The Station; The Party Fight And Funeral; The Lough Derg Pilgrim: Traits And Stories Of The Irish Peasantry, The Works of; William Carleton, Volume ThreeCarleton, William
General
The Station; The Party Fight And Funeral; The Lough Derg Pilgrim: Traits And Stories Of The Irish Peasantry, The Works of; William Carleton, Volume Three
Carleton, William
Ireland -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
I have often, indeed always, felt that there! is something extremely
touching in the Irish cry; in fact, that it breathes the very spirit
of wild and natural sorrow. The Irish peasantry, whenever a death
takes place, are exceedingly happy in seizing upon any contingent
circumstances that may occur, and making them subservient to the
excitement of grief for the departed, or the exaltation and praise
of his character and virtues. My entrance was a proof of this--I had
scarcely advanced to the middle of the floor, when my intimacy with the
deceased, our boyish sports, and even our quarrels, were adverted to
with a natural eloquence and pathos, that, in spite of my firmness,
occasioned me to feel the prevailing sorrow. They spoke, or chaunted
mournfully, in Irish; but the substance of what they said was as
follows:--
“Oh, Denis, Denis, avourneen! you're lying low, this morning of
sorrow!--lying low are you, and does not know who it is (alluding to me)
that is standing over you, weeping for the days you spent together in
your youth! It's yourself, _acushla agus asthore machree_ (the pulse and
beloved of my heart), that would stretch out the right hand warmly to
welcome him to the place of his birth, where you had both been so often
happy about the green hills and valleys with each other! He's here now,
standing over you; and it's he, of all his family, kind and respectable
as they are, that was your own favorite, Denis, _avourneen dhelish!_
He alone was the companion that you loved!--with no other could you be
happy!--For him did you fight, when he wanted a friend in your young
quarrels! and if you had a dispute with him, were you not sorry for it?
Are you not now stretched in death before him, and will he not forgive
you?”
All this was uttered, of course, extemporaneously, and without the least
preparation. They then passed on to an enumeration of his virtues as
a father, a husband, son, and brother--specified his worth as he stood
related to society in general, and his kindness as a neighbor and a
friend.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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