PICTURES FROM IRELAND.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 79, 31 October 1874, Page 10

PICTURES FROM IRELAND.

"We take a few extracts from an article in the ' Catholic World ' entitled "A (glimpse of the Green Isle" :— THE BOCK OF CASHEL. There is little now that is regal about " Cashel of the Kings." It las its ruins, but nothing else. The approaches to tlie ruins show more of poverty and discomfort than I remember to have seen in any other town in Ireland. There is a majesty about the ruins. The rock on which they stand is about three hundred feet high. There is a lofty round tower m a good state of preservation. The frescoes in one oi the halls, said to have been the council chamber, are in a state of wonderful freshness. The floors of some of the apartments in the second story seem as perfect as ever they could have been. The carved stone-work over the porch of one of the entrances — to Cormac's Chapel, I think— is the admiration of connoisseurs. Every foot of this ground awakens a historical remembrance. I see the rude rulers of ancient Ireland assetnbled in their regal state. The second Henry and Edward Bruce pass before my mind's eye. I see that fierce and unscrupulous nobleman, the eighth of the Geraldine earls of Kildare, and think of his astonishing ideas of right and wrong. When Mormion Harry took him to task for burning the Cathedral of Cashel, he pJeaded as his excuse, that when he fired the church he thought the bishop was in it ! What a pleasant neighbor Lord Gerald must have "been ! HOLY CBOSS -4BBEY. About four or five miles from Thurles are the ruins of Holy Cross Abbey. Our ride thither was through a delightful country in all the -humid beauty of an Irish spring. The ruins are not extensive. They have betn so often and so minutely described that a detailed description is not necessary here. Besides, lam not writing a guide-book. I must mention, however, a stone ballustrade. The principal window is a splendid piece of work. It is in excellent preservation. There are a number of tombs of considerable age in the abbey. Near the principal window is one to which a singular legend is attached. It was related to us by the guardian of the place, an old woman of 80 "but hale and hearty, chatty and cheerful— such a pleasant female Old Mortality as the immortal Sir Walter would have loved to study and depict. I have often wondered at the cheerfulness with which the old among the Irish poor bear the burden of lengthened existence. The tomb is of stone, and iv its upper surface is a hollow. The old woman told us that it was worn by a rain-drop which for many years fell unceasingly from the roof until the constant dropping wore into the stone the hollow that we saw. The drop began to fall on the commission of some crime, or some offence against the church— ahe did not recollect which— by " one of the family "— " perhaps some trouble with the priest of the parish." It continued to full, drip, drip, drip rain or shine, year in and year out, until the crime was atoned for or the offences pardoned, or the family sold out and left the country. Then tho drop ceased to fall, and has never fallen since. * * # SACEVILLE STEEET, DUBLIN. Certain tourists have claimed for Sackville street the proud preeminence of being " the finest thoroughfare in Europe." Ido not thiuk the claim well-founded. Ido not consider it equal to some of the new boulevards in Paris, or even to some of those iv Brussels It is certainly grand and imposing as far as it goes, but it does not go far enough. Sackville street, however, presents a lively scene on a fine afternoon. Beautiful women, well-dressed gentlemen, lich toilets, and , magnificent equipages may then be seen ; the toilets superior to anything to be seen out of Pari*, the equipages not to be equalled out of London. Nothing that I have seen on the Continent of Europe can compare with the " turnouts " and " tattle " driven in Dublin. The most beautiful equipage I have noticed, and at the game time the chastest m its elegant simplicity, was that of Earl Spencer, the present -viceroy; four dark bays— blood horses— with postillions and outTiders m a dark livery almost black, with white buckskin breeches and topboots. Not a brass button or strip of tawdry gold lace to be «een. Compared with this equipage, the state carriages at Buckingham Palace and Versailles looked like circus wagons. TBS IHISH PEOPLE. I have already said that the Irish in Ireland are becoming a serious people. ' I did not meet a single specimen of the Irish joker, indispensable to the tourist iv Ireland a quarter of a century W If he ever existed as they represented him, the railways have killed him Now there is no time fot display of wit, so called. I think the extinction of the genius "joker" is something to be grateful for. I did not ccc any evidence of suffering among the laboring classes or any more raggedneas than in England, France, or Germany. Artizaus are becoming scarce, and can command good wages. It is hard to get agncultmal laborers; they can almost get their own terms. Those who may be obtained cannot be kept very long; they work merely to save enough to join their relatives and friends in the Land of the Free. lhe traditional costume of the stage Irishman i 3i 3 ai rarely seen in Ireland as the sbort-waisted, long-tailed coat, and striped trousers of the stage Yankee in the United States. I saw but one pair of «• kneebreeches between Cork and Kingstown. I did not, encounter a single shilleluh.