I have been going against the stream on my travels. I am reminded,
incessantly that I should have begun at Dublin. Going backward, as I am
doing, the orthodox route is to Leenane, passing Erriff and the Devil's
Mother, but the regular cars were not yet running, I was told, nor were
they likely to run this summer, as, owing to the exaggerated reports of
outrage, tourists are not expected in any numbers. Was persuaded to take
a special car to go by Leenane round the coast. Would have liked to do
so, but not to bear all the expense myself. The further west the more
expensive the car, I find. Instead, I returned to Castlebar, and on to
Balla. Balla is the small town where the Land League was born.
In the compartment to which I was consigned there were some gentlemen,
for gentlemen and ladies of very great apparent respectability do travel
in the cars devoted to the humbler people; there were also some
respectable looking laborers who were going over to England to look for
work. A discussion arose in our compartment as to what constituted
politeness. One gentleman defined it as ceremonious manners, the result
of early training; while another objected that that was only the veneer
of manners, as all true politeness arose from the heart. I listened
awhile and then spoke across the seat to a decent, dejected looking man
with a little bundle beside him tied up in a blue and white check
handkerchief. "Yes, he was going to England to look for work; many had
to go for the work was not to be had at home." "The rents were so high,
and the taxes, what with one thing and another, there was a new cut
always coming heavier than the last." "The people are being crushed out
of the country very fast, and that was God's truth." "And you are from
America? It is a fine country they say. I would be there long ago but
for the heavy care I have here that I can neither take with me nor leave
behind." "Yes, I go over to England every year. For a good many years
past I have always worked for the same man, ever since I went there
first." "It grows harder to live in Ireland every year."
I told this man amid the craned necks and open mouths of his companions,
some of the advantages of Canada as a home. I do not know why it is that
the people know so little of Canada. I was listened to with exclamations
of "Well, well!" "Boys a boys!" "Dear O dear!" "Hear that, now! A man
might live there!"
Getting at last across the Mayo plains to Claremorris, I parted from my
acquaintances with many a "God bless you," while many hands lifted out
my travelling bags. At Claremorris a car man asked if I was a pilgrim
for Knock which was the first intimation that I had that I was in the
vicinity of Knock. Hired this car man, who was also owner of the car, to
drive me there. I have always heard that those born on Christmas Day are
privileged to see apparitions. I have not yet come into that part of my
inheritance, but do not know how soon I may.
On the way, which led through a well-cultivated, fertile country, waving
with trees, and showing glimpses of great houses peeping out among them,
the driver asked me if I had ever heard of Captain Boycott. I said there
were few who had not. "He used to live in that house up there; he was
agent in this part of the country, but he left us, thank God." "What
made people dislike him so?" "Because he was the height of a great
tyrant." "Come now, what did he do?" "Everything he could do to oppress
the creatures who were in his power. I have known a man come home to his
little family with three shillings for his week's wages, all the rest
scratched off him in fines. If you have a family yourself you will
understand what their living would be when they paid the rent of the
cabin. A man dazed with hunger would not have all his wits about him and
there would be more fines. In that way the mane hound got his work done
for half price, and ground the life out of the people. There was no word
of an emergency man to pity or help them. God help us; how true it is
that the help does not go where the want is."
We got to Knock, a country church in a country place. Alighted, and
while the carman tied his horse I looked round me. There was an
enclosure round the chapel. At one side was a row of wooden booths,
where relics, beads and trinkets were sold. On the other side of the
enclosure was a school for girls. It was at the end of the church where
the apparition is said to have appeared that we entered. All the plaster
on this end was removed by devotees. In the spot where the apparition
was said to have been seen, there was a life-size statue of the Virgin
in plaster. All over the gable were strips of wood cleated on, behind
which were ranged walking-sticks and crutches in regular order till the
whole gable was covered. There was a long frame-work of wood about
twelve feet long and three broad, also filled with crutches and walking-
sticks.
As I stood looking, the car man came in after tying his horse, and knelt
down on the damp earth before the Virgin's shrine and repeated a prayer.
He was not ashamed to practice what he believed before the world and in
the sight of the sun. When his prayer was over he joined me, and drew my
attention to the number of crutches and sticks left behind by those who
were benefited. I pointed out to him a very handsome black-thorn stick
among the votive offerings, and asked him would it be a sin to steal it,
as black-thorns were in demand over the water. He told me if I did that
whatever disease was laid down there by the owner of the stick would
cleave to me. I thought of Gehazi and restrained my hands from stealing
the black-thorn. There is one nice characteristic of a genuine Irishman,
he can take a joke.
