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diff --git a/44046-0.txt b/44046-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e2225eb --- /dev/null +++ b/44046-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1441 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44046 *** + +[Illustration: THE OLD CLOCK TOWER, YOUGHAL] + + + + +MUNSTER + +Described by Stephen Gwynn +Pictured by Alexander Williams + +[Illustration] + +BLACKIE AND SON LIMITED +LONDON GLASGOW AND BOMBAY +1912 + + +Beautiful Ireland + + LEINSTER + ULSTER + MUNSTER + CONNAUGHT + +_Uniform with this Series_ + + +Beautiful England + + OXFORD + THE ENGLISH LAKES + CANTERBURY + SHAKESPEARE-LAND + THE THAMES + WINDSOR CASTLE + CAMBRIDGE + NORWICH AND THE BROADS + THE HEART OF WESSEX + THE PEAK DISTRICT + THE CORNISH RIVIERA + DICKENS-LAND + WINCHESTER + THE ISLE OF WIGHT + CHESTER AND THE DEE + YORK + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + + Page + +The Old Clock Tower, Youghal _Frontispiece_ + +The Blackwater at Dromana 8 + +Blarney Castle 16 + +Ferrybank, Waterford 20 + +Shandon Steeple from the River Lee 26 + +Entrance to Cork Harbour 32 + +Kenmare Bay from Templenoe 38 + +Macgillicuddy's Reeks 42 + +The Gap of Dunloe, Killarney 46 + +Muckross Lake, Killarney 50 + +Brickeen Bridge, Lower Lake, Killarney 54 + +Holy Island, Lough Derg 58 + + + + +[Illustration: MUNSTER] + +I + + +The best way to get to Munster nowadays is undoubtedly by the new +route from Fishguard to Rosslare, in which the Great Western Railway +has reopened what was for ancient times the natural and easy way +from England to Ireland. The Normans, as everyone knows, came across +here, an advance party landing on the coast of Wexford; but the main +force under Strongbow sailed straight up the river to Waterford. Many +another invader before the Normans took the same route: and there is +little doubt but that the peaceful invasion of Christianity had begun +in this region, or that south-eastern Ireland was already baptized, +before Patrick set out on his mission. Earlier again, the Milesians +(according to modern theory) came from Britain, a race of warriors +trained to fight on foot in the Roman fashion with sword and javelin, +and drove before them the chariot-fighting people who then held the +wide plain watered by the three great rivers which meet in Waterford +harbour. + +For a good sailor, undoubtedly the long passage to Cork, ending with +a sail up the beautiful haven and the "pleasant waters of the river +Lee", is to be preferred beyond all other routes. But the mass of +mankind, and more specially of womankind, like the short sea and +quick rail, and their choice is Fishguard to Rosslare. You enter the +southern province of Ireland by a viaduct which leads from the flat +lands of Wexford, through which you will have travelled for nearly an +hour, on to the steep left bank of the river Suir facing Waterford +city. The great bridge crosses the united Barrow and Nore; half a +mile lower down is the junction with the Suir, and from the train you +have a glorious view of the wide pool made at the confluence--a noble +entrance into this province of lovely waters. + +The run along the river is beautiful, too. Citizens of Waterford have +built them prosperous villas and mansions facing you along the south +bank, and a mile below the city on an island there is seen a castle of +the Fitz-Geralds--rebuilt recently, but comprising in it the walls of +an ancient place of strength which has never ceased to be a dwelling +of this strong Norman-Irish clan. It was the household, too, from +which issued a notable man in latter times, Edward Fitz-Gerald, the +translator of _Omar Khayyam_. His portrait, by Laurence, hangs there, +picturing him as a chubby, good-humoured boy. + +The city itself may show to you only a line of lights, very +picturesque along its great length of quay: but by daylight you +can distinguish the low round castle which still keeps the name of +Strongbow's tower. Fragments of the old walls remain, and there are +buildings of much antiquarian interest--the restored cathedral, the +ruined Franciscan abbey. But, on the whole, you are not likely to stop +in Waterford, with Kerry and West Cork before you. + +Yet let me tell a little of the things which the ordinary tourist +visiting Munster passes by in his haste. The route from Rosslare to +Killarney strikes across from the valley of the Suir into the valley +of the Blackwater, rounding the Comeragh mountains: and I do not +suppose it can be disputed that the Blackwater is the most beautiful +of Irish rivers. I have seen it at Mallow, at Fermoy, at Lismore, and +at Cappoquin, and everywhere it is the same yet different; a chain +of long wide pools, but always with a swift flow to keep the water +living and sparkling, and they are strung together with great sweeping +rapids, deep enough for salmon to lie in, the anglers' joy: while on +each shore are hill slopes receding, richly wooded, from the stream +and the meadows beside the stream. The palm of beauty belongs of +right to Lismore, where the Duke of Devonshire has his great castle +overhanging a famous pool: and below it from the bridge one looks +down the stream and the valley to a far-off blue vista between the +hills. Yonder, where the river meets the sea at Youghal is one of the +quaintest and most charming towns of Ireland. I saw it first by the +light of a long procession of tall torches which lit up delightfully +the old houses with their scrolled fronts of timber, and the pretty +faces of girls and women looking out of the first-floor windows: but +it was no little surprise to me in that march to find myself under +an archway, over which rose a tall slated tower, fully equipped with +loopholes, and from whose top (if I had only known it) arrangements +had been made to bombard me and my friends that night. In daylight I +saw, though with a hasty glance, the very beautiful fifteenth-century +church still intact (for a miracle) and still used for worship: the +still greater attraction of Sir Walter Raleigh's old house I never +visited, but I hope you may. It has a mulberry tree said to be of +his planting, and a chimney piece against which he almost certainly +reclined his shoulders while in act to toast his travelled calves. + +[Illustration: THE BLACKWATER, AT DROMANA] + +Travelling by this line of rail you will have on your right the +Comeragh and the Knockmealdown mountains which divide the valley of +the Blackwater from the valley of the Suir. But it may possibly be +your pleasure, as it will certainly be your profit, to explore also +the Suir valley, which divides the Comeraghs from the outlying mass of +Slievenamon, and, farther west, curves northward from the base of the +tall Galtee ranges. + +I came last into Munster by motor car, driving from Kilkenny to +Clonmel over the southern shoulder of Slievenamon (Sliabh na m-Ban, +the Witches' Mountains), and a finer journey could not be taken. We +struck out through rich pasture and tillage, keeping this shadowy +dome which rose from the plain as our objective, till the pass began +to define itself. But it was when we had crossed or were crossing the +pass that the real beauty began. Slievenamon was on our right, well +wooded; facing us, as we ran south, were the Comeraghs, and a low foot +ridge thrown out from them, between which and us ran the Suir. The +valley is wider than that of the Blackwater, with less of what may be +called fancy wooding; but it can fairly hold its own; and the quay at +Clonmel by the shining, swirling river is as pretty as heart could +desire. + +From Clonmel to Lismore a road carries you over the top of +Knockmealdown (that is, Maeldune's Hill), and those of my companions +who took that drive crowed over me for the rest of the journey; +describing in glowing phrases all the glories I had missed, the +wonderful panorama from the top, then the gradual descent down a long +wild wooded glen into the tranquil and cultivated beauty of Lismore. + +Yet if I had a motor car at Clonmel and only one day's excursion to +make, it is not south I would go. I would go north into the heart +of Tipperary, through the Golden Vale which lies overshadowed and +half-circled by the Galtee range, until I came to the thing best worth +seeing in all Ireland, Cashel of the Kings. + +Nothing is, I repeat, better worth seeing, nothing less often seen +by the tourist; for it lies off the track. The Rock of Cashel is a +lone steep hillock, sharply scarped, and rising out of the plain +which stretches from Slievenamon to Slieve Phelim, and comprises in +fact the rich land drained by the Suir. Such a spot was inevitably +seized on for a stronghold, and from its earliest days Milesian rule +centred here. To Cashel it was that St. Patrick came to convert the +king of Munster, for Cashel was to the southern half of Ireland +what Tara was to the northern. It was the heart of Munster, whence +principalities radiated out. Thomond, North Munster, ran west from it +into Clare, across the Shannon; _Ormond_, _Oir Mumhan_, East Munster, +lay away from it towards Kilkenny and Eastern Tipperary; Desmond, +_Deas Mumhan_, the great kingdom of South Munster, comprising Cork +and Kerry, came to its walls, for theoretically the High Kingship of +southern Ireland alternated between Thomond and Desmond. And away +south-east, through the gap between Slievenamon and the Comeragh +Mountains, you can see into Waterford, which in Irish was called the +Deisi, falling into Desmond as a separate lordship. + +This rock is crowned with buildings that speak of war and peace, but +of peace rather than war. There stands intact Cormac's Chapel, finest +example of Irish building in the pre-Norman style; round-arched, +solid, barrel-roofed, decorated with string-courses of dogtooth +moulding. Beside it is the great cathedral built by the O'Brien lord +of Thomond, cathedral and fortress in one; unroofed now, dismantled, +and ruinous, yet hardly beyond reach of repair, since the choir was +used as a cathedral till the latter part of the eighteenth century. +Then an archbishop got an Act of Parliament authorizing him to +unroof it and providing a regiment of soldiers to execute