I think Galway is a very prosperous thriving town. I went to the bathing
place of Salt Hill, a long suburb of pretty cottages, mostly to be let
furnished to sea bathers. I should have gone on to Cushla Bay and to the
islands of Arran, but I did not. I looked round me and returned to
Galway.
There is difference perceptible to me, but hardly describable between
the Galway men and the rest of the West. The expression of face among
the Donegal peasantry is a patience that waits. The Mayo men seem
dispirited as the Leitrim men also do, but are capable of flashing up
into desperation. The Galway men seem never to have been tamed. The
ferocious O'Flaherties, the fierce tribes of Galway, the dark Spanish
blood, have all left their marks on and bequeathed their spirit to the
men of Galway. I met one or two who, like some of the Puritans, believed
that killing was not murder, who urged that if the law would not deter
great men from wrong-doing it should not protect them.
When trade revives and prosperity dawns upon the West the fierce blood,
like the Norman blood elsewhere, will go out in enterprise and spend
itself in improvements.
Land was pointed out to me in Galway for which L4 an acre was paid by
village people to plant potatoes in. This is called conacre. In going
through Galway City, even in the suburbs, I did not see great appealing
poverty such as I saw elsewhere. There was the bustle of work and the
independence of work everywhere, but in the country, there seems poverty
mixed with the fierce impatience of seeing no better way to mend
matters. I heard of evictions having taken place here and there, but saw
none.
LII.
THE LAKES OF KILLARNEY.
There is a good deal of disturbance about Limerick, according to the
papers. A traveller would never discover it. It does not appear on the
surface. I have been a little here and there in the environs of
Limerick, and have seen no sign of any mob or any disturbance. Police go
out unexpectedly to do eviction service and it is only known when the
report comes in the papers.
I did not hear in Limerick town or county, in any place where I happened
to be, of any landlord who had got renown for any special hardness.
There was a person boycotted quite near to the city who was getting help
from neighboring landowners to gather in his crops. What his offence was
I did not learn.
In Limerick I met with an old and very dear friend who gave me a few
facts about boycotting as seen in personal experience. An outlying farm
was taken by my friend from which a widow lady had been evicted before
the present agitation commenced.
