WANDERINGS
IN
IRELAND

BY

MICHAEL MYERS SHOEMAKER

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

Illustrated

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS

NEW YORK AND LONDON

The Knickerbocker Press

1908

Copyright, 1908

BY

MICHAEL MYERS SHOEMAKER

The Knickerbocker Press, New York

TO MY AUNT

ANNA L. SHOEMAKER

THESE NOTES ARE AFFECTIONATELY
DEDICATED

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.

CONTENTS