A beauty of more modern date is to be seen by those wise and fortunate
folk who visit Ireland in May or June: the rocky glen overgrown with
choice rhododendrons and azaleas, which the Howth family have gathered
and cherished. Imagine a steep cliff, a hundred feet almost sheer,
but piled with tumbled boulders, and through them, up to the very
top, bush after bush of these gorgeous blossoms--crimson, scarlet,
mauve, buff, yellow, and exquisite diaphanous white. I never saw
rhododendrons anywhere to touch these. And while we talk of flowers,
another sight you can see from Dublin in May, the like of which takes
visitors to Holland--the great daffodil and tulip fields at Rush, some
fifteen miles north along the coast. There, growing in among the pale
sandhills and grey bent, you shall see these huge patches of trumpeting
colour--acres of tulips, close ranged like soldiers on parade, all of
one type, uniform in their perfection. And with that you can inspect an
industry employing many workmen and workwomen throughout the year in a
country where work is none too plenty.
One more word about Howth. When you look from the hill towards Dublin,
you look across one of the most famous of modern golf links, that long
narrow spit of sand which is called the North Bull. But you also look
across the scene of one of the notable battles of history. Between the
North Bull and the Liffey mouth is Clontarf, where the fight raged
on Good Friday in the year 1014, when Brian Boru inflicted on the
Danes of Dublin and their allies from the Orkneys and from far-off
Scandinavia--yes, and Irish allies too--a defeat which was felt all
through the regions that the vikings haunted. It is true to say that
that victory stemmed the advancing tide of barbarism. Brian won for
Christianity rather than for Ireland, and he lost his life in the fight.
Just near Clontarf parish church, in the grounds of a private house is
a yew tree under which, they say, men laid down the slain king, nine
hundred years ago. Whether that be historically true or no we cannot
say; but, I am told, experts agree that no other yew tree in these
islands has an appearance of antiquity at all comparable to this giant,
which, still lusty, covers fully a rood of ground. Try and see it on
your way from Howth: much can be got (in Ireland) by civil asking.
IV
I come now to deal with what lies south of Dublin--the Wicklow Hills
with all their apanages. And here one is conscious of two divisions.
First of all, the obvious cleavage between the sunny seaward-facing
slopes, thickly inhabited, and the mountains themselves or those
glens that lie behind the first ridges. Secondly, the division, not
less notable, between what is Wicklow pure and simple and what really
belongs to Dublin, just as Brighton and Richmond belong to London.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account