The Charm of Ireland

n to breakfast, we found that the suffragettes had tried to blow up the post-office, which is next to the hotel, by throwing a bomb through the door. But the woman who threw the bomb, like most w

the fields very lush and green; and then, when we got off the train, we were struck by a fact which we had occasion to remark many times thereafter: that railroads in Ireland are built with an entire disregard of the towns along the route. Perhaps it is because the towns are only Irish that the railroads are

. There was no conveyance, so we started to walk; and instead of condemning Irish railroads, we were soon praising their high wisdom, for if there is anything more delightful than to walk along an Irish lane, between hedgerows fragrant with hawthorn and climbing roses, past fields embroidered

nd with roofs of thatch. Many of them, even along the principal street, are in ruins, for Clondalkin, like so many other Irish villages, has been sl

itution. For these tall towers of stone, resembling nothing so much as gigantic chimneys, were built all over eastern a

ll-built their survival through the centuries attests. The narrow entrance door is usually ten or twelve feet from the ground, and there is a tiny window lighting each floor into wh

n seems to be that they were built in connection with churches and monasteries to serve the triple purpose of belfries and watch-towers and places of refuge, and that they date from the ninth and tenth centuries, when the Danes were pillaging

-towers they were ineffective, for the enemy had only to advance at night to elude the lookout altogether; and as places of refuge, they leave much to be desired. For there is no way to get food or water into them, and the enemy had only to camp d

hty-five feet to the top, but we were contented to take the view for granted. While I man?uvred for a photograph in a field of buttercups which left my shoes covered with yellow pollen, Betty got into talk with the people who lived in the cottage at the tower-foot, and then she crossed

would hurt the feelings of this kindly woman, who was so evidently enjoying pulling her flowers to give to the stranger from

d the owner of the garden picked up proudly a small po

it grow wild?

sent me by my brother in Tipperary. 'Tis the true sha

ver Ireland, women, whether married or single, are habitually addressed as "miss," just as, conversely, in France they are addressed

we reached it we found that there was a large school attached to it, and most of the pupils were having their lessons outdoors, a group in this corner and a group in that. The small children were being taught by older ones, and the older children were being taught by nuns; but I am afraid that our passage through the school-yard nearly broke up the lessons. I

ich two gardeners were leisurely mowing. It was evident from the way they returned our greeting that they

from America? I have a sister and two brothers there." And he went on to tell us about them, where they lived and what they were doing and how they had prospered. And then Betty asked him if he could find her a piece of the true shamroc

e white rings which mark the leaf of ours, and it blossoms with a tiny yellow flower. I confess that it wasn't at al

red promptly; "as sure

took the spray from her button-hole, "and said it was the true shamrock

that the true shamrock. But it is not so-'tis only whi

dener," said Betty,

he prettiest shindy you ever saw by getting all the gardeners in Ire

orth and south of Ireland, we sought the true shamrock, we were no more certain of it when we got through than before we began. The only conclus

ing to the king and his assembled household, he started to explain the idea of the Trinity, and found, as many have done since, that it was rather difficult to do. Casting about for an illustration, his eyes fell upon a trefoil growing at his feet, and he stooped and plucked it, and use

em would answer his purpose, and so, sooner or later, all the Irish trefoils would be thus used by him. The Irish word "seamrog" means simply a trefoil, and in modern times, the name has been applied to watercress, to wood-sorrel, and to both yellow and w

ndeed, in most localities, it didn't seem to grow wild at all, but was carefully raised in a pot, like a flower. Where it did grow wild, it was always in some distant and inaccessible place. I should have suspected that this was simply blarney, and that our informant

n old woman, bent with rheumatism, hobbling painfully along, and she told us all about her ailment, and then as we passed a handsome house set back in a garden surrounded by a high wall, she pointed it out proudly as the residence of the parish p

honour would be

id. "How di

me, sir. He said you'd be wis

d. "It's too far to

elf would be glad to carry

then, as an afterthought,

" he protested war

didn't understand. He returne

" he went on. "If you'll just be wanderin' down th

id hesitatingly; "but we couldn

sir," he broke in. "I'l

raced away as he had come, while we went on to the village post-o

s about herself and her work and the many things she had to do. For every Irish post-office, no matter how small, is the centre of many activities. Not only does it handle the village mail, but it is also the village telegraph-office, and it does the work-b

age pension, for, as we sat there talking, a wrinkled old woman with a shabby shawl over her head, came in, sa

e week; but it never lasts the week out, and so she comes in for a bit of an advance. I shouldn't be giving it to her, for she's no better in the end, but I can't turn her away. Besides, she thinks-and

. Every person over seventy years of age and with an income of less than ten shillings a week, receives five shillings weekly from the government. The same law applies to England and Scotland, but there is an impression that Irelan

as spry a woman as you will see anywhere, and lookin' not a day over fifty. The committee was for refusin' her, but she said, said she, 'Your honours, I was the mother of fourteen children, and the youngest of them was Bridget, whom you see here beside me. Bridget was married when she was seventeen, and she has fifteen children of her own, and this

re considered an encumbrance, and whenever a marriage contract was made or a division of the property, it was always carefully stipulated who should look after them. Naturally in a land where a man was hard put to it to provide for his own family, he was reluctant to assume this additional burden, and the result often was that the old people went

ain briefly why this is so, because the establishment of the workhouse system is typical of the blind fashion in which England, in the past,

the land was being turned from tillage to grass, and so, since there was no work, there was nothing for the labouring class to do but emigrate or s

work, and that some provision be made for the old, sick and infirm who were unable to work, and for children who were too young. Instead of t

rve. They enter it only when driven by direst need-and how dire that need has been may be judged by the fact that, in 1905, for instance, the number of workhouse inmates exceeded forty-five thousand. Of these, about four

e is a savage irony in this, for not only are there few voluntary paupers in Ireland, but there is amazingly little crime. Six millions a year of Irish money are spent to maintain the workhouses; how much the jails cost I don't know; but perhaps in

nd finally we saw him standing in a gateway beckoning to us, and when we reached him, we found the gateway led to the house which had been pointed out to us as that of the parish pr

nd. "The Father is away from home the day, worse luck,

're the garde

ssed you. If he was anywhere near, I'd have gone for him at once, but he went to Dublin to the conference and he won't be back till evenin'. He's a grand man, God bless him

and pink geraniums, cinerarias, laburnums, and I know not what besid

t them!" she cried. "Wh

. "If he was here, 'tis not by this train you'd be leaving. He'd take you all over the house, and it would

entered the greenhouse and was attacking the plants there. Almost by main force, and sorely against his will, we made him stop. As it was, Betty had about all she could

ing us for a while along the fragrant country roads before he took us to the station. A

s we were walking up Grafton Street, an old and tattered woman, with two or three grimy little bouquets in her hands, f

t!" she urged. "Just s

at all!" Betty pro

instant retort. "Sure, we can't al

er that, I bou