stake, +was cursed for the crowning of its evil destiny with a ruler and leader so +entirely unworthy of his high calling.” If the Anglo-French invasion of +Ireland had occurred in the reign of his brave and warlike father, +Turloch, one of the greatest of those who claimed the chief sovereignty of +Ireland, the invaders would almost certainly have been all killed within a +month after they landed, and the subsequent history of Ireland would +probably be very different from what it has been.</p> + +<p>Irish annals tell us that the first religious establishment in Cong was +founded by St Fechin in the year 624; but John O’Donovan says in a note in +his translation of the Four Masters that Roderick O’Connor founded and +endowed the Abbey of Cong. That a religious house of some kind was founded +in it by St Fechin there can be no doubt at all, for up to a recent period +it was known as Cunga Fechin, or Cong of Fechin. O’Donovan may have meant +that Roderick O’Connor endowed and founded the abbey, the remains of +which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> exist at present, for not a vestige of the original building +founded by St Fechin remains. It was, like most of the very early churches +and religious houses of ancient Ireland, built entirely of wood, and has +consequently long ago disappeared. Cong was originally a bishopric. There +were five bishoprics in the province of Connacht—namely, Tuam, Killala, +Clonfert, Ardcharne, and Cong. The Synod that settled the question of the +bishoprics of Connacht met at Rathbrassil, in what is now the Queen’s +County, in 1010. The abbey, the remains of which still exist, was founded +in 1128 by the Augustinians, during the reign of Roderick O’Connor’s +heroic father, Turloch. Roderick subsequently endowed it, and ended his +days in it. It is an interesting and suggestive fact that most of the +great religious establishments of Ireland were not only founded but built +in the material that now remains of them before the Anglo-French invasion, +showing clearly that that event put a stop to almost everything that could +be called progress. The invaders, although professing the same faith as +the invaded, were much more anxious to build castles than churches. There +was hardly a castle in Ireland before the time of Strongbow. This was not +caused by ignorance of the art of building<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span> among the Irish, for some of +the round towers and churches erected long before the time of Strongbow +are as perfect specimens of architecture as were erected in any country at +the same period. The native Irish king, or chief, was contented with a +wooden house surrounded by an embankment, capped with a palisade of wood; +but the Norman raised mighty edifices of stone to protect him from the +wrath of those he had robbed.</p> + +<p>Cong Abbey is a large building nearly 150 feet in length. Few of the +ancient churches of Ireland are any longer, and many of them are not +nearly so long. It would be a mistake to say that the ruins at Cong are in +a good state of preservation, for traces of violence and vandalism are +apparent almost everywhere on them. The whole place has a terribly +dilapidated look. It has been said that only for ivy and the Guinnesses +the Abbey of Cong would have tumbled down long ago. It is true that ivy +has prevented great masses of masonry from falling; and it is true that +the late Sir Benjamin Guinness did a good deal of mending on the old +walls. But it was before his time, when religious intolerance was worse +than it is at present, that Cong Abbey was mutilated and defaced. It is +sad to know<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span> that there is hardly an old religious edifice in Ireland that +has not suffered from sectarian animosity. The ruins of Mellifont, near +Drogheda, have been torn up from their foundations, so that hardly a trace +of that once magnificent abbey now remains except the crypts and the vast +walls and fosses by which it was surrounded. Ruthless vandals tried their +best with sledges and hammers to overthrow the great cross of +Monasterboice in Louth, but the stone of which it consists was too hard +for them, for they only succeeded in mutilating what they could not +destroy.</p> + +<p>In its present dilapidated condition it is hardly possible to form a +correct idea of what Cong Abbey was in the days of its splendour. It is +almost impossible, also, to form an exact idea of its general plan, for +many comparatively modern additions have evidently been made to it. Its +having been used as a burying place within recent times has, as the same +thing has done at Clonmacnois, sadly interfered with its picturesqueness. +But, as at Mellifont, “enough of its glory remains” to show that it must +have been a building of exquisite beauty. Some of its floral capitals +carved on limestone are as fine specimens of the carver’s art as can be +found anywhere in the world. Both Sir William Wilde<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> and Doctor Petrie +agree in this. There was probably no abbey in Ireland that contained more +beautiful specimens of the carver’s art than Cong. Vast numbers of its +sculptured stones have been defaced by vandalism or carried away to build +walls or out-houses. It is not easy to know what was the exact extent of +the gardens or mensal grounds of the abbey, for the walls that enclosed +them cannot be fully traced, and are not intact like the walls around the +Abbey of Boyle in the County Roscommon. The Abbey of Cong seems to have +been the great depository for the precious things of the province of +Connacht. The Order of Augustinians, to whom it belonged, was very rich, +and had vast possessions in the province, and it would seem that no abbey +in it was as rich as that of Cong. In it were kept deeds, books, records, +and many other precious things, all of which have disappeared save the +marvellously beautiful cross now to be seen in the Dublin Museum, and +which artists and connoisseurs have pronounced to be “the finest piece of +metal work of its age to be found in Europe.” It is known from the Gaelic +inscription on the Cross of Cong that it was made in Roscommon, for the +name of the maker is identified with that town. The fact of such a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> +priceless relic and such a gem of art having been kept in the Abbey of +Cong shows that it was considered to be the most important and most secure +place in the province. The Cross of Cong was supposed to be formed from +part of the real cross. The Irish inscription on it is perfectly legible, +and can be easily understood by any one who knows the modern language. The +name of the maker is on it, and also that of Turloch O’Connor, who claimed +to be chief King of Ireland, and for whom it was made in the year 1123.</p> + +<p>The Abbey of Cong was never plundered by the Danes; if it was, no record +of its having been plundered is to be found in the Annals of the Four +Masters, or in the Annals of Loch Key. This fact of Cong not having +suffered from the Danes would seem to show that it did not contain much +wealth during the ninth and tenth centuries, when the maraudings of the +Norsemen were at their worst. If the Abbey of Cong was worth plundering, +it is hard to conceive how it could have been spared by them. It is +probable that the church founded there by St Fechin was very small, and +that the establishment became important only when the O’Connor family rose +to prominence in the province, for it was richly endowed by Turloch and +by Roderick O’Connor, both of whom claimed to be chief kings of Ireland.</p> + +<p> <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span></p> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img12.jpg" alt="" /></div> +<p class="caption">CROSS OF CONG.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span>None of our ancient seats of piety and learning will repay a visit better +than Cong. In it and around it there is a great deal to interest the +antiquarian, the tourist, and the lover of Nature. The neck of land that +lies between Loch Corrib and Loch Mask is one of the most curious, varied, +and beautiful spots in Ireland. It has rushing, limpid rivers above, and +boiling, roaring ones below. The whole country in the vicinity of Cong +seems to be honeycombed by subterranean waters. There is probably as much +running water underground and overground in the narrow strip of country +between Loch Corrib and Loch Mask as would turn all the grist mills in +Ireland, but unfortunately there is hardly a wheel moved by it.</p> + +<p>There is much in the vicinity of Cong, outside of its glorious old abbey, +to interest both the antiquarian and the tourist. It was close to it that +the greatest battle history records as having been fought on Irish soil +took place—namely, that of Moy Tuireadh, between the Firbolgs and the +Tuatha de Danaans, a full account of which will be found in Sir William +Wilde’s charming<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> book “Loch Corrib,” which should be read by every one +who desires to visit Cong or its vicinity.</p> + +<p>Cong is very nearly on the road to Connemara, which, with the exception of +parts of Donegal, is the wildest, most savage, and most extraordinary part +of Ireland. Those who want to see all the wildness of Connemara, its +chaotic mountains, its innumerable lakes, far-entering bays, and +illimitable bogs, should drive from Cong, or from Oughterard to Clifden, +and go from there to Galway by rail. Whoever travels that route will see +some of the most charming as well as some of the most terrific scenery in +Ireland. He will see more lakes than can be found on an area of equal size +in any part of the known world. If the visit is made when the heath is in +full bloom, he will have such a world of flowers to feast his eyes on as +can hardly be seen anywhere else, not even in Ireland.</p> + +<p>Loch Corrib, at the head of which Cong is situated, is one of the great +lakes of Ireland. The traveller going to Cong sails up it from Galway. +There is not very much of antiquarian interest on its shores or on its +islands, save the ruins of <i>Caisleán na Ceirce</i>, or the Hen’s Castle. They +are on a promontory on the lake. It is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span> not a very old building, being +probably of the fourteenth century, and was built, it is supposed, by one +of the O’Flaherties.</p> + +<p>There are the ruins of what antiquarians think are those of one of the +oldest churches ever erected in Ireland, on the bleak island of +Incha-goile. There are also the ruins of another church on the same +island; but judging from the extremely archaic architecture of the one +first mentioned, it must be many centuries older than the other. Both +churches must have been very small.</p> + +<p>But although the lower part of Loch Corrib cannot boast of much scenic +beauty, its upper part is magnificent. It thrusts its sinuous arms up into +the wildest recesses of the Joyce Country, and among mountains of +fantastic forms. The Joyce Country, <i>Duthaigh Sheoghach</i> in Gaelic, has +ever been remarkable for the gigantic size of its men. There have been +scores of Joyces who were from six feet four to six feet six in height, +and stout in proportion. There are still some of its men of immense size. +It is said that not so very long ago a giant Joyce was going home from a +fair or market, and that a faction of ten men who were not on perfectly +friendly terms with him, followed him to beat or perhaps kill him. Joyce +had no weapons or means of defence of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> any kind, so he unyoked the horse +from the cart or dray on which he was riding, tore it to pieces, armed +himself with one of its shafts as a “shillelagh,” and awaited his enemies; +but they seem not to have liked being hit with the shaft of a cart and +retreated. Those who like can believe or not believe this story. It is +given as the writer heard it from a very respectable gentleman who knew +Joyce.</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span></p> +<h2>LOCH DERG</h2> + + +<p>This is another of the great lakes of Ireland. It is over twenty miles +long and between two and three miles in average breadth. It is really +curious that a small island like Ireland should have so many immense lakes +in it. There is, probably, no other country in the world of the same +size—there is certainly no island of the same size—on which so much +fresh water is to be found. It would seem as if nature intended Ireland +for a continent, and not for an island, by giving it lakes so entirely +disproportioned to its size.</p> + +<p>Loch Derg, anciently called Deirgdheirc, and at present pronounced Dharrig +by the peasantry, would be the most beautiful of all the great lakes of +Ireland if its islands were as numerous as those of Loch Erne, or even of +Loch Ree. It has the defect that almost all lakes have whose shores are +mountainous or hilly. Want of islands is the great drawback to the +picturesqueness of most of the Scotch lakes and those of the north of +England. A few islands do not add much to the beauty of a lake. There +must<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span> be plenty of them to produce full effect. The few islands in Loch +Lomond, because they are so few, hardly add to its beauty. The islands in +Loch Derg are very few, and the most picturesque of them are so near the +shore that they seem part of it to the voyager on the lake. There is one +very large island, Illaunmore—the great island, as its name +signifies—but it does not add very much to the scenic attractions. The +charms of Loch Derg are its semi-mountainous shores. It would be incorrect +to call the bold hills on either side of the lake mountains, for very few +of them reach an altitude of more than a thousand feet; but they are most +graceful in their outlines, and are, for the most part, covered with +luxuriant grass up to their very summits. The lake is by no means +straight; its shores are tortuous and full of indentations, so that there +is a good deal of change of scene when sailing on it. But if the tourist +or traveller who wishes to sail on Loch Derg is not what is usually called +a “good sailor,” he should consult the barometer before he goes on to this +great lake, for sometimes, when the south-west wind sweeps up its twenty +or twenty-five miles of water, a sea almost worthy of the Channel will +sometimes rise in a very short time. Many a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span> sea-sick passenger used to be +seen in the good times long ago on Loch Derg, when large side-wheel +passenger boats used to run regularly between Athlone and Killaloe. Those +boats were large enough to carry over a hundred passengers without being +in the least crowded, and the cabins were large enough to accommodate +fifty people at dinner. A trip from Athlone to Killaloe on a fast boat +would, on a fine summer day, be one of the most enjoyable things in the +way of an excursion by water that can be imagined. It is over thirty years +since the writer experienced the pleasure of it, and the remembrance of +its enjoyableness haunts him still. The shores of Loch Derg are much +wilder than the shores of Loch Erne or Loch Ree. Very few houses, and +nothing that could be called a town, can be seen through the whole +twenty-five miles of the lake. The hills that bound it both on the Munster +and on the Connacht sides are almost altogether grass land, and very +little cultivation is therefore to be seen. But the bold, winding shores +and the green hills form a landscape of a very striking kind, and there +are many who maintain that the scenery of Loch Derg is finer than that of +Loch Ree. Both lakes are magnificent sheets of water, and environed with a +fair and goodly country;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span> and were they anywhere else but in Ireland, +their waters would be the highway for dozens of steamers, while at present +they are almost deserted, and may be said to be</p> + +<p class="poem"><span style="margin-left: 6em;">“As lone and silent</span><br /> +As the great waters of some desert land.”</p> + +<p>Loch Derg is full of interest for the antiquarian, especially its lower +part. One of the most ancient and important ecclesiastical establishments +of ancient Ireland, Iniscealtra, the island of the churches, is on its +western shore, close to the land, separated from it only by about a +quarter of a mile of water. Iniscealtra was one of the most important +places of its kind in the south of Ireland. It was founded by St Cainin +certainly not later than the end of the sixth or beginning of the seventh +century, for he died in 653. John O’Donovan in his unpublished letters +says that he is represented in ancient Irish literature as “A very holy +man, a despiser of the world, and an inexorable chastiser of the flesh. He +is said to have been author of commentaries on the Psalms. He was buried +in Iniscealtra.” There is a fine round tower in Iniscealtra which is +traditionally supposed to have been built by St Senanus. It is eighty feet +in height, and in fairly good preservation, but it wants the top. The +ruins of St Cainin’s<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> Church show it to have been a small building. There +are the ruins of two other churches on the island, one called St Mary’s +and the other St Michael’s. The establishments on Iniscealtra are of very +great antiquity. It is first mentioned in the Annals of the Four Masters +under the year 548, recording the death of St Colam in the island. The +oldest church in it was dedicated to St Cainin, who was evidently the +founder of the place, and the first who sought it as a retreat. He is said +to have lived for a long time in a solitary cell, until the fame for +holiness he acquired brought an immense number of disciples, for whom he +erected a noble monastery in the island, which afterwards became famous. +The ruins of St Cainin’s Church prove that it must have been a very +beautiful building. It was thought by Petrie and other antiquarians that +it and the very beautiful one of Killaloe were erected during the short +time in the tenth and eleventh centuries when Brian Boramha and Malachy +the Second, by their victories over the Danes, gave the country some rest +from the plunderings of those marauders.</p> + +<p>At the extreme lower end of Loch Derg is the small but ancient town of +Killaloe. Its real name is Cill Dalua, it was called after an ecclesiastic +of the name of Dalua, sometimes written Malua, who<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span> lived in the sixth +century. He placed his disciple, Flannan, over the church. He was made +Bishop of Killaloe in the seventh century. The church is known generally +as St Flannan’s. The Earl of Dunraven, speaking of the beauty of the ruins +of this church and the buildings attached to it, says, “These ancient +buildings are on a wooded hill which slopes in a gentle incline down to +the brink of the Shannon. The cathedral and small stone-roofed church +stand side by side, and the walls of the latter are thickly covered with +ivy. Nothing can be more impressive than the aspect of this venerable and +simple building, surrounded by majestic trees, and hidden in deep shadows +of thick foliage. A solemn mystery seems to envelop its ancient walls, and +the silence is only broken by the sound of the river that rolls its great +volume of water along the base of the hill on which it stands.”</p> + +<p>But the most historic and probably the most interesting thing about +Killaloe is the site of King Brian’s palace of Kincora, a place so famed +in history and song. Perhaps it will be better to let such a famous man on +Irish history and archæology as O’Donovan tell about Kincora. He says in +his unpublished letters while on the Ordnance Survey: “On the summit of +the hill opposite the bridge of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span> Killaloe stood Brian Boramha’s palace of +Kincora, but not a trace of it is now visible. It must have extended from +the verge of the hill over the Shannon, to where the present Roman +Catholic chapel stands. I fear that it will be impracticable to show its +site on the Ordnance map, as no field works are visible. Of the history of +the palace of Kincora little or nothing is known, but from the few +references to it we occasionally find, we may safely infer that it was +first erected by Brian, <i>Imperator Scottorum</i>, and that it was not more +than two centuries inhabited by his successors. Kincora was demolished in +1088 by Donnell MacLachlin, king of Aileach (Ulster), and we are told that +he took 160 hostages consisting of Danes and Irish.” Kincora must have +been rebuilt after it was demolished by MacLachlin, for we are told in the +Annals of the Four Masters that in 1107 Kincora and Cashel were burned by +lightning, and sixty vats of metheglin and beer were destroyed; but it +must have been again rebuilt, for the same annals say that in 1118 Turloch +O’Connor (King of Connacht), at the head of a great army of Connachtmen, +burned Kincora and hurled it, both stones and timber, into the Shannon. +Kincora was, like all dwelling-places in those times, built almost +entirely of wood; and it is hardly to be wondered<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span> at that after having +been burned so often by man and by the elements, no vestige of it should +remain. It has been completely wiped out.</p> + +<p>A description of Kincora would hardly be complete without giving MacLiag’s +Lament for it, translated by Clarence Mongan. MacLiag was chief poet and +secretary to Brian Boramha. The poem is little known even in Ireland; to +the English reader it will be absolutely new. The writer gives two prime +reasons for reproducing it; one, because it is such a very fine poem; and +the other, because it has heretofore never been correctly given.</p> + +<p class="poem"><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">MacLiag’s Lament for Kincora.</span></span><br /> +“Where, oh Kincora, is Brian the Great?<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And where is the beauty that once was thine?</span><br /> +Oh where are the princes and nobles that sate<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">At the feasts in thy halls and drank the red wine,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 10em;">Where, oh Kincora?</span><br /> +<br /> +“Where, oh Kincora, are thy valorous lords,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Oh whither, thou Hospitable, are they gone?</span><br /> +Oh where the Dalcassians of cleaving swords,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And where are the heroes that Brian led on,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 10em;">Where, oh Kincora?</span><br /> +<br /> +“And where is Morough, descendant of kings,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Defeater of hundreds, the daringly brave,</span><br /> +Who set but light store on jewels and rings,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Who swam down the torrent and laughed at the wave,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 10em;">Where, oh Kincora?</span><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span><br /> +“And where is Donagh, King Brian’s brave son,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And where is Conaing, the beautiful chief,</span><br /> +And Cian and Corc? alas, they are gone!<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">They have left me this night all alone in my grief,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 10em;">Alone, oh Kincora!</span><br /> +<br /> +“And where are the chiefs with whom Brian went forth,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The ne’er vanquished sons of Evin the Brave,</span><br /> +The great King of Eogh’nacht,<a name='fna_12' id='fna_12' href='#f_12'><small>[12]</small></a> renowned for his worth,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And Baskin’s great host from the western wave,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 10em;">Where, oh Kincora?</span><br /> +<br /> +“And where is Duvlann of the swift-footed steeds,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And where is Cian who was son of Molloy,</span><br /> +And where is King Lonergan, the fame of whose deeds<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In the red battle-field, no time can destroy?</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 10em;">Where, oh Kincora?</span><br /> +<br /> +“And where is the youth of majestic height,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The faith-keeping prince of the Scotts?<a name='fna_13' id='fna_13' href='#f_13'><small>[13]</small></a> even he,</span><br /> +As wide as his fame was, as great as his might,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Was tributary, oh Kincora, to thee,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 10em;">To thee, oh Kincora!</span><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span><br /> +“They are gone, those heroes of royal birth,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Who plundered no churches and broke no trust</span><br /> +’Tis weary for me to be living on earth<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">When they, oh Kincora, lie low in the dust.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 10em;">Low, oh Kincora!</span><br /> +<br /> +“Oh never again will princes appear<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To rival Dalcassians of cleaving swords!</span><br /> +I can ne’er dream of meeting afar or near,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In the east or the west, such heroes and lords,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 10em;">Never, Kincora!</span><br /> +<br /> +“Oh dear are the images mem’ry calls up<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of Brian Boru,<a name='fna_14' id='fna_14' href='#f_14'><small>[14]</small></a> how he never would miss</span><br /> +To give me at banquet the first bright cup,—<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Oh, why did he heap on me honour like this,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 10em;">Why, oh Kincora?</span><br /> +<br /> +“I am MacLiag, and my home’s on the lake;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And oft to that palace whose beauty has fled</span><br /> +Came Brian to ask me,—I went for his sake;—<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Oh my grief! that I live when Brian is dead!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 10em;">Dead, oh Kincora!”</span></p> + +<p>So far the demolished palace of Brian, and the writer, like Brian himself, +“returns to Kincora no more.”</p> + +<p>No lover of the beauties of nature should be on this part of the Shannon +and not visit the great rapids of Doonass. They are only about ten miles<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span> +below Killaloe. If seen when the river is full they are the grandest thing +of their kind in the British Isles. The Shannon here looks like a +continental river, containing ordinarily a volume of water greater than +any river in France. The country round Doonass, though flat, is +superlatively beautiful. The limpid, rushing river flows on among meadows +and pastures of the brightest verdure, adorned with stately trees, and +bright in summer-time with innumerable flowers. There is nothing terrible +or awe-inspiring about Doonass. It is quiet and peaceful in the true sense +of the word. Even the great rushing river, as it glides down the gentle +slope of the rapids, makes no noise except a deep, musical murmur that +would lull to sleep rather than startle. The rapids of Doonass form a +scene so incomparably lovely, and so unlike anything to be seen in Great +Britain, or to be seen in any other part of Ireland, that it is a wonder +they are not better known. They can be reached best from Limerick, being +not over three miles from that city. One of the most curious things about +those grand and beautiful rapids, is the almost total ignorance which +exists about them, not only in Great Britain, but in Ireland itself. If +they were situated on a wild, hard-to-be-got-at part of the Shannon, the +general ignorance<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span> that exists about them among seekers after the +beautiful, would not excite so much wonder. A scene of such great beauty +and uniqueness, so near a fine and interesting city like Limerick, to be +so little known to those who go so far in search of the beautiful, shows +how much the world at large, and even the Irish themselves, have to learn +about Ireland. If the rapids of Doonass were in England, or even in the +United States, there would be not only one, but perhaps three or four +hotels on their banks,—hotels which would be full of guests every summer. +Let us hope that the beauties of this charming place will be soon better +known.</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span></p> +<h2>HOLYCROSS ABBEY</h2> + + +<p>The situation of this abbey, like most places of its kind in Ireland, is +very beautiful—on the banks of the gentle-flowing Suir, and surrounded by +a fine fertile country. Holycross is thought to have been, with the +exception of Mellifont, the largest of the ancient churches of Ireland. +There is some doubt as to the exact time of its foundation—some +authorities say the year 1182, and others 1208. The probability is that +both dates may, in a certain sense, be correct. It may have been begun to +be built in 1182, and may not have been finished before 1208. Although +founded after the Anglo-French invasion, it was a purely Irish +institution, for all authorities say that it was founded by Donagh +Cairbreach O’Brian, King of Munster, and that it was founded on account of +his having obtained what was believed to be a piece of the cross on which +Christ suffered. It is called in Irish annals <i>Mainister na croiche +naoimhe</i>, or Monastery of the Holy Cross. This relic is said, on good +authority, to be at present in the keeping of the nuns of the Presentation +Order<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span> at Black Rock, near Cork. O’Brian, the founder of the Church, +endowed it with a great tract of land, so that it was for many centuries +one of the most important places of its kind, not only in the province of +Munster, but in Ireland.</p> + +<p> </p> +<div class="bbox" style="width: 550px; height: 399px;"><img src="images/img13.jpg" alt="" /></div> +<p class="caption">HOLYCROSS ABBEY.</p> +<p> </p> + +<p>Holycross is two miles from the neat and thriving town of Thurles, in the +County Tipperary. Unlike so many ruined shrines of former days, and +especially unlike Mellifont in the County Louth, most of the walls of +Holycross still remain. The existing ruins show it to have been a large +church. Its length is 130 feet; the nave is 58 by 49 feet.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span> The entire +ruins are very beautiful and impressive, and their situation on the banks +of the Suir, amid as fine pastoral scenery as can be found in the fine +county of Tipperary, make them well worth a visit. Holycross was founded +for the Cistercian order, and remained in undamaged condition until the +suppression of monasteries in the latter part of the seventeenth century. +It appeals that it lost its distinctively Irish character soon after +English domination became established in Ireland, for in 1267 it was +subjected by the abbot of Clairveaux to the abbey of Furness in England. +It is the opinion of many antiquarians and judges of ecclesiastical +structures that many additions and alterations were made to and in the +abbey, and some of them in comparatively recent times. Some judges of +church architecture have been loud in their praise of the beauties of the +ruins of Holycross, while others have expressed their disappointment.</p> + +<p>Here is the testimony of O’Donovan, one of the greatest of Irish +antiquarians, on the subject: “The ruins of this abbey entirely +disappointed my expectations. The architecture of the choir and side +chapel is indeed truly beautiful, but they are not lofty, but the nave and +side aisles are contemptible. I am certain, however, that this newer part +of the abbey is not more than four centuries old.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span>The sepulchral monument that was erected to the memory of Elizabeth, +daughter of Gerald, Earl of Kildare, who died about the year 1400, is +considered one of the most chaste, remarkable, and beautiful things of its +kind in Ireland. If nothing remained of Holycross but this remarkable +monument, it would be well worth a visit.</p> + +<p>There is not so much historical interest connected with Holycross as there +is with smaller establishments of its kind throughout Ireland. It was +founded too late to be plundered by the Danes, and in all the troublesome +times between its foundation and the time when it was abandoned, it does +not seem to have been plundered or burned, neither do the vandals seem to +have damaged or defaced it much. It is a beautiful and impressive ruin +that will for a long time to come attract the notice of lovers of the +abandoned fanes that are to be found in almost every parish of +Ireland—the land that is richer in ruins than perhaps any other country +in the world, Egypt alone excepted.</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span></p> +<h2>DUNLUCE CASTLE</h2> + + +<p>If Cashel is the most remarkable ecclesiastical ruin in Ireland owing to +its situation, Dunluce Castle is, for the same reason, the most remarkable +military one. Cashel has, however, the advantage of being remarkable from +whatever side it is looked at; but Dunluce is remarkable only when seen +from the sea, or from the strand from which the rock the ruins rest on +rises. From the road that goes along the shore, Dunluce looks absolutely +disappointing, because the road is as high, apparently somewhat higher, +than the castle itself. But seen from a boat on the sea under it, or from +the base of the cliffs on which the road to it runs, it forms the grandest +and most imposing sight of a Viking’s ruined stronghold that is to be seen +anywhere in Europe. The rock on which the ruins stand rises sheer from the +sea to the height of over a hundred feet. Before the castle was built on +it, the rock was completely isolated, and must have been an island, +standing about thirty feet from the mainland. Across the profound gulf +that separated the rock from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span> the land, a mighty bridge of solid masonry +has been erected, over which all who enter the castle must pass. This +bridge is only about twenty inches wide, and few, except masons, or those +who are accustomed to ascend heights, would care to cross it, for there is +not, or at least there was not in 1873, a rope, railing, or protection of +any kind for those who wanted to visit the ruins of the castle. No one but +such as have steady nerves and good heads should think of crossing this +bridge, for a fall from it would mean certain death on the jagged rocks +more than a hundred feet below.</p> + +<p> </p> +<div class="bbox" style="width: 550px; height: 384px;"><img src="images/img14.jpg" alt="" /></div> +<p class="caption">DUNLUCE CASTLE.</p> +<p> </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span>The first thing that strikes one after examining the ruins is the unusual +thinness of the walls. They are no thicker than those of a modern +stone-built house. The reason of this is easily understood; for when the +castle was built, which must have been before cannons were so perfected +that they could be used for battering down buildings, it was absolutely +impregnable, as no battering-ram, or mediæval siege-engine, could by any +possibility approach near enough to the walls to be used against them. +There was, therefore, no necessity that the walls should be thick. The +space on the top of the rock is entirely covered with the ruins of the +castle. The walls rise up sheer from the most outward margins of the rock. +On looking out from one of the narrow windows the sea is straight below +one. When the castle was inhabited its inmates must have had an awful +experience during the storms that so often sweep over the wild west and +north coast of Ireland, when the giant waves of the stormiest ocean in the +world beat against the rock on which the ruins stand. If such a place was +secure against the assaults of men, it was not secure against the fury of +the elements; and it would seem that some of the cliff did at one time +give way, for there are some gaps in the walls that appear to have been +caused<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span> by rock, upon which they were built, having given way.</p> + +<p>The Giant’s Causeway and Dunseverick Castle are both in the immediate +vicinity of Dunluce, only a few miles west of it; both are well worth +seeing; but nothing on all that magnificent, iron-bound, cliff-guarded +coast of Antrim can compare in interest with Dunluce. The isolated, almost +sea-surrounded rock on which it stands, the great bridge that connects it +with the mainland, the narrow and dangerous footpath overlooking horrible +depths, and over which the castle can only be entered, make it one of the +grandest and most suggestive ruins in the world. Dunluce is a revelation. +It shows, perched on its storm-beaten, once impregnable rock, the awful +savagery of the time when might was the only law recognised by humanity; +and that only a few centuries ago life and property were no safer in +Christendom than they are to-day in the Soudan.</p> + +<p>The name Dunluce is a combination of the two most generally used Irish +words to express a military stronghold <i>dun</i> and <i>lios</i>, and may be +translated “strong fort”; and strong it must have been in olden times, +when cannons were either unknown altogether, or principally remarkable for +the noise they made, and the greater danger they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span> were to those who used +them than to those they were used against. The name of this place is +spelled <i>Dúnlis</i> or <i>Dúnlios</i> in ancient annals. The earliest mention of +it by the Four Masters, and in the “Annals of Loch Key,” is under the year +1513. It does not appear to be mentioned in any of the other Irish annals, +unless it is mentioned in the “Annals of Ulster”; but as they have been as +yet translated only down to the year 1375, the question cannot be yet +decided.</p> + +<p>It is remarkable that so little is known about the early history of such a +remarkable place as Dunluce Castle. No trustworthy statement as to when +and by whom it was built has, so far, come to light. It was in the +possession of the Mac Quillins, spelled <i>Mac Uidhlin</i> by the Four Masters, +in 1513. It then, by conquest or in some other way, passed into the hands +of Sorley Boy, one of the Scotch McDonnells, who kept it until 1584, when +it was besieged and taken by Sir John Perrott, Lord Chief Justice of +Ireland. Fifty thousand cows, and all his land in Antrim County, of which +he had an immense quantity, were taken from Sorley Boy. But he repaired to +Dublin, made his submission to Queen Elizabeth, and was reinstated in his +possessions in Antrim, but we are not told if he got back his cows. +Dunluce seems to have become a ruin<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span> early in the seventeenth century, and +is becoming more ruined every day, for it is not in the nature of things +that the sea is not gradually undermining and weakening the rock on which +the ruins stand, exposed as it is to the wrath of the stormiest ocean +probably in the world. It is said that long before Dunluce was abandoned, +the kitchen and its staff of cooks were swallowed up on a night of a +fearful gale of wind. This could only have happened by part of the rock +foundations of the castle having been washed away by the sea. The gap in +one part of the walls would seem to indicate that some such catastrophe +did occur.</p> + +<p>Dunluce must have been built before the invention of what is now known as +artillery. It is not possible to tell by the style of its architecture in +what century it was built, for there was practically no change in the +architecture of Irish castles for nearly four centuries. The art of +castle-building was just as well understood in the twelfth century as in +the fourteenth. Those who pretend to be able to tell within a century of +the time when a castle was built, by examining its masonry and +architecture, draw greatly on their imaginations. If Dunluce was built +after artillery had become so perfected that castles could be destroyed by +it at half a mile, or even a quarter of a mile distant,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span> those who built +Dunluce were fools, for guns could be brought within fifty yards of it. If +it was built to resist artillery, the walls would have been made three +times as thick as they are. It was evidently built before artillery began +to be used for battering down walls. It must, therefore, have been built +before the year 1400, for even at that early date the principal use that +was made of artillery was for battering down walls. Half a dozen shots +from the very rude and imperfect artillery of the date mentioned would +have made a heap of ruins of the thin walls of Dunluce Castle.</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span></p> +<h2>BOYLE ABBEY</h2> + + +<p>There are very few of the once great abbeys of Ireland of which so little +is generally known to the public as of Boyle Abbey. One reason of this may +be the remoteness of its situation, and its invisibleness from the town of +Boyle. It is not on the track of tourists, and is in a rather +uninteresting part of the country in a scenic point of view. Besides, the +Abbey is not in the town of Boyle, but over quarter of a mile from it, on +a road not so much frequented as some others in the locality. It is a +wonder that more is not known about this noble ruin. It may not be so +interesting in its architecture as Holycross, or so striking in its +situation as Cashel, but it is, nevertheless, one of the finest +ecclesiastical ruins in Ireland.</p> + +<p> <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span></p> +<div class="bbox" style="width: 500px; height: 443px;"><img src="images/img15.jpg" alt="" /></div> +<p class="caption">BOYLE ABBEY.</p> +<p> </p> + +<p>If the country round Boyle Abbey cannot be said to be very interesting or +beautiful, the place where the ruins stand is charming. They rise from the +banks of the Boyle river, the first large tributary of the Shannon. The +river rushes under the very walls of the monastery with a rapid current, +and at its highest flood it is generally as clear as crystal, for it +rises in, or at least flows through, Loch Ui Gara, which is only a few +miles from Boyle, and its waters are filtered in that lake before they +reach Boyle. And here it may not be out of place to say that the generally +clear waters of most of the rivers of Ireland add greatly to the beauty of +its scenery. Scotch rivers are also generally clear, and the reason they +are clear is the reason why the Irish rivers are clear, and that is, +because they are filtered in the lakes through which they generally flow. +A limpid river is one of the most beautiful things in nature, but a river +of dirty water would not be beautiful if it flowed through<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span> the Garden of +Eden. Almost all rivers that are not filtered by passing through lakes are +sure to be dirty. For this reason the St Lawrence may be said to be the +only one of the great American rivers the waters of which are clear. To +know what an abomination a river of dirty water is, one should see the +Missouri. The river that rushes past the ruins of Boyle Monastery is not +only clear but limpid. Its pure, rushing waters are one of the principal +attractions in the vicinity of the ruins.</p> + +<p>The ruins of Boyle Abbey are very fine. The monastery was a large one, one +of the largest in Ireland, and was surrounded on almost every side with +extensive gardens. The walls of many of those gardens still remain, and +seem as sound as they were when first built. The ruins of the Monastery, +and the ruins of its adjoining buildings, are covered with the most +luxuriant growth of ivy to be seen on any ruins in Ireland. The thickness +of its stems, and the size and deep green of its leaves, are remarkable. +This extraordinary growth of ivy must eventually tumble down the walls. It +may preserve them for a time, but will destroy them in the long run. But +without its ivy and its limpid river, the ruined Monastery of Boyle, grand +and interesting as it is, would lose a great deal of its attractions.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span>The ruins of the great church of Boyle, like the ruins of Cashel, and like +the historic hill of Tara, have been spoiled by the erection of modern +buildings near them. Some parson has erected here a new, intensely vulgar +gimcrack house that almost touches the hoary ruins, it is so close to +them. It entirely spoils their effect, and would disgust any one with any +veneration for the past. In no other country, perhaps, in the world has +the want of respect for the antique been more manifest among the masses +than in Ireland. In no other country have so many monuments of the past +been more wantonly destroyed, more defaced, and less respected. If it had +not been for the care exercised by the Board of Works, during the last +thirty years, most of the ruins of Ireland would now be either entirely +uprooted, or so marred, like the Rock of Cashel, or the Monastery of +Boyle, by the erection of new buildings in their vicinity, that they would +have little attraction for any one in whose soul there remained the +slightest reverence for the past. There are, however, unmistakable signs +that more patriotic and enlightened ideas about their country, and +everything relating to it, are rapidly gaining ground among all classes of +the Irish people, but especially among the more educated. Irish history, +Irish antiquities, and even the Irish language get<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span> more of the attention +of the upper and middle classes in Ireland now than they ever got before. +It seems almost a certainty that the ancient monument-defacing epoch has +passed, or is rapidly passing away from a country to which it has been a +disgrace so long. It is not enough that the Board of Works should continue +to do the good work it has been doing for the last quarter of a century in +the preservation of our ruins, it should prevent such outrageous bad taste +as the erection of new buildings in the very centre of time-honoured +monuments like those on the Rock of Cashel and on the Boyle river.</p> + +<p>The ancient name of Boyle was <i>Ath dá laarg</i>, that is, the “ford of two +forks.” It is not easy to understand why such a curious name should have +been given to it, for the river at Boyle, even in time of floods, is +fordable, and has usually not over six or eight inches of water in it. It +has, however, been proved that the rivers of Ireland, and probably of most +other countries, had much more water in them in ancient times than at +present. The other name for Boyle was <i>Búil</i>, whence Boyle. The word +<i>Búil</i> is entirely obsolete. It is supposed to mean handsome or beautiful. +The Monastery, of which the ruins exist, was founded in 1161 by Maurice +O’Duffy, a noted ecclesiastic of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span> period, but it is known that a +smaller and more ancient monastery occupied the site on which the larger +one was built at the date mentioned. Boyle Abbey was an offshoot of the +great Abbey of Mellifont in the County Louth, that had been founded some +twenty years before the Abbey of Boyle. Both abbeys belonged to the +Cistercian order; and it would appear that so many monks flocked to +Mellifont that accommodation could not be made for them all there, so the +Abbey of Boyle was erected for them. The “Annals of Boyle,” known also as +the “Annals of Loch Cé, or Key,” say that the Church of Boyle was +consecrated in 1220; but that the church was built in 1161 there seems no +reason to doubt. The Four Masters mention it under the year 1174. Their +last mention of it is under the year 1602, and it must have been abandoned +very soon after. It was granted to Sir John King in 1603, when it must +have ceased to be a monastery.</p> + +<p>No one should visit Boyle and its grand ruins and not see the two very +beautiful lakes that are near it, Loch Key and Loch Arrow. Loch Key is not +over a mile from the town, and Loch Arrow not more than three. The very +fine domain of Rockingham may be said to be almost <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span>surrounded by Loch +Key. It was on an island in this lake that the McDermotts, chieftains of +Moylurg, had a stronghold. The island has a castle on it at present, but, +seen from the shore, both island and castle appear very small. The +fortress the McDermotts had on the island must have been a sort of +<i>crannióg</i>, or wooden castle, like so many that have been discovered both +in Ireland and Scotland in the tracks of dried-up lakes. Those <i>cranniógs</i> +were sometimes built entirely on piles, and sometimes on islands, with +extensions on piles if the water was not too deep. This last must have +been the kind of fortress the McDermotts had on Loch Key, for it must have +been much larger than the present island, and must have been large enough +to give space to a multitude of people to assemble on it. We read in the +annals of Loch Key of the following awful catastrophe that happened on it +in 1184: “The Rock of Loch Key was burned by lightning—<i>i.e.</i>, the very +magnificent, kingly residence of the Muintir Maolruanaigh (the McDermotts) +where neither goods nor people of all that were there found protection; +where six or seven score of distinguished persons were destroyed, along +with fifteen men of the race of kings and chieftains, with the wife of +McDermott<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span> ... and every one of them who was not burned was drowned in +that tumultuous consternation in the entrance of the place; so that there +escaped not alive therefrom but Connor McDermott with a very small number +of the multitude of his people.” The same catastrophe is mentioned by the +Four Masters, but under the year 1187. This account of the burning of the +castle, or, as the annalist calls it, a residence, shows that it was a +wooden structure, for it would hardly have been possible to burn a +building of stone so quickly that the people in it would not have had time +to escape, even if it were on an island.</p> + +<p>Loch Arrow is the least known of all the beautiful lakes of Ireland, and +beautiful it is in very nearly the highest style of beauty. There are no +mountains round Loch Arrow, and none to be seen from its waters; but its +numberless attractions in the way of wooded islands, bold promontories, +and swelling shores render it one of the lovely lakes of Ireland; and yet, +few, except those living in its immediate vicinity, know anything about +it, or have ever heard of it. The land near it seems to be, for the most +part, in the hands of small farmers; and neater or more attractive peasant +homesteads cannot be found in any part of Ireland than on the banks of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span> +Loch Arrow. It is not more than four miles from Boyle; and small as it is, +not more than five miles long, and from two to two and a half miles broad, +it is a gem of a lake that seems to be forgotten by the world.</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span></p> +<h2>THE LAKES OF WESTMEATH</h2> + + +<p>The lakes of Westmeath, like Loch Arrow in Sligo, are almost unknown to +those who go to Ireland in search of the picturesque. These lakes are, for +the greater part, in the centre of the County. Loch Ree is not included in +them. There may be said to be only four of them worthy of the attention of +those who see something to be admired in a lake besides the excellence of +the fish that is in it. Those in search of the beautiful very seldom go to +see the lakes of Westmeath. The only people who generally visit them are +fishermen, very few of whom would turn round their heads to gaze on the +fairest prospect the lakes afforded, for seldom, indeed, do those usually +styled sportsmen trouble themselves very much to see the beauties of +nature, and they are, unfortunately, about the only class of people who +come from afar to visit the lake district of Westmeath.</p> + +<p>The lakes best worth seeing in Westmeath are Loch Deravarragh, Loch Ouel, +Loch Ennel, usually called Belvedere Lake, Loch Iron, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span> Loch Sheelin. +The last mentioned lake lies on the borders of four counties—Longford, +Cavan, Meath, and Westmeath. It cannot be claimed by the most devoted +admirer of the Westmeath lakes that there is very much historic interest +attached to any of them. It would be hardly possible to find a square mile +of Irish soil wholly devoid of historic interest; but while it may truly +be said that there is no country in Europe, not excepting even Greece, +where so many places of historic interest are to be found as in Ireland, +some parts of it are richer than others in memorials of the past. From +whatever cause it happened is not very clear, but it is a fact that +Westmeath is one of the least historic of Irish counties. The hill of +Uisneach is its most historic spot. There are, at the same time, some +other places of historic interest in it. Its most beautiful lake, Loch +Ouel, anciently called Loch Uair, is the one in which Malachy the First +drowned Turgesius the Dane. Turgesius seems to have had what Americans +would call “a high old time” in Ireland for some years—robbing churches +and monasteries, and living on the fat of the land; until the Irish, under +Malachy, at length defeated him in battle, took him prisoner, and drowned +him in one of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span> most beautiful lakes in Ireland. It seems queer that +Malachy, instead of giving him a grave in such a beautiful sheet of water, +did not fling him into a bog hole, and it is a pity that there should not +be any really trustworthy authority for the legend according to which it +was love for King Malachy’s beautiful daughter that was the means of +entrapping Turgesius. Keating gives a very interesting account of the +capture of the Danish Viking in his History of Ireland; how Turgesius +asked Malachy for his daughter: how Malachy said that the marriage, or +rather the <i>liaison</i> should not be made public for fear of giving offence +to the Irish; and how fifteen beardless youths, dressed as girls, +conducted Malachy’s daughter to the Dane, overpowered his guard, took +himself prisoner, and then drowned him. A great deal of romance has been +written about this affair, but it remained for the inimitable Sam Lover to +write the funniest thing in the way of a poem about it. He said that the +tyranny of the Danes was so heavy on the Irish that the clergy ordered +them a long time of prayer and fasting to seek Divine aid to rid +themselves of their persecutors. But it would appear that the unfortunate +Irish had been keeping a compulsory fast for a long time<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span> previous, for +the Danes had left them nothing to eat. They could not understand being +ordered to fast still more, and said to the clergy:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“We can’t fast faster than we’re fastin’ now.”</p> + +<p>The account of the drowning of Turgesius is given with tantalising +curtness in the “Book of Leinster”: “This is the year, <span class="smcaplc">A.D.</span> 843, that +Turgesius was taken by Maelseachlainn (Malachy). He was then drowned in +Loch Uair.”<a name='fna_15' id='fna_15' href='#f_15'><small>[15]</small></a> The “Book of Leinster” does not say that Turgesius was +taken in battle, but those who do not believe Keating’s story think he +was. If he had been taken in battle and defeated, it must be admitted that +it is strange that Irish annalists did not say so and give particulars of +the battle. This omission makes it appear probable that there is some +truth in the version of his capture as given by Keating, although it is +altogether discredited by those best read in Irish History.</p> + +<p>Loch Ouel can be seen from the train on the Sligo division of the Great +Western Railway. Passing as the glimpse of it is from the train, it is +enough to reveal some of the beauties of this fairest of Westmeath lakes. +But to see it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span> properly one should wander by its pebbly shores, for not a +yard of them is swampy, or ascend one of the hills of brilliant green that +are on all sides of it. Loch Ouel has the great defect of being almost +islandless. There are only one or two small ones in it. If it had +proportionately as many islands in it as Loch Erne, it would be one of the +fairest sheets of water of its size in Ireland.</p> + +<p>Belvedere Lake is a good deal larger than Loch Ouel, and its shores are +better wooded, but part of them, in fact a very large part of them, is +boggy. Its banks are adorned with gentlemen’s seats, and in spite of the +swampy shore on one side of it, it is a very beautiful lake.</p> + +<p>Loch Derravaragh is the most peculiarly-shaped of all the Westmeath lakes. +It is shaped something like a tadpole, only that, unlike a tadpole, it is +its head that is narrow, and its tail, or lower part, that is wide. It has +bolder shores than any other lake in the county, some of the hills near it +being almost mountains. It has hardly any islands, and its shores are +wilder than any other of the Westmeath lakes. It wants the woods that do +so much to adorn the swampy shores of Belvedere Lake; but comparatively +bare as the shores of Loch Derravaragh are, it is a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span> most picturesque +lake, and some think it more beautiful than Loch Ouel. Both Loch +Derravaragh and Loch Iron are formed by the river Inny, but it does not, +as most rivers do, flow through the lakes it forms and feeds, for it flows +out of them within a short distance of where it enters them, and the lakes +extend in an opposite direction from where they receive their water. This +is rather a strange fact in physical geography.</p> + +<p>The next most important of the Westmeath lakes is Loch Sheelin, but as +three other counties—Longford, Meath, and Cavan—border it, it cannot be +strictly called a Westmeath lake. However, as it is so close to the very +picturesque sheets of water which are the chief scenic attractions of the +county they adorn, it has been thought best to include it when describing +them. Loch Sheelin has only a few islands, but its shores, although low, +are very well wooded. Seen from the hills in the vicinity of Oldcastle in +Meath, it is as fair a sight as can well be imagined, with its +wood-crowned, indented shores. If there are fairer lakes in Ireland than +Loch Sheelin, there are few that have a more beautiful name. It is euphony +itself. Its name is the original one of Moore’s sweet melody, “Come, rest +in this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span> Bosom.” It has often been said, “What’s in a name?” There is a +great deal. A name so beautiful as Loch Sheelin would give a certain charm +to a bog hole. It must be confessed that Celtic, of all European +languages, seems to contain the most sonorous place names. Such names as +Bassenthwaitewater, Ullswater, Conistonwater, Derwentwater, Thuner See, +and Zuger See, sound very tame compared with Loch Lomond, Loch Erne, Loch +Awe, Loch Ree, Loch Layn, and Loch Sheelin. There is, however, one +continental place-name of wonderful beauty of sound, and that is Lorraine. +Its German name is Lothringen, but the French, by eliding its consonants, +or by what is generally called aspiration in Gaelic grammar, have turned +the harsh German name into one of the most euphonious and beautiful in the +world.</p> + +<p>Loch Iron and Loch Lene, pronounced Loch Layne, are small sheets of water, +but are well worth a visit, even from those who are neither fishers of +fish nor of men. The country all round the Westmeath lakes is as beautiful +as it is possible for any country to be in which there are neither +mountains nor waterfalls. It is never flat, and never uninteresting, +covered almost everlastingly with verdure, for although most of the county +is hilly, it is one of the most fertile in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span> Ireland. Its still, clear +lakes, undulating surface, and rich soil, make it, even in the absence of +mountains (and, unfortunately, in the absence of good hotels in its small +towns and villages), one of the most picturesque of the counties of +Leinster.</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span></p> +<h2>KELLS OF MEATH</h2> + + +<p>Kells, the ancient name of which was Ceannanus, and the one by which it is +still known in Irish, is one of the most ancient towns in Ireland. +According to Irish annalists it was founded by an over-king called Fiacha, +1203 years <span class="smcaplc">B.C.</span> If its situation and environs are of no great beauty, it +is yet a place of great historic interest. It can boast of the possession +of one of the finest round towers in Ireland, a very ancient cross, and a +still more ancient stone-roofed church. If there are no mountains or +romantic scenery round Kells, it has the advantage of being situated in +the midst of the most generally fertile of Irish counties. It is on the +river Blackwater, a tributary of the historic Boyne. Nothing can exceed +the fertility of the land round Kells; but that does it no good, for the +land is almost all in grass, the rural population sparse, and +consequently, of very little outside support to the town. But Kells is no +worse off than the other towns of Meath. It is, as far as soil is +concerned, the richest county in Ireland, but its towns are either in a +state of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span> absolute decay, or at a standstill. There is hardly any tilled +land in the county; its herds are large, and its population consequently +declining. Where cattle abound, people are generally scarce.</p> + +<p>For those who visit Kells merely to see the wondrous luxuriance of its +grassy environs, the best thing they can do is to ascend the hill of +Lloyd, which is close to the town, and go to the top of the tower that +crowns the summit of the hill. It is over a hundred feet high, with a +winding flight of stairs, and a turret on top, capable of containing a +dozen people. The view from the tower is very fine, and will well repay +those who see it. Almost the whole of Meath, Louth, Cavan, and parts of +other counties can be seen. The tower was built more than a hundred years +ago by the first Earl of Bective. It is sometimes called “Bective’s +Folly,” because it serves for nothing except giving a fine view to those +who ascend it. It is generally known as the tower of Lloyd.</p> + +<p>To the antiquarian, the neighbourhood of Kells is of supreme interest. +Four miles south-east of it, on the banks of the Blackwater, lies the site +of what is considered, next to Tara, the most ancient spot of Irish +soil—namely, the place where the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span> games of Tailltean were, for some +thousands of years, celebrated. The place is now called Telltown, an +evident Anglicisation of its Irish name; but it is still called Tailltean +by any old persons in its vicinity who speak Irish. If any credence can be +given to Irish annals and history, the antiquity of this place is +astounding. The sceptic has to admit that the mere fact of the +preservation down to the present day of the name by which it was known +from remote antiquity is in itself an extraordinary fact. The games or +sports of Tailltean were somewhat similar to the Olympic games of Greece, +except that those of Tailltean were celebrated every year. The whole of +Ireland used to assist at them, and they seem to have been celebrated +every year down to 1168, when they were for the last time celebrated by +the unfortunate and foolish Roderick O’Connor, the last of those who were, +even in name, chief kings of Ireland. In spite of internal wars, Danish +invasions and plunderings, a single year does not appear to have elapsed +from the time they were first established down to the twelfth century in +which they were not celebrated. It would also seem that no matter what +wars or troubles were distracting the country, the games of Tailltean +were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span> never omitted. They took place at the beginning of August, as has +been mentioned in the article on Tara, and from them the Irish name of the +month of August—<i>Lughnasa</i>—is derived. The name Tailltean is the +genitive case of Taillte, the woman in whose memory they were established +by her son, Lugh, who lived and reigned in Tara, according to the +chronology of the Four Masters, which differs only slightly from that of +other annalists, 1824 years <span class="smcaplc">B.C.</span>! It is no matter how we may smile or +shake our heads when this astounding antiquity is mentioned, the +preservation of those two names, <i>Lughnasa</i> and <i>Tailltean</i>, down to the +present day, drives away the smile and makes us look serious. Such +collateral proofs of the existence of historic personages of such +antiquity cannot be furnished by any other nation in the world, not even +by Egypt or by Greece.</p> + +<p>We must not pooh-pooh the statement of Irish annalists as to the enormous +antiquity they give to persons who figure in early Irish history. Here is +what the late Sir William Wilde says in his book, “Loch Corrib”: “With +respect to Irish chronology, we believe it will be found to approach the +truth as near as that of most other countries; and the more we investigate +it and endeavour to synchronise it with that of other<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span> lands, the less +reason we shall have to find fault with the accounts of our native +annalists.”</p> + +<p>There are not many monuments of the past to be seen at Tailltean save an +earthen fort of about a hundred paces in diameter, and two small lakes +that bear evidence of having been formed artificially. To show how long +traditions live in countries that even partially preserve their ancient +language, it need only be said that up to about a hundred years ago, the +peasantry of the neighbourhood used to meet on the first of <i>Lughnasa</i>, or +August, at Tailltean to have games and athletic sports of different kinds. +The meeting was called a <i>pattern</i>, but it was not held on any patron +saint’s day. It was merely the traditional remembrance of the old games +that had not been celebrated for seven hundred years previously, that +caused the peasantry to meet at Tailltean. It is said that on account of +the drinking and consequent fighting that used to take place, the clergy +forbid the people to assemble. Irish history and annals, while they +constantly mention the games of Tailltean, leave us a good deal in the +dark about the nature of the sports that used to take place. But they do +say that marriages, or, rather, alliances of a somewhat evanescent kind +used to be contracted; and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span> to this day, all through the part of the +country in the neighbourhood of Tailltean, when a matrimonial alliance +turns out badly, or when the parties separate, it is called “a Telltown +marriage.” No one who has ever written about Telltown, not even such +profound archæologists as O’Donovan and Petrie, has ever had any doubt +about its being the exact place where the games of Tailltean were held in +ancient times.</p> + +<p>There cannot be said to be any very ancient monuments of Christian times +to be seen in Kells save a very fine round tower, the top of which is +gone; a very ancient cross in the market-place, two in the churchyard, and +a stone-roofed church or oratory. The last is the oldest and most +interesting ancient monument in Kells. It is a small building, only +nineteen feet long, fifteen broad, and twenty-five high. It is one of the +most ancient edifices built with cement that exists in Ireland. Its +foundation is attributed to St Columba; and it is considered to be at +least of his time, or the middle of the sixth century. It is apparently as +sound and as solid as it was the day it was built. Everything that could +with any certainty be believed to have been part of the great monastery +that was in Kells has disappeared. Its stones were probably taken to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span> +build the present church that stands near to where the monastery was. The +stones of the ancient building that has been described would also probably +have been used for some purpose if they could have been easily removed, +but it is so solid, and the stones are so firmly bound together by +grouting, that the labour of tearing it down deterred the vandals from +destroying it.</p> + +<p>Kells was so often burned and so often plundered by the Northmen that it +is a wonder how anything in it remains. According to the annals it was +burned twenty-one times, and plundered seven times, before the twelfth +century! Every vestige of the great castle, that was built either by Hugo +de Lacy or John de Courcy, has disappeared. This castle must have been +nearly as large as that of Trim, for it was built for the protection of +some of the most valuable country conquered by the invaders. It is said +that the monastery was in a ruined condition at the close of the twelfth +century, and that de Lacy renovated it and richly endowed it.</p> + +<p>That wondrous manuscript known as the Book of Kells, although it is not +believed to have been written in that town, has been named from it, and +consequently should be mentioned in connection with it. That the book +found its way to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span> Kells, and that it was there for many centuries, there +cannot be any doubt. Neither can there be any doubt that it belonged to +the Church of Kells, for there are curious charters in it, written in +Irish of a very archaic kind, relating to the clergy of that town. It +seems to have been in Kildare in the twelfth century, for it is evidently +of it that Giraldus Cambrensis speaks when he says, “Of all the wonders of +Kildare, I found nothing more wonderful than the marvellous book that was +written in the time of St Brigit.” It was in the church of Kells until +1620, when Archbishop Ussher saved it from being destroyed. It is a Latin +version of the Gospels, with some Gaelic charters, relating to the Church +of Kells, that were bound into it many centuries after it was written. It +was taken by the Danes, it is believed, and the golden cover torn off it; +it was found buried in the ground some time after. This is recorded to +have happened in 1006. It is the most wonderful work of art of its kind +known to exist in any country, and it is no wonder that in a credulous age +it should have been believed to be the work of angels. Westwood, an +Englishman, and author of the greatest work on illuminated manuscripts +ever written, says of it: “It is unquestionably the most elaborately +executed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span> manuscripts of so early a date now in existence.” Doctor Waagen, +Conservator of the Royal Museum of Berlin, says of it: “The ornamental +pages, borders, and initial letters exhibit such a rich variety of +beautiful and peculiar designs, so admirable a taste in the arrangement of +colours, and such an uncommon perfection of finish, that one feels +absolutely struck with amazement.” Where and when the Book of Kells was +executed, and by whom, will probably never be known; but it must have been +written as early as the sixth century. Tradition attributes it to Columba, +or, as he is usually called, Columb Cille. The late Dr Todd, one of the +most learned archæologists, and one of the best Gaelic scholars that ever +Ireland produced, believed that it was as early as the time of Columba. +The author of <i>Topographia Hiberniae</i> says of it: “The more frequently I +behold it, the more diligently I examine it, the more I am lost in +admiration of it.” No one who has not seen the Book of Kells can form an +idea of its beauty. In the pages that have not been soiled the colours are +as pure and as bright as if they were laid on only yesterday. The naked +eye cannot follow all its delicate and minute tracings; to see it aright, +it should be seen through a microscope. It is beyond any doubt the most<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span> +wonderful book of its kind in the world. In it and in the Tara Brooch +Ireland possesses two works of ancient art, two gems of artistic beauty +which are unequalled of their kind and of their age. The art treasures of +metallurgy exhumed in Pompeii, and all that have been found in Greece and +Asia Minor by Schliemann, contain nothing equal in exquisite finish to the +Tara Brooch; and in all the treasures of illuminated manuscripts in the +libraries of the world, there is nothing of its kind equal to the Book of +Kells. The Tara Brooch can be seen in the Museum, Kildare Street, Dublin, +and the Book of Kells in Trinity College, in the same city.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>All the ecclesiastical establishments that have been described owed their +origin to native piety, benevolence, and enterprise.</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span></p> +<h2>CUCHULAINN’S DUN AND CUCHULAINN’S COUNTRY</h2> + + +<p>No one, whether an Irishman or a stranger, can look on the vast mound and +vast earthen ramparts that mark the home of him whom the most trustworthy +of Irish annalists, Tighearnach, calls <i>fortissimus heros Scottorum</i>, +without feelings of indignation and shame—indignation at the way one of +the greatest and most interesting monuments of Irish antiquity has been +profaned, and shame that so little reverence for their country’s past +should be found among the Irish people. If the Copts and Arabs of Egypt +sell and uproot the antiquities of that country, they can, at least, say +that they are not the descendants of the men who lived under the sway of +the Pharaos; but those who have, in recent times, done most to obliterate +and profane the most historic monuments of Ireland are the lineal +descendants of the men who raised them. Nothing that ancient Irish +monuments have suffered, and they have suffered a great deal, can exceed +the wrong committed by him who built a horrible, modern, vulgar, gewgaw<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span> +house on top of the <i>dun</i> of Cuchulainn! To show how utterly obtuse, and +how unsympathetic with his country’s past the person was who built the +vulgar structure on one of the most curious and interesting historic +monuments in Ireland, he has actually engraved his name and the date of +the erection of the house on its front wall! seeming to glory in the +vandalism he committed. The legend on the wall says that the house was +built in 1780 by a person named Patrick Byrne for his nephew.</p> + +<p> </p> +<div class="bbox" style="width: 372px; height: 500px;"><img src="images/img16.jpg" alt="" /></div> +<p class="caption">CUCHULAINN’S DESECRATED DUN.</p> +<p> </p> + +<p>About a mile from the Dundalk railway station,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span> crowning the summit of a +hill that rises amid green fields and rich pastures, stands all that +remains of the <i>dun</i> on which the wooden dwelling of Cuchulainn stood +wellnigh two thousand years ago. Before it was partially levelled to build +the gewgaw house that now stands on it, it must have been the finest +monument of its kind in Ireland. It is quite different from the remains of +Tara, Knock Aillinn, Emania, or Dinrigh. Those places were evidently +intended to accommodate large numbers of people; but Cuchulainn’s <i>dun</i> +was evidently that of one person or one family. It answered to the Norman +keep that some lords of the soil built for their own private protection in +later times. Cuchulainn’s <i>dun</i> was immense, and its remains are even +still immense in spite of the way it has been ruined. It is yet over forty +feet in perpendicular height, and, like most structures of its kind, is +perfectly round. It has an area of over half an acre on its summit. The +<i>enceinte</i> outside the central <i>dun</i> encloses fully two acres, and where +it has not been levelled, is still colossal, being thirty feet high in +some parts. The immense labour it must have taken to raise such a gigantic +mound, and to dig such vast entrenchments on so high a hill, strikes one +with astonishment. If it had not been ruined and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span> partially levelled by +the utterly denationalised and soulless person who built the vulgar +structure on it, it would be the finest thing of its kind in Ireland, and +would attract antiquarians from all parts of these islands and from the +Continent.</p> + +<p>The existence of this fort is another collateral proof of the general +truth of what has been called Irish bardic history. It says that +Cuchulainn lived at Dundealgan, or Dundalk, and there his <i>dun</i> is found. +He can hardly be said to figure in what are generally known as Irish +authentic annals. The “Annals of the Four Masters” do not mention him at +all, although they do mention some of his contemporaries. Tighearnach, who +lived in the eleventh century, is the only one of the Irish annalists who +mentions him. His annals have not yet been translated or published; but +the following passage occurs in them: “Death of Cuchulainn, the most +renowned champion of Ireland, by Lughaidh, the son of Cairbre Niafer +[chief king of Ireland]. He was seven years old when he began to be a +champion, and seventeen when he fought in the Cattle Spoil of Cooley, and +twenty-seven when he died.” Tighearnach makes Cuchulainn and Virgil +contemporary. He and Queen Meave are the two great central figures in the +longest and greatest prose epic in the Irish<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span> language, the Tain Bo +Cuailgne, or Cattle Spoil of Cooley, which Sir Samuel Ferguson has made +familiar to the English reader in his poem, “The Foray of Meave.”</p> + +<p>Cuchulainn is the Hercules of Irish romantic history; but in spite of all +the fabulous tales of which he is the hero, there cannot be any doubt that +he was an historic personage, that his dwelling-place was on the <i>dun</i> +that has been described, and that he lived shortly before the Christian +era. The name Cuchulainn is a sobriquet; it means “the hound Culann.” This +Culann was chief smith to Connor, King of Ulster. He had a fierce dog that +he used to let out every night to watch and guard his premises, which were +in the vicinity of Emania, the palace of the Ulster kings. Cuchulainn, who +was nephew to Connor, was going to some entertainment at his uncle’s; but +having been out later than usual, was attacked by Culann’s fierce hound. +He had no weapon with which to defend himself save his hurling ball; but +he cast it with such force at the dog that he killed him on the spot. +Culann complained to King Connor about the loss of his great watch dog, +and Cuchulainn, who was then only a boy of eight or nine years old, said +that he would act as watch dog for the smith<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span> and be Culann’s hound, or +dog. Whether he did so or not is left untold.</p> + +<p>It is very curious that in all the romantic tales in which Cuchulainn +figures, and in spite of his incredible strength and prowess, there does +not seem to be a passage in any tract that has been translated about him +up to the present where anything is mentioned about his size or stature. +We are left under the impression that he was no bigger than ordinary men; +and it may have been that he was not. Size and strength do not always go +together. Some of the feats that he is said to have performed are utterly +incredible; such as flinging his spear haftwise, and killing nine men with +the cast; and pulling the arm from its socket out of a giant whom he was +unable to get the better of with weapons. It is very natural that such +impossible feats would, in a credulous age, be attributed to any one who +was possessed of more than ordinary prowess. Things quite as impossible +are found in the classics relative to Hercules. The Irish had just as good +a right to relate impossibilities about Cuchulainn as the Greeks had to do +the same about Hercules. But Cuchulainn figures in Celtic legend and +romance in a manner in which Hercules does not figure in the legends of +Greece, for the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span> Irish hero was more of a ladies’ man than was the giant +of the Greeks.</p> + +<p>If Cuchulainn did not fill such an important place in what may be called +classic Gaelic literature, the total ignorance about him in the very place +where he was born and where he lived would not be such a national disgrace +as it is. The mere remnant of Gaelic literature in which he is the central +figure is immense. No other race in Europe would have so totally lost +sight of a personage that was the hero of so many tracts and stories, and +who was, besides, an historic character, and not a myth. Even sixty years +ago, during the Ordnance Survey of Louth, the parties employed on it found +that no one in the neighbourhood of Castletown, the modern name of the +place in which Cuchulainn’s fort is situated, knew or heard anything about +him. They were told by the peasantry that the fort was made by the Danes! +Some said it was the work of Finn Mac Cool; but of the real owner of it, +they knew nothing.</p> + +<p>It is evident that the Irish monks of early mediæval times were much more +broad-minded and liberal than their countrymen of the same class of more +recent years. It is to monks and inmates of monasteries that we owe +nine-tenths<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span> of the Gaelic literature that has come down to us. They +produced more books in proportion to their numbers than perhaps any class +of men of their kind that lived in ancient times. They were sincere +Christians, but, like patriots, they loved to record the deeds of their +pagan ancestors. Just as soon as national decay set in they were succeeded +by men of their own calling, who appear to have thought little worth +recording except the works of saints, or at least of those who professed +Christianity. If the monks of the early centuries of Christian Ireland +were as narrow-minded as the Four Masters, we never, probably, would know +anything about Cuchulainn, Queen Meave, Conall Carnach, or any of the +heroes of pagan Ireland, round whom there is woven such a wondrous web of +legend, romance, and song. Every patriotic Irishman should revere the +memories of those liberal-minded monks who handed down to us the doings of +their pagan forefathers. To show how much those men valued the literature, +and loved to recount the exploits of their pagan ancestors, it will only +be necessary to give the words of the dear old soul who copied the <i>Tain +Bó Cuailgne</i>, the great epic of pagan times, into the “Book of Leinster”: +“A blessing on every one who will faithfully remember the <i>Tain</i> as it is +[written]<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span> here, and who will not put another shape on it.”</p> + +<p>Cuchulainn, above all men who figure in ancient Irish literature, seems to +have been “<i>grádh ban Eireann</i>,” the darling of the women of Ireland. +While yet in his teens, the nobles of Ulster came together to determine +who should be a fitting wife for him. After a long search they found a +lady named Eimir, accomplished in all the feminine education of the time; +but her father, a wealthy chief or noble who lived near Lusk, in the +present County of Dublin, did not like to give his daughter to a +professional champion. Cuchulainn had seen her, and had succeeded in +gaining her love. She was guarded for a year in her father’s <i>dun</i>; and +during all that time, Cuchulainn vainly strove to see her. At last he lost +patience and became desperate, scaled the three fences that encircled her +father’s fort, had a terrible fight for her; killed three of her brothers; +half killed half-a-dozen others who opposed him, and carried her and her +maid northward in his chariot to his home in Dundalk.</p> + +<p>Like all violent love, Cuchulainn’s love for Eimir seems soon to have +cooled, for we find that a lady called Fann, the wife of Manannan MacLir, +King of the Isle of Man, or some place<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span> east of Ireland, fell in love with +him. She came to see her father, a man of rank and wealth, who lived +somewhere on the east coast of Ireland. She eloped with Cuchulainn, and +Eimir, finding that she and her erring husband were staying at Newry, in +the present County of Down, followed him, attended by fifty maids armed +with knives, in order to kill Fann. This lady, in spite of her errors, +must have been an intellectual woman, for her speech when leaving +Cuchulainn and going home with MacLir is very fine, and would be a credit +to the literature of any language. The tract in which it occurs is in the +Book of the Dun Cow, an Irish manuscript compiled in the eleventh century, +and is entitled “The Sick Bed of Cuchulainn and only Jealousy of Eimir.” +It was admirably translated nearly forty years ago by Eugene O’Curry, and +was published in the long since dead periodical, the <i>Atlantis</i>. None but +a few Celtic savants have ever read it. To the general public it will be +absolutely new. Fann, finding that she must leave Cuchulainn, says:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“It is I who shall go on a journey;<br /> +I give consent with great affliction;<br /> +Though there is a man of equal fame,<br /> +I would prefer to remain [here].<br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span><br /> +“I would rather be here<br /> +To be subject to thee without grief,<br /> +Than go, though it may wonder thee,<br /> +To the sunny palace of Aed Abrat.<a name='fna_16' id='fna_16' href='#f_16'><small>[16]</small></a><br /> +<br /> +“Woe to the one who gives love to a person,<br /> +If he does not take notice of it!<br /> +It is better for one to be turned away,<br /> +Unless he is loved as he is loved.”</p> + +<p>It seems that by some occult means it was revealed to Manannan MacLir that +his wife, Fann, was in trouble between the jealous women of Ulster and +Cuchulainn. So he came from the east to seek his eloped spouse. When Fann +found out that Manannan had found <i>her</i> out, she utters the following very +quaint, extraordinary, and touching rhapsody:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Behold ye the valiant son of Lir<br /> +From the plains of Eoghan of Inver,—<br /> +Manannan, lord of the world’s fair hills,<br /> +There was a time when he was dear to me.<br /> +<br /> +“Even to-day if he were nobly constant,—<br /> +My mind loves not jealousy;<br /> +Affection is a subtle thing;<br /> +It makes its way without labour.<br /> +<br /> +“When Manannan the Great me espoused<br /> +I was a spouse worthy of him;<br /> +He could not win from me for his life<br /> +A game in excess at chess.