ON THE TRAIL OF THE SHAMROCK
OUR third day in Dublin was ushered in by a tremendous explosion. In a
minute the street outside was filled with dense black smoke, and then in
another minute with excited people. When we got down to breakfast, we
found that the suffragettes had tried to blow up the post-office, which
is next to the hotel, by throwing a bomb through the door. But the woman
who threw the bomb, like most women, couldn't throw straight, and
instead of going through the door, the bomb struck a stone at the side
of it and exploded. Our bell-boy proudly showed us the hole that it had
made in the wall.
The day was so bright and pleasant that we decided to spend it somewhere
in the country, and as we wanted to see a round tower, and as there is a
very handsome one at Clondalkin, a few miles west of Dublin, we decided
to go there. The ride thither gave us our first glimpse of rural
Ireland--rather unkempt, with the fields very lush and green; and then,
when we got off the train, we were struck by a fact which we had
occasion to remark many times thereafter: that railroads in Ireland are
built with an entire disregard of the towns along the route. Perhaps it
is because the towns are only Irish that the railroads are so haughty
and disdainful--for of course the roads are English; at any rate, they
never swerve an inch to get closer to any town. The train condescends
to pause an instant at the point nearest the town, and then puffs
arrogantly on again, while the passengers who have been hustled off hoof
it the rest of the way.
We got off, that morning, at a little station with "Clondalkin" on it,
but when we looked about, there was no town anywhere in sight. We asked
the man who took the tickets if this was all there was of the town, and
he said no, that the town was over yonder, and he pointed vaguely to the
south. There was no conveyance, so we started to walk; and instead of
condemning Irish railroads, we were soon praising their high wisdom, for
if there is anything more delightful than to walk along an Irish lane,
between hedgerows fragrant with hawthorn and climbing roses, past fields
embroidered with buttercups and primroses and daisies, in an air so
fresh and sweet that the lungs can't get enough of it, I don't know what
it is. And presently as we went on, breathing great breaths of all this
beauty, we caught sight of the conical top of the round tower, above the
trees to the left.
I should say that Clondalkin is at least a mile from its station, and we
found it a rambling village of small houses, built of stone,
white-washed and with roofs of thatch. Many of them, even along the
principal street, are in ruins, for Clondalkin, like so many other Irish
villages, has been slowly drying up for half a century. There was a
great abbey here once, but nothing is left of it except the round tower
and a fragment of the belfry.
The tower stands at the edge of what is now the main street, and is a
splendid example of another peculiarly Irish institution. For these
tall towers of stone, resembling nothing so much as gigantic chimneys,
were built all over eastern and central Ireland, nobody knows just when
and nobody knows just why; but there nearly seventy of them stand to
this day.
They are always of stone, and are sometimes more than a hundred feet
high. Some of them taper toward the top in a way which shows the high
skill of their builders. That they were well-built their survival
through the centuries attests. The narrow entrance door is usually ten
or twelve feet from the ground, and there is a tiny window lighting each
floor into which the tower was divided. At the top there are usually
four windows, one facing each point of the compass; and then the tower
is finished with a conical cap of closely-fitted stones.
As to their purpose, there has been violent controversy. Different
antiquarians have believed them to be fire-temples of the Druids,
phallic emblems, astronomical observatories, anchorite towers or
penitential prisons. But the weight of opinion seems to be that they
were built in connection with churches and monasteries to serve the
triple purpose of belfries and watch-towers and places of refuge, and
that they date from the ninth and tenth centuries, when the Danes were
pillaging the country. In case of need, the monks could snatch up the
most precious of their treasures, run for the tower, clamber up a ladder
to the little door high above the ground, pull the ladder up after them,
bar the door and be comparatively safe.
I confess I do not find this theory convincing. As belfries the towers
must have been failures, for the small bells of those days, hung a
hundred feet above the ground in a chamber with only four tiny openings,
would be all but inaudible. As watch-towers they were ineffective, for
the enemy had only to advance at night to elude the lookout altogether;
and as places of refuge, they leave much to be desired. For there is no
way to get food or water into them, and the enemy had only to camp down
about them for a few days to starve the inmates out. However, I am not
an antiquarian, and my opinion is of no especial value--besides, I have
no better theory to suggest. Whatever their purpose, there they stand,
and very astonishing they are.
The Clondalkin tower, for the first thirteen feet, is a block of solid
masonry about twenty feet in diameter, and above this is the little door
opening into the first story. New floors have been built at the
different levels and ladders placed between them, so that one may climb
the eighty-five feet to the top, but we were contented to take the view
for granted. While I manoeuvred for a photograph in a field of
buttercups which left my shoes covered with yellow pollen, Betty got
into talk with the people who lived in the cottage at the tower-foot,
and then she crossed the street to look over a wall at a tiny garden
that was a perfect riot of bloom, and by the time I got there, the
fresh-faced old woman with a crown of white hair who owned the garden
had come out, and, after a few minutes' talk, started to pick Betty a
bouquet of her choicest flowers.
Betty was in a panic, for she didn't want the garden despoiled,--at the
same time she realised that she must be careful or she would hurt the
feelings of this kindly woman, who was so evidently enjoying pulling her
flowers to give to the stranger from America. It was at that moment the
brilliant idea flashed into her head to ask if the true shamrock grew in
the neighbourhood.
"Sure, miss, I have it right here," was the answer, and the owner of the
garden picked up proudly a small pot in which grew a plant that looked
to me like clover.
"But doesn't it grow wild?" Betty asked.
"It does, miss; but 'tis very hard to find. This was sent me by my
brother in Tipperary. 'Tis the true shamrock, miss," and she broke off a
spray for each of us.
Let me say here that she knew perfectly well Betty was a married woman;
her first question had been as to our relationship. But all over
Ireland, women, whether married or single, are habitually addressed as
"miss," just as, conversely, in France they are addressed habitually as
"madame." But we had got the old woman's mind off her flowers, and we
managed to escape before she thought of them again.
There are not, I fancy, many visitors to Clondalkin, for, as we
sauntered on along the street, we found ourselves objects of the
liveliest interest. It was a kindly interest, too, for every one who
could catch our eyes smiled and nodded and wished us good-day, just as
the Dutch used to do in the little towns of Holland. We were heading for
the church, and when we reached it we found that there was a large
school attached to it, and most of the pupils were having their lessons
outdoors, a group in this corner and a group in that. The small children
were being taught by older ones, and the older children were being
taught by nuns; but I am afraid that our passage through the school-yard
nearly broke up the lessons. It was a sort of triumphal progress, for,
as we passed each class, the teacher in charge would say "Stand!" and
all the children would rise to their feet and stare at us with round
eyes, and the teacher would bow gravely. I am sorry now I didn't stop
and talk to some of them, but the formal nature of our reception
confused and embarrassed us, and we hastened on.
We took a look at the church, which is new and bare; and then we walked
on toward the gate, past a lawn which two gardeners were leisurely
mowing. It was evident from the way they returned our greeting that they
wanted to talk, so we stopped and asked if we could get a car in the
village to take us back to the station.
"You can, miss," said the elder of the two men, who did all the talking,
while his younger companion stood by and grinned. "There is a very good
car to be had in the village," and he told us where to go to find the
owner. "You would be from America? I have a sister and two brothers
there." And he went on to tell us about them, where they lived and what
they were doing and how they had prospered. And then Betty asked him if
he could find her a piece of the true shamrock. "I can, miss," he
answered instantly, and stepping over a low wire fence, he waded out
into a meadow and came back in a moment with a clover-like clump in his
hand. "This is it, miss," he said, and gave it to her; "the true
shamrock."
We examined it eagerly. It was a trefoil, the leaf of which is like our
white clover, except that it lacks the little white rings which mark the
leaf of ours, and it blossoms with a tiny yellow flower. I confess that
it wasn't at all my idea of the shamrock, nor was it Betty's, and she
asked the gardener doubtfully if he was sure that this was it.
"I am, miss," he answered promptly; "as sure as I am of anything."
"But down in the village," said Betty, "a woman gave me this," and she
took the spray from her button-hole, "and said _it_ was the true
shamrock. You see the leaf is quite green and larger and the blossom is
white."
"True for you, miss; and there be some people who think that the true
shamrock. But it is not so--'tis only white clover. The true shamrock is
that I have given you."
"Well, you are a gardener," said Betty, "and ought to know."
