Galway and District.
Leaving the County Clare by rail we cross into Galway, between Crusheen and Tubber. Beyond the marshy country on the right, away in the woodlands, nestles Loughcootra Castle. The great lake from which the place takes its name covers eight square miles. The hundreds of islets here scattered about its surface are the homes of thousands of herons. The country people have a belief that this bird is a messenger of good omen, and never interfere with it or its young. There is a beautiful legend in Irish of a heron which visited St. Columba, at Iona, a traveller from his own country. This story is recorded in the interesting life of the saint written in the seventh century by Adamnan, one of his successors; a beautiful version in English tells of the saint rising at dawn of day after a dream of the coming of the bird:—
"He looked out over the dreary moor,
Over the hill so bleak and hoar—
'A bird from the land I revisit no more
Has come to visit me,
Dear Innisfail from thy fragrant shore—
Land of my own I shall see no more—
Across the driving sea.'
Then he left his prayer, and 'Brother,' he said,
'Take to thee corn, and oil, and bread,
A bird has alit—half frozen, half dead—
Upon our southern strand.
Then warm him and feed him with gentle care,
And chafe his wing's and anoint him there,
He comes from my own loved land—
From my own loved land,' and the old Saint wept;
But the Monk arose, while the others slept,
And warmed the heron, and fed and kept
The bird for a day and night.
So Columb feeling, though far away,
For Ireland's soil—like the Gael to-day—
One favour in heaven's sight."
The magnificent residence was designed and erected similarly to East Comer Castle (by Nash, who remodelled Windsor) for Lord Gort, the head of the Vereker family, at a cost of £70,000. The black hand of the famine of 1847 fed on this property, like many another in Ireland, and it passed from its owners under the Encumbered Estates Act. Cove Park, the residence of Lady Gregory, is just outside Gort. Her Ladyship has found a way to the hearts of the country people by her sympathy with the Irish language movement. Her volume, "Mr. Gregory's Letter Box," is a valuable contribution to the history of Ireland in the first three decades of the nineteenth century. Sir William Gregory's Memoirs it is that contain the circumstantial version of the Cabinet scandal, in which the name of the Hon. Mrs. Norton (George Meredith's "Diana of the Crossways") figures. The story of the leakage of the State secret is as follows:—
"When Sir Robert Peel determined to repeal the Corn Laws he consulted a portion of his Cabinet. They were Sidney Herbert, Lord Lincoln, Sir Jas. Graham, and Lord Aberdeen, all of whom determined that the repeal of the Corn Laws should be kept a profound secret until the whole of the Cabinet had assembled. That same evening Sidney Herbert dined tête-à-tête with Mrs. Norton, the well-known object of his attachment, and with whom he was infatuated. Before dinner was over she wormed out of him the secret of the Cabinet. After dinner she pretended to go to see a sick friend for a short time, and returned in half-an-hour. In the meantime she had taken a cab and driven down to the Times Office, and saw Barnes, the Editor, and told him the Government were going to repeal the Corn Laws. Barnes said to her, "If you have no proof I shall not detain you, but if you have you shall have £500." She gave him the chapter and verse, and returned to poor Sidney Herbert with the cheque in her pocket. The next day the announcement was made in the Times which astounded all England. This was on the 5th December, 1845. The other papers disbelieved it. Lord Derby and the Duke of Richmond left the Government."
In the heart of a stony country beset with high fences and rough copple stones, stands the little town of Gort, The military stationed there now add to its importance. Kilmacduagh, at the base of the Burren Hills, contains a church (seventh century) of St. Colman, the Blue-eyed, and a Round Tower leaning out of the perpendicular. In pre-historic times all this country side at the foot of Burren, from Gort to Loughrea, and for miles apart, is said to have been the favourite hunting-ground of Queen Maev. Kinvara, away on an inlet of Galway Bay, is a fishing village, and the locality is celebrated for the "succulent oysters"—which in the season are to be found in every restaurant in Dublin. The antiquary will find his way easily to Corcomroe Abbey—the church is still in a good state of preservation. Donald More O'Brien, King of Limerick, is commonly believed to have built it in the twelfth century. It subsequently became subject to Furness, in Lancashire. Donough O'Brien, King of Thomond—killed in battle in 1267—is buried here; his monument discloses the rude magnificence of his attire. The effigy is looked upon by scientists as an example of the attire of an Irish King of the thirteenth century.
Athenry, as its name, the "Ford of the Kings," signifies, and its ruins testify, was of old a place of renown. The tower is entered by a small gate tower; before it stands the quaint market cross, on one side is the Virgin and Child, on the other the figure of the Crucified. The base is relieved with deer and wolf hounds, and at the corner an angel holds a scroll, the legend of which is defaced. The Franciscan Priory (1464), despite the attempt to modernise it, has still two thirteenth century windows, and the south transept has the remains of a very beautiful window. The Dominican Priory is said to have been erected at the personal request of St. Dominick in 1241. So late as 1644 it was the seat of a university acknowledged by Rome.
Tuam is now of little importance. It is to ecclesiastics, however, of interest, as the centre of an Archiepiscopal See. The statue to John MacHale is worth seeing. He was well known in the first part of the nineteenth century as "John of Tuam." An uncompromising Ultramontane, he translated Homer into Gaelic, and O'Connell in one of his speeches called this great patriot bishop "The Lion of the Fold of Judah." The ancient cross in the square is a good specimen of the Irish stone crosses.