The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1910-04-22
copyright. 1919. by W. q. Chapman.
By Seumos
Mac Mdnus

Copyright. 1913. by ". C. Chapman.)
Where are now the lakes of Kill
larney there was, long ago, peaceful
pastoral country with green fields and
flocks and herds and blissful-hearted
inhabitants living in enjoyment of the
fruits and the beauties of this happy
valley. In the valley was a we'll that
never went dry. This we'll was kept
covered by slab and when water
was drawn from it the slab must al
ways be placed above again-other-
wise,~ the. people were warned. the re-
suit would be evil.
A girl, while in the act of drawing
water, was visited by her lover, who
had tramped over the mountains to
see her. Rejoiced at the unexpected
visit, she, leaving her can by the well
and the well uncovered, wandered
away with him and sat down. Both
lover and beloved were very soon
overtaken and drowned by the raging
waters that arose from out of the un-
| covered we'll. The waters continued
rising and roaring till all of the great
valley was filled with three lakes, and
flocks. herds and inhabitants had per-
fshed-and thus began the Lakes of
Killarney.
1t is hardly true, though, to say that
the inhabitants and their f1ocks per-
ished. They still live in an enchanted
land beneath the waters of the lake;
and on lovely summer evenings
people at picturesque Aghadoe, over
looking the lower lake. have some
times seen the sunken valley rise up
to the surface of the water, it's inhabi-
tants dancing, frolicking and canaan
| playing.
Aghadoe, by the way, seems to me
| one Of the loveliest spots around the
lakes. 1t is situated far up on a steep
| and well-wooded hillside, from which
a charming, most extensive view of
lake and wood and mountain and val
ley are to be obtained. Here are the
ruins of an old church and the re-
mains Of an ancient graveyard, where.
In many head that was once high
IN Kerry now lies low.
Climbing up to Aghadoe through
the thick wood is narrow, over.
grown. and now disused, but green
and lovely little boreen that goes by
| the name of Bothar-na-M arbh-the
way Of the dead-and whether this
means that it is the way by which
the dead were carried to the grave.
yard or that by which the ghosts go
downward to the lake, do not know
That charming Irish poet, DR.. John
Todhunter, celebrated Aghadoe in a
delightful poem from which l Gull q
| few verses:
There's a glen in Aghadoe. Aghadoe.
There's a green and silent glade in
Aghadoe,
Where we met, my love and I. loves fair
planet in the sky.
| Ger that sweet and silent glen in
! Aghadoe.
There's a glen in Aghadoe, Aghadoe
| Aghadoe,
| Aghadoe
Where l hid him from the eyes of the
redcoats and their spies
That year the trouble came to Aghadoe
For they tracked me to that glen in
| Aghadoe. Aghadoe,
| When the price was on his head in
| Aghadoe,
Ger the mountain through the wood as
| I stole to him with food,
When in hiding lone he lay in Aghadoe
But they never took him living in Agha.
| doe, Aghadoe,
With the bullets In his breast in Agha.
doe,
There he lay, the head-my breast keeps
| the warmth where once 'twould
Gone to win the traitors gold, from
| Aghadoe!
walked to Mallow Town from Aghadoe
| Brought his head from the gaol's gate
| to Aghadoe,
Then covered him with fern, and I piled
on him the cairn,
Like an Irish king he sleeps ir
| Aghadoe.
Oh. to creep into that cairn in Aghadoe
| Aghadoe,
Aghadoe!
Sure your dog for you could die with nc
truer heart than I,
| Your own love cold on your catrn fr
| Aghadoe.
Killarney and its neighborhood
abounds in ruins. Two of the finest
and most remarkable are ROSS cas-
tle," where the McCaura once kept re-
gal state with warders on the wall, but
where now are housed the owl and
bat, and ivy only guards the wall
and "Muckross abbey" which, for a
ruin, is in very fair state of preserva
ton, indeed. Muckross abbey is truly
beautiful and of high interest both
to the antiquarian and to the mere
lover Of the picturesque. The graves
| under the shadow of its walls, too, are
reminders of many romance. A re.
cent grave was pointed out to me as
being that of young man with fine
family who had gone away to America
and there had been engaged to a