_Treaty of Limerick._--The Treaty of Limerick was made on the 3rd of
October, 1691, between King William's army (English), and the Irish,
on the fall of Limerick and Athlone. By the articles of the treaty,
full religious liberty and the exercise of their trades, professions
and callings were guaranteed by the English to the Irish Catholics.
The Irish soldiers sailed away to France. Immediately England broke
every article of the treaty and for religious liberty gave Penal Laws
allowing no man to live in Ireland, possess property, exercise a
trade or profession, if he was a Catholic.
_Turn Coats._--Persons who changed their religion for lucre during
the Souper Campaign were called "Turn Coats" by their Catholic
neighbors.
_United Irishmen._--The Society of United Irishmen was founded by
T. W. Tone, a Protestant. His object was to unite Protestants and
Catholics of the North and South to join hands for the freedom of
Ireland. The United Irishmen rebelled against the English in 1798.
_Wicker Baskets._--Carrying loads on horseback by means of wicker
baskets suspended on both sides of the horse is now almost everywhere
out of practice. I remember clearly when the first common cart
entered the villages of Ballynalockon, Cloghane, and places in
Dunquin Parish.
_White Boys._--These were a body of young men who appeared in many
places in Munster between 1761 and 1763. The reason they were called
White Boys was because they wore white linen frocks and shirts
over their coats. They openly resisted the enclosure of commons
and the compulsory payment of excessive tithes levied on Roman
Catholics for the support of ministers, wardens, preachers and the
upkeep of Protestant churches. Because the tax was raised chiefly
on tillage lands, consequently it forced the farmers to sow very
little potatoes and let their lands for grazing. The horrors of the
artificial famines created by the tithes between 1739 and 1748 when
mothers devoured their own children and children ate their dead
parents was fresh in the memory of the people. Then the Protestant
Church of Ireland was not the church of the people. In one of the
White Boy uprisings, by hamstringing and like methods they killed
and destroyed cattle in thousands making certain that if a potato
famine existed that year there would be plenty of meat to prevent
starvation. In this great cattle slaughter farmers' sons, unknown
to their fathers, took the lead in maiming their own cattle.
At Ballynalackon in the Parish of Cloghane, is a place called
_Cnockane-na-bouchaelee-bawna_, where local White Boys of that place
assembled. The White Boys were suppressed by military force and the
ringleaders hanged.
_Wild Geese._--These were young Irish immigrants who in the 18th
Century went to France; there many of them joined the Irish Brigade
in the service of France. In the Battle of Fontenoy they trampled the
British flag in the dust and swept before them in the wildest rout
England's columns of reserves to the war cry of "Revenge! Remember
Limerick!! Dash down the Sassenach!!!" Immediately after that England
cancelled some of her Penal Laws.
Many persons from the Dingle Peninsula about this time went as "Wild
Geese" and settled in France.
_Wreck of the "Port-Yorack."_--This Glasgow iron-clad barque was
wrecked in Brandon Bay on the 29th of January, 1894, and all the
crew of twenty-one drowned. The vessel was laden with copper ore. On
inquiry it was found that the barque was insufficiently manned, badly
provisioned and the crew suffered great hardships during the voyage,
especially returning from South America. The owner was fined £70.
* * * * *
_Fenianism._--This was a secret society formed for the purpose
of establishing an Irish Republican Brotherhood and severing all
connection with the British crown. James Stephens was the leader and
supreme chief of the Fenian revolutionary movement. It went as far
as to decree a republic established. It destroyed some of the best
regiments in the British army and extended to the navy, as well as
to parts of France, America and England. The Fenians took the field
in Cahirsciveen in February, 1867, and in the counties of Cork,
Limerick, Clare, Waterford and Tipperary, Dublin and South on the 5th
of March following.
This revolution did not succeed in its purpose.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] A marriage ceremony does not in itself wholly complete a marriage
in the Catholic Church. (See the Catholic Encyclopedia.)
