The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1895-05-27
THE PATH OF MURTOGH.

NNOpvFllNI lAJbtl
A curse is laid OH ono long narrow
strip Of tho sea down in front Of Dun
loghcr.
No matter how llieless the sunlit mir
may hang above. no matter how silkcn'
smooth tho iace OF tho waters nbarcs.
by, lifting themselves without a ripple
In tho mos! indolont summer uwoll-an
angry ehurniug COCA always forward
hcrc. Dlsorticrad currents will mover
trio Of thor coiling and wfIthiuc some.
whore underneath; tho surface is
sttc0kol with sinister marking, like
black shadows, which yot are no
shadows nj all, and those glide without
coRsing out and In among tho twisted
lines OF gray-whito scum, and every.
thing movea aud nothing changes, I'LL
Judgment day. 1t has the namo OF tho
SliGhO Mhuirchoartalgh (ipokcn shlcc
NnrhNrthec), or tho Path OF Murtogh.
Though It's well knoTn that tho
grandest ling and .urbo. AMI wonderful
other big fishes Ito awaylug themselves
10 the depths OF this wicked water,
with gian, crawliish aud crabs to boar
them company, the fishermen OF Dun.
mauus and Colleen and Crookhavcn. and
even tho strangers from Cape Clear,
would not buy a soul from Pureatory at
the price OF drawing q not through IT,
They have n great wish 10 please tho
buyers IN the English ships. and tho
Scotch and Nlaux, oh, yes; but a creea
Of gold would not tempt them 10 mod.
die In "Murty's Path. They steer
their boats far to one side. and bless
themselves as they pass in tho manner
Of their fathers and graudtathcrs DO.
ioro them.
These poor men. having not much OF
tho Irish now, and not rightly under.
standing what their elders may have
heard the truth OF. say this snake-liko
torbiddins stretch bears its name from
Murty 0ge 0'Sulivan. Their thought
Is that tho uucanny boiling began in
the wake of the English Speedwel!, as
the corpse OF tho vanQutshed privateer
spun and twirlod at her keel through
the foam on its savage last journey from
Cas,letoyn to Cork. But II is enough
to look down at this evil place, to see
that the malediction upon It must be
older than Murty Oso's time, which, in
the sight OF Dunlogher, WA rs yestor-
day. Why. men are living this year
who talked with men who saw his head
spiked over South Gate. There were
no great curses left unused In ireland
at 30 late day as his. And again,
would it be the waters oil Dunlogher
that would tear themselves for an
0Sulliyan.
No, the curse threads back dozen
lives behind poor Alurty OSe. Tho
strange currents weave and twine. and
the greasy foam spreads and gathers,
gathers and spreads. 10 the path OF an
other, whose bir,hright it was that thew
should baptize him. The true tale is OF
Murty, the Proud, or. II you will have
his style from the Book OF Schull-Mur.
togh Mordha O'Mahony, chief in Dun.
logher. And his time is not so distant
in one way, rs men take account OF
years. But in another il is too remote
for any clear vision, because the little
people OF the old. fearful kind have left
every other par: OF Ireland, aud they
were just hating together, by ernson OF
it being the las, end OF the land. and
their entertainments. famed up vspor
about Mur;y Mordha to his undoing.
And it is as il the mist still rose be-
tween US and his story.
When the sun began TO sink out OF
sight, down behind the sea, two men