Kentucky Irish American. (Louisville, Ky.) 1898-1968, 1898-12-03
love-m making
ID ireland.


Love is the soul of a neat Irishman,
He loves all that's lovely and loves all
he cam"
And yet, though there seems to exist a
widespread impression that strong, pas
sionate, nasterful love is characteristic
of the irish temperament, says writer in
McMillan's Magazine, lovemaking in Ire
land is really very calm and placid
business, and, the old song have quoted
notwithstanding, the average Irish peas
ant takes unto himself a mate with as
clear head, as placid heart and as
steady a nerve as if he were buying a COW
at Ballinasloe Fair.
Love by no means decides all the mar
riages that are made in Ireland. The
match is often arranged i'll ludicrously
cool, businesslike and mercenary fashion
between the parents of the "boy" and
the girl" the young people themselves
not being allowed, and, indeed, not ex-
pecting any voice i'll the origin of the
most of the matrimonial contracts made
in rural ireland, they are as rule ell
tirely successful. The marriages thus
prosaically arranged are as happy as
, happy can be. Pat and Mary fall fondly
in love with each other after they are
made husband and wife; children quickly
spring up around their hearth, and the
older they grow the more passionately
do they cling to each other Their do
nestle felicity is rarely, if ever, dis
turbed by jealousy, for Pat makes the
faithfullest of husbands and Mary the
fondest and truest of wives, and as there
is little or no illicit passion, the crimes
which spring from that source and make
desolate so many homes i'll other coun
tries are almost unknown i'll Ireland.
The great marrying season in Ireland
is Shrovetide. During the forty days of
Lent the Irish peasantry, in obedience to
the ordinances of the church, abstain
from matrimony as well as from eggs,
butter and milk. Some time before the
approach of that holy season a farmer
with manageable son or daughter
whom he desires to see settled tells his
friends and neighbors of the fact. He
usually conveys the intelligence in all
indirect, offhand manner. He meets a
friend at the fair or market, and says,
with laugh: Whisper here, Jim. I'm
training up my little Maggie for your
Johnny" "Ah, now, Jim," the other
says, "you do inc great favor entirely.
But mind you, my little Johnny is very
particular. The boy do be saying what a
great fortin he'll want with his wife"
The subject having thus been preached,
the parents discuss it whenever they
meet, and it often happens that a long
time elapses and many discussion and
wrangle take place before the terms are
finally settled. The farm generally goes
with the male, and the great difficulty in
the arranging of matches is the fixing of
the girls dowry, consisting partly of
money and partly of furniture and cult
nary utensils, as a setof against the
land.
A favorite proverb of the peasantry in
regard to matrimony Isl EITHER marry |
very Young or become a monk very
young" Early marriages are the rule in
Ireland, and the poorest marry the
earliest.
And yet many of the Irish poor enter
into matrimony as sort of provident in
vestment for old age. A very intelligent
Irish peasant once said to me: "A poor
man ought to marry young, that his chill
dren may be able to assist him when he
grows old" When Pat and Biddy begin
housekeeping their little cabin is soon
filled with children, and the more their
flock increases the more they say:
"Shure, the childer will be great sup
port to us in our old age" And happily
this investment for old age never fails
them. In no country in the world is the
affection between children and parents
so strong; in no country in the world is
the duty of children to provide for their
aged parents held so sacred as in Ireland.
-Four generations may be seen in many
of the poorest cabins in the West-the
children, the young father and mother,
the old grandparents and an ancient
great SIdHOlHOluOl VI SiOd AdiiuldlllSl.
The large sums of money which have
been annually sent by children in the
colonies and in America to parents in
Ireland during the past half century is
another striking demonstration of this
intense flial affection.
But happily many of the marriages in
rural Ireland have their spice of romance.
The match is made by the boy and the
girl themselves. An Irish peasant maid
in the heyday of her youth, with her
pretty figure, her abundant black hair,
her large blue eyes, with their indescrib-
able half-arch, half-shy expression, is
quite irresistible; and the boy has too
often an impressionable heart and a
"deludhering tongue" to render it always
necessary that the parents should make
the bargain" The youthful couples
meet at dances or on Sundays after mass
even wake is turned to account for
little courting-and they are in hearty
accord with the boy who said, at is a
great pleasure entirely to be alone, es-
pecially whin yer sweetheart is wild ye."
''Do YOU drame of me, Mixer" said the
girl to her lover as they walked arm in
90, doxy,, the lonely Glen "Drafne of