The Letters of "Norah" on Her Tour Through IrelandNorah
History
The Letters of "Norah" on Her Tour Through Ireland
Norah
Ireland -- Description and travel
My friend and I walked up to the church to search for some graves in the
churchyard that lies around it. He drew my attention to the socket where
a monument had been erected but which was gone, and mentioned the
circumstances under which it had disappeared. A gentleman of the
country, an Episcopalian, had fallen in love with and married a Catholic
lady. The usual bargain had been made, the daughters to follow the
mother's faith, the sons to go with the father. There was one son who
was a member of the Episcopalian church. It seemed that the son loved
and reverenced his Catholic mother, and that she was also loved and
reverenced by her Catholic coreligionists. When she died she was buried
in the family burying plot of ground in the Episcopalian churchyard. Her
son erected there a white marble cross to his mother's memory. At this
cross, on their way home from mass, sundry old women used to turn in,
and, kneeling down there, say a prayer. This proceeding, visible from
the church windows, used to annoy and exasperate the officiating
clergyman very much. At the time of the disestablishment of the Church a
committee was being formed to make some arrangements consequent upon
this event. The Episcopal son of this Catholic mother was named on the
Committee, and a great opposition was got up to his nomination on
account of his being only Protestant by half blood. There was no
objection to him personally, his faith or belief was thought sound,
except that part of it which was hereditary. My friend considered this
very wrong, and ranged himself on the side of the gentleman who was the
cause of the dispute. The dispute waxed so hot that the parties almost
came to blows in the vestry room.
During the time this war raged some bright genius, on one of the days of
Orange procession, had a happy thought of putting an orange arch over
the churchyard gate, in such a manner that the praying women should have
to pass under it if they entered. I am not quite sure whether the arch
was destroyed or not; as far as my memory serves I think it was.
Something happened to it anyway. Something also happened to the
monumental cross, which was torn down, broken up and strewed round in
marble fragments. The gentleman prosecuted several Orangemen whom he
suspected of this outrage. There was not evidence to convict them. An
increased ill-feeling got up against the gentleman for a prosecution
that threw a slur on the Orange organization. The Orange society offered
a reward of L60 for the discovery and conviction of the offenders, but
nothing came of it. My friend thought it was done by parties unknown to
bring reproach on the Orange cause. The gentleman of the half-blood had
not been so much thought of by his fellow church members since this
transaction.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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