Mavrone! your hair is white as snow, Kathaleen, Your heart is sad and full of woe-- Do you repent you bade him go, Kathaleen? But still you answer proudly, "No, Far better die with Sarsfield so, Than live a slave without a blow For the Green." Many of the old houses remain. Far and away the most interesting is Lynch's mansion at the corner of Abbey Gate-street. On the walls are the arms of the Lynches and their crest, a lynx, which it is said was given them for the watchfulness with which they guarded a besieged Austrian town in the middle ages. Behind Saint Nicholas' Church, in Market-street, is the Lynch stone, inscribed with a skull and crossbones, and "Vanity of vanity, and all is but vanity," above which is an inscription:-- "This memorial of the stern and unbending justice of the Chief Magistrate of this city, James Lynch Fitzstephen, elected Mayor, A.D. 1493, who condemned and executed his own guilty son, Walter, on this spot, has been restored to its ancient site A.D. 1854, with the approval of the Town Commissioners, by their Chairman, Very Rev. Peter Daly, P.P., and Vicar of Saint Nicholas." The stern and unbending justice relates to the Mayor's execution of his own son. The story tells how a young Spaniard, who was the Mayor's guest, crossed in love the Mayor's son. One night, heated with wine and inflamed with jealousy, young Lynch drove a stiletto through the heart of his rival. His father tried and condemned him for the crime. His mother roused the sympathy of the townspeople to such an extent that none could be found to act as executioner, but the old Mayor was even-handed with them, and hanged the unfortunate culprit with his own hands. No visitor to Galway will fail to find out the Claddagh. It is the most conservative community in Ireland, and with them neither old times are changed nor old manners gone. The colony inhabit a number of low-thatched cottages apart from the town. They live mostly by fishing. The Claddagh women dress in blue cloaks and red petticoats, and their rings, which visitors procure as keepsakes, represent two hands holding a harp. Hardman, in his "Rare History of Galway," wrote of them as follows:-- "The colony, from time immemorial, has been ruled by one of their own body, periodically elected, who is dignified with the title of Mayor, regulates the community according to their own peculiar laws and customs, and settles all their fishery disputes. His decisions are so decisive and so much respected that the parties are seldom known to carry their differences before a legal tribunal or to trouble the civil magistrates." [Illustration: _Photo, Lawrence, Dublin._ Arran Island. Claddagh.]