"Ah, miss," retorted the man, his eyes twinkling, "you could start the
prettiest shindy you ever saw by getting all the gardeners in Ireland
together, and asking them to decide which was the true shamrock!"
I suppose I may as well thresh out the question here, so far as it is
possible to thresh it out at all, for though, in the east, the west, the
north and south of Ireland, we sought the true shamrock, we were no more
certain of it when we got through than before we began. The only
conclusion we could reach, after listening to every one, was that there
are three or four varieties of the shamrock, and that almost any trefoil
will do.
The legend is that, about 450, St. Patrick reached the Rock of Cashel,
in his missionary journeyings over Ireland, and at once went to work to
convert Aengus MacNatfraich, the ruling king who lived in the great
castle there. One day, out on the summit of the rock, as the Saint was
preaching to the king and his assembled household, he started to explain
the idea of the Trinity, and found, as many have done since, that it was
rather difficult to do. Casting about for an illustration, his eyes fell
upon a trefoil growing at his feet, and he stooped and plucked it, and
used its three petals growing from one stem as a symbol of the
Three-in-One. This simple and homely illustration made the idea
intelligible, and whenever after that St. Patrick found himself on the
subject of the Trinity, he always stooped and plucked a trefoil to
demonstrate what he meant.
Now of course the true shamrock is the particular trefoil which St.
Patrick plucked first on the Rock of Cashel, but there is no way of
telling which that was. In his subsequent preaching, the Saint would
pluck the first that came to hand, since any of them would answer his
purpose, and so, sooner or later, all the Irish trefoils would be thus
used by him. The Irish word "seamrog" means simply a trefoil, and in
modern times, the name has been applied to watercress, to wood-sorrel,
and to both yellow and white clover; but nowadays only the two
last-named kinds are generally worn on St. Patrick's day. Whether white
or yellow clover is worn is said to depend somewhat on the locality, but
the weight of authority is, I think, slightly on the side of the yellow.
Whatever its colour, it is a most elusive plant and difficult to get.
Our original idea was that every Irish field was thick with shamrocks,
but in no instance except that of the gardener at Clondalkin, do I
remember any one finding some growing wild right at hand. Indeed, in
most localities, it didn't seem to grow wild at all, but was carefully
raised in a pot, like a flower. Where it _did_ grow wild, it was always
in some distant and inaccessible place. I should have suspected that
this was simply blarney, and that our informants either wished to keep
our profane hands off the shamrock or expected to get paid for going and
getting us some, but for the fact that those who raised it always
eagerly offered us a spray, and those who didn't usually disclaimed any
exact knowledge of where it grew.
We bade the Clondalkin gardener and his helper good-bye at last, and
walked on down to the village for a look at the remnant of the fort the
Danes built here as their extreme western outpost against the wild
Irish, and presently we fell in with an old woman, bent with rheumatism,
hobbling painfully along, and she told us all about her ailment, and
then as we passed a handsome house set back in a garden surrounded by a
high wall, she pointed it out proudly as the residence of the parish
priest. Then we thought it was time to be seeing about our car, and
started down the street to find its owner, when we heard some one
running after us. It was a man of about thirty, and his face, though not
very clean, was beaming with friendliness.
"Is it a car your honour would be wantin'?" he asked.
"Yes," I said. "How did you know?"
"The man up at the church told me, sir. He said you'd be wishin' to
drive to the station."
"Well, we do," I said. "It's too far to walk. Have you a car?"
"I have, sir, and it's myself would be glad to carry you and your lady
there."
"All right," I agreed; and then, as an afterthought, "How much will you
charge?"
"Not a penny, sir," he protested warmly. "Not a penny."
I stared at him. I confess I didn't understand. He returned my stare
with a broad smile.
"The Dublin train doesn't go for an hour yet, sir," he went on. "If
you'll just be wanderin' down this way when the time comes, you'll find
me ready."
"It's mighty kind of you," I said hesitatingly; "but we couldn't think
of troubling you. . . ."
"Niver a bit of trouble, sir," he broke in. "I'll be that proud to do
it."
He seemed so sincerely in earnest that we finally agreed, and he raced
away as he had come, while we went on to the village post-office to mail
a postcard--and perhaps find some one else to talk to.
