Killarney

“ No one has ever realized the enchantment of Killarney or fallen under its spell who has not been upon its waters. As the boat glides into the Upper Lake, all that has ever been said of its varied beauty seems poor compared to the reality. The mountains which surround it on every side give indescribable grandeur to its scenery—so much so that, added to the contrasted beauty of its wooded isles, it is on the whole conceded that it bears the golden apple from its sister lakes ”

“ In many voices has Nature spoken to the children of Killarney, weaving something of the changeableness, the melancholy, the deep gloom, and the overflowing sunshine of their hills and vales into the very heart of the people, making them what they are for good or ill. To them has been given vision of the supernatural region as a refuge to the earth-bound spirit from the sordid cares of money-getting; and so has a world of dreamers, for all their outward gaiety and lightheartedness, been created in the kingdom of Kerry. ”

“ But the first, the final, the deepest and most enduring impression of Killarney is that of beauty unspeakably tender, which puts on at times a garb of grandeur and a look of awe, only in order to heighten by passing contrast the sense of soft, insinuating loveliness. How the missel-thrushes sing, as well they may! How the streams and runnels gurgle and leap and laugh! For the sound of journeying water is never out of your ears ”

“ The real Killarney I saw many years after reading those histories of Peter Parley, yet that first vivid picture did not vanish at the sight; the fancied lake held its place against the reality; nay, even at this day, I can call up the two pictures at will, the imagined and the real, and compare the two—the scene of my early fancies with the humorous Celtic saint standing beside the spring and snapping down the lid of his box upon the tail of the last snake, on the one hand, and the broader landscape of reality, in which there were no saints, but many Patricks. ”

“ Killarney is a nice little town with some astonishing buildings. I have heard it styled as a dirty town; it struck me as both clean and rather stylish in its general appearance. It seems to depend almost entirely on tourists. Unlike Limerick, unlike Galway, but very like other western towns the number of people standing idly at the corners, or leaning against a tree to shelter from the rain, strikes a stranger painfully. The lounging gait and alert eyes mark people who have no settled industry, but are watching their chance. ”

“ How much remains still to be said about Killarney, its varied interests, its shifting, matchless scenery! The lover of beauty and romance, the historian, the archæologist, the antiquary—it is a field for each. It has begun to dawn on the mind of many explorers what great questions hinge on Celtic antiquities, what light they may shed upon the ancient history of Europe, while students of the Irish language say it will yet prove the key to ancient ones which are puzzling philologists. ”

“ For the sound of journeying water is never out of your ears; the feeling of the moist, the fresh, the vernal, is never out of your heart. My companion agreed with me, that there is nothing in England or Scotland as beautiful as Killarney—meaning by Killarney its lakes, its streams, its hills, its vegetation; and if mountain, wood, and water—harmoniously blent—constitute the most perfect and adequate loveliness that nature presents, it surely must be owned that it has all the world over no superior. ”

“ The village of Killarney is unattractive and untidy, but it is a busy place. One doesn’t understand why in a country where there is so much room to spare, the villages should not be made up of detached cottages with gardens and lawns, hedges and shade trees, instead of sections of solid blocks that look as if they had been cut out of the tenement house districts of crowded cities. Killarney is a solid mass of brick and mortar, with stuccoed fronts, painted a dingy yellow, without the slightest thing to relieve the monotony until you suddenly pass the last house and the green fields begin. ”

“ We shall not live to see the time, but we trust another generation may, when the visitor to Killarney shall not have his delight in the works of God spoiled by sight of the wretchedness of man; when instead of troops of urchins in rags, with bare feet, running for miles to catch the pennies thrown from jaunting cars, we shall see happy, rosy-cheeked children issuing from school-houses, and see the white spires of pretty churches gleaming in the valleys and on the hills. ”