the work. +Archbishop Price's reason for such an enterprise may not seem wholly +conclusive; he liked--good easy man--to drive in comfortable state to +his cathedral door, and no coach and horses could conveniently ascend +the winding path up the Rock. + +Beside the cathedral is the tall Round Tower, and on the north side of +the Rock, many remains of choir schools and other monastic buildings. +On the level plain and in the town are other monasteries ruined yet +not wholly shorn of their splendour; and within a few miles, Holycross +Abbey and Athassel speak of the wealth and culture which were +destroyed in this rich land of the Golden Vale. + +But the Rock itself, standing up there, crowned with such a group +of buildings as no other of Ireland's high places can parallel, is +the true object of pilgrimage; and the view from it over the Golden +Vale, to the noble Galtee peaks and pinnacles due south of you, and +the long waving line of Comeragh Mountains which runs continuously +east from them along the valley of the Suir, is a prospect worth long +journeying. Nor is that all. Slievenamon rises dome-shaped from the +eastern plain, a gap between it and the outlying spurs of Comeragh +showing where the Suir, headed off its southward course by Galteemore, +finds a way eastward to the sea: and to the north beyond the plain is +the far-off range of Slievebloom, dividing Leinster from the Shannon; +and nearer towards Athlone and the Shannon are the low hills with the +Devil's Bit nipped out of the top of them. + + + + +II + + +If I had to see Munster by motor car, my disposition would be to +start from Waterford, follow the valley of the Suir up to Clonmel, +then strike north to Cashel and see it. All the monuments can be seen +in a few hours, and no ruin or building that I ever visited has so +intelligent a custodian. From Cashel I would go to Holycross, that +exquisite remnant of monastic splendour, rich in historic memories, +and thence push out across Tipperary to the north-west, steering for +the gap between Keeper Mountain and the Silver Mines. This would +bring me out of the Golden Vale, which is in truth the valley of the +Suir, and into the basin of a still greater and more famous river, at +its most famous point. For from this gap the route would descend to +the Shannon, at the narrow gorge below Lough Derg where all its vast +volume of water is contracted to the ford and pass at Killaloe. Here, +if you will, is beauty: long peaceful levels above the weir where +lake passes imperceptibly into broad river; below it huge swirling +rapids, interspersed with wide, smooth, yet swift running salmon +pools, all down the twelve miles of river to the head of the tideway +at Limerick. And here, too, are historic memories more glorious than +can be matched elsewhere in Ireland. It was here at the outflow of the +lake, where is an unsuspected ford, that Sarsfield crossed (led by the +rapparee, Galloping Hogan), on the raid when he stole out of Limerick +along the Clare shore and so to this ford, on his way to lie in wait +on the slopes of Keeper for William's expected battering train. On +your road from Cashel you will have passed near Ballyneety, where he +and his troopers surprised the sleeping convoy and blew the heavy +guns into scattered shreds--a splendid foray, splendidly preluding +Limerick's heroic and successful resistance to the great Dutchman. + +But here at Killaloe, and specially at this ford above it, where great +earthworks mark the ancient fort of _Beul Boroimhe_, are memories more +honoured than hang about even Sarsfield's name. Here it was that in +the tenth century Brian Boru, Brian of the Tribute, built up with his +Dalcassians of Clare the power that learnt how to resist the Danes, +whose plundering forays threatened to blot out civilization altogether +from northern Europe. The first defeat of moment inflicted on them +was at Sollohed in the Golden Vale, near Limerick Junction, where the +forces of Thomond were led by Brian's brother, King Mahon. But it was +Brian who as a mere youth refused to join Mahon in submission (by any +pact, however veiled) to the invaders: it was Brian who had fought +them in desperate guerrilla warfare through the hills of Clare, and +along the banks of the Shannon, till he was brought down to fifteen +men, and Mahon asked him in the council chamber, "Where hast thou left +thy followers?" And Brian answered, as the Irish poem tells: + + "I have left them with the foreigners + After being cut down, O Mahon! + In hardship they followed me on every field, + Not like as thy people." + + +It was Brian who in that council caused appeal to be made to the +Clan Dalcais whether they would have peace or war, and "War", they +answered, "and this was the voice of hundreds as the voice of one man". + +The work that was begun at Kincora was finished sixty years later +outside Dublin when the Danish menace was finally broken and +dispelled on the shore by Clontarf: and in that fight the old lord of +Kincora, Brian of the Tribute, High King by then of all Ireland, fell +gloriously in the hour of a victory almost too dearly won. + +You can see in Killaloe the little old church, built somewhere in the +eighth or ninth century, with its high-pitched roof of stone slabs, +under which Brian worshipped more than ten centuries ago. Beside it +is the cathedral built by his descendants, and adorned with noble +archways in the rich Romanesque style of native Irish architecture. + +It is probable--certain, indeed, to my thinking--that Brian's rath and +strong place of abode was where the market-place of Killaloe still +is, on the top of the high ground to which the streets climb from the +river and the churches. The fort at the ford is called in Irish _Beul +Boroimhe_, that is the "Mouth of the Tribute": and one can easily see +how it came by its name, for here was the strategic position which +commanded all the traffic from the long navigable reaches of the upper +Shannon and its lakes to the tideway at Limerick. Here portage must be +made, here toll could be taken; and not only on the river traffic but +on all the cattle that came down from Clare into Tipperary by this the +one really practicable ford. + +[Illustration: BLARNEY CASTLE] + +From Killaloe to Limerick the road is pleasant, along the +ever-widening valley which is blocked by Keeper to the north, but +trends opening and widening towards West Clare and the sea. Yet to +understand the beauty and the charm of that characteristic piece +of Irish landscape, you should be taken down the stream in the +characteristic boat of those waters, the long pole-driven cot. +Shooting the rapids in these craft is a wonderful sensation, and even +on a chill day in February the tumult of lashing water sends warmth +into the blood. So you can follow the stream till at last below +Athlunkard bridge you reach the long Lax Weir, which keeps the memory +of Scandinavian settlers in its name (_lax_ is Norse for salmon, +to-day as then), and the memory of early Norman settlement in the odd +little tower built in the middle of the weir to command the passage, +as long ago as the days of King John. + +In Limerick itself King John's Castle with its great rounded towers +frowns over the Bridge of the Broken Treaty, where Sarsfield and +his men covenanted with William for protection to the property +and the religious freedom of Irish Catholics, and then took +ship for France--first of the Wild Geese, founders of the Irish +Brigade--leaving no guardians but honour and justice to enforce +the sanction of the treaty, guardians that were of no avail. Much +has been written of the siege of Derry and in praise of its heroic +defenders: but too little is known of Limerick's resistance, when +the French officer, whom James II had left in charge, declared that +the walls could be battered down with roasted apples, and Sarsfield +answered that defended they should and must be. You can see the mark +of William's cannon balls on the old wall near the convent hospital +east of the town: single marks on the dark limestone here and there, +but at the angle of the wall, where the Black Battery stood, and +where a breach was made, there is clear trace still of the desperate +assault--from which William's best troops, after they had effected a +lodgment, were finally driven back pell-mell. + +From Limerick the West Clare Railway (whose vagaries have been made +more famous than I ever knew them to deserve) will carry you through +Ennis, passing near Bunratty Castle, Quin Abbey, and many another +place of fame, to the coast where Lahinch offers one of the most +popular golf links in Ireland. It is a wild wind-swept coast, a +wild surf beats on the strand that divides Lahinch from Liscannor, +and north of it are the great cliffs of Moher. Lisdoonvarna is near +by, a spa much frequented by Irishmen, more specially by the Irish +clergy. But the favourite place of all who visit this part of Munster +is Kilkee, a little watering-place set above steep cliffs on which +the Atlantic swings in with all its weight. There is no other place +known to me in western Ireland where you can find decent seaside +quarters in a spot that meets the full force and splendour of the +sea. And from the Clare coast near by--even out of the window of a +railway carriage--I saw one of the greatest prospects that eye could +look on. To the south, some thirty or forty miles distant, the Dingle +peninsula stretched outward, with the huge mass of Brandon rising out +of the blue: but away north-west I could see very clear the three +island heights of Aran, and east of them the whole group of Connemara +mountains, beyond which again, away up into Mayo, the shapes of +Mweelrea and Croagh Patrick were dim yet recognizable in outline. + +The day was of astonishing clearness, yet, as so often happens in +western Ireland, its clearness had nothing hard: the Atlantic blue was +deep and sombre, the mountain shapes, exquisite in line, were vested +in colour that had a magic and a mystery all their own. Sunlight +across that brine-laden air, across those pungent expanses of bog, is +never crudely definite in its revelation; there is a hint of romance +and glamour in the pearly