St. Anne Shandon Church is at the foot of Church Street, off Shandon Street, at the north side of the city; it was built in 1722, and is remarkable for its extraordinary tower, one hundred and twenty feet high, surmounted by a graduated turret of three stories, faced on two sides with red stone, and on the others with limestone.
"Party-colored, like the people,
Red and white stands Shandon steeple."
It contains a peal of bells, immortalized by "Father Prout" in the famous lyric:
"... The Bells of Shandon
That sound so grand on
The pleasant waters
Of the River Lee."
They bear the inscription: "We were all cast at Gloucester, in England.—Abel Rudhall, 1750." "Father Prout" is buried in the church-yard of Shandon. Shandon derives its name from Seandun (old fort); the name was given to the church of St. Mary, from its near neighborhood to Shandon Castle, an old seat of the Barrys.
On the way down to Queenstown we passed Passage West, a pretty village embosomed in woods, and a considerable place of call, both for travelers and others bound up and down the river. "Father Prout" has sung its praises:
"The town of Passage is both large and spacious,
And situated upon the say;
'Tis nate and dacent, and quite adjacent
To come from Cork on a summer's day.
"There you may slip in and take a dippin'
Forenent the shippin' that at anchor ride;
Or in a wherry cross o'er the ferry
To Carrigaloe, on the other side."
