WANDERINGS
IN
IRELAND

BY

MICHAEL MYERS SHOEMAKER

Author of "Islands of the Southern Seas,"
"Winged Wheels in France," etc.

Illustrated

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G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS

NEW YORK AND LONDON

The Knickerbocker Press

1908

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Copyright, 1908

BY

MICHAEL MYERS SHOEMAKER

The Knickerbocker Press, New York

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TO MY AUNT

ANNA L. SHOEMAKER

THESE NOTES ARE AFFECTIONATELY
DEDICATED

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PREFACE

Are you minded for a jaunt through the island of Erin where tears and smiles are near related and sobs and laughter go hand in hand? We will walk, and will take it in donkey-cart and jaunting-car—by train and in motor-cars—and if you suit yourself you will suit me.

Leaving Dublin we will circle northward, with a visit to Tanderagee Castle and the tomb of St. Patrick—God bless him,—then on past the Causeway and down to Derry, and so into the County of Mayo, where in the midst of a fair you will encounter the wildest "Konfusion" and will be introduced to the gentleman who pays the rent.

In the silence and solitudes of the island of Achill you will see tears and hear sobs as you listen to the keening for the dead. Near the island of Clare, Queen Grace O'Malley will almost order you away, as she did her husband, and your motor with all its wings out will roll through the grand scenery of the western coast—now down by the ocean and then far up amidst the sombre mountains—Kylemore Castle and quaint Galway, Leap Castle—ghost-haunted—and moated Ffranckfort, Holy Cross and the Rock of Cashel—will pass in stately array and be succeeded by a glimpse of army life at Buttevant, and a dinner at Doneraile Court, where you will hear of the only woman Free Mason. Killarney will follow with its music and legends, and Cork and Fermoy, and so on and into the County of Wexford, where you will rush through the lanes and byways and will scare many old ladies—driving as many donkeys—almost into Kingdom Come. You will be welcomed at Bannow House and entertained in that quaintest of all earthly dwellings, "Tintern Abbey," which was a ruin when the family moved into it more than three centuries ago. You will visit the buried city of Bannow and pass on to where Moore watched the "Meeting of the Waters." You will visit in stately mansions, and go with a wild rush to the races at the Curragh. At Jigginstown House you will be reminded of the cowardice of a king, and as you bid farewell to Ireland you will lay a wreath on the grave of Daniel O'Connell,—all this and much more if you are so minded.

M. M. S.   

   Union Club, New York, January 1, 1908.

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CONTENTS

align="right" valign="bottom">94 CHAPTER VIII

The Rock of Cashel. Its Cathedral, Palace, and Round Tower—Its History and Legends. Kilmalloch, its Ruins and History. The Desmonds. Horse Fair at Buttevant.

119 CHAPTER IX

Buttevant Barracks. Army Life. Mess-room Talk. Condition of the Barracks. Balleybeg Abbey. Old Church. Native Wedding. Kilcoman Castle, Spenser's Home. Doneraile Court. Mrs. Aldworth, the only Woman Freemason. Irish Wit. Regimental Plate. Departure from the Barracks.

132 CHAPTER X

Route to Killarney. Country Estates. Singular Customs. Picturesque Squalor. Peace of the Lakes. Innisfallen. The Legend of "Abbot Augustine." His Grave. "Dennis," the "Buttons," and his Family Affairs. Motors in the Gap of Dunloe.

161 CHAPTER XI

Kenmare and Herbert Demesnes. Old Woman at the Gates. Route to Glengariff. Bantry Bay. Boggeragh Mountains. Duishane Castle. The Carrig-a-pooka and its Legend. Macroom Castle and William Penn. Cork. Imperial Hotel. "Ticklesome" Car Boy. The Races and my Brown Hat. Route to Fermoy. Breakdown. Clonmel and its "Royal Irish." Ride to Waterford.

170 CHAPTER XII

Ancient Waterford. History. Reginald's Tower. Franciscan Friary. Dunbrody Abbey. New Ross. Bannow House. Its "Grey Lady." Legend of the Wood Pigeon. Ancient Garden. Buried City of Bannow. Dancing on the Tombs. Donkeys and Old Women. Tintern Abbey and its Occupants. Quaint Rooms and Quainter Stories. Its History and Legends. The Dead man on the Dinner Table. The Secret of the Walls. The Illuminated Parchment. The Sealed Library. Ruined Chapel. King Charles's Clothes. Is History False or True?

181 CHAPTER XIII

Return to Ireland. Illness. Conditions on the Great Liners. The Quay at Cork "of a Saturday Evening." En route once more. The Old Lady and the Donkey. Barracks at Fermoy. Killshening House, Abandoned Seat of the Roche Family. Fethard. Quaint Customs. The Man in the Coffin. "Curraghmore House" and its Great Kennels. Its Legends, Ghosts, and History. Lady Waterford. Oliver Cromwell at the Castle. The Marquis in the Dungeon.

