Curragh

“ Many a ship had gone ashore on its jagged edge, but, with the wind from the northeast, it formed somewhat of a shelter, and it was under its lee that Walter and Larry had launched the curragh.
The curragh is still found on the Irish coast. It is a boat whose greatest width is at the stern, so much so that it looks like a boat cut in two. The floor is almost flat, and rises so much to the bow that three or four feet are entirely out of water. ”

“ The first awkwardness of the meeting over, Murdough’s tongue soon regained its nimbleness, and he began telling her a long tale about a curragh which he had bought or proposed to buy, if so be, God willing, he could find the money. It was Malachy O’Flaherty’s own curragh, and the best in the islands, barring one, and that was Phil Garry’s father’s big curragh which had gone to the bottom in the great storm on the twenty-eighth of January last. ”

“ Anyhow, the celebration of the Cruiskeen of Ballycruiskeen had taken place for hundreds—most likely thousands—of years at the Curragh of Lamdhu—Lamdhu meaning the Black Hand—and it was perhaps the most interesting of Irish customs. Was it more interesting than a wake? Why, a wake couldn’t hold a candle to a Cruiskeen, and the display of candles was, as probably her ladyship knew, a distinctive feature of a wake. ”

“ On Sundays we used to have long walks. We did not often go near Newbridge—it was too much like an ordinary English military station. We preferred going to Kildare, where stands the first Irish Round Tower I ever saw, and where the fine old ruined church of St. Brigid put us in mind of the patron saint of Ireland; or to Kilcullen, where the brave Kildare pikemen routed General Dundas in 1798; and to others of the neighbouring places. We reviewed, too, every part of the famous Curragh itself, so full of memories—glorious and sad—of Irish history. ”

“ Once every seven years the Earl rides round the Curragh of Kildare on a steed, whose silver shoes were half an inch thick the time he disappeared; and when these shoes are worn as thin as a cat's ear, he will be restored to the society of living men, fight a great battle with the English, and reign king of Ireland for two-score years. ”

“ This Curragh Incident, which caused intense and prolonged excitement in March 1914, and nearly upset the Asquith Government, had more than momentary importance in connection with the Ulster Movement. It proved to demonstration the intense sympathy with the loyalist cause that pervaded the Army. That sympathy was not, as Radical politicians like Mr. John Ward believed, an aristocratic sentiment only to be found in the mess-rooms of smart cavalry regiments. ”

“ We stood out to sea steadily, and in a few hours reached what is known as the South Island. Here we dropped anchor about five hundred yards from shore and commenced unloading our cargo into the sea, to be taken care of by a great crowd of curraghs which swarmed about the ship. (In explanation it may be stated that the curragh is a great institution: it is a lightly framed, skeleton boat covered with raw cowhide or canvas and thoroughly tarred, in which the skilled native can go anywhere in all weathers. It is universally used on the coast from Donegal to Connemara.) ”

“ For Curll’s relations with Pope, see the Life of Pope, by Sir Leslie Stephen in the English Men of Letters series.
CURRAGH, a level stretch of open ground in Co. Kildare, Ireland, famous for its race-course and its military camp. It has an area of upwards of 4800 acres; and its soft natural sward, which has never been broken by the plough, affords excellent pasture for sheep. From the peculiarity of its herbage, the district is known in the neighbourhood as “the short grass”; and the young men of Kildare are jocularly distinguished as the “boys of the short grass.” ”

“ Towards the country the wall is not higher than your knee, and this covered with bushes; from these open parts you have a view of a pretty cultivated country, till your eye is stopped by the Curragh. From our place there is a back way to these fields, so as to go out and walk without having to do with the town. ”

“ I have mentioned before that whenever one finds work particularly laborious he is fairly certain to find Irishmen at it. It was so at the Curragh. When a carpenter or joiner lays down the boarding of a floor, if there is only a small quantity of it he planes it down himself to make an even surface. ”

