Less than half an hour after leaving Tara, we arrived at Maynooth, which is located just 12 miles west of Dublin. Maynooth is celebrated as the seat of Maynooth College, the chief Roman Catholic educational center in modern Ireland. A College was established in Maynooth as early as 1513, but the present institution dates back only to 1795. At that time it was re-organized and established with Government grants.
Three-fourths of the priests in Ireland have been educated here, and the standard of the college is high amongst the Catholic institutions of Europe. About 150 complete their education every year, and take their place as the spiritual leaders of the Catholic population of the Island. Until the establishment of Maynooth College, the Irish priests were educated generally in France. Maynooth is noted amongst all classes in Ireland as a center for temperance reform, and it is claimed that fully three-fourths of the priests from Maynooth are pledged abstainers, and ardent temperance workers. The College has a large, spacious campus, and adequate buildings, and has an attendance of about 500 students.
The massive ruins of Maynooth Castle stand at the gateway of the College. There is another interesting ruin in the vicinity, the Round Tower, of Taghadoc, one of the largest of these Irish Round Towers. It stands a few miles south of Maynooth.
We circled twice over the College, and were greeted with cheers by a company of the students who were walking on the campus.
“Now for Dublin,” said Mike, as he turned the aeroplane east.
“Mike,” I said, “do you know why every Irishman ought to be rich?”
“No,” he answered, “I never knew that was one of the duties of an Irishman.”
“Yes,” I went on, “every Irishman ought to be rich because the capital of the country has been “dublin” every year for centuries.”
“That’s a capital joke,” said Mike laughing.
As we were leaving Maynooth, I could see from my lofty seat the famous Carton House. In this lordly mansion lives one of the most favored of Irishmen, the Duke of Leinster. He has a whole bushel of titles, is worth millions of money and has the blood of a hundred Dukes and Earls in his veins. In spite of all this, he is not very robust in physical health, and it is said he has symptoms of tuberculosis. He is young and unmarried. He has several palatial residences, but Carton House is his favorite. It stands in a Park, enclosed by an eight mile 10 foot wall, and in the Park are over thirty miles of macadamized driveways. His garden covers sixty acres. Queen Victoria was once the guest of this splendid home, which is a royal palace itself.