[2] The anniversaries of the Battles of the Boyne and Aughrim are
celebrated on the 1st and 12th of July in Belfast, by Orangemen
wrecking Catholic churches and assaulting women and old people.
[3] Brien Borue: Borue was only a nickname given to Brien. His
father's name was Kennedy. Brien Borue and his father were of the
family of Cormac.
[4] In America, Parnell was offered twenty-five dollars, five thereof
to buy bread and twenty to buy lead, i. e., for the Land League. It
was accepted.
[5] The Union came into force on the 1st of January, 1801. Ever
since the fight to restore to Ireland her Parliament has gone on
without intermission. The members of Grattan's Parliament were all
Protestants yet the majority of Roman Catholics in Ireland prefer it
to a union with England.
[6] Bess Rice and Clara Hussey were Catholics and belonged to the
last century. While they held sway to the west of Dingle they both
caused so much misery to their unfortunate tenants that the tears
which fell from mothers, wives, children and husbands would, I am
told, water those ladies' whole properties. The way in which they
oppressed their victims would, it appears, be their most fitting
epitaph.
[7] Many in America unacquainted with Irish politics are under the
impression that moonlighting is "moonshining," i. e., making poteen
whisky. Moonshining is pretty common in backward portions of Florida
and Virginia. Moonshiners have no welcome for strangers for fear of
informing on them. They denounce the laws which compel them to work
by night boiling the produce of their toil in the wilderness while no
law stops ladies from wearing aigrettes or slaughtering fine birds of
Florida for their feathers. On the approach of strangers moonshiners
hide the still, extinguish their campfires and hide themselves in the
forests very quickly.
[8] Edward Harrington, M. P. for West Kerry, addressing a meeting
held by Parnell in the Square Tralee, said: "We will have no half
measures of Home Rule, and we will have no Chief but Charlie."
[9] The following is a copy of a letter addressed by the author to
Mr. Thomas O'Donnell, M. P., on the 1st of January, 1916:
San Francisco, January 1, 1916.
STOP RECRUITING IRISHMEN, PREACH PEACE, AND VOTE AGAINST
CONSCRIPTION.
Dear Sir: I understand that it is the intention of the British
Government to introduce a bill for conscription. Since I left
Ireland, I notice many strange changes have come over the
National leaders of Ireland. They are not as fearless as they
were in the days of Parnell and they completely lost or destroyed
their independence. I suppose England will now want Irishmen to
fight for her and therefore extend conscription to Ireland:
My views are:
1. FOR PEACE, first and last.
2. NEUTRAL as between the leading nations responsible for the
war, viz., England, Germany and Russia.
3. STRONGLY OPPOSED TO IRISHMEN being sent OUT OF IRELAND to
fight.
4. England is not fighting to protect the nuns of Belgium
from the ravages of the Germans, because the British soldiers
destroyed the women of their own land by thousands before leaving
for the battlefront.
5. England is not fighting for the protection of little
nationalities, because that country was the greatest exterminator
that ever appeared on the face of the globe. She put out of
existence the two Boer Republics, as recently as 1902.
6. That the war is a mass murder of human beings carried on for
greed.
7. Opposed to secret treaties or invisible governments,
especially those binding the people without the full knowledge,
consent and vote of the people of the contracting countries,
especially treaties made in support of an unjust cause.
The history of this war now raging in Europe is still in its
making. To the one standing here it appears to be a monstrous
mass murder of human beings who are made the victims of a
scramble of European financiers, their rulers and supporters,
for many years plotting to rob one another of trade profit and
territory. It is plain to a child that each of the nations of
Europe for many years were struggling to out do each other in
building murderous equipment and forming compacts for the same
purpose. The sudden killing of the Crown Head of Austria was like
setting a lighted match to oil barrels already in position for
the blaze.
The plain leading facts as they appear to me are that Germany
wants the expansion of territory and sea power, and England is
jealous of the rapid growth of sea commerce of Germany, and
therefore avails herself of this opportunity to destroy it for
ages. I honestly believe that all the other arguments about
militarian little nationalities, etc., ought to at once be
rejected as manufactured excuses to justify war.