“ Population and Administration.—The decreasing population (70,206 in 1891; 63,566 in 1901) shows an unusual excess of males over females, in spite of an excess of male emigrants. About 86% of the population are Roman Catholics. The county comprises 14 baronies and contains 110 civil parishes. Assizes are held at Naas, and quarter sessions at Athy, Kildare, Maynooth and Naas. The military stations at Newbridge and the Curragh constitute the Curragh military district, and the barracks at Athy and Naas are included in the Dublin military district. ”

“ It is a remarkable fact that the trifling elevation of these three sections decreases southwards, down to the last which is below the level of the sea.
A fourth flat, more considerable indeed than any already spoken of, may be said to exist on the outskirt of the chain northwards, occupying that fenny plain anciently called “The Curragh,” and now transformed into one of the most fertile tracts of the whole island. [6]
The chain of mountains that forms the middle part of the Isle of Man, considered in itself, might perhaps with more propriety be denominated a group than a chain. ”

“ It is, in short, little more than an extent of bog; and the famous Curragh of Kildare, so celebrated in the annals of sporting, is literally nothing more than a boggy down of about 3000 acres. Mr. Wakefield observes that the habitations of the poor are so extremely wretched that they add the appearance of misery and desolation to the general dulness exhibited by the face of the country. Unfortunately there is scarcely any thing to contrast with this; for the seats of the gentry, though much admired, are far from being numerous. Bounded by Meath on the N.; Dublin and Wicklow, E., Carlow S. ”

“ From this and other sources we may conclude, that chariot-races preceded horse-races in ancient Erinn, and that the Curragh has been used as a place of public amusement for the last 2,000 years. It would appear that every province in Ireland possessed an Aenach or "fair-green," where the men assembled to celebrate their games and festivals. In an old list of Irish Triads, the three great Aenachs of Ireland are said to have been Aenach Crogan, in Connaught; Aenach Taillten, in Meath ”

“ Standing on the shore, I asked a man, "Are there many lobsters here?" "Sure, the shores is red wid 'em, yer honor, in the height of the saison!" was his ready reply.
We again got into a curragh, boarded the steamer, and were under way in a trice for Aranmore, the largest island of the group, where we landed an hour later at a fine pier built by the Congested Districts Board. The village is called Kilronan, and the inhabitants live by fishing. They are a simple and peculiar people, descended from the Firbolgs, retaining some parts of the dress and many of the customs of that race. ”

“ All the evening we heard firing in all directions of the city and rumours of troops having arrived from the Curragh. While at dinner another message came through from H. to say we were not to be alarmed; he was quite safe, but might not get home that night.
[12] After dinner N. went out to see if he could get near the Castle, but he found awful fighting. The troops were storming the City Hall and using machine-guns, and it was too "unhealthy" for him to get near, so he came back at 9 and went to bed. ”

“ Hamilton commanding. The regiment disembarked at Kingstown on the 5th, and proceeded to the Curragh Camp, where it remained till the 9th, when it removed to Dublin, with the exception of A and C companies, which were left at the Curragh to go through a course of musketry instruction. On the regiment leaving Aldershot, a most gratifying report concerning it was sent to headquarters; the 92nd Highlanders, the Brigade General reported,—
“Are well drilled, their conduct sober, orderly, and soldierlike ”

“ Curraghbeg is a miserable village standing in the middle of the tract of land which used to be my property. It is close to Curraghbeg House, where my father kept up such state as befitted an Irish gentleman of his day. I believe I was born there. If I thought of any place in the world as home I suppose it would be Curraghbeg; but I have no feeling for the place except a mild dislike. The House is now a nunnery, in better repair, but almost certainly more gauntly hideous than when I owned it. ”

“ There is a lack of fuel, which has to be supplied from the main-land. The inhabitants have paid no rents since the loss of the Wasp, which was sent to enforce payment or evict the tenants. St. Columba, the patron saint of the place, is reported to have landed here in a curragh.
From Fallcarragh you get a fine view of Muckish, with its twenty-two hundred [39] feet of altitude. While not the highest mountain in the Donegal highlands, Muckish is longer and of greater bulk than any of its rivals, and is also more imposing. Its name in Irish means "a pig's back," which it very much resembles. ”

