Notes of Travel

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LII, Issue 35, 16 September 1925, Page 25

Notes of Travel

- (By J.K.) / 1

After a wet and a windy May, certain, if there be truth in proverbs, to fill the haggards with corn and hay, came June more radiant and beautiful than she appeared to Irish eyes for many a year. She found me in the Irish Midlands, in green Laoighis, }M- as Queen's County is again called. Her if} footsteps among the meadows left flowers yF& where she passed; her breath was fragrant among the hedgerows, now white with the late hawthorn; the apple-blossoms in the orchards and the candles of the glorious horse-chestnuts in the woods festooned her more richly as the days succeeded each other in unbroken sunshine and gladness. One day I went up to the Rock of Duna- ';,... mase, and from that war-worn fortress looked

down long oh the rich plains of Laoighis '■ and Uafaille spread below me. Ireland was V all smiles. The tears had vanished. I J'•-'- prayed that the omen might be verified in :|| the picture and that this peaceful, smiling. j| June weather might be" a pledge of the .. prosperity to come. Then I went to Dublin again. It was full of American doctors — party of seven' hun- ' \ dred had come over a. few days earlier. The f.;- events of 1916 and 1921 had left old Dublin poor in hotels, and it was with difficulty I found a resting place' even in the spacious and expensive Shelbourne. Poor Dublin! Even the green leaves and k\ the rich flowers of 4he early summer did not hide your' ruins, and with all the good-will in the world I could not blame the Ameri- | . can doctors whom I heard condemning the food and accommodation in your hostelries. The good weather inspired me to cross to j± with the promptness of a !»C\Celt,_ I went at once to Cooks and took a Hi ticket to Glasgow. The same evening I r X sailed out under Howth and watched the

sun going down behind the "Wicklow hills, and when the Mountains of Mourne were rising like shadows on our port bow I went to sleep, praying for a fine morning to begin my travels in Scotia. Alas! black clouds hid the sun next morning, and we went up the Clyde in rain and mist. At Greenock I determined to get off the Moor fowl and wait for the steamer which was coming down for the Kyles of Bute and the Crinan Canal. Sunshine and warmth are. essentials > for the success of a cruise. They were absent that morning, and in place of them was a Scotch mist which ; completely hid whatever beauties these places might possess. ; At Oban it was brighter, but still cold,

BONNIE SCOTLAND (I)

and the general conditions did not make for enjoyment. To make-matters worse, a gas-/; trie attack compelled me to postpone,. perhaps for ever, the trip to lona, and I could but look out towards it and imagine how. Columcille sat on its cliffs on a grey day, hundreds of years ago, sighing with the.hunger of the exile from Erin for the land in the west. ■" So it was that, lona unvisited, I went to Edinboro' where the clouds rolled away and warm sunshine made the lovely old city still more, lovable. . . - . -, ■"h \. s Edinboro', as you all know, is only a bad way of, writing Dunedain, or Dunedin. And here, among the kindly Scots, and with their rich Doric speech in my ears, I felt as much, at home as in our own Princes Street* in Otago. I have no need to tell Scots about their capital city. They are proud of it,'.. and. they are right. There is no city in England, Ireland, or Scotland half' so beautiful 'as this noble metropolis, throned in its high hills above the broad waters of the Forth,

which are crooning at my feet as I write now, on the beach at Joppa. When you climb the steep path to Arthur's Seat and, look down on the spires and towers between you and the Frith of Forth, all the romance of the story of Scotland comes upon you. Down there is Holyrood, with its royal palace where Mary Stuart lived, and its royal chapel where she often prayed. There is the royal park where David was attacked by the stag and saved by the relic of Holy Rood, from which the palace derives its name. And' up there on your left are the bastions of j the Castle which was the scene of so many stirring events in the warring years of old Scotland. As I sat on the green slopes of the hill the great actors in these scenes arose

la . v.V.

before my mind out of the past—the beanl timul Mary, the gentle Rizzio, Darnley, Both well, and the gloomy and bigoted Knox Turn back to your Walter Scott or to your Hewlitt and you will realise what Ed'nboro', means to a true Scotsman, but neither you nor I will understand how it is that a race with such a history is content to be ruled by aliens. ." Among my wanderings and txplo,' aliens of the old city I came upon a little Catholic church—the Church of St. . Patrick !--clown under the shadow of Cannongite, in Blackfriars district. And that reminds me that it is not unlikely that our great Apostle was born over Triig Dumbarton, or perhaps at Kilpatrick, on the Clyde. So that if we gafe Colnmcille to the Scots, they may have given us Patrick, and thus there is a tie of religion as well as of race between us, at home and ii»road. <H> OBITUARY MRS. MARGARET McCARTHY, TESCHEMAKERS. » (Contributed.) ; With deep regret the death is recorded of Mrs. Margaret McCarthy, which occurred at her residence, Teschemakers, near Oamaru, on the 26th ult. The deceased lady, who was born near Ennis, Co. Clare. Ireland, in 1841, came to New Zealand in 1865, remaining for two years in Dunedin and then going to Cardrona, at that time a flourishing goldmining centre. At Cardrona she was married in 1874 to the late John McCarthy, the marriage ceremony being performed by Monsignor (then Father) Mackay. In 1880 the McCarthy family took up land at Hawea 'Flat, and their home became a centre from which radiated ardent faith and glowing love of God. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass was offered there when a priest was available, and Catholics for miles around were wont to assemble to hear Mass and go to the Sacraments. The family Rosary was a devotion <*/\ )r omitted, and one who has a right to ¥fkriow gives the assurance that the "TrimVnin's" were not neglected. In 1905 the late Mr. "McCarthy bought the Teschemakers es-

tate near Oamaru, and shortly after his death in 1907 y Mrs; McCarthy" and family made a gift of the Teschemakers homestead, with its surrounding acres, to 4he Dominican Nuns —a princely gift given. in .prinfcetv fashion—for the cause of Catholic education. For the last two years Mrs. McCarthy had- been ailing, and on the morning of ; the 26th August J as the Angelus'/ bell at St. Patrick's" rang out, her great soul went to meet its Cod. "Ah! those little Irish mothers, passing from ? ; us one by one! *" •"."■"' - ; Who will write the noble story of the good that they have done?" Deceased was attended in her : last illness by' Rev. Fathers Ardagh and Feitelou. The re mains, attired in the : White Habit of St. Dominie—for deceased was a Dominican 1 Ter-, tiary—were conveyed 'to the convent chapel,'' where they were met by Right Rev. Dr! Whyte, and where, on the Saturday morning, Solemn Requiem Mass, celebrated by the Right Rev. Mgr. Maekay, who, in spite of failing health, insisted on showing this last mark of his esteem for an old and tried friend. His Lordship the Bishop presided at the Mass, and the Rev. Fathers Kavanagh (Palmerston), Ardagh, and Fenelon (Oamaru) were present in the sanctuarv. The solemn music of the Requiem Mass was sung by the Dominican Nuns and the acolvtes were Masters Pat and Neil McCarthy, grandsons of deceased. After the «Mass the" remains were conveyed to the Oamaru cemetery Where Right Rev. Dr. Whyte, attended'-by Right Rev. Mgr. Mackay and Rev. Father's Kavanagh and Ardagh, officiated at the interment. Deep sympathy is extended to the bereaved family-Mr. Patrick McCarthy; of Hawea- Miss Maria McCarthy and Mr. Peter McCarthy of Teschemakers, and to Sister Mary'Philomena, 0.5. D., of St. Patricks Convent,, Teschemakers. Eternal rest grant unto her, 0 Lord, and may perpetual light shine upon her. May she rest in peace- «*> A Competitions' Success (Contributed.) At the Greymouth Competitions, in awarding first place to Miss Elsie Williams for monologue (girls under 16), whose selection was ttestland," written by Rev. Dr. Kelly on the occasion of his first visit to the Coast some years ago, the ; judge (Mr. Farquhar Young) said : ' "The selection: chosen',by the winner had pleased him greatly. It was on a local topic, extolling Westland, and contained much local patriotic sentiment. Competitors would, be welladvised in the suggestion to make a similar choice of topic for monologues, as most of the best monologues published were so hackneyed that it was an infliction to have to listen- to them." ' Not only was the judge impressed, but the large audience (most of whom heard it for the first time) were quite taken with.it. Comments such as "What a lovely piece," "Who wrote it?" "How original," etc.,. were heard on- all sides. The winner (Elsie Williams) is a pupil of our local convent, as are also the second and third prize winners'*'■*.. '