The Sunny Side of Ireland: How to see it by the Great Southern and Western RailwayO'Mahony, John
History
The Sunny Side of Ireland: How to see it by the Great Southern and Western Railway
O'Mahony, John
Ireland -- Guidebooks
~Passage East~ (seven miles), now a fishing village, with spider-legged
spit light, was reduced by Cromwell in 1649. The old mole still stands.
At Ballyhack, across the ferry, a strong, square castle is well
preserved. "New Geneva," in the vicinity, was garrisoned with Hessians
during the Rebellion of '98. It is mentioned in the well-known Irish
song, "The Croppy Boy." The place received its name in 1786, when a
colony of Genoese exiles were established there. On the Waterford coast,
from the city to where the Blackwater kisses the sea, beside a range of
noble cliffs, there are many points of interest. The Tower of Hook,
standing one hundred feet high, on the promontory of the same name on
the Wexford side, is attributed amongst others to Reginald the Dane,
Ross MacRume, the founder of New Ross, and Florence de la Hague (1172).
Its circular walls are of great thickness and strength. When Strongbow
heard of this Tower of Hook, with Crook (Norse, Krok a nook) on the
western side, he is alleged to have said "He would take Waterford by
Hook or Crook," and thus originated a common saying which has come down
to our own days. The Saltees, two islands off the Wexford coast, were
the refuge to which Colclough and Bagnall Harvey hastened in vain after
the suppression of the Rebellion in '98. Helvick Head, the name of which
also betrays its Danish origin, marks the entrance to Dungarvan Bay. The
line running from Waterford to Limerick Junction contains many places of
interest, from which short tours may be made. As we come near to
~Carrick-on-Suir~ the castle comes into view. The present building was
mainly erected by the former Earl of Ormonde, "Black Tom," as he is
known in history. He was one of the many Irish gallants who found favour
in the eyes of Queen Elizabeth. From Carrick, a drive of eight miles
brings us to Lough Coumshinawn, a lonely tarn lying high among the
Comeragh mountains, on one side of which the cliff rises perpendicularly
to a height of seven hundred feet. The railway from Carrick runs through
the beautiful valley of the Suir to Kilsheelan, and then passes to the
left of the Knockmealdown mountains to ~Clonmel~, the capital of the
"premier county." The town is pleasantly placed in a thriving centre of
local trade. It figured largely in the fights between Cromwellian and
Confederate, and some of the old battlements still stand witness to its
strength in bygone times. The peasantry have a tradition that a cloud
will ever hang above the town since Father Sheehy's death in the last
century. The tradition is hinted at in the beautiful emigrant ballad
"Shameen Dhu," by Katherine Tynan:--
"Now, God watch over you, Shameen,
An' His blessed Mother Mary!
'Twas you that had the lightest heart
In all sweet Tipperary--
'Twas you could sing the blackbird's song,
In dry or rainy weather:
Avic, the long-road wasn't long
Whin we thravelled it together.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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