209 CHAPTER XIV

Departure from Fethard. A Dead Horse and a Lawsuit. Approach to Dublin. Estate of Kilruddery. The Swan as a Fighter. Glendalough, its Ruins and History. Tom Moore and his Tree in Ovoca. Advantages of Motor Travel. Superstition of the Magpie. A Boy, a Cart, and a Black Sheep. The Goose and the Motor.

225 CHAPTER XV

The Lunatic. Insanity and its Causes in Ireland. The Usual Old Lady and Donkey. Sunshine and Shadow. Clonmines and its Seven Churches. The Crosses around the Holy Tree. Baginbun and the Landing of the English. The Bull of Pope Adrian. Letter of Pope Alexander. Protest of the Irish Princes. Legends. Death of Henry II.

243 CHAPTER XVI

Wild Times in Ireland. Landlord and Tenant. Evictions. Boycott at Bannow House. The Parson and the Legacy. The Priest and the Whipping. Burial in Cement. Departure from Bannow House. Kilkenny and her Cats. The Mountains of Wicklow. Powerscourt and a Week-End. Run to Dublin and an Encounter by the Way. The Irish Constabulary. Motor Runs in the Mountains. Lord H——.

260 CHAPTER XVII

Dublin. Derby Day and the Rush to the Curragh. An Irish Crowd. The Kildare Street Club and Club Life. Jigginstown House and its History. The Cowardice of a King. The Old Woman on the Tram Car. Parnell. The Grave of Daniel O'Connell.

276

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ILLUSTRATIONS

tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a">Frontispiece   From the original painting by T. Buchanan Read, in the possession of the author   Statue of St. Patrick on the Hill of Tara 4 Castle of King John at Trim 8 Monument on the Battle-field of the Boyne 12 Tanderagee Castle, Irish Seat of the Duke of Manchester 16 Chapel, Tanderagee Castle 20 Drawing-room, Tanderagee Castle 24 Terrace, Tanderagee Castle 28 Tomb of St. Patrick at Downpatrick 32 A Cabin in the North 36 A Woman of the North 40 Mantua House, Roscommon 44 Ballina, a Typical Irish Town 48 A Glimpse of Achill 52 Slievemore Mountain, and Dugort, Achill 56 Fisherfolk of Achill 60 A Lonely Road in Connemara 64 Kylemore Castle, Connemara 68 Crazy Biddy 72 The Lynch House, Galway 76 Abbey of St. Dominick, Lorrha, Ancient Burial-place of the Carrolls 80 Leap Castle, Court Side 84 Leap Castle, Park Side 88 Moat of Ffranckfort Castle 92 Ffranckfort Castle 96 Clonmacnoise 100 Abbey of the Holy Cross 104 Rock of Cashel 108 Cormac's Chapel, Cashel 112

class="smcap">Cross of Cashel, and Throne of the Kings
of Munster 116 Ancient Gateway, Kilmalloch 120 Dominican Abbey, Kilmalloch 124 Buttevant Barracks 128 Dinner, Buttevant Barracks 132 Buttevant, County Cork 136 Kilcoman Castle, Spenser's Home 140 Doneraile Court, County Cork 144 Room in Doneraile Court where Mrs. Aldworth
Hid 148 The Hon. Mrs. Aldworth, the only Woman
Freemason 152 The Lake, Doneraile Park 156 Mallow Castle, County Cork 160 Irish Cottage, County Kerry 164 Chapel of St. Finian the Leper, Innisfallen 168 Tree over the Abbot's Grave, Innisfallen 172 Upper Lake, Killarney 176 "Dinnis," Hotel Victoria 180 The Route to Glengariff 184 Carrig-a-pooka Castle 188 Macroom Castle 192 Reginald's Tower, Waterford 196 Franciscan Friary, Waterford 200 Dunbrody Abbey, County Wexford 204 Bannow House, County Wexford 208 Terrace, Bannow House, County Wexford 212 Corner of the Rose Garden, Bannow House,
County Wexford 216 Bannow Church, County Wexford 220 Tombs in Bannow Church 224 Tintern Abbey, County Wexford

href="@public@vhost@g@gutenberg@html@files@44066@[email protected]#Page_228a" class="pginternal" tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a">228 Kilkenny Castle 232 Deserted Killshening House, Fermoy 236 Curraghmore House, Marquis of Waterford 240 Hallway, Curraghmore House 244 Dining-room, Curraghmore House 248 Kilruddery House, Earl of Meath 252 Glendalough 256 Tom Moore's Tree, Vale of Ovoca 260 One of the Seven Churches, Clonmines 264 Funeral Crosses by the Wayside, County
Wexford 268 Powerscourt House 272 Great Salon, Powerscourt House 276 Ruins of Jigginstown House, Earl of Strafford 280 Parnell's Grave, Glasnevin Cemetery,
Dublin 284 Daniel O'Connell's Monument, Glasnevin
Cemetery, Dublin 288

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WANDERINGS IN IRELAND

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CHAPTER I

Welcome to Ireland—Quaint People of Dublin—Packing the Motor and Departure—Tara Hill; its History and Legends—Ruins at Trim—Tombs of the Druids—Battle-field of the Boyne.