“ At the northern end of the island the Manx Slates end abruptly in an ancient sea-cliff which crosses between Ramsey and Ballaugh. The low-lying country beyond is formed of a thick mass of glacial sands, gravels and boulder clay. In the Bride Hills are to be seen glacial mounds rising 150 ft. above the level of the plain. The depressions known as the Curragh, now drained but still peaty in places, probably represent the sites of late glacial lakes. Glacial deposits are found also in all parts of the island. ”

“ At the Sweep we turn round to the right and run to the bottom of the hill. A little way from the end of the hill the right turn is to be taken again to Kilmeaden, 8 miles. The ride then is to Portlaw four miles away. Some fifty years ago this town was the seat of a great cotton industry. It has since fallen into decay, and the place looks like Goldsmith's "Deserted Village." Just outside the town is the magnificent demesne of Curraghmore, said to be the finest in the three kingdoms. The variety of scenery here is almost unsurpassed. Curraghmore is the property of the Marquis of Waterford. ”

“ The holy island had its little fleet of curraghs which varied in size according to the number of ox-hides used in their construction. In these frail barks the missionaries would brave the stormy seas of the Hebrides and all the dangers of the deep, secure in their trust in God and the prayers of their holy abbot. There were sharks, and whales too, on the coasts of Caledonia in those days, and the curraghs were small protection against such monsters; but the hearts of the mariners were stout and their faith was strong. ”

“ But the acquisition of money sobered Father Larry. He put the saints in their proper places at the back of his mind, and set to work to realise a Christianity of a more practical kind than theirs.
Being rich and therefore comfortable himself he wanted to make everyone else comfortable too, as far as possible. Unfortunately, it wasn't easy to do this at Curraghmore. The people were half farmers, half fishermen. Neither industry by itself offers any prospect of wealth in the west of Ireland, and a combination of the two results, as a rule, in hopeless poverty. ”

“ I took a long drive and walk with Lord Ernest this afternoon through the park, which rivals Curraghmore in extent. It is nowhere divided from the lands of the adjoining tenants, and with great liberality is thrown open to the people, not only of Newtown-Stewart and Strabane, but of all the country. Parties, sometimes of seven hundred people, from Belfast come down to pass the day in these sylvan solitudes, and it is to be recorded to [pg 147] the praise of Ireland that these visitors always behave with perfect good sense and good feeling. ”

“ The longest pile driven was 70 feet; the depth at low water is 37 feet, and the rise of the highest tides is 17 feet. Here is an existing Catholic Monastery. See the Woollen and Glass Manufactories; also Clonegan Tower, 72 feet high, erected by the late Marquis of Waterford to the memory of his son. Carrickbeg, 12 m. W., opposite to Carrick-on-Suir, has ruins of Franciscan Friary, with a leaning steeple. Whilst in this vicinity the tourist will be gratified by a ride over the large demesne of Curraghmore, which in many parts commands the most extensive prospects of the surrounding country. Mr. ”

“ Curran sprang from the people. He was born at Newmarket, an obscure town in the county of Cork, in 1750—being thus four years younger than Grattan. On the father's side he was descended from one of Cromwell's soldiers. Passing his childhood in the country, he was thrown much among the people. He loved to recall the days when he played marbles in the street of Newmarket, or assumed the part of Punch's man at a country fair. He loved to visit the peasantry in their cabins, and to listen to their tales. There he saw the Irish character—its wit, its humor, its sensibility to mirth and tears. ”

“ Iveragh Barony forms the S.W. extremity of Ireland, and will afford great delight to a tourist who fears not fatigue and privations. Visit the romantic Lake of Currane, of an oval form, 3 m. in length, surrounded by lofty mountains. In it are three small islands; on one of which, ruins of a Ch. and Cell, with marks of foundations under water. See the river Inny, with ruins of Ch. and Bridge. Dowles Head is near Valentine Island: here are several large Caves, one of which has an entrance so low as scarcely to admit a boat with a man standing up, but within it is as high as a Gothic cathedral. ”