Having come to the conclusion that this is legalized murder
of the people carried on in the false color and pretense of
patriotism for the benefit of gold crazed human wolves, as
between the three leading nations at war, the author is neutral.
However, he is opposed to the shedding of blood in such a wicked
cause, or fond Irish mothers raising children to be targets for
rifles at the becking of every false leader. Look at the fruits
those rulers and politicians of Europe produced; they have washed
the frontier red with a sea of human blood; peaceful homes are in
ruins; the wild wail of women, children or aged parents cannot
stop their hungry craving for human slaughter; by soldiers at
home and abroad women are ravaged; the flower of Europe are drawn
from the common people by thousands, and most of them must pay
for militarism with their life's blood in the trenches. Cattle,
sheep, hares and deer, will take the places of Irish, Scotch,
Welsh, and English, shot down in this war.
England, contrary to the rules of warfare, tries to starve the
civil population of Germany, and in return Germany in a more
scientific manner does the same thing to England by sinking
great liners, thereby causing death on the ocean, of innocent
people. =Hatred for the people of the nations at war with
each other, will live in Europe for the next generation.= The
slaughter of human beings, now going on, is shocking. It is
clearly against the mandate of God, reason and common sense.
Civilization is trampled on; barbarism is substituted; bands of
legalized murderers sit in gilt chambers, drinking wine bought
with the blood of their countrymen in the trenches. They fill
their pockets with gold, make their homes comfortable, while
their neighbours hearts are sad, their hearths cold, their
pockets empty and their sons and relatives slaughtered in the
battle fields. I honestly believe that it is much nobler to
die in thousands in the cause of humanity and freedom than to
draw a single sword in this disgraceful war. You leaders of
destruction and legalized criminals in power, remember God's
commandment--"Thou shalt not kill."
Murder, no matter whether judicial, legalized or church
sanctioned, will still remain murder, and will continue to cry
to heaven for vengeance. "To-day thou art," great and mighty
men; "to-morrow thou art not"--yes, a cold lump of clay with the
skeletons of murdered men, the tears of widows and the crying
orphans you caused, standing before you. You may be sure a just
God will not be fooled by the arguments of cunning counselors,
judges, ministers, priests, bishops or pious frauds, who may be
hired or engaged to bring their country's youth to the slaughter
house.
God protect the children of Erin from being drawn in amongst
those mad dogs. Those who do the fighting ought to ask themselves
what are their interests in the war, and what is the price agreed
upon to be paid before they are thrown to the wolf-dogs.
GOD SAVE IRELAND.
Yours, etc.,
P. M. FOLEY.
[10] When Jamison raided South Africa the Boers did not shoot
him, although his crime was the most serious one. Yet the English
Government under Premier Asquith had James Connelly, a wounded, dying
soldier, propped up against the wall because he was not able to stand
on his limbs and shot dead.
[11] Parnell and the Land League put a stop to landlords increasing
tenants' rents above the fair value of the land.
Curious Customs
PREFACE.
This little hand book deals with the curious customs and traditions,
chiefly in West Kerry, in common with other parts of Ireland. It
is the fourth book issued by the author on Corkaguiny, of a series
designated to present to the reader all essential historical, curious
customs, and traditional information, relating to the County of Kerry.
In undertaking the toils of this particular volume, the principal
object the writer has in view is first and foremost to destroy the
hatcheries of all objectionable remains of foreign superstitions,
customs, fraudulent practices, and like diseases imposed upon us, and
which may still be found here and there lingering in the district. By
discriminating between truth and falsehood, giving reason and common
sense for what is nonsensical and discreditable, the author expects
to weed out of the minds of the future manhood of this locality the
superstitious poison of foreign countries, handed down to us through
"wise, sensible and truthful" old women, and instead thereof he is
endeavoring to kindle in the breast of every young man the spirit
of being reasonably fearless in supernatural affairs, self-reliant,
careful, truthful and just in other matters.
