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| TURLOUGH ROUND TOWER, COUNTY MAYO.- In Gaelic, the name Turlough, very common in the west of Ireland, is written Turlach, and means a lake, or "slough," that dries up in summer, and is somewhat of a marsh, clothed in coarse grass or luxuriant weeds. The round tower and other ruins at Turlough, in Mayo, as shown above, are in a good state of preservation, although they date from remote times-probably the sixth or seventh century. Turlough Castle, in the vicinity of the ruins, was once the property of that branch of the Bourke family, which adhered to James II. After their exile, in 1691, it passed into the possession of the Mayo Fitzgeralds, who came originally from Munster. George Robert, commonly known as "Fighting Fitzgerald," who was hanged at Castlebar toward the end of the last century, is buried in Turlough churchyard. Col. Walter Bourke, of this place, who represented Mayo in King James' Irish parliament, 1689, and who fought at the Boyne and Aughrim, was the head of that "Regiment of Bourke" alluded to in the song recently published, in connecton with a marital story, by Harper's Magazine. It sums up, practically, the history of the famous Irish Brigades of Europe thus: Would you read your name on Honor's roll? Saragossa, Barcelons, wherever danger lurk, Look not for royal grant; You will find in the van the blue and the buff It si written in Cassano, Alcoy and Alicante! Of the Regiment of Bourke! |
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