A Millstreet Miscellany (3) - Aubane Historical Society

Cahirnarna, with the double cone called the Paps in the centre. The scenery about Millstreet is wild
and not without interest. The country around is part of a vast congeries of hills and mountains
intersected with numerous glens and vales, with occasional patches of rich land. Within eight miles
we leave the mountain district, and then we take the line of the Blackwater."
(A Week in the South of Ireland by an Old Traveller, 1849)
10. An tAthair Peadar O Laoire
"Another day, when I was going to Kanturk to school, my own thoughtlessness led me into
more danger, and I, barely escaped from it. On Sunday I left Liscarrigine and attended Mass at
Carriganimmy. The I faced north along the Millstreet road in order to go to Derrynamona that night
and be in time to go to Kanturk on the following Monday morning . When I was going down
Camcarrigy I saw Kilmeedy Castle and Claragh Mountain yonder. It was a beautiful day and the
sky was clear. I said to myself that I would have a matchless view of the whole country round if I
were on the summit of that hill. I told myself that I could go up by the castle to the top of the hill,
look around and then run down the slope to the town; that I would be in the town almost as soon as
if I had followed the road. Off with me up the hill as soon as I came in front of the castle. I did not
reach the top of the hill as quickly as I thought I would. By the time I got there the sun was much
farther west and much lower than I had expected.
Certainly the view was splendid. There were Mullaghanish and Clydagh and all the other
great hills to the west and south, 'lifting their heads o'er the crests of their neighbours' without even
a wisp of mist, and clean as if they were washed. Mushera which faced me on the east was as clean
as they, with no sign of fine weather:
Mushera misty and Claragh clear,
The best sign of fine weather in all the sphere.
The whole barony of Duhallow lay spread under my view, to the east, to the north, and to
the south, and the sun shone down on it, and it was so splendid, so great, so wide! At the foot of the
hills were little hillocks, and though they seemed high enough when you were at their foot, you
thought them level ground when you looked at them from the top of the hill.
But now the sun was sinking too far below the hills that lay beneath me, and I ran down the
slope towards the town. The way was longer and more difficult than I had thought it. I had to cross
great ditches and ploughed fields, and briar-filled hollows, and when I at last came to the town the
night was falling. The night was falling and seven long miles stretched between me and
Derrynamona, and I knew no one in Millstreet, nor did anyone there know me. I faced the road and
walked quickly through the town east to Drishane, and on the Keale Bridge.
As I journeyed on the darkness grew, and at last I began to feel tired. Then I began to feel
hungry. Then I began to feel myself getting weak with the hunger. I had not eaten a bite since I left
home that morning. But I kept on. By this time I was as far north-east as Derinagree. I was so
exhausted that I stretched myself on the top of the ditch of the road to rest a little. I took my ease
there for a while. Presently I felt that I was falling asleep; then I noticed a kind of numbness
creeping through all my members. I spring up. At once I knew that if I fell into a deep sleep on the
top of the ditch I would be found dead there in the morning. I set off once more. I knew the way
well and reached Thomas O Leary's at Derrynmona. They were still up when I got to the house,
though it was after twelve o'clock at night. Thomas's brother, Diarmuid, was there. He and I were
very friendly. He was the first to see me coming to the door. He wondered what had kept me so late,
and he wondered still more when he found that I could hardly talk to him. Straight away, I was
given plenty to eat and drink. I went to bed and no fear but I slept soundly.
I told no one what made me so tired or how I nearly stayed on top of the ditch near
Derrinagree chapel, nor did I ever tell it to anyone. I was ashamed to give it to say that I would
make such a round for no good reason.
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