shimmer of its brightness. + +Clare has noble traditions: and no one should visit it without a +pilgrimage to the castle of Carrigaholt on the Shannon estuary near +Kilrush; for this was the ancestral home of that branch of the +O'Briens who made the ancient name illustrious on every stricken field +in Europe. They got their title, the Viscounts Clare, from Charles +II, but after the Williamite wars they were attainted; and from +Sarsfield's death onward it was always a Lord Clare who commanded the +Irish Brigade--that wonderful fighting force whose chief recruiting +ground was here in south-western Ireland. Two Lords Clare got their +death at the head of their men, one at Massaglia in 1693 when Prince +Eugene was beaten: the second at Ramillies, where in the general +disaster the Irish Brigade not only saved its own colours, but carried +two British standards back to Bruges. The third and last earl, who had +refused restitution to all the estates and titles if only he would +forswear his religion, led the immortal charge at Fontenoy, when +Ireland's banished men snatched in a desperate feat of arms fierce +requital for the penal laws that had left them a choice between exile +and slavery. Among all the writers who ever handled that period of +history, whatever their prepossessions, none ever wrote the name of +"Clare's brigade", save with honour and admiration; and no nationalist +poet has told their praise so eloquently as the Unionist, Miss Emily +Lawless, in two sister poems. One of the two depicts the eve of +Fontenoy in the exiles' camp, and the wild stirring in men's hearts. +"The wind is wild to-night, and it seems to blow from Clare"--blows +with a memory in it and a vision of all that has been left, blows with +a promise of things long hoped for, since "Clare's brigade may claim +its own" wherever the fight rages. + + "Send us, ye western breezes, our full, our rightful share, + For faith and home and country and the ruined hearths of Clare." + +[Illustration: FERRYBANK, WATERFORD] + +And the second tells how, on the morrow of the battle, strange craft +with strange bodiless sailors were seen on the Western coast, +making swift way like homing birds to Corcabascinn, this westernmost +barony of Clare. + + "Men of Corcabascinn, men of Clare's brigade, + Hearken, stony hills of Clare, hear the charge we made, + See us come together, singing from the fight, + Back to Corcabascinn in the morning light." + +Yet in truth it may be that only the native born will find any special +charm in this stormy Corcabascinn or its wild winds and waters; for of +prettiness and favour it has none, owning grandeur rather than beauty. +The counties of Munster which appeal to every human being who has eyes +in his head to see with are Cork and Kerry--but Kerry above all. + + + + +III + + +The unhappy inconveniences of sea travel prevent most folk from +visiting County Cork under the best conditions. Access should be by +boat: and surely the entrance into that wonderful Cove where the +great liners halt to take off mails is noblest of all gateways into +Ireland. All the encircling ring of hills is rich with vegetation, but +above all on the east by Queenstown is the choicest and most varied +wooding. Anything will grow there and nearly everything has been made +to grow. The little town itself is picturesque, climbing the steep +slope and dominated by Pugin's great cathedral, which stands on the +disembarkation quay, making a centre for the last impressions and +emotions of those--alas! how many thousands yearly--who leave Ireland. + +It is not now as I saw it in the early 'eighties, when hopeless, +broken, half-famished peasants were pouring out in a ghastly torrent, +mere wreckage on the flood: emigration was then eighty thousand a +year, to-day it is less than half that number. Those who go to-day, +go reasonably equipped, go for the most part to friends in cities, of +which they have heard so much, where they have so many kindred and +acquaintances, that the journey seems hardly into exile--hardly to a +strange land. Yet, even to-day, every train that brings the emigrants +leaves behind it, through the West and South and Midlands, its wake +of bitter weeping; at station after station it has gone out amid +tearing away of locked hands, last embraces severed, faces of old +men twitching, faces of women convulsed with sobs, and sped on its +journey to the accompaniment of that dreadful heartrending "keene", +the Irish wail, which is heard nowadays more often at the ship's side, +or on the railway platform, than at the grave. "Och, the poor soft +Irish," I heard a woman say this year, leaving some platform in Cork; +on her way, evidently, to a home in the States, where she had lived, +no doubt for many years, with the hard-faced, swaggering Yankee, who +accompanied her, and who looked with ill-concealed contempt on the +tears and emotions of the "poor soft Irish"; but she at least still +kept the homely tongue and kind heart. + +From Queenstown up to Cork is one of the loveliest waterways in the +world, little towns on either bank under the steep wooded shores, and +here and there some old castle. Cork itself may have no very great +architectural beauties, but the whole lie of the city, spread between +its hills, divided by the various streams of that delightful river, +makes a beauty of its own: you see it best from the high ground over +against the famous steeple where hang "the bells of Shandon that sound +so grand on the pleasant waters of the river Lee". + +"Pleasant" is the word for Cork, the county, and its soft-voiced, +quick-speaking people, with the odd little turn upwards at the end +of their sentence. It was called "the Athens of Ireland", though I +would say rather, the Naples: in any case, Cork has always sent out +far more than its share of brains. In the days of "Father Prout", who +wrote the "Bells of Shandon" and other immortal ditties, Cork had a +regular coterie of wits--among the best known being a Dowden, father +or grandfather of the illustrious man of letters who is to-day one of +the chief lights in Trinity College. The late Provost, Dr. Salmon, a +still greater luminary, came also from the southern county--as did +half a dozen more of the Fellows whose names are familiar enough to +all in Ireland; though some, perhaps, enriched legend and chronicle +rather than history, and survive as remembered oddities--after all, +not the least loveable of survivals. + +The south coast of Cork, from Youghal to the Kenmare River, is the +pick of Ireland for yachtsmen. Endless is the succession, from Cork +itself with all its lesser creeks and havens, Carrigalo, Carrigaline, +and Ringabella, on past Kinsale harbour, Courtmacsherry and Clonakilty +bays, Roscarbery, Glandore, and west to Baltimore and Roaring Water, +off which lies Cape Clear. Then past Mizen Head, on the west shore, +are greater bays, harbours not for yachts, but for navies--Dunmanus, +Bantry, and the Kenmare River, whose northern shore belongs to Kerry, +but which has a frontier certainly in paradise. + +I write of what I have seen, in the Kenmare River: all these southern +harbourages are to me only names on the map, save for the quaint +little bay of Roscarbery and the long winding creek of Baltimore--both +of which I know only as winter shows them, and shows them from +the land. Yet of the people of Roscarbery I form at least some +picture from the sketches drawn by the two ladies who relate the +varied _Experiences of an Irish R.M._--though West Cork needs to be +supplemented by knowledge of Connemara, to realize the scenes that +they have in mind. And from Baltimore, or rather from a mile outside +it, I carry away a picture of a congregation dividing after mass into +two rival political assemblies, and the one that I addressed consisted +largely of women wearing the great black cloak, with black hood giving +an odd framework to the wearer's face, which is one of the few and +cherished relics of traditional costume. I was told on good authority +(when I lamented myself) that if I had the women I had the votes, for +West Cork was in all matters under female governance. But of that I +cannot testify. + +Baltimore is one of the great fishing stations of Ireland, and to +it the population of Cape Clear comes for most necessaries of life. +Along that coast many craft are familiar, but an odd name hangs +about one set: the fishermen from near Dungarvan are always known as +"the Turks". In 1631 Algerine pirates made a descent on the town of +Baltimore, sacked it and carried a hundred of its folk into slavery: +and it was a fisherman from Dungarvan who (under threat of death) +piloted the corsairs. + +All this shore had fine natural advantages for smuggling which in old +days were not neglected: and still, I am told, certain places could +be named where cigars and wines of excellent quality can be had at +surprisingly moderate price. + +Kinsale is a greater haven, fit in old days to be the rival of Cork; +and the town there speaks of prosperous merchant folk, with its +quaint weather-slated houses, each having the little bow-window which +eighteenth-century mariners would seem to have specially affected, and +its very old-world bowling green. + +[Illustration: SHANDON STEEPLE, FROM THE RIVER LEE] + +Here was the theatre on which Ireland saw a great game played out--the +last and losing throw in the war of O'Neill and O'Donnell against the +forces of Elizabeth. At the long last, the promised help from the +Continent had come; a Spanish fleet under Don Juan d'Aquila entered +the harbour, seized and held the town, which was beleaguered by the +English (and Irish allies) under Mountjoy and Carew. O'Neill and +O'Donnell, marching down from the north, drew an outer line about +the besiegers, and on December 21st battle was joined. Tyrone would +have waited, wisely, till the siege could be raised by cutting the +English communications, and the force attacked on the march. But Red +Hugh was always bad at waiting, and forced the attack. The combination +failed, the Spaniards gave no help, and Mountjoy drove back the +Ulstermen. D'Aquila surrendered on good terms, and O'Donnell in hot +fury went to Spain to complain of his