<br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span><br /> +“When Manannan the Great me espoused<br /> +I was a spouse of him worthy;<br /> +A bracelet of doubly tested gold<br /> +He gave me as the price of my blushes.<br /> +<br /> +“I had with me going over the sea<br /> +Fifty maidens of varied beauty;<br /> +I gave them unto fifty men<br /> +Without reproach,—the fifty maidens.<br /> +<br /> +“As for me I would have cause [to be grieved]<br /> +Because the minds of women are silly;<br /> +The person whom I loved exceedingly<br /> +Has placed me here at a disadvantage.<br /> +<br /> +“I bid thee adieu, O beautiful Cu;<br /> +Hence we depart from thee with a good heart;<br /> +Though we return not, be thy good will with us;<br /> +Every condition is noble in comparison with that of going away.”</p> + +<p>It would appear that Cuchulainn was as much distracted about Fann as she +was about him; for when he found that she had gone home with Manannan +MacLir, he became desperate, and the tale says, with extraordinary +grotesqueness and apparent inconsequence, that “It was then Cuchulainn +leaped the three high leaps and the three south leaps of Luachair; and he +remained for a long time without drink, without food, among the mountains; +and where he slept each night was on the road of Midhluachair.” But what +good did the jumping do him, or why did he jump?</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span>Connor, King of Ulster, and the nobles and Druids of the province, had a +hard time with Cuchulainn after Fann left him, as he seems to have gone +downright crazy. The tale says that Connor had to send poets and +professional men to seek him out in his mountain retreat, and that when +they found him he was going to kill them. At last the Druids managed to +give him a drink of forgetfulness, so that he remembered no more about +Fann.</p> + +<p>The death of Cuchulainn in the “Book of Leinster” is one of the finest +things in ancient literature. It has not yet been fully translated, but a +partial translation of it by Mr Whitley Stokes appeared in the <i>Revue +Celtique</i> in 1876. An epitome of it here can hardly be out of place: When +Cuchulainn’s foes came against him for the last time, signs and portents +showed that he was near his end. One of his horses would not allow himself +to be yoked to the war chariot, and shed tears of blood. But Cuchulainn +goes to the battle, performs prodigies of valour; but at last he receives +his death wound. Though dying, his foes are afraid to approach him. He +asks to be allowed to go to a lake that was close by to get a drink. He is +allowed to go, but he does not want a drink, he merely wants to die like a +hero, standing up;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span> for there is a pillar-stone close by, and he throws +his breast-girdle round it, so that he might die standing up, and not +lying down. His friend Conall determines to avenge his death. Here the +literal translation is so fine that it must be given: “Now there was a +comrades’ covenant between Cuchulainn and Conall—namely, that whichever +of them was first killed, should be avenged by the other. ‘And if I be +first killed,’ said Cuchulainn, ‘how soon wilt thou avenge me?’ ‘The day +on which thou shalt be slain,’ says Conall; ‘I will avenge thee before +that evening.’ ‘And if I be slain,’ says Conall, ‘how soon wilt thou +avenge me?’ ‘Thy blood will not be cold on earth,’ says Cuchulainn, ‘when +I shall avenge thee.’” Lugaid, the slayer of Cuchulainn, had lost his +right hand in the fight. He goes south in his chariot to a river to rest +and drink. His charioteer says, “One horseman is coming to us, and great +are the speed and swiftness with which he comes. Thou wouldst deem that +all the ravens of Erin were above him, and that flakes of snow were +specking the plain before him.” “Unbeloved is the horseman that comes +there,” says Lugaid. “It is Conall mounted on [his steed] the Dewy-Red. +The birds thou sawest above him are sods from that horse’s hoofs. The +snowflakes thou sawest specking the plain<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span> before him are foam from that +horse’s lips and nostrils.” Conall and Lugaid fight, of course; but as +Lugaid has but one hand, Conall has one of his hands bound to his side +with ropes, so that he should have no advantage over his foe. They fight +for hours, until at last Lugaid falls by Conall, and Cuchulainn is +avenged. The tale winds up thus: “And Conall and the Ulstermen returned to +Emain Macha (Emania). That week they entered it not in triumph. But the +soul of Cuchulainn appeared there to the fifty queens who had loved him; +and they saw him floating in his spirit-chariot over Emain Macha, and they +heard him chaunt a mystic song of the coming of Christ and the Day of +Doom.”</p> + +<p>There are few views in Ireland more beautiful than that from the summit of +the mound on which Cuchulainn’s mansion stood. It may not be so extensive +as other views in the locality, but for beauty and variety it can hardly +be exceeded. If admittance is obtained into the house that is built on the +track of Cuchulainn’s, the view will be still finer. It is said by some +that that house is haunted. It is to be hoped that it is; and that +Cuchulainn’s ghost will drive away sleep from the eyes of every one of +Patrick Byrne’s descendants who stop in it.</p> + +<p>The ancient name of the country round Dundalk<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span> was Muirimhne; but it has +not been called by that name for some centuries. It appears to have been +the patrimony of Cuchulainn; for in the tale, in the “Book of the Dun +Cow,” from which extracts have been given, Fann calls him, “Great chief of +the plain of Muirimhne.” He, probably, or the clan of which he was the +head, owned all that part of northern Louth where the land is level, and +up to the foot of the Cooley hills. All the County Louth is fairly studded +with ruins of one sort or another. It is one of the most interesting +counties in Ireland in an antiquarian point of view. It contains the +remains of nearly thirty castles in almost all stages of preservation. One +of the finest of them is only a few hundred yards from the <i>dun</i> of +Cuchulainn. It is not in the least ruined, but its architecture shows it +to be one of the oldest castles erected by the Anglo-Normans in Ireland. +Its style is almost exactly that of the castle at Trim, which we know was +built before the end of the twelfth century. Like Dunsochly Castle, near +Finglas, in the County Dublin, the one near Cuchulainn’s <i>dun</i> must have +been inhabited at a comparatively recent date, for modern windows have +been opened on its front. The only light that was admitted into those old +castles was what came through the narrow slits in the walls, about<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span> three +feet long and six or eight inches wide. These served the double purpose of +letting in light and discharging arrows through them. It does not seem to +be known by whom the very fine Norman Keep at Castletown, County Louth, +was built. There are many larger castles of the same kind in different +parts of Ireland, but there are not many of its age in such a good state +of preservation. There is a church in the immediate proximity of the +castle, and the exact date of its erection seems also unknown. It is in a +state of almost utter ruin. The County Louth can boast of having been the +birth-place of St Brigit. She was born at Fachart, only a few miles from +Castletown, but it was in Kildare she spent almost all her life, and it +was there she died and was buried.</p> + +<p>There are few parts of Ireland more beautiful than the country round the +ancient <i>dun</i> of Cuchulainn, and few parts less generally visited by +tourists. Carlingford Loch is only a few miles from Dundalk, and except +Clew Bay, and one or two others, there is nothing finer on all the coasts +of Ireland. But the grandest and most striking scenery in this part of the +country are the Mourne mountains in the County Down. There are higher +mountain ranges in Ireland, but there are not any more bold, or more truly +Alpine. Seen from the central parts of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span> the County Louth, they and the +Cooley mountains seem to form a continuous range of “sky-pointing peaks,” +forming one of the finest, if not the very finest, mountain view in +Ireland. The ancient name of the Mourne mountains was the Beanna Boirche. +They were called the Mourne mountains from being in a territory anciently +called Crioch Mughorna. It gave a title to Lord Cremorne, from whom, it is +generally believed, the Cremorne Gardens in London derive their name. It +has to be admitted that, in this instance, the Anglicised form of the name +is the more euphonious.</p> + +<p>The County Louth, and all that part of the County Down bordering on it, +have not had their due share of attention from those who go in search of +the picturesque and beautiful. Although the direct route between the two +largest cities in Ireland, northern Louth and southern Down are not at all +known as well as they should be. There are, even in Kerry or Connemara, +few places in which finer views of mountain, bay, and plain can be had, +and all within less than two hours by rail from Dublin or Belfast. And as +for antiquities, no county of its size in Ireland possesses so many as +Louth.</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span></p> +<h2>THE WILD WEST COAST</h2> + + +<p>By the west coast is meant the whole of that wondrous succession of +far-penetrating fiords and bays, cliff-guarded shores, and sea-washed +mountains from Bantry Bay to Malin Head, a distance of over four hundred +miles. There may be wilder scenery on the coasts of Norway, Labrador, or +Scotland, but for wildness, sublimity, and beauty combined, there is +hardly in Europe, or in the world, another four hundred miles of coast +equal to it. Its variety is one of its principal charms. There is the +grandeur and wildness of Norwegian coast scenery, together with scenes of +radiant beauty which cannot be found on the coasts of Norway or of +Scotland. The more southern latitude of the Irish west coast, and its +consequently milder climate, give it a great advantage over the coasts of +Norway or of Scotland. Its grass is greener and more luxuriant, and its +flowers bloom earlier in spring and later in autumn than those of more +northern climes. The mild climate of the southern part of the Irish west +coast is almost phenomenal. Winter, in its real sense, or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span> as it generally +is on the coasts of Norway, or even of Scotland, may be said to be unknown +on the west coast of Munster. Snow is seldom seen, and frost still less +frequently. Rain and wind are about all the climatic disagreeableness that +those living on the south-west coasts of Ireland have to contend against. +It is, however, a fact that the rainfall is not so heavy immediately on +the coast as it is some ten or twenty miles inland. This is owing to the +fact that the higher mountains are generally some distance from the sea; +and it is well-known that mountains are great attractors of rain.</p> + +<p>Bantry Bay is the first great sea loch of the south-western coast. It is +one of the finest natural harbours in Europe, but, unfortunately, ships +are seldom seen in it except when they take shelter from the “wild west +wind,” which blows on these storm-beaten shores with a fury hardly known +anywhere else in the world. The whole of the coast of Kerry, up to the +mouth of the Shannon, is a succession of the wildest and grandest scenery, +with here and there land of only slight elevation, with level meads and +pastures of perennial green. Still further north, we come to the mouth of +the Shannon, which forms another very fine harbour. About twenty miles +north of the Shannon the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span> famous cliffs of Moher appear. There are higher +isolated cliffs than those on the west coast, but there is no long range +of cliffs so high. They average between six and seven hundred feet in +perpendicular height above the sea. To be seen in all their grandeur they +should be seen from the sea, but to be seen in all their terribleness, +they should be seen in a storm. Such is the force of the west wind on +these coasts, sweeping over three thousand miles of unbroken, islandless +sea, that the waves sometimes break over the cliffs of Moher in spite of +their nearly seven hundred feet of perpendicular height. In no other part +of the world is the force of the sea, when driven before a gale from the +west, more terrific than on the west coast of Ireland. Old men who lived +close to this iron-bound coast on the night of the great storm of January +6, 1839, known over the most of Ireland as the “Night of the Big Wind,” +say that none but those who were near these coasts on that awful night +could have even a faint idea of what the Atlantic is when a storm from the +south-west drives it against the rocky barriers that seem to have been +placed where they are to prevent it from overwhelming the whole island. +They say that when some gigantic wave of millions of tons of water was +hurled against these<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span> cliffs, the noise made was so loud that it could be +heard miles inland above the roar and din of the storm; and that the very +earth would tremble at every assault of the waves on those tremendous +barriers to their fury.</p> + +<p>Recent soundings taken off the west and south-west coast of Ireland have +fully proved that a very large part of the island has been washed away by +the fury of the west wind and the sea, and that at some far-back epoch it +extended nearly three hundred miles further towards the south-west. The +sea, for some two or three hundred miles west and south-west of Ireland, +is shallow—hardly deeper than the Channel between Great Britain and +Ireland—but at that distance there is a sudden increase of over two +thousand feet in the depth of the sea. Scientists think that this +submerged mountain was once the south-west coast of Ireland, and that the +shallow sea between the present coast and the deep sea, about three +hundred miles south-west, was once dry land, and, of course, part of +Ireland. There do not seem to be any reasonable grounds to doubt this +theory, for the fury of the sea is every year washing away both land and +rock on these western coasts, and the way it has encroached, even in the +memory of living<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span> persons, is very remarkable. Not a year passes during +which hundreds of thousands of tons of rocks are not washed away from +cliff and mountain by the ceaseless assaults of the stormy sea that beats +with such force on the western coast of Ireland. Were it not for the +cliffs and mountains that guard the whole of the west coast, the +probability is that thousands of acres would be submerged every year, +until there would be very little of the country left in the long run. It +may be said that there must be a time coming when those barriers of cliff +and mountain that now guard almost the entire west coast will be swept +away, seeing that they are being constantly broken down and washed into +the sea. Such a time must certainly come, unless some unforeseen event +should alter the course of the Gulf Stream, or change the prevailing west +and south-west winds to opposite points of the compass. The question is, +How long will it be until there is real danger from the encroachment of +the sea on the west coast of Ireland? This is a question which the most +profound geologist living could not answer with even approximation to +correctness. It is impossible to know what amount of erosion takes place +every year, or what amount has taken place in any given number of years; +but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span> that not only the cliffs of Moher, but the still more gigantic ones +of Slieve More in Achill, and Slieve League in Donegal, must finally +succumb to the fury of the Atlantic’s waves there can hardly be a doubt. +Thousands of years may elapse before the cliff barriers on the western +coast become so weakened that the island will be in danger from the +assaults of the sea.</p> + +<p>From the cliffs of Moher to the Killaries, or Killary Bay, or Harbour, for +it is known by all these names, there are many scenes of very great +beauty; but to take even passing notice of all of them would be entirely +beyond the scope of a work of the size of this. The coasts of Connemara, +if not remarkable for very striking cliff scenery, are wild, sea-indented, +strange, and interesting in a very high degree. But Killary Bay is one of +the glories of the wild west coast. It has more the character of a +Norwegian fiord than any other sea loch in Ireland. It divides the +counties of Galway and Mayo. Some put it before the famed Clew Bay, and +Inglis said, over half a century ago, that if the shores of the Killaries +were as well wooded as Killarney, the latter might tremble for the +supremacy it enjoys of being the fairest lake either of fresh or salt +water in Ireland. The Killaries run some ten<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span> or fifteen miles inland, +between some of the highest hills in the province of Connacht, with +Maolrea, the king of Connacht mountains, on its northern side. This fiord, +or narrow sea loch, is one of the most splendid harbours, not only in +Ireland, but in the world, with not only complete shelter from winds from +all points, but with depth of water enough to float the biggest ship that +ever has been or ever will be built. But, unfortunately, there is little +to attract commerce to these desolate shores, where there are no large +towns, and only a sparse population. It has been said by some who have +seen almost all the fiords of Norway, that there are few of them superior +to the Killaries in everything that constitutes beauty, sublimity, and +wildness. That this sea loch is, in a certain degree, dark and gloomy has +to be admitted, because the mountains come so close to it that they seem +in some places to rise almost perpendicularly out of the water. But +Killary harbour is a glorious place on a clear, sunny mid-day, when its +sombre mountains cast but little shade on its ever calm waters; for no +matter how rough the sea may be outside, this mountain fiord is ever calm, +as it is sheltered on all sides by towering heights. As an enchanting bay +it is the only one on all the Irish coasts of which Clew Bay or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span> Dublin +Bay, were they living things and tormented with human passions, could +possibly feel jealous.</p> + +<p>We now approach the queen, not alone of Irish bays, but of all bays in +these islands, and, according to its most ardent admirers, of all bays in +Europe. This is the glorious sheet of salt water, presided over by the +most symmetrical and beautiful of Irish mountains, Croagh Patrick, and +guarded from the stormy Atlantic by the rocky shores of Clare Island. This +is Clew Bay, the radiant beauty, the “matchless wonder of a bay,” that not +one in a hundred of those in search of the beautiful know anything about. +It is indeed strange that this gem of sea lochs is not better known, now +that a railway brings one to its very shores.</p> + +<p>It is almost impossible to draw a comparison between Clew Bay and the many +magnificent arms of the sea that penetrate the west coasts of Ireland and +Scotland, for it is so unlike most of them: Dublin Bay, while less grand +and not so beautiful as Clew Bay, is the one that is most like it. Howth +has somewhat the same position with regard to Dublin Bay that Clare Island +occupies with regard to Clew Bay, and Slieve Coolan—in the name of all +that’s decent<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span> let that abominable name “Sugarloaf” be dropped for +ever—is the presiding mountain genius of Dublin Bay, just as Croagh +Patrick is the presiding mountain genius of Clew Bay. Both bays are +beautiful rather than sublime; they are bright and cheerful rather than +dark and frowning. With all the wildness and grandeur of the many +far-entering fiords of the coast of Scotland, with all the Alpine glories +of their shores, there is not one of them that for beauty alone can be +compared with Clew Bay. It is shrouded by no terror-striking precipices. +No cataracts pour into it even in flood time. No mountains overhang it. It +seems to have been made to cheer and to delight, and not to terrify or to +startle. It seems to have said to the mountains round it—“Stand back; +come not too near me lest your shadows should fall on me and hide, even +for an instant, one gleam of my radiant loveliness.” So the mountains +round it do stand back, and this is the one cause of its winsomeness, +brightness, and cheerfulness. When the tide is full on a sunny day, Clew +Bay seems absolutely to laugh. No shadow of surrounding hills can fall +upon it, for they are too far away. It is as bright and as radiant a bay +as there is in the world, and the glory of the coasts of Connacht.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span>Clew Bay has a great advantage over the greater part of the bays on the +Irish coast on account of its size. Killary Bay is in no place more than a +mile wide, but Clew Bay is fully seven miles wide at its narrowest part, +and about sixteen miles long—that is from Clare Island to the quay at +Westport. Those who desire to see this splendid bay aright should not +attempt to look at it from the town of Westport, for it cannot be seen to +advantage from there. Neither can it be seen to advantage except during +high tide, when all its multitude of islands are clearly defined. Let them +ascend the high lands east of the town of Westport for about a mile, and +then look back on the scene beneath them. If the day is fine, if there is +plenty of sunlight, they will have to be the least sensitive of mortals if +they can gaze on such a scene unmoved. Scenes sublimer and grander, and +views more extensive, can be found in other countries; but for pure +beauty—a beauty that seems to laugh and rejoice at its own matchless +charms—Clew Bay may challenge anything of its kind on earth.</p> + +<p>North of the bay rises that most symmetrical of Irish mountains, Croagh +Patrick, or the Reek, as it is frequently called. It seems to have been +made<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span> to order, it is so regular and at the same time so graceful and +grand in its outlines. There are few mountains of its height that look so +high as Croagh Patrick. It is somewhat less than three thousand feet high, +but owing to its symmetry and its steepness it looks higher and more +imposing than many mountains of double its altitude. Exactly at the mouth +of the bay, stretching almost straight across it, and almost completely +shutting it in from the Atlantic, rises the great mass of Clare Island, +making the bay a safe harbour as well as adding in a most extraordinary +degree to its beauty. Clare Island is almost a mountain; its highest point +cannot be less than fifteen hundred feet above the sea level, and it rises +sheer from the water. It is almost as beautiful an object as Croagh +Patrick itself. The hills on the north side of the bay are rather tame, +but the beauty of the famous Reek is such that almost any other mountain +would appear tame in comparison with it. The number of islands in Clew Bay +is said to be three hundred and sixty-five—one for every day in the year. +There seem not to be any exact details as to the number of these islands, +but it cannot be much less than the number stated. They seem so numerous +as to be uncountable. The reason that those wishing to see this wondrous<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span> +bay at its best are advised to see it when the tide is full is because all +the islands do not appear at low water. This is certainly a defect, but no +sea loch looks so well at low water as when the tide is full. The citizens +of Dublin know what a difference the tide being in or out makes in the +appearance of their own magnificent bay. But in Clew Bay the difference in +its appearance caused by the tide being full or low is much greater than +in the bay of Dublin, for the reason that has been already stated. However +much the difference the state of the tide may make in Clew Bay, it is +beyond all doubt the most beautiful bay, not only in Ireland, but in all +those countries known as the British Isles.</p> + +<p>Those who go to this part of the west coast in search of the sublime and +beautiful should not omit to ascend Croagh Patrick, and gaze from its top +on one of the grandest and most extensive views to be seen in Ireland. The +mountain, seen from Westport or its environs, appears wellnigh +inaccessible, but it is not so steep on its south side, and can be +ascended with no great amount of difficulty. The view from Croagh Patrick +is one of the most sublime that can be imagined. The whole of that wild, +storm-beaten, cliff-guarded coast of Connacht, from Slyne Head in +Connemara to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span> most northern part of Mayo, lies before one; and Clew +Bay, beautiful as it is from wherever it is seen, seems fairer than ever +when seen from the summit of Croagh Patrick.</p> + +<p>Going north from Clew Bay the next most interesting and wild spot is the +island of Achill, and the grandest things there are the cliffs of Minnaun +and Slieve More. As we are going north, Minnaun Cliffs, which are on the +southern side of Achill, must be spoken about first. They are seven +hundred feet in height, and will, therefore, average higher than the +cliffs of Moher in the County Clare, but they do not rise perpendicularly +from the sea as those of Moher do. But their sea sides are so steep as to +be quite inaccessible even to the wild goats which still haunt the cliffs +of Achill. The cliffs of Minnaun are magnificent, but if they rose sheer +from the sea they would form a much more grand and impressive sight.</p> + +<p>But the cliffs of Minnaun, gigantic as they are, are only insignificant +things compared with the great sea wall on the northern shores of the +island, formed by Slieve More and Croghan. The whole northern shore of + +Achill, from Achill head in the extreme west of the island to the narrow +straight that separates it from the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span>mainland on the east, a distance of +some thirteen miles, may be said to be a terrific barrier of cliffs, +rising to the height of over two thousand feet at the hills Croghan and +Slieve More. It is generally allowed that the north shore of Achill has +the most stupendous mural cliffs that are to be seen anywhere nearer than +Norway, and that even Norway has not very much cliff scenery more +magnificent. There is nothing in the shape of cliffs or sea walls in these +islands that can compare with the cliffs of Achill in grandeur except +Slieve League in Donegal, of which mention will soon be made. A geologist +has said, speaking of the cliffs of Achill, that it appeared to him as if +part of the mountain which forms the western extremity of the island, and +terminates in the noted cape of Achill head, had suffered dis-severance +from a sunken continent by some convulsion of Nature. These gigantic +cliffs can only be seen to advantage from the sea, but in the almost +entire absence of passenger steam-boats on these coasts, it is very +difficult for those who visit them to get a proper means of seeing them as +they ought to be seen. They rise from out of one of the stormiest oceans +in the world, that even in summer-time is often rough and dangerous; and +very few would care to risk their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span> lives in the cockle-shell boats, or +<i>currachs</i>, of fishermen to see the stupendous cliffs of Achill from where +they look best. In far distant Norway there are plenty of large and +commodious steamboats to take tourists all round its coasts; but if they +want to see some of the grandest and most beautiful scenery of their own +country to its best advantage, they must trust to a fisherman’s cot.</p> + +<p>It would take at least a week of the longest summer days to see all the +wonders and grandeur of these tremendous cliffs, or rather cliff +mountains, of Achill. In the interior of the island there is not anything +of great interest to be seen, but it has more cliff scenery of the +stupendous sort to boast of than perhaps any other island of its size in +the world.</p> + +<p>It is a “far cry” from Achill to Slieve League in Donegal—considerably +over a hundred miles if the coast is followed; but between the giant sea +walls of that island and Slieve League there is nothing of their kind that +will in any way bear comparison with them. There is, however, much +magnificent scenery on the northern coast of Connacht, and also a great +many things of antiquarian interest. There is the extraordinary Druid +remains of Carrowmore, only three miles from Sligo town, where<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span> there are +almost, if not quite, half a hundred cromlechs to be seen on about half a +dozen acres. They are of almost all sizes. Some of them are baby +cromlechs, the top stones of which are not much more than a hundredweight. +This place must have been a sort of Stonehenge at one time. In no other +known spot of either these islands or France are so many cromlechs to be +seen in so small a space, and very few seem to know anything about it. Sir +Samuel Ferguson seems to have been the only person who has written +anything about it. But here the same disrespect for monuments of antiquity +that has been so long prevalent all over the country may be noticed. Many +of the cromlechs have been torn down, and some of them have been actually +made to serve as road walls and have been built over. Fully half of them +have been either utterly torn down or in some way mutilated. Their +generally small size has made them an easy prey for those who wanted +stones to build walls or houses. These curious relics of far-back ages +should not be allowed to be any further ruined.</p> + +<p> <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span></p> +<div class="bbox" style="width: 600px; height: 369px;"><img src="images/img17.jpg" alt="" /></div> +<p class="caption">LOCH GILL.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span> </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span>The country in the vicinity of Sligo is one of the most interesting and +beautiful in Ireland. Close to it is the famous Loch Gill, the queen of +the fresh water lakes of Connacht. It is so near the coast that it is +not improper to say something about it in treating of the scenery of the +coast. It is connected with the sea by a river only a few miles in length +that passes through the town of Sligo, consequently it is only three or +four miles in a direct line from the sea. There is no other large fresh +water lake in Ireland, except Loch Corrib, so near the sea as Loch Gill. +It is fully ten miles in extreme length, and from three to four in +breadth. Its shores cannot be said to be mountainous, but the hills around +it are so bold, and their lower parts are so well wooded, that Loch Gill, +in spite of its having comparatively few islands, is yet one of the most +beautiful lakes in Ireland, and no one in search of the beautiful should +omit to see it. There is no other town in Ireland that has more objects of +scenic and archæological interest in its vicinity than Sligo. There is the +immense cairn on top of Knocknarea, sixteen hundred feet above the level +of the sea. There are four or five other immense cairns close to the town, +and there is the extraordinary mountain of Ben Bulben, anciently Ben +Gulban, that is shaped like a gigantic rick of turf. It is a couple of +miles long, and some sixteen hundred feet above the level of the sea. Its +summit is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span> perfectly flat. It can be ascended in a carriage from the south +side; but on the north side, facing the sea, it is not only perpendicular, +but overhangs its base in some places. If not the highest or most +beautiful mountain in Ireland, it is certainly the most extraordinary.</p> + +<p>We now approach the famous Slieve League, the grandest, the boldest, the +steepest, if not the highest, of all the cliff barriers on the coasts of +these islands, and one of the most remarkable in the known world. It can +be seen from the shore near Sligo, rising almost perpendicularly from the +sea. The cliff-mountains of Achill, colossal as they are, seem to shun the +full fury of the western gales, for they face the north-west; but Slieve +League looks almost due south-west, and thrusts itself out into the ocean +as if to court the most tremendous shock of the Atlantic’s billows. It +forms the culminating point of a range of cliffs that are over six miles +in extent, extending from Carrigan Head to Teelin Head, the lowest cliff +of which is over seven hundred feet in height. Slieve League is two +thousand feet high, and almost perpendicular. It is two hundred feet lower +than the highest of the cliff-mountains of Achill, but it is bolder, +nearer being perpendicular, grander, and more<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span> rugged than they. Those who +have not been on the sea at the base of Slieve League cannot form a true +idea of its awful grandeur. Its summit is almost as sharp as a knife +blade; and he who could look from the jagged rocks that form its cone down +on to the seething ocean under him without feeling giddy should have a +steady head and strong nerves. Those who go from these islands to Norway +in search of the sublime should first see this king Irish cliff-mountains, +and know how grand and beautiful are the sights that may be seen at home.</p> + +<p>The whole of the coast of Donegal is magnificent. There is no other cliff +on it as high or as grand as Slieve League, but there are hundreds of +places along its nearly a hundred miles of iron-bound, storm-beaten coast +that are well worth seeing. It has nothing like Clew Bay, but it has +gigantic cliffs, narrow arms of the sea, some of which are nearly as wild +and as grand as the famous Killary Bay that has already been described. +There may be certain places in the more southern coasts that are finer and +fairer than anything on the coasts of Donegal with the exception of Slieve +League, but for general wildness and cliff scenery there is hardly any +sea-coast county in Ireland can equal it. It<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span> has the longest sea loch in +the island on its coast—namely, Loch Swilly. Following its windings from +its mouth to where it begins must be over five and twenty miles. It is a +beautiful lake also, and hardly known at all to tourists, and never can be +known until better means are supplied for seeing it from a steamer on its +waters. The “wild west coast” may be said to end at the mouth of Loch +Swilly. From there eastward it is the northern coast. There is much of the +grand, beautiful, and curious to be seen on the northern coast from +Inishowen to Fair Head, including the celebrated Giant’s Causeway, and +“high Dunluce’s castle walls.” The latter have been already described.</p> + +<p>It would be hard to find anywhere in the world another sea coast of the +same length as that from Cape Clear in the south to Inishowen in the +north, where there is so much to be seen of the grand, the terrible, and +the beautiful. If the mountains on the coasts of Norway are higher, if its +fiords penetrate further inland, and if in some places the shining glacier +may be seen from them, there is not such astonishing variety of scenery on +the coasts of Norway as there is in the west coast of Ireland. The climate +of Norway does not permit the growth of many species<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span> of wild flowers +which add so much to the beauty of even the wildest and most sterile parts +of Ireland. In Norway there are no mountains radiant with purple heather +and golden furze,—mountains that may be unsightly and sombre for ten +months out of the twelve, but are, in autumn, turned into living bouquets, +thousands of feet in height, and with areas of tens of thousands of acres. +Moisture and mildness of climate are the parents of flowers. If rain and +mist hide for days and weeks the most beautiful scenery in Ireland, there +is ample compensation afterwards in the bloom of wild flowers more +luxuriant and more plentiful than can be found where there is more +sunlight and less moisture.</p> + +<p>It is a curious and humiliating fact that, so far as can be learned from +the sources at command, there are ten people who go from these islands to +the coasts of Norway every year for the one that visits the west coast of +Ireland. It may be that many people go to Norway just because it has +become fashionable to go there, but all the fashion in the world would not +send people five or six hundred miles across a stormy sea if there was not +good accommodation for them to go to that distant country, and good means +for seeing its beauties. Let there be the same means for seeing the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</a></span> +beauties of the west coast of Ireland as there are for seeing the coast of +Norway, and thousands will visit the former every year. Those who want to +see the grandeur of the Norwegian coast go in large and well-equipped +steamers, and live in them, eat and sleep in them for weeks together, +while they are brought from fiord to fiord and from town to town. Let +similar means be had for those who desire to see the west coast of +Ireland, and it will not be long unknown.</p> + +<p>There is no way to see coast scenery properly except from the sea. One +might be looking at Slieve League or the Cliffs of Moher all his life from +the land, but he could never have a full idea of their grandeur unless he +saw them from the sea at their base. Those who see the cliffs and +cliff-mountains of Norway from the deck of a commodious steamer see them +aright. Most of those who make the trip to Norway are loud in praise of +its magnificent coast scenery; but if they had to go by land from fiord to +fiord, as they would have to do on the west coast of Ireland did they want +to see its beauties, would they be so enchanted? They certainly would not. +When tourists go to see the Norwegian fiords, they need not trouble +themselves about engaging beds, or worry themselves by fearing that the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</a></span> +hotel in such a place will be full, for they have an hotel on board the +steamer, are carried from place to place, and are given ample time to see +the beauties of each place. If there were the best hotels in the world at +every romantic spot on the west coast of Ireland it would never attract +visitors, and never would be known as it should be, and as its wondrous +grandeur and beauty entitle it to be, until large and commodious steamers +were provided in which people could live, if they chose, while being +brought from one place of attraction to another, or from one town to +another. There are few coasts in the world better provided with harbours +than the west coast of Ireland. It could hardly happen that a steamer like +those that take tourists from Leith to the coasts of Norway could be +caught by a gale on any part of the coast from Cape Clear to Malin Head, +ten miles from a harbour in which she could not take shelter. The danger +of shipwreck would be so small as to be infinitesimal. The trip from Cape +Clear to Malin Head, or even to the Giant’s Causeway, could be made in two +weeks, and give sufficient time to stop a day or more at such remarkable +places as Clew Bay or the Arran Islands, where things of more than +ordinary interest are to be seen, such as the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span> view of Clew Bay from the +high lands east of it, and the cyclopean ruins in the islands Arran, the +most colossal and extraordinary things of their kind in Europe. There +ought to be enterprise enough in Ireland to put a steamer, like those that +take tourists to Norway every summer, on the Irish west coast for three or +four months every year. Without such means of seeing the beauties of the +west coast, as only a large, commodious steamer could furnish, the +beauties and the grandeur of the cliffs of Moher, Clew Bay, Slieve More, +and Slieve League will never be known as they should be.</p> + +<p>There is only one part of the Irish west coast where harbours for large +craft are scarce, and that is the Donegal coast. It is said that there is +no safe harbour between Killybegs and Loch Swilly, a distance of nearly a +hundred miles. This is unfortunate; but stormy as the north-west coast is, +there are always many days in summer when steamers could go from harbour +to harbour in a calm sea.</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</a></span></p> +<h2>DUBLIN AND ITS ENVIRONS</h2> + + +<p>Some may think, especially natives of Ireland, that writing about Dublin +and its environs is mere waste of time, ink, and paper, seeing that there +is so much known about them already. It should, however, be remembered +that this book is intended for people who are not Irish, as well as for +the Irish themselves. But even the Irish, and above all, the natives of +Dublin, want to be told something that may be new to some of them about a +city which so many of them seem neither to love nor admire as they should. +There is, unfortunately, a certain class of people in Dublin who, although +many of them were born there, think that it is one of the most backward +and unpleasant places in Europe. They do not admire the beauty of its +environs, and will not acknowledge willingly that it has been improved so +much as it has been during the last twenty-five years. It has been +improved and beautified in spite of them. Those citizens of Dublin who +take no pride in it should go abroad and see as many cities as the author +of this book has seen, and they would come back<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</a></span> with more just ideas +about Dublin. If there is any other city in Europe as large as Dublin, +with environs more beautiful, where life is more enjoyable, and where life +and property are more secure, it would be interesting to know where that +city is. Dublin is a great deal too good for a good many who live in it.</p> + +<p>The history of Dublin may be said to commence with the Danish invasions of +Ireland. It is rarely mentioned in Irish annals before the time when the +Danes took it, and first settled in it in the year 836, according to the +Four Masters. It probably existed as a small city long before the Danes +got possession of it, and there is reason to believe that it was a place +of some maritime trade at a remote period. It is stated on legendary more +than on historic authority, that when Conn of the Hundred Battles and +Eoghan Mór divided the island between them in the third century, the +Liffey was, for a certain part of its length, the boundary between their +dominions; and that the fact of more ships landing on the north side of +the river than on the south side gave offence to Eoghan, who owned the +southern shore of the Liffey, and caused a war between the two potentates. +It is, however, hardly probable that Dublin was a place of much importance +before its occupation by the Scandinavians in the first half of the +ninth century.</p> + +<p> <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[Pg 327]</a></span></p> +<div class="bbox" style="width: 600px; height: 365px;"><img src="images/img18.jpg" alt="" /></div> +<p class="caption">SACKVILLE STREET (O’CONNELL STREET).</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[Pg 328]</a></span> </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[Pg 329]</a></span>The Irish name of Dublin is, perhaps, the longest one by which any city in +Europe is called. It is <i>Baile Atha Cliath Dubhlinne</i>, and means the town +of the ford of hurdles of black pool. In ancient Irish documents it is +generally shortened to <i>Ath Cliath</i>, and sometimes to <i>Dubhlinn</i>. We have +no means of knowing what was the size or population of Dublin in Danish +times; but long after it became the seat of English government in Ireland, +it extended east no further than where the city hall now stands in Dame +Street, no further west than James Street, and no further south than the +lower part of Patrick Street; both Patrick’s cathedral and the Comb having +been outside the city walls.</p> + +<p>We have no account of the first siege of Dublin by the Danes in 836. The +annals merely say that a fleet of sixty ships of Northmen came to the +Liffey, and that that was the first occupation of the city by them. The +Irish captured and plundered Dublin a great many times, but do not appear +to have ever tried to banish the Danes permanently out of it. It is +probable that the Irish found them useful as carriers of merchandise to +them from foreign countries; for seeing how often the city<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[Pg 330]</a></span> was captured +and plundered by the Irish, it is incredible that they could not have held +it had they chosen to do so. The Four Masters record its capture and +plunder by the Irish in <span class="smcaplc">A.D.</span> 942, 945, 988, and 998. In 994 Malachy II. +sacked Dublin and carried off two Danish trophies, the ring of Tomar and +the sword of Karl; and in 988 he besieged it for twenty days and twenty +nights, captured it, and carried off an immense booty; and issued the +famous edict, “Every Irishman that is in slavery and oppression in the +country of the foreigners (Danes) let him go to his own country in peace +and delight.” But the Irish were not always lucky in their attacks on the +Danes of Dublin, for in 917 Niall Glundubh, King of Ireland, was killed by +them, and his army defeated at Killmashogue, beyond Rathfarnham. He +evidently intended to take Dublin from the south, because it was so well +defended on the north by the Liffey. The battle usually known as the +battle of Clontarf was not fought in the locality now called by that name, +but between the Liffey and the Tolka. Where Amien Street is now was + +probably the very centre of the battle-field. Here it may not be out of +place to make a remark on the curious fact that the Danes never made any +serious attempt to conquer Ireland after the battle<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[Pg 331]</a></span> of Clontarf, although +they were at the height of their power some six or eight years after by +the terrible defeat they gave the Saxons at Ashington, in Essex, which +gave Canute the crown of England. He thus became not only King of England, +but was King of Denmark and Norway as well—the most powerful potentate in +Christendom in his time. It is strange that historians have not taken any +notice of this extraordinary fact. There was comparatively little fighting +between the Irish and the Danes after the battle of Clontarf, although the +foreign people held Dublin until the arrival of Strongbow, and made a very +poor stand against him, for he captured the city with very little +difficulty. Dublin has hardly suffered what could be called a siege since +988, when Malachy II. took it from the Danes. When Strongbow held it, the +Irish under the wretched Roderick O’Connor marched a great army under its +walls, and were going to take it; but before they began siege operations, +and while they were amusing themselves by swimming in the Liffey, +Strongbow sallied out on them and totally defeated them. That was the last +serious attempt to besiege Dublin.</p> + +<p>Dublin does not appear to have grown much until after the wretched, and +for Ireland terribly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[Pg 332]</a></span> unfortunate, Jacobite wars were over. It grew and +prospered rapidly almost all through the eighteenth century when a native +parliament sat there; but from about 1820 until about 1870 there was not +very much either of growth or improvement in it. Since then, in spite of +what the census may show, it has grown considerably, and has been improved +immensely. It is not easy to see what has caused such improvement in +Dublin since 1870. The only way that the improvement in the state of the +streets, the pulling down of old buildings and the erection of new ones, +can be accounted for, is by the fact that the local government of the city +is in the hands of a different class of men from those who ruled it so +long and so badly up to about the time mentioned. When one considers all +that has been done since then in the paving of streets, the laying down of +new side walks, the tearing down of old buildings, the erection of +cottages for the working classes where rotten and pestiferous houses had +stood, the deepening of the river so that the largest ships can now enter +it, the extension and perfecting of the tram-car system, and other +improvements too numerous to mention, it strikes him as something +astonishing; but when it is remembered that all these improvements have +taken place in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[Pg 333]</a></span> face of declining trade, declining population, and +declining wealth in the country at large, what has been accomplished +becomes absolutely sublime. It shows clearly that there is a class of the +Irish people who, with all their faults, possess hearts and souls</p> + +<p class="poem"><span style="margin-left: 3em;">“that sorrows have frowned on in vain,</span><br /> +Whose spirit outlives them, unfading and warm”;</p> + +<p>and that they never give up and never despair. Never has any city been so +much improved in so short a time, and in the face of such difficulties. +The improvements are still being carried on. If they are carried on for +another quarter of a century at the same rate at which they were carried +on during the last quarter of a century, Dublin will be one of the +cleanest, pleasantest, healthiest, and most beautiful cities in the world.</p> + +<p>In an educational point of view, there are very few cities either in these +islands or on the Continent that offer more facilities for culture than +Dublin. Its new National Library is, for its size, one of the finest and +best organised and best managed in Europe. It is not a British Museum, nor +is it a Bibliothèque Nationale; and the citizens of Dublin who have +children who are fond of reading, and who wish to add to their store of +knowledge, ought to feel very well satisfied that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[Pg 334]</a></span> their National Library +is <i>not</i> like either the monstrous and little-good-to-the-masses +institution in London, or the still more monstrous and still less +good-to-the-masses institution in Paris. Those to whom time is of little +value can afford to wait during a considerable part of the day to get a +book from the great libraries of London and Paris; but for any one to whom +time is really valuable, to visit the great libraries mentioned as a +reader of their books, should, in most cases, be the last thing he should +think of.</p> + +<p>There are three libraries in Dublin, of which two are free to any one +known as a respectable person—these are the National Library and the +Royal Irish Academy. To become a reader in Trinity College Library costs, +to a person known to be respectable, only a couple of shillings a year. +Seeing the facilities that are in Dublin for cultured people, or for those +who wish to become cultured, it is strange that it does not stand higher +as an educational centre. The three great libraries it contains—that is, +the National Library, Trinity College Library and the Royal Irish +Academy—contain almost every sort of book required for the most complete +education in every art and science known to civilised men. But one of the +grand advantages of these institutions, an advantage<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[Pg 335]</a></span> almost as great to +the people at large as the treasures they contain, is the fact that they +are not controlled by “red tapeism.” The amount of trouble and downright +humiliation one has to go through to become a reader in the British Museum +of London, or in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, is enough to deter +any but a person of nerve from seeking admittance to them as a reader. The +British Museum is not so bad in the matter of “red tapeism” as it might +perhaps be; but the Bibliothèque Nationale puts so many obstacles in the +way of those who desire to become readers, that it is little else than a +disgrace to Paris and to France. For ridiculous red tapeism it beats any +institution of its kind on earth. There are probably not three libraries +in the world more easy of access than the three Dublin ones that have been +mentioned, and in which there is less red tapeism, or more courtesy shown +to readers.</p> + +<p>The buildings that have been recently erected in Kildare Street, Dublin, +the Library and the Museum, would be considered chaste and elegant in any +city in the world; and it is questionable if any buildings of their kind +can be found in any city to surpass them in architectural beauty. Even the +Picture Gallery and the Natural History Gallery, close to them in Leinster +Lawn, are very handsome<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[Pg 336]</a></span> buildings. If the front of Leinster House, facing +Kildare Street, were brightened up and made to look like its rear, the +whole group of buildings, including Leinster House itself, would form an +architectural panorama hardly to be surpassed anywhere; and if Dublin +contained nothing else worthy of being seen, it would make Dublin worth +travelling hundreds of miles to see.</p> + +<p>But it is the Museum of Irish Antiquities that is, or that ought to be, +the glory of this splendid group of buildings, and it is the only one of +them with the management of which fault can be justly found. The way it +has been managed ever since the articles it contains were removed from the +Royal Irish Academy in Dawson Street is a disgrace to all Ireland, and a +blot on the Irish people. There is not room to show the public much more +than half the objects of antiquity. They are stowed away in drawers, and +have been so for nearly ten long years. They might as well be in the earth +from which they were recovered as be packed into drawers in a back room +where none but officials can see them. If there was a decent and proper +national spirit among the Irish people, such treatment of Ireland’s +wonderful and unique antiquities would not be tolerated for a single week. +Her antiquities are among the chief glories of Ireland. In <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[Pg 337]</a></span>monuments of +the past she stands ahead of almost all countries save Greece and Egypt. +It is not alone in her ruined fanes, round towers, gigantic <i>raths</i>, +sepulchral mounds, and Cyclopean fortresses that she can boast of +antiquarian curiosities more numerous and more unique than those of almost +any other country, but also in her multitudinous articles in gold, bronze, +and iron. A good many of these—the greater part of them, perhaps—are in +positions where they can be seen; but thousands of them are where no one +but an official can see them. If the Irish antiquarian department were +properly arranged, and if <i>all</i> the objects it possesses that have been +dug up from Irish soil were properly exhibited, Ireland could boast of an +exhibition of national antiquities greater, more entirely her own, and +more unique than that possessed by any other country in Europe.</p> + +<p>Some may think that this statement is not true. They may point to the +enormous collection of antiquities in the museum in Naples. It is, +however, hardly fair to class the treasures of that museum with the +objects found in Ireland. It was the accidental calamity that befel +Herculaneum and Pompeii that stocked the museum in Naples. If that +calamity had not happened, it is all but certain that not a single object +in the Neapolitan<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[Pg 338]</a></span> museum would now be extant. It was by no accidental +calamity that the enormous number of Irish antique objects were brought to +light. They were found from time to time all over the country. There are +many private collections in the hands of private individuals in almost all +the large towns in Ireland, and a very large percentage of the bronze +objects in the British Museum were found in Ireland. No other country of +its size has yielded so many objects of a far-back antiquity. It seems a +pity that those who have so many private collections of antique objects in +so many parts of Ireland do not send them all to the Royal Irish Academy; +but if they are to lie there, stowed away in drawers in a back room, they +might better remain in the hands of private collectors. If there was a +real national press in Ireland, there would be such widespread indignation +awakened at the way Irish antiquities have been treated since they were +removed to the Museum in Kildare Street that those who manage it would be +<i>forced</i> to treat one of the finest collections of its kind in the world +in a very different manner. Hardly a word has appeared in the Dublin press +protesting against the way the department of Irish antiquities has been +managed.</p> + +<p>With all the advantages Dublin possesses over most of the European +capitals in great facilities for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[Pg 339]</a></span> education, in cheap house rent as +compared with many other cities, in uncommon beauty of environs, very few +rich, retired people with families to educate, choose it for a residence. +It is not to be wondered at that wealthy English and Scotch people should +prefer to live in their own countries, but wealthy Irish people seem not +to desire to live in Dublin unless it is their native place. Ireland, +unfortunately, does not possess very many rich people, but she has at +least some outside of Dublin; but very few of these, even if they have +young, growing-up families, go to reside in the capital in order to +educate them. Some seem to think that outside of Trinity College, Dublin +has no advantages in an educational point of view worth speaking of. This +is not now the case. It is true that some years ago Trinity College was +the only institution in Dublin where high-class education could be +obtained, but it is not so any longer, since the rise of other educational +institutions. But it is in the excellence of its libraries, and the easy +access that there is to them, that Dublin offers such great advantages to +those who do not desire to enter Trinity College. There is, of course, a +much larger collection of books in the British Museum, and in many of the +Continental libraries, than there is in the libraries of Dublin;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[Pg 340]</a></span> but +between red tapeism, and the greater number of readers that frequent those +places as compared with the Dublin libraries, it is safe to say that more +reading could be done and more knowledge gained by a student in one week +in a Dublin library than in two weeks in any of those enormous places +where there are such crowds and consequently such loss of time.</p> + +<p>It is, however, hardly to be wondered at that Dublin has heretofore +attracted so few rich people to it. It got a name for being dirty and +ill-governed; and it has to be confessed that the name was, in a large +measure, deserved. Dublin <i>was</i> dirty and <i>was</i> badly governed, but it is +not now. A bad name lasts a long time, and is not easily got rid of; and +the improvements made in Dublin are of such recent origin that it is only +natural that outsiders should think it is still what it was thirty years +ago. Let Dublin continue to be improved for the next twenty years as it +has been during the twenty years that have elapsed, and it will be one of +the most attractive of the European capitals. It is not yet what it should +be; there are many things of many kinds in it which require improvement or +alteration; but so much good has been done already that it is only +reasonable to expect that still more will be done,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[Pg 341]</a></span> and that the time +cannot be far distant when the city “of the black pool,” badly as its +English translation may appear, will attract not only visitors from all +parts of the world, but rich people who will take up permanent abode +there, attracted by the educational advantages it will afford, by the +beauty and cleanliness of the city itself, and by the superlative beauty +of the country around it.</p> + +<p>The situation of Dublin can hardly be called romantic. It is built at the +mouth of a river, and consequently not on high ground; but the site is +good, for the ground rises on both sides of the Liffey, making the +drainage easy. When the system of main drainage that is now being carried +out is finished, it will be one of the best drained cities in the world. +Dublin has not such a picturesque site as Edinburgh has, neither has any +other city in Europe; but outside of Edinburgh there are no objects of +scenic interest unless one goes forty or fifty miles away to see them. But +if the site of Dublin cannot be called picturesque, it can boast of having +some of the most beautiful, if not the largest, public buildings in the +world. For chasteness, harmony, symmetry, and grace, the Bank of Ireland, +if it has any equals at all in modern architecture, has very few. The +Custom<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[Pg 342]</a></span> House is one of the finest buildings in Europe. The new public +buildings, containing the National Library and the Museum, are gems of +architectural beauty; so are some of the banks, and so is the Great +Southern Railway Terminus, and so are many other public buildings. Dublin +cannot boast of possessing any building as large as St Paul’s or the +Tuileries; but size and beauty are two different things.</p> + +<p>But it is in its environs that Dublin stands ahead of all the capitals in +Europe, or, perhaps, of any other city of equal size in any country. +Because the beauties around Dublin were not described in the first +chapters of this work does not imply that they are much inferior to what +may be seen in other parts of the country. There is nothing like the Lakes +of Killarney in the environs of Dublin, and Dublin Bay is hardly equal to +Clew Bay; but barring those two gems of scenic loveliness, it is +questionable if there is, for beauty alone, leaving sublimity aside, +anything in Ireland that surpasses the immediate environs of Dublin, +without going further north than Howth, or further south than Bray. Every +inch of the country round Dublin has some peculiar scenic charm of its +own. The Botanic Gardens of Glasnevin are the most interesting and +beautiful in Europe; not so much for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[Pg 343]</a></span> the care that has been taken of +them, or the quantity and variety of the plants that are in them, but +principally on account of the charming locality in which they are +situated. It is not meant to be implied that they are not well taken care +of, or that their collection of plants is not both rare and large. What is +meant is that had they the rarest and largest collection of plants to be +seen in any gardens in the world, they would not have the same attraction +were they situated in a less picturesque locality. If ever there was a +place made to spend a hot summer day in, it is these gardens, with their +murmuring river, their shaded, sunless walks, their gigantic trees and +deep glens. The place where the flower gardens of Glasnevin are would +still be beautiful if there wasn’t a flower in it.</p> + +<p>Its bay is the great scenic attraction round Dublin. It cannot be seen to +real advantage but from the south-west side of the hill of Howth. The bay +has very few islands, but its background of mountains on one side and +woodland on the other is so wonderfully fair, that were there myriads of +islands to be seen, they could hardly add to the wondrous beauty of the +view. What a Scotch mechanic said about the view of Dublin Bay from the +high land on the south-west of Howth the first<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[Pg 344]</a></span> time he was there will +give the reader a better idea of Dublin Bay than a whole chapter of +descriptions, and loses nothing by being expressed in the strong doric of +the north: “Ech, mon, I seed mony a bonny sicht in Scótland, but this +beats a’.” There are many who think the view from Killiney Hill finer than +that from Howth. The view from the former takes in Sorrento Bay, which is +in reality part of the Bay of Dublin that can hardly be seen from Howth, +and also takes in many valleys in Wicklow and plains in the interior that +are not visible from Howth. It is not easy to say which of the views is +the finer; but either is worth travelling not only ten miles, but a +hundred miles, afoot to see.</p> + +<p>In describing the beauties of Dublin Bay, it cannot be out of place to +give the finest poetic address to it that was ever written. It will be new +to most English and many Irish readers. The poem is by the late D. F. +M’Carthy:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“My native Bay, for many a year<br /> +I’ve loved thee with a trembling fear,<br /> +Lest thou, though dear and very dear,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">And beauteous as a vision,</span><br /> +Shouldst have some rival far away,<br /> +Some matchless wonder of a bay,<br /> +Whose sparkling waters ever play<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">’Neath azure skies elysian.</span><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[Pg 345]</a></span><br /> +“’Tis love, methought, blind love that pours<br /> +The rippling magic round these shores,<br /> +For whatsoever love adores<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Becomes what love desireth;</span><br /> +’Tis ignorance of aught beside<br /> +That throws enchantment o’er the tide,<br /> +And makes my heart respond with pride<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">To what mine eye admireth.</span><br /> +<br /> +“And thus unto our mutual loss,<br /> +Whene’er I paced the sloping moss<br /> +Of green Killiney, or across<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">The intervening waters;</span><br /> +Up Howth’s brown side my feet would wend<br /> +To see thy sinuous bosom bend,<br /> +Or view thine outstretched arms extend<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">To clasp thine islet daughters.</span><br /> +<br /> +“My doubt was thus a moral mist,—<br /> +Even on the hills when morning kissed<br /> +The granite peaks to amethyst,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">I felt its fatal shadow;</span><br /> +It darkened o’er the brightest rills,<br /> +It lowered upon the sunniest hills,<br /> +And hid the wingèd song that fills<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">The moorland and the meadow.</span><br /> +<br /> +“But now that I have been to view<br /> +All that Nature’s self could do,<br /> +And from Gaeta’s arch of blue<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Borne many a fond memento;</span><br /> +And gazed upon each glorious scene,<br /> +Where beauty is and power has been,<br /> +Along the golden shores between<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Misenum and Sorrento;</span><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[Pg 346]</a></span><br /> +“I can look proudly on thy face,<br /> +Fair daughter of a hardier race,<br /> +And feel thy winning well-known grace,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Without my old misgiving;</span><br /> +And as I kneel upon thy strand,<br /> +And clasp thy once unhonoured hand,<br /> +Proclaim earth holds no lovelier land<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Where life is worth the living.”</span></p> + +<p>One great charm of the country around Dublin, like one of the great charms +of Killarney, is its diversity. There are mountain, bay, woodland, and +river. There is a variety of scenery in the immediate vicinity of Dublin +such as cannot be found so near any other European capital, and such as +not even Naples itself can boast of. Great indeed is the difference in the +style of scenery between the cliffs of Howth and the green lanes of +Clontarf, although both places are hardly more than four miles apart. To +go a few miles further from the city, Bray is reached. It is only +twenty-five minutes by train from Dublin. There one finds himself almost +within a gunshot of some of the most picturesque and peculiar scenery in +the world. The Dargle and Powerscourt Waterfall are in the same locality. +They are gems of loveliness that surpass anything of their kind in these +islands. Even Killarney has nothing like them. Their very smallness adds +to their charms. The Dargle is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[Pg 347]</a></span> exactly what its name, <i>Dair-gleann</i>, +signifies, an oak-glen. It is a chasm some two or three hundred feet deep, +every inch of the sides of which is covered in summer-time with some sort +of tree, shrub, or flower. In its depths laughs or murmurs a limpid stream +that can rarely be noticed, such is the thickness and luxuriance of the +trees and shrubs that overhang it. Powerscourt Waterfall is close by the +Dargle. The river that forms it leaps down a rock nearly three hundred +feet in height, into a valley of brightest verdure, covered with a thick +growth of primeval oak-trees. An enchanting spot—which it is gross folly +to attempt to describe—in a land of towering hills and flower-crowned +rocks. Its wildness, winsomeness, and loveliness must be seen in order to +form anything like a just idea of it. And all within about twelve miles of +Dublin!</p> + +<p>Then there is Howth on the north side, and only nine miles from Dublin, +one of the most wonderful spots of earth for its size in Europe. It is a +hill-promontory that juts out into nearly the middle of the bay, about +three miles in width and nearly the same in length. It is over five +hundred feet high, and in autumn is a pyramid of crimson and gold; for +wherever there are not trees or cultivation, there are furze and heath. A +place<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[Pg 348]</a></span> of wondrous beauty of its own, in no way like the Dargle or +Powerscourt. From the summit of Howth there is one of the most enchanting +and extensive views conceivable, reaching north to the Mourne Mountains +and east to Wales. And all this about nine miles from Dublin! Yet with all +these glories at her very feet, Dublin is still the Cinderella among the +capitals of Europe.</p> + +<p>There is beauty of a “truly rural” kind within half-an-hour’s walk from +the Dublin General Post Office, or from the centre of the city. Thackeray +said in his “Irish Sketch Book,” half a century ago, that it was curious +how some of the streets of Dublin so suddenly ended in potato fields; but +the potato fields Thackeray saw there are all covered with houses now. It +is true, however, that on the north side of Dublin one gets into the real +country by walking only a quarter of an hour from the city limits; no sham +country of cabbage gardens, but real fields of grass and grain growing +from soil of the most exuberant fertility. Trees and hedgerows abound; so +do some of the best and most thrifty farmers in Ireland, who generally pay +enormous rents for their land. The country north of Dublin is almost +perfectly flat, while on the south side the mountains commence within a +few miles of the city limits. But flat as the country north of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[Pg 349]</a></span> Dublin is, +it is one of the finest and most fertile parts of Ireland, and was known +in ancient times as Fingall, because some <i>Finn Galls</i>, or fair-haired +foreigners from Scandinavia settled in it when they ceased to plunder +churches and monasteries. Those who prefer a flat, well-wooded, and very +fertile country to a land of mountains and valleys, like that on the south +side of Dublin, should see the plains of Fingall.</p> + +<p>It has been said that the gentle and refined are ever fond of flowers. If +this be so, the gentle and refined ought to be very plentiful in Dublin +and its environs, for in no other part of this planet known to man are +there as many wild flowers to be seen so near a great city as in the +environs of Dublin. This statement is made in sober earnestness, and with +absolute certainty as to its truth. It may be asked, if this is so, how is +it to be accounted for? It is easy of explanation. To begin, Ireland is, +<i>par excellence</i>, the land of wild flowers because of its moist, mild +climate and generally rich soil. Sunlight, when it is the burning sunlight +of southern climes, is death to flowers. Dublin enjoys a milder climate +than any city in Great Britain, although not so mild as Cork or some other +Irish southern cities. It is only a few miles from the mountains on the +south of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[Pg 350]</a></span> Dublin to Howth on the north. Between Howth and the mountains, +if the whole of the mountains of Wicklow are counted and taking +inequalities of surface into account, for government surveys always mean +level surfaces, there are every autumn at least a hundred thousand acres +of wild flowers within half a day’s journey of Dublin. It may be said that +these wild flowers are nearly all of one species—heath. That is true; but +heath, or heather as it is more frequently called, is a wild flower, and +one of the most beautiful that grows. The reason the Irish mountains +produce so much more heath than those of Great Britain is because they are +less rocky and more boggy, and are in a milder climate. The mountains of +Wales, being so stony, have hardly any heath on them. Then there is the +furze or gorse, as it is generally called in England. Heath and gorse +bloom side by side over thousands of acres in Howth and on the Dublin and +Wicklow mountains. Then there is the hawthorn. Where in these islands, or +on the continent of Europe, are there as many hawthorns to be seen on an +equal space of ground as in the Phœnix Park, Dublin? Let those who have +seen them in their snowy glory of white blossoms in the early summer +answer. But there are still other flowers that do certainly bloom in +greater<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[Pg 351]</a></span> luxuriance, and are more plentiful round Dublin than round any +other city in these islands—one of these is laburnum. Florists have said +that nowhere else does it bloom with such luxuriance as around the Irish +capital. Dublin is indeed seated in a flowery land, for it is well known +that even the rich soil of Ireland produces more wild flowers than the +rich soil of Great Britain. It is true that not only the flora but the +fauna of Ireland are less numerous in species than those of Great Britain. +There are a great many species of flowering plants that are common in the +larger island but unknown in the smaller one except in gardens. It is not +easy to account for this; but if there are fewer indigenous flowering +plants in Ireland than in Great Britain, the former country produces those +that are natural to it in much greater abundance than the latter. The +reason of this is easily understood. It is because the climate of Ireland +is milder and moister than that of Great Britain; and it is probable that +the soil is of a different quality in Ireland. But one thing is certain, +that not in England or in any European country are there such a quantity +of wild flowers to be seen as in Ireland. It is not alone on Irish bogs +and mountains that wild flowers are more abundant than in most other +countries, for the most fertile<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[Pg 352]</a></span> soil in Ireland, the best fattening land, +generally grows wild flowers in such abundance that pastures become +parterres.</p> + +<p>Dublin and its vicinity are not quite so rich in antiquities as some other +parts of Ireland. Very few traces of the old Danish city have been left. +Its walls can be traced in some few places. But what sort of houses the +people lived in can only be guessed at. They were probably, for the most +part, built of wood; for it cannot be too often impressed on those who +have a taste for antiquarian studies, that in ancient, and even what is +generally known as mediæval times, almost the entire populations of +northern countries lived in houses of wood or of mud, and sometimes in +houses made of both materials. For centuries after the art of building +with stone and mortar was well understood, stone houses were rarely used +by the masses either in towns or country places. They had stone-built +churches and round towers, and sometimes castles, but the people lived in +wooden or in mud houses. Dublin has more round towers in its immediate +vicinity than any other Irish city. There are three of them within a few +miles’ distance. That of Clondalkin is on the Great Southern Railway; that +of Lusk is on the Great Northern; and that of Swords is only<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[Pg 353]</a></span> seven miles +from Dublin by road, and only two miles from Malahide Station on the Great +Northern. All these towers are in a good state of preservation; but the +one at Swords will soon be a ruin if the ivy, with which it has been +foolishly allowed to become completely covered, is not removed from it. +Ivy holds up for a time a building that is in a state of decay, but in the +long run it is sure to ruin it completely; for when the ivy becomes strong +enough, it forces its way between the stones, gradually displaces them, +and the building then tumbles down. If it is the Board of Works that has +charge of the Swords round tower, they are greatly to blame for allowing +the ivy to be gradually but surely bringing it to certain ruin. If it is +under the control of a private person, public opinion should compel him to +have the ivy removed from what was not long ago one of the most perfect +and best preserved of Irish round towers.</p> + +<p>There is something connected with the census of Dublin published in Thom’s +directory from official documents which may be more interesting to some +than any description of the Irish capital, however graphic. This something +is an evident error that has, by some means, been made in enumeration of +its inhabitants. According to the published census,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[Pg 354]</a></span> there were in round +numbers 13,000 more people in Dublin in 1851 than in 1891; and only 14,000 +more in county and city included in 1891 than in 1851. There is a gross +error here, for between the two epochs mentioned, the increase in what is +generally known as the metropolitan district has been so great that it is +visible to anyone who has been familiar with Dublin for forty years. It is +known that since 1851 nearly 25,000 houses have been erected in city and +county. That number of houses would represent at least 100,000 people, but +it only represents 14,000 according to the census, or two-thirds of a +person to each house! It may be said that a great many houses have been +pulled down in the city since 1851. True, there have; but ten have been +built since then for the one that has been pulled down. There are at least +a dozen streets, large and small, in Dublin, the population of which is +four times greater than it was in 1851; for there were no tenement houses +in those streets then, whereas they are all tenement houses now, and +consequently there are four or five families instead of one in each house. +The great increase in the population of Dublin during the last forty or +forty-five years is quite apparent in the more crowded state of the +thoroughfares. It seems not only probable, but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[Pg 355]</a></span> certain, from all the data +that can be got at outside the census, that there are from fifty to one +hundred thousand more people in what is known as the metropolitan district +of Dublin than is shown by the published census. This will go far to +account for the weekly death-rate of Dublin being generally higher than +that of any other city in these islands; for if the weekly number of +deaths is based on a population less than what it is, it will make the +weekly death-rate per thousand higher than it should be. This is a very +serious matter for Dublin, for nothing has a more detrimental effect on +the welfare of a city than getting the name of being unhealthy.</p> + +<p>It is to be hoped that the reader will not set down either to national +bigotry or private advantage what has been said in praise of Dublin and +its environs. The writer may be national in the broad sense of the word, +but he has no sentimental love for Dublin beyond any other Irish city. He +is not influenced by the <i>genius loci</i>; he has no personal interest +whatever in Dublin. What he has said in its praise, and in praise of its +environs, would be said of Timbuctoo had he the same knowledge of the +African city that he has of Dublin, and were Timbuctoo and its environs as +worthy of laudation. Dublin is not his native city; but even if it were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[Pg 356]</a></span> +he would be perfectly justified in telling the truth about it. If what he +has said about Dublin be untrue, it can easily be shown to be untrue. If +that city has not been improved and beautified in a most remarkable manner +during the last twenty-five years; if some of its public buildings are not +remarkable specimens of architectural excellence; if its environs are not +beautiful beyond those of any other European capital; if any of these +statements be untrue, let them be proved to be so at the very earliest +opportunity.</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[Pg 357]</a></span></p> +<h2>BELFAST AND ITS ENVIRONS</h2> + + +<p>Belfast is not only the second city in Ireland in population and wealth, +but the second in beauty of environs. Its growth has been, during the last +three-quarters of a century, greater than that of any city in these +islands. It is an immense jump in population from 37,000 in 1821 to +273,000 in 1891. In splendour of public buildings, cleanliness of streets, +and general appearance, Belfast can be favourably compared with any city +of equal size in any country. Its citizens are proud of it, and so they +ought to be, for it was their own enterprise that made it what it is. The +extraordinarily rapid growth of Belfast shows what manufactures can do for +a city, for without them it would still be hardly more important than any +of the provincial towns of Ulster. It has an excellent harbour, and +besides its linen manufactures, it has become one of the most important +ship-building places in the world. But it was its linen manufactures that +gave Belfast the start. It is the largest linen mart in the world; but +unfortunately for it, and every other place in which the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[Pg 358]</a></span>manufacture of +linen is carried on, the competition of cotton fabrics is rapidly making +the manufacture of linen less profitable, and threatens to drive it out of +use almost entirely in the long run. If cotton were unknown, Belfast would +be now, in all probability, a place of a million of inhabitants, and +Ireland would be one of the richest, if not the very richest, country of +its size in the world. It is well known that for flax growing and for +linen bleaching Ireland is ahead of all countries. Experts say that in no +other country can flax be grown with a fibre so strong and yet so fine as +in Ireland. It seems to be the country of all others that is best suited +for the growth of flax out of which the finest linen fabrics can be made. +It would almost seem as if Ireland was fated to be for ever suffering some +sort of ill-luck, and that things which are blessings to humanity at large +are often misfortunes to her. There cannot be any doubt but that the +cotton plant has proved one of the greatest of blessings to mankind in +general, but it has been a great misfortune to Ireland. Were it not for +cotton, three-fourths of the land of Ireland would now be growing flax, +and it would most likely contain a dozen linen manufacturing centres as +large as Belfast. Whatever the future of the linen trade may be, it is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[Pg 359]</a></span> +hardly possible that Belfast can ever sink into insignificance, for its +people have so much of the true commercial spirit in them that if linen +became as useless as the chain armour of the middle ages, they would turn +their energies to some other branch of manufacture and make it a success.</p> + +<p>Belfast hardly figures at all in ancient Irish history or annals. It is a +comparatively new place. It is first mentioned in the Annals of the Four +Masters under the year 1476, where it is said, “A great army was led by +O’Neill against the son of Hugh Boy O’Neill; and he attacked the castle of +Bel-feiriste, which he took and demolished, and then returned to his +house.” The name Belfast is a corruption of <i>Bél-feiriste</i>, or as it would +probably be written in modern Irish, Beulfearsaide, the mouth or pass of +the spindle. This seems nonsense, but the following, from Joyce’s “Irish +Names of Places,” will explain it: “The word <i>fearsad</i> is applied to a +sand-bank formed near the mouth of a river by the opposing currents of +tide and stream, which at low water often formed a firm and comparatively +safe passage across. The term is pretty common, especially in the west, +where these <i>fearsets</i> are of considerable importance; as in many places +they serve the inhabitants instead of bridges. A sand-bank of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[Pg 360]</a></span> this kind +across the mouth of the Lagan gave name to Belfast, which is called in +Irish authorities Bel-feirisde, the ford of the <i>farset</i>; and the same +name in the uncontracted form, Belfarsad, occurs in Mayo.” The Irish name +for a spindle is <i>fearsaid</i>; it also means a sand-bank, as described +above, probably because the shape of such sand-banks is generally +something like that of a spindle. According to the orthography of the Four +Masters, whose spelling of place names is generally correct, <i>feiriste</i> is +the genitive singular of <i>fearsaid</i>; while in the name “Belfarsad,” +mentioned by Joyce, <i>forsad</i> seems to be the genitive plural.