LIMERICK.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 207, 23 March 1877, Page 1

LIMERICK.

H " But when they point to our fair Isle, And say, no patriot hearts have we — That party staius the work defile — My country, then I blush foi thee ! But Hope says, blush ur tear shall never Sully approving Fame's decree ; •CKSk When Freedom's word her bonds shall sever, Vußxi My countl 'y> tnea J°y iot * cc ! "~ Gerald Griffin. StfMfff N commercial importance Limerick is considered the fgfljgSfe fourth, city of Ireland; but for the beauty of its situation 2£flK£(f and the glories of its history, it may rank among the iSKSj first. The old city, situated on an island formed by the flKB* Eiver Shannon, in one of the circuits of its course oceanJa^j3p wards, has many antiquities of deep' interest to the <MEwjf patriotic tourist. The fine oldcaStle that bore the brunt jrf*>«> of Ireton's, William's, and his Dutch general's bombard- ■ *^ ruents, still stands entire, casting from ita lofty, time■worn walla dark shadows on the Shannon, flowing deep and strong beneath. This unconquered Irish fortress is now garrisoned by a

detachment of English soldiers. The parts of the town adjoining I are thickly populated. The houses, occupied of yore by the nobility, and now hourly threatening to fall in ruins on the poor, squalid inhabitants of the tenements into which they are let out, form narrow, irregular streets ; the saddening air of decay hang- | ing over them, suiting well the memories they awaken. St. Mary's i Cathedral, where patriot priests prayed and sacrificed while Saxons j besieged and Sarsfield defended, no longer invites, with silver j chimes, hearts, true to the old faith, to come and adore. "Vandal j hands have renovated it ; nearly all the relics of the past have |

been removed. It is now a Protestant place of worship ;-—its grand old walls, undecayed and unrenewed, a few tomba with barely legible inscriptions, alone bearing witness of the past. " The creed less, heartless robber came, And never since that time, Bound thy turn altars burned the sacred fl»m« Or rose the chant sublime. Thy glory hi a crimson tide went down Beneath the cloven hoofAltar and priest, mitre and oope and crown." The sieges sustained by Limerick are of high historic renown. William had crossed the Boyne. No captured standard, baggage, or prisoners proved his victory ; but James had fled, and his troop* had retreated. Athlone, under the brave veteran Colonel Grace, had proved impregnable to the attacks of Douglas, so William resolved himself to effect the capture of Limerick. Confident of success, thither he advanced ; and hia security waxed stronger Avhen he surveyed the outworks of defence, " an old wall, flanked with a few tottering towers." Sarsfield's fame had gone forth ; but "good generalship, conceived the DutchEnglish king, can effect little without munitions of war." How-

ever, his mind changed somewhat after the first fire of the Limerick gunners : he had not foreseen the fate of his new siege train, blown to pieces by Sarsfield before it could reach him from Waterford ; he did not know the Limerick women, nor had he heard their rebellion against the order to retire with the children to the Clare suburb, nor their vehement declaration to fight for faith and country by the side of their fathers and brothers, or he would have been less surprised to be obliged to reckon them among the most formidable of his adversaries ,* discovering it to his cost when, as the Williaiuite chaplain relates, they ruaued to the breach,

" flinging stones, glass bottles, delft ware, and all manner of des- j tractive missiles on the foe." But the annihilation of his Braden- j burghers by the explosion of the mine laid under the batteries they had unsuspectingly and exultingly penetrated, opened William's eyes to the nature of Limerick valor and Limerick skill in war, and he soon raised the siege, and set off for London. Besieged a second time, twelve months after, the city capitulated on honorable terms to De Ginckle. A large rough stone, on Mhich, in the simple manner of those days, the parchment containW.g the several articles of the treaty was laid while being signed, * still shown, on a spob on the Clare side of the River, where the meeting of the generals took place. With much pride and many a eulogy on panic faith, the treaty stone is indicated to visitors. The forty articles of this treaty confirmed many civil rights to the citizens and soldiers, and to Catholics " such privileges in the exercise of their religion as are consistent with the laws of Ireland, or as they enjoyed in the reign of Charles II." Sink into oblivion, O test oath ! ye Penal Laws, tell not your dismal tale! and let us reverently believe that the Treaty of Limerick has been kept inviolate up to the present day. But, let us admit with every honest Irish mind, that it was not William who broke faith with the Irish, but the Anglo-Irish Protestant faction, ever inimical to the interests of religion and patriotism in Ireland. When the Treaty had been ratified by the Lord Chief Justices of Ireland, Sarsfield sailed from Ireland with his brave soldiers. The history of many a Continental battle-field since has shed illustrious fame on Ireland through the deeds and prowess of the Irish Brigade. The modern city of Limerick extends along the banks of the Shannon. Handsome, regularly-built streets intersect each other at right angles. A monument to O'Connell is the rallying point of many a patriotic demonstration, and forms one of the chief attractions in the principal thoroughfare of the city, George's street, nearly a mile in length. Numerous handsome churches and convents attest the piety and liberality of the citizens. The grand new Cathedral, built in one of the most ancient parts of the city, near the historic St. John's Gate, has been erected principally through the aid of small contributions, given in faithfully and regularly during many years, by the poorer classes. It is one of the finest structures of the kind in the tTnited Kingdom. The beauty of the Limerick women is of equal celebrity with the Cork chivalry ; its fame has not been exaggerated. Indeed, no better educated, no more liberal, more patriotic, more Catholic a people exists anywhere than in the " City of the Violated Treaty," on the banks of the "lordly Shannon."