incompetence and to press for a +new expedition. But Elizabeth had her agents in Spain also, and one +of them did her such service as was freely rendered in those days. +O'Donnell drank a poisoned cup at Simancas, and died of it, and the +State Papers contain the poisoner's account of his own exploit and +demand for fitting payment. It was only after this that Carew was able +to write of _Pacata Hibernia_, an Ireland, where, in truth, he and his +had made a wilderness and called it peace. They themselves tell how +from the Rock of Cashel to Dingle Bay the voice of man or the lowing +of cattle could not be heard. + +Loveliest of all regions in Ireland, this country of Desmond has +suffered worst of all. Elizabeth's soldiers attempted here, and nearly +carried out, a complete extermination of the native race by the sword +and by starvation. And when after centuries the folk had multiplied +again and were, by universal testimony, gay even in their rags, the +famine of 1847 fell upon them, and in the blackest horrors of that +time Skibbereen and West Cork attained an awful notoriety. Nowhere +else did such heaps of famished and plague-stricken dead defy all +efforts even to bury them. + +The shadow of those days has not yet entirely passed: but the stranger +will see little of it, following the famous route which leads up the +Lee valley to Macroom (where the rail ends), and so past Inchigeela +and Ballingarry, past Gouganebarra by Keimaneigh, through the +mountains to Bantry and Glengariff. And here confession must be made. +I have never seen these famous beauties. I have followed the Lee only +to Inchigeela where it breaks into a score of channels between little +islands covered with scrub oak and birch and hazel, a piece of river +scenery whose like I never saw. And I have driven along the road from +Macroom to Killarney, along the Sullane River to Ballyvourney, which +tens of thousands know as "the metropolis of Irish-speaking Ireland". +For, as it chances, Cork alone, of the more prosperous counties, +has kept the Irish speech, and kept it in a form the least modified +by modern simplifications. Irish is still to-day the language of +well-to-do and well-educated men and women. My host at Ballyvourney +had received his education in Paris, more than that, had been through +all the Franco-Prussian war, and had seen more of the world than is +given to most men; but for many years he has been back, a kind of king +among his own people, and a real repository of the ancient scholarship +and traditions of the Gael. At Ballingeary, a few miles from him, was +founded the first of those "summer schools" where men and women, boys +and girls, of all sorts and conditions, and from many corners of the +world, unite for common study of the noble language which careless +generations had nearly suffered to die out. That settlement is now one +of the objects of interest on the coach road, and travellers, if not +tourists, may well find it the most interesting of all. + +Bantry is one of the great naval stations, one of the great recruiting +grounds for the navy. I saw it, as it should be seen, from the sea. +It, too, is associated with the memory of one of those failures which +stud the course of Irish history like sinister beacons: for here +Hoche with a fleet aimed to land in 1796, and here half of his fleet +actually arrived, with no one to oppose them. Hoche was then at the +pinnacle of his power and fame, an idealist of the early Republican +movement, consumed with that real passion for spreading freedom which +Napoleon was destined to replace by a very different conception. But +Hoche and half of the ships were tempest-driven far out of their +course, and it was Grouchy, the slow mover, the man of hesitations, +who reached the goal, and, having reached it, failed to act. History +hinges on odd chances. Humbert's achievements, two years later, with +a mere handful of men, when England had an army in Ireland, put it +beyond dispute that Grouchy, even with what he had, could have set on +foot a movement that would have driven English power out of Ireland +at least for a time: and Wellington himself has told how great a part +in breaking down the power of France, from those conflicts in the +Peninsula on to the climax of Waterloo, was borne by the unemancipated +Catholic Irish peasants, who formed the very bone and sinew of the +British line. + +It may well be that all was for the best in the best possible of +worlds: that it was best that Ireland, instead of freeing herself with +the help of Republican France, should help greatly to deliver Europe +from the menace of Imperial France--and hand it over to the tender +mercies of the Holy Alliance. Yet it needs the faith of Voltaire's +philosopher to believe that anything could have been worse for Ireland +than the historic evolution which she was actually fated to undergo. + +Beyond Bantry is Glengarriff, of which Thackeray wrote that "such a +bay, were it lying upon English shores, would be a world's wonder". +I have only seen it off the deck of a steamer, away in a smother of +cloud; but everyone confirms Thackeray. Castletown Beare, farther +west on the north shore of Bantry Bay, I have seen, and the Castle +of Dunboy, where was the seat of the O'Sullivan Beare, lord of this +region, from which after the rout at Kinsale he and his people fled +in a body, marching north amid dreadful privations till they crossed +the Shannon and ultimately reached some protection in Ulster. But +O'Sullivan's fighting men were left in the Castle under their captain +MacGeoghegan, who prolonged resistance to the point of desperation +against Carew's artillery. Mortally wounded at last, he succumbed +in an attempt to reach the magazine to blow all, assailants and +defenders, sky high. It would have been better for the garrison had +he succeeded, since Carew hanged every man of them. There is the ruin +to-day, breached and battered, standing in a grove of ilex on a very +beautiful promontory. + +That Castle of Dunboy gave its name to Froude's famous romance _The +Two Chiefs of Dunboy_--a romance founded on historic fact--perhaps not +more coloured in the telling than in the same author's volumes on the +history of Ireland. For here in this peninsula between Bantry Bay and +the Kenmare River, which was the special hold of the O'Sullivans, clan +loyalty and the clan name did not die out. Here as elsewhere, English +settlers were brought in as lords of the land, with enormous power +over the native Irish, whose loyalty still held to the representative +of their old chiefs. The O'Sullivans were chiefs now principally in +the extensive smuggling operations--and let it be remembered that +under the laws made by England to crush out Irish trade, contraband +was almost the one outlet for Irish commerce. If Irishmen wanted to +export the wool of their sheep, the hides of their cattle, the meat +that they salted, all this traffic was by law forbidden. Such laws +make smuggling necessary and beneficent, and the O'Sullivans on the +south of the Kenmare River, like the O'Connells on its northern shore, +brought in their cargoes of wine, tobacco, silks, and laces, and sent +back ships laden with wool. With those cargoes went out too that other +contraband, the supply of officers and men for the Irish brigade. The +English landlord-settler was the representative of English law, and +between him and the O'Sullivans conflict was certain. In 1754, Murtagh +Oge O'Sullivan shot the Puxley of that day. Law was moved to great +efforts, and two months later the O'Sullivan was surrounded in his +house at the village of Eyeries, and, after a desperate resistance, +driven out of it by fire: he tried to cut his way out but was shot +down in escaping. That was a great day for the law, and they towed +O'Sullivan's body by a rope at the stern of a king's ship to Cork, +where they cut his head off and spiked it over the city gate. + +[Illustration: ENTRANCE TO CORK HARBOUR] + +Irish memory keeps vividly the detail of such events, and you can +find men in that district to tell you the whole as if it had happened +yesterday. I heard it all, though at secondhand, on a sail from +the Kenmare River to Bantry, one night when the sea was all fire, and +the mackerel shoals dashing this way and that, made flashes like a +Catherine wheel, and porpoises or dolphins following them left long +trails of light on the surface with sudden sparkles wherever the great +fish came up to roll. Out to sea was the recurring flash of the Bull +Light, for which ships steer on their way from America; and though +there was no moon I could still distinguish this huge island rock, and +its neighbour the Cow. The Calf, where the light used to be, is lower, +and lies close in by Dursey Island--in that year much talked of, +for a party of police who had crossed to collect rents from the few +islanders, were effectively marooned, as the boat they had chartered +left them, and every other craft was suddenly spirited away. + +I think, perhaps, that night was lovelier on the Kenmare River--under +a sky ablaze with stars--than even the days of sun had been; but +nothing else in Ireland is so perfect, to my fancy, as this long, +narrow sea lough between the two mountainous peninsulas, and having +inland of it the full vista of those higher mountains which encircle +Killarney's lakes. + +On the Kenmare shore of the southern peninsula is Lord Lansdowne's +famous seat, Derreen, set among rivers and lakes, and backed with +mountains. Derreen means the little oak grove, and as Mr. Cooke +well observes in his _Murray_, the native wooding here escaped +"the general destruction" of the forest trees to feed the iron +furnaces of Sir William Petty, ancestor of the Lansdowne family. +Most of the woods of Ireland--and Munster was covered with timber in +Elizabeth's reign--were ruthlessly squandered in this way, during the +first century of English occupation, by grantees or purchasers of +confiscated land, whose one idea was a savage exploitation of what +could immediately be cashed. However, let it be said that Petty's +successors, coming into great part of the Desmond inheritance, and +adopting the Desmond name, Fitzmaurice, took