</p> + +<p>Belfast and its environs cannot be said to be very rich in monuments of +antiquity. There are, however, two round towers not far from it; one at +Antrim, some fifteen miles away, in excellent preservation; and one at +Drumbo, in the County Down, about five miles from the city. The last is in +a ruined condition—not much more than thirty feet of it remains. But +Belfast can boast of the most extraordinary monument of antiquity of its +kind in Ireland being in its immediate vicinity. This is the vast <i>rath</i> +known as the Giant’s Ring. There is nothing in Ireland so fine as it. The +<i>rath</i> on the summit of Knock Aillinn, in the County Kildare, which has +been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[Pg 361]</a></span> already described in the article on that hill, is much larger, and +encloses three times the space; but the earthen ramparts are not nearly so +high as those of the Giant’s Ring. The space enclosed by this gigantic +rath is seven statute acres. When standing in the centre of this ancient +fortress, nothing is seen but the sky above and the vast earthworks all +around. The centre is as level and almost as smooth as a billiard table, +and exactly in the centre stands a cromlech. Old men living in the +locality say that the ramparts were for many years planted with potatoes. +This must have reduced their height by many feet; but they are still +nearly, if not quite, twenty feet high. Like most ancient raths, it has +two entrances, one exactly opposite the other. It would give ample room to +a population of some thousands, and was evidently an ancient city. But one +of the most extraordinary things connected with the Giant’s Ring is that +annals, history, and legend are silent about it. So far, there seems to be +no more known about those who built the Giant’s Ring than about the +builders of the temples of Central America. It is the same with many of +the vast Cyclopean forts along the west coast, of which the Stague fort in +Kerry and the forts in the islands of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[Pg 362]</a></span> Arran in Galway are the most +remarkable. There are, however, very few large earthen forts in any part +of Ireland about which annals and history are alike silent. The Giant’s +Ring is by far the most remarkable structure of its kind in Ireland, and +the most remarkable of all the ancient remains in the vicinity of Belfast. +It has been much better preserved than most of the remains of its kind in +Ireland, for the landlord on whose property it is has built a stone wall +round it, so it is safe from spoliation.</p> + +<p>The environs of Belfast are finer and more interesting than those of any +Irish city, Dublin alone excepted. It is really curious that so little +notice has been taken of them. The view from Devis Mountain, the top of +which is hardly more than four miles from the centre of the city, is one +of the finest and most extensive that can be seen in any part of Ireland. +The greater part of the north of Eastern Ulster can be seen from it. Ailsa +Craig in the Firth of Clyde seems almost at one’s feet when standing on +the summit of Devis Mountain. To know the immensity of Loch Neagh, it +should be seen from there. It appears like a vast inland sea, out of all +proportion to the size of the island to which it is a curse rather than an +adornment; for it is one of the most utterly uninteresting of Irish +lakes. The view from Cave Hill is also very fine. This hill is only three +or four miles from Belfast.</p> + +<p> <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[Pg 363]</a></span></p> +<div class="bbox" style="width: 600px; height: 364px;"><img src="images/img19.jpg" alt="" /></div> +<p class="caption">BELFAST LOCH.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[Pg 364]</a></span> </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[Pg 365]</a></span>Belfast Loch, as it is called, if not as picturesque as Dublin Bay, is, +nevertheless, a very fine bay, and has most beautiful and sumptuous +residences on its shores, particularly on the southern side. It is on this +side of the loch that Hollywood is situated. There are more fine, +well-kept residences in Hollywood than there are in the neighbourhood of +any other Irish city. The people of Belfast are proud of Hollywood, and +they ought to be. There are few places in the immediate vicinity of any +city of the size of Belfast in England or Scotland where so many fine, +well-kept, and sumptuous residences can be seen as in Hollywood. The +greater part of them are owned by Belfast merchants.</p> + +<p>Few go to Belfast in search of the picturesque. It has got such a +commercial name that those who have never been there think that it has no +attractions save for the business man. But if Belfast is visited in the +summer time, if the views from its hills are seen, and if its beautiful +suburb of Hollywood is seen, it will be found that there are scenic +attractions of a very high order in the neighbourhood of the northern +capital.</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[Pg 366]</a></span></p> +<h2>CORK AND ITS ENVIRONS</h2> + + +<p>Cork, like Dublin, is a place of considerable antiquity. It does not +figure in the annals or history of pagan Ireland, but Christian +establishments were founded there very soon after the time of St Patrick. +Its Irish name, and the one by which it is mentioned in all ancient Irish +annals and history is <i>Corcach Mór Mumhan</i>, literally, the great swamp of +Munster. A very inappropriate name seemingly, for, although the place +where the city is built might have been a swamp, it never could have been +a big one, as it is a narrow, and by no means a long, valley. It is, +however, clear that the word <i>mór</i>—big—was not intended to relate to the +size of the swamp, but to the greatness of either the town or +ecclesiastical establishments that grew up in it.</p> + +<p>The earliest notice of Cork that appears in Irish annals is in the still +unpublished “Annals of Inisfallen,” where it is stated, under the year +617, that “In this year died Fionnbarre, first bishop of Cork, at Cloyne. +He was buried in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[Pg 367]</a></span> his own church at Cork.” Under the year 795, the +following curious entry occurs in the same annals:—“In this year the +Danes first appeared cruising on the coast [of Ireland] spying out the +country. Their first attacks were on the ships of the Irish, which they +plundered.” The same annals say that Cork, Lismore, and Kill Molaïse were +plundered by the Danes in the year 832, and that in 839 they burned Cork; +and that in 915 they plundered Cork, Lismore, and Aghabo. They also state +that in 978 Cork was plundered twice, presumably by the Danes. The +<i>Chronicon Scottorum</i> says that Cork was also plundered by the Danes in +822. It was so often plundered by them that it is hardly to be wondered at +that the annalists should not have been able to keep account of every time +it was harried by the Northmen. But the Danes were not the only parties by +whom the south of Ireland suffered, for we read in the Four Masters, that +in the year 847 Flann, over-king of Ireland, for what reason does not +appear, harried Munster from Killaloe to Cork. They say also that a great +fleet of foreigners (Northmen) arrived in Munster in 1012 and burned Cork. +They were, however, defeated by Cahall, son of Donnell. This fleet had +evidently come to Cork for the purpose of making<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[Pg 368]</a></span> a diversion in the south +of Ireland, so that the great Danish army, whose headquarters were in +Dublin, and who contemplated the entire conquest of the country, should +not have the men of Munster to oppose them. The Danish army that came to +Cork in 1012 (the correct date seems to be 1013), were not able to give +any assistance to their countrymen at the battle of Clontarf by making a +diversion in Munster, for it would appear that they were wholly destroyed. +There is no record in the Irish annals of the Danes making any attack on +Cork after the battle of Clontarf.</p> + +<p>The situation of Cork, like that of Dublin and Belfast, is at the mouth of +a river, and on low-lying land. While the country round the city is +exceedingly fine, it has not, like the country in the neighbourhood of +Dublin and Belfast, any places from which extensive views can be had. The +country round Cork is by no means flat, but there is nothing near it that +could be called a mountain, or even a high hill. It is, however, as +beautiful as any country of its kind could be, with green, rounded +eminences, but not as much wood on them as there should be to make them +look to best advantage. The river between Cork and the Cove, or +Queenstown, as it is now called,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[Pg 369]</a></span> is one of the finest six or eight miles +of river scenery to be found anywhere. The people of Cork are proud of it, +as they may well be.</p> + +<p>Cork, unfortunately, is not growing as Dublin and Belfast are. There is a +curious belief, partly a prophecy, that it will yet be the capital of +Ireland. “Limerick was, Dublin is, but Cork will be the capital,” is +frequently heard in the south of Ireland. So far, there is not much sign +that the southern city will overtake Dublin, nor is it quite clear that +Limerick was ever the principal city of Ireland. It was, however, a very +important place during the greater part of the eleventh century. Limerick +seems to have been in the possession of the Danes for nearly a hundred +years, until Brian Boramha took it from them about the year 970. It +continued to grow as long as his descendants retained political power, +which they did for nearly a century after his death. Giraldus Cambrensis +calls Limerick “a magnificent city,” but it must have begun to decline +even before he saw it, about the year 1190, for the O’Briens, or +descendants of Brian Boramha, had by that time lost a great deal of their +political power. Cork has, for at least two centuries, been a more +important place than Limerick.</p> + +<p>Some of the streets and public buildings in Cork are very fine, and will +compare favourably with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[Pg 370]</a></span> those of any city. But it is evident that the +city was built too far up the river. Cork should be where Queenstown is. +If it were, there would be a chance of its becoming at some future day the +capital of Ireland. It is curious that almost all cities that are built on +rivers, and that were founded in ancient times, are generally at the head +of navigation. This habit of building cities as far up rivers as ships +could go was followed in order to give greater security from attacks by +sea. The farther up a river a city was, the more easily it could be +defended from attacks by sea. In olden times, when the largest ships drew +no more than eight or ten feet of water, Cork was as advantageously +situated for trade where it is as if it were where Queenstown is. But such +is not the case now. This defect of being too far up the river is the only +thing in its situation that is not favourable. It has one of the finest +harbours in Europe, and one of the finest in the world, but the harbour is +too far from the city.</p> + +<p>If there is a single place on the whole of the west coast of Europe +especially adapted for the site of a great city, it is the spot on which +Queenstown is built. It was nothing but the constant warfare of ancient +times that prevented Cork from being built there. There is that +magnificent harbour<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[Pg 371]</a></span> that the mightiest ironclad leviathan that floats can +enter at any state of the tide and be in it in five minutes from the time +she leaves the main ocean. Then there is that splendid site for a great +city on a gentle ascent, where street behind street and terrace behind +terrace could deck the hill-side, and all look down on that glorious +land-locked bay where a thousand ships could anchor.</p> + +<p>There cannot be any doubt that with the ever-growing trade and passenger +traffic between Europe and America, both Cork and Queenstown must be +benefitted. Even if an American packet station were established at Galway, +it would hardly interfere seriously with Queenstown or Cork, for harbours +like the Cove are too scarce on the coasts of Europe, and the trade +between Europe and America is too great and increasing too fast to leave +Loch Mahon<a name='fna_17' id='fna_17' href='#f_17'><small>[17]</small></a> in the slightest danger of being deserted. As long as ships +navigate the Atlantic they must enter it. Nothing but the establishment of +aërial traffic between Europe and America can ever leave the Cove of Cork +shipless.</p> + +<p>The country round Cork is very fine, and there are many splendid and +well-kept gentlemen’s seats in its suburbs. It would be hard to find any +city more picturesque in its situation, although built<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[Pg 372]</a></span> very nearly at the +mouth of a river. It is, more than any large place in Ireland, a city of +hills and hollows. Some of its streets are very steep, rather too much so +for pleasant walking. But this hillyness makes it all the more +picturesque, and makes the drainage all the better. Cork is a beautiful +city, and—surrounded by a beautiful country. If it has not the busy +appearance of Belfast, or the metropolitan appearance of Dublin, it is, +nevertheless, a fine city, and on account of its magnificent harbour, it +has, in all probability, a great and prosperous future before it.</p> + +<p>The antiquities of Cork have almost entirely disappeared. It suffered so +much from the Northmen and was so often plundered and burned by them that +it is not to be wondered at that so few of its ancient monuments exist. It +had a fine round tower, of which nothing is left but the foundation. It +was, presumably, the Northmen who destroyed it. Every vestige of the old +church founded by St Finnbar has disappeared long ago. The fact that Cork +was so often plundered by the Danes and other Northmen shows that it must +have been an important place, at least in the matter of churches and +monasteries. The Danes knew that wherever the largest religious +establishments were the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[Pg 373]</a></span> most wealth was. This is proved by history and +annals telling us that Armagh, Kildare, Cork, Glendaloch, Downpatrick, +Clonmacnois, and other important religious centres, were most frequently +plundered by them. Just in proportion to the importance of a place in an +ecclesiastical point of view, the more frequently it was plundered by the +Danes. When they began their attacks on Ireland, they seem to have known, +as well as the Irish themselves, where the principal wealth of the country +would be found.</p> + +<p>As Cork is the last large place that suffered greatly from the Danes that +shall be mentioned in this work, it cannot be uninteresting or out of +place to give an extract from the Earl of Dunraven’s book on ancient Irish +architecture about those terrible Vikings, and the causes that made them a +terror to all the maritime nations of Europe for so many years, more +especially as such an expensive work is not generally read, and not within +reach of the masses: “Dense as is the obscurity in which the cause of the +wanderings and ravages of the Scandinavian Vikings is enveloped, yet the +result of the investigations hitherto made on the subject is, that they +were, in a great measure, consequent on the conquests of Charlemagne in +the north of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[Pg 374]</a></span> Germany, and on the barrier which he thereby—as well as by +the introduction of Christianity—set on their onward march. It can hardly +be attributed to accident that, with the gradual strengthening of the +Frankish dominions, the hordes of Northmen descended on the British Isles +in ever-increasing numbers. The policy of Charlemagne in his invasion of +Saxony, and the energy by which he succeeded in driving his enemies beyond +the Elbe and the German Ocean, were manifestly intensified by religious +zeal. The Saxons were still heathens; and the first attack made by the +Frankish King was on the fortress of Eresbourg, where stood the temple of +Irminsul, the great idol of the nation. We read that he laid waste their +temples and broke their idols to pieces.... However it may appear from +ancient authorities that for some centuries before then, the Scandinavians +had occasionally infested the southern shores of Europe; yet in the added +light that is cast by the Irish annals on the subject, we perceive that +from this date their piratical incursions afford evidence not before met +with of preconcerted plan and incessant energy; and these events in the +reign of Charles may lead us to discover what was the strong impulse that +thus tended, in some measure, to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[Pg 375]</a></span> condense and concentrate their desultory +warfare. Impelled by some strong, overmastering passion, these hordes of +northern warriors held on from year to year their avenging march; and such +was the fury of their arms that even now, after the lapse of a thousand +years, their deeds are in appalling remembrance throughout Europe, not +only in every city on the sea-shore, or on river, but even in the peasant +traditions of the smallest village.”</p> + +<p>It is curious, and for the Irish a source of very legitimate pride, that +of all the countries attacked by the Northmen, they got the hardest blows +and the most terrible, as well as the most frequent, defeats in Ireland. +They seem to have made more frequent attacks on it than on any other +country, and to have poured more men into it than into any other country. +This appears not only from Irish annals and history, but from Icelandic +literature, which was the common property of all the Scandinavian nations, +and the only literature in which the doings of the Vikings are recorded by +writers who were nearly contemporary with them. There appears to be more +written about Ireland and its people in the Icelandic Sagas than about any +other country or people the Vikings harried. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[Pg 376]</a></span> terrible defeat the +Northmen suffered at Clontarf in 1014 is fully acknowledged in the +Icelandic Sagas. It must, however, in truth be admitted that that battle, +while it turned out to be a national one, originated in a family quarrel, +and was brought about, as many battles had been brought about before, by a +bad and beautiful woman. If Gormfhlaith and King Brian had not quarrelled, +if Broder had not been desperately enamoured of her, and if she had not +been of the royal blood of the terribly maltreated and so often ravaged +province of Leinster, the battle of Clontarf never would have been fought. +Brian was an elderly man when he became over-king, and was quite willing +to allow the Danes to hold Dublin and other sea-ports as trading points, +for after a time they became traders and carriers. He was willing to let +them alone provided that they let him alone. This is proved by his having +given one of his daughters in marriage to Sitric, the Danish King or +Governor of Dublin. The Danes, knowing they had the entire strength of the +province of Leinster at their back by Brian’s quarrel with Gormfhlaith, +who was sister to the King of Leinster, seem, probably for the first time, +to have seriously contemplated the complete conquest of Ireland.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[Pg 377]</a></span>That the Irish suffered some terrible defeats from the Northmen has to be +admitted. In justice to those who compiled the various Irish annals, it +must be said that they always freely acknowledge when the invaders had the +best of it in a battle. It is, however, evident that, taking the almost +continuous fighting between the invaders and the invaded for two hundred +years, or from about the year 814 to the time of the battle of Clontarf in +1014, the net gains of the fighting was decidedly on the side of the +Irish. Many of those well-versed in Irish history think that if Ireland +had been really under the dominion of one sovereign, even as England was +under the later Saxon Kings, the Northmen would certainly have conquered +Ireland and held it as they held, for a time, England, Normandy, and other +countries. Very few of those called Irish chief kings were such except in +name. Their vassals used to lick them as frequently as they licked their +vassals. The Northmen defeated in battle and killed more than one Irish +chief king, but that does not seem to have brought them any nearer the +conquest of the island, for the provincial kings used to fight them on +their own account. The Northmen had too many heads to cut off, and none of +the heads controlled<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[Pg 378]</a></span> the destinies of the country. The most terrible +defeat that was probably ever inflicted on the Irish by the Northmen was +at the battle of Dublin in 917. The over-king, Niall Glundubh, was killed +in it, and from what the Irish annals say, it would seem that his whole +army was cut to pieces; but the victory was of little use to the invaders, +for the very next year they suffered a defeat from the Irish in Meath, in +which their whole army was destroyed and almost all their leaders slain. +We are told that only enough of the Danes were left alive to bear tidings +of their defeat. How the Irish managed to get the better of the Danes and +at the same time do so much fighting amongst themselves is one of those +historic puzzles the solution of which seems hopeless.</p> + +<p>Many thoughtful persons among the Irish regret that Ireland had not been +thoroughly conquered by the Northmen. They say that had it been conquered +by them it would have been united under one supreme ruler, the provincial +divisions would have been obliterated, a strong central government formed, +and intestine wars brought to an end. Such a state of things might have +come to pass; but it seems clear that the Northmen were not capable of +building<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[Pg 379]</a></span> up a nation. They failed to do it whenever they tried. They had +complete control in England for two generations when they were at the +height of their power, but they failed to keep their grip on England, +although having had the advantage of a large, and what might be called an +indigenous, Scandinavian population north of the Humber. Hardly a trace of +their nearly three hundred years’ rule in some Irish cities remain, and in +the entire island all the traces left of their language is to be found in +less than a dozen place names. They became great in Normandy only when +they ceased to be Northmen and mingled their blood with that of the people +whom they had conquered, and became French.</p> + +<p>Whatever benefit other countries may have received from the Danes or +Northmen, Ireland received none. To her they were nothing but a curse. If +they had conquered her, they might, in the long run, have benefitted her. +It would be not only difficult, but absolutely impossible, to point out a +single way, except, perhaps, by an admixture of a little new blood, in +which Ireland was benefitted by the visits of the Northmen. In spite of +their very great skill in ship-building and navigation, they introduced +not a single art into Ireland. Confused as the political state of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[Pg 380]</a></span> the +country was before they came to it, it was still more confused when they +ceased to be plunderers and became merchants. They had nothing themselves +that could be called literature, and were the greatest enemies that Irish +literature had ever encountered, for the number of books they must have +destroyed is beyond calculation. Not a monastery or church from one end of +Ireland to the other escaped being plundered by them, and most of the +monasteries were plundered <i>ten times</i> during the two hundred years their +plunderings lasted. Iona, though not in Ireland, was an Irish +establishment; it was so often plundered by them, and its entire +population so often killed, that it had to be entirely abandoned in the +ninth century. It became a ruin, and remained such until the Northmen +ceased their raids; its treasures, or what remained of them, were removed +to Kells in Ireland. Nothing can show more plainly the knowledge the +Northmen possessed of the country, and their determination to leave +nothing in it unplundered, than their having plundered the anchorites’ +cells on the Skelligs rocks, off the coast of Kerry. It is said that there +is but one spot at which a boat can land on these rocks, and then only on +the very finest and calmest day; but the Northmen found out the +landing-place,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">[Pg 381]</a></span> plundered the cells, and, of course, killed every one they +found in them.</p> + +<p>It is very curious how it came to pass that a people so very brave as the +Northmen undoubtedly were should be so lacking in almost every quality +that goes to form a great, conquering people and builders up of nations. +They never impressed themselves on any nation or province they conquered. +A very large part of the north of England was not only conquered but +settled by them, and three Danish kings reigned in England, yet it +remained Saxon England until the battle of Hastings. In France they not +only lost their language, but lost their identity in less than three +generations, and became absolutely French. They did not even call +themselves Northmen, or Normans; for on the Bayeux Tapestry we find the +legend, <i>Hic Franci pugnant</i>, showing plainly that they regarded +themselves as nothing but French. They conquered the greater part of the +island of Sicily, but, as usual, have left hardly a trace of their +occupation in it. It need hardly be repeated that in Ireland, in spite of +their having held and ruled some of its chief cities for three hundred +years, and in spite of their many alliances with Irish chiefs and nobles, +all they have left that in any way shows that they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">[Pg 382]</a></span> ever set foot on Irish +soil are less than a dozen place names. The Northmen might well be +forgiven for their plunderings and burnings if it were not for the +quantity of books they burned. But for them, ancient Celtic literature +would be so immense that it would be regarded with respect even by those +who would be most hostile to the nation that produced it.</p> + +<p>The successful resistance of the Irish against the Northmen is a very +curious historic fact. Of all countries in Europe in the middle ages, it +ought to have been, no matter what might be the valour of its inhabitants, +the most easy of subjugation on account of its political divisions, and +the consequent state of almost continual war that existed among the +provinces. Yet in spite of all, in no part of Europe which the Northmen +attacked, did they encounter such strong and such long-sustained +resistance as in Ireland, in spite of the fact that for many years before +the battle of Clontarf, the province of Leinster, whose soldiers from time +immemorial had been considered the bravest in Ireland, was in alliance +with the invaders. The successful resistance the Irish made against the +Northmen is proved from sources that are neither Scandinavian nor Irish; +for the Norman Chronicle says, “that the Franks, or French, were grateful +to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">[Pg 383]</a></span> the Irish for the successful resistance they made against the Danes; +and that in the year 848 the Northmen captured Bordeaux and other places +which they burned and laid waste; but that the Scotts (Irish) breaking in +on the Northmen drove them victoriously from their borders.” It is +absolutely sickening to read of all the plunderings, murderings, and +burnings committed by the Northmen in Ireland. When we think of all the +similar sort of work the Irish practised on one another, we wonder how it +happened that there were any people left in the island; and we are almost +driven to the conclusion that if it had not been for the extraordinary +fecundity of the race, it would have become depopulated. It was not only +the numbers of Irish that were killed by the Northmen, but also the +numbers that were brought into captivity by them that tended to depopulate +the country.</p> + +<p>Under the year 949 the Annals of the Four Masters state that Godfrey, a +Danish king or general, plundered Kells and other places in Meath, and +carried off three thousand persons into captivity, and robbed the country +of an enormous quantity of gold, silver, and wealth of all kinds. That +sort of work had been carried on for nearly two hundred years, and it is a +wonder that the entire country was not utterly ruined.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">[Pg 384]</a></span>An interesting as well as gruesome illustration of what Ireland suffered +from Danish raids was revealed some few years ago while workmen were +levelling ground for the erection of a house at Donnybrook, near Dublin. +They unearthed the skeletons of over six hundred people, of almost all +ages; from those of full-grown men to those of babies, all buried in one +grave, and only about eighteen inches under the surface. This vast grave +was close to the banks of the little river Dodder. The Northmen had +evidently gone up the river in their galleys, for at full tide it had +enough of water to float them. By some chance the leader, or one of the +leaders, of the Danes was killed in the foray, for his body was found a +little distance from the grave of the victims. His sword was buried with +him; it was of recognised Danish make, and had a splendid hilt inlaid with +silver. Not a vestige of clothing or ornaments was found on the bodies of +the slain, save a common bronze ring on the finger of one of them. +Everything they had seems to have been taken. A village had evidently +stood in the locality; it was raided by the Danes, the inhabitants all +killed, and everything of value they possessed, even to their clothing, +taken; for if they had been buried in their clothing, which must have been +almost entirely of woollen material, which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">[Pg 385]</a></span> resists decay for a long time, +some vestige of it would have been discovered. The remains of the victims +of the massacre were carefully examined by the most eminent scientists and +archæologists of Dublin, among them Dr Wm. Fraser, who wrote an article on +the discovery that may be seen in the transactions of the Royal Irish +Academy. Irish history and annals are silent about this terrible massacre, +and it is hardly to be wondered at that they should not have mentioned it, +for such things were of such frequent occurrence in Ireland during the +time of the Northmen that it was impossible to keep track of them all.</p> + +<p>It is hard to agree with the Earl of Dunraven in what he says in the +passage that has been quoted a few pages back, as to the cause of the +invasions and plunderings of the Northmen. The victories of Charlemagne +over the Saxons could scarcely have caused the vast outpourings of +Northmen on southern and western Europe. The Saxons were Germans, pure and +simple; but there seems to have been a very great difference between +Northmen and Germans. They may both have belonged originally to the same +race, and their languages may have been, and undoubtedly were, closely +allied, but they seem to have had very little in common. One was an +essentially <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">[Pg 386]</a></span>seafaring people, and keeps up a love for the sea to the +present day. The other was not a seafaring people, and hardly yet takes +kindly to maritime life. The Norse and German races lived side by side in +England for some centuries, but they lived apart, quite as much apart as +the Celts and Scandinavians lived apart in Ireland. It would rather seem +as if it was want, added to a bold and restless nature, that was the +primary cause of Norsemen’s raids on the south-western coasts of Europe. +Their own country was barren, and cold, and unable to support a dense +population. It sometimes happens that people multiply faster than they can +be supported. Such a state of things occurred in Ireland in the early part +of the present century. Not that Ireland could not have supported a much +larger population than it ever contained, provided the social condition of +the country was different; but under the conditions that existed, the +people multiplied beyond their means of support. The same thing may have +occurred in Scandinavia. The people may have been forced by hunger to seek +a living by foul means or fair, somewhere else than in their own country. +Cruel as they were, they were probably not more cruel than any other +people of their time would have been under the same<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">[Pg 387]</a></span> circumstances. It +would seem that it was exhaustion of population in Scandinavia that put an +end to Scandinavian raidings. Its people having become Christians may have +had some effect in softening their manners; but it is certain that it was +not hatred of Christianity that prompted them to plunder Christian +nations. It was love of plunder, intensified, in all probability, by want +and semi-starvation at home. It is, however, very curious that the people +who were once the terror of southern Europe should have become what they +are to-day, and what they have been for some centuries, as peaceable and +as law-abiding nations as there are in the world.</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">[Pg 388]</a></span></p> +<h2>GALWAY AND ITS ENVIRONS</h2> + + +<p>Galway is one of the most modern of the Irish provincial capitals. It does +not figure at all in ancient annals. The first mention of it in the annals +of the Four Masters is under the year 1124, when it is stated that the men +of Connacht erected a castle in Galway. The first mention of it in the +annals of Loch Key is under the year 1191, when it is stated that the +river Gaillimh, from which the town takes its name, was dried up. The +cause of this phenomenon is not stated. Galway was at one time a place of +considerable wealth and trade. It was, in the fifteenth and sixteenth +centuries, the port to which most of the Spanish wine destined for Ireland +used to come; and it is generally believed that a Spanish type of features +can still be noticed on some of its inhabitants. But whatever mercantile +prosperity Galway enjoyed some centuries ago, very little of it +unfortunately remains; for of all Irish towns the decrease of its +population has been the most terrible. In 1845 it contained very close on +35,000 inhabitants, in 1891 it had only 14,000! It is painful to walk +in the outskirts of the town and pass through whole streets in which +nothing remains save the ruins of cottages. Galway ought to be a +prosperous place, for it is situated on a noble bay that forms a spacious +harbour, sheltered from the fury of the Atlantic by the Isles of Arran. It +is pleasant to be able to state that the condition of this once fine city +is improving.</p> + +<p> <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">[Pg 389]</a></span></p> +<div class="bbox" style="width: 600px; height: 370px;"><img src="images/img20.jpg" alt="" /></div> +<p class="caption">OLD HOUSES IN GALWAY.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">[Pg 390]</a></span> </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">[Pg 391]</a></span>In spite of the signs of decay that are only too visible in Galway, it is +a very quaint and interesting town. It contains many buildings that were +erected centuries ago, in the days of its prosperity, that are evidences +of its former wealth and trade. In what may be called mediæval remains, it +is, perhaps, richer than any other town in Ireland, and will well repay a +visit. It is one of the few large towns in Ireland in which a majority of +the people are bilingual, using both the English and Irish languages.</p> + +<p>There is not much either of scenic or antiquarian interest in the +immediate vicinity of Galway; but if those who wish to see the most +ancient and gigantic cyclopean remains in Europe, or perhaps in the world, +go to the Isles of Arran, to which a small steamer sails from Galway, they +will be well repaid for a two hours’ trip. The Arran Islands contain more +antique monuments of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">[Pg 392]</a></span> pre-historic past and of a more interesting kind +than any other places of equal extent in these Islands. These monuments +consist of vast drystone fortresses that were raised by some pre-historic +race. There is what may be called historic tradition that they were built +by a remnant of the Firbolgs in the century preceding the Christian era; +but those most learned in things pertaining to Irish antiquities, do not +think there is any reliable historic evidence as to where or by whom they +were erected. The principal fortresses are, Dun Aengus, Dun Connor, Dun +Onacht and Dun Eochla. They are all in the Great Island, or Arran Mór, +except Dun Connor, which is in the Middle Island, or Inis Maan. Dun Connor +is the largest. It is considerably over two hundred feet long, and over a +hundred feet wide. Its treble walls are still twenty feet high in some +places, and from sixteen to eighteen feet in thickness. These vast +fortresses look as if they were the work of giants. Like almost every +relic of the past, they seem to have been more marred by men than by time. +They have evidently been injured by people looking for treasure; and a +good deal of their stones have been removed to build cabins and outhouses. +Miss Margaret Stokes, who has devoted almost all her life to the study of +Irish antiquities, and who<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393">[Pg 393]</a></span> consequently knows more about them, perhaps, +than any one in Ireland, says of these vast fortresses in Arran: “They are +the remains of the earliest examples of architecture known to exist in +Western Europe.” There is something awfully grand and grim in the aspect +of these ruined fortresses. To gaze on their colossal dimensions and +barbaric rudeness seems to carry us back almost to the beginning of time, +when the earth was inhabited by beings unlike ourselves. But however old +the forts in Arran may be, it is evident that they were the strongholds of +a seafaring people; for the whole products of the barren islands on which +they stand would not be worth the labour of erecting such gigantic +fortresses for their protection. These islands support a good many people +now, thanks to the potato; but in ancient times, when it was unknown, it +is hard to understand how the multitude of men it must have taken to build +so many vast fortresses could have found sustenance on these barren isles; +and we are, therefore, almost driven to the conclusion that the fortresses +in the Isles of Arran were built by pirates or seafaring men of some +kind.</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394">[Pg 394]</a></span></p> +<h2>THE CLOUD SCENERY OF IRELAND</h2> + + +<p>It is only those who have lived a long time in continental countries that +can fully appreciate the beauty of Irish cloud scenery. As a rule, insular +countries are richer in cloud scenery than continents. Any one who has +lived even in the western part of continental Europe knows that Great +Britain, owing to its being an island, is much richer in cloud scenery +than France; and the further east one goes, the drier the climate will be +found to be, the fewer the clouds, and consequently the less attractive +the sky.</p> + +<p>Ireland being situated so far out in the “melancholy ocean” is, beyond all +European countries, a land of clouds, and it has to be admitted that she +very often has too much of them. But if these clouds frequently pour down +more rain than is necessary for the growth of crops, there is a certain +amount of compensation given by skyey glories they create; and marvellous +these glories sometimes are. It is not only at sunset or sunrise that +Irish cloud scenery is fine; for often during even a wet summer, when the +rain ceases for a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395">[Pg 395]</a></span> time, and the sun appears, the sky becomes what it is +hardly incorrect to call a wonderland of beauty, with its “temples of +vapour and hills of storm.” But the real glories of Irish cloud scenery +are its sunsets. Ireland is, beyond any other country perhaps in the +world, the land of gorgeous sunsets. Sometimes they are such wonders of +golden glory that even the most stolid peasant gazes on them with emotion. +As a rule, it is only in the latter part of summer and the first half of +autumn that Irish sunsets can be seen in their greatest beauty. Sometimes, +when the summer is very wet, fine sunsets are seldom seen; but in fine +weather they are generally such as can be seen in no other country. For +months during the fine summer and autumn of 1893, every sunset was a +wonder of indescribable beauty, with almost half the heavens a blaze of +golden clouds.</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396">[Pg 396]</a></span></p> +<h2>SOMETHING ABOUT IRISH PLACE NAMES</h2> + + +<p>It has been said that almost everything connected with Irish history and +topography is peculiar. The truth of this can hardly be doubted. If the +ancient Irish were a non-Aryan race, the strange phases of their history +and the abundance of Irish place names might not strike us as so curious. +But it is well known that the Irish are Aryans, and that they are +substantially the same people as the ancient Britons were; yet nothing in +the history of England or of Great Britain will satisfactorily account for +the fewness of place names in the latter country as compared with Ireland. +British, but especially English, place names are, in a vast majority of +cases, either of Saxon, Norse, or Celtic origin. Their fewness as compared +with Irish place names is what strikes a native of Ireland with +astonishment. There are probably as many place names in a single Irish +province as there are in the whole of England. The townland nomenclature +of Ireland is almost unknown in England. The names of all the townlands in +Ireland can be seen in the Government<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_397" id="Page_397">[Pg 397]</a></span> Survey of 1871. They number, +exclusive of the names of cities, towns, and villages, about 37,000. But +it is only the place names that mean human habitations, places erected by +men, and where men dwelt, that shall be mentioned here. Let five +denominations of place names suffice to show their immensity—namely, +<i>ballys</i>, <i>kills</i>, <i>raths</i>, <i>duns</i> and <i>lises</i>. The first means towns or +steads; the second, churches or cells; and the three last mean fortified +habitations of some kind. Of <i>ballys</i> there are 6700, of <i>kills</i> 3420, of +<i>lises</i> 1420, of <i>raths</i> 1300, and of <i>duns</i> 760, making altogether 13,600 +place names meaning habitations of some kind. But this is not the half of +them! The place names in the subdivisions of townlands are not mentioned +at all. There is a parish in Westmeath in which there are three place +names beginning with <i>rath</i>, and three with <i>kill</i>, none of which is +mentioned in the printed list of townlands. Multitudes of names in which +some one of the five words mentioned is included have been translated or +changed; just as Ballyboher has been made Booterstown, and Dunleary made +Kingstown. Many place names in which <i>bally</i>, <i>kill</i>, <i>dun</i>, <i>rath</i>, and +<i>liss</i> occur are not included in the numbers given, for very often the +adjective goes before the noun, as in such names as Shanbally, Shankill,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_398" id="Page_398">[Pg 398]</a></span> +Shanlis, Shandun, &c. Taking everything into consideration, it would seem +fair to estimate that not more than half the place names formed from the +five words that have been mentioned appear in the printed list of Irish +townlands; then we have the astounding total of over <i>twenty-seven +thousand</i> place names in Ireland formed from five words that mean human +habitations.</p> + +<p>The only explanation of the astonishing number of ancient place names +found in Ireland, as compared with England, seems to be the dense rural +population that must have existed in the former country in ancient times. +That an enormous percentage of ancient place names have totally faded away +owing to the disuse of the Gaelic language, the consolidation of farms, +and the decline of population, there cannot be any doubt at all. The +puzzle about Irish place names is, if their extraordinary numbers were +caused by a more dense population in Ireland than in England—why was +Ireland more densely peopled than England in ancient times? The soil of +Ireland is hardly more fertile than the soil of England, and the climate +of Ireland is not as good, for it is much wetter than that of the larger +island. England is nearer to the Continent, and therefore was more easy of +access to continental traders. The situation<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_399" id="Page_399">[Pg 399]</a></span> as well as the soil and +climate of England were rather more favourable to the growth of a large +population than were those of Ireland. It is now generally conceded that +the ancient Britons and Irish were of the same race, and spoke a language +that was substantially the same. But why should there seem to have been +such a difference in the political and social condition of the Irish and +the ancient Britons who were their contemporaries? Why are there so +comparatively few ancient place names in Great Britain and such an +overwhelming number of them in Ireland? Why should Ireland have a history +that goes so far back into the dim twilight of the past, and England have +no history beyond the time of Cæsar? These are most interesting and +important questions, but how can they be answered? It is to be hoped that +some future savant will succeed in solving them.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">The End.</span></p> + +<p> </p> +<p class="center">PRINTED BY<br /> +TURNBULL AND SPEARS,<br /> +EDINBURGH</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><strong>Footnotes:</strong></p> + +<p><a name='f_1' id='f_1' href='#fna_1'>[1]</a> “History of England,” vol. iii., p. 107.</p> + +<p><a name='f_2' id='f_2' href='#fna_2'>[2]</a> Is iat Tuata De Danaan tucsat leo in Fál mór; i. in lia fis <i>bai</i> i +Temraig; di atá Mag Fail for Erinn. In ti fo ngéised saide bari Erenn. +“Book of Leinster,” page 9.</p> + +<p><a name='f_3' id='f_3' href='#fna_3'>[3]</a> Eemoing ni hed fota acht Crist do genemain; is sed ro bris cumachta +nan idal. “Book of Leinster,” p. 9.</p> + +<p><a name='f_4' id='f_4' href='#fna_4'>[4]</a></p> + +<p class="footpoem">Is dar timna in Duleman, is dar<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">brethir Crist chaingnig</span><br /> +Do cech rig do Gaedelaib do beir<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">ammus for Laignib.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 10em;">“Book of Leinster,” p. 43.</span></p> + +<p><a name='f_5' id='f_5' href='#fna_5'>[5]</a> In Carsewell’s Gaelic, <i>Giollaeasbuig van duibhne</i>. The <i>v</i> stands for +<i>u</i>; the spelling was intended to represent <i>Ua n Duibhne</i>. <i>Ua</i> and <i>O</i> +mean the same thing, grandson. The <i>n</i> before Duibhne would not now be +used.</p> + +<p><a name='f_6' id='f_6' href='#fna_6'>[6]</a> This poem is in the “Book of Leinster,” and has not yet been +translated.</p> + +<p><a name='f_7' id='f_7' href='#fna_7'>[7]</a> The eastern part of Ulster.</p> + +<p><a name='f_8' id='f_8' href='#fna_8'>[8]</a> Duvdaire was Muircheartach’s wife. She was daughter of the King or +Chief of Ossory. Rushes in those days served as carpets, as they did in +England.</p> + +<p><a name='f_9' id='f_9' href='#fna_9'>[9]</a> A poetic name for Muircheartach, for his patrimony was on the shores +of Loch Foyle.</p> + +<p><a name='f_10' id='f_10' href='#fna_10'>[10]</a> Moy Breagh, or the fine plain, was the country round Tara. To possess +Moy Breagh was the same as to possess Tara, and that was to be chief King. +But Tara was as deserted in the time of the Circuit as it is now.</p> + +<p><a name='f_11' id='f_11' href='#fna_11'>[11]</a> This date is thought to be two years too early, and that 943 was the +year in which Muircheartach was killed.</p> + +<p><a name='f_12' id='f_12' href='#fna_12'>[12]</a> The Eoghanachts were the posterity of Eoghan Mór, King of Munster in +the third century. Eoghanacht meant a people of Munster, descendants of +Eoghan; and Connacht, the descendants of Conn,—usually known as Conn of +the Hundred Battles, most of which were fought against Eoghan.</p> + +<p><a name='f_13' id='f_13' href='#fna_13'>[13]</a> Prince of Scotts; this was evidently the great Steward, or <i>mór maor</i> +of Lennox, who aided the Irish at the battle of Clontarf, and was killed +there.</p> + +<p><a name='f_14' id='f_14' href='#fna_14'>[14]</a> This is an incorrect form of the word. It is <i>Boramha</i> in the most +correct ancient manuscripts, and is a word of three syllables—Borava. It +means “of the tribute.”</p> + +<p><a name='f_15' id='f_15' href='#fna_15'>[15]</a> Is hi seo bliadain ra gabad Tuirgeis la Maelseachlainn. Ra baided ar +sain hé il Loch Uair. “Book of Leinster,” p. 307.</p> + +<p><a name='f_16' id='f_16' href='#fna_16'>[16]</a> Aed Abrat was Fann’s father.</p> + +<p><a name='f_17' id='f_17' href='#fna_17'>[17]</a> The old name of what is now called Queenstown Harbour.</p> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Beauties and Antiquities of Ireland, by +T. O. 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O. Russell + +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: Beauties and Antiquities of Ireland + +Author: T. O. Russell + +Release Date: April 21, 2012 [EBook #39500] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BEAUTIES, ANTIQUITIES OF IRELAND *** + + + + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive.) + + + + + + + + + +BEAUTIES AND ANTIQUITIES OF IRELAND + + + + +KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUeBNER & Co., Ltd. + +NEW AND RECENT PUBLICATIONS. + +THE PAMPHLET LIBRARY. + +EDITED BY ARTHUR WAUGH. Crown 8vo. + +POLITICAL PAMPHLETS. Selected and arranged by A. F. +POLLARD. 6s. [_Ready._ + +LITERARY PAMPHLETS. Selected and arranged by ERNEST +RHYS. [_Immediately._ + + +_To be followed by_ + +RELIGIOUS PAMPHLETS. Selected and arranged by Rev. +PERCY DEARMER, and + +DRAMATIC PAMPHLETS. Selected and arranged by THOMAS +SECCOMBE. + + +MEMOIRS OF HAWTHORNE. By his daughter, ROSE HAWTHORNE +LATHROP. With Portrait. Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d. + +IN THE LAND OF THE BORA; or Camp-Life and Sport in +Dalmatia and the Herzegovina. By "Snaffle," author +of "Gun, Rifle, and Hound." With 10 Full-page +Illustrations by H. DIXON. Demy 8vo. 15s. + +THE CRIMEAN DIARY OF THE LATE GENERAL SIR CHARLES +WINDHAM, K.C.B. Edited by Major HUGH PEARSE. With +an Introduction by Sir WILLIAM H. RUSSELL, and a +portrait of General WINDHAM. Post 8vo. 7s. 6d. + + +PATERNOSTER HOUSE, CHARING CROSS ROAD. + + + + +[Illustration: CONG ABBEY. + +_Frontispiece._] + + + + + BEAUTIES AND ANTIQUITIES + OF IRELAND + + BEING + + A TOURIST'S GUIDE TO ITS MOST BEAUTIFUL + SCENERY & AN ARCHAEOLOGIST'S MANUAL + FOR ITS MOST INTERESTING RUINS + + + BY T. O. RUSSELL + AUTHOR OF "DICK MASSEY," "TRUE HEART'S TRIALS," ETC. + + + LONDON + KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO., LTD. + B. HERDER + 17 SOUTH BROADWAY + ST LOUIS, MO. + 1897 + + + + +PREFACE + + +To describe all the beauties and antiquities of Ireland, an encyclopedia, +instead of a volume the size of this one would be required. As one of the +objects of this book is to show that Irish history is as generally +interesting as Irish scenery is generally beautiful, few places are +noticed that are not historic; but in a volume of the size of this, all +the historic places could not be mentioned. Many books have been published +during the last three-quarters of a century that treat on Irish scenery +and antiquities. Some of them are very voluminous and copiously +illustrated. They were, for the most part, written by persons utterly +unfitted for the task they undertook. Their remarks on Irish scenery may +be of some value; they may have thought Killarney more beautiful than the +Bog of Allen; but wherever they touch on matters connected with history +and antiquities, they are so often incorrect and misleading that the books +they have published may, for the most part, be said to be useless. It is +not too much to say that many of these works would be actually increased +in value if the printed matter were torn out of them and nothing left but +the illustrations and covers. The people who wrote them were totally +unfitted to treat of Irish history and antiquities. They knew little about +the history of ancient Ireland, and nothing of the Irish language or its +literature. They could hardly be justified to treat of Irish architectural +remains, because they were ill-equipped to do so, and were unsympathetic +with the race that raised them. + +If there is any country in Europe about the scenery and antiquities of +which an interesting book could be written, it is Ireland. In no other +country are scenery and antiquities so closely allied, for the finest +remains of her ancient ruins are generally found where the scenery is most +weird, most strange, or most beautiful. In no other country, perhaps, can +so many places be identified with historic events, or historic personages, +as in Ireland. It contains more relics of a long vanished past than any +other European land. Great Britain seems a new country compared with +Ireland. In spite of the wanton and disgraceful destruction of her ancient +monuments that has been going on for centuries, more of such can be found +in a single Irish county than in a dozen in Great Britain. Although +Stonehenge is the finest druidic monument known to exist, the quantity of +druidic remains is much greater in Ireland than in England. In the latter +country we miss the _dun_, the _rath_, the _lis_, the round tower and the +sepulchral mound, some of which are found in almost every square mile of +Ireland. And coming down to later times, when men began to erect +structures of stone, we find the remains of castles and keeps in such +extraordinary numbers that we wonder for what purpose so many strongholds +were erected. Counting _raths_, _duns_, _lises_, _cromlechs_, round +towers, crumbling castles, and deserted fanes, Ireland may be called a +land of ruins beyond any other country in Europe. To make these +multitudinous monuments of a far-back past still more interesting, it will +be found that mention is made of most of them even in the remnant of +Gaelic literature that by the merest chance has been preserved. + +The place names of Ireland are as interesting and as extraordinary as her +antiquities, and to some are even more fascinating than her beauties. The +bewildering immensity of Irish place names is one of the most remarkable +things connected with Ireland; but like her ancient monuments, they are +every day disappearing--fading away with the language from which they +were formed. Even still, there are, probably, as many ancient place names +in a single Irish province as in the whole of Great Britain. If it is not +absolutely true when speaking of Ireland to say that, "No dust of hers is +lost in vulgar mould," it can at least be said that there is hardly a +square mile of her surface where some hoary relic of the past or some +beautiful object of nature can be met with that is not mentioned in +history, enshrined in legend, or celebrated in song. + +T. O. R. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PAGE + + KILLARNEY 1 + + Its fame world wide--Beauty of its name--Extract from + Macaulay in its praise--Comparative smallness of + Killarney--Admirable proportion of its scenic features-- + Softness and beauty its chief attractions--Its weather + often moist--Autumn the best time to see it--Its + overpowering beauty on fine autumn days--The country + round Killarney a wonderland of beauty--Its ruins; and + their historic interest. + + TARA 12 + + Its antiquity its chief attraction--Beautiful view from its + ruined ramparts--The most historic spot in these islands-- + Proof of the general correctness of early Irish history--Dr + Petrie's great work on the antiquities of Tara--His map of + it--Its adaptation for a seat of government in ancient + times--Its profanation by the erection of modern buildings + on it--Tracks of its principal monuments--No trace of stone + buildings found--Its praise sung by Gaelic poets--Was the + most important place in Ireland--The roads that centred + there--The Lia Fail, or Stone of Destiny; prophecy + concerning it; was brought from Tara to Scotland; now under + the coronation chair at Westminster; Petrie's mistake about + it; proofs that it was removed from Tara; the stone there + now not the Lia Fail; is the Lia Fail a meteoric stone?-- + Tara the great political centre of ancient Ireland--The + Leinster Tribute--Slaughter of 3030 maidens--Indifference + of the Irish heretofore about their history and literature-- + Many valuable gold ornaments found in Tara--The "Tara + Brooch"--King Laoghaire buried in Tara; his face to his + foes, the Leinstermen--The old feud between Meath and + Leinster not yet quite forgotten--Tara terribly uprooted-- + Saint Patrick's goat--Last King that reigned in Tara--Its + vast antiquity worthy of credence. + + LOCH REE 47 + + One of the least known of the great lakes of Ireland--Its + great beauty--Decline of population in the country round + it--Want of steam-boats on the Upper Shannon--Number of + Islands--Beauty of the Leinster shore of the lake; is + studded with gentlemen's seats--Goldsmith's house--Historic + interest of Loch Ree--The treaty of Blein Potog--Athlone; + its beauty of situation; the most prosperous town on the + Upper Shannon; its manufactures--Decline of the Irish + language--Improvement in the condition of the Irish + peasantry. + + "EMANIA THE GOLDEN" 58 + + Emania a Latinised form of Emain Macha--The second most + historic spot on Irish soil--Its history--Its present + desolation--Its great extent--Denationalisation of the + peasantry in its vicinity; their almost total ignorance of + its history--Emania and the "Children of Uisneach"; extreme + beauty of that legend--The tomb of Deirdre--Many gold + ornaments found near Emania--Long preservation of a place + name--Queen Macha--The city of Armagh; its antiquity; + founded by St Patrick; ruined and plundered by the Danes; + was for some years the abode of a Danish King; its + picturesqueness. + + QUEEN MAB'S PALACE 71 + + Rathcroghan, where Queen Mab lived and reigned, a very + celebrated place--She was contemporary with Cleopatra, and + was Queen of Connacht--Few legends about her in Ireland; an + historic personage there--Proofs of the comparatively high + civilization of Ireland in ancient times--Extraordinarily + long preservation of the legend of Queen Mab or Medb, in + England; her very long reign and great age; death in + Iniscloran; her fondness for cold water baths; the Four + Masters do not mention her--Description of the Fort of + Rathcroghan; the wooden palace that once stood on it; + unlike any of the historic forts of Ireland--Rathcroghan + desolate since the time of Queen Mab; its vast ancient + cemetery; Queen Mab buried there--Longevity of the ancient + Irish--Strong proofs that the Connacht queen was the + prototype of the Mab of Shakespeare, Drayton, Spenser, etc.; + her sister's name still preserved in an Irish place name-- + Beauty of the country round Rathcroghan; its fertility-- + Many mentions of Rathcroghan in ancient Gaelic writings. + + THE HILL OF UISNEACH 84 + + One of the most historic of Irish hills; its peculiar + shape--Magnificence and beauty of the view from it-- + Knockcosgrey--Decay of rural population--Uisneach + peculiarly adapted for a stronghold--Aill na Mireann, or + rock of the divisions; now called the "Cat Stone"; its very + peculiar shape; was supposed to mark the geographical + centre of the island--Great Synod held in Uisneach in A.D. + 1111--Moat of Ballylochloe; its extreme beauty; supposed + origin of its name. + + CLONMACNOIS 97 + + Strangeness and uniqueness of its situation--Love of the + strange and beautiful among ancient Irish Churchmen--The + Shannon--Views from Clonmacnois--Small size of its + remaining ruined fanes--Its round towers and crosses-- + Wondrous beauty of its smaller round tower--Petrie's theory + of the origin of round towers--Destruction of Clonmacnois-- + Vandalism manifest--Occupation by the Danes--The nunnery-- + Clonmacnois founded by St Kieran--De Lacy's ruined castle-- + Beauty and diversity of scenery of the Shannon; historic + interest of so many places on its banks. + + KNOCK AILLINN 111 + + Third most historic hill in Ireland--Beauty of the view + from its summit--On it is the largest fort in Ireland-- + Anciently the Residence of Kings of Leinster--The hill of + Allen; Finn's residence according to all authentic + documents; but no trace of earthworks on it--John + O'Donovan's opinion about it--Probable confusion of the + names Aillinn and Allen--Probability that Aillinn was + Finn's dun--Immensity of the folk-lore about Finn; as + widespread in Scotland as in Ireland; extraordinary way in + which he impressed himself on his age; does not seem to + have been a lovable personage--Dermot O'Duibhne--Real name + of the Campbells of Argyle--Finn, the most powerful man in + Ireland in his time--His name incorrectly spelt _Fionn_. + + "KILDARE'S HOLY FANE" 126 + + Not much scenic beauty about Kildare--The Curragh--Few + ancient remains in Kildare--Its round Tower--Kildare once + a large place; famous on account of St Brigit--Its "bright + lamp"--Moore's noble lyric, "Erin, O Erin"--St Brigit's + life in the Leabhar Breac; extracts from it--Her benevolence + and charity; her love of the poor and the sick; she was + buried in Kildare. + + GLENDALOCH 138 + + Its weird situation--A good central point from which to + make excursions--"Sugar-loaf" mountain; its horrible + modern name, and grand ancient one--Glendaloch the most + celebrated place in Wicklow--St Kevin; his youth; his + piety; he did not drown Kathleen; he only whipped her with + nettles--Kevin the most popular of Leinster Saints--"St + Kevin's bed"--Glendaloch an almost utter ruin--Ancient + Irish monasteries; their great wealth--Antique gold + ornaments--The evils of Danish raids--How well the Irish + fought the Danes--Round towers--Their uses--Books destroyed + by the Northmen--Halo of legend and romance that is round + Glendaloch. + + "LORDLY AILEACH" 157 + + The second most historic spot in Ulster--Sublime view from + it--Noble work done in its partial restoration--Its early + history--Its destruction by a Munster King--A funny _rann_ + from the Four Masters about it--Its great antiquity--The + great Circuit of Ireland made from Aileach--Quotations from + an ancient poem on the Circuit--A great poem totally + ignored by the Irish cultured classes--Muircheartach + MacNeill a great prince--His capture of the provincial + Kings--His tragic and untimely death. + + "ROYAL AND SAINTLY CASHEL" 172 + + Peculiar situation--Ancient Irish churchmen's appreciation + of the beautiful in nature--Superb beauty of the site of + Cashel--A wonder that so few poets have been inspired by + it--Sir Aubrey de Vere's Sonnet on Cashel--Marred by the + erection of new monuments--Long the seat of Munster Kings-- + Antiquity of Cashel as a centre of Christian cult--Wondrous + beauty of Cormac's Chapel; the most remarkable of early + Irish churches--The ancient Irish had no castles; they were + introduced by the Norman French--The city of Cashel-- + Cashel, Glendaloch and Clonmacnois the most interesting + places of their kind in Ireland. + + LOCH ERNE 186 + + Loch Erne, Loch Ree and Loch Derg compared; the former the + most peculiar of all Irish Lochs--Its innumerable islands, + and the great beauty of its shores--Want of proper + passenger steamers on it--Tourists must have good + accommodation--Ireland's beauties can never be fully known + until good hotels are provided--No other country of its + size has so many lakes and rivers as Ireland--Historic + attractions of Loch Erne--Devinish Island. + + MELLIFONT AND MONASTERBOICE 195 + + They are the most interesting ecclesiastical ruins in + Louth--Great beauty of the site of Mellifont--Terrible and + wanton destruction of its ruins--Its name not Irish--Was + generally known as "the Drogheda Monastery"--Size of the + building--Was founded in 1142--Renaissance of Irish + ecclesiastical architecture; it began when Danish plundering + ceased--Effects of the Anglo-French invasion--Dearvorgil, + wife of O'Ruarc, buried in Mellifont--Antiquity of + Monasterboice--Its glorious ancient crosses--Its round + tower--Became a ruin many centuries before Mellifont--Beauty + and historic interest of locality--Drogheda--The burgs of + the Boyne, New Grange and Dowth. + + TRIM CASTLE 207 + + It is the largest of Irish Castles--The Anglo-French great + Castle builders--Hugo de Lacy--Many Castles erected by + him--He was the greatest of the invaders of Ireland--He + wanted to be King of Ireland--Distracted state of the + country in his time--Trim once an important place--Claims + to be the birth-place of Wellington; an anecdote about + him--The country round Trim most interesting and historic-- + The Boyne the most historic of Irish rivers. + + CONG ABBEY 218 + + The most interesting ruin in Connacht--Roderick O'Connor; + Moore's opinion of him--Cong founded by St Fechin--Was + endowed by O'Connor--Description of the Abbey--Its + sculptured stones--The Cross of Cong--Cong never plundered + by the Danes--Peculiarities and beauty of the country round + Cong--Loch Corrib--The Joyce country; a land of giants; + anecdote about one of them. + + LOCH DERG 231 + + Its great size--Want of islands its principal drawback--Its + hilly shores--Little traffic on it--Iniscealtra--St + Cainin--Killaloe; its ruined fanes--The Palace of Kincora; + no vestige of it remaining; totally destroyed by Turloch + O'Connor in 1118--MacLiag's Lament for Brian and Kincora-- + The rapids of Doonas; their great beauty. + + HOLYCROSS ABBEY 243 + + Its beautiful situation--One of the largest ruined churches + in Ireland--When founded--Its ruins not much marred--Was + inhabited until the suppression of monasteries--Beauty of + one of its sepulchral monuments--Founded too late to be + plundered by the Danes. + + DUNLUCE CASTLE 247 + + The most remarkable ruined Castle in Ireland--From its + situation it is the finest ruin of the kind in Europe--The + narrow causeway by which it is entered--Unusual thinness of + its walls--Was evidently erected before cannons were + perfected--An awful place in a storm--Giant's Causeway-- + Dunseverick Castle--Meaning of the name _Dunluce_--Not + known by whom or when it was founded--Was once owned by the + MacQuillins--Sorley Boy--Terrible catastrophe that once + happened at Dunluce--Must have been built before the + fifteenth century. + + BOYLE ABBEY 254 + + Not much known to the general public--Its limpid river-- + Rivers of muddy water an abomination--Irish rivers + generally clear--Extraordinarily luxuriant growth of ivy on + the ruins; their effect marred by the erection of a new + building close to them--Vandalism in Ireland--Ancient name + of Boyle--History of its monastery--Loch Key; the burning + of its _cranniog_--Loch Arrow. + + THE LAKES OF WESTMEATH 263 + + Few in search of the beautiful know anything about them; + are best known to fishermen--Not many places of historic + interest in Westmeath--Loch Ouel--Turgesius, the Dane, + drowned in it by Malachy the First--Legend about Malachy's + daughter--Lover's poem about her--Quotation from the Book + of Leinster about Turgesius--Loch Sheelin; beauty of its + name--Beauty of Celtic place names--Beauty of the name + Lorraine. + + KELLS IN MEATH 271 + + Its ancient name--Its great antiquity--Fertility of the + country round it--The tower of Lloyd--Tailltean; its + immense antiquity--The Irish Olympia--Proofs of the general + authenticity of early Irish history--Sir Wm. Wilde's + opinion of Irish chronology--Assemblies held in Tailltean + in recent times--Early Christian Monuments--Kells often + burned and plundered by the Danes--The Book of Kells and + the Tara Brooch. + + CUCHULAINN'S DUN AND CUCHULAINN'S COUNTRY 281 + + Scandalous desecration of his _dun_; its situation and vast + size; its existence another proof of the general truth of + Irish history--Cuchulainn, the Irish Hercules--Origin of + his name--Nothing told about his size or stature--Total + ignorance about Cuchulainn in his birth-place; immensity + of the literature in which he figures--Literary industry of + early Irish monks--Cuchulainn loved by women; his abduction + of Eimer; his _liaison_ with Fann; the tract about him in + the Book of the Dun Cow--Fann's rhapsody--"Cuchulainn's + Death" from the Book of Leinster; beauty of the view from + his _dun_--Numerous antiquities of the County Louth--The + Cooley and Mourne mountains--Neglect of the scenery of + Louth and Down. + + THE WILD WEST COAST 299 + + Its magnificence; comparison between it and the coasts of + Norway; its mild climate--Bantry Bay--The cliffs of Moher-- + Half Ireland has been swallowed by the sea--Constant + erosion by the waves--Killary Harbour--Clew Bay, the queen + of Irish Sea lochs; comparison between it and other bays-- + Croagh Patrick--Achill and its cliffs--Antiquities at + Carrowmore--Loch Gill--Sligo--Slieve League--Loch Swilly-- + Grandeur of the scenery from Cape Clear to Inishowen; its + wonderful variety; its mild climate and wild flowers--Ten + people visit the coasts of Norway for one that visits the + west coast of Ireland--Want of passenger steamers on the + west coast; its beauties can only be seen to advantage from + the sea--Few safe harbours on the Donegall coast. + + DUBLIN AND ITS ENVIRONS 325 + + Dublin not sufficiently appreciated by some of its + inhabitants--Its history--Its long Gaelic name--Danish + domination in it--Many times taken and sacked by the + Irish--Battle of Clontarf--Canute made no attempt to + conquer Ireland--Dublin has not suffered from a siege for + one thousand years--Its rapid growth in the eighteenth + century--Greatly improved during the last twenty-five + years--Its improvement undertaken under enormous + difficulties--Its educational advantages--Its libraries-- + Its museum of antiquities; disgraceful management of it-- + Dublin supposed to be a dirty city--Its situation--Its + public buildings--Its environs; their supreme beauty-- + Glasnevin Botanic Gardens--Dublin Bay; poem on it--Variety + of scenery round Dublin--The Dargle--Howth--Fingall--Dublin + situated in a land of flowers--Abundance of wild flowers in + Ireland--Phoenix Park--Three round towers close to Dublin; + error in its census--What the author has said in its praise + is true. + + BELFAST AND ITS ENVIRONS 357 + + Its rapid growth, and beauty of its environs--Its linen + trade--Business capacity of its inhabitants--Its history + and meaning of its name--The Giant's Ring--View from Davis + mountain--Belfast Loch--Hollywood--Scenic attractions of + the country round Belfast. + + CORK AND ITS ENVIRONS 366 + + Its ancient name--Its history--Its situation--Is not + growing as it should--Prophecy about it--Its fine public + buildings--Its noble harbour--Cork should be where + Queenstown is--Environs of Cork--Its antiquities--Its + sufferings from the Northmen; their ravages; Lord + Dunraven's theory about them; they met stranger opposition + in Ireland than in any other Country; what the Irish + suffered from them; the Northmen not builders-up of + nations; gruesome revelation of their cruelty found at + Donnybrook--The author's theory as to the cause of their + invasions. + + GALWAY AND ITS ENVIRONS 388 + + Its history--Was once a place of large trade--Frightful + decline of its population--Its splendid situation and noble + bay--Its environs--The Isles of Arran; their gigantic + cyclopean remains the most wonderful things of their kind + in Europe. + + THE CLOUD SCENERY OF IRELAND 394 + + Ireland the land of cloud scenery; its situation far out in + the "melancholy ocean"; its moist climate; its sunsets; + their gorgeousness in fine weather; not often seen in + perfection but in autumn. + + SOMETHING ABOUT IRISH PLACE NAMES 396 + + Ireland a peculiar country; its abundance of place names as + compared with Great Britain--Its _ballys_, _kills_, _raths_, + _duns_ and _lises_; their immensity--Dense rural population + of Ireland in ancient times--Antiquity of Ireland. + + + + +KILLARNEY + + +Killarney is famed and known all over the civilized world; but there are +places in Ireland where isolated scenes can be found as fair as any in +Killarney. Much has been written about this "Eden of the West," but most +of those who have attempted to describe it have omitted to mention its +chief charm--namely, diversity of scenic attractions within a small +compass. Almost everything that Nature could do has been done within a +tract of country hardly ten miles square. + +Except some favoured spots in Switzerland, there is no spot of European +soil more famed for beauty than Killarney. Its very name is beautiful, as +any one can know who has heard Balfe's grand song, "Killarney." No sounds +more harmonious or more fitted for a refrain could be uttered by the +organs of speech. The name signifies in Gaelic the church of the sloe or +wild plum-tree. The real name of the lake, or chain of lakes, which is one +of the charms of Killarney, is Loch Lein, but the latter name is now +almost obsolete. + +Before attempting to describe Killarney, it will be well to give the +reader an extract from Macaulay's "History of England." The passage is a +masterpiece of prose. It is a sketch of the scenic characteristics of that +part of Ireland where the famous lakes are situated: + +"The south-western part of Kerry is now well known as the most beautiful +tract in the British Isles. The mountains, the glens, the capes stretching +far out into the Atlantic, the crags on which the eagles build, the +rivulets branching down rocky passes, the lakes overhung by groves in +which the wild deer find covert, attract, every summer, crowds of +wanderers sated with business and the pleasures of great cities. The +beauties of that country are often, indeed, hidden in the mist and rain +that the west wind brings up from the boundless ocean. But, on rare days, +when the sun shines out in his glory, the landscape has a freshness and +warmth of colouring seldom found in our latitude. The myrtle loves the +soil; the arbutus thrives better than in Calabria; the turf has a livelier +hue than elsewhere; the hills glow with a richer purple; the varnish of +the holly and the ivy is more glossy, and berries of a brighter red peep +through foliage of a brighter green."[1] + +Macaulay, in spite of his Celtic name, was not a lover of Ireland and the +Irish, and there is no reason to suppose that this most wonderful +word-painting was evoked by any liking for the land it describes. He had +seen Killarney, and it must have inspired him to write the greatest +descriptive passage he ever penned. + +Those who expect to find in Killarney the grandeur of the Alps, the Rocky +Mountains, or even of the Scottish Highlands, will be disappointed. It is +too small to be sublime, for it could be ridden round in a day. The most +wonderful of its many wonders is variety of scenery in a small compass. In +this respect few parts of the known world can compare with it. Almost +every possible phase of Nature, almost everything she could do with land +and water, can be found in Killarney, and found on a little spot of earth +hardly larger than the space covered by London. Mountains, lakes, rivers, +rocks, woods, waterfalls, flowery islands, green meadows and glistening +strands, almost exhaust Nature's materials for forming the beautiful. But +all are found at Killarney. Man, who mars Nature so often, has helped her +here, for the castles and abbeys he raised of yore still stand, and their +ivy and flower-decked ruins, tenanted only by the bat and the bee, put the +finishing touch on this earthly Eden, and make it one of the scenic +wonders of the world. If Killarney had glaciers and eternally snow-clad +peaks, it would have everything that Switzerland has. + +Another wonderful thing about Killarney is the admirable proportion its +scenic features bear to one another. If the mountains were any higher they +would be too high for the lakes, and if the lakes were any bigger they +would be too big for the mountains. Even the rivers and waterfalls are +almost in exact proportion to the other phases of Nature. The monstrous +Mississippi or the thundering Niagara would spoil such a miniature +paradise; but the limpid Laune and O'Sullivan's babbling cascade suit it +exactly. Killarney is the most perfect effort of Nature to bring together +without disproportion all her choicest charms. + +Small as Killarney is, it would take at least a week, or perhaps two +weeks, to see it and know all its loveliness. It is only on foot and +without hurry that its beauties can be seen in perfection. Its mountains +may be ascended, and glorious views of sea and craggy heights obtained; +but the charm of Killarney is not grandeur, but beauty. There are mountain +views in Scotland finer than can be had from the summits of Mangerton or +Carn Thual. It would be something like waste of time to climb those +hills. Let the tourist rather wander in the hundreds of shady lanes or +paths that skirt the lakes, or take a boat and navigate that most +picturesque river, for its length, in the world, the Long Range, that +connects the upper with the lower lake. Let him mark the wondrous +luxuriance of grass, leaf, weed and flower. The arbutus grows so large +that it becomes a tree. Ferns of such gigantic proportions may be found in +shady nooks that they seem to belong to some far-back geological age. +Softness, freshness, luxuriance and _beaute riante_ are the real glories +of Killarney. In these it has no rival. + +There are two drawbacks to Killarney; there is the guide nuisance and the +rain nuisance. The nuisance of guides is probably no greater than in many +other places of tourist resort, and, by a strong effort of the will, can +be got rid of. But the rain is a more serious matter and must be borne +patiently. Some years come when not a dozen dry days occur throughout the +entire summer, but generally there is less rainfall than on the west +coasts of Scotland or England. There have been quite as many wet days in +Liverpool during the three last summers as there usually are in Killarney. +It does, however, too often happen that tourists are confined to the hotel +for four or five days at a time owing to the rain. It must be borne in +mind that this excessive moisture of atmosphere is what has given the +south-west of Ireland, and England too, their exquisite charm of verdure +and wild flowers. When a fine day comes after rain in summer or autumn all +Nature seems to laugh. Flowers of all hues open their petals, birds in +multitudes begin to sing, and wild bees and hosts of insects make the air +musical with their hum. The American tourist need have no fear when +insects are mentioned, for the mosquito is unknown in Killarney. Midges +are the only insect plague, but they never enter houses, and are +troublesome only before rain, early in the spring or late in the autumn. + +Most tourists go to Killarney early in the summer. June and July are +favourite times for Americans to visit it. As it lies almost in the direct +route between New York and Liverpool, they generally visit it before going +to England or the Continent of Europe. But the time to see Killarney is in +the autumn--it is then in all its glory. It should not be visited before +the 15th of August; from then until the 1st of October it is the most +beautiful place, perhaps, on the earth, provided always that the weather +is not wet. There is only one thing that mars the weather in the south of +Ireland--namely, rain. Cold, in the general sense of the word, is almost +unknown. Every day that is not wet must be fine. There is, it must be +confessed, rather more probability of having dry weather in Killarney in +the spring or early summer than in the autumn, but, by visiting it in the +spring, the tourist would gain nothing, and would lose the wild-flower +feast of autumn. No American, or even native of England, no matter from +what part of his country he comes, can form the faintest conception of +what a Killarney mountain is in September, if the weather be fine. The +wild-flower that is the glory of Ireland is the heath. It blossoms only in +the autumn. Next in glory to the heath comes the furze. Both furze and +heath are indigenous in the whole of the south-west of Europe, but, owing +to the mildness and moistness of the climate of Ireland, they grow and +blossom there with a luxuriance unknown in any other country. When a great +mountain becomes a mighty bouquet of purple and gold, a sight is revealed +which surpasses anything on earth in floral beauty. Almost every mountain +round about the "Eden of the West" is clothed from base to summit in a +vast drapery of heath. Some of the Killarney mountains are wooded for a +few hundred feet up their sides, but most of them are entirely covered +with heath interspersed with furze. When a fine autumn occurs, tens of +thousands of acres of mountain and moorland gleam in the sunlight, an +ocean of purple heath and golden furze. Not only do the heath and furze +blossom in the autumn, but myriads of other wild-flowers appear only at +that time of year, or blossom most luxuriantly then. Even white clover, +which rarely blossoms in other countries except in the spring or early +summer, open its flowers widest and sends out its most fragrant perfume in +an Irish autumn. The air is heavy with fragrance of flowers, the mountains +are musical with the hum of bees, and + + "Every winged thing that loves the sun + Makes the bright noonday full of melody." + +Killarney in a fine autumn becomes not only entrancing, but overpowering +in its loveliness. + +The whole country round Killarney is a wonderland. Macaulay's description +of it is true to the letter. In all his works nothing can be found of a +descriptive character equal to the passage quoted from him. He had a great +subject, and he handled it as no other writer of the English language +could. He has described one of the loveliest regions in the world in a few +lines that will stand for ever as one of the greatest efforts of a great +writer. His description is a brilliant gem of composition, just as the +place it describes is a brilliant gem of nature. + +No one should visit Killarney without visiting Glengariff. It is only +about twenty miles from Killarney, and can be reached by a sort of +low-backed car peculiar to Ireland. This car is a very curious sort of +conveyance. The occupants sit back to back, with their sides to the +horses. In fine weather there is no pleasanter mode of travelling than on +a low-backed car, but when it rains one is anything but comfortable. +Glengariff is thought by some to surpass even Killarney in beauty. It is a +deep glen surrounded by mountains of the most fantastic shapes, clothed +with a wealth of foliage that would astonish any one who had not seen +Killarney. The lake that is seen at Glengariff is sea-water, and opens +into Bantry Bay. The tourist will find an excellent hotel there, and no +matter how he may be satiated with the beauty of Killarney, he will see +other and more striking beauties in Glengariff. + +Killarney is well supplied with hotels. There are four or five, and they +are all good. Most of them are situated in sequestered places, where a +view of some enchanting scene spreads before the door. The village of +Killarney is about a mile from the lake; it is a place of no interest at +all, but there is a very good hotel in it, and many tourists stop there, +for it is just at the railway terminus. Hotel expenses at Killarney in the +tourist season are not so high as at some of the fashionable Continental +summer resorts. Guides are not much wanted, unless mountains are to be +ascended. Then they are indispensable, for mists may suddenly come during +the very finest day, and the tourist without a guide would run a chance of +spending a night on a bleak mountain or being drowned in a lake or +bog-hole. Ponies of a most docile character can be hired cheap. Pony-back +travelling is a favourite mode of "doing" Killarney, especially with +ladies and lazy men, but no one into whose soul the charm of Killarney +really enters would think of travelling through such lovely scenes on +horseback. On foot or in a boat is the way to see Killarney. + +[Illustration: ROSS CASTLE.] + +There are ruins of the most interesting kind in Killarney. Muckross Abbey +is not so large as some of the ruined shrines of England, but it is a +venerable and imposing building. It was built by one of the MacCarthys, +chiefs of the district, in 1340. Ross Castle is another imposing ruin. It +is situated on a green promontory that juts into the lake. There is some +doubt as to the exact time when it was erected, but it could hardly have +been before the fourteenth century. The most interesting ruin near +Killarney, and by far the most ancient, is the monastery on the supremely +beautiful island of Inisfallan. It was founded by Saint Finian in the +sixth century. It was there the yet unpublished "Annals of Inisfallan" +were compiled. Hardly any of the walls of the old monastery remain. The +arbutus and the hawthorn are growing where once were cloisters, and are +fast completing the ruin of what was one of the first of the ancient +churches that were erected in Ireland. + + + + +TARA + + +The supreme attraction of Tara is its antiquity. It must not, however, be +thought that a visit to this famous hill reveals no beauties. It is not +situated among mountains; hardly a lake is visible from its summit: yet +the view from it is so fine that if there was no historic interest +attached to it, the tourist in search of the beautiful alone would have +his eyes feasted with as fair a scene from one of its grassy ramparts as +could be gazed on in any part of Ireland. Eastward the view is obstructed +by the hill of Screen, but on every other side it is superb. Westward the +eye ranges over the fairest and most fertile part of Ireland, the great +plain of Meath and West Meath, anciently called _Magh Breagh_, or the fair +plain. And fair indeed it is in summer time, one great green sea of grass +and wild flowers, reaching to the Shannon, sixty miles away. But it is +southward that the view from Tara is most striking. The Dublin and Wicklow +mountains are more imposing when seen from Tara than from any other place. +They rise in a vast, blue rampart, and seem so colossal as to appear +thousands of feet higher than they are. Those old, barbaric Irish kings +and chieftains must have been lovers of the beautiful, for they almost +invariably fixed their strongholds not only in the fairest parts, but in +places commanding the fairest prospects. There are hardly two other places +in Ireland the surroundings of which are more beautiful than those of Tara +and Uisneach, or from which fairer prospects are to be seen. They were, +from far-back antiquity, the seats of those by whom the country was +_supposed_ to be ruled, for it often happened that he who was styled chief +king had but little control over his vassals. + +There is no other spot of European soil the records of which go so far +back into the dim twilight of the past as do the records of Tara. Before +the first Roman raised a rude hut on the banks of the Tiber, when the +place where the Athenian Acropolis now stands was a bare rock, kings, +whose names are given in Irish history, ruled in Tara. When one gazes on +those grassy mounds, that are almost all that remain of what our ancient +poets used to call "the fair, radiant, City of the Western World," he can +hardly believe that such a place could ever have been the abode of +royalty, the meeting-place of assemblies, and the permanent home of +thousands. Other