The Irish standard., 1894-01-06
PROF, ]. TY YNDALI,,
The Late Irish Scientist Was q
Rabid West Briton Of Protest
ant Yeoman Stock.
HIS ANGLO-IRISH PEDIGREE,

Descended From Orange Sires Who
Figured Conspicuously in
| the Irish Rebellion.
4 The great expounder Of science wsf
born in I.eighhn bridge, county Carlow
which in the days of his birth, twenty
years after the Union, was still worthy
OF beng called q town. The place has
since dwindled sadly. It's inhabited
houses stand in the heart Of wide
branching radiation of ruins. The ruins
mark the sites of factories, breweries,
distilleries, bacon yards and tanneries,
which were alive with industry in the
days when Boyle Roche represented the
neighboring village of Old Leighlin in
the Irish Parliament, and even in the
days when Tyndall rambled as youth
there. Now all that Is left of this indus
try is represented by few malt houses,
worked on account of the cheap labor to
be had in the locality in connection with
some of the Dublin distilleries. But
even in its decay the village and it's sur
roundings are picturesque. 1t lies ath-
wart the Barrow, in that valley the ver-
dure OF which caught Thackeray's 8 eye
during his journey from Dublin to Cork
and charmed the artist heart Of him.
The bri ge from which the town takes
its name is no modern structure. The
ford of the Barrow was first bridged in
the days of Hugh de Lacy, and the pres
ent structure dates back beyond local
memory. There is none of the tame
regularity of the modern engineering
product about it. The Barrow here
marks the borders of the Pale, and De
Lacy built castle at the fair and gave
it to Norman monks to guard against
the Irisbry, who raided up from Nuns
ter, and down from Issiix and Ofaly.
The fort was always point of import
ance, for it controlled the main road
from Dublin to. Kilkenny and Cork.
Scratch che soil of the old ruined town
now and you will come on the bones OF
monks and soldiery, Norman and Irish,
all jumbled together, forgotten in the OBJ
livlon of the grave. The ruins OF the
castle still remain, however, to tell OF
struggles that did not cease to rage
around till the cannons of Cromwell rent
the walls that Ormonde' soldiers held for
King Charles as an outpost of the Kill
kenny garrison. The river flows north
and south by the old castle, and on the
right bank, just below the bridge, there
rises hill on which is perched the little
Anglican church where Tyndalls an.
cestors worshipped for generations.
Lower down is one of the most famous
mounds Of ancient Irish story, Dim
Righ, the southern residence of the kings
of Leinster, the scene of one Of the tra-
gedies of Pagan ireland. Below are
broad spreading meadows and wooded
banks and hills, with background of
blue mountain, formed by the swelling
heights of Mounts Leinster and Bran
don, filling in the valley. IL one is puz-
zled to know whence came the great sci
enoe teachers charm OF style and sense
of the pic uresque; where was the eye
that finally chose the Alps for it's home
fret opened to the beauties of Nature,
one has only to sail his native Barrow to
learn. Here Tyndall spent his child
hood, boyhood and early youth. In the
adjoining village Of Old Leighlin, within
the precincts Of the old Cathedral Of the
| ancient diocese, his father and mother
are buried. ..- r
He came OF q Protestant yeoman stock,
which he was fond OF tracing back to
Gloucestershire and up to q root in Viii
liam Tyndall, the first translator OF the
English Bible. Whether the tree was of
thesame order as chat with which newly
created peers are provided for considera-
ton, the present writer has not the
means of knowing. But there could
never be doubt that the later Tyndalls
were Protestant and loyal. Some sur
prise has been expressed at the fierce
ness and self-defeating violence with
which Tyndall threw himself into the
Home Rule controversy in later days.
But his politics were 6 much an inheri-
tance as the rather common chin and
tnose that identified him with the old
Iyeomen in the Carlow village. His
awild and Whirling words we're his sub
lstitutes for the less Wild muaket shots
with which they fought the same battle
lfor ascendency