high place among that +Irish nobility of the latter type. They were not absentees but +landowners with some sense of what was owing to their estates, and +with a sentiment to the country from which they drew their revenues, +which is best evidenced by their close friendship with Maria Edgeworth +and Thomas Moore. Yet it was always at Bowood, in Wiltshire, that Miss +Edgeworth and Moore knew the great Whig statesman and his belongings: +neither the poet nor the novelist ever penetrated to Derreen. + +Had they done so, they might have learnt more than ever either of +them came to realize about the greatest Irishman of their day--the +greatest power that has ever come out of purely Celtic Ireland in +modern times: for Iveragh, the peninsula over against Derreen, was the +birthplace and the home of Daniel O'Connell; it gave the climate and +the environment which determined him to what he was. + +I am not going to write much--because no writing can do it justice--of +Iveragh, which is bounded on the south by the Kenmare River, on the +north by Dingle Bay, on the west by the Atlantic Ocean (with the +Skelligs lying off in it), and on the east by Magillicuddy's Reeks and +the lakes of Killarney; which is set therefore in beauty and majesty +and splendour and has interest and charm at every turn of every road. +But I am going to write a little of Daniel O'Connell and his people, +for it is stupid to go to Kerry, and know nothing of the greatest +Kerryman that ever lived, only--first, a little practical geography. + + + + +IV + + +The train will take you to Kenmare, where the railway company +has a really comfortable hotel, in whose garden you will see the +characteristic subtropical vegetation which can be produced in +this climate--palms, yuccas, New Zealand flax with its sword-shaped +fronds, bamboos, and the rest, "all standing naked in the open air" +like the heathen goddesses in the Groves of Blarney. From Kenmare the +beautifully engineered road, which was a joy to man and beast till +heavy motor coaches began to destroy it, runs along the north shore of +the sea lough and a few miles out crosses the Kerry Blackwater by the +most picturesque bridge over the loveliest stream that anyone could +ever hope to throw a fly in. A little farther along is Parknasilla, +the big hotel which has been built at a point where the coast breaks +up into a number of wooded islets, with bridges connecting them, and +meandering walks--well, nothing could be prettier. Then you go along +through Sneem, getting into opener, wilder country. As you approach +West Cove, Staigue Fort is on your right, a great circular structure +of dry masonry, more developed than the similar buildings in Aran, for +it has chambers in the thickness of the wall and stairs leading to +platforms for defence. From this monument of prehistoric times, whose +date can be measured by thousands of years, look across to your left, +where another stone building is in progress--a large hospital designed +to benefit the poor folk of this district: the bounty of a lady +belonging to one of the families who profited by confiscation and for +too long drew absentee rents. What may be the success of the scheme +cannot be foretold: but the beauty of her desire to make restitution +is not the least among the beauties of the Kenmare River. + +At West Cove I have been lucky enough to stay with the man who knows +the west of Ireland in its present life and its past history better +perhaps than any living soul. In the great plot where cars draw up +outside his door, great plants of Arum lilies shoot up and flourish, +blooming luxuriantly in spring. They say that in Valentia an improving +gardener thought them too profuse in the Knight of Kerry's garden, +and pitched the roots out over the cliffs; but some caught on ledges, +fastened there, and sent up white lilies in niches of the crags--so +kind is that soft air. + +Two or three miles beyond West Cove is the village of Caherdaniel and +under it comes in Darrynane Bay, on whose shore is a little hotel, +simple enough, but friendly; lying among Irish fisher folk who gather +of a summer evening to dance on the crisp turf that covers the sand. +Beside it is a small wood, and in the wood is Darrynane, a place of +pilgrimage, for here O'Connell lived and here his descendants remain. +The case of the O'Connells was typical. Driven by Cromwell out of +the fertile lands of Limerick they took root among the mountains of +Kerry and of Clare. The builder of Darrynane--that is of the original +habitation--was a Daniel or Donal who married a daughter of the +O'Donoghues--another great Kerry clan. This lady--Máire Dubh--was a +fruitful mother of children--she bore twenty-two of them and brought +twelve to full age; but she was also notable as a poetess in the Irish +tongue. Her second son, Maurice, inherited Darrynane, and was known +all over the country as Hunting Cap O'Connell, for a tax was put on +beaver hats, and from that day he wore nothing but the velvet cap in +which he was used to hunt hare and fox on the mountains of Iveragh. +Daniel O'Connell, his nephew, was a great votary of that sport, and +I have talked with a man who had hunted in his company. And still in +autumn you may see the harriers out on these hills and a namesake and +descendant of his hallooing them on. + +[Illustration: KENMARE BAY, FROM TEMPLENOE] + +Old Hunting Cap as head of the family played a great part in his +nephew's youth, providing, it would seem, for the later stages of his +education. The early one was cheap enough, for he was fostered on the +mountains in the cabin of his father's herd (that tie of fosterage +bound Catholic Ireland together, gentle and simple, with a strange +intimacy), and he got his first lessons in one of the hedge schools +which flourished in defiance of penal laws. It was no less typical +of Catholic Ireland that he should go abroad to finish his training, +or that he should have a kinsman high placed in the service of France. +His father's younger brother, Count O'Connell, was the last colonel +of the Irish Brigade: and when he was consulted concerning a place to +send his nephews, in 1790, found himself much perplexed to answer, so +troubled was the state of all the Continent. Daniel and his brother +Maurice were sent first to the Jesuits at St. Omer; they were trained +to detest the revolution which was driving their uncle out of the +service of France: and soon the flood of turmoil drove them from Douay +whither they had moved. At Calais, they learnt the news of Louis XVI's +execution: on the boat were two passengers who spoke of it as willing +eyewitnesses. These men were Irish Protestants, the brothers Sheares, +afterwards executed for conspiracy. It is very notable that although +Protestant Ireland, especially in Ulster, was much affected by the +revolutionary and republican doctrines, these found very little echo +in the Catholic part of the nation--and none at all among survivors of +the old Catholic gentry, such as the O'Connells. Yet when the young +O'Connell settled down to read for the bar in London, harsh measures +of repression and the violent Toryism of that day soon drove him into +revolt. He had a genuine hatred of oppression, of unfair play: later +in life this devoutest of Roman Catholics was the most powerful +advocate of equality for the Jews. + +However, this is no place to talk of the great orator's career or his +triumphs. To his own folk in Kerry he was always "the Counsellor", +the wonderful advocate whose genius was like a flaming sword drawn +for the terrified prisoner. No other Irish leader has ever been so +near akin to the common folk; it was not for nothing he suckled +the breast of a Kerry peasant, and learnt to speak his first words +in the Irish tongue. Yet, oddly enough and pathetically enough, +so little of a "nationalist" in our modern sense was he, that he +welcomed and encouraged the growing disuse of Irish speech; all +diversity of tongues seemed hateful to him, in his eighteenth-century +cosmopolitanism. But no man was ever more in love with Ireland, or +more devoted to one spot of earth than he to his Darrynane. He wrote +to Walter Savage Landor of himself that he "was born within the sound +of the everlasting wave", and that his "dreamy boyhood fed its fancies +upon the ancient and long-faded glories of that land which preserved +Christianity when the rest of now civilized Europe was shrouded in the +darkness of godless ignorance". + + "Perhaps," he went on, "if I could show you the calm and + exquisite beauty of these capacious bays and mountain + promontories, softened in the pale moonlight which shines + this lovely evening, till all which during the day + was grand and terrific has become serene in the silent + tranquillity of the clear night--perhaps you would readily + admit that the man who has so often been called a ferocious + demagogue is in truth a gentle lover of nature, an + enthusiast of all her beauties 'fond of each gentle and each + dreary scene', and catching from the loveliness as well as + from the dreariness of the ocean and the Alpine scenes with + which it is surrounded, a greater ardour to procure the good + of man in his overwhelming admiration of the mighty works of + God." + +That was how O'Connell thought of Kerry; and as you drive on from +Caherdaniel along the high pass of Coomakista, which brings you out +across a shoulder of mountain from the view across Kenmare River to +a wider outlook full west on the Atlantic--why, you will have some +inkling of the sublimity which he felt. + +Below you is the little harbour to and from which the O'Connells +worked their smuggling craft; and you can discern a narrow cleft in +the rocks making a short cut for row boats on a calm day. Once, they +say, a sloop of the smugglers lay in the harbour and was suddenly +aware of a revenue brig rounding the headland from the south. The wind +blew into the harbour. It was impossible to escape, and the sloop +lay motionless and to all appearance idle. But just as the pursuer +tacked and ran straight into the harbour mouth a sail was hoisted on +the sloop, she began to move, and in a minute her sides were scraping +through the tiny