Housewifery, that our government might do worse than establish similar
schools in the Southern States for training colored girls in the same
way, but I suppose the Supreme Court would pronounce such a scheme
unconstitutional.
A house by the roadside now occupied by a farmer named McSweeny is
pointed out as the birthplace of Robert Emmet.
Lord Kitchener was born about nineteen miles from here, at Crotto
House, Tralee, where his father and mother were stopping for the summer.
His father was a colonel in the army and was on leave from his regiment
at the time of Kitchener's birth.
The great Daniel O'Connell was also born in the neighborhood, and his
nephew, Sir Maurice O'Connell, lives in a stately mansion that overlooks
the lower lake in the middle of a beautiful grove.
Muckross Abbey ranks with Melrose Abbey in Scotland and Kenilworth
Castle in England as among the most picturesque and interesting ruins in
the world. The walls and the Gothic windows, the tower and several other
distinctive features are well preserved, and the ivy drapery makes it an
exquisite picture. The abbey stands within the park of two hundred and
ninety acres that surrounds Muckross House and is the property of Lord
Ardilaun, who has many beautiful places in different parts of Ireland,
and cannot possibly enjoy them all; but none is so beautiful as Muckross
House.
[Illustration: MUCKROSS ABBEY, KILLARNEY]
He purchased the property of the Herbert family who inherited it from
Florence MacCarthy More, who, in 1750 married Agnes, daughter of Edward
Herbert of this county, and they had one son who was the last MacCarthy
More in the direct line, and that famous family became extinct, for he
died without issue in 1770, and the estate passed into the possession of
his mother's family, being the nearest relatives. The Honorable Arthur
Herbert died in 1866, and a beautiful Celtic cross has been erected to
his memory upon the highest hill in the neighborhood, overlooking the
park that he prized so highly, and where he enjoyed so much pleasure.
His widow and daughters lived there for thirty years until they expired,
when the place was offered at auction and Lord Ardilaun bid it in for
£63,000 for the estate, and paid £10,000 more for furniture, pictures,
live stock, and other property, making it cost him altogether about
£73,000. And now he offers it for sale--the whole thing, a house of
thirty-two rooms, a park of two hundred and ninety acres, the ruins of
Muckross Abbey, and history and legends galore--for £75,000. And
perhaps he would take less from the proper person. In 1907 a syndicate
was organized to purchase the place and turn it into a Monte Carlo. They
proposed to make the handsome old mansion a gambling-house and erect a
large hotel with all possible allurements near by; but when Lord
Ardilaun learned of the scheme, he instructed his solicitors to insert
in the deed a clause stipulating that it should be used for residential
purposes only, and that made it worthless to the syndicate. So Muckross
Abbey and its beautiful surroundings are still in the market.
The abbey dates back to the dawn of Christianity in Ireland, and its
site was originally occupied in the fourth or fifth century by a
monastery founded by St. Finian of Innisfallen and his monks. The
present building, however, was erected by Donald MacCarthy More, Prince
of Desmond, in 1330, and was finished by his son in 1340 for the
Franciscan friars, who occupied it as a monastery and as a college.
There was some kind of an institution on the same site between the
monastery of St. Finian and the present one, for an ancient manuscript
in the library of Trinity College, Dublin, gives an account of its
destruction by fire in the eleventh century. The founder, Donald
MacCarthy More, built the beautiful chapel as a burial place for himself
and his posterity. It is also the burial place of the O'Donaghues of the
Glens, and in the very center of the choir is a large square tomb in
which was deposited the body of "The Great O'Donaghue," the chieftain of
the lakes, of whom Mr. Maurice R. Moriarity, the custodian, gives many
interesting legends in his history of the ruins.
The O'Donaghues were connected by marriage with the MacCarthys, kings of
Munster, and had their headquarters at Blarney Castle, near Cork. Twelve
generations, so far as the inscriptions can be deciphered, of that proud
family are lying there, and more than twenty generations of O'Donaghues.