There were many masons working at an enlargement of the church. We went
in. It had an earthen floor, and there were many people kneeling on it
at their prayers. Some were silently making the stations of the cross,
others, a large number, were reciting the rosary aloud under the
leadership of a young woman, who repeated one part, when they all
answered in concert. The windows were darkened by the scaffolding and
building outside, and as I sat there seeing and hearing, looking toward
the altar, in the shadow of a pillar I saw a hand steal out. I own I was
startled; but when my eyes got accustomed to the gloom, I saw it was a
man at the top of a ladder quietly painting away as if the church were
empty.
After a while I came out and went over to the school. There were 78
children present, all girls, all clean and decent. There was one
teacher, a pleasant-faced young woman, who had two monitor assistants.
The order kept was very good, the school furniture neat, a good many
maps on the wall, and the children seemed busy and interested. The
teacher told me that the income of the school, owing to results fees--a
sum paid by Government according to the progress of the pupils, was
sometimes as high as L80 per annum.
After leaving the school, went over to the booths to buy some trifle as
a memorial of Knock. The man in the booth told me I had come from
America. There was another man with his arm in a sling, who had come
from America also. He had come to visit Knock. I asked him if his arm
was better. He said it was, but not entirely well. I asked the man in
the booth if he had ever seen anything. He said that he did not come
there to see anything, but to make a living. He and the American had
both bits of the original plaster, which they showed to me.
The priest of the place was not at home. He lives in a cottage down the
hill a bit, in sight of the church. I had seen all there was to be seen,
so I made my purchase and bid good-bye to Knock, and drove back to
Claremorris.
Claremorris is a nice enough little town, very quiet, as if not much of
any great work was going on. Where there are factories I notice the
people step quickly and look straight ahead. Over towns which depend on
the trading of the country round there is an air of repose and leisure.
I did not see much of Claremorris, for I soon left it behind in going to
Ballinrobe by car.
The land here seems very rich. I remarked this to my travelling
companions, who told me that I was on the rich plains of Mayo. The
fields are large and well cultivated. There were no signs of the abject
poverty, wee, stony fields, horrible rookeries of houses that exist in
the shadow of the Ox hills. Not that the houses of the laborers here
were good; for that, a good, decent laborer's house, I have not yet seen
in Ireland, except on Mr. Young's Galgorm estate. They may exist on
other estates, I dare say they do, but I have not seen them. This
country over which we were travelling was as rich with round-headed
trees and wide meadows as a gentleman's park. The road, a particularly
meandering one, passed through Hollymount--a lovely place--and through
Carrowmore, my companions telling me of the landlords and the tenants as
we drove along. The rent was high and hard to make up, the turf far to
draw, that was all. There was no account of vexatious office rules or
special acts of tyranny related to me at all.
Ballinrobe, on the river Robe, is near Lough Mask, and is another quiet,
pretty, leisurely little town. I was troubled with neuralgia and did not
see much of it. Opposite the hotel was the minister's residence, amid
gardens, all shut in behind a stone wall high enough for a rampart.
Through an archway from the street was the church where he ministered,
sitting meditating among the tombs. I wandered into this place one day
on my way to the post-office. Noticed the great number of the name of
Cuffe who were buried there. Cuffe is the family name of Lord Tyrawley.
The Catholic church sits back from the street a good way and the ground
before it is laid out in flowers. There are some images of saints
through the grounds, which are set in arches of rock work, over which
climbing plants are trained. There is also a community of Christian
Brothers, who have a school here. Their building had so much glass in
front, with so many geraniums in flower, a perfect blaze of them behind
the glass, that it looked like a conservatory.
Left Ballinrobe behind and drove to Lough Mask Castle, where the
celebrated Captain Boycott managed to kick up such a fuss. We passed a
couple of iron huts occupied by policemen, who came out to look at us. I
may as well mention that after I left Ballinrobe I found that the driver
was more "than three-quarters over the bay." He had a way of talking to
himself on the land question, of Captain Boycott, Lord Mountmorris and
Lord Ardilaun, that was not pleasant to listen to, especially as he
spiced his monologue with many words that savored strongly of brimstone.
I was not without hope that the fresh air might dissipate the fumes of
liquor from his brain as we drove along. I had the more hope of this as
I could see that he was a habitual drinker, poor man, as his face but
too plainly testified. Drink is universal here, as medicine a universal
remedy, as a daily, almost hourly, stimulant for young, and old, rich
and poor, man and woman. They tell me that Scotland is worse; if so,
Scotland should be prayed for. I confess that I have not seen much
drunkenness. I saw very few that I could call drunk, but it is constant,
steady, universal, or almost so, sipping and tippling.