“ It is a singular fact that in the Fenian councils Killarney should have been selected for the outbreak.
This is a town where nearly all the landed proprietors were Roman Catholics, where there was a Catholic Bishop, a monastery and two convents, while one half-ruined Protestant church sufficed to accommodate the few worshippers who sat under a dreary, inoffensive vicar on a very small salary. All reasonable folk, moreover, know that Killarney is the town to which, more than any other in Ireland, it is important to attract British tourists. ”

“ We took our tickets for Killarney, and from there we shall drive to Kenmare, passing through the most picturesque scenery in the country. Every year a number of tourists flock there, an excursion to Lake [Pg 133] Killarney being an indispensable item in every tour round Ireland.
Shortly after our departure from Mallow we approached a mountainous region, and, although trees are rare in Ireland, where there are scarcely any forests, these mountains are covered with brushwood. The town of Killarney itself contains 6,000 inhabitants (again I quote Mr. Black) , and it is built near to a lake. ”

“ It would be hard to find any spot in the world more beautiful than the Lakes of Killarney.
As the horse started up once more, they passed high stone walls covered with moss and ferns and ivy. The branches of tall trees met together over their heads, with vines wound lovingly about their trunks. The whole view was so beautiful that even the children became quiet. No one felt like talking.
"We will not spend any time in Killarney town," said Mollie's father. "This is going [60] to be a day outdoors, childer. We'll have a rale picnic."
Mollie and Norah clapped their hands. ”

“ There would fain prolong life's span,
Beauty's home Killarney
Heav'n's reflex Killarney!
Music there for Echo dwells,
Makes each sound a Harmony,
Many voic'd the chorus swells,
Till it faints in ecstasy.
With the charmful tints below,
Seems the Heav'n above to vie
All rich colours that we know
Tinge the cloud wreaths in that sky.
Wings of Angels so might shine
Glancing back soft light divine,
Beauty's home, Killarney
Heav'n's reflex Killarney!
This work was published before January 1, 1928, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago. ”

“ THE KILLARNEY FOLK
The people who dwell on the shores of these lovely lakes are a handsome race, tall and finely formed, with clear-cut features and dark and most expressive eyes, often of the Irish grey or deep violet, with long black lashes. Pencilled eyebrows and abundance of dark-brown hair usually accompany these, and that clear complexion which the moist western breezes confer. They love music and dancing, the “boys and girls,” who, meeting on a roadside, only require a merry tune to “foot it away” and forget their cares. ”

“ Killarney is famed and known all over the civilized world; but there are places in Ireland where isolated scenes can be found as fair as any in Killarney. Much has been written about this “Eden of the West,” but most of those who have attempted to describe it have omitted to mention its chief charm—namely, diversity of scenic attractions within a small compass. Almost everything that Nature could do has been done within a tract of country hardly ten miles square.
Except some favoured spots in Switzerland, there is no spot of European soil more famed for beauty than Killarney. ”

“ As I [Pg 221] mentioned to you, my excursion to Killarney was, in itself, a great effort. Such scenery, and sweet music, are the most powerful exciters, in my mind, to a train of association which I dread in company. Memory is so acutely painful, from the minuteness with which its traces are engraved, and the fidelity of its pictures, that I fly from whatever is likely to unlock the stores, and present to my view much that I dare not contemplate, unless I am alone. ”

“ There is no more delightful place in the world for rest and mild forms of enjoyment, but sporty people will find Killarney “beastly dull.” It is not in the least bit exciting; there is no dressing and there is no dancing, and some of the hotels are without barrooms. The most thrilling excitement is found in tennis, golf, fishing, walking, driving, and listening to a phonograph in the evening. There is an active rivalry between the worshipers of the Scotch and the English lakes and the admirers of the Lakes of Killarney. ”

“ It is rather cleaner and more substantial than the average small Irish town, yet Killarney and its environs have all the earmarks of a tourist-thronged resort and in this particular, at least, are disappointing. While there is much of beauty and interest, we cannot help a feeling as we leave the town behind us that some of the encomiums may have been a little over-enthusiastic. ”

