Irish Historical Allusions, Curious Customs and Superstitions, County of Kerry, CorkaguinyFoley, Patrick M.
History
Irish Historical Allusions, Curious Customs and Superstitions, County of Kerry, Corkaguiny
Foley, Patrick M.
Allusions; Ireland -- History; Kerry (Ireland) -- Social life and customs
_Moonlighting._--In 1878 this name was assumed by an unknown leader
in this county (Kerry), who wrote threatening letters containing
a diagram of a coffin, skull-bones and a rifle. He signed himself
"Captain Moonlight." Small bands of men, secretly armed and
disguised, went by night and raided the houses of land grabbers,
emergency men and bad land agents. Gladstone and Foster's Coercion
Acts, prohibiting the holding of meetings or allowing the people any
means whatsoever of seeking a redress of their grievances forced this
regrettable but necessary evil. In some cases in those moonlighting
raids lives were taken, and to satisfy the Government and the
ascendency class many innocent persons were hanged and others sent to
penal servitude. The police and landlord under-strappers manufactured
many crimes for which moonlighters and land leaguers were wrongly
blamed and punished.[7]
_National School Teachers Slapping Their Pupils for Speaking
Irish._--The movement for the preservation and revival of the Irish
language put a stop to the National school teachers' habit of beating
their pupils for speaking their native language.
When I was in Old Mexico I found the peons and Indians made use of
a number of words corresponding in sound and meaning to words in the
Irish language.
_Ogham Characters._--These are a species of ancient Irish writings,
marks and lines cut into upright pillar and monumental stones which
are very numerous in Corkaguiny. It is said that the term Ogham was
first applied to the sacred writings of our Druids.
_Orangemen._--These are foreign Irishmen espousing the cause of
William of Orange, who on the 1st of July, 1690, defeated dirty King
James of England at the Battle of the Boyne. About the year 1795
Orangemen began to organize. Their first oaths and declarations were
that they would never rest satisfied until they would be victoriously
knee-deep in Papist blood, i. e., Catholic blood. In suppressing
Irish societies, administering those oaths were also forbidden,
and in 1857 the Lord Chancellor ordered that justices of the peace
should not be members of Orange clubs. Orangemen in their 12th of
July celebrations wrecked Catholic churches and police of the Orange
type in our locality often celebrated the 12th of July by assaulting
civilians, afterwards arresting them.
(See Supplementary History County Kerry for a clear account of the
Battle of the Boyne, the Fall of Limerick and the Broken Treaty of
Limerick.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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