I felt as if I were obtaining admiration on false pretences. The
woman took my hand, and, with a long fond look, began to bless me in
English, but her feelings compelled her to slide off into fervent Irish.
The frieze-coated gentleman stood, hat in hand, and bowed and bowed, and
"his life was at my service, and if I wished to pass unnoticed sure he
could whisht, and good-by and God bless you." and away they went. For
whom did they take me?
Clare is pretty stony. Again I saw fields from which stones had been
gathered to form fences like ramparts. Again I saw fields crusted with
stone like the fields of Cong, with the same waterworn appearance, but
not so extensive. The little, pretty station of Cusheen seemed an oasis
in a stony wilderness.
Past many a little field hemmed in with stony barricades, past many an
ancient ruin, sitting in desolation, into Athenry, the ancient Ath-an-
righ, the fortress of kings. It was pouring rain, it often is pouring
rain. I took shelter in the hotel whose steps rise from the railway
station. There, in a quaint little corner room with a broad strip of
window, I settled myself to write with the light of a poor candle, and
the rain fell outside. Athenry bristles with ruins.
King John has another castle here all in ruins. There is a part of a
wall here and there, and the arch of a gate which has been patched up
and has some fearful hovels leaning up against it. It has the ruins of
an abbey and of a priory. The names of Clanricarde and De Birmingham
linger among these ruins; the modern cabins, without window pane or any
chimney at all, but a hole in the roof, are mixed up with the ruins
also.
The well-fed maid at the hotel informed me that they were very poor.
There is no work and no tillage, the land being in grass for sheep. "I
do not believe any of them know what a full meal means. No one knows how
they manage to live, the creatures," said the maid, comfortably. So the
night and the morning passed at Athenry, and we passed on to the village
of Oranmore.
LI.
GALWAY AND THE MEN OF GALWAY.
From Athenry and its ruins went to Oranmore and its ruins. The poverty
of Athenry deepens into still greater poverty in Oranmore. The country
is under grass, hay is the staple crop, so there being little tillage,
little labor is required. They depend on chance employment to procure
the foreign meal on which they live. Some depend for help to a great
extent on the friends in America.
There is a new pier being built here, for an arm of the sea runs up to
Oranmore.
