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MUNSTER 37
profited by confiscation and for too long drew absentee
rents. What may be the success of the scheme
cannot be foretold: but the beauty
of her desire to
make restitution is not the least among the beauties
of the Kenmare River.
At West Cove I have been lucky enough to stay
with the man who knows the west of Ireland in
its present life and its past history better perhaps
than any living soul. In the great plot where cars
draw up outside his door, great plants of Arum
lilies shoot up and flourish, blooming luxuriantly in
spring. They say that in Valentia an improving
gardener thought them too profuse in the Knight of
Kerry's garden, and pitched
the roots out over the
cliffs; but some caught on ledges, fastened there,
and sent up white lilies in niches of the crags so
kind is that soft air.
Two or three miles beyond West Cove is the vil-
lage of Caherdaniel and under it comes in Darrynane
Bay, on whose shore is a little hotel, simple enough,
but friendly; lying among Irish fisher folk who gather
of a summer evening to dance on the crisp turf that
covers the sand. Beside it is a small wood, and in
the wood is Darrynane, a place of pilgrimage, for here
O'Connell lived and here his descendants remain. The
case of the O'Connells was typical.
Driven by Crom-
well out of the fertile lands of Limerick they took