4 LIFE IN IRELAND 



Brian Boru, it is well known, fell in battle against 

 the Danes at Clontarf, near Dublin ; he was the greatest 

 Irish King that ever made a blunder ; he unluckily 

 fought when he should have prayed, and when he 

 should have fought he knelt to the crucifix. His 

 descendants have continued much like their illustrious 

 ancestors; they have blundered and prayed through 

 generations down to the present day, and the Brian 

 Boru of this work is as much of a hero (though in 

 a different way) as his great namesake. 



The estate which Brian Boru stepped into on the 

 death of his father was encumbered, not with debts, but 

 bogs, rocks, barrenness, and private stills for brewing 

 whiskey. The famous Dick Martin of Galway (who 

 said that the best wheaten bread in Connaught was 

 made from a mixture of peas and barley) boasted that 

 he had more landed property than any man in Ireland ; 

 he might have added, and of the least value also. 

 Such was the case with our hero; but then he had a 

 line of coast from the Black Head to the Gallopers, 

 where fifty buckers (smugglers) discharged their cargoes 

 in a season, and gin and tea were as cheap in that 

 country as impudence upon Dublin Quay. Brian 

 Boru had a friend in Dublin who had just stepped 

 from College into a tandem, with a clear three thousand 

 per annum. Sir Shawn O'Dogherty was skilled in 

 all the arts and accomplishments of Life in Dublin. 

 He had danced at a Castle ball, been committed to 

 Kilmainham Gaol, black-booked by Major Sirr, and 

 held a commission in the Liberty Rangers ; in short, 



he was 



' A boy of the holy ground.' 



