PROSPEROUS IRELAND

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXVI, Issue 8292, 30 November 1901, Page 2 (Supplement)

PROSPEROUS IRELAND

(By 31. J. F. M'Carthy. author of "Five Years in Ireland.")

The riches: stretch of countrv to be seen in the course of a railway journev in Ireland is the 115 miles of Emerald" Isle be-

tween Dublin ana Belfast. Id is richer land and better tilJsd than any line of country of the same length to be s'een along- anv of the treat trunk iinc-s of England. _The_ railway ft-d by this rich country—viz.. the Great Xort'kern of Ireland—pars a. dividend of 6? per cent to i:s ordinarr shareholders, and its ordinary stock s*ands to-day a: £163 per £IOO stock, which happens to be_ also to-day's quotation for London and -Sorih-Wesrern stock ! Our Great Northern -Railway performs -he practical and national work of uni;ing north with south in Ireland: and the result- teaches a t-e,linjr Issson to those loinenters of discord between the two trreat secjons of Ireland who are themselves ever bankrupt, ever mendicant, ever unhappv. Leaving Ami=ns street bv anv of the well-appointed mornin; trains', one gets into Belfast- in three hoursfor a little under. Lovely September morning. Out quickly into open countiy. Small, rich fields, in which the stooks of wheat, oats, and barley are so thickly packed :iiat one wonders how such a luxuriant crop could ever have stood erect in the field. Twenty-four and twenty-eight barrels of oats to the acre are not uncommon in this land ! Baxloyle ! What a melancholy spectacle a deserted racecourse is! How delightfully clear-cut the bold outlines of Howth and our peerless little island. Ireland's Lye, stand out against the grev-blue September sky. I doubt n any o! the isles of Greece excel Ireland s £ye in »eauty as seen from the water, or over the flat 'and of Baldoyle as I see it now. Malahide. its island and its splendid estuary; the new "auxiliary" lunatic asylum at Portraine, with its towers and its shafts, like some great hive of industry, in the distance. The building of this monstrously expensive asylum has been one of the great events, one of the chief outlets for Dublin energy during the past five years! If a few flourishing factories were equipped with the money, the existing asylum would; have less inmates. Over the brows of -jhe glorious farm land; rises Lambay Isle. What- is that collection, of dome-shaped, thatch-roofed houses thrown in a cluster close go tihe Line, with-' out a street, without a thoroughfare, like, a mid-African village? That is Donabate; one of the most typical of Irish.Tillages, "whose people are well-off, though primitively and insanitarily housed, and which is. only twelve miles from Dublin. What glorious, rich, level country—well .peopled, wonderfully tilled! Behold that string of green islands in the blue sea, -with the rocky isles surmounted by a white tower farthest out; they are the Skerries, and thai is Bockahill, witli its -lighthouse. How lovely ! Past ugly hut prosperous Balbriggan, famed for its hosiery, we fly; and note the fishing-boats beating out to windward in Indian file from its little harbor. Long, stretches of silver strand on which the surf ■ breaks, comfortable farmhouses, neatlykept railway stations, grand short pasture in th 6 small fields, peeps of the sea 'between the knolls, Aberdeen-Angus cattle, Hereford cait'e, colts grazing quietly, and in front of us the ridge of high land which i-enninates in Clogher Head and is the northern boundary of the valley of the Boyne. We are racing to the Boyne, and shall cross it- by such a magnificent viaduct as King William's philosophy never dreamt of in 1695. of "glorious and immortal memory."

This is firogheda. OS we go, across the Boyne at an elevation of 200 feet over the level of the river. There lies drowsy JJrogheda underneath me, with its spires and their crosses and their clangorous belis, and its sleepy, deserted quays; but it might be far worse, although it might also be far better. It- marks the first stage of northern progress; it has manufactures, it has energy and individuality.

