On an Irish Jaunting-Car Through Donegal and Connemara

by Samuel G. Bayne

"Oh, the horse is not 'in it' any longer in America; the automobile is king."

"Ach! the divil burn the oightymoobiles annyhow; no dacent man will roide in wan av 'em if he can get a sate behind a harse," was his prompt reply.

Young well-matched carriage pairs brought one hundred and fifty guineas readily, during the afternoon. "Why don't you ship some of these teams to America? You could get three thousand dollars for them in New York," was a question I put to another dealer.

"I know it, sir, but the risk and expense are too big; 'twould break me up in the long run." And I suppose he was right.

After saying so much about the horse-fair, perhaps it might be as well to say something about Limerick itself. Limerick has had quite a past, and there has been "a hot time in the old town" about as often as in any other city that can be pointed out. It is situated in a broad plain, watered by the Shannon, and backed up in the distance by the hills of Clare and Killaloe. The river, which soon becomes an estuary, rolls in a magnificent and broad stream through the heart of the town, and sends off a considerable branch called the Abbey River. This branch, rejoining the Shannon farther north, encloses what is known as the King's Island, on the southern portion of which is built the English Town, united to the mainland by three bridges, and containing the most ancient buildings. In contradistinction is the Irish Town, which lies to the south of it and more in the direction of the railway station. These two districts comprised the fortified old town. Up to Edward II.'s time only the English Town had been defended by walls and towers, but these were subsequently extended so as to include Irish Town, which was entered by St. John's Gate. The eastern portion of the walls, in parts forty feet high, is still fairly preserved.

Newtown Pery, the district between this and the river, was then bare, but having come into the possession of the Pery family (Earls of Limerick), it was specially built upon, and is now equal to any city in Ireland for the breadth and cleanliness of its streets. Of these the principal is George's Street, a handsome thoroughfare of nearly a mile in length, giving off others on each side at right angles, with a statue of O'Connell, by Hogan, erected in 1857, at the south end of it in Richmond Place. There is also, to the north, a monument to the memory of Lord Monteagle.

The name "Limerick" is derived from the Irish Luimneach, the name of a portion of the Shannon, by the corruption of n to r. Like most of the Irish seaports, it was founded in the ninth century by the Danes, who were subdued by Brian Boru when he assumed the sovereignty over Munster, and Limerick thus became the royal city of the Munster kings. After passing through the usual stages of intestine native war, its next important epoch was marked by the erection of a strong fortress by King John, who committed the care of it to the charge of William de Burgh. Bruce took it in 1316, and remained there for some months. From that time, with a few intervals of check, it steadily gained in importance until the reign of Elizabeth, when it was made the centre of civil and military administration. In 1641 it held out for some time against the Irish, but was taken by them. It was defended in 1651 by Hugh O'Neill against Ireton, during a six months' siege. Here, next year, Ireton died of the plague.

But the great episode in the history of Limerick took place during the wars of William and James, when the events occurred which fastened on it the name of the "City of the Violated Treaty." After the fall of Athlone and Galway, Tyrconnell, the Lord Lieutenant, still held Limerick as the last stronghold that King James possessed, the city having been previously unsuccessfully assaulted by the English under William at the head of about twenty-six thousand men in 1690. Lauzun, the French general, said "it could be taken with roasted apples," and leaving it to its fate, went to Galway and embarked for France. William's army was wanting in artillery, and he awaited the arrival of a heavy siege-train from Dublin. The convoy was arrested by Sarsfieid, who started at night with six hundred horsemen on the Clare side and crossed the Shannon at Killaloe. The next night he fell on them and took possession of the train. He filled the cannon with powder, buried their mouths in the earth, and, firing the whole, utterly destroyed them. More cannon arrived from Waterford, and William pressed forward the siege. On the 27th of August, a breach having been effected, a terrific assault was made, lasting four hours, in which the women of Limerick were conspicuous in the defence; the besiegers were repulsed, losing about two thousand men. In consequence of the swampy nature of the ground and the advanced season, William raised the siege. A fit of apoplexy carried off Tyrconnell, when the government, both civil and military, fell into the hands of D'Usson and Sarsfield. Ginkell, the commander of the English army, endeavored to take the town by an attack on the fort which overlooked and protected the Thomond Bridge. This attack is described in graphic and spirited language by Lord Macaulay, and I cannot do better than give the account of it in his own words:

"In a short time the fort was stormed. The soldiers who had garrisoned it fled in confusion to the city. The Town Major, a French officer, who commanded at the Thomond Gate, afraid that the pursuers would enter with the fugitives, ordered that part of the bridge which was nearest to the city to be drawn up. Many of the Irish went headlong into the stream and perished there. Others cried for quarter, and held up their handkerchiefs in token of submission. But the conquerors were mad with rage; their cruelty could not be immediately restrained, and no prisoners were made till the heads of corpses rose above the parapet. The garrison of the fort had consisted of about eight hundred men; of these only one hundred and twenty escaped into Limerick."