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MUNSTER 59
and of asses: I saw there what is not common, two
donkeys driven abreast in a little cart, stepping very
smart down a long hill. There was plenty of room
for the people, yet the people were thereon the land,
living by the land, with the large air of the Atlantic
blowing in across them. Next day, since the trains
were not running, we had to proceed by motor to
Limerick, and we simply ran north to the Shannon
shore at Tarbert and followed the river to Limerick
for a matter of forty miles, stretch by stretch, a
broad sea lane for vessels, but alas! no vessels there:
hardly a sail on the waters; though battleships can
lie at Foynes, thirty miles in from Loop Head.
There is much to pause over on that route: Glin,
where the hereditary Knights of Glin, an offshoot of
the Desmond Geraldines, have maintained themselves,
for a matter of seven centuries, even through the
"pacifications" of Elizabeth's reign: Askeaton, many
miles farther on, a chief seat of the main Desmond
line, and in Ireland so rich in ruins, so poor
ings that have escaped
in build-
destruction there are few
finer ruins than the Desmond Castle here, and the
Franciscan Abbey. Still nearer Limerick, at Carriga-
gunnel, you see the landmark of another power, for
this castle was built by
the O'Briens of Thomond
and it stood over against Bunratty on the Clare bank,
another great fortress. Yet a mere catalogue is
'