The last MacCarthy buried here was Florence, husband of Agnes Herbert,
who lived in Muckross House until his death in 1770. The last O'Donaghue
buried here was Donal, a direct descendant of The O'Donaghue of the
Glens, who was a member of parliament and died in 1889. His son Jeffrey,
"The O'Donaghue," as the head of the family is always called, is a
barrister living in Dublin, a gentleman of high reputation and much
influence, although he has lost almost everything but his proud name and
a lineage that is interwoven with the history of Ireland since human
actions were recorded.
The grandfather of "The O'Donaghue" was a captain in the Munster
Fusiliers, which were recruited in County Kerry and was stationed at
Chester, near Liverpool, the home of Gladstone, in 1860, during a
religious agitation. A band of rioters were making ready to burn an
effigy of the pope when Captain O'Donaghue warned the leaders that if
such an insult to the holy father was offered the Kerry men of his
regiment would burn the city of Chester to the ground. When this threat
became known the mob dispersed, and there were no more religious
demonstrations while Captain O'Donaghue and the men of Kerry were in the
Chester barracks.
"The O'Donaghues were ginerally prayin' when they woren't foightin' or
dhrinkin'," said the ancient oracle who gave me this information. "They
feared none but God, and since Maolduin O'Donaghue burned the monastery
of Innisfallen and murdered the monks in 1158 they have spint much toime
doin' pinnance for his sins."
It is customary for the heads of these old families to use the word
"The" as a prefix to their names to indicate their rank, and I have seen
letters signed in that way, without the initials of the writer. For
example, "The MacDermott" is a barrister of importance in Dublin. "The
O'Donivan" lives at Cork and retains a part of the ancestral estates.
"The O'Shea" is a clergyman of the Church of England stationed at
Manchester and makes much of his position as the head of the clan. "The
O'Neill" is the Lord of Londonderry, and "The O'Connor" lives at
Sligo--a brother of the late Sir Nicholas O'Connor, who was British
ambassador at Constantinople at the time of his death. "The O'Flaherty"
is a justice of the peace near Galway, and a man of importance. And
members of other old families recognize the head of their clan in a
similar manner, although it carries nothing but glory and gratification
with it.
"The O'Sullivans, the MacCarthys, and all the old families loike the
O'Donaghues, are gone; played out, as ye moight say," remarked the
oracle. "For tin cinturies the O'Sullivans ruled whole counties in
Ireland, but they have lost their proid as well as their property, and
are now contint to kape pooblic houses [saloons] and sit around
complaining of the hard toimes. The whole country south of here is full
of O'Sullivans. There's more of thim than of any other name. If anny wan
were to sail across County Kerry in a balloon and cast out a bag of
corn, ivery kernel would hit an O'Sullivan, but they are only proivates
in the clan. The ruling line is extinct and no O'Sullivan now owns an
acre of the old estates. Nor do the O'Donaghues; they're as poor as
church mice, having lost all but the name and the spirit of the race.
"Look at that grave there; it's filled with the bones of Black Jeffery
O'Donaghue. They called him the Black Prince of the Glenflesk. He lived
at Killaha Castle, situated five moiles from here and built on a rock
standin' in the middle of a bog, and nobody could find the way but those
who knew it. His spirit nothing could contain. He hated the English as
no man ever hated thim before or since, and whin he saw an Englishman
his temper would rise like the hair on the back of an angry dog. No
Englishman ever came within soight of Killaha Castle and got home
aloive. But Black Jeffery died in his bed after all, of tuberculosis; ye
kin see the date on the tomb--1756, age 36.
"Did yez ivir hear about the midnight marriage of the master of Blarney
Castle which took place here in the ruined abbey in the year 1590, which
Quane Elizabeth an' the intire parlymint did their best to prevint? It's
a great story. The heads of the two branches of the MacCarthy family
were thin united in the persons of Florence MacCarthy of Blarney Castle,
the same gintleman that deludered Quane Elizabeth with his soft words
and caused the invintion of the word 'blarney' that is used so much
these days. Waal, he was in love with Aileen MacCarthy, his cousin,
daughter of Donal MacCarthy Mor, Earl of Glencare. The two factions had
been inemies, and it was the policy of the English to kape thim apart,
because a reconciliation would bring them togither an' make thim more
dangerous to British authority. And that was what Quane Elizabeth was
trying to prevint. She feared that if the MacCarthy factions made frinds
they would join Hugh O'Neill and the great Earl of Desmond, thin in
rebellion, and so the marriage was forbidden by her majesty. An' that
made Florence MacCarthy all the more determined to wed Aileen, who had
been his sweetheart in sacrit for several years, and one day he crossed
the lake wid Lady Aileen and her mother in a boat rowed by four lusty
gallowglasses with their battle-axes lyin' where the oars had been.