passage, while men with sweeps out fended her off +this and that sunken rock; and in another minute she was out and +away, cracking on full sail with a good half-hour's lead before the +revenue boat could beat out of the narrow sound to chase her. + +[Illustration: MACGILLICUDDY'S REEKS] + +From Coomakista the road descends steeply to Waterville, a famous +place for anglers, where a new town has grown up about the outlet to +Lough Currane, for here is now the chief station of the transatlantic +cables. The first of these cables was laid from Valentia Island some +ten miles farther north opposite the town of Cahirciveen, which will +be your destination if you purpose to return by rail along the shore +of Dingle Bay. But I commend to all, motorist, cyclist, or foot +traveller (if such a one be left in these degenerate days), another +way of exploring Iveragh. Also, if the sea is not your enemy, it is +worth while to stay in Waterville--where the sea as well as the lake +offer great chance to fishers--and try an expedition to the Skellig +Rocks. Fine weather is needed, for there is difficulty in landing on +these astonishing places where the gannets are the chief habitants: +strong flyers, they nest nowhere between this point and the Bass Rock +in Scotland, yet you may see them by dozens anywhere along the west +coast even in the breeding season. On the Skelligs are old stone +stairs of tremendous height, the work of old-time anchorite monks who +established themselves here in stone beehive-shaped cells--still +intact, for you to wonder at the discomforts of piety. And in the +crevices of these rocks rare birds breed--the stormy petrel, the Manx +shearwater, along with legions of puffin, guillemot, razorbill, shag, +and the rest. But do not go there even with a light easterly wind, for +it blows direct on to the rocky landing place; and if it blows at all +from the south-west the swell may be too big even on the sheltered +side. Nature is on a big scale, a rough playfellow, out here in the +Atlantic. + +Even landward from Lough Currane, it is a wild nature that you must +encounter on the old mountain road to Killarney, which you should +travel for choice. + +This way follows up the valley of the Eany River (but you may take the +main road skirting Lough Currane and turn in west to this same valley +at Owroe bridge) to the pass of _Bealach Oisin_ (Ossian's Track) +between Coolee and Knocknagapple. At the crest one must be close on a +thousand feet up, and the view back over Ballinskelligs bay with the +Atlantic beyond, to which the eye is led by a long winding thread of +river between steep mountain sides, is a splendid prospect. Once over +the neck, sea, river, and tilled land all disappear: nothing is seen +but heath and rock and mountain. On the right is the high ridge which +makes the backbone of Iveragh: in front of you the Reeks fill the +eastern sky. Not a house can be seen--and there are very few places +in Ireland (so thickly scattered are people over the poorest land) +from which human habitation cannot be discerned. + +A few miles down brings you into the valley of the Caragh river which +flows out from Loughs Reagh and Cloon and after a course of some ten +miles enters the long and deep Caragh Lake, whence another short run +brings it to the sea. This is the valley which lies west of the Reeks, +and, for my own part, I count this aspect of them finer than anything +you will see at Killarney. There is a big, new hotel at the outfall +of Caragh Lake on the railway, much frequented now: but all my time +among these hills and waters has been given to a little oldfashioned +anglers' inn, the Glencar hotel, on the reach of river between +Bealalaw bridge and Lickeen rapids. Here you may fish for salmon at a +nominal charge in one of the best waters in Ireland: on the evening +when I got there this summer, they were jumping everywhere in the +beautiful Long Range pool where the little Caragh joins the main +stream; red, ugly fish, it must be owned, for this was in September +and they had lain there since June without a fresh to move them--but +still there were salmon and plenty of them. Or you can fish free of +charge at Lough Acoose at the headwaters of Caraghbeg, in under the +flank of Carrantuohil, with better prospect of a full basket than +anywhere else known to me. The trout are not big anywhere in Kerry, +but in Acoose they run to a good herring size, and the man who fished +it the day when I was at Glencar got something over two dozen--a usual +bag. My companion and I had gone farther afield, to the headwaters of +Caragh itself, right up into the great ring of mountains through which +the pass of Bealachbeama lets you out to the Kenmare side. Little need +be said about our fishing, which was interrupted by the fact that our +boat, leaking like a sieve, finally foundered while we were trying +to get her ashore--a new boat too, wanting nothing but a couple of +good coats of paint. Yet the chance which drove us off Cloon, while +the boat was being got ashore and emptied, sent us up across a mile +of bog to fish the upper lake from the shore; and what a lake! lying +right in under the steep side of a mountain almost precipitous, where +the eagles built till a year or two back, and for three parts of its +circumference ringed about like the crater of a volcano. + +It was a day of dry wind, northerly to north-easterly, and of hard +lights: one lacked the magical enchantment of westerly air over the +whole: yet for sheer grandeur I do not know that all my wanderings +after fish in Ireland have ever taken me to so fine a scene. + +[Illustration: THE GAP OF DUNLOE, KILLARNEY] + +That little hotel, primitive in its equipment but most friendly, has +its attractions to offer all the year round, for the salmon fishing +begins in earnest in February, and through the winter months there is +rough shooting (grouse, cock, and snipe), to be had over the great +expanses of heather and those broad belts of native wooding which +grow about the river in its lower course. From the hotel down to the +lake your path lies between this scrub of oak and holly and birch and +a water, swift yet deep, where pool succeeds pool, each divided from +the next only by strong rapids. You have no monopoly there: the river +is fished from both banks and can be covered right across, though it +needs a good man to do it; but it is practically a free fishing and +the best free river fishing that I know in Ireland--absolutely an +ideal spot for the holiday-maker who does not insist on being near the +sea. You can walk from it all the finest mountains in Kerry since it +lies in the very centre: and away west of you is Glenbeigh, another +valley where decent quarters can be had amid landscape of the same +type. Of the same type--but I cannot believe that anywhere in Kerry or +out of it you will match the journey which convoyed me from Glencar +to my next stage at the Caragh Lake hotel. It was inland scenery no +doubt, but the breath and the feeling of the sea is over all this +neck of sea-washed Iveragh, and that river valley seemed no more +than an avenue through the hills leading to the gateway of ocean. +We walked along the river bank, often shoulder high in fern, often +stopping to pull the blackberry clusters, and we studied the pools +set in, here among trees, there with open sward on both sides and +moor stretching away behind. Below the rapids we took boat, and for a +mile or more rowed through level bogland, with groups of Scotch fir, +purple stemmed in the afternoon light, rising from the river bank. +Between their trunks, or in the open gaps, we could see the peaked +mass of Carrantuohil, rising in the south-east, the light on its high +ridges, but the valleys and chasms on its sides deep in shadow. As +we neared the lake the flat land broadened, and from across it came +the aromatic, pungent smell of bog myrtle, distinct as the scent from +a beanfield, but strong and tonic as brine. Then for an hour and +half we paddled down the lake between mountain and mountain, winding +round promontory after promontory into sight of reach after reach of +the lake. Finally as we entered the wide northern stretch--for our +course was due north--all the shore was seen divided into demesnes, +big and little, each with its own wooding. The hotel lies farthest of +all towards the river's outflow in the north-west, and whoever chose +that site deserves credit, for across the wide shining water rise the +whole ring of mountains--Carrantuohil away to the south-east, and +all the other heights that close in the valley behind Cloon Lake and +Bealachbeama spreading fan-wise across the horizon as you look out +from the pleasant terrace where palm and hydrangea grow. It is not so +finished, not so exquisite, as Killarney; but I should rather choose +it for a holiday. I sat on the terrace for an hour that Sunday and +watched the sunlight fade off Carrantuohil: all was green and olive +when we sat down, for it was a coldish evening and the air northerly; +but cloud lay on the peaks, or rather caught the peaks intermittently +as it drifted in wreaths across, so that at no time was the whole +mountain visible. But gradually as the sun sank these wreaths became +touched with a rosy glow, and below them what had been olive-green +took on deep tints of coppery purple, rich and glowing, the purple +gaining as the rose deepened on the cloud wreath; and higher and +higher the shaft of light struck, reaching now only the very topmost +pinnacles, till finally it faded out, and all lay before as in a +sombre stillness waiting for the fall of night. + +Nothing that I carry away from Killarney haunts me with the same +fullness of beauty, but perhaps only because Killarney is no one's +discovery; it has no secret lover. You might as well seek to praise +Sarah Bernhardt's genius or Tennyson's charm of style. Yet I suppose +each one will discern for himself some passing perfection, some +special facet of that loveliness--as I indeed remember the wonderful, +shadowed, lucid green of water reflecting darkly the bank of tall +reeds which grow westward of the landing stage to which we rowed in +after fishing: and remember, too, the singular