Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-03-17


in scenery, and as the
N~ ~ resort of millions of
<hS -. sea-fowl, as with the
,Skelligs off the south
west coast Their archaeological remains are
the most fascinating and impressive to the
student of renotest history to be found in
western Europe. And they are inhabited
by race of people whose stubborn clinging
to the bleak spot, whose patience in human
misery, whose vocations and character and
whose garb and home life, are beyond or
dinary explanation, conjecture, or descrip-
tion.
From the moment Conn, the boatman, set
me ashore at Killarney from his old curragh,
it has seemed to me that any one in search
of desolation to depict in man or nature,
could find it wholly typifed here. The
habitable islands of Arran are three in
number, setting across the entrance of the
great Bay of Galway-which should be the
European entrepot for swift-going American
steamers-to the northwest, from the mighty
headlands of Glare; and they show the same
Limestone formation. Next to Clare is
South Sound, four miles in width. Then
comes Inisheer, the smallest of the group,
but 1, 400 acres in area. Foul Sound, but
half a mile wide, separates 1nisheer from
Inishmaan, the next larger and central
island, with an area of possibly $500 acres.
Gregory Sound, the same width as Foul, in
turn separates Inishmaan from Arranmore,
| Great Arrah, whose confines comprise
nearly 5000 acres. At some remote time,
no doubt, they were part of continuous
ocean-barrlng range or band of heights,
1oal-i NO in q r-aat inland laka now outlinad
by Galway Bay.
WAR BETWEEN SEA AND LAND.
have stood at their peaks, almost at the
edge of precipices whose sides fell straight
as plummet to the ocean, when it seemed
that the whole Atlantic was rising to engulf
them. As far as the eye could reach at sea
the ocean was as boiling cauldron; and to
the right and lett to the islands ends
fierce and furious line of spray spumed and
seethed between heights and ocean. The
onslaughts of the sea, the thunderings
within the caverns beneath, the weird whis-
tling of the blast, the gurgling and roaring
of tremendous volumes of water tossed into
clets and moving back upon on-coming
waves, the conclusion between falling tor
rents and up-hurled seas, and above all the
wild shrieking of millions of gannets, sea
eagles and puffins plunging deliriously
dDOub ID6lT IuTedG6ueu uOu6S, LII Ou6 Will
an awful fascination and dread.
Perhaps at no spot upon the earth's sur
face, save possibly where the Atlantic cur
rents meet and battle with the Arctic cur
rents, along the extreme northwest Irish
coast, is there such illimitable fury between
sea and land. At the height fone of these
furious struggles, putin dropped dead
where stood. In its crazy flight among
the myriad fowl above, it had possibly been
lucklessly struck by another crazed bird;
for 1 could find no wound upon it. 1t was
quite warm; and in the thought that came
of these unrecorded tragedies of things in
nature, felt an interest in the pufffh which
I found warranted by its relation to
these islands and the islanders themselves
The putin is the Fratercula arctica of
natural history, and belongs to the aux, or
Alca, family of web-footed oceanic birds
1t displays more activity on the wing and
in the water than others of the same family.
The bill is enormously developed, is larger
tha the remainder of the head, and has the
appearance of great helmet, corrugated in
angles from the front and back rim, to side
seams, into which the putin has somehow
got its real bill and head wedged, and from
which it cannot become disengaged This
grotesque seeming is made more apparent
by the form and situation of the puffin's
legs, which compel it when on land to sit
ridiculously upright. But it moves under
water with marvellous rapidity. The sea-
fowl is also known upon the west coast as
the sea parrot; but, from its sedate appear
ance and wise, fussy ways, the Arran
islanders call it "colliaheen'' woman:
and it is known by no other name among
these people.
FIRST INHABITANTS.
The most ancient manuscripts of Ireland
are authority for the revelation that the
first conquering, or possessing. occupants of
Erinn, were Parthalon, Lady CESAR, and
Nemdeh; all of these far in advance of the
semi-mythical Firbolgs and Tuatha De
Dannan. Both of the latter races were de-
scended from two Nemedian chiefs who sur
viyed the destruction of Conaing's tower on
TORY Island, off the, Irish northwest coast
One, Iobath, passed into Northern Europe
The other, Simeon Breack, went to Thrace.
Their descendants 237 years thereafter. in
the year of the world 2266 returned simul-
taneously, by different routes and unknown
to each other, and took possession of Ire
land. The Tuatha De Dannan occupied
Northern Ireland; the Firbolgs, the central
and southern portion. Their discovery of
each other led to an attempt at satisfactory
division of the island. This failing, a great
battle was fought between the rival races at
Magh Tuireadh, or Moytura, the plain of
Mia, near the old town of Cong in county
Mavo.
The Firbolgs were defeated with great
slaughter, their King, Eochaidh, Killed |
alter pursuit into the present county of |
Sligo; at a place near the village OF Ballysa- |
dare; but remnant of the Firblog forces. |
under their warrior chief, Sreng, whose un- |
exampled bravery secured the magnanimity |
of the enemy, were given the present |
province of Connaught, which to as late a |
date as 1850, was recognized under no other |
title than Cuigead Sreing, or Sreng's
Province. All this, having been well es
tablished by archaeological and antiquarian
research and comparison as the affairs of
ancient Greece, is interesting and valuable |
in making clear the otherwise mystery of
the extraordinary remains, both of pagan
and Christian character, to be found upon
the Arran Islands,
The remnant of these Firbolgs made their
last stand and built mighty duns or fort
resses on these then remote and almost in
accessible islands. Their very magnificence
and strength seem to furnish the prompting
to the subsequent erection here of churches |
and cloisters by Christian recluses; as was
also illustrated in the tremendous monu-
ments to the zeal of this class at Iona "that |
illustrious island, which was once the lu- |
minary of the Caledonian religions so |
astounding to the phiegmatic and cynical |
Dr. johnson. OF the Arran pagan remains. |
Dubh Cathair, or Black Fort, Dun Aengus |
n q