The second aim of the author is to record a few of the most important
curious customs and traditions of the people in the past. This
is done both for the amusement and the information of the coming
generation. However, it is well to remember that this is not a
complete list. The author left behind him sufficient materials for
others to follow on the trail which he is the first to "blaze" in
those parts.
Writers and tourists visiting West Kerry and reading this book,
might be inclined to go away under the impression that the people of
Corkaguiny are exceptionally superstitious and peculiar, as compared
with those of other portions of the United Kingdom and the world. If
we will but calmly examine the records and customs of the world, we
will at the first glance see that even in our darkest hour we were
far in advance of many of them in that respect. About the Thirteenth
or Fourteenth Century, superstitions began to creep in amongst
Christians. They increased in many forms immediately. In Ireland
slight traces of the old Pagan superstitions lingered amongst the
people, but between 1580 and 1736 in England, _no less than thirty
thousand persons were publicly hanged for being witches_, and most
of the poor innocent creatures were burned at the stake. The most
learned judges of the English courts declared from their benches that
witchcraft existed, and that persons in one league with the devil
could raise storms, destroy life and property, by no further act than
taking off their stockings and steeping them in soap and water. They
even went so far as to force their victims to believe and confess
that they were witches. Only that England was so much engaged in
hounding to death the Catholic priests, Heaven knows how many more
would have fallen.
In 1716 it appears one Mrs. Hicks and her little daughter were hanged
for selling their souls to the devil, and their accusers charged them
with raising a storm by soaking stockings in a lather of soap.
Scotland was buried in superstition. Calvin and Luther, both the
great heads of the Protestant Reformation, believed in witchcraft,
and the King of Scotland, when he ascended the throne of England, by
tongue, pen and fire, advocated the rack for the witches.
I believe Italy, Spain and France, three Catholic countries, were
the first to reject witchcraft. Germany, although at first very slow
to believe in witchcraft, burned them by the thousands, and that
in a most barbarous manner. The Puritan fathers of New England had
the hangman's rope pretty busy in Boston Common with the witches of
Salem, Massachusetts, and the Quakers of other parts of the State. If
a man did not believe in witches, he was classed worse than a heretic.
Public execution of witches in England was stopped by law, I believe
about the year 1736. During all that time Ireland was trampled under
the heels of superstitions. Anglo-Norman lords were a party to the
laws which caused so much innocent blood to flow as divine perfume
from 1600 to 1736, in cases of witchcraft and "Papists," both in
England and her colonies. Naturally, their castles in Ireland had the
foul air of superstition and adoration about them. In Ireland they
suppressed education, and tried to make themselves the only lords
which the people had to serve and adore on earth or in heaven. They
abused their powers, and the Irish people at last refused to have
those false Gods, and now they are almost driven out of the country.
Irishmen were not ever very much inclined to marry their daughters to
those degenerated "false gods," bearing a British or foreign title.
They usually left such honors to the ladies of other countries, many
of the latter unfortunate vain-minded creatures afterwards returning
to their native lands bringing, in addition to a costly bought title,
a decree of divorce. It ought to be remembered that even today,
notwithstanding England's proud boast of democracy, it is probably
the worst country in the world for rank, title and blue-blood
lords--one class looking down with contempt on the other. In the
House of Lords you have dukes, marquises, earls, viscounts, bishops
and barons. They cannot understand that "all men were created equal,"
only when they want the common people to fight their battles.
Notwithstanding the isolated and backward state of Ireland under
alien rule, yet as far as the author can ascertain the Irish people
never demanded a single life to be sacrificed in cases of witchcraft,
and if any individual fell, it was at the command of the foreigner
and to satisfy his craving for blood and sacrifice. Ireland appears
to be much cleaner from superstition than her neighbors in the
sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries of the Christian era.