sight of a man's naked +body, as he stood poised before plunging in to bathe, some hundred +yards from us; for the low sun caught his figure, outlined against the +long line of dark foliage behind him, and made it at once the glowing +centre of a beautiful landscape. + +This was on the lower lake, largest by far of the three which form +a crescent, compassing from south to north (as the water runs) the +eastern flank of the Reeks. + +My last visit found me at the Victoria Hotel where the lake is broad +and open to the Purple Mountain, a noble landscape: but to reach what +is my idea of Killarney proper, you must row across to the narrows +between the lovely isle of Inisfallen and the east shore, so reaching +Ross Bay and a more confined water, studded over with island rocks. +Here the shores are of that peculiar limestone which the lapping of +water frets into numberless quaint crannies and fissures till the +verge of the water looks as though it were a frame intricately carved +by some patient craftsman; and in all these chinks and crevices ferns +and other wild and beautiful herbage grow with exquisite profusion. +That is what makes to my mind the essence of Killarney's charm, this +wealth of intricate detail making a foreground to mountain and lake +scenery as bold and wild as any highlands can show. Add to this +the presence of unfamiliar foliage, here native, exotic everywhere +else--notably the arbutus with its dark, glossy leaf and ruddy stem, +handsomest of all shrubs; dark yew also, and juniper, mingled in with +native growth of oak and birch, yet through all, skilful plantation +has set in this and that graceful foreign tree, this and that bright +berry. It is no wonder that such a place should have become one of +the world's great tourist centres, especially when to these beauties +are added the distinction and interest of fine ruins--Ross Castle +where the O'Donoghues were lords till Cromwell's forces drove them +out; Inisfallen where St. Finian's pious monks had their abbey through +untroubled centuries. And, being as it is, Killarney is equipped for +the tourist as is no other place in Ireland: all the excursions have +been thought and planned, and your hotelkeeper will have arrangements +fully made; nor is the plague of beggars at all the annoyance that +it used to be--a blessed reform. The boatmen have learnt their trade +of cicerone to perfection, and will not only tell you the standard +yarns and jests and legends of the place if you desire them, but +will have the tact to discriminate serious-minded folk--such as +anglers--who may probably not want this form of entertainment. + +[Illustration: MUCKROSS LAKE, KILLARNEY] + +Yet, for all that, it is a place for tourists, and, as such, commands +only my reluctant tribute. But the drive from Killarney to Kenmare +which, skirting Muckross and the upper lake, carries you gradually +circling round the whole crescent till you rise into the Black Valley +where the Gap of Dunloe breaks in--well, that drive, I must say, +fairly broke down my coldness: I grew no less enthusiastic than the +famous Scottish expert on salmon fishing who was of the party and +declared the whole thing equal to the Trossachs--from which I gather +that Scotland at least has not anything to show more fair. Moreover, +fishing on the lakes is free and good; there is a chance of salmon, +and trout are both plenty and sizeable. That is to say, on a good day +they should average close on half a pound, and this means that a pound +fish is no great rarity--as he certainly would be in Glencar. Also in +Killarney town you have the best fly tier in Ireland; many a friend of +mine in Donegal who never saw Kerry could swear to Mr. Courtney's work +in this delicate craft, almost an art in itself. + +But that is all I have to say about "Heaven's reflex, Killarney". + + + + +V + + +My last visit to Kerry was on a commission of enquiry into fisheries +which took us driving round in motors to places off the usual track; +and a railway strike came in, to complete our survey of West Munster. +We had come up from Waterville, along the backbone of the peninsula, +crossing Bealach Oisin, so that the coast road by Dingle Bay is known +to me now only by far-off memory of a forty-miles drive in a long +car--which the railway has for many years superseded. But I revived my +memory of a bit of it, coming up in the morning from Caragh Lake to +Killorglin, where we held our court, at the outfall of the Lowne which +drains the lakes of Killarney. Opposite us across the bay was that +other mountainous region of Corcaguiney, the Dingle Peninsula, which +differs from Iveragh in this, that from the high point of the Reeks +Iveragh slopes westward by a gradual declension of peaks and ridges; +whereas Corcaguiney rises continuously westward and seaward till it +reaches its climax in Brandon Hill rising majestically from the very +limit of the land. So rises Mweelrea at the mouth of Killery, and I +imagine that on a clear day from Brandon's top you would see Mweelrea, +and from Mweelrea again might distinguish the peak of Errigal far +north in Donegal. At all events I knew an old gentleman who told me +that he had seen the whole length of Ireland in one field of vision, +and he took either Mweelrea or Croagh Patrick as his midland centre +and Errigal or Brandon (or the Reeks) as his two extremes. + +This Dingle Peninsula is explored by very few, unexplored by me, alas! +I could see from the road the dark outline of Cahirconree, a wonderful +stone fort, built two thousand feet up on the side of the Sliabh +Mish mountains: and away out to the west the Blasket Islands were in +sight, hardly more accessible than the Skelligs, but inhabited by a +race of Irish-speaking fisher folk, among whom a Norse student of the +Celtic languages settled himself the other day and was overjoyed to +find a stone inscription in Runic characters, containing the mind of +some Scandinavian forebear of his own, set down in the Norse that was +spoken a thousand years ago and had waited ten centuries for him to +decipher it. + +Under Brandon, on the extreme west of the peninsula, lies Smerwick +Bay, where in Elizabeth's reign a small detachment of Spaniards landed +and established themselves; their earthworks at Fort del Oro (so +called because Frobisher was wrecked there with a cargo of pyrites +which he took to be gold) can be traced easily. Kingsley in _Westward +Ho!_ has dealt, not overfaithfully, with the story of that enterprise +which ended in the wholesale butchery of combatants who surrendered +at discretion--suggesting, very unworthily, that the brutal deed was +excused by its deterrent effect. We have never heard that it stopped +the landing at Kinsale not many years later. There is ground to hope +that Raleigh has been wrongfully charged with the actual perpetration +of that black deed. But in truth the blackest chapter in all Irish +history is precisely that which deals with the Desmond wars under +Elizabeth, which ended in the complete devastation of this lovely +province. Not far from Tralee they show you the spot where the last +Earl of Desmond was captured and the rough mound a little way from it +that marks his grave: and still when the moaning of wind and wave is +heard over that countryside, they call it the Desmond's keene. + +[Illustration: BRICKEEN BRIDGE, LOWER LAKE, KILLARNEY] + +To escape from all this record of civilized barbarity, the mind gladly +turns back to far older and by far less barbarous days. Brandon +keeps the name of the most picturesque figure in the long roll of +Irish saints--St. Brendan, the Navigator, who was born a little west +of Tralee, at Barra, close to the promontory of Fenit, in or about +the year 484. He was baptized by a bishop named Erc, whose name +still lingers in Termon Eirc, a townland three miles north of +Ardfert: and a well near Ardfert which keeps St. Brendan's name is +still a place of pilgrimage and votive offering, more specially on +the saint's own day. Under Erc's guidance the lad was brought up, +though he got some of his schooling at Killeady, the convent where +St. Ita had established her religious house near Newcastle West in +county Limerick. Later, Erc sent him to travel that he might "see +the lives of some of the holy fathers in Erin"; and he went north to +Connacht where the school of St. Jarlath at Tuam was already famous +(as Archbishop Healy, who sits in St. Jarlath's chair to-day, tells +with natural pride in his book on the _Ancient Schools and Scholars +of Ireland_, which I am pillaging, not for the first time). He went +farther north still in Connacht, and is said to have established a +settlement of Kerrymen in the plains near Castlebar; but he returned +to Kerry to get his priestly orders from the hands of his tutor Erc, +now nearing death. + +"It was probably at this time," says Archbishop Healy, "that St. +Brendan built his oratory on the summit of Brandon hill", and there +was fired with the project of setting sail across the Atlantic in +search of a Promised Land--_Tir-nan-Og_, the Country of the Young. +For there on Brandon top, a man can see--even without the vision of +faith--"over half the south of Ireland, mountain and valley, lake and +stream, plain and town, stretching far away to the east and south. +But the eye ever turns seaward to the grand panorama presented by the +ultimate ocean." Brendan from his watch tower + + "Saw it in all its varying moods--but above all, at even, + when the setting sun went to his caverns below the sea, + and the line of light along the glowing west seemed a road + to the Fortunate Islands where the sorrows of earth never + enter, and peace and beauty for ever dwell. It was a dim + tradition of man's lost paradise, floating down the stream + of time, for with curious unanimity the poets and sages both + of Greece and Rome spoke of these Islands of the Blessed + as located somewhere in the Western Ocean. The same idea + from the earliest times has taken strong hold of the Celtic + imagination, and reveals itself in many strange tales, which + were extremely popular, especially with the peasantry on + the western coast. To this day the existence of Hi Brasail, + an enchanted