The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1897-02-13
Curious and Interesting Tales of
Islands with Many
Legends.
a Disputed Point as to Which
Was the Nearest Village
to America.
Sybil Head Furnishes Some OF
the Finest Coast Scenery
in Europe.

Two Irish villages, one in Galway and
one in Kerry, dispute, in amicable rival
ry, the privilege of being the next par
! ish to America but a glance at the map
convinces us that Sybil Head, at the ex-
trene west of the Dingle Promontory,
stretches out the longer arm into the Al
lantic toward her sister country, writes
Eleanor Hall in the Loretta Niagara
beneath is popularly supposed to be ''St-
Patrick sending his blessing to Ameri-
ca" Dreams of distant land across
! the ocean have haunted the minds OF
! men ever since the first settlers colonized
Ireland Out of those golden cloud-is-
lands among which, after night, the sun
has gone down, they nave constructed
happy realms of light and enchantment,
free from the pitiless touch Of age, de-
cay and sorrow. They have called them
by many beautiful names, Hy-Breasail.
and Tir-na-n-Og, the Isles Of Blessed
ness and the Land of Youth, and they
tell stories of heroes and bards enticed
away by maidens into the golden land.
All who love the old stories are famil-
lar with the legend Of Oisin, who fol-
lowed Niamh of the Golden Hair across
| the ocean. We felt as we lay on the
1noonlit sward of Sybil Head one glori-
Gus evening last July, watching the sun
! go down. that it was not hard to imagine
I how these tales had arisen, SO solid are
the cloud continents built around the
sinking. sun. Indeed, one Of OUR own
party, an old inhabitant Of Dingle, Won
dered what town lay out there that he
had never seen before. On sybil Mead
we are among some Of the finest coast
scenery in Europe; beneath us beats
,ssith unceasing, regular strokes the BILL
| low Of the Atlantic; while facing it, the
cliffs have made for themselves stout,
| substantial parapets, SO that it's land
and headlands have all the appearance
| tack.
1t seems as if by long contact with the
ocean the land had become shaped and
| built after the architecture of the sea;
! the soft, green, upward curve of the
ground on which we we're lying, and OF
the "Three Sisters" beyond, terminates
49, vi }bo in
points reminding one curiously of the
sweep of an ocean billow, rising in crest
after crest as it breaks along the shore.
Out to sea lie the desolate Basket Is
lands, and farther off, like two miniature
peaks Of Tenerife, rise sheer out OF the
water the almost inaccessible islands of
the Greater and Lesser Skelllg, venera-
Bile for their relics Of an early and prim-
tive Christianity the cells and Oratories
OF the anchorite monks. Above us, in
land, towers Mount Brandon, and be-
meath it is the historic point whence St.
Brendan and his companions, in the
sixth century, embarked in their skin
covered canoes to ''saii the Northern
Main, OF it may be to discover America
centuries before the voyages of Cabot or
Columbus. For an Irish-American, no
spot in Ireland can have a greater in
terest than the rude oratory On the sum-
NIT of Mount Brandon, where the saint
7"besought the Lord to show him that
Pleasant Land" or the point below
where he embarked on his perilous voy-
age. The marvellous story found its way
wherever Irish monks and scholars
fleeing from the Danish invader, fed for
refuge: tales and songs innumerable
were founded upon it,and year after year
navigators were stirred by them to seek
I'''St. Brendan's Isle" .and extend their
discoveries into regions beyond the sea.
To ascend Mount Brandon was no light
task, and until my visit only one gentle
man out Of the scattered families living
about its foot had ever attempted the
climb. A lovely day, however, and a
spirit of emulation brought together a
party of fourteen, not one of whom had
cause to regret the effort, The hill rises
3,127 feet above the sea level, and the
regions of mountain solitude, steep preci-
pice and lonely tarn, that opened out at
each fresh point gained, filled us with
increasing wonder and awe. To myself,
however, the interest eliminated in the
weather beaten, broken oratory that, in
defiance of storm and fog, still humb1y
but fearlessly faces the wide ocean on
the crown of the hill. Unlike the ancient
structures below the hill, the stonelroof-
ed e. Of Gallea.us and Kilmalke-
da1; d uncovered, and is simply a
ina isaee, leading to q rude stone
altaxs broken down By age. Al.
|'old st. tells that e the earl a 81
|Chri gaints