THE IRELAND OF TO-DAY.

Waikato Times, Volume V, Issue 277, 19 February 1874, Page 2

THE IRELAND OF TO-DAY.

I was sauntering one day in Killarney, watching the Kerry peasantry at the marketing, when a great orowd wu seen moving up the long main street of the town. As it arew near it proved to he a funeral, and I heard what, from description, I knew to be the " keen " or wail of mourners. There were about a dozen elderly women, in two rows walkmg in front of the he.irse. Tbev had the long cloaks and the hoodod shawls or kerchieft of the country. One woman seemed to be the chief keener, leading the dirge, the othert joining in the melancholy wail. In an Irish car following the hfarse were four women, relative* of the deceased. Every now and then they also uttered cries, and the natural and uncheoued eipro«ions of passionate grief, lest formal than the keen of the old women in front, but in the samt minor key of plaintive tone. Ten or twelve cars, carts, and various vehicles followed with female mourners, and a dense crowd on foot closed up the procession. The burial was to bo at a rural churchyard some miles off. Shutters were put up in the shops of th» town, and every mark of respect paid a» the funeral passed by. In reply to inquiries, I learned that the deceased was a tradesman of the town, an O'Donnghue, " come of dacent people." " *Vas he an old man ?" " No, he wns only a boy," whicn might denote any age from 10 to 50 or more. " Were these keeners paid ? " " No, they attend only out of respect to the family." The use or pi ofessional keeners or hired mourners is going out, Theie ohl women were experienced performers, and the " keening" vt ill not soon be a thing of mere tradition. The women will continue to be paid, m kind if not in coin, for there is always hospitable supply in houses, between the times of di-ath and burial. A " decent funeral " implies many guests, though not necessarily with the scandalous scenes of former times. In Mr and MrsS. C. Hall's "Ireland" the writers 3ty : — " We followed, in ISSB, a funeral to Aghtdoe ; there were attendant keeners, who chaunted the death song all the way. The ' keen' is not often heard now-adays, and the ceremonies connected with death hare of lato loi«t muoh of their earlier, more picturesque, but more barbarous accompnniment." Hundreds of tourists have visited Ireland without hearing the "keen," and I was told that I might be many years without seeing a funeral such as I had witnessed at Killarney. It was a strange and unexpected incident, and, at the wild wail echoed in my memory, the whole scene seemed representative of tbe transition state of Ireland< and of a time when many "old tluugs are paasiug aw a}." Wakes, with their strange medley of mourning and merrytnakiug, are becoming rarer, even in rural districts. The clergy, greatly to their credit, discountenance and ercn from the altar denounce them, on account of the irreverence and immorality to which they gave occasion. There was never a death in a home, but the place was for two or three day • and nights made a common resort for the fnendi and neighbours of the deceased. Among the poor peasants the guestt brought their own supplies of drink and tobacco, but in a farmer's house all comers wers entertained at the host's expense. The original intention of watching and bewailing the dead became * very secondary ail'air to the gossiping and revelry that brought disgrace on the ancient usage. Doea the reader remember the scene in " Castle Eackrent," where Sir Condy took it into hit head to know what the people would say of him after he was gon«-? " Thaddy," says he. " at far at the wake goes, sure I might without any great trouble have the satisfaction of teeing ft bit of my own funeral." So Thaddy and hit " »bi»ter " contrived a sham ticknets and tham death, and htwiu laid out properly. There came a throng of men , women, and childer, '• till the house was as full and fuller than it could hold." Tho joke had very nearly a tragic end , for, what With the beat and the smoke and the noise, Sir Condy was nearly stifled under the bed clothes, on the top of which may frieze great-coats had been piled. Whe he could he still no longer, and tat up, there was a great turprite ; but the night wat duly spent in whisky from tbe shebeen-house. These deathwakes lasted down to the famine time with little diminution. But in the dark days of fever that followed, the fear of infection brought tanitary motives into play, and wakes were often omitted. More recently during the small-pox epidemic, they were prohibited, and it is to be hoped that the custom may pass gradually into disuse. Tbe Irish fain are alto losing their barbarous character, and reverting to the original purpose of buying and aelhng. There wnt never a fair that did not end with a tavago faction-fight, or, if there weie no faction- feud at the time, with ■ general fight and skrimmage. Some lives were •lmost invariably lost, and the list of maimed and wowrdfd wf» always large. The alpeens, the ash sapling*, loaded with lead, were murderous weapons, not to speak of the missiles which darkened the air in tho thick of the mt\6e. Women joined in the affray, and in the drunken madness of the combatantt not even the pnei>t'i interference wns of any use. All tins notwithstanding, before Obnrlep Lever died hut year, mott of his pictures vrei c out ef date. It i* Ireland of the patt that he depicted. The intemperance, tbe improvidence, the reckless jollity, the duelling, the fighting at the dinner-table, or al funerals, in short, the savagery of Ireland, in the upper classes as much as tbe Jower, it becoming a tradition. Yet Charles Lever was a true artist of dayt not long gone by I hnvp met men who have fonght duels, and assisted in abductions, and hunted bailiffs, and tiken part in scenes which would now teem strange in the wildest book of fiction. Oarleton't sketches of Irish peasant life ore equally out of date. The hedge-schoolmaster, the bareheaded and barefooted scholars, the twarras of troubletome beggars, and the luuatict at large, are all becoming dissolving views. We want tn Irish Detn Bamtay to gather up the traditions and itoriet of the pait generation.— Dr. llacaulay.