Morning journal and courier., 1889-03-16

their eggs and feathers are always turned to
 some account. On the Mohsr cliffs, of the
 Clare coast, and along the entire southern sea-wall of these islands, they breed, swarm and home the year round in countless mill lions. During the period of notification many strange scenes may be witnessed along these sea-beaten crags. Great raids upon the puffins are then made. Men and lads and have been pointed out maidens who were the most daring of all in this perilous work-with stout ropes fastened about their
 waists are lowered over the edges of preci- pices by their companions, sometimes whole
 families holding the line above. They swing back and forth, catching projecting ledges with their feet and hands, and thus, as hu- man pendulums, explore the hollows and clefts of the rocks, which are one vast hon. eyconb of nests. The mother birds are
 dragged from these and their necks deftly
 wrung; the eggs if not sddled are secured;
 and, as dozens of puffins are fastened with fishing lines and thongs to the fearless searchers, they are finally lifted to the heights again, presenting the appearance of monstrous bedraggled fowls themselves. In cases of great want the pufins and their eggs are eaten; the feathers are carefully plucked; and those of @ downy nature, after being we'll dried, are sold at Killaney on Arran- more. or on the mainland at Galway.
 The most ancient manuscripts ot Ireland are authority for the revelation that the
 
 Erinn were ParthsloD, Lady Cesair and Nem- deh all these far in advance of the semi mythical Firbolgs and Tnatha De Danann. Both of the latter races were descended from two Nemedian chiefs who survived the de- struction of Conaing's Tower on Tory Is- land, off the Irish northwest coast. One, Iobsth, passed into northern Europe. The other, Simeon Breack, went to Thrace Their descendants two hundred and thirty seven years thereafter, in the year of the world 3266, returned simultaneously, by diff ferent routes and unknown to each other, and took possession of Ireland. The Tuatha De Danuan occupied northern Ireland; the Firbolgs the central and southern portion. Their discovery of each other led to an at- tempt at satisfactory division of the island. This failing, great battle was fought be- tween the rival races at Magh Tuireadh, or Moytura, the plain of Mia, near the old town of Cong in county Mayo. The Fir bolgs were defeated with great slaughter, their king, Eochaidh, killed after pursuit I into the present county of Sligo, at a place near the village of Ballysadare; but a rem nant of the Firbolg forces, under their war rior chief, Srerg, whose unexampled bravery secured the msgnanimity of the enemy, were given the present province of Connaught, which to as late a date as 1850 was recog- nized under no other title than Cuigead Sre;ng, or Sreng's province. All this, hay ing been as well established 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 a 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 fortress ! es on these then remote and almost inacces- sible islands. Their very magnifcence 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 monuments to the zeal of this class at Iona, "that illustri- ! ous island which was once the luminary of ! the Caledonian regionsn 50 astounding to the ! phlegmatic and cynical Dr. Johnson. Of the ! Arran pagan remains, Dubh Cathair, or Black Fort. Dun Aengus or the Fort of Aen- gus, Dun Conehovar, Dun Onaght, and Dun ! Oghil, on Arranmore, and great Fi1bolgian \ dun on Infsheer, the eastern island, are re- markable examples. It is we'll established l that Black Fort was built fifteen hundred ! years preceding the Christian era, and the | dun upon Inisheer not more than five hun- | dred years later. The former rises from one I of the southwestern cliffs of Arranmore. A Cyclopean wall stretches across noble ! promontory, quite similar in form to that on | which stands the ruins of the famous Dun- luce Castle, near the Giants Causeway. The | natural formation of tine rock upon this cliff | gives a natural defense in it's elevated sides. Within this great enclosure overhangins the sea are the remains, in some instances well preserved, of many claughawns, or beehive structures, in the well authenticated form ot ! the remotest pagan Irish places of retreat in | times of danger. The ablest archaeologists of Ireland pronounced these as old as the fort itself. A little distance from this, at Mainister, will be found Dun Oghil. The ! height and thickness of the ramparts of this | relic of pagan times are simply inconcsiva, | ble to one who has not stood within them. In this respect Dun Oghil is far more im- pressive than Black Fort, although it's site is less picturesque and its antiquity is not so great. Dun Onaght is remarkable for it's similarity to the great Grianan of Aileach, near Londonderry in the north of Ireland,
 recently restored by Dr. Bernard, the anti | ouarisn of that city. It's form is circular; it | is ninety-two feet in diameter; three consec- ! utive rampsrts enclose it; and series of steps lead along the inner wall to the top of the
 grim structure, as in the drianan. But Of tho Arrsn Island pagan remains, Dun Aen. | gus Is the greatest and most stupendous Dr. Petris, the profoundest arehaeologist Ire land ever produced, pronounced it ''the mos magnificent barbsric monument now extant in Europe" It owes it's origin to Scottish edventurers. Three brothers. Aengus, Con- ! chovar and Mil, came to Arranmore from Caledonia in the first century. They were men and warriors of great note, and the | monuments to their power and prowess were three great csshels, raths, duns or forts Dun Aengus, Dun Conchovar or Connor, and
 another, now obliserated, at Port Aurvey, | formerly called Murveagh Mil, or the seaside I stronghold of Mil. Dun Aengus stands at the western extremity of Arranmore, upon the edge of cliff rising three or four hun
 dred feet perpendicularly from the sea
 Three great walls, the first over nine hun
 dred feet long, twelve feet high and nearly twenty feet thick, ct irregular distances apart form the enclosure, their ends extending tc the cliffs edge; the whole forming little more than one-half of an irregular circle.
 There is every indication, both in appearance
 and from recent soundings, that the three
 walls of this barbaric stronghold onct joined, after surrounding further and high
 CT projection of the cliff, which at some re
 mote time has fallen into the sea. Betweer
 the different huge lines of ramparts are acre
 of tremendous, jagged, spike-like stone pointing outward, like chevaux de friese
 The walls of the inner stronghold are stil
 nearly thirty feet high and quite as thick
 The labor expended, in the rude time of it
 construction, to complete such structure
 inconceivable. Many of the stones are Cy
 clopean in size. They were dove-tailed to
 gether; no mortar was used; and many DOT
 tions of these mammoth walls will be foun,
 in as perfect state of preservation a l though the stronghold had been built within
 the century.
 To many the ecclesiastical remains of tn
 Arran Islands possess still greater interest
 Their origin here is due to Aine, Aendeus Q
 Enda, son of Natfraieh, King of Munster, Ii
 the latter part of the fifth century. He wa
 'spear-hurling, axe-wielding" chieftain;
 pagan of pagans. Converted to Christianit
 by his sister, Fanchea, who is said to hay
 taken the veil from St. Patrick himself a
 Rossory, near Enniakillen, and furthe crushed and humbled by the death of no
 ble maiden under his sisters care, to whor
 he was betrothed his life thereafter becam
 that of religious recluse at Arran. Her he built church which ever after bore hi , name, a portion of the original structure be ing still in existence. The sixth, sevent and eighth centuries witnessed in Ireland UT
 paralelled zeal for the monkish profession and in this period wonderful number of ol atoriee, monasteries and sacred edi6ces wer built. The fame of the then pagan ruins ( } Arran, and of St. Endas establishment } drew ether religious zealots to this desolat l spot, until at one time the little island ( Arranmore, which is still called by the pea' , antry of the west of Ireland "Arran of tn B Saints. or Blessed" was dotted with no les