desolated strongholds of ancient royalty and dominion +bear ample evidence of their former greatness. Ruined columns of +Persepolis yet remain. The site of Tadmor is marked by still standing +pillars of marble, and vast piles of decomposed bricks tell of the +greatness of ancient Babylon; but green, grassy mounds and partially +obliterated earth-works are almost all that remain of Tara. It is so +ruined that it can hardly be ruined any more. Time may yet destroy even +what remains of the bricks of Babylon, but time can hardly change what +remains of the ruins of Tara. + +No other spot of Irish earth can compare with Tara in historic interest or +in antiquity. Emania and Rathcroghan are little more than places of +yesterday compared with it. It is over three thousand years ago since the +first king reigned in Tara. Some may say that it is only bardic history +that tells of what took place in Ireland in those very remote times, and +that it is unworthy of credence. It is true that there is a great deal of +fiction mixed with the early history of Ireland, as there is with the +early history of all countries; but the ancient Irish chroniclers did not +attempt much more than a mere sketch of the salient points of Irish +history of very remote times, say from beyond the third century B.C. Some +of the facts they mention have been verified in remarkable ways by what +may be called collateral evidence. This evidence is found in place names, +and in the names of persons and things. One of those proofs of the general +correctness of what is related in Gaelic literature about far-back events +of Irish history is so remarkable that it deserves special mention. One of +the kings who ruled in Tara considerably over a thousand years B.C. was +named Lugh, or in English, Lewy or Louis. He established the games that +were held annually at Tailtean, near Kells, that were regularly celebrated +down to the time of the Anglo-French invasion, in honour of his mother, +whose name was Tailte. Those games were held in the first week in August, +and from them the Irish name for the month of August is derived; it is +_Lughnasa_. This is the only name known in Gaelic to the present hour for +the month of August, except a periphrastic one meaning "the first month of +autumn." This name for August is known in every part of Ireland and +Scotland where the old tongue still lives, but it has been corrupted to +_Lunasd_ in the latter country. The meaning of the word _Lughnasa_ is, the +games or celebrations of this same Lugh or Lewy, who lived and reigned +centuries before Rome was founded, and before a stone of the Athenian +Acropolis was laid. It seems almost impossible to conceive that the Gaelic +name for the month of August could have had any origin other than that +given above on the authority of one of the most learned of ancient Irish +ecclesiastics, Cormac MacCuillenan, Archbishop of Cashel, in the ninth +century. + +The descriptions of Tara given in ancient Gaelic writings have been +verified in the most remarkable manner by the researches of modern +archaeologists. Dr Petrie's great work, "The Antiquities of Tara Hill," +would go far to remove the prejudices of the most bigoted despiser of +Irish historic records. He was one of the most learned and scientific +investigators of antiquities that ever lived, and was not only a good +Gaelic scholar himself, but had the assistance of the greatest Gaelic +scholar of the century, John O'Donovan. Those two gentlemen translated +every mention of Tara that they could find in prose or verse in ancient +Irish manuscripts; they compared every mention they could find of the +monuments of Tara with what remains of them at present; and they found +such a general agreement between ancient descriptions of those monuments +and the existing remains of them as proved what is said in Gaelic +manuscripts about the extent and splendour of Tara in Pagan times to be +well worthy of credence. Every one who visits Tara, and who is in any way +interested in archaeology, should have Doctor Petrie's map of it, which +will be found in his minute and elaborate work on the "Antiquities of Tara +Hill." That map is reproduced here. The book is very scarce, as only a +small edition of it was printed, but it can be found in the "Transactions +of the Royal Irish Academy." Armed with Petrie's map a visit to Tara would +be one of the most interesting and enjoyable excursions that could be made +from Dublin. Kilmessan Station can be reached from the Broadstone terminus +in an hour, and less than two miles of a walk through a beautiful country +brings one to the summit of "the Hill of Supremacy," as it was called of +old when he who ruled in Tara ruled Ireland. No matter how confirmed an +archaeologist he may be who stands for the first time on this celebrated +hill, his first feeling will be of joy at the beauty of the prospect that +is spread before him. To know how beautiful Ireland is, even in those +places that are not on the track of tourists, and that are seldom +mentioned in guide books, one should see the view from the hill of Tara. + +It would be hard to find any other hill in Ireland so well adapted for a +place of assembly or for the dwelling of a ruler as Tara. Uisneach, in +Westmeath, is, perhaps, the only hill in Ireland that possesses all the +advantages of Tara. In ancient times, when war was the rule and peace the +exception, it was imperative that a stronghold should be on a height. +Athens had its acropolis and so had Corinth. Tara had the advantage of +extent as well as of height, and could be made a permanent dwelling-place +as well as an acropolis, for there are fully a hundred acres on what may +be called the summit of the hill. It is unfortunate that some of the hill +has been enclosed, planted with deal trees, and a church erected on the +very track of some of the most ancient monuments. This plantation and +church have terribly interfered with the picturesqueness and antique look +of Tara. Planting deal trees and erecting a modern church amid the +hoariest monuments, and on the most historic spot of European soil, was +little less than sacrilege. If there had been a proper national spirit, or +a due veneration for their past among the Irish, they never would have +allowed a church or any modern building to be erected on the most historic +spot on Irish soil; and even now they ought to have the church removed, +the wall torn down, and the plantation uprooted. All Greece would rise up +in indignation were any one to erect a church or chapel amid the ruins of +the Athenian Acropolis. + +[Illustration: MONUMENTS ON TARA HILL. + +(_After Petrie's Map._)] + +The most interesting and best preserved of the antiquities of Tara is the +track of the banquetting-house. It must have been an enormous building, +for it was about 800 feet long and about 50 wide. It is wonderful how +perfectly plain and well-defined the track of this once great structure +appears after nearly fourteen hundred years, and in spite of the way this +historic spot has been uprooted and levelled. But not a vestige of +stone-work or of stones is to be seen near the ruins of the +banquetting-house. It seems absolutely certain that there were no +buildings of stone in Tara when it was at the height of its grandeur, and +that seems to have been about the middle of the third century, during the +reign of Cormac MacAirt. It must not be thought that buildings cannot be +fine unless they are of stone; but buildings of stone were very rare in +northern countries until comparatively recent times. Moore, in his +"History of Ireland," says, speaking of wooden buildings and of +Tara--"However scepticism may now question their architectural beauty, +they could boast the admiration of many a century in evidence of their +grandeur. That those edifices were of wood is by no means conclusive +either against the elegance of their structure or the civilisation of +those who erected them. It was in wood that the graceful forms of Grecian +architecture first unfolded their beauties." So the absence of stone +buildings in Tara in no way proves that it was not a place of grandeur as +well as of beauty; and the tenth century Gaelic poet may have been +justified in saying of it, + + "World of perishable beauty! + Tara to-day, though a wilderness, + Was once the meeting-place of heroes. + Great was the host to which it was an inheritance, + Though to-day green, grassy land." + +Every mention of Tara in the vast remnant of Gaelic manuscripts of the +ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries that still exists shows it +to have been, beyond all comparison, the most important place in ancient +Ireland. Oengus the Culdee, author of the longest poem in ancient Gaelic, +the famous Felire, recently translated by Mr Whitley Stokes, speaks thus +of this renowned but now ruined spot: + + "Tara's mighty burgh hath perished + With its kingdom's splendour; + With a multitude of champions of wisdom + Abideth great Ardmagh." + +The poet contrasts the desolation into which the strongholds of the Pagans +had fallen with the then flourishing condition of the centres of +Christian teaching. Tara was the political as well as the social centre +of ancient Ireland. It is in connection with it that the only mention made +of roads having names is found in ancient Gaelic writings. Five great +roads, as will be seen by the annexed map, led from Tara to the +extremities of the Island. The Slighe Dala went southward; the Slighe +Asail went north-west; the Slighe Midhluchra, went north-east; the Slighe +Cualann went south-easterly; and the Slighe Mor went in a south-western +direction. Traces of those roads may still be seen by the practised eye of +the archaeologist. + +One of the most interesting things connected with Tara is the Lia Fail, or +Stone of Destiny. It was upon it the over-kings of Ireland had been +inaugurated from far-back antiquity. It is said to have been brought by +Fergus, brother of the then reigning chief King, to Scotland, in order +that he might be crowned king on it over the part of Scotland he had +conquered. It remained under the coronation chair of the Kings of Scotland +down to the time of Edward the First, who seized it and brought it to +Westminster, where it is now, and the sovereigns of England have been +crowned on it ever since his time. Petrie maintains that the Lia Fail is +still in Tara, and that the pillar stone that stands over the graves of +the men who fell in '98 is it. He adduces very strong evidence from +manuscripts of high authority and of great antiquity to prove what he +says. There is, on the other hand, strong testimony to prove that it was +brought to Scotland by Fergus. The question will probably never be finally +settled. The principal virtue supposed to be possessed by the Lia Fail was +that it would bring political power to the country in which it was, +particularly if its people were of Celtic stock. It is very remarkable +that soon after the stone supposed to be the Lia Fail was taken out of +Ireland, her political power began to decline, her over-kings lost a great +part of their former authority, and in the long run she lost her +independence. Scotland's political power and national independence +vanished not long after she had lost the Lia Fail, and in a few centuries +after England had got it she became one of the foremost nations in the +world. The English claim to be Saxons, but it is now generally admitted +that the Celtic element preponderates in the island of Great Britain, so +that the prophecy attached to the Lia Fail seems to be fulfilled. + +The Lia Fail is certainly the most extraordinary stone in Europe, if not +in the world. The famous Rosetta stone, covered as it is with archaic +writing, and verifying, as many suppose, the truth of Old Testament +history, is hardly more interesting than the rude granite slab that lies +under the coronation chair in Westminster, unmarked with a single letter. +It is about 25 inches in length, about 15 in breadth, and 9 in depth. How +such a rude, unshapely flag-stone could have such a history, and have been +an object of veneration and interest for so many centuries, is what +strikes with wonder those who see it. But if it is not the real Lia Fail, +if it is a sham, and if the stone still standing in Tara is the genuine +one, the wonder increases; for the fact of a spurious article having +become invested with such fame and regarded with such veneration is the +greatest wonder of all. + +Doctor Petrie says, in his "Antiquities of Tara Hill," that "it is in the +highest degree improbable that to gratify the desire of a colony the Irish +would have voluntarily parted with a monument so venerable for its +antiquity and considered essential to the legitimate succession of their +own kings." He quotes verses from a tenth century poet, Kenith O'Hartigan, +who says that the Lia Fail is + + "This stone on which are my two heels"; + +and he quotes from an ancient tract called the _Dinseanchus_, another +proof that when it was composed, and that time could not have been later +than the tenth century, the Lia Fail was in Tara. It often happens, +however, that Irish annalists and historians, so fond were they of looking +backward to the past, make things appear as they had been, and not as they +were when they wrote. The over-kings of Ireland were called Kings of Tara +five hundred years after Tara had been abandoned, and when it was as waste +and desolate as it is to-day. O'Dugan, in his topographical poem, written +in the fourteenth century, tells of clans inhabiting the English Pale, +when they had been banished westward by the invaders nearly two hundred +years before he wrote. He prefaces his topographical poem by saying + + "O'Maolseachlinn, chief King of Tara and Erin," + +but the last O'Maolseachlinn that was nominally chief King of Ireland and +Tara had died three hundred years before O'Dugan wrote! Why those old +Gaelic poets were so fond of describing things as they had been, and not +as they were when they wrote, is hard to understand. They may have got +their information from documents that were centuries old when they copied +them. It seems a certainty that the men whose writings Petrie quotes to +prove that the Lia Fail was in Tara in the tenth century, did what O'Dugan +did in his topographical poem--that is, speak of things as they had been +hundreds of years before. He never mentions the English at all. This +partially accounts for Irish writers of the tenth century speaking of the +Lia Fail being then in Tara. They intended to describe where it used to +be, but not where it was. When Petrie says that the Lia Fail is spoken of +by all ancient Irish writers in such a manner as to leave no doubt that it +remained in its original situation at the time when they wrote, he makes a +great mistake. Here is a quotation from the "Book of Leinster," a +manuscript of the highest authority, compiled in the early part of the +twelfth century, and mostly from writings of a much earlier date:--"It was +the Tuatha De Danaans who brought with them the great _Fal_, that is, the +stone of knowledge that _was_ in Tara; from which [the name of] Magh Fail +is on Ireland. He under whom it would roar was then [rightful] King of +Ireland."[2] + +There is another very strong proof brought to light by the publication of +"Silva Gadelica," by Mr Standish Hays O'Grady, that the Lia Fail was +removed from Tara. In the tract called the "Colloquy," one of the speakers +says: "This, then, and the Lia Fail, or stone of destiny, that _was_ there +(in Tara) were the two wonders of Tara. When Ireland's monarch stepped on +it, it would cry out under him," ... "And who was it that lifted that +flag, or that carried it away out of Ireland?" asked one of the listeners. +"It was a young hero of great spirit that ruled over" ... Here, +unfortunately, the tract ends abruptly. The "Colloquy," or "Agallamh na +Seanorach," is a tract of respectable antiquity. Its language seems to be +that of the fifteenth or perhaps the fourteenth century, but the version +that has come down to us may be, and probably is, but a transcript of a +much more ancient tract, the language of which was modernised. + +If Doctor Petrie had known of the existence of those two proofs given of +the Lia Fail having been removed from Tara, he never would have said that +all ancient Irish writers spoke of it in such a way as to leave no doubt +of its being there still. O'Reilly, author of Irish dictionary, says: "Lia +Fail, the stone of destiny, on which the ancient Irish monarchs used to be +crowned until the time of Mortogh Mac Earc, who sent it into Scotland +that his brother Fergus, who had subdued that country, might be crowned on +it. It is now in Westminster Abbey." O'Reilly was the most learned Irish +scholar and historian of his day, and was a painstaking, conscientious +man, who would hardly state any thing for which he did not have good +authority. It must, however, be admitted that up to the present no +positive statement seems to have been found in ancient Irish writings as +to when and by whom the Lia Fail was brought from Tara to Scotland; +neither does it seem to be known where O'Reilly got his information about +it. + +When Petrie spoke of the improbability of the Irish allowing such a +venerated monument as the Lia Fail to be taken out of Ireland, he should +have remembered that at the time when it is said to have been taken, in +the beginning of the sixth century, Christianity had become established in +Ireland. Paganism or Druidism may have survived among a few, but it had +got its death-blow. Pagan monuments of every kind had begun to be +disregarded. The Lia Fail was essentially a Pagan monument, and +consequently an abhorrence to Christians. The fathers, or at least the +grandfathers, of the men who allowed Fergus to take it to Scotland, would +probably have shed the last drop of their blood to keep it in Ireland. The +disrepute into which everything connected with Paganism had fallen after +the introduction of Christianity is plainly set forth in the "Book of +Leinster" in the very page from which the Gaelic extract about the Lia +Fail has been given:--"It happened that Christ was born not long after; it +was that which broke the power of the idols."[3] The Lia Fail was an idol +that had lost its power and prestige, so that the people would not be +likely to have any objection to its being removed to Scotland or anywhere +else. + +But there are still other even stronger objections for accepting Petrie's +theory that the Lia Fail is still in Tara. The pillar stone that is there +is not a _lia_, and never would have been called such by the ancient +Irish. _Lia_ means a stone of any kind in its general sense; but the +pillar stone in Tara would not be called a _lia_, but a _coirthe_. _Lia_ +is always applied to a flag-stone, both in ancient and modern Gaelic. The +stone under the coronation chair in Westminster is a real _lia_ or +flag-stone; the one in Tara is a _coirthe_, or pillar stone, for, judging +from its height above the ground, it cannot be much less than eight feet +in length; it is very nearly round, and was evidently fashioned into its +present shape by man. If the stone in Tara is the real Lia Fail, how did +it come to lose its original name and be know even still by an Irish name +that connects it with Fergus, the person by whom the real Lia Fail is +popularly believed to have been brought to Scotland? This loss of an +original name, and its substitution by a new one, could hardly have +occurred in the case of such a famous monument as the Lia Fail. If the +superstitious reverence with which it had been regarded before the +introduction of Christianity had vanished, its original name would have +remained. There are many place names in Ireland that have not changed +during twenty centuries, and it is almost impossible to conceive how the +name of the most venerated monument in all Ireland could have changed had +the monument itself remained in the country. Another strong objection +against the pillar stone in Tara being the real Lia Fail is its shape. The +real Lia Fail was intended to be stood upon by the chief king at his +inauguration; but the most flat-footed monarch that ever ruled Ireland +would have considerable difficulty in standing steadily on the _coirthe_ +in Tara, even if it were prostrate, for it is round and not flat. +Standing steadily on it would be nearly as difficult a performance as +"rolling off a log" would be an easy one. + +Taking everything into consideration, there seem to be very strong reasons +to believe that the Lia Fail was taken from Tara to Scotland at the time +it is popularly believed to have been taken--namely, about the year 503 of +the Christian era; that it was taken in order to have Fergus Mac Earc +inaugurated on it as king over that part of Scotland which he had brought +under his domination; that it was taken from Scone to Westminster by +Edward the First in the year 1296, and that it is now under the coronation +chair in Westminster Abbey. It seems strange how a man of Doctor Petrie's +archaeological knowledge could have been led to believe that the pillar +stone still in Tara, for whatever use it may have been originally +intended, was the real Lia Fail, or Stone of Destiny. + +It would be most instructive and interesting if a scientific examination +was made of the stone under the coronation chair. If it was proved to be a +meteoric stone, its fame and the reverence with which it was so long +regarded could be easily understood. If an ancient tribe saw a stone +falling from heaven among them, they would regard such a thing as a +miracle, and think that the stone was sent to them for some special +purpose. They would, if possible, take it with them wherever they went. If +the Lia Fail was proved to be a meteoric stone, the esteem and honour in +which it was so long held, and the power which it was believed to possess, +would be easily accounted for. + +The history of Tara is, to a great extent, the history of ancient Ireland +of pre-Christian times. It was more of a political centre than London or +Paris is at present. The event that above all others left a permanent mark +as well as a blot on Irish history may be said to have had its origin in +Tara. The horrible Leinster Tribute and Tara are closely connected. + +In the first century of the Christian era, an over-king called Tuathal, +from whom the common Irish surname O'Tool, or Tool, seems to have +originated, reigned in Tara. He had two daughters, famed for their beauty. +We are told in the "Book of Leinster" that they were "fairer than the +clouds of heaven." Their names were Fihir and Darine. A king of Leinster +named Eochy married Fihir, the elder of the two sisters. He got tired of +her after a short time, went to Tara, told Tuathal that Fihir was dead, +and that he wanted to marry her sister Darine. Tuathal consented, and +Eochy took his new wife home to his _dun_, which was in the western part +of the present county of Wicklow. Darine had been only a short time in her +new home when she met her sister Fihir, who she had been told was dead. +Darine was so overwhelmed by shame that she died, and Fihir was so shocked +at the death of her sister that she died of grief. So Tuathal's two +beautiful daughters were dead, and were buried in the same grave. When +Tuathal heard of their deaths he summoned his vassals, the kings of Ulster +and Connacht; his army and theirs invaded Leinster, defeated and killed +its king, ravaged it, and imposed the celebrated Tribute on the +unfortunate province--namely, fifteen thousand cows, fifteen thousand +sheep, fifteen thousand pigs, fifteen thousand silver chains, fifteen +thousand bronze or copper pots, and fifteen thousand linnen (?) cloaks, +together with one great cauldron into which, _Hibernice_, "twelve beeves +and twelve pigs 'would go,' in the house of Tara itself." This was, +indeed, a prodigious pot that could boil four-and-twenty quadrupeds of the +sort, for Ireland was always famous for its large pigs and beeves. Such a +cauldron having been used, shows that however poorly the inhabitants of +other parts of Ireland may have fared in ancient times, the people of +Tara lived well. When it is remembered that ancient Leinster was little +more than half the size of the modern province, such a tribute appears +enormous. Ancient Leinster, or, to speak more correctly, the Leinster of +the time of Tuathal, went no further north than a line running from Dublin +to Athlone. The counties of Meath, Westmeath, Longford, and Louth belonged +to the province of Meath that had been carved out of parts of the four old +provinces by Tuathal himself. The Tribute was to be paid every year, but +it was not, for, as the Leinstermen's own great Chronicle says, "It never +was paid without a fight"; and sometimes when they succeeded, as they very +often did, in licking the combined armies of all the other provinces, it +used not to be paid for many years. It was, however, paid on and off for +over five hundred years, and to forty over-kings. It was remitted in the +seventh century; but many attempts were subsequently made to re-impose it +on the unfortunate Leinstermen, who paid more dearly for the treacherous +act of one of their kings than any other province or nation mentioned in +history. One of their poets has said in a yet untranslated poem in the +"Book of Leinster": + + "It is beyond the testimony of the Creator, + It is beyond the word of supplicating Christ, + All the kings of the Irish + That make attacks on Leinstermen!"[4] + +It is not to be wondered at that the Leinster Tribute totally +denationalised the province on which it was levied, and made its harried +inhabitants side with the Danes and with the Anglo-Normans against their +own countrymen. But what is most astonishing about the Tribute is its +enormousness. That part of Leinster which was the ancient province could +hardly pay such a tax to-day. This matter seems to show that ancient +Ireland, in spite of a state of almost continual intestine warfare, was +far richer and more populous than is generally supposed. + +The most horrible act recorded in Irish history was committed at +Tara--that is, the slaughter of 3030 women by the Leinstermen in the year +241. Here is what the Four Masters say of it under that year:--"The +massacre of the girls at Cloonfearta at Tara, by Dunlang, King of +Leinster. Thirty royal girls was the number, and a hundred maids with +each of them. Twelve princes of the Leinstermen did Cormac put to death in +revenge of that massacre, together with the exaction of the Borumha +(Tribute) with an increase after Tuathal." The Cormac here spoken of was +the celebrated Cormac Mac Airt, one of the best over-kings that ever ruled +ancient Ireland. This horrible massacre of maidens in Tara is so often +mentioned in ancient Irish history and annals, and the same number of +victims so invariably given, that there cannot be any doubt whatever about +its having occurred. But particulars about it seem wanting. There was +probably some pagan festival to be celebrated in Tara, at which the +children of the upper classes only attended. The ladies may have arrived +from the different parts of the country before the men, and when the +harried Leinstermen made a raid on Tara, they found it unguarded save by +women, and killed them and burned Tara to the ground at the same time; or +it may have been that the women tried to help the few men that happened to +be there in protecting the place, and Dunlang made an indiscriminate +massacre of every one he found in it. This horrible act was caused by the +imposition of the Leinster Tribute. It is to be presumed that there were +no Leinster girls among those who were slaughtered. + +Those interested in Irish history, or in ancient history in general, +should read the tract called the _Borumha_, or Tribute, in the "Book of +Leinster." Translations of it have been recently made in the _Revue +Celtique_ and in _Silva Gadelica_. There is not in any ancient or mediaeval +literature anything to excel it in general interest. It is an historic gem +that has been forgotten or overlooked for centuries. The indifference +which the educated classes of the Irish people have heretofore shown about +the ancient literature of their country was one of the most shocking, +sickening symptoms of national degradation ever shown by any civilised +people. They are latterly beginning to take more interest in it; but it is +greatly to be feared that they have been induced to turn their attention +to it more by the example shown them by foreigners than by any change of +opinion originating among themselves. Much as O'Donovan, O'Curry, and +Stokes have done to call the attention of the cultured classes of the +Irish people to the study of Celtic literature, it is doubtful if they +would have succeeded if the scholars of Continental Europe had not taken +an interest in it. The _renaissance_ of Celtic studies which seems to +have taken place owes a large part of its origin to the Germans and the +French. + +Many valuable gold ornaments of antique and beautiful design and +workmanship have been found in Tara and its immediate vicinity, but very +few of them have found their way to the Kildare Street Museum in Dublin, +one of the greatest, if not the very greatest, collection of ancient +weapons, implements, and ornaments to be seen in Europe. Most of the gold +ornaments found in Tara have been melted down. If one is to believe what +the peasantry living in its vicinity say, the quantity of gold ornaments +found there was very great. The famous Tara Brooch, preserved in the +Dublin Museum, and considered the most beautiful piece of metallurgy, +either ancient or modern, that is known to exist, was not found in Tara, +but on the seashore about three miles from Drogheda, and nine or ten from +this famous hill. It was found by an old woman, who is said to have sold +it to a shopkeeper in Drogheda for ninepence. The Royal Irish Academy paid +L500 for it. Many think that a regular, scientific exploration of Tara +Hill ought to be made, such an exploration as Schlieman made of the site +of Troy. If this were done under government surveillance, or by some +responsible and skilled antiquarian, there is hardly a doubt but that many +and precious ornaments in gold, and implements and weapons in bronze, +would be found, especially the latter, for there seems every reason to +believe that Tara was the seat of government long before iron was known, +and long before the bronze age came to an end. It would, however, be a +tremendous task to uproot several hundred acres merely on speculation. But +the quantity of antique gold ornaments that has been found in Ireland was +immense, more, it is thought by some, than has been found in all the rest +of Europe. They are being found almost every year. Nearly L300 worth of +golden fibulae was found in the County Waterford in 1894. They are now to +be seen in the Dublin Museum. + +[Illustration: TARA BROOCH.] + +The many things that are told about Tara in old Gaelic books would fill a +large volume. They are all interesting. They may be incredible, grotesque, +or funny, but they are never common-place: it is this uniqueness that is +the great charm of ancient Irish literature. What could be more unique +than this account of the burial of Laoghaire, the chief king who was +cotemporary with St Patrick, but of whom the Saint never succeeded in +making even a half decent Christian. It is taken from the book of the Dun +Cow. When Laoghaire was killed by "the elements," by lightning probably, +"his body was taken from the south and was buried with his warrior weapons +in the outward(?) south-eastern rampart of the Kingly Rath Laoghaire in +Tara, and its face to the south against the Leinstermen [as if] fighting +with them, for he had been an enemy of the Leinstermen when alive." The +idea of facing his enemies with his dead body, for Laoghaire must have +given orders as to how and where he should be buried, could only have +entered into the brains of ancient Irish kings, for they were grotesque or +original in almost everything. + +It is strange how long political memories last. The enmity between +Leinster and Meath has not even yet quite died out. Meath, as the seat of +the over-kings, represented Ireland, and was also the place from which the +hateful Leinster Tribute originated. This is not yet forgotten, for +whenever wrestling matches, or athletic sports of any kind, are held near +Dublin by the people of adjoining counties, the counties of Dublin, +Kildare, and Wicklow are always pitted against Meath. Dubhthach Mac U +Lugair, one of the first converts St Patrick made in Ireland, tells us, in +a poem of his in praise of his native province of Leinster, that its war +cry was "The magnification of Leinster, the destruction of Meath." +Dubhthach may have been a good Christian, but there are good grounds for +thinking that he was a better Leinsterman; for he says in the same poem +that-- + + "Except the host of Heaven round the Creator + There never was a host like Leinstermen round Crimhthan." + +Crimhthan was a king of Leinster, who is said to have had a stronghold in +Howth, where the Bailey Lighthouse now stands. + +Although few traces of cultivation are to be seen on the Hill of Tara, +there can be no doubt that it has been very much defaced and uprooted. +The great _rath_ of King Laoghaire, who was cotemporary with St Patrick, +has almost entirely disappeared. Its earthen rampart must have been of a +good height, when it served as a sepulchre for Laoghaire with his body in +an erect position, with its face turned southward, against the +Leinstermen. Laoghaire was never a Christian; or if he was such at one +time, there seems strong reason to think that he relapsed into paganism +towards the end of his career. At all events it is evident that he was not +a favourite of St Patrick's or of the early Irish Christians, and it is +quite likely that when Tara was abandoned, his _rath_ was uprooted, and +his body, or what remained of it, consigned to some unmarked grave. But +from whatever cause, this _rath_ has certainly been almost entirely +obliterated. It must have been considerably over two acres in area, if one +can judge by the small segment of it that can still be traced. + +The following story is told in the life of St Patrick in the Leabhar +Breac. Mr. Whitley Stokes says in his translation of the lives of the +Saints from the "Book of Lismore," that it so disgusted Thomas Carlyle +that it caused him to give up the study of Irish history: + +"Then three of Ui Meith Mendait Tire (a tribe that were located in the +vicinity of Tara) stole and ate one of the two goats that used to carry +water for Patrick, and came to swear a lie. Whereupon the goat bleated +from the stomachs of the three. 'By my good judge,' said Patrick, 'the +goat himself hides not the place where he is.'" It is hardly to be +wondered at that a story like this, that would make any right-minded man +laugh, only disgusted a hypochondriacal crank like Carlyle. + +The last chief king who lived in Tara was Dermot MacCarroll, who died in +the year 565. He was evidently only half a Christian, for it has been +fully proved that Druidism lingered in Ireland for many years after the +death of St Patrick. Dermot got into a dispute with the clergy because +they sheltered a man who had done something that displeased him. The end +of the dispute was that St. Ruadhan, one of the prominent ecclesiastics of +the time, cursed Tara, and it was forever abandoned as the seat of +royalty. It is almost certain that the real cause of the cursing of Tara +by the clergy was that druidical or pagan rites continued to be practised +in it after the bulk of the people had become Christians; for it had been +for untold centuries the seat of paganism as well as of royalty. It has to +be admitted, however, that great a benefit to the true faith as the +abandonment of Tara as a political centre undoubtedly was, it was +disastrous to the authority of the chief kings, for they appear to have +lost much of their authority over the provincial rulers when they +abandoned Tara and made their abodes in various places in Meath, +Westmeath, and Donegal. + +The vast antiquity given to Tara cannot be reasonably considered as the +mere invention of Irish bards or chroniclers. It is inconceivable that +they would invent the names of forty or fifty kings, most of whom ruled +there over a thousand years before the Christian era. The Irish annalists +who wrote about the very remote historical events of Irish history lived +and wrote long before Ireland came under English domination. They would +have no object in inventing historic falsehoods. The Tuatha de Daanans and +Firbolgs, who possessed the country before the Milesians, had vanished +more than a thousand years before the most ancient annals we possess were +written. What object could men who claimed to be Milesians have in +inventing historic falsehoods about races who possessed the country before +them? Besides, the general correctness of Irish annalists in recording +purely historic events is now admitted by all those capable of forming an +opinion. The men who wrote the oldest chronicles that we possess of +events in the very far-back past of their country, evidently wrote what +had been handed down to them, either in writing or by tradition. They +would have had no object in becoming fabricators. + +So far, then, Tara with its glamour of greatness and antiquity, its +uprootedness, its ruin, and its utter desolation. + + + + +LOCH REE + + +Of all the great lakes of Ireland there is none so little known to +tourists or the public in general as Loch Ree. It is the fourth in size, +Loch Neagh, Loch Erne, and Loch Corrib being the only Irish lakes of +greater extent, but none of them exceeds Loch Ree in beauty. Loch Erne is +a noble sheet of water, and is adorned with many beautiful islands, but +owing to its peculiar shape, one cannot take in all its charms from any +point on its shores; but there are dozens of places on the banks of Loch +Ree from which all its great expanse of water, and most of the charming +features of the country that surrounds it, can be taken in at a single +glance. If the shores of Loch Ree were mountainous it would be one of the +most beautiful lakes, not only in Ireland, but in the world. It is strange +that it is not more generally known, and it lying almost in the +geographical centre of Ireland, and surrounded by some of the richest land +and most beautiful _paysage_ scenery to be found anywhere. People rush to +Killarney, Connemara, Achill and many other places, and almost totally +neglect this noble expanse of the king of Irish rivers, the Shannon. It is +the unfortunate commercial state of Ireland that has caused the scenery of +the Shannon to be so little known. If there were dozens of thriving and +populous towns on its banks, as there would be if it flowed through any +other country than Ireland, large and commodious steamers would be plying +on its waters, and the beauties of Loch Ree and Loch Dearg would be as +well known as those of Windermere or Killarney. Nothing can more plainly +show how fast Ireland is retrograding from even the very mediocre trade +she enjoyed half a century ago than the fact that the passenger +steam-boats that used to ply almost daily in the summer season between +Carrick-on-Shannon or Lanesboro' and Killaloe have long ceased to run, and +are now rotting somewhere on the Lower Shannon. The decline in the +population, and the consequent decline in trade, became so great that it +was found that the money taken did not pay more than seventy per cent. of +even the working expenses of those steamers, and they had to stop running. +The writer travelled in one of them more than thirty years ago between +Athlone and Killaloe. They were large side-wheel steamers that would +carry over one hundred passengers, and on which excellent meals could be +obtained at a moderate price. There is probably not in Europe a more +generally interesting river than that from Athlone to Killaloe, but it is +now practically closed, not only to tourists, but to the public in +general, for a passenger steamer has not traversed the Upper Shannon for +well-nigh thirty years. It is no wonder, then, that the glories of Loch +Ree, with its almost countless islands, and the glories of Loch Dearg, +with its mountain-girded shores, are now nearly as unknown to tourists and +to the Irish public in general as are the reaches of the Congo or the +Niger. It is simply heartrending to think that decline of population and +general decay have made the mighty waters of the Shannon, that runs almost +from one end of Ireland to the other, an almost lifeless stream, for the +few little row-boats and sailing smacks one sees on it would not, all +told, hold more people than the life-boats of a single Atlantic steamer. +Bad as things are, they seem to be getting worse, for there is hardly a +single town or city on the Shannon that is not declining in trade and +population. At the rate things are going on, a turf boat will soon be the +only sort of craft to be seen on the waters of Ireland's greatest river! +It is, however, cheering to be able to state that there is good reason to +believe that steps are being taken to re-establish a line of passenger +steam-boats on the Upper Shannon. + +The tyranny and folly of man may mar towns and turn fields into +wildernesses, but they cannot mar nature. If no steam-boats plough the +waters of Loch Ree, and if men have given place to cattle and sheep on its +banks, it is still as beautiful as ever. Its sinuous shores are still as +fair to the eye as they were fifty years ago, when a teeming population +lived on them, and when twenty thousand people might be seen at the annual +regatta that used to be held every autumn on its waters. Nothing less than +an earthquake could destroy the beauty of Loch Ree. It has every element +of scenic beauty save mountains, but such are its general beauties that +mountains are hardly missed. Loch Dearg is almost surrounded by mountains, +but it is not nearly so fair to look upon as Loch Ree. The former lake is +almost entirely islandless, but Loch Ree is studded with them. In +traversing its entire length, from Lanesboro' to Athlone, a distance of +twenty miles, islands are ever in view. Hare Island is the most beautiful +island in the lake; seen from the waters or from the mainland it seems a +mass of leaves. The trees grow on it so thickly that they dip their +branches into the water almost all round it. Lord Castlemaine has a +charming rustic cottage on Hare Island, and the pleasure grounds attached +to it are laid out with very great taste and skill. It is one of the most +beautiful sylvan island retreats in Europe. Hare Island contains nearly a +hundred acres. Inchmore is still larger, but not so well wooded. Then +there are Inchbofin, Inis Cloran, Inchturk, Saints' Island, Hag's Island, +Carberry Island, and many others, the names of which would be tedious to +mention. The islands of Loch Ree are of almost all sizes, from a hundred +acres to a square perch. Except in the vast St Lawrence alone, with its +famed thousand islands, there are few river expansions in the world that +contain so many islands as Loch Ree. Its shores are fully as beautiful as +its islands. It would be hard to conceive anything in the way of shore +scenery more beautiful than the shores of Loch Ree for eight or ten miles +on the Leinster side of the lake between the mouth of the river Inny and +Athlone. The shores are so irregular and cut up into so many promontories +and headlands that, to follow the water's edge from Athlone to where the +Inny enters the Shannon, a distance of not more than ten miles as the crow +flies, would involve a journey of over fifty. Every headland is +tree-crowned, and every promontory rock-girded. Very little of the shores +of this beautiful lake are swampy; they are generally as rocky as those of +a Highland tarn, with deep, blue water ever fretting rock and stone into +thousands of fantastic shapes. So rocky are most parts of the shores of +Loch Ree, that those aesthetic persons living near it who wish to form +rock-works in their pleasure grounds find abundance of water-worn stones +on the shores of Loch Ree to make rock-work of any shape required. + +The shores of Loch Ree, particularly the Leinster shore, are more adorned +with gentlemen's seats than the shores of perhaps any other lake in +Ireland. From Athlone to nearly the head of the lake there is a succession +of gentlemen's seats. Many of them are kept with great care and taste, and +are in themselves well worth a visit. The house in which Goldsmith spent +his early youth is about two miles from Loch Ree, and about two-and-a-half +from the village of Glassan. The house is a ruin, but a well-preserved +one. When it was built seems unknown, but from what can be gathered from +the old men living in its vicinity, it seems to have been built about the +year 1700. The walls are still intact. It was two storeys high, and must +have contained seven or eight apartments. The name Auburn is still +applied to the townland on which the house stands; but the name seems to +have originated with Goldsmith himself, for the place does not appear to +have been so called before his time. Lissoy is its Irish name, but Auburn +does not seem to be an Irish name at all. The "Jolly Pigeons" public-house +still exists. It is about a mile from Auburn. There never was a village +called Auburn in the locality. The nearest place to Goldsmith's house that +could be called a village is Glassan. + +Loch Ree is not void of considerable historic interest. There are many +noble ruins on its shores; among them Randown Castle is the most +remarkable. It was one of the earliest Norman-French keeps erected in +Ireland. It is situated on a bold promontory jutting into the lake on the +Connacht side, about ten or twelve miles north of Athlone. It is now +generally called St John's Castle. At _Blein Potog_, or Pudding Bay, took +place in the year 999 one of the most important events in Irish +history--namely, the surrender of the sovereignty of Ireland to Brian +Boramha by Malachy the Second. The Munster king came up the Shannon with a +large army in a flotilla of boats, and Malachy met him there and +surrendered to him. Many think that it was, in a political point of view, +one of the most disastrous events of Irish history, for the usurpation of +the chief sovereignty by Brian caused such weakness and confusion after +his death, that each provincial ruler wanted to be chief king, and created +such wars and political chaos that no chief king that succeeded possessed +complete sway over the country, the so-called chief kings that succeeded +being kings only in name. For a full account of the treaty of Blein Potog, +the reader is referred to the "Wars of the Gaels and the Galls," +translated by the late Rev. Dr Todd. The site of the treaty is some ten +miles north of Athlone, on the Leinster shore of Loch Ree. + +Athlone is one of the most picturesque and interesting inland towns in +Ireland. Its situation is simply superb,--in the almost exact geographical +centre of Ireland, at the foot of one of the most beautiful of lakes, and +on the banks of a noble river, deep and wide enough to carry ships on its +waters. + +Athlone is one of the few towns--perhaps the only one--on the Shannon that +is not decaying at present. For many years after the famine it decayed +rapidly, but some thirty years ago a woollen factory was established; now +there are two woollen factories and a saw-mill that give employment to +some hundreds of hands, consequently Athlone has been saved from decay. +But comparatively prosperous as it is, it is not one-fourth as prosperous +as it ought to be considering its splendid situation and the fertility and +beauty of the country that surrounds it. It has recently become a great +railway centre; one can go by rail from Athlone to almost any part of +Ireland. But all the railways and all the fertility of all the world +cannot bring real prosperity to any country in which the population is +declining. The decline of the population in Athlone itself and in the +country surrounding it has, during the last fifty years, been something +frightful, and can only be fully realised by those who remember what it +was in former times. A market day in Athlone now is very different from a +market day there half a century ago. The writer recollects having been at +a market in Athlone when a small boy, about the year 1841 or '42, and saw +more people there in one market than could be seen in twenty markets there +now. The town was too small to contain much more than half of them; they +flowed out into the fields surrounding it. The crowds in the streets were +so dense that it would take hours to jostle one's way from one end of the +town to the other, and, what will hardly be credited by those whose +memories do not go back fifty years, there were certainly three persons +speaking Irish for one who spoke English. One might attend markets in +Athlone now every week in the year and not hear a word of any language but +English. Irish has completely died out of the country surrounding Athlone, +save in the south-western corner of the county Roscommon, where some old +people still speak it. There is something inexpressibly sad in the fading +away of any form of National speech, but, above all, in the fading away of +a tongue so old and once so cultivated as Irish. It seems to forebode not +only the death of all real National aspirations, but the death of heart +and soul. It seems to show that Philistinism is rapidly driving away +sentiment from the Irish people. But the life of the Irish peasant has +been so long such a battle for mere existence that it is no wonder that he +came to look with contempt on everything that did not administer to his +mere animal wants. He is rapidly improving since he has had a barrier put +between him and the generally cruel treatment he was wont to receive from +his landlord. None but those who remember what his position was fifty +years ago, and who see what it is now, can fully understand all the +advance he has made. In spite of the awful decline of population in the +rural districts of Ireland during the last fifty years, there is much to +be seen in them to gladden the heart of the philanthropist. Small farmers' +cottages, that would formerly be a disgrace to a Zulu or an Esquimaux, are +now not only generally clean, but sometimes beautiful. Flowers in pots in +the windows and evergreens creeping up the walls of a peasant's cottage +would have caused him to be laughed at by his neighbours fifty years ago, +but now they cause him to be respected instead of being laughed at. He +will become again what he once was, one of the most soulful and +un-Philistine of beings; it is probable he will become such when better +laws and freer institutions shall have raised him from the slough of +poverty and despondency in which he has been steeping for centuries. + +Tourists and the travelling public in general will find good accommodation +at the Prince of Wales Hotel in Athlone, in which town boats can be hired +by those going either up or down the Shannon. + + + + +"EMANIA THE GOLDEN" + + +Two miles west of the city of Armagh lies an earthen fort known as the +"Navan Ring." This is all that remains of the renowned palace of the Pagan +Kings of Ulster, the real name of which was Emain Macha, which has been +Latinised Emania, and corrupted into Navan. + +After Tara, Emania is the most historic spot of Irish soil. No other place +in all Ireland, Tara only excepted, is so often mentioned in the historic +and romantic tales that have been preserved in such abundance in ancient +Gaelic. Emania is the great centre of that wondrous cycle of legend, +history, and song known as the Cuchullainn cycle of Celtic literature. +Every tale and legend in it refer more or less to Emania. It is curious +that while hardly any of the treasures of ancient Irish manuscript +literature we possess were compiled in Ulster, there is hardly a page of +them, no matter in what province they were originally composed, that does +not mention this now almost obliterated stronghold of the Ulster kings. +The "Book of Leinster" was compiled in Kildare or in Glendoloch, and for +nearly a thousand years, or from the imposition of the Leinster Tribute +early in the second century down to the time of Brian Boramha, Leinster +and Ulster were inveterate enemies, yet the "Book of Leinster" teems with +mention of Emania. Even in the great manuscript books compiled in Connacht +and Munster, the name of Emania occurs next in frequency to that of Tara. + +So far as can be gathered from the most authentic sources, the palace of +Emain Macha, or Emania, was erected by the over-king Cimboath, about five +hundred years before the Incarnation. It continued to be the seat of the +Ulster kings down to A.D. 331, when it was destroyed by the three Collas, +chieftains of the race of the over-kings of Ireland from a hostile +province, that made war on Ulster. The destruction of Emania is recorded +by the Four Masters under the year 331, when Fergus, King of Ulster, was +defeated and slain by the three Collas. Emania was burned, and the ancient +dynasty that had so long ruled the province of Ulster was destroyed. +Emania may be said to have been a desolation since then; for though we are +told that one of the O'Neill's built a house within the ruins of the fort +in 1387, no vestige of it now remains, and it is not probable that it was +long in existence. + +None of the ancient palaces or great _duns_ of ancient Ireland shows such +utter desolation, or bears evidence of having been so uprooted as does +Emania. The great fosse by which it was once surrounded is entirely +obliterated save on the west side, where it is nearly twenty feet in +depth. Much as Tara has been obliterated, its monuments are more easily +traced than are those of Emania. The county Meath seems to have been a +grazing country almost from time immemorial. This saved Tara from being +entirely uprooted; but the country round this ancient seat of the Ulster +kings is essentially agricultural; it is mostly in the possession of small +farmers owning from ten to twenty acres; consequently they have levelled +most of the great circular embankments that formerly enclosed an area of +nearly a dozen acres, and have filled up most of the deep fosse which, if +we can judge by the small part of it that still remains, must have been, +when Emania was in its glory, between twenty and thirty feet deep. So +potatoes are growing and corn is waving over a large extent of the inside +of the fortress, where vast wooden buildings once stood, and where mirth +and revelry and clash of arms once resounded. + +Mons. Darbois de Jubainville, the eminent French archaeologist and Celtic +scholar, made an exhaustive examination of Emania some years ago. He +found that the area within the original enclosure was four and a half +hectares, or between eleven and twelve English acres in extent, and that +the space enclosed was nearly circular. Like Tara, the buildings in Emania +must have been almost entirely of wood. Some of them may, like many of the +wooden houses in America, have been built on stone foundations, and there +are some traces of stone-work still to be seen. There is a magnificent +passage in the Feilere of Oengus the Culdee, written about A.D. 800, in +which the greatness and glory of the Christian cities of Ireland are +contrasted with the state of utter desolation into which the strongholds +of the Pagan kings had fallen. Speaking of Emania he says-- + + "Emain's burgh hath vanished + Save that its stones remain; + The Rome of the western world + Is multitudinous Glendaloch." + +There is no doubt that the ruins of Emania were in a much better state of +preservation when Oengus wrote, nearly eleven hundred years ago, than they +are in at present, and it is certain that many of its stones have been +carried away to build walls and houses. But it is also quite certain that +neither in Ireland, Great Britain, or in any northern country, were stone +buildings general in ancient times, and we may be sure that when Emania +was at the height of its splendour its best and largest buildings were of +wood. + +The area of eleven or twelve acres that was once surrounded by a deep +fosse and high embankment, and within which all the buildings of Emania +were erected, is not quite circular, nor is its surface level. +Considerable inequality of surface evidently existed in it before it was +chosen for the site of palace or _dun_. The highest part within the +enclosure is a good deal removed from its centre, and it was evidently on +it that the citadel stood. There was a dun within a dun, as there +generally was in all ancient Irish fortresses of any great extent. The +citadel having been on the highest ground within the enclosure, commanded +a view of the surrounding country for a considerable distance. Emania, +when at its best, with its vast surrounding fosse and high earthen +rampart, capped with a strong fence of wood, might, if properly +provisioned and manned, defy almost any army that could be brought against +it in ancient times when firearms were unknown. + +It is for the antiquarian rather than for the seeker of the picturesque +that Emania will ever have the most attraction. There is nothing very +striking from a scenic point of view in its environs. Its present +shockingly uprooted condition, and the almost total lack of interest the +peasantry living in its immediate vicinity take in it, have a depressing +effect on anyone interested in Irish literature, history, or antiquities. +During the writer's last visit to this historic spot he met a small farmer +whose potatoes were planted over part of the obliterated fosse and rampart +of this famous stronghold of Ulster. He had never heard of King Connor +MacNessa, of Connall Carnach, of Cuchullainn, or of the Red Branch +Knights. He knew no more about them than about the heroes of ancient +China. He said that he "ever an' always hard that the Navan Ring was built +by the Danes." This man had been born and bred in the locality, but he +took no more interest in the historic spot that had given him birth than +if he were a Hottentot instead of an Irishman. Anglicisation has indeed +been carried to an extreme pitch in most parts of Ireland, and is rapidly +turning the Irish peasant into the most generally uninteresting, prosy, +and least _spirituel_ of mortals. As a rule, the more Anglicised he +becomes the more intolerable he is. If the peasantry living round Emania +had preserved their native language, while at the same time knowing +English, if they were bilingual, like millions of their class in different +European countries, many things connected with the history of this +celebrated place would be known to them; but having lost the link that +bound them to the past, they are like a new race in a new country. It is +well known that the masses of the Greek peasantry, notwithstanding that a +large percentage of them are illiterate, know more about the history and +traditions of their country than any Irishman, save a specialist, knows +about the history and traditions of Ireland. In very few European +countries will such a knowledge of its past be found among the masses as +in Greece, and principally because the Greeks have preserved their +language. + +Although Tara is more ancient and more historic than Emania, the latter +place is connected with the most pathetic, the most dramatic, and most +generally beautiful tale in all the vast mass of ancient Gaelic +literature--"The Fate of the Children of Uisneach." It was in Emania that +their betrayer and murderer, Connor, King of Ulster, lived; it was there +that they themselves were killed, and it was there that Deirdre died. The +tale appeared almost a century ago in a book brought out by a Gaelic +Society that then existed in Dublin. The Irish text was given, with a +translation by Theopholus O'Flanagan. It was thought by some that he had +no ancient copy of the tale, and that he might have embellished it, for he +did not say from what manuscript he had taken it. The story, as given in +the "Book of Leinster," while agreeing in the main with O'Flanagan's +version, is not nearly of such literary value as his, and is not more than +one quarter the length. But all doubts as to the existence of an ancient +version of the story given by O'Flanagan have been removed, for an ancient +copy of it, supposed to be of the fourteenth century, was found some years +ago in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh, and has been edited and +translated by Mr. Whitley Stokes. It may be seen in Windische's _Irische +Texte_. It agrees almost exactly with the version given by O'Flanagan. It +would be hard to give a clearer proof of the utter neglect with which +Celtic literature has heretofore been treated, than by a statement of the +fact that there are not probably a hundred persons living, at least of the +literary class, who have read this wondrously beautiful tale of the +Children of Uisneach. For pathos, dramatic power, and pure poetry it would +be hard to get anything in the way of romance superior to it. If such a +literary gem existed in the literature of any European language but Irish, +if such existed even in Arabic or Persian, it would be known to literary +people almost all over the world. But how can people of other nations be +blamed for their ignorance of Gaelic literature when the Irish themselves +are more indifferent about it than the Germans or the French? A text and +translation of the "Fate of the Children of Uisneach" is sorely +wanted--not merely as a text for scholars, but for the people at large. +When such appears it will make a visit to Emania infinitely more +interesting; for, after reading such a pathetic tale, he would indeed be +hard-hearted and unsympathetic that would not, if he could find where she +was buried, shed a tear over the grave of Deirdre. The very fine poem by +the late Doctor Robert Dwyer Joyce, published in Boston, America, in 1877, +was the only attempt ever made to popularise the story of the Children of +Uisneach and the fate of the unfortunate but true and noble Deirdre. + +The country in the vicinity of Emania, while containing no striking +objects of scenic interest, is, at the same time, picturesque and +beautiful. Southern Ulster, even where it is not mountainous, is usually +most varied and interesting in its general features. It is essentially a +land of hills and valleys; but the hills are never so high that they +cannot be cultivated, and the best land is sometimes found on their very +tops. The country round Emania is extremely broken, hill and valley are on +every side. It is generally, like most parts of Ulster, well cultivated. +There are many antiquarian curiosities in the neighbourhood of this +ancient fortress. Some of the most perfect Druid circles in Ireland are in +its vicinity. There is a very remarkable one about a mile from it which a +thrifty farmer has turned into a haggard. It encloses about quarter of an +acre of ground. The stones of which it is composed stand about four feet +over the surface, and must average nearly a ton each in weight. But +vandalism is strong in the vicinity, for it is only a short time since +another splendid Druid circle, nearly as large as the one mentioned, was +torn down, and its stones broken to mend roads withal. Thus are many of +the relics of ancient Erin disappearing before the march of +denationalisation. + +Those who live in the vicinity of Emania tell many stories about the +finding of treasure-trove close to and in this ancient fortress. According +to them, gold ornaments of great value were found by some persons many +years ago who suddenly became rich, much to the surprise of their +neighbours. Those ornaments were, of course, melted down, and like +hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of similar articles found in almost +every part of Ireland, never found their way to any museum, and are lost +to the country for ever. There can hardly be any doubt that some very +valuable articles in gold have been found near Emania. + +One of the most interesting instances of the long survival of a place name +is to be found adjacent to this celebrated spot. Most Irish persons have +heard of the Red Branch Knights. Moore has immortalised them in his +exquisite lyric, "Let Erin Remember the Days of Old." Few believe that +such an institution as the Red Branch Knights ever existed. It is +generally looked on as a bardic fable; but there is a townland close to +Emania which is still called Creeve Roe, in correct orthography, _Craobh +Ruadh_, which means Red Branch. The preservation of this place name for +nearly two thousand years cannot be regarded as an accident. It goes far +to prove that the Red Branch Knights did exist, and that the townland took +its name from them. This extraordinarily long survival of a place name, +the historic fame and antiquity of the locality, lend a supreme interest +to this ruined stronghold, which, centuries after its glories had +vanished, Gaelic bards used still to call "Emania the Golden." + +Ardmagh is so near Emania, only two miles from it, that one place could +hardly be described without saying something about the other. Its ancient +name was Ardmacha, meaning the height of Macha. This Macha was queen, or +at least ruler, of that part of the country in far-back pagan times. It +was also from her that Emain Macha, or Emania, was named. Ardmagh was +founded by St Patrick in the year 457. A man named Daire, chief of the +district, is said, in the "Annals of the Four Masters," to have given +Patrick the site on which the city is built. Patrick appointed twelve men +to build the town, and ordered them to erect an archbishop's city there, +and churches for the different religious orders. It seems strange that the +saint should have chosen Ardmagh for the site of the chief religious +establishment in Ireland. Emania had been ruined and desolated in the +previous century, but it is evident that it was the fame of the ancient +stronghold of Ulster that induced Patrick to choose its immediate vicinity +as a site for his new Christian city, because Emania had been for so many +centuries previous the political centre of the province, and, next to +Tara, the chief political centre of Ireland. Of the old ecclesiastical +buildings of Ardmagh, not a vestige remains. Some of its new ones are, +however, magnificent. The new Catholic cathedral is the finest building of +its kind in Ireland. It is hardly to be wondered at that none of the +ancient buildings of Ardmagh should remain, for of all towns in Ireland, +it was burned, plundered, and razed the oftenest. In the course of the two +centuries and a half ending in 1080, it was plundered and wholly or +partially burned _twelve times_ by the Danes. No other city in Ireland +seems to have suffered so much from the Northmen. Turgesius, the Danish +king, captured it and lived there for some years. The present city is one +of the most picturesque towns of its size in Ireland, but it is not +growing much. It once had a good linen trade, but since the introduction +of cotton fabrics, its linen trade has entirely ceased. + + + + +QUEEN MAB'S PALACE + + +Rathcroghan, about two miles from Tulsk, in the county Roscommon, is one +of the most celebrated places in Irish history, legend, and song. It was +there that Queen Mab, spelt Medb in old Irish, and Meave at present, had +her palace, and it was there she was buried. That she was a real historic +personage, and not a myth or a fairy, there can be no doubt at all, and +that she was a very extraordinary woman cannot be doubted either. She was +Queen of Connacht, and was cotemporary with Cleopatra; but if the Egyptian +queen is mentioned in history she is forgotten in legend, while Mab has +lived in legend for more than eighteen centuries. It is remarkable that +the myths and legends about her should have been more prevalent during the +sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in England than in Ireland. There are +few legends about her in Ireland; she is simply an historic personage +there, but in England she became a fairy. There is hardly a popular +English writer of the two centuries referred to that has not said +something about Queen Mab; and it is very probable that none of them knew +that she was a reality in Irish history. Shakespeare, Spenser, Drayton, +and other English writers contemporary with them, speak of her as a fairy, +and even Shelley considers her a sprite; but she is rarely, if ever, +mentioned as such by the Gaelic writers of any epoch. Why legends about +Queen Mab, or, as we call her at present, Meave, should be so rare in +Ireland is probably owing to the fact that she belongs to what is known as +the Cuchulainn cycle of Irish history and legend. That cycle is almost +forgotten by the people, and has been for many centuries. It has been +eclipsed by the greater popularity of the Finn cycle, which is some +centuries more recent. For the one legend existing in the most +Gaelic-speaking parts of Ireland and Scotland about Cuchulainn or his +cycle there are a score about Finn, Oisin, Caoilte, and others of their +contemporaries. It may have been that the introduction of Christianity had +much to do in stereotyping the legends of the Finn cycle in the memories +of the masses, for Finn is said to have lived so long that he saw St +Patrick, and held converse with him. One of the most remarkable literary +productions in Irish, the "Dialogue of the Sages," consists of converse +between the Saint and Finn, and others belonging to the same cycle. + +There could hardly be a stronger proof of the high civilisation that +existed in Ireland in ancient times as compared with that which existed in +England than the fact that the remembrance of Irish historic personages +continued widely spread in England in spite of so many changes, not only +in government, but in race and language. There is no traditional +remembrance in Ireland of any English historic personage contemporary with +Queen Meave, or of any such that lived for many centuries after her time. +That a knowledge of her and Lir, the Lear of Shakespeare, should have +existed among the ancient Britons is not to be wondered at, for they were +kin to the Irish, and must have spoken the same, or nearly the same, +language; but that this remembrance of Irish historic personages should +have continued to exist in England under Roman, Saxon, Dane, and +Frenchman, is very remarkable. If it was knowledge obtained through books +it would be less to be wondered at; it was knowledge transmitted by +legend, and like all legendary knowledge, it had a tendency to go astray. +The legends that existed in England about Meave and Lir did go astray, for +they made a little fairy of the one and a King of Britain of the other. +But Meave was not a little fairy, but a very fine woman of flesh and +blood; and Lir was not King of Britain, but an Irish pirate whose +principal stronghold appears to have been the Isle of Man. It is called +after him, for his full name was Mananan Mac Lir. It seems more than +probable that both Dunleer and Liverpool are also called after him, for +the latter place is written "Lyrpul" in the earliest known document in +which the name occurs, and it is Lyrpul still in Welsh. It is probable +that Lir had possessions in England as well as in Ireland and the Isle of +Man. + +Medb or Meave, Queen of Connacht, was daughter to Eochy Fayloch, over-king +of Ireland. She lived about half a century before the Christian era. +Keating says, in his "History of Ireland," that she reigned ninety-eight +years. This very long reign is doubted by some Irish historians, but it is +generally admitted by them that her reign, as well as her life, was +remarkably long. She had more husbands than even the woman of Samaria is +credited with. It was evidently her extraordinary long life and reign that +caused her to be ultimately believed to be something supernatural, and to +be regarded as a fairy. She was, however, no fairy, but a bold, bad, and +warlike woman. She, even more than Cuchulainn, is the central figure of +the greatest prose epic in the Irish language, the _Tain Bo Chuailgne_, or +Cattle Raid of Cooley. By lies and bribes she persuaded the other +provincial rulers to join her in a totally unjustifiable war on Ulster, so +that she was able to invade that province with a great army of fifty-four +thousand men. She carried off a great prey from Ulster, but not without +suffering some defeats and losing some of her bravest warriors. It is said +that Mr Ernest Windisch is engaged in translating this great epic into +German, but it seems not yet finished. Meave, like most of the prominent +people of her day, met with a violent death. She had many enemies, +especially in Ulster. One of them, a son to the king of that province, +killed her by a cast from a sling as she was about taking a cold water +bath in Iniscloran, an island in Loch Ree. She must have been considerably +over a hundred years old when she was killed, but she appears, even at +that great age, to have been the admiration of every one that saw her on +account of the great beauty of her face and figure. Perhaps it was her +cold water baths that were the chief means of preserving her youth and +good looks, for we are told in the "Book of Leinster" that she was under +_geis_, or bonds, not to let any morning pass by without taking a bath. +It is no wonder that such a person should have in the long run passed into +the realm of fairie, and have been thought something supernatural. It is, +however, a wonder that the Four Masters do not mention the name of Meave, +although they do mention the name of her father; but there are many +similar strange omissions in their annals. Meave is, however, mentioned in +the Annals of Clonmacnoise, in which many hard things are said of her. + +The fort, as it is generally called, of Rathcroghan, upon which Queen +Meave's palace must have stood, is unlike any other place of its kind +known to the writer. Strictly speaking, it is not a fort at all, and it is +impossible to conceive how it ever could have been used for purposes of +defence, or for any purpose other than to build some sort of habitation +on. It is nothing but a raised circular elevation, an English acre in +area, in a perfectly level field, without a vestige of the fosse or +rampart that usually surrounds the ruined strongholds of Celtic chiefs and +kings. Long ago as it is since Rathcroghan was the seat of kings or queens +of Connacht, some traces of the surrounding ramparts would almost +certainly be yet visible had they ever existed. Queen Meave seems to have +depended more on her soldiers to defend her than on ramparts of stone or +earth. She seems to have relied on "castles of bones" rather than on +castles of stones; for her palace, so far as can be judged from existing +remains, seems to have been without defending ramparts of any kind. There +are many references in old Gaelic manuscripts to the splendour of Queen +Meave's palace. It is said to have been built of pine and yew, and to have +contained beds enough to accommodate a small army. It was probably an +immense round wigwam that covered all or nearly all of the raised platform +that still remains. That platform is about eight or nine feet above the +level of the field on which it stands, and has two entrances into it, one +exactly opposite the other. If the vast circular wooden building that +stood on it was roofed, as it almost certainly was, the walls would have +to be fifty feet or more in height to give it anything of an imposing +appearance. It may have been that the entire raised platform was not +covered by the wooden structure, but the descriptions of its great size +given in old books would lead one to think that it was. + +Rathcroghan does not appear to have been a place of residence of any of +the rulers of Connacht since the time of the celebrated Queen Meave. If it +was, the writer has not been able to find trustworthy evidence of the +fact. It may, however, have been used as a place for assemblies in +comparatively recent times. _Relig na Riogh_, or the cemetery of kings, at +Rathcroghan, was one of the great burial places of the Pagan Irish Kings. +It is a circular enclosure, about half a mile from the platform on which +Queen Meave's palace stood. It bears all the marks of extreme antiquity, +and has suffered much from the ravages of time. It covers between two and +three acres, and at first sight appears nothing more than a piece of +ground of very broken surface, for the mounds that marked the graves of +kings and chiefs have become nearly obliterated. But it was here that many +of the kings and heroes of ancient Ireland were buried, and it is here +that the bones of Queen Meave rest, that is, if we are to believe the most +trustworthy records of Irish history. It is thought by some that she was +buried under the vast cairn of stones that crowns the summit of +Knocknarea, near Sligo, for it is called to this day _Moisgan Meabha_, +literally Meave's butter-dish; but by extension it probably means Meave's +heap or cairn. There is no historic evidence to prove that she was +interred under the cairn on Knocknarea, however it came to be called by +its present Irish name; and according to the late Sir Samuel Ferguson, her +name, or a name closely resembling it, has been found written in Ogam +characters on a stone in _Reilig na Riogh_. + +That there was such a person as Queen Meave there cannot be any doubt +whatever. History and legend never yet existed about a fabulous personage, +and Meave figures in both. Whatever impossible things may be related about +her in legend, history says nothing about her that cannot be easily +believed, her great age and length of reign excepted. It must, however, be +remembered that the ancient Irish were a very long-lived people. This fact +is so apparent in so many places in ancient Gaelic literature that it has +to be believed. We have as strong proof as can be afforded by history that +in comparatively modern times Henry Jenkins lived to be over a hundred and +sixty, and Old Parr to be over a hundred and fifty years old, and why +could not Queen Meave have lived to as great or even a greater age? She +was an extraordinary woman, and her name sheds a halo of romance round the +place where she lived, and where her remains rest in peace after her long +and stormy career. It was also in _Reilig na Riogh_ that Dathi, the last +pagan Irish Chief King, was buried. His mound is marked by a pillar stone, +and O'Donovan, one of the most cautious and least impulsive investigators +of Irish history and antiquities, saw no reason to doubt that the pillar +stone marks his grave. + +It may be said that no proof has been given that the Connacht Queen Medb +or Meave was the prototype of the Mab of Shakespeare, Drayton, Spenser, +and other English poets. True, no absolute proof has been given, and +probably never will; but there is that which may be called negative proof, +which in such a case is very strong. The negative proof, if it can be +called such, that the Connacht queen was the prototype of the Queen Mab of +English poets and English legend, is found in the complete silence of +history and of tradition as to how else the legend of Queen Mab +originated, for it must have originated somewhere and from some one. We +are, then, and in a great measure by the total lack of any other way to +account for the origin of the legend of Queen Mab being queen of the +fairies, forced to come to the conclusion that the Connacht queen is the +only person known to history who furnishes the prototype for her. But +there is something more. It has been stated that the old Irish form of the +name was _Medb_. It is well known to Celtic savants that what is now +called "aspiration," or the change in sound, and sometimes the entire +suppression of certain consonants in pronunciation, did not take place +nearly so often in old Irish as in the modern language; so that the name +_Medb_ would in ancient times be pronounced _Mab_, or something very like +it. It is curious that in Drayton's poem, "The Nymphadia," Queen Mab, +though a fairy, is remarkable for those things for which her Irish +prototype was also remarkable--namely, her chariots, her amours, and her +beauty. + +A very strong proof that Queen Meave was an historic personage and not a +myth is to be found in the name of the island in Loch Ree where she was +killed. It is usually pronounced and written Iniscloran; but Inis Clothran +is how it ought to be spelled, and how it is invariably spelled in the +"Annals of the Four Masters" where the name frequently occurs, the island +having been the seat of more than one church in early Christian times, and +therefore often mentioned in annals. Meave had a sister named Clothru who +lived in Iniscloran, and who was Queen of Connacht before Meave. Here is a +translation from the "Book of Leinster," page 124: "It was there that +Clothru used to explain the laws of Connacht in Inis Clothran in Loch +Ree." The island was evidently called after Clothru (Clothran in the +genitive), sister to Meave. This preservation of a place name connected +with the name of an historic personage for two thousand years is most +remarkable, and shows that Irish history is more truthful than is +generally supposed. It is thought that Meave had Clothru killed, in order +that she herself might become Queen of Connacht. + +The country around Rathcroghan abounds in antiquities of far-back ages. +Sepulchral mounds, ruined raths, tortuous caves, and weather-worn +cromlechs are to be found on almost every side. It is a spot where the +antiquarian might revel for weeks and find something every day to interest +him. It is a beautiful country also, not a plain, in the strict sense of +the word, and yet not hills, but what an American would call "rolling," +and a Frenchman "accidente." It is the "Magh Aoi" of Queen Meave's time, +and "Machaire Chonnacht," or plain of Connacht, of later days. It is part +of the celebrated Plains of Boyle, and is considered to contain some of +the best grass land in Ireland. No fairer spot could be found in Connacht +for the dwelling of a potentate who dealt largely in cattle than the green +eminence on which Queen Meave had her palace, and both history and legend +say that her flocks and herds were well-nigh innumerable. She made her +home in the centre of the fairest and richest part of the province she +ruled; and long as that home has been desolate, it has not been forgotten +in history or in song, for that noble melody which Moore has made +immortal--"Avenging and Bright Fall the Swift Sword of Erin"--was first +known as "Croghan na Veena," or "Croghan of the Heroes"; and the incident +to which it refers--the murder of the children of Uisneach--occurred when +Queen Meave was at the height of her splendour, when Rathcroghan was in +its glory, and when it was really the dwelling-place of heroes. + +There are many mentions of Rathcroghan in ancient Gaelic writings, and all +of them speak of it as one of the most important places in Ireland in +Pagan times. Oengus, the Culdee, whose poem has been already referred to, +says of it-- + + "Rathcroghan hath vanished + With Ailill, offspring of victory; + A fair sovranty above Kingdoms + Is in Cluain's city." + +The Ailill mentioned was one of Queen Meave's many husbands, and "Cluain's +City" means Clonmacnois. + +The nearest railway station to Rathcroghan is Castlerea, from which it is +about eight miles distant. Its long distance from a railway and the want +of good accommodation for tourists in its vicinity have helped to cause +this celebrated place to be so neglected and forgotten. + + + + +THE HILL OF UISNEACH + + +Uisneach is one of the most historic hills in Ireland, yet there are +probably not five per cent. of the people of Ireland that have ever heard +of it, and not one per cent. of them that has ever seen it. Apart even +from its historic interest, it is well worth seeing, for it is not only a +beautiful hill, but it affords from its summit one of the most extensive +and lovely views in Ireland. The hill of Uisneach is in the Barony of +Rathconrath, County Westmeath, and only about four Irish miles from +Streamstown Station on the Midland Great Western Railway, so that it is +easily reached. There is, unfortunately, no hotel where tourists could be +accommodated nearer to it than Moat, which is about eight Irish miles from +it; and Mullingar is about the same distance. The village of Ballymore is +five miles from the hill, but as there is no hotel there, Moat and +Mullingar are the only towns within any moderate distance of it where +tourists could get either lodgings or meals. It is not certain if even a +car could be hired at Streamstown or near it, consequently those wishing +to visit Uisneach should either have a private conveyance or make up their +minds to "do it" on foot. + +Uisneach is one of the most peculiarly-shaped hills in Ireland. It is only +six hundred feet in height--a fair elevation in a part of the country +where there are no mountains--but no matter from what side it is +approached, it cannot be seen until one is almost at its base. The country +immediately around it is so broken and so cut up by many hills and hollows +of almost all shapes, that Uisneach, the highest of all the hills near it, +can hardly be noticed until one is just at it. A public road runs close to +its base, so there is no difficulty in reaching it, and the ascent is by +no means steep. It is not until one is on the top of Uisneach that he +finds out how high it is, for the view from its summit is extensive and +beautiful almost beyond power of description. The country on every side of +it consists of some of the richest pasture lands, not only in Ireland, but +in the world. No matter in what direction one looks, a vast, undulated +expanse of green meets the eye. If the view from Uisneach is seen in +autumn, when the too few and far between grain-fields are turning yellow, +it is as fair a sight as human eye ever gazed on. The country for scores +of miles on every side is so rich, so green, and so varied with hill, +dale, wood, and water, that the Biblical phrase that is applied to parts +of Palestine, "the garden of the Lord," might well be applied to the land +round this hill. But it is safe to say that no Israelite ever gazed from +Gilboa or Carmel on so fair a prospect. The vast extent of the view from +this hill seems out of all proportion with its moderate height. On a clear +day one can very nearly see from the Irish Channel to Galway Bay. The +Wicklow hills seem close by. The mountains, not only of Cavan, but of +Leitrim, are distinctly visible. On every side, save the south-west, the +prospect is what some would be tempted to call boundless. On the +south-west the view is obstructed by the hill of Knock Cosgrey, an +eminence slightly higher than Uisneach, and one of the most beautiful +hills in Ireland. It is about four miles south-west of Uisneach. Unlike +Uisneach, however, it is, seen from a distance, both striking and bold. It +has the misfortune to be called by so many different names, or rather, its +name is pronounced in so many different ways, that strangers are often +sadly puzzled what to call it. It is called Kunna Kostha and Kruck Kostha +by the peasantry, and by the gentlefolk generally Knock Ash. But its +proper name is _Cnoc Cosgraigh_, and is so written by the Four Masters, +who are, undoubtedly, the highest authority we possess on place names. +Seen from the road from Moat to Ballymahon, Knock Cosgrey is one of the +most charming sights imaginable. It is nearly a mile from top to base, and +forms a green pyramid of almost perfect symmetry. Its surface is entirely +under grass; for this part of Ireland has been largely turned into +pastures; and sometimes one may drive for six miles and not see a field of +grain. "The bold peasantry" of whom Goldsmith speaks in his "Deserted +Village" have become so few in these parts that miles may be travelled at +mid-day through as fine a country as there is in the world without meeting +a human being. Sheep and