28 THE CALL OF THE SEA 



The Unsympathetic '^i>' ^o ^^^ 

 (From Ireland at the Cross Roads) 



AND so to-day the Irish who dwell within 

 ■^^ journey of these wild shores retain in their 

 nature the dislike and terror of the sea. Its 

 mists relax their energies, it fills them with a 

 sense of something always greater than them- 

 selves that can bring their efforts to instant and 

 disastrous confusion. While they inhabit these 

 shores, though they build boats and cast nets 

 and go abroad in a timid search for the sea's 

 treasures, they can have nothing in common with 

 it but the reflection of its bright shining in their 

 eyes, and the movements of its unquiet heart in 

 their blood. 



The sea, indeed, does little for Ireland. Into 

 the stately waterways of Cork, of Gal way, of 

 Limerick, the tide twice a day comes brimming 

 up, filling with its inexhaustible flood the spaces 

 between the imposing, empty warehouses. But 

 its majestic invitation goes unheeded ; the beauti- 

 ful buildings, raised when Ireland had a popula- 

 tion and a trade, are crumbling and deserted ; 

 great chambers that once resounded with the 

 inspiring clamour of business, know it no longer ; 

 and where formerly the stevedores sweated, carts 

 rattled, and merchants made their exchanges, little 

 barefoot children now play undisturbed in the sun- 



