The Irish standard., 1918-10-26
Types Of Irish
Beauty In The
-Four Provinces

Has it ever occurred to anyone how
different are the types Of women
which one meets in the four provinces |
of Ireland? Needless to say, all are
charming, but all of them differ in
many respects. For instance, the
women of Ulster are taller, stronger
and more athletic than those of the
other provinces, but not conspicuous
ly so, and are mostly brown-haired
and dark-eyed. In Leinster they are
medium-sized, and both dark and light
complexioned, with number of blue
eyed among them. The tallest young
women are found in Ulster, while the
best proportioned are found in Lem
ster. A Connaught peasant woman is
invariably understood and dark; figure
little broader than is consistent with
the slim line of beauty, but in car
riage, poise and expression she is the
peer of a Spanish donna. The dress,
too, is peculiar, although it is not
worn as generally as it was in the last
generation. 1t is graceful and pic
| turesque, and may be seen trans
planted to the stage in the red cloak,
| blue stockings and tidy shoes which
we used to be familiar with in the
plays of the late Dion Boucicault. The
wives of the Claddagh fishermen re-
semble somewhat the Boulogne mar
ket women in their bright costumes
and boldly short petticoats. They diff
fer from the women of Wexford, who
are tall and fair and are, it is said,
descended from Pembrokeshire clan
which was transplanted to Ireland in
| the fifteenth century to take the place
of the native Irish who had been
driven out Red-haired women are
numerous in Munster, especially in
the southern parts. The notion that
persons of this complexion are of Dan
| ish extraction is Of common belief, but
j is secuted by ethnologists. It is con-
sidered much more probable that the
tinge is of Milesian origin. It is very
general in Scotland, which was peo-
pied from Ireland in ancient times.
The peasant women of Munster, and
particularly of Tipperary, are among
the most comely in the world, but it is
claimed a. considerable proportion of
! them are not of pure Irish blood as
the original natives were nearly all
| expelled centuries ago and a foreign
| stock imported. In any case they be-
| come old-looking at a comparatively
early age. Field work and scanty liv.
ing, perhaps, may account for this, but
hardly accounts for the difference in
| duration Of comeliness between them
and women of the agricultural order
in other provinces.
| An artist who has travelled consid-
erably in the South of Ireland says
that around Carrick-on-Suir, in County
| Tipperary, and Lismore, in County
Waterford, the girls who attend chapel
on Sundays present a hundred differ
ent face models, each more exquisite
than the other He attributed this
! abundance of beauty to a comming-
| ling of races. Upon inquiry he found
that both localities had been, so to
speak, strongly Normanized and later
or received an admixture of imported
blood, which, in turn, was Frenchified
by the arrival of detachments of HUI
guenots which settled among them
You can find peasants who write their
names de la Poer, de la Cour, or Bae-
sang pronounced in. Waterford, Boo
zan), and with features Indicative also
of their ancestors The women also
of these districts are exceedingly
good-loot1nE and possess more char"
acter in expressiDN than is to be seen
in the more rustic beatty Of women in
other parts. In Kerry the tea1 Irish
appearance and manner--arch, fapfes-
sIve and notes.-the ripe, passi0nate
mouth, the symmetrical limbs anc
liquid, musical voice are yet extant.
Here also Ole may occasionally come
across a beauty such as Thackeray
saw elsewhere. We have ali heard of
Kate Kearney, "who lived near the
Lake of Killarney" and those who
visit the lakes are made to remember
that renowned enslaver by having her
cottage pointed out to them: