1829.] r 257 ] 



WALKS IN IRELAND : N". ly. — DONNYBHOOK FAIR. 



" Have you e'er had the luck to see Donnybrook Fair ?" 



inquires a lyric poem, well known to those wandering minstrels vul- 

 garly called ballad-singers, who, in modern times, sustain the profession 

 of the troubadour, just as respectably as the Fives'-court, Red-house 

 dandy of the nineteenth century, does that of the knight without fear 

 and without reproach, the preux chevalier of the days of the lance and 

 the golden spur. The song proceeds to assure you, that 



" An Irishman all in his glory is there." 



But I deny the assertion with both hands : to see that exhilarating 

 sight, you must extend your peregrinations to some southern or western 

 fair, or patron* — Ballinagerah, for instance, where the Iraghticonnor 

 boys fight the Clanmaurices — ay, and beat them too, once a year ; or 

 Cahir, where Shaun Gar's faction keeps the field against all comers ; or 

 Portumna, the battle-ground of IMunster and Connaught ; or any other 

 unpolluted spot, where " batin' is chape," and tlie rascally, new-fangled 

 Peelers t do not interfere to mar sport, and interrupt the good old cus- 

 tom of breaking heads for fun ; or go to the Cross of St. Doulaghs, in 

 Fingal, and there you will see as pretty wrestling as any in the world. 

 The peasantry there, are as fine a looking race of active athletic fellows as 

 ever you saw in your life ; and as for the girls, it is enough to make a 

 man's heart leap for joy to look at them. You need not apprehend the 

 slightest insult, not to say violence, from venturing into an Irish fair, 

 even in the middle of a ro7V, provided you have the sense not to inter- 

 fere, directly or indirectly, with what is going on ; for the " Boj'S,";}: 

 will invariably respect a gentleman, " if his honour laves thim alone, an' 

 doesn't be axin' thim to be quite (Anglice, quiet), an' bringin' magis- 

 thrates, an' thim divels ov polis' on thim ;" and this I assert without 

 fear of contradiction fronci their worst enemies, and I know more about 

 them practically, may be, than the whole " Wisdom" put together. 



By the way, I remember a magistrate in the south of Ireland, a justice 

 of the peace of the old school, who could not see either sense or reason 

 in preventing the poor fellows from fighting out their little quarrels, 

 after their own fashion, and who considered a row between tv/o factions 

 as a kind of safety-valve, to let off the over-heated passions of the par- 

 ties, which might otherwise explode in some fearful violence ; and, to 

 say the truth, until the gentry condescend to sift out the root of the here- 

 ditary quarrels among the peasantry, and endeavour to reconcile them 

 by reason and fair means, instead of staving them asunder by means of 

 police, whom they hate, or soldiers, whom they should be taught to 

 respect, by never seeing them employed except on weighty occasions, 

 I think with him, and so will you, if you read the papers, and see who 

 begins the real mischief, in nine cases out of ten, the peasantry or the 

 pohce. It was amusing enough to hear the parting admonitions of the 

 magistrate I speak of, when he saw a fight inevitable ; " Well, boys, 



• A kind of petty fair, so called because founded in honour of a patron-saint. 



•f Police, 80 called in honour of llieir founder and patron-saint, tlic Right Hon. 

 Robert Peel. 



If In Ireland, as in Greece, the unmarried men, no matter what their age, arc invaria- 

 bly termed " Boys." 



I\I. M. S^cw Scries.— Vol. VIII. No. 45. 2 L 



