The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1894-03-10
plowboy or the song of q milkmaid.

q plowboy or the song of milkmaid.
An oasis in the midst Of desolstion il
the village and abbey of Mayo, from
which the whole county takes it's name
(Magh 90, tho plain of the oaks). The
English St. Gerald. from Northumbris,
started an abbey here in which Alfred
the Great and lots of other Saxons were
educated. In later centuries when big
English colony seized this part of the
country and threw up surrounding
chain Of castles about 100 miles long no
''mere Irishman" was allowed to become
religious in this holy house-this being
the good old time when an English monk
boosted he would consider it no crime to
kill an Irishman even on q Sunday
morning before saying mass. However,
despite all the castles and armcr, the
surrounding Milesian Irish broke in on
the colonists, pummelled them, drove off
their cattle, and eventually obliged them
to intermix and intermarry with them,
so that they all became one stock
Bourkes and Brennane, Stantons and
McC Cormacks, O'Malleys, O'Neills, and
Gibbonses and the rest.
Pushing on we come to the county
town, Oastlebar, grim with it's surround
|ings OF jail. courthouse, workhouse and
asylum. A stroll through it is chapter
out of one of Levers novels. Here was
hanged the most famous fire eater of the
fire-eating last century, "Fighting" Fitz-
gerald, hero of hundred battles. Ad-
joining the square stands, sword in hand,
the statue of General O'Malley, of Pen.
insular and Waterloo fame. warrior
who
Cared little for shot or shell;
He laughed at death and dangers,
And he'd storm the very gates of hell
At the head of the Connacht Rangers.
Toward the setting sun lies the town
Of Westport. Beyond it rises, blue, steep
and serene, that Mecca Of Irish pilgrims,
the picturesque mount OF CroaRh Pat.
rick, where st. Patrick banished the
demons, and Grana O'Malley, the She
pirate, held sway, and Queen NAB, of
Shakespeare, held her fairy court. Apro
pos of Nab, there are plenty Of fairies
and banshees still in Mayo, but it is diff
ficult sometimes to find them. %.
In other directions from Castlebar lies
Balla, where Rector w. Ell. Maxwell wrote
his military and sporting novels; Strade,
where Michael Davitt, the land agitator,
was born; Irishtown, where large
wooden cross commentaries the start
ing Of the Land League, OF which Mayo
is called ''the CRADLE and Glare Morris,
the birthplace of the journalist, Sir John
Gray, whose statue looms aloft in O'Con-
nell street, Dublin.
Away in the north OF the county, where
the River Moy, full of big, jumping sal
mon, comes sweeping down from heath
cry mountains, there is another town
Ballina. Here was born ex- United States
Senator Sewell, of New Jersey, who
makes frequent trips to his natal place.
The parents of the recently-elected
Mayor, John P. Hopkins, Of Chicago,
we're also born here.
Marshal O'DoDnell, dictator OF Spain;
O'Higgins, liberator of Chill; General
O'Malley, OF France; Prime Minister
Taaffe, Of Austria, and lit is claimed)
President Andrew Jackson, Of America,
we're all lineally connected with Mayo.
It is no trouble for the county to produce
great men. An army of 42,368 emigrants
streamed out Of Mayo during the decade
1881 -l891--by over 1900 the greatest
exodus since the famine decade. In ten
years the population has gone down 1917
per cent. Back rents, bad crops and
general hard times were the prongs that
drove the people out. Certainly they
did not ''go for the good OF their health, .
for Mayo is an exceedingly healthy
county; it's death rate is As below the
average. Another cause Of the decrease
is the scarcity OF marriages. "Why,"
said an old clergyman to the writer,
athere was time when I'd have 20 or 30
couples to unite at Shrovetide; now l
have usually only two or three. The
marriage rate is only 80 per year per
1000 people.
The A. P. A. In 1854.
Says the Philadelphia Record: "Young
men that are making the start in life