land of joy and beauty, is very confidently + believed by our western fishermen. It is seen from Aran once + every seven years, as Brendan saw it in olden times, like a + fairy city on the far horizon's verge." + +According to the records, Brendan was not first on this quest. +Barinthus, a neighbouring monk, had fared seaward in search of a +truant brother and had found him in the island called "Delicious", +from which they sailed yet farther west and found other wonders. But +at all events, however moved, Brendan bade his monks to fast with him +forty days, then choosing fourteen of them, he built a great curragh, +with ribs and frame of willow, hide-covered, and so with forty days +of provisions they set out upon the trackless sea, steering for the +"summer solstice". + +Seven years that voyage lasted: they reached island after island in +the Atlantic main, "following God's guidance, fed by his Providence, +and protected by his power". At length, it is said, they reached the +continent of America and found the place where they landed "to be +indeed a delicious country abounding in everything to gratify the +palate and please the eye"; and they were about to push across the +swift, silvery current that had borne them to the verge of this land, +when an angel rose before their path and bid them turn homeward, +instead of resting to enjoy. And so back to Ireland came Brendan the +Navigator, the travelled Ulysses among Irish saints. + +What lies behind all this, who knows exactly? but certainly those +dwellers on the outermost verge of Europe always had vague yet +glorious rumours of a land beyond the sea--a land in truth whose +flotsam and jetsam, strange nuts and weeds, the ocean current casts +from time to time on their shores. And heaven knows, that this +Western people, since Columbus brought promise into fulfilment and +imagining into sure knowledge, have found in the west there a haven, +a refuge from the miseries into which they were born. America has +been a strange and often a sinister realization of the Fortunate +Islands--yet conceive of Ireland's history for the past century +without America to lean on, to look to for help. Its streets have not +been paved with gold, no easily-won sustenance has been there: yet to +the fisher folk and farmers it has offered the fulfilment of desire, +the enlargement of aspiration; and the course that St. Brendan first +charted, though it is more frequented now than could be wished, though +it leads often enough to unhappy wreckage, has yet been to Ireland a +blessed road. + +[Illustration: HOLY ISLAND, LOUGH DERG] + +No man who visits this Atlantic seaboard of Ireland but must feel +something of what Archbishop Healy's eloquence hints at--the sense +of an open gateway beyond the sun-track through which imagination +is beckoned towards its own goal. There is a soothing and restful +influence from those vast spaces of the west. And even landward +it follows you. We crossed the neck of the Dingle Peninsula to +the pretty and prosperous town of Tralee, and all eastern Kerry +merging into Limerick stretched away to right of us, a wide rolling +expanse of land well divided into fields for tillage. Our course lay +still on north-east to Listowel, crossing the tract of land which +divides Tralee Bay from the Shannon's broad estuary; all about us, +the country was spacious, yet well inhabited, set thick with trim +little farmhouses: there was much traffic on the roads, of horse and +man--and of asses: I saw there what is not common, two donkeys +driven abreast in a little cart, stepping very smart down a long hill. +There was plenty of room for the people, yet the people were there--on +the land, living by the land, with the large air of the Atlantic +blowing in across them. Next day, since the trains were not running, +we had to proceed by motor to Limerick, and we simply ran north to +the Shannon shore at Tarbert and followed the river to Limerick for +a matter of forty miles, stretch by stretch, a broad sea lane for +vessels, but alas! no vessels there: hardly a sail on the waters; +though battleships can lie at Foynes, thirty miles in from Loop Head. + +There is much to pause over on that route: Glin, where the hereditary +Knights of Glin, an offshoot of the Desmond Geraldines, have +maintained themselves, for a matter of seven centuries, even through +the "pacifications" of Elizabeth's reign: Askeaton, many miles farther +on, a chief seat of the main Desmond line, and in Ireland--so rich +in ruins, so poor in buildings that have escaped destruction--there +are few finer ruins than the Desmond Castle here, and the Franciscan +Abbey. Still nearer Limerick, at Carrigagunnel, you see the landmark +of another power, for this castle was built by the O'Briens of Thomond +and it stood over against Bunratty on the Clare bank, another great +fortress.--Yet a mere catalogue is without interest, and here is +no space to trace the interlocking fortunes and conflicts of Norman +noble, Irish chief, and Cromwellian soldier. + +Let me concentrate on one spot, one group of memories. Above the +little town of Foynes is a small house on a hill, now beautifully +surrounded by plantations of shrubs and flowers; it was the home of +a lady known to the Irish people at home and abroad, for her work +in improving the lot of steerage passengers on emigrant ships, and +also for her writings in prose and verse; yet known better as the +true child of a notable father, William Smith O'Brien, Protestant, +landlord, aristocrat, rebel, and felon by the law. She was one who +felt and loved the beauty of Ireland--not only what one may call the +scenic beauty of such places as Killarney, but the essential spacious +beauty of those fertile valleys, those wide skies. + + "Men come and go by this great river," she wrote, "and the + revelation of its beauty is not made to them fully, often + not at all; but let one live by it and it is the most + beautiful place in the whole world.... But to-night it was + no hidden beauty. I went down by the river in the evening. + It was full, the tide just past the turn, and sweeping down + the great mass of water at an extraordinary pace, and yet, + though the whole river was swinging along at many miles + an hour, the surface was a marvellous mirror. The glowing + masses of furze on the island, a quarter-mile away, were so + near and distinct in the wave, one could almost stretch out + a hand to gather them. Every cloud and every shade of light + and colour in the sky was again in the river, but far more + intense. At my feet and twenty yards down and across the + channel was a dense black cloud reflected, its crenellated + edge cut sharp against the reflection of silver, blue, + grey, and intense white light stretching far away westward. + I stood, as the old books used to say, 'entranced', and + still the river swept down, and still the furze and the + wonderful green and the dark cloud-bar were, as it were, + under my hand, and the glorious 'gates of the Shannon', as + the Elizabethans called this Foynes, were opened to heaven's + light beyond my touch." + +From the road just beyond Foynes towards Limerick, you shall see a +round hill topped by a ruin and the tokens of a graveyard. There in +the high windy burial-place of her choice she lies, this lover of +Ireland and of the Shannon, Charlotte Grace O'Brien. And for the last +word in this little book, I, her near kinsman, whose main ties are +with other provinces, shall set down another passage of her writings, +which is curiously revealing of Munster. For behind Knockpatrick you +may see a few miles farther off another low hill which is topped +by a well-marked mound, and on the mound a great mass of shattered +masonry stands, "like a black clenched fist thrust against the western +heavens". That is Shanid, the original stronghold of the southern +Geraldines: "Shanid aboo", was their war-cry. + +To this place Charlotte O'Brien, who loved flowers hardly less even +than other live things, came to look for a reported rare plant--"The +Virgin Mary's Thistle", "so-called because the leaves are all blotched +and marbled with white stains, and legend made it a sacred plant +bearing for ever stains of the Blessed Virgin's milk". + + "Sure enough," she wrote, "I found a mass of it growing + together only on the southern exposure under the great + wall. Now this plant is said to exist only as an introduced + species in the British Isles. To account for it, therefore, + on this utterly lonely and desolate hilltop, we must look + back through the centuries and see the sacred plant in + the monastery garden at Askeaton--the first Geraldine + home in Desmond. We must think how the seed may--in fact, + must--have been carried up to this watch tower, perhaps + by some long-haired daughter of the Geraldines, sent for + safety to the mountain fortress. We must imagine how its + frail growth (only annual) took hold on the sheltered side; + we must see generation after generation of men swept away, + the monastery torn down and desecrated, the name of Desmond + almost forgotten, the great Geraldine race broken and + destroyed: we must see the almost impregnable castle blown + to pieces and left as a trampling ground for summer-heated + cattle; more wonderful than all, we must realize that + time has so gone, that no record is left us of that great + downfall and destruction--nothing--nothing but a few pieces + of nine-foot-thick wall, a few earth mounds, and the sacred + plant. Irishmen! What national history lies in one seed of + that plant!" + +True enough! And true it is that to feel the real beauty of Ireland, +her mountains and valleys, her fields and waters, you must see them in +the light of the past as well as the present, informed by knowledge +and by love. + + +PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN +_At the Villafield Press, Glasgow, Scotland_ + + + + +Transcriber's Notes + +Minor punctuation errors were silently corrected. Illustrations were +moved to paragraph breaks. + +Page 24: Changed Roscarberry to Roscarbery. + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Munster, by Stephen Lucius Gwynn + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44046 *** |