cattle, and not men and women, seem the +prevailing living creatures. Knock Cosgrey is not only higher than +Uisneach, but more near the true geographical centre of the island; but it +possesses hardly any historic interest from the fact that its summit was +too narrow to allow the ancient Irish either to build or assemble on it. +Uisneach, with its over a hundred acres of nearly level land on its top, +was therefore chosen, for a hundred thousand men could find space on it. +It became, for that reason, one of the most historic, and in ancient times +one of the most celebrated, hills in Ireland. + +There is probably not another hill in Ireland so well adapted both for a +place for assemblies and a site for building as Uisneach. Its summit is +extensive. There are springs of the purest water on it. Plenty of stones +of almost every size abound, and the soil, even in the most elevated +parts, is of great fertility. In the troublesome times of yore, Uisneach +possessed advantages that were most important in its elevation, and the +extensive view it commanded; for they made it impossible for an army to +approach it from any side without being seen by the watchers on its top. +From the many advantages that this beautiful and extraordinary hill +possesses, it seems strange that it was not chosen by the ancient Irish +for a place of central government. It would have been even better suited +for such a purpose than Tara. It probably would have been the chief seat +of ancient Irish sovereignty if it had not been that the mistake made in +selecting Tara instead of it, occurred so far back in what may be called +prehistoric times, and antiquity had given Tara such a prestige that it +continued to be the most important place in Ireland until it was +abandoned as a seat of government in the sixth century. But Uisneach was +also used as a place of residence by the Irish over-kings. That they +sometimes resided there can be proved from ancient Gaelic writings. It was +supposed to be the geographical centre of Ireland, and before the +formation of the province of Meath by the over-king, Tuathal, in the early +part of the second century, the four provinces met at Uisneach Hill. It is +curious what a close guess the ancients made to locate the exact centre of +the island. They seem, however, to have placed it four or five miles too +far to the north-east, for, according to the most recent surveys, the hill +of Knock Cosgrey is in the exact geographical centre of Ireland. In +far-back ancient times, before the province of Meath had been formed by +taking parts of the four original provinces, the hill of Uisneach was in +Connacht. This almost exact quaternal division of Ireland into provinces, +and their meeting at a point that was supposed to be the exact centre of +the island, is a very curious and interesting feature in ancient Irish +polity. In other countries, provinces seem to have originated by mere +accident, some being big, and some little; but in Ireland they seem to +have been laid out by line and rule, for the four provinces that met at +Uisneach must have been very nearly of equal area. The celebrated Cat +Stone on the hill of Uisneach was known from remote antiquity as _Ail na +Mireann_, or "the rock of the divisions," because the four provinces met +at it. This rock was known by this name among the peasantry of the +neighbourhood up to recent times, until Irish became a dead language in +this part of the country. + +Ail na Mireann, or, as it is now called, the Cat Stone, is the greatest +curiosity on Uisneach Hill. It is not on the top of the hill, but on its +side. It is, perhaps, the most puzzling rock in Ireland, for it is hard to +say whether it was placed in its present position by an iceberg in the +glacial age, or whether it was placed there by human agency, and intended +for a rude cromlech. Here is what the eminent scholar and antiquarian, +John O'Donovan, says about it in his yet unpublished letters when he was +on the Government Survey of Ireland in 1837:--"The huge rock on this hill +of Uisneach, a part of which was split and formed into a cromlech, is now +called the Cat Stone, from a supposed resemblance to a cat sitting and +watching a mouse." If this stone is a cromlech, or Druid's altar, it is +unlike anything of the kind found elsewhere in Ireland or other +countries, for the four upright stones which usually support the flat one, +are not to be seen here. The weight of this enormous mass of stone can +hardly be less than twenty tons, and if it was put in its present position +by human agency, it is by far the most extraordinary thing of its kind in +Ireland. But a majority of those who see it think that it is merely a +boulder of peculiar shape. If it is a boulder it is a very extraordinary +one, and if it is a cromlech it is a more extraordinary one still. + +It was on Uisneach Hill, or in its immediate vicinity, that the +ecclesiastical synod met in the year 1111. This great meeting is mentioned +in almost all Irish annals. It was attended by fifty bishops, three +hundred priests, and upwards of three thousand students, and by the nobles +of the southern half of Ireland, with Muircheartach O'Briain, King of +Munster, at their head. We are told that the synod was convened to +regulate the manners and mode of living of both clergy and laity. It does +not seem to have done much good on account of the then chaotic political +state of the country, caused by almost constant wars between the aspirants +for chief kingship. + +There are many interesting things besides the cromlech to be seen on the +vast undulated summit of Uisneach. There is a hollow known as St +Patrick's bed, and there are the remains of the walls of large stone +buildings on the most elevated part of the hill. There is also one of the +finest raths in Ireland, which must have been a place of great strength, +for the embankments are still of immense height, and are overgrown with +hawthorn bushes of great size. This rath, unlike the generality of such +structures, is not round, but oblong. It encloses a space of nearly an +acre in extent. + +Apart from antiquarianism, the hill of Uisneach is well worth seeing, for +it is as strange in shape as it is beautiful in verdure. It is only a few +miles from a railroad; it is easy to ascend, for a carriage might be +driven to its summit. The longest summer day might be passed on it, and +some new curiosity of antiquity or some fresh beauty of scenery be +continually discovered. The surface of the hill is so broken, and is of +such great extent, that to explore it thoroughly, and to enjoy all the +varied prospects to be seen from it, even a long summer day would hardly +be long enough. + +[Illustration: MOUNT OF BALLYLOCHLOE.] + +When treating of hills and of the country in the vicinity of Uisneach, it +may be interesting to say something about the most beautiful and +perfect _artificial_ hill in Ireland--namely, the Moat of Ballylochloe. It +is about nine miles west of Uisneach, and three north-west of Moat. It was +evidently erected for a sepulchral mound, but seems to have also been used +as a place of defence. A ridge of sand-hills has been cut, and a most +perfect and symmetrical _moat_ has been formed. It cannot be less than a +hundred and fifty feet in height. When seen from the road approaching it +from the east, it is almost Alpine in appearance, and looks like a small +mountain. Neither history nor legend throws much light on the origin of +this gigantic mound. We are told, however, that in the time of Queen +Meave, about the year 50 B.C., there was a terrible battle in a place +called Cloch Bruighne, now called Cloch Brian, some two miles from where +the moat now stands, in which battle a wealthy farmer called Da Choga was +killed, and his house burned. His wife, whose name was Lucha, died of +grief, and was buried, it is said, near Loch Lucha, which seems to have +been called after her. In Irish, the name of this place is _Baile Loch +Lucha_. From the fact of the name of the wife of the farmer, or _bruighe_, +being contained in the name of the stead, the late Mr W. M. Hennessy, an +excellent authority on such matters, thought that the mound was erected +over the remains of the woman Lucha. In former times, there was a small +lake at the foot of the moat, hence the modern name Ballylochloe. + +This beautiful artificial hill is well worth seeing. It is only three +miles from the railway station at Moat. + + + + +CLONMACNOIS + + +The ruins of Clonmacnois form by far the most interesting architectural +remains on the Shannon. Their situation is unique--on a sandy knoll +overlooking the winding river, as it flows in great reaches among marshy +meadows of apparently illimitable extent. Thousands of acres of them on +both banks of the Shannon are spread before one's gaze when standing at +the base of any of the ruined shrines of this ancient seat of piety and +learning. The ecclesiastics of ancient Ireland seem to have been gifted +with an extraordinary amount of appreciation for the beautiful and unique +in nature. The wilder and the more beautiful a place was, the more it +seems to have attracted them. Cashel's solitary Rock, Glendaloch's gloomy +vale, and this barren sandhill overlooking the most peculiar scenery in +all the island, were the places in which they reared their most cherished +fanes and most beautiful buildings. The situation of Clonmacnois cannot be +said to be beautiful, but it is strange and weird to the last degree--more +strange and weird, perhaps, than any other place in Ireland. + +The best and most agreeable way to reach Clonmacnois is from Athlone. It +is twelve English miles from Athlone by road, and ten by river. By river +is not only the cheapest way but the most interesting. Sails can be used +on this part of the Shannon almost as well as on Loch Ree, for the banks +are so low that every breeze that blows can be fully utilised; and the +river is so crooked, that no matter from what quarter the wind comes it +can sometimes fill the sail. The Shannon here is no tiny stream like the +Liffey, but a wide river, never less than from 150 to 200 yards in +breadth, and generally deep enough to float a small ocean steamer. The +current is, however, not rapid. + +The first thing that strikes the stranger who sees Clonmacnois for the +first time is the extraordinary view from it over the largest extent of +callow meadows to be seen in any part of Ireland. It must not be thought +that these meadows are mere bogs, for some of the finest hay is raised on +them. The grass that grows on them must be of a fairly good quality, for +they let at from L5 to L6 per Irish acre, the purchaser having to save the +hay, and run all the risk attending the making it in land so liable to be +flooded. Not infrequently, the taker of meadow on the vast flats that +border the Shannon between Loch Ree and Loch Derg, will awaken some fine +morning and find all his small cocks of hay afloat, sailing placidly +southward, and more likely to find their way to Killaloe than to his +haggard. The second thing that will strike the observant stranger in +Clonmacnois is the small size of the churches. That it was one of the most +important ecclesiastical establishments in ancient Ireland there cannot be +any doubt, for it is more frequently mentioned in ancient Irish history +and annals than any other place of its kind in the country. Yet the +largest church in it, the ruins of which exist, would not, by any stretch +of imagination, accommodate more than three or four hundred worshippers. +There are the ruins of but three churches existing in Clonmacnois; the +largest of them is called Cathedral, the two smaller ones can hardly be +called churches. They must have been oratories, and would not combined +contain over two hundred persons. When Clonmacnois was in its most +prosperous condition--that was in the early part of the ninth century, or +about the time when the Danish invasions were heaviest and most +harassing--Ireland must have been a very populous country. There are so +many proofs of this in ancient Gaelic annals and literature that it may +be regarded as a fact. How, then, did it happen that the churches in +Clonmacnois were so small? This is a question that cannot be answered +fully. It may be that what now remains of its churches is of comparatively +recent origin, and may not have been erected until the decadence of the +population had commenced at the time of the Danish invasions, which +decadence became more and more pronounced down to the latter part of the +sixteenth century. Or it may have been that there were large wooden +Churches in Clonmacnois in ancient times, not a vestige or trace of which +would be found after fire had done its work on them. + +[Illustration: ROUND TOWER, CLONMACNOIS.] + +The two round towers are by far the most interesting and beautiful +buildings in Clonmacnois. The larger one wants apparently twenty or thirty +feet of the top; whether it was struck by lightning, or knocked off by +cannon, no one seems to know. The smaller tower is as perfect as it was +when its builder pronounced it finished a thousand years ago. No more +beautiful piece of architecture in the way of a tower ever was erected. It +seems to be absolute perfection. The most skilled modern artisan in stone +could not find an imperfection in it. It is built entirely of cut +stones. The roof or dome is made of lozenge-shaped stones, fitted so +closely and finished so well that time and weather seem to have passed +over it in vain, for it is, as far as can be seen from the ground at its +base, as perfect as it ever was. Of all round towers in Ireland, it is the +most beautiful and perfect. The larger tower seems to have been built of +stones similar to those of the smaller one, but as it wants its top its +beauty is almost entirely spoiled. What remains of it seems about as +perfect in its architecture as human hands could make it. The smaller +tower appears to afford positive proof of Petrie's theory as to the +post-Christian origin of the Irish round towers, for it and the little +church or oratory at its base, and out of which it rises, were evidently +built at the same time, for the walls of both are actually in some places +one. Like some few of the existing round towers (the one near Navan, for +instance), the smaller one at Clonmacnois has no opening in the roof by +which the sound of bells could be emitted, showing clearly that it could +never have been erected solely for a belfry; for no matter how big a bell +might be, its sound would not have been heard a hundred yards away, if +rung under the windowless stone roof of this most perfect and beautiful of +Irish round towers. That round towers were sometimes used as belfries +seems very probable; but that their principal use, and the prime object +for which they were erected, were to protect the clergy and the treasures +of the churches from the marauding Northmen is the theory regarding them +that is now most generally accepted. + +Clonmacnois is not so rich in ancient crosses as some other places like +it. There are only two to be seen there at present. They are not nearly so +well carved and ornamented as many that still remain in other Irish +cemeteries. There is not, so far as can be seen by the passer-by, a single +inscription in the Irish language visible, though some scores of such +inscriptions exist in it, every one of which has been faithfully copied +and translated by Doctor Petrie in his great work, "Christian Inscriptions +in the Irish Language." The inscribed stones are, very properly, stowed +away in a vault under lock and key where they are safe from the mischief +of so many who would delight in marring and effacing any thing they could +not understand. There are plenty of inscriptions in English to be seen in +Clonmacnois, for it is still used as a place of interment. This takes away +a great deal of its antique charm and general interest. It seems a sort of +profanation to erect a modern tomb with an English inscription on it at +the very base of a hoary round tower that was a wonder of art and beauty +when London was little else than a large village, and when England itself +was hardly civilised, and as politically powerless as Saint Domingo or +Corea. + +Clonmacnois has suffered as much from vandalism as any other place of its +kind in Ireland. It was taken and spoiled by the Danes when at the height +of its splendour in the ninth century. But it was not the Danes that +committed the worst depredations in this wonderfully unique and ancient +place. They were committed by men who used gunpowder, for it was evidently +by it that most of the old buildings of Clonmacnois were destroyed. It is +generally believed that it was by one of Cromwell's captains who was +stationed with some troops at Athlone when the Royalist cause had been +lost that most of the destruction at Clonmacnois was accomplished. The +blowing up of the magnificent castle erected here by Hugo de Lacy in the +twelfth century, is attributed to Cromwell's troopers, as is also the +demolition of some thirty or forty feet of the larger of the two round +towers, known as O'Ruarc's tower. + +There are the remains of only three churches extant in Clonmacnois; but +we know from authentic annals and history that there were nearly a dozen +churches in it at one time. What became of them, or where they stood, +cannot now be known. Many of them were, probably, wooden churches, and, +when once destroyed, left no trace. The ruins of the ancient nunnery are +distant nearly quarter of a mile from the churchyard, on the grounds of a +gentleman named Charlton. It is only about thirty years ago since an +attempt was made to clear away the rubbish in which they were buried, and +to try if any of the sculptured stones could be recovered. The excavations +were made under the supervision of the Protestant Bishop of Limerick. +Sculptured stone-work of the highest order of art was dug up from many +feet under the surface where the destroyers had buried it. Visitors to +Clonmacnois will not have any difficulty in seeing the ruins of the +nunnery, for Mr Charlton willingly permits visitors to see them. It is not +only curious, but hopeful and pleasant, to find people of the same +religious belief altering so much for the better as time rolls by. Whilom +Protestant men and a whilom Protestant Government did all they could in +the seventeenth century to turn Clonmacnois into a heap of ruins, almost +as void and as shapeless as those of Babylon; but Protestant men and a +Protestant Government in the nineteenth century have done everything in +their power to save it from further decay, and to dig up its sculptured +stones from the dust in which ancient Protestant fanaticism and bigotry +had buried them. + +Clonmacnois was founded by St Kieran, who died in the year 549. There are +records of the erection of most of its ancient buildings to be found in +Irish annals and history. According to the _Chronicon Scottorum_, a work +of high authority, the Cathedral was built in the year 909. The Cathedral +that existed when Turgesius the Dane obtained sway for some years over the +greater part of Ireland, and when his wife used to issue her orders from +that building, was probably of wood, for no trace of it appears extant. +Doctor Petrie says that the larger round tower was erected in the tenth +century, and the smaller one in the eleventh or early part of the twelfth. +There is good authority to prove that the nunnery was erected and endowed +by the too well-remembered Dearvorgil, wife of O'Ruairc, whose _liaison_ +with Dermot Mac Murrough, King of Leinster, is popularly believed to have +brought about the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland. + +One of the great curiosities of Clonmacnois is the powder-blown-up castle +built by Hugo de Lacy in the latter part of the twelfth century, the +remains of which stand on a hill about two hundred yards from the +cemetery. It is generally known as the Prior's house, but it was evidently +built as a place of defence. It was one of the strongest castles ever +erected in Ireland. Although comparatively small, building and enclosure +not covering more than half an acre, it was a place of immense strength, +and before the invention of gunpowder could have defied a host. It is +encompassed by a fosse in some places forty feet in depth, that descends +sheer from the walls. The walls are of immense thickness and strength, +from six to eight feet thick in many places, and so firmly are the stones +embedded in grouting that to detach one of them from the powder-riven +walls, or from the vast masses of blown-up masonry that lie scattered +around, a hammer and chisel would be required. Huge heaps of the ruined +walls, some of them tons in weight, have been tumbled into the deep fosse +that surrounds the castle, but they are still almost as solid as rocks. If +ever the art of building solid walls was brought to perfection, it was by +those who reared this now ruined pile. To know the strength of gunpowder +and the solidity of ancient masonry, one should see this ruined castle of +Clonmacnois. + +With all the beauties and diversity of scenery of the Shannon, on the +banks of which stands all that remains of Clonmacnois, and with all the +places of historic interest laved by its waters, it is a disgrace to +Ireland at large that there is not a single passenger steam-boat on it +above Limerick. It is nearly a hundred and fifty miles from +Carrick-on-Shannon to Killaloe, and in all that vast distance of spreading +lake and winding river there is not a passenger steam-boat to be seen! +There may be said to be no obstacle to navigation in all that distance for +boats drawing from five to six feet of water, and there are only four or +five locks to pass through. No other river of equal length affords more +variety of scenery than the Shannon. Sometimes the voyager passes by +wooded banks, anon through apparently illimitable meadows, and then +through great lakes like veritable inland seas,--island-studded or +mountain-girded,--change of scene occurring in almost every mile. Let it +be hoped that a line of passenger steamers will soon again be seen on the +waters of this great and beautiful river,--this "ancient stream," as its +Gaelic name is said to mean,--that has on its banks so many relics of the +past-the grass-grown rath, the hoary round tower, the crumbling castle, +and above all, the ruined fanes of Clonmacnois. + + + + +KNOCK AILLINN + + +After Tara and Uisneach, Knock Aillinn is the most historic hill in +Ireland--that is, if it was really the seat of the celebrated Finn, the +son of Cumhail. It is a different hill from the hill of Allen, which is +about nine miles north of it, and must not be confounded with it, +although, as it will be shown further on, the confusion of the two hills +seems to have taken place very long ago indeed. Knock Aillinn is some five +or six miles south of Newbridge, in the County Kildare. Apart from its +historic interest, it is well worth visiting, for it is situated in a rich +and beautiful part of the country, and the view from its summit is one of +the fairest and most extensive to be seen in any of the eastern counties. +Eastward the view is obstructed by the Wicklow mountains, but on every +other side it is very extensive, for Knock Aillinn is 600 feet high. So +fine is the view from this hill that O'Donovan, the celebrated Gaelic +scholar, was inspired by it to write a poem in Irish in praise of it, when +he was employed on the Government Survey in 1837. The poem may be seen in +his unpublished letters in the Royal Irish Academy. One verse of it, +translated into English, will show that it is a composition of more than +ordinary merit:-- + + "Beautiful the view from the hill of Aillinn, + Over lofty hills and fair plains, + Over mountains wreathed in veils of cloud;-- + The view will remain in my memory for ever." + +But beautiful and extensive as the prospect is from Knock Aillinn, and +greatly as the lovers of the beautiful may enjoy it, the chief interest +possessed by this hill is historic rather than scenic. On its summit is to +be seen the most gigantic of all Irish raths. O'Donovan called it +"prodigious." The whole top of the hill is surrounded by a mighty rampart +of earth, four hundred yards in diameter, that encloses over twenty acres. +After nearly two thousand years those earthen ramparts are still of great +height; and when, according to the fashion of the times, they were topped +with a strong palisade of timber, Knock Aillinn might be said to be an +almost impregnable fortress. To render it still stronger, the hill on +which it is placed is steep, and its ascent difficult. It was on this hill +that some think the renowned in Celtic song and legend, Finn, the son of +Cumhail, had his stronghold; but others, and it must be confessed that +they are the most numerous, think that Finn's dun was on the hill of +Allen, some eight or nine miles to the north. + +That the vast _dun_, or enclosure, on Knock Aillinn was an ancient +residence of the Kings of Leinster is generally admitted; and that it was +erected long previous to the Christian era is also the opinion of those +best acquainted with early Irish history and literature. Proofs of this +can be obtained from the most reliable and ancient Gaelic writings. There +is hardly a vestige of antiquity to be seen on the summit of Knock Aillinn +save the vast earthen rampart. When one stands within it, and recalls to +mind what it must have been in days long gone by, when a large population +dwelt in it, and when armed multitudes issued from it, he will be tempted +to exclaim with Byron:-- + + "Shrine of the mighty! can it be + That this is all remains of thee?" + +He will wonder that no vast masses of ancient masonry are to be seen. But +stone buildings of the kind that have been in use in these islands for +nearly a thousand years were unknown when the vast earth-works on Knock +Aillinn were erected. Walls built of dry stone have been used in Ireland +as fortresses from the most remote antiquity; but the art of building with +mortar was entirely unknown until after the introduction of Christianity. + +The hill of Allen is the one on which, it is over and over again stated by +the most ancient and trustworthy Gaelic documents extant, Finn, the son of +Cumhail, had his palace. We are even told how, partly by force and +threats, he obtained Allen from his grandfather, Tadg; that he went to +live on it, and that it was his habitation as long as he lived. But here a +great difficulty meets us--there is not a vestige of dun or fort on the +hill of Allen. O'Donovan says in his unpublished letters, while on the +Ordnance Survey of Ireland, that Knock Aillinn was, according to various +ancient Irish authorities, one of the royal residences of the Kings of +Leinster, and that it received the name of _Aillinn_ from the _ail_, or +stone which was placed in the mound of the rath. On speaking of the hill +of Allen, where the celebrated Finn Mac Cool or Cumhail is said to have +had his seat, he says, "There are no traces of forts nor any other +monuments excepting one small mound called _Suidhe Finn_, or Finn's chair, +which occupies the highest point of the hill. On every side of this mound +there are faint traces of field works, but so indistinct that I could not +with any certainty decide whether they are traces of forts or of recent +cultivation, for the hill was tilled on the very summit. I travelled all +the hill, but could find upon it no monument from which it could be +inferred that it was ever a royal seat like Tara, Emania, Maistean, or any +of the other places of ancient celebrity whose localities have been +identified; and still in all Fingallian or Ossianic poems this hill (the +hill of Allen) is referred to as containing the palace of the renowned +champion, Finn Mac Cool, who seems to have been a real historical +character, who flourished here in the latter end of the third century." + +O'Donovan says also in the same unpublished letters that "The antiquary +may draw his own conclusion from the non-existence of a dun on the hill of +Allen at this day. It is possible that there were forts on it a thousand +years ago, and that the progress of cultivation has effaced them; but it +is strange that these alone should disappear, while those of Tara, Emania, +Aileach, Naas, Maistean, and Raoirean remain in good preservation.... It +is curious to remark that all the monuments mentioned in the +_Dinnseanchus_ and the authentic annals still exist, while no trace is to +be found of Finn Mac Cool's palace on the hill of Allowin (Allen).... If +he had such a palace as this on Aillinn, near Kilcullen, on his hill of +Allowin, it would not disappear, because the labour of levelling it would +be so great that no agriculturist would undertake to level it." + +It would seem as if the two hills, Aillinn, or Knock Aillinn as it is now +called, and Allen got confounded, and at an early date too. Allowing +liberally for exaggeration and discounting tradition, one has to believe +in the extent of Finn's house or palace, however rude and barbaric its +arrangements may have been. He was the most powerful man in Ireland, more +powerful even than the chief king. The fame of his household was spread +abroad, not only over all Ireland, but all Scotland. This we know by the +publication of the poems collected in the Highlands by the Dean of Lismore +in the sixteenth century, and translated by the late Mr T. M'Lauchlan, and +also from a host of other poems. They abound with allusions to Finn and +his house and household, as does almost all the folk-lore of the +Celtic-Scotch. One thing seems certain, that neither Finn nor his house or +palace were myths; his house must have existed, and, like all places of +its kind in the days when it existed, it must have been surrounded with an +earthen rampart no less high than that to be seen on Knock Aillinn. But no +vestige of house or rampart can be traced on the hill of Allen. A still +greater difficulty meets one in the size of the summit of the hill. It is +not much over half an Irish acre in extent, and where would there be room +on such a limited space for the vast household of Finn? His residence was +known from far-back times as "Almhuin riogha leathan mor Laighean," the +kingly, great-broad Allen of Leinster; but no _dun_ or habitation situated +on the narrow space on the top of the hill of Allen could be +"great-broad;" but the existing remains on Knock Aillinn would suit the +description almost exactly. We may be sure that if any man in Ireland in +those days had a big house, it was Finn. The names Allen and Aillinn are +so much alike, and both hills are so comparatively near each other, and +both seem to have been abandoned as strongholds at such an early date, +that confusion of one with the other could easily have taken place; +besides, Finn's name does appear to be, in some measure at least, +associated with Knock Aillinn. Here is a passage from the "Dinnseanchus" +at page 162 of the "Book of Leinster." Treating of Knock Aillinn, these +lines occur:-- + + "Faichthi ruamand ruamnad rinn + Co failgib flatha for Fhind." + +Irish scholars may interpret these lines as they like, but it would seem +that the last word is a proper name, and that it relates to Finn. + +But whether Finn lived in Knock Aillinn or in Allen, or whether he lived +in both places off and on, is a matter of minor importance. The real +wonder about him is the way he impressed himself not only on the age in +which he lived but on every age since then. No other man in any age or +country seems to have so fastened himself in the memories of the people of +his own race and lineage. It may be safely said that neither Julius Caesar +nor Charlemagne have impressed themselves on popular imagination so much +as Finn and those associated with him have. Those who have not studied the +Celtic folk-lore of Ireland and Scotland can form but an incomplete idea +of the overwhelming immensity of the folk-lore about Finn and his cycle +that exists even yet. But with the decay of Gaelic speech it is rapidly +fading away. It is hardly too much to say that when Gaelic was the +language of the fireside all through Ireland and a large part of +Scotland, and that is only a few centuries ago, there was not a parish +from Kerry to Caithness in which dozens of different stories about Finn +and his contemporaries did not exist; and it is equally safe to say that +not the tenth, probably not the twentieth, part of them was ever committed +to writing. Finn, Ossian, and Caoilte were the _dramatis personae_ of the +most extensive, if not the choicest, popular, unwritten folk-lore that +probably ever existed in any country. But one of the strangest things +connected with the cycle of Finn and Ossian is that its folk-lore hardly +appears at all in really ancient Gaelic literature. The Gaelic scribes of +the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries took but little notice of it; +it was to the events of the Cuchulainn cycle that they gave almost their +entire attention. In the "Book of Leinster," the greatest repertory of +Gaelic literature that exists in one volume, there is only one story that +can be called an Ossianic or Finnian one, while nearly half the book is +taken up with tracts and stories relating to the cycle of Cuchulainn, +which was nearly three centuries earlier than that of Ossian and Finn. But +the Cuchulainn cycle, from whatever cause will probably be never known, +seems to have entirely failed to take hold of the popular imagination. +Folk-lore relating to the Cuchulainn cycle is rare. There are a few in +which Cuchulainn is mentioned, and M'Pherson in his Ossian mixes the +Ossianic and Cuchulainn cycles together, although they were three +centuries apart. Of all the prominent names belonging to the Cuchulainn +cycle, Queen Medb or Meave was one of the most prominent, but not a single +story exists about her in the oral Gaelic folk-lore of Ireland or Scotland +of which the writer has ever heard. She seems to have found her way into +the folk-lore of England, but not into that of Ireland or the +Gaelic-speaking parts of Scotland. She figures very prominently in Irish +history and literature, but in folk-lore she does not figure at all. The +reason of this may be that Finn, Ossian, and others of their "set" were +supposed to have lived so long that they met St Patrick and were converted +to Christianity by him; but there is no foundation for such a belief, for +authentic Irish history says that Finn was killed in the year 283 at Ath +Brea on the Boyne. + +It is not easy to see clearly why Finn so impressed his memory and his +cycle on the minds of his countrymen, for he does not appear to have been +an altogether amiable personage. There are very many discreditable things +told of him in the multitudinous stories of which he is the central +figure. In one of them, the "Pursuit of Dermot and Graine," he plays the +part of a revengeful, unforgiving, bad man; while his great enemy, Dermot +O'Duibhne, is a bold, open-hearted hero, the very opposite of his +unrelenting pursuer. With all the absurdities and impossibilities of the +"Pursuit," the leading characters in it are sustained with a consistency +that would do credit even to Shakespeare. Finn at the end of the story is +just what he was at the beginning, unforgiving and bad; and Graine, who is +bad at the beginning is bad also at the end; while Dermot, a hero at the +beginning of the story, is still a hero at its close. It may interest some +to know that most Irish historians and scholars think that Dermot +O'Duibhne was the person from whom the barony of Corcaguiney, in the +County Kerry, is called. In correct orthography it would be _Corc Ui +Dhuibhne_, and would be pronounced very nearly as the name of the barony +is written at present. If it be true that Corcaguiney got its name from +Dermot O'Duibhne, and there seems no reason to doubt that it did, another +proof is given of the general correctness of at least the salient points +in Irish history. It may also interest some to know that the Campbells of +Argyll are popularly believed, even in their own country, to be descended +from this same Dermot O'Duibhne. They have been known for centuries as the +Clann Diarmid, or children of Dermot, as will be remembered by any one who +has read Scott's "Legend of Montrose." The real name of the Argyll +Campbells seems to be really O'Duibhne. It was so that they generally +signed their names up to a comparatively recent date. Bishop Carsewell, +who translated John Knox's Prayer Book into Gaelic in 1567, the first +Gaelic book that was ever printed, dedicates it to the Duke of Argyll, +whom he calls Gilleasbuig O'Duibhne.[5] Carsewell would hardly have dared +to address his patron, and the most powerful nobleman in Scotland, by a +false name or a sobriquet. The Campbells seem to have been called +O'Duibhne down to the middle of the seventeenth century, for in the +national manuscripts of Scotland there is a very fine Gaelic poem on the +death of a Campbell, who is styled "O'Duibhne" in the Gaelic. + +Translations that have been recently made from Gaelic manuscripts of high +authority have thrown considerable light on Finn, and the events of his +epoch. We are told in the tract called the "Boramha," or "Tribute," to +which reference has been already made, that when Bresal, a king of +Leinster, in the third century, was given his choice to pay the tribute or +fight the rest of Ireland, he asked help from Finn. A person called +Molling was sent to ask Finn to help the men of Leinster. Molling told +Finn that he should not come with a small army to fight the chief king, +who had the national army with him. The number of men that Finn had, was, +we are told in the "Boramha," fifteen hundred chiefs, each having thirty +men under him, making the total number of men that Finn brought to help +Leinster forty-five thousand, a very large army in those days. They joined +the Leinster men, inflicted a crushing defeat on the forces of the chief +king, so that the tribute was not paid for many years after. Nine thousand +of the "men of Ireland," as the "Book of Leinster" almost invariably calls +the national forces, were slain in the battle. + +The militia of which Finn was the Commander-in-Chief, and of which his +father and grandfather had also been commanders, are the heroes of +hundreds of Ossianic tales and poems. It would appear that they numbered +twenty-one thousand men on a peace footing, but could raise their numbers +to double that amount in time of need. They became so extortionate and +arrogant in the long run, that the chief king, Cairbre, and it would seem +all the provincial rulers except the King of Leinster, determined to crush +them. So a great battle was fought at Garristown in the County Dublin in +the year 290 or 296, and the militia of Finn was totally destroyed. It +would seem that neither Knock Aillinn nor the hill of Allen has been since +then inhabited. + +It may not be out of place to state here that students of Gaelic are often +puzzled on seeing the name of Finn spelt _Fionn_. It seems certain that +_Finn_ is the proper orthography. The name is invariably so spelt in all +cases in the "Book of Leinster," one of the most correct of all the great +Gaelic books; but the editor of "Silva Gadelica" makes it _Fionn_ in all +cases except in the genitive. It is difficult to understand why, when +copying from a manuscript of such high authority as the "Book of +Leinster," he did not follow its orthography. In the northern half of +Ireland the name is pronounced according to its correct orthography, but +in the south of Ireland it is pronounced as if written _Fyun_. + +Those who visit Knock Aillinn and its mighty _dun_ should also visit the +hill of Allen. If there is nothing to be seen on it, there is a great +deal to be seen from it, for the view is very extensive. If any one wanted +to know how vast the bog of Allen is, he should ascend the hill of Allen, +from which he will see a very large part of it. If he is in any doubt as +to the exact place in which Finn had his dwelling and _dun_, he will at +least be in the locality that has given birth to the most colossal +folk-lore that perhaps ever existed,--stories that in the far-back past, +before the world was tormented by newspapers and bewildered by +politicians, beguiled many a tedious hour and delighted many a sad heart. + + + + +"KILDARE'S HOLY FANE" + + +Those in search of the picturesque alone will not find very much to +interest them in Kildare or its immediate vicinity. There may be said to +be hardly any remarkable scenic beauties in its neighbourhood. There is +the broad expanse of the Curragh not far from the town, one of the finest +places for military manoeuvres in the British Isles. It is strange why it +is called a curragh--more correctly, _currach_--for the word means a +marsh, a place that _stirs_ when trodden on. There is only a very small +part of the land to which the name is applied that is a marsh. It is +almost all perfectly dry upland. However, it was called _Currach Life_ +from very early times, that is the marsh or swamp of the Liffy. It would +seem as if the word _Life_ meant originally the country through which the +river Liffy flows, and that the river took its name from the country; for +when King Tuathal wanted revenge on Leinstermen, for the death of his two +daughters, who have been mentioned in the article on Tara, he says-- + + "Let them be revenged on Leinstermen, + On the warriors _in_ the Life." + +It is thought that the name Liffy comes from the adjective _liomhtha_, +meaning smooth, or polished, for part of the country through which the +river flows is very smooth and beautiful. + +Hardly a vestige of the ancient buildings of Kildare remain save the round +tower. It is over one hundred and thirty feet in height, and therefore one +of the highest in Ireland. It seems as perfect as it was the day it was +finished. It is sad to say that it is the most completely +spoiled--bedevilled would probably be a better word--of all the Irish +round towers; for some person or persons whose memories should be held in +everlasting abhorrence by every archaeologist, have put an incongruous, +ridiculous, castellated top on it that makes it look as unsightly and as +horrible as a statue of Julius Caesar would look with a stove-pipe hat on +its head. The people of Kildare and its vicinity should at once raise +funds and have a proper, antique roof put on their tower, for it is an +absolute disgrace to them as it is at present. The top of the tower may +have been destroyed by lightning, or, like many other round towers, it may +have been left unfinished, and may never have had a top or roof on it. But +whatever may have happened to it, its present castellated roof is a +disgraceful incongruity. + +The cathedral of Kildare is a modern and rather plain building of mediocre +interest. It is supposed to be built in, or nearly in, the place where the +old church stood that was founded by St Brigit in the sixth century. +Kildare seems to owe its origin to St Brigit, for the name means the cell +or church of the oak; and as Brigit was contemporary with St Patrick, hers +must have been the first Christian establishment founded at Kildare. It is +stated in the _Trias Thaumaturga_ of Colgan that when she returned to her +own district, a cell was assigned to her in which she afterwards led a +wonderful life; that she erected a monastery in Kildare, and that a very +great city afterwards sprang up, which became the metropolis of the +Lagenians, or Leinster folk. It requires a great stretch of imagination to +conceive how Kildare could ever have been a "very great city," for it is +now, and has for many years, been a small, a very small country town, +hardly any more than a village. It seems strange that Kildare is not +larger and more prosperous, for if not situated in a picturesque part of +the island, the country round it is very fair and fertile, and beautiful +as any flat country could be. There is, however, a passage in the +"Calendar of Oengus," written in the latter end of the eighth or the +beginning of the ninth century, that goes far to prove that what is said +in the _Trias Thaumaturga_ about Kildare having been once a large place is +true. Speaking of the fall of the strongholds of the Pagans, and the rise +of Christian centres, Oengus says-- + + "Aillinn's proud burgh + Hath perished with its warlike host: + Great is victorious Brigit: + Fair is her multitudinous city." + +The "multitudinous city" was, of course, Kildare. It is curious that +Oengus should mention Aillinn, and not mention Allen, the supposed seat of +Finn, for wherever he had his stronghold must have been, in his epoch, the +most important place in Ireland, Tara alone excepted. + +Kildare is famous and historic solely on account of St Brigit. Of all +Irish Saints, she is the most to be loved. Her charity, her love for +humanity, was so absolutely divine, that reading her life as narrated in +the _Leabhar Breac_, we are moved to our very heart's depths. The miracles +she is said to have performed are so wondrous, and show such a love for +mankind, especially for the poor, that when we read them we long to be +children again in order that we might unhesitatingly believe such +beautiful fables. It was in Kildare that that wondrous lamp was which is +said to have + + "Lived through long ages of darkness and storm," + +without having been replenished by human hand; and it was this legend that +inspired Moore to compose the noblest national lyric ever written, "Erin, +O Erin." If he never wrote a line of poetry save what is contained in that +song, the Irish people would be justified in raising a statue of gold to +his memory. It is, beyond anything of the kind known to humanity, + + "Perfect music set to noble words"; + +yet, heart-sickening to think of, the masses of the Irish people hardly +know it at all! + +When St Brigit is contrasted with St Patrick, she appears very different +from him. The lives of Ireland's three great Saints are in the _Leabhar +Breac_, an Irish manuscript compiled early in the fourteenth century; but +the greater part of it is made up of transcripts from documents that were +probably many hundred years old when they were copied into it. The three +Saints whose lives appear in it are Patrick, Brigit, and Columba, or Colum +Cill, as he is generally called in Ireland. These lives were translated +some years ago by Mr Whitley Stokes, the greatest of living Gaelic +scholars; but as only a few dozen copies were printed for private +circulation, the book is practically as unknown to the general public as +if it never had been printed at all. Extracts from it, therefore, cannot +fail to be interesting to the readers of this book. + +Brigit shines out a star of the first magnitude, totally eclipsing the +lesser two lights, Patrick and Columba. Nothing shall be said about +Columba at present, but it has to be admitted that Patrick, as he is +represented in the _Leabhar Breac_, makes a poor show when contrasted with +glorious St Brigit. Patrick is represented as spending a large part of his +time in cursing and killing, but St Brigit spends most of hers in blessing +and relieving. If St Patrick converts a great many, he is represented as +killing a great many; but St Brigit kills nobody. The narrative of her +life in the _Leabhar Breac_ is probably as wonderful a piece of biography +as ever was written. There is no effort at style in it, and no attempt at +book-making. The narrative is simplicity in the true sense of the word. +One of the wonderful things about it is the side light it throws both on +the social and political conditions of ancient Ireland; but, curiously +enough, no such light is thrown on the state of the country by the lives +of St Patrick and St Columba, written in the same book and probably by the +same author. + +St Brigit seems to have acted on some of the precepts found in the +"Ancient Mariner" fourteen hundred years before the poem was written. She +seems to have known that-- + + "He prayeth best + Who loveth best + All things both great and small," + +for we are told that her father, who at present would be called Duffy, +"sundered a gammon of bacon into five pieces, and left it with Brigit to +be boiled for his guests. A miserable, greedy hound came into the house to +Brigit. Brigit, out of pity, gave him the fifth piece. When the hound had +eaten that piece, Brigit gave another piece to him. Then Duffy came and +said to Brigit, 'Hast thou boiled the bacon, and do all the portions +remain?' 'Count them,' saith Brigit. Duffy counted them and none of them +was wanting. The guests declared unto Duffy what Brigit had done. +'Abundant,' said Duffy, 'are the miracles of that maiden.' Now the guests +ate not the food, for they were unworthy thereof, but it was dealt out to +the poor and needy of the Lord." + +The following narrative shows St Brigit's love of animals in a still +stronger light: + +"Once upon a time a bondsman of Brigit's family was cutting firewood. It +came to pass that he killed a pet fox of the King of Leinster's. The +bondsman was seized by the King. Brigit ordered a wild fox to come out of +the wood. So he came, and was playing and sporting for the hosts and for +the King at Brigit's order. But when the fox had finished his feats, he +went safe back to the wood, with the hosts of Leinster after him, both +foot and horse and hounds." + +This is simply beautiful. St Brigit, while she got the poor bondsman out +of trouble, managed to do so without depriving the fox of his liberty. + +Here is another extract that makes one wish that the life of St Brigit in +the _Leabhar Breac_, instead of containing only about twenty octavo pages, +contained a thousand:-- + +"Then came Brigit and her mother with her to her father's house. +Thereafter Duffy (her father) and his consort were minded to sell the holy +Brigit into bondage, for Duffy liked not his cattle and his wealth to be +dealt out to the poor, and that is what Brigit used to do. So Duffy fared +in his chariot, and Brigit along with him. Said Duffy to Brigit, 'Not for +honour or reverence to thee art thou carried in a chariot, but to take +thee and sell thee, and to grind the quern for Dunlang Mac Enda, King of +Leinster.' When they came to the King's fortress, Duffy went in to the +King, and Brigit remained in her chariot at the fortress door. Duffy had +left his sword in the chariot near Brigit. A leper came to Brigit to ask +alms. She gave him Duffy's sword. Said Duffy to the King, 'Wilt thou buy a +bondmaid, namely, my daughter?' says he. Said Dunlang, 'Why sellest thou +thine own daughter?' Said Duffy, 'She stayeth not from selling my wealth +and giving it to the poor.' Said the King, 'Let the maiden come into the +fortress.' Duffy went for Brigit, and was enraged against her because she +had given his sword to the poor man. When Brigit came into the King's +presence, the King said to her, 'Since it is thy father's wealth that thou +takest, much more if I buy thee, wilt thou take of _my_ wealth and _my_ +cattle, and give them to the poor.' Said Brigit, 'The Son of the Virgin +knoweth if I had thy might with all Leinster and with all thy wealth, I +would give them to the Lord of the Elements.' Said the King to Duffy, +'Thou art not fit on either hand to bargain for this maiden, for her merit +is higher before God than before men.' And he gave Duffy for her an +ivory-hilted sword. So was St Brigit saved from bondage." + +The idea of giving a sword to a poor crippled leper because she had +nothing else to give could hardly have entered into the head of any saint +but an Irish one. + +The next extract from this marvellous biography is, perhaps, the most +curious and interesting of all. In another interview that Brigit had with +the King of Leinster, "a slave of the slaves of the King came to speak +with Brigit, and said to her, 'If thou wouldst save me from the servitude +wherein I am, I would become a Christian, and would serve thee thyself.' +Brigit said, 'I will ask that of the King.' So Brigit went into the +fortress and asked her two boons of the king, the forfeiture of the sword +to Duffy, and his freedom for the slave. Said Brigit to the King, 'If thou +desirest excellent children and a kingdom for thy sons, and heaven for +thyself, give me the two boons I ask.' Said the King to Brigit, 'The +kingdom of heaven, as I see it not, and as no one knows what thing it is, +I seek it not; and a kingdom for my sons I seek not, for I shall not +myself be extant, and let each one serve his time. But give me length of +life in my kingdom, and victory always over the Hui Neill, for there is +often war between us; and give me victory in the first battle, so that I +may be trustful in the other fights.' And this was fulfilled in the +battle of Lochar which was fought against the Hui Neill." + +By the "Hui Neill" the people of the entire north of Ireland, including +Meath, were meant. They represented the national party because the chief +kings, for some centuries previous, were of the race of Niall of the Nine +Hostages. Mr Stokes says, speaking of the above extract in his preface to +the translation, "The conversation between Brigit and Dunlang (King of +Leinster) seems to preserve the authentic utterance of an Irish pagan +warrior." + +One extract more to show in a still stronger light the angelic kindness +and love for humanity, especially for suffering humanity, that glowed in +the heart of this wonderful woman: + +"Once upon a time the King of Leinster came unto Brigit to listen to +preaching and celebration on Easter Day. After the ending of the form of +celebration the King fared forth on his way, and Brigit went to refection. +Lomman, Brigit's leper, said he would eat nothing until the warrior +weapons, _arm gaisgedh_, of the King of Leinster were given to him, spear, +sword, and shield, that he might move to and fro under them. A messenger +was sent after the King. From mid-day to evening was the King going +astray, and attained not even a thousand paces, so that the weapons were +given by him and bestowed on the leper." + +This instance of going to such trouble to please a poor crippled pauper, +for Lomman was evidently such, and of working a miracle so that the King +of Leinster should lose his way, and not go so far that he could not be +overtaken, is one of the most extraordinary instances of trouble taken to +please a pauper that is to be found in all the records of benevolence and +charity. + +The "Annals of the Four Masters" say that St Brigit was buried in +Downpatrick, in the same grave with St Patrick; but the learned editor and +translator of their annals says that she and Bishop Conlaeth were buried, +one on the right, and one on the left of the altar, in the church of +Kildare, and he gives Colgan's great book, _Trias Thaumaturga_, as his +authority, and no authority could be higher. + + + + +GLENDALOCH + + +There are not many places in Ireland more interesting than this strange +and weird glen. It can hardly be called beautiful. It is gloomy and grand; +and there is something depressing about it even in the finest day in +autumn when the sombre mountains by which it is surrounded on all sides +but one are mantled in their most gorgeous crimson drapery of +full-blooming heather. It is just such a spot as an anchorite like St +Kevin would choose as a place for contemplation and prayer. + +Glendaloch--it ought _not_ to be spelled _Glendalough_--is very nearly in +the centre of the romantic county of Wicklow. It is a good central point +from which to make excursions to the many beautiful and interesting places +in its vicinity, such as Glen Molur, the Glen of Imail, the Meeting of the +Waters, and the Mountain of Lugnacuilla, the highest in Leinster. The +interior of the County Wicklow may be said to be a vast wilderness of +mountains, bogs, and glens. But its mountains have, with one exception, +the defect of being round-topped. They lack the boldness of the hills of +Connemara and Donegal. The mountain that is the most bold and alpine in +the county, and that forms an exception to the general contour of its +hills, is the famous one called the "Sugar-loaf," near Bray. The Dublin +grocer, or whoever he was that gave this beautiful hill such an abominable +name, should have his memory held in everlasting contempt. Its real name +is a grand one, Sleeve Coolan, _recte_ Sliabh Cualann. But in spite of +the generally rounded outlines of the Wicklow Mountains, there are some +splendid alpine views to be seen among them; and none finer than from the +Glen of Lugalaw, about seven or eight miles from Bray. + +[Illustration: GLENDALOCH.] + +But of all places in Wicklow, Glendaloch is the most famous. It ought to +be so, for there is nothing like it in Ireland. There are many glens as +wild and as gloomy as it, but they lack the historic interest and the +legendary halo that make Glendaloch dear to the archaeologist, the poet, +and the dreamer. Its history goes back almost to the beginning of +Christian times. For five hundred years it was one of the most important +ecclesiastical and educational places in Ireland. Its name constantly +occurs in Irish annals and history; and its history was for centuries as +gloomy as itself, for the Danes plundered it and burned it so often that +it seems strange that it was not abandoned many centuries sooner. It was +so near their great stronghold, Dublin, that it was harried by them on and +off for over two hundred years. + +St Kevin's name is indissolubly associated with Glendaloch, or the Seven +Churches, as it is most frequently called, for it is supposed that there +were seven churches in it at one time. St Kevin, according to the best +authority who ever wrote on Irish history and archaeology, the famous John +O'Donovan, came of a distinguished family in the County Wicklow. His name, +in correct orthography, _Coemhgen_, means "fair offspring." He seems to +have been predestined to be a Saint, for many miraculous things are told +of his infancy and early youth. When he was a baby a white cow is said to +have come miraculously to supply him with milk. The story about his having +murdered Kathleen, the girl with eyes of "unholy blue," by throwing her +into that lake that the "Skylark never warbles o'er," is a mere fable. It +seems a pity that the story upon which Moore founded his very beautiful +lyric, "By that Lake, whose gloomy Shore," should have hardly any +foundation in fact. That a certain girl fell in love with him and caused +him a good deal of annoyance is quite true; but he did not kill her or +throw her into the lake. He only administered a rather mild castigation, +as shall be seen. O'Donovan says that the following extract, taken from +the _Codex Killkenniensis_, which, there are good reasons to believe, has +never yet been made public by translation, is the oldest and most +trustworthy account of the transaction known to exist; and that the +trouble between St Kevin and the girl did not take place in Glendaloch, +but in another place in the County Wicklow. O'Donovan's translation of +the story is the one now given:-- + +"While the most holy Caemhgen (Kevin) was as yet remaining in the house of +his parents, the Lord performed many miracles through him.... The parents +of Kevin observing so great a grace in him, committed him to the care of +the holy seniors, Eoganus, Lochanus, and Enna, in order that he might in +their cell be brought up for Christ; and St Kevin was sedulously reading +with those saints. When he was grown up in the first flower of his youth, +a young girl saw him out in a field along with the brethren, and fell +passionately in love with him, for he was exceedingly handsome. And she +began to make known her friendship for him in astute words. And she was +always laying snares for him in every way she could, by looks, by +language, and sometimes by messengers. But the holy youth rejected all +these allurements. On a certain day she sought the opportunity of finding +him alone, and on a day when the brethren were working in a wood, she +passed by them, and seeing St Kevin working by himself in the wood, she +approached him, and clasped him in her arms with fondest embrace. But the +soldier of Christ arming himself with the sacred sign, and full of the +Holy Ghost, made strong resistance against her, and rushed out of her +arms in the wood; and finding nettles, took secretly a bunch of them, and +struck her with them many times on the face, hands, and feet. And when she +was blistered with the nettles, the pleasure of her love became extinct. +And she being sorrowful of heart, asked on her bended knees pardon of St +Kevin in the name of the Lord. And the Saint praying for her to Christ, +she promised him that she would dedicate her virginity to the Lord. The +brothers finding them discussing together, wondered very much; but the +virgin related to them what had passed; and the brethren hearing such, +were confirmed in their love for chastity. And that little girl afterwards +became a prudent and holy virgin, and diligently observed the holy +admonitions of St Kevin." + +The above translation has not, to the writer's knowledge, ever been +previously published. John O'Donovan, the greatest authority on such +matters that ever lived, says in his unpublished letters, while on the +Ordnance Survey of Ireland, that the above extract "is the oldest and only +authority for the story about St Kevin and the lady, and shows clearly +that the scene of it is erroneously placed at Glendaloch by oral tradition +and modern writers. It will also be sufficient evidence that this Saint +did not murder the lady Kathleen, but inflicted a somewhat mild +punishment by flogging her with a bunch of nettles!" + +So poor St Kevin's memory is cleared. It is a pity that Moore did not see +the _Codex Killkenniensis_ before he wrote the beautiful lyric that casts +such a cloud on Wicklow's greatest saint. That the name of St Kevin was +highly esteemed not only in Wicklow in ancient times, but all through +Leinster, there is ample proof in ancient Gaelic literature. A poet named +Broccan, writing in the tenth century in praise of his native province of +Leinster and the great people it produced, said: + + "I never heard in any province, + Between earth and holy heaven, + Of a nun like St Brigit + Or a cleric like Kevin."[6] + +Glendaloch must have been founded in the latter part of the sixth century, +for St Kevin died in 617, aged 120 years. There cannot be any doubt that +it was he who founded Glendaloch. We are told that he sought the sombre +valley for a retreat in which to contemplate and pray, and that before +there were any buildings in it he lived for a long time in a hollow tree, +and subsisted on wild fruit and water. The cave in the cliff overhanging +the lake, known as St Kevin's Bed, the entrance to which is not only +difficult but dangerous, seems also to have given him shelter for a long +time before there were any habitations in the glen. It is said that if +_nouvelles mariees_ succeed in getting into this dark and dismal cavern, +they are sure to be blessed with large families. Why such a belief should +be current is not easy to understand, because St Kevin, after whom the +cavern is called, not only had no children, but was a decided woman-hater. +If he did not drown Kathleen, he at least whipped her with nettles, a +thing that no gallant man would think of doing to a girl who loved him. It +will, however, be the general opinion of most of those who read this +version of the story, that St Kevin "served her right." + +Glendaloch has been ruined and uprooted in a shocking manner. Of all its +edifices there are only two that still stand--namely, the round tower and +the building known as "Kevin's Kitchen." This latter is stone-roofed, and +is considered to be one of the oldest buildings of the kind in Ireland. +Archaeologists are not agreed as to what particular use it was originally +intended, but that it was an ecclesiastical edifice of some kind seems to +be the opinion of everyone. There are, it is said, the remains of seven +churches still to be seen in Glendaloch. It appears to have been a walled +city, and Petrie, one of the most painstaking and learned archaeologists +that ever Ireland produced, claimed to have traced the tracks of the walls +in many places. That it contained a large population in the eighth and +ninth centuries seems to admit of little doubt. Oengus the Culdee, whose +verse in which Glendaloch is mentioned has been given in the article on +"Emania the Golden," calls it "multitudinous Glendaloch," and "the Rome of +the western world." Allowing for the exaggeration of which ancient Gaelic +poets may have been rather too fond, it must be admitted that what they +say cannot be entirely ignored; and it is more than probable that +immediately before the Danes and other northern nations began their raids +on Ireland, Glendaloch may have been, and probably was, a large monastic +city, as cities were in those days. The Irish monasteries of the eighth +and ninth centuries were probably the wealthiest in the world, if not in +lands, at least in gold and silver. Where or how they got, or where or how +the ancient Irish got, such quantities of the precious metals is a mystery +that may never be solved; but that Ireland had an enormous amount of gold +and silver in ancient times there can be no doubt at all. This would be +sufficiently proved by the quantity, not of coined money, for they had +not any, but of ornaments of almost every kind that have been found in all +parts of the country, more, it is said, than have been found in the rest +of Europe. There is hardly a barony in Ireland, it might be said hardly a +parish, in which stories are not told of people having become suddenly +rich by finding, it is naturally supposed, treasure trove in the shape of +gold ornaments, very few of which have been preserved, for they were +generally melted down. Sir Wm. Wilde mentions, in one of his catalogues of +articles in the Royal Irish Academy, a find of L3000 worth of gold +ornaments in the County Clare some fifty years ago. It seems a +well-ascertained fact that two labourers found over L20,000 worth of gold +ornaments when working on a railway in Munster some forty odd years ago. +The founder of one of the largest jewellery houses in Ireland told a +friend of the writer's that his first "rise" in business was brought about +by buying antique gold ornaments, at sometimes not half their value, from +people who brought them to him from the country. + +When the marauding Northmen first raided Ireland, they seem not to have +had the most remote idea of either conquering the country or making +permanent settlements in it. They may not have despised Irish beef and +mutton, but what they wanted above all was gold and silver. When +Christianity was firmly established in Ireland, the monasteries became the +great depositories of the wealth of the country, and the clergy may be +said to have become its bankers. The monasteries, therefore, became, to a +certain extent, what banks are now, and it was to the monasteries the +Danes gave their first attention. It can hardly be proved from Irish +history that the Danes ever tried to conquer Ireland but once, and that +was at the battle of Clontarf. Even under Turgesius, when they succeeded +in establishing themselves almost everywhere there was salt water or fresh +water to float their ships, they played the part of raiders and not of +conquerors, and never formed a permanent settlement out of sight of their +galleys. In England and in France they acted quite differently. They +conquered and kept all England and a considerable part of France. They +went to England and France to establish themselves, but they went to +Ireland to plunder. The question to be solved is, Why did the Danes act so +differently in Ireland from the way they acted in England and in other +countries? There seems to be no way to answer this question except by +saying that there was so much more of the precious metals in Ireland, +that to get them, and not to conquer the country or form permanent +settlements in it, was their prime object. If history was absolutely +silent about the doings of the Northmen in Ireland, we would, from a surer +guide than history, know that plunder and not settlement was what they had +in view. That guide is place names. There are more Scandinavian place +names to be found in some parishes in the north-east of England than there +are in all Ireland. There are hardly a dozen Scandinavian place names in +Ireland, and they are _all_ on the sea coast but _one_. That one is +Leixlip, and it is only a few miles from the sea, on a river which the +galleys of the Northmen could easily ascend. The only time at which a +serious attempt seems to have been made by the Northmen to become +possessed of Ireland was shortly before the battle of Clontarf, and that +attempt seems to have owed its origin to that horrible but beautiful +woman, Gormfhlaith, sister to the king of Leinster, and whose last of many +husbands was Brian Boramha. That attempt utterly failed, and no other was +ever made. If the Northmen cannot be said to have seriously contemplated +the conquest of Ireland prior to the time immediately before the battle of +Clontarf, it does not seem to have been from lack of men in the country, +for Irish annals and history speak of their vast numbers in such a way as +hardly leaves a doubt as to the awfulness of the scourge they were to the +country at large. So great were their numbers at one time during the ninth +century that we are told that it seemed as if the sea vomited them forth, +and that there was hardly a harbour on the Irish coasts in which there was +not a Danish or a Norwegian fleet. It has to be admitted that the Irish +fought them with the most astonishing persistency and valour. In spite of +the way the country was split into petty kingdoms, with chief kings, who +were generally such only in name, the reception the Northmen got in +Ireland was very different from that which they got in England. The Saxons +often got rid of them by paying them to go away, but the Irish got rid of +them only by the sword. Those who want to know what Ireland suffered from +the raids of the Northmen should read the "Wars of the Gael and the +Gaill." The book is generally believed to have been written by M'Liag, who +was living when the battle of Clontarf was fought, and who was chief poet, +or secretary, to Brian Boramha. + +Although the Northmen were allies of Leinster for a long time, they +plundered Glendaloch in the years 833, 886, and 982. It was so near +Dublin and so near the sea that their alliance with Leinster did not +prevent them from raiding it. It was one of the rich ecclesiastical +establishments in Ireland, and one of those most exposed to the incursions +of the Northmen. Its round tower was, therefore, in all probability, one +of the first that was erected. It is now generally believed by those most +competent to form an opinion that the round towers of Ireland were erected +as places of security against the Northmen, and that they were sometimes +used as belfries. Their Irish name, _cloigtheach_, means a bell house and +nothing else; but it is quite clear that, although they sometimes served +as belfries, the primary object of their erection was to secure a place of +safety for the treasures of the church or monastery, close to which they +were invariably erected. Of the hundred and eight round towers which are +known to have been erected in Ireland, and of which remains exist, every +one of them is known to have been erected close to where a church or +monastery stood. More than half of them are in ruins; of some only a few +feet of the walls remain; and of some others the foundations only remain. +It may seem hard for some, in these days of far-reaching projectiles to +imagine how those slender towers, so chaste and beautiful in their +construction, could serve as places of defence or security against the +Danes. They could not have served as such if the Danes had come as +conquerors to form permanent settlements, but as they were only raiders +the towers were generally perfect defences against them. A dozen men shut +into a round tower, the door of which was generally from ten to fourteen +feet from the ground, could laugh at an army of Danes who had neither +battering rams nor artillery of any kind. There was only one way by which +a round tower could be taken or destroyed by men like the plundering hosts +of the Vikings, who did not, and could not, take ponderous implements like +battering rams with them on their raids, and that was by undermining +it--digging its foundations so that it would fall. But this would have +been a very tedious business, for the foundations of many of the round +towers are six and even ten feet below the surface. A few dozen resolute +men in a round tower might defy an army of Danes, provided the besieged +had enough of food and drink in their stronghold. It must, however, be +admitted that the Northmen did sometimes succeed in taking and plundering +round towers, but by what means we do not know. + +Those who maintain that the round towers are pre-Christian structures, and +that there is nothing said in Irish annals about their erection, have very +little warrant for such an assertion. If they read Lord Dunraven's work on +ancient Irish architecture, they will find copies of more than one +allusion to their erection from the most authentic Irish annals known to +exist. Here is one taken from the _Chronicon Scottorum_, a work of the +highest authority and authenticity, compiled about the year 1124. "The +great _Cloigtheach_ (or belfry) of Clonmacnois was finished by Gillachrist +Ua Maeleoin and by Turloch O'Connor." This entry refers to the year 1120. + +While speaking of the uses of round towers, the wealth of Irish +monasteries, and of Ireland in general in ancient times, it may not be out +of place to say that that very wealth proved a curse to the country, for +if Ireland had not been so rich in precious metals, the Northmen would +probably never have invaded and raided it; or if they did invade it, they +would have done so with a view to subjugating it and forming permanent +settlements in it, as they did in England and France,--things that might +have been, and that probably would have been, of benefit to the country. +If Ireland had been conquered by the Northmen they would certainly have +destroyed the provincial kingdoms, and have brought the whole island under +the sway of one ruler; and whether that ruler was Irish or Norse, it would +have been of immense benefit to the country at large. Ancient Irish polity +was very good theoretically, but practically it was a frightful failure. +The Scandinavian invasions only added to the political confusion of +Ireland. They were of benefit to England and France, for they brought an +infusion of fresh blood into those countries. But to Ireland they brought +destruction and ruin, with only a slight infusion of fresh blood. They +made the political confusion of the country more confounded. They robbed +it of an immense quantity of its wealth, but worse than that, they +destroyed a large part of its literature. The monasteries were not only +the repositories of wealth but of books. It was impossible that +monasteries could be plundered and burnt without damage being done to the +books they contained. There is positive proof in Irish annals that the +Northmen were in the habit of _drowning_ the books they found in the +religious houses. Books were in those days, as is well known, made of +vellum, or prepared leather, a material hard to burn; they were +consequently cast into the nearest lake or river, from which very few of +them were probably ever recovered. If it had not been for Scandinavian +burnings and plunderings, mediaeval Gaelic literature would, even now, be +so immense that it would command the respect of the world at large. Those +who say that the bulk of mediaeval Gaelic writings has come down to us--and +there are those that have the unspeakable hardihood to say so--must be +classed as very prejudiced, or very ignorant of Irish history. + +The last entry in the Four Masters relating to Glendaloch occurs under the +year 1163. It appears to have been abandoned shortly after that date; but +why it was abandoned as an ecclesiastical establishment when Danish raids +and plunderings had ceased does not seem to be clearly known. + +Glendaloch has been thus lengthenedly treated on because it is the most +interesting ecclesiastical ruin in the province of Leinster, Clonmacnois +only excepted. Its strange and gloomy, yet romantic situation, its +antiquity, its sad history of burnings and plunderings, the utter ruin +that has overtaken most of its monuments, the halo of legend and romance +that is around it, give it a charm even to the non-imaginative and the +rude. For the archaeologist, the poet, the romancer, or the dreamer, it has +attractions and charms greater, perhaps, than they could find on any other +spot of Irish soil. + + + + +"LORDLY AILEACH" + + +Next to Emania and Ardmagh, Aileach is the most historic spot in the +province of Ulster. It lies four miles west of the city of Derry, on a +round, heath-clad hill, some eight hundred feet above the level of the +sea. It is one of the most ancient cyclopean fortresses in Ireland, or, +perhaps, in the world. There is no scenic beauty in the immediate vicinity +of Aileach, but there is a view from the hill-top on which it is situated +that for wildness and sublimity can hardly be equalled anywhere in the +British Isles,--a view which will amply repay any one who sees it on a +clear day. On the north the hills of Inishowen obstruct the view, but west +and south-west it is sublime. The eye ranges over a wilderness of +fantastic-shaped mountains, some shooting up sharp as arrows, others round +and ridgy, separated by sinuous sea-lochs and glittering tarns,--a land of +awful ruggedness and desolation,--of rock-bound shores cleft into myriad +bays and fiords by the thundering almost ever restless northern sea that +beats against them. If no hoary ruin crowned the hill on which the +"Lordly Aileach" of Gaelic poets stands, the view from its summit would be +worth a journey of a hundred miles to see, for most of the wildness and +grandeur of "Dark Donegall" are spread before the eye. On the north-east +and north-west the waters of Loch Foyle and Loch Swilly spread themselves +almost beneath the feet of the gazer from Aileach. It stands on a hill +that commands a view of both Loch Foyle and Loch Swilly; and the site of +this ancient fortress was evidently chosen on account of the view it +commands of those two sea-lochs, for no fleet could enter them for any +distance without being seen by the watchers on the walls of Aileach. + +The first thing that should be mentioned when speaking of Aileach is the +noble work that has been lately accomplished regarding it. An article +appeared about it some twenty years ago in the _Irish Times_ of Dublin, +calling attention to its antiquity, the historic and legendary renown of +that ancient place; and a Mr Barnard of Londonderry became interested in +Aileach and determined to make an effort to have the demolished fortress +restored as far as was possible. He made a pilgrimage among the farmers +living in the locality, and got promises of help in the way of men to +work for so many days at the restoration of the fortress. The farmers kept +their word, gave him the help of the men they had promised, and in a +comparatively short time the walls of the ruined fortress, under the +surveillance of Mr Barnard, once again crowned the hill of Greenan, after +having been in ruins for well-nigh eight hundred years. Mr Barnard, and +the farmers that gave him assistance in the good work, deserve the thanks +of every one who is a patriot, or has any reverence for the ancient +monuments of his country, or any respect for the hallowed past. + +The early history of Aileach is "lost in the twylight of fable." It is a +pre-historic building, almost as much so as a Pyramid of Egypt. It was +used as a stronghold down to the beginning of the twelfth century; but +when it was built, or by whom, cannot be said to be known from authentic +history, for the many poems that exist about its origin in ancient Gaelic +are legendary rather than historic. There may be, and there probably is, a +great deal of truth in them, but they cannot be accepted as history. + +Aileach is a circular, dry-stone fortress with walls nine feet thick. It +was levelled down to the ground when Mr Barnard undertook its restoration. +The history of its destruction is so strange, so unique, and so Irish, +that it must be given. Let the Four Masters tell it. They say, under the +year 1101, that "A great army was led by O'Brian, King of Munster, with +the men of Munster, Ossory, Meath and Connacht, across Assaroe into +Innishowen.... He demolished Grianan Aileach in revenge of Kinncora, which +had been razed and demolished by Muircheartach O'Lochlainn some time +before. O'Brian commanded his army to carry with them from Aileach to +Limerick a stone of the demolished building for every sack of provisions +they had. In commemoration of which was said (by some unknown poet)-- + + "'I never heard of the billeting of grit stones, + Though I heard of the billeting of companies, + Until the stones of Aileach were billeted + On the horses of the King of the West.'" + +This is the only attempt at anything like humour in all the dreary annals +of the Four Masters. Such quiet sarcasm would be a credit to Mark Twain. +But if the poet had said "King of the South" instead of "King of the +West," although it might not have answered his Gaelic rhyme or assonance +quite so well, it would have been more correct, for although Munster is +west of Aileach, it is more south than west. It can never be known how +high the walls of Aileach had been before they were pulled down by +O'Brien, because we don't know how many cavalry he had, or how many stones +he carried to Limerick. Never before was an army loaded with such +impedimenta; but that the story of the stones of Aileach, or at least, +stones similar to them, having been brought to Limerick or its immediate +vicinity, there cannot be much doubt, for they were found there. + +The fortress of Aileach is nearly a hundred feet in diameter in the +inside. It is not known if it was ever roofed, but it is probable that it +was. There were two lines of earthen ramparts round it, but they have +nearly disappeared. John O'Donovan thought that the entire hill of +Grianan, on which the fortress stands, was once enclosed by a vast rampart +of earth, and that cultivation has destroyed all but the faintest traces +of it. It seems probable that Aileach was intended more for a stronghold +than for a permanent dwelling-place. It may have been inhabited only when +a siege or an invasion was expected. One of its names, or rather the first +part of one of its names, "Grianan," would indicate that it was intended +only as a summer residence, like the Dunsinane = _Dun soinine_, fine +weather fortress, of Macbeth. Those who could live in winter on top of +the wind-swept hill on which Aileach stands without getting coughs or +colds would require constitutions of iron and lungs of brass. + +O'Donovan says that if any reliance can be placed on Irish chronology, the +antiquity of Aileach must be very great, no less than upwards of a +thousand years before the Christian era. He says, also, that the poet, +part of whose poem on Aileach is given below, in making the Tuata de +Danaan King, Eochy, generally known in Irish history and legend as the +Dagda, contemporaneous with the Assyrian King, Darcylus, exactly agrees +with the chronology of O'Flaherty and Usher, who say that he reigned 1053 +years before the Christian era. + +There is a poem in the "Book of Lecan" on Aileach by the poet to whom +O'Donovan alludes, that in language and _tournure_ bears the marks of +extreme antiquity. Even O'Donovan, great a Celtic scholar as he was, had +apparently extreme difficulty in translating it. It has never been +published. The first dozen or so lines are given here:-- + +"Aileach Fridreann, arena of mighty kings. A _dun_ through which ran roads +under heroes through five ramparts. Hill on which slept the Dagda. Red its +flowers. Many its houses. Just its spoils. Few its stones. A lofty castle +is Aileach. Fort of the great man. A sheltering _dun_ over the lime +[white] schools. A delightful spot is Aileach. Green its bushes. The sod +where the Dagda found the mound wherein rested Hugh." + +But it is in more recent times that the history and records of Aileach +become supremely interesting. It was from there that Muircheartach Mac +Neill, styled the Hector of the west of Europe by old annalists, started +on his celebrated "Circuit of Ireland" in the year 942. He was heir +apparent to the chief kingship of Ireland, and wanted to show the +provincial rulers that he was fit to rule _them_. So he determined to +start on his circuit in the depth of winter, when it appears the ancient +Irish seldom went on forays, and either make or persuade the provincial +rulers to acknowledge his right to the throne when the then reigning chief +king, Donacha, died. The way he is said to have chosen men for the +expedition is very curious and very Irish. He caused a tent to be erected, +keeping the cause of its erection unknown, and made his men to go into it +at night. A fierce dog attacked every one that entered; and opposite to +where the dog was, an armed man also attacked those that entered; both man +and dog simultaneously attacking the intruder. If he who entered the tent +flinched neither from dog nor man, but showed fight to both, he was +chosen; but whoever showed the least sign of cowardice was rejected. Out +of his whole army we are told that Muircheartach could only get a thousand +men, and with that small army, protected by strong leather cloaks, he +started on his Circuit of Ireland to force, intimidate, or coax the +provincial kings to acknowledge that he was their master, and that he was +to be their next suzerain. + +Our principal source of information about the Circuit comes from a poem of +undoubted authority and antiquity, written by one called Cormacan Eigeas, +who accompanied Muircheartach on the expedition. It is one of the most +remarkable poems of its age, not only in Gaelic, but in any language. It +was translated more than forty years ago, and may be seen in the +"Transactions" of the Royal Irish Academy; but it is not probable that +even forty persons have ever read it, so little general interest has +heretofore been taken in Gaelic literature or Irish history. For these +reasons it cannot be uninteresting to give some extracts from it. It +commences: + + "O Muircheartach, son of the valiant Niall, + Thou hast taken the hostages of Inis Fail, + Thou hast brought them all into Aileach, + Into the stone-built palace of steeds! + + "Thou didst go forth from us with a thousand heroes + Of the race of Eoghan of red weapons, + To make the great Circuit of Ireland, + O Muircheartach of the yellow hair! + + "The day thou didst set out from us eastwards + Into the fair province of Connor,[7] + Many were the tears down beauteous cheeks + Among the fair-haired women of Aileach." + +Muircheartach carried off the King of Ulster; and, as the old chroniclers +tell us, keeping his left hand to the sea, he fared to Dublin, then the +greatest stronghold the Danes had, not only in Ireland but in the west of +Europe. He did not have to fight the Danes of Dublin, although he had +often fought them before, for their king, probably thinking that +"discretion was the better part of valour," surrendered himself a +prisoner. And here one of these inconsequential incidents is related, +which no one but an ancient Irish poet would dream of mentioning. +Muircheartach seems to have had no objection to make love to a Danish +maiden, often as he had fought Danish men. Cormacan, the poet, tells us +that they + + "Were a night at fair Ath-cliath [Dublin]; + It was not a pleasure to the foreigners: + There was a damsel in the strong fortress + Whose soul the son of Niall was; + She came forth until she was outside the walls, + Although the night was