The Shannon to Killaloe

New Zealand Tablet, 13 October 1910, Page 1665

The Shannon to Killaloe

One of the most delightful trips in all Ireland is to be had in sailing down the Shannon from Banagher to Killaloe (says a correspondent in the Chicago Citizen). During the summer season a steamer runs each way daily, completing the journey in about eight hours. The boat zigzags along the river, landing and taking on passengers. A train runs from Dublin to Banagher by way of Clara to meet the boat. I was accompanied by Rev. M. Bonfield, of Chicago. We left Banagher, and soon the little steamer was at its best, racing down the Irish ' Father of Waters,' for she must get her passengers in time for the 5 p.m. train, which leaves Killaloe for Dublin, thus making the round trip in one day. We were not very long on board when it was our good fortune to make the acquaintance of a very learned, distinguished Irish ecclesiastic, Very Rev. Dean Monahan, for many years parish priest of Banagher and now of Ferbane. Having spent the greater part of his long life in the locality, he is familiar with every point of interest along the river banks. Ho was a classmate of the present Archbishops of Tuam and Dublin in Maynooth, under the late Dean Neville. He belongs to the diocese of Ardagh, for the mitre of which he was placed three times at the head of the list by his fellow-priests, but in his humility he declined the honor and the office. The first stopping place of any particular interest is the town of Portumna* on the right, with its spacious quay and wharf, which look deserted and devoid of any trace of business, but yet mute reminders of more prosperous times and a commerce that was, but has faded ana gone. The extensive and solidly constructed locks which are found here show that Portumna was once a thriving business centre. A little further on some splendid mansions are to be seen nestling at the foot of the hills surrounded by beautiful lawns and backed by clumps of trees. Among them are those of the late Lord Dunboyne, founder of the Dunboyne post-graduate institution at Maynooth. Then there is the famous and costly castle of the late Mitchell Henry, a former M.P., and one of the Isaac Butt Home Rulers. Arriving at AVhitegate, County Galway, about noon, we landed to see the village. Whitegate, though a small and rather poor looking village, has a neat Catholic church with a parish priest and curate. In the person of Father Cloon, the parish priest, the visitor to this village will find a true-hearted Irishman and hospitable host; though the parish is in Galway, strange to say it belongs to the diocese of Killaloe. Here three dioceses join one another, in as many counties, that of Achonry, Ardagh, and Galway. Next morning we started to take the steamer for Killaloe, but found that it called at AVhitegate only on alternate days; this day it was to call at the opposite shore at Drumaneer, five miles distant.. What were we to do? It was eighteen Irish miles to drive to Killaloe along by Scariff and fourteen miles in the opposite direction to Portumna, the next railway town. We reached Drumaneer by means of a row-boat, where we boarded the steamer. Soon we arrived at the broad expanse of the Shannon, known as Lough Dergthe Red Lakenot to be confounded v with Lough Derg of Donegal, where St. Patrick's Purgatory is located. This vast lake is about twenty-five miles long, and three wide. The east shore, or Tipperary side, is studded at intervals with ruined churches and castles, which are silent witnesses of a glorious past. On the west a lofty range of mountains rise from the water's edge, in serrated sequence with almost mathematical regularity.

Several islands dot the surface of the lake, Iniscaltra ! Holy Islandbeing the largest; it is also called the Island of the Seven Churches ’ and the ‘ Island of Pilgrims, and is much frequented by antiquarians. St. Caimin, who lived about the middle of the seventh century, built a monastery here afterwards, and to this day called Teampul-Caimin (the temple of St. Caimin). It was here the Saint wrote his commentary on the Psalms. In 834 the island was ravaged by the Danes, who descended upon it from Limerick, and in 927 Brian Boru rebuilt the church. The ruins to-day consist of a Round Tower and the remains of seven small churches, all in a good state of preservation and an ancient cemetery containing many tombs with Gaelic inscriptions and Celtic crosses. The Round Tower is supposed to be the residence of a celebrated anchorite, St. Cosgraich, ‘the miserable.’ From this point on to Killaloe, on both sides of the river, there are many mansions, the former residences of landlords.