CHAPTER XIV

FROM DUBLIN TO THE LAKES OF KILLARNEY

Dublin Tara - Bogs Peat Facts concerning Ireland Athlone - The Shannon Limerick Killarney Gap of Dunloe- Cork Blarney Castle — Waterford - Vale of Avoca - Tipperary - Rock of Cashel Isle of Man From Dublin to Holyhead.

A RIDE of less than two hours the following morning brings us to Dublin, Ireland's capital, a city not quite as large as Belfast. Having heard of "Dirty Dublin," our first impression of the city is one of surprise. We are riding through wide, clean streets, and are in the midst of enterprise and prosperity. Just before we enter the city one of our girls calls our attention to the nearby Wicklow Hills. They form a semicircle about Dublin, and remind us of a frame for a picture.

Soon after we are settled in our hotel we prepare to drive about the city. We drive through Sackville Street, the most prominent one, and then turn into other crowded thoroughfares. Statues are everywhere to be seen. We admire the stone figures of Grattan and O'Connell, two of Ireland's greatest orators. The saintly face of Father Mathew in stone looks down upon us. What an earnest, devoted man he was! He believed that most of his country's woes were caused by intemperance. He devoted his life to organizing temperance societies, that to-day are found in America as well as in Ireland. We stop to look at the heroic figure of the Duke of Wellington, who, as we know, was an Irishman. We see, also, statues of Robert Emmet, the patriot orator; Sheridan, the playwright, and of other famous Irishmen.

We go on to Phoenix Park, the largest of all the parks in Dublin, comprising more than seventeen hundred

acres. The grounds are well laid out, and have splendid roads and paths. The finest lions bred in captivity are here; indeed, our driver informs us that lions to the value of $25,000 are sold by the city every year. We expected to find many interesting things in Ireland, but we were not prepared to learn that raising lions was one of them.

We return through streets of magnificent residences. The names of the streets are printed in English and also in Gaelic, or old Irish. Later, when we go into the country, we shall find that the same custom prevails there. How strange the Gaelic letters are! None of us can even read them, to say nothing of pronouncing the words.

We enter the grounds of Trinity College. Near the gateway we pass statues of the authors Thomas Moore and Oliver Goldsmith, both of whom were once students here. The splendid buildings and the artistic lawns of

Trinity greatly please us. In the library we find more than four hundred thousand books. Here, too, we see the beautifully illuminated Book of Kells, a famous transcript in Gaelic of the Gospels, that dates back to the eighth century. We are also shown letters written by Mary

Queen of Scots, Milton, Ben Jonson, Sir Isaac Newton, and other famous men.

Almost opposite Trinity College is a low one-story building of stone, that somehow reminds us of the Bank of England. It is, in fact, the Bank of Ireland, a wonderfully symmetrical building, which, we are told, is the most perfect example of architecture in Ireland. Some even maintain that it is the most perfect in the British Isles. When we are informed that it is the old Irish Parliament Building, we enter the stately room in which the Irish peers once sat. The room is now just as it was the last time the peers used it. To-day, as we know, there

is no Irish Parliament. Irish members meet with those from England in London.

Before we return to our hotel we visit two famous cathedrals, St. Patrick's and Christ Church. As we enter St. Patrick's we are impressed by the massive columns, richly carved. Above the choir we see hanging the banners of the Knights belonging to the order of St. Patrick. We walk silently through the long nave and

the transepts. How many famous men have been buried here!

Christ Church Cathedral, also, we find interesting and imposing. This old and stately pile was founded in the eleventh century by Sitric, a Danish king of Dublin.

At last we are back at our hotel; but before entering, we walk a little while about St. Stephen's Green, which our hotel faces, and we admire its beautiful artificial lake and waterfall. Water-fowl from India, Japan, South

America, China, Africa, and New Zealand are swimming on the lake. A large swan is pointed out to us as a real "Irish wild swan."

The following morning we go to the castle of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. In the older parts of the tower, we are told, prisoners of state were confined years ago. The dungeons were used in this manner for five hundred years.

After visiting the museums, where we see curious jewels and other relics of pagan and early Christian eras, we go to the silk mills, where the beautiful Irish fabrics called poplins are made. The women of our party make many purchases before their departure from Dublin. Our boys, too, buy neckties of Irish poplin.

In the afternoon we visit some of the poorer sections of the city. No city in the world has such extremes of wealth and poverty as Dublin. We walk a little way along one street. In a moment the beggars are thronging about us. Plaintively they appeal to the girls of our party: "Will you give me a copper, la-i-dy? I'm famished with cold. I'm perishing with hunger. I'll say a prayer for you, me la-i-dy!"

We find the poor are so numerous that public provision is made for their wants. We enter one of the "shelters." Here a poor man can get a blanket and "floor space" for twopence. A tick on the floor with a blanket and sheets costs a man or woman threepence. A child pays twopence. There are separate rooms for men and for women. The women appear even more haggard and weary than the men. How terrible it all is! We can never forget the poverty, degradation, and filth we have seen in the lower section of this beautiful city of Dublin.

The next day we go to some of the many iron foundries. We also visit biscuit factories, and mills that make