The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1909-10-16

loose. The frightened villagers assem-
bled in council and sent hurried depu-
tation after the profaner to have the
bones returned and laid to rest once
more.
Crochaun is memorable as the scene
where, for upward of twenty years,
lived the notorious Captain Boycott,
| whose name has become one of the use
fuf and expressive words of the English
language. We must pause to speak a
good word for Captain Boycott.
Between Crochaun and the sea a road
climbs over a shoulder of the mountain.
1t leads us 400 feet above and by the
sea, which spreads out southwark on
our left; while on the right rises to the
clouds Crochaun itself, and down its
sides thousand streams babble and
lose themselves in the ocean below. The
| road takes us to the beautiful valley of
| Keen. 1t is a verdant valley, lost be-
tween mountains, where, if anywhere in
the Emerald Isle, ANGELS fold their
wings and rest" Boycott owned and
cultivated this oasis, and he, or some
one before him, cleaned it of the huts or
summer houses of the peasants. In the
| heart of green park, there is cairn
having on top a rude stone cross with
| a holw-water stand of the same rude
construction and material beside it.
! Tere in this lonely but beautiful spot,
! hidden afar between mountains, tradi-
! ton says mass was celebrated in penal
! days by fugitive priests whose hiding
| places hard by are still pointed out; and
! though Boycott may have laid heavy
! hands on many things he, to his credit
be it told, left this as he found it, sa-
cred relic of days that are gone. But
we must not forget Menaun.
LII T,,iC1
name of wild goats or kids that may
still be seen on its, beetling crags from
which they sometimes fall over the
famed Cathedral Rocks into the sea.
At its base is Keel Strand, two miles
long, over which wild sea rolls with
| treacherous force its mountain waves.
Here as everywhere in Achill island, the
companionship of the mountains and the
sea may be enjoyed to the fullness of
ones heart. For one may watch
When winds blow high and free,
From some tall cliff or jutting land,
The white gulls posing DER the sea,
The great waves rolling boisterously
And bursting on the strand"
Here, then, in those valleys by the
great Atlantic, sheltered by the noun
tains, in twenty or thirty congested viii
lagos, over 1000 inhabitants draw the
breath of life. Day and night they hear
the moaning of the homeless sea" The
storms sweep those hills from whose
SUBMITS the rains rush down with little
warning, and in the vast tracts of I'M
drained bog-land of which the island
consists. under such climate, the fruits
of the earth are Scant indeed Equally
unsatisfactory is the harvest of the sea.
The fishermen are badly equipped. The
congested districts board endeavored
to develop the fisheries, but have not
yet accomplished much. Their expert
ence soon teaches the fishermen the re-
turns are uncertain, and from this fear.
with the imperative demands for the
necessities of life, results a general de- |
s. ton of the fishing trade during the
early summer, for more reliable source |
of remuneration. They leave the island |
When a sailor from Achill returns |
from America to feast his eyes on his |
native mountains, he invariably selects |
the winter months. During the summer |
every able-bodied man goes to England. |
and nearly every girl and little boy from
II years of age goes to Scotland to earn
money, leaving the married women and |
children, the aged and decrepit to guard
the homestead, and thus by the spoils
of migratory labor they solve the prob
lem of existence.
miseries In 1894 twenty-three of these
boys and girls were drowned on their
way in little boat to Westport Quay.
The conditions under which they work
in Scotland have been declared deplora-
BILE by commission of the department
of agriculture, which, at the same time
paid high compliment to the conduct
of these Achill workers in Scotland. The
children neglect school The married |
women have to do all the work of the |
fields and the boys and right manfully |
they do it.
This almost Unborn spirit of Catholi- |
cism which is a characteristic of the |
Irish, as shown in all its strength in |
the memory of many now living; and |
we can almost thank those whose action |
called it forth, such a glory did it shed |
on these jewellers by the sea.
We have referred to the beautiful col
ony sheltered by Sieve Nor mountain. |
The names of its inhabitants are found |
nowhere else in the island. Their re-
ligion is not the religion of its people. |
No Catholic is allowed to build a home
within its precincts. How came this |
foreign element into this far off island? |
This was the headquarters of one |
who, with best intentions, it may be |
came in 1888 to rob these poor islanders
Of their Catholic faith. He advertised |
his mission. He won the ear of many a |
wealthy and charitable English and |
Irish protestant. Immense wealth poured |
into his treasury. His society became
landlords of the greater part of the ISL
and-when landlord had power over life |
and death. He welded his power of
landlord Cor somebody for him) as well
as that of preacher and dispenser of
gifts. He came to a starving people in
the ultima thule of civilization. He
came when famine was upon them,
when thousands died in bitches "howl-
ing for bread" Nevertheless. by a mag
nificent display of that well-tried Irish
Catholic faith which, for 300 years
against all the might of England's
crown, preserved the name of Catholic
to Ireland, he was beaten and the colony
Of foreigners with strange names is a
monument to his failure and to the tri-
umph of those Irish Catholic islanders
who refused to follow him.-Rev. P. J.
Joyce, B. D., in the New World.