“ Another wonderful thing about Killarney is the admirable proportion its scenic features bear to one another. If the mountains were any higher they would be too high for the lakes, and if the lakes were any bigger they would be too big for the mountains. Even the rivers and waterfalls are almost in exact proportion to the other phases of Nature. ”

“ CHAPTER XVI. FROM KILLARNEY TO GLENGARRIFF THE omnibus took us to the town of Killarney, and there we mounted the Glengarriff Car. People do not look particularly wise when seated, in a public street, upon a vehicle to which no horses are attached; but we were anxious to secure our places on “the Lake side,” and being surrounded by the pretty dealers in arbutus-ware (there were two, who, I am convinced, could have persuaded St. Senanus to buy a set of blue-bottle studs in bog-oak) , we did not feel at all uncomfortable. But even Irish cars must fulfil their mission ”

“ A very romantic story of Killarney in the days of Elizabeth’s wars with Hugh O’Neill. Sir Bertram Fitzroy, a gallant young Englishman, comes over with Essex, and is sent down to Killarney. He becomes friendly with the Irish and falls in love with the “Mermaid” Eva, a young lady who chose this disguise for greater safety. She wins him to love Ireland. They are kept apart by the schemes of the villain O’Fergus, standard bearer to O’Neill. But, after a scene of considerable dramatic power in which O’Fergus is slain, they are united again. There are many adventures, and much fighting. ”

“ At a turn in the road the woman left us to climb a steep boreen that led to her home among the hills, with her heavy basket and her son's love gift of L120 in her bosom, and I sat in the car dreamily looking at the wooded hills and wondered how dear a hilly country is to its inhabitants.
The most beautiful thing which I saw in Killarney was the feeling of proprietorship and kinship that all the people felt in and for the mountains and lakes. It takes a lifetime to get thoroughly acquainted with the eternal hills. They have ways of their own that they only display upon long acquaintance. ”

“ Killarney, 12-1/2 miles. This road is perfectly safe and good, except two descents in Ross Island. Returning from Mahony's Point to Killarney by Aghadoe, about 15 miles, splendid view of Lower Lake and mountains can be had from the old ruins of Aghadoe.
No. 4.—Killarney to Glenflesk via Lough Guittane. Visit Robbers' Den, 9 miles, home via Headford and Barraduff, 26 miles. Roads good, scenery wild and romantic. There are many short and beautiful trips which can be made in and about the neighbourhood. ”

“ Pictorial Map of Killarney District.
Killarney.—From Limerick Junction to Mallow, where the branch line runs into Kerry, the tourist to Killarney runs by many places of interest. Emly, now a dwindled village, was once a diocesan city. During the wars of the Commonwealth, Terence Albertus O'Brien, Bishop of Emly, was executed in Limerick by Ireton. His stole and pectoral cross are still in the possession of representatives of the family to which he belonged at Mitchelstown.
In the rich plain under the Ballyhoura hills, "the land flowing with milk," is the ancient town of Kilmallock. ”

“ No one should visit Killarney without visiting Glengariff. It is only about twenty miles from Killarney, and can be reached by a sort of low-backed car peculiar to Ireland. This car is a very curious sort of conveyance. The occupants sit back to back, with their sides to the horses. In fine weather there is no pleasanter mode of travelling than on a low-backed car, but when it rains one is anything but comfortable. Glengariff is thought by some to surpass even Killarney in beauty. ”

“ From an antiquarian point of view Kerry is one of the most interesting places in the British Isles, and very rich in relics of the past. An archæological society has been formed, which is endeavouring to rescue the relics and monuments [Pg 54] from neglect and decay. Killarney has been found a singularly promising field to explore, though much has perished.
The Celtic nature is curiously complex, and those who do not themselves possess it find it hard to understand. ”