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| DINGLE, CO. KERRY. -This small town of less than 2,000 people is charmingly placed on the strand of Dingle harbor, an inlet of the capacious bay of that name in the western portion of the picturesque county Kerry. The picture deals only with the hamlet itself, which is, after a fashion, a thriving little place, with a good fishery and a splendid bathing beach. Many centuries ago, it was known in Gaelic as Daingean-ul-Chiuis, now rendered Dingle-I-Coush-the Fortress of O'Cush, who was lord of the place before the English invasion. In later times, it became the property of the Fitzgeralds of Desmond. Yes- Their sword made knights, their banner waved, free was their bugle call By Glinn's green slopes and Dingle's tide, from Barrow's banks to Yanghal! At last, however, they, too, were displaced, and of the elder branch of the Desmond line not a man survives! Well has the Irish poet written of their sad fate- Of Desmond's blood through woman's veins, passed on the exhausted tide; His title lives-a Saxon churl usurps the lion's hide. Diagonally across the mountains from Dingle is Smerwick, famous as the scene of the massacre of a Spanish garrison which came to the aid of Desmond, then in "rebellion" against Queen Elizabeth. Sir Walter Raleigh was one of the leading butchers in the affair but sought to excuse himself on the ground that he acted under orders from his superior officer. |
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