constantly bad." + +Muircheartach then proceeded south-west from Dublin to Aillinn, and +carried away the King of Leinster. He then made for Cashel, where the +King of Munster lived. But Callachan, that was his name, showed fight, and +Muircheartach's men threw off their leather cloaks and prepared to stand +by him. However, seeing that things were beginning to look serious, the +King of Munster yielded and was carried away prisoner with a golden fetter +on him. The leader of the Circuit then turned northwards into Connacht, +and carried away the king of that province. So he had the four provincial +kings in his power, and also the Danish King of Dublin. But he did them +neither hurt nor harm, for he seems to have been in a good humour all the +time he was "on circuit"; and we are told by his poet laureate that on +their halts the soldiers amused themselves in many ways, especially by +music and dancing, and he says-- + + "Music we had on the plain and in our tents, + Listening to its strains, we danced awhile; + There, methinks, a heavy noise was made + By the shaking of our hard cloaks." + +The next three verses are magnificent. They are full of dramatic power and +naturalness. When the triumphant army, but triumphant without having shed +a drop of blood, approach Aileach, a messenger is sent forward to announce +its arrival:-- + + "From the green of Lochan-na-neach + A page is despatched to Aileach + To tell Duvdaire[8] of the black hair + To send women to cut rushes. + + "'Rise up, O Duvdaire (_said the page_), + There is a company coming to thy house; + Attend every man of them + As a monarch should be attended.' + + "'Tell me (_she said_) what company comes hither + To the lordly Aileach Rigreann, + Tell me, O fair page, + That I may attend them?' + + "'The Kings of Erin in fetters (_he replies_), + With Muircheartach, son of the warlike Niall.'" + +The kingly prisoners were all brought to Aileach, where they were feasted +for five months; and the following list of their bill of fare will show +that they lived well. Let the same poet tell it:-- + + "Ten score hogs--no small work, + Ten score cows, two hundred oxen, + Were slaughtered at festive Aileach + For Muircheartach of the great fetters. + + "Three score vats of curds, + Which banished the hungry look of the army, + With a sufficiency of cheering mead, + Were given by magnanimous Muircheartach." + +When the five kings were feasted--and it is to be hoped fattened--for five +months, Muircheartach brought them to the chief king or emperor, Donacha, +and gave them up to him. The following extraordinary dialogue, taken from +the same poem, occurs between them. Muircheartach says: + + "'There are the noble kings for thee.' + Said Muircheartach, the son of Niall; + 'For thou, O Donacha, it is certain to me, + Art the best man of the men of Erin.' + + "_Donacha._ + "'Thou art a better man thyself, O King, + With thee no one can vie; + It is thou who didst take captive the noble kings, + O Muircheartach, son of the great Niall.' + + "_Muircheartach._ + "'Thou art better thyself, O Donacha the black haired, + Than any man in our land; + Whoever is in strong Tara + It is he that is monarch of Erin.' + + "_Donacha._ + "'Receive my blessing, nobly, + O son of Niall Glundubh, bright, pure; + May Tara be possessed by thee, + O Prince of the bright Loch Foyle![9] + + "'May thy race possess Moy Breagh,[10] + May they possess the white-sided Tara, + May the hostages of the Gael be in thy house, + O good son, O Muircheartach!'" + +It is sad to know that this extraordinary poem, with its uniqueness, its +dramatic power, and its raciness of the soil and of the time, +notwithstanding the fact that it was translated and published in the +Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy over forty years ago, is to-day +hardly any more known than it was when it lay unheeded and unknown in the +archaic Gaelic of the tenth century. It might, for all the notice that has +been taken of it, as well not have been translated at all. No other people +on earth would have treated such an archaic literary gem with such +coldness and contempt. It would seem as if the Irish people were losing +not only their soul but their brains. If such a poem were written in +Finnish or in Ojibaway it could not have been more ignored than it has +been by a people who call themselves intellectual. + +In this poem the same anachronism may be noticed that led Petrie so much +astray about the Lia Fail having been in Tara in the tenth century. +Muircheartach addresses Donacha as if he were living in Tara, although +Tara had been abandoned four hundred years before, and was as waste and as +desolate in the time of Donacha as it is to-day; the chief kings of his +epoch and for centuries before it, lived usually in Westmeath or in +Donegal. + +That Muircheartach Mac Neill, though a sort of Rory O'More of the tenth +century, was a great man can hardly be doubted. He seems to have +contemplated the entire overthrow of the pentarchy and the union of all +the provinces under one sole king, namely, himself. He could hardly have +been ignorant of what had occurred in England in the century previous--how +Alfred had broken up the Saxon heptarchy and made himself practically sole +king in England. If Muircheartach had succeeded in destroying the wretched +system of provincial nationality, and had made the country a political +unit, the subsequent history of Ireland would probably be very different +from what it has been. But Muircheartach was killed by his old enemies the +Danes, the year after he made his famous circuit. They also killed his +father, Niall Glundubh, at the battle of Killmoshogue, near Dublin, in the +year 917. Here is what the Four Masters say about him under the year +941[11]: "Muircheartach of the Leather Cloaks, Lord of Aileach, the Hector +of the west of Europe in his time, was slain at Ardee (in Louth) by +Blacaire, the son of Godfrey, Lord of the Foreigners, on the 26th of +March. In lamentation of him it was said-- + + "'Vengeance and destruction + Have descended on the race of Conn for ever; + As Muircheartach does not live, alas! + The country of the Gael will always be an orphan.'" + + + + +"ROYAL AND SAINTLY CASHEL" + + +The situation of three of the most historic and remarkable ecclesiastical +establishments in Ireland, namely, Clonmacnois, Glendaloch, and Cashel, is +very peculiar. The first is on a barren sandhill surrounded by the most +strange and unique scenery in Ireland, consisting of almost illimitable +meadows interspersed with bogs. The second is in one of the gloomiest and +weirdest glens in the island; but Cashel is on a towering rock amid some +of the richest land, not only in Ireland but in the world, and overlooking +as goodly a country as human eye perhaps ever gazed on. Ancient Irish +monks and churchmen must have been peculiarly gifted with an appreciation +of the strange, unique, and beautiful in nature, or they would not have +fixed their retreats in such peculiar places. If ancient Irish kings loved +to place their strongholds on hills such as Tara, Aileach, Knock Aillinn, +and Uisneach, ancient Irish ecclesiastics seemed not to have cared whether +their churches were on hills or in hollows, provided they were somewhere +that was strange, weird, or beautiful. + +The situation of Cashel is not only beautiful but superb. There is no +other place of its kind in Ireland situated like it. Its situation is as +peculiar as that of Glendaloch or Clonmacnois. It is, perhaps, the most +imposing pile of ecclesiastical ruins in Europe. Mont St Michael in France +can hardly compare with Cashel in commanding beauty of situation. One +overlooks the chilly sea, but the other overlooks as warm, as fair, and as +fertile a country as there is in the world. + +[Illustration: BUILDINGS ON THE ROCK OF CASHEL.] + +Cashel has inspired many poets; but, unfortunately, none of the great +English masters of song has made it a theme; and it is strange that our +own Moore, who has celebrated Glendaloch, the Vale of Avoca, and other +famous places, never composed a lyric on Cashel. No other place in Ireland +could have given him a grander theme to write poems of the kind in which +he delighted, and in the composition of which he was such an acknowledged +master. It is indeed strange that so few of those who may be called our +minor poets have written about Cashel, and so seldom taken it as their +theme. There exists, however, a short poem on Cashel of the class usually +known as sonnets, and it is probable that neither Moore, nor any of the +other great masters of song, could have written anything superior to it. +It is by the late Sir Aubry de Vere. It first appeared in the _Dublin +Penny Journal_ some sixty years ago; but it has so long been partially +forgotten that it can hardly be out of place to reproduce it here: + + "Royal and saintly Cashel! I could gaze + Upon the wreck of thy departed powers, + Not in the dewy light of matin hours, + Nor the meridian pomp of summer's blaze; + But at the close of dim autumnal days + When the sun's parting glance thro' slanting showers + Sheds o'er thy rock-throned pediments and towers + Such awful gleams as brighten on Decay's + Prophetic cheek;--at such a time methinks + There breathes from thy lone courts and voiceless aisles + A melancholy moral, such as sinks + On the worn traveller's heart amid the piles + Of vast Persepolis on her mountain stand, + Or Thebes half buried in the desert's sand." + +It is strange that Cashel has not inspired more poets; but it is stranger +still that the once soulful people of Ireland would have allowed it to be +defaced by any modern building erected on the rock on which stands its +hallowed and ruined piles. Some gentleman named Scully has erected a brand +new round tower almost in the very centre of the hoary monuments that are +so sanctified by antiquity. The new tower is not shown on the annexed +plate, because of the horrible picture it would make. It is strange that +those living near Cashel did not prevent, if they could have done so, the +marring of one of the most striking, beautiful and soul-inspiring ruins +not only in Ireland but in Europe. It may be that Mr Scully thought that +by erecting a new monument of antique type there would not be any +incongruity manifested by it, and that by having his name written on it in +the Irish language and in Irish characters he would atone for the error he +committed. If he thought so, he made a great mistake, for _anything_ new, +whether a round tower, a cross, or a brick-built grocery, would destroy +all the antique charm of such noble ruins as those on the rock of Cashel. +It may be willingly granted that it is a pity there are any ruins at all +in the world, and that buildings cannot last new for ever. It should be +remembered, however, that nothing can last always; and that when buildings +become ruined by time, and, above all, when they have become historic like +those on the rock of Cashel, and when they serve to show either the piety +or the civilisation of those who have passed away, it becomes absolute +barbarism to mar them and mock them by erecting _anything_ new in their +immediate vicinity. A modern church on the Hill of Tara is bad enough, but +a new building on the Rock of Cashel is little else than a profanation. + +Cashel was a seat of the kings of Munster from a time so far back in the +dim past, that one almost shudders to think how long ago it is. Long +before a Christian edifice crowned the Rock of Cashel, the barbaric dry +stone fortress of some Munster pagan king certainly covered it; for very +little work would have to be bestowed on it to render it an almost +impregnable fortress in ancient times. Some have derived the word Cashel +from _cios_, rent, and _ail_, a rock, making it to mean "rent rock"; for +it is certain that when the kings of Munster lived in Cashel, it was the +place where they received most of their tributes or rents; but the best +modern Gaelic scholars, including Dr P. W. Joyce, author of that most +useful and learned book, "Irish Names of Places," maintain that the word +_Caiseal_ means simply a circular building of dry stones, for the name +occurs in scores of places throughout Ireland; and such a building was no +doubt on this rock in pre-Christian times. + +Cashel became a seat of Christian cult at a very early period, and there +are good reasons to think that St Patrick founded a church there. The Rock +of Cashel has for very many centuries been known as _Carraig Phadraig_, or +Patrick's Rock. The first Christian Irishman whose writings have come down +to us was Dubhthach, or, as the name would probably now be Anglicised, +Duffy, Mac U Lugair. In his poem in praise of the prowess of Leinstermen, +he says, that they "unyoked their horses on the ramparts of clerical +Cashel." As this Duffy was a disciple of St Patrick's, and one of the +first converts made by him in Ireland, we are forced to think that one of +the first Christian churches ever erected in Ireland was the one erected +in Cashel, as it appears to have been in existence when Duffy wrote his +poem, which could hardly have been later than the middle of the sixth +century. But no vestige of the church of St Patrick's time remains. It was +probably a wooden building, and may have disappeared as far back as +thirteen centuries ago. The oldest building on the Rock of Cashel is the +round tower, not Mr Scully's incongruous edifice, but the original one, +built probably in the ninth century. It is ninety feet high, and in a +fairly good state of preservation. The cathedral is thought to have been +built in 1169 by O'Brien, King of Munster, but there does not appear to be +much of the building he erected to be seen now, for the ruined cathedral +which exists cannot, from the style of its architecture, be older than the +fourteenth century. We know from authentic history that one of the +Fitzgeralds burned the cathedral in 1495, because he wanted to burn +Archbishop Creagh, who, he thought, was in it; but it does not seem to be +fully known whether the building was entirely or only partially destroyed +by Fitzgerald. Divine service is said to have been celebrated in it so +late as 1752, but it must have been in a semi-ruined condition even then. + +[Illustration: INTERIOR OF CORMAC'S CHAPEL.] + +But it is Cormac's Chapel that is the real architectural glory of the Rock +of Cashel. It is by some wrongly attributed to the time of Cormac Mac +Cullenann in the ninth century. It was built by Cormac Mac Carthy, a +king of Minister, in the early part of the twelfth century. The principal +proof that it was built at that time is found in the _Chronicon +Scottorum_, in which it is stated that Cormac's Chapel at Cashel was +consecrated in 1130. It is more than probable that the chapel was +consecrated very soon after it was finished. It does not come within the +scope of a work like this to enter into technical details on matters +connected with architecture; but for chaste beauty, for elaborate carving, +and solidity of structure, it may be said that Cormac's Chapel is one of +the most wonderful ecclesiastical buildings of its age in Christendom. The +practised eye of the trained architectural critic might notice some signs +of decay about it, some effacement in the gorgeous carvings or designs +with which almost every stone of the interior is more or less covered; but +to the ordinary observer, the whole building, within and without, seems +almost as perfect as it was the day its architect pronounced it finished. +If Cormac's Chapel were only larger, it would be the noblest and most +remarkable ecclesiastical building of its age in the British Isles, or +probably in Europe. But, unfortunately, it is very small, the nave being +only about thirty feet in length, and the choir only about eighteen. But +what it lacks in size is made up in elaborate carving, chaste design, and +solidity of structure. It looks as if it would last until the day of doom, +and as if nothing but an earthquake could destroy it. Its very roof seems +as strong and as perfect as its walls. It is of cut stone laid on with +geometrical exactness, as sound and as solid as ever it was. However +imposing the _coup d'oeil_ that "the rock-throned pediments and towers" of +Cashel may present from without, it is an examination of this gem of +antique architectural beauty that gives one the highest opinion of the +artistic skill of those whose appreciation of the unique and beautiful led +them to choose this towering rock as a fit place on which to raise +edifices dedicated to the Deity. + +It is strange how it was that the ancient or rather the mediaeval Irish, +who knew how to erect such beautiful and enduring stone and mortar +structures as the round towers, and such gems of architectural beauty as +Cormac's Chapel is, and as Mellifont Abbey certainly was, should have +housed their kings and chiefs in dwellings of wood, whose only defence was +an earthen rampart surmounted by a palisade of stakes, or in a Cyclopean +fortress of dry stones. It is absolutely certain that not a single castle +built of stones and mortar existed in Ireland prior to the Anglo-French +invasion. The Irish knew how to build round towers and churches, but seem +never to have thought of building castles until their invaders taught them +to build them. The thing looks very curious, but, on closer examination, +it does not appear so strange, for it is now pretty well known that none +of the Northern nations had castles before the eleventh century. The +French seem to have been the first of the Northern nations that had +castles. It is very doubtful if there was a castle in Great Britain before +the Norman-French conquest. If there were castles in England or Scotland +before the battle of Hastings, they were imitations of those on the +Continent, and were probably designed and built by Continental architects +and mechanics. Neither the Scandinavians nor Northern-Germans appear to +have had castles until late in the middle ages, when they copied them from +more Southern nations. But it was the Norman-French that brought the art +of castle building to its greatest perfection. + +The ruins of Hoar Abbey, or St Mary's Abbey, as it is sometimes called, +are situated close to the Rock, but not on it. It is believed to have been +founded by the Benedictine order in the thirteenth century. + +Cashel is interesting in almost every way. There is a magnificent view +from its ruin-crowned rock over some of the fairest and most fertile land +in Ireland. Nor is a mountain view wanting, for the Galtees, the second +highest range of mountains in Ireland, are visible, and a noble range they +are, not rounded lumps like so many of the Wicklow Hills, but steep, +sheer, cloud-piercing heights,--Alps in miniature. It is a pity that the +town, or rather the city, of Cashel is not larger and more thriving. It +may have been, like Glendaloch and Kildare, much larger in early Christian +times than it is at present, but there does not seem to be any statement +of the fact in any of the old Gaelic books, so far as is known to the +writer. But whatever may have been the past history of the city of Cashel, +no one in search of the picturesque, the unique, or the historic in +Ireland should fail to see its Rock. It is said that when Scott visited +Ireland he was more impressed by the Rock of Cashel than by anything else +of its kind that he saw in the country. + +Of all the remains of Christian edifices in Ireland, Cashel, Glendaloch, +and Clonmacnois are the most interesting. It is not only by the beauty or +peculiarity of their situations that they impress us, for their histories +go so far back into the past, when the combat of Christianity with +Druidism was still going on, that we may regard them as the advance posts +of a purer cult in the ground conquered from paganism. It would be hard to +find in Europe three other places of a similar kind more antique, more +interesting, or more worthy of being respected. What remains of their +hallowed ruins should be guarded with jealous care, and saved from any +further uprooting or profanation. + + + + +LOCH ERNE + + +Loch Erne and Loch Ree are not only the most beautiful, but the most +historic of the great lakes of Ireland. Loch Neagh is larger than either +of them, and Loch Dearg and Loch Corrib are probably nearly as large; but +none of those three is as picturesque as either of the two first-mentioned +lakes. The shores of Loch Dearg are bolder and more mountainous than those +of either Loch Erne or Loch Ree, but Loch Dearg lacks the island-studded +surface of the two latter, which is their great charm. Whether Loch Erne +or Loch Ree is the more beautiful is not easy to decide. Both are as +beautiful sheets of water as can be easily found, but both lack mountain +scenery in the true sense of the phrase. There are some high lands on the +lower part of Loch Erne, but they can hardly be called mountains. In +number and variety of its islands, Loch Erne is only surpassed by that +famous lake on the vast St Lawrence, known as the Thousand Isles. + +[Illustration: VIEW ON UPPER LOCH ERNE.] + +Loch Erne is certainly the most peculiar and also the longest lake in +Ireland. From where it may be said to begin, near Belturbet in the County +Cavan, to where it ceases to be a lake, and pours its waters into the sea +through the river Erne, it is fully thirty-five miles long in a bird line. +Its peculiarity consists in its extraordinary beginnings, and the number +of its islands. Its beginnings are winding, mazy, and, on the map, almost +untraceable water ways, that twist and turn in almost every direction +through swamps and bogs, with no attraction save for the sportsman in +pursuit of water fowl. As one approaches Enniskillen the glories of Loch +Erne commence. There is nothing in the shape of mountains to be seen, but +they are not missed; for such is the beauty of green round hills on both +sides, and such the wondrous number and variety of the islands, that if +there were mountains as lofty as the Alps in view, one could hardly spare +time to look at them. The islands seem innumerable, and the shores are so +indented with bays, and the lake itself so pierced by jutting headlands, +that on sailing on Loch Erne it is often impossible to know an island from +a peninsula, or a peninsula from an island. There is certainly no lake in +Ireland or in Great Britain whose shores are so indented as are those of +Loch Erne. The great charm of its shores and islands is their roundness +and their greenness. They are not low or swampy, but high and swelling, +forming scenes of quiet, and, it might be said, pastoral beauty, on which +one could gaze for days and weeks without tiring. Variety of the most +striking kind is one of the peculiarities of Loch Erne. It begins in +tortuous, narrow, confused bog streams. It then assumes its fairest +aspect, studded with innumerable islands, and sometimes so narrowed by +far-entering promontories that it is in some places only a few hundred +yards wide; but as it spreads northwards it gets wider and wider, until at +last it is like a great inland sea, seven or eight miles wide. If finer +views may be had of Loch Ree than of Loch Erne, in variety of scenery, +number of islands, and startling contrasts, Loch Erne is without a rival +among Irish lakes. If it and Loch Ree had the mountains of Killarney, +Killarney might well tremble for the fame it enjoys of being the most +beautiful of Irish lakes. + +Loch Erne is divided into upper and lower lakes. The clean and thriving +town of Enniskillen is situated on the straight, or narrow river, that +joins the two lakes; but it may be said that there are not two lakes, but +only one, for Enniskillen is situated where the lake narrows into what +might be called a river, but a river full of islands and bays, just as the +upper lake is. Its multitude of islands is the charm of Loch Erne. The +best authorities say that there are a hundred and nine islands in the +lower lake, and ninety in the upper. It is a shame that a small steam-boat +does not ply regularly, at least in summer time, from one end of this +noble sheet of water to the other. If Loch Erne, with its marvellous +variety and beauty of scenery, were in any other European country, there +would be not one but half-a-dozen steam-boats on it. It is strange that +the inhabitants of Enniskillen do not make an effort to establish a line +of light draft-steamers on Loch Erne that would ply on both upper and +lower lakes. A small steamer does sometimes, according to report, ply in +the summer between Enniskillen and Beleek; but it does not appear that any +steamer has ever navigated the waters of the upper lake, which is the more +picturesque of the two. Nothing could more plainly show the backward +condition of Ireland than the fact that there is no regular line of +passenger steam-boats either on the Upper Shannon or on Loch Erne. +Tourists, or those in search of picturesque localities, will never go to +places where there is not proper accommodation for them. No matter how +beautiful the scenery may be, it will not be visited by any large number +of people unless they can have comforts in travelling and lodging. +Switzerland attracts more rich people to visit it in summer-time than any +other country in the world; but, with all its marvellous beauties of +mountain, lake, and river, it would never attract the multitudes that go +there every year if they did not find good travelling and good hotel +accommodation. In Switzerland there are steam-boats on every lake and on +every river where there are beautiful sights to be seen. There are lakes +in it that are visited every year by crowds of tourists, who would find +sights as beautiful on Loch Erne or on Loch Ree, and who would visit those +lakes if they knew that they could find on their waters, or on their +shores, the travelling comforts and the hotel comforts they find in +Switzerland. It has to be frankly admitted that the reason why the +beauties of Ireland are so comparatively little known is largely owing to +the Irish themselves. Let them provide better accommodation for the +travelling public, and Ireland will attract people who heretofore have +never visited it. + +Loch Erne is, as has been already stated, thirty-five miles long, and is +navigable, or could with very little expense be made navigable, for light +draft steam-boats all that distance. If there is anything in the shape of +an aquatic excursion that could be really delightful, it would be a sail +on Loch Erne, especially on the narrow waters of the upper lake, where, on +the windiest day, the most nervous or the most delicate would have nothing +to fear from a rough sea, as they would on Loch Ree or on Loch Dearg, +where the water is sometimes very far from smooth, even in summer. On Loch +Erne, especially on the upper lake, change of scene takes place every +minute. It is a continual surprise of green islands, flowery promontories, +swelling hills, and tortuous passages, and is on a fine summer or autumn +day something to enchant even the most indifferent to the beauties of +nature. + +It is really deplorable that not alone the antiquities but the beauties of +Ireland are not better known to people of other countries. They never can +be known as they should be until better facilities for knowing them are to +be had. Much has been done of late in providing better hotel +accommodation, and much more will be done in the same line before long. Up +to a few years ago it was impossible to find an hotel where any +respectable person would like to stay in some of the most beautiful places +and amid some of the grandest scenery of Donegal, Mayo, and Kerry; but +there are now dozens of hotels in those localities where the most +fastidious will find all the comforts they could reasonably expect. But +the internal navigation of the country is fearfully neglected. The +peculiar glory, or at least one of the principal attractions of Ireland in +a scenic point of view, is its lakes and rivers. No other country perhaps +in the world, of equal size, has such an abundance of lakes and rivers; +but in no country, except it may be Finnland or Central Africa, are so few +steam-boats to be seen on inland waters. It was right to move first in the +direction of good hotel accommodation, but the next move ought to be to +provide passenger steam-boats to ply on the great waters of such noble +lakes as Loch Erne, Loch Corrib, Loch Ree, and Loch Dearg, and on all the +waters of the Upper Shannon. It is to be hoped that the present sad want +of accommodation on Irish lakes and rivers will be of short duration, for +the people of Ireland seem to be awakening to the knowledge not only that +they have a country, but that it is one of the most beautiful countries in +the world. + +But Loch Erne has attractions besides its multitudinous islands, its +jutting promontories, winding shores, and encircling hills. It has +attractions for the antiquarian as well as for the lover of nature. + +One of the most ancient of Ireland's ancient round towers stands on +Devinish Island, in the upper lake. It is one of the most perfect, if it +is not one of the highest, round towers in the country. There would be no +use in speculating on its age, for we are generally left completely in the +dark as to the time of the erection of round towers. There are many +allusions to them in Irish annals, but the time of the building of them is +mentioned only in a few places. The first mention of Devinish by the Four +Masters is in A.D. 721, telling of the death of one of its abbots. +Devinish, spelled correctly, _Daimhinis_, means "ox island." A Christian +church was erected on it at a very early date, probably during the +lifetime of St Patrick, for we are told in ancient Annals that Molaise, +who appears to have been the first abbot of the monastery that was there, +died in 563. A Latin life of St Aeden says that Molaise "ruled many monks +in an island in _Stagno Erne_, called Daimhinis by the Irish." It was +plundered and burnt many times by the Danes, or some other Northmen, but +almost devastated by them in 836, and at other times; it was burnt in 1157 +and in 1360. It seems, not like Glendaloch, Monasterboice, and many other +places that were abandoned at an early date, to have had a church or +monastery on it until the beginning of the seventeenth century. The last +mention of it by the Four Masters is under the year 1602. + + + + +MELLIFONT AND MONASTERBOICE + + +Of all the ancient remains in the County Louth connected with Christian +antiquities, the ruins of Mellifont and Monasterboice are by far the most +interesting and important. They are only two miles apart, and only about +four from Drogheda. Starting from there both places can easily be seen in +one day. There is not, even in the beautiful and picturesque county of +Louth, a more beautiful location for a church or monastery than the glen +in which all the remains of Mellifont is to be seen. It is not a mountain +glen; there is no wildness or savageness about it; it is simply a +depression in a rich lowland country, with luxuriant crops of grain and +grass all round it, and a clear rushing river flowing through +it,--supremely beautiful in summer-time and charming even in winter. In +summer and autumn days when the hills around it are radiant with flowers +of almost every hue, Mellifont even in its desolation is worth journeying +a hundred miles to see. + +But in spite of the beauty of the glen in which the ruins are situated, +and in spite of the beauty of what remains of the ruins themselves, no +right-minded person, no matter what his creed or nationality may be, can +look on Mellifont without being not only pained but shocked at the +desolation that has been wrought upon it, and the traces of barbarism, +hate, and vandalism that stare him in the face. Why such uprooting was +done in Mellifont one can easily understand, but _how_ it was done is a +puzzle. Here stood probably the largest and most beautiful of all Irish +monasteries, but hardly a square foot of it remains overground, save the +baptistry and chapter house. The walls have been levelled down to their +very foundations. A building of such enormous size must have had high +walls, but hardly a vestige of them remains. If they were blown up by +gunpowder, the material of which they were made would remain, if it had +not been carried away. Few traces of the walls are to be seen, +consequently one must conclude that the greater part of the very stones of +which they were built has been removed to some place of which no one now +alive knows anything. A mill was built close by the river about eighty +years ago, but it contains in its walls few, if any, of the stones of +Mellifont. They had disappeared long before the erection of the mill. The +spoilers of Mellifont were not satisfied by uprooting it, for they seem to +have removed the greater part of the stones of which it was built. If +Mellifont had not been so razed to the ground it would, even in its +nakedness and desolation, be one of the most beautiful ecclesiastical +ruins in Europe, and would attract a hundred visitors for the one it +attracts now. + +Mellifont is one of the few Irish ruined abbeys that has a Latin instead +of an Irish name. No one seems to have yet found out what its Irish name +is, or if it ever had one. Our annalists almost invariably call it the +"Drogheda Monastery." The Four Masters call it "Mellifont" only once. In +the "Annals of Loch Ce" it is called the "Great Monastery," for there +seems no doubt that it was the largest house of the kind in Ireland. The +extent of the church itself can now be distinctly traced, thanks to the +excavations that were made by the Board of Works some years ago. It was +180 feet in length, with proportional breadth; the entire area covered +with buildings was fully an English acre, and there were evidently many +outlying buildings connected with, or forming part of the monastery, +hardly a trace of which now remains. The small chapel on a hill outside of +the monastery is thought to have been founded by St Bernard at the time +the monastery was built. There is also about the fourth of what was once +a strong castle remaining. It was evidently built after the Anglo-French +invasion, but by whom seems not to be definitely known. + +Mellifont was founded in 1142, and richly endowed by O'Carrol, Prince of +Oriel. He was famed for his generosity and piety. The establishment was +built for the Order of Cistercians. From the middle of the eleventh +century to the middle of the twelfth was the time when most of the large +abbeys and monasteries of Ireland were founded; and many of them, like +that of Cong, were built in places that had long been occupied by smaller +and plainer ecclesiastical structures like those remaining in Clonmacnois +and Monasterboice. The _renaissance_ of Irish ecclesiastical architecture +in the eleventh and twelfth centuries is, probably, attributable to two +things--the cessation of Danish plundering and the conquest of England by +the Norman-French. The Danish military power in Ireland got a blow at +Clontarf from which it never recovered; after that battle there were +comparatively few monasteries raided, and the Irish began to erect large +and costly structures in place of the small and often severely plain +churches of an earlier period. The Norman-French introduced into England +what is called a Romanesque ecclesiastical architecture that was much +superior to that of the Saxons; and it seems certain that the Irish +copied, to a certain extent, the style of building adopted by the +conquerors of the Saxons; but the invasion of Ireland by those same +conquerors in the latter half of the twelfth century seems to have +arrested the development, not only of architecture, but of almost +everything that tended to benefit the country. Most of the great churches +and abbeys of Ireland were erected before Strongbow set foot in it. It is +strange and hard to be understood how it came to pass that, terrible as +were the ravages of the Danes, they put no stop to the development of Art +in Ireland. Monasteries would be raided and churches burned by them many +times within a few years, but this seems not to have put a stop either to +the establishment of monasteries or the building of churches. Lord +Dunraven says, in his book on ancient Irish architecture, that "it is +remarkable that the fearful struggle with the Norsemen, which lasted for +over two hundred years, and ended in their final defeat in 1014 [at +Clontarf] does not seem to have materially paralysed the energies of the +Irish nation as regards their native arts." It is, however, certain that +it was not until the military power of the Norseman was broken that +ecclesiastical architecture became a real glory in Ireland. But the +Anglo-French invasion seems to have put a stop, not only to the +development of architecture, but of art of all kinds. It is a strange fact +that the heathen Dane should have been less of a curse to Irish art than +the Christian Englishman. + +The first mention of Mellifont by the Four Masters occurs under the year +1152, when a great synod of three thousand ecclesiastics was held there. +It was in Mellifont that the woman whose crime is supposed to have been +the cause of the English invasion of Ireland died in the year 1193. This +was Dearvorgil, the faithless wife of O'Ruarc, whom Moore has called +"falsest of women." It is, however, now thought by most of those who have +studied Irish history closely that Dermott MacMorrough's relations with +this lady had nothing whatever to do with his banishment. They point out +the fact that it was about ten years after Dearvorgil had been restored to +her people that MacMorrough was banished, and maintain that the true cause +of his banishment was in order to re-impose the tribute on the province of +Leinster, the Danes being no longer able to assist the Leinstermen as they +were wont to do. The other provincial rulers wanted to have the King of +Leinster put out of the way, for, as he was a warlike man, they knew he +would fight to the bitter end for the protection of his province. If this +version of the matter is true, it goes far to free Dermott MacMorrough +from the odium that rests on his memory. + +Monasterboice is one of the oldest places connected with Christianity in +Ireland. Its foundation may have been as old as the time of St Patrick, +for Buite, from whom it takes its name, and by whom it probably was +founded, died in the year 524. There seems good reason to believe that +"Buite" is the original form of the now very plentiful name "Boyd," but +how Monaster Buite got twisted into Monasterboice is a mystery. The +situation of this ancient place is not nearly so picturesque as that of +Mellifont. There is no rushing river and no deep glen. Still the situation +is good, and the country around very fine, and, like most parts of Louth, +well cultivated. The peculiar glories of Monasterboice are its crosses and +its round tower. There are three crosses, two in good preservation, but +one was so broken that it had to be patched or fastened into solid stone +work. It is most likely that it was purposely destroyed, for barbarians +have done their best to cut down the great cross that stands in the same +enclosure--the finest of all ancient Irish crosses. It must have taken +days for a strong man with a heavy sledge-hammer to make such a deep +indentation in the hard stone of which the cross is made. It was its +extreme hardness that saved it from destruction and defacement. But hard +as the stone of those crosses may be, it cannot resist the action of the +elements, for the sculptures with which they are covered are now so +effaced by time and weather, that they seem little more than masses of +unintelligible tracings; but when those noble crosses were fresh from +their makers' hands they must have been magnificent specimens of early +Irish art. + +The round tower of Monasterboice is one of the finest in Ireland. Its top +has been broken off by lightning, but what remains of it is 110 feet in +height. It must have been at least 130 feet high when perfect, which would +make it one of the highest of the round towers of Ireland. The mason work +is of the very best kind, although the stones are uncut, and were +evidently found in the immediate neighbourhood of the tower. There is a +peculiarity about this tower which is not to be seen in any other +structure of the same kind--it is not quite perpendicular. The author of +the great book on ancient Irish architecture, already referred to, says +that "it leans to one side on the north-west, and has a very peculiar +curve. Where the curve commences a distinct change of masonry is visible. +When the tower was built to this height the foundation began to settle +down, and when this was perceived the builders very skilfully carried up +the building in a nearly vertical line, so as to counteract the tendency +to lean and to preserve the centre of gravity." It seems a pity that the +Board of Works does not repair this splendid structure, and put a new top +of antique model on it; it would be, if perfect, the grandest of Irish +round towers. + +Monasterboice became a ruin many centuries before Mellifont; the latter +continued to be a Catholic religious establishment down to the time of +Elizabeth, but Monasterboice seems to have been abandoned in the twelfth +or thirteenth century. The last notice of it, or any one connected with +it, by the Four Masters, is under the year 1122, when they record the +death of Fergna, "a wise priest." What caused this famous establishment to +be abandoned, or at least to cease to be mentioned in Irish annals at such +an early period, seems enveloped in a good deal of mystery. It was +plundered more than once by the Danes, and it may be that any wooden +buildings it contained were burnt by them and never re-erected, for, like +Clonmacnois, what remains of its two churches shows them to have been so +small that they could not accommodate any large number of persons. Being +so near Mellifont may also have led to its abandonment when the latter +place became one of the greatest religious houses in Ireland. If +Monasterboice was not so large as Mellifont, its abbots and professors +seem to have been greater scholars and harder workers than those of the +great monastery. Flann of Monasterboice was one of the most noted literary +men of ancient, or rather of mediaeval, Ireland, for he flourished in the +eleventh century. He is considered one of the most truthful and correct of +Irish annalists, and has left behind him important works that have been +preserved to the present day. + +The country in the vicinity of Mellifont and Monasterboice is not only +very fair to look on, but highly interesting in an archaeological point of +view. The town of Drogheda, the nearest place to the interesting ruins +treated of in this article, is the only place in their vicinity where +hotel accommodation can be found. It is full of historic interest and +curious remains of the past. But to the antiquarian, to one who wants to +see monuments as old as the Pyramids of Egypt, the _Brogha na Boinne_, or +burghs of the Boyne, should be a great attraction. They are the most +colossal things of the kind known to exist in any part of Europe. One is +known by the name of New Grange, and the other is called Dowth. Both +places are on the Boyne, and only a few miles west of Drogheda. They are +enormous, partially underground caverns, lined and roofed with great +flag-stones. They are entirely pre-historic, and are supposed to have been +used as places in which to deposit the ashes of the dead; but their real +use can hardly be more than guessed at. It is generally thought by +archaeologists that they were erected by the Tuatha de Danaans, who +occupied Ireland before the Milesians; but authentic history is silent +about these gigantic structures. More than a dozen of such structures were +discovered some years ago in the Sleeve na Caillighe Hills, near +Oldcastle, in the County Meath. They are just like those in New Grange and +Dowth, but not nearly so large. The flat stones that form the linings of +those curious caverns or tumuli are covered with incised and generally +semi-circular markings. They bear all the appearance of being writing of +some kind, but no clue to its interpretation has yet been discovered. +These markings were certainly not made for fun; neither could they have +been made for ornament, for they are _not_ ornamental. There are +thousands of them, counting what are in the tumuli on the banks of the +Boyne and in the same kind of places in the hills near Oldcastle. It is a +pity that no one competent for it has ever tried to decipher this curious +writing, for writing of some kind it certainly is. When the cuniform +inscriptions on the bricks of Assyria have been interpreted, it is strange +that no one has tried to find out the meaning of the writing on the stones +of these Irish tumuli. + + + + +TRIM CASTLE + + +Of all the buildings for defensive purposes that the Anglo-Normans, or, +more correctly, the Anglo-French, ever raised in Ireland, the castle of +Trim is the largest and most imposing. It has stood many a siege, and it +seems that one wing of it has entirely disappeared; but what remains of it +still is a gigantic structure. No other Anglo-French keep in Ireland had +such an extensive _enceinte_. There cannot be much less than three acres +of enclosed ground round it. The outworks have been, to a large extent, +demolished, but enough of them remains to show that when the castle was in +repair, when its outward defences were perfect, and before the invention +of gunpowder, it could have defied the largest army that ever Irish king +or chieftain led. The place chosen for the site of this castle is +perfectly flat. It is not on a hill. Its builder seems to have known that +its six feet thick walls would be impregnable to any army that could be +brought against it, whether it was on a hill or in a hollow. Its situation +is very fine on the banks of the Boyne, and in the centre of a country +considered by many to be the richest land in Ireland. + +[Illustration: TRIM CASTLE.] + +Never did any people bring the art of castle-building to such perfection +as did the Anglo-French; and, strange as it may appear, it was not in +England they raised their finest castles, but in Wales and in Ireland. +They must have known almost immediately after the battle of Hastings that +no serious resistance would ever be made against them in England, but they +were not so sure about Ireland and Wales; there do not seem, therefore, +to have been any castles erected by them in England during the twelfth and +thirteenth centuries as fine as those they erected in those parts of their +dominions like Ireland and Wales, that were not fully conquered. Conway +and Caernarvon Castles in Wales, and Trim Castle in Ireland, are thought +to be the finest they ever erected. With all the architectural skill the +Greeks and Romans possessed, it is very doubtful if they understood the +art of castle building as well as the Norman-French did. The latter built +buildings that would last almost as long as the earth itself. That part of +the walls of Trim Castle that yet remains is as sound as it was the day it +was built; and if let alone and not overturned by an earthquake it will be +as sound a thousand years hence as it is to-day. + +[Illustration: TRIM CASTLE.] + +Trim Castle was built towards the close of the twelfth century by Hugo de +Lacy, the greatest castle builder ever the Anglo-French produced. He built +the great castle at Clonmacnois, which has been already described. He +built another fine one in Carlow, and was building the castle of Durrow, +in the King's County, when a young Irishman, who had evidently come +prepared to kill him, struck off his head with a blow of an axe as he was +stooping down to examine the work. If Hugo de Lacy had not been killed, he +would certainly have built many more castles, not only in the English +Pale, but throughout Ireland. But Trim Castle was the finest structure of +its kind that he ever raised. Lewis' Irish Topography says that the Castle +of Trim was built in 1220. This is just such a mistake as one would expect +to find in books like it, Hall's, and others of their kind, which were +written by persons almost wholly unacquainted with the history of the +country about which they wrote, and entirely unacquainted with its +language and native literature. Trim Castle must have been built before +1186, for Hugo de Lacy was killed in that year. The same extraordinary +publication says that Trim was burned by Connor O'Melaghlin in 1108, and +that over two hundred people were burned in the monastery. It would be +interesting to know where Lewis got his information about this matter. He +did not get it from any authentic source, for the annals of the Four +Masters, the annals of Clonmacnois, the annals of Inisfallan, the annals +of Ulster, and the _Chronicon Scottorum_ are all silent about it. + +Hugo de Lacy was undoubtedly the greatest of the Anglo-French invaders of +Ireland. Although he was killed, he was not killed for any other cause +except that of his having been an invader; for in spite of his +castle-building propensities, he was in no way prejudiced against the +native Irish. This is proved by his having married a daughter of Roderick +O'Connor, King of Connacht, and nominally, but only nominally, King of +Ireland. For having done so, he was recalled from the nominal government +of Ireland with which he had been entrusted by Henry the Second; but +Henry, probably finding that he could not get anyone else so well fitted +for the office, allowed him to retain it. But Hugo appears to have again +given offence to Henry on account of his leniency to the Irish lords who +were under him, and Prince John, who was afterwards King, was sent to +Ireland by Henry because Hugo did not exact any tribute from the Irish. We +are not told how he got out of this scrape, and he was killed the next +year. He was buried in Bective Abbey, but his body was afterwards removed +to Dublin. Hugo de Lacy seems to have been as friendly to the Irish as it +was possible for one in his position to be, and it is almost certain that +he cherished the hope of bringing the whole island under his rule and +making himself King. It was evidently his ambition, of which Henry appears +to have been fully aware, that caused the trouble between him and his +master. That the Irish petty kings, and the Irish people of the time, +would have accepted the rule of a stranger who had proved himself a strong +man, is very probable, for the country was in the very deepest slough of +political confusion and anarchy. Never, during the worst times of Danish +plundering, had Ireland been in such a state of political chaos as she was +in the twelfth century. The usurpation of the chief kingship by Brian +Boramha was followed by a century and a half of revolution caused by those +who aspired to be chief kings. O'Brians, O'Connors, O'Lochlainns, Mac +Murroughs, all aspirants for the monarchy, made the island, as the Four +Masters so graphically put it, "a shaking sod," and the Irish would have +accepted the rule of anyone who would have saved them from themselves. It +was the state of political chaos into which the country had fallen that +accounts for the slight resistance that Strongbow met in Ireland. The +Northmen were met by the sword, and fought for over two hundred years, +until they were, if not entirely banished, at least reduced to political +powerlessness; but a mere handful of invaders, whose military prowess was +in no way superior to that of the Northmen, became, _de facto_, the rulers +of the country in a few years after they had landed. It is more than +probable that if Hugo de Lacy had lived, he would have risked a war with +Henry, and have tried to make himself King of Ireland; and it is more than +probable that the Irish would have willingly accepted his rule. + +If de Lacy's gigantic castle had never been built in Trim, it would still +be an historic place. According to the most authentic annals, St Patrick +founded a church there as early as 432, and Bishop Ere is the first name +that is mentioned in connection with it after that of St Patrick. Trim +continued to be an important place on account of its castle and its Church +of St Mary's, until the time of Cromwell. It was strongly garrisoned by +the Royalists; but after hearing of the taking of Drogheda, and the +shocking massacre committed there, the garrison surrendered. Only one +gable of the old Church of St Mary's remains. Judging by the great height +of the part that remains, the Church must have been a very large one. The +exact date of the building of the church or monastery to which the +still-standing tower or steeple belonged, is not known with certainty, but +it could not have formed part of the original one erected in the time of +St Patrick. + +The most celebrated place in the immediate vicinity of Trim is Dangan +Castle, where the Duke of Wellington is said by some to have been born. +When Dangan passed out of the Duke's family, it was inhabited by a person +who let it go partially to ruin. It was burned early in the present +century, and is now an unsightly ruin. It is curious that there should be +such doubt about the birth-place of one who made such a figure in the +world as Wellington. Some say he was born in Dangan Castle; some say he +was born in Dublin; but the people of Trim maintain that he was born in +their town. The last time the writer was in Trim he was shown the house in +which the Duke was said to have been born. He was told by a truthful and +respectable resident of Trim that the Duke's mother had started from +Dangan on her way to Dublin so that she might have the best medical aid +during her expected accouchement, but having been taken ill when she got +as far as Trim, she took lodgings in the town, and that it was there the +Duke of Wellington was born. The exact truth about the matter will +probably never be known. + +A curious story is told in Trim about the early boyhood of Wellington. It +is said that he clomb the still standing tower or gable of the old church +so high that he found it impossible to get down, and was in a position of +great danger. All the ropes and ladders in the town were brought out, but +it was found impossible to get him down. A rough tower like that at Trim +might be clomb easily enough, but it might not be so easy to get down. The +afterwards victor of Waterloo was told that he could not be saved, and +that, if he had any will to make, to make it without delay. He is said to +have taken the announcement very coolly, and to have willed his tops, +balls, and other playthings to the boys that were his favourites, and not +to have shed a tear or shown any fear whatever. After having been many +hours in his dangerous and far from comfortable situation, he was at +length, and with great difficulty, rescued. + +The country round Trim is most interesting and full of ruined fanes. The +church of Trim was believed to contain an image or picture of the Virgin, +at which we are told many and extraordinary miracles were performed. Trim +was a sort of Irish Lourdes in the middle ages, to which the sick and +suffering used to go in multitudes. There was also the Abbey of Newtown, +the ruins of which still stand on the banks of the Boyne close by Trim. It +was founded in the year 1206 by Simon Rochefort, Bishop of Meath, the +first Englishman that is known to have had so high an ecclesiastical +position in Ireland after the invasion. The ruins of Bective Abbey are +only a few miles up the river from Trim, in a beautiful situation on the +banks of the "clear, bright Boyne," as the old Gaelic poets loved to call +it. Bective was founded for the Cistercian order by O'Melachlinn, King of +Meath, about the middle of the twelfth century. It is a beautiful ruin, +and in a beautiful locality. + +There is, perhaps, no part of Ireland more interesting to the antiquarian, +the historian, or the lover of rich landscapes than the valley of the +Boyne. That little stream is the most historic waterway in Ireland. Its +name occurs oftener in Irish history and legend than that of any other +river. On its banks are to be seen the pre-historic tumuli of New Grange +and Dowth, the oldest monuments of pre-historic civilisation that have yet +been discovered on Irish soil. The Boyne may be said to be the river of +Tara, for it flows almost at the foot of that hill so celebrated in Irish +history, legend, and song. + + + + +CONG ABBEY + + +It is doubtful if there is in Ireland--there certainly is not in the +province of Connacht--a more interesting ruin than Cong Abbey. Its +situation is beautiful, between two great lakes, with a background of some +of the wildest and ruggedest mountains in Ireland. It would be hard to +conceive of a place more suited for a life of religious meditation than +this venerable pile, into which he who is called Ireland's last chief king +retired to bewail his sins and lament for the power that his own +pusillanimity and carelessness had allowed to pass away from him and his +family for ever. If Roderick O'Connor was the last of Ireland's monarchs, +he was also one of her worst. History hardly tells of a good act of his +except the endowment of the Abbey of Cong; and the greater the light is +that is thrown on the history of Ireland by the translation of her ancient +annals, the weaker and more imbecile the character of Roderick appears, +and the more just and merited that which Moore says of him in his history +of Ireland:--"The only feeling the name [of Roderick] awakens is that of +pity for the doomed country which at such a crisis of its fortunes, when +honour, safety, independence, and national existence were all at stake, +was cursed for the crowning of its evil destiny with a ruler and leader so +entirely unworthy of his high calling." If the Anglo-French invasion of +Ireland had occurred in the reign of his brave and warlike father, +Turloch, one of the greatest of those who claimed the chief sovereignty of +Ireland, the invaders would almost certainly have been all killed within a +month after they landed, and the subsequent history of Ireland would +probably be very different from what it has been. + +Irish annals tell us that the first religious establishment in Cong was +founded by St Fechin in the year 624; but John O'Donovan says in a note in +his translation of the Four Masters that Roderick O'Connor founded and +endowed the Abbey of Cong. That a religious house of some kind was founded +in it by St Fechin there can be no doubt at all, for up to a recent period +it was known as Cunga Fechin, or Cong of Fechin. O'Donovan may have meant +that Roderick O'Connor endowed and founded the abbey, the remains of +which exist at present, for not a vestige of the original building +founded by St Fechin remains. It was, like most of the very early churches +and religious houses of ancient Ireland, built entirely of wood, and has +consequently long ago disappeared. Cong was originally a bishopric. There +were five bishoprics in the province of Connacht--namely, Tuam, Killala, +Clonfert, Ardcharne, and Cong. The Synod that settled the question of the +bishoprics of Connacht met at Rathbrassil, in what is now the Queen's +County, in 1010. The abbey, the remains of which still exist, was founded +in 1128 by the Augustinians, during the reign of Roderick O'Connor's +heroic father, Turloch. Roderick subsequently endowed it, and ended his +days in it. It is an interesting and suggestive fact that most of the +great religious establishments of Ireland were not only founded but built +in the material that now remains of them before the Anglo-French invasion, +showing clearly that that event put a stop to almost everything that could +be called progress. The invaders, although professing the same faith as +the invaded, were much more anxious to build castles than churches. There +was hardly a castle in Ireland before the time of Strongbow. This was not +caused by ignorance of the art of building among the Irish, for some of +the round towers and churches erected long before the time of Strongbow +are as perfect specimens of architecture as were erected in any country at +the same period. The native Irish king, or chief, was contented with a +wooden house surrounded by an embankment, capped with a palisade of wood; +but the Norman raised mighty edifices of stone to protect him from the +wrath of those he had robbed. + +Cong Abbey is a large building nearly 150 feet in length. Few of the +ancient churches of Ireland are any longer, and many of them are not +nearly so long. It would be a mistake to say that the ruins at Cong are in +a good state of preservation, for traces of violence and vandalism are +apparent almost everywhere on them. The whole place has a terribly +dilapidated look. It has been said that only for ivy and the Guinnesses +the Abbey of Cong would have tumbled down long ago. It is true that ivy +has prevented great masses of masonry from falling; and it is true that +the late Sir Benjamin Guinness did a good deal of mending on the old +walls. But it was before his time, when religious intolerance was worse +than it is at present, that Cong Abbey was mutilated and defaced. It is +sad to know that there is hardly an old religious edifice in Ireland that +has not suffered from sectarian animosity. The ruins of Mellifont, near +Drogheda, have been torn up from their foundations, so that hardly a trace +of that once magnificent abbey now remains except the crypts and the vast +walls and fosses by which it was surrounded. Ruthless vandals tried their +best with sledges and hammers to overthrow the great cross of +Monasterboice in Louth, but the stone of which it consists was too hard +for them, for they only succeeded in mutilating what they could not +destroy. + +In its present dilapidated condition it is hardly possible to form a +correct idea of what Cong Abbey was in the days of its splendour. It is +almost impossible, also, to form an exact idea of its general plan, for +many comparatively modern additions have evidently been made to it. Its +having been used as a burying place within recent times has, as the same +thing has done at Clonmacnois, sadly interfered with its picturesqueness. +But, as at Mellifont, "enough of its glory remains" to show that it must +have been a building of exquisite beauty. Some of its floral capitals +carved on limestone are as fine specimens of the carver's art as can be +found anywhere in the world. Both Sir William Wilde and Doctor Petrie +agree in this. There was probably no abbey in Ireland that contained more +beautiful specimens of the carver's art than Cong. Vast numbers of its +sculptured stones have been defaced by vandalism or carried away to build +walls or out-houses. It is not easy to know what was the exact extent of +the gardens or mensal grounds of the abbey, for the walls that enclosed +them cannot be fully traced, and are not intact like the walls around the +Abbey of Boyle in the County Roscommon. The Abbey of Cong seems to have +been the great depository for the precious things of the province of +Connacht. The Order of Augustinians, to whom it belonged, was very rich, +and had vast possessions in the province, and it would seem that no abbey +in it was as rich as that of Cong. In it were kept deeds, books, records, +and many other precious things, all of which have disappeared save the +marvellously beautiful cross now to be seen in the Dublin Museum, and +which artists and connoisseurs have pronounced to be "the finest piece of +metal work of its age to be found in Europe." It is known from the Gaelic +inscription on the Cross of Cong that it was made in Roscommon, for the +name of the maker is identified with that town. The fact of such a +priceless relic and such a gem of art having been kept in the Abbey of +Cong shows that it was considered to be the most important and most secure +place in the province. The Cross of Cong was supposed to be formed from +part of the real cross. The Irish inscription on it is perfectly legible, +and can be easily understood by any one who knows the modern language. The +name of the maker is on it, and also that of Turloch O'Connor, who claimed +to be chief King of Ireland, and for whom it was made in the year 1123. + +The Abbey of Cong was never plundered by the Danes; if it was, no record +of its having been plundered is to be found in the Annals of the Four +Masters, or in the Annals of Loch Key. This fact of Cong not having +suffered from the Danes would seem to show that it did not contain much +wealth during the ninth and tenth centuries, when the maraudings of the +Norsemen were at their worst. If the Abbey of Cong was worth plundering, +it is hard to conceive how it could have been spared by them. It is +probable that the church founded there by St Fechin was very small, and +that the establishment became important only when the O'Connor family rose +to prominence in the province, for it was richly endowed by Turloch and +by Roderick O'Connor, both of whom claimed to be chief kings of Ireland. + +[Illustration: CROSS OF CONG.] + +None of our ancient seats of piety and learning will repay a visit better +than Cong. In it and around it there is a great deal to interest the +antiquarian, the tourist, and the lover of Nature. The neck of land that +lies between Loch Corrib and Loch Mask is one of the most curious, varied, +and beautiful spots in Ireland. It has rushing, limpid rivers above, and +boiling, roaring ones below. The whole country in the vicinity of Cong +seems to be honeycombed by subterranean waters. There is probably as much +running water underground and overground in the narrow strip of country +between Loch Corrib and Loch Mask as would turn all the grist mills in +Ireland, but unfortunately there is hardly a wheel moved by it. + +There is much in the vicinity of Cong, outside of its glorious old abbey, +to interest both the antiquarian and the tourist. It was close to it that +the greatest battle history records as having been fought on Irish soil +took place--namely, that of Moy Tuireadh, between the Firbolgs and the +Tuatha de Danaans, a full account of which will be found in Sir William +Wilde's charming book "Loch Corrib," which should be read by every one +who desires to visit Cong or its vicinity. + +Cong is very nearly on the road to Connemara, which, with the exception of +parts of Donegal, is the wildest, most savage, and most extraordinary part +of Ireland. Those who want to see all the wildness of Connemara, its +chaotic mountains, its innumerable lakes, far-entering bays, and +illimitable bogs, should drive from Cong, or from Oughterard to Clifden, +and go from there to Galway by rail. Whoever travels that route will see +some of the most charming as well as some of the most terrific scenery in +Ireland. He will see more lakes than can be found on an area of equal size +in any part of the known world. If the visit is made when the heath is in +full bloom, he will have such a world of flowers to feast his eyes on as +can hardly be seen anywhere else, not even in Ireland. + +Loch Corrib, at the head of which Cong is situated, is one of the great +lakes of Ireland. The traveller going to Cong sails up it from Galway. +There is not very much of antiquarian interest on its shores or on its +islands, save the ruins of _Caislean na Ceirce_, or the Hen's Castle. They +are on a promontory on the lake. It is not a very old building, being +probably of the fourteenth century, and was built, it is supposed, by one +of the O'Flaherties. + +There are the ruins of what antiquarians think are those of one of the +oldest churches ever erected in Ireland, on the bleak island of +Incha-goile. There are also the ruins of another church on the same +island; but judging from the extremely archaic architecture of the one +first mentioned, it must be many centuries older than the other. Both +churches must have been very small. + +But although the lower part of Loch Corrib cannot boast of much scenic +beauty, its upper part is magnificent. It thrusts its sinuous arms up into +the wildest recesses of the Joyce Country, and among mountains of +fantastic forms. The Joyce Country, _Duthaigh Sheoghach_ in Gaelic, has +ever been remarkable for the gigantic size of its men. There have been +scores of Joyces who were from six feet four to six feet six in height, +and stout in proportion. There are still some of its men of immense size. +It is said that not so very long ago a giant Joyce was going home from a +fair or market, and that a faction of ten men who were not on perfectly +friendly terms with him, followed him to beat or perhaps kill him. Joyce +had no weapons or means of defence of any kind, so he unyoked the horse +from the cart or dray on which he was riding, tore it to pieces, armed +himself with one of its shafts as a "shillelagh," and awaited his enemies; +but they seem not to have liked being hit with the shaft of a cart and +retreated. Those who like can believe or not believe this story. It is +given as the writer heard it from a very respectable gentleman who knew +Joyce. + + + + +LOCH DERG + + +This is another of the great lakes of Ireland. It is over twenty miles +long and between two and three miles in average breadth. It is really +curious that a small island like Ireland should have so many immense lakes +in it. There is, probably, no other country in the world of the same +size--there is certainly no island of the same size--on which so much +fresh water is to be found. It would seem as if nature intended Ireland +for a continent, and not for an island, by giving it lakes so entirely +disproportioned to its size. + +Loch Derg, anciently called Deirgdheirc, and at present pronounced Dharrig +by the peasantry, would be the most beautiful of all the great lakes of +Ireland if its islands were as numerous as those of Loch Erne, or even of +Loch Ree. It has the defect that almost all lakes have whose shores are +mountainous or hilly. Want of islands is the great drawback to the +picturesqueness of most of the Scotch lakes and those of the north of +England. A few islands do not add much to the beauty of a lake. There +must be plenty of them to produce full effect. The few islands in Loch +Lomond, because they are so few, hardly add to its beauty. The islands in +Loch Derg are very few, and the most picturesque of them are so near the +shore that they seem part of it to the voyager on the lake. There is one +very large island, Illaunmore--the great island, as its name +signifies--but it does not add very much to the scenic attractions. The +charms of Loch Derg are its semi-mountainous shores. It would be incorrect +to call the bold hills on either side of the lake mountains, for very few +of them reach an altitude of more than a thousand feet; but they are most +graceful in their outlines, and are, for the most part, covered with +luxuriant grass up to their very summits. The lake is by no means +straight; its shores are tortuous and full of indentations, so that there +is a good deal of change of scene when sailing on it. But if the tourist +or traveller who wishes to sail on Loch Derg is not what is usually called +a "good sailor," he should consult the barometer before he goes on to this +great lake, for sometimes, when the south-west wind sweeps up its twenty +or twenty-five miles of water, a sea almost worthy of the Channel will +sometimes rise in a very short time. Many a sea-sick passenger used to be +seen in the good times long ago on Loch Derg, when large side-wheel +passenger boats used to run regularly between Athlone and Killaloe. Those +boats were large enough to carry over a hundred passengers without being +in the least crowded, and the cabins were large enough to accommodate +fifty people at dinner. A trip from Athlone to Killaloe on a fast boat +would, on a fine summer day, be one of the most enjoyable things in the +way of an excursion by water that can be imagined. It is over thirty years +since the writer experienced the pleasure of it, and the remembrance of +its enjoyableness haunts him still. The shores of Loch Derg are much +wilder than the shores of Loch Erne or Loch Ree. Very few houses, and +nothing that could be called a town, can be seen through the whole +twenty-five miles of the lake. The hills that bound it both on the Munster +and on the Connacht sides are almost altogether grass land, and very +little cultivation is therefore to be seen. But the bold, winding shores +and the green hills form a landscape of a very striking kind, and there +are many who maintain that the scenery of Loch Derg is finer than that of +Loch Ree. Both lakes are magnificent sheets of water, and environed with a +fair and goodly country; and were they anywhere else but in Ireland, +their waters would be the highway for dozens of steamers, while at present +they are almost deserted, and may be said to be + + "As lone and silent + As the great waters of some desert land." + +Loch Derg is full of interest for the antiquarian, especially its lower +part. One of the most ancient and important ecclesiastical establishments +of ancient Ireland, Iniscealtra, the island of the churches, is on its +western shore, close to the land, separated from it only by about a +quarter of a mile of water. Iniscealtra was one of the most important +places of its kind in the south of Ireland. It was founded by St Cainin +certainly not later than the end of the sixth or beginning of the seventh +century, for he died in 653. John O'Donovan in his unpublished letters +says that he is represented in ancient Irish literature as "A very holy +man, a despiser of the world, and an inexorable chastiser of the flesh. He +is said to have been author of commentaries on the Psalms. He was buried +in Iniscealtra." There is a fine round tower in Iniscealtra which is +traditionally supposed to have been built by St Senanus. It is eighty feet +in height, and in fairly good preservation, but it wants the top. The +ruins of St Cainin's Church show it to have been a small building. There +are the ruins of two other churches on the island, one called St Mary's +and the other St Michael's. The establishments on Iniscealtra are of very +great antiquity. It is first mentioned in the Annals of the Four Masters +under the year 548, recording the death of St Colam in the island. The +oldest church in it was dedicated to St Cainin, who was evidently the +founder of the place, and the first who sought it as a retreat. He is said +to have lived for a long time in a solitary cell, until the fame for +holiness he acquired brought an immense number of disciples, for whom he +erected a noble monastery in the island, which afterwards became famous. +The ruins of St Cainin's Church prove that it must have been a very +beautiful building. It was thought by Petrie and other antiquarians that +it and the very beautiful one of Killaloe were erected during the short +time in the tenth and eleventh centuries when Brian Boramha and Malachy +the Second, by their victories over the Danes, gave the country some rest +from the plunderings of those marauders. + +At the extreme lower end of Loch Derg is the small but ancient town of +Killaloe. Its real name is Cill Dalua, it was called after an ecclesiastic +of the name of Dalua, sometimes written Malua, who lived in the sixth +century. He placed his disciple, Flannan, over the church. He was made +Bishop of Killaloe in the seventh century. The church is known generally +as St Flannan's. The Earl of Dunraven, speaking of the beauty of the ruins +of this church and the buildings attached to it, says, "These ancient +buildings are on a wooded hill which slopes in a gentle incline down to +the brink of the Shannon. The cathedral and small stone-roofed church +stand side by side, and the walls of the latter are thickly covered with +ivy. Nothing can be more impressive than the aspect of this venerable and +simple building, surrounded by majestic trees, and hidden in deep shadows +of thick foliage. A solemn mystery seems to envelop its ancient walls, and +the silence is only broken by the sound of the river that rolls its great +volume of water along the base of the hill on which it stands." + +But the most historic and probably the most interesting thing about +Killaloe is the site of King Brian's palace of Kincora, a place so famed +in history and song. Perhaps it will be better to let such a famous man on +Irish history and archaeology as O'Donovan tell about Kincora. He says in +his unpublished letters while on the Ordnance Survey: "On the summit of +the hill opposite the bridge of Killaloe stood Brian Boramha's palace of +Kincora, but not a trace of it is now visible. It must have extended from +the verge of the hill over the Shannon, to where the present Roman +Catholic chapel stands. I fear that it will be impracticable to show its +site on the Ordnance map, as no field works are visible. Of the history of +the palace of Kincora little or nothing is known, but from the few +references to it we occasionally find, we may safely infer that it was +first erected by Brian, _Imperator Scottorum_, and that it was not more +than two centuries inhabited by his successors. Kincora was demolished in +1088 by Donnell MacLachlin, king of Aileach (Ulster), and we are told that +he took 160 hostages consisting of Danes and Irish." Kincora must have +been rebuilt after it was demolished by MacLachlin, for we are told in the +Annals of the Four Masters that in 1107 Kincora and Cashel were burned by +lightning, and sixty vats of metheglin and beer were destroyed; but it +must have been again rebuilt, for the same annals say that in 1118 Turloch +O'Connor (King of Connacht), at the head of a great army of Connachtmen, +burned Kincora and hurled it, both stones and timber, into the Shannon. +Kincora was, like all dwelling-places in those times, built almost +entirely of wood; and it is hardly to be wondered at that after having +been burned so often by man and by the elements, no vestige of it should +remain. It has been completely wiped out. + +A description of Kincora would hardly be complete without giving MacLiag's +Lament for it, translated by Clarence Mongan. MacLiag was chief poet and +secretary to Brian Boramha. The poem is little known even in Ireland; to +the English reader it will be absolutely new. The writer gives two prime +reasons for reproducing it; one, because it is such a very fine poem; and +the other, because it has heretofore never been correctly given. + + MACLIAG'S LAMENT FOR KINCORA. + + "Where, oh Kincora, is Brian the Great? + And where is the beauty that once was thine? + Oh where are the princes and nobles that sate + At the feasts in thy halls and drank the red wine, + Where, oh Kincora? + + "Where, oh Kincora, are thy valorous lords, + Oh whither, thou Hospitable, are they gone? + Oh where the Dalcassians of cleaving swords, + And where are the heroes that Brian led on, + Where, oh Kincora? + + "And where is Morough, descendant of kings, + Defeater of hundreds, the daringly brave, + Who set but light store on jewels and rings, + Who swam down the torrent and laughed at the wave, + Where, oh Kincora? + + "And where is Donagh, King Brian's brave son, + And where is Conaing, the beautiful chief, + And Cian and Corc? alas, they are gone! + They have left me this night all alone in my grief, + Alone, oh Kincora! + + "And where are the chiefs with whom Brian went forth, + The ne'er vanquished sons of Evin the Brave, + The great King of Eogh'nacht,[12] renowned for his worth, + And Baskin's great host from the western wave, + Where, oh Kincora? + + "And where is Duvlann of the swift-footed steeds, + And where is Cian who was son of Molloy, + And where is King Lonergan, the fame of whose deeds + In the red battle-field, no time can destroy? + Where, oh Kincora? + + "And where is the youth of majestic height, + The faith-keeping prince of the Scotts?