The writer is not finding fault with the people of those countries
which honestly believed in the existence of witches, but he is
protesting against those who leave the very dens of superstition
and come to Ireland to magnify trifles, at the same time pretending
that they have none of their own. Every country has had people some
of whom are more or less superstitious. It is not even confined to
any one religion. In many houses in America for good luck you will
find the horseshoe nailed inside over the door. There are locomotive
engineers in the New England States who will not very willingly take
out a train engine bearing the number "thirteen." Persons traveling
with me refused to sleep in the next vacant room to me in Seattle,
Washington, because the number of it was "thirteen." Among the first
who followed the trail of the "forty-niners" to California, were
persons who would not start on any part of their journey on a Friday,
and through superstition carried the feet of rabbits with them in
their pockets.
A lady in one of the New England States in the East, who proudly
boasted of her forefathers crossing the Atlantic in the "Mayflower,"
objected in my presence to rocking an empty cradle because it would
bring misfortune to the house.
As late as December, 1910, I saw persons within Mount Auburn
Cemetery, Cambridge, Massachusetts, watching patiently for the
resurrection of Mrs. Baker Eddy, the head of Christian Science. These
and many of her followers firmly believed she would reappear and
deliver a message from the dead to the living. However, the learned
lady is still sleeping in silence. What would the English press say
if this happened in Ireland?
With regard to Irish kings, they were not inferior to the latter-day
kings of England. King John of England in 1204 imprisoned Jews,
plucked out their teeth and eyes and slaughtered them. He was
excommunicated by the Pope. King Henry VIII murdered four of his
wives and ripped one of them open on child's birth to have a son
succeed him to the throne. Englishmen ought to read the sad story of
the Tower of London before opening their lips on ancient Irish kings.
Then, as to morals, the author believes Ireland will be found as
clean from the scarlet plague of the "red-light district" as any
country in the world. Look at the British soldiers who boasted that
they were going to "defend the Catholic nuns in Belgium from the
Huns," destroying the women of their own land by the thousands before
leaving for the front!
Now, as to curious customs, you will find boys and girls "courting"
in Ireland, "bundling" in Wales, "spooning" until midnight in the
United States, and for three long years a young man with window bars
between him and his sweetheart is "playing the bear" in Mexico,
before he is admitted into her room, even in presence of members
of her family. In England, every third county has had a different
custom, and many of them are considered pretty objectionable.
The original intention of the author was to have his work printed
in Ireland, for Irish readers, but that horrible war in Europe,
which has caused the most widespread pain, misery and suffering ever
inflicted upon the human race, made him change his plans, and print
the book in the United States, but the cost will be much more and the
price of each copy proportionately higher.
By the campfires of California, and in the sandy desert of Nevada,
over five thousand miles away from his native land, this book has
been written by the author during his spare hours. Therefore, the
writer knows that faults will be found with the work, and errors
discovered therein. However, he is confident that it is free
from serious errors. Apart from the honest critic, of course,
there will appear the natural-born "fault-finder." To men of the
latter disposition the writer has no apology to offer, and it is
his intention to take no notice of anything said or written by
such persons, further than to express his regret that they did
not undertake the work themselves, and, whenever his rights shall
expire, they will have an opportunity to improve, alter, or amend his
plans--probably about forty-four years' time.
This work is not expected to satisfy all classes. The author has
no intention whatsoever of giving offense to any person, religion,
race or nationality, but it is to be feared that in his effort to
establish truth and equity passages may appear herein which will
displease some individuals. If so, the writer very much regrets it,
but at the same time the reader should remember that it is his duty
to record those regrettable events and set them in a true light for
the judges of the future world.
In style and arrangement of this book there is a slight departure
from the plans of his previous works, namely, that each subject set
forth herein will be found in alphabetical order. This he trusts will
prove satisfactory to the reader.
AUTHOR.
Dated in the State of Nevada, this 4th day of July, 1915.
_Erin, though far from your mountains now, with me, you are still
Achusla Geal Machree._
_All Fools' Day._--This falls on the first of April, when it is
customary to play tricks upon each other. The young people find great
diversion in sending persons on errands which end in disappointment
for the sendee and merriment for the sender, the laugh at all times
being in proportion to the trouble given.