"They landed at midnight at the abbey, thin half in ruins, solemn and
mournful, in silence and decay. The moon shone through the roofless
walls and the broken windows of the crumbling shrine of Irrelagh, upon
the blissed head of a vinerable friar, Florence MacCarthy's chaplain,
who was awaiting thim himself--one of thim who, in the dark days of
Henry VIII. was expelled from the abbey at the point of a Protestant
sword. Wid him was O'Sullivan Mor, MacFinian, the Countess of Glencare,
and the beautiful Lady Una O'Leary, and that was all. No bard was there
to sing the bridal song, no harp to give swate sounds, no banner to
wave, no clansmen to raise a joyous cheer, an' no spear or battle-ax
gleamed in the moonlight, but the Blissed Virgin and all the saints were
lookin' down all the while, approvin', through the roofless aisles, when
Florence MacCarthy and Aileen MacCarthy pledged their vows.
[Illustration: A WINDOW OF MUCKROSS ABBEY, KILLARNEY]
"This sacred marriage was proclaimed an act of treason by Quane
Elizabeth, and for that Florence MacCarthy went to the Tower, but he got
the bist of it after all."
The windows of Muckross Abbey are the most perfect of any ruin in
Ireland, and the moldings of several of the doorways are in a fine
state of preservation, so that the carving can be carefully studied.
There is a cloister thirty-three feet square, encircled by a vaulted
corridor seven feet wide and lighted by twenty-two arched windows, which
is as good as if it were built yesterday. And in the center of the
quadrangle is a venerable yew tree, said to be the largest in the world,
having been planted by the monks at the foundation of the abbey in 1340.
It was usual, so I am told, for Franciscan monks to plant yew trees in
the courtyards of their monasteries, and they are found frequently in
ruins. The trunk of this tree is smooth and straight to a height of
twenty feet, and is about twelve feet in circumference at the base. The
branches spread over the inclosing walls like an umbrella and darken the
entire quadrangle, which never had any other roof.
Several legends are woven around this majestic tree which, in the eyes
and hearts of the people of Killarney, is an object of great veneration.
If any one should injure it, even by breaking off a twig, he would
excite popular indignation. They believe that such sacrilege will be
punished by the death of the guilty person within a year, and it is a
remarkable coincidence that such things have occurred several times.
The kitchen, the refectory, the chapter-rooms, and several other
apartments are in an excellent state of preservation and are well cared
for, but the cells of the dormitory have almost disappeared. The tower
stands as it was five hundred years ago, but is an empty shell, having
no roof, flooring, or staircase, and visitors are prohibited from
climbing the walls.
Some of the graves are quite modern. Muckross Abbey is still open for
the burial of members of four families, who have ancient rights. The
latest grave was made in 1902. Several of the epitaphs are quite
interesting, particularly those which bear testimony to the virtues and
the happiness and usefulness of the women of the O'Donaghue and
MacCarthy families. For example, one of them describes a beloved wife,
"who, in her progress through life, fulfilled all its duties with
uniform and exemplary prudence, whose respectful love as a daughter,
whose affectionate kindness as a sister, whose fond and provident care
as a mother, and whose endearing tenderness as a wife, were eminently
conspicuous. Combining the discharge of social obligations with piety,
edifying yet unobtrusive, she lived and died a Christian. To rescue her
memory from oblivion, to preserve a remembrance of her virtues for the
instruction and imitation of the young, this stone is erected by her
disconsolate husband."
If you want a description of Muckross Abbey that is worth reading you
will find it in the works of Sir Walter Scott, who was there in 1825,
and if you are pleased with that, and would like a little more of the
same sort, read Lord Macaulay's account of his visit in 1849; in which
he says that one of the boatmen on Lake Killarney "gloried in having
rowed Sir Walter Scott and Maria Edgeworth about the lake when they were
here twenty-four years ago, and said it was a compensation to him for
having missed a hanging which took place in the village that very day."
XXVII
INTEMPERANCE, INSANITY, AND CRIME
There is a great deal of drunkenness in Ireland. There is more in Dublin
than anywhere else, but not so much as in Scotland. In Ireland a saloon
is called "a public house" and a saloon-keeper is called a publican. All
liquor selling is done under licenses granted by the justices of the
peace upon petitions signed by the people of the community in which the
saloon is to be located. There is no limit to the number of licenses;
and there seems to be no particular rule about granting them, except
that the fee of one pound must be paid annually. A license once granted
is perpetual as long as the annual fee is paid and the police do not
show cause why it should be revoked. Licenses are held chiefly by
ordinary merchants, at what we would call country stores, by the
wayside, at "four corners," where the peasants go to trade, and along
highways frequented by teamsters, jaunting cars, bicyclers, and other
people with vehicles. The publican usually puts a watering trough in
front of his place, and thus affords refreshment for man and beast. In
most of the rural districts licenses are held in families and handed
down from generation to generation of storekeepers, who keep bottles on
the shelves and manage to sell enough liquor to pay the fees. If the
business is sold or inherited the license goes with the place, and many
have been running for a hundred years or more.
Until recently anyone could get a license by obtaining a few signatures
of political influence, but a recent act of parliament prohibits the
issue of new licenses except for hotels, genuine clubs, and new villages
of a certain population. The effect of this legislation will be to
gradually reduce the number of liquor sellers and prevent the extension
of the traffic except as new towns may be started, which is not common
in Ireland, as it is in the United States.
In the five principal cities of Ireland, Dublin, Belfast, Cork,
Limerick, and Waterford, special licenses are necessary, and the fees
vary from one pound to sixty pounds per year, according to the amount of
business done. There are "six-day licenses" and "seven-day licenses."
The latter permit liquor selling between two and five o'clock on Sunday
afternoons and require an additional fee. The Sunday closing law is said
to be well enforced throughout all Ireland, but in Dublin crowds of men
and women can be seen standing around the "publics" during the open
hours on Sunday afternoons.
For the year ending March 31, 1907, a total of 23,835 licenses were
issued in Ireland, of which 17,496 were granted to publicans, 2,510 to
wholesale dealers, and 1,022 to wholesale grocers who handle wine, beer,
and spirits to be consumed off the premises; and 2,807 special licenses
were issued for temporary privileges.
The public houses show a slight decrease. Ten years ago, in 1898, there
were 17,407 licenses granted for them; in 1900 there were 17,596; in
1903 there were 17,749; in 1905 there were 17,571, and in 1907 there
were 17,496, or an average of one to every 250 people. The licenses for
the wholesale and grocery traffic also remain about the same.
W.R. Wigham, a Quaker, who is secretary of the Irish Association for the
Prevention of Intemperance, told me that there is less private drinking
and less habitual drinking in Ireland than is generally supposed. The
Irish are a convivial people, but comparatively few men or women drink
for the love of the liquor. Most of the drunkenness is seen at the fairs
and cattle sales, the festivals and wakes, although the use of liquor at
the latter has been forbidden by the bishops and is now much less
frequent than formerly.
In England and Scotland drinking is more regular and general for the
sake of the stimulant, while an Irishman very seldom drinks alone. In
order to lessen intemperance from conviviality an anti-treating
movement was started a few years ago. It was popularly known as "The
League of the Lonely Pint," and for a couple of years was quite
successful, but it did not last.
The quantity of spirituous liquors consumed in Ireland is much less than
in England or Scotland because the population is less, but the average
is greater than in Scotland. The _per capita_ consumption in England for
1906 of alcoholic liquors was 2,090 gallons, in Scotland, 1,430 gallons,
and in Ireland 1,614 gallons.
The drink bill _per capita_ is less in Ireland. Taking all liquors into
the calculation the expenditure _per capita_ for liquor in England last
year was £3 19_s._ 9_d._, in Scotland £3 3_s._ 1_d._, and in Ireland £3
2_s._ 10_d._
The number of arrests for drunkenness and for crimes and offenses which
may be attributed to liquor have been decreasing in Ireland for several
years. In 1902 in all Ireland, 80,054 men and 11,163 women, making a
total of 91,217, were arrested for drunkenness. In 1906 the figures were
68,656 men and 8,606 women, making a total of 77,262. This is a decrease
of 11,398 men and 2,557 women and a total decrease of 13,955 in four
years.
In 1902 one person out of forty-eight was arrested for drunkenness in
Ireland, in 1906 one in fifty-eight, which is a decided improvement; but
think of 8,000 and 11,000 women being arrested for drunkenness!
The number of arrests for assault during the year 1907 in all Ireland
was less than ever before, being only 16,055, in comparison with 24,027
in 1896, 22,065 in 1900, and 16,666 in 1904, while the number of persons
arrested for disorderly conduct decreased from 90,233 to 77,262 during
the same years. There is a terrible side to the picture. Of the women
arrested for drunkenness in Ireland last year more than one thousand
were under twenty-one years of age, 118 between sixteen and eighteen
years of age, while 156 were over sixty.
The Sunday law is pretty well enforced, and during the last year,
outside of the five principal cities, 2,289 persons were arrested for
its violation. That is about the average for the last ten years.
In Dublin there has been a decided falling off in the arrests for
drunkenness on Sunday; the total in 1898 was 1,280, while in 1907 it was
only 404. The number of arrests for drunkenness on Sunday in Cork
decreased from 265 to 193 during the same period, and those in Belfast
from 537 to 434.
In the city of Dublin alone 1,772 women were arrested for drunkenness in
1907 and 2,941 men. In 1904, 1,976 women were arrested for drunkenness.
I don't suppose there is any city in the world where there is so much
drunkenness among women as there is in Dublin, except it be Glasgow and
Edinburgh, although the number of drunken men arrested is not so much
larger than the average in other cities of Europe and the United States.
And what is even more lamentable, the public is so hardened to the
repulsive spectacle that it does not attract as much curiosity as the
appearance of an ordinary drunken man upon the streets of Chicago or New
York. Women stagger from the doors of saloons along the sidewalks with
disheveled hair and disordered garments without attracting any attention
whatsoever.
The Roman Catholic clergy are doing a great deal to suppress disorder
and promote temperance by prohibiting the use of liquor at wakes.
Cardinal Logue and the several archbishops and bishops are determined to
abolish the disgraceful orgies that have been so common on such
occasions, and have forbidden priests to officiate at funerals or even
to say masses for the souls of the dead where liquor is offered to the
neighbors and mourners who sit up with the corpse. Some of the bishops
require the remains to be brought to the church on the day before the
funeral. As a consequence, the scandalous custom of holding a carousal
the night before the funeral is almost entirely obsolete except in the
slums of the large cities and in remote rural districts. As a rule
throughout Ireland, where friends now gather to "sit up" with the corpse
as a token of respect and sorrow, they are furnished with no stronger
refreshments than tea. The teapot is placed upon the stove or upon the
peat fire and the mourners help themselves as they desire; but if a
bottle of liquor is passed around it is done with the greatest caution
for fear the priest will hear of it.
Like the colored people of the United States, the peasants of Ireland
are possessed with an ambition to have "a fine funeral." Among the poor
this form of extravagance has been the cause of a great deal of distress
and privation, and formerly poor families often deprived themselves of
food to supply liquor that was consumed at the wake. This hospitable
custom, however, is rapidly passing away.
The Irish Association for the Prevention of Intemperance is composed of
delegates from nearly all of the many temperance societies in Ireland,
both Roman Catholic, Church of Ireland, Nonconformist, and Independent.
There are many mutual benefit societies among workingmen which
affiliate, and various associations of women and children. For the
purpose of co-operation and economy and to avoid friction and
duplication of labor, this central organization has been formed, and
consists of one representative from every contributing society. The
general council meets three times a year, has a complete organization,
sends lecturers into the field, issues literature, makes investigations,
and has committees to look after legislation that concerns the liquor
traffic.