"Glory be to God, but yer honour is welcome to Ireland."

An old traveller understands that it is the unexpected which makes the joy of his days. I had come to Europe with the intention of spending some conventional weeks in London, followed by an auto tour with the family through the fair land of France. Fate brings me, upon my first day in town, to Prince's Restaurant, when out of the chaos of faces before me rises one whose owner, a son of Erin whom I had last seen under the cherry blossoms of Japan, advances upon me. Then the conventional promptly drops off and away, and it is but a short while before a motor tour is arranged in the Emerald Isle, a month to be passed amidst its beauties and miseries, its mirth and its sadness, for all go in one grand company in the land of St. Patrick.

With Boyse of Bannow I shall follow the fancy of the moment, which to my thinking is the only true mode of travel.

"Du Cros" has agreed to furnish a perfectly new Panhard for and upon the same terms which I received in France last year, viz., thirty pounds sterling per week, and everything found except the board and lodging of the chauffeur. These very necessary details arranged we are impatient to be off and leave London on a hot day in June. The smells, dirt, and dust of her wooden streets, driven in clouds over all the grand old city, follow us far out into the green meadows of England until we ask whether the hawthorn blossoms have ever held any fragrance, and have we not been mistaken as to roses. But London is not all of England, and we are finally well beyond her influence and wondering why we remained within her limits with the beautiful country so near at hand. The meadows of England giving way to the mountains of Wales, one catches a glimpse of the stately towers of Conway Castle, and then sails outward and westward upon a level sea, which, on its farther side, holds the haven of desire, Dublin, on the broad waters of the Liffey.

Ireland welcomes us, weeping softly the while, though smiling ever and anon as the sunlight rifts downward from the west. The gang-plank is slippery and the pavements mucky, but our welcome is a warm one, at least one fat, comfortable looking old woman with a shawl over her head, a gown whose colour I cannot attempt to give, and shoes which have evidently been discarded by her "auld man," greets me with a "Glory be to God, but yer honour is welcome to Ireland!" and then catching sight of my Jap servant, she gives utterance to a very audible aside, "Be the powers of the divil, phat's that he has wid him!" crossing herself vehemently the while, firmly convinced, I doubt not, that she has seen a limb of Satan, which I think he strongly resembles.

The Shelburn Hotel receives us within its walls, unchanged in the thirty years which have elapsed since I last crossed the threshold, a comfortable inn, pleasantly situated upon College Green, where a

band of Irish musicians are discoursing American ballads of the early sixties.

One runs into the tide of American tourists here in Dublin, and to-night this hotel is crowded with them. The clatter of tongues proving too much for me, I dine and start to bed as soon as possible—a good book and an easy resting-place are attractive after the long ride from London.

In the hallway I encounter the porter trying to induce an old gentleman to go to bed. Said gentleman is drunk as a gentleman should be, and sound asleep in his chair, holding fast to a glass of whiskey and soda, from which no efforts of the porter can part him.

"What's the number of your room, sir?"

The sleeping eyes half open as the happy man murmurs, "Wasn't you tryin' to stale my whiskey just now?"

"Well, I thought, sir, ye would be more comfortable in yer room."

"Let slapin' dogs lie, me boy. But 'twas in a good cause ye did it, and so I'll go," and he staggers off to the lift, sleeps on my shoulders until I get out, and probably on the bench for the rest of the night, as that small lift boy could never move that bulk, redolent of whiskey and good humour.

So far I have heard nothing from Boyse, who was to have rejoined me here, and, when ten o'clock comes round, give him up for the night, and putting out the light am shortly in the land of dreams, only to be awakened by a clatter on the door followed by the entrance of the missing man. He has put up at the Club, having reached here ahead of me. Our car he reports ready for us at nine to-morrow morning, and I shortly drive him out as it has gotten late.

One must be of a sour disposition if one does not laugh in Ireland, and be assured her people will always laugh with one, though at times there sounds a catch of a sob running through it all. Seat yourself on any spot in the island, and something funny is apt, nay almost sure, to occur before you depart; all of which is apparently arranged for your especial benefit.

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