were the ruins of the churches built and endowed by their forefathers; or if some still stood, the most notable of which were St. Flannan's Cathedral and the more ancient shrine of St. Molua at Killaloe,-they had the mortification to see them converted to Protestant uses. A Catholic could hardly call what he had his own. If real property, he held it absolutely at the will of his Protestant landlord; and if personal, he knew not the moment when the discoverer," or the "priest-hunter," would pounce on him for Popish practices. He dared not have a horse worth more than five pounds, nor give his children any Catholic education, except such as could be snatched from hunted priests and teachers in lonely, out-ofthe-way places. The hedge-schoolmaster became an institution in those dark days, and left a name that should be a name of honour in all succeeding generations. Some families deserve special notice in this connection-the Curtins or MacCurtins, the Mac Brodys, the MacClancys, and the MacGraths. They carried on, in the face of persecution, the honourable traditional calling of their clans. One of these, And. MacCurtin, who lived at Moyglass, in the parish of Kilmurray, in 1730, wrote an Irish dictionary; a quaint Irish poem, calling on Don, the fairy king, to make him his gilly or horse-boy, as the poetical profession had gone out of fashion; an exquisitely-written copy of the Cathreim Turlogha,1 now in the library of Trinity College, and other works. Another MacCurtin, Hugh, published in Louvain, A.D. 1728, The Elements of the Irish Language Grammatically Explained in English. Members of this family were all along, down to our own time, remarkable both as priests and teachers. The county at the beginning of this century, in spite of all the political changes, was still beautifully wooded, even 1 Extracts from this work, written by Magrath in or about 1459, have already been given. Though in a very turgid style, it gives internal evidence of fidelity to truth and facts, and dealing as it does with Clare history for a period of nearly two hundred years, from the reign of Donogh Cairbreac O'Brien down to nearly the writer's own time, it throws light and life on various places in the county, the names of which, as found in this book, are still retained in the language of the people. It exhibits the MacNamaras specially as hardly second in power and influence at that period to the O'Briens. along the sea-board. I have found in all parts of it rooted. stumps of trees standing still where they had been growing in the not very distant past. In Shaw Mason's Statistical Survey of Ireland, he writes that "almost the entire county about Ennistymon was, within the recollection of an old man, aged one hundred, who died about thirty or forty years ago (1810), covered with woods, mostly oak and ash full grown, and that he frequently shot wild pheasants in those woods." All that country, and indeed nearly all West Clare, is now bare and naked. The writer heard from his father that his grandfather used to tell how, when cattle strayed away in his youth, so covered with trees was the whole country between Tulla Quin and Kilkishen, that search had to be made for them through the glades of the woods. It is nearly all bare now. He heard himself, from old people near Bodyke, that the old people of their young days told of the slopes of the hills, all the way from Tomgraney to Broadford, being so thickly wooded that "a man might go from one place to the other along the branches of the trees almost without coming to the. ground." There is not a tree there now. The new owners easily found markets for such valuable timber. It is traditionally stated that some old owners too, notably the absentee English O'Briens, stripped the hills round and above Killaloe of the noble oaks which adorned them, and of which were built some of the finest ships in the English navy. The gloomy condition of plundered and downtrodden Claremen at home during all those years is relieved by the lustre which the exiles from the county shed on the name of Clare in the battlefields of Europe. Lord Clare's regiment, forming part, and no inconsiderable part, of the famous "Old Brigade," numbered, on their arrival in France in 1691, sixteen hundred men, and was recruited from home, according as gaps were made, and not infrequently made, in its ranks. A letter from Lord Clare to one of the recruiting officers is well worth a place in any history of the County: 66 PARIS, Oct. 1746. "DEAR MACDONOGH,1-I congratulate you on your marriage, but trust it will not induce you to retire from the Irish Brigade. I hope you do not forget the memorable day they had at Fontenoy, and the other glorious days in which they had a share. Your promotion goes on, and all are wishing for your return. With your assistance and O'Brien's, the ranks are near filled up. I hope to see you soon. How does my old friend and relation, Cap. Dermot O'Brien, get on? Is he in good health, and permitted to live and pray in peace? - Yours, CLARE. "To Mons. A. MACDONOGH, Co. Clare, Ireland." Notwithstanding their chivalrous devotion to the fallen. fortunes of France's ally, the exiled Stuart, the Irish officers had to submit to a reduction of rank in the French service. All the same, they