The post-office was a little cubby-hole of a place, in charge of a
white-haired, withered little old woman, whom we found very ready to
talk indeed. At first there were the inevitable questions about America
and about our family history, and then she told us about herself and her
work and the many things she had to do. For every Irish post-office, no
matter how small, is the centre of many activities. Not only does it
handle the village mail, but it is also the village telegraph-office,
and it does the work--by means of the parcel-post--which in this country
has been done until quite recently by the express companies. Furthermore
it is at the post-office that the old age pensions are disbursed and the
multifarious details of the workman's insurance act attended to.
The latter is too complicated to be explained here, but we soon had a
demonstration of the working of the old age pension, for, as we sat
there talking, a wrinkled old woman with a shabby shawl over her head,
came in, said something we did not understand, held out her hand, was
given three or four pennies, and walked quickly out.
"The poor creatures," said the postmistress gently, "how can one be
always refusin' them!" And then, seeing that we did not understand, she
went on, "That one gets an old age pension, five shillings the week; but
it never lasts the week out, and so she comes in for a bit of an
advance. I shouldn't be giving it to her, for she's no better in the
end, but I can't turn her away. Besides, she thinks--and there's many
like her--that the pension may be stoppin' any time, next week maybe,
and so what she gets this week is so much ahead. Many of them have no
idea at all of where the money do be coming from."
I am not myself partial to pensions of any sort, for no permanent good
can come from alms-giving, which weakens instead of strengthens; but
Ireland, perhaps, needs special treatment. At any rate, the pensions
have been a great help. Every person over seventy years of age and with
an income of less than ten shillings a week, receives five shillings
weekly from the government. The same law applies to England and
Scotland, but there is an impression that Ireland is getting more than
her share. Certainly there is a surprisingly large number of people
there whose income is under ten shillings and whose years exceed
threescore and ten. I questioned the postmistress about this, and she
smiled.
"Yes, there be a great many," she agreed. "In this small place alone
there are fifty poor souls who get their five shillings every Friday.
Are they all over seventy? Sure, I don't know; there be many of them
don't know themselves; but they all think they are, only it was very
hard sometimes to make the committee believe it. There is Mary Clancy,
now, as spry a woman as you will see anywhere, and lookin' not a day
over fifty. The committee was for refusin' her, but she said, said she,
'Your honours, I was the mother of fourteen children, and the youngest
of them was Bridget, whom you see here beside me. Bridget was married
when she was seventeen, and she has fifteen children of her own, and
this is the youngest of them she has by the hand--you'll see that he is
four years old. Now how old am I?' The gentlemen of the committee they
looked at her and then they looked at each other and then they took out
their pencils and made some figures and then they scratched their heads
and then they said she should have a pension. And sure she deserved it!"
We agreed with her,--though, as I figured it out afterwards, Mrs. Clancy
may still have been a year or two under seventy--and then she went on to
explain that the pensions had been a blessing in another way, for not
only do they give the old people a bit to live on, but their children
treat them better in consequence. In the old days, the parents were
considered an encumbrance, and whenever a marriage contract was made or
a division of the property, it was always carefully stipulated who
should look after them. Naturally in a land where a man was hard put to
it to provide for his own family, he was reluctant to assume this
additional burden, and the result often was that the old people went to
the workhouse--a place they shunned and detested and considered it a
disgrace to enter. But the pension has changed all that, for a person
with a steady income of five shillings a week is not to be lightly
regarded in Ireland; and so the old people can live with their children
now, and the workhouses are somewhat less crowded than they used to be.
But they are still full enough, heaven knows, in spite of the aversion
and disgust with which the whole Irish people regard them. Let me
explain briefly why this is so, because the establishment of the
workhouse system is typical of the blind fashion in which England, in
the past, has dealt with Irish problems,--the whole Irish problem, as
some protest, is merely the result of a stupid people trying to govern a
clever one!
About eighty years ago, England realised that something must be done for
the Irish poor. Irish industries had been killed by unfriendly
legislation, the land was being turned from tillage to grass, and so,
since there was no work, there was nothing for the labouring class to do
but emigrate or starve. In fact, a large section of the people had not
even those alternatives, for there was no way in which they could get
money enough to emigrate.
The Irish themselves suggested that something be done to develop the
industrial resources of the country, so that the able-bodied could find
work, and that some provision be made for the old, sick and infirm who
were unable to work, and for children who were too young. Instead of
that, and in spite of frenzied and universal Irish protest, a bill was
put through Parliament extending the English workhouse system to
Ireland.
Now, the workhouse system was devised to provide for tramps--for people
who would not work, though work was plentiful; so there is a stigma
about the workhouse which the Irish poor detest and which most of them
do not deserve. They enter it only when driven by direst need--and how
dire that need has been may be judged by the fact that, in 1905, for
instance, the number of workhouse inmates exceeded forty-five thousand.
Of these, about four thousand might be classified as tramps. The
remainder were aged and infirm men and women, young children, and a
sprinkling of starving middle-aged who could find no work--but the
disgrace of the workhouse was upon them all.
To-day, the traveller in Ireland finds one of these mammoth structures
in every town--in nearly every village, for their total number is 159.
In fact, the two most imposing buildings in the average Irish town are
the workhouse and the jail. And there is a savage irony in this, for not
only are there few voluntary paupers in Ireland, but there is amazingly
little crime. Six millions a year of Irish money are spent to maintain
the workhouses; how much the jails cost I don't know; but perhaps in
that golden age which some optimists believe will follow the coming of
Home Rule, workhouses and jails alike will be transformed into schools
and factories, and Irish money will be spent in brightening and
beautifying the lives of Ireland's people.
* * * * *
We bade good-bye, at last, to the little Clondalkin postmistress, with
many mutual good wishes, and wandered forth to find the Samaritan who
had offered to take us to the station; and finally we saw him standing
in a gateway beckoning to us, and when we reached him, we found the
gateway led to the house which had been pointed out to us as that of the
parish priest. It was a beautiful house, with lovely grounds and gardens
and a large conservatory against one end, and we stood hesitating in the
gateway, wondering if we would better enter.
"Come in, sir; come in, miss!" cried our new-found friend. "The Father
is away from home the day, worse luck, but he'd never forgive me if I
didn't make you welcome."
"Oh, then you're the gardener," I said.
"Sure, I'm everything, sir," and he hustled us up the path, his face
beaming with happiness. "And how grieved His Riverence will be when he
comes back and learns that he missed you. If he was anywhere near, I'd
have gone for him at once, but he went to Dublin to the conference and
he won't be back till evenin'. He's a grand man, God bless him, and has
travelled all over the world, and it's himself would know how to talk
to you! There is the cart, sir; but there's no hurry. I must cut some
blooms for your lady."
Betty was already admiring the flowers--great scarlet peonies, white and
pink geraniums, cinerarias, laburnums, and I know not what beside; but
she tried to stop him as he made a dash at them, knife in hand.
"Oh, but you mustn't cut them!" she cried. "What would the Father say!"
"Sure, miss, if he was here, he'd make me cut twice as many!" he
retorted, and went on cutting and cutting. "If he was here, 'tis not by
this train you'd be leaving. He'd take you all over the house, and it
would break his heart if you didn't stop for tea. It's sorry he'll be
when he gets home and I tell him of you!"
We too were sorry, and said so--sorrier, next day, when we learned from
Katherine Tynan Hinkson what an accomplished and interesting man he is.
Meanwhile, the gardener had entered the greenhouse and was attacking the
plants there. Almost by main force, and sorely against his will, we made
him stop. As it was, Betty had about all she could carry--as lovely a
bouquet, she protested, as she had ever had in her life. And the joy of
this simple, kindly fellow in being able to give it to her was beautiful
to see.
Then he brought out a fat little mare and hitched her to the cart, and
insisted on driving us for a while along the fragrant country roads
before he took us to the station. And I am sure that he valued our
thanks much more than the coin I slipped into his hand.
We went out, that night, to see some friends in Dublin, and Betty took
part of her bouquet along to give to them. And as we were walking up
Grafton Street, an old and tattered woman, with two or three grimy
little bouquets in her hands, fell in beside us and begged us to buy
one. Finally she laid one of them on top of the gorgeous bunch Betty was
carrying.
"Take it, miss; take it!" she urged. "Just see how beautiful it is!"
"It's not beautiful at all!" Betty protested. "It's faded."
"And so am I faded, miss," came the instant retort. "Sure, we can't all
be fresh and lovely like yourself!"
Of course, after that, I bought the bouquet!