Irish Essays
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L I E> RA RY OF THE U N I VERS ITY Of ILLINOIS 91415 H35i Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016 https://archive.org/details/irishessaysliter1908heal : IRISH ESSAYS LITERARY AND HISTORICAL MOST REV. JOHN HEALY, D.D., LL.D Archbishop of Tuam, &em DUBLIN CATHOLIC TRUTH SOCIETY OF IRELAND, 24, Upper O’Connell Street. 1908. All Rights Reserved. PREFACE. The following essays, written at different times and in different circumstances during the last fifteen years, touch upon some of the most interesting points in the civil and religious history of Ireland. They have already appeared separately as booklets of the Catholic Truth Society, and as such have, the author is informed, been eagerly read by thousands throughout the country. With much pleasure, therefore, has he acceded to the wish of the Society, to have them collected and published in book form, and made more attractive by the addition of many appropriate illustrations. It is his earnest hope that the little volume may, in some small way at least, help the main purpose of the Society—the diffusion of sound Catholic information, which, for the masses of our people, will have a living interest as well. Archbishop of Tiiam.^b o'0* CL ist October , 1908. Af 3 CONTENTS. tv page The Four Masters i Tara, Pagan and Christian ... 18 ^ Some Irish Graves in Rome ... ... 36 T The Holy Wells of Ireland ... 52 The Round Towers of Ireland 64 St. Patrick in the Far West 73 Two Royal Abbeys on the Western Lakes 87 Grania Uaile 107 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. His Grace Most Rev. Dr. Healy, Archbishop of Tuam. ... ... ... ...Frontispiece Donegal Abbey ... ... ... Facing page 6 Tara—Showing St. Patrick’s Statue and the Croppies’ Stone ... ... „ 22 Hugh O’Neill, Earl of Tyrone . • . „ 38 Interior of Church of St. Peter in Montorio ... ... ... ... „ 38 St. Patrick’s Well, Clonmel ... ... ,, 58 Holy Well, Slieve League ... ... „ 60 Clochan, or Oratory of St. Gallerus, Dingle „ 66 Tower on Devenish Island ... ... ,, 70 Aghagower, Co. Mayo ... ... ... ,, 74 Soaring Summit, as seen from afar ... „ 78 Shrine of the Bell of St. Patrick ... „ 80 Croagh Patrick from the Sea ... ... „ 82 Pilgrims Surrounding the Oratory on the Summit of Croagh Patrick ... ... „ 84 Oratory on Croagh Patrick ... ... „ 86 Cong Abbey ... ... ... ... ,, 88 The Cross of Cong ... ... ... ,, 98 Clare Island Castle—West and East View „ 112 Kildavnet Castle ... ... ... ,, 114 Clew Bay ... ... ... ... ,, 114 Grania Uaile before Queen Elizabeth ... „ 120 Murrisk Abbey ... ... ... ,, 120 * The Four Masters. HE name of the Four Masters will be always a dear and venerable name in Ireland ; and a sketch of their lives and labours must prove both interesting T and instructive to everyone who feels the least interest in the history of his native land. That name was first given to the compilers of the Annals of Donegal the celebrated Colgan and it was felt to by J ohn ; be so appropriate that it has been universally adopted by Irish scholars. It has, indeed, sunk deep into the hearts of the people, and the memory of the Masters is fondly cherished even by those who know little— or nothing of their history. As O’Curry has truly said : “ It is no easy matter for an Irishman to suppress feelings of deep emotion when speaking of the Four Masters ; and especially when he considers the circumstances under which, and the objects for which, their great work was undertaken.” Just a mile to the north of the estuary of the river Erne, on a steep and nearly insulated cliff overhanging the stormy waters of the Bay of Donegal, may still be noticed by a careful observer the grey ruin of an old castle that in the distance can hardly be distinguished from the craggy rock on which it stands. That shapeless remnant of a ruin is now all that remains of Kilbarron Castle, for some three hundred years the cradle, the home, and the school of the illustrious family of the O’Clerys, from whom three of the Masters sprang. All those who can appreciate scenic beauty, and who feel something of the spiritual power that brings from out the storied past visions of vanished glories to illuminate the present, should not fail to visit Kilbarron Castle. The rock on which it stands is not only steep, but overhanging ; and the waves are for ever thundering far below. Before you is the noble Bay of Donegal, the largest and finest in Ireland, flanked as it is on three sides by grand mountain *This paper was prepared and delivered as a Lecture to the Students of Maynooth in the Aula Maxima. It has been slightly altered in some respects to suit its present purpose. — 2 THE FOUR MASTERS. ranges, exhibiting every variety of shape and colouring, but open to the west, and therefore to the prevailing winds which carry in the unbroken billows of the Atlantic to the very rocks beneath your feet. Poor D’Arcy M‘Gee, influenced by the grandeur of its surroundings, and doubtless even still more by the associations of the past, has described Kilbarron Castle in a sonnet of much grace and beauty. The opening lines describe the scene : “ Broad, blue, and deep, the Bay of Donegal Spi*eads north and south and far a- west before The beetling cliffs sublime, and shattered wall, Where the******O’Clerys’ name is heard no more. Home of a hundred annalists, round thy hearths, alas ! The churlish thistles thrive, and the dull grave-yard grass.” The “ home of a hundred annalists ” is fast falling into the sea ; but the grey ruin is still lit up with the radiance of an old romantic story that tells how the O’Clerys came to Kil- barron, and how they grew and flourished there. These O’Clerys originally belonged to the southern Hy Fiachrach, or the Hy Fiachrach Aidhne, whose ancient kingdom was conterminous with the present diocese of Kilmacduagh. But they were driven out by the Burkes in the thirteenth century, and were forced to migrate northwards to their ancient kinsmen on the banks of the river Moy, who were known as the northern Hy Fiachrach. Yet even there they were not allowed to remain in peace, for the Burkes and Barretts followed them, and once more the O’Clerys were compelled to seek new quarters. Tirconnell was still the inviolate home of Irish freedom, and its grand mountains could be seen any day from Tirawley, rising up in strength and pride beyond the bay to the north-east. Then it was that a certain Cormac O’Clery, disgusted with his oppressors by the river Moy, put his books in his wallet, and, taking his staff in his hand, set out for the inviolate home of freedom in the North. Round by Sligo he walked, lodging probably at Columcille’s abbey of Drumcliff ; then, keeping between the mountains and the sea, he crossed the fords of the Erne, and came into Tirhugh, the demesne lands of the chieftains of Royal Donegal. Now, the young man, being hungry and footsore, betook himself for rest and shelter to the hospice of the great abbey Assaroe, which the children of St. Bernard had founded long before in a pleasant valley on the banks of a small stream that falls into the river Erne a little THE FOUR MASTERS. 3 to the seaward of Ballyshannon. Abbey Assaroe, like most of the foundations of St. Bernard’s children in Ireland, was a great and wealthy monastery, while its hospice was always open with a hearty welcome to receive the poor and the stranger. But in Cormac O’Clery the good monks soon discovered that they had more than an ordinary guest ; and we are told that they loved him much “ for his education and good morals,” and also “ for his wisdom and intelli- gence.” This is not to be wondered at, for Cormac O’Clery, besides being an Irish scholar and poet, was, we are expressly told, a learned proficient both in the “ Canon and Civil Law.” Now, you must not think that you have had the Irish monopoly of these things in Maynooth, and that our ancient Celtic scholars knew nothing about them. The Canon and Civil Law were taught, and well taught, far west of the Shannon fifty years before Cormac O’Clery went to Donegal. Under date of a.d. 1328, the Four Masters record the death of Maurice O’Gibellain, “ chief professor of the New Law, the Old Law, and the Canon Law.” The New Law was the Civil or Roman Law, then recently brought to Ireland from the schools of Bologna the Old Law was the Brehon Law ; ; and, of course, the Canon Law they had in one shape or another from the time of St. Patrick. This O’Gibellain is described as a truly learned sage, canon chorister of Tuam, and officialis, or diocesan judge, for nearly all the prelates of the West. O’Clery, therefore, would be in no want of teachers to instruct him in the Canon and Civil Law. Now, Abbey Assaroe was only about three miles from what was then Kilbarron Castle and frequent visitor at the ; a abbey was its owner at the time, Matthew O’Sgingin, the historical Ollave of O’Donnell, who had many years before come to the banks of the Erne from his native territory near Ardcarne, in the County Roscommon. He was then an old man his only son, Giolla Brighde, of his house, ; the hope and the intended Ollave of Tirconnell, was slain in battle about the year 1382 ; and now his hearth was very lonely and his house was desolate, for save one only daughter, he had no child in his all, castle by the sea ; above no son to be heir of his name and of his learning amongst the gallant chiefs of Old Tirconnell.