fought nobly. Far from home, but with hearts and eyes longingly and lovingly turned towards the old hills of Clare, their colours floated over most of the battlefields of the Continent during that stormy period. Many a brave fellow, dying on foreign soil and in an alien cause, must have felt as Sarsfield did when he uttered the pathetic exclamation, "Would that this blood were shed for Ireland!” To follow their fortunes through all their wanderings would be out of place here. Whoever desires full information will find it in detail in O'Callaghan's Irish Brigades in the Service of France. It may be enough to note here that every man of Clare blood should carry engraved in his memory the names of Embrun, and Marsaglia, and Valençay, and Blenheim, and Ramillies, and Dettingen, and Fontenoy; in every one of which, and in other fields of less note, the valour of Claremen was conspicuous. It must be added that they were at times wild and unruly. This gave occasion for a complaint 1 This was, I think, the MacDonogh who established a thriving smuggling trade in West Clare, and upon which in no small degree, as I have been told, the MacNamara property in Doolin and Ennistymon was built up. Wines and silks were received in exchange for wool, hides, and tallow. of them and reply to it which should not be, and will not be, easily forgotten. The French king, being in conversation with Lord Clare, who, on the death without issue of the Earl of Thomond, had assumed that title, and was known by it on the Continent, and had also risen to the rank of marshal, said to him, "Marshal, your countrymen give me great trouble." "Sire," replied he, "your enemies make the same complaint of them everywhere." It is nothing short of a national loss that this brave soldier's line also became extinct. The clash of incessant war left him no thought of marriage till late in life. He married into a noble French family, but the children born to him did not long survive him, and thus dropped out of Clare history the one family-the solitary conspicuous family of a noble stock-which had proved true in trying times, and at enormous sacrifice, to principle and to patriotism. Other O'Briens there were, indeed, and not a few, but not so prominent, who during all this century proved themselves worthy of the better traditions of their race. This brief outline of Claremen, exiled because of their devotion to faith and country, may be brought to a close with the testimony given to them by the unhappy Louis XVI. Having to disembody the Irish Brigade in his fallen fortunes, he presented to them a banner with the proud motto "1692-1792." Semper et Ubique Fideles." At home, the only or almost the only bright spot on the page of Clare history was the lustre shed on it by the career of Charles Lucas. He was born at or near Corofin in 1713, and was probably a son of the Nathaniel Lucas who acquired property in that locality, as already narrated in the last chapter. An apothecary by profession, he settled down in Dublin, and, becoming successful there, found it easy to obtain admission to the Corporation. Here he soon made his influence felt while exposing and denouncing the jobbery of that venal body. Fortunately he did not limit his inquiries to the misdeeds of the Corporation of Dublin. He soared higher, and, with eloquent voice and able pen, turned the fierce light of public opinion on the malpractices of Dublin Castle and Parliament itself. Though the Catholics had neither vote nor voice in the affairs of the nation, and were outside his range of vision, yet they viewed with delight his vigorous attacks on their tyrants. He stirred up a spirit of patriotism in the breasts of even the narrow-minded, bigoted ascendancy party. Songs and ballads were written and sung in his honour through the length and breadth of the land. The humble Clare apothecary became the idol of the people as the champion of nationality against foreign dominion. t The Government and Parliament naturally feared and hated this bold intruder on their preserves. When an effort was about being made to elect him to fill a seat for Dublin, that became vacant in 1749, it was determined not only to oppose him but to crush him. That weapon always at hand. for Government lawyers-a prosecution for libellous and disloyal publications-was directed against him. He evaded it by crossing over into England. They, glad to get rid of and silence him, allowed it to drop, but the slavish House of Commons was got to pass a resolution declaring him "an enemy of his country." At the death of George II. in 1760, a new Parliament was called. Lucas took advantage of the change to return to Dublin, where he was received with popular rejoicings, and at once elected member for the city. In this capacity he worked energetically for the redress of grievances in the House, and the creation of a purely Irish spirit in the country. He may be truly said to have paved the way, with Molyneux and Swift, for the Declaration of Independence, which, alas! he did not live to share in. He died in 1771. The following epitaph is on his tomb in St. Michael's Cemetery, Dublin:: "Lucas, Hibernia's friend, her joy and pride, Her powerful bulwark, and her faithful guide, Born 26th Sept. 1713. Died 4th Nov. 1771." |