The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1888-11-07
TIE BRAVE BELLIES OF ERIN.
They Hesitate Not to Brave the Storms and
Arduous Labors of Life.


Arduous Labors of Life.
(woman's Worldly
The women of the Irish coasts anG
| islands are as skillful as the men ir
handling the oar and rudder. They
know every sunken rock and dangerous
current of the intricate channels between
the great island of Aran and the main
land, and take boats in ana out in all
weather. For many years Grace
Darling of this western coast, the daugh,
ter of a pilot who lived on Fights
Island, went out in storm and darkness
with her father, never trusting him
alone, as she knew his weakness for the
whisky. This brave girl never dinched
from facing the widest gales, fearing
that disaster might befall her father and
the vessel it was his business to guide to
safe anchorage if she were not at the
helm. Many a ships crew beating about
between Aran and Owey owed its pre-
servation to Nellie Boyle. Two sisters
have taken the postboat into Aran for
many years past, their father, John
Nancy, being now old and infrm.
The beetling cliffs and echoing caves
of the dangerous coast have weird
charm of their own, and the simple peo-
pie born within the sound of the Atlantic
surges cling with surprising tenaclty
to their thstched and roped cottages,
sheltered behind huge, round-backed
rocks, in the hollows of which they grow
their patches of potatoes and stunned
oats and barley.
Thenumber of these dwellings, starting
up out of what, from afar, looks like q
stony desert, both by the sea and for
miles inland, is startling to US who re-
feet upon the possibilities of subsistence
afforded by this so called land. The un-
failing bob affords ample fuel, it is true,
and the potato crop, when as good as
now, will last throughout the winter.
In o good season such as this che oats
have good chance of getting stacked
before the equinoctial gales begin to
blow. Wei! it would be if these oats,
ground into meal, might form a larger
part of the staple food of Donegal. Strong
tea, boiled in the sweep pot" beside the
turf embers, with bakers bread, have
now taken the place of the wholesome
bone-meking porridge on which the
canny Scot still lives.
70 buy groceries money IS needed,
and we wonder how this can be earned
here. Kelp Or seaweed, burning used
to bring them money; and this year, too,
thin pillars of blue smoke are rising all
round by the sea, showing, let us hope,
that trade in iodine is brisk. The fishing
ought to be q fruitful source of prosperity
to the natives, but on this subject resi-
dent writes in 1884 as follows.
'sTo the north of Aramore, stretching
away to the northwest Of Tory, there is
fine flashing bank where all kinds OF
fish might be caught every day IN the
year with suitable boats and gear. In
very fine weather our small craft often
20 out from four to six miles of Aran
Heads. Next day they all come back
laden, and after such takeall the other
boats in the nejghborhood will go out.
It may be that breeze springs up, the
sea rises in the middle of good catch,
then all have to run for home or shelter.
Large, well-ftted fishing smacks could
stay out there for days, and make plenty
of money, too, but facilities for the tran
sit and sale of fish there are none.