On. on through the glorious country. This is the comity Louth, whose farmers are the best in Ireland. Smallest county in Ireland; a proof that the best goods are made up in small parcels. It has three first-class towns —Dundalk, Drogheda, and Ardee —besides several prosperous Tillages. Barley, barley everywhere! Two breweries in Drogheda, one at CaStlebellingham, two .breweries and a distillery at Dundalk, besides linen mills, iron foundry works, tobacco manufactory, and several industries. JS'od bad, in the midst of a most prosperous agricultural communitv. On we race over well-watered land, full streams, through corn, corn, corn, with lovely farm-hous:s white as snow under their beaver-hued roofs of thatch. Villages, farmsteads, heads of cattle, pasture, corn, corn, corn! Early autumn alreadv ploughing in full swing in the stubbles. That is the way to work the J and. After-grass and stubble full of stock, both sheep and cattle, and, occasionally, pigs and fowl. Here is Dundalk. That is Macardles brewery standing in the fields, beside Macardie's family mansion and neat gardens, with its own railway siding—a nice clump of buildings. Best designed railway station in Ireland, island formation, all the conveniences equally open to a-11 travellers np or down. Dundalk is a good town, well-to-do people, no spires, solvent, »nd stirring. We are getting further north. This is the Meigh district, pronounced Mike. I know of nothing like it in Ireland. But of Meigh another time; and at some leno+h; but one must note the cultivation right up to the mountain tops., the heather bo<rs; the boy of fifteen cutting corn with a scythe, the girl of thirteen binding after him. Where is the father? I shall tell you another time. Out of Meigh, into the open upland. There is Newry, acrossthe vallev with its mills, and, alas, its spires, an imposing town. This is the remarkable town of Bessbrook, with its rich mills, its population of 3400, and, marvellous to relate. not a single licensed house for the sale of intoxicating drink. No paraJM for this in Ireland. We are in tie north now; this is the county of Armagh on the confines of Down. . Goraeh. Wood is the junction of Newrv and Armash, and beside the line you behold a crowd of men working the granite quarries. On, past Poyntzpass; past Scarva., where the Orange muster is held on the twelfth of July; past Tanderagee; and we arrive at the useful, placid River Bann, and the prosperous town of Portadown, ■with its factories, mills, and chimneys. Nest comes Lurgan, only a few miles cn, a good, prosperous town also, close to Lough Neagh, which you can see shinins to the north. Grand country, hedgers and ditchers at work by the fences; corn, corn everywhere. We fly past the Maze, site of tjhe only race meeting of repute in the North of Ireland, past villages and farmsteads in one of the best-peopled lands ever seen bv the eve of man. Here comes Lisburn alwavs"a clorious sight; fine mills, fine town, smart people. That is Barbours place—Hilden is its name—they are the great linen spinners. That is not snow in summer that covers the green fields around Mr Barbour's fine mansion and his grand mills and lovelv laborers cottages: thai is not snow, but it is as white as Alpine snow, Md a more precious connnodity-as SLble as it is beautiful. It is linen sheetLg covering acres upon acre.ofge™ Antrim "toss. Glorious sight for an lrisfc Here we are under theshade of Cove Hill and Dms C ; le rea.h hills. Here we are in Belfast, as to which a brief word, and then I am Countless shafts, mills innumerable < Three hundred thousand people to-day in 1 town, or rather a city. which bfty yean; So a hTbut 70,000!' That is the cfnal building, to be complied next year J- a. cost of £200.000. The new waterworks scheme, bringing a supply of wa.er from the Mourne Mountains, also ™ vanced to completion, will cost neaily a million and a half. This is the where ■they build ships like the Oceanic and the C Let'us look into a shop. That imposing one at the corner of t he Royal-avenue froming the new municipal building is Robinson and Cleaver's. You are surprised au the <=tvle of it—c-ood enough for London. W'hv, thev have a branch in Regent stree. have just bought out an entire t>.oc ' c 0.->t to Peter Eobinson's. But. you never saw a shop in London like this. The glazed lmen shirt- vou buy at the corner, the collar, uie handkerchief, the tablecloth, the napkin, the woollen rug, the parasol, and what- not, are all made on the premises. Go downstairs under the shop floor. What is that- powerful steam and gas driven machinery for? You seem in a factory, whereas you have only stepped down out of Up again by the lift

flook at the showrooms upstairs, where ladies are trying on expensive maniiles. Go on to the nest; floor; hundreds of sewing machines, power-driven, guided by hundreds of hiealchy girls sitting as close as pupils in a national school, are making- liie shirts and blouses that are being sold downstairs. Up to the steam- laundry; there are the brand new shins being made up by gas heaters. Hundreds of girls ! Up to the looms; there is a weaver engaged on a most elaborate tablecloth. Downstairs again. What's this? The parcel post office. A thousand parcels a day despatched all over the earth with Robinson and Cleaver's shirts and collars and tablecloths, and countless other things. Four thousand postal customers of the single name of .Smith in the ledger ! That is a Bl&fast shop. It is characteristic of the people; it is thorough.