[13] even he, + As wide as his fame was, as great as his might, + Was tributary, oh Kincora, to thee, + To thee, oh Kincora! + + "They are gone, those heroes of royal birth, + Who plundered no churches and broke no trust + 'Tis weary for me to be living on earth + When they, oh Kincora, lie low in the dust. + Low, oh Kincora! + + "Oh never again will princes appear + To rival Dalcassians of cleaving swords! + I can ne'er dream of meeting afar or near, + In the east or the west, such heroes and lords, + Never, Kincora! + + "Oh dear are the images mem'ry calls up + Of Brian Boru,[14] how he never would miss + To give me at banquet the first bright cup,-- + Oh, why did he heap on me honour like this, + Why, oh Kincora? + + "I am MacLiag, and my home's on the lake; + And oft to that palace whose beauty has fled + Came Brian to ask me,--I went for his sake;-- + Oh my grief! that I live when Brian is dead! + Dead, oh Kincora!" + +So far the demolished palace of Brian, and the writer, like Brian himself, +"returns to Kincora no more." + +No lover of the beauties of nature should be on this part of the Shannon +and not visit the great rapids of Doonass. They are only about ten miles +below Killaloe. If seen when the river is full they are the grandest thing +of their kind in the British Isles. The Shannon here looks like a +continental river, containing ordinarily a volume of water greater than +any river in France. The country round Doonass, though flat, is +superlatively beautiful. The limpid, rushing river flows on among meadows +and pastures of the brightest verdure, adorned with stately trees, and +bright in summer-time with innumerable flowers. There is nothing terrible +or awe-inspiring about Doonass. It is quiet and peaceful in the true sense +of the word. Even the great rushing river, as it glides down the gentle +slope of the rapids, makes no noise except a deep, musical murmur that +would lull to sleep rather than startle. The rapids of Doonass form a +scene so incomparably lovely, and so unlike anything to be seen in Great +Britain, or to be seen in any other part of Ireland, that it is a wonder +they are not better known. They can be reached best from Limerick, being +not over three miles from that city. One of the most curious things about +those grand and beautiful rapids, is the almost total ignorance which +exists about them, not only in Great Britain, but in Ireland itself. If +they were situated on a wild, hard-to-be-got-at part of the Shannon, the +general ignorance that exists about them among seekers after the +beautiful, would not excite so much wonder. A scene of such great beauty +and uniqueness, so near a fine and interesting city like Limerick, to be +so little known to those who go so far in search of the beautiful, shows +how much the world at large, and even the Irish themselves, have to learn +about Ireland. If the rapids of Doonass were in England, or even in the +United States, there would be not only one, but perhaps three or four +hotels on their banks,--hotels which would be full of guests every summer. +Let us hope that the beauties of this charming place will be soon better +known. + + + + +HOLYCROSS ABBEY + + +The situation of this abbey, like most places of its kind in Ireland, is +very beautiful--on the banks of the gentle-flowing Suir, and surrounded by +a fine fertile country. Holycross is thought to have been, with the +exception of Mellifont, the largest of the ancient churches of Ireland. +There is some doubt as to the exact time of its foundation--some +authorities say the year 1182, and others 1208. The probability is that +both dates may, in a certain sense, be correct. It may have been begun to +be built in 1182, and may not have been finished before 1208. Although +founded after the Anglo-French invasion, it was a purely Irish +institution, for all authorities say that it was founded by Donagh +Cairbreach O'Brian, King of Munster, and that it was founded on account of +his having obtained what was believed to be a piece of the cross on which +Christ suffered. It is called in Irish annals _Mainister na croiche +naoimhe_, or Monastery of the Holy Cross. This relic is said, on good +authority, to be at present in the keeping of the nuns of the Presentation +Order at Black Rock, near Cork. O'Brian, the founder of the Church, +endowed it with a great tract of land, so that it was for many centuries +one of the most important places of its kind, not only in the province of +Munster, but in Ireland. + +[Illustration: HOLYCROSS ABBEY.] + +Holycross is two miles from the neat and thriving town of Thurles, in the +County Tipperary. Unlike so many ruined shrines of former days, and +especially unlike Mellifont in the County Louth, most of the walls of +Holycross still remain. The existing ruins show it to have been a large +church. Its length is 130 feet; the nave is 58 by 49 feet. The entire +ruins are very beautiful and impressive, and their situation on the banks +of the Suir, amid as fine pastoral scenery as can be found in the fine +county of Tipperary, make them well worth a visit. Holycross was founded +for the Cistercian order, and remained in undamaged condition until the +suppression of monasteries in the latter part of the seventeenth century. +It appeals that it lost its distinctively Irish character soon after +English domination became established in Ireland, for in 1267 it was +subjected by the abbot of Clairveaux to the abbey of Furness in England. +It is the opinion of many antiquarians and judges of ecclesiastical +structures that many additions and alterations were made to and in the +abbey, and some of them in comparatively recent times. Some judges of +church architecture have been loud in their praise of the beauties of the +ruins of Holycross, while others have expressed their disappointment. + +Here is the testimony of O'Donovan, one of the greatest of Irish +antiquarians, on the subject: "The ruins of this abbey entirely +disappointed my expectations. The architecture of the choir and side +chapel is indeed truly beautiful, but they are not lofty, but the nave and +side aisles are contemptible. I am certain, however, that this newer part +of the abbey is not more than four centuries old." + +The sepulchral monument that was erected to the memory of Elizabeth, +daughter of Gerald, Earl of Kildare, who died about the year 1400, is +considered one of the most chaste, remarkable, and beautiful things of its +kind in Ireland. If nothing remained of Holycross but this remarkable +monument, it would be well worth a visit. + +There is not so much historical interest connected with Holycross as there +is with smaller establishments of its kind throughout Ireland. It was +founded too late to be plundered by the Danes, and in all the troublesome +times between its foundation and the time when it was abandoned, it does +not seem to have been plundered or burned, neither do the vandals seem to +have damaged or defaced it much. It is a beautiful and impressive ruin +that will for a long time to come attract the notice of lovers of the +abandoned fanes that are to be found in almost every parish of +Ireland--the land that is richer in ruins than perhaps any other country +in the world, Egypt alone excepted. + + + + +DUNLUCE CASTLE + + +If Cashel is the most remarkable ecclesiastical ruin in Ireland owing to +its situation, Dunluce Castle is, for the same reason, the most remarkable +military one. Cashel has, however, the advantage of being remarkable from +whatever side it is looked at; but Dunluce is remarkable only when seen +from the sea, or from the strand from which the rock the ruins rest on +rises. From the road that goes along the shore, Dunluce looks absolutely +disappointing, because the road is as high, apparently somewhat higher, +than the castle itself. But seen from a boat on the sea under it, or from +the base of the cliffs on which the road to it runs, it forms the grandest +and most imposing sight of a Viking's ruined stronghold that is to be seen +anywhere in Europe. The rock on which the ruins stand rises sheer from the +sea to the height of over a hundred feet. Before the castle was built on +it, the rock was completely isolated, and must have been an island, +standing about thirty feet from the mainland. Across the profound gulf +that separated the rock from the land, a mighty bridge of solid masonry +has been erected, over which all who enter the castle must pass. This +bridge is only about twenty inches wide, and few, except masons, or those +who are accustomed to ascend heights, would care to cross it, for there is +not, or at least there was not in 1873, a rope, railing, or protection of +any kind for those who wanted to visit the ruins of the castle. No one but +such as have steady nerves and good heads should think of crossing this +bridge, for a fall from it would mean certain death on the jagged rocks +more than a hundred feet below. + +[Illustration: DUNLUCE CASTLE.] + +The first thing that strikes one after examining the ruins is the unusual +thinness of the walls. They are no thicker than those of a modern +stone-built house. The reason of this is easily understood; for when the +castle was built, which must have been before cannons were so perfected +that they could be used for battering down buildings, it was absolutely +impregnable, as no battering-ram, or mediaeval siege-engine, could by any +possibility approach near enough to the walls to be used against them. +There was, therefore, no necessity that the walls should be thick. The +space on the top of the rock is entirely covered with the ruins of the +castle. The walls rise up sheer from the most outward margins of the rock. +On looking out from one of the narrow windows the sea is straight below +one. When the castle was inhabited its inmates must have had an awful +experience during the storms that so often sweep over the wild west and +north coast of Ireland, when the giant waves of the stormiest ocean in the +world beat against the rock on which the ruins stand. If such a place was +secure against the assaults of men, it was not secure against the fury of +the elements; and it would seem that some of the cliff did at one time +give way, for there are some gaps in the walls that appear to have been +caused by rock, upon which they were built, having given way. + +The Giant's Causeway and Dunseverick Castle are both in the immediate +vicinity of Dunluce, only a few miles west of it; both are well worth +seeing; but nothing on all that magnificent, iron-bound, cliff-guarded +coast of Antrim can compare in interest with Dunluce. The isolated, almost +sea-surrounded rock on which it stands, the great bridge that connects it +with the mainland, the narrow and dangerous footpath overlooking horrible +depths, and over which the castle can only be entered, make it one of the +grandest and most suggestive ruins in the world. Dunluce is a revelation. +It shows, perched on its storm-beaten, once impregnable rock, the awful +savagery of the time when might was the only law recognised by humanity; +and that only a few centuries ago life and property were no safer in +Christendom than they are to-day in the Soudan. + +The name Dunluce is a combination of the two most generally used Irish +words to express a military stronghold _dun_ and _lios_, and may be +translated "strong fort"; and strong it must have been in olden times, +when cannons were either unknown altogether, or principally remarkable for +the noise they made, and the greater danger they were to those who used +them than to those they were used against. The name of this place is +spelled _Dunlis_ or _Dunlios_ in ancient annals. The earliest mention of +it by the Four Masters, and in the "Annals of Loch Key," is under the year +1513. It does not appear to be mentioned in any of the other Irish annals, +unless it is mentioned in the "Annals of Ulster"; but as they have been as +yet translated only down to the year 1375, the question cannot be yet +decided. + +It is remarkable that so little is known about the early history of such a +remarkable place as Dunluce Castle. No trustworthy statement as to when +and by whom it was built has, so far, come to light. It was in the +possession of the Mac Quillins, spelled _Mac Uidhlin_ by the Four Masters, +in 1513. It then, by conquest or in some other way, passed into the hands +of Sorley Boy, one of the Scotch McDonnells, who kept it until 1584, when +it was besieged and taken by Sir John Perrott, Lord Chief Justice of +Ireland. Fifty thousand cows, and all his land in Antrim County, of which +he had an immense quantity, were taken from Sorley Boy. But he repaired to +Dublin, made his submission to Queen Elizabeth, and was reinstated in his +possessions in Antrim, but we are not told if he got back his cows. +Dunluce seems to have become a ruin early in the seventeenth century, and +is becoming more ruined every day, for it is not in the nature of things +that the sea is not gradually undermining and weakening the rock on which +the ruins stand, exposed as it is to the wrath of the stormiest ocean +probably in the world. It is said that long before Dunluce was abandoned, +the kitchen and its staff of cooks were swallowed up on a night of a +fearful gale of wind. This could only have happened by part of the rock +foundations of the castle having been washed away by the sea. The gap in +one part of the walls would seem to indicate that some such catastrophe +did occur. + +Dunluce must have been built before the invention of what is now known as +artillery. It is not possible to tell by the style of its architecture in +what century it was built, for there was practically no change in the +architecture of Irish castles for nearly four centuries. The art of +castle-building was just as well understood in the twelfth century as in +the fourteenth. Those who pretend to be able to tell within a century of +the time when a castle was built, by examining its masonry and +architecture, draw greatly on their imaginations. If Dunluce was built +after artillery had become so perfected that castles could be destroyed by +it at half a mile, or even a quarter of a mile distant, those who built +Dunluce were fools, for guns could be brought within fifty yards of it. If +it was built to resist artillery, the walls would have been made three +times as thick as they are. It was evidently built before artillery began +to be used for battering down walls. It must, therefore, have been built +before the year 1400, for even at that early date the principal use that +was made of artillery was for battering down walls. Half a dozen shots +from the very rude and imperfect artillery of the date mentioned would +have made a heap of ruins of the thin walls of Dunluce Castle. + + + + +BOYLE ABBEY + + +There are very few of the once great abbeys of Ireland of which so little +is generally known to the public as of Boyle Abbey. One reason of this may +be the remoteness of its situation, and its invisibleness from the town of +Boyle. It is not on the track of tourists, and is in a rather +uninteresting part of the country in a scenic point of view. Besides, the +Abbey is not in the town of Boyle, but over quarter of a mile from it, on +a road not so much frequented as some others in the locality. It is a +wonder that more is not known about this noble ruin. It may not be so +interesting in its architecture as Holycross, or so striking in its +situation as Cashel, but it is, nevertheless, one of the finest +ecclesiastical ruins in Ireland. + +[Illustration: BOYLE ABBEY.] + +If the country round Boyle Abbey cannot be said to be very interesting or +beautiful, the place where the ruins stand is charming. They rise from the +banks of the Boyle river, the first large tributary of the Shannon. The +river rushes under the very walls of the monastery with a rapid current, +and at its highest flood it is generally as clear as crystal, for it +rises in, or at least flows through, Loch Ui Gara, which is only a few +miles from Boyle, and its waters are filtered in that lake before they +reach Boyle. And here it may not be out of place to say that the generally +clear waters of most of the rivers of Ireland add greatly to the beauty of +its scenery. Scotch rivers are also generally clear, and the reason they +are clear is the reason why the Irish rivers are clear, and that is, +because they are filtered in the lakes through which they generally flow. +A limpid river is one of the most beautiful things in nature, but a river +of dirty water would not be beautiful if it flowed through the Garden of +Eden. Almost all rivers that are not filtered by passing through lakes are +sure to be dirty. For this reason the St Lawrence may be said to be the +only one of the great American rivers the waters of which are clear. To +know what an abomination a river of dirty water is, one should see the +Missouri. The river that rushes past the ruins of Boyle Monastery is not +only clear but limpid. Its pure, rushing waters are one of the principal +attractions in the vicinity of the ruins. + +The ruins of Boyle Abbey are very fine. The monastery was a large one, one +of the largest in Ireland, and was surrounded on almost every side with +extensive gardens. The walls of many of those gardens still remain, and +seem as sound as they were when first built. The ruins of the Monastery, +and the ruins of its adjoining buildings, are covered with the most +luxuriant growth of ivy to be seen on any ruins in Ireland. The thickness +of its stems, and the size and deep green of its leaves, are remarkable. +This extraordinary growth of ivy must eventually tumble down the walls. It +may preserve them for a time, but will destroy them in the long run. But +without its ivy and its limpid river, the ruined Monastery of Boyle, grand +and interesting as it is, would lose a great deal of its attractions. + +The ruins of the great church of Boyle, like the ruins of Cashel, and like +the historic hill of Tara, have been spoiled by the erection of modern +buildings near them. Some parson has erected here a new, intensely vulgar +gimcrack house that almost touches the hoary ruins, it is so close to +them. It entirely spoils their effect, and would disgust any one with any +veneration for the past. In no other country, perhaps, in the world has +the want of respect for the antique been more manifest among the masses +than in Ireland. In no other country have so many monuments of the past +been more wantonly destroyed, more defaced, and less respected. If it had +not been for the care exercised by the Board of Works, during the last +thirty years, most of the ruins of Ireland would now be either entirely +uprooted, or so marred, like the Rock of Cashel, or the Monastery of +Boyle, by the erection of new buildings in their vicinity, that they would +have little attraction for any one in whose soul there remained the +slightest reverence for the past. There are, however, unmistakable signs +that more patriotic and enlightened ideas about their country, and +everything relating to it, are rapidly gaining ground among all classes of +the Irish people, but especially among the more educated. Irish history, +Irish antiquities, and even the Irish language get more of the attention +of the upper and middle classes in Ireland now than they ever got before. +It seems almost a certainty that the ancient monument-defacing epoch has +passed, or is rapidly passing away from a country to which it has been a +disgrace so long. It is not enough that the Board of Works should continue +to do the good work it has been doing for the last quarter of a century in +the preservation of our ruins, it should prevent such outrageous bad taste +as the erection of new buildings in the very centre of time-honoured +monuments like those on the Rock of Cashel and on the Boyle river. + +The ancient name of Boyle was _Ath da laarg_, that is, the "ford of two +forks." It is not easy to understand why such a curious name should have +been given to it, for the river at Boyle, even in time of floods, is +fordable, and has usually not over six or eight inches of water in it. It +has, however, been proved that the rivers of Ireland, and probably of most +other countries, had much more water in them in ancient times than at +present. The other name for Boyle was _Buil_, whence Boyle. The word +_Buil_ is entirely obsolete. It is supposed to mean handsome or beautiful. +The Monastery, of which the ruins exist, was founded in 1161 by Maurice +O'Duffy, a noted ecclesiastic of the period, but it is known that a +smaller and more ancient monastery occupied the site on which the larger +one was built at the date mentioned. Boyle Abbey was an offshoot of the +great Abbey of Mellifont in the County Louth, that had been founded some +twenty years before the Abbey of Boyle. Both abbeys belonged to the +Cistercian order; and it would appear that so many monks flocked to +Mellifont that accommodation could not be made for them all there, so the +Abbey of Boyle was erected for them. The "Annals of Boyle," known also as +the "Annals of Loch Ce, or Key," say that the Church of Boyle was +consecrated in 1220; but that the church was built in 1161 there seems no +reason to doubt. The Four Masters mention it under the year 1174. Their +last mention of it is under the year 1602, and it must have been abandoned +very soon after. It was granted to Sir John King in 1603, when it must +have ceased to be a monastery. + +No one should visit Boyle and its grand ruins and not see the two very +beautiful lakes that are near it, Loch Key and Loch Arrow. Loch Key is not +over a mile from the town, and Loch Arrow not more than three. The very +fine domain of Rockingham may be said to be almost surrounded by Loch +Key. It was on an island in this lake that the McDermotts, chieftains of +Moylurg, had a stronghold. The island has a castle on it at present, but, +seen from the shore, both island and castle appear very small. The +fortress the McDermotts had on the island must have been a sort of +_cranniog_, or wooden castle, like so many that have been discovered both +in Ireland and Scotland in the tracks of dried-up lakes. Those _cranniogs_ +were sometimes built entirely on piles, and sometimes on islands, with +extensions on piles if the water was not too deep. This last must have +been the kind of fortress the McDermotts had on Loch Key, for it must have +been much larger than the present island, and must have been large enough +to give space to a multitude of people to assemble on it. We read in the +annals of Loch Key of the following awful catastrophe that happened on it +in 1184: "The Rock of Loch Key was burned by lightning--_i.e._, the very +magnificent, kingly residence of the Muintir Maolruanaigh (the McDermotts) +where neither goods nor people of all that were there found protection; +where six or seven score of distinguished persons were destroyed, along +with fifteen men of the race of kings and chieftains, with the wife of +McDermott ... and every one of them who was not burned was drowned in +that tumultuous consternation in the entrance of the place; so that there +escaped not alive therefrom but Connor McDermott with a very small number +of the multitude of his people." The same catastrophe is mentioned by the +Four Masters, but under the year 1187. This account of the burning of the +castle, or, as the annalist calls it, a residence, shows that it was a +wooden structure, for it would hardly have been possible to burn a +building of stone so quickly that the people in it would not have had time +to escape, even if it were on an island. + +Loch Arrow is the least known of all the beautiful lakes of Ireland, and +beautiful it is in very nearly the highest style of beauty. There are no +mountains round Loch Arrow, and none to be seen from its waters; but its +numberless attractions in the way of wooded islands, bold promontories, +and swelling shores render it one of the lovely lakes of Ireland; and yet, +few, except those living in its immediate vicinity, know anything about +it, or have ever heard of it. The land near it seems to be, for the most +part, in the hands of small farmers; and neater or more attractive peasant +homesteads cannot be found in any part of Ireland than on the banks of +Loch Arrow. It is not more than four miles from Boyle; and small as it is, +not more than five miles long, and from two to two and a half miles broad, +it is a gem of a lake that seems to be forgotten by the world. + + + + +THE LAKES OF WESTMEATH + + +The lakes of Westmeath, like Loch Arrow in Sligo, are almost unknown to +those who go to Ireland in search of the picturesque. These lakes are, for +the greater part, in the centre of the County. Loch Ree is not included in +them. There may be said to be only four of them worthy of the attention of +those who see something to be admired in a lake besides the excellence of +the fish that is in it. Those in search of the beautiful very seldom go to +see the lakes of Westmeath. The only people who generally visit them are +fishermen, very few of whom would turn round their heads to gaze on the +fairest prospect the lakes afforded, for seldom, indeed, do those usually +styled sportsmen trouble themselves very much to see the beauties of +nature, and they are, unfortunately, about the only class of people who +come from afar to visit the lake district of Westmeath. + +The lakes best worth seeing in Westmeath are Loch Deravarragh, Loch Ouel, +Loch Ennel, usually called Belvedere Lake, Loch Iron, and Loch Sheelin. +The last mentioned lake lies on the borders of four counties--Longford, +Cavan, Meath, and Westmeath. It cannot be claimed by the most devoted +admirer of the Westmeath lakes that there is very much historic interest +attached to any of them. It would be hardly possible to find a square mile +of Irish soil wholly devoid of historic interest; but while it may truly +be said that there is no country in Europe, not excepting even Greece, +where so many places of historic interest are to be found as in Ireland, +some parts of it are richer than others in memorials of the past. From +whatever cause it happened is not very clear, but it is a fact that +Westmeath is one of the least historic of Irish counties. The hill of +Uisneach is its most historic spot. There are, at the same time, some +other places of historic interest in it. Its most beautiful lake, Loch +Ouel, anciently called Loch Uair, is the one in which Malachy the First +drowned Turgesius the Dane. Turgesius seems to have had what Americans +would call "a high old time" in Ireland for some years--robbing churches +and monasteries, and living on the fat of the land; until the Irish, under +Malachy, at length defeated him in battle, took him prisoner, and drowned +him in one of the most beautiful lakes in Ireland. It seems queer that +Malachy, instead of giving him a grave in such a beautiful sheet of water, +did not fling him into a bog hole, and it is a pity that there should not +be any really trustworthy authority for the legend according to which it +was love for King Malachy's beautiful daughter that was the means of +entrapping Turgesius. Keating gives a very interesting account of the +capture of the Danish Viking in his History of Ireland; how Turgesius +asked Malachy for his daughter: how Malachy said that the marriage, or +rather the _liaison_ should not be made public for fear of giving offence +to the Irish; and how fifteen beardless youths, dressed as girls, +conducted Malachy's daughter to the Dane, overpowered his guard, took +himself prisoner, and then drowned him. A great deal of romance has been +written about this affair, but it remained for the inimitable Sam Lover to +write the funniest thing in the way of a poem about it. He said that the +tyranny of the Danes was so heavy on the Irish that the clergy ordered +them a long time of prayer and fasting to seek Divine aid to rid +themselves of their persecutors. But it would appear that the unfortunate +Irish had been keeping a compulsory fast for a long time previous, for +the Danes had left them nothing to eat. They could not understand being +ordered to fast still more, and said to the clergy:-- + + "We can't fast faster than we're fastin' now." + +The account of the drowning of Turgesius is given with tantalising +curtness in the "Book of Leinster": "This is the year, A.D. 843, that +Turgesius was taken by Maelseachlainn (Malachy). He was then drowned in +Loch Uair."[15] The "Book of Leinster" does not say that Turgesius was +taken in battle, but those who do not believe Keating's story think he +was. If he had been taken in battle and defeated, it must be admitted that +it is strange that Irish annalists did not say so and give particulars of +the battle. This omission makes it appear probable that there is some +truth in the version of his capture as given by Keating, although it is +altogether discredited by those best read in Irish History. + +Loch Ouel can be seen from the train on the Sligo division of the Great +Western Railway. Passing as the glimpse of it is from the train, it is +enough to reveal some of the beauties of this fairest of Westmeath lakes. +But to see it properly one should wander by its pebbly shores, for not a +yard of them is swampy, or ascend one of the hills of brilliant green that +are on all sides of it. Loch Ouel has the great defect of being almost +islandless. There are only one or two small ones in it. If it had +proportionately as many islands in it as Loch Erne, it would be one of the +fairest sheets of water of its size in Ireland. + +Belvedere Lake is a good deal larger than Loch Ouel, and its shores are +better wooded, but part of them, in fact a very large part of them, is +boggy. Its banks are adorned with gentlemen's seats, and in spite of the +swampy shore on one side of it, it is a very beautiful lake. + +Loch Derravaragh is the most peculiarly-shaped of all the Westmeath lakes. +It is shaped something like a tadpole, only that, unlike a tadpole, it is +its head that is narrow, and its tail, or lower part, that is wide. It has +bolder shores than any other lake in the county, some of the hills near it +being almost mountains. It has hardly any islands, and its shores are +wilder than any other of the Westmeath lakes. It wants the woods that do +so much to adorn the swampy shores of Belvedere Lake; but comparatively +bare as the shores of Loch Derravaragh are, it is a most picturesque +lake, and some think it more beautiful than Loch Ouel. Both Loch +Derravaragh and Loch Iron are formed by the river Inny, but it does not, +as most rivers do, flow through the lakes it forms and feeds, for it flows +out of them within a short distance of where it enters them, and the lakes +extend in an opposite direction from where they receive their water. This +is rather a strange fact in physical geography. + +The next most important of the Westmeath lakes is Loch Sheelin, but as +three other counties--Longford, Meath, and Cavan--border it, it cannot be +strictly called a Westmeath lake. However, as it is so close to the very +picturesque sheets of water which are the chief scenic attractions of the +county they adorn, it has been thought best to include it when describing +them. Loch Sheelin has only a few islands, but its shores, although low, +are very well wooded. Seen from the hills in the vicinity of Oldcastle in +Meath, it is as fair a sight as can well be imagined, with its +wood-crowned, indented shores. If there are fairer lakes in Ireland than +Loch Sheelin, there are few that have a more beautiful name. It is euphony +itself. Its name is the original one of Moore's sweet melody, "Come, rest +in this Bosom." It has often been said, "What's in a name?" There is a +great deal. A name so beautiful as Loch Sheelin would give a certain charm +to a bog hole. It must be confessed that Celtic, of all European +languages, seems to contain the most sonorous place names. Such names as +Bassenthwaitewater, Ullswater, Conistonwater, Derwentwater, Thuner See, +and Zuger See, sound very tame compared with Loch Lomond, Loch Erne, Loch +Awe, Loch Ree, Loch Layn, and Loch Sheelin. There is, however, one +continental place-name of wonderful beauty of sound, and that is Lorraine. +Its German name is Lothringen, but the French, by eliding its consonants, +or by what is generally called aspiration in Gaelic grammar, have turned +the harsh German name into one of the most euphonious and beautiful in the +world. + +Loch Iron and Loch Lene, pronounced Loch Layne, are small sheets of water, +but are well worth a visit, even from those who are neither fishers of +fish nor of men. The country all round the Westmeath lakes is as beautiful +as it is possible for any country to be in which there are neither +mountains nor waterfalls. It is never flat, and never uninteresting, +covered almost everlastingly with verdure, for although most of the county +is hilly, it is one of the most fertile in Ireland. Its still, clear +lakes, undulating surface, and rich soil, make it, even in the absence of +mountains (and, unfortunately, in the absence of good hotels in its small +towns and villages), one of the most picturesque of the counties of +Leinster. + + + + +KELLS OF MEATH + + +Kells, the ancient name of which was Ceannanus, and the one by which it is +still known in Irish, is one of the most ancient towns in Ireland. +According to Irish annalists it was founded by an over-king called Fiacha, +1203 years B.C. If its situation and environs are of no great beauty, it +is yet a place of great historic interest. It can boast of the possession +of one of the finest round towers in Ireland, a very ancient cross, and a +still more ancient stone-roofed church. If there are no mountains or +romantic scenery round Kells, it has the advantage of being situated in +the midst of the most generally fertile of Irish counties. It is on the +river Blackwater, a tributary of the historic Boyne. Nothing can exceed +the fertility of the land round Kells; but that does it no good, for the +land is almost all in grass, the rural population sparse, and +consequently, of very little outside support to the town. But Kells is no +worse off than the other towns of Meath. It is, as far as soil is +concerned, the richest county in Ireland, but its towns are either in a +state of absolute decay, or at a standstill. There is hardly any tilled +land in the county; its herds are large, and its population consequently +declining. Where cattle abound, people are generally scarce. + +For those who visit Kells merely to see the wondrous luxuriance of its +grassy environs, the best thing they can do is to ascend the hill of +Lloyd, which is close to the town, and go to the top of the tower that +crowns the summit of the hill. It is over a hundred feet high, with a +winding flight of stairs, and a turret on top, capable of containing a +dozen people. The view from the tower is very fine, and will well repay +those who see it. Almost the whole of Meath, Louth, Cavan, and parts of +other counties can be seen. The tower was built more than a hundred years +ago by the first Earl of Bective. It is sometimes called "Bective's +Folly," because it serves for nothing except giving a fine view to those +who ascend it. It is generally known as the tower of Lloyd. + +To the antiquarian, the neighbourhood of Kells is of supreme interest. +Four miles south-east of it, on the banks of the Blackwater, lies the site +of what is considered, next to Tara, the most ancient spot of Irish +soil--namely, the place where the games of Tailltean were, for some +thousands of years, celebrated. The place is now called Telltown, an +evident Anglicisation of its Irish name; but it is still called Tailltean +by any old persons in its vicinity who speak Irish. If any credence can be +given to Irish annals and history, the antiquity of this place is +astounding. The sceptic has to admit that the mere fact of the +preservation down to the present day of the name by which it was known +from remote antiquity is in itself an extraordinary fact. The games or +sports of Tailltean were somewhat similar to the Olympic games of Greece, +except that those of Tailltean were celebrated every year. The whole of +Ireland used to assist at them, and they seem to have been celebrated +every year down to 1168, when they were for the last time celebrated by +the unfortunate and foolish Roderick O'Connor, the last of those who were, +even in name, chief kings of Ireland. In spite of internal wars, Danish +invasions and plunderings, a single year does not appear to have elapsed +from the time they were first established down to the twelfth century in +which they were not celebrated. It would also seem that no matter what +wars or troubles were distracting the country, the games of Tailltean +were never omitted. They took place at the beginning of August, as has +been mentioned in the article on Tara, and from them the Irish name of the +month of August--_Lughnasa_--is derived. The name Tailltean is the +genitive case of Taillte, the woman in whose memory they were established +by her son, Lugh, who lived and reigned in Tara, according to the +chronology of the Four Masters, which differs only slightly from that of +other annalists, 1824 years B.C.! It is no matter how we may smile or +shake our heads when this astounding antiquity is mentioned, the +preservation of those two names, _Lughnasa_ and _Tailltean_, down to the +present day, drives away the smile and makes us look serious. Such +collateral proofs of the existence of historic personages of such +antiquity cannot be furnished by any other nation in the world, not even +by Egypt or by Greece. + +We must not pooh-pooh the statement of Irish annalists as to the enormous +antiquity they give to persons who figure in early Irish history. Here is +what the late Sir William Wilde says in his book, "Loch Corrib": "With +respect to Irish chronology, we believe it will be found to approach the +truth as near as that of most other countries; and the more we investigate +it and endeavour to synchronise it with that of other lands, the less +reason we shall have to find fault with the accounts of our native +annalists." + +There are not many monuments of the past to be seen at Tailltean save an +earthen fort of about a hundred paces in diameter, and two small lakes +that bear evidence of having been formed artificially. To show how long +traditions live in countries that even partially preserve their ancient +language, it need only be said that up to about a hundred years ago, the +peasantry of the neighbourhood used to meet on the first of _Lughnasa_, or +August, at Tailltean to have games and athletic sports of different kinds. +The meeting was called a _pattern_, but it was not held on any patron +saint's day. It was merely the traditional remembrance of the old games +that had not been celebrated for seven hundred years previously, that +caused the peasantry to meet at Tailltean. It is said that on account of +the drinking and consequent fighting that used to take place, the clergy +forbid the people to assemble. Irish history and annals, while they +constantly mention the games of Tailltean, leave us a good deal in the +dark about the nature of the sports that used to take place. But they do +say that marriages, or, rather, alliances of a somewhat evanescent kind +used to be contracted; and to this day, all through the part of the +country in the neighbourhood of Tailltean, when a matrimonial alliance +turns out badly, or when the parties separate, it is called "a Telltown +marriage." No one who has ever written about Telltown, not even such +profound archaeologists as O'Donovan and Petrie, has ever had any doubt +about its being the exact place where the games of Tailltean were held in +ancient times. + +There cannot be said to be any very ancient monuments of Christian times +to be seen in Kells save a very fine round tower, the top of which is +gone; a very ancient cross in the market-place, two in the churchyard, and +a stone-roofed church or oratory. The last is the oldest and most +interesting ancient monument in Kells. It is a small building, only +nineteen feet long, fifteen broad, and twenty-five high. It is one of the +most ancient edifices built with cement that exists in Ireland. Its +foundation is attributed to St Columba; and it is considered to be at +least of his time, or the middle of the sixth century. It is apparently as +sound and as solid as it was the day it was built. Everything that could +with any certainty be believed to have been part of the great monastery +that was in Kells has disappeared. Its stones were probably taken to +build the present church that stands near to where the monastery was. The +stones of the ancient building that has been described would also probably +have been used for some purpose if they could have been easily removed, +but it is so solid, and the stones are so firmly bound together by +grouting, that the labour of tearing it down deterred the vandals from +destroying it. + +Kells was so often burned and so often plundered by the Northmen that it +is a wonder how anything in it remains. According to the annals it was +burned twenty-one times, and plundered seven times, before the twelfth +century! Every vestige of the great castle, that was built either by Hugo +de Lacy or John de Courcy, has disappeared. This castle must have been +nearly as large as that of Trim, for it was built for the protection of +some of the most valuable country conquered by the invaders. It is said +that the monastery was in a ruined condition at the close of the twelfth +century, and that de Lacy renovated it and richly endowed it. + +That wondrous manuscript known as the Book of Kells, although it is not +believed to have been written in that town, has been named from it, and +consequently should be mentioned in connection with it. That the book +found its way to Kells, and that it was there for many centuries, there +cannot be any doubt. Neither can there be any doubt that it belonged to +the Church of Kells, for there are curious charters in it, written in +Irish of a very archaic kind, relating to the clergy of that town. It +seems to have been in Kildare in the twelfth century, for it is evidently +of it that Giraldus Cambrensis speaks when he says, "Of all the wonders of +Kildare, I found nothing more wonderful than the marvellous book that was +written in the time of St Brigit." It was in the church of Kells until +1620, when Archbishop Ussher saved it from being destroyed. It is a Latin +version of the Gospels, with some Gaelic charters, relating to the Church +of Kells, that were bound into it many centuries after it was written. It +was taken by the Danes, it is believed, and the golden cover torn off it; +it was found buried in the ground some time after. This is recorded to +have happened in 1006. It is the most wonderful work of art of its kind +known to exist in any country, and it is no wonder that in a credulous age +it should have been believed to be the work of angels. Westwood, an +Englishman, and author of the greatest work on illuminated manuscripts +ever written, says of it: "It is unquestionably the most elaborately +executed manuscripts of so early a date now in existence." Doctor Waagen, +Conservator of the Royal Museum of Berlin, says of it: "The ornamental +pages, borders, and initial letters exhibit such a rich variety of +beautiful and peculiar designs, so admirable a taste in the arrangement of +colours, and such an uncommon perfection of finish, that one feels +absolutely struck with amazement." Where and when the Book of Kells was +executed, and by whom, will probably never be known; but it must have been +written as early as the sixth century. Tradition attributes it to Columba, +or, as he is usually called, Columb Cille. The late Dr Todd, one of the +most learned archaeologists, and one of the best Gaelic scholars that ever +Ireland produced, believed that it was as early as the time of Columba. +The author of _Topographia Hiberniae_ says of it: "The more frequently I +behold it, the more diligently I examine it, the more I am lost in +admiration of it." No one who has not seen the Book of Kells can form an +idea of its beauty. In the pages that have not been soiled the colours are +as pure and as bright as if they were laid on only yesterday. The naked +eye cannot follow all its delicate and minute tracings; to see it aright, +it should be seen through a microscope. It is beyond any doubt the most +wonderful book of its kind in the world. In it and in the Tara Brooch +Ireland possesses two works of ancient art, two gems of artistic beauty +which are unequalled of their kind and of their age. The art treasures of +metallurgy exhumed in Pompeii, and all that have been found in Greece and +Asia Minor by Schliemann, contain nothing equal in exquisite finish to the +Tara Brooch; and in all the treasures of illuminated manuscripts in the +libraries of the world, there is nothing of its kind equal to the Book of +Kells. The Tara Brooch can be seen in the Museum, Kildare Street, Dublin, +and the Book of Kells in Trinity College, in the same city. + + * * * * * + +All the ecclesiastical establishments that have been described owed their +origin to native piety, benevolence, and enterprise. + + + + +CUCHULAINN'S DUN AND CUCHULAINN'S COUNTRY + + +No one, whether an Irishman or a stranger, can look on the vast mound and +vast earthen ramparts that mark the home of him whom the most trustworthy +of Irish annalists, Tighearnach, calls _fortissimus heros Scottorum_, +without feelings of indignation and shame--indignation at the way one of +the greatest and most interesting monuments of Irish antiquity has been +profaned, and shame that so little reverence for their country's past +should be found among the Irish people. If the Copts and Arabs of Egypt +sell and uproot the antiquities of that country, they can, at least, say +that they are not the descendants of the men who lived under the sway of +the Pharaos; but those who have, in recent times, done most to obliterate +and profane the most historic monuments of Ireland are the lineal +descendants of the men who raised them. Nothing that ancient Irish +monuments have suffered, and they have suffered a great deal, can exceed +the wrong committed by him who built a horrible, modern, vulgar, gewgaw +house on top of the _dun_ of Cuchulainn! To show how utterly obtuse, and +how unsympathetic with his country's past the person was who built the +vulgar structure on one of the most curious and interesting historic +monuments in Ireland, he has actually engraved his name and the date of +the erection of the house on its front wall! seeming to glory in the +vandalism he committed. The legend on the wall says that the house was +built in 1780 by a person named Patrick Byrne for his nephew. + +[Illustration: CUCHULAINN'S DESECRATED DUN.] + +About a mile from the Dundalk railway station, crowning the summit of a +hill that rises amid green fields and rich pastures, stands all that +remains of the _dun_ on which the wooden dwelling of Cuchulainn stood +wellnigh two thousand years ago. Before it was partially levelled to build +the gewgaw house that now stands on it, it must have been the finest +monument of its kind in Ireland. It is quite different from the remains of +Tara, Knock Aillinn, Emania, or Dinrigh. Those places were evidently +intended to accommodate large numbers of people; but Cuchulainn's _dun_ +was evidently that of one person or one family. It answered to the Norman +keep that some lords of the soil built for their own private protection in +later times. Cuchulainn's _dun_ was immense, and its remains are even +still immense in spite of the way it has been ruined. It is yet over forty +feet in perpendicular height, and, like most structures of its kind, is +perfectly round. It has an area of over half an acre on its summit. The +_enceinte_ outside the central _dun_ encloses fully two acres, and where +it has not been levelled, is still colossal, being thirty feet high in +some parts. The immense labour it must have taken to raise such a gigantic +mound, and to dig such vast entrenchments on so high a hill, strikes one +with astonishment. If it had not been ruined and partially levelled by +the utterly denationalised and soulless person who built the vulgar +structure on it, it would be the finest thing of its kind in Ireland, and +would attract antiquarians from all parts of these islands and from the +Continent. + +The existence of this fort is another collateral proof of the general +truth of what has been called Irish bardic history. It says that +Cuchulainn lived at Dundealgan, or Dundalk, and there his _dun_ is found. +He can hardly be said to figure in what are generally known as Irish +authentic annals. The "Annals of the Four Masters" do not mention him at +all, although they do mention some of his contemporaries. Tighearnach, who +lived in the eleventh century, is the only one of the Irish annalists who +mentions him. His annals have not yet been translated or published; but +the following passage occurs in them: "Death of Cuchulainn, the most +renowned champion of Ireland, by Lughaidh, the son of Cairbre Niafer +[chief king of Ireland]. He was seven years old when he began to be a +champion, and seventeen when he fought in the Cattle Spoil of Cooley, and +twenty-seven when he died." Tighearnach makes Cuchulainn and Virgil +contemporary. He and Queen Meave are the two great central figures in the +longest and greatest prose epic in the Irish language, the Tain Bo +Cuailgne, or Cattle Spoil of Cooley, which Sir Samuel Ferguson has made +familiar to the English reader in his poem, "The Foray of Meave." + +Cuchulainn is the Hercules of Irish romantic history; but in spite of all +the fabulous tales of which he is the hero, there cannot be any doubt that +he was an historic personage, that his dwelling-place was on the _dun_ +that has been described, and that he lived shortly before the Christian +era. The name Cuchulainn is a sobriquet; it means "the hound Culann." This +Culann was chief smith to Connor, King of Ulster. He had a fierce dog that +he used to let out every night to watch and guard his premises, which were +in the vicinity of Emania, the palace of the Ulster kings. Cuchulainn, who +was nephew to Connor, was going to some entertainment at his uncle's; but +having been out later than usual, was attacked by Culann's fierce hound. +He had no weapon with which to defend himself save his hurling ball; but +he cast it with such force at the dog that he killed him on the spot. +Culann complained to King Connor about the loss of his great watch dog, +and Cuchulainn, who was then only a boy of eight or nine years old, said +that he would act as watch dog for the smith and be Culann's hound, or +dog. Whether he did so or not is left untold. + +It is very curious that in all the romantic tales in which Cuchulainn +figures, and in spite of his incredible strength and prowess, there does +not seem to be a passage in any tract that has been translated about him +up to the present where anything is mentioned about his size or stature. +We are left under the impression that he was no bigger than ordinary men; +and it may have been that he was not. Size and strength do not always go +together. Some of the feats that he is said to have performed are utterly +incredible; such as flinging his spear haftwise, and killing nine men with +the cast; and pulling the arm from its socket out of a giant whom he was +unable to get the better of with weapons. It is very natural that such +impossible feats would, in a credulous age, be attributed to any one who +was possessed of more than ordinary prowess. Things quite as impossible +are found in the classics relative to Hercules. The Irish had just as good +a right to relate impossibilities about Cuchulainn as the Greeks had to do +the same about Hercules. But Cuchulainn figures in Celtic legend and +romance in a manner in which Hercules does not figure in the legends of +Greece, for the Irish hero was more of a ladies' man than was the giant +of the Greeks. + +If Cuchulainn did not fill such an important place in what may be called +classic Gaelic literature, the total ignorance about him in the very place +where he was born and where he lived would not be such a national disgrace +as it is. The mere remnant of Gaelic literature in which he is the central +figure is immense. No other race in Europe would have so totally lost +sight of a personage that was the hero of so many tracts and stories, and +who was, besides, an historic character, and not a myth. Even sixty years +ago, during the Ordnance Survey of Louth, the parties employed on it found +that no one in the neighbourhood of Castletown, the modern name of the +place in which Cuchulainn's fort is situated, knew or heard anything about +him. They were told by the peasantry that the fort was made by the Danes! +Some said it was the work of Finn Mac Cool; but of the real owner of it, +they knew nothing. + +It is evident that the Irish monks of early mediaeval times were much more +broad-minded and liberal than their countrymen of the same class of more +recent years. It is to monks and inmates of monasteries that we owe +nine-tenths of the Gaelic literature that has come down to us. They +produced more books in proportion to their numbers than perhaps any class +of men of their kind that lived in ancient times. They were sincere +Christians, but, like patriots, they loved to record the deeds of their +pagan ancestors. Just as soon as national decay set in they were succeeded +by men of their own calling, who appear to have thought little worth +recording except the works of saints, or at least of those who professed +Christianity. If the monks of the early centuries of Christian Ireland +were as narrow-minded as the Four Masters, we never, probably, would know +anything about Cuchulainn, Queen Meave, Conall Carnach, or any of the +heroes of pagan Ireland, round whom there is woven such a wondrous web of +legend, romance, and song. Every patriotic Irishman should revere the +memories of those liberal-minded monks who handed down to us the doings of +their pagan forefathers. To show how much those men valued the literature, +and loved to recount the exploits of their pagan ancestors, it will only +be necessary to give the words of the dear old soul who copied the _Tain +Bo Cuailgne_, the great epic of pagan times, into the "Book of Leinster": +"A blessing on every one who will faithfully remember the _Tain_ as it is +[written] here, and who will not put another shape on it." + +Cuchulainn, above all men who figure in ancient Irish literature, seems to +have been "_gradh ban Eireann_," the darling of the women of Ireland. +While yet in his teens, the nobles of Ulster came together to determine +who should be a fitting wife for him. After a long search they found a +lady named Eimir, accomplished in all the feminine education of the time; +but her father, a wealthy chief or noble who lived near Lusk, in the +present County of Dublin, did not like to give his daughter to a +professional champion. Cuchulainn had seen her, and had succeeded in +gaining her love. She was guarded for a year in her father's _dun_; and +during all that time, Cuchulainn vainly strove to see her. At last he lost +patience and became desperate, scaled the three fences that encircled her +father's fort, had a terrible fight for her; killed three of her brothers; +half killed half-a-dozen others who opposed him, and carried her and her +maid northward in his chariot to his home in Dundalk. + +Like all violent love, Cuchulainn's love for Eimir seems soon to have +cooled, for we find that a lady called Fann, the wife of Manannan MacLir, +King of the Isle of Man, or some place east of Ireland, fell in love with +him. She came to see her father, a man of rank and wealth, who lived +somewhere on the east coast of Ireland. She eloped with Cuchulainn, and +Eimir, finding that she and her erring husband were staying at Newry, in +the present County of Down, followed him, attended by fifty maids armed +with knives, in order to kill Fann. This lady, in spite of her errors, +must have been an intellectual woman, for her speech when leaving +Cuchulainn and going home with MacLir is very fine, and would be a credit +to the literature of any language. The tract in which it occurs is in the +Book of the Dun Cow, an Irish manuscript compiled in the eleventh century, +and is entitled "The Sick Bed of Cuchulainn and only Jealousy of Eimir." +It was admirably translated nearly forty years ago by Eugene O'Curry, and +was published in the long since dead periodical, the _Atlantis_. None but +a few Celtic savants have ever read it. To the general public it will be +absolutely new. Fann, finding that she must leave Cuchulainn, says:-- + + "It is I who shall go on a journey; + I give consent with great affliction; + Though there is a man of equal fame, + I would prefer to remain [here]. + + "I would rather be here + To be subject to thee without grief, + Than go, though it may wonder thee, + To the sunny palace of Aed Abrat.[16] + + "Woe to the one who gives love to a person, + If he does not take notice of it! + It is better for one to be turned away, + Unless he is loved as he is loved." + +It seems that by some occult means it was revealed to Manannan MacLir that +his wife, Fann, was in trouble between the jealous women of Ulster and +Cuchulainn. So he came from the east to seek his eloped spouse. When Fann +found out that Manannan had found _her_ out, she utters the following very +quaint, extraordinary, and touching rhapsody:-- + + "Behold ye the valiant son of Lir + From the plains of Eoghan of Inver,-- + Manannan, lord of the world's fair hills, + There was a time when he was dear to me. + + "Even to-day if he were nobly constant,-- + My mind loves not jealousy; + Affection is a subtle thing; + It makes its way without labour. + + "When Manannan the Great me espoused + I was a spouse worthy of him; + He could not win from me for his life + A game in excess at chess. + + "When Manannan the Great me espoused + I was a spouse of him worthy; + A bracelet of doubly tested gold + He gave me as the price of my blushes. + + "I had with me going over the sea + Fifty maidens of varied beauty; + I gave them unto fifty men + Without reproach,--the fifty maidens. + + "As for me I would have cause [to be grieved] + Because the minds of women are silly; + The person whom I loved exceedingly + Has placed me here at a disadvantage. + + "I bid thee adieu, O beautiful Cu; + Hence we depart from thee with a good heart; + Though we return not, be thy good will with us; + Every condition is noble in comparison with that of going away." + +It would appear that Cuchulainn was as much distracted about Fann as she +was about him; for when he found that she had gone home with Manannan +MacLir, he became desperate, and the tale says, with extraordinary +grotesqueness and apparent inconsequence, that "It was then Cuchulainn +leaped the three high leaps and the three south leaps of Luachair; and he +remained for a long time without drink, without food, among the mountains; +and where he slept each night was on the road of Midhluachair." But what +good did the jumping do him, or why did he jump? + +Connor, King of Ulster, and the nobles and Druids of the province, had a +hard time with Cuchulainn after Fann left him, as he seems to have gone +downright crazy. The tale says that Connor had to send poets and +professional men to seek him out in his mountain retreat, and that when +they found him he was going to kill them. At last the Druids managed to +give him a drink of forgetfulness, so that he remembered no more about +Fann. + +The death of Cuchulainn in the "Book of Leinster" is one of the finest +things in ancient literature. It has not yet been fully translated, but a +partial translation of it by Mr Whitley Stokes appeared in the _Revue +Celtique_ in 1876. An epitome of it here can hardly be out of place: When +Cuchulainn's foes came against him for the last time, signs and portents +showed that he was near his end. One of his horses would not allow himself +to be yoked to the war chariot, and shed tears of blood. But Cuchulainn +goes to the battle, performs prodigies of valour; but at last he receives +his death wound. Though dying, his foes are afraid to approach him. He +asks to be allowed to go to a lake that was close by to get a drink. He is +allowed to go, but he does not want a drink, he merely wants to die like a +hero, standing up; for there is a pillar-stone close by, and he throws +his breast-girdle round it, so that he might die standing up, and not +lying down. His friend Conall determines to avenge his death. Here the +literal translation is so fine that it must be given: "Now there was a +comrades' covenant between Cuchulainn and Conall--namely, that whichever +of them was first killed, should be avenged by the other. 'And if I be +first killed,' said Cuchulainn, 'how soon wilt thou avenge me?' 'The day +on which thou shalt be slain,' says Conall; 'I will avenge thee before +that evening.' 'And if I be slain,' says Conall, 'how soon wilt thou +avenge me?' 'Thy blood will not be cold on earth,' says Cuchulainn, 'when +I shall avenge thee.'" Lugaid, the slayer of Cuchulainn, had lost his +right hand in the fight. He goes south in his chariot to a river to rest +and drink. His charioteer says, "One horseman is coming to us, and great +are the speed and swiftness with which he comes. Thou wouldst deem that +all the ravens of Erin were above him, and that flakes of snow were +specking the plain before him." "Unbeloved is the horseman that comes +there," says Lugaid. "It is Conall mounted on [his steed] the Dewy-Red. +The birds thou sawest above him are sods from that horse's hoofs. The +snowflakes thou sawest specking the plain before him are foam from that +horse's lips and nostrils." Conall and Lugaid fight, of course; but as +Lugaid has but one hand, Conall has one of his hands bound to his side +with ropes, so that he should have no advantage over his foe. They fight +for hours, until at last Lugaid falls by Conall, and Cuchulainn is +avenged. The tale winds up thus: "And Conall and the Ulstermen returned to +Emain Macha (Emania). That week they entered it not in triumph. But the +soul of Cuchulainn appeared there to the fifty queens who had loved him; +and they saw him floating in his spirit-chariot over Emain Macha, and they +heard him chaunt a mystic song of the coming of Christ and the Day of +Doom." + +There are few views in Ireland more beautiful than that from the summit of +the mound on which Cuchulainn's mansion stood. It may not be so extensive +as other views in the locality, but for beauty and variety it can hardly +be exceeded. If admittance is obtained into the house that is built on the +track of Cuchulainn's, the view will be still finer. It is said by some +that that house is haunted. It is to be hoped that it is; and that +Cuchulainn's ghost will drive away sleep from the eyes of every one of +Patrick Byrne's descendants who stop in it. + +The ancient name of the country round Dundalk was Muirimhne; but it has +not been called by that name for some centuries. It appears to have been +the patrimony of Cuchulainn; for in the tale, in the "Book of the Dun +Cow," from which extracts have been given, Fann calls him, "Great chief of +the plain of Muirimhne." He, probably, or the clan of which he was the +head, owned all that part of northern Louth where the land is level, and +up to the foot of the Cooley hills. All the County Louth is fairly studded +with ruins of one sort or another. It is one of the most interesting +counties in Ireland in an antiquarian point of view. It contains the +remains of nearly thirty castles in almost all stages of preservation. One +of the finest of them is only a few hundred yards from the _dun_ of +Cuchulainn. It is not in the least ruined, but its architecture shows it +to be one of the oldest castles erected by the Anglo-Normans in Ireland. +Its style is almost exactly that of the castle at Trim, which we know was +built before the end of the twelfth century. Like Dunsochly Castle, near +Finglas, in the County Dublin, the one near Cuchulainn's _dun_ must have +been inhabited at a comparatively recent date, for modern windows have +been opened on its front. The only light that was admitted into those old +castles was what came through the narrow slits in the walls, about three +feet long and six or eight inches wide. These served the double purpose of +letting in light and discharging arrows through them. It does not seem to +be known by whom the very fine Norman Keep at Castletown, County Louth, +was built. There are many larger castles of the same kind in different +parts of Ireland, but there are not many of its age in such a good state +of preservation. There is a church in the immediate proximity of the +castle, and the exact date of its erection seems also unknown. It is in a +state of almost utter ruin. The County Louth can boast of having been the +birth-place of St Brigit. She was born at Fachart, only a few miles from +Castletown, but it was in Kildare she spent almost all her life, and it +was there she died and was buried. + +There are few parts of Ireland more beautiful than the country round the +ancient _dun_ of Cuchulainn, and few parts less generally visited by +tourists. Carlingford Loch is only a few miles from Dundalk, and except +Clew Bay, and one or two others, there is nothing finer on all the coasts +of Ireland. But the grandest and most striking scenery in this part of the +country are the Mourne mountains in the County Down. There are higher +mountain ranges in Ireland, but there are not any more bold, or more truly +Alpine. Seen from the central parts of the County Louth, they and the +Cooley mountains seem to form a continuous range of "sky-pointing peaks," +forming one of the finest, if not the very finest, mountain view in +Ireland. The ancient name of the Mourne mountains was the Beanna Boirche. +They were called the Mourne mountains from being in a territory anciently +called Crioch Mughorna. It gave a title to Lord Cremorne, from whom, it is +generally believed, the Cremorne Gardens in London derive their name. It +has to be admitted that, in this instance, the Anglicised form of the name +is the more euphonious. + +The County Louth, and all that part of the County Down bordering on it, +have not had their due share of attention from those who go in search of +the picturesque and beautiful. Although the direct route between the two +largest cities in Ireland, northern Louth and southern Down are not at all +known as well as they should be. There are, even in Kerry or Connemara, +few places in which finer views of mountain, bay, and plain can be had, +and all within less than two hours by rail from Dublin or Belfast. And as +for antiquities, no county of its size in Ireland possesses so many as +Louth. + + + + +THE WILD WEST COAST + + +By the west coast is meant the whole of that wondrous succession of +far-penetrating fiords and bays, cliff-guarded shores, and sea-washed +mountains from Bantry Bay to Malin Head, a distance of over four hundred +miles. There may be wilder scenery on the coasts of Norway, Labrador, or +Scotland, but for wildness, sublimity, and beauty combined, there is +hardly in Europe, or in the world, another four hundred miles of coast +equal to it. Its variety is one of its principal charms. There is the +grandeur and wildness of Norwegian coast scenery, together with scenes of +radiant beauty which cannot be found on the coasts of Norway or of +Scotland. The more southern latitude of the Irish west coast, and its +consequently milder climate, give it a great advantage over the coasts of +Norway or of Scotland. Its grass is greener and more luxuriant, and its +flowers bloom earlier in spring and later in autumn than those of more +northern climes. The mild climate of the southern part of the Irish west +coast is almost phenomenal. Winter, in its real sense, or as it generally +is on the coasts of Norway, or even of Scotland, may be said to be unknown +on the west coast of Munster. Snow is seldom seen, and frost still less +frequently. Rain and wind are about all the climatic disagreeableness that +those living on the south-west coasts of Ireland have to contend against. +It is, however, a fact that the rainfall is not so heavy immediately on +the coast as it is some ten or twenty miles inland. This is owing to the +fact that the higher mountains are generally some distance from the sea; +and it is well-known that mountains are great attractors of rain. + +Bantry Bay is the first great sea loch of the south-western coast. It is +one of the finest natural harbours in Europe, but, unfortunately, ships +are seldom seen in it except when they take shelter from the "wild west +wind," which blows on these storm-beaten shores with a fury hardly known +anywhere else in the world. The whole of the coast of Kerry, up to the +mouth of the Shannon, is a succession of the wildest and grandest scenery, +with here and there land of only slight elevation, with level meads and +pastures of perennial green. Still further north, we come to the mouth of +the Shannon, which forms another very fine harbour. About twenty miles +north of the Shannon the famous cliffs of Moher appear. There are higher +isolated cliffs than those on the west coast, but there is no long range +of cliffs so high. They average between six and seven hundred feet in +perpendicular height above the sea. To be seen in all their grandeur they +should be seen from the sea, but to be seen in all their terribleness, +they should be seen in a storm. Such is the force of the west wind on +these coasts, sweeping over three thousand miles of unbroken, islandless +sea, that the waves sometimes break over the cliffs of Moher in spite of +their nearly seven hundred feet of perpendicular height. In no other part +of the world is the force of the sea, when driven before a gale from the +west, more terrific than on the west coast of Ireland. Old men who lived +close to this iron-bound coast on the night of the great storm of January +6, 1839, known over the most of Ireland as the "Night of the Big Wind," +say that none but those who were near these coasts on that awful night +could have even a faint idea of what the Atlantic is when a storm from the +south-west drives it against the rocky barriers that seem to have been +placed where they are to prevent it from overwhelming the whole island. +They say that when some gigantic wave of millions of tons of water was +hurled against these cliffs, the noise made was so loud that it could be +heard miles inland above the roar and din of the storm; and that the very +earth would tremble at every assault of the waves on those tremendous +barriers to their fury. + +Recent soundings taken off the west and south-west coast of Ireland have +fully proved that a very large part of the island has been washed away by +the fury of the west wind and the sea, and that at some far-back epoch it +extended nearly three hundred miles further towards the south-west. The +sea, for some two or three hundred miles west and south-west of Ireland, +is shallow--hardly deeper than the Channel between Great Britain and +Ireland--but at that distance there is a sudden increase of over two +thousand feet in the depth of the sea. Scientists think that this +submerged mountain was once the south-west coast of Ireland, and that the +shallow sea between the present coast and the deep sea, about three +hundred miles south-west, was once dry land, and, of course, part of +Ireland. There do not seem to be any reasonable grounds to doubt this +theory, for the fury of the sea is every year washing away both land and +rock on these western coasts, and the way it has encroached, even in the +memory of living persons, is very remarkable. Not a year passes during +which hundreds of thousands of tons of rocks are not washed away from +cliff and mountain by the ceaseless assaults of the stormy sea that beats +with such force on the western coast of Ireland. Were it not for the +cliffs and mountains that guard the whole of the west coast, the +probability is that thousands of acres would be submerged every year, +until there would be very little of the country left in the long run. It +may be said that there must be a time coming when those barriers of cliff +and mountain that now guard almost the entire west coast will be swept +away, seeing that they are being constantly broken down and washed into +the sea. Such a time must certainly come, unless some unforeseen event +should alter the course of the Gulf Stream, or change the prevailing west +and south-west winds to opposite points of the compass. The question is, +How long will it be until there is real danger from the encroachment of +the sea on the west coast of Ireland? This is a question which the most +profound geologist living could not answer with even approximation to +correctness. It is impossible to know what amount of erosion takes place +every year, or what amount has taken place in any given number of years; +but that not only the cliffs of Moher, but the still more gigantic ones +of Slieve More in Achill, and Slieve League in Donegal, must finally +succumb to the fury of the Atlantic's waves there can hardly be a doubt. +Thousands of years may elapse before the cliff barriers on the western +coast become so weakened that the island will be in danger from the +assaults of the sea. + +From the cliffs of Moher to the Killaries, or Killary Bay, or Harbour, for +it is known by all these names, there are many scenes of very great +beauty; but to take even passing notice of all of them would be entirely +beyond the scope of a work of the size of this. The coasts of Connemara, +if not remarkable for very striking cliff scenery, are wild, sea-indented, +strange, and interesting in a very high degree. But Killary Bay is one of +the glories of the wild west coast. It has more the character of a +Norwegian fiord than any other sea loch in Ireland. It divides the +counties of Galway and Mayo. Some put it before the famed Clew Bay, and +Inglis said, over half a century ago, that if the shores of the Killaries +were as well wooded as Killarney, the latter might tremble for the +supremacy it enjoys of being the fairest lake either of fresh or salt +water in Ireland. The Killaries run some ten or fifteen miles inland, +between some of the highest hills in the province of Connacht, with +Maolrea, the king of Connacht mountains, on its northern side. This fiord, +or narrow sea loch, is one of the most splendid harbours, not only in +Ireland, but in the world, with not only complete shelter from winds from +all points, but with depth of water enough to float the biggest ship that +ever has been or ever will be built. But, unfortunately, there is little +to attract commerce to these desolate shores, where there are no large +towns, and only a sparse population. It has been said by some who have +seen almost all the fiords of Norway, that there are few of them superior +to the Killaries in everything that constitutes beauty, sublimity, and +wildness. That this sea loch is, in a certain degree, dark and gloomy has +to be admitted, because the mountains come so close to it that they seem +in some places to rise almost perpendicularly out of the water. But +Killary harbour is a glorious place on a clear, sunny mid-day, when its +sombre mountains cast but little shade on its ever calm waters; for no +matter how rough the sea may be outside, this mountain fiord is ever calm, +as it is sheltered on all sides by towering heights. As an enchanting bay +it is the only one on all the Irish coasts of which Clew Bay or Dublin +Bay, were they living things and tormented with human passions, could +possibly feel jealous. + +We now approach the queen, not alone of Irish bays, but of all bays in +these islands, and, according to its most ardent admirers, of all bays in +Europe. This is the glorious sheet of salt water, presided over by the +most symmetrical and beautiful of Irish mountains, Croagh Patrick, and +guarded from the stormy Atlantic by the rocky shores of Clare Island. This +is Clew Bay, the radiant beauty, the "matchless wonder of a bay," that not +one in a hundred of those in search of the beautiful know anything about. +It is indeed strange that this gem of sea lochs is not better known, now +that a railway brings one to its very shores. + +It is almost impossible to draw a comparison between Clew Bay and the many +magnificent arms of the sea that penetrate the west coasts of Ireland and +Scotland, for it is so unlike most of them: Dublin Bay, while less grand +and not so beautiful as Clew Bay, is the one that is most like it. Howth +has somewhat the same position with regard to Dublin Bay that Clare Island +occupies with regard to Clew Bay, and Slieve Coolan--in the name of all +that's decent let that abominable name "Sugarloaf" be dropped for +ever--is the presiding mountain genius of Dublin Bay, just as Croagh +Patrick is the presiding mountain genius of Clew Bay. Both bays are +beautiful rather than sublime; they are bright and cheerful rather than +dark and frowning. With all the wildness and grandeur of the many +far-entering fiords of the coast of Scotland, with all the Alpine glories +of their shores, there is not one of them that for beauty alone can be +compared with Clew Bay. It is shrouded by no terror-striking precipices. +No cataracts pour into it even in flood time. No mountains overhang it. It +seems to have been made to cheer and to delight, and not to terrify or to +startle. It seems to have said to the mountains round it--"Stand back; +come not too near me lest your shadows should fall on me and hide, even +for an instant, one gleam of my radiant loveliness." So the mountains +round it do stand back, and this is the one cause of its winsomeness, +brightness, and cheerfulness. When the tide is full on a sunny day, Clew +Bay seems absolutely to laugh. No shadow of surrounding hills can fall +upon it, for they are too far away. It is as bright and as radiant a bay +as there is in the world, and the glory of the coasts of Connacht. + +Clew Bay has a great advantage over the greater part of the bays on the +Irish coast on account of its size. Killary Bay is in no place more than a +mile wide, but Clew Bay is fully seven miles wide at its narrowest part, +and about sixteen miles long--that is from Clare Island to the quay at +Westport. Those who desire to see this splendid bay aright should not +attempt to look at it from the town of Westport, for it cannot be seen to +advantage from there. Neither can it be seen to advantage except during +high tide, when all its multitude of islands are clearly defined. Let them +ascend the high lands east of the town of Westport for about a mile, and +then look back on the scene beneath them. If the day is fine, if there is +plenty of sunlight, they will have to be the least sensitive of mortals if +they can gaze on such a scene unmoved. Scenes sublimer and grander, and +views more extensive, can be found in other countries; but for pure +beauty--a beauty that seems to laugh and rejoice at its own matchless +charms--Clew Bay may challenge anything of its kind on earth. + +North of the bay rises that most symmetrical of Irish mountains, Croagh +Patrick, or the Reek, as it is frequently called. It seems to have been +made to order, it is so regular and at the same time so graceful and +grand in its outlines. There are few mountains of its height that look so +high as Croagh Patrick. It is somewhat less than three thousand feet high, +but owing to its symmetry and its steepness it looks higher and more +imposing than many mountains of double its altitude. Exactly at the mouth +of the bay, stretching almost straight across it, and almost completely +shutting it in from the Atlantic, rises the great mass of Clare Island, +making the bay a safe harbour as well as adding in a most extraordinary +degree to its beauty. Clare Island is almost a mountain; its highest point +cannot be less than fifteen hundred feet above the sea level, and it rises +sheer from the water. It is almost as beautiful an object as Croagh +Patrick itself. The hills on the north side of the bay are rather tame, +but the beauty of the famous Reek is such that almost any other mountain +would appear tame in comparison with it. The number of islands in Clew Bay +is said to be three hundred and sixty-five--one for every day in the year. +There seem not to be any exact details as to the number of these islands, +but it cannot be much less than the number stated. They seem so numerous +as to be uncountable. The reason that those wishing to see this wondrous +bay at its best are advised to see it when the tide is full is because all +the islands do not appear at low water. This is certainly a defect, but no +sea loch looks so well at low water as when the tide is full. The citizens +of Dublin know what a difference the tide being in or out makes in the +appearance of their own magnificent bay. But in Clew Bay the difference in +its appearance caused by the tide being full or low is much greater than +in the bay of Dublin, for the reason that has been already stated. However +much the difference the state of the tide may make in Clew Bay, it is +beyond all doubt the most beautiful bay, not only in Ireland, but in all +those countries known as the British Isles. + +Those who go to this part of the west coast in search of the sublime and +beautiful should not omit to ascend Croagh Patrick, and gaze from its top +on one of the grandest and most extensive views to be seen in Ireland. The +mountain, seen from Westport or its environs, appears wellnigh +inaccessible, but it is not so steep on its south side, and can be +ascended with no great amount of difficulty. The view from Croagh Patrick +is one of the most sublime that can be imagined. The whole of that wild, +storm-beaten, cliff-guarded coast of Connacht, from Slyne Head in +Connemara to the most northern part of Mayo, lies before one; and Clew +Bay, beautiful as it is from wherever it is seen, seems fairer than ever +when seen from the summit of Croagh Patrick. + +Going north from Clew Bay the next most interesting and wild spot is the +island of Achill, and the grandest things there are the cliffs of Minnaun +and Slieve More. As we are going north, Minnaun Cliffs, which are on the +southern side of Achill, must be spoken about first. They are seven +hundred feet in height, and will, therefore, average higher than the +cliffs of Moher in the County Clare, but they do not rise perpendicularly +from the sea as those of Moher do. But their sea sides are so steep as to +be quite inaccessible even to the wild goats which still haunt the cliffs +of Achill. The cliffs of Minnaun are magnificent, but if they rose sheer +from the sea they would form a much more grand and impressive sight. + +But the cliffs of Minnaun, gigantic as they are, are only insignificant +things compared with the great sea wall on the northern shores of the +island, formed by Slieve More and Croghan. The whole northern shore of +Achill, from Achill head in the extreme west of the island to the narrow +straight that separates it from the mainland on the east, a distance of +some thirteen miles, may be said to be a terrific barrier of cliffs, +rising to the height of over two thousand feet at the hills Croghan and +Slieve More. It is generally allowed that the north shore of Achill has +the most stupendous mural cliffs that are to be seen anywhere nearer than +Norway, and that even Norway has not very much cliff scenery more +magnificent. There is nothing in the shape of cliffs or sea walls in these +islands that can compare with the cliffs of Achill in grandeur except +Slieve League in Donegal, of which mention will soon be made. A geologist +has said, speaking of the cliffs of Achill, that it appeared to him as if +part of the mountain which forms the western extremity of the island, and +terminates in the noted cape of Achill head, had suffered dis-severance +from a sunken continent by some convulsion of Nature. These gigantic +cliffs can only be seen to advantage from the sea, but in the almost +entire absence of passenger steam-boats on these coasts, it is very +difficult for those who visit them to get a proper means of seeing them as +they ought to be seen. They rise from out of one of the stormiest oceans +in the world, that even in summer-time is often rough and dangerous; and +very few would care to risk their lives in the cockle-shell boats, or +_currachs_, of fishermen to see the stupendous cliffs of Achill from where +they look best. In far distant Norway there are plenty of large and +commodious steamboats to take tourists all round its coasts; but if they +want to see some of the grandest and most beautiful scenery of their own +country to its best advantage, they must trust to a fisherman's cot. + +It would take at least a week of the longest summer days to see all the +wonders and grandeur of these tremendous cliffs, or rather cliff +mountains, of Achill. In the interior of the island there is not anything +of great interest to be seen, but it has more cliff scenery of the +stupendous sort to boast of than perhaps any other island of its size in +the world. + +It is a "far cry" from Achill to Slieve League in Donegal--considerably +over a hundred miles if the coast is followed; but between the giant sea +walls of that island and Slieve League there is nothing of their kind that +will in any way bear comparison with them. There is, however, much +magnificent scenery on the northern coast of Connacht, and also a great +many things of antiquarian interest. There is the extraordinary Druid +remains of Carrowmore, only three miles from Sligo town, where there are +almost, if not quite, half a hundred cromlechs to be seen on about half a +dozen acres. They are of almost all sizes. Some of them are baby +cromlechs, the top stones of which are not much more than a hundredweight. +This place must have been a sort of Stonehenge at one time. In no other +known spot of either these islands or France are so many cromlechs to be +seen in so small a space, and very few seem to know anything about it. Sir +Samuel Ferguson seems to have been the only person who has written +anything about it. But here the same disrespect for monuments of antiquity +that has been so long prevalent all over the country may be noticed. Many +of the cromlechs have been torn down, and some of them have been actually +made to serve as road walls and have been built over. Fully half of them +have been either utterly torn down or in some way mutilated. Their +generally small size has made them an easy prey for those who wanted +stones to build walls or houses. These curious relics of far-back ages +should not be allowed to be any further ruined. + +[Illustration: LOCH GILL.] + +The country in the vicinity of Sligo is one of the most interesting and +beautiful in Ireland. Close to it is the famous Loch Gill, the queen of +the fresh water lakes of Connacht. It is so near the coast that it is +not improper to say something about it in treating of the scenery of the +coast. It is connected with the sea by a river only a few miles in length +that passes through the town of Sligo, consequently it is only three or +four miles in a direct line from the sea. There is no other large fresh +water lake in Ireland, except Loch Corrib, so near the sea as Loch Gill. +It is fully ten miles in extreme length, and from three to four in +breadth. Its shores cannot be said to be mountainous, but the hills around +it are so bold, and their lower parts are so well wooded, that Loch Gill, +in spite of its having comparatively few islands, is yet one of the most +beautiful lakes in Ireland, and no one in search of the beautiful should +omit to see it. There is no other town in Ireland that has more objects of +scenic and archaeological interest in its vicinity than Sligo. There is the +immense cairn on top of Knocknarea, sixteen hundred feet above the level +of the sea. There are four or five other immense cairns close to the town, +and there is the extraordinary mountain of Ben Bulben, anciently Ben +Gulban, that is shaped like a gigantic rick of turf. It is a couple of +miles long, and some sixteen hundred feet above the level of the sea. Its +summit is perfectly flat. It can be ascended in a carriage from the south +side; but on the north side, facing the sea, it is not only perpendicular, +but overhangs its base in some places. If not the highest or most +beautiful mountain in Ireland, it is certainly the most extraordinary. + +We now approach the famous Slieve League, the grandest, the boldest, the +steepest, if not the highest, of all the cliff barriers on the coasts of +these islands, and one of the most remarkable in the known world. It can +be seen from the shore near Sligo, rising almost perpendicularly from the +sea. The cliff-mountains of Achill, colossal as they are, seem to shun the +full fury of the western gales, for they face the north-west; but Slieve +League looks almost due south-west, and thrusts itself out into the ocean +as if to court the most tremendous shock of the Atlantic's billows. It +forms the culminating point of a range of cliffs that are over six miles +in extent, extending from Carrigan Head to Teelin Head, the lowest cliff +of which is over seven hundred feet in height. Slieve League is two +thousand feet high, and almost perpendicular. It is two hundred feet lower +than the highest of the cliff-mountains of Achill, but it is bolder, +nearer being perpendicular, grander, and more rugged than they. Those who +have not been on the sea at the base of Slieve League cannot form a true +idea of its awful grandeur. Its summit is almost as sharp as a knife +blade; and he who could look from the jagged rocks that form its cone down +on to the seething ocean under him without feeling giddy should have a +steady head and strong nerves. Those who go from these islands to Norway +in search of the sublime should first see this king Irish cliff-mountains, +and know how grand and beautiful are the sights that may be seen at home. + +The whole of the coast of Donegal is magnificent. There is no other cliff +on it as high or as grand as Slieve League, but there are hundreds of +places along its nearly a hundred miles of iron-bound, storm-beaten coast +that are well worth seeing. It has nothing like Clew Bay, but it has +gigantic cliffs, narrow arms of the sea, some of which are nearly as wild +and as grand as the famous Killary Bay that has already been described. +There may be certain places in the more southern coasts that are finer and +fairer than anything on the coasts of Donegal with the exception of Slieve +League, but for general wildness and cliff scenery there is hardly any +sea-coast county in Ireland can equal it. It has the longest sea loch in +the island on its coast--namely, Loch Swilly. Following its windings from +its mouth to where it begins must be over five and twenty miles. It is a +beautiful lake also, and hardly known at all to tourists, and never can be +known until better means are supplied for seeing it from a steamer on its +waters. The "wild west coast" may be said to end at the mouth of Loch +Swilly. From there eastward it is the northern coast. There is much of the +grand, beautiful, and curious to be seen on the northern coast from +Inishowen to Fair Head, including the celebrated Giant's Causeway, and +"high Dunluce's castle walls." The latter have been already described. + +It would be hard to find anywhere in the world another sea coast of the +same length as that from Cape Clear in the south to Inishowen in the +north, where there is so much to be seen of the grand, the terrible, and +the beautiful. If the mountains on the coasts of Norway are higher, if its +fiords penetrate further inland, and if in some places the shining glacier +may be seen from them, there is not such astonishing variety of scenery on +the coasts of Norway as there is in the west coast of Ireland. The climate +of Norway does not permit the growth of many species of wild flowers +which add so much to the beauty of even the wildest and most sterile parts +of Ireland. In Norway there are no mountains radiant with purple heather +and golden furze,--mountains that may be unsightly and sombre for ten +months out of the twelve, but are, in autumn, turned into living bouquets, +thousands of feet in height, and with areas of tens of thousands of acres. +Moisture and mildness of climate are the parents of flowers. If rain and +mist hide for days and weeks the most beautiful scenery in Ireland, there +is ample compensation afterwards in the bloom of wild flowers more +luxuriant and more plentiful than can be found where there is more +sunlight and less moisture. + +It is a curious and humiliating fact that, so far as can be learned from +the sources at command, there are ten people who go from these islands to +the coasts of Norway every year for the one that visits the west coast of +Ireland. It may be that many people go to Norway just because it has +become fashionable to go there, but all the fashion in the world would not +send people five or six hundred miles across a stormy sea if there was not +good accommodation for them to go to that distant country, and good means +for seeing its beauties. Let there be the same means for seeing the +beauties of the west coast of Ireland as there are for seeing the coast of +Norway, and thousands will visit the former every year. Those who want to +see the grandeur of the Norwegian coast go in large and well-equipped +steamers, and live in them, eat and sleep in them for weeks together, +while they are brought from fiord to fiord and from town to town. Let +similar means be had for those who desire to see the west coast of +Ireland, and it will not be long unknown. + +There is no way to see coast scenery properly except from the sea. One +might be looking at Slieve League or the Cliffs of Moher all his life from +the land, but he could never have a full idea of their grandeur unless he +saw them from the sea at their base. Those who see the cliffs and +cliff-mountains of Norway from the deck of a commodious steamer see them +aright. Most of those who make the trip to Norway are loud in praise of +its magnificent coast scenery; but if they had to go by land from fiord to +fiord, as they would have to do on the west coast of Ireland did they want +to see its beauties, would they be so enchanted? They certainly would not. +When tourists go to see the Norwegian fiords, they need not trouble +themselves about engaging beds, or worry themselves by fearing that the +hotel in such a place will be full, for they have an hotel on board the +steamer, are carried from place to place, and are given ample time to see +the beauties of each place. If there were the best hotels in the world at +every romantic spot on the west coast of Ireland it would never attract +visitors, and never would be known as it should be, and as its wondrous +grandeur and beauty entitle it to be, until large and commodious steamers +were provided in which people could live, if they chose, while being +brought from one place of attraction to another, or from one town to +another. There are few coasts in the world better provided with harbours +than the west coast of Ireland. It could hardly happen that a steamer like +those that take tourists from Leith to the coasts of Norway could be +caught by a gale on any part of the coast from Cape Clear to Malin Head, +ten miles from a harbour in which she could not take shelter. The danger +of shipwreck would be so small as to be infinitesimal. The trip from Cape +Clear to Malin Head, or even to the Giant's Causeway, could be made in two +weeks, and give sufficient time to stop a day or more at such remarkable +places as Clew Bay or the Arran Islands, where things of more than +ordinary interest are to be seen, such as the view of Clew Bay from the +high lands east of it, and the cyclopean ruins in the islands Arran, the +most colossal and extraordinary things of their kind in Europe. There +ought to be enterprise enough in Ireland to put a steamer, like those that +take tourists to Norway every summer, on the Irish west coast for three or +four months every year. Without such means of seeing the beauties of the +west coast, as only a large, commodious steamer could furnish, the +beauties and the grandeur of the cliffs of Moher, Clew Bay, Slieve More, +and Slieve League will never be known as they should be. + +There is only one part of the Irish west coast where harbours for large +craft are scarce, and that is the Donegal coast. It is said that there is +no safe harbour between Killybegs and Loch Swilly, a distance of nearly a +hundred miles. This is unfortunate; but stormy as the north-west coast is, +there are always many days in summer when steamers could go from harbour +to harbour in a calm sea. + + + + +DUBLIN AND ITS ENVIRONS + + +Some may think, especially natives of Ireland, that writing about Dublin +and its environs is mere waste of time, ink, and paper, seeing that there +is so much known about them already. It should, however, be remembered +that this book is intended for people who are not Irish, as well as for +the Irish themselves. But even the Irish, and above all, the natives of +Dublin, want to be told something that may be new to some of them about a +city which so many of them seem neither to love nor admire as they should. +There is, unfortunately, a certain class of people in Dublin who, although +many of them were born there, think that it is one of the most backward +and unpleasant places in Europe. They do not admire the beauty of its +environs, and will not acknowledge willingly that it has been improved so +much as it has been during the last twenty-five years. It has been +improved and beautified in spite of them. Those citizens of Dublin who +take no pride in it should go abroad and see as many cities as the author +of this book has seen, and they would come back with more just ideas +about Dublin. If there is any other city in Europe as large as Dublin, +with environs more beautiful, where life is more enjoyable, and where life +and property are more secure, it would be interesting to know where that +city is. Dublin is a great deal too good for a good many who live in it. + +The history of Dublin may be said to commence with the Danish invasions of +Ireland. It is rarely mentioned in Irish annals before the time when the +Danes took it, and first settled in it in the year 836, according to the +Four Masters. It probably existed as a small city long before the Danes +got possession of it, and there is reason to believe that it was a place +of some maritime trade at a remote period. It is stated on legendary more +than on historic authority, that when Conn of the Hundred Battles and +Eoghan Mor divided the island between them in the third century, the +Liffey was, for a certain part of its length, the boundary between their +dominions; and that the fact of more ships landing on the north side of +the river than on the south side gave offence to Eoghan, who owned the +southern shore of the Liffey, and caused a war between the two potentates. +It is, however, hardly probable that Dublin was a place of much importance +before its occupation by the Scandinavians in the first half of the +ninth century. + +[Illustration: SACKVILLE STREET (O'CONNELL STREET).] + +The Irish name of Dublin is, perhaps, the longest one by which any city in +Europe is called. It is _Baile Atha Cliath Dubhlinne_, and means the town +of the ford of hurdles of black pool. In ancient Irish documents it is +generally shortened to _Ath Cliath_, and sometimes to _Dubhlinn_. We have +no means of knowing what was the size or population of Dublin in Danish +times; but long after it became the seat of English government in Ireland, +it extended east no further than where the city hall now stands in Dame +Street, no further west than James Street, and no further south than the +lower part of Patrick Street; both Patrick's cathedral and the Comb having +been outside the city walls. + +We have no account of the first siege of Dublin by the Danes in 836. The +annals merely say that a fleet of sixty ships of Northmen came to the +Liffey, and that that was the first occupation of the city by them. The +Irish captured and plundered Dublin a great many times, but do not appear +to have ever tried to banish the Danes permanently out of it. It is +probable that the Irish found them useful as carriers of merchandise to +them from foreign countries; for seeing how often the city was captured +and plundered by the Irish, it is incredible that they could not have held +it had they chosen to do so. The Four Masters record its capture and +plunder by the Irish in A.D. 942, 945, 988, and 998. In 994 Malachy II. +sacked Dublin and carried off two Danish trophies, the ring of Tomar and +the sword of Karl; and in 988 he besieged it for twenty days and twenty +nights, captured it, and carried off an immense booty; and issued the +famous edict, "Every Irishman that is in slavery and oppression in the +country of the foreigners (Danes) let him go to his own country in peace +and delight." But the Irish were not always lucky in their attacks on the +Danes of Dublin, for in 917 Niall Glundubh, King of Ireland, was killed by +them, and his army defeated at Killmashogue, beyond Rathfarnham. He +evidently intended to take Dublin from the south, because it was so well +defended on the north by the Liffey. The battle usually known as the +battle of Clontarf was not fought in the locality now called by that name, +but between the Liffey and the Tolka. Where Amien Street is now was +probably the very centre of the battle-field. Here it may not be out of +place to make a remark on the curious fact that the Danes never made any +serious attempt to conquer Ireland after the battle of Clontarf, although +they were at the height of their power some six or eight years after by +the terrible defeat they gave the Saxons at Ashington, in Essex, which +gave Canute the crown of England. He thus became not only King of England, +but was King of Denmark and Norway as well--the most powerful potentate in +Christendom in his time. It is strange that historians have not taken any +notice of this extraordinary fact. There was comparatively little fighting +between the Irish and the Danes after the battle of Clontarf, although the +foreign people held Dublin until the arrival of Strongbow, and made a very +poor stand against him, for he captured the city with very little +difficulty. Dublin has hardly suffered what could be called a siege since +988, when Malachy II. took it from the Danes. When Strongbow held it, the +Irish under the wretched Roderick O'Connor marched a great army under its +walls, and were going to take it; but before they began siege operations, +and while they were amusing themselves by swimming in the Liffey, +Strongbow sallied out on them and totally defeated them. That was the last +serious attempt to besiege Dublin. + +Dublin does not appear to have grown much until after the wretched, and +for Ireland terribly unfortunate, Jacobite wars were over. It grew and +prospered rapidly almost all through the eighteenth century when a native +parliament sat there; but from about 1820 until about 1870 there was not +very much either of growth or improvement in it. Since then, in spite of +what the census may show, it has grown considerably, and has been improved +immensely. It is not easy to see what has caused such improvement in +Dublin since 1870. The only way that the improvement in the state of the +streets, the pulling down of old buildings and the erection of new ones, +can be accounted for, is by the fact that the local government of the city +is in the hands of a different class of men from those who ruled it so +long and so badly up to about the time mentioned. When one considers all +that has been done since then in the paving of streets, the laying down of +new side walks, the tearing down of old buildings, the erection of +cottages for the working classes where rotten and pestiferous houses had +stood, the deepening of the river so that the largest ships can now enter +it, the extension and perfecting of the tram-car system, and other +improvements too numerous to mention, it strikes him as something +astonishing; but when it is remembered that all these improvements have +taken place in the face of declining trade, declining population, and +declining wealth in the country at large, what has been accomplished +becomes absolutely sublime. It shows clearly that there is a class of the +Irish people who, with all their faults, possess hearts and souls + + "that sorrows have frowned on in vain, + Whose spirit outlives them, unfading and warm"; + +and that they never give up and never despair. Never has any city been so +much improved in so short a time, and in the face of such difficulties. +The improvements are still being carried on. If they are carried on for +another quarter of a century at the same rate at which they were carried +on during the last quarter of a century, Dublin will be one of the +cleanest, pleasantest, healthiest, and most beautiful cities in the world. + +In an educational point of view, there are very few cities either in these +islands or on the Continent that offer more facilities for culture than +Dublin. Its new National Library is, for its size, one of the finest and +best organised and best managed in Europe. It is not a British Museum, nor +is it a Bibliotheque Nationale; and the citizens of Dublin who have +children who are fond of reading, and who wish to add to their store of +knowledge, ought to feel very well satisfied that their National Library +is _not_ like either the monstrous and little-good-to-the-masses +institution in London, or the still more monstrous and still less +good-to-the-masses institution in Paris. Those to whom time is of little +value can afford to wait during a considerable part of the day to get a +book from the great libraries of London and Paris; but for any one to whom +time is really valuable, to visit the great libraries mentioned as a +reader of their books, should, in most cases, be the last thing he should +think of. + +There are three libraries in Dublin, of which two are free to any one +known as a respectable person--these are the National Library and the +Royal Irish Academy. To become a reader in Trinity College Library costs, +to a person known to be respectable, only a couple of shillings a year. +Seeing the facilities that are in Dublin for cultured people, or for those +who wish to become cultured, it is strange that it does not stand higher +as an educational centre. The three great libraries it contains--that is, +the National Library, Trinity College Library and the Royal Irish +Academy--contain almost every sort of book required for the most complete +education in every art and science known to civilised men. But one of the +grand advantages of these institutions, an advantage almost as great to +the people at large as the treasures they contain, is the fact that they +are not controlled by "red tapeism." The amount of trouble and downright +humiliation one has to go through to become a reader in the British Museum +of London, or in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, is enough to deter +any but a person of nerve from seeking admittance to them as a reader. The +British Museum is not so bad in the matter of "red tapeism" as it might +perhaps be; but the Bibliotheque Nationale puts so many obstacles in the +way of those who desire to become readers, that it is little else than a +disgrace to Paris and to France. For ridiculous red tapeism it beats any +institution of its kind on earth. There are probably not three libraries +in the world more easy of access than the three Dublin ones that have been +mentioned, and in which there is less red tapeism, or more courtesy shown +to readers. + +The buildings that have been recently erected in Kildare Street, Dublin, +the Library and the Museum, would be considered chaste and elegant in any +city in the world; and it is questionable if any buildings of their kind +can be found in any city to surpass them in architectural beauty. Even the +Picture Gallery and the Natural History Gallery, close to them in Leinster +Lawn, are very handsome buildings. If the front of Leinster House, facing +Kildare Street, were brightened up and made to look like its rear, the +whole group of buildings, including Leinster House itself, would form an +architectural panorama hardly to be surpassed anywhere; and if Dublin +contained nothing else worthy of being seen, it would make Dublin worth +travelling hundreds of miles to see. + +But it is the Museum of Irish Antiquities that is, or that ought to be, +the glory of this splendid group of buildings, and it is the only one of +them with the management of which fault can be justly found. The way it +has been managed ever since the articles it contains were removed from the +Royal Irish Academy in Dawson Street is a disgrace to all Ireland, and a +blot on the Irish people. There is not room to show the public much more +than half the objects of antiquity. They are stowed away in drawers, and +have been so for nearly ten long years. They might as well be in the earth +from which they were recovered as be packed into drawers in a back room +where none but officials can see them. If there was a decent and proper +national spirit among the Irish people, such treatment of Ireland's +wonderful and unique antiquities would not be tolerated for a single week. +Her antiquities are among the chief glories of Ireland. In monuments of +the past she stands ahead of almost all countries save Greece and Egypt. +It is not alone in her ruined fanes, round towers, gigantic _raths_, +sepulchral mounds, and Cyclopean fortresses that she can boast of +antiquarian curiosities more numerous and more unique than those of almost +any other country, but also in her multitudinous articles in gold, bronze, +and iron. A good many of these--the greater part of them, perhaps--are in +positions where they can be seen; but thousands of them are where no one +but an official can see them. If the Irish antiquarian department were +properly arranged, and if _all_ the objects it possesses that have been +dug up from Irish soil were properly exhibited, Ireland could boast of an +exhibition of national antiquities greater, more entirely her own, and +more unique than that possessed by any other country in Europe. + +Some may think that this statement is not true. They may point to the +enormous collection of antiquities in the museum in Naples. It is, +however, hardly fair to class the treasures of that museum with the +objects found in Ireland. It was the accidental calamity that befel +Herculaneum and Pompeii that stocked the museum in Naples. If that +calamity had not happened, it is all but certain that not a single object +in the Neapolitan museum would now be extant. It was by no accidental +calamity that the enormous number of Irish antique objects were brought to +light. They were found from time to time all over the country. There are +many private collections in the hands of private individuals in almost all +the large towns in Ireland, and a very large percentage of the bronze +objects in the British Museum were found in Ireland. No other country of +its size has yielded so many objects of a far-back antiquity. It seems a +pity that those who have so many private collections of antique objects in +so many parts of Ireland do not send them all to the Royal Irish Academy; +but if they are to lie there, stowed away in drawers in a back room, they +might better remain in the hands of private collectors. If there was a +real national press in Ireland, there would be such widespread indignation +awakened at the way Irish antiquities have been treated since they were +removed to the Museum in Kildare Street that those who manage it would be +_forced_ to treat one of the finest collections of its kind in the world +in a very different manner. Hardly a word has appeared in the Dublin press +protesting against the way the department of Irish antiquities has been +managed. + +With all the advantages Dublin possesses over most of the European +capitals in great facilities for education, in cheap house rent as +compared with many other cities, in uncommon beauty of environs, very few +rich, retired people with families to educate, choose it for a residence. +It is not to be wondered at that wealthy English and Scotch people should +prefer to live in their own countries, but wealthy Irish people seem not +to desire to live in Dublin unless it is their native place. Ireland, +unfortunately, does not possess very many rich people, but she has at +least some outside of Dublin; but very few of these, even if they have +young, growing-up families, go to reside in the capital in order to +educate them. Some seem to think that outside of Trinity College, Dublin +has no advantages in an educational point of view worth speaking of. This +is not now the case. It is true that some years ago Trinity College was +the only institution in Dublin where high-class education could be +obtained, but it is not so any longer, since the rise of other educational +institutions. But it is in the excellence of its libraries, and the easy +access that there is to them, that Dublin offers such great advantages to +those who do not desire to enter Trinity College. There is, of course, a +much larger collection of books in the British Museum, and in many of the +Continental libraries, than there is in the libraries of Dublin; but +between red tapeism, and the greater number of readers that frequent those +places as compared with the Dublin libraries, it is safe to say that more +reading could be done and more knowledge gained by a student in one week +in a Dublin library than in two weeks in any of those enormous places +where there are such crowds and consequently such loss of time. + +It is, however, hardly to be wondered at that Dublin has heretofore +attracted so few rich people to it. It got a name for being dirty and +ill-governed; and it has to be confessed that the name was, in a large +measure, deserved. Dublin _was_ dirty and _was_ badly governed, but it is +not now. A bad name lasts a long time, and is not easily got rid of; and +the improvements made in Dublin are of such recent origin that it is only +natural that outsiders should think it is still what it was thirty years +ago. Let Dublin continue to be improved for the next twenty years as it +has been during the twenty years that have elapsed, and it will be one of +the most attractive of the European capitals. It is not yet what it should +be; there are many things of many kinds in it which require improvement or +alteration; but so much good has been done already that it is only +reasonable to expect that still more will be done, and that the time +cannot be far distant when the city "of the black pool," badly as its +English translation may appear, will attract not only visitors from all +parts of the world, but rich people who will take up permanent abode +there, attracted by the educational advantages it will afford, by the +beauty and cleanliness of the city itself, and by the superlative beauty +of the country around it. + +The situation of Dublin can hardly be called romantic. It is built at the +mouth of a river, and consequently not on high ground; but the site is +good, for the ground rises on both sides of the Liffey, making the +drainage easy. When the system of main drainage that is now being carried +out is finished, it will be one of the best drained cities in the world. +Dublin has not such a picturesque site as Edinburgh has, neither has any +other city in Europe; but outside of Edinburgh there are no objects of +scenic interest unless one goes forty or fifty miles away to see them. But +if the site of Dublin cannot be called picturesque, it can boast of having +some of the most beautiful, if not the largest, public buildings in the +world. For chasteness, harmony, symmetry, and grace, the Bank of Ireland, +if it has any equals at all in modern architecture, has very few. The +Custom House is one of the finest buildings in Europe. The new public +buildings, containing the National Library and the Museum, are gems of +architectural beauty; so are some of the banks, and so is the Great +Southern Railway Terminus, and so are many other public buildings. Dublin +cannot boast of possessing any building as large as St Paul's or the +Tuileries; but size and beauty are two different things. + +But it is in its environs that Dublin stands ahead of all the capitals in +Europe, or, perhaps, of any other city of equal size in any country. +Because the beauties around Dublin were not described in the first +chapters of this work does not imply that they are much inferior to what +may be seen in other parts of the country. There is nothing like the Lakes +of Killarney in the environs of Dublin, and Dublin Bay is hardly equal to +Clew Bay; but barring those two gems of scenic loveliness, it is +questionable if there is, for beauty alone, leaving sublimity aside, +anything in Ireland that surpasses the immediate environs of Dublin, +without going further north than Howth, or further south than Bray. Every +inch of the country round Dublin has some peculiar scenic charm of its +own. The Botanic Gardens of Glasnevin are the most interesting and +beautiful in Europe; not so much for the care that has been taken of +them, or the quantity and variety of the plants that are in them, but +principally on account of the charming locality in which they are +situated. It is not meant to be implied that they are not well taken care +of, or that their collection of plants is not both rare and large. What is +meant is that had they the rarest and largest collection of plants to be +seen in any gardens in the world, they would not have the same attraction +were they situated in a less picturesque locality. If ever there was a +place made to spend a hot summer day in, it is these gardens, with their +murmuring river, their shaded, sunless walks, their gigantic trees and +deep glens. The place where the flower gardens of Glasnevin are would +still be beautiful if there wasn't a flower in it. + +Its bay is the great scenic attraction round Dublin. It cannot be seen to +real advantage but from the south-west side of the hill of Howth. The bay +has very few islands, but its background of mountains on one side and +woodland on the other is so wonderfully fair, that were there myriads of +islands to be seen, they could hardly add to the wondrous beauty of the +view. What a Scotch mechanic said about the view of Dublin Bay from the +high land on the south-west of Howth the first time he was there will +give the reader a better idea of Dublin Bay than a whole chapter of +descriptions, and loses nothing by being expressed in the strong doric of +the north: "Ech, mon, I seed mony a bonny sicht in Scotland, but this +beats a'." There are many who think the view from Killiney Hill finer than +that from Howth. The view from the former takes in Sorrento Bay, which is +in reality part of the Bay of Dublin that can hardly be seen from Howth, +and also takes in many valleys in Wicklow and plains in the interior that +are not visible from Howth. It is not easy to say which of the views is +the finer; but either is worth travelling not only ten miles, but a +hundred miles, afoot to see. + +In describing the beauties of Dublin Bay, it cannot be out of place to +give the finest poetic address to it that was ever written. It will be new +to most English and many Irish readers. The poem is by the late D. F. +M'Carthy:-- + + "My native Bay, for many a year + I've loved thee with a trembling fear, + Lest thou, though dear and very dear, + And beauteous as a vision, + Shouldst have some rival far away, + Some matchless wonder of a bay, + Whose sparkling waters ever play + 'Neath azure skies elysian. + + "'Tis love, methought, blind love that pours + The rippling magic round these shores, + For whatsoever love adores + Becomes what love desireth; + 'Tis ignorance of aught beside + That throws enchantment o'er the tide, + And makes my heart respond with pride + To what mine eye admireth. + + "And thus unto our mutual loss, + Whene'er I paced the sloping moss + Of green Killiney, or across + The intervening waters; + Up Howth's brown side my feet would wend + To see thy sinuous bosom bend, + Or view thine outstretched arms extend + To clasp thine islet daughters. + + "My doubt was thus a moral mist,-- + Even on the hills when morning kissed + The granite peaks to amethyst, + I felt its fatal shadow; + It darkened o'er the brightest rills, + It lowered upon the sunniest hills, + And hid the winged song that fills + The moorland and the meadow. + + "But now that I have been to view + All that Nature's self could do, + And from Gaeta's arch of blue + Borne many a fond memento; + And gazed upon each glorious scene, + Where beauty is and power has been, + Along the golden shores between + Misenum and Sorrento; + + "I can look proudly on thy face, + Fair daughter of a hardier race, + And feel thy winning well-known grace, + Without my old misgiving; + And as I kneel upon thy strand, + And clasp thy once unhonoured hand, + Proclaim earth holds no lovelier land + Where life is worth the living." + +One great charm of the country around Dublin, like one of the great charms +of Killarney, is its diversity. There are mountain, bay, woodland, and +river. There is a variety of scenery in the immediate vicinity of Dublin +such as cannot be found so near any other European capital, and such as +not even Naples itself can boast of. Great indeed is the difference in the +style of scenery between the cliffs of Howth and the green lanes of +Clontarf, although both places are hardly more than four miles apart. To +go a few miles further from the city, Bray is reached. It is only +twenty-five minutes by train from Dublin. There one finds himself almost +within a gunshot of some of the most picturesque and peculiar scenery in +the world. The Dargle and Powerscourt Waterfall are in the same locality. +They are gems of loveliness that surpass anything of their kind in these +islands. Even Killarney has nothing like them. Their very smallness adds +to their charms. The Dargle is exactly what its name, _Dair-gleann_, +signifies, an oak-glen. It is a chasm some two or three hundred feet deep, +every inch of the sides of which is covered in summer-time with some sort +of tree, shrub, or flower. In its depths laughs or murmurs a limpid stream +that can rarely be noticed, such is the thickness and luxuriance of the +trees and shrubs that overhang it. Powerscourt Waterfall is close by the +Dargle. The river that forms it leaps down a rock nearly three hundred +feet in height, into a valley of brightest verdure, covered with a thick +growth of primeval oak-trees. An enchanting spot--which it is gross folly +to attempt to describe--in a land of towering hills and flower-crowned +rocks. Its wildness, winsomeness, and loveliness must be seen in order to +form anything like a just idea of it. And all within about twelve miles of +Dublin! + +Then there is Howth on the north side, and only nine miles from Dublin, +one of the most wonderful spots of earth for its size in Europe. It is a +hill-promontory that juts out into nearly the middle of the bay, about +three miles in width and nearly the same in length. It is over five +hundred feet high, and in autumn is a pyramid of crimson and gold; for +wherever there are not trees or cultivation, there are furze and heath. A +place of wondrous beauty of its own, in no way like the Dargle or +Powerscourt. From the summit of Howth there is one of the most enchanting +and extensive views conceivable, reaching north to the Mourne Mountains +and east to Wales. And all this about nine miles from Dublin! Yet with all +these glories at her very feet, Dublin is still the Cinderella among the +capitals of Europe. + +There is beauty of a "truly rural" kind within half-an-hour's walk from +the Dublin General Post Office, or from the centre of the city. Thackeray +said in his "Irish Sketch Book," half a century ago, that it was curious +how some of the streets of Dublin so suddenly ended in potato fields; but +the potato fields Thackeray saw there are all covered with houses now. It +is true, however, that on the north side of Dublin one gets into the real +country by walking only a quarter of an hour from the city limits; no sham +country of cabbage gardens, but real fields of grass and grain growing +from soil of the most exuberant fertility. Trees and hedgerows abound; so +do some of the best and most thrifty farmers in Ireland, who generally pay +enormous rents for their land. The country north of Dublin is almost +perfectly flat, while on the south side the mountains commence within a +few miles of the city limits. But flat as the country north of Dublin is, +it is one of the finest and most fertile parts of Ireland, and was known +in ancient times as Fingall, because some _Finn Galls_, or fair-haired +foreigners from Scandinavia settled in it when they ceased to plunder +churches and monasteries. Those who prefer a flat, well-wooded, and very +fertile country to a land of mountains and valleys, like that on the south +side of Dublin, should see the plains of Fingall. + +It has been said that the gentle and refined are ever fond of flowers. If +this be so, the gentle and refined ought to be very plentiful in Dublin +and its environs, for in no other part of this planet known to man are +there as many wild flowers to be seen so near a great city as in the +environs of Dublin. This statement is made in sober earnestness, and with +absolute certainty as to its truth. It may be asked, if this is so, how is +it to be accounted for? It is easy of explanation. To begin, Ireland is, +_par excellence_, the land of wild flowers because of its moist, mild +climate and generally rich soil. Sunlight, when it is the burning sunlight +of southern climes, is death to flowers. Dublin enjoys a milder climate +than any city in Great Britain, although not so mild as Cork or some other +Irish southern cities. It is only a few miles from the mountains on the +south of Dublin to Howth on the north. Between Howth and the mountains, +if the whole of the mountains of Wicklow are counted and taking +inequalities of surface into account, for government surveys always mean +level surfaces, there are every autumn at least a hundred thousand acres +of wild flowers within half a day's journey of Dublin. It may be said that +these wild flowers are nearly all of one species--heath. That is true; but +heath, or heather as it is more frequently called, is a wild flower, and +one of the most beautiful that grows. The reason the Irish mountains +produce so much more heath than those of Great Britain is because they are +less rocky and more boggy, and are in a milder climate. The mountains of +Wales, being so stony, have hardly any heath on them. Then there is the +furze or gorse, as it is generally called in England. Heath and gorse +bloom side by side over thousands of acres in Howth and on the Dublin and +Wicklow mountains. Then there is the hawthorn. Where in these islands, or +on the continent of Europe, are there as many hawthorns to be seen on an +equal space of ground as in the Phoenix Park, Dublin? Let those who have +seen them in their snowy glory of white blossoms in the early summer +answer. But there are still other flowers that do certainly bloom in +greater luxuriance, and are more plentiful round Dublin than round any +other city in these islands--one of these is laburnum. Florists have said +that nowhere else does it bloom with such luxuriance as around the Irish +capital. Dublin is indeed seated in a flowery land, for it is well known +that even the rich soil of Ireland produces more wild flowers than the +rich soil of Great Britain. It is true that not only the flora but the +fauna of Ireland are less numerous in species than those of Great Britain. +There are a great many species of flowering plants that are common in the +larger island but unknown in the smaller one except in gardens. It is not +easy to account for this; but if there are fewer indigenous flowering +plants in Ireland than in Great Britain, the former country produces those +that are natural to it in much greater abundance than the latter. The +reason of this is easily understood. It is because the climate of Ireland +is milder and moister than that of Great Britain; and it is probable that +the soil is of a different quality in Ireland. But one thing is certain, +that not in England or in any European country are there such a quantity +of wild flowers to be seen as in Ireland. It is not alone on Irish bogs +and mountains that wild flowers are more abundant than in most other +countries, for the most fertile soil in Ireland, the best fattening land, +generally grows wild flowers in such abundance that pastures become +parterres. + +Dublin and its vicinity are not quite so rich in antiquities as some other +parts of Ireland. Very few traces of the old Danish city have been left. +Its walls can be traced in some few places. But what sort of houses the +people lived in can only be guessed at. They were probably, for the most +part, built of wood; for it cannot be too often impressed on those who +have a taste for antiquarian studies, that in ancient, and even what is +generally known as mediaeval times, almost the entire populations of +northern countries lived in houses of wood or of mud, and sometimes in +houses made of both materials. For centuries after the art of building +with stone and mortar was well understood, stone houses were rarely used +by the masses either in towns or country places. They had stone-built +churches and round towers, and sometimes castles, but the people lived in +wooden or in mud houses. Dublin has more round towers in its immediate +vicinity than any other Irish city. There are three of them within a few +miles' distance. That of Clondalkin is on the Great Southern Railway; that +of Lusk is on the Great Northern; and that of Swords is only seven miles +from Dublin by road, and only two miles from Malahide Station on the Great +Northern. All these towers are in a good state of preservation; but the +one at Swords will soon be a ruin if the ivy, with which it has been +foolishly allowed to become completely covered, is not removed from it. +Ivy holds up for a time a building that is in a state of decay, but in the +long run it is sure to ruin it completely; for when the ivy becomes strong +enough, it forces its way between the stones, gradually displaces them, +and the building then tumbles down. If it is the Board of Works that has +charge of the Swords round tower, they are greatly to blame for allowing +the ivy to be gradually but surely bringing it to certain ruin. If it is +under the control of a private person, public opinion should compel him to +have the ivy removed from what was not long ago one of the most perfect +and best preserved of Irish round towers. + +There is something connected with the census of Dublin published in Thom's +directory from official documents which may be more interesting to some +than any description of the Irish capital, however graphic. This something +is an evident error that has, by some means, been made in enumeration of +its inhabitants. According to the published census, there were in round +numbers 13,000 more people in Dublin in 1851 than in 1891; and only 14,000 +more in county and city included in 1891 than in 1851. There is a gross +error here, for between the two epochs mentioned, the increase in what is +generally known as the metropolitan district has been so great that it is +visible to anyone who has been familiar with Dublin for forty years. It is +known that since 1851 nearly 25,000 houses have been erected in city and +county. That number of houses would represent at least 100,000 people, but +it only represents 14,000 according to the census, or two-thirds of a +person to each house! It may be said that a great many houses have been +pulled down in the city since 1851. True, there have; but ten have been +built since then for the one that has been pulled down. There are at least +a dozen streets, large and small, in Dublin, the population of which is +four times greater than it was in 1851; for there were no tenement houses +in those streets then, whereas they are all tenement houses now, and +consequently there are four or five families instead of one in each house. +The great increase in the population of Dublin during the last forty or +forty-five years is quite apparent in the more crowded state of the +thoroughfares. It seems not only probable, but certain, from all the data +that can be got at outside the census, that there are from fifty to one +hundred thousand more people in what is known as the metropolitan district +of Dublin than is shown by the published census. This will go far to +account for the weekly death-rate of Dublin being generally higher than +that of any other city in these islands; for if the weekly number of +deaths is based on a population less than what it is, it will make the +weekly death-rate per thousand higher than it should be. This is a very +serious matter for Dublin, for nothing has a more detrimental effect on +the welfare of a city than getting the name of being unhealthy. + +It is to be hoped that the reader will not set down either to national +bigotry or private advantage what has been said in praise of Dublin and +its environs. The writer may be national in the broad sense of the word, +but he has no sentimental love for Dublin beyond any other Irish city. He +is not influenced by the _genius loci_; he has no personal interest +whatever in Dublin. What he has said in its praise, and in praise of its +environs, would be said of Timbuctoo had he the same knowledge of the +African city that he has of Dublin, and were Timbuctoo and its environs as +worthy of laudation. Dublin is not his native city; but even if it were +he would be perfectly justified in telling the truth about it. If what he +has said about Dublin be untrue, it can easily be shown to be untrue. If +that city has not been improved and beautified in a most remarkable manner +during the last twenty-five years; if some of its public buildings are not +remarkable specimens of architectural excellence; if its environs are not +beautiful beyond those of any other European capital; if any of these +statements be untrue, let them be proved to be so at the very earliest +opportunity. + + + + +BELFAST AND ITS ENVIRONS + + +Belfast is not only the second city in Ireland in population and wealth, +but the second in beauty of environs. Its growth has been, during the last +three-quarters of a century, greater than that of any city in these +islands. It is an immense jump in population from 37,000 in 1821 to +273,000 in 1891. In splendour of public buildings, cleanliness of streets, +and general appearance, Belfast can be favourably compared with any city +of equal size in any country. Its citizens are proud of it, and so they +ought to be, for it was their own enterprise that made it what it is. The +extraordinarily rapid growth of Belfast shows what manufactures can do for +a city, for without them it would still be hardly more important than any +of the provincial towns of Ulster. It has an excellent harbour, and +besides its linen manufactures, it has become one of the most important +ship-building places in the world. But it was its linen manufactures that +gave Belfast the start. It is the largest linen mart in the world; but +unfortunately for it, and every other place in which the manufacture of +linen is carried on, the competition of cotton fabrics is rapidly making +the manufacture of linen less profitable, and threatens to drive it out of +use almost entirely in the long run. If cotton were unknown, Belfast would +be now, in all probability, a place of a million of inhabitants, and +Ireland would be one of the richest, if not the very richest, country of +its size in the world. It is well known that for flax growing and for +linen bleaching Ireland is ahead of all countries. Experts say that in no +other country can flax be grown with a fibre so strong and yet so fine as +in Ireland. It seems to be the country of all others that is best suited +for the growth of flax out of which the finest linen fabrics can be made. +It would almost seem as if Ireland was fated to be for ever suffering some +sort of ill-luck, and that things which are blessings to humanity at large +are often misfortunes to her. There cannot be any doubt but that the +cotton plant has proved one of the greatest of blessings to mankind in +general, but it has been a great misfortune to Ireland. Were it not for +cotton, three-fourths of the land of Ireland would now be growing flax, +and it would most likely contain a dozen linen manufacturing centres as +large as Belfast. Whatever the future of the linen trade may be, it is +hardly possible that Belfast can ever sink into insignificance, for its +people have so much of the true commercial spirit in them that if linen +became as useless as the chain armour of the middle ages, they would turn +their energies to some other branch of manufacture and make it a success. + +Belfast hardly figures at all in ancient Irish history or annals. It is a +comparatively new place. It is first mentioned in the Annals of the Four +Masters under the year 1476, where it is said, "A great army was led by +O'Neill against the son of Hugh Boy O'Neill; and he attacked the castle of +Bel-feiriste, which he took and demolished, and then returned to his +house." The name Belfast is a corruption of _Bel-feiriste_, or as it would +probably be written in modern Irish, Beulfearsaide, the mouth or pass of +the spindle. This seems nonsense, but the following, from Joyce's "Irish +Names of Places," will explain it: "The word _fearsad_ is applied to a +sand-bank formed near the mouth of a river by the opposing currents of +tide and stream, which at low water often formed a firm and comparatively +safe passage across. The term is pretty common, especially in the west, +where these _fearsets_ are of considerable importance; as in many places +they serve the inhabitants instead of bridges. A sand-bank of this kind +across the mouth of the Lagan gave name to Belfast, which is called in +Irish authorities Bel-feirisde, the ford of the _farset_; and the same +name in the uncontracted form, Belfarsad, occurs in Mayo." The Irish name +for a spindle is _fearsaid_; it also means a sand-bank, as described +above, probably because the shape of such sand-banks is generally +something like that of a spindle. According to the orthography of the Four +Masters, whose spelling of place names is generally correct, _feiriste_ is +the genitive singular of _fearsaid_; while in the name "Belfarsad," +mentioned by Joyce, _forsad_ seems to be the genitive plural. + +Belfast and its environs cannot be said to be very rich in monuments of +antiquity. There are, however, two round towers not far from it; one at +Antrim, some fifteen miles away, in excellent preservation; and one at +Drumbo, in the County Down, about five miles from the city. The last is in +a ruined condition--not much more than thirty feet of it remains. But +Belfast can boast of the most extraordinary monument of antiquity of its +kind in Ireland being in its immediate vicinity. This is the vast _rath_ +known as the Giant's Ring. There is nothing in Ireland so fine as it. The +_rath_ on the summit of Knock Aillinn, in the County Kildare, which has +been already described in the article on that hill, is much larger, and +encloses three times the space; but the earthen ramparts are not nearly so +high as those of the Giant's Ring. The space enclosed by this gigantic +rath is seven statute acres. When standing in the centre of this ancient +fortress, nothing is seen but the sky above and the vast earthworks all +around. The centre is as level and almost as smooth as a billiard table, +and exactly in the centre stands a cromlech. Old men living in the +locality say that the ramparts were for many years planted with potatoes. +This must have reduced their height by many feet; but they are still +nearly, if not quite, twenty feet high. Like most ancient raths, it has +two entrances, one exactly opposite the other. It would give ample room to +a population of some thousands, and was evidently an ancient city. But one +of the most extraordinary things connected with the Giant's Ring is that +annals, history, and legend are silent about it. So far, there seems to be +no more known about those who built the Giant's Ring than about the +builders of the temples of Central America. It is the same with many of +the vast Cyclopean forts along the west coast, of which the Stague fort in +Kerry and the forts in the islands of Arran in Galway are the most +remarkable. There are, however, very few large earthen forts in any part +of Ireland about which annals and history are alike silent. The Giant's +Ring is by far the most remarkable structure of its kind in Ireland, and +the most remarkable of all the ancient remains in the vicinity of Belfast. +It has been much better preserved than most of the remains of its kind in +Ireland, for the landlord on whose property it is has built a stone wall +round it, so it is safe from spoliation. + +The environs of Belfast are finer and more interesting than those of any +Irish city, Dublin alone excepted. It is really curious that so little +notice has been taken of them. The view from Devis Mountain, the top of +which is hardly more than four miles from the centre of the city, is one +of the finest and most extensive that can be seen in any part of Ireland. +The greater part of the north of Eastern Ulster can be seen from it. Ailsa +Craig in the Firth of Clyde seems almost at one's feet when standing on +the summit of Devis Mountain. To know the immensity of Loch Neagh, it +should be seen from there. It appears like a vast inland sea, out of all +proportion to the size of the island to which it is a curse rather than an +adornment; for it is one of the most utterly uninteresting of Irish +lakes. The view from Cave Hill is also very fine. This hill is only three +or four miles from Belfast. + +[Illustration: BELFAST LOCH.] + +Belfast Loch, as it is called, if not as picturesque as Dublin Bay, is, +nevertheless, a very fine bay, and has most beautiful and sumptuous +residences on its shores, particularly on the southern side. It is on this +side of the loch that Hollywood is situated. There are more fine, +well-kept residences in Hollywood than there are in the neighbourhood of +any other Irish city. The people of Belfast are proud of Hollywood, and +they ought to be. There are few places in the immediate vicinity of any +city of the size of Belfast in England or Scotland where so many fine, +well-kept, and sumptuous residences can be seen as in Hollywood. The +greater part of them are owned by Belfast merchants. + +Few go to Belfast in search of the picturesque. It has got such a +commercial name that those who have never been there think that it has no +attractions save for the business man. But if Belfast is visited in the +summer time, if the views from its hills are seen, and if its beautiful +suburb of Hollywood is seen, it will be found that there are scenic +attractions of a very high order in the neighbourhood of the northern +capital. + + + + +CORK AND ITS ENVIRONS + + +Cork, like Dublin, is a place of considerable antiquity. It does not +figure in the annals or history of pagan Ireland, but Christian +establishments were founded there very soon after the time of St Patrick. +Its Irish name, and the one by which it is mentioned in all ancient Irish +annals and history is _Corcach Mor Mumhan_, literally, the great swamp of +Munster. A very inappropriate name seemingly, for, although the place +where the city is built might have been a swamp, it never could have been +a big one, as it is a narrow, and by no means a long, valley. It is, +however, clear that the word _mor_--big--was not intended to relate to the +size of the swamp, but to the greatness of either the town or +ecclesiastical establishments that grew up in it. + +The earliest notice of Cork that appears in Irish annals is in the still +unpublished "Annals of Inisfallen," where it is stated, under the year +617, that "In this year died Fionnbarre, first bishop of Cork, at Cloyne. +He was buried in his own church at Cork." Under the year 795, the +following curious entry occurs in the same annals:--"In this year the +Danes first appeared cruising on the coast [of Ireland] spying out the +country. Their first attacks were on the ships of the Irish, which they +plundered." The same annals say that Cork, Lismore, and Kill Molaise were +plundered by the Danes in the year 832, and that in 839 they burned Cork; +and that in 915 they plundered Cork, Lismore, and Aghabo. They also state +that in 978 Cork was plundered twice, presumably by the Danes. The +_Chronicon Scottorum_ says that Cork was also plundered by the Danes in +822. It was so often plundered by them that it is hardly to be wondered at +that the annalists should not have been able to keep account of every time +it was harried by the Northmen. But the Danes were not the only parties by +whom the south of Ireland suffered, for we read in the Four Masters, that +in the year 847 Flann, over-king of Ireland, for what reason does not +appear, harried Munster from Killaloe to Cork. They say also that a great +fleet of foreigners (Northmen) arrived in Munster in 1012 and burned Cork. +They were, however, defeated by Cahall, son of Donnell. This fleet had +evidently come to Cork for the purpose of making a diversion in the south +of Ireland, so that the great Danish army, whose headquarters were in +Dublin, and who contemplated the entire conquest of the country, should +not have the men of Munster to oppose them. The Danish army that came to +Cork in 1012 (the correct date seems to be 1013), were not able to give +any assistance to their countrymen at the battle of Clontarf by making a +diversion in Munster, for it would appear that they were wholly destroyed. +There is no record in the Irish annals of the Danes making any attack on +Cork after the battle of Clontarf. + +The situation of Cork, like that of Dublin and Belfast, is at the mouth of +a river, and on low-lying land. While the country round the city is +exceedingly fine, it has not, like the country in the neighbourhood of +Dublin and Belfast, any places from which extensive views can be had. The +country round Cork is by no means flat, but there is nothing near it that +could be called a mountain, or even a high hill. It is, however, as +beautiful as any country of its kind could be, with green, rounded +eminences, but not as much wood on them as there should be to make them +look to best advantage. The river between Cork and the Cove, or +Queenstown, as it is now called, is one of the finest six or eight miles +of river scenery to be found anywhere. The people of Cork are proud of it, +as they may well be. + +Cork, unfortunately, is not growing as Dublin and Belfast are. There is a +curious belief, partly a prophecy, that it will yet be the capital of +Ireland. "Limerick was, Dublin is, but Cork will be the capital," is +frequently heard in the south of Ireland. So far, there is not much sign +that the southern city will overtake Dublin, nor is it quite clear that +Limerick was ever the principal city of Ireland. It was, however, a very +important place during the greater part of the eleventh century. Limerick +seems to have been in the possession of the Danes for nearly a hundred +years, until Brian Boramha took it from them about the year 970. It +continued to grow as long as his descendants retained political power, +which they did for nearly a century after his death. Giraldus Cambrensis +calls Limerick "a magnificent city," but it must have begun to decline +even before he saw it, about the year 1190, for the O'Briens, or +descendants of Brian Boramha, had by that time lost a great deal of their +political power. Cork has, for at least two centuries, been a more +important place than Limerick. + +Some of the streets and public buildings in Cork are very fine, and will +compare favourably with those of any city. But it is evident that the +city was built too far up the river. Cork should be where Queenstown is. +If it were, there would be a chance of its becoming at some future day the +capital of Ireland. It is curious that almost all cities that are built on +rivers, and that were founded in ancient times, are generally at the head +of navigation. This habit of building cities as far up rivers as ships +could go was followed in order to give greater security from attacks by +sea. The farther up a river a city was, the more easily it could be +defended from attacks by sea. In olden times, when the largest ships drew +no more than eight or ten feet of water, Cork was as advantageously +situated for trade where it is as if it were where Queenstown is. But such +is not the case now. This defect of being too far up the river is the only +thing in its situation that is not favourable. It has one of the finest +harbours in Europe, and one of the finest in the world, but the harbour is +too far from the city. + +If there is a single place on the whole of the west coast of Europe +especially adapted for the site of a great city, it is the spot on which +Queenstown is built. It was nothing but the constant warfare of ancient +times that prevented Cork from being built there. There is that +magnificent harbour that the mightiest ironclad leviathan that floats can +enter at any state of the tide and be in it in five minutes from the time +she leaves the main ocean. Then there is that splendid site for a great +city on a gentle ascent, where street behind street and terrace behind +terrace could deck the hill-side, and all look down on that glorious +land-locked bay where a thousand ships could anchor. + +There cannot be any doubt that with the ever-growing trade and passenger +traffic between Europe and America, both Cork and Queenstown must be +benefitted. Even if an American packet station were established at Galway, +it would hardly interfere seriously with Queenstown or Cork, for harbours +like the Cove are too scarce on the coasts of Europe, and the trade +between Europe and America is too great and increasing too fast to leave +Loch Mahon[17] in the slightest danger of being deserted. As long as ships +navigate the Atlantic they must enter it. Nothing but the establishment of +aerial traffic between Europe and America can ever leave the Cove of Cork +shipless. + +The country round Cork is very fine, and there are many splendid and +well-kept gentlemen's seats in its suburbs. It would be hard to find any +city more picturesque in its situation, although built very nearly at the +mouth of a river. It is, more than any large place in Ireland, a city of +hills and hollows. Some of its streets are very steep, rather too much so +for pleasant walking. But this hillyness makes it all the more +picturesque, and makes the drainage all the better. Cork is a beautiful +city, and--surrounded by a beautiful country. If it has not the busy +appearance of Belfast, or the metropolitan appearance of Dublin, it is, +nevertheless, a fine city, and on account of its magnificent harbour, it +has, in all probability, a great and prosperous future before it. + +The antiquities of Cork have almost entirely disappeared. It suffered so +much from the Northmen and was so often plundered and burned by them that +it is not to be wondered at that so few of its ancient monuments exist. It +had a fine round tower, of which nothing is left but the foundation. It +was, presumably, the Northmen who destroyed it. Every vestige of the old +church founded by St Finnbar has disappeared long ago. The fact that Cork +was so often plundered by the Danes and other Northmen shows that it must +have been an important place, at least in the matter of churches and +monasteries. The Danes knew that wherever the largest religious +establishments were the most wealth was. This is proved by history and +annals telling us that Armagh, Kildare, Cork, Glendaloch, Downpatrick, +Clonmacnois, and other important religious centres, were most frequently +plundered by them. Just in proportion to the importance of a place in an +ecclesiastical point of view, the more frequently it was plundered by the +Danes. When they began their attacks on Ireland, they seem to have known, +as well as the Irish themselves, where the principal wealth of the country +would be found. + +As Cork is the last large place that suffered greatly from the Danes that +shall be mentioned in this work, it cannot be uninteresting or out of +place to give an extract from the Earl of Dunraven's book on ancient Irish +architecture about those terrible Vikings, and the causes that made them a +terror to all the maritime nations of Europe for so many years, more +especially as such an expensive work is not generally read, and not within +reach of the masses: "Dense as is the obscurity in which the cause of the +wanderings and ravages of the Scandinavian Vikings is enveloped, yet the +result of the investigations hitherto made on the subject is, that they +were, in a great measure, consequent on the conquests of Charlemagne in +the north of Germany, and on the barrier which he thereby--as well as by +the introduction of Christianity--set on their onward march. It can hardly +be attributed to accident that, with the gradual strengthening of the +Frankish dominions, the hordes of Northmen descended on the British Isles +in ever-increasing numbers. The policy of Charlemagne in his invasion of +Saxony, and the energy by which he succeeded in driving his enemies beyond +the Elbe and the German Ocean, were manifestly intensified by religious +zeal. The Saxons were still heathens; and the first attack made by the +Frankish King was on the fortress of Eresbourg, where stood the temple of +Irminsul, the great idol of the nation. We read that he laid waste their +temples and broke their idols to pieces.... However it may appear from +ancient authorities that for some centuries before then, the Scandinavians +had occasionally infested the southern shores of Europe; yet in the added +light that is cast by the Irish annals on the subject, we perceive that +from this date their piratical incursions afford evidence not before met +with of preconcerted plan and incessant energy; and these events in the +reign of Charles may lead us to discover what was the strong impulse that +thus tended, in some measure, to condense and concentrate their desultory +warfare. Impelled by some strong, overmastering passion, these hordes of +northern warriors held on from year to year their avenging march; and such +was the fury of their arms that even now, after the lapse of a thousand +years, their deeds are in appalling remembrance throughout Europe, not +only in every city on the sea-shore, or on river, but even in the peasant +traditions of the smallest village." + +It is curious, and for the Irish a source of very legitimate pride, that +of all the countries attacked by the Northmen, they got the hardest blows +and the most terrible, as well as the most frequent, defeats in Ireland. +They seem to have made more frequent attacks on it than on any other +country, and to have poured more men into it than into any other country. +This appears not only from Irish annals and history, but from Icelandic +literature, which was the common property of all the Scandinavian nations, +and the only literature in which the doings of the Vikings are recorded by +writers who were nearly contemporary with them. There appears to be more +written about Ireland and its people in the Icelandic Sagas than about any +other country or people the Vikings harried. The terrible defeat the +Northmen suffered at Clontarf in 1014 is fully acknowledged in the +Icelandic Sagas. It must, however, in truth be admitted that that battle, +while it turned out to be a national one, originated in a family quarrel, +and was brought about, as many battles had been brought about before, by a +bad and beautiful woman. If Gormfhlaith and King Brian had not quarrelled, +if Broder had not been desperately enamoured of her, and if she had not +been of the royal blood of the terribly maltreated and so often ravaged +province of Leinster, the battle of Clontarf never would have been fought. +Brian was an elderly man when he became over-king, and was quite willing +to allow the Danes to hold Dublin and other sea-ports as trading points, +for after a time they became traders and carriers. He was willing to let +them alone provided that they let him alone. This is proved by his having +given one of his daughters in marriage to Sitric, the Danish King or +Governor of Dublin. The Danes, knowing they had the entire strength of the +province of Leinster at their back by Brian's quarrel with Gormfhlaith, +who was sister to the King of Leinster, seem, probably for the first time, +to have seriously contemplated the complete conquest of Ireland. + +That the Irish suffered some terrible defeats from the Northmen has to be +admitted. In justice to those who compiled the various Irish annals, it +must be said that they always freely acknowledge when the invaders had the +best of it in a battle. It is, however, evident that, taking the almost +continuous fighting between the invaders and the invaded for two hundred +years, or from about the year 814 to the time of the battle of Clontarf in +1014, the net gains of the fighting was decidedly on the side of the +Irish. Many of those well-versed in Irish history think that if Ireland +had been really under the dominion of one sovereign, even as England was +under the later Saxon Kings, the Northmen would certainly have conquered +Ireland and held it as they held, for a time, England, Normandy, and other +countries. Very few of those called Irish chief kings were such except in +name. Their vassals used to lick them as frequently as they licked their +vassals. The Northmen defeated in battle and killed more than one Irish +chief king, but that does not seem to have brought them any nearer the +conquest of the island, for the provincial kings used to fight them on +their own account. The Northmen had too many heads to cut off, and none of +the heads controlled the destinies of the country. The most terrible +defeat that was probably ever inflicted on the Irish by the Northmen was +at the battle of Dublin in 917. The over-king, Niall Glundubh, was killed +in it, and from what the Irish annals say, it would seem that his whole +army was cut to pieces; but the victory was of little use to the invaders, +for the very next year they suffered a defeat from the Irish in Meath, in +which their whole army was destroyed and almost all their leaders slain. +We are told that only enough of the Danes were left alive to bear tidings +of their defeat. How the Irish managed to get the better of the Danes and +at the same time do so much fighting amongst themselves is one of those +historic puzzles the solution of which seems hopeless. + +Many thoughtful persons among the Irish regret that Ireland had not been +thoroughly conquered by the Northmen. They say that had it been conquered +by them it would have been united under one supreme ruler, the provincial +divisions would have been obliterated, a strong central government formed, +and intestine wars brought to an end. Such a state of things might have +come to pass; but it seems clear that the Northmen were not capable of +building up a nation. They failed to do it whenever they tried. They had +complete control in England for two generations when they were at the +height of their power, but they failed to keep their grip on England, +although having had the advantage of a large, and what might be called an +indigenous, Scandinavian population north of the Humber. Hardly a trace of +their nearly three hundred years' rule in some Irish cities remain, and in +the entire island all the traces left of their language is to be found in +less than a dozen place names. They became great in Normandy only when +they ceased to be Northmen and mingled their blood with that of the people +whom they had conquered, and became French. + +Whatever benefit other countries may have received from the Danes or +Northmen, Ireland received none. To her they were nothing but a curse. If +they had conquered her, they might, in the long run, have benefitted her. +It would be not only difficult, but absolutely impossible, to point out a +single way, except, perhaps, by an admixture of a little new blood, in +which Ireland was benefitted by the visits of the Northmen. In spite of +their very great skill in ship-building and navigation, they introduced +not a single art into Ireland. Confused as the political state of the +country was before they came to it, it was still more confused when they +ceased to be plunderers and became merchants. They had nothing themselves +that could be called literature, and were the greatest enemies that Irish +literature had ever encountered, for the number of books they must have +destroyed is beyond calculation. Not a monastery or church from one end of +Ireland to the other escaped being plundered by them, and most of the +monasteries were plundered _ten times_ during the two hundred years their +plunderings lasted. Iona, though not in Ireland, was an Irish +establishment; it was so often plundered by them, and its entire +population so often killed, that it had to be entirely abandoned in the +ninth century. It became a ruin, and remained such until the Northmen +ceased their raids; its treasures, or what remained of them, were removed +to Kells in Ireland. Nothing can show more plainly the knowledge the +Northmen possessed of the country, and their determination to leave +nothing in it unplundered, than their having plundered the anchorites' +cells on the Skelligs rocks, off the coast of Kerry. It is said that there +is but one spot at which a boat can land on these rocks, and then only on +the very finest and calmest day; but the Northmen found out the +landing-place, plundered the cells, and, of course, killed every one they +found in them. + +It is very curious how it came to pass that a people so very brave as the +Northmen undoubtedly were should be so lacking in almost every quality +that goes to form a great, conquering people and builders up of nations. +They never impressed themselves on any nation or province they conquered. +A very large part of the north of England was not only conquered but +settled by them, and three Danish kings reigned in England, yet it +remained Saxon England until the battle of Hastings. In France they not +only lost their language, but lost their identity in less than three +generations, and became absolutely French. They did not even call +themselves Northmen, or Normans; for on the Bayeux Tapestry we find the +legend, _Hic Franci pugnant_, showing plainly that they regarded +themselves as nothing but French. They conquered the greater part of the +island of Sicily, but, as usual, have left hardly a trace of their +occupation in it. It need hardly be repeated that in Ireland, in spite of +their having held and ruled some of its chief cities for three hundred +years, and in spite of their many alliances with Irish chiefs and nobles, +all they have left that in any way shows that they ever set foot on Irish +soil are less than a dozen place names. The Northmen might well be +forgiven for their plunderings and burnings if it were not for the +quantity of books they burned. But for them, ancient Celtic literature +would be so immense that it would be regarded with respect even by those +who would be most hostile to the nation that produced it. + +The successful resistance of the Irish against the Northmen is a very +curious historic fact. Of all countries in Europe in the middle ages, it +ought to have been, no matter what might be the valour of its inhabitants, +the most easy of subjugation on account of its political divisions, and +the consequent state of almost continual war that existed among the +provinces. Yet in spite of all, in no part of Europe which the Northmen +attacked, did they encounter such strong and such long-sustained +resistance as in Ireland, in spite of the fact that for many years before +the battle of Clontarf, the province of Leinster, whose soldiers from time +immemorial had been considered the bravest in Ireland, was in alliance +with the invaders. The successful resistance the Irish made against the +Northmen is proved from sources that are neither Scandinavian nor Irish; +for the Norman Chronicle says, "that the Franks, or French, were grateful +to the Irish for the successful resistance they made against the Danes; +and that in the year 848 the Northmen captured Bordeaux and other places +which they burned and laid waste; but that the Scotts (Irish) breaking in +on the Northmen drove them victoriously from their borders." It is +absolutely sickening to read of all the plunderings, murderings, and +burnings committed by the Northmen in Ireland. When we think of all the +similar sort of work the Irish practised on one another, we wonder how it +happened that there were any people left in the island; and we are almost +driven to the conclusion that if it had not been for the extraordinary +fecundity of the race, it would have become depopulated. It was not only +the numbers of Irish that were killed by the Northmen, but also the +numbers that were brought into captivity by them that tended to depopulate +the country. + +Under the year 949 the Annals of the Four Masters state that Godfrey, a +Danish king or general, plundered Kells and other places in Meath, and +carried off three thousand persons into captivity, and robbed the country +of an enormous quantity of gold, silver, and wealth of all kinds. That +sort of work had been carried on for nearly two hundred years, and it is a +wonder that the entire country was not utterly ruined. + +An interesting as well as gruesome illustration of what Ireland suffered +from Danish raids was revealed some few years ago while workmen were +levelling ground for the erection of a house at Donnybrook, near Dublin. +They unearthed the skeletons of over six hundred people, of almost all +ages; from those of full-grown men to those of babies, all buried in one +grave, and only about eighteen inches under the surface. This vast grave +was close to the banks of the little river Dodder. The Northmen had +evidently gone up the river in their galleys, for at full tide it had +enough of water to float them. By some chance the leader, or one of the +leaders, of the Danes was killed in the foray, for his body was found a +little distance from the grave of the victims. His sword was buried with +him; it was of recognised Danish make, and had a splendid hilt inlaid with +silver. Not a vestige of clothing or ornaments was found on the bodies of +the slain, save a common bronze ring on the finger of one of them. +Everything they had seems to have been taken. A village had evidently +stood in the locality; it was raided by the Danes, the inhabitants all +killed, and everything of value they possessed, even to their clothing, +taken; for if they had been buried in their clothing, which must have been +almost entirely of woollen material, which resists decay for a long time, +some vestige of it would have been discovered. The remains of the victims +of the massacre were carefully examined by the most eminent scientists and +archaeologists of Dublin, among them Dr Wm. Fraser, who wrote an article on +the discovery that may be seen in the transactions of the Royal Irish +Academy. Irish history and annals are silent about this terrible massacre, +and it is hardly to be wondered at that they should not have mentioned it, +for such things were of such frequent occurrence in Ireland during the +time of the Northmen that it was impossible to keep track of them all. + +It is hard to agree with the Earl of Dunraven in what he says in the +passage that has been quoted a few pages back, as to the cause of the +invasions and plunderings of the Northmen. The victories of Charlemagne +over the Saxons could scarcely have caused the vast outpourings of +Northmen on southern and western Europe. The Saxons were Germans, pure and +simple; but there seems to have been a very great difference between +Northmen and Germans. They may both have belonged originally to the same +race, and their languages may have been, and undoubtedly were, closely +allied, but they seem to have had very little in common. One was an +essentially seafaring people, and keeps up a love for the sea to the +present day. The other was not a seafaring people, and hardly yet takes +kindly to maritime life. The Norse and German races lived side by side in +England for some centuries, but they lived apart, quite as much apart as +the Celts and Scandinavians lived apart in Ireland. It would rather seem +as if it was want, added to a bold and restless nature, that was the +primary cause of Norsemen's raids on the south-western coasts of Europe. +Their own country was barren, and cold, and unable to support a dense +population. It sometimes happens that people multiply faster than they can +be supported. Such a state of things occurred in Ireland in the early part +of the present century. Not that Ireland could not have supported a much +larger population than it ever contained, provided the social condition of +the country was different; but under the conditions that existed, the +people multiplied beyond their means of support. The same thing may have +occurred in Scandinavia. The people may have been forced by hunger to seek +a living by foul means or fair, somewhere else than in their own country. +Cruel as they were, they were probably not more cruel than any other +people of their time would have been under the same circumstances. It +would seem that it was exhaustion of population in Scandinavia that put an +end to Scandinavian raidings. Its people having become Christians may have +had some effect in softening their manners; but it is certain that it was +not hatred of Christianity that prompted them to plunder Christian +nations. It was love of plunder, intensified, in all probability, by want +and semi-starvation at home. It is, however, very curious that the people +who were once the terror of southern Europe should have become what they +are to-day, and what they have been for some centuries, as peaceable and +as law-abiding nations as there are in the world. + + + + +GALWAY AND ITS ENVIRONS + + +Galway is one of the most modern of the Irish provincial capitals. It does +not figure at all in ancient annals. The first mention of it in the annals +of the Four Masters is under the year 1124, when it is stated that the men +of Connacht erected a castle in Galway. The first mention of it in the +annals of Loch Key is under the year 1191, when it is stated that the +river Gaillimh, from which the town takes its name, was dried up. The +cause of this phenomenon is not stated. Galway was at one time a place of +considerable wealth and trade. It was, in the fifteenth and sixteenth +centuries, the port to which most of the Spanish wine destined for Ireland +used to come; and it is generally believed that a Spanish type of features +can still be noticed on some of its inhabitants. But whatever mercantile +prosperity Galway enjoyed some centuries ago, very little of it +unfortunately remains; for of all Irish towns the decrease of its +population has been the most terrible. In 1845 it contained very close on +35,000 inhabitants, in 1891 it had only 14,000! It is painful to walk +in the outskirts of the town and pass through whole streets in which +nothing remains save the ruins of cottages. Galway ought to be a +prosperous place, for it is situated on a noble bay that forms a spacious +harbour, sheltered from the fury of the Atlantic by the Isles of Arran. It +is pleasant to be able to state that the condition of this once fine city +is improving. + +[Illustration: OLD HOUSES IN GALWAY.] + +In spite of the signs of decay that are only too visible in Galway, it is +a very quaint and interesting town. It contains many buildings that were +erected centuries ago, in the days of its prosperity, that are evidences +of its former wealth and trade. In what may be called mediaeval remains, it +is, perhaps, richer than any other town in Ireland, and will well repay a +visit. It is one of the few large towns in Ireland in which a majority of +the people are bilingual, using both the English and Irish languages. + +There is not much either of scenic or antiquarian interest in the +immediate vicinity of Galway; but if those who wish to see the most +ancient and gigantic cyclopean remains in Europe, or perhaps in the world, +go to the Isles of Arran, to which a small steamer sails from Galway, they +will be well repaid for a two hours' trip. The Arran Islands contain more +antique monuments of the pre-historic past and of a more interesting kind +than any other places of equal extent in these Islands. These monuments +consist of vast drystone fortresses that were raised by some pre-historic +race. There is what may be called historic tradition that they were built +by a remnant of the Firbolgs in the century preceding the Christian era; +but those most learned in things pertaining to Irish antiquities, do not +think there is any reliable historic evidence as to where or by whom they +were erected. The principal fortresses are, Dun Aengus, Dun Connor, Dun +Onacht and Dun Eochla. They are all in the Great Island, or Arran Mor, +except Dun Connor, which is in the Middle Island, or Inis Maan. Dun Connor +is the largest. It is considerably over two hundred feet long, and over a +hundred feet wide. Its treble walls are still twenty feet high in some +places, and from sixteen to eighteen feet in thickness. These vast +fortresses look as if they were the work of giants. Like almost every +relic of the past, they seem to have been more marred by men than by time. +They have evidently been injured by people looking for treasure; and a +good deal of their stones have been removed to build cabins and outhouses. +Miss Margaret Stokes, who has devoted almost all her life to the study of +Irish antiquities, and who consequently knows more about them, perhaps, +than any one in Ireland, says of these vast fortresses in Arran: "They are +the remains of the earliest examples of architecture known to exist in +Western Europe." There is something awfully grand and grim in the aspect +of these ruined fortresses. To gaze on their colossal dimensions and +barbaric rudeness seems to carry us back almost to the beginning of time, +when the earth was inhabited by beings unlike ourselves. But however old +the forts in Arran may be, it is evident that they were the strongholds of +a seafaring people; for the whole products of the barren islands on which +they stand would not be worth the labour of erecting such gigantic +fortresses for their protection. These islands support a good many people +now, thanks to the potato; but in ancient times, when it was unknown, it +is hard to understand how the multitude of men it must have taken to build +so many vast fortresses could have found sustenance on these barren isles; +and we are, therefore, almost driven to the conclusion that the fortresses +in the Isles of Arran were built by pirates or seafaring men of some +kind. + + + + +THE CLOUD SCENERY OF IRELAND + + +It is only those who have lived a long time in continental countries that +can fully appreciate the beauty of Irish cloud scenery. As a rule, insular +countries are richer in cloud scenery than continents. Any one who has +lived even in the western part of continental Europe knows that Great +Britain, owing to its being an island, is much richer in cloud scenery +than France; and the further east one goes, the drier the climate will be +found to be, the fewer the clouds, and consequently the less attractive +the sky. + +Ireland being situated so far out in the "melancholy ocean" is, beyond all +European countries, a land of clouds, and it has to be admitted that she +very often has too much of them. But if these clouds frequently pour down +more rain than is necessary for the growth of crops, there is a certain +amount of compensation given by skyey glories they create; and marvellous +these glories sometimes are. It is not only at sunset or sunrise that +Irish cloud scenery is fine; for often during even a wet summer, when the +rain ceases for a time, and the sun appears, the sky becomes what it is +hardly incorrect to call a wonderland of beauty, with its "temples of +vapour and hills of storm." But the real glories of Irish cloud scenery +are its sunsets. Ireland is, beyond any other country perhaps in the +world, the land of gorgeous sunsets. Sometimes they are such wonders of +golden glory that even the most stolid peasant gazes on them with emotion. +As a rule, it is only in the latter part of summer and the first half of +autumn that Irish sunsets can be seen in their greatest beauty. Sometimes, +when the summer is very wet, fine sunsets are seldom seen; but in fine +weather they are generally such as can be seen in no other country. For +months during the fine summer and autumn of 1893, every sunset was a +wonder of indescribable beauty, with almost half the heavens a blaze of +golden clouds. + + + + +SOMETHING ABOUT IRISH PLACE NAMES + + +It has been said that almost everything connected with Irish history and +topography is peculiar. The truth of this can hardly be doubted. If the +ancient Irish were a non-Aryan race, the strange phases of their history +and the abundance of Irish place names might not strike us as so curious. +But it is well known that the Irish are Aryans, and that they are +substantially the same people as the ancient Britons were; yet nothing in +the history of England or of Great Britain will satisfactorily account for +the fewness of place names in the latter country as compared with Ireland. +British, but especially English, place names are, in a vast majority of +cases, either of Saxon, Norse, or Celtic origin. Their fewness as compared +with Irish place names is what strikes a native of Ireland with +astonishment. There are probably as many place names in a single Irish +province as there are in the whole of England. The townland nomenclature +of Ireland is almost unknown in England. The names of all the townlands in +Ireland can be seen in the Government Survey of 1871. They number, +exclusive of the names of cities, towns, and villages, about 37,000. But +it is only the place names that mean human habitations, places erected by +men, and where men dwelt, that shall be mentioned here. Let five +denominations of place names suffice to show their immensity--namely, +_ballys_, _kills_, _raths_, _duns_ and _lises_. The first means towns or +steads; the second, churches or cells; and the three last mean fortified +habitations of some kind. Of _ballys_ there are 6700, of _kills_ 3420, of +_lises_ 1420, of _raths_ 1300, and of _duns_ 760, making altogether 13,600 +place names meaning habitations of some kind. But this is not the half of +them! The place names in the subdivisions of townlands are not mentioned +at all. There is a parish in Westmeath in which there are three place +names beginning with _rath_, and three with _kill_, none of which is +mentioned in the printed list of townlands. Multitudes of names in which +some one of the five words mentioned is included have been translated or +changed; just as Ballyboher has been made Booterstown, and Dunleary made +Kingstown. Many place names in which _bally_, _kill_, _dun_, _rath_, and +_liss_ occur are not included in the numbers given, for very often the +adjective goes before the noun, as in such names as Shanbally, Shankill, +Shanlis, Shandun, &c. Taking everything into consideration, it would seem +fair to estimate that not more than half the place names formed from the +five words that have been mentioned appear in the printed list of Irish +townlands; then we have the astounding total of over _twenty-seven +thousand_ place names in Ireland formed from five words that mean human +habitations. + +The only explanation of the astonishing number of ancient place names +found in Ireland, as compared with England, seems to be the dense rural +population that must have existed in the former country in ancient times. +That an enormous percentage of ancient place names have totally faded away +owing to the disuse of the Gaelic language, the consolidation of farms, +and the decline of population, there cannot be any doubt at all. The +puzzle about Irish place names is, if their extraordinary numbers were +caused by a more dense population in Ireland than in England--why was +Ireland more densely peopled than England in ancient times? The soil of +Ireland is hardly more fertile than the soil of England, and the climate +of Ireland is not as good, for it is much wetter than that of the larger +island. England is nearer to the Continent, and therefore was more easy of +access to continental traders. The situation as well as the soil and +climate of England were rather more favourable to the growth of a large +population than were those of Ireland. It is now generally conceded that +the ancient Britons and Irish were of the same race, and spoke a language +that was substantially the same. But why should there seem to have been +such a difference in the political and social condition of the Irish and +the ancient Britons who were their contemporaries? Why are there so +comparatively few ancient place names in Great Britain and such an +overwhelming number of them in Ireland? Why should Ireland have a history +that goes so far back into the dim twilight of the past, and England have +no history beyond the time of Caesar? These are most interesting and +important questions, but how can they be answered? It is to be hoped that +some future savant will succeed in solving them. + + +THE END. + + +PRINTED BY TURNBULL AND SPEARS, EDINBURGH + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] "History of England," vol. iii., p. 107. + +[2] Is iat Tuata De Danaan tucsat leo in Fal mor; i. in lia fis _bai_ i +Temraig; di ata Mag Fail for Erinn. In ti fo ngeised saide bari Erenn. +"Book of Leinster," page 9. + +[3] Eemoing ni hed fota acht Crist do genemain; is sed ro bris cumachta +nan idal. "Book of Leinster," p. 9. + +[4] + + Is dar timna in Duleman, is dar + brethir Crist chaingnig + Do cech rig do Gaedelaib do beir + ammus for Laignib. + "Book of Leinster," p. 43. + +[5] In Carsewell's Gaelic, _Giollaeasbuig van duibhne_. The _v_ stands for +_u_; the spelling was intended to represent _Ua n Duibhne_. _Ua_ and _O_ +mean the same thing, grandson. The _n_ before Duibhne would not now be +used. + +[6] This poem is in the "Book of Leinster," and has not yet been +translated. + +[7] The eastern part of Ulster. + +[8] Duvdaire was Muircheartach's wife. She was daughter of the King or +Chief of Ossory. Rushes in those days served as carpets, as they did in +England. + +[9] A poetic name for Muircheartach, for his patrimony was on the shores +of Loch Foyle. + +[10] Moy Breagh, or the fine plain, was the country round Tara. To possess +Moy Breagh was the same as to possess Tara, and that was to be chief King. +But Tara was as deserted in the time of the Circuit as it is now. + +[11] This date is thought to be two years too early, and that 943 was the +year in which Muircheartach was killed. + +[12] The Eoghanachts were the posterity of Eoghan Mor, King of Munster in +the third century. Eoghanacht meant a people of Munster, descendants of +Eoghan; and Connacht, the descendants of Conn,--usually known as Conn of +the Hundred Battles, most of which were fought against Eoghan. + +[13] Prince of Scotts; this was evidently the great Steward, or _mor maor_ +of Lennox, who aided the Irish at the battle of Clontarf, and was killed +there. + +[14] This is an incorrect form of the word. It is _Boramha_ in the most +correct ancient manuscripts, and is a word of three syllables--Borava. It +means "of the tribute." + +[15] Is hi seo bliadain ra gabad Tuirgeis la Maelseachlainn. Ra baided ar +sain he il Loch Uair. "Book of Leinster," p. 307. + +[16] Aed Abrat was Fann's father. + +[17] The old name of what is now called Queenstown Harbour. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